sábado, 28 de marzo de 2020
Slowly Getting Back To 'Normal'
A bit of painting, a quick solo game, aced the Beef and Broccoli for supper, Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil with my closest canine friends.......that's retirement!
People Behind The Meeples - Episode 212: Kennedy Goodkey
Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers. Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before. If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!
| Name: | Kennedy Goodkey |
|---|---|
| Location: | Vancouver |
| Day Job: | I used to work in film. Nowadays I do data analysis for a major Canadian telecom. |
| Designing: | One to two years. |
| Blog: | I do but its not game relevant at this time |
| BGG: | HobbyistsorDabblers |
| Facebook: | Hobbyists or Dabblers |
| Twitter: | @hobdab |
| YouTube: | I do but its not game relevant at this time oh wait... how about a film I produced that is now available for free on YouTube? https://youtu.be/whW57js2XjA |
| Find my games at: | Best to reach out on Facebook and I can direct people to appropriate PnP or TTS locations (the picking are pretty slim right now) |
Kennedy Goodkey
Interviewed on: 8/26/2019
This week's interview is with Kennedy Goodkey, an independent film director and screenwriter turned game designer. In addition to his involvement with several movies, Kennedy has been designing games for the past few years. Read on to learn more about Kennedy and his current projects!
Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
One to two years.
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I did it in my teens and 20s. Got busy for a few decades (the film industry is a time-intensive life), then got back to gaming as a Dad (and having left film)... and the bug struck again - in part because my daughter started getting into games with me, but also because I had a creative hole in my life where film once was.
What game or games are you currently working on?
I've got about 4 that are getting regular attention from me right now...
"The Queen Must Die" - a reversed dungeon crawl where the players are the Kobolds working together to save their warren and queen... except that whoever is "winning" at any given time wants the Queen to die, so they can rule.
"Drive" - a tile-laying race-game in the spirit of awesome/terrible films like The Cannonball Run and Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
"Drop-Stix" - A dexterity game that turns the classic Pick-up-Sticks on it's head.
"Bishop, Baylies & the Baron" - A fast paced card game of aerial dog-fighting in WWI.
Have you designed any games that have been published?
Nope. But I have a good track record at design jams.
What is your day job?
As noted above, I used to work in film. Nowadays I do data analysis for a major Canadian telecom.
Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.
Where do you prefer to play games?
Anywhere there is a game. I get anxious when I leave the house without a deck of cards (I also do card magic) "just in case."
Who do you normally game with?
#1 - my daughter. I have 2 small groups of "the guys" who I play with at least once a month each. And I attend several open gaming nights - with various 'regulars' - sometimes with my daughter, and sometimes not.
If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
My #1 for close to a year now has been Root. I do like getting my games to the table too. The rest rotates based on whims that last weeks at a time.
And what snacks would you eat?
My daughter and I usually go out for "muffins and coffee" and games at least one morning per weekend. And "beer" is probably the most reliable staple of the other events.
Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
I do. I'm pretty open to whatever - my tastes musically speaking are pretty broad. But... "the guys" ...we are collectively getting long ion the tooth - and there is a lot of "I can't hear clearly with too much background noise" ...so music is normally only pre/post game. :-(
What's your favorite FLGS?
RainCity Games in Vancouver. That's where everybody knows my name. And it's a block away from home.
What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Fave... Well, Root. ...but Point Salad is making a hard play for that position over these past few weeks. Least favourite that I still enjoy... Pandemic is probably my all-time fave, but I've played-it-out. I do still like "playing" it... but that really means I sit and watch others play - 'cause I can't open my mouth without having an Alpha opinion about the situation. Worst game... I've probably deliberately forgotten. However, this past weekend my daughter and I took a game off the shelf of shame - Barcelona - and confirmed that our year-long resistance to playing it was WELL founded.
What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
Being VERY specific - the way the infection deck is handled in Pandemic - adding a new card from the bottom and then reshuffling all that has already appeared together and putting it on top to go through again... it seems so pedestrian now all these years later, but DAMN - it's a simple piece of genius. Being considerably less specific... I'm a sucker for legacy games. Least favourite... well any of the 54(?) mechanics singled out on BGG have a place and time... but dice rolling really needs to earn it on my game table.
What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
I could probably say "Root" again, 'cause it doesn't get to the table anywhere near as often - or with as many players as I'd like. But... I'm going to cheat this question in another way... Dune. I owned an AH copy of it in the 80s and played it until it was hardly usable. I traded it, in all it's literally broken (yet complete) glory for a nearly mint copy of Supremacy with ALL expansions. That trade says all you need to know about either game, no? I'd been considering hand crafting a bespoke version [of Dune] for quite some time... but I'm glad that I won't have to... geez, almost any time now.
What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, RPG Games, Video Games
Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games
OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
No
You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.
When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
Theme MOSTLY comes first. But there are exceptions.
Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
Yes. I've entered a few. The only ones I've won have been design jams though.
Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
I could go top 3... in no particular order: Garfield, Daviau, Leacock. All for very different reasons... and the connection between Daviau and Leacock I will staunchly deny has anything to do with their partnership of note.
Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
Tough to say. "The Queen Must Die" began life as a screenplay that I couldn't finish. Years later it popped into my mind and I thought - THATS A GAME! "Bishop, Baylies & the Baron" - I'd wanted to design a dogfighting game for quite some time (I've always been fascinated by the arithmancy of Ace of Aces) and at a game jam, it fit the constraints we were given, so a game was born.
How do you go about playtesting your games?
I go regularly to a design night at my FLGS. But I'll also post on Facebook or elsewhere that I'm looking for players when I want to go deep. I'll solo or play with my daughter too - for as much as that is worth. And I've uploaded "The Queen Must Die" to Tabletop Simulator, but haven't yet tried the on-line play test... but will soon.
Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
Yes. I really love the autonomy of working alone. I like trying my hand at all aspects - though I'm not really good enough at art or graphic design to do those at a level that could sell. I'm also not the greatest businessman. I have designed two games - probably two of my taughtest - with others, but even so I have a habit of running head of the pack at the slightest hint of foot-dragging. I'd love to have a dream-team partnership with a better artist and graphic designer than me, and someone with a better grasp of business.
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
... I feel like I'm answering these questions ahead of when they are being asked! The business. Yeah, I co-produced a movie that sold to broadcast, theatrical and DVD (oddly in that order), but I hated every single step of the business part. I resist it and let my contempt for it get in the way of doing it efficiently at every step.
If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
I saw Star Wars on my 7th birthday. I left the theatre and said "I want to do THAT" - meaning making films. I did - though not Star Wars. So perhaps there is a Star Wars game in the future with my name on the box.
What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
Don't stop. Keep doing it in the vacuum - a renaissance is coming.
What advice would you like to share about designing games?
(Again this comes from film (and theatre).) Never toss an idea away entirely. No matter how dumb it seems, or how much it doesn't work in the current situation, you never know when it will be the key to something good. Don't dismiss something because it's impractical - it may seem weird and counter-intuitive, but in the right context it may be exactly what you need. Both those ideas are adjacent to one another. I have personal examples of both.
Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have: Nothing as of yet.
Games that will soon be published are: Ditto.
This is what I have currently crowdfunding: See above re my taste for business.
Currently looking for a publisher I have: The Queen Must Die; Bishop, Baylies & the Baron Both are ready. I have plans to pitch both in October [2019].
I'm planning to crowdfund: :-)
Games I feel are in the final development and tweaking stage are: Pixie Dust; Drop-Stix
Games that I'm playtesting are: Drive; Pirates v. Robots v. Ninjas v. Zombies v. Lemmings
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Legacy version of a major license that I will NEVER get and that should probably never actually get a legacy treatment - but was fun to dev anyway. (It's a game about real-estate - yeah, that one.)
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Un-named Palace Intrigue - Hidden Identity game that I'd call "Love Letter" except...
Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Yes, each of those and many others - Board Game Design Lab springs to mind
And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!
Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Wars, but only if I had to pick; Coke; VHS
What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
We love music in our house. I still get the occasional call for help on film... for fun. And (largely due to having a wife with loads of insider experience) a lot of world travel.
What is something you learned in the last week?
The connection between Depeche Mode, Erasure and Yazoo. ...and here I THOUGHT I knew my 80s music trivia.
Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
Punk / Post-Punk, Space (not specifically sci-fi - but at least as much about real world space exploration and astro-physics). Obviously Star Wars... but I really enjoy Nordic Noir too.
What was the last book you read?
Game Tek by Geoff Englestein
Do you play any musical instruments?
Yes.
Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
I paid for most of my university by touring Canada in a comedy troupe.
Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
I paid for most of my university by touring Canada in a comedy troupe.
Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
... no doubt I have one... it's just not springing to mind.
Who is your idol?
Joe Strummer, The Edge, David Brin, Trevor Linden
What would you do if you had a time machine?
I'd call my friend Keith five minutes earlier than I did on the day he died... so he wouldn't have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Are you an extrovert or introvert?
I am an awful lot of both and not much of the middle.
If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
The Flash has always been my favourite, so it'd probably be wrong to say Batman.
Have any pets?
A fish. (Sigh, apartment life.)
When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
As much as I have all manner of utopian ideals of what I wish the world was like, I kinda feel like people suck and so long as we are around, the worst aspects of human kind will always be there to be fought - so... nice idea, but I just don't kid myself anymore. I sure hope people keep playing hockey and curling. The ice age should about that.
If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
Hey Keith! Hope you're doing well. Miss the hell out of you still. Can you believe I'm older than you ever were?
Just a Bit More
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions! Is there anything else you'd like to tell my readers?
Geez... this is a lot of questions.
Curling. Once upon a time my Dad was one of the top 100 curlers in Canada. At that time, being one of the top 100 curlers in Canada pretty much meant you were one of the top 100 curlers in the world.
Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html
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. And be sure to check out my games on Tabletop Generation.Giving OHW Another Shot
The other day I stopped by Dale's Wargaming blog and read his latest post discussing Neil Thomas' Late Arrival scenario from One Hour Wargames. Since I was looking for a quick game I thought "why not?".
I like the boiled down scenarios from the book but the last time I tried the rules I wasn't impressed. Dale has got me thinking that I may not have given them a fair shake. So I decided to try them. Dale had been discussing an ancient game and, no longer having ancient armies (I can't believe I just wrote that after 45 years as an ancient's player!!), I grabbed some 16thC Scots and English and used them with the ancients rules.
The army selection gave the English (Blue Army though dressed in Red) 4 infantry, 1 skirmisher, 1 cavalry and the Scots (Red Army though dressed in White) 3 Infantry, 1 skirmisher and 2 cavalry.
The scenario has the Scots arriving en masse at the start of the game except that all units arrive on the single road so get stacked up. The English start with two units with another pair arriving on each of turns 5 & 10. To complicate things there is an impassible hill and a wood which only the skirmishers can move through.
I had hoped that the Scots would roll more skirmishers so that one could flank the English while the other ran fast and nabbed the town which is the objective. Having only rolled one, I sent it to the town.
What followed was a prolinged melee with the dice favouring one side then the other. English reinforcements arrived in time to restore the line and retake the town.
At least in the English counterattack the dice favoured one side over the other through the whole short fight. If the dice hadn't rolled English 5's and 6's vs Scots 2's and 3's the outcome of the game would have been different with the English being too damaged to hold out later if indeed they had had time to break in.
At last the Scots cleared the gap and their cavalry had just time to dash across the table and make a long odds attack on the town. It was close but the game ended with the English having 1 unit with 1 hit left facing 4 Scots units. A clear English victory.
So what did I think?
Well, it was fast, actual playing time was not quite 1/2 hour. In that time I made something close to 100 die rolls and made perhaps 6 or 8 decisions, all important. Since each die roll counted, there was some tension that built towards the end of the game when a few good rolls by the Scots would have reversed the decision.
On the whole, the rules are better than my original assessment. They aren't my cup of tea and I still have some objections on the historical side, for example, most units are allowed one and only one tactic although in many wars many, not all but many, unit types had a choice of tactics and all arms forces are not allowed if using the lists. With those exceptions, when it comes to how the rules play, they work and whether you enjoy their style is a matter of taste.
I decided to reset the table and play the scenario again later using a different period and rules but that's another post.
I like the boiled down scenarios from the book but the last time I tried the rules I wasn't impressed. Dale has got me thinking that I may not have given them a fair shake. So I decided to try them. Dale had been discussing an ancient game and, no longer having ancient armies (I can't believe I just wrote that after 45 years as an ancient's player!!), I grabbed some 16thC Scots and English and used them with the ancients rules.
The army selection gave the English (Blue Army though dressed in Red) 4 infantry, 1 skirmisher, 1 cavalry and the Scots (Red Army though dressed in White) 3 Infantry, 1 skirmisher and 2 cavalry.
The scenario has the Scots arriving en masse at the start of the game except that all units arrive on the single road so get stacked up. The English start with two units with another pair arriving on each of turns 5 & 10. To complicate things there is an impassible hill and a wood which only the skirmishers can move through.
I had hoped that the Scots would roll more skirmishers so that one could flank the English while the other ran fast and nabbed the town which is the objective. Having only rolled one, I sent it to the town.
What followed was a prolinged melee with the dice favouring one side then the other. English reinforcements arrived in time to restore the line and retake the town.
At least in the English counterattack the dice favoured one side over the other through the whole short fight. If the dice hadn't rolled English 5's and 6's vs Scots 2's and 3's the outcome of the game would have been different with the English being too damaged to hold out later if indeed they had had time to break in.
So what did I think?
Well, it was fast, actual playing time was not quite 1/2 hour. In that time I made something close to 100 die rolls and made perhaps 6 or 8 decisions, all important. Since each die roll counted, there was some tension that built towards the end of the game when a few good rolls by the Scots would have reversed the decision.
On the whole, the rules are better than my original assessment. They aren't my cup of tea and I still have some objections on the historical side, for example, most units are allowed one and only one tactic although in many wars many, not all but many, unit types had a choice of tactics and all arms forces are not allowed if using the lists. With those exceptions, when it comes to how the rules play, they work and whether you enjoy their style is a matter of taste.
I decided to reset the table and play the scenario again later using a different period and rules but that's another post.
lunes, 23 de marzo de 2020
Storium Theory: A Shadow In The Light
I've written a bit about this before, but today I'd like to discuss one of the most fun things that I've found to do on Storium - ending a challenge with a Strong ending by playing a Weakness card.
Sometimes, you find yourself with a really fascinating opportunity on Storium. You're writing the final move on a challenge, and it is definitely going Strong - there's only one card slot left, for instance, and at least 2 more Strong cards have been played than Weakness cards, so even if you play a Weakness card, it's still going to be 1 up on Strong.
These are amazingly fun writing opportunities, and I encourage you to make the most of them.
Play a Weakness card...and make it just as Weak as you normally would! Your character screws up, or stumbles, or otherwise expresses his Weakness. It's just that in the end, the challenge succeeds despite him.
Don't have his Weakness lead him to victory - instead, have victory happen despite his weakness.
The other characters' efforts succeed. They win the day. He almost screws things up for everybody...but they'd done well enough before that point that it didn't end up mattering.
This is one of your best possible opportunities to make someone else...or everybody else...awesome.
You can take the time to build up how well someone else did. You can show how the situation is set up perfectly to go to the Strong outcome. Then, you take it one step farther - you show how you make a mistake, how you screw things up...but because things were set up so well to begin with, or because someone else is doing what they're doing and doing it so well, things go right anyway.
It isn't luck. It isn't happenstance. It's the efforts of the other characters involved, acting along the lines they've acted in prior to your move, using the Strengths they've put down before. You nearly mess everything up...but they either save the day, or have already put things in such a good state that your screw-up is a drop in the bucket.
Some of my favorite moves on Storium have been the points where I've had the opportunity to write this way: Where I could show just how good the other characters have been in a challenge by having my character seriously screw up...but letting the group win the day anyway. The other players feel great because you gave them recognition and made them look like a million bucks...and you? You get a really, really powerful character moment out of it.
You can hit your character hard from a moment like this - a moment where everyone else looks good, and he looks bad. You can use it to push him to change. You can inspire a difference in attitude. Maybe it's negative - feelings of inferiority or questioning of his skills. But maybe it's positive - a new respect for other characters, or the discovery of a mentor who can help him exceed his current limits.
So when a moment like this comes up in a story, don't just toss out a Weakness card just to get rid of one. Don't look at it that way. Look at it as a great opportunity to really make other people look good, and to really draw comparisons between your character's failings and someone else's strengths. This is an excellent, amazing chance to develop your character and make other people look their best at the same time. Take advantage of it!
Sometimes, you find yourself with a really fascinating opportunity on Storium. You're writing the final move on a challenge, and it is definitely going Strong - there's only one card slot left, for instance, and at least 2 more Strong cards have been played than Weakness cards, so even if you play a Weakness card, it's still going to be 1 up on Strong.
These are amazingly fun writing opportunities, and I encourage you to make the most of them.
Play a Weakness card...and make it just as Weak as you normally would! Your character screws up, or stumbles, or otherwise expresses his Weakness. It's just that in the end, the challenge succeeds despite him.
Don't have his Weakness lead him to victory - instead, have victory happen despite his weakness.
The other characters' efforts succeed. They win the day. He almost screws things up for everybody...but they'd done well enough before that point that it didn't end up mattering.
This is one of your best possible opportunities to make someone else...or everybody else...awesome.
You can take the time to build up how well someone else did. You can show how the situation is set up perfectly to go to the Strong outcome. Then, you take it one step farther - you show how you make a mistake, how you screw things up...but because things were set up so well to begin with, or because someone else is doing what they're doing and doing it so well, things go right anyway.
It isn't luck. It isn't happenstance. It's the efforts of the other characters involved, acting along the lines they've acted in prior to your move, using the Strengths they've put down before. You nearly mess everything up...but they either save the day, or have already put things in such a good state that your screw-up is a drop in the bucket.
Some of my favorite moves on Storium have been the points where I've had the opportunity to write this way: Where I could show just how good the other characters have been in a challenge by having my character seriously screw up...but letting the group win the day anyway. The other players feel great because you gave them recognition and made them look like a million bucks...and you? You get a really, really powerful character moment out of it.
You can hit your character hard from a moment like this - a moment where everyone else looks good, and he looks bad. You can use it to push him to change. You can inspire a difference in attitude. Maybe it's negative - feelings of inferiority or questioning of his skills. But maybe it's positive - a new respect for other characters, or the discovery of a mentor who can help him exceed his current limits.
So when a moment like this comes up in a story, don't just toss out a Weakness card just to get rid of one. Don't look at it that way. Look at it as a great opportunity to really make other people look good, and to really draw comparisons between your character's failings and someone else's strengths. This is an excellent, amazing chance to develop your character and make other people look their best at the same time. Take advantage of it!
viernes, 20 de marzo de 2020
Game 361: Planet's Edge (1992)
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| Note that the game's title screen does not technically exclude the possibility of returning from this point. |
Planet's Edge
United StatesReleased 1991 for DOS, 1993 for FM Towns and PC-98
Date Started: 5 March 2020
Because it took me so long to get Planet's Edge up and running, I had time to do more background research first--the kind of thing that I usually save for the "Summary and Rating" entry. I learned from Wikipedia that the game grew out of a desire to merge the boardgame Star Fleet Battles with an RPG. I learned from an RPG Codex interview that the developers wanted to put "Might and Magic in space." Nowhere did the authors report a direct influence from any other game, so it was a surprise when I fired it up and found myself looking at . . . Starflight. It has the same type of base where you enter different buildings to accomplish similar tasks, the same type of ship with commands arranged by "station," the same approach to galactic exploration, the same variety of weird alien races to meet, and the same take on combat. Sure, it does some things differently, but the core of the game was clearly cribbed from Starflight. Was it so hard for the developers just to admit "we wanted our own version of Starflight"?
There is some confusion about a couple of elements in the header. First, the title. My policy is that a game's "official" title is the best two out of three on the manual cover, box cover, and in-game title screen. If all three conflict, I go with the in-game title screen. In the case of Planet's Edge, the box includes a subtitle (The Point of No Return) that both the manual and in-game screen lack. Second, a while back, commenter shankao made a case for the game being released in 1992 instead of the official copyright date (and MobyGames date) of 1991. His argument is based on the fact that no reviews appeared for the game until comparatively late in 1992. I didn't find any conclusive evidence, but I decided to accept shankao's argument and move the game to 1992.
Planet's Edge is set in 2045. Humanity has colonized the Moon and has seeded Earth's orbit with various space stations, satellites, and other craft. The denizens of these orbiting habitats become humanity's only survivors when the rest of the planet is sucked into a "space-time warp." The warp is the result of an electro-magnetic burst fired from an extraterrestrial craft, although it is unknown whether it was accidental or deliberate (a Chinese space station had disobeyed U.N. orders and fired missiles at the craft just before the event). Either way, Earth's gravitational influence somehow remains, keeping the Moon and satellites in orbit.
Commander Mason Polk of Luna Base takes charge of humanity's remnant. Without Earth's resources, the base will run out of food and life support within a few years, so time is crucial. From the crashed alien spaceship, scientists recover the device that caused the disaster. They call it the "Centauri Device" and identify eight parts that they need to reconstruct it and possibly reverse its effects: a N.I.C.T.U. (but no K.L.A.A.T.U. or B.A.R.A.D.A.), an Algocam, a K-Beam, a Harmonic Resonator, a Mass Converter, a Gravitic Compressor, Krupp Shields, and Algiebian Crystals. How they came up with these names is left a bit vague. A ship dubbed the Ulysses is commissioned to scour the galaxy for these items and otherwise try to find out why the extraterrestrial ship visited and destroyed Earth. It's a little unclear how we suddenly have the ability to travel outside our solar system, or given that we have said ability, why there's a time limit on survival at Luna Base.
Gameplay begins at Luna Base, where the player can visit the shipyards (build and modify ships), the warehouse (offload cargo), the crew quarters (view and clone crewmembers), the research lab (check on progress with the Centauri Device), and the launchpad (head out into the universe). The items that you can build for your ship or characters depend on the resources that you bring back from other places--resources such as organics, heavy metals, alien isotopes, and rare elements.
The crew consists of four fixed characters. The pilot is William Robert Dean from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Osai Lin Tsakafuchi from Tokyo is the ship's physician and chief scientist. Engineering duties are handled by Nelson T. Ngatadatu of Babaishanda, New Gwelo (a fictional place, but "Gwelo" is a place name in Zimbabwe). The combat specialist (both ground and flight) is Katya A. Mershova from Muntenia, Romania. Each character occupies one of the ship's four stations, some doing double duty if anyone dies. Each character has fixed attributes in body, intelligence, agility, and luck, as well as fixed skills like "Leadership," "Light Weapons," "First Aid," and "Computers." I don't know whether these attributes or skills are capable of developing, but I don't see any sign that they are.
Each character has a personal inventory, drawn from the supplies on Luna Base or found in the galaxy. The first thing I did was give them all flak jackets and weapons.
I found the ship modification process confusing enough that I decided to save it for later and just blasted off in the default ship. Once in space, commands are organized among four "consoles": navigation, weapons, engineering, and science. For instance, to communicate with another ship, you select the "Weapons" console (counterintuitively) and then "Communicate." To heal crewmembers, you select "Science" and then "Heal Crew." There are far less than 26 commands, so I don't understand why each couldn't have its own key. However, Planet's Edge does a little better than previous games using this structure by at least allowing you to hit single keys on the submenus rather than arrowing through them. Also, a few very common commands like Navigation | Starmap and Navigation | Enter Orbit can be called from the main view with individual keys, without having to go into the stations first.
Moving around is a combination of elements seen in Starflight and Star Control II. As you fly away from a planet, the map's scale changes to show a larger area. As you enter a star system, it changes to show a smaller area. When you've locked onto a planet, you O)rbit it, at which point you can S)can it for information or B)eam down if it's appropriate. (There's no landing craft, just a transporter.) Making things a little difficult is that the planets continually whiz around their stars, unrealistically fast, so it's tough to identify which ones you've already approached.
I guess the player is kind of an invisible "fifth" crewmember. I base this on the fact that, according to his mission directives, he's expressly forbidden to beam down with the rest of the crew. Also, when you're activating the consoles in the ship, each of the crewmembers turns and looks at you, as if you're sitting in a central chair. Despite this, you don't get to name yourself or anything.
A map accompanying the game shows Earth's solar system ("Sol") at the center of a galaxy occupying coordinates from -64 to 64 on two axes. Sol is the point of convergence of eight "sectors" which grow outwards from the center like irregular pie wedges: Alnasl, Ankaq, Zaurak, Alhena, Algieba, Caroli, Izar, and Kornephoros. (Most of these are actual stars). There are a handful of systems at the fringes of the map that occupy no sector. It's not really clear at the outset of the game whether the sector designations are geographic or political. Either way, note that the names of the missing parts suggest that we'll find one part per sector.
I had a few false starts as I got used to navigation. Alpha Centauri is so close that it's easy to blow past it on your way out of the solar system. I got killed three times in a row by hostile aliens who either attacked immediately or demanded cargo I didn't have. I haven't even begun to figure out ship combat. Since you can't save in space, I kept restarting on Luna Base and having to try again.
On the fourth try, I took things more slowly and explored the solar system before leaving it, although it appears you cannot land on any of its planets (which makes sense).
I then carefully made my way to Centauri. The first planet, Centauri Prime, was too inhospitable to land. The second wasn't a planet but an "alien outpost." When I scanned it for information, the computer called it the "Omegan Outpost" and said that it was a "contact point for observers who were assisting with the failed Centauri Drive experiment." I guess we know all these things because of data recovered from the crashed alien ship.
The four expendable crewmembers beamed down and were immediately attacked by robots firing laser guns. Combat in the game is turn-based and like nothing that New World has developed before. It is perhaps most like Ultima VI, occurring within the main exploration window and using a targeting cursor to attack particular enemies. In fact, once combat was over, I found that regular exploration was also a lot like Ultima VI. As the leader moves, the other characters kind of organize themselves around him or her. You can switch between lead characters with the number keys (although there's no "solo mode") and do other common things like L)ook, T)alk to NPCs, and do a variety of things with inventory items. You can't manipulate the environment to the same extent as Ultima VI, and (annoyingly) you can't move on the diagonal, but nonetheless, by including this level of ground exploration and combat, New World has definitely gone a step beyond Starflight and Star Control II, even if the rest of the game seems similar.
A door led from the surface of the planet to the interior of the "welcome station," where a friendly message invited us to browse various newscasts. As we moved from room to room, we faced several more combats, and I had to use medpacks (which we found strewn around the area) several times. We also found some better armor than we were wearing (kevlar) and some extra weapons.
We ran into an android who somewhat explained the situation: the station had been attacked by unknown aggressors who stole "various tactical data about the sectors." Another android offered that the disappearance of Earth was "a tragic accident" and he encouraged us to continue our quest to find the various pieces of the Centauri Device. He specifically recommended going to Algieba Sector since "there's a part that is named after one of that sector's stars, after all."
Beneath a plaque labeled "Sector Izar," we saw an image of a spacecraft that looks a lot like the extraterrestrial ship that visited Earth. A recorded message was saying that "something is malfunctioning with the drive" and "the experiment may have been sabotaged." The overwhelming suggestion is that Earth's disappearance was an accident, but we still don't know what the aliens were trying to accomplish.
There were a couple of alien newscasts to watch. One suggested some kind of war developing in Sector Caroli. Another reported on a "white hole"--a kind of space volcano--forming in Sector Zaurak. Unforutnately, they were just text; they didn't show anything, so we couldn't see what type of alien they were talking about.
I was happy to find that you can save while on "away missions" and that you can turn off the relentless soundtrack with ALT-M. The rest of the sound effects are okay, except that when you view inventory, there's an annoying and unnecessary "ding" as you move from one inventory item to another. Scrolling through a lot of them sounds like you're demanding a bride and groom to kiss. On the positive side, every item seems to have a unique description, which I always think is cool.
In the final room we explored, an android gave us a key that would unlock the various "android heads" strewn around the base. There were eight heads, each offering information on one or more of the galaxy's eight sectors. Some of them were explicit about the technology and military level of these sectors, I guess suggesting a rough order of exploration. From lowest to highest, these are:
If this really is an exploration order, it's too bad that the developers included it instead of encouraging the more open-exploration approach of both Starflight and Star Control II, not to mention previous New World games. Thus, I decided to defy it by heading direclty for Alnasl, one of the farthest stars in Sector Alnasl. I made it there with no problem, but when I arrived, a scaled alien told me that I was in violation of some "space conducts mandate" and refused to allow me to contact the single space station orbiting the star. I never figured out how this resolved because I had to take a break to reconcile my bank statement with Quicken, and Quicken decided it needed to update and took over my screen with its request for administrative rights, and whatever I did to make my DOSBox sessions survive such screen changes was undone when I restored the default configuration to play Planet's Edge. (In its default configuration, DOSBox always crashes for me any time anything causes a major screen change, including unplugging or plugging in an extra monitor, opening or clsoing the laptop, and getting a demand for administrative privileges.) Thus, when I reloaded, I was back on the Centauri outpost. I guess this is a good place to end for now.
So far, it's a decent game that evokes the best of Starflight and Star Control II, although I suspect the alien interactions are going to be less interesting and I worry that the blatantly suggeted exploration order will be essentially required. I also think it's too bad that New World, which has a lot of experience in more traditional RPGs, didn't bring more of their mechanics to character development and space combat. But it's early. We'll see how it goes.
*****
Time so far: 3 hours
Because it took me so long to get Planet's Edge up and running, I had time to do more background research first--the kind of thing that I usually save for the "Summary and Rating" entry. I learned from Wikipedia that the game grew out of a desire to merge the boardgame Star Fleet Battles with an RPG. I learned from an RPG Codex interview that the developers wanted to put "Might and Magic in space." Nowhere did the authors report a direct influence from any other game, so it was a surprise when I fired it up and found myself looking at . . . Starflight. It has the same type of base where you enter different buildings to accomplish similar tasks, the same type of ship with commands arranged by "station," the same approach to galactic exploration, the same variety of weird alien races to meet, and the same take on combat. Sure, it does some things differently, but the core of the game was clearly cribbed from Starflight. Was it so hard for the developers just to admit "we wanted our own version of Starflight"?
There is some confusion about a couple of elements in the header. First, the title. My policy is that a game's "official" title is the best two out of three on the manual cover, box cover, and in-game title screen. If all three conflict, I go with the in-game title screen. In the case of Planet's Edge, the box includes a subtitle (The Point of No Return) that both the manual and in-game screen lack. Second, a while back, commenter shankao made a case for the game being released in 1992 instead of the official copyright date (and MobyGames date) of 1991. His argument is based on the fact that no reviews appeared for the game until comparatively late in 1992. I didn't find any conclusive evidence, but I decided to accept shankao's argument and move the game to 1992.
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| Judging by the animate intro, the backstory is "some guy escapes a cruiser by shooting a guard and stealing a ship." |
Planet's Edge is set in 2045. Humanity has colonized the Moon and has seeded Earth's orbit with various space stations, satellites, and other craft. The denizens of these orbiting habitats become humanity's only survivors when the rest of the planet is sucked into a "space-time warp." The warp is the result of an electro-magnetic burst fired from an extraterrestrial craft, although it is unknown whether it was accidental or deliberate (a Chinese space station had disobeyed U.N. orders and fired missiles at the craft just before the event). Either way, Earth's gravitational influence somehow remains, keeping the Moon and satellites in orbit.
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| The Luna Base commander gives orders. |
Commander Mason Polk of Luna Base takes charge of humanity's remnant. Without Earth's resources, the base will run out of food and life support within a few years, so time is crucial. From the crashed alien spaceship, scientists recover the device that caused the disaster. They call it the "Centauri Device" and identify eight parts that they need to reconstruct it and possibly reverse its effects: a N.I.C.T.U. (but no K.L.A.A.T.U. or B.A.R.A.D.A.), an Algocam, a K-Beam, a Harmonic Resonator, a Mass Converter, a Gravitic Compressor, Krupp Shields, and Algiebian Crystals. How they came up with these names is left a bit vague. A ship dubbed the Ulysses is commissioned to scour the galaxy for these items and otherwise try to find out why the extraterrestrial ship visited and destroyed Earth. It's a little unclear how we suddenly have the ability to travel outside our solar system, or given that we have said ability, why there's a time limit on survival at Luna Base.
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| I wonder if K-beams glitter in the dark. |
Gameplay begins at Luna Base, where the player can visit the shipyards (build and modify ships), the warehouse (offload cargo), the crew quarters (view and clone crewmembers), the research lab (check on progress with the Centauri Device), and the launchpad (head out into the universe). The items that you can build for your ship or characters depend on the resources that you bring back from other places--resources such as organics, heavy metals, alien isotopes, and rare elements.
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| Luna Base and its various buildings. |
The crew consists of four fixed characters. The pilot is William Robert Dean from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Osai Lin Tsakafuchi from Tokyo is the ship's physician and chief scientist. Engineering duties are handled by Nelson T. Ngatadatu of Babaishanda, New Gwelo (a fictional place, but "Gwelo" is a place name in Zimbabwe). The combat specialist (both ground and flight) is Katya A. Mershova from Muntenia, Romania. Each character occupies one of the ship's four stations, some doing double duty if anyone dies. Each character has fixed attributes in body, intelligence, agility, and luck, as well as fixed skills like "Leadership," "Light Weapons," "First Aid," and "Computers." I don't know whether these attributes or skills are capable of developing, but I don't see any sign that they are.
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| Attributes for my engineer. |
Each character has a personal inventory, drawn from the supplies on Luna Base or found in the galaxy. The first thing I did was give them all flak jackets and weapons.
I found the ship modification process confusing enough that I decided to save it for later and just blasted off in the default ship. Once in space, commands are organized among four "consoles": navigation, weapons, engineering, and science. For instance, to communicate with another ship, you select the "Weapons" console (counterintuitively) and then "Communicate." To heal crewmembers, you select "Science" and then "Heal Crew." There are far less than 26 commands, so I don't understand why each couldn't have its own key. However, Planet's Edge does a little better than previous games using this structure by at least allowing you to hit single keys on the submenus rather than arrowing through them. Also, a few very common commands like Navigation | Starmap and Navigation | Enter Orbit can be called from the main view with individual keys, without having to go into the stations first.
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| I couldn't make heads or tails of this screen. |
Moving around is a combination of elements seen in Starflight and Star Control II. As you fly away from a planet, the map's scale changes to show a larger area. As you enter a star system, it changes to show a smaller area. When you've locked onto a planet, you O)rbit it, at which point you can S)can it for information or B)eam down if it's appropriate. (There's no landing craft, just a transporter.) Making things a little difficult is that the planets continually whiz around their stars, unrealistically fast, so it's tough to identify which ones you've already approached.
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| Note how the navigator turns and looks at me while waiting for my order. |
I guess the player is kind of an invisible "fifth" crewmember. I base this on the fact that, according to his mission directives, he's expressly forbidden to beam down with the rest of the crew. Also, when you're activating the consoles in the ship, each of the crewmembers turns and looks at you, as if you're sitting in a central chair. Despite this, you don't get to name yourself or anything.
A map accompanying the game shows Earth's solar system ("Sol") at the center of a galaxy occupying coordinates from -64 to 64 on two axes. Sol is the point of convergence of eight "sectors" which grow outwards from the center like irregular pie wedges: Alnasl, Ankaq, Zaurak, Alhena, Algieba, Caroli, Izar, and Kornephoros. (Most of these are actual stars). There are a handful of systems at the fringes of the map that occupy no sector. It's not really clear at the outset of the game whether the sector designations are geographic or political. Either way, note that the names of the missing parts suggest that we'll find one part per sector.
I had a few false starts as I got used to navigation. Alpha Centauri is so close that it's easy to blow past it on your way out of the solar system. I got killed three times in a row by hostile aliens who either attacked immediately or demanded cargo I didn't have. I haven't even begun to figure out ship combat. Since you can't save in space, I kept restarting on Luna Base and having to try again.
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| Meanwhile, my crew is saying, "Oh my god! It's an alien!" |
On the fourth try, I took things more slowly and explored the solar system before leaving it, although it appears you cannot land on any of its planets (which makes sense).
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| Mars can be scanned but not visited. |
I then carefully made my way to Centauri. The first planet, Centauri Prime, was too inhospitable to land. The second wasn't a planet but an "alien outpost." When I scanned it for information, the computer called it the "Omegan Outpost" and said that it was a "contact point for observers who were assisting with the failed Centauri Drive experiment." I guess we know all these things because of data recovered from the crashed alien ship.
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| Orbiting Centauri Prime. It's a nice looking planet, but we can't do anything there. I was hoping we'd meet Londo. |
The four expendable crewmembers beamed down and were immediately attacked by robots firing laser guns. Combat in the game is turn-based and like nothing that New World has developed before. It is perhaps most like Ultima VI, occurring within the main exploration window and using a targeting cursor to attack particular enemies. In fact, once combat was over, I found that regular exploration was also a lot like Ultima VI. As the leader moves, the other characters kind of organize themselves around him or her. You can switch between lead characters with the number keys (although there's no "solo mode") and do other common things like L)ook, T)alk to NPCs, and do a variety of things with inventory items. You can't manipulate the environment to the same extent as Ultima VI, and (annoyingly) you can't move on the diagonal, but nonetheless, by including this level of ground exploration and combat, New World has definitely gone a step beyond Starflight and Star Control II, even if the rest of the game seems similar.
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| Combat with robots in the outpost. |
A door led from the surface of the planet to the interior of the "welcome station," where a friendly message invited us to browse various newscasts. As we moved from room to room, we faced several more combats, and I had to use medpacks (which we found strewn around the area) several times. We also found some better armor than we were wearing (kevlar) and some extra weapons.
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| A character inventory. |
We ran into an android who somewhat explained the situation: the station had been attacked by unknown aggressors who stole "various tactical data about the sectors." Another android offered that the disappearance of Earth was "a tragic accident" and he encouraged us to continue our quest to find the various pieces of the Centauri Device. He specifically recommended going to Algieba Sector since "there's a part that is named after one of that sector's stars, after all."
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| But . . . Earth scientists named that part! They don't know where it really comes from! |
Beneath a plaque labeled "Sector Izar," we saw an image of a spacecraft that looks a lot like the extraterrestrial ship that visited Earth. A recorded message was saying that "something is malfunctioning with the drive" and "the experiment may have been sabotaged." The overwhelming suggestion is that Earth's disappearance was an accident, but we still don't know what the aliens were trying to accomplish.
There were a couple of alien newscasts to watch. One suggested some kind of war developing in Sector Caroli. Another reported on a "white hole"--a kind of space volcano--forming in Sector Zaurak. Unforutnately, they were just text; they didn't show anything, so we couldn't see what type of alien they were talking about.
I was happy to find that you can save while on "away missions" and that you can turn off the relentless soundtrack with ALT-M. The rest of the sound effects are okay, except that when you view inventory, there's an annoying and unnecessary "ding" as you move from one inventory item to another. Scrolling through a lot of them sounds like you're demanding a bride and groom to kiss. On the positive side, every item seems to have a unique description, which I always think is cool.
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| I confess I don't understand this, though. Wouldn't the adjustment have to be on every cartridge? |
In the final room we explored, an android gave us a key that would unlock the various "android heads" strewn around the base. There were eight heads, each offering information on one or more of the galaxy's eight sectors. Some of them were explicit about the technology and military level of these sectors, I guess suggesting a rough order of exploration. From lowest to highest, these are:
- Sector Algieba, where the Algiebian Empire has a low level of technology. This is the second explicit suggestion to go there first.
- Sector Zaurak, ruled by the "Rana Collective," which controls the resources and means of production and thus has kept development at a minimum.
- Sector Kornephoros, settled by refugees fleeing oppressive governments in Sectors Izar and Ankaq. Their technology is mostly good, but inconsistent because it is based on scavenging.
- Sector Caroli. The android says that at the end of something called the Grand Survey, Sector Caroli was reserved for "recreation and housing for lower tech societies." There, I'll find Oortizam Labs and the Life Gallery. The only native species is the Eldarin.
- Sector Alhena has no government. Two races called the Evian and the Scroe are in a war for its resources, while a race called the Dhoven tries to negotiate. It is a mix of mid- and high-tech ships and weapons.
- Sector Ankaq, ruled by a planet called Shadowside, has a high level of technology.
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| The android head's rundown on Ankaq. |
- Sector Izar is where Centauri and the station itself are located. The android warns against penetrating further into the sector because the OMEGA (unsure whether this is the race or the name of an organization) is capable of easily destroying everyone but the Ominar.
- Sector Alnasl, ruled by the Ominar. Lately, they have been reporting bouts of insanity and mass violence, and other races are advised to keep away. "These developments," the head noted, "may well be connected to the disaster of the Sol Experiment."
If this really is an exploration order, it's too bad that the developers included it instead of encouraging the more open-exploration approach of both Starflight and Star Control II, not to mention previous New World games. Thus, I decided to defy it by heading direclty for Alnasl, one of the farthest stars in Sector Alnasl. I made it there with no problem, but when I arrived, a scaled alien told me that I was in violation of some "space conducts mandate" and refused to allow me to contact the single space station orbiting the star. I never figured out how this resolved because I had to take a break to reconcile my bank statement with Quicken, and Quicken decided it needed to update and took over my screen with its request for administrative rights, and whatever I did to make my DOSBox sessions survive such screen changes was undone when I restored the default configuration to play Planet's Edge. (In its default configuration, DOSBox always crashes for me any time anything causes a major screen change, including unplugging or plugging in an extra monitor, opening or clsoing the laptop, and getting a demand for administrative privileges.) Thus, when I reloaded, I was back on the Centauri outpost. I guess this is a good place to end for now.
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| If I'm "irrelevant," why don't you let me land? |
So far, it's a decent game that evokes the best of Starflight and Star Control II, although I suspect the alien interactions are going to be less interesting and I worry that the blatantly suggeted exploration order will be essentially required. I also think it's too bad that New World, which has a lot of experience in more traditional RPGs, didn't bring more of their mechanics to character development and space combat. But it's early. We'll see how it goes.
*****
Time so far: 3 hours
jueves, 19 de marzo de 2020
Worst Or Useless Things In PUBG
While playing PUBG weapons, items and many kinds of equipment are required. Most of the items are useful and play an important role in getting a 'Winner winner chicken dinner'. But there are some useless items as well. We have given 8 useless/ worst items of PUBG as follows :
1. Clothes :
Clothes in PUBG are actually only meant for impressive outlook. Except for helmet and vests the other clothes have nothing with your win/ lose.
2. Vans :
PUBG has plenty of vehicles throughout the many different maps. Van, I consider, is the most useless vehicle. Because of its big size, its speed and vulnerability are limited. And no one would want to be slow in PUBG.
3. Quickdraw magazine :
Being able to reload faster is the only good thing about the quickdraw magazine. But most of the other attachments have multiple different uses and a lot of them are better than being able to reload faster.
4. Gas Can :
If you have a vehicle that is useful to your match then take a gas can. Or just leave it as it is basically useless.
5. Used vests and helmets :
An unused vest or helmet can last longer than a used one. It is also less effective. Neglect any used vests/helmet unless you absolutely need them.
6. Shotgun chokes :
Due to the increased range, the weapon's damage starts to degrade as the bullets are in flight. If you have multiple targets, the choke may not work as well as the shotgun without chokes should.
7. R1895 Pistol :
The worst pistol in PUBG is the R1895.
Putting a scope in it is not available. Also, it takes a longer time to reload than many other pistols. So avoiding it is better.
8. Bullet Loops :
The worst thing about them is that they decrease the base spread of a weapon. There are better and more useful attachments that have a variety of indispensable skills.
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DadaDumdum DadaDumdum
OK not the best rendition of the Game of Thrones intro music but it seemed like the best intro. Yes, on Saturday I got to experience the Song of Ice and Fire wargame. Its not my usual style but its good to stretch oneself now and then and to sample what the wider world is doing and besides, I enjoyed both books and tv series.
The figures are rather nice sculpts, somewhere around 32-35 mm by eye and the all the components seem well done. The rules are simple enough but like many a modern game, the complexity comes in the capabilities of the various units and characters and figuring out how to make best use of them. The basic principles of war still apply (maintain the aim, economy of force, etc) but like many contemporary games that I've sampled it seems to be more about making the best use of your units' special abilities and avoiding those of the enemy than basic tactics.
They've gone to great effort to up the feel of the various factions and the main characters of the series but like many contemporary games, it seems to be designed so that the common, ordinary, soldier is a rare thing. Everybody is special in their own way. Its a bit like a WWII game with a German force with nothing but Tigers, 88's, 155mm artillery, Pzr Grenadiers and Falschirmjaegers.
Overall, it was a day well spent with friends, learning something new and playing a tight, and at times exciting, game. Am I going to rush out and start buying? Nope, but I'd play again if that's what was on for the day.
Meanwhile, its back to the French Revolution!
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| Tully Cavalry waiting for the battle to begin. |
The figures are rather nice sculpts, somewhere around 32-35 mm by eye and the all the components seem well done. The rules are simple enough but like many a modern game, the complexity comes in the capabilities of the various units and characters and figuring out how to make best use of them. The basic principles of war still apply (maintain the aim, economy of force, etc) but like many contemporary games that I've sampled it seems to be more about making the best use of your units' special abilities and avoiding those of the enemy than basic tactics.
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| Many of the figures are new, some straight from previously unopened boxes that had just arrived. I suspect it might take a while to get them all painted but they fought well either was and there was a bit of that nostalgia for games with unpainted Airfix in the 60's. |
They've gone to great effort to up the feel of the various factions and the main characters of the series but like many contemporary games, it seems to be designed so that the common, ordinary, soldier is a rare thing. Everybody is special in their own way. Its a bit like a WWII game with a German force with nothing but Tigers, 88's, 155mm artillery, Pzr Grenadiers and Falschirmjaegers.
Overall, it was a day well spent with friends, learning something new and playing a tight, and at times exciting, game. Am I going to rush out and start buying? Nope, but I'd play again if that's what was on for the day.
Meanwhile, its back to the French Revolution!
ASOIAF: A Song Of Ice And Fire Intro
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| This is my new jam. |
After a few weeks of hard research, reading over the free rules and looking at all the minis available to me, I started getting really interested. Now, I would say that I'm fairly frugal and really like to do my research before getting into a game and I took my damn sweet time with this one. As a competitive tournament player, I wanted a game that had enough depth to keep me engaged but at the same time, had super clean rules with longevity in both creative design space and strong game balance. The last thing I wanted to do is throw money at a game that won't play well. I was never the player who got in the game for the hobby side of things, it's all about the game and the rules. Besides, the game was designed by a familiar name being Eric M. Lang and while I didn't really know Michael Shinall, any designer who has his own tactics podcast gets a thumbs-up from me. I am a big fan of designers who play their own game competitively and actively teach the community to be better players.
Honestly, when I first took a look at the game, I was afraid that the game will not have enough options. I mean, the game came out with Starks vs. Lannisers in the middle of the War of Five Kings but when getting the core set, you pretty much only have these as your first two full-fledged armies. Now, that's not saying that there's not more available now, but having played games like Warhammer Fantasy and 40K growing up, I'm sure as hell spoiled for choices. So many factions and armies to choose from I felt like I had near unlimited options when it comes to choosing units out of a codex or army book. Now, this is completely different when it comes to competitive list building, but the general gist is that players that grew up with GW as an option are definitely spoiled for choices. Even with Privateer Press games, you knew you had a lot of factions to play if you liked variety because it suited a lot of different playstyles. This was my biggest worry jumping in the game but the more I studied, the more I realized that what they currently have in the game is more than enough to get started. In fact, seeing how there are only 2 factions in the game right now, an epic crap ton of design space and a billion other things not released yet, the game can only grow larger with more factions and greater complexity. That makes a competitive player like me very excited. They just came out with Night's Watch and Free Folk, and they will definitely shake up the meta and take gameplay to the next level.
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| I might have gone pretty hard with my first purchase. |
To get you guys pumped, let me throw out some highlights that really got me into the game. I've been playing it pretty religiously, having played around 20 or so games since I got the game like 2 weeks ago. Yes, I've been going that hard. In fact, I would say one of the biggest draws in the games is that games take about 1 hour or 1.5 depending on the points size and experience of the players. Each of these talking points below will probably get their own article in due time, but these are the highlights that stand out for me.
Here's what I fucking love about the game:
- I love the fact that the rules are some of the cleanest rules I have ever seen. It's almost like the game was designed with tournament play in mind in that there are very little questions I had out of the initial rules package. The game seems like a perfect blend of complexity and speed with tight-wording and streamlined mechanics seen from other minis games. The rules package itself is very lightweight and comes with all the nitty-gritty you need to get in and start playing.
- Speaking of speed, I just love that the game puts movement trays back on the table and the units are ready to play. I can get a package from Amazon to actively playing with that unit on the table in 5 minutes. The minis are hard plastic, has great detail on them, and come with a movement tray for all the units to fit snuggly into.
- The game uses alternate player activations with plenty of play and counterplay (via rules, tactics card, tactics board..etc) that allows for active engagement with the other player in all phases of the game. I absolutely love games that go back and forth because it not only keeps players focused, but it generally leads to more even games where choices feel more meaningful because you have a chance to respond next activation. It's not like you're just sitting there watching all your units get shot off the table.
- The rules are light, but the game is very deep: Activation order matters, the amount of drops you have matter (deployment and activation), the commander you choose matters, the control of the tactics board matters, your tactics cards and the order you play them matters, your list composition matters, the game mode and mission objectives matters, everything matters. Part of what makes a good game great is how much the player influences the outcome of the game. Looking back at all the games played so far, I can zero in on particular situations where if I did something different, I would have won. This is important for me as a competitive player because less ambiguity means a more direct route to improving.
- The tactics board by itself is a complete mini-game inside the existing game. This really deserves its own section, but let's just say that NCUs count as activations and how you interact with the tactics board influences the units on the board, the tactics cards in your hand, and how you play the game as a whole. It's absolutely awesome how it's so tightly integrated into the game mechanics while still making a ton of sense from a flavor and fluff perspective. When Cersei Lannister is playing her games at court, your units really feel that on the battlefield.
- There is so growth potential in the game that I can't fully wrap my head around it right now. Right now, we have Lannisters, Starks, Neutral (with House Bolton units!), Free Folk, and Night's Watch. There's a good amount of unit variety already but that's without most of the other major Houses in there as well. Where is Baratheon, Tyrell or Greyjoys? What about Daenerys and her dragons? Can we even fit Dragons in a 40 point game? Is there going to be an epic game format or the possibility to ally different houses with another outside of faction + neutral units? The possibilities are near endless.
- You can take 2 lists into a tournament event as long as they're from the same faction. This has got me super excited because you essentially have a backup list to play to a specific matchup or game mode to maximize your chances on winning.
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| More armies to come! |
Before getting into the game too much, let me just say that I'm planning a series of articles that go much more in-depth with list building, faction overviews, and competitive play. There is a lot to talk about for this game and I want to take the time to write my out my journey with you. I'll probably cover the Stark and Lannister overview next before going more into list construction. Stay tuned!
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