Review - Hotz Deep Space Mat

Sorry for the crease, I haven't ironed mine yet.

With X-Wing just hitting the shelves, and looking like it will become a very popular game, I see a lot of people asking where to get nice looking space play mats. So what better time to post my review of the Hotz Mats' Enhanced Deep Space game mat?! As some of you might remember I talked a bit about various space gaming mats and the options available to us consumers in the post titled Wanted: More Spaceship Gaming back in January. My conclusion was that the CorSec mats look the best but are also the most expensive. Hotz is a very nice second choice that is more affordable and has the added bonus of being able to get double-sided.

The hex side and plain side next to each other.

And that is just what I ordered! I talked to Eric Hotz at the end of January and I was in luck as he was just preparing to make another batch of space mats. I had seen my friend Anders' regular space mat and decided to go for the enhanced version as it looked a little nicer and it would be neat to compare the two. Double-sided meant that I could future-proof my mat and put 1.5" hexes on one side so I'd be able to try out new spaceship combat games like Squadron Strike and Starmada.

The FSE under attack by a UNSC task force. Ships from GZG.

It took about three months for the mat to arrive, but as I was in no hurry this didn't bother me. I've seen it mentioned on the net that Eric, who runs Hotz Mats, can be difficult to get hold of and that it takes ages for the mat to arrive with no info on shipping etc. To that I can only say that he answered my emails promptly and even gave me a discount on shipping. If you're in a rush it might not be the best choice, but if you just have some patience the mat will arrive.

"Just the mat, ma'am. Just the mat."

Now, how is the actual mat then? Well, it's painted black felt with all the pros and cons that comes with. The background nebulae are done with airbrush and the default colours are mostly yellow and red, although I think others are available at request. Over the nebulae are sprinkled loads of white dots representing stars. Some of them have received some extra airbrush attention making them glow a little extra, breaking up the black a bit. It's all quite basic but when watched from a meter or so away (or as far away as you normally are during play) it all comes together to create a great looking effect!

Relthoza sneaking their way through an asteroid field. Ships from Spartan Games.

There's something to be said for painted versus printed mats. While the printed ones do look technically better I think they can sometimes overwhelm the senses and draw attention away from the models - there is almost too much detail! Painted mats give a softer background that in some ways are more conducive to gaming. That is not to say that I wouldn't love to get my hands on a CorSec mat - because I would - but it's not simply a matter of one being better than the other.

When you get closer to the mat you can see the fibers in the felt, which become extra apparent at the painted areas. This takes away some of the space feel, but again, most of the time you will see the mat from much further away where you don't really notice it.

Aw... Luke all alone. I really need those Y-wings! Ships from FFG.

These days all Hotz mats are treated with fabric binder to both protect the felt itself and make it less likely to snag or start to "tuft", as well as protecting the airbrushed paint from wear and tear. The mat that my friend Anders have had for a bunch of years now didn't have this treatment and it's starting to show. It still looks ok from some distance away, but up close you can see that the felt is starting to fray. Granted he's been folding it instead of rolling it as recommended, so that might have something to do with it. The fabric binder does give the mat an entirely different feel though, as it's less soft and more course and it does seem to help against fraying which is great.

These pictures make me want to play some Starmada. Ships from GZG.

The hexes seem to be printed on top of the paintjob and they are a lot less opaque than I first thought they would be. Indeed they are just the right tone so that they kind of blend into the background while still being clear enough to play by. Good balance there! In that old article I worried wheather they might be brittle and "break", but that is not the case so no worries about that.

A Relthoza carrier and escorts. Ships from Spartan Games.

Bottom line is that I'm very happy with my purchase. Looking at it set up now, with an x-wing squaring off against two TIE fighters, it really feels like space - which is the entire point in the end! Glad I got it double-sided as well as some hex-based games were almost closed off to me until now, and I'm eager to try Starmada for one. I still want to get that CorSec Blue Stars mat at some point in the future, but there's absolutely no rush as I have a pretty cool looking mat already.

Love the FSE ships from Ground Zero Games! They just embody so much... spaceshipness. 

Really awesome sculpts!

I think most people would be perfectly happy with the Hotz Enhanced Deep Space mat. If you are a great space combat enthusiast who will be using a space mat often you might want to consider some pricier alternative, but I'm not convinced it's worth it myself. I think the mat looks very good and there's nothing that beats felt when it comes to rolling dice!

An added note to budding X-Wing players. Eric offers his mats in a variety of sizes and the 36 by 36 inch mat would perfectly suit the suggested play area for X-Wing. Although, bear in mind this suggested size might grow as the the game grows and larger ships are introduced. Still, it's a bargain at $26.99!

Well, I hope that helped inform some of my dear readers! Now go and warm up your spaceship...

"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home!"

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X-Wing - First Impressions

 Setup for scenario one: civilian escort.

Finally I got my crooked claws on the X-Wing core box from FFG! Yesterday I managed to play a couple of quick games against Anders, and today I played once against Kosta before our three-way Dust Warfare battle (more on that later). The expansions haven't arrived yet for either of us, so we simply played the first couple of scenarios in the rulebook.

In the first scenario a lone x-wing is trying to escort a civilian transport to the other table edge while accosted by two TIE fighters. As written it's a basic scenario with no extra equipment or named pilots, but even so the game is fun! In my first game against Anders I managed to blow up both his TIEs in two turns and we thought "that was quick!". Of course, we totally missed that the imperial player gets reinforcements in that scenario and we also, for some reason, got the notion that a TIE only has two hull points instead of three.

Pew-pew!

I played the same scenario against Kosta today and it was a very different experience! I played as the Imperials this time while Kosta took control of the single Red Squadron pilot. I flew straight at the x-wing with both TIEs, aiming to cripple it early in the game. I managed to strip both his shield and doing one damage while not taking any damage in return! However as we closed in on each other further some accurate rebel fire severely damaged my academy pilot's fighter and he desperately turned right to get out of the x-wing's firing arc!

My obsidian squadron pilot raced past the rebel ship and fired a salvo at the transport, bringing it down to half hull points. So far, reasonably good! During the next couple of turns my damaged tie made a koiogran turn (Immelman) and started heading back into the fight. In the meantime the obsidian pilot continued to stay close on the transport, firing at every opportunity, but that thing had some kind of hot shot pilot behind the stick since it managed to swerve and jinx in a most un-transport like way!

"Acthung, x-wing!"

The x-wing was hot on the obsidian TIE's tail and it wasn't long until it was simply dust floating through space (target lock is powerful!). The transport was nearing the opposite table edge now and would probably make it off in another couple of turns. I would be able to bring on a reinforcement TIE though so I was still in the fight! My damaged academy pilot had finally got back into the fight and the x-wing was just within long range of its cannons. I didn't expect to do any damage at this range (two attack dice vs three defence dice) but in a stroke of luck I rolled two damage and Kosta rolled... nothing! Ka-boom! Of course, I still had to destroy the transport to win, but considering the escort was gone and that I had reinforcements arriving just in front of the transport we called it as an Imperial victory. This time we forgot about the special defence manuver the x-wing can do, providing the transport with evade tokens. 

In the second scenario I played as Luke Skywalker himself as he was hiding in an asteroid field, trying to repair his ship so he could escape into hyperspace. Naturally, the Empire was not about to let that happen and sent Dark Curse and "Mauler" Mithel to take care of it. Luke had to hold out for five turns where he couldn't go faster than speed 2, and then escape off any table edge.

Target loking "Mauler" Mithel didn't do much good as he stayed behind me...

The two TIEs came at me from two different directions. I target locked "Mauler" and then headed towards Dark Curse and came out of the asteroid field blasting! I hit Dark Curse but not enough to destroy him. Fortunately for me he took care of this himself as in his next maneuver, obviously disoriented from the attack, he flew straight into a nearby asteroid and exploded into a million pieces! Pew-pew! Boom! 

"Mauler" was a different matter entirely though. He managed to get in close, netting him four attack dice, and cause some serious damage! His speed was a bit too high though and he overshot Luke as he banked right and headed towards the hyperspace point. The ship was repaired and I just had to leave off a table edge. I still had two hull points left and "Mauler" was some ways off behind me. This was looking good! Anders fired a pot shot at the far-off x-wing and rolled two hits while I rolled... nothing! Luke got blown up and another win to the Empire!

Like I said, even playing like this with basic pilots with no upgrades we had a blast! It plays quickly but there are still all kinds of tactical decisions to make during your turn. Trying to predict your opponent's moves as well as deciding what action to take and how to use it to best effect. We bungled the first game but the other two were both very close fought affairs! Two lucky long ranged shots ended both games, but those seemed like flukes to us and we were all fairly surprised when it happened! Cool though. :)

It seems to me like the game is weighed in the attackers favour. While you can absolutely escape unharmed with some lucky dice rolling I think you can expect some damage to be done in most attacks at favourable ranges. This is a good thing though as the games become fast and action packed! Nothing is more boring than firing away at each other and nothing happens (this might be a problem for Empire vs Empire).

I've got the X-Wing expansion on its way as well as three Y-Wings. I just couldn't help myself, I really love those big burly things! And who can say no to a 360° firing ion cannon?! The basic game mechanics are solid and makes for a fun game, and on top of that there is the whole pilot/equipment/skills combo game that I think will be a blast to explore. I've already started thinking about different 'combos' and which pilots have good synergy together. I really want to try out some Astromech droids and proton torpedoes as well!

A proper review will follow after I have some more games under my belt.

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Vargr Moon - a Mouse Guard RPG Blog

It's been far too long since I wrote about anything Mouse Guard related on this blog. It was almost a year ago since we last played it as it unfortunately didn't really take off with the group I played with. I don't think it was that they didn't enjoy themselves, but I do think it was hard for them to get into the Burning Wheel mindset. As well as perhaps a general roleplaying game fatigue after our long WFRP3 campaign. Sooner or later I will get back into Mouse Guard though, of that you can be sure.

Anyway, to remedy the lack of Mouse Guard and to promote a blog that really deserves it I wanted to talk a little bit about Vargr Moon by Komorigumo. It's a blog that started earlier this year (partly thanks to my session report I would like to think. Hehe!) chronicling the adventures of a patrol of Guardmice and talking about roleplaying in the Mouse Guard setting in general, as well as the specific conditions of this particular campaign. Small things, like these assumptions, might differ from the "official" Mouse Guard comics but they make perfect sense and the freedom of creating or modifying your own world is what makes roleplaying so great in the first place!

The actual play posts are very detailed and effortlessly switch between immersive storyteller mode and actual games jargong. In fact they are so well told that they could easily work as pre-written adventures for your own Mouse Guard campaign. There's information available for all the different obstacles (with little stat boxes!) and all the challenges tossed at the Guardmice are typed out. Now, Mouse Guard is not a game that need much prepp in the first place, but still... there's an awful lot of work put into these session reports and I think they form the meat of the blog. Love 'em!



There are posts devoted to fleshing out the cities of the Territories as well. So far Port Sumac and Wolfepoint have received the treatment and they include descriptions of both the cities themselves as well as what Guardmice hailing from them might be like. Again this are Komorigumo's vision of what they are like but it's just as inspiring as reading anything put forward by Luke Crane himself and I'll likely incorporate them into my own game when we get around to playing again.

All in all Vargr Moon is a smashing piece of bloggery and I always feel the urge to get back to adventuring in the Territories when reading it! If you are interested in Mouse Guard I definitely think you should check it out. Even for roleplayers in general it's a great read that can provide you with ideas for your own games as well as giving you a taste of what playing Mouse Guard can be like.

Vargr Moon recently celebrated 1,000 hits, let's bump that number up a bit, shall we? :)

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Reflections on Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

I'm sure none of my astute readers have failed to notice the announcement and concurrent beta release of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire roleplaying game from Fantasy Flight Games. It's been a given that FFG would make a Star Wars rpg since they aqcuired the licence for miniature, card and roleplaying games set in the Star Wars universe two years ago (but not board games! Alas, we're destined to only seeing Star Wars themed Monopolies and chess sets until the end of time!). I was simply surprised at how well they've managed to keep it quiet up until the beta reveal!

Anyway, I haven't read the beta book (was tempted, but not $50 tempted) so my ramblings here are simply founded on stuff I've read online or heard from people who have actually read, or are reading, the book. Like Kosta.

First off, FFG has decided to copy their own line of successful 40k rpgs and release no less than three standalone core books for their Star Wars roleplaying game. It's interesting that this was originally an idea put forward by Black Industries and that FFG inherited, but how it has in the end paid off for them well enough to now do the whole thing over again. The first book is Edge of the Empire which will focus in the fringe worlds and the people who inhabit them - smugglers, bounty hunters, explorers, colonists... all kinds of space riff-raff. The next book (released a year later) will be Age of Rebellion - focusing on the rebell alliance and the galactic civil war. A year after that we'll see the relase of Force and Destiny featuring jedi and the force. I'm sure that won't be the end of it though and a new cycle of books featuring the prequal trilogy (or the old republic perhaps?) are sure to follow.

I've seen a lot of people complaining about not starting out with the jedi book as that is obviously the only thing anyone would ever want to portray in a Star Wars rpg! However, I'm happy to see that there seems to be just as many who appreciate this shift away from the glowstick afficionados and towards the grittier elements of the setting. As you might imagine I'm perfectly happy with this decision as I've always felt drawn more to the smugglers and bounty hunters. Again this mirror the development of the 40k rpgs where the first game focused on lowly inquisitorial henchmen and you weren't able to play actual Space Marines until the third core book was released, and that worked out pretty well!

From a financial standpoint I think it's a no brainer doing it this way (at least with a strong IP like Star Wars or 40k) since even the jedi wannabes will still likely buy Edge of the Empire (begrudgingly) so they can hack it and play as a jedi, and then they'll buy the force book later anyway. It's also well known that an rpg line is usually at its strongest around the launch of the core books and supplements immediately following it. Later as the books become more and more niche less people will get them and we enter into a downward spiral where books have to be niche not to cover stuff already released while this at the same time turn a certain percentage off buying them and so on. Breathing fresh life into the system by releasing new core books every year (and some core supplements for each book of course) is a smart way around this, although it can be frustrating retreading all the same ground you knew from the last book. Actually, Cubicle 7 recently announced that they won't be doing three separate core books for their excellent The One Ring rpg as originally planned for this very reason (they'll make sourcebooks instead). Commendable, yet perhaps FFG's plan is more future-proof.

On top of this yesterday FFG announced the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game, which is a boxed set with a thin rulebook (think quickstart rules but a little meatier), some pre-constructed characters and an adventure for them to run. There are also a couple of maps and a bunch of counters used for tracking relative movement etc. It's all very snazzy looking and even though this is obviously aimed towards people new to roleplaying I must admit I'm tempted. And again I think this is exactly what FFG is counting on. Many of us old veterans will still probably get this box just because we'll be able to get our hands on it sooner than the proper game. I think the price point ($30 from FFG but likely $20 from online retailers) is just about right to make me feel that I could probably get this and the proper game later on.

EDIT: Yepp, I got the Beginner Box a couple of weeks ago and have digested it enough to write a review. You can read it here.

The stuff you get in the Beginner Game. Swanky!

Hmm... that was a lot of ramblings about the rpg industry and FFG's business decisions. Let's have a look at the actual game shall we?!

I wasn't very surprised when I saw the similarities between FFG's 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Rolepay and the new Star Wars rpg. It's their own in-house system (unlike the legacy system of 40k rpg) and while it's not been universally acclaimed I think most would agree that the core is solid. I ran a WFRP3 campaign for about a year and I can honestly say that I really like the system but I started to suffer from component fatigue as more and more supplements, containing more cards and tokens, were added. That is not to say that I'm not a fan of the concept of the cards and tokens! I think the idea is sound, it just got a bit out of hand with WFRP3.

It seems to me that they've got rid of the cards and (most of) the tokens but otherwise kept the dice pool and core mechanics. The largest change seems to be character construction and development as there are six different careers, each with three specialisations in the Star Wars rpg. Each career and specialization has its own little tree of skills that you can invest in, but you can also buy skills from other careers - creating a fairly open system where it's easy to customize your character the way you want it. Something I like. There are of course a bunch of races to choose from, including droid, Trandoshan and... Gand! Awesome! I'll be an ammonia sucking Gand smuggler for sure!

The game uses special dice with different symbols on them and FFG call them non-binary, meaning the result you get from them tells you more than just pass/fail. The dice pool system is definitely one of the best points of WFRP3 so I'm happy to see it make a return here. And it seems like the one drawback of unmaneagably large dice pools have been mitigated in this game as well. Neat!

Characters can (and most likely will) start the game with different Obligations. These are basically story hooks chosen by the players for use by the GM. There are some mechanics where you roll to see who's obligation will feature in the upcoming adventure but overall I see it as plot hooks. It's a nice idea to incorporate from the start as I think it will help new GMs especially. It also feels nice and Star Warsy, considering this is fringe characters we're talking about! What would Han Solo be without his huge dept to Jabba the Hutt?!

The Hired Gun career with skill tree.

Speaking of which, having an entire game devoted to the dirty underworld and slow backwaters of the Star Wars galaxy is pretty much a dream come true for me! While jedi and the rebellion are cool it's great to see another side being brought to light like this. I'm certainly one of those guys who feel that Star Wars is not what it once used to be since the release of the prequals but stuff like this certainly make me recall fond memories of playing with Han Solo and Boba Fett action figures as a kid! Pew pew!

The characters as a group also get a ship of their own. Either a YT-1300 Freighter (Millenium Falcon), a Firespray Patrol Ship (Slave-1) or a Ghtroc 720 Freighter (the Falcon crossed with a turtle). Seeing as FFG recently announced the Falcon and Slave-1 for their X-Wing miniature game I can see some synergy between the two games. Although combat in the rpg is quite abstract and models like that would most likely just for a bit of extra immersion.

The incredibly detailed Millenium Falcon model that will be released later this year.

Also there is a Force component in this new game. You can play as a force user and there are rules for lightsabers. They are simply not all that fleshed out and there are no rules for playing a jedi (not even a lightsabre skill! Ha!). This I like, as it allows you to play someone who is force sensitive but don't really know what to do with their powers... you know... kind of like Luke. And isn't that what should be the norm considering that Vader and the Empire have hunted down and killed pretty much all jedis?!!

So where am I going with all of this? I don't really know to be honest. All I can say is that I'm excited to see how it all pans out and I feel confident that FFG will at the very least make a good, solid game. However it remains to be seen if it will become anything more than that.

There are a lof of ropleplaying games that I want to play and/or lead. At the moment The One Ring is at the top of the list with the recent release of Tales of Wilderland (more on that book later. Spoiler: it's awesome!) but I wouldn't be surprised if Edge of the Empire might eclipse my desire to play TOR when it is released next year. Hopefully I'll have some people to play with by then.

So yeah... more Star Wars sheenanigans later. May the force be with you I guess!

EDIT: My fellow Swedish blogger Kosta is doing a series of posts about Edge of the Empire, chapter by chapter as he's reading it (in English). His posts about first impressions, character generation and skills are already up and more are to follow I'm sure.

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Dust Warfare SSU vs Axis AAR

Hello dear readers!

So my friend Anders and I got together to battle it out, which would actually be the first time that I got to use my Sini-Soviet Union against his Axis forces. We put together a 300 point army each, of course using Jacobson's excellent Dust Warfare Force Builder.

Neither of us had played a battle at this size before so were happy to be able to include so many troops! Well, enough blathering and onto the actual reporting. First off, let's have a look at the armies.

The SSU Army

---  Heroes
Koshka Rudinova with Grand'ma (53) 

---  Defense Platoon (150)
Command Section: "The Medvedi" SSU Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
2nd Section: "Frontoviki" SSU Battle Squad (20)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Sumarokov" (5)
Support: KV47-C "Natalya" (30)
Support: KV47-C "Natalya" (30) 

---  Defense Platoon (96)
Upgrade: Cavalry Platoon (5)
Command Section: "The Medvedi" SSU Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
Commissar: "The Derzhavin" (5)
Support: MIL MI-45 Airborne Transport (40)

What I had in mind was armoured attack with infantry working as support and to anchor the force. Basically using the two Medvedi to advance together with the walkers and repair them as needed while the Ohotniki provided fire support. I would have prefered a fourth walker and another Fakyeli squad, but since they didn't arrive in time I went with the Mil Mi-45 instead. However I strongly suspected facing a Sturmkönig so didn't really expect it to amount to a lot.


The Axis Army

---  Heroes
Markus (24)
Totenmeister (28) 

---  Blutkreuz Platoon (244)
Upgrade: Improved Command (5)
Command Section: Sturmpioniere (25)
1st Section: Axis Zombies (19)
2nd Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
3rd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
Support: HPW VI-B "Sturmkönig" (90)
Support: MPW III-A "Wotan" [Upgrade] (Zv) (55)

Anders chose a very different route for his army, mainly because he wanted to include his two new toys I imagine. Hehe! It's a very elite heavy army with expensive units and two heroes and I think Anders would have wanted to include another squad of zombies but like in my case they hadn't arrived yet. He was also debating whether to take Totenmeister or Grenadier X, but went with Totenmeister in the end.


Battle Building and Deployment

This time we tried using the tournament battle builder that FFG have made available on their homepage, which is a little bit different from the one in the book. We ended up with Critical Positions, Force Collision and.... None! So after setting up the terrain we had to each secretly pick one piece of terrain outside our deployment zone which would be our Critical Position. Each infantry squad completely within the objective at the end of a turn would provide one Superiority Point (ie VP). You can see the positions we each picked in the picture below. Force collision simply meant that we would setup at opposite corners of each other.

SSU deployment.

I deployed my "human wave" interspersed with walkers and tried to keep a Medvedi squad close to each (except for Grand'Ma who was off to one flank). I opted to combine the two Ohotniki squads using a Commissar although this would give me less points for holding the critical position it would also give me a slightly better chance of getting the initiative. The helicopter was loaded with the Fakyeli joined by the second commissar and stayed a back a little so it wouldn't get blasted out of the sky during the first turn.

Axis deployment.

The Axis walkers were deployed fairly aggressively, aiming towards the center of the battlefield, while most of the infantry were off to one flank and in cover. With their long firing range the Wotan and Sturmköning just needed to advance a little bit to be able to cover most of the table. Fortunately I there were some ruins blocking line of sight here and there.


Turn One

Rolling a lot less dice Anders won the initiative on the first turn but decided against using any orders during the Command Phase. I didn't feel the need for it either so our respective forces started advancing during the Unit Phase.

Just as I had suspected the two walkers advanced far enough to be able to dominate the midfield but my chopper was luckily just out of range. The Sturmpionere and Heavy Flak Grenadiers moved forward and suspiciously started to hug the big container juuuust outside of the Axis deployment zone. The Apes and Zombies (joined by their respective heroes) advanced a little bit further but didn't rush headlong.

The SSU line starting to move forward.

When it was time for my turn I pretty much moved 12" with everything toward the enemy lines and/or my critical position. I didn't reach the objective in just one turn though so I suspected Anders would take the lead with his important container! Most of my troops found some terrain to hide behind or clustered around the walkers for protection. I debated whether to fly low with my chopper and try to take cover behind one of the large ruined buildings, hoping to avoid fire altogether but opening up the risk of getting attacked by ground troops, or to simply fly high and face the four flak cannons of the Sturmkönig! In the end I opted for the latter as I reasoned that the chopper would at least survive one attack before going down.

End of turn One. X was the SSU critical position and Y was the Axis critical position.

At the end of the turn we each revealed our objectives and Anders got two points for being in (contact of) his.

Turn Two

Again Anders won the initiative (rolling six dice against my nine) but again I don't think he used any orders in the Command Phase, choosing to be able to react instead. I didn't either so on it was to the Unit Phase again.

The Apes and Zombies ran further ahead this time. The Apes reaching a point where they could threaten most of my line, but not without fear of reaction fire. The Zombies moved up and basically stood outside of my Critical Position. The Sturmpioniere and Heavy Flak Grenadiers stayed put to get some points. The Wotan used a sustained fire action to shoot at the closest Natalya walker but was unlycky enough to still miss completely! Phew! Finally, what I had feared the most; the Sturmköning fired on the helicopter and rolled.... not enough to kill it! It did inflict a couple of hits and a critical hit damaged the engine, preventing the helicopter for making double moves. Ouch!

During my turn the Ohotniki and one of the Medvedi squads advanced into the Objective building while the rest of my force raced forward. The Frontoviki took up a position where they could hopefully block the advancing apes and protect the flanks of Grand'Ma and the Ohotniki. The Medvedi on the left flank didn't advance behind the Natalya this time, but instead stayed put to fire on the zombies, wounding Totenmeister.



Finally the Mil Mi-45 turned the corner around the ruined bulding and flew straight toward the Sturmkönig! Of course my original plan had been to fly straight past the two walkers, drop the Fakyeli behind them and then simply go nuts with the molotovs and sulfur thrower against their thin rear armour. Unfortunately the engine critical hit meant that I just had enough movement to get right in front of the heavy walker. Urgh. At least this allowed me to fire at the Zombies below as the helicopter passed above them, inflicting a couple of wounds.

Anders has made some nice fire markers using electric candles, so they actually light up!

Heading straight at the heavy walker was a pretty desperate maneuver, but I knew it was the only way I would get my Fakyeli in a decent position, and with the Sturmkönig on the table my chopper didn't stand much chance in doing anything else anyway. It flew as close as it could but was then blown out of the sky by the heavy flak guns of the large walker! However, since I had bought the Air Cavalry upgrade for this platoon this meant that the Fakyeli simply popped out next to the wreck and with a reaction marker. Not to shabby! They followed this up by attacking the Wotan but only managed to do one hit and set it on fire. Hmm.

End of turn two. 

At the end of the turn we each scored two more points for a total of 4-2 to the Axis.

Turn Three

This turn I had a stroke of luck and managed to win the initiative! For the first couple of turns this hadn't been of much importance but this time it would prove fairly decisive. I used my commmand phase to issue an order to the Fakyeli standing right in front of the two heavy walker. They simply moved to the side of the Wotan, forcing it (and the Sturmkönig) to choose between turning to be able to fire on them, or to keep their facing to fire on the chainsaw wielding Natalya heading their way. Also since the Wotan was on fire Anders was of a mind to simply run over my infantry hoping to kill a few of them that way. I used another order on the Medvedi who again fire at the Zombies, bringing Totenmeister down to a single wound and killing a zombie.

Ohotniki in the building with a Natalya closing in on the Sturmpioniere in the distance.

Yepp... a bit fuzzy. Sorry about that!

The Axis used their two orders on the walkers who both fired on the Natalya. Fortunately the Wotan missed completely and the hits from the Sturmkönig only managed to penetrate armour plating of the lumbering machine once. For some reason (perhaps because it wasn't attached!) we forgot all about the MG44 in the turret mount of the Wotan which could have been used to put some fire on the Fakyli. It probably wouldn't have made a difference in the long run, but still.

During the unit phase things were really starting to heat up as the two forces were now in small arms range of each other! The Fakyeli again attacked the Wotan but the rain of molotovs only infliced another hit and the Sulfur thrower missed. Damnit! The Natalya charged forward and juuuust made it into range to attack the Sturmkönig. I decided to use its Berserk ability, which allow you to reroll all misses, except I got it mixed up with All In One and doubled my dice instead. Statistically I don't think there's all that much difference but there is of course a lot more potential damage when rolling 20 dice instead of 10 with a reroll. However, this time around it didn't make much of a difference as I only rolled two or three hits(!) that were easily negated by the heavy armour. So much for VK powered chainsaws! I did manage to inflict a critical hit though so it wouldn't be able to use sustained fire any more.

"Uh-oh..."

Both my Medvedi squads moved toward the objective building and the large Ohotniki squad split their fire between the zombies below (grenades), the apes nearby (submachine guns) and the Heavy Flak Grenadiers further off (Widowmakers) and succeded in completely wiping out the zombies, wounding Markus a couple of times and at least put some suppression on the Heavy Flak Grenadiers. The apes stayed their ground though... however when my second Natalya rounded the corner and came towards them they started to get worried. Anders debated whether it would be better to stand and fight back or to use their reaction to move around the corners where they would be exposed to my Frontoviki squad. In the end he opted for the latter so I didn't get to slice and dice any gorillas! The Frontoviki made up for it by wiping them out completely in a fusilade of machine gun fire and grenades! Woo! Finally Grand'Ma advanced a bit and fired on the Heavy Flak Grenadiers but failed to actually inflict any damage.

The fires are spreading!

Things were looking grim for the Axis with both of their shock troops gone. They were still in the lead points-wise though so they had far from lost yet! Anders began with the Wotan firing its massive laser cannons at the uncomfortably close Natalya and this time the dice were finally with him as it blew it straight up! Of course, using his single action to fire instead of putting out the fire meant that the Wotan took another point of damage. The Sturmkönig followed this up by firing at the Medvedi and killed two of them. With the loss of the zombies and apes the Axis left flank looked very vulnerable and the Flak Grenadiers started to move towards a better cover position, but still in contact with the objective. Finally the Sturmpionere stared to string out, trying to get in range of my Fakyeli while still staying in contact with the objective container. In hindsight we played this wrong as well as it states that the minis have to be completely inside (or as close as possible I guess) the terrain to get the points.

End of turn three.

At the end of the third turn the score was 6-5 to the Axis, but the SSU now had three squads within their objective building...

Turn Four

Only rolling four dice meant the Axis easily won the initiative. Anders used his single order on the Sturmkönig to fire on the Ohotniki in the ruined building, but only managed to inflict a single wound. I used my command phase to again attack the Wotan with my Fakyeli and this time they seemed to have cleared the jam that was obviously preventing the Sulfur thrower from firing! The large Axis walker was engulfed in white flame and slowly toppled over, fire belching from the crew hatch up top! I also moved the decimated Medvedi completely inside the ruins and out of sight of the Sturmkönig.

Finally the Wotan go down to the prolonged Fakyeli assault!

There wasn't much the Axis could do in the unit phase. The heavy walker fired again on the Ohotniki but still only managed to inflict a single casualty. The Heavy Flak Grenadiers moved completely into cover and the Sturmpioniere fired their Panzerfausts at the Natalya who was closing in on them rather quickly. Unfortunately they either went wild or simply clanged off the armour and the machine continued to advance...

...and before they had a chance to get more Panzerfausts ready it was upon them! Chainsaws whirred and bodies were rent apart. The entire command squad was wiped out by the Natalya, who was looking at the Heavy Flak Grenadeirs next. The Fakyeli moved towards the rear of the Sturmkönig although, preparing for a molotov assault next turn. The Medvedi squads both used their medics on the decimated one and managed to restore one member of the squad back to health. Grand'Ma continued her advance, but much like the Ohotniki there were no targets left for her to attack.

End of turn four.

With four squads in the objective building the score at the end of the fourth turn was 7-9 to the SSU and we decided to call it at this point.

Victory to the Motherland!!


Post Battle Ponderings

It was a lot of fun bringing the game up to its full 300 point potential! I think this is considered the "standard" level when playing and it's what is used for tournaments. It certainly allows you to bring a lot of toys in your army and I think you can start to expect seeing the really heavy walkers turn up more often than not. Even with this amount of troops on the table the game never feeled like it was dragging on, or going too slow which I was really happy to see. I was afraid that it would be 40k all over again as the battles became larger (although I can imagine 350-400 would be pushing it).

It was interesting seeing the interaction between a small elite army with a few heavy hitters and my horde of soldiers and cheap walkers. While Anders won the initive three times out of four and had some pretty scary units he simply wasn't able to do enough damage fast enough. That's not to discount the small elite army as I think if Anders had planned his army a bit more in advance, instead of throwing it together as we were setting up, I'm sure I would have faced a much more coherent enemy force. As it was there was very little synergy between the different units which allowed me to destroy them piecemeal.

The other downfall of the Axis happened during the battle builder step of the steup when I managed to bump the objective from "Destroy the Enemy" to "Critical Position" which my large army with many soldier units in it was naturally more adept at. This really shows that the Battle Builder is a critical step in winning or loosing the game. What this meant was that Anders Sturmpioniere and Heavy Flak Grenadiers didn't actually influence the game at all (besides scoring of course). This might have been remedied somewhat by choosing an objective closer to the action instead of the container near the deployment zone. Then again, doing it this way did mean that the Axis got one turn of point scoring while the SSU were still moving towards their objective. Perhaps the zombies and apes should have stayed put the first turn as well to secure a large lead in points. Hmm...

A lovely Wotan by BulldogUK. Check out his other stuff here.

The two new (for us) walkers were interesting! I didn't really manage to make much of a dent in the Sturmkönig and when the Natalya failed I pretty much gave up on it and decided to put my resources elsewhere. It simply didn't prove to be enough of a threat to warrant an all-out attack. The Wotan who could easily have popped all three of my walkers on the other hand needed to be taken care of. While Anders had some bad luck with it and missed all but one of his rolls I think it's a terrifying machine if you bring lots of armour! I'd rank it above the Königsluther actually when it comes to antitank duty. The heavy walkers can definitely take a pummeling, but you do pay for it as well and I wonder if investing in medium and light walkers isn't the better choice.

I'm pretty satisfied overall with the performance of my army. The helicopter was of course doomed from the start and I would have preferred another walker, but in the end it did manage to deliver its cargo... more or less. I think just having one of them is a bad idea in a large game such as this as it will inevitable be on the receiving end of focused fire and go down in the first or second turn. For full effect two or three is what's needed I think. If you can just manage to take out the opponents main AA platform you can then just cruise around killing those poor ants at your mercy!

The Russian walkers are fantastic models so having several to play with was really a joy! In the future I'll probably go for a mix of Chainsaws and Sulfur throwers to add a bit of flexibility. The howitzers are great as well as they allow you to guarantee suppressing two units per turn. Neat! The Ohotniki performed well, but they didn't really get to shine as I only got to do one sustained fire action with them and there were no light or medium walkers for them to target. Finally, the Fakyeli didn't roll quite as well this time around, but give them a couple of turns and you'll have a dead walker for sure. I need more of these guys I think.

Definitely a fun game! I'm looking forward to a rematch where Anders have had time to put some more thoughts into his army. It would also be fun to play against the Allies to see how things would change. I guess their mobility might be a bit scary...

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Until next time!

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Descent Campaign Update 2

 At a critical point during the Interlude...

Let's see, where did I leave off?

Oh yes, the heroes had just finished the introduction and the two first quests in Act I and had started to get a feel for the game. While they had lost both The Masquerade Ball and Death on the Wing they kept a stiff upper lip and soldiered on.

Third Quest - The Cardinal's Plight

"Look! There that doddering old fool is!"

In the first encounter the Overlord is using Lord Merrick Farrow to try and raise as many zombies as possible to send off the map so they can then (in the second encounter) attack the Cardinal (an NPC with) while the heroes try to get to him in time.

The heroes played well in the first encounter, and I didn't use my monsters to block well enough so I only had time to raise and send off a single zombie towards the cathedral. Jain's special ability again proved invaluable and starting to think she's probaly the most powerful hero in the base game. It all went by so quickly I forgot to take pictures even!

Anyway, in the second encounter where I need to kill the Cardinal the heroes first had to find the key to get into the room where the cardinal was located. With only one regular and one master zombie attacking I had a hard time doing much damage to him and some of it was offset by a special item the heroes could use to heal him. They made short work of the monsters in the cathedral and I kept doing just one or two damage per turn - not enough by a longshot!

The Cardinal almost out...

The turn before the heroes were to open the door and affect the rescue I pretty much played any and all attack cards from my hand and actually managed to do a respectable nine damage! Which meant I only had to do three more to kill the cardinal and win. However, he was now free to move and if he managed to run too far my zombies (the only ones who could hurt him) would simply not be able to follow. My lieutenant and some cronies turned up at the exit but they were all killed. except for Lord Farrow. The cardinal made his way towards the exit but he lost one more wount to Disease and I managed to do another damage with a zombie, but alas he made it out alive with just one hit point left! Talk about a close fought game!

The heroes won and got the Staff of Light relic as a reward. Anders picked this up to use with his necromancer.

This quest felt a little different from many of the others simply because result of the first encounter made a big difference in the second. Had I managed to get three or four zombies off the board in the first encounter it would have been a cakewalk. Whereas none would have meant it was almost impossible for the Overlord to win. While all the quests are built with two encounters the result of the first usually don't influence the second to that degree.


Interlude - The Overlord Revealed

What it looked like after setup. The exit is at the far end and the paths 

with monsters in them have the different portals.

After playing three Act I quests it was time for the interlude and since I had won two of the Act I quests the Interlude was The Overlord Revealed. In it the heroes start in the middle of a dungeon with four paths. They would have to go down three of these paths and close portals there before I as the Overlord could pick up the Shadow Rune and bring it to the exit at the end of the fourth path.

The heroes spent the first couple of turns going to close the portal of strength, which would be the most difficult for them considering they are all physical weaklings! In a stroke of luck though, they managed to close it at the first attempt and killing the Ettin guarding it at the same time. However, while they were busy with this I rushed my goblins and barghest toward the Shadow Rune and lay my dirty paws on it by the second or third turn. Closing the first portal also allows my lieutenant, Baron Griegory, to enter play and he's quite powerful. He also carried the Shield of Zorek's Favour, that I had got during Death on the Wing, so any hero hitting him was likely to get three or four hits back in return!

Closing in on the Shadow Rune, with only Widow Tarha left to defend.

What followed was a rather drawn-out affair. This was easily the longest running quest for us, even though it's only one encounter. Basically I had the Shadow Rune and just needed to push through the heroes and two doors to win, while they still had to run off and close two more portals while still not letting me get out. I think the problem for them was that they didn't commit fully to closing the portals from the start, but rather was planning to take one at a time. Problem with this approach is that it takes too much time. If they had split up and tried to close one portal each they might have made it, but instead they were stuck at the fourth path trying to stop me getting out.

"Well Jim, Team Heroes are getting pushed back as Team Overlord is 

slowly grinding their way to the finish line"

"Indeed it is looking grim for Team Heroes, Bob, but you never know - a fumbled ball handling by the Overlords could result in a turnover giving the Heroes another chance"

"And that is why we love this sport so much, isn't it Jim? Never say never and all that!" 

It actually felt a little like playing Blood Bowl! I had the guy with the ball in the middle and a bunch of linemen  around him and the heroes were the enemy team trying to block my slow moving box of players. Of course I had a powerful star player in Baron Griegory and in the end he won me the day by getting out with the Shadow Rune.

I was actually a little sad that we didn't get to play the Shadow Vault interlude instead as I've heard that it's a lot of fun! Hopefully the heroes will do better in our next campaign and we'll get to try it.


Fourth quest - The Desecrated Tomb

"There, pretty as a picture... Aah! Zombies!"

The first quest of Act II! In the first encounter the heroes are searching for a map in an old tomb and they need to get it quickly and escape with it to win. The Overlord gets to spawn loads of zombies and simply have to try and keep the heroes occupied for as long as possible. If it takes eight or more turns for them to ge off the map with the map the Overlord wins. In the second encounter my lietuenant, Sir Alric Farrow, armed with the Duskblade is going to kill a powerful Shadow Dragon. The heroes have to take the sword from him and escape with it.

The first encounter was a lot of fun as it felt a bit like a zombie movie with new undead crawling out of the ground as fast as the heroes could put them down! As in virtually all of the quests in this second edition speed is critical and using monsters/heroes to block movement is often the best tactic.

They just keep popping up!

I managed fairly well as the heroes had to search several times before they found the map. I blocked their way back with rotting corpses and even managed to get a couple of them Diseased! They did manage to cut their way through in the end though and I think it took five turns for them all in all.

Because it took five turns at least Sir Farrow got to set up five spaces closer to his target, the dragon Khorayt. The way I saw it was this, if the heroes ever got hold of the sword they would win as there simply was no way for me to be able to catch them (especially not Jain!), so I used Dash on Farrow to get him to the dragon as quickly as possible and then I used an elemental to block the path to him. It took a turn or two for the heroes to deal with the elemental which allowed me to get a couple of solid hits in on Khorayt.

Brave, brave Sir Alric - racing to kill that nasty dragon. Pesky adventurers.

Hower, the dragon didn't just roll over but of course fought back to the best of its ability! Again the relic shield proved its worth as Farrow has high strength and sent four or five wounds back to whoever attacked him. When the heroes got past the elemental they started to attack Farrow while still staying out of reach of the shadow dragon. At the end of the heroes turn Micke actually managed to bring Farrow down using Jain's crossbow but as he works like a hero in this quest he could get back up and with a final blow he killed the mighty Khorayt, giving me the victory. This earned me the Duskblade relic and the option to always use Shadow Dragons in future quests if I wanted.

The penultimate turn I think. Farrow in the corner trying to bash the dragon's 

head in while being peppered by arrows from Jain.

I really liked this quest as the first encounter was zombie fun, and the second quite different with a big dragon to kill/save instead of just some magic trinket to get to. Both Micke and Claes thought the second encounter was impossible for the heroes (with the Shield of Zorek's Favour and all) but me and Anders both felt it was a close fight. I think they simply were a bit too involved to perhaps see the larger picture. Fact remains that they did down Sir Farrow. Had I been a little less lucky with that last dice roll of mine, or if they had had an un-activated hero left I think they would have won. Farrow wouldn't have survived another hit and, as I mentioned above, had they managed to pick up the sword it would have been game over for me.


Final thoughts

Another fun bout of dungeon crawling! It's now apparent that the majority of quests in this second edition are some variety of race. After a while this might start feeling a bit artificial I think, but on the other hand it makes for very tense, exciting games with an in-built timer mechanic. There's no wasted turns where the heroes or Overlord is simply dallying about. I for one think this was a good choice by the designers as it also keeps the play time down.

The Relics (which we didn't pay much attention to last time) are starting to really prove their worth and I wonder what would have happened if the heroes had got hold of them instead of me... *shudder*

I definitely enjoy being the Overlord but I wish there was some other experience/levelling mechanic besides buying cards for your Overlord deck. Now don't get me wrong, having the right cards at the right time can be both crucial and utterly hilarious, but it's not as exciting to buy two new cards that might turn up in the next quest, as it is to buy a new skill for your character allowing it to do new cool stuff every turn! However, I'm confident that there will be a expansion in the not too distant future that not only brings more quests and monsters but that also expands the entire campaign mechanic.

Anyway, goot times were had by all! We've actually already played another session, but I thought I'd keep things manegeable and still split them up into two.

Let me know if you have any questions or anything! :)

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