Metal Skirmish: and now

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Guild Ball - First Thoughts (by Maurice)

So, when I've found time between work, family and other stuff for gaming, I've been slowly sneaking into Guild Ball, from Steamforged Games. Guild Ball is a Medieval Football skirmish game, in which teams of players representing various mercantile guilds battle it out on the pitch to settle differences between their employers and generally keep the different city-states from going to war with one another.

I really enjoyed Blood Bowl earlier in my gaming career, and have always been on the lookout for new sports games. I skipped the original Guild Ball kickstarter, as although I loved the art, I wasn't huge on the idea of having weapons in my sports game as a normal thing (in addition to a shortage of $$ at the time.) Well, I finally read the rules and realized my mistake. One quick group order later, and I had my much adored Fishermen on bases and ready to stab some punks with spearguns...and also score goals... mostly score goals.

I've gotten a bit of game action in with them now, and the game is excellent. It offers a lot of dynamism and action, with a good dose of problem solving.

Almost every activation can feel like one of those set-piece puzzles from a No Quarter or old White Dwarf where you try to gin up the best solution to a situation. It does this without generating analysis paralysis or slowing the game down as well, which is really clever.

Basically, each turn you and your opponent alternate activating your players until they've all gone once. Players are assigned influence (action points) to start the turn, which they spend to attack, sprint, pass, etc.

As you do things, you'll generate momentum points, which you need to do things like trigger heroic plays, exercise effective teamwork, heal mid-turn, and most importantly: shoot the ball at the goal.

Each player has a set of plays that they can carry out, as well as a little damage chart that they use when attacking. You roll a pool of dice for every action and try to score a number of successes. The damage chart for attacks lets you know whether you can hurt or knock down your target, dodge or push them, or trigger a character play, depending on how successful your attack was.

Games are played to some combination of goals (4 points) and KOs (2 points) equaling 12 points. This allows the game to have a reasonable length while not favoring scoring teams over killing teams, or vice versa.

If you want to learn more about the game, I recommend Guild Ball Tonight, an excellent podcast focused just on this game.

Anyways, we're looking forward to getting more games in. Hopefully Scorpio will have some thoughts soon after his Union get in a game or two.

Here are some photos of my completed Jac and in-progress Kraken and Greyscales.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Cold Wars 2015 report

We're going to need a bigger... everything.

For Cold Wars this year, I figured I would be flying solo, so I opted to make it a one-day affair. Drive up early, sell things at the Wally's Basement flea market, play a couple games, then head home late. I was able to pull it off, but man, I might be getting a little old to do that much more. Was wiped by the end of then night, and the drive home was a challenge. So back to springing for the hotel room next time, methinks.

The con itself was a mixed bag. Well, that's not really true. For me, the con was great. I sold a bunch of toys, which paid for not only my attendance but with some leftover to buy yet more minis. I played in two great games that were a lot of fun and pretty much exactly what I am looking for in a convention game. I chatted with a bunch of cool folks. I bought a bunch of things I wanted. All winners.

But the con itself was, well, suffering. Fresh off the heels of what looks like the last snowstorm of the year here out east, the parking lot was a hell of ice and slush and cars at all angles and the like. Wally's basement was run in a more haphazard fashion. I noticed a distinct lack of a lot of the huge eye candy showcase games, which are always popular. There were empty tables in the game halls, the dealers room, and even in Wally's, which is always packed. I overheard one of the major dealers saying their sales were down by half, and that was towards the end of the day on Saturday. Ouch. I don't think Historicon will suffer as a result, but I wonder what Fall In will look like come later this year.

Anyways. I come to praise Cold Wars, not to bury it. Let's get on with the it.

My first game of the day:

S-334 - Monster Madness: Hydras, Harpies, & Hellhounds, Oh My!

Sat. 3:00 PM, 2 hrs, 8 players

GM: Katherine Rockstroh

Fantasy 28mm, Rules: Homebrew
You the citizens have demanded it, so the king has decreed it: the THIRD royal monster hunt! The goal: to slay the mightiest monsters ever to terrorize the kingdom. The prize: a new estate & the princess’s hand in marriage. All are welcome to attend; friendly rivalry is encouraged in this fast-paced challenge.
Young aspiring monster hunters welcome with an accompanying grizzled veteran hunter.

You'll notice that last line above. I entirely missed it when I was signing up. Not a big deal, mind you. As with the Hunger Games event from last Fall In, I am a-OK gaming with the younger set. I just didn't expect to be sitting down to this one, and, for the most part, being older than any other two or three gamers put together. Even the GMs were in their late teens. (This was a definite rarity at the HMGS events; I feel like I am on the younger side of the average age of attendees, and I am not young. At all.) No shade though, the GMs ran things wonderfully.

Seated around the table, our teammates were the players opposite us. This allowed the GMs to have each of us activate at the same time, which was pretty ingenious. Essentially, when a model touched a terrain piece, it spawned a monster, which you would get victory points for eliminating. And everyone had a vested interest in either winning the princess's hand in marriage or claiming the monster-infested grounds for their own.

I played Sir Bret, the handsome knight. My teammate was my twin brother, a knight in his own regard. In addition to my footmen, I also had some adoring peasants following me around, who I regularly sent to investigate and root out monsters, which invariably had an appetite for serfs.

Each player had a main character, a second-in-command sort, and a handful of other figs to... not worry about too much. The rules were simple and easy, with color-coded dice (red, blue, and gold) that were easy for even those math-challenged among us to count swiftly.

The game actually played like a Gauntlet-style video game, in a good way. Monsters were spawned. Easier beasts were quickly dispatched, while more fearsome creatures went on to rampage on their own. You'll notice I said above that you got victory points for eliminating the monsters. This, invariably, lead to rampant killstealing and similar shenanigans. It was glorious. The winner was a young druid who had her army of beasts (all of which she personally named) romping around the board swooping in for the kills.

The monster decks for each of the spawning area types. Made for smooth an easy management.

A fearless footman finds a fearsome bulette hiding in the woods.

The majority of the figs were from Warhammer, the Dungeons & Dragons collectible minis line, Reaper Bones, and other iconic high fantasy sorts.

Not challenged enough, my serfs also spawn a purple worm behind us. Target-rich environment.

The captain of the guard uncovers an umber hulk (or as she deemed it, 'an ugly cockroach..')

Ways to challenge my humble cameraphone: photographing a jabberwock in the fronds.

Again, let me reiterate this game was a lot of fun. I would love to recreate it for the locals, and in a couple years can even get our kids involved. The GMs kept the pace moving, so turns moved along promptly. The victory point count definitely lead to some energetic rivalry. Great times.

Random games I passed while wandering the halls:

I mentioned above there weren't many large showpiece games, but this one definitely caught a lot of attention, recreating a World War II raid on a German airstrip. Apparently Doctor Jones was spotted escorting a mysterious crate off the field midway through the game.

I didn't get any details on this game, but the terrain was definitely evocative.

Another large game spotted was a Wild West game set on the three decks of a paddleboat. A homebrew construction of balsa, dollhouse parts, and other odds and ends the decks could even sit on top of each other for the full effect. Very keen.

My second game of the day:

S-278 - Just Another Wasteland Mystery

Sat. 8:00 PM, 3 hrs, 6 players
GM: Joseph McGuire
Sponsor: World's End Publishing
SciFi 28mm, Rules: This Is Not a Test
The small shantytown of Pernicious Hope has gone quiet. Scouts report no movement from within. The town could have been sacked by an unknown attacker or abandoned by its occupants. Rumor suggest that the town’s leader found something interesting out in the wastes, but what is was is unknown. Perhaps this item's presence is tied to the town's fate? Can your warband solve the mystery?

I had been looking forward to trying out these rules since I first heard about them a while back, and they were the first thing I went for during registration. The rules are due out soon, but I always learn best by trying a game out, and everyone who played in our group was suitably impressed.

Many handmade shanties and wrecks of vehicles past.

The rules were pretty straightforward. Activation is a little funny, but once everyone got the hang of it, it was no sweat, even with six of us roughing it out.

(And of course I botched my initial activation, but I just pretended I meant to do that so I could stay back and watch who does what first. Heh.)

There's a lot of great detail packed into the board, here.

I grabbed the Fairfax Tribe, who happen to be featured in this batrep. Amusingly, I found myself sitting next to Joe C. from Dragonbait Miniatures, who I'd met at another con before. (Side note: they're prepping their next offerings, so keep your eyes open.) He was running Mad Max and some of his cronies.

Sneaking into the ruins near the inimitable Johnny Atomic!

Large Oak covers the rest of the tribe as they cautiously advance.

An interesting twist turned up on the second round: in addition to investigating the abandoned township, Tall Hat decided the fearsome Rock Worms would be a mighty prize to bring home, if their corpses could be harvested. It was of course perfectly fine to let the other survivors do the dirty work of killing them first, naturally. Tall Hat's no dope.

(The book will include a bestiary of awful post-apocalyptic creatures to flesh out the world, just the thing to add to scenarios to take them from good to great.)

Max and his troubleshooters have a worm problem.

Not pictured: on the far end of the board, the Peacekeepers unleashed the grenade launcher to impressive effect, causing everyone else to subtly start spreading out their models, heh.

In the campaign rules, you can loot the corpses of the fallen. Every gamer's dream.

Did I mention how spiff the terrain was?

One fo the things I liked about the rules was how they lent themselves to a natural role-playing angle. For example: shooting. You determine which models are shot by your characters for an activation, and only after that do you resolve the shots themselves. So there's no 'take out one guy, move to the next.' If you want to make sure someone stays down, you end up pouring some extra lead into them, just in case they get lucky. But you don't really know if it works until it's too late to do anything else about it.

Along those lines: you declare your actions before resolving them, so if something goes south, you'll be left trying to cover for it.

Showdown.

Preparing flanking fire.

Actual quote: "Who vomits first?" Rock worms are not pleasant dinner company.

After the game, we all received a prize of a filthy mutant. Which lead to a brief discussion over the merits of the various filthy mutants. Big win.

If you're interested in the game, you can follow the news on the Facebook group, and read up more on the website.

After that was saying goodbyes, packing up, and hauling myself back to Maryland.

For more Cold Wars reports, check out Mr. Surdu, Mr. Nizz, and the fine folks at HAWKs, who always had a nice crowd in there playing.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

7ombieTV: Break Down

This week on Zed Nation...

Couple weeks back, the gents expressed interest in 7ombieTV (which I have been stumping for a while) so I threw together some models and we sat down to play the first scenario, "Break Down." We'd played a run through of 7tv a while back, so I re-familiarized myself by fixing up a nice playsheet and generating the Co-Stars.

There and back again

The survivors' microbus had run out of gas within sight of their goal: a gas station they new still held the precious fuel they would need to break away from the swarm of undead infesting the area. All they needed to do was run out there, grab the gas, and get back to the vehicle before the zombie horde sinks their teeth into them.

Each player had two Co-Stars (the Brain, the Grease Monkey, the Looker, and the Grunt) and two extras (one was a faithful Dog.) I ran the zombies, more or less on auto-pilot. I snuck in two Leader zombies, but didn't reveal that until it was time for them to use their extra activation abilities. I also brought one zombie dog, to be the nemesis of his canine counterpart. (Both dogs turned out to be surprisingly effective.) For an extra worry, I made the survivors keep track of who had the car keys. You know, just in case.

"It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder."

Top of the pic, you see the Zombie Dog racing to give the Brain a taste of what's to come.

Top left corner, you'll see what happens when a handful of zombies gets hit with a Molotov event card. Smokin'!

The Brain runs back with the gas, with a Zombie Dog nipping at his heels.

Civilian down!

Living dog > not-so-living dog.

Surrounded, the Brain plays a timely "Walk Like A Zombie" event card, letting him escape the undead predators for a crucial round.

The Grunt (played by Rick from Zombicide, painted by Maurice) faces a grim fate.

The Grease Monkey swings his axe to free the Brain from a wall of undead.

Working to keep the escape route clear.

Things are looking grim back at the van.

Bloodbath!

On the ninth turn, the survivors pile into the refueled van and make tracks, securing a solid victory for the living. This time.

Decently successful game. Some rules questions cropped up (where are those rules from breaking away from melee?) and some mistakes were made in the beginning on both sides, but nothing crucial. The guys seemed to enjoy themselves, which is all that matters, to the point that I am discussing running 7th Voyage in the near future.