The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

New Cards For Another Game

I'm having my own revival of Avatar The Last Airbender viewing, with reading the follow up comics for the first time as my Thanksgiving Weekend Binge Out (see my seperate thread in the TV section). I've just printed out 21 custom ATLA scape cards by Dysole, which will be appearing on our table at some time in the future. They are available in the Classic Customs section (not Supers Customs, although he says they may actually belong there). He's going to do a few more soon too, and then possibly go on to some from Legend of Korra. Hooray, they look great! Too bad no one makes the figures for them--but its always challenging to come up with decent proxies.

[chas]

The Chas Holiday Gaming Update

Wed. Dec 23: Get the much anticipated Viking themed boardgame Blood Rage. Play Commands and Colors Ancients Epic (two board) scenario two player.

Thurs. Dec 24: The Chas 64th Birthday! "Still Crazy After All Those Years."

Fri. Dec 25th: Merry Christmas to All!

Mon. Dec. 28: 5-6 Player Firefly Kalidasa: a third play date of the new expansion with the now fully completed game board.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

In Jamaica, gaming consists primarily of Dominoes. The classic version of Jamaican Dominoes is best for four players. Each player receives seven tiles, and all the existing tiles are in play. The object in most versions of Dominoes is similar to Gin Rummy: to play your last tile - "go out" - or, if play is blocked, to have the lowest total pips on the remaining Dominoes in your hand. In Jamaican Dominoes, a series of games is played. The first player to win six games before each of the other players wins once wins. For example, if I have five wins, two of the other players have three wins, and one player has yet to win, if I win the next game, I win period. However, if the player with no wins wins the next game, the game is "bruck", broken, and you have to start over - the first game after a break being worth two wins. Also, in case of a tie when play is blocked, the game doesn't count, but if any of the players who were tied in the previous game wins the next one, it is worth two games. Winning under these circumstances can take quite a while, so we (me, my wife, Babs, and our Canadian friends (a couple) who stay in Negril for two and a half to three months straight) generally play first to win six, regardless of how many wins anyone else has, wins.

The Gang has recently been into having a non-Heroscape game in reserve for when our scheduled 'Scape game(s) are done. What do you guys think - Dominoes anyone?

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Belated Happy Birthday, chas, and A Happy New Year!

The Gang is playing chas' supers scenario on January 6th. Apparently Blood Rage is all the rage since I've been gone. How difficult is it to learn?

[chas]

Kolakoski,

Thanks, dude. Blood Rage is quick to set up and easy to learn, but not so easy to master!

(Edit): I've now solitaired with the Gods of Asgard module; it was cool to have Odin and Thor actually on the board! I should be getting the final Mystics of Midgard add-on this week, but don't know if it will be here by game day! And the Five Player Expansion is ready should we need it. Meanwhile we're playing with the Kickstarter Exclusive Monsters which are not just duplicates.

Kolakoski has been studying the BR rules online while away, and is now back from vacation. Get your Superscape and Blood Rage game on for Wednesday!

[chas]

My two Shi'ar vs The X-Men GM games were finally played after our break in December for the holidays! The night before, I had modified the game start conditions after some thought after building the board, so the "Bad Guys" started together in the center in the open palace area, and the X-Men on the far corners of their board edge. However, our usual giant board was 25% less wide, to keep everyone in the same game, rather than have two seperate one vs one matches. However, it did not turn out that way; at least not as much as I had hoped for our side!

Having received only some of my Shi'ar soldiers, I put the two I had in front of the palace as a "ceremonial guard," but they fled upon seeing X-Men approaching!

Game One

In the first game, I was teamed up with Taeblewalker as the "Good Guys" (X-Men) and did actually get to use my original team tactical plan (that almost never happens)! Kolokosky and Sherman Davies decided to play the old two vs one strategy from their central position against my partner, while I took a while to set up my attack against the center, where a number of my opponents' pieces were sitting on the height of the multihex throne dias complex. The Inhumans (SD) took off after my partner's start zone, fighting him there, and then he counterattacked to the side hill, far away from where I could possible reach him from the opposite edge.

So I used my plan to bombard the fairly passive group in the center with first Havoc (protected by Polaris) and then Banshee, who had area effect attacks. Once they had been somewhat weakened, Magik teleported using her stepping disks with Strong Guy, who used brute force to finish some of them off. Eventually the enemy activated some lesser active opposition, as Karnak came out to fight us and refused to die. Oracle was also mind controlling Strong Guy, who attacked my own figures a couple of times! Since Cannonball on my team also moved fast, I jetted him over to Oracle and was lucky enough to take her right out, even though she was on favorable terrain to the side toward TW's area.

With ten characters on my huge team, everyone got an order marker at some point, except for Moira. This was not intentional, but resulted from my being unable to lure the enemy toward my own start zone, where she remained to heal my wounded. While Magik retreated from the front line eventually with only one life left, she was never threatened further, and so there was no need to heal her. The others who died were far away in the front lines.

The action against Taeblewalker was hot and heavy, on his side. As Lockjaw did his one teleport to move his family closer to TW, and then moved no more the whole game, I joked that because he was next to a pine tree, "dogs really ARE distracted by trees!" Gorgon was the first prime attacker, affecting several TW figures still in their start zone as an area attacker. TW polished him off, and then Black Bolt and Medusa, who had the most synergy on their team of Inhumans, assaulted Warpath and others on the side hill, in a swirling fight that lasted the rest of the game.

Eventually, TW lost his entire team. While my opponents left Triton, Crystal, Hussar, and others whom the map did not particularly favor to my tender mercies in the palace, TW had most of the order markers used against him. The enemy team plan worked for them, although it was no walkover. At the end I sent out Longshot, and got to use his interesting two sided card. I also sent out Karma at the end, whose figure I had just acquired, but she failed her Mind Control roll of 14+ (much harder than Oracle's).


Final Score Game One:

Shi'ar and Inhumans: 2,080
X-Men: 1,835

These game combined X-Man teams self drafted by their players with premade teams. The Inhumans were made by a number of independent designers (see previous posts), the Shi'ar Imperial Guard by my buddy Drewman-chu. However, I left the powerful Gladiator out, as I was not using any characters of his high (Superman strength) level. Kolakoski, who ran them in game one, noted that they were disadvantaged by not having any members with a medium to long range attack. I would play them next in Game Two.

In between the games, TW selected the Inhumans, so I'd run the Shi'ar. We discussed starting our characters interpenetrated so as to be able to combine attacks, but ended up setting up on our own sides of the palace, still in close contact. I thought we should use our central position to fight together, even though not doing the two vs one combo our enemies had used-we knew they'd be watching for it.

I planned to lure the enemy to the palace on my side by playing defensively, hoping to "ambush" them with my melee figures, who would be help back a few rows. At the palace wall (castle battlements), Manta would use her ranged attack, and Oracle her Mind Control ability to threaten the first enemy to advance, while Smasher moved off to the side, hidden by a group of pine trees, to first use his limited distance attack, and then melee his advancing enemies hand to hand, with reinforcements close by.

Game Two

But we were fighting different X-Men, and the interactions were different from Game One. TW threw consternation into the enemy on his side by going for their start zone with Black Bolt and others. However, this meant that his action took place too far away for me to join him. Meanwhile, I found Fantomex firing from a distance, with Jean Grey nearby. Beast was the first opponent who came close, attacking and then leaping over some of my figures into the palace! But I defeated him, after pulling back Manta, who had been quickly badly damaged. I moved Smasher and Korvus forward to attack Fantomex and Jean Grey, but all of my figures just whiffed on defense, and so were badly hurt early on.

Far away, Black Bolt was 'bamf'd' away from his attack and wounded by SD's Nightcrawler, who eventually brought him all the way behind my own lines, but so far away that he was killed before I could send out a rescue effort from my rear rank in the palace. Yikes! I suggested conceding the game early, and TW did not take too much persuading. So on only Turn Four of a Ten Turn Game we surrendered, ending very early in abject defeat! We didn't even bother to tote up the score.

Five Player Blood Rage

Well, we took a dinner break and a funny thing happened. Earlier that very day, a guy had sent me a trial balloon email about forming a board game group at my co-op development. I had meant to do the same thing, but our Community Room had become temporarily unavailable for a few months, and so I'd never gotten around to it. As he said he'd just gotten the BR game but not tried it out yet, I invited him right over! He got home from work and came to meet us and to provide us with a fifth player. K. and SD. also played it for the first time, and TW for the second. Everyone who plays this game loves it! So far (including two days after this game day) I've done:

Solitaire: 2, 3, 4, and 5 player
FTF: 2, (x5), 4, and 5 player
With two more games set up for next week, when I finally get the last expansion to put out I don't have yet--multiple players using Gods of Asgard and Mystics of Midgard for the first time with more than two players.

We had a great time this day in my first full 5 player.

Final score:

Wolves (Kolakoski): 130
Ravens (Taeblewalker): 103
Bears (Chas): 93
Serpents (New Guy): 67
Rams (SD): 41

Of course, there is a learning curve, but after one game under your belt, you're pretty much ready to go. Although most of my players have not seen the two optional rules modules used yet. We did use all of the exclusive monsters (except the duplicate sculpts, which I don't have), and of course the Five Player Expansion.

***

Yet another fun game day here in Brooklyn!

In the next two days, I'd play more 2 Player Blood Rage, once with TW and four times with K.

Next up as HeroScape GM in February: Taeblewalker

(Edit Now Kolakoski: we switched so K. can meet his Codex article deadline!

[chas]

Yes folks, those powerful Clan Shamen you've seen in your visions while eating those mushrooms will now be appearing today on the game board as the Mystics of Midgard, along with (no kidding) the Gods of Asgard. Prepare for Blood Rage with some differences!

Karl Ursus
Chief, Bear Clan

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Inserted a couple of pics:

Originally Posted by chas

My two Shi'ar vs The X-Men GM games were finally played after our break in December for the holidays! The night before, I had modified the game start conditions after some thought after building the board, so the "Bad Guys" started together in the center in the open palace area, and the X-Men on the far corners of their board edge. However, our usual giant board was 25% less wide, to keep everyone in the same game, rather than have two seperate one vs one matches. However, it did not turn out that way; at least not as much as I had hoped for our side!

Originally Posted by chas

Having received only some of my Shi'ar soldiers, I put the two I had in front of the palace as a "ceremonial guard," but they fled upon seeing X-Men approaching!

Game One

In the first game, I was teamed up with Taeblewalker as the "Good Guys" (X-Men) and did actually get to use my original team tactical plan (that almost never happens)! Kolokosky and Sherman Davies decided to play the old two vs one strategy from their central position against my partner, while I took a while to set up my attack against the center, where a number of my opponents' pieces were sitting on the height of the multihex throne dias complex. The Inhumans (SD) took off after my partner's start zone, fighting him there, and then he counterattacked to the side hill, far away from where I could possible reach him from the opposite edge.

So I used my plan to bombard the fairly passive group in the center with first Havoc (protected by Polaris) and then Banshee, who had area effect attacks. Once they had been somewhat weakened, Magik teleported using her stepping disks with Strong Guy, who used brute force to finish some of them off. Eventually the enemy activated some lesser active opposition, as Karnak came out to fight us and refused to die. Oracle was also mind controlling Strong Guy, who attacked my own figures a couple of times! Since Cannonball on my team also moved fast, I jetted him over to Oracle and was lucky enough to take her right out, even though she was on favorable terrain to the side toward TW's area.

With ten characters on my huge team, everyone got an order marker at some point, except for Moira. This was not intentional, but resulted from my being unable to lure the enemy toward my own start zone, where she remained to heal my wounded. While Magik retreated from the front line eventually with only one life left, she was never threatened further, and so there was no need to heal her. The others who died were far away in the front lines.

The action against Taeblewalker was hot and heavy, on his side. As Lockjaw did his one teleport to move his family closer to TW, and then moved no more the whole game, I joked that because he was next to a pine tree, "dogs really ARE distracted by trees!" Gorgon was the first prime attacker, affecting several TW figures still in their start zone as an area attacker. TW polished him off, and then Black Bolt and Medusa, who had the most synergy on their team of Inhumans, assaulted Warpath and others on the side hill, in a swirling fight that lasted the rest of the game.

Eventually, TW lost his entire team. While my opponents left Triton, Crystal, Hussar, and others whom the map did not particularly favor to my tender mercies in the palace, TW had most of the order markers used against him. The enemy team plan worked for them, although it was no walkover. At the end I sent out Longshot, and got to use his interesting two sided card. I also sent out Karma at the end, whose figure I had just acquired, but she failed her Mind Control roll of 14+ (much harder than Oracle's).


Final Score Game One:

Shi'ar and Inhumans: 2,080
X-Men: 1,835

These game combined X-Man teams self drafted by their players with premade teams. The Inhumans were made by a number of independent designers (see previous posts), the Shi'ar Imperial Guard by my buddy Drewman-chu. However, I left the powerful Gladiator out, as I was not using any characters of his high (Superman strength) level. Kolakoski, who ran them in game one, noted that they were disadvantaged by not having any members with a medium to long range attack. I would play them next in Game Two.

In between the games, TW selected the Inhumans, so I'd run the Shi'ar. We discussed starting our characters interpenetrated so as to be able to combine attacks, but ended up setting up on our own sides of the palace, still in close contact. I thought we should use our central position to fight together, even though not doing the two vs one combo our enemies had used-we knew they'd be watching for it.

I planned to lure the enemy to the palace on my side by playing defensively, hoping to "ambush" them with my melee figures, who would be help back a few rows. At the palace wall (castle battlements), Manta would use her ranged attack, and Oracle her Mind Control ability to threaten the first enemy to advance, while Smasher moved off to the side, hidden by a group of pine trees, to first use his limited distance attack, and then melee his advancing enemies hand to hand, with reinforcements close by.

Game Two

But we were fighting different X-Men, and the interactions were different from Game One. TW threw consternation into the enemy on his side by going for their start zone with Black Bolt and others. However, this meant that his action took place too far away for me to join him. Meanwhile, I found Fantomex firing from a distance, with Jean Grey nearby. Beast was the first opponent who came close, attacking and then leaping over some of my figures into the palace! But I defeated him, after pulling back Manta, who had been quickly badly damaged. I moved Smasher and Korvus forward to attack Fantomex and Jean Grey, but all of my figures just whiffed on defense, and so were badly hurt early on.

Far away, Black Bolt was 'bamf'd' away from his attack and wounded by SD's Nightcrawler, who eventually brought him all the way behind my own lines, but so far away that he was killed before I could send out a rescue effort from my rear rank in the palace. Yikes! I suggested conceding the game early, and TW did not take too much persuading. So on only Turn Four of a Ten Turn Game we surrendered, ending very early in abject defeat! We didn't even bother to tote up the score.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

I am Hosting (meaning creating the scenario, the game still occurring at chas' Game Palace in Brooklyn), out of order, thanks to Taeblewalker's generosity, the Gang's next gathering on February 3rd, so that the Battle Report can appear in April as part of the new Codex blog. I am eschewing the complicated A Royal Rescue! (see comment to my blog post Musings from Sunny Negril!) in favor of a series of simple kill 'em alls.

Raid on Gambia!

"Arghhh! Captain, our erstwhile partner has landed on the other side of Town. Do we meet him . . ."

"Meet him with steel!"

The Map. The Map will remain a Port Town, and the Magical Wall (no fly-overs) and it's only Gate will be at the center of the Town, with the Docks (Sand hexes) as the Start Zones. Flowing through the Gate, between the Docks at the long ends of the Map, will be a Stream with a Fountain Source at the center of the Gate. Although the Wall will have no perches, the Town will have several commanding the Gate area, with interior Castle wall walks, and 2-3 extreme height, single space positions.

There will be plenty of Ladders, but, for this scenario, they function as Lifts, such that a unit entering any Ladder step, may move to any other Ladder step, at no cost in Movement points. There will also be defensive terrain (Jungle, Shadow, Ruins, Trees) in and around the Gate area.

The Armies. Each Player will build a different medieval (old Valhalla Society restrictions, no duplicate units between armies) 750 point (Classic, no Marvel, C3V/SoV only) army for each of three, 5-Round Team games (a total of three different armies per Player), as follows:

Taeblewalker & kolakoski vs. chas & Sherman Davies

Taeblewalker & chas vs. Sherman Davies & kolakoski

Taeblewalker & Sherman Davies vs. chas & kolakoski

The Wall. The Wall dividing the Town in half is enchanted such that it may not be flown over or passed through under any circumstances. The only passage from one side of the wall to the other is by a single Gate.

Lifts. The Lifts actually run along side their respective Ladders, in that a unit entering any Ladder step may move to any other Ladder step, at no cost in Movement points, and may utilize a Lift at any point (beginning, middle, and/or end) during its movement. A unit going up or down on the Lift can also bypass (move through) any unit on that Lift's respective Ladder (as though there were Phantom Walk for all units on Lifts).

Victory Conditions. Each Team receives Victory Points for all enemy units killed, plus Victory Points for all friendly units on the enemy side of the Wall, at the end of five Rounds (partial points for squads).

Summary. Build three different 750 point medieval armies. Remember OMs and Dice!

[Johngee]

@ K-ski;

Wow, sounds like a fun scenario. My initial thought was that you were going to recreate the castle in the first picture using HeroScape and was going to suggest you use Lego's, but you've obviously got everything under control as usual. I particularly like you idea for ladders, using them as "lifts" and will have to borrow that concept for my own house rules (if I ever get to play HS at my house, ha ha ; - ). I've always found traversing elevation changes on HS terrain (except for falling) to be very tedious. Several time I created stairs up to the top of 12-height walls using a single ladder section to connect every two tiles, thus making it a 6-step movement from bottom to top, but it just didn't "feel" right, and it certainly did *NOT* look anything like the ramp that I intended to emulate.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Originally Posted by Johngee

@ K-ski;

Wow, sounds like a fun scenario. My initial thought was that you were going to recreate the castle in the first picture using HeroScape and was going to suggest you use Lego's, but you've obviously got everything under control as usual. I particularly like you idea for ladders, using them as "lifts" and will have to borrow that concept for my own house rules (if I ever get to play HS at my house, ha ha ; - ). I've always found traversing elevation changes on HS terrain (except for falling) to be very tedious. Several time I created stairs up to the top of 12-height walls using a single ladder section to connect every two tiles, thus making it a 6-step movement from bottom to top, but it just didn't "feel" right, and it certainly did *NOT* look anything like the ramp that I intended to emulate.

Certain features of that castle could find their way onto the castle portion of the Map as a sort of homage, but Legos . . . ? 'Scaping is serious business - and Legos are . . . toys! Never will any Legos product find its way to my table.

As to the Lifts, I imagine them running along side their respective Ladders such that a unit going up or down on the Lift could bypass (move through) any unit on that Lift's respective Ladder. [Going back to write this into the scenario . . .] Here we go:

Lifts. The Lifts actually run along side their respective Ladders, in that a unit entering any Ladder step may move to any other Ladder step, at no cost in Movement points, and may utilize a Lift at any point (beginning, middle, and/or end) during its movement. A unit going up or down on the Lift can also bypass (move through) any unit on that Lift's respective Ladder (as though there were Phantom Walk for all units on Lifts).

[chas]

The trick when building for Heroscape games in general (not just for the art of it, which some do also), is to keep the height fairly low. High height looks cool, but tends to ruin games!