February Releases for Infinity!

Damnit! Didn't I just write one of these?! Well, that's what I guess for running late on the last release and being on time with this. Hehe! If you think it looks crowded up on the top picture you are absolutely right. The reason being that we technically have six releases this month! Aren't we we lucky?!

Let's take a look at what we have...

I'll save the good stuff for last, so we begin with the Authorized Bounty Hunter - a Merc. Now this is an odd looking model! From a design standpoint it looks like a hodge-podge mix of aesthetics which I guess goes well with the bounty hunter persona. It's kind of cool looking (love that he's just slapping a new magazine in!) but the face plate looks a little silly... getting some Army of Two-vibes from it. Still, overall a pretty cool break from all the super slick über-designed Infinity models we're used to. In game he's basically slightly better than line infantry but Irregular and with Booty L2. For 14 points it seems like something fun you could play around with, but not rely on.

Next up is Neema Saatar of the Tohaa. She's an Ectros officer and we've seen her in some artwork in the Paradiso book before. A lot of people don't seem to like her, but I think the model is perfectly fine. She's posing for the viewer a bit, but that's a common thing in Infinity. Judged on her own merit I like both the design and the sculpt, it's only when you compare her to the other Ectros and that she's supposed to have a light rocket launcher that she drops a point or two, for me. The other two Ectros models are quite large and intimidating, while Neema simply looks smaller. She's not as tiny as the Hsien HMG model, but she's certainly smaller than her male counterparts. I also find it odd that they haven't sculpted the LRL as that is her signature weapon, and what really sets her apart from the regular Ectros. Still, I like her! She has improved stats over the Ectros, notably with Martial Arts L2, -9BTS(!) and Impetuous. Oh, and her SWC cost is actually cheaper if you take her as your Lieutenant.

A new starter box for the Neoterran Capitaline Army, a PanO sectorial! The box is a bit of a mixed bag as there are three old and three new sculpts in it. In fact, not only are the sculpts new but the concept as well. Neoterra Bolts seem to be to PanO what Wildcats are to Nomads - linkable medium infantry with access to some interesting gear (I'm guessing). The design and sculpts of these are really nice and, although I like the PanO "bunny ears", I'm glad to see CB doing something new with the helmet design. Not entirely sure I like the horns thing they're sporting, but overall I like them. They look very sharp and modern, very fitting with the Neoterrans, and the updated PanO combirifle certainly looks a LOT better than the original. I do find it odd that they included the old(ish) Aquila Guard in the box as his multirifle is really showing its age next to the hitech looking combis the Bolts are carrying! The Swiss Guard works better but also look a little old while the Hexa pass with flying colours. Odd choices by CB there. As for the stats of the Bolts, only time will tell as they are not available yet. The backpacks and satchels have me thinking D-charges (or maybe mines?!) but perhaps that would be too much like Wildcats.

I thought we'd be done with them with Ajax, but oh no! Here's giant manly-man Tarik Mansuri of Haggislam! Sorry, that's not fair - after an initial period of dislike I actually came around on Ajax and Tarik I liked at first sight. He's kind of like a Haqq Captain America - a genetically modified super soldier, in fact the only Khawaraji that really succeeded. Very cool sculpt with Tarik striding forward, sword in hand and shouting at the top of his lungs! Although he's on a 40mm base he doesn't really seem to be Ajax big, but rather something in between Ajax and regular infantry. It's hard to tell though. Really like the model and all the little details like the gasmask. I guess we might see an updated profile for him later on, but right now he's classed as "light infantry"... even though he's Armour 3 and has 2 Wounds. His stats are great across the board and combined with Martial Arts L2 and Superjump he's a scary dude! Oh, and he carries grenades as well.

The best for last, the Nomad Gecko Squadron! I actually first saw these while playing in a small Infinity tournament and was floored by their pure awesomeness! This is what I want TAGs to look like - short and stout but looking like you could drop a house on them and do no damage! While the tall, more Gundam-esque TAGs are cool in their own way I've always been much more of a fan of the Scopedog from VOTOMs or the Landmates of Shirow Masamune. That's why I like the Guija so much, it also looks tough and, well... more "realistic" than most of the other models (the Maghariba being the other exception of course!). These look more practical to me. The armour design is great and bears resemblance to the Iguana as they share the same chassi, except instead of the long limbs of the Iggy we got these solid looking balls of death!

My favourite by far is the Mk12 as I've always longed for a TAG that actually seemed to use its weapon effectively. They all carry different kinds of heavy weaponry but all of them, all of them, swings it around one handed and are busy doing anything but actually firing their guns! Well, ok, there's the Sphinx and the Szally that kind of look like they're aiming, but they are not really holding large guns so I'll discount those. The Gecko with the Mk12 on the other hand has it ready and is just about to light some poor sucker up! Cool! Of course, being in a TAG there are some weapons you probably could reliably use one-handed, like a combi rifle for example, which is what the other Gecko is using. This doesn't look as good as the rifle, but is pretty neat nonetheless. Also the rifles are small enough not to unbalance the model (like the Raicho).

The only thing I'm not that excited about are the chain-colts that are attached to the Gecko's left fore arms. Yes, those are chain colts and do exactly the same thing as the tiny pistol chain-colt that Sekban guy is holding in the boxed set! While I don't really have a problem with up-sized TAG weaponry doing the exact same damage as much smaller infantry handled weapons, this does look a bit silly. The barrel assembly alone is bigger than an entire hand held chain-colt! On top of that the two huge sickle mags?! The concept is kind of cool, they just turned out way to big and I think I might give them a miss when I put together my Geckos.

Stats-wise they are pretty much standard heavy infantry but with an extra wound (or STR in this case) and I think that is what you should treat them as. Sure they are technically TAGs, but they really don't measure up to the Cutters and Avatars out there, but neither to they have to! They're dirt cheap, actually cheaper than a lot of the HI I tend to field as Yu Jing and I could easily see running two in a list. Using them to put the pressure on the enemy and draw fire while your specialists takes objectives I think is the way to go. They can still take a lot of punishment with ARM 8 in cover. Just be mindful of hackers though as they're only BTS -3!

You might have noticed that I mentioned my Geckos above. I've put my Steel Phalanx on ice for a bit since I really have no way of resisting these beautiful looking models! They are unresistable! Now I just need to figure out what more I need in a Corregidor army besides four Geckos. ;)


And that's it! I think I forgot to mention that the Neoterra Bolts will be released as a three model blister for a limited time only and that's why we have six releases this month. If anyone failed to realize it, the Geckos are my favourite release this month, by far! The Bolts are pretty cool as well, as is Tarik and Neema, but I can't really be bothered looking at them when I can look at some beautiful mecha instead! Oooh, let's have some more pics!

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Netrunner - My New Obsession

I remember when the original Netrunner CCG was relased in the mid ninetiees and how it was lauded by both Inquest and Pyramid as one of, or even the best card game around. However it really never took off and even though this was a period where I was religiously reading and re-reading Gibson's Sprawl trilogy and liked the look of Netrunner I never actually tried it.

This is what Netrunner looked like back when.

Over the years I've been checking up on the game now and then to see how likely a reprint or remake of it was so when the announcement that FFG had picked it up for use with their LCG model I was very excited. Sure, they had transplanted it into their in-house cyberpunk setting of Android, but seeing as that is as much a derivative of Gibson as Cyberpunk 2020 ever was I really didn't have a problem with it. Besides, I really liked the world they introduced in the board game, even though the board game itself sadly never managed to grab me, so this would give me a new opportunity to explore it. Of course the card art changed a lot with FFG's cards being more conceptual (ICE especially!) and with more of a cartoon feeling to them. They lost some of the grit in the process, but overall I think they are an improvement. Although I love the old Hostile Takeover card!

Still I held off actually investing in Android: Netrunner until january 2014, 18 months after the games release. It has certainly not been for a lack of interest from my part, but rather a concern that I wouldn't have any opponents to play against. Sure I could always go down to the local CCG den and play some random dude, but that's not really what I'm into - I want to play with my friends. So I've been biding my time, hoping it would catch the eye of some of my buddies. In the meantime I got into Star Wars as that seemed to be an easier game to introduce into a group of non-LCG players.

My friend Anders have also expressed interest in Netrunner, as he's a fan of the Cyberpunk genre, and mentioned that he might get the core box so we could try it out. However in the end it was Claes who picked it up first. He was really getting the Star Wars LCG as he really enjoyed that, but an extra large paycheck last month(?) lead to him picking up a core set of Netrunner as well. This was all that was needed for me to completely loose it and immediately order most of what's been released so far! Which is kind of silly since we've decided to work through the expansions gradually anyway. Haha!

Claes bought Creation and Control and some datapacks as well so we're certainly invested now. I even think Anders might spring for a core box one of these days! I'm the kind of person who do a lot of research and planning as I get into a new game. I spend hours going through forums, reading about game strategy and trying to analyze how the game... "fits together". Netrunner has certainly not been an exception as cardgamedb.com has constantly occupied a couple of my browser tabs. I'm not a big fan of netdecking (for any kind of game) but I still enjoy reading about peoples thoughts when they put together a deck or an army for a miniature game or what have you. The thought process is always interesting and can give you ideas for creations of your own.

That doesn't look like any kind of Japanese I've ever seen! Space Japanese perhaps?

So far we've only met to play Netrunner twice, and the first time I acted as the tutor as I instructed Claes and Anders on how to play the game and helped them during the matches. They played twice, Claes using the default core Shaper deck and Anders using the default Weyland deck. The first game was over in just a couple of turns but the second one was looooong. I think they played for two hours and most of the time was, of course, spent reading the different cards as everything was new to them. In the end Claes won both games although the second one was very close!

Yesterday I played Claes and I had put together my own Anarch Noise deck using core+What Lies Ahead. It's heavy on virus cards and only use the three basic Anarch ICE breakers. Claes quickly put together a Haas Bioroid deck using the same set of cards and we went at it. The first game I won fairly quickly as I got a Medium going and Claes didn't realize how quickly I could go through his R&D looking for agendas. However I really felt that my economy wasn't anywhere near where it needed to be so tweaked the deck a little before we went at it again.

The second game went on longer and Claes protected his R&D better this time. I still was strapped for credits in the game, but managed to snatch enough agendas to get to six, same as the Corp. In what I thought would be the final turn I used Stimhack to easily break into his obvious agenda server only to run straight into an Aggressive Secretary! Eek! She fried almost my whole rig (never rely to heavily on Djinn if you can avoid it!) and it looked like it would be an easy win for HB. However, the next turn Claes didn't advance the other possible agenda and after some quick Infiltration work to make sure it wasn't another Secretary I decided to chance it and made a run with just Yog.0 installed. Claes didn't rezz the first piece of ICE and the second I was an Ichi 1.0 that I could simply allow to hit me as I ran past it and grabbed the final agenda for the win!

However, it turned out that the first ICE was a Rototurret that would have stopped me cold and that Claes had simply misremembered which kind of ICE it was. This kind of put a damper on the victory, but looked at the next couple of turns and I would have gotten a Mimic out anyway the turn after. It would probably have ended the same but still.

Anyway, it's really a great little game with loads of depth and the whole bluffing thing going on that I enjoy immensely! I can only imagine how it would be playing with Jinteki. Hopefully I get to try that next time as I built a deck for them when I did my Anarchs. I'll probably put together a review for Netrunner later on, but first I need to play it some more. :)

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January Releases for Infinity!

 Not quite as late as last couple of months, here are the latest releases for our favourite skirmish game...

 And, we're off with the HMG toting ALEPH Ekdromoi! Quite a few of the AD troops in the Infinity reange look a little awkward as the sculptor has tried to get them to look like they're landing or something. Sometimes it works, but many times it doesn't really... this is one of the times it works as the Ekdromos look like it's just about to take off! Great dynamic pose! I know a lot of people are happy to see this guy as the Ekdromoi is an excellent droptrooper with Super Jump and an HMG is always a welcome addition, especially as it's a weapon that is somewhat rare for ALEPH, with all their Spitfires! However, I find it hard to get this guy above Diomedes...

 Next up is a box of angry Scots Guard for Ariadna. I wasn't really a big fan of the first Scots Guard we saw last year; something about his collar and left hand put me off. These guys look a lot better, but I'm still not a fan of the collar! The flowing duster is also problematic in a pack like this when there are two bodies and four sets of arms. One flowing duster would have looked awesome (it's well sculpted!) but two that look exacly the same kind of lessens the effect somewhat. Still, the guy with two SMGs look badass! In game they are solid, albeit slow, medium infantry that should perform well as both the closer range support (Molotok/Marksman's rifle) or assault (twin SMGs) . They even come in regular and camo flavour!

The Yu Jing Raiden Seibutai is a new troop type from Paradiso and don't look anything like I had pictured it. The armour is a mix of Haramaki arms/legs with Keisotsu cuirass and it goes together quite well, fitting the role of an ARM 3 MI. The helmet on the other hand is new and looks a bit... weird. I don't know if I like it or not to be honest. I kind of dig the faceplate with the three holes, but would like it better if it didn't have the neanderthal forehead thing going on. Might be subject to filing if I get a Raiden on my own. From a stats perspective I don't think it's a model I would use in vanilla Yu Jing but I think it might have a place in a Japanese sectorial as a kind of second line defensive trooper where his low movement, limited camo and X-visor should work well.

Woo! I've been eagerly awaiting the Haqqislam Sekban box as I think it's one of their best looking units the best looking near-future troopers in miniature gaming overall. Love the helmets, the armour, the sprouts on the back and the fatigues. Simply great looking! The poses are conservative but work well and aren't simply of the "standing around" variety often seen in Haq models. Beautiful models but not sure how well they perform in game; they come armed to the teeth and with 360° Visor, but mostly short ranged assault weaponry combined with low movement feels like a bad combination. Still stick them in a Fireteam: Haris and you could speed them up considerably. Somewhat expensive though.

Let's go out with a bang and bring some hot alien ass into this post! The Combined Army Gwailo with heavy rocket launcher rounds out this troop type as all weapon options are now available. I'm a great fan of Shasvaasti in general and the concept of the Gwailo really appeals to me - Shasvaasti trying to be hard instead of sneaky (and not being all that good at it). The Gwailo design has stayed consistent since its debute with any change being of the sharper sculpt variety. Love the pose on this guy as it looks like he's turning around to fire at some poor humans behind him. Great weapon design as well!  As for playing with it, looking at the Gwailo stats I think they are really quite squishy for their cost. Sure, Nanoscreen will help, but get flanked and it's probably bye-bye bug-boy!


A month of solid releases covering up some different holes among the different factions, although I kind of feel that all of them are probably not first choice models when putting together a force. Yes, there are no really bad troop choices in Infinity, but some are definitely trickier to use effectively than others! My favourite release is the Sekban box for sure! Probably followed by the Gwailo. Still, I've set my sights on SSS so I should be eyeing the Ekdromos instead. :)

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Torchbearer - Into the Crypt

Yesterday I ran my first game of Torchbearer with a new constellation of players. You might remember my session report from last year, when I got to be one of the players for the better half of Under the House of Three Squires. Unfortunately it ended up being a one-off so I thought I'd take a shot at running it with a bunch of old friends.

If you've been reading my blog for any substantial amount of time you know I've lamented the demise of our roleplaying group after we wrapped up the Gathering Storm campaign for WFRP3 (here's the first session report, for interested readers) back in 2011. Since then I've tried sporadically to get something started, but nothing really took off and Anders, who have always been a dependable roleplayer, started feeling less interested in the hobby. So although we tried a few different systems the only game we played more than once was Dungeon World, as I was waiting for the Torchbearer kickstarter to deliver. Hehe!

However, I have decided to give it another go but this time with a new approach. Instead of playing once every fortnight, which is how we made it through The Gathering Storm, I wanted to try and utilize evenings after work and play three or four times in close succession. This would keep the momentum going and we'd be able to play through a fair bit of the game before deciding if it was a good fit or not (as opposed to just deciding after one session).

So I talked to some old regulars that has been roleplayers for a long time but haven't really played together in this constellation before. Everyone was up for it and after discussing the different games I was eager to run (Torchbearer, The One Ring, Mouse Guard and Star Wars) we decided on Star Wars. However, I later withdrew that option as I had barely had time to even look at the 400+ page tome that is the core book! So while stalling for time in regards to Star Wars I suggested Torchbearer as I know the system fairly well and it's reasonably light on prep (not as light as MG, but lighter than TOR). Jimmy was eager to try it, while Jacob thought it sounded like "a dungeon crawler board game without a board" and Nicke and Claes were neutral. So... interesting!

Prepping for Torchbearer.

I quickly read through The Dread Crypt of Skogenby, got my poker chips, D6s and Mouse Guard conflict cards and headed over to Jacobs house this past Sunday to make characters and play our first session of Torchbearer. After a quick explanation of the basic rules (dice pool and skills basically) we went straight to character creation where I felt I could explain rules organically as we moved along. The characters we ended up with are:

Preben the Human Warrior (Jimmy)
Belief: Survival of the strong.
Instinct: Look for enemies when setting camp.

Fiord the Elf Ranger (Nicke)
Belief: Shit is always right around the corner.
Instinct: Always scribe scrolls when camping.

Tyron the Halfing Burglar (Jacob)
Belief: When everyone disagrees, I'm probably right.
Instinct: Don't trust Preben when thinking is involved (Preben has a Will of 1!).

Rurik Red the Dwarf Adventurer (Claes)
Belief: Live every day with no regret or remorse.
Instinct: Always repair stuff in camp.

Ambience!

As you can see we're not quite there yet when it comes to beliefs but as the players become more familiar with the system I think this will change. It would have been cool to keep track exactly of what they did each turn, but of course I didn't think of that so here it is in a semi-coherant ramble:


Spoilers for The Dread Crypt of Skogenby below!


I explained to them that Preben had had some bad news from his hometown of Skogenby and that they needed help with something. With promises of rewards he managed to get the rest of the murder-hobos on board and they set out on a journey to the west. They passed The Three Squires on their way there and Rurik mentioned that he'd like to try a swig of their famous beer some day...

They arrived in Skogenby and talked to the village elders about the dire situation in the village and the disappearance of Jora and the subsequent killings of several people. They were given the silver bracelets as the elders begged them to restore them to the tomb to appease the spirits. After Tyron had made some assurances that they would actually get paid for helping out they set out toward the burial mound.

As the clouds foretold rain Fiord, the elf ranger, studied the mud outside the small hole leading into the mound and realized that someone or something had been using it several times fairly recently. He also tried to read what was written on the rune stone but a freak lightning bold split the it in two before he could decipher it! Realizing that something was coming out of the tomb made the group discuss the possibility of rigging a trap and simply wait it out. But as the discussion grew long the impulsive dwarf suddenly swore to himself and started crawling through the hole, into the tomb.

He lit a candle once inside and called for the others that it seemed safe enough where he was. Having perhaps already tipped their hand the others decided to follow, using a torch for some more light. As they moved ahead something moved ahead and when Tyron through a torch forward to see what was making the noise they saw four skeletal warriors moving towards them!

One too many, but you get my point. :)

With a shout Rurik launched himself at them but was quickly overwhelmed and beaten down. Some quick bow work from Fiord and Preben covering him allowed them to get Rurik back on his feet. They fought a bit more defensively after that and the four undead were soon put down without much trouble.

The group explored a nearby room that had a font filled with water in it, a number of statues and a brazier. After some time trying to figure out the purpose of the room an eerie breeze came out of nowhere and extinguished the candle and torches! Suddenly unnatural lights appeared in the middle of the room and as they danced around Preben and Rurik started to move towards them. Just as they were about to dunk their heads into the font Tyron, using hidden depths, managed to restrain Preben. Rurik wasn't as lucky and swallowed quite a bit of water before snapping out of it. Fiord quickly lit another torch and the unnatural lights disappeared. Making matters worse, a blue glowing symbol suddenly appears on Rurik's forehead as he tries to use the brazier. Probably not a good sign.

Moving back into the first corridor they decide to move ahead a little and explore a second room. Its walls are covered in rotting tapestries and the elf again tried to make sense of the purpose of the room. While he didn't study the statues lining the walls he did figure out that this was a room for attempted transcendance... whatever that meant.

Moving ahead the group entered a long room lined with bones as well as pots, bottles and canisters of all kinds of shapes and sizes. After a cursory look at the bottles and realizing that what had once been in them was long perished, Preben and Tyron moved ahead and spotted a sarcophagus further ahead. The regal looking woman sculpted intrigued them and Preben was just about to push the heavy lid off when Tyron stopped him and pointed at one of the corners - a pressure plate trigger! Moving back and inspecting the rest of the room he realized that something was likely to come out of the holes in the ceiling. The halfling had a Good Idea though and he managed to pull the lid off the sarcophagus with the rope, easily avoiding the spears that sprang out of the holes. To everyone's disappointment it was empty.

This is kind of how I imagined it.

As the room didn't lead on anywhere the adventurers found themselves rather perplexed for a bit. It wasn't until Fiord noticed how his torch flickered that they realized that there must be a secret door somewhere. Fiord used his torch to look for it and just as it looked like he had found the source a dark, amorphous blob dropped down from the ceiling above him, covering him almost completely! Rurik rushed forward only to realized that his axe wasn't much use against the slimy creature. Preben tried to hold it at bay with his shield as Tyron pulled Fiord free of the bubbling mass. With their weapons useless against the slime the adventurers found themselves being pushed out of the room and soon a tactical retreat turned into a rout as they ran for the exit!

They made it outside, but Preben had a nasty burn from the creature and the others were exhausted! Deciding that they needed some proper rest Tyron looked around for a good campsite and found one in a natural shelter. They spent some time resting up, fixing gear and writing scrolls. Fiord even managed to use his elfish healing skills to alleviate Prebens burn. He also compiles the scatter of notes he had kept with him into a proper map.

As morning breaks there are more talks of trapping the entrance, but in the end the group decide to make their way back in and simply avoiding the room with the font as it looked like the giant amoeba made its way into the murky water there. Fiord's map makes it easy to trace their way back to the room with the sarcophagus and this time the elf manages to find the secret door.

Peering ahead they saw a corridor and some great oak doors to the left. Preben immediately moved ahead and opened the doors, revealing a chilling sight! On a large stone throne the remnants of some once great warrior sat, and in the skeleton's lap was Jora - the little girl. Only her eyes glowed with an unearthly sheen and she started angrily at the intruders. The heroes(?) stand stunned for a moment and before they can get their wits about them the girl spoke in a throaty rasp, claiming to be Haathor-Vash a once great hero. Cowed by the sight the adventurers played along nicely and simply tried to ascertain what the angry spirit wanted of them.

As Haathor-Vash stated that she wanted all her stolen belongings returned to her Preben was just about to hand over the armbands they had taken but Tyron was there before he had a chance to! The halfling instead suggested a bargain: release the girl and the adventurers would give the armbands back and re-seal the tomb. After some back and forth this was agreed upon and as Preben placed the armbands near the throne the girl suddenly collapsed as the blue glow went from her eyes!

They helped the unconscious Jora out of the crypt while throwing wistful glances at the armbands and some other bits of treasure they had left behind. Returning to Skogenby they were welcomed as heroes as the villagers realized Jora was still alive. For their trouble they received some coin and a trinket.

We decided to call the Adventure Phase here and had a quick Town phase. This being their first Torchbearer outing I allowed them +1D for their lifestyle cost as the villagers extended some extra courtesy to the "heroes". After some looking through equipment tables and pondering dice amounts Preben ended up with a new spear and Fiord a large sack. They also got rid of a couple of conditions.

End of spoilers!

We had a great time with the game, even if (as always) rpg veterans found it hard to adapt to the system. While they started to get into it after about half way through the way roleplaying games "should work" are so deeply ingrained that it's a difficult transition. If I introduce BWHQ again to some other players in the future I might present it as a board game first to see if that would be easier for them to parse, and then have them actually understand that it's simply a different kind of roleplaying game. Of course, introducing it to players who have never roleplayed wouldn't be a problem at all!

Anyway, they made it through the crypt alive, even though I went a bit easy on them at the end there. This was mainly because they had obviously not grasped the conflict system and were handing out cards more or less at random. I decided to simply play through the adventure and then talk about conflicts next time instead (which of course turned into my last post).

Although I keep harping on about how tough it can be for rpg veterans to go out of their comfort zone, I got a bunch of positive reactions as well, of course! That failing was really never a fail in the traditional sense of the word, that time actually mattered and that rolling always had some kind of consequence. There is a lot to like in Torchbearer!

Next our adventurers decide it's time to head back to the city, by way of that famous inn The Three Squires...

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