Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Consistency is Key

Work has been slammed lately, so I've not had much time to churn out an update... I have managed to get some games played, though!

First, let's start with Wrath of Kings.

If you haven't heard of this game, go check it out at http://www.wrathofkings.com and look over some of the models.  It's an army-size 28mm war game with alternating activations and using a D10 system.  It's probably the best new game I've played in a looooong time, and the most I've been excited about a game since playing Warmachine back in '04.  The game is simple to play but has some great strategy in controlling leader models to inspire the troopers, and has stunning models all around.  You don't necessarily play scenarios (unless you want to set one up special), but you always use a mechanic when playing where each army has a Morale based on the number of models you're fielding, and the goal is deplete the enemy morale to 0.  You have missions/objectives you can select for your particular army that allow you to do a wide variety of special actions on the field of battle other than just kill everything that will drop the enemy morale as well, such as capturing placed objectives, escorting civilians to safety, having a trooper battle a leader 1v1 and survive for more than a turn, etc. etc.  It's a really fantastic and dynamic system that makes pretty much every engagement in a game meaningful and exciting.

I'm a Nasier player myself because I love their aesthetic and playstyle (aggression!), with my alternate army being Hadross (because damn if they aren't the coolest models in the game).

My buddy Andy came over to the house last weekend with his Goritsi (he plays it all werewolves, all the time, though there are options for vampires in that army as well) and proceeded to murder all of my mask-wearing warriors.  It was a close game, though!  If I'd just picked a better mission for myself I think I could have pulled it out, but we're still learning the nuances of the game and how best to play against different armies.  Lesson learned:  do not pick the mission for an honorable foot soldier to stand valiantly against an enemy werewolf leader alone for more than 1 round!  Werewolves will eat you, man.  Eat you dead.

The initial set-up:  Hold the lines!  Werewolves are coming!

You can see towards the bottom of the picture 1 of Andy's 3 objectives on my side of the board that I needed to stop him from getting.  I did not succeed.  Werewolves are excellent rock climbers, it turns out.

Just before the forces clash!

Damned werewolves.  All up in our base, killing all the things.

And now... on to da Gorkamorka!

Played one last big, multi-person game of Gorkamorka before the start of the league, and it didn't go so well for me.  I mean, it was hilarious, and a wonderful time... but my poor orks just hadn't had a hearty breakfast or something and were struggling hard.

What became very interesting, though, was having Cassandra take an early hit that disabled her ability to move... yet taking 3 more rams during the game, with the result each time on the chart of having the rokkit boostas fire and send the trukk careening d6 in a random direction!

The participants! (shot taken after the game) Oddly enough, Scott pointing inappropriately at the rock formation was an accident.  I started in the closest corner where the papers are sitting, and Cassandra ended up on the other side of table like that after being disabled somewhere close to the arched rock!
Scott's Battlewagon-that's-now-a-trukk ramming on the left, Skyler's trakk ramming on the right. 

Here you can just barely see Andy's trukk in the top middle wisely watching the other idiots crash into each other from a distance, while driving around and scooping up scrap piles.

Random movement placed the trukk there.  And then it ended up moving 6 more inches forward!  It did, however, run over one of my own guys during this move.  So that was cool.  :(



All in all, I'm really having a blast with Gorkamorka and can't wait to play more.  However, I don't believe my orks are going to make it to the field after a recent find on Bartertown...

After assembling and basing...