Halo 5: Guardians : campaign review

Before we get to the analysis of the new Halo campaign lets have a quick look at the usual selling points. Halo 5 is a definitely a "next-gen" game, with outstanding graphics and traditional halo multiplayer fun. Each gun has its own unique advantage and use in the game. 343 Industries have kept true the original formula of picking right combo of guns for each playstyle. Multiplayer map, (despite the lack of forge and split screen mode) still deliver good gaming experience (if servers are running of coarse). Despite some minor technical problems, Halo 5 runs well, and some problems most likely will be solved in coming patches. The biggest problem of Halo 5 can not be fixed by patches, however. It lies in the new way 343 decided to tell the story in this new chapter of much loved game.

To understand why Halo games were so successful earlier, we need to uncover the mechanics of the previous Halo storytelling.

First of all, our protagonist, Master-Chief and Cortana are always in danger. This provides the classic balance between them, as Master Chief does the brawling and fighting while Cortana protects him by advice, information and sometimes a joke. Classical stereotypes of "strong, silent type" and "damsel in distress" are filled, easily recognised by most people. In addition, each and every crisis situation our heroes are facing they meet together and react in absolutely different way, evoking whole range of emotions. Every time Cortana is worried or actually scared because the 117 is in danger, player feels that in short one liner like "I'll be fine" or "I always do" Master Chief is confident and that feeling passes to player as he shoots his way through or faces a dive into another abyss. 

they will meet again. too soon if you ask me.

Second of all the nature of problems is urgency and constant evolution of crisis player must face. Once player is used to the idea of fighting Covenant, Flood approaches, then when there is a plan of escape it turns out that threat is much greater, then Covenant actually invade Earth, and so on. Note that if you played any of the previous games, both main characters and side characters react differently, adding emotion and different layer to the main story of Master Chief and Cortana, which in turn makes rather repetitive shooting gameplay, meaningful. 


Third. Attention to story in each mission. Each story of Halo had a story within story often told or shown in small cut scenes in the middle of linear gameplay. Classic example of that may be a scene where Master Chief loads a video log before encountering Flood for the first time in original Halo. Or  a moment in Halo 4, when before defeating Didact (main Forerunner antagonist) Master Chief is thrown off the light bridge and saved by Cortana delaying action. When games actually hands control back to player, all he needs to finish the enemy and detonate the bomb. Though it robes player from the pleasure of killing the bastard, it provides enough tension before the final scene, where Cortana leaves Master Chief. Each main storyline had those moments, like Jonson's squad facing the Flood for the first time, Keyes moving her ship into the slip space portal following the Prophet of Regret. I should especially mention Halo 3:ODST, as its campaign was build around the same concept, and gave an absolutely fresh look at the Halo universe.

left to right: Val, Locke, Buck, Tanaka

Fourth: Great characterisation. Each significant character had its motives, reasons, fears and loves fleshed out and supported by dialogue, musical theme and interactions with others. For example in the infamous ending of Halo 2, Sargent Jonson is threatening the Guilty Spark, just to be stopped by Miranda Keys in a very gentle way, by tap on a shoulder. Simple gesture but shows how much care has been taken to make this scene emotionally charged.  Each significant location had similar work done, to communicate it unique feel and sense. Others, non-playable characters received similar attention. best example would be a difference between Elite and Elite Royal Gard's armour. 

These are four pillars of Halo story telling. With variety of approaches it made first trilogy, ODST, Halo: Reach and Halo 4 a great games and whats more important - great stories. Now lets look at the Halo 5: Guardians campaign, an see how well it fares. Beware, there will be spoilers in the coming text.

Halsey: if only people share information with me,
i'd solve the worlds problems.

Ever since Doctor Kathryn Halsey been introduced to the Halo universe she plays more and more important role, and Halo 5 begins with scene that drops a huge hint that she is the one who created Cortana, only later to confirm that hint. However, this goes into odds with story in Halo:Reach, where Spartans risked their lives to get Forerunners construct (Cortana) off the planet. Then without any explanation of events between Halo 4 and 5, Captain Lasky (who was just a Commander in previous game) orders fire team Osiris into the fray to save and retrieve Doctor Halsey from the Covenant. That would not be so odd, if in previous game, UNSC have not actually ordered and actively attempted to assassinate her. Yet, when Osiris brings her to Infinity, the very same Spartan who tried to kill her is assigned to protect her. I'm I the only one who finds this odd?

The focus then shifts to fire team Osiris as they leap out the Pelican, land into battle between Covenant and Forerunners, fight their way through with as much as possible noise. That's Infiltration, mind you. Another odd things is absence of Fire team Majestic, who were main protagonist in Halo 4: Spartan Ops. No mentioning or even a hint on their role and current position.    

Chiefs new armour

Then to make things even more interesting, Master Chief appears as a part of the Blue Team. If you have not seen "Forward into Dawn", TV short series this would come as huge surprise. Then according to  Locke, our new protagonist, Blue Team has the longest service record of all Spartan teams, and what's more they are a family. Yes, brothers and sisters. Surprised? Across more than 6 games Chief, was posed as a loner, and now for the justification of 4 player cooperative game they drop a bomb: Chief had a family. Some have made a quick conclusion that Blue team is a Majestic, but no name, voice or even armour design matches them. I guess we have to wait for DLC pack to uncover that mystery.

Another mystery is the way Cortana sends a message to Master Chief, and how quickly Infinity finds out about this, triggering the unusual reaction from Master Chief: to disobey an order and go searching for her. After that, game focuses on Osiris and Locke, giving players only 3 missions as Master Chief. Yes, three missions chained together, where Cortana appears only in one, the rest being just a voice over comms.

To avoid re-telling the whole storyline, lets analyse how missions are built in Halo 5. Sadly, there is only two type of mission: run and gun, and sit and fight. There are two exceptions in campaign: two maps where player can interact with NPC and just observe their behaviour. Sadly both maps have maximum 4 NPC to talk to.The mission on Meridian consist of delaying advance of Prometheans between sections barricaded by walls. It may not be obvious but Prometheans are able to teleport, so where is the point in that combat?


Run and gun is nothing new, you simply move from one pointless objective fighting through waves of enemies to another. On occasion you get a Mantis or Scorpion to support your team. Apparently to make your life difficult, enemies set up are an energy shields to block your movement. Sadly these shield can be taken out in six shots, but every time your   encounter them your veteran Spartans ask you what to do with them. Occasional flight missions are exactly same, as you fight off wave after wave in order to get the mission done. No sense of urgency whatsoever, despite the shouting in comms, as you know that until the last wave is defeated mission will not progress. Even death can't make you worry enough, as you do not die, but became incapacitated until your teammate revives you. This kills the sense of danger and urgency outright, despite being useful.

In sit and fight missions, you are locked to certain location and must repel identical waves of enemies. Yes: identical! Ever so often script spawn same groups as just killed, and only after your defeat at least 3 of them, game triggers a voice over saying: "That's last of them." Remember I've mentioned variety of enemies in combat? Halo 5 does not have it. Instead, it repeats 3 cycles of enemies. For Covenant these are: grunts with Elite, jackals with Elite leader (!), and Elite in active camouflage. In several locations it places Jackal snipers. For Forerunner's cycle is even more boring: Crawlers, Soldiers, One (!) Knight either with close combat or long range weapon. Then cycle repeats itself, over and over again.

There is another game that uses same ridiculous method: Destiny. With integrated jump packs and ability to do splash damage, Spartans act more or less same way as Guardians in Destiny. For me this is a serious downfall, but you my reader are free to make your own conclusions. However, due to this approach in mission gameplay, Halo has zero creativity on enemies, as you know how they will act and in some cases even where they will spawn. Especially frustrating that during last missions Forerunners who are protecting Cortana are fielding lots of Crawlers.

What happened to the Knights? Where are the elite warriors of Forerunners? They all look like a copy-paste. That's just lazy.


Boss battles. I'm not going to spoil anything by saying that there s only one boss in Halo 5: The Warden Eternal. He fights (or rather gets stuck) same way every time you encounter him. In addition he keeps threatening and be arrogant even after you defeat him 7 times! Yes, same boss battle 7 times with just minor variation. For example, last combat is interrupted by Cortana, almost same way as it was done in Halo 4, but with a purpose of obvious betrayal from her. Don't get me wrong, for the most of the game Cortana speaks like a apocalypse preacher from really bad movie, but everyone keep thinking that Chief can fix her somehow. So this big surprise that Cortana turns evil, is no surprise after first 5 minutes in the game. Seriously 343, it seems that you forgot how to build up a tension for a cliffhanger.

Lets summarise Halo 5 campaign in our four pillars:

1. Danger. 
At no point in the campaign none of the characters is in real danger. Despite the so-called massive civilian casualties and presence of gargantuan Guardians, no one is hurt or even endangered. All Spartans have faith and courage to fight waves of mindless enemies and listen to crap told by  NPC, Cortana and Warden. The only emotional reaction they produce is pulling the trigger.

2. Urgency. 
Do things get more and more desperate as events unfold? Sadly no. Players may take their time in beating the missions, since there is no time limit, even for events like get to Guardian. NPC keep telling us that there is destruction and horror caused by wake of the Guardians, but we never see that. The closest situation is when Osiris is leaving Meridian and we hear one woman begging for help. That's it. And there is nor reaction from the Locke or other Spartans whatsoever.


3. Attention to storyline during the missions.
I cannot express how disappointing Halo 5 is in this area. Intel you gather during the mission opens only a fraction of information about what happening. Conversation between characters are short and pointless, usually confirming target, shouting warning or commenting the obvious. Most of the Osiris mission are based on getting from point to point, more specifically to reach location of Cortana and Chief. Mindless hilarity of this process lies in simple fact, that Roland (Infinity's AI) have discovered

forget the cloak. its not in the game

the slip space coordinates by decoding the signal of teleporting Guardians. But instead of teleporting team into those coordinates, Spartans are going to Sanghelious, to board another Guardian and jump with it. As you fight through, NPC occasionally make a short remark, like "these statues are older than Egyptian pyramids", only to be cut short by Locke or others. Sadly, this is another similarity with Destiny, where NPC are pretending that they care or surprised.

The biggest disappointment here is not Locke or meaningless story. It is that after Halo 4, focus has been shifted from Master Chief! By the end of Halo 4, John 117 has suffered a first major defeat in the whole series, and suddenly realised that he is not a machine, but a human being. His story became not only heroic, but humane and emotional. His loss of Cortana was by far the most hear-breaking scene in FPS games. There was an incredible potential to develop that story, and give Chief something new, something to live and fight for. Instead we get a boring story of 4 dudes trying to get from point A to point B. Such a shame. 

4. Characterisation 
Are character detailed in Halo 5? Do they make us care for them? Lets see.

Spartan Locke has a best position since his character has been promoted in (horrendous) TV series Nightfall and he is leading the team Osiris. However the only emotions you get from him are sense of duty and politeness. That's a lot to ask from Spartan? He does try to put a good show in conversation with Buck (yes, Buck from ODST!), but that all you get from him.

Buck, has a second good position but he's character gets to crack a joke in a background, promise to buy a first round and be saved by Locke. If you loved his character in ODST, you will love him again, but he get nowhere near to the old glory.

   
Ladies of the team, Val and Tanaka are mostly out of the picture, unless the enforced show of team spirit is shown in the cut scene.  Commander Palmer, follows the same pattern, despite never participating in combat. Halsey, Lasky and Roland enjoy several minutes of bickering, and so much praised Arbiter says just several phrases in the whole game. That is another slapstick, since during the hype Arbiter was shown as a key figure in reaching to Chief. However the dramatic conversation between Locke and Arbiter take less than a minute in the game, and has no effect but show off by Cortana. No deals, no talks of trust, just "we are short on time and appreciate your cooperation". Seriously, Locke talks to his enemies as if he is a cop who catches them red-handed.

Cortana, after being our companion for so long, has went through the biggest transformation. No longer we will hear joy, empathy, compassion or even sarcasm. Cortana get a talk of world's peace and Forced Mantle, only to be dislodged in the end by Locke and another flying bulb called Exuberant Witness. The way latter appeared is similar to walking into the miners den and listening to their chat. That NPC apparently was so important that it did not need a cut scene for introduction.  

Finally Master-Chief. He does not really need an additional characterisation, but since he has got such a small time in campaign, he keeps his usual approach. But when he finally faces Cortana it is nothing we can relate to. No trust, no emotion, just "come home with me", when every bit shows that she has became a Mrs. Evil. Blue team gets its characterisation in fancy helmets and good voice over, which does not tell you anything in particular.

To say that Halo 5 campaign is a total miss, would be exaggeration. Despite being repetitive and short (only 4,5 hours) it still provides a lot of fun. and But mission structure, lack of well defined conflict and one-sided characters are definitely the worst in the whole series. If you play this game for the single player, you may want to wait until it will become cheaper. Story line fails to develop previous storyline and lean to unnecessary simplification. One of the saddest part is that musical theme of original Halo, has been replaced for a casual Hollywood epic.

Mark-Paul Severn  
06.11.15



  

DnD Attack wing: next step in wargaming evolution.

Today I saw the future. It was magnificent. It was fast, quick to learn, easy to understand, difficult to master, it had a rich lore and could be packed into one relatively small box. The biggest surprise was that it had Dragons, which did not needed thousand special rules, and could operate on same principles as any other unit in the game. Other surprise, was that i did not needed 50+ hours to assemble my army and crash course in miniatures painting in order to have ONE HOUR OF FUN. All I did, is opened the box, put some models on a base and learnt how to plan, move, and roll some dice to see who wins the fight. Was it easy? No! Game has a tactical depth, asks for a great deal of strategical thinking. So as any other wargame, you may say.

You would be absolutely right about it, but what make DnD Attack wing special, is that frees your mind from huge amount of needles work like calculating number of shots, number of inches travelled, bonuses for charging, special rules, stupidity of sword challenges in plasma-gun firefights and loads of other geek pleasures. (Yes, Warhammer 40000, I'm talking about you.)  

What it offers in return is game play where almost everything is automated, except process of making decisions and dice rolling. your movement follows template pathways, allowing for flanking and tactical retreats when necessary. Movement itself is very important, as it places you models in more favourable position if you are able to outflank enemy outside of his firing ark. 

Combat is surprisingly simple and interesting. Attacker rolls his dice if target is in firing arc, defender roll his defence dice and possibly spends his Evasion tokens. Terrain, items, like shields, spells and other abilities may add more dice to your roll.  Then defender cancels number of attack equal to his evades. On top of that, if defender has got an Armour, he automatically cancels one attack for each point of armour he has. 

Armour saves? Cover saves? Invulnerable or Feel no pain saves?! Please. 

Armour, however is not unbeatable, if attacker rolls a Critical Hit, then it will bypass armour and will inflict a face up damage card. My luck was such, that in my first critical was "Shattered Armour", which successfully destroyed my one point of Armour. In some cases, just concentrating firepower of your units on one Dragon, or most dangerous opponent will bring it down, without need of Critical hits. 

Magic, has its own simple and beautiful rules. In essence, there are one-shot spells and items, which act as normal attack with some additional effects. On the other hand there are timed weapons, like Breath weapons for Dragons. After they are used, in the same fashion as any other attack, player places several time tokens. Each one of those tokens is removed at the end of the turn. When no tokens left, you may use weapon or ability again. 

Let's talk about ground troops. They are represented by models in your unit, card and several tokens which has Firepower, Defence, Life and Armour values. The biggest change and innovation is how units stats change after it takes casualties. Meaning: when attacks and life points go down, Defence goes up! This is an ingenious solution representing lonely troopers trying to survive under fire breathing Dragon! Smaller targets are much more difficult to hit. Each race, of coarse gets its special fantasy abilities, like free focus, or charge. But I'll let you discover details for yourself. Just, watch out for Giants, they are nasty. 

There are several actions your unit may take, each one giving you a specific bonuses.

Focus: lets you change focus result into a hit or evade

Aim: lets you re-roll dice when attacking target

Evade: gives you one automatic evade result when being attacked

Charge: lets your unit re-roll attack dice in close combat.

Wait, you may ask, where could I've seen that? X-wing miniatures game and Star Trek attack wing are using essentially same system designed by FFG. So why this system is a next step in wargaming evolution? Is it so new that makes all over systems old and useless? Short answer is no. But what x-wing system does, is truly an evolution: it takes most common elements of any wargame and makes them so player friendly as never before. I'll compares some of the most important elements of x-wing system with some of Games Workshop products.  

Lets start with units movement. Pre-made move patterns use in X-wing, Star Trek and DnD Attack wing are not so new, Aeronautica Imperialis have used similar method, with manoeuvre cards, however it save player a huge amount if time, as it removes measuring with builders measurement tape, and then dragging all of your models to a new location. 

This is followed by positioning. With exception of fantasy warhammer, positioning in 40k did not really played such an important part, as most unit had 360 degree firing ark, unless designers artificially denied it, like they did to Storm Talon. Here. positioning becomes paramount, as one millimetre out of firing arc may sometimes cost you the game, thus adding an extraordinary level of tactics, not usually seen in most other games. 

Most important is secret planning and alternative activation.  When size of the table-top army reaches hundreds of models just waiting until opponents finishes all of the planning in his head, then movement, then rolling bucket of dice to see if anything hits will take a long time and will put opponent under stress and boredom. With secret planning, you choose your movement on a dial and then alternate movement of your units in order of initiative. If models overlap they either stop or engage, in any case this keeps BOTH PLAYER PLAYING, and paying attention to what happens on the table after every move. Perhaps, Lord of the Rings would be able to find itself on positive side with this aspect. 

 Finally, simplified damage and combat system. Only one roll made by each player for each combat. ONE!!! Compare that to this procedure:  roll to hit, to wound, roll to save, roll for invulnerable save, roll for cover save, roll for feel-no-pain save. If its a vehicle, then roll on a damage table. When Warhammer was born, it was pioneering ways for other wargames, and being drawn around small, platoon sized engagements, this complication was acceptable. But these days players will spend an hour just setting up the models! Then another 4-5 hours rolling those buckets of dice. What x-wing did, is just simplified the very same system to one roll and deck of damage cards. And I firmly believe that DnD attack wing will become a new standard for wargames just because of this elegant simplicity. 

One more thing: becoming best seller. Despite all odds, huge controversies like practically terminating relations with brick-n-mortar game shops, oversized and overcomplicated rules Games Workshop is still a leading company in wargaming. For now. (muhahahaa!) GW main product Warhammer and Warhammer 40k became icons and standards for this industry when no other opponent like that existed. With careful  marketing and expansion Warhammer became a bestseller and system copied and followed so many times, that none cares to count. Every time you look at some other rules for fantasy or sci-fi games you will find a resemblance to Warhammer by Mr. Rick Priestly. 

One of the biggest reasons for that is "stealing" gamers from GW by a new upstart. This rules similarity allows players switching to something new to shorten their learning curve, as in essence it promises to let them do something they were not able in Warhammer. One of latest examples is Dropzone Commander, which despite its small scale, elegant modelling is still a clone of W40K, modified, upgraded with command cards but essentially a clone. Does it sells? yes it does. Is it a great game? No. 

So when x-wing in less than 2 years became a world phenomenon and created portfolio of order for 3 years ahead, Games Workshop kept losing its market, its customer base and profits. Current half a year financial review shows that despite bringing so many wonderful coloured books, card, new edition of rules people are gradually losing interest in Warhammer. Will GW fortunes change for the better? I doubt  that. The simplest reason for that is both systems needs to be replaced with something completely different, modern and quick and GW is not a company know for drastic innovation.

So, the new king has arrived, and his name is X-wing. Now relax and watch other copy its ideas, spreading them around and slowly eating away what's left of GW share of market. 

Your megalomaniac, 

Mark-Paul Severn.

  

      

  

   

  

   

Review: Deadzone game mechanics

Enforcers with Captain

Deadzone, huh? The first time I had a look at this game I thought it just another Necromunda-clone. Despite having 3-dimensional approach to space and different morale status my presupposition was not changed. After all, small scale skirmish games are established genre, what new could be possibly made there? All of them revolve around same ideas established by Rick Priestly in early W40K and later in Necromunda and Mordheim. Difference in minor details or skills (like Infinity for example) do not make a game revolutional. So I admit:

I was wrong. 

Deadzone by Jake Thorton does not blow you away with its absolutely new game mechanics, it takes your heart slowly, but surely. You'd still do all the usual things: determine initiative, activate models, shoot, move, fight, give commands and use special card. But first of all you do not need to count number of shots or punches in combat. It is probably The Newest Approach to skirmish games we have seen for a long time.But before I will go into details of how it works and what it does, allow me to summarise what this game is about. 

Deadzone is wargame of tactical unpredictability. You as player, would have to fight on several level of the game. 

• Preparation: gather your team of specialist and prepare for the unknown.
• Tactical: you need to make an analysis of yours and prediction of opponent's mission objectives. 
• Combat: you must use your team wisely, play to its strengths in order to prevail and survive.   

Now the most important difference of Deadzone from other games is its core mechanics, which is dead simple on a first glance, and deep on the second. In short it could be described as: highest number of successes wins. In order to succeed in most actions player takes a test, usually on 3 d8. To achieve success they need to roll a equal or higher number of the stat used. For example, for Survive 5+ you'd roll 3 d8 looking for 5 or higher result. 

The real difference begins with two things, first of all: result of 8, is an exploding dice, i.e. gives you another dice for the same test. If again score 8, it gives another dice, and so on. Second: biggest difference of game mechanics is comparing the result of the test. There are 3 stages of success: one success more than opponents, double and triple. The higher is obviously the better. For each level of success in close combat, shooting, commanding or other special actions there is a chart with effects. 

Another big difference is that every model can take either two Short actions or one Long actions. This alone makes for a very intense tactical decision making. For example, in ranged combat you have a choice to either Shoot to kill one model, Blaze away to Pin down entire square with lets say three models, or take an Overwatch and wait till enemy walks into a crossfire.   

One of most controversial mechanics of Deadzone is Cover system. Cover against normal Shooting works as you'd expect: give bonus to your defence. However against Blaze Away (pinning fire) it provides negative modifier. Why? Because it's comfortable to be in cover, and while enemy is trying to pin you down you are more likely to curl and hide. Controversial? Yep, but works fine.

Less controversial, but still unusual system is Command. Some models have a command value , creating your Command pool (number of orders per battle), but shouting orders is a Long Action. With 6+ test on 3 d8 it is a risky business as well. However each level of success, Normal, Double and Triple has three separate entry for effects. This is a bit tricky, because you can't plan your order, you see if your are successful, and then determine the order. However all three entries have 3 distinct similarities: 

• boost your troops by giving a free action. 
• confuse enemy by marking one of his models as activated. thus denying him chance of using that model in his turn.
• get an extra battle card, either from deck or discard pile     

The Battle cards is another level to this game. They act as instant bonus to your troops abilities or actions. Cards are divided into Active - could be used in your activation, Reactive - used in opponent's turn, and Hybrind which could be used in any phase. 

From my experience of playing Deadzone, it's a very alien concept at first, which takes a very different route form most of skirmish games. However once you drop the "bullet counting and cover saves" mentality, and concentrate on decisions and tactical situation around your team, the game flows. What's most important: this game allows situations to build a story of your team, lucky shots and epic fails almost as good as old-timers. Rulebook has an inbuilt campaign system, equipment, perks and special abilities as well as doze of information of major protagonist Enforcers, Plague, Marauders and Rebels.

   

Those pinky goons are Plague. 

TIE Phantom tactics

i'm so sexy for my shirt..

As promised earlier I will explore combat tactics best suited for newly released TIE Phantom. This post is based on both recommendations from Fantasy Flight and analysis of several combats using this ship against various adversaries. Allow me to start with analysis of what this fighter is:

1) Silver bullet of Empire's fleet. 

As a base of this topic let's agree that list over 100 points are left out of conversation. Let's compare the points of  basic TIE, Interceptor and Phantom: 12, 18 and 25. In or standard 100 points game we would be able to fit 8 TIE fighters, 5 Interceptors and 4 Phantoms. However, Phantom unlike other crafts, really shines with extra upgrades like Stygium particle accelerator and Advanced cloaking device. If we stick to 3 Phantoms it leaves us 25 points for upgrades, enough to give each one of them a chance to wreak havoc on opponent, but really vulnerable in case of concentrated firepower. So do not expect Phantoms to replace your TIE's. 2 Phantoms is an overspending you points in a small game. 

2) Mastering the flight of the Phantom.

X-wing is game where ability to predict opponents move and control over space is a mainstay of the gameplay. (Especially if there is no 3rd dimension in order to deliver dramatic elements of the space combat.) So we players, have to understand what our craft is able to do as well as what opponent is capable of. Mastering Phantom takes a bit of time simply because it requires a three sided analysis of battlefield in front of you. First, you have to predict where opponent's ships will be, then you need to plan positions of your other ships, then you plan where you would like to decloak and take position. Not an easy task if you have more than 6 ships in your flight path, as well as obstacles. So learn your Phantom! Learn a three phase planning:

showcase of Echo's decloaking paths

• where i will decloak: Main aspect of its ability to cloak gives you an ability to appear on position most advantageous for you. However in many cases, mistakes, opponent's ships and obstacles will deny you decloaking position, so be prepared for that. 

• where my manoeuvre will end: at the moment Phantom is probably fastest ship in the game with its 2 decloaking and 4 ahead move. however in most cases, especially in turning dogfight you will find ability to take sharp turn and barrel roll most advantageous. As well as lack of basic 1 ahead frustrating. Remember that your manoeuvre must put you into a firing position ahead of your opponent!   

• what action i shall take afterwards: Pure battlefield analysis must tell you what will happen next, if there is anybody aiming at you with higher Pilot Skill than yours, then Cloaking or at least Evade is a must. With you decloaked Agility of 2 and points value of 30 you are a shots magnet.    

3) Combat role and loadout.

Phantom as i mentioned before is a new and manoeuverable ship, with great firepower. However relying only on its in-built abilities is not enough to bring you victory. To make it into a really great addition to your squadron it would be a good idea to assign it a combat role with a balanced loadout. Allow me to offer some of the roles i've used so far:

• Flanker: this role takes Phantom as a support to your main squadron, making use of its ability to flank main enemy force and soften them up before your main strike at lower step. Loadout: Shadow Sq Pilot, skill 5 (27pts), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2pts), Fire-Control system (2pts), Shield Upgrade (4pts). Total: 35 pts. 
• Hit-n-run: in this role "Echo" Phantom takes a great risks by going into a midst of enemy formation, hitting hard and disappearing before anyone can retaliate. Loadout: "Echo" Phantom PS 6 (30 pts), Advanced Cloaking device (4), Push the limit (3), Recon Specialist (2). Total: 40 pts.      
• Sniper: in this role, "Whisper" Phantom is acting as long range attacker, forcing enemy to reconsider its manoeuvres as critical hits and unexpected stress token pile in. Loadout: "Whisper" Phantom, PS 7, (32 pts), Marksmanship (3), Tactician or Mercenary co-pilot (2), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2). Total: 40 pts
• Shotgun: in this role Phantom is working as point blank battery flooding target with shots and ignoring its fragile nature. Loadout: Sigma Sq pilot skill 3 (25 pts), Saboteur (2), Shield Upgrade (4 pts). Total: 32 pts. 

Echo's zone of control in combat

4) Combat tactics in accordance with role.
I must admit that i love Phantom, in every game that i played so far it really made a great impact, even if i lost the battle. Learning how to use Phantom to its advantages have boiled into those roles and following tactics for them:

Flanker is less than risky approach, than Shotgun. I've played this tactics in support of my TIE swarm and in support of Firespray. As a described before, your main task is to position your ship ahead and aside of enemy formation, barrel roll if you must and give pot-shots ahead of your main attack. Positioning here is crucial, as well as Evade action as you will be left open to enemy flankers. Fire-Control system or Targeting Computer if you prefer this version, will allow you to concentrate fire of most dangerous opponent and keep the pressure until its gone. With 4 shots as normal and re-roll with Target Lock you are dangerous. Preferred distance to target; range 2, less chances of getting stuck in clusterfuck of the swarm and enough space to decloak.      

Hit-n-run is by far my favorite tactic. Make maximum use of Echo's ability to curve your decloaking position, then decloak, move, Push the limit and Cloak again. There is no need to attack every turn, let opponent get stuck with your main force, let him ignore you or get annoyed at your unpredictable pattern of flight, then strike anyone who is busy target locking or focusing on other ships with absolute impunity. The dissapear again using Advanced Cloaking device, (it gives you a free cloaking after you attacked). Word of advice - avoid or wipe out Ion Cannons, even your cloaked agility of 4 will not help if you are zapped and have a ship with a Gunner on your six. Preferred range: any, but demands a good understanding of what's going on. Action: Push the limit/Focus.

Sniper is my answer to B-wing with pesky "i-ignore-your-ability" upgrade. It demands patience and careful positioning. Ignore fighters and anything with agility more than 2. Your priority is heavy punchers, which must lose their advantage of shields and firepower before your main force will rip them apart. Main danger here is being distracted or intercepted by A-wings or TIE, so either let them get busy or wipe them as they closing to you. Cloaking and evading them is also a good tactics, but remember your objective is to take down and disorganize, let TIE bombers be a damage dealers. Preferred range: 3, action: Marksmanship.  

Shotgun is reckless but devastating tactics, where Phantom is used as part of formation, basically ignoring Cloaking for the sake of firepower. You would need to ask Darth Vader or Squad leader for extra action called Evade, as you will attract a lot of attention. But flying alongside a swarm of 3 Interceptors and poring 5 my shots plus their 12 into anything which comes close is not for feint hearted. I've used Saboteur crew upgrade just to make sure that if anything has at least one damage, will be crippled on the next turn if it did not got away. Beware of assault missiles and bombs, as any swarm you are vulnerable to them, so pick you targets wisely and cloak out of danger if you have to. Preferred range 1, action: Evade.   

In conclusion, TIE Phantom is a truly an elite choice, demanding, sometimes unpredictable but ultimately rewarding. Take your time to study its abilities, and do not get cocky. Now player's are new to it but eventually those pesky rebels will learn of your weak spots like low agility and will know how to use them against you. Good old rule of flying in formation and staying of boogie's six are still in play. 

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn.

Storm Talon: 5 wrong things about it

Before you start reading this, let me assure you that I'm well aware of the fact that GW designers are not constrained by laws of physics, technical requirements or any other real-life nonsense when creating their models. They design vehicle that suppose to look COOL. Rest of it, rules, fluff, painting is irrelevant. After all, according to 40k fluff, armed forces of Imperium are designed in a way that none would be completely self-supporting and independent, but we keep getting rules where Space Marines can field almost anything from infantry to air force under same banner.  Now lets come to our subject, Storm Talon and 5 things GW got completely wrong about it.

1. Who is the "daddy"?

who's the daddy of storm talon?

Storm Talon design definitely keeps in line with GW overall approach to all Imperial fliers, aka "flying brick". Its square, has chicken wings, lots of unnecessary details to produce as much drag in the air as possible. Usually it is relatively easy to spot real life sources of inspiration for most of GW Imperial vehicles, but here i struggle to define one. The first thing which come to mind is one of those two helicopters: Apache and Comanche. But then you read into the rules and notice that this thing is supersonic as well as hovercraft. Great! Storm Talon must really versatile, you'd think until you try it in combat. There is another aircraft similar to Storm Talon - AV-8 Harrier, but unlike Talon, it has twice more combat capability and look much more elegant. But if you take a closer look to the side of Storm Talon you may notice who is  the real daddy:

Storm Talon, I'm your father! Join the fish side!

Dad! Is that you?!

Now it all fits into place. Whoever was working on the project must have had a goldfish in his office, that clearly inspired the looks of the aircraft. Otherwise, i can not possibly imagine that having such great planes as a starting point, GW released a flying fish.

2. Armament placement

The biggest problem of Storm Talon is that all its weapons are cramped in the nose for no apparent reason. You may argue that it gives you an extra inch when firing at that distant target, but have you ever asked yourself how often it make a huge difference? 48" range is more than enough to cover most of gaming boards in a straight line. But what about 360 degrees of firing ark for your assault cannon? What if i want to have a lascannon in moving nose turret? Heavy bolters or missile launchers are placed on the side, landing gear, as well as literally in-build restrictions stop assault cannon from gaining that. WHY???

Look at Apache with its .50 cal undercarriage, it can fire it at any target below. Storm Talon is stuck with its 45 degrees front ark, and because it lightly armoured, it can go to hover mode only if there is no opposition around. As a result, we are stuck to hit-n-run tactics, which does not fill the requirements of close air support. You may of coarse field Storm Raven in this role, but that thing has a different battlefield role. Number of people have kit bashed Talon with armament in extended wings, Nephilim-style, but that does not change the problem. So unless you are happy with its limited angle, there always be targets that will evade you wraith.  

3. Engines

There comes the comparison with Harrier. For those who do not know, Harrier is equipped with single vectored thrust Rolls Royce Pegasus II engine. 4 vectored thrusts keep plane both in flight and in hover modes, as well as providing short take-off options. Simplified it looks like that:

When you look underneath Storm Talon, you will find similar 4 hoses, which should imply, that it has similar system. Alternatively, it may have a engine providing vertical drag, similar to Russian Yak-38. But then in the name of what we have 2 additional engines, which can be tilted? Let me guess... So that a kid could turn them once and feel cooool about it for 5 seconds. Get yourself a transformer toy, if looking for that sort of crap.    

4. Size of wings (fins?)

It is obvious that they are too small for anything to be placed on them. Though their size make Talon much smaller target, their functionality for alternative weapon placement is out of any aesthetic question. Anything will look huge and out of place on them. Kit bashers usually change or extend wings to place bolters or missile launchers underneath, to solve that problem. Some use replacements from other kits, like Sentinel or Land Speeder. Regardless of that wings are not the best place to present iconography of the Chapter. Luckily they gave us a HUGE tail fin, the only place on the model where we could paint, place huge transfers or just leave it empty.

5. Weapons load-outs and special rules

In its infinite wisdom we have only one slot we can modify. ONE! With only four options to choose from twin-linked heavy bolter, twin-linked lascannon, Typhoon missile launcher and useless Skyhammer missile launcher (It is just another "special" weapon designed to make one particular unit a bit better, while robbing away its versatility). Am I the only one who feels robbed of options? What if I don't want the cursed assault cannon? Two twin-linked lascannons would be my preferred load out. Why not give me that? At least i can put assault cannon to Razorback, without going to Forgeworld.

Where are the guided missiles? At least give me a hunter-killer option, please? It is a standard weapon after all.  How about a special load outs like Interceptor, Ground Attacker, or Recon? I'd love to have Infiltrate and Scout on Talon, to blast the enemy before the main battle begins. No? Can i get an Interceptor rule, to kill those pesky Eldar as they fly into the board? No? Space Marines are not cool enough?    

Hover strike is probably most useless rule for Talon. With main weapons already twin-linked, and Pinning and Rending, why do you need an extra +1 to BS and additional Pinning? It may be useful sometimes, but it is a bit of overkill. Especially know that to get it, Talon becomes a bullet magnet, as it loses its Jink save. 

Ceramite Plating, which ignores melta rule, may be of use, but would it be more logical to improve Jink save for a such highly manoeuvrable aircraft, as opposite to heavy Storm Raven?

In conclusion of my prolonged winging, Storm-fish-Talon, is still a good option. But not the best.

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul.

P.S. Have I mentioned that putting landing gear on the turret of assault cannon is most ridiculous idea I've ever seen? Well now I'v said it. :)

4500 hits: things I've learned

Blogging is not a job, even if it feels sometimes like that. Its labour of love and dedication, or at least it should be. Despite the fact that my blog was abandoned for quite a long time, the visitors kept on coming and big gaming world kept buzzing with new shiny things like Destiny, Witcher: the Wild Hunt, Shadowrun and countless other names.

After looking at my visitors statistics I came to some boring conclusions.

1) Triss Merigold is awesome.
In less than a week her sexy pictures had more hits than both my fan-made codexes had in a year. No surprise here, but still. One of the ways to get high number of visitations is to join the global hype. Can't say I like the idea, but maths shows that it gets more attention than my half-witted blubbering or videos from someones youtube channel.

2) Less is more.
Continuing on half-naked Triss. My main tool here is writing but there is a risk of flooding blog with just another post on just another hype, for just another number of hits. I'm not looking for this blog to pay my bills, so why should I join the crowd? Instead, I shall continue to use this blog as place to show my creations and sort of virtual notebook on ideas and dreams. I would have to concentrate on certain topics, such as how to overcome writer's block, ideas behind game design and personalities, that simply expands my own understanding of craft, and hopefully someone else's. If there is a need for off-topic article I probably should write it for other online blog to save me from going astray.

3) More Triss.
More ladies will come, game related or not, they are an eye candy after all. Some say they even bring visitors and even readers :)

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn.

Path of the Gamer

In less than 48 hours new Space Marine Codex is going to arrive and bring its joy to the new and old fans of Warhammer 40k. Excited, yeah? By this moment in time I've spent more hours than I'd expect doing this hobby, and less hours than it is reasonable for any mundane folk with wife, kids and mortgage. (unless they are hooked on this as well). Though people who build Games Workshop's marketing strategy probably knew what they would do to the lives of their customers, we poor geeks can seen only the shiny side of this (more new shiny things, cool heroes, grand games and conversation in circle of friends). 

So how does Path of the Gamer looks from the receiving end of the bolter? 

Phase 1: The Cool stuff.   

Yep. The stuff you buy is cool. It makes you feel great, its new, its exciting and nice guy in blue (or black) T-shirt have gave you enough time to praise your painting skills. In fact you never knew you could paint at all, before that. Each of minis give you a personal attachment, as you practise your painting and stories of Heroes battles ring as promise of great victories for you, personally. 

This stage lasts from 2 days to couple of months, depending on temperament and surrounding. There are other forms of entertainment, which are more brain damaging but less demanding in terms of time, money and dedication. 

Phase 2: Tip of the curve

Oh yeah! You made it to your first big victory over another fella who had even less knowledge of the game than you. Your victorious army is still half painted but somehow after all this dice rolling and pushing models over the table something happend, and you won. Rejoice! 

The greatest danger of this stage is meeting the Professional (see below), who plays not only game,

but who  understands the game and can play your psyche for his benefit as well as executing battle plan. Result of this meeting could be quite demoralising, as opponent will mop the floor with your battle plan, laugh over army tactics and shovel your pride up your gaming bridge. Those who survive that, and still able to paint, buy and play may proceed to next phase.

Phase 3: Revelation

The rules start to make sense, numbers gain meaning and in debate over which unit is "cheesier" you can add your profound opinion. Models become just another one to paint and put in a box, but perception of the game itself changes into strategy and dice luck. What unit to choose as damage dealer, which relic or upgrade works better and how to write a winning army list. Some even go further and attempt to criticise authors of the rule book, on  a basis that player knows better. 

To drop out of hobby on this stage is difficult, but not impossible. Life commitments like work or personal life are among prime suspects. Even so, the wargaming virus has been planted deep and have left significant effect in terms of social life and mental ability to categorize and analyse combinations of probabilities and options. Useful life skill if it ever gets a chance to be used in real life. Taking decision in the heat of battle is probably useful as well.             

  

Phase 4: New shores

After a while (in some cases couple of armies and hundreds of £ later), Gamer is going for something new and even more shiny. Great! Now he has got experience, he can compare, he knows how to spend money and leave toys unpainted for many months to come. The game system is much easier to understand, especially if new shore is just a different army of the same game. This is the time when Gamer finally enjoys himself as he is just playing it, the biggest difficulty here is an opponent. If opponent is as good as you then it all comes to dice luck. If opponent is even better than you, that's where dirty tricks are coming into a play with full swing. (it's not like you didn't do that before, of coarse)

Dropping out of the habit on this stage is plausible to lack of challenge (you know game system far too well) or opponents (nobody want to play with you). All usual suspects are still here: women, booze, work, money, not bothered anymore.   

Phase 5: The Professional

You are cool. You can teach the game to those youngsters who just got their first box. Or you can finally satisfy your Dark side and beat the crap of everyone who fields the army on the table. You can quickly adjust to any new rule set, codex or update. Your army is painted to perfection, you dice love you and there few people on the planet who dare to challenge you. Wargaming is not a profession, pastime or a lifestyle - it is a part of your body.      

When you ascended on this Path so far, you may stop playing the game anytime you want. The problem is you don't want to.

Sincerely yours, 

Mark-Paul Severn 

on the eve of 7th Space Marine Codex arrival  

        

   

RPG rant

Some facts of life to begin with;
1) an average person with belly, wife, kids and mortgage would be scared to death in the middle of firefight. 
2) Hollywood logic ignores reality for the sake of giving viewer a false sense of superiority.
3) D&D is a curse, as it is designed to give player aforementioned cocky superiority.
4) Real life conflicts rarely solved by games logic. 

So what are you talking about, man? I'm talking about fun of role playing games, what kind of feeling they are designed or intended to give player and game master. It not a secret that over-educated, under-sexed and less than well adjusted to rules of life people need something (including me). 

They need a feeling of importance, of success, of belonging to a group with similar interest and ideal and most of all - achievement. RPG's have provided all of it long before arrival of computers and social networks, by pen, paper and bunch of friends sharing same vision. Chemically speaking our brain does not distinguish between fear of imagined monster and sudden fear of drunk driver coming at you. So naturally, when you apply you imagination with a help of friends and GM to the scene of defeating a horrible world-eating monster level of you bravado goes up on a chemical level. 

It works. RPG takes off the boredom of mundane life and makes it easier to muddle through job, ridiculous bosses, kids, winging women, irritating classmates, lack of cash, long ques, traffic jams and so on. You remember that you are a monster slayer, THE Savior of the Universe or whoever who is really cool. Painful realisation that its only an imagination is taken into account, but who cares? 

That is where Hollywood logic takes over. "If truth stands in a way of a good story - publish a lie", as someone famous and American said. And here we go:  one bloke standing in the spotlight under fire and giving a porcelain smile while fencing off bullets and ugly villains. But we spent our cash and lifetime on that. Then, as culture and business repeats and multiples both heroes and villains we getting use to the same fake image. On some point, going against this trend becomes even refreshing and new. (Yes, I am talking about Deadpool.)  

But where is D&D here? 

An average street fight or pub fight last from 6 seconds to 4 minutes according to police estimation. Modern platoon size firefight with similar sized opponent may last from 10 minutes to an hour depending on terrain and other factors. In order for party of D&D heroes to get from one room to another and exchange couple of blows with an enemy they have to make a bunch of rolls, identify and use skills and spend approximately 30 minutes. 

But when you finally managed to hit something the process is even more painful. There are people who are much more agile in calculating the amount of damage, soak, resistance, extra special rule than me, I openly admit. But they probably spend good chunk if life doing just that.However on the final result player's ego is overblown by the math. You just made a gazillion damage to million hit points enemy! Monster is roaring in anger and falls to your noble feet asking for forgiveness. The hit like that would take out a battle tank, and you did it with a sword or a fist. But player grins in the manner of the Universe Savior and crawl to the next boss fight. Cool? Awesome! 

But after a while it becomes a habit, as you casually chop, talk, sing and roll your way through just another "mystery" with grotesque idiot trying to conquer the world. What is more scary player lose the ability to see relevance to what they do and impact on the fantasy world they are saving. Their role is assigned as Savior's, but do they care for mukes? No. They are here to provide fun and hit points.

Psychologically speaking, this creates an "comfort zone", where you easily guess what to expect and well aware of what you are capable of. Something not so common in the real life. As you progress with a character this comfort zone gets bigger and more comfortable, even GM are forced to make an adventure where every role would have a time to shine. So adventure becomes a grid of talking, stealing, fighting and casting spells. But does it provide a challenge or achievement? In the terms of game, yes. There are always bigger bosses and more hit points. 

In terms of thinking out of the box? Doubt that. The "comfort zone" of Savior is sturdy. That's where GM's talent really shines, if he or she manages to overcome the rules which are bigger than Bible. 

How to make players care for the team? How to give motivation other than prescribed adventure for money? How to keep them unsure of what happens next? How to make a right balance between heroic action and story? How to keep players focused on the game rather than socialisation? How to reward or punish players who just managed to blow the whole plot into oblivion? And most important, how give a feeling of achievement not by lucky roll but by taking decisions and making them happen?   

I'm not giving the answers, but just asking the right questions is helpful.

Sincerely yours,       

Mark.
     



         

The Great and terrible Warhammer 40000

This post was intended to be a collections of criticism and general whinging about 40K and flaws, remorseless greed of Games Workshop and so on. I will probably get there, but if you have been affected by this hobby you probably know it yourself. 

However, during preparation I have made some interesting discoveries or observations if you like.
Rogue Trader, the initial first version of 40K was intended as mission-based small-scale skirmish game. Player would play narrative scenarios and Game Master would unfold coming events.That was the plan of course... :)

On the game mechanics side, 40K suffers and interesting combination of several layers of editions and visions of how game should be played. Born as small scale game, where Space Marines and other units were acting as individuals, it relies on the generally same mechanics as its fantasy brother Warhammer. Of coarse it had to drop big units movement, flanking and charging, but managed to retain bonuses for two close combat weapons or extra attacks for charging. Warhammer, ideologically looks up to D&D system, but  retains its core as a unit-based system, where individual models and heroes act as bonus to number of super cool hits and mega weapons of unit, an organized cell of army.  

40K on the other hand is trying to take Warhammer base and develop it into a fast-pacing hero-based blockbuster, where a single hero has a chance to land a war winning hit. Which is not only unrealistic, but quite slow and ridiculous when you roll hundred or so dice just to find out how many Orks managed to get close to a well defended bolter position before Guardsman woke up and started to fire. Until current 6th edition, 40K preferred close combat as main way of determining the victor.

Flames of War, despite its hugely complicated system of internal special rules, historic background ect. became popular thanks to its relatively elegant system: assault is rolled on one dice per unit, ranged is rolled in "to hit" and firepower test. That is an essence of huge, industrialized and massed warfare, where single life is irrelevant. That is what Apocalypse should have been, but none risked changing the system, and we still counting number of shots and punches in the face. All six thousands of them. Humble attempts to modify this in Epic and Warmaster games are worth mentioning, but they retain a dusty place of specialist games.     

Warhammer 40K in this matter, suffers another problem: this game is about Space Marines. All other races, where born and created as either bigger monsters to kill (Tyranids), or more clever and sneakier enemies to fight (Eldar). In its core this game is about victories of power armored, bad ass, bolter loaded and genetically engineered heroes. They need attention and war glamor.

The sales figures confirm that: so far Space Marines are bestsellers. But the threat of newcomers is looming on horison, and more and more people discover new drugs game and game systems. Some are even better than 40K. But most are definitely cheaper. 
  

-Hey Sarge, should we tell them that boat is almoust out of gas?- Nah, just smile and wave boys!

             

Research and table-top economics

Well things are moving, i came back to game system I'm working on and decided to dig deeper into economical system and how it should be present in the game. Sounds easy, huh? Easier said than done. First of all economics is subject almost not covered in table-top games, you are more likely to find Monopoly styled games in the world of board games and economic simulators among MMO's. Not to worry, i thought, lets minimize economy part to a supply line and bribery of opponents forces. In fact this is plausible in modern warfare. If latter was simple enough, the supply and market positions of the groups became a bit of the challenge. Not to worry, i said, i shall look at modern day market structure and development, draw some inspiration and then problem will be solved. Naive...

I found 2 distinct approaches and videos to supplement them. First is overview of New York stock exchange Market structure and trading systems.

Simple enough to represent in table-top game. Second is a video on market and indices manipulation. That is where my brain exploded.        

 

in short that goes against everything I've learned about markets and economics. Basically, imagine that you play chess in the club, naturally everyone is trying to win. However club owner changes the rules during the game, right when grab i figure to move. Not only that everyone else supports this action because they agreed that club owner must win no matter what. 

I think i need to rewrite original concept of planetary economics... :-( or may be get another education