Classics from the Daze of My Youth: RPGS

It's a cheap pun, but I quite like cheap puns.

I wrote this at Christmas, while between classes. I did not publish it, so that I could keep the ol' blog going in case the semester got anxious.

It got anxious. And I never posted it. Silly of me, really.

So here it is anyway:

RPGS

Might and Magic II: This game was absolutely immense for the time. There was something like 100 hours of gameplay, with many optional sidequests and specific character-driven storylines. I remember liking the randomized encounter and treasure systems, and the character options. Not a lot of fantasy games allow the party to have a ninja. Ninjas are awesome, and they’re exponentially more awesome to pre-teen boys. Still, the game lacked a certain something. Maybe it was the music or the graphics, both of which were good but not great. 2.5

The Bard’s Tale: This game was one of the first party-based rpgs I ever played, and it’s incredibly cool. The graphics and music on the Amiga were immersive, and I can still recall some of the songs for which the game was known. The fact that the bard had a series of instruments he could play, and each tune would change for the instrument was incredible for the time. The game’s puzzles were awesome and at times difficult, and there was at least 30 or 40 hours of gameplay. Great stuff. 3.5

Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony: This game was weird. The player takes the role of a disciple of “Moebius” and then must work their way through the four elemental planes (earth, wind, etc) to reclaim the world from whatever evil has taken control. It was something like a combination action-RPG, as “combat” was a separate side-scrolling almost street-fighter-esque mini-game. I remember that the game was incredibly difficult, and that it had a spiritual component. In order to ascend from one plane to the next, the player had to complete a “meditation” mini-game in which they kept a randomly spinning yin-yang within a certain area of the screen. Moebius gets special mention because it was so unique and because the melodies that Mobius gave to the Amiga platform haunt me to this day. 3.0

Ultima IV: I’ve skipped Ultima III because I didn’t play it as much as IV and I have even less good things to say about it. And I don't really want to talk about Ultima after IV either. Fock that noise. IV had some really cool things going for it, in that the player actually did a strange virtue-based character creation process to get their character set up. After that, the player had to wander the world and collect a party of characters which all represented virtues and use them in combination to complete a divine quest. There was a lot to like about the game, but I didn’t really enjoy playing it that much. The combat system was lame, the magic system was whack, requiring the purchase and mixing of reagents to cast spells, and the music in the game was forgettable. Apparently I was quite affected by the music of RPGS on the computer. 1.5

Defender of the Crown: I’m not sure how to characterize this game. Is it a Simulation? An RPG? A strategy game? The player takes the role of a Saxon noble in middle-ages Norman-dominated England and tries to become powerful by conquering or allying with the other nobles on the map. It’s incredibly difficult, as the Norman antagonists are all much better at everything in the game than the Saxons are, and there isn’t any progression in the game. So the player can’t eventually become a better swordfighter or jouster through gameplay. The player has to either lead troops to battle or siege, joust at tournaments, or lead daring personal raids in the night to gain fame, a lady, recognition, and more land. I could only win as the sword-fighter Saxon (Geoffrey of Flapjack?), as that was the part of the game I didn’t suck at. Plus, the sword-fighter guy got more chicks than the jousty guy or the jack-of-all-trades type guy. It was an odd game, but I managed to while away a few hours with it. 2.0

Heroes of the Lance: This was a side-scrolling “adventure”-RPG where the player got to take control of one of the characters from the iconic dragonlance books to complete their first quest in Xak Tsaroth. It was a weird game. When the character that the player was using died, they were replaced with the next Hero of the Lance in line. There were 8 or 10 in all. The wizard Raistlin was a great choice, and Riverwind the barbarian was one of the best jumpers in the game. It was important to be able to jump because the game had a lot of platforming sections where the heroes had to traverse caverns filled with holes or traps. The sad thing about this game is that there was only one way to win it: kill the black dragon at the end. And there was only one way to kill the black dragon: throw the priestesses’ blue crystal staff at it. So after figuring out the maze of the game and condensing it to a list of 20 or so caverns to traverse, the game became incredibly easy to beat, and therefore not fun. Not that it was much fun to begin with: the jumping bits were frustrating and controls not always responsive. The music was awesome for about five minutes and then it became grating. The theme song was a little too energetic. And the game’s replayability after winning was pretty much nil. 1.0

Nethack: I’m going to condense all modern roguelikes (Angband, Moria, etc.) into a single header here as Nethack. I was always terrible at this game, but nonetheless I played the hell out of it. To this day I have never completed it, though now I have access to piles of spoilers which I could use to learn the ropes better. The learning curve on nethack is quite simply astounding. It’s a game where you must replay and work with contexts to learn just how to succeed, and even then there is a possibility of death. And death is permanent, so after dying the player must restart from the beginning. It’s terribly frustrating, and yet I still find it fascinating and I occasionally play through a game, only to lose of course. 3.0

For roguelike sampler goodness, check out the Desktop Dungeons freeware game.

-Merlin out

Cygnar No-Brainers

There are lots and lots of models to field when building an army, but some are so good it's actually harder to not choose them for a force. I'll focus on some basic Cygnar ones for now, though certain mercenaries are also considered necessary for competitive play.

Squire:

The Squire is current the only Cygnar faction warcaster attachment. Warcaster attachments are solo models that hang out with a warcaster and do something cool for them. Generally, they aren't offensive powerhouses in their own right, but instead make life easier for the strongest piece in any given force.










The Squire is no exception. It's a little R2D2 robot thing that follows the 'caster around and opens doors for th... Wait that's not quite right.

It follows the 'caster around and buffs their arcane power. A 'caster's control area is extended 2 inches while the Squire is within 5 inches of the 'caster. The Squire has three "Arcane Accumulator" boxes, which a 'caster can use during the beginning of the turn (only one per turn) to gain an additional focus. That's an extra focus three turns of the game, and many games are over by turn three. Also, a 'caster can reroll a magic attack roll that misses once per turn while close enough to their Squire.

That is a lot of good stuff. Of course, one has to weigh the worth of these advantages with the "cost" of the Squire in army-building points. It costs 2. The average game is between 25 and 50 points. At smaller game sizes the Squire looks a little less awesome, but at 25, it's probably worth it. At 35 or 50, it's almost an auto include.

There are some interesting balancing factors to the Squire's design, such as the fact that a warcaster can only have one attachment. This would be more important if Cygnar had attachment options, but they don't. The Squire is it. Also, the Squire has zero offensive capacity. It has no weapons, so it isn't directly contributing to the fight.

Journeyman Warcaster:

The Journeyman Warcaster, also known as "junior" or simple JR, is a solid supporting solo for Cygnar. I painted mine to look like a junior douchebag and so I will refer to him as McGrath or Sugar Ray for the remainder of my posts.










Sugar Ray has terrible stats. He's got some decent weapons with a Hand Cannon pistol and a magical sword, but dude's melee and ranged attack rating suck balls. He's got decent defensive stats, and 5 wounds, so he might survive a couple shots, but it's best to keep him away from the fray.

The good stuff he brings to the table are his spells and focus stat. He, like a leading warcaster, has some focus. Not much, only 3, but it can take some of the burden of controlling multiple warjacks off of the main ' caster. Often I give Sugar Ray a light ranged jack like the Charger to run, and he performs this task quite well.

Sugar Ray knows two spells as well: the abysmal Arcane Bolt spell, which he should almost never cast, and the awesome upkeep Arcane Shield. Many Cygnar players take McGrath without any 'jacks at all. They have him cast Arcane Shield on a unit or a heavy 'jack on the first turn, and then they keep him back away from the fight. Sugar Ray can then spend one of his three focus to upkeep AS each turn, and has two left over to fire a reasonably accurate fully boosted (boost attack and damage = "fully boosted") Hand Cannon shot each turn. It's not bad at all.

I quite like that he's a versatile model. He can dish out that shot, he can power a Charger, he can buff a friendly unit of infantry, he's all good. Savvy opponents will hunt him down and kill him, ending his Arcane Shield and rendering his Charger inert, so he should be kept safe if possible.

He costs 3 points, which is terribly expensive for a solo, especially one that can't hit for beans without his focus, but he enables so many other units and strategies (Stormblades or a Heavy 'jack with Arcane Shield is great) it's difficult to not take him, even in smaller games.

The Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team:

Hereafter B13 for brevity, this is a squad of gun-toting characters who add an incredible toolbox of abilities to a Cygnar force.









The B13 are a character unit, which means that only one of them can be fielded in a force. Some units, like the Squire, can only be fielded one per army, but since there are rules for larger, multiple warcaster games, in a two-caster game both Stryker and Haley could have a droid. Not so for B13. As a character unit they can exist only once in an entire force.

There are so many reasons to choose the Black 13th it's ridiculous. They cost 4 points for a 3-body unit. That's pretty expensive, but these gunslingers are badass.

All of them have similar stats. They have decent speed and pathetic melee attack scores. However, as they don't have a melee weapon that's all bullshit. They have an amazing ranged attack score, and their defense rating is similarly nuts. However, as they're just fools in flapping trenchcoats their armor rating is abysmal. Even the lightest shot that hits or even low-end blast damage will hurt them. As characters they have 5 wounds, so they could survive a decent blast, but not two. And certainly not any direct hits.

Weaponwise, they have magelock pistols, which are special focuses for their spells as gunmages. Each of them has some spells in common. Whenever they shoot, they get to choose an attack type.

Black Penny is a special bullet that ignores the normal penalties for shooting into melee. Combined with their stellar ranged attack score the B13 are great at getting infantry away from troops who are being held up. I don't use this bullet too often, but it's a good ability in theory.

Snipe extends the base shot of the magelock by 4 inches. I use this on the advance often, though if I'm using a 'caster who has Snipe like Stryker, it doesn't stack with this special shot. It's still a great spell to put on B13 because it extends the range of their other bullets.

Brutal Damage is a bullet that deals an extra die of damage on a hit. This is good because the Magelock pistol, while decent, has only a 10 power shot. On average, it can do 17 damage on a hit. Gun mages can't really crack heavy armor reliably. This bullet adds another average die roll of 3.5 to the mix, meaning the gun mages might actually be able to hurt or kill multi-wound, decently armored troops.

Or enemy warcasters.

'jacks are another story entirely.

Each of the characters in the unit also has some other abilities they bring to the table. We'll start with Lynch, the officer and leader of the unit.









Lynch adds a special attack called Fire Beacon to his arsenal. A Fire Beacon bullet does no damage, but it drops a 5 inch diameter area of effect on the table centered on the target of the shot. Anything under that aoe loses the benefits of concealment (normally a +2 defense), camouflage (+4), cloud effects (which block line of sight and grant concealment), and stealth (ranged attacks from an attacker more than 5 inches away from a stealthed unit automatically miss).

My iPhone keeps trying to autocorrect "steathed" to "steamy Ed".

Lynch also has True Sight, which means he also ignores concealment, stealth, etc. Lynch is badass.

Watts is the next guy in line. He doesn't have any additional attack types, but while Watts is alive members of the B13 have Prowl. Prowl is an ability which gives stealth to any model which has concealment or cover. Running the B13 into the woods on turn one isn't a bad idea if Watts is alive.









Ryan is the last, and perhaps best of the B13. She's got twin Magelock pistols, which grants her an additional attack (with special spell-bullet and all) each turn.









Better yet, Ryan has a special attack called Mage Storm. If she forfeits both her attacks, she can instead fire a storm of magical energy. It centers a 4 inch area of effect on the target. Anything under the area of effect takes a power 12 damage roll. That's much better than blast damage.

In addition, the Mage Storm stays in play until the next turn, and if enemy troops walk through or end their activation there they take a power 12 damage roll.

In addition to that, the storm counts as a cloud effect, meaning it blocks line of sight to stuff hiding in or behind it. Dropping a Mage Storm onto a friendly heavy 'jack isn't a bad idea sometimes. It probably won't hurt the 'jack much (Arcane Shield nearly guarantees it won't) and enemy models won't be able to charge at the heavy due to the cloud effect.

Shooting cheap troops in the back with the Mage storm to block line of sight to a friendly warcaster is solid as well.

Most savvy opponents will kill Ryan first. She's awesome. Of course, if she's screening herself with Mage Storm it will be pretty difficult to knock her down. She's immune to her own mags storm damage, so technically she could follow an ironclad on the advance, shoot it in the back with Mage Storm, and hide within the storm. If Watts is alive, Ryan will get stealth within her own Storm.

While the B13 don't have melee weapons, they do have the Gunfighter advantage, which means they can shoot their ranged weapons in melee. Surrounding Ryan with infantry probably means that she'll drop a Mage Storm into their lap on her next activation.

So the B13 help the whole army with stealth, can generate cloud cover on the advance or block charge lanes with it during a clash, do serious damage to squishier warcasters, hunt enemy solos, or murder a pile of infantry. Warjacks and enemy heavies aren't worried about them, but they are a solid addition to almost every Cygnar force, even at the 15 point level game, which is generally the smallest game size.

In fact, the Battlebox plus the B13 is a 15 point army in an of itself, and it has a ton of versatility.

-Merlin out

Torpid Blood Report

I played in a 17 player tourney hosted by David Wilson yesterday. It was a decent turnout and there were good games to be had. The Flint crew that I came with did exceptionally well for us, and Devin and Robb made the finals. Even more shocking, Robb won. He gives me some credit for his victory. Apparently by not making the finals I had no opportunity to backoust him during the same.

That's fair.

I played a silly War Ghoul deck I've been kicking around lately. Originally it was a Terrifisto superstar deck. Since Mr. T is the Archbishop of Detroit I titled it "Represent!" However, since the printing of Agent of Power T is obsolete in the deck. Horatio can do the whole trick on turn 2 most of the time.

Represent!

Crypt: 12 dudes
2 x Horatio 2-cap Sabbat Tzimisce vic
2 x Terrence (and Phillip) 4-cap Sabbat Tzimisce vic aus ani
2 x Lolita Houston 4-cap Sabbat Tzimisce aus VIC
2 x Devin Bisley (D-Biz) 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce AUS ANI vic
The Rose 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce PRE VIC aus
Elizabeth Westcott 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce AUS vic ani cel
Piotr Andreikov 2-cap Sabbat Tzimisce Black Hand aus
Wendy Wade 3-cap Sabbat Tzimisce aus ani

Library (71 cards):

Master Cards (18, 10 trifle):

6 x Agent of Power
1 x Dreams of the Sphinx
1 x Giant's Blood
2 x Fame
2 x Obtenebration
2 x Vessel
2 x Wash
2 x Charisma

Action cards (24):
8 x War Ghoul
8 x Nocturn
1 x Carlton Van Wyk
1 x Vagabond Mystic
1 x Gregory Winter
4 x Asanbonsam (Cosby) Ghoul
1 x Unlicensed Taxicab

Action Mods (7):
2 x Lobotomy
2 x Shroud of Night
3 x Changeling

Combat (9):
2 x Chiropteran Marauder
2 x Meld w the Land
5 x Trap

Combo (3):
3 x Plasmic Form

Event (3):
1 x Dragonbound
2 x The Unmaskening

Reaction (7):
3 x On the Qui Vive
3 x Telepathic Misdirection
1 x WWEF

It's a cute little deck, but with a bad draw it can be painful. Absolutely no one has Obtenebration, and if I don't get AoP or the skills early, my game is hosed.

Round one:






Matt (kyasid toolbox) -> Me (Represent!) -> Kevin (Petaniqua Garou Storm) -> Sam (Maris and Presence Malks)

I got everything I needed early. On turn two Piotr had no resistance when he summoned a Nocturn, Nocturn bled for the Edge, and the Piotr made the shadow demon into a flesh beast. Good stuff. Kevin got a wild look in his eye at this point. On turn 3 Lolita did the same thing while Piotr bled. Marconius popped up behind me and Quentin King III was in Sam's ready region.

I got up my entire uncontrolled region out: Lolita, Piotr, Horatio, and Wendy. Also got 3 WGs, Greg, and 2 Cosby Ghouls in play.

Kevin still brought out Petaniqua ADV. I considered NOT crushing her into oblivion, but when I realized she had AUS and the potential to kill a WG without red cards when merged I scrapped the idea of a normal game. I knocked her into torpor.

Matt bled me a bit with Dominate, but I had the Unmasking and two Cosby Ghouls in play, and his deck was more bruise and bleed than S + B. He killed my two blocky Ghouls and Julia Prima bled me for 4 with a Govern, but after that I murdered his ready region.

Kevin brought up Eurayle to support his werewolf engine, but I beat her up in short order as well. He did manage to Resurrect a Cosby Ghoul from my ash heap and recruit Carlton, but it was futility at this point. All the crosstable rescues in the world didn't stop me ousting him. Dragonbound sealed his fate and Matt's as well.

In the one on one Sam's Malks couldn't bleed and vote my pool away before my 3 War Ghouls killed his minions. He conceded shortly afterward.

Me 3 VP and GW, Sam 1 VP

Game MVP: asanbonsam ghoul. Thang kept me alive through the Kyasid lunges so that I could win.

Game 2:

Me (Represent!)-> Jimmy (malk wall)-> Eric (Akunanse toolbox)-> Phil (toreador grand ball)-> Ryan (Toreador. . .?)






This game had such potential. My opening crypt draw was Piotr, Lolita, Horatio, and Terrence. Nice. My opening hand was Agent, Fame, Obtenebration skill, Nocturn, War Ghoul, Chiropteran Marauder, and Trap. Fuck yes.

But I went first.

I put a blood on Lolita and proceeded. Jimmy put two on Dolphin Black. Everyone else went for big caps, but when I got Lolita up Jimmy got Dolphin. He blocked every action I took for the first 4 or 5 turns.

When the dust settled, Jimmy had Dolphin and Anatole. I had my whole crypt draw. Eric had Kamiri Wa Itherero and Amavi, Phil had Alexandra and Tatiana Romanova, and Ryan had Eugene and Katherine (c? 7-cap tor g5?).

Eventually everyone but me and Ryan got another minion. Jimmy got Kite, Eric got Sanjo (maybe. Don't recall), and Phil got Vicky Ash.

I told Jimmy that if he was gonna block all my actions I'd just bleed him with my 4 guys every turn until Ryan ousted me. Anatole got a .44 and put Horatio and Piotr into torpor. Then Jimmy said "you can play your game."

I felt this was odd. I got a War Ghoul and crushed Anatole. Jimmy wasn't expecting my Trap. He played like 4 Aura Reading for cards, never looking at my hand. Oh well. Anatole never escaped torpor either.

And there we sat for like an hour and a quarter. Jimmy couldn't draw the stealth to get past Eric's animalism intercept with KS. Phil couldn't draw votes to oust. Ryan bled me every turn but wasn't drawing bleed cards.

Jimmy brought himself low with an Assault Rifle on Kite (which killed my Dub-G). Eric got another minion, dropping to two pool. Phil started bleeding like crazy. Ryan kept up the pressure.

I tried to sucker Jimmy into blocking Lolita with Dolphin Black (who I'd made famous) most of the end game. I still had a Chiropteran Marauder, and I still could have gotten a vp at least. He never took the bait.

Ryan got me as the first oust of the game, and Jimmy got Eric, and then Phil got Ryan. This all happened with like 10 minutes to go. The table then timed out.

Jimmy 1.5 vp, Phil 1.5 vp, Ryan 1 vp.

No MVP.

Somebody let Dudock win the finals. I blame David Wilson. We'll see what Robb has to say.

-Merlin out

Location:Ypsilanti MI

Warcaster Focus: Captain SloMo says "No!"

I played Stryker a few times before thinking about picking another warcaster. Captain Victoria Haley actually sort of fell into my lap. I was browsing at a hobby shop during my travels and found her at a ridiculously cheap price.



So I bought her and painted her up before I knew how to even play her or build an army around her. Turns out she's a solid warcaster with a spell list that annoys opponents.

I decided to paint her a little different from Stryker, as I don't actually like the idea of painting 40-plus models in the same exact color scheme. So while my army palette is "traditional" Cygnar-blue, yellow, white, with gold, silver, and black trim- , the various units and models might have blue or yellow or whatever as their primary color. To this end, I refer to Haley as "The Yellow Ranger". Stryker is mostly blue, though I'm not sure he's the "Blue Ranger".

Stats:

Haley's stat line does not impress. If Stryker is the high side of average, Haley is the low side. She's not incredibly accurate with her weapons, she's got light armor, and she doesn't have a ton of wounds.

Haley has a special ability called Arcane Vortex that allows her to cancel an enemy spell that targets her or a model near her. It costs her a focus each time she does it, but countermagic in warmachine isn't common.

She does have an impressive focus stat at 7, but her most awesome spell is also quite expensive, so she almost needs that extra focus to get anywhere.

Spells:

That awesome spell is called Temporal Barrier. Haley has a time manipulation theme going for her. It's an amazing spell. Any enemy unit that starts its activation within 14 inches of Haley (her "control area", defined by 'caster focus x 2 in inches) cannot run or charge. Also, those same units have a reduced defense due to slowness. So the spell protects Haley and her army from charges (one of the stronger attacks in the game), limits enemy movement, and gives a serious accuracy boost to her army. Sure, it costs 4 focus, but it's actually hard not to cast it every turn. It's that good.

Haley has other spells too! She's got the Arcane Shield upkeep, a Cygnar mainstay. She also has a non-upkeep unit buff called Deadeye that adds a die to ranged attack rolls.

For offensive magic she has a basic magic-missile type spell that hits about as hard as her pistol but costs focus, a weird warjack-affecting spell called Scramble, and an amazing infantry-killer spell called Chain Lightning.

Scramble forces an enemy warjack to move its normal speed in a random direction. It knocks down any smaller troops it walks through, and if it hits larger stuff-other jacks or bigger solos- it falls down as well. It's an expensive spell for what amounts to a 50/50 chance for the 'jack to move back into enemy troops. If it moves forward then I'm actually helping my opponent move a dangerous bit of machinery toward my army. I better have a pretty good idea of how to capitalize on that if I lose the coin toss.


Chain Lightning is awesome. It does some damage to the target of the spell and then lightning arcs to d6 more models near the original target. Those arcs autohit, so it's a great spell to fire at warjacks screening infantry. It's also expensive at 3 focus. Unless Haley has some other focus boosts she can't do much to power her 'jacks, counter enemy spells, and such if she casts both CL and TB in the same turn.

Weapons: Haley has a basic gun called a Hand Cannon. Lots of warcasters and solos have Hand Cannons. It's a gun that does decent damage with decent range, but it can only be fired once per round. She's not a good shot with it and will have to spend focus or use defense reducing shenanigans like Temporal Barrier to hit with it.

Haley also has an absurdly large spear called the Vortex Spear. She's not particularly accurate with this, and it does less damage than the Hand Cannon, so. . .meh.

It does have Reach to extend her melee threat, so she can engage non-reach units that don't want to be in melee (like Arcane Tempest Gun Mages) and piss them off, I guess. That's alright. The spear also has Set Defense, which gives Haley a defense bonus against charges. If Haley's getting charged, it means that she didn't cast TB last turn. Why?

Feat:

Haley's feat is called Blitz. Every Cygnar model or unit within 14 inches of Haley gets to make an additional attack during their activation. It's a great feat that speaks to Haley's time manipulation theme. I most often use it at long range, to get additional harassment shots in during an advance. It can also be used on the clash turn to make sure melee troops wreck the enemy frontline.

I tend to take units which hit hard with both melee and ranged attacks with Haley, such as Stormblades. That way if they rush into close combat and destroy the front line, they can use their additional attack to fire into the next enemy unit.

Edit: I've just been made aware of the rules of WM, which state that if a model uses it's initial attacks to make melee attacks, then any additional attacks it gains are melee attacks. So I guess that means if my Stormblades rock the front line with melee attacks then they aren't gaining ranged lightning blasts from Blitz.

Overall:

Haley is a control warcaster. She denies movement and spell assassinations quite well, which means that some enemies will have to work overtime against her. She tends to slow the game down, which is anathema to some of my friends' playstyles. Warmachine tends to favor aggressive play; the player who gets in the "alpha strike" usually wrecks the other army. Haley doesn't allow opponents to get that strike in.

One friend in particular hates Haley. Every time I set her down he sighs a little. It's amusing to me because he has an entire "denial" Protectorate of Menoth army which denies me many of my options. I guess it's always shitty when the other guy's doing it.

Melee Power: D. Haley's spear does woeful damage and she barely knows how to use it. Avoid up front confrontation when possible.


Ranged Power: C. The Hand Cannon is average, and Haley can always boost or cast TB to increase her chance of shooting. Reinholdt can grant her an additional shot as well. Not bad, but not great.


Magic Power: B+. Chain Lightning is awesome, and Temporal Barrier helps with just about everything.


Melee Support: B. Her feat helps melee troops mow through foes, and she has Arcane Shield for buffing up her troops. Temporal Barrier makes her whole force more accurate.


Ranged Support: A. Deadeye and TB are fantastic for ranged troops. The fact that TB also prevents charging the next turn helps her ranged troops stay out of retaliation range.


Magic Support: C. She doesn't have many magic attacks to support. . .so she doesn't need a high score here. Temporal Barrier still reduces the defense of enemies in her control area against magic attacks, though.


Tricksiness: B-. She's got a lot of tricks up her sleeve, but she honestly can't do them all at once, and the opponent will probably know it. She's tricky, but in a way that's straightforward and that telegraphs its punches. So. . .good, but not really sneaky.

Lists:

Haley supports all her troops well. I'd suggest the Black 13th and/or Arcane Tempest Gun Mages in every Haley list. She also likes a Defender for long range shots, and she loves the new Storm Strider battle engine for protection on the approach (the base on that thing is huge, and she can cast Arcane Shield on it).

Haley + Defender or Ol' Rowdy (9), Arlan Strangewayes(2), Storm Strider (9)

Haley + Defender (9), ATGM + UA (8) + Hunter (6), Stormblades (5), Squire (2)

Haley + Ol' Rowdy (9), ATGM + UA (8) + 2 Hunters (12), Squire (2), Stormblades + UA (8), Arlan Strangewayes (2)

I like Arlan with her because he's terribly inaccurate with his spray, but her Temporal Barrier helps him hit multiple targets when he uses it. Oh, and his other abilities are solid as well.

Rating: 3.0

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WarMachine Units and Solos

I've covered the basic battlegroup to a warmachine game in the battlebox entry, but there's a bit more going on. Specifically, there are units of troops and expensive and powerful solo models who work well by themselves.

Also, I haven't really gone over gameplay. In a nutshell, combat is handled by rolling 2 six-sided dice and adding the result to the attacker's melee or ranged attack score. So Stryker's 7 melee attack plus 2d6 will, on average rolls, hit defense 14. Stryker and quick warcasters tend to have higher defense stats. Stryker's is 16, so it will be difficult for him to hit himself in the mirror match.

Warcasters and warjacks can spend focus to "boost" attacks, giving them an extra die on that attack. Also, knocking down high-defense units with special attacks or spells like Stryker's Earthquake reduces a target's defense to single digits.

Damaging after a successful attack is handled in much the same way. The attacker rolls 2d6 and adds the power of the attack to the roll, then compares he result to the attacker's armor to do damage. Stryker's disruptor pistol is a power 10 gun, which is about as weak as gunshots get in WM. On an average roll he'll do 2 damage to himself in the mirror match, as his armor is 15.

Focus can also be spent to boost damage. The Ironclad heavy warjack has a hammer that hits for 18 damage plus dice. Hitting Stryker with that is sure to do some serious damage. Damage can be boosted with focus as well.

Units and solos can't boost. But they also don't drain the warcaster's precious focus, so it's a trade-off.

Units:

Units are groups of like-armed dudes who fulfill battlefield roles for their army. There are long-range units, melee units, mixed-arms units, and special ops units. Most don't have an explicit defined role, but for Cygnar, some of the units are named for what they do, like Long Gunners or Sword Knights.

It's hard to mess those up. Of course, It isn't always obvious. Stormblades, for instance, are sword-toting armored troops, but they can also shoot lightning from their ridiculous swords, so they're actually a mixed-arms unit which can perform either role (or both on a good turn).






Units tend to run in several categories of defense and armor combinations: some are high-armor, low defense. These tend to be slower, melee units. Some faster units are high defense, but with abysmal armor. The average is about 13 defense and 13 armor. Stormblades have 12/15 def/arm. Long gunners have 13/12.

Most infantry is single-wound, so penetrating their armor at all will kill them. Solos, warcasters, warjacks, and some butch infantry have multiple wounds.

Infantry also have to stay in formation, which just means that the unit can't spread out too much. All troopers in the unit must be within range of the unit leaders command stat in inches. Most unit leaders have an 8 or so in command, so troopers can be pretty spread out if need be, but there is a limit.

Units also have unit attachments, additional bodies which can be added to a unit to fulfill some tasks or add functionality. The Stormblade unit attachment is expensive, but it adds a multi-wound officer with an impressive command stat to the unit. He also can give the 'blades a special Assault order, allowing them to fire their lightning swords on a charge. This effectively doubles their already devastating offensive power.





Solos:

Solos operate well on their own. They tend to be above-average with stats, or they might fulfill a special role on the battlefield. Most solos are characters, named units that can't be fielded in multiples. Rutger Shaw, Professional Adventurer is one example. He's a mercenary solo who will work for many factions.






Other solos are faction specific. Captain Arlan Strangeways is a Cygnar solo who either helps power warjacks with focus or repairs them. He does have weapons, but most often he's going to be using his special abilities to assist in warjack management.

Some solos can be fielded in multiples, such as Cygnar's Gun Mage Captain Adept. Two of the GMCA can be fielded in any given army. He's a dude who channels spells through a magelock (magic flintlock) pistol. The GMCA's role is one of support, often hunting down enemy solos or unit attachments (like the officer from the Stormblade unit attachment pictured above) and picking them off with his gun.

A decent army tends to have a good mix of units and solos to go with the warcaster and his warjacks. Cygnar has a few "auto-include" solos and at least one unit that's so awesome it's hard not choosing them for an army list. I'll go over them some other time.

Warcaster Focus: Commander Douchebag McWeen

I started with Stryker from the Battlebox, but as I've already said I am the sort of guy who likes options. As of today I have played with four different warcasters, and each one has a different playstyle. I've got another two I have yet to try. I'll give them each their own post.










Commander Douchebag McWeen:

Stats:

Coleman Stryker is, as I have said before, a pretty basic warcaster. His stats are actually impressive; the high side of average. He has a reasonable ranged attack rating, and his melee attack is above average. His defense and armor are also pretty good for a warcaster. He probably won't get getting killed by average enemy troops.

But nobody takes average troops. Everybody takes exceptional troops.

Stryker's most damning averageness is his average focus stat. This limits his ability to support lots of 'jacks and cast his full spell list. Playing Stryker involves a lot of tough choices as to which 'jacks and units to support.

Spells:

I say units because Stryker has three unit-buffing spells: Snipe adds some range to a model or unit's guns, Arcane Shield is an armor buff for same, and Blur is a defensive buff against ranged and magic attacks. If Stryker casts all these spells in a turn, he's used all his focus on buffs and can't give focus to his 'jacks or cast his offensive spells.

All three of those spells are "upkeeps", so if Stryker wants to leave them on a unit turn after turn he can spend a single focus to keep the spell going. So they don't need to be recast at total cost each turn. That's good. It also allows some ranged-buff shenanigans like upkeeping Snipe on one unit, shooting with them at the enhanced range, and then activating Stryker and casting Snipe on a different unit. This will end the effect of Snipe on the first unit, but it supports long range strategy well.

Aside from his upkeep spells, Stryker has three offensive spells. He's got a basic Arcane Bolt spell, which essentially shoots a model with a magic missile. He's got an Arcane Blast spell, which is similar but also generates a little cloud (called area of effect) of blast damage in a 3-inch diameter centered on the target. These two spells see little use. They don't have great damage and Stryker will normally rather buff his ten-man gun units and power his 'jacks.

He might also want to cast Earthquake. It's an expensive spell for him, but he gets to fire a 5-inch diameter template centered on a target. Anything under the template falls down, meaning melee attacks hit automatically and ranged attacks hit unless the attacker rolls snake eyes on 2d6.

Earthquake is essentially, then, an accuracy buff for Stryker's army. That's good, because Stryker doesn't have the power to end many games by himself.

Weapons:

Against most enemy 'casters, Stryker will have trouble performing a personal assassination run. His gun is low power and his sword is only average, and even if Stryker saves his focus to boost his own strikes or buy more sword attacks he'll have trouble with a fresh, unbruised enemy warcaster.

I should point out that both of Stryker's weapons have disruption, which means if he hits a warjack personally it will lose any focus it has on it, and can't be allocated any focus for a turn. Shooting enemy warjacks with Stryker is still a good strategy to keep enemy 'casters from powering that jack, even though the low power on the gun won't penetrate most heavy warjack armor.

Feat:

Stryker's once-per-game special feat is called Invincibility. Cygnar units close enough to Stryker receive a substantial armor boost for one turn. In combination with Arcane Shield it gives an insane armor boost for a turn. The feat has some utility in that it can be used on the advance to keep the troops alive, or after engagement to help weather an enemy counterstrike.

Overall:

Stryker relies on his army to do the dirty work, and he really likes a combined-arms approach. Most games will see him moving Snipe around during the first two turns to get more ranged attacks in before the armies meet, and then using the feat to survive the inevitable melee clash. With any luck Stryker can either win an attrition war or clear a lane for an Earthquake assassination to be performed by one of his 'jacks.

I like Stryker's versatility. I don't like his personal attacks, because they aren't much of a threat to enemy heavies or 'casters. I also don't like how predictable he is. Most players know what to expect, because Stryker just does what it says on the tin.

I find that if the dice go my way I do well with Stryker. If they don't I'm in trouble. There's a certain amount of luck inherent to any game with a randomized element, but of course some of the strategy in the game is reducing the chances that the dice can ruin a game. That can be tough for Stryker.

Melee Power:  C. Stryker has an average-strength sword and a mediocre melee attack rating. He's got Disruption on his blade, so warjacks he hits with it are not getting focus the next turn, but if Stryker's standing next to a warjack something has probably gone terribly wrong. Quicksilver is just powerful enough that Stryker can sometimes get the job done himself.

Ranged Power: D. Stryker's gun and ranged attack rating are pillowfisted and meh. Again, he can disrupt warjacks with it, and in fact I often do, but he's not doing it for damage, and since disruption only affects like 20% of the models you may face. . .meh.

Magic Power: C+. Stryker has 3 attack spells. Unfortunately, two of them are terrible. Earthquake is the star here, and while it does put a 5" circle of knockdown on the table, it does no damage itself. His other two spells cost too much for their effects, and he's got better uses for his focus, even if he's just sitting on it for extra armor.

Melee Support: B+. Stryker's feat, Arcane Shield, and Blur are great for delivering troops to the front lines. He doesn't improve threat range or accuracy, but he's helping his guys get there, which can sometimes be a struggle.

Ranged Support: A. Blur and Snipe, combined with Stryker's feat for survivability, are awesome for ranged forces. Stryker loves having long-ranged elements in his army, and Earthquake is even an accuracy buff for ranged attacks (stuff that's knocked down is easy to hit, doesn't block line of sight to stuff behind, can be targeted by Combined Ranged Attacks, and so on. He's really good at bringing the guns.

Magic Support: D. The feat and Blur offer some protection from magic, but Cygnar is sorely lacking in non-warcaster spell support, and Stryker is indicative of the faction as a whole.

Lists:

Stryker supports everything well. I'd suggest some heavy infantry, like Stormblades or Stormguard. He also loves his pet warjack, Ol' Rowdy, who is simply amazing.

Stryker + Rowdy (9) + max Stormguard (9) + Alain Runewood (3)

Stryker + Rowdy(9) + Max Long Gunners (10) + Gun Mage Captain Adept or Harlan Versh or Gorman di Wulfe(2)

Stryker + Defender (9) + Max Long Gunners (10) + Max Stormguard (9) + Alain Runewood (3)

Stryker + Hunter (6) + Hunter (6) + Squire (2) + Arlan Strangeways (2) + Black 13th (4) + Full Stormblades Unit with attachments (11)

Stryker supports just about everything Cygnar (and mercs) have to offer. He plays pretty well with everything, but he's ultimately a bit mediocre because of his versatility.

Rating: 2.5.

-Merlin out


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WarMachine: Cygnar Battlebox

I think VTES has me spoiled. I've always had a substantial collection of cards for building various decks because I've been working on that collection for more than 15 years.

Being totally new to a money sink/miniatures game meant having to start at the beginning and think small at first. My problem is that I like a few options. I don't mind playing the same VTES deck two or three games in a row, but if it's my only deck for a weekend I'll go a little crazy.

The easiest way to start playing WarMachine (barring demoing the game with friends) is with one of the faction Battleboxes. Which one to choose can be difficult. Since I had the basic rulebook in hand when making the choice there were stats for each WarMachine faction's basic units, 'jacks' and warcasters.

I wanted to be happy with my choice because of the investment. There are five main factions in WarMachine, and also several smaller "mercenary" factions. Mercs aren't a faction except when they are, but I'll cover them at a later time.

Mercs don't have a Battlebox (they had two older versions but it's difficult to find them). One of the newer factions, the Retribution of Scyrah (angry angry steampunk elves) also has no Battlebox. So those two were right out.

This left four factions:

Cygnar: Cygnar is a nation with a US/UK feel to it. They're sort of like the generic white people faction. They are also the default "protagonist" faction for most of the fluffy bits in the rule books. Cygnar has a few main themes, some of which are high technology weapons, lightning-based attacks, and lots of guns.

Khador: Khador is the soviet counterpart to Cygnar's western civilization banality. Climate-wise Khador is a frozen tundra at the outer reaches. Society is lower tech than Cygnar but has a militaristic bend that makes them formidable. Khador's themes are big bad melee power, huge mortarlike guns, and icy kholdunic sorcery. Bonus points for a Baba Yaga-analogue warcaster called the Old Witch.

Protectorate of Menoth: The Protectorate are the result of a group of religious zealots who revolted against Cygnar to become their own geographical force. Menoth is a creator deity who grants his followers power but commands them to carry out crusades against non-believers. Their main themes are "cleansing" fire attacks, powerful magic, and spell-denial anti-magic nonsense. They're the "no" faction.

Cryx: Cryx is a looming presence off the coast of the mainland setting of the game. Cryx is a largely undead force which serves an ancient God-dragon. It's more God-dragon than Dragon-God because it occasionally flies around to completely wreck shit in the back stories for the game. Cryx's themes are evil undead necromancy, fast and sneaky units, and corrosive acid attacks.

My pals have a pretty good selection of most of the
Factions because they've been playing for years. Their most sparse selections were with the Protectorate and Cygnar. So my real choice, I felt, was between those two. A friend was pushing for the Protectorate. Over a year ago a student asked me after class if I played WarMachine. When I said "no" he said he'd figured me for a Protectorate player.

So I bought the Cygnar box.

I think my friend was trying to push me in a more competitive direction, while my student probably didn't understand my appreciation for the "good guys" in a given story. Yes, there's something boring about the generic protagonist, and Cygnar isn't the easiest to win with, but we love to root for the underdog in America, and sometimes I can't help myself.

I will play the hell out of a Lawful Good character, incidentally.

The differences between the two Battleboxes, to me, were thus:

The Cygnar one has a 'jack with a cannon, as well as a 'caster with a pistol.

The Protectorate one has a 'jack with a flamethrower, but no other ranged goodies.

Cygnar's Battlebox just seemed more. . . versatile. Now that I've played the game a bit I know that it's actually skewed against ranged combat, and that heavy-hitting melee armies are strong. Gunlines don't do as well. That's all good though. I still quite enjoy the Cygnar playstyle and I've gotten a few wins under my belt (not many due to inexperience, but some).

The Cygnar Battlebox was ridiculously cheap at my FLGS. $35 for a 'caster and three 'jacks is awesome. The 'caster is Commander Coleman Stryker, which is about as lame and cheesy as a name gets. He's an occasionally lame and cheesy warcaster as well. He has a lot of unit-boosting buff spells and a special Earthquake spell that just knocks enemies down. His feat gives his whole army a big armor boost for a turn. He's got a boring gun and a boring sword which are average on the power scale. Overall he's a boring dude, but he can get the job done. Sometimes it's nice to learn with basic game trappings.



The Battlebox 'jacks are pretty basic. There's a heavy and two light 'jacks. The Ironclad heavy warjack is a big robot with a big hammer. The Charger light 'jack is a less-big robot with a smaller hammer and a double-barrel cannon. The Lancer light 'jack is a shield- and spear-toting robot which isn't so good on offense, but it's got a special ability called Arc Node. The node allows Stryker (or whichever warcaster controls it) to cast spells through the Lancer, which greatly extends the range of his Earthquakes.


Earthquake isn't fancy, but opponents that are knocked down are easy to hit. Stryker's win strategy is often "Earthquake through Lancer and then strike with focus-loaded Ironclad or Charger".

Did I mention that when a warcaster dies, that player's game is over? Much of the strategy of WarMachine involves finding ways to assassinate the other warcaster while leaving yours in relative safety. Many a game ends during either an "assassination run" or just after an overextending failed run by the other player, which can make the game sort of cat-and-mouse.

It's like tapping out to lunge in VTES, and you either get an oust or your prey happens to have three untaps (because he's Neil) to block all the bleeds and survives.

I'll go over some of my warcasters in more detail later. I should really learn how to play better before trying to explain them.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Caspia, Iron Kingdoms

Rage Against the WarMachine

I avoided playing WarMachine for a long time. I knew it must be an awesome game, since I have several friends who stand by it. They seem to even like it over VTES, which speaks volumes about its quality.

The reason I resisted so long is that miniatures games tend to actually be two hobbies instead of one: the game itself and the painting of the minis. That's a big time investment, and time for
me is usually at a premium.

I lost my will to keep away from WarMachine in January. I saw that my roleplaying group wasn't playing as much, and my VTES and gaming crew is related to that group, so this would be a season of total inactivity games-wise.

That's just unacceptable to me. I needs my games. I borrowed the main book from my buddy Ray and started reading about WarMachine. I have to say that the first story in the Prime MKII rulebook is an engaging bit of fiction that describes the core of the game while building an idea of the characters in the setting. I quite like most of the characters presented in that story.

The game, at its core, is about taking the role of a powerful warrior/wizard hybrid called a warcaster. The warcaster is the center of any army in the game, and is usually one of the most powerful pieces on the table. Each warcaster has a suite of spells that blast opponents, buff friendly units, enhance the 'caster themselves, or perform utility functions like creating difficult terrain. Each warcaster also has a once-per-game benefit called a feat, which is often an incredibly powerful benefit that can change the game (or win the game) if used well.

Finally, warcasters also come with backup dancers in the form of warjacks. Warjacks are steam-powered giant robots that can also be boosted by the same arcane energy that 'casters use to cast spells. Warjacks come in light and heavy varieties, with the lighter ones being faster and more maneuverable, and the heavies being slower and stronger.

Since warjacks and spells are powered by the same energy source, the 'caster's Focus stat, the game is one of resource management. Each caster must decide which spells to cast and which 'jacks to boost with focus each turn. Some 'jacks need focus to perform well, while others do okay without the boost. When building an army list the player needs to keep in mind a typical turn's worth of focus so they have a strategy going in.

Then when the enemy 'caster's feat ruins everything, the player must scramble accordingly.

I quite liked the basic notion of the game upon reading that first story. I get to play a spellcasting badass who has several giant death machines doing his dirty work? Awesome.

It turns out that I quite like painting the minis as well. Funny thing is, as the years go by and (despite my best efforts) quotidian banality sets in, it is becoming harder and harder to get a crew together for games. VTES, to me, really needs five players (four even seems wrong to me). Roleplaying is best in a party/coterie situation. WarMachine is often a two-player game, which is a little more convenient. And painting minis is a one player activity, which is even better.

There is a VTES tourney in Ann Arbor, MI in a few weeks, and I'll be attending that. I'm not sure what to play yet. I'm considering some Trujah ridiculousness.

I'm posting from my iPhone for the first time, because of late whenever I have time in the house I'm painting tiny men. We'll see how that goes for me.

-Merlin out


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Immoren