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.

6th Edition so far. Part 1.

Hey everybody,

I'm still looking for work, but now I'm getting some games in and doing some modeling.

I've played 3 games of 6th with 2 different armies, I have started to form an opinion.

I like it. A lot, it's different, it's zany at times, but its solid and fun. Warlord traits have yet to mean much to me, I've not rolled any that have been helpful, or that I can remember. I've not played with vehicles much, but I have played against them, and glancing things to death can be too easy. This edition might be a bit too much of a back lash at all the vehicle and especially transport heavy armies of 5th. It feels like GW has swung too far the other way. Especially with the FAQ changes to transports that make them even more detrimental to the unit inside.

With the changes to wound allocation since Friday, a lot of what I'll be talking about in these brief reports will be outdated. But I will try to address that.

I won a 40k tournament! Against two other guys not long after 6th came out. But I still won.

GAME 1- TAU & MARINES

Here we see the enemies of the Grey Knights arrayed before them. Awaiting their doom.
With the previous wound allocation rules I was able to just throw wounds I didn't want off of Draigo and onto my chosen bitch for the game, you see him there holding the daemon head. That one guy took a lot of fire and kept at it. I took railgun shots on Draigo because he just doesn't give a fuck, now he would no longer get the Feel No Pain rolls that happened way more often than they should have.

In this game and well all games with my Paladin army, I slowly marched up the board and shot the ever loving crap out of one thing a turn. After taking out the dread with Draigo, and then the marines there to the left I had most of a Tau army to contend with still. This is where I first got my taste of 6th Edition flanking. It's so cool that it matters where you are shooting and where you are shooting from now. His suits started picking off my guys on the side and I couldn't Look Out Sir(pre FAQ Paladins were characters) off of my psycannon guys and he took one of them down along with a couple extremely capable bullet catchers.

This was a kill point mission and I only had 5 total after combat squading my second 10 man Paladin squad. He did kill Draigo because I was dumb and sent him off after a Crisis Suit squad alone. But I still managed a double digit kill point lead.

GAME 2- CHAOS & DAEMONS

Here our intrepid heroes face down a horde of berzerkers, daemon princes, defliers, and Skarbrand. This was an objective game with 3, he won the roll to place two, both in his side of the board, I put my one right in the middle.  He also had a large squad of blood letters in reserve.

Again our boys just marched forward and started firing. Taking out most of the berzerker squad turn one. Then his turn one the deflier charged first and got overwatched to death( I had the power that let me overwatch at full BS),  itwas glanced and pinned to nothingness before he could even say Blood f...! The remaining berzerkers then charged unmolested. They challenged and Draigo met the foul unit champion for single combat, we forgot about the re-rolls from the unit.

The Initiative 6 halberds getting to move in on their round stopped the charge in it's tracks, Draigo then handily defeated the berzerker champion.

After this on my turn we made our first rules mistake, I thought that the divination power let you use full BS when snap firing, it is only on over watch, so I shouldn't have been able to kill that swooping daemon prince so easily. Lesson learned. My other Paladin squad came in from reserve and one teleported in response to the blood letters that had materialized in my backfield and the other had a mishap while going after the defiler guarding the back objective. So my opponent placed them in the farthest corner from him that he could.

The game ended up with me shooting the crap out of the other defiler( the mission was the one where Heavy Support also scored), and my 5 man squad fighting off the blood letters handily. Also, Draigo broke off to challenge Skarbrand and the Chaos Lord alone.

Between the blood thirster and blood letters this was the first time by Grey Knights had used their anti Daemon rules, it was pretty ridiculous. Skarbrand failed his leadership test and was banished back to the warp after suffering only one wound and the Chaos Lord stood little chance at getting through Draigo's 3++ and 2+. But they did put some wounds on him.

Draigo then went after the other berzerker squad holding the objective in the building seen in the back ground. We called it after this fight. It was another victory.

So my first ever tournament first place, out of 3 guys. But we all won something and none of us had to chip in for the tournament cost. It was also a cracking good time.

I'll try to get another post up for next week about my first Escalation League game at Stormcrow Games, it was my first run with Dark Eldar in 6th and was the closest game I have ever played, and won.

In the mean time, I am leaving for Europe for vacation next week and will be in London next weekend, the 15-17th. If any of you UK readers want to get together and talk 40k over a couple pints let me know on twitter @bryce963. I'm wanting to do an interview with a UK gamer on the actual and perceived differences of the hobby in it's birth place and amongst us Colonials.

40k Follow Friday. #FF

Hey Everybody,

Today I want to share some people in Texas that I talk about gaming with on Twitter.

1). Jyo, a buddy of mine for a while now, we played in a doubles tournament at WarGamesCon a few years ago. He runs around on twitter as @hungryclone, has a really nice looking chaos army all with Space Wolf wolf helmets, they actually look cool with such consistency.

2) The Hitting on 3s podcast guys. Matt, Galan, and John plus guest stars, of which I hope to be soon, they talk gaming, life and do it in style. I have been listening to the podcast at the gym recently, it even makes an elliptical entertaining. I am the only person laughing my head off while on weight machines. Also, it's great to hear people talk gaming from the DFW area, makes me right at home. I hope to be able to stay in town long enough to get some games in with these guys and sit in on a show. You can find them on twitter at their site.

Eleganza Extravaganza!

Today we are going to talk about extravagance.

Also, if you've not watched any of RuPaul's drag contests, you're missing out.

Right now I'm reading Double Eagle by Dan Abnett, a book about an air war during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Most often we get to watch the foot soldiers, sometimes with tanks, those offer nice human faces we can experience the 40k universe through. In a few of my favorite examples we scale up to Titan's and their crews duking it out like gods. But only in some short stories that I have found do we get to hang out with pilots. This book is 40k Top Gun, and I'm enjoying it.

But I'm not actually here to do a book review, I'm here to talk about an army that was inspired by Double Eagle, the costs of the army, and the costs of getting it painted.

Alright, here is the Phantine Skyborne army list I will be working from at 2000 points.

HQ

235 Company Command, 2 plasmaguns, vox caster, medic, carapace armor, 2 body guards, plasma pistol, officer of the fleet, astropath

Troops

165 10 Veterans, Grenadiers, 3 plasmaguns, vox caster, missile launcher

165 10 Veterans, Grenadiers, 3 plasmaguns, vox caster, missile launcher

165 10 Veterans, Grenadiers, 3 plasmaguns, vox caster, missile launcher

150 10 Veterans, Grenadiers, 3 meltaguns, vox caster, missile launcher

150 10 Veterans, Grenadiers, 3 meltaguns, vox caster, missile launcher

Fast Attack

260 2 vendettas

260 2 vendettas

260 2 vendettas

Heavy Support

190 Thunderbolt Fighter, Chaff Launcher 

Alright, the Forge World order will give me 65 troops to work with, lascannon kits for the Valkyries, 5 sets of weapons( for 10 total meltaguns and 11 plasmaguns), 6 missile launchers, and the Thunderbolt. Total $792.45, but hey free shipping.

 

From GW 6 Valkyrie kits, a Lord Commissar, a Primaris Psyker, and a group of Regimental Advisors comes out to $444.25.

Now to get them all Microart Bases. I chose the desert theme because they have them in all the correct sizes and in Double Eagle, the ground battles have so far been in the desert. 

7 sets of 25mm bases is $41.93, 6 60mm bases for the missiles is $53.94, and 7 120mm bases for the flyers is  $125.93. 

The cost of models so far is $1,236.70. Accessories are $221.80. 

For a total materials cost of $1,458.50.  Excluding tax and shipping. 

Alright, now to get them painted, I would use Thomas aka. Goatboy. Because I know him, I like his work, and he does it for a reasonable price. You can find his services at http://fullofmonkey.com. 

I would be going for a light-medium gray with dark blue accents for my drop troop army. 

For the troops at his Tier 1 paint level for all 60 25mm based soldiers would be about $600, build costs of $1-$3 each, and a painting cost of $8.00. 

For the 6 missile teams on 40mm bases it would be $96. Build costs of $3-$5 each, and a painting cost of $12 each. 

For the command squad, advisers, and extra HQ models for options we get $140 at his Tier 2 painting. With build costs of $1-$3 each, and a painting cost of $12 each. 

For the 6 Vendettas painted at Tier 1 we get $210, build cost $5-$15 each, and painting of $20-$30 each. 

And finally for the Thunderbolt I would want something special, so Tier 2 painting for this fighter ace. About $115, the Forge World model prices vary greatly. Build cost $20-$50, and fancy Tier 2 painting $60-$100. 

Painting total costs roughly $951.

Alright that brings our grand total for an almost entirely Forge World army, all in flyers, with professional painting to $2,409.50. That includes free shipping on all the models, but taxes for all of it and shipping on the bases would be extra. 

So there we have it folks, if I won the lottery I would be paying off my student loans, and my girlfriends, pre paying rent for a year on an apartment, buying all the equipment I need to start a law practice out of my home or an office, then buying an entire fancy 40k army and having it painted. 

d50 Shades of Grey(hawk)

The link is a delightful post from the Challenge Rating 25 blog about the survey yesterday for D&D Next asking about iconic spells.

The survey seemed a bit silly to me, but if it helps make D&D better, I'm for it. I was not a fan of 4e, and play Pathfinder now. But I am excited to see what they do with D&D Next, not all of 4e needs to go, minions are a good concept.

But here is the hilarity.

http://challengerating25.blogspot.com/2012/07/im-helping.html

Uncertain is the new normal.

Hey everyone, Bryce here, with some quick 6th edition thoughts.

 Jack and I are currently studying for the Texas bar exam, so here are a few of my precious moments with some thoughts on the new edition.

 Full disclosure I have not had the chance to play yet, though I have read through the rules and have an ok grasp on them for not having a chance to play.

 What I'm going to talk about today is what I feel is one of the biggest changes to the system. Uncertainty is a big part of the game now.

 Yep, I know we can premeasure and a few other things like hull points do make some things a little more certain. But the pervasive uncertainty is what I think a lot of people have a problem with.

 So the elephant in the uncertainty china shop, charging. Charge range has become 2d6. Yes "average" is 7, but if my dice always rolled average I would on Team America. But that is only a third of the uncertainty in charging. Since you roll charge range AFTER taking any casualties from the front for overwatch, that can really mess up any careful planning. Or it might not. Who knows?

The last part is the uncertainty of overwatch itself, it is fairly hard to hit a charging model, but if you can even get a few you can stop a whole charge and leave an assault unit out to dry.

Just this one example of charging into assault is indicative of the uncertainty I feel from reading the rules and as an under current in a lot of posts and comments. We can count on few things to come through for us anymore. I know that worries me.

So is it new rules, or is the the uncertainty of the new rules that is bothering people most?

Lords of Waterdeep: Review

Hey everyone,

Here at DissentingDice we do other things besides school work, miniatures games and drinking. We play board games and drink too!

Today I am going to be talking about the relativly new board game from Wizards of the Coast, Lords of Waterdeep. This is a Euro game (from what I can gather that means victory points, meeples and no dice), based upon vying for power in the Forgotten Realms metropolis of Waterdeep.

BOX PIC

This is a worker placement game similar to Stone Age, yes I am sure there are more common worker placement games but I have board game hipster friends. 

Each round players take turns assigning their agents (see it's still a law school blog after all!) to different buildings in Waterdeep to gain certain benefits. 

GAMEBOARD PIC

Here is the game board, this is a much better show than tell game. 

Alright this gives you an idea of what this all looks like. You have your meeple agents assigned to different buildings. You have quest cards, and the additional locations you can build and even some of the little adventurer cubes. 

So, the point of the game is to assign your agents to locations to get adventurers and gold so that you can finance sending them off to their doom on quests that gain you more power and influence. 

Here we have one of the buildings with an agent on it. 

BUILDING PIC

So in this example the blue player has put one of their agents onto The Grinning Lion Tavern, this space only has room for one agent, as shown by the little outline under him. When your agent is place on this spot you receive two black cubes, which are rogues in the game. You need these adventurers and gold to complete quests, which give you victory points and other resources.

CARDS PIC

As seen from these examples quests come in 5 flavors, those correspond to the two secret quest types each player gets bonus points from. This is where the game is won and lost, with end of game bonuses based on your secret goals.
On the quest cards you see little cubes and squares with holes. These represent the adventurers and money needed to complete the quest. Rewards are typically victory points but can be more resources or a plot quest which gives an ongoing benefit.
You get quests by putting an agent on one of three quest slots, you then choose from the 4 available quest cards. One slot gives a quest card and two gold, the second gives a quest and an intrigue card (we'll get to those in a minute) and the third resets the available quests and you choose from there.

Well, we have talked about worker placement and quests, now for intrigue cards.
Here is one:

INTRIGUE PIC

These cards can only be played if you put an agent on a certain slot. But there are three open slots at that location. So you put your agent on the slot, you then play an intrigue card, just do what it says on it. Then at the end of the round you can reassign the agent to an available slot. The spaces that allow intrigue cards to be played are labeled 1,2,3, so the order of this reassignment is resolved that way. Essentially you get two turns with one of your guys.

You can also use an agent to purchase a building, shown at the bottom of the picture with the whole board. This makes more slots to put people on and gives the players more options. It also has a Monopoly aspect, if someone else uses the building you own, you get some benefit too. Just like Monopoly but actually fun.

Speaking of actually fun, this game is a blast. I have played four times now, with people of various levels of gaming exposure, everyone has loved it. It only takes a turn maybe two before even non gamers start really getting into it. I have played with three and with the full five people. I really wish Wizards would release a 6 player expansion (there is an extra slot for it) so more people can play. Different numbers of players means different numbers of agents, so that everything balances and flows better.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a great way to spend time with friends.

Dystopian Wars, First Impression

Good morning ladies and gents, I'm coming to you live from the local Chick-fil-a's wifi. I do really wish they were a proud corporate sponsor of us here at DissentingDice. I didn't get into blogging for the money, but chicken sandwiches and waffle fries would be nice. 

So the local gamemonger Aaron of Stormcrow Games and I played out first game of Dystopian Wars yesterday. 

We had a blast, don;t know if we got everything correct, but it was fun. The thrills and spills of exploding dice make the game very swingy, but in a fun way.   The rules are simple on their face, but quite complex when things start interacting with each other. Though we really only had to keep going back again and again to the rulebook when tiny fliers were involved. Most other things were either easy to remember or on the cheat sheet. 

Though, the biggest lesson I learned was deploy your battle ship near the battle, I put mine on the flank and with out a kinetic generator I was well into the game before he started making much of a difference. 

Here is the only picture I managed to snap while we were playing. 

Aaron's fresh out of the box Empire of the Blazing Sun, and my more and more painted FSA. 

I put shield generators on everything that could take them, it did lead to some stupid durability on the cruisers. Having only two dice can mean the difference between 1 damage and a critical hit, or if you roll sixes just negate a huge attack. 

However, this increased durability was at the cost of offensive power, Aaron used his rockets to good effect by chipping away at my frigates or menacing my cruisers. Having the shield brings the cruisers down only the single forward gun (and an aft gun with a 90 degree arc) at least the battle ship still has it's broadsides.  I think having that long range firepower to soften the enemy or sink a few small ships on the way in would be a good idea. The battleship being all but immune to single digit dice rolls because of the shield sounds like a much better idea on it. 

Also bombers don't seem that cool to me, and it's  hard to use the bombs. They use fixed channels, and the bombs are out the back. So you would need to do the sort of hilarious turning maneuvers that Aaron did so that he could fire bombs out the back at my cruisers. Something we messed up on, bombs are only 4 inch range, not range band 1 i.e. 8 inches, so they are even more of something you don't try to use and just get lucky when you can. Lame.  However my bombers did finally sneak up obscured and throw a lot of torpedoes at his battleship, actually doing some damage to the monster. 

All in all this was a really fun game, the rules are very different from GW games or Warma/Hordes, there are a lot of moving parts and it will take some getting used to. Though after we figured our that we can pre-measure that would have made things easier. But driving into the middle of the enemy and unleashing guns all over the place was really cool, as Aaron showed me beating the crap out of my cruiser squadron with some frigates. 

So, yet another ringing endorsement of Dystopian Wars. 

Dystopian Wars, Part 2

Yesterday we talked about models, today we talk about the rules.

Alright, the name of the game in Dystopian Wars is rolling handfuls of dice while making explosion and gun noises. The basic mechanic is take a certain number of dice(Attack Dice AD), roll them and count the number of certain results. This is then compared to the amount of damage that a model can withstand(Damage/Critical Rating DR/ CR), if the number of hits equals or exceeds the damage rating, a hit (Hull Points HP) is done, if the number of hits equals or exceeds the critical rating a critical hit is done, and you roll on a critical table for bad stuff.

The fun part of all these handfuls of of dice is that except in a very few instances they explode on a 6, which counts as two hits and can be re-rolled. Allowing even the most puny frigate to get a lucky punch and sink a battleship. This is also consistent throughout all types of attacks, cannons, torpedoes, rockets, tesla coils and friggin lasers. Except to hit the tiny flyer tokens(various types of normal sized airplanes), those dice do not explode, though on a 6 one of the tiny flyer tokens is destroyed

Here is an example of a stat card to better illustrate these delightfully simple mechanics above.

Here you can see the attack and defense stats I just talked about.
You have a weapon grid that shows the number of dice that are rolled at certain "range bands" each of 8 inches. So range band one is from the ship to 8 inches, range band 2 is from 8 to 16 inches and so on. With the maximum of 32 inch range these little ships can hit a rather large territory. However most weapons roll more dice the closer they are, but some get more effective the farther you are away like the rockets the Americans and Japanese are fond of.

Also on this card you have the movement, Assault Points(AP), Anti Air (AA), Concussion Charges( CC), and Ram Rating(RR) of the ship. Assault Points are used to board other ships with rocket marines. Yes all infantry in the game (though they are much too small to see at the 1/1200 scale) have jet packs! These troops are resisted with the AA rating of the ship being attacked, with hits negating hits from the marines. Damage is then done to the AP score of the ship being attacked. If reduced to 0 the attacker captures the ship as a prize.

AA is also used against rockets and airplane attacks that are close enough. CC is used against torpedoes and submarines.
The back of the stat card lists the Model Assigned Rules, special rules that make the models more than just moving handfuls of dice to throw. The type and class of the model and what percentage of your force can be that type. As well as the firing arcs for all weapons and the number of models in a squadron.

Here are examples of the different firing arcs for different types of weapons. 

Copyright Spartan Games. 

The firing arcs look like a lot of where the game is played, your movement sets up the shots, you make turns and move so your guns can do their job. You can have a huge broadside and rockets and tesla coils, but none of it matters unless the enemy is in the firing arc for those guns. 

Rockets, tesla coils, and torpedos typically are in fixed arcs. So that means straight out from that facing of the model, it is the width of the model or base for land models. Turrets have more flexibility with targeting, but their firepower can be reduced as you take damage, whereas rockets and torpedoes aren't. 

Now for a little more on the combat mechanics now that we've talked about the exploding dice and firing arcs. Guns are also divided into Primary and Secondary weapons, this affects the roll to hit or 

The normal dice roll for an ordnance attack (guns, rockets, torpedoes etc.) hits on a 4, 5, or 6. A red six is rather cleverly used in the rules to denote that this type of roll explodes, if the to hit number does not include a 6, then the dice roll does not explode on a 6. 

There are certain situations that can affect the number needed to score a hit, such as various MAR's that add or subtract from a roll. Other ships and terrain can block or obscure line of sight, this reduces the number of attack dice that a ship uses. 

Alright everyone, that is it for now, there is a lot to this game, but it seems like it all meshes quite well. 

Dystopian Wars, Part 1

Long time no type my dear readers,

We have been quite busy with the whole law school portion of this blog.

But that didn't stop me from heading down to the wonderland that is Austin, TX. The State's mecca of culture, government and most importantly gaming. I was able to pick up the starter fleet for the Federated States of America faction in Dystopian Wars.

Today is about the models, I'll get into the game and the fluff later this week.

I love the look of the models, that is what drew me in the first place. I grew up on a lake where we used to have a paddle wheel river boat that did tour cruises, so those big armored wheels spoke to me.

Here is my first completed model, one of a squadron of cruisers, with either a shield or kinetic generator, there is no express differentiation in the book between the two visually, one of the few straight problems with the rules.

Holy crap the details on this little resin piece. Rivets, windows, doors, wood planking. The detail on this is beautiful. There was minimal flash, just on the corners between and along the edges. The only casting error on 13 ships, 10 flyer tokens with tiny airplanes and 2 metal bombers was a small bubble missing on one of the smoke stacks on a cruiser. That's it, ONE problem. Spartan games makes GW look like the resin amateurs that they are. All of the promises made about finecast are represented in Spartan stuff, this is what GW wishes they could do with resin. Also, the prices are not bad for this stuff at all, this starter box with a whole small fleet(about 725 points worth) was $54.99. 

Another shot to show the crazy detail on these things, check out the fucking stairs and catwalks! Also, door and windows, I've not decided how to paint the tiny windows yet. 

Here is a front on view, this is the same cannon as on the battleship, it's not as powerful but still delightfully huge. 

Finally we have the two other cruisers that I am working on, with the other two add on pieces, the other generator and the standard rocket battery. 

There we have it folks, a start on a Dystopian Wars fleet. Once you figure out the colors you want to use, and get used to to how small and detail packed these things are I feel like I could paint them up pretty rapidly. 

Too Little and Way Too Late.

Alright, so everyone has seen the Thunderwolf Cavalry models.

Oh, you haven't here they are via Ogre Stronghold.
Commentary after HUGE pictures.

So, if this is all they were going to do, why were these not released either day 1 or very soon afterwards? GW not making these specific models has created several small miniatures companies, who have then gone to make more things. Many many players have found non GW alternatives to use for TWC, people who would have bought these models if they had been available.

Hell, I don't particularly care for them, but I would have used them for my 9 Thunder Cavalry. Also, according to BoLS the TWC will be $54 for the three. I've spent much less than that on mine, using 2nd hand, or swapped models.
Though I am very glad that these look nothing like Canis. They did a good job, I just think quite a few of 3rd party ones have looked just as good. Or even captured the armored/ mechanical feel a lot better.

However, these are plastic. Which is a huge plus in my book.

Then we get to what I am most excited about, and going to actually purchase. The Fenrisian Wolves!

I think they look great, much more dynamic than the goblin wolves, and more wolf like than chaos hounds. The chaos hounds always felt too mutated even in my much more heavy metal chaosy looking Space Wolves. I'll be getting at least a box of these to be wolf lord escorts. I love it when a wolf takes a lascannon to the face.

Malifaux Painting

I've done a bit of hobby work lately.
Also, I'm posting this from my phone. How cool is that?

First is my Merc Convict Gunslinger for my Seamus gang, zombie hookers and pistoleros, yes please.

Here you can see the skull painted on his face, as well as the Rebel Battle Flag tattooed on his arm. Also, note the pearl handled pistols.

An we have a Punk Zombie painted mostly by local gaming addict Bo. He basically plays everything that is possible to play, and likely has at least a force or two for every game played locally, and some that aren't. He is a great guy and shares my opinion that minis are a better money pit than drugs.

He painted most of it, I added the crude hand painted Union Jack on the back, because c'mon man it's punk rock.

PP made me blow a COLOSSAL load!

HOLY CRAP.  Warmachine Colossals are amazing.

Check out the video HERE.

On to the screen caps I made. The following images are taken from the above video as the type of "comment" embodied in 17 USC 107, if the copyright holder wishes them taken down, merely send me an email, a C&D is not needed.

Here is a nice comparison to show exactly how huge these things are. 

Here is the Cygnar one as well, it seems only these two models exist so far. 

As a Menoth player, holy crap shoulder rockets and flamethrowers. AHHHHH!!! YES! Also, this one just screams "IT'S A GUNDAM!". 

Finally we have these big boys facing off on the field of battle. 

So in closing, I can't wait to buy the Menoth one as an after Bar present in July, which appears to be when these things start coming out. 

Marauder Horde!!!!

Hey everyone, I wanted to post up the link to my latest project. It's a chaos marauder horde made up of different chaos models, including Horsemen, Marauders, Gors, and an Ogre! I wanted to give it a real horde feel instead of just a bunch of marauders holding the exact same weapon.

Let me know what y'all think or, better yet, BUY IT!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280816982292

New Year: Flame and Pigs. Bacon?

Hello Dear Readers, 

We're back, at least I am. Jack has just made some purchases and could have something in store for you in the future. 

We survived finals and are about to start our last semester of law school. 

I've been playing a lot of Warmachine lately, the 40k and Fantasy crowd around here isn't too active. 

Here are some of the painted dudesmen from my Menoth army. I had posted crappy pictures to twitter a while back, hopefully these are better. 

Here is my battle group for the Journeyman league we had up at the store in December, I was able to play up to 25 points before finals took over my life. I've also got a minimum squad each of knights exemplar and exemplar errants(with the attachment). I also have several support models and a couple other casters, as well as other 'Jacks. 

 This is a paladin from the roleplaying line that I picked up years ago, he got a coat of turquoise to match every one else and slays in the name of Menoth.

 The humble work horses of the Protectorate, the Choir. I bet you can tell which Menofix I painted first.

 Here is a closer look at the battle group, I chose the alternate starter set because I prefer heavy 'jacks. How do ya'll like the terra cotta and turquoise? I wanted something desert like, but very different from the white and purple usually on Menoth figures. I guess my grandmother's love for big New Mexico jewelry came through in what I think of as desert colors.

 Here is a fledgling( or should I say piglet?) Farrow army for Hordes. I find the fury system much more mechanically interesting than focus, so when I had some extra cash and found a good deal online, I snapped up some pigs. I got Carver, the two warhogs and the brigands for a steal. Then at the new game shop in my hometown over Christmas break, they had a used Farrow army on sale, I did a little haggling and got Rorsch and Brine, the gunboar, the slaughterhousers, and Targ, for a little less than the combined cost of the unit and Rorsch and Brine.

Well, that does it for this one, sorry for the long delay, but school, holidays and family didn't allow much chance for gaming.  I am also looking into Infinity.