Why Sci Fi

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I was getting into sci fi gaming. For most of my gaming career, sci fi received virtually no attention. Most of the time (especially in the ‘90s) I preferred historical. I did not dislike sci fi. I adored Star Wars when it came out (although I was far less excited about the later movies) and I religiously watched Star Trek. Playing the Star Wars: The OldRepublic MMO RPG spurred an interest in sci fi gaming. I realized that the genre had a few advantages

1.      Open Ended – when devising a historical (or even imagi-nations) or fantasy RPG campaign, I am strongly tempted to map out as much of the setting as possible. This approach can quickly derail the campaign as I pour my energies into preparing rather than gaming. I learned from the Star Wars MMO that a sci fi campaign does not need detailed maps. It is very easy to just plop a planet where needed without having it mapped out first. After all, the galaxy is a big place so the mapmakers may have easily overlooked that planet that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere.

2.      Substitutable – This dawned on me as I was developing my spaceship battle rules, which are modeled after WWII naval battles. With some imagination, practically any historical (or fantasy) conflict could be reproduced using sci fi minis. Want to do Jutland in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of WWI? Pull out your spaceships. Gallipoli could become a landing on a hostile planet. Using this approach, you don’t have to paint up new forces each time you get the itch to do a new period. Just convert it to a sci fi scenario.

3.      Accuracy Not Needed – You never have to worry about someone criticizing the historical accuracy of your miniatures (unless you use a pre-existing setting, i.e. Star Trek. I just find it so much easier to create my own universe). You can also take a science fantasy approach, which allows you to ignore some science as well. In my universe, spaceships can easily jump across half a galaxy in little time; I just don’t worry how.

4.      Scratch Building – because you don’t have to worry about historical accuracy, you can get by with simple scratch built forces (like I did with my navies and armies). This saves money.

Overall, I am finding that sci fi is easier than any other genre.

More on the 12 Games of Christmas

The 12 Games of Christmas has been going strong (much to the delight of my cat Thomasina, who loves games). Here are some of the games we've been playing:

Oz Fluxx and Cthulhu Fluxx

We played a couple of hands of Oz Fluxx with my brothers. They each won one. My wife gave her brother a copy of the Cthulhu version. I did not play with them (Dragon Age called) bu they tried it out.

Downton Abbey

A board game about the show. Players are servants at Downton Abbey. They are assigned tasks and must race around the house to complete them, upon which they earn "bells." The player who earns the most bells wins the game.

My wife called it a "baby game" (a term she learned from Felicia Day, one of the producers of Tabletop). By this, she means that there is not a lot of thought required. You have 3 tasks assigned to you so you can optimize your route, but that's about it. You are pretty much at the mercy of the dice and cards. Nevertheless, it was a fun diversion.

Twelve Days

A Christmas-themed trick-taking card game. Cards are the gifts from the song Twelve Days of Christmas so the deck has one partridge in a pear tree card, 2 turtle dove cards, etc. You play 12 tricks representing the 12 days. The point values increase per day (the first day is worth 1 point and the twelfth night is 12 points). First, each player must give a card to the player on their left, then players bid for the trick. The player who bids the lowest gets the trick. High cards have value, too. At the end of the game you earn bonus points for having the most of a numbered card. For example, if you had the most drummers drumming (12-point cards) you would get 12 bonus points.

This was a neat little card game. There is an interesting tension trying to decide what to give your neighboring player. Giving them low cards could help them win tricks but high cards could lead to bonus points. Also, it pays to conserve some of your low cards for the later tricks. It's an entertaining holiday game.

Courtier
By the same people and set in the same world as Love Letter, You are an influence peddler at the royal court of the kingdom. You gain points by fulfilling petitions, which you complete by influencing powerful members of court. It is essentially a resource management game with an intrigue at court theme.

This was a bit more difficult and longer than our usual games. Halfway through my wife commented that she liked it but it dragged a bit toward the end. It seems that this was partially due us only having 2 players. I think it would go quicker with 3-4. Another factor was that the end of game card was at the very bottom of the pile. A different shuffle could have ended the game earlier. Nevertheless, it was a more enjoyable challenge than Downton Abbey.

Dixit
My brothers visited Saturday night and we played Downton Abbey (which was a gift from one of my brothers). The hit of the night, though, was Dixit, which I described in an earlier post. After we finished one game, my brother wanted to play it again!

We finished the weekend with some more Cthulhu Fluxx last night. By my count, we actually played 14 games!

Year End Reflections

Back in January, I made some “predictions” about where my gaming was headed. Let’s see how things actually went:

Elder Scrolls – I mentioned the release of Elder Scrolls Online and how I expected it cut into my tabletop time. My wife didn’t like it and I have tired of MMOs so we really didn’t get into it. Instead, I got my wife (and my cat) into board games big time. Pretty much every weekend we hold a Family Game Night.

Francesia – as predicted, I have abandoned 15mm. It looks like I’ve adopted 2mm and 6mm. The Grayrock Revolution is still going on (unfortunately, I only played one scenario since March).

Illustrate my RPG sessions – as I mentioned earlier in December, I have only made slight progress.

Other Thoughts
Also, I have blogged more than last year (123 posts and counting vs. 82, a 50% increase). I’ve been enjoying the blog and have been using it as a gaming diary wherein I post random gaming thoughts as well as actual game reports.

Last year I mentioned one of the positive aspects of GADD (gamer’s attention deficit disorder) was experimentation with new genres. When I started this blog in early 2013 I really did not expect sci-fi to become so prominent in my gaming but it has really taken a hold (I’ll examine why in my next post).

RETROSPECTIVE - War Game Campaigns

I mentioned before that my father had a copy of Donald Featherstone’s War Game Campaigns. 

This book would have an enormous impact on me, even though I never used the rules presented within its pages. Oh, I tried, but I failed miserably. The problem was that I had the rules for campaigns but not the rules for actually fighting the battles! Therefore, I was totally confused how to go about it. When I was about 13, I used a big piece of poster board to create a map of the coast of Saxon England for Viking raids, akin to what Featherstone did in his book. I used Legos as markers but I just did not know how to run combats! So my first attempt at miniature wargaming died aborning. Instead, I remained a board gamer, until a newfangled game called Dungeons and Dragons lured me in.

Nevertheless, I found War Game Campaigns to be inspirational. Again and again, I eagerly read his battle reports and found myself wanting grand campaigns with miniature soldiers fighting it out over simulated terrain. I would eventually take up miniature gaming, but that is a story for another day.

P.S. Eventually, my Dad gave me his copy of War Game Campaigns, which I still have, and still read, from time to time.

This Week's Handiwork

I did not expect to play any miniature wargames during my vacation time. Between Dragon Age, the 12 Games of Christmas, holiday preparations, and so on, I've been swamped.

One of my non-gaming projects was to do some repair work on my LARP gear. The handles on both my shields broke and needed repair. I also wanted to make a new cover for my friend's mace. I sewed an orange cover so that it looked somewhat like a torch.

Here is a picture of my finished handiwork:

A madu, a "flame" mace, and a shield

With all that, I managed to squeeze in a game, which I describe below.

The Siege of Grayrock City - A One-Hour Wargames Scenario

A while ago I posted about the upcoming Neil Thomas book, One-Hour Wargames. I picked it up on my nook a few weeks ago, and have been thinking about trying out the rules. Well, Kaptain Kobold over at the Stronghold Rebuilt beat me to the punch. His post inspired me to give them a whirl. I decided to run a horse and musket scenario, so naturally I set it in Francesia. It offered a perfect opportunity to (perhaps) finish the Grayrock Revolution.

I randomly rolled 2 armies from the table Thomas provides. This random army generator is one of the neat features of his book that I will probably use frequently. Anyway, one army had 3 infantry units, 2 artillery units, and 1 cavalry unit. I decided it would be the Bluderians who are besieging Grayrock City. The other army (the Grayrock rebels) had 3 infantry, 1 artillery, and 2 skirmishers. I then randomly rolled a scenario and got #22 - ambush. Ironically, this scenario calls for an ambush of an army attacking a town. Perfect! I had to reduce the ambushing army so the rebels lost an infantry unit and skirmisher.

The Battle
In the last significant action of the Grayrock Revolution, a popular uprising seized the capital city from their Bluderian overlords, keeping the governor trapped in Grayrock Castle, Black Bart managed to escape the city and warn the Bluderian field army, which hurried back and put the city under siege. Esquire Giovanni decides to spring a trap on the besiegers.

The citizens of Grayrock City manned the city's guns and began firing on the Bluederians. Meanwhile, Giovanni moved his ambushing force through the woods near the city.

Note - I used Thomas's rules as written (except using centimeters instead of inches for measurements). This entailed free movement so I did not use my grid. Each infantry unit is comprised of 2 stands. Artillery and cavalry don't have stands so I placed them on the field spaced out with approximately the specified frontage.

Starting positions.

 Giovanni's skirmishers (white coats) remained in the woods while the infantry moved out and began firing on the Bluderian infantry on the left flank. The shocked Bluderians reacted slowly, but soon were sending help to the flank. By then, however, the leftmost infantry succumbed to the combined rebel fire.

The Bluderian's left flank crumbles

 But the Bluderians recovered, and reinforcements entered the fray. Cavalry moved to the flank, preparing to charge.

 Note - I had a slight issue because my board is narrower than Thomas's recommendation (even after converting to centimeters, my board is about 6cm too small). To compensate, I allowed the Bluderian cavalry to swing off the board slightly.

The Bluderians reposition

 Sustained fire from the city and from the rebel infantry wiped out one of the Bluderian artillery units, but the cavalry charged the redcoat infantry (on loan to the rebels from Redgrave).

Bluderia's central artillery is destroyed but the cavalry charges.

 After repeated charges, the Bluderian cavalry routed the redcoats while the Grayrock infantry advanced to aid the town's guns.

Cavalry rides over the redcoats

 The combination of firepower from the town and infantry blasted another Bluderian regiment to pieces. Yet the cavalry prepared for another charge.

Another Bluderian infantry unit is shot to pieces.

 Accurate fire from the Bluderian right managed to disperse the townsfolk plying the city's guns. The Grayrock infantry found itself threatened by the victorious Bluderians and then was struck by a cavalry charge. The Grayrockians did not stand a chance.

The Grayrock infantry succumbs to a cavalry charge.

 All that remains is Giovanni's skirmishers in the woods. The Bluderians pull out of musketry range and then began to pound away with artillery. Giovanni decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retreated through the woods. 

Final position.
Unlikely to survive, the white coated skirmishers will withdraw.

Impressions
How do I feel about One-Hour Wargames?

• They gave a quick (I forgot to keep track but it was less than an hour. I only made it through about 10 of the allotted 15 turns when I threw in the towel) and exciting game.
• Movement was very interesting. Because units cannot pass through each other, it was a challenge to maneuver units without blocking or interfering with other units.
• Nevertheless, I really like using grids (it simplifies things so much) so I was not too keen on having to measure movement or firing ranges.
• I like the simplicity of the combat rules. With minimal modifiers, they gave an interesting feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the various troop types.
• I also like that I did not have to remember a bunch of different ranges. All foot troops fired 12 cm while artillery fired 48 cm.
• Each unit can take 15 hits, which requires keeping track. I did so on a piece of paper. Because there were only 10 units on the board, it was not onerous. Nevertheless, I prefer systems without record-keeping (markers are OK as long as they are minimal).
• There is no command and control rules. I rather like some kind of C&C because it throws in some more variability that makes things more interesting for solo games.
• It includes 30 scenarios, along with a random army generator. I expect to make extensive use of these.

Overall, I don't think that I will be adopting these rules (I am too attached to grids and to markers rather than written records). Still, I am very glad that I picked up this book - the scenarios and army generator will be invaluable to me. I am intrigued by the 4 troop types per era and the simple combat rules; I am pondering how I can adapt them for my use.

Merry Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11 (KJV)