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  #529  
Old July 27th, 2017, 03:38 PM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

SCAPE OF THE RINGS: MOUNT DOOM
TWO LIVE GAMES!


There are few feelings to compare to the satisfaction of having your scenario and custom map work out the way they are conceived as doing! We played two great games yesterday. And that's with Taeblewalker unable to make it, and one of us running both of a side's two armies. Both games were exciting and very different from the two play tests noted above that I ran during the two days before the real thing. Thanks to Sherman Davies and Kolakoski for a particularly fun day of Scaping. I'd conceived of this scenario over two years ago when helping Sherm playtest his well know LOTR custom cards, and its been a long time gestating in thought and desire.

GAME ONE

Lasting into Round 11, much longer than either playtest game, this was a real slugfest that saw fighting in several parts of the map not used during the previous games. Both evil armies went across on to the side of the central mountain at the army with the Hobbits, and I shifted my entire force over to help out. Then Evil broke through, especially with Orcs, right into the Good start zone with the Hobbits, and they were menaced for the entire second third of the game. We killed off most of their big monsters and then defeated a number of the Orcs. Then on they came yet again, and the battle shifted up to the top of Mount Doom itself, where almost all of the action had taken place during the first two playtest games.

Round after round saw Kolakoski's evil pieces plunging into our backfield, and eventually taking out three of the four Hobbits! Finally Pippin managed to throw The One Ring into the volcano, with almost no other characters left on the board.

Referencing the four Army lists above, the only people surviving until the end of the game were:

Good: Aragorn, Legolas (3 of 4 wounds), 3 Lothlorian Archers, Pippin, and Boromir.

Evil: No one at all in the Taeblewalker designed army survived. In Kolokoaski's army were only Siiv and 1 Horned Skull Brute.

Whew! A real grinder that saw either side forge ahead at different times, as the advantage and seeming destiny swayed back and forth. K. did a great job running both Evil armies, and of course therefore had to work harder, but had perfect coordination between them.

GAME TWO

Not having seen the map before game day, K. wanted to play Evil once more. But he thought he own army was too slow, and rebuilt his own force during our dinner break:

Mimring 150
Rachiem 140
Morgoloth 140
Wolves of Badru x4 320
Total: 750

This game went until Round 8. Happily we used almost the entire board, including places not used earlier! The Lothlorian Archers (a Sherm custom card like those of the 9 Fellowship members) also had a much bigger part to play. As the Evils we had terrible die luck and sudden setbacks. The battle never even got up to the top half of Mt. Doom. Sherm, doing an excellent job with the two Good armies, swept around behind the mountain, cleaning our clock so badly that K. was ready to concede after Turn 6! But I persuaded him to let me go ahead and use a maneuver that I'd spent quite a while setting up. What did we have to lose?

We had very little left on the board now. Running the Taeblewalker army, I had held Othkurik The Black Dragon in reserve, hidden in the jungle bushes around the swamp island among the swamp water. Now I sent him forward, leapfrogging over shadow spaces after taking out an Orc or two. Using Lurking Ambush, he rolled 7 dice and put 3 of 4 hits on Gimli, who had done lots of damage to me with his Throwing Axe attacks.

Then I soared the dragon into the air, taking 3 Leaving Engagements, a maneuver almost unheard of in our group! But Othkurik took only one wound from them, his first, to land in the Good Start Zone near the Hobbits. I put 2 wounds on Sam (of 3) and 1 (of 4) on Frodo with Acid Spray Special Attack. Then Gimli chased after me but did no damage. With another Acid Spray I took out all three adjacent wounded targets of Gimli, Sam, and Frodo. Although the other two Hobbits were on the board, they were more than 3 spaces from Frodo. And so, against all odds, we won the game. In the four games, this was Evil's only victory.

Where the Good Guys had previously won three games in difficult and close situations, now Evil triumphed in the same way. It was an exciting and unexpected victory, which surprised us all (especially me). So although Taeblewalker was unable to make the long trip from upstate NY, it was a card he chose for his army that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Thanks, TW!

This map and scenario worked so well that I may actually build and play it again some time. So I hope K.'s photos come out, to help me redo this freebuilt battlefield, and so you can see it here soon, along with some of the exciting action that took place from turn to turn.

Last edited by chas; July 28th, 2017 at 04:52 PM.
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  #530  
Old July 28th, 2017, 04:58 PM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four


Well met!

Pics in Gallery for
SCAPE OF THE RINGS: MOUNT DOOM (chas' LotR). A few examples:















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  #531  
Old July 29th, 2017, 12:42 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

MAP AND SCENARIO COMMENTARY

This is an alternate Tolkein scene near and atop the slopes of Mt. Doom. Two armies are coming from split start zones at the corners on each long side. The Hobbits are accompanied by the other Fellowship members and some army units of the Free Peoples (men and elves). The forces of Sauron are gathered in two task groups to find and slay the hobbits. As in the actual book, where the Army of the West draws up elsewhere in a hopeless battle distract Sauron from the separate journey of Frodo and Sam, the Good military characters must insert themselves in front of the halflings and protect them as they travel to the mountain top and throw The One Ring into the Molten Lava inside the peak of Lava Field hexes. But should they become ground down, the weak hobbits will become defenseless! As the Hobbits must spend the time between two rounds on the LF, note that they must take one LF roll before the final turn.

The map showcases many custom 24 sand hexers, represented the blasted, arid land. The swampy islands are meant to represent the passage of northern Mordor, where the glowing corpses of long dead warriors from a battle of a bygone age sleep beneath the waters.

Mount Doom itself is not visually impressive vertically, being only five levels high. However, the numerous rock outcroppings make negotiating it a dangerous adventure when opposed. The narrow passages between them can be easily and fatally blocked off by Evil, or held by a Hero such as Boromir or Aragorn.

Sherman Davis reports that Frodo was the one custom used in the scene that had not been completely play tested. It ran just fine in these games. The power of the ring gave protection if used, but also forces a D20, becoming progressively more dangerous. A failed roll killed the Ringbearer and gave a +1 to all attacks by an entire Evil army! So another interesting decision was when and whether to put on the ring.

In the event, the Hobbits never used the ring. My gloss on this rule was to allow the Ring to transfer from a Ringbearer to another hobbit within 3 hexes upon the death of the original or a priorRingbearer. This meant that a back up ringbearer needed to be brought up with Frodo, so the game would not end too quickly with the defeat of any one Hobbit. Of course, while Sam could move one extra hobbit by his bonding power, it still often took lots of order markers to move more than one hobbit at a time. This supplemental rule also worked quite well.

I had just purchased from Ishmel, a neighboring Scaper, a set of Fellowship figures that are different from the ones shown on Sherman's cards. If you look closely in the photos for example you can see two different Aragorns from different games, as Sherm used his own figures for his own armies and I used my own, made by another company. In the third photo from the top you can see mine behind my Gandalf. He is raising his sword in one hand (the other carries a torch). In the fourth photo, Sherm's Aragorn is holding his sword in both hands while facing Mimring.

Last edited by chas; July 29th, 2017 at 01:03 AM.
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  #532  
Old August 9th, 2017, 07:51 PM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

Hey guys. I've decided on my scenario. It will be a 600 point kill'em all. All of your units must be from the same world, so it's a War of the Worlds scenario like they have at GenCon.

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  #533  
Old August 10th, 2017, 08:16 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

Great idea! Its yet another Scape variant we've never tried in all of our 9 years together! The system certainly supports many interesting things. Is there a list of characters by planet around here somewhere?

This game will be played here on Wednesday August 16. Time to get my planet on--but which one?
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  #534  
Old August 10th, 2017, 09:48 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

Quote:
Originally Posted by chas View Post
Great idea! Its yet another Scape variant we've never tried in all of our 9 years together! The system certainly supports many interesting things. Is there a list of characters by planet around here somewhere?

This game will be played here on Wednesday August 16. Time to get my planet on--but which one?
Scroll to the second post of the BOOKS and you'll find the filter by planet.
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  #535  
Old August 10th, 2017, 10:11 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four


Well met!

Need a map, or at least an idea what terrain will be like . . .

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  #536  
Old August 10th, 2017, 10:29 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

Got it, thanks! I see that there are only 10 planets, but really 9, since Isadore has only one unit:

Alpha Prime: Soulborgs
Earth: Historicial Humans
Eberron: Wrymlings, Warforged, Giants, Magicians, Msc.
Feylund: Elves, Dwarves, Wolves, Vampires, Msc.
Grut: Orcs
Icaria: Dragons
Isadora: Warden 816
Marr: Marro, Vipers, Msc.
Toril: D&D
Valhalla: Kyrie, Msc.


Comments:

1. Since Warden 816 is a Soulborg, I'd suggest he be counted as Alpha Prime.

Last edited by chas; August 10th, 2017 at 10:44 AM.
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  #537  
Old August 10th, 2017, 10:46 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

Quote:
Originally Posted by chas View Post
Got it, thanks! I see that there are only 10 planets, but really 9, since Isadore has only one unit:

Alpha Prime: Soulborgs
Earth: Historicial Humans
Eberron: Wrymlings, Warforged, Giants, Magicians, Msc.
Feylund: Elves, Dwarves, Wolves, Vampires, Msc.
Grut: Orcs
Icaria: Dragons
Isadora: Warden 816
Marr: Marro, Vipers, Msc.
Toril: D&D
Valhalla: Kyrie, Msc.


Comments:

1. Since Warden 816 is a Soulborg, I'd suggest he be counted as Alpha Prime.
I forgot to mention that Isadora and Alpha Prime are considered one planet.

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  #538  
Old August 11th, 2017, 11:45 AM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

TW,

Are there any Start Zone/space limits on armies?

This might give me a chance to do something I rarely do--combing Good Guys with Evils (Utgar/Valkril)!

Possible Exception #2:

Kurrock, who is from Eberron, should be from Torril, as are all four of the Elementals he can command. Yes?
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  #539  
Old August 11th, 2017, 01:03 PM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four


Well met!

Apparently, I'll have to bring a few armies, and decide which to play after I see the map (and any Start Zone limitations) . . .

On another note, just posted on

Board Games On Chinese Subjects:

Fie on politics, economics, and culture; I just want to fight!

Just purchased (online - will have by 8/21, if not sooner) another game by a Japanese designer, abstract, but apparently about kung fu, called
Onitama, and its expansion, Onitama: Sensei's Path.












I don't expect to have it by our next game day (8/16), but it is possible. In any event, it will go to Jamaica with me.

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  #540  
Old August 11th, 2017, 01:55 PM
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Re: The New York City Gang Of Four

A minor inconvenience with this scenario, which came up in a phone conversation with TW, is that for C3V cards, I only print out the regular card side. And what is the only piece of info that appears on the basic side and not the regular side? Planet of Origin! Planet is also not noted directly on the first page of the Books of... So you have to set it up to print so you can look at "page 2."
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