The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Here are the two draft Valkrill armies Ishmel will probably be playing today:


(0) Gothlok
220 Death Chasers of Thesk x4
50 Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider
140 Racheim
180 Vulcanmech Incendiborgs
590, 21 hexes

(0) Gothlok
140 Azazel the Kyrie Warrior
180 Death Knights of Valkrill x3
130 Skull Demon x2
130 Emperor Andask
580, 12 hexes

[chas]

Two Rootin' Tootin,' Rip Snortin,' Nail Bitin,' Dust Ups of "Faction Flags!"

Kolakoski joined Ishmel and Myself at the last minute for two exciting 3 Player games today! Both guys agreed that the scenario worked really well, which was gratifying. Kolakoski is going to take his Utgar army back into the shop because he realized he misinterpreted a power on one of the cards. Ishmel, who is usually too busy to play much, got to try out both of his armies noted above. As for Chas, well, he won both games! That almost never happens (I bought myself a trophy the last time it did, when I won our mini-tournament here).

***

Photos were taken, and more narrative may follow.

So the scenario worked, as did the map, (the first time its been on the table since 2004) and all of the teams were fun to play. We also came up with about half a dozen clarifications on the scenario for corner cases, and these will be added to the scenario description upthread (Post #1329). You players who are coming on our redo game date of October 5--a week from tomorrow--might want to check it out! So far the core group of the four of us can make it.

[IshMEL]

Here are some pictures from today!


Vydar's army


Utgar's army


Valkrill's army


Death Chasers of Thesk charge en masse!


Gothlok charges against the Deathwalker 9000. If this had worked, the game would have gone very differently.


Gothlok has been captured by Utgar. Nerak (who has been drafted by Valkrill) and some Death Chasers are desperately trying to rescue him.


Racheim and the Incendiborgs have entered the chat.


At this point my only hope is to get to Ornak (who has been Captured, then Freed, and is back in his Start Zone) and somehow drag him back to my startzone while the others fight over Gothlok. Enter the dragon!


Racheim has captured Ornak, but the only way to stop Vydar from taking Gothlok is to engage with the Major. Reader, this did not go well.


I am down to one guy -- a lone Death Chaser. If he can manage to take out Laglor on his own, it will be an epic worthy of Valhalla!


He did not.

[IshMEL]

Just a couple of images from the second game. I changed my army but not my luck. Here's a Skull Demon and a Death Knight trying to climb up a hill to get to Ornak:


And here's Agent Carr and Torin fighting over Ornak:

[chas]

Proxies Used In Photos Above

Vydars Army (Chas): Mechwarrior Robot for Breach, Giant Worm for Shadow Binder, 4 various cowboys for two squads of 53rd North Carolina Sharpshooters.

Utgars Army (Kolakoski): Blastatrons for Zettian Infantry

Valkrill's Army (Ishmel): 3 (Flame Throwing) Mechwarrior robots for Vulcanmech Incindiborgs, 1 squad of Horned Skull Brutes for a 4th squad of Death Chasers of Thesk. (Ishmel was happy to use a number of characters he'd never used before!)

Note: Plastic "stones" were used to mark the second space clearly for two space figures if one space proxies were used for them.

[chas]

Since K. is changing his army up for the larger player game of the scenario next Wednesday, here is the draft army he used for this first game:

Kolakoski's First Draft Utgar Army

Ornak (Flagbearer) 0
Deathwalker 9000 140
Torin 120
Warden 816 90
Zettian Infantryx2 130
Blade Gruts x3 120

[chas]

Here is my army, which I don't plan on changing for Wednesday:

Vydar's Army (Chas):

Laglor (Flagbearer) 0
Breach 145
Krav Maga Agents 100
Agent Carr 100
Major X17 100
53rd NC
Sharpshooters x2 110
Shadow Binder 25
Otonashi 10

Total 590

***

I've had some input into the design of about 3 C3V Custom cards indirectly. The 53rd North Carolina Sharpshooters were born when I said to Sherman Davies, who was on the Committee, that he could vary a Civil War unit by making them a special type such as Sharpshooters, rather than just regular infantry, like the Union card they did (20th Maine Volunteers). He took the idea and ran with it. I recall that he used them to devastating effect when he first put them on our table, even though they are a two man Common squad, which I'm usually not crazy about!

I can't say anything yet about how I used this army, since it might tip off folks for the Wednesday game, so I'll save my commentary for after that. But hey, combined with my play style, which always includes mid game diplomacy in any game with more than 2 Players (even in Heroscape, believe it or not), they won both games.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Originally used Zettian Infantry incorrectly on Tuesday (as though they could be sacrificed for any kinds of wounds, as opposed to "from a special power that is not an attack." Swapped them out from Tuesday's army for the Deathcommander and Viceron, respectively, in the armies for next Wednesday, below. Also took out three squads of Blade Gruts (too vulnerable in my hands in both games Tuesday) replacing them with Brunak/Isamu, and Brunak/ten points (towards swapping out DW9000 for Mimring), respectively, in the armies for next Wednesday, below. Thus, next Wednesday's armies are as follows:

Free For All

Free Ornak
140 DW9000
130 Deathcommander Mark III
120 Torin
110 Brunak
90 Warden 816
10 Isamu
600, 8 spaces

Sure to play with Deathcommander's HEAVY SUPPORT COMMAND BEACON and MARKED FOR DESTRUCTION Special Powers, which I have heretofore ignored.

Team

Free Ornak
150 Cyprien
130 Viceron the Blood Knight
120 Torin
110 Brunak
90 Warden 816
600, 7 spaces

Thought I'd give Torin an additional combatant to protect in Viceron. DW9000 not as cool without Deathcommander, so Isamu not needed as filler. Originally going with Mimring, but Cyprien can also be covered by Torin and better for the scenario.

[chas]

Time to rebuild tomorrow's board. Then I'll rebuild Kolokoski's armies for him. Exciting!

We should have five, possibly six players, so I'll have to use a different start zone positioning than I did for our 3 Player games.


***

Meanwhile, our new Haslab Age of Annihilation offering is up to 1,462 of the 8,000 we need to fund it. Don't forget to check it out while there is still time before November 15!

[chas]

Talked to Taeblewalker, and suggested he bring both his Einar and Ullar armies, even is his guest doesn't show up, and play both himself in different games. That way all of the Generals will have been in the scenario, at one session or another!

[chas]

Its Game Day!

I'm stoked! I even got some sleep last night. This morning I did a requested wake up call, an email to all, and finished vacuuming the place. We're expecting 5-6 Players instead of the usual 4. I've set up the start zones, and we'll randomly roll to place on them.

***

Age of Annihilation Update: We're 20% funded, which is successful so far for Haslab, which differs in backing patterns from other crowdfunders. They're just opening portals to nonUS territories too, which will help.

[chas]

Taeblewalker and his pal were not able to make it. So we played two 4 Player games, one Free For All and one Team. Once again, everyone really enjoyed the scenario, because it allows for so many different strategies and outcomes. Sherman Davies won the first game, and he teamed with Chas won the second.

Magic Gamma got to meet two more of our core group. We all enjoyed Scaping together, and he'll probably be at our November game as well, when Taeblewalker will be the GM and present a custom scenario. TW may be able to bring his friend then. And it turns out MG has a pal he's just taught the game, who lives only 15 minutes from here, so he may be dropping by as well. The two of them run demo Scape games at a board game cafe in Manhattan.

Will we finally get to enlarge our group? That's never happened before in 14 years, and its an exciting possibility!

More later. Some photos were taken as well.

***

I have seen the light! I have taken the Age of Annihilation Pledge. If it funds, we will have it to play with next year. Hallelujah! Amen.

Dibs on the Clockwork Faction. Gotta play that Blimp!