Prerelease Enroute

So, yeah - it's another one of them. Sorry bout that.

Not sure why I'm apologising mind; I had another bat-rep lined up. I was actually gonna give Age of Sigmar a try - I know, right? A bit hypocritical after all the flak I've given it, but... well, the friend I played with last time really wants to try it, and I still have all my old Empire lying around... If anything, it'd be more petty to not try it.

Which'll leave a lot of you asking "Well, why didn't you then?". Broken boiler. He's having the repairman over today, so the game has been postponed until later this week.

Which is kinda a bitch, since it got cancelled yesterday, and I have nothing else to write about...

... So, Prerelease?

Yeah, I'm all up in that. I've been following the spoilers pretty religiously, and am basically sold on red/black vampire aggro. Swinging for seven on turn 3 is just horrendous. Of course, you don't really need me to explain all the everything - there are much, much better sources than I. Hell, LRR just ran a Pre-Prerelease over on Twitch this past weekend, which I really oughta watch...

But this really feels like the set for me. BFZ/Oath was nice, but... I just wasn't overly into it. I'm very much a fan of setting over story when it comes to tabletop... I mean, I like to read stories, but... Well, I'm just confusing everyone now.

Compare Tarkir to Theros. Theros was the story of Elspeth questing for a place to retire, and the trials she faced therein, while Xenagos is trying to achieve apotheosis... And the gods are having an argument, and kinda being jackasses. And that is basically the whole focus. Everyone but everyone knows who all the major players are from the get-go, and apart from a couple late-game trade-outs, it never really develops beyond that.
Meanwhile, Tarkir is a place where life is happening. Yes, Sarkhan is trying - and later succeeding - to find Ugin, but... 99% of the plane neither know, nor care. In Khans, they're all too busy living their lives to pay attention to the prodigal son (barring Zurgo and Narset), in Fate they're in the middle of a war of extinction to which he's tangentially related, and in Dragons they're trying to live their lives again. His actions affect the plane as a whole, but... really, we're just getting a glimpse into an interesting world where interesting people are doing interesting things. He's the protagonist, but we're the only people who are aware of this.

... and, in a very roundabout way of explaining why Zendikar didn't catch my attention. I mean, part of it is the lack of nostalgia, and that the sets' mechanics are take-it-or-leave-it to me... It's a bit hard to explain, but I think you kinda follow?

... Right?

In any case... distractions aside - I am looking forwards to Shadows over Innistrad, and Sunday cannot come quickly enough.

So, until then - hope you've enjoyed this little meander, and I'll get you a report in just as soon as I can.

Volodanti out.

I think he wants to battle...

So, happy days my friends, happy days indeed, for it is that most rarest of occasions - time for a battle report!

This is the fight I promised last week. Fought this morning, and edited... well, just now, it details the glorious battle between Hawk Lords and Black Blades. And by glorious, I mean a bit drawn out, but full of shenanigans.

Anyways, here's the thing - my opponent hasn't played in about... ooh, going on two years, so we left out a lot of more complex rules - it was a simple game of kill everything, and the first person to not be dead wins.

So, I brought Venris, 30 tactical marines and a Razorback, whilst he brought the Lord Executioner, 10 tactical marines, 5 assault marines, 5 vanguard, and a dreadnought. We rolled for Warlord traits; he had Iron Resolve (which was functionally useless) and I got Hold at all Costs (which was literally useless). So, he's off to a slightly better start.

Deployment wasn't too involved - I made a double line, he made a glob, and then the game was afoot!





So, turn 1 was pretty simple - my heavy weapons were in range, and nothing else was, so I unleashed a fusilade toward the Veterans, and after some lucky rolls (on the Hawks behalf) I managed to bring down two of them. In response, the Hawks surged forwards, their one missile missing entirely.



Turn 2 went better and worse. Now within bolter range, the Vanguard quickly fell to a wall of high-explosive rounds (first blood!), but the rest was a little disappointing - I only managed a single kill against the tactical squad, and my one missile bounced harmlessly off the dread. In response, the Hawks tactical squad advanced slightly and managed to take out two marines from the central squad. Meanwhile, the Assault squad closed to melee, suffering several wounds on the way, but managed to engage me.
Crap.
The two sergeants fought a glorious, if short, duel, whilst his Captain just waded through the grunts. At the end, I had only a couple men left in that squad, who promptly broke... and then were caught, so they just fought on.


Right, turn 3, getting interesting. I decided to leave the engaged squad to their fate, in the hopes of firing upon the assault squad once it finished them. Instead, I turned to the rapidly encroaching dreadnought. A lucky hit from the plasma gun shook the pilot, but otherwise I was without luck. Likewise, I only managed to kill a single tactical marine, in the shooting phase, before assault started and he killed all but three men. And then priority passed to my opponent...
... and it was a bad turn for me. Three men dead to shooting, the dreadnought approaching ever closer, and worst of all - my tactical squad survived combat! Now I couldn't even eliminate his commander with shooting...

Turn 4, and it was time to get aggressive. I withdrew Venris from his unit and sent him forth to engage the enemy commander. My missile squad fired ineffectually against the dreadnought, but the last squad and the razorback managed a trio of kills versus his tactical squad. Success!
... and then less so. Venris charged in, and issued a challenge... which his sergeant gleefully accepted. a few flubbed rolls later, and both I and he were stood looking more than a little embarrassed as his commander wiped the blood of Squad Alpha from his axe... 2-1 now.
In response, he shot down a few of my men, and then charged his dreadnought, which I utterly failed to halt, and sent his commander in to duel Venris. The dreadnought quite happily slaughtered my men with utter impunity, whilst Venris took a wound without causing any damage himself.

Turn 5 was... well, not a lot happened. I shot two men, he failed to even glance my razorback with a krak missile... it was all a little dull. his dreadnought happily slew a couple more marines, and the assault sergeant felt a little surplus to requirements.


But in the duel, fun was had. Y'see, I gave Venris the displacement field, which is a fantastic piece of tech. It's a 3+ invulnerable save, but whenever he passes it he scatters d6. So, come combat... during my turn, I ended up behind his sergeant. During his turn, I ended up behind his Captain. I imagine they were both most bemused.

Turn 6 - the last chance for both of us. My shooting whittled his unit down to just 2 men. In response, he... missed my razorback again. The dreadnought killed more men, and Venris flipped around without really doing anything. So, time came to total up the points, and see who'd won.


Well... me. One kill, and First Blood. Little disappointing ending, perhaps, but the interim was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I fear got my friend back into the addiction that is 40k.

... so, there you have it. That's what I did this week. Hope you found it worthwhile... I've rather missed doing these... And sorry if I rushed this ending a little - the Hawk's just started his break, and I reckon he'll want to read this.

Volodanti out

Return of the Mask

Hello everyone. How do I find you today?

It's been a wee while... well, a long while... but I thought I'd treat you to a little more of Perry. Well... no, that's a lie - I thought I'd treat you to a battle report, but annoyingly the person I'd intended to fight had to cancel... Which is doubly annoying because - shock horror - I was gonna play 40k for a change.

I know - he's a horrible person to have deprived you of this. I'll make sure to let him know.

Anyway, thanks to the sudden change of plans, I found myself rather short on content for this week... and, since it's been so long anyway - well, why not.

... and that's why it's kinda... well, short. Sorry bout that. But at least it is actual progress... right?

Next week'll be better organised. Promise.

Volodanti out.

An hour and a half later we were sat side-by-side in the crew compartment of a ‘speeder as it touched down in the manufacturing district. I’d donned a suit of combat armour under my greatcoat, while Aelius had exchanged his usual weskit for a flak-vest. He’d also deigned to carry a quarterstaff; currently contracted to barely a foot, though, like my shock maul, it could be deployed in less than a second.

We stepped out as soon as we landed; the tail of my coat flapping in the backwash of the jets adding an ominous whip-crack to our march. Aelius followed after me as we marched towards the factorum.

It was closed for the night; the windows a dark, reflective black next to the brown-brick of the façade. Heavy steel doors covered the loading bays; spaced apart so that near a dozen heavy-goods vehicles could be loaded simultaneously; far more than you’d expect for an oral hygiene manufacturer.

“They don’t just do Denta-shine,” Aelius murmured, obviously picking up on my confusion, “they also produce a range of dermal and hair cleansers.”

The door to the facility – or the door we used anyway – was a heavily padlocked side-entrance, raised a few steps above the ground with a row of rusting bars to stop someone bursting through the door and falling from the platform. Presumably, someone had fallen whilst working and received a substantial amount of compensation. In any case, a moments work and we passed through the heavy red door, and into the facility.

The first room we entered was simply the other side of the loading bays; a cold room, the rafters quite high above us. The floor was unabridged rock-crete; sloped toward the exterior wall to allow for easier loading, and the room was strewn with crates – likely filled with various body-care products. In all, it was little more than a passing distraction; one all but forgot about as soon as we left it.

We passed through a small arch on our way out of the loading bay; into a small rectangular courtyard surrounded on three sides by buildings, and a high, glass-topped wall on the fourth. I glanced enquiringly at Aelius.

“Er… forward sir.” He said, scrolling through his data-slate. “We’ll need to move about a third of the way in and then turn north. The powder production should be in that area.”

I nodded my understanding and set off, pushing aside a sense of disquiet that seemed not to have a start – perhaps it came about so gradually I hadn’t noticed until I was already inured to it? I let out a low sigh that I knew my helm would muffle and refocussed on the task at hand.

The next room was large – If I were to throw a stone, I doubt it would reach the far end. Not that it would have the option; the far side was heavily obscured by supports for a number of gantries, three vats that could each comfortably house a small family, and whatever machinery it was necessary to produce their commodities. I cast a sidelong look at Aelius and he gave a quick look around before shrugging.

“I have the building’s blue-prints,” he said, “but I don’t have access to what they’ve erected inside. I could find them if you want?” He added, pulling up his data-slate.

“No time.” I replied, winding my way into the tangle of conveyors and scaffolding. After a moment to look for an obvious solution, and a sigh when none came about Aelius followed.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to climb to the top?” Aelius grunted, ducking beneath a crossbeam. “Then we could at least plan ahead.”

“You’re welcome to if you think it’ll help.” I replied, a little preoccupied trying to fit through a space clearly not designed as a shortcut. When I looked back, he was already twenty foot up and making good headway. “Keep in contact.”

“No problem.” He voxed back, panting slightly. “I think I can follow the rest of the way from here anyway.”

I grunted in acknowledgement and continued onwards, beginning to regret not joining above.

MTG:RPG

So, I mentioned to y'all last week that I'd ran a session of the fan-made Magic: the Gathering Roleplay just after getting back, and I thought I ought to give a short review of it, along with a few minor changes I'd make.

So, first off - for those who are interested, it's something I found whilst browsing 1d4chan a couple weeks back. The full rules are up there - and pretty easy to find if you search for 'Magic RPG' - but I'll post a quick explanation of it here.

So, first off you play a mage - or possibly a planeswalker - on one of the planes of the multiverse. If I can, I'd like to do a campaign wherein one character ignites their spark every 2-3 sessions, and then they continue on a different plane and everyone else makes a new character, until we have a half dozen Planeswalkers adventuring together... but that's a thought for another time - for now, you wanna know how the rules work, yeah?

So, to start off - you make a backstory, which actually has a mechanical effect. You list the three defining events in your past, and how they affected who you are today. These are then turned into your colour identity. So, for example - you left home to attend a prodigious school (blue), graduated and became a wandering scholar (blue), before your quest for knowledge brought you to a temple to the dark gods (black). You'd then have a colour identity of UUB, which comes into it later.

Now, for the game itself... combat plays out with games of the Trading Card Game, but with a rather limited deck, and a few important limitations.

Next, you have 8 attributes; Power, Toughness, Life, Mastery, Speed, Channeling, Focus, and Memory. And I'll go through 'em.

Power and Toughness are identical to in the TCG. You start as a 1/1, but can increase them if you want... not necessarily that relevant, but sometimes you just need to get out in the field and help out.
Life is the same as in game too - you start with 5 life. Any time you take unblocked damage, you lose that much life. If you hit 0, you die... or arguably get knocked unconscious/etc. Depends on the circumstances I guess...

Right, onto the meat of the matter; your spell-casting abilities.

Mastery represents how much power you can put into a single spell, and is tied to Black mana. Essentially, the CMC of a card cannot exceed your Mastery.
Speed is your reaction time, and is tied to Red mana. You add your Speed to your roll to see who goes first, and you also use it to cast Instants onto the stack - unlike the TCG, you don't just get to respond.
Channeling is the amount of mana you can draw upon at a time, and is ties to Green mana... and is something I think is a little poorly implemented - but more on that later.
Focus affects how many spells you can maintain, and is tied to White mana. Essentially, if you ever control more non-land permanents than your Focus, you gotta start sacrificing them...
Memory is self-explanatory, and is tied to Blue mana. Basically, it modifies the number of spells you have in your deck - most decks have around 11-12 spells, whilst Blue decks tend to have 13-15. That also means that Milling is literally just erasing your memory - which is a flavour win.

Now, obviously you get a bunch of points to buy boosts with, but before any of that - you get a 1 point increase in your favoured attributes... that is to say - your colour identity. So, our scholar from above would get +1 to Mastery and +2 Memory... he's already off to a good start. This helps to make staying in a single colour more appealing, since you can only cast spells in your colour, and... well, if you're mono-coloured, you've denied yourself 4/6th of all cards printed.

... After that... the rules are a little vague to be honest. There's some ideas on the idea of fighting monsters (which seems interesting in a 2v1, but a bit unfair when you have 4 or more players), and don't get me started on the mana...

In the end, my system for combat was to make a couple low-power decks for my opponents to play against... in retrospect, they were a little too-low powered. If any of you are gonna do it yourself - 2 opponents versus for every 2 players seems the best solution... round up or down as needs be. Cos otherwise it's just too easy. Since I only ran this once... maybe do a couple practice games first.

... and as to mana... right, the way the rules describe it is your Channeling is the amount of coloured mana you generate during the Untap step, and then you can create as much generic mana as you want... which means that you have functionally infinite mana if you're only casting artifacts. As a counter to this, whenever you generate generic you suffer mana-leak for each unused coloured mana during your End Step... which basically just means you are either limited to around 4/5 mana per round, or you can't cast spells during your opponents turn. And it's not a system I am particularly fond of.
So, I came up with an alternative for the game we played: at the start of the game, I play out a few basic lands to represent the prevailing terrain, and alongside their Channeling, characters can tap them for mana... but, as a caveot, everyone is limited to three types of land they can tap. So, for example, a necromancer can't tap Plains, and someone in Gruul colours can't use Islands. It... sorta worked? Well, no - it didn't. It meant half the players had 8 mana turn one, and the rest had 3... which is not a good situation.

... So, I came up with a new plan.
Players put lands into their libraries - as many or few as they want. They each enter play with a number of Charge Counters on them equal to their owner's Chanelling. You can tap them to remove as many counters as you like, and each counter equals one mana... but, they only recover at a rate of one per turn. So, yeah - crack em straight away for a big nasty... and find that you're kinda screwed if the game goes on. Of course, that relies on you having high Channeling, and Mastery or Focus, but... eh, it's not a perfect system, but I'm still working on it.

... anyway, that's about as much to say for it as there is. If I ever play it again, I'll let you know about it, but... I wouldn't necessarily hold your breath. It was fun, but to be honest - it wasn't that much more fun than the TCG, and that is a lot easier to organise and play.

But, regardless - thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed the post. See you next week.

Volodanti out.