FOW free for all AAR part one

Another games club, another Flames of War game. This time I am using the 3rd US armoured division which are confident trained rather than confident veterans. I was doing my research and as the Americans have a lot of firepower they work best as trained. I guess the rational for this is to hit scores are based on your opponents skill rating so it really doesn't mater what your skill rating is. Trained armies win in shoot outs and veterans in assaults. Anyhow here is some photos of the first part of my 3rd US armoured division versus Dans fallschirmjäger army at 1300 points. The scenario is free for all. 

The set up after my first move. I started my armoured rifle platoon out of their halftracks defending the objective. 

I moved my 76mm shermans up with the recon to prevent Dan from ambushing with his cheeky panzerfaust teams which can spring an ambush from area terrain. We are not quite sure what that involves however as Dan was using buildings at one point. If anyone has any clarifications that would be great. 

  I used my command 75mm sherman to shoot smoke to reduce potential harm from Dans pathers. 

My thunderbolt got its first flight however only being strength one I had to reroll my first batch of successes of which I got 100% of my dice rolls only to get 40% on the second roll, hitting on a 2+. 

A mid game drink. Quite a tasty one. Unfortunately there are no records of Dans last turn but it involved some movement but and no successful shots. 

In round two the thunderbolt bombed Dans panther and a pak40, unfortunately the panther saved his armour save but the pak40 couldn't stand the heat!

Afraid for my tanks I moved them all tother up my left flank with recon protecting them from surprise ambushes.

I moved my mortars into position to provide covering fire and smoke. 

Success Pak40s smoked reducing the threat for my shermans in the open. 

 A view after my turn. Once again Dans next turn goes undocumented but it invoved him moving up, sprining a ambush with a panzerfaust team on my armoured mortars and like me rolling miserably scoring 0 hits, oh except that Pac 40 I blew up.

The next turn involved me advancing my shermans shooting some covering smoke, while I was at it destroyed his Pak 40 platoon and foolishly assaulted one of dans fallshirmjager platoons. 

Dan's platoon was still pined from last turn but all his troops had panzefausts and were at 100% strength. No amount of covering smoke could prepare me. He missed all his shots from the teams in the smoke but the three out managed to all hit. One 76mm sherman was destroyed and one bailed. Then in Dans turn he finished them off. 

My armoured rifle platoon did managed to destroy 2/3 of Dans armoured recon teams on the other side of the field however.  

In Dans turn he advanced and took out half my armoured mortar platoon with the rest of his panzerfaust teams. 

Then we called it a night. We are planning to finish this game in a fortnights time. I feel though we destroyed a platoon each I feel Dan is at an advantage as my platoons were more costly and he is in a good position. I guess I jumped the gun with my assault where I should of sat back moving and shooting which Americans are good at. Also I forgot to use my recon to lift gone to ground, doh'. 

For a second run with the US armoured devision I feel I did well and learn some hard mistakes I shan't make again in a hurry, namely destroying my 76mm shermans by assaulting a fully armed platoon. I am looking forward to revising the force and trying again. Plus despite everything we had a great time!

Betrayal at House on the Hill

I have been meaning to do a post about Betrayal at House on the Hill since the blog began all those years ago, err well months is more accurate. Unfortunately it is really a bit cruel because in the unlikely circumstance that this post makes you want to purchase the game, you can't. Betrayal is currently out of print so a copy on amazon is roughly $260, yikes! Fortunately if you wait till the end of the year I believe another print run is being undertaken.

Please note some of the things said below could be considered spoilers but I don't really think it will ruin your experience of playing the game. Read on at your own discretion. 

So what is Betrayal? It is a game for 3-6 player tile laying game where you explore a haunted house, after 30ish minuets of exploring a random haunt begins involving (in most cases) one player betraying the rest of the investigators. There are 50 different scenarios such as one player controlling a raft of zombies or becoming a demon lord. One scenario involved the betrayers body splitting right open and a two headed snake emerging. My all time favourite scenario involved gigantic 747 sized eagles plucking the house from the ground to feed you to their kin, of course there are less parachutes (yes parachutes in a haunted house) than the number of players so you have to fight for them to jump out first.

This game over the last few weeks has become a bit of a hit with my flatmates and neighbours so it has been given a good run. Here are some photos from a recent game where Ben ended up betraying us, becoming a zombie lord and ripping us apart.

Top left is the basement; centre is the ground floor; bottom right is the upper floor

The game board towards the end of the game. The haunt started when Ben summoned the Zombie lord with the Ring of King Solomon. Our goal was to steal the ring which gave us the needed strength to kill the Zombie Lord. (Please note the game actually called them demons but one in our group wasn't so fond of demons (naturally) so we just changed the villeins to zombies).

I was playing Father Rienhardt a 70 or so year old preacher who's hobby was (yes past tense) exploring haunted houses... Unfortunately after wounding the Zombie Lord once he got his comeuppance and I got killed first. 

Flash who's hobbies are running and Shakespeare died next, its worth noting Flash was the Betrayer so he deserved what was coming! 

Little Miss Mazey died next, the creepy kid holding a teddy bear. She died from an event card, thats what you get for running away from the Zombie lord! 

The kid died next, who ever thought it was a good idea to take a kid into a haunted mansion, his hobbies are sticks and collecting bugs. Ben finished the game victorious and no doubt took over the world. Oh here is the end flavour text if the bad guy wins

The Hellgate is open. You scrub the blood from your eyes with the heel of your palm. Th sickly sweet tang in the air is just like that in your dream. The tangled bodies of your fellow explorers form a throne of flesh for the demon lord. The screaming has only just began. Just as you've always dreamed. 

Now no doubt I love this game, heck, who doesn't like acting out a good old B-Grade horror. I got it after I acquired and promptly sold the decidedly average Mansions of Madness as a replacement. It certainly doesn't disappoint and 50 different scenarios and the random nature of the house make it a totally different game each time.  The game isn't equal however, the scenarios are often weighted in one sides favour but in the end skill and strategy are only a small part of the game, the role playing element prevails making this game a real treat each time it comes of the shelf. 

Rating?

PG for pretty good. 

Revisiting the Hobbit SBG - Tactically Limited?

For the first time since around February this year, we got in a game of The Hobbit SBG (formally know as LOTR SBG).  The setting was somewhere in Mirkwood forest, and Thorin's company (without Gandalf) were coming up against some goblins, warg riders and some of Saruman's Uruk Hai (who had wandered unknowingly into the wrong movie).

We wanted to get a feel for the rules again and see what we thought of the mechanic.  I am deciding whether to pay the astronomical price for the new models (see Scott's post here) and wanted to see whether the game is worth it.  Here are some pictures of the game:

The Battle line and where the game was played out

Marauding Goblins a little lost in the forest

Are you sure we should be here?  Don't we appear in the next films?

The Dwarves about to be taken out by Goblins and Uruk Hai

My view of proceedings

Our thoughts after the game were that the SBG game is tactically limited.  All our games end up being focused on a small part of the table with combat roll offs, going across the line and picking out the casualties.  Once the forces lock into combat, that is really it until the end of the game.  Terrain and tactics seem to have little impact, from that point of first contact at least onwards.

This might have been due to a decision to choose few ranged weapons and not to play magic (for simplicity reasons), but even when we have played with magic and more ranged weapons, the same outcome occurs - a clumping at one point and an epic dice roll off to the death.

Might Will and fate do add to the game and these are nice tactical options to have, as are the heroic actions available, which have been expanded in the Hobbit.

Playing Thorin's company is also difficult with all the special rules applicable to each dwarf, so I accept we may not have been getting all we could have out of the game - but back when we were more on top of these things and playing normal warbands of one hero and 12 warriors, the same outcome eventuated.

I wouldn't mind seeing what other's thoughts are on this, and if our experience are the same as others.  Lovely models and all, but just not particularly challenging tactically at all.

Two's Company...: An Empire of the Dead AAR

Monday night saw Steve, Chris and me jump into a three player game of Empire of the Dead.  Made me recall that show, Three's Company:

An Early Photo of Our Gaming Group - that's me in the middle

We have been aware of the issues of playing three factions at once for some time and I have been keen to find a solution to random ganging up and the like.  I was aware that Games Workshop had released a new book called Triumph and Treachery that has rules for playing multi-player games.  For $150, there is about 4 pages of rules from what I can figure, based around the ability to make alliances and break alliances.

Couldn't be bothered paying that sort of money for that so I decided to play-test some home made alliance rules.  Here is how it worked:

1. In the maintenance phase any two players could call an alliance.
2. If an alliance is called, then the players each swap one model from their faction with a model in the others' faction.
3. That model is then controlled by the other person in the alliance as if it was their model.
4. In the following maintenance phases each player rolls a d10 to see if the alliance is broken.  On a 7 - 10 it is broken.
5. When the alliance is broken , the player breaking it gets to activate their model that has been swapped to the other faction during the maintenance phase.  They can move and shoot, or move at the double or whatever.

We played fracas in the end cause we figured that was one of the few scenarios that worked.  Cagey start at first.  Here's the set up:

When Chris and I got close, I summonsed my Zombie horde and Chris looked like getting squashed between that and Jack the Ripper.  He called an alliance.  I agreed, hedging my bets on the basis that I expected the alliance to be broken shortly, given the odds.

The Lycaon looking for trees to urinate under

Gentlemen Looking for Urinating Dogs

Steve continued to take pot shots from the far end of town, using the barrels I had just painted up:

And good evening to you too Mr Skeleton

With Uncle Thulu flying around shooting at a few as well.

Thulu Cam

You can see the Zombies approaching Chris there just before he called the alliance.  Here they are looking for some dog flesh:

Can you smell dog food?

I took out Steve's infernium hound, which they laid to rest in the cemetery:

Before

After: RIP Strange dog thing

Chris and I started to move towards Steve, but in the next maintenance phase Chris broke the alliance.  His figure freaked out (she was with the zombie horde) and ran out into the street only to be nailed in the cross fire from all Steve's waiting constabulary.  Chris had also moved his Beastlord and Packmaster close to the zombie horde and so when I won initiative next they were attacked, with Lord Percival landing five shots from his gatling gun.

The carnage was pretty great for Chris, who lost his Packmaster and a number of others too.  I took out another of Steve's constables, and along with three kills from Chris's faction, came out on top for the evening.

Steve had a quiet night shooting from distance, but got three kills (one of mine and two of Chris') so came second.

The alliance mechanic was fun, but breaking on a 7-10 was perhaps a bit too easy.  Tweak it perhaps to 8 next time, or try not to play 3 player games?

EOTD is fun and not too serious really - it is quite a nice run about from FOW which is pretty intense in comparison.  The alliance does add a fun aspect, but with three players it is hard for all players to have an equal role in the game.

Arkham Horror: Not a dime to her name psychologist part two

After a week of Arkham Horror sitting on the table after a week break mid game (see part one here) we began where we left off. Except of course another investigator joined us and adjusted the rules accordingly for a 7 player game. I guess it is worth briefly mentioning one of the great things of this game is the ability to play with up to 8 players although this does have its issues, namely people getting off topic.

What my Psychologist looked like mid game. 

As you recall my once Axe Wielding Psychologist took a turn for the worst. But would things turn out ok for her this time round. After all I had restored her to full stamina just before finishing up. First round I decided, screw it, I am going to go explore another world, this one was called Yuggoth, great name… How could it possbibly go wrong, as my friend and co-investigator said “I can think of a lot of ways”. First stop on my way to the gate was the Library, after all I was a learned psychologist. My encounter went something like this, “As you explore the library a books start whispering dark secrets to you, loose one sanity”. Hmmp, not even a skill check to save me. I’m not going to the Library again, ever.

By this time there was only three doom tokens needed to awaken Ithaqua the alien terror we were trying to prevent from spreading evil around the world, assuming that was his motive. I bravely jumped through a portal to another dimension Yuggoth to join my college Alex, “fancy seeing you here Alex”, we exchanged greetings in Yuggoth. First encounter “You hide behind a rock panting. The scurrying which has been chasing you seemed to have gone, no encounter”. Considering my luck it could have been worse, but hiding behind a rock, pffft what a sissy. I was feeling a little ripped of as the other investigators were getting items from some of their encounters. Alas it beats being mugged like I was previously. I moved to the next section of Yuggoth (other worlds have two parts where you have to have an encounter in each). I cant remember the encounter but it was a success! Yippee not so axe wieldery psychologist finally passed a test!

However when I returned to Arkham we were only one doom token off Ithaqua awakening and destroying us all. My fellow gang of other worldly investigators said, don’t close the gate because if another gate opens in its place (rather than a monster surge which happens if you don’t close a gate) Ithaqua will be unleashed. Being the risky psychologist that I am I said, I haven’t achieved nothing, plus I don’t want a monster surge on my (the alternative to a gate opening and a doom token being placed on the monsters doom track) location perceiving that as the worst of the two options so I went ahead and closed that sucker! Take that Yuggoth.

Whats that! I actually acheived something, I closed a gate to Yuggoth.

Ithaqua vs team why does the fate of humanity rest on
a random group of people (they need a more concise name)

I knew at this point I would be sorely treated by the gang if a gate opened on my location 'The Unnameable', fortunately a gate did not open there however one opened at 'The Cave'. This caused a fracture in the very fabric of reality, unleashing the mighty Ithaqua. I thought we were toast. The battle began, he had 77 hit points and with a -3 skill check we had to roll quite a few successes. That is exactly what we did. My first roll of fight 4, no weapons, -3 thus rolling one die was a successes! We took him down about 30HP the first round. Next round Chris gave me a Dread Curse, at the cost of two sanity and passing a -3 lore skill check I succeeded getting an additional 9 dice to my roll. Nice. I gave Ithaqua a hammering that round. In the end it only took three rounds to beat him with no deaths. Arkham and quite probably the rest of the world was saved...

Ithaqua feeling the pain of my Dread Curse! 

Team photo after defeating Ithaqua,
I am 2nd from the right next to Dan (far right). 

What a victory! It was quite a fun night finishing off the game involving plenty of laughs. The final battle did seem disappointingly easy but looking through the other old ones the game provides this was probably the second easiest. The Dunwich Horror should arrive in the mail soon so hopefully we will take it for a spin in a a few weeks. Next up however Empire of the Dead and maybe even Battlestar Galactica the game. 

Uncle Thulu, coming from another dimension soon

Arkham Horror and the Axe Wielding Psychologist: part 1

Monday night saw our gaming group playing a game of Arkham Horror. I had to wipe the dust off the box due to how long it takes to play. It hardy ever sees the light of day, or night. Or perhaps my gaming group is normally too frightened to play. Luckily we had a plan, play in the games room and leave the game set up to finish off the following week.

For those who don’t know, Arkham Horror is an epic co-operative game where you all take the role of investigators of H. P. Lovecraft alien terrors such as Cthulhu. The investigators traverse the town of Arkham and other dimensions closing portals to other worlds to try and stop the alien terror / old one. In our case, the old one was the abominable snowman Ithaqua. I will share the first half of the game from my experience as Carolyn Fern, an axe wielding psychologist, what could possibly go wrong…

Axe Wielding Psychologist...

What could possibly go wrong indeed! My first turn involved me going to a creaky old house in Arkham called “The Unnameable” on the way to Ye Ol’ Majik Shoppee to get myself some magic! We joked that the game designers had ran out of Lovecraft locations so ended up calling this location the Unnameable. Yet, old creaky houses are never a good idea. During the encounter phase, first turn, my encounter sounded something like this… "You hear rats in the walls, when is too late you realise they are moving to surround you! Roll some kind of skill check and if you fail get lost in time and space." COME ON! Getting lost in time and space due to some silly rats in the walls of a house with no name. In the end it wasn’t so bad as getting lost in space and time only involves missing a turn then going to any location you choose in Arkham, nice!

Things were back on track for my investigator, although the once quiet streets of Arkham were getting crowded with monsters and gates to other worlds were popping up all over the place. I spent $5 out of my $7 to get myself a spell - little did I know this was to be my undoing.  It was getting high time to try and close some gates so I thought rather than pissing around as I had been doing I would join my fellow investigators and go on a journey to some alternate realities. One other world adventure particularly of note was Chris Kirby AKA the magician Drake (who also had a carnival in the North side streets as the result of a mythos card). While in the Dream lands he had a skill check which he needed to pass, Chris only had three dice... What do you know he passes, all 5+ which is what you need to pass a skill check! Unfortunately for Chris once he got out and closed the gate another gate opened right on top of him so he got sucked into the Abyss.

Chris' successes

On my way to a gate I stopped into the Silver twilight lounge. At the top of my game, full health, an axe, I drew an encounter which read: Join our pretty neat club for $3 or we will beat you up and put you on the street or something like that. Unfortunately as you recall I only had $2! I failed passed my check to sneak away so as a result lost 3 of my 4 stamina and then was subject to Ithaqua’s special ability which makes you loose a stamina if you are on the streets at the end of a round due to icy winds. Brrr.

Gaarh! My investigator was frozen stiff and while recovering in Arkham emergency department the hospital staff stole half my precious equipment including my gorram (wrong game, thinking of Firefly there) axe! Bastards. They did a bad job of healing me only returning me to 1 stamina and after loosing 3 stamina and I was hardly going to spend my last $2 to return to full health. (When you get KOed in Arkham you have to discard half you items) Big mistake, the next round I got in an arm wrestle with some punk at the university costing me my single unit of stamina knocking me unconscious again, other half of my positions gone although this time I paid to restore my health. No longer an axe wielding psychologist, I was Mrs "Not-a-dime" to her name psychologist Fern. It was at this time we called it quits for the night to return next week to finish the game.

No money to her name psychologist Fern

I guess its worth mentioning how the game was going for the rest of the team while I was, err, wasting time. People were out killing monsters left right and centre, some were braving the other worlds closing gates. However were we completing our ultimate aim of closing all the gates. Hard to say, there were 2 or 3 open gates on the board by the time we called it quits, but we only had four gate tokens out of 6 needed if we closed all the gates (one of the three ways to win). We had only one elder sign on the board out of 6 needed to stop Ithaqua from general destruction and the end of the world (another way to win). Unfortunately Ithaqua's doom track only had 4 more tokens to go before his awakening. Anyhow Monday will see if we stop Ithaqua from awakening and if he does we will see if we manage to kill him in battle (the last way to victory, but the most unlikely).

A blurry shot of the between game

My thoughts on this game are mixed. I find I enjoy a game less if I am attempting (badly) to teach people how to play. Also its not great when the game seems to stop your character from achieving anything useful. However the theme really stands out and certainly makes for a fun night of gaming. I decided that I would get the expansion Dunwich Horror for the game. After researching some of the expansion this one seemed to fix one of the key problems, going insane or getting KOed in Arkham by nifty injury cards. Instead of loosing half your hard earned stuff you can take a permanent injury. Not ideal however it certainly beats the alternative. It also adds a bunch of cool stuff to stop the mid game slow down namely the Dunwich Horror. Anyhow I am sure after a few more games I will be able to give some more concrete thoughts on this game.

Return of Steve! Woohoo!

Last night was the first games night at my new place and marked also the return of Steve from his trip.  He arrived after a 24 hour flight from Paris at about 4:30pm and then came to games night at 7:30!  What a legend!  Here is looking rather chipper after such a trip:

Nothing like a long trip to read up on the rules!

We got into our first Empire of the Dead game for a while - choosing the Lost Artifact scenario.  Alex and I took a half share each of my gentleman's faction and Steve and Chris shared his Peelers.  Twas not a good night for Steve and Chris - here's how their fellows ended up:

They did find the artifact first, but then got pasted.  Here's the rest of the pictures:

I am working out a new roading system with Malifaux tiles - I intend to fill the gaps at some stage

Half the Peelers before they got hammered

The new pub

Allo allo allo what do we ave ere then?

Peelers with the artifact about to be munched 

Fun night and good getting to grips with the rules again.  We are going to do a board game next week but me and Steve are going to be getting into the painting so we should be updating on that front regularly.