The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Photos From Top (See previous page)

1. Game Two, with my Ranjit Singh proxy (white headdress) in the foreground, a Dumutef Guard proxy for Z'Thoth , and some recent board games in the background. On the right is a Zauriel (Super) proxy for Axentia. Note that Leakways and Creekways is basically Highways on Dieways in the water!

2. Game Two; an earlier picture of the same army from the side. Note the central islands surounded bny Rock Outcrops.

3. Game One, with an Ashi-Dulu proxy about to munch yet another Monk. That's Sherman Davies in the background, with his usual cup of coffee from the deli downstairs. To the right is a proxy for one space Kozil.

4. Game One The front line was here where Venoc Warlord stands, and the Master next to him. Fen Hydra started here, but was quickly destroyed by lowly Ants.

[chas]

"Trained Army" scenario coming up on May 18.

Note that I have changed the wording and added a clarification to the scenario description of the change in the Bonding rule. This is on the previous page.

***

(Edit) I just PM'd with the map's designer for some clarification on building it, and got a nice answer right back! Alrighty.

This map will have some nice terrain, but won't be as restrictive as the last one (Leakways and Creekways). I'll reveal it later on. I've built my two armies, and tried not to take too much advantage of me being the only one who knows what it will be.

***

It will be interesting to see if the others take advantage of the variation on the Bonding Rule as I have, or just do normal armies. My idea was to provide interesting new possibilities, and I've gone over almost every card there is in Classics and Customs, to see who could take an interesting advantage of it. So my two teams will be like no other regular Scape armies, and they should be enjoyable to try out.

[chas]

Scenario Armies Incoming For Next Week

Kolakoski and Sherman Davies have now sent in their two armies each, and I'm glad to say both take advantage of my modified bonding rule for this scenario. It allows characters with bonding powers to apply them more widely to any similar type (Hero/Squad and Unique/Common/Uncommon) of other characters in their army. This should provide for some imaginative new army card combinations.

[Taeblewalker]

My first army for Wednesday is:
Ulginesh 150
Morsbane 100
Johrdawn 100
Erevan Sunshadow 80
Kyntela Gwyn 20
2x Aubrien Archers 140


Second army TBD

[chas]

ARMIES FOR CHAS SCAPE "TRAINED ARMIES" SCENARIO

Chas Army 1: "Road Warriors" (Used In Game 1; Free For All)

Talingul 100
Marro Stingers x2 120
Frost Giant 140
Krug 120
Dumutef Guards x4 100

Total: 580 18 SP

Chas Army 2: "Pod People" (Used in Game 2; Teamed With Sherman Davies)

Sonlen 160
Master Lao Xin 130
Krav Maga 100
Chardris 90
Arkmer 50
Warriors of Ashra 50
Bol 10
Isamu 10

Total 600 12 SP


Sherman Davies Army 1 (Used in Game 1; Free For All)

Knights of Weston x3 210
Major Q9 180
Raelin 80
Kaemon Awa 120

Total 590 16 SP

Sherman Davies Army 2 (Used in Game 2: Teamed with Chas)

Blade Gruts x4 160
Raelin SOTM 120
Braxis 210
Syvarris 100

Total: 590 20 SP


Kolakoski Army 1* (Used in Game 2; teamed with Taeblewalker)

Azazel 140
Kaemon Awa 120
Varkanaan Grayspears 110
Varkanaan Quickblades 100
Varkanaan Swiftfangs 80
Tarn Vikings 50

Total: 600 17 SP

Kolakoski Army 2* (Used in Game 1; Free For All)

Bahadur 120
Ninjas of the Northern Wind 110
Varkaanan Swiftfangs 80
Varkaanan Grayspears 110
Raelin 80
Tarn Vikings 50

Total: 600 20 SP


Taeblewalker Army 1 (Used in Game Two; teamed with Kolakoski)

Su-Bak-Na 160
Maarden Hounds x2 180
Tor-Kul-Na 220
Maarden Nagrubs 30

Total: 590 19 SP

Taeblewalker Army 2 (Used in Game 1; Free For All)

Venoc Warlord 120
Azurite Warlord 145
Armoc Vipers x3 185
Aubrien Archers x2 140
Otonoshi 10

Total: 600 18 SP

*K's Armies need to be corrected. They were changed before the games, and his updated notes do not seem to be correct. He will probably add the proper rosters in his future comments.

[chas]

MAP FOR CHAS SCAPE "TRAINED ARMIES" SCENARIO

The map for my May 2022 scenario is "Bad Moon Rising" by Game Bear, which you can see on site in the Custom Maps section here:

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...o=file&id=3073

We've never used this one before It has an interesting huge clump of shadow in the center and some other interesting features, but is not as restrictive as our last map of Leakways and Creekways. There are also a lot of Dungeon spaces, but no one is using any Drow or anyone else who would benefit especially from it like Darrak Ambershard or Mika Connor. Of course, I always keep the map ID secret before a game, so armies cannot be built for it specifically. Hmmm...it might be fun to reveal it early some time, and let players build their armies for it.

I have made two modifications:

1. After PMing with the designer, I found that he used Castle Wall bases with no walls, to allow the map plans to fit the three sets he used. However, since I own ridiculous amounts of every terrain type, he said I could just use additional normal hexes instead of them. In this case the normal base hexes are Dungeon hexes, so I replaced 18 of them. Actually, this used up most of the Dungeon 1-2 hexers I own. I hadn't been sure before building it if the wall bases would nicely support higher level terrain hexes and/or look good, so that saved me the puzzle of figuring it out while building the map. Thanks to Game Bear for getting back to me!

2. I converted this two player map into a four player map. I added two 24 dungeon hexers on the sides. Then I added 8 more Castle Battlements, to further separate the two new start zones from the older ones, so that they were close to equidistant from each other. These were placed near the two new start zones, somwhat similarly to those near the two original ones. Finally, since the original start zones were very spread out, I moved the furthest two single hexes of them into the middle, to decrease the distance between them and the new start zones.

I decided that for the team game the teammates would site diagonally opposite to each other.

[chas]

Commentary On My Teams For "Trained Armies:" Bonding Powers Opened Up


I went through every card I have to check out which characters had bonding powers I could amplify for this scenario, which expands bonding to any one (heros or squads as specified) in the same army. I then built my two groups around at least one with bonding power for each. Having only recently seen the other players' armies, I can't comment yet on how well they work, but I did check out their armies before the game, and noticed that everyone did use the modified rule to their advantage. I was glad to see that; since it was the point of the scenario. New combinations are now possible for this game only. If you like the idea, or any of ours here onsite, feel free to try them out, and ask any questions or share any comments you have here.

For now, here are some thoughts on the construction of my two armies:

Army 1: Road Warriors

This force is built around Talingul, who normally only works with large or huge Constructs (currently mostly only Iron Golems). So now I've got two expensive ones--Frost Giant and Krug that he can activate at once. Plus four of my five cheap Dumutef Guards! The DGuards are very old Scape figures who I used to use a lot, but I never got to use this many at once--the team is named for them. Plus I cheated a bit in that I knew there were a couple of roads hexes on the map, which would advantage them, although given their positioning, it may be tricky to fight where they are placed. As large figures they qualify for the bonding now. This thought actually started when I was first considering using the similar power of Ornak, the Orc Flag Bearer. But his ability is limited to Utgar units, and I didn't change the handling of General loyalty of the characters when I opened some specific left side card descriptors.

By coincidence I happed to collect the figure C3V used for Talingul before he came out. I enjoyed using him as written. The limitation being that there were very few he could use with his power. And since Large or Huge figures cost a lot, this also limits his ability, so they should be good ones!

Army 2: Pod People

When the Elves first came out, they were called The Elf Pod, since they were so dependent on using Elf Wizards only to bonus up the two distance fire wizards, one of which is Chardris, who I'm using here (the other is Jordawn). So the Elves had to mostly be played together, and were designed with that in mind. However, that is a bit restrictive, and later Elves do not have these limitations. Likewise, I've never been in favor of Eladrin being a separate character type from regular Elves; they have enough restrictions as it is, although I do play it that way.

Now Chardris can get a benefit from other heroes, although I'm using some Elf Wizards too. In addition for this team, Master Lao Xin [/I] can now activate himself plus any other hero or squad on the same turn, which now applies to all of his army members!

Note that in a previous post Taeblewalker had the same idea, although he's now changed his own draft Elf army to Vipers instead. None of the others has used any duplicates that I or anyone else picked, so the scenario seems to have a large enough number of characters that can be improved by the unique scenario rule.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

chas has come up with a fascinating twist for a Scape scenario!

My army for the team game:

Divine Wind

125 Ebon Armor
120 Bahadur
110 Ninjas of the Northern Wind
80 Varkanaan Swiftfangs
65 Johnny "Shotgun" Sullivan
50 Tarn
50 Marro Warriors
600, 22 spaces

Within the cover of a team game, this army could totally dominate.

For the free for all:

Ghost Wolves

125 Ebon Armor
120 Kaemon
110 Greyspears
100 Quickblades
80 Varkanaan Swiftfangs
65 Johnny "Shotgun" Sullivan
600, 17 spaces

A more balanced army. Kaemon is a wicked hero for the Varkanaans.

To clarify:

Ebon Armor:

DEFENSIVE POSITIONING
While an Ebon Armor is engaged, it has no visible Hit Zone.

ANIMATED MATERIEL
When an Ebon Armor you control is destroyed, you may place it on a Unique Human Army Card in your army that does not already have an Ebon Armor on it.

ETERNAL WAR
For the entire game, when a Unique Human Hero or Squad figure you control is destroyed by a normal or special attack or leaving engagement attack by an opponent's figure, you may replace it with your previously destroyed Ebon Armor from that figure's Army Card, if possible.

ANIMATED MATERIEL applies to any Unique Army Card and ETERNAL WAR to any Unique Hero or Squad figure.

Varkanaans:

WOLF PACK
After revealing an Ordre Marker on the Varkaanan Swiftfangs' [Greyspears'
and Quickblades'] card, before taking that turn with the Swiftfangs, you may choose one other Unique Wolf Army Card you control and take a turn with it. You may not attack with more figures from the chosen Army Card than the number of destroyed Varkaanan Swiftfangs on this card.

WOLF PACK applies to any Unique Army Card.

Battle Report (with pics) to follow . . .

P.S.: Replacing the Quickblades in the Ghost Wolves with Tarn/Marro Warriors.

[chas]

In Game Rulings Regarding The Changed Bonding Rule
And General PostGame Scenario Commentary

Sherman Davies and I made two rulings on K's units that caused him to change his armies just before the games, and I made one scoring clarification:

1. We decided that the Ebon Army could not extend its power to be placed on any card, since their power was not a Bonding power, and therefore remained unchanged. Since he had no Humans in his army, he therefore couldn't use it. I had approved that online pregame, which was my mistake, which we realized only later on.

2. We decided that the Marro Warriors could not respawn any but their own figures. Although the language of the card indicated they could in this scenario, it would make them too powerful. Also, their power thematically was meant to allow them to respawn without the Hive, rather than copy the DNA of other beings. This had not been discussed until game day.

3. A third change for K. was that Azazael, whose power is identical to that of the Supervillain Thanos, had been scored previously in games using him that a player who eliminated him got his points each time, even though he came back. We had played him (and Thanos) that way in my recollection, although nobody else seemed to remember that. Therefore we did play it that way, when K. swapped him into his second army. When I killed him, he was the only points I got that entire game. K. did a great job of splitting his squads against both of his opponents, so we couldn't get the points for them, as only one person could score on a card, even though we added our two player's points together at the end for a final team total.

Thanks to Kolakoski for his patience in making all the changes. K. needs to update his armies in my and his previous army rosters, as the notes he left about his pregame changes were not clear to me, or as I remembered them being played. Thanks to K. for taking many photos of our exciting games this time around; I hope to see them here soon!

While most of us did use the changed bonding rule, Taeblewalker, after considering it, ended up with armies that did not in fact take advantage of it. On the other hand, Kolakoski had not realized which three left hand card descriptors had been changed, for some reason thinking Class was unchanged. He said if he played the rule again he'd change which descriptors would be altered, so that a different two (rather than all three) would be changed.

So although I got a bit frustrated with the exceptions and changes that had to be made, it looks like we might try some variation of this scenario again in the future. I considered combining it with the Faction rules for my previous scenario (we rotate running custom scenarios each month among the four of us) but they would not combine properly as is.

Note that with all the extra bonding, game rounds took much longer than usual. While the first game went the ten round distance, the second ended after only four game rounds! In addition, powers like Azazael's with all the extra bonding meant more game turns, and more dice rolls to return to the battlefield. In fact he did come back quickly--yet another reason to score him the way we did.

[chas]

Quick Summary and Scores For "Trained Armies" Game Day

This scenario of mine allowed bonding not normally permitted between many units. We played a Free For All and a Team Game as planned. When choosing teams, Sherman Davies offered to fight both armies with Large and Huge figures, which hobbled his Braxis' power. So he teamed up with me, who had none of those in his army. SD was perhaps a bit too generous in taking on both of them, but he had run away with Game One, and was trying to balance that out for us.

Bad Moon Rising by Game Bear proved to be a fun map to use; I had modified it a bit as noted in a prior post. As a small Two Player map, it became very crowded with our armies, but made for interesting games.

Game One: Free For All

Sherman Davies army triumphed clearly, and toward the end all three of us teamed up against him! Nevertheless he won, although Taeblewalker was tied with him in the later midgame.

Final Score:

Sherman Davies 540
Taeblewalker 420
Chas 285
Kolakoski 215

Game Two: Team Game

Kolakoski and Taeblewalker vs Sherman Davies and Chas

In this short game, K. and T. beat SD and C. Chas and Taeblewalker's armies were substantially vanquished after exciting game action.

Final Score

Kolakoski/Tablewalker: 890, Sherman Davies/Chas 510

***

But the numbers alone don't tell the story. These were very interesting games, and lots of fun to play out. My armies worked out pretty well. Ironically, I misplaced one order marker early on, even though SD warned me about how I'd goofed it up in the last game when I used Talingul. And I barely got to use Chardris, who the entire second army was based around. "No plan survives contact with the enemy."


Our New York City Gang of Four games continue to be a laboratory for checking out creative custom scenarios, expanding the experience of Heroscape, The Game That Refuses To Die. Each month a different one of us offers a new game with different parameters that keeps our experience fresh and surprising. Its a great time, and as always we welcome the rare playing guests if we have prior notification to adjust the scenario if necessary. Come join us if you find yourself in or near NYC. In the mean time check out our many custom threads, maps, blogs, and other offerings and comments here on the site.

Afterwards three of us briefly play tested a game being marketed by the company who a pal of Taeblewalker's worked for, for about 40 minutes, which got us free pizza for dinner! Thanks to TW and his friend for the pie.

And I got to wear my new Tee Shirt:

"I Never Dreamed That
One Day
I'd Become A
Grumpy
Old Man
But Here I Am
Killing It"

[Tornado]

Sounds fun. Cool shirt.

[Taeblewalker]

The scenario for next Wednesday will be an all vs. one. Chas, Sherman and Kolakoski will each have 400 point armies made of medieval and ancient units (too many to list; suffice it to say that anything with a gun is not allowed).

The scenario is that the drow have sent an army of orcs and ogres to lay waste to an elf village. The elven spies caught wind of the advancing army and launched a counter-offensive. The two armies will clash on Highways and Dieways. The orc army is 800 points.

Then, using the second wind rules, they will go on to take on the drow in their own home. I will be using a custom Drider unit. We'll be using a dungeon map by MasterScaper1.