The New York City Gang Of Four

[IshMEL]

A great day of Scaping yesterday with the NYC Gang of Four!

Three of the OF (Original Four) were there -- @chas , @Sherman Davies , and @Taeblewalker , joined by yours truly and Joris whose Heroscapers name I cannot find. [Um, guys?] The five-way "race for the March glyphs" began!

Here is the map:



There were six "March glyphs" -- two on the left-most hill, one in the center, one on the right hill, and two behind the ruins on the right end. (There were three players, myself, Taeblewalker and Joe on the right side, hence the asymmetry.) Each player would get one point for a March glyph they occupied at any point in the game, plus one for killing off an opponent's hero. The armies were restricted to one Human Hero, one Unique Squad (optional) and the rest Common Squads, up to 600 points, no hex restrictions. 10 round limit.

I fielded:

350 Knights of Weston x5
110 Airborne Elite
105 Sir Gilbert
565, 25 hexes

Sherman had MDG and a lot of Romans and 10th. chas had Sgt. Drake 2, WoA, and the Protectors of Ullar. Joris had Kaemon, the 10th, and a horde o' Zombies. Taeblewalker had Spartacus, Capuan Gladiators, and the Tagawa Samurai.

Taeblewalker took an early lead, grabbing all 3 glyphs on the right side of the table:



While Sherman and chas fought on the left hill:



All the while, the zombies shambled forward....


I can't do a play by play of the whole game, but here's some highlights I remember:

* Once Sherman and chas had both secured the left hill March points, they called a temporary truce and rushed toward the right. A struggle for the center point resulted in an epic 10th vs. 10th and Zombies battle in the jungle!







* My Airborne Elite finally dropped in round 3 or 4. This was my master plan, to have them grab the March points across the map. They landed and ... were promptly slaughtered, one turned into a zombie I think. Two of the survivors lobbed grenades, only to be duds. One of the AE on the left hill was shot down. But the other survived several 10th attacks (Sherman's), a leaving engagement attack, and slid into home plate for the March point! Sherman dubbed him "Steve Rogers" and was ready to replace him with Captain America. He got killed off soon after, but he will forever be a hero in Valhalla!

* The zombies just kept coming! Since we all had eligible squad figures they kept Rising Again. That was a lot of fun.

* Spartacus and his Gladiators faced off against Sir Gilbert and his doughty Knights. Taeblewalker was going in for the kill -- but lucky dice (and height) were on my side, and Spartacus was slain. Sir G was left wounded with only two life left, and skedaddled behind a convenient mountain for safety. At that point I was the front-runner, thanks to Steve Rogers, and so began a four-way battle: Sherman with his 10th, Joris with his Zombies, and Taeblewalker with his Gladiators, all trying to get the kill point on Sir Gilbert. In the end, Spartacus was avenged and a Gladiator sword pierced the side of Sir G.



* chas attempted to assassinate Kaemon but his Protectors could not fly into range before they met the bullets of Joe's 10th. Joe raced for the left-most March points, while Sherman's soldiers raced toward the right. And my lone remaining Knight tried to sneak over and grab a final glyph. But no! A 10th from Joris' army stepped from behind the jungle and shot him, ending the game.

Well, if I'm forgetting any other epic moments, feel free to chime in here. We ended the day with a quick 2 vs 2 game (Taeblewalker had left, and Joe and I couldn't stay too long) which was fun. I got to play Mezzodemons, which I hadn't fielded before, and Taelord even made an appearance. chas had much success with a bunch of Agents.

Thanks again chas for hosting, for a great scenario, and a fun day of Scape!

[kolakoski]

We'll met!

Chas and I and anyone who wants to join us are going to first-play Silent Death on the first Wednesday after my return from Charlotte, September 3rd.

[chas]

Thanks to IshMel for the great post with photos and commentary. Also for offering up the classic tactical space game Silent Death for the Islandscape Prize Table, which I then took!

Since this simple Heroscape scenario is robust, I recommend it to other groups! We were quite satisfied with how it went, although the placing of the "March Spaces" with five players was tricky. See the scenario for suggestions as to how to do this.

Purple Glyphs with numbers stuck on them were used, and I made a simple score sheet with which March Spaces had been occupied by which players during the game, as well as which heroes had been killed by which players. We also tracked the Ten Turns as usual.

I also threw the map together as a freebuild quickly, as I had to leave on a trip and would return just in time to play on it! My main concern was providing lots of sight blockers and equal access to the March Spaces. After playing this scenario for the first time, we were pretty satisfied with how it went!

Thanks to Kolokoski for his enthusiasm over teaching my new acquisition Silent Death, which I hadn't heard of previously, and haven't even read the rules to yet--although I did read 50 pages of backstory in the huge rules booklet, which appear as an intro before the actual rules.

Although the New York City Gang of Four Membership has remained permanent for about 11 years now, new players are always welcome. Currently we have IshMel, free for the summer, and our newer pal who has now come three times (I forget his handle although he is also on this site). I've had some other new local gaming pals I met on boardgamegeek mention they'd "like to get back to Heroscaping," so we'll see if we can get some of them over for more Scaping fun as well!

Last Sunday I met a gaming poster on bgg, and he turned out to live only blocks from me here in Brooklyn Heights! So we got together for a nice lunch at the local diner and went back to my place for a couple of games of Corto, since he's also a Corto Maltese devotee like me! Now that's a wacky, but theme rich board game. This was the first time since I got it this year that someone else saw it here and wanted to play...

Since then we've also played a couple of games of Memoir 44, which is the game he originally contacted me about. I have "Organized Play" invitations all over boardgamegeek for various designs.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

chas is the river, I a mere tributary.

Still intensely focused on Silent Death Next Millennium. My Hosted Heroscape session will be one (as opposed to two) games to make room for it.

I'm shocked, shocked, that so few people are familiar with this game. It hits the sweet spot for me between simplicity and complexity. I implore you all to check it out on Boardgamegeek, with free off download to rules and ships. Rated 7.5.

[chas]

Miracles Happen Dept.!

I met a new gaming pal on boardgamegeek last Sunday, and he turned out to live only three blocks away here in Brooklyn Heights! So that day we met for lunch and came back for a couple of board games. He was back again last night, and we're going to plan a multiplayer event on a Saturday in September.

So if you're in or near NYC, PM me and join in the weekly fun with this retired guy who owns lots of games and miniatures to play with! Send me your regular email and I'll send you my monthly Saturday schedule of play dates with my contact info and directions! And I'm around at other times as well.

Chas

[kolakoski]

Well met!

[QUOTE=kolakoski;2215332]

chas is the river, I a mere tributary.

Still intensely focused on Silent Death Next Millennium. My Hosted Heroscape session will be one (as opposed to two) games to make room for it.

I'm shocked, shocked, that so few people are familiar with this game. It hits the sweet spot for me between simplicity and complexity. I implore you all to check it out on Boardgamegeek, with free off download to rules and ships. Rated 7.5.

[/QUOTE]

Reconsidered reducing number of Scape games. Intro to Silent Death need not take so much time.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

chas recently picked up a copy of Silent Death Next Millennium, a miniatures game released in 1995, which I had never heard of. I'm shocked, shocked, that it is so little known, as it is wonderfully elegant. With Taeblewalker, we played it last night, and had a blast!

From a review in BoardGameGeek:

Silent Death: The Next Millennium is the second edition of the Silent Death game published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1995. This edition was written by Matt Forbeck.

Silent Death is one of my favorite games of all time. I have always had a blast playing this game.

The boxed set includes a 168 page rule book, scenario pack, tables and ship display pack, 48 plastic fighters (4 each of 12 types) and stands, 248 miniatures of missiles, torpedoes and asteroids, dice and maps.

The size of the rule book may seem overwhelming but the actual rules take up less than 40 pages. The rest cover the universe background, ship displays, and a ship construction system.

Silent Death is a fast playing, easy to learn game of fighter combat. Ships range from small one man fighters to large multi-crewed gunboats.

To begin play each player selects ships and crew. The game comes with 26 different ship displays but only 12 have miniatures in the box. Metal miniatures for the other ships can be purchased separately. Crew ratings range from 1 to 10. Pilots have two skills: piloting and gunnery, while Gunners have just the gunnery skill. The total skill levels of all crew are added to the value of the fighter.

The sequence of play has five steps:

1. Launch Warheads. In this phase you launch missiles and torpedoes. Missiles have a range of ten hexes and require a lock-on roll, but they automatically reach their target. Torpedoes have a longer range but move on the map before they reach their target and can be stopped before reaching their target.

2. Movement. Both sides now determine their initiative. Each side rolls a D10 and adds in their highest piloting skill. The highest total wins the initiative. The player who lost initiative moves one ship using some or all of its movement points. The winner now moves one ship. Movement alternates between each side until all ships have the opportunity to move. Ships typically have 12 to 19 movement points. Each hex entered costs 1 point, turning costs 3 points, sideslips cost 2. During this phase torpedoes move immediately after their targets.

3. Torpedo Results. First any torpedoes that reached their target are dealt with. Ships can either use point defense guns to try and shoot down the torpedoes or they can try to dodge them. Any torpedoes not eliminated damage the target. Torpedoes do between 1D12 and 5D12 damage each. Finally, ships can attempt to eliminate any torpedoes that have not reached their target by using decoys or jamming.

4. Cannon Fire. Now your pilots and gunner can fire their weapons at enemy ships. Fire is not simultaneous. First gunners fire in skill order (highest to lowest), then pilots fire in skill order. The method for resolving fire is my favorite mechanism in the game. Each player rolls 3 dice to determine if they hit and how much damage was done. The first 2 dice are determined by the weapon (either 2D6 or 2D; the third dice depends on the skill of the crewman and range from 1D4 to 1D10. The sum of the three dice (plus any modifiers) has to equal the defensive value of the target. If a hit is scored the damage rating is applied to the same dice roll. Weapon’s damage ratings are typically: low, medium, high, or all. If the rating is low use the lowest of the three dice, medium uses the middle die, high uses the highest and all uses the total of all three.

5. Missile Results. Now all missiles fired at the beginning of the turn reach their targets. Ships can use their point defense guns against the missiles unless they used them against torpedoes earlier in the turn. The missiles roll 1D6 per missile to hit (missiles are fired in volleys of 5 or 10). Damage is equal to the number of missiles in the volley plus the highest die roll. So a volley of ten would do 28 points of damage if three 6’s were rolled.

Damage to fighters is simple to resolve. Each display has a series of boxes which are checked off in order. Some boxes have symbols indicating damage to engines, weapons, armor, or critical hits. Critical hits are resolved by rolling two dice and consulting the chart on the ship display. These range from minor annoyances to crew death or ship explosions.

In summary I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in a fast playing easy to learn space combat system.

We are playing again next Wednesday (9/12), and invite anyone in the area to join us. The rulebook, containing the rules and ship displays, may be downloaded for free here. This and all the expansions and supplemental materials, including a tactics manual, can be found here.