July Scrum Rd 3 - Madrak2 Vs. Zaadesh2

Round 3 of the July Scrum and I'm paired against Rich who is playing Skorne.  I was happy to play vs. Rich who has won a previous Scrum and I've not played much against Skorne since they've gotten all their buffs in MK3. I figured I'd learn a lot in this match, especially since I've never played against the buffed Derp Turtle (aka. Siege Animantarax) which the internet tells me is particularly strong and Rich had one in both of his lists.

This was a bit bitter-sweet for me, as I knew this was going to be my last round in the July Scrum. We already had a drop, forcing a bye each week and my work accelerated the schedule for the job I'm working on, which was causing me to have to stay later each evening at random nights every week.  This put a strain on my family life - it's one thing to get a game a week in, but to be home late and then still have to go get my game in because it's scheduled well in advance is a bit rough on my wife.  Such is life.

Lists and Analysis

Rich had the following pair:

Morghoul3
-Escorts
-Archidon
-Cyclops Raider
-Cyclops Shaman
-Aptimus Marketh (free)

Extoller Soulward
Feralgeist
Willbreaker (free)
Venator Dakar
Venator Dakar

Beast Handlers (min)
Venator Catapult (free)
Venator Reivers + CA
Venator Reivers + CA

Siege Animantarax
 
Zaadesh2
-Agonizer (free)
-Agonizer (free)
-Archidon
-Krea (free)
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Sentry
-Sentry

Willbreaker
Beast Handlers (max)
Swamp Gobbers

Siege Animantarax

Looking at the matchup I wasn't fond of Grim2's chances into either list.  Morghoul3 could be a disaster with his Blind spell to just lock down a unit entirely and the Venator Reivers out range my units from a base level and their mini-feat is extends their range to go beyond what my units + Grim2's feat can accomplish.  Grim doesn't really like Zaadesh2 who brings a cloud wall that prevents most of my pieces from being able to shoot and has two ARM 21 shield guards in the list that can't be knocked down.

Madrak2 wasn't looking too hot into either list as far as I could tell, but was better off into either compared to Grim2.  I wasn't completely sure what Rich was going to drop since I was only vaguely aware of what Skorne's plan would be, but the match ended up with Madrak2 vs. Zaadesh2 playing Mirage.



Deployment & Rich's Turn 1

Rich won the roll to go first and I picked table sides.

Rich puts out his upkeeps and takes sufficiently threatening positions with the Archidon and the Turtle. He ends up with 2 rage tokens on the Turtle due to missing one attack.

My Turn 1

I use the Runebearer for Harmonious Exaltation to get  Blood Fury on the left Long Riders and dump the rest of Madrak's fury onto stone.

Since I hadn't played against the Turtle before I didn't really think of it as a melee threat, I had only considered it as a problem with its gun. As such I went on the hill to get a defense bonus, but didn't stagger the riders to mitigate melee problems. Boy was that a mistake. 

On the right I staggered my Long Riders to bait in the Sentry, the stone advanced and I really needed the fury generation to give me 2-3 fury, but I only rolled a 1 meaning some of the left Long Riders were going to be out of the aura.

Rich's Turn 2

Well there goes the neighborhood. So as it turns out the Turtle can murder you much better in melee than with its guns, but sometimes it can just do both. I was left with one Long Rider knocked down and on 2 boxes out of my left unit thanks to a Crit Pitch from the Archidon.

Rich puts up his feat and some clouds between Zaadesh and the Swamp Gobbers to try and block me off. Not knowing/respecting the Turtle's output in melee basically put me way behind on attrition.

My Turn 2

Well as you can see, very little died.  I stood up the knocked down Long Rider and tried to Bull Rush into the Archidon, but of course the retaliatory strike crit pitched  the Long Rider into the objective and killed it.  I tried to use Eilish to strip Inviolable Resolve off the Turtle, but that failed due to range and having to walk around Kriel Warriors that wanted to charge in with Blood Fury.  Due to the Agonizer behind the Turtle, I couldn't even get a Raged Bomber to kill the Archidon.

I used my right Long Riders to charge in and kill the Swamp Gobbers, then reposition just outside of melee of his beasts. I moved one Rider to jam up (and stop counter charges from) the Bronzeback and Sentry in the center, I position the Mauler to be able to kill whatever comes in to contest my flag or just go after their heavies if they go into the Long Riders.  I scored my flag to go up 1-0.

Rich's Turn 3

Rich continues to just pound me in the face repeatedly.  I lose most of my Kriel Warriors and the Bomber between the Turtle, Archidon (seen as a proxy base), and the Bronzeback.

The right Sentry kills two Long Riders and is able to get just within 4" of the flag to contest me, and the center Sentry kills the jamming one.  Zaadesh moves into the circle zone to score it, and the Mist Speaker moves to score his friendly flag.  Not pictured here is a cloud right in front of my Mauler to block LOS to the Sentry.   Rich is up 2-1 on scenario.

My Turn 3

Well I was getting absolutely slaughtered and the game is basically over.  In order to get everything going last turn Zaadesh had to heal the Archidon for 2 fury and since he made a cloud, he was on a 0 camp.  I was looking for whatever jank I could pull to get an assassination, and somehow I see one:

Madrak puts Blood Fury on the remaining Long Riders and then casts Warpath.  The Longriders get pathfinder from the Fell Caller and need to declare a Bull Rush onto the Gladiator. The goal is to slam the Gladiator over Zaadesh, then Follow up and make a weapon master attack on him. Ideally I can kill a model elsewhere to proc Warpath to allow the Mauler to move up to the Sentry who will then double handed throw the Sentry over at Zaadesh to finish him off.

I start executing: The Fell Caller runs to engage the Sentry to shut down counter charge and calls Pathfinder for the Riders. Eilish puts puppet master on the Riders.  Madrak casts his spells and the Stone runs into position and pops for Strength.

I made a mistake however when it came to the Long Riders, One rider had the Bull Rush into the Gladiator, the other just ran up.  The problem came when an Agonizer counter charges my Bull Rushing Longrider to prevent his ability to move directly towards the slammed Gladiator.  If I had been careful here I could have done the bull rush move first, and when the Agonizer charged in, the second Long Rider could have declared it as the charge target, allowing me to kill the Agnoizer allowing the follow up move.

As such I was able to slam the Gladiator over Zaadesh doing 6 damage, leaving him on 10, but I couldn't follow up for the melee attack to get more damage in. I did kill the Agonizer with my follow up attack which allowed the Mauler to warpath up to the Sentry.  I cast rage on myself, boost to hit my double handed throw, win the STR check, and then use my last fury to boost to hit the knocked down Zaadesh - only to roll triple 1's.  The scatter goes away from Zaadesh, but my damage roll would have been less than the 10 to kill him anyway and the game effectively ends here since Rich just needs to walk and kill my objective with a Bronzeback and then score his flag again to win. 

Conclusions

I needed to research what these lists could really do more, but I've been struggling to give much thought to the match due to my work situation.  I can't believe I forgot that the Derp Turtle was more dangerous in melee than it was in shooting (especially when not with Rasheth).  I basically gave my Long Riders away and that swung the game very hard towards Rich right at the start.

Rich was a joy to play against and was describing how he thought it was a 50/50 matchup.  I disagreed and then he revealed the key as to why: Lead with the Kriel Warriors, not anchor.  Unlike my last game, if I just play conservatively with the Riders and jam up with the Kriels it's very possible I can kill enough of his pieces to snowball the attrition towards my side.

It's a brilliant idea on how to approach this matchup and I hadn't even thought of it, since well Longriders are fast and so you lead with them, Kriel Warriors anchor.  However, unlike the Circle game last round of the Scrum where Kriels can Blood Fury their way through nearly anything, Agonizers are going to really hurt their chances at damaging ARM 21 Sentries or anything with Inviolable Resolve. However if I just jam with them, I can setup the trades to allow me to get ahead.

Overall it was still a fun game even though Rich basically bashed my head into the ground repeatedly, I honestly look forward to the next time I can play him.

It is a bit sad to end the Scrum here, but I am looking at being able to attend my first actual WM tournament in ages this weekend, though I will be bringing Convergence instead of Trolls.

Good Outcome

What's going on everyone!?

I played some more ZIMP today on and off but figured I would play something different for this post..lol.

Today for the #2019gameaday challenge I played a game of Star Realms. Surprisingly I actually won! And by a pretty good margin! 

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples!  :)

-Tim

Phoenotopia: Awakening Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Phoenotopia: Awakening
Developer: Cape Cosmic
Publisher: Cape Cosmic
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG, Platformer
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: August 20, 2020
Price: $19.99

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Everybody loves Zelda. Well, almost all of the games… probably except the second one, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. I personally have not played it yet, but from what I heard, it is almost not worth the Zelda name, since its gameplay is drastically different from the other games. So different, that Shigeru Miyamoto made sure that the next game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, will be a back-to-basics Zelda game, but much better. And Miyamoto-san and the rest of his team delivered and A Link to the Past is now considered as one of the best Zelda games ever. Zelda II, almost forgotten.

Zelda II may have not been a very good game, but some of its game elements made it to modern indie games, such as Shovel Knight (on town scenes and combat) and much more overtly in Elliott Quest, which is like a Zelda II clone with a coating of metroidvania. I have both games on the 3DS, and played hours out of them and I liked them a lot. Past forward to now, on Switch, another game takes the core gameplay elements of Zelda II, put it on a spin, and made great use of them. The game is Phoenotopia: Awakening, which, for the time being, is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch.

Like Zelda II, it is an action adventure game with some RPG elements and platforming. The game has amazing visuals, with colorful cutesy pixel art aesthetics that really makes everything pop out. It is complemented very well by its even more amazing soundtrack that evokes that ambience of the environment and emotions being conveyed by the game. This may be indie, but the production value of the game really screams AAA quality.

In this game, you play as Gail, whose town gets visited by an alien ship that abducted all of the adults, forcing her and the other kids to stand on their own and govern the town, although they are scared and feeling hopeless. Being the eldest of the kids, she is tasked to go through an epic adventure outside their quiet little town to the world at large, where she has to traverse different kinds of terrain, visit other towns, and explore dungeons filled with tough enemies.

Like any other game, you start out as pretty weak, armed with only a bat and a slingshot, plus basic clothing. During the opening section of the game, you get to learn how to perform basic attacks and other movements, manage inventory, and cook food. Aside from your HP, you have a stamina bar that gets depleted when you attack or run. Yep, like a souls-like game, for some reason. As you progress into the game, you get to upgrade your equipment, learn new skills, and be more effective with your attacks.

The world in this game is very much fleshed out, with lots of NPCs to interact with, which provide information through subtly humorous dialogue at times. The game is laid out on a big world map, with different towns and other areas of interest throughout. When you enter a town, you switch to a 2D side-scrolling view. There are no enemies here, so you can relax and visit shops, talk to NPCs, pass through doors to enter establishments, etc. Here is where you can stock up on provisions, upgrade your equipment, play mini-games, and most importantly, get info on what to do and where to go next. While you are on the overworld (i.e. when you are outside towns), you look even smaller. Here, some enemies will appear that will either ignore you or actively seek you out. If and when you engage them, you switch again to a 2D side-scrolling area where you can either fight the enemies or just ignore them. Once you get to either end of the area, you exit again to the overworld. Yeah, straight out of Zelda II from top to bottom, albeit with much needed improvements, like better enemy AI, better attack moves, and better visuals.

Outside of towns, the main meat and potatoes of the game is dungeon exploration. Within dungeon areas, you get to solve puzzles, engage or avoid enemies, and in the end, fight tough bosses. Boss fights are tough, and as given with its souls-like aspirations, tougher than what one would expect from a Zelda-like game. They are enjoyable, though, and if you already have good hand-and-eye coordination and cat-like reflexes, you will find delight in these battles.

Enemies still do telegraph their attacks, but the real challenge lies with how Gail fights. Her normal attacks don't hit, but she can charge it up for extra damage. The charging time takes about 1-2 seconds to execute, though, so you have to wait for the enemy to be completely still, otherwise you get hit back, and the enemies in this do pack a punch. You can heal by eating food, but eating food could take a few seconds, depending on the amount of HP that it would give. This is also nicked out of Dark Souls, but unlike that game, this game is 2D, so you have a very limited window of opportunity to heal up when you are in battle.

It is quite embarrassing how many times I died in this game, and add to that the annoying frustration of having to restart all the way back to the last point where you saved your game. There is no auto-saving in this game, and when you restart, you lose all the items and coins that you have acquired. Plus you restart with the amount of HP that you save with. It would have been cooler if the HP refills to take away the sting a bit, but no, this game goes old school quite hard, and there is really no way around it.

If you are low in health and there is no save point near in sight, you should be prepared to have food in your inventory. Food can be obtained from the environment, or from meat dropped by fallen enemies. To make food more effective (i.e. give out more HP) or make the amount of time eating them much shorter, you can cook them. When you see a fire source, either from stoves or bonfires, you can equip a piece of raw food that you have and cook it. But there is a catch: you will have to go through a short mini-game where you have to quickly press the button that the game will prompt you to do. Miss a couple of button presses and you'll end up with burned "food", which actually docks five HP out of you if you are foolish enough to eat it. I think that the developers thought that this would be fun, but I think it ended up as another addition to the list of unnecessary annoyances that this game gives. I wish that this mechanic could be turned off. I think that this is just a waste of time.

Speaking of waste of time, this game will make you grind. A lot. Not for experience, because you don't earn XP for defeating enemies, but for money. Earning money is very tedious in this game. Defeating enemies don't guarantee monetary loot, and if they do drop some, you only get a few coins, usually with the value of 1, occasionally 3, and 5 being quite rare. You can seek out optional caves for treasure chests, but expect a barrage of enemies and traps to make it worth your while. Hope you have the lamp when you do, because it will be very dark, and killing enemies or avoiding traps in the dark is not fun.

The lamp is one of the items that you should buy in order to progress further into the game. Aside from this, you can also buy weapon and armor upgrades. They are quite expensive, though, so you have to grin some more. This game is supposed to have a total play time of about 25 hours, but with all the grinding and flawed combat mechanics and souls-like shenanigans, it can be double that time. So, good luck.

Overall, Phoenotopia: Awakening is one surprisingly good game. It is pretty much Zelda II done right. The game doesn't really shy away from its very obvious main inspiration, and really made very good use of the gameplay from the aforementioned game and improved upon it in almost every way, This game is far from perfect, though. There are some mechanics that I wish could have been executed better, like the combat mechanics, the stamina depletion, etc. These flaws make the game quite frustrating and hard to play during the early hours of the game. If you have the patience and dedication, it does pay well as you progress further into the game, but that steep difficulty curve at the beginning can be rage-inducing at times. But I must say, this game really does exude high quality through and through, and I really liked it a lot, despite the flaws. From its visuals to its music and gameplay elements, this is a game that is worthy of your hard-earned cash. So if you are a brave adventurer at heart, give Phoenotopia: Awakening a chance and go through an epic quest, wherever and whenever, on your Nintendo Switch.

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REPLAY VALUE: High

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PROS

• Amazing visuals with colorful cutesy pixel art style
• Amazing soundtrack
• Excellent story
• Subtly humorous dialogue
• There is no leveling up in the game, but equipment can be upgraded
• Cool cooking mechanic
• The flute, used in opening paths and solving some area puzzles by playing musical notes, is straight out of Ocarina of Time and is presented and executed well
• Deceivingly challenging but in a good way, most of the time
• Solid controls and performance, running in 60fps most of the time
• Ideal for handheld gaming

CONS

• Entering rooms through doors requires two button inputs: one of opening the door and another for passing through it
• Buttons cannot be remapped
• Switch screen capture function is not enabled
• No detailed game journal to track quests and other story elements
• Some save points are far from one another, resulting to some mildly annoying frustration upon death
• Earning money is very tedious
• Items are expensive, which will make you grind a lot just to save up

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RATING: 4/5 phoeno-awesomeness

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Ep 29: Gobblin’ Wargames Is Live!

Ep 29: Gobblin' Wargames

We talk with Chris Arnold about our history of making games and challenges game designers face.

https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/episode-29-gobblin-wargames

Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer

Try Audible for your free audiobook credit by going to http://audibletrial.com/tvwg

WSS Rules Challenge:

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wssblog/wss-rules-challenge

Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.

Get Woke Go Broke

Sometimes, that brokeness isn't money, but something intangible... like character, respect, or not being a ridiculous laughingstock.

Kiel "problematic" Chenier may be the latest self-flagellating woke-soldier hip-deep in culture war bullshit, grovelling before the other intolerant leftists, but somehow his failure is more delicious than usual.  Perhaps it's something in the chocolate?

This is Kiel's apologetic post.  It's so cringe that you just have to read it for yourself.  I'm sure the social justice circle-jerk is ready to accept their soiled dove.  "So brave and beautiful."

Kiel appeared on my radar years ago when I asked him to review The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence. He's one of the few gamers who didn't like it.

Then a bit later, he agreed to review Alpha Blue, but then decided not to follow-through because it was too hetero-normative and sexist or some stupid bullshit (yes, hetero-phobia is real).  Yeah, I know.  I'm not allowed to love boobies because I'm a straight white male (actually, za'akier).

This is one of the many reasons why I have zero time for the ENnies.  It's a reflection of the near constant revisionism based on identity politics, virtue signaling, and victim-ology. The ENnies are like the "woke awards", and in my humble opinion, those same radical leftists are trying to ruin this hobby... and the USA.

Privilege does exist.  However, the privilege we have to worry about is entitled first-world busybody saviors and would-be authoritarians with more activism than brains, throwing themselves into perpetual revolution because they're bored, because they are too free, because their lives are too easy.  Deep down, they know they'd actually be more or less satisfied with everything... if not for the gaping void of meaninglessness inside, exposed for all to see.

I desperately hope that November's election is not only a referendum on the Socialist "utopia" ideology ending with the death of freedom and millions of people, but also gamers who believe in being offended on behalf of everybody else, cancel culture, and the destruction of traditional / old-school RPGs.

VS

p.s. That's why I didn't submit Cha'alt for the ENnies.  But you can still get a luxurious hardcover book of your very own.  Ordering details here!