LDZA: spring supplies run

[Reprinted from Facebook, which is where most gaming chat is going on these days. In fact, if it were not for it being the place for gaming chat, I likely would have left FB a while ago.]

Moving into action, to scoop up some much needed supplies from a washed-out road.

Got in my first solo game of LD:ZA this week. I had rolled up the crew randomly in Chaos Theory back in January, and finally got enough painted up to get on the table.

I rolled three Selfish characters, and two dogs (plus a random Outdoorswoman) so I knew noise would be an issue. But I underestimated how much those triggerhappy fools would complicate matters. The weather started at a heavy rain, limiting line of sight. But once Terry, the merciless leader, got towards the center, he kept firing at the incoming horde, which kept drawing roaming zombies into the back line. I tried to keep the hounds to one side, to limit their noise, but they strayed too close to that board edge as well, which kept them busy keeping other roamers at bay. Manny, Terry's goon sidekick, tried to hold off the new arrivals, but eventually got overwhelmed when he was forced to back into a wreck. Within five turns, discretion turned into the better part of valor, and the crew split up and left different table edges carrying three supplies. Manny made a full recovery... or so it seems.

Gwen the Outdoorswoman with her heavy scythe lines up her swing (it would not prove effective.)

Manny the Goon is forced back from melee, but directly away, pushing his back against the literal wall.

Terry, the Merciless Thug leader of the group, eyes the oncoming horde through the rain.

The game ran smoothly! Most questions were easy to look up, and while I have a few outstanding issues (are Heavy weapons... just not worth it?) I adore the random character generation for solo games. It not only helps define how they act for solo gaming, but also knowing it's a heroic but self-pitying goon, or a competitive dog, just adds a lot to the story.

Pulp City presents: Cro Mag!

Painted for the Pulp City Facebook group painting challenge! Looks-wise, he's my favorite Powerhouse.

(And yes, now that I am looking at the pictures, I see all the details I missed/need to spend more time on. LIke the interior of the mouth, and some more on the edges of the fur. But still! Done enough for now!)

picking a faction for the Marvel game

This release made it easier by adding a big data point.

I'm moving to a new house in the next couple of weeks, a large endeavor that has kept me from miniatures a lot this summer. So naturally on my daily commute my mind wanders to gaming topics. Aaron has been tempting me (I'm an easy sell) to try out the new Marvel minis game by Knight Models, as I am a fan of the Batman game. Nonetheless, it took me a while to get into the Batman game, just because there wasn't a lot of variety in the initial releases, which has also been a factor here with the mighty Marvel game.

With only three-ish factions, picking one to focus on first would make getting things table-ready more realistic. (Since there's crossover between the good and bad sides with the neutrals.) And really, as the game is so new, I think we can safely speculate as to what's coming out... eventually. Having Knight Models spoil us so early with surprises like the Dark Avengers and the Thing gives us some strong material with which to guess.

Hells to the yeah.

The COSMIC side of things currently has the least number of figs, mostly the Guardians. And really, no bad guys. Adding the Thing and giving Doctor Doom the Cosmic icon leads me to believe they will also have the Fantastic Four and their longtime foes. Armed with that knowledge, I would speculate Cosmic would also get Ronan the Accuser and the Kree, the Silver Surfer, and the Skrulls. And frankly, the possibility of getting to play the Super-Skrull is tempting in and of itself. But who else? Other space types, sure, but even given recent comic book events, that's the smaller group of the three factions we have to pick from. On a farther limb, I would guess the royal court of the Inhumans would fit here as well (with bonus Lockjaw!), and hey, even more obscure Fantastic baddies like the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. So, some choices, but I don't see a lot of increase right around this corner.

When Juggernaut comes out, this crew will be very tempting.

The next faction being the MUTANTS gives us an even more self-contained world, almost entirely the X-men and their various splinter groups facing off against their foes. There's easily a number of less-popular heroes I could work into a team (Havok, Polaris) considering the depth of their rosters over the decades. And so many of their foes have become their friends at one point or another, so I bet there will be many neutral picks as well. But the Brotherhood has an equally lengthy tenure, and adding in the Marauders, many fun options. Plus Juggernaut! And, dare I hope, Arcade! (OK, maybe that's just me.) I seem to have an affinity for playing the bad guys, to boot.

Finally, the SUPERHUMANS have the widest scope for growth, IMHO. Right off the bat, Black Widow implies to me that anyone SHIELD-related would fit in, which also gives us their enemies over in Hydra. Spider-man is neither a Mutant nor Cosmic, so we get his friends and his foes, including the long-awaited Sinister Six (ooh, yesss.) This also implies, to me, that Superhumans will also get the Marvel Knights affiliates like the Punisher, Moon Knight, and Luke Cage and Iron Fist. The surprise introduction of the Dark Avengers also makes it an easy leap to include the Thunderbolts here. And on top of all that, there's also decades-worth of Avenger friends and foes to bring in, from Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to Taskmaster (another personal fave) and the Wrecking Crew. My dream pick would be the Squadron Supreme here, and with the Dark Avengers going here, this'd be where they go too.

Personally, I think the Cosmic side will have less attractive choices for me. I could see Dr. Strange getting in there too, but it won't expand that faction much more. The Mutants are perfectly self-contained, and have the most crossover potential (so, so many of their foes end up joining them at one point or another.) They'll always just come back to the X-Men and their enemies, in the end. Which isn't bad! I would love to run some Brotherhood with some classic Marauders backup. But leading the pack, Superhuman has the largest capacity for growth. It's a wide net to cast over anyone that isn't Cosmic or Mutant, and it covers a pretty wide swath of the Marvel-verse. 

Zombicide: Black Plague wave 2 is here

This just showed up on my doorstep. Luckily I happened to be home, because it's certainly warm out here in Maryland today.

Yeah, I bought big. The sculpts are great, and useful for so many games.

But man, with this here and Massive Darkness starting soon, I really, really need to come up with a better storage solution, before my wife kills me (and no jury would convict her.) (She fully supports my gaming habits, but does her best to help me keep my pack rat nature in check. And the gaming area was already overflowing.)

Oh, and it's been a fortnight since the last update. In that time, I think I played all of two games of Frostgrave, and three games of Guild Ball campaign. And kept meaning to post here, but would get a couple paragraphs in before I was boring myself. So, yeah, still struggling with that. But! Gaming! People are talking about Bushido again, and we have a standing offer for This is Not a Test whenever I can starting making it up there. Plus a Pulp City day in the near future. Many opportunities for which I need to make time.

As noted previously, I am spoiled by my generous friends. Today's example is shown above. Aaron made me these fine tokens for our upcoming This Is Not a Test games. Speaking of which:

The kickstarter for This Is Not a Test is in full swing, and has been meeting and exceeding goals at a nice steady clip. No, this isn't one of those kickstarters where you get mountains of stuff. It's a relatively modest affair, but there's a lot to pick up, and you will definitely get your money's worth, while supporting a great game.

Long-time readers will recall the great time I had when I discovered TNT many moons ago, and I have been a fan ever since. Hands down the best post-apocalyptic system, and I have read through many. But the #1 complaint interested players had was, where is the printed rulebook? Hence this fine kickstarter. And it's working great; many people are interested and getting factions started.

So, yes. Check it out. Sign on. Tell 'em I sent you. The affair wraps on April 7th. You won't regret it.

Oh, and while you're waiting, you can download the demo rules from the files section on the TNT Facebook group, and even download the images for the tokens seen above, to get you ready to duke it out in the Capital Deadzone.

Today's petstore aquarium terrain find

Picked up these two at the local Petsmart today. Both were on sale, from the National Geographic line of aquarium decor. The ruined colosseum wall was about seven bucks, and the statue head was about four. The 28mm fig for scale comparison is from the Mage Knight line, and is on a 28mm base. Perfect for Otherworld, Frostgrave, pulp gaming, fantasy gaming, and more.

(I also picked up more cat litter while I was there, but y'all don't care about that.)

Why I keep losing, and why I am OK with this

First couple games of 2016 have been us finally trying out the Batman Miniatures Game. So far the game seems decent (and there's a lot of support online) but it's definitely been an uphill struggle getting anything going for me. Like, scoring any victory points. But that's OK!

Game one with some creative lamp posts. Deadshot draws a bead on a Black Mask goon.

Right away, to try it out I went with figs I already had assembled (see top pic.) Which I chose by starting with the coolest. Now, from reading up online, I knew this was something of a sub-optimal build. I was using the most expensive model in the game, plus an expensive but fragile support figure to boot. And both had a passel of special rules to learn.

Game two with the store's mishmash terrain. Not a lot of batclaw-worthy terrain, but we also didn't bring any batclaws, so...

But really, it was more a matter of finally getting figs down on the turf and getting some dice rolling. As always, the first couple games are about me figuring out how the rules work. I can read a set of rules forwards and backwards, but until I play a few games, I won't really *get* them.

So even hammering through a few terrible losses does teach me how things are supposed to work, and what I should avoid going forward. As is, being snowed in here near Washington DC, I have spent some time assembling and basing more mercenaries and prisoners to bulk up the numbers of my gang. You can do an elite force of high-cost figs in the game, but I don't know the system well enough to run that out of the gate, But I will get there.

The year is off to a Batman-ish start then. I will likely get in another game of Guild Ball before too long. Next up on the agenda is likely trying out Otherworld, or giving Frostgrave another go. Thereafter, maybe Wolsung or back to Bushido after a long absence? We shall see.

--- Trying something new for 2016. On other social media, I am always posting articles from the news other other things that have caught my interest. So let's do that here too.

Interesting links:
* A good read on the demise of Alien Dungeon and All Quiet on the Martian Front. I've seen just enough behind the scenes of the gaming industry to see what a Shakespearean mess it is, and this article pulls back the curtain a bit there too.
* As we've been all Batman here, I've been listening to the Blood Damage podcast for some interesting overviews of the various factions and other game-related talk. The one on the scenarios is especially nice.
* I haven't really played RPGs in many a year, but the Dungeonomics column is always fascinating.
* And I am always a slut for zombies, so I will be eyeing Mantic's Walking Dead kickstarter when it drops.

2015: not a bang, but a whimper?

Starting an Otherworld warband. I've had these Reaper Lizardman partially painted for like ten years.

Yeah, this. I have started and discarded many posts in the past few months, even before Zomtober. I've played Guild Ball a handful of times (and even fully painted my team) and played in a day-long tourney for it to boot. That's... been about all the minis gaming I have done recently. (Started playing Pandemic Legacy with the family as well, on the board gaming side.) (And of course Team Fortress 2, my long-term video game vice.)

So I have about no excuse as to why I couldn't get posts back to the regular here. For a while I told myself that I was sick of putting up pics of my half-painted figs, figuring it wasn't interesting to anyone else either. And the holiday season is always busy, so gaming always suffers this time of year, naturally. But honestly, I have just been feeling uninspired. Haven't picked up a paint brush since I finished the Guild Ball team about a month back.

I'm still reading gaming blogs and Facebook groups? And perusing various rulebooks on the daily commute (Otherworld, Frostgrave, etc.) So I am still emotionally invested. And enjoy it! Just haven't had the drive to get anything finished up to post here to my liking. (Insert 'performance anxiety' joke here.)

Frostgrave Sandtomb!

No, this isn't a walking-away letter. I am looking forward to having the energy to get back into gaming projects, and yes, spamming it all up here. I'm working on getting everything together to give Otherworld a real try; I think it could be a good substitute for a regular D&D evening. Maurice and I did a run-through of Frostgrave not too long ago, and I think we're going to give it another as well. (It's really caught on online.) And finally, finally, giving the Batman game a go.

But the topic has been on my mind these days. I am old, well, I feel old. And I have been gaming for a couple decades now. The past few years, I have been more attracted to broader rulesets that could play multiple genres/settings, or something close to that. Rather than more focused games that will go out of style in a year or less. Because I have a library full of those rules, and an army or two I bought for each. I never catch up with really learning the rules of the season, never really master the latest ruleset, and never get things fully painted. So my alternative is figuring out a ruleset or three I can really work with, use various figures for, and most importantly, get the locals to enjoy enough to play it with me on the regular. That's my working treatise going into 2016. And a happy new year to all of you out there in gaming-land.

Zomtober '15, week 4: the fourth horseman

My name is death, and the end is here...

The finale! Zombicide season three introduced the skinner zombies, emaciated and tough as nails and all creepy-like. This charmed caught my eye as soon as I opened the box.

I wanted to keep the skin tones pale and go for an old and faded look to the whole scheme. Definitely an end-times affair.

Team height comparison

The Zomtober graduating class of 2015

Thanks to all the great words of encouragement out there! I honestly do look forward to Zomtober, and it always helps kick my gaming juices right where it counts. Next month I hope to get my Guild Ball team fully table-ready, so I don't feel like a loser posting pics of half-painted toys all the time.

Zomtober '15, week 3: scaley!

One of the staples of the modern zombie genre is mutant zombies, undead affected in such a way that gives them a different look or powers. The Zombicide expansion Prison Outbreak featured berserker zombies, undead affected by reasons unknown to have scaly plates that give them some degree of armor from ranged weapons. Their jaws also get a little chisled, as it were. And whatever occurred happened near a prison, meaning the berserker zeds are all prisoners and prison guards (which gives the minis a nice unified theme.)

The only way I find mold lines is well after priming.

I painted the prison uniform orange to match my Arkham escaped convicts, because why not.

Not much time to chat today, this weekend's packed. But had to check in here first!

The story so far.

He's not overly tall...

Zomtober '15, week 2: Parker and his trusty machete

"I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

This week's entry could be a companion piece to last week's Santa Zed, but honestly, it's just another fig I've been putting off for a while, and this was the week to get it done. Parker is a zombie survivor, from Hasslefree.

I've seen pics online of folks painting him like Kenny from South Park, but I took more inspiration from John Carpenter's The Thing an Han Solo in his Hoth gear.

Look, a better pic of Santa Zed.

And he is tiny. Like, 22mm from feet to the top of the hood. Which works great for me. I loved Crooked Dice's St. Searle's 'savage schoolgirls' line, which I've supplemented with other armed children from vaious manufacturers. Parker is a natural fit, even if a little warmly dressed for it. I doubt many zombies will bite through that parka, though!

Slightly better job with the lighting this week. This was done outside, however, which also makes it rather weather-and-time dependent.

The lighting came out all weird with this one, but it was too good a height comparison to let it go. So I tried to edit it up in gimp, and... made it worse to the point that I couldn't un-blue it in the right way. But still! (And man, there's no better way to find every little missed detail than take some nice digital pics and edit them up. Every tiny error just shines right through.) (Thank heavens I am not a perfectionist.) (As you may have guessed.)

Zomtober '15, week 1: a nightmare before Zed-mas

It's the most wonderful time of the year - Zomtober! Third year in a row for me, and always a welcome reminder to get things painted.

For my first entry, I confess I'd been looking forward to painting the Zombicide season three VIP, Santa Zed! Also the first fig I've fully painted at my new place.

It's also the first fig I've taken pictures of at the new house, so as you can tell I need to figure out my ad-hoc lighting setup a little better. But still. Happy Zombtober all!

Obligatory comparison shot with Crooked Dice all-star Misty.

Player roles in Guild Ball (by Maurice)

Hey there, sports fans.

I hope you’re excited for a little digression on player roles in Guild Ball (from Steamforged Games).

Team selection is a critical part of Guild Ball. Each team has a selection of players from their guild to accompany their Captain and Mascot, as well as a handful of options to hire out from the Union. Although each player has a suggested position on their card roughly in line with traditional soccer positions (striker, winger, midfielder, back, etc.), these classifications only go so far once the game starts and the ball, knives and blood start flying about. In order to help assess and respond to a rapidly changing game in the middle of play, I feel it can help to remember a little bit more detail about how each player’s actual skillset can help you follow your path to victory (be it 3 goals, 6 take-outs, or somewhere in between).

What follows is a list of notional categories that you might consider when thinking about a players. Using maybe 2-3 categories to describe each option you have at hand, alongside other data, can help you create a more balanced or focused squad. Let’s take a look:

• Scorer - this player excels at putting the ball on goal; this doesn’t always mean a high kick statistic and range, but it usually does. Movement traits like Shadow-Like help as well.
• Ball Retrieval/Control - this player has the tools to go retrieve and/or hold the ball, whether it’s a fast speed, low-playbook tackle, close control, or a high defense.
• Momentum Generation - This player probably has a decent TAC and a reliable/desirable momentum-generating result on the first column of their playbook. They will give you a good return on your influence investment in the form of valuable momentum.
• Damage - This player has good damage values and a high TAC, or a play like Scything Blow. Certain players may do extra damage against characters that are knocked down or suffering conditions.
• Area Denial/Control - These types try to influence where the opponents want to go on the pitch. All players exert some amount of area control, but these players in particular have access to AOE abilities or push/pull plays.
• Momentum Denial - Another aspect of a high defense and certain character plays is that of momentum denial. Reducing the opponent’s access to momentum can make your damage stick and reduce their ability to score and move.
• Heal/Cleanse - These players keep your other players on the board, either by healing them or removing their conditions easily.
• Buff - These players hand out beneficial boosts to your team, whether it be additional TAC and damage, influence or move.
• Debuff - Conversely, some players are great at reducing the enemy’s capabilities to move, shoot or harm you.
• Influence - This player has a very good influence generation/demand ratio, or has other abilities to make efficient use of influence, freeing it up for use by other players.
• Activation Control - One of this player’s best abilities is to control the activation order of the opponent or increase your number of activations.

I’m sure there are more roles you can come up with that I’ve missed. One that comes to mind is that of the Tank: a player able to soak up large amounts of attacks/damage and occupy the opponent. This role has a weird place in Guild Ball, as many of the ‘heavies,’ with their massive health bars, can actually be very vulnerable due to their low defense.

There are many, many, many synergies between players that will drastically alter a player’s role from that when they’re alone. This is also just a theoretical framework to help you frame how you want to use your team at the start of the match and as play develops; any number of other factors can influence how a player should be used at a given moment, and each player could likely be described by five or more of these roles. Each player likely has 1 or 2 primary roles that they perform best in a vacuum, however.

Here’s an example of how I might describe a lineup you could see:

Fishermen

• Shark - Shark fills Scoring and Momentum Generation roles for this team, in addition to his other benefits.
• Salt - Ball Controller with his high defense and “Where’d they go” and can buff certain teammates.
• Angel - She’s going to be Scoring and Retrieving the Ball from opposing players.
• Jac - His pushes make him a great Area Control player, and he’s also pretty Influence efficient on many turns.
• Siren - She provides further Area Control with Lure and Seduced, while being one of the better Ball Retrievers in the game.
• Fangtooth - In this lineup, the big guy is here to further the emphasis on Area Control via Unmasking and Foul Odor, while his easy access to Knockdown makes him important for Debuffing (neutralizing) key opponents.

This lineup is obviously missing a ton of damage, like most Fishermen teams, but has a lot of ways to get the opponent to where it wants them to be, while retaining a good amount of scoring.

Anyways, I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and will take a crack at thinking about your teams in this manner. I’d really appreciate any thoughts, comments and criticisms below.

Stay salty,

Maurice

interregnum: the mid-move edition

My Guild Ball proxies until I have time to finish the actual models.

My year of no gaming moves along apace.

Well, it’s not no-gaming. There have been occasional spells of the New Hotness (earlier this year, Wrath of Kings and Dark Age.) Also, some exciting new finds (currently, Guild Ball.) And even new treasures on the near horizon (This is Not a Test and the second edition of 7tv.)

But between those spells, it’s been some long gaps, for various reasons. For one reason or another, I’ve missed multiple games, and had to pull out of pretty much every attempt to hit a convention or major gaming event so far this year. NOVA Open is looking unlikely for anything more than a day trip (see below) and Fall-In is the same weekend as my birthday, so I have to pick and choose what to do there.

The biggest hit from the past month and change was a surprise move. We rent, and our landlord chose to terminate our lease (with more than enough warning) so he could do something else with the house. As soon as we heard that, I started packing up my entire gaming collection, which has given me plenty of time to think and mull things over, while I pack up figs I haven’t touched in years.

The past few years has been a lot of throwing in with the New Hotness. I always advocate playing what your local crew plays, because that’s the best way to find games. And I am just as guilty of buying into the new thing for my playgroup (the golden age of Kickstarters has also been a contributing factor here. I can resist anything except temptation.) But I am starting to think that’s not what I need.

More Guild-Ball-by-proxied goodness.

Y’see, I am bad at learning rules. Like, not great at all. Half my games feature my ever-patient playgroup re-explaining some game to me and reminding me how things work.Even when I go to tourneys, the first thing I do when I sit down at the table is let my opponent know that if I get something wrong, I’m not cheating, I just have a crap memory. I’m there to play a bunch of games, not use my rules-knowing to seize the brass ring.

I think what I need in my life more is a 28mm skirmish game or two per genre/setting that I like. Post apocalyptic, steampunk, supers, zombies, etc. Categories like fantasy and scifi need to be broken down to something more specific (like, say, dungeoncrawl.) The eye should be on games that are great for using whatever fig you have in your collection (hello, Frostgrave) and not one with a really limited scope (damn your great figs, Wrath of Kings.)

Games that can be reading adapted to other settings are just value added (see also: 7tv and even IHMN, which can also do Old West and even pirates.)

So yeah. A lot of time to think means a lot of rambling on such matters. So here we are, surrounded by cardboard boxes and figuring out on what to focus my limited efforts.

(And, no, not everything is tragic. My local crew has been great about inviting me out to game, even when they know time is tight, and offered to help with the move and all. And even though the next place will be more or less temporary on the way to a more permanent residence, more gaming will be on the horizon soon. Still, good to get these things off my chest and in writing, if for no other reason than to remind myself later when the next must-have Kickstarter deal rolls in.) 

Side note for those who have stuck with me so far: No one in my playgroup is really into the idea of Age of Sigmar, but we've had discussions on the topic, since it became a topic for debate on the Facebooks. And this article is a great read that really mirrors my gaming mindset these days. As well as my love of Marvel, and Adventure Time, and Lego, and etc. It's a great read, highly recommended.