Last week's game

I only got to play one game last week in the local Warmachine league. It was a Cygnar versus Cygnar shootout that I lost. Well, perhaps I should say that officially I lost the game (more on that latter). I ran a good ol’ Victoria Haley with a unit of Trenchers, several lancers, an Ironclad, and a few other odds and ends. My opponent, Gilbert, played a Markus 'Siege' list with some Longgunners, a Lancer, several Hunters, and a few solos. It was an extremely weird game for two Cygnar forces. This was mainly because of the fact that the scenario discouraged shooting because it gave every model stealth for the first two turns. I made my largest mistake of the game by letting Gilbert go first, which meant that all of his forces got to shoot first on turn three when it became “daylight”. My forces we greatly damaged so I made an assignation run on Siege. I was almost there and then he used his feat. Unfortunately, I misunderstood how it worked so Haley was easily killed. Latter I discovered that Haley should not have been killed and that I likely I would have one the game (Siege was down to 5 hit points standing next to a heavy Warmachine…and if that did not get him I think Haley would have). So once more I loose a game that I should not have.

Warmachine is much more complicated than most of the miniature games that I have played before (especially GW games). All I can say is to play this game well you need to know the rules well, know your army very well, and read your opponents cards about three times or so. It’s not that people cheat in this game it’s just that it is so easy to forget things. I find something that I have either forgotten to do or played wrong in almost every game. Not to say that I do not like Warmachine, I do (its complexity does lead to a great amount of strategic options). I do miss the army scale of GW games and sometimes I miss the simplicity of those games (Remember simplicity does not mean dumb). Oh well. I’ll just have to practice more. I have planed on a 1,200 point game this week and hopefully I’ll remember my camera so I’ll have some pics to post.

Caspia-Sul Tour Week One Standings

Each Call to Arms tour has four award medals. While the Warlord medal always goes to the player with the most league points at the end of the league, the other three medals (Eliminator, Relentless, and Strategist) have different victory conditions for each Call to Arms tour. Here is a list of the conditions and the leader board of the Decks & Duels league after week one.

Eliminator :
The Player who reaps the most VP's from Units will win the Eliminator medal (This includes Attrition - 1 VP for a unit that is below half its starting number at the end of the game)
1)John (8pts)
2)Gilbert (4pts)
3)Chris (2pts)

Relentless:
The Relentless medal will go to the player with the Longest winning streak with different factions (can't play same faction twice in a row).
1)Gilbert (2 game winning streak)

Strategist :
The Strategist goes to the player who wins the most games using the same faction.
1)Chris (2 wins with Cryx)

Warlord :
The Warlord medal goes to the player with the most league points at the end of the league.
1)Wil (12)
1)John (12)
3)Chris (11)

Monday night Zombies

Yesterday John, Nate, and I sat down for another late afternoon of gaming. Right now everyone wants to be done playing by about 8 PM so that we can watch Heroes and Chuck. As a result, we’ve been trying to play more “light” fast games (also known as beer and pretzel games). Last night we gave Zombies!!! 4: The End a try (I've been avoiding zombie games for years, but I figured what the hell). http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/zombies4.php

Zombies!!! 4: The End is the forth in a series of games in which players run around an “ever changing map” trying to defeat “an always hungry pack of undead dogs” (100 ZOMBIE DOGS!!!). Players are attempting to make it to the “cabin” and perform a spell that would put an end to the zombie infestation. We played this game as a stand-alone expansion but it can be combined with any of the other zombie games for a larger more complex game (how can you not want to Send in the Clowns). Not to say that this game could ever be very complex, the game mechanics are relatively simple. In fact, After looking over the 4 page rule book I had my doubts about this game but after ten minutes we were all laughing, making smartass comments, and having a good time. We only had one rule question and that was about how many zombie dogs get removed from play when you die.

At the beginning of each turn players place one new game tile and multiple new zombie dogs. This mechanic slowly builds the game board. Next players get to move d6 spaces fighting zombie dogs whenever they come across them (Bring your “dog repellant” and “rolled up newspapers”). Finally a player gets to move d6 zombie dogs two spaces each (preferably away from you but next to your opponent’s guy). We likely played this game with a lot more of a co-opt style than it was designed (“I got your back Nate…you go first”). In fact none of our guys ever even died and by the end of the game about 50 of the zombie dogs had been moved in a corner of the board away from the cabin. Next time we will all likely play this game a lot more cutthroat. We all had a great time and plan on playing a zombie game the next time we meet. On a side note, my buddy Derek told me about this game around two years ago and I frowned on the idea of even playing it (“I’m not playing a zombie game”). Well I was wrong (I really should start keeping a more open mind when it comes to this stuff). This is a fun game and it will likely get a large amount of play at John’s and Nate’s apartment. Now if someone will just bring the beer and pretzels.

Call to Arms Thursday, week one

Proof that I need to paint more

First game of the new Warmachine season (yes we are a week behind) and I have officially experienced the most embarrassing defeat ever. The night started off innocent enough, a simple 500 point game, my Kreoss led Protectorate of Menoth versus Chris’ Mortenebra led Cryx. The first two turns were all about maneuvering for position (in fact the only casualty occurred when my Exemplars Errant squad shot up a pistol-wraith). Then on turn three both High Paladin Vilmon and the Avatar of Menoth charged and beat down the Deathjack. In response Chris came up with a great plan that would have won him the game if it had succeeded. Unfortunately for him it failed but he did end up killing off my Exemplars. On turn four I would finish of the Deathjack and destroyed his Seether, it was looking bad for Chris. Soon I had killed everything but Mortenebra. I decided to go for the major victory condition so I basically passed up a chance to kill Mortenebra. Chris made me pay! I was not aware that she had pathfinder so imagine my surprise as she charged Kreoss through rough terrain and killed him. What an embarrassing sight…Mortenebra alone on the table and completely surrounded by Protectorate of Menoth pieces. My wife puke it best when she said, “Honey, if you can go for the kill, do it!”

How do you defeat Epic Vlad? With a sledgehammer ... A real one!

The other game of the night was John’s Cryx against Josh’s Khador. They played a 750 point game that turned into an absolute slugfest. In nothing else their game looked much cooler than ours when you compared their fully painted armies to our table full of naked metal and primer colored models (What’s that? The Avatar…without arms). To be honest, I did not pay to much attention to this game but I do know that John won on victory points and that the warcasters were Epic Vlad and Mortenebra. It is looking like we may have to only play 500 point games on Thursday night due to time restraints (especially when you consider how slow I play). I was going to start updating the league standings tonight but I think I’ll wait until next week when everyone has had a chance to get some more games in.

The Killing fields

My Marvel Heroes story...and I have not even played it

Monday I was wondering around the stores that surround the Sandford Mall and I came across a game that I had quickly dismissed when it first was released, Fantasy Flight’s Marvel Heroes. It simply looked to similar to Wizkid’s Heroclix and there were other board games that I would rather spend $60 on. Now, almost two years latter I find myself rediscovering Marvel Heroes on the Books-A-Million discount shelf for a mere twenty dollars. I picked up the relatively heavy box and flipped it over to examine the back of the box. Was this game worth $20? Well, it is a Fantasy Flight game and in my experience they make high quality games, which play great and contain superior components. It comes with 20 pre-painted superhero miniatures…I could always give those to my son if this game just stinks. Despite these thoughts I place the game back on the shelf and continue browsing the book store. Soon I returned to the discount shelf and reexamined the game. No I really don’t want this game. Once more I put the game down and walked away. After repeating this process three or four times I finally decided, “What the Hell, 20 bucks isn’t even a half a tank of gas”.

After buying the game and making my way to John’s apartment we opened my new treasure. The components were the highest quality (as expected). My only complaint is the hero’s are designed all wearing costumes strait out of 1983 or so. Then I began to scan the rules as we began our Risk game. My first thought was “Great! A Fantasy Flight rule book that is under 50 pages” (It is only 16) but hen I began to read it. Worst written rulebook ever! Apparently this game was originally designed in Europe (French?) and I’m sure that it is a great game however; I think the rulebook was translated by drunken monkeys. I believe that John wants to play this game relatively soon but, It is extremely unlikely that we will play this game anytime soon simply because I cannot get past page 4 of the rules (this with the first two pages being credits and a list of components). At least I have a great looking box to add to my game shelf (read as pack rat happy). It can really make your week to get a great deal on a new game.

Another Monday night

Last night at Nate’s and John’s we played what I consider one of the most balanced three player board games, Original Trilogy Star Wars Risk. Most three player board games quickly become two versus on affairs that are not particularly fun for the guy that ends up fighting against two opponents. This is not true in Original Trilogy Star Wars Risk because each player has a unique victory condition that prevents the dreaded two on one match-up. To win the game the Rebel Alliance player (Nate) has to find and destroy the Emperor, the Empire (John) has to destroy every last solder in the Rebel, and the Hut player (Me) has to take control of 10 out of the 13 resource planets.

Like most games of Risk this was a quick and violent game (What else would you do in a game only about war). Nate secured the Outer Rim in the first turn and I conquered a small sector at the bottom of the board. We both made these areas strongholds that we could use as bases of operations. Meanwhile John took over the core world zone and began to viciously attack Nate. It seemed like John would get a quick win but he overextend his forces and Nate was able to launch a counter attack that about knocked John out of the game. Meanwhile, I slowly built my empire by conquering one territory a turn from both Nate and John. Eventually, I saw my chance and was able to take over the last resource planet that I needed when Nate did not notice that I could make a chain of attacks to take it (in a roundabout way). It was a good game overall and is a great excuse to use all of those Star Wars quotes that you know. My only complaint is that I’m ready to play as either the Empire or the Rebellion in one of these games.

After we were done with Risk we began to play Magic. We only got in one game that John easily won (Revenge for star Wars?). I was killed first and never really stood a chance but I was hoping that Nate would be able to pull out a win (Sorry John but I hate your Magic Decks….yes ALL OF THEM).

The Calm before the Storm

It’s been a slow few weeks for gaming (the closest thing to gaming I’ve been able to do is play fantasy football), but it looks like starting next week things will really be picking up. Monday should be another board-game night down at Nate’s and John’s place and Decks & Duels is starting the newest campaign season for Warmachine. Hopefully I’ll be able to give weekly updates on the campaign for the next eight weeks. If you want to learn more about Privateer Press’ upcoming campaign season check it out here:
http://www.privateerpress.com/dispatch/08-tours/main.php?tour=4&week=1&lang=en

Without anything else to report, I’ve decided to list my top three podcast. With all the driving that I do I have become quite the podcast aficionado (you can only listen to FM radio so much) and I would suggest anyone with access to iTunes check these out.

1) The d6 Generation – This is the best all-around (and possibly most entertaining) gamer podcast. It covers all types of gaming but tends to focus on board games and (to a lesser extent) miniature war-games. The podcast is full of great information and reminds me of listing to a few of your gaming buddies talking about what they think about the latest games. I would actually suggest people go back and listen to this podcast from the beginning of the series.
2) Podhammer – The first and best Fantasy Warhammer podcast. This show is based out of Australia and is basically a couple mates getting together and talking about their favorite pastime. Jeff and crew are very entertaining and give out great information about how to play the different armies in the game along with basic game strategies. Just like the d6 Generation listening to this show reminds me of overhearing conversations that you might hear down at your local gaming store (as long as your local gaming store is in Australia). I sugest that you skip the first four episodes of this podcast because the sound quality in them is horrible. The highest compliment I can play to this podcast is it makes me want to go out and play Warhammer.
3) Real Time with Bill Maher – I know that this is not a gaming podcast but it is very entertaining. By know means does this show provide a balance view of current events and politics (read as very far left) but it is very funny. It is especially nice for people who do not have HBO (as the podcast is free).
Honorable mention:
a) This week in wargaming – A similar format as the d6 Generation but it is not as entertaining or as well put together. Still worth listing to just not on the level of my first three.
b) Fell Calls! – Has great information on the Privateer Press miniature games but the hosts seem to be surprisingly uninterested in what they are talking about most of the time (making it a hard listen at times)

Turn Signal on a Land Raider

Turn Signal on a Land Raider (sometimes simply referred to as TSOALR) is a bi-weekly comic about a group of space marines, The Emperors Pointy Sticks, and their antics on the game-table. The author of this comic, Steve Campbell, came up with the name for this comic when he noticed that GW Land Raider model has a turn signal on the front of the model but not on the back (therefore the only people that know which way a Land Raider is turning are the enemy in front of you). The comic is done in the tradition of newspaper comics and is a great parody of the 40k universe, the game itself, and even the 40k players. Like many newspaper comics this strip can be hit or miss, but it is my opinion that this strip has a lot more hits than misses. I have really enjoyed the first 150 strips and I suggest that anyone interested in this strip start reading it from the beginning (just make sure you hang in for the first 30 or so). If you want to read the strip from the beginning simply go to the main sight, http://tsoalr.com/, and press the link that is located under the most current strip and labeled as “first”. Personally I plan on working my way through the whole series but that might take a while since the most current strip is the 534th strip.

Battleship Express

I just finished playing three games of Battleship Express with my nine year old son. This game is loosely based on the classic Parker Brothers game Battleship, but uses dice and cards instead of the traditional plastic maps and ship modules. The game mechanics are very simplistic and has very little strategy. In fact, about ninety percent of the game is dependent on pure luck (Pray to those dice gods). Battleship Express could be played by most children at an even earlier age than the game suggest (The suggested ages for the game is 7 to adult).
We played three quick games in about twenty-five minutes, with Torin wining all three of the games that we played. He was very excited about winning all three of these games. This is a perfect game for us to break out when he wants to play a game but we only have about twenty minutes. I would highly recommend this game to anyone with young children that want to roll some dice and play a game with Daddy. However, if your looking for a game to play with your gamer buddies, look somewhere else.

Monday night gameing pt.2

After finishing our game of Nexus Ops, we decided to play a game of Settlers of Catan. Surprising, Ricky was the person that talked the rest of us into playing. This is surprising because Ricky normally only wants to play games in which he gets to “kill stuff”. John had never played the game and it had been a long time since the rest of us had played so set up was slow and I had to read over the rules for a while. Luckily, John ordered Pizza so at lest we could eat while we took a “rule break”. It soon became obvious that this was just not Nate's night. His bad luck continued during this game and it even seemed to rub off onto John. Neither of them was ever able to get the resources that they needed and they quickly fell behind both Ricky and me. Ricky has gotten a lot better at these games and is no longer the guy that we could always count on self-destructing. He basically dominated this game and won easily.

Monday night gameing pt.1

The first game that we played Monday night was Avalon Hill’s Nexus Ops. I purchased this game over a year ago when the local Toys R Us placed it on clearance for $9.99. After transporting my new treasure home, I quickly opened the box, made sure that all the game pieces were in the box, and then placed it on a shelf in the back of my “man room”, where it soon began to collect dust. Our gaming group finally decided to play Nexus Ops because we wanted to play a “light war-game” that was not Axis and Allies. Over all, we were not disappointed in the game-play (which was very similar to Axis and Allies), but Nate was not thrilled with some of the games random set-up mechanics. Nate would command the green team, John choose the red forces, Rick ran with the blue army, and I was Yellow.

Turn 1:

We all slowly probed our forces out from our starting areas. I had the most success by discovering three areas that contained resources. Unfortunately for Nate, he was already at a disadvantage by the end of round one. He was the only player that did not discovered a space that contained new resources and he was feeling threatened by both John’s and my forces.

Turn 2:

John and Ricky continue to successfully build up their armies and to claim more territories. Nate launches a vicious sneak attack on my armies. He almost wiped out my army but one valiant rock spider held on, denying Nate an easy victory. Nate also claims the last resorce space on the board

Turn 3:

John continues to consolidate his position. Ricky claims the spire with a force of “rock spiders” and begins to gain the combat advantage cards. After mocking the two pacifist players, Nate and I continue knocking the crap out of each other. At the end of the turn our combat is still going with my army just barely holding on with a “lava slug”.

Turn 4: John and Rick begin troop build ups on their boarders. Neither of them have yet to fight a battle, but John is threatening Ricky’s dominance of the spire. I finally outflank Nate taking one of his home bases and win our long running battle. Nate retakes his base but much of his army has now been destroyed.

Turn 5:

John finally attacks Nate in an attempt to conquer a resource rich territory. Nate holds on but I enter the battle with a force of “Rock Spiders” making it a three way fight. I kill John and Nate retreats. Ricky is now the only player to not engage in combat but he continues to dominate the spire.

Turn 6:

Ricky goes to WAR!!! After John counter attacks my forces, Ricky attack John in two places. He wins outright in one of the combats and digs in for a long fight in the other territory. I retreat away from John’s army during my turn and consolidate my forces for an attack on the spire. Nate builds up his army in an attempt to get back into the fight.

Turn 7:
Ricky and John continue to duke it out. John wins the larger battle, destroying many of Ricky’s expensive units. Ricky breaks through John’s lines near the spire and takes over two of John’s resource territories. I take advantage of the situation a destroy Johns forces that I had retreated from the turn before. Nate begins to move a large army toward his old resource producing territory.

Turn 8 & 9:
During these two turns everyone turns on Ricky. I take the spire, and both John and Nate conquer resource territories from him. We all have large armies now but I have a large advantage in victory points. I quickly maneuver my forces into place so that I can score quick victory points and pull out a win.

Bye, Bye World of Warcraft!

I have barley played World of Warcraft at all for the last six months, so I finally canceled my subscription today! It’s not that it is a terrible game; I’m just board with it (you can only run errands or kill boars so many times). It doesn’t help that Warhammer Online will be released soon, I’ll eventually have to pay for the D&D insider content, and I have been playing a lot of Dawn of War online lately. Hopefully my son won’t be too upset but I don’t think he’s been playing the game much lately either.
According to rumors, the interface of Warhammer Online will be very similar to WoW. Some people would consider that a bad thing, for me it just means I’ll be able to jump right in and play the new game. It will also have a PvP system slightly similar to WoW PvP servers. The big difference is that in Warhammer online the factions can actually conquer territories, thus taking control of them away from other factions. I’m looking forward to playing a online game in the fantasy world of Warhammer.

D&D forth edition demo

I ran my first demo of forth edition Dungeons and Dragons at the local gaming store today. It was a small turn-out so, I ended up running the game for only three people. I wanted to get the players into combat as soon as possible so we went a bit light on role-playing and I threw the small party right into combat. This way the new players could get a better grasp of the new game mechanics. I figured role-playing is role-playing whatever rules set you use so the main purpose of a demo should be to demonstrate how the rules work. After defeating a hoard of Kobolds, Everyone decided that they liked the new system and wanted to try playing with more players. I committed to running a few more games if the owner of the shop can get the party up to 4 or 5 people.

2008 A Call to Arms: Broken Coast Raids, Week Four

Apparently Privateer Press, the makers of Hordes and Warmachine, creates four league seasons a year that any local store or club can sponsor. In these eight week leagues, Privateer Press releases new scenarios, maps, and rules that change on a weekly bases, while players compete for one of four awards over the coarse of the season. This has been my first Privateer Press league and I’ve been very impressed. We are in week 4 (One week behind most leagues) and all ten participants are still in the hunt for at least one of the four medals.
My loosing streak continues. After winning my first four games in the local Warmachine league, I have gone on what seems like a very long loosing streak. My Protectorate army is starting to fall so far behind in league points that I’m now trying to win the “Eliminator” award (goes to the player who scores the most points for killing light jacks and light war-beast). Tonight, my butt kicking came courtesy of the local Trollbloods player, but at least I got a light war-beast kill.
One of the leagues new players, Chris, won his first game tonight. His Cryx army won a major victory against Ricky’s Khador force. Over all, it was a bad night for Vlad led Khador forces as our other Khador player also lost by a major victory. Maybe next week I should play a Khador player, even though they don’t have light jacks.

I’m officially drinking the 4th Edition D&D Kool-Aid

Like many members of Dungeons and Dragon’s “old guard” (people that started playing the game in 1st and 2nd edition), I was furious when Wizards of the Coast announced that they were releasing 4th Edition D&D in 2008. I was sitting in front of my computer browsing the web when I found out and actually yelled at my computer (using a lot of language that cannot be repeated here). How could they do this? D&D 3.5 was only released about four or five years ago! It appeared that I was destined to become one of those gamers that refuses to upgrade to the latest version of my beloved Role-playing game (you know one of those old grouchy guys, sitting in the back of your local game shop and telling anyone who’d listen about how great Advanced Dungeon and Dragons is). Then I began to see previews for this new version of the granddaddy of all RPGs and, surprisingly, I actually found myself liking what I saw.
After talking my D&D group into giving the new version of the game a try, we discovered that we love the new version of this classic game. We have been playing D&D more frequently than we have for years and everyone is having a wonderful time. All of my players have bought the player’s handbook and it looks like the group will be playing forth edition exclusively from now on. Here are a few observations that our group has made:
· This game has to be played with miniatures. If your not going to use miniatures stay with 3rd edition. I personally prefer not to use the D&D miniature line. The modals are just too small and in a weird scale that no other line uses. I suggest the following lines, they’re all pretty close to scale and look fine next to each other on the table:
o Classic Ral Partha (if you can find them)
o Reaver (great for Player Character models and affordable)
o Heroscape models (already painted)
o Mageknight (Very cheap on ebay but you may have to do some rebasing)
o Fantasy warhamer (expensive but great models)
o War-machine/Hoards (expensive but some great monster models to round out your collection)
· Get a good battle-mat. Make sure that it has a grid system already on it and that you can write on it with erasable marker. The “Dungeon Tile” sets put out by Wizards of the Coast are also worth looking into (not to mention great values)
· This new system concentrates on strategic combat. However, you can still role-play any situation in 4th that you could in 3rd. Don’t let someone tell you otherwise
· First level characters actually have a tendency to live, not one to die. Players still die but it is usually because the players did something foolish or the party members are not working together and filling the roles assigned to each class.
· Initially, people look at these new characters and go, “My God, these guys are powerful! Nothing should be able to kill these guys”. The monsters are just as powerful as the characters. Everything just got a boost so that a lucky hit or two doesn’t kill low level players and monsters anymore.
· Teamwork among party members is more important in this edition of D&D than it ever has been before.
I would be willing to still play 3rd edition but I’ll never DM it again (forth edition is just so much easier to run). Oh well, looks like Wizards of the Coast will be getting even more of my money than before.