State of Gaming, August 2015: Walkabout

Warmachine/Hordes( - - )
I could go into a list of details but eZaal was really the straw that broke the camel's back.  I shouldn't get annoyed at a game I spend my time, money and energy on and he sadly pushed it to that point.  After playing him for a bit I just couldn't work up the energy to finish painting anything Warmachine either which isn't a good sign.  Even the 6 year late Errata didn't rekindle my interest.

It's more of a trial separation at this point.  I'm off into the miniature gaming wilderness away from the current Holy Trilogy to discover what I find out there.  It's been 2-3 weeks.  Part of me wishes I could say I miss WM.

Doomtown ( + + )
Outside of some shake ups with when DT is played and dealing with the fall out from that, I'm still really loving DT.  The new factions are great and I'm happy enough puttering about with side decks after Gencon(Turns out DR Hucksters is still good because when push comes to shove you're still playing DR!).

If anything I'm looking forward to when something is due to come out that I don't already have.  It's a bit of a wait.

LCGs( + + )
Shadowfist has had some surprising legs.  Turns out EDH is fun, especially when it comes with a better theme.  If only Architects could be brought back in Modern and they added some more comeback cards.

I passed on Ashes Rise of the Phoenixborn at Gencon, but then I heard good things about it both locally and from Lucas.  That mistake was not allowed to become an error.  It looks like an unholy love child of MtG and Dicemasters and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Epic has been kickstarted too, but I continue to waffle on if this was a good idea or an Epic waste of money.  Brainworld or the Ark has me wondering.

Not honestly sure what I think of GoT or VS.  Thematically GoT is more interesting but I will want to see how the games(and local communities) develop.

Board Games( + / -)
Still holding steady without a regular board game group.  I've gotten a few games in before DT some Sundays but nothing recently.  This is something I would like to change.

It still hasn't stopped me from backing the new edition of High Frontier or picking up Imperial Assault on sale.  :/

Malifaux( + + )
It turns out there actually was a local Malifaux community.  This combined with the Mordheim inspired campaign system released at Gencon has pushed me back into Malifaux.  Their plastics are also 1. not restic and 2. gotten significantly better then their original batch.

One game in and so far I'm enjoying it.  It's nice to have options on how to build your master or to see mechanically complex masters compared to push button casters.  The game not devolving to Lanchester equations and being more narrationist are strong pluses too.  The Fremont branch suffers a bit from the X-Wing player problem, but the SC branch is mostly solid WM players.

Guild Ball( + + )
I kept hearing about this from all different sources and have gotten pulled in.  My previous methods of faction selection(picking what I thought looked cool) has generally done me wrong so this time I just picked the team with the cat mascot.

Haven't played it yet, but the game reads really well.  Some locals kickstarted it too, so I know I will have some opponents.

Frostgrave ( + + )
Another Mordheim inspired game(with both Deadzone and Strange Aeons in the wings).  You play Wizards looting a city that had a magical disaster 100+ years ago.  It's been fun building Wizards and warbands for the game.  It's also been fun building some terrain and painting some treasure tokens.  It's also given me a use for some of my Saga minis(another game I really should get back to).

My current worry is that the base resolution mechanic is a flat d20.  When will people learn this is an awful idea?  It wasn't fun casting 3 entire spells in a 8+ turn game because my d20 was stuck on 3.

Attack Wing/ X-Wing ( - - )
Sometimes I miss X-Wing.

So Attack Wing seems to have crossed from balance Saturation into Breakdown(which is something I really keep meaning to write about).  It's been a fun ride but it may finally be time to get off.  Still waffling about this too but the next few events all look like they conflict with other things and was sick during the last event as a bonus.

Armada ( + / - )
I've enjoyed Armada but the next Wave needed to arrive in August.  Currently it looks like it will be October if we are lucky.  Something to shake up the builds or introduce a mini-campaign or some more narrative scenarios would all be more then welcome.

Sadly this game is heavily suffering from FFG hating terrain or playable scenarios in mini gaming.

Infinity/Sci-Fi ( + / - )
I still want to play something Sci-Fi.  I've always preferred Sci-Fi to fantasy but Sci-Fi miniature games are either 40k or don't seem to do well.  One of the local Malifaux/WM players also has some Infinity and I need to see if he wants to try out some games of it.

The HALO miniature game also calls to me...but no-one I know is playing it locally.  Same sadly goes with Heavy Gear.

Bushido ( + / - )
I've been told my copy of Rise of the Kage has been shipped.  Joe, Andy and Parker tried it out at Gencon and said good things.  Maybe it will be a good way to get some locals to play Bushido?