IVth Legion - Epic 30K Iron Warriors

In my continuing quest to assemble armies for games I have yet to actually play, we find ourselves looking at the fan produced spin off to Epic 40K, the appropriately named Epic 30K. Set during the events of the Horus Heresy (some 10,000 years before the 41st millennium) Epic 30K depicts the battles between loyalist and traitor space marine legions in glorious 6mm scale.

The Horus Heresy Supplement produced by the people over at epicAU.com details army lists for the Legion Astartes, alongside lists for Imperial Militia, Adeptus Mechanicus and of course, Titan Legions for use with the NetEpic Armageddon rules set. Special rules for each of the twenty space marine legions are outlined allowing players to build a force themed to a specific legion, and a system of allies allows the mixing of different army lists.

I have put together an initial 2000 points of Iron Warriors. Using a mix of third party and first party miniatures it is possible to put together an adequate looking force without too much effort. I have used miniatures from Games Workshop's 1989 6mm 'Space Marine' range (which are older than I am) alongside newer sculpts from Vanguard miniature's Defeat in Detail range that adequately resemble units specific to the 30K period that were never produced officially.

Epic 30k Iron Warriors 2000 Points (1985)

Line Detachments:

Legion Terminator detachment (4 units) - 300

  - Lieutenant Commander - 50

  - Land Raider Proteus (4) - 300

Legion Terminator detachment (4 units) - 300

  - Land Raider Proteus (4) - 300

Support Detachments:

Legion Contemptor Dreadnought Talon (6) - 360

Legion Sicaran Battle Squadron (5) - 375

My opponent to be is currently in the process of assembling a rival 2000 point loyalist army. Once he's ready I will be sure to present a battle report here on the blog covering one of our initial games.  

We will of course need some appropriate 6mm scale terrain, something that I am looking forward to researching and assembling. Varied terrain will really help to push the spectacle of the scale, and luckily due to its small scale shouldn't hurt the bank too much.

Looking forward to expanding the list to 3000 points, I am almost certainly adding a Reaver Titan alongside a couple more infantry units. Titans are the showpieces of Epic, the opportunity to duel these vast war machines is too good to miss.

I shall leave you with a gallery of some individual units and their sources.

Legion Terminators - Vanguard Miniatures (Novan Elites Heavy Siege Armour)

Legion Sicaran Battle Squadron

Legion Contemptor Dreadnought Talon - Vanguard Miniatures (Novan Elites Gladiator)

Sicaran Venator - Vanguard Miniatures (Novan Elites Sniper Tank Hunter)

Sicaran Battle Tank - Vanguard Miniatures (Novan Elites Guardian Main Battle Tank)

Land Raider Proteus - Games Workshop

Project Fumble Vs Uberzerg - Hordes of the Things

Last week saw the inaugural episode of what is hopefully an ongoing series of events between team Project Fumble and team Uberzerg. Hosted by Richard in his games room, new friends were pitted against old friends in an intense rivalry to determine who would win a tiny gold trophy and, more importantly, which team would have to drink six month out of date cans of warm Fosters. The stakes were truly lofty!

Team Project Fumble was represented by (from left to right) Elliot, team captain Mark and myself:

 

Team Uberzerg was represented by (from left to right) James, team captain Tom and Lex:

The game? Hordes of the Things v2. A game neither side had any particular experience of, except for a run down of the rules in the previous week (which it turned out was actually for an entirely different game!).

The rules? Each side consisted of three 24 point commands, one on each flank and one in the centre. Each team's captain was responsible for dividing up order dice each turn, with each player responsible for moving and fighting with their respective 24 points. A player's force was deemed to be demoralised once half of it (12+ points) had been removed from play. Once a team had two demoralised forces, that team would lose and victory would be declared.

Richard would umpire any rules queries that came up and attempt to settle any weird situations. Aaron would be our flavour judge (an honorary title that essentially meant he would mostly be handing out beers).

Richard will be writing a full battle report in the near future over on his blog. What follows is a series of pictures taken over the course of the game. Read on after the pictures for the result of the game...

In the end, after multiple hours of excellent game play into the small hours of the morning, team Uberzerg were victorious! 

Both sides has their share of both good and bad luck, but ultimately due to time we had to call it when the first command became demoralised, which unfortunately for team Project Fumble, was Elliot's force.

In hindsight we realise the terrain was far too dense for the type of game we were playing, slowing down and limiting movement options available to both sides and generally impeding the progress of the game. My entire flank spent three turns daring the other side to attack over the crossroads. Even my paladin's brave (suicide) attack couldn't break the deadlock. When we do a rematch we'll definitely take this lesson into account.

I look forward to round two!

I couldn't end the post without proving the forfeit occurred could I?

Alone, but not lonely. A dialogue with the self.

It is a comforting thing to find a piece of literature that conforms closely with ones own particular unique take on the experience that is existence. Doubly so when that perspective is fairly skewed from the perceived societal 'norm'. 'Party of one - The Loner' Manifesto,' by Anneli Rufus, is for me one of these self-assuring books.

I am a loner. I feel no shame in declaring this, and nor should I.

The Loners' Manifesto attempts to explain what exactly this means to those who the book refers to as 'non-loners' (an admittedly divisive and ugly term). Split over 17 chapters ranging in topics including 'Friendship', 'Advertising', 'Childhood' and 'Crime' the author describes our non conformational behaviours, why we do them, how they are often misunderstood, and explains how to (where appropriate) perhaps better facilitate them.

But what does being a loner mean to me? The book uses a turn of phrase that I find particularly apropos: 'We need what others dread, we dread what others need.' This adage refers to the dichotomy of solitude versus social interaction. As a loner I prefer to spend the majority of my available free time by myself. In a world filled with socially inclined extroverts this behaviour is often construed as alien, unthinkable. In today's society the value of ones time is compared proportionately to the amount of other people it is spent with. Time spent in solitude is undesirable, worthless - boring. Nothing of significance can be achieved or gained through isolation.

This is of course entirely untrue. We need only look at writers, artists, scientist and composers to see that solitude can nurture genius. Creative pursuits are avenues through which we are able to channel and share the self - a painting, a novel or a symphony; Products of a solitary mind expressing its intangible inner world in a medium appreciable by an external audience.

The opposite an also be said to be true. Negative lonerism confines the individual to their own inner world, their sanctum shut of and removed entirely from the external. Recluses, hermits. The ageing Howard Hughes comes to mind.

While not all loners are creative types, inhabiting the inner world of our own thoughts seems be a common unifier. It is this contentment with out own company, to not require others that separates us from non-loners. To be alone with ones thoughts is to confront the grand cynicism on the self: the reflected mind inevitably questions itself, evaluates itself, finds itself wanting. External validation is one method of taming this void, escapism into the imagination, a desire for learning and self improvement are others.

To eschew social interaction entirely is not the goal (at least in my case), merely I wish to ration my meetings into meaningful episodes. My friends are incredibly valuable to me - sources of discussion, expression and well, fun. Misanthropy does not automatically accompany lonerism.

Next time you find yourself alone, take the time to evaluate your relationship with the self, for it can be your greatest ally, or an inescapable enemy.

An introduction to Block Casual - Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a card game often associated with overly expensive bits of cardboard that have an unsatisfactorily short lifespan, or indeed with cheap bits of cardboard that see even less play after their one use in a draft or sealed format. Block casual was the brain child of my regular gaming group to solve two problems.

 

Firstly, we've all got boxes full of unused commons and uncommons leftover from drafts and sealed decks. These cards form the bulk of a set, but unfortunately never see the light of day and are soon forgotten once that set rotates. A rare few will see constructed play, but the majority will not. MTG sets have so many fun and interesting mechanics that are immediately forgotten once those sets cease being drafted. Block Casual lets you dig out these forgotten cards and give them a new lease of life.

 
Secondly, we wanted a format we could play in a pub/kitchen table/food establishment without fear of destroying anything valuable. We have all envisioned (or experienced) the nightmare scenario of a can of alcoholic beverage toppling over and flowing all over our expensive modern deck. Block casual decks will generally cost around £10 at most - the price of a couple of pints in a central London pub. Playing block casual means you can eat your greasy fried chicken and Doritos without feeling guilty touching your cards. Penny sleeves are still recommended for ease of shuffling though and for a little bit of protection (give your cards some dignity).

So now that you know the goals behind Block Casual, how do you play it?

A Block Casual deck is comprised of cards from any single MTG block (e.g. Theros block, which includes the Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx sets) with any number of common cards, up to 12 uncommon cards and no rares or mythic rares.

• Cards must be from a single block
• Up to 12 uncommons
• Any number of common cards
• No rares of mythic rares

Here's an example deck, made using cards from the Theros block:

Block Casual Theros UW Heroic

Uncommons:
4 Battlewise Hoplite
4 Ordeal of Thassa
4 Phalanx Leader

Commons:
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
4 Akroan Skyguard
4 War-Wing Siren
4 Gods Willing
4 Aqueous Form
4 Chosen by Heliod
2 Fate Foretold

13 Plains
9 Island

This deck adheres to the previously outlined construction rules. It uses all 12 available uncommon slots (the rest are commons) and uses only cards from a single block. The deck also counts 60 cards, the minimum required for a legal deck.

So you've built yourself a deck; Does my opponent need to build a deck from the same block? Not necessarily. Block casual can be either played inter-block or intra-block.

Your play group could try and build the best deck they can construct within the confines of a single block and fight it out to see which is best - this is intra-block play.

Players in your play group could instead pick their favourite block to build a deck from, and play them against one another. Want to know how a Return to Ravnica Rakdos Unleash deck would fare against a Mirrodin block Affinity deck? This format gives you the opportunity to find out. This is inter-block play.

Are there any banned cards? Block Causal is using the 'Block Constructed' banned and restricted list as a soft guideline, with cards on those lists undergoing playtesting to see how they work in the Block Casual environment. Cards like Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue are banned in Innistrad Block Constructed but may or may not end up being banned in Block Casual.

The card(s) currently on the Block Casual ban list are:

• Skullclamp

If the Block Casual format has interested you then best thing you can do is to build a few decks and take them to your local MTG group and give it a go.

More information about the format, including decklists, block reviews and other discussion articles can be found at http://blockcasualmagic.com (currently under construction).

Put your brewing hat on and get building!

Senators - First Playtest

Putting an idea to the test is a scary, daunting prospect. You invest hours of your time into an idea all while the spectre of collapse and failure looms ever present. You won't know if your newly hand crafted chair will work until you sit on it. You won't know if your book is any good until someone reads it.

You don't know if your game works until someone plays it. Even then, it's not even just someone, it needs to be a whole group of people. The wheels can fall off of even the best sounding ideas and concepts once they've been exposed to actual people; Thinking, unpredictable people.

Last week our regular gaming group played the very first iteration of my card game Senators (a placeholder name until a better one comes along). The primary goal of this playtest was to determine whether there was any mileage to the concept; Was there any fun to be had? Can the game actually be played?

I explained to the gang that the version we'd be playing was as basic as it could get; a sponge cake with no flavouring, no icing, no jam and definitely none of those wonderfully colourful sprinkle things.

This is not the cake you'll be eating.

Senators is a game about passing laws. Each player is randomly assigned a 'State Card' which lets them know what their voters like and dislike from an array of 25 different political topics. These topics range from 'Art & Culture' through to 'Religion' and 'Education'.

Each turn the controlling player, the 'Sponsor', randomly selects 5 topics from which they choose 3 to draft a 'bill'. The draft bill is then discussed with the other players: depending on the topics chosen (and their colour) players will either lose or gain voter confidence (the game's currency for winning) according to their 'State Card'.

In addition to this, each player is also issued a secret 'Corporate Card' each turn which, if a vote successfully passes, can generate 'Funding Tokens'. Funding Tokens can be used to bribe other players or make them lose or gain voter confidence.

Once the Sponsor has locked in the bill players vote to pass or reject it, and subsequently work out any gain or loss in funding or voter confidence. Play continues for 10 turns, at which point the player with the highest voter confidence wins.

There are a few more nuances to the rules but the preceding breakdown provides a simplified overview of the game.

So, did it work?

I'm pleased to say that for the most part it did. Play generally proceeded as I expected it would. After a couple of turns the general play procedure had sunk in and interesting things started to occur (which is exactly what I wanted!); Players would pool resources to gang up on a winning player, draft bills that would try to appease as many players as possible and sometimes draft bills that would screw as many players as possible.

What lessons did I take away from the playtest session?

• Turns became stagnant after a while - every turn followed the same cycle: there was no random element. I have already figured out the solution for this - it should make the game more fun and less repetitive whilst also massively increasing the flavour element.
• Spending Funding Tokens should be done at the start of the turn rather than the end. This is especially relevant for the last turn since it alleviates the situation we ran into; The player with the most Funding Tokens could effectively 'buy' the win at the end of the last turn.
• A cap on Funding Tokens may be necessary, or perhaps a penalty for hoarding too much. Currently it is almost nonsensical not to sit on a massive pile of Funding Tokens.
• Change State Cards so that it possible to lose Funding Tokens from them as well as gain them.
• Rework the way in which the colour of a topic affects loss or gain of Voter Confidence. 

With these lessons in mind I am currently working on putting together the second playtest iteration of Senators, ready for another playtest session (ideally with at least one person who wasn't present for this one).

Who said politics was boring?

I Went To - Grand Prix London 2016 (Magic: The Gathering)

Last weekend (7th-9th October) the ExCeL Centre in London Docklands hosted Grand Prix London, one of the largest Magic: The Gathering (Magic) tournaments in the country (main event capacity peaked at 2800 people).

Alongside the three day main event (sealed format using the new set, Kaladesh) were numerous side events covering all sorts of formats, from the typical Standard, Modern and Legacy, to more crazy formats like 'One Box' sealed (in which players use 36 booster packs to build a single deck).

Despite the best efforts of London Transport to prevent me, I spent Saturday afternoon at the GP.

"What format did you play Owen?" I hear you ask. Well my answer to that? I didn't.

"But Owen, you can't go a game tournament and not play any games!" I hear you cry.

Allow me to explain.

I like to play competitive Magic, I don't like to play competitive Magic. That is to say I enjoy playing games of Magic against competent opponents who provide a tactical, thoughtful, exciting game, ideally where both of us are playing with comparable levels of skill. I however do not enjoy playing Magic in a competitive setting. Small scale tournaments with a handful of people is fine; playing in a packed out tournament hall with 2000 plus people is a different matter. Playing a series of games against random opponents over a number of hours is not how I find fulfilment from the game; it is essentially divorced from the aspects of the game I find fun.

I admit this dislike of large scale tournaments likely stems from my very introverted personality: being surrounded by hundreds of people, being forced to interact with said people and experiencing audio-visual overload results in me getting fatigued, tired and grumpy pretty quickly. Enduring extended, repeated interaction with other humans is certainly a skill I'm lacking in.

So what did I do while I was there? I made the trip up to London on Saturday with Rich and met up with Aaron, Elliot and Saf who we're playing in the Modern side event that day. I managed to get a picture of Aaron looking the most intense I've ever seen him:

Playing Merfolk is serious business you know. He later went on to win this game with a double Gut Shot to the face. This pleased him no end.

Rich and I had a wander around the trade stands - the densest concentration of expensive bits of cardboard I've ever seen. It was nice to get a good look at the Kaladesh Masterpiece series in person; It's unlikely I'll ever own one of these Magic 'Ferraris'.

The prize wall had some uncut foil sheets on display - only a few of these are ever made available for public ownership. The gentleman on the stand gave us some interesting factoids regarding the cutting and randomisation process these sheets undergo following their printing.

The art of Magic: The Gathering is in my opinion one of the best aspects of the game, so I would be remiss not to visit the Artist stands. Mark Tedin, one of my favourite Magic artists, was in attendance; We had a little chat with him and I picked up a print of 'Primal Beyond'. One realises how much the cards crop the artwork when compared with the original.

All in all I had a fun afternoon, despite not actually playing any games. The company of good friends and the immersion in some Magic: The Gathering culture is more than enough for me.

Comic Book Comments - August & September 2016

It's time for another bi-monthly comic book round up! Here's what I've read over the last two months. This time we've an odd mix of fairy tales and dystopias.

Empty Zone - Volume One: Conversations with the Dead (Image)

One hundred years in the future Earth is recovering from a long period of blackout caused by massive solar flares. Due to the chaos caused by the death of all electronics, technology has only marginally advanced over the last century.

Corinne is an ex-soldier plagued by regret, bad dreams, nightmares. Afflicted by visions of her fallen comrades, drink and drugs provide a temporary reprieve to her psychological pain. Corinne is a data courier; the only secure way to transfer important data in this future is to do so physically - electronic means are too vulnerable. Her unique nanomachine enhancements afford the ability to transfer data from other 'mules' to herself simply via touch; an ability highly prized by the black market. Corinne's nightmares become all too real when she encounters a mechanically reanimated corpse, seemingly possessed by the soul of one of her former comrades. The ghosts of her dead friends deliver a message to Corinne's data core that turns her onto the path to redemption.

Empty Zone is a gory exploration of guilt in a dark dystopian sci-fi future, cleverly entwined with supernatural themes. The distinct art style helps bring across the bleakness of both the characters and the world (though that is not to say it isn't colourful) while visually emphasising the moments of violence. If you are a fan of Deus Ex, Blade Runner or Cyberpunk in general, this is well worth picking up.


Disenchanted - Volume One (Avatar)

Where do the glamoured go when mankind forgets about them? Goblins, Faeries, Leprechauns, Boggarts, Brownies and Kobolds; all end up in Vermintown. A sprawling, bustling metropolis constructed from cans, bottles, cardboard packets and pipes. Driven from their ancestral homelands by the Vastfolk's (mankind's) relentless expansion into and destruction of forests and woodlands, many fey folk have migrated to Vermintown on promises of an easy life away from the old ways. In the slums of Vermintown the ancient traditional ways of magic have given way to vice, violence, drugs and sleaze.

Stote, newly elected as Wayfinder (community leader) struggles to provide for his two sons, Fig and Tael, following the death of his wife. Born into Vermintown, Fig and Stote have never known life in the outside world, learning about their people's traditions from the elders Tibitha and Noro (who have themselves now become cynical). Stote's troubles can only worsen when Fig is lured away into working for the Spinners gang, the gang responsible for distributing the dangerous new drug 'Whine' onto the streets of Vermintown.

Disenchanted is an interesting re imagining of the fairytale mythos, bringing them into the modern age and successfully mirroring a range of real world issues and themes. Identity, drug abuse, gangs, racism, poverty and family are all explored here. Under the outlandish setting is a story that could just as easily work in a more mundane setting; the magic and fantastic elements simply build on the solid narrative foundation.

As an aside, the setting of Vermintown would make a fantastic Necromunda-esque gang centric wargame. The opportunity to build some terrain out of old bean cans and cola bottles is really quite unique. Playing games between the Vermintown Police and street gangs would be fun to play and would definitely look unique! Sometime in the future I'd like to attempt at turning this setting into a game.



I Hate Fairyland - Volume One: Madly Ever After (Image)

I Hate Fairyland is what you get if you take an axe to Alice in Wonderland. Fairyland is a fantastic realm, full of cuddly creatures, talking stars and colourful landscapes, ruled over by the friendly, caring Queen Cloudia. Fairyland readily accepted a little girl named Gertrude as their guest.

Fairyland wasn't ready for Gertrude.

What started as a simple fun adventure (that should have taken a couple of days at most) to find the magical key that would lead Gertrude back home again has turned into a 27 year long nightmare (both for Gertrude and the inhabitants of Fairyland). Gertrude now murders her way across Fairyland, violently dealing with anything blocking her path towards her goal of finding the key. Queen Cloudia has finally had enough of Gertrude terrorising Fairyland and now desperately seeks an answer to the child's rampage.

Fairyland is a funny, witty and colourful distortion of all the fairy-tale and fantasy tropes we know and love. The visual gags are plentiful and clever, many panels contain humorous background elements or are just so overtly gory as to be funny. The change of Gertrude's guide, Larrigon Wentsworth III (or Larry to his friends), from a bright eyed enthusiastic fairy to a chain smoking depressed wreck is tragically amusing.

If there's one thing I've learnt about Fairyland, it's that you really don't want to be a narrator.


Tokyo Ghost - Volume One: Atomic Garden (Image)

Debbie Decay and Led Dent are Constables (private corporate enforcers) in Los Angeles, 2089. Nano-tech is omnipresent; almost the entire populace is addicted to technology. The 'Net is beamed directly into people's heads: adverts, shows, video games, pornography, even spam is all transmitted through their 'nano-pacs'. Pumped up on mind altering chemicals, many become entirely oblivious to the world around them, forgetting the violence, decay and hedonism surrounding them, lost in an artificial cyber reality.

Debbie, like her father was, is one of the few tech-free individuals - free to see the world for what it really is. Having witnessed her partner Led fall deeper and deeper into tech addiction, she is determined to bring back the man she once knew. When the pair are sent to Tokyo by Mr Flak of FlakPlanet to disable the EMP device shielding the city (to enable the subsequent plunder of its resources) they discover a utopia. Tokyo is overgrown, its inhabitants returned to the old ways of Bushido, living free of technology, respecting the earth rather than exploiting it. Living among this community Led begins to recover his identity, rekindling his relationship with Debbie. Inevitably such a paradise cannot last - the world they left will always catch up with them.

Tokyo Ghost is a poignant allegory to the modern development of 'screen addiction' our society is currently undergoing, if taken to an extreme. Many of us are indeed addicted to our smart phones, computers and tablets, spending hours per day glued to a screen feeding our brains with extraneous garbage. Comparison can be made to the Pixar film 'WALL-E', both share share some similar themes; criticism of capitalism, addiction to and reliance upon technology and the loss of humanity as a result. Both narratives deal with recovering from such addiction and the rediscovery of the outside world.

I just compared a hyper violent dystopian mature science fiction comic to a Pixar movie. You don't get to do that very often!