Warhammer: The Horus Heresy 3rd Edition- Game Thoughts

 When it comes to mass battle games, Warhammer really is the only thing that does it for me in terms of accessibility and gameplay. I've been playing a bit of 40k lately with Eldar and a new Krieg army I've been working on for some Siege of Vraks action, and some very sporadic Old World games, but my main foray into the worlds of Warhammer is in the realm of the Horus Heresy with the multiple armies I've put together over the last 4 years. 

For a game that boils down mostly to Space Marines fighting other Space Marines with a couple of armies on the side, I must say Heresy really makes the most of what it is. With an edition change that's been controversial to say the least, I do genuinely think that 3rd has taken all of the best bits of the previous 2 editions and made it into something unique as opposed to just a carbon copy of old 40k with a few small tweaks. The addition of initiative modifiers to melee weapons is really great to have a more granular system in melee (which I'll share my gripes with later in this piece) and the detachment system makes for more thematic army building, if a little convoluted in terms of learning how to work it out. Once you've figured it out though it's easier than ever to tailor your list to a specific theme without even needing Rites of War that you would've needed before.

This isn't to say the game isn't without its flaws, as any game has. The Weapon Skill chart is the biggest thing, as the jump from WS4 to 5 is huge, and swings melee massively as opposed to the older chart that pushes penalties for hitting higher Weapon Skills to needing a higher difference. I honestly think simply replacing the current 2nd/3rd ed chart with the older 1st ed chart (which is also the same chart in Old World and older 40k editions) would go a long way to making combat feel a lot closer and not the massive disparities that it currently has. Another thing I find a little annoying is the focus for needing units with Line or Vanguard, although you'll almost always have some of these units it is still basically mandatory to have some in order to keep up in scoring from your opponent. This has been something especially apparent for my own Knight army, where I've needed to add Solar Auxilia units as house-guard to be able to claim objectives at all. I do really enjoy the variety in list building though, and I am a person who played entire armies without scoring units in 2nd ed so it isn't a huge issue, but something I've had to factor in with my list building to take a couple of Tactical Squads, Lesser Daemons or Solar Auxilia to get some objective play.

The move from GW across the board in terms of Specialist Games moving from bigger book releases into small journals I think is fantastic, as you can pick up specific books that are relevant to you at a lower price point (and carry around smaller books) if you don't want all the rules. The journals for Heresy do all have some really cool alternate missions in them though, with Zone Mortalis and the armoured missions being something I'm particularly keen to try out as I have tons of vehicles between my Dark Angels and Knights. I'm sure this is something we'll get back to when I get the chance to play the missions, I'll make sure to get some Battle Reports out!

My own personal armies are Dark Angels (my earliest gaming love, and something that's always stuck with me), Emperor's Children and Imperial Knights in what have both become hybrid 30k/40k armies. I love them all for different reasons, but they're all things that I've enjoyed modelling and painting, and although my game time with them has been decidedly less in 3rd ed compared to the dozens of games of 2nd I played, I still love all the games I have. 

My Dark Angels are the stoic defenders of the Imperium, not caring about their own casualties or that of anyone in between them and the objective, focusing mainly on the horrific weaponry of the Dreadwing or the mass vehicular assaults of the Ironwing as those are the aspects of the legion I love the most- Angels of Caliban's opening scene with the Dreadwing armoured assault is what sold me on this build specifically. 

My Knights are House Vyronii, as the feudal background really resonated with me (something I leant into when adding Solar Auxilia for house-guard in 3rd edition), they were a natural addition lore-wise to my Dark Angels and I really like the metallic green colour scheme. Win or lose with them it makes sense as well, as Vyronii take part in some of the most brutal betrayals and horrific battles of the Heresy, so losses and pyrrhic victories are what I love to see on the tabletop as it really reflects their lore. 

My in progress Emperor's Children on the other hand are a late-Heresy, fully traitor army with a ton of Kakophoni/Noise Marines and various marines in stages of corruption as they turn from the purple into a chaotic pink. Fulgrim and a bunch of Slaanesh daemons cap off this army, marking them as very different to my loyalists in both look and feel. All of these armies I had a vision for, and set out to achieve that more than any specific gameplay purposes, and I can say that I am proud of what I have achieved in terms of the story the armies convey.

Fallout Wasteland Warfare- My Thoughts

 Another game I've been playing over the past couple of years is Fallout Wasteland Warfare, the narrative-based game set in the nuclear wastelands of Fallout. I really love the Fallout universe in all its forms, so this game is something I delved quite far into both through the official miniatures and a ton of third party 3d prints. I've got quite a bit of my own miniatures for this (and one very large one) so everything I've attached as pictures is from my own collection.

A big thing to note about FWW is the fact that the game uses specialist dice, in the vein of a Fantasy Flight game like Star Wars Legion or X-Wing. The game uses a variety of dice, but they basically boil down to the success dice (used for every roll other than armour or crits), the armour dice (used to prevent damage), the luck dice (used for special effects, and is just a coin flip), and the extra dice added for specific rolls to change effects of things. Of these there are black (bonus damage), yellow (armour penetration), green (accuracy modifiers) and blue (random effects, the least common of the 4). While this may seem like a lot to keep track of, they share a lot of common features and when rolled in a bunch they can pretty easily be read which is nice, as it takes away from the intimidation factor a bit. I do generally speaking prefer games to use regular dice of whatever form (be that d6, d10 or d20 I've played and enjoyed all of them) but the dice system in FWW is a part of the uniqueness and I don't begrudge the game for it at all, although it is something to note when it comes to accessibility. I'm also not entirely sure how this is changing for 2nd edition, so this is very much a note for the 1st edition of the game specifically.

What I really love most about the game is the scenarios are for the most part designed around set pieces or quests from the games with some tweaks to make them work for a PVP tabletop wargame. The Fallout 76 wave in particular is of note here, as all of the scenarios are based around specific raids from that game which I find really cool from a gameplay point of view. The campaign books are also really great for a linked series of games, where the results of the scenarios either affect specific scenarios ahead or the final scenario of the campaign (the New Vegas campaign for example all affect the Battle of Hoover Dam scenario) so one player can still win a campaign even if their opponent wins the first 4 games. It also means it doesn't necessarily have to be the same 2 people playing the whole campaign, and different people can tag in and out to play different scenarios with their own factions. The one other thing to note is that a significant part of these scenarios use specific models, so to play everything you will need to own quite a lot and have a pretty hefty collection. That said though, with how varied the scenarios are and the variety in model choice you can have a lot of very different games.

My favourite factions on the tabletop are the same as my favourites in the games, both in theme, models and gameplay. I really enjoy the playstyle of NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel, both with smaller models to run objectives and elite heavy hitters to take out enemies and tank hits. Both NCR Veteran Rangers and Brotherhood Paladins are the stars of their factions, and a lot of fun to play. I also really enjoy Robots as a faction, although they're likely to go away with the upcoming 2nd edition changing factions, as the idea of a single controller (usually The Courier for me) buffing and manipulating a series of robots to function better is really mechanically interesting and fun to keep on top of. 

Carnevale- Game Thoughts

 Carnevale is quickly becoming one of my preferred tabletop skirmish games, dripping with flavour and incentivising some really cool terrain layouts that I've been enjoying getting into a lot. I've owned models for the game for a few years now, but with the new MyMiniFactory Tribe a few friends have also gotten in and I've gotten a lot of terrain printed for the game, so we can play properly the past few weeks. You may have seen in my recent Trench Crusade Battle Report all the Venetian terrain I've been working on, as it works for that game as well and I've been getting a lot of use out of it.

The first thing I've come to notice about Carnevale is how unique it is, partly in terms of flavour and partly in terms of gameplay. The vibes of the game in terms of how it represents Venice really feels perfect, as the table itself is balanced around land, rooftops and the canals. Some factions favour the water, with extra speed and immunity to being drowned, while some hate getting wet (the armour of the Vatican knights in particular is a real liability in water, but a massive strength on land) and the ability to throw someone with a gun into a canal to stop them shooting is a really nice alternative to killing them outright. Other factions however much prefer being on the rooftops, with rooftop traversal being far easier for these factions and extra bonuses for attacking from above. All of this combined means immersive tables is best, and there's so many ways you can put things together in ways that are really cool and thematic. The focus on terrain is something that although it was the biggest barrier for entry on my part for a while (I was working on my table for a few months before it actually got put together and played on) once you have a core of terrain it's really easy to play around with and modify with a couple of other pieces to make something awesome.

The scenarios in Carnevale and how they work is also quite interesting, as unlike most games you don't write a list until after you know the scenario you're playing. This is somewhat similar to Malifaux, which I've played for a decade now and I've posted quite a lot about, but with the difference you don't know what your opponent is playing on paper (although in practice you often do based on the nature of people's collections). This lets a player with a bigger collection tailor their list to any given scenario, so you can't end up locking yourself out by taking things that can't climb rooftops when all the objectives are up there for example, or things that can't move far in water with water based objectives. This is a clever way to make sure players can both tailor to the scenario in ways that will benefit them, but also in a way that means someone doesn't accidentally show up with a list that is favoured in a scenario where there opponent is screwed because they built a different list type. The other thing with scenarios I really like about Carnevale is the linked campaign system, with most campaigns involving a series of 5 scenarios following on from each other. These campaigns don't actually care who wins the first 4 scenarios which stops someone from running away with a campaign early on, but the result of one game does affect the next one, giving the winner a slight bonus in the next scenario. This is similar to the campaign system from Fallout Wasteland Warfare, another game that I've really loved the scenario system from. 

I've really delved deep into the Rashaar as my faction of choice, as one of the things I tend to gravitate towards in miniatures is fish cultists and sea monsters, something Rashaar have in spades. I love the mix of alien monsters from another dimension with their cultists and I've collected quite a bit for the faction already. I'm tossing up between Patricians, Guild and Doctors at the moment for a 2nd faction but I can't settle on something I really love as much as Rashaar

Trench Crusade- My Thoughts

 Where else should I start other than by saying since I've started playing it during the Kickstarter period about 18 months ago, Trench Crusade has become my gaming love. There isn't any other game I'm enjoying anywhere near as much right now, and I recently flew down from Sydney to Melbourne to attend Arcfest for 2 days just to play Trench and meet Tuomas Pirinen, the mastermind behind it. This is to say that none of what I'm writing here is objective, and there is a lot of personal bias behind my thoughts as I really do love the game.

The key to the game is how simple it is- you roll 2d6 and need 7+ for successes, and 9+ on injuries to kill enemies. There's a lot more nuance when it comes down to modifiers and looking into scenarios, but at the heart of it the gameplay loop is incredibly simple and easy to pick up. Generally speaking every faction have basic troops with 0s for bonuses (some have negatives for real cheap chaff), some better troops with +1 in either melee or ranged and then proper Elite models that can have multiple bonuses to stats (Leaders always have +2 or even +3) and can gain experience in campaigns right off the bat. Elites are where your fun is going to be most of the time, but I've found a lot of the better basic troops to be the thing that really draws people in from a purely vibes based level. It's the War Wolves, Artillery Witches, Stigmatic Nuns, Brazen Bulls and Mechanised Infantry that draws people in more than anything. The thing is though that there really isn't any wrong way to do it, as most factions and most playstyles give a fairly rewarding experience and are definitely fun to play. 

Expanding a bit on what I said earlier, the modifiers for success and injury rolls are where the game really comes into its own in terms of the gameplay loop. Whether or not to spend Blood Markers (Trench Crusade's mechanic instead of having wounds on any models- everything is as easy to kill as any other for the most part) on an enemy's success rolls to make things harder for them to achieve, or save them to try and kill them easier is a real choice, although usually it is better to make your opponent fail actions as that is where scoring will come out. The Risky Action mechanic is something to note here as well, as failing a regular action simply means you fail and can continue the activation, while if you fail a Risky Action then your activation immediately ends. This can often end up being incredibly punishing (failing a Dash is likely the biggest gamble in Trench Crusade) but what it usually means is you save Risky Actions until last, so you can do as much as possible.

In a really unique thing compared to most other skirmish games, Trench Crusade doesn't have models with a lot of wounds so that your warband sticks around longer. If you roll a 9+ on a damage roll then the target is dead, end of discussion. Armour plays a factor in this, as well as a few other less-common rules that give negatives to injury rolls, but for the most part killing something is as easy as rolling a 7+ then a 9+. This does mean armour is an absolute must on important models, but even things that are super hard to kill will usually get stacked with Blood Markers that can be used in their own mini-game as I mentioned earlier. Even if you aren't killing something outright, you're almost always putting down Blood Markers or even knocking enemies prone, both of which are important debuffs that you can also use to benefit yourself to achieve victory.

Something I've noticed a lot of people question is the lack of trenches in Trench Crusade. To this I'll say that the game and the world isn't entirely made out of trench lines (just like the 40k universe isn't made up entirely of L-shapes) and there is a ton of scope for tables of all varieties. The game rules specify 3 different setups, all of which are able to be mixed but also built entirely separate to make really immersive tables-

• No Man's land (where most scenarios should be played) with a mix of trenches, ruins, hills and broken natural features
• Decimated Ruins in the ruins of towns and villages. These tables will be the most evocative of Mordheim styles of terrain, and indeed Mordheim terrain is perfect for these boards
• Trench Lines are the table most people expect, with the board being criss-crossed with trench lines and barbed wire, dotted with ruined tanks and bunkers.

The variety in scenarios for Trench Crusade is also something I really appreciate. Although not as massive in scope as some of the other games I've been playing recently, there are still a lot of scenarios and each one operates pretty differently. From simple claiming buildings and looting objectives, killing the foe (or hunting heroes specifically) to hunting a rampaging dragon or storming a beach there are a lot of different ways to express the medieval crusader/WW1 mix of vibes that Trench Crusade has. I haven't played every scenario because I'm missing a couple of the more unique models that I need, but I'm working on getting those done so I can play everything and adapt them into my campaigns.

The campaign system is also a ton of fun, and I really like the way that things end up working out in terms of a narrative. My last campaign for example I had a Trench Cleric become possessed from an injury while fighting a Trench Ghost warband, which I felt was incredibly thematic, and the possession got him facing more injuries as he was forced into danger. He then got a skill while at 2/3 injuries to increase his limit before death, only to get injured again the next game and survive as a result. It's those little things that help in creating your own narrative behind the games and what happens in them that really make campaigns great I think, and the exploration options are really flavourful and often quite useful in what they give. I did have a campaign where almost everyone found a Book of Golems, which was quite funny to see all of them running around afterwards!

I've played and have warbands for every faction currently, and some factions multiple. My real loves though are Red Brigade New Antioch and Heretic Naval Raiders, as they really gel with the style of play I like. Close ranged, high speed and hard hitting but somewhat fragile, it's a playstyle that I lean towards in almost every game and will likely continue to. Plus Red Brigade lets me take a bunch of dogs and that's a huge plus for any wargame. 

Malifaux- My Thoughts

Hi again all! Keeping the theme of other recent posts, I've put together my general thoughts on Malifaux, a game that I have played for the past 4 years quite heavily. You'll find below pictures of a few of my painted keywords, and for a few of them links to tacticas that I have written. 

Von Schill and the Freikorps

The game of Malifaux has a really great setting in my opinion, and it is this that drew me to the game in the first place. It is an alternate history Weird West/Gothic type game with almost any kind of character archetype you can think of in it- you have military units and mercenaries, crime syndicates, gunslingers, Lovecraftian monsters, demon-esque creatures and necromancers to name some of the most prevalent things in the game. Malifaux itself is an alternate dimension that is connected to Earth via a giant portal known as the Breach, through which colonists and criminals alike are sent to this new frontier to make a living. The totalitarian Guild enforces the law Breachside and manages travel through the Breach, while other powers act to undermine them and carve out their own little niches. The game itself focuses on specific powerful individuals in the world, known in-game as Masters, and the groups that follow them while they work to achieve their goals. For some it is complete domination of Malifaux and beyond, while others have simpler goals like maintaining a fragile peace, saving their homeland from imperialist humans or simply making as much money as possible.

Tara's Obliteration Keyword

The game itself is played on a 3x3 table and uses a fairly heavy amount of terrain (officially 30-50% of the table should be covered, the sweet spot sitting at around 35-40) but the main draw is the complete lack of dice other than maybe to track things like wounds. It instead uses cards, and is mainly a stat+flip system. This means a lot more variance than dice, and leads to 2 kinds of duels, opposed and simple, that work slightly differently but still overall the same way. Simple duels you simply need your stat+flip to equal or beat a target number to succeed, and are mostly things that either summon new models or buff your own things (although models can force enemies to take simple duels for things like Terrifying or Shockwaves). Opposed duels are just that, opposed, and involve both sides flipping cards and adding stats (both the action stat and the opponent's resist stat to use will be written on the specific action you're using) and are mostly attack or debuff based. The difference in the final duel totals determines how you then flip for damage if successful, with greater chances of higher damage coming from greater differences. Damage works off of a 3 stage track with certain levels of cards corresponding to higher damage (weak, moderate and severe) with the Jokers as extremes on each end (black joker is always 0 damage, red is severe+1, although the black must always be taken if flipped).

The Viktorias and their Mercenary cohort

The other big aspect of the card system is through cheating, and how it acts to reduce the variance of card flips. Each player has a hand of 6 cards, which is drawn at the beginning of each turn and can be modified through special rules, that they can use to either replace flipped cards ("cheating") or to resolve abilities that require cards to be discarded. A big part of the game is also in forcing the opponent to discard cards, with many control-based models tearing through opponents' hands. This, as well as other modifiers, stops an opponent from cheating (because they've got no cards) and leaves them at the whim of the deck so they are forced to use whatever they happen to flip. It's a great part of the game because hand management is so important, and even if you have a hand of all low cards you can still use it for discard effects and you still guarantee you don't flip them during the turn.

Ophelia and her Kin

The scoring system in Malifaux is also very often detached from simply killing the opponent, and has a scenario mechanic that I really love in how variable and interesting it can be. The cards flipped for attacker and defender also determine the deployment and what is known as a Strategy, with the players' cards' suits deciding these. Deployment is self-explanatory, there are 4 types of deployment that affect how crews will function, while the Strategy is a kind of scenario that both players will be working towards. Some revolve more around killing enemies while others are focused around zone control and claiming markers in specific positions, so the 4 Strategies bring a lot of difference in how you will play to achieve them (and because you build crews after Strategy and Schemes are decided, you can build towards scoring them). The second system of scoring is through Schemes, which are decided by flipping 5 cards and checking their numbers. Although 5 are given, players can only choose 2 to work towards for their points, so it is both a game of choosing the Schemes you are best suited towards doing but also because these are secret until scored you have the added mind game of trying to play around your opponent. This balance of trying to score your own while not trying to make it too obvious to counter and also trying to guess what your opponent is doing and stop them is something I really love and adds a whole extra dimension to the game. The fact that 13 Schemes and 4 Strategies exist leads to a huge amount of variance in any given game, and I love how you will almost always have to adapt lists to the specific permutation of both scenario and the opponent's leader to judge what they are trying to accomplish.

Parker Barrows and the Barrows Gang

Malifaux works on an AP system in how you use models, with every model except your leader (and every master you hire) having 2AP. Masters and Leaders get 3, and there is a generic list of fairly generic actions like walk and charge but also things that are more game-specific like interact (where you interact with something on the table to work with your scenario). Other than that each model has specific actions on their stat cards that will tell you how they work and what they can do so it's all in a fairly easy place at the side of the table to reference. The system can be controlled by certain crews (adding/reducing AP from models to change the flow of the game, locking things in combat with chaff so they waste AP) and managing your AP and model count is very important.

Jack Daw and the Tormented

A couple of the other important parts of the game are keywords and soulstones. Keywords are how you hire your crew, with the crew's keyword matching that of your leader, and in general you will have far better crew synergies in keyword than out so you will want a decent amount of keyword models for almost every master (some will want the full list, others only a couple). The keyword system also allows for hiring at the printed model cost, because all other models in-faction will come at a +1 cost for being out of keyword unless they are Versatile (think faction generic stuff). It also allows hiring out of faction, as anything that shares a keyword with your leader can be hired regardless of faction and thus opens up some more options and "gateway drugs" people into new crews and new factions through shared models (I've certainly fallen for it big time). Soulstones are only able to be used by the more powerful models in your crew rank-wise, and come from your leftover points after building a list (capped at 10). These can be used to add suits to duels, give bonuses for your duels or negatives to your opponent and to reduce incoming damage and as such are usually a really important part of your game plan. Depending on the crew you may need only 1 or 2 because you can generate more, or you take a crew that wants upwards of 6-7 stones to run at their strongest but this depends on a lot of variables.

Misaki's Last Blossom

The biggest thing you will notice about a game of Malifaux is the amount of markers. These are used to track wounds and conditions like any other game (dice are fine here) but also different kinds of markers affect the game in different ways. Some models can create special kinds of markers for their crew that act as terrain (the various pyromancers create pyre markers, Titania and her Fae create Underbrush) or have other special effects (blown apart markers destroying nearby cover), corpses and scrap appear when models die (and can be used by other models for their effects) and in general markers will be very common on the table as a game progresses. The most important though is the scheme marker, which at their simplest allow you to score points when placed in the right places and play to your schemes. They are easily the most important and most universal type of marker (everyone has to place schemes at some point) and as such every Malifaux player should use them.

 

In general, Malifaux is a game I really love to play and is super deep and engaging. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying it out, although keep in mind “I only need one crew to play” is almost always a lie and you will end up with way more crews than you expected to have. That tends to just be a fact of the game, and is by no means a bad thing because it means you have a far more interesting experience in the long term. 

DC Universe Miniatures Game- My Thoughts

As kind of a double feature with my thoughts on Batman, I decided I'd do a companion piece to write up my thoughts on the DCU game also made by Knight Models. This one will be a bit less in-depth given the simpler nature of the game, but I still hope to convey my thoughts and give an accurate idea of how the game plays.

Unlike Batman which is far more objective based and tactically deep, DCU is more of a beer and pretzels game that often becomes brawls between characters and a lot of throwing. The game is quite fun and a great way to get your favourite characters on the table, with it having a wide variety of the more powerful individuals in the DC Universe plus a bit of overlap with some of the more powerful BMG models or ones who are known to compete with bigger heroes (the entire crew of Lex Luthor in BMG is usable in DCU for example).

Combat is quite simple yet somewhat unique, as it uses a mechanic of "2 dice versus defence stat" much like Warmachine/Hordes but it uses D8s which is far less common in wargaming. It does allow for a great spread of variance though as results have more ability to swing than D6s which adds to the nature of the game. Models also have 4 different defence statistics, which might seem like bloat to an outsider but in reality dictates the terms of the game and adds a greater strategy to it as some characters will be tough to damage with physical or energy attacks but will in turn be susceptible to magic based attacks (this example describing Kryptonians). It means you will want to have things with all kinds of attacks but also a variety of higher defences in your list so you can cover your bases and try and mitigate a rock-paper-scissors scenario where the opponent's list has all the tools to completely counter you. Under the 4 attack types (mental, physical, energy and magic, of which physical and energy are the most common) you also have some sub-types, with energy attacks having the most meaningful ones in Kryptonite and fire. These and the attack types themselves are things models can have resistance to, and thus take reduced amounts of damage from, to trigger the rules for weakness which doubles damage and removes resistance entirely and as such is a great way to deal with the more damage resistant characters should they have weakness. I really love this mechanic because as I mentioned before, it adds a level of needing to cover all bases instead of just having a straight up damage-based list and you will have to work towards countering everything your opponent can put forward.

There is also a level of resource management in the power system and how you spend your power on any given turn. Everything you can do costs you power, and so you have to make sure you have enough to get where you need to go (higher distances of movement costs more power- speedsters and flyers have 3 levels instead of the usual 2 so are significantly faster) and to do what you want when you get there. Depending on how powerful your attack you will need more power to initiate it, and you can overload by spending 1 additional power to add an effect to the attack, usually an extra dice. Characters also have their own special powers with different costs, and there is the ever-present grab and throw that functions as its own special attack that anyone can do depending on their strength (if you're stronger you can throw bigger things like cars and buses instead of just other models).

As for what I don't like as much about the game, that is the scenarios. While there are some great and flavourful scenarios, there tends to not be enough emphasis on actually scoring points this way and it is often just easier to slam your enemies around the table by throws and punching them out. While this is thematic for some teams it isn't for all, and I tend to like more scenario based play instead of just straight brawls. It's something that has been addressed a bit in the physical rulebook, but still not really to an extent I would say makes the game amazing.

Batman Miniatures Game- My Thoughts

Hi everyone, continuing the posts detailing my general thoughts on various games I play I thought I'd put up something talking about the main one for me- Batman. I am a huge DC Comics fan and as such BMG grabbed me a long time ago, and I love the gameplay of it as well as it has evolved through editions.

The gameplay of Batman is something I really enjoy, because it isn't entirely based around fighting your opponent and has a lot of objective based play to it, especially in 3rd edition. Each crew assembles a deck of 20 cards, and it is only through achieving these cards in game that they score points so a player must build their deck towards what their crew is hoping to achieve. At this point there are currently a lot of crews without specific cards that are stuck with a generic deck, although each month brings new releases and more decks for crews so things are being pushed into the 3rd edition standard. This standard is also very good in that it adds a huge amount of theme and varied objectives into different crews, and each crew have very different game plans for how they want to score points which is something I like a lot. Players also assemble a deck of 4 plots which are more overarching objectives that give you things to achieve in game in order to gain a greater bonus (mainly in free actions). There are possible cases where players will have objective cards stuck behind plots they can't fully score which can be a bad time, but a skilled player will use what they can to mitigate this and to put lower-scoring cards behind the plot where possible (or just build their plots to be easily achievable as early as possible).

Batman and Crew

The second level of variance that I really like in BMG is the event and deployment decks, which are smaller but add dimensions to the game. The event deck is similar to Warcry's twist deck, adding small extra things to the scenario you have to play around (heavy rain restricting shooting or a fire burning through the streets) while the deployment deck is as simple as it sounds but with some cards adding more extra little tweaks to the game. The combination of these adds tons of variety and a lot of tactical depth to how you play around these which I find really great.

Model activations are based around 2 systems- audacity and effort. All models get a single action each turn to choose from movement, tactical action (attack or manipulating, which tends to be things that will score you points) or special action (anything that isn't one of the above). Audacity gives you all 3 at once, but you are only limited to 4 models with an audacity marker at any time so higher model count crews will have to make do with less actions on some models. There are ways to boost this up through traits giving additional actions, but audacity allocation at the start of every turn is an important part of the game because of the limited nature of what you can perform. Effort is a system based around damaging yourself to reach greater effects on certain actions, and is based around the stun damage mechanic. Effort lets you take a stun damage to do things like add extra dice to your melee attacks, take away from your opponent or even in some cases dodge ranged attacks coming at you. BMG has 2 kinds of damage, stun (which knocks you out once you fill your willpower stat) and blood/injury (which kills you once you cap out your endurance). Both affect the effort rule in different ways as blood reduces the amount you can effort as it accumulates (starts at 3 effort per activation, but it goes down for every 3 blood on you) and stun simply stops you using effort because you get closer and closer to being KO the more you do it. As such effort is a careful thing to manage, especially against crews that do primarily stun, and is something you need to work around but also keep track of.

Combat is pretty simple in how it works, and is based around both the attack and defence stats (duh). In melee the attacker rolls dice equal to their attack stat, with the defender's defence being what they need for each dice to hit (so defence 4 is a 4+ to hit). Then the defender will roll their defence stat in dice needing to beat the attacker's attack stat and each success they make will cancel a single hit of the attacker. Any remaining attacks deal damage equal to the damage of the attackers weapon or a single stun damage on regular unarmed attacks (which some traits will affect- Batman punches harder than a thug after all). You also get a strength dice which is an unblockable hit, needing your strength score to damage or on a 6 achieves a crit, which will normally knock down an opponent but can have special effects ranging from extra damage and effects to straight up instant killing the opponent.

The League of Assassins

Shooting in BMG is something that is very strong, mainly because it can never be blocked like melee can, but also greatly controlled. If you can get your full amount of shots off in a turn and land hits the target will probably die, but movement and cover will reduce your rate of fire in ways that mean you will not be shooting that much (often just 1 or 2 dice if at all). Stronger shooters like Deadshot or snipers will have ways to get around these, but with a steep cost or lower amount of shots so they are quite literally hit or miss. Guns are also restricted by having limited ammo throughout a game, so on average you will only be shooting half the time and can't keep blasting away all game.

The game demands a somewhat higher level of terrain than most, both in terms of amount and in size, but that is also something to admire because it leads to some really good looking tables. Bigger buildings add a 3d level to the game and enable rooftops and fire escapes as another dimension of movement, while various bits of scatter terrain like bins, cars and barriers are easy enough to move around while still providing cover from guns and a way to keep yourself safe on the way to where you need to go.

Overall BMG 3rd edition is a really solid game that has improved from what has come before in a big way in my opinion. The move away from static objectives and towards the deck-based game leads to a lot of variance and tactics and completely removes the "sit on my objectives and not interact with the opponent" that 2nd edition often became which is a really healthy move for the game. It is definitely my favourite game for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I find the play style fun and because it is a quick game to get set up and finished.

Warcry- My Thoughts

Starting to talk about yet another new game, I've been interested in Warcry since it launched but am only really getting into it in a big way now. I've now painted my Untamed Beasts warband and a Chimera, with a Gloomspite Gitz warband on the way as well as the starter set terrain.

Like a lot of people, I started with the starter set when the game first launched. I was really excited to look into the side of Chaos that Games Workshop had forgotten about a bit and the stuff that wasn't necessarily aligned to any specific god, and Warcry was all about that. I'm also a really big fan of tribal/caveman aesthetics, so seeing the Untamed Beasts get announced meant I was already going to be interested in the game. Once the starter came around I sold off the Iron Golems but kept the rest, built it all day 1 and then sat on it for a while, doing the same with Monsters and Mercenaries and the Chimera. Lately though I've been more keen on getting into the game and actually playing cause I have everything I need for it, so I started by painting up the Chimera purely on a whim (I wanted to paint a monster, so I did) and then this week the Untamed Beasts themselves. I can't really get a game in given the circumstances, but I'm working on setting up my terrain so I can play a few quick games of Beasts vs Chimera to get the hang of how the game works before I can put it into practice (because I am likely the one who will be teaching my group how to play, so I want to make sure I'm not doing it wrong).

The game itself is really quick and pretty intuitive IMO, with a simplified combat system (not dissimilar to Batman 3rd edition but even simpler) but not so basic as "hit stat and wound stat" like the mainline GW games (I personally prefer a bit of variance based on the opposing models' skills). The scenario generation reminds me a lot of Malifaux or Batman in that it is randomly determined based off of flipping different decks, and although some of the win conditions are really unbalanced playing with the Matched Play cards only makes for a deep experience that most players can adapt to in order to get success. I've found that the cards are of varying usefulness though as I don't use terrain cards at all (instead just agreeing on a layout with my opponent) while the victory and deployment cards are vital to the game and I love the silly variables the twist deck throws into the game and the narrative feel they add (plus they give an extra angle to play towards which rewards a cunning player).

The later release waves brought more warbands for the AoS armies (and with them some new boogeymen- looking at you Skaven) but also far more interesting is the monsters and allies that got added. I have my Chimera as a monster option to add flavour to pickup scenarios and give some variety, but I'm also seriously considering the newer kits for the ally creatures as they are beautiful sculpts. To me the worldbuilding that comes off of adding brand new warbands (like the newer Scions of the Flame, they're amazing looking) and new creature options is far better than adding in options that already exist from AoS, because it has more meaning for the setting and adds to the lower levels of the world instead of being the same big armies appearing all the time. I'm primarily a Matched Play person because I really dislike one sided games on principle, but the narrative aspect of Warcry is still the main draw to me because it really is interesting.

In general Warcry is another game I've added to my stable of quick and just all around fun games which are qualities that I find myself gravitating towards more and more (Batman and Arena Rex are the same kind of thing in that they're done in less than an hour). I love skirmish level games because it's low model count and a new purchase can be an entire faction instead of a small part of a full army, and that I can paint an entire warband or crew in a relatively short amount of time and get them done. I'm planning some more in-depth looks at Warcry warbands in the near future as well as a solo battle report or 2 (making the most of monsters for solo games!) once I get my terrain painted up.

Arena Rex- My Thoughts

Something a bit random today, I've decided to write up an overview for the game Arena Rex which is one I really love for thematic and gameplay reasons on top of the gorgeous sculpts. It's been a while since I've played a game so I may be slightly rusty on the exact rules, but my overall thoughts on the game still stand.

The game is made by Red Republic Games and can be found here. It's a great little game based around combat between opposing cohorts of gladiators in an alternate-history world where the Roman Empire is fractured into a bunch of smaller states and each have their own cohorts to represent them. Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt are all represented in these ways with their own special rules as well as a traditional gladiator band and a group of combined Vikings and Native Americans which help add to the uniqueness of the setting (America is Atlantis as far as they are concerned). It is also possible to play a cohort of wild animals with their beastmaster or the dreaded Gorgons as their own factions although these have their own playstyles and are somewhat different mechanically to the rest. The miniatures themselves are beautiful boutique resin pieces in roughly 35mm scale, they don't require huge amounts of cleanup or gap filling and for more problematic pieces (mainly spears and whips) they provide metals instead of resin so as to avoid warping or snapping. Below you will find my own Helleniki warband with most of the original models for that faction, which are some of my favourite sculpts in the entire range (I prefer ancient Greece to Rome in general, something reflected in my university studies as well).

In terms of gameplay it is a super simple skirmish ruleset that is based off card count over any specific points system. Cards are incredibly well-balanced and usefulness of certain models tends to come from synergy with others (what may seem like a bad model with one thing may be amazing with another) and they still have a system of having "stronger" models like many of the wild animals and Gorgons by giving them 2-stage cards- this means they count as 2 models for list building so a 3 model Gorgon list is in reality a 6 card list- and these cards reflect how these models get weaker as they get injured (or in some cases angrier and more unruly). The other things of note in the ruleset are the uses of terrain (you don't use huge amounts of terrain, but they are known as "hazards" which fatigue, damage or even outright kill models pushed into them) and the favour and fatigue systems which forces alternating between models in your own cohort but also adds a degree of resource management that all players need to keep an eye on. Fatigue can be gained to boost your own actions (which themselves are limited to set numbers) or to take extra during your turn, while they can also be gained to react to opponents in their turn in a variety of ways. However, fatigued models cannot do as much as fresh models and the opponent gets bonuses against them, while the worse step of exhausted is almost a death sentence in most cases. This is what plays into the resource management of the game as you want to play with fatigue for as many bonuses as you can but you don't want to get caught out with too many exhausted models or else you will suffer, so fatigue management becomes a big thing to learn (mainly when and where to remove fatigue to keep yourself activating for longer). Favour is the other resource to play with, and basically becomes extra dice to add to your attack or defence pools that become extra successes over normal dice or can pay for special abilities on model cards that require favour cost. They are limited in how many you get though, and often the only way to get more is to take damage on your own models so it's another thing to be careful about when and how you're using them.

The combat system in Arena Rex is the biggest part of the game and encompasses all the rules I have already mentioned. It’s pretty simple in that attacker rolls their Atk stat in dice, defender rolls Def stat in dice and each 4+ each player rolls becomes a net success. Defender successes cancel attacker’s successes, and if the attacker has any left over they consult their damage tree. Each success is one step down the tree and you can choose to go any direction down it but you are forced to go down one branch (no jumping across). There are different results on the tree with different effects but the main ones can all be seen on the example of Hermes below- numbers are a damage number, the straight arrow is a push (1” for each result of push, which also does 1 damage and attacker can then follow), gain a favour with a wreath (same symbol as on the health track which is also favour gain) and the circular arrow lets you move and lose fatigue but you must end your activation. Looking at Hermes he may choose with 4 net successes to start either with 2 damage or a push, although either one result in 2 damage on the 2^nd success that can then be chosen as either 2 damage or a push, but also optionally to sacrifice all further successes and gain a favour. If he was to choose the damage or push he could then use his final success to deal another 2 damage for a potential 8 (which is then reduced by the defender’s Arm stat). There are some other more advanced rules that can be involved with combat (biggest being counterattack as a reaction) but that is generally the main sequence of the game.  

The last thing of note is the way scenarios are played. Most involve some degree of zone control and are quite simple last man standing type deals (or rather, first to have uncontested zones so you can wrestle and force someone out without killing them outright), monster hunts or “bodyguard” type missions where you have to protect a specific model while your opponent tries to assassinate them. Games often go for 30-45 minutes and play really smoothly so it’s a good side game to play when you want to space out longer games during a games day. In general Arena Rex is a really great game and quite thematic (you really feel the sense of gladiator combat and every action has an impact) so I would recommend it to anyone.