The New York City Gang Of Four

[AMIS]

Team Evil for the win.

[chas]

I was in the hospital for a couple of days due to an irregular heartbeat, and that slowed me down a bit--I now have an implanted heart monitor for that. And I had them work on a cyst I have on my neck that I've been trying to get removed. So I had to cancel a couple of (nonScape) games. But I should soon be back on track. I hit 70 years old last Christmas Eve, so these kinds of things are to be expected.

[chas]

This Month and Next Month (April and May 2022)

As the guy who has to build the map and often make the armies, I was happy to review Kolakoski's scenario for this month and note that I already had the map printed out in our hard copy Map Library here. Maybe I did it in anticipation of the game when he first planned it out long ago. And all thee armies are Classic or Custom stuff for which I'll only need about three proxies. Easy peasy, with the four armies all laid out ahead of time four us to choose.

Our GM rotation is currently in age order. Who goes next in May? Hey, its me! Time to plan out a new game. And if I know me, it'll include the possibility of using all the newest C3G cards on the Home Page, which I've printed in color and sleeved for our gaming pleasure. In fact, I've seen one I haven't tried out yet that I particularly want to play with...

***

Card Colors and Sleeves

I mention "in color" because when C3V started out, I was saving ink by printing them out only in Black and White. After all, there were only a few of them back then. And that made it quicker to distinguish the Customs from Classics, as our local annual Islandscape tournament back then didn't allow the customs.

But since Ishmel gave me all of the C3V/SOV (aka VC) Customs in color on thicker paper last year, and I bought a lot more sleeves that fit to keep them in, I've decided to keep doing them that way. We don't hear regularly from Ish, but we're always glad when he comes over.

My C3G Superhero collection is so large with all the versions of different heroes and villains--who are sometimes the same characters at different points in their careers--that I still keep them filed unsleeved, and sleeve them up only for a game they'll be used for. But the more often used C3Vs are now all sleeved permanently and ready to go.

Of course, as you can see these days we do sometimes even mix up NonSupers with Supers in the same game. Then I take out my empty sleeves out for the Supers, although if using Sherman Davies Supers, he'll just bring them over himself.

[Ericth74]

The GI Joe faction is a lot of fun to play.

[chas]

Hey, thanks--I haven't looked at that one yet!

I've played lots of WWII soldier types such as Easy Company, Howling Commandoes, and The Blackhawks on missions backing up Captain America etc. vs Nazi soldiers and supers.

Sherman Davies made a custom of me for my birthday who is a Recon soldier type that I haven't tried out, come to think of it! You can see it on his Customs Thread with a different name.

[chas]

May Chas Scape Scenario

I've sent a post to the gang with a draft of my intended game for May:


Since its my turn to run the game in May, I'm going to use another idea--like my previous Factionscape, its more what I expected to see in Scape when I first got the game--that I've been kicking around for a while. I want to share it with you early for your comments, and you can even try it out at home beforehand if you like! It should provide lots of thinky army building with only one rules change--but its a doozy! Please send me any comments and questions that occur to you.

Here's the draft so far:


TRAINED ARMIES

"The army that trains together, reigns together!"
--Commander Chas


Rules Change: Trained Army Bonding

All army card bonding powers change the descriptions of who the card's character(s) bonds with to "any members of your Army of the proper type." The specific Species, Class, and Personalities (SCP) of your cards may now be ignored for bonding limitation purposes! Common/Uncommon/Unique and Hero/Squad types remain the same on all cards. Specific General Loyalties and Size/Height also remain the same, as do all numerical values and Special Powers.

Clarification: If the specific SCP on your Bonding Power are no longer limited by that specific descriptor, it means that now any Hero or Squad type of that descriptor in your army can be bonded with. So if you bond with a Darklord--then because a Darklord is a Hero--and "Darklord" is no longer specifically binding, you can now bond with any Hero in your army (including a Darklord)!

Armies

Each player brings two armies for one Free For All and one Team game. Each army total is 600 Points, and must fit in 24 hexes. Each army must include a minimum of two Hero and two Squad cards of any type (Unique, Common, or Uncommon). All Classic and Customs may be used, but no Supers.

Victory

Each game lasts 10 turns, with full card scoring determining the winner(s). In a Team game, points earned by both players/armies on the team are added together to determine the winning side, even if some of the players have been eliminated.

Map Chosen, but not to be announced before Game Day!

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Before the pandemic emerged, I was scheduled to Host a game in March of 2020. I forgot till now that I had created a scenario and posted it to my Blog (posted on 2/14/2020). Here it is:

WETWORK

"I can't take it anymore!" Morgoloth was majestically wroth. "Kill the intruders! Make the water run red with their blood!"

The Map. Leakways and Creekways by killercactus (3 BftU, 21 additional water tiles), with the Power Glyphs removed.

The Armies. Anticipating the usual four player, two team format, the armies (one per player) are as follows:

Team Evil

140 Drow x 2
135 Wo-Sa-Ga
70 Brigand x 2
75 Cormin the Dark
60 Elaria the Pale
20 Marcu Esenwein
500, 13 spaces

160 Wolves of Badru x 2
140 Morgoloth
115 Ashi-Dhulu
80 Estivara
495, 9 spaces

Team Good

160 Shaolin Monks x 2
130 Master Lao Xin
75 Kha
70 Brigand x 2
60 Darrak Ambershard
495, 11 spaces

130 Armocs x 2
130 Kozil
120 Venoc Warlord
120 Tandros Kreel
500, 13 spaces

Below are optional additional armies for FFA or team play:

140 Lion of Punjab (C3V)
140 Racheim
120 Fen Hydra
100 Syvarris
500, 6 spaces

140 Othkurik
130 Locksley
120 Greenscales x 2
110 Mika Connour
500, 10 spaces

[chas]

Can I take the Lion of Punjab army if we play a second game? He's very interesting to me, and I may use him in my upcoming May Game army (see previous post)!

Kolakoski came up with two more armies after I asked him if he could take more players. I'm always inviting my local folks for Scape, and my Gaming Update newsletter posts go out to about 47 local people (most of whom I don't hear from that often, but at some point they subscribed to the list). Being retired, I'm still playing board games during the week and weekends. So if you're in or near NYC COME ON DOWN!!!

We only occasionally have guest Scapers, because people who get to come to NYC for a one time visit usually have other things they want to do here. And sometimes oure custom scenario for a particular month is set for only a particular player count. But usually we're the same friendly and open folks you've know onsite for years, and have everything Scape needed for another player to get into a game. Word, people.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Below are optional additional armies for FFA or team play:

140 Ranjit Singh (C3V)
140 Racheim
120 Fen Hydra
100 Syvarris
500, 6 spaces

140 Othkurik
130 Locksley
120 Greenscales x 2
110 Mika Connour
500, 10 spaces

Originally Posted by chas

Can I take the Lion of Punjab army if we play a second game? He's very interesting to me, and I may use him in my upcoming May Game army (see previous post)!

Kolakoski came up with two more armies after I asked him if he could take more players. I'm always inviting my local folks for Scape, and my Gaming Update newsletter posts go out to about 47 local people (most of whom I don't hear from that often, but at some point they subscribed to the list). Being retired, I'm still playing board games during the week and weekends. So if you're in or near NYC COME ON DOWN!!!

We only occasionally have guest Scapers, because people who get to come to NYC for a one time visit usually have other things they want to do here. And sometimes our custom scenario for a particular month is set for only a particular player count. But usually we're the same friendly and open folks you've know onsite for years, and have everything Scape needed for another player to get into a game. Word, people.

The Ranjit Singh only came to my attention when I created these extra armies. Might be vulnerable to swarms where extra attack value won't matter so much. Seems overpowered relative to the armies here. Extra armies built for a potential fifth player. Upon reflection, FFA not viable on this map, so one player would field two armies in a five player game. Below are a couple of additional armies to possibly counter the him:

180 Axentia
160 Red Ants of Aunstrom x 4 (C3V)
160 The Varja
500, 18 spaces

220 Xualtiaca Fire Ants x 4 (C3V)
140 Z'Thoth, Mouth of the Abyss
140 Master of the Hunt
500, 18 spaces

Note: Lion of Punjab is a power of Ranjit Singh, not the name of the figure.

[chas]

We had a fun two games with Kolakoski's scenario, and Team Evil did indeed win the first one. I lost with Sherman Davies. For the second, I did take the new Ranjit Singh, and this time lost with Taeblewalker. Then three of us played TWs copy of Return to Dark Tower. A fun and full game day indeed!

In the first game, my Monk army was very well constructed--K. is a great Army Builder, and had made them all. But that Ashi-Duli proved almost invulnerable to dice, and picked off many of my monks. In the second game, my Fen Hydra also went down quickly, killed by mere Ants! We had ants for one type TW had brought me long ago, and used Fyorlag Spiders for the others (I did have 18 of them).

In the second game, we clarified some of the rules for Ranjit Singh, and I realized he wouldn't be any better than usual for my upcoming game in May. One poster on the home page thread said he was hoping to use RS with a new bunch of explorers (Victorian?) now being prepared by C3V.

TW took a few photos at my request, so we'll see if they show up here.

[AMIS]

Sounds like an awesome time!

[Taeblewalker]