Jatacenje Con No. 10 and other news

10th Jatacenje gaming conference was held last weekend. As every year, I celebrate this event with some action photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, my most successful print and play game Thermopylae Solo was translated to Spanish last week, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Diego Roman. Both English and Spanish version of the game can be downloaded from game's personal blog post.

ALONe playtest part 1: character creation

ALONe is a free solo RPG product by Larcenous Designs LLC, currently in its BETA test phase. Files for the game can be found here. ALONe uses cards from the Game Master's Apprentice deck, but you do not need to buy the cards - the black and white version of them is included with BETA test files of ALONe. I have a basic deck in physical form, so I used these cards to play.

For me, ALONe has some similarities with FATE RPG - descriptors from ALONe have strong resemblance to FATE aspects, so when I started playing had to resist a temptation to turn it into FATE game. At the end, I added different bits to the pool, found my sweet spot mixing various influences into game that suited my playing stile, and it all resulted with a very satisfying solo experience.

I wanted to play steampunk detective, in the line of agents from Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences books.
So, I started turning cards.

 

Family: crown/sword/shield
Balthazar Lance was a son of politically active nobleman Virgil Lance. His family lived on a estate mansion, where young boy felt protected from the dangers of the outside world. As he was seen to be a hair to his father's political position, he was pressed from early age to learn arts, philosophy, history and law.
Descriptor: Specialized in social sciences.
As I did not want to spend Fragments during character creation, I made descriptors in such a way that they represent both one positive and one negative aspect. In this case, descriptor will grant +1 when Balthazar uses his social sciences knowledge, and -1 when solution depends on natural or technical sciences.

Childhood: skull/moon/sword
One day, Balthazar's father dissapeared without a trace. He went to the office as usual but he never returned. Further more, it was as his existence was erased - clerks in his office claimed that such a man newer worked there; banks had no accounts to the name Virgil Lance, etc. Family suddenly found itself with limited funds. They had to sell mansion and move into rented apartment in the city. They did not fell so low to consider themselves poor, but all family members had to work to fill the budget.
Balthazar put his knowledge to the good use and become a tutor to children of the middle class.
Random event: Follow Ghostly Kid
One of Balthazar's best students was a terminally ill kid named James Taylor. When James eventually passed away, Balthazar cried himself to sleep. But that very night, James come to his dreams just to ask a question about philosophy lecture from the day before. The lectures continued regularly, as James visited Balthazar's dreams at least once a week.
Descriptor: Connected to the other side.
(+1 to gain knowledge from other side, -1 to resist attacks coming form the world of death)

Youth: wand/hearth/sun
One evening, while he was returning home from the lecture, Balthazar's way was crossed by the strange man. Boy needed some time to recognize strange figure for who he really is - his long lost father, Virgil. Virgil Lance was now influential member of RSSPE - Royal Secret Service department created to battle Paranormal Enemies of the country. And he wanted his sun to join the organization. Balthazar was happy to accept, and so he spent next couple of years in special wing of military school, learning how to help the crown defeat enemies of the state.
Random event: Convince Profitable Monument
Thanks to history knowledge gained in early life, during one of the studying trips to Archives,  Balthazar was able to recognize (possession table check) Ancient Artifact: cultural relic - death mask of faro Tutankhamen. He presented this to his father, and he decided to give the mask to National museum, to be publicly displayed. RSSPE collected royalties from every visitor of the mask room, and that significantly improved financial status of the Service. As personal reward, Balthazar was allowed access to the state of the art equipment.
Descriptor: Better equipped than average agent.
(+1 to have what he needs in his possession, -1 relations with other agents due to their envy)

Coming of age: wand/hearth/sword
Random event: Replace Bewildering Tension
Catalyst: Villain Vs. Villain Fight. Vice: Lust Vs. Greed.
On one of his first assignments as agent, Balthazar followed thugs working for crime lord Ser Arthur Weaver, known smuggler of arcane objects. When thugs accidentally summoned succubus from one of the relics, Balthazar helped them banish her. This earned him a respect from Ser Weaver, who from that moment on tried to stay out of Balthazar's way, and was even ready to help young agent in the case of need.
But succubus Igraine Zooma did not forget the affair, and she is constantly plotting Balthazar's downfall.
Descriptor: Selected lesser evil.
(+1 when confronted by human criminals; -1 against demons)

To be continued.

Gauls Vs. Romans part 2

As Roman army advanced between two hills, Gallic army was ready to meet them in battle.

  

I fielded Gauls infantry (9 warbands) in a single line, with general in chariots and auxiliary horse as separate body at the back.

Romans were fielded as 2 units deep 3 units wide body at the center (Principes and one Hestati unit in the first line, 2x Triari including general and one Hestati in the second). Single cavalry unit on right wing, auxiliary infantry and skirmishers on the left.

 Roman cavalry at the right wing started probing Gallic line.

Gauls destroyed Roman left wing but were unable to turn in time to make the difference. Romans used this to break through center, killing Gallic chief and taking enemy army to break point.
Victory for Romans.

Roman strategy worked great. In the center, once the front units reached Gallic line, result of the first melee usually made both units disordered. Romans then used line relief to put fresh forces into fight and that was enough to destroy Gallic warbands, who were usually unable to use benefits of counter-charge due to the contact with other unit, and even when they could, they would run into front of the ordered phalanx where spears negated shock effect.

For the next game, I would have to think about good  strategy for Gauls in order for them to be able to break well organized Roman center.

I have to say that I really like ABC rules. Games are quick (last from 30 min to one hour), fun and straightforward.  These are the rules you can always find time for, no matter how busy your schedule is.

Gauls VS Romans part 1

During the 2016, I plan to start two new periods in my wargaming world. One will be WW1, and another is ancient history.

For this second period I have already selected some good sets of rules - free solo friendly rules Ancient Battlelines Clash by Shaun Travers are definitely among them.

On the other hand, I have too many miniatures for all periods and scales, so I definitely needed something quick, dirty and budget friendly. Therefore, I decided to go with the paper miniatures.

Photo above shows my new armies - Polybian Romans Vs. Gauls. Miniatures are scaled to 10mm and based on 10x20mm for infantry, 15x20mm for cavalry and 20x20mm for chariots in order to play on 30x30cm table.

 

All Romans are taken from Junior general web page. Picture above shows more than 110 points of Polybian Romans according to ABC points system, that should be enough to play even very large  Roman civil wars games.

 

I wanted to make Gauls from Asterix comic, but I was unable to find appropriate miniatures. With heavy heart, I had to go with regular army.
While Junior General have some nice Gallic warbands, there are no good miniatures for cavalry or chariots, so I had to turn to commercial sources - Lvmenes has a good 2 part set of Romans and Gauls.
So far I have made 35 point Gaul army. I will have to build more warbands in order to field larger force.

I will add some battle reports soon.

Black Ops - Get that data card!

Continued from previous post.

So, Orks came from the north. In the first turn they caught guards unaware. Close quarter combat (CQC) specialists sneaked behind one the unaware guards using the forest to the east, and killed him silently.
Ork leader approached the target building in order to get the data card.

Hell broke loose at the beginning of the second turn. Remaining guards spotted intruders and started shouting, which was enough for Space Marine leader (Ace) to wake up and rise an alarm.
Hearing the alarm, Space Marines reinforcement force arrived through the east road. They quickly cleared east part of the table from any Greenskins they could find.
But Orks were doing good at the west. They prepared an ambush for Space Marine commander, and as soon as he emerged from the building he was taken down by the rain of bullets.

Ork leader found the data he needed and ordered retreat.

Turn 3 found remaining Orks trying to move out to their table edge, and Space Marines trying to close for a kill. At the end, Ork leader, Heavy support and one grunt managed to escape, while remaining grunts got killed in firefight.
Orks took heavy casualties but they were still victorious, as Ork Ace managed to return home with the data.

At the end, I really liked the game. Through the first turn I was afraid that the game will be boring and that I will easily accomplish my mission,  but as the guards become aware of my troops everything become really interesting. At the end, I was victorious, but it was close game, and there was possibility for tide to turn at the end.
What is the most important thing, enemy AI worked great, enemies responded reasonably to my actions, making Black Ops perfect solo experience.

What I missed is some kind of QRC with all tables at one location, but this is something to be more blamed on Osprey required book format, than on the author.
Still, searching for the right table through the book makes play slower, and making private QRS sheet for the next game is something I will have to do.
UPDATE - I was informed that there is existing QRS on Osprey site - here is the link.

Finally, since this is my last post this year, let me wish all of you all the best in 2016.
See you next year.

Black Ops - part 1

Just a short update this time.

I am ready to play my first game of Black Ops from Osprey.

I  will be sending my Orks (fanatics profiles from the book) on espionage mission to steel some data from Human base. All of this will happen on the Compound table, with data being stored in the central building (gun store).

Human forces are mix of conscript profiles (representing Imperial guard) and special operation profiles (Space marines Ace and Heavy). Humans will be run on programmed opponent rules from the book.
Programmed opponent in Black Ops bases itself on two tables - one for unaware opponents going on their everyday business and one for enemies in action, which should give realistic behavior for the enemy forces. Sounds good, and how it plays I will check during the weekend.

Important thing to know is that Black Ops is a card activation game, that uses standard deck of playing cards to determine initiative.
Well, just to keep in the spirit of the game I want to play, I made my own custom deck - somehow it seems nicer to me.

I plan to play this game during the weekend, so stay tuned to see how it went.

Age of Sigmar

Another business trip, this time to Warsaw, Poland.
Again, I booked the hotel to be just across the street from a gaming location - this time it was Games Workshop shop. Since there are no GW shops in south-east Europe, and my gaming group is leaning towards 9th edge, I wanted to use the opportunity and finally try first hand to play Age of Sigmar against someone with experience in the field.

So, I dropped by the shop and arranged an introductory game. 
I brought with me some Skaven models, 5 war scrolls, 23 figures total.
My opponent (by chance named Aleksander - the same as me) took 4 war scrolls of Khorne, 27 figures total.

My opponent played in the spirit on Khorne - all forces forward.
Rats turned to be harder nuts than I expected. They managed to withstand first attack, after which moment my Plague priest (leading from behind as any good rat should) followed by rattling gun encircled enemy and brought devastation to Blood God forces.

Rats were victorious. The game lasted about one hour.

My opinion? You can kill me but I liked the game. Actually, I think that any game after which you can spend additional 15 minutes with opponent discussing about what strategy each side could take is a good game. And that is exactly what we did.

Age of Sigmar is not a brain cracking serious game, but I spent really fun hour of playing, and I will gladly do it again - so next time I come close to any GW shop I will definitely try to organize a play. 20 models is something I can always bring with me on a trip.

So once again thanks to the GW Warsaw team for the great time.