This is a guest post from Owen at farfaraway.org.
Okay, so continuing this series for newer players I’m looking at two more SR2013 scenarios – Destruction and Process of Elimination. The last two scenarios I talked about were flag-based, but these guys are primarily zone-based with some objectives thrown in for a bit of variation…
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For the next few installments of Hacking the Cortex, I’m going to be changing gears and talking about the IKRPG. Odds are, this kind of random change of pace will happen in completely unpredictable ways based on my awfully fickle moods.
The topic I want to look at for the next few articles is warjack behaviour. While there is certainly a strong element of “a wizard did it” with regard to the functioning of warjack cortices, I always prefer a chunky scientific core to my magic – I tend to assume a certain amount of physical realism when fireballs are being thrown, and thanks to my training I’m totally incapable of discarding psychological realism when sentient characters are involved (Don’t expect my orcs to be mere monsters. Orcs are people too!)
As such, I’ve been putting quite a bit of thought into how warjacks might think, learn, and behave.
Hello again! Unfortunately this weeks installment is a bit shorter than usual since I had a cold for most of the past week. Sorry but I hope you enjoy what there is!
The Mule is Better than Conquest
This thread man, I don’t even know. It wandered to all sorts of weird places and committed the greatest sin of all: directly comparing parts of models. I read an almost page long discussion of which gun is better: The Mule’s steam cannon or the Conquest’s main guns. Seriously. The gun on an 8 point model and the gun on a 20 point model were compared as if equal because they both have Critical Devastation and we all know that things with the same critical effect are basically the same. I know you’ve noticed how Madrak’s axe and Absylonia’s claws are basically the same thing since they both have Critical Grievous Wounds. I’m not sure how I can explain how comparing one part of a 20 point model to one part of an 8 point model from a different faction is a waste of time. If you can’t see that for yourself than may God have mercy on your soul.
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“And I port the stalker the second time, and he’s… yup, he’s got reach on the Lich.”
“Okay, sure.”
“Man, primaled stalker, Def 15, what Arm?”
“22, but Daragh is here and beyond death is up.”
“…So then effectively Arm 24?”
“Yup.”
“What the sh-”
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Infantry machine is dead.
I’m sure I’ve read that somewhere.
Yeah, definitely dead.
Of course, Cryx specialize in all things Dead.
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Last time we looked at some of the core Retribution models and units. For the next three articles I’ll be going through my Masters lists in detail, discussing why I chose certain models, how those choices played out for me in practice before the Irish Masters, how they performed during the tournament, and what changes I am looking at making based on my competitive expeience with the lists. On to list number 1!
In the last two posts, we’ve seen how experts chunk complex behaviours into single actions, and how conditioning processes act over thousands of iterations to produce expert behaviour. The long road to mastery (10,000 hours, and hundreds of errors) is one worth walking, and when you get to the end of it, it often manifests in the form of a “gut instinct” about certain game states. The goal is a certain level of automaticity with regard to the best plays in a given situation.
But as that automaticity begins to set in, there is a dangerous slump in your learning curve.
“I’m going to activate this guy and run.”
“He’s inside temporal barrier, just about.”
“I thought that. And Haley’s right behind stormwall… So. Yup I have the space.”
“Wait… what? You’re not able to feat against Haley tha-“
“SPECTRAL LEGION! ASSEMBLE!”
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And here we go back down the rabbit hole!
Bandwagoners are the Greatest Enemy of All!
You know what sucks about getting an awesome new model that is totally fun to play and brings a lot to your faction? Other slimy players from other factions will want to play with your new toy! People will spend their hard earned money on stuff for your faction! I mean don’t they already have a faction why would they want to experience the fun of playing other models than the ones they already have? Worst offenders: people switching to Mercs for Galleon and people switching to Circle for Lady Goat. I mean why didn’t they do it earlier?
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A long-time Warmachine player takes his first true foray into Hordes, with a twist! This will be a monthly series about challenging yourself in all aspects of the hobby.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Warmachine and Hordes player in possession of a Warmachine army, must be in want of a Hordes army. It is a truth that I was a long time coming to myself. As a player who started playing right at the end of Mk1 I was bitten hard by a bias against Hordes. It seemed like easy mode, and as bad a player as I am I could still content myself that I was playing the “real” game without all the cheating that necessarily attends playing Hordes (also known as the rules of Hordes). My sole flirtation with Hordes was in buying an old metal Skorne battlegroup, as I briefly had an idea of becoming a Pressganger and one of the requirements is having a painted battlebox of each system. But then I heard how Skorne worked, that the best way to get results out of a beast-heavy force was to play them with a unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers. This was all sounding eerily familiar to me as a Protectorate player, so I pretty quickly lost interest in Skorne after a few games and they mouldered away in the bottom of my case. In the end Morghoul got tired of my rejection and abandoned me, so the Gladiator and two Cyclopses were left without even a warlock to run them.
Overload Online 