Tactical-o-banana-rama

"I Got a tactic for you.  It's called
a Rocket Propelled Grenade."

Lately Ive been watching clips for Gears Tactics and its gotten me super pumped for it.  There are so many things about it that are just Pro Gamer and just super fun about it.

I love Gears games, the simple fun of running between cover and snapping over to pummel someone with Lancer Rounds before rushing in to curbstomp them.  Even better is the satisfaction of using a Torque Bow and getting a headshot, which is an instant kill on most enemies, but then to penetrate and hit someone else with the explosive bolt is amazing.

For the longest time though I'm thinking to myself that this would make a great tactics game.  The movement between cover, the layouts of all the levels, the different methods of attack each enemy has... it's basically a tactics game in itself.

Gladly someone somewhere has the same mindset.  They've kept the majority of the game the same, giving you the same sort of feeling of overwhelming power and fear on equal measure.

The game is set 10 years before the first Gears game, throwing back to a point where the grubs are really getting a roll and bringing out their bigger and better monstrosities.  Urdak is the boss and he is making things like Brumaks mounted with gigantic machine guns and rocket salvos, and Corpsers with armour plating over their several limbs, both familiar enemies and big pains in the arses.

The interesting things come from their own innovations.  Compared to a game like XCOM, Gears Tactics changes things by dropping the "one shot a turn" for "shoot for each action you have".  Then you have an extra action to go with that which makes your options become exponential, especially if you want to run in for an execution which provides the whole squad an additional action.

Then quality of life improvements are great, particularly the Locust "practically instant turn", where they all kinda move and shoot at the same time, staggering out some actions just so that you can track what's happened and how it affects you.

After that, it sounds like a tonne of fun and I can't wait to get my hands on it once it comes to console.

"My Soldier has no nose."
"How does he smell?"
"Terrible."

Speaking of XCOM, they just announced their own spinoff game: Chimera Squad.

What's funny is that I've been brainstorming a very similar idea over the last few months, having a small cast of characters that the player can follow and fight with over the course of a series of story missions.

I had characters based on different classes, with cameos from all sources.  My favourite character was Damien Santiago, a character based on the survivor of the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Tutorial.  He would appear as a Heavy Soldier who lives out his days on a Resistance base and joins the main characters on their journey.  He would be wearing his old XCOM uniform, worn and torn after years of use, and his old squads Dog Tags sewn into the opposite breast, though he has to recollect the dog tags throughout the game.

He even had his own mission where he has a flashback of Operation Devils Moon, recreating that mission and then expanding it out into a longer term story, telling more of a canon experience of when his boots his the ground and started that fight in Germany, and how his team worked their way through town fending off aliens.

Chimera Squad is a bit more free form like the mainline games, having a more diverse cast of alien hybrid characters, and a gameplay more similar to a police raid than stealth ambush.  Largely the game seems to be a reboot of XCOM: Apocalypse, kinda the direction that they were leaning towards with the Multicultural Cityscape, just with a pared down cast of characters.  Though I thought I heard there was room for a Character Pool, so there may be room for my own characters as well.

A pig and a rock lady start walking out of a restaurant.
They turn to the duck and say "He's got the bill."

Part of my inspiration came from another game, Mutant Year Zero.  A very good game about a post apocalyptic setting where your main characters are Stalkers, soldier-like characters who traverse the local area to scavenge for materials, and cull down threats to the Ark, a society full of people trying to survive.

You play the Mutant Stalkers who learn all sorts of different abilities that the player can take advantage of, from sprouting wings to gain a height advantage, to being able to ram into someone and knocking them flat on their arse for a turn or two while everyone pumps ammunition into them.

The parts I really liked was the stealth mechanic.  You don't move everyone individually turn after turn.  You choose a leader and tell your team of 3 to follow you around the map as you explore, scavenge, and choose a starting point for your ambush.  You pick off enemies with your silenced weapon, and once you feel like you're down to a managable point you can go loud and hose down the boss of the level.  Given the different abilities you earn and the limited number of them that you can equip, you can have great fun just working your way through the game.

"I can't see my face when I'm with you"

The developers created a second game using the same mechanics with a different setting, telling a story about a divided United States and countering a group using highly Augmented Anonymous Soldiers, an aspect that kinda lets the game down.

Everything else about it was really good, using the same combat mechanics as Mutant Year Zero with a few minor tweaks allowing the troopers to be modified to the players preference and creating some good combinations for combat.

But aside from that, the story feels a little flat and your place in it is rather... inconsequential.  You perform all these missions, saving VIP's and Infiltrating outposts all over, while the story kinda happens around you and the consequences of your actions really affecting you.   So if the developers create an expansion for Corruption 2029, I'm hoping they really kick up the gears and focus on their story and motives.

That's neither here or there.  I'm talking inspiration here.  And with all these really good, really entertaining tactics games roaming about, I'm hoping that a certain other company with a video game based from their tabletop game actually take some notes and start making their own Video Game RPG.

I'm talking Iron Kingdoms here, guys.  I know they have a Warmachine Tactics Video game, but to see a story drawn out from that RPG with all that gorgeous art and styling, it'd be fantastic, especially with a Cameo or two here and there.

As it stands though, I'm very excited to see Gears Tactics and XCOM: Chimera Squad to come to consoles.  They're coming to PC at the end of the month but likely going to Console by the end of the year, and that's what I'm really keen on.  The only question is how long can I wait before I start watching playthroughs and spoiling the game for myself?

Can't wait, won't wait, probably ruining it for myself.

Getting Down on Paper

Probably one of the more redeeming characters

Im having trouble getting down things I want to say, getting em down into a focused post, so I'm going to work with whats worked before: Big Fugoff Rant.

Where the fuck to start?  Borderlands 3 was a... reasonably good game.  It's got some big problems, the biggest of which is that it's taken the Loot Shooter aspect a little too far.  You get a gun, pick it up, and either sell it or use it if it's good enough.  That can be fun, but the levels are all pretty ordinary especially when they have added all this Parkour to it with Kicksliding, Mantling, and Power Slams.  I don't find they add much to combat, even with the artifacts that add to them, but the puzzles, THE PUZZLES!  There's some really basic environment stuff that focuses on those, a few climbing spots mostly, but after that it's just really underutilized in my opinion, so theres just a bunch of rather bland levels.

Otherwise there's the same problems everyone else has, the story is very safe and ordinary, and draws WAY too much from the previous games.  The DLC's are doing a good job in that, but the main story just whiffs significantly.

Then there's the big flops over the last 18 months.  I wanna talk about them, how Rage 2 had some good aspects to it but just really really really was a vapid game.  There was literally 8 main missions, and that was it.  After that you had to make your own fun.

Don't get me wrong, I love a supersuit story.  Crysis is one of my favourite series and to be running around a massive map with that sounds like a fucking fun game.  It was my hope for Crysis 3, in fact, but you'd be roaming about New York under a Dome and fulfilling whatever Psycho needed you to do.  It wasn't bad as it was, but I was a little let down by that.

Rage 2 however just seriously underdelivered.  If they make a Rage 3, I hope they either fix what they did wrong, or they just do something completely different.

Same goes with Fallout 76.  The game had potential, they have this massive intricate map with a veritable tonne of different landmarks and events, but it just didn't have any real impact on anything and hardly made it worth playing.

Then the marketting.  Holy shit what a scumjob that was.  Right now you can purchase a subscription which allows you to play it as a single player game, even though you already paid full price for the game, and you still have to be able to access it online.  If you're on console you need your online subscription on top of that which can double the price.  I was at least hoping I could just roam about by myself the other day, but I was shut down pretty quickly on that.

You'll notice that all these games were big Bethesda releases, and to add to that list of disappointment was Wolfenstein: Youngblood.  Yes, you can have a friend or random join you as you roam Nazi 80's Paris.  But if all you're doing is just fetch missions or destroy missions with little to no purpose behind it, you're just playing with yourself at that point.

The credit to those three games is that they are very cool looking.  They have gorgeous landscapes and art, a lot of real character behind them, and the potential to even be more characterful given the right writers and direction.

Two seconds before they became Red Mist (TM)

Doom Eternal was at least a really fun game.  It is fast paced, it is cathartic (my word of the month), and just really satisfying when you outsmart a bunch of demons that are scrambling around trying to kill you.  Sure, it's a little goofy looking with giant glowing powerups around and not fitting into the areas and makes it look like you're playing Spyro the Dragon, or Mario Bros, but it's still really fun to run and gun, especially around these really well crafted maps.  It's a game that Borderlands 3 could have taken a lot of note from.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is Warmachine.  I know I said I've not been wanting to play it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to have myself an awesome army to pick up and adjust when I want it.

And that army is definitely my classic 4th Assault Legion, last known as the Legs Eleven.  That army has significantly built out under its theme of "Armoured Corps".  I've got a gripe with having to play under themes now, but I'm foregoing it for the sake of this army.

It starts of with Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff, a character that I previously didn't like for her assassin playstyle and considered too easy, but loved her character.  I still think her first form is still too easy, even with all her nerfs and such, but her Second and Third Incarnations are signficantly riskier and more fun for all parties.

Naturally, she has to take Beast-09 with her.  I love pairing Casters with their Personal Warjacks, and just about everyone has a pairing at this point.  Battle Mechanics, Bombardiers, Demo Corps, and Shocktroopers each have their own Command Attachments.  The Demo Corps have a character who romps around with a pair of hammers to lay the beatdown on whoever's in front of him.

The Solos have expanded out as well, accompanying the Drakhun and Kovnik are the Forge Seers, basically Greylords in Man-O-War Armour, and Tankers: Man-O-War the size of Warjacks.

Now, just because they're the same size as a Khadoran Warjack, doesn't mean they're quite as tough.  They have about a third of the health and almost as much armour, which they make up for with a pair of shields, but they still do a good job of playing Glass Fuggoff Cannons.

The Units are all paired up with Officers now, the Bombardier adding to an already fun unit, and the Shocktrooper giving them everything they every need and resemble: an encroaching Wall of Iron.  Almost completely immovable from their places.

The Demolition Corps, aka: Big Blokes with Fuggoff And Chill Hammers (tm), have their own Sergeant attachment in the form of Dragos Dragadovich.  If it wasn't awesome enough that they attack out of turn, he also romps around with two Fuggoff And Chill Hammers (tm) to bang about like a Salvation Army Drum.

Not just any cannon, a VULCAN Cannon

Then, the creme de la creme: The Battle Engines.  It sounds really awesome when you say Battle Engine, but then you feel differently about a bloke in power armour behind a mounted Cannon while his Chariot is being pulled by two Clydesdales plated to the rim.

It really is a fantastic army to even consider.  Add in a few mercenaries of similar stock, like an Ogrun Bokur or Steelhead Ironhead, maybe even Herne and Jonne to add more AOE's to the Bombardiers, and you're good as Gold.

That's the ideal list.  Just tankly upon tankly, themed out the wazoo, and a fun list to play all around.

Thats one of the things that I fell in love with when it came to Warmachine.  Blokes in pressure cookers beating down infantry with Halberds and stuff.  That's why I want to get part of it as my Gaming Tattoo.  I mocked up a Heraldry with a modified Shocktrooper Shield, Sorscha's Frostfang Hammer, and the Shocktroopers Annihilator Blade.  It's not a great image but at least if I give it to a proper artist I can give a few pointers and say "This is what I want", explain it more, and go on from there.

Couple that with the Sonic 3 and Knuckles logo, the Ghost in the Machine Logo, and Death riding a motorcycle (from the cover of Terry Pratchetts Soul Music) and you have my ideal gaming arm tattoo.

I've looked into a lot of tattoos, toying with the idea of "If I were to get this" and google comes back with a tonne of awesome results.  One time I just went on a binge of "What if I got a beer tattoo?" and after looking at a bunch of different beer tatts, I remembered that I don't like beer and prefer Cider, so I went searching for Cider tattoos.

I didn't realise how old the cider culture actually was.  I was originally thinking about getting the Magners Irish Cider logo on there but it was pretty ordinary, nothing like the Guinness stuff.  Then I found out about the German stuff and that was really cool, the traditional glasses and the Bembels that Germany uses, there is a lot of cool stuff.

I have an idea I want for other tattoos, but they're all ideas, nothing too serious.  Kinda like my want to get a Datsun and a Motorbike.  I toy with the ideas of getting a Motorcycle because it's cheap and cool, two things I can really enjoy.  But because Im a wuss and am already pretty convinced that I would end up A over T before I know it, I want to get one with a sidecar.  Then I could take my lady love for a drive.

A friend of mine pointed me to Ural, a Russian company that specialises in bikes with sidecars, and I kinda fell in love.  I love the style of bikes from the War time era, kinda bare bones and everything.  Ural kinda has that look with a few modern amenities, so if I were to get a brand new bike I would definitely be looking these guys up.

Imagine being this close and
not being able to justify it

The Datsun would be a passion project, an old car that I could learn to fix up and then take out for a cruise on weekends.  I figure it's a two-birds-one-stone idea, but with our living situation I don't have anywhere to keep it, let alone anyone to teach me.

To dream of having that one day though, to be cruising down the old highways of the US, enjoying the scenery, some awesome music playing as we stop at different places and try new foods or experiences... well that's the dream.

I got more inspiration from when we went to Florida.  I found I kinda inherited my dads ability to drive at night with little hassles in exhaustion.  Really, my only problem was my leg cramping up a bit, but that's more than likely from sitting in one place for 6+ hours at a time coupled with a bit of dehydration.

The inspiration is the Outrun theme.  In my mind I'm thinking Turbo Outrun, a game I played on the Sega Mega Drive where you drove from New York to Los Angeles, also known as The Cannonball Run.  But when I look it up in Ye Olde Searche Engine-e, I find out that it's a theme around neons and sunset/sunrises.

I began following the r/Outrun subreddit and since then gotten buckets of more inspiration.  Simple things, like gentle glowing interior outlines and console colours, and even a pair of pictures to put on the rear panels of the car mixing the Outrun Sun with the Datsun logo, then just making it a little cheesier by having the right hand side the Japanese Logo and styled like a sunrise, and the left hand side the English Logo styled with a sunset, and bob's your mothers brother you have something cool.

Again though, it's all dreams and Pixie Dust.  Maybe one day in the future, but in the mean time I'll keep that in my pocket in case the opportunity crops up again.

In Mother Russia, Bear Run Over YOU

My Year(s) in Video Games

Well lets deal with the obvious.  I haven't posted here in what feels like an age.  Last post I made was about how I was excited about the Notorious High Tier Assassin Sorscha was being made into a new Warcaster matching my Favourite Theme of Steam Powered Heavy Armour Soldiers.

Sadly I've kinda fallen out of love with Warmachine through my lack of play and interest, feeling very "back in my day, we had fun with our game" about it since I really began lurking and watching from the sidelines, and wishing I could play the Iron Kingdoms RPG instead, mostly because I got a Humble Bundle Deal that got me about 99% of the RPG books for a song.

From that I made a bunch of cool characters, all with little back stories and parties they've formed together, loose motives for their future so that any DM's have something to fuel their own narrative.  Yes I realise that means I should DM my own campaign, but I have every excuse in the book that puts me off of that.

I actually thought about doing a Play By Mail campaign with people, but I just get myself overwhelmed by trying to find some definitive answers from the internet.  I've gotten very Anti-internet for a while and now my Facebook feed is pretty much just a continuing roll of memes and tags.

So I fill in my own time with Video Games, and the last few years have been pretty hit and miss for video games.

Like Xcom 2: War of the Chosen, a fantastic expansion to the game.  It added a bunch of new stuff, like new classes and enemies, new gameplay options, new maps, even a whole new enemy type which is more hassle than they're really worth, but hey you can't get everything right.  Especially when it comes to getting a port fully working.

For ages though I've had a want to make an Xcom Campaign, something more focused on an individual party and having a bunch of encounters based on the different mission types you'd normally encounter in the Grand Strategy games, just more in depth with characters and strategy.

The more I think of it though, the cooler I think it would be as a proper video game taking inspirations from a bunch of games, starting with Xcom: Apocalypse which is focused around a singular Megacity, to Nier Automata, which seems like a far stretch but bear with me, the inspiration comes from the gameplay mechanics which changes style as you go.

For example, one minute you could be fighting in a 3D open arena with enemies coming from all around, to a classic 2D platformer style as you progress through to other map regions.  So from that, I would like to take inspiration from other turn based games and implement them into minor missions or encounters.

The more I think about it though the more I realise I kinda would use features of Mutant Year Zero, a game I really enjoyed, as short lived as it was.  If I were to nitpick it, the tedium of silent takeouts was a little grating, but still it was fun.  It could have been a little more than what it was.

When two world collide
and really support each other

Speaking of games that were more than what was expected: DOOM.  Jesus Christ that was a good game.  The speed, the fun, the exhilaration, the ripping and tearing.  The sequel is coming out in a months time and I'm excited for it even though it looks extremely arcade like in its play.  Lots of double jumping, swing bars, and wall climbing.  I saw a Youtube Card of someones review with the words "Best Mario Game Not Made By Nintendo", which feels conflicting, but hey I'm still keen.

Speaking of Nintendo, Jenny got me a Switch Lite.  It's more or less like a Playstation Portable but bigger and lighter.  I still want to get a grip case for it, maybe something that extends its battery life as well, but that has to wait until I get back to work again before I make any more.

In the meantime I have a handful of games that came with the Xmas present.  Jenny had asked around and got me The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Civilization VI, Sonic Team Racing, Mario and Sonic Olympics, and Nickelodeon Kart Racing.  The two biggest ones I wanted to play though were Breath of the Wild and Civ6.

Civilization is a game I haven't really played much in my life until this point.  I had Civ 2 or 3 when I was in high school, my mum got it as a group package with Sim City 2000 and The Settlers 2: Veni, Vidi, Vici.  I faffed around with it a lot, but never really sat down with it to understand the rules.  I gave Civ a fair crack of the whip, but on top of the rather awkward UI on the small screen I still don't really know what it is I'm accomplishing.  I do need to spend more time with it though.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a very different kettle of fish.  I'm far from finished on it, having only accomplished one of the four mechanical beasts that help in the fight of Calamity Ganon and largely only explored the bottom half of the map between getting my arse served by a new high level monster that I happen to snag the attention of.  It's a good game, don't get me wrong, but I think once I get that grip case I will have a better time fighting thanks to more flexibility in my hands.

While we are on the subject of Nintendo I've been watching a series called Game Makers Toolkit.  My mate Andy pointed me in Mark Browns direction while we were talking about certain games and their mechanics.  Mr Brown had covered the subject quite well and since then I have the occasional playthrough of all his available Youtube videos (Sorry Mark, I can't spare the dosh for your Patreon) while I play a game or sleep.  He's very soothing.

But the ones that really stood out were the series on Metroid.  I have never played a Metroid game in my life.  I think there was a period where I was using a Gameboy emulator and I may have tried to start off one of the Metroid games available but never stuck with it.  His retrospective series gave me a really good insight into the games and piqued my interest into Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight is about a small Bug Soldier exploring an ancient kingdom called Hollownest.  You explore this hive of networked environments, meeting insects and grubs, defeating rabid bosses, and discovering secrets and history of this fascinating and magical world.  I'm 77% of the way through according to the little meter in the corner of my inventory screen so I have plenty more to find and achieve.

My favourite part of the Remaster

The style of the game has me fascinated though.  The closest I can say that I've played to this is Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap, which has a beautiful Remaster that threw me back to my Master System days so easily that when I turned on the Retro Visuals I almost thought it was a gag.  That was the closest I came to a Metroidvania game though, and I kinda want to get into more of that style of game now that I've dabbled into it.

Speaking of Re-something games, there was Sonic Mania.  Everyone and their Mother knows that I love Sonic the Hedgehog.  He's my favourite.  I want to get a Tattoo of the Sonic and Knuckles logo on my shoulder because Sonic 3 and Knuckles is my favourite game of all time.  I wouldn't be able to tell you how many hours I've sunk into it, but I know I've deleted and restarted all of those save slots until they were all 100% several times over.

Sonic Mania was really fun though.  I wasn't a big fan of some of the newer Zones, some of them stuck out as being out of place, but its still a really fun game.  I haven't been able to sit myself down to max out everything yet but I want to get a Genesis Controller for my Playstation just so I can really get back into how I used to play, which weirdly had my right hand turned over so I'm using my digits instead of my thumb to jump.

My other favourite game that came out was Borderlands 3.  A good game overall, but sadly their antagonists weren't particularly encapsulating, especially when they were following one of the best arseholes to kill off at the end of his story, Handsome Jack.

I keep seeing people on Reddit going "Bring back Handsome Jack!" which is depressing because that's really just beating a dead horse.  I love Handsome Jack, he's a great bastard to hate, and there are a few references to him, particularly in one side mission that really brings to light how malicious he can be, but he's done.  He has died in all but a Gun that plays voice clips of him.

The new Antagonists are nowhere near as hard hitting.  I said in an old post, that I'm going to redo an elaborate on one day, that there was a turning point.  That you have him playing in your ear and you don't really take him seriously until you reach a real turning point, and suddenly you have it in your heart that you need to take him down.  You need to go after him and really kill him off.

You can't go wrong with a Robot Beast Tamer

That doesn't really happen in 3.  It could be because they stumbled upon playing the same card as they did with Handsome Jack in 2, or because they just aren't that impressive, there just isn't that turning point in the story where you're motivated to stop them.

Thankfully they still have DLC coming out.  The first was a fun tribute to Handsome Jack's Stunt Double and Moxxi where you raid a Casino.  Good value.  The next one is going to be really fun as well, but I have no idea what that'll be.

Another game that really changed things up is Gears of War 5.  Or Gears 5, as they are want to go with now.  Largely, the game is still the same.  Cover based shooting and encroaching against Mutants that emerge from the ground, occasionally with a Gigantic Monster to accompany them.  But what I liked about it was the change from just straight mission after mission to a semi-open world setting, travelling on a Kite Sled between notable locations and regions that lead into missions.  Something a bit more freeform in play.

Which can be bad, such as the case of Wolfenstein Youngblood.  That was not a good game.  A lot of ideas going for it, but just so poorly executed.  A lot of cool stuff for it, the levels are pretty, the combat is fun, the super powers are always a fun addition, but... god everything else was as shallow as a Kiddy Pool.

John Carmack, one of the big Doom Guys, said "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."  Well that's all well and good, but if you really treat it like that you get this game, where you have so little direction for your players to go that you flounder what you want them to do and encounter.

So that's what I mean by hit and miss.  There's been really good games and there have been really bad games.  I'm keen on what 2020 has to offer for games, but there's still the matter of all the games i"m yet to play.  Like Prey, Outer Worlds, and Dishonoured: Death of the Outsider.  And I haven't even finished talking about all the games I've played, really, but hey, I gotta stop this at some point.

Insert Token Self Deprecating Meme

Winter is coming

Sorscha Kratikoff, the Heart of Ice. She was the selling point for me getting into Warmachine, that amazing photo of her, Juggernaut and Destroyer standing together simply drew me in and never left me.

Did I was to play her though? No, I didn't. While I had a healthy respect for her, her ability was overwhelming and, quite frankly, easy.

Her feat combined with a spell that not only gave her a free move but improved her defence was too strong a combo to accept. I wanted the long game, to grind both our armies into nothing before gambling our lynchpins, usually ending with me failing spectacularly on bad dice rolls.

That didnt mean I disliked her. Her character was fierce, unrelenting, and remorseless. Her hammer, Frostfang, a symbol of the coming storm. Her mere presence still causes shivers down peoples spines.

It was too much power, Too easy to strike with, and I wanted little to do with it as possible, no matter the temptation.

Times change people. And so does Kommander Kratikoff, her next incarnation a polar deviation from her traditional style.

The Man-O-War steam powered armour, steel casing for khardic warriors too arrogant to fear being boiled alive, brings dread as the walking wall advances across the field; their annihilator blades cleaving enemies as they wash against their shield cannons; hammers striking warjacks into submission or destruction; grenades hailing down with their Destroyer companions.

She is the perfect soldier for the Man-O-War ranks, leading her comrades into battle with Khadors Winter at their side and their hearts.

Laughing over Dice

Next week is Cancon.  And I'm sad I won't be going for a few reasons, mainly that I like some of the guys who rock up down there, and I have a few friends down there that I would have liked to have seen before I rock on to the 'Zoo, but it's mostly because of the games I had tonight.

It was a practice night for the Lads going down, and Greg was happy to play some games out on his back deck.  So we gathered together and began rolling dice.

I was playing with Humph, and while I usually somewhat dread it because Gorton Grundback is a Stunty Bastard, but I was surprised how well I played out!  I ended up crippling a Grundback Blaster, a Ghordson Driller, and destroying another Blaster and a Ghordson Basher!

I was very pleased with myself.  Sure, I lost my Behemoth next turn to my mistake of leaving him out in the open, and I stuffed up a charge thinking 14" was actually 11, but I ended up coming out pretty well.  May have gotten the chance to take out Durgen Madhammer if I hadn't lost on Scenario.

The game though brought back a good feeling of fun.  It's been a while since I've played Warmachine and tonight brought back memories of some of the other tournaments I've attended and how much fun I had.  And it made me wish I had planned well enough to actually make it to CanCon.

I've had a lot of good experiences when I went to tournaments.  Heck, made Best Sportsman before, which made me laugh.  But I always came out with new friends in them, or caught up with interstate friends.

I still remember a night when a fella from the Warmachine forums messaged me out of the blue.  I pretty much didn't know he existed until that point.  He said he was a Polish fella backpacking across Australia and thought it wouldn't be any harm to send me a message and ask for a bed for a night or two.  He got lucky.

So did I, in hindsight.  Letting a stranger stay in my house?  I shouldn't be so easy to convince.

When he arrived, I found him outside Central Station and gave him an option.  We can go straight back home, or we can go out for a game.  He took the game option, and I obliged.  They had some models there after all for us to play with, and it's great way to get to know each other by laughing over dice.

It's how I met a lot of my gaming friends.  And when I move to the US, I hope I'll meet people the same way.

The Dramatisation of Conflict

D&D has gotten a little... Stale, and our DM has gotten a bit burnt out.  So it's been a point of fact to discuss alternatives.  One alternative I suggested was a Theatre of War Campaign. We've all played the Iron Kingdoms Wargames and we all have our different factions.

But after thinking about it for a second, we came across a problem: Not all of us play Warmachine.  Some of us play Hordes, and the Theatres of War we have available are each designed for the two games.

I plowed on with the idea though, tackling the other big problem we have: the Theatres of War are designed for a previous iteration of Warmachine.  There are a few things different betwen the two systems, but nothing that can't be fine tuned over time.

But I've gotten my first draft of changes up, along with variant ideas, and posted them up on their own little blog.  If anyone wants to put their two cents in, throw it up in the comments.

http://dramaofconflict.blogspot.com.au/

Sixty-Two Damage

So.  We have a good idea what Colossals do.  And also some more stats and features of my favoured war machine of the Motherland, Conquest.

Lets start with his stat line.  As far as what has been spoiled, he has the same Speed and Armour as a Juggernaut coupled with the health of two Berserkers. (Do your maths, and yeah it's true)

Health is a somewhat funny subject.  When an attack damages a Colossal, first you have to determine your position to the Colossal.  If you're to it's left you deal damage to the left grid, and vice versa.  If you're standing in both, or you're in it's back arc, you can choose which grid.  Then when one grid is full, it goes over to the next grid starting on a d6, meaning you don't start straight from column 1.

If the damage doesn't have an origin, for example Fire Continuous Effect, then you randomise which grid it is (eg: 1-3 left colum, 4-6 right column) and then apply damage as normal.

Systems work the same as any other Warjack, but the Left and Right Systems apply to all the weapons on that side, Melee and Guns included.

Sidenote: Just realised that Critical Amputation from the Destroyer's Melee attack can get FANTASTIC Milage out of these guys.

As for damage, he can deal a pretty good amount.  Colossals start off with a Melee Range of 2".  Always.  I'm suspecting the only exception is the Kraken has up to 4" during his activation.  On top of that, each weapon has its own melee range which halves the front arc.

His fists are the same power as a Juggernaut with the Butchers Fury Spell.  Since he has two of them, it's madness.  Given his full compliment of focus, which is the same as any other Warjack, he can make a Behemoth feel a bit weak at the knees.  It's not often the Behemoth can stand next to a Warjack who can deal the same amount of Raw damage to a Juggernaut as he.

After that, there are new Power Attacks for this giant Warjack to perform to get the best benefit during his turn.  One is a Thresher Style attack, using one weapon and attacking everyone within melee range of it.  The other option is a swat style attack, where a model in melee range gets slammed.  No run up like anyone else would need, just backhand the target.  Which is easy with the Giant Fists he has.

But wait, THERE'S MORE!

He has guns.  You would think there's 3 guns, but you'd be wrong Right.  The underslung cannons are a duo with an interesting rule

We'll start with the Main Cannon, because that's a F-off cannon that starts off with +1 Range, AOE and Power over a Destroyer Bombard, with the additional benefit of Critical Devastation, Throwing[?] all models under the AOE away from Conquest.  That's a very awesome cannon.

[?] - I don't have the rules for the Mule on me, but I think it's a throw.

The underslung guns are a different story.  To start, as I understand it, they're just like Hand Cannons with the AOE of a Bombard, and a special ability called Creeping Barrage.  Rather than a normal ranged attack, place an AOE 3 within 12" and anything that enters/ends its movement in the AOE suffers a half Power Damage roll.

Board control?  Hell yes.  It may not be too threatening, since it's 7 off the dice against Winterguard or the like, but it still makes your opponent second guess his motives.

But if you didn't want to lay your templates, you can make an attack against someone.  Then do it again.  Because rather than one shot against a model, you get two.  Two entirely different attacks against the same target.  Whether you can redirect this second attack, or it automatically misses, I dunno.  But that's still awesome.

To top off his Board Control he doesn't suffer any forced movement, and can't be disrupted, both per standard Colossal Rules.  So once he's there, he won't be leaving until he's destroyed.

Overall, is this fella worth the same as a Behemoth and a Berserker?  I'll probably have a better idea if I put him on the table, but I'm pretty convinced so far that this fella will be super-fing-awesome.

Just for a little size comparison.

Changing Methods

My D&D group is getting a little difficult as of late, mostly because we're starting to really spread apart.  Aaron is on the Southside of Brisbane, Scott and I are still in one place, and Richard is up in Townsville.  In the past, we've made do by having our D&D set placed down in front of a Webcam to allow Richard to join in.  We haven't had a problem, except for Richard not listening too often and Aaron finding it really difficult to get motivated to cross town since he's the only driver out of the three of us in Brisbane.  (Which shall soon change, but still)

Aaron has been pushing for an alternative by playing over the internet through D&D Insider, which provides a program that gives us everything we need in computerised form.  Health tracking, a playing grid, player graphics, etc etc etc.  It's all well and good until I have to fork out money for it, which I would rather not do because I'm saving for Jenny.

My suggestion was rather than using D&D Insider, use Vassal.  Eventually we want to play the Iron Kingdoms RPG system, which is significantly different to D&D itself and more like the Warmachine/Hordes game, and I think Vassal will be perfect for it since the Module already supports the majority of the game, the Module developer just needs to apply a few things once the books come out and it'll be ready for play.  Hopefully.

The only other thing we have to worry about is voice command.  Because rather than having to type it out, it's simply easier to just say what you're doing.  There are a few options with that, the first of which Aaron suggested was Skype.  I've got Skype, he has Skype, I don't think Richard has Skype, and Scott Definitely doesn't.  The alternative to that is MSN messenger, which I'm fine to use, but whether Aaron is even able to we may never know.

Though I do remember last time I used MSN Messenger, I kept getting messages from Bot Spammers saying "Come visit my webcam".  Hmm.

I am keen to do Vassal for the IK RPG so we can fight something mad, such as a Dire Troll or a Juggernaut.  If we can build up ourselves enough, we could even try and take on a Colossal or a Gargantuan, which would be awesome.

Skorne Ponderings

A few years back, I was playing Skorne for Hordes. They were pretty fun, with odd combos but I felt a significantly unnerving disadvantage towards the other factions, such as a lack of damage or just being unable to out-manoeuvre my opponent. They didn't have the same feel as Khador, and so I stepped out of playing Skorne and rolled back to the Old Faithful Motherland.

That was back in the MKI days. Things have changed since then, but I am well engrossed with my Khador stuff that I hesitate to consider going back to Skorne again. Or even to Farrow, whom I thought to myself as my new Hordes Faction since they played differently and possibly a little more to my own taste in play. That fell a little flat for other reasons.

Now one thing that has gotten me engrossed with Khador again is the variety of Warcasters. I'm mixing and matching all over the place. I haven't picked up Irusk in quite a few months simply because I'm playing other Warcasters, such as Harkevich, Zerkova and Strakhov. I've yet to pull out Epic Vladimir Tspesci as I haven't found him. (I know exactly where he COULD be)

So to this effect of playing different Warlocks rather than a single Warlock regularly, I'll pull out my Battlebox which I've still got hiding somewhere (I may even assemble and paint them too) and start playing some 15 Point games with them of a Sunday. Eventually I may pick up more Warlocks to play at the same points value, but I may save that for after i get my Colossal.

WARMACHINE: Colossals Preview

Holy Children of the Motherland, Batman. I want two. I keep saying I want two, but I can't really afford two. I'll be lucky to afford one.Lets give it an easy overview assuming it'll have the same base rules as battle Engines.

• No penalty or restrictions for being Engaged.
• No rerolls against friendly models while the target is engaged.
• You can always see it.
• Volume is 5" tall on a 120mm circular base
• Can't be pushed, pulled, slammed, or thrown. CAN be placed.
• Weapons allocated on L and R can only attack within their half of the front arc (90*), whereas weapons marked with "-" can fire in either.

As for New Rules

• Power Attacks!
  • Stomp: make an attack with one weapon against all models in 2" of that arc.
  • Swat: Target is slammed d6+2" away
• Works like a Warjacks,so can be allocated focus for additional attacks and boosts.
• Has TWO damage grids.
• Has a Weapons Platform-esque rule, where it can fire ranged weapons regardless of whether it's engaged or already made it's melee attacks

Now for speculations.

• It very obviously has Man-o-War kovniks for fists. So it'll be a P+S 20 weapon master. Probably more.
• The main turret shoots Devastators, so when they land it's POW 18 within 1" of the target and POW 9 within another 3 after that. So... AOE 8?
• The turrets can fire Manhunters or Doomreavers, depending on how harsh you're feeling.
• It can deploy Berserker Warjacks at will. Place within 1" of the base and let it roam free.
• Avalanches can be summoned and will simply remove your opponents models from the field.

You'll have to excuse me. I'm getting flustered.

Unit Upgrades?

Today's release on the Privateer Press loadout is a Unit Upgrade for the Ironfang Pikemen, the Black Dragons, containing a new Standard for the Bearer, alternate shields for them to use which replaces the Khadoran Anvil with a Dragon, and a new card with a few different rules, particularly a different Mini-feat, a new Tactics ability and a reason to keep the standard alive for as long as possible. (According to Battle College)

It makes me wonder about other "Upgrade kits" other factions units would get. Temple Flameguard, Bane Thralls and Stormblades are the first that come to mind, but I have no idea what the second would be. I would hope Man-O-War, but that's just because I'm willing to expand my Man-O-War army to ridiculous levels. I already have 30+ models. (Add another 7 when I pick up the Battle Mechaniks and UA, yes I'm going to count them)

Welcome to last week

Huh. Epic Vlad II, huh? That's a very Epic sort of picture.

See, I like Vlad. He has had a very cool life written out for him within the Warmachine Expansion books. He had a fkn ridiculous fight ahead of him last I saw in Legends, where he, Drago and a large contingent of the Ironfangs were trying to hold off the Llaelese resistance who were being assisted by the Protectorate.

But I've never liked the idea of playing Vlad, and that's because I keep hearing "Oh he's Sooo Good, you'd smear vegemite all over him and have him for breakfast."

Maybe not in those words, but you get the point.

So I steered away from him and kept with casters that I saw more appeal in, like Irusk and more recently Brian Blessed.

Though with the image above of E2 Vlad, I'm tempted to give the E1 Vlad model a go since I've never actually played him, so getting an idea of where he really stands as a Warcaster is something different for me to do.

I'm still yet to play Strakhov or Zerkova yet, since I've only just assembled them over the weekend, and I know I will play with them eventually, but this just adds to the list of Casters I want to play.

And if I wanted to do a theme list, it's really simple to get all the bonuses.

• Blood of Kings

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

- Berserker

- Drago

- War Dog

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Ironfang Pikemen (Max)

- Officer and Standard

Ironfang Uhlans (Min)

Kovnik Markov

Seriously, that's 35 Points at Tier 4. Kinda easy, really.

So now, lets talk about Vlad3. Lets extrapolate the man your man could Warcast like.

The most promenant thing that I've already made a joke about is that he's on a Horse. A Big Horse. I'm not sure if it's the same breed as the Man-O-War Drakhun's Horse, but it's still a biggun. It makes him the second Cavalry Warcaster in the game, the first being Jeremiah Kraye from Cygnar.

The second thing I notice is his weapons. His first incarnation had two Swords, a Longsword and a Shortsword, both family heirlooms which he has used for many battles. His second incarnation had these two weapons smithed together under the direction of Zevanna Agha, a guide of the motherland and to the Royal Family of Khador, turned the pair into a Greatsword.

Now he has a Flail and Spear. So I'm curious what story will lead to Vlad's new weapons.

After that... well that's all I really take from the image so far. I'm curious where it will lead!

COR, BLIMEY

HE'S FKN AWESOME

Infantry-machine

Regularly on a Sunday, I head down to an LGS and have a casual social day with some of the newer players. Yesterday was a very successful day and I had three games with three different people* and had some really fun matches, playing 3 games using Harkevich. I'm really getting into Harkevich. I think he's my second choice Warcaster in Khador, hands down.

* - Personal rule is that if there's multiple people at an event, play different people each game. Exception is only if there is a game that was far too quick. Eg: I was playing against Stryker one day, he cast Earthquake and drew line of sight to my Warcaster and killed him at the top of second turn.

So First game was against Aiden, AKA Callum. I say AKA because I have been calling him Callum for weeks now, months even. It hasn't bothered him, but it's still that bit embarrassing that I can't remember his name.

Anyway, he was playing the following 35pt list.

• Karchev the Terrible
• - Berserker
• - Berserker
• - Juggernaut
• - Devastator
• Battle Mechaniks (max)
• Man-O-War Shocktroopers

It's a nice little list that intimidates most players. But I was playing a hardy list that was able to take him on.

• Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf
• - Black Ivan
• - Destroyer
• - Destroyer
• Great Bears of Gallowswood
• Graylord Ternion (AKA: The Gaylords that make everyone go POOF! **)
• Koldun Lord
• ** - You're welcome Kel.

It was going really quite well. He had everything he wanted going where he wanted them to go, and killing what he wanted them to kill. Unfortunately, he left Karchev a little too far open.

We had an open playing field, using the 40k Crater Terrain and some of the Ork-style Linear Obstacles. We agreed to the craters being cover while completely within the circles, and just rough terrain otherwise. That didn't quite slow him down very much, except for his Shocktroopers and Battle Mechaniks. Tow did pretty much the rest of the job. I just lobbed out Bombard Attacks left right and centre at Shocktroopers and Battle Mechaniks.

Sidenote: As I was searching for the Crater Templates, I found This rather adorable picture.

But when he had finally moved into charge range of my models, he had left Karchev a little open to attack. So I charged him with some Great Bears, two of whom barely reached him so the last charged the Shocktroopers nearby. They didn't kill him, but they did a good job tearing him up. Otherwise, I think I put a few dents into the rest of his army by popping my feat, firing off at Karchev before charging into whatever. I think Black Ivan charged into Karchev, but simply grazed the paint off with this Claw.

Aiden was panicking a little bit, though. He had ARM 23 Warjacks in his face, and had a large dent put into Karchev. So he tore apart Black Ivan using Sunder, his POW 19 Reach weapon, and I think he killed a Great Bear as well. Shocktroopers tried their best to take down a couple of Great Bears, but Tough rolls kept at least two alive.

Otherwise, he tried his Darndest to tie up my other Destroyers with his Warjacks. The Devastator tied up my White Destroyer, while the Red MK1 Destroyer was facing off a MK2 Juggernaut.

My turn was the final straw and I had a couple of options to kill Karchev. The First was with Great Bears. I worked out the maths, and figured they would put a dent into him, but wouldn't kill him unless I had some good rolls. The other option was the Red Destroyer. He was tied up with the Juggernaut, but that could be easily sorted out by making him stationary with Ice Cage. My unit of Graylords had just enough movement to get two into melee with the Juggernaut, and one standing back who would suffer a -4 to hit a model who is in Melee, but his chances to hit would increase with each Ice Cage, which lowers a models DEF Cumulatively.

So all I needed to hit with the first two attacks were 3+, on 2d6. So I jinxed myself and got Snake Eyes, an Automatic Miss. The other two hit, even the one with a penalty, but I lost hope for a moment. Then I realised the Koldun Lord has the same spell, so he unloaded onto the Juggernaut and made him Stationary.

That guaranteed Big Red's freedom to kill Karchev. But to see what luck I have, I got the Great Bears to make their attacks. Three attacks later, Karchev was Destroyed.

Aidens Moral of the story: Great Bears Rock.


I'll skip the second game, only because I have an interesting thought process to go with it, so that'll come after I tell tale of my Third game.


The third game was a long awaited game against Liam, Aidens older brother. He's just picked up Dr Arkadius and has been hankering a game with a multitude of Warhogs in his list. He also picked up Sturm 'n Drang as well. Since it was later in the day, and he'd been playing Arkadius all day, we had a go at Sturm 'n Drang at 35pts.

• Sturm 'n Drang
• - War Hog
• - War Hog
• - Graymeat (War Hog that I nickname so because he's like a Zombie)
• Bone Grinder (Min)
• Brigands (Max)
• Slaughterhousers

It was a hard fought match. I'm getting rather annoyed with Dig In in general because with fielding the same list as I did before, I can't guarantee something will be destroyed by stray AOE's unless I targetted something in particular.

Well I got a few lucky shots onto the bastards, and a couple shots into a close War Hog, while I approached his wall of Bacon. I wasn't sure which way the fight would go, whether his War Hogs would kick several shades of shit out of me (Which is likely) or he would crumble like a piece of paper.

Turns out I was the paper and he was the Scissors, but somehow my paper mache skills turned it all into a rock. Everyone was in the fray with each other, Graymeat was a handspan away from Harkevich himself, Great Bears in between after running as best they could to prepare to charge next, and then everything everywhere else. Each War hog had faced off against a Destroyer jack of any kind, maxing out their Fury stat to kill said Destroyers, leaving only Black Ivan on half health, and Graymeat was the only one who was left on only 1 fury.

So i thought about it for a moment. What could I do? The only way I could win is if I assassinated Sturm 'n Drang right then and there. I had to think. And think I did. I examined the positionings, my models abilities, his models stats, worked out the maths and the conclusion was: I had to play like I had a pair.

Graylords would use the magical shotguns to clear out some enemies. Particularly a Bone Grinder who was sitting nearby Sturm 'n Drang. Clear out one or two others and I would have a fairly clear line, and I get bonus points for being so awesome and clearing out his infantry except for about 2 models.

Unfortunately... I didn't succeed in killing that Bone Grinder. I did succeed in killing a single Slaughterhouser, after three Magical Spray Attacks. Disappointing, but it was only a bonus. The main thing was Harkevich. He would charge Graymeat and use his Beat-back ability to push Graymeat out of the way of the Greatbears. Why? Because then they can charge Sturm 'n Drang. So I kept all my focus, and used them all for Additional Attacks.

Beat Back: If this model successfully hits a target, the target is pushed 1" directly away from this model. This model may then advance 1".

Six out of seven attacks hit, and the last 1" move was to get out of the way for the Great Bears to Charge Sturm 'n Drang.

Now he had two fury for Transfers, which he planned because he was understandably a little paranoid something will happen. He hadn't seen how I'd murdered Karchev, but he didn't know what kind of luck he'll have. So I charged in with the great bears, and he took the first hit of 8 damage. The second hit was successful, but I rolled a pair of 1's and a two. Don't even think I dented his armour.

The third attack was a little funny. It was a good roll, but he said he was going to transfer to someone other than Graymeat, which I told him he couldn't because the other two War Hogs were on Full Fury, so he couldn't. So it went on to Graymeat, who was already well tenderized from Harkevich's Mechano-mace and a Great Bear the turn before. With a transfer, it killed Graymeat and left Sturm 'n Drang on 3 HP. With one last attack, the final blow was struck and I was surprised to find that Sturm 'n Drang don't have tough. And neither do Bone Grinders.

All in all, it was a fun game with a surprisingly bullshit assassination.


Lastly, we revert back a match to my game with Glenn. Now Glenn hasn't been playing for very long. I met him though Monsterpocalypse, and since that hasn't made a massive revival in recent times, he is slowly moving into Warmachine through a Retribution list using Lord Arcanist Ossyan. I was somewhat excited since I haven't really played against many Retribution Armies before.

The Slightly odd thing was that he didn't have any Warjacks. He was designing the list based on Ossyan's theme, so he had gotten a few of his Themed lists stuff, but the Warjacks he had ordered hadn't come through so he played with what he had at 25pts.

• Lord Arcanist Ossyan
• Houseguard Halberdiers (max)
• Houseguard Riflemen (Max)
• - Officer and Standard
• Houseguard Riflemen (Max)
• - Officer and Standard

I had to adjust my list appropriately, and it took me a little while to really figure out what I wanted. Though I was disappointed to find I'm one point short of having a Behemoth in the list, I made do and got myself comfortable.

• Kommander Harkevich
• - Black Ivan
• - Destroyer
• - Destroyer
• Koldun Lord

Just like the first game, we played amongst the Craters and walls, using Aiden as the Third Party Terrain Lord, and we adjusted the rules so that the Craters weren't rough terrain any more, but it was still required that you must be completely within to gain Cover.

It didn't come into much use, though. Two units of Riflemen with CRA are easily going to shoot a large chunk out of Harkevich. Which they did. Twice. And killled him.

It made me think of the days of Infantry-machine, where a Warjack heavy list would have a hard time against an Infantry list. Is that still true now? Not really. I'd taken out a large chunk of his Halberdiers with AOE's that actually hit, and some good dice rolls on my Blast Damage, but that was about it. I'm not sure why i was so focused on the Halberdiers when the Riflemen were the more dangerous of the lot, both with CRA +11. It's a pretty hard hit, especially with his rather good dice rolls, plus Ossyans feat which gives an addtional damage die on Ranged Damage Rolls.

But is Infantry-machine still promenant in Warmachine and Hordes? Hordes are obliged to put Warbeasts in, or else they won't have a spell pool. But there's nothing like that in Warmachine. Warjacks are an option, not a necessity, so you can go right on ahead and play with a bucketload of Winterguard if you want. Whether it'll be effective as a list, who knows.

I don't field armies without Warjacks simply because I like Warjacks. They're what brought me into the game. But I could field a Warjack-less army if I wanted. The question just remains is "Do I even want to try?"

Uniqueness

One of the cool things about Warmachine and Hordes is that there is a flavour to the game that takes the game to new Levels. You have unique units, and solos, and unique themes that some units follow by. Then on top of that, you can get Characters who may follow a theme, but have a uniqueness to themselves. Warjacks come in all different shapes and sizes. Few are to a particular theme, but as a general rule they are all unique.

Character Warjacks started off simply emphasizing a particular Warjack. Beast-09 is a character Juggernaut, for example. Drago is a character Berserker. Lately, the character Warjacks started getting more unique layouts. Black Ivan is a character Destroyer, however rather than the Executioner Axe, he has a special set of claws. Torch is a character Decimator, but replace the cannon with a flamethrower-mounted Open Fist with a spike.

The rules are all very cool and all, there is no denying how awesome it is to have a Warjack in melee with a Torch to catch a few guys up the back. Same thing with Black Ivan, it's awesome to have a Warjack that has a base Defence of 12. No seriously, it's awesome.

The models themselves are where I actually have a problem. Beast-09 and Drago received unique Models. Every feature about those models screams "I am who I am and you better remember that". They dominate the field leaving everyone feeling they have been struck by gods.

If you turn to the Warjacks next to them, Black Ivan and Torch... and you get two Basic Warjacks with some unique features. Replaced arms, bobs stuck on their shoulders, and a head to match. They don't have things hanging around their neck, or writing over their cowling. They don't even have the Khadoran Anvil over the engine

Business wise, I know that the expenses of making an entirely unique warjack would be phenomenal with having to create moulds which only last a certain number of times and cost an arm and a leg to make, and then no guarantee of sale makes it difficult. Whereas the plastic kits are cheaply made, and then smaller pieces are made of metal and slot on to the figures.

What does Black Ivan look like though? Does he look as plain as a normal Destroyer? Or does he actually have inscriptions across the bulk of his body that point from what regiment of the Khadoran army he was brought up from under the guidance of Harkevich?

What about Torch? Is he really a Juggernaut with a Buzzsaw and a Flamethrower? Or is he an Assault Kommando with armour tempered to withstand Fire and Acid, and able to throw smoke grenades to disrupt enemy attack?

It makes me wonder how different these impressive Warjacks would be if they were just a little more... Unique.

Campaigning for fun

Now a month or two ago, I said about how I was going to play Gears of War 3 with my friends, playing through the wonderful campaign as a Four-player Cooperative rather than running around by myself. It's a lot more fun, especially if we all start off at the same point, then we all experience the same thing, achieve the same goals, save the same damsels, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

When I got my new Xbox and downloaded my Gamer profile, I found that I'm missing achievements for certain games, like Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. I ran through Gears of War 2 again alone because I didn't think of inviting anyone. But it wasn't as fun as with a friend. Not to say it wasn't a fun game, it was still as awesome as I remember it the first time, but I know it's better when you have someone playing with you, whether it's through the internet or sitting next to you laughing their heads off as you decapitate a couple of people with a hydraulic powered crossbow.

So in preparation to playing through the Halo 3 Campaign, I've asked my friends to gauge who would be interested in playing the Halo 3 Campaign with me. I've asked Scott and his only apprehension is the control scheme being so different to the Halo Reach scheme. It's rather different, but I'm thinking of adjusting my own settings to use the Green Thumb control scheme for all Halos upward of Halo 3.

Other games that I want to play Coop are Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One. I want to get that game and play with Scotty. I know he's waiting for me, but it's just a matter of picking up the game so we can start. Also, Portal 2 has an update for it's Cooperative Campaign, so we're going to get in on that at some point when I mention it to Scotty.



Next year, when Borderlands 2 comes out, we're going to dive into that one as well through the Xbox. Scotty was planning on getting it for PC, however it was put down to general consensus that we would all play on the Xbox. Which brings me to the subject of Cross-Platform gaming, but that's another blogpost that I've drafted away and haven't bothered to type in since I started it.

I was thinking of making a Blog for our escapades through whatever games together, somewhere we could organise times to play and such, but that seems a bit much. Though we could apply it as well for our Wargaming as well, if we decided to use as such if we were doing a campaign amongst ourselves. That would actually be really cool if we were, but we're not.

Actually I thought about running the old campaigns for Warmachine amongst friends, but haven't sat down with a copy of Escalation or Apotheosis and worked it out for MKII Settings. I don't know if there are any very good conversions out there, or even if there's one released from PPress, but I'm going to give it a crack. I'm really wanting to go with "Point Cost / 2, Rounded up" to determine Victory Points.

So wondering about whether or not I should do the blog or not. It wouldn't be interesting, I think it would mostly have notices for what and when we're next playing, unless we do a battle report for each of our campaign games, but I dunno about that.

Now I've completely lost track of what I was talking about.

What's Black, White and Red all over? Two Destroyers and an Ivan

Every Sunday I head to Spring Hill to play games at the LGS there. At least I try to. Yesterday I made it there and had a couple of really enjoyable games with Kommander Brian Blessed. I mean, Kommander Izak Harkevich.

Now, I originally thought he was an awkward caster. He has a heap of spells that are really interesting, but he's just hard to really get off the ground. But this yesterday was different. They were significantly better than the last couple of games I had using him, where he'd be overloaded with Warjacks (I had a Behemoth and two destroyers I think) and I would hope for the best out of their ranged attacks.

This time, I got a fantastic result out of the two games i had with him. The first game was 50pts against Kara Sloan. I technically lost, but got a wonderful moral victory out of it.

The lists were as follows.

• Kommander Izak Harkevich
• - Black Ivan
• - White Destroyer
• - Red Destroyer
• - War Dog
• Great Bears of Gallowswood
• Greylord Ternion
• Widowmakers
• Winterguard Infantry (Max)
• - Officer and Standard
• - Rocketeer (1)
• Koldun Lord
• Kovnik Jozef Grigorivich

• Captain Kara Sloan (*6pts)
• - Cyclone (9pts)
• - Defender (9pts)
• - Stormclad (10pts)
• - Squire (2pts)
• Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
• Storm Tower (2pts)
• Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
• - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
• Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
• Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
• Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)

He started off with a list of things he hadn't used, and some reliable fellas. I pulled out mostly reliable stuff, and designed Harkevich's battlegroup to include three warjacks. So Black Ivan, and two Destroyers. I love Destroyers and I only wish they were P+S 18 still, rather than 17.

One thing I was happy about was using the Koldun Lord. I've rarely used him, but he came into great use. My second turn, everyone was in range to shoot, so the Koldun Lord gave a point of Focus to Black Ivan to Boost Damage since Ivan's affinity offers automatically boosted attack rolls. Then the other two Destroyers would boost to hit using focus from Harkevich.

With Harkevich's four focus, he upkeeps Escort from last turn and put the remaining three to use for Broadsides. Out of the 6 AOEs thrown out there and and slightly beyond the Stormclad I caught a couple of Stormblades and one AOE caught Kara who she copped a boosted damage roll for either 4 or 7 damage.

Next turn, I got my chance to charge into his Stormclad and Cyclone. With the Escort up and his Feat popped, Black Ivan and Red Destroyer charged in and tore a good chunk off the buggers. Harkevich gave them two focus each as well, I think, and White Destroyer was left guarding Harkevich's Flank from a Defender that was creeping around.

Russ's turn was spent either missing half the attacks on Black Ivan, or slowly Grinding at the Red Destroyer. That +3 armour to my Khador Warjacks? Holy **** biscuits on a **** platter does it make a difference. I sat there and took so little damage. It helped that I crippled the Stormblade's Sword Arm, but CRIMENY.

Oh and it was rather funny when the Cyclone who couldn't shoot any more and hold up my Winterguard from Advancing, sat there and tried to double handed throw Black Ivan. Twice he tried this turn and the next, and with both Strength Test Rolls we equalled on the dice. Which means I win since I have 1 more Strength than he does. I had to laugh because the chances of rolling higher than 2d6 with only 1d6 is very improbable.

Fourth turn, the last before I was shot to oblivion, I surprised him with some Winterguard Fun. Grape Shot plus "For The Motherland" makes for an infantry killing turn. Which I did to his trenchers and the better part of his remaining Stormblades. I think there were two left, including the officer who had taken about 3 points of damage, one after the other, through the game.

The Greylords, who were mostly putting clouds on the Warjacks to defend Old Mate, had charged in last turn and one tried to kill a Trencher but failed to hit. One kept back to surprise them from the side, so the other two were basically sacrificed to hold up the trenchers. At the fourth turn, the remaining Greylord was suddenly surrounded by Running Sword Knights, and luckily three of them were in a line. So off he fired the Magical Shotgun and away went two Sword Knights, the last two taken out by Harkevich's Hand Cannon and White Destroyers Executioner Axe.

That was when Kara moved up and got a bead on Harkevich with her Rifle and the Defenders Cannon. Two shots, and he was down and out. As you'd expect from a Boosted Weapon Master POW 12 and a Boosted POW 15.

Before I forget though, the Great Bears of Gallowswood made up their points value, I reckon, by stopping the Black 13th from doing anything significant. Granted, he didn't lose a single model and I lost all three Great Bears, but you know what? If the Black 13th were more in the fray than taking the long way around the flank, it would have been a very different game. I probably would've lost more Winterguard much earlier in the game.

Russ conceded the moral victory to me for BUTCHERING his army and pulling off a "Bullshit Assassination". Which wasn't quite bullshit, it's the way I would expect a dirty Cygnaran player to Assassinate me.

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Second game was against Aiden's Karchev the Terrible. This was a massive grinding match, pitting Khador versus Khador. But it was really fun at the 35pt Level with the following lists.

• Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf (*5pts)
• * Black Ivan (10pts)
• * Destroyer (9pts)
• * Destroyer (9pts)
• * War dog (1pts)
• Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
• Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
• Koldun Lord (2pts)

• Karchev the Terrible (*5pts)
• * Berserker (6pts)
• * Berserker (6pts)
• * Decimator (9pts)
• * Juggernaut (7pts)
• Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
• Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

This game was fun, but could've worked out a bit better if he changed up one thing. We threw each others Warjacks against each other, and I mean threw them. Mine charged first during the feat turn and he had Towed most of his warjacks into the Fray. There was only one Warjack that missed out in getting into the fray which was one of his Berserkers. He fell a little way behind the rest of the Party.

The mistake that was made was that a poor Berserker had gotten ahead as well, and copped the better part of about 6 Bombard Attacks, and a Charging Black Ivan. He was quickly torn apart. Afterwards, Karchev got into the Grinding melee with his own Axe versus my Feated Warjacks.

The better option, which he agreed with, was to have Karchev move a little way out of melee and use the ranged attack to Knock down everything in front of his own Warjacks. Oh and to get his Berserker up the front a bit quicker, maybe taking the place of where Karchev was. That way, Karchev wouldn't have been punched into Oblivion by Black Ivan with Fortune cast on him.

One thing that was Frustrating? Black Ivan has Critical: Brutal Damage. Out of the 6-8 attacks I made against Karchev, do you think I made a SINGLE Critical hit? NO! Everything else in my army got Criticals Galore! But could Black Ivan do it? No, the spiteful bugger decided to extend Karchev's death.

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So overall, I had a good weekend with some great games. I can't wait for next week!