A Time for Batreps Part 2

All righty folks and welcome back to another post by yours truly, I certainly hope your day is going well and you are enjoying yourselves.  We’re following up on last batrep post with another one, except this time we are going to try and cover 3 games all in this post!  Truthfully it’s because I sort of…maybe…didn’t take as many pictures as I had before?  Woops.  Anyways here we go with the next game we played, Guild Ball!  Sadly I took fewer pictures as we played, a bad habit of mine, and so the picture quantity and content is limited.  My apologies.

So starting the game off Wells wanted to try a different guild this time around and settled on the Mortician’s Guild versus me playing as the Alchemists.  Our rosters were:

1.       Obulus

2.       Dirge

3.       Cosset

4.       Ghast

5.       Mist

6.       Silence

1.       Smoke

2.       Flask

3.       Katalyst1

4.       Compound

5.       Vitriol

6.       Calculus

I felt bad for Wells because my friend here plays 40k a lot, but doesn’t get much exposure to other games and so I could tell he was having a hard time.  Throw on top of that a new team, especially one as nuanced as the Mortician’s, and it was just hard for the guy.  I can’t say for certain if he felt this way but the way he was playing suggested that he initially went defensive because he wasn’t sure of what his team could do.  Also, the terrain was randomly generated (by tossing the 2D terrain like pancakes from like a foot away lol) and so it was hard for him to maneuver around without taking penalties.  I’d say about mid-game the gears were turning again for Wells mechanically (also he had an overnight break to read about his team) and he started to work on making plays but at this point, it was too late.  The Alchemists had strong board control, kept slowly ticking away at his health with condition damage, and the scoring potential was too strong.

Right at the start of turn 2-3

In the end, the game was 13 to 3, with the Alchemists scoring 2 goals and 3 KO’s (one was the mascot).  Smoke is a fun captain I have to say with her Cloud Jumper ability and AoE manipulation.  Wells and I talked about the game afterward and his early game hesitancy really hurt his chances in the later phases.  The lack of team knowledge definitely hurt him as well and coming from a Fisherman’s coach straight into Mortician’s with no pre-knowledge was not going to be easy.  We also talked a bit about how some of his player use was sub-optimal and if he decided to try Mortician’s again what he could have done differently, for example, he rarely used Ghast except to shuffle around the board a bit when his playbook is pretty solid for damage and some board control.  I think next time I’ll see either the Fish back on the field or perhaps this new Falconer’s minor guild that might be interesting to Wells (dude loves birds).

Vitriol on the right went and scored while the middle was jammed up

Our next game was Infinity and I’m not going to lie I was really excited about this game.  I’ve been feeling the Infinity itch lately with some of the new models being published (the new JSA force is so goooood) and so Wells agreed to try it out.  We had a beginner style game at GenCon last year and he enjoyed it and so we decided to do “intermediate rules.”  This was like a style that had more than the basics but wasn’t full blown Infinity either, for example TO camouflage was the -6 to hit a penalty but didn’t have the marker/deployment shenanigans.  Our lists were 300 points and made up of the models from Operation Icestorm and Beyond OIS.  Wells went with PanO and I went with Nomads.  We settled on the scenario Supremacy from the core rulebook and because we were using starter box models/lists we decided everyone would be a “specialist troop” but in a generalized sense so they didn’t get any special abilities apart from if they were an actual specialist.  Also, we didn’t play with Command Tokens because we’re still acclimating to this game.

Not Infinity, but Smoke on the top left scored the last goal of the game

So I won the initial roll and chose deployment zones and order and let me tell you this was my crucial mistake.  I chose a bad zone and I paid for it dearly.  This game was in Wells’ hands from the beginning and it was like shooting fish in a barrel for him.  My active turn 1 had my Spekter, Intruder, and my Kriza Borac all go unconscious because of his sniper Nisse.  Oh man, this was going to be rough.  Then my Reverend Healer acted as if she was a bad anime trope as an MMO healer and ended up killing off the Kriza with a natural 20 on her Doctor roll.  At this point, I lost a significant chunk of my firepower and it just went downhill from there.  My Mobile Brigada Lt. was able to move up along a building edge and take out the Nisse before being able to move in and secure a computer for 1 point.  On Wells’ active turn it was just a slaughterfest.  He jumped his Akhali out of LoS from anyone, moved him up, and took computers for his ever-increasing score.  He moved his Father-Knight up from out of cover and was able to take out my Lt. and hold the zone.  Turn 2 and 3 there wasn’t a whole lot of interesting action, as Wells bagged the game early on with his sniper.  So the score ended up being 9 to 1 with PanO walking away from this fight with barely a scratch.  Rough game but it taught me many lessons about Infinity in general and it’s still a game I very much enjoy, even when I am dying by the droves.

Do you see the Spekter and Intruder down for the count?  The peeking Kriza in the bottom left was down too!

Our final game of his trip was a match of Dark Age and we played a 1000 point match where I made a couple lists I had been using (not that they are super-efficient or anything since I’m still newish to the game also) and we played Kukulkani versus Horde Skaard, Wells and myself respectively.  The scenario was Ancient and Bloody Wasteland where the goal was to kill each other dead.  You gained a VP per 100 points (rounded up by to the nearest 50) killed off and whatever Secondary Objective VPs gained.  Think Secondary Objectives like the Tactical Objectives from 40k, randomly drawn objectives but with the caveat that you can tailor the deck (as long as you have at least 16 cards) with whichever cards you think you can get that game.

I’d like to spend a lot of time on this game as Dark Age is a pretty solid game overall.  I only took one picture however and Wells having only played 2 games before was not prepared with knowledge to know how to best use his guys.  As a result it was a pretty harsh game for him as he struggled with a lot of the nuanced rules that K3 have and as much as I tried to help remember which rules he had, there was only so much that could be done.  The other part was not knowing how to use the models to the best of their abilities.  I give Wells credit it though he started to piece some things together pretty quickly and started using squad-links and combos here and there.  The nature of Dark Age is that it’s a brutal game and by the time the gears were turning, the sand was stained deeply with Kukulkani blood and littered with crystal skulls.  The game ended with a big advantage to the Skaard with a total of 13 to 3 VPs.  The Warhead gave a lot of damage out that, at times, was absolutely terrifying.  When down to only 1 hp that lummox hits with a PW of 14, and if you happen to be prone that’s x2!  For those unfamiliar with Dark Age mechanics when you hit someone they then make an armor check where you take your armor value and subtract the attack’s PW.  In a game where you are rolling low that means even if you had the highest armor value of 20 you’d still only be able to avoid a hit like that on a 6 or lower, and if there’s a damage multiplier then you roll that many dice and need to save on ALL of them to not take a wound.  Oh yeah, he was nasty.

How to ensure that no one else plays with you

So overall despite the beatdown Wells seemed to have enjoyed Dark Age and my impression was that with more games for experience and perhaps a different force then it would have definitely been a different game.  I think the big difference was that K3 is a wonky force in my opinion and the learning curve, while not too steep, does require some practice games in before it starts to click.  There were a lot of little rules here and there that ended up making a big difference and I think once taken into consideration I think our future games will be vastly different. 

Well, that’s it for gaming my fellow wargamers and I hope you enjoyed the batreps despite the lack of pictures and further details.  We pretty much played a game a day and so the details started to get hazy at times and the longer I play the more likely it is I forget to take some snaps.  Anyways I hope you’re enjoying your hobby and time and until next time have a fun game and may your dice be kind!

A Time for Batreps Part 1

Good morning fellow wargamers and welcome to today’s post, hopefully for your reading enjoyment!  It was relatively quiet for the hobby lately and then my good friend Wells came down to visit.  Next thing I know I’m playing a game daily with the guy and having to flex some game muscles I haven’t in a while.  It was a great time and I was able to catch up on some games and relax during a rough work week.  So I wanted to share my battle reports with you all on the 4 games we played!  Just like last time I can’t recall all the details because of old man brain but I will share my impressions and some cool moments, and with that let’s begin with part one of a two-part post!

So our first game was the venerable and well known Warhammer 40k and Wells brought his Daemons of the great sorcerer himself, Tzeentch (mono-god build)!  This time he faced the growing legions of the new Death Guard, the mortal vessels of his arch-nemesis Nurgle.  We played 2000 points and after rolling for the mission and deployment we played Contact Lost and deployed in corners (one of my favorite deployments to be honest).  If you’re not familiar with Contact Lost the gist of the mission was that you gained your Tactical Objectives by holding the objectives and could have up to 6 at any time, so the game was like double objective focused.  Objective squared. 

End of my turn 1

Let me tell you about this game.  Daemons of Tzeentch were rough to handle at first.  I forgot a couple key points about them such as not caring about your AP at all and they shoot…A LOT.  A host of 30 Daemons was cheaper than my 7 Plague Marines.  The first turn didn’t have a lot of happenings going on other than some movement towards the objectives and hopefully better positioning for the next turn.  Once Wells explained how his Pink Horrors could fire 90 shots at full strength at S4 with +1 to wound it was pretty clear that I needed to get stuck in and fast.  However, since I play Death Guard fast was not really my strength so casualties were expected even with my unholy resilience.  I split my force to try and cover two sides of the board and capture as many objectives as I can, and Wells equally split his force but had the upper hand in mobility, numbers, and firepower.  It became quickly apparent just how difficult it would be to budge his daemons from any point on the field and suitably for the Death Guard it became a war of attrition.

The (in)famous Death Guard Champion

Long story short (I have 3 more games to cover!) I barely won 12 to 11 and that was due to Wells having some poor luck with his d3 objectives and never being able to score more than 1 point for those.  We had some good moments though.  Wells managed to Treason of Tzeentch my daemon prince and subsequently charged one of my Helbrutes taking it from a healthy untouched to nearly exploding with 2 wounds left.  Wells took out one of my Rhinos near his Lord of Change causing it to explode for a nice 5 mortal wounds.  The Noxious Blightbringer, a model I previously held little care for, was instrumental in my Plague Marines being able to cut through 30 Pink Horrors with relative ease (I gave him the Dolorous Knell for that sweet 2 dice on LD checks and pick the highest, with a nice -2 LD penalty as well).  Wells was able to pick apart my backline units like the Predator and Helbrutes with his Burning Chariots and he was able to secure objectives easily as he needed to, as his blobs kept my line troopers busy by sheer numbers.  My MVP of the game, however, was a Plague Marine champion who single-handedly charged into a blob of 23+ Pink Horrors, and managed to survive the overwatch fire to go on survive 8 rounds of melee combat ALONE before Typhus waddled in to help.  Then he rolled up on an objective to score the last point I needed to win the game, what a trooper! Wells was kind enough to give me a spare model he had so I gave him a little trophy, some battle damage, and will be giving him a name for his honorable service to Nurgle.

Still holding strong for Nurgle!

Survived and took an objective, mah man!

Like I said it was a rough game for me as I took models that eventually did very little than what I expected or their gear wasn’t that great against daemons.  Instead of Blight Launchers, I should have gone with the Plaguespewers for the auto-hit d6’s to spread the wounds on his units, as the higher AP didn’t matter squat to his models.  I also lacked a lot of multi-wound damage dealers so when faced with his bigger stuff (i.e. Burning Chariots, Soul Grinder, and the Lord of Change) my options were limited and scarce.  Late game I had nothing that could threaten his Lord of Change and if Wells had better dice rolls for his psychic powers overall (he still had some solid rolls don’t get me wrong) things might have been very different when those mortal wounds start flowing in.  As a side note, I still do not like using Poxwalkers as a unit and I am still not a fan of their models so I think for future games I will forgo them in favor of Plaguebearers.  I’ve heard on some sites about the Poxwalker infinity circuit or whatever, but truthfully screw that noise and stay on the shelf.  I mean the Plaguebearers are comparatively T4 with ++5 and Disgustingly Resilient with better attacks, and only at a slightly higher cost, it makes it kind of hard to NOT take them over the zambos.  Also I wouldn’t have put forth points into power fists unless I knew that squad was going to try and tackle these bigger targets, but with the prolific number of ++4 saves rolling around it was hard to land some of that much needed damage and so maybe they had a place and I just didn’t use them correctly. 

With a new Tzeentch trophy

Overall it was a good game and we both had a lot of fun but I felt that Wells should have won by all rights.  If he had some better VP dice rolls he would have definitely come out of this victorious.  As for me, I think I’ve learned a lesson about making sure you have the right tools for the job in this edition.  I know I’ve said that before and I truly believe it, but for some reason this game I went potato and didn’t consider it more carefully.  I’d like to think I am usually decent at doing that but perhaps I need more exposure to different armies to be better at that skill.  Ah well!  There is always a next time, and speaking of next times we’ll go over part 2 of the batrep summaries.  Until then happy gaming and hobbying folks!

Iron Dice and Bloody Paint

Good tidings to you my fellow gamers and welcome back to another exciting (maybe?) post by yours truly!  As usual, I hope things are going well for your all in your lives and I hope whatever progress is being made in your hobby life is going better than expected.  Today’s ramblings are a bit of a mix between your usual “this is my update lulz” dashed in with some talk about recent games I’ve had.  So let’s get on with it!

It's a good day when you have updates AND games to talk about!

Since the start of the New Year I’ve finally adjusted myself proper to the new work schedule, which is a normal routine one, and as a result, I’ve been able to get some regular painting in.  I’m not a fan of making hard deadlines like “in three weeks I’ll paint a whole army” because I can’t predict what will happen in life.  Instead, the approach I’ve gone with has been “try to do something each day because some progress is better than no progress.”  With that motto, I’ve got to say I’ve been able to get some progress in!  For one I am almost done with my Gates of Antares Algoryn army with only 4 vehicles and 20 troopers left before having a fully painted (i.e. until I get more models) force.  I’ve had to divert some of my attention away, however, due to more pressing events in terms of gaming and commitments.

Most of the Dust Reaper force, for more info check them out here.

If you’ve been reading this for a while you’ll probably remember that I put Warmahordes on the backburner as it was just not the game focus at the time.  Since the release of Mk3 I’ve not had a lot of incentive to go back and with the community changes PP had (i.e. getting rid of pressgangers and the implementing of CID), it felt that the focus of the game was slanted more towards tournament players.  Recently we’ve had a local resurgence of the game and the old fires have started kindling again.  We’ve had a total of 30+ players join this shindig, myself included, and we’re going with an alternative setup with the Journeyman League rules.  With this run, I’ve decided to refocus one the Warmachine side of things and I’m going with the undead forces of Cryx!

Old color scheme

New color scheme!

Since we’re not doing weeks per se but rather 4-week cycles it’s taken a lot of pressure off of me to rush and get games in like a madman.  It’s also helped me with the painting portion as I can take some time working on models instead of rushing as I have in the past.  Unfortunately, my color scheme idea has changed from my original run with Cryx and so I’ve had to strip a lot of models, but that is ok with me as it saves me some money and time assembling.  For my initial battlegroup, I decided to stick with a simple choice and picked up Bane Witch Agathia and her battlegroup in the Mk3 starter box.  We had the option of picking our own battlegroups but truthfully I didn’t care enough at the time to bother with it.  One caveat I will need to keep in mind with the league is that our lists do not change at all, so whatever I choose to take in the upcoming cycles will stick with me for the whole league.

75 pt game Asphyxious2 vs Elara2

As I said I managed to get some games in with some of the other leaguers and they’ve been great to game with.  Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of my matches with them, but I have some when I played against my wife (which after hearing about the league games wanted to get one in herself).  Last Saturday I was able to get a total of 5 league games in and got some decent practice with Agathia as a warcaster.  Her battlegroup consisted of a Slayer, Reaper, and Deathripper.  Considering my loadout my general starting strategy would be to put Parasite on a target, drag it out with the Reaper, and then finish it off with a Slayer.  If I was lucky to put Parasite the turn before, then if need be I could further debuff ARM with Agathia’s Dark Shroud for a nasty -5 to the stat.  Most of my games didn’t really follow through with this strategy but that was my initial plan at the very least.  If I won the roll-off I generally chose to go second so I could react to my opponents, a strategy I’m not sure

 

After 1st turn move my right side is under attack with her Myrmidon's and I'm taking a beating from Imperatus, while on my left side her infantry fall to the combined might of my Mechanithralls and spell slinging Gaspy (who sucks up those souls).

Another round of engaged combat and her jacks put many of my troops back into the ground while the Satyxis Gunslingers sneak around the side and help clear out more infantry.  Gaspy is getting ready to pop his feat down below.

I started off the day playing a game with Jared and his Mk3 Legion battlegroup.  Despite the nerf to Shredders, they hit pretty hard against Cryx’s paper-thin armor (also not helped by Jared’s great dice rolling) and so I had to rely on my Reaper’s harpoon drag to pull his beasts out from position and take them down bit by bit until I could charge in for the assassination.  My next game was against Cody and his Mk2 Skorne starter battlegroup.  Cody had some great placement for his models and if he hadn’t told me he was a new player then I wouldn’t have thought he was.  Unfortunately, the dice were really against him and both of his Cyclops’ charges failed terribly leaving him wide open for the counter-attack and refocus onto his Gladiator and caster for the second win.  My third game was with Mark and his Mk3 Khador starter box, a matchup I was concerned about due to Khador’s high damage output and my terrible armor.  Unfortunately for Mark a Parasited Juggernaut combined with some lucky damage rolls (a combo-striking Slayer with triple 6’s on the damage roll for example) took his jack out before he could get some mileage out of him.  With one less jack, I was able to maneuver around more freely and eventually I was able to charge Kozlov for an assassination win.  My fourth game was against Tom and his Mercenaries Magnus battlegroup, which was a hard-fought battle.  I went with an aggressive move and ran up towards mid-field cover, popping my feat early to take advantage of the stealth it brought.  Tom just wait the feat turn out and in the following turn blasted my jacks out of cover.  He was able to take apart my battlegroup easily with his high P+S and my low ARM, so I had a desperate gamble to try and snatch victory.  I charged with Agathia and plinked his health down 3 pts, then 3 pts, then 2pts, and with dice -3 for damage I needed boxcars to pull it off.  Luck was with me because boxcars it was and just barely did I manage to secure victory!  My last game was a rematch with Cody and this time he was more prepared for my battlegroup’s shenanigans.  His charges were more successful this time around so I lost some key momentum to maneuver around for a warlock kill.  Due to losing my Deathripper and Slayer, I did not have enough activations left to take advantage of an opening to Morghul, and so in his following turn, Cody was able to secure the victory against me.  Overall 4W-1L was not a bad way to get back into WM/H, and the opponents were all great gents so truly that was the best part.

After Gaspy's feat turn I chunked her Manticore and took out Imperatus but I didn't have enough activations left to take Elara down.  She gambled on leaving melee as Elara only had 5 boxes left...

With all my free strikes missing by 1 each Elara was able to walk around my troops, got Marked for Death on Gaspy, and took him down for victory to the Retribution!  It was a good game overall.

As far as hobbying goes I am doing the bare minimum for my Cryx, not in terms of painting effort but in terms of numbers.  I still want to finish my Gates army and since I am also concurrently in an Age of Sigmar campaign I need to get my ghostly Ironjawz painted up.  So my plan is to paint what I need for the current cycle in the Journeyman League, and then paint something else up.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to balance the games out and get some overall progress done as needed.  I am also looking forward to some more games as well in the future, and hopefully, I’ll have pictures to go with the games I actually played.  That’s it, for now, gamers and I hope your dice run hot and your paint flows smooth!  Until next time, happy gaming!

A Tale of Two Games: 40k and Gates

Greetings and salutations fellow wargamers and welcome back!  I hope the holidays and extended breaks has been treating you all well with great gaming and hobby progress.  Today I wanted to ramble on a bit about something I've been thinking about.  I've been inspired not only because of my recent gaming/hobby progress but also because I've read some other blog posts about the matter; so I figure I'll toss in my 2 cents for what they are worth (which might not even be 2 cents).  This might end up being a lengthy article so grab a snack and a drink and sit back to enjoy some ramblings eh?

As the year came to a close there has been quite a lot happening in our hobby world and it's been a great year of releases and updates.  The big one has been the newest edition of Warhammer 40k and the "return of GW" into the community's spotlight and what a return it was!  While I know they've not swayed everyone back from the crowds they've lost, they have certainly been making the effort!  Meanwhile, the game Beyond the Gates of Antares (henceforth Gates) under the leadership of Warlord Games has been steadily making progress of their own with a steadily growing group and coverage.  They have so far released 2 story expansions and new model releases while catching up with their mainline of models.  They've been securing a presence in the wargaming community and winning over many players into their fold with their mechanics and background.  So with the presence of these two sci-fi based games and the undeniably present levels of salt in our community, it is inevitable that there will be the age-old argument: which is better?

My answer? Neither, because I like them both for different reasons.  The oft-used expression of comparing apples to oranges I think applies well here.  Sure they are both sci-fi wargames with approximately the same scale in terms of conflict size.  They start to diverge on many different aspects though and I think it is good to look at those differences and appreciate them for what they offer.  As I've surely said before this is a complex hobby and many players choose games for a host of different reasons.  Some like fluff, some like game play, some find a quirky mechanic and go with it, some flock to model aesthetic, and so on.  I do want to throw the caveat out there that these thoughts are just my own view and so if you disagree then insert The Dude's response wherever applicable.

Just remember this part ;P

Let's begin with the themes if you will between the two games.  40k is, of course, the "Grimdark" universe where there isn't a lot of things to be hopeful about.  Humanity has explored the stars but ideological progression has regressed and so technology is wildly misunderstood and heresy is everywhere.  In addition to the various aliens running around the galaxy trying to murder humanity, there are various entities from the realm beyond who are attempting to invade and overtake the galaxy for their patron god.  It's a different sort of sci-fi where it's a blend of technology, supernatural elements, and dystopian shenanigans.
Gates is at the opposite end of the spectrum.  It's more "hard sci-fi" where humanity has progressed in technology and things are not so bleak depending on your viewpoint.  Humans have evolved differently on various planet systems so that they are now different species though sharing the same ancestry.  While there are conflicts between the races they are usually not hell-bent on trying to murder each other outright (except the Ghar, everyone hates the Ghar).  There is a lack of the supernatural elements and in its stead, you see a surplus of technology and scientific divergences marking forces out.
When I compare the two themes overall I like to think of it like Star Wars versus Star Trek debates.  Star Wars has the technology yes but the focus is less on the science and more on the technology is there as a means to an end.  There are space wizards who have force powers and there are stories of epic battles and epic struggles were "good versus evil" and so on.  Then you have Star Trek where the science is the focus and it's less on the mysticism and more on the explanations.  Where civilizations have grown because of their history and the battles, while no less epic or awesome, is not so much on concepts of "good or evil but for very real reasons.  Where civilizations go to war for resources, territory, military advantage, or racism and genocide.  It might not be the best comparison but it's what I like to compare it to and I think it's an apt description.

Whenever someone argues about which is better I think of this

Well, how about the model ranges?  40k has a long-standing history of being the standard of model excellence and in some regards it still holds true (exceptions do apply).  They have a huge range which is due to their extensive history being in the hobby.  From an aesthetic view, there are a lot of options and GW is putting out a lot of effort into updating older kits or releasing new ones to expand the ranges.  40k does have a long history of being one of the most heavily converted model's ranges that I know of, and so if you don't like one kit for whatever reason then there are a lot of resources out there to change it to your pleasure.  It's a little hard to talk about a generalized model aesthetic because there are many options out there to appeal to whatever you're into.  Feeling dark and evil? Chaos Marines might be your style.  Want something more organic and sleek?  Might I recommend the Eldar?  Do you want to throw everything together and make wacky inventions of your own design?  Orks for sure.  So it's hard to pinpoint exactly what 40k can present because it's so massive and has a long history.  Rest assured though despite the price tag the kits are high quality with a lot of personalization options available.
Gates has also been stepping up their model game as well.  Initially, the factions didn't have a wide range of models to match what was on the list so there wasn't a lot of diversity going around.  Now that the game has been out for about 2 years the model ranges have definitely expanded.  With each new supplement, there are some new releases that go along with it, and the different races have a set theme going on so that no two races are that similar.  In terms of conversion work I've not seen a whole lot done at this point, but I do believe the potential is there for some kits (especially since they are moving from metal to plastic).  Overall each faction has been given a sort of aesthetic vibe to match their personality/lore/gameplay.  The Algoryn, for example, is a militaristic faction with proud spartan traditions woven into their history which result in their armor styles being militaristic and pragmatic.  The Isorians are a faction that has splintered off from the Concord and melded with some alien tech resulting in a very Geiger-esque appearance, which when compared with the Concord models (who look very clean, technologically based, and futuristic) offer a very stark contrast that could appeal to many.  As I've stated before Warlord is doing some work when it comes to producing their kits and for the most part I've not had any major issues with cleaning or assembly barring my own human error.  If you had asked me 2 years ago to discuss this model range I might have said it was very bland but with some effort and dedication on Warlord's part, I am confident you could find something that appeals to your senses.

Aww yiss

Aww yiss #2

Ok well, what about army choices and playstyles?  At the time of writing this 40k has around 12 "main" factions that then splinter off into several sub-factions.  For example, you have your poster-child Space Marine main army but then that can diverge into multiple subfactions with their own playstyle, army options, special units, etc.  Additionally, 8th has brought on the concept of strategies, which are like expendable abilities each army can use in the game, thus further diversifying playstyles.  As a result of their extensive lore, they can draw upon different sources in order to make models and sell some kind of army.  This translates into 40k being quite easy to find your niche.  If you tend to choose an army on aesthetic there are plenty of choices, if you choose for lore there are plenty of choices, and if you go for playstyle (guess what?) there are plenty of choices!  Especially in 8th edition where there is now a prevalence of characters that appear to also tweak the style of your army and their effectiveness depending on if you choose to go that route or not.  For example, in the Death Guard, there is a character, the Biologis Putrifier, that has a special ability to amplify the damage that the grenades do from nearby Plague Marine squads.  Useless if you play with a lot of vehicles/daemons but if you go infantry heavy this guy can be a force multiplier easy.  There are many examples across the board in different armies of combinations making each army a buffet of options.  So when you look at 40k in terms of army choices the bottom line is that there are a ton and so you shouldn't have a hard time finding your click so to speak.
So looking at Gates, at the time of this writing has 7 different faction/races that you can play and choose your forces from.  The differences between the factions are not as overtly or grossly expressed as they can be in 40k, but there are plenty of differences.  These differences can be found in the stat tendencies, base technological preferences, and then in terms of 'flavor' units.  Most of the armies share a lot of common weaponry so in a way that leads to some misconception that the armies can play too similarly with each other.  Despite some armies having shared weaponry the differences between factions start to become apparent once you start actually playing the game.  Let's take an example between an Algoryn AI Trooper vs a Boromite Gang Fighter.  Sure they both have a standard Mag Gun rifle, but because of their stat tendencies and loadout options, the two units are slanted for different purposes.  The AI squad is a good generalized squad that can be equipped with a couple of grenade launchers for increased diversity in battlefield roles, but the Gang Fighters are usually the ones helping put down pins on squads about to be assaulted by their close combat specialists.  That's also not to mention if you start looking at other units in different factions with Mag Guns and/or Plasma weaponry.  I think it's easy for someone new to Gates to gloss over similar weaponry equating to similar play on the tabletop, but I can assure you that's not accurate.  I play Algoryn which are like the masters at flexibility and my friend Mike plays Rebel Ghar which are like a "horde" army that benefit from clumping up together to be a massive ball of annoying space gremlins.  We've not touched on all the factions but with a little bit of research and community support, I am confident you can find your playstyle easily within the Gates.

I wanted to talk about this point last because it's not only the biggest difference between the two systems but it can also be a convoluted talking point and that is the difference between the two game systems from a mechanics point of view.  So let's get chewing.

40k has a long history of being rather complicated in terms of mechanics and required a lot of resources into getting the mechanics down pat.  That has drastically changed since the release of 8th edition and while it's easier to get the core rules down there are still depths to be dived into with certain elements.  I'll try to keep this part brief.
40k uses a d6 system with most of the stats being carried over from previous editions, except instead of using convoluted charts the die roll required is either presented or follows a simple rubric.  The core rules span about 8 pages (somewhere around there) with the vast majority of special rules either being prevalent in the mission being played or are part of the unit profiles.  As mentioned before armies also have stratagems and other facets they can utilize to make their force different with special rules being applied more freely than before.  Vehicles have been streamlined so that they have similar profiles to infantry and weapons now have a damage (aka wounds caused) profile which highlights their role even further.  For example, a Lascannon deals d6 damage per successful hit making them more attractive to anti-large target roles vs single wound model removal.  Armor saves have been tweaked so that they are not 'either-or' situations but a fluid system where saves are modified.  The gameplay continues to adhere to an "I go, you go" system with a little more agency being placed in the close combat portion of the game as players take turns choosing units to make their attacks with rather than just hoping to survive an onslaught.  Overall the system has gotten easier to teach and learn but there is still enough depth to prevent the game from becoming bland.
Gates has a very different system in place but there is enough familiarity going on that one accustomed to wargaming can get right in.  First, off I want to talk about the activation system because it's not "I go, you go" system but it's more randomized.  Units generate an order die and all the players involved toss their collective die into a bag and shake it up.  Whosoever die is pulled from the bag gets to give an order to a unit, whether that's to shoot/move and gun/run/rally/etc.  Once the bag is depleted then you put all surviving dice in the bag and start all over.  There's a bit more agency involved in this style because you cannot just alpha strike unless you happen to be in luck, but sometimes the mission mitigates alpha striking for you anyways.  Another key component of this game is the pin system.  Each unit that gets hit not necessarily takes casualties, get a pin marker.  These pins can make it harder for your troops to do what they need to do by forcing you take a command test prior to carrying out the order and incurring a penalty per pin marker on the unit.  Additionally, these pins can even cause a unit to break from the table and be removed as a result, so it's not something to ignore.  Gates uses a d10 system to roll dice and because of the stat variances and modifiers, it makes use of the greater pool than a d6 could hope for.  In regards to agency, the units can even react in certain situation so if fired upon you could for example choose to react by having a firefight or try to duck behind cover.  The game has a similar method of attacking each other where you roll to hit, but instead of rolling to wound it's presumed that the shot could cause some sort of damage so you just roll armor to resist the attack.  There are a lot of modifiers being thrown around so you have to think a little bit more than usual before going "lolrolldiceIwin."

When I think about the mechanics to both games

So it comes back around to the question: which is better?

Once again I will say neither.  They are both wonderful games with a lot of things to offer a hobbyist.  There are many pros and cons when getting into this hobby and both of these games are flawed beauties.  Warhammer has a history of being anti-consumer and steep prices help prevent people from being committed (they are working on this I do believe) and for Gates the material out there and the rulebook design makes it seem like it's confused in what it is trying to achieve or appears to lack substance with a cursory glance (which they are also working on).  Are these games fun? Hell yes they are!  As of writing this, I am working on both games simultaneously in my hobby queue.  I've been painting up Algoryn Intruders and infantry squads while placing orders for more Death Guard marines with Amazon.  So, of course, I am going to advocate for both games if I can help it.

Right on!

When it comes down to it this is your hobby as much as it is my hobby.  You'll spend your money on what you think is pretty awesome or whatever you're interested in just as much as I spend my money.  I'm hoping that if you've not looked at either game before that perhaps you'll give one of them a chance.  I felt strongly writing this up because I have seen the hotly debated posts on social media about "muh game is better #lolwin" and truly I don't think it's fair to ignore the good between these two games.  I have friends who are not into 40k just as much as I have some who are not into Gates, but that doesn't mean one will not appeal to new players.  If you have a community growing of "X game" then yeah getting into that game will help you get some play time in if you're interested in maximizing gametime.  If you want to start growing a community of "Y game," then look into getting some like-minded fellows and get some coverage out there!  It won't behoove you to bash someone's game of preference because you like something else better, because let me tell you if you went to me and said "your game is dumb and you shouldn't play it, play this," then there is a good chance I will ignore your points and mentally tell you to go suck a goat.  If you want to convince someone to come play one of these games then find out what they like and why and go from there; at the very least you're connecting with someone in our hobby and who knows you might convince them to give it a shot.

These are my two cents on the subject matter and maybe you'll agree with me or not, it's whatever.  I just hope you are enjoying the game you enjoy, painting the models you think look awesome, are encouraged to keep doing what you do, and keep making progress.  In this day and age, we don't need angry division amongst ourselves as wargamers, we just need to roll some dice and have some good times because we don't have all the time in the world.

Happy wargaming folks.

'TINK TINK TINK' goes the Blacksmith's Forge in Guildball

Hello there wargaming lads and lovelies and welcome to another fun blog-isode of Wargamer Ramblings!  I hope you’re doing well in your hobby time and you are making some good progress.  Now that things are settled and calm here I’ve been making some good work on my forever growing and changing line up of models.  That’s not what we’re talking about today however, nay verily instead let’s follow-up with the next guild in Guild Ball that’s relatively new, and that are the Blacksmiths!  As usually here be the cards.

So like the Farmer’s Guild they are currently available for pre-order in a faction start box made out of the same type of plastic it appears.  You get the 6 models, a goal post, a Blacksmith ball (which looks kind of cool if you ask me), and a forge terrain piece.  Right now it looks like the MSRP is going to be sitting at $50 USD, so you can get a full team for a decent price point.  Whether or not this is how Steamforged is going to progress with all of their future teams/models I’m not sure but it certainly seems to be looking that way.  So far in the roster there are 8 model choices to be had

The current box set line-up

So let’s talk about how the team generally operates, because as I mentioned before it has a couple of elements that make this team stand out amongst the others.  First off you will notice that two model types are missing: the captain and mascot.  Neither are present, but the former will not go missing for long.  What the team has instead are two types of models, Masters and Apprentices.  Second as of now there are no Union models available for the team, so you can only play with a pure guild team (personally I love that as I tend to run pure guild teams when I play).  Back to the model types, the team has to have an even split between the two, so 3 Masters and 3 Apprentices.  Additionally when you choose your team you pick one of the Masters to be your captain.  This model gains +0/+2 Influence and their Legendary Play takes on an additional effect.  Let me go on as to why this is pretty awesome stuff.

The Guild symbol and concept art of Alloy

So in other guilds you have 2 captain models generally right?  So one could argue that because of that your overall team strategy is largely affected by this decision.  Sure you could argue that you can have all kinds of team comps out there but ultimately you still have this binary (for now) decision to make about how the team functions with this captain.  The Blacksmiths currently have a range of 4 Masters, which mean there are 4 different option points for captain.  Your strategy, limited in other ways, are not going to be wholly limited by just 1 or 2 choices, but 4!  Need a captain with some speed boost? We have you covered.  Going for a more defensive, hold the line approach? That’s a potential as well.  A captain that puts all the suckas on fire?! WE GOTCHU FAM!  Essentially it means that when you make a team you have more captain options than the other guilds and that's always a good thing.

The physical embodiment of RPG "hold all my swords"

Which leads me to my next point moving on to the Apprentice models.  Most of the Apprentices have an ability that plays off of their Master being on the team and within a certain distance.  The one exception is Ferrite and Iron, Master and Apprentice respectively, which have the inverse where Ferrite gets a bonus being near Iron.  So this relationship between the models means that you will generally want to select the pairs in order to get the most benefit from them.  Now that’s not to say that you can’t take odd pairings if you wanted to, but you would lose out on some crucial and cool abilities by doing so.  For example if you take Alloy with his Master Hearth, then when you’re in 6” you get a benefit chosen from a list (i.e. 2” melee zone, +1/+0 Kick, or Anatomical Precision).  That seems pretty integral to Alloy as a player, so without Hearth you miss out on some abilities you could use for great benefit.  Overall it seems to get the best out of your Apprentices you need to match them up with their Masters.

Upcoming releases

To be honest I am going to avoid getting into too much detail about the stats and specific characters play with the Blacksmiths because I feel like just the guild itself being the way that it is can be enough to chew on for now.  Yeah there are some pretty good interactions between models, but the guild structure itself is interesting enough for me to talk about now.  Like I said, you have some flexibility in some builds with the Masters but some restricting options with the pressure in taking matching Apprentices.  It’s like Steamforged took the core of the nature of being Blacksmith as their concept for the team: like iron the team is malleable when being forged but rigid in its ending properties. 

So that's it for now, hopefully it has been a good chat with you all.  Until next time folks take care and happy gaming. 

P.S. This article was originally written back in October and reviewed today.  As a result some things have changed with the Guild, though I'm not 100% sure what (I think new players and whatnot), so keep that in mind!  Cheers!

PO-TAY-TOS! Or how the good ol' Farmer's Guild looks on the pitch.

Good day to you my fellow wargamers and welcome to another day in wargaming!  I hope things have been going well for you all.  I know it’s been a bit busy on my end here, I’ve been working on a couple of projects myself which hopefully I can share in the near future with you all.  Enough of that though let’s get in on today's topic: the Farmer’s Guild for Guild Ball!  As with the other guild chats here are the cards you can download if you need to!

“So why talk about the Farmer’s now, they’ve been released for a little bit?  In fact why haven’t you talked about the changes to Season 3 with the other guilds?”  Those are great questions!  Moving on!

A quick description I found from Google

Ah I’m kidding!  To be honest I didn’t have time to go over all the changes, and while I know there have been some significant player changes across the board I just never got to a point where I could read about it all AND put posts up about it.  Now things are different and I’ve been given the suggestion to talk about the new guilds so here we are today!  A little late to the party but whatever, let me give you my impressions!

The Farmer’s Guild is exactly what it sounds like, a group of farmers.  Since they are a newer guild they do not have the range of players that other guilds have.  Whereas the veteran guild have about 12 players, the Farmers have 6.  1 Captain, 1 mascot, and 4 players.  They have access to 2 Union players, Benediction and Grace, so there can be some variety but if you are like me like pure guild lists then well what you see is what you get.  I like to think of this as a personal side guild I might use from time to time for variation’s sake.

"Aye I can play da foosballs yes."

The box set comes the whole team and a goal post, but it’s made of plastic similar to the Kick Off! Box, which for some is great and others it’s meh.  I’m in the latter crowd, I personally prefer the metal models but if the plastic is sturdy and won’t bend easily then I think I can get over it.  The set comes in at an MSRP of $50 and is a full team.  So overall not a bad place to start, but because it’s a new guild you really don’t have any growing room right now.

Gonna need some more pumpkins I believe

So my initial impression of the guild is that they are going to be able to pull off some tricks because of their whole use of Harvest markers.  All of the models have some kind of interactions with these Harvest markers, either putting them down or consuming them to gain some kind of benefit.  Additionally they seem to have a lot of aura based abilities, being able to buff each other simply by being around.  This is reinforced by the character plays generally not having extended ranges, most simply being either self or 4” with a couple that go beyond that.  So as a team you might need to stick around each other to some degree in order to gain maximum benefit. 

First impression, quite right

Those benefits are pretty nice however so you might not worry about being near each other.  Grange, the captain, has a 6” aura that when friendly Guild models make a pass they get +1/+2” on their Kick stat (das a nice buff).  Grange has the added benefit of stacking Crowded Out penalties as well, giving an additional -1 to the die poll when applicable.  Harrow will heal his teammates within 6” 2hp per turn before conditions are resolves (against those Alchemists it might only prevent poison damage).  Finally Bushel gets an ARM buff for being around Harrow.

All those Harvest markers preciousss

As far as Harvest Markers go there are a lot of options you can use once you plant your eggplants around the field.  Bushel can gobble up a potato and re-roll all failed Kicks for this turn, which is great since she is the team’s Striker.  Windle can consumer a pumpkin in order to get an extra influence point but also +2 on his TAC stat.  An interesting side note is that you can use this to bump up his influence past his max of 2, and coupled with Berserk you can potentially squeeze out 6 attacks if need be.  Interestingly enough his character play, Snack Break, not only heals him the next time he takes someone out you gain an additional VP.  So in an unlikely scenario you could potential win with 4 knockouts if you timed it all with using Windle to finish people off.

Steamforged's concept inspiration confirmed (jk)

Last bit I wanted to go over was one particular model, and that’s Jackstraw.  His stats are overall low, his run/charge is at most 4” and he starts off with 3 TAC.  Kick has nice range of 8” but only 2 die (3/10” near Grange when passing).  His playbook has 3 columns, with at most 1 damage but tackle and knockdown results are easy peasy to get with 1 and 3 hits respectively.  The part that interests me is that he interacts with Harvest markers the most in my opinion.  At the start of his activation he can teleport to a marker or friendly goal-post within 4”, and is placed base to base.  At the end of his activation he can teleport 4” to a Harvest marker.  Once per turn and for 1 influence he can do that during the turn.  So in a turn he could move all over the pitch, and since he’s placed in base to base he can be positioned around as needed to do whatever he needed to.  I think how I’d use him is to teleport on a cabbage, knockdown someone with 3 hits, and then teleport back 2 pumpkins to relative safety.  You could do the same with stealing the ball too, go on the eggplant > tackle ball > teleport on the yam > pass the ball > teleport to the corn.  He’s one of those easily misunderstood if you looked purely on the stats, but I bet he’s a lot of fun.

hahahaplshelpI'mlonelyhahaha

So that’s it for my initial impression of the Farmer’s Guild.  I’d be interested in playing against them as the Morticians and seeing how that matchup goes, but I think they wouldn’t be a bad side guild either.  Next time we’ll talk about the Blacksmith’s Guild as they are the newest and some dare say are the currently most unique guild out there.  We’ll talk about it some more later, but until then happy gaming and smooth painting folks!