THE INTERNATIONAL ROAD RALLY REPORT
By Correspondent Chas
"It worked better than I thought it would!"
--Sherman Davies
"I'm going to work on my own race scenario design now."
--Kolakoski
"I enjoyed shooting from atop the bridge with Zetacron!"
--Taeblewalker
"I took down Queen Maladrix The Conqueror by surrounding her as well as shooting at her back when we were first playtesting the AOA figures."
--Thrasher Darkrai
Well folks, after an
exciting first Game/Lap of one hour and forty five minutes and a second of one hour and twenty minutes, the race is run! Several key figures who became front runners looked like winners at different times, but were cut down to size such as : SD's Alastair MacDirk with his extra turns by taking wounds was our first Front Runner registering at Checkpoint #1 (The Hidden Grove) in the forest, and crossing the bridge toward Checkpoint #2 (Fort ZinderChas) in the desert. He was finally defeated, and had to drop a couple of treasure glyphs, one of which had to be destroyed, which reminded us of the Treasure Glyph rules we hadn't used in quite a while. TD's Queen Maladrix with her five squad figures Festering Honor Guard was as just super dangerous! But it was another figure, who didn't even come out during Game One, who would eventually cross the Game Two finish line first!
Other speedsters included the two Venoc Warlords, and T.'s also boosted up his Zetacron, he being a Scout. In a race game, early decisions on using Order Markers was crucial for both games/laps, since slower characters could get left behind in the dust and be effectively out of the game.
Decisions about Order Marker play at start were particularly interesting. I'd started out with the Warriors of Ashra, although most of the figures they were trying to block could escape taking leaving engagements from them. Not only was the usual
Order Marker placement particularly challenging, but I also plotted their order placement during this race so as to keep part of my intent hidden until later in the turn--for example when moving Me-Burq-Sa not into the crowded area in The Hills heading towards Checkpoint #1 where most figures were headed, but off toward the Arctic Zone to eventually head for the desert and Checkpoint #2.
Game One I had very lucky Initiative rolls in general, except at the end of Game Two.
Twice I tied another opponent with a D20 roll of 20; both times I rolled a second 20 versus the other player's 19--Yikes! My initial strategy went well also. I put the Warriors of Ashra out there at start to block others and force some to take leaving engagements; TD did the same thing with his Festering Honor Guard (another AOA card). Then my speedy horse riders, Arthur of Sherwood with Disengage and Me Burq-Sa sped off in different directions immediately for both of the first two Checkpoints. My strategy of registering at one while already waiting at the next to register quickly worked out well.
Others tried the same thing, but I'd say I did it most consistently. SD and TD were in contention for registering, while K. and T. fought us, but were behind in this procedure. At start, one of my WOA squaddies was key in blocking K.'s Baradur, the only one who followed up on Me-Burq-Sa, heading off to the Arctic Zone, which held no checkpoints but made a nice path to other sectors. My own Brunak, intended to carry my Mindflayer Mastermind, never made an appearance in either Game, nor did Bol, my pint sized Acquilla Goblin Hero who had served me surprisingly well in the past.
Queen Maladrix, who always scares me, proved the most threatening with her Festering Honor Guard. One of these TD squaddies reached the FINISH Hex first, gaining another glyph. At one point she infected my Arthur of Sherwood with one of her Honor Guard, who eventually took him out, and even made him therefore drop his glyph. Oddly, none of three or four Treasure Glyphs earned influenced the games.
The Pit Stop Far on the other side of the battlefield/racecourse, the Halfway Hex was marked with a red poker chip, with a Stonehenge Arch behind it which was topped by a red stone. Now all five players removed their figures back to their own army cards. We'd come up with the convention of laying down the ones that had been killed, while those who never made it onto the board for Game One were still upright on their cards. The five multicolored giant D20s we use to show player turn order after each Initiative roll were standing by each player's card army for duty in Game Two.
During my modified Second Wind Healing, SD's army took the worst healing hits, while my Arthur of Sherwood ended up with 2 wounds of 4, and Me-Burq-Sa 1 of 3. Only one Warrior of Ashra survived. So I decided to sideline Arthur and the WOA. Once again I never got Brunak carrying the Mindflayer or Bol onto the field.
One thing the others had thought about that I hadn't, was that with two automatic lives returned minimum for killed figures for each Unique Hero using my revised Healing rules, characters with few total lives would come back at almost full strength. I had just been trying to keep everyone in the race for Game Two.
Game Two The first thing everyone noted, many of whom had not entered the Eastern area at all, was that instead of a nice open plain to begin Game One with, this Game Two start featured elevations and foliage. So I ignored the easily blocked center, and went for the two board edges. Once Again, my Me-Burq saw rode out at first down south to go for the first (originally third) Checkpoint. But now the Chas designed
Age Of Annihilation Shiori II went far north to go for the second Checkpoint.
I had taken out one of the honor guard with Shiori, to help out K. But he was defending Fort ZinderChas (the reference is to Beau Geste's Fort Zinderneuf) with Locksley, and told me he'd attack her if I tried to register there at Checkpoint 2. Now in two Checkpoints during game one both of my fast characters--Me Burq Sa and Arthur of Sherwood, fast but relatively weak, had registered at their intended Checkpoints, but then been killed. But Shiori was my ace in the hole. Originally I meant for Brunak to carry her, but since she was as fast as he, I switched his intended passenger to the Mindflayer. Now she stormed over the castle battlement surounding the central hex, hit Locksley, and then registered.
Then she travelled across the Arctic sector alone, hiding behind an ice mountain against distance attackers. Finally she was able to register at Checkpoint 3 (the original Checkpoint 1, The Hidden Glade in the forest. Queen Maladrix followed. But TD knew he'd have a tough maneuvering his using his powerful but ungainly proxy figure of Queen Maladrix (closely resembling the original rendering from the AOA offering) through the pine trees, while I could use them against shooters.
On the only bridge, which was also the only place where there was a shortcut on the entire map, TW managed to register at his only Checkpoint for either game at Hole In The Rock. But shooting from height he rolled two skulls which doubled to four, taking out TD's Varja and his Queen Maladrix. As we'd all been combining against the front running Queen from Game One, we all cheered at that last hit! K. had I believe also only registered at one, having kept his army together so they could only go for one at a time. Now Zetacron was taken out, and both Venoc Warlords were finally on the board near each other, but too late to affect the game.
Victory! Victory! Shiori used Move Like the Wind to avoid attacks, which allowed her to disappear on the right die rolls and even get five extra movement hexes. My opponents had had chances to stop her, so they agreed that she was reasonable designed--this was the first time I'd played her against live opponents. (The next day I would change her just a bit, reword her card and cost her up, improving my draft working with excellent comments from my pals. See the link to her revised card upthread).
No one now was near Shiori, let alone in between her and the FINISH hex, so she had a clear final run. Once again I put all my Order Markers on her! The former weak "teenaged sidekick" type who was rarely used in our games, had now been transformed by me, following the intent of the AOA offering to improve all of the SOTM Heroes, into a
Super Ninja. Now she headed through the Hills to the Plain and the FINISH hex of The Infinity Point, which was marked by a blue poker chip and a Stonehenge arch behind it with a blue plastic stone atop, for the win!
It was very gratifying to win a scenario I'd worked so hard on, and with the only custom I had in the race, which I'd designed myself.
Nice.
***
Afterthoughts
TD took some photos during the games, and hopefully they will show up on this thread soon.
A Heroscape race
scenario is very challenging to set up. With some race aspects of earlier scenarios we've played, some character or another literally runs away with the game! Setting up a properly competitive environment with all the 400+ characters now in the game is no easy task. The worst example I recall of this was a Marvelscape superhero game of mine we played where, after the player with Evil Flash let him be killed off, my Flash literally ran circles around the others for the win.
The NYCG4 Playing Environment is quite different from the standard two player tournament game that you usually see at Conventions. Since we are usually playing multiplayer games with 3-5 players on a single large board at our regular monthly gatherings, we don't use untweaked standard tournament rules often. You don't want to make scenario rules that are easily broken. Or ones which the players have to strain their brains to enjoy participating in.
I think I was also successful in freebuilding a pretty complicated
battlefield map, which gave lots of varied terrain, including custom sand and snow 24 hexers another pal bought for us years ago online, without advantaging any possible terrain dependent units chosen for the game out of the 400 or so cards for Scape we have now (minus fliers and the other units disqualified in the scenario (see Post #1515 upthread). About the only type of terrain I own I didn't place was dungeon hexes, with the bridge being the only road, and castle walls.
My army, although I didn't end up using it all, worked well for this game. My strategy did also, even though the others tumbled on to the method of going for more than one Checkpoint at the same time. Both of my "speedsters," Me-Burk-Sa and Arthur of Sherwood, registered at different checkpoints during Game One and the former during Game Two, and then died soon after!
I was also happy that
my version of the AOA Shiori II was not considered too overpowered, just under costed. Of course, since I didn't use three of my cards at all during the race, no one could argue that she had an unfair advantage with her points being too low in terms of using my army in the game. Since before this game I'd only done one playtest with this group, I look forward to getting the others out on the table against live opponents also: Sgt. Drake III, Sonlen II, Major Q11 (aka Q10 II) and Raelin The Kyrie Warrior III (Evil Raelin).
Sometimes a new Heroscape scenario works, and sometimes it doesn't. Every month one of us presents a new one for the group, and it is only "tested" when played. Occasionally one works so well that we repeat it on a future Game Day, usually with some variants. And I think
The Chas Road Rally makes it into the latter category. With different armies, a different battlefield set up, and perhaps a rules tweak or two, it would be fun to run again!
Thanks to the participants for their strategic skill and all the fun we had at a memorable Monthly Game Day for the NYCG4.
