Quick Edit: My Carrier is probably next then I will likely paint all 6 frigates in one go.
Cruisers & Battleship I also named the battleship
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Painting my FSA
I've been painting my Ships up for the upcoming campaign and figured i'd throw up the pics
Quick Edit: My Carrier is probably next then I will likely paint all 6 frigates in one go.
Cruisers & Battleship I also named the battleship
Quick Edit: My Carrier is probably next then I will likely paint all 6 frigates in one go.
Cruisers & Battleship I also named the battleship
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Malifaux
I've been looking more and more into this one and felt compelled to write a bit about it. But first I have to say this, No matter who you are, where you go, or what you do in life for the love of GOD never NEVER drink two energy drinks back to back. If you do this kind of thing regularly already, then my god your body must be a total wreck. I got 2 Monster energy drinks today, thinking hey these are small i better get 2! Well im fairly sure at this point that they are small for a reason. I got about 3/4 done with my second one when it started to hit me. I'm jittery, I feel really disoriented, im totally hyper, my stomach hurts, and i've peed like 5 times in the past 4 hours. Never again, energy drinks on the whole might make it to the never again list at this point.
On to Malifaux. this bad boy is a skirmished based wild west, Victorian, magic fueled world with monsters and demons. Its in the steam punk genre, but is vastly different from warmachine. Its big claim is that instead of Dice you use a deck of playing cards. all standard 52 cards +2 jokers. the mechanic is easy enough. When I attack i flip a card, add its value to my attack. You do the same but add to your defense. if i win or tie i hit. Since 54 cards makes for a very random spread each player gets 6 cards per turn with which they can cheat, replacing their random card with one from their hand. There is also magic, but im still fuzzy on how that one works.
Each band, gang, whatever gets a leader plus a few henchmen. A standard game has between 5-9 models, from what i've seen only 1 leader ever gets above like 10 guys, and hes a minny master.
My big appeal so far is the Battle Fields you can play this game on. its a small skirmish game designed to be played on a small board filled with terrain. I'm envisioning like a train station, a mine shaft, or a city street, like where duels were fought back in the day, with alleys to hide in, or barrels to jump beind.
The Factions all seem very rich to me.
The Guild - These guys are the law in Malifaux. But the only reason they are the law is that they are the gang that was tough enough to take over. They are corrupt and think themselves infalable. They also rule with an iron fist, which is necessary since Malifaux is a very harsh world where if you stray from the rules you die. Like Pandora, except less pretty and the blue people aren't spiritual their blood sucking demons.
The Neverborn - These are the blood sucking demons. Malifaux is their home, and the humans are pissing them off. So they kill humans.
The Arcanists - This is like the labor union of Malifaux, they have tentative peace with the guild, but they aren't friendly. The labor stuff is a front for an underground crime syndicate who works the black market.
Resurrectionists - Necromancers, they don't work with any law or group, they just want to increase their own powers with new magic items and make more zombies.
Outcasts - These are Mercs, they work for money and sometimes just to survive.
Overall the game looks like it could be a lot fun, I'll have to test it out some to get a better feel for it. I'll post again after i get a game under my belt.
On to Malifaux. this bad boy is a skirmished based wild west, Victorian, magic fueled world with monsters and demons. Its in the steam punk genre, but is vastly different from warmachine. Its big claim is that instead of Dice you use a deck of playing cards. all standard 52 cards +2 jokers. the mechanic is easy enough. When I attack i flip a card, add its value to my attack. You do the same but add to your defense. if i win or tie i hit. Since 54 cards makes for a very random spread each player gets 6 cards per turn with which they can cheat, replacing their random card with one from their hand. There is also magic, but im still fuzzy on how that one works.
Each band, gang, whatever gets a leader plus a few henchmen. A standard game has between 5-9 models, from what i've seen only 1 leader ever gets above like 10 guys, and hes a minny master.
My big appeal so far is the Battle Fields you can play this game on. its a small skirmish game designed to be played on a small board filled with terrain. I'm envisioning like a train station, a mine shaft, or a city street, like where duels were fought back in the day, with alleys to hide in, or barrels to jump beind.
The Factions all seem very rich to me.
The Guild - These guys are the law in Malifaux. But the only reason they are the law is that they are the gang that was tough enough to take over. They are corrupt and think themselves infalable. They also rule with an iron fist, which is necessary since Malifaux is a very harsh world where if you stray from the rules you die. Like Pandora, except less pretty and the blue people aren't spiritual their blood sucking demons.
The Neverborn - These are the blood sucking demons. Malifaux is their home, and the humans are pissing them off. So they kill humans.
The Arcanists - This is like the labor union of Malifaux, they have tentative peace with the guild, but they aren't friendly. The labor stuff is a front for an underground crime syndicate who works the black market.
Resurrectionists - Necromancers, they don't work with any law or group, they just want to increase their own powers with new magic items and make more zombies.
Outcasts - These are Mercs, they work for money and sometimes just to survive.
Overall the game looks like it could be a lot fun, I'll have to test it out some to get a better feel for it. I'll post again after i get a game under my belt.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
MKII Battle Reports
I have now played 4 games of MKII 2 with Mercs which i promptly Lost, thus proving that I hate Mercs a lot. And I'm 1-1 with my Cryx.
The first game was Me vs Ellen in Merc v Merc action. She took Shae and I took Ashlyn. On the top of turn 2, Shae popped feat, laid a torrent out on my Risen, which allows her guys to charge through them and ignore them. Walls gave the Sea Dogs boosted melee attack rolls, and Hawk Ran up next to Ashlynn. Then Walls called for No Quarter and 2 sea dogs made it into melee with Ashlynn, who was less than 1 inch outside my deployment zone. They swing at MAT 7 3D6, and then go for Damage at P+S 10 4d6 then POW 12 2D6. The two jerk offs easily dispatched Ashlynn before her second turn. That was the only model of mine that died that game. Just ridiculous. This is why I hate squishy casters.
Second Game we played because the first game was over too quick. It was Magnus vs Fiona. I started off by killing all off Boomhowlers guys and a few solo's, but couldn't deal with the 5 steelhead cav that she took. *Side Note* Steelhead Cav are great even without halberdiers to back them up. They eventually got solid impact hits on my infantry and charged through into my Renegades and took both of their rockets off. Unfortunate to say the least, I tried the assassination run and did ok, but wasn't able to kill her. last ditch was the Dwarf hobbling up as close as he could get to try and burn her down with his flame thrower. i lit her on fire, but it went out, had she stayed alight she would most likely have died. ARM 14 with 4 wounds remaining
But Screw Mercs! Im a cryx Player
First game was against Mike's E-Hailey List, I took Skarre with a butt load of infantry. Things went very well when he failed to kill any Satyxis raiders with his Cyclone. I Backlashed it, and sent the ladies in and hit all my attacks dropping Hailey to 2 or 3 life on those hits. My big mistake came when i tried to Sac Strike a member of the Black 13, i was planning on using MKI version of sac strike, and was quite unhappy to find I couldn't use it. So now Skarre was in a bad spot too close to the enemy for no reason. On his attack Mike wasn't able to clear out enough stuff fast enough to bring all his attacks to bear on skarre and she lived through his turn. We called it there since Hailey was in my face with 2 life and Skarre had 10 focus.
Second Game was E-Skarre vs E-Stryker. I originally made the list for the coven, but I can't seem to want to field them these days, they kinda suck. E-Skarre isn't much better. I did find an awesome combo in Black-Spot + Thresher, but as it dawned on my how strong it is, I had already wiped out what I could kill except 1 model who took 5 Black Spot attacks. I was able to hound striker with a Leviathan, (which is a fantastic Jack in MKII) I think I had him down to 4 life, but I was fighting a losing battle from the get go. My Revenant Died Quick, I forgot the AOE order from the Gun mages and that cost me my Satyxis. My Jacks were pretty damn good that game, but Eventually on Strikers Feat Turn a Stormclad was able to track Skarrer down and whack her with a POW 18, and since he feat requires her to take 5 damage to use, (Really Lame!) she was at half life when it hit her... game over.
I was close against Striker, Mike did manage to shoot off the harrowers gun early which may have saved him, I think i would have needed an 11 on damage to kill. One turn I had a shot at him, but missed needing a 7. The leviathan was funny he missed like all but 1 of his shots each turn, but then rolled really good damage on the shot that hit. He was a tough bum to get through. Regular Skarre is very different than she was, no longer just hold up and thwack someone with a boosted pow 20. Raiders and Backlash are really strong for her, and I think she can support a Heavy or 2 in most cases.
The first game was Me vs Ellen in Merc v Merc action. She took Shae and I took Ashlyn. On the top of turn 2, Shae popped feat, laid a torrent out on my Risen, which allows her guys to charge through them and ignore them. Walls gave the Sea Dogs boosted melee attack rolls, and Hawk Ran up next to Ashlynn. Then Walls called for No Quarter and 2 sea dogs made it into melee with Ashlynn, who was less than 1 inch outside my deployment zone. They swing at MAT 7 3D6, and then go for Damage at P+S 10 4d6 then POW 12 2D6. The two jerk offs easily dispatched Ashlynn before her second turn. That was the only model of mine that died that game. Just ridiculous. This is why I hate squishy casters.
Second Game we played because the first game was over too quick. It was Magnus vs Fiona. I started off by killing all off Boomhowlers guys and a few solo's, but couldn't deal with the 5 steelhead cav that she took. *Side Note* Steelhead Cav are great even without halberdiers to back them up. They eventually got solid impact hits on my infantry and charged through into my Renegades and took both of their rockets off. Unfortunate to say the least, I tried the assassination run and did ok, but wasn't able to kill her. last ditch was the Dwarf hobbling up as close as he could get to try and burn her down with his flame thrower. i lit her on fire, but it went out, had she stayed alight she would most likely have died. ARM 14 with 4 wounds remaining
But Screw Mercs! Im a cryx Player
First game was against Mike's E-Hailey List, I took Skarre with a butt load of infantry. Things went very well when he failed to kill any Satyxis raiders with his Cyclone. I Backlashed it, and sent the ladies in and hit all my attacks dropping Hailey to 2 or 3 life on those hits. My big mistake came when i tried to Sac Strike a member of the Black 13, i was planning on using MKI version of sac strike, and was quite unhappy to find I couldn't use it. So now Skarre was in a bad spot too close to the enemy for no reason. On his attack Mike wasn't able to clear out enough stuff fast enough to bring all his attacks to bear on skarre and she lived through his turn. We called it there since Hailey was in my face with 2 life and Skarre had 10 focus.
Second Game was E-Skarre vs E-Stryker. I originally made the list for the coven, but I can't seem to want to field them these days, they kinda suck. E-Skarre isn't much better. I did find an awesome combo in Black-Spot + Thresher, but as it dawned on my how strong it is, I had already wiped out what I could kill except 1 model who took 5 Black Spot attacks. I was able to hound striker with a Leviathan, (which is a fantastic Jack in MKII) I think I had him down to 4 life, but I was fighting a losing battle from the get go. My Revenant Died Quick, I forgot the AOE order from the Gun mages and that cost me my Satyxis. My Jacks were pretty damn good that game, but Eventually on Strikers Feat Turn a Stormclad was able to track Skarrer down and whack her with a POW 18, and since he feat requires her to take 5 damage to use, (Really Lame!) she was at half life when it hit her... game over.
I was close against Striker, Mike did manage to shoot off the harrowers gun early which may have saved him, I think i would have needed an 11 on damage to kill. One turn I had a shot at him, but missed needing a 7. The leviathan was funny he missed like all but 1 of his shots each turn, but then rolled really good damage on the shot that hit. He was a tough bum to get through. Regular Skarre is very different than she was, no longer just hold up and thwack someone with a boosted pow 20. Raiders and Backlash are really strong for her, and I think she can support a Heavy or 2 in most cases.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Firestorm Battle Report
Before I begin I would like to say my ships came in the mail earlier this week and I have them primed and fully assembled.
So Mike in his quest to find a faction that fits his play style tried the Aqueans last night. We played our starter fleets plus a carrier and a dozen fighters. Our fleets are both poor at long range combat so our initial steps were moving into position. He struck first dropping a Frigate. We continued to maneuver for a while or so until about turn 3 when my cruisers made their way out from behind an Asteroid field and opened fire. I crit one of mikes cruisers, rolled 1,1 and it went nuclear. critting his other ship causing a raging fire, and damaging his last cruiser. Our battle ships traded blows, but we were both holding repair cards and brought them back up almost to full life. But on the following turn his battle ship wedged itself into my fleet, and unleased a massive amount of firepower that was totally ineffective. his dice had failed him on this exchange. My battle ship spun into place shot its full payload and I crit his battle ship once again rolling 1,1. At this point the game turned into clean up. I started to hound his ships as they maneuvered around the board. In the End his last squad of Frigates and his carrier tried to flee the field, but Mercy was not mine to grant. My only failing on the day a lone fighter made it off the board before I could send a dozen of my own fighters to burn his ass down.
Bit time win for Sorylians, which is nice since the last two games where I had any advantage it was wiped out by my opponent rolling 1,1 or 6,6 on my battle ship. My only problem with the game at this point is that there is a 1/18 chance you lose your battleship on the first shot. And for some reason we like rolling 1,1 in my play group. I think next game we will experiment with a modified version of the crit table. Also the cards do basically nothing to prevent the 1,1 crit.
So Mike in his quest to find a faction that fits his play style tried the Aqueans last night. We played our starter fleets plus a carrier and a dozen fighters. Our fleets are both poor at long range combat so our initial steps were moving into position. He struck first dropping a Frigate. We continued to maneuver for a while or so until about turn 3 when my cruisers made their way out from behind an Asteroid field and opened fire. I crit one of mikes cruisers, rolled 1,1 and it went nuclear. critting his other ship causing a raging fire, and damaging his last cruiser. Our battle ships traded blows, but we were both holding repair cards and brought them back up almost to full life. But on the following turn his battle ship wedged itself into my fleet, and unleased a massive amount of firepower that was totally ineffective. his dice had failed him on this exchange. My battle ship spun into place shot its full payload and I crit his battle ship once again rolling 1,1. At this point the game turned into clean up. I started to hound his ships as they maneuvered around the board. In the End his last squad of Frigates and his carrier tried to flee the field, but Mercy was not mine to grant. My only failing on the day a lone fighter made it off the board before I could send a dozen of my own fighters to burn his ass down.
Bit time win for Sorylians, which is nice since the last two games where I had any advantage it was wiped out by my opponent rolling 1,1 or 6,6 on my battle ship. My only problem with the game at this point is that there is a 1/18 chance you lose your battleship on the first shot. And for some reason we like rolling 1,1 in my play group. I think next game we will experiment with a modified version of the crit table. Also the cards do basically nothing to prevent the 1,1 crit.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
MKII Prime Review
So I've had this book about 2 weeks and this morning on the Metro i finished the Khador Section and now I have read pretty much the whole book. I'm far too lazy to read everything in the book, But I'm confident I can give it a decent review.
The Art work in this book is pretty darn good. The style of P.P's artists seem to change book to book. I'm not positive but based entirely off what I've seen I would say all 3 prime books have different artists. The style here is slightly cartoony and I can see that being unappealing to some. But Personally I think a few characters have never been drawn better. Vlad and Sorcha come to mind. The Jack pics are recycled from remix and are still among my favorites. Cryx units were redone and look pretty freaky. Overall the mix of new and old art is pretty nice. Art work: B+
Rules wise its hard to grade. Since this is just Warmachine prime +1 Heavy Jack I can't call any faction broken, just 1 dimensional. Rules: Incomplete
Story wise I'm a big fan. There is a little skirmish in the opening of the book between Menoth and Cygnar. I won't say much, but its in the feel of the book. They re-hashed the countries histories in their sections and added in a few new things that have happened since the story began to chug along. I think its great for people who don't know the story because they can pick it up and get a cliff notes version of whats happened so far. Also there is a large bit of history written from the perspective of the piper, its pretty damn cool. Story Section: A
Overall layout is sold. In the original Prime books Cryx was before Khador, and that wasn't the case in any other book, This time around they listed Cryx last in the book and I'm guessing that will be uniform from here on out. The Index is nice, the Faction pages have colored borders so they are easy to find and flip to. Very friendly and intuitive set up. My one complaint is that the Miniatures are off on their own instead of attached to their factions sections, but that's a small preference issue. Layout: B
Extras! There is a painting Section, which is ok, its tough to give detailed painting tips in so small a space. The Terrain section had about the same treatment. The appendixes are a nice reference area for the book. Warjack bonds and timing issues are explained there. The forward by Matt Wilson is as amazing and heartfelt as always. Page 5 caught my attention, its my feeling that Page 5 has gone down hill since Apotheosis. They were a little too in your face and the jokes didn't hit home as hard. This is was very different. It was really in the spirit of the game. P.P doesn't want games to end from Vp sniping. This is a game designed to have mass destruction as two 10 ton jacks smash into each other and both players fight to the bitter end. Then there was Rule 5. This was the one that really caught my attention, to summarize; Don't be a Douche! Great message and something that I feel was almost lost after seeing the way the 2008 national tourney went. Extras: B+ (Pg 5 and the Forward put it over the top)
Overal Grade B+/A- range. Great book every Warmachine player needs to pick it up. Tomorrow the faction Decks come out and then I will be able to give real feedback on the rules and balance of the game. Word on the street is Menoth is broke
The Art work in this book is pretty darn good. The style of P.P's artists seem to change book to book. I'm not positive but based entirely off what I've seen I would say all 3 prime books have different artists. The style here is slightly cartoony and I can see that being unappealing to some. But Personally I think a few characters have never been drawn better. Vlad and Sorcha come to mind. The Jack pics are recycled from remix and are still among my favorites. Cryx units were redone and look pretty freaky. Overall the mix of new and old art is pretty nice. Art work: B+
Rules wise its hard to grade. Since this is just Warmachine prime +1 Heavy Jack I can't call any faction broken, just 1 dimensional. Rules: Incomplete
Story wise I'm a big fan. There is a little skirmish in the opening of the book between Menoth and Cygnar. I won't say much, but its in the feel of the book. They re-hashed the countries histories in their sections and added in a few new things that have happened since the story began to chug along. I think its great for people who don't know the story because they can pick it up and get a cliff notes version of whats happened so far. Also there is a large bit of history written from the perspective of the piper, its pretty damn cool. Story Section: A
Overall layout is sold. In the original Prime books Cryx was before Khador, and that wasn't the case in any other book, This time around they listed Cryx last in the book and I'm guessing that will be uniform from here on out. The Index is nice, the Faction pages have colored borders so they are easy to find and flip to. Very friendly and intuitive set up. My one complaint is that the Miniatures are off on their own instead of attached to their factions sections, but that's a small preference issue. Layout: B
Extras! There is a painting Section, which is ok, its tough to give detailed painting tips in so small a space. The Terrain section had about the same treatment. The appendixes are a nice reference area for the book. Warjack bonds and timing issues are explained there. The forward by Matt Wilson is as amazing and heartfelt as always. Page 5 caught my attention, its my feeling that Page 5 has gone down hill since Apotheosis. They were a little too in your face and the jokes didn't hit home as hard. This is was very different. It was really in the spirit of the game. P.P doesn't want games to end from Vp sniping. This is a game designed to have mass destruction as two 10 ton jacks smash into each other and both players fight to the bitter end. Then there was Rule 5. This was the one that really caught my attention, to summarize; Don't be a Douche! Great message and something that I feel was almost lost after seeing the way the 2008 national tourney went. Extras: B+ (Pg 5 and the Forward put it over the top)
Overal Grade B+/A- range. Great book every Warmachine player needs to pick it up. Tomorrow the faction Decks come out and then I will be able to give real feedback on the rules and balance of the game. Word on the street is Menoth is broke
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
My Gaming Bio (And thoughts)
Broad topic i know, but i wanted to throw out my thoughts on several things. I'll start with my first foray into gaming which was with Miniatures.
I'll discount when I was like 8-11 years old and had like 30 Guardsmen and a Tank from this subject, I didn't know, or really care for the rules then and just liked to look at my overpriced army men and play soldiers with them. It wasn't until 10th grade that I was finally pulled into it for real with Warhammer Fantasy. I played Dwarves and found rather quickly I had a small attention span for a single army and within a few years had branched out to build small Undead, Wood Elf, Beastman, and Chaos armies. Most of them i played a few times, generally with a lot of proxies. Wood Elves and Beastmen appealed to me the most. they used fast guys, skirmished units, and were a nightmare to try to engage. I entered my Dwarves into several tournaments and usually went 2-1 with them. Never won anything. My first tourney with the Wood Elves I crushed all three opponents soundly and took home a win. With my Beastmen I did the same, but to an even worse extent, I believe in three games I only left 25 total models alive. I won best general, but lost on account of my unpainted army, and most likely poor sportsmanship. I started into Wahammer 40k as i went off to college, all my Fantasy Buddies went away to school, so I started 40k so I would have something to do. I sucked hard, and Honestly I've never done well at 40k tournaments. I'm pretty good at a 1 and done style game and usually win those, but when the tournaments roll around I generally flop. I played Space marines, but got fed up with that and Went to Chaos, which I have played every since. I've tried starting new armies, but i lose interest really fast and just buy more Chaos. Without realizing it I had a large well painted army that I could customize in a lot of ways.
At some point in here I picked up a battle box of Cryx guys, I assembled them, primed them, played like 10 games with Bill, and then put them back in the box to sit for a while. It wasn't until Jay started bugging me to pull them back out that I started earnestly playing Warmachine, which was the best thing I've ever done with my life, and that's a disturbingly true statement. I wouldn't know any of my current friends or my Fiance, had I not started playing this game. And my god it was fresh! The game is really unlike anything else I've played. Rules and Mechanics wise it is the best miniature game made. The models were gorgeous, the factions rich with flavor, the fluff was crazy ass cool! I immersed myself in Warmachine for a very long time. And the best part is I was really damn good at it. I seemed to understand the tournament setting far better than 40k. (At this point I had become to fed up with the asinine rules of Fantasy to even play anymore, to this day I declare it the worst game I own... also i have orcs for sale!) Outside of the 2005 National Tournament I have not entered a tournament with my Cryx and not taken the award for Best Cryx Player. This helped fuel my ego and allowed me to make such audacious claims as I was the best Cryx player within 1,000 miles. My unfortunate friends had no way to disprove this statement as I was really really good. In the summer of 05 Privateer Press announced Hordes would be the next big thing. We waited impatiently for the full release. I liked the Circle models best, but was pretty broke so I went with Trolls thinking It would be cheaper. that was wrong and now I play Circle! but at the time i played trolls and damn were we excited for this game. We mixed it with warmachine, played solo, did just about everything under the sun with these two games until we burned out of them for a while. There was a stretch were played l5r almost exclusively, and a point where just I did. But not be Denied Warmachine came back into out minds and our hearts, new models, stories, and rules kept fueling us to play more and more. We have burned out and come back it more times than I can count. At the moment I feel like we are all on the verge of another great Warmachine push, but we need out MKII cards... nice job making us wait 2 weeks PP ya assholes!
Interspersed between all this we bounced around new games here and there. the most notable were Monsterpocalypse, which while a fun game got disturbingly repetitive after a while, I throw your through a building, I throw you! I throw you!... crap i died because there are some overpowered damage combos... woooooo, and repeat. Arcane Legions was our next one, I'm still in love with this game a little bit. It was cheap to get into, easy to play and there were a lot of great little touches in it. My problems arose when Archery became the end all aspect of the game. I have more bows therefore my tactics are irrelevant I can shoot your toughest unit down before they get here. And The create your own unit feature, which allowed people to break the game as they saw fit. Lastly the game were are still learning, and trying to get models for, Firestorm Armada. So far its a great game, I'm having trouble getting that elusive first victory, I'm not frustrated yet, but I might be soon.
Thats where my miniature gaming portion ends. I'll do another section later. Card Gaming might be even longer, god I played some shitty card games.
I'll discount when I was like 8-11 years old and had like 30 Guardsmen and a Tank from this subject, I didn't know, or really care for the rules then and just liked to look at my overpriced army men and play soldiers with them. It wasn't until 10th grade that I was finally pulled into it for real with Warhammer Fantasy. I played Dwarves and found rather quickly I had a small attention span for a single army and within a few years had branched out to build small Undead, Wood Elf, Beastman, and Chaos armies. Most of them i played a few times, generally with a lot of proxies. Wood Elves and Beastmen appealed to me the most. they used fast guys, skirmished units, and were a nightmare to try to engage. I entered my Dwarves into several tournaments and usually went 2-1 with them. Never won anything. My first tourney with the Wood Elves I crushed all three opponents soundly and took home a win. With my Beastmen I did the same, but to an even worse extent, I believe in three games I only left 25 total models alive. I won best general, but lost on account of my unpainted army, and most likely poor sportsmanship. I started into Wahammer 40k as i went off to college, all my Fantasy Buddies went away to school, so I started 40k so I would have something to do. I sucked hard, and Honestly I've never done well at 40k tournaments. I'm pretty good at a 1 and done style game and usually win those, but when the tournaments roll around I generally flop. I played Space marines, but got fed up with that and Went to Chaos, which I have played every since. I've tried starting new armies, but i lose interest really fast and just buy more Chaos. Without realizing it I had a large well painted army that I could customize in a lot of ways.
At some point in here I picked up a battle box of Cryx guys, I assembled them, primed them, played like 10 games with Bill, and then put them back in the box to sit for a while. It wasn't until Jay started bugging me to pull them back out that I started earnestly playing Warmachine, which was the best thing I've ever done with my life, and that's a disturbingly true statement. I wouldn't know any of my current friends or my Fiance, had I not started playing this game. And my god it was fresh! The game is really unlike anything else I've played. Rules and Mechanics wise it is the best miniature game made. The models were gorgeous, the factions rich with flavor, the fluff was crazy ass cool! I immersed myself in Warmachine for a very long time. And the best part is I was really damn good at it. I seemed to understand the tournament setting far better than 40k. (At this point I had become to fed up with the asinine rules of Fantasy to even play anymore, to this day I declare it the worst game I own... also i have orcs for sale!) Outside of the 2005 National Tournament I have not entered a tournament with my Cryx and not taken the award for Best Cryx Player. This helped fuel my ego and allowed me to make such audacious claims as I was the best Cryx player within 1,000 miles. My unfortunate friends had no way to disprove this statement as I was really really good. In the summer of 05 Privateer Press announced Hordes would be the next big thing. We waited impatiently for the full release. I liked the Circle models best, but was pretty broke so I went with Trolls thinking It would be cheaper. that was wrong and now I play Circle! but at the time i played trolls and damn were we excited for this game. We mixed it with warmachine, played solo, did just about everything under the sun with these two games until we burned out of them for a while. There was a stretch were played l5r almost exclusively, and a point where just I did. But not be Denied Warmachine came back into out minds and our hearts, new models, stories, and rules kept fueling us to play more and more. We have burned out and come back it more times than I can count. At the moment I feel like we are all on the verge of another great Warmachine push, but we need out MKII cards... nice job making us wait 2 weeks PP ya assholes!
Interspersed between all this we bounced around new games here and there. the most notable were Monsterpocalypse, which while a fun game got disturbingly repetitive after a while, I throw your through a building, I throw you! I throw you!... crap i died because there are some overpowered damage combos... woooooo, and repeat. Arcane Legions was our next one, I'm still in love with this game a little bit. It was cheap to get into, easy to play and there were a lot of great little touches in it. My problems arose when Archery became the end all aspect of the game. I have more bows therefore my tactics are irrelevant I can shoot your toughest unit down before they get here. And The create your own unit feature, which allowed people to break the game as they saw fit. Lastly the game were are still learning, and trying to get models for, Firestorm Armada. So far its a great game, I'm having trouble getting that elusive first victory, I'm not frustrated yet, but I might be soon.
Thats where my miniature gaming portion ends. I'll do another section later. Card Gaming might be even longer, god I played some shitty card games.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Even More of F.S.A
After my second game played and watching a few more I have a few gripes with the game. The Critical table has a lot of flaws in it. The most devastating is the chance to one shot any ship. In a game where were first testing out the merits of terrain I had a very favorable set up and was picking my opponents fleet apart. Most of the frigates were down the Battle ship was wounded, and I had started to wound his cruisers. On his first move of turn 3 or 4 he full combine fired into my battleship. He proceeded to roll very well to get his hit into a crit and then he rolled a pair of 6's on the damage table. This caused the warp drive to buckle and annihilate my unhurt battle ship. Then i looked at the board and realized that despite how well i was doing and how sound my tactics were that i was going to lose. He could keep his battleship hidden in terrain and force me to desperately try to hurt it as he crushed through my ships. It happened again in a Game was watching the next day. Terains were crushing the Dindrenzi when in a desperation shot they hit and crit the Terrain battle ship, and rolled double one's causing the ship go nuclear. The worse part is that the Dindrenzi had done that same crit earlier in the game to a cruiser, the damage of its blast killed off a Frigate and another already damaged cruiser. So every crit brings with it a 1/18 chance of destroying the ship it hits outright. That is a little too high for likings. There is also the far to comon chance that you can damage your opponents main weapons and he has only a 33% chance to restore them a turn. Its not so bad on certain ships but when your main weapons are your forward guns or your turrets, it seriously hampers your chance to damage your enemy.
Apparently there a cards in the deck which we haven't gotten yet, that allow you to cancel a critical hit. If that is the case then i can see the Crits not being so broken.
Overal still really enjoying the game. The dindrenzi have lost their magic in mike's eyes, though he likes the phallus shaped ships, they can only fire in a fixed front arc, much like their phallic brethren. He tried the Relthoza but the cloaking device doesn't seem to strong, especially with 6's being so powerful in the game. Next we will try Aqueans vs Sorylians to see who is the best at range 2 combat. I'll need a little luck against their powerhouse weapons.
Almost forgot, Boarding actions are pretty damn cool. In one boarding action Eric almost wiped out the whole crew of Brian's battleship, I think i'll need to start trying that if i'm to have any chance of beating the Aquans.
Apparently there a cards in the deck which we haven't gotten yet, that allow you to cancel a critical hit. If that is the case then i can see the Crits not being so broken.
Overal still really enjoying the game. The dindrenzi have lost their magic in mike's eyes, though he likes the phallus shaped ships, they can only fire in a fixed front arc, much like their phallic brethren. He tried the Relthoza but the cloaking device doesn't seem to strong, especially with 6's being so powerful in the game. Next we will try Aqueans vs Sorylians to see who is the best at range 2 combat. I'll need a little luck against their powerhouse weapons.
Almost forgot, Boarding actions are pretty damn cool. In one boarding action Eric almost wiped out the whole crew of Brian's battleship, I think i'll need to start trying that if i'm to have any chance of beating the Aquans.
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