This was the big one.
We started this one innocently enough: our usual random starting positions (improved now with a handy 1d8 roll…), our usual move of the top and underbody armor to protect the sides better, and our usual opening maneuver of facing off into four independent passes. This would be our longest game, yet… with an unbelievable amount of action.
The opening pass in the upper right went horribly for me. I was starting out in the “tube” so I think I had to turn a little more than my opponent. He came right down my throat and took me out with a few ATG shots followed by a head-on collision. I’d done little damage in return… and I didn’t think I could possibly recover from this setback.
In the upper left corner, we made our pass at each other and I managed to make the 20 or 30 mph D6 turns to turn back on my opponent. In the lower right corner, I did the opposite: I gunned it as I went past and headed for the madness in the opposite drum. I inserted a little role playing into the mix by putting my paint sprayer on automatic after that car got hit on the right side for a massive 15 points of damage. The paint sprayer did not actually cause a penalty to the car that was tailing me: at first it just messed up my continuous fire bonus against the car I was targeting in the opposite drum.
The fourth mini-duel in the lower right corner also went poorly for me. This one ended up being a low speed pivot and counter pivot battle as we both went in forwards and reverse trying to second guess each other. I seemed to take a lot more damage here and even got blurped with a single paint cloud, though I did manage to work off the three second -2 penalty that resulted from that….
With the opening complete, all seven remaining cars converged into the upper right portion of the left drum. I appeared to be losing badly, but my luck finally changed. One of my cars hit the guy that had killed my first car: the damage went through the ATG and damaged the power plant. I rolled 3d6 for the 5th edition fire rules and rolled less than the damage: this resulted in a fire marker. Yee-haw! At the end of the turn I rolled to see how that fire marker would do. I rolled a six: add an extra fire marker! Woo-wee! The pedestrian bailed out and started pestering everyone with his useless SMG. (Note: my opponent reminded me of the chance for fire even though we’d started the first phases of the following turn. We reapplied this rule retroactively only because of his honesty.)
On the following turn, I made a similar shot against my opponent’s second car. I rolled high damage, scored a fire marker after the plant took hits, and rolled another 6 to get a bonus fire marker at the end of the turn. This was insanely fun, though I still felt miserably behind my opponent: he had one car that was completely undamaged…. Mine were all falling apart! (Note: my opponent had allowed me to change the move of the car that fired this lucky shot. I was originally going to stay still and continue to fire at the damaged car I was targeting. Because of his honesty and graciousness, he let be pivot to make this game-changing second shot.)
My car with the paint sprayer turned into the left drum and cut up towards the pedestrian that was shooting from cover from behind his flaming car. (Note: we forgot to check for explosion in this game—that could have really changed things in my favor if we had…!) I rolled to a stop and covered my teammate from the SMG fire with my paint for a few turns. I then fired my SMG at the pedestrian taking cover and completely nailed him. Totally put him into the hospital. (His DP went negative and I allowed him to make a “saving throw” against death considering the arena’s state of the art medical equipment. He rolled an 8 or a 9 on 3d6, so he did survive. But the subsequent hospitalization would prevent him from competing in the final Hotshot round….) The tactic of rolling to a stop and using an SMG seemed to be a pretty good tactic. If I had remembered to apply the burst effect rules, I probably could have done as good or even better!
So I had three cars to his two. My car that had scored the awesome fire marker kills met his end fair and square—the undamaged car that had been chasing my paint streaming car rolled up and cut him down. I just couldn’t pivot away in time. Perhaps I was too greedy to attempt to fire that one last ATG shot….
My car that had gotten blurped by a paint cloud slowly rolled up toward the mess. He’d lost his side armor and was firing furiously at the car that had dueled with him since the opening of the game. I pivoted to protect my missing right-side armor and set myself up to ram that annoying pedestrian with his stupid SMG on the following turn. But that crazy ped used his 4 squares of movement for the rest of the turn to get into position for a final shot at my car! After the turn break, I could only get up to 10 mph. That ped was going 12.5, so he went first! He shot my car and killed my driver! ARGH! There’s no reason that this insane ped couldn’t have drug my driver out of that car and then start driving around again. Instead he just fired the rest of his SMG clip at my last car…. Grrrr….
That left my paint cloud trailing car against two enemies. I slammed it into reverse and went right at the car that had faced him in the opening. I went straight back, slowly picking up speed for several turns, and then curved around the left drum obstacle. My opponent finally accelerated faster than I could, but I still managed to get off every single RL round my car carried. My opponent did a few well executed maneuvers to keep his nearly destroyed side armor out of my arc. The other enemy car was not in the action for some reason, though my paint cloud trail probably protected me from him and the evil pedestrian both…!
I then stopped and put my last car back into first gear and accelerated for the final clash. My opponent’s two cars were just about out of ammo or had their weapons destroyed. Even the pedestrian fired his last shot. The car that I had been targeting swung back around toward me. I think he was going faster than me. I stayed going towards him so I could get two shots off at him. My massive luck on die rolls was not enough to stop him completely. Though I did kill him, in the following phase, his car plowed right into me with a game ending head-on collision. If I had just avoided him for a few more seconds, I could have left the arena in my fully drivable car and kept it…. Ah well, I was completely exhausted at this point and not thinking straight anymore….
I think I could have won this one if I had remembered the explosion and the burst effect rules. I also (for the tenth time) needed to remember that getting in close against my opponent is suicide: he seems to have a knack for putting himself in exactly the most inconvenient spot! I’m not sure I could ever learn to be as evil as him, but I can minimize the number of chances he has to pull off his wickedness. (If I had just turned away one phase sooner….) Still, I wouldn’t have had a chance in this game at all if he hadn’t reminded me of the fire rules, so I don’t have anything to complain about. (Besides, I’d gotten really lucky in the last game….)
All and all, it was an incredible game. Everything seems to work as it should… and the game affects feel realistic for what they are. We still learn new tactics and new rules nuances with almost every game. (I don’t think this game could have lasted near as long as it did if we had left the top and underbody armor in place. That one change would have yielded a lot more salvage value for the winners….)
Yahoo
Driver: +2
Gunner +2
Handgunner: +2 (Extra +1 for ped kill.)
Prestige: +1
Kills: +1
1/17/08 Team Amateur Night Game 11: Stock Joseph Specials at the Double Drum—Crossed the Drum with Cornelius on his tail. Put paint sprayer on automatic. Ducked into the hideaway and stopped to take out a pedestrian shooting his SMG. Fired all RL ammo into Cornelius. Got out of reverse and slowly accelerated… finally killing Cornelius with an ATG shot. Cornelius car still got the head-on collision to take Yahoo down to zero DP.
Joseph Special salvage: No weapons or armor left. (A good power plant, though!) Tire damage: 3, 4, 5, 5.
Tanaka
Driver: +3
Gunner: +3
Kills: +2
Prestige: +3
Hospitalized
1/17/08 Team Amateur Night Game 11: Stock Joseph Specials at the Double Drum— Dueled with Hyena at a speed 5 dogfight. Killed by a pedestrian (Corky Mcswain?) that managed to run into a defenseless side’s arc and fire his SMG through the breach: knocking Tanaka unconscious!
Marla
Driver: +3
Gunner: +3
Kills: +2
Prestige: +3
Hospitalized
1/17/08 Team Amateur Night Game 11: Stock Joseph Specials at the Double Drum— Took out two cars with ATG fire to their power plants—setting them both on fire with the 5th edition fire rules. Killed by Cornelius because she could not pivot her car around in time—she was just a little too greedy for kills….
Fernando
Gunner: +1
Prestige: -1
1/17/08 Team Amateur Night Game 11: Stock Joseph Specials at the Double Drum— Knocked out in an early one-on-one duel with Nesbitt. (Massive ATG fire through the front armor and a ram….) Knocked unconscious.
This game ran from about 8PM to 2AM with a break in the middle for pizza. It showed the Stinger to be a fun car for Amateur Night duels—its weapon to armor ratio is just right. The unusual topology of the Rubberway turns out to be just right for a good match: even on a small map board, you have large obstacles, but lots of space to fight as well. The ramps make for interesting terrain, the overpass makes for a fun shortcut, and the possibility for shots through the top armor are pretty neat as well.
After so many cars being killed because they allowed themselves to be tailed, my opponent and I play a little differently now. We always turn towards our opponents and dogfight now—there’s just nowhere to run in these arenas! My opponent demonstrated the danger of doing a D6 immediately after making a pass: I was on the outside, so I was able to turn onto him from just slightly behind. Because he was going up the ramp, I had the opportunity to kill him and T-bone him into a 12.5 foot drop and a 40 mph ram into the central platform!
A similar pass went well for me on the opposite side of the board. I took out an enemy’s power plant in the opening pass. He opted to coast under the central overpasses—this effectively removed him from the game for several seconds, though he was able to make an appearance at the final show down at just the worst time for me!
One of the opening passes went horribly for me, though…. I traded shots and went past… and kept my speed up to 30 mph, I think. I attempted a pair of D6’s, maybe on separate seconds… but I had to make a control roll to make it work. I needed either 3 or 4 or better on D6 to pull it off and failed it. The awful +3 penalty on the Crash Table turned what could have been a skid into a dangerous spinout. My car rammed the wall and took the driver down to zero DP. That put my opponent back in the game! If he could just get a little more luck, he could eliminate my early lead!
In our previous Stinger match back at Armadillo, we learned that it was in fact not optimal to have your cars in a tight formation. They just seem to get in each others’ way and you don’t maximize your fire the way you’d think you could. My opponent theorized that perhaps a slightly more naval tactic of keeping your ships in a line could be more effective.
In this game, I did have my cars following each other about 6 inches apart. My lead car still seemed to get in the way, though…. As the lead car hurtled toward the ramp and an oncoming opponent, I lost another critical control roll and was killed by my opponent’s ram. He just always seems to pick the most aggravating possible place to move to whenever he gets in close…. My killed car coasted to a stop right in front of the ramp—very inconvenient!!!
My opponent took two of his remaining cars and paired them up at pivot speeds. One of them had the power plant gone, so he was stuck. I took my last two cars in for the final pass—slowed down as I came in and took out both drivers within a couple of seconds. I think the odds were in my favor for this, but you know how this game can be….
That left my opponent with his last car. I think it was the one that had rammed one of my guys. My opponent wanted to keep that driver, but I wanted his salvage. So we played out the final seconds of the end game. Much of it was without phased movement and it appeared that my opponent was going to have the better of the cat and mouse game. Somehow, I got a car up on the top level and managed to come down a ramp right on his tail. He was going much faster than me, but I still got enough shots through his rear armor to end the game. There was only four seconds left on the clock….
Yahoo
Kills: +2
Driver: +3
Gunner: +2 (+3?)
Pestige: +8 – bonus for t-boning Benjamin Kohen off the ramp.
Background: 1/16/08 Stingers @ Rubberway—After a pass, his first opponent turned to go up a ramp, but because we came at each other from the left side of the map, we were both set up for such a turn. Because he rolled really poorly for his reflex roll, he went second… and was Yahoo able to turn with him—but on the outside! He turned slightly to close the distance—at first just to try to get his target in arc for hits without return fire. But then Yahoo rammed his opponent—knocking him off the ramp for a 12.5 foot drop and a 40 mph ram against the central platform! It took him forever to cross the arena. Pastor Halfix had lost his power plant in an early pass and had coasted back into the action by cutting underneath the overpasses. Yahoo sped in, slowed down, and took him down with a final coup de gras.
Stnger salvage #1: No front armor, one MG destroyed, 3 power plant hits, and 11 shots left in his MG.
Stinger salvage #2: 6 hits front, 10 hits left, one hit to power plant, tire damage: (5, 3, 2), and 36 shots left.
Stinger salvage #3: One MG destroyed, 1 DP damage to remaining MG with 13 shots left, power plant destroyed, front armor destroyed, 1 hit to right armor.
Anita
Gunner: +1
Prestige: +2
Background: 1/16/08 Stingers @ Rubberway—Attempted to make 2 consecutive D6 maneuvers, but failed the second one. Spun out and hit the wall and took exactly 3 hits to the driver. Hospitalized.
Stinger salvage: No front armor, no right armor, 2 hits to plant, and tire hits: (3, 2, 4, 4).
Wayne
Driver: +1
Gunner: +1
Prestige: +1
Background: 1/16/08 Stingers @ Rubberway—Forced to maneuver between ramp and oncoming enemy. Executed a major Skid into the worst possible position. Killed by Ho Ho Gingwain.
Tanaka
Kills: +2
Driver: +3
Gunner: +3
Prestige: +7
Background: 1/16/08 Stingers @ Rubberway—Rolled into the final showdown of speed zero Pastor Halifax and the pivoting Chantreuse Smitton. Killed Chantreuse, then maneuvered to tail Ho Ho while he was attempting to run up the clock. Blew through his rear armor with 4 seconds left before the gate would open.
Gamers of Winter: Con After Action Report
February 19, 2009
“If you try to kill all birds with one stone, you end up with lots of half cooked things.” — Reiner Knizia
My friend Earlburt and I had never really been to a con, much less run games at one, so neither of us knew what to expect. As the con date had moved from the MLK weekend in January to Valentine’s weekend, our expectations were pretty low as far as turnout was concerned. Our plan was to simply play our schedule just the two of us if things happened to tank. That turned out not to be possible. Valentine’s Day went as expected: for all intents and purposes, no one besides the folks that registered to demo games showed up. Critical failure! This was so bad, we could not quietly return to our corners for isolated two-player games of CAR WARS. We felt we had no choice but to try to play games with the other demo people so that we all could salvage some semblance of a good time. This turned out to work rather well in the end as we were all serious “alpha-gamer” types with compatible tastes.
The first game of the con was Steve Jackson’s Super Munchkin. This was a little annoying because most of us were familiar only with the original game or else had never played any sort of Munchkin. The rules for powers and origins took us a while to get the hang of and were frustrating enough at first that we were about to drop the game and dig up the “real” Munchkin. We persevered, though, and ended the game with three people at level nine. The game felt like an impossible-to-read version of UNO, with people saving up the “whoop cards” in order to prevent the other players from “going out”.
While I didn’t particularly like the game, it did serve its purpose in breaking the ice. We had two CAR WARS guys, one SFB guy, and one train themed Euro-game guy…. What would be the best game for this mix of gamers? The SFB guy suggested Titan and the Euro-game guy got fairly enthusiastic and went to his car for the game. Being good sports, we went along with this.
Nine hours later, the game board was filled with my stacks of creatures. Exhausted, my two remaining opponents conceded to me after I declared that I had lost my capacity to care about the game anymore. I don’t think I’d lost a single battle… and my king-like “Titan” unit had enough experience points to be able to destroy entire stacks of units by itself.
Titan, in a nutshell, is a brilliantly devised game that combines a strategic level board game with tactical “battle board” engagements in a profoundly beautiful way. The topology of the main board is unique– and fairly hard to maneuver your stacks on. Some “squares” have three choices of movement, and others funnel you along specified trajectories around the board. This makes coordinating your stacks somewhat difficult. (The Euro-guy said this made the game really good for just three-players: a pretty rare thing in games!) Stacks are nearly anonymous, but experienced players tend to know what has been recruited and where– though uncovering the location of the “Titan” stack is a big part of the fun.
The game has a very unusual “tech tree” system that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Most “civilization” type games have a single tech tree for each player that determines what the players can buy or build. Titan has an elegant system for having each stack of counters define it’s place in one of several interconnected tech trees. Each counter stack can recruit specific monsters in specific terrain based on the composition of its stack. Powerful units require you to have multiple instances of less powerful units in order to recruit them. The stacking limit is seven, so your large stacks will often spawn smaller stacks that try to survive long enough to grow into larger stacks. A big part of the strategy of the game is knowing when and how to split up your large stacks.
The monsters that make up your counter stacks are each defined with two numbers. One is your strength number, which determines the number of hit points the unit has and also how many dice the unit rolls when attacking. The skill number (when compared to the target’s skill number) will tell you your target number for your attack rolls. The target will be anywhere from 2+ to 6+ depending on how the skill value of the units compare– with equal skill levels resulting in a target of 4+. The experience value of the unit is the product of its strength and skill numbers. This is the most comprehensive definition of a combat unit that I’ve ever seen done with a mere two numbers. Monsters also have different capabilities depending on their terrain.
The battle board is a small hex map that the attacking and defending units deploy on. Starting positions are determined by the direction that the attacking forces entered the “square”, so the battle maps are really a highly magnified view of the game board. Defenders can recruit a reinforcing unit on turn four if the still have living units relevant to that “square’s” terrain type. Attacking stacks can call in an “angel” unit after they kill a defender as long as they have a hex open for him to deploy into. There is an unbelievably large number of tactics you can deploy in these mini-battles and it was quite bewildering to see the expert Titan players argue about the best moves. We did get the hang of it by the end of the day, though I tended to flabbergast the old timers when I failed to see the “obvious”.
Titan is one of the great games of the eighties. Almost everything about it is bold, cunning, and unusually interesting. The designers achieve their aims (and, yes, the aims of many a geek gamer) with almost no regard for the insane playing time. But it is a thing of beauty, however, and every serious gamer should play it at least once. The new edition is very well done when compared to the original, so this should be a game that’s possible to track down. (I just saw several at Boardwalk and Parkplace in Greenville, SC, so this isn’t just a cult game…!)
The next morning, there were still no folks arriving that weren’t signed up to demo games. Nevertheless, a pretty good game of Federation Commander got fired up over in the corner. The Euro-game guy returned early as well and headed to our corner. He’d said the day before that he’d played CAR WARS in the eighties, but didn’t know that anyone still played it. (He had every issue of ADQ and was very disappointed when subscribers were switched over to Pyramid at the end….) Within five minutes we had three stock Singers blazing away at each other in the Muskogee Octagon.
We really didn’t have to explain much to get the guy up and running– just the bits about handling status and control rolls, really. Earburt and I were essentially human computers executing the game and the Euro-guy accepted all of our rulings. If something wasn’t clearly articulated before a key decision was made, we often let things slide in favor of the “new guy”. We had random starting positions and the Euro-gamer managed to completely blow away Earlburt within 2 seconds of game time. (They had entered side by side and Earlburt made the mistake of turning away from him instead of decelerating.) My car and Euro-gamer’s car ended up circling the arena in opposite directions for a couple of “jousting” passes. On the second pass, I slowed to 5 mph for the pivot and finished him off. The pivot maneuver was a game-breaking surprise and I felt bad for not going over it before the game.
The Euro-gamer didn’t miss a beat, though, and asked to play a second game after that– though he noted that he might have to walk away when his friend showed up at noon. We played a Division 15 game in the Octagon. He took a solid-tire version of the Iron Horse, while Earlburt and I took MG-armed versions of the Joseph Special. We all circled the arena clockwise at the beginning and maneuvered a bit before I took off toward the Horse for a confrontation. Earlburt cut across the arena to get into the action.
I’d exchanged heavy fire with the Horse, and cut past him to try to take cover. Earlburt pursued me to try to finish me off. I cut over the trail of mines to try to get away, skidded across an extra mine counter, and miraculously didn’t set off the mines! Unfortunately, Earlburt got off one last lucky shot that was exactly enough to take my driver down to 0 DP. He stopped to avoid the mines, turned, and began accelerating for the final confrontation. The Iron Horse came back his way at a slightly higher speed and rammed Earlburt into the mines. The tire damage was enough to take out two of his skid-damaged tires, so the Horse simply parked next to him and demanded surrender. Yet another beautiful moment of CAR WARS cinematic action!
There was no question in our minds that we should try to reciprocate. We headed for the “train games” table immediately following the game. We played a 6 player game of Union Pacific with the two Euro-guys, two SFB guys, and (of course) us two CAR WARS referees.
Union Pacific is a building game with a heavy bidding component. Yes, you can build up a train empire… but someone else may get the shares to take it over from you. You can’t just specialize in one or two lines, but you have to play a pretty diversified set of shares that cuts you in on dividends while putting a maximum amount of pressure on your opponents. This was really a unique opportunity: we got to learn this game from two of its National Champions! Earlburt nearly won the game, but I cut him out of the victory by taking just a couple of points from him by playing a share at an inopportune moment….
Union Pacific is a great game. The bidding factor makes for a big contrast with Cataan and Carcassonne. Playing time is less than a couple of hours… and the randomness of the timing of the 4 dividend payouts of the game make for some fun suspense. Just as with Titan, serious gamers should give this game a try at least once. My only gripes about the game are that the various train track types are hard to distinguish… plus the game (I think) is permanently out of print because of the fussy designer that doesn’t care about it…. Oh well.
While we were playing the train game, a table of Munchkin players came in for a gigantic game with all of the expansion sets. They even had miniatures and props. (Nothing like geek chicks wearing viking helmets….) At this point, there was about one paying con participant for every demo person. Things were beginning to get crazy! Relatively, anyway.
Earlburt and I were now a little burnt out from trying to accommodate the other gamers. We came to the con for CAR WARS games, after all. We retired to our corner and began to set up a game of “Rush Hour”. This is a pretty complicated CAR WARS scenario from ADQ 2/3 depicting a duel between two cars in heavy traffic. Each NPC vehicle has a disposition ranging from “rattled” to “irate” and we had no idea how things were going to play out.
After playing out a few seconds of game time, we noticed a game of Cataan starting up and I insisted that Earlburt give it a try. I normally only get to play with just two players, so it was a treat to be able to do the six-player version for the first time. Our brains were starting to get fried anyway, so we went with it.
The six player version of Settlers of Cataan adds a mini-building phase between each player’s turn. This is so the thief-thing doesn’t wipe your hand of cards out so often while you wait for your turn. You can’t trade on that mini-turn, though– so the fact that my production didn’t cover anything that could actually build stuff meant I was often sitting on a large number of cards. The folks that could build roads between turns really had a huge advantage. With six players crowding the board, it quickly became critical that each player claim enough territory so that they could have even a chance of winning. The victory point cards, the most soldiers’ bonus, and longest road bonus were critical to finalizing a win– much more so than in the 2 player games that I was used to.
This game was played by three demo people and three non-demo people– two of which were female. (Party!!) Seriously, though… the fact that female gamers will actually play Cataan is a big plus for it. It gets a little dull competing with hard-core geeks all the time and it was nice to just relax a little and play a genuinely friendly game. The jokes were pretty good. We had an informal competition to come up with songs that referenced the actions of the varying moves. I sang “Everybody Must Get Stoned” when several people harvested their Ore cards. The lady across from me sang “We Built This City from Rock and WHEAT” after coverting a settlement. All an all, it was a very pleasant game.
Afterwards, the girl-gamer next to me busted out the Monty Python themed Flux game. This is a simple card game that allows the rules to be changed and extended as it is played. I happened to win both games. We had many a laugh quoting Monty Python and being silly. It wasn’t until the end that we realized that we should hold back the “change winning condition” card until you could finally take the game– that card just gets changed to often for anyone to win any other way….
It was a good day of gaming. We came back the next morning and there were only two demo tables left. We finished out our big “Rush Hour” scenario. We played in two Kane Firehawks. Kane provided our characters with the cars in order to make real action footage for their promotional materials. Starting the game, I was in the rear. I was sure Earlburt was going to lose. I had 20 shots in my front MG and he had only 10 for his rear FT. He would take pot shots to his rear armor from Annoyed vehicles and would run into the Irate cars before I would. There was no way I could lose!
We populated the freeway with cars that could be expected to be around in 2029. (Earlburt has put a lot of effort into his percentil-dice based encounter charts….) We had counters of the “actual” vehicles… and extra copies of them on our super-sized movement chart. (Thanks for spending all that time with Photoshop, Earl!) This was awesome. It has never been so easy to run so big of a game. I would call out “Hotshot– 2, Chameleon– 1, Rockwell– 1″ and Earburt would move the cars. The main trick was to watch him move the vehicle before calling the next one in order to save confusion. It was a thing of beauty, though.
We careened through the traffic at 90 mph. A Pisces hit my right side with a heavy rocket. We played that the smoke screen blocked line of sight long enough to break the continuous fire bonuses unless the vehicles could still “see” each other after the cloud was laid down. We missed each other for the first five shots or so because of this. Finally Earburt hit me a couple of times and rolled a 6 for damage. We were playing the new 5th edition fire rules, so he then had to roll 12 or less on 3d6. He set me on fire– but I was going 80, so I had a good chance of putting out the fire.
He emptied the rest of his FT ammo into me while the fire he’d started simply would not go out– I needed a one or a two on a d6 at the end of each turn and just couldn’t get it. In desperation, I tried to maneuver through the traffic so that I could do a D3 to help put out the flames, but I failed the control roll. I went into a spinout, but recovered enough to turn it into a T-stop. I failed the control roll for the T-stop (thereby saving the last treads on my tires) and skidded– going crossways in front of the traffic. I struggled to straighten out and skidded into the median. I bailed out into the grass as my car careened into the other lanes. Earlburt swung across the fast lane while taking shots from an Irate driver, completed a 180, and made for the exit we’d just passed a couple of road sections earlier. The Irate driver let him go because he just wanted to see the dangerous road duel come to an end.
We packed up our stuff, but took a second to spend an hour on a demo of Federation Commander. The game eliminated a lot of the fiddly annoying rules of SFB and made several surprising changes, but still seemed to retain the crunchy goodness of the original. We were exhausted, but enjoyed firing off a few overloaded disrupters on a Klingon D7 anyway….
And that was our gigantic high-intensity maximum geek experience of the year. It will be some time before we can top this. It was crazy to drive so far and get a hotel for something like this, but it was almost worth it in order to get to hang out with “championship” level board gamers. The whole date-change to Valentines Day practically killed the thing… and Monday being a work day didn’t help it, either, I guess. One guy said that there was more people at the local game club meeting than at the con. (!!) You’d wonder why folks at the club wouldn’t come out and support the con, but… if you have players for your favorite game already, why would you pay even a measly five bucks to get into a con…?
Oh well….
The experience gave me several insights into the strengths of CAR WARS and how it fits into the overall gaming scene:
* CAR WARS is technically a board game, though it is clearly deep into the “Ameritrash” wing. This is problematic given how gamer tastes have evolved since the eighties, though many serious gamers are still relatively unrepentant.
* Euro-games require people to understand the core rules and strategies– but CAR WARS is a simulation that maps more-or-less to reality. This means you can get casual gamers into a “real” game much more quickly than most other con games. CAR WARS also has a lot less in it that you have to explain when compared to something more fiddly like Federation Commander.
* The most important quality of CAR WARS in a convention setting is its capacity to yield a good gaming experience to 4 to 6 players in less than an hour. A good referee can also run entire games without referencing the rulebook as long as he has appropriate play aids. Most CAR WARS players tend not to develop campaigns and or scenarios to take advantage of these key qualities.
* The CAR WARS setting details add a lot to the game and really help to set it apart from the other convention type games. People just love to come up with snappy remarks about the nationalization of the oil reserves, the secession of the Free Oil States, the egregiously shameless sponsorships of pro autoduelists, and the efficiency of the SDI Star Wars program. The fold-out map of Autoduel America is a particularly good conversation starter.
* CAR WARS is a jack-of-all-trades game. It is a set of miniatures rules, but probably way too silly for most serious miniatures folks. It is a light role playing game, but it is not fleshed out enough to hold the attention of serious role-players. It is a board game, but the rules are complex enough that the average person is not likely to master it well enough to run “serious” events. For a goofy game marketed to casual teenage gamers of the eighties, it was a hit…. But when it is presented to modern gamers alongside the best games of today and yesterday, it doesn’t quite gain the necessary traction to pull in a steady audience. In my opinion, the game provides a wonderful combination of war gaming, role-playing, and board gaming– but it has trouble because most gamers have a decided interest in only one of those three things at any given time. Best-of-breed systems have continued to be developed in the years since the demise of CARS WARS and this leaves the game at quite a disadvantage in spite of the many hours spent refining it in previous decades….
Comparing ourselves to the other tables, we felt pretty good about the quality experience we could offer people. In my not-so-humble-opinion, our custom game aids, mastery of the rules, and incorporation of various setting nuances provide a solid value in terms what can generally be expected in a convention environment.
While I probably have more realistic expectations for what can be done in the “real world” with impromptu CAR WARS mini-campaigns, I’m still not ready to give up on the possibility of a large marathon convention type binge of autodueling action. If we can somehow coordinate with at least two other dedicated fans and also find a well-run convention with a level of participation that suits what we’re trying to do, I think we could really do something cool.
Please contact me if you’re interested in making this happen. Maybe next year sometime, though. I’m completely burnt out on gaming right now!
Gamers of Winter Con: Car Wars Event Details
January 15, 2009
Gamers of Winter Car Wars event details:
February 14-16 2009
245 Division St
Harrisburg, PA 17110
CAR WARS-athon!
Nonstop retro-gaming goodness with the classic Car Wars Compendium 2nd Edition.
Schedule for Saturday and Sunday:
8AM to 10AM Road Duelling Sessions. Challenge the guy who doesn’t know how to use a turn signal to a duel to the death on the freeways of the future. Winners may salvage their kills– and will gain valuable prestige if the match is televised by a local news copter. [Note: this is the perfect scenario to learn the game with. Experienced duellists will be on hand to teach you the rules of the road, but do stick around and pit your character against other duellists in the 10AM arena duel!]
10AM to 12PM “Amateur Night” Session! Launch your new character on a gritty post-apocalyptic track to fame and fortune. Gates will reopen after 30 seconds. You may keep your car if you can drive it out. The last duellist in a car that can both move and fire will have his car completely repaired by the arena mechanics. Duellists win $500 [in game money] per kill they score.
1PM to 2PM More Road Duelling! [New players can learn the rules and get a full game in before the 2PM event. Experienced duellists can settle grudges without those pesky AADA restrictions getting in the way....]
2PM to 4PM Divisionals! Pro duellists compete for the big money in the world famous Double Drum arena in Waco, Texas. Saturday will feature a Division 5 event and Sunday will be Division 10. It’s every man for himself as every driver strives to be in the last drivable vehicle in the arena! Duellists win a cash prize [in game money] based on the total value of the vehicles competing.
4PM to 6PM Role Playing Adventure! Autoduellists try to make ends meet by taking odd jobs as couriers, escorting convoys, and hiring on as mercenaries. Do you have what it takes to become an ace? Or will you crash and burn…?
Schedule for Monday:
8AM to 10AM Road Duelling Sessions. Fire your heavy rockets at the idiot that doesn’t know how to merge onto an interstate! Winners may salvage their kills– and will gain valuable prestige if the match is televised by a local news copter. [Note: this is the perfect scenario to learn the game with. Experienced duellists will be on hand to teach you the rules of the road, but do stick around and pit your character against other duellists in the big 10AM arena duel!]
10PM to 12PM Division 15 Action! Pro duellists compete for the big money in a Division 15 duel at the world famous Double Drum arena in Waco, Texas. It’s every man for himself as every driver strives to be in the last drivable vehicle in the arena! Duellists win a cash prize [in game money] based on the total value of the vehicles competing.
Notes:
Pre-registration is appreciated, but not required.
A second concurrent table MAY be run for events each for those who don’t get onto the first table.
Contact Jeff Johnson at autoduelist@gmail.com for additional information.
Allowed Equipment:
Weapons List: MG FT RL RR ATG MD SD PS OJ HR
Accessories: Targeting Computer, Hi-Res Computer, Turrets, Links, Body Armor, Fire Extinguisher
Hand Weapons: SMG, Rifle, Shotgun, Hvy Pistol, Lt Pistol, Grenade
Rules Notes:
We will run with the rules exactly as listed in Compendium Second Edition unless otherwise noted.
We will use a combined Speed/Range to-hit penalty chart (derived from GURPS 4th edition) and 5th Edition Car Wars Fire rules unless any player specifically objects. In the case of player objections, we will fall back on standard 2e speed and range modifiers and the 2e “variant” fire rules instead.
All players will have a reflex roll of 4 automatically.
All characters will have 30 skill points to spend on Driver, Gunner, Hand-gunner, and Cyclist skills. No more than Twenty points may be placed into any skill.
Arena Ground Rules:
Original “Pocket Box” Equipment Only– but no lasers allowed
All Pedestrian Equipment and Hand-weapons count against the budget
Stock Cars will be provided with a variety of options
If only two or three players show for an arena session, then each person will get two cars to play. We will run simultaneous duels in each drum until there is a clear winner on each side, then open the central gate for a final showdown. If four or more players show, we will play with the central gate open and random starting positions.
We took a six month hiatus from our Car wars 2029 Amateur Night campaign– family matters, long distances, high gas prices, and a general sense of exhaustion conspired against us for too long. But with prices at the pump dropping below $1.70, we received a much needed second wind.
Our last campaign session was months ago. We each played teams of 4 Killer Karts with the only modification being that we moved top and underbody armor to the sides. We’ve played strictly according to Compendium 2e rules with the exception of a custom speed/range to-hit chart (derived from GURPS), significantly more lenient hospitalization rules (derived somewhat from GURPS), and extremely stingy skill point award rules that we cooked up ourselves.
Back during that last session, we played in Armadillo again. The arena is basically a big donut– you’ve got the option of going clockwise or counter clockwise. You see your opponent(s) from far off and have plenty of time to pick up continuous fire bonuses. We did random gate assignments so that it is difficult to get all four cars of a team into formation, plus we encouraged mismatched imbalances in the two to three sectors of action at the start of the game.
I think one of my cars had started off surrounded by at least three opponents. He took several seconds of intense fire and simply would not die. My other three cars were able to get into formation, so we ended up with my wall of cars speeding at 60 mph against my opponents staggered string of vehicles. I would have equalized the imbalance caused by having one of my cars ganged early on in the game like that, but I failed to anticipate a potential ram. I could have gone to 70 and maintained my superiority in the sequence of play, but I dropped my speed. My opponent went up to 60– thereby going first and getting a full two inches of movement on the first phase of the turn: this was disastrous. My fairly-good car was smashed by a moderately damaged opposing car. My opponent successfully cemented his edge.
The endgame consisted of my last car circling the arena at 80 mph. One of my opponent’s pedestrians managed to get into a car that had had its driver taken out. I was severely damaged and facing 2-to-1 odds. I finally succumbed to combined fire to my rear arc– my slow moving opponents simply pivoted to maintain their train of fire. High speed/range penalties were not enough for me to score more than two or three passes.
Demoralized, I somehow managed to lose the stats for my characters from that round. Given that it takes four or five hours to work through everything to get that data, I have been somewhat put out by that. But that’s okay; the game from last night makes up for everything.
After playing a half-dozen games in Armadillo, my opponent suggested that we try out the Rubberway arena from L’Outrance. This is a bi-level arena with ramps leading up to the top of the central obstacles– with overpasses connecting the two together. The smaller tighter layout created a deadly arrangement for dueling teams of Killer Karts– you can run, but you can’t hide! It’s very difficult to shake a tail in this arena; also the central ramps and overpasses force you to maneuver as if you were in a maze– but you completely lack any cover that a maze’s walls could provide. This set up led to vehicles circling around at high speeds and making control rolls constantly.
We utilized our random die rolls in order to determine the starting positions– we really hate symmetrical set-ups because they tend to dissolve into boring die-rolling contests. But the dice ended up giving us a symmetrical setup! I set up (long ways) on the top pair of gates and the top-side gates on either end.
We all came in at 30 mph. My opponent immediately turned into me on the sides where we came in near each other. I reflexively turned away thinking that I could somehow get in formation on the upper level of the arena and combine fire against my opponent’s cars. What really happened was my two cars on the sides were tailed mercilessly. One was hit repeatedly before catching on fire. The other completely lost its left armor, took power plant damage, and suffered a -2 penalty to all skills because the driver got wounded. The driver of that first car to get killed got out and began shooting his smg– he actually scored a kill and ended up shooting his entire magazine before surrendering.
Our other cars rolled up onto the central platforms going head-to-head in sort of a joust. The ramps prevented them from getting continuous fire bonuses, so this was a very brief high-speed pass. My opponent continued down off the ramps on the opposite side while I circled back on top. This left two of his cars effectively out of the game for a second or two– somewhat making up for my tactical error of turning away at the start of the game. As the opposite pairs circled around again, fires were set and damage was done at close quarters. One of my drivers jerked the wheel to get back up on the ramp to the central platform, but he failed a control roll, turned sideways, and rolled into the far wall. We estimated (generously) the amount of damage that went to the driver– and ruled that he had to make two “health” tolls to survive. I rolled two elevens: borderline success. We agreed that he has a gimp cybernetic leg and now walks with a permanent limp.
Though my opponent had a significant edge in vehicles, we again saw how hard-to-be-hit SMG-armed pedestrians can turn the tide of battle. Our remaining pedestrians dueled it out while my opponent’s pair of vehicles sought to gang up on my last car. In the penultimate pass, I luckily set one of the cars on fire. In order to get away from the two deadly pedestrians, I floored it to get to the other side of the arena– which meant to taking a massive amount of fire to my rear. My opponent rolled poorly on several to-hit and damage rolls, and I finally crept into the opposite corner in hopes of ending the match with some degree of honor. An opposing pedestrian pulled an unconscious driver out of a “dead” vehicle, so he would once again be able to double-team me. I chose to stay and fight instead of asking to escape. I missed repeatedly, so my hopes of taking out one last enemy MG with a lucky shot were dashed.
So all four of my drivers survived, all of them scored a point in each of driver and gunner skills, many of them scored handgunner skill points, and three of them scored kills. One of them got to salvage a damaged but drivable Killer Kart. In short, though this was technically a loss for the team, it was a loss that was practically as good as a win. A good time was had by all.
This match reiterated several old lessons and further increased our appreciation for the various nuances of the Compendium 2e rules set. Here’s a list:
1) The 1-in-3 chance of setting cars on fire each turn the power plant takes damage from MG’s is a game changer. There’s less salvage to tally when vehicles lack fire-extinguishers, also drivers end up surviving a lot more because enemy cars stop shooting at vehicles that are on fire. Drivers can slow down to 30 mph and leap out of their cars with no risk for damage, so the fire rules end up putting more armed pedestrians into the equation than you’d otherwise see. Also, the fire rules really capture the spirit of tv action vehicle violence.
2) The smg-armed pedestrian is deadly to a damaged Killer Kart. The ped is hard to hit and the cars are more than likely gunning for the other cars on the map. If a pair of pedestrians can get into position, they can lay down a withering amount of firepower while the cars attend to “important” matters. The smg may even be too powerful for Killer Kart matches. A grenade may have a better chance of taking out a ped than smg fire…. Hmm….
3) Following a strict sequence of play based on speeds and reflex rolls really goes a long way toward eliminating pointless half-inch or 30 degree fudge-fiddling. When we weren’t as clear on this rule, we wasted a lot of time wondering how to deal with simultaneous actions.
4) The arena layout can have a huge impact on tactics and the overall tempo of battle. Combine this with the fact that Car Wars vehicle designs have an equal degree of nuance and variability and you can begin to see how a game like Car Wars can retain its replay value. You have at your fingertips the ability to radically transform the nature of a game session without having to master new rules or concepts.
5) The rule for subtracting three from the maneuver or hazard that causes you to lose control is genius. This penalizes drastic maneuvers on the crash table rolls and makes little dinky D1 hazards much more survivable. It’s also trivial to apply this rule in play. I think they nixed this in the 5th edition game, but this is really one of the rules that does wonders for the “reasonableness” of the game’s events.
6) Another rule that just simply works is the penalty for maneuvering just before firing. You’d think a penalty that lasts for just the end of a single phase would not matter, but it in fact does. The fact that it takes effect only for the end of the phase means there’s essentially no record keeping to manage. Simply put, a guy that does a D6 maneuver to get someone in arc and then immediately fires– that guy will suffer a monster penalty to hit. Guys that twist around drastically without taking time to even out just don’t get to hit much. The effects this adds to how people actually “drive” in the game is significant and does a lot for the general feel of realism.
7) At the other extreme, if you allow people to reset their handling tracks at the end of each turn (as in both the pocket box and the 5th edition rules), it does a lot to keep paper work to a minimum. However, people do really stupid stuff as a result: they’ll do D6’s every single turn and stay at maybe 40 or 50 mph. This leads to lots of otherwise pointless rams and impossible dog-fighting. Yes, it’s more work to track everyone’s handling status and only bringing them partially back up at the beginning of each turn, but the effects on movement decisions are incredibly realistic. Also, the bonuses for driver skill and reflex rolls are obvious and significant. The book-keeping is clearly worth it to us.
In conclusion, Car Wars Compendium 2e continues to impress us with its unsurpassed depth. The returns on player effort are incredible. Other games sacrifice playability for more detail… or worse, they sacrifice the gritty pseudo-realistic TV action violence in return for a clunky accessibility. Car Wars simply hits the sweet spot for detail, common sense, and realism. Yes, there are places where it breaks down, but playing by all of the rules goes a long way toward minimizing the silliness and the unfairness. Given the massive amounts of playing and play testing that Car Wars underwent in the eighties, most things that you could complain about in Car Wars were deftly addressed with simple tweaks to the rules. The rest of the issues can be handled by focusing on scenarios that take advantage of the assumed resolution of the game: ie, armed cars instead of infantry and tanks.
Car Wars is a great game. Its presence on various “top 100″ lists is not for mere nostalgia alone. Technically and mechanically, it is a thing of beauty.
The Battle for Wesnoth: The Best Campaign Depth I’ve Seen Yet– Anywhere!
September 19, 2008
I’ve always loved overly complex games like Car Wars, Battletech, and Star Fleet Battles where each unit in the game has its own nuanced capabilities. Taking such unweildy games and patching together a real ongoing campaign is a lot of work, though… and it is very hard to push the scope to the epic levels that seem just out of reach most of the time. Then there are the huge hex and chit war games that dominated the seventies: you get the grand scope there, but you lose the nuanced uniqueness of the individual units. You’d think that computers would have opened up some vibrant answers to this issue, but even a game like Starcraft has cookie cutter units and a campaign that feels more like a set of scripted episodes than a real war. Good thing we’ve got The Battle for Wesnoth.
Wesnoth is essentially Ogre with a fantasy theme… and without ranged attacks. It sounds weird, but it actually works in practice. Each unit has a menu of attack options that include “ranged” attacks, but it’s all abstracted: you’re still just attacking the unit next to you. If your target doesn’t have a “ranged” attack option, he doesn’t get to return fire. That’s pretty much the whole point of long range Missile-tank units in a game like Ogre, so the mechanics are simplified without sacrificing the tactical options. This design decision makes it possible to have a powerful AI that is fun to play against.
I’ve only played the “Heir to the Throne” campaign so far. It’s huge. It is packed with all kinds of scenarios (move your leader to this point, destroy these leaders, hold out for n turns, etc) and unlike the Starcraft campaign, occasionally gives you choose-your-own-adventure type options. (That small feature doubles the replay value of a large campaign.) Another thing about the game is that you can win all of the individual battles and still lose the war. I played my first campaign on the beginner level and made it to the end by swarming the enemy with tons of cheap units. In the final showdown, I had very few advanced units at my disposal. Some reviewers have criticized the game for this, but in my opinion it’s the key to what makes it a great game. You can’t just focus on narrowly scraping through each scenario– you have to prepare for the endgame even as you accomplish more pressing short-term objectives.
The amazing thing about this game is that you end up mourning the loss of every single unit. Units gain experience for each attack they participate in… and more if they can take out an enemy. As they level-up, they go from being cannon-fodder to gaining new powers and greater mettle. Finally, each unit has two personality modifiers that subtly (but significantly) affect there abilities. Each unit is its own unique little snowflake– and you have to risk them to get anything accomplished. Losing a unit that’s just on the verge of leveling up is especially painful.
Jeffro heartily salutes the game designers and developers that not only came up with this great game, but also implemented it and made it available for free. You guys have done something significant. You’ve somehow addressed a hidden failing that underlies so many of my favorite tabletop games.
Ah well, a game is only as good as its tactics. And as Car Wars showed, action and drama are pretty important too. Wesnoth has it all– with some crazy strategic elements to boot. Here’s some of my condensed advise, followed by a play by play of how it worked out in the first three scenarios “Hero” level difficulty “Heir to the Throne” game.
Scenario 1:
Begin moving Konrad northeast on the first turn after recruiting units. Take as many riders as you can– they retreat better and can also get into attack position-level easier. (The tough monsters on this level in the enclosed space encourage this tactic.) Start working on leveling up a druid now. Get as many units past the half mark as you can; don’t go to level 2, yet; retreat any unit that’s killed an enemy. Soften up trolls with Delfador, finish them off with arrows. Take potshots against level 3 monsters before dealing the killing blow. Consider sacrificing a fighter unit to draw the attacks away from your more experienced units. If you hide your units behind the front of elves in the northeast, they may not leave you a place to attack enemy units.
Scenario 2:
Attack from the northeast with your allied horsemen– there’s not enough allied units to get in your way during the battle this time. Bring back your druid and your units that have high levels of experience. Don’t bring out too big of an army– save back some gold for later. (You may not finish early in this one….) Do not expose Delfador, your loyal horseman, or your druid unless you have fighters and horsemen you can bring in to cover them. A damaged and inexperienced unit can be used as a lightening rod, but remember that the enemy loves to cut around your units to ace your weak druid unit and can sometimes send two or three units to kill Delfador. Attack remaining enemy units with all other characters before you deal the killing blow to the enemy leader– that’s free xp! Units with ranged attacks can slowly “ping” their way up to marginal experience levels by taking many “free” ranged attacks that cannot be answered.
* Units that are intelligent lack other more useful qualities. Consider sacrificing those over more versatile units unless they do indeed survive to level up.
* “Quick” is almost essential in a druid– and also handy in a wizard. You may want to recruit spares until you get quick units and then use the slowpokes as lightening rods to cover your more critical units. (Later on in the campaign, you may also prefer to bring back your “quick” dwarves instead of their tougher compatriots– otherwise they’ll have trouble keeping up with your host.)
* Don’t get into a rut of *always* charging with your horsemen. You take double damage for those, so consider using a weaker attack instead– and consider promoting to the more versatile knight instead of the charge-happy lancer. Charging 3rd level enemies with first level horsemen is generally not going to turn out well– and is generally bad for lancers, too.
Scenario 3:
Send your main host west and send Konrad with a small detachment south. A pair of raw recruit horsemen can work on colonizing villages and covering the rear against wolf riders that break through your line. Maintain about four cheap fighters for screening your units. Do not expose Delfador, your druid, or your wizard– don’t get cocky! Work to allow the druid and the wizard to deal the killing blow as often as you can. If you start the level with several units at half or better xp, try to get them to level up while they’re damaged slightly so you get some free healing. The difference between a marginal victory and a major victory is in how many units you get to 3/4 xp and/or promote to the second level. Do not risk these units! Slow down and use your flypaper to screen them well.
Play by Play:
Scenario 1: 154 Gold, int/dex Shaman at 5/26, int/dex *Hero* at 0/72, str/dex Scout at 17/32, loy/int Delfador at 52/120
Scenario 2: Died… needed more archers and horsemen– maybe 3 each? Maybe needed to use all the cash…. Need more flypaper. Leveled up the scout and the shaman pretty quick. Lost my fighters like crazy.
Scenario 2: Yep… Archers and Horsemen are much more effective than fighters in this scenario. Also… terrain is much better for you if you come up from the South. (Also, the allies distract some enemies to the north, allowing you to fight your opponents piecemiel.) Finished one turn early with only 57 gold for the next scenario. Delfador 81/120, quick/strong Horseman 33/44, strong/dexterous Shaman 9/32, intelligent/dexterous *Hero* 16/72, strong/dextrous Scout 23/32, resilient/dexterous Archer 20/44, strong/dextrous Archer 28/44, strong/intelligent Horseman 13/35. I’d say that the quick/strong Horseman, strong/dexterous Shaman, strong/dexterous Scout 23/32 are particularly good units. Dexterous archers are not a bad deal, either…. I *did* lose my loyal horseman unit– I should have kept him on mop up duty, but stuck him right in reach of two wolf-riders after a botched attack. I’ve got three or four units just on the edge of leveling up. Nice! Now I want a leader unit to make my level 1 units more effective in battle….
Scenario 3: Send your host west, and then build up a 6-8 unit cavalry to send south! I lost a couple of experienced units. At some point things devolve into an all-out brawl. “If Delfador kills this guy and if we gang up on this other guy, there won’t be that many enemies left,” you think. You take out tons of enemies but expose your wounded units. It’s hard to keep retreating when you’re so close to finishing the battle. If the enemy forms something like a line in front of you, you’re limited in how well you can concentrate your firepower. Cavalry coming in from behind can be devastating because you not only get more attacks, but you also pin the wounded units. (Also… heavily damaged units can take a long time to heal if you don’t have any healers in your army.) Here’s my final tally:
int/loy Delfador 16/133 — he leveled up, I think
int/dex Hero 34/72 — Gararal is half way to advancing to level 3! This unit has done some serious butt-kicking.
str/int Knight 20/96
loy/res Mage 34/60 — yeah, I kept him alive; got him half way to level 2, too!
int/dex Archer 32/35 — just on the edge… dexterous, too
res/dex Archer 19/44 — aonther dexterous one… halfway there…
res/str Horseman 10/44 — A tough horseman with extra charge damage? This one’s a keeper…
int/str Fighter 14/32 — halfway there… will probably be my next Leader.
str/res Scout 6/32 — still wet behind the ears… but able to take punishment… is he worth the extra 2 gold to bring him back?
I Beat Infocom’s Enchanter!
May 3, 2008
I’d played Zork III a lot as a kid. I solved several puzzles in it, but assumed that somehow it was supposed to be impossible. I loved to play it anyway… just to do stuff in it and be in the story. In high school, I picked up a copy of the entire Zork trilogy. I got a lot further in Zork I, but still got stuck. Ten years later I picked up Zork I again and and played the heck out of it. I solved many of the puzzles and finally got aggravated at it. Upon reading the hints to a few remaining unsolved puzzles, I was enraged because of the extreme unfairness of them. To “punish” Infocom, I went through Zork III with a walk-through, but was disappointed with what I found out: I was really much closer to solving the game than I had thought and pretty much wasted it. About that time I spoiled the spaceship entrance puzzle in Starcross and the famous Babelfish puzzle in Hitchhikers… also the locked door and the robot puzzle in Zork II. I did manage to beat Wishbringer without any hints, though.
(Spoiling a puzzle with a hint could really mess up a game– much more than someone ruining a movie. Generally there’s just more puzzles behind the ones that are bugging you. It’s kinda the point of the game.)
Anyways… about Enchanter. I played through it the first parts of it about 8 years ago or so. I solved most of the easy opening puzzles and got stuck. A few years later I started again and solved a hard puzzle that had stumped me before, but still got stuck despite my progress. Last weekend I worked on it again and was surprised at how obvious some of the solutions were. I could just see things and a new light and solved some really hard stuff that I had decided was impossible. I think reading– actually reading– all of the text with a fresh eye was the key. The game is packed with hints and clues, but if you play based on your assumptions, you’ll just stay stuck. You’ve got to let the game help you.
(I did need one little hint to finally complete the game this week, but I don’t feel bad about it because the problem was essentially a hinky sort of guess-the-verb type thing. I think I had actually solved that particular puzzle years ago, but the way I was phrasing the commands just wouldn’t work this time through. Ah well.)
Many critics in the post-Infocom “Interactive Fiction” community criticize the Infocom games for allowing the player to put the game in an unwinable state. Modern games that avoid this are missing some realism, but yeah, avoiding this does reduce some of the tedium. In Enchanter’s case, they are at least fair about it: they give a very clear hint that you’ve screwed things up. It took me a few hours to decipher the hint… and then a few more to set things straight, but this problem was really the most satisfying part of the game. I’m not convinced that a game written according to the modern standards can have quite the same sort of depth that Enchanter has.
I love this game. Enchanter and Wishbringer really are two of the best games ever written. Their text-only format give them a timelessness that other games lack. Text adventures at their worst can be more like debugging a computer program than anything else– especially when your hung up on a finicky noun/verb syntax issue, but these classic Infocom games cause you to engage with the fantasy world in a way that rarely happens in other mediums. I especially like the way that hints for the game were translated into the theme and setting of Enchanter. Nothing breaks mimesis quite like having to type the word “hint” at the prompt or having to go to some “Invisiclues” type screen.
I heartily recommend Wishbringer and Enchanter for those that haven’t done a lot of text games like this. They are entirely fair and manage to simultaneously be great games and great stories at the same time.
Well-furnished, indeed….
April 3, 2008
Phil Reed’s office is well-furnished.
