The New York City Gang Of Four

[Anitar]

Originally Posted by chas

One of the AOA Dryan Familiars, Vrono The Brambletooth, has a Drag power which may be relevant with lava!

Do take a closer look. I made sure my Vrono has to drop everyone on land tiles specifically to prevent cheap molten-lava-dunking. (Feel free to drop them on lava field near the end of the round, though.)

[chas]

Yes, I saw the discussion on your customs thread. I never thought of molten lava not being a "land tile" as such. But I guess technically it is not. Also, when I speak of lava in general discussions, I'm including both molten lava and lava field types unless I differentiate between them. However, for the game above I did mean only molten lava for "lava dunking."

Although there were a few lava field hexes on TWs map; no one landed on any during our games. They would have played out very differently if no character had a power that moved other figures like Dr. Doom had; especially since there was one molten lava hex inside the tower.

[chas]

January/February/March NYCG4 Summary: AOA Progression, Etc.

Although this thread is basically the doings of our local Scape group, I'm always interested in what others think about what we are doing, and if they are doing anything similar with their own groups. So anyone should feel free to comment or ask questions here if you like. Since we sometimes do private individual or group local posts to each other for details of preparing and attending sessions, this is another case of me trying to summarize what we're up to "offstage" for those of you who want to follow our progress.

For the rest of this month of January we now have two dates I'll be running to do games with the eight AOA armies I've posted upthread. After that I'll open up the door to doing combo armies using AOA and other previous Classic and Custom cards. I am going to try and stick to only using one of each AOA card per game, because it was hard enough to get 51 new cards and proxies together. So players using AOA armies/cards should reserve them early for their games! First come; first served--I'll usually pick last. Two players out of the two who have already reserved have in fact reserved the same AOA army; luckily for different dates. I'm now keeping lists of who requests which AOA armies (and later, units).

In February, Sherman Davies will be taking his Game Master rotation turn. We don't know what kind of scenario he will offer, or if it will allow AOA cards. We should hear more on this later in the month.

For March, Kolakoski will run a game going back to one of his favorite themes of Pirates. You can see this scenario here on his blog:

heroscapers.com/community/blog.php?b=3165

K. is allowing AOA cards as well as mixed armies of AOA plus older Classic and Customs cards, as is our normal practice to give the players a choice of everthing available in our general games where the GM does not offer canned armies or a limited card selection--usually in Supers games.

I will continue to offer extra Scape dates in these months as possible for people who want to play more, or who can't fit certain days of the week into their schedules. Players who can't make our scheduled "regular" monthly dates, which almost always include our GM Rotation System, for more opportunities to try AOA play, as there is so much new stuff to try out!

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Extensively rewrote Ant rules. Let me know what you think . . .

[chas]

Sure will. I was always a partner with K. on his blog and other scenarios, as a Second Opinion, which he was generous enough to listen to! He's probably glad to take input from anyone else as well. People are busy, and we never get enough feedback. Luckily, for this scenario, we've got until March.

[chas]

Draft Rule For Illusory Walls (Optional AOA Scenario Rule)

1. Wall sections using Castle Walls placed on the board as Illusory Walls will have no Caps, Battlements, or Wall Walks attached to them, but may have Doors. They must be free standing, that is not connected to normal Castle structures that do have these features on either end. They may connect to a board edge or edges. Illusory Walls may be combined on a map with normal Castle Walls, which may be marked as such with a white marker at the start of the game, if they don't have any of the additional banned features noted above for Illusory Walls. Note that an "Illusory Wall" is in fact a potential Illusory Wall; it may turn out to be real!

2. When a figure first comes adjacent to such an Illusory Wall section, its player rolls the D20:

Odd: The Wall is Illusory It continues to block line of sight, but not movement. Mark with a Red marker. Figures may now pass through it during movement, but not attack through it.

Even: The Wall Is Real Treat it as a normal Castle Wall for all purposes. Mark with a Blue marker.

3. After the D20 roll, that figure's turn ends with no further action, whether Hero or Squad. Other figures from its Squad, if any, may then take their turn if they have not already done so.


***

Here's the final touch for my AOA Game. What do you think? I don't want the GM, who is also a player, to have previous knowledge of the (possibly) Illusory Wall's final characteristics! It will be fun to have multiple Illusory Wall sections on the map, possibly combined with real Walls as noted above! Note that this is the formalization of the description noted on Avalon Hill's description of them during the offering period.

[AMIS]

Have you thought about making the walls completely magical and random? So that one figure can get through that section but the following may not be able to until the next round.

[chas]

Anitar,

That's radical, but might be fun to try! It looks at Scape more like a chaotic adventure, where you have to adapt along the way. And that's certainly an aspect of our general play on our battlefields.

My rule looks at Heroscape more as a strategy game, where you learn about the terrain by exploring, and then come up with the best way to exploit it within the usual ten turn format. Something like the way you deal with Glyphs (although we don't use them too often). It should encourage creative game play and serve to spice up the game, while not changing the basic approach to winning.

I'm an old wargamer, and like to play Scape by looking at it through that lens. So I guess one's rule will depend on what kind of environment you want to provide for your players.

It will take a while for everyone here to get to know AOA's cards and synergies. So for now, I'll be playtesting my idea in our "extra" AOA sessions, which I'm running in addition to our regular monthly games. We'll see how the others of this group react to it, and then eventually discuss other options like the one you suggest.

Since we have a rotation of our four core members providing custom scenarios as Game Masters each month, the other GMs will be free to test out how they want to play Illusory Walls during their own turns if they want to add it in, and of course will be free to try out your idea, since each GM runs their own show with very few limits on how they do it.

Because Illusory Walls was conceived as a special Scenario Rule, rather than a permanent one used for every battle, the gang will be free to vary it as they like. Down through the years we've varied a number of Scape rules and procedures for specific games, even normally permanent ones. The different players each have their own bent for experimentation in their own ways!

The only permanent Table Rule we use regularly is one of mine; you can't shoot between two Pine Trees. (Since all they do is block Line Of Sight, they should be better at it).

[Taeblewalker]

Sauron's Eyrie! At @chas 's house.

[chas]

For the armies and scenario shown in the photos above see previous page, Posts #1449 and #1450. These pictures are from Game #1.

Photo #1: Iceman atop the main tower walls, where much of the combat took place.

Photo #2: Othkurik, Spiderman, the Lizard, and Iceman on the same hex. Note the open rear entrance below him leading to the Good Guy Start Zone. The main door in the front of the tower is below the Lizard. Note that Iceman has dropped snow and water hexes.

Photo #3: The interior of the tower, showing the lava hex with The Thing. A Green scale is attacking him for height. The main tower door is still closed.

Photo #4: In the Evil Start Zone on the other side of the Tower, Firestar has just wiped out an entire squad of Greenscales, while Doombots look on. Their turn is coming next! A surviving Greenscale is about to attack her with no effect, with another closing in. In the right background, you can see one of the two rows of exterior lava hexes under one of the two protruding tower walls.

Photo #5: In front of the Tower door, The Lizard is about to scale the wall to open the door for the Greenscales outside. Instead, a Greenscale already inside from a rear entrance will do it first.

Photo 6: Sherman Davies looks on, as Mr. Fantastic, bent out of shape from the defeat of Invisible Woman, punches the real Doctor Doom on the Tower roof. Othkurik battles Spidey. Below Left you can see the other rear entrance leading to the Evil Start Zone. Below Right, Greenscales pour through the now open Tower Door. Note the ingenious way single ladder sections are being used by TW to brace the hexes above the gaps in the wall--a very cool building technique. In the Far Right Background, the Human Torch is also a casualty on the side.

For a clear overview of this neat map, see the link to the map plans upthread.

[Myriadite]

Wow, that is great way to brace a single hex!

[chas]

Taeblewalker is a great map designer! I'm glad I noticed this feature in the photo, and could point it out. There is a second ladder section on the other side of the gap, which you can't see very clearly in the picture.