Avvryt: September 2020

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Suzy Cube Update: June 1, 2018

#SuzyCube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity @NoodlecakeGames

What a week!! We are continuing to work hard to wrap things up in time for *redacted*.

28Mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry - The Irregular Option

A few weeks ago I posted on a few of the wargames sites asking for suggestions for options to cover Cavalry options for the Mesopotamia Campaign of WW1. I have some Great War Miniatures with head swaps for the British and some figures from the Minifigs East Ablaze for the Turkish but wanted some more options especially for Indian Cavalry.

A number of options were suggested, sadly Brigade Games aren't avaliable direct in the UK and importing from the US at the moment is just massively prohibitive.

One company that was suggested was Irregular Miniatures who to be honest I wasn't aware did WW1 figures. I visited the website and ordered 6 figures of three different types as a sample. I've painted them up and now it's time to compare them to my existing collections.

First up are the British Cavalry these have the 1903 ammo bandoliers that prevent the use of earlier figures (like Afgan War) but have Colonial Helmets rather than the Wolesley style more common in Mesopotamia. I do have some pics of troops in theatre with them but these figs look more Boer War to me.

The next two pics show them against a base of my existing Great War Miniatures Cavalry, the GWM are bigger by a visible amount, but the two aren't incompatible on the same table. They have painted up quite well but I'm just not sure about the hat. Undecided.

Next up are some Indian Cavalry with Lance, these are probably the best of the three types of figures I bought. Other than the faces being a bit awkward from some angles I like these. For purists I improvised on the lance pennants, as far as I can tell they weren't used in the field so I guessed 👍

Here they are size wise against the GWM British, these look a lot closer than the Brits do, smaller yes, but only a bit. I like these and may end up getting at least one unit. My alternative to these are some Artizan Afgan War Indian Cavalry, I am looking at the possibility of someone 3d printing the bandoliers but I've no idea if it will work.

Finally are a couple of Turkish Lancers, these are more toy soldier like in their appearance but once painted up they look pretty good.

Finally the size comparison, these are next to the Minifigs East Ablaze figures (The horses for which are huge !). There is a big difference in size here, although the figures themselves are pretty similar the Irregular horses look like pit ponies. Again I'm undecided on these, they are fine as figures but the size comparison makes it difficult to justify them in the same unit.

They are well priced at £2.64 each or 8 for £17.60 (2.20 each) compared to around £3.50 a figure for the other two. Website link for the figures below.

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk

DE: New FAQ And Updated Lists!

New FAQ and updated lists.

Ho ho ho, a day after I blog about competitive play and Dark Eldar's place in the meta, GW drops a huge FAQ that extends to all armies and changes the way we play the game.

You can find all the good jazz right here, but I'll sum up the main highlights of how this changes the way I build my armies going forward. Funny enough, DE didn't change all that much and it was really those other armies out there that got a big calibration.

Here are the big highlights from the FAQ:

Smite spam is now harder to cast
Character targeting changed so other characters can't block targeting
Battalions and Brigades now generate +5 CPs and +12 CPs!
You only get one kind of Ignore save wounds
Various point changes (increase to CW units and Dark Reapers)
You cannot have more than 3 datasheets in a 2K game except troops and transports
Soups got hit so you can't mix as hard, you just have to read it
Reserves also changed so first turn alphas are not as devastating

There's a lot of changes here the directly affects competitive play, but my favorite change of all is probably the rule of 3. Not being able to spam is really awesome of the game's health. The soup changes also make it so you can't just bring the most powerful units of all different books into a single detachment and that's awesome. The only one I'm not too sure about is the fact that Battalions and Brigades generate so much CP now. While I can understand GW's intention here to fix the more elite armies limited CPs, this benefits everyone. This means that IG CP batteries with their cheap ass Brigades are in season.. even more so than they were before. Lastly, the changes to Reserves alpha striking is not created equal with all the armies out there. Some are much more effective than others, but other armies are made better when these kind of assaults are part of their strategic repertoire.

With that said, the only thing I'm really bummed out about is the fact that the Farseer, Warlock, and Spiritseer went up in price. I was actually in the middle of writing out a list last night, but now that the FAQ has dropped, I'm going to update all the lists I'm using in one go!

Here they are:

Kabal of the Black Rose

1999 // 10 CP

Obsidian Rose Bat +5 CP

HQ:

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster, PGL = 94

TROOP:

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, SC = 104

+++

Black Heart Spear +1 CP

HQ:

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91

Warlord: Cunning, Living Muse

TROOP:

7x Warriors, Blaster, BP = 69

PARTY BUS:

Raider, Dark Lance = 85

HEAVY:

Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125

+++

Black Heart Wing +1 CP

FLYER:

Razorwing, 2x Dark Lance = 145

>>>

Firepower:

11 Dark Lances at BS3+

9 Dissies at BS3+

9 Blasters at BS3+

3 Blasters at BS2+

3 Razorwing Missiles at BS3+

4 Splinter Cannons at BS3+

40 Splinter Rifles at BS3+

This my pure DE Kabal list combining the range power that is Obsidian Rose with the resilience of Black Heart. I call this my Kabal of the Black Rose and it has been undefeated since the Codex came out. A lot of firepower, a lot of pain.

Alaitoc Black Spear

2000 // 10 CP

Alaitoc Bat +5 CP

HQ:

Farseer Skyrunner = 135

Doom, Mind War

Warlock = 55
Protect/Jinx

TROOP:

5x Rangers = 60

+++

Alaitoc Wing +1 CP

FLYER:

Hemlock Wraithfighter = 210

Jinx

Hemlock Wraithfighter = 210

Jinx

Crimson Hunter Exarch, 2x Bright Lance = 175

+++

Black Heart Spear +1 CP

HQ:

Archon, Huskblade, Blaster = 93

Cunning, Living Muse

TROOP:

10x Warriors, 2x Blasters, SC = 104

Raider, Dark Lance = 85

189

10x Warriors, 2x Blasters, SC = 104

Raider, Dark Lance = 85

189

10x Warriors, 2x Blasters, SC = 104

Raider, Dark Lance = 85

189

HEAVY:

Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125

>>>

Firepower:

9 Disintegrators at BS3+

3 Dark Lances at BS3+

2 Bright Lances at BS2+

1 Pulse Laser at BS2+

6 Blasters at BS3+

1 Blaster at BS2+

3 Splinter Cannons at BS3+

4 Heavy D-Sycthes at Auto

21 Splinter Rifles at BS3+

15 Ranger Long Rifle at BS3+

This is my current DE + CW list and I think it's actually pretty decent. I used it once so far and the combination of Doom/Jinx with DE firepower is just insane. With the loss of so many lances, having the Crimson Hunter in the army actually helps a lot.

Black Skull Strife

2000 // 14 CP

Flayed Skull Bat +5 CP

HQ:

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91

PARTY BOATS:

Raider, Dark Lance = 85

TROOP:

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, SCannon = 104

FLYER:

Razorwing, 2x Dark Lance = 145

+++

Black Heart Spear +1 CP

HQ:

Archon, Huskblade, Blaster = 93

Warlord: Hatred Eternal, Djin Blade

HEAVY:

Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrator = 125

+++

Strife Bat +5 CP

HQ:

Succubus, Agonizer = 54

Blood Dancer, Whip

Succubus, Agonizer = 54

TROOP:

8x Wyches, Agonizer, Shardnet, BP = 83

5x Wyches, Agonizer, Shardnet = 49

>>>

Firepower:

9 Disintegrators at BS3+

9 Dark Lances at BS3+

6 Blasters at BS3+

3 Blasters at BS2+

2 Razorwing Missiles at BS3+

3 Splinter Cannons at BS3+

25 Splinter Rifles at BS3+

This is my close-combat list with double Bats and a Black Heart Spear. This list gives me some great killy units with my Blood Dancer Succubus and Hatred Eternal Archon. I can also choose to go with more re-rolls with Living Muse and Cunning, but I think I'm going to use this for now because I want to be able to play CC armies occasionally. I still stand by what I said before in previous posts: Cults are our best CP battery (especially now with the Bat CP buffs). Gotta go fast!

Friday, September 4, 2020

UCLan Games Design Experience Of WIG Conference 2019

Two of our lovely Games Design students, Catarina Martins and Stacey Satchell were at the Women in Games Conference 2019 last week.
Here's what they had to say about the experience :)

Catarina:

"Can't put into words how inspiring and amazing those couple of days were in London at the European Women in Games Conference. The gaming industry is filled with strong and talented people and I had the absolute pleasure of meeting some of them. Also managed to make really good contacts with very helpful and super nice people which I hope to see again soon!
Now is time to take all the knowledge and inspiration I received and start applying for jobs. Let the new adventure begin!"

Stacey:

"Women in Games was such a wonderful event full of uplifting and talented people from a large variety of backgrounds and roles. From Keynotes that inspired me as a women in the community to panels that taught me so much about the industry as a professional. I left with amazing advice, a positive attitude and plenty of new friends.