[chas]

The Chas Armies:

Well, what the two armies have in common is that almost everyone can Fly! I figures this would be a good anti-Zombie power, having considered also a samurai army. But that would have not allowed me to field new customs I hadn't played before.

Game 1: Charley's Eagles

Atlaga The Kyrie Warrior 90
Protectors of Ullar x2 220
Clawfoot Interceptors x3 150
Beakface Sneaks x3 90
Total: 550 Points, 16 Figures

My "experimental" force was up first, as I'd never used the Clawfoots or the Sneaky Beakies. First of all I noticed for the first time that the Claws were Uncommon rather than Unique heroes, and took Kelda out of the mix to put in three of them. They proved to be great. Since they can each carry one SB each, (or another of themselves, or any small figure) I tried to use that synergy. The SB's are the only other "medium Raptorians" in Heroscape, so that intent was obvious. Normally I don't care for two figures squads, and their powers seemed pretty weak, but they did have a 3 attack.

But the SB's were a disappointment, as they were not that useful. With the Claws needing an order marker each, and the SB's needing one to activate Flocking, there is your entire turn used up.

At the end of the game, when it became clear I was trailing way behind, I did use the last pair of them, being all I had left, to mop up Ishmel's small figures just for the heck of it. And they took out a Zombie on the battle front, and then Isamu, and Bol back in Ishmel's start zone! Which didn't affect the game outcome, but was fun to do. What was their designer thinking? Oh well, I'll try anything once. Maybe I'm missing something about them.

There are a few newer C3Vs I may not get around to using also, but now I've hit almost all of the "official customs," after Ishmel printed out all of their cards for me and I've played the last few game to try more of them out. Ish also brought us a few figures he didn't need, so I now have The Varja, after finally using him twice in recent games.

Game 2: Jandar's Flying Circus

Raelin II 120
Concan 80
Sentinels of Jandar x2 220
Cal The Smuggler 60
Total: 560 Points, 12 Figures

Cal the Smuggler was the only newbie here for me. When I researched his Book and found that going off the board on his random roll did not kill him, my resistance changed to interest. He proved to be great, partially because during the whole game I rolled nothing but the high 11-20s that allowed me to place him as I liked. I was able to use him in two ways. By the way, my proxy for him was my custom figure for the old pulp hero The Shadow, so he looked suitably mysterious on the board.

1. I sent him on Turn Two (of Ten) on a height into Ishmel's start zone, which acted as a great diversion as several figures went after him, damaging but not killing him. Rather than put order markers on him, I moved up a squad of the slow moving Sentinels. For almost the first time I can remember, I started a battle in another player's start zone. Since it was also soon swarming with the neutral zombies, it disrupted my opponent's game quite a bit early on!

2. I teleported him to a height on the other front against Sherman Davies, to fire at Emperor Andrask. Although I didn't win the second game either (but came pretty close), I did have the satisfaction, as SD had brought only 1 army and was now using the first one brought by Ish, of taking out my primary targets of this army twice, which were both the Azazel the Kyrie Warrior and Emperor Andrask (although the former came back quickly during Game 1). Rejected By Death is pretty frustrating when that happens--I'm not even crazy when Thanos uses it in Marvelscape, although its certainly thematic.

***

So Shermy won the first game, and Ishmel the second, but I had lots of fun losing! In the second game I took out three of Ish's Tarn Vikings, but the fourth refused to die the entire game, and as we were using full card scoring, I couldn't get those points for the card.

A notable feature was my "I never lie" game play. At one point in the second game, having rejiggered a Start Zone into an advantage for Sherman, I promised to give my current ally Ish "free passage from my archers across the center of the board" so he could get to Sherman. But then I realized my mistake when we counted up remaining points toward the end; I couldn't win that way. Although Ishmel immediately released me from my diplomatic and always kept through many years board game promise of never lying, I refused to void it until he actually attacked me. I do of course sometimes get sneaky with it and do something as a "loophole" that I didn't promise that goes against the sense of the promise when I play games ("Every game with more than two players is a diplomacy game," says I). But this was the most extreme case of loopholing I every played in my very long gaming career!!!

So eventually I sent Concan across the board out of the low central area (dungeon hexes) to attack and take out Ishmel's (one of my own favorites) who was now on the far side past the center on Shermy's territory! Another technical loophole was to use the neutral Zombies when I temporarily commanded them to attack Ish's Anna Karithon, as technically they were not part of my army! I should have been a lawyer. In many a board game over the many years I have always kept that standard. So I love playing the Vulcans in Star Trek Ascendancy, as they can't lie!

Ishmel took some great photos as usual, so expect to see them soon below. He's moving, so it may take a few days. Kolokoski will be back in July. Sherman Davies is up next as Game Master. He'll make up a scenario and choose a map, and I'll coordinate a date.