Monday, March 16, 2020
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Storium Theory: Don't Count Yourself Out
Today, I'd like to spend a bit of time on something that I've seen here and there on Storium - cases where a person perhaps goes a bit too Weak with a Weakness play...and takes themselves out of a scene.
It feels right - it feels better than right, doesn't it? Isn't it a great expression of a Weakness to not just suffer a setback, not just suffer some kind of injury, but actually get knocked out or otherwise removed from play for a bit?
Well...it is, and it isn't.
Let's start off with the good: This is, undoubtedly, an example of a player being very willing to show his character suffering for his Weakness. That's great, and that's an attitude that I hope people learn on Storium.
But actually taking yourself out...getting knocked out, getting poisoned to the extent that you can't move, draining yourself so much of energy that you're too exhausted to go on...there are times these things are appropriate, but they need to be used with restraint.
Otherwise, they can mess with the flow of a story.
I've seen it happen: A battle happens, one part of a longer sequence of events all taking place in a short period of time. One player plays a Weakness card and portrays themselves as exhausted, or poisoned, or just plain knocked out cold. Then the battle ends.
Now a few things can happen:
Now...you can make this work. You can. A good narrator who is used to letting the players have heavy story control, especially, can make this work out great. Maybe the group has to stop to allow the player character to recover, but in the process, the problem they're trying to address worsens. Or maybe that's the next challenge: Can they find things to help the player quickly enough that the next challenges don't worsen in the meantime?
But the thing is, even though you can make this work...it just oftentimes ends up more trouble than it is worth to put in this strong of a Weakness play. You can get some great, great character moments and a strong feeling of struggle and danger and fading hope from injury or tiredness that still leaves the character able to go on to new fights.
Sometimes, that can be even stronger. If a character is knocked out, the group might stop to deal with that and then go on once he's recovered. If that happens, the knockout doesn't add as much tension to the story. If a character is injured or tired but still goes on, though, we see that in everything they do for the next few scenes - they're in a bad way, one arm too hurt to hold up their shield, or dragging themselves forward in the battle. It's powerful.
Stopping the story's progress can add some tension if managed properly, but continuing despite your wounds always adds tension.
I'm not saying that you should absolutely avoid major consequences as part of Weakness plays, mind! There are times when it is appropriate, entirely appropriate. Particularly late in the story, particularly when the narrator has told you this is the final battle, you might pull out these powerful Weakness plays. Because there - there - it won't make the story pause or lose momentum. It'll emphasize just how bad things are currently, just how much of a struggle it is for the characters...but there's nothing ahead that the players need to address.
Keep yourselves within the bounds of the challenge, but that is when you should be safer using some of these powerful Weakness concepts.
Before that? Before that, earlier in the story, don't go that far! Go lighter with what goes wrong...but use what goes wrong more. Pick up some kind of injury and carry it with you for the next few scenes, showing your character struggling with it. Show the tiredness that you're feeling, even as you struggle to move on.
Or almost encounter one of those points...and leave things open. Let someone else save you from them. Those can be amazing moments in a tale too.
Weakness plays don't have to be about solid, absolute consequences for your character. They can be about the threat of those consequences. They can be about what might happen if the battle isn't turned around. If you knock your character out, he's knocked out. That's certain. It's done. But if you put in the possibility, you're giving someone else the chance to write. And that's what Storium is all about - working with each other to write interesting or fun stories.
So I suggest pulling back from the solid a bit - work with possibilities. Get hurt and need help. Or, need help to avoid getting hurt. Get tired and struggle. Need someone's shoulder to lean on. Need someone to fight by your side. But unless the story really, truly demands it, don't get taken out entirely. That cuts off possibilities - like bluntly leaving in the middle of a conversation.
And if you're going to take yourself out at all, try not to do it while you still have card plays left for the scene! Hopefully narrators are taking my advice to not use up all their points, but still, it's useful if players keep open the option to play all their cards if needed.
Now, one more note here: I've already said that late in the story you might be fine pulling out heavier, solid consequences as part of a Weakness play if that's your thing. There are points earlier in the story where you might do that too. The narrator might even set them up specifically. If he does...go with it, obviously! If the Weak outcome is "you're all knocked out," well, that's what the outcome is, so do the normal thing with a Weak outcome if you get it and write your spin on that outcome! You get knocked out.
The narrator, obviously, will have planned for that possibility since he put it in the outcomes, right?
Similarly, you might find a situation where it feels like the consequences should be higher - where the outcomes suggest this battle or event is more dangerous than normal, or where you're already portraying your character in a bad way and it just feels like they should have something more solid happen to them on your next Weakness play. And that's fine...I just suggest that you consider talking to the narrator first. Remember, you're writing collaboratively: Check, when you're thinking about having something this major happen to your character, and work with the narrator to figure out how it can happen but still keep the story moving (and not exclude you as a player).
This isn't a solid "don't ever do this." I want to be clear on that. What it is is a caution: Be careful of how and when you do this. When a hero is solidly defeated in battle or exhausts herself in the service of a cause, that can be a great story moment. It's just important to make sure that it's the right time - and that it doesn't derail the story's momentum or leave it short of players in the process.
It feels right - it feels better than right, doesn't it? Isn't it a great expression of a Weakness to not just suffer a setback, not just suffer some kind of injury, but actually get knocked out or otherwise removed from play for a bit?
Well...it is, and it isn't.
Let's start off with the good: This is, undoubtedly, an example of a player being very willing to show his character suffering for his Weakness. That's great, and that's an attitude that I hope people learn on Storium.
But actually taking yourself out...getting knocked out, getting poisoned to the extent that you can't move, draining yourself so much of energy that you're too exhausted to go on...there are times these things are appropriate, but they need to be used with restraint.
Otherwise, they can mess with the flow of a story.
I've seen it happen: A battle happens, one part of a longer sequence of events all taking place in a short period of time. One player plays a Weakness card and portrays themselves as exhausted, or poisoned, or just plain knocked out cold. Then the battle ends.
Now a few things can happen:
- Somehow, the player character recovers very quickly, and keeps on going, so the story can keep moving. That's unsatisfying, as it feels like a major moment is just brushed over and somewhat ignored.
- The narrator puts in a point where the group can rest for a while to make it seem more realistic that the player character takes time to recover from his state...but now the story loses momentum.
- The story goes on, and the player character is put someplace safe to recover in the meantime, which means:
- The player misses out on part of the story, or...
- The narrator has to come up with things that happen around wherever the player character was left that they can work with in their current state.
Now...you can make this work. You can. A good narrator who is used to letting the players have heavy story control, especially, can make this work out great. Maybe the group has to stop to allow the player character to recover, but in the process, the problem they're trying to address worsens. Or maybe that's the next challenge: Can they find things to help the player quickly enough that the next challenges don't worsen in the meantime?
But the thing is, even though you can make this work...it just oftentimes ends up more trouble than it is worth to put in this strong of a Weakness play. You can get some great, great character moments and a strong feeling of struggle and danger and fading hope from injury or tiredness that still leaves the character able to go on to new fights.
Sometimes, that can be even stronger. If a character is knocked out, the group might stop to deal with that and then go on once he's recovered. If that happens, the knockout doesn't add as much tension to the story. If a character is injured or tired but still goes on, though, we see that in everything they do for the next few scenes - they're in a bad way, one arm too hurt to hold up their shield, or dragging themselves forward in the battle. It's powerful.
Stopping the story's progress can add some tension if managed properly, but continuing despite your wounds always adds tension.
I'm not saying that you should absolutely avoid major consequences as part of Weakness plays, mind! There are times when it is appropriate, entirely appropriate. Particularly late in the story, particularly when the narrator has told you this is the final battle, you might pull out these powerful Weakness plays. Because there - there - it won't make the story pause or lose momentum. It'll emphasize just how bad things are currently, just how much of a struggle it is for the characters...but there's nothing ahead that the players need to address.
Keep yourselves within the bounds of the challenge, but that is when you should be safer using some of these powerful Weakness concepts.
Before that? Before that, earlier in the story, don't go that far! Go lighter with what goes wrong...but use what goes wrong more. Pick up some kind of injury and carry it with you for the next few scenes, showing your character struggling with it. Show the tiredness that you're feeling, even as you struggle to move on.
Or almost encounter one of those points...and leave things open. Let someone else save you from them. Those can be amazing moments in a tale too.
Weakness plays don't have to be about solid, absolute consequences for your character. They can be about the threat of those consequences. They can be about what might happen if the battle isn't turned around. If you knock your character out, he's knocked out. That's certain. It's done. But if you put in the possibility, you're giving someone else the chance to write. And that's what Storium is all about - working with each other to write interesting or fun stories.
So I suggest pulling back from the solid a bit - work with possibilities. Get hurt and need help. Or, need help to avoid getting hurt. Get tired and struggle. Need someone's shoulder to lean on. Need someone to fight by your side. But unless the story really, truly demands it, don't get taken out entirely. That cuts off possibilities - like bluntly leaving in the middle of a conversation.
And if you're going to take yourself out at all, try not to do it while you still have card plays left for the scene! Hopefully narrators are taking my advice to not use up all their points, but still, it's useful if players keep open the option to play all their cards if needed.
Now, one more note here: I've already said that late in the story you might be fine pulling out heavier, solid consequences as part of a Weakness play if that's your thing. There are points earlier in the story where you might do that too. The narrator might even set them up specifically. If he does...go with it, obviously! If the Weak outcome is "you're all knocked out," well, that's what the outcome is, so do the normal thing with a Weak outcome if you get it and write your spin on that outcome! You get knocked out.
The narrator, obviously, will have planned for that possibility since he put it in the outcomes, right?
Similarly, you might find a situation where it feels like the consequences should be higher - where the outcomes suggest this battle or event is more dangerous than normal, or where you're already portraying your character in a bad way and it just feels like they should have something more solid happen to them on your next Weakness play. And that's fine...I just suggest that you consider talking to the narrator first. Remember, you're writing collaboratively: Check, when you're thinking about having something this major happen to your character, and work with the narrator to figure out how it can happen but still keep the story moving (and not exclude you as a player).
This isn't a solid "don't ever do this." I want to be clear on that. What it is is a caution: Be careful of how and when you do this. When a hero is solidly defeated in battle or exhausts herself in the service of a cause, that can be a great story moment. It's just important to make sure that it's the right time - and that it doesn't derail the story's momentum or leave it short of players in the process.
River City Girls Review (PS4)
Written by Anthony L. Cuaycong
Title: River City Girls
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: WayForward
Genre: Adventure, Arcade, Fighting, Multiplayer
Price: $29.99
Also Available On: Switch, Steam, XB1
When Nekketsu koha Kunio-kun (roughly translated as "Hot Blood Tough Guy Kunio") made its way to arcades in 1986, not even its biggest fans thought it would have legs. Even as developer Technos Japan had high hopes for it (going so far as to name its principal protagonist after company president Kunio Taki), it seemed to carry a one-off vibe. After all, it was a side-scrolling beat-em-'up that, for the first time, employed four-direction movement and required multiple hits to dispatch enemies. It turned out to be a commercial smash, prompting the release of a port to the Nintendo Family Computer the next year and serving as the kickoff point of an immensely popular franchise.
That the Kunio-kun series is still alive and kicking three decades and three years later despite one industry challenge after another speaks volumes of both the loyalty it has engendered and the quality for which it stands. Now owned by Arc System Works, titles in the intellectual property – which has branched out into seemingly disparate genres, including a variety of sports – boast of outstanding technical and artistic polish, uniquely quirky plots and premises, and engrossing gameplay designed to generate high replay value.
River City Girls is no exception. Featuring a lush color palette and rock music consistent with its retro sensibilities, it turns the hero narrative upside down by having familiar high-school characters Misako and Kyoko do the heavy lifting vice usual leads Kunio and Riki. After learning of their boyfriends' kidnapping, they're spurred to action — from detention, no less, in an obvious nod to their kickass predilections — out of Nekketsu High School, and deep within River City. The result is a rollicking ride that never feels fabricated or forced. To this end cutscenes and interactions laced with humor propel the narrative and help the presentation forge ahead.
Combat mechanics are excellent, in no small measure complemented by easy-to-master and lag-free controls. Difficulty ramps up over time, but never unfairly, and with an eye towards encouraging gamers to collect experience points and currency (earned from encounters) for use by Misako and Kyoko in raising stats, learning new moves, and purchasing battle-purpose gear and equipment. And while River City Girls has a clear end (Save Kunio and Riki!), it's far from linear; side-quests abound, and the attainment of their objectives yields accessories that provide percentage boosts to abilities and skills. It even has collectibles by way of Sabu statues and cats; finding all will net more bonuses, not to mention unlock the real final boss fight.
For all the open-world options, River City Girls isn't overly long. In single-player mode, it should be good for around 10 hours or so. That said, it earns its keep in cooperative mode. As with every other classic beat-em-'up title, it finds itself reaching new heights when enjoyed by two gamers who band together in beating up all the bad guys on screen. The shared experience can likewise smoothen any rough edges produced by grinding, and by the occasionally uneven pace. In any case, it proves well worth its $29.99 price tag. Highly recommended.
THE GOOD:
THE BAD:
When Nekketsu koha Kunio-kun (roughly translated as "Hot Blood Tough Guy Kunio") made its way to arcades in 1986, not even its biggest fans thought it would have legs. Even as developer Technos Japan had high hopes for it (going so far as to name its principal protagonist after company president Kunio Taki), it seemed to carry a one-off vibe. After all, it was a side-scrolling beat-em-'up that, for the first time, employed four-direction movement and required multiple hits to dispatch enemies. It turned out to be a commercial smash, prompting the release of a port to the Nintendo Family Computer the next year and serving as the kickoff point of an immensely popular franchise.
That the Kunio-kun series is still alive and kicking three decades and three years later despite one industry challenge after another speaks volumes of both the loyalty it has engendered and the quality for which it stands. Now owned by Arc System Works, titles in the intellectual property – which has branched out into seemingly disparate genres, including a variety of sports – boast of outstanding technical and artistic polish, uniquely quirky plots and premises, and engrossing gameplay designed to generate high replay value.
River City Girls is no exception. Featuring a lush color palette and rock music consistent with its retro sensibilities, it turns the hero narrative upside down by having familiar high-school characters Misako and Kyoko do the heavy lifting vice usual leads Kunio and Riki. After learning of their boyfriends' kidnapping, they're spurred to action — from detention, no less, in an obvious nod to their kickass predilections — out of Nekketsu High School, and deep within River City. The result is a rollicking ride that never feels fabricated or forced. To this end cutscenes and interactions laced with humor propel the narrative and help the presentation forge ahead.
Combat mechanics are excellent, in no small measure complemented by easy-to-master and lag-free controls. Difficulty ramps up over time, but never unfairly, and with an eye towards encouraging gamers to collect experience points and currency (earned from encounters) for use by Misako and Kyoko in raising stats, learning new moves, and purchasing battle-purpose gear and equipment. And while River City Girls has a clear end (Save Kunio and Riki!), it's far from linear; side-quests abound, and the attainment of their objectives yields accessories that provide percentage boosts to abilities and skills. It even has collectibles by way of Sabu statues and cats; finding all will net more bonuses, not to mention unlock the real final boss fight.
For all the open-world options, River City Girls isn't overly long. In single-player mode, it should be good for around 10 hours or so. That said, it earns its keep in cooperative mode. As with every other classic beat-em-'up title, it finds itself reaching new heights when enjoyed by two gamers who band together in beating up all the bad guys on screen. The shared experience can likewise smoothen any rough edges produced by grinding, and by the occasionally uneven pace. In any case, it proves well worth its $29.99 price tag. Highly recommended.
THE GOOD:
- Outstanding audio-visual presentation reminiscent of classic beat-'em-ups
- Deep and engrossing non-linear gameplay
- Superb cooperative mode
- Solid addition to the Kunio-kun franchise
THE BAD:
- Uneven pace
- Grinding required
- Side-quests can lead to time-consuming backtracking
RATING: 8.5/10
The Final Form Of My Home Made Magnetic Army Transport
I wanted to put out an update to my last post on building a magnetic model transport system for my Convergence.
Just before Captain Con my wife was kind enough to finish making the bag to carry all of the magnetic bins I built. It's frankly huge, but it carries absolutely everything without any issue.
It's huge! Total size is 16" deep, 24" wide, and about 15" tall. In the above picture it's carrying my dice tray, dice, all of my Convergence and a Blacksmiths Guild Ball team, and my sheet pan/tournament tray (sprayed silver).
The bag is semi-rigid, using some foam internally between the fabric to give some stability and padding. My wife did an outstanding job on it.
I got some flak from my Guild Ball friends for how much room I was taking up in the trunk on the drive up, but its awesome. It fits neatly in my own car's trunk and will be used for all my local travel from now on. This is significantly easier than when I had to use an old PC carrying strap to bind all my cases together to carry the CoC around locally.
In case you didn't see the last post, here are what the cases look like populated with my stuff:
Conclusions
If you compare this to an actual product of equivalent size, it's about what you'd get in a Magna Rack 1520 from Battle Foam. The racks plus bag for that is $365 plus shipping. If you add up total materials for my system, I'm likely looking at about $100 max. Of course, I didn't have to pay for any labor in this creation.
On the flip side, I mentioned to my wife that she could probably pull $100 to $150 for a bag like that for other gamers if she tried to make one and she said in no uncertain terms that it flat out isn't worth it for her labor to charge that little. Apparently the bag was a bit of a pain in the ass for her to make. She was happy to make it for me, but no one else has my charm to convince her it's worth making another.
If I wasn't married to an extremely talented quilter (and all around amazing woman) I'd probably would have to had been more careful when picking out my bins to make sure I could arrange them to fit in a piece of luggage I could buy rather than having the bag being fabricated to meet the specs of what bins I purchased.
I'm very happy to have done this, and I intend on magnetizing my other armies to use this system going forward, though I already have a bunch of foam so I'm not as motivated to go ahead with that. Plus I plan on just using Convergence for a while anyway.
Just before Captain Con my wife was kind enough to finish making the bag to carry all of the magnetic bins I built. It's frankly huge, but it carries absolutely everything without any issue.
It's huge! Total size is 16" deep, 24" wide, and about 15" tall. In the above picture it's carrying my dice tray, dice, all of my Convergence and a Blacksmiths Guild Ball team, and my sheet pan/tournament tray (sprayed silver).
The bag is semi-rigid, using some foam internally between the fabric to give some stability and padding. My wife did an outstanding job on it.
I got some flak from my Guild Ball friends for how much room I was taking up in the trunk on the drive up, but its awesome. It fits neatly in my own car's trunk and will be used for all my local travel from now on. This is significantly easier than when I had to use an old PC carrying strap to bind all my cases together to carry the CoC around locally.
In case you didn't see the last post, here are what the cases look like populated with my stuff:
Conclusions
If you compare this to an actual product of equivalent size, it's about what you'd get in a Magna Rack 1520 from Battle Foam. The racks plus bag for that is $365 plus shipping. If you add up total materials for my system, I'm likely looking at about $100 max. Of course, I didn't have to pay for any labor in this creation.
On the flip side, I mentioned to my wife that she could probably pull $100 to $150 for a bag like that for other gamers if she tried to make one and she said in no uncertain terms that it flat out isn't worth it for her labor to charge that little. Apparently the bag was a bit of a pain in the ass for her to make. She was happy to make it for me, but no one else has my charm to convince her it's worth making another.
If I wasn't married to an extremely talented quilter (and all around amazing woman) I'd probably would have to had been more careful when picking out my bins to make sure I could arrange them to fit in a piece of luggage I could buy rather than having the bag being fabricated to meet the specs of what bins I purchased.
I'm very happy to have done this, and I intend on magnetizing my other armies to use this system going forward, though I already have a bunch of foam so I'm not as motivated to go ahead with that. Plus I plan on just using Convergence for a while anyway.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Kanto Underground
Just south of Cerulean City lived a kind old man in a secluded homestead offering a Pokémon Daycare service. This kind of small business is a lot more widespread nowadays, but back then it was a bit of a novelty. He allowed any trainer registered within the Indigo League of Kanto to leave one Pokémon in his care for a nominal fee. I had never heard of anything like this at the time, but after our brief conversation, I used Bill's transfer system to bring Charlie out of storage and into the old man's care. At the daycare, he would get lots of exercise and activity and be allowed to play and train with other Pokémon instead of just waiting in storage. It seemed like a really good way to get him some extra training in case anything unspeakable ever happened to Kiwi. The old man assured me that he'd been doing this for a long time now and Charlie was in good hands.
I was attacked by some wild Pidgey on Route 5, but I decided to save my Pokéballs for better options since I had Kiwi and Charlie as members of Team Fox. It didn't seem prudent to waste the resources on a third fighting Pidgey. It was during this time between Cerulean and Vermilion that I was starting to think about the future battles. I had to be careful with upcoming Gym Leaders and at the Indigo Plateau and I had to plan accordingly. After passing on acquiring a new Pidgey on Route 5, I made an effort to avoid more wild encounters in the future unless I was ready to add a potential candidate to my team. The way I was training my Pokémon meant that every new capture had to be strategic going forward. An army of Pidgey weren't going to win me the rest of my battles.
I was pretty oblivious to this at the time, but the region of Kanto was in a bit of upheaval the first time I was there. As I mentioned, I wasn't really aware of Team Rocket much before my unfortunate encounter with them at Mount Moon. I didn't realize what a hold they had on the region. I also didn't realize that things were changing rapidly since their operation at Mount Moon crumbled. For a long time the organization moved in the shadows, acquiring Pokémon and using them for illegal activities without drawing much attention to themselves, but things were now changing since two local trainers had them riled up. I mention it now because typically moving south from Cerulean, you would end up in Saffron City before heading to Vermilion City, but Saffron was under a bit of a lock-down thanks to Team Rocket activities. Police sentries were posted on all sides of the city and were not allowing anyone in or out of the city. They tried to explain the situation to me the best they could, but I really didn't understand the gravity of it and they got impatient trying to explain to me why I needed to get to Vermilion another way.
This other way was an underground passage originally intended to be developed into a subway system to and from Saffron City. It's development had been abandoned due to escalating economic tension between the local government and Team Rocket. It now served as a convenient, although shady, underpass between Cerulean and Vermilion, as well as Lavender Town and Celadon City. You could bypass Saffron City entirely this way. The path was reasonably lit and maintained by local volunteers. Pokémon battles were prohibited and efforts were made to repel Pokémon from infiltrating the path as long as it was needed. Apparently Saffron had been cut off from the world for some time in order for this to have been as well established as it was, but again I was ignorant of the state of affairs in Kanto at that time. I merely enjoyed an uninterupted stroll underground, picking up various shiny objects I happened upon.
I arrived in Vermilion City sometime in the evening. I managed to secure a place to sleep for a few nights and then set out to learn what I could about the local Pokémon scene. I could see the S.S. Anne to the south all lit up like an angry Electrode. Tomorrow I would have to find a way to get into the tournament aboard and hopefully earn my access to that Hidden Machine, but I did have a few other concerns. The gym leader in Vermilion was not a push-over and he favored electric attacks above all else. It earned him his nickname as Lt. Surge. As it stood, my team consisted mostly of flying Pokémon who would easily be burst out of the sky by a well placed thunderbolt. Kiwi, Lucky, Vesper and Shakespear were all going to be huge liabilities in the Vermilion Gym. Arnold had recently evolved on his way south through Route 5 and 6, but I wasn't sure that my powerful Gloom could stand up to the kind of voltage Lt. Surge was known to put out. It seemed clear that Arnold and Rascal Jr. Simply weren't going to be enough to ensure a victory here in Vermilion. If I were going to get a new Pokémon, then the battles aboard the S.S. Anne would be a great training ground for them, so I set out that evening to add one more friend to my roster.
Vermilion City is the busiest port in the Kanto region and naturally surrounded mostly by water. Water-based Pokémon weren't going to stand a chance against Lt. Surge when I went to face him, so I had to look somewhere else. I had overheard that just beyond the city limits was a small rock tunnel the locals called Diglett's Cave, because it had been dug out by a large colony of Diglett and Dugtrio. Though it was a bit unsettling to crawl into their nest, I knew a Diglett or a Dugtrio would be the perfect addition to the team and the perfect counter to Lt. Surge. Their ground affinity would make them immune to any electric attacks Lt. Surge could throw at them. So despite my apprehension and the apparent dangers of crawling into a Diglett tunnel at night, I felt I had no choice.
Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.
Bill's Storage: Shakespear (Spearow)
Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)
ASOIAF: Starks And Lannisters Overview
 |
| So.. who's it going to be? |
Whenever someone starts with the game, no matter what minis game, I always tell them the same thing: Go with the aesthetics and look of the faction first above anything else. With this game, however, I don't think the same principle applies as much in this game because everyone is human (for the most part). When it comes down to picking a faction, I think one of the things everyone needs to do is examine a bit of their psyche and pick a faction that best aligns with their personality. It's like picking a color in MTG and understanding that each color represents a bit of your personality. If you want to go a little bit deeper, picking a faction in this game would be like picking a guild from Ravnica, or even building a character in a D&D campaign. That is, unless you really really like dogs. Then I would say just pick Starks and never look back.
Alright, so back to the two starting factions from the Core set. Since you need this set to play the game and they're the factions with the largest amount of units choices right now, you need to decide if you want to go with House Lannister or House Stark. Remember what I said about picking the right faction for you, as this will do you big favors because a lot of the game's mechanics are designed around how the houses behave in the books/show whatever. There's a big chance that if you don't like the houses' personality in the books that you will not like how they play in-game. It's actually one of my favorite things about the game so far and that's how on-point a lot of book to table translation has been.
 |
| Hear me roar! |
Alright, let's begin with the Lannisters. In this game, the Lannisters are the faction that has a lot of panic shenanigans, morale tests, weakens, and counterplots. Their Tactics cards play heavily with the Crown and Wealth zones on the Tactics Board and controlling those will open up many secondary effects of your cards. Lannister Commanders come in many shapes and sizes from the destructive and brutal force of The Mountain to the cunning strategist that is Tyrion Lannister (yes, you can take him in combat!). My favorite Commander for the Lannisters is Tywin Lannister (also my favorite character in the show) because a lot of his Tactics cards and abilities intimidate and Weaken enemy units. Another Commander that I've tried is Jaimie Lannister because his abilities center around defense, parry, and riposte; turning the opponent's attacks and crappy rolls against them.
When it comes to NCUs or their Tactics cards, the Lannisters focus heavily on debuffing and control elements that limit the opponent's options. Pycelle's Weaken effect and Cersei's No Confidence are prime examples of debuffing the opponent or making them worse for morale tests, while tactics cards like Counterplot can outright stop an opponent tactics card from going off. I tried to get some examples of the kind of tactics the Lannisters can employ and I think this lot sums it up pretty nicely. For the Lannisters, they are all scheming masterminds with several abilities that kicks players while they're down.
 |
| Kick 'em while they're down. |
As for Lannister units, they are well-supplied and fairly diverse to take on a large breadth of enemies. The Mountain is its own unit just because he is, Lannister Guardsman are slow with lower attacks but has an excellent defense and a great ability (Lannister Supremacy) that only gets better with attachments, and Lannister Crossbowmen are no joke. I've recently started playing them and having a unit that just hits units with ranged attacks on a 3+ with Sundering from Long Range is incredible. Lannisters also have some interesting unique units like Pyromancers that can toss their Wildfire from ranged or in combat and it ignores defense saves while suffering -2 to the defender's Panic tests through Vicious.
While the Lannisters have a solid lineup of units, I would say their strengths come from their debuffs and stopping your opponents from what they want to do more so than just strength of arms. For that, you want to get into House Stark. If you're looking for a faction that doesn't care about the subtleties and just wants to beat face, you've come to the right place.
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| Winter is coming. |
When it comes to striking hard and striking fast, Stark is the faction to do it. One of the many things I enjoy about the core set is that you have two factions that have radically different playstyles. Just like it is in the books, the Starks and the Lannisters are probably the two houses most different from one another. While the Lannisters rely on debuffs and abilities that stop your opponents from doing what they intend, Starks are all about battlefield combat and maneuver. They see an opening and go for the jugular just like the Dire Wolf, their house sigil and in doing so, deliver massive damage to the enemies and leave them reeling. With Commanders like Robb Stark who can take maneuver warfare to the next level, or Roddrick Cassel and his ability to exploit the Vulnerable enemies, the Starks are the faction you want if you want to destroy the opponent's army rather than play the more drawn-out game of politics and scheming.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the Stark units or playstyle are just centered around this niche. With both the Lannisters and the Starks, there will be Commanders and units that will change the regular composition from what you expect from the two factions and that's always a good thing. For example, on one side, you have the fast-moving and lightly-armored Umber Berserker that has built-in Sundering (-1 to defense saves) and their attacks increase when you lose ranks rather than decrease. You compare this to the rock-solid Tully Sworn Shields with the Shield Wall ability and good luck trying to break their 3+ defense saves from the front. This unit variety not only keeps different playstyles fresh and exciting but also gives units legroom to perform depending on the game mode that you play. Either way, when you think about Starks, their humble foot soldier in the form of Stark Sworn Swords move 5, have excellent morale and rolls 8 dice just because they can. When you pop Stark Fury on them, they gain +1 to hit and Critical Blows on their attacks (6s deal 2 hits) at the cost of D3 models to your own unit. If that's not a healthy representation of angry Northmen I don't know what is.
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| Winter is seriously coming. |
When it comes to Tactics cards and NCUs, Stark is pretty straight-forward: It's all about Combat and Maneuver and taking those zones will be extremely rewarding. Catelyn Stark can remove a condition from an afflicted unit while buffing them so they're attacking with max dice, and Sansa Stark can instant tutor for any tactics card you need, even if it's a previously discarded card. That is great tactical flexibility and I have her in almost every single one of my Stark lists.
Well, that's about it for the high-level overview of which armies you will get in the core box. With so many different commanders, tactics, NCUs, and units to cover, list building deserves its own article. I'll take you guys through the basics of list building and show you a couple of Lannister and Stark lists tomorrow so you can better grasp some of the things discussed today.
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