Tuesday, September 22, 2009

God Machine Delay/Adeptus Titanicus

Hey. I was swamped with school work last week so have been delayed. I am working on typing it up, so it will be coming to you soon.

I did get a play test in and I will say that the Space Hulk tiles are the perfect size for terrain. I am modifying the game slightly off that play test.

So to satisfy my readers I did find this: Adeptus Titanicus Rules

Those are the original rules from GW. Check them out.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Jaws of the World Wolf

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
(That is a Rant Alert for those of you who didn't know)
POLL RELATED POST

Read the rule here.

I imagine it would look something like this. Probably would be just a big wolf head eating things. Close enough. Game footage courtesy of Too Human. Good Game IMHO. Worth trying out. And maybe it will give you non SW players the sense of devastation that the SW players now get from their Runepriests.

I thought they were phasing out "Remove from game" because it was "too confusing" and conflicted with "Instant Death". Same reasons why they won't FAQ any MEQ (Marine Equivalent) list.

Well, Nidzilla is a dead list. At least Nids are up for a new codex soon. Sorry Nurgle. And necrons. And Tau.

Tau, Hammerheads are your only heavy support choice now for a tourney. Broadsides are too vulnerable. If I land one runepriest behind your lines, broadsides are toast. At least there is a reason to take Oshova again, being as he is an MC. Or does he just attack as one, I forget. Any ways, Battlesuits are a worse choice now for competitive play.

C'Tan are even freaking vulnerable. I agree they are a little too powerful, but they are Star Gods and should have some sort of immunity to a Human's Psychic power. Same with Greater Daemons.

What were they thinking:
Hmm, you can take 4 HQ choices (2 per slot) and deep strike the whole army.
Hmm, lets give this power of remove from game to Runepriests. Shooting Psychic power.
So now you can deepstrike 4 behind and army and let loose.
This will eat armies up. Quite literally.

It wouldn't be as bad if Inv saves could protect you, but no. Niether does Eternal Warrior. And being an MC doesn't help that much.
And why don't cover saves help? They do against Mind War. Which is an Eldar power. Eldar are SUPPOSSED to be better at this sort of thing. This is exactly what happened last time an SM codex came out after Eldar. For some reason the in-game psychic army does not match the fluff psychic army. At least they have some runes to try
One good thing I see is that normal dreads are a little more competitive now, as they can't be eaten (But a Carnifex easily can. How does that make sense?).

On a 4x6 board, with indirect fire, you can preety much hit anything you want with it's 24" range if you fall someplace near the middle with your Deep Strike.

Characters, DPs, Greater Deamons, MCs and expensive bodyguards beware. The World Wolf is hungry.

I did a little test on this last night. Just everytime I saw a room mate, I rolled a dice. Needless to say I killed my entire room rather fast (assuming they are humans with I3). I then did it for the Patriots vs Bills. Athletes have I4. Sorry, but I ate Tom Brady.

And we all know how dice work. Either you roll tons of 6's or 1's at once. So you know you'll go to a game and say "This won't be that bad" and then you will roll 6 for EVERY I TEST. I know it can happen. I rolled somewhere around 35% 6's and 15% 5's last night for a necromunda game. That means 1/3rd of the possible outcomes covered 1/2 of what I did (more impressive is 1/6 covering 1/3rd). And the 6's were on too wounds and wound results. The worst possible outcomes. I destroyed a Redemtionist gang by the hand of fate.

This will happen alot with World Wolf. Don't lie to yourself. You know you have dice superstitions. And this is just asking to cement them.

I know this post is kinda scatterbrained. I just am not happy. And I slept 2 hours. Then worked out. So yeah.

POLL ATTACK TO THE RIGHT -->

My earlier SW rant here.

Next post will probably have something on Bjorn and his objective giving. Heads up, its a rant.

Do you think Jaws of the World Wolf is too powerful?

Yes. Please Rant harder about it. 20 (45%)
Yes. Nom Nom Nom 11 (25%)
Eh. Can go either way 10 (22%)
No. It is balanced 2 (4%)
No. Space Wolves are sissy girls 1 (2%)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Musings on Necromunda

Well, after playing many games of Necromunda, and over a week's Hiatus as I worked out the kinks in God Machine (coming later this week), I thought I'd do a post on it.


Enforcers

Lessons I have learned
1. Shooting is King. Shooting gangs beat close combat gangs. It is just that since ever hit pins a guy, Close Combat gangs move slowly. And while pinned, they can be shot again. And then if there is no one near them to help a ganger recover from pinning, they stand up at the end of the turn just to get shot at again.

2. Techno skills rule. Any time you roll a 2 or 12 for an advancement, take a Techno skill. Inventor, Armourer, and Medic are all great. Weaponsmith isn't bad. Specialist is nice as you can get more special weapons. Fixer is the only eh one, but if you have a gambling den, you want it.

3. The more gangers, the better. Why? Remember shooting is king. Well yeah. The more guys you have, the more concentrated your fire is and the less concentrated your opponent's is. Simple really. You have better chances of taking guys down and out when you have more fire pooring onto them.

4. Don't play as enforcers. Yeah. Thats right. My own gang. You see, I thought the rule where if I am doubled in EXP I get 10 guys would help. The problem is since I always only have the 5 man patrol team, I always am the underdog, meaning I get crazy EXP bonuses for loosing even. I don't know if I will ever get to feild all 10 (unless guys start dying). Now also look at 1 and 3. Same things apply here. I took four guys with suppression sheilds and power mauls, so usually I have 2 in each patrol team. I thought S5 weapons with a 2+ save would be nice. The problem is that since I only have 5 guys on the table and only 3 with shooting typically (though inventor has earned me some extra guns finally), I get super blasted. And that 2+ save can't portect me against 10 hits with a -1 modifier to my armour. Eventually I always fail. Usually pretty fast. I have this happy talent for rolling one under what I need on armour saves.
One for one, all my guys are better. They have great equipment. All of them have over 70 EXP, 4 of them over 100. I have been lucky on skill and stat rolls. Invented 3 things, two of which were usefull (Power Sword and Needle Pistol). The thing is being outnumbered sucks. I need to roll +1 W more often.
At least I have no serious injuries due to medical (other than emnities and impressive scars). That is a godsend.

5. Hit and run is the best for the Attacker. Easiest mission and highest rewards. 3 of my 4 victories have been in hit and run. It is just easy for the Attacker to win, ESPECIALLY Enforcers. This is the one scenario that I thrive in. On a 3+ I have the whole patrol team, and in the first 2-4 Turns I am typically not out numbered. Scrag and Blitz are the best of these. Either you destroy the Water Still fast with high impact or sustained fire shots (or both), or you charge your target in scrag 2nd turn (if he is on the feild).

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Wishlist: What I would like to see GW make/do

Okay so this is a wide ranging topic, covering the top 10 things I would like to see GW do, though no in any particular order.

1- Release all codices within a year or 2 of the main rulebook release. ALL. Design it all at the same time. You can spread model releases out more, but rules should all be up to date at the same time.

2- Lower Prices. We all agree here. Their profit margin has to be crazy high, but they are always raising their prices, even as their productions costs go down from better technology

3- A plastic Warhound Titan for 40k. Mars Pattern. OH YEAH.

4- Knights for Apoc. Easy to make models for too. Basically be as ubiquitous as the IG superheavies.

5- More Support for Specialist Games / Less Support for LotR. Seriously, everyone I know who played LotR left it for 40k or fantasy, and then most those people end up playing Specialist Games. Lord of the Rings was popular for a while with the Movies, but now they are stretching it. Veterans want SG games. GIVE THEM TO US!!!

6- Games Day Atlanta. You took away the Gaming event for the South. Chicago has 2 huge events. Baltimore has 2. Las Vegas has an event AND SHOWGIRLS. The south has crap. Thanks. Thanks so very much for taking that away.

7- More Missions. 3 missions with 3 setups is not enough. Lets get some more out there.

8- Bitz. Give me back the option to bitz metal box sets and sprues at least. This preselected bitz pack thing sucks. You are loosing money to 3rd market parties GW. You could easily cut in on this market.

9- A Stormblade. Plasma Destructors are awesome. Every other IG super heavy exists, why not that one?

10- Sell a Hobby not a Product. They are so concerned with pushing plastic crack on 13 year olds that they forget about selling the aspects that keep the veterans in.

Necromunda Campaign and Titan Game News

So I should have V 1.0 of the titan game up here this month, probably around the 15th.

WORKING TITLE: GOD MACHINE

Planned Updating Schedule for the Game.
V 1.0 - Basic System Rules, Human Titans only
V 2.0 - Eldar and Orks introduced, differentiate Chaos
V 3.0 - Campaign Mechanics / Historical Missions / Titan Personalities
V 4.0 ~ Not sure yet, Nids most likely, more Missions

Updates will be released to each version as I get feed back.
Note, points costs will not be in 1.0. I need some feedback on that before I can decide.
V 1.0 will have alot of designers notes on it, as well as a page with questions I would like answered so I can work out any kinks.

Some things you will need:
25, 40, and 60 mm bases
3, 5, 10 inch templates
Hellstorm Template
Measuring tape
Some Paper and Scissors to make appropriate sized area terrain
d6 will be the only dice in the game


NECROMUNDA
So my gang got here yesterday. Built them. Wanted to Prime today but it rained. :(
Anyway, we are introducing an interesting mechanic to the campaign. As the Police, everyone will report to me what their guys do in terms of violence each game. I will building up files and putting out a most wanted list each week.
Other gangs then can attempt to gain the rewards by capturing these wanted men. But I won't offer the best deals, so they have to make the choice to trade with the Enforcers or with Gangs.
We may have rescues on the Enforcers be like a prison raid, not sure yet.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Planet Strike: Does it really matter?

No, it doesn't.

Two days, two rants.

So today I talk about Planet Strike and how it failed to live up to its hype.



First off, the good.
1- Cool terrain. All if it is pretty nice and easily combinable with the Cities of Death stuff.
2- Interesting new way to play. Definately puts a new spin on the game of 40k.

The bad:
1- Terrain. Wait? Didn't I just say it was cool. Why yse I did. Here is a cookie for you. Just because it is cool though doesn't make it good. Remember Cities of Death? Maybe. Have you ever played Cities of Death? No. Why? Because it required you to spend money on terrain rather than more 40k. Who wants to do that honestly? So many different things. You needs a bunch of bastions, all sorts of defense lines, turrets, landing pads. You could probably get a decent 1500pt army for what you need to play planet strike, unless you make your own terrain. Though making your own probably costs as much as a 1500pt eBay army. Thats why Apocalypse is great. Past the rule book, it is free.

2- Not Even. Certain armies rape in Planetstrike while others blow hard. Don't even think of playing as the Tau. And there is very little in the book to try and even the playing feild. And don't say assets. Planet Strike has a poor asset system. Anyways, Deep Strikers win. Period. End of story. You land and assault. Done. If you can deep strike and have meltas, just save time by declaring victory when you arrive to the battle. Then have a popsicle to celebrate.

3- Gimmic. It really is the same gimmic battle each time. People often choose the same assets game to game. You deep strike. You punch buildings. What I really want is new Missions for normal 40k. Release an expansion on that GW. 5th ed is just so static. Yeah, there are the 'ard boyz missions, but those are designed for very competitive 2500 pt play. I have seriously dug up old codices and rule books to play those missions. ALL THE WAY BACK TO 3rd ED! (Which I recently re-aquired to much delight, more on that later).

4- Who plays it? I hear of a game every so often, but all in all, it doesn't get played that much. Why not? Because I can just play normal 40k or I can whip out some super awesome super heavies for Apoc, which is cooler anyways.

5- Force orgs. Why bother with these weird big force orgs. If I was using Force Orgs that big, I'd just play Apoc. Seriously. You could have made it like a fantasy system where you need x number of core for y number of points. Every 1000 pts, the numbers increase. Then you'd have your precious ratios correct without these silly huge force org charts that really only restrict apocalypse sized armies.