Opening up Aristeia!, Blood Bowl, and Necromunda for the very first time!

Greetings fans of the hobby and welcome back to your lovely afternoon reading time!  It’s been the start of weather changes here and that means priming and painting galore for many!  It also heralds the coming of new games and that’s what we are here today to talk about, new stuff!  Not like a GenCon haul or anything but I’ve been eyeing a couple of games lately and so I decided to not only purchase them but also go over my initial impressions of just opening the box.  I’m sure you’ve seen many of these games and their respective unboxings but this is from the viewpoint a guy who a) hasn’t seen any of those unboxings so I have no idea what’s in them and b) I’ve not done much research on the games in terms of how they are played.  So let’s get to it!

The three games I’ve been eyeing are Aristeia!, Blood Bowl, and Necromunda.  I know what these games are on a surface level and so I’m not completely clueless about these games.  I’ve never played a game of any of the three except for a brief trial on the Blood Bowl PC version.  Since I had no idea what I was doing, however, I quickly moved on. With the recent revamping done by Games Workshop with their respective games and some of the good things, I have heard about Aristeia! I decided that it is time to dive in and just grab the 2 player boxes to check things out.  The first box I opened was Aristeia!

So my initial impression was that the contents were packed in neatly but the first thing I saw was a guide to the rules, a quick How to Play, followed with some large booklet about the game in the Infinity universe.  Next came the board, some weird angular things which ended up being team organizer spaces, followed by the rest of the box contents.  The miniatures came pre-assembled and in their own space along with a couple token sheets.  Overall it was easy to find everything and it is one of the few times where putting everything back was a breeze. 

Miniature quality was also good and even though I heard it was PVC I was still overall impressed.  Only a couple minor quirks like the big panda dude’s staff was bent as was the old man’s revolver.  I felt like I could with minimal effort starting playing this game from the get-go.  Everything was user/new player friendly and neatly organized so there wasn’t a lot of fuss about trying to hunt down what I might need to start playing.

Blood Bowl was opened up next and the first thing I saw was the miniatures and with it some gaming aids I can presume.  Now I have no idea what the tokens/ruler thingy is used for so I had to dig a little bit past the plastic frames to start locating the board and rules.  The models seem pretty easy to put together, I’m not sure if that’s how the whole BB range is but the simple plug-and-play type of models means that for a new player assembly isn’t as intimidating.  If you didn’t want to paint the models up they were in bright green and blue respectively so that there would be little confusion at a glance as to who was part of which team.  Beyond the models, there was a cardboard insert that had some info for Blood Bowl as a community/hobby/game.

Beyond that insert, I found the board and the rulebook, as well as some other cardboard pieces which I guess, is for the team managers?  As well as some cards but right now I have no idea what they are meant for.  The board and rules appear high quality and the dual-sided nature of the board meant some variety for gaming.  Everything was neatly packed albeit without any organizational aids but that meant putting things back meant that I would have to figure out myself how to reorganize it.  I felt like within an hour I could have the models clipped off and start to play at the bare minimum level (i.e. unpainted).  Now for the rules themselves, I have no idea but the rulebook didn’t seem too thick so I figure as a newbie it can’t be that bad to pick up on them and play a game.

Finally, I opened up Necromunda and I was a little overwhelmed if I could be honest.  This is not a new player friendly set I can tell you that much.  I closed the box and asked my wife to take a look inside to see her reaction (she is quite a new player type gamer) and her reaction was a mix of “oh geez” and “yeah I don’t want to touch this.”  The sprues for the models was a true GW model kit and the level of details on the parts are standard quality.  This is not an easy peasy lemon squeezy kind of assembly though, it is full hobbyist level if you ask me.  I’m excited to assemble the gangers but if I was brand new to the hobby I would be a little overwhelmed.  I also see they brought back the templates much to my delight (I miss those templates!) and they included some nice looking wall terrain as well.

Past the kits, the cardboard insert was a giant assembly guide for the models if that is any indication of what kind of models these are.  Beyond that, the rest of the box was neatly assembled like Blood Bowl with a nice quality cardboard board, token sheet, rulebook, dice, and cards.  The rulebook was a big larger than the BB one and a bit thicker but a casual glance through reassured me in that a good chunk of the contents were lore-based instead of rule heavy.  Still, the quality of the game appears to be GW standard in terms of what I paid for, so I am excited to see how it plays.  As far as prep work to get playing it definitely feels like I’ll need some time before it’ll be ready to play.  With all of the options on the sprues, I get the feeling that the gangers will need some forethought in equipment and/or load-outs before putting them together.  So I think they could be ready after a day or so of assembly and planning.

I thought it was interesting that the order in which I opened the boxes is the same order I would place the games in order of new player friendliness.  Aristeia! was definitely the easiest of the three to get started but I also feel like it’s less of a wargame/hobby than a board game so there is probably that element to consider.  Blood Bowl certainly has the hobby element to it but the impression I got overall was that it is in that spot of being a board-game and a hobby and so it had elements from both sides of the coin.  Necromunda was on the other side of the spectrum and despite the board that it came with, this is definitely not a board game but part of a bigger hobby.  I’ve heard that in the first expansion book the rules provide a means to play Necromunda without a board and into the 3D, so that reinforces my opinion.

So there we have it!  I enjoyed letting myself get an initial impression from these games since I had the opportunity to open three new games where I have NO experience with them outside of acknowledging their existence.  I’m looking forward to trying these games out and putting together the models, or in Aristeia!’s case painting them, and I’m already thinking of color schemes and backstories for the gangs.  Maybe I’ll do a Slaaneshi Escher cult gang…  Anyways until next time folks enjoy yourselves in the hobby and may your dice favor your armor saves!

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.