вторник, 25 февраля 2020 г.

Convergence Of Cyriss - A Side Project




This post is going to start a hobby documentary on how to rehabilitate poorly treated used models and salvage an army using hobby skills. It'll also document my dabbling with Convergence of Cyriss from a gameplay perspective. I'm still mainlining Trolls, but I figure I'll play with my new CoC every once and a while. 

Why start Convergence?

I've had bits and pieces of CoC sitting in my closet for years. Maybe a year after release I picked up an original Prime Axiom and Transfinite Emergence Projector basically new in box for like $60 for the two of them, figuring it was a deal too good to pass up.  I also picked up a friends Aurora and Clockwork Angels when he was selling out of the faction (my wife said they were pretty).

In terms of design, they've certainly appealed to me from a gameplay perspective. With the latest release of Orion for the faction they really seem like they have the tools to be able to deal with pretty much anything, which is something PP has been setting as their goal for their limited release factions. I also kind of like the idea that once I've bought into it, I'm basically done with major purchases. It's all about experimenting with the limited toolset as the meta changes.

Also the focus induction mechanics seem really cool. I appreciate the puzzle in each game of trying to mastermind how to make the clockwork like system of getting the focus around to maximize efficiency.  I'm an engineer by trade and the way PP made that clockwork system into a game mechanic really intrigues me.

What made me actually jump into the faction was that I found two separate retail for retail trade opportunities.  Someone was looking to trade CoC for 40k Orks, and was interested in the entire lot I've been looking to offload for years.  I also found someone who wanted nearly all of the Circle I was trying to offload and we worked out equitable trades.  It's always a great value when you can do retail-for-retail trades on models you own to get models you want.  The downside is that the very large lot I got in exchange for my old Orks was largely piles of crap that I had to salvage. Luckily the trade I got for Circle was excellent.

What to do when you get badly treated used models

One mistake I made on my first trade with the Orks for CoC was not asking for pictures of the models I was trading for. Note to readers: Always Ask For Pictures When Trading On The Internet.

This ended up being pretty bad overall, since the models I got were nearly all broken, some of which looked like they were given to a young child to try and paint, and some were clearly nicely done conversions that were then traded to this person who then mistreated them.  My trade was to include an Axis and Lucant, but since the models weren't complete the person included a second version of the models, all of which still required bits orders from PP or just wholesale replacement of the model to get something functional.

Nearly every walking Vector chassis had all their legs broken off at weird angles, and two of the Inverters I got are missing the chain+flail bit altogether.  What's worse is that I found the unit of Reciprocators I received weren't actually glued to their bases. The person used blue sticky tac and then spray painted metallic spray over all of it.

I didn't take pictures before I started fixing everything, but you can see exactly how awkward the pinning/leg reattachment went on some of the jacks, as well as how bad the paint job was:

 
Nothing like sticky tac for getting models on bases!
 
It was actually piled all the way up in huge amounts. Lots of scraping to clean it up.

Talk about a mess.


You can see what lengths I went through to get the legs back on. This was the only way it'd fit.

It looks like a 5 year old was told to pain this guy. The leg in the air was the only leg actually still glued to the model when I received it.

The solution in nearly all cases was simply pinning, lots and lots of pinning legs back after dry fitting to see which pieces went with which broken jacks.  Fortunately I was able to get all my vectors up and stable on their bases.

My unit of Reciprocators were missing the tips of their halberds. These are near impossible to find bits for online, but I ended up going with the Steelsoul Protector spear from PP and luckily I was able to use the tip of the spear as a replacement for the halberds and have it work out nicely.  All in all it was $30 in bits from PP to replace parts either too broken to salvage or bits that were straight up missing. Not terrible, but not great either.

What was worse is that the Clockwork Angels and Auora model I had effectively fell apart over the years they sat in my closet.  My friend had used some really thin pins and apparently a not very good superglue.  I basically re-pinned everything with the Angels, though making sure to use a much thicker paperclip as my pinning.

Thicker pinning = Better Pinning

Between pinning up Aurora, 3 units of Clockwork Angels, and building a fresh Father Lucant, lets just say I never want to build anything like that again. My fingers still hurt from all the pinning I had to do to get those things securely built!
 
Next Steps

Once everything has been built up (I still have a few servitors to do), I'm going to apply basing material and then test out using a metallic spray paint as a base coat. I'll have to paint the base and the basing material black again, but it theoretically allows me a lot of speed up in terms of getting the army painted up quickly.  I definitely like the metal look, and I'm really keen on the idea of an easy to paint faction. 

Gaming Results

I've been wanting to play a Synergy caster since forever and now I have my first opportunity with Syntherion.  He's also got a really nice toolkit and is pretty well rounded. Apparently he's fallen out of favor with the larger meta as very few people seem to be talking about him, but I wanted to give him a shot.

Since I was playing a friend of mine who is just hopping back into the game with a brand new faction (Circle), I decided to avoid some of the more blatant power pieces like the TEP or Axiom, just giving things a go with heavies in Destruction Initiative:

Syntherion
-Corrolary
-Cipher
-Cipher
-Assimilator
-Assimilator
-Inverter
-Diffuser
Optifex Directive
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Elimination Servitors
Elimination Servitors
Attunement Servitors
Attunement Servitors

I squared off against Tanith running

Feral
Stalker
Loki
Reeves of Orboros + UA
Skinwalkers + UA
Wolves of Orboros + UA
Gallows Grove x2

Unfortunately for me the first time I put CoC on the table I had…performance issues.

I initially thought that being a WM veteran of over 15 years I'd be able to master the Focus Induction mechanic in my first game. I was wrong. We weren't playing on clock since my friend isn't really used to the game yet, but if I was on clock I'd have surely clocked out given the amount of time it took me to figure out how to allocate and induct in the right order to accomplish everything I wanted to in each turn.

I was actually holding my own fairly well in the game, but a missed Magnetic Hold screwed up my plans and then after charging in on the Feral+Loki on my feat turn, I didn't realize a mistake: I charged in where I'd trigger admonition, but this charge was the last activation for me in the turn – meaning the Stalker with Admonition could move to threaten Syntherion and not worry about anything else coming in.

I also was bad at contesting when I easily could have multiple times, so rather than having to take the assassination victory, my opponent just had to kill an objective and survive a free strike to move Loki into another zone to win on scenario.

After the game I realized that taking a single TEP in the list would dramatically improve my ability to handle the 20+ infantry on the table, allowing me to better focus on getting up in the trading game.

So basically Destruction Initiative = 1 TEP minimum, at least to start.  Given how excited I am to play with that piece, let alone the possibility of a few lists running two of them, this seems like a good general principle to start with.

понедельник, 24 февраля 2020 г.

Storium Basics: Cardless Moves

Last time, we discussed multi-card moves here on Storium Basics. This time, I'd like to spend a bit of time on their opposite: cardless moves.

While most moves in Storium games will probably involve cards, cardless moves are an option in Storium. Narrators will vary on how much they like them. For my part, I'm totally fine with them as they add some great color to scenes, but I do want to caution that you not allow them to overwhelm scenes. They're great for adding detail but can also sap a scene of momentum if they are overused.

When writing a cardless move, think similarly to how you write a move for a Neutral card like a Subplot - but unlike neutral cards, cardless moves don't push the scene closer to completion. Remember, a challenge's remaining card slots are, in a way, the measure of how much "story" is left in the challenge, and how close it is to a conclusion. When you play cardless, you aren't changing that at all. You also aren't in any way tipping the challenge's balance - cardless moves obviously don't count as Strong or Weak, or even Neutral. In other words, the story of the challenge does not move forward in a significant fashion, and the actions of your character do not have a particularly noteworthy impact on the challenge.

When you write a cardless move it should be more about showing what your character is doing in the current status of the scene than anything else. Your move doesn't significantly impact the scene and doesn't move the situation forward in any notable way…but it still needs to relate to what's going on. You're not playing on a challenge, but…still think about the move in relation to a challenge and/or the scene all the same. It should never drift totally away from what the scene is focused on.

I'm fond of using cardless moves to show my character's reactions to big moments - to help make other players awesome by making clear that what they've done got a reaction out of my character. That's one good way of using these.

They can also be used to just develop a point a little more, without actually pushing it forward. Maybe your last move was about conversing with a character, trying to convince him of something, and while other stuff is going on in the scene, you'd like to take a moment to show that the conversation is still going on and develop the character's motivations a bit more, without actually having the challenge's situation change yet. That can be a good use of a cardless move.

The trick is to use them, but not abuse them. It's easy to fall into a trap of overusing these move types when a challenge is active. They're good for reactions, and good for further development...but don't react to everything, and don't develop everything. When challenges are active, keep the focus on playing on the challenges. Moves with cards, for most games, should clearly outnumber cardless moves while challenges are active...otherwise, games really risk losing momentum. Use them with restraint, and they'll work best.

That does bring up an important side note, though: There are times when a narrator will set up or continue a scene without challenges, specifically to give you the opportunity to roleplay with cardless moves. Obviously at that point, cardless moves are what the game's all about! Just remember to play according to the story, and even if there aren't challenges present, don't allow your character to overwhelm the rest of the game.

For more information on cardless moves and cardless moments, see these articles:

пятница, 21 февраля 2020 г.

Blast From My Purple Past


A confluence of events has deemed The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence worthy of two new reviews... even if it has been 6 years since I birthed it.

I remember fondly my time writing, running, and witnessing peoples' reactions to that book.  Without further ado, you can listen to the 2 part podcast here.  Dan Davenport, GMshoe, has a text review here.

Want to go straight to the PDF?  Here you go.  But if you prefer the b/w softcover, I recommend buying it on Amazon.

That campaign setting hexcrawl paved the way for Cha'alt, so for that alone I'm happy to see it mentioned on the internet.

If anyone has a purple islands story they'd like to share, I'd love to read it.  Comment below!

Thanks,

VS

Flying Austro-Hugarian Colors

I didn't get much time to paint this past week so all I got done were the funnels and the white for the colors. I'm hoping to get to the red on them this weekend so I can start in on the last few turrets for the Epic tournament in Scotland next month.

Austro-Hungary Aeronef Fleet Austro-Hungarian Huszár class Destroyer Austro-Hungarian Budapest class Light Battleship

Above The Battle By Romain Rolland

Above the Battle by Romain Rolland

четверг, 20 февраля 2020 г.

PES Society Affiliates To MSSA

PES Society caters for all esports athletes interested in competing in the Pro Evolution Soccer game title.
Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), the world's oldest national federation for esports, has just accepted yet another club into membership.

PES Society, based in Cape Town, and specialising in the Pro Evolution Soccer game title by Konami, has been welcomed into the ranks of member clubs. With the introduction of PES 2020 into International Esports Federation's 11th World Championships in Seoul, there is even a greater interest in the game title than before.

According to Sahil Ebrahim, "PES Society is a community of avid eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer players from Cape Town, South Africa with a passion for the game not matched anywhere across the globe.


PES Society has a handful of committed individuals who ensure that regular leagues and monthly tournaments take place and keep the ball rolling in the quest to put Pro Evolution Soccer at the top of the football gaming empire."

PES Society may be contacted on:

Email: info@pessociety.co.za
Web: www.pessociety.co.za
Facebook: fb.com/thepessociety

MSSA is confident that PES Society will have a long and fruitful association.

Also read:

Kickstarter Concluded


It's over.

Thank dread Cthulhu and His one-hundred-and-eleven slimy green tentacles!

Now, I can breathe a sigh of relief before diving back into the writing side of self-publishing.

What am I referring to?  Only the greatest Kickstarter comeback in the history of everything.  That's all.  Yes, Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise secured just over $13,000.  Less than I dreamed, but more than I realistically expected after the first 20-25 days where we seemed to be irrevocably stuck at about 7 grand. 

If you decide you want in, don't worry.  You didn't miss out on your chance to secure a luxury, signed, numbered, off-set printed hardcover edition of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise (or it's predecessor... Cha'alt).

I can't keep this eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse campaign all to myself, now can I?  Simply email me and we'll get you squared away: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

This past week, I ran three playtest sessions.  Two on Roll20, and one face-to-face.  I'll be blogging about them either tomorrow or the next day.

Besides saying THANK YOU to all my supporters, backers, fans, and fellow gamers, I'm done here.  ;)

VS

пятница, 14 февраля 2020 г.

Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused product of 2020



Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

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