Metropolitan Wargamers

CoCRPG Setup: The Mystery of the Stone

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:37:00 +0000

Summer 1922: A long lost exploration vessel, the Balerion, steams into to Baltimore harbor with a decimated crew, and different captain then they departed with, none of their equipment or cargo; the only item manifested is a "religions item", a single package wrapped in rough spun cloth. Attempts to examine it invoke such unnerving hostility from the captain that in the end he is simply allowed to carry the mysterious object with him off the ship. Not long after that, the ship sustains severe damage in a freak collision in the harbor, the crew scatters, the captain is found murdered in a shanty back alley, and the precious parcel disappeared. Winter 1923: A wild eyed nautical type arrives at Miskatonic Museum in Arkham, Mass demanding to see the curator of the antiquities; he offers for sale a oddly shaped stone, wrapped in rough spun, which he claims is an object of worship from some culture remote in time and distance. At first dismissive, then curious, then fascinated, the curator agrees to purchase the object, sending the wild eyed man away with $30. After a few short weeks antiquarians, archeologists, researchers of all stripes become aware of the stone, several articles are published in international journals, and it becomes a matter of interest to many ...

Spring 1923: The Arkham Gazette blares a headline of startling import: "Museum Robbed - Famous Stone Missing - 9 Found Killed in Grizzly Ritual". The article describes a scene of horror in the museum where the curator, several guards, a policeman, and some visitors were found slain. Two weeks later, a similar scene of horror is discovered in the near-dead port town of Innsmouth. A a professor from Miskatonic University and some of his students had apparently witness something of connected with the event (according to local law enforcement), and left Innsmouth in a desperate hurry.

Now, stone was gone. An unnamed private individual has offered a considerable sum of money for the return of the stone to him directly. Several law enforcement agencies have assigned investigators to track down the perpetrators of the crimes and recover the stolen artifact. Freelance journalists, thrill seeking dilettantes, even some hard bitten bounty hunters were all seeking the stone and the murderous thieves who possess it. All clues and leads point to England, where it is rumored the stone has been carried for some unknown purpose, though some dark hints suggest that the horrific scenes of carnage seen thus far are just a prelude to what will take place should these killers fulfill their plan.

The investigators find themselves on board the RMS Mauritania, departing New York City in the late spring of 1923, bound for England where they hope to pick up the trail and solve the mystery of the stone. The party should include law enforcement seeking justice and maybe revenge for murdered comrades, academics or antiquarians with professional interest in the stone and perhaps some deeper glimpses into its origins, agents of foreign governments who have some unstated interest in the stone, and some individuals who are in the employ of the unnamed private individual commissioned to find and return the stone to him. Each player will be given some personal motivations and objectives that are private and probably should not be revealed to the other players.

AGOT Regional Melee Championship, Sunday May 16

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:52:00 +0000

TempleCon 2010 After Action Report

noreply@blogger.com (Metropolitan Wargamers) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:50:00 +0000

Wow. What a great convention if you are into cards/RPG/sci fi and steam punk. Definitely a more diverse crowd than you see at HMGS cons.

Picked up a new card game called The Spoils. It is a dueling game created by some former Magic champions. The system is very tactical and the artwork is darker and more adult than anything FFG is doing. But, FFG is probably going to be the US distributor (per the interwebs) so this game has the potential to be big. I picked up some starter decks for the club.

Played a new card game that was having its first public debut - Hull Breach. Sci-fi multiplayer space combat. You have a space station, then build fleets and assign space marines for invasions and boarding actions. Will was impressed that it is a multiplayer card game that rewards aggressive play. The deisgners are amateurs, but expect to have a product for sale in the near future. We (Greg, Will and I) might have convinced them to go with a LCG format.

Played some Warmachine and was very impressed. More record keeping than WH40k, but also a deeper combat mechanic. Greg won a painted army, so I had to pick up the rules.

Watched some games of Malifaux and read the entire rule book this morning. This is a very thematic, small unit skirmish game. And the minis are great. You only need a handful of figs to play and it uses a card draw system to resolve combat (no dice). This will be popular at the club.

Played in a Gutshot game and play tested the new zombie supplement. It was Gutshot with zombies ... I was not blown away.

I also got in my first game of Small World. A very easy-to-learn game. We got through a 5 player game in 90 minutes. The mechanics impressed me and I would play it at the club.

The bartenders sucked. The convention staff were great. We gave a lot of money to Neil from the War Store. And Greg's IP lecture was a hit. All in all a good time, and all of this before the Super Bowl.

MAGIC In Northern Ireland

noreply@blogger.com (Metropolitan Wargamers) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:50:00 +0000

Just got done playing a Magic draft at Serenity Games (46 Botanic Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland). As usual I was by far the oldest guy in the place, and I think was at least twice as old as anyone there, and three times for some.

But, the beauty of gaming is that nobody gave a toss, and I was welcomed into the group. The shop itself is very cool, a smallish room one flight up with two long card tables and a WH40K battle table set up. Available for purchase were (of course) Magic boosters plus sem board games, primarily Euros (not surprisingly) and 40K. I think I surprised some of the patrons by being able to talk 40K at least as well as them ... little do they know!

Its a new shop (3 months old), run by Sean and Connor. They chipped in to open the place to revive the Magic scene in Northern Ireland. Apparently there had been a large community, lots of players, and even a national champion from NI but one thing or another caused it all to dwindle. The lads are bringing it back to life with this cool, vibrant shop, and I was very glad to be able to participate.

In the draft format there were 3 rounds of play, 2 out of 3 wins takes a round. An interesting twist is that there is a 'rare draft' at the end of the nite: all the gold (rare) cards are pulled out of the decks and players get to pick one in turn, highest placing players first then eventually the low-lifes such as myself at the end of the line. But, it generally means everyone gets to go home with at least 3 rare cards in addition to whatever you kept in the draft, and the better cards go to the better players.

Draft is an interesting format: 8 players each open a booster pack, pick a card, and pass to the right. Repeat until all the cards are picked the pop another booster, this time pass to the left, then another to the right. It levels the field a bit (no killer, pre-constructed decks) but there are skills involved in drafting that a good player can use to draft a superior deck. Needless to say, I don't possess any of those skills. But I did my best.

I played twice this week, Tuesday and Thursday, doing better Thursday. Again, gaming is an amazing hobby where strangers become comrades just because we like to play with the same toys. Most of my opponents were much more experienced then me, but were very willing to share their knowledge, give pointers, suggestions and play tips. I asked one fellow if it was weird playing someone as old as his Dad, but he just shrugged smiled, and obliterated my favorite creature with a Lightening Bolt ... we should all appreciate what an inclusive hobby we have.

Interestingly enough I was no the only Yank, and I got paired up with young Trevor both nights. We were known as the "American Table" but since he is from Seattle we preferred the moniker of "East Coast vs West Coast". It was fun all the way.

Sad to say, I must leave Belfast without getting another chance to join my new friends at Serenity Games for the pre-release of Worldwake. However, I will strongly encourage any of our members, should the find themselves in sunny Belfast, to visit and patronize Serenity Games. I'm looking forward to my next trip there that much more.

-Mike Willner

All the King's Men

noreply@blogger.com (IGWARG) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:21:00 +0000

Few months ago at Fall In I happened to play "All the King's Men" horse and musket period wargame with 54mm miniatures. The American Revolution game was run by the writers of the rules. They also make extensive range of 54mm miniatures for that game. It's an excellent generic "beer and pretzels" toy soldiers game and can be tweaked to fit anything from the early 18th century to American Civil War. 54mm is not the scale I game, but I was impressed with the range of the figures this company makes. I even bought the figure of their British officer and painted it because it kind of looked like Wellington. Check them out and definitely check out their rules: allthekingsmentoysoldiers.com

Wargames Factory Ancient Germans Compared

noreply@blogger.com (IGWARG) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Recently, Wargames Factory (wargamesfactory.com) came out with a set of Ancient German cavalry. There has been a lot of questions about their compatibility with other manufacturers. Pictures here are side by side comparison between Wargames Factory, Foundry and Old Glory ancient German cavalry.

Intellectual Property and Games

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Metropolitan Wargamers member Greg Silberman will be presenting a workshop at Templecon on February 5th, 2010.

189 Rules of the Game: Legal Issues in Independent Game Development and Publishing
Friday, February 5th, 5pm- 6pm, Convention Suite 1- Rm. #637.

Led by Patent Attorney Greg Silberman, this workshop provides a basic overview of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, and explains how these various forms of intellectual property apply to the game industry, including examples from boardgames, miniatures, RPG's, and videogames. This workshop program will provide you with a basic understanding of what the legal issues in independent game development and publishing are and how you can protect your own ideas and not infringe on someone else's ideas.

For more information on Templecon, check out www.templecon.org

Battlestandard Miniatures Greeks

noreply@blogger.com (IGWARG) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Recently, I was asked to paint some Battlestandard 3rd century Greeks by the owner of the company. Looking at the figures I decided that they also look like Carthaginian citizen or African infantry. Since I needed Carthaginians more than I needed 3rd century Greeks I decided to paint them as such.

Carthaginian citizen infantry looked a lot like Greek infantry of the same period. That is because large number of Greek mercenaries fought in Carthaginian armies and Carthage fought Greek colonies in Sicily. Also, Carthaginians fought against Greek mercenary armies and had plenty of captured Greek equipment. Finally, let's not forget that Carthage was a trading super power of the Mediterranean and Greek arms and armor was available through trade.

Battlestandard have large number of poses with various types of body armor of the period. Figures also come with large variety of separate heads and 4 or 5 large round shields variations. Figures are very detailed, but details are well raised and easy to paint. Figures are very smooth and round and it's easy to apply washes or highlight them. Battlestandard miniatures are kind of blocky with slightly exaggerated arms and legs. They are the same height and head proportion as Foundry Greek figures I painted at the same time. You can mix them with Foundry figures as long as a unit has the same size shields, Battlestandard shields are the largest I've seen.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG (3rd Edition) First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Gaylord500) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I ran sessions of Fantasy Flight's new version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay at the Compleat Strategist last weekend, using the included scenario. Unlike a lot of people who will be interested in the game, I don't have much Warhammer Fantasy background and don't have many preconceptions of the prior game system or setting. My RPG experience is pretty extensive, mostly as a player of various independent and non-TSR/White Wolf games, mostly as a GM for D&D, Changeling, GURPS and a few others. The three word sum of my first impressions: It's pretty good.

If you've played Fantasy Flight games before, you have a pretty good idea of the component quality. The cards and counters are similar to Arkam Horror or Descent. There aren't miniatures like Descent, but there are counters and stands (like their Battlestar board game) to represent monsters or characters. There's about 30 game-specific dice - not standard d8s, d10s or d6s - which are integrated into the game mechanic.

More on the dice, as there are so many of them and they come into play for many skill challenges. The mechanic for resolving whether something gets done is to collect a pool of dice and to roll them. If the number of axes (successes) beats the number of crossed swords (failures), it's a success.

Say I want to swing a sword at a goat-headed beastman. As a Dwarven Trollhunter, my strength is 5. That's five blue dice. I am two deep into an aggressive stance. Two of those blue dice convert to the aggressive red dice. (The green dice, for being in conservative stance, work similarly. Both the red and green dice can roll better than the blue dice. However, the red die has greater number of success and failures on the sides as well as the possibility of fatigue. The green die has fewer successes and the possibility of delay.) I have one check mark next to the weapon skill skill. I get 1 yellow die (the best die in the game, with a chance for a "Sigmar's Comet", the opposite of the Chaos mark). The beastman has a thick, leathery hide, which counts as defense one. I get one black misfortune die as a result. And, finally, swinging a sword at the guy counts as an Easy level task, so that is one purple challenge die. If I so desire, before I roll, I can spend as many fortune points as I'd like to get a white fortune die for each point spent into the pool. Fortune and misfortune dice can be given at GM discretion; basically when you'd give or take a +/- 2 in D&D (3.0 or 3.5).

So, you roll the handful of dice and start counting things up. Crossed swords and axes cancel for the overall success. Eagles and skulls cancel for boon/bane effect. The double-tailed comet and the chaos symbol could both be present, and both resolve. And, more rarely, the hourglass (delay), droplet of blood (fatigue/stress) or righteous success (axe with a plus sign next to it, which lets you add an extra die of that type) could be put into things. And a lot of faces are blank, which don't do anything.

And to get more complicated than that, I probably used a card of some kind to swing that axe - and that card tells me what these dice rolls can (or in the case of negative effects, must) be spent on. Altogether, this adds up to a system that answers not whether you succeed and how well, but in what manner that happens - look at which colored dice rolled what, and you know why a success occurred (or didn't).

In combat, distances are notional rather than specific. Extreme, long, medium, short and whether you're "engaged" to use melee or other effects or not.

While initiative is rolled based off the speed of each party member (and for each group of monsters equal in size to the party - a group of 6 average mobs would roll 2 initiative per 3 groups), the order the characters actually play is decided by the party as a group. If I rolled 4 successes on my initiative and Joe rolled 1, Joe can go on 4 when the combat goes and I could go on 1.

The players may choose a party sheet, which gives the group a special ability and allows individual character abilities to be used by the party. Also, if they can't decide on initiative, if there's interparty conflict, or other effects - like failed spellcasting - there's a marker that tracks it and creates penalties at certain times. Certain classes have abilities that reduce this tension.

Randomness plays a big part in the base mechanics of the game. Character classes are generated randomly. Race can even be generated randomly. Stats, however, are not - they are based off of the class and race that you draw, and what your experience points are spent on.

While I hadn't played it extensively, these parts - the basic mechanics - feels pretty satisfactory. Time will tell whether it'll hold up.

Some bits that worry me a little. The first is the price. It's a $100 game for three players and a GM. How necessarily three player is it? Well, three sets of the basic action cards (approximately 12) are given in the game. Since the action cards sometimes have specific dice-related information on them, until familiarity is reached, it could mean some sharing. (There aren't supposed to be people with the same classes in the same party, so there is only one set of cards for each class.) A $35 expansion set that lets you add a player or so is already going to be released with the base set. The dice border very close to being a collectible dice game, the cards and bits are pretty unique to their classes. While other game systems have offered these things as supplements (looking again at D&D and a little bit at White Wolf), none have made them as central and necessary as this one. Players will need to rely on Fantasy Flight not to abuse this too much. There's a cost/value choice to make, and I think to their credit, Fantasy Flight has yet to abuse this much; if you've played Fantasy Flight Games, you probably know this. Warhammer Fantasy is four, four-color, soft-cover rolebooks and amazingly large number of cards with rules on them (locations, classes, party sheets, actions, skills, spells, insanity, etc.) a large number of counters (stance tracking, fatigue, stress, etc.) and generally high production values.

Unlike a lot of RPGs based on other fiction, there's not that much background material in the game itself; perhaps 20-25 pages or so. Enough to get a feel for the province in the Empire you operate in, and a rough guide to the main races, neighbors and current situation.

Based off of comments from players in the test game who have played the prior edition, other things that might interest you are that the power level in 3rd edition starts higher than 2nd edition. You can start with firearms and some magic, which from my understanding was not something that could be touched in the prior edition. You graduate from one career to another. Boatman is still included as a starting class.

There's an insanity system, too, but I didn't have a chance to use it. It looks pretty interesting - call it a touch of Cthuhlu thrown into this game too.

Ultimately, the players had fun, and it was pretty easy to learn and run.

Space Hulk at Metro

noreply@blogger.com (IGWARG) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:23:00 +0000

When GW re-issued their popular "Space Hulk" board/miniatures game it generated a lot of excitement in our club. Many of our members use to play that game when they were young. Several of them bought the new game and naturally some of them wanted figures to be painted. This set was painted by me for Tony A. using color combinations he suggested. Figures were easy to assemble and fun to paint. Here are some painted figures from that game.

Space Marines

Librarian and dead Patriarch.

Tiranids

Main Bad Dude

Metro Wargamers at Fall-In

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Crisp air, a cool breeze, chirping birds and still country air. This idyllic setting is not some painting or from a movie. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Within the halls of the Eisenhower Convention Center in Gettyburg, PA the sounds of gunfire, ancient warriors locking in combat, jets and the cries of missed die rolls can be heard.

From November 5th- 8th is Fall-In! Although the smallest of the conventions and located a bit out of the way (in Gettysburg) this convention is a great weekend of gaming, meeting new people and competing in tournaments. MetroWargamers Igor, Gaylord and myself showed the NY colors and joined in a variety of games.

All of us managed to hit the dealers area and provide our own economic stimulus for the gaming industry. Gaylord took part in the National Decision Making Simulation (the theme was 1950) where he got to play the part of Chairman Mao. I played in several great games- the tops going to the Battle of Malplaquet on Saturday morning and Top Gun Saturday night (for those of you who know me- it is quite a sight seeing someone who normally plays Lace and Wigs flying an F-86 Super Sabre). Lastly, Igor and Gaylord played in the Warhammer Ancients Tournament. There- Igor won Best Painted Army! Way to go Igwarg!

Before the Convention kicked off, I was able to tour the Gettysburg Battlefield park. Finding the engagement markers for the Civil War reenacting regiment I had been in when I was a teenager was a thrill. I also climbed Little Round Top, toured Devils Den, The Angle, Wheatfield and Seminary Ridge.

All in all, Fall-In was a success and we are setting our eyes for Cold Wars in March, where the MetroWargamers will have even more presence as James Grotto puts together another one of his fantastic terrain boards. Thanks for a great time to everyone who went and I am looking forward to seeing you all in March!

MetroWargamers Club Event: The Met: Japanese Arms and Armor 1156-1868

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Where: The Met
When: November 1st
Time: 12pm

Join your fellow gamers and come see the limited show of Japanese Arms and Armor from 1156-1868. Some of these pieces are so fragile, they will only be shown for two weeks then taken back to Japan.

For more info. on the show see: www.metmuseum.org

I hope you see you there!

Peter

RPG Nite Players Intro: Tranch Heresy

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Kor Ban was a hyper-radical Interrogator of Inquisitor Rykehuss who went rogue and attempted to hijack a Black Ship in 365.M41, an attempt that failed and almost cost him his life. He dissapeared, only briefly surfacing to issue an angry denouncement of the "tepid and ineffectual methods of the Inquisition" in combatting the psyker threat to mankind. He was declared a Heretic and excommunicated immediately there after, and not heard from since.

A few weeks ago (405.M41) faint traces of Kor Ban surfaced. A member of Iniquisitor Rykehuss's inner circle, Interrogator Crimwall Kyler, was found murdered on Tranch, trace records on vox communications produced a partial match to the last known record of Kor Ban's voice. Kyler was investigating a break in into the offices of the Adeptus Ministorum. Also, dozens of scum gangers and members of a local cult, The Loyal Following, were found killed in a remote section of the underhive, apparently part of a criminal meeting that went bad. Retinal prints from one were salvaged, the signature was a 60% certain match for Kor Ban.

Inquisitor Kaede and Inquisitor Rykehuss were both contacted as soon as this evidence was surfaced. They have been at odds for many decades; Kaede considers Rykehuss's methods extreme and fanatical. Rykehuss thinks Kaede is an incompetent and weak Inquisitor. Both Inquisitors immediately dispatched teams of Acolytes to investigate, and neither will permit cooperation between the teams.

The Acolytes' contact on Tranch is Horus the Twist, the leader of a powerful underhive gang known as The 'Nids. As far as Horus knows, he is 'affiliated' with The Big Boss, a shadowy figure he rarely communicates with and never met, but who pays incredibly well for allegiance, access to 'Nid muscle, and the occasional dark deed. Several of the more capable 'Nid hatchet-men and captains have been recruited as Acolytes, being shipped off world to benefit the Inquisitor with their special ... skills. He is unaware that he serves the Inquisition, and the Acolytes are under strict instructions not to let him find out.

Their instructions are to make contact with Horus, leveraging his contacts and resources. They are to use whatever means necessary to trace the leads and determine if Kor Ban is in fact on Tranch, if so find him, thwart whatever foul plot he is likely engaged in, and if possible gain his confession and penance ... whether or not he survives that process is not a consideration.

As the teams arrive, they find Hive Tranch in a state of panic. Ganger violence has exploded over the last few weeks. It started soon after Aximand ("The Axe"), Headman of the infamous Killa Klan, one of the major gangs in Hive Tranch, disappeared for a few days. Rumors flew about a weapon deal gone bad, millions of missing Thrones, and some darker whispers about 100's of civilians killed or missing.

The Klan members went out of control in disorganized violence and crime. However, The Axe resurfaced a week or so later, and he brought with him a new agenda. The Klan undertook new levels of violence, boldly attacking Arbites, organizing into military-style strikes on cults, Adeptus Ministorum offices.

The big rival gangs, such as the 'Nids and the Tranch 'Web, have kept out of the fray. Killing Arbites is bad for business, and slaughtering cultists doesn't put any Thrones in the wallet either. Some members of the 'Nids have been approached by Killers to participate in large scale attacks and other unusual undertakings. The Twistand Boris the Blade, leader of the 'Web, have both forbidden their boys from taking part in anything with the Killas. When the hammer fell, whoever was swinging it, let it fall in The Axe and his maniacs, not them.

The adventure opens as the team prepared for their first meeting with The Twist ...

Club Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Club Meeting
When: September 26th, 2009
Time- 1pm- 1.30pm

A variety of topics are up for discussion along with the approval of some new members!

Republican Romans at the club

noreply@blogger.com (IGWARG) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Since publishing of "Hannibal", the Warhammer Ancient Battles supplement for Punic Wars , interest in that war generated quiet an army build up from several players. Here are some highlights from the latest Republican Roman army, 3rd such army painted in our club:

Velites of the "white" maniple, Crusader miniatures
Velites of the "grey" maniple, Crusader miniatures

Triarii of the "grey" maniple, Crusader miniatures

Velites, Hastati and Principi of "yellow" maniple, all Crusader miniatures

Roman cavalry, Crusader miniatures.
Mounted and dismounted Army Standard Bearer, Crusader miniatures
Italian light infantry, Gripping Beast miniatures
Hastati and principi of "red" maniple, Crusader miniatures
Hastati and Principi of "grey" maniple, Crusader miniatures
For more photos of various miniatures from various periods please visit: http://igwargminis.com/

The Metro Wargamers hit Historicon 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:26:00 +0000

From July 16th- 19th, one of the largest wargaming conventions occurs in North America. Historicon 2009 is the grand dame of North American wargaming conventions. Organized by HMGS (http://www.hmgs.org/), Historicon draws more than 3,500+ gamers from all over the world to Lancaster, PA. Deals abound at the Flea Market, new armies can be bought in the Dealer's Hall, new friends made and of course- games, games and more games are played.

This year saw the Metro Wargamers attend in force:

James G.
Tony V.
Greg S.
Igor O.
Manuel V.
Peter B.
Bernhard R.
Mike H.

All of us could be found in the main Exhibition Hall playing a variety of games from Warhammer to Flint and Steel. And that is not all....

Tony and James each organized a series of games that take place during the Second World War- Tony's was a naval battle and James' a ground battle (June 1944- Bocage country to be exact). Both games looked great, but best of all was that James' was named the Best Game Board for the day (Saturday) and he was runner up for Best in Show!

Now, he has a nice ribbon for his shelves!

(On the ground in Villes Grotto)

Way to Go James! We intend to celebrate shortly, so watch this space.

Everyone now has the post convention hangover, lighter wallets and are looking anxiously ahead to Fall In! in October/ November. If you missed the con and want to see some of the fun check out the HMGS site as well as Little Lead Heros:

http://www.littleleadheroes.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=hcon09

If you are inspired, contact a member and set up a game!

Congratulations again to James!

Tannhauser Recap

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:23:00 +0000

Mike W. Greg, Tony A., Sam and Chuck played a couple of games of Tannhauser at the club today, and I wanted to share a few thoughts:

- The graphic, the figures, the board, all awesome. The color scheme, even, sets a mood of dark and erie encounters. Everyone was impressed with the thick card stock, nice figs, robust counters, thematic art. FFG, all the way.

- We played the simple Kill Team scenario, no finesse just kill-'em-all. It was easy for one side to quickly get the upper hand and make the game lopsided. I think that this game is going to shine in the Story, Capture the Flag, and Domination scenarios, where the idea is to accomplish objectives rather then just gun down foe. So, we'll have to try a few of those now that we have some grasp of the rules.

- The mechanics are not 'realistic' skirmish rules... well, lets face it, having a zombie Nazi aristocrat General hurling a mystic glass skull to immolate an enemy fighter isn't too realistc either. There were some rumblings about the need for opportunity fire and questions about the resolution mechanics. I suspect that the combat system has its own 'rythnm' that we just havn't picked up on yet. I'm up for drafting some house rules to see how they work, but it would probably be a mistake to try and turn this into a full fledged miniature skirmish game.

- One or two weapons seemed completely broken, like smoke grenades that can cover 1/2 the board in a pall of attribute-inhibiting haze in one toss, or mega blasters that auto kill with predictable regularity. Maybe it was because we were in a shoot out scenario and all that mattered was who had the biggest gun... or maybe we are misplaying some rules... or maybe smoke grenades are broken. In any case, all agreed that the game is good enough to take a few more shots maybe with some house rules.

- Our limited knowledge of all the special gee gaws made it both fun and frustrating... in future games we will know that Karl Zemmer has a magic gun that shoots around corners and plan our moves accordingly. However, there was a bit of "What the F?" when your character was gunned down by a phantom bullet whizzing around an open door and turning a corner. A few more games and a bit more familiarity and I think that factor will go away.

- We all took the basic combat equipment pack; there is a lot of customization you can do to your character by selecting different mixes of weapons that compliment each other. We'll find out in future games.

All in all, it was fun and creepy, and we are all looking forward to a few more games.

Friday Night at the Flights

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:56:00 +0000

It has been a while, so we decided to give Wings of War a spin. We have a complete collection of the WoW WW1 airplane miniatures at the club, and recently added the new play mats. Mike W. and Mike D. flew for the Allies in a SPAD and a Sopwith Camel. Chris R. and Tony took to the sky with a Albatross Va and a Folker DIII.

The star of the show were the great new play mats just released by FFG. They look great, lay very flat, are geomorphically designed, and actually cut down on the slip and slide of the airplane miniature bases. As you can see in the picture, they really enhance the game.

To get accustomed to the rules we played a simple 2 on 2 dogfight. The play was spirited, but the inexperienced Chris spent too much time turning the wrong way, leaving Tony in a fatal 2 on 1 duel with the Mikes, and after T went down in flames Chris managed to escape off the board.

In the second dogfight we added the special damage rules, altitude, tailing, etc. This was a tense, interesting, exciting duel. The combatants used every trick, with swooping dives, unexpected loops, clever traps. Tony burst into flames at one point and simply could not sustain the damage.... down in flames again. This time Chris's Folker was too far from the edge to flee, and faced the combined fire of both Allied planes. After a valiant but brief struggle he too was sent plumetting to the ground.

We all agreed that WoW needs to get more table time. We resolved to give some of the more advanced scenarios a try, which include bombing runs, balloon busting, and escort missions.

Metro Is Now An Official FFG Cthulhu LCG Location

noreply@blogger.com (Metropolitan Wargamers) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Mike W. has been named a servitor, so we will be hosting Call of Cthulhu LCG tournaments and official events for this great game from Fantasy Flight Games.

Keep your eyes open because Mike should be bringing some of his new schwag down to the club as prizes for tournament play. And spread the word because this can be a great way to publicize the club and get some competitive play going now that Neutral Ground is "between locations".

Plus, check out the custom deck boxes that were created by Keith and shared on Board Game Geek. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/43265

World War One: WIP

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:08:00 +0000

Many of you know (or maybe not) that I mostly enjoy painting figures for the 18th century and early 19th century. Over the last year, Great War mniatures began to expand their range for the British army in 1918. Since I first saw their miniatures I have begun to collect their figures at a frenzied pace missing one thing- rules.

Warhammer Historials have recently put out a series on WW1 based on their popular Warhammer 40,000 rules. The game has some merits and is an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, we were looking for something a little different- and our club member Bernhard Rauch came through and his own rules set- "Angriff!"-was born.

I will save more on that for another day.

Right now, I am uploading some of my WIP pics of British infantry and the dreaded Mark 4.

Have a look, make some comments (c'mon Igor, I know the green may be a little off).

Thanks!

Review: World at War: Eisenbach Gap

noreply@blogger.com (PeterB) — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Last Saturday, Greg Silverman and I sat down and played Lock n' Load's WW3 boardgame- World at War: Eisenbach Gap.

...it is May, 1985 and the Soviets roll in.... (and Patrick Swayze ain't around)

Scale: The game is a platoon level representation of NATO vehicles and company level representations of Soviet formations and each hex equals 150m.

Turns: Each turn represents approximately 15 minutes of time.

The map is 17"x22" and encompasses a small area of West Germany.

Turn Sequence: The TS is pretty simple, to represent command and control, both sides have a chit in an opaque container (called a cup) representing their command. The Russians typically have one and the Americans two (representing limited command). Along with these chits are two "end turn" counters. The counters are drawn and each side checks:

1) Command

2) Rally

3) Conduct Operations (movement/ combat)

Command: Each side has an HQ unit that is the central C&C center of the units. They have a command radius, morale level and leadership value printed on each counter. Simply see if your units are in the radius, if not, make a morale check.

Rally: Easy- make a morale check (there are two states of morale- Disrupted and Good Order).

Conduct Operations: The heart of the game. All the counters have a series of numbers on them representing: AP firepower, HE Firepower, movement value, Assault value and saving dice. The movement system is fairly easy. The true heart of the game is the combat mechanics. Each value (listed above) has three "sections": Range, Number of dice rolled, and the to hit number. Simply count range, roll the dice needing the "to hit" number. Whomever is hit rolls a number of dice equal to their save (modified by the terrain they're in). Each save cancels a hit. One hit disrupts, two reduces and three is a KIA.

Throw in some helicopters (Americans start with Huey Cobras, Russians Hinds), some artillery and wow- you have a good mix.

The developers are obviously miniature players and this game can be easily adapted to micro-armor. The rules are simple and the pace is fast. We squeezed in the first two scenarios and started the third when we had to call it a night. Greg and I have decided to play out the first 12 scenarios with me as the Americans and him as the Russians since the scenarios have a "campaign" feel to them.

More expansions have come out over the last year including: Blood and Bridges (the British enter the fray), Death of 1st Panzer, Operation Garbo (the invasion of Sweden) and the newest "Untold Stories" which includes the Danes, Canadians and Poles.

Overall, this is a great game that is fast paced and easy to learn. Email me if you want to play or watch out as Greg and I continue the campaign this spring!

Links:

http://www.locknloadgame.com/Section_Cat_Content_Detail.asp?SCAT=82&SID=33&ID=55

http://www.locknloadgame.com/default.asp

Warhammer Fantasy: Orcs Rule, baby!

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:58:00 +0000

As a die hard Orc fan, it is difficult to be unhappy when an Orc army romps and rules over their hapless opponent... even if that opponent happens to be you! And romp they did.

Dave and I played a 3000 point WHFB game at the club on Friday, with his Orcs (well, supplemented by a few of mine) vs my Vampire Counts. It has been a while since I've played Fantasy, so I just grabbed an old list ... first mistake, as this was the list Tim Staines had trounced with an Orc army a few months ago.

Both armies brought a lot of magic, but boy, the Orcs had lots and lots, where as the Vampires only had lots... last time I make that mistake.

However, there were interesting tactics, and lots of cool models on the board. Hey, when else do you get to have a Corpse Cart, Goblin Fanatics, and a Goblin Doom Diver (basically, a goblin with wings strapped on flung from a catapult). All in all, the Orcs overwhelmed the Vampires in the magic phase and then hurled themselves forward with double-choppas flailing to chew up the undead units. By the end of the game, the Orcs had won a Massacre level victory.

Despite the drubbing it was a lot of fun. Dave is a great combination of smart player and good sportsman, so that took some of the sting out of it. I'm hoping we will get to play more WH Fantasy in the coming weeks and months, and maybe I'll figure out how to win with the Vampire Counts.

Arham Horror - Hastur

noreply@blogger.com (Metropolitan Wargamers) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:06:00 +0000

The following is Keith's report of the Arkham Horror game played on Saturday, 3/28/09:

We had three newcomers plus Tim -- myself (Keith), Greg and Dave -- but Dave was the only one new to the game. He picked it up quickly though, and was a huge help in keeping up to speed on the different card effects in play with each turn. I played as Darrel Simmons the photographer, Greg was Sister Mary, Dave drew Mandy Thompson the researcher, and Tim pulled Joe Diamond the private eye. I winced when our random GOO selection turned out to be Hastur. He's not the toughest baddie, but all the extra tokens he requires for sealing gates can really put a drag on the game.

Things started out deceptively friendly, with Dave throwing Mandy (armed with a tommy gun) through the first gate and the rest of us starting the long campaign for clue tokens. I recall Darrell getting swarmed by the Hound of Tindalos and some flyers early on (resulting in a costly trip to the hospital), but other than that the first hour of the game was uneventful, with a few gate closings but no one able to seal. However, Joe Diamond got cursed within the first few rounds, and Tim had to deal with a shocking amount of blessings and re-cursings for almost the entire game. And at some point, in a confusion of bad advice from Dave and me, Sister Mary went down and had a slow mid-game recovery.

A Rumor (don't remember which one) came into play around this time, but somehow this stroke of bad luck turned into a rallying point. Greg and Tim realized they had enough clue tokens to knock out the rumor on the first turn and get all us all Unique items as rewards, and Dave and I were soon able to seal some gates. I also had a ridiculously lucky batch of rolls when I was once again swarmed by nasties (I don't remember what they were, but they were bad and I had no right to have beaten them armed with one enchanted knife).

The second half of the game was much more engaging. We'd all piled up masses of gate and monster trophies, and started cashing them in. Mandy Thompson gained Richard Upton Pickman as an ally, while Darrell was joined by Anna Kaslow after a chance encounter at Independence Square. Hastur had maintained a relatively low Doom Token count up until now, but he quickly climbed to 12 just as fast as we could close gates. I believe we had had three sealed by the time his Doom Track filled and we went into the endgame. Luckily our Terror Track hadn't climbed much, so Hastur only had a -2 modifier on our attacks.

Defending against him requires strong Luck, which we all had enough of to make it through the first few rounds unscathed. It got a little tense as his attacks grew stronger, but we swapped items until Joe Diamond could be counted on to automatically knock out one Doom Token every round, with the rest of us able to snag one or two more between us per turn. After that, Hastur was toast.

Game time: under four hours.

Its 1812 Again at Metro Wargamers!

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Tomb for an Empire game getting underway

A game of "Tomb for an Empire" (Bellica 3rd Generation www.bellica3g.com) kicked off at Metro Wargamers this week. It is a serious treatment of the entire Peninsula Campaign. The players (Lou, Alan, Mike, and Tony A) will play the 1812 - 1814 scenario, about 28 turns in length. The rich game system really conveys the difficulties and opportunities confronting the Imperial, Spanish, and Anglo Allied sides.

Summary of January 1812 turn:
Guerilla level were reduced to 1 in most areas, but we had not yet really learned how bad that was for the Imperials. Training, reinforcements, and the rest of the start of the turn was easy. The random event brought confused orders from Paris, so all HQ AP were –1.

Now it was time to learn our lessons about activation: The Imperial commander in the South underbid and due to increased AP costs for guerrilla activity (ouch) was unable to build the depot he wanted to build, didn’t have enough to do a siege action, and ended up marching away from Tarfia ending the siege there. The other corps made a similar mistake, and the tension in the south was released. Valencia was heroic for the Imperials, as soon as they breached the walls Blake surrendered! Great victory.

As the activation rounds progressed the pain of marching in the winter with guerillas in action became apparent. Due to the on column shift to the right on the attrition table for the guerillas, EVERY march resulted in at least 1 straggler! Imperial forces dwindled, and the inexperienced commanders lost many SP of cavalry to the cruel winter.

The Commanders pause to provide a memento for posterity

Wellington, sensing an opportunity, marched eastward into Spain, setting up a blockade at the first fortification he encountered. More careful then the Imperials, he brought up a chain of depots, and set up to start a siege. Still, the Imperials groaned under the constant drain of guerilla harasssment, winter conditions. The rest of the turn was one of consolition of the Armee du Portugal, Armee du Cataluna, and repositioning the Armee du Nord to help meet Wellington’s threat.

The activation rounds ran out and the next lesson was learned: Consumption saw Wellington, Armee du Portugal, and other large formations suffer 10 % attrition. Then the stragglers disappeared. Stunned commanders totaled up the resulting victory points at the end of the turn: Imperials 322 (mostly due to the victory at Valencia), Spanish 65, Anglo Alliied 117.

The weary but wiser commanders will continue the month of February in the next week or two. Please contact Mike, Tony, Alan or Lou if you are interested in finding out more about this game.

Dark Heresy Takes Root at Metro Wargamers

Willner90@msn.com (Mike Willner) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:13:00 +0000

The GM reels his tale of heresy and betrayal in the far flung future

Six enthusiastic players came together this Sunday at Metro Wargamers to do something that hasn't been done there in many years: roll up characters, grab d10, and jump into a science fiction role playing adventure. Gaylord ran an adventure in the gothic war torn future of Warhammer 40K, using FFG Dark Heresy rules ( http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=50&enmi=Dark%20Heresy ).

Players ranged from age 9 to 53, and characters ranged from slightly demented Imperial Guard tough guys to tough talking bureaucrats. The adventure pitted this band of Inquisitorial Acolytes again aristocrates and politicians, mutants and cultists.

Even Igor got into the act, pursuing the Dark Heresy rules

The plan was to have a 'one shot' game, jsut to give it a try. Based on the enthusiastic response it looks like we will have another session of Dark Heresy in a few weeks, and it would not be surprising if this story-rich game became a regular at the club.

Post on the Yahoo site ( http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Metrowargamers/) if you are interested in rooting out the heretics, xenos, and mutant threat to our Imperium.