As for gaming it, I definitely would be interested. I’ve been sitting on the 2nd edition of Japanese Art of War for 5+ years now. Part of the problem I have is I don’t have a solid group of play testers which makes writing good rules impossible. That said, I may yet get involved with putting together a scenario and running it.

Be sure to add Shogun-ki to your reader. They post infrequently but high quality material.

Experimental automatons

These are the droids I was looking for. Sadly they are not the ones I got in my shipment from Black Cat Bases. A small snafu meant the person picking blisters for my shipment ended up pulling the wrong ones. There is no one around at the shop to fix this until January 5th so I won’t expect replacements until January 20th at best.

In the meantime the robots I did get sent are kinda cool and while they don’t fit in with the University theme, they could make a surprise appearance from the Ad Astra portal… The robots I did get are Mono-wheeled robots that look suspiciously like the 2060-B RobCo Securitron robot! Here is a picture of the figure and another from the Fallout series of games. Its a bit tongue in cheek but the people at Segway(tm) have us covered.

CGI From Fallout series of games

Robco 2060-B Securitron

The way I would work them in is via a card that was keyed to the Ad Astra project and they would appear in the central tech room. I might make it two cards. One for when they are on the side of the Mutants and one for when they are on the side of the Humans!

Columbia Games Napoleon, Waterloo Campaign 1815: I opted for this as my first block game. I’ve played them before but never owned one. This is a subject I’d always wanted in an easy to play format. The complexity is fairly low but it is a well known battle and a good way to get new gamers started.

This is the third edition of the rules and I have heard they are quite good. Ultimately there are only a couple of actual strategies but I am not expecting to play this game dozens of times. Ideally it will give me a feel for the campaign and inspire me to consider doing something in miniature…

Next up was another Columbia game, Liberty, The American Revolution 1775-83. Again, for the same reasons. I am interested in the period but I don’t do any miniature gaming in it. I like a nice simple introduction to the whole period. Again with Columbia games, the Fog of War element makes the game play really engaging. The blocks make record keeping simple too.

I picked up Price of Freedom from Compass Games. This is a card driven game of the Civil War. It looks great. I tore into it first and the components are very nice and the cards are very interesting. You keep track of a lot of political states and have to choose when you change them. For example the emancipation of the slaves. In real life that was carefully timed for when the war was losing support in the North. I think this is brilliant and shows the game authors are quite well read on the subject.

I have had other, monster sized games of the Civil War. This is a lot more compact and faster playing. The appeal for me is I might actually get to play it. Most of the time it is hard to get interest in a boardgame in my circle of friends. However so long as they aren’t likely to take several sessions to play and can be explained in short order they can happen. 3 hours with 132 pieces seems just about right to me.

Finally I picked up Okko: Era of the Asagiri. This is a Japanese myth based game that is very miniatures like. I am not really sure how it plays but the figures are awesome and have colored high quality cardboard stands for use as well. I’m still waiting for the main game to show up. I got the supplement first, Yakuza Hazu Akai, which adds lawless and godless mercenaries to your clan. OK sounds good! The game is based upon a comic produced in France. I expect it to seem a little weird but in a good way. I love the AT-43 and Confrontation worlds so I know the French have what it takes to interest me. I like weird games in general. I thought once of doing an RPG set in Japan with a theme similar to “Delta Green” where the players are quasi-official forces combating the supernatural. This game seems to be more about clans fighting clans with supernatural forces. Check out the website for more details.

Difficulty is an absolute number derived from the total difficulty of the manuever and it’s likely hood of being blocked. Damage looks at all possible damage outcomes and the likelyhood the attack will be damaging. This is an absolute number. Finally the best vs. is useful to see where the attack can get you an easy hit with greater damage.

This information doesn’t preclude you from knowing an opponents weaknesses and it only looks at attacks. For example if you are up against a Sagitarius with a bow your best bed is to block all of their incoming fire with a Shield manuever if you have a shield. The Sagitarius is going to be hesitant to close with a better protected gladiator such as a Samnite.

Pete English, a good friend of Victory Points has given us a preview of his new supplement to “Check Your Six!” aka “CY6″. This supplement takes us to the early days of WWII when the French faced the German in the sky. I got a chance to play a couple of the scenarios and while you may think they would all be cake walks for the Germans and impossible for the French – nothing could be further from the truth. These are historically accurate scenarios that for our gaming group were real nail biters. Here is the info blurb we got concerning this new supplement:

DAYS OF GLORY is a scenario and campaign book for the popular CHECK YOUR 6! Air Combat and Campaign Rules. The book provides three campaigns and 25 scenarios under one cover. The first campaign of 9 scenarios follows the beginning of the German air campaign over Belgium and France from 10-23 May 1940. The second campaign, recreates the intense combat above Dunkirk from 27 May to 1 June 1940 with 9 scenarios. The final 7 scenarios focus on the German drive to Paris from 3 June during “Operation Paula”, the attack on French airfields defending the City of Lights, and the last forlorn attacks by French squadrons up to 25 June 1940. The book also features some of WWII’s legendary aces including Helmut Wick, A.G. “Sailor” Malan, Robert Williame, Werner Mölders, Ian “Hack” Russell and Rene Pornier-Layrargues.
 
HISTORICAL RESEARCH: This book includes several introduction sections containing campaign historical background, organizations, formations and tactics of the French, German and British air forces, plus a bibliography for further reading.
 
AIRCRAFT STATISTICS and CAMPAIGN INFORMATION: This book contains aircraft statistics for 15 French, British and German aircraft in CHECK YOUR 6!  format for use in the scenarios. The book also contains detailed notes and rare pictures of the various aircraft featured in the campaign.
 
CHECK YOUR 6! CAMPAIGN SYSTEM: This book includes a CHECK YOUR 6! campaign that allows the scenarios to be played individually, linked to form three mini-campaigns, or combined as one grand campaign.

The Team (Alpha-3) will have an armored personnel carrier, links back to vault 0126 and plenty of high tech gear. Still they will need their wits to survive the wasteland. It just so happens that the ever vigilant overlord computer will be a sort of invisible NPC there. This well intentioned dictator will offer as much of a challenge as any danger the wasteland holds for Alpha-3.

Right now I have 5 players at Hero Central, 4 of whom have created characters. I am hoping to get the 5th to finish his. I can accept up to 8 characters in this run and if it works well I might attempt running multiple teams at the same time.

The story borrows from a lot of my favorite post-apocalyptic and sci-fi favorites. Aliens, The Long Afternoon of Earth, Mad Max, etc. I also borrow elements from The Morrow Project and Paranoia. There are many sources of information I have used. As the campaign materials are finalized I will put them up on this site for easy access.

Many thanks to Dan Simon for creating Hero Central and giving free access to this valuable PBEM RPG support system!

This book does a HELL of a lot better job at describing character creation than the 5th edition book. I am enjoying reading it and I think new players to the system will have a leg up on the Grognards. The description of the guidlines for creating characters exists in both 5th and 6th but I think the version in 6th is better written. It gets more to the point about how to develop your concept before delving too deeply into the mechanics.

Package Deals have been replaced by Templates. Compared to the 5th Edition these seem a bit watered down with a suggested maximum of 15 character points. Eh? Some 5th edition package deals were North of 50 character points! Funny how on the next page (6E1 p.37) the two examples given show 17 and 27 character points each! Now they also come with complications (the new Disadvantages) and these are within 2-3 points of the benefits given.

More to come as I plow through the books!

Pete

I haven’t finished reading it yet but I still wanted to let everyone know it is out there and available to purchase and download. The books are on a slow boat from China. So here are my first impressions:

• Improved Layout: While very similar to 5th Edition the use of color and more consistent artwork is a huge improvement.
• Crystal Clear Prose: Steve Long is an excellent writer. So far I like what I am reading. He gets to the point and uses his skillful writing to carefully explain the system. I am forced to read all of it because there have been some fundamental changes and so far I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen.
• Streamlined: It appears so far that a lot has been done to streamline the system. I’ll do a full write up on this when I’ve finished reading V1 and then again on V2.
• What I haven’t seen is a page on “You’ve been playing for years, here is what’s changed.” I’ve been keeping up with the discussion boards on Hero Games but I’d still like to see it in the book. Perhaps I just haven’t reached that point yet.

I’m planning on running a one off game with the system as soon as I’ve read both books and had time to create a couple of characters. My partner in crime here, Vincent, will be involved so I’m sure we’ll both be able to give separate accounts of how the game works. I plan on doing your very basic 4-color Supers scenario with a mix of fighting, rescuing and disaster aversion! All to be reported here!

Pete