The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Age of Annihilation Proxy Play


Here are a couple of posts I sent to Tablewalker and to the guys about using Anitar's new AOA cards in the future:

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Guys,

Everyone except Taeblewalker and I have now cancelled out for his Superhero game on Dec. 7. So I'm giving him the option of various things for that date.

One of our options would be to play the new Age of Annihilation characters, since Anitar on the site has now provided cards for all the revealed characters, and even her own drafts for most of the unrevealed ones. This is something I'd be interested in doing eventually anyhow, perhaps for my next game.

So here are my thoughts on doing that so far, for everyone to think about. Whether TW and I actually try it out next week will depend on Taeblewalker, and on what Anitar has to say in response to my post to her today about whether the revealed cards are basically ready to go!

***

TW,

And here's another thing we could do with just us next week on Dec. 7:

4. Anitar has posted up out those lovely Classic style cards for all of the AOA revealed cards, and even now her own drafts for the much fewer unrevealed ones. This would give us every character to play in the offering except for the 7 AOA Kyries and the 5 SOTM heroes 2.0 and 3.0. The revealed cards are ready to proxy; the few unrevealed ones are in draft form, but quite usable. (Edit): She has now also done cards for the new AOA Glyphs. The three of the Xenethrax Vines are particularly necessary, even though we don't usually play with glyphs here, because they can be laid down by a power of that new dragon character!

We could even try:

1) that first AOA scenario they published (its probably still on the DO NOT POST Thread) where we partially take turns adding a few board small features just before the game starts,

2) the rules for the "illusory walls" (they block LOS but don't impede movement) using our old castle walls, and

3) the new Vine Glyph(s) one Dryan character puts down as part of his powers. I'm not sure if all of the new AOA glyphs (some of which are repeats of old ones) are up, but I know the vine one is.

So I've just asked Anitar if she is planning to make any further changes on the cards soon, or even do the Kyries/SOTMs also. After we get an answer, I could go ahead and print them out, and we could proxy them on the table next week. Since there are five new AOA factions, we could each take one for two or three games and try them out, simply by trying out one faction each per game!

I'd be happy to do that, although I'll have to spend a lot of printing ink and find a lot of proxies! (I wanted to do it anyway). What do you think?

Chas

[chas]

New Plans For Next Week

Everyone except Taeblewalker and Me have had to cancel for TW's Wednesday Superscape game. This has less to do with the holidays coming up than particularities in individual availability in general! So TW and I have decided to postpone his game until January, when more players will be available for it.

Instead, he and I will be getting together on Friday Dec. 9 for our first Age of Annihilation Proxy Play! I've put together a project folder with everything we'll need to do it, except for the cards by Anitar I'll be printing out soon, and the proxies themselves, which I'll have to find among what I have here for now.

If you want to further follow my steps in preparing for this, you can look here:

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...84#post2549584

and elsewhere in the new Age of Annihilation section of the site, which is now right under the first one for Official Play on the Forums menu.

[chas]

AOA Cards Ready To Cut Out and Sleeve

I'm happy to report that I've been able to print out all 39 of Anitar's AOA Cards, both Revealed (on the Haslab Card Compendium) and Unrevealed (her customs). I look forward to Anitar's take on the 5 SOTM Heroes when she gets around to them. I also have her even newer Glyph Cards.

All I have to do now if designate a ton of proxies! I expect to be filling in with what I have here for now, including Scape, Heroclix Supers, and Star Wars minis, all of which I have in large selection, along with miscellaneous other figures!

[chas]

My 5 AOA SOTM Hero Customs Up:

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...ad.php?t=61628

I went ahead and posted these untested customs up. They were fun to design, and stand ready to take their place on battlefields of Scape! They are the unrevealed figures which were to be the Stretch Goals of the Age of Annihilation Haslab Offering. I built on the older figures based on the minis and other hints mentioned on the offerings page and the site here.

[chas]

AOA PROXY PLAY PROJECT PROGRESS


Here's the private post I sent to the gang for everyone to see how the Proxy Project is going here! If you are visiting/lurking, feel free to check out all the new cards. I'd be happy to get more comments on the 5 custom ones on their own thread, and I'm sure Anitar would too on her own 7 Unrevealed ones. You can look up my Air Marshal Zed Nesbitt too, posted by itself, as its the only Unrevealed Custom I made up.

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent (as they used to say on the old Dragnet TV show) by replacing their real names with site handles:

***


Taeblewalker,

The Project is almost finished already, which surprises me!

Are you going to look over my Zed Nesbitt custom for language, as we discussed? I've had two people give comments on my brand new SOTM Hero cards so far, and have already made initial changes for them. (I forgot how "legalistic" people can be about writing the cards, but I'll survive). I was planning to use the Anitar version of the new Clockwork faction airship; but we could try mine out too.

If you are interested, take a look at these 7 even newer cards just posted yesterday. After all, we can play them also on Friday if we wish--the new Drake, Sonlen, Q11, Shiori, and Evil Raelin characters that were to have been the Stretch Goals for the AOA offering. Anitar seems to be working on her own versions as well, but hasn't posted them up yet.

Its too bad we have no information to go on for the 7 new Kyries; Anitar sees no point in making them, and I don't either, with nothing but sketches to go on (Sigh). Maybe Hasbro will allow them to be released some day, if they've even been written up!

By the way, we'll be playing on the First Scenario Battlefield we have for the AOA first scenario, where the two players add pairs of small terrain pieces atop a flat plain of 24 hexers before the game starts. And we'll be using the new Glyphs, especially the three Xenithrax Vine ones that are part of the Dragon's normal powers and laid down by her during a game--like how that official Vydar hero lays down a few Shadow hexes.

I have cards for the glyphs, but need to make up fake Glyph pieces out of cardboard, as my final task after cutting out and sleeving the 39 Official and Anitar AOA cards. So we can vary the games we play greatly, even if we don't introduce any Classic or Custom cards. Although we should make one card exception, since on of the Pirate Captains can draft any card and it will act as a Pirate for the duration. But of course she could add in another AOA card not being used in the particular game instead.

I was afraid that I'd have to keep sleeving and unsleeving these new paper cards, like I do with my many Supers, which would wear them down too fast. However, it turns out I still have about 80 empty sleeves left, so I can sleeve these AOA cards until they need to be replaced by newer drafts, and still have 40 empty ones left over for Supers, new VCs, etc. You'll be happy to know I've already replaced my semi legible hand drafts for the SOTM Heroes with ones I printed out after making the initial changes suggested by the first couple of commenters, one of which is Anitar herself. Its been a great weekend project. I didn't expect the printing of so many cards to go so easily, but I figured it out!

***

Everyone Else,

Just thought you'd want to keep up with developments. Feel free to check out the Anitar threads for the Revealed Cards from the Haslab Card Compendium and Glyphs in one thread, and the 7 Unrevealed Cards (her customs) in the other one. Id love to get more comments on my own 5 SOTM Heroes, which were oddly to be the Stretch Goals on the now unfunded AOA Offering by Avalon Hill/Hasbro. All of these are easy to find on the new Age of Annihilation site section that now is right under the first section for Official game play; I sent you the links in previous emails too.

Chas

(Edit): Anitar has now posted her own customs for the 5 SOTM Heroes.

[chas]

Here's the latest "internal memo" I've sent out on the AOA Proxy Project. Members of our local gang can find it here as well. And you visitors/lurkers can follow along with your own AOA Proxy Play Projects if you like, or just steal ideas. Heroscape Age of Annihilation Lives!

***

Guys,

Although only Taeblewaler and I will be playing here on Friday with the new AOA stuff I've prepared (Scenario, Cards, Glyphs) I'm thinking of each of us fielding 600 point armies at some point when more of us come together, either on my regular rotation GM turn or in an extra session.

This Friday I'll be playing the Clockwork Combine faction and Nick the Dryan Lifeborne Order. I'll be keeping track of which cards we mange to get on the table as our AOA Play goes along, and what proxies I figure out for them for our later games!

So if you like, you can make up 600 point armies using the cards in the new Age of Annihilation site section. For these armies you can check out the cards (which I have here now physically):

1. The Classic Format Cards by Anitar made from the cards of AOA characters revealed (or mostly revealed for a couple) in the Haslab offering in the Official Thread.

2. The Customs for the Unrevealed cards in her Customs thread.

3. My own Custom cards for the 5 SOTM Heroes (Drake, Sonlen, Q11, Shiori and Evil Raelin) on their own thread (later she made some too, which you can also look at as well; I have cards for them also).

Of course, if you want to really get into AOA army building, you can mix in any Classic and Custom cards you think would make good combos with them as well (but no Supers).

You can save your armies for future sessions here. Initially you'll probably want to base most of them on one of the new factions. Also, since there are 46 new cards, I only have one copy of each, so unless you want to print out your own cards, its better if players use different factions. Note that one of the Dawnraider Pirate Captains can import any other card which acts like a Dawnraider Pirate too for the game--this could be another AOA card or an old Classic/Custom one!

Have fun with this. (I'm thinking especially of you, Kolakoski--you can built or rebuild with these new cards to your heart's delight, since you love army building). Later on you can send the armies to me so I can make proxies for them as necessary, (unless you can provide your own).

I'll be making up plenty of default armies for us to use as well!

If you haven't been paying attention to AOA yet, feel free to check out some of my threads in the new section to get started, such as Playing The New Factions and AOA Rules FAQ.

Chas

[chas]

INITIAL AOA PLAYTEST ARMIES

I have chosen to play the Clockwork Combine, and Taeblewalker the Dryan Lifeborne Order. I have made up two 600 Point armies for each as shown below. We'll be playing on the first (and only) AOA Scenario revealed: "Master Game Quick Play 1." The goals of this first session are:

1. To get all of the cards from these two factions on the table for the first time to get a feel for them (one CC card is actually being played by TW to accomplish this; he is being "Tucked in"* with the Dryans). No Classic or Customs will be included in this session.

2. To team up the most compatible cards in each faction as possible. For example, Zed Nesbitt (my version, not Anitar's; but all other cards are hers) with the Vorid Glider Strikers; Haluchott with Onshu.

3. For Players to add terrain at game start as called for in the scenario in the way to best benefit their cards.

4. To take advantage or randomly placed AOA Glyphs (except for Xenithrax Vines, Brandar, Astrid, and Gerda)--we usually don't play with Glyphs here, but again, we want to get as many as possible out, 2 per game, to get a feel for them. The four new Glyphs are Fellaron, Haukeland, Quillivon, and Yadulkia--just right to check out 2 Glyphs per game.


Will the Clockworks overwhelm the Dryans with Squadscape? Will the Dryans smash the Clockworks with their very esoteric powers? Hey, these Factions are both Good Guys; animaloid forest dwellers and forest protectors. Why are they even fighting each other? Oh well...


***


Clockwork Combine Army #1

Air Marshal Zed Nesbitt 155
Vorid Glider Strikers 65
Knight Adjuctor Oberon 110
Frostclaw Paladins 120
Ordo Borealis 110
Total: 560 Points, 14 Spaces

Clockwork Combine Army #2

Imperator Kane 130
Vorid Burrowbreaker 65
Knight Primus Adelbern 150
Frostclaw Paladins 120
Ordo Borealis 110

Total: 635 Points, 10 Spaces


Dryan Lifeborne Order Army #1

Xenithrax 200
Marachott 110
Ewashia 130
Chana 30
Gurushia 70
Onshu 30
Total: 570 6 Spaces

Dryan Lifeborne Order Army #2

Halushia 120
Haluchott 125
Raakchott 100
Kita 30
Onshu 30
Chana 30
Vrono 80
Gurushia 70
(*Tuck Harrington--Clockwork Combine) 60
Total: 645, 10 Spaces



Note of Sources For Proxies: Besides Scape, Heroclix Supers, Star Wars, and Msc. figures, they've posted on the Proxy Thread that some are using Arena of the Planeswalker figures. Great Idea--a whole bunch of fantasy figures I didn't even think about. And I've got at least a couple of AOTP boxes somewhere in the closet, along with the small expansion set they put out before the game tanked. Most of them are not painted--but then, neither were the AOA minis going to be either. And its better to use fewer Scape figures, as its can be confusing to use them as proxies since a) You tend to think of them as their normal selves and b) Its better to keep them free for use as themselves.

[chas]

SECOND SET OF AOA "PLAYTEST" ARMIES

It looks like Taeblewalker will be staying overnight for a second day of Scaping, and on Saturday we may even be joined by a third player. So its time to set up 600 Point armies for the Dawnraider Syndicate (the one with the most interesting bonding) and the Brood-Ironclad Faction (since they both are only about half the strength of the others, they will be considered as one faction in these strictly faction centered games. They both work for the same General and have the same color game cards (including customs by Anitar for the cards that were not revealed during the AOA campaign--untested customs may be modified in the future by the designer).

In future games when Classics/CV Customs are allowed to join in, these two factions may be used as separate factions teamed up with these other figures. In addition, my or Anitar's set of the 5 SOTM Heroes (Drake 3.0, Sonlen 2.0, Q11: aka Q10 2.0, and Raelin 3.0: aka Evil Raelin) are now available and can also be added to AOA Games in the future!

Note that this is the size army we usually play with here, since we often play on larger team maps rather than tournament maps. This size also allows us to most or all of each faction's cards onto the table in two games.

The DawnRaiders are split up to have similar numbers of Captains and each has 1 squad that has the Captain Synergy. We are not using the Crimson Widow's Hire power yet.

The Brood-Ironclad split successfully into their separate (sub) factions.



Dawn Raider Syndicate Army #1

Admiral EJ-1M 170
Fia Bonny 80
Dorim 100
Knaves 65
Exiles 75
Cornellius Breech 80
Total: 570, 11 Spaces

Dawn Raider Syndicate Army #2

Crimson Widow 150
Cornelius Breech 80
Bok-Bur-Na 125
Dreadnaughts 80
Killian Vane 80
Exiles 75
Total: 590, 11 Spaces


Brood-Ironclad Army #1

Queen Maladrix 160
Festering Honor Guard 60
Oathbound Phalanx 105
Oathbound Legionnaires 55
Thyraxis Dragoon 195
Total: 575, 14 Spaces


Brood-Ironclad Army #2

Iron Lich Viscerot 150
Scavorith 185
Hellforge Mandukor 130
Necrotech Wraithriders 90
Total 555, 10 Spaces

***

[chas]

The Five SOTM Heroes As An Army

Perhaps the most highly anticipated AOA characters were the 5 new upgraded heroes from Swarm of the Marro, which were ironically posted as Stretch Goals in the Haslab offering. Since both I and Anitar did takes on them, here they are as full Armies together for both new custom card sets.

These can also be placed in "playtest" armies to check them out for the first time! They cost a lot of points all together, so you can take some out if you want to equalize the points (or add to the other armies for large 2 Player armies).


The Chas SOTM Hero Army

Sgt. Drake Alexander (3.0) 220
Sonlen (2.0, on dragon) 240
Q11 (2.0) 200
Shiori (2.0) 110
Raelin The Kyrie Warrior (aka 3.0 or Evil Raelin, on Manticore) 200
Total: 970, 8 Spaces


The Anitar SOTM Hero Army

Sgt. Drake Alexander (3.0) 210
Sonlen (2.0, on dragon) 190
Q11 (2.0) 200
Shiori (2.0) 130
Raelin The Kyrie Warrior (aka 3.0 or Evil Raelin, on Manticore) 155
Total: 885, 8 Spaces

None of these new customs have been playtested, but all of their cards are available in the new Age of Annihilation section of the site.

[chas]

AOA On The Table For The First Time!

Taeblewalker is on his way over from upstate, and its all on the table. 46 Cards with a proxy figure(s) on each one above the First Scenario Map and the terrain pool to be added to it by the players, two random proxy Glyphs in place of the four new ones and the trio of Xenithrix Glyphs standing by on the side, and the usual Heroscape game components like Order Markers, Wound Markers, and Dice. I could hardly sleep last night, after getting everything ready!

We don't quite have everything they were going to give us in the Haslab Offering. On the other hand, we don't have to wait until next year.

As an extra bonus, yesterday I got to clean up my foyer so I could get to the front closet where most of the proxies were hiding, which I haven't been to in months. I also got rid of most of those reusable shopping bags I accumulated all during the Pandemic. There were an awful lot of them--because every time you forgot to bring one you had to buy another at the store!

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by chas

AOA On The Table For The First Time!

Taeblewalker is on his way over from upstate, and its all on the table. 46 Cards with a proxy figure(s) on each one above the First Scenario Map and the terrain pool to be added to it by the players, two random proxy Glyphs in place of the four new ones and the trio of Xenithrix Glyphs standing by on the side, and the usual Heroscape game components like Order Markers, Wound Markers, and Dice. I could hardly sleep last night, after getting everything ready!

We don't quite have everything they were going to give us in the Haslab Offering. On the other hand, we don't have to wait until next year.

As an extra bonus, yesterday I got to clean up my foyer so I could get to the front closet where most of the proxies were hiding, which I haven't been to in months. I also got rid of most of those reusable shopping bags I accumulated all during the Pandemic. There were an awful lot of them--because every time you forgot to bring one you had to buy another at the store!

It was EPIC! Four awesome games, and I won three of them. I love the pirates, I love the familiars, I love the bugs; I love it all! Pictures tomorrrow!

[chas]

Agree! There is so much to say that I'm going to do a lot more posts about yesterday's fun. We both had a great time exploring the new cards. A lot of mistakes were made, we didn't always play them in the optimally, but we started off on a great adventure by getting every card on the table except the 5 SOTM Heroes--they were ready to go too, but not part of the plan for this first session.

We had all four new Glyphs on the table as well, two per game for the first two, and then dispensed with them--we don't usually bother with Glyphs around here. Only one impacted the game; when I healed wounds from my Air Marshall Zed Nesbitt during Game 1--the only game I won, as Tablewalker (TW) notes above. The first Official Scenario, Quick Play 1 was particularly fun, and our terrain builds were very different each time, as you take turns adding two terrain pieces after the armies and glyphs are down! Which you'll soon be able to see from the photos! Next time we'd add some trees for the Dryan powers to the terrain mix the scenario uses! It is mentioned that you can add what you like, but of course the scenario doesn't include any terrain that was not going to be included in the original Haslab Vanguard Set. TW did use the water hexes for his water mage's abilities.

Using the teams I built noted above, here's how we played the four games: we played the first three according to plan, and changed things up for the final game, so we could each try out more factions.

GAME ONE: Clockwork Combine Army 1(Chas) vs. Dryan Lifeborne Order Army 1 (TW). I got to use my own Air Marshal Zed Nesbitt custom for the first time, and it certainly helped me win the game. Having two squads against the Dryan's none helped as well, but they put up a good fight as TW learned to synergize mages with familiars. My Glider Strikers were weaker and harder to use than the Airborne Elite, and it was very tricky to drop them with Zed, but I finally managed to get two of them on tall columns TW had built with the terrain on his half of the board.

GAME TWO: Clockwork Combine Army 2 (Chas) vs. Dryan Lifebourne Order Army 2 (TW). Imperator Kane and Vorid Burrowbreaker were my stars here! Kane did some good use of Stomp and his ranged attack. The Burrowbreaker came into the game late, but his power turned out to be better than expected, even though I never got to use it against more than one target at a time!

GAME THREE: The Ironbound Collective/Combo Army #2 (Chas) vs. Pirate Army #1 (TW). TW got that pirate synergy working. Although I used most of the Ironbound's synergy, they were unexpectedly defeated rather abruptly in our shortest game. In the center of the board most of the battle played out. I'd given TW a choice which Combo army he'd like to play, and he chose the Bugs for Game Four over the Cyborgs, so I played them this time around. I had built the terrain such as to not impede my Wraithrider squad's limited movement. However, I got to rampage the Hellforge into his start zone and wade into his troops still there, getting nice rolls for this, my last surviving unit, to take out the Admiral, another Hero, and a squaddie or two with Hellforge's adjacency roll and regular attack. Its Feed the Forge gave me some wounds back to continue on for a bit!

GAME FOUR: Pirate Army #2 (Chas) vs The Nemesis Brood/Combo Army #1 (TW). He built up a wall of terrain next to my start zone to slow me down, but I ended up using it as "The Alamo" to stand and fight on and behind it. However, he waded in with Queen Maladrix and got something like three of my Heroes contaminated with Honor Guard! Bugs--Yuck! But it was a glorious last stand. Switching the armies around for this final game, we both got to play the Pirates (Arr, mateys!) He played The Brood particularly well!

The new cards are lots of fun to play. Congrats to Craig and The War Council on their design efforts, and to Anitar for her great postoffering customs. My Zed Nesbitt worked nicely too. And after we figure out how to use them as Faction Armies, it will be very interesting to start combining them with preAOA Classic and Custom cards. (TW pointed out that the old VC Custom Buccaneers of Tortuga can't be brought into the Dawnraider Syndicate faction, because they are a Common Squad (unless you modify the Crimson Widow's Hire power).

Stay tuned for more commentary and lots of photos!