Arrived in Indianapolis very late on Wednesday (a three hour trip that took six because of damn road construction- I hate traveling anywhere except during the winter because of road construction).
Thursday started off with a couple of quick games of King of Tokyo. A basic Kaiju board/card game in which you tried to develop the baddest monster and either winner by points or killing off all your opponents.
Thursday started off with a couple of quick games of King of Tokyo. A basic Kaiju board/card game in which you tried to develop the baddest monster and either winner by points or killing off all your opponents.
A fun little quick game (less than an hour) that I'll have to get sometime. Out of the five new to me games I played this is probably the only one I'll buy. One hint for playing the game, try to keep your monster out of Tokyo. I no that doesn't sound right, but the monster(s) in Tokyo get pounded on by all those outside.
Played a free game of Settlers of Catan while waiting for my evening game (the coupon book came with a coupon for a free ticket to a Mayfair game).
The evening game was Retro Raygun.
Played a free game of Settlers of Catan while waiting for my evening game (the coupon book came with a coupon for a free ticket to a Mayfair game).
The evening game was Retro Raygun.
The Author of the rules, dressed up as Ace McQuire, Galacteer, somehow talked his daughters into dressing up as a Space Pirate and a Valkeeri. You can never go wrong at Gencon wearing a costume.
The game was the Galacteers vs. the Robot Legion in the search for the Galactic Key. Some where, beneath one of the structures, lay the vital Galactic Key, that would give the possessor great power. You just have to fight of the enemy, destroy the shielding devices, open the vaults to the underground to find it, and successfully get it off your table edge. Nothing could be easier ;)
The game was the Galacteers vs. the Robot Legion in the search for the Galactic Key. Some where, beneath one of the structures, lay the vital Galactic Key, that would give the possessor great power. You just have to fight of the enemy, destroy the shielding devices, open the vaults to the underground to find it, and successfully get it off your table edge. Nothing could be easier ;)
Some of the Robot Legion's initial start (Legionaires lead by a Centurion, a couple of Warbots, and a swarm of Minibots). I have got to get a better camera, my wife broke my old one and bought another that is only fit for taking pictures of people, not close ups of miniatures.
Some of the Galacteer initial setup. Two squads of regular soldiers, with Dr. Zahn, Jane Hunter and Comet the Space Chimp accompanying them.
One Galacteer Squad seized the high ground by flying to the top of a mountain. They quickly flew back down behind the mountain after taking enemy fire. In this game you can shot across the board (except through very heavy cover)). Even when there is jungle between you and the target you can still shoot (at a small minus). The only reason to advance is to seize an objective or engage in hand to hand (some units like the Minibots and Hoverbots have no ranged weapons).
Because of this infinite range Queen Meckanica (lower center), after the first move, just sat back at her end of the board with her squad. With her ability to force attackers to discard their best attack and defense die she and her troopers slaughtered many a Galacteer (though the guy running claimed they just ran off and only the robots actually were destroyed) and didn't loose any robot in her squad until near the end of the game, when the Centurian was hit. In this game a hit on a squad "kills" that squad. The only way to avoid this is to have a "hero" with it to get hit instead. Then you can "kill" the hero, instead of the squad. The players on the other side didn't realize this at first and kept their heroes running around separately. While the heroes were useful, this made it easy to kill a squad, which usually had more firepower than a character.
On the right the large and imposing Warbots and Warbot Destroyers (the ones with heavy rayguns instead of hands) advanced. Despite being very dangerous looking, bad die rolls limit their kills on the Galacteers to Dr. Zahn, who was running about on his own.
On the left great masses of Galacteers advanced lead by Ace McGuire. Simon-6 split off from the unit he was with to advance on his (its?) own
Using the Vault as cover (it being one of the few things that would stop direct fire) the robots advanced. A horde of Minibots leading the way, closely followed be a Centurion with a squad of Robot Legionaries, and a Warbot.
The Warbot destroyed the force field generator and the Centurion opened the vault. Meanwhile the Galacteers blaze away at the Queen's squad doing no damage, while her squad's return shots destroy some Galacteer squads.
Through the open door the Centurion and his squad descended to the lower level, unfortunately attracting hostile creatures and natives to the Robot Legion
Such as the Giant Bug.
And the Aquaclops, which managed to destroy a Wabot. Both monsters kept the Warbots on the right busy.
The horde of Minibots advance but were downed by fire by the Galacteers. Hordes are a kind of unit in Retro Raygun. Even if not destroyed by fire or hand-to-hand they still lose one member each time they are shot at or fought. Their big advantage is rather than a set number of dice to roll in HTH, the number they roll is based on the number the remaining members of the horde. This makes them very dangerous in HTH.
For instance this horde of Hoverbots destroys this unit.
Then this one. Akk!! what a bad photo. I've got to get a better camera..
Before losing to Comet the Space Chimp. Notice the open vault door? Good old Comet managed to Discombobulate it (that's his special skill) by monkeying around with it (sorry about that pun). Jane Hunter rushed into the Vault before the door shuts behind her. There the Centurion and his squad make short work of her and soon found the Key
Meanwhile, on the surface, the Warbots finally kill the Giant Bug, but the Aquaclops battled on. The Queen's squad is finally hit after a multiple shots, but is not destroyed because her Centurion bravely (can a robot be brave?) stepped into the shot.
The other Centurion brought the Galaxy Key to the surface. After dodging some last desperate shots, he escaped off the board. A win for the Robot Legion.
I found the system to be good, quick, and rather bloody. Our Warbots seemed to be a waste of points (one even fell to a horde of four natives with spears) and the Minibots only served as shot magnets. The Hoverbots speed let them destroy two squads. Queen Mechanika's ability to force the other side to remove one success on defense or offense proved very handy. Ace McQuire also had that skill, but it didn't work out for him as well. The main problem the Galacteers had was not putting their Heroes in their units. You could sacrifice the unit to save the Hero or sacrifice the Hero to Save the Unit. They also didn't use their Jetpacks well. With them they could move 24 inches (though they couldn't shoot when they used them). Instead of spending time trying to open the Vault on their side of the board, they could have flown a couple of units across to the Vault the Robot Legion opened and use that to get to the Key. Though with the hot dice I was rolling with the Queen's squad, I'm not sure even that would have worked.
I found the system to be good, quick, and rather bloody. Our Warbots seemed to be a waste of points (one even fell to a horde of four natives with spears) and the Minibots only served as shot magnets. The Hoverbots speed let them destroy two squads. Queen Mechanika's ability to force the other side to remove one success on defense or offense proved very handy. Ace McQuire also had that skill, but it didn't work out for him as well. The main problem the Galacteers had was not putting their Heroes in their units. You could sacrifice the unit to save the Hero or sacrifice the Hero to Save the Unit. They also didn't use their Jetpacks well. With them they could move 24 inches (though they couldn't shoot when they used them). Instead of spending time trying to open the Vault on their side of the board, they could have flown a couple of units across to the Vault the Robot Legion opened and use that to get to the Key. Though with the hot dice I was rolling with the Queen's squad, I'm not sure even that would have worked.
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