Paintin' & Drinkin'

Hey folks,

Bryce here with some more Flames of War, I've been busy here in January. I've been looking for work, painting, trading, and trying new booze.

So today I'm going to have some of my painted minis, some pictures of my loot from wheeling and dealing, and finally a short review of a new whisky that I just picked up. We are nothing if not diverse in our hobbies here on DissentingDice.

Alright, so here's some progress shots of my Airborne infantry platoon from the Open Fire starter set.

Now here are the same guys after some washes and more work. Again, sorry for the terrible pictures, trying to find a good place in the house to take pictures. I need some more washes and such on them, and basing of course. 

Now on to my new acquisitions, I traded some Dark Eldar, I still have a functional army left still. Traded 20 hellions, a box of warriors, wyches and threw in my converted Baron. 

I got an Airborne company with 3 full size platoons, extra bazookas, snipers, a box of M1A1 105 artillery, a Sherman 76mm, an Airborne machinegun platoon, an 81mm mortar platoon, an M8 armored car, a bunch of extra guys and the D-Day boxed set, Dog & Devils, and D-1. 

Apparently these are engineer hand carts. 

M8 armored car, part of a recon platoon. 

Finally, here is a quick whisky recommendation, Grant's Whisky. 

I'm a Glenfiddich guy, the 15 year old is my favorite Scotch whisky. Grant's is the little brother brand to Glenfiddich, being blended as opposed to single malt. A 750ml bottle is $17 here in Houston TX, so that is what we are looking at investment wise. 

I would say this is a wonderful starter Scotch, it allows you to see if you like the liquor without having to lay out a lot of money. Also another reason this is a good starter Scotch, it's tasty and pretty mild. A good flavor, more leathery than Glenfiddich, but no where near as much as Glenlivet. It's a good Scotch, especially for the price. 

So if you want some Scotch whisky to get you into another hobby of mine besides wargaming, or if you want a good drink that you won't mind having daily or sharing, check out Grant's. 

Flames of War: Open Fire Review

Hey Gamers,

I've just moved to the southern Houston area. If you know any good game stores, or are in the area and wanted to game or grab a beer, let me know on twitter @bryce963.

But I have recently purchased the new all plastic Flames of War starter box called Open Fire. It's a great deal, you get a ton of miniatures, a mini rule book, some cardboard terrain to get you start, a quick start guide, markers and tokens, and some dice for $70.

You get the core of a German Grenadierkompanie, and some British tanks along with a US Airborne platoon.  We'll see those here in a just a bit, but first I want to discuss my thoughts on Flames of War so far.

I have played two games with myself , as well as watching some of a tournament at Asgard Games. Which is going to be my new gaming home so far. They have a very welcoming atmosphere, gamers who are enthusiastic and want to help people get into the hobby, and involved management. Basically, what else do you want?

All jokes aside playing with yourself is a great way to figure out a new game. It let's you try out things and figure out the rules at your own pace. So I'll have some idea what I'm doing when I get someone to do a learning game with me.

I just moved in Friday, and the fiance and cat are back in Lubbock, so I have had a lot of time on my hands to build and play. Sadly my paint is all packed up or I would have a lot of this cranked out by now.


Here we see a struggle between the German defenders and Allied attackers trying to take a village square.

I've played two different times and the Germans have just trounced the Brits and Americans. The Airborne platoon holds it's own, but the Pak40 anti tank guns just make a mockery of the Shermans when they can get a shot at them, and for the Shermans to try to knock them out they have to be in sight too. Also, the German platoons seem more than a match for even the most determined, skilled, and well equipped US infantry there is when there are twice as many of them.

So most of the challenge is to keep the Shermans alive so they can keep firing.
Alright enough of my ramblings, here's more model pictures. These new plastics put the metals to shame.

First we have the Germans:

Here we have a Company command team with a Panzerschrek team. Two platoons of 6 teams of Rifle/MG infantry with a platoon commander. In the back are three StuG assault guns. Not picture are the two PaK40 anti tank guns, those things go through Shermans like butter.

Finally we have the Special Relationship, a British tank company, and a US parachute infantry platoon.

We have a Brit Sherman V company command team, along with two platoons of Sherman Vs with a Sherman Firefly VC each. The Firefly mounts a large anti tank gun onto the Sherman body. Backing them up is a US Airborne platoon, with 6 Rifle/MG teams, as well as a mortar and a bazooka team.

CSM: Night Lords

Hey folks,

Here's my first shot at a Chaos Space Marines list. It does look like an army that I'd make in 5th. Not sure how I would make this a 6th edition army. A Heldrake, flakk missiles, allies? Does a 6th edition army just mean taking the new stuff?

 I know Night Lords are a non religious chaos army, which I like, but the Axe of Blind Rage is too cool. Also it will be modeled as warp talon parts.

So we have mobility through transports and jump troops, some ranged firepower and plenty of melta and a good amount of plasma. So would this be a more 6th ed list without the transports and 140 more points worth of troops? Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea. What do you think? Hit me up on here or on twitter @bryce963.

1848 points.

HQ
Chaos Lord, VoTLW, Jump Pack, Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation

Troops
10 Marines, +CCW, meltagun, flamer, VoTLW, power axe, Rhino
10 Marines, +CCW, meltagun, flamer, VoTLW, power axe, Rhino
10 Marines, 3x plasmaguns, Rhino, power axe, VoTLW
10 Marines, 3x plasmaguns, Rhino, power axe, VoTLW
10 Cultists, 8 autoguns, flamer

Fast Attack
10 Raptors, 2x meltaguns, VoTLW, power axe
10 Raptors, 2x meltaguns, VoTLW, power axe

Heavy Support
5 Havocs, 2x missile launchers, 2x autocannons
5 Havocs, 2x missile launchers, 2x autocannons

Let me tell you about my game. IKRPG

So gentle readers, last night I ran the Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press. It was a smashing success.

Most of this was due to my great players, and my willingness to just run with things. We were far less serious than the Iron Kingdoms seem meant to be. We had Viscount Maximus Gluttious Sextus, an Aristocrat/ Arcanist, his Khadoran bodyguard Ivan Ivanevich a Bounty Hunter/ Man at Arms, and Maximus' very capable Gobber servant (name) a Thief/Explorer.

Essentially our dilettante spellcaster was playing Hedonismbot with the power to blow people away with magic.
Our bodyguard was a hard drinking Khadoran veteran. And our Gobber was a long suffering fix it man(lady) that was the actual brains of the operation.

We were an Arcane Order, which we figured was part of the holdings of the Vicount's family, and included both an arcane library and an erotic arcane library. What I feared would be too short with just one carriage heist as the main plot/ combat encounter turned into a solid almost 4 hour session after character creation and not too long on the combat actually. The encounter took at the most 30 minutes and was great fun.

The players were worried about the crunchiness of the system during character creation, none had any Warmachine or Hordes experience, and only one had read anything of the rules. I helped them make characters by asking questions and having them make choices. They weren't sure about something seemingly so mechanically heavy after we had played more rules light systems just last week. But going through character creation they started to see what their abilities did and began creating personality as we went.

But once we started getting into the actual game it was breeze. We had to look up how a few things worked, mostly just some odd placement of rules where we couldn't find them easily.

It was weird, it was fun, and I'd say give the IKRPG a try.

Also, lighten up and go with it. I was able to get some Iron Kingdoms flavor snuck in around a lot of absurdity, so just roll with it.

Star Wars: X-Wing First Look

Hello again dear readers, 

This weekend I went and hung out with some of the guys from Hitting On 3s. I watched @John_Laird and Blood Angels Ben play in a team tournament put on by Adeptus North Texas and hung around at  Gunslinger Games in Dallas. Also there at the team tournament was Chuck (@fantasticgam3s) from Big Mek's Garage. 

Most importantly you can hear me on the podcast with the HO3S boys HERE.

Alright so the plugs are done. On to my new gaming experience!

Thanks to a kindly gamer named Will there at Gunslinger I got to check out X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games. It was just as slick as I have come to expect from FFG. This is a well put together game, from the components, to the accessories, to the models, and even the rules as far as I can tell. 

Below you can see the squadron I took for a test drive, two X-Wings and a Y-Wing. Each ship is represented by a pilot card, each of which has varying degrees of skill and points cost as well as different abilities and upgrade options. We played the recommended 100 points, I was able to get two named characters, a mook, and a proton torpedo and astromech for all my fighters, as well as an ion cannon for the Y-Wing. 

Here are the miniature ships, to a good scale I think, they also are quite good for pre painted minis. Though both of us being big Star Wars geeks immediately wanted to start painting them with custom squad markings or those from famous squadrons of a Galaxy Far, Far Away. 

You can also see the maneuver dials above the ships,some tokens and spare upgrade cards, those are just small sample of the boatload of cool components in this game.  

So you select a squad worth an agreed points cost, above are the three I was able to get. Here are the five TIE fighters will was able to get, including two named characters as well as Darth Vader in a TIE Advanced. It was rather intimidating. 

In addition to Will's sweet Gungan submarine shirt, you can see the flight stands that all the fighters come with. They have interchangeable stat cards that slot in telling you the most relevant combat stats at a glance. They also have numbers that can be placed on the stand if you are running more than one of the generic pilots. 

Alright, this next shot will show a lot of the components and let me explain the rules a bit. 

 

Here the two squadrons are closing in with each other. There is a lot going on, and it is all kept rather orderly with the shit ton of tokens provided with game.

First is the Planning Phase, where you use one of the maneuver dials to select which movement template you will use. Those can be seen to the right. So you can go left, right, and forward in 1,2,3, or 4 inch increments. You can also do an Immelman, or a barrel roll if your ship is capable. 

 So you then reveal your maneuver selections and move pilots in alternating order from lowest pilot skill to highest. After you move you can perform an action that is indicated on your card. Such as Focus, which allows the eyeball symbols on the dice to count as hits, or acquire a Target Lock (the crosses next to ships) which can be spent to launch ordinance or re-roll any number of attack dice. There are other actions as well granted by abilities or equipment. 

After this you go to the combat phase, which is done from highest pilot skill to lowest. You roll whatever number of red attack dice( of course special ones with symbols, it is FFG) against whatever number of green defense dice your opponent is entitled to. This is a pretty simple system, but there is a lot more too it once you realize just how important actions are to success in the next combat phase. Planning is key. 

Finally just to underscore that planning bit here is where we ended up the next turn. If you overlap bases when the ship comes to rest, the moving ship cannot make an action and neither ship may shoot at the one it is in base contact with. So this was a right clusterfuck. All the TIEs basically focused on my Y-Wing and blew it up, and then I got my X-Wings around behind them with Immelman turns and put a few more points of damage on Vader before we had to end the game. 

So all in all, I am now planning on picking this up, they are even releasing 4 new ships soon, so you will have the choice between X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, and the Millennium Falcon, on the Rebel side. And regular TIE fighters, Advanced and Interceptors, as well as the Slave I for the Imperials. 

I am sure there are more ships to come, give me an E-Wing or an XJ to fight TIE Defenders and Coral Skippers. 

Iron Kingdoms RPG.

Hey loyal readers,

I've been out of the loop for quite a while, since my last post I traveled to England, France, and Spain, started working as a substitute teacher and got several exciting game things. A Chaos look over and some list ideas are in the works for later too.

First of all, if anyone wants to hear about my travels, I could do a post, leave a comment or hit me up on twitter @bryce963.

Second, I LOVE Iron Kingdoms RPG!

Privateer Press has released an all in house roleplaying game based off of their popular Warmachine. I was a big fan of the Iron Kingdoms setting for 3(.5) D&D. But this one is pure Privateer through and through and it is wonderful.

You can find an intro adventure with quick start rules (actually most of the rules needed to play) and pre made characters with sheets HERE.

Anyone familiar with Warmachine/ Hordes will be able to pick up the resolution mechanic and most of the rules of the RPG almost instantly. Just like the wargames it is 2d6+ Stat to beat a target number. Simple but this lots of ways to modify and improve your chances though either character abilities, weapons and gear or player use of Feat Points.

The system, in particular combat, does track quite closely to WM/H. But it is a zoomed in, detailed, granular, and personal version. This can lead to people saying oh, it's just a miniatures game. Not exactly, there is a lot of support for non combat skills, actions, abilities, and roleplaying supported by mechanics.
Unlike 4e D&D, where there was a lot of tactical combat choice and flexibility, there wasn't much besides handwavery between combats. I like mechanics that augment roleplaying, and having a good foundation under a well done combat system is exactly what I want from an RPG.

A few features that I think are major selling points include character creation, Feat Points, the action economy, and cross compatibility. Along with an overall high quality product.

Very first however, the first 103 pages of the book are nothing but setting information and history.

Character Creation

You have the choice between 7 races (Human, Gobber, Dwarf, Iosan elf, Nyss elf, Ogrun, and Trollkin), 4 Archetypes (Gifted, Mighty, Skilled, and Intellectual), and 28 different careers. Only 8 careers are limited by race or national origin, and two of those allow multiple races.

You begin with a race, this gives you your starting attributes, racial maximum attributes, and any extra abilities.  Humans of course are well rounded, the different types of elves are not only thematically distinct but mechanically as well, Trollkin just won't stay dead, Ogrun are enormous and hulking, and Gobbers are slight and nimble if a bit below average.

Then you choose an archetype, which gives one ability such as a extra die on damage rolls from Mighty, the ability to use magic with Gifted, an extra attach with Skilled, or a +1 to Attack and Damage rolls for nearby allies with Intellectual .
The archetype also grants you access to a large menu of related abilities to further customize your character, these include things like; an additional spell, spending a feat point to get an additional die on attack rolls against a named enemy, moving after you strike an enemy in melee, or a personal favorite exchanging a feat point to create a situation on the fly to hamper your foes.

After this you choose 2 careers that give you abilities, skills both combat and utility, starting gear and cash and advancement options. These are not necessarily what your job is, they are descriptions for your skill set and background. So a Gunmage/ Soldier would be more defined by the arcane gunfighter aspect of his career, whereas an Aristocrat/ Duelist could be a young rake with daddy's money and something to prove, or the educated and skilled heir to a notable family who has studied the gentlemanly arts.

You have a huge amount of options to tailor your character to be just what you want them to be. Privateer also has more books on the way, the first deals with the Iron Kingdoms( the human territories the setting is based around), and others deal with the wilderness ( looking at you Hordes players), and other surrounding civilizations( elves, dwarfs, etc.). These books will no doubt expand the careers, races, archetype options and everything else from the core book. There will also be books that delve more into the magic, mechanika, warjacks and other technology that make the Iron Kingdoms such an interesting place.

Feat Points

These are essentially actions points from other settings done about as properly as they can be, the Bennies in Savage Worlds(especially Deadlands) are done just as well I think. In the above linked intro adventure the full list of Feat Point options is listed. Some highlights include, Heroic Dodge- halving the damage taken from an attack, Two Fister- being treated as having two weapon fighting and ambidexterity for a turn, re-rolling a failed roll, or gaining an additional quick action
These can be recharged when you score a critical (two of the same number on a roll), downing an enemy, or for suitably heroic or cool deeds. 

Actions

Again here is a nice use of the Warmachine mechanics but with more zoom and choices. You get a move and an action on your turn, before any special stuff. You move can be an advance( more your speed stat), or a run or charge, these are all just like the war game. The action is where things get fun and choosy, you can
take a full action, an attack and a quick action or two quick actions. Things start to get interesting here, reloading a gun is a quick action, so fire and reload your rifle, pulling a grenade pin is a quick action, so pull the pin and toss. But casting a spell is also a quick action, so you can shoot and cast, or cast twice. All of that in addition to moving.

Things really heat up when abilities from archetypes, gear, and careers start interacting with the actions. Granting you more, allowing you to do more with fewer actions, letting you get around restrictions on combining actions, etc. Finding ways to work with and exploit the actions is a mechanically rewarding expression of your characters abilities.

Cross Compatibility

As far as I can tell, you can easily fudge Warmachine and Hordes bad guys into IKRPG. Many of the abilities are similar, if not identical, and the operative combat stats are the same MAT, RAT, DEF, ARM, and damage rolls. The individual abilities of models might need some wiggling to make it fit, but not very much at all. Many of the details are covered somewhere in the RPG if they differ from the war game version, but there are not many of them. Most common weapons used on the table top are present in the RPG, if they even need that much detail for a combat encounter.

Most things can be reverse engineered from the war game to the RPG, the biggest problem I have found so far is what Warjacks would cost on the open market. Also, normal enemies with 1 box of damage on the table top would just have 4-5 general vitality in the RPG, no need for a damage spiral with mooks.


So in conclusion I really like this RPG, it takes the good parts of Warmachine(which is most of the game), and puts you into the drivers seat. You don't play with a squad of trenchers, you play a trencher, down on his luck working for a mercenary company. You don't have the officer use the Dig In order, you use your Dig In ability to dig a fox hole as a quick action and start firing at your foes.

So check out the free adventure which has most of the rules in it, look at all the good things the classes in the pregen characters can do, and hope your FLGS has a copy. Because IKRPG sold out at the manufacturer level about two weeks after release.

Thank You Slate, Thank You Vets

I'm sure many of you have seen this wonderful article from Slate about US servicemen playing 40k and wargames in general.

I was astounded that our kind got such a fair, honest, and positive review. I know that this was specifically about active duty personnel and veterans, and they are likely the best spokesmen for our hobby one could find, but the way the hobby and players were treated was refreshing.

After so much negative coverage of video game players (not undeserved in many instances), having a positive, unprejudiced portrayal of wargamers is a great thing for the hobby. This article would be something to show family and significant others that just don't get it yet. We are not all the stereotypical basement dwellers with poor hygiene that traditional depictions of gamers have relied on.

Many friends and people I've played with are veterans,  we even have a couple active duty guys between deployments at the shop in Lubbock. I want to say thank you to them, and thank you to Slate for letting them make all the rest of us look good too.