Close enough is good enough: The Battle Mechanik Officer

So I've been waiting for this for quite a while. I didn't expect much, just a cool Man-O-War model. Well, technically, he's not a Man-O-War. He just looks like one.

As for stats, I was right. Same as a Demo Corp model, less MAT and RAT, but no Iron Sentinel and no Warjack Drive either.

What does have is Lash.

When a model is in base to base with this model, it cannot be knocked down.

That was unexpected. Fair enough. It has its uses, like if you have a Man-O-War or two you don't want falling on their arses. Same thing for Warjacks, which he can repair by the way, but there's always the threat that the Warjack will get slammed and it won't get the benefit of Lash unless it falls short and remains in base to base.

But the interesting thing is that he offers one other rule:

Granted: Man-O-War Mechanik - While this model is in play, models in its unit can make a Repair special action to attempt to repair damaged Man-O-War models as if they were warjacks. Models in this modelʼs unit with Assist Repair can make an Assist Repair special action to assist in the repair of Man-O-War models.

That was expected. The only disappointment is that it's a “Granted” ability, so as soon as he is destroyed, the ability is gone.

That was all I expected from him. He may double the points cost of a Base Battle Mechanik Unit, and he doesn't count as a Man-O-War, but damnit close enough is good enough. I'm getting two for the MoW Army.

ITZ MA BIRFDAY

And what a day it was. I did exactly what I wanted and everyone else did what I wanted.

And what I wanted was to do practically nothing, talk to my girlfriend, and get showered with well wishes, and everyone else have a cracker of a daythemselves. AND IT ALL HAPPENED!

I had a lovely morning with my girlfriend, who wrote a wonderful blogpost, I spent most of the day watching TV with mum, I even played “Sonic 4” and “Sonic Generations” in celebration for Sonic's 20th Anniversary the other day (Dad's been hogging the tv and disappeared on Sunday to a mates place), and then at the end I turned on Fox Classics to watch James Bond movies (“Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love”) before giving Jenny one last call and going to bed.

The best parts were the food. Late Breakfast was Bacon, Eggs, Mexican Beef Steak and Baked Beans, and then for dinner we had Pork in some sort of Cranberry and something Marinade, served with Mashed Potato and Veges. Then for dessert, the lovely and wonderful Tash baked a cake, and it was a very goooood cake.

That was not the only celebration, though. The Friday before was spent playing Bloodbowl with the lads and having a drink of a 15 year old Dalwhinnie. It's quite a nice Scotch, very smooth. The week before was a 12 year old Glenmorangie, another rather nice Scotch, while playing Settlers of Catan.

That was a night of new experiences for me. For one, I hadn't really drunk Scotch like that before. The only other Scotch I'd drunk was Chivas Regal with coke on a whimsical night. And it was also the first time I had played Settlers of Catan. That was really fun.

So far it has been a pretty awesome birthday. I'm disappointed I couldn't go to the Mana Bar for the Sonic 20th Anniversary thing they did. Could've won something awesome!

Squad-machine?

Warmachine and Hordes are well known as a Skirmish Game, where small or large armies gather to contest on the field of battle. The said field can be anything, from streets of a city, to a plateau made of a titan, to a valley of concentrated evil.

It's a wonderful game and shows it. The varying points levels can change the game significantly too. And the larger it gets, the more intense the game. They even had to offer a different system for the larger battle games.

But what about scaling in the other direction?

Lately I have been looking at different scaled games, such as squads, to battallions to space fleets, etc etc. But after looking at Mercs, a squad based game, the thought occurred to me what it would be like to have Warmachine/Hordes scaled down to a handful of Solo models?

They pretty much already have a method for it made from Dungeons and Dragons rules. However, I don't think it's very good for, say, a monthly tournament. Five characters to each player, and the organiser would have to check each character sheet for errors or anything fishy going on in there, and the elaborate rules posted and applied, etc etc etc.

So make it a little easier and specific rules to X Models. Like what they've done with Warmachine/Hordes. The difference is that they've balanced out the game according to the format, which is Skirmish battle.

And it's noticeable in it's own way. Models can die in an instant from a stray bullet in this game, which is not wanted in a game so small. A game should endure, give a player a glimmer of hope before the chances get the better of them and steal that hope away and crush it under the sole of it's foot.

Or something like that.

I probed a friend of mine the other night about it, and he said he was absolutely interested in it and we came to the same conclusion: that the damage system is the only problem. His suggestion was to scale the armour and damage accordingly. The rest of the system was fine.

But while my friend and I work out a way to play the format (We may even attempt the Mercs method for a bit), I'm sure Privateer Press will surprise us with something along these lines one day.

What a week

So this week has been full of ups and downs.

Started off Wednesday night last week. Friend of mine called up bawling her eyes out because her partner had broken up with her out of the blue. That wasn't a nice end to the night, especially since it was one of those irrational breakups which was sorted out the next night.

Then Thursday morning, I get a random Facebook message.

"hay matt just wanted to let you know that nanny is in the prince charles hospital with cancer and it dosnt look like she has to long left"

I contacted Mum and Taleah and let them know, who tried to work out a time to go up and visit Nanny, the closest thing we have to a Grandmother. We couldn't do it that night, and we ended up planning to go up Monday because Mum wanted to go as a family and Taleah was working all that weekend.

Come Friday afternoon, Kel, Tash and Alex were sick so I didn't want to be a bother for them so I went home instead, and came home to a rather grumpy mother.

”Your father's back in town.”

Surprising. Apparently he was down to sign whatever documents for his Superannuation. Good timing considering Nannys condition, though more could be said about him.

So that's all pretty much the downhill side of it. The upside was finally getting a chance to play Dystopian Wars with Aaron. He's been wanting to play Dystopian Wars for a while and has been “Ants in his Pants” excited. It was funny though, he had the entire advantage over me with his Battleship, a couple of Frigates and a Sky Fortress standing over my slightly damaged Double-Decker Carrier and Battleship, along with a couple of Tiny Flyers.

Then a squadron of 5 Fighter Planes flew in and, for a fairly accurate comparison, went all Luke Skywalker on the Hindenberg.

The best part of the weekend was that it was the weekend before Mine and Jenny's 18 month! I love Jenny and I'm very lucky to have her with me. It was good having her to talk to, especially with the recent news with Nanny.

Come Monday morning, the very morning everyone planned on going to the hospital, news came that Nanny had passed the night before.

I was disappointed that I didn't get to see her before she passed on. I haven't seen her in far too many years. Mostly because I'm a lazy shit. So I feel really bad about that.

But I feel pissed off too. How do we find out about Nannys condition so late? Shouldn't we have been told more than a week ago? I don't think even Mum knew that Nanny had cancer! And Mum usually keeps in contact with everyone!

And of all people, I heard it from her (biological) Granddaughter who lives in Rockhampton! Nannys was living with her daughter up in Caboolture/Morayfield last I knew, and I would've thought they would contact me or Taleah in the same fashion sooner.

Okay, so I'm not as easy to find since I don't go by my actual name on Facebook, but I was still found and strangely the first to be contacted. So I don't get that.

But things are looking up. Her funeral is on Friday, so I'm going to wear the suit Poppy gave me. Hopefully it isn't rotten or anything. I took it to the drycleaners long ago and kept it in the plastic since. Handmade suit, really nice (if a little itchy).

I also have some other news, but I gotta wait until probably late next week until I find out the results.

Dreams do come true

WOO! BOMBARDIERS ARE HERE!

But mine are better.
Okay, not really. But hey, I prefer these guys weapons anyway. They're massive and strong. What those guys have over mine is that they have little Grenade Bombs on their shoulder and in the actual weapon. But I don't like that the leader doesn't have an open faceplate!

*Sigh*

I'm still going to pick up a box...

Wii U - the Wii 2

Okay, so I was skeptical at first about the next Nintendo Console. It was cool with the controller and all, which turns out to be massive after all with a screen three times the size of a DS (That's pretty big).

But this video from Kotaku was pretty cool. It could be the three ciders I drank before i watched it, but I reckon it's pretty sweet.

[Link]

Lets make the Quantum Leap

So it's almost been a year and I've been pretty slack here. But keeping with a (mostly) Fiendish theme, and pretty much nothing happening with Monsterpocalyse until recently, I just haven't had anything to blather on about until now.

What I assume, to catch up with the times they're releasing Quantum Figures! One of whom is our very own Poster Child: Cthugrosh. I would have left this article until there was a Quantum Mechathugrosh, but I don't know how long I'd be waiting for it. And I'd have to think of a vaguely disturbing title too.

Now the way Quantum figures work is interesting. Along your stat bar you have stats highlighted in Red. This doesn't mean that the stat is shared to figures adjacent to you - Can you Imagine a Spitter with 7*1 Brawl attack? - What it does mean is that you increase those stats by your Hyper Cost.

That's pretty sweet. You get a bonus to whatever stats are highlighted and you can take names AND chew bubblegum! Cos with stats like these, who would stop you? Quantum Cthugrosh has a stat bar that is almost completely Red. Sweet! 6 Move is pretty good; 5 Defence is not too bad considering he still has 6 health; 7*2 Brawl? An extra Boost die certainly doesn't hurt at all; Same goes for his 5*1 Blast Attack, and his 6*2 Power Attack.

Now his Range is a special case. He starts off at Short range, so 2-3 spaces away from him. That's a pretty short attack. But any long time player of the Lords of Cthul will know that there should always be an Elite Spitter nearby. Or any general player will know to field a Radar Array. So that'll extend it to long range, making it 2-5 spaces away. Quantum then extends the range by the number of spaces equal to the Hyper Stat! Sweet!

So pretty much, his stat line does not change from his Alpha form. Now lets look at his hyper stat! Drum Roll please, Trumpets, streamers and confetti cascade around a small podium with a Khadoran Anvil with a number in the middle, and that number is... 1! Woo! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number...

Wait a minute. One? Okay, okay. So the stat increases aren't significant, except in the case of boost die. Any Boost Die are good Boost Die, as I always say. But there's one other condition that I haven't mentioned yet. And that's how to keep the Quantum Effect Active.

You would think that if you had stats that were increased by the hyper stat, you would just make it a permanent thing, and just get rid of these Red highlights. No, the purpose of the Red Highlights is that you gain the benefits to X Stat on the condition that you have more than 5 Power Dice in your pool.

So while it's not a significant effect the Quantum is applying, it can still change the way you play when you're at full P-die whether it's to conserve your P-die by using that extra B-die or A-die to your attacks, or to make a massive attack. But in saying that, a cost of 1 for going into hyper? It's unheard of!

Speaking of attacks, lets see what Quantum Cthugrosh has on offer ability-wise. He has his regular features for a hyper form, Flight and Terrify. Not bad abilities, with their own drawbacks. Though I don't think Terrify has a drawback. Flight certainly does, because factions like GUARD have a massive prejudice against Figures with Flight. So that's probably why his other forms have Jump, because he learnt his lesson before. Hmm...

His last skill is Reach, the ability to attack something 2 squares away. Experience with this ability has never failed me. There have been moments I put myself adjacent to a figure, but the options that Reach presents can change the game. The best part though? It's Blue.

So all figures in your army gain the ability to not only attack something from 2 spaces away, but also figures with Flight. So while Spitters don't have any use for it, figures like the Task master, the Tanglix, the Snatcher, even the Mollok Brutes and Berserkers, can take advantage of it. The number of times I've been one space away from being within range sometimes frustrates me. So now I get to Frustrate my opponent by being that one space within Reach.

Back to the Principal of Fiend High, we look at his Attacks. So Alpha Cthugrosh has a habit of multiplying his units. He'd just spend an action die and place a unit next to himself. It was a great Army producer and given a few turns, you'd outnumber your opponent in no time.

His Blast Attack would help too. Fling targets a unit and chucks it 5 squares into another figure. That makes for a potential range of about 10 squares for a Blast Attack.

That's better than Mogroth! Funny that.

But Quantum Cthugrosh deviates from the Norm. He still remains a Blastard, but he doesn't Fling anyone. He definitely doesn't make anyone Overload. He has taken lessons in Evolution at the Tower of Corruption College, and learnt Transmutation.

Now I've talked about Transmutation before with the Tower of Corruption. You shoot an enemy unit and replace it with one of your own units so long as it can legally be placed there. It takes up the Summon action from Alpha Cthugrosh and combines it with his Blast Attack!

That's not enough though. Alpha Cthugrosh usually Summons and makes an attack, two actions in one turn. That sort of thing should not be abolished, else the figure would be unappealing. So that's why the lucky bugger has Blitz.

Blitz: Once each turn, advance this figure up to 2 spaces even if it has advanced this turn. You can roll another attack of the same type against a different target with Dice in play.

So two attacks, both of which Transmutate enemy units into friendly units.

So double the Firepower. Double the Unit Generation. And then add another third to his Movement. This guy is working all on the up and up. So where does he faulter? Well, aside from the downside of having the same stat line as Alpha Cthugrosh until he gets more than 5 P-die, he doesn't do much else. His 5 skills and triggers are all he has. No Actions, No Reactions, No Advantages. That's all she wrote.

Gameplay wise, he's still as good as Alpha Cthugrosh. He moves, he blasts, he brings out a new unit, and then uses his second attack to either Shoot a Monster, or Transmutate another unit. As the old saying goes, “The More the Merrier!”

My 202nd post!

The year is 1870. The World is at War.

Who's that ugly bastard in the beanie?

Saturday started off way too early. It was 6am and I began pressing the sleep button my phone. Eventually by 6:30 I had gotten up and toddled off to the Bus Stop so I could make my way to Kels. The plan didn't go quite as I'd hoped. Got to the second bus stop that should have taken me to Kels, but I had to wait 40 minutes before it turned up. With having to get to Kels by 8am, and the bus arriving 10 minutes before 8, I decided to take a taxi.

So I crossed the road and called up B&W Cabs to pick me up from the Caltex on Beams Road, Carseldine. Twenty Minutes later, no Taxi. Another call ordered in the next cab, making sure it was going to my Caltex since there was another one in the same suburb on Gympie Road. Fifteen minutes later, still no driver. A third call confirmed it was just down the road, and then I was off to Kels to go play Dystopian Wars at Blind Pig.

Dystopian Wars is a Steampunk Wargame that covers sea, land and air (not necessarily at the same time, fighting with a large arsenal of vehicles from battleships and double decker Aircraft Carriers, to Tanks and Giant Robot Walkers, to Air Fortresses and Blimps with Aircraft Decks. These examples are just from one faction, the Federated States of America.

It's a fun game and I spent the better part of the day playing it on the weekend. It was a battlebox based game, with full upgrades and no plane tokens. That's fair enough. My Federated States of America should have a fun time KICKING ARSE!

Sadly, I thought I was prepared. I remembered my models. I remembered my dice. I was not prepared. I did not remember to cut out my templates. I did not remember to bring a tape measure.

So for the better part of the day, I was shared tape measures and templates. Aside from such asshattery, it was a pretty awesome day. I tore apart my first opponent, my second gunned the crap out of my Battleship (Yes, he sunk my Battleship alright), and my third opponent just ripped shreds off me.

Overall it was a fun day though. And I got myself some more toys as well. I picked up the Aircraft Carrier, which is a Fkn huge model; and I picked up a battlebox of Land Forces, containing tanks and an Amphibious Landship.

Luckily I got the box for free because when John, the event Organiser, gave a random draw prize with $50 give cards for Phoenix Forge, a small company that comes down to Blind Pig every month and sets up a stall, and if there's an event he supports he'll provide gift vouchers.

Now I have about another dozen models for my Dystopian Wars army and I'm liking it. Aaron was even convinced to play because after jumping into Firestorm Armada with an Army for Aesthetics, and feeling quite Impotent against Scott with his model choices, Aaron had interrogated me about Dystopian Wars and what Army would be best suited for himself.

I may have convinced him to play a Prussian Empire Force. And hopefully we'll play a small game sometime during the week.

What I like about Dystopian Wars is that it's a nice Dice Rolling game. While Warmachine has all these various stats that count towards various attacks that add up and everything. Dystopian Wars only requires you to turn up particular faces, and then count those faces. The only numbers you have to follow by are the volume of dice you're allowed to roll and what range band you're at which adjusts that volume of dice.

A very fun day had by all. Especially Luke from Phoenix Forge, who couldn't tell who I was at first and had to ask me to make sure he was right. Oh how we laughed.

The Horror

I've seen things man. Things you wouldn't have dreamt. Things that haunt them and make you wake up in a cold sweat wondering where the fuck you are.

Actually, it was a lifetimes worth of Dust. And a Mouse Skeleton.

Mum asked me a few weeks ago to have the day off today to help with the carpet. Well, that worked out to be quite the interesting venture, didn't it. We had sorted out the majority of the rooms, so we thought, but really it was no place for the guy to work. So we had to clear out the entire rooms. Mums room the only exception due to her Bed because it is far too big to put out into the hallway.

So we cleared out as much room as possible and shoved whatever we could into various other rooms. And lo and behold, the dust is blanketted so thick that if you sweep it off your hands won't be dirty, but you'll have a nice thick piece of 'wool' to pick up and toss into the bin.

Though we did find some pieces of treasure here and there. When mum had the Divider torn down, we found some newspapers underneath dated from 11 December 1977. I don't know if Mum has kept them, but it was pretty amazing to see a very impressive Barbeque set for $139.

Then there's a few old photos that mum found tucked away under my sisters bed. The photos varies over the many many years, and I had to send a photo of me and my sister standing in front of the tree out front for my first day of school. I knew she'd like how cute I was, and how tight my shorts were. Even I'm amazed I was able to fit into them.

Overall, it was a pretty successful day aside from the almost destroyed computer desk of mums. It's an Ikea one, and the guy yanked it out the wrong way and it all tore apart. Mum, my sister Penny and I were stuck for about an hour trying to put it back together. After banging my head on a corner a few too many times, and some really confusing teamwork, we finally got it back together.

The day ended with all but one bedroom and a sliver of the loungeroom untouched. That'll get sorted out tomorrow, which will be good because I would rather not have to sleep on the couch for more than one night.