Hail and Greetings!
Nothing too major, just a little bit of fluff fiction to go with the campaign that we've finally managed to start. We're still knocking together the nuts and bolts, but we've had our first battle!
For the moments, what we've done is put together a 1500-point army, let them have at it, and what we have left is our starting draft for our campaign army. We're sticking to these lists, but we can add reinforcements via a little resource mechanic. This part was Joe's idea, not mine, but he allowed me to share it. Basically, the objective markers in out battles will produce Magestone. Whichever player controls an objective after a round (a round defined as all players taking a turn each) gets one Magestone, and whoever controls an objective at the end of the game gets 1d6 Magestone. Magestone can be kept or spent for various perks. Right now it's just reinforcements, with the following rate:
1 yellow/Weak figure = 1 Magestone
1 blue/Standard figure = 2 Magestone
1 red/Strong figure = 3 Magestone
1 Unique figure = 4 Magestone.
Now in out first battle I managed to smack some of his dudes pretty good and got off light in return, but he manged to get 10 Magestones to my 5, so he can buy new and/or better dudes. We'll see what tricks he can come up with!
Now on with the fluff:
Commander Wulfe Luer looked at his bandaged arm with an irritated look. "We get all the boys and girls together to have a good loot and scoot, and what do we get?" he groused. "A handful of Magestone and some flashburns!" The warlord looked over his encampment, full of heavily-armed Black Powder mercenaries. At least casualties were light, quite a feat for a full-on clash of warbands. Luer's Raiders dished out some pain to Amotep-Rah and his Atlanteans in exchange, mauling his legionnaires and trashing a golem or two.
A Dwarven Hammerskald marched up to Wulfe. "My squad is rearing to go on your say-so!" he declared. The warlord shook his head. "Nah, we go ahead and rest a bit tonight, wait for the scout's report on what that wizard is up to," he replied." The Hammerskald grimaced, protesting, "But those damned Atlanteans need some more lead and axes! We saw them off good and proper, lets pick a few more off and send Rah packing!"
Wulfe raised a placating hand. "We gave them what-for, no argument, but whatever he nabbed today seemed to satisfy him. He's not a normal Magus; he doesn't spend his soldiers lightly. I'm willing to bet that all in all, he made a fair bargain today." "All the more reason to jump on him and kick him in the robes, Commander!" The warlord smiled, a predator's smile full of teeth. "Don't worry, we'll get him again. This little party's just getting started!"
And that's all for now. Here's to new battles ahead. All Ur Clicky Base Are Belong To Us!
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Fluffy, But Crunchy, pt. 2
Hail and Greetings once again! I have some more location concepts for my Mage Knight campaign. It's still very much flying by the seat of my pants, but at least its something.
Serena, City of Mercenaries: A wretched hive of scum and villainy. The Land has been embroiled in war for one reason or another, one area or another, since time immemorial. As much as proud Khamsin would like to think themselves different for making the mercenary an accepted tradesman, there are others where such attitudes are commonplace and even respected, venerable traditions. Serena, an otherwise unremarkable city not quite under the thumb of Atlantis or the other powers, is a haven for sell-swords, freelancers, and recently, hired guns. The city leaders allow many warbands to use Serena as a place to rest, rearm, and hunt new contracts. While this makes for a boisterous place, things are generally kept under control by virtue of the town being under a permanent and strictly enforced flag of truce. You can brawl with the whoresons in the next barracks over, but steel and spell will see you and probably your outfit dumped outside the city gates, with your gear going to the city's coffers for their troubles.
One notable thing about Serena is the city marketplace. This market is home a dizzying variety of goods and services of all kinds, from magical trinkets and technological gadgetry, to rare and wondrous devices of great power. Whether its because of the cosmopolitan nature of the city's transient clients, or those same clients bringing loot and plunder from far and wide back to sale here, it no longer matters. Need some potions, a new gun, or a staff that can summon a dragon to fry things that you don't like with mighty lightning bolts?
Crunch: This really isn't so much a place for special combat rules or scenarios than a place to park a warband for a bit for some bennies. Ideas include getting reinforcements (something like 2d6 x 10 points) for every complete turn an army stays at this location, plus gaining an item or relic (valued at d6x10 points) for every two turns an army stays. Multiple players can have an army here, but the permanent truce means no big battles but maybe something like a 100 point bar brawl with no items or uniques might be fun.
Serena, City of Mercenaries: A wretched hive of scum and villainy. The Land has been embroiled in war for one reason or another, one area or another, since time immemorial. As much as proud Khamsin would like to think themselves different for making the mercenary an accepted tradesman, there are others where such attitudes are commonplace and even respected, venerable traditions. Serena, an otherwise unremarkable city not quite under the thumb of Atlantis or the other powers, is a haven for sell-swords, freelancers, and recently, hired guns. The city leaders allow many warbands to use Serena as a place to rest, rearm, and hunt new contracts. While this makes for a boisterous place, things are generally kept under control by virtue of the town being under a permanent and strictly enforced flag of truce. You can brawl with the whoresons in the next barracks over, but steel and spell will see you and probably your outfit dumped outside the city gates, with your gear going to the city's coffers for their troubles.
One notable thing about Serena is the city marketplace. This market is home a dizzying variety of goods and services of all kinds, from magical trinkets and technological gadgetry, to rare and wondrous devices of great power. Whether its because of the cosmopolitan nature of the city's transient clients, or those same clients bringing loot and plunder from far and wide back to sale here, it no longer matters. Need some potions, a new gun, or a staff that can summon a dragon to fry things that you don't like with mighty lightning bolts?
Crunch: This really isn't so much a place for special combat rules or scenarios than a place to park a warband for a bit for some bennies. Ideas include getting reinforcements (something like 2d6 x 10 points) for every complete turn an army stays at this location, plus gaining an item or relic (valued at d6x10 points) for every two turns an army stays. Multiple players can have an army here, but the permanent truce means no big battles but maybe something like a 100 point bar brawl with no items or uniques might be fun.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Fluffy, But Crunchy pt. 1
Hail and Greetings!
It is finally time to start throwing out the ideas for my Mage Knight group's campaign. It's supposed to be a "your dudes" focused side-canon sort of affair. The idea is intended to both allow players to do their own thing without a lot of the main canon's baggage, and return Mage Knight to its original roots as a game of individual warlords and petty monarchs duking it out without having to adhere too closely to mono-faction forces. It's your army, there are many like but this one is yours.
There are still some nut-and-bolts crunch details for the overall structure, but I at least have the concept for the storyline itself and some individual scenario ideas ready to go. So, without further ado:
Fallen Empires
It's happened. The Apocalypse Dragon has awakened, and spearheaded a wave of darkness and destructed across the Land. Desperate alliances, mighty heroes, and more arose to fight off the ravenous beast and the dread powers it serves before all was lost. A climactic showdown near the shining, soaring capitol of Atlantis finally stopped the Tu'raj in their tracks, and the Dragon itself was seemingly slain. This came at great cost, as much of the city itself has returned to earth, and the people and power it commanded now fractured, possibly beyond all hope of repair.
As ever, there is opportunity in chaos. With the Empire on its deathbed, and many of its rival powers also grievously damaged in the Apocalypse's wake, many leaders, from kings to wizards to bandit chiefs, are staking their claims and gathering their forces in bids for power and freedom. Alliances, betrayals, pacts, and feuds now run across the Land in shifting tides of wildness and war.
These are but a handful of the places that have become battlegrounds. These are but a few of the groups and their leaders vying for control. Their motivations are many, from noble ideals of protection and service, to greed and aspirations of power, to simple lusting for blood and base pleasures.
But not all is as it seems, and what was fallen may well rise once more...
TL; DR: In the grim darkness of the clicky game, there is only war.
Regions: These are the places where players actually play (not sure if deep or stupid). Each region has a high concept, and ideas like what sort of terrain or buildings are ideal, and special rules to work with. The crunchy parts are fairly free and easy, since this is supposed to be a "fun" campaign and there's going to be some making it up as we go along. We're not going to be using the tiered campaign structure from Mage Knight Conquest or restricted campaign armies. Their is some final gave-and-take on whether or not there will be some sort of map and if and when an eventual victor would be declared (constantly conflicting work schedules are not fun). For now, I''m writing up the basics on two, a "home base" region designed for a particular player and his favored factions, and a "neutral" region designed to do an interesting gimmick.
The Shrouded Manse (2Spooky4U): Once a fortified estate for a prosperous lord, it fell long ago to the honeyed whispers of the Sect. Now a Necropolis in miniature (ha!), it has become a grim place and serves as a hub and staging area for the Dark Crusade. Warbands sally forth intent on making a name for themselves in bloody sacraments of death and violence, in the hopes of pleasing their dark masters and gaining ever more power. Worse still, there is hushed voices on the wind that within this cursed place is a harbor for the agents of the Tur'aj, and there may well be a resurgence in the making...
Graveyards, desecrated tombs, and dark altars are the order of the day for games here. The "Darkness" and "Smoke and Fog" would do well to add to the idea of pitched battles amidst the gloom here. Lots of small, broken scatter terrain to impede coordination and movement for the unwary.
The Forted Ruins (Cityfight, Mage Knight style): As can be expected in a realm were peace only rested fitfully between long and destructive conflict, there are many cities now lying in ruins. This is such place, different only in its great age. Its name and builders long lost in the mists of time, it is valued only as a strategic strongpoint and a ready supply of building stone. Its once orderly streets and building have become a labyrinth of half-built fortresses, fieldworks, and killing grounds. However, many armies and adventurers have come to and dwelt here, and there may well be a cache of ready arms or even artifacts of great power hidden away amidst the time-worn stones.
Wrecked buildings, all the wrecked buildings! Throw out the usual terrain rules and just cover the board in stuff. It would be best if terrain features are kept 2 inches apart or so, unless you're making one big building or fortress out of many small parts. Make sure everybody is aware and agree on what each terrain piece does. Keep games small (500 points max) to keep things from bogging down too much, until and unless you think you're ready for absolutely insane melees. Consider having each starting zone include a building, and use agreed-on terrain features as objectives instead of the standard tokens, and maybe both sides setting traps using Dungeons chests.
Well, that's it for now! Expect more to follow, and if you have your own ideas, don't be afraid to share them. All your clicky base are belong to us!
It is finally time to start throwing out the ideas for my Mage Knight group's campaign. It's supposed to be a "your dudes" focused side-canon sort of affair. The idea is intended to both allow players to do their own thing without a lot of the main canon's baggage, and return Mage Knight to its original roots as a game of individual warlords and petty monarchs duking it out without having to adhere too closely to mono-faction forces. It's your army, there are many like but this one is yours.
There are still some nut-and-bolts crunch details for the overall structure, but I at least have the concept for the storyline itself and some individual scenario ideas ready to go. So, without further ado:
Fallen Empires
It's happened. The Apocalypse Dragon has awakened, and spearheaded a wave of darkness and destructed across the Land. Desperate alliances, mighty heroes, and more arose to fight off the ravenous beast and the dread powers it serves before all was lost. A climactic showdown near the shining, soaring capitol of Atlantis finally stopped the Tu'raj in their tracks, and the Dragon itself was seemingly slain. This came at great cost, as much of the city itself has returned to earth, and the people and power it commanded now fractured, possibly beyond all hope of repair.
As ever, there is opportunity in chaos. With the Empire on its deathbed, and many of its rival powers also grievously damaged in the Apocalypse's wake, many leaders, from kings to wizards to bandit chiefs, are staking their claims and gathering their forces in bids for power and freedom. Alliances, betrayals, pacts, and feuds now run across the Land in shifting tides of wildness and war.
These are but a handful of the places that have become battlegrounds. These are but a few of the groups and their leaders vying for control. Their motivations are many, from noble ideals of protection and service, to greed and aspirations of power, to simple lusting for blood and base pleasures.
But not all is as it seems, and what was fallen may well rise once more...
TL; DR: In the grim darkness of the clicky game, there is only war.
Regions: These are the places where players actually play (not sure if deep or stupid). Each region has a high concept, and ideas like what sort of terrain or buildings are ideal, and special rules to work with. The crunchy parts are fairly free and easy, since this is supposed to be a "fun" campaign and there's going to be some making it up as we go along. We're not going to be using the tiered campaign structure from Mage Knight Conquest or restricted campaign armies. Their is some final gave-and-take on whether or not there will be some sort of map and if and when an eventual victor would be declared (constantly conflicting work schedules are not fun). For now, I''m writing up the basics on two, a "home base" region designed for a particular player and his favored factions, and a "neutral" region designed to do an interesting gimmick.
The Shrouded Manse (2Spooky4U): Once a fortified estate for a prosperous lord, it fell long ago to the honeyed whispers of the Sect. Now a Necropolis in miniature (ha!), it has become a grim place and serves as a hub and staging area for the Dark Crusade. Warbands sally forth intent on making a name for themselves in bloody sacraments of death and violence, in the hopes of pleasing their dark masters and gaining ever more power. Worse still, there is hushed voices on the wind that within this cursed place is a harbor for the agents of the Tur'aj, and there may well be a resurgence in the making...
Graveyards, desecrated tombs, and dark altars are the order of the day for games here. The "Darkness" and "Smoke and Fog" would do well to add to the idea of pitched battles amidst the gloom here. Lots of small, broken scatter terrain to impede coordination and movement for the unwary.
The Forted Ruins (Cityfight, Mage Knight style): As can be expected in a realm were peace only rested fitfully between long and destructive conflict, there are many cities now lying in ruins. This is such place, different only in its great age. Its name and builders long lost in the mists of time, it is valued only as a strategic strongpoint and a ready supply of building stone. Its once orderly streets and building have become a labyrinth of half-built fortresses, fieldworks, and killing grounds. However, many armies and adventurers have come to and dwelt here, and there may well be a cache of ready arms or even artifacts of great power hidden away amidst the time-worn stones.
Wrecked buildings, all the wrecked buildings! Throw out the usual terrain rules and just cover the board in stuff. It would be best if terrain features are kept 2 inches apart or so, unless you're making one big building or fortress out of many small parts. Make sure everybody is aware and agree on what each terrain piece does. Keep games small (500 points max) to keep things from bogging down too much, until and unless you think you're ready for absolutely insane melees. Consider having each starting zone include a building, and use agreed-on terrain features as objectives instead of the standard tokens, and maybe both sides setting traps using Dungeons chests.
Well, that's it for now! Expect more to follow, and if you have your own ideas, don't be afraid to share them. All your clicky base are belong to us!
Friday, May 10, 2019
On the House
Hello again!
After getting all the cobwebs off, it's time to start rambling along about my favorite miniatures game, Mage Knight. Tonight, I'm going to go ahead and lay out some of the 'crunch' groundwork for a campaign my group and I are cooking. This isn't going to be very deep; just some of the house rules that we've been running under and some of the basic concepts for scenario rules.
Confirmed House Rules: These are house rules that we've been playing under and decided to let stick around. They deviate from the official rule set, but sticks enough to the spirit of things and doesn't break the game in any meaningful way.
Successor States: Each "1.0" faction is paired up with its "2.0" counterpart and count as the same faction for any and all gameplay purposes. The pairs are noted as 1.0/2.0.
Atlantis Guild/Atlantean Empire
Black Powder Rebels/Black Powder Revolutionaries
Elemental League/Elemental Freeholds
Knights Immortal/Elven Lords
Necropolis Sect/Dark Crusaders
Orc Raiders/Orc Khans
Mage Spawn, Heroes, Draconum, Shyft, Solonavi, and Edgefest did not change names or symbols and don't need any revision for the purposes of the this rule.
Share the Loot: 1.0 uniques (including Heroes and LE figures) are allowed to use items and relics, so long as they meet the requirements. The combined factions rule applies here, so if you want to stick a relic that requires the wielder to be part the Atlantean Empire faction on an Atlantis Guild figure you can. All other requirements still apply. No spellbook for that Magus, sorry.
Old Evil is the Best Evil: Our group runs the 1.0 version of Necromancy. Allowing it to be the more reliable version hasn't really skewed our games, and allowing the shambling waves of medieval dead to do their thing is a bit more fun.
Uniquely Terrifying: The Terrify special ability does not affect any unique figures, including 1.0 and LE figures, as well as Titans and MDFs. Put very simply, Terrify not scaring a 20-point 1st level scrub but paralyzing a 201-point Draconum--or a 500-point tank--is ridiculous, especially since there were no Heroes in the 2.0 release. This revision allows Terrify to do its job--scaring the crap out of the rank-and-file--without being overpowered.
Proposed House Rules: The following rules are still the experimental stage, I'm working out the details and awaiting group approval.
Adventuring Detachments: In a Conquest game, a player may use an adventuring company card for up to 25% of his army. This 'detachment' must be recorded and agreed upon before the start of the game. All other rules for adventuring companies still apply; the cost of the card is applied to that 25% of the build total, cohorts, etc. Mulitple detachments may be taken for every 500 points after the first 1000 points of the game's build total, up to a total of 3 (1000 point total may have 1, 1500 may have 2, 2000 and more may have 3), with each detachment's build total being no more than 25% of the army's build total. The idea is to try some of the ideas behind adventuring companies to come out and play in the big games, but not to the point of totally wrecking the game.
Home Game Advantage: The first crunchy bit of the campaign in the works. If a battle occurs in a particular player's 'home base,' then that player may choose a location domain card and a weather, catastrophe, or faith domain card for this battle. The invading player can choose any domain card as normal, except location domain cards and domain cards that would cancel either domain card the defender player is using. The idea is that this battle is going on at the defending player's greatest (and probably last) stronghold, and so gets an extra bit of help in their time of greatest need.
And there you have it. Comments and feedback are welcome. Please keep in mind that these are intended for 'friendly' games and not meant for cutthroat munchkinry or other foolishness.
After getting all the cobwebs off, it's time to start rambling along about my favorite miniatures game, Mage Knight. Tonight, I'm going to go ahead and lay out some of the 'crunch' groundwork for a campaign my group and I are cooking. This isn't going to be very deep; just some of the house rules that we've been running under and some of the basic concepts for scenario rules.
Confirmed House Rules: These are house rules that we've been playing under and decided to let stick around. They deviate from the official rule set, but sticks enough to the spirit of things and doesn't break the game in any meaningful way.
Successor States: Each "1.0" faction is paired up with its "2.0" counterpart and count as the same faction for any and all gameplay purposes. The pairs are noted as 1.0/2.0.
Atlantis Guild/Atlantean Empire
Black Powder Rebels/Black Powder Revolutionaries
Elemental League/Elemental Freeholds
Knights Immortal/Elven Lords
Necropolis Sect/Dark Crusaders
Orc Raiders/Orc Khans
Mage Spawn, Heroes, Draconum, Shyft, Solonavi, and Edgefest did not change names or symbols and don't need any revision for the purposes of the this rule.
Share the Loot: 1.0 uniques (including Heroes and LE figures) are allowed to use items and relics, so long as they meet the requirements. The combined factions rule applies here, so if you want to stick a relic that requires the wielder to be part the Atlantean Empire faction on an Atlantis Guild figure you can. All other requirements still apply. No spellbook for that Magus, sorry.
Old Evil is the Best Evil: Our group runs the 1.0 version of Necromancy. Allowing it to be the more reliable version hasn't really skewed our games, and allowing the shambling waves of medieval dead to do their thing is a bit more fun.
Uniquely Terrifying: The Terrify special ability does not affect any unique figures, including 1.0 and LE figures, as well as Titans and MDFs. Put very simply, Terrify not scaring a 20-point 1st level scrub but paralyzing a 201-point Draconum--or a 500-point tank--is ridiculous, especially since there were no Heroes in the 2.0 release. This revision allows Terrify to do its job--scaring the crap out of the rank-and-file--without being overpowered.
Proposed House Rules: The following rules are still the experimental stage, I'm working out the details and awaiting group approval.
Adventuring Detachments: In a Conquest game, a player may use an adventuring company card for up to 25% of his army. This 'detachment' must be recorded and agreed upon before the start of the game. All other rules for adventuring companies still apply; the cost of the card is applied to that 25% of the build total, cohorts, etc. Mulitple detachments may be taken for every 500 points after the first 1000 points of the game's build total, up to a total of 3 (1000 point total may have 1, 1500 may have 2, 2000 and more may have 3), with each detachment's build total being no more than 25% of the army's build total. The idea is to try some of the ideas behind adventuring companies to come out and play in the big games, but not to the point of totally wrecking the game.
Home Game Advantage: The first crunchy bit of the campaign in the works. If a battle occurs in a particular player's 'home base,' then that player may choose a location domain card and a weather, catastrophe, or faith domain card for this battle. The invading player can choose any domain card as normal, except location domain cards and domain cards that would cancel either domain card the defender player is using. The idea is that this battle is going on at the defending player's greatest (and probably last) stronghold, and so gets an extra bit of help in their time of greatest need.
And there you have it. Comments and feedback are welcome. Please keep in mind that these are intended for 'friendly' games and not meant for cutthroat munchkinry or other foolishness.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Meet the New Old Boss.
Hail and Greetings once again!
While my group and I are working out of the details of the campaign being put together, I decided that it was time to talk a bit about Mage Knight 2.0 and the "totally shiny and new factions we swear" that came about when it was released. Mostly I need to scratch the scribbling itch without letting the cat out of the bag just yet.
Anyway, here we go:
Mage Knight 2.0 was a whole new incarnation of Mage Knight. Maybe they were going for a block format, maybe not. I've ranted enough about that anyways. Everybody got updated and renamed. I'm gonna try to be concise about how they worked now, but expect gibbering insanity anyway.
On subfactions: Yeah, now we had subfactions, too. Basically they acted as a permanent special ability and usually ran along a theme of sorts, i.e. "wizarding school of mindbullets and killbots," or "gun ninjas," or "I'm an abomination and I'm coming to your house after school!" Some were useful, some were sorta just there, and some were close to broken. Most of the big boys stated off with two, and everybody got one or more as time went on, including Mage Spawn (lolwut?).
Atlantean Empire: Same Wizard Rome, only now a muggle is officially in charge (and the Babylon 5 Bathrobe Brigade have their jimmies a-rustled about it). Getting its crap mostly together, but lots of Byzantine-style intrigue is going on and openly (to us) messing things up. Still have all the cool magitek killbots of doom, plus the base set gave out significantly more badass versions of their old mooks, trading the lighting guns for mortars. Oddly enough they lost two of their big tricks (Magic Levitation and Magic Enhancement) but gained some staying power. Later sets gave us kung-fu wizards, Gauls, grenade launchers, and MOAR KILLBOTS.
Black Powder Revolution: "Cool we've won, now what?" Thanks to winning pretty big before the Edition Change of Annoying Doom, the not-Rebel Alliance have managed to become nation-states in their own right. Their base set mooks were also mostly improvements, bringing in new goodies like dwarven mechanics that come at you with blowtorches and totally-not-Warjacks-we-swear. Odd decisions include getting clearly ranged figures classified as melee troops and taking an important character (Blackwyn) and giving him a very situational subfaction that relied on metagaming to be useful. Later sets would see the return of Leech Medics as the kickass Khamsin Surgeon rider units, steampunk shotgun scorpions, magic carpet-riding wizards, and the Snow. Also home to the Bloody Thorns subfaction, AKA Mage Knight Equilibrium.
Dark Crusade: The Necropolis Sect gets a facelift, trading in Castlevania vibes for Legacy of Kain vibes. They've trashed the Elementals and are getting ready for the coup de grace so they can go find different bloodbags to feast on. The base set gives us a cool centaur zombie and archers that can fly and drain your life from a distance, plus a troll vampire that looks like a gargoyle joined the WWE. Mechanically, not all that much got changed, though their signature Necromancy got nerfed while they got a subfaction with a scarier version. Their lore would degenerate pretty quickly, however, going from evil badasses to disjointed and oddly depressed soap opera characters with fangs (seriously, there was a second civil war that read like it was written by Strong Sad for a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign). Later sets would give us badass undead knights, more zombies, blood cult priestesses, and a freaky skeleton naga demon...thing.
Draconum: Not all that different, really. They got to be other colors besides green now, and got some interesting characters in case the "Elder Scroll muderhobo dragon people that evolve like Pokémon after they get enough XP" was too pedestrian for you. Got only three uniques in the base set, but got more in expansions, plus Wagner-style Valkyries for cavalry and non-unique adult Draconum (!) and got cool recolors in the final set. They managed to take "purple dragon man" and make it look pretty badass.
Elemental Freeholds: Thanks to getting wrecked by the fangheads, they went from being a militant hippie commune to Druid Vietcong. They got totally shafted in the base set, only getting one generic and two uniques, none of which has a subfaction despite having one listed in the rulebook. Fortunately, they got a much better shake in the expansions, getting archers built like brick houses, fireball chucking priestesses, sword swinging priestesses, and Hircine from The Elder Scrolls. Oh, and they got a subfaction that let them just ignore a lot of terrain.
Elven Lords: Because Knights Immortal just didn't sound cool enough. Oh man. Dropping the Atlantean 'toy magic' and gear since the wizards crapped their bathrobes and left them high and dry, the high elves went from vaguely racist Tolkien elves to freaking Thalmor. On the plus side, not everybody bought into the whole "everybody not us is too corrupted, genocide the hell out of them" schtick, so we got the pretty bro-tier Free Armies subfaction out of the deal. Got lots of really cool sculpts right out of the gate, including archers that didn't specialize into irrelevance, Final Fantasy Dragoons, and solid melee dudes. Expansions would give us snow leopard centaurs, old uniques making a triumphant comeback and a huge griffin as a 2.0 titan.
Orc Khans: Having decided that dakka was for sissies, the orcs took their ball and went home. Of course the ball in question was an absolutely insane amount of plunder from pillaging the crap out of the Empire's westlands. But where's there's loot, there's loot drama, so a sizable group of dissenters decided to sneak off with what they had and lord it over the weakling humans. This gave us vengeful traditionalists and a budding Khanate. Base set mooks would be cool stuff like melee dudes with ramshackle-but-deadly swords and javelins, angry war beasts, and shaman that would rip your heart out Temple of Doom style. Expansions would get us wolf-themed berserkers, eagle-themed shaman, and magic-users that zapped so hard that their limbs would melt. And the great return of Podo himself!
Solonavi: Taste the Rainbow! Fluffwise, they didn't really change except that now they had openly declared themselves and their powerbase as separate and opposed to the Altanteans. Short version: they offered their usual power-for-a-price deal to the Emperor Nujarek, and to the shock of all, he turned them down. The Solos got an acute case of butthurt. As the figures themselves go, the creators figured out how to do translucent colors besides teal and now we have hordes of angry eldritch Jolly Ranchers to deal with. The base set would give us one figure, a unique at that. Expansions would give us more, including non-uniques and mortal minions (including Amazons and Oracle Kastali herself), with the final set giving us the Seekers back.
NOTE: The following three factions were not released in the 2.0 base set but gained prominence in expansions.
Mage Spawn: The usual menagerie of freaks and monsters. We wouldn't see Mage Spawn again for quite a while, and when they arrived they were mostly a totally different bunch. Their whole thing was also altered to include a subfaction of mercenaries that could temporary allegiance to other "proper" factions. Releases included things like giant death bees, giant death worms, mutant bat things, the return of the Krugg, plus non-aligned dwarves. They also got supremely rare legendary figures. and for some reason the fabled Dragonslayers (mechanically it makes sense, at least).
Shyft: Didn't really get off the ground for a while, just like the Mage Spawn. But when they did, they had gone from isolationist lizardmen with the power to command monsters to...well the comparison is anachronistic but apt: Huge, jacked Navi with four arms and no mouth, but still able to command monsters. They also got a lot darker, becoming harbingers and heralds for their long-slumbering masters. Showed up alongside the Mage Spawn, getting mind-warped servants and cultists along the way.
Apocalypse: Harumph. They weren't really a faction before 2.0, with just the incredibly rare Four Horsemen chase figures from Sinister. They would surface again in the expansions, with new versions of the Horsemen and various cultists, soul-shriven slaves, and assorted other edgelords. They also had heavy ties with both the Shyft and some of the Mage Spawn, while everybody else had a deep, abiding enmity with these...creatures. Their whole thing was to call forth their dark gods and destroy everything. There were hints that something a tad more meaningful was going on, but things were just one big death metal concert in practice. They got a lot of 'corrupted' versions of old figures in the final set, and also the Apocalypse Dragon, a huge muti-dial monstrosity with ludicrous stats and absolutely, hilariously overpowered rules. The final, most damning evidence that WizKids wanted to do more BattleTech and comic book stuff while sweeping the game that brought them to fame and fortune under the rug.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, and hopefully I can share some of the new project with you guys soon. All Your Clicky Base Are Belong To Us!
While my group and I are working out of the details of the campaign being put together, I decided that it was time to talk a bit about Mage Knight 2.0 and the "totally shiny and new factions we swear" that came about when it was released. Mostly I need to scratch the scribbling itch without letting the cat out of the bag just yet.
Anyway, here we go:
Mage Knight 2.0 was a whole new incarnation of Mage Knight. Maybe they were going for a block format, maybe not. I've ranted enough about that anyways. Everybody got updated and renamed. I'm gonna try to be concise about how they worked now, but expect gibbering insanity anyway.
On subfactions: Yeah, now we had subfactions, too. Basically they acted as a permanent special ability and usually ran along a theme of sorts, i.e. "wizarding school of mindbullets and killbots," or "gun ninjas," or "I'm an abomination and I'm coming to your house after school!" Some were useful, some were sorta just there, and some were close to broken. Most of the big boys stated off with two, and everybody got one or more as time went on, including Mage Spawn (lolwut?).
Atlantean Empire: Same Wizard Rome, only now a muggle is officially in charge (and the Babylon 5 Bathrobe Brigade have their jimmies a-rustled about it). Getting its crap mostly together, but lots of Byzantine-style intrigue is going on and openly (to us) messing things up. Still have all the cool magitek killbots of doom, plus the base set gave out significantly more badass versions of their old mooks, trading the lighting guns for mortars. Oddly enough they lost two of their big tricks (Magic Levitation and Magic Enhancement) but gained some staying power. Later sets gave us kung-fu wizards, Gauls, grenade launchers, and MOAR KILLBOTS.
Black Powder Revolution: "Cool we've won, now what?" Thanks to winning pretty big before the Edition Change of Annoying Doom, the not-Rebel Alliance have managed to become nation-states in their own right. Their base set mooks were also mostly improvements, bringing in new goodies like dwarven mechanics that come at you with blowtorches and totally-not-Warjacks-we-swear. Odd decisions include getting clearly ranged figures classified as melee troops and taking an important character (Blackwyn) and giving him a very situational subfaction that relied on metagaming to be useful. Later sets would see the return of Leech Medics as the kickass Khamsin Surgeon rider units, steampunk shotgun scorpions, magic carpet-riding wizards, and the Snow. Also home to the Bloody Thorns subfaction, AKA Mage Knight Equilibrium.
Dark Crusade: The Necropolis Sect gets a facelift, trading in Castlevania vibes for Legacy of Kain vibes. They've trashed the Elementals and are getting ready for the coup de grace so they can go find different bloodbags to feast on. The base set gives us a cool centaur zombie and archers that can fly and drain your life from a distance, plus a troll vampire that looks like a gargoyle joined the WWE. Mechanically, not all that much got changed, though their signature Necromancy got nerfed while they got a subfaction with a scarier version. Their lore would degenerate pretty quickly, however, going from evil badasses to disjointed and oddly depressed soap opera characters with fangs (seriously, there was a second civil war that read like it was written by Strong Sad for a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign). Later sets would give us badass undead knights, more zombies, blood cult priestesses, and a freaky skeleton naga demon...thing.
Draconum: Not all that different, really. They got to be other colors besides green now, and got some interesting characters in case the "Elder Scroll muderhobo dragon people that evolve like Pokémon after they get enough XP" was too pedestrian for you. Got only three uniques in the base set, but got more in expansions, plus Wagner-style Valkyries for cavalry and non-unique adult Draconum (!) and got cool recolors in the final set. They managed to take "purple dragon man" and make it look pretty badass.
Elemental Freeholds: Thanks to getting wrecked by the fangheads, they went from being a militant hippie commune to Druid Vietcong. They got totally shafted in the base set, only getting one generic and two uniques, none of which has a subfaction despite having one listed in the rulebook. Fortunately, they got a much better shake in the expansions, getting archers built like brick houses, fireball chucking priestesses, sword swinging priestesses, and Hircine from The Elder Scrolls. Oh, and they got a subfaction that let them just ignore a lot of terrain.
Elven Lords: Because Knights Immortal just didn't sound cool enough. Oh man. Dropping the Atlantean 'toy magic' and gear since the wizards crapped their bathrobes and left them high and dry, the high elves went from vaguely racist Tolkien elves to freaking Thalmor. On the plus side, not everybody bought into the whole "everybody not us is too corrupted, genocide the hell out of them" schtick, so we got the pretty bro-tier Free Armies subfaction out of the deal. Got lots of really cool sculpts right out of the gate, including archers that didn't specialize into irrelevance, Final Fantasy Dragoons, and solid melee dudes. Expansions would give us snow leopard centaurs, old uniques making a triumphant comeback and a huge griffin as a 2.0 titan.
Orc Khans: Having decided that dakka was for sissies, the orcs took their ball and went home. Of course the ball in question was an absolutely insane amount of plunder from pillaging the crap out of the Empire's westlands. But where's there's loot, there's loot drama, so a sizable group of dissenters decided to sneak off with what they had and lord it over the weakling humans. This gave us vengeful traditionalists and a budding Khanate. Base set mooks would be cool stuff like melee dudes with ramshackle-but-deadly swords and javelins, angry war beasts, and shaman that would rip your heart out Temple of Doom style. Expansions would get us wolf-themed berserkers, eagle-themed shaman, and magic-users that zapped so hard that their limbs would melt. And the great return of Podo himself!
Solonavi: Taste the Rainbow! Fluffwise, they didn't really change except that now they had openly declared themselves and their powerbase as separate and opposed to the Altanteans. Short version: they offered their usual power-for-a-price deal to the Emperor Nujarek, and to the shock of all, he turned them down. The Solos got an acute case of butthurt. As the figures themselves go, the creators figured out how to do translucent colors besides teal and now we have hordes of angry eldritch Jolly Ranchers to deal with. The base set would give us one figure, a unique at that. Expansions would give us more, including non-uniques and mortal minions (including Amazons and Oracle Kastali herself), with the final set giving us the Seekers back.
NOTE: The following three factions were not released in the 2.0 base set but gained prominence in expansions.
Mage Spawn: The usual menagerie of freaks and monsters. We wouldn't see Mage Spawn again for quite a while, and when they arrived they were mostly a totally different bunch. Their whole thing was also altered to include a subfaction of mercenaries that could temporary allegiance to other "proper" factions. Releases included things like giant death bees, giant death worms, mutant bat things, the return of the Krugg, plus non-aligned dwarves. They also got supremely rare legendary figures. and for some reason the fabled Dragonslayers (mechanically it makes sense, at least).
Shyft: Didn't really get off the ground for a while, just like the Mage Spawn. But when they did, they had gone from isolationist lizardmen with the power to command monsters to...well the comparison is anachronistic but apt: Huge, jacked Navi with four arms and no mouth, but still able to command monsters. They also got a lot darker, becoming harbingers and heralds for their long-slumbering masters. Showed up alongside the Mage Spawn, getting mind-warped servants and cultists along the way.
Apocalypse: Harumph. They weren't really a faction before 2.0, with just the incredibly rare Four Horsemen chase figures from Sinister. They would surface again in the expansions, with new versions of the Horsemen and various cultists, soul-shriven slaves, and assorted other edgelords. They also had heavy ties with both the Shyft and some of the Mage Spawn, while everybody else had a deep, abiding enmity with these...creatures. Their whole thing was to call forth their dark gods and destroy everything. There were hints that something a tad more meaningful was going on, but things were just one big death metal concert in practice. They got a lot of 'corrupted' versions of old figures in the final set, and also the Apocalypse Dragon, a huge muti-dial monstrosity with ludicrous stats and absolutely, hilariously overpowered rules. The final, most damning evidence that WizKids wanted to do more BattleTech and comic book stuff while sweeping the game that brought them to fame and fortune under the rug.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, and hopefully I can share some of the new project with you guys soon. All Your Clicky Base Are Belong To Us!
Sunday, March 3, 2019
The Dork Side Never Dies
Hail and Greetings once again!
It has been a long time, hasn't it? Believe it or not, things have been going very well in my resurgent Mage Knight addiction. Played lots of games, clicked lots of dials, and even got something resembling a regulation play area now. Of course, I had to let my blog about my active gaming become stagnant, like some sort of avant-garde lunatic.
I, uh, I need to work on that. My group is getting ready to try something a bit more complex and try out something like a campaign. Some of concepts and mechanics are up in the air, but the high concept itself is sound. I can't talk about it just yet, because the story wasn't my idea and I don't want to make it look like it was. That I added to it some and subjected it to my own special form of madness, yes, but only after I obtain permission to do so.
What I can say is that it will be very "your dudes" focused. Mage Knight, at its essence, I felt always best when about your personal army and its deeds, trials, and accomplishments. I know that this isn't anything like a universal opinion; this is gaming, and gaming should ultimately be about personal choice.
What we're going for is going to be more like the wild tales of mongrel armies gallivanting about and clashing that you see in 'casual' games than the focused scenarios where mono-faction was the only way to go. Don't misunderstand, everybody will have a heavily favored faction or two in their forces (I've got loads and loads of Black Powder Revolutionaries, and I'm not giving them up anytime soon), but penalizing somebody because they want to throw some Atlantis into their otherwise Dark Crusade vampire edgefest just misses the point. We're also going to do lots of scenarios, but with added quirks and maybe even some craziness like lopsided build totals or other 'unfair' stuff.
I'm also trying to get and/or make some more terrain to work with. Things like wrecked villages, big rocks, makeshift fortifications, maybe even some of those constructed terrain thingamabobs if I can find a genie.
TL;DR Time is like a river, and history repeats...
It has been a long time, hasn't it? Believe it or not, things have been going very well in my resurgent Mage Knight addiction. Played lots of games, clicked lots of dials, and even got something resembling a regulation play area now. Of course, I had to let my blog about my active gaming become stagnant, like some sort of avant-garde lunatic.
I, uh, I need to work on that. My group is getting ready to try something a bit more complex and try out something like a campaign. Some of concepts and mechanics are up in the air, but the high concept itself is sound. I can't talk about it just yet, because the story wasn't my idea and I don't want to make it look like it was. That I added to it some and subjected it to my own special form of madness, yes, but only after I obtain permission to do so.
What I can say is that it will be very "your dudes" focused. Mage Knight, at its essence, I felt always best when about your personal army and its deeds, trials, and accomplishments. I know that this isn't anything like a universal opinion; this is gaming, and gaming should ultimately be about personal choice.
What we're going for is going to be more like the wild tales of mongrel armies gallivanting about and clashing that you see in 'casual' games than the focused scenarios where mono-faction was the only way to go. Don't misunderstand, everybody will have a heavily favored faction or two in their forces (I've got loads and loads of Black Powder Revolutionaries, and I'm not giving them up anytime soon), but penalizing somebody because they want to throw some Atlantis into their otherwise Dark Crusade vampire edgefest just misses the point. We're also going to do lots of scenarios, but with added quirks and maybe even some craziness like lopsided build totals or other 'unfair' stuff.
I'm also trying to get and/or make some more terrain to work with. Things like wrecked villages, big rocks, makeshift fortifications, maybe even some of those constructed terrain thingamabobs if I can find a genie.
TL;DR Time is like a river, and history repeats...
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