Gencon and NOVA Open

Having put Adepticon behind me (and that was hell, because I took ill at the con), I've got two major cons coming up. You might have already guessed what they are by the post's title. Of the two, only NOVA is 40k related exclusively, but let me take a chance to sing the praises of Gencon for the hardcore miniatures player.

First of all, Fantasy Flight is there in force. I've signed up for sessions of Chaos in the Old World, and I'm looking forward to them immensely. And let me state, unreservedly, that CitOW is one of my favorite games, so much so, that I'm bringing it to NOVA to unwind from the massive amounts of 40k I'll be playing that weekend. Being a 40k player, what's not to love about being one of the four gods to destroy the world of square base heresy? Fantasy Flight will have that, and their multiple GW based games out to play, including RPG products. You'll see the GW universe from a different angle, refreshing your game play.

Secondly, Privateer Press always makes a huge splash. Yes, I'm not -technically- a PP player, but I already have two factions from my Adepticon swag bag, Khador and Legion. As much as I feel like I'm cheating on my wife (GW) by considering playing these systems, you have to admire PP for getting right everything that GW is getting wrong. For instance, they're at Gencon, playing demos, building relationships, and generating goodwill. Their system is solid, the rules are tight, and the models are always interesting.

You also have Wyrd Miniatures, makers of Malifaux, and, if you're a pure painter, Dark Sword Miniatures produces great work, with the Game of Thrones and Masterworks miniatures. I mean, look at this thing:

That's incredible. And the lion is sculpted on. Seriously. Tom Meier is a genius. This mini was on display there last year, and the picture doesn't do it justice. Cool Mini is also there as well, with all of their bizarre and painterly miniatures there for you to peruse. Battlefoam is as well, so you can cart your ill gotten gains back home. And that's perhaps 1% of what's there. I even played a cyberpunk Cthulhu game last year. If it's possible to play, it's possible to find it there. If you go with an open mind, you'll be rewarded, I assure you.

Another 1500 point game

I went to 'orkridge to hang out and talk to the people there, and I ended up playing another 1500 point game.

I used the same list, against a young gent's Lizard list. 3 skink priests, so he had all the Heavens spells, a big block of Sarus cav, and a big block of Sarus. I don't know what he was thinking.

We played meeting engagement, and it ended up with most of my stuff being on the board, except for the nurglings. So no worries. Up until I read that fliers take extra hits from all Heaven spells. Those skinks had to go. The lizards got the first turn, and the cav got in there quick. His foot Sarus were stuck in reserve, and walked on. It was the start of his bad luck with the winds of magic, a remarkable three dice. His charging Sarus on Cold Ones killed two whole Plague Bearers, and I ended up killing three. His Sarus held due to some magic item making them stubborn. My Prince moved to kill the priests, and to get out of the charge arc of the foot sarus.

My second PB unit flanked the Cold One Riders, and we cut them down. I didn't fail a single regen save. He couldn't hit anything. It was horrible. He finally got his Foot Sarus in, and his hero rolled 5 misses for his five attacks. I just couldn't lose. I straight up murdered him. I kind of felt badly. It was as if my dice were in opposite land. I will never, ever have this good a game in a tournament. His Sarus, despite charging and being in 4+ ranks with spears, ended up running, and moved a bold three inches away, right in the charge arc of the Prince. At that point, my opponent shook my hand and called it a night.

What did I learn?

Position is everything, and the charge doesn't mean a thing when you can't hit. Also, complex combats suck to figure out.

Board Games, Card Games and you

Thanks to Twitter, I now know Fantasy Flight has put their new trailer for the Horus Heresy up, which can be seen here.

Who knew we would live in an era where board game companies have trailers for their products? Let me state first and foremost that I have not received anything free from any games manufacturer. I think there's that law where you have to make that statement, right? Note to Fantasy Flight: I wouldn't be opposed if you did send me free stuff.

My friends Dom, Tony and Dustin often get together for a game night, where we pull out the board games and the various carbonated beverages and go to town. So, from time to time, I'll write up a review of some of my favorite games we've played, starting with one of my favorites: Cutthroat Caverns.



Published By: Smirk and Dagger Games
Play Style: Co-operative Betrayal (My Favorite Kind!)
Number of Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 1 hr. 30 Min.
Final Grade: A

The tagline on this game pretty much sums it up: "Without teamwork, you'll never survive. Without betrayal, you'll never win."

You play as one of a group of adventurers that has worked together before, and you've established that who ever kills the most monsters gets the first pick of the loot. You enter into the dungeon, smash your way into the inner sanctum at the center, and there you find it, the Ultimate Artifact of Incredible Power. Whoever gets first pick of the treasure will control the artifact and live a life of unfathomable luxury and ease. But the nine monsters between you and the dungeon's exit might have something to say about that...

So, how does this game work? The basic object is to be the living character with most prestige at then end of the last encounter. That person will claim the Ultimate Artifact for himself. Note, however, the emphasis on "living". Now, you're a party, so you can't just go killing your other teammates. Instead you might play cards that: force the monsters to attack them instead of you, give the the wonderful opportunity to act as a human shield for you, or cause their attacks backfire so badly, they injure themselves.

You can do that all you want, but of course, the other characters pale in comparison to the monsters you'll encounter. As a clever design feature, the monsters are scaled in power in relation to how many people start the game. What does that mean? If you start with six players, and you get two friends killed in encounter 2, the seven remaining monsters are going to be "6 Players" tough, not "4 players" tough. They'll wail on you so hard your grandmomma will cry. So you have to keep the other players around to keep your own sweet self alive. That is, of course, until the end of the game, when you can merrily frag them to your heart's content.

In the basic set all the characters are essentially the same. Whether you're slinging spells, wielding a blade, or backstabbing a monster, you all do damage based on the cards you secretly set in front of you. These cards get revealed in the order of initiative (which is based on separate cards randomly drawn each round). As cards are revealed, they're placed on a stack and are resolved in order. If there is a damage result that equals or exceeds the monster's current hit points, then the person who did the killing blow earns prestige based on the monster's difficulty. Not knowing what cards your friends have, you have to guess at what kind of cards they'll play. If the monster survives, he generally attacks one or more players for varying amounts of damage.

But you knew it wouldn't be that simple. Once those damage cards are set, you can use action cards from your hand to screw with everything. With the right cards, you can change the initiative of the players mid-round, you can discard a person's attack before it's revealed, you can double or halve a person's attack value, or cause them to fall on their own sword. Of course, there are cards to counter all those counter-cards. The exception to all these? If your character plays an attack card with his portrait on it, that attack card is privileged, and no-one can mess with it.

Since all the characters are generic, what makes this game shine? Simply put, the encounters and monsters are all uniquely fiendish. Each encounter card is different, and each one can elicit groans from the players. From the goblin who has been cursed with an on again, off again invulnerability, to the trap rooms, to the Cursed Paladin who gains life equal to the damage he does, each is wonderfully deadly. Every expansion to the game ends up adding more encounters to the deck, adding even more replayability. The expansions also add character abilities and additional magic items, adding to the player's power as the dungeon gets more deadly.

The cards of of good quality, and the production value is high. The artwork is excellent, and reflects the game's morbid humor quite well. This game will go well with the competitive player who has a sense of the tongue in cheek. People have called it a "more serious version of Munchkin", but I think that's an inapt comparison. Munchkin, while funny, isn't really that great of a game, and isn't really replayable over and over. I think Cutthroat really shines in comparison by being a tighter game. Most of us have played games of Munchkin that have 5 expansions shoe-horned into it. You never end up seeing all the cards, so half the jokes become wasted. Cutthroat's deck is more manageable, and it has more depth to it's play. I would thing that Cutthroat is a small box that would make a fine addition to any gamer's closet.

Wow, I've been busy

Or something like that.

Since I last blogged, I played in a tourney, and had my ass handed to me. 2-1 in fact, and I played at the kiddie tables for the last two games. Sad, but true. I got a lot of things painted for the tourney, most of which you saw in the last few posts, but I also finished my Manticore, which was shown as a WIP in my first few posts.

Of course I don't have pictures of it! I want to get pictures of my whole guard army, but I want it done outside. And of course, the whole of the outside world is still covered in snow, so...

In the mean time, I've gotten bored of painting Warhammer miniatures, so I thought I'd give myself a little break and paint up a Reaper mini I got in a paint set I bought for 50% off. He's a neat little fig, and he's acutally on of the few "realistic" mini's that Reaper puts out. I think he'd look good for a level 1 fighter.









He's been primed black, painted with GW foundation paints, and his armor was washed with Devlan Mud. Devlan Mud should be sold by the gallon. The symbol is a transfer from the IG sheet, and the base was a resin cast base that I did.

I'm a sucker for a Space Game

I love BFG.

Let me state that again, I love Battle Fleet Gothic. I put little hearts over the "i" when I write Gothic I love it so much. And Fire Storm Armada looks to be pushing my Gothic Button (take that as you will).



A few gents from the D6 Generation put up a battle report on Spartan's forums.

It looks good, and there's been positive buzz for sometime about it.