I decided to play a solo game of Touch of Evil because it seems that I won't get to play this game for a little while. But I'm trying to do a good narrative for this one. Pardon me but English isn't my native language so mistakes are bound to happen.
I tried to give hints within story text what were the exact mechanics that happened. "Possessed by Madness" and of course "Murder" and "Evil is on the move" are expressions that I put into text just to make it clearer what happened in game terms.
I decided to use three heroes and a certain villain I have wanted to play since it was published...
Randomised heroes were: Captain Hawkins, Inspector Cooke and The Scarlet Shadow.
So let's start:
Captain Hawkins' journal:
12.12.1797
Curse this town! This snowfall caught our militia regiment by suprise and now it seems we can't get absolutely anywhere until there's at least some visibility on the roads. Luckily Lord and Lady Hanbrook have been kind enough to have arranged lodgins for my men.
There are other things, too, it seems. Something is not quite right... there is a certain tension in town. I don't like being here.
I was amazed to find, however, that my dear friend inspector Cooke is in Shadowbrook too. We saw each other but didn't have time for too many words, but I gathered as much that he had followed some kind of a lead here. If these weathers continue maybe he will entertain me with stories of his.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
13.12.
Today I met inspector Cooke again. I heard that he was going to visit the magistrate and asked him if he could ask questions there for me too. He made me promise that I keep my eyes open in town and try to hear what people are talking. I wonder what's the matter.
Regardless, I visited the Hanbrooks' manor today and met a charming young lady. She was no other than the daughter of Lady and Lord Hanbrook. I really enjoy her company and she asked me if I could accompany her to town because of the bad weather.
I would've been a fool not to agree!
Nameless journal:
13.12.
I knew I shouldn't have stayed at the inn near Echo Lake. They're on to get me, I've heard of captain Hawkins.
Anyway, what happened was beyond me. I know not what happened. But when I had rented a room I was attacked. Window came crashing down and I fell down. I thought it was an ambush from the law enforcement, so I'd be running into a trap if I take my flight from the door. I jumped from the now broken window.
Nearby I saw a wooden cannon. Very fine and very beautiful, but definitely wooden. But I was on the third floor and fell wrong. I had to retreat at once to my secret hiding place.
Cooke's Inspections:
14.12.
It looks like the Hanbrook family is somehow connected to all this. I'm having a really bad hunch, I really am...
I visited the windmill and found the diary of Lucy Hanbrook. That girl knows something, something that she is too scared of to put even on paper.
I for one don't want to fall to foreigner hate, but Lucy has taken same notices as I have done. In town there has been some toymakers that make fabulous toys beyond imagining, as is appropriate for Christmas season. But something looks odd, I must say.
Miller here told that he had seen a caravan of sorts on the fields nearby. Seems they are stuck in the snow, or why haven't they arrived in town yet?
I must have a talk with Hanbrooks, especially Lucy. And the toymakers.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
14.12.
We left the manor early today, and Lucy told me things that I couldn't believe, or I didn't want even to try to realise what she was trying to say.
She's certain that there is some great evil in all the toymakers about the town. And that there is someone, in a way, controlling them. And that there is something wrong in the toys they make.
I thought it was all foolish. Then we talked a lot about her mother, and I found out things I didn't really want to. She's a good person for certain, but unable to listen her daughter and drinks strong spirits in secret. Call it intuitive hunch if you wish.
But that is all not of any concern. When we arrived in town there was gunfire about the church. Road bank close to us exploded into cloud of snow. I thought it was a musket, firing at us on nearby thicket of woods. I figured it would take time to load the gun so I ran there. But then came another shot that send me off balance. I fell to ground and strained myself badly. I tried to crawl to safety, but still closer to the enemy.
There in the woods was a small, wooden cannon. No-one was operating it and there were no marks on the snow around the toy cannon either. I didn't feel threatened any longer, as if the cannon didn't work if it was on sight.
Lucy came to me and said: "Do you believe me now?"
And I did.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
15.12.
Inspector Cooke has sent me a letter filled with grief. He said he had decided to go to nearby fields to check the situation there, and I almost can't believe what he found there. A full blown festival! There was a mysterious caravan and common townsfolk were there, looking at grandiose shows. Also, toys were being sold and it seems that they're even being gifted for free. Cooke himself acquired a set of scientific tools.
Truly evil is on the move! There is almost no place in this town where you can't find those wretched toys! And yet I cannot forget what I saw in the woods. I just can't go and say that people, do not take the toys, they're evil. You know what they will think of me then.
But I did what I could, I went and showed my leg to the doctor. He patched me up and I should be well by tomorrow. I also dispatched a detachment of my militia to guard town hall, just in case.
I also heard disturbing news that something has been occasionally shooting the monastery with heavy ammunition. I'm afraid what they will find when they will look into it...
Also, I saw a certain person who was wearing almost nothing but red going to stables. During my years in military I can say that this person needs to be looked up, I wouldn't be suprised if he was even the legendary outlaw Scarlet Shadow.
I need to ask tomorrow if anyone bought a horse there.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
16.12.
Today was a perplexing day. I sent my militia to protect the monastery and results were again very... unnatural. My men heard gunshots but when they proceeded to search the surroundings one wooden cannon was found, again.
I moved to magistrates office to find out if there was anything I could do. While I was there that red clad stranger approached, and he did indeed arrive on a horse. I ordered some guards to arrest him but he fought bravely against them.
Townsfolk, however, saw this quarrel and overreacted. They attacked the magistrate. They were claiming that us, here in office, had brought evil to town. They throwed objects at us and broke some windows. I'm quite bruised now, such was the beating I got.
This, however, allowed Scarlet Shadow, for I'm sure the stranger was him, to escape. But I managed to re-assure that no-one should succumb to a mass hysteria. I lied as best as I could, however. Their fear is more than justified.
Cooke's Inspections:
17.12.
I've been snooping around the manor for some time now. I overheard that the noblemen of the town were going to have a festive ball at the manor that night and they asked me if I could stay as a nightwatch.
I agreed, I could do no other. But things I learned there were horrible. The caravan I saw has started moving. People are restless, but don't know who or what to blame. I do know this, however. Late at night a messenger came from the direction of windmill. There had been a case of death. A person was found dead with an opened gift wrapping in front of her.
From what I can think of this was indeed a murder.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
17.12.
I had to visit the doctor again because of the injuries I had while surviving the angry mob. That's not important, though.
What's important is that I've realised what we're facing. Wooden cannons I thought could have been crafty pranks, tricks that would make you frightened.
But... it feels so foolish even to write about this. I saw three, about to my knee height, toy soldiers marching. It was an unholy sight and I must admit I was terrified. They had small rifles with them that had bayonets attached to them. They were like a mockery of my own militia detachments.
I got myself thinking that they were clever clockwork creations and I loathed them. I attacked them and broke them all to pieces. Anger gave me much needed power, because after I had dismantled the bunch I observed their parts. And they were absolutely not working only on some mechanism. Something more sinister is involved in this matter.
I've told my men to keep an eye for Scarlet Shadow, too. No-one has sighted him. At a moment like this we really don't need him breaking the law about.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
18.12.
Things have been going very wrong. Inspector Cooke was delivered to Town Hall in state of emergency. He was delusional for sure, but in this current situation I can't know how much was his fancy and what was real. Surely he can't have been attacked by a stuffed bear?
Anyway, I heard that Scarlet Shadow was sighted near the marsh. Near marsh is an abandoned keep that I thought could very well be his hiding place. I ordered one of my militia squadron to keep an eye on magistrate. After that I went to abandoned keep.
But I found no Scarlet Shadow there. Instead there was a gift box. I opened it but it was empty. Then the horror started... I'm sure a spectre was tormenting me. It must have come from the gift box. I couldn't stand it and I had to take my flight away from the keep.
Cooke's Inspections:
19.12.
Things are starting to look clear. This thing is big, in a really big way.
I'm not sure what the heck attacked me at windmill. To me it looked like a stuffed bear. It knocked me unconscious and a friendly person hurried me to town.
I went to manor as fast as I could only to notice that I had been left a gift there. It was a book of riddles. But there were two self written riddles on the last page. I don't know who wrote them, but I ripped the page off and put it in my pocket. They included some grave accusations towards reverend Harding and magistrate Kroft, almost blaming them from everything that has happened.
And something has happened. Doctor Manning was found dead early today.
Also I'm not sure about lady Hanbrook. She happened to pass me by and noticed I had that book of riddles with me. She said that she had been looking for that one for some time now, she was afraid someone had stolen it and she was happy that I had been able to find it. She took it back right away.
I heard too that she had commanded her daughter to return at once.
Cooke's Inspections:
20.12.
I could not resist skulking around windmill again. And there I saw it. It was sitting outside. A stuffed bear. It didn't move so I closed in. I was too transfixed on the thing. It could have been my imagination, but I dare say that hellish creature WINKED it's eye on me! That's all I remember, someone hit me in the head then and I lost my consciousness... again.
I woke up later in town hall again and we exchanged information with captain Hawkins.
Hawkins has always been a man of reason. His story of how a volgovian nutcracker had attacked him was almost talk of a madman, but I'm inclined to think that there must have been some truth in his words too.
Stories are spreading how gifts that were opened too early have had serious consequences and toys acquired seem to be haunted in some way. Other disturbing tales tell of toy soldiers marching at night, pulling wooden cannons near Echo Lake.
As we were talking we heard gunfire coming from far away, we guessed that something happened there in the marsh. Hawkins sent off a squad of militia to manor.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
21.12.
Cooke left to manor, though I would have adviced him not to had I then known what I know now. I don't know what has happened to him.
I somehow unrealistically blamed the Scarlet Shadow for all this and I ventured back to abandoned keep. And there I found him, tending his injuries that were suffered I don't know from where.
I think now that I we must have been possessed by madness. Even injured, Scarlet Shadow was a force to deal with. We had a short fight. He hit me in the head once and stunned me and said that he wants to have a talk.
So I accepted.
That conversation easily held back the darkness that had almost consumed me, and dare I say whole Shadowbrook?
Scarlet Shadow has been making investigations of his own and now I know that if we're going to catch the one behind all this, we need to check the manor.
Our enemy is pushing us, though. The caravan arrived today to town for the first time, staying near magistrate's office.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
22.12.
I told Scarlet Shadow about Cooke and Hanbrooks. Then I left abandoned keep. I knew there were movement along the road to Shadowbrook from Echo Lake. I decided it would be best if I went through the old wood there was. I trusted to leave a note to Scarlet Shadow that he'd leave to one of my officers. I was calling for backup.
There I saw a stuffed bear. I suspected this was one of those that had caused Cooke's demise. It was, however, lifeless and did nothing. I still thought it best to burn it.
About this time the militia squad I was asking for appeared and not a moment too late. A small army of those knee-height toy soldiers launched an assault at us. I can't but think that the bear was a bait of sorts.
I injured badly during that fight. Two of my men transported me back to town hall. I guess my men are still fighting there as I write this.
Cooke's Inspections:
22.12.
I conversed with Lady Hanbrook, whom I trust wholly on this matter now. I think she's not holding any secrets from me. She's just a weak person - drunkard and a coward. She was, however, concerned about her husband, lord Hanbrook. She was afraid that something might happen to him. So she showed me a secret passage from manor to the monastery.
I arrived just in time. There was some kind of a secret ritual going on. There were people tied up and lifeless husks of toy soldiers there and masked humans. Me arriving sent the ritualists fleeing and I saved everyone there, including lord Hanbrook.
Lord Hanbrook pledged his alliances to me and proclaimed himself the hero of the people. Any time we would need him he would come. I could read from his expression that he was going to put up a fight now. Even if the manor kept it's secrets, Lord Hanbrook was totally open to me.
Shortly there after a person who had red clothes on appeared to us. He didn't tell us his name, but said he had been in contact with captain Hawkins and told us he believed the answer to this hell of a Christmas would be found from the manor.
Here Lord Hanbrook spoke that it was true indeed and he would provide us with any information we needed. He would gladly accompany us during the final confrontation but there were pressing matters we needed to know.
When we were talking we saw the caravan arriving to the yard of the monastery.
There was indeed dark and sinister things moving about. At the center of it, as Hanbrook told us, was volgovian nutcracker. It must be the same Hawkins saw a while ago.
It has magical powers and has made a mess out of the living in manor. Some of the village elders, reverend and magistrate for sure, are in league with it. So situation has been difficult for Hanbrooks alone. Now we need to find a plan how to destroy it.
Cooke's Inspections:
23.12.
I followed the secret passage back to manor and grabbed a nearby saber. Scarlet Shadow took an oath of the hunter.
I noticed something was wrong with lady Hanbrook when I returned. There had been another Christmas ball that had been attended by both reverend Harding and magistrate Kroft. I could not tell if something had changed. But definitely there was a new secret.
Captain Hawkins' journal:
24.12.
It was a slaughter!
I decided to expand the search and declare a full out war against toy soldiers, but there was indeed an army of them. I lost four squads of militia, managing to vanquish only one clear detachment of toy soldiers. There were too many. But then Cooke came to town and explained to me that we were going to launch an assault against the volgovian nutcracker that had conquered the manor.
Lord and Lady Hanbrook stood by our side and gave us direction. We were all there, me, Cooke and Scarlet Shadow. Lady shower quite an inner strenght in coming to fight. I had a pistol and a sabre Cooke had given to me, and Scarlet Shadow had a small hand crossbow.
We are going in now.
Memorial written by Lord Hanbrook
25.12.1797
It saddens me greatly that three great heroes gave their lives in defending our small and remote town.
Captain Hawkins went down first. In fact it seems that volgovian nutcracker was already waiting for us, as well as Harding and Kroft. Supernatural power that was in nutcracker's bite caught Hawkins by suprise. He was crippled and later bled to death.
We managed to tackle both Harding and Kroft, but three bodies were too horrible sight for my dear wife, who fled.
Next went down inspector Cooke, though he survived one attack that would have definitely cut him in two earlier. But instead a book he was carrying was knocked away.
Scarlet Shadow fought bravely. He had been fatally wounded and tricked the nutcracker to attack him in order to deal killing blow to that monster of a toy.
This horrible nightmare is over now and me and my wife were the only ones who survived that fight.
... phew.
It's amazing how, when you sit down and think things, games like this have a strong story going on. In my opinion I haven't stretched out imagination too wide in any part of that story. Things that happened on board made perfect sense.
This solo game kinda told me a nice story.
And the ending was heroic indeed, I managed to score last hit to 24 wound nutcracker on the last possible turn.
I would have wanted that Scarlet Shadow alone survived the nutcracker, that would have been a thrilling storyline too. But didn't happen so.
So, on with the statistics:
Villains played:
Volgovian Nutcracker: 1
Heroes played:
The Scarlet Shadow: 1
Captain Hawkins: 1
Inspector Cooke: 1
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Set complete - will I get a bonus now?
Okay, as my dear sister guessed already, I went and bought Tales and Legends expansion for Smallworld.
Luckily there isn't much of them available, and they're all deceptively cheap. Now I got all of them.
But I'm excitedly waiting a few games with this new deck thingy, as some of the events I looked at promised fun interaction during game. "Chicken lake" for example. First one who "chickens out" gets all the victory coins that were placed in the lake by earlier players, but that player loses any In Decline race he or she might have.
I guess Tales and Legends adds more randomness to the game. But it's nice when crazy stuff happen within game rules, right?
Luckily there isn't much of them available, and they're all deceptively cheap. Now I got all of them.
But I'm excitedly waiting a few games with this new deck thingy, as some of the events I looked at promised fun interaction during game. "Chicken lake" for example. First one who "chickens out" gets all the victory coins that were placed in the lake by earlier players, but that player loses any In Decline race he or she might have.
I guess Tales and Legends adds more randomness to the game. But it's nice when crazy stuff happen within game rules, right?
Friday, August 20, 2010
True colour of heroes
Finished today last heroes from Touch of Evil.
Here they are:
Well, when I actually get to play this game there will be zero chance of getting an unpainted character. Small victory in life.
Really, really small that is.
Here they are:
Well, when I actually get to play this game there will be zero chance of getting an unpainted character. Small victory in life.
Really, really small that is.
20.8.2010 Fantasiapelit Jyväskylä - Circle vs Protectorate
Played a game of Warmachine/Hordes today.
I played following list (25 pointer):
Morvahna
-Megalith
-Gnarlhorn Satyr
Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Tharn Ravager White Mane
War Wolf
Swamp Gobbers
Opponent was playing:
Kreoss
-Crusader
-Revenger
-Repenter
-Dervish
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Paladin
Vassal
Map was a bit difficult even if I was playing Circle. There was a nice huge forest in the middle though. I actually have a picture taken from the end of first round:
It was a beautiful map and it was a pleasure playing on that. The bigger buildings don't show one the picture, though. Also I didn't want my unpainted Bloodweavers to come messing in the picture too. Anyway, it was a Kreoss' wall of steel on open ground or the softer targets in forest.
I was worried that my two beasts just would not be able to take down all four jacks so I dispatched my bloodweavers on that flank too. I must confess I was thinking too that even if only two get into contact with Kreoss...
I decided to send my White Mane and War Wolf just to stall errants and paladin.
They succeeded well enough.
On second turn I was close enough to get a charge off with my bloodweavers against light warjacks of Kreoss. Well, warjacks aren't their prime target, but I was still a bit disappointed at their performance. One lucky damage roll crippled left arm of Dervish, but that was about everything they did before they died.
My War Wolf ran to engage exemplar errants. Poor little woofy, it must have known what would follow... but if it bought me a turn of not getting shot at it was all fine. Morvahna can always resurrect the pooch after battle?
White Mane ran to woods also, but I placed him so that I could get his weapons to bear against warjacks if needed.
Well, then it was time for Kreoss to use his feat. Important models that were knocked over were all of my Bloodweavers and Gnarlhorn Satyr, White Mane and Swamp Gobbers.
One spray from Repenter later half of my bloodweavers were dead, and Dervish killed one, side-stepped and killed two more. End of them, Kreoss didn't even have to resort to using Purification to get away with Morvahna's signature spell "Regrowth" that allows me to bring back dead unit members.
Well, as they were no longer engaging the warjacks, Revenger brought it halberd to bear at my Satyr. Luckily enough it did little damage. Or it did some, but it was spread nicely on the life spiral, not losing any aspects.
Errants killed the pooch.
Then it was my turn to pay back the punishment. First hit from my Gnarlhorn Satyr against Revenger crippled that nasty shield, so I didn't get pushed back. Satyr managed to wreck the Revenger.
Then Megalith charged Crusader. I was thinking if I should cast one fully boosted Eruption of Life at Kreoss, but as I didn't do enough damage on Crusader I thought it'd be best to give the warjack as much damage as I could.
It did lose it's movement and open fist. But not the Inferno Mace. I was a bit worried for my Megalith though it had Restoration on. I got a picture here, too:
Repenter on the middle had earlier lost it's melee weapon to few boosted Eruption of Life's.
I had lost quite much too so that was about everything I could do.
Next turn Megalith took a serious beating. In fact that picture is taken when Crusader has mauled Megalith but before Kreoss has charged in. Megalith was left with something like 6-8 health. Opponent charged so that if I was going to come to Kreoss with Megalith I would take a free strike from Crusader.
Anyway.
I charged Kreoss with Morvahna herself, but here is where I got a bit too greedy. I wanted to turn Kreoss into a forest via my feat. Well, I didn't, Kreoss was left with three damage boxes after Morvahna poked around. Then it was up to Megalith to kill Kreoss after all, though it was quite uncertain kill condition. I boosted a Eruption of Life at Kreoss, hit and boosted damage and he was gone.
In hindsight there was waaay too much risk around. I could have walked into melee with Crusader with my Satyr and maybe crippled it enough not to be a threat to Megalith or even destroyed it entirely. Then I should have beaten Kreoss with all Megalith's got and then, after that if Kreoss still survived, charged in with Morvahna.
But in the end, Morvahna was victorious.
I played following list (25 pointer):
Morvahna
-Megalith
-Gnarlhorn Satyr
Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Tharn Ravager White Mane
War Wolf
Swamp Gobbers
Opponent was playing:
Kreoss
-Crusader
-Revenger
-Repenter
-Dervish
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Paladin
Vassal
Map was a bit difficult even if I was playing Circle. There was a nice huge forest in the middle though. I actually have a picture taken from the end of first round:
It was a beautiful map and it was a pleasure playing on that. The bigger buildings don't show one the picture, though. Also I didn't want my unpainted Bloodweavers to come messing in the picture too. Anyway, it was a Kreoss' wall of steel on open ground or the softer targets in forest.
I was worried that my two beasts just would not be able to take down all four jacks so I dispatched my bloodweavers on that flank too. I must confess I was thinking too that even if only two get into contact with Kreoss...
I decided to send my White Mane and War Wolf just to stall errants and paladin.
They succeeded well enough.
On second turn I was close enough to get a charge off with my bloodweavers against light warjacks of Kreoss. Well, warjacks aren't their prime target, but I was still a bit disappointed at their performance. One lucky damage roll crippled left arm of Dervish, but that was about everything they did before they died.
My War Wolf ran to engage exemplar errants. Poor little woofy, it must have known what would follow... but if it bought me a turn of not getting shot at it was all fine. Morvahna can always resurrect the pooch after battle?
White Mane ran to woods also, but I placed him so that I could get his weapons to bear against warjacks if needed.
Well, then it was time for Kreoss to use his feat. Important models that were knocked over were all of my Bloodweavers and Gnarlhorn Satyr, White Mane and Swamp Gobbers.
One spray from Repenter later half of my bloodweavers were dead, and Dervish killed one, side-stepped and killed two more. End of them, Kreoss didn't even have to resort to using Purification to get away with Morvahna's signature spell "Regrowth" that allows me to bring back dead unit members.
Well, as they were no longer engaging the warjacks, Revenger brought it halberd to bear at my Satyr. Luckily enough it did little damage. Or it did some, but it was spread nicely on the life spiral, not losing any aspects.
Errants killed the pooch.
Then it was my turn to pay back the punishment. First hit from my Gnarlhorn Satyr against Revenger crippled that nasty shield, so I didn't get pushed back. Satyr managed to wreck the Revenger.
Then Megalith charged Crusader. I was thinking if I should cast one fully boosted Eruption of Life at Kreoss, but as I didn't do enough damage on Crusader I thought it'd be best to give the warjack as much damage as I could.
It did lose it's movement and open fist. But not the Inferno Mace. I was a bit worried for my Megalith though it had Restoration on. I got a picture here, too:
Repenter on the middle had earlier lost it's melee weapon to few boosted Eruption of Life's.
I had lost quite much too so that was about everything I could do.
Next turn Megalith took a serious beating. In fact that picture is taken when Crusader has mauled Megalith but before Kreoss has charged in. Megalith was left with something like 6-8 health. Opponent charged so that if I was going to come to Kreoss with Megalith I would take a free strike from Crusader.
Anyway.
I charged Kreoss with Morvahna herself, but here is where I got a bit too greedy. I wanted to turn Kreoss into a forest via my feat. Well, I didn't, Kreoss was left with three damage boxes after Morvahna poked around. Then it was up to Megalith to kill Kreoss after all, though it was quite uncertain kill condition. I boosted a Eruption of Life at Kreoss, hit and boosted damage and he was gone.
In hindsight there was waaay too much risk around. I could have walked into melee with Crusader with my Satyr and maybe crippled it enough not to be a threat to Megalith or even destroyed it entirely. Then I should have beaten Kreoss with all Megalith's got and then, after that if Kreoss still survived, charged in with Morvahna.
But in the end, Morvahna was victorious.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
18.8.2010 - Friend's place - two smallworlds
Two three player Smallworlds today.
First game we had starting race combos: Forest Trolls (me), Merchant Humans and Wealthy Gypsies.
We played some rules a bit wrong for starters, but Gypsies sorted it out. After this game, being third game, I got all the rules right.
Anyway, game started weirdly, we all minded our own business pretty much. I took a nice spot of two forests, humans took a space far away from anyone and gypsies who started the game were just traveling here and there.
On following turns I started the aggression and mauled a bit humans, all the while protecting my precious forests.
Both gypsies and trolls beat the humans so they went into decline and new race emerged: Underworld Sorcerers.
Because such a race came into being and my trolls had taken a few casualties and couldn't really afford to keep two troop tokens guarding every space I decided to go in decline too and I got Berserk Kobolds. I figured that kobolds might be pretty good race actually, because we had to keep two tokens on every space anyway because of sorcerers.
Well, my kobolds really butchered half of the board and took a huge toll both on gypsies and sorcerers.
Gypsies went into decline of course. And we witnessed a terror combo. I just don't realise why I didn't see it coming... Were-Skeletons. And gypsy-player timed taking that race exactly so that he had the were-bonus on.
Butchering was huge and was only escalated by the fact that every two non-empty regions conquered added one skeleton... He got three new skeletons, meaning he conquered six non-empty regions. Insane.
Sorcerers went in decline too and emerged as Fortified Dwarves. Dwarves were far away from the action, and apparently I backed the heck off from self-replenishing were-skeletons... but I had lost too many tokens from my kobolds to be a real threat.
Lucky thing was that the horrible race/power combo of wereskeletons came so late in game that they didn't win everything.
Scores were: Forest Trolls/Berserk Kobolds: 84
Wealthy Gypsies/Wereskeletons: 79
Merchant Humans/Underworld Sorcerers/Fortified Dwarves: 70
Next game starting races:
Underworld Elves, Alchemist Amazons and Hill Halflings (me)
And at least we two other players started to really hate elves. You just don't want to attack them because they just come back... and because they were Underworld, they could almost jump to any place on the board. But on the hindsight, elves might be a better race when you got some other race in decline.
Anyway, elves were in the middle. I played halflings and conquered two hills that were next to each other first, thus gaining two areas that cannot be conquered by any means. Cool.
Well, Amazons conquered huge swathes of land during early first turns. Elves were also spread very thin so they didn't really do anything to amazons and my halflings were on the other side of the board.
Somehow amazons managed to do the amazing. In the end, when they went in decline, they had nine controlled regions. Nine! And next race/power combo she choosed was Historian Orcs.
Elves went in decline then and took Diplomatic White Ladies next. But the nasty thing was my halflings were faaaar away from in decline amazons. So no-one could do anything to that huge point deposit.
Then came the orcs and butchered my halflings to point of decline.
And in my small history of Smallworld that turn yielded the most staggering amount of points ever seen. Seventeen points. And next two turns gave her fourteen points, but I'm getting ahead in this story...
I chose Mounted Humans as my next race. I carved a really nice little empire of my own and was going to stalk orcs a bit, but they were unsporty fellows and didn't leave their areas undefended. Actually they abandoned many regions just to keep on killing in decline race tokens for bonus victory coins and usually didn't control more than four regions. So I chose to kill in decline amazons instead, but many of them were not in hills or farmland.
White Ladies were, suprisingly, very diplomatic with orcs. But in the end orcs had killed plenty of orcs and white ladies didn't really manage to conquer many regions. They went into decline pretty soon and came in as Berserk Tritons. The game was in it's finale anyway.
I spent last turns wiping out amazons but to no avail.
Scoreboard:
Alchemist Amazons/Historian Orcs: 123 or 127, don't remember which...
Hill Halflings/Mounted Humans 94
Underworld Elves/Diplomatic White Ladies/Berserk Tritons 63
... and next game will hopefully be played with Tales and Legends expansion.
First game we had starting race combos: Forest Trolls (me), Merchant Humans and Wealthy Gypsies.
We played some rules a bit wrong for starters, but Gypsies sorted it out. After this game, being third game, I got all the rules right.
Anyway, game started weirdly, we all minded our own business pretty much. I took a nice spot of two forests, humans took a space far away from anyone and gypsies who started the game were just traveling here and there.
On following turns I started the aggression and mauled a bit humans, all the while protecting my precious forests.
Both gypsies and trolls beat the humans so they went into decline and new race emerged: Underworld Sorcerers.
Because such a race came into being and my trolls had taken a few casualties and couldn't really afford to keep two troop tokens guarding every space I decided to go in decline too and I got Berserk Kobolds. I figured that kobolds might be pretty good race actually, because we had to keep two tokens on every space anyway because of sorcerers.
Well, my kobolds really butchered half of the board and took a huge toll both on gypsies and sorcerers.
Gypsies went into decline of course. And we witnessed a terror combo. I just don't realise why I didn't see it coming... Were-Skeletons. And gypsy-player timed taking that race exactly so that he had the were-bonus on.
Butchering was huge and was only escalated by the fact that every two non-empty regions conquered added one skeleton... He got three new skeletons, meaning he conquered six non-empty regions. Insane.
Sorcerers went in decline too and emerged as Fortified Dwarves. Dwarves were far away from the action, and apparently I backed the heck off from self-replenishing were-skeletons... but I had lost too many tokens from my kobolds to be a real threat.
Lucky thing was that the horrible race/power combo of wereskeletons came so late in game that they didn't win everything.
Scores were: Forest Trolls/Berserk Kobolds: 84
Wealthy Gypsies/Wereskeletons: 79
Merchant Humans/Underworld Sorcerers/Fortified Dwarves: 70
Next game starting races:
Underworld Elves, Alchemist Amazons and Hill Halflings (me)
And at least we two other players started to really hate elves. You just don't want to attack them because they just come back... and because they were Underworld, they could almost jump to any place on the board. But on the hindsight, elves might be a better race when you got some other race in decline.
Anyway, elves were in the middle. I played halflings and conquered two hills that were next to each other first, thus gaining two areas that cannot be conquered by any means. Cool.
Well, Amazons conquered huge swathes of land during early first turns. Elves were also spread very thin so they didn't really do anything to amazons and my halflings were on the other side of the board.
Somehow amazons managed to do the amazing. In the end, when they went in decline, they had nine controlled regions. Nine! And next race/power combo she choosed was Historian Orcs.
Elves went in decline then and took Diplomatic White Ladies next. But the nasty thing was my halflings were faaaar away from in decline amazons. So no-one could do anything to that huge point deposit.
Then came the orcs and butchered my halflings to point of decline.
And in my small history of Smallworld that turn yielded the most staggering amount of points ever seen. Seventeen points. And next two turns gave her fourteen points, but I'm getting ahead in this story...
I chose Mounted Humans as my next race. I carved a really nice little empire of my own and was going to stalk orcs a bit, but they were unsporty fellows and didn't leave their areas undefended. Actually they abandoned many regions just to keep on killing in decline race tokens for bonus victory coins and usually didn't control more than four regions. So I chose to kill in decline amazons instead, but many of them were not in hills or farmland.
White Ladies were, suprisingly, very diplomatic with orcs. But in the end orcs had killed plenty of orcs and white ladies didn't really manage to conquer many regions. They went into decline pretty soon and came in as Berserk Tritons. The game was in it's finale anyway.
I spent last turns wiping out amazons but to no avail.
Scoreboard:
Alchemist Amazons/Historian Orcs: 123 or 127, don't remember which...
Hill Halflings/Mounted Humans 94
Underworld Elves/Diplomatic White Ladies/Berserk Tritons 63
... and next game will hopefully be played with Tales and Legends expansion.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Vassal gaming (Warmachine)
First I'll tell a bit about Vassal game engine.
Vassal is a program that allows you to play different board- and miniature games on internet platform. It has modules for quite a many different games.
Today I played Warmachine/Hordes through it.
We played a 15 point game to give a Vassal beginner some experience in the program.
I played Circle Orboros and my list was:
Mohsar the Desertwalker
Feral Warpwolf
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Tharn Ravager White Mane
and my opponents list was:
Lylyth, herald of everblight
Carnivean
4x Shredders
Forsaken
Couple of first rounds we were circling around each other. I tried to come close protected by Pillars of Salt and opponent tried to keep as close to me as possible, but still out of my Sunhammer range.
But then it happened so that Carnivean sprayed one of my pillars to dust, exposing my satyr. Lylyth herself shot a damage roll of 6,6,5 to my poor little fellow. It was time for me to react or be turned to pincushion.
Well, I had Mirage up on Gnarlhorn Satyr.
Two shredders were in front of Lylyth and Forsaken ran in front of them.
I teleported Gnarlhorn to get a perfect slam against Lylyth, but it needed my Feral Warpwolf taking off the Forsaken. It was easy enough to do, Mohsar cast Bounding on both of my beasts. Then Warpwolf charged the Forsaken and killed it and rest fury went to beat off the Carnivean. Sad thing is, the thing still lived after six attacks, though not by much, only two points were left in the Spirit branch.
But then I realized that, lacking reach, I wouldn't be able to slam a shredder into Lylyth. I had to slam one away from her, stopping my Follow Up move in melee range of Lylyth. She had three fury for transfers, I was really counting on that I could beat her when she was on the ground. MAT 6 against DEF 16 is quite unreliable even with boosting.
I did hit with both of my attacks and brought her down to three health. I had my feat on at that moment, so I guess the opponent wanted to hold on to any precious Fury that would be around. Which was two.
Opponent used Lylyth's feat and healed a couple of beasts a little, one being Carnivean.
Carnivean then proceeded to kick Warpwolf arse, in which it promptly failed, one to hit roll of 1,1,1 helping me very much in that matter.
But I guess there could have been some honor in dying to such a great beast, but it was the pesky shredders that came in and devoured Warpwolf. From behind. Sad indeed.
Then two other shredders tried to bite Gnarlhorn that was standing next to Lylyth and didn't really hurt.
I was counting on losing Gnarlhorn, too, so I messed up my fury collecting.
It caused Gnarlhorn to have 2 fury.
I had Mirage on and teleported Gnarlhorn very, very stupidly. There were two shredders, one had one fury, the other none. I place Gnarlhorn next to the one with fury, and I failed my threshold check of course and gave Lylyth one fury to transfer damage with.
Well, every other beast was maxed out on fury except one shredder that was almost chopped to pieces already.
White Mane charged it and killed it. Then he used Overtake movement to turn around and bought another attack with shredder's heart against Carnivean and killed it and bought another attack at one of the shredders who killed Warpwolf. Didn't kill it, sadly.
Then was Mohsar's turn to activate. He was just a couple of pixels away from being able to advance and fling spells at Lylyth, so I had to overcharge Lylyth.
I despise that course of action even if it's allowed in rules.
But luckily even if I couldn't hold on to my principles when it was matter of life and death, the dice could.
I overcharged. I had 8 Fury (Upkeeped Mirage but maltreated the Satyr). So I shot a boosted Crevasse at Lylyth. I needed to roll at least 8 with three dice. Roll was: 1,1,4. Had I succeeded, I would've needed to roll only 5 with two dice or three dice had I boosted.
But I had another 4 Fury still, so I launched another boosted Crevasse.
Roll was: 1,4,1.
Thank you Dice Gods for punishing me for overcharging!
Next turn Lylyth takes a careful aim and shoots Mohsar dead with just one arrow. I had 11 health left and damage roll was 25.
Well, to be honest, if you picture the situation... Mohsar, blind old man, stumbles forward and manages to miss with a couple of destructive spells.
Lylyth looks at this pathetic mess and decides to show mercy on the blind, old granpa and puts him out of his misery. He never saw what hit him...
Vassal is a program that allows you to play different board- and miniature games on internet platform. It has modules for quite a many different games.
Today I played Warmachine/Hordes through it.
We played a 15 point game to give a Vassal beginner some experience in the program.
I played Circle Orboros and my list was:
Mohsar the Desertwalker
Feral Warpwolf
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Tharn Ravager White Mane
and my opponents list was:
Lylyth, herald of everblight
Carnivean
4x Shredders
Forsaken
Couple of first rounds we were circling around each other. I tried to come close protected by Pillars of Salt and opponent tried to keep as close to me as possible, but still out of my Sunhammer range.
But then it happened so that Carnivean sprayed one of my pillars to dust, exposing my satyr. Lylyth herself shot a damage roll of 6,6,5 to my poor little fellow. It was time for me to react or be turned to pincushion.
Well, I had Mirage up on Gnarlhorn Satyr.
Two shredders were in front of Lylyth and Forsaken ran in front of them.
I teleported Gnarlhorn to get a perfect slam against Lylyth, but it needed my Feral Warpwolf taking off the Forsaken. It was easy enough to do, Mohsar cast Bounding on both of my beasts. Then Warpwolf charged the Forsaken and killed it and rest fury went to beat off the Carnivean. Sad thing is, the thing still lived after six attacks, though not by much, only two points were left in the Spirit branch.
But then I realized that, lacking reach, I wouldn't be able to slam a shredder into Lylyth. I had to slam one away from her, stopping my Follow Up move in melee range of Lylyth. She had three fury for transfers, I was really counting on that I could beat her when she was on the ground. MAT 6 against DEF 16 is quite unreliable even with boosting.
I did hit with both of my attacks and brought her down to three health. I had my feat on at that moment, so I guess the opponent wanted to hold on to any precious Fury that would be around. Which was two.
Opponent used Lylyth's feat and healed a couple of beasts a little, one being Carnivean.
Carnivean then proceeded to kick Warpwolf arse, in which it promptly failed, one to hit roll of 1,1,1 helping me very much in that matter.
But I guess there could have been some honor in dying to such a great beast, but it was the pesky shredders that came in and devoured Warpwolf. From behind. Sad indeed.
Then two other shredders tried to bite Gnarlhorn that was standing next to Lylyth and didn't really hurt.
I was counting on losing Gnarlhorn, too, so I messed up my fury collecting.
It caused Gnarlhorn to have 2 fury.
I had Mirage on and teleported Gnarlhorn very, very stupidly. There were two shredders, one had one fury, the other none. I place Gnarlhorn next to the one with fury, and I failed my threshold check of course and gave Lylyth one fury to transfer damage with.
Well, every other beast was maxed out on fury except one shredder that was almost chopped to pieces already.
White Mane charged it and killed it. Then he used Overtake movement to turn around and bought another attack with shredder's heart against Carnivean and killed it and bought another attack at one of the shredders who killed Warpwolf. Didn't kill it, sadly.
Then was Mohsar's turn to activate. He was just a couple of pixels away from being able to advance and fling spells at Lylyth, so I had to overcharge Lylyth.
I despise that course of action even if it's allowed in rules.
But luckily even if I couldn't hold on to my principles when it was matter of life and death, the dice could.
I overcharged. I had 8 Fury (Upkeeped Mirage but maltreated the Satyr). So I shot a boosted Crevasse at Lylyth. I needed to roll at least 8 with three dice. Roll was: 1,1,4. Had I succeeded, I would've needed to roll only 5 with two dice or three dice had I boosted.
But I had another 4 Fury still, so I launched another boosted Crevasse.
Roll was: 1,4,1.
Thank you Dice Gods for punishing me for overcharging!
Next turn Lylyth takes a careful aim and shoots Mohsar dead with just one arrow. I had 11 health left and damage roll was 25.
Well, to be honest, if you picture the situation... Mohsar, blind old man, stumbles forward and manages to miss with a couple of destructive spells.
Lylyth looks at this pathetic mess and decides to show mercy on the blind, old granpa and puts him out of his misery. He never saw what hit him...
Saturday, August 14, 2010
14.8.2010 - Warmachine at Friend's
Played a game of Warmachine today, against Khador. It was a 50 point game.
My list was:
Goreshade the Bastard
- Nightwretch
- Stalker
- Seether
- Harrower
10x Mechanithralls + 1 Brute Thrall
10x Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech
Warwitch Siren
Satyxis Raider Captain
Gorman diWulfe
Orin Midwinter
Awfully lots of solos!
I was against Oleg Strakhov.
His army was something like:
Strakhov
-Behemoth
-Devastator
Full Pikemen + UA
Full Winterguard Riflecorps
Greylord Ternion
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Gorman diWulfe
Kovnik Josef
Manhunter
Here, I actually took a picture too:
In case you're wondering why it doesn't show more it's because I tried to make unpainted models from both sides to not show, hah. But you can see the towering Behemoth that was really nicely re-posed too. I looked at it before we started playing and was wondering why it looks almost like a different model than the ordinary Behemoth.
Anyway, my opponent won the starting roll.
I was feeling confident because I was playing Goreshade and could easily shut down Strakhov's horrible feat with Mageblight.
I was also thinking that Satyxis Raider's huge threat range would caught the opponent by suprise. But it happened so that only one who was caught by suprise was me: Strakhov cast Superiority on Behemoth and Behemoth advanced with two focus on it and launched to boosted hit bombardments at my Goreshade. Both hit. Goreshade was left with six health.
My next turn it was imperative that I would kill Behemoth. Tartarus was close enough Behemoth so he cursed it and charged in, Threshering one Rifle Corp in the way too and gave 13 points of damage in to Behemoth. Even better, Rifle Corps failed their command check (that came from Tartarus' Terror).
Next, Satyxis Raiders charged to Behemoth. Well, most of them did. Four Combined Melee Attacks later Behemoth was scrapped and Feedback had dealth 4 points to Strakhov. Here, lookie, another picture!
That's just a moment before Behemoth is changed to wreck marker.
Well, that was all good and well from my part, but I did stupid things next. I charged in with both my heavy warjacks. Seether killed three pikemen and Harrower killed nothing. It failed its charge.
I did, however, place my mechanithralls so that if opponent crushed everything big and juicy, my mechanithralls would come in. But most targets were DEF 13 and Mechanithralls have MAT 5, meaning I have to roll at least 8 with two dice to hit them.
Then started opponents turn. First his Gorman came in and threw Rust bomb on my Harrower (managed to hit, that bastard). Greylords dropped Seether's DEF to 9.
Then started some serious beating that resulted in me losing all of my heavy jacks and Stalker too.
We had loaned our playing board from local game shop (they were kind enough to let us - if we returned them during same day.) Our time was up so we decided that this was my last turn, if I didn't kill Strakhov it would be a Draw.
And I did my best!
Satyxis charged to Devastator and managed to get one point of Feedback to Strakhov. I did two combined melee attacks and another attack scored exactly 25 points. And this is an important bit, since had I run Bane Lord Tartarus next to Devastator I would have scored another point to Strakhov via Feedback. But this all is hindsight...
Then I ran my Nightwretch near Strakhov and shot him with a boosted Hexblast. I hit and boosted damage. 11 points in, Strakhov was at one health. I had focus enough for one Bleed.
I hit though I needed 8. If I rolled 7 (exact average with two dice) I would've won. I rolled 6.
So, order of operations is important guys and gals! Not moving Tartarus cost me a victory.
It was Draw.
My list was:
Goreshade the Bastard
- Nightwretch
- Stalker
- Seether
- Harrower
10x Mechanithralls + 1 Brute Thrall
10x Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech
Warwitch Siren
Satyxis Raider Captain
Gorman diWulfe
Orin Midwinter
Awfully lots of solos!
I was against Oleg Strakhov.
His army was something like:
Strakhov
-Behemoth
-Devastator
Full Pikemen + UA
Full Winterguard Riflecorps
Greylord Ternion
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Gorman diWulfe
Kovnik Josef
Manhunter
Here, I actually took a picture too:
In case you're wondering why it doesn't show more it's because I tried to make unpainted models from both sides to not show, hah. But you can see the towering Behemoth that was really nicely re-posed too. I looked at it before we started playing and was wondering why it looks almost like a different model than the ordinary Behemoth.
Anyway, my opponent won the starting roll.
I was feeling confident because I was playing Goreshade and could easily shut down Strakhov's horrible feat with Mageblight.
I was also thinking that Satyxis Raider's huge threat range would caught the opponent by suprise. But it happened so that only one who was caught by suprise was me: Strakhov cast Superiority on Behemoth and Behemoth advanced with two focus on it and launched to boosted hit bombardments at my Goreshade. Both hit. Goreshade was left with six health.
My next turn it was imperative that I would kill Behemoth. Tartarus was close enough Behemoth so he cursed it and charged in, Threshering one Rifle Corp in the way too and gave 13 points of damage in to Behemoth. Even better, Rifle Corps failed their command check (that came from Tartarus' Terror).
Next, Satyxis Raiders charged to Behemoth. Well, most of them did. Four Combined Melee Attacks later Behemoth was scrapped and Feedback had dealth 4 points to Strakhov. Here, lookie, another picture!
That's just a moment before Behemoth is changed to wreck marker.
Well, that was all good and well from my part, but I did stupid things next. I charged in with both my heavy warjacks. Seether killed three pikemen and Harrower killed nothing. It failed its charge.
I did, however, place my mechanithralls so that if opponent crushed everything big and juicy, my mechanithralls would come in. But most targets were DEF 13 and Mechanithralls have MAT 5, meaning I have to roll at least 8 with two dice to hit them.
Then started opponents turn. First his Gorman came in and threw Rust bomb on my Harrower (managed to hit, that bastard). Greylords dropped Seether's DEF to 9.
Then started some serious beating that resulted in me losing all of my heavy jacks and Stalker too.
We had loaned our playing board from local game shop (they were kind enough to let us - if we returned them during same day.) Our time was up so we decided that this was my last turn, if I didn't kill Strakhov it would be a Draw.
And I did my best!
Satyxis charged to Devastator and managed to get one point of Feedback to Strakhov. I did two combined melee attacks and another attack scored exactly 25 points. And this is an important bit, since had I run Bane Lord Tartarus next to Devastator I would have scored another point to Strakhov via Feedback. But this all is hindsight...
Then I ran my Nightwretch near Strakhov and shot him with a boosted Hexblast. I hit and boosted damage. 11 points in, Strakhov was at one health. I had focus enough for one Bleed.
I hit though I needed 8. If I rolled 7 (exact average with two dice) I would've won. I rolled 6.
So, order of operations is important guys and gals! Not moving Tartarus cost me a victory.
It was Draw.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Hamster hamstering around
Well I got the second mini-expansion for Smallworld, goes by the name Cursed.
Next Wednesday I should be playing again at least one game.
This expansion had two new races (Goblins and Kobolds), and five combo badges.
Especially Cursed looks interesting, because it gives absolutely no bonus for the race it's attached to. But in order to skip it in the race queue you have to pay 3 victory coins instead of one. So everyone will leave huge amounts of victory coins on the Cursed race until it starts to look very tempting choice indeed...
Next Wednesday I should be playing again at least one game.
This expansion had two new races (Goblins and Kobolds), and five combo badges.
Especially Cursed looks interesting, because it gives absolutely no bonus for the race it's attached to. But in order to skip it in the race queue you have to pay 3 victory coins instead of one. So everyone will leave huge amounts of victory coins on the Cursed race until it starts to look very tempting choice indeed...
Monday, August 9, 2010
9.8.2010 - Even smaller world
I played my second game of Smallworld today at Fantasiapelit, Jyväskylä.
We had four players, and I remember really little because stuff was happening all the time.
But races that started the game were Wealthy Giants (me), Spirit Orcs, Peace-loving Ghouls (umm... what?) and Swamp Tritons.
Giants went into decline pretty soon and got exchanged with Mounted Ratmen. Last race I played was Dragon Master Gypsies.
I don't remember other player's races too well, but Stout Amazons were a nasty suprise, as well as Historian Sorcerers. Well, that Historian part wasn't that grand, but their racial special ability just wreaks havoc if you can't see it coming.
Berserk White Ladies entered the play too and had a horrible conquering streak, but other players thought their ability to be too powerful so kicked the ladies out of smallworld pretty badly.
In the end the player who started with Swamp Tritons and played with Sorcerers and Heroic Humans scored 95 points.
I came second with 85 points and Orcs were next with 81 points (Spirit Orcs, Stout Amazons, Hill Wizards if I remember correctly) Poor ghouls scored only 56 or so points because their scoring was mauled pretty badly at the point when they were exchanged to White Ladies. (Peace-loving Ghouls, Berserk White Ladies, Fortified Dwarves).
I'm getting the Cursed expansion soon and next month I'm thinking of buying Tales and Legends or whatever the name is. The latter I'm waiting eagerly to see how much it changes the base game. Though maybe I haven't really grasped yet in two games what this is all about. Anyway.
We had four players, and I remember really little because stuff was happening all the time.
But races that started the game were Wealthy Giants (me), Spirit Orcs, Peace-loving Ghouls (umm... what?) and Swamp Tritons.
Giants went into decline pretty soon and got exchanged with Mounted Ratmen. Last race I played was Dragon Master Gypsies.
I don't remember other player's races too well, but Stout Amazons were a nasty suprise, as well as Historian Sorcerers. Well, that Historian part wasn't that grand, but their racial special ability just wreaks havoc if you can't see it coming.
Berserk White Ladies entered the play too and had a horrible conquering streak, but other players thought their ability to be too powerful so kicked the ladies out of smallworld pretty badly.
In the end the player who started with Swamp Tritons and played with Sorcerers and Heroic Humans scored 95 points.
I came second with 85 points and Orcs were next with 81 points (Spirit Orcs, Stout Amazons, Hill Wizards if I remember correctly) Poor ghouls scored only 56 or so points because their scoring was mauled pretty badly at the point when they were exchanged to White Ladies. (Peace-loving Ghouls, Berserk White Ladies, Fortified Dwarves).
I'm getting the Cursed expansion soon and next month I'm thinking of buying Tales and Legends or whatever the name is. The latter I'm waiting eagerly to see how much it changes the base game. Though maybe I haven't really grasped yet in two games what this is all about. Anyway.
9.8.2010 - Fantasiapelit Jyväskylä - TransEuropa
I went to board gaming evening today and played two games there.
First one was TransEuropa, where you build railroads all over Europe.
You play a few rounds of the whole game. One round ends when one player connects a railroad to all of five city cards in his or her possession. Other players then count how "far" away they are from connecting to all cities and deduct the number from their "points". (Everyone starts at 13 points, you can't gain more points)
When one player falls below 1 point game ends and the player who's nearest to the original point value of 13 wins.
First round, I fell to 4 points. Next round I fell to -2 points.
That went pretty darn bad even for a beginner, right?
First one was TransEuropa, where you build railroads all over Europe.
You play a few rounds of the whole game. One round ends when one player connects a railroad to all of five city cards in his or her possession. Other players then count how "far" away they are from connecting to all cities and deduct the number from their "points". (Everyone starts at 13 points, you can't gain more points)
When one player falls below 1 point game ends and the player who's nearest to the original point value of 13 wins.
First round, I fell to 4 points. Next round I fell to -2 points.
That went pretty darn bad even for a beginner, right?
Friday, August 6, 2010
5.8.2010 - Too small world
Yesterday I had my first game of Smallworld.
We had three players and played a couple of things wrong for a few turns.
But anyway, races and combos that began the game were Commando Priestesses, Alchemist Trolls and Bivouacking Orcs.
I began with Priestesses and carved a huge empire of I think six areas. Trolls were second and went almost as far from Priestesses as they could. I didn't leave much defense for Priestesses so Orcs that were last in turn order came and messed up my play so totally that I decided to go In Decline during second turn already. I got a nice ivory tower of four priestesses and chose a new race of Peace Loving Halflings.
Orcs and trolls both just schemed around during second turn, conquering new regions, but they were a bit far away from each other so no direct clash.
Third turn Enter Halflings. I tried to be crafty and conquer two regions that I thought Orcs would conquer next, creating my Holes in the Ground there. Then next region I conquered was a non-factor, but I threw all and every halfling there to defend so that the onslaught of orcs would then be directed to Trolls.
Well, Trolls packed up their camps and conquered other regions, keeping their own business...
Orcs started to be a bit overextended by then and halflings, despite being peace loving, conquered stuff for themselves because there were a few areas where only a single orc was defending.
Then Orcs went In Decline and the player chose Dragon Master Giants for her instrument of pain. That meant my Ivory Tower came crashing down when their dragon ate all my precious priestesses...
Around that time Trolls also went In Decline and Historian Amazons entered the board.
After they rampaged around I thought that Halflings really needed to go. I chose Hill Skeletons.
Game was ending quite soon and now people were fighting all over the place, meaning that Amazons and Giants both got quickly overextended. My skeletons tried to help in that, though I decided that my skeletons would need to eat one of my halflings to raise their number.
I managed to get two hill areas for my skeletons and proceeded to sit on them with huge amounts of troops to keep scoring for my special ability.
But Amazons went into decline and paved way for Mounted Ratmen. Giants went in decline too and from there emerged Berserk Tritons.
Skeletons dug up positions in hills and then came a last turn rush of 13 ratmen and quite a many tritons too.
Troll/Amazon/Ratmen scored 75, Orc/Giant/Tritons scored 80 and Priestess/Halfling/Skeleton 99.
I hope we're getting another play in within few weeks. It was fun!
We had three players and played a couple of things wrong for a few turns.
But anyway, races and combos that began the game were Commando Priestesses, Alchemist Trolls and Bivouacking Orcs.
I began with Priestesses and carved a huge empire of I think six areas. Trolls were second and went almost as far from Priestesses as they could. I didn't leave much defense for Priestesses so Orcs that were last in turn order came and messed up my play so totally that I decided to go In Decline during second turn already. I got a nice ivory tower of four priestesses and chose a new race of Peace Loving Halflings.
Orcs and trolls both just schemed around during second turn, conquering new regions, but they were a bit far away from each other so no direct clash.
Third turn Enter Halflings. I tried to be crafty and conquer two regions that I thought Orcs would conquer next, creating my Holes in the Ground there. Then next region I conquered was a non-factor, but I threw all and every halfling there to defend so that the onslaught of orcs would then be directed to Trolls.
Well, Trolls packed up their camps and conquered other regions, keeping their own business...
Orcs started to be a bit overextended by then and halflings, despite being peace loving, conquered stuff for themselves because there were a few areas where only a single orc was defending.
Then Orcs went In Decline and the player chose Dragon Master Giants for her instrument of pain. That meant my Ivory Tower came crashing down when their dragon ate all my precious priestesses...
Around that time Trolls also went In Decline and Historian Amazons entered the board.
After they rampaged around I thought that Halflings really needed to go. I chose Hill Skeletons.
Game was ending quite soon and now people were fighting all over the place, meaning that Amazons and Giants both got quickly overextended. My skeletons tried to help in that, though I decided that my skeletons would need to eat one of my halflings to raise their number.
I managed to get two hill areas for my skeletons and proceeded to sit on them with huge amounts of troops to keep scoring for my special ability.
But Amazons went into decline and paved way for Mounted Ratmen. Giants went in decline too and from there emerged Berserk Tritons.
Skeletons dug up positions in hills and then came a last turn rush of 13 ratmen and quite a many tritons too.
Troll/Amazon/Ratmen scored 75, Orc/Giant/Tritons scored 80 and Priestess/Halfling/Skeleton 99.
I hope we're getting another play in within few weeks. It was fun!
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