Gaming Reunion

So this weekend is a bit of a overdue catch up with sometime Darker Days guest host, James. So since he has been visiting for a few days we've got some gaming planned.

First up James gifted me with a wicked Kingdom Death figure (given we are both now very close to getting our Kickstarter pledges). The figure is the Storm Knight, and should be pretty awesome to paint.

Next up we got in a game of Hybrid, playing one of the missions from the original box. A clear win for me, but fun none the less as new figures were tried out for the mission.

Finally tomorrow morning we have planned a game of Guild Ball, using the teams I finished painting.

Confrontation Invocation

Confrontation has two forms of magical powers. There are mages, who make use of incantations. And then there are priests that make use of divine powers.

Incantations rely on mana. As stated in previously, magic users have a power stat, which determines that amounts of spells that the warrior may know, and the amount of mana they may have to power their spells.

Spell users are typically aligned to a particular number of elements, and a magical path. The magical path and elements will therefore act as restrictions to which spells can be purchased for a mage.

The elements in Confrontation come in a few forms. There is Air, which is opposed to Earth. Water which is opposed to Fire. Light which is opposed to Darkness. Darkness is opposed to all elements, and itself.

Mages can cast as many spells as they have mana, and and limited only by the rate if stated for a spell.

Spells require a few things. Often they require a target, which of course require line of sight, and be within a certain range (premeasuring is not allowed however, so if the spell is invoked and the target is out of range, then the spell fails). Spells also require a certain number of particular types of mana gems spent. Some spells of course just require any form of mana to be spent.

If the initial criteria are fulfilled, then the warrior must pass a incantation test, using the Power rating of the casting warrior. Further gems of mana can be spent in order to gain an extra die on the Power roll.

That all seems rather simple. But there is also counter magic.

If an opposing magician is in the spell range and in line of sight, they may try and counter the spell. The spell can be absorbed, by expending the correct number and types of mana gems. This means that there is no roll to counter the magic. The mana is being opposed naturally. For example a spell that uses 1 Fire gem, and 2 Air gems, can be countered using 1 Water gem, and 2 Earth gems. Of course Darkness counters all, and 3 Darkness gems can be used.

To counter a spell, rather than absorb it, a roll is made. The opposing magician uses a single mana gem. This is declared before the magician makes the incantation test. The opposing mage, if the incantation succeeded, can then make an opposing roll, using the opposing mage's Power stat. Only a single die is rolled and further gems cannot be spent to improve this roll. If they equal or beat the incantation roll the spell is countered.

What is clear is that in some cases it is perhaps better to counter spells, but against more powerful mages, it is better to absorb a spell. One is a more easy way, but the cost is dramatic, and will prevent that mage then casting spells in return.

Once spells have all been cast, the mages make recovery rolls to replenish their stores of gems.

Linked to magic users is the opportunity for such characters to summon to the battlefield elemental creatures and fighters from the elemental realms.

Priests and such characters are in general known as faithful. They are able to invoke the power of their gods. Rather than relying on elemental power from the other realms, orthodox faithful rely on there being members of their faction being within range of them, and thus generating faith. In a similar manner, there are another type of faithful, called iconoclasts, who gain faith based on the number of enemy models in range.

Faithful start the game with Temporary Faith, equal to the sum of their Aspects (Creation, Alteration, Destruction), and then from then on Temporary Faith is determined at the start of the Mystic phase, based on the number of models in range of the faithful, and the rank of the faithful.

Casting a miracle then, much like a spell, requires a target to be chosen if required, and be in line of sight. The Fervour of the miracle is subtracted from the Temporary Faith of the faithful, and the Faith roll is made. This uses the sum of the faithful's Aspects, plus a d6, vs some difficulty. Further Temporary Faith can be spent for extra dice in the roll.

Much like magic, miracles can be countered - censured. This is an opposed Faith roll.

So that is magic and miracles. What I like about the system, is that it has that feeling of what Magic the Gathering is like, where certain elements are opposed, and thus some magicians have an easier time against others. And, unlike many other games, there is a distinct difference between magic and miracles. Perhaps the closest we get to such differences is between Warcasters and Warlocks in Warmachine and Hordes, or perhaps the distinct way the ritual magic of the Tomb Kings differs to magic of the other factions in Warhammer.

I am really looking forward to using magic in games of Confrontation, given that I have the expert warrior-mages of the Inquisition, the warrior-monk Misericorde of the Lodge of Hod, the Technomancy of Sasia Samaris for the Dirz, and the miracles of the Vicar of Dirz. Lots and lots to try out!

Confrontation Decapitation

In this blog post we will look at the interesting combat system of Confrontation 3rd Ed.

The player who won the Tactical roll for the round gets to split the Frays. Essentially this means models are paired off with combatants, such that every model ends up in combat with at least one other model. While technically a simple problem, it can become very involved when lots of models are in contact with each other.

With the Frays split, the player won the Tactical roll decides which fight to resolve first, and then the opponent picks the next fight, and so forth.

Each combatant gets 1 combat die, and another 1 per opponent the model is fighting.

Each player picks one of their models involved in the fight to make an Initiative roll. The winner of the roll places their combat dice into attack defence after the loser of the roll.

This is where Confrontation gets interesting!

Dice placed in attack are only used to perform attacks. Dice placed in defence are used to deflect attacks. Winning the Initiative can be very important for calling your opponent's bluff in combats involving many attackers against a lone defender.

The player who won the Initiative roll in a combat gets to make the first attack roll. In the case of the attacker having many models, they all make one attack. This of course uses up an attack die on each model. So long as a model has an attack die, they must attack. Attack rolls are then made in an alternating manner.

When there are many attackers, and a model has more than one attack die remaining, the model makes an attack against each opponent. Of course in the case of their being less attack die than opponents, the attacker chooses whom to attack.

Each round of attack roll is called an Exchange.

If a model has defence dice, then the player can declare their use against attacks. The attack roll is made, D6+ATT. This has no difficulty to beat. A roll of 1 is a natural fail. The defender then makes the defence roll. D6+DEF. It must equal or beat the total of the attack roll. A roll of a 1 is a natural fail.

A special case is a sustained defence. This can only be used when the model has had as many dice placed in attack as in defence, and the model is down to the last defence die. When it is announced, the defence test increases in difficulty by 2, and if succeeded the attack is parried and the die is kept in defence. All subsequent defence tests work by the same manner, with the penalty to the tests accumulating. So a second defence roll is at +4 difficulty, then +6 etc.

Wounding follows are previously discussed in the blog.

At the end of a combat there are opportunities for pursuit movements, and also there are further rules and abilities to allow dice to be sacrificed to allow for killing blows.

And that is combat! It is somewhat more involved than Warmachine and Hordes, and more involved than current 40k and Warhammer rules. It is a bit more comparable to the 40k 2nd ed rules for combat, but even then, not even that had rules to choosing to defend or attack. And I feel, for a skirmish game involving 6-12 models aside is pretty cool, and gives the sense of trading blows and parries. Compared to 2nd Ed, this system is far simpler, but for Rag'Narok, the combat system sits in between the two editions of Confrontation.

Next time I will give more of an overview of magic and divine acts.

Confrontation Perforation

In this blog post we will have a look at the rules behind how ranged attacks are performed and wounds are dealt.

Wounds from hits are rather simple. Roll 2D6. The lower determine the location. The higher of the two dice is added to the attackers strength (or for a ranged weapon the strength of that weapon), and the resilience of the target is then removed. This determined the wound level inflicted.

There are 5 wound types. A Stunned wound causes -1 to Aim, Attack, Defense stats and damage rolls. This wound remains for a turn and when inflicted never increases the level of the current wound. Light Wounds are like Stunned, but permanent unless healed. Then there are Serious Wounds, that are same expected with a -2 modifier, and with Critical Wounds dealing a -3 modifier. Wounds of a more serious nature supersede the current wound. So model that has a Light Wound, if dealt a Critical Wound, is now at the Critical Wound level. If the wound dealt is of a lower or equal level to the current wound level, then the wound level of the model is increased by a degree of severity. Stunned results of course do not do this to current wounds, and the Stunned result is not cumulative with current wounds. However a Stunned result has to be marked because it can influence other powers.

Line of sight for shooting is simple enough. Models have a 180° line of sight to the front of their bases. LOS is blocked by obstacles and models that intervene, if that model or obstacle is larger than both the target and the fighter shooting. A target is partially visible if the obstacle or intervening model is smaller than the target or the fighter shooting.

Firing a weapon of course relies on the fighter's AIM value, which is 0 or higher in order for them to be able to shoot. Weapons have three ranges listed, which mark the limits of short, medium, and long ranges. These ranges set the base difficulty of the shot. If a model moves it makes the shot harder by +1. If the target has moved under cover, the shot is harder by +2. If the target is at a different altitude level (flyers can enter different altitudes), the shot is harder by +2. And if the target is in cover, the shot is harder by +1.


Next time we will look at the wonderfully different and somewhat complex issue of close combat.

[Battle Report] Hybrid - The Heroes' Twilight

Laboratory SO25 - Part 2

There are still some surprises in store for Ambrosius as he throws himself hell-for-leather into the exploration of laboratory SO25. AS his troops are setting the charges that will destroy the lab once and for all, he hears moaning in the distance.

Ambrosius uncovers a secret passage, and steps inside. Many old friends and battle companions who he believed were dead are imprisoned there, waiting patiently for someone to free them from their morbid destiny. But still the guards must be vanquished.

So the last mission of the boxed game! Final battle!

The Griffin player (this time me) is limited to a total rank of 7 and 5 models. The Dirz player (Ben) has a total of 8 in rank and models. I'm going to be outnumbered or there is going to be some big monster.

Griffin:
Venerable Ambrosius
Misericorde
3 Purifiers

Dirz:
Aberration
Tiger of Dirz
Keratis Warrior
Neuromancer

Yeah, lots of big monsters!

I start the game with just Ambrosius and Misericorde entering the board from the entrance on the left of the map. The other models are in the cells highlighted blue. They're locked in until a model activates objective 1. Objective 2 will open the exits to the top of the map, through which I need one model to escape.

Taking the lead, Ambrosius enters the board, and quickly makes a direct route to Objective 1, and is soon chased by the Aberration. Misericorde, while a formidable warrior, chooses to ignore the monster in her way, and runs past looking to defend Ambrosius. The other Dirz creatures and clones are on their tail, while the Neuromancer (alone in the chamber to the bottom right, while all the other Dirz fighters started in the top chamber) went to activate the event counter nearby. A swarm of insects filled the laboratory, hampering any attempts at using firearms. Not good for the Griffin.

The Dirz got the lead, and the Keratis warrior chased after Ambrosius and inflicted two wounds upon him (backstrikes!) using his massive sword and the vile tentacle that erupted from the warrior's back. Ambrosius turned to face his opponent and moved back, opening the door before firing his gun. He missed (not surprising with all the bugs and wounds he was suffering from). Ambrosius called upon a holy blessing of Fortification. The Tiger of Dirz stalked off down the corridor, looking to defend the exit from the lab.

Misericorde moved to fight the Keratis warrior. She missed with Hauteclair, but empowered by the aura, she was ready to block the door and so defend the old man. She held her ground as the Aberration roared through the small door and lashed out at her, tearing into her arm. The force should have sent her flying and shattered her bones, but the aura allowed her to stand strong.

Misericorde took the lead and moved about the Keratis warrior, circling him. She had donned a blessed pendant, and with her holy sword smote the Keratis warrior. The Dirz creatures lingered in the dark, seeking to prepare for the Griffin warriors to escape. Ambrosius tried to use a healing aura on Misericorde, but it did not work, and so she shouted for the old man to go release their comrades.

Soon enough the Griffin warriors were free, with Misericorde holding the corridor with her rifle at the ready. Soon enough their released comrades were there, rearmed, providing covering fire for each other. One Purifier rushed off into the dark and found the leaver that would open the exit.

With his comrades covering him, and the growling of the Tiger just beyond the door, Ambrosius called upon the aura of Fortification, and one of the Purifiers ran out, hoping to escape and bring reinforcements. A crossbow bolt missed his head, fired by the Neuromancer that lurked with the Tiger. Escape was so close, and he could hear beyond the large door the hulking Aberration.

Misericorde saw her chance. She raised her blade to the sky and invoked Merin to bless her. Her wound was staunched and she darted out and face the Tiger of Dirz. She raised the sword high once more and flames erupted from it, scorching beast and Neuromancer. And then with the burning blade she cut down the Tiger! A Purifier followed her and rounded on the Neuromancer. The Dirz fighter was now surrounded.

With few options left the Neuromancer tried to fight on, but failed to harm either warriors. Even the foul excretions from his skin failed to harm his opponents, and soon enough Misericorde had slain the cloned psychic. All that remained was the Aberration. And Griffin warriors had plenty of ammo!



Wow. Well that game at first felt really tough for the Griffin. Ambrosius took a beating but Misericorde, combined with the aura, was a rock. Able to face down the Aberration (who easily could have dealt her two wounds in that first hit!). But with only four opponents to face, and keeping Ambrosius alive and focused on releasing the Purifiers, I soon had the team gathered together, making the most of the fighters and their conviction and auras.

In hind sight Ben could see that he needed more fighters to separate and knock out Ambrosius. Also, given the way the mission starts, a fighter could have chased Ambrosius and used a skilled movement to prevent him moving (or even Misericorde) and slow down the race to the objectives, and so give time for other fighters to get in the fight.

Well, that is all for the next few months as I move country. I will blog more about Confrontation and Rag'Narok, and then, hopefully in June, Hybrid will return, as we delve into the missions of Nemesis.

Confrontation Initiation

Confrontation is a skirmish based wargame by Rackham. The models they made are 28mm, and highly stylized, so the extent that the artwork and miniatures are practically one for one matches in every way.

Confrontation, in the first two editions, provided the rules for the models by two means. Firstly, almost as a standard adopted by other companies in the day and age, the models were supplied with all the reference cards to make use of the models in games. This meant a stat card, and a number of extra cards that may gives rules on special items, magic, or even campaigns to play, plus card counters to represent health levels and mana gems. Additionally, the rules for Confrontation were provided as small booklets. The core rules were of course within the "Confrontation" booklet, with other booklets, often provided with the relevant miniatures, containing the the rules for magic, war machines, and more.

Confrontation 3rd edition had two boxed sets. A starter set that included a number of models and the quick play rules, and the Initiation boxed set, that contained a number of models and the soft back version of the 3rd edition rules.

Miniatures in Confrontation come on square bases, much like Warhammer, with movement measured in centimetres - this is a French game after all, but then the measurements are all in 2.5 cm increments i.e. inches.

Lets first look at a stat card for a model, as these cards have two purposes - rules and stats, and determining the order of model activation.

Looking down the left hand side of the card are a number of emblems. The first is Movement. This is the movement rate of a model if it walks. Running means a model moves at double rate.

Next down is Initiative. This is used to determine the order in which models fight, and thus who gets the advantage when allocating combat dice.

The next emblem is Attack and Strength values. So the first number is the ability of the model to strike opponents, and the second number is the strength of any hit in close combat.

The next emblem and pair of values grouped together is the Defence and Armour, which of course rate the ability of the model to block attacks and resist them if struck.

The ability of the model, if armed with a ranged attack, is the next emblem down, called Aim.

Following the Aim emblem, is the Courage emblem. The value here measures a model's ability to resist the urge to flee and cower in the face of a terrifying opponent. If this symbol has the colours reversed, then the fighter has a Fear rating instead, and so can cause models to flee.

Finally, the last value is Discipline, and rates a model's abilities to perform complex tasks.

In the Equipment list, are of course the names of armour and weapons the model wields. Some of these may have important properties, and of course lists the ranges - short, medium and long - and Strength of ranged weapons.

The Abilities, well, list the abilities of the fighters, these being certain properties that will make the fighter unique and more skilled in certain conditions.

Under that we have the Rank of the fighter. This can have certain implications to how fighters are influenced, and the symbol on the bottom right hand corner also represents the rank - though rather abstractly in no memorable manner. The number in the bottom right is the Army Point, A.P., value of the model.

The picture above gives an example of a magic user, primarily a mage. The rank symbol bottom has a small number about it. This is the power level of the mage. This is the maximum number of mana gems a model starts the game with, the maximum a mage can have when mana gems are recovered, the base value used for magic incantation rolls, and double this value, is the maximum intensity, when summed together, of all spells a mage can known in game - spells of course having different intensities. Warrior Mages differ in that they can only have their power value as the maximum intensity. Mages can have any combination of mana gems (Light, Darkness, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Neutral) so long as they are a mage in command of those elements, as noted in their abilities.

Above we have an example of a priest. These fighter call on the power of gods. Their rank emblem has three values about it. Go from the top, in an anti-clockwise manner, we have rankings in Creation, Alteration, and Destruction. The ranks in each of these will represent the maximum skill they have in each of those aspects, and thus the Miracles they call must have aspects either equal to or lower than the respective value for the priest. The summed value of these aspects give the priest's Faith. This is the base value used for rolling the Divination test when calling upon a miracle. This sum of the aspect values is also the starting Temporary Faith, which is used to power miracles. More T.F. is obtained in each round based upon the rank the priest is, and the number of followers of their god that they have in range. These points are then lost as miracles are called upon.

To finish this introduction to Confrontation let's look at starting the game, and thus the turn sequence.

Games are played using forces that have a summed A.P. that is typically equal. Based upon the A.P. level of the game, there is a maximum number of fighters that be used in each force. a 100 A.P. game has a maximum of 5 models a side.

The game consists of the following phases:

1. Strategic.
2. Activation.
3. Combat.
4. Mystical.
5. Maintenance.

In the Strategic phase fleeing fighters are rallied. The each player must prearrange a deck of their stat cards. Characters are represented by their own respective cards. Otherwise a card of a fighter type represents up to three models. The arrangement of the cards of course is done in secret. This adds an element of the unknown to how the game will unfold. Of course it can be that one side has more fighters than the other, and more cards.

Once the cards are arranged, a Tactical roll is made. The roll uses the Discipline of the commander of the warband, with the highest D6+DIS winning the roll.

In the Activation phases the winner of the Tactical roll has the "lead". This player may:

• Draw a card from their pile and activate the fighters it represents.
• Draw a card from their pile and place it in "reserve" for later activation.
• Draw a card from their pile, place it in reserve, and also activate the models represented by one or more cards held in reserve.
• Activate the fighters for one or all the cards in reserve.
• Draw a card, activate the fighters, and activate one or all of the fighters using the cards in reserve.
• Pass the turn.

The winner of the Tactical roll can have at most 2 cards in reserve at any one time, while the other player has at most one card.

To pass a turn a player must have less models in play. They can only pass the turn if they have less cards in their deck.

For now we stop there. As we can see, Confrontation has a very interesting, double blind, turn sequence. The use of the reserve pile can also be used to coordinate devastating charges, while also blocking counter charges. This is quite the departure from the typical alternating turn sequence - as it has more forward planning - and of course is very different from the typical "I Go, You Go", of Warhammer. Rackham makes this approach to turn sequences a key feature of all their games, where the order in which models are activated is involved, but adds a deep, tactical aspect to the game. Bluffing is clearly important in the games.

Next time, we shall look at what happens when a model is activated.

[Battle Report] Hybrid - The Invisible War

Laboratory SO25 - Part 1

The Knights of the Lodge of Hod have uncovered a laboratory that is proving especially difficult to destroy - the lab SO25. For an unknown reason, the warriors created in this laboratory appear to have some form of social organisation and are able to coordinate their attacks to repel intruders. Venerable Ambrosius assembles his finest warriors: time is running out and all this agitation will soon attract the attention of the authorities.

Everything must be destroyed immediately.

This is a show down - last man standing.

Griffin:

Venerable Ambrosius
Knight of the Lodge of Hod
Darkness Hunter
Purifier
Executioner

Scorpion:

Sin Assyris
Dasyatis Clone
3 Hybrid Clones
Dawn Warrior

The warriors of Hod entered the laboratory, while the clones spread out, seeking what resource may aid them.

The Dasyatis, commanded by Sin Assyris, roared and barrelled forward, smashing doors aside, as the elite clone followed.

Having taken up a defensive position, Sin Assyris fired his alchemical pistol, Asp, at Ambrosius, as the old man emerged from the gloom. His shot was true and wounded the old man. Sin knew that more fighters would be on their way, aided by the aura the holy warrior radiated, and so he motioned for the enormous war beast to block the door.

The Knight and Darkness Hunter pushed past the injured Ambrosius, with the witch hunter rapidly firing with his pistols. The cloned war beast bellowed with rage, and was soon attacked by the Executioner. The monk darted before the best, slashing with his consecrated blade. The Dasyatis retreated.

The Knight of Hod was out flanked by the Dawn Warrior, the two swordsmen engaging in mortal combat. The Purifier, perhaps impetuously, though empowered by the holy auras of Ambrosius and the Knight, emerged from the chamber and fired upon the war beast, hoping to slay the monster. But, his shots did not hit home. Sin Assyris took his chance and attacked. One of the Hybrid clones entered the chamber, and a remorseless evil made the creatures eyes blaze with rage. Luminous chemicals were pumping through the Hybrid's veins, causing it to grow in stature. It charged forward and hacked away at the Purifier, and in turn the Dasyatis clone did the same, slaying the holy warrior.

The Knight of Hod landed a series of blows on the Dawn Warrior, slicing the genetically engineered fighter apart. But, as soon as the Dirz clone died a crossbow blot fired from the Hybrid that lurked in the gloom, piercing the blessed armour of the Knight. The Executioner needed to give the Darkness Hunter a clear line of sight, and had already sustained an injury. He stood a better chance against the other Hybrids, and not the beast before him. He charged past the Knight and towards the Hybrid he had just fired upon the Knight, but was unwittingly caught in the crossfire and slain by another crossbow bolt.

The bestial Hybrid charged forth, and in the mass of combat in the claustrophobic chamber, the Knight, and soon after Ambrosius, were dead. The Darkness Hunter, grievously injured had no choice but to flee.




So this was quite a simple mission for Hybrid, but none the less quite a fun one. This game saw a number of new figures used (Darkness Hunter, Sin Assyris, Dasyatis Clone), and quite a few new cards in play turn up, plus some rather deadly combinations of auras and mutations and event cards.

For example, the "Offensive Combat Kit" was a great card used to upgrade Sin Assyris to really make him a threat, boosting both his close combat and defensive abilities. "War Chief" was also a great card for the Griffin, allowing a fighter to activate, and then the next two in the sequence. Such a means to break the turn sequence can be potentially devastating.

The Griffin were also rather lucky with their aura cards. Two figures had access to auras, and they allowed the Griffin to benefit from excellent buffs. To start let's note that only one figure, the Purifier, had the aptitude "Conviction", which gives that model a +1 to the skill level for rolls, if the model is within 8 squares of the leader of the group. But, one of the auras used by Ambrosius was "Aura of Conviction", which gives all models in aura range (2 squares from Ambrosius) the Conviction aptitude, or increases it by 1 if they already have it. Coupled with the "Aura of Bliss" used by the Knight (models in range get a +1 on the skill level for rolls), it made the group, so long as they stayed together, rather powerful.

Likewise, the Dirz force benefited from an event card that turned one of the Hybrid's in to a killing machine, and a mutation that made Sin Assyris very fast moving.

Over all a great game, that again could have gone either way at any moment, and also showcased some of the cool abilities of the models.

On the Table

Finished Limbo of Acheron; Ghouls, Chagall the Hound of Darkness, and Zombie Wolfen

From start to finish, S'erum