what's in the box?

So here I am, merrily painting away my figs for Gencon, when what fabled gift appears on my doorstep?

Not the distraction I needed, but the distraction I deserved.

Past self bought me a bunch of Relic Knights: pretty much everything for Doctrine and Speed Circuit, a handful of Darkspace figs, and a couple other odds and ends.

Orange cat included for scale. Also, because he's a cat, and I was doing something that he wasn't involved in on the floor. After this pic, he went and sat in the empty shipping box.

Now to put all that away, and completely ignore it until after Gencon painting is done. Minus the handful of figs I need to put together... for Gencon. Because I signed up for the tourney for a game I haven't played before. Because sure.

quick and disparate thoughts

SUMMERTIME SADNESS:
Games for Gencon getting lined up: in addition to three days of Critical Mass demos, I have two days of Bushido on order. I'm waiting patiently for the Relic Knights events to show up on the schedule, but I am having second thoughts about my ability to finish my Critical Mass army and my Bushido figs with enough time to get my Relic Knights figs done to any sort of worthy standard. I mean, that's a lot of painting on a strict deadline. And I am already tempted to paint so many other figs instead of the ones I need to. And I am not, you know, good with deadlines. At all. Nonetheless, here we are.

(Not that my Relic Knights have arrived yet, but I feel that day is almost upon us.)

DRUG OF THE NATION:
Having finished True Detective (so, so good,) I started in on Penny Dreadful. And wow. I mean, I heard it was straight from the pages of In Her Majesty's Name, but even in the first episode it just shines right through. Best gaming TV show ever? We shall see.

(I note that the fine gentlemen and ladies at IHMN have started putting up their IHMN Gothic supplement free online. No coincidence, I say.)

SO FAR AWAY:
Yes, still behind on a great many posts. So many. Have only really played Critical Mass and Pulp City in the past couple months. And re-learned Netrunner, a.k.a. Maurice's new favorite game. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Hope to get some Bushido in before the big dance, but that will require me to figure out where I left my much-neglected pinning tools, so I can at least get figs on bases...

Right then. Actual content next time. I hope.

Gencon ahoy

Flashback to 2010: these nerds

Gencon approacheth! I've only been once before, and it was good times. Worked the Pulp City/Hell Dorado/AE-WWII booth daily and wandered far and wide and, uh, did stuff (other than spending money. Which I did plenty.) I like the big cons, but as a special event to do every few years or so. The Historicon circuit is more my speed, I think. Smaller setting with ample opportunities for games and plenty to buy to boot, without the Big Flashy Booths and ten million of my peers.

So the event list for Gencon is about to drop and... at first glance, there's not a lot waiting there for me. No IHMN, no Pulp City (a bit surprising,) no 7TV, etc. I'll keep busy, don't worry, but other than the CMG demos we're running, that leaves my schedule pretty open. I might try to get in on whatever Relic Knights events show up, presuming by some miracle I can get figs semi-painted by then. (Formally getting excited by Relic Knights again, too.) And I will find some games to try out, one of the major reasons I ever go to cons, because lord knows I need more games. But other than that? No clue.

Anyone else going? Got anything exciting on tap?

Zombicide deconstructed

Many real-life... things prevented much gaming from happening this month. I even missed our almost-regular Pathfinder game. Boo hiss. But it's OK, I have been keeping busy resisting getting in on a lot of Kickstaters and playing with the toys I already have at home. Main focus has been getting the Kaamados ready for our Critical Mass challenge. Which I am naturally way behind on, but yeah. Also distracted with Pulp City preparations and some other backburner concepts I have been fiddling around with (including terrain assembly. I wish I was one of those people that loved making terrain. Or knew someone like that, heh.)

The one night I was able to get out was for some Zombicide. Now, as noted previously, I missed the first Kickstarter, and regretted it as soon as I saw all those lovely miniatures once they finally arrived. So I bought in on the second, and man, it's a mighty horde. I even justified it to myself, saying it's a minis game I could teach the family. But really, after playing it this last time, it occurs to me that despite being fully of great figs, it's not what I consider a miniatures game.

Seriously, do NOT open that door.

It's a good game, don't get me wrong. A little fiddly, rules-wise for my taste. And I think that is what takes me out of the experience to a certain extent. There's a bit of team-building at the beginning, when you put your survivors together. And a few tactical decisions along the way: when to level, which skills to select when you do, how to go about moving out and thinning the hordes, etc. 

The pic above is where the gaming 'realism,' for lack of a better term kicks in. There's really no maximum of zombies per tile. So the zombies followed the noise, and sat there waiting patiently for us to open the door. Which we of course didn't do until we had everything we needed. And you're really just playing to the rules, and taking it from a fearsome experience to something of a logic puzzle. Even an extensive ruleset like Zombicide doesn't move beyond that threshold. Which is fine, for a board game, but doesn't really immerse me like a good solid minis game.

And yes, while we weren't required to have the Abomination crowdsurfing on the horde, it became a moral imperative, once it was mentioned out loud.

And then there's things like this. Aaron figured out that, as long as you planned where your car would end up, once you got in the car and got it moving, there was really nothing the zombies could do about it. The loop of roads outside the prison just became a zombie recycling circuit. The car took zero damage from running over an infinite number of zombies, and as long as you did the simple math, you could always make a clean getaway. Tension? Whatever.

Yes, it's a fun game, and I like a good logic puzzle as much as the next nerd. But it's not, you know, really like a minis game. More on this dichotomy as it comes to me.

one month of Pulp City

The Pulp City kickstarter is done and done, and has inspired a wave of gaming in our group. Four games in the past few weeks! It's positively madness. It's been a while since we've stuck to one system for any length of time. No, it won't last forever, but I am enjoying the ride.

Full disclosure: I may or may not be on the playtesting team, so I will err on the side of caution on revealing new info. Luckily, a lot of the details are now available to kickstarter backers. Check it out! This is also a great excuse for me to half-ass this post just to get it out the door, since I've been working on this one post for like two weeks.

Our warmup game to get back into the swing of things was a simple street brawl between my real defenders of Pulp City (Mysterious Man, Nuke, the Gentleman, and other local villains) versus a loose coalition of tough characters.

Essentially, I took a horde of shooty characters, and my esteemed opponent Maurice brought some fast close combat hitters. (His ARC monkeys did more than their fair share of shooting, though.) I tried out Anansi, one of the new starter villains. She proved to be a solid addition, a sneaky threat that you really can't ignore. She has attacks that use her trump Agility trait, which combined with her Trickster Spider power makes her a real chore to take down. She will be great for harassing the backfield and contesting objectives.

Yes, he kept falling off the back of the cab. I couldn't resist, though.

The Gentleman won the coolness battle by jumping on the hood of the car to fire into the oncoming enemy (and also get the very handy height advantage. More dice is better, every time.) My plans for swarming over with a pile of minions met a quick end when Guerilla let loose with his minigun and just mowed through them. Seriously, it wasn't pretty. He was a lead farmer.

(I will note that Mysterious Man does make the minion horde strategy very attractive, however. There's just a counter to everything, and the counter to that is an angry ape with a minigun.)

Nothing fancy, but again, got us back into the swing of things. Tanks proved very useful on his side. Consequently, anything that lets you move the position of enemy models proved a worthy counterpoint (hellooo, Xenobi.) Much discussion of the new roles and how they could work, in theory. But, a max of four turns for the game? It doesn't sound like a lot, but you will be surprised how much happens in a turn.

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For our next game, we decided to play through all the Plots, one at a time, using the same factions (but with tweaking the teams in between, to work for optimal efficiency.) Maurice is running Coven, and I am going with an all-Nature team, with Dark Solar at the helm. Yes, Nature supremes start at a slight disadvantage to those with Magic origins, but to my credit, I had more Nature figs painted and found them before my other figs. So there's that.

Nothing says 'we're the good guys' like bringing along hired guns in ski masks.

Our Plot for the day was the Time Bomb, requiring us to haul a bomb into the enemy's deployment zone. We added an ad hoc agenda, where we would earn a VP for every level of enemy Supremes eliminated.

My initial thought was to let little Acorn carry the token the long way, while surrounded by a team of blockers. This was... poorly thought out. On turn three, I handed the bomb off to Seabolt, who then got the job done in time.

Dark Solar shows the Coven the power of the Night Sun.

Dark Solar is a real force on the battlefield. In this and subsequent games, I learned more little details and tricks on his card. (Reading the cards proved to be fundamental. Pro tip!) This was also the game where I learned the fully armed and operational capability of Papa Zombie. His aura simply shuts down any Powerhouses that try to come close, and he has a toolbox of ways to ruin the day for a lot of opponents. While I did get the bomb off the board in time, it was Papa chasing down and killing Father Oak (!) that won the day, by putting him over in VPs.

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Game three was the rematch of Coven vs. Nature. A die roll gave us the End Zones plot, control your enemy's deployment zone while keeping them out of yours. We also went with the full regiment of Agendas. One was to impress the local citizens with a display of force, another was to 'tag' the structures on the battlefield.

Back to the alley, more or less.

I did my best in this game to stick to the objectives and missions and not get distracted trying to wipe out the enemy. I even did OK in that regard, and halfway through the game was on top, points-wise. The strategy was to get Dark Solar on the opposite side of the enemy force and lean on them from there, while using Father Oak's pull to whittle away on their troops. The new recruit for this battle was Wildman. The idea was to send him after Papa Zombie, and rely more on his copious dice instead of Power Ups. He proved a worthy selection as well. At least twice I expected him to be dead next turn, only to have him keep on trucking. (He did not, however, take out the target, possibly due to poor planning on my part. Maybe with a little follow-up second attacker next time.)

The full raft of Plots, Agendas, civilians, Minions, and terrain is quite the handful to keep in mind; I dig this, as it adds a real depth to the game. But I am not ashamed in admitting I basically forgot about one of the Agendas. And as you may have guessed by my wording above, Maurice turned the game around on points, re-tagging the buildings and shifting the VPs his way.

Now when you're reading the rules, you might think: a game only last four turns? That's not enough. But those turns go by very fast, and a lot happens in each one. Try it out and see. Meaty.

And after this battle, I can say: Father Oak is good, but he's not the Powerhouse to take going up against Papa Zombie. (In fact, I don't see any of the Powerhouses going up against him well, considering he instinctively shuts down one of their major advantages.) We're pondering different teams for the rest of the scenarios, just to get more variety in our lives. But first...

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Most recently, I went up against Chris C. (newly arrived in Maryland, home of the Pulp City World Champions) in a rousing battle of King of the Hill. The 'hill' in our King of the Hill layout turned out to be a nice chunky building in the middle of the board. This... may not have been my best choice, squaring off against the all-flying Necroplane air force.

Removing Father Oak made room for Ba-Boom, and man, it was quite a trade-up. A Powerhouse is huge, and by default ends up being one of the focal points of the team.

Tactics!

Right off the bat, the undead villains got to the top of the building lickity-split, meaning I would have to dig them out, after a nice stroll across the board. I had a few tricks planned, but it was truly a mixed bag. (The fire escape leading up the building was even on the opposite side of my deployment. I am smart.)

Early on, Ba-Boom showed his Speedster worth, making quick time around the flank and scaring the Necroplane with some ranging shots. Dr. Tenebrous dispatched Night Fright (who is, in fact, a beast) to handle the situation on the ground floor.

Surveying the battlefield.

Dark Solar followed up on Ba-Boom's advance, and together they were able to fend off Night Fright. However, the effort took crucial time not spent on top of the hill. Solid play, I admit.

Covering the advance of the other portion of my forces was my other new addition to Team Nature: Perun. And dear god, he's good. A bruiser you don't want to get close to, who has the range to hit back at most people close enough to hit him. Good times.

The long walk.

In the second half of the game, I was able to bring my forces to bear and start, you know, trying to dislodge the Necroplane invaders. And it was close! As in, one or two dice rolls going my way instead of his way would have turned that tide. But once I was up there, the fearsome foe started knocking back my heroes, chucking them off the ground! I think we had a total of eight or so different throws off the building. It was kind of hilarious.

And I need to remember for next time: those big area of effect blasts, like, say, Night Sun, could also damage the building, and bring the house down. Which would have been wow. 

Wonder Wight + Supreme Zed is a winning combo that I expect to see play out again. Nothing wrong with combining strength with strength.

So. Here we are, a month later, geared up for more more more. It's a good time to be playing the game.

Pulp City kickstarter draws to a close

Yes, you've probably heard it a bunch of other places recently, but I feel a Great Need to pass it along to my dozens of readers. The Pulp City Kickstarter is in its last couple days, and now is a mighty fine time to sign on for the big win. (They blew past the goal within a day, and have just been raising the bar ever since.) I'm a fan of superhero games, and this is my favorite ruleset for them, easily. Fast and fun, you're in on the city-destroying action within minutes. Heck the first post to this very blog was about the game. So go get some figs, get your friends playing, and make sure to post your painted figs so I can be envious of your paintjobs.

Back to a more regular posting schedule... soon. You know, when I have time to game again. Heh.

And now: Ronin

No apologies for unpainted figs when trying out a new game. None!

Sat down with Maurice a couple weeks back to try out Ronin. After falling in with IHMN, I've been eyeballing the rest of the Osprey line of games, and Ronin seemed to have a nifty take on a historical setting.So I cobbled together a couple small lists to go with some Clan War figs I've had around since, like, forever. (Legend of the Five Rings will always be one of my favorite settings. Always.)

Bandits vs. sword saints

Unfortunately, the emphasis in the above paragraph turned out to be on 'small.' I put together tiny lists, so we didn't get much into either scenario besides a couple combats. This was entirely my fault, as I erred on the side of keeping things easy with a low model count. Were I do plan ahead again, I'd definitely lean closer to 10-15 models per side.

That being said, we got a glance of how things work. The focus is definitely on the melee engagement. Apparently the rules aren't far off from Confrontation, a game which remains one of the holes in my spotted history with miniatures. You have a combat pool, which can be split between attacking and defending. You and your opponent reveal how much you're dedicating to which at the same time, which leads to some clever tactics and second-guessing. Gives real flavor to samurais and ninjas dueling.

I'd seen some complaints, in reading reviews, that the game won't lead to a lot of future growth, which is possible. But really, every game doesn't have to get multiple editions and codexes and what have you. IMHO, if you like the setting, cough in for the book. It's not expensive, and definitely has some opportunities for gaming in there. Were I to stick with it, I could see myself writing a fan-based Legend of the Five Rings expansion. Or at least talk about it, and hope someone else on the internet handles that.

Elsewhere: when I was looking for tips on trying out the game, I found a great report by Hachiman's Toy Chest, as well as these two threads on LAF and this one on TMP.

Bookkeeping: long-term readers may have noticed that, in addition to being really indecisive about what we play, my posse is also into trying out new games. I've been sticking with the 'and now' tag for these for a while, and I just went back and retagged the older posts on the blog with that, for posterity's sake.