Thursday, 28 March 2019
Building A Magnetic Model Transport System
Last June I started collecting Convergence of Cyriss. Since I was getting the faction almost completely by doing model trades, the project turned into a bit more work than I had planned for it as more than half of what I got in trades were in a horrible state.
That said, I did get most of the faction in one swoop and after a bit of hard modeling work, I had everything ready to go.
Except I couldn't really go anywhere with it because as any war gamer knows, you need some kind of transport system for an army.
I've typically used Sabol foam trays carried around in a Battle Foam Pack Air case, but huge based models require specialty foam from Battle Foam, and those are pretty pricey - $23 per huge base. If anyone knows about CoC, they know you will have at least 3 huge bases, and I ended up with 4 after all the trading was done.
I'm looking at almost $100 in foam just for the huge bases, then at roughly $8 per Sabol tray, I'm easily blowing $150 or more getting everything in foam for this faction. Then I'm lugging the large pack air case plus an old Sabol Army Transport bag to hold my huge bases if I'm using them in my list pair.
There simply had to be a better way. Then the idea hit me...
Magnets!
I went to the local craft store and bought myself some bins that were the same length and width, but had different heights. I did some pre-measuring of each of my huge bases and my "floating" vectors to check heights.
Each bin is 15.5" x 11.5" and I ended up with 5 bins in total: 1x 8.3" tall, 2x 5.6" tall, and 2x 2.9" tall. The bins were about $12 a piece, but more importantly I wouldn't ever have to buy more in the future. The only recurring cost for this system is going to be purchasing magnets for new models.
Read More :- "Building A Magnetic Model Transport System"
That said, I did get most of the faction in one swoop and after a bit of hard modeling work, I had everything ready to go.
Except I couldn't really go anywhere with it because as any war gamer knows, you need some kind of transport system for an army.
That's a lot of CoC!
I've typically used Sabol foam trays carried around in a Battle Foam Pack Air case, but huge based models require specialty foam from Battle Foam, and those are pretty pricey - $23 per huge base. If anyone knows about CoC, they know you will have at least 3 huge bases, and I ended up with 4 after all the trading was done.
I'm looking at almost $100 in foam just for the huge bases, then at roughly $8 per Sabol tray, I'm easily blowing $150 or more getting everything in foam for this faction. Then I'm lugging the large pack air case plus an old Sabol Army Transport bag to hold my huge bases if I'm using them in my list pair.
There simply had to be a better way. Then the idea hit me...
Magnets!
I went to the local craft store and bought myself some bins that were the same length and width, but had different heights. I did some pre-measuring of each of my huge bases and my "floating" vectors to check heights.
Each bin is 15.5" x 11.5" and I ended up with 5 bins in total: 1x 8.3" tall, 2x 5.6" tall, and 2x 2.9" tall. The bins were about $12 a piece, but more importantly I wouldn't ever have to buy more in the future. The only recurring cost for this system is going to be purchasing magnets for new models.
Securing the Models
Magnets don't work on plastic, so I needed to line the bottom of my bins with metal. My local big-box hardware store had 1 foot square steel sheet at about $5 per. Not too shabby. The only problem was that I'd need to shave off some of the sheet to fit into the bottom of my bins. What's more is that while the overall top dimensions of the bins are the same, the bottoms are not.
There was a bigger problem. I'm not particularly handy, and I don't have a ton of power tools. What I do have however is my friend Ray.
This is Ray. Ray is handy. Be like Ray.
Ray is one of those guys who makes his own furniture - as a hobby...and the furniture actually looks good when he's done! He's got tools galore and was kind enough to help me out by cutting my metal for me. I had used a pair of metal snips to cut one sheet and it worked, but it didn't look great. Ray sanded that shit down for me and trimmed it up so it looked better.
So now I had 5 sheets of steel cut to the right size for my bins.
Mixing Plastic and Steel
Next up I just gotta stick my steel to my bins, should be easy right?
I tried superglue. That failed spectacularly. The steel pulled right off with a tiny bit of tugging. It worked well enough to hold if I didn't rumble it too much, which was good for a short term solution of carrying the CoC to play games locally.
So next I decided to buy a two part epoxy that said it would work on metal and plastics. So I put on my gloves, was really careful, sanded down parts of the steel where the super glue didn't take and weighted down my bins:
After 24 hours of curing....the steel peeled right off with just a little bit of force, just like the the superglue.
At this point I was done trying to find some kind of glue or epoxy based solution. It was time for nuts and bolts. Luckily the bins I bought had the raised section in the middle where I could have the bolt-ends sit while not exceeding the lip of the base of the actual bin (ie. I won't scratch up any tables due to having bolts on the bottom of my bins).
Construction Tips
One thing I learned: Drilling through steel sheet isn't great if you don't have special drill bits, which not being a handyman, I didn't have. You can however put a thick nail through the steel pretty easily, which then lets the drill go through easily and drill through the plastic. I only hammered my thumb once. Ray would be proud. Sorta.
Because bolts take up model space, and my huge base solution is kind of tight, I elected to only use two bolts per bin rather than 4. I will see how well this holds up, and if I need to secure it more it's easy enough to mark where to put the holes, remove the plates, make the holes, and re-secure it all.
That said, there's only a tiny bit of wiggle with the two corners secured as it is, so I believe this setup will work. Here are my results:
Magnet Advice
I recommend buying strong rare earth magnets for this, stronger than what you'd usually buy if you're magnetizing jacks/beasts. Specifically N52 strength is preferred. I've gotten some magnets off Amazon but the affordable ones there are generally the weaker kind, so I've preferred to get magnets for this from K&J Magnetics. I'm not affiliated with them at all, but I've used them for years and they deliver quality stuff.
You can get away with cheaper magnets if you use multiple, and cheaper magnets work well for small based plastic models that don't require as much force. Amazon can help out here.
I actually had quite a few magnets laying around from years gone by which reduced my magnet purchasing requirements a bit.
That said, once you've used the right magnets, everything stays very secure in the bins. I didn't take a picture, but I was able to turn the bin upside down with the models in it and not have any casualties.
Carrying Solutions
The final bit that isn't finished yet for this is a bag to hold it all. Currently I use a set of straps I had for carrying a PC around to LAN parties to secure the bins and hold my dice bag + widgets. This works but isn't exactly pretty.
I am lucky in that my wife is a quilter, and she's currently sewing up a bag to hold this in, complete with pockets, straps for easy carrying, and all the rest. I realize not everyone can do this or has the luxury. The alternative was trying to find a piece of luggage or a transport/case for a sewing machine that would have the internal dimensions to hold my bins. With better planning up front (buy bins that fit in luggage more easily) this is probably more achievable, but again you're still spending a decent amount of money this way. It's still probably less than a equivalent sized Battle Foam bag + rack system, but it's a lot of work to find the right combo of bin + case.
Costs and Benefits
I started this project thinking it'd be good long term going forward wargaming wise and would save me money. Did it? Yes, but partially because I've cheated.
I am saving a good bit of money and getting a custom case + transport system, but that's really only because my wife isn't charging for her labor to assemble the bag, Ray didn't charge me for cutting the metal to size, and I don' t have to pay myself for all the work I've done getting the bins setup. I also didn't have to buy lots of my strongest magnets because I already had a bunch from when I played 40k/WHFB.
I probably could have just spent the extra money up front and bought Battle Foam's Magna-Rack system and one of their cases. They're pretty damn expensive, and you still have to buy the magnets, but it's basically none of the work and it looks great. My custom case will look as good if not better, but not everyone is married to a quilter with sewing equipment to make a custom bag.
The real savings are in the fact that going forward for any new armies I ever pick up, I'm using magnets, not foam.
Magnets can cost up to $0.50 per magnet of the right size/strength, so 100 models is $50 in magnets. Is there really a cost savings here? I think so, but in hindsight, it's probably not much.
Typically $50 in foam is not going to store 100 models, especially if you're counting lots of bigger models (30mm to 50mm bases) which take up a lot of foam space, but still only require one strong magnet. Huge bases (120mm) require multiple magnets per, but even then it's only like $2 in magnets as opposed to $22 for a foam tray.
You can also use weaker magnets for small based plastic models, where the magnet costs are significantly cheaper, especially if you look around on Amazon where you can get 50 to 100 magnets of the right size for something like $15.
The real savings comes in the fact that once you've bought+built your bins to transport the minis, you can use them with basically any model set you want. Compared to foam where you need to pluck out whatever kind of foam for your specific models. The other benefit is storing models that have long reach weapons or stick out oddly...like Inverters or Reciprocators.
When it comes to storing models long term (ie. when I'm switched to another army), I can put some metal sheet in larger storage bins and just put my models into one decent sized bin. This is probably more efficient than what I have to do now to store foam trays for models.
The other benefit is when it comes to going to tournaments. I can fit my two list pair onto a single baking sheet, which makes for a great tournament tray that securely holds everything. I've already attended one event this way and it has worked out great. The baking sheet was something like $5 and slips easily into my bag.
Overall I'm pretty happy with how the project has come out and I've certainly saved some money going this route, but it's definitely a lot of work to get here.
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Report To Stakeholders 2018
This is my fourth report to stakeholders of Black Diamond Games, Ltd. We're a private company with a lot of transparency. I'm going to forgo the formality this year and write informally about our year in general. Every store owner has a specific narrative about what happened to them, with generalities about what is happening in the trade.
A lot of stores have recently announced they're going out of business. More than average? Who knows, we have no data. I also have store owner friends with 20-40% sales increases in 2018. Your mileage may vary and your narrative is mostly your own. I think the trade is booming, but it impacts everyone differently. The rising tide lifts some boats. I also think that tide seems to be crushing it online right now, while the water trickles into the brick and mortar harbors. There really is no way to contain general enthusiasm to build up a head of steam in the Internet age. It's all on the store owner to locally build up enthusiasm. Retail is like a tea kettle and when a head of steam builds up, the release is the Internet. If you hear that whistle, it's money being added to Jeff Bezo's bank account.
I think it is increasingly difficult to funnel the bonkers enthusiasm to the friendly local game store. Parallel systems now exist to do what we do. You can buy your D&D books on Amazon at below wholesale prices and the important service of learning how to play those games can be accomplished by watching high production D&D in play videos online for free. This is an example of our Unique Value Proposition, game space, becoming a mere Useful Value Proposition. It's also an example of poor brand value protection by Wizards of the Coast.
These videos are becoming the normative way to play, and players are holding their local DMs to these professional standards. That's not how it's done on Critical Role they say, so it must be wrong. A good number of YouTube D&D channels now have over a quarter million subscribers, the tip of the cultural iceberg. Personally I can't sit through a recorded D&D session without growing instantly bored, I just don't get it. However, I find Matthew Colville's D&D channel addictive and brilliant.
The question of what would happen to your store if millions of people suddenly played D&D? For us it meant an 18% increase in RPG and dice sales and a 200% increase in miniature sales (because WizKids is awesome). I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I was expecting more from the revolution. Whenever I talk about the tea kettle whistle and how we're mostly left out of this building head of steam, a store owner will tell me they sell a metric buttload of D&D books. Yes, that's not the point. Or ... maybe it is.
Something was off for us in 2018. In retrospect, 2017 was a year too good to replicate, although we pretty much did. In 2017, Warhammer 40K was booming, board games were on fire, Magic staggered around like the giant Pillsbury Dough Boy of Ghostbusters, scaring everyone as it lurched about (while making money), ready to destroy buildings (stores). Our 2017 sales, with construction of our Game Center complete, jumped 14%. 2018 was a shadow of 2017 as it struggled to replicate that success.
2018 saw Warhammer 40K cool a bit as the new edition matured and customers tired of the weekly release schedule (down 20%). The board game bubble deflated a bit and it took months to figure out I was over ordering like we were still booming, right about the time the big hits arrived, and I was too gun shy to go deep (down 7%). I was ready to throw my hands up with board games. It was an enigma in 2018.
Magic staggered around as usual, with a tight embrace of the mass market, finishing up with a volatile December release that took everyone by surprise (down 1%). As I write this I have one box of Ultimate Masters left, and the difference between having it and not having it would have been the difference between losing money in 2018 and making money. You could say that about a lot of things, but since I practically wished Ultimate Masters would die in a fire, I can now say thank you, I was wrong (the $10,000 bill is due in 6 days, and there may be a game trade reckoning). We made money, but only because we sipped at the D&D tsunami through a straw to gain a 18% gain in that department.
There was much flailing about in 2018 with this flatness, and much gnashing of teeth about increased expenses. Our payroll costs and rent rose 4%, both somewhat fixed with the rising minimum wage and our lease structure. This led to a tightening of the belt and cost cutting in other areas, marketing taking the biggest hit. Facebook Page promotion has stopped being a functional tool at this point, and we rely on Groups to do the heavy lifting. Marketing is another enigma, but mostly how to spend money effectively, since Groups are powerful and free. It's more labor intensive but it costs zero dollars, other than directing customers to them.
In the end, cost of goods decreased significantly and cutting expenses rose profits. Dare I say, it was a better, more profitable year than 2017 by nearly 7%. When we're in boom times we crow about gross, but when it's slow and difficult, we can always talk about net. Cut your costs of goods by 1.5% on half a million dollars of stuff, and you've got a new car.
My book, Friendly Local Game Store released in May of 2018. It's on its fourth (small) print run and sells on Amazon and with game distributors, when they have it. It just received its first bad (2 star) customer review on Amazon! All reviews drive interest and this one has some valid criticisms about the narrative (and some off base ones). Publishing the book hasn't changed anything in my life, but it did help pay for an epic road trip visiting game stores and talking to owners throughout Mexico and Guatemala.
Thanks to everyone who supported us in 2018. We have many changes in store for 2019.
--gary
In Ensenada, Mexico
Tuesday, 26 March 2019
Apocalypse Frenzy
Game: Apocalypse Frenzy
Manufacturer: Laurens Bliek
Year: 2016
Personal History:
So Apocalypse Frenzy is another game that I've been given the opportunity to review prior to its official Kickstarter release.
Condition:
I believe I was probably the second person to play this copy, and everything was in great complete shape. As is always the case with pre-production review samples it's very possible that things such as artwork and layout could be different in the final product, although I believe that this is pretty close to final.
Gameplay:
Each player chooses one of the four characters and takes it's character card. Each player also randomly takes an alignment card and keeps it a secret from the other players. Players are dealt a hand of seven cards, with the remaining cards divided into two draw decks.
The alignment card labels the player as either a "Protector" or a "Destroyer". The "Destroyer" players are intent on Destroying the world, while the Protectors must stop any of the world-ending scenarios from occurring. Each character card lists three objectives; one if the player is a Protector, one if he's a Destroyer, and then a "Side Mission" that is for either alignment.
The Protector objective for every character is the same, which it to make one of the two draw decks run out of cards. If this happens the game ends, and all characters with the Protector alignment score thirty points.
The Destroyer and Side Mission objectives are where a majority of the differences in the characters lie. The Destroyer objectives for the "Catnian Commander" and "Cyclops Interstellar Designer" are somewhat similar in that they involve collecting and playing a certain group of cards.
The "Prophet" character has a special prophecy card that he must play on another player during the game. His Destroyer objective is to play his prophecy card on a player who then goes on to win the game by bringing about his Destroyer win condition. The Shapeshifter wins his Destroyer objective by playing any eight cards, but is hampered in doing this because any card he plays must fit a series of qualifications.
On a turn each player has a series of actions he can take. Actions may only be taken once per turn, but can be completed in any order. One his turn a player may play a card from his hand or discard a card from his hand. Players may only play cards which show a symbol matching his own or no symbol at all, unless he has a card which changes this basic rule. The Shapeshifter character, for example, does not have a symbol so cannot on his own play anything but the grey generic cards. He does, however, have a special ability which allows him to play cards which are required by his Side Mission, or have been played before by another player.
The player may Trade a card with either deck by placing his card on the bottom and taking the top card. He may also trade a card with an opponent. During trade negotiations the players may be as discreet as they'd like about what cards they have, and may also lie about the identity of a card to make a deal. Players may also use abilities from their cards if available this turn.
Most cards which are played in front of a character carry a point value which varies depending on the alignment of the player at the end of the game. When any player completes his main objective the game ends and all players add up the points they've gotten through completed objectives or played cards. The player with the highest total value is the winner.
So How Is It?:
Apocalypse Frenzy is a weird little card game. Visually it relies on the same sort of cartoon drawings and thematic zaniness that games like Munchkin and Killer Bunnies use. I like the drawings on the cards. I think they're all well done and create a definite flavor to the game which ties in nicely with the odd and offbeat things going on within the cards. I think where the art fails the game is on the box where the artwork has been superimposed over what looks like a computer generated space image. The CG image is very out of place, and the character illustrations are the same as used on the cards, making them look small and unimpressive. Ultimately the cover of a game should both inform and attract, and this image doesn't quite do either.
The gameplay is fairly unique. Each player has very different win conditions when playing as a Destroyer, and it took us a few minutes to wrap our heads around exactly how to go about accomplishing them. For the Cat and the Cyclops it's basically just hoping to collect the right cards and then playing them, and this is for both the main and side objectives. It became clear that trying to trade cards with your opponents is very necessary when trying to complete these objectives, and so making deals was a regular feature. The instructions don't give many specifics about what can and can't be said between people conducting a trade other than to say that neither party needs to be truthful about what they're giving up, so it's possible that the trading scene in any particular game could get pretty nasty. For our game we sort of unanimously decided not to tell eachother exactly what card we'd be giving, but to hint that something "Might be really useful to you", or "this is a card you need", that sort of thing.
The missions for the Prophet and the Shapeshifter are very different, and drastically change the way each is played. The Shapeshifter's destroyer mission is to play eight cards in front of it, and it's secondary objective is to play a specific assortment of six cards. This is made somewhat difficult because the shapeshifter, unlike all other characters, does not have a card type of its own. As I mentioned above its power allows it to play cards that have been played by another player before, or which help to complete its side mission, so long as those cards are of only one color (there are some two-color cards that belong to two characters). This prevents the shapeshifter character from playing cards as easily as the others, particularly early in the game when relatively few cards of any type have been played yet.
The Prophet character is given a special "Prophesy" card at the beginning of the game. His destroyer mission is to give the prophesy card to a destroyer player and then make sure they complete their mission, and somewhat similarly his side mission is to make sure a destroyer character is holding the prophesy card at the end of the game. With really no special powers of his own and mission objectives that rely heavily on the success of another player the prophet must act almost as an assistant to the destroyer player he chooses, hoping to obtain the cards the other player needs to win so that he can trade them to that player.
While I appreciate the uniqueness of the characters I can't help but feel as though any player who chooses the Shapeshifter or Prophet is immediately at a disadvantage. Admittedly I've not played enough games to see if it pans out that way in the long run, however the Shapeshifter is so hobbled early on with what it can play that it seems hard to come back from the point deficit, and the prophet can only "win" if another player "wins" first, making it the only character when it wins as destroyer that doesn't necessarily get a point advantage since the other person who completed his or her mission gets the same points.
So did we enjoy the game? I'd say by the end of it we mostly did. There was definitely a mad scramble for specific cards and a lot of dealing going on as we approached the finish and it's nice to have a high level of interaction like that in a card game. Now that we all have a better idea of the type of cards that are in the deck and better understand the flow of the game we'd all probably approach it differently.
I guess to me it felt like a game of Munchkin but with a specific goal instead of just a level cap, and with a lot more limitation to what cards you can use. I think the trading mechanism here is a nice element which definitely adds a lot more interaction between players than one typically finds in Munchkin. At the same time I feel like the game's theme doesn't really fit what's going on all the time. Saving the world by depleting a deck doesn't make a lot of sense to me for example. It doesn't feel so much like a game about the Apocalypse as it does a game about different kinds of goofy space invaders.
Final Verdict:
"Apocalypse Frenzy" is definitely worth a play, and might be a better Munchkin-like alternative to Munchkin for those who wants something slightly less luck driven, less aggressive, and a little more purposeful. For my part, while I might be convinced to play it again so that I can try out the other characters, I don't think this game will be replacing any of the other similar games I have already. It scores an "Average" 3/5.
Apocalypse Frenzy will be hitting Kickstarter on October 28th,
Read More :- "Apocalypse Frenzy"
Manufacturer: Laurens Bliek
Year: 2016
Personal History:
So Apocalypse Frenzy is another game that I've been given the opportunity to review prior to its official Kickstarter release.
Condition:
I believe I was probably the second person to play this copy, and everything was in great complete shape. As is always the case with pre-production review samples it's very possible that things such as artwork and layout could be different in the final product, although I believe that this is pretty close to final.
Gameplay:
Each player chooses one of the four characters and takes it's character card. Each player also randomly takes an alignment card and keeps it a secret from the other players. Players are dealt a hand of seven cards, with the remaining cards divided into two draw decks.
The alignment card labels the player as either a "Protector" or a "Destroyer". The "Destroyer" players are intent on Destroying the world, while the Protectors must stop any of the world-ending scenarios from occurring. Each character card lists three objectives; one if the player is a Protector, one if he's a Destroyer, and then a "Side Mission" that is for either alignment.
The Protector objective for every character is the same, which it to make one of the two draw decks run out of cards. If this happens the game ends, and all characters with the Protector alignment score thirty points.
The Destroyer and Side Mission objectives are where a majority of the differences in the characters lie. The Destroyer objectives for the "Catnian Commander" and "Cyclops Interstellar Designer" are somewhat similar in that they involve collecting and playing a certain group of cards.
The "Prophet" character has a special prophecy card that he must play on another player during the game. His Destroyer objective is to play his prophecy card on a player who then goes on to win the game by bringing about his Destroyer win condition. The Shapeshifter wins his Destroyer objective by playing any eight cards, but is hampered in doing this because any card he plays must fit a series of qualifications.
On a turn each player has a series of actions he can take. Actions may only be taken once per turn, but can be completed in any order. One his turn a player may play a card from his hand or discard a card from his hand. Players may only play cards which show a symbol matching his own or no symbol at all, unless he has a card which changes this basic rule. The Shapeshifter character, for example, does not have a symbol so cannot on his own play anything but the grey generic cards. He does, however, have a special ability which allows him to play cards which are required by his Side Mission, or have been played before by another player.
The player may Trade a card with either deck by placing his card on the bottom and taking the top card. He may also trade a card with an opponent. During trade negotiations the players may be as discreet as they'd like about what cards they have, and may also lie about the identity of a card to make a deal. Players may also use abilities from their cards if available this turn.
Most cards which are played in front of a character carry a point value which varies depending on the alignment of the player at the end of the game. When any player completes his main objective the game ends and all players add up the points they've gotten through completed objectives or played cards. The player with the highest total value is the winner.
So How Is It?:
Apocalypse Frenzy is a weird little card game. Visually it relies on the same sort of cartoon drawings and thematic zaniness that games like Munchkin and Killer Bunnies use. I like the drawings on the cards. I think they're all well done and create a definite flavor to the game which ties in nicely with the odd and offbeat things going on within the cards. I think where the art fails the game is on the box where the artwork has been superimposed over what looks like a computer generated space image. The CG image is very out of place, and the character illustrations are the same as used on the cards, making them look small and unimpressive. Ultimately the cover of a game should both inform and attract, and this image doesn't quite do either.
The gameplay is fairly unique. Each player has very different win conditions when playing as a Destroyer, and it took us a few minutes to wrap our heads around exactly how to go about accomplishing them. For the Cat and the Cyclops it's basically just hoping to collect the right cards and then playing them, and this is for both the main and side objectives. It became clear that trying to trade cards with your opponents is very necessary when trying to complete these objectives, and so making deals was a regular feature. The instructions don't give many specifics about what can and can't be said between people conducting a trade other than to say that neither party needs to be truthful about what they're giving up, so it's possible that the trading scene in any particular game could get pretty nasty. For our game we sort of unanimously decided not to tell eachother exactly what card we'd be giving, but to hint that something "Might be really useful to you", or "this is a card you need", that sort of thing.
The missions for the Prophet and the Shapeshifter are very different, and drastically change the way each is played. The Shapeshifter's destroyer mission is to play eight cards in front of it, and it's secondary objective is to play a specific assortment of six cards. This is made somewhat difficult because the shapeshifter, unlike all other characters, does not have a card type of its own. As I mentioned above its power allows it to play cards that have been played by another player before, or which help to complete its side mission, so long as those cards are of only one color (there are some two-color cards that belong to two characters). This prevents the shapeshifter character from playing cards as easily as the others, particularly early in the game when relatively few cards of any type have been played yet.
The Prophet character is given a special "Prophesy" card at the beginning of the game. His destroyer mission is to give the prophesy card to a destroyer player and then make sure they complete their mission, and somewhat similarly his side mission is to make sure a destroyer character is holding the prophesy card at the end of the game. With really no special powers of his own and mission objectives that rely heavily on the success of another player the prophet must act almost as an assistant to the destroyer player he chooses, hoping to obtain the cards the other player needs to win so that he can trade them to that player.
While I appreciate the uniqueness of the characters I can't help but feel as though any player who chooses the Shapeshifter or Prophet is immediately at a disadvantage. Admittedly I've not played enough games to see if it pans out that way in the long run, however the Shapeshifter is so hobbled early on with what it can play that it seems hard to come back from the point deficit, and the prophet can only "win" if another player "wins" first, making it the only character when it wins as destroyer that doesn't necessarily get a point advantage since the other person who completed his or her mission gets the same points.
So did we enjoy the game? I'd say by the end of it we mostly did. There was definitely a mad scramble for specific cards and a lot of dealing going on as we approached the finish and it's nice to have a high level of interaction like that in a card game. Now that we all have a better idea of the type of cards that are in the deck and better understand the flow of the game we'd all probably approach it differently.
I guess to me it felt like a game of Munchkin but with a specific goal instead of just a level cap, and with a lot more limitation to what cards you can use. I think the trading mechanism here is a nice element which definitely adds a lot more interaction between players than one typically finds in Munchkin. At the same time I feel like the game's theme doesn't really fit what's going on all the time. Saving the world by depleting a deck doesn't make a lot of sense to me for example. It doesn't feel so much like a game about the Apocalypse as it does a game about different kinds of goofy space invaders.
Final Verdict:
"Apocalypse Frenzy" is definitely worth a play, and might be a better Munchkin-like alternative to Munchkin for those who wants something slightly less luck driven, less aggressive, and a little more purposeful. For my part, while I might be convinced to play it again so that I can try out the other characters, I don't think this game will be replacing any of the other similar games I have already. It scores an "Average" 3/5.
Apocalypse Frenzy will be hitting Kickstarter on October 28th,
Harlequins: Not Sure If Good
 |
| Harlequins are decent at best. |
I'm just going to come out and say it: I don't think Harlequins are looking too good from a competitive standpoint. With the book firmly in hand now, I don't see quite as much value from them compared to Dark Eldar when the army first got teased.
Before I completely put them aside, just note that I think there are a few things that Harlequins bring to the table. These are few, they're niche, and they're certainly conditional, but I think Harlequins can have some interesting options that no one else can really pull off. For example, when you look at some of the things that Soaring Spite can do with their Masque Form, you'll know that the army will be able to move 16"+6" and still shoot with 6" Fusion Pistols without penalty for 28" threat range. This awesomeness simply cannot be ignored. Similarly, if you take Faolchu's Talon for your Soaring Spite Warlord, you can move an additional 6" in your movement, and when you blow up, nothing happens. No explosion, no models dying, you just roll out of your drive-by mobile and find another joyride to blow people up in. This is great and all, but it's also very niche. Hell, even their big fancy Webway Gate wants me to drop multiple Talos or a fat unit of Grots out of them instead.
So here's where I have problems with the army: They're melee Horrors. They're melee-based units that cost a ton but still have the same statline as those little pink dudes. You have an army of 1W T3 4++ melee Horrors that desperately want to be relevant in a meta filled with resilience and anti-alpha. Everyone and their mother knows that T3 and 4++ with a single wound just get absolutely murdered by almost any type of shooting and even below-average melee fillers that play much better in attrition simply because of the points. Harlequins are great if you think that killing MEQ with 3+ for almost 30 points is great. You know what else is 30 points? A Grot, and a Grot comes with so much more resilience because a single Grotesque can be T6 with 4 wounds and 4++ with FNP. Speaking of 4W, this is actually much bigger than people realize. It takes 2 D2 shots to kill, out of kill scope of D3 weapons, and makes D6 weapons very nervous. It's pretty much the sweetest spot for being infuriating at 30ppm. When it comes to bashing in a Marine's face, a Grot does just as much damage but can stay alive much longer vs. almost any kind of shooting and any kind of melee. In fact, Harlequin melee stopped being relevant ever since stronger alternatives came out: Genestealers, Grotesques, Dawneagle Shield-Captains, the list goes on and on. Hell, even Wyches are better for the points if you want a melee option. Marines are dead easy to kill with any competitive army worth their salt because single-wound that cost a lot are just not cost-effective in today's meta. Attrition matters and Harlequins play the game the worst out of all the units in the game. Every other army that wants to be in melee does it better for the cost. For me, since I play Dark Eldar in a very shooty manner, why bother being in melee if you can shoot them to death from far away? My T3 5+ AS with an FNP Warrior that cost 6 points is looking a lot more cost-effective next to a 28-point Harlequin with a Fusion Pistol and an Embrace. You are essentially paying a premium for a luxury that's not needed.
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| Arguably the best Form in the book. |
This brings me to match-up. In any given competitive setting, you're going to be looking at your local meta or even the greater meta (GTs or national events) and comparing yourself to all the other armies out there. You have to factor in the fact that Harlequins are not cheap, not in the slightest. Their unit choices are limited already, but what you pay for is a unit that's not very durable but has a ton of bad match-ups. If you run into a Tyranid list with a lot of Genestealers for example, you know for the points that you're going to fight an attrition battle that you're not going to like. If you're fighting a lot of Gaunts, forget about it because you already lost the points game here (anything with Fearless sucks). God forbid you to run into a unit of Wyches, or even worse, a unit of Grots. With Meat Mountain being so popular these days, just running into a unit that you're not going to be able to really hurt while still taking assloads of damage in return is going to suck. The worst part is when you start thinking about this from a points perspective. Having Harlequins killing cheap fodder units is a waste of time and it's only going to get you shot up afterward and killed. A canny opponent is just going to spread out his line so he sets up kill zones for your units afterward (why Midnight Sorrow might be pretty decent). IG carparks are going to be super annoying and so are most armies with cheap armor and plentiful shooting. I feel very confident with my pure Kabal army vs. any army that takes a decent amount of Harlequins for example. When you bleed expensive models, your firepower and melee threat goes down a ton. That's one of the reasons why I prayed to the dice gods that GW was going to give the army -1 To Hit all-around. Alas, this was not to be. Instead, you have to pay up the ass in CPs and bet on Psychic powers or other instances to keep your basic stuff alive long enough to be relevant.
Harlequins are points-prohibitive. If you take them, you won't have a lot of anything else. If you want to run them in any meaningful way, you will take them as a Battalion. You will already need multiple HQs to get the most of your army like the Shadowseer and Troupe Master, and Troupes just naturally fill in the rest of the core choices. The difficult part here is getting into a points zone where you can still be relevant and be a threat to the enemy without costing an arm and a leg. It's not just the points that matter here, it's about being relevant and a threat to the enemy. What I mean by this is that you need to pack anti-tank in any competitive list as well as being a threat in melee because that's what you're taking Harlequins for. The army, in general, is bi-polar. If you want them to be a strong AT threat, you take Fusion Pistols. If you want them to be a big melee threat, you mix up Caress and Embrace. The problem is that they both go on the same model and when that model dies, he takes both of those upgrades with him. Some people argue saying that you can take them stock, or leave specials off them as extra wounds, but why the hell would you do that? If you're just looking at a few models that can do damage, Wyches can fill that role for much cheaper. Unfortunately, you have this current situation where both ranged and melee special weapons cost a good deal of points on an already expensive model to begin. This is why the attrition factor sucks so much for this army. It's not very durable and every model lost feels like chunks out of the army's total strength compared to other armies. Hell, most would agree with me when I say that Soaring Spite is arguably the best Form right now for Harlequins, but what people talk about but don't consider is how many points a boat filled with Fusion Pistol Troupes really are. If you want to decrease the cost by removing Fusion Pistols, you lose out on the Form's benefits. You cut the melee weapons and you're now a glorified Wych. Grats. More importantly, for how many points you're spending trying to make this clusterfuck work, you're also taking away points from allies who can possibly perform the same role better. Case in point, you can buy an entire Black Heart Spearhead for less than 500 points if you just want something to shoot.
 |
| Too much, too little. |
So what am I getting at here? It means that if you put a lot of points into Harlequins, you need them to be a decent standalone force. But if you need them to be standalone, in the fact that you need your points to also equate out to the ability to kill tanks and infantry, then you're simply increasing the cost of each Troupe unit. Taking a deeper dive: For 500 points, I can buy a Black Heart Spearhead with 3x Ravagers with Dissies on all of them. What do Dissies do? They can pretty much wreck anything because this buys the army 27 BS3+ S5 AP-3 D2 shots that can threaten GEQ, MEQ, multi-wound, single-wound, high-armor, whatever, you name it. This is just from shooting because you're not counting access to Agents of Vect, Living Muse, Cunning, or FNP on all your vehicles. You put 500 points into a Harlequin force and what do you get? You do the math and get back to me with exactly what firepower you have in shooting and in melee and see if the numbers pay off for you. First, you need to be a certain distance from the enemy to threaten them with AT Fusion Pistols, then you need to be in combat to get the most out of them. To get in, you have to brave the Overwatch, hope none of your 28 point models die, roll to get in, and then you can really shine. You have to play much cleaner, much more precise and pray for some good ol' dice rolls because there's a lot that can go wrong. With Grots, you just push models forward and results happen. With Ravagers, it's the same thing, but you don't need to commit because you're 36" away from your target. With Harlequins, it's all risk, and I hate risk. And so do most competitive players.
You know what else is risky? Conditional effects. When you look at Harlequins, almost everything in the army requires you to be within 6", roll something to enable (Veiled Path), cast a psychic power, drop multiple Strategems across multiple phases, or something else. Most of these things can fail to bad luck, some can be outright countered (Vect, Denied), and others can be counter-played sufficiently to really take the wind out of your sails. The best counter to melee-oriented armies is proper spacing and understanding threat range and averages. A good player with solid understanding of melee threat range and bubble-wraps will be murderous to Harlequins. In general, the army is almost too much fluff and not enough consistency when it comes to a lot of their army mechanics and that is a huge risk to competitive players looking to win a GT. The variables are already great, with matchups and different strength of schedules and players, so you don't need more randomness. It's almost like you're playing Orks, but you're trying to build a competitive army so you took Eldar or Dark Eldar allies and they're all looking at you like WTF, you took up half of my army points? A common theme within competitive armies is that they're consistent in their performance. Just look at some of the discussions around Harlequins being a competitive threat. It always starts with: Oh first you take this, then you do this, then you cast this, then you play this Strategem, and then you shoot and lel you embark back in your transport! Yeah, that's nice, but I play Prophets of Flesh and my entire army has 4++. That's what consistency looks like and that's why it wins games. That's why Meat Mountain is doing so much work right now. That is until people figure out how to beat it.
There is a mild saving grace for the army though, is that they're Battle Brothers with both Dark Eldar and Eldar. I would say that both of these armies are very competitive with a multitude of unit options. Eldar arguably has the best psykers (Doom, Jinx) in the game, Shining Spears, Dark Reapers, Wave Serpents, and both the Hemlock and Crimson Hunter Exarch are insane. Dark Eldar can run Meat Mountain down your throat and cost-effective Kabal units, Ravager Spearheads, Agents of Vect, and CP manipulation up the wazoo. There is a lot of good stuff in both of these armies, but ultimately it comes down to the points question all over again. Is Harlequins competitive enough to share the same points as these armies here if you're trying to build competitive? Only time will tell. Personally, I think the best Harlequin lists will be the ones mixed with either Eldar or Dark Eldar. Cegorach knows that I've been trying to make it work.
I really hope I made some solid points here. Don't get me wrong, I own a ton of the little fuckers and I love them to death, but they're definitely more of a fluffy choice than a competitive choice for me. There are just too many good unit choices out there that makes army building with them difficult. I know, I've been trying to design a good army list with Harlequins/DE and/or Eldar for the last couple of days and it's mind-boggling. When I have something good, I'll show it off.
Re: [dcab-l] Re: Katy Daley is back!
On 3/26/2019 4:33 PM, 'Terry Wittenberg' via DCAB-L wrote:
> Assuming the web pages aren't up and running yet? Can't get in, either.
Clarification:
The links are NOT active yet. The websites will list the complete
"Season 1" next week. Podcasts will be available beginning Apr 9.
Apologies for the confusion.
h
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Read More :- "Re: [dcab-l] Re: Katy Daley is back!"
> Assuming the web pages aren't up and running yet? Can't get in, either.
Clarification:
The links are NOT active yet. The websites will list the complete
"Season 1" next week. Podcasts will be available beginning Apr 9.
Apologies for the confusion.
h
--
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RE: [dcab-l] Re: Katy Daley is back!
Assuming the web pages aren't up and running yet? Can't get in, either.
From: dcab-l@googlegroups.com [mailto:dcab-l@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dudley Connell
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2019 2:08 PM
To: DCAB-L
Subject: [dcab-l] Re: Katy Daley is back!
I got it, but I can't get to the web page.......
Very curious.
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:30:32 AM UTC-4, Howard Parker wrote:
Along with friends Akira Otsuka and Howard Parker.
A new podcast series, "Bluegrass Stories".
"Season 1" launch on April 9, 2019.
Available on:
Soundcloud - "Bluegrass Stories"
Facebook - @bluegrassstories
Web - www.bluegrassstories.com and www.katydaley.com
Episode 1- "Growing Up Paisley" with Ryan Paisley
Stay tuned!!
hp
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Howard Parker
hlpd...@gmail.com
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