Hordes Beginnings

 

Only because I love it when I quote my friend Rucht, and it bugs him ever so slightly, I'm going to quote from his opening the other day with his awesome Warmachine post.

"Well, the other night we had an unprecedented event. [Hordes] has caught so much fire [around] here that we had six people over for [Hordes], meaning we were able to host three one-on-one matches. Three matches, lined up on a big table, all going at once - it was like we were at a tournament."

At this point I need to point out that Rucht and his buddies were actually playing the game with large, gully painted armies, and they knew the rules.  What we did was on a much more tentative scale.  Sure, we had six players throwing down at once but we were using partially painted figs (at best) and learning the rules as we went along. 

  

This is what got me looking at the Privateer Press arena once more, the integration of both systems; Hordes and Warmachine.  The concept is cool, each is a game in its own right, but each is completely compatible with the other while remaining distinctive to one another.  Here we see Andy's Warjacks clash full on with Jeff's Warbeasts.

 

My headless, amputee Warlock carelessly ventures too close to Mike's Argus.  My "charge in head first swinging" mindset is going to need a little bit of refining.  I also need to remember that my models aren't the only ones with tricks up their sleeves.

 

Speaking of tricks...as Madrak was squaring off with a fairly low-threatening Argus (relatively speaking) Mike used a spell to teleport his heavy Warpwolf *behind* my Warlock, surrounding him!

 

 

Here's the view from the far right side of the table, you can see my Warlock about to get a sound thrashing atop the ruins.  With its two clawed hands the Warpwolf just kept picking up my guy and throwing him all over the battlefield, then my downed model would get charged with other beasts.  I was able to shunt some of my damage off to my beasts, but it was taking its toll and I was about dead by the time it was all said and done.  Of course I forgot to make any of my 'toughness' rolls the entire game, but that's just part of the learning curve.

 

In the middle of the table Miller and Taylor were duking it out; Miller with his partially painted Circle and Taylor borrowing a Legion starter.  They wrapped up their first game rather quickly then began a second game, that time using the units that also came in the battle box.  

Girl-on-girl action ended tragically for Kaya Windborn.  Out of fury points to use she succumbed to the withering arrows of the Everblight Legion's blighted Nyss Warlock.  

All in all it was a great night.  We had a huge turnout of folks, which is very exciting as it means this endeavor has a lot of interest, which in turn means it will be seeing heavy rotation.  Not to mention that it's good to just get some figs on the table finally and rolling some dice.  Hopefully the next time you see my Trollbloods out there they will have some paint!  Until then, enjoy!

Infinity Round Two

Milton Bradley Town; a land of villainous dice and lost games - mezzwargames

Maybe it's my old laptop that is annoying me right now but I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of the new Blogger interface.  I push on nonetheless.

I push on because we played another test round of Infinity this week.  I have to put test round in there because Infinity can be quite fiddly to the newcomer and we were stopping often and looking up rules, writing questions down, and the like.  In the end, however, the game felt more like what I thought an Infinity game would feel like, and we had a lot more models on the table to boot.

Militant knights advance across a side street

For this battle we used the basic Infinity starter boxes, statted out as is.  The were my Combined Army aliens versus Jeff's Pan Oceania Militant Order.  Jeff's models looked great, and were almost finished, which always makes for a nice looking battle.

The terrain on the other hand, ahem, not so much.  Just like in the old minis rulebooks where they show photos of textbooks on the kitchen table to act as hills, we kept it very low budget this go-round.  Yup, we used boardgame boxes.  Let's face it though, Infinity just doesn't look right on blasted, neo-gothic ruins of the 41st millennium.  You need skyscraper-choked neo-Tokyo.  Ironically enough, terrain guru Ironworker Miller, has just posted some effective and low-cost Infinity terrain tips.  I will be checking those out.

Also, I know I just complained about the new Blogger interface, well, I admit I do like the new caption option.
 

A Dāturazi Witch-Soldier skirts a rooftop with the massive Charontid bringing up support not far behind

Infinity, here's their link for posterity, is a great skirmish level sci-fi game.  It does feel quite unique too given all the other samplings out there.  The gorgeous figs instantly set it apart, but the rules help as well.  There's a sort of perpetual over-watch going on that every eligible model can take advantage of when it's not their turn, the ARO (automatic reaction order).  You have a fair number of ARO options as well, depending on what you want to do.  The ARO not only keeps you 100% vested in the game during your opponent's turn but makes those lines of sight all the more important too.

This time around our biggests hurdle was mastering the ARO.  How to use it, when to use it, who could use it, you name it.  For one, we were using the quick start rules, which were understandably skimpy in explanation, and two, it's just a new concept for us in this scale of a game.  Understanding this element is going to be key to how quick you assimilate the rules.

Morat Vanguard Infantry bunch up hoping for safety in numbers

The Dāturazi is taken down by a headshot from two blocks away

This Pan-O sniper had a commanding view of the streets

Another fun component of the Infinity rules is the large role that camouflage plays.  Lots of models have camo, ranging from a simple woodland pattern poncho to sophisticated thermo-optical spectrum based technologies.

The models with active camo use tokens on the tabletop to represent their blip, but that's it.  In order for an enemy to engage them they have to first perform an action to actively 'discover' the model.  Based on the level of camo the model has, this isn't always easy.  Models using active camo also get a surprise attack, allowing them to shoot at a target while 'cloaked'.  If they eliminate said target in one shot they don't have to fear that target using its ARO to shoot back.

With the ARO issue coming up seemingly every time we used it, I wrote down the instances with how we thought it was supposed to work.  I then shamelessly emailed them to Fire Broadside! care of Martin.  If you haven't been to Martin excellent blog, I suggest you do so...as soon as you're done reading here of course.  Anyway, Martin has advised in the Infinity realm before and he came through with all of the clarity I knew we were lacking originally.  Next game will go a lot more smoothly thanks to him!

By the time game began to wind down, the Combined Army had made a rousing comeback.  Once they got their heavy hitter, the Charontid, into the fray the final stone had been cast.  This monster held his own in both ranged and mclose combat, and was heavily armored enough to shrug off many incoming hits as well.  It's also one of the more expensive models to field, points-wise anyway, so once we start policing our army lists more thoroughly he may not be making too many appearances.

All in all it was a good game.  The terrain was a little lacking but it did feel good to get some painted figs on the table and give them a proper go of it.  Infinity round two was a success, here's to the next one.  Until then, enjoy!

Another Round of SAGA

The dark ages skirmish game SAGA made its second appearance in as many weeks. Once again we had two players per side and beefed up the forces to six points each, or twelve points per side. We followed the rules a little more closely in how to set up armies, and how to set up the game from laying out terrain as well as putting down units and the like. Andy's also blogged about our second game, just today actually.

My warlord, leading from the front...again

All four of the basic armies were represented with me playing the Normans, allied with Tom's Vikings against Andy's Welsh and Ken's Anglo-Danes. After setting up and rolling for initiative it became pretty clear that my ally was on the extreme left flank and both opposing armies were pretty much on my half of the table. I wanted to play the Normans because they're a mounted force and there was a brand new battle-board I had to familiarize myself with. Next game I'm going to try and play either Welsh or Anglo-Dane to get a feel for those as well.


It was a dense, target-rich environment as my heavy cavalry charged in, warlord leading the way. The game itself took a bit longer than last time, but we had more points on the table too. We could've shaved some of that time off fairly easily as well, so next time I expect some smooth sailing.

This was my most devastating charge of the game...looking for 3+


The middle of the table just devolved into brutal chaos, it was quite the quagmire actually. Characteristically I had my warlord in the thickest center of it. Not surprisingly, he died about halfway through the game. Maybe I should re-think the whole "lead from the front" strategy?

The late Duke Yuengling of Yorvic


Although my force was wiped out, almost to a man my ally was barely even scratched. Here his forces, which have been maneuvering and wheeling for most of the game prepare to mop up the survivors from my own efforts. Sadly, we did not see the game to completion. It was getting late and everyone was pretty amiable about what the outcome would've been. The Vikings were strong however, and fresh troops to boot; it could have gotten interesting.


Here's the force I played for the battle. Beforehand I put two of my hearthguard-level units together to form a large, elite hitting hammer. Having some foot crossbowmen in there was kind of a bonus as well. I liked the Normans quite a bit, being all mounted took some getting used to but overall, even if my warlord did die, the game was a blast. I'm rather taken with the rules so I'll be buying a copy by the end of the week. Until then, enjoy!

SAGA: Last Warlord Standing

Before I even begin to get into the newest game we added to the ranks, Gripping Beast's Saga, let me just say I am not going to be winning a lot of these games. Or at the very least my warband leader, known as the Warlord, won't be surviving too many battles. Case in point, the opening photo of this post.

Saga is the Dark Ages skirmish game that is making its rounds. The name of the game says it all, "Saga". It straddles the two worlds of semi-historical and the epic battles of legend. If you're looking for a historically correct game, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fast, fun Dark Ages game with great rules, you've found it. If you're looking for another point of view of the same night, look here at Little Lead Heroes. Way back when a gaming buddy of ours, Brian, who has since moved away started looking into Saga as well, it's just taken me this long to get a game in!


Saga is about the heroes and the warriors they lead, so that's why my Warlord is going to be leading the charge time and time again. The gates of Valhalla only open to the bold. The rest of my warband will be tasked with two things in a battle, defeating the enemy of course and just trying to keep up with their leader. To me this is the only way to play the game!


Shown here are the Normans, who were allied with two Viking warbands for this battle. On the other side of the table were an allied group of Anglo-Danes and Welsh. Being our first intro and test game, there were some initial set up rules we overlooked but overall I don't thing they messed things up. Warbands are generated simply enough with four or six point warbands being the norm. A leader is free, each unit after that costs a point. Your units can be from small, elite groups, up to large peasant-class levy troops.

Welsh javelin-armed troops about to get trampled by Norman cavlary

Viking levy archers

The base game, $40 bucks by the way, has army info on four separate forces, plus the rules themselves. You also need some game-specific dice to go along with it, which can be pricey but there's all kinds of inventive work-arounds to that. This is where the game takes a fairly serious detour from other skirmish games.


Each force has a battle board, each of the four boards wholly different and unique to that specific army. This is where the game gets even more cool. You roll a number of dice each turn based on how many units you have on the table. Then you allocate those die rolls to your battle board. If you look at the top left of my Viking board you see "Hirdmen". If I want to activate my Hirdmen at all this turn, I need to allocate one of my die rolls and place it there.

That's the normal stuff, each force has its own flavor in the form of special abilities, like "Odin" that needs two dice to work and changes and enemy's shooting turn into a move turn instead. The other trick is you're not guaranteed these very time, obviously. So if you get two sixes and are able to charge up "Ragnarok" you may have to leave the dice there for a turn or two, which you can, but that's going to be two less dice you're able to roll the next turn.

Two warlords clash...and kill one another simultaneously


I mentioned Repple Depple's Brian in the beginning of this post and it was because of him and all of the Pig Wars enthusiasm before he moved that I painted up my Viking horde. We have played a Dark Ages game or two since he's moved off, but the Viking wargaming potential that was about to explode died with his egress. I am hopeful however that these rules, which I enjoyed immensely, will turn that ship, err, longboat around.

Friday Rucht Hour: RPG Retreat

So, right after ManCabin, I had the privilege of going to a gaming event of another kind. A very old friend of mine who works in the video game industry ran a small gaming con out of his house. Unlike ManCabin, where boardgames are the flavor, this was a scheduled RPG con. It was neat to play table top RPGs with some big names from the video game industry, and gratifying that the designers of many of our favorite video games play table top RPGs as well. But the highlight of the weekend was spending time with old friends, some I had not seen in at least six years. So, what did we play?

Alpha Wolf Pack

Yes! I got to playtest our budding system twice over the weekend and got strong, positive results. There were plenty of compliments all around and lots of great constructive criticism. Probably the best thing that happened was that I started hearing the thing that I was hoping to hear. And that's that it AWP scratched a particular gaming itch. It's narrative and cinematic. But at the same time, it's tactical. It addresses both of these desires, as far as I can see.

I was excited about AWP before, but I'm mega-excited now. So, that's the big news out of the way.

Amber Diceless Roleplaying 

The first game that I got into was Amber. The Amber system has been around for a long, long time and is sort of famous for being diceless. In fact, that's all most people know about it. I'm not familiar with the Roger Zelazny books, but fortunately the game master and a fellow player brought me up to speed.

As inhabitants of Amber, your characters have god-like powers. For example, each character has the ability to reach through the multiverse and pull something from one of the infinite realities. Each of them has superhuman strength, speed, and skill as well. So, the setting ties into the system. If your fighting ability is such that most of the great warriors of history are just shadows to you, then there's no point in you rolling to hit something. You just do it. When up against people who also have god-like abilities, you simply compare ability scores to determine who wins. The trick is, you never know what abilities the other guy has. Also, to add some nuance to the game, when up against an equal opponent, there different "stances" you can take like all-out attack, all-out defense, feint, etc, which adjust your ability score up or down in comparison to your opponents. All-in-all, a fantastic time. I definitely want to do it again.

Fiasco

If you've followed the Minions of the Monster Master, you'll know that these guys are no strangers to Fiasco. I had the very distinct pleasure of playing Fiasco with Jason Morningstar, who wrote the game. We basically was the ref and aide for two different groups of us who were playing the game and would jump in from time to time as an NPC. I would highly recommend checking out one of the Minions actual play podcasts of the game, since its so easy to follow and is always highly entertaining.

The basic mechanic of Fiasco is the giving up of control. You can either stage a scene and have everyone else at the table resolve it for you, or have everyone stage a scene for you, and let you resolve it. What is best about Fiasco is that it's very non-geek friendly. You could easily play this with a bunch of non-geeks, family, or new initiates to role-playing.

Dread

If you are into indie games at all, you're probably familiar with this game. Dread is another diceless system that uses a Jenga tower as the mechanic. Each time you want to attempt something hard, instead of rolling, you pull from the Jenga tower. When the tower falls (and it will), your character is either dead or basically going to die very soon. If you knock over the tower of your own accord, you can at least determine the circumstances of your death, and you buy a free success.

The character creation for Dread is also top-notch. It consists of leading questions like, "Why are you afraid of water now?" "How did you recover from that terrible incident two years ago?" Stuff that makes you fill in interesting and engaging backstory.

All right folks, all for now. Next week, we talk about the Warmachines.

Infinity Drive Around the Block

"The mean streets of Milton Bradley." -mezzwargames

The other night we got in a trial-run of Infinity using the free quickstart rules. We had one goal and that was to get down the basics of the turn sequence, the mechanics, and the like. I haven't been the most prolific in posting, but as I may have said, there is growing interest here in Infinity. There were four players; myself and Ray both with painted starter sets, Andy who had figs just not completed, and Jeff, who I'm guessing will be picking some up soon. This was a trial run mind you, so it was kind of slow-going, and as you can see from the impromptu "poor man's urban terrain" it was kind of bare bones.


Look! Freshly painted figs, in action...in a new game! Very exciting! Yup, I'm excited if you couldn't tell. Apparently the starter box I have, the Combined Army, has about 75 more points worth of troops in it than the other boxes so a couple of my line troopers sat this one out.


We proxied a Pan-Oceana starter box as well as a duplicate Ariadna starter box and played two on two. Here you can see Andy's proxied Orc Troop get taken out by the enemy Ariadna troops using their effective AROs.

We're no strangers to Two-Hour Wargames around here, so the reactive type phase of the turn wasn't entirely new, but it was still refreshing to see it in action again in a skirmish game. It's basically overwatch, is your opponent moving across your line of sight? Well you can do something about it now, shoot them! There's a ton of actions you can do in addition to shooting however, and having all those options broadens the gameplay.


Camouflage plays a big role in the game. There are different levels of camo too, from basic fatigues to thermo optics and light bending materials. You move markers around until your model is 'discovered' by the enemy, then you put the fig on the table. Here you can see my Malignos skulking about, he just took a shot at a target, who survived, so he lost his camo for the turn. I like how the figs in the game don't just have combat stats and guns only, you have support equipment and skills that are useful for other things, like bypassing doors and what-not. My Malignos lurker here also has an automedkit as well as some other neat skills and equipment, all of which escape me as of this writing.


Another thing we discovered rather quickly is that the model that costs about four times as many points as any other given model on the table...well, he's pretty good in combat. My Charontid wasn't the fastest guy around but his combat stats and armor seem very high compared to everyone else. I only have the free rules, not the rulebook with all the fluff so I was a bit disappointed to find out that this model is more of a 'ghost in the shell' type character than just a buff alien in power armor. It's still a cool concept mind you, just one I hadn't considered. I am the kind of gamer that likes the fluff, them, story, what-not. It's not 100% for me, but it weighs heavier on the scale than mechanics and the like.

Showdown between the Charontid and an Ariadna Chasseur

Near the end of the test game we weren't playing exactly by the turn sequence but were putting models in situations to test the rules further. Sticking two guys in close combat to see how that pans out, moving a medic in contact with a fallen comrade to work through that, and so on.

I had boldly stated early on that I would learn the rules and handle the workload in that department to facilitate getting everyone on board. In full disclosure I have not, in fact, made a whole lot of progress on learning the rules, ahem. Needless to say, our first foray went over positively so expect to see more. I can't really give an impression of the rules just yet, other than it is more than just skirmish scale, I would call it hero scale, where every model on the table has as many stats and doohickeys as a light RPG character, and once the fast playing rules are learned you will be able to do all kinds of varied and cool games.

Looking at the rest of the way to three hundred points with the Combined Army, it looks like I'm just three models shy. From there, I don't know, I thought of amassing lots of CA models to have options and varieties but I'm second-guessing that now. Infinity is the kind of game where it is very feasible to have multiple 300pt armies without investing too much time or money either way. With all the gorgeous models, it's hard to resist. You can have your cake and eat it too, or in my case, have my aliens and ninjas too. Until next time, enjoy!

Boston Tea Party, 1942-Style

Date: July 4th, 1942
Location: Over El Alamein, Egypt
History: On a morning patrol over the battlefield with a force of twelve fighters (Macchi C.202s) Capitano Lucchnini intercepted a formation of twenty A-20 Boston Bombers escorted by a large number of P-40s and Spitfires; below them was a second formation made up of Hurribombers. Italian fighters pounced on the British planes, and our battle commenced.


Check Your Six! is fast becoming our historical minis "go-to" game, and I am absolutely fine with that. I gotta say, aside from the people you game with it's the stuff you game with that makes it enjoyable and I am lucky to play with the best CY6! stuff on the planet. From the handmade, ten-foot hex map to the excellently painted planes, to the adjustable height combat stands there's nothing about this game I don't like. The rules are solid, the games fun, the mechanics easy to learn, and an absolute horde of historically-based scenarios make every game unique and grounded in reality from the barnstorming biplanes of WWI to the jets of the 1980's.


Unlike the past handful of games, this time around I was saddled with a coupe of green pilots. No skilled pilots, no veterans, and certainly no aces, just me and a couple of rookie Spitfires. I was expecting much, but I did surprisingly well actually.


This is a tough scenario for the Italians to win. The British forces have a ton of heavy bombers flying by, plus a bunch of lighter bombers, then all of their fighter escorts. All my side had to do was get off the other end of the table, while avoiding getting shot down of course. My little greens got in there scoring a couple of hits and even taking down an enemy fighter. Of course this enemy fighter was Andy's plane, and I always like to point out when I shoot him down, it's becoming quite the Mik's Minis tradition!


Here's my wounded Spitfire shooting down Andy's plane


When the battle was done, and the smoke not yet clear, the British forces had pulled out a decisive victory. We weren't able to meet out secondary objectives, but we did pretty well. I like these scenarios since they're based on actual events, and in the case the real-world counterpart battles was a completely different affair with the Italian forces demolishing the Brits.

So there's another CY6! battle in the bag. That makes five total for the year, and I have feeling we've got at least that many more in store before 2012 is up. Until then, enjoy!

Top Cover near the Dutch Border

Date: March 6th, 1944, 1203 hours
Location: Near Haseluenne, Germany
History: As Hauptmann Rolf Hermichen led I/JG.11 to attack the main bomber stream, P-47's of the 78th Fighter Group moved to protect the bombers. Flying top cover for Stab./JG.11 and I/JG.11 was Günther Specht's II/JG.11 Heinz Knoke and his squadron were the first to dive down on the Americans in an effort to keep them away from the bombers.


I'm somewhat behind...on pretty much every thing in my hobby life it seems, and this Check Your Six! batrep is no exception. I think it's mandatory to state every time I do a CY6 writeup how great this game is and is perfect for long-term play, pick-up games, or anything in between. It's also, speaking strictly from my own non-historical gaming background, a nice entry to the world of minis and historicals. The scenarios in the rulebooks are drawn directly from real life air engagements, such as this one that found me playing a real life German fighter ace. But, as with all games of CY6, it gave me an opportunity to clip the wings of my fellow gaming buddies in a grievous, flurry of machine-gun fire and breakneck maneuvering.


I also need to state once again that I probably wouldn't even bother with CY6 if it weren't for all the homemade "extras" that make the game so enjoyable. Seen here is the homemade flight stand, with plane designator arrow, and the posts are removable by section so you can instantly see on a table full of fighter who is at what altitude. Also you can see the smoke marker, just a clever magnet design easily implemented but adds immensely to the overall atmosphere of the game. White smoke is airframe damage (I believe) and black smoke is engine damage.


When playing historical scenarios such as these it's always interesting to see how the game stacks up to what happened in reality. Fortunately the rules play fast enough where you can just switch sides once the battle is over and try it again from the other side of the table's perspective. In the actual battle the Germans only lost one plane to the Americans two. We already had those numbers by the end of turn two.

Check your six! An American P-47 can't seem to shake his "friend"...



Here's a shot of ace Knoke's Bf-109 squadron. It's when you're playing a squad like this on the table you're like, "Yup, I'm playing a wargame." I don't know the costs of getting into the game, spoiled by all of my friends' great stuff, but I can't imagine it being too terribly much. The stands are homemade and the planes are pretty small, so they should be cheap and easy to paint.

Overall the Germans won the day, just with more casualties inflicted on both sides of the ball. Playing an ace on the tabletop is a lot of fun and I keep getting lucky when we roll off for them too. You're able to out-maneuver pretty much at will, you get to go last in the turn which is a big deal, and your fighter skill is always going to give you a leg up in firefights. Having said that however, I've seen plenty of green pilots get in there and clean house too.

I've got another batrep I need to write up for CY6!, but Andy's has beat me to it here. I'll still get to it eventually because mainly seeing all of those bombers en masse on the table is just too of a sight on the tabletop to mothball.