Battle Report: Cherry Blossom Forest 5

After we had a rousing round of schedule jenga, we managed to get together last weekend for August's edition of MFZ: Rapid Attack.  We playtested a new set of rules that were brainstormed on the Discord recently.  After sitting out for a year, I put the "Cherry Blossom Forest" on the table for this game.

Occam's Spork (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 49 points.  (Yellow Flag)
   Grey Scouting Bodyguard -- 2Rh/2Rd/1B/1Y/2W.

    Brown Scouting Bodyguard -- 2Rh/2Rd/1B/1Y/2W.

   White Scouting Bodyguard -- 2Rh/2Rd/1B/1Y/2W.
   Orange Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Blue Moving Wall -- 2B/2G+d8/2W + SSR (x3).

Me (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 40 points.  (Tesseron)  (Red Flag)

   Brown Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   White Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

   Red Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Lime Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Yellow Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Tan Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

Phungkyjams (7 Frames & 28 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (9 assets) = 27 points.  (Matoran)  (Blue Flag)

   Red Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W.
   Dark Red Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Sand Blue Light Guardian -- 2Rd/2Ra/1B/1Y/2W.
   Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Green Commando -- 2Rh/1B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR (x2).
   Lime Warrior -- 2Rh/1B/1G+d8/1Y/2W.
   Black Closer -- 2Rh+d8/2Rd/1B/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Round 1 (DDC@11): Occam's Spork's White frame captures Phungkyjams' Flag Station before the game starts.  Occam's Spork's Blue frame picks up his Flag Station and runs South with it.  Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame steps sideways and hits Occam's Spork's Blue frame for 1, Flag Drop Station Dance.  My Brown frame moves South and hits Phungkyjams' Lime frame for 1 and the tree it was using as cover for 2.  Phungkyjams' Blue frame runs Southeast and hits Occam's Spork's Grey frame for 1 and destroys the tree it was using as cover with 3 damage.  Occam's Spork's Grey frame retaliates on Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Green frame hits the tree in front of my Yellow frame for 1 with a SSR.  My Yellow frame then moves West and hits Occam's Spork's Brown frame for 1, Station Dance.  Occam's Spork's Brown frame then hits Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Sand Blue frame steps across the stream and hits Occam's Spork's Orange frame for 3.  Occam's Spork's White frame picks up Phungkyjams' Flag Station and moves South with it.  My Tan frame hits Occam's Spork's White frame for 1, Flag Drop Station Dance.  My Lime frame moves West onto the tan hill and hits Occam's Sporks Blue frame for 3 with a SSR.

Occam's Spork: 56 Points.

Me: 40 points.

Phungkyjams: 24 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 8): Occam's Spork's Orange frame hits Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 1, which then retreats to another copse of trees.  My Brown frame -- after hitting Phungkyjams' Lime frame for 2 -- moves behind one of the rock pillars.  My Tan frame hits Occam's Spork's Orange frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Red frame advances onto the path and hits Occam's Spork's Brown frame for 5, Station Dance.  My Yellow frame hits Occam's Spork's Orange frame for 3, destroying it.

Occam's Spork: 49 Points.

Me: 40 points.

Phungkyjams: 24 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC @ 6): My Lime frame moves forward to engage Occam's Spork's Blue frame, which then retreats to the Southern Torii while hitting my Lime frame for 2.  My Lime frame captures his Flag Station.  

Phungkyjams' Red frame moves Southeast and hits my Lime frame for 3, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams'  Black frame hits my Red frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame hits my White frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Blue frame hits my Yellow frame for 2.  My Yellow frame hits Phungkyjams' Black frame for 3.  My Tan frame hits Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 2, destroying it.  My Brown frame hits Phungkyjams' Black frame for 2, destroying it.

Occam's Spork: 42 Points.

Me: 40 points.

Phungkyjams: 21 points.

Events of Round 4 (DDC @ 3):  Occam's Spork's White frame hits my Lime frame for 2, destroying it.  Phungkyjams' Green frame hits Occam's Spork's Brown frame for 3, Flag Drop Station Dance.  My Red frame captures the dropped Flag.  Phungkyjams' Sand Blue frame hits my Brown frame for 4.  My Brown frame hits Phungkyjams' Lime for 2, Station Dance.  My Brown frame captures his Station after running through the stream and under the bridge.  Phungkyjams' Lime frame punches my Brown frame for 5, destroying it.  Phungkyjams' Lime frame then recaptures his Station.  My White frame runs on to the pathway and captures Occam's Spork's Station.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits my White frame for 3, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Red frame captures Occam's Spork's Station.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 35 points.

Phungkyjams: 24 points.

Occam's Spork: 21 Points.

Here are several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 1

Round 1

Round 1

Round 2

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 3

Round 4

Round 3

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was a Battle.
• We tried out the "Capture the Flag" rules I proposed back in July.
• In the lead up to this game I wasn't sure what I was going to put on the table.
• I knew after the last game Phungkyjams was going to come in heavy and Occam's Spork usually comes in heavy, so I wanted a team that could exploit that without resorting to a roll off.
• Before everyone arrived I was looking at two squads in hopes that I could field seven Frames, six fully loaded and a Missile Monkey to mess around with the PPA calculations.
• Both the squads I was looking at only had six Frames and I couldn't finish a seventh in time.
• Turns out I didn't need to.  :-)
• We all agreed the "Capture the Flag" rules worked but wanted to test them with more players.
• Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop

I had a little time to kill one day after work and before an appointment so I wandered into a Michael's to take a look around.  I knew they carried clone brick sets at one point and I figured I'd have a look see at what they had in stock.  Turns out they now carry Lego but that's a different story.

I wandered into the scrapbooking aisle and saw multiple types of paper with colorful designs and prints on them.  This immediately gave me an idea for a table cover that wasn't made of felt and also had multiple colors, prints, and/or textures that made it look like the covering was multiple terrain types at once.

That was the initial idea.  Later, I had the thought that these paper products could be combined with a felt covering in a sort of "mixed media" effort at creating a cool table-setting.  I didn't abandon the original idea but with PAX Unplugged coming up quickly I got working on incorporating the second idea into the terrain I had already planned on bringing to the con.

This is what I started with.  I've always thought that water was a hard thing
to represent well so a picture of ripples in actual water looked good to me.

I then cut the pages -- three of them -- into sections of straight
lines and curves.  These can be assembled into a straight line or a
series of bends.  This can represent a river, canal, or whatever.

I also had plenty of paper left over to cut into "greebles" or smaller sections

of water.  (And looking at that picture I now have another idea for terrain.)

I took two of those leftover bits and cut them into smaller

sections. It's amazing what you can do with negative space.

Next is sand.  The original idea was using this as a section of beach.

To implement the second idea I purchased more -- this is just

one page -- and cut them into sections to act as a road or path.

Once again, plenty of leftover sections and fun with negative space.

All of these were added to the forest section of the "Sand & Trees"

set-up.  Which then became the "Cherry Blossom Forest" table-setting.

The main problem is going to be storing these so they don't get bent or crinkled.

And I feel like I'm going to be doing enough of these terrain posts that I'm not going to bother numbering them.

Battle Report: Cherry Blossom Forest @ PAX Unplugged 2018

Once again, a few members of the MFZ community have gathered together at a PAX event to do battle.

Shades Corvid (4 Frames & 15 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.
   Watchtower One -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.
   Watchtower Two -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.
   Watchtower Three -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.
   Medium Artillerist -- 2Ra+d8/1B/2W.

Me (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 21 points.  (Samurai)
   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Black Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   White Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Lime Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

Hydromancer (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 21 points.
   Oliphant (anvil) -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1Gd8/1Y/2W.
   Pyragosa -- 1Rd/3Rh/1B/1Y/2W.
   Styx (armored swarmer) -- 2Rh/2B/1Gd8/1Y/2W.
   Rock (binary) -- 2Ra/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Brimstone (hammer) -- 2Rd/2B/1Y/2W + SSR(x3).

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): My White frame jumps up on the bridge and captures Hydromancer's Station there.  He promptly opens fire on that Frame, damaging it and the bridge.  My Yellow frame moves up to the river.  My Black frame jumps over to the other side of the bridge.  Pyragosa and Styx move towards Shades Corvid's defensive formation.  Oliphant moves towards the bridge.

Shades Corvid: 42 points.
Me: 24 points.
Hydromancer: 18 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 8): My Black frame captures Shades Corvid's undefended Station.  Hydromance recaptures his Station with Oliphant.  Pyragosa and Styx make contact with Shades Corvid's defensive formation.  Shades loses a Frame.  My Orange frame moves up  to the river.

Shades Corvid: 28 points.
Me: 24 points.
Hydromancer: 21 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 6): My Yellow frame moves up to Shades Corvid's defensive formation as it breaks.  One heavily damaged Armored Spotter makes a run for it.  My White frame is destroyed during that scrum.  

Shades Corvid: 28 points.
Me: 21 points.
Hydromancer: 21 points.

Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 3): Shades Corvid's zombie frame captures my orange Station.  Then Shades Corvid loses another Frame.  Oliphant captures Shade's Station that was under my control.  Shade's Sniper frame is destroyed.  Styx captures Shade's primary Station.  My Orange frame crosses the river.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Hydromancer: 24 points.
Me: 18 points.
Shades Corvid: 14 points.

Here's a bunch of during/aftermath pictures.

Zombie Frame

Frame's Eye View

Thoughts & Observations:

• A die roll decided the Primary Attacker position.
• I didn't take notes for this game.  At first because I wanted to hurry the game along, then because we were answering so many questions it was impossible to do so.
• So any commentary on this is based on week old memories, the pictures I took, and asset tracking notes.
• This game is the debut for this table setting.
• I'll talk about how it was constructed in a later blog post.
• This was my second game against both Shades Corvid and Hydromancer.
• I loaned Shades the Stations they used in this game.