Thursday Game Report

As Pico due to work has left our Tuesday group, a new, sadly more casual group has opened up on Thursdays. Currently it is he, 9IN, and myself. This first week was more or less a warmup game to see if we can do this schedule up before even trying anything serious or in depth.

Pico really wants some sort of campaign game. 3 people is about 2 people too short for any sort of campaign game.
But that's a topic for another time. That and the ideas in my head for a casual ground and space based campaign game.

This week was some Federation Commander. One 300 point Federation Starbase versus me in a Gorn Heavy Battlecruiser, Pico fielding a Federation Police Cutter and New Light Cruiser, and 9IN in a Klingon D7 Heavy Battlecruiser. Its been a while since Pico and I have played, and even longer since 9IN had played Starfleet Battles the longer, more complex, and far inferior parent game.

We picked things up pretty quickly, and used some simple logic for the enemy starbase. We guessed it was Andromedan controlled or something. All of our ships survived, and the Starbase was crippled in 3 turns. Our ships had light to severe damage, but overall we rocked the thing, and learned a few rules we never used before or forgot about. (Like Phasers being able to fire as the smaller Phaser types, and partially loaded Plasma Torpedoes.)

A good game overall. This week is either more Federation Commander, or Silent Death.

D&D 4th Edition and the NEW VERSION stupidity.

My views on the new 4th edition of D&D?

So totally uninterested. I really dislike 3.0, and 3.x's too soon introduction pretty much tore what little interest I had in modern D&D right out the window. 4th's apparent MINIATURES WHERE ROLEPLAYING (maybe) sessions break out isn't to my taste and I like "Braunstein" styled games WAAAY more than that deep immersion RP Indies Forge kind of thing. Heck, I think I quit running a nWoD game because it was too heavy into RP. But 4th is taking it way too far.

From everyone I have talked to in the real world, its overwhelmingly ANTI 4th edition. One gamestore that did very well with 3rd has currently a whopping TWO preorders for fourth. Gamegroups that were D&D are trying out things like Gamma World fer crying out loud!

I'm personally looking into DC Heroes or D6 for my next game till I am ready for the crunch and gloom of Warhammer or Dark Heresy. Even the biggest D&D D20 fanboy I know is against the game.

The whole "now you can rebuy stuff that was already working out fine for you loser" thing isn't helping either. Now all my stuff is mostly useless. Again.

Instead of being able to buy cool new supplements I have to rebuy the core books AND then hope every book I liked would get redone. This is one thing that is probably doing more damage to gaming than people realize. Every new edition fragments the playerbase of a hobby that NEEDS people into smaller and smaller groups, many of whom eventually just leave entirely.

New editions are short term profits that lead to long term losses. And I am really getting sick of it. Warhammer 40K did up 4th edition in Spring 05. Hi grognards.txt.  I love you.   3 years later and its time to buy another damned 50 dollar rulesbook, or a 50-60 dollar starter set? Were people that pissed with the old rules so they needed to tweak it, AGAIN? I still haven't bought the newest version of Paranoia or Runequest since I am perfectly happy with my mid-late 80s rulesbooks for games I want to play but can't really get people for anyhow. So why buy it again?

I am not alone. Money is tight, and if you like or love what is currently there, why in hell would you release a somewhat to completely incompatible edition of a hobby game which is sure to fragment the playerbase and cause hurt feelings for anyone who isn't a consumer whore?

Oh right. There are enough of them out there to make those short term profits I mentioned. Which makes the beancounters happy until profits dry up even faster than they did before.

Wednesday Game Report

This week was 2 games of 40K and some Magic as a pickup afterwards down at Sarge's.

First game was 1000 points Chaos (me) vs Orks. It was a rather brutal battle, with it turning into Ordnance Wars as every unit capable of moving was either killed or immobilized. Strangely, Gretchin Lobba Gunnerz had better morale than my Chaos Marines, who all eventually ran off board due to on their own checks. If only my light Havoc Squad had killed more Grots, only they fell to a Shokk Attack Gun which rolled boxcars, sucking them into the warp. The Ork force lost two squads of bikers Wazdakka joined and fell back with, only for him to run around and hide behind a tree till he could pop out and immobilize my Vindicator. An Iron Warriors Krak Missile trooper managed to finish off what his fellows failed to do, only to fail the aforementioned on his own check the next time he had an opportunity to do anything.

A good close game overall.

Next was 1500 Chaos with Orks (they made up after the brutal violence of the last game I guess) against 3000 Slaaneshi Chaos that used Apocalypse rules but was called due to the other Chaos player's ride leaving. We were winning, but having a handmade Ork Fighta Bomba on the field and our insanely high rolls for everything was doing sick damage anyhow. Sure, he had tons of Demons due to come in on later turns, but the Orks took Flank March meaning they were coming in from who knows where. In 2 turns of shooting and fighting I had taken out a Dreadnought, Rhino, Defiler, a Bike Squad, and still had some more to kill. Daemonettes had gotten summoned by the one remaining biker my Berserkers assaulted on turn 1 (he thought Turbo Boosting worked in Close Combat too. It does not. No invulnerable saves against angry Khorne commanders!) alongside some Raptors, yet my second Berserker squad was on their way in. And the Orks had sent a planeful of bombs on top of two Rhinos rushing in to support their fellow S&M freaks. A word of advice: Apocalypse templates are SCARY. The Fighta Bomba used a template that was effectively 4 Large Blast Templates with a 1" template in the center connecting them.

Yeah. I'm glad the Orks were on my side.

I also brought my AT-43 books which got quite a bit of interest from folks. If you bring it to the right place with the right people, different games might actually have a chance!

My Car Wars car. Let me show you it.

And following it up with what I own for the game!

My car for a Division 15 campaign is this:
See if you can guess why it has the name it does!

Arilou Special
Cost: 9430
Handling Class 5
2642 Weight
Acceleration 10
Top Speed 132.5
Subcompact
Xtra Heavy Chassis
Heavy Suspension
Medium Engine, Superconductor (Front Mounted) (1540 power)
Tires: Heavy Duty Radial
Single Weapon Computer (Light Laser)
Forward Mount Light Laser with Pulse.
80 Points of Armor: (20 F/B 14 L/R 6 T/U)

Personal Gear: (3601 cost.)
Body Armor
Armored Battle Vest carrying Minimechanic, Limpet Mine, Bowie Knife, Machine Pistol, and 2 Clips.
Fireproof Suit
Laser VLAW with Laser Scope.

My car is cool. It just rammed too many bikes and trikes this week. We got ambushed by 2 bikers and 2 trikers with 10-15K costs.

My collection of stuff:
Miniboxes: Car Wars, Truck Stop, Sunday Drivers
Ziplocs 1,3, and 4. (I have ALL of Midville. FOUR TOTAL MAPS.)
AADA Duel Circuit: L'outrance
The AADA Vehicle Guide
Deluxe Car Wars
Deluxe Car Wars Compendium 2nd Revised.
Car Wars Tanks (Came with above.)
Arena Book
Mean Streets
ADQ 10-2, 9-3, 7-2,3,4, 8-1 through 8-4, 5-3, 1-1 through 3-4
Gurps Autoduel 2nd edition.
Mini Car Wars.
AADA Atlases 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
AADA Game Master Shield
Car Wars 5th: ALL OF IT.
Convoy
Turbofire (3rd party CW compatible module/setting.)

(Updated July 10 with a few new bits I have.)

Tuesday Game Reports

This week Car Wars started up in earnest. Our three cars were cruising down a town road when 2 bikers and 2 trikers ambushed us, intent on taking us out with their fancy expensive vehicles. Magicdrew was taken out with repeated shots to the rear, eventually taking him out of action, but the car was still moving. My character engaged in multiple ramming attacks out of sheer angry fury, which took out his car's front end. (He took a Trike with him.) He later hopped into Magicdrew's car, put his character's knocked out and injured self safely on some grass and proceeded to not do much outside of mess with the remaining triker's plans as our earlier attacks had sent the 2 bikes packing. Magicdrew's spike dropper in a critical place helped this along quite a bit too. 9IN was the star of the day, trading shots with almost every enemy gang member, and causing the last triker to spin out and crash through a chain link fence and into a wall.

The reward was substantial, but the amount of damage my car took put me in debt, which 9IN is covering till I can pay him back. Now Rufus wants revenge on these biker scum for trying to wreck the Arilou special (subcompact with a 5 Handling Class and a single Light Pulse Laser) and keeping him from his eventual semi truck.

Rufus hates people who wreck his plans.

Overall the game was pretty fun, though Magicdrew and I had some poor luck, and Starfury as the GM had some insanely GOOD luck in both to hit and damage rolls. Overall Gurps Lite combined with Car Wars isn't working too shabby, though some kinks need to be worked out. For our introductory mission maybe we shouldn't have been nearly evenly matched with our opponents, but we prevailed, even if it took most of our money to do so. Magicdrew seemed a little frustrated with the game, but he just had a bit of bad luck, and I guess it seemed a little insulting to him that Rufus would hop in his car and try to keep the fight going. It helped us win by causing the final trike rider to be a little too dangerous, so it all turned out for the best.

I was swearing and cursing myself, but was having a good time overall. Its a Rufus thing. Rufus is cranky and gets mad at things that deserve to get their ass kicked. He just didn't have the rolls to make it proper is all!

Wednesday Game Report and AT-43 Armybuilding

Sorry this took a while to post. I've been having disturbing continuous aches and pains which have made worrying about posting stuff a little less important. Its probably nothing given all other evidence, but its enough to give me pause. I'd get these things checked out, but getting things checked out mostly seems to mean "Give us lots of your money after your insurance does and we will tell you everything looks fine. Oh, let's make an appointment for more of your money".

I swear its probably 80% stress and worry, 20% something actually in need of fixing.

But Wednesday was another of the no 40K days because everyone started too fracking early. However, I got in a few games of Magic and played some solidly tough decks to start things off. Ever get hit by 4 Lightning Bolts by turn 4? Yeah. I fought one of those.

It was followed up by me demoing AT-43 for one of the 40K players. One of Sarge's clerks has been talking with me since I have mentioned getting into the game. He isn't gonna order stuff till there is some special orders and whatnot to get the ball rolling. Sensible enough I think. However, he was able to procure a demo copy of the starter set. Thus I got to run a couple scenarios and more than a few people showed some interest in the game. AT-43 has an excellent introductory set, not really requiring a ton of rules reading before getting the demo games up and moving.

I may be getting and fielding a UNA army sooner rather than later. If other people are playing I won't need to have 2 armies built before getting things going. I will just need one. Given UNA's use for other games, I have decided on them, with Therians to be more fully built up later on. My initial plans include getting another starter set cheap, then using Sarge's to preorder everything else I need. I will most likely grab a Defender Snake and 2 Steel Troopers attachment boxes to start with. This should give me 3 Walkers, 2 main infantry squads, and 1 elite squad to get me going. A nice solid starter force.

2 Starters gives me 2 Leaders, 12 soldiers with Laser Rifles, and 4 Missile Launchers. 2 Attachment boxes adds in 2 more Leaders, 2 more Missile Launchers, 2 Machine Guns, 2 Medics, 2 Mechanics.

I'm probably going for M.Ind as my Force Pattern. This means I get up to 3 Walkers, and up to 3 Infantry units.

This means 1 Steel Trooper squad will be 4 soldiers, 1 Master Sergeant, 2 Missile Launchers, Medic, and Mechanic, with Triple Lens Helmets.
(Points Cost: 320 base, +50 for 2 Missile Launchers, +15 for a Master Sergeant. 385 points.)

The Second Steel Trooper squad will be 4 soldiers, 1 Master Sergeant, 2 Machine Guns, Medic, and Mechanic with Triple Lens Helmets and Grenades.
(Points Cost: 365 base, +15 for a Master Sergeant. 380 points.)

This leaves me enough for another squad. RAWK. 4 more soldiers, 1 Master Sergeant, and a Laser Gun.
(Points Cost: 175 base, +15 for a Master Sergeant. 190 points.)

Now in bigger games I can swap out the small squad for a unit of Steel Tacarms with a Sergeant and Laser Targeter for 325 if I want, but the M.Ind army design only allows for 3 infantry units.

For fighting vehicles I can take 2 Fire Toads, 1 as a Sergeant 415 points. (Note to self: Buy another Fire Toad so I can have a full squad.)

And my big dog, the Defender Cobra, Sergeant Upgrade. 365 points of glorious heavy combat strider.

Of course Colonel Stark for another 85 points when needed.

That gives me a maximum army points value of: 1955 if I am doing my math correctly.If I want an even 2000 I just get Sergeant Borz and add another 35 points.

Sounds good!

Tuesday Game Reports

Well, this week was Car Wars, minus Pico whose hours changed, and Missme who has decided to leave our group without bothering to tell most of us, merely telling MagicDrew who she works with that she feels she is keeping us from playing more complicated games.

Instead of talking things out with us, and letting everyone else decide if we really mind not playing more hardcore or complex things (the answer is: we can play lighter fare no problem), I get to feel like a douche.

Not cool.

Then the rest of us proceeded onto Car Wars. As my character (using GURPS), and my 12000 dollar ride were built waay back in November sometime, 9IN and MagicDrew built their dudes and machines while I cleaned up from last week's game and reorganized my pile of Car Wars goodies.

15K to build cars and 100-120 point characters. We used my map of East Midville (The one not in most Car Wars Deluxe Boxes!) and since my character and car were already built for a previous attempt at the campaign back in the early winter, I reorganized my stuff. A couple of the plastic miniboxes and ziplocs, Pre Compendium Deluxe, And Black Book Compendium. (The LAST word in classic Car Wars!) Ok, I am leaving out Mini Car Wars, Autoduel 2nd edition, my AADA Atlases, and all of 5th edition, but its a nice pile of stuff.

The GM is borrowing some of my road section ziplocs no less! My character's car has a gunner, so I have decided he is basically the president in Idiocracy. My character's goal is to buy a Semi and kick ass on the roads of America. Which is why he has 3K left while the other players spent almost every dollar. My car has a HC of 3 which makes it much more peppy than the other players. (HC 1? OWWW) I might rebuild it though. See if I can't get an even higher HC, drop my awesome gunner with a turret machine gun, and just use my 2d Recoilless mounted on the hood. Do I really need a top speed of 120 MPH? I say no.

We had a short period to be acquainted with the rules and get used to our rides, with a test fight on one of my old maps, East Midville. Overall it went well, with actual campaign based vehicle destruction starting next week.