The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Planning For The Fourth AOA Session: Wed. Jan. 25

This introduction is being written the day before Game Day. Taeblewalker had to drop out, and then Sherman Davies dropped in today; so we should still have 3 Players. I've free built a new version of the AOA Mirror Map --based on the Haslab Vanguard Edition Offering Display Photo once again--for that number of Scapers. I've also left enough space to add a 4th Player if I need to do that. I'd just add another Start Zone and another wall section or two if someone else is able to attend.

The main difference is that I'm adding 4 more but smaller wall sections to the three from the first 2 Player map, near or around the 3rd Players starting side. So there will now be 7 sections in total. The central pond is based on exact hexes from photos of the last game, but its upside down now from its original position between the two main original wall sections. Hopefully we will have some new pictures to show you after the game(s).

If I play 600 Points of the Kyries, as I plan to do just to try them out once, I think I'll introduce a Scenario Rule just for this game that will not allow them to fly over any Glamoured Wall section that turns out to be Illusory. (Guess they are repelled by their strong magic). That should balance out their all being Fliers to some degree. On the other hand, it won't completely devalue the cost paid for their Flying ability for each of them, which wouldn't really be fair to them. They will also get the advantage of flying over or onto other slowing terrain like water, foliage, and hills.

Since the total of all 7 of Anitar's custom Kyrie cards is 725, and Misaerx
costs 130, the easiest way to form a Kyrie army with six out of the seven in use is to just leave her out. The resulting Chas Kyrie Army would be:

Xiamura 120
Mielki 110
Kilkorax 105
Qhryion 100
Loviatek 90
Glinerva 70

Total: 595

These are mostly support pieces, with various types of passive Auras (like Raelin). But two seem to have good offensive powers, so we'll see what I can do with them.

***

Its game day morning! I'm wondering how my old pals Sherman Davies and Kolakoski will react to using some many new cards that have only been partly playtested, if at all. Taeblewalker and Thrasher Darkrai enjoyed them their first time out. Magic Gama and Benjy have not been available in the last six weeks or so to try them out yet. While we four core members all do our own customs, and I've introduced many supers from individual designers, putting so many army cards on the table at once that have not been fully put through their paces is really unprecedented for us.

As noted before, the "Revealed" AOA cards were described as still drafts, and Anitar has said nothing about testing her own cards. Neither have my own been used yet, except for our three sessions of AOA recently (Wing commander Zed Nesbitt and The SOTM Heroes). I don't want to get into tweaking the cards for now. No one else on the site has proposed forming a committee to do so. (There is the new ACES Commitee, which will evaluate new C3V cards to see if they are compatible with the AOA cards, looking forward to them being blended together, see here):
https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...ad.php?t=61761

But this NYCG4 project is a special case . Reviving AOA and taking it from its condition during the initial offering period called for radical measures to forge ahead. Now we'll see where we're at. I've been assuming we'll move into the next stage of playing them with other cards if they prove out, which they generally have so far. But it will be up to the other guys as well about how we proceed.

I've done "reconstruction" work on historical miniatures and both historical and nonhistorical scenarios for many years, and also Greek and Norse mythology, respectively in original radio dramas and live storytelling. Trying to go back and recreate the work of previous creators while doing justice to them is a challenge for sure. And playing hundreds of board games is also an exercise in trying to fully bring into being the visions of their designers into full realization as well.

While we will move to the next stage, since two of them are already considering building armies with AOA and older cards, their ultimate fate is not in my hands alone. However, our usual rule is that the monthly Game Master gets to set the scenario and rules for each game. I certainly plan to include AOA for a while in my own monthly games every four months, and in the extra second AOA sessions I'm running myself.