DiceCon East 2010 #2: Still going

Alan Poulter- webmaster of Web-Grognards, "the site for wargames on the web since 1995"; was one of the familiar faces who said hello, attracted by the sight of our Overlord game in play. We had our usual friendly chat, and Alan was angling for a chance to play a game of Battlestar Galactica, a copy of which Adam had happened to bring. Our course was set.

Getting frakked
It turned out that Alan was already into another game when we came to play BSG. Adam and Donald made us 3, and we had no trouble at all in rounding up some likely suspects to give us the full 6-player experience; more familiar faces: Barry, Bob and Mark. The younger old hands among you might remember Barry and Bob from DiceCon East 2007, where Barry had been the first to test my Lore skills in Battlelore.

Barry, Bob and Mark were all new to BSG but it didn't take long to select a crew and get the game rolling (a positive test of the setup guidelines in the rules). That Sunday afternoon in Edinburgh, humanity's fate was to be decided by:

• Barry: Saul Tigh.
  
• Adam: 'Chief' Galen Tyrol.
• Donald: Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii.
  
• Mark: Karl 'Helo' Agathon.
  
• Bob: Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace.
  
• Me: Tom Zarek.
  

Sheer whimsy, my choice of the criminal Zarek was to have fateful consequences, which began immediately with an unending chorus that I had to be Cylon because of my shady past. Belaboured by these baseless accusations my best efforts for humanity notwithstanding, I turned obdurate. Forming the fixed and unshakable conviction that Barry- who otherwise might've been just the first of several likely Cylons, was a definite Cylon; I promptly had Saul Tigh clapped in the brig. Naturally enough, this only served to deepen the already strong convictions about my own loyalties.

Cylons among us? Humanity doomed? Och dinna fash yersel!

The Cylons had been busy during our petty internecines. With the full 6 players the pace and cumulative impact of the never-ending crises was shocking to behold after the more 'sedate' pace of games with fewer players. Vast Cylon attack fleets mustered only for us to jump out in the nick of time. Resources became ever more strained. The Sleeper Agent phase came and went: the sympathiser remained human, as did I; and the identities of our 2 Cylons remained as mysterious as ever.

Eventually first one and then the other were revealed: Donald and Mark; the quiet ones (quietly gloating- right). We humans threw everything we had into saving ourselves. And we almost made it: we were prepping our jump to Kobol when our civilian ships were struck to take not 1 but 2 resources to 0 or less. Our final resource count was:

• Fuel: 0.
• Food:1.
• Morale: 4.
• Population: -2.

A pretty comprehensive stuffing then.

Score
Man 0
Machine 1
:-/

Afterthoughts
Absolutely brilliant! This game showed all Battlestar Galactica's best qualities and was thus an ideal introduction for Barry, Bob and Mark. As ever, the endgame was very tense, with everyone taking a keen interest in events (I've not seen it otherwise yet).

The crucial role psychology plays in the game was revealed by my reaction to the baiting of Zarek: I persisted in my mistaken belief that Barry was Cylon long after it made sense because I was irritated. And it was only late on that Barry realised that I had made an honest mistake, that I wasn't playing to some secret agenda. Oh, sweet confusion and paranoia abound!

Too close to be a coincidence?

In many respects then, this was a standout game. It was also unique in that it was the first time we'd played with a lookalike: Barry and Tigh. I leave it to the readers' imaginations which character's lookalike I'd most like to see at the table in some future game. :0)

Getting back
Next up was my long awaited return to hulking, with Andy's copy of the still shiny 3rd edition Space Hulk. Flagging a bit by this point- having had little or no sleep the night before, I was content just to play a couple of games of scenario 1, 'Suicide Mission'. Simple as it is, this scenario shares an essential feature of every great introductory scenario: it is everfresh; so I was pleased to revisit it yet again.

Both games went to the stealers: a result which hides 2 completely different games:

• My marines didn't even get round the corner that is vital to this mission; which could be subtitled 'Get round the corner or die', as I did.
• Andy's route to the objective room (red on the map) was wide open; it took a truly appalling run of bad luck on Andy's part for my few remaining stealers to survive long enough to pull the situation back from the brink.

My ill-fated Terminators approach that deadly corner

I guess then Andy could claim a moral victory; although I'm sure he's made of sterner stuff and wouldn't stoop so low. :-b

Score
Hivemind 2
Groupthink 0
:-/

Afterthoughts
This was a lot of fun again, and I was pleased to get back to hulking as part of DiceCon. Most of the new rules were OK. There was one thing I really didn't like: the return to the 1st edition flamer rules. I'm not going to labour the point here, but these rules- which I never actually used when I played 1st edition myself, are simply terrible. Sure: they work; but they don't make any sense at all. Gah! More on that anon no doubt. =P

Getting even
Hulking done and humanity still imperiled, Badger and I sat down to introduce Adam to that family favourite, Ivanhoe. I was utterly exhausted by this time and could barely keep my eyes open, so we only played one game. Still, I won- not bad, all things considering.

Score
Pinky & Perky 0
Zzz 1
:)

Getting gone
And that was our DiceCon East 2010. We all had a really good time- Badger and Donald were especially enthusiastic about the Overlord game; and it was nice to catch up with some familiar faces again. So it's a big vote of thanks to Fraser and Gordon Lamont (AKA Fragor Games) for all their organisational efforts. All you do is much appreciated gents. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- DiceCon East 2010 #1: We Go!

DiceCon East 2010 #1: We Go!

Getting in
An early start; a big bag of games; a cold and dreary Sunday morning; yadda, yadda, yadda- you get the picture dear readers: DiceCon East 2010 dawns. Badger, Donald and myself arrive promptly at the familiar old Over-Seas House on Princes Street, grab a table, and start getting ourselves settled in.

That Castle, looking south from the edge of Princes St.

We're expecting a 4th player who'd signed up via TacG@fB, but yours truly has cleverly forgotten to ask the guy his ETA, or for contact details; so we really don't know when to expect him. Other keen gamers are drifting in, looking around, and a Memoir'44 Overlord board generates the attention you'd expect as it starts to take shape. Someone appears who's at a loose end- Adam by name, new to Memoir and interested in having a go. Soon we are ready to begin.

Getting down
Another 'Bloody' Omaha: the setup
Figuring that Adam should be spared what Badger and Donald'll already've had more than their fill of down the years- me telling them what to do; I opted to play a Field General, leaving someone else to 'enjoy' being my Command in Chief. The familiar random selection left us with:

• Germans:

1. Donald, CiC.
2. Me, insubordinate subordinate.

• Americans:

1. Badger, CiC.
2. Adam, duly dutiful junior.

Another 'Bloody' Omaha: the set-to
Double the width as they are, those German lines of ours looked perilously thin compared to the scene with which I'm familar from our games of the Omaha scenario in the basic game: Operation Neptune- First Assault Wave (BTW, the new version of the basic scenario- from the Air Pack, has lots of extra goodies to play with, not just aircraft).

Immediately then, the scaled-up Overlord game was challenging perceptions of mapspace and gametime virtually hardwired after 100 plays or more. Intriguing but not at first troubling, this was to prove important later in the game. The new dynamics of mission management created by the bigger map were given a further twist by the Overlord cardplay rules:

• The CiC can play 1, 2 or 3 cards/turn:

1. Field Generals receiving Section cards may not also receive Tactics cards that turn.
2. No player may play more than 1 Tactics card/turn.
3. The CiC only draws 2 new cards at the end of the turn, no matter how many cards were actually played.

The overall effect of these rules is quite delightful: both the tabletop and the card-cycle are more dynamic, naturally enough; yet this comes at a price which you will have to pay sooner or later, when your hand winds down leaving your army hung up in the face of an enemy you have to hope is experiencing the same C3i difficulties. Once again the underlying strengths of Richard Borg's core design show through in the subtle effects its simple rules can generate. We were all impressed.

These dynamics were at the heart of our game on Sunday. Donald's and my Germans were rapidly able to bring down the satisfyingly withering hail of fire for which 'Bloody' Omaha is infamous, and the Amerian lines were soon looking well ragged. Even so, the VP totals were still too close for comfort. More than that, we'd lost the crucial artillery unit anchoring our right flank, an opening Badger and Adam exploited quicker than we could fill it.

A couple of Infantry Assaults were all it took to turn that flank around. Soon Donald and I were desperately throwing everything we could into reinforcing our right as the battle raged on around what remained of our original defenders. The fighting was bitter and the game hinged on single dice rolls more than once. In the end though the American weight of numbers told and they broke through to win 8-7. Not a moment too soon either: Donald and I had another pretty solid play for victory ourselves the very the next turn.

Score
Logistical overkill 1
Tactical superiority 0
:-/

Afterthoughts
What a great game! Badger, Donald and myself all enjoyed the Overlord experience, agreeing that it breathed new life into M44; exactly as with Epic Battlelore, as Badger pointed out. For his part, Adam enjoyed playing a game that was so quick to pick up, and in which the cooperative nature of Overlord play meant that he didn't have to face all his decisions himself. In fact the way the Overlord rules eased Adam into his first ever game was particularly impressive. All of which just goes to show: Memoir'44 might not be the grognard's WW2 tacsim of choice, but the game's far from dead yet! ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- DiceCon East 2010 #2: Still going

"Overlord? I'll give you Overlord!"

The big day looms!
So, DiceCon East 2010 is tomorrow. I've been beavering away at the Memoir'44: Operation Overlord game Badger and I decided ourselves upon last November. Simply turning up on the day with some friends wasn't good enough for yours truly though. Oh no; I had to go and complicate things by using fB to network and build for the day:

• I put the 'event' up on fB, under the World War 2 Tactical Guild- the moniker of the mailing list I started after the success of CC@UK Expo'09.
• And I couldn't help but put in my tuppenceworth over on DiceCon East 2010@BGG.

As a result of these efforts it looks like our Overlord games will be 4-handers at least, so that's a result I guess. :-)

'Operation' Overlord: old wine in new bottles?
I confess that even my inner completist grumbled when I lashed out on Memoir'44: Operation Overlord unremembered months ago: I'd hardly played Memoir in more than 2 years; and anyway, why buy when you can play for free with the Overlord rules long long available @DoW? Where would be the added value I was asking myself.

The contents of the traditional M44 small expansion box are certainly value for money:

• A rules booklet.
  
• 2x 64-card decks of special Overlord Command cards.
• 178 new tokens.
• A new set of 8 battle dice.

Good value, like I said.

Ferreting around the new box as you do, my attention had been most attracted by those counters. They are there so that you can use M44-OpO to play Overlord games without having to buy a second basic set, a nice touch IMO. They are very pretty and the aging grognard in me couldn't help but see their potential for DIY projects.

It was only when I started my final preparations for Sunday's game that I realised there's more to those cards than just a graphic redesign of the familiar old Command deck. The original Memoir Overlord game was played with cards designed for use in 2-player games on a single map; the original Overlord rules had to take account of this. The new decks are custom designed for Overlord play, which results in minor rules tweaks. The overall impression is very good and I'm looking forward to seeing everything roll out on Sunday. :0)

Bloody Omaha, again!
There are many Overlord scenarios available to choose from, but I expect we'll start at the beginning, with Omaha Beach.

Like I said, it's been a while since I was last into M44 in a big way; but, checking out M44@DoW during my various preparations, I was pleased to see that their fan support continues to be top class. There are shedloads of scenarios, with different ways to view the list and to download the scenarios: good solid material in other words. I can assure you dear readers that I really appreciated these qualities when I was getting myself sorted for tomorrow. -@--@-

Newsflash!
The aforementioned Combat Commander tournament was recently confirmed for UK Games Expo'10; there's an entry for it on TacG_WW2@fB, naturally enough. Writing about my small efforts to big up our Overlord game at this year's DiceCon East served to remind me that I'd better knuckle down soon to the labour involved in organising this event.

Meanwhile: see you on the other side! ;)

An embarrassment of riches #3: Trick or treat?

Avatar: Szyslak or sizzlots?
The last Big Thing on this New Year holiday was an outing with Mark to see James Cameron's much anticipated, heavily hyped and ultimately hugely successful new blockbuster- Avatar, in glorious IMAX 3D. The hype hadn't completely passed me by, but only when I started reading the box-offices @ICv2 did I begin to feel the allure of the sheer scale of the success of a movie I knew to be a big-screen must-see, whether I liked it or not. :-\

The mixed feelings there implied ran deep:

• Heavily hyped Hollywood blockbusters have a very patchy track record in recent years.
• James Cameron is responsible for some most-loved movies- eg. The Terminator and Aliens; so a turkey on the gargantuan scale of Avatar was a prospect heartbreaking to imagine.
• The movie was completely CGI, echoing features which had put me off 2007's Beowulf on sight.
• I was going to see it in 3D, a technology I'd never used, in which I had no faith.
• And I'd picked up really bad word of mouth from typically reliable quarters.

A film I could easily have loved to hate then. =-O

Full on 'Gosh! Wow!'
Not at all hateful, Avatar impressed me as one of the better Hollywood blockbusters I've seen in recent times; I enjoyed it as much as, eg. The Dark Knight. Though imperfect as Hollywood blockbusters inevitably must be, the movie's strengths overcame limitations which might otherwise've left me feeling less than satisfied. In short: I was thrilled.

First and foremost among these strengths? The stunning visual SFX, naturally enough. Avatar is a cinematic landmark after the fashion of:

• Star Wars: that 'Star Destroyer moment', and the all-round verisimilitude of the SFX creating worlds that felt truly inhabited by their denizens.
• Blade Runner: the sheer richness of the cityscapes whose details gave life to the towering immensity of Deckard's 21st century LA.
• Jurassic Park: you could believe that dinosaurs walked the earth again after that first shot of their herds in the park.

Sheer splendour
There is little point in trotting off a list of ever more extravagant superlatives in an effort to convey the awesome sense of wonder conjured by the dazzling beauty of Pandora. Let's just say that the world was rendered with a depth sufficient immediately to engender in me the wish actually to visit a world I already inhabited in my imagination; that this depth was developed as the story went on; and that this exploratory visual dynamic contributed powerfully to establishing the willing suspension needed to carry me through the highs and lows of a near 3-hour movie.

And that was just the world. The characters too are executed so that you can't see the joins. Even when the incongruous appearance of the blue-skinned Na'vi was right in my face, they never became mere ciphers of the pixel painters' art; their personalities were able to shine through in the performances in other words. Like I said: impressive; and vital if your story pivots on a credible xeno romance.

Readers might already've noticed that I've said nothing about the much vaunted 'IMAX 3D experience'. This isn't because IMAX 3D sucks; not at all- the 3D technology was superb: I simply couldn't believe my eyes! It's just that the 3D content of Avatar was mosty quite trivial; and was just cute where it wasn't. It brought little to the narrative; which- as I have already explained, simply wasn't true of the CGI SFX in general. There were more exciting 3D effects in the adverts in fact.

All sound and fury?
So: brazenly demanding that bigscreen outing; some trademark elements more a triumph of style over substance; Avatar delivered then that oh so familiar hateful Hollywood formula sugared to the max for guiltless consumption. Easy to hate, as I said.

And I was irked- as I always am, by the mystical mumbo-jumbo we had to endure: authentically aboriginal at least, this unfortunately just had to work to give the Na'vi a snowball's chance in hell against the hi-tech killpower of Avatar's Evil Empire, another 'faceless' Corporation. And as for those gaian overtones - when the planet joined in? - well let's just leave Lovelock's pseudoscientific genocidal fantasies aside, eh? And those were the good guys!

Irked several times over I may've been but there lurks- behind the facade of surely the most advanced use ever of ICT in the service of art and entertainment, there lurks a science-fantasy twist on Romeo and Juliet; a tale which took a willing suspension already easily won and gave me a rip-roaring ride of romance and heroism. If I'd been a teenage kid watching Avatar, it'd've been that 'Star Destroyer moment' for sure.

Signifying?
As overblown SFX extravaganzas go then, James Cameron's Avatar whistles up a perfect storm; plunging audiences- eager or otherwise, headlong into a maelstrom of all that blockbustering budgets are capable of delivering. The power of this is undeniable and irresistable, as I have tried to convey.

But what made the film really stand out; what makes me anticipate the sequel with already active interest; well, it was the story. Romeo and Juliet done as Dances With Wolves meets Aliens meets Apocalypse Now, with a dash of Soldier Blue thrown in for good measure? What's not to like?

Yes, it's cheese. Yes, it wears its heart on its sleeve. Yes, the deus ex machina are overdone- I'm reminded here of Joe Haldeman's classic antiwar novel The Forever War, an unabashed cri de coeur responsible for one of the truly heartwarming great cheesy DEMs in SF&F. Frakk me, but it's been a long time since Hollywood actioners had me giving so much as a tuppenny ha'penny damn. I loved it. And I'll be back. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
An embarrassment of riches:
- #1: Boxes of tricks
- #2: Hidden depths unplumbed?

An embarrassment of riches #2: Hidden depths unplumbed?

After Tuesday's whistle-stop tour of my festive fun, it's time to go into a bit more detail about some of highlights. First off, the boardgaming.

Pandemic: just another buggy solitaire?
Regular readers should remember how the BSG boardgame wavered in my affections last year because I feared its initial appeal was going to be gainsaid by another solitaire engine at the heart of the gameplay. During Martin's xmas visit 3 plays of Z-Man Games' 2008 cooperative boardgame Pandemic (which I first saw just after its release, being played at DiceConWest 2008) complete with the On the Brink expansion served to remind me that the secret of BSG's success is as much down to the card-driven system as it is to the Cylon-human antagonism I enjoyed so much.

Excellence exemplified
Before I comment further on why I suspect the card-driven solitaire engine might be Pandemic's saving grace to this gamer, I have to say a word or two about its graphic design and production. In a word, these are brilliant; so much so in fact that mere words can't do them justice.

Pandemic: truly a delight to behold!

Look at those parts! They exemplify 3 key features of graphic design carried off to a very high standard:

• Function.
• Form.
• Decoration.

In Pandemic form follows function so that each element tells you exactly what it's for without extraneous details getting in the way. The clinical sensibility implicit in this minimalist design aesthetic is entirely apt to its subject, so that the functional elements score as highly for thematic expression as they do for practicality. The decorative flourishes- eg. the logo or the cards, are similarly excellent; all the more so since they don't obtrude on the carefully worked minimalism.

The production standards too are very high on top of all that attention to the graphic design. A tad less lavish than we've come to expect from FFG for sure, they're still leading edge, making Pandemic a game which can endure many, many plays. Lovely!

"Very pretty, General. Very pretty. But, can they fight?"
Graphic design and production excellence are all very well; what really counts is why after a mere 3 plays I suspect that Paramedic might've overcome the problems- of a limited gamespace promoting stereotyped play and therefore boredom, which were at the heart of the poor impression Arkham Horror made some 3½ years ago. In a nutshell the answer is complexity in simplicity, a feature of the gameplay enabled by the card-driven solitaire engine.

The simplicity in this formula is drawing cards and doing what they say, one of the slickest of games mechanics because by putting everything right in your face it minimises the memory burden of the system. The complexity is twofold:

• The content of the cards enables a rich range of effects without the table lookup which would be the rules burden required to generate the same array of results using dice rolls.
• Simple rules of cardplay- eg. reshuffling the deck, can be used to generate subtle rythyms in the solitaire engine's dynamics which I believe are simply beyond other mechanics.

And that's it really. I'm not 100% sold on the game yet (that Arkham horror still looms large!) but if another few plays strengthens these first impressions, then Pandemic will be for me. :0)

Related@RD/KA!
An embarrassment of riches:
- #1: Boxes of tricks
- #3: Trick or treat?

"To infinity and beyond!"?

Badger's round for a Friday-night Firefight soon and I haven't done a stroke of proper work on any of the pieces planned for imminent posting, but I am pleased to be able to announce that 2010 has already seen a landmark for RD/KA!:- I launched "Roll dice and kick ass!" as a facebook page- AKA. RD/KA!@fB, yesterday. My thanks to the 13 who've already signed up as fans. This is an encouraging start. :0)

I've long been aware of how much the internet could bring to the adventure gaming hobby, and have always enjoyed the best efforts of our geeky ecommunity. So I am naturally very excited at the potentialities of the new social media in this age of the Open Source. This first fB page is therefore an intriguing new venture for yours truly. I'm anticipating a good year here @RD/KA! in 2010! ;)

Alas- a lack!

Small but vital correction
Footering @fB as you do, I just this afternoon remembered the film I'd left out of yesterday's list of screen gems from my 2009-10 new year's festivities: Slumlord Millionaire. This unfortunate error has been corrected.

The film is every bit as good as the hype would want you to imagine, believe me! Normal service resumed ASAP. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- An embarrassment of riches #1: Boxes of tricks

An embarrassment of riches #1: Boxes of tricks

Home again...
...yesterday, from my New Year holiday: another Hogmany chez famille King in Prague; topped off with a long weekend in Cambridge visiting my old buddy Mark Dalgarno.

Time then to get 2010 off to a start here @RD/KA!. Are you sitting comfortably? :0)

Games glut guzzled!
With Badger- over xmas; Donald, Liam and 'Uncle' Martin- in the festive interregnum; and Radka, Bill and Daniel in Prague: a grand total of 54 games in 10 sessions over 14 days made my 2009-10 festive season the gamingest ever! The games I enjoyed are below:

• Combat Commander: Pacific x2.
• Ivanhoe x12.
• Fluxx x4.
• Settlers of Catan x6.
• Battlestar Galactica.
• Snow Tails x5.
• Settlers of Catan cardgame x2.
• Pandemic x3.
• Starship Catan x3.
• Backgammon x15.
• Chaos Marauders.

CC:P, Settlers cards, and Starship Catan gave me my own most satisfying victories of the festive megasession; but 2009-10's Festive Big-Win No-Prize goes to Daniel, for equalling Gav's record game-winning 5VP turn at Settlers of Catan.

DVD delights devoured
There were no tourist escapades in Prague this trip to interrupt my lazy days chewing the fat, playing boardgames and watching some choice selections from Bill's DVD collection:

• Deadwood- season 1:

1. Pilot.
   
2. 'Deep Water' (via HBO: Deadwood).
   

• Gangsters- the original 'Play for Today' first broadcast 35 years ago this very month.
• Slumdog Millionaire- need to see it again, with English subtitles.
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer- season 2 finalé:

1. 'Becoming I'.
2. 'Becoming II' (via Buffyworld).
   

• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
• Blackadder II:

1. 'Beer'.
2. 'Chains' (whence the phrase "I shall have my rewen-ge!")
   

From Ian McShane's finest hour, through groundbreaking gritty urban drama, to Joss Whedon at the height of his powers, and beyond; no barmecide feast this, but a veritable smörgåsbord of some definitive works of their kind in the 20th and 21st centuries: stimulating entertainment well worth revisiting.

Meanwhile, back on Galactica
Talking of "definitive works... well worth revisiting", I was delighted to receive the Battlestar Galactica- Seasons 1-4 Boxset from Bill; and Mark and I were pleased to watch the opening miniseries and a few episodes while I was in Cambridge. Readers will no doubt remember that Battlestar Galactica was my multimedia geek highlight of 2009. The programme's merits shine through undimmed even on my 3rd viewing.

I noticed a unique thematic resonance as I watched the pilot miniseries, '33' and 'Water'; having seen the episodes before, that familiar dialectic of 'watch this bit' coupled with stringent spoiler-avoidance created a wonderful counterpoint to the paranoid tone of the show, which tone had been deepened for me by my plays of the BSG boardgame. I was left with the impression of pocket universes of paranoia rippling out as people brought their friends to watch repeats, reruns and DVDs down the years. Accidental or not, it was a delightful twist. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- Alas- a lack!
An embarrassment of riches:
- #2: Hidden depths unplumbed?
- #3: Trick or treat?