Happy Halloween!

My very own Mouseguard character, Gurney, decided to dress up as his favorite time-traveling, boomstick-wielding hero Ash this year for Halloween. Mucho props (as always) go to Chris "Biscuit" Miller, resident artist over at Minions of the Monster Master. To you and yours, have a safe and happy Halloween this year and eat a "fun sized" candy bar for me!

edit: And here's how slow I am, I just realized that the decapitated zombie in the background is actually Mystery Meat's young-blood character!

Fall-In! Table Gallery

This is the first post of at least two that shows some of the breathtaking tables I've stumbled across (not literally!) here in the many Fall-In! gaming areas. I know I took a lot today (these were taken yesterday) so there is definitely more to come. Instead of listening to me try to interpret what you're looking at in each picture, I'll just let them speak for themselves. Besides, I've got a game to get to in twenty minutes as I type this!

Fall-In! Day 2: Some Games Played

Inside my head I'm screaming, "Please get out of my personal space!"

Right off the bat is the space battle game I signed up for. I know, it's a historical gaming convention, but spaceships are cool! The rules were were the Tabletop Battle System, which really interested me. It's engine could drive both a space fleet battle game, as well as the sci-fi ground combat game on its sister table, and purportedly other genres like Romans, pike/shot, modern, and the like. The one thing about is I don't really like the Battlestar Galactica universe, I know, shocking. The old show was all right, but the new one everyone raves about just never grabbed me. Fortunately this game was set in the original setting where Starbuck pees standing up and the head human used to live on the Cartwright ranch.


For a space battle system the rules were very easy to grasp and pretty intuitive by the end of your first turn. The only tricky thing for the colonial (my) side was remembering which weapons of yours were not actively fired on your own turn so they could used as "held" weapon on the enemy's turn. Different firing arcs meant different weapons to bring to bear. Now for the Cylon side it was much more headache inducing because their ships had multiple missile bays and could 'spin' as they moved to always keep fresh, unfired bays at the fore. A simple counter system here would've saved a lot of time and confusion though.



The minis were all resin, and looked pretty nice. Not being a super fan of the setting I didn't know about things like colonial frigates and cruisers and the like, but they were cool. My side of four players started with a gameplan (stick together pick on one target at a time) and stuck together for the whole game. I manned one cruiser and one escort frigate.


Here are the two tables side-by-side. The other thing that drew me to this game is the one thing that never happened. Both tables, the space game and the ground combat game, were supposed to be able to influence one another. There were planetary defense guns on the planet, a unit (friendly or enemy depending on who controlled them) would be able to fire upon ships in orbit. To do this though you had to dedicate one of your ground units to sit in the defense gun station, and a target on the space table had to get within six inches of the planet marker. Well since my side had a solid plan and stuck to it, no enemy ships ever got close and the colonials on the ground held the guns at all times.

Two of the Cylon ships had firepower enough to affect the planet, as long as they were within range with their 'big guns', they could target the planet instead of one of our ships. As the battle was going fairly well for my side, the Cylons were playing catch up the whole game and had to concentrate on the immediate threat rather than worry about the other table.


Here's the colonial ground combat table, it was a good looking board with lots of contour and an innovative tree system. I believe this board is also used for Napoleonic battles and the like, but power armor marching across the countryside seemed to suffice here.

All in all, not a bad game, I enjoyed it and that sometimes illusive "spectacle" was definitely there. Following up on the sci-fi trend however, and the genie was out of the bottle at this point, I switched tickets, gasp!, and traded French-Indian War for Giant Stompy Robots...


The name pretty much says it all. I was expecting more comical, four color figs when I got here but no, despite the name this is pretty much your basic easy-to-play giant Mecha game that puts you in the action kicking and launching missile instead of checking off heatsinks and laboring over hardpoints. The rules are free and if you've got a box of old Battletech mechs laying around like I do, this is what you need to breathe new life into them.


My mech on the left moves in, fires its Siege Gun, its Missile Launcher, and as if that weren't enough, also throws a kick at its target. Combat is very easy to come to grips with, and other than firing arcs, simple to figure out on the fly. The d6 in the picture is a marker, for the most part the game is d10 based with different weapon damages running in multiples of all the different die types.


Terrain is easy to negotiate and for the most part you can climb hand over hand, or just fire your jump jets if you have them. The premise for the game itself is a nice, light-hearter (if a bit dystopian) one. Basically you're all gladiators in six story robots fighting each other and it's all televised for the masses.

What this means in-game is that everything you do will score you points and the more carnage you do, the more points you get, 'cause fans just love carnage. It's all about the ratings you know. In multiplayer games this could lead to sneaky kill-stealing and the like, it definitely makes you think what you can next to cause damage and earn points. Obviously the one standing (and with the most points!) at the end of the game is the winner.

The other thing I like about the game is that you are dealt an action card each turn, or you can hold onto one of yours. These action cards grant more movement, more firepower, guarantee critical hits, deny hits, cancel out other cards, and more. The cards keep all the players in the game, and you don't have to necessarily play them on yourself or your immediate opponent, anything goes. At one point in the game a mech on the other side used a card to narrowly dodge a massive attack. I played a "deny" card just to make sure that attack actually did hit home, even though the combat had nothing to do with me. It gave another opponent more points, but it also weakened an opponent I may have to face later.


I've got another day two game to report on, and ironically enough it's not historical either! I'll have to upload some pics first; it's a Babylon 5 ground combat game using the older Ultimate Warzone rules. I played Narns, there was a hidden bunker underground, it was cool.

Fall-In! Day 1: Evening

Some pre-official convention pics. These were all taken while walking around Friday night, chatting with some gamers, and sitting in on a couple of games. Of note, there was a large DBA tournament going on as well, it looked great but I didn't snap any pics!


A healthy scattering of "pick up" games...


Early war practice game going with FoW and the guys from WWPD


A lonely, empty hall awaiting hordes of the games we love

Day 1 for Fall-In!

F-298 Our First World War, 1778


F-241 Deathtrap at Canus Major

Last night I was pretty under the weather, even retired to the room early. Today I'm feeling marginally better, but I sound awful. We were able to meet some fellow bloggers and podcasters, Sean (or is it Shawn?) and Steve (or is it Steven?) from What Would Patton Do? It was cool to meet and talk with people "in real life" that you've only known through the blogosphere here. THe two images above are the games I've officially registered for today, a French-Indian War fracas and a roaring space fleet combat game. The latter sounds especially enticing as there will be another table nearby with a roaring space infantry combat game going on. The two tables can affect one another though, so my capital ship can blow up chunks of infantry, and the infantry can man a defense gun and take down a capital ship.

Already walking around I've seen some great looking tables, so expect many pictures upon our return. Rock on...

T-Minus Ten Hours

The bags are (mostly) packed and the 28 page list of games has been printed. In ten hours Ikoma Duck Sauce and myself hit the road bound for Fall-In! snugly nestled in Amish country. For all those traveling there this weekend, be safe and drive safely. I'll take lots of pics and whip up a thorough report upon my return, until then...enjoy!


UPDATE! We have arrived, everyone's signed in, we've been fed, and we're heading out the door for some open gaming as I type. Plus, Duck Sauce just walked in with a case of Yuengling Premium, which I've never had!

A Sarterra I See Before Me

I know many of you are wondering how the creation of our fantasy world, Sarterra is coming along. Well, I like to think that anyway! I f I were to run into you however, say, at Fall-In! or something and you were to ask, my answer would be a resounding, "Swimmingly!"

Over a year ago I first posted on this endeavor. The four of us sat down with a copy of the incredibly cool game, Dawn of Worlds at hand and began to give birth to a planet. We have tinkered on this thing, both full-time in earnest, and part-time off and on since September of '09, and recently we've picked up steam and are fleshing it out further.

In the large map above you've got a glimpse of the whole Mars-sized planet. We've got continents labeled and major cities listed. The next step is to take one small part of the overall map, "zoom in", and complete just a single area. This will include all of the lesser cities and towns, and smaller landforms that wouldn't necessarily be seen "from orbit" per se.

Before I go any further I should point out that all cartography is done by our resident artist Chris "Biscuit" Miller and he continues to amaze us all. He takes sketches and notes from us sitting around the table, hemming and hawing over mountains and rivers and cranks out full color maps I wouldn't even expect to get in a professional product. As a free plug for him, he does do commissions and I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. cmgillustrations "at" gmail.com


In the 'zooming' process we've tackled two separate regions for two separate campaigns. The one on the top is a portion of the much larger overall continent of Talamh. In this case the western area of Talamh is the country of Bresia. The lower focus area is the continent of Arhun. We're still working on Arhun and it's yet to have its borders broken down further into political boundaries. Three races prominently call this continent home, so I will suggest to the guys at the next session that three countries in this case ought to do the trick.

The country of Bresia, the continent of Arhun, and everything in between can all be found on a wiki-type page we've been compiling since the beginning. We've got a couple of dozen races, just as many organizations and orders, deities, avatars, major heroes, and more. Here's the link to the Sarterra wiki. Also, loosely linked to all of this are the many battles of Song of Blades and Heroes (another awesome ruleset) we've fought over the last year or so. These SBH battles technically take place in the world of Sarterra as well.


Bresia; inhabited, governed, and settled by the Romanesque human empire known as the Averni. Bresia is their foothold into colonizing beyond their home continent of Avernia. Its capital city of Port Valens is the hub of commerce and trade.


The continent of Arhun features a wide variety of flora, fauna (ahem, Dinosaurs!), and landforms. Three prominent races call Arhun home with many other minor races also present. The good and noble Dragonborn have built their capital city of Itova on a gigantic chunk of floating rock and earth raised a thousand feet in the air held in place by giant chains to the land below. The Dwarves have carved out a kingdom from the river's edge and the deep forests. Their technology is without equal not only in Arhun, but in all of Sarterra and they have subsumed the mighty Minotaurs of the land under their sphere of influence. Last of the prominent races in Arhun are the primitive Teotzin. These humans live in cyclopean pyramids where they practice the arts of embalming and exhibit an astounding knowledge of astronomy.

I hope you've enjoyed being a spectator to this world creation process. It's still a long ways off from being completed, but it's maps and info like we have so far that get me energized to see it through. Check out those links, and especially the wiki, there's a lot of creative juices in there and it's the culmination of four experienced gamers to boot, it's pretty much world creation "done right" if I may be so bold to state.

Mind you, it's not just us, the game Dawn of Worlds is what puts you in charge and gives you such an easy-to-use system that covers so much ground, both literally and figuratively. Not only is it efficient but it's an absolute blast to do with your friends, and it can be played as a standalone game without attaching such a ambitious project to it as well.

I also mentioned Song of Blades, which regrettably we haven't played in ages. By taking such a solid fantasy skirmish ruleset such as these, then follow up on a Dawn of Worlds game and you've got a one-two knockout punch combo on your hands that will knock you and your group's socks off.

Updates 'n Such

1. First and foremost, that time of the year is upon us again when Photobucket holds all my images for ransom. Seeing how I've got about 700 posts, that's too many pics to transfer or whatever. I may be jinxing myself, but the "due date" for me paying has come and passed, and my pics remain, so I'll wait 'til lights out, then pay up.

2. The Sons of Minos are in a slight holding pattern until I snag some bases. I will be going with the Dragon Forge's "Lost Empires" bases, I just need to save up some money because...




3. Fall-In! IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! In less than a week from now, Duck Sauce, Bob Bryant, and myself are headed to Pennsylvania and we're hooking up with Repple Depple's Brian along the way. I didn't pre-register, so you'll find me in the huge registration line Thursday night. If you're reading this, make sure you find me at one point nonetheless. I am so looking forward to going.


4. I've mentioned Sarterra here more than a couple of times. Work continues to move forward on this fantasy world we're collaboratively creating. After laying out the basics we're now 'zooming in' on the continents and fleshing out the cities, organizations, and specific landforms. It's been a long road, it's nowhere near completion, but it's been a blast every step. I'll be posting soon on the two continents we've been fine tuning.

5. While we're talking about Sarterra, making the world is one thing but the goal is to actually play in it. I've got a couple of characters to whip up to boot, using the FATE system, so they'll be making an appearance as well.


6. Last, since it's Sunday as I type this I guess I should mention my Fantasy Football team, the Waterford Warpigs. I'm having my usual abysmal year sitting at 2-4, and today's game looks like it'll be a slaughter since four of my best starters are on a bye week.

FALL-IN!

FALL IN!™ is one of the largest gatherings of historical miniatures gamers and exhibitors on the East Coast. [They] expect more than 1,500 attendees from across the nation, as well as from Canada and overseas.

I haven't been to a gaming convention in years...years. I plan on rectifying this incredible slight to my gaming record at the end of the month however as I attend Fall-In! I'll be driving up with a couple of my buddies, "Duck Sauce" Andy, and Bob "MoA" Bryant and I believe we'll be rendezvousing with Repple Depple's Brian along the way (though I could be wrong about that last part). I am very excited about it, but the exclamation in the title is really there because it's their trademarked title, kind of like when you buy a can of SPAM!, or maybe unclog your sink with a bottle of DRANO!

Honestly I have yet to pre-register for the event, and today might be the last day so I may miss out altogether on that, but sometimes the games where you have the most fun are the ones that are unexpected and weren't planned for in the first place.

So my question is, are YOU going to Fall-In! by chance? Maybe you're running a game I should sign up for or you're playing in a game we could both roll dice in. I think it'd just be cool to hang out with some of the peeps who frequent the blog and I chat with, I know some of you are flung all over the globe, but you never know. Let me know, at the very least we'll share a pint.

The Four Faces of Gaming

Subdivisions aside, the gaming world of ours is distinctly broken down into four broad flavors; boardgaming, videogaming, roleplaying, and tabletop gaming. These aren't, however, divisional lines that demarcate and impose limits, just doorways to expand what you've been enjoying so much in one realm in a completely new and different way in another.

Warhammer 40k comes to mind first and foremost. You can be an avid player of Dawn of War, collect and paint your own army of 40k, roleplay in the 40k universe with any one of many options, and hearken back to the days of the Horus Heresy in the boardgame of the same name. As I type this, the Warhammer Fantasy universe lends itself even better to this example with Warhammer Online, WHFB, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and Chaos in the Old World.

You don't have to spend equal time in each category, indeed many don't and only the foolish or truly insane do (and I mean this in a good way), but the four faces of our gaming world remain nonetheless. You can prefer to leave a category (or two) out altogether as you see fit, but as gamers we never turn our backs on any of them even as our choices steer us in other directions. What strengthens in one category today only benefits the other three in the long run.

Halo Reach: Limited Edition

This post could also be known titled, "Halo Reach: The Deathknell of Miniature Gaming and Painting". I picked up Reach along with, what, 50,000 friends? I don't buy a lot of video games, so I make sure the ones I do buy are going to be good for the long haul. In this case, I spent just a little extra to get the 'limited edition'. I had pre-ordered my copy by putting twenty bucks down, which happened to be the difference between this edition and the regular edition anyway, coupled with some proficient upselling at the counter, I walked out with this very hefty edition. If you like the Halo franchise at all and you love fluff, twenty bucks extra is an incredibly small amount to pay for all of the really cool extras to be found within.


The whole package comes in this futuristic type footlocker, complete with a handle on the side. There's a plastic slipcase the box comes in, which can be pitched.


Inside you get the game, a 'handwritten' letter from the United Nations Space Command letting you know you've got some top secret stuff such as...Doctor Halsey's personal journal. She's the one who devised the Spartan program to begin with, her journal details all her notes and sketches on the topic. It is lengthy, and an actual journal on top of that; a bound book with all kinds of fake stuff within. Fake stuff like hotel stationery, coffee stains, scribbles and the like. You can pretty much read the journal as a paperback.


Some of the sketches within alongside a news report from the sci-fi equivalent of a newsfeed. A lot of these were interspersed throughout the journal, and on the backs of them are advertisements kind of like what you see on the backs of receipts at the grocery store.


More journal sketches, and a photograph, which not as numerous as the newsfeed sheets, but there were a few of these full-color glossy pics also tucked into pages as well. All of these feeds and pics weren't just stuck into the journal randomly either, they corresponded as bookmarks into certain sections of the journals and parallel with the writing.

More notes and sketches

The journal, newsfeeds, and photographs are really the tip of the iceberg


A full-size patch of the UNSC is included, it's an actual embroidered patch good to go on a backpack or something, a hard plastic identicard to access ONI systems, and a translucent card with DNA data or something on it. Honestly I don't know what the last thing's supposed to be. There was also a full color printout of some more Spartan technical data.

Several reports and standalone sheets of information are also in the mix


Since the game itself follows the inception of the Spartan program, it's only fitting that personnel dossiers are included on the Spartan candidates that are your fellow NPC's in the game itself.

A large, full-color map of the action on Reach is also included


The manual that comes with it is, well, a manual, it's all full color and stuff, but who uses these things? The limited edition gets you a download card to upgrade your bad guy characters (the Covenenant Elites) to a helmet-less commander model, and there's another upgrade download card you get for pre-ordering to make your own character model have a grenade belt and a fancy-pants helmet. A lot of these types of little extras make for a surprisingly addictive facet of the game.


Just in case all of the above isn't enough, and how can it not be?, you could always pick up a bag of Halo Reach branded Doritos to accompany you along your alien blasting journeys.

Obviously this has been all about the stuff, I could do a review about the gameplay itself, but really there's better people than me out there already doing that. My two cents on it though, having cranked through the campaign and played lots of it online.

All of the online play has been improved beyond what it has been, and it was already pretty good. Lots of new daily challenges, new weekly challenges, and more gameplay options in multiplayer give some focus and direction (if you want it) other than button mashing against hordes of 12-year players who can headshot you while strafing.

Then they've added the whole Cr system, credits you earn through ranks achieved during online play, medals won during campaign play, and the like. You then use your hard earned credits to buy upgrades to your character avatar in the likes of helmets, shoulder armor, kneepads, whatever, it's broken down into about fifteen categories and then subdivided further. You buy a helmet, then you buy upgrades for that specific helmet in levels. Of course certain items are locked until you attain certain ranks, which of course are earned through skill.


So the online play, which is what Halo boils down to in the end, is amazing. Where the game falls short to its predecessors is in campaign play. Now don't get me wrong, the campaign is good, it tells a solid (if a bit dark) story that prequels the entirety of the Halo series and marks the continuation of the then fresh 20-year war with the Covenant. The only problem is that the campaign play for Halo: ODST was pretty much the best I've ever played, and the campaign play Halo 3 even edges out the newest one for Reach. The catch is, those two previous campaigns I mentioned were pretty awesome to begin with, so they're very hard to top, even with the new, super-charged engine under the hood of Reach.