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Email Scape

Posted October 9th, 2020 at 02:33 PM by Sylvano the Wasabus
I just finished my first Scape game by Email. I lost, of course.

I know there’s some great software for playing Scape, but if you recall, my Scape game is different. Also I am working four jobs just now. The pandemic has idled some people. For some reason, I’m much busier.

My eldest son came down to visit this summer and we played every single day. He was kind and generous because he’s a much better player than I am. He said it was fun just to play again. He suggested a point system that gradually increased. We started with 800 vs 800 points. We decided to play a game with objectives. Our game- nicknamed SylvanoScape- is more of an army game than a squad game. On your turn you use your entire force. There is a lot of shuffling for position and trying to trick the opponent before the fighting gets heavy.

We decided to play an objective game we call scouting. You simply must travel over five preselected hexes to win the game. Usually the selected hexes are in the corners and one in the center.

Unsurprisingly I lost that 800 vs 800 game. You can win either by eliminating the enemy units or achieving the objective. My son actually took a mounted orc army- we have Isengarde Wolves for the orcs to ride, if they wish. My army of samurai fought hard but the orcs greater reach and disengage won the day.

The next game was now 900 vs 800. The loser gets 100 additional points. Finally a game where I get rewarded! Actually it’s smart. Unbalanced games can be really fun and if one player is better than the other- as in my case- this helps to even it out. I chose the lizard faction this time. They have some sturdy units and some are mounted on dinosaurs, like cavalry. My son chose Romans and their shield wall held admirably. It was a close game and he barely won by achieving the objectives before I could crush him completely.

So now I was up to 1000 points versus his 800. He chose the Murkwood elves. I really hate elves. They are nasty untrustworthy creatures and I’ve never made a secret of my distaste for them. My daughter originally worked on the Murkwood drawer. For some reason she’s always been found of elves. She was dropped and hit her head as a child- perhaps that’s the root of her elf loving. I took our Jandar faction which is mostly knights, archers and the 4th Mass.

The elves move well- they have great reach and I knew he was going to try and dance around me and scout the hexes while avoiding a battle. I adopted a classic guard, covering a corner and the center. He easily scouted the other spots but he had to fight me for the last two and the elves just weren’t up to it. I relished that victory. Down with elves!

We played everyday after that, him winning two thirds of the time. When he left we talked about the idea of playing by email.

There were a few problems to work out and our long distance game started off clunky. Actually doing it is the best play test though, right? We quickly redesigned our hex map. We’re both playing on pieces of paper with pushpins representing figures. He doesn’t have any minis at his home.

We decided on the objective game we call Messenger. Simply, any one of your units must cross the entire board and step off, as if they were delivering a message. We chose goblins and Templars because they are simple drawers with lots of different units to choose from.

The goblins are cheap and fast. He had 20 figures to my 14, though he did have a troll. We had 400 points each. I had one Templar knight and a pair of squires (they can take the knight’s place but with less health, if the knight falls. Our common knights have 2 lives). My son had three goblin wolf riders poised to dash for the win.

I took too many archers probably. I imagined the weaker goblins would be easy to shoot on the run. But he took tougher goblin swordsmen and engaged my archers. My knight should have run for the other end of the board but instead he galloping charged and my son engaged him heavily with rancid goblins.

His light spearmen and wolf riders ran past the ranks of Templar brothers and sergeants on the other side of the board and the wolves ran to deliver the message. I tried to disengage my knight but the dice were against me and the knight fell to LEAs.

The game took perhaps three weeks as I am very busy right now. We email each other the coordinates of each figure and roll defense dice for the other person. It sounds clunky, but it’s actually rather fast and fun. Even if you lose.

We’ve started another, and I have fifty more points than he does this time. The push pins aren’t as fun as minis, so more of it takes place in your head. It is fun to play with him though, just like the old days when we were both younger. He’ll likely win again but it doesn’t matter. Playing with good people has always been the best part of our game!
Total Comments 2

Comments

Old
flameslayer93's Avatar
Sounds like a fun way to handle long distance scape. I;m glad you two are getting to play again!
Posted October 10th, 2020 at 10:12 AM by flameslayer93 flameslayer93 is offline
Old
Tornado's Avatar
Very cool.
Posted October 15th, 2020 at 03:10 PM by Tornado Tornado is offline
 
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