There’s a rule that most Monopoly players don’t know about, which we remember a cousin telling us about when we were but a wee lad. The rule states that if someone opts not to purchase an available property after landing on it, then it is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Not having ever played with the rule, it came as a shock to us, but once accustomed to it, it becomes immediately evident just how much the rule adds to an otherwise straightforward game. Critical Miss talks about the rule and why early Monopoly players chose not to keep using it, resulting in a Monopoly rule-set passed down verbally that doesn’t even acknowledge the rule’s still right there in the instructions.

We, gamers as we are, might think a game featuring lots of inter-player shafting is superior to one without. But Monopoly is, and always was, played not by gamers, but by families; and inter-player shafting is liable to cause all sorts of upset… Somewhere along the line someone said, “Let’s just leave out that stupid auction rule; we’ll have much more fun that way.” …parents want to play a crippled game of Monopoly because they’re too scared to teach their children how to deal with interpersonal conflict…

It’s a solid theory of why the auction rule vanished from the Monopoly hive-mind, but if it’s accurate, it says a lot more about American parenting and culture than it does about protecting fragile young emotions from the evils of board game strategy. That’s because the kind of inter-player shafting that can result from something like Monopoly’s auction rule is highly prevalent in European board games, which unlike their American counterparts, are based less on chance and more on player skill and strategy. The reason board-game enthusiasts love games like Settlers of Catan, for example, is because European board games almost always have some degree of player interaction, while typical games of Monopoly are mostly about rolling dice hoping to get lucky. There’s no skill in the latter, whereas the former requires haggling, player manipulation, and in most games, a degree of bluffing.

The dumbing down of American board games may make little children less apt to cry because they can quicker learn to understand how chance screwed them versus getting screwed by their own family, but how much of that attitude results in American children growing up with incredibly thin skin? Much like how Europeans don’t put up metal guard rails on the side of every mountain road, European board games don’t coddle their players, and instead teach them how to survive in a world of danger. Even if a few crying sessions happen at an early age due to being screwed out of some play-money in a board game, Nietzsche’s rule is apt, here. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

There’s a difference between protecting our children and teaching them how to survive, let alone teaching them the difference between friendly competition and familial loyalty. Suffice to say, if removing Monopoly’s auction rule was an intentional dumbing down of the game just to keep a bunch of whiny youngsters happy, then it seems we’ve been on a slippery slop of poor parenting for quite a long time, considering the game is over 100 years old.¹

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We got rid of our World of Darkness (WoD) books a couple years ago; we stopped playing games in the WoD setting years before, and while we held onto our WoD library for sentimental reasons, the success of the revised (new) WoD pretty much made our library deprecated anyway. So when more and more rumours of a WoD-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) hit the blogosphere, we assumed (though hoped otherwise) that the game would be based on the new WoD setting. It wasn’t until we read developer Justin Achilli’s notes about what players wanted to see in the game that we were surprised; the WoD MMOG will be based on Vampire: the Masquerade (V:tM), which is a component of the old WoD (oWoD), rather on the new WoD’s Vampire: the Requiem setting.

At first thought, we’re disappointed that other WoD campaigns won’t be featured as player characters, but the scope of implementing that kind of game is extreme: just getting the scope for V:tM is more than enough for a developer to deal with. And it’s not like the game can’t feature werewolves, mages, wraiths, and changelings later.

Let’s focus a moment on what some players want, and that’s to capture the setting accurately. The one thing that would utterly ruin a V:tM-based game is if the server population were made up entirely of Kindred (vampires). In the oWoD, Kindred hide from humans for obvious reasons, despite manipulating them from behind the shadows. And there’s no reason this can’t be emulated online.

Visiting cities, and fealty to the Prince.

Let’s assume that every server represents a city and its surroundings. Going beyond that, you’d enter a different city, and thus connect to a different server. But straying away from your city should be risky, or at least not be obstacle-free. However the game decides it, be it via a particular system, developer-run characters, or simply sorted out by the players themselves, each city has a Prince, who rules the city and keeps tabs on all its supernatural denizens. When a player leaves their home city, they should feel like they’re in foreign territory; in the oWoD, Kindred laws require visitors to check in with their destination’s Prince, else are trespassing. An easy mechanic to handle this would be to require every Kindred character to check in with the Prince or his counsel. Only then will he be flagged as a guest (safe), and able to go about his business normally, whether that’s meeting with other characters or simply grinding through quests. If the visiting Kindred fails to check in, however, or his request to visit is denied, he is flagged as a trespasser, and everyone in the city is free to hunt him.

This does two things: one, it keeps Kindred populations down in most cities, and two, it introduces a controlled PvP atmosphere to the game, especially when you have to consider the masquerade.

Using minions, and not getting caught.

In the oWoD, Kindred don’t walk around in the sun because they’d burn. And they don’t walk around using their powers around regular people because they’d eventually get caught and… burn. The masquerade is basically the Kindred’s philosophy of fitting in: acting like a human around most people. If they don’t, they’re not only likely to be noticed by Hunters (humans who seek out and destroy the supernatural), but by other supernaturals as well.

So, we have a pretty contained system here: if the WoD MMOG has a day/night cycle, it means that free movement outside is impossible. Yes, Kindred can move around freely indoors, and maybe even get around the city via a subway, tunnels, et al. But either way, they’re limited in what they can do by day. So, limit players by how many Vampire characters they can play, but let them play several humans over time, maybe by letting them unlock human character slots as they progress through the game. These human characters would serve several purposes: ghouls, blood dolls, retainers, etc. Basically, characters that serve some purpose to the Kindred character, by supplying them with sustenance, or running daytime errands. And during the day, this can be useful; there’s no reason that these minions can’t grind quests on behalf of the Kindred character during the day, or, really, be the only ones who can do most daytime quests.

At night, when Kindred characters can roam city streets freely, there’s still the issue of the masquerade, and CCP merely needs to populate the streets, bars, clubs, et al with human non-player-characters (NPCs). Most such NPCs don’t need to be sophisticated: they’d walk around, dance, and do other banal activities. And if a Kindred character does something clearly supernatural around them, be it throwing a small car or turning into mist, then there should be repercussions. One, from other player characters in the vicinity (by immediately flagging the offending character), else by other NPCs in a Grand Theft Auto-style chase. This doesn’t have to be by lowly police officers who are called on scene, but by more supernatural peace-keepers: werewolves and mages, who themselves don’t want people stumbling upon the supernatural, and especially hate vampires.

These measures, too, will keep Kindred characters from becoming too comfortable out and about, making the WoD MMORPG a more elegant affair than the traditional hack’n slash MMORPG; Kindred characters need to be subtle around human characters, utilizing their minions effectively, and utilizing their powers only when desperately needed.

More EVE and less Warcraft.

Will CCP push elements of the irregular MMOG play-style associated with EVE, rather than focusing on “traditional” MMORPG elements embraced by games like World of Warcraft? We hope so, but in the end, it will likely be a blend of the two. Yet, a WoD MMOG has a lot of potential to break the mold, assuming it’s development team is willing to take the time to truly study the source material and understand what makes it different from typical hack’n slash roleplaying games. The end result probably won’t be a game that caters to the World of Warcraft crowd, but then again, neither is EVE, and only a fool would consider that to be unsuccessful.

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In retrospect, we shouldn’t have titled our last piece “A quickie primer on Circle of Orboros,” because it was more a response to a “getting started” article than a faction “primer.” We’ve corrected this titling scheme here, in which we’ll highlight a similar community article. This one’s by a Press Ganger and a vocal authority on the Hordes Trollbloods faction. Titled “Trollblood Toolbox,” PG_theummhmmguy outlines which units a tentative Trollbloods player should think about picking up. It’s the type of article that should be more well-advertised, and allows new players a good perspective into which investments they’d need to make. Ideally, there’d be an article like this for every Warmachine and Hordes factions.

We won’t rehash the whole article, but the gist is simple: Trollbloods require synergy between their units, because by themselves, Trollbloods units aren’t fantastic when considering their base stats alone. Trollbloods shine, however, when unit abilities are used to buff an army, increasing the army’s power, longevity, and speed. By ignoring any of these key buffs, a Trollbloods army won’t perform at peak, and therefore underperform. At minimum, then, a Trollbloods player needs to take key units that buff three stats: damage, attack, and defense. Each of these categories has numerous units that can perform a respective buff, which means that players have some fair selection in choosing which units perform buffing roles (though the Fell Caller is practically an auto-include for most lists).

The article is among the best starting advise for a WarmaHordes player, and was quite helpful in our own selection of two Trollbloods army lists. Given that such knowledge of Hordes MKII isn’t available to the average gamer without buying a faction card deck and an old copy of the MKI rulebook, this information is golden, at least until the Hordes MKII rulebook is released later this month, and the Trollbloods faction book soon thereafter. Even then, there’s no reason summaries like this shouldn’t be more accessible.

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With Privateer Press’ Hordes MKII book hitting shelves later this month, many gamers are scrambling to pick up a Hordes faction to either supplement their existing Warmachine faction, or simply to get started with WarmaHordes. While we previously settled on Khador and Legion of Everblight, we’ve gone back to our original Hordes faction, Trollbloods. That said, we’ve spent time scouring the web on the state of Hordes gameplay, and how the various factions function. Sadly, aside from very general, quasi-fluff-ridden descriptions, understanding whether a given faction’s play-style may appeal to you isn’t easy. Fortunately, there are some gems out there, such as Dark Fledgling’s take on the Circle of Orboros.

…in Circle, our Heavies do our heavy lifting (haha pun). Really though, It is incredibly common to see 2-3 heavies in a 35 point game and often 4 in 50 points with the majority of our casters. The Warpwolf trio is not only amazingly synergistic with each, other but kills what ever you throw at it. Similarly, the WoldWarden, Megalith, and new WoldGuardian are equally baller. Most casters like to take a mix of furry beasts and wolds, with the exception of the Kayas who go all furry (usually) and Baldur going all construct (again, usually).

The differences between furry Circle warbeasts and golem Circle warbeasts are interesting, especially since the latter cannot be healed by every Circle warlock. The juxtaposition between the two warbeast types are greater with Circle than other Hordes factions, requiring specific decisions to be made when building a Circle army. It’s not a concept we spent much time thinking about before we originally settled on Legion, because we weren’t really aware of it. Other factions in WarmaHordes don’t see many differences between warjacks/warbeasts other than aesthetic ones. Sure, some people like to run with heavier units, while others like to run with light ones. Legion was interesting to us because they offered lesser warbeasts, but just as unique a concept exists with the Circle, in that half their warbeasts aren’t made of flesh and blood, and this is more than a matter of fluff: it has gameplay ramifications.

If we had spent more time contemplating this, we may have taken Circle on earlier. Our only real gripe with the faction at present is that we find many of their models underwhelming from an aesthetic perspective (mostly the non-warbeasts). Aside from the Tharn, Circle units simply don’t seem to have much personality.

As far as units are concerned, there are several good ones. Any of the female tharn units are good and all have there uses, likewise reeves, wolves, and woldstalkers also all see play with varied degrees, depending on whom you ask. But, when it comes down to it, the single best unit we got is the Druids. Because our Heavies usually end up doing most of the hard work its our units job to support them, and the druids do it beautifully. Pound for pound, they are what you will go too. For solos, its all about the Lord of the Feast whom can single handily take out entire units in one turn. Strangely enough though, despite how good he is, almost all our stuff sees game time. Blackclads and our shifting stones (I consider them solos, even if they are a unit) both rock, and Morraig can simply destroy anything you throw at him with the proper support. Overall, you will find Circle is one of the more varied of factions out there, with many different playstyles available even with a single caster.

A huge testament to Circle is the number of capable units available, letting a player at least choose the better-looking models (which still offer benefits in gameplay). More importantly, though, is the idea of switching play-style not only by swapping out one’s warlock, but by being able to dynamically switch play-style mid-game, or simply with the same army build once the next battle starts.

We’re quite happy with working on a Trollbloods army for the moment, but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Circle as a faction to anyone. The guerilla-like play-style, with units jumping around the board for hit ‘n run tactics, sounds quite fun, and the thought behind warbeast selection adds just another layer of strategy that we’re keen on.

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Awhile back, using data from the Privateer Press Forums, we compiled data on which Warmachine/Hordes (WarmaHordes) factions were the most popular. This was when the release of the Retribution of Scyrah first began, so the data has obviously changed since then. Still, the afore-linked spreadsheet remained a good indication of WarmaHordes faction popularity.

iBodger, meanwhile, is a fantastic iOS and Android app for tracking WarmaHordes armies, and the software compiles a list of user-supplied armies and units, data for which is published online as the iBodger Web Service. We’re guessing that this data isn’t updated in real-time, but even if it’s only monthly, the data is very interesting, and is similar to what we compiled previously.

iBodger has about 300 more entries than our own data, but faction breakdowns among Warmachine armies, or Hordes armies, is fairly consistent. However, there are some obvious distinctions: among iBodger users, mercenary armies are much less popular (by about 10%), the difference for which is almost made up by the increase in Retribution players. Interestingly, Retribution remains the minority major faction in Warmachines, despite the fact that it seemed many players were building Retribution armies after faction units became available for sale. Apparently, space-elves aren’t that popular after all.

The Hordes numbers aren’t quite as consistent as the Warmachine ones, as our own data suggested that all factions were within 6% of one another. The iBodger data puts Skorne players 14% behind the leader, Trollbloods. Also interesting since Trollbloods are the faction generally assumed to be the worst Hordes tournament faction. Circle, often considered the best Hordes tournament faction, falls third at only 2% more players than Skorne.

When looking at the totality of WarmaHordes players, our numbers finally diverge a bit more from the iBodger numbers. The percentages aren’t off by much, but the order of factions does shift, with Mercenaries dropping from tied-at-the-top on our list to third least-popular faction using iBodger’s stats. Similarly, Circle, tied for fourth on our list, dropped to tied-for-last on iBodger’s list.

Aside from the evolution of the game (primarily because of Warmachine since moving to MKII rules), one reason for the difference in numbers can be attributed to the iBodger user-base; are iBodger users more selective than usual forum-goers, or less so? More into the tournament circuit, or less so? We imagine that iBodger users have a higher median age than most forum-goers, since using iBodger requires a somewhat expensive mobile device, whereas anyone with an internet connection and a home computer can jump on the forums. Similarly, making a forum post to chime in one what faction one plays takes little pre-planning, whereas iBodger users are investing time for a purpose: building an army. As such, forum posters may seek to play a particular faction, but may ultimately steer away from this decision, whereas iBodger stats are based on actual ownership of units.

One solid take-away from all this is the difference between a vocal minority and actual popularity. For example, Skorne players are very vocal about their faction, but it’s actually the least popular faction (tied with Circle). And, surprising to us, is that “non-tournament-capable” factions are still getting love from players. Aesthetics over gameplay, perhaps?

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We’ve long complained about toting our 17″ MacBook Pro around when we travel. The purchase was solid when we wanted a top-performing mobile Mac for gaming, with the occasional trip requiring relative transportability. Since we’re traveling more and gaming less these days, the bulk of lapzilla has caused us to look for a replacement, and we held off on picking up a used MacBook Air, or a newer (and smaller) MacBook, because we expected the iPad to show up soon. And now that it has, we’ve made some definitive decisions on how we intend to handle our computing workflow.

Unfortunately, the iPad can’t replace our MacBook Pro by itself. Still, for most computing tasks, the iPad seems to fit the bill. Like the iPhone, it has all the makings of a good internet client for most tasks. With a larger screen and the likelihood that other internet apps (e.g. chat clients) will be ported to make use of it, surfing the digital waves shouldn’t be a problem, save for multitasking restrictions which many people expect to be relieved in a future OS version (4.0?). What’s left is some method to write, and with a $10 version of Pages designed specifically for the iPad, this base also appears to be covered. This means that other text editors will undoubtedly show up on the iPad in the future (ad be useable!), to include those with syntax highlighting for developers, as well as those designed for creative writers (like our favorite, Ulysses).

With text editing and internet use out of the way, we’re left with a couple tasks that the iPad can’t do on its own (at least not in its present state).

Future iPad features?

Camera/tablet integration: We already talked about this yesterday, so won’t go into it again. Suffice to say, the opportunities for integration with other peripherals is there, be it the iSight and tablet we already mentioned, game controllers, the PowerMate, etc.

Selective screen-grabs: While the iPhone and iPod Touch have an easy method for grabbing screenshots (which the iPad will likely inherent), the method is simple: it grabs a full-size screenshot. Sure, we can open this screenshot in a photo-editing app and crop out what we need, but that’s not as elegant a solution as using, say, Skitch. Even if user-defined multi-tasking presents itself in a future OS revision, we have to remember that there will still likely be restrictions on it. While editing screenshots manually to crop out content is not a deal breaker for us, we hope Apple refines the screenshot method on its mobile devices, to allow users the option of, say, drawing out the area they want to capture (say, with a lasso tool), else simply clicking on the screen to capture it in its entirety.

Either way, the iPad should present a quick and easy way to grab parts of a screen, be it part of the OS, or possible by running an iPad app in the background (like a ported version of Skitch).

Why we still need a Mac.

iTunes: Obviously, this is the big obstacle for most people. It’s not an issue for many computer users, like grandma and grandpa, but for people already vested in the Mac world, it’s likely that there’s a media library that can’t be managed on the iPad alone. These users, like us, need a way to hook the iPad up to a core iTunes media repository, and selectively copy media onto the iPad for whatever upcoming trips or time periods are pertinent.

With no announced way for the iPad to important media from a source other than the iTunes store (and pictures/video from SD/USB sources via the camera adapter kit), the iPad may also rely on a Mac for its optical drive. Otherwise, users won’t be able to rip CDs and DVDs to transfer their media onto their newest toy.

Server tasks/file-sharing: Seeing as apps were removed from the AppStore that merely controlled BitTorrent clients that actually resided on a Mac, it’s unlikely that we’ll see actual peer-to-peer (P2P) apps in the AppStore, particularly when Apple is trying to fervently control the distribution of media via the iTunes store. Even if we could run, say, a version of Transmission built for the iPad, it’d be a little silly unless we’re using it at home via wifi. Without a jailbreak-enabled application like 3G Unrestrictor, we ought not bank on Apple/AT&T letting us download large files, and the download speeds on 3G would be pathetic anyway. This doesn’t even account for the iPad’s small storage capacity. So for those of you seeking to grab media via .torrent files or other methods, the iPad alone won’t be your savior. Same goes for pretty much any other server-related tasks.

File processing: Betwixt P2P and iTunes media management is the issue of file processing, be it in the conversion of video files so they can be played via the iTunes app, or simply unzipping them in the first place. Really, it’s simple: if the media you want is not from the iTunes store, then the iPad itself won’t cut it.

There’s also the issue of very niche apps or those that will be impossible to get through the AppStore approval process. Emulators, utilities for connecting to, say, a gaming console, or even just custom scripts for accomplishing file renaming or other tasks.

Solution?

For us, the solution is rather obvious. For the few tasks we do need a Mac for, we can run a mostly headless Mac Mini tucked away somewhere. We’ll probably just use our HDTV as a monitor for when we need to do more than handle automated tasks (e.g. updating our iPad/iPhone firmware), and access it via one of our mobile Apple devices thanks to one of the many mouse/keyboard apps already in the AppStore, else the bluetooth keyboard we’ll pick up for the iPad anyway. The Mac Mini will handle all our iTunes media management tasks, as well as whatever media processing we might need to do. (We just lost our iTunes library, so we need to rip all our old CDs again, for example.)

In the event that we don’t want to use the HDTV as a monitor (such as when the TV is already in use), we can always access the Mac Mini via the iPad thanks to utilities like VNC. Or, we can just have a small LCD handy (which we do, thanks to our discontinued carputer project). With this setup, it’s doubtful we even need a mouse.

Apps we’d like ported to the iPad.

With a Mac Mini powering what we can best describe as stationary tasks done at home, and usually with little needed interaction, we can focus on the apps we’d like to see transition over to the iPad, or simply be improved versions of existing AppStore apps. While we’re convinced that we can get by with the iPad on release, there are definitely things (like multitasking) that will be necessary to make our workflow as fluid as, if not more fluid than, the work we do on the MacBook Pro when on the road.

Adium/Conversation/iChat: We never did quite settle on a single chat application, though we predominantly use iChat because of the iSight integration. Regardless, we’d like to see AppStore chat clients move over to the iPad’s larger-screen format, else see apps like Adium be ported to the iPad. Multitasking for an app like this would be ideal, but let’s at least be able to see chats in multiple protocols.

Bento: There’s already a mobile version of Bento available, and we expect an iPad version to come out that would pretty much duplicate the features of the desktop version. The folks who develop Bento have confirmed that an iPad version will be in the works.

JBidwatcher: Our preferred eBay sniper. Ideally, we wouldn’t need to access it remotely on the Mac Mini, but could tote it around and rely on 3G to keep us sniping (assuming we have multitasking, of course). JBidwatcher’s developer would like to bring the program over to the iPhone/iPad, but the multitasking issue remains.

MacFamilyTree: Another app with a mobile version already on the AppStore. The iPad would be perfect for showcasing a full-featured version of this app, and the developer supports the idea.

PandoraJam: Given what it does (rips audio from Pandora), it’s unlikely we’ll ever see this on the iPad. Even if we did see it, there likely wouldn’t be a method to copy songs over to the iTunes library, so we’d have to rely on the Mac Mini to copy audio from the app to the server iTunes library, and then re-sync the iPad. An easier solution would simply be to run PandoraJam as part of a media center setup. (Still, we’re listing it anyway because we’d love it to work somehow.)

Pixelmator: Image editing apps on the iPhone are already coming into their own, with many desktop features. If we could get something like Pixelmator on the iPad, though, it’d be fantastic.

Ulysses: A mobile version was already announcement, so hopefully the developers, now aware of the new SDK, will port most of the Mac version’s functionality over to the iPad.

Vassal: Okay, this isn’t part of our work flow per se, but we were recently re-introduced to this tabletop wargaming platform and can see how awesome it would be on the iPad. Someone please work on this!

VoodooPad: Another app with a mobile version already existing (which only lets one read files, unfortunately), we expect the developers to release a more full-featured version for the iPad. Our use of VoodooPad has waned over time, in part because there’s no way to edit the files on the iPhone. We may come back to this app now, though.

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Late last year, we jumped back into tabletop wargaming, and though we mentioned this pursuit earlier, we didn’t clarify what game in particular we opted to invest in. We’re still not at the point where we can field a solid (and finished) army, but we nonetheless find ourselves casually plowing through Warmachine/Hordes material, from the fluff in the books to the routine updates in No Quarter magazine. For those considering the hobby, here’s a brief writeup of why we picked Warmachine/Hordes, and what we learned about the various factions.

Why Warmachine/Hordes?

The decision to go with Privateer Press’ games wasn’t too difficult to make. For one, we wanted to pursue a fantasy game, and Warmachine’s steampunk world (the Iron Kingdoms) was quite attractive. We found the factions rather interesting, didn’t feel that the miniatures were too “cartoony,” and generally considered the sculpts to be excellent, with (mostly) flexible painting options. Since Warmachine and Hordes are new games compared to the reigning king, Warhammer, there was the added advantage of having a smaller unit and rulebook selection. Plus, the Warmachine rules were well-recognized as being fast-paced with numerous combat options, where players tend to field much smaller armies than what Warhammer is known for. With Hordes as a compatible game, there are effectively nine factions to choose from, with a 10th on its way (and arguably an 11th, too), which only adds to a player’s flexibility to choose a play-style.

The core mechanic (if you want to call it that) behind Warmachine/Hordes mirrors the background story arc of one of our own preliminary game designs of yesteryear, albeit with some modifications. In short, central to every army are powerful spell casters (“warcasters” in Warmachine, and “warlocks” in Hordes). These spell casters are tied closely to large behemoths, with which they have an almost symbiotic relationship. In Warmachine, warcasters generate focus (ala mana), which fuels steam-powered mecha called “warjacks.” In Hordes, warlocks “leach” fury (again, like mana) from hulking “warbeasts,” which they use to fuel their spells. (In other words, warcasters are to warjacks what warlocks are to warbeasts.) While these units are central to an army, there are also numerous supporting units like infantry and solos, which round out a particular force.

A nice aspect to the reliance on warcasters/warlocks is that they are interchangeble. That is to say, an army list is built around a particular warcaster/warlock, and simply swapping one caster for another can drastically change how a given army is played. So while each faction may be geared towards a particular play-style, that play-style can be modified in subtle, or even drastic, ways. This flexibility is a particularly alluring element to a game with fairly unique lore that doesn’t entirely rely on the “traditional” fantasy races and background.

The Factions

Deciding to move ahead with Warmachine/Hordes, we came upon the typical struggle of deciding on a faction to play with. This was troublesome in itself because all the Warmachine/Hordes factions are attractive in their own right, so we had to balance aesthetic tastes with typical faction strategies/play-style, knowing that the latter could be adjusted somewhat based on our caster choices. Our understanding of the various factions, summarized, follows.

Cryx: It seems that almost every fantasy wargame needs to have an undead faction, and that’s the role the Cryx fill. Their fluff includes something about a dragon powering their undead ways, and this fantasy element is perhaps more intrinsic to the Cryx than to other Warmachine factions. This is most obvious in the fact that their warjacks are not just steam-powered machines, but are undead monstrosities borne of both metal and bone. Overall, their troops are among the most fragile of the Warmachine factions, but their reach across the battlefield is unrivaled among them as well. Using “arc nodes,” Cryx warcasters can “channel” their spells through distant warjacks, effectively extending a warcaster’s spell’s range considerably. This is important, because the Cryx rely on magical attacks more than the other Warmachine factions. Often describes as the “dirty tricks” faction, Cryx armies are known for their ability to debuff enemies, deny opposing strategies, and conduct “assassination runs” against enemy casters. On the tabletop, Cryx models include rather top-heavy warjacks that are known to often detach from their bases. That, and the fact that their theme makes customzing their colour scheme a bit more difficult compared to the other factions, is why we didn’t choose to play a Cryx army, even though their units do look awesome, and play even better.

Cygnar: The protagonist faction of Warmachine can best be defined with the phrase “high-fantasy meets steampunk.” The Cygnar are half knights, and half steam-powered gunsmiths. They somehow got a tesla influence too, which means they have electric-powered ‘jacks, and Force-lightning-like powers. It all makes for a catchy aesthetic that’s clearly based on medieval Europe with a touch of cowboy, and wholly defines what steam-powered warmachines are all about. Overall, Cygnar are a solid mix of melee and ranged units, and appears to be a very flexible, baseline race, ala the “human” archetype of most RPGs. That said, they’re not entirely a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none faction – they’re the top single-target ranged threat in Warmachine overall, and both this fact, and their baseline flexibility, makes them a solid faction to play.

Khador: If you took the Soviet Union and imagined them in a steampunk setting, it pretty much sums up what Khador are like. Tactically, Khador are all about brute-force, blitzkrieg-like strategies, and in this respect, they have a very “German” mechanic to them as well. Rather than field light warjacks at all, Khador rely on heavily-armored warjacks that plow through enemy defenses. They have no arc-nodes to speak of (with one exception being for a particular warcaster), which speaks much to the Khador attitude; even Khador warcasters are comfortable mixing it up in melee, and though complimented by select, powerful ranged infantry units, the Khador are a predominantly melee-themed faction.

Menoth: The Protectorate of Menoth is an inquisition-themed army, making use of similarly-medieval-themed warjacks bent with holy guidance. Menoth troops excel at ranged area-of-effect damage, and can sacrifice their own troops to bolster their fighting prowess. By many, this Warmachine faction is considered the hardest to play, but has some of the coolest-looking units in the game, too. The Protectorate is known for its ability to steadfastly hold ground, which is great for scenario games where objectives must be held.

Mercenaries: Describing the mercenaries as a faction is only a half-truth. In reality, the mercenary umbrella consists of numerous units (warcasters, warjacks, infantry, and solos) that can be used with other faction armies. However, each mercenary unit can have faction restrictions regarding who it will work for, so while some mercenary units will work for every faction, others may only work for one. That said, players can also opt to field an all-mercenary army, but for balancing purposes, fielding such an army has obvious restrictions. The fluff explanation is simple: not all mercenaries get along, so philosophical agreements determine “sub-factions” within the mercenary population. So, just as every mercenary unit may have restrictions on which of the four major factions it can work for, every mercenary unit may have restrictions on which mercenary “charter” it can be part of. Effectively, a charter determines which mercenary units can be used together to be played as a faction. Privateer Press has published all the approved charters to date, and there are currently about a handful of them to pick from, each of which has a general play-style with a unifying aesthetic, just as with any of the major factions. Since Mercenary units pretty much fill the spectrum of play-styles, they’re good to pick up both to field as a faction, or to compliment another faction.

Retribution of Scyrah: One of the nice things about Privateer Press is that they’re working hard to better their games. This is embodied in their recent beta test of new Warmachine rules, which will be published in 2010. In short, the new rules address the fact that Warmachine has, in the recent past, become very infantry-specific, and the new rules hope to bring balance back towards the warjack side of the house (like Hordes and its warbeasts). In addition to these new rules also redefining some of the old unit abilities/functions, comes a new Warmachine faction known commonly as “the Retribution.” Unlike the other factions, which are primarily human-populated, the Retribution is made up of what can best be described as high-elves, albeit with somewhat of a science-fiction aesthetic welded onto the typical magic-wielding-elf archetype. Though we’re not personally fond of the new aesthetic (thinking it’s too far from Warmachine’s steampunk roots), it certainly offers more flavor to the Iron Kingdoms. Retribution rules are already available from the latest two editions of No Quarter magazine, and faction units will be available for sale next month, along with the Retribution faction book. Early reports suggest that Retribution armies are quick to traverse the battlefield, and great at assasinating casters.

Circle or Orboros: The Circle embodies the shamanistic, druidic approach to faction design: it’s units are comprised of druidic spell-casters, monoliths brought to life out of sticks and stones (which, ironically, break bones), and other beasts like werewolves and satyrs, as well as human cannibals known as the Tharn. The Circle is the most magic-using faction in Hordes, and is strategically founded on hit-and-run tactics. This guerilla warfare strategy is aided through the Circle’s high levels of mobility, made possible thanks to units that enable teleporting on the battlefield, and the fact that all Circle units can traverse rough terrain unhindered. Like the Cryx, the Circle is generally made up of fragile units, who need to avoid direct, prolonged combat, but can adequately approach this restriction by using terrain to their advantage. Also like Cryx, the Circle’s movement advantages make them effective at assassination attempts.

Legion of Everblight: If an undead faction is a necessity, then shortly thereafter must come a demonic faction, and to this end, Everblight fits the bill. Like the Cryx, the fluff here is based on a dragon lord, but this time around, it’s the spirit of a dead dragon that has “blighted” denizens and made them servents of Everblight. Accompanying these corrupted souls are what can best be described as dragon-spawn – eyeless monsters that make up Everblights warbeast population. Unlike what we might expect from dragon progeny, however, Everblight warbeasts are mostly smaller in stature, and even include “lesser” warbeasts designed to swarm an enemy force. This means that Everblight forces are very fragile compared to other factions, and rely heavily on a “first strike” opportunity. Everblight armies tend to excel heavily in ranged attacks, and this, above anything, is their forte. Because of how quickly they can (and must) traverse the battlefield (thanks in part to winged creatures), Everblight armies are also known to effect successful assassination attempts. Rounding out the draconic units are blighted elves and ogrun, though we wouldn’t be surprised to find other blighted races represented among Everblight units in the future. It is often said that Orboros and Everblight tactics can be similar at times, with the main difference being that unlike Orboros units, there is no significant synergy between the abilities of Everblight units, as they tend to act alone, albeit as part of a larger war machine (pun intended).

Skorne: Often described as the most “Warmachine-like” of the Hordes factions, the Skorne are a well-balanced, regimented force. By “regimented,” we refer to their well-balanced army composition. Indeed, as the “evil-fascist” army in Hordes, the Skorne have good melee troops, good defensive troops, and good ranged troops. In other words, their unit synergies are well balanced, which means they have a very structured attack pattern, with offensive troops ahead, and defensive troops protecting their ranged units in back. The Skorne motif is based heavily on Asian culture, with the core Skorne race looking a lot like nosferatu clad in samurai armour. Perhaps even moreso than the Legion, the Skorne are the “evil” race of Hordes, who have enslaved basilisks, cyclops, and huge titans as warbeasts. Because of their armour, we’d also argue that the Skorne are the most customizeable faction of Hordes for painting, whereas the other races rely primarily on skin-colour changes to customize appearance significantly.

Trollbloods: Here we have the protagonist faction of Hordes, based loosely on a celtic theme. Trollblood armies consist of a number of troll types, from pygmy trolls to huge dire trolls. Aesthetically, we consider the Trollbloods the nicest of the Hordes factions, even if the units are all troll-ish at heart. Trollbloods are said to share the same meta-game as Khador, which means they’re all about rushing into combat and using brute force to dish out the hurt. In this respect, they’re a rather straightforward faction to play, but they are also very flexible. Rather than having to force a particular defensive strategy on the opponent, Trollbloods excel at buffing their units in response to an enemy’s play-style, which means that they can address most threats adequately. Limited in long-range attacks, Trollbloods have enormous staying-power, as most of their units can regenerate health over time. This means that Trollbloods are great at defending a battlefield location, so like Menoth armies, Trollbloods excel in objective-based scenarios.

Minions: Minions are the counterpart to Warmachine mercenaries, and this is the arguable 11th faction we mentioned earlier. Minions aren’t yet playable as their own faction, because there’s no Hordes equivalent to mercenary charters yet. Nonetheless, we can fully expect Privateer Press to develop Hordes minions in this same direction, and with new Hordes beta rules coming out sometime next year, we can probably expect to see all-minion armies then as well. (We may even see a whole new Hordes faction by then.)

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Arcane Legions appears to be an interesting project by some of the former minds behind FASA and WizKids!, and was shown off at Origins this year. Robot Viking posted some early thoughts on the game, and admittedly, the premise of the game intrigued us. That’s because Arcane Legions has the potential to do for large-scale combat what Mage Knight did for smaller battles, though we’re not convinced it’s capable of that in its current form. Since the game as reviewed remains a prototype, hopefully it will evolve enough to further tempt us down the road. In the meantime, here’s our thoughts on where Arcane Legions falls short.

Firstly, Robot Viking describes the armies as having clear historical themes, though the game is clearly fantasy, what with magical attacks being included. There’s certainly no problems with a fictional army being strongly influenced by a real-life culture or society, but thus far, it sounds like Arcane Legions is too bland in its influence. It’s not that we think it’s uncool to stage imaginary battles between the great empires of yore, but unless some sense of historical accuracy is to exist, the concept is destroyed in its execution because of its blandness. That is to say, if the armies are accurate depictions of their historical influences, then maybe we can see history buffs taking notice, but since that doesn’t appear to be the case, we can only envision the potential audience for this game thinking that the armies are simply too bland. Compare this to the cultural influences in other games, which form the basis for an army’s feel, and are then added upon by rather fantastical concepts. Just look at Warmachine’s Khador faction for an example of real-life historical themes permeating a fantasy world done right.

Secondly, as intriguing as large-scale tray-based battles are, the scale of the units is off. Look, we did large-scale battles in Mage Knight (Conquest rules) well enough, without needing trays to configure troop formations. For tray-based games to be worthwhile, the scale of the miniatures needs to be changed dramatically. Based on what we see from Robot Viking’s preview, we see army trays consisting of approximately five to 15 units, which is not any bigger than what we would have found in our Mage Knight Conquest battles. For tray-based games to shine, we should see the smallest trays hold at least a dozen units, and scale up from there. Even if we don’t take large-scale battles to the extreme, where a player can literally field 100+ units, games like Flames of War have found solid ways to portray large-sized battles with smaller units. Sadly, Arcane Legions doesn’t seem to get this right at all.

Thirdly, and while acknowledging that the pics at Robot Viking depict prototype units/armies, the game just doesn’t look good. The units look “saggy” like many of the plastic units from the original Mage Knight, and simply don’t compare to heavyweight miniatures from Warhammer, Warmachine, etc. Similarly, the unit trays look uninspired, and not something we’d be proud to field. And really, if our units don’t look good on the battlefield, much of the fun is lost. And then there’s this strange bit on what’s painted and what’s not:

Special units and heroes will come pre-painted, while common figures will ship unpainted (a few commons seemed to have some parts painted, such as insignias on shields, but I’m not sure if that’s just because they were prototype pieces).

Given the paint jobs on most pre-painted plastic miniatures, it seems odd that it’s the common units that will come unpainted. If anything, we’d rather our rarer pieces be unpainted so we can make them look especially good, whereas the common units don’t need to stand out quite as much. The reality is that many wargaming fans won’t want unpainted figures in the armies for long, which means it will become rather aggravating for the special units to look worse than the commons.

Those three issues aside, Arcane Legions does bring a number of cool features to the table. For one, distribution of rarer pieces seems much better than other collectible miniature games, since there will be boosted specifically for uncommon units and heroes, and larger boxes for collecting commons. This means that collectors, in theory, won’t be spending as much money to complete armies, and similarly won’t have an unneeded number of commons around collecting dust. Additionally, the subscription option is a nice one, which allows members to purchase special units online, and even customize unit configurations on trays, with an online system tracking point distribution and recording these custom trays to an online database for any member to use. Effectively, the individual player can contribute to the game by submitting army ideas and being recognized for their strategic theorycraft, as other players can download these unit configurations for their own, tournament-legal, use.

So Arcane Legions seems like a fair mix of good-and-bad. The game is set for release this upcoming September, which makes us wonder just how drastic any changes can be at this point. In any case, it will be interesting to see just how fun the core mechanic is, and how well it works: reconfiguring trays to adjust army strengths/weaknesses each turn. It sounds intriguing in theory, but it may not be quite as revolutionary as the Clix system before it. Of course, for casual miniature wargamers, Arcane Legions may be just the thing to fill in the void since Mage Knight support dried up.

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Late last year, without an MMOG to satiate our gaming needs, we turned back to miniature wargaming as an outlet, not just to fulfill our gaming wonts, but to stretch our creative muscles as well. What most people don’t realize is that miniature wargaming is a multi-tiered endeavor that goes well beyond simple tabletop gaming. Or, to be more accurate, wargaming is a hobby in which gamers can do more than just game, because it offers related pursuits that ultimately feed back into the core gameplay, even though these pursuits are fundamentally optional. In fact, when it comes to miniature wargaming, one can participate in one or more facets of the hobby, ironically making the actual gaming optional as well. For typical miniature wargames, we can easily observe the following activities:

1. Playing the actual game. At its core, playing a miniature wargame is all about fielding an army, rolling dice, and trying to decimate the opposition.
2. Theorycrafting. While the game itself is ripe with strategy, choosing which units to field, and understanding the synergies between them, is an activity in itself. All this takes place before the game is even played, and time vested in this activity can drastically impact the game itself.
3. Painting and modeling. Creating unique miniatures, either by modding existing sculpts or simply painting the sculpts one’s own way, is a creative outlet with aesthetic merits on the battlefield. Perhaps more importantly, it’s a part of the hobby with lasting joy, even when a match isn’t on the horizon.
4. Terrain modeling. Beautifying the backdrop instead of playing on the kitchen table offers similar aesthetic appeal to working on the miniatures themselves. For the game itself, making terrain also offers strategic options, and determining how best to produce realistic, enticing terrain is often a creative problem-solving exercise.

To us, part of the appeal of miniature wargaming is this multi-tiered approach to the hobby, because we’re not limited to just any one area, though we can easily discount any of these facets should we lose the desire, or have less time, to engage in the hobby in the future. Having these various options also means that we’re not limited purely to interacting with fellow gamers, because in the event that we can’t make it to a gaming event or venue, we can still participate in the hobby by working on our miniatures or terrain. In the event that we do have the opportunity to play a game, the experience is far more social in nature than playing a typical multiplayer video game, as there’s no crux like microphones and teamspeak applications to worry about.

And unlike most games, the result of one’s time is manifest in the figures and terrain we produced, not just in the memories of playing the game itself. And that’s an important variable, because most people want a physical take-away if their time-investment is significant. It’s why many World of Warcraft (WoW) gamers yearn for a physical 3D model of their characters, and why Rock Band gamers order T-shirts with their in-game band logos emblazoned thereon. With miniature wargames, even a basic investment earns one a physical takeaway.

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Albeit late, we’re finally coming around to posting pictures of our first Warmachine figure, a Khador Destroyer that we completed in late April to early May. It’s the first wargaming figure that we completed from scratch, and though we can see room for improvement, we’re quite happy overall with how the figure turned out.

For those not versed in the steps necessary to bring a typical wargaming figure to life, each miniature comes in multiple pieces which need to be glued (and sometimes pinned) together after extraneous hang-ons are removed. Gaps in the pieces are typically filled with putty, and then the figure is primed. After that, the figure is ready to be painted, and in our first attempt, we ended up doing a lot of coats since we hadn’t yet worked out the proper consistency for the paints we were using. We even messed up the first paint-job when we first attempted to use a wash to better define the figure’s shadows, resulting in us having to re-base the figure entirely.

With this figure, we attempted to duplicate a colour scheme used on German tanks in late WWII. We used P3 paints, and Yellow Ochre turned out to be a reasonable stand-in for the German dunkelgelb used on the Panzer fleet. Rather than paint on shadows and highlights (which we think gives miniatures a more cartoony look) we opted instead to use washes and drybrushing. Whether this was ultimately the better choice or not, we’re content with the results. Later on, we may attempt to add decals to the figure, but for now, we’re going to place the figure aside and work on the second warjack from the Khador Battle Box, the Juggernaut. We intend to stick with the same colour scheme, though we’ll initially base-coat the second figure with a darker under-colour, which will hopefully accentuate the yellow “final” coat. Yes, we’re still n00bs at painting miniatures.

As though to reassure ourselves one more time, we’ll say again that we’re happy with how things turned out with the Destroyer, and despite our inexperience with this sort of thing, we think the figure looks a million times better than any “pre-painted” miniature, which is relieving. We’ll talk more about Warmachine as a game, and as a backdrop, in the future. For now, feast your eyes on the gallery below.

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