Screenside Chat With W.D.R. 4/1

 General Roleplaying, Highlights for gophers, Wargaming  1 Response »
Apr 012011
 

Greetings gophers.  It is once again past time for a rambling wall of text from yours truly.  Despite most of my free time this month being swallowed by basketball and watching westerns to prepare for an upcoming episode of Underdiscussion, I managed to work in a important gaming first for me. I know what you’re thinking. ” But W.D.R. surely a gamer as worldly and sophisticated as you has done it all.” Amazingly this is not the case. This past weekend the local high school held their twice yearly game convention, Recruits, and I ran my first two convention games. I have to admit that I needed a little prodding to decide to do it. The idea of some random group of strangers sitting down at a table and then me trying to run a game conjures images of every rpg horror story I’ve ever heard. Thanks to the owners of my friendly local game store, Pulp Fiction Comics and Games, I took the plunge.

I was quite pleased with the experience despite my initial misgivings.  I ran a session of Gamma World, which many of you are familiar with from the podcast, and a session of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition. I must say that Gamma World makes for a mighty fun convention game. I ended up with a full table of five including a couple of folks I already knew.  Thanks Eric and Ted for making my first attempt a little more comfortable than it could have been.  The game went smoothly and the goofiness of Gamma World produced a fun time for all.  At the end of the game the players had retrieved the yellow cakes and celebrated their missions success. I was relieved that I had made it through the game and had actually had quite a bit of fun.

Next up was Warhammer, which was a much more serious game.  It also has some unusual but good mechanics that could be an issue with new players. I had restricted this game to four players because of the game design and once again had a full table. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the players from the Gamma World game had come back for another session with me. I have to admit that this really made my day. I find it a huge compliment for someone to enjoy my game enough to devote another chunk of their convention time to my game. While Warhammer did not go as smoothly as Gamma World, it seemed to be another successful session as everyone involved seemed to have fun. I know I really enjoyed it. I will be running some more games at the next Recruits if I am able. If any of you out there have considered running a game at a convention and haven’t, you should give it a go. It is certainly not like a regular game but it really is rewarding.

When I wasn’t running games, the table behind where I was running caught my eye.  It was a display by a miniatures company out of Atlanta, Georgia that makes 15-20 mm figures. The thing that got my attention was the amazing detail for such tiny figures.  It didn’t hurt that they all had absolutely fantastic paint jobs as well.  I recommend checking them out.  The name of the company is Splintered Light Miniatures. The owner seems like a great guy and hopefully we can find a way to have him on Underdiscussion. I also checked out a local company DGS Games.  They are working on what could be a very interesting system that integrates a rpg, a skirmish game, and a large scale battle game. I would suggest checking them out as well.

That will just about do it for this edition.  I can make no promises about when the next Chat will show up but there will be another one soon.

Screenside Chat with W.D.R. 3/3

 Highlights for gophers, Wargaming  1 Response »
Mar 032011
 

So I obviously failed to manage a weekly column, but only true failures give up. Last time I promised to talk about Federation Commander and I have to say that the game has been a pleasant surprise. I started playing Star Fleet Battles years ago and was convinced that I was enjoying myself. I think that I was very sure that I wanted to enjoy the game but to be honest it was way to complicated for me to have more than a small amount of fun. Now before some Star Fleet Battles player tries to burn me at the stake in the comments section, I think it is a good game but it doesn’t appeal to everyone.  In fact the reason I stopped playing was that none of my friends would go near the game.  Just recently I encountered Federation Commander and I was told the game was like Star Fleet Battles lite.  Now I had my doubts about anything closely related to S.F.B. being easy to play but I once again wanted to like playing the game.  So I decided to try it out and picked up the Klingon Border starter box.

After getting home and opening the starter box I knew that this game had some possibilities.  The rule book was a svelte 74 pages which seemed unbelievably short.  The thing that really made my eyes light up were the ship cards.  These beauties take the place of the SSD from Star Fleet Battles and they do it well.  Amarillo Design Bureau really hit these things out of the park.  The ship cards come laminated so that they can be marked on with dry erase markers which is awesome. No more making tons of photocopies of SSDs for this gamer.  Heck, they even give you a dry erase marker in the box.  As I read the rules I could tell that the essence of Star Fleet Battles was there but with the capability for faster more flowing play.  I couldn’t wait to give this a play.

I manage to find an unsuspecting friend willing to give the game a try with me.  So I went about explaining to him how to play and we chose sides and got to it.  Compared to S.F.B. this game fairly flew along and I really loved playing. My friend I had used as a guinea pig had a blast despite having his Federation Heavy Cruiser massively damaged by my victorious Klingon D7. I finally could play and actually have fun.  We actually played a second game immediately after the first.  Once again the Klingons were  the victors but most importantly we had a blast.  Well, he certainly did as his ship had blown up. I heartily recommend this game and look forward to playing again and again. I’ll say goodbye with a couple of pictures showing the aftermath of our first two battles.  Next time I will be discussing a couple of new board games I have played.  Until next time keep gaming and enjoy the pictures.

The second time we used smaller ships.

Space Marine vs. Space Marine

 Wargaming  2 Responses »
Jul 202010
 

Sorry this is so late but last week family issues got the better of my writing time.  So this will not be a thorough report, just my impressions of the battle.

I finally got in a battle with my Space Marine army. Last Monday, being a holiday, some of us got together to play some 40k. The evening began with a epic team battle which featured Nockergeek and Hooligan joining their Tau forces against the might of the Tyranids commanded by Dennis and Slacker. Despite a strong start the Tau were unable to handle the ravening horde of ‘Nids and went down in defeat.  Following that epic struggle, Dan and I took our Codex Marine armies to the field against each other.  We started late and only made it through turn 4.  With each of us in possesion of two objectives, the game was a draw.

I now know why other folks gripe about Space Marines.  They are hard to kill and our battle developed the feel of guys in armor throwing rocks at each other. Due to bad rolling on both our parts the shots that hit had trouble wounding and getting penetration on vehicle armor was difficult at best.  For instance, between us there were 6 or so missile launchers on the table and in four turns they only produced 2 or 3 casualties.

The  lesson I took from this game was the standard Space Marine Codex is very versatile. Dan runs a foot slogging force heavy on dreadnoughtsand terminators while I run a line of tanks and troops in armored transports.  Same Codex but very different armies. I think both Dan and myself will want to incorporate some aspects of the other’s army into future lists. 

I know that I need to add some better assault elements to my list.  That may require stepping up to 1750 points and I’m aware some folks can’t do that just yet. I also think I stay too stationary and need to take the fight more to the enemy.  I need to take some time with my codex and get to know my troops better so that I don’t have to guess about their capabilities. I’m not sure what I do well and what I do poorly, so I will try to take the time to discuss the game with my opponent to get his impression on those counts.

Book? No, that’s a tome.

 Wargaming  No Responses »
Jul 162010
 

The Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition Rulebook arrived this past weekend and I am the proud owner of a copy.   It is impressive just based on the sheer size(531 pages) of the tome, which is nice but not what really matters.  Upon opening, the book reveals that the oft maligned folks at Games Workshop labored long and lovingly to produce a beautiful and comprehensive tome detailing all aspects of the Warhammer Fantasy game.  The book is printed in full color throughout and the numerous illustrations and photographs are frequently awe (and game) inspiring.  The ribbon bookmark built into the spine is a nice touch and has proved quite useful.

 Something I consider vital to a good rule book is ease of reference and the table of contents and index of the book is clear and useful.  The rules section takes up the first 153 pages of the book.  It starts with basic information about dealing with the models and then proceeds to present the basic rules in the order that they apply during a turn of the game.  This is followed by a lengthy section covering the myriad special rules required by the variety of unit types and factions in the game.  The rules are filled with well written and easily understood examples of play, most with illustrated examples.

After the rules section, there is a section entitled “The Warhammer World”.  It begins with the rich history of the Warhammer World, including a timeline.  Also in this section, the background and motivation of all the factions available in the game are explored.  There are some truly striking pieces of art in this section of the book. 

The heart of a table top miniatures game is the miniatures themselves and the third section of the book is jealousy inducing proof.  It is 100 pages of painted miniatures categorized by their faction.  This “Miniatures Showcase” section culminates in several pages of advise about the assembly and painting of an army. 

The final section of the tome is a section entitled “WarhammerBattles” and details how to use and create scenario based battles.  It has information on how to run a campaign and how to gamemaster a battle.  I also features several narrative battle and a section on what they call legendary battles, which includes a battle report and a listing of participating units for the battle discussed.  This section should be a boon to gaming groups that choose to take the time to use the design tools provided.  I certainly look forward to gamemastering battles between my friends.

I have chosen not to go into a profound discussion of the rules because they are legion and most are written by those with more experience.  The bottom line is that the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition Rulebook is worth the money I spent on it.  In fact, despite the $75 price tag , I would say you get more than you pay for.  The book is so impressive that it will draw new players into the hobby by its presentation and it just doesn’t get better than that.