Some Thoughts on 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons

New Editions

Nothing can divide a gaming community more than a new edition. Warhammer 40K recently switched to 7th edition. It killed the game at the local shop I go too. The numbers are growing again but I doubt it will ever hit the popularity it had. 

Of course the biggest edition war I can think of was D&D switching from 3.5 to 4e. Part of this was due to the magazine license mess with paizo. The other was Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) marketing. They really bashed the old system and did a radical shift in gaming style. Some people loved it others didn't. It didn't help that 3e was so open licensed and 4e was not. In fact 3e license was designed to allow something like Pathfinder to come into being (Not the first game to do it, but the successor game to 3.5).  

So to be fair I feel I should say my experience with D&D. I played Orginal, Advanced, 2e, returned with 3e. A number of very good modules got me deep into 3.5. We mixed it with Monte Cooke's Ptolus and Arcana Evolved. With the open license we added Midnight, Warmachine's Iron Kingdoms, Pathfinder Adventures, etc. My group played 4e for a while but found ourselves going to Pathfinder when it came out. 4e turned into a one shot rpg with a board game feel (as one friend said our alternate descent). In Pathfinder once again open licence has been a big thing with Ways of the wicked, Rappan athuk, Slumbering Tsar, Razor Coast, Rise of the Drow, etc. My group has also played a lot more Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds, Gurps, and Legend of the Five Rings since 3.5.

5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Always starts with the Players Handbook

So first things first, WotC treated this release in a far different manner. Of course many people have changed since the 4e days and they seem to want far more outside opinions. In fact they did a massive open playtest of the system. So what was the result? I will note this is from a read of the rules, haven't played it.

Look and Feel

The Player's book first has some great art in it. Closer to the older style than more recent editions. The whole feel of the book takes me back to 1&2e with modern advances. This actually explains the new system quite well. It feels like what I fondly remember of 2e with advances from 3.5 and savage worlds. Character creations is far easier and you are less likely to drive yourself into a useless corner. That's not to say its balanced perfectly, just that there are less wrong choices.

Part of this is due to the idea of your proficiency score. The progression of base attack bonus, saving throws, skills, spell dc etc are all rolled up into your proficiency score. So a 1st through 4th level character has a +2 proficiency. So making an attack is strength bonus plus a +2 if you are proficient in that weapon. A rogue with dexterity proficiency would make a dex saving throw with his dex bonus and the +2. Skills same idea. This simplifies progression. The slow progression of numbers makes monsters last longer as being a threat. This seems great for something like the Original Temple of Elemental Evil.

Character Creation

The normal stats are here as normal (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma). There is a maximum for any stat at 20, not a first level max but for the characters live span. The first choice is race and then a sub-race. Each gives you various bonuses from skill proficiency, bonus to a stat, weapon proficiency,  or other special abilities. Next step is picking your class which decides your proficiency in weapons, saving throws, spells etc. Each class has a number of sub classes to pick from. These have starting equipment options. Finally you pick your background which also adds another proficiency or two to change your character a bit.

The classes with their various sub classes inside of them give a decent variety. The fighter even has a swordmage subclass that with the proficiency setup seems to be effective. The bard seems useful as well which is an odd thought. The classes overall seem decently put together. Leveling up can easily be done at the table since there are only a few choices needed to be made. 

Advantage/Disadvantage

A character at advantage gets to roll two dice and take the highest. One at disadvantage rolls two dice but keeps the lowest. This is a nice way to give a quick bonus due to circumstances. 

General Thoughts

Wish I had this game back in the old days. It seems to be a great game for a group that wants a campaign of DD but doesn't want the detail level of Pathfinder. In many ways the arguments between using Savage Worlds or GURPS. 

I don't see my ongoing campaign group switching over. They like the options and tactical choices in Pathfinder and like the building of the characters. Another group of friends rpg has turned into board gaming. So I'm trying a Descent Board Game campaign with them. Gets the fantasy story campaign feel, but is a nice board game.

The variety of missions are interesting for Descent. To give an example one is a masquerade that a vampire comes in. It becomes a race between the players and the vampire to find her masked target first. Fighting off her flunkies and trying to find who to protect.

Having said I could easily see doing a one shot or a short campaign with a number of players I know. Its nice and easy rules set and doesn't need much thought out of the session. For those without a lot of time its a great system. I also think it is a great introduction to the hobby. The main problem I see is all the other ideas I have for campaigns. Does Dungeons and Dragons win over Savage Worlds set in American or French Revolution? Wierd War II? Cthulhu Acthung? Legend of the Five Rings? Call of Cthulhu? Delta Green? etc. Doesn't help the first module isn't that great. Doing the Temple of Elemental Evil again could be fun. 

So, in the end seems a game I really wanted years ago. I'm willing to play, just not sure it will fit in.

As a side note, how much my wife and I are more rpg than crunch? First 10 minutes of Diablo III on PS4 we make sure our banners looks right.

Summer Projects.... and the distractions

Summer Miniature Projects

This is the first summer in a while that I am not enrolled in any classes or massive rewrites of classes I teach (note the word massive, not none). So, while I continue working on the reaper models I originally started working on building some Bolt Action and Napoleonics.  Bolt action I could probably get a game in after in a little while. It and the Napoleonics will also work well for some Savage World ideas I have. The Bolt Action models are the standard Warlord Games, while the Napoleonics are Victrix British Peninsular War.

While Wellington used Germans, not WWII era.

The models overall went together well. The Victrix had some flash. but overall was fine. I normally have built heroic scale 25mm/28mm models. Building historical meant getting use to thin arms and weapons.

Slight Change of Plans

A number of people in one of my groups were interested in Muskets and Tomahawks. This combined with the new Assassins Creed Unity Trailer and reading the excellent book Saratoga, won me over to the era. I've had a number of rpgs ideas and always wanted to build the American Revolution to Waterloo. I made some orders and received a nod of fate. A Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy arrived focusing on the era.

One of the more interesting articles was the discussion of the Seven Year War being the first World War. I admit not knowing a lot about the era and enjoyed filling in the gap. Before that my main knowledge was it cost enough for England to raise taxes on the American Colonies to help pay for it. Speaking of paying, I had debated working on a 40k Ork army. I have some models and a new codex was coming. However, for the same price as a unit of 10 Flash Gitz I got this shipment of models....

135 Historicals vs 10 Flash Gitz, happy with my choice

So, what did I get? First sixty French Napoleonics to face my British and serve in rpgs. Muskets and Tomahawks seemed the easiest to get into quickly. So, for that I bought twenty Indians and nineteen Redcoats. Since it is a missions based, I also bought some villagers and a powder cart.

The cart serves double purpose. Without fail, my Pathfinder players always buy a cart.

Now they have one.

The Redcoats and Indians were Warlord Games models made by conquest. Overall they are good models. However, I will say I had a bit of flash on the models. Not, terrible but definitely needed some clean up. This seems to be random. I had one friend get a clean set, another far worse than mine.

Most models needed weapons to be attached. The flag poles given are brass rods. I kept them separate to glue in when the flags are ready. 

Villagers as always are important. Some will serve as objectives for wargames or rpgs. These models and the cart are Perry Brother Miniatures. As always these are great models. I also finished some Reaper Bones large models, some of the few that need glue.

Cardinal Richelieu sneaks in with the bones minis.

Soon they were all primed some with spray and gesso to test the difference.

Painting Distractions

Had to replace the water heater so sat with the dogs to keep them calm. So lots of base coating of large models (needed for Whispering Tyrant/Carrion Crown campaign).

So, trying to focus but the reaper minis come out a lot when I have excess paint in the tray. Which is great in never wasting paint, but tends to increase what I'm painting at any one time.

Next Time: Quick Board Games and New 40K!

Market Garden Ends... Managing Expectations

So our firestorm campaign came to an end with the German's winning in terms of victory points. However, a number of us got together for one big Final battle to drive the allies out. If the allies won they could tie. Each player brought 700 combat and weapons platoons. Ally players could bring 200 points of support each while Germans have 350 points each.

Each side had one player who took a list from a non-market garden list which was balanced. 

You remember the Pershing and King Tigers at Arnhem... right?

We also allowed air support. Allies had priority and Germans had sporadic. Having said that my only good rolls in the battle was air support. With sporadic support I managed to drive off three rounds of ally fighters and have the plane come in twice. Became a joke by the end.

The end of Kampfgruppe Hummel

During most of the campaign I played using Kampfgruppe Hummel. This was a unit put together quickly by the Germans to aid in Arnhem. It consisted of 14 run down tiger tanks. Which made a good excuse why my tanks failed so many rolls, they were old and run down. It also made a decent reason why my reserves never came in. In the end of this battle I had but one tiger left. Hummel was the only survivor. 

Hummel starting with Jagtiger allies

Either way the game was a lot of fun. My main part was to keep allied reinforcements from crossing the board. A double wide rocket template does help with that. Only a few allies got by so mission success?

As I've often seen in flames of war, tanks lost to infantry.  Unfortunately the lose of one players entire tank company the first turn meant that little amount of reinforcements was enough to give the allies the edge they needed at the objective regions. I actually thought it was nice since the campaign ended in a draw so everybody wins and everybody loses. 

Overall I enjoyed the campaign and hope we do another. I'd say even more than that I really enjoyed the big battle format. While the board was a little too small, it was fun having multiple commanders fighting over different parts of the board yet still all connected.

If we do another campaign I do think some limits to books are needed. 

Managing Expectations

So, Market Garden is one of the campaigns I am highly interested in. As I mentioned before, when first getting into Flames I decided to buy both a German and British army from this (in case the game didn't take off I could make a diorama). This meant the idea of doing this as Firestorm was great.

As I said I enjoyed the campaign but I wanted more in a way. Probably more building up things in my head. Missions weren't really specific to what you were doing. If you were attacking it didn't change things, same with a lot of locations not playing a part. Missing some of the map days didn't help. (One time the group started early and one I couldn't make).

The allowing of any book also had a bit of an issue. Most games I played were against Market Garden. One was against a Normandy list with the cruiser of doom. Which is bad enough in a normal game (battlefront is even changing its rules) but a battle  where no one should have air power, your AA options for defense is limited. Add in poor reserve rolls, random location, it definitely put down the campaign for me. I should point out my opponent didn't do anything wrong, we were just both playing the game in a different way.

The bigger issue is FOW is still a point based competitive game not a historical game. That isn't a bad thing but  when you think of it as the other it will be a disappointment. People told me modify your list to make it a front heavy list. Which is a great game advice but makes you wonder why bother with the rule to begin with? Is it to make an interesting mission or make list building the priority? A lot of people like it that way so not a problem, but I need to think on what I expect from the game.

Like I said overall I had a lot of fun, but have to think on what I expect from a game.

Next time, Summer Projects - French Indian War and Reaper

Next Generation Fun

Quick Update

So normally we don't have a lot of down time in the classes I teach (the fun of chemistry). However, my one class is post AP and we had an extra day before presentations (and the traditional ghostbusters was over). So, I promised them they could play some games. Of course the question was what game would be good for a class period?

So, the more gamer style students I had try out Dominion. I was surprised none of them had played a deck building game before. Dominion is a game I think is best to learn while playing. The students took to it quickly and a number asked where they could purchase the game. Success.

A number wanted a simple competitive game without too many new rules. So they went with sequence. Sequence is a mix of cards and tic tac toe. You get a hand of cards and each time you play one you place your team color on the board at a matching spot. You can also remove another teams color by playing the matching card.

That group decided on boys versus girls. Once again a good time was had. First game the boys won, second the girls were slightly ahead but the bell rang.

It was fun to show the students a number of games. I've heard of a number of others (ie d6g) doing this, but we rarely have the time in the course. I probably should have pushed Tsuro a little more too.

Dust Warfare

Dust Warfare

So I had bought a few Dust models on sale for a Savage Worlds idea. A number of guys at the local store have started to play Dust Warfare. We've chosen Warfare since it is a full miniature game unlike Tactics grid based game.

Another Earth. A different 1947. The Second World War has raged for nearly a decade and its grip has spread to every continent on the planet. Entire nations have been stamped out, whole peoples subjugated, and great cities beaten flat by the titanic conflicts unleashed across the globe. Three monolithic power blocs have emerged from the threats, machinations, diplomacy, and outright conquests perpetrated by the major nations’ strife. For some, that victory means conquest, glory, and world domination; for others, freedom – but few now talk of simple peace. This is the world of Dust.

 The Germans in Dust found alien technology and eventually the allies would too. Think Captain America versus Hydra going on for years and expanding the technology. Three factions currently exist. The allies seem to like Phasers and jump packs. Focus on heroes and heroic units. The axis have killed off Hitler and his Nazis, but still have some evil experiments going on. The Blutkreuz have taken over and have made zombie troops, gorillas, etc. They believe they are the "good guys". Similar to Thrawn in Star Wars the Axis needs to conquer the world and unite it before the Aliens return. The third faction is the Sino Soviet Union, relying on size and numbers. I imagine if the game goes long enough the aliens will be introduced as a fourth faction.

The game itself has an extra command phase that units can be given early orders, but lose the ability to do reactions. Reactions allow units to go out of order to respond to an enemy action during the normal turn. Units also receive suppression markers if they are hit in combat. Reaction tokens and suppression markers can effectively prevent a unit from activating during its turn. All of this makes some interesting tactical decisions.

Originally this was a Fantasy Flight product, but is now being distributed by Battlefront. This has caused some delays and problems. Warfare seems to be having the greatest delay, partially due to the deal with FFG. This has been made worst by Battlefront releasing a grid-less version of Tactics called Dust Battlefield. The current site effectively ignores that warfare exists, saying Dust in general when they mean Dust tactics. Even having

Technically there are three ways to play. However, it seems warfare is a secondary at best. Since I like the models and I see playing Dust with a small group anyway this doesn't bug me that much. It does make me like Battlefront a little less, but with the amount of books I've need to re-buy from them for FOW this isn't new.

Having said that I have had a lot of fun playing Dust Warfare and I'm starting to paint up the minis. Last week I played a four-player battle. We took the three player battle and modified the rules slightly. Our mission was to kill a set enemy commander. This insured that teaming up on one opponent would cost you the game. Considering most of us were learning the rules and one player kept having to leave the table the game went smoothly and was a lot of fun.

So my task was to kill the leader of the SSU army directly across from me, while the German opponent to my right was trying to take my leader Stefan down. The German took simply two walkers with a hero pilot. He brought a Lothar and Konigsluther. These walkers would take a lot to take down, so I had to hope whoever was hunting him would slow him down enough.

Myself I sent my Apes forward with some recon support after my SSU target. The apes took out his walker and a chunk of his command unit. However, the SSU command unit can heal itself in the command phase. 

However, the German aiming for me got a break when his opponent regrouped and pulled back. This meant the giant walker came for me all out. With Blitzkrieg special command he was making good time.

Which left me in a rough situation. So I took a risk and ran with my leader Stefan and whats left of his unit. This left my SSU opponent in an odd position. If he went all out to kill Stefan he would lose like me to the German player. However, Stefan with a Flamethrower could kill his command squad.

His command squad choose surviving over completing their mission. Stefan was killed. Leading to both of us losing (and lets be honest the command squad will be executed for failure).

The game was a lot of fun, and easily dealt with all of us fighting one another. The command phase, reactions and suppression added a lot of thought to the game. The weapon chart changing due to your opponent also made some neat variety. I'm looking forward to more games. 

Oh and on the painting front for this game

Round 2 - Market Garden Firestorm

Firestorm Market Garden Round Two into Round Three

So this round took a little longer to get in. A number of sad events happened with group members families. So we decided to do two week rounds. My game was delayed as well. Unfortunately before we played he rage quit the game store. So I played the allies commander instead. 

Great guy and great game (of course I played pretty poorly). Since I grew a beard (for no shave November) the group has referred to me as Scott Baratheon (we have a number of Scotts). The Germans were winning until General Baratheon went hunting....

Now, I would like to claim I made some of these decisions because I wanted a longer game after the drive to the store. In reality I didn't really focus on the mission. I could have had some of my tanks double move and with my opponent rolling average reserves I would have taken the second objective. However, after playing tin can tanks for so long (Shermans) I wanted to see how tough Tigers are. I think one of the other German players head nearly exploded.

So my tigers would attempt to dig out the american airborne hiding in the buildings of the first objective. Granted it might have work if I didn't fail almost every single penetration roll I made. My rockets hit every time, and on a 4+ would almost never break the cover. My Tigers 3+ almost never did. I also forgot to reroll motivations just about every time.  This would give his reinforcements enough time to get in and secure the second objective.

So Round 2 ended with 3 ally wins and 3 axis wins. Which seems a tie but probably left the allies in a slight advantage due to how attacks work on the map. You really should never attack from a territory worth points. Since you lose it if you lose the battle. However the allies still only have three more rounds to take enough victory points to win.

So round 3 attacks look like this

My battle should be interesting defending the Son Bridge. The opponent will have 2 Firestorm Sherman and I know he likes the heavy guns so the Tigers might be in trouble. However, since the battle is a lost cause hopefully I can lose only 4-3. Either way the campaign has been a lot of fun.

Market Garden Firestorm Begins

So as always it has been a little while. Various things have been eating into gaming time. The Carrion Crown campaign still occurs slowly and I have gotten into x-wing (great easy to get into game).

Market Garden Campaign

So my local gaming store (Brothers Grimm) is running the Market Garden Firestorm campaign in Flames of War. For those who don't know Market Garden was an ally operation in September 1944 to retake Holland and get the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine into Germany. The Market part consisted of a massive air drop of the American 101st Screaming Eagles, 82 Airborne, and the British Red Devils. The plan had them drop across the entire length of Holland and grab and hold all the bridges the Army would need. The Garden part of the mission would be the XXX corps lead by a tank spearhead rushing down the road across each bridge.

Lt. General Horrocks: I'd like to think of this as one of those American western films. The paratroops, lacking substantial equipment, always short of food - these are the besieged homesteaders, the Germans, well naturally, they're the bad guys, and XXX Corps, we my friends, are the cavalry, on the way to the rescue. ~Bridge too Far

The book and movie Bridge too Far are excellent in showing the overall idea of the battle (quite a cast for the movie). trailer link

The Devils Birthday by Geoffrey Powell is an excellent accounting of the battle.

Monty's people believed there would be little true defense or resistance from the Germans. This would cost both the troops and the people of Arnhem deeply.

Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: I've just been on to Monty. He's very proud and pleased.

Major General Urquhart: Pleased?

Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: Of course. He thinks Market Garden was 90% successful.

Major General Urquhart: But what do you think?

Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: Well, as you know, I always felt we tried to go a bridge too far.

Now when I first started Flames of War I decided to pick a battle and build both sides of it. One in case the game didn't take off I would have both sides of a conflict. Also it served as a history building project. I'd have a display or such. So I have a built mostly painted Irish Guard (lead by Col Vandeleur played by Michael Caine in the movie) from XXX corps and an in process Fallschirmjäger that fought them on the road. Since I always play my Irish Guard the last few years I decided to be the Germans this time.

Firestorm is played with a map of the conflict, firestorm pieces, two generals and hopefully equal numbers of players on both sides. Battles are played like normal FoW battles however, you can get bonus units if a firestorm piece is in the location or you dedicate it to the attack. While I would have preferred army lists only from the source book, we have allowed people to use other lists from late war so more can play. However, anyone with a Market Garden/Bridge to Bridge list gets a bonus in the battle.

So round 1 the allies tend to have a lot of advantages. They start with far more firestorm troops in the battle areas and have an advantage in choosing the attack. The counter to this is the German's control all the victory point territories already. The allies have only 5 turns to take the majority of points away. This is made even more difficult by the fact that Arnhem and its area are worth the greatest number of points. Also If your supply line is broken you get disadvantages in battle.

So my first battle was a defense of the Weert Road. I would get a bonus Fallschirmjäger unit (9 troops bases FV and a panzerfaust commander) while my opponent would get a bonus unit of Shermans (CV 3 Sherman V's and 1 Firefly VC) as well as a bonus unit of Sextons (CV 4 sextons, sherman op, and command). So a bit of a points advantage to the allies. 

I decided to go with a fun list I had always wanted to take. I also need to since I couldn't make a legal Fallschirmjäger list since the firestorm troop used up my models from the required units. So I went with the Kampfgruppe Hummel list. This list was the Germans pulling any partially serviceable Tiger and sending it to the battle. They get the unreliable rule and do not get tiger ace skills, they also are only CT. However, you can take 9 of them with some minor support. Combined with the bonus Fallschirmjäger unit, I figured I at least could get to a minor loss.

My opponent took the British 11th Armoured Division consisting of Cromwell and Challengers. We decided to use the terrain that was already on the table in interest of time. We also made a few mistakes. My opponent received one less sexton for his firestorm and I played my rockets as CT when they were FV. I don't think it would have massively changed the game either way. I would have had a few more bombardments and he would have had one or to more AT9 shots over the whole game.

The left flank was some panzer III's two tigers, NW41 rockets and the fallschirmjäger holding an objective. They faced off against CS cromwells, challenger, universal carriers, and an infantry unit.

The right flank was the remaining tigers versus another challenger/cromwell unit, the sherman unit and the sextons.

The tigers would be defeated on the left flank after causing massive damage.

The right flank would come down to a lot of failed firepower tests.The allies had maneuverability, the tigers armor and power. In the end the Cromwell's made more firepower checks. So an ally victory of 4-3. While they take the territory all the firestorm troops have a chance of being destroyed. Not a bad result for turn 1 when the firestorm troops favored allies 2-1. 

This was the first time playing my opponent and it was a great time. Hope to play him again in the future.

Turn 2 starts on Wednesday.

Falling Behind

On a sadder note I've been behind on gaming due to my animals. My oldest cat Monster passed away. He tended to always hang out during games in the house (cat in the Unspeakable Words post) and was around for all projects at the house. He even claimed the mountain terrain as his no matter where we put it. I will miss him.

Of course when it rains it pours. One of my dogs busted his back leg and needed surgery to put in a metal plate. In the long run it probably means I'll work more on projects since I have to keep him relatively calmed. hopefully I will get the War of the Roses guys done. Maybe work on the zombicide models too.