Chronicles of Yore: Open Combat on a Drear Heath

A while ago, I had the privilege of teaching my room-mate one of my new favorite skirmish games, Open Combat. Open Combat is a fast-playing skirmish game. It's main strong points are: streamlined, easy-to-learn rules of play; an easy system for creating characters (more on that below); and a robust combat mechanic that makes for balanced, crunchy, strategic play (MUCH more on that below).

What follows is a battle report, as well as what I have to admit is kind of a bear of a game review. This has been a loooong time coming—I told Carl Brown, the author of Open Combat, that I'd do one way back when I first bought the rules last October (sorry about that, Carl, if you're reading.) 

(I've separated the rule discussion in italicized footnotes at the end, so that I won't bore anyone who's interested in the pretty pictures. If you just want to know what I think overall, you can skip to the bottom—you lout.) 

We set up on my then-new teddy bear fur gaming mat, with a fay circle of standing stones, some ancient barrow mounds nearby, a desolate spinney of trees on a ridge, and some cairns marking the long road between Skeldkryk and Drycud-upon-Gyre.

We decided on using the basic "Open Combat" scenario for simplicity, in which the goal is to reduce the opposing warband to their break point* and make them quit the field.

We also, for simplicity, played with (more-or-less) mirrored forces which I worked up in about 5 minutes.*

For setup, we rolled “Confrontation,” meaning that instead of board-edge or –corner deployment, we took turns placing figures anywhere on the table at least 8” from an opponent. I deployed the bulk of my troops in the circle of stones, deciding that the Fell Glendywr, my wizard, was trying to use the convergence of leylines to work some necromantic majicks, perhaps bestirring the denizens of the barrow-mounds…

Tom (my room-mate) very neatly set up to surround me. He also placed his ogre** (who he named Percival) as a guard at the barrows for, it turned out, this was the burial place of his ancestors and he would not see the place defiled.

I split my band into two forces. I sent one force (comprised of Brittleghast, the Gribbly-wight, and the Flayer of Shins) to pry Percival the Ogre and the Hunchyman Ludwig of Flür from the ancestral tomb…perhaps they would prove useful for Glendywr’s ritual…

I sent the rest of my band to guard the right flank using the standing stones as a defensive picket, with Glendywr supporting the line with his ensorcellments***.    

Above you can see as Bale Grimly positions himself to hold the gap between a carved head and a stack of (oddly cuboid) rocks. Meanwhile, Skjorn Boarkinder pushes along the right flank, supported by Greer. Together, they form a sort of loose battle line(****) protecting the edge of the ring of stones, while Glendywr begins his black chanting.

Greer stalks the flank of the field, looking for an opportunity to strike where the flesh is soft...

...and Tom's leader, Ulthar IV, strikes at my battle line, trying to ride down Bale Grimly before his demonic comrade could come to his aid...

Meanwhile on the other side of the circle, Brittleghast and his complement stop to bandy a few insults and prepare themselves...

...before charging uphill at a stubborn ogre. Percival, doing much honor to his forefathers, holds his attackers at bay on the threshold of the barrow before ultimately forcing them to withdraw back down the hill.

The fight for the standing stones intensifies as the individual duels converge, then break apart, then converge again. On my side, Skjorn is run through and left expire, while Bale Grimly succumbs to his many wounds. As revenge on Tom's side, Mel-tead B'tar and the Viscount of the Flies are bludgeoned into the mud. Tom's reserves begin to threaten my flank but neither side is able to gain the upper hand*****...

...until Ulthar and Greer are finally able to come to grips.

The scrum closes again, with Tom's reserves desperately trying to stave off the combined force of Brittleghast's sweetly swinging axe and the formidable intensity of Greer's battle-ire.  Desperation then turns to despair as Greer's heavy blade finds the breast of Ludwig of Peregrine and cleaves it open (causing Tom's warband to reach their breakpoint). Ulthar's men turn and flee at the sight, broken and lost to reason.

*Force Creation and Breakpoint: Characters in Open Combat have five stats—Speed, Attack, Defense, Fortitude, and Mind. To create a character, you just decide on values for each stat…and add them up. If you want to tweak a profile—say, add an extra point of attack, that change will cost one point. Likewise, all weapons and special abilities cost one point each. On the face of it, this system seems very easy to unbalance, but it’s not…but I’ll get into that at length.

The Breakpoint is determined by adding up the units FOR and MIN values and dividing by two. During the game, each player tracks his band’s total FOR and MIN (percentile dice come in handy for this) and once it reaches the BP, the band is forced to cede the field.

**Monsters and Mounted units are treated the same in OC. Mainly, they are able to push units farther in combat (which makes them quite dangerous among confined spaces) and they are slightly less reliable to activate: at the beginning of their activation, you roll a die. If you roll poorly, the character will only have limited actions, and if you roll very poorly your monster/mounted fighter won’t activate at all and your turn will end.  I find this abstraction very satisfying for this level of game, and it adds an element of risk-management into using your potentially more powerful units. (This mechanic, by the way, is borrowed from Blood Bowl—and it’s not the only one, as we’ll see.)

***Open Combat does not have a dedicated majick system—which may seem odd for a rule-set that purports to cover all pre-gunpowder periods both historical and fantastical. However, it’s important to realize that the special rules, though named in very concrete ways (dagger, shield, intimidate, etc.), are actually quite abstract and can be used to represent quite a lot. I find that the rules for psychological attacks combined with ranged weapon rules like Crossbow or Javelin can represent quite a powerful wizard; in fact, I find this to be much more flexible than the standard magic rules for SoBH (though SoBH supplements have rules for summoners, necromancers, illusionists, et. al., which OC currently lacks; however expansions are promised). 

****Positioning is very important in OC, because attacking a character's rear facing means that that character will halve their defense value. This is usually the difference between rolling one, two, or three attack dice (see below) which can translate into a significantly greater chance of doing damage. And then when you consider that a character who is surrounded is likely to take damage when they are pushed back into an enemy, you begin to look for ways to get around your opponent.  Scrums in OC therefore, are often decided by who can maintain the integrity of their battle line while compromising that of their opponent. I find this both realistic and strategically challenging.

*****Combat and game balance: remember how I said that the game is tough to unbalance? The reason for that is the combat mechanic, which is the heart of the game. 

Incidentally, it's also the heart of another great game: Blood Bowl. As it turns out, Carl Brown used to play in the GW studio league...and it was reading that little factoid on Gav Thorpe's blog that convinced me to give these rules a try. I could not have been better rewarded, because it turns out that combat in OC is a modified version of the block dice mechanic that makes BB so great.

Here's how it works. When you make an attack, you compare your character's ATK to your opponent's DEF. If your ATK is less than or equal to your opponent's DEF, you roll one attack die. 

On a 1, not only do you fail to do any damage, but your turn immediately ends (just like rolling a skull in BB). A 2 is basically a tie—no telling blows are struck. 3 or 4 allows you to push your opponent back, potentially doing damage by pushing them into other characters or terrain. A five does a point of damage. A 6 deals damage and allows you to push back. I've summarized these results and their probabilities in the table below, but it's basically a 1 in 3 chance each of doing damage, pushing back, or doing nothing at all.

1 Die
Turn Over	Impasse	Pushback Only	Damage Only	Damage+push
1/6	1/6	2/6	1/6	1/6
16.67%	16.67%	33.33%	16.67%	16.67%
			Any Damage
			2/6
			33.33%

Now if your ATK is greater than your opponent's DEF, you get to roll 2 dice and choose the higher one. This has the effect of skewing the probabilities towards the higher results. Instead of a 1/3 chance of doing damage, you have a chance slightly better than 1/2, while your chance for a turnover becomes minimal. Additionally, in close combat you have the opportunity to score additional hits (i.e., if more than one die comes up as 5 or 6). I've included a separate column with the odds for that happening.

2 Dice
Turn Over	Impasse	Pushback Only	Damage Only	Damage+push	Additional Hit
1/36	3/36	12/36	9/36	11/36	4/36
2.78%	8.33%	33.33%	25.00%	30.56%	11.11%
			Any Damage
			20/36
			55.56%

Finally, if your ATK is more than double your opponent's DEF, you get to roll 3 dice and choose one. This skews the results even more, such that you have better than a 2/3 chance of doing damage, and about a 1/4 chance of doing 2 or more damage. Your chances of turning over are incredibly low (though not impossible) and you are equally as likely to score 3 damage as to score either a turn over or an impasse.

3 Dice
Turn Over	Impasse	Pushback Only	Damage Only	Damage+push	1 Additional Hit	2 Additional Hits
1/216	7/216	56/216	61/216	91/216	48/216	8/216
0.46%	3.24%	25.93%	28.24%	42.13%	22.22%	3.70%
			Any Damage
			152/216
			70.37%

The upshot of all this is that, yes, high ATK characters can be very dangerous. And high DEF characters are relatively difficult to take out. But here's the thing: no matter how weak or outclassed your character is, they always have a 1/3 chance of doing damage. (This is in contrast to some situations in games like SoBH—itself a reasonably balanced game—where weaker characters simply stand no chance of getting a positive outcome in a fight.) 

Furthermore, you can even the odds on a powerful character by swarming them with weaker characters. If you get the powerful model surrounded, this can actually improve the odds of  damaging the character to 2/3—since scoring a pushback into another character usually also causes damage (which would be 2 damage if you roll a six!). The only problem is that for each of these attacks you are at an increased risk for turnovers.

The alternative is to set up a group action that allows multiple figures to add their ATK scores together in one attack. The issue here is that none of the characters taking part in the group action can have activated...which means that you need to move them into combat the turn before and hope that they survive. 

However, if you know (or suspect, or are GMing a scenario in which) there will be a tough character to take down, you can design your force accordingly. Looking at the charts above, you can be pretty sure that your characters will survive if they have 3 fortitude or more when they are against an opponent rolling 2 dice, and that an opponent rolling 3 dice could only kill one character at most in a turn of attacks (using both actions to attack). This is true whether that opponent has 5 ATK or 50. Therefore it is easy to create a group of 4 or so fighters with low ATK and DEF but relatively high SPD and at least 3 FOR specifically to hunt your opponent's beefier characters. (They'd do even better armed with spears, which allow them to attack from an inch away). That profile would look like:

SPD	ATK	DEF	MIN	FOR	Special	Cost
5	1	3	1	3	Spear or handweapon, shield	15

...which at a cost of 15 (or 14 without the shield) would allow you to field a small group of these guys for just over a 3rd of  your total cost in a 'standard' 150 point game. Just make sure they don't get ganged up on or targeted with psychological attacks, because they'll go down quick!

Okay, we're at the part where I tell you my overall impression. Still with me? Wow, that's incredible.

I really like Open Combat. The way it combines ease of play, ease of adaptation, and challenging strategy is highly satisfying. The only drawback, in my skinflint estimation, is the price, which at 10 Great British-style dollars (just over 15 of the US-type 'bucks') for the PDF is just a hair expensive, considering there are only 3 scenarios, no dedicated majicks, and no campaign system. By contrast, the first SoBH book comes with a basic campaign system and a couple more scenarios, along with a comparably abstract system for basic magic, for only 8 bucks. (And I guess now there's Fightin' Fungi which has similar stuff and a detailed magic system for 10 bucks).

HOWEVER, as of the completion of the successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the book to print, there is going to be additional content in the form of more scenarios and a campaign system—which, when you consider the excellent production quality, will certainly make it worth the price. (Which is still basically just bus money, compared to many other game producers we could point to.)

SO IN CONCLUSION AT LAST: I highly recommend Open Combat. It has become my new go-to game for fun, fast, exciting fantasy game play. The mechanics are solid, the design is solid, and the rules are robust, clear, and easy to learn. I also anticipate that it's going to take the pressures of narrative scenario design quite well. It's easily my favorite game I've played in the last year, and I see getting many more years of enjoyment out of it.

You can let me know what you think by writing three comments in the box below, then choosing the best one.

Playtesting at the Club: The Dogs and The Dust

I haven't said much about it here yet (out of fear of hexing myself) but for the past six months or so, I have been tinkering away at a set of scifi skirmish rules called The Dogs and the Dust. The project originally started because I wanted a game with the simplicity of Song of Blades and Heroes but with the feel of Necromunda. It has since absorbed a lot of other elements: the shock system from Nuclear Rennaisance; a simplified version of the attack/shoot/magic dice and Dreadskull systems from Skulldred; a radically altered version of the command dice system from Chain of Command.

It's still very early days, but nevertheless the guys at CSW sportingly agreed to help in some preliminary play tests. What follows are some pictures from the game.  

Above: the beginning of a game-long standoff between Pat's commander and Josh's motile brain-in-a-jar.

Like SoBH and Skulldred, TD&TD is meant to be completely customisable. As a result, this three way game saw everything from walking lobotomies and storm troopers to mechanized walkers.

Pat's scout gets the drop on some storm troopers with poison flechettes.

I was testing a way of randomly generating objectives. There were d6 objectives (we rolled 4) that players took turns placing before deployment. Players could deploy characters anywhere within 12" of an edge and 6" from any opponent. After deployment, each objective was individually determined to be worth d6 victory points, and then each one was scattered either 3", 6", 12", or stayed put. As a result, the action was all over the map from the very first turn.

Government and Corporate troops play laser tag among tire sculptures.

There was a lot of absurdity as we encountered some...ah...soft spots in the rules. It was also a lot slower than I expected, running about two hours for a three player game (which is probably twice what a game of SoBH runs), so it definitely needs streamlining. But by the same token, the guys picked up the basics really quickly and seemed to enjoy themselves. A huge learning experience, all told. Still a lot of work to do going forward...

A complex showdown under the Noonan day sun.

...but hopefully some day soon, I'll have a beta test version to share...

Chronicles of Yore: Outpost Raiding for Fun and Profit

Here follows a battle report from a while ago now of a couple games of Nuclear Renaissance that I played with fellow CSW member, Tim. He brought his Neo-Soviet future men, and I, of course, brought my Slagscape Conservation Collective mounted up in their brand new Mayhem Machine.

It was a cold, fluorescent dawn over the crossroads community Orehill, last outpost of the Inner Outlands after the Unthinkable Incident.

...reason being, they had a well protected community bunker. Word was that it packed full of Canned, Hyper-Enriched, De-hydrated Dietary Aid Rations—commonly known in the wastes as C.H.E.D.D.A.R.s

As luck would have it, both bands of Wasteoids came across the same rumor. Informants are scarce out here. The Neo-Soviets roared out of the alkali dust on choppers and a land vessel.

Meanwhile, on the other end of town, the Slags rolled in off the hard pan. Slow going, since the Professor couldn't fit in the truck, what with his lobotomised gorilla body.

The Neo-sovs didn't waste much time getting into the center of town to crack open that bunker full of C.H.E.D.D.A.R.s.

But then neither did the Slags. As soon as they realized they weren't the only ones interested in a few recommended monthly allotments of calcium, they revved up the old Mayhem Machine and gunned it into town, with Graf Moxie and Janx Moogin spittin' fire from the copula.

Even though they commanded a full field of fire on the bunker, the Slag's were unable to close and make off with any of the cheez (the obvious outlander slang for C.H.E.D.D.A.R.s).

Meanwhile, the Soviet bikers buzzed along the flank, past the food carts, emptied of their cheez in the final minutes before the Incident.

Graf Moxxie got gunned down as he tried to leave the safety of his rolling fortress to make a dash for the bunker.

But the Slag's gave as good as they get. Downtown Orehill quickly becomes lousy with wasted Wasteoids.

It was at this point that the Neo-Sovs withdrew, figuring this particular haul was not worth the havoc. As it turned out, they had another trick in mind.

We decided to play another game representing the Slag's attempt to transport their hard-won C.H.E.D.D.A.R.s down the main road leading out of Orehill. This time, though, the Mayhem Machine was so packed with rations that none of the collective could take up crew space.

And it just so happened that the pissed off Soviets were waiting in ambush.

It didn't take long for them to start pouring hot lead and hotter plasma into the Mayhem Machine's hood.

Nor to start springing on their adversaries from the side streets.

Unfortunately, they were not counting on the as-yet un-tested Gatling prowess of Professor Parcival-Blythe.

After a flurry of exploding gas tanks and a hail of bullets, the road was clear...

...while the erstwhile bushwhacker met with the business end of Sprightly Jiles's Stunbrella.

It was hard fought, but the Collective won its way out of Orehill with the cheez in hand. There was much toasting on the Slagscape that night. The Conservation Collective celebrated with a fun do.

Chronicles of Yore: Teachin' Song of Blades

The nice thing about Song of Blades and other games sharing the 'small game, simple rules' philosophy is that new players can pick them up rapidly, even over the course of their first game. So when I invited a friend over to game (sometime in August, I think) and he wound up bringing two of his friends, I knew there was only really one choice.

I grabbed my deck of character cards and had each player choose a couple hundred points-worth of regular characters as well as a personality, just based on which figures appealed to them. Meanwhile I rolled out my gaming mat and some walls, cairns, trees, and stone heads. Then followed a bloody four-player brawl in two parts:

Once every year and a day rises over the 'wold the vermilion moon like the eye of  a dissipated god. It is said to awaken a hunger in man and dwimmer-beast alike, so that they spend the night in bloody carousal. Few, it is said, wake to see the sanguine dawn, but those that do awake renewed, with the knowledge that they have survived to see another foul year.

Among hollow cairns in the northeast, a party of dwimmer-beasts emerge in search of sacrifice. They close on a band of baleful men, sure in the advantage of darkness and surprise. But the men have the insight of the blood moon's rising. They seek struggle. They welcome strife.

Meanwhile in the Southwest, Dire men ride besotted, seeking the glory and bliss of death under the red moon's spell. Fortunately, Bilebroke's hunchymen are about and willing to oblige.

The struggle is joyous and desperate. The stones watch and chuckle their approbation.

At last, and one by one, the dwimmer-beasts are hunted down, and sent squealing back to the pit, while the hunchymen withdraw in terror and ecstasy into the night.

Barely sated, the maddened riders continue their charge across the fells, and the hunting party is glad of the change in sport. The red moon begins to set in the west, and each breath before the carnage stretches interminably like the streaks of red moonlight through the shivering trees. Soon the morning will come, and a new year will bestow it's ghastly, mocking smile upon the 'wold. But for the rest of this glorious witching hour, we all are lost.

Happy new year.

Chronicles of Yore: Song of Blades at Next Dimension Games

I seem to be developing a biannual tradition of shoving my poor blog under a rock and doing something else for a while. I think it might be part of a greater cosmic rythm in which I am helplessly enfolded. But now I'm back, I think. Merry Christmas.

Part of this return to blogging always involves going through the backlog of posts, several of which are batreps and AARs, that I couldn't bring myself to write (part of the reason the blog went dark in the first place), and that in the interrim have been swallowed in the mists of my less-than-perfect memory.

I'm calling these the Chronicles of Yore, and below is one such battle report from, I think, July. We had just discovered a wonderful little game store called Next Dimension Games, which was conveniently situated right along my commute from work. They had lots of gaming space, plenty of terrain, and friendly staff, and were, of course, defunct like two weeks later.

So enjoy some forgotten deeds from a land that is lost:

The puckish magician Glendywr had once more taken to trickery, stealing some arcane bauble from the Warder of Wyrd's purse o' gimcracks. Away he danced o'er the fields and into the lonesome fief.

So sent forth the sorcerer his nefarious clan to ride the hunchy-imp down. 

But to Glendywr's aid came a cadre of dark-livery'd knights.

Their liege had made pact with the stunted conjuror, offering amnesty in exchange for majicks most black.

Swift as night and dark as wind, these foul paladins swept the Fell Glendywr away.

My Eleven Minutes in the Light

Yes, that's right. The ever-generous Asslessman, who has had such a loyal and abiding interest in my humble corner of the internet, has nominated me for a Liebster award (well, like 3 weeks ago...oops). Thanks A.man!

I know that Liebster posts can be kind of long and self-interested, so for those who don't feel like reading my waffle, I've included my photo-and-caption version of the "Blood-Soaked Back Alleys" battle report for Song of Blades and Heroes. Just look at all the pictures. They are the stepping stones across my brook of babble.

The mists of morning part around Vildeburg to reveal the hulking forms of dwimmer-beasts and dire men at the edge of town, gathered around the idly flapping pennant of the Mammet of the Eye. The merchant princes are plump with trinkets for the pawing; the men of the watch are daft and restive after a long night.

For those unfamiliar, the Liebster is kind of a blogger-to-blogger chain-award. The nominee has to say 11 true things about themselves, then answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated them. Finally, they nominate 11 further deserving bloggers who have 500 followers or fewer, and then pose them 11 further questions.

The Shivering King and the Lord of the Lichens, snarling and bellowing inanities respectively, emerge from the fog of the street to ride down the men of the watch amid a resounding of hooves and cobbles.

So, without further ado, here are 11 true things about me:

• I am somewhere between 5'10" and 5'11" in height. But when asked I always say 5'11"
• I have a tremedous capacity for re-watching/reading/listening to shows/books/albums that I've already watched/read/heard.
• I really like beer, and I like brewing it too. (It's another hobby that I've been meaning to put on this blog, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.)
• I am obsessive about making things. If I find something that I think is cool, my first thought is usually to wonder if I can make it myself. (Usually the answer is no. But it doesn't stop me trying.)
• I enjoy bicycling. It's another hobby I want to include in this blog, but I'm not really sure how...

Meanwhile the Warder of Wyrd and his retinue of foul things burst from the crypt of the Church on the hill, where they snuck by ways most dark.

• I desperately want a garden so I can grow my own food. (I live in the city, though. So no good.) The thing I am most excited to cultivate, though, is moss.
• I'm a self taught guitarist! :D
• I'm a really shitty guitarist! :(
• I'm having trouble coming up with more truths (true story).
• It's taken me three days to write this post so far (I'm doing this part last).
• I probably own more books that I haven't read than ones I have.

Brittlegast the Cut-Pate smiles a sickening smile in anticipation of the struggle and the blood. Bale Grimly holds the Comely Visage aloft so that its eye might catch the sun. 

And here are my answers to the questions Asslessman asked:

• How did you end up spending a lot of time/energy/money on such a hobby? I started gaming with the ubiquitous 40k. I had an Eldar army that I loved but that was, even in the early aughts, far too expensive. So eventually I gave it up in favor of having pocket money and trying to meet girls. Then in college, after meeting the spectacular girl that I love today, I discovered the awesome skirmish game called Skulldred, authored by the even awesomer Delaney King (see blog recommendations). I also rediscovered Blood Bowl, and found out that one of the biggest North American Blood Bowl tourneys is right in my backyard. I discovered that I could game affordably using free/independently-produced rule sets and a small number of figures from any range that I fancied. I found an awesome, awesome gaming group (again, see blog recommendations) , and that was that. Here I am. Here you are. Hi.
• What or Who had been your major influence(s) over the years? Delaney King. John Blanche and Rick Priestly. Alessio Calvatore and Andrea Sfiligoi. Al Cisneros, Jason Simon, Mervyn Peake, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Tom Fitzgerald. And so many others. If I see/watch/listen to anything cool, I try and absorb it.

Mercenary allies lie in wait for the Barbarian Prince to flee with his gems.

• What part of your hobby would you want to explore further? I want to start sculpting in a more serious way, and then I want to resin-cast what I sculpt. I also want to write some more supplemental materials for the games I love, and maybe even make a (super basic) game of my own.
• What does this hobby bring you, what makes you keep it? It gives me self-expression, but the stakes are lower than drawing or writing or composing. I guess that’s the easiest answer. I like making cool things! (Or trying, anyway.)
• What part of your personality would you change if you were forced to? If I could make myself more disciplined and focused without sacrificing my groovy, relaxed demeanor, I would totally do that. I’d also like to give myself a photographic memory.

A squadron of stout Blunderbussers charge the nightmare troupe at the chapel, in hopes of breaking through and meeting their leader at the docks.

• What animal would you be? A person? Most animals can’t hold things. That kind of ruins the whole idea for me. Wings would be nice though.
• Is your glass half empty, half full or twice too big? Half full. Often entirely full, actually. I almost always have a beverage.

Krynek, the Bloody Knell, is nearly gunned down by the oncoming cavalry, but he chews his beard and readies himself before screeching an oath and launching himself into the teeth of the boars.

• What would the 10 year old you say of the present you ? “You have cool toys.”
• What makes you really laugh? A whole lot of things, a disturbing number of which are connected in some way to Stephen Fry. But all kinds of others too. Douglas Adams still gets me every time.
• What are your top 5 songs or musics? I’m going to go with albums for this one (though this list is always changing): Dopesmoker by Sleep; Dead Meadow by Dead Meadow; Pilgrimage by Om; Pink by Boris; Electric Wizard by Electric Wizard.
• What are your top 5 reads? The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake. If you only read one, read the first (Titus Groan). I totally understand if you can’t make it through the last (Titus Alone); The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; The Silmarilion by J.R.R. Tolkein; Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Turned at last by the daemonic cohort, the boar-riders turn instead to provide aid to the mageling, who is attempting to gain the safety of the wards of his sorcerous tower. In frothing madness, the Heaper of Teeth leaps down after them and unseams the reargard rider from scalp to stirrup. The Heaper of Teeth gleefully collects the boar's tusks and the riders jaw bone...they will surmount his most wonderous pile yet.

And here are my nominations for the excellent blogs that I think deserve a Liebster. They are all very inspiring, and have pushed me to improve my own hobby and blog. I don't really care whether they accept the award or not (i.e. go through this whole rigmarole); what's really important to me is that you go check them out. They do great work.

1. Chicago Skirmish Wargames: This is the blog for the club I game with. Without these guys (and their blog, which is how I found them), I would still be sitting around painting and playing solo games. They have groovy, relaxed demeanors just like mine!
2. King’s Miniatures: The blog of the girl who brought me into skirmish gaming. Amazingly creative, charmingly relaxed, old-school-ically kick ass.
3. Middenmurk: A crap-sack setting for Labyrinth Lord or other OSR role-playing games. Each post is a new random table or adventure hook, but they are heavily contextualized with Northern Renaissance and other dark fantasy art, as well as intense philosophical musings on what fantasy should be. Tom Fitzgerald’s writing, like Peake’s, has been hugely influential to me over the past year, and combined they have taught me more words than anyone else in my living memory. And I don’t even play role-playing games! (Yet, anyway).
4. Tales From the Maelstrom: This blog encapsulates everything I love about Rogue Trader and the Oldhammerish ethos of havin’ fun and playin’ quirky games.
5. Carmen’s Fun Painty Time: Not only is Carmen a great painter, but he also puts together some of the best small scale narrative after-action reports on the web. Check him out!
6. Tales from Farpoint: The oddly pseudonym’d Space Cow Smith is currently working on using Rogue Trader to model a kind of alternate timeline of 40k, in which humanity is prosperous, technology is progressive, and there really is something other than war. It’s delightful stuff, and he really owns his setting.
7. Devlanmud: A blog after my own heart. All about gaming, sculpting, modeling, and, occasionally, guitars.
8. Sho3box: Just found out about this blog, but the figures are outstanding. And check out the Deathworld jungle terrain, it’s spectacular.
9. Thenickeninja’s blog: Has some of the most spectacular Necromunda terrain I’ve ever seen, as well as amazing models for classics like Gorkamorka.
10. From the Sorcerer’s Skull: Like Middenmurk, Trey’s inspiring blog contains elegant ideas about fantastical worlds, laid down in beautiful prose. I love reading his posts over lunch.
11. Sir Skofis’s Workshop: home of the Warhammer and Blood  Bowl projects of Sir Skofis and his brother. These señores have some serious scratch-building chops. From tanks and walkers to custom-sculpted Blood Bowl figs. I love seeing what these guys have next.

The Shivering King and Brittlegast delight in the sport of hunting the desperate men of the watch, while the Mageling flings himself toward the doorposts of his tower.

Again, I won’t be offended if any/all of my nominees do not answer these questions, but it’s part of the whole (surprisingly lengthy) Liebster process. So below are the 11 questions for my nominees:

1. What brought you to create your blog?
2. What or who are your most important influences?
3. What is the most important hobby, gaming, or blogging tip you would impart to a beginner?
4. What is your favorite gaming text of all time?
5. What is the common fantasy or gaming trope that annoys you the most?
6. What is the best sentence you have ever read? Or, if you can’t think of a particular line, what is the best book?
7. What music do you listen to, man?
8. Are you as burnt out on these questions as I am?
9. I don’t know, favorite sandwich topping?
10. Who’s your favorite Wizard?
11. How about your favorite sidedness of dice. And, I guess, why?

But the Flayer of Shins is upon him in a twinkling, vaulting a cart and casting down the Mammet of the Eye, he cuts the Mageling's knees from under him The remainder of the watch flees in terror. The Flayer of shins scrambles in the mud for his grizzly prizes, and the Shivering King calmly leans from the saddle to collect the mage's enchanted eye-jewel. The din of the fight still envelops Vildeburg, but the sun is rising and it is time to return to the Wold with the takings.