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FIGHT FOR OLYMPUS - Review

FIGHT FOR OLYMPUS

FOR TWO PLAYERS!!!!!

I think this game is intended for 2 players. It's not always clear what player number is best for a game when it gives you an option for 2-6 for example. Is it better to have 2 to 3 so turns are quicker or 5 to 6 for more in depth competitive strategy. This game is firmly two players as you can see subtly displayed on the box - BIGGER THAN THE TITLE!?

This game claims to be three things (four things if you include the two player nonsense).

1) Easy to learn rules.

     This is true. This took me all of 10 minutes during my lunch break to read the rules and fully understand them.

2) Head-to-head play.

     Really wants to drill in that this is for two players - by the gods, what happens if a third player tries to join in!?

3) Fantastic illustrations.

     Again, true. The artwork is fantastic. But that is the highest compliment I can play this game.

Like I said, this game took me 10 minutes to learn in my lunch break and I feel this game was made in the same circumstances. 

I have not heard of Mayfair Games doing anything other than Catan, which is a hugely popular series of games. Unless they blew all their budget on the art designer, spent months developing the images then only had a Friday afternoon left to come up with a game to go around the concept art.

Board setup.

     The board as you can see is tiny. It's not written on the board but apparently the far left brown section is Troy. Followed by Delphi and finally Olympus - which is what we're fighting for!

     The big purple counter at the top is placed on the 0. That will be the Victory Point tracker. Multi-coloured meeples are placed on the Oracle of Delphi, which are part of the games resource currency.

     The deck of cards at the bottom of the board (far left) are there for both players use - *remember TWO PLAYERS!!! 20 random cards are discarded from the game and returned to the box and completely unused so there isn't always the exactly the same set reoccurring in every game. I would think you could just include them as that deck is not going to run out - even though that is a game ending condition. Must be the will of the gods.

Both players draw a hand of 6 cards.

     Now both players have 6 cards each in their hand, let's have a look in a bit of detail how this game operates. The picture above shows Player 1's hand of 6 cards. They want to play Patroclus. In order to do so, look at the three symbols on the upper left column of his card. To play Patroclus Player 1 must discard three other cards from their hand, one coloured green, one yellow and one red - this will generate the resources to play Patroclus onto the board.

     This is a feature used in one of my favourite games ever, or atleast my newest favourite game which is Marvel Champions The Card Game by Fantasy Flight. Rather than having a seperate mechanic to generate resources and something else to keep a track of, you have to sacrifice other cool things from your hand to do what needs to be done - IT'S THE WILL OF THE GODS. This makes for some tough decisions. Obviously, some cards are cheaper than others. Maybe it's better to play a couple of cards per round but they're cheaper and naturally not as powerful. Or, do you save up a couple of rounds to play a truly legendary hero, such as Achilles. 

     

 An alternative option for Player 1 is to play Telamon. By discarding a blue, yellow and green card he may be played on the board, triggering any special rules he may have.

     "When you 'play' Telamon draw 1 card for each enemy hero in play."
This comes into effect immediately as it is when "played." Unfortunately, at this point in time, there are no enemy heroes in play, so perhaps not the most efficient choice of heroes at this point.
   
     This game is very good at explaining additional rules on the card, when they happen and keeps them easy to keep a track of by including the additional symbols on the card indicating whether they are an immediate one use, an in-game effect and a response action.

Player 1 plays Telamon in Troy.

     Player 1 may now attack. Since there are no enemies to attack Telamon may lay siege to Troy. This area effect or "area bonus" allows you to draw 1 card.
If Telamon was in Delphi he'd take a coloured meeple from The Oracle and that can be used as a coloured resource to help pay for a card, or if he were to attack Olympus he'd gain a victory point and the tracker would move to Player 1's side of the board.

 Player 1 finished their turn by drawing 2 cards from the main deck.

Player 2's hand of 6 cards.

 Player 2 is in a slight predicament. They cannot afford any heroes with their current resources available to generate. However, the soldiers have no play cost! Lapiths, Tauri and Phaeacians require no resources to play. There is no limit to how many cards a player can play each turn - providing they can afford it. But since these 3 soldiers are free...

Whilst two of them have no attack value, they cannot attack enemies or gain "area bonuses" but are just a nuisance to the opponent an help toward one of the end victory conditions.

Player 2 has 6 allies along their board edge.

This is a winning condition. Starting your turn having completely filled all available slots on your side of the board.

     Or by claiming 7 victory points which can battle back and forth between players.
The final end condition is if the deck runs out of cards, then the player with the most victory points is the victor and has won the Fight For Olympus.

This game isn't balanced.

     Having played this five times, the player who gets a good start and a few allies across his board has always been able to gain a huge advantage and it's always been unsalvagable. There is minimal skill to this game. Yes, it's simple to learn but there isn't alot to master. You just have to get lucky with the cards you draw and hope your turns are maximised. Admittedly that goes for most card games but this really restricts strategy, especially when you don't have your own deck to use or customise. There's a lot of compromising and just having to play what you have, despite you being well aware that that particular ally will either die immediately or offer you no gain. You have to keep playing the cards to the board though, because if you don't your opponent can freely fill up their side and just keep gaining "area bonuses" and rack up the victory points, so sometimes it feels like the game is the third player and is helping one of you.
     It feels ideal to play played with a younger player. Despite being aged 12+ this would be a game I'd introduce to a 9-10 year old. Even if they can't grasp it to begin with atleast the huge element of chance and luck involved will still give them a chance. It'll let them see the cool artwork and perhaps show an interest in Greek mythology. For adults, it's too infuriating because either you can't do anything or it's too easy as everything is just handed to you. Of course you have to choose the best card to maximise your turn from what you have but it's so obvious what's the best choice or the worst or what you're stuck with. more often than not, you're just stuck with it.

     Right, mindless rant over.
What are the key points to note about this game?

Pros:
- Lovely art.
- Easy to learn.
- Quick pull out and put away game.

Cons:
- One sided.
- Cheap playing tokens.
- Probably better for younger players.


SCORE = 3/10.

PAINTING THE BACKLOG

PAINTING THE BACKLOG

STAR WARS LEGION

EMPIRE - PART 1

SNOWTROOPERS

     If any of you have been watching the recent Midsussex Wargamers YouTube channel you'll have seen the love I have developed for Star Wars Legion, the new(ish) tabletop strategy game from Fantasy Flight. Famed for great Star Wars games Fantasy Flight have delivered again with this brilliant tactical war game set in the galaxy we all know and love. Quality models, whilst not at Games Workshop standards just yet, each new release improves. 

     Having collected a fair few of the heroes now for both sides including Han, Chewbacca, Luke, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett and Rogue One antagonist, Director Krennic, I now find it time to actually start painting through the backlog.

I have fully painted for the Rebels:

Luke Skywalker - Commander

Fleet Troopers - Corps Unit

AT-RT - Support

     Luke and the AT-RT are from the original core set and these are about as far as I've got in a little over a year. I have painted the unit leader for one of the basic Rebel Trooper units but no further. NOT EVEN A FULLY VIABLE ARMY! 

I have made about the equivalent progress on my Empire models:

Darth Vader - Commander

Stormtroopers - Corps Unit

Boba Fett - Operative

     So with the lack of progress in such a long space of time I figure it's finally time to get on with it! Before I purchase anymore models (for any system) I want to seriously reduce my unpainted percentage - even if that means some batched speed painting!

     As you have seen by the title of this article I have chosen to begin my Empire portion and with a unit of Snowtroopers. Easy enough to batch paint as they have very limited amount of colours to them.

     I start by spraying them white, the colour of snow of course! Followed by absolutely drowning them in Nuln Oil.  *I always use Citadel Paints*

My remaining unpainted Empire.

Sprayed white and literally drowned in Nuln oil.

     After letting them dry overnight from the wash I then drybrush the entire model(s) in Ushabti Bone just to darken them up a little and give a nice effect to the cloth areas under the armour.
     For the actual armour I used White Scar. A really bright white that makes the armour pop out from the creamier coloured cloth. A clean and shiny effect contrasts well against the cloth.
     Rhinox Hide - a very dark brown used on the straps and packs for the time being.
     I have coated the bases in Agrellan Earth texture. When applied thickly it cracks when it dries and makes a truly awesome effect. A few patches of tuft grass and it looks the part!

     I'll leave them to dry for another day before going back to do another wash of Nuln Oil - this time very, very thinly; just to pull out the details. 

     Finally I will just highlight up the off-white cloth and white armour, plus paint the guns black and give a silver/metal trim as well as lighten up the straps so they aren't just one boring colour.

     Once these dudes are complete I will move onto the Speeder Bikes and the last unit of Stormtroopers.

Thankyou for reading this and be sure to look out for the next blog in not too long for further progress!

- MSWG Chris -

Sam's Hobby Corner: Hive Fleet TBD

Welcome back to Sam's Hobby Corner.

Just before the end of 2017, I decided I wanted a change from the Sons of Russ (I know heresy) and didn't want to paint yet more power armour so that only really left Xenos armies. Tyranids have always appealed to me so it was an easy decision to pick them up.

I am still to decide on a fluff Hive Fleet name for my army but in the few games I have played so far, I have used the Leviathan and Kraken Traits. If anyone has any suggestions for Hive Fleet names, send them in the midsussexwargamers@gmail.com.

Test Scheme for the Genestealers

Test scheme for the Termagaunts

WIP of the Broodlord

Genestealer and Broodlord 90% done. 

Since Christmas, I have picked up two of the new 'Start Collecting' boxes and one of the old 'Start Collecting' boxes which I was surprised to find on the shelf during a recent trip to WHW. In addition, I also picked up a couple of boxes of Termagaunts, a box of Genestealers, a Tyrannofex and another Hive Tyrant. Now I have my colour schemes locked in, I am hoping to fly through the painting. I have given myself a soft deadline of the Hobbit Grand Tournament as I am hoping to use all my nids against my good friend Mark.

Until next time, Happy Wargaming!

Sam's Hobby Corner: Steelheart's Champions

Welcome back to the Mid Sussex War-gamers blog. Today, I am going to showcase the first warband I painted for Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire.

Ever since the Stormcast Eternals were released, I have wanted to try my hand at painting some of Sigmar's shiniest servants but didn't fancy painting up an entire Age of Sigmar army. When Shadespire was released, I was happy to see the Stormcasts in the starter box. As such, they immediately went onto the painting tables.

These were remarkably fun to paint and surprisingly quick. I think they took about 4 hours in total.

Next up I am going to be painting the Urruk warband for Shadespire. They have been sitting on my desk since Christmas but I have been stuck for a scheme. At the time of writing, the Fyreslayer warband are up for Pre-order and they look super fun so they may jump the queue.

Outside of Shadespire warbands I am painting up my Tyranid Army as well as trying to paint my Good force for the SBG GT at the end of February.

Until next time, Happy Wargaming! 

Fireworks in Rivenstead Rules Pack

The dust has barely settled from Return to Rivenstead and I am proud to reveal the rules pack for our next tournament Fireworks in Rivenstead.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xmuUjN7mBWhqtBuIg4v85p6GZTCP9jpRASNoyKZkgmI/edit?usp=sharing

Please make sure to read the entire pack as there are some slight changes to the norm. Hopefully it will encourage some variety in army building.

Tickets will be going on sale next weekend (08/07/17).

Warhammer Fest 2017: SBG Open

This weekend just passed saw Games Workshop's new version of Games Day, Warhammer Fest, return to Coventry. You can check out the sales pitch here.

I was persuaded by Mr Ed Ball to attend the Hobbit SBG Open event which was happening as part of Warhammer Fest. 500 points, 2 armies (good and evil), 6 new scenarios. It sounded like a fun event so I signed up. At this moment in my gaming career, I am all about the fun, fluff and theme so I took two matching forces that were so fluffy...

For my good force, I took:

Thorin Oakenshield - King Under the Mountain

Fili, Champion of Erebor 

Kili, Champion of Erebor w/ Dwarf Bow

Dwalin, Champion of Erebor

Balin, Champion of Erebor

Ori, Champion of Erebor

For my Evil force, I took:

Bolg

6 Gundabad Berserkers

2 Gundabad Ogres

1 Gundabad Troll w/ Scything Gauntlets

I picked these forces because they look so cool on the table top. Who can deny the awesomeness that is the charge of Thorin's Company out of Erebor in The Battle of the Five Armies? That was very much my game plan for this event, just charge headlong into every battle like Thorin would do. 

I'm not going to detail every game but I did take plenty of photos. 

One interesting thing to note was that all the tables were Neoprene gaming mats from Frontline Gaming instead of the Realm of Battle boards we are all used to. 

It's fair to say this wasn't my greatest tournament performance but I had so much fun with my armies. 

I finished joint bottom, the 'annoyance' being I missed out on the Golden Spoon aware because I had beat Marc earlier in the tournament haha. There were a few issues with the organisation of the event which threatened to overshadow the entire event but the events team tried their hardest to rectify all the issues. Hopefully they will listen to the feedback and learn and improve for next year. 

There was also chance to go and talk to the Middle Earth team about all the exciting projects they are working on. As always, there were plenty of shiny new toys in the cabinet. In the seminar with Adam, they also revealed they were working on Goblin Mercenaries, Hilda and Percy.

Happy Wargaming!