Battlespace Feb/Mar 2011

BATTLESPACE feb/MAR 2011

features Hostile takeover Magic expanded

Last stand at the Alamo

Board game design pitfalls Australian Games Expo

art of

WAR

Shogun II: Total War Preview

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BATTLESPACE

jan/feb 2011

gaming news

contents editor’s column page 3

Gaming news

News stories from all forms of strategy gaming

table top strategy

gaming news

insight

pages 12 - 17

digital strategy pages 18 - 25

table strategy

Mercenary onslought

MERC Miniatures releases new table top game rules

pages 26 - 61

card & board strategy

card & board strategy

pages 62 - 87

incoming! products page 86

gaming events pages 87 - 88

front cover

Exploring extended

The latest deck strategies for Magic: The Gathering

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editor’s column James Dillon Editor-in-chief editor@thebattlespace.com www.thebattlespace.com

CONTENTS

Future strategy Welcome to the launch of Battlespace, the digital magazine for strategy gamers.

There are no limits to the creative expanse modern strategy gaming can explore.

Take, for example, the 2009 award-winning digital strategy game and indie hit Eufloria. In the game, floating seeds orbit a nebulous asteroid drifting in white space. Players grow more seedlings by planting them into the asteroid surface.

Seedlings are then sent out to neighbouring asteroids to expand the border, where some asteroids have already been captured by competing empires.

Opposing seedlings circle and eviscerate each other in bursts of laser fire.

One empire wilts as another grows in an ongoing intergalactic floral war.

Eufloria is not alone in pushing the boundary of strategy gaming. Handheld devices allow ingenious new forms of gameplay, such as the mobile app Red Conquest!’s robust experience or the macabre castle vs. castle Corpse Craft for tablet devices. Webcam recognition could breathe new life into card games with the ability to project virtual holograms on-screen based on card details.

Even traditional ‘three-dimensional’ strategy mediums have changed substantially since the ancient days of Hnefatafl, or ‘viking chess’. Games Workshop writer and Origins awards winner, Alessio Cavatore released a new form of chess in 2008 called Shuuro. Here the player can pre-determine what type of chess pieces they will bring to the battle through a point system, while blocks placed onto the game board can be used as tactical pieces that transform the gaming experience each time. Likewise, the board game/table top/digital wargame exillis attempts to bridge the realm of old and new through internet recognition.

Despite these many advancements, the fundamentals of strategy gaming remain the same. Good gameplay, good mechanics and ease-of-use determine how much fun the players can have.

Battlespace magazine will chart the course of future strategy gaming as it continues to advance. We look forward to enjoying it alongside you. Good gaming.

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STARCRAFT CLONE TARGETS APP MARKET

WALKING THE PLANE Wizards of the Coast (WotC) are targeting late first quarter 2011 for a game play beta of their new Magic Online client.

App developer Gameloft released a video of its upcoming StarFront Collision mobile game in December.

According to WotC’s website development update, the beta will be focused on a new two-player duel scene, with a beta for the full client would follow when all the scenes have finished construction.

The game will feature a three-race RTS with 20-mission campaign mode and an up-to-four person competitive online mode. This is in addition to a skirmish mode with “a cinematic flair and solid controls”.

“We continue to work on infrastructure

StarFront is drawing its inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft and will have a “deep and engaging story” and leaderboards.

improvements in order to ensure continued system stability,” the website states.

“We are starting to take on feature development projects in addition to the infrastructure updates. The system is continuing to perform well as the user base expands.”

The new client is being built using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

NEW WAVE OF WAR AVATARS REVEALED Spanish-based Avatars of War has begun previewing their upcoming range of multi-part plastic sets. Their first plastic miniatures will be Dwarf Berserkers, with others on the way.

The company designs and manufactures 28mm fantasy miniatures and miniature games. it has grown steadily since first starting in 2007.

gamingWS NE

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HOSTILE TAKEOVER A new sci-fi table top game system has burst onto the gaming scene.

The MERCS table top gaming rules book from MERCS Miniatures was published in December 2010.

MERCS is a near future sci-fi table top skirmish game.with a strong emphasis on good tactics. According to MERCS minis, it teaches inexperienced players solid fundamental gaming skills and rewards good players with advanced realistic combat action.

MERCS utilises a card-based system for movement, where miniature’s 30mm base slots into the die cuts on the card. The card is used to determine appropriate firing templates and provide statistical reference.

UNCHARTED SEAS PISTON CRUISER PREVIEWED Spartan Games previewed a new ramming design, the piston cruiser, for its Uncharted Waters Iron Dwarves in January.

“As all good Dwarves know, the answer to any problem is more power. Bigger guns, thicker armor, greater force,” Spartan Games’ Spartan Dave said.

The latest weapon from the Iron Dwarves comes with upgraded hightorque engines that give it improved speed and the power to bulldoze other ships.

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“This allows them a wide variety of interesting capabilities from ramming enemy ships into their own nearby allies (or into islands) to shoving enemy ships out of boarding contact with their own important ships,” Spartan Dave said.

An Uncharted Seas battle between Iron Dwarves and Thaniras Elves

Image source: Spartan Games

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ANCIENT RULES UNDER DEVELOPMENT Work is progressing on rules for Warlord Game’s new table top game set in ancient times.

Hail Caesar will be an adaptation of Warlord Games’ Black Powder rules.

“The game itself is finished, all the photography is complete, and the whole thing its being put together ready to be printed,” games designer Rick Priestley states on the Warlord Games website.

“As with Black Powder, the essential details of the game remain the same whatever the specific era – but the addition of special rules and different troop types make each sub-period

significantly different,” he said.

Battle write-ups will cover Egypt’s wars with the Hittites, the Peloponnesian war, the Roman conquest of Britain, Huns against Late Romans, Vikings against Saxons, and Crusaders against Saracens will be included.

Hail Caesar rules will cover the whole of the ‘ancient’ period from the time of the Pharaohs up to the Crusaders.

“In fact, the Hail Caesar rules would happily cope with wars of the later middle ages right up to the development of effective gunpowder weaponry,” Mr Priestley said.

Hail Caesar rules test. Photo credit: Warlord Games

DIVINE WIND BRINGS EASTERN FOCUS Paradox Interactive released Europa Universalis III Divine Wind, the fourth expansion for their award-winning historical grand strategy game, in December 2010.

of trade and multiplayer for up to 32 players. Divine Wind is also the first game to utilise Paradox ‘Connect Achievements’, allowing over 50 unlockable achievements.

Set in the ancient far east the game allows players to become as one of four major daimyo’s in Japan vying for influence over the Emperor and control over the Shogunate.

The original game without expansions starts in 1453, right after the Fall of Constantinople, and continues to 1789, just past the beginning of the French Revolution. The player controls a nation and handles matters concerning war, diplomacy, trade, and the economy.

Other additions include improved diplomacy, more realistic development

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GUESTS OF HONOUR

SPACE ROYALS AT WAR

Writer Dan Adnett will be joined by Nathan Long as guests of honour at AdeptiCon 2011.

The space fleet combat miniatures game, A Call to Arms is returning, with publisher Mongoose Publishing slating for a February 2011 release. The game is drawn from the detailed background of the Fading Suns RPG.

AdeptiCon will celebrate its ninth year at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, Chicago, to be held 1 April, 2011.

Dan Abnett is a novelist and awardwinning comic book writer who has written over 35 novels, including the acclaimed Gaunt’s Ghosts series, the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies and, with Mike Lee, the Darkblade cycle.

His novels Horus Rising and Legion (both for the Black Library) and his Torchwood novel Border Princes (for the BBC) were all bestsellers.

Nathan Long has written three Warhammer novels featuring the Blackhearts, and has taken over the Gotrek and Felix series.

According to the publisher, it is a fastto-learn, hard-to-master space combat game involving fleets drawn from the

‘Royal Houses’. Players must learn how to knock down or bypass the shields protecting enemy vessels, and then launch assaults on ships with an all new boarding mechanic. With full campaign rules and support for tournaments, The hardback rulebook includes full fleet lists for the five main Royal Houses and new rules.

GROWING ARSENAL Fantasy Flight Games has released new expansions for Dust Tactics, the tactical miniatures board game of battlefield combat.

The Allies’ Special Ops Rangers and the Axis’ Special Ops Grenadiers were announced in January. Each expansion contains two units consisting of two figures, for a total of four figures per box.

The Medium Assault Walker and the Medium Panzer Walker were announced in December, bringing firepower and flexibility to Dust Tactics forces.

Award-winning writer Dan Abnett

Each walker body includes multiple weapon configurations, allowing for customisation.

Image source: Fantasy Flight Games

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CARD EXCHANGE TENSION BUILDS IN BATTLESTAR EXPANSION

Malifaux table top players can exchange their V1 stat cards with the newly released updated V2 cards.

The rules for Exodus, an expansion for the Battlestar Galactica board game, went online in December 2010.

Wyrd Miniatures announced the exchange program in January, which runs until March 15, 2011.

The Exodus Expansion for Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game brings players to the next chapter of the series. In addition to more characters, Destination, Crisis, Super Crisis, Loyalty, Quorum, and Skill Cards, this expansion offers three new options for play that may be used in any combination.

“The replacement program provides those of you “old guard” who have the v1 stat cards an opportunity to get the v2 cards without buying duplicate models or a box of stat cards,” the Wyrd Miniatures website states.

“If you have a local ‘Henchman’, you can contact him or her and hand over your cards to them.”

Image source: NBC Universal

STRATEGY MODE REVEALED Battlefront.com released an overview of its strategy mode for the upcoming Theatre of War 3 - KOREA PC game.

The overview reveals the two major campaigns, units for the three involved forces (North Korea, US and USSR) and provides a first look at the extensive modding capabilities.

The game introduces a number of new features to the series such as helicopters and the new strategic overlay mode allowing players to not only fight small tactical battles, but also take the big strategic picture into their own hands.

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TEAM PLAY FOR CIV WORLD ALPHA TEST Civilization World (Civ World), the upcoming Facebook version of the established strategy series, launched its closed alpha testing in January.

Applicants had to join the testing as part of a team due to the need for collaboration within the game.

“Because to win in Civ World, you’ll need to collaborate with your friends in order to do well in the game and

become ruler of the world,” Civilization founder, Sid Meier stated in January.

“So in our early alpha testing, we’re grouping people together to simulate how the game will work when it’s available to the world at large.”

Teams can be anywhere from 5-50 people. In the final game, Facebook users will be able to sign up individually.

Image source: Firaxis games

SHUURO CHESS MOVING ONLINE River Horse Games founder and renowned games deisgner Alessio Cavatore has started work on an online version of Shuuro and Turanga.

tactical preferences. The board features terrain elements that change position.

Turanga allows you to team-up with a friend and take on a pair of opponents in a two-versus-two battle.

Shuuro is the core of a new system of abstract war gaming, where you are in Alessio Cavatore has recently been command of armies of chess pieces. assisting Warlord Games design its Players choose which pieces to field, ancients rules, shown on page 6. with armies based on individual skill and

Image source: Mistbound

GREED IS GOOD FOR PC Console-based Greed Corp from mistbound is now available online for PC gamers.

The turn-based strategy game depicts an industrial-world gone awry as robots build and clash amongst tumbling scenery.

It will be the first in a series of different

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types of games situated in a fictional world inspired by the industrial revolutions and their destructive effects on the environment.

According to Mistbound, the innovative land collapsing mechanic creates intense strategic battles.

The game is available on Steam.

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CONTENTS

STRATEGY GAME NAMED BEST CO-OP

BATTLE ENGINE

Supreme Commander 2 was named PC Gamer UK’s Co-op Game Of The Year as part of its Best PC Games award list in December 2010.

Privateer Press has revealed artwork for the new Vessel of Judgment for War Machine’s Iron Kingdoms.

tungsten monstrosities, and it’s become my favourite title of 2010,” Mr Francis said.

In September 2010 Supreme According to PC Gamer’s Tom Francis, Commander 2 publisher Square Enix a number of patches has helped raise released the Inifnite War Battle Pack the game to its potential glory. downloadable content on Steam and the Xbox Live marketplace, providing “It still dominates PC Gamer’s new maps, units, experimentals, tech lunchtimes, every game leads to apocalyptic clashes of plasma-spitting tree upgrades and boosts

According to Privateer Press’ Simon Berman, the Vessel of Judgment showcases the fervent desperation of the Menite cause. Each Vessel is a massive reliquary, holding the sanctified remains of one of the ancient Menite Priest Kings.

Image source: Privateer Press

VIDEO CAST DEDICATED TO GAMING Rankings HQ (RHQ) launched a video cast dedicated to gaming enthusiasts in December 2010.

The RHQ video present news, interviews, tournament reports and product reviews from various game systems. The second episode looks at

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the UK Warhammer Fantasy & 40K Masters tournament in Mansfield, England. The first episode includes the Tanelorn Warmachine campaign weekend, a review of Flames of War’s latest D-Day releases and the Winter Incursion tournament.

Galactic Colussuses strike in the award-winning Supreme Commander 2 10

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NEXT GEN ENGINE POWERS WARGAME Test images of Combat Mission Battle for Normandy were released in late December 2010. The game makes use of Battlefront.com’s proprietary CMx2 game engine, the second generation of Combat Mission products.

“This next generation engine is revolutionary as well as evolutionary, combining the best features of the previous CMx1 system with more detailed simulation elements, graphical depiction, user interface, and core game features,” battlefront.com states.

TABLE TOP INNOVATOR SHUTTING DOWN Cross-platform table top game Ex illis is shutting down, according to a post on its official news forum in January.

“While sales are on the rise, communities are growing and our distribution network is improving everyday, it became apparent that we couldn’t continue with our current financial structure,” poster Friedrich said.

Image source: Bastion Studios

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“The staff working at Bastion, myself included, has been let go, but it remains our collective aim to work together again once more on Ex illis with a new financial partner. Efforts are being made on that front, but as you can imagine, we are not in a position where we can freely discuss these things yet.”

The game’s servers will continue to stay up

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insight

CONTENTS

State of play Battlespace looks at the signiticant issues facing the wargaming industry

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State of play

Is profit enveloping the realm of strategy?

By Gareth Begley

As an avid strategy gamer, I identify with a global community who waits with baited breath for new releases. I crave updates, expansions, new models, new cards, a new series; anything new which will impact upon my gaming experience. The designers and producers have me in their hands when they even mention the slightest possibility of new material. Well, I should say, had me in their hands. Lately, I’m yearning for new content less and less. “You’re getting old!” and “Ditch the wife and kids!” I hear you scream, and these commitments do have a very small influence on my ways. But they don’t put out the fire, quell the passion, or account for a loss of general interest in new, strategy-based material. Unfortunately, it is some of the companies themselves who are making me feel this way. Making me disassociate, disconnect, tune out.

community. Fast-forward to present day: these now well established companies are household names, some publicly traded on the open market, with legions of fans across the globe.

Yet I believe, however, meeting the needs of their communities has taken a back seat to lining their coffers and being ‘Mr Manager’.

No longer are the interests and desires of the gamer’s number one; profit has taken their place. And it’s coming at a cost, to both the communities and the companies. In the end, it is going to boil down to one question: passion or profit? Sure, strategy gaming businesses must aim to make a profit, but to what extent does this impact upon servicing the hobby?

The previous year was tough for the industry.

Games Workshop (GW) experienced an 18 per cent drop in shares over the last six months. This is coupled with a 4 per cent decrease in sales. These stats are unlikely to derail the giant, who blame the slump on staff adjustments and the economy, of course. But these two factors are company spin to hide the fact that they are neglecting the community When the ‘hobby’ movement had a which made them rise to the top. Games groundswell of interest in the 80’s, the industry Workshop are neglecting the community floated upon the contributions and interests in two key areas: product and price. The of gamers alone. There were a few fledgling extremely aggressive pricing and lack of new, companies (such as Games Workshop) in original material are hurting the franchise, the mix, and these organisations dedicated who are losing ground even on the back of their focus to meeting the needs of their their 8th edition fantasy release last year.

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Gareth Begley competes at the Magic: The Gathering Australian Pro Tour Qualifier

COMMENT

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insight

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State of play In a way, Games Workshop have stopped listening to and meeting the needs of their fans, gamers and hobbyists worldwide.

Price is the biggest issue for most followers, with some simply refusing to pay the exorbitant amounts charged by GW. The miniatures that GW sells are expensive, largely due to the need to support their many retail spaces worldwide. Shop fronts are extremely expensive to have, and it is this aspect of the GW business model which may be threatened initially.

The increased price ‘effect’ is compounded by conflicting prices around the world for the same miniatures, regardless of currency value.

For example, with an equivalent dollar, why are Australians going to walk in to GW and pay $165 for the Isle of blood starter kit, when GW America offers it for just $99? Because of these discrepancies, a large secondary market has developed, with online auction giants peddling similar amounts of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stock compared to the actual GW stores. People are starting to acquire their gaming essentials by using their common sense, and their mouse, rather then entering a retail space.

The other major factor is product. GW did release a moderate amount of products last year, but they failed to support their existing

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range. As a fantasy gamer, I yearn (read above) for new fantasy content related to my armies. I’m not picky either, I own four of them. The one way to prick my interest, and get me buying product is by releasing new content for my armies. Miniatures, a codex; anything to spark a renewed interest in my gaming. So I wait, and have waited for years for this ‘renewed interest’ to manifest.

But it’s never arrived. Most of my armies have been waiting for new material for over seven years. The last Tomb King Codex was released in 2002. Is that fact supposed to excite new gamers to join the hobby? That there will most likely be a decade between major content releases? GW will argue that ‘what they have is where they want it to be’, but it more conclusively shows that they have stopped listening to what gamers want. In 2008 they were producing four new Warhammer Fantasy codex’s a year, which slumped to two releases in 2009. 2010 saw just one installment. But, instead of listening to the needs and concerns of the gaming community, GW chose to raise prices and ignore key stakeholders.

Now, I don’t want to come across as a Warhammer hater; Games Workshop, amongst a long list of other outstanding achievements, have single handedly built a commercial model for gaming which is successful.

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Gareth Begley competes at the Magic: The Gathering Australian Pro Tour Qualifier

COMMENT

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State of play I believe they have just lost their way a little.

Filling the void are other budding companies such as Privateer Press and Mantic Games.

These smaller scale organisations still focus on meeting the needs of the gaming community in a timely, cost-effective manner. They produce high-quality miniatures at a low cost and are largely internet based. Traffic is starting to flow towards these companies because of their ability to service gamers’ needs.

they need. But it drove a lot who were ‘there and there abouts’ away. In a time of economic uncertainty, companies like Hasbro (owner of Wizards) need to think of more creative ways to expand a client base and continue to turn a profit. Alienating existing players is not the answer. Come next recession, what’s next; mythic mythics?

Regardless, the internet allows gamers more choice and provides a cost-effective The direction of large companies is beginning platform for small, flexible companies to fill to become skewed outside of the modeling a number of gaming niches. The future is scene as well. In card circles 2008 saw the not certain, however, as the recent collapse introduction of the ‘Mythic Rare’ to the Magic of Exillis shows. The company posted on its the Gathering card game. This added level of forum recently stating that it was letting staff rarity saw one in every eight rares become go, despite seeing growth and expanding mythic, effectively making them ‘twice as rare awareness. as a standard rare’. A harmless move, you may In the end, this is just my opinion. But it is say. However, when specific chase cards and my belief that gaming communities need to tournament staples are released as mythics, voice their concerns to keep what we know your average Joe on the street now needs and love alive, at a price affordable to all. to crack more packs to get what he desires.

I encourage all of you to voice your opinions Win Win for Wizards of the Coast, lose lose on the Battlespace website: for you and Mr Joe. Additionally, with less mythics in circulation, their secondary price www.thebattlespace.com is going to rise due to simple supply and and comment on this article. demand constraints. Less mythics = a higher priced secondary market = a greater barrier for people to enter competitive play. It was Until next time. a smart move by wizards, as most Magic Gareth. players at the pointy end will pay for the cards

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Gareth Begley competes at the Magic: The Gathering Australian Pro Tour Qualifier

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A

ll warfare is based on deception, according to Sun Tzu. The late sixth-century BCE military strategist laid out his thoughts in the military treatise Art of War, emphasising positioning and flexibility, as well as maintaining a sense of mystery when confronting an opponent. Unity, not size, is an army’s source of strength and the five key ingredients needed to suceed in any war are attack, strategy alliances, army and cities.

sweet acts of

y g e t a r t s

But back to deception. Nothing is sweeter than the look on your opponent’s face when you take them by surprise in an unexpected gamble that leaves units overwhelmed and resources destroyed.

With this in mind, Battlespace looks at several acts of strategy in competitive startegy gaming that have left their mark on wargaming history.

The perfect SCV rush

Battlespace looks at pivitol strategy moves in competitive gaming

A classic rush move by a skilled Korean Starcraft player that reverberated throughout the internet.

SlayerS_’BoxeR’ destroyed his foe using only Terran SCVs. Click the above video to watch him take down defenseless Zerglings.

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Traitor within

sweet acts of

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Image source: Wizards of the Coast

The online space simulation Eve has seen its fair share of trecherous acts, but none can top the vicious manner in which GoonSwarm dispatched arch-rivals Band of Brothers in 2009.

GoonSwarm has a long and not-entirelypleasant history with the previously) larger and more powerful BoB. he Mittani, leader of the Goonfleet Intelligence Agency managed to convince a very high-ranking director in Band of Brothers to turn traitor and join GoonSwarm.

Recognising the full extent of the opportunity before them, they went to work dismantiling a previously significant player group.

According to a Shacknews reports, the director brought trillions of Band of Brother’s ISK, the ingame currency, with him. Then came the entire capital fleet of Black Nova Corporation, a central player in the BoB alliance, amounting to roughly 15 fully-equipped dreadnoughts, along with “hundreds and hundreds” of other ships and several stacks of fuel, all stolen and transferred to GoonSwarm by the defector.

To top it off the traitor disbanded the entire BoB alliance, allowing GoonSwarm to seize the name and barring it from former members forever.

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Mirror match

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The 2010 Magic: The Gathering World Championships in Chiba, Japan, were down to one final match. According to the Wizards of the Coast website, the battle was an experiment in mimicry: on one side of the table sat a French player named Guillaume playing BlueBlack Control. On the other side of the table was a different French player named Guillaume playing Blue-Black Control.

Feeling the tide of momentum in the match slowly turning in favour of his opponent, Guillaume Matignon kicked the fourth game off by trying to shift it back in his favour. He cast an Inquisition of Kozilek to force his opponent to discard Stoic Rebuttal; the only other non-land card in Wafo-Tapa’s hand was Preordain. which was countered with a Mana Leak.

Creeping Tar Pit for Matignon began going through the motions of putting an end to his countryman’s run at the championship title.

Wafo-Tapa fired back attacking with his own copy of the card, but Matignon then cast Duress to clear his opponent’s hand of counters. When he found none there, Matignon cast Grave Titan, and his friend and countryman graciously extended his hand in defeat.

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digital strategy

CONTENTS

digitalstrategy MOD WATCH Game changing Civ V mods

FIGHTNG ON Close Combat community continues to fight on

art of

WAR E

xclusive Q&A with Shogun II: Total War developer Creative Assembly

IN CHARGE Commanding the Great War

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art of

WAR T

otal War returns to Japan with the March launch of Shogun II: Total War. Battlespace talks to The Creative Assembly online manager, Mark O’Connell about how the latest installment will continue to define modern strategy gaming.

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art of

WAR

map, you will unlock new units and ancillaries – which have various effects in battle. If you successfully win battles in all provinces, you will ascend to the Mark: We have really worked hard to ranks of the Shogun ladder – where develop and implement an unrivalled there can be only one! You can also online experience in our latest Total War join a clan and contribute to the clan competition by trying to collectively game. For starters there is the ‘Avatar’ – conquer provinces to advance up the a fully customisable general who leads your troops into battle online. In addition clan ladder.

This is all in addition to the new co-op to being able to change his uniform and mon (clan flag) colours, he has an-depth campaign, where you team up with a friend with joint objectives and victory tech tree to unlock a variety of abilities conditions. You will also have a shared and traits. Unlocking achievements will line of sight and if battling an AI army, be also provide new armour parts to collect. able to hand over the reigns of some of As you progress around the multiplayer your troops for your spectating friend to provinces and naval regions on the control in battle.

BATTLESPACE: In what ways will Shogun II’s multiplayer experience revolutionise the Total War series?

Q&A with The Creative Assembly online manager, Mark O’Connell As The Creative Assembly likes to remind players, the Total War series goes through evolutions and revolutions. Shogun II: Total War will both advance the series through its graphics, gameplay and multiplayer achievements as well as regress to its simpler roots in feudal Japan, a time of honour and brutal warfare.

Battlespace talked to online manager Mark O'Connell about customisable generals, enticing campaign-map players to come online and managing a feudal dynasty through the art of zen.

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CONTENTS B: What major improvements and goals did you set out to achieve when designing the battle system for Shogun II and how has that journey been?

B: How have the general’s skills system, retainers and family management changed from previous Total War games?

M: Battles in feudal Japan play out much different to those in our previous two games (Empire and Napoleon: Total War). Instead of just ranged gunpowder warfare, we also see the return of closequarters melee action. We wanted our battles to seem kinetic and cinematic – capturing the drama and intensity of the period’s epic encounters.

Regarding the unit models themselves, we increased the bone count to 52 - a 25 per cent increase over previous games. This allowed for more realistic movement, and we employed the services of the British Kendo team to motioncapture the moves.

To summarise our goals for the battle system, I will quote our creative director Mike Simpson: “Beauty, death and simplicity”. I think that sums it up nicely.

M: The general’s skills are a completely new addition to the series. For the first time, retainers are now selectable rather than just being assigned based on behaviour. It is also the first time we have featured family management since Medieval II: Total War. It is possible to hand out important posts to members of your family and generals that affect not only the campaign and battles, but your general’s loyalty too.

B: What are some of the routes players can choose for their characters in the Mastery of the Arts system?

M: The way of Bushido will improve your strategy and tactics, giving you an edge on the battlefield. If you’d rather pursue the way of Chi (enlightenment) then there will be benefits to your government, religion and diplomacy. This can help form relationships quicker, bringing more stability to your clan, if leaving you weaker in terms of military force.

Creative Assembly is looking to make Shogun II’s battles “kinetic and cinematic” 21

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B: What different types of roles will Shogun II units have? Are they divided simply between arrow/horse/spear?

M: Gunpowder and sword units also appear alongside archers, cavalry and spear units. There are also great varieties of units of the same discipline. For example, No-dachi samurai act as a fast and hard hitting foot melee unit, but don’t stand up to prolonged engagement due to their lack of heavy armour. Naginata samurai on the other hand are a heavily armoured melee force and moderately good against all unit types. The choice, as they say, is yours.

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B: How will the AI ‘objectives’ system influence its decision making and reactions to players on the battlefield?

M: If the AI is fighting defensively, it will look for the best strategic position. So if it sees a suitable hill, it will move all forces to the hill and defend it. It may also decide that it is important to flank the enemy if too strong for a frontal attack.

Of course, if the AI is being flanked, it will do its best to reposition to face the enemy threat.

B: The Creative Assembly has stated that Shogun II aims for a ‘zen of battle’. How do individual unit abilities contribute to this?

M: We have aimed for paper, rock, scissor mechanics, meaning that every unit is capable of defeating another if the circumstances are right. We want it to be that you can explore the entire roster of units available, without feeling that you have to keep to a certain discipline to ensure victory.

Therefore, while it is possible to recruit gunpowder units after striking a deal with the Europeans, you may find that you prefer traditional ranged archers.

We actively encourage our players to experiment and know that they can be affective with many different combinations of troops, therefore creating balance, harmony and zen!

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Japanese ‘floating castles’ and cannon ships will assault each other along Japan’s coast B: How has Japanese architecture made Shogun II siege battles unique?

fantastic mods in the past and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in feudal Japan.

M: Unlike the large stone boxes in previous titles such as Medieval II, the castles in Shogun 2 are multi-staged affairs with multiple strategic options to explore. Also, the castles tended to be built into the side of a mountain, so winning isn’t as simple as knocking down the walls and advancing this time round.

B: Which aspect of Shogun II are you most excited about seeing come to life in the latest instalment?

B: How has the Total War community responded to Shogun II’s modding capabilities?

M: The game has yet to be released so they have yet to explore what is possible with Shogun 2. Our modding community is very important and we hope to do a lot more with them in the future. The have created some 23

M: For me personally, it has to be the multiplayer system. It really has been a labour of love for the team and we want it to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the single player experience. Our hope is that players who traditionally keep to the offline campaign will give it a try and see how deep and engaging the new system really is.

M: Thanks for your questions and I hope you enjoy Total War: Shogun 2 when it is released in March.

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digital strategy

CONTENTS

MOD WATCH

Five game-changing mods and total conversions for Civilization V

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THE MEGA MOD

A mod that attempts to fix all major problems. Strategic resources amounts are now completley changed. A.I. will now defend cities, with single units per city now changed to four. Happiness, combat, social policies, civilization balances, buildings, city states, specialists, gold and others have all been changed. This mod emphasises large cities rather than independent city states.

Like most mods, the mod designer is now reading and responding to suggestion at The Mega Mod thread at civfanatics.com forum.

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THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR

This mod tries to recreate the exciting period in European History known as the Hundred Years’ War (13371453), a monumental medieval conflict between France and England that ended in the dismount of the knight in favour of well-armed infantry.

There are several playable scenarios with three nations to choose from depicting different situations during the era, including the outbreak of war and the English invasion, the Battle of Poitiers, the Peace of Brétigny and others. A very playable foundation for a mod beta.

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PROCLYON CALL TO POWER PROJECT The Call to Power project is an attempt to bring all that was great about Civilization: Call to Power to Civilization V. Government sub-policies have been implemented, buildings, science, maintenance and many other aspects have been tweaked. A multiple tech tree has been implemented, techs are now spread across 13 categories of tech trees.

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CITY-STATE DIPLOMACY MOD The diplomacy mod aims to give Civilization V a better, more realistic simulation of geopolitics via a new system of city-state diplomacy. The new system reduces the importance of the ‘Gifts of Gold’ and introduces a new unit-based system of influence. Players are now encouraged to build and use diplomatic units.

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INFO ADDICT improve your game by adding time-based graphs showing civilizations’ score, gold, military power, etc., visual representation of global relationships and tons of extra info on each civ. The main screen has three different panels with historical data for each empire in several different categories and world factbook rankings.

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CONTENTS

Turn-based news

The battle never ends The Close Combat community remains as strong as ever with new patches and mods frequently released.

Closecombatseries.net started 2011 with a number of mod and patch release notes.

Matrix Games released a new beta patch in December, 2010, for the recently released Last Stand Arnhem.

Metal Mod v1.00 by Zon is now available for download and changes many of the Allied and German vehicle graphics.

Beta patches are also out for Wacht Am Rhein and The Longest Day, and the newest version of Ground Tactics is now online for play.

According to Closecombatseries.net, 2010 was not an uneventful year for Close Combat. “We had the release of Last Stand Arnhem and its slew of patches, Ground Tactics mod, Scheldt updates and the Ortona mod revived, a switch to GameRanger for all online activity as well as a big handful of smaller mods and events,� the website states.

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Commanding the Great War Strategic Command World War One 1914-1918 The Great War is now available for pre-order. The game, made by Fury Software and available from Battlefront.com, will be released towards the end of February. The historically accurate simulation of The Great War will offer a selection of carefully designed and historically accurate campaigns with three full campaigns and seven mini-

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campaigns, placing the player at the hot spot of the violent events that helped shape Europe and the World as we know it today.

A brief overview of each campaign is available on the website as well as a world map with a fully zoomable web viewer online, allowing for interested players to explore the entire map in detail without having to download it.

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table strategy

CONTENTS

Mercenary

ONSLAUGHT S

ci-fi meets corporate takeovers in the new table top game from MERCS Miniatures

table strategy Land of the

HOLD

scrunts

the line!

Sculptures by Olley’s Armies

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Flames of War battle report

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To the

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DEATH All that

glitters Travel into the murky depths of ShadowSea Last stand at the Alamo previous page

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Mercenary

ONSLAUGHT

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B

ATTLE REPORT

Mega corporations wage war in the new table top game MERCS

Q& MERCS Miniatures discuss their A unique movement system

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Mercenary

ONSLAUGHT

By Keith Lowe, MERCS Miniatures

CCC

MERCS Miniatures illustrator, Keith Lowe plays out an armed enegagement of the new MERCS game for Battlespace

B

ATTLE REPORT

USCR Sniper Medic Assault Leader Behemoth Monkeywrench

VS CCC

Assault leader Sniper Heavy assault Medic Incinerator

USCR

ROUND 1 The CCC and USCR roll off initiative.

Both sides opt to ‘bound’ to gain an extra movement point in the onset. As USCR, I definitely want to bound to get some distance on the board since I have such low move points. The CCC

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sends thier primary force towards the middle, with the sniper moving to high ground. I send the Monkeywrench to head towards a two-level tower and my remaining force in the direction of the CCC front.

Ruins: The battle board setup consists of two large structures in the middle preventing LOS, with two small half walls along each side.

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CONTENTS

ROUND 2 The CCC sniper moves up a level to the large building, and the USCR Monkeywrech moves up two levels to a tower. He now has LOS on most of the CCC’s force including the sniper.

The Incinerator is headed right up the

middle to try and wreak havoc. I want to lock her down long before she get’s in close. The sniper’s base firing number is five, but is modified by the Incinerator’s half cover to be come a six. The roll is low and the Anchor gun misses.

The USCR Monkeywrench sets up for overwatch in round three

ROUND 3 Now it’s time for some action!

The USCR Monkey and medic both roll high initiative and are set to overwatch and suppression respectively. USCR has a +1 to courage rolls, so my suppression will be strong. It works in my favour as the Incinerator fails her courage roll on a four and can’t take an action.

Meanwhile, the CCC sniper looks to move up a large tower, but my Monkeywrench is on overwatch and takes his shot. The Monkeywrench is elevated one level higher than the sniper. The Monkeywrench has a semiautomatic weapon and so fires two

A CCC sniper positions himself ready to fire in the second round

FUTURE WAR MERCS is a near-future sci-fi table top skirmish game. Fast moving, with a strong emphasis on good tactics, and supported by dynamic miniatures, MERCS teaches inexperienced players solid fundamental gaming skills and rewards good players with advanced

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realistic combat action.

The five versus five nature of the game means each member of your MERCS squad is vital to your success. The high stakes nature of the combat lends importance to every move.

Games usually last 60-90 minutes.

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shots. Base FN of seven +1 for half cover -1 for elevation. One die hits!

As the other CCC move to better positions, I take my first sweep with the Behemoth. The Behemoth and heavy assault both use firing templates.

The templates have a wide area to hit, but they don’t know friend from foe.

I’m slightly at a bad firing angle. In order to hit a majority of his troops, I would have to fire into the back of my medic and sniper for heavy penalties from the rear. Instead I opted to fire off to the side only at the CCC medic.

Three misses. I would not make the same mistake again.

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CONTENTS

ROUND 4 The USCR sniper has moved forward and takes another shot at the Incinerator. This time it hits on an eight and she’s harpooned near her own troops. Until she makes a successful repair roll, she can’t move any further than one card away from where she was pinned. The CCC assault leader retaliates with a semi-auto burst at the suppressing medic. He’s got to throw eights or better. Eights and tens and the medic takes two ‘blood’ (damage).

I keep the USCR assault leader (AL) close to my Behemoth. The AL’s ‘leadership’ ability gives me a +1 to all actions within a card of him. The Behemoth ‘snaps’ to the right of the AL, opening up his field of fire. The snap function doesn’t count as an action,

so my Behemoth can still take shots.

Now four CCC troops are in the lane of death. The numbers are high, but it’s three rolls on each soldier and I’m close to my leader. The CCC medic, assault leader, and Incinerator all take a blood.

The shot also manages to break the resilient CCC armor of the Incinerator.

Now she’s broken, bleeding, and anchored. In retaliation, the CCC sniper utilises his ‘crackshot’ personal ability on the Behemoth and the big guy takes an auto hit. The sniper rifle is weapon strength four vs. the Behemoth’s armour value of four. Because the sniper’s weapon is equal or greater to, the Behemoth takes his first blood of the game. Not only that, his armour fails on the roll check!

The USCR Behemoth ‘snaps’ to position, a free move it can make

SO WHAT’S NEXT? The CCC can’t stay put and trade shots. They’ve got to move and flank. However, it will be tough. They must make courage checks from the USCR’s tough suppression, and will suffer overwatch attacks until the Monkeywrench is neutralixed. They need to get their heavy assault ‘set’ and firing. Even with the Behemoth’s armour broken, it is still three, which is stronger than the CCC assault rifle’s base weapon strength of two. The CCC Heavy has a weappn strength of three,

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however and can now possibly kill the Behemoth.

Most of CCC’s armor is in good shape, and the medic has three kits. The Incinerator will auto-repair her Nanite armour after two rounds and with the ability to take four blood she is still very dangerous at close range. A successful repair roll and she will be moving again in no time. If they can flank USCR’s forward position and kill the sniper and medic, they will have the opportunity to strike the Behemoth from the rear.

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The USCR have a strong position on the board right now, but will have to work smart to maintain it. The Monkeywrench is in a great position to attack, but is too far away from the Behemoth to use his repair kits.

Likewise the medic is far forward to assist his fellows and is 2x ‘blooded’. Still, the Behemoth, even broken, has LOS on four figures and can fire freely on all four at once. If the sniper can continue to lock down other troops, they can put some serious hurt on the CCC.

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CONTENTS

Return to:

Q&A with MERCS designer Brian Shotton

1. How does the MERCS Miniatures movement system work?

2. How is the grenade/firing mechanic integrated into the cards?

3. Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

4. Were any alternative methods considered during design?

5. What sort of feedback have you received from players?

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B

ATTLE REPORT

Q: How does the movement system work?

Brian: It certainly looks scarier than it is.

There are two different things going on in our movements system that when put together create a fast, exciting, and elegant solution for miniature movement. However, at its core, it functions like any other movement system except our measuring tool is a card.

a miniature can go. Only those that have never played MERCS ever make this argument. If they had played MERCS, then they would know about Snap-to-Cover (S2C).

The second thing MERCS uses for movement is what we call Snap-to-Cover (S2C). You are only allowed one S2C action per movement chain (string of MPs), but the addition of S2C provides the player with more freedom than any other game I have ever played. In fact, every time we play at our local game store, people discover new ways to take advantage of S2C. Snap-toCover allows the player to bridge a gap the size of a MERCS base for free. It can be used before, during, or after a movement string, but, as I said, it can only be used once.

The card has four unique die-cut semi circles around its edge: one larger one at the “bottom� of the card, and one smaller circle on each of the other sides. You slot the bottom of the card around the base of you MERCS mini, rotate it in the desired direction, then move your MERCS mini to one of the other circles. There is a number on the top left of each card that provides that MERCS with the number of Movement Points (MP) they can use. MPs are the number of These two things together give MERCS a more cards you can move in a given turn. free form movement system that plays fast and Some have argued that this severely limits where feels right.

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CONTENTS

Return to:

Q&A with MERCS designer Brian Shotton

1. How does the MERCS Miniatures movement system work?

2. How is the grenade/firing mechanic integrated into the cards?

3. Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

4. Were any alternative methods considered during design?

B

ATTLE REPORT

Q: How are grenades/firing integrated?

Brian: Ah, you’ve either played or witnessed a MERCS game. As you suggest, the cards are used for more than just movement. I wanted to create a game that didn’t require you to invest in a bunch of stuff or move half of everything you own to play. The cards are used to create grenade templates and what we call firing diagrams.

A blast template is created by aligning two inversed cards along a side circle and rotating it over the impact point. In effect, you have a circle without needing to buy or bring another piece of equipment.

Cards are also used to create firing diagrams.

I’ve not ran into this kind of application in other games. In so many modern/future games range is limited, which I can understand if the scale provides that kind of space, but modern weapons can fire a pretty far distance. Regardless, many of our heavy weapons have specific area they affect and this zone is created with the cards. In cases where a weapon uses a specific firing diagram, it is highlighted on the card and in the game rules.

Once again, it is fast and very easy.

Whether you are talking about a grenade template or a firing diagram, once it is created any MERCS inside are affected.

5. What sort of feedback have you received from players?

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CONTENTS

Return to:

Q&A with MERCS designer Brian Shotton

1. How does the MERCS Miniatures movement system work?

2. How is the grenade/firing mechanic integrated into the cards?

3. Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

4. Were any alternative methods considered during design?

B

ATTLE REPORT

Q: Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

Brian: Questions like this always make me smile.

I suppose it comes down to how you define complexity. Does having a lot of extra pieces that you have to buy and use maybe once a game provide that game with any more complexity? Or is complexity defined as how many things you can do with what you have? Let’s face it, Chess is a relatively easy game to learn, but requires such skill to play at high levels they have rankings.

I am not suggesting that a simple system means the game has depth. However, it is a mistake to think that because a game is efficient in how it uses and defines its components that it is simple.

In fact, when a mechanic is simple to use but still provides the player with freedom of choice and decision you find games that are easy to play but have depth. With MERCS, a game is not decided by the armies, but by the individuals playing the armies. Because MERCS rewards good tactical play with bigger modifiers to the dice, your ability to implement your battle plan and react to your opponent is key to victory. And it will be different next time and the time after that.

Heh, kinda got on my soapbox there. The answer to your question is no. MERCS is as simple or complex as the players playing.

5. What sort of feedback have you received from players?

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CONTENTS

Return to:

Q&A with MERCS designer Brian Shotton

1. How does the MERCS Miniatures movement system work?

2. How is the grenade/firing mechanic integrated into the cards?

3. Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

4. Were any alternative methods considered during design?

5. What sort of feedback have you received from players?

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B

ATTLE REPORT

Q: Were any alternative methods for movement considered during design?

Brian: No. Well, I guess the answer is yes and no.

Certainly at the very beginning I thought about the basic tape measure, but that was quickly dismissed. I think with larger army style games, the tape measure is the about the only effective way to illustrate movement. With skirmish games, however, I think the sky is the limit. In fact, I think the tape measure is severely limiting in that environment.

I quickly reached the point where I knew I wasn’t going to use a tape measure. The die-cut cards are an amalgamation of my original idea of using some kind of protractor/compass movement method and the tools I knew we were going to use—the cards.

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CONTENTS

Return to:

Q&A with MERCS designer Brian Shotton

1. How does the MERCS Miniatures movement system work?

2. How is the grenade/firing mechanic integrated into the cards?

3. Does reducing the complexity through cards oversimplify the game?

4. Were any alternative methods considered during design?

B

ATTLE REPORT

Q: What sort of feedback have you received from players regarding the card system?

Brian: The feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

Half the people dig it after being shown how it is used. A quarter of the people are skeptical, but really like the speed and fluid game play after actually experiencing it. The last quarter are skeptical; quickly reach a conclusion that it doesn’t work; don’t play the game ever, and want nothing to do with such new-fangled ideas.

It is my hope the last group will have no choice but to try the game after MERCS is being played at the next table over, and they see for the first time that MERCS provides a depth of play that very few games offer. You cannot be effective

sitting back and firing at each other from far away, nor can you move your faction to the middle and hope your dice rolls are better. You have to out move and out think your opponent.

Take the high ground, flank their position, and take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves.

Most of all, I hope they see the fun they are missing. And then when they realize they don’t need the gross domestic product of a small country to get involved, I hope they pick a faction and play.

5. What sort of feedback have you received from players?

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TO THE DEATH Last stand at the Alamo

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TO THE

CONTENTS

DEATH

Last stand at the Alamo

With a grey beard, coonskin hat and a big smile on his face, Gregory Blake is about to fight to the death against Mexicans in Canberra. While he might be on the other side of the world from Texas, Mr Blake’s Battle of the Alamo exhibition table top game took centre stage at the Australian Games Expo in January, attracting young and old through its appealing visuals and simple concept.

Finely detailed with textured walls running the length of the table, hundreds of mexians soliders are lined up to lay siege to the independent

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characters defending the Alamo’s walls.

Using customised rules made by Mr Blake, the Texans have a single mission against the waves of Mexicans marching towards them: don’t die The Battle of the Alamo occcured March 6, 1836.

After 13 days of siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas).

All but two of the Texian defenders were killed.

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Meet the characters

Jim Bowie

Defending the Alamo’s walls are a number of finely painted models based on famous individuals or western stereotypes.

Davey Crockett Jim Bowie Famous knife fighter +1 to H2H

President General Santa Anna Davey Crockett has +1 to hand to hand combat and never misses when he fires.

David Crockett was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician.

Crockett arrived at the Alamo on February 8, 1836, after leaving his

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native Tennessee.

When the Mexicans attacked Crockett and his men were too far from the barracks to take shelter and were the last remaining group in the mission to be caught in the open. The men defended the low wall in front of the church using their rifles as clubs and relying on knives before being killed.

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President General Santa Anna was a Mexican political leader, general and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government.

When Texas rebelled and declared itself independent in 1863, Santa Anna marched north to bring Texas back under Mexican control. He was not present at the Battle of the Alamo, where 187-250 Texan defenders were killed.

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Last stand at the Alamo

What happened in 1836?

Like other states discontented with the central Mexican authorities, the Texas department of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas rebelled in late 1835 and declared itself independent on March 2, 1836. Mexican general Santa Anna proceeded to marched north to bring Texas back under Mexican control.

On February 23, approximately 1500 Mexican troops marched into San Antonio de Béxar as the first step in a campaign to re-take Texas. For the next 12 days the two armies engaged

in several skirmishes with minimal casualties. Aware that his garrison could not withstand an attack by such a large force, Alamo commander William Travis wrote multiple letters pleading for more men and supplies, but fewer than 100 reinforcements arrived.

On March 6, 1836, at the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna’s forces killed 187-250 Texan defenders and later executed more than 350 Texan prisoners at the Goliad Massacre (March 27, 1836).

The game rules The rules for The Battle of The Alamo are simple.

The attackers have two hours to try and remove every model in the fort. The defenders have the same amount of time to try and stay alive. If there is at least one defender model reamining at the end of two hours then the defenders have won.

The texans begin the game grouped in the middle of the fort while the Mexians have lines of troops at either end of the battlefield. The Mexicans can replenish their army with a constant supply of

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reinforcements.

According to game organiser Gregory Blake, the game is not asimple case of moving all the models up the defender in one of the it is not “The defenders have the use of their guns, which are most effective at range,” he told Battlespace.

Mr Blake said the game attracted a wide interest in gamers, both young and old as well as men and women.

“They get to play an learn a bit of history,” he said.

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The Battle of the Alamo creator Gregory Blake measures firing range at Cancon 2011 in Canberra, Australia

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CONTENTS The defenderss begin grouped together in the middle of the fort before dispersing to the walls to man the cannons. This represents the Mexican’s surprise dawn raid on the 13th day of the siege.

Texans defend the Alamo walls with cannons. The Alamo table top featured a number of artillery mounted on the walls.

A line of Mexicans approach the Alamo walls. Around 1500 Mexicans attacked a fort of a few hundred.

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Depleted attackers begin to place ladders against the fort walls while a second wave reinforces from behind.

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CONTENTS

A second wave of Mexicans follow up the ladders and into the fort.

The Mexicans make short work of the defenders.

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The Texans, holding up in the fort’s church, are cut down to the last man. The battle ends with seven minutes remaining.

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Land of the

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Battlespace looks at the bleak world of Scrunts from Olley’s Armies

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Scrunt

Wars

Short, bearded, dressed in dark robes and armed with heavy weaponry, the Scrunt makes an odd appearance on any futuristic battle table top. It is this combination of fragility and ruggedness that Olley’s Armies has captured in their range of dwarf-like Scrunt sculptures.

So what exactly is a Scrunt?

According to Olley’s Armies co-owner Bob Olley, the answer is simple.

“The scrunts originally came about because of the demand for SF dwarfs after GW discontinued the Squats,” Mr Olley said.

Olleys Armies was setup in October 2003 by Bob and Jackie Olley. Mr Olley does the sculpting and artwork while Jackie maintains the website.

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Scrunt

Wars

Scrunt factions must defend themselves against all manner of warped monstrosities in their bid to maintain a shattered post-apocalyptic civilization.

Olley’s Armies photography features desolate and barren lanscapes showing Scrunts fighting to survive using advanced heavy weapons and vehicles.

A wide range of models populate the Scrunt world, including shock troops, psychic Scrunts, mutants, towering monsters and machine-gun mounted allterrain vehicles. Some models pictured are from McFarlane, Old Crow Models, Ground Zero Games, Star Wars Miniatures and Armorcast.

Their moulds and castings have been made by Pete Brown and more recently by Griffin Moulds.

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Scrunt

Wars

Olley’s Armies recently added mutant Scrunts to their website and more are on the way.

“We will be adding in the near future some scrunt mutant hunters (to) our workbench page,” Mr Olley said.

Olley’s Armies is only a part-time business for Bob and Jackie, but despite the costs involved for moulds and the limited time available due to other freelance design work, the number of miniatures continues to grow.

The latest under-construction Scrunt models can be seen in the workbench section of their website and they have recently created a Facebook page.

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B

CONTENTS

ATTLE REPORT

HOLD

the line!

Coup de Main - Knightsbridge, Gazala, June 1942

Flames of War battle report text and photos by Gísli Jökull Gíslason This is an offensive operation that capitalises on surprise and simultaneous execution of supporting operations to achieve success in one swift stroke.

In June 1942, after breaking through the Gazala defensive line, German field

marshal Erwin Rommel pushed on to the defensive box of Knightsbridge where the 201 Guards Brigade put up a hasty defence. The box was attacked by elements of the 15th and 21st Panzer as well as Divisione Corazzata ‘Ariete’.

The battle setup for a semi-historical battle near Gazala, June 1942

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Coldstream Guards - Allied Nulli Secundus Infantry Company 2th Company 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards 8 Platoons (34 teams, 9 Tanks) 1500 points Kightsbridge, May 1942, Gazala

COMPANY HQ – 85

Major Melville-Curzon (C/V) 2iC – Mortar Section 2 mortars Total 85 (2 Rifle, 2 mortars) Guards

COMBAT PLATOONS – 535

1st Motor Platoon (C/V) 3 Motor Sqd, 3 x AT Rifle, sticky bombs : Total 185 (Four MG, Three x AT rifle) Guards Scout Plt (C/V) 3 x UC Guards : Total 100 (Three Tanks) Motor Machine-Gun Plt C/V 1 Machine-Gun Section Guards: Total 85 (one rifle, two guns) 2nd Motor Platoon (C/V) 3 Motor Sqd, 2 x AT Rifle, Sticky Bombs: Total 165 (Four MG, two x AT rifle) Guards

WEAPONS PLATOON - 200 Motor Anti-Tank Platoon

4 x 6 pdr, Sticky bombs Total 200 Guards

SUPPORT PLATOONS – 680 Light Armoured Troop 3 x Crusader II 1st Armd Confident/Trained Total 155 Heavy Armoured Troop 3 x Grants 1st Armd Confident/Trained Total 280 Royal Horse Artillery 1 Gun Troop with 4 OQF 25pdr Fearless/Veteran: Total 245

Ferrea mole, ferreo cuore - Axis Mechanised Company 8 Platoons (20 teams, 21 tanks) 1495 points Gazala, May 1942 COMPANY HQ – 60 Capitano Lucchini C/T L6/40 (CC/2iC) Total 60 COMBAT PLATOONS – 415 This was set up as a friendly game and I confess it has been a while since I played and my opponent was still learning. The battle is a semi-historical match up in that there was a battle around Knightsbridge - sometimes called Black Saturday and both these forces where present but I don’t think they actually fought each other.

Since my opponent, Gummi, was rather new to the game he wisely elected to defend and the

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Motociclisti Platoon - C/T 4 Motociclisti Squads: Total 115 Light Tank Platoon - C/T 5 x L6/40: Total 150 Light Tank Platoon - C/T 5 x L6/40: Total 150 Motociclisti Move as jeeps, save as Cavalry DIVISIONAL SUPPORT - 1020 Carri Platoon - C/T

‘Unflappable’ Guards are excellent defenders. A few readers may recognise Gummi’s handywork but he started and runs the website uboat.net Gummi started with both motor plts guarding each objective. The RHA artillery was carefully sited over the forward objective and the 6 pdrs in ambush.

Actually, I realised as the game started that the defenders objective should have been more in the centre rather than on the extreme left flank, but in 48

5 x 14/41 Tanks: Total 300 Self-Propelled 75/18 – C/T 1 Carro Comando with four x Semo 75/18: Total 320 Bersaglieri Company AS42 C/T 2 Bersaglieri Groups : Total 220 (Five rifle/MG teams, two HMG, two 47/32) Cannon attery - C/V 4 x 75/27guns Observer : Total 180 (Two rifle,

any case it was the forward objective that was the crucial point.

The Italians had a very fast strike force but their ‘tanks’ leave a lot to be desired, I realised that either I would win fast with a Coup de Main or not at all.

Actually this force is so fast (half-tracks move 40cm in the Desert) that I decided that ‘Hold the Line’ was more fair than ‘No Retreat’.

The idea was to have a fun battle in any case.

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Italians

Turn 1

The Italians advanced in force and quickly sped over no mans land. Shooting was ineffective and the Bersaglieri double timed, but with their fast speed it was the L6/40s that led the way.

BRITISH

Turn 1 The advancing hoard presented a fine target and the RHA found their range in the first attempt and destroyed a L6 and bailed two others as well as destroying two Bersaglieri teams and pinning them. AS reserves of Grants arrived but had a long way to go before being able to influence the battle.

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Italians

Turn 2 ‘Coup de Main’. Using their extreme speed both L6s platoons arrived at their the forward objective at exactly the same time, The situation for the first motor plt looked very bleak. More so when the became pinned by MG fire, but without loss. On the right Italian flank the Bersaglieri dismounted their motorcycles threatening to exploit that flank if the British moved.

successful and came in close enough to make a breakthrough assault on the hapless motor plt, this time the motor plt lost 2 more teams bringing them under half strength. They passed their motivation to counter attack but Gummi elected to withdraw, still close enough to the objective to contest it, but this was not to be when the Guards failed their unflappable motivation the second time and the plt was destroyed.

Then the first L6/40 platoon assaulted and destroyed three teams, the Unflappable Guards failed their motivation and retreated but were still close enough to contest the objective.

Then the 2nd L6/40 platoon assaulted using shooting was too

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On the right Italian flank the Bersaglieri dismounted their motorcycles threatening to exploit that flank if the British moved.

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BRITISH

Turn 2

CONTENTS Only the second turn and victory seemed to be within the Italians grasp.

The Grants were still too far to be able to contest the objective and nothing else was close. But they still had an ‘Ace’ and sprung the ambush in nearby scrubs, but with the RHA, 6 pdrs and Grants they had to destroy both L6/40 platoons or the battle was lost at the start of the Italian turn.

And so, the ambush was sprung.

the five strong plt joined by both the 2iC and company commander and took out two tanks including the plt leader and 2iC and bailed three. The platoon leader became the ‘Unkown Hero’ giving the platoon excellent motivation. This was followed by the 6pdrs taking three out of four tankettes of the smaller plt and bailing the last one. Then the Grants destroyed the company commander and one more tankette.

The British prepared to rain death on the After this one platoon broke leaving the unkown hero and one other tank of the Italian tin cans. other platoon but both bailed but the And death it was. First the RHA fired at unkown hero on top of the objective.

Italians

Turn 3 All that needed to be done was to roll a 2+ to remount the unkown hero. That was not to be when a ‘1’ came up and the other tank didn’t remount either.

Being so close the Italians went all in for the forward objective. The Italian artillery ranged in on the Grants and 6 pdrs with a barrage but failed to hit a single gun and the Grants weren’t damaged. Then Now the Italian Commander faced a hard choice, to brave the 6 pdrs, RHA and Grants the Semovente 75/18 fired on the Grants but only managed to brew on tank. Other and push on with the attack or completely shooting was a complete failure. change the direction of the attack.

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BRITISH Turn 3

The British were saved for now, the Grants now the second wave of Italians were move in to contest the objective, while the faced by serious firepower.

Crusaders arrived from reserve.

Their shooting was destructive. Both The 6pdrs had escaped from pinning and Semos and Carris where wiped out.

Italians

Turn 4 The battle was lost, but the L6/40s remounted this turn and there was a chance at defying the British, even with their puny guns the L6/40s could take out a Grant with a side shot and if this

happend then the British would lose a second platoon.

But it was not to be, and to be frank the L6/40s should never engage enemy armour.

BRITISH

Turn 4

Victory was theirs, once the last L6/40s had been disposed of the Italians had lost four platoons out of seven and in the

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absence of a company commander the battle was a forgone conclusion. Ferrea mole, ferreo cadaveri.

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FINAL

conclusion Not a bad battle, nor a bad win.

Lady fortune was not on my side and if she deserts you there can be no victory. The awful skill rolls at the start (all the tanks were trained) meant that they took far too many hits, and then to add insult to injury the failed motivation was extreme, the battle would have been won on a 2+ but that would have been a bad end on a game for a Gummi.

1) Roll better for skill.

For the British:

get trucks for the Bersaglieri and everything is mobile. The Semos give the force a decent anti-tank ability to deal with heavier MW armour while the Carris and L6/40s win the battle.

2) I would have won anyway if I had played turn one in a bolder way and followed all the rules of a Coup de Main. Had I double timed the Carris and Semos in the first turn then all four armoured platoons would have pounded the first objective at the same time and no matter what firepower the British had would not have saved them. Instead This was a friendly game and was I came on in two attacking waves and this gave the British very good as such. It was also the first outing of the Squadrone the chance to destroy them piecemeal.

Esplorante and my first game in a while. There were plenty of I like the Sqd Esplorante, they are mistakes. very mobile and fast. I need to 1) Set the defender objective close to the centre so you need not split your defence 2) Take the Grants at the start, the two motor plt can defend the rear objective as reserves For the Italians:

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I am confident they will do better next time.

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All that

glitters

By Eric Louchard, AntiMatter Games. Based on rules from Ganesha Games

ShadowSea is a game of fast-paced miniatures combat using 28mm scale figures, powered by Song of Blades ruleset from Ganesha Games.

Eric Louchard shows readers how a ShadowSea game works through the logbook of an expedition exploring the perilous ‘Underland’.

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Logbook Page one Johan Kurtz October 14, 1676 The logbook we acquired from Captain Brewer has helped lead the expedition through the forest of fungal growth, massive tree-like shapes that the old fool Pilny would have spent years studying if he had the chance.. if he could ever extract himself from his post at the university. However, I still regret not trying to recruit my old colleague for his sharp eye and mind, as most of the men I have brought have proven to be simple-minded dolts that could not even discern when dangerous airborne spores from the fungal trees were eating away at their vitals.

Must I always think for these fools? I pay them well enough...

Only one of the three freebooters has proven to be worthy of the trip, and I trust him as much as the vile troglodytes and their chittering servants, the “clal-chk� as they called them. It was fortuitous that I could acquire their services, though, after so many men perished, and I cannot say that they have been without their uses.

The troglodytes (left) bring forth Skullcraker (above), a bird fully the size of an elephant but with short, stubby wings and an enormous, sharp beak.

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Logbook Page two We were four days into the cavernous realm, called the “Underlands�

by Captain Brewer in his notes, and the frigid air of the surface world was far behind us. I must hope that the men back at the ship will be able to break free from the ice before we return, as I surely will wish to return with living specimens from this strange new land...

We were surrounded by swirling, glowing mist that illuminated the landscape with a devilish glow of shifting blue, red and purple hues.

Creatures that Pilny had studied and illustrated from crumbling bones were grazing before our eyes, though some proved to be more dangerous than expected - mainly the reptilian troglodytes.

After numerous attacks on the group, the troglodytes offered additional protection for payment in gold. They brought forth from the festering undergrowth a monstrosity, a bird fully the size of an elephant but with short, stubby wings and an enormous, sharp beak.

Its beady eyes glared and gave no indication of being controlled, even though a troglodyte handler prodded the beast with a stick.

The troglodytes (left) bring forth Skullcraker (above), a bird fully the size of an elephant but with short, stubby wings and an enormous, sharp beak.

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Logbook Page three We made our first sighting of the underground ocean after two weeks in the dank fungal labyrinth. It was a magnificent sight and the surviving members of the expedition were grateful to finally leave the forest. As we neared the ocean, the terrain became rougher, with numerous ruined sections of masonry of some sort, no doubt some of the ruins that Captain Brewer had noted in his journal.

We crossed a ridge and then came to a cliff overlooking a stretch of rocky shore.. It was there we beheld a broken hulk of corroded bronze and glittering gold, almost appearing like the skeleton of some colossal sea creature washed up on the shore. This was some mighty vessel of a type I had never seen, only hinted at in dusty scrolls Pilny and I had recovered from the pyramids of the desert kingdoms...

Reaching the wreckage was challenging as the ‘skullcracker’ - which the troglodytes called the bird - was hungry and we had run low on sections of meat... It seemed to keep its eyes locked onto Old Clegg, to his considerable dismay, and stopped to stare him down a number of times.

The trogs became excited as we came closer to the wreck speaking in their strangely songlike voices of the golden treasures in these ships of the ancients. We spotted two gaping holes in the side of the vessel, and the troglodytes made their way towards the smaller one when the attack began...

The troglodytes (left) bring forth Skullcraker (above), a bird fully the size of an elephant but with short, stubby wings and an enormous, sharp beak.

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Prepare for battle This scenario used the rules for a ‘Quest for treasure’, mixed with an ‘Assault to capture the scenic weapon’ (a Death Ray in this case, although another can be used) on the topside part of the wreck. The topside is one long stick above the wreck floor and can be reached via the ladder or climbing from the north wall, either inside or outside. The three treasure markers are shown as stars on the map, one of which is an artifact. The entrance points of the map are the western and eastern sides, although players can modify this as they wish.

The defender, if amphibious, can deploy after the attacker has made the first move, and then place models in the deep water areas of the map.

Victory conditions: one victory point per 25 points of killed opponents, plus three points for recovering the artifact. The winner gets to use the artifact in future scenarios, until it is destroyed. The artifact must be assigned to a model with the scientist ability to use or teach other to use. Three points for whichever team controls the ‘Scenic Weapon’ at the end of the battle

Warbands - 400 point limit Kurtz’s Expedition

Dark Mariners

Research Scholar - Johan Kurtz Troglodyte Warriors (3) Troglodyte Warbeast Handler Skullcracker Bird Pirate Robber - Old Clegg Pirate Cutthroat - John the Knife Pirate Rogue

Light Raiders (2) Raider Taskmaster (72 point cost for Leader) Cephalid Animator Medium Biomech Construct Cephalid Scientist Cephalid War Engineer (Bombard can fire Death Ray) Leviathan

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Turn one

A blast of blue flame exploded onto two of the trogs, scattering them like blacked leaves. One was unharmed but turned and fled like a craven dog. The others were left a smoking ruin on the ground, their flesh charred beyond any recognition... I had seen that type of energy in Dunhallow’s laboratory, but this was infinitely more powerful...

Within moments, the source of the blast rose from the shallows at the side of the wreck, a nightmare of corroded metal bound together by squirming tentacles and other unnameable flesh, moving in a jerking manner of some clockwork device. Beside it was a second blasphemy of the deep, a creature roughly man-sized but covered by a heavy shell on its back and tentacled face. It’s motions were slow though, and our men recovered their composure sufficiently to loose the Skullcracker, which gave a screech and hurtled towards the sea creatures at a stupendous rate, flinging itself at the A sketch of the biomech construction metallic automaton.

Turn two The bird’s massive beak gripped the things arm, ripping it off, before kicking its legs out from under it and sending a spray of water and foam up into the air. The bird continued to tear at the golden metal to get at the flesh below as the shelled creature, the automaton’s controller apparently, struck at the bird futilely.. until it turned and grabbed the vile creature in its beak, crunching down with macabre relish.

Dark shapes approached the submerged end of the wreck from deep water and I told the rest of the team to enter quickly to find any artifacts that still remained. The three pirates scrambled through the larger hole while the troglodyte handler went to calm the skullcracker bird and bring it back into line. I remained back for a moment, making sure the wreck was clear of danger before peering into the hole.

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Turn three My caution was appropriate, as I heard a loud pistol shot, then a dire scream from inside. With a quick look through the hole I could see three manlike beings, horribly corrupted and with arms warped into the shapes of bony clubs, spikes and other unnatural formations. One clutched at its neck, spouting blood, while grasping a golden cylinder, then toppled to the floor and dropped it into a flooded section of the wreck.

One of the remaining two converged on the rogue who had fired his pistol and killed him horribly, crushing his skull, while the other moved to some glittering object on the floor, stumbling awkwardly on misshapen limbs.

Old Clegg the robber also noticed something glimmering on the floor and moved through the fungal growth to reach it while the other cutthroat, John the Knife, leaped up onto a pile of ruined metal and started to climb up to a higher floor.

Turn four While the combatants were occupied, I stole into the wreck, avoiding the spreading pools of gore, and searched for the golden cylinder that had fallen into the water. It was apparent that there would be little time to do a complete search but I knew that I needed to find one of the ancient devices powered by the ethers that Dunhallow had shown in his lab.

I neared the rear of the wreck, partially submerged in the sea, and caught a glimpse of the cylinder under the water. Knowing that time was short, I jumped in and reached down under the shallow surface for the item, pulling it out from the icy water. I immediately noticed that it was warm to the touch and glowed with a ghostly purple light of the ethers. Pity I had little time to investigate its operation.

Pocketing the artifact, I trudged out of the water to see Clegg coughing and gagging near the fungus, then falling to one of the creatures, speared through the gut by a claw-like limb... John called to me from his perch on the floor above, frantically loading his pistol. Fortune shone upon me as I saw a ladder leading up to his location, and I climbed up quickly, looking for a an exit from this accursed wreck..

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Turn five What I found there was stunning to behold.. golden plates, glowing crystals...

The design reminiscent of a weapon recovered by Captain Brewer and studied by Dunhallow... I had experimented with his recreations of the ancient ether designs and knew how to operate it with only a few adjustments. The device was covered in mold and grime from eons past, but the gold was impervious to age, and the weapon came to life in my hands, smoothly swiveling around upon a spherical turret. I could not see where to fire the weapon however, and shouted for John to assist.

Turn six Before John could move, there was a terrifying A leviathan emerges from the depths shriek from outside the wreck, ending at a loud crunching sound and wet gurgling. John was frozen with terror but held his ground and I managed to stand firm though my legs were like water. The monstrous being that entered the wreck almost sent us into madness though, a mass of writhing tentacles, claws and heavy shell plating, drenched in blood and bits of feathers. Following it were two more of the shelled beings holding staves and tools of shining whalebone and gold.

The creature moved ponderously on thick legs of bunched tentacles, exhorted by the manlike raiders in some awful guttural language. John finally awoke from his fear and rushed over to aid me as the monster neared our location, a shaky section of the topside platform supported by corroded support struts. The massive creature raised a clawed arm, prepared to demolish the platform, when John signaled that we were aligned and shouted for me to fire. I managed to find the proper controls and trigger the weapon...

I must confess that the next moments of the battle were but a blur, possibly because I have tried to forget the aftermath of firing that hellish weapon.. It made no sound but caused the air to glow with a faint blue light around the walking leviathan.. The sound it made shall haunt me.. with nothing striking it but the rays of glowing blue light, cracks appeared in its carapace and ichor jetted out from its body. The massive thing collapsed into a pile of bubbling gore and steaming armour plates while the other foul beings fled the battle, no doubt returning to the whatever watery pits they emerged from.

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card & board strategy Exploring Extended

M

agic: The Gathering deck strategies reviewed and rated

Custom

Board game design

PITFALLS PITFALLS

Modified fantasy rules for the classic board game Blue Army (Team A)

Breaking into the board game design industry with Martin Wallace, Treefrog Games previous page

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Red Army (Team A)

Bughouse rules Mini- Shuuro games rules from Alessio Cavatore

Red Army (Team B)

Blue Army (Team A)

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Exploring

Extended

By Gareth Begley

Extended for Magic: The Gathering is an exciting format to be involved in right now.

Unlike standard, the metagame is wide open, very diverse and evolving daily.

The decks don’t need to run Jace ‘The Money Snatcher’ or Valakut to be competitive. And, your next local PTQ will be featuring this format exclusively.

The time is now to discover what is working, how it is working, and why.

Most importantly, what will you bring to the table?

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Exploring

Extended

“But why now?� I hear you ask. Most Pro Tour Qualifiers for Nagoya are more than a month away; Mirrodin Besieged will have an impact on what people play, and the format is steadily evolving week by week. This is all true. However, one thing will remain consistent: the archetypes. The decks that are winning now will be very competitive, if not winning still, by the time that the PTQ’s come around. Sure, some tinkering and minor adjustments will be needed due to the aforementioned factors, but the archetypes will remain reliable.

This article will explore eight decks that you will potentially face, or probably pilot in the upcoming extended season. The first four will be aggro-based decks, with the latter four concentrating on control. Traditional strengths and weaknesses will be explored to evaluate their viability and potency, but other factors will be taken into consideration.

Like most, the financial aspects of my gaming is forever tightening, so the cost to put a deck together is a factor at the forefront of my mind. Additionally, I find a deck which features a bit of originality and flair more exciting to play and win with, rather than running a cookie-cutter mainstay.

Lastly, the difficulty to successfully play a particular deck is a concern to many players; there is a vast difference between optimising your Cryptic Command and pumping a Student of Warfare. So, to ease the seasoned veteran or the dormant player into this extended season, all decks assessed will be given marks for power, cost, originality and playability.

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CONTENTS BATTLESPACE

Aggro decks White Weenie

Red Deck Wins

Jund

Tempered Steel Images copyright: Wizards of the Coast

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Aggro decks White Weenie

Red Deck Wins

Jund

Tempered Steel

Creatures [22] 4 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Figure of Destiny 4 Knight of the White Orchid 2 Ranger of Eos 4 Steppe Lynx 4 Student of Warfare Spells [15] 4 Brave the Elements 4 Honor of the Pure 2 Mana Tithe 1 Path to Exile 4 Spectral Procession Lands [23] 4 Arid Mesa 4 Flagstones of Trokair 1 Horizon Canopy 4 Marsh Flats 10 Plains Sideboard [15] 1 Angel’s Grace 3 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 Celestial Purge 1 Lapse of Certainty 3 Path to Exile 4 Relic of Progenitus 2 Rule of Law

White Weenie Paul Rietzl piloted this exact deck to win PT Amsterdam back in September 2010.

Engineered by the legendary Gabriel Nassif, this deck is the epitome of what White Weenie is all about: small consistant threats coupled with effective protection and removal.

The engine room is powered by Spectral Procession, Brave the Elements, Steppe Lynx and Honor of the Pure. With eight fetchlands pumping the Lynx, a 4/5 bad boy is going to be all up in your grill more often than not. Honor of the Pure gives the beef, Procession gives the advantage and Brave the Elements keeps your guys alive or lets them stroll across the red zone. When you throw in two of the best one drops going around, an engine to go and get them and a natural speed bump against combo-based decks in the Canonist, the deck starts to look the goods. And it was the goods, back in September.

Is it still as viable today? Well, rotation in October 2010 removed Flagstones of Trokair (natural synergy with Steppe Lynx) and Mana Tithe (fantastic permission), but not much else has changed. However, the decks that this list beat on the road to success have. Scapeshift and Pyromancer’s Ascension based decks dominated the tournament scene five months ago, but are no longer that prevalent. The main deck of Ethersworn Canonist therefore has to be questioned. Unfortunately, Scars of Mirrodin has not added any powerhouses to the line-up. But, Boros is still performing well in the standard metagame, so perhaps some merges between the two closely related decks are necessary for continued success.

White Weenie is naturally strong against slower, control-based match-ups, but may struggle against more mid-rage aggro archetypes such as Jund. White Weenie has been around since the dawn of time, so there are no prizes here for originality. However, it doesn’t cost the earth to put a list similar to this together, and its simple beat-down premise is a joy to pilot for the pro and the pretender alike. In the end, WW is a strong, simple deck, but its absence from the top eight of the tournament scene postAmsterdam has to make you question its validity in the current extended environment.

PLAYABILITY: 7/10 Originality: 6/10 previous page

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POWER: COST:

8/10 3/10

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Aggro decks White Weenie

Creatures [20] 1 Ball Lightning 4 Figure of Destiny 4 Goblin Guide 3 Hell’s Thunder 4 Hellspark Elemental 4 Tattermunge Maniac

Red Deck Wins

Spells [16] 4 Burst Lightning 4 Flame Javelin 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Searing Blaze

Jund

Tempered Steel

Lands [24] 4 Arid Mesa 9 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Smoldering Spires 4 Teetering Peaks Sideboard [15] 4 Arc Trail 4 Dragon’s Claw 3 Ratchet Bomb 4 Stigma Lasher

Red Deck Wins Another archetype of small, aggressive beaters have been making a splash in events across the globe. Red Deck Wins (RDW), All in Red, and ‘Blitzred’ formulas have consistently been making the top eight at PTQs and have been catching many off guard with a tempo that has not been exhibited in a number of years. Red has also seen a rise in popularity due to the high number of Faerie decks currently being played. It has been many seasons since red has had an arsenal of quality cards quite like the current pool at its disposal.

Coupled one drops like Goblin Guide and Figure of Destiny don’t come about every cycle; they aren’t threats which can just be ignored. The 2/2 goblin with haste for one red mana has almost single handedly brought about the timely resurgence of red. His cantrip of land draw for the opponent can hardly be seen as a drawback; at times the red deck pilot gets a privileged look at upcoming cards which can be used for future tactics. Other ‘blitz’ cards which firm the formula of consistent aggression are ‘hellish’ to say the least. Hell’s Thunder and Hellspark Elemental provide recurring and considerable damage for their mana equivalency.

The unearth effect from Alara block proves to be very advantageous late game; it’s almost as if they provide a draw effect by somewhat ‘filling’ a player’s hand, allowing RDW to have answers when needed. Tattermunge Maniac rounds out the beaters, adding to the growing wave of low cost threats marching into the red zone. Creatures, however, are only half of the formula for the successful RDW pilot. The staple Lightning Bolt is as effective as ever, Searing Blaze offers a fantastic two-for-one, Flame Javelin deals with toughness great than three nasties and Burst Lightning offers fantastic versatility and scope.

Life gain is red’s arch nemesis, coupled with games which go past turn 6. In saying this, expect to have problems against UW control decks that resolve an early Wall of Omens/ Kitchen Finks and wipe. Resetting is not an option. This ‘all in’ mentality is the crux and the undoing of the red formula, which suits many players for a whole range of different reasons.

It is a cheap deck to throw together and a manageable one to pilot. The archetype originated at almost the same time as WW, so expect no handshakes for originality. Ignore the knee jerk reactions of some when beaten with red to accuse you of being a lesser magic player, or taking the ‘easy road’; red is a simple formula which works. So well, sometimes, that you will walk away with a ticket to Nagoya, as Juan Jose Rodriguez did in Madrid, 24/1/11.

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POWER: 8.5/10 COST: 7.5/10

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Red Deck Wins

Jund

Tempered Steel

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Creatures [22] 3 Anathemancer 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Demigod of Revenge 3 Fauna Shaman 3 Kitchen Finks 4 Putrid Leech 1 Shriekmaw Spells [12] 4 Blightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Maelstrom Pulse Lands [26] 3 Blackcleave Cliffs 3 Copperline Gorge 2 Fire-Lit Thicket 2 Forest 1 Graven Cairns 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Mountain 4 Raging Ravine 3 Savage Lands 1 Swamp 3 Twilight Mire 2 Verdant Catacombs Sideboard [15] 1 Deathmark 3 Nature’s Claim 2 Obstinate Baloth 1 Terminate 4 Thoughtseize 4 Volcanic Fallout

Jund Jund: an aggro decks where the results really do speak for themselves. 1st in PTQ’s at Jyvaskyla and Nashville, 1st in GP trials in Maine and Atlanta, and too many top eight performances of late to count. If you were around the standard scene roughly a year ago, you should be very familiar with the Jund menace: fast cascading creatures coupled with burn to the board and the face. Jund was originally so successful as the ‘arch nemesis’ of the Fae. Volcanic fallout, and, to a lesser extent, Banefire, were utilised in a deck which was fast and brutal. Putrid Leech was the cornerstone of the lineup and remains that way today.

The two-drop come four-power beater is as good in today’s extended environment as the standard decks of yester year. Backed up by Bloodbraid Elf; a card so strong that many players were calling for it to be banned shortly after release. Even counters cannot stop his insane cascade effect. There is no doubting the power of a well played Jund deck: Anathemancer punishes the wide mana pool currently used in the format, Fauna Shaman can set up a nifty train with Demigod of Revenge, and a turn three Blightning will disrupt most opponents significantly. The other great thing about Jund is the variation. Many decks run Boggart Ram-Gang and Thoughtseize main deck or play with Goblin Guide/Hell’s Thunder for a faster tempo.

The power of Jund is very high in the current environment, which is being somewhat dominated by four colour-control and Faeries. Its aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach is not a difficult one to pilot; disrupt, beat and burn.. Unlike WW and RDW, Jund has been has been in the spotlight a little less and many players will be almost disappointed to see its return (due to the ‘ad nausem’ of Jund a year ago). Its originality, therefore, is on the lower end of the scale. The biggest draw card for most players wanting to try Jund out is the price; the power cards of the deck are uncommons and commons, Thoughtseize can easily be replace by Duress, and the majority of the other rares won’t burn a hole in your wallet. With some clever purchases, the Jund deck could be compiled from scratch for around 150 clams.

Expect to see a lot of Jund at your local PTQ, and for good reason; it is simple, power packed and price effective.

PLAYABILITY: 7.5/10 POWER: 9.5/10 Originality: 2/10 COST: 9/10 68

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Aggro decks White Weenie

Red Deck Wins

Jund

Tempered Steel

Creatures [27] 4 Court Homunculus 4 Master of Etherium 4 Memnite 3 Ornithopter 4 Ranger of Eos 4 Steel Overseer 4 Tidehollow Sculler

Tempered Steel

Spells [16] 3 Mox Opal 3 Springleaf Drum 4 Tempered Steel 2 Thopter Foundry 4 Thoughtseize

Court Homunculus, Memnite and Tidehollow Scullers give an aggressive start which is backed up by Master of Etherium, Steel Overseer and the namesake of the deck to round out proceedings. For match-ups that go past turn five, Ranger of Eos and Thopter Foundry have been included for some late game action. If this deck fires, it can be a nightmare to face; with so much synergy existing between the notable cards. However, somewhat clunky draws can render this deck almost useless at times and the player can be left with a lot of 1/1’s, and not much else.

Lands [17] 4 Darkslick Shores 1 Fetid Heath 4 Marsh Flats 3 Plains 4 Seachrome Coast 1 Swamp Sideboard [15] 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 3 Celestial Purge 2 Disfigure 1 Duress 3 Ethersworn Canonist 3 Leonin Arbiter 1 Thopter Foundry

Co-designed by John Smithers, winner of GP Toronto, Tempered Steel rounds out the last of our aggro powerhouses. It was one of the top decks at Worlds, and took most people by surprise – Smithers utilised originality, fantastic synergy and many 0-1 drop beaters to quickly overwhelm the opponent and secure a swag of turn three kills. The deck runs a low land count, but for good reason; springleaf drum turns any creature into a mana source and mox opal helps to secure a solid base.

The lack of draw in the main deck is an issue. Some people have tried to remedy this with the inclusion of trinket mage, which can get Tempered Steel out of some holes. This coupled with Ranger of Eos can really help against removal heavy hands. A handy sideboard will also help against decks that are potentially threatening, such as Jund and combo lineups. With the aforementioned reasons in mind, the power level of this deck can be a hard one to judge, as it tends to be hit or miss. Devastating opponents for a few matches is safe bet, but whether Tempered Steel has the legs to go 7-8 rounds with the best and top eight is yet to be seen.

The pricing of the mainstays, on the other hand, makes this deck the most affordable going around, and it’s easy enough to play. If you are a budget conscious, all-or-nothing player looking to give props to an original idea, then Tempered Steel is for you. On the other hand consistency at tournament level is essential, and with what looks to be a lot of artifact hate in many sideboards, people who strongly advocate that Tempered Steel is the best of the aggro decks shouldn’t count their chickens before they hatch.

PLAYABILITY: 7.5/10 POWER: 9/10 Originality: 9/10 COST: 10/10 previous page

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CONTENTS BATTLESPACE

CONTROL decks U/W Control

Four Colour

Faeries

Omen Valakut Images copyright: Wizards of the Coast

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COMMENT

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CONTROL decks U/W Control

Four Colour

Faeries

Omen Valakut

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Creatures [8] 2 Baneslayer Angel 2 Sun Titan 4 Wall of Omens Planeswalkers [7] 2 Ajani Vengeant 2 Jace Beleren 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor Spells [20] 4 Cryptic Command 2 Day of Judgment 4 Mana Leak 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Path to Exile 2 Preordain 4 Spreading Seas Land [25] 2 Arid Mesa 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Island 1 Mountain 4 Mystic Gate 3 Plains 3 Scalding Tarn 4 Tectonic Edge Sideboard [15] 2 Baneslayer Angel 2 Day of Judgment 3 Flashfreeze 4 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Oblivion Ring 1 Path to Exile 2 War Priest of Thune

U/W Control U/W control has been making its presence felt in the top 8 of PTQ’s for months now. In fact, UW control has been featuring in the top 8 of online tournaments regularly since mid December. This archetype is as good, if not better than the other control variations floating around at the moment. Its simple premise utilises obvious counters and removal early and closes with plansewalker favourites and heavy handed titans. Let’s be honest with ourselves here: control is winning most extended events at the moment and more than two-thirds of the decks that are being piloted at events have some elements of control. This is due wholly and solely to the combination of two of the best blue cards going around: Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Cryptic Command (CC).

I’m not going to bang on about how unbelievably broken (and expensive) Jace 2.0 is; there are hundreds of standard articles out there on that subject alone. I will, however, highlight the brilliance of CC, as it has slipped out of the spotlight recently. Just like all of the Bloodbraid Elf haters from Shards block, CC dominated the scene with its ‘friends of the fae’ and other variants for what seemed like an eon. The card is brilliant and it cannot be underestimated. The wide mana base available in extended means that CC is accessible to many decks including aggro control variants, such as RUG control and Splinter Twin combo. But enough of loving the cryptic, and back to UW control. Kitchen Finks and Vendilion Clique often slot into this lineup, adding disruption, lifegain and most importantly, time. Spreading Seas adds a fantastic draw and can wreak havoc on decks trying to gain quick momentum.

The most surprising aspect of the latest wave of successful U/W control decks is the inclusion of Ajani Vengent. The planeswalker can surprise most opponents and allows the control deck to act aggressively in needed situations. This deck is extremely powerful if played correctly, however, it needs to be played correctly. Control variants are more difficult to play successfully that their aggro counterparts, especially ones which are heavy on planeswalkers. Moreover, this deck is not cheap, nor original. and will sting you a pretty penny in acquisition. Best of luck if you are to face, or play, this old foe.

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POWER: COST: COMMENT

9/10 3/10

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CONTROL decks U/W Control

Four Colour

Faeries

Omen Valakut

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Creatures/ Planeswalkers [8] Four Colour Control (4cc) 3 Wall of Omens 2 Wurmcoil Engine The prolific Luis-Scott Vargas engineered and ran this four colour control (4cc) brew 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor at Worlds 2010. It was a wildly successful formula which spawned a very healthy population of players running the exact same list in ‘post-worlds’ extended tournaments.

Spells [26] Dropping green from the fashionable Shards of Alara block standard deck of five colour 2 Cruel Ultimatum control, 4cc challenges any opposing deck to feel comfortable at any point in the game.

4 Cryptic Command 1 Day of Judgment Volcanic Fallout, Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt and Day of Judgment loom for any 4 Esper Charm creature that actually makes the board. But it’s not the wealth of removal or the standard 4 Lightning Bolt eight counters that make 4cc great; it’s the draw engine. Preordain ensures early game 4 Mana Leak control, Esper Charm can fill the card void, and hell, even wall of omens gives you a 1 Path to Exile freebee. With a whopping 20 sources of potential draw in the deck, expect 4cc to have an 4 Preordain answer more often than not. Wurmcoil Engine has been chosen as the closer of choice 2 Volcanic Fallout in this line up, but drop in any decent fatty (Baneslayer, Frost Titan, etc) to get the job done late game if you wish. And, if your creatures can’t do it, Cruel Ultimatum seals the Lands [26] opponent’s fate in many respects, as the clutch finishing card of choice. 4cc, as with all 1 Cascade Bluffs control stereotypes, is vulnerable to fast aggro variations, including well played Jund.

2 Creeping Tar Pit 3 Island However, roadblocks such as Wall of Omens and board sweepers like Fallout present 1 Mountain serious issues for the ‘all in’ player. The downside to 4cc is the relative skill required to 2 Mystic Gate run a deck like this proficiently. Requiring expert judgment and a solid knowledge of 4 Reflecting Pool the metagame, 4cc should be approached with an open mind ready for plenty of practice 2 Scalding Tarn and learning for the unfamiliar player. The budget conscious among us should also steer 2 Sunken Ruins clear of 4cc, as it runs some of the biggest, and most expensive, names in the game. If, 9 Vivid Creek/Marsh/Meadow however, you believe in your ability and can acquire the needed cards, 4cc is a serious contender for top dog. It will ruin most match-ups, and will have to be unlucky or poorly Sideboard [15] played to be taken down often. If paired up against it playing aggro, speed is the key; 1 Celestial Purge you need to establish a creature base early and watch for the sweep. If running control, 2 Condemn be mindful of the limited number of kill cards actually available to 4cc and be patient.

1 Day of Judgment 1 Identity Crisis Expect to see a lot of 4cc at your local tournaments.

1 Jace Beleren 1 Negate 2 Runed Halo 3 Thoughtseize 2 Vendilion Clique COMMENT 72 nextpage page next 1 Volcanic Fallout

PLAYABILITY: 3/10 Originality: 5/10

POWER: 9.5/10 COST: 2/10

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CONTROL decks U/W Control

Four Colour

Faeries

Omen Valakut

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Creatures [13] 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 4 Mistbind Clique 2 Scion of Oona 4 Spellstutter Sprite 2 Vendilion Clique Spells [22] 4 Bitterblossom 4 Cryptic Command 3 Disfigure 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Mana Leak 2 Smother 4 Thoughtseize Lands [25] 3 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Darkslick Shores 3 Island 4 Mutavault 4 Secluded Glen 3 Sunken Ruins 3 Swamp 1 Tectonic Edge Sideboard [15] 1 Disfigure 2 Glen Elendra Archmage 1 Infest 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Ratchet Bomb 1 Scion of Oona 1 Smother 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Vendilion Clique 2 Wurmcoil Engine

Faeries Let’s not beat around the bush: Faeries is the best deck in the current extended environment by a significant margin. It has earned the title of favourite after winning eight PTQs thus far amongst tremendously strong playing pools. It also has been registering regular 4-0 appearances in the daily events of Magic’s digital realm.

Everyone who has played the game in the last couple of years should have been touched by the supremacy of Faeries.

It is driven by an excellent mana base; Darkslick Shores and Sunken Ruins are as close to Underground Sea as there is and the man-lands of Mutavault and Creeping Tar Pit pressure the opponent or provide a base for Mistbind Clique. Spellstutter Sprite, Scion of Oona and Vendilion Clique make up the remaining ‘essential’ creatures for the deck, supporting the relentless tokens generated by Bitterblossom. Don’t be fooled by the plethora of counters in the line-up: Faeries is an aggressive formula. As soon as the first Bitterblossom is cast you are on the clock and it won’t be long before the hand strikes Mistbind for a free time walk.

Sideboarding in Fae hate is essential for most decks, but what weapons do you choose?

There was a time where Great Sable Stag got the job done, but he is being taken care of by cards like Wall of Tanglecord and Wurmcoil Engine which lurk in amongst the Fae’s 15. It’s the layers of constant pressure applied by Faeries which ruins most opponents: early discards and counters, strong flash-based creatures, effective removal and powerful endgame changers cripple mediocre decks and often destroy well equipped rivals. If you do manage to remove the enchantment, dodge the counters and removal, have a fantastic opening hand and wipe away all creature threats, the unblockable Creeping Tar Pit will usually whittle what’s left of you down.

I’m not trying to proclaim that Faeries is unbeatable, but it is a very effective deck in the right hands. If not running Faeries, all I can advise is to load up on answers (Thurn, the Last Troll may be the flavour of the month) and be fast. Very fast.

PLAYABILITY: 4/10 POWER: Originality: 5/10 COST: 73

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10/10 1/10

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CONTROL decks U/W Control

Four Colour

Faeries

Omen Valakut

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Spells [16] 4 Cryptic Command 2 Cultivate 1 Day of Judgment 4 Explore 3 Leyline of Sanctity 3 Mana Leak 4 Preordain 4 Prismatic Omen 3 Rampant Growth 1 Scapeshift 2 See Beyond 4 Wargate

Omen Valakut Omen Valakut is the new kid on the extended block. And it’s awesome. Only Tempered Steel is as fresh as this deck, which harnesses the lethal power of Valakut in new and exciting ways. When printed, most people (including myself) thought that Wargate was a trash rare. Three mana was already used in the casting cost before X was addressed, and most decent cards were worth more than two or three mana, leaving the player with a 5-6 mana investment which could ultimately go nowhere. Enter Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.

Now, Wargate can fish for only three and provide the platforms or the kill switch to a new breed of creatureless deck.

The usual mana acceleration cards are all there: Cultivate, Explore and Rampart Growth churn out the lands at a frightening pace. But that is where the familiarities to standard’s version of G/R Valakut stop. Firstly, there is not one Mountain in the list. With Prismatic Omen on the board, the days of the need for a Mountain stream are over. Any land that hits the board is now ammunition for Valakut, which drastically increases the speed and power of the deck. With no need for Mountains, most archetypes of this new contender have settled on the element of control. Once again, Cryptic Command rears its head and steers the deck far away from potential adversaries.

Lands [17] 2 Celestial Colonnade 4 Flooded Grove 4 Forest 4 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Murmuring Bosk Vendilion Clique, Primeval Titan and Oracle of Mul Daya often provide additional threats 1 Mystic Gate where needed, allowing a landslide or disrupting an opponent’s answers. When the pieces 1 Plains fall into place, Omen Valakut can combo out a win very swiftly, and can leave opponents 4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle questioning how to proceed against the land-based monster. There are many variations tavailable; W is often left out, with Scapeshift and Prismatic Omen being left to get the job Sideboard [15] done in decks which ramp and draw like never before, thanks to Jace 2.0. On the other hand, 3 Day of Judgment Omen is susceptible to faster archetypes and can be blown out early. It is a very original idea, 1 Leyline of Sanctity but is being run in droves due to its sudden success. It has taken out numerous tournaments 3 Nature’s Claim in its short lifespan, including GP Atlanta, and is often being unbeaten in multiple entries. The 3 Negate deck is also fairly easy to pilot and won’t cost an arm and a leg to construct; if you own CC 1 Plains already, 200 beans should sew the rest up. Watch out for Omen this extended season, it has too 2 Sun Titan much potential and is groomed to take out Fae for the top spot over the next few months.

2 Vendilion Clique

PLAYABILITY: 6.5/10 POWER: 9.5/10 Originality: 8/10 COST: 7/10 74

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Board

game design PITFALLS Treefrog Games’ Martin Wallace discusses the difficulties of breaking into the board game design industry

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PITFALLS

With Martin Wallace, Treefrog Games

“If you are curious about doing game design, first see a doctor to cure you,” Treefrog owner, Martin Wallace told budding game designers in January at the Australian Games Expo in Canberra.

a game based on the world of author Terry Pratchett. It was in 1994 that Mr Wallace went to Essen as part of his first commercial venture, Warfrog, where he first had his “mind blown away’”

“If that doesn’t work and you’re still serious about being a game designer, then go to Essen. If you ever get the chance to go to Essen, go to Essen. It will completely and utterly blow your mind,” he said.

“By going (to Essen) you learn so much because you see the companies there, you meet people there who can give you advice, you get contacts. It’s just the place to go.

When you’ve got 150,000 people there in the courts the whole weekend, seven or Mr Wallace has been in the game design industry for 20 years. His company, Treefrog eight halls about twice the size of those halls out there, its stacked full of booths, games Games, is an independent board game publisher with titles such as Age of Industry outlets, it’s just amazing,” Mr Wallace said.

- winner of the International Gamers Award Mr Wallace recommends designers do not for general strategy - and London. In 2011 get too attached to their games. If they are Treefrog will be releasing Ankh-Morpork, “rubbish”, bin them and move on.

Treefrog Games’ Martin Wallace discusses game design with enthusiasts at the Australian Games Expo in Januaryustralia Games Expo in January

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card & board strategy “Before I designed games worth playing, I had already designed maybe five or six games that were absolutely awful and went straight into the bin. It was a difficult lesson in game design,” Mr Wallace said.

Before starting Treefrog, the Manchester native was an avid gamer and experienced working for Games Workshop. His line of games are influenced by particular game styles he has identified over the years.

“There have been more people

walk on the moon than game designers who make a living by designing games.

“(I am) trying to combine the richness of the American style with a kind of cleanness and simplicity of what some people call the German style. I’m sure some people don’t like to use the term, but what I mean by that is El Grande, Settlers of Cattan, that’s certainly the style. (My games) have theme with simplicity,” he said.

CONTENTS publishers, distributors and designing his own games, Mr Wallace can fire off the numbers for trying to get a game out there.

“Let’s says you did design a game and you took it to Mayfair. The chances are they are only going to publish 5000 copies. Being a big company you would think it would be more, but their initial run may only be 10,000 copies. The first production of Settlers of Cattan was only 5000 copies and they thought they were lucky to put on those. So even in these companies you think are big, they don’t do big production runs. What happens it they put on a small production runs and then, if it seems like its going to sell a lot, then they will print more. They want a game that’s in demand. You always print under demand because unsold stock is killer,” he said.

“For a $60 game with a distribution price of around

Lottery ticket With so much competition, how can a game designer stand out form the crowd? Mr Wallace is somewhat pessismistic about how the process works.

“The way the world is going at the moment it’s like in the music industry. There are so many bands stepping up through Myspace and Facebook. But how do you stand out? It all comes down to there might be one that make sit big time. Is there a way you can guarantee you will make it? The answer is, no. It’s just like buying a lottery ticket. You just have to hope that other people play it and it gets a good buzz on Geek and you build on that,” Mr Walalce said.

So if someone is a game designer and are aiming to get a game published, how do you go about doing it?

“It is incredibly difficult to become a successful game designer. I’m sure someone said to me, ‘There have been more people walk on the moon than game designers who make a living by designing games.

There are very, very few game designers that actually make a living designing games. Even game people you think, ‘Wow they must be rolling in it,’ for example Al Moon, you would think ‘he must be making stacks of money, all these games of the year’. Not true. That guy was this close to having to go back to waiting tables.

Fortunately, Ticket to Ride won Game of the Year. If it had not been for that he’d been waiting tables, because he wasn’t making enough money.”

Gamers playtest the rules for Treefrog Games’ Ankh-Morpork at

Having gone through the process of approaching

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Print, profit and Paypal Martin Wallace discusses the costs and profit of game design Martin Wallace used wooden pieces to save money on some of his print runs.

money by selling them directly. So for $25 per unit means you can’t sell to distribution.”

“With any printing process you save more by printing volume. If you went to a printer with 500 units and you’d be looking at $20 per unit. It might cost you up to $100 per unit, it depends. With Treefrog Games we’ve used wooden game pieces. We didn’t use wooden pieces for aesthetic reasons, if you use wooden pieces you have a separate cost for the tool, but after that you just pay for the wood, you’re not paying for the length of the process. So doing shorter runs is more practical with wooden pieces,” Mr Wallace said.

To determine your final selling price, multiply your unit price by five or six to get your final selling price, Mr Wallace recommends.

“You’ve got to have a board and that’s got to be printed and that’s quite expensive.

You’ve got to have a box and you’ve got to have rules. That’s three things that need to be printed. If you then add cards and counters, that’s five things and immediately you’re price is going to rocket. So that’s why I used wooden pieces to actually keep the cost down so I can actually make it doable. For 1500 games its cost me about 10-12 pounds per unit. We were selling to shops who were making more money. We only made our

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“If you did produce a game for $20 you should be selling it for $100. If you go through the normal chain, shops get a 40 per cent discount, so a $100 game (you’ve lost) $60, the distributor gets another 20 per cent of that, so you’re making $20 on each game.

The shops are making more than you, but that’s just the way it is.”

Mr Wallace said that technology has made it easier for game designers to self-publish.

“Paypal is amazing. Paypal has transformed the way this economy works. Treefrog would not be here without Paypal. In the old days you would be sending a cheque and it would cost more to cash the cheque then the value of the cheque. (Paypal) is doable, that is something that is in your favour, certainly in the UK you can sell to anyone in the world and they can transfer money in a very reasonable way. “

$20, you’ll be getting a dollar a game. If you sell all 5000 games, you’ll be making $5000. If you can retire on $5000 please tell me how you can do that. You just can’t do that.

Don’t. You might get a holiday out of it but you’re just not going to make a living out of it.

“The only way you are really going to make real money is if you get really lucky and have something go completely and utterly perfect. There are very few games that have done it, Settlers is one.

“No one has any idea what game is going to be successful. No one has absolutely any idea. Carcassonne is incredibly successful.

Nobody knows what’s going to be successful. You could have a stunningly good game and it goes nowhere.”

Mr Wallace admits the lack of understanding about how some games become successful over others is daunting.

“Even if you’ve got a really good game, it’s really, really, really, really difficult to get the game published. It means, if you’re still interested in making games, you should be looking at it for your own personal interest and at home,” he said.

Mr Wallace said he makes money from game design solely because he publishes his own games.

“That’s how I manage to squeeze out a cash flow. Now there are a lot of people out there that think, ‘Okay, I’ve designed a great

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card & board strategy game, I can’t get anybody interested. I know, I’ll print 10,000 games myself, because it is such a good game that people will come to my door queuing up to buy this game’. This does not happen. There are many people around who use these games for loft insulation. It happens so many times.

“When you do design a game you think it’s great, you think it’s wonderful. It happens to these people because they don’t have a massive experience with the games market. Very often they might have played monopoly and they think their monopoly variant is better than monopoly and therefore it will sell better than monopoly. Well, no. That’s not the way it works,” he said.

“Iv’e been doing this for 20

years and I’m still poor. I’m incredibly poor.

Self-publishing is a real avenue of opportunity now, but prospective game designers should remain very careful in how they invest their money.

“I would say never better more than you can afford to lose. So the way to go is make 500 copies. Sell them on the internet. Do not do a big print run and expect to sell them. Because what these people usually do is, okay you’ve printed them but what do you do? You can’t sell them direct to shops because they’re not interested. So you have to go to distributors. Distributors will only take stuff if they think they can sell it. If you are a oneproduct-guy, that doesn’t usually fit their line. They like to have a line of games that can be shown on the shelf preferably with some continuity. They don’t want to deal with one person with one if they can have two games.

Not worth their time,” he said.

The internet has been both a boom and a bane for game designers. According to Mr Wallace, there are

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CONTENTS more people designing games now then ever before.

“There are so many games designers out there making games that (publishing) companies are inundated. And it actually takes quite a long time to actually sit down, read a set of rules, lay a game out and play it. So these companies, if they have 30 or 40 games to play, it’s quite a daunting thing to go through,” he said.

Mr Wallace said he is in a fortunate position as he got into the game industry when there wasn’t as much competition.

“I know all these guys personally; I know I can say, ‘Try my game’. Even with me, I’ve had companies take six months to a year to get back to me and say, ‘Actually we’ll pass on it’. So if you go to a company with a game you have to be prepared to be very, very patient.

“I suppose sometimes you just need a little bit of luck for someone to pick up the game, look at it and go, ‘Actually this looks quite good’.

There isn’t that much money in games, which Mr Wallace can personally attest to.

“Iv’e been doing this for 20 years and I’m still poor. I’m incredibly poor. I don’t even own my own house, that’s why I had to get married,” he said with a laugh.

“You have to be patient. I mean there are some people that get lucky overnight. I mean the guy that did Dominion.

There’s always some git that gets it right and makes a fortune. But that’s the exception rather then the rule. There are thousands of other people that have got nowhere.

“If you’re serious about doing it’s probably easier to think about self-publishing, but be very, very careful. And there’s so many people out there willing to offer advice, game advice, marketing advice. So ask people, talk to other people, get advice, make sure you know what you’re getting into. Generally, the nice thing about the game industry is that 99.9 per cent of the people in the industry are very nice people.”

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CUSTOM Carcassonne

Battlespace looks at modified fantasy rules for the classic board game The Carcassonne tile-based board game, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000, is a simple and effective game. Players take turns building a board through random tiles and attempt to score points through carefully selected tokens. While this simplicity has earned Carcassonne a number of awards and a strong international player following, the game’s vivid tiles lends themselves to more advanced rules.

A number of minor expansions have been released by the publishers, including new tiles, token and characters, but what if the rules were to be completley re-written and redeveloped with a grander game in mind?

What follows are rules for a fantasy-themed medieval construction and conquest board game based on the Carcossonne tile-based system. The size of the tiles can support most human sized models.

Overview

A board game of fantasy warfare using the Carcassonne river-expansion tile set. The aim is for each player to construct their cities, build their armies and lay siege to their opponent in order to win.

Preparation

Each player takes a turn to place a river tile until the river is fully completed. It must follow the rules for river placement.

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Each player then takes a turn to place a tile of their choice on the board. This must follow the Carcassonne rules for tile placement. A player can claim a city tile by placing a champion unit on a tile they have just placed. This continues until each player has placed six tiles. The player must have claimed at least one completed city using the six tiles or they are disqualified.

PlayinG the game

At the start of each turn players must: • Add up the total number of resource points they control on the game board and add it to their coffer (using the Carcassonne points board). A point is scored for every tile that is part of a completed city they control. A kingdom can have a maximum of 50 points.

• Draw an action card. A player can have a maximum of five cards in hand at any time.

Cards can be discarded and shuffled back into the deck.

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card & board strategy

CONTENTS move across a river unless there is a bridge.

An assassin can move two tiles per turn or five tiles by road.

Combat

Armies may attack enemy armies in adjourning tiles after all movement is complete.

The attacking army rolls on a D6 using its strength and toughness to determine if it has inflicted damage. A successful attack will reduce an army to half health.

An army already on half health is destroyed and removed from the game. If the defending army survives combat it has the opportunity to fight back, even during the opponents turn. An army can restore itself to full health when it stays inside a city for one turn with no adjourning opponent armies present.

A defending army attacked inside a completed city has a toughness of 6. Two opposing armies attacking each other inside a city do not gain any bonus.

An assassin cannot attack or be attacked by warrior, archer or elite armies. An assassin can only be attacked by wizards, champions or other assassins.

Certain armies have special abilities they can use once during the controlling player’s turn. These abilities are used in place of a normal attack. • Ranged attack: The army may attack a unit up to two tiles away. The tiles must

• Draw and place a land tile onto the board using the normal Carcassonne rules for tile placement. A player may choose to pay seven resource points to take five random tiles, select one for placement on board and return the other four to the tile pile. A player can pay an additional five points for each additional tile they want to place beyond the normal one tile.

The player can then move armies, engage in combat and use special abilities.

Cities and armies

A completed city which has been claimed by a player provides resource points and also allows for the construction of armies.

Armies require resource points to be built and have varying statistics and special abilities: Cost Warrior army 3 Archer army 5 Elite army 10 Bombard 10 Champion 15 Wizard 15

Assassin

15

S 3 3 5 6 6 3

7

T 4 2 5 2 6 3

2

Special abilities Ranged attack Bombard Call to arms Spell caster

Assassinate

MOVEMENT

Only one army can occupy a tile at any time. If an army is built in a city which has a unit in every tile, then it may be placed in any adjourning tile to the city. Newly built units cannot move or attack this turn.

Each army can be moved once per turn. An army can only be moved one tile, unless they are on a road, in which case they can move up to three road tiles. An army travelling on a road cannot leave the road until the following turn. Armies cannot

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card & board strategy be in a straight line from any tile adjourning the army.

They cannot be attacked back except by armies with the ranged attack ability.

• Call to arms: Select an attacking or defending army you control. They may re-roll one attacking or defending dice roll that turn.

• Spell caster: A wizard may cast one of their spells.

• Assassinate: An assassin can attempt to kill a wizard, champion or bombard in an adjourning tile.

Roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3 they destroy their target, regardless of their health. On a roll of 6 the assassin is caught and destroyed.

• Bombard: Attack an opposing army in a city within two tiles of the bombard and ignore the city defence level.

Spells

A mage with the spell caster ability may cats one of the following spells each turn.

• Fireball: Select any enemy army up to two

CONTENTS

adjourning tiles in a straight line and roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3 the unit is hit and reduced to half health.

Any unit already on half health is destroyed.

• Shining light: Roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3 any friendly units within two tiles of the wizard are restored to full health.

• Teleport: Select the wizard or any army within two tiles of the wizard. Choose a tile within three adjourning tiles of the spell caster in a straight line and does not have a unit on it and roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 the wizard or army is moved to that tile. On a roll of 6 the selected army or wizard is destroyed.

• Rust: Select an opposing army within two tiles and roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3 the army’s toughness is reduced to 2.

Action cards

• Advanced Construction Draw five tiles during the draw phase. Place one of the tiles on the board and return the other four. This card must be played immediately.

• Bumper crop: Gain 1D6 resources. This card must be played immediately.

• Treason: Lose 1D6 worth of resources.

Opposing players roll to determine who gains all the resources. This card must be played immediately.

• Theft: Select an opposing player. Roll a D6. On a 1-4 they lose D6 worth of resources and you gain that many resources. This card must be played immediately.

• Sabotage: After an opposing player has drawn a tile but before it has been placed, force the player to

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return the tile and select a new one.

• Betrayal: Select an opposing assassin. Pay 8 resources and roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 the assassin switches to your side. On a roll of 5-6 the assassin remains with his kingdom and they gain the 8 resources.

• Traitor at the gates: Select an opposing army inside a city. For the rest of that turn the army does not gain the defensive bonus for being inside a city • Tournament: If you and at least one opposing kingdom have a champion you can choose to host a tournament. Select one of your champions. All opposing players can choose one of their champions to fight your champion. Starting with your champion as the attacker, in clockwise fashion take it in turns to fight two rounds of combat between champions.

If no champion is destroyed then the tournament host attacks the next opponent’s champion. If your champion is destroyed the opposing player must take on any remaining challengers until all champions have

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had a chance to fight. The remaining champion is the winner of the tournament and gains 15 resources.

• Black magic: Something has gone wrong in the wizards tower.

Select any wizards tower and roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 all armies on or adjourning the tower must take a strength 4 hit. If they are hurt by the magical blast the army is automatically destroyed, regardless of their health. This card must be played immediately.

• Ambush: If you so choose, pay 5 resources and select an opposing army on a road. The army is hit with a strength 4 hit.

• Magical relic: Rumours have spread of the appearance of a magical relic. Select a tile with no army present within two tiles and place a relic token. If no such tile exists the relic is destroyed. When a wizard, assassin or champion moves to the tile they may search for the relic. Roll a D6. In the first turn the relic is found on a 5+, in the following turn on a 4+, in the following turn on a 3+ and so on until it is discovered. When returned to a keep the relic generates an extra seven resources per turn for that kingdom. Relic’s can also use the call to arms special ability once per turn on an army in an adjourning tile.

Relics may be captured by opposing armies.

• Monster on the loose: An ogre (S5T5) emerges to rampage the countryside from its hidden lair. Place an ogre army onto any tile at least two tiles away from any other army. If no such placement exists then the ogres are destroyed. The ogre will immediately attack any army that enters an adjourning tile. A kingdom gains 10 resources if it successful destroys the ogre.

• Armageddon: A wizard has pierced the veil of reality and learnt the power of Armageddon. Roll a D6. On a roll of 1-2 all friendly and enemy armies within two tiles of the wizard are destroyed. On a roll of 6 the wizard is destroyed.

• Shadow cloak - magic item: A deadly cloak of shadows. A champion or wizard can use it to move in the same was as an assassin this turn. They cannot be attacked by elite, warrior or archer armies.

The army also gains the assassinate special ability for this turn.

• Amulet of arrow-warding- magic item: May be used after an enemy army has declared a ranged attack on one of your armies. The arrows fail to penetrate the amulets powers.

• Magical armour- magic item: The magical armour can be sacrificed to prevent an army’s loss of health caused by combat or spells.

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Bughouse mini-Shuuro RULES

by Alessio Cavatore, Riverhorse Games

Team A

Bughouse chess A popular chess variant played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two. Normal chess rules apply, except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board, who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board.

Intro As I promised in the rules leaflet of Turanga, I am going to spend a few words about how to play ‘Bughouse Mini-Shuuro’ with a box of Shuuro and a box of Turanga.

Players Bughouse Mini-Shuuro is a game for four players, organised into two teams: team A and team B.

Red Army (Team A)

Team B

Blue Army (Team B)

one using Red pieces and one using Blue pieces.

Pick these armies using the tournament limits for Mini-Shuuro – a maximum total of 250 points, to be spent on: 1 King, 0-2 Queens, 0-3 Rooks, 0-4 Bishops, 0-4 Knights, 0-6 Pawns.

So, at the end, Team A will have a Red army and a Blue Army, and so will team B. Teams take position The two players from each team sit side by side on the same side of the table, in front of one of the Mini-Shuuro boards.

Boards Set-up Fold the Shuuro board to a quarter, as for Mini-Shuuro. Then, just next to it, form another Mini-Shuuro board by assembling the four tiles from Turanga, using of course Place plinths The players place two plinths on each the reverse side. board, as normal for a game of MiniShuuro.

Armies Then each team secretly picks two armies,

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Blue Army (Team A)

Red Army (Team B)

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Bughouse mini-Shuuro RULES

by Alessio Cavatore, Riverhorse Games

Team A Game on!

Each player engages the player in front in a normal game of mini-Shuuro, with the following additional rules: 1) When you take an enemy piece, give it to your teammate, placing it behind his base-line (the first row). These pieces constitute his ‘reinforcements’.

So, for example, Blue player of team B takes a Red bishop from his opponent.

He then immediately places it behind the Red army of his teammate, so the bishop is now a reinforcement piece for his Team B’s Red army.

2) When it is your turn to move, you can either move normally or deploy a reinforcement piece anywhere you like in any empty square of your base-line (first row). If the base-line is full, you must place the piece in an empty space in the second row. If the second row is also full, the piece can go in an empty square of the third row. This follows all the normal deployment rules. This can also be done when under check, as long as the newly deployed piece is used to shield the King.

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Note that pawns cannot be placed on the first row and must be placed on an empty square in your second row (or third…), as usual in deployment.

They can then make a single or double move the first time they’re moved, as normal.

Red Army (Team A)

vs

Team B

Blue Army (Team B)

3) The game ends immediately when one player loses the game or surrenders, and his team loses.

Timed games (highly recommended) This game works much better with chess clocks. If you don’t use them, then set a maximum amount of time per move (no waiting forever for reinforcements!). If you use chess clocks, place one clock on the outside of each board, facing inside, so that all players can see both clocks. If one player runs out of time, he loses the game (and so does his team!).

Communication Differently from Turanga, you can talk to you teammate as much as you like, normally to ask for a specific reinforcement, but remember the time limit!

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Blue Army (Team A)

Red Army (Team B)

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INCOMING! products

CONTENTS Quality historical miniatures A range of historical miniatures are available from Essex Miniatures Australia. Miniatures ranges include 15mm and 25mm, as well as stock from Front Rank Figures, Redoubt Enterprises, Brittania, Langston Miniatures, Tin Soldier Figurines and others. Agents for HCH Figures, including readypainted 25/28mm figures for wargamers or collectors.

Discover history by playing it Operation Squad World War Two, available from Warlord Games, allows you to simulate heroic infantry battles.

The rules include army lists covering Americans, british, Russians and Germans.

From the Red Devils to the Fallschirmjager, from the rangers to the Commandos you’ll find a total of 12 armies inside.

Each weapon has been classified and given a points value so as to offer a gaming experience that is both balanced and historically accurate. Tables have been reduced to a minimum and the whole system is based on the addition and subtraction of six-sided dice.

A Call to Arms The popular space fleet combat miniatures game, A Call to Arms is back, in a brand new guise – drawn from the detailed background of the Fading Suns RPG, A Call to Arms: Noble Armada is a space combat game involving fleets drawn from the Royal Houses. This hardback rulebook includes full fleet lists for the five main Royal Houses, new rules for boarding actions, fighters, scenarios, and a complete campaign. Available from Mongoose Publishing.

Scif-fi rules For beginners and advanced players, the MERCS Rule Book from MERCS Miniatures is extremely easy to read, with in-game examples, clearly labeled high resolution photos, and sidebars for expanded explanations on difficult concepts. Created to make teaching and looking up questions easier, the quick reference sidebar provides an easy way to find the answers you’re looking for fast! 176 four colour pages on 157 gsm matte art paper.

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Growing market needs attention Australian gamers needs to be taken more seriously by international game companies, according to Treefrog Games owner Martin Wallace.

Speaking to Australian Games Expo convenor, Steve Rohan-Jones at Australia’s largets gaming event in January, Mr Wallace said the Australian market needs to be taken into account by US and European companies.

certainly from Treefrog’s point of view we have found it worthwhile attending here and hope to continue having a presence here in some form to continue growing the brand here.”

Treefrog Games publicly playtested a game based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of novels, called Ankh-Morpork, at the Canberra event.

“It’s a long way from Europe and America so a lot of people discount the Australian game market and think its just too small to bother with, but I’ve seen the number of people here and travelling to the various cities and the number of game shops and outlets and bookshops that sell Eurogames,” Mr Wallace said.

“Before this show no one knew we were going to publish it. It had only been made public knowledge at this show.

So the people who have had a chance to play the game were the first people in the world to try this game in a public forum, apart form play testers. And the reception has been very good. Pretty much everyone who’s played it has enjoyed it,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s a market that can be so easily dismissed now. It’s growing, it is becoming more popular. So

Mr Wallace said he likes to research history before starting games and has begun looking into the

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settlement of Australia for a potential future game.

“As it happens, I have been picking up some books on Australian history. So one of the things I would like to do is a game about the settlement of Australia, as a proper treatment, not as a family game but more as a gamer’s game. As far as I know I don’t think it’s been done yet,” he said.

“The weather is lovely, the people are really nice, I think some of the friendliest people at any show in the world.”

Mr Wallace said he had a special moment when a girl came up to him after his presentation on game design with some positive feedback.

“She said, ‘That was cool, I want to be a game designer when I grow up’, “I just said, train to be a doctor first,” he said with a laugh.

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Victory point secures trip to Germany A single victory point in the Settlers of Cattan finals “It was competitive, it was a fun final and it was has booked a ticket to Germany for an Australian quite thrilling to win the finals that way with a Games Expo (AGE) competitior. victory point.

Jeff Davies and Daniel Geromboux are heading to Germany after respectively winning the Settlers of Cattan and Carcassonne championships.

Australian National Settlers of Cattan championship winner, Jeff Davies has been playing in the competition for five years. He has made the semi-finals every year and this is his second competition win.

“There’s always an excellent spirit in all the games I’ve played in. Its competitive, you come up against some very talented and highly skilled players, but overall its been a lot of fun every year.”

Mr Davies said the final game was competitive.

Settlers of Cattan competitors at the Australian Games Expo

“I was very fortunate in the final turn I was able to buy a victory point to win the final. Had I not been able to do that Simon would have won in the next two turns, I think.

The Australian champions will attend the World Championships in Germany in October.

In all, 61 competitors played Settlers of Cattan, 32 for Carcassonne and 32 for Dominion.

AGE organiser Charles Bishop said that he was impressed by the turnout for the first-year-run Dominion game.

Mr Bishop said that the event would continue to grow and develop, with plans for expanding the newly launched and highly popular games library, screen presentations, more space for open games and options for attracting small international manufacturers.

“I think we’ve found a model to attract smaller game manufacturers, like Valley Games and Stronghold. They’re not here bcause of the cost of coming to Australia. We think we’ve found a way to make it cost neutral,” he said.

Boardgame gamble wins big Dice Town was named best Inernational Game of 2010

by Boardgames Australia at the Australian Games Expo in January.

Dice town is a “fast and clever game” for two-tofive players from Asmodee Editions. The game uses ‘poker dice’ and with “a little luck, a hint of bluff and some good tactics” players can become the town’s richest citizen.

Boardgames Australia’s Richard Vickery said the game

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won the award as it involved a range of interaction between players.

“It has a lot of give and take, a lot of interaction. A bit of bluff, poker hand, secrecy,” Mr Vickerey said.

Make’n’Break Compact was awarded the Best Australian Game of the year. Designed by brothers Andrew and Jack Lawson, Make’n’Break Compact is a new version of the game game Make’n’Break. The game is a “mad rush” to build complex structures from coloured wooden 88

blocks according to the plan shown on a card that you get at start of your turn. Make’n’Break Compact involves sequencing and planning, hand-eye co-ordination, and the ability to stay calm under pressure.

Mr Vickerey said that Boardgames Australia’s awards were an essential part of their “three-pronged” promoting games to the public by enocuraging retailers and parents think about quality games as an alternative to other forms of entertainment.

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