Pulp City: It's been awhile

Yeah, life gets in the way.

However, since my last post I've been able to get a few games in of Pulp City, build and paint up some terrain and get to a stage of being able to demonstrate the game to others.

The games seem to take a long time. We are playing around the 9-10 level encounters and get nearly all the toys we want to play with into a game but seemed to take two hours or more to play through.

My main match ups are against a Blood Watch crew. The Blood Watch are a bunch of supernatural based heroes that spend their time hunting down vampires and werewolves. In good comic book fashion they can be also pressed into service to fight the usual SciFi guff.

My main crew revolves around the classic "Team-Up" story lines. Individuals who through circumstance and different investigated threads somehow come together to fight as team.

This gives me a lot of scope with what models/characters I can bring but in game play ways I lose a bit of synergy between the different powers.

For instance,

this little guy has a buffing power that affects all Blood Watch members.

My crew is mostly Indie Heroes/Rogues with some others from established teams thrown in for good measure (I mainly chose them because of the look of the model rather than any tactically thinking behind them).

The first four where theses guys:

Dr Mercury

Chronin

Arquero

Skyline

This list has also expanded out to include more shady characters as well as a leader.

These are a few pics of a four way King-of-the-Hill game we had last year. the main objective is to hold the middle of the board with as many models as possible. The was a few new players in this game but it was a good laugh all the same.

Hopefully, I'll get some pics of the demo games I have lined up at local clubs and conventions soon.

Cheers,

Bob

Pulp City: A Journey

Pulp City is a small skirmish game using characters created by Pulp Monsters.

It is a fast and easy to pick up game but with a huge scope of possibilities.

I was first made aware of it via YouTube where people where discussing it and if I remember correctly some Aussies actually put up a play through of one of their games.

The idea of it really appealed to me. The setting of Pulp City conjured up images of grimy 1980's movies set in New York and Los Angeles with a mix of street level heroes fighting crime and the odd major fight/threat bringing out heavy hitters.


Thankfully, it is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously when creating the background. Anything seems to be thrown into the mix for the thematic side of things. (Hovercats!)

Flavours from movies such as Big Trouble in Little China, to zombie movies to high sci-fi and any number of myths and comics sources have been called upon.

In some ways it feels like a RPG video game (without the character development). You have a setting, you have goals to achieve and you are allowed to craft a team of "Supremes" to try and achieve those goals.

It is a little under the radar game that has stoked some fires at my local gaming club. A few people have come on board to play the game and have filled out their heroes and villains teams fairly quickly. They are chomping at the bit to get games in.

Unfortunately, due to real life getting in the way, I'm not able to get as many games in as I'd like. Every game I've played a new situation presents itself and allows very unique ways to solve a problem.

In short, I love the game, and hope to sink more time into in the near future.

My Thoughts on Dystopian Wars

Back in the mid 1990s there was a lovely little computer game called Total Annihilation. It was not my first strategy game but it was by far my favourite.

When I started into the war gaming scene I was hoping to get a little of that feeling that I got from Total Annihilation translated onto the table top. When I first heard about Dystopian Wars from Spartan Games I was very excited. I ordered the first starter set for Kingdom of Britannia and spent weeks researching navel camo patterns to paint them up with.

The thing that grabbed me about the game was the scope of a battle played out on a 6'x4' table. You could have naval, air and land unit all in the same game at the same time.

The potential for this game was and still is huge. I remember seeing a huge game on a website that depicted a land assault, the table must have been 15'-16' long.

I had some great games mainly sea battles. Massive robots wading through the sea, submarines, tiny fighter squadrons and massive aircraft carriers. The rules where fun and made sense however the rulebook was a pig to navigate.

Again life got in the way of hobby and game time for this. I was getting married around the release of the second edition of the rules and I lost touch. Smaller games and board games took over. This was the major hurdle for myself in getting games. A lesser reason but still a significant one was that very few people were playing the game. Bolt Action was taking off and has a strong player base in my area. (I'll get into why that game doesn't appeal to me in another post)

I've never got back into it. Mainly because I can't get a game of it. The weeks I'm free to game people who play can't make it to venue. So it's on the back burner for the foreseeable. I've looked at the rulebook for second edition and felt a little overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that needs tracked. I'm sure I would get used to it but for someone who is just looking for casual games it implies a commitment I don't feel like making at the moment.

I still like the game. Love the models (however the steampunk setting hasn't really enamored me), love the mechanics of the game and most of all the scope.

If I could find a game that gives me this is a Sci Fi setting I think that would be the game for me.

My Thoughts On Warhammer 40,000

I have mixed thoughts about 40k in general.

It *IS* the gateway drug for many reasons.

- It is easy to get into.
- The fan base is wide and varied.
- Getting a game is easy to do
- Veterans and newcomers both can relate to what is happening on the board due to the rich background created in a period spanning back to the 1980s.

I started into 40k back in 2011 and mainly it was to collect the miniatures. I've always wanted to paint up some Swooping Hawks and due to time off work due to illness I was able to.

I bought more and more and eventually had enough for a small game. Off I went to Game Workshop in Belfast, Northern Ireland for a quick game. After that first game I had conflicting thoughts about 40k but the main thing I took away was that there were possibilities on that table. Possibilities to tell stories. Tales of epic acts of valour or evil all played out in the form of six sided probability. My minds eyes in those early days was the greatest seller of plastic crack.

Eventually, I started going to local gaming clubs and events. It was at these that things started to change my perception of gaming. I had thought in those early days that I'd build up a nice set of models and that would be me for a few years. Constantly tweaking what I had for each game and then throwing it in to a steady campaign over months or years.

This was enforced by my understanding of want I wanted from a game. The story needed to be strong, rewards for risks taken and laughing when things go badly. In the main, that is what happened. However, there is the down side of such a large community for 40k.

Games Workshop as a business is successful in general terms but is still a business. My experience of 40k started in the throws of Fifth Edition of the rules. There were good things in that edition and also blazing piles of badness. For a system that started as a skirmish game and was progressing into a mass battle game the problem was that you could see the joins. Or rather you could see the joins had been patched over rather than smoothed out. Games Workshop seemed for a time to be just about churning out models to make money. The "Game" part of the name was forgotten almost completely.

Vehicle rules were (and still are) flimsy. Codex creep didn't help things and certain army lists could nearly "auto-win" a game. Newer Editions are making similar mistakes, patching over old rules, writing new rules that conflict with existing ones. Making a fun game slow all the way down. I've played very few games of the 6th or 7th and really can't see playing it again.

Other reasons I don't play 40k:

- Too many games involve the latest "unbeatable" unit
- Many tournament gamers trying out a tourney list
- No casual gamers
- Bloated rules

I'm am a casual gamer. Life gets in the way so spending hours trying lists and painting stuff to a tournament standard just can't happen any more. These are reasons why I am turning to smaller games. Smaller model counts means less time needed for painting (Pulp City, Infinity).

Rules discussions (looking at Dakka Dakka and Warseer sites) go round in circles until an FAQ update happens. By which time I've become frustrated again and want to take a break. I personally try to stay out of the discussion until an update happens but many times I've just shaken my head confused. At certain games in 5th I could see a setup of a game, deployment phase of units, and know who would win. One game I saw a setup and said it would be a draw with just the HQs left and exactly that happened when I came back at the end. All the fun had been taken out of the game for me.

I've vented that bit so let me start on the good.

Those veteran gamers who I met at different clubs and events played other games... They talked about them, demonstrated them and even critiqued them over a few beers. They were never happy that one system/game held the golden chalice of everything they wanted from a game but some came close. Many of those people I met in the early days have become good friends and still find new games to try and hook me into. I know very few people from those fledgling steps into the gaming community still playing 40k (they still have their armies though). Other systems (which in someways addressed the problems of 40k rules) have taken over: Warmachine/Hordes and Bolt Action have taken over in my local scene. One I've played the other I've no interest in.

40k just seems like too big a beast at the moment. If i could get casual games at low points, with a nice narrative setup... I could be tempted again.

Cheers,

Bob

A History...

Hi,

This is not an intro. :)

If you made it here it's bound to be something to do with searching or perusing a site that has something to do with the games I'll be writing about.

This is not an advice blog or a review blog or one of those unboxing guffs you see all the time now. This is a opinion blog.

Like the old saying: Opinions are like buttcracks... (paraphrased to keep it PG)

So, if you read this blog on a regular basis then you'll get opinions. Hopefully, not offensive or aggravating but none the less, just my opinion. If you disagree, by all means, post a comment but do not expect me to respond. I don't suffer trolls.

In the past I've played a number of systems and kept to some, got disillusioned by others and still excited by a few.

In the last few years life has gotten in the way of regular gaming and the hobby side of miniature/tabletop games has taken a severe back seat. (Marriage, new house and offspring all valid distractions I'm sure you'd agree).

Thankfully, in the age of easy access to information, the blogosphere and social media sites, I've been able to keep up to date with most things if not actually doing any actually gaming.

History of Games Played

Oldest to newest, based on what I would call my "mature" phase gaming-wise.

Tabletop:
- Warhammer 40k: Mostly Eldar, some Space Marine and a touch of Chaos
- Dystopian Wars: Brittania and COA
- Hordes: Legion of Everblight
- Dropzone Commander: UCM
- Infinity: ALEPH and Nomads
- Pulp City

Boardgames:
- Ticket to Ride
- Smallworld
- Battlestar Galactica
- Cadwallon: City of Thieves
- Dreadball
- Munchkin (Card game but we have a board...)
- Luchador Wrestling Dice

Most have fallen into the cracks apart from the following: Pulp City, Infinity and Dreadball.

In my posts I'll have a look at each game above and examine what attracted me at first, what ultimately made me stop playing (if I have) and if I'd play again. Also, I'll try and put some stuff together on the games I'm currently interested in.

Cheers,

Bob