Tuesday and Wednesday Game Reports

This Tuesday we continued our Lord of the Rings miniatures battle that began last week. While I may do up a comic styled battle report sometime in the future, I will summarize the basics here: Starfury and I met on one flank, he with Faramir and forces from Minas Tirith, me playing Gothmog and Mordor Orcs. MagicDrew had Gimli, Merry, Pippin, and a mixed force of Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits. Facing him was 9IN with Lurtz and White Hand Uruk Hai. On the other flank was Missme with Boromir and more Minas Tirith troops against Pico with a mixed force of Moria Goblins and Haradrim. Pico pretty much smashed through Missme, Starfury stomped me, and 9IN got into a solid battle in the center, capturing the artifact, but just barely pushing Magicdrew out.

I think 4 of us enjoyed the game, but MagicDrew and Missme seemed less thrilled. Maybe the size of the game (400 points a player) was a bit too big for them. They tend to be strategy game novices as is. MagicDrew seemed to be overthinking most of his moves (something he does a LOT) and Missme just seemed irritated and frustrated with the game as a whole. This is rather disappointing to me given how much I like the game and how much I have spent on it recently, even if it was at 50% off. Their frustration has made me all but stop buying pieces for the game, though I really do want more, even if its just a couple of the "big" pieces.

Next time I try the game with them (provided they let me run it again), I will give them 200 point armies to battle with, and maybe even just make it 400 points per side and have players take certain units as opposed to a whole force.

The game was called for time, though the non frustrated folks had a good hour plus to kill. Since I had my Magic decks floating around and they are relatively balanced to each other (give and take), we played some Magic and had a pretty good time. No power decks, no sub 6 turn win decks, nothing that can go infinite. Since Pico's hours are changing this was his last day in the Tuesday group so it was good for him to leave on an up note with a game everybody playing was having fun.

Wednesday had myself demoing Warhammer 40K for Starfury at Sarge's. 1000 points of Chaos Space Marines per side. I got some mostly painted Iron Warriors for a buck a figure so I had extra troops letting me build some nice simple introductory forces without too much complexity to them. The fight went pretty well overall, with a bit of give and take, though Starfury took me out with 2 units surviving to the end. It would have been 3, but his commander unit, Typhus, managed to roll a 1 for his Daemon Weapon attacks 3 turns in a row, killing him. My Khorne lord was lost to a Demolisher cannon shot, and his Terminators deep striking behind my Havoc squad, wiping them out and making multiple 5+ invulnerable saves. We followed it up with some more Magic, with some of my decks getting some actual compliments from the players at how devious and amusing they are. It is also leading to Starfury getting a decent sized Necron army for a great price.

Next Tuesday is an up in the air game, and Wednesday or Thursday is some gaming with Pico, and possibly 9IN and Starfury depending on times and work availability.

Magic the Gathering: Worst Game Ever?

Its so popular you say. It makes Wizards of the Coast money hand over fist you say.

Well, its extreme popularity has done massive damage to the gaming industry as a whole, but that sort of discussion can wait till when I rag on Dungeons & Dragons.

Its the game design itself that is incredibly broken.

Quick answer: You can go infinite.
Long answer: Magic's whole game design is based around utterly crippling, demolishing, destroying, and ruining the other player. The best decks and the whole point of deck design is to make the most unstoppable deck possible, rendering the other player helpless.

No tactics or luck can save them. A good Magic deck is like playing the original Quake where you have an aimbot, noclip, quad damage, 200 health, and the rocket launcher, and your opponent has: the axe.

The game design is not about skill, talent, or luck. Its about grabbing the most effective deck design you can off the net, wasting piles of money to get the cards of which you should always pull the same combo every time, or mulligan until you get it.

If both players have megadecks its more like a solo game where you have to wait for the other side. Eventually one side pulls their I win setting and takes it all.

Magic is effectively broken. Why do you think they have to keep coming up with shit like Type X, leagues, and drafting? (Which means all those cards you bought beforehand cannot be used. FORK OVER THE CREDIT CARD FOOLS!)
Because playing it as it was originally designed pretty much failed about 6 hours after its debut at Gencon. (Another topic I need to get into one of these days. Gencon and how overrated and irrelevant it really is to tabletop gaming.) About 16 years of cards and its all pointless.

Its not balanced, its not skill based. Its MONEY based. Which makes the above gameflaws even worse. And its main draw is tournament play, which sucks whatever possible fun is there out in a flurry of powergamer hell.

I have rarely if ever felt I lost a Magic game due to playing poorly or bad luck. Its always due to the other player having some unstoppable combo.

If a starter deck doesn't stand a chance against beating a tournament deck, even if its just a 1 in 5 chance (and they don't!), its not a good game design.

Its a game designed to suck money out of people and make socially inept retards feel better by "pwning" people who don't feel like dropping 100s of bucks every quarter to stay current. Or spend less but effectively get 1-2 months of use from their existing cards before the current draft cycle is up.

A GOOD game design should always have victory be 2/3rds strategy, 1/3rds luck. A new player should have a chance against a veteran, especially if the vet underestimates the newbie and that newbie plays it smart. Most likely the new player is gonna lose, but see what he or she did wrong and want a rematch. The newbie will feel it was her fault for making a bad move or that his victory was due to some really shoddy rolls on the veteran's part.

Either way, they will want to give it another go.

Many Eurogames have such philosophies behind them. A casual player can beat an experienced one. I rarely if ever win Settlers of Catan, but I was either outplayed because I wasn't paying attention to what the victor did, too busy getting vengeance on whoever slighted me in game (politics is HUGE in Catan), I had a poor initial setup, or the dice just weren't with me. Maybe it was a mix.

But I ALWAYS feel like I have a chance to win.

In Magic and most CCGs after a certain point, that feeling of "If this had only happened I coulda been a contendah!" goes away. Because you know your deck never had a chance because you didn't spend enough money or copied some deck design.

Collectible games companies know there are enough dupes who will just spend more to try to catch up as opposed to realizing they shouldn't even had bothered in the first place.