Ish

I feel like they’re hitting the market about ten years too late with this. WarmaHordes just doesn’t seem to have the “fire” behind it that it once did... 

Star Wars X-Wing and Star Wars Legion seem to be the main competition to GW’s darling Spess Mahreens these days amongst the tournament-uber-alles crowd, with Bolt Action and GW’s own Necromunda being the bigger draw for the less competitive crowd. Then there’s Infinity, which appeals very strongly to both camps.

Monte Cook’s magnum opus of a campaign setting, Ptolus, is getting an updated re-release. 

I’ve heard good things, but never played... I do love the idea though.

I'm available most days from about 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM and most nights after 10:30 PM.  Tuesday nights being the exception, since it’s my one day off work and I’m either at W.O.W. or doing family stuff.

Just tell me what works for you.

Well, I succumbed to the lure of shiny new plastic. Amazon should be delivering my copy of the core box tomorrow... 

Sue Storm has joined the Sisters of Battle! 

1 hour ago, Raindog said:

Oh my stars and garters... a fantasy city map that actually addresses the need of the populace to feed itself! Actual farmland! 

And the forest's treeline has been cleared well away from the city walls! 

Weill wonders never cease.

I’ve now watched several more YouTube videos of actual gameplay and read the free rulebook... I think a lot of my misgivings (in my post above) have all been properly addressed by the game designer’s focusing the gameplay on some very  clever mission designs.

This isn’t a wargame that is trying to represent a war or even a skirmish... it’s a “scuffle” game! The average game looks like it will perfectly replicate the sort of fight scene you might see in a single issue of a comic book. A duo or small team of heroes duking it out for 6-8 pages with a mastermind villain and one or two of his henchmen. It’s not The Infinity Gauntlet and it’s not trying to be, it’s Marvel Team-Up and it nails it.

Players bring a collection of any ten models of their choosing. They also bring six Mission cards, of two different types (“Secure” and “Extraction”). You dice off for priority, winner picks one of his mission cards of one type, second player picks one of his mission cards of the opposite type... These mission cards all have a “Threat Value” on them and you assemble your team by picking from the ten miniatures you brought based on their point value.

Pretty cool.

It means you won’t have to buy a huge stockpile of miniatures if you really only like a handful of specific characters. It also means you won’t necessarily be stuck with characters that are lousy at a specific mission type.

There’s also no restrictions on your team consisting solely of Heroes or Villains, so you can totally recreate that one issue where Captain America had to team up with Red Skull because of Reasons. On the other hand, they do have “Squad Affiliation” rules to incentivize taking certain combinations of heroes. Minor stuff like Captain America giving a morale boost to a team made up solely of his fellow Avengers.

The model range is still kinda small, just the ones in the starter box, Venom, Hulk, the Black Panther, MODOK, and a couple of others. The biggest “missing” part of the line seems to be a complete dearth of any X-Men or their villains... I’d also like to see the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and more of Spidey’s rogues. We’ll probably see them in the near future.

I’m officially upgrading myself from “dubiously skeptical” to “curiosity peaked.” 

Anyone own a copy yet? I’d love to play a demo scuffle or two.

In my defense, my comment was perfectly accurate to describe four of the five iterations of Apocalypse. I never bothered to read (or even glance at) the current one, since it’s not a gameplay format that I ever really play... 

Thirty-five Space Marine Terminators. A mix of Dark Vengeance, Black Reach, and regular off-the-shelf unit box. Various weapons. All painted in my attempt at a Guardians of the Covenant paint job.

Asking $80 OBO.

Okay, I stand corrected on the rules for Apocalypse. 

Still ain’t as cheap as 6mm though, you gotta give me that.

Yes, that would certainly make it easier to buy, transport, et cetera. But since the Apocalyse rules are still Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition, you'd still have the problem of needing to handle the movement, LOS, Wounds, and so forth of every individual trooper... Which is tough when they're mounted five men to a strip. 

Changing scales of figures and rules is easy enough, especially if you're willing to fudge things a bit. Going from 1" to 1 cm is close enough to half scale for most gaming purposes (rather than 1.27 cm). The problem is that WH40k still moves individual infantry models as individuals, the whole mechanics of the game are based on that.

I should probably just give up on proper Epic ever making a come back and finally start playing Team Yankee for my micro-armor fix. But there aren't any giant stompy robots in that game... 

I don’t want to play company- or battalion-level games where I need to account for every individual trooper in 32 mm scale. 

Not only can I not afford to collect, paint, and transport 150 Space Marines, I also lack access to a football pitch to use as a playing surface.

47 minutes ago, CountElmdor said:

With the new Titanicus starter set coming out tomorrow, is anyone else considering jumping in, or breaking out the god-machines once more?

I’m tempted, but I’d prefer to see them bring back Epic 40,000 as a proper combined arms game. Infantry, tanks, artillery, and giant stompy robots.

I’m intrigued by the idea that they’re also introducing “Prospects,” a sort of even more inexperienced Juvie as I understand it... Which seems odd.

Tremors 4 has a punt gun in it. Anything with a punt gun in it is an automatic five stars.

Needs some tiki masks and a whole bunch of skulls.

2 hours ago, Weav said:

2021

In the Bengali calendar...

12 minutes ago, WestRider said:

A Peek at Peak Pique: Why It's OK to Get that Angry at the English Language XD

Lee is clearly phoning it in in several of his later Dracula pictures (there were seven of them made over 15 years, Marvel Studios ain’t got nothing on Hammer). In his own autobiography, he admits that he hated the scripts and disliked the way the directors were making the movies... But, damn Lee is fun as hell to watch in them.

In an odd way, I’m actually reminded of Lee whenever I watch something with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock has been in several truly goddamn awful movies and a handful of good ones... He’s also been the star of several movies that should have been bad, but solely because of the presence of the Rock, they became good. I just can’t help it, if the Rock is on screen, I will enjoy what I’m looking at. I just cannot not like the guy.

Bardic Inspiration

You can inspire others through stirring words or music. To do so, you use a Bonus Action on your Turn....

Napster bad!