The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Islandscape XII is history!

For me "It was the best of days, it was the worst of days." This was a great day of Scaping, with good prizes and delicious cake. With only six participants, Warbanner put up six maps on three tables a our host store Legendary Realms' new location. Hearty comradeship prevailed in a round robin where we played each other participant once, on different maps.

I came away with a trophy and two games:

1. My third trophy in three years was a second "Wost Luck" booby prize. Its not easy to come in sixth in a tournament with only six players, but I managed. Where my first tropy was (Smiley Face) "I think I can, I know I can," this year's was (Shamrock) "Better Luck Next Time."

I almost endangered my trophy by actually winning one game, but luckily with only a very small point diferential. But never fear, I'm also the holder of one Third Place trophy from last year as well!

So respect my authority!

2. An old game from the prize table: Silent Death; The Next Milennium (Deluxe Edition) BY I.C.E. Its a tactical space game that Ishmel put up, and has never played. I'm old enough to remember that I.C.E. stands for Iron Crown Enterprises, although I've never heard of this one.

3. A discounted second hand copy of Alien Frontiers, a more recent design which is supposed to be a good game (this was also confirmed by the woman who sold it to me). Got to prosper our host store a bit, as this was my first visit to their new location. I'm happy to note that fast food is only two blocks away.

Thanks to our host Warbanner, who swears that he'll keep running this event as long as more than two people show up, and to those participants who did manage to make it.

The Secret Armies Of Chas

Now it can be told! In a more complex format than usual, Islandscape 2018 required five armies with no duplications, and with increasing point totals. I used many C3V customs this year (*). These armies kicked butt during our practice session here at home (except for one which was adjusted), but only produced one victory at the tournament itself.

Here they are in the order that they were played:

Army One: Freakazoids
Quahoon* 190
Augamo* 155
Zettian Death Wings* 50
Sentinels of Grax* 100
Total 495 (500 Point Max.)

Army Two: Fear The Black Dragon
Braxas 210
Othkurick 140
Black Wyrmlings x2 60
Iskra Eisenwein 50
Rechts of Bogdan 50
Total 510 (525)

Army Three: Martial Arts
Master Lao Xin* 130
Master Wu 140
Shaolin Monks x3 240
Guilty McCreach 30
Total: 540 (550)

Army Four: The Fantastics
Rachiem* 140
Ebon Armor* 125
Akumaken* 110
Martial La Hire* 70
Prince Al'Kahora* 80
Seleena* 35
Isamu 10
Total: 560 (575)

Army Five: I'm A Soulllborg
Deathcommander Mark 3* 130
Major J15* 95
Zettian Infantry* x3 195
Deathwalker 8000
Beorn Boltcutter* 50
Total: 600 (600)

[chas]

Draft Scenario for August 15

Here's a new type of scenario I'll be using for our next Heroscape game. If anyone has any comments, suggestions, or questions to help me develop the scenario, or if anything seems broken, let me know!


SCENARIO: SENSATIONAL SQUADSCAPE MARCH (8/25)
By Chas


ARMIES: Each player will field an army of 600 points, made up of Common Squads. It may also contain up to one Unique Squad, and must contain one Unique Human Hero. There are no space limitations. Each player will get one 24 hex Start Zone, but any additional units played may enter from offboard onto their own Start Zone, counting the first empty space entered as the first movement space. C3V/SOV Customs are allowed.

GAME LENGTH: 10 Turns

VICTORY:

1. March Spaces The battlefield will contain one numbered March Space per player, plus one in the approximate center of the board. March Spaces will be placed toward the middle of the board approximately equidistant between two Start Zones. March Spaces will be indicated by numbered Glyphs power face down, which are otherwise inactive.

Each player can earn 1 Victory Point for occupying each different March Space. Players will record the individual specific numbers of any March Spaces they occupy during the game. Once occupied there is no further VP count, but holding a March Space will prevent other players from scoring them.

2. Hero Casualties Each player can earn 1 VP for defeating an enemy Hero. Note that all other casualties are irrelevant to Victory in this scenario!

3. Heroic Tiebreaker: A player with their Hero still on the board will will win a tie against others without their Heroes. Otherwise, ties are allowed.

MAP: To be announced, with various terrain features.

[chas]

LITTLE GENCON IN BROOKLYN

This weekend Taeblewalker and I had our own miniconvention here, playing three games each day! We played both brand new stuff and some classic old designs! We did board games, but also some Role Playing and even miniatures!

SATURDAY AUGUST 4, 2018

GAME ONE: BATTLE OF KARLSDORF (Fantasy Medieval Miniatures)

This was only the second time I played with the Fantasy Medieval section of my 54mm miniatures collection (of over 30,000 painted plastic figures), and the first time in 8 years. Many toy soldiers were on the table for the very first time, with over 100 little men per side:


Good Guys
Mounted Army Commander: Sir Edward of Ellis Den
Grognard The Green Wizard
Harold the Friendly Giant
Human Cavalry
Elf Infantry (Bow)
Dwarven Infantry
Northern Men Infantry
Amazon Infantry (Bow)

Evil Guys
Army Commander/Wizard Cashek the Undying
Cedrik the Cyclops
Orc Warg Rider Cavalry
Orc Infantry
Ogre Infantry
Skeleton Infantry
Flying Demon Infantry

All infantry 25 figures, cavalry 12.
Terrain:* One low central hill ("The Karlsdorf").
Wizards may choose 5 spells of the 10 spell Spell Book.

The Good Guys won this massive action, after collapsing my Left Flank and taking the central hill, although I won on the Right. Those Good Guys are just...Evil!

GAME TWO: MARVEL SUPERHERO ROLE PLAYING

Using the old FRP from the 1980s, he Game Mastered a team scenario where I played Captain America, The Thing, Spiderman and Captain Marvel vs Doctor Octopus (and his giant robot and nefarious stationary machines), The Radioactive Man, The Beetle, The Fixer, and The Scorpion. Beginning with Aunt May getting mugged and an enforcer harassing a hot dog man, both in the park in NYC, we foiled these criminals, stopped the super criminals in a heist (although Captain American spent some time in the hospital), and eventually Doc Ock and his devices elsewhere. My first time doing this was lots of fun, and the heroes ended up with very high Karma (Experience) Points.

GAME THREE: TALES OF THE ARABIAN KNIGHTS
(Z-MAN GAMES, 3RD EDITION)

My pal had just gotten this game the day before, and when he brought it out it was still in its shirnk wrap! I noted that I'd heard of this publisher's games for years but never played one, and he mentioned that he'd met the nice guy who used to own the company at a convention. This first play was a big hit with both of us. Its a very colorful story telling game where your hero (He took Aladdin and I took Ali Baba) travels in the mythical world of fantastic Moslem medieval adventure in Europe, Africa, Arabia, India, and along the Silk Road to China. It uses a huge Book of Stories with thousands of entries and a matrix of NPCs including all kinds of colorful people, supernatural beings, and monsters. Its very entertaining. We both had some bad encounters and some good ones,eventually accumulating useful skills, status cards, and far flung cities to explore. We had a chance to learn a great design, and I pulled out a win. But we both enjoyed it immensely.


SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 2018

GAME FOUR: ALIEN FRONTIERS (GAME SALUTE, 3RD EDITION)

We started our second day with this Euro Classic, a 1950s Sci Fi theme about racing to colonize an unknown planet, which I had recently purchased at Islandscape 2018, but never played. I'd solitaired it a day before to learn the rules, and he'd played it once long ago. I pulled off a slick combo move at the start, and was ahead most of the time, but my opponent managed to get more points than I had toward the end, when it counts. Luckily I managed one more sneaky move for the win. This is a popular game where the rules and components are both nice and very elegant, producing a very simple yet fun concept. The eight planetary areas are named after old science fiction authors I am familiar with. Its worker placement with a bit of area control and even some Take That!

GAME FIVE: KING OF THE TABLE TOP
(FANTASY GAMES UNLIMITED, 1980s)

My pal had brought along this old school game we'd played once before, with his hand mounted charming paper counters on posterboard. I used to know the head of this small publishing company, and the art was simple yet cute line drawings, reminiscent of that of Kings and Things, with a huge diversity of Fantasy characters, terrain, and magic items. It has just two player boards, and cups to draw from. I started out with three identical Desert terrain tiles, which is very bad, as it only supports that type of creature for your army. My opponent went on to cream me both in economic development and in two militarty attacks, taking terrain from me. Finally he defeating the only attack I could make against his superior force. But its a fun and nostalgic little game! Its amazing what gamers can pull out from their collections.

GAME SIX: TALES OF THE ARABIAN KNIGHTS
(Z- MAN GAMES, 3RD EDITION)

We had enjoyed this design so much we played it again! This time our fortunes were much more disparate. I took Ali Baba again and he choose Scheherazade, the story teller in the framing tale of 1001 Arabian Knights (I like the version by the very famous 19th Century British Sufi Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, the only Westerner ever allowed inside the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem). Even though its theoretically a competitive game, my pal helped me out immensely along the way, and I vowed to help him out also, but we never manged to cross paths, as I could have helped him only by being in the same space. Becoming a Visier, I had to keep returning to my Origin City for every city I visited. He allowed me to get into Timbuktu where he could have messed me up when I was only once space from reaching it, but chose the better nature of his character to allow me to get there. I was only one away from returning to my city on the southern tip of India when I was whisked away across the board to Stonehenge to encounter Druids! Later I returned on the back of a giant eagle. But we were so busy zipping all across the board several times that we never could get together.

My poor buddy ended up both sex changed into a man (and therefore ineligble to win the game until he was transformed back) and then was changed into an ape! Along the way he was shipwrecked and had other disasters which left him with negative Status Cards that hobbled his game play. I on the other hand became vizier and then Sultan of a city at the tip of southern India! I was Respected (Status Card) and immensely wealthy. I went on to win the game and put him out of his misery! Such are the Ways of Fate at the Will of Allah! The moving finger writes and move on, and no one can change a single line...until next game, which he'll try again in a few days back home.

***

[IshMEL]

Originally Posted by chas

Draft Scenario for August 15

Here's a new type of scenario I'll be using for our next Heroscape game. If anyone has any comments, suggestions, or questions to help me develop the scenario, or if anything seems broken, let me know!


SCENARIO: SENSATIONAL SQUADSCAPE MARCH (8/25)
By Chas


ARMIES: Each player will field an army of 600 points, made up of Common Squads. It may also contain up to one Unique Squad, and must contain one Unique Human Hero. There are no space limitations. Each player will get one 24 hex Start Zone, but any additional units played may enter from offboard onto their own Start Zone, counting the first empty space entered as the first movement space. C3V/SOV Customs are allowed.

Count me in!

Marvel OK for your Human Hero? Can you also have non-Human Heroes?

I assume that 600 points is your army total, including your Hero(es), Unique Squad (0 or 1), and all your Common Squads. Is that right?

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Early days, but posting to remind you all that we’re playing Silent Death Next Millennium in September. The rules and ship layouts are on Boardgamegeek.

Some combination of Lance Electra, Deathwind, Nighthawk, Spirit Rider, Blizzard, Thunderbird and Dart will be used.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

“Early days, but posting to remind you all that we’re playing Silent Death Next Millennium in September. The rules and ship layouts are on Boardgamegeek.

Some combination of Lance Electra, Deathwind, Nighthawk, Spirit Rider, Blizzard, Thunderbird and Dart will be used.”

For the first, learning game, each player will pilot a Lance Electra, as it has all three types of weapons - torpedos, missiles, and cannons.

Silent Death is an elegant game - the basic rules run about 15 highly illustrated pages (within the roughly 150 page manual) - and are easy to understand. The ship charts contain everything you need to know within scape sized cards.

[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.