The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

INTRODUCTION TO HEROSCAPE JANUARY 7, 2017

For our first modest open invitational here at what Kolakoski likes to call the Gaming Palace (I'm starting to now call it my Gaming Studio, since its now my Retirement Art), we drew upon some of the new pals we made this year through our new local light board games group here in my development in Brooklyn Heights. Four adults and the group organizer's 8 year old daughter, all of whom had never played Heroscape before had signed up. Also joining us at the last minute as players were site and local Veteran Scape Buddy Ishmel, and Super Veteran (!!!) Jeff Van Ness, wearing his home made Tee Shirt with its new Soaring Rhino logo (not yet produced and available; see home page for logo). Jeff got to play some C3V customs for the very first time, since he and brother Craig had had to stay away from the Customs section while still employed by Hasbro. Jeff says they were astounded at what is now available when they recently took their first look!

The Game

Sherman Davies taught and ran the game, with me and Taeblewalker as back up coaches and hosts. Sherman made up a map for the event called "Smorgasboard," which had a nice variety of terrain, and called for a victory by holding three designated central hexes at the end of any turn fo a ten turn scenario. He made up the following eight 500 point newbie armies, six of which were chosen by the players, which included a nice variety of figures and internal synergy:

ARMY #1
Jotun 225
Guilty McCreech 30
Dreadgul Raiders x3 195
Marro Warriors 50

ARMY #2
Grimnak 120
Kaemon Awa 120
Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider 50
Heavy Gruts x3 210

ARMY #3
Major Q10 150
Alastair Macdirk 110
Eldgrim the Viking Champion 30
Knights of Weston x3 210

ARMY #4
Sgt. Drake Alexander II 170
Raelin the Kyrie Warrior 80
Syvarris 100
Marro Drones x3 150

ARMY #5 (Not used)
Migol Ironwill 110
Kumiko 80
Krav Magna Agents 100
Axegrinders of The Burning Forge x3 210

ARMY #6 (Not used)
Agent Carr 100
Ogre Warhulk 150
Marcus Decimus Gallus 100
Roman Legionnaires x3 150

ARMY #7
Nilfheim 185
Zogross Hardscale 120
Armoc Vipers x3 195

ARMY #8
Charos 210
Marro Stingers X3 180
Ninjas of the Northern Wind 110

While most players rushed to the center, some were derailed by attacks from the players to their sides. Two brother players started out with a truce, but it soon broke down when they reached the center! The most dramatic early event stunned us all, when the only woman adult player among us showed First Rate Sneakiness on Turn Two, by occupying all three target hexes as the last player in the initiative order. It looked like she'd won the game, all unexpected by any of us players and observers! Then a careful examination of her last move by the GM revealed that she had mistakenly not taken two leaving engagement attacks by an Armoc Viper to reach his target hex. So the opposing player rolled two dice for two figures, and one showed a skull. Her viper was removed, and five other players breathed a sigh of relief, as the game now continued. Whew--that was a close one!

There were many exciting tactical incidents, and a number of well planned attacks had their die rolls fail. The worst perhaps was when the player with the Marro Stingers rolled three 1's in a row for Stinger Drain! Nilfheim grabbed a victory hex early but was taken down. Although three different players were using Marro units, everyone kept track of who was controlling whom. One Marro squaddie survived a powerful attack, and then managed to put heavy damage on Drake Alexander himself. Although there wasn't much diplomacy, there were many twists and turns in battle, as players learned to go for the high ground rather than try for the target hexes too soon.

The turns started to go faster as rookies got the rules, and there were many casualties on all sides. Ishmel kept cloning (respawning) his Marro Warriors, until they were the only figures he had left. Meanwhile two players had been eliminated as the final turn approached. Jeff VN was looking good to win, but his Sgt. Drake II was knocked out, and Ishmel won the game the hard way, on surviving points, as no one even had three figures left to win the regular way. Both player were surprised by the last minute roll of dice that determined the outcome after many a change of fortune and brave charge. No one had turtled, everybody had gone in with a will.

***

When we broke for dinner, those that had to go left, and four of us regathered to play Shifting Realms, the first product of Soaring Rhino, including the three of us Gang of Four members in attendence and one of our pals. Jeff taught us the game. We enjoyed it--I came in second, not bad--and would all play it again. Then Jeff showed us what would be in store for the First Expansion--more realms, of course.

While I wouldn't review a game after only one play, I have to say that I really got into all of the interesting choices a player has to make in this new game, and even made up my own simple hand written Player Aid during the game. I'm not really a Euro gamer, so I note that it does not resemble Heroscape in the way that say, some Plaid Hat games do to a greater or lesser degree. But of its kind, it is quite exciting, with a great variety of player strategies and possibilities. Yet it doesn't take long to play (Jeff said 1 1/2 hours only). In fact, planning to end the game while you are ahead is a major goal as the finale approaches--if you can manage to pull it off!

Jeff lives much closer to NYC than brother Craig, and we hope he'll be back again to visit and play something. It was great to meet him and hear about what the brothers have in store for the gaming community as their company comes on line. He says they have six different games in various stages of development.

And the Kickstarter for Shifting Realms will be coming very soon to a website near you!

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

Yup, everyone made it out to chas' place, including surprise guest Jeff Van Ness himself, who played an epic six-player game of 'Scape with the newbies and then stuck around afterwards to teach him and Craig Van Ness' new game, Shifting Realms, which should show up on Kickstarter very soon. All in all, a very memorable day of gaming.

O...M...G... Now I'm really kicking myself in the butt [ouch!] for not making it up to a Chas event yet! I've been following the VN Bros' Soaring Rhino and have been waiting for it to show up on KS. So what do you think of "Shifting Realms?"


sorry I couldn't join you guys for some 'Scape-ing, but we in the southern states (ahem, Cape May, NJ) don't know how to handle a little bit (5") of fluffy white s***. Butt IF the weather had been better, THEN I would have been celebrating Christmas with my son and grandson near Hershey, PA. Hope to see all ya'all in 2017.

[chas]

John,

You can lead a horse to water...

This is the second time a designer popped in at Chez Chas; within the last year or so we had Ian Brody, head of Griggling Games, playtest his first expansion for Quartermaster General, which was Air Marshal.

[Augray]

Thanks for having me at the event, chas. I had a great time playing Heroscape. It has been awhile. I am glad you guys enjoyed Shifting Realms. I am definitely interested in catching a game or two with your group. Keep me posted.

[IshMEL]

Thanks for a great day of Heroscape! I really didn't "deserve" that win but sometimes the dice say otherwise. Great to get some new players into the game too!

[Sherman Davies]

I thought you played it well, IshMEL - I gave you roughly a 40% chance of winning the game on that last turn, but you had to hang in there with the Marro Warriors long enough to get that chance, so you earned it.

Originally Posted by Johngee

I've been following the VN Bros' Soaring Rhino and have been waiting for it to show up on KS. So what do you think of "Shifting Realms?"

I thought it was very good, especially for a "cubes and meeples" game, which is typically not my preferred type of game. It's a nice hybrid Ameritrash/Euro design like many games nowadays, with some worker placement and resource generating elements from the Euro side and some Ameritrash player interaction and conflict added in. I can see the multiple board combinations adding a lot of replay value as well.

[chas]

I now have a (Non-Heroscape) multiplayer game schedule for all Saturdays in Jan. and Feb. Anyone in the NYC area can PM me to get it and join in.

This Wednesday in our regular NYC Gang of Four GM Rotation its time for a much delayed Sherman DaviesScape. Three of us will be there for two free for alls. We'll each choose two 800 point armies; one Classic/Customs Valhallascape, and one Sherman Davies' Superscape. We'll be using his map "Quinjet Field."

Next month in February will be KolakoskiScape, details TBA.

[chas]

My Classic army at our Sherman DaviesScape Day included three of the four brand new C3V designs for our two three way free for alls. SD and Taeblewalker, being on the committee, were not surprised by them, but were by seeing the figures for the Sentinels of Grax which IshMEL traded to me when he came over a day before to play a game of Superscape on the same map.

On that previous day IshMEL fielded a 1,000 Point Sherman Davies Supers Army of all women: She Hulk, Black Canary, Storm and Wasp against my Shi'ar: Gladiator, Starbolt, Oracle, and two squads of Shi'ar Soldiers (the first three customs by my Silver Age card making buddy Drewman-chu). Ish won in a pretty close game.

Back to SD Scape--my 800 Point Armies:

Classic/Custom (Game 1)
Moltenclaw
Sw 8000
Ornak
Zettian Deathwings (x2)
Ashi Dulu* (Had lots of fun swallowing 4th Mass whole).
Brute Gruts* (killed Sir Dupuis).
Sentinels of Grax* (wiped out in a single attack before getting into the game by the Evil SD's Quicksilver).

*New C3V

SD Supers (Game 2)

Rom (Space Knight)
Ikon (Space Knight)
Speed Demon

SD Army (Both Games)
Captain America
Scarlet Witch]
Quicksilver
Hawkeye

Taeblewalker Armies

Sir Dupuis
Templar Knights (x3)
4th Mass (x4?)

Abomination
Crusher Creel
Cloak (as in Cloak and Dagger)

I didn't win any games, but sure had a relaxed day of fun!

We then played my very first 4 Player game of Cry Havoc, with another pal joining us after dinner. CH is on my schedule for early February as well, when hopefully we'll play several 4 Players of it. Trogs are fun to play in their active role!

[chas]

Kolakoski Sci Fi Scape

Feb. 8 has been selected for our next regular monthly Gang of Four meeting. Here is the preliminary draft from K.:

"I'll be building a Space Ship map (mostly Castle/Road terrain). We'll play the usual 750 point, Classic and C3V/SoV kill them all, however, in a twist you'd not expect from me, only aliens, robots, guns and grenades. (Drake is good.) It's OK to get creative, for example, Sujoah and Spiders, yes; Wyvern, no. No cowboys. You get the idea."

K. is famous for his Valhalla Society 'No Guns' policy of keeping it Medieval/Fantasy way back in the old days, so this will be a complete reverse of that idea!

[Johngee]

I highly recommend the Vulcanmech Incendiborgs. @Gurei-Ornery devastated me with them one time while I was down in the Merryland of a @Dad_Scaper tournament. They're a very fun C3V design.

[chas]

I'm working on two armies: one Classic, one C3V. Robots, aliens, and agents so far. K. will be over on Monday (tomorrow) to freebuild the board. Giant Bugs of course work too for a Sci Fi theme!

Thanks for the suggestion, John. Its been a while since the VI appeared on our board.

(Edit) K. was over to build the board. I suggested a couple of changes, one of which was to add some water. He said "water on a spaceship?" So since the back story is not developed, and its not a ship belonging to any of the players, I suggested it might be from an amphibious race. It does look sort of like a giant frog in outline, come to think of it!

[chas]

KOLAKOSKI SCIFI SCAPE

We played two games. I was teamed with Taeblewalker for the first, and we got beaten pretty badly, and surrendered before the end. My army was:

C3V

VulcanMech Incindiborgs
Rygaran
Sentinels of Grax
Sgt. Drake I
Havech Eradicators x3

In the second game, teamed up with Sherman Davies, it went right to the end in a total nail biter. There were only two of us still in the game, and I won with only 2 Microcorp Agents left!

CLASSICS

Major Q9
Sgt. Drake II
Krav Maga Agents
Microcorps Agents x3