Monday, March 16, 2020
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Captain Con And Reflections On Convergence
I just got back from Captain Con yesterday and it was an absolute blast. I haven't been to a convention for about 4 years, and I was extremely excited to get back to one. This was my first Captain Con and I had only heard good things from my friends who've been going the past few years.
It definitely lived up to the hype and was exactly the kind of con I'm comfortable attending - not too big or too small. It was mainly a Warmachine convention with roughly about 100 players attending, though there was a sizable (over 32 players!) Guild Ball event run by the Liberty Guild Ball group that plays at Showcase Comics in Media PA. There was also a AoS tournament but that only had 8 players, where as Monsterpocalypse pulled in 16 players.
Add in role playing, demos, and everything else and we're looking at about 200 people which is just the right size in my view.
What to play?
All of the people I traveled/roomed with were all in on Guild Ball and I was completely hyped for Warmachine. I was set to play in Champions on Friday for WM, and since I didn't get on a team for the New England Team Tournament and was scheduled to play Guild Ball on Saturday. I put my name in for the waiting list and managed to get on a team with some great guys from Montreal and got to play Warmachine all weekend.
On one hand I was a little sad to only play a single Guild Ball game against a friend in a pickup game, but on the other I was just completely hyped to play WM.
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
Ironically I'm still hyped to play WM and Convergence, despite the fact that I lost nearly all of my games. The first take away from this is that I need more experience. My old habits and experience from when I was playing more regularly don't hold up, and the rust didn't just shake off. I haven't been able to get more than 2-3 games a month the past three months because of work/family and it showed really hard in my play at the con. I am far more out of practice than I realized.
There were a few games where I could have easily won had I remembered to spawn a servitor off my Axiom to contest scenario, or didn't rush through a turn after a phone call from my kids because my clock was low and I failed to position my shield guards properly - but even where I didn't really have fun (I got bottom of turn 1 assassinated by Sloan where he basically had to go for it otherwise he'd have a hard time on attrition), I learned WTF I should do in that game properly.
Nearly every time I've played Orion before this weekend it was into a melee list, never into a gun list and so I wasn't properly prepared. On the plus side, the guy who got me is someone I've listened to on podcasts quite a bit and when he heard I had lost one of my casino dice, he ended up giving me some of his that were the same color. Super nice guy and shout out to Dan Riker and the Battle Driven folks.
So I took a bunch of beatings, but morale is improving. I ran the following lists:
Champions
Convergence Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Clockwork Legions
[Lucant 1] Father Lucant, the Divinity Architect [+28]
- Corollary [6]
- Diffuser [6]
- Diffuser [6]
- Galvanizer [5]
- Galvanizer [5]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [4]
Frustum Locus [4]
Clockwork Angels [5]
Obstructors (max) [11]
Obstructors (max) [11]
Reciprocators (max) [18]
Reductors (min) [8]
- Transverse Enumerator [3]
Reductors (min) [8]
- Transverse Enumerator [3]
Theme: Destruction Initiative
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Iron Mother Directrix & Exponent Servitors - WJ: +27
- Iron Mother Directrix & Exponent Servitors Cont.
- Corollary - PC: 6
- Prime Axiom - PC: 38 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)
- Mitigator - PC: 7
- Mitigator - PC: 7
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex - PC: 2
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Attunement Servitors - 3 Attunement Servitors: 0
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
New England Team Tournament
Theme: Clockwork Legions
2 / 2 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Father Lucant, The Divinity Architect - WJ: +28
- Corollary - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Conservator - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Inverter - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Diffuser - PC: 6
- Conservator - PC: 12
Enigma Foundry - PC: 0
Enigma Foundry - PC: 0
Enigma Foundry - PC: 4
Enigma Foundry - PC: 4
Obstructors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Obstructors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Reciprocators - Leader & 4 Grunts: 18
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Theme: Destruction Initiative
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Eminent Configurator Orion - WJ: +28
- Corollary - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Assimilator - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
- Assimilator - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Assimilator - PC: 16
- Assimilator - PC: 16
- Cipher - PC: 16
- Diffuser - PC: 6
- Galvanizer - PC: 5
Attunement Servitors - 3 Attunement Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex - PC: 2
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Conservators in Lucant print money and threat far with the Diffuser and have native pathfinder. At ARM20, they're hard to shoot down under decel and they almost always can be positioned to where they'll get Righteous Vengeance triggered in a CL list. I'm debating just running 3 Conservators + Diffuser and Corollary in my Battle group and trying to make the list work. There's definitely a lot of room to experiment.
It definitely lived up to the hype and was exactly the kind of con I'm comfortable attending - not too big or too small. It was mainly a Warmachine convention with roughly about 100 players attending, though there was a sizable (over 32 players!) Guild Ball event run by the Liberty Guild Ball group that plays at Showcase Comics in Media PA. There was also a AoS tournament but that only had 8 players, where as Monsterpocalypse pulled in 16 players.
Add in role playing, demos, and everything else and we're looking at about 200 people which is just the right size in my view.
What to play?
All of the people I traveled/roomed with were all in on Guild Ball and I was completely hyped for Warmachine. I was set to play in Champions on Friday for WM, and since I didn't get on a team for the New England Team Tournament and was scheduled to play Guild Ball on Saturday. I put my name in for the waiting list and managed to get on a team with some great guys from Montreal and got to play Warmachine all weekend.
On one hand I was a little sad to only play a single Guild Ball game against a friend in a pickup game, but on the other I was just completely hyped to play WM.
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
Ironically I'm still hyped to play WM and Convergence, despite the fact that I lost nearly all of my games. The first take away from this is that I need more experience. My old habits and experience from when I was playing more regularly don't hold up, and the rust didn't just shake off. I haven't been able to get more than 2-3 games a month the past three months because of work/family and it showed really hard in my play at the con. I am far more out of practice than I realized.
There were a few games where I could have easily won had I remembered to spawn a servitor off my Axiom to contest scenario, or didn't rush through a turn after a phone call from my kids because my clock was low and I failed to position my shield guards properly - but even where I didn't really have fun (I got bottom of turn 1 assassinated by Sloan where he basically had to go for it otherwise he'd have a hard time on attrition), I learned WTF I should do in that game properly.
Nearly every time I've played Orion before this weekend it was into a melee list, never into a gun list and so I wasn't properly prepared. On the plus side, the guy who got me is someone I've listened to on podcasts quite a bit and when he heard I had lost one of my casino dice, he ended up giving me some of his that were the same color. Super nice guy and shout out to Dan Riker and the Battle Driven folks.
So I took a bunch of beatings, but morale is improving. I ran the following lists:
Champions
Convergence Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Clockwork Legions
[Lucant 1] Father Lucant, the Divinity Architect [+28]
- Corollary [6]
- Diffuser [6]
- Diffuser [6]
- Galvanizer [5]
- Galvanizer [5]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [0(4)]
Enigma Foundry [4]
Frustum Locus [4]
Clockwork Angels [5]
Obstructors (max) [11]
Obstructors (max) [11]
Reciprocators (max) [18]
Reductors (min) [8]
- Transverse Enumerator [3]
Reductors (min) [8]
- Transverse Enumerator [3]
Theme: Destruction Initiative
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Iron Mother Directrix & Exponent Servitors - WJ: +27
- Iron Mother Directrix & Exponent Servitors Cont.
- Corollary - PC: 6
- Prime Axiom - PC: 38 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)
- Mitigator - PC: 7
- Mitigator - PC: 7
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex - PC: 2
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Attunement Servitors - 3 Attunement Servitors: 0
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Theme: Clockwork Legions
2 / 2 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Father Lucant, The Divinity Architect - WJ: +28
- Corollary - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Conservator - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Inverter - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Diffuser - PC: 6
- Conservator - PC: 12
Enigma Foundry - PC: 0
Enigma Foundry - PC: 0
Enigma Foundry - PC: 4
Enigma Foundry - PC: 4
Obstructors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Obstructors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Reciprocators - Leader & 4 Grunts: 18
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Theme: Destruction Initiative
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Eminent Configurator Orion - WJ: +28
- Corollary - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Assimilator - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
- Assimilator - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Assimilator - PC: 16
- Assimilator - PC: 16
- Cipher - PC: 16
- Diffuser - PC: 6
- Galvanizer - PC: 5
Attunement Servitors - 3 Attunement Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Elimination Servitors - 3 Elimination Servitors: 0
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex - PC: 2
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
List Reflections
The Lucant list I played in Champions was given to me by a better known player, and I piloted it rather poorly. I had much better success with my own version of the Lucant list that I played in the Team Tournament, though that very well could be because I'm more familiar with that kind of Lucant CL build rather than the no-heavies version.
I don't know how much I like the no-heavy version of Lucant in CL, in fact after the weekend I'm more inclined to try and run less infnatry and more heavies. I doubt this has anything to do with the list itself power wise vs. how I prefer to play.
I think I want a max of 20 Obstructors and then take either Reciprocators or Eradicators as a center unit, and then fill the list out with more heavies. Reason being that taking a ton of small based units gets hard to cover them sufficiently with Enigma Foundries when you have to spread out due to scenario or the center piece of terrain forcing a split in your forces/Foundries.
I think I want a max of 20 Obstructors and then take either Reciprocators or Eradicators as a center unit, and then fill the list out with more heavies. Reason being that taking a ton of small based units gets hard to cover them sufficiently with Enigma Foundries when you have to spread out due to scenario or the center piece of terrain forcing a split in your forces/Foundries.
I had already learned that I need a Diffuser in my lists which worked great, and a CL list with 3 heavies + Diffuser and a skimpier selection of troops may be enough to push it over the edge. Sadly the troops don't seem to do too much and since they're with Lucant, a canny opponent can use terrain to shield their heavies. When I lost with Lucant it was due to simply missing a way an opponent could land an assassination, or just dropping him into the wrong matchup (Siege 1).
Conservators in Lucant print money and threat far with the Diffuser and have native pathfinder. At ARM20, they're hard to shoot down under decel and they almost always can be positioned to where they'll get Righteous Vengeance triggered in a CL list. I'm debating just running 3 Conservators + Diffuser and Corollary in my Battle group and trying to make the list work. There's definitely a lot of room to experiment.
Iron Mother's list is solid and performed well and I simply need some more practice to get a bit better experienced. It also hurts when you're dice off 6 for an Backlash assassination and so you boost damage, only to roll 17 on the dice and leave the jack with not enough boxes left for the backlash to work. Also I should probably write "SPAWN YOUR SERVITORS" on my hand before the game starts. There's also the mistake of getting way ahead on attrition and camping 0 focus, forgetting Vlad2 can get rid of the cloud blocking LOS to her and getting her assassinated.
Orion also has legs and I just need more practice playing him into a shooting opponent rather than a melee one. I think either he or Lucant CL is the best drop into Tharn. I actually dodged Circle all weekend, but I suppose being in the losers bracket most of the time will do that.
Going Forward
Because I'll be doing a lot of work travel on the other side of the country later this year, this was likely my only con for 2019. I hope to make it to more local Steam Rollers and to get in at least two Scrum leagues before I start travelling heavily. As much as I want to be competitive, I really feel a calling towards playing Aurora and Syntherion as something fun to play. I honestly hate not having Pathfinder in my infantry lists and I'm wondering if there's not some fun tech with Ciphers with Aurora. From a competitive standpoint I'm thinking about spending more time playing Locke who looks both fun and competitive.
The key take away for me is that I'm staying set on playing Convergence this year. Legion and Trolls are appealing, but I'm enjoying painting the rest of my Convergence army and I just want to stick with them since I feel like there's a lot for me to explore and learn.
The key take away for me is that I'm staying set on playing Convergence this year. Legion and Trolls are appealing, but I'm enjoying painting the rest of my Convergence army and I just want to stick with them since I feel like there's a lot for me to explore and learn.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis/Mega Drive)
| Developer: | Sega | | | Release Date: | 1991 (1990 NA) | | | Systems: | Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear |
And the Super Adventures award for 'Ugliest Title Screen of 2019' goes to... that picture up there. Sorry Keio Flying Squadron 2, your title screen may be pretty ugly, but you've been outdone by this indistinct grey mess.
This week I'm playing Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, known in Japan as I Love Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Oshiro DaibÅken. Me, I'm indifferent to Mickey Mouse. I never watched his cartoons as a kid and I didn't play his games, so he's always been roughly on the level of Ronald McDonald in my mind. But as far as Disney logo symbols go, he's second only to the Sleeping Beauty Castle!
Castle of Illusion is the first game in the Illusion series, which is pretty much four games and a remake, and I've never played any of them! Well okay, I've probably put a couple of them on for five minutes each, but I've got no nostalgia for them. On the other hand, I did play another Mickey Mouse Mega Drive platformer for the site a few years back called Fantasia, which was... not good. I can't blame Mickey for that though (plus it was by an entirely different developer), so I'm going to give him another chance to win me over here.
Read on »
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Reminder: Transfer Season Ends 28 February 2020
 |
| It is only through being a member of an affiliated club, that a player may earn a spot in the National Protea Team. |
MSSA, only allows this, unless in exceptional circumstances, to happen in the period 1 November to 28 February.
The reasons for only having one transfer period is to:
- Create stability in in both clubs and teams
In the past, gamers were known to 'clan hop'. While this at the time may have rewarded certain players with immediate gratification (in sponsorships, prize-money, etc.) it did nothing to allow a club to fully develop the gamer. If a club is not sure about the length of time that a gamer will be a member of the club, the club is more likely to abuse the gamer's skills and not further develop the gamer. So it has been in the past where MSSA has seen some gamers move from one club to another as soon as the club offered the gamer that little bit more.
Teams that also stick together, learn how to deal with each other as a group, deal with problems, and work better as a team.
- Rationalise membership
In terms of MSSA's Constitution and Regulations, a Registered Player may only represent one club. The club that the Registered Player may represent is the first club that the Registered Player joined in the season. Such club is then known as the 'first claim' club and only such club may enter the person into championships or count his/her membership for voting rights.
Thus, MSSA's records apropos membership do not show 'double-dipping' as a Registered Player may only be shown as a member of only one club and are quite accurate.
- Ensure sustainability of clubs
The strength of any association remains its members. Since it is the clubs that are the members of MSSA, it is vital that MSSA protects and develops the clubs themselves. By regulating the movement of players, clubs are better able to budget and plan for how they want to develop themselves.
Thus the transfer 'window' is now open. If you as a player want to transfer your allegiance from one club to another, do it before 28 February 2020...
Also read:
- Ensuring gender equity in esports.
- MSSA celebrates its women who have earned Protea Colours.
- Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
- How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.
- The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
- Why schools and universities should invest in esports
- New National Team Selection Criteria
- Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
- The road to Eilat
Character Developments
Roll Player had intrigued me for some time, but it's done by a small publisher who primarily uses Kickstarter so availability has been spotty since it came out in 2016. I finally got a chance to play it at a convention earlier this year, and was instantly hooked, so much so that I bought a copy right then and there.
The game features a game board for each player denoting one of the standard fantasy races such as elf, dwarf, or halfling, plus a few more esoteric choices like minotaur or cat person. From there players are dealt a random set of character class cards from which they choose their profession, a backstory, and an alignment.
Game play revolves around randomly choosing 6-sided dice from a bag, rolling them, and then taking turns choosing which ones to add to the different statistics on your character sheet. The number rolled on the dice is important, but so is the color -- your profession tells you what range of numbers you want, and your back story (as well as other factors) tell you what color and where on the sheet you want to place them.
After dice are chosen, players choose from a row of equipment cards which further enhance their characters, with specific equipment and skills being more or less suited to specific types of characters. Among the choices are skill cards that adjust your character's alignment (their moral compass) when used, as well as trait cards that give a point bonus at the end of the game.
These two phases are repeated 12 times, at which time all the players will have a full player board. Points are awarded based on how well optimized the character is, with bonus points for placing the the right colors of dice in the right places on your sheet, acquiring equipment and traits best suited to your character, and getting your alignment marker placed in a way that suits your alignment card.
It's a well-designed engine-building game, and I find it a bit more compelling than empire-building games like Race for the Galaxy because I'm building and individual character and equipping him (or her) for adventure, rather than a more abstract empire of planets and starships. An expansion adds the ability to fight minor monsters, building up experience in order to face off against a big bad at the end of the game, but honestly I find that addition a little distracting; I would rather just spend time building my character.
Rating: 5 (out of 5) a terrific game that's compelling but reasonably simple to play and not overly competitive, making it a great choice for a casual game night.
- Roll Player official website
- Roll Player on BoardGameGeek
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