Aeronautica Imperialis – Straggler Missions

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Played some more Aeronautica at the weekend, and it was lots of fun. Bob came up with a simple scenario based on an event in WWII’s Pacific campaign. A lone, up-gunned Marauder bomber has to get the length of a 6 foot table, and 3 Ork Fightas have to stop it. It’s a variation on a scenario from the book.

We ended up playing this 5 times as it was nice and fast, but still left a few tactical options to consider. Honours were fairly even, but Bob had the upper hand in the end. The first pics show me closing in on Bob’s Marauder in the first game, firing one shot as I passed and then attempting to close up form behind. The second shot is me turning to pursue and the third is Bob being wriggly. Boy, he’s an erratic flyer. It’s a long way to get down the whole board (the Marauder has a max speed of 3 in this scenario), but he managed to escape with a single wound left.

My attempts at escaping went like this:

  1. Flew really high and was destroyed before I got half way 😦
  2. Flew in at minimum height. Confused the Orks who were waiting for me to be high again, and got away easily.
  3. Tried to copy Bob’s erratic climb and dive mix and got away again with some scratches, but convincingly.
  4. Final attempt to perfect the jink and dodge method, and nearly made it. With my nose almost touching freedom, Bob had one last shot to get me before I escaped and with this final dice destroyed the Marauder. I could have been a contender.

This final shot is me flying the Marauder, and managing to end up with all 4 planes on the back of a blister card (on a 6×4 table). Lucky for me this is my second run and I’m miles below them 🙂

All told a jolly little scenario and very simple. Bob did point out one oddity in the rules that we might House Rule, but I’ve not read them all yet and am loathe to change things before I have a proper go through the lot. I’m sure we’ll be playing it again though.

 

Posted in Tabletop gaming | 9 Comments

Tribes Of Legend – Update

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Well the time must be getting nearer as I’ve finally seen a printed copy of Tribes of Legend. The bulk of the run are still on the Slow Boat From China, but Hermes brought a copy by air for me to look at. Just a single copy, mind you, and I’ll need to let him have it back. We’ll need it at next week’s Open Day when I’m running Tribes of Legend on Saturday. All the gaming slots are full, I’m afraid, but if you fancy coming along and having a chat it’s always possible we’ll be able to get some more games going. It’s fast and brutal and I’m sure we can fit an extra rumble or two in if we try 🙂

Looking at the book in its finished form, it’s interesting to see all the extra stuff that’s been added around the 3 sets of rules I wrote. Martin Buck has done some background sections on who’s who in the world of Greek Heroes and Gods; Kevin Dallimore and Jez Griffin have done several articles between them on painting different bits of the range; Matt Fletcher has taken a moment out from building Napoleonic tables to do a nice article on making rivers. The whole comes together rather nicely and is heavily illustrated by the whole new range of models.

It’s also interesting for me to re-read this after almost a year of doing other things. When you get get something printed (and there is now nothing you can do to fix it) there’s always the niggling worry that it may be somehow fatally flawed, though that’s probably just my paranoia showing. It reflects too on the discussions about murdering your darlings and less is more in my design theory articles: are there darlings I should have murdered? Does the gap of time allow me a less clouded view? Have the editors murdered them for me, or have they slain innocents by mistake? Often there is no definitive answer: one man’s darling is another man’s innocent victim. Still, an exciting time.

Oh, and I’ve picked up a few of the new Greek models to show you as well 🙂

Posted in Tabletop gaming, Tribes of Legend | 7 Comments

Review: Aeronautical Imperialis – First Contact

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Those daring young men in their flying machines. In space 🙂

Yes, I had a game of Games Workshop’s Aeronautica Imperialis. It was Bob’s fault, naturally. Like the Epic. He was kind enough to let me win though, shooting down his six Ork contraptions for no loss among my noble Imperial übermensch. Well, that’s not entirely true. I fluked my “save on a 6” for the one fighter that was hit, and he flew one of his into the floor all on his own, so I didn’t shoot them all down.

It’s a fun little game, and not a bad price. We had a fair game with just half a dozen models a side, so no vast investment required. Might have another go next week, and when I have a proper read of the rules I’ll comment in more detail.

Posted in Tabletop gaming | 25 Comments

Things You Should Read: Number 1

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Quirkworthy

In no particular order, I thought I’d do a post or two on sites that I find intriguing, amusing, and make me think. First up is an occasional blog from a veteran of the gaming hobby: Tom Meier.

Tom’s a sculptor of insane talent as well as having something of a dry wit. The blog is as worth reading for the humour as the discussions on model scale, details of Theoland and Noraland, and insights into why models get sculpted as they do. He also includes many pictures of current projects, and the images below are what have made me particularly attentive over the years it’s taken for this project to bear fruit.

WWII goodness, Tom style 🙂

The pictures speak for themselves really. The models aren’t out yet though I’m told that they’re getting close now and the prices I’ve heard sound fair (though he asked me not to tell). They’re being made for Fox Miniatures in 1:48th (35mm) scale and they look gorgeous. Do want.

Plastic model kits for WWII look great for vehicles in 1:48th, but the infantry lacks that certain something. Mainly the available options are just rescalings of Tamiya’s rather dated 1:35th stuff, and that’s probably it in a nutshell. These look like they’ll do very nicely, thank you 🙂

Oh, and detail? The mind boggles. The coin shown below is a US cent. Remember that these are all 35mm models.

Posted in WWII | 7 Comments

Review: Gears of War – First Contact

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Quirkworthy

We played the Gears of War board game again last night, and actually survived this time. The first evening of this we played 2 player, and got obliterated repeatedly. I think we played 4 times and never got to the end. With 4 players it seemed much easier, though we ended up between us having less lives in total than a single one of us had to start with. I had no ammo left for anything, and no order cards either, so it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

I’ve not got a copy, so I can’t do a full description. However, initial impressions are perhaps worth noting. It’s getting a lot of good press right now, and it’s well put together and deals with some of the key features of the video game well enough. The miniatures are very high quality and the components nicely done. The rules themselves seem reasonably clear and roll along fine after a few turns. However, this is a co-op board game rather than a video game, so the frenetic pace of the original gives way to a much more considered and “talky” experience. I might see if I can borrow a copy at some stage to see how it works solo. That would be yet another different type of game.

Do I like it? Sort of. Ambivalent and undecided are perhaps the best words to describe how I feel. It is all done competently or better, I was engaged during the game, but somehow it doesn’t quite come up with that magic something for me. Maybe I just need to play it more. I would, however, encourage people to give it a try as cooperative games can be a fun change of pace and pose a different set of challenges from the competitive norm.

Posted in Board Gaming, Review | 9 Comments

It Wasn’t Me

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Looking at Beast of War’s account of the Warpath Open Day reveals this interesting little bit of information:

“This is all of course setting up Dwarf Kings Hold…In Spaaaaaaace which is planned for Warpath. Corporation Vs ’8th Race’ in the confines of huge asteroids mined out by the Forge Fathers, both in pursuit of the same precious resource. But that is for another day…”

When the aliens invade, just remember not to put Ronnie in charge of covert intelligence for the Resistance.

Posted in Dwarf King's Hold, Events | 13 Comments

Warpath Open Day

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Well I was intending to do a proper event report on Mantic’s Warpath Launch Party, but my camera decided to die, so no pictures from me, I’m afraid 😦

However, there were a number of more technically savvy folk about who were snapping away merrily and have photos on their blogs, including the official Mantic piccies, the not even slightly odd Ninjabread, and (soon) tearsofenvy.

Mantic are getting increasingly organised about these events, and this one had several demo games of Warpath running all day. If you’d been there, you could have played. There were also model displays, artists and sculptors to talk to, painting clinics with Golem Studios, seminars with Ronnie and Alessio and, of course, the Secret Room with all the upcoming goodies in.

It was an interesting day for me, talking to people about Dwarf King’s Hold even though it was really supposed to be a Warpath day. I’d deliberately not set a game up so that it wouldn’t clash, but people wanted to know and it’d have been rude not to explain. I also met a nice French fellow who rejoices in the name Léonidas and happens to run Ravage magazine which, if you don’t know, is an independent French gaming magazine. Interestingly, they’ve just announced that they’re going to be doing an English version soon (in partnership with Coolminiornot, if my schoolboy French is right). This is cool as they have printed a number of things I wanted to read & play in the past, and my French generally won’t cut it when it comes to gaming jargon. For example, the copy I have to hand has a new scenario for DUST and an article on (I think) organising leagues for SMOG. Looking forward to getting it in English 🙂

Posted in Events | 11 Comments

Foundry Miniatures Launch New Website

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Tribes of Legend may not be the first fantastical product from Foundry, but it seems to have been a catalyst for them to launch a new Fantasy-focussed website. Whilst Foundry are known as a producer of historical figures, they actually have a huge range of fantasy models too. This new site allows these ranges to have their own place in the sun, rather than hiding under the shadow of the even more vast historical ranges.

Three other things are worth mentioning. Firstly, the site is still being tested, and they’d be very happy to hear if you find something that doesn’t work as you’d expect. I use Firefox and that’s turned up a couple of issues that aren’t present in IE9, for example. But don’t let that stop you having an explore.

The second thing is that they’ve currently got a sale on. Not sure how long it’s on for, but 20% off is always nice. And the post free threshold is lower on the fantasy than the historical site too 🙂

Finally, the first sets of figures from the Tribes of Legend model range are out!

Posted in Tribes of Legend | Leave a comment

Lego Dungeons

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Quirkworthy

I was recently discussing different types of games and the Lego dungeon game Heroica came up. So, being something of a game junky (and just finishing DKH3) I thought that would be an amusing change of pace to have a look at. Add another oddment to the pile to review 🙂

I hadn’t really been aware of these Lego games as “proper” games, but I see that at least one is designed by Reiner, so I started to take them a bit more seriously. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Posted in Board Gaming | 27 Comments

Design Theory: Keep A Notebook

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Quirkworthy

If you are like me, your ideas will come tumbling out of your subconscious in a random sequence. Sometimes there will be clumps of notions on a similar theme, sometimes not. However they appear they need to be captured and logged for later use. Notebooks are my preferred means.

These days I am sure that folk will use all manner of digital equivalents, and that’s fine too. Whatever mode of note-taking suits you. The important thing is to carry something around with you that can capture the ideas.

I find that notebooks are good because I can doodle board layouts, cover art roughs and logos as well as writing, and do most of that faster than on a keyboard. I often feel that these ideas fade very quickly, and don’t want to lose them, making speed vital.

I also feel that ideas from my subconscious are like a queue of traffic at the lights, or items on a conveyor belt at the end of the line. If I don’t take the first one away (by writing it down), then I’ll just keep being reminded of that one bumping against the end in ever varying forms as if it’s trying to explain itself and assumes that I’ve not understood so has to change the way it’s presented each time. My subconscious won’t be able to develop the next thought clearly until it’s out of the way. As soon as it’s captured my subconscious can let go of it and move on to the next idea. Over the years the routine of keeping notebooks seems to have speeded up and enhanced this process so that my “backbrain” expects and relies on me taking new ideas off the conveyor as soon as they appear, allowing it to run at a faster pace. All good.

Some ideas are well-formed, and most aren’t. Just take them down anyway and get them out of the way of the next one. When they’re on paper you may find that they spark further ideas and you can develop them from there. It’s not uncommon for an idea to mutate dramatically between initial note and final use. This is quite good actually, as it sometimes allows you to look at it again later, taking the initial note off in a completely different direction so that you get more than one use out of it 🙂

Whatever you end up doing with the ideas, get them out of the way of your subconscious as quickly as you can so that it can get on with its job of making cool new connections and answering puzzles while you can get on with developing them.

Posted in Game Design Theory | 6 Comments