Wednesday and Thursday Game Reports

Since I have a 1500 point Warhammer Goblin army to attempt to have some semblance of painting done for next week, I will make this brief.

Wednesday 9IN, Starfury, and myself went down to Sarge's. Stuff was purchased. Cars hiding behind trees were backed into. A quick game of Federation Commander had 9IN use a Klingon Battleship, while I took 3 Kzinti Frigates and a Cruiser. A frigate and the cruiser died, and the Klingon ship was swarmed with an unhealthy amount of drones. We called that fight then, though it looked as if neither side was gonna have anything resembling a major victory. A 2 on 2 1500 points per player 40K game happened next, with Starfury on my side and 9IN teamed up with the Chaos Demons player and his pile of unfair rending cheese. If nothing else, 5th edition 40K will take that down a peg into something more reasonable. At least I hope so. Admitted, it wasn't a giant loss, but once the Demons showed up units stopped existing.

Thursday it was over at Pico's with 9IN and Starfury along. A rather close fought game of Nexus Ops happened, with 3 out of 4 players being within striking distance of winning the game. Pico and I got into a really stupid duel over one bit of land which mostly sucked our forces dry, he eventually keeping the territory at great cost. This left Starfury to his own devices where he mostly stomped on 9IN and won. With this and Twilight Imperium as evidence, I would say making any sort of deal with Starfury in a victory points type boardgame should be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. It gives him the win every time. Then we did some Silent Death, with 9IN on my side. The other side had too many elite pilots and gunners in excellent Star Wars ships which mostly trounced us. While I had the largest single ship in the fight, a Star Raven, it was constantly over estimated by the opposing side who always got to shoot at it first, with a 360 degree arc weapon that basically nullified any armor advantage my ship had, the Star Wars only Ion Cannon. Of course, my awful damage rolls and bad damage control rolls didn't help any. I think we did make a mistake with missile rules. Its a High damage rating weapon, which means you roll X number of attack dice. In missile spreads you roll 5d6 or 10d6 to hit. This means if there are multiple high numbers (6s in this case) they add together. We did not do this. This probably would have killed off both Y Wings that were causing me so much trouble. Missiles are just as deadly as the Star Wars Ions, just in different ways.

Tuesday Game Reports

Had a 2500 point versus 2 1250 point forces game of Warhammer 40K at my house today. Here is the battle report in photocomic form. Some of the missing bits included me never bringing two ten man squads out of reserve because I was winning so damned well. In the final picture about 25% of what I had surviving isn't even seen because it wouldn't all fit in the picture. Hopefully yall enjoy the report!









After this battle we played some Magic where I got owned by my own decks in like 6 games. I guess I build some fair casual styled decks!

Wednesday and Thursday Game Reports

Wednesday was another drive to Sarge's where another 750 point 3 way game happened, this time with massive amount of terrain, and Sisters of Battle and the brand new Daemon World army, Slaaneshi flavored coming out to play. My all infantry plus one deep striking Terminator Sorcerer did horribly, me forgetting to even roll to deep strike the Sorcerer on turn 2. Daemons being able to assault the turn they deep strike meant my all short range forces got blasted at range by the Sisters, and outfought by sheer numbers of attacks and initiative the Daemonettes and their Soulgrinder backup brought to the table. My Sorcerer took out nearly 3 squads of Sisters before we called it for time. The Sisters' Canoness put a serious hurt on the Soulgrinder, removing two of its weapon systems before being overwhelmed by Daemonettes.

At the end of 6 turns I was left with a 1 wound Sorcerer, and the Sisters had 3 of their members in combat with him. The Daemonettes had their commander and a squad or two that were clearly gonna wipe out whoever won our fight.

My suggestions for fighting Daemon World from my early experience? Find area cover and GET INTO IT FAST. Being assaulted out in the open is a virtual death sentence even for good close combat troops like Chaos Marines. In cover you have a chance for them to fail their difficult terrain tests, or at least have the charge be simultaneous. 4-5 attacks on the charge from Initiative 6 models with 4+ invulnerable saves are a scary thing, even at Strength 3 Toughness 3!

Thursday opened up with a Federation Commander game, using one of the scenarios from Briefing 1. 2 Light Cruiser Class ships each. I was running Kzinti, Pico had Federation, and 9IN had Orion, choosing Photon Torpedoes. The scenario had each of us out to kill one player, but not the same one trying to kill us. The Orions hit one of Pico's ships with an Overloaded Photon which basically put it out with one single hit. Follow up phaser and drone fire took it out. Having taken light damage, he moved his ships out to speed with a distance my Kzinti would never catch, though I might have been able to take out the damaged Orion ship if we were willing to play it for 3 hours of boring gameplay. You see, I have a HEALTHY fear of Photon Torpedoes and moved out and about as opposed to coming at the Federation head on, getting a missile spread out there in an attempt to reduce damage taken by them. Thus I was mostly out of the fight outside of minor long range phaser hits on the Feddies, and long range anti drone fire at the Federation drones.

I can heartily recommend Briefing 1 for any Federation Commander player. The amount of new scenarios, ships, and organized information on all currently available ships and scenarios and where to get them is invaluable. Well worth the 13 dollars retail.

We then did a little Rock Band and I managed to nudge Pico into getting out his Dwarves who I then proceeded to inventory and write up a 1500 point army list for him.

3 boxes of Skull Pass pretty much builds a NICE legal 1500 point Dwarf force on its own, and a little more makes for the 2500 point usual.

1 Maxed out Warrior squad. A nearly maxed out Miner Squad. (Missing 1 dude, bombs, and the Drill.) Maxed out Gunner Squad. 3 heroes (Standard Bearer with a 25 point standard. (Josef Bugman model) Thane leader, and clipped off antlers Thane as an Engineer Master for the edification of the 2 Cannons. The Gyrocopter I got for this army as a birthday present LAST year finishes it up.

Some extra gear for his guys, a few extra Dwarves to be Engineers to his cannons, some straws to turn the final cannon into an Organ Gun, his old 6th ed Warrior Boxset as Warrior Longbeards and an EM4 Dwarf plastics set (FIFTY CROSSBOWMAN FOR FIFTEEN BUCKS!), and he can easily rock a 2500 list. Use those Dragon Slayers too.

He had the minis, I built his list for him. He chose some options I gave him obviously. Magic? Bah. MORE CANNONS.

And now I have a LOT of Night Goblins. This weekend I built a 1500 point Goblin list and a seperate 1500 point Orc with minor Gobbo force. And I finally cracked open the wonderful and handy rulesbook. Its ON.

The third rulesbook from our 3 sets bought at a discount went to MagicDrew who is doing Vampire Counts but will probably never have anything built. Maybe if he reads this he WILL GET A MOVE ON ALREADY?!

Outside of one 6th edition 500 point game I haven't played it since the sucktastic Herohammer days. I am looking forwards to sending the Ladz or my Lizzies up against the massive blocks of Stunties.

I have also received some more Car Wars goodies. The original Arena book with the terrifying Boston Arena Starfury has taken us through, 2 more Autoduel Quarterlies with their interesting and helpful information for expanding the game, and an entire solo module, Mean Streets.

Since the one of the two Ebay dealers had free shipping, I also grabbed three SEALED Ghostbusters International RPG modules. Always handy to have more game modules, especially for such a rare game!

Tales of Naval Stupidity

This was actually part of a post I made in a customers suck thread over on a rather large forum. As I am quite fond of how it turned out. As usual its long and meandering. But I like it so there. Not really gaming related, though there are a few gamer and nerd stories loosely connected I may bring up in the future.

(BORING BACKGROUND BIT)
In the early-mid 90s my just out of High School ass had the misfortune of having to go almost straight into the Navy. I think I had 2-3 weeks off beforehand. A job trade class I wanted opened up and I had like under a week knowledge of it. I endure a year of myself slowly going somewhat crazy and end up booted to the fleet. A year later we have our first cruise, to the Mediterranean Sea. 6 months of underway fun. Now as an unintended member of Deck Department many bits of stupid were to be had. However, I sort of lucked out/got screwed early on. You see, on board ship everyone had to do a good 3-4 months galley duty. Mess hall hell. Now, underway it meant LOTS more work as people ate on board ship pretty much constantly. But it also meant I was out of the overworked utterly mismanaged deck department and actually had a bit more free time than I would otherwise.
(BACKGROUND BIT OVER)

I ended up doing my mess tour as a server on the regular line. Officers had their own mess and servers who tended to be better looking or whatever silliness officers got. Which meant on our 1000 or so peopled boat, about 800 of them went through me to get fed. Some of them were morons. The most notable was this E5. Some red haired motherfucker who was infamous for always complaining the portions were too small. He was not alone in general, but was the loudest. After my tour his reign of terror continued, though being a ship mostly in port as our Destroyer Tender could do Tendery things for any other ship in port. Now he LOVED to complain. In many cases I actually agreed with what some of the other people said. He was a douche and from time to time I would actually fuck with him.

"What? You want more cheese?" Then I would give him like a string's worth. Because when the cooks gave me orders I tended to follow what the people above me said. Cuz its my job. Even being jokingly mouthy to them wasn't a good idea. (I found this out the hard way to some kid in the Navy 9 months sometime during this tour of dumb.) Well, one day about 5 minutes before the line closed for dinner an E6 comes into the line. We are out of quite a bit of stuff, it being underway and almost closing time. This E6 DEMANDS we cook him more of some Roast Beef or whatever the fuck it was. The ginger haired E5 complainer is in line too and joins him in being an ass. The low ranking cooks that were present were confused as to what to do. The E6 is now POUNDING on the metal shield that covers the line when not in use. Me being on the other side and it being closed now, I go talk to one of the higher ranking cooks in hopes of someone being able to shut this butthole and his enabling pal up. She pretty much tells me to go away and not bother her.

Fantastic.

One of the cooks gets a clue and says to just have the remaining people go around these two douchebags and then to close it up. Ok. Rock on. I go out there and hope that maybe if I try explaining we are all out nicely maybe it will help. It does not. I've been dealing with all sorts of shit just doing my job AS I AM TOLD BECAUSE ITS WHAT YOU DO IN THE FUCKING MILITARY and I am rather tired of it all. I pretty much tell the E6 now that he is acting childish and is utterly lacking in military bearing. Which he was. I close the line down then go find the galley Master At Arms because these fracksticks aren't responding to logic or reason.

The MaA was an E5 from Deck so I knew the guy. I start explaining what has happened and the E6 and the E5 come trotting along. The E6 goes into this spiel about how he has never written anyone up before yet is very close to writing me up. The MaA handles it and mysteriously no write up ever arrives. I'm sure that Captain's Mast (basically where mid level military infractions are handled on ship) would have been fun.

Mainly because that E6 would have been TOAST. Being a complete butt and acting like you own the joint doesn't really work in the service. Unless you are an officer with nobody paying attention to your antics anyhow.

It was probably before my ONE genuine attempt at being nice to the whiners in line. Folks are complaining they aren't getting enough Chicken Nuggets. I agree. It was early lunch for people who had duty stations to go to. After serving the early folks the servers ate then the regular line opened up. Well, we served ourselves. (Until this situation anyhow.) To be a nice guy, I pile a good 30 nuggets to hook my fellow shipmates up on the sly. Because I agreed with them and I want to help people till they frack me over. Before I could even walk the tray over to them, this one guy starts flipping out about how I am a hypocrite and blah blah. I try to explain and he and now a few others are having none of it. I shrug, and take the food where a few people from my department are and they get hooked up.

Oddly enough some complaints were lodged and we never directly served ourselves again. No good deed goes unpunished.

See its not just RETAIL customer service that is borked. Any time you have to do anything for any other human being they will do their best to make you hate them.

I guess the whole concept of "Do unto others as you would have done to you" is foreign to most people.

And that's the biggest problem right there.

Don't worry too much about the E5 complainer though. One of my fellow deck apes had some fun with him during the tour. Or at least frightened him into never bothering him again. He was out dumping garbage in the aft smoking area and the E5 spotted him and started getting onto him about the horribly low food portions (this guy DID NOT GET IT did he?). So this guy tells him "While you are out here at sea, someone is at your home killing your family". So he was one of the few servers the E5 never EVER complained to from then on.

On multiple game systems..

I like learning new systems. I like learning new things. And unlike most of my schooling it can actually be a fun experience instead of one based on having my self esteem stomped on and having nightmares I am gonna fail something and have my mom flip out on me over it.

Its learning for the sheer JOY of learning something new. The sheer level of KICK ASS ideas that come to my brain when reading a new rulesbook, or even just learning about a new system. Of course my wallet tends to scream in pain, but I am a cheapskate so it mitigates that to a degree.

Its probably also why I tend to loathe new editions. If it already rocks, it can only go downhill. And it already is probably what I want. If it sucks, I might not care in the first place. If the first edition was a beta test I may not exactly be enthusiastic about playing Russian Roulette with my bank account a second time. Not to mention if I never got to run the previous version (hiya Paranoia 2nd edition and Runequest 3rd!) what makes anyone think a new edition will change anything.

I would much rather have a new experience, a new world, new characters to fall in love with rather than having say, THE BATTLE OF MACRAGGE repeated for the umpteenth time.

It also doesn't help that every monogame player I have run into over the years has generally been a tremendous douche, making their game of choice probably suckier than it actually is.

I understand people don't have a lot of time or money, and some folks like various games the way they like a certain worn in pair of shoes. I just find them to be.. well BORING. Unadventurous types who lack that "spark" that drives me to games.. hell to the entire genre of geeky goodness that gets so many people looked down on for no good reason. And most of their games, especially in the RPG genre tend to be the same uninspired drivel and tropes I doubt I found exciting the first time I ran into them, and certainly not the dozenth.

One Chocolate cookie is wonderful. But that's not all I want to eat. Gimme some Thin Mints, or a Vanilla Wafer, maybe an Oreo or a yummy homemade with love Sugar cookie.

I'll get back to the Chocolate eventually. And by that point I can fall in love with it all over again.

A quick Car Wars post of genius.

Saw this on Boardgamegeek.

In Car Wars, the biggest problem is counters not staying put. Well, someone solved it.

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As for blowing counters... buy a stack of magnetic backs for business cards, and mount counters on that. It is about 2mm thick. Makes for nice counters. Then tape down your map on thin sheet steel. Wind will not be an issue again!
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BRILLIANT!

40K Necromunda. Enjoy my creation as it is.

Did this puppy back in 03-04 thereabouts and never finished playtesting it. Sharing it with y'all seems like a nice thing to do. If there is ever enough interest I will go back and add in my last 2 playtest session fixes to it or maybe even continue to work on it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tn4nemzv9yl File one.
http://www.mediafire.com/?mdgzej39x1m File two.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3bjmiut0ejp File three. (Gangsheet page 1.)
http://www.mediafire.com/?gn1no9kfxam File four. (Gangsheet page 2.)