Review of Voidling Bound

 

Voidling Bound is a 3D shooter action game that is a wonderful excuse for collecting alien animals, evolving them to unlock traits, and breeding them for the best stats. It is a lot of fun and has a surprising amount of depth. This is an excellent game with some minor caveats. 

The shooting combat is good and feels satisfying. The levels change up their objectives so their layouts don't feel too repetitive, but there is repetition as to the mission objectives and some of the level design.  For example, in one case you will be fighting off waves of enemies to survive in a time limit, and the next side mission will require you to occupy three independent spaces in any order you choose while fighting off more waves of goons.

Voidling Bound is really pretty

At endgame you can sink a lot more time into the roguelike final dungeon, breed your Voidlings (there are NINE species) to achieve genetic apotheosis (there are SIXTEEN unique variants per species), make gene-spliced mega-monsters to break the game over your knee, unlock all the combat traits (Enhancements) of a particular species, and explore for gold eggs/collectables that you missed in previous levels. And there is one more endgame collecting thing I'm not going to go into detail about.

Complete Glick Evolution Tree, one of Nine different species

This is one of those games I want and will buy additional DLC for. Also, the music is good and matches level themes quite well. 

A buddy and I have been playing Voidling Bound independently and here is how we have played the game.  

My buddy found a Golden Kwipeck (Think a Battle-Chicken) from a Gold Egg that had a trait that allows him to get new egg drops from any enemy death at a rate of 3%. He spliced that trait into a New Improved Golden Chicken (Kwipeck) with additional traits so that he could farm resources like mutagens necessary to evolve more Voidlings. Also, he made the spliced Golden Chicken inflict Burn on enemies, and then spliced another trait onto it to heal itself anytime an enemy takes burn damage.

These traits were found from different Voidling evolutionary trees and combined with the Splicing machine.

A Spliced Kwipeck

I followed a different route. I spliced together a Kwipeck that was a circle-strafing dodge tank. I combined the traits that allows a Voidling to move at their max speed while shooting, along with features that gave the Kwipeck the ability to spew out Lightning so that I could cut down robots, who are weak to lightning, at speed. Also, I added a Triple Jump effect to my Lightning Kwipeck and a Glick (think Lizard-Dogs) Trait that gave my Lightning Chicken armor when he landed on the ground.

You can also: have a lighting cat that shoot out homing missiles, a necromancer Gizmo-looking guy that has a damaging ring of bones, a crocodile-dog throw no-shit black holes, a turtle-gorilla that sprays down a carpet of fungus to poison enemies, and a hovering metroid-like Voidling send enemies floating into the air to then punish them with gravity. The list goes on.

A Spliced Glick

Now some critiques.  I’ve mentioned there is some repetition in mission design in the combat arenas with waves of enemies.  Also, the main quest is relatively short (about 15 hours), but it ends on a satisfying note and that unlocks the roguelike endgame dungeon to conquer.  

The Voidling management system could use some quality-of-life features though. For example, being able to lock a Voidling to prevent accidently releasing them into the wild would be very useful.  Also, you should be able to favorite a Voidling and name each Sanctuary box you have for organizational purposes when you start heavily breeding your pets. 

A Spliced cryo focused Glick built for survival

I'm pretty happy with Voidling Bound and I want to see DLC. 

Voidling Bound is $25 and is available on Steam. 

Age of Wonders 4, Vampire Bunnies Setting

Age of Wonders 4 is a wonderful fantasy grand strategy 4x game.  “4x” stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate.  Think of the venerable Civilization series for reference. 

With the recent patch and Rise from Ruin DLC, Age of Wonders 4 has introduced a Hare-peoples race.  Naturally I called them Bunny-folk and started an empire with an Elder Vampire Bunny Leader called Bunnicula, after the legendary and oh-so-cute vampire bunny of the children’s series authored by Deborah and James Howe. 

Inspired by the events in the game so far, I have written up setting information about Bunnicula’s world as if it was a tabletop roleplaying game setting to be explored.   I might actually use it as such.  Here are the races, locations and potential backgrounds that characters could come from in this snapshot of the game at Turn 55. 

Setting Races

Overlord Leporids (Primary) – These bunny-peoples are athletic, have quick reflexes and are light footed to outmaneuver their foes.  Ruled by the Elder Vampire Bunnicula Balloch they have adopted the Dark culture, the Cult of Death.  They are Prolific Swarmers and have a Vision of Destiny as they pursue the magic of Shadow. 

Moonrock Dwarves (Secondary) – These dwarven folk are tough, adapted to the underground and practice defensive tactics.  The ones in the Empire of Bunnicula are either conquered peoples from Omenhallow or refugees from Fangir, their Wizard King’s other wars. They have adopted the Mystic culture, focusing on Summoning.  They are Great Builders and Runesmiths, so they often carry enchantments.  

Monolilthic Humans (Tertiary) – Either slaves of their Eldritch Sovereign, Elgoroth the Hedonist, or zealots of him; these humans recuperate quickly, are adaptable and practice defensive tactics. They are Architects of Chaos, follow a racial Cult of Personality and are Bannerlords. Their Cult of Personality means they look up to Heroes of all stripes. 

Galetoads (Tertiary) – Citizens of the Storm Giant King Singaith Sky-Shatter, the frog-people the Galetoads are now in a defensive alliance with the vampiric Overlord Leporids. Both evil empires, Galetoads are adapted to the swamp, resilient, hardy and are known for their sharp eyes which aid in scouting. A Mystic culture, they focused on Attunement to magic.  They are Scions of Evil and live in Hermit Kingdoms. 

Locations

Nilzahdum- Founding settlement of the Vampire Bunnies. Now a full fledged City (13 population) this industrial heart of the empire is located on a juncture of sprawling Ashlands bordered by the East and the North by lava seas.  The Eastern Lava Sea is called the “Crusader Sea” as beyond the lava sea is where the Celestial Crusaders originate from. 

a. Features 3 gold mines, 3 quarries and 3 foresters.  One of the gold mines is located off the coast in lava, ie a Smelter Mine.  One of the Foresters is a Ritual Pyre founded by Abboth the Strong a Champion hero who wanted to impress his Elder Vampire sire, Bunnicula Balloch. 

b. City’s garrison is a unit of Death Guard (pikemen who self heal)

c. City can produce Inferno Puppies which are puppies constructed from elemental fire. 

d. Possible Backgrounds:

Ashland Stickpicker Settlers – Settlers who eke out a meager life from the border lands in huts.

Mining Thralls – either stone or gold miners, their exposure to the Ashlands and Lava seas has reduced their constitution but made them accustomed to the sweltering heat and harsh conditions of the worst of the land. 

Blood Thralls – Primarily Overlord Leporids, Blood Thralls of all races aspire to become full-fledged vampires or orbit in those elite social circles. 

Death Guard Pikemen – Either mustered to patrol the City or sent south to Gnolmoch to the battle zones, these citizens are elite troops who practice together in disciplined formation.

Inferno Puppies Beast Masters – Constantly singed and burned, these hardy citizens are very familiar with handling fire beasts. 

Gnolmoch- Center of War and Research. Now a Town (7 population). Governed by Horras the Uncanny the Scholarly Governor. Located embedded into the northern face of a mountain, this Town sprawls East towards a Celestial Crusader Incursion and West towards the former battleground lands of Omenhallow, now pacified. 

a. 2 Research posts.  Eastern Research Post investigates the problem of the Celestial Crusaders. Western Research Post was forcibly taken over from Omenhallow in the war and reorganized by Horras himself (+5 Research Points). Now it studies the latest magical theories of the Empire, specifically how to destroy enemy morale. 

b. The Town had fallen in Turn 33 to the marauding Celestial Crusaders to the East after a defensive battle in the Town center. The Town did not have walls and so it was a pitched battle in the streets. 

c. The Walled Waterworks Ancient Wonder was explored and conquered around Turn 40 and converted into a Hidden Wellspring after Turn 43 (cost 500 mana for this conversion). 

d. Possible Backgrounds:

Scavengers of Celestial Remnants – The fall of Gnolmoch to the rampaging Celestial Crusaders has left remnants all over the town and its provinces.  These remnants are important experimental materials for the Eastern Research Post and some citizens specialize in gathering them.

Diplomats to the Fae Courts of the Seasons – The infrastructure conversion of the Walled Waterworks to the Fae-friendly Hidden Wellspring has brought Fae of three Season Courts to Gnolmoch.  These diplomat citizens interact with the Fae warriors, keep them happy and make them useful to the empire. 

Dark Magic Researcher – At the cutting edge of the empire’s Dark Magic research, these citizens report to Horras the Uncanny himself and labor on reducing the morale of their opponents.

Enlisted Citizen – With the wars with the Moonrock Dwarves, the Celestial Crusaders and more on the horizon, military minded citizens of any stripe can be found hailing from Gnolmoch.

Anti-Celestial Researcher – Firmly focused on ensuring that Gnolmoch never falls again, these zealous researchers interrogate, experiment on and theorize against the Celestials. They are particularly wary of the Dawn of the Lodestar event and it’s bolstering effect on the Celestials. 

Omenhallow – Suzerain of Conquest. Recently (Turn 55) integrated Moonrock Dwarf Town (8 population) rested from the grasp of Fangir (Moonrock Dwarf Wizard King).  The transition of the city from Fangir to Overlord Leporid hands has not diminished the populations’ morale (+20 currently).  Many attribute this to the excellent Dwarven infrastructure and indoor plumbing. 

a. 3 Quarries, 2 research posts

b. No Overlord Leporid Governor yet

c. Half the Provinces are Sunless from Gnolmoch’s influence. 

d. Possible Backgrounds:

Omenhallow Bureaucrat – Given the lack of an official Overlord Leporid Governor, these citizens are often Leporids who are looking to make a name for themselves in the expected new administration.  Devious maneuvers and powerplays are common.

Leporid Secret Police – Given this is the first conquered settlement by the Vampire Bunnies, the Overlord Leporids are leaving nothing to chance.  Ferreting out civil corruption, as well as Moonrock Dwarf partisans, these citizens are the mailed fist of the Bunnicula empire.  

Moonrock Dwarf Lightning Researcher – Citizens of the Fangir Wizard King rule, these researchers have previously focused on bending electricity and lightning to all forms of industrial and martial ends. 

Moonrock Dwarf Stonecutter – Moonrock Dwarves are as Tough as they come and the ones that work in the quarry are more robust still.  Alternatively, some are fine stone craftsmen with a delicate touch and artisan’s eye.

Omenhallow Criminal Underground – Government upheaval, invading Leporid armies in the streets and half the Town blighted by Sunless terrain creates opportunities. These citizens were mostly once Omenhallow defenders, sometimes partisans and all of them full-time opportunists. Contraband flows freely through these individuals’ hands. 

Dominance- The Bucolic Wonder.  Ironically named by the Vampire Leporid Prospecting Governor Keryn the Friendly, this Village (6 Population) aspires to be a manufacturing and gold mining center of the empire. It is not that. Not yet. 

a. Located on Sunless forests and fertile planes with one entrance to the underground for Province growth, Dominance is overall a nice settlement to be from. 

b. 2 Farms, 1 gold mine. The gold mine is particularlly rich, (+5 gold) because of the Prospecting Governor.

c. Unscouted lands to the West.

d. Possible Backgrounds:

Dominance Farmer – Oddly bucolic despite proximity to lava seas to the North and the East, farmers from Dominance are none the less hardy folk with their head on a swivel, constantly alert to monster attacks from the frontier.

Government Spelunker – The Governor has made it a mandate to expand into the lands under the earth. A surveyor, caver and adventurer; a government funded Spelunker is a jack of all trades. 

Dominance Tradesman – a frontier Tradesman and sometimes laborer, these citizens work in the vendor or workshop halls. They remember erecting Dominance’s palisade walls as a group effort and are social because of that.

Dominance Monster Hunter – Being on the frontier means being under threat from wandering monsters and bandits.  Monster Hunters focus on the Iron deposits West of Dominance that are occupied by Celestial marauders that threaten Dominance miners. 

Ruins Adventurer – East of Dominance is a temple where Archons once worshiped the Allfather.  The Altar of Devoration is still and quiet now, but rumors persist that cults and sinister entities have taken up residence. These citizens scourer the area for artifacts and bits of magic that will earn them a quick bag of coins, while staying away from mad cultist’s blades. 

Afterword

Even a simple game of Age of Wonders 4 easily creates a rich environment for a tabletop RPG setting.  Granted, I used a lot of creative liberties with the possible backgrounds of the settlements of the setting, but the core origins of the Age of Wonders 4 Vampire Bunnies game are there.  I hope this bout of creative writing illustrates how enjoyable the game is and inspires others, whether they use Vampire Bunnies as a set piece or not. 

Solium Infernum After Action Report and Review

 

Solium Infernum (2024, League of Geeks) is a digital board game where you play as one of four to six Archfiends of Hell, vying with each other to succeed to the empty throne of Hell that Satan left when he vanished. 

It has solo and multiplayer mode, but it is currently best played in multiplayer, as no AI can compete with another human for sheer deviousness.  

A full house of Archfiends

There are four ways to take the throne of Hell: two main ones and two methods that are more complicated, called Manipulation Victories, that I will explain later. The first method is to become ruler of Hell by Election. To do this, you simply must accumulate more victory points (called Prestige) than any other Archfiend and survive without being excommunicated until the end of the game.  The second method is to take the central city of Hell, Pandemonium, by force with a legion and then survive five turns while you are excommunicated and every other Archfiend is given sanction to enter your territory and try to topple your capital city (Stronghold).  This method of victory is called the Tyranny of the Usurper.  Excommunication means that you can no longer win by Election, you can no longer make purchases from the great Bazaar of Hell and you can no longer engage in diplomacy.  

True to its nature of simulating Hell, most actions lead you into conflict with one player or another.  For example, in order to enter another Archfiend’s territory and attack their legions or take over their territory, you must first have a casus belli.  These are generated by the diplomacy actions, the most basic of which are the Demand and the Insult.  A Demand allows you to aggressively request resource tokens from your opponent for a wager of your Prestige. If they refuse, you lose the wagered Prestige…but you may declare a Vendetta, which among other things allows you invade their territory, take over their Places of Power and slaughter their legions.  Albeit with a time limit in turns that you determine before the Vendetta takes place.  

Erzsebet responds to an Insult

An Insult is sort of like the opposite of a Demand. By hurling an Insult, you wager an amount of Prestige. If your opponent accepts your Insult, they lose Prestige and you gain twice the Prestige you wagered. Alternatively, if they reject the insult, you have manipulated your opponent into declaring a mandatory Vendetta against you.  This can be useful to draw a weaker opponent into a conflict they cannot win. 

Tactical nature of Hell's landscape

So overall Solium Infernum plays like a tactical wargame at one level, with a layer of diplomacy above the wargame table that is integrated within it.  In addition, there is the great Bazaar of Hell, where instead of buying outright legions, artifacts, manuscript pages and Praetors (infernal heroes), you have to bid on every item. If another player bids for the same item with more Hellish currency, then you simply lose everything you have bid and have to slink back to your domain empty handed.  Hell is not certain; Hell is not kind. Unpredictability lies around every corner and decision. Every action in Solium Infernum is uncertain, takes time, or leads to deceit.   These are also the very basics of play.  With higher rank and greater infernal attributes, one can steal legions outright from another player, throttle the number of actions an opponent takes, wreck their ability to cast spells outright, send a strike of infernal hellfire against an opponent’s legion and frame another player, and many more dastardly actions.

It is quite fun.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun documented a rather devilish multiplayer playthrough of the original Solium Infernum, created in 2009 by Vic Davis of Cryptic Comment. Although that version is no longer available, the story is still worth reading.

Now I’ll relate my first Solium Infernum experience. I joined a realtime game for four players, lasting at least 60 turns, in which each player had 3 minutes to complete each round.  Predictably I got crushed. However, I did learn a couple of devious moves by observation. 

Astaroth

I played as Astaroth (a war and conquest archfiend). My opponents were Belial (deceptive manipulator), Lilith (sorceress) and Mammon (lord of money). I started off with two Places of Power immediately next to me so I seized both (to benefit from their Prestige income per turn) and built up my only legion with a Praetor (infernal hero) and a piece of equipment.

An Angel in Hell

Fast forward a couple of turns and one of the Archfiends anonymously had executed an event card that eliminated my only legion and the resources I put into it. Then Belial and Mammon basically crushed me by taking away my Places of Power. But was I done? Oh no. Stunted and doomed though I was, as the least of the four Archfiends, I caused chaos in Hell by inviting an Angel unit from Heaven to go around Hell and eliminate one of each of the Archfiends’ units. Also, there were other shenanigans as I was boxed in to my little piece of territory.

Fast forward to the end. Belial's player had been hounding me incessantly and Mammon was winning the game at like turn 30 with 335 Prestige. The Lilith player wanted to secure some semblance of victory so she blood vassalized herself to Mammon, giving half her personal Prestige to her new master. Belial's player had been rather aggressive so I began weaving spells to hinder his colossal units like The Beast of Hell and a Walking Fortress, both units with over 20 hitpoints (average is 4-8 hp). Between the three of us Belial's player got his Titan units torched and he ragequit in response. Mammon was going to win. I was fine with that. When Mammon ascended the Infernal Throne, there was a shadow that parted from behind the throne. Lilith had a secret relic that she chose at the beginning of the game that gave her the ability to win if she correctly vassalized herself to an Archfiend who was going to win via her manipulation. Mammon with his 300+ prestige was just a pawn. Such is Hell.

This is called a Manipulation Victory of the Power Behind the Throne type in Solium Infernum, and that is one of two Manipulation Victory variants.  The other is a Crown of the Kingmaker victory, which requires a player to select the appropriate relic before the game commences, then requires you to choose another Archfiend as a “puppet” within the first 10 turns.  If the “puppet” Archfiend is Elected to the throne, you win instead. 

As I have said, nothing is certain in Hell. 

Six Ages I: Ride Like the Wind. After Action Report 1

 

What type of game is Six Ages: Ride like the Wind? In short, Six Ages is a clan management game in a Bronze Age mythological world where the action revolves around stealing neighbor’s cows and solving Choose Your Own Adventure-like events where mundane and magical problems vex your people. 

However, that’s not all. Six Ages is not standard fantasy. Or even standard Bronze Age fantasy. No, Six Ages is set in Glorantha, a world created by the practicing shaman Greg Stafford, in which belief in Gods and magical interaction keeps the fabric of the world together. What does that mean? Kill the Sun God and the literal sun goes out. The world becomes very cold. Stafford had been writing about Glorantha since 1966, so the world is rich in detail and mythology. 

This also means that Six Ages is not your standard management game. For example, Six Ages starts with a short illustrated questionnaire that defines your clan, it’s practices, and which Gods it reveres more than the others.  This questionnaire is more than just roleplaying.  It defines what your ancestors did. If you choose to make decisions with your clan that diverge from your ancestor’s customs, the ancestor spirits will become mad at you and you will suffer a penalty to the amount of magic you can raise yearly. And it’s my understanding that loss of magic is just one of the consequences.

Without further ado, here is an after action report of several in game years of decisions made with my clan.  These reports all contain spoilers for the in-game events, so be forewarned. 

Report 1: In my last adventures with Six Ages, things have gotten crazy. This picture is from an early raid of another clan where we were victorious. They (the Old Eagles) have since raided us in revenge and I need more Swords warriors, and the clan is low on food, and lampreys from the sky just ate my Duck Spirit, oh god.

Report 2: Had a good session yesterday. So, things have been going south for our clan since we got into an attrition battle with our ancestral enemy the Trolls in the time of Churka 17 (time is recorded as the number of years the clan leader, Churka, has been in "office"). We lost the battle and lost many Swords and Bows that day. Also, the Trolls ate one of our circle members, which means we lost a named NPC.

Since then, it has been a struggle. When we once started with upwards of 700 cows, we now have around 400 cows. Magic has been drying up; where once it was 10 points of Magic produced every Sacred Time, we are down to 7 produced annually, which is quite limiting. We tried performing a ritual of our Sun God with a strapping promising 19-year-old with excellent combat...and he got frozen solid and broken into ice shards by Cold Sun. We are often raided as many as three times a year and I'm having a hard time keeping my number of Swords fighters around 17 because they keep dying. To prevent the clan from starving year after year I've had to sell off two of our clan's treasures, a non-renewable resource. No one will form new trading caravans with us. But, dear reader, all is not lost.

A few years back, children were born with the power of Elmal the Sun. They could literally throw fireballs. We treated the three carefully, welcoming them into the tribe and turning the other way when they accidently burned down a tent. One of them has now become a man and is available to be put into a position of leadership on our clan circle. He is Renowned in combat which is what we desperately need as we are surrounded on three sides by enemies, all eager for our cows and our blood.

Will the young one become our savior? We'll find out next time...

Report 3: Another Six Ages report! So last time, I was struggling with a downward spiral of losing cows left and right, a lack of food, my Swords (elite fighters) dying, and 3 raids a year against me by enemy clans.

Friends, we’ve turned the clan around and I have to thank two parties: the decisions made by the stream crowd, and our 19-year-old clan member Yatakan with Renowned skill in Combat who, according to the in-game events, throws fireballs. Yeah.

As a reminder, I started with around 750 cows, last time I reported in the clan only had 300-400 cows. Now the people have 643 cows and climbing thanks to Yatakan lead herd raids. And that’s not all. In the past year we have had six major raids. We were threatened by the Alkothi, the Demon People. We sent them packing. The Porganosi, a clan of the Ram Peoples (Orlanthi), threatened us. We took them down. Our ancestral enemy the Trolls showed up. Yatakan took two trolls down in hand-to-hand combat to save one of our nobles (NPC character). While we were recovering from that, the Flame Singers clan teamed up with the Sa-Gorini clan to crush us. Our Raven shaman (Trickster) summoned a Wasp spirit to sting the Sa-Gorini into fleeing the battlefields and then our carefully allocated combat tactics carried the day against the Flame Singers.

Was that it? No. The Andayling clan (Ram people) kidnapped 9 members of our clan. We tracked them down thanks to a divination revealed by the God Elmal and liberated our people. Yatakan the God child is truly amazing.

Report 4: A Six Ages report! Or Everyone Loves Yatakan. In the last "episode" we were slowly regaining momentum and wealth (643 cows) thanks to Yatakan, our warleader with Renowned in Combat who was beating raids against us right, left, and center.

Yatakan remains the crown jewel in the clan, but there were a couple of close calls.

We were raided by the Yellowhill tribe. They brought over 100 fighters and we were outnumbered. Yatakan was nervous about this so we dedicated some clan magic to the fight. During the battle, Orala, our healer, saw Yatakan sustain a terrible blow. This made me really concerned because I had never seen Yatakan become injured before. After some discussion, the streamer clan council decided to send an armed escort with Orala to Yatakan's side. Fortunately, Orala revived Yatakan. For us this was the most important outcome even though the dastardly Yellowhill tribe won the battle and looted our cows.

Later Yatakan was challenged to a duel by Murus, a lion warrior of the distant Ergeshite nomads. Anyway, we took a risk, and Yatakan's might was tested by the lion warrior's magic claws. Yatakan became injured (was away from the clan circle for one season) but he triumphed over Murus, nearly decapitating him.

But all was not ideal. The clan protested that Yatakan was overly litigious and loved lawsuits. One other circle member even wanted our boy thrown off of the council! Essentially, we told the grumblers to go pound sand and we changed the laws so there is now a limit to the number of lawsuits any clan member can raise. Also, we carried out a Heroquest with Yatakan's childhood friend who could also throw fireballs, Ayvtu. 

We devoted many points of Magic to Ayvutu and sacrificed 30 cows. She was turned into a block of ice and shattered by our enemy Cold Sun in the Godrealm. Another 22 year old has been lost to the Gods.

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind. Stories of Cows and Cupidity. It is fun. 

Mordheim PvP After Action Reports 2

 More Mordheim PvP shenanigans. This time between Ben’s Undead army and my Chaos warband. We each had 7 units: one Leader, two Heroes this time and four Henchmen.  We started off in an arc around our wagons on opposite sides of the map.  Again, we were deployed in a ruined neighborhood of Mordheim, but this time a three-story dilapidated manor house was to my north-east, surrounded in part by an iron fence just west of it.  I had chosen a random secondary objective, and we both ended up with Wyrdstone Rush, which simply is a race to collect the majority of the wyrdstone on the board.

My units started in a good position. A little over half of the wyrdstone was on my side of the board and there was a large cluster of stone on an open street in between ramshackle buildings and the iron fence I mentioned earlier. I aggressively seized the field, clearing out some treasure pockets with my forces broken into two formations.  My Magister Leader, Marauder Hero, and a Brethren Henchman archer comprised the western flank and made a moderate beeline for the wyrdstone cluster to my north-west.  My other three Henchmen, Darksouls all, were led by the Doomweaver and began approaching the abandoned manor house to the north-east.

My Leader Knarr preparing for battle

Now I should also mention that two of my Darksoul henchmen had lost weapons last conflict and were equipped strictly with daggers because I had forgotten to resupply them with proper weapons.  Despite this I still found them useful because the initiative bonus from the daggers brought them close to the top of the initiative track.  I was going to use the Darksouls as tanks anyhow and let the heavy lifting damage be done by my Heroes and Leader. That was the plan anyway.

As my Leader and associates group began to creep up on the wrydstone cluster, my other group lead by the Doomweaver began to converge with them.  I was wary of Ben’s dastardly Hero the Skaven Poison Wind Globadier (named Halfear) so my Leader ran up to the cluster, eagerly grabbed two wyrdstone shards and retreated into the safety of the rest of my forces.  As expected, Ben’s Globadier Halfear showed up and put a cloud of poison over the cluster to deter any further looting on my part.  As we eyed each other, one of Ben’s zombies walked out of the mist to take up a defensive position next to the Globadier. 

Mentally preparing to take down the nasty-nasty Skaven with my Magister Leader and adjacent Marauder, Ben made an observation. “Hey can you see the Daemon?”  “What Daemon?” I asked when suddenly a four-armed slavering Pink Horror galloped around the corner and engaged my Leader, the Magister.  Ironically, I was excited.  This was the first time Ben and I had seen a Daemon in action in a Mordheim player vs player conflict.  Eager to see what this thing had in store for us I engaged it with my Marauder Hero to back up my Leader.  “Uh, that’s a lot of hitpoints it has” I remarked as my Marauder sliced into it twice, deeply, and only knocked its health down by a sixth or so.

Then Ben unveiled his wicked plan. A second Poison Wind Globadier took the field. His name was Khan Something.  Soon my Leader, Marauder and the Daemon were surrounded by a dense cloud of poison gas generated by the dual actions of the two Globadiers. And that wasn’t the worst part.  Despite a desperate dodge, the Daemon ripped into both of my important units.  “Uh. So, it has three attacks per turn. Interesting.” I stated without a quaver of worry in my voice. 

My Leader and Marauder continued to be tied up by the Tzeentchian Horror, trading blow for blow, but constantly losing health due to the evil poison gas from the dastardly Skaven.  With a cry, both of my poor units were put out of action by the poison, just as the Pink Horror was about to die.  One of Ben’s Skaven took aim and finished the thing with a warplock pistol shot just as my Doomweaver was rushing to try to finish the threat.

 “I think I see a graphical glitch,” Ben said. “What do you mean?” I responded. “I see two Blue Daemons.” Right then my Warhammer lore kicked in very belatedly.  Pink horrors, SPLIT when slain into two lesser, but still dangerous, versions.  And my Doomweaver was now facing two slavering very hungry maws.

My Henchmen in the right flank fared much better despite being mostly equipped with daggers.  There was a ruined gatehouse outside, south of the three-story manor house and my archer had take up an overwatch position on what was essentially a two-story staircase.  Ben’s Leader Vampire, who has been much abused by injuries over the course of our games, creeped forwards to engage my archer but he was counter-ambushed by a nearby Darksoul, this one with proper weapons.  Ben’s ghoul attempted to jump up to the second floor (this melee was all taking place on the second floor) but based on the Vampire’s position, could not engage either of my troops.  

Luckily, with stunning blows, my archer (who carries a sword and shield just for this eventuality) and the Darksoul engaged the Vampire and were acquitting themselves handily.

A dagger armed Darksoul on the ground engaged Ben’s nearby Zombie sent in to support, but it was too late for me tactically.  At this time, I was trying to disengage from the dual Blue Horrors with my Doomweaver and retreat.  Didn’t matter. The Daemons tracked down the Doomweaver, ignoring Ben’s Skaven to the north, and tore the Hero apart.  Warband moral check failed; lessoned learned.

I was very happy when I learned my Magister Leader, Gnarr, returned home without additional loss. Then he promptly collapsed on the floor and died from his injuries.  Such is the power of Chaos. 

Mordheim PvP After Action Reports 1

 Mordheim: City of the Damnned is the video game adaptation of the classic tabletop skirmish wargame Mordheim set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. The video game is an excellent turn-based squad-based tactics game with a punishing difficulty. If you like XCOM, Battle Brothers or Gloomhaven you will feel right at home. If your warband characters get put out of action in combat they may come back with injuries that persist from combat to combat, or even lose their weapons if your opponent has looted them. Some may see this as extremely punishing, but I see this as adding realistic flavor to the mercenary management portion of the game. For the remainder of this post I'll be referring to the video game as Mordheim.

What follows is an After Action Report of some of the PvP games I have played against opponents Ben and Splizwarf.

In my first game, Ben was playing the Undead and I had my plucky Chaos warband.  We started at Rank zero so we only had 5 units each: A Leader, a Hero and three Henchmen (soldiers). Ben picked a Skaven Poison Wind Globadier as his Hero. I picked a Chaos Mutant (gets mutations at level 1, 4 and 7; currently level zero).

In our initial skirmish our armies were nearly adjacent to each other. I foolishly engaged Ben's Ghoul Henchman with my Leader and got surrounded, putting my Leader out of action.  The game desynced and kicked us both off, declaring us both victors ironically.  Still, my leader had to spend five days recovering from his wounds. 

Undaunted I bought a new Magister Leader, Steiner, and engaged Ben again. Ben saw a trio of my Hero and Henchmen outside a gate and charged with his Vampire Leader. I surrounded his Vampire and promptly pummeled him into the dirt.  But then, then came the Skaven Globadier.  Ben expertly threw poison globes into the midst of the victorious trio multiple times over several turns, taking the high ground of a nearby three story house.  My leader finally engaged the dammed Skaven in the top of the house but the damage was already done. The multiple poison strikes from the globes weakened my trio so much that they died to poison spontaneously, really before Ben even needed to engage.  It was like sacrificing your Queen to take out the rest of your opponent's chess pieces. Oh and my leader engaging the Skaven?  He got knifed to death by the slippery dodging Skaven and a Ghoul that snuck up behind him and pummeled him with an axe. 

My Leader Steiner lost an arm from that battle and that is a permanent injury! We may have more battles and shenanigans to come.

****

More Mordheim Battle reports. This time, I talk about winning and the morale mechanic.  To win a match in Mordheim you need to either put the entire enemy team out of action or make them run away by failing a morale test. You have a certain amount of morale based on each unit’s Leadership score.  Your Leaders usually have the lion’s share of your team’s morale, so if they go down, it usually takes one or two more casualties for the opponent to force you to take a morale check by reducing your morale below a certain threshold.  Also, each player has a cart which contains a totem.  Steal the totem and you reduce your opponent’s morale by about one casualty.  

In my game against Ben we spawned on a map neither of us was familiar with.  Imagine a square that was an eight-pointed star with standing stones at each of the eight points, encircled by abandoned houses all around the edge.  Ben had to deploy his warband around his cart in the center of the standing stones while I was made to scatter my troops in a wide arc around in the abandoned buildings.  We clashed quickly at two points as the terrain and deployment encouraged us to.  My Magister (Chaos sorcerer who is also my Leader) was engaged by Ben’s Vampire Leader half way up the collapsed roof of some ruined building.  I managed to have a nearby Chaos henchman charge the Vampire from his rear and between my two Chaos units the Vampire was slammed and put out of action. 

The second point of conflict was in a ruined alleyway where wyrdstone and treasure were littered behind one of my henchmen.  Ben’s Ghoul and Skaven Poison Wind Globadier engaged my henchman, who fortunately dodged his best, but his health was still getting dangerously low.  An archer of mine and another Chaos henchman were isolated from the main conflicts so I sent them on a sneaky mission. Dodging and hiding behind the standing stones I stealthily marched them to Ben’s cart in the center of the plaza and quickly stole Ben’s Undead totem.  This, along with the Vampire Leader’s collapse, forced a moral check on Ben’s forces and huzzah they ran away and I was declared victor of the field!

Then there was the clash with Splizwarf’s Skaven.  After one match where Spliz was getting used to the controls, a cat and mouse conflict began where I would occasionally spy a sneaky Skaven some two buildings away from my eager Chaos forces but by the time we got there, the vermin would be gone.  All that was left were ransacked treasure chests and a distinct lack of wyrdstone.  Finally, I found a Stormvermin hiding behind a crumbling wall and was able to successfully execute him in combat. With one rat down I made the mistake of sending my wounded henchman into a building where he was chasing down a Skaven assassin. The Skaven, known for their frequent dodging, crumpled my wounded henchman onto the pavement and then disappeared.  Searching for rats and signs of tails one Chaos fighter turned the corner of a building and was immediately charged by the Skaven leader, his swords dripping with poison.  Dodging nearly all of my desperate strikes, the Skaven warband encircled my units and took them apart one by one. 

Despite the massacre, most of my warband returned to the lair miraculously fully recovered! Such is the power of Chaos.  

Review of The Monster Breeder

Last week I found a brilliant Indy game called The Monster Breeder and I’ve already sunk many hours into it. It is $19.99 on Steam, in Early Access, and a labor of love by one developer.

Monster Breeder bills itself as a monster cross-breeding game, and it is; but the monster breeding part is the icing on the cake that is a core good gladiatorial management game.  Once I understood that the economics of the game is to win big purses by fielding your monster hybrids in the more lucrative gladiator arenas, then everything clicked into place.

My insectoid hybrids ready to rumble

You start with some seed money, an old keep and a spring in your step as you immediately swing down to the hunter’s shop to see what types of juvenile monsters they have that you can purchase and eventually crossbreed.

Monster Breeder is in Early Access, so systems are rough around the edges. There is a hard limit to the interesting monsters you can crossbreed, however acquiring a monster hybrid with the attributes and traits you want will undoubtable take a while. And it’s a lot of fun to tinker around with the systems of blood infusion, feeding baby monsters with different meat, and treating baby monsters with different magic fields (from runestones and scrolls) and potions to improve certain traits.

Also Monster Breeder has a lot of systems. Forgers can make you arms and armor, and some items can be sold to keep you economically afloat. This is a necessity in the early game when you are just treading water economically and a majority of your income comes from the pittance given at the Catacombs arena. Alchemists can make potions you can use in combat, but more importantly at greater levels alchemists can make you potions that allow you to crossbreed, mutate, tame or enchant the monsters you collect. So, they are a long-term investment.

Once you get into the midgame when you have viable monster hybrids to take on the challenges in the non-Catacombs gladiator arenas and win thousands of gold, things really open up as you can run multiple monster breeding programs in parallel. You can also invest in human gladiators coming from warrior, archer or mage backgrounds.  Equipping your human gladiators with the best gear either from your high-level forgers, gladiatorial winnings, or special shopping festivals is another fun gameplay loop of optimizing your units. 

The biggest drawbacks have already been described by other reviewers.  The graphics are quaint, the sound effects can be annoying and the early game has a learning curve.  However, this is one of the best monster breeder games on the market that I can think of and one of the better gladiatorial games available on Steam.  Ultimately as other have said, it’s rough and in Early Access but it already has a good gameplay loop and personally I want to see how the developer further iterates and defines this monster breeder game. 

Review of Nemesis: Lockdown, Digital Edition

 I bought Nemesis: Lockdown on Steam. It is a direct port of the boardgame if you are familiar with that. It is multiplayer, there are five different survivors (characters) to choose from so far and it looks like some hidden goals allow you to betray your teammates. The trick is you can’t take direct action against each other by directly attacking with weapons. There is a solo mode also. I should also mention it is in Early Access. 

Played about four solo games. They were interesting.  I think the gameplay might be slow for some people but I like it as it builds tension slowly and it models the Alien(s) movie experience. In my first game I managed to drag my heavily bleeding body to the room where I sent a signal off Mars.  It wasn't enough to finish my second goal however (kill the Queen). An Adult alien cornered me and turned me into a tasty meatball.  

In my second game I played a Janitor and got infected by alien Larva.  I used a card in my hand to scan the infection and it killed me because I had a larva residing in my body. Woops! I didn’t even get to use my jury-rigged flamethrower!

In my third playthrough I was a Xenobiologist with the goal to capture the corpse of an alien intruder.  I was making my way quietly from room to room and gaining knowledge about the alien threat when the game crashed.  

In my fourth opportunity I played a Survivor character.  I learned that each character has starting equipment they can make into something useful assuming they reach the right room and pay for the item.  I successfully made it to the crafting room and made myself an assault rifle! Hell yeah I thought. Fast forward to two turns later where I was in the Surgery room and trapped by an Adult alien. I missed four out of five shots on the alien and then again got turned into a spicy meatball after it had shredded my arms and legs.

I'm excited to try multiplayer with other people who have competing goals.  Fair warning though I think the multiplayer servers may be a bit unstable right now in terms of trying to connect to them.

Another warning about Nemesis: Lockdown. As much fun as I am having with it, I have encountered two Unreal Engine errors, one resulting in the solo game crash I mentioned above.  So, I'd maybe wait until they have fixed these.