Sunday, March 15, 2020

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That And Voila!

The upcoming game cries out for some emigre units. After consulting various books, my choice of homecast bits, and my future plans, I decided to cobble together an imaginary unit which will be able to find a home in various settings.

The Regiment de Brouiller

The bodies are slightly modified Meisterzinn ones with my original round hat heads, with crest filled out with epoxy putty. The coat has the general look of the Austrian style cut worn by several Emigre units in Flanders but with white turnbacks and a minimum of lace which can serve in other campaigns.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

ASOIAF: 40Pt Boltons With Ramsay

You know it's real when everyone else is in armor and you're naked.

I've been dying to write this piece. Beknownst to some, while Tywin is my favorite character of all time, I also really like Roose Bolton. I think of him as the Tywin of the North because they're so alike in a lot of ways. In fact, when you dig down a little deeper into the origins of House Bolton, you will find many disturbing and interesting things about them. Mechanically, I think they play very close to their book representation and that means a lot of death and terror. For now, I think Boltons' are the strongest when paired with House Lannister because of a lot of their tactics cards and toolkits synergizes with Lannister control elements.

Let's jump straight into a list that I've been messing with lately. Since I'm going to turn this into a 2-part show, let me start with something that I've had quite a bit of success with. To say it's pretty freaking brutal is an understatement.

I mean, lol, look at this guy.

Faction: House Lannister
Commander: Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton
Points: 40 (20 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
with Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton (0)
and Theon Greyjoy – Reek (0)
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
with Dreadfort Captain (1)
• Bolton Cutthroats (5)
with Assault Veteran (1)
• The Flayed Men (10)
with Gregor Clegane – Mounted Behemoth (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Tywin Lannister – The Great Lion (4)
• Lord Varys – The Spider (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

Just so you guys know, I absolutely hated Ramsay in the show. I still can't decide who I actually hated more, him or Joffrey, and that's an achievement in itself. To make things short and sweet, Ramsay's a battlefield commander through and through. He likes to get in there and chop people to bits to spread fear directly. When he pops his Order to Flay Them All! after a unit fails a Panic test, another unit within Long Range has to take a Panic test. This is a great mechanic to have in a unit of MM because of the Vicious inflicting a -2 modifier. The affiliation to House Bolton is something we will talk about once we take a look at his Tactics Cards. Before we forget, let's talk about poor Theon who Ramsay brings along with him. Having Theon dragged around with you basically allows Ramsay to auto-panic an opponents' unit every turn, but the downside there is that if you roll a 5+, Theon dies. Boohoo, I guess.

Everything is made for killing.

The biggest weakness to this list is the low activations and deploys, but outwitting the opponent isn't something I'm going after. I'm looking to get in there and murder the enemy in every way possible. When you look at cards like Our Blades are Sharp, you will see that's one of the most damaging tactics cards in the entire game. If you attack a Panicked enemy, your attack gains +1 to hit and +2 dice on the attack. If you're a House Bolton unit, the defender also becomes Vulnerable. This is why I have 2 real House Bolton units in the game and a MM with the House Bolton affiliation. Make no mistake: This one card absolutely sky-rockets your units ability to deal damage. With a plentiful amount of Critical Blows, Vicious, and 3s to hit across the entire army, you will have plenty of chances to inflict maximum hurt on the enemy. Cruel Methods is activation cheating, simple as that. You play this card at the start of the round, regardless of whose turn it is and you get an out-of-turn free attack action. Sure, there are downsides to this card if you don't manage to destroy the enemy unit, but with 3 House Bolton units on the field using max dice and re-rolling misses, you better do some work. An amazing target for this is your Bolton Cutthroats with Assault Veteran. If you pop this on them and that unit is already engaged with something, you will be rolling 10 dice, hitting on 2s with re-rolls, making the Vulnerable, and they have to test Panic with Vicious. If it's going to be your unit activation, you can just cap the Combat zone with Varys and go again if that unit is somehow still alive and your guys are still around. I'm telling you, it's bananas. Lastly, we have Sadistic Games, where at the start of a friendly turn, your opponent has to pick either to have 2 of his units to be Panicked or suffer D3+2 automatic hits. If he understands Ramsay at all, he'll go for the extra hits because at least he has a chance to save them. Having 2 units being Panicked just sets them up to be abused later by Our Blades are Sharp.

Madness. Madness and Stupidity.

Let's talk about the unit selection super quick: Mountain's Men should be pretty straight forward. You have Critical Blows and Vicious who works great with Ramsay's tactics cards. Bolton Cutthroats with Assault Veteran is a match made in heaven, and having a Dreadfort Captain on the MMs help spread Panic whenever the opponent fails their Panic test (which should be often due to Vicious). The giant elephant in the room is the fat-stack of The Mountain + Flayed Men. Let's get one thing straight here: This is 32.5% of your army and in most cases, can be considered a deathstar. Now, I normally don't like to do this kind of thing, but I think Ser G + Flayed Men are one of the strongest units in the entire game by far, especially when you have them in damage amplifying list like this one. For me, the best way to get value out of these guys is to take them in a list that will almost guarantee they make their points back. If you think about in terms of points: A 13-point unit better kill at least 13+ points to break even or be considered a unit well-spent. This is, after all, 2 more units of Mountain's Men or even close to 3 units of Cutthroats or Lannister Guardsman. It's a huge investment and I need people to realize that they do have weaknesses, that you can play around them quite easily, that mission objectives do matter, and there are plenty of tactics cards and combos out there that can stifle their damage or end them entirely. I do not consider them over-performing at all, but they are nasty.

So why did I bring them? Well, for one, Gregor applies free Panic that unlocks Our Blades are Sharp automatically and also automatically deal D3 wounds. The fact that you can play Our Blades are Sharp on this unit is something out of this world, because now, on the charge you have 10 attack dice, hitting on 2s and re-rolling, Critical Blows + Vicious, Panic + Spread Fear, you make the unit Vulnerable, and you deal D3 extra wounds from The Mountain just because you can. If that doesn't roll over many people, it will reduce them to almost combat ineffectiveness status and they will then try to retaliate against a unit with 2+ save. If you wipe them out or start the round with Cruel Methods, you can then Overrun into another unit with a free Charge action to start the chaos all over again. I don't know what to say, this unit with Ramsay is absolutely absurd considering how many extra, free combat rounds you can get from it, all the while spreading Panic tokens around because of Spread Fear and Vicious.

Yes, the unit above is ridiculously strong and I would say almost designed for Ramsay to take advantage of. However, it's hugely expensive and that's why a unit like that doesn't perform well in objective-based game modes. With only 4 combat units, one of which is a 13-point unit from hell, you can't possibly dedicate it to capturing points. What you need to do if you're piloting this list is to use that unit to smash everything in its way to smithereens. However, this will require you to have the right cards in hand which is something you should never build your strategy around. Before I forget, that unit, as mighty as it is, has one giant flaw that needs to be called out: It is hugely weak against anything that can blunt the initial assault. A lot of the damage comes from the Abilities that the unit has attached to it so if you take those abilities *cough, Martial Supremacy, cough*, it's pretty much a declawed cat. You can then trap the unit by engaging it from multiple sides (such as Grey Wind) and apply Greataxes to face.

Finally, I'd like to mention that Tywin as an NCU is still amazing. In fact, I think he has one of the best once-a-game abilities in the game because it completely makes an enemy unit worthless for a round. Funny enough, Tywin is also probably one of the best counters to something like the Gregor Flayed Train of Death.

Narrative Arcs In Board Games, LTUE Panel

I kicked off my experience as a panelist this year at Life, The Universe and Everything Symposium (LTUE Website) with a discussion about using narrative arcs in boardgames. As panelists, we covered a broad range of subtopics, but the general discussion narrowed down into three main categories: do you need to have a story, how stories are used in games, and stories we tell from playing the game.

The background of the panel group provided a lot of viewpoints from different angels on the subject. I walked away knowing more than when I went in. That is one of the great things to me about attending conferences, conventions, and symposiums—no matter my level of involvement, it is a fantastic learning experience.

Do You Need a Story?

The first specific topic discussed was if a game needed a narrative storyline. This simple answer is no, you don't have to have developed a story for the game to work. There are some games designed on the mechanic being used. However, having a story has advantages.

A story gives more cohesion to gameplay. We think in stories. Having a game with a story provides a line of thought for the players to grab hold of and move through the events of the turns, rounds, events, beginning, middle, and end. The cohesion can even start before the game begins.

It provides imagination seeds from the beginning. What attracts us to games is an important part of the development process. We create games because we want people to play them, but also we want people to buy them. A story provides that extra jolt. It is something that can be added into the packaging. One of our panelists stated simply they would play a game with a story instead of one without.

How are Stories Used as Part of the Game?

A story is a good tool for teaching the rules of the game. A game tying the rules to a story makes it easier to remember what needs to be done next. Many rulebooks now provide a narrative before and during the introduction of the rules. This allows players to follow the story as they learn the aspects of the game and what they need to do.

A story helps maintain the flow of the game during play. Most games have the same general flow we see in movies or read in books. They have a beginning, middle, and end. They also have more specific elements that we see in story construction. With these elements, the story allows players to know what is happing in the moment and what is coming up.

Some games are heavily driven by the story they tell. One example of a story driven game is Betrayal at House on the Hill. The story helps in building the tension the players know will be coming. As the game progresses the book is referenced to give a twist to the story and lead to its conclusion.

These combine to give the gameplay a fuller feeling. Some have more immersion in the story than others. There were comments of the loss of time during playing when a story is fulfilling. This leads to another part about the use of story that brings many of these points together.

What Type of Stories Do We Tell After Playing?

Not only do we think in story, we like to tell them. We tell stories about things we do every day. We tell stories about the adventures we go on and the mundane things that happen. We also tell stories that develop from the games we play—and they come in two general flavors.

We like to tell about how the game unfolded. We talk about how we set up, how the strategy unfolded, and if it worked or not and why. We share the events of the war game as a novel unfolding on the table in front of us. We especially like to tell them to people who have experienced the game before, but we love to share the details also with new players.

Visit a convention and you will hear people sharing the stories of past victories and defeats. This is an important part for game developers. People share stories because they become emotional about the game. They are recruiting new players. They are convincing somebody that your game needs to be on their shelf and be a part of the gaming group.

Final Thoughts

Games don't have to be designed with a story. I think most games come naturally with one, or the story is developed while the game is played. There are games that are purely strategy that many of us like to play. Most games played with standard playing cards probably fall in this category. But now we have all sorts of new board games and other tabletop games being played.

Board games with a story are usually more attractive to players and are the ones that get people talking. As a developer that's important. When other people are talking about your game they are marketing the game for you. With this in mind, see how strong the story is that your game either supports or creates.

Panel Summary (from the program)

While often overlooked, board games can be an effective storytelling medium. This can range from the game actively telling a story to passively telling the story through the mechanisms in the game. Learn how to unlock your game's storytelling potential.

Other Panelists

Christopher Baxter

An author, editor, podcaster, and (why not) yes, a game designer. He shares stories and writing tips at writerinthehat.com and is host of A More Civilized Podcast.

Paul Robbins

Creator of the Trait Spectrum, a proprietary questionnaire of Paladin & Archer Software Systems, Inc. He is the company's experimental psychologist. A personality type test similar to the MBTI is available to the public for free at app.developerlevel.com.

Skye Larsen

Part of the two-person team of Rob and Skye Games, an indie studio working on a computer game called Alkanaur. Because one medium is never enough, he recently started designing for table-top games as well. Skye helps produce the popular Game Design Round Table podcast and does freelance writing and edits game rulebooks on the side. Twitter.com/robthesky_games.

Mike Holyoak

A lifelong geek obsessed with table-top RPGs, board games, and board game design. He is a three-time finalist of the SaltCon Ion Board Game Design Contest and one-time winner. Anubisnine.wordpress.com.

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CompTIA PenTest+ (PT1-001) Complete Video Course - CoderProg

CompTIA PenTest+ (PT1-001) Complete Video Course

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Commands & Colors: Fantasy Update!

My opponent, lo these 35 or so years. ATTACK! He's a pretty good sport and a hell of a lot of fun to play a game with. He's even more fun to play against. I suppose that's the little brother in me talking.

On New Years Eve, my brother Chris and I had the opportunity to playtest some ideas I had for my long-suffering Commands & Colors: Fantasy project. Yes, I know about BattleLore. Read this for a reminder.

My interest in this project was jump started when I traded for a Warhammer Empire army. Now, adding a pre-painted army to my collection was a huge motivator. While there were a number of unpainted figures in the collection, they can be assembled and painted later. Along with the other Empire figures I have lying about. What can I say, I like the look of these dudes with their armor and plumed hats.

About half of the Empire troops I traded for. They are based on black movement stands. Four figures to a stand, four stands to a unit. These are made of matte board. I'd like to get something a little more substantive and magnetic.

Anyhow, I wanted to get these guys on the table and have them go up against my (partially) painted Skaven. Now, I'm not going to lock myself into the Warhammer setting, but many of the figures I'm using are GW in origin. But not all. Many of the Empire figures I recently traded for are actually Wargames Foundry. Gorgeous figures. I need more of them. Or the Warlord/Pro Patria Landskechts. But I digress.

The battle lines clash! It really looks quite nice with 28mm figures on such a big mat. My eventual plan is for the Ratmen units to be based five figures to a stand with four stands in a unit. Units with 20 rats will look epic indeed.

Not wanting to place a high Medieval/Rennaissance veneer on the existing C&C: Ancients units, I opted to tweak some of the ratings and abilities. For example, Human Halberdiers are essentially CCA Auxilia without the ranged attack. Human Bowmen are pretty much CCA Light Infantry Bows.

I created a wholly new unit in Handgunners and Crossbowmen. These guys are light foot infantry as one would expect. They move 2 hexes and have a ranged attack of 3 hexes, like Bowmen. When they fire their weapons, they roll a respectable 3 dice. In close combat, they roll 2 dice but do not strike with swords.However, due to the relatively cumbersome nature of handguns and crossbows, they may not move and fire in the same turn. I suppose on a "Move, Fire, Move" command, they could hold their movement, fire and then move. But that might be a risky endeavor. Or it could be a highly profitable gambit. Fortune favors the bold.

I really liked the pistoliers in small three-model units. I'd like to get more of these dudes.

Another unit I devised is Swordsmen. On the surface, they look like standard Light Infantry with a move of 2 hexes and close combat with 2 dice. However, I took away their ranged attack and gave them the ability to strike on swords. What use are swordsmen that don't strike with swords?

Other units include flagellating Zealots (basically Warrior infantry, but they can ignore one banner result in a given attack), light mounted pistoliers (light mounted cavalry), and mounted knights (heavy mounted, move 2 hexes, CC with 5 dice if they moved the full 2 hexes, may momentum advance, take an additional hex and battle again with the same 5 dice since they moved another 2 hexes), and even a Dwarf unit (heavy foot).

And what about the Skaven, or as I'm calling them, the Ratmen of Suttar? They have some nifty units of their own. Plague Monks are basically like Warrior Infantry, but they'll get some type of limited magic ability in the future. Ratmen with swords are basically light infantry. Rats with spears are basically auxilia. Rat ogres are heavy cavalry, through and through.

"We ignore everything but green when we evade, right? Damn."

The real neat thing about Ratmen units is that they can always evade. Even into friendly units, so long as they move completely past and through the friendly unit. I just love the idea of units of Rats passing one another as they swarm over, around, past and through each other. To make up for this undeniable advantage, Rat units require three adjacent units to claim support. I like this as a nod to their cowardly and craven ways. And it simply encourages evading through the Rats' own lines!

The Zealots punch a hole in the Rats' line and advance in the breach to attack the spear rats to their left!

Chris and I played a pretty straight forward "Kill the enemy" scenario. We didn't notice any particularly hideous results. There were some exciting moments like when a unit of Zealots crushed a unit of Plague Monks in one go, momentum advance and battled a unit of Spear Rats, only to have the Rats battle back, roll three banners and send the unsupported Zealots back to damn near the edge of the table!

The Spear Rats turn to face the threat and send the crazed humans running! Can't ignore all those banner results, boyo!

A few things we'd like to add:

Objective-based scenarios beyond "Collect X banners." BattleLore does this right and I will definitely be taking a page or two from their scenario books for this.

Named characters with special abilities. Maybe an elf ranger hero allows a ranged attack unit to reroll a single die, or a heroic knight makes one sword hit count double.

Simple magic. I don't want magic to be a mini-game like it was with versions of Warhammer I've played. We're kicking around an idea where magic using heroes and units have a menu of available spells. In order to cast a spell, you order a unit or leader as you normally would, but you can dump additional orders into the unit or leader to cast more powerful spells. I'll explain this further.

Much, much more!

As I've stated in previous blog posts, this is a long-term project for me. While we are using a 6-inch hex mat, it's still the basic 13x9 (6.5 foot by 4.3 foot) hex playing area. Eventually, I'd like to have a full 26x9 (13 foot by 4.3 foot) mat for a full 8-player Epic experience. To get the most painted bang for my buck, I will concentrate on getting my Rats painted up. My goal is to have a 2-player game fully painted for J3 and I'll take it to Recruits this year as well. I also have an undead force that I will be adding to at some point. I'd like to add more dwarves and some elves to the "good side." Stay tuned!

The Hidebehind, Short Film, Review And Interview

The folklore of early loggers includes the tales of the Hidebehind, a creature that would take men when they weren't being careful in the woods. Parker Finn uses some great cut scenes to give his telling a sharp image of the creature that can disappear behind the trees.

I saw The Hidebehind at the 2019 FilmQuest film festival (website).The film was nominated for Best Makeup.

Here is a short horror about being lost in the woods. If you have never heard of the creature, The Hidebehind is a film you should watch to get the story for your next camping adventure for tales around the campfire.

Synopsis: Lost deep in the forest, a lone backpacker encounters a peculiar stranger.

Parker Finn gives a little more about the folklore that inspired his film. He also talks about what he is working on and what inspired him to become a filmmaker. Even after making this film he claims he still likes to be outdoors when possible.

What was the inspiration for The Hidebehind?

The film was inspired by a peculiar, little-known piece of North American superstition. Lumberjacks would occasionally get drunk and go missing in the forest, and their disappearances were blamed on something called a "Hidebehind," a sort of bogeyman that would stalk anyone unlucky enough to get lost in its neck of the woods. Supposedly a Hidebehind can hide itself behind any tree in the forest, no matter the shape or size. The story is that many people have heard a Hidebehind sneaking up on them, but no one has ever seen one—at least no one who's ever lived to tell the tale.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

I'm currently in post-production on a new short horror film that is going to give people an absolute panic attack when they see it! Keep an eye out for it!

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

I grew up obsessed with cinema. Movies were a big thing in my household growing up—we would rent movies every weekend. As a kid, I didn't fully grasp the idea that there was actually a person called a director who was making all the decisions we see on screen. The day I discovered what a director was, I knew right then and there: that's what I want to do.

What would be your dream project?

More than anything, I want to make a horror film that touches the zeitgeist—something that scares and sticks with audiences the way the original Nightmare on Elm Street, or The Ring did, that people will revisit again and again over the years.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

Getting outdoors! I love anything that comes with a rush of adrenaline: hiking, skiing, cliff jumping, bungee jumping.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

Oh man, favorite movie? What day of the week is it? I suppose one film that always circulates around the top of my list is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Kubrick is one of my favorite filmmakers, and The Shining is damn near perfect, from the performances, to the cinematography, and especially the set design. I dream about getting to build sets like the interior of the Overlook Hotel.

You can find out more about The Hidebehind on IMDb (link).

You can also watch the trailer on Vimeo (link).

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

I have articles being published by others and you can find most of them on Guild Master Gaming on Facebookand Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).