Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Finishes

The past couple of weeks have been busy but I still managed to get some gaming and modeling in.

The French fleet is ready to set sail, I just have to get the cowardly French commander to join me in battle, and at that point the reality of my poor tactics and /or luck may make me rethink all these comments. I love making army lists or building a new model, imagining how it will perform ideally on the table, and then getting the cold slap of reality in the face as it all goes up in flames.

So now I am going to start working on building up my 40k Orks and painting up a 28mm WWII Canadian platoon that me and a friend are going to field together.

As far as games go I've played Chaos in the Old World by Fantasy Flight Games and Space Hulk Death Angels Card game also by FFG over at a friends house and a game of Space Hulk board game at home vs. my son. Lost all games. I lost Chaos by not playing the right strategy for my chaos god. It was the first time I played and it took a couple of turns to figure out what I needed to be doing, oh well next time. Death Angels was cooperative so it wasn't all my fault, honest. Space Hulk was funny because I haven't played in such a long time I forgot to keep action points to unjam my stormbolters, and as my luck would have it I jammed up fairly early and I got mobbed by the geanstealers, end of game.

I want to talk briefly about the miniature game Malifaux because I've been meaning to. This is not a review or detailed game description but a few words about what I like about the game mechanics. Malifaux is a skirmish game set in a gothic, steampunk, western, magical, alternate history. The number of miniatures is generally less than a dozen per side and closer to half a dozen usually. The game uses a deck of cards per player instead of dice to resolve actions. The scenarios usually have multiple victory conditions which are different for each player and is usually not the elimination of the other team.

So, what do I like about it. Well as my luck is frequently not the best I really like the card mechanic because each player has a hand of cards which they can use to off set a bad draw when determining results of attacks etc. Basically a card is flipped from your deck and the number is added to a model's characteristic. This is compared to the target model's defense characteristic plus a card flip by your opponent from his deck. At this point the loser of the "duel" can play a card from their hand to win the duel(there is some other details but this is the basic flow). Anything that can counter bad luck is great with me and it adds a level tactical thinking about when to use your good cards. Also because the model count is low I feel I can spend some extra time painting the figures.

The main down side to the game is the amount of errata for the main rule book. Each model has a list a abilities and powers which is what makes the games very tactically diverse but you have to check every listing for errata which is very annoying. I can't wait for a 2nd edition or at least another print of model cards.
So you ask, why don't you win at this one. Well I do sometimes and I know why I am losing when I am so I will learn as I play. My friend who I play against is very good at looking at the various powers and working out a good synergy of powers within his crew. I on the other hand am a trial and error player so it takes a little longer to get things figured out so I will keep fighting with my Nicodem crew until I pull off a win(all my wins are with the Ortega's).

Overall I have a blast playing the game and depending on the crews fighting, each game can play very differently. I am hoping to build some purpose built buildings and terrain to add to the feel of the games.
Till next time
 The completed French fleet
 The French 120 gun flag ship
 The Canadians
The 1st squad ready for a fight