Monday 24 December 2012

Malifaux Online

So if you are into Malifaux I'm sure that you will have noticed that the other day they released a module for Vassal to enable you to play the game over t'internet with a willing sucker partner. 

What is Vassal you ask?  Well in their own words
 Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. Play live on the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software.
Turns out that its been pretty popular in the Warmahordes world for a while and there have been threads asking for a Malifuax module for a good while now - which has finally been released.  So in the name of adventure I sat down last night with Conrad to try it out.

First stage was to try and get a game up and running that we could both see.  This took us a while :) We did eventually work it out - create an offline game, add yourself as a player and then put the game online so the other player can join in - but it did take us half an hour.  Still now we know how to do it we won't have to go through that pain again.

Secondly we had to create our crews.  Due to the excellent videos that Owen Conlan has produced this was not as painful as it could have been.  I highly recomend that you check these out before starting your first game.  You can find them on his blog. We were then able to get into the game proper. 

We played a 15ss Shared Escape and Survive with Conrad taking his favourite Nicodem and I decided to take Rasputina.  We just used 1 scheme, I took Sabotage and Conrad had Stake a Claim.

We managed to play 3 turns before I had to call it a day and I have to say that it was quite a lot of fun - made even better as I won 3-2 :)

So what did I think of it all.  Well first thing to say is that it isn't going to replace the tabletop game as it doesn't come anywhere close to being as fluid to play.  Movement is pretty clunky as you have to turn, then edge forward in increments and then turn and 'inch' forward again.  It would be a lot better if you could select the model you want to move, and then just drag it about, with an auto tape measure telling you how far you have moved.  I'm sure that if I play on it a lot, I will get a lot quicker / better at moving but for the moment it seems to be the biggest bugbear.

I found it really hard to judge distances but that could well have just been me not paying attention as Conrad didn't seem to have a problem with it.

On the other hand the card mechanics are awesomely implemented with some really nice fate deck artwork (can I get a real fate deck like that please) and the way you cheat seems intuative and works well.  Conrad used a Soulstone twice and that worked well - even if he didn't get reanimator off.

The art for the actual models is all puppet art and is up to the usual high puppet art standards - I'd love an option to be able to import my own art / photos in for the crew though.

The module comes with several maps ready built and I imagine for the next couple of months most games will be played on these default maps, though I have noticed a couple turning up of the Wyrd forums.  Again would be nice if you could import your own artwork.  The maps are also strictly 2D so its quite easy to just move your models over the terrain as if it wasn't there.  Make sure you have a good chat with your opponent about what each area counts as.

And speaking of talking to you opponent (you see what I did there) Skype seems to be pretty much a must for at least you and your opponent - I can't imagine playing a game as complex as Malifaux if I had to use a chat window to communicate everything that is going on.

So overall it was a pretty positive experience and one I'll hopefully be doing again.  7 out of 10 from me.

Oh and Conrad and I recorded all our game chat, which I will be editing down and putting into a future episode of Malifools

So have a Happy Christmas and I'll see you again soon.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Family Gaming

The day I met the future Mrs M, I was out drinking with the staff from my local GW store so hiding my gaming hobby was never something that was possible, she knew what she was getting into from day one.   However she made it very clear that whilst she had no problem with me playing with little toys or hanging out with the geeky guys who frequent wargames clubs, she wasn't going to play and she has kept to that, despite a few half hearted efforts on my part to get her involved.

Recently though that has all changed as my children (especially my eldest daughter) have started to become interested in what daddy gets up to - indeed Rebecca has started to play Malifaux and paint her own figures - and we have evolved into having regular family gaming times, not playing miniature games, but playing the new generation of fantasy releated boardgames that are currently in vogue.

It all started with Pirate Fluxx which I had played at the Malifaux doubles GT.  I had thought, this game would go down well with the kids and it did.  The rules are simple enough that everyone can play, but involved enough that its not snap, there is definate strategy involved if you want to play it to that level.  We ended up purchasing several more Fluxx decks (Oz Fluxx is our current favourite) but were also really to move onto something else.

That something else ended up being Zombicide.  I had seen the kickstarter for this but unfortunately it had finished after I became aware of it, so I ended up just purchasing a normal copy (though you can get the stats for the extra promo characters via the website and the iPad app).  What I didn't think when I bought it was that all of us would be interested in playing, but Mrs M was able to translate her love of the Walking Dead show into an enjoyment of Zombicide and now we often sit around the table slaughtering the living dead left and right.  The kids are always pestering me for another game of it as well, so it must be doing something right.

Next we will be trying Super Dungeon Explore - not sure how that is going to go down though :)

Tuesday 11 December 2012

The Cult of Fanbois

Being a grumpy old curmudgeon, there are many things about the gaming hobby that get on my goat.  Models being called pieces, gamers who don’t believe that a game should be fun for all participants and a lack of personal hygiene at events are just a few.  However nothing annoys me more than the cult of the fanboi.

This all was brought into focus by a conversation that I had with someone the other day about Wyrd and Malifaux.  We were talking about the RPG kickstarter and how underwhelmed we were by it and he said that he was coming to a point where he was able to divorce his love for Malifaux from his love of Wyrd.  Now this resonated with me as it seems that a lot of people can't make that separation.

You only need to go onto the Wyrd forums and you will be able to see this in action.  The smallest criticism of the company and the way it goes about business is quickly met with a chorus of people taking you to task for having the audacity to say something that isn't fawning praise.  You even get the owners of the company doing it, in posts, which to me, come across as a small child saying if you don’t let me win then I’m taking my ball away. 

Before you think that I am having a go at the Wyrd / Malifaux community, this is in no way a phenomenon restricted to them.  GW is renowned for having the most rabid fanbois out there, folks who lap up everything they do and attempt to shout down any and all opposing opinions – of course GW also have the anti fanboi who will just say anything they produce is crap, but that’s another blog post :).  I’m sure Privateer Press suffers from the same thing.

So this is what I don’t get, how these people aren’t able to divorce the love of the game from the company that produces it.  Companies exist to provide their owners and employees with salaries and hopefully at the end of the day a nice big pay-out that enables them to retire.  If they are able to keep the customer base happy that’s great – happy customers means more product sold after all - but they aren’t there to look out for you.  They are not your mate, you wife or your lover, they are a business, just like a bank is!

So the next time that someone criticises your favourite games company think before you respond, do you actually disagree with what that person is saying, or are you just blindly jumping to the defence of an entity that really only likes you so it can sell you more stuff.




Monday 3 December 2012

I'm Batman

So I appear to have been distracted by some new shinies this week as I've purchased some of the miniatures for the Batman Arkham City miniature game.  These are made by a Spanish company called Knight Miniatures who make an existing series of large scale 70mm busts / figures from a lot of popular movies, including several Marvel superheroes and who used to make the 32mm rage of Star Wars miniatures.  However these are, as far as I know, there first range of 32mm DC figures.

Unlike a lot of miniatures companies Knight actually seem to go get the licenses for what they are producing rather than doing 'inspired by' or 'not so and so' figures and frankly the figures looked so good I have to go get some.

Now there isn't a game / rules released yet, but each model does come with a stat card in the blister, so those are obviously on the way and the rumours suggest that it will be a gang based skirmish game set in the Arkham City world that was portrayed in the recent video game.

As is the normal way of these things I end up stretching my credit card slightly further than I intended and got the Joker Gang together with Harly and Batman from those excellent folks over at Firestorm.

Models, as you would expect at this not so cheap price point, are very well cast with a lot of fine detail and look like they are going to be a joy to paint, which to be honest, is really what I bought them for.  I've been looking for figures that are going to force me to take my painting to that next level and these seemed to fit the bill.  Having such well know imagery and also great studio paintjobs means that I will really have to stretch myself to do them justice.  If I manage that then I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Friday 30 November 2012

Stretch Goals

So with the ending of the Miss Terious period, the stretch goals have been posted for the Malifaux RPG kickstarter and they are starting to make the mid level pledges ($125 - really $158 in the UK) more attractive.  The so far announced goals (as of 1st December) are

$50,000: Special Edition Fate Deck Cards will be Plastic - ACHIEVED
$100,000: One (or one additional) Special Edition Fate Deck - ACHIEVED

$150,000: One (or one additional) Male or Female Multi-Pose Mini (random gender)

$200,000: A Pad of Character Sheets

$250,000: A Digital Version of the Books (at $60 pledged or more)

$250,000: One Special Edition Hanging Tree Mini. This miniature is of the most prominent landmark in all of Malifaux, originally made available at Gen Con 2012.

$300,000: ???

Given that Kicktraq is predicting that it will finish up around the $1.5M level all of those goals should be achieved which should mean that all of those are added into your package, though it does make me wonder how many Hanging Trees they had left over after Gencon :)




Thursday 29 November 2012

Through the Breach

So the Malifaux RPG kickstarter is up 24 hours after initially planned (a word of advice to Wyrd, just give nebulous 'soon' type dates, only give exact ones if you are certain to hit it) and I have to say that I am completely underwhelmed by it, though there are obviously plenty of people who like it, as its gone through the requested amount in less than 12 hours.

However for a Malifaux player such as myself, who doesn't play RPGs anymore, there isn't really anything to excite me into pledging at the current time.   Sure I would like to get my hands on both the limited edition Fate Deck and the 3 miniatures that are available but to do that I would have to pledge at the $225 level and if I compare what I get for that with what I got for that pledging to something like the Relic Knights kickstarter then I really feel as if I am being ripped off.  When you then factor in the huge shipping costs to Europe and the fact that you aren't going to get any of this stuff until September 2013 - i.e. after the next Gencon (and do you honestly believe that they wont have copies of this on sale at Gencon 2013)  it becomes even less apealing to me.

So lets look at the current pledge levels.

For $60 you get both the Players and the GM (sorry FM) guide.  Now that seems like a reasonable price.  However at the $125 pledge level you either get an additional 3 miniatures (yes 3 miniatures for an extra $65 + extra $11 postage) or an additional special Hardback version of the rules and a fate deck.  Now I love Fate Decks - its what got me to pledge to EBO - but $65!!  Oh and what is it about grown men and an obsession for Plushies at the $225 level.  My youngest daughter could knock up something that matches the Stitched Together doll - perhaps I should have her make some in Malifools tshirts.

A cleverer man than me pointed out on twitter that it looks like the the pledge levels are priced in such a way that when stretch goals kick in that they will be come more attractive, and I certainly hope that is true as I love me some new shiney, but at the moment it just isn't shiney enough.

Still on the plus side we did get to see some really nice artwork


Wednesday 28 November 2012

Touchdown

So it was our normal Tuesday night club night last night and the next two games in the ongoing bloodbowl league that I am playing in.  Now whilst I am a big fan of Bloodbowl, its not a game that I play very often - before playing Jon a few months back the last time I had played was back in the mid 90s!!! - and I tend to play what are considered the 'less powerful' teams in the form of Undead or Necromantic (I have an Ogre team as well but thats just silly).  To cap it off this league is a 'no reroll' league meaning that game turns can go very quickly when you roll double skulls.

First game was against Matt (@uberspoons) and his Dwarfs which I managed to win 4-0, with my Werewolf Heveraux scoring 3 touchdowns.  All I can really say about this game is that Matt must have offended the dice gods somehow as I have never seen so many 11s for armour rolls.

Second I was up against Scott (@barnabible) and Vampires.  I've never played against Vampires before and Scott was telling me that in his previous game that he had failed nearly every bloodlust roll he had to make.  I should have seen this as an omen, as he failed none in the first half of the game at all and managed to put Heveraux into the injured box (though he wasn't badly hurt).  In the second half they obviously got a bit more hungry as they started to feed on the thralls, but Scott still ended up with a well deserved 3-1 victory.

On my part the highlight was when I tried a 2dice opponent chooses block on a Vampire with a ghoul, rolled double skulls, failed the armour roll and then manged to kill him.  Still I had all this money in the bank and they don't really die do they :)

Monday 26 November 2012

Ye olde introduction

So here we all are, standing on the edge of the precipice as I attempt to write - and keep up to date with - yet another gaming blog.

So why bother?  Well I have the world renowned :) Malifools podcast to talk about  my gaming adventures to you all, but theoretically that's about Malifaux and I don't really like cluttering it up with talk of Saga, Infinity or even Zombicide.  This blog gives me the ability to talk about those things and also post those little bits and pieces that I find interesting - new terrain companies, odd bits of miniature news etc.

So lets see how we get on shall we - knowing me it will all grind to a halt after only a couple of weeks anyway