Relic Knights Rules are GO!

Sodapop posted up the current draft rules for Relic Knights.  I've read them over, and I'm very excited.  Dice hate me, and hate them too.  For that reason, any game that does away with them intrigues me.  I suppose that means I should be all over Malifaux.  Any game with super-robot-anime-explosions should also interest me, but I could never get into Infinity either.  I guess I needed both in one colorful package.  That's defiantly Relic Knights.

Any way...the rules.   It's a skirmish game.  Generally pretty close to Warmachine in game sizes.  Game are played on 3x3 tables with ample terrain(2-3 pieces per sqft).  Most of the basic mechanics are handled very simply in a straight forward fashion.  Models have no facings.  Guns can shoot whatever they can see.   Terrain that you're bigger than you can just run right over.  Terrain and miniatures have a size stat to determine what does or does not block line of site.  Otherwise its TLOS.  

The game uses alternating activation.  You have an active model and then a ready queue of the next 2-3 models you plan on activating in order.  Each player activates one model at a time, and when they finish the other player activates the first model in his queue.  During an activation models can take an initial move, take an action, and then perform a follow up move.  The game has very fast movement.  Most units will end up moving 8-9 inches in a turn.  Princess Malya, one of the faster characters, when fully charged can move 28' inches in a turn.     

I mentioned that the game is dice-less.  The game uses a deck of esper cards to function as the random generator mechanic for the game.  Esper cards have two colors on them.  The primary color is worth two esper points for that color, the minor color is worth one.  Any action you can perform has an esper cost.  For example an attack might cost 2 green and 1 yellow.  You start off with a hand size of 5, and when you make an attack you draw extra cards up to your attack skill.  If you pay for an attack it's automatically successful.  You opponent's models will also have defensive abilities that they can use by paying cards out of their own hand.  They can reduce or even fully negate the effects of the attack.  Attack and Defensive abilities also have tiers.  This allows high level attacks to trump low level defenses.

What makes the esper mechanic truly interesting is that units can bank esper energy during the game.  Some  characters can do it by forfeiting their action, other more powerful characters generate stored esper automatically.  Stored esper can be shifted around units kind of like focus in Warmachine.  It can be spent by the model storing it just like cards from your hand.  This allows characters to pull off their cooler abilities without being totally dependent on the luck of the draw.

It looks to be a very interesting game.  I'm going to have a difficult and fustrating 8+ months waiting for the kickstarter minis to arrive.

Muahahaha

Guess This Means I Should Build Necrons

I was visiting family in St. Louis over the weekend and found a box of GW minis at a local flea Market.  For ridiculously cheep I got:

10 Necrons immortals(5 are 2nd edition, the rest are 3rd but are missing parts)
32 Necrons warriors
5 scarab bases
2 Necron Lords( both missing parts)
30 Korne Beserkers(half primed black, the others with simple 3 color)
Fabius Bile
3 marine bikes
2 dark angel marines
4 cold one riders(OOP)
2 dark elf bolt throwers
10 witch elves
3 random tomb king models

That's a good start on a necron army; just needs about $400 in vehicle kits ;)

If anyone local wants any of the rest, let me know.

Kick it some more

I though about writing about the epic fail that is Privateer's War Room app, but I don't feel like being negative right now. This guy does a well enough job of it anyway.

Even though I have a a bit of an personal issue with TGN, CMON, and Kickstarters, I couldn't resist backing Relic Knights.  Their minis are just too cool.

Cool Military Themed Card Game Kickstarter is Back

A few months ago I posed about a military themed ccg kick-starter.  I backed it, but unfortunately it didn't collect enough funds to be successful.  It's back now in a slightly altered form.  They changed the concept from a CCG to a living card game to keep up with the times.  $40 gets you the whole set of cards in 4 pre-built decks.


  Check it out here

You know it be true

All of a sudden I'm overcome with the urge to build a Dark Eldar Army...again.

Does this mean I've given in to my anger?  Fallen to the DarkSide?

Some More 6th Edition Eldar Angst

I've been pounding my head against a wall trying to come up with a good 6th edition Eldar list.  It's hard.  It was already pretty hard in 5th.  Eldar are overpriced by at least 20%, the good units all fight for the same FOC slots, and 80% of the rules are unchanged from 1999.  While 6th gave a boost to certain aspects of the army, it also hurt some others pretty badly.

You already had to squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of the codex to stay competitive in 5th.  We could argue the validity of footdar versus mechdar, but either way many of the units in the codex where still untouchable.  Barring Firedragons, most everything else in the codex was situationally good at best.  There where a couple of nice gimmicks you could run like Eldrad+Phoenix Lord+Wraithgaurd.  Unfortunately these could be trumped in competitive environments, and they are expensive points sinks.

The changes to how units in transports score(or not score more appropriately) and wound allocation have gutted a lot of the tactics that allowed Eldar to stay somewhat competitive.  Eldar just can't grab and hold objectives like they used to.  You have to get out and try to survive, and if you payed the points for a Wave Serpent, you certainly didn't have the points to spend on putting a survivable unit inside.  I also found at least a dozen rules that make no sense or are redundant/pointless/useless/dumb in 6th(though Tau have it worse in that area).

There are still some gems.  Karandaras and a few of the other Phoenix Lords got a nice boost.  Wave Serpents weathered the addition of hull points better than some other vehicles.  They may even be over-costed by only 15% now.  Twin-linked strength 6 is about as good as you can get for anti-air in a codex without it's own fliers or sky fire.  Now that Warp Spiders can tear up vehicles, Eldar have a fast attack unit worth taking.  Guardian Jetbikes are nice too, but I can't brink myself to buy the old 2nd ED models for 15 bucks a pop when I know that there's a master already done for a new kit(Jes Goodwin redesigned the Eldar jetbike as a precursor to re-designing the Dark Eldar ones).  And with GW's black hole of a marketing strategy, a new kit could be as little as two weeks out and I wouldn't know it.

There's also some changes that look like buffs, but turn out to not be so useful in the long run.  The Psychic power change is one of them.  Eldar need fortune, and the analog to it in the divination table only effects the psyker and not the squad.   So you need a cheepo Farseer to cast Fortune, and another one to roll up the fancy new powers.  Now you're locked out of taking anymore HQ choices; one of the slots in the codex that has an abundance of useful choices.

You may also think that Ranger/Pathfinders got a huge boost with the focus fire and cover changes. They are better, but not better enough to account for their 19/24 point cost.  You can't afford to invest that many points into a unit in an Elder unit unless it's going to be able to wreck face, and these guys will not wreck any face.  You'll also love it when some 6 point guard model with a flamer walks up and  makes your 240 point investment disappear in one shot.

Allies could potentially save Eldar, but allies tend to put an efficiency hit on the army that takes them.  And allies are hard to make work at the lower points levels.  2 FOC might help too, but you usually run out of points before you can get enough spam into the list to make it worth it.  Plus double FOC is dumb.

 Eldar need a new codex in a bad way.  I know they're xenos, and xenos armies are never quite as good as Imperial.  I don't expect GK or SW good.  I just want to at least get within visual range of competitive.  Tau are't great, but I can make them work with good play and an efficient list. Most of the Tau codex entries can be made to work.  They only have a few absolute stinkers(Vespids, Etherial).  Oh, if Eldar only had it so good.