nyys' Battle Reports **new report 9/22/23**

[nyys]

Originally Posted by dok

I've been thinking how cool it would be to use Jotun's throw to throw one of your own figures up onto the wall. If the wall is high enough, you don't roll for damage.

Yep, that's something I contemplated doing, but it was much more fun to throw a figure out of the castle.

[killercactus]

There's also the always-epic chucking of a hero into molten lava. Freaking awesome to throw Kaemon Awa into a lava pool.

[nyys]

Originally Posted by killercactus

There's also the always-epic chucking of a hero into molten lava. Freaking awesome to throw Kaemon Awa into a lava pool.

LOL! I certainly would have tried it if there was lava on the map.

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by nyys

LOL! I certainly would have tried it if there was lava on the map.

I had Marcu yesterday and rolled an 18 for Eternal Hatred. My wife flew him into lava.

Awesome.

[nyys]

I play a lot of games with my six year old son. I've found that HeroScape has done wonders in improving his math skills, and is great exposure to more complicated concepts that he won't encouter at school for several more years to come.

For instance, several months ago he was introduced to Ne-Gok-Sa and of course I told him about his mindshackle ability. He thought it was an awsome ability, and was constantly laying claim to the big Marro in order to take control of my unique figures. Didn't take too long for him to grasp the concept of 'long odds.' Rolling a 20 didn't seem like a big deal at first to him, but when roll after roll failed to work, he quickly learned that though it's a really cool power, it doesn't work all that often, and soon NGS was sent back to the figure bin.

Fast forward to last Saturday:

This past weekend we played a couple of games, and to say the least, it was a very bad example of learning that the long shot rarely happens.

My son was playing Braxas (his favorite of late), Drones and Armocs. I went for all Shades and NGS. He'd never seen the Shades played before so I explaind their NGS-like power of Soul Devour. He wasn't impressed, it being like NGS which NEVER works.

So the first couple turns of our game go by and I finally have a Shade that can roll for Soul Devour (on Braxas).... NINETEEN! Holy crap, it worked. My son starts to freak (hates to lose, funny how our kids somehow are able to perfectly mimic our behavior when we were kids), and of course doen't want to give up his Dragon.

So I relent, and say fine, we'll pretend that didn't happen. So another turn or two goes by, and I get to use Soul Devour again (on Braxas)... TWENTY! What!!! Twice in the same game? This is nuts. This time I say, sorry kid, gotta give him up. So now he wants to quit. Normally I don't tolerate this behavior at all, trying to teach him the concept of being a good sport (tough to do with a six year old though). So again, I relent, but we agree that Braxas will take five wounds instead.

The game moves along some more, and my Shades are all dead at this point. Time to bring out NGS, my last figure. Braxas swoops in, and NGS survives the assault, time for him to attack. I roll for Mindshackle... TWENTY!!!!! This is ridiculous! So I make the little guy give me Braxas this time, the HS Gods have spoken (at this point she only had one wound left, so it wasn't all that big a deal).

I turn Braxas around and start anihillating his army, but it's too little too late, as she goes down in flames and then NGS falls to a six Drone assault. The kiddo wins, and everyone is happy.

Needless to say this was a very bad game as far as teaching the odds goes. The Shades suddenly have piqued my son's interest... I wonder why?

[DrLivingston]

That was pretty funny, nyys.

When I first saw NeGokSa mindshackle someone, much like your son I was impressed, and NeGokSa became my favorite figure for a while as well.

And like your son I realized that that 20 only seems to show up if my opponent is the one using NeGokSa...

I also use Heroscape to (try) teach good sportsmanship as well.

I recently beat my 4 year old twice on two separate occasions. An amazing feat by me as my son almost always wins. The first time was a little rough--wasn't too interested in shaking hands.

The second time he shook my hand and said, "It's okay that you won , Daddy. Good game."

That was nice.

[ABOMINATION]

You should take that army to a tourney.

[nyys]

Originally Posted by DrLivingston

The second time he shook my hand and said, "It's okay that you won , Daddy. Good game."

I find that the poor sportsmanship tends to come out when he's lost a few games in a row. Lately it seems my dice can do no wrong and I can only play so poorly (or use figures that aren't all that great). If he's won 2-3 times in a row (regardless of the game we're playing), when he does finally lose again, its not all that big a deal for him. I suppose it's not that he has to be happy about it, but needs to mask the emotions a bit.

The incentive lately has been that I'm close to letting him play in an upcoming game day, which he's very excited about, but it'll be a no go if he can't reel it in a bit. That seems to work... guess we'll see.

Originally Posted by ABOMINATION

You should take that army to a tourney.

It would take a set to do that, that's for sure.


-----
There was a rematch again the next day that I'll type up when I have a minute. To say the least the entire weekend was a bad case for teaching long odds.

[ABOMINATION]

Not to change the subject, but I once played with a friend and his dad on a game of Risk. No matter what, my friend would always roll lucky numbers on defense and attack. For instance, I had 9 men on Siam, and he had 4 on China. He attacked, and didn't lose one...single....piece. We started to call him 'Casino Boy' because if he ever went to a casino when he was older, he'd come out with a bundle of cash since he's so lucky.

[Shades fan]

I look forward to a BatB II Report!!!

[nyys]

So I wrote this post a little over a month ago talking about how my Son got a bad lesson in percentages with the D20... fast forward to last night.

The little guy took his beloved Braxas along with Tor-Kul-Na, a set of Grubbies, and two squads of Rats against my Jotun, Sujoah and three squads of spiders.

After two turns I get Sujoah adjacent to Braxas for an attempt at poison sting. I inflict the minimum one wound and start rolling the D20 (8+ needed to inflict a wound to keep rolling, 20 destroys figure), 11, 11, 14, 20... Braxas Dead.

Why can't this type of thing happen for me at a tourney, but instead it obilterates half my Son's army in one shot?

I think I'm going to have to impose a D20 ban on myself.

[nyys]

Played a game of Grut Fight with my son the other night on Lykton Dune.



nyys
Blade Gruts x4
Tornak
Grimnak
Runa (yes Runa, for you killercactus)
500

little nyys
Arrow Gruts x4
Swog x3
Braxas
Me-Burq-Sa
495


The Arrow Gruts move immediately for height to pick off one of their bretheren on the Initiative glyph.



Meanwhile on the Dune Me-Burq-Sa charges valiantly into Tornak and his toadies.



The Swog creeps through the underbush on it's way to reinforced the Arrow Gruts.


A single Blade Grut shouts the common war cry before he turns his brother into chunks.



The mighty Braxas moves in and wreaks havoc.


Me-Burq-Sa falls to the Blade Grut onslaught.



As does the Swog.



Runa is called in and activates her Helm of Mintosoul.



Braxas meets the foe head to head.



20! 20! Runa is dead!



Seeing their queen fall the Gruts go berzerk and take the dragon down.



The rallying cry is sound.



Another Swog falls.



The battle is finished, only a sole Arrow Grut remains for little nyys, taken prisoner, never to be heard from again.