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QnA
1)What is your most memorable gaming moment from this year?

I'll echo Matt's #2 & #1 for Video Gaming, the Boss Rush at the end of FFXIV's initial main story is amazing. I'll also echo his mentioning of the Brushfire Tourney at TWSW, it and the Megabattle at Templecon in the beginning of the year were my favorite tabletop moments of 2013... Especially freaking Catyr out with my Amamimoto.

2)What resolutions have you set for the new year?
The standard lose some weight/get in better shape, and try to be less stressed.

3)What OTL release did you enjoy the most this year?
The Exomorphism stuff and Tamatama.

4)What are you looking forward to, from OTL, in 2014?
My avatar finally getting a model.
Dungeon Densetsu started from one of my ideas, and I'm looking forward to working on it more. I've started to gather the supplies to build a few of the Dungeons as proper tables, we'll be bringing them to shows for people to run through.
Same with Brushfire's 10th faction.. even though I'm not sure which it will be just yet. We might end up posting basic outline/playtest PDFs of the last 4, and letting folks vote for which they want first.

To help give a little oomph to what Matt said, here is what our final, final boss fight looked like in FF14:ARR


1)What is your most memorable gaming moment from this year?
It's tough to say, I want to say EFT but I've done that for all the other answers, but I'll probably have to say entering the Crystal Brush, seeing EFT be released, and just playing games with my friends, especially at GenCon

2)What resolutions have you set for the new year?
Paint my Endless stuff
Paint my Deadzone models (though this might be paint my Trollbloods)
Paint my Minotaurs army for 40k
Spend less than I did last year i.e. paint more things.

3)What OTL release did you enjoy the most this year?
Endless and Exomorphs. The Exomorph sculpts that I've seen have all turned out really well, and the idea of supernatural always sits well with me and who wouldn't love to see a game they worked on get published

4)What are you looking forward to, from OTL, in 2014?
More Endless

5)What event from 2013 most impacted your life?
Seeing EFT being released. I've never done worked on anything creative like that before, and to see the book published and have my name in it, gave me the warm fuzzies.

QnA
What is your most memorable gaming moment from this year?

Keeping with the trend I will give my top few.

3. Gaming bachelor party – a friend was getting married and instead of a traditional bachelor party he threw a big game night. That is the first time I had the opportunity to play Cards Against Humanity. My favorite card is “Being a M…F...ing Sorcerer!”

2. My first full game of Endless Fantasy Tactics (first posted battle report) – It was great! After dissecting the rules for a couple months it felt amazing to actually put things out on the table. Some plans went well, some plans went poorly, but in the end it was very close and came right down to the end. It made me feel like a kid again, and is the first miniatures game my wife has really enjoyed.

1. Sharing my passion with a new generation of gamers – Hmmm…that could be taken poorly now that I reread it. Most of my gaming this year has been running a D&D Encounters table for a group of primarily high school age kids. Watching the kids learn and grow has been a rewarding experience, but there are two moments that really stood out. First, one of the kids who has been playing with us for a few years has stepped up as a backup DM when we have too many players for our usual table. In another memorable moment a young player went to the trouble of arguing with an NPC and disobeying orders she was given because of her character’s moral objections. For any of you that have played Murder in Balder’s Gate the party had been living and working with Rilsa (in Little Calimshan), for a few weeks when the cleric decided that their latest mission had crossed a line, and verbally confronted Rilsa. It really got to the heart of why I love role playing.

2)What resolutions have you set for the new year?
I’m sensing a trend with people’s resolutions.

-I want to cook more, and healthier, I want to get regular aerobic exercise, and I want to keep flexible enough to still do the splits.

Close behind those are my hobby resolutions.

-I want to paint more, but more specifically I want to get a system down for my modeling/painting. Right now everything is too haphazard and disorganized. I think the thing that would help me the most to get more done is to organize my work space and get a rhythm or order to my work. Right now I feel like I’m randomly throwing paint on things.

-Build a one piece EFT demo board

-Work on improving my putty/conversion work.

What OTL release did you enjoy the most this year?
-The EFT rules. The EFT figures are great but without a fun and interesting rule set I just wouldn’t have become invested. The EFT rules and artwork really pushed me back into miniatures games again.

What are you looking forward to, from OTL, in 2014?
Beastman Engineer!!!!! All the EFT releases are exciting, but the Beastman Engineer has been toward the top of my want list from the beginning. Past that I don’t NEED anything for EFT, except to play more games against more people.

The Brushfire line is all still new and exciting to me. There is plenty out that already makes my “to get eventually” list, but I would be most interested to see some figures for another Zabar unit, either corsairs, veldt hounds, or the cheetah tracker perhaps. ...and the Aquitar starter re-release

What event from 2013 most impacted your life?
That would definitely be my wife’s persistent health issues. My daily routine has been thrown for a loop. I manage my time much differently now, and I still feel like things haven’t quite settled to the point were I can get consistency, or know what to expect week to week.

Let's see...

1)What is your most memorable gaming moment from this year?

Videogames:
-Dust - an Elysian Tail: It's like this game was made for me.
-The Humble Double Fine Boundle: (Brütal Legend, Costume Quest, Pscyhonauts, Stacking) I played all of them, I liked all of them.
-Alan Wake: I managed to play it last year. It was amazing.

Tabletop:
-Smash Up!: My tabletop group has the problem that only half of them would like any given game, except thisone. This is a really great game that is easy to learn and hard to master. It's somehow appeals to everyone in my group too. So it was a good choice.
-Pathfinder: I don't like D&D for a couple of reasons, so I was suspicious about Pathfinder, but after I tried it turned out to be just what I wanted from an RPG. Now only if I could rewrite my old campagin to Pathfinder.

2)What resolutions have you set for the new year?
-Nothing, really. I'm not that type.

3)What OTL release did you enjoy the most this year?
-I've enjoyed the Brushfire v2 beta a lot. Somehow it is still hugely problematic to get someone to actually play with, but I hope that will changes soon. So it's the v2 Brushfire.

4)What are you looking forward to, from OTL, in 2014?
-Gotz von Frederwerk . I don't know what's the relase scedule, but given what I managed to piece together from the posts who do know, it's Gotz. Secound place is for the plastic rats, otters and ferrets.

5)What event from 2013 most impacted your life?
-I had a huge debate with my friends over the RPG system we were playing until now. The main problem is that we like the world of that RPG(it's World Tree), but the actual system is complete garbage in every possible way. All year we where trying to fix it or replace it. It got so far as it started to shake our friendship apart. Fortunately that didn't happened, but it isn't over yet either.

 Galen wrote:
That would definitely be my wife’s persistent health issues. My daily routine has been thrown for a loop. I manage my time much differently now, and I still feel like things haven’t quite settled to the point were I can get consistency, or know what to expect week to week.

I hope your wife's health issues get resolved soon Galen. :(


1) What is your most memorable gaming moment from this year?
I'm going with two here:
1 - Having my terrain displayed an used at big conventions. It's a first for me, having mostly worked on personal and club stuff before. Thanks a lot for the opportunity Matt and Cyp.

2 - The game Relics, by Tor Gaming. I'm in love with that game. The minis are fun, the system is cool, the fluff is funnily sick and twisted. My great find of the year.

2) What resolutions have you set for the new year?
Usual stuff, like eating better, exercising more, etc. My health have been getting worse for the last 4 or 5 years, all due to me ignoring (voluntarily..) the issue, and I want to change that direction for the better this year.

Hobby wise, I'm not set yet. I had my Model a week challenge in 2013, that I completed just in time, but I'm not sure what I'll go with for this year. I know my painting speed have gone up, so just repeating the same challenge doesn't really seem "challenging". I might go for a terrain challenge, or a competition level challenge. I also want to get more of my games at a painted playable level. I did paint a bunch of stuff, but it was for so many different lines that no projects really got done.

3) What OTL release did you enjoy the most this year?
Getting my Endless Fantasy Tactics pledge! Time has been too short to get it to the table since it came in, but I'm looking forward to Templecon to have a game or two with other EFT fans.

4) What are you looking forward to, from OTL, in 2014?
That's a toss up between the EFT printed book, and a Platypus model for Brushfire. If it is a merc working for Mare-Civitas, even better.

5) What event from 2013 most impacted your life?
Getting diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. I always blamed my fatigue problems on me not sleeping enough (more of me ignoring signs...), but I mentioned those to my doc during a check-up, and after some tests, I got diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea. I had something like 80 stops an hour, which amount to not really sleeping at all. I could have had my license removed with those results. I now sleep with an air mask, which does seem to help. Now, I just need to get those hours of sleep, to help the mask do its work...

So I haven't done this for a while, but I would like to say something about a few mechanics in Brushfire. Namely the charge reactions and the evasion rolls.

At least my experience whith charge reactions that if your troops have any available, they will not be chargerd. At all. Provided the opponent knows about it. Being a good sport I warn them, so, yeah... However since a model doesn't have to charge an opponent model to get in B2B whith, so if you could react, it can be bypassed.
It happened to me many times that the enemy rushed to B2B to my Shrew Hussars, but not charged them. The opponent still get's a melee phase and I will not get my special reaction. I guess they silently rushed in not to frighten the kiwis whith a loud charging. The goal is of course to block the kiwis because if a model starts it's turn in melee it means no charging or ranged phase. A.k.a, the Hussars are shut down and that's worth way more than actually killing them.
The rest of the common reactions are also kinda bland. If you charge anything whith anti-charge or counterfire, you giving them the first blow, so why would you ever do that. Brace takes your squad's activation away on top of the need of a shield and only two of the eight melee weapons have AP anyway. The +1 AR is nice though.
Counterattack can potentially give you a double activation, but if the opponent manages to kill most of the models it hit in b2b, you cannot close the gap(maybe I'm wrong about this) and you waste your chance to disengage.

The other is the evasion roll that is kinda lackluster. No luckys, no crits, no decision making, you are generating a random number to add to your defense value. That's it. The attack's success also depends on a random number, so having it depend on two makes no difference. Okay it makes in a mathematical sense, but that's not the point. It makes the resolution of a melee attack twice as long. Without it the attacker would be able to resolve it's melee phase without involving the defender. Who could plot it's next activation instead of rolling that dice.

Sharing your special abilities with your opponent is definately a good idea. Players should both know each other's army lists, and sharing it helps those who have not familiarized themselves with the ins and outs of every unit.

Figuring out ways to avoid or survive charge reactions is a big part of Brushfire, along with deciding when the benefits of charging outweigh the effects of charge reactions. As Shrew Hussars are lighter units, their integral movement flexibility lets them avoid having to charge, but they are also losing the +2 MS, and with their low MS, that makes them walking/rushing into melee not particularly effective. Melee combat is best used by them to finish off an opponent, and they should do their best to pick units that have already activated, or will die from a combined ranged volley/charge attack, so they do not have to worry about retaliation. This whole concept is an intentional design to force the player to think about these give and takes strategically before making a decision.

Generally the charge reactions are not much of a choice. Which charge reaction you pick generally becomes fixed (in a strategy sense) with a particular unit, even though you have options. A unit like Mouse Conscripts with shields operates almost completely as an objective holder/speedbump to slow down enemy units. They are going to use Brace as often as they can to give them that extra AR.

Also remember that weapons that are not in the 'basic 8' can also have AP, special weapons on Exemplars/Heroes or the like.

You are correct that you cannot close the gap after killing models in BF. This is intentional, it encourages the players to think about their model positioning and also to consider using their regular movement to get into a flanking/fan position, and then use their charge to close in, letting them hit more models at once.

From my personal experience with wargaming, the LACK of an evasion roll is far more lackluster. Your opponent's turn becomes a completely passive experience. Sure, the player is not making any decisions related to the Evasion roll, but neither is the attacker making decisions about the dice roll. It is simply an attempt to keep the defender involved in the game, not a facet of tactical play.

I see, but what I wanted to say is if you are facing something like Rat Raiders that have Anti-charge ready and your options are move-then-charge or rush-for-double-movement to close the gap, it's a no brainer what to do. The Rat raiders have 1 ES so the +2 MS is not necessary at all, even if you end up with 0 MS because of the rush, you can kill half of the rats that get hit easily.

Charging on the other hand would end up in a lot of casualty from your side, potentially the death of most of the models that made it into B2B, so you might not even going to attack after your charge.

If you think about it, choosing the rush method somehow bypasses the spears that are pointed forward in both cases.

And the annoying thing about it is that the Vandalands player had outmaneuver you to have this situation in the first place. He managed to move his raiders ready to charge you and you weren't been able to charge his rats after they where activated in the previrous turn, he is expecting the rats anti-charge to protect him and then you walk trough his pikes as they weren't there in the first place.

I have two suggestions:
-If a model is moving into b2b with an enemy model in a way that it rushed but not charged, the enemy model can threat this as it was being charged.
-If a model is moving into b2b with an enemy model in a way that it rushed but not charged, that model cannot perform a melee phase in it's activation.

This is an intentional tactical choice. Remember that you can shoot into close combat in Brushfire. The charger in your example has to make a decision: Is the squad of rat raiders more of a threat than what might shoot the charging/rushing squad? If he charges, the Rats only get to make Anti-Charge with their pikes, no attacks with their shields as they do not have Anti-Charge (You can't make Counterfire with melee, its all the same idea). So the damage out put when charging is reduced, even though the accuracy is increased.

When rushing into melee, when the Rat Raider's turn comes up, they make two attacks per model, PLUS as your unit has rushed, they are at 0 ES (if they are a not Cavalry, or only 2 ES if they are) This has opened you up to to Ranged attacks which are more guaranteed to hit, and less likely to hit the Rat Raiders. Or what about if objectives are important in the battle? Perhaps the possibility of getting that Charge Reaction is too juicy to your opponent, and you make them waste an activation when you charge. If you rush, they still have a chance when their turn comes around to sit back and think about the battlefield at large. Your squad is no longer a direct threat, they could just walk away and claim an objective/attack a better target, etc. Sure they could not charge react during your charge, but what kind of player is your opponent? If they're impulsive, perhaps they can't resist charge reacting. You're not just playing against your opponent's army; You're playing against your opponent.

There are positives and negatives to each, and some are more outweighed depending on your target, your attacker, and other situations on the battlefield. As the player, its your playstyle that determines which decision you make.

Okay, then, but just a couple of things. These are my experiences:

Vandalands have no five resource ranged unit, while everyone else has (maybe the Cult also doesn't have it) and in Vandalands usually half of your models are raiders. Killpoint is the most playable mission type(where the enemy models are the objectives), and the biggest battle I have ever played was 100 RS.

Also that means Anti-charge is nothing but a beginner-trap as it's effective mechanic is "This unit cannot be charged".

A Warlord with Have a Drink on Me as their boon gives you 5FD/5GD Viklanders, which have the stats of 10FD models with bows that can fire twice or cause Fire. A decently flexible option.

Killpoint is the most common, but if we only design a game around killpoint, it severely reduces the interest in playing another other objective type. There are 6 mission types listed in the main rulebook, before counting alternative objectives as listed in the Visiting Hours thread. Before you play, consider rolling a d6 (or d10 if you add other missions) and pick one randomly from a list. With the objective type unknown ahead of time, you may want to consider designing a list that is more flexibile and not simply designed around killing.

Against heavier units, Anti-Charge is less powerful. with only 1AP, the guarantee to hit can be outweighed by the lack of shield damage (an extra 2DE with Targes)

Additionally, as we agreed earlier, its appropriate to apprise your opponent of what your units can do. Rat Raiders with Pikes causing Anti-Charge shouldn't be a secret. Beginners are not people, in any game, that should be abused for cheap victories. If they do 'fall for the beginner-trap' It would be nice of the winner to walk them through their strategies, and point out 'here you actually had a choice, you didnt HAVE to charge my units..." et cetera.

Charging your unarmored 5 FD models into an exemplar could also be considered a 'beginner trap'. Oh that one lone guy can't be TOO tough.

I just can't imagine a situation where I'd rather charge into a possible anti-charge counteractivation than rush into melee.

Isn't the whole point of the anti-charge capability would be to force the opponent into charging you? What else would it be good for?

Forcing your opponent to rush instead. Making them vulnerable to ranged attacks.

Forcing your opponent to pick another target. Altering the flow the battle or protecting objectives.

Deterring or Severely damaging squads that perform Cavalry Charges. Those models cannot just rush if they're trying to hit multiple squads at once. Cavalry Charges are most successful when they are getting the first hit to avoid powerful enemy counterattacks.

Sometimes its not always about actually getting your effect to trigger, but forcing your enemy to make a less than ideal decision.

 WhiteRoo wrote:
I just can't imagine a situation where I'd rather charge into a possible anti-charge counteractivation than rush into melee.

Isn't the whole point of the anti-charge capability would be to force the opponent into charging you? What else would it be good for?

Anti-Charge is to force your opponent's hand. If your rat raiders had swords and shields, I would charge them without hesitation, fearing no ill effect. That way I get my normal movement, and my charge into melee getting all the bonuses from charging, etc... If you have your weapons with anti-charge, now I have to weigh my options. Is the unit I'm charging with able to 1) take the anti-charge hit, and 2) able to accomplish what I want them to do without the charge bonus? If the answer is no, then I do w/e I can to make sure that I don't charge you, but still get you into melee. If the answer is yes, I charge with that unit (hopefully an anvil unit), I let you get your anti-charge off on me, I survive and then once your models are tied up, I then charge in with a hammer unit that would be torn to shreds by your anti-charge.

The anti-charge forces me to re-think who attacks that unit and how I attack them. If I have to devote 2 units to killing 1 unit, then I'm putting more resources into it than I should be, and thus you're winning that "battle" as it were.

I hope you guys don't mind that I drag about this.

The Daymio's Bushido is based on anti-charge.

Bushido(4)
"Additional Effect: The Daimyo’s Squad may make Anti-Charge as a Free Activation against Target Squad."

The first three ranks acts as a taunt, but the fourth will simply never trigger as actually charging his squad is never forced. But since you can rush into melee whith him, this rank is suprisingly useless especially for a fourth rank skill.

Because it's a free anti-charge, it's on the opponent's hand to give the Daymio a free activation. And it is a bad idea to do so.

Not at all, I'm enjoying the discussion.

You are correct, it is a bad idea to charge into the Daimyo with Bushido Rank 4. But...

Not all models will find their Rush bringing them into B2B. If you have a speed of 5, and the Daimyo is 11-14" inches away, your squad has to rush and either charge or do nothing.

If they do nothing. Theyre out in the open. Ribenguo has a number of ranged units that will be happy to shoot you.

If they charge, then the Daimyo and his squad attack first, but the Unit is less likely (again, deterrent) to be the target of ranged attacks in melee. But the Daimyo's squad does get an extra set of attacks.

It is definitely a bad idea to give the Daimyo a free activation, but by that logic, one should never move into 5" of a Legionnaire, because you're giving them a free activation. The strategy for dealing with a Legionnaire is to never move into melee or utilize a charge range exceeding 5". The strategy for dealing with a Daimyo is to rush into melee or not move into melee at all.

Sometimes abilities are just deterrent, but I am not a fan of flat out stopping someone from doing something. Sometimes the choice a player is given is a choice between 'correct' and 'incorrect'. Rather than simply forcing the player to never have the option to choose wrong.

However you are not forced to move toward the Daymio and given the 25% terrain rule, hiding is propably a better option in the first place.

But even if you are somehow forced to move towards the Daymio, not charging him if your rush distance is too short is simply the better option as you are at the open anyway and giving the extra attack to the Daymio will not going to solve that.

My problem with the deterrent ablilty philosophy is that it's an arifical roadbump in learning the game. If two option is given and one is better, it's only a choice until you learn which is the better one. After that the choice is not a choice anymore.

It will flat out stop people to do it. It's just lenghtens the process whith one or two encounters whith the problem.

In the end, everyone will learn how not to give the Daymio his extra attack, so people will not spend their hero ranks on Bushido 4 in the first place.

Right, the entire point of Bushdio, as a total, not just rank 4, is to deter or lockdown an enemy unit, and if your target is just sitting there, hiding, then Bushido has done its job, and if the Anti-charge forced them to make the decision between Rush+Charging, or hiding and doing nothing, then the talent was worth it.

I'm not saying it always will be worth it. IF all of your choices are so cut and dry, or so bland as where the assumption is always that you took rank 4 of your talents, then it makes the possibility of Hero builds boring.

We don't always succeed at this, but R4 should never be the holy grail of your talent selection. It should be on par with any other choice of talent rank you might make.

Yeah, you're right.

Still, all charge reaction abilities boil down to "this unit most likely will not be charged". And that feels wrong to me.

 WhiteRoo wrote:
Yeah, you're right.

Still, all charge reaction abilities boil down to "this unit most likely will not be charged". And that feels wrong to me.

Nah, it just changes when you charge them. Remember unless otherwise stated, to make a charge reaction you can't have activated that turn. So if you want to charge something, you hold off, seeing if your opponent is going to try something else with them.

This is also tactically where the idea of hammer and anvil units come into play. A hammer unit is something that can dish out a lot of hurt, but can't always take a lot of hurt. Sometimes you get a unit that can do both, and those are generally called deathstars (as in big things without a lot of weakness). Anvil units are a unit that has lots of wounds, good armor, and a high ES. This unit probably can't put out a lot of hurt, but it sure as hell can slow something down. So you charge the unit that you're afraid will use it's charge reaction on you with your Anvil and tie them up. 2 things happen, 1) They use their charge reaction on that unit or 2) They don't use their charge reaction on it, hoping to kill that Anvil unit in melee on their activation. This gives your hammer unit the perfect opportunity to charge in without retribution, taking out that unit that you are afraid of.

I see now how it was intended.

However this means that some model's signature move -like the Shrew Hussar's Birdmen of the Plains- will not see much play, and whitout those they just feel off. It's not like it has no effect, but it's not as it is advertised.

Or it requires more effort on the opponent's part to overcome.

Birdmen can be counteracted by a Cavalry Charge, or by flanking the Hussars, so they have nowhere to flee to. Are those options worth it? Cavalry Charge is easy to use, but if the Hussars are lined up with Rat Raiders behind them...You're less likely to Cav Charge in anticipation of the Anti-Charge from the Rat Raiders; and The amount of time and effort to flanking the Hussars could be outweighed by simply taking an effective shooting unit instead. It is up to the player to decide how to deal with each enemy unit.

But there is no need for that, you just rush up to b2b whith them with an anvil unit from 8' and BAM, they can't use ranged attacks or rush next turn, or react to that. Use a hammer unit instead. they have 2 ES and maybe medium armor, if you can make two attacks per model on 0 MS, you still going to hit enough to kill one or two. And this is when their couter activation is up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Seems like against every single unit whith anti-charge or counterfire a working tactic is to rush up on them. You maybe able to keep these units out of charge distances, but rush distances are longer.

Maybe it's not the best tactic, but it works every time. You don't need to outmaneuver and charge the Hussars or the Fox Shinobi from a specific angle, charge the raiders when they don't have their activation ready or give the Daymio his free anti-charge, just rush into B2B whith them.

I guess it's not that big of a deal when you have a 200 RS army and your squads move in pairs, but I think this is supposed to work even on 30 RS.

Why can the unit not rush or make Ranged attacks on their turn? As the 'anvil' unit has completed their activation, the target unit can move away freely without retaliation and shoot at anything other than the anvil unit.


You are correct though, it is intended that there are loop-holes to avoid charge reactions. The game is designed that way on purpose. We're just showing you situations in which the loop holes sometimes don't work, or points when you may wish to perform the standard maneuver anyway.

Even games that scale, never scale 100%. Some rules break down at small numbers. We have a variant rule set if you're playing below 50 Resources called "Warband".

Each model activates individually, and armor is restored at the end of a game turn instead of an activation. If you're playing at small resource levels, try using that instead to balance out some of sharp imbalances.

I got confused whith that one. I thought by some reason that models that start their turn in b2b may not rush, charge or make ranged attacks.

But It only says that a model cannot move back from enemy models to charge in to the same models, and if it's in b2b whit enemy models at the begining of the ranged phase, they must skip it.

Damn, I feel stupid.

I wonder how easy it would be to transfer ff14 things to EFT... like a primal fight.” - me

”That probably wouldn't be difficult you'd have to design a boss like that - Matt

”Yeah, I'm trying to think of how to deal with Hate…” - me

That’s how all this began. After a recent kick back into Final Fantasy 14, I though about those boss fights at the end of raids, the big ones where one misstep can ruin the party, but victory tastes so sweet. I always liked the idea of a bigger than life boss vs a party of plucky adventures, and some of my favorite games are games like Dungeons and Dragons, Super Dungeon Explore, etc… but in those games it’s always the players vs the game master (though DnD it’s co-op around the table). This poses a few problems, mostly that one person always ends up as the bad guy, so I was trying to figure out a way to bring the Aggro mechanic of popular video games to the table top. Zombicide has it’s noise mechanic as an example of this. They may not be doing the most damage, but they are drawing attention to themselves, but I wanted something that would allow EFT solo play based on how much damage you do to a boss. So we started kicking the idea back and forth to have Boss fights that players could run themselves. This new “Ire” mechanic is simple to use with a little paper work.


An example of how Ire Markers (the target symbol) and Ire Tokens can look on the board (the green dice)

A few tokens and markers, and you can have any number of models fight your party and try their best to take you on. Now this won’t replace the feeling of playing a real player, but it does let you roll some dice and push some models around, which is great if you’re just unable to get a bunch of buddies together for beer, pretzels, and gaming.

The mechanic, at it’s most basic level, functions like so: You target the boss with a command, you get a token, you roll 6s on that command, you’re drawing more Ire (and tokens!), the more Ire you have, the more likely you’ll wind up on the brunt end of a Boss’s big attacks. The boss has multiple activations a turn, and has preset commands he can do during any one of his activations, but be warned, if the boss can’t target the model with the most Ire, he may just wipe it all and pick a new victim.

I had two guinea pigs valued playtesters play this mechanic with me on Thursday night, They decided they wanted to play a 12 crystal party (awesome large battles!), so I took Boss Yazz's stats (see attachment) and scaled it up for the game. 1 Boss with 50Hp, and multiple actions a turn. In the first turn he managed to kill several models, and things looked grim for our plucky adventurers, but a well timed Holy Feather brought the Gunsmith back into the fight, and the players really started to take advantage of their status effect commands and Yazz's Weak Spot ability. Soon Boss Yazz was looking to kill some adventurers and was down a might 35hp, but the adventurers fought back, and managed to kill Yazz without suffering too many more casualties, I had a blast running the game, even though I did nothing more than roll Yazz's attack and defense rolls, but it was cool seeing the party figure out the weakness of Yazz (with a little prodding ) and fight back to win the scenario. I've already started working on more bosses for the future, and I'm excited to see how they play out.

Below you'll find the basic rules to run a boss in Endless as well as an example boss to take home and play in your own games.

Endless: Fantasy Tactics - Big Boss Fights!
Boss Template:
Bosses may be played at their current Crystal cost, but players and Campaign Managers may scale the difficulty mode of their Bosses. For every Crystal a Boss is scaled up, they gain 5HP. For every five Crystals a Boss is scaled up beyond their first Crystals, they gain an additional Monster Action Card 1. So if Boss Yazz was scaled to be a 10C monster, he would gain 30HP and an additional Monster Action Card 1. If he was scaled to a 12C monster he would gain 40HP and still only have one additional Monster Action Card 1.

Monster Actions:
Players will set their first turn initiative order and then shuffle the Monster Action Cards and place them in the initiative order, separated by at least 1 player model. Players may change their Initiative Order as per normal, but when they do they switch with another card in their party and not with a Monster Action Card.
X = Monster Action Card, [] = Player Party Card
Starting Initiative Order Example: []X[]X[]X[]X[]X

Reading Action Cards:
Every Boss has a number of Action Cards that determine what that Boss does on that Boss’s action. Each Monster Action Card lists 1 or more actions that the Boss may do that turn. To determine which action is used, Players and Campaign Managers should check the conditions of the first action listed on the card. If the Boss can take that action against the model with the Ire Marker, then they will do that action. If they cannot, then they will move down the card until they come across an action they can complete.

Ire:
When playing scenarios with AI Models, The Player’s models gain Ire Tokens from performing certain actions. Each Command that targets an AI Model earns the Acting model an Ire Token. Each result of a 6 on dice rolled against an AI Model earns an Ire Token. Each Command that causes a Heal effect, even if it does not target the AI Model earns 2 Ire Tokens flat. When a Model exceeds the highest number of Ire Tokens on any other model, they earn the Ire Marker. The Ire Marker remains with this model until another model exceeds their number of Ire Tokens. If two or more models are ever tied for the highest amount of Ire tokens, give the Ire marker to the model that most recently earned an Ire Token. At the end of the Round, all models lose their Ire Tokens. The model currently in possession of the Ire Marker keeps 1 Ire Token for the next Round.

Ire Wipe - If a Boss monster cannot complete any action on a Monster Action Card, they will move to the nearest model and make a Basic Attack. Remove all Ire tokens from models on the board and give that model the Ire Marker with 1 ire token.

Status Effects:
Every time a Boss’s Monster Action Card comes up in the initiative order, they activate as though it were a new activation. This means that they get a new Move Phase, Act Phase, and a new Status Phase.

Adventurer’s Tip: Bosses suffer through status effects faster than normal monsters, but they also have buffs for a shorter amount of time too!

Eventually we will have boss fights for every boss in Endless that run on these rules, that way players can either play with the models using the rules in the Endless rulebook, or they can set up a boss fight and see if they can survive.

It wouldn't be an On the Lamb Games Visiting Hours without the conjugal visit er questions!

1 - What is your favorite moment fighting a boss whether it's in a table top game, board game, or even in your workplace?

There are two that stick out to me, both of them are video games. The first is the final boss fight from Final Fantasy 7. I was like 10 years old, and had spend hours upon hours trying to get the best stuff for my party and beat the various weapons. I had a few ultimate weapons but didn't have the really cool stuff. So one day, I was like, "I'm going to try and beat Sephiroth" So I went in, beat his first form pretty quickly and then spent like 45 minutes to an hour working on his second form. There were a couple of times where I thought I was going to die. Then when I got to the third form, I was like, "okay this is it, I can do this." Normally I ran my party with fury since 90% of the game couldn't kill them before they got to use their limit break, so I'd get it, use it, and then heal up, and this had been my tactic with this fight as well. Cloud took a shot to the face and died. I phoenix down'd him and fully healed him, just before Sephiroth used Meteor, which killed everyone in my party but Cloud (because he no longer had fury on him). Well it filled Cloud's limit break, so I used it. And with very little health left, Cloud took out Sephiroth right then and there. My 10 year old self was ecstatic!

The second time was during Twilight Princess for the game cube. Link has always been my long time favorite video game hero because he was left handed in the games, and being left handed I thought that was pretty fething cool. So after not beating Wind Waker, I decided I was going to put everything aside, and spend the 60 game hours or so touted as being in the game. I got everything you possibly could, and when I beat Gannondorf in that final, epic duel, I beat him at a game time of 59:59, had a blast playing that game.

2 - What's your most hated boss mechanic

Mine is more of a general disdain, but it's in roleplaying games. I'm completely fine with making the fights a challenge, but the biggest 'mechanic' I dislike both as a GM and as a player is when the boss monster has a counter for everything you can do. The last time I played Pathfinder, it was during the Skull and Shackles campaign. Our pirate crew was tracking down a spy network and we had gotten to their hideout. We bust in, swords and spells blazing, kill a few bad guys, and then make our way up to the boss's area. The boss was an alchemist that could take potions of Improved Invisibility (so she didn't reappear after making an attack), she had fire resistance (so our Goblin Firebomber was useless), so we couldn't find her, we couldn't damage her with AoEs, and she eventually picked us off. But that's more of a rant than anything.

3 - TempleCon is in a few weeks, will you be attending? If not, what pieces of news from the show are you hoping to hear from a company attending the show (it doesn't have to be OTL, we won't be sad, we promise)?

I've never been to TempleCon, so I'm mostly excited to just see the show, and with Warmachine and Hordes picking up in my local venue, I'm excited to hear/see some of the news from them as they tend to make pretty big announcements at TempleCon (at least they did the last few years). I'm also most excited to see the OTL crew again, since I haven't seen them since GenCon, and I'm excited to play some games

1 - What is your favorite moment fighting a boss whether it's in a table top game, board game, or even in your workplace?

Final Boss fight in 'Link's Awakening', the nightmare shadow dude that would change into different bosses while you were fighting him. LA was the first Zelda game I ever beat, so it holds a special place in my heart.

2 - What's your most hated boss mechanic

DPS races in MMOs.

3 - TempleCon is in a few weeks, will you be attending? If not, what pieces of news from the show are you hoping to hear from a company attending the show (it doesn't have to be OTL, we won't be sad, we promise)?

I'm looking forward to playing some new board games, seeing lots of folks, and answering whats up with our Facebook header.

1 - What is your favorite moment fighting a boss whether it's in a table top game, board game, or even in your workplace?
My Games from the 2013 in Review post quickly jump to mind, the Giant Beholder from Dragon's Dogma, or any of the bosses from FF14's The Praetorium, but I think I'm going to have to go with a DnD/Pathfinder boss.

Our group was exploring a bugbear keep, and finally burst into the main office/throne room, and at the end of the hall/gauntlet of bugbears, stood an 'Ogre King'. As the big bruiser Half-Orc, I was like: "That guys mine!" Get first initiative, Charge, and just start slugging into him. 20+ Damage a hit from power attacks, cleaving into surrounding bugbears and just dropping them like flies. He returns hits in kind, dropping me to low hp. At the same time, the group's other fighter joins me, keeping the bugbears off my back.

Meanwhile in the back, the group's Wizard finally stops looking for treasure, and flings a Magic Missile at the Ogre. Rolls minimum damage. The Ogre dies. In game, totally roleplaying, no actual rage I swear, I slug him in his stupid wizard face. "MY KILL!" Demanded that I make the non-lethal damage rolls. Knocked him unconscious in one hit. Quite satisfying to defeat that wizard.


2 - What's your most hated boss mechanic?
The universal assumption that bosses are immune to all status effects. In most games, status effects are useless against regular 'trash'. They die to quickly that using spells with such effects are just a waste of time, mana, spell slots, what have you. Boss on the other hand, where such effects would be very useful, are immune. Drives me nuts.



3 - TempleCon is in a few weeks, will you be attending? If not, what pieces of news from the show are you hoping to hear from a company attending the show (it doesn't have to be OTL, we won't be sad, we promise)?
I'm sure the answer is assumed, I will be there. I'm looking for the same fun vibe and congenial nature that we were met with last year. Also looking forward to running some OTL events, including the Brushfire Tourneys, and Endless Boss fight events!



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Cyporiean wrote:

1 - What is your favorite moment fighting a boss whether it's in a table top game, board game, or even in your workplace?

Final Boss fight in 'Link's Awakening', the nightmare shadow dude that would change into different bosses while you were fighting him. LA was the first Zelda game I ever beat, so it holds a special place in my heart.

Oh man, the bird boss of Dungeon 7! I loved the sections of LA that went 2d. Reminded me of some of the early Ys Genesis games, and of course, Zelda II. (or any Metroidvania)

Dat nostalgia, Link's Awakening was my first video game. Parents got me an old grey brick and that for my 5th birthday.

1 - What is your favorite moment fighting a boss whether it's in a table top game, board game, or even in your workplace?

Anyone played Brütal Legend? In that game during bossfights you have to command an army and take down the opposing base (in the game's world it's a concert stage) while keeping yours safe and pay attention where the enemy commander is because only you are strong enough to beat him. You have to manage resources, summon the right kind of units and use your spells (guitar solos) right. In the last fight you have to drive a car into the eye of a greater demon.

Rayman Legends and Origins also had pretty neat bossfights.

In pen and paper, I can't really say. The DM of the last campagin had an innate sense to botch those.



2 - What's your most hated boss mechanic?
I can't really say. The boss having a huge amount of defensive capabilities is annoying, but in the same time players have the tendency to make bossfights as unepic as possible as well. In one instance my party run into the boss, and the GM goes: "He is pulling his sword and it's dipped into some kind of liquid. Probably poison". First turn the bard casts a laugh spell on him and the warrior knocked him prone. Then he was kicked to death basically by the angry mob of players never being able to swing his blade.

And that is to be expected really. I play a gunslinger, so if any badguy shows up with a magical weapon, I disarm them as soon as I got initiative. I also like to shoot casters when they are in the middle of casting spells. In a role playing game of Highlander, My character would poison his blade and carry a machine gun as well.

I don't like charm spells, but that's because those lock you out of the game. If your character gets charmed, you are out for the fight. It happened to me once.