Watching Paint Dry (CyberShadow)

So, StormSeer and I managed to get a game in today with the suggested rules changes for the next version of Hostile Stars - to be released shortly. I thought that some people would find it interesting, and wanted to post quickly, before my aging brain dropped all the information in a puddle on the floor. This is how I remember it...

Setup

We minimised setup. Essentially, I turned up, we allocated ships, and threw a few asteroids on the table (agreeing that for now they would just work as decoration - initially we said that they would block line of sight but not movement, but we both forgot about this and they had no in-game effect in the end).

I took the Pax fleet, which suited me fine - and I feel like I am playing the humans a lot more than I thought that I would. I had two squadrons of three Ashigaru Destroyers each, while StormSeer had two squadrons, each with a single TwinBlade? Cruiser and a Dark Knife Frigate.

We did not use the rules for 'morale' for this game, nor did we use the 'work in progress' rules for flagships. We did however use the work in progress rules for vector movement and the revised firing procedure.

The Game

We started at either side of the table, with the asteroid field between us. The first turn involved all squadrons moving cautiously forwards, too far apart to engage.

As the two fleets approached each other, first blood went to the Kraytonians, as a Cruiser took out an Ashigaru Destroyer.

The Pax turned as a squadron started to side-slip, moving across the Kraytonians beam but keeping their noses facing the enemy. Concentrated fire from both Ashigaru squadrons saw the end of a Kraytonian Frigate quickly, and damage piled up on its squadrons Cruiser.

Things then started to go more in the favour for the Pax, who took the last damage point off the crippled Cruiser and also took out the Frigate from the other squadron, for the loss of another Destroyer and a third took severe damage, just staying in the fight. The final Kraytonian Cruiser focussed its wrath on the damaged Ashigaru, but through serious good luck, the Pax Destroyer managed to survive a whithering three salvoes from the Cruiser without dropping! Likewise, the Pax Destroyers poured fire into the Kraytonian Cruiser, but their angle only kept their prow guns out of the fight, and they had difficultly damaging the heavier enemy vessel. The fleets were close at this point, and passed each other as the Kraytonian Cruiser finished its attempt.

As the fleets passed each other in the middle of the table, the four remaining Destroyers did a rapid about face. Those out of range of their weapons burned thrusters, attempting to slow their progress, while the other ships blasted the Kraytonian Cruiser in its rear armour, slipping backwards as they did so.

With the last shot of the turn, the final Destroyer managed to chip away at the Cruisers final armour point, destroying it and handing the game to the humans.

Epilogue

I felt that the game worked quite well. It seemed like it played a little slow, but since these are still test games, and the rules are still not nailed down, this is very likely to improve. In addition, the entire session lasted only 2 hours, and the game was around only 90 minutes of that, which is pretty good.

I like the vector movement system, and I do think that it works well - giving an extra tactical option and making for interesting situations without causing too much additional work.

The firing process is 'much' better. It requires no maths beyond 'add strength and subtract armour' and is faster. Also, because there are no 'range bands' the tohit target is often the same for several shots in the turn, making it easier and faster.

In general, I am happy with the direction that game development is moving in.

Has it really been so long since I last posted here? I have drifted away from Wargaming recently, but I am coming back into it.

Transformer collecting continues at a worrying pace, but that is for another day.

Space Hulk has kind of re-ignited my wargaming pilot light. I got the third edition set on pre-order, and while I like the miniatures that come with it, they are not really my kind of style. So, I decided to replace them. A couple of weeks - and several transactions at GW and on eBay - later and I have almost everything that I need to replace all 22 Genestealers, the Brood Lord and the 12 Terminators. I will throw pictures up here, but right now they are all in little bags, seperated out and ready for the next stage. I now need to get a few more bits - a couple of extra Terminator bits for some conversions, a new timer, the artifact, dead Marine and CAT replacements, and so on - and start cleaning and assembling the minis. My aim is to just throw them together initially, to give me gaming pieces, and then go back to add the conversion pieces and extras, then start painting in small batches.

Also, I have made a small order of the new ships for Cold Navy, which are finally starting to become available again, although these have not yet arrived with me from the US. I am also turning my gaze back to Reapers CAV miniatures. I really like the style of these miniatures, I think that they are very well priced (even ordering to the UK) and I like the first edition game mechanics. I have picked up another couple of aircraft and some armour, but again these are not yet with me.

Looking at the introduction paragraph (up there ^^^) and I may have to make some changes to my painting projects. I knew that it wouldnt last!

Hopefully, I will be able to find a bit more time for some actual painting (!) and maybe some other fun projects, and I will try to kick start this blog again.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Wargaming.... I remember that! Back to the core of this blog.

I have been working with Dark Realm Miniatures for a while now, primarily involved in designing and developing a new game and various additional materials for it - background, miniatures, etc.

This weekend saw its official release, at Salute 2009 (London).

The game itself is Hostile Stars, a space fleet game set in the DRM universe. You can download the core rules and keep up with development over at the DRM forums. I will be using this blog to highlight various development efforts and comments and go into some of the background behind decisions, etc. Consider this the directors cut and bonus features, as well as my glacial pace of painting and occasional update on Transformers.

The open playtest games of HS went very well. Some observations from the day:

People were very impressed with the miniatures, especially commenting that they look better in real life than in pictures. The Kraytonians in particular gained many positive comments, people saying that they were different from pretty much anything else out there.

The firing procedure needs a redesign. The table and modifiers in the initial version suffered in two ways. Firstly, the roll to hit was not balanced, needing an 11. This made it very difficult to hit firing side to side, but too easy to hit and damage when hiting face to face. Secondly, the table modifiers were too complex. While I like the original table as it copes with the changes in firing from hiting a target moving across your sights at a distance to hitting a target sitting steady in your sights but which is smaller. I have several suggestions on how to improve it, and after thinking about what many of these were trying to achieve I have come up with a change to this for the next version. It should be much faster and more intuitive, and still cover almost all of the factors that the previous method did (the only real thing that it doesnt deal with are two ships moving in opposite directions at speed).

The game plays well. I was very pleased to see that the game is fast to play and relatively easy to get the hang of. Playtesters were able to get the basic mechanics after a single turn, and a game of half a dozen ships on each side played out in about an hour. This will clearly change as more rules and complexities are added, but it was a good indication for a starting game.

Overall, I am very pleased with the way that the day went. Many thanks to everyone who wandered over for a chat. I now need to make the edits based on feedback and comments from the day.

It had to happen... I have a reader!

As a response to my last blog entry, I was asked to provide pics of a few of my Transformers. So...



Here we have a few Masterpiece Transformers. This 'Anniversary DVD' Optimus Prime, a plastic reissue of the MP Japanese Prime, and MP Skywarp and Japanese Starscream. These are very cool, loaded with details, etc. The paint pot is there for scale!

Other pictures of these can be found here:
http://www.seibertron.com/toys/index.php?f_series=43&f_name=Enter+Search+Keyword%28s%29&f_type=exact

I also have a number of Alternators. These are 1:24 scale cars, licensed with things like linked steering, adjustable seats, opening boots, etc.

Pictures of the range here:
http://www.seibertron.com/toys/index.php?f_series=29&f_name=Enter+Search+Keyword%28s%29&f_type=exact

Of these, I have (deep breath): Dead End, Decepticharge (en route to me), Hound, Rumble (en route to me), Shockblast, Sideswipe, Silverstreak, Swindle, Tracks (blue), Wheeljack and Windcharger. The only one that I am interested in picking up now, is Mirage.

So, as you can all probably tell, painting has been a little... rare, recently. This is due to three main factors - lack of motivation, diversion of my time, diversion of my money.

Lack of motivation.

Nothing really unusual here. With work being busy, I have not had a lot of time, and with gaming currently being sparse (due to a lack of time) the desire to get stuff painted has fallen off a little - and I was not the worlds most dedicated painter to start with!

Time diversion.

While painting has been rare, the time that I have had has been mostly spent on background stuff right now. It seems that most of my 'wargaming' time is spent either on forums, or putting together rules or background. So, I think that this blog will be used to discuss these aspects of my gaming more.

I have been monitoring the EA Tau development board a lot recently, and I do feel like we are actually starting to get somewhere with the discussions. This is great, as previous months have felt like constant circles of development, with people pulling in largely different directions and the sum movement being very small.

In other news, I have also been working more heavily with DRM, and my involvement with this company continues to grow. More on that in another blog entry, but recently I have been working on the Andrayada unit stat and general background documents. Those who know me will be aware that I actually have a heavy background in robotics, so the Andys are clearly the race the I naturally move towards. The last month or so has seen me throwing together background text, and trying to tie the various bits of lore that already existed, and get key concepts clarified - at least for the 'behind the scenes' guys. You, the players, may not see the results of this immediately, but it has become clear that certain things need to be set out to keep background consistant. Hopefully, you will see the Andy unit background soon - after a couple of rounds of edits and some pretty formatting.

From there, I will continue to look at the Andrayada, examining the general background of this race, and also looking at the best ways to move them forwards in the Seeds of War game. This will involve a list of new units to add to the 'bots, and I will be 'recycling' a few ideas from Pauls blog (I am, after all, concerned about the environment!). In addition, I will be looking at the fourth SoW race - the Skyth. These guys will be getting a full background document - based on Pauls initial concepts and notes - as well as reworking the various stats and in game rules. This project may take a bit of time, so please be patient, but also have faith - wheels are turning in the background for DRM fans.

Diversion of money.

Not really a reason for a lack of progress, since I tell myself that rules/background development is free, and painting is actually very cheap when you have a huge lead mountain and a stack of paints waiting to be used. However, I have found myself getting more drawn into the world of Transformers. Yes, robots again! I used to be a seriously big fan of the Transformer toys, right from the first G1 releases. Recently, I have rediscovered this passion. However, I am treating this on my own terms. I dont much care for the background, comics, etc and really see the toys themselves as cool, as well as being interesting engineering examples. In this way, I am simply picking up a few that I really like, no matter what line they are drawn from. More relevantly, I am looking to get into the Transformers mod scene, taking an existing figure and repainting or changing it in some way. I will post progress pictures if this even gets off the ground, but I do have a number of projects in mind.

In terms of where I am with my 'collection' - not for modifying - I have been concentrating on the Alternators line. These are very cool, 1:24 scale licensed cars, with complex transformations and nice reflections of the original characters. I have gone a little crazy with these guys. I will post a picture if people are interested, but I will just say that I selected a list of all of them that I wanted to pick up... and I just need one more from this list!

Once this is done (!) I have been turning my attention to the new Classics line, the soon to be released Alternity line, and selected released from the Masterpiece line (ouch!) - in particular the Seekers... and Grimlock.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will try to update here more often. I dont know how interested people are in Transformers, so let me know if you want to here more and not restrict this to wargaming - although that will always been my focus.

A strange thing happened this weekend. A bit of background... Last weekend was Salute (see my previous entry) and at this show I picked up two things - a couple of Epic Ork Flighters, and a few ships from Ground Zero from their Full Thrust range.

This weekend saw me picking one of these new vessels out of the bag and getting out the glue and paint. Now, this is not a hugely unusual thing (although it is rare!). The difference is that my previous efforts have been the result of putting together a gaming piece, creating a new unit or expanding a formation. That is fine, but this weekend I put together a ship because I thought that it was cool, and that was a refreshing reminder of how things used to be.

So, my work is one of the new sculpts from GZG, from their NSL fleet - a Heavy Battleship (although GZG ships are smaller than many other ranges), code FT540. I really like these new versions.

The alarm went off at 5.30am on Saturday, and two thoughts always go through my mind on Salute days - I am really getting too old/lazy for this, and is it really worth all of this effort. Thankfully, the trains were a lot better than last, when I had two lines into London cancelled on me, and I met up with the DRM guys (and girl), arriving at Londons Excel at 9am following a bus replacement for the DLR trains. The next 45 minutes were spent frantically setting up, sorting order counters, unpacking boxes and working out where the various 'key traders' were.

Over the day, we managed to get three sessions in. Before lunch, the main terrain board was split into two sections via a tree line, and two games were played simultaneously, both being repeated around 12pm. My first game saw me with the Kraytonians, which was ended in a draw. I had killed off many Andrayada troops for very little loss, but was lacking the anti-armour firepower required to see the game comfortably into the end stages. While the second round was played, I managed to get some time off and went for a wander about the convention.

Following a burger lunch (well, we didnt want to break the wargamer stereotype!), we removed the treeline and played a single, large game through the afternoon. With DRM represented by a total of seven of us, I was not required in the game itself, but hung around chatting to random people who approached the table with an interest. At the end of the day, there was just time for a minor skirmish game before the entire lot was carefully thrown into travel cases and the van packed up. I returned home at around 8pm, tired but happy.

I think that this year was one of the better Salute experiences for me, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I had reduced expectations. While there will always be things that I want to pick up, I limited myself to a couple of key purchases, got these done quickly and was able to look around a bit more leisurely. I also think that we were better organised this year, and that helped a lot, so thanks to both Doug and Paul. While numbers did seem a little down on previous years (partly due to the lack of the DLR train, no doubt) the DRM desk seemed much busier than previous years, since we had about twice the available table space we had plenty of room for eye-catching displays.

Well, things have been very quiet around here recently. This is partly due to simply going through a busy time both at work and at home, but mostly is a result of a general dis-illusionment with the hobby in general. It is very difficult to find motivation to actually get anything done and I am starting to question the time and financial effort involved for something which currently has very little reward for me. I dont think that I felt this low even during the 'winter' between third edition Epic 40K and the latest version!

Anyway, while I have scaled back my wargaming stuff, one thing that I have been doing a lot lately is downloading and listening to gaming-themed podcasts. There are a handful of these available out there, and while several of these are really not to my taste for several reasons - for example because they focus on specific games such as 40K or simply because they are not to my taste, I dont want to spend an hour listening to a group argue amoungst themselves about stuff - there are some which I have found which I do like. So, I thought that I would present them here to see what others thought...


All About Miniatures
http://allaboutminiatures.libsyn.com/

This show is currently 'in hibernation', the last episode being released around six months ago or more. This was a very interesting show, particularly the earlier episodes, and the reviews in particular were excellent, outlining mechanics and other features of the games. Later episodes started to be less interesting to me, particularly as a result of the very long feedback/mailbag section, and the sections outlining their own rules alterations to the games, which I am not so interested in. Nevertheless, this remains a well produced and informative podcast, and if it picks up again then I will be downloading it.


Meeples and Miniatures
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/neil.shuck/

This is the only UK based podcast that I am aware of for wargames (come on the UK!). It is hosted by Neil, and again earlier episodes are pretty good. Also again, the highlight of the podcast is the review sections, and these are done is significant detail, sometimes in too much detail as the host does tend to run through the various results of the tables, which I dont feel are totally necessary! This podcast sounds a little less professional than others, mostly due to the cheesy music and off-beat sense of humour, but this actually adds to the show. This one also has very interesting interviews and the show is roughly split in half between miniature wargames and board games. As a wargamer, I find the board game section very interesting, as it is something that I know little about. However, this show suffers from two things. Firstly, the host is a big fan of 40mm figures - a size that I have very little interest in. Secondly, pretty much 80% of every show is made up of an 'unholy trinity' consisting of the latest Two Hour Wargames release, Battlelore and/or Battleground. This is fine to start with, and understandable as this is what Neil enjoys, but there are only so many times that I can hear another 2HW rules review. So, this is not a podcast that I will be returning to regularly. I will give it a couple of months and have a look to download a couple of episodes that may interest me.


2D6 Feet in a Random Direction
http://www.2d6feet.com/

I have just started listening to this one, so I am not sure that I am in the best position to offer comments on it.That said, it is a profession sounding show, and the presenters appear mature and have interesting discussions, one of the two guys runs a hobby store in the US and it is interesting to get this perspective on the hobby. The show focusses on roleplay games, but has a fairly broad selection of material. This is currently my favourite podcast out there.


The D6 Generation
http://www.thed6generation.com/

This is a new podcast. I know nothing about this one, but will give it a listen to shortly.


So, those are my opinions. If you know of any others, or have further conmments on what we have here, please feel free to start up a thread on the Tactical Command forums.

Given that my paint station is looking crowded (although mostly with models being assembled right now), I have decided to put the Epic Genestealer Cult to the back of the queue. The Epic Orks wil replace them. When I have my 2700 Ork force fully painted (and I wont be changing it until the first list is totally completed), then I will return to the Epic Cult and Epic Ork updates will be done as part of my 'free project' (Project Alpha).

Shortly after my previous post here, a few guys from the boards discovered my local GW (just North of London), and we briefly met up. It seems that there are a few Epic players locally. This made me go back to my idea of constructing Orks, and reconsider the idea of getting my Tau into battle with fresh enemy. However, I have decided to keep with the Orks, primarily for two reasons:

1. I dont want to rush painting my Tau. Although the manager would probably let me play with unpainted miniatures, he would expect me to work on them and show progress. I would rather not rush them and paint them under pressure.

2. I would actually like to play AGAINST the Tau, if possible. I get few opportunities to do this, and I think that I would learn a lot about the force from facing them across the table.

Given these reasons I came back to Orks, since they are easy to paint quickly and not a main force of mine (so I dont mind if they are 'gaming standard'). Also, to face the Tau (and others) I want a balanced force that I use an official list. I discovered that most of the forces that I use have 'altered' force lists - for example, my Eldar have a variant Craftworld list, my Tyranids are a Phase III list (when I get around to them!), etc. What I needed was a core list that I would use unaltered and which had a reputation for being balanced. This led to IG or Orks, and the Guard are too similar to my Genestealer Cult.

Since then, I have put together a 2700 point tournament list, using the core book force list. However, when I did this, I wanted to ensure that I bought the minimum number of new toys, and wanted to use what I already had as much as possible. In addition, I want to get this assembled as quickly as possible, and so Forge World orders are out.

These kinds of restrictions are nice, and remind me of when I start a new game. Forcing yourself to work with what you have is an education. I have now put together the list, and made a single order of less than thirty pounds - for three packs which are new to this edition and therefore are not in my Epic storage tanks.

Is my list optimal and the best Ork list out there? Certainly not. There are a number of things that I would like to add, and I am sure that I have made a few mistakes with composition. However, I am going to stick with the list for at least the first couple of games, to get an idea about how it plays. There are certainly some elements that I can see that the list seriously lacks, but I wont buy anything yet, or attempt to retrieve more reinforcements from my storage area, even if I keep losing. Also, I could post the list and get some expert feedback on what is wrong with it, but for this I think that I would rather find out for myself, so that I can form my own opinion and make the list work in my way.

So, now the list is drawn up, I have about a week to get most of it assembled before the order arrives.