Helltank

A quick turnaround this time. The randomly selected game this time is Helltank, a small game of futuristic armored combat published in 1981 by Metagaming. This game fills the same genre as Ogre and G.E.V., games which I have enjoyed for years. Both games cover armored combat in the 21st century, but there are differences. Helltank, unlike Ogre, doesn't assume that everyone goes to tactical nuclear weapons, and it doesn't include cybernetic units. Helltank also has more unit types, including attack helicopters and "air cruisers," magnetic levitation weapons platforms that fly. Cool beans! Another differences is that where Ogre/G.E.V. just gives you a certain amount of units to play with, with Helltank you have to pick one of seven different time periods, which impacts what units are available, as well as what those units cost.

Game play in Helltank is relatively simple, though there are some complexities. Every unit has a movement type, a combat range, a movement allowance, and an evasion movement allowance. When evading, you move faster, and are harder to hit, but you can't fire. Critically, as long as your unit hasn't fired yet this turn, you can put it into Evasion movement as soon as you are fired upon. Units that haven't fired yet this turn can also interrupt an enemy unit's movement to opportunity fire on them outside of the normal turn order.

The combat system itself is different from what I am used to. Most games like this give each unit a combat factor, and then you compare that to a defensive factor on a chart and try to beat the target number on a die roll. This game, however, simply has a large chart where you compare the firing unit to the target unit, and you are given a target number to roll under or equal to. You then apply a lot of die roll modifiers (for terrain, evasion, etc.) to that roll. The end result isn't that different from what I am used to, but it allows for certain units to be really deadly against certain units, but pathetic against other units (like AA units being good against helicopters, but not against tanks).

The game comes with enough different units so that there is a lot of variety in games, even if you play the same scenarios again and again. One thing that I feel is lacking is a regular infantry unit. The game comes with jet-pack infantry, but where are the regular ground-pounders? I can't come up with a good reason for their absence. Additionally, the game comes with only one map. Granted, there is a good variety of terrain there, but after a few games it would get old fast. It looks like you can use maps from other games pretty easily, though, so if your collection is big enough that shouldn't be a huge problem.

In the end, I can't help but compare this game to Ogre/G.E.V., and I find that while the game has some differences, I still like it. In fact, my ratings at boardgamegeek are identical for both games. They play in the same sandbox, but they do different things, and that is OK.

Tea Tabulation

In a post yesterday I noted that I was out from work because I was sick. Well, I am definitely getting over it. In fact, today I started feeling pretty normal, but I was still out of work, so I wanted something to do. What I ended up doing was going through all of the tea that I have and listing it out. I had wanted to do this for a while, because I was curious what I had accumulated. Well, let's just say that there was more of it than I had remembered. I am listing the name of the tea, and then the brand is in parenthesis after. If the tea is loose (i.e., not in bags) than that is noted after the name. Any special notes are at the end.

Actual Teas (i.e., not herbal concoctions)
Caramel Vanilla (Republic of Tea)
Coconut Chai (World Market)
Vanilla Mandarin (World Market)
Goji Raspberry Green (Republic of Tea)
Sweet Coconut Tai Chai (Celestial Seasonings) - I have two different coconut chai styles because this one is decaf
Pu-Erh loose (World Market)
Genmaicha loose (SereneTeaz) - a Christmas gift from my brother, Mark, this is green tea mixed with puffed rice. It is pretty odd
Black Currant (Twinings)
Blackberry Sage (Republic of Tea)
Wild Maine Blueberry (Republic of Tea)
Black Currant (Stewart's) - last year I got both of my Black Currant teas from my mother. I haven't even opened this one yet
Pear Luna loose (Teavana)
Island Oolong loose (World Market)
Darjeeling Choice Estate loose (World Market)
Dragon Well loose (World Market)
Peach loose (Kaffee Klatch) - this stuff makes great iced tea in the summer
Orange Sencha loose (Two Leaves and a Bud) - picked this up in a fancy tea shop in California during vacation in 2007; still unopened
Orange Flower Oolong loose (Octavia Tea) - picked up at same tea shop in California in 2007; this stuff is awesome)
Blueberry White loose (Archer Farms) - purchased at Target, of all places
Green Jasmine loose (Archer Farms)
Sencha loose (Teavana)
Ceylon Kenilworth loose (Teavana) - the Kenilworth plantation produces the best Ceylon tea, in my opinion
English Breakfast loose (Teavana)

Herbal Teas
Dream by the Fire Cinnamon & Vanilla (Republic of Tea)
Spiced Apple Cider (Republic of Tea) - not as good as it should have been
Orange Spice loose (Hartley's Herbs) - whoa, I forgot I had this. This stuff is a good eight years old at least, and probably not worth consuming anymore. Still smells good, though. The oddest herbal tea ever, it looks like a bunch of moss with sticks and stuff in it
Tangerine Orange Zinger (Celestial Seasonings)
Chamomile (Full Circle)
Tension Tamer (Celestial Seasonings) - this stuff has catnip in it, for real
Organic Mint Melange (Trader Joe's)
Chocolate Roasted Mate (World Market)
Plantation Lemonade (Eastern Shore Tea Company) - this was supposed to taste like pink lemonade, according to the container; they lied to me
Herbal Unwind (Twinings)
Chimayo Sunset (New Mexico Pinon Coffee) - another thing I forgot I had that is probably too old to use anymore; includes actual dried New Mexico pinon bush

... now that is a long list. Maybe I should stop buying new tea until I get this stuff drunk.

City State Warfare

For the next game in my collection, we come to City State Warfare. I believe I got this game in the early '90s when I was living in Springfield and attending Missouri State University (not that it was called that at the time, of course). The game is a pretty generic tactical combat system for medieval style fighting. I say that because the average units in the game are footmen, bowmen, and mounted knights. All your standard medieval fare. The game also includes fantasy units, such as goblins and elves, but that is more for flavor and to expand the appeal of the game, as those units are treated the same by the game rules as the regular historical human units.

The game system itself is pretty generic, and doesn't hold up well to modern designs. Each counter represents living things, so a footman unit represents 20 men, while a mounted units represents 10 riders and 10 horses. Each hex on the map (two of which are included with the game) represents 60 feet. On your turn, you can move your units around the map up to their Movement Factor. You want to get your units next to enemy units so they can fight, but only when you outnumber them, so the odds are in your favor. The way to do this is by stacking your units as tight as possible in a few hexes, up to the stacking limit (3 mounted units, or 6 foot units, or combinations thereof). This allows you to attack with more punch, as you total up the Melee Factors of all attacking units when making an attack roll.

Attack rolls are made by rolling a six-sided die and referencing the Combat Results Table. First you find the Defense Class of the unit, and you find the row for your die roll. Then you slide over to the right to find your total Factors Attacking rating, and then you see how many enemy units you eliminated (none, one, two, or three). It is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. Maneuver actually becomes pretty important with this system, which I like, as just charging head-on is a good way to get dead unless your units are way better quality than their targets.

The game comes with 10 historical scenarios for you to fight it out with your friends. There are all right, and seem relatively balanced (usually through each side having different victory conditions). However, the meat of the game is in something else. See, the game was published by Judges Guild, which made a lot of adventures and supplements for fantasy role-playing games. In fact, this game says right up front on the first page of the rules that it was designed to allow RPG players to play out any battles that might occur during a RPG campaign. Hence the fantasy units, but hence some other aspects of the game.

First, each side will have one or more leaders. In historical scenarios these represent actual military commanders, but in a fantasy game they can represent player characters, thus allowing players to have their individual characters affect the battle directly. There are also detailed rules for how you can go about building up your own army through hiring mercenaries or even forming a goon squad to force the local peasants into your armed forces (just don't expect high morale in those units if you do that!), as well as how to design your own game units to reflect whatever oddball collection of troops you come up with.

As befits a game with campaign play in mind, there are also tables to determine how many of your people actually died in each unit lost, as realistically people don't fight to the last man in all situations, and having a unit "eliminated" could just mean that a few people got stabbed and the rest freaked and ran away, only to slink back to camp a week later. In the same way, eliminated leaders almost never actually die, but they can get maimed, or captured and ransomed back, or captured and then escape while stealing enemy treasure, etc. Lots of different things can happen. There is even a random mission generation table if you just want to come up with a random reason for a battle, though I don't think it works very well, and was most likely a late addition to fill up page count.

Overall, this game could use some work to bring some of its game mechanics into line with modern design principles, but the underlying system works decently enough. That said, it doesn't need a lot of work, and designing your own units is fun. Heck, I once wrote an entire campaign system just to let me fight out a bunch of battles with this game, and have had a lot of fun with it over the years. Definitely a keeper.

Greetings From Not Detroit

I was supposed to fly to Detroit yesterday, in order to start a new project. Didn't happen, due to my 102 degree fever and flu-like symptoms. Yes, I have come down with something for the third time this season. No idea what that is about, I thought I was being pretty healthy. Oh, well. The last time I had the flu it took a good three days to take care of, so I will probably be back to full function by Thursday. I don't think I'm making it to Detroit this week, though.

The End of the Decade Makes People Reflect...

...on anime. At least, if you write for the website Anime Dream, you reflect on anime. Not that 2010 is really the start of a new decade, but let's not get into the math right now. As a staff writer for Anime Dream, I was asked to do a brief write-up of my favorite shows from the aughts. You can find them here. If you are interested in what the other staff writers thought, you can find links to all of the entries here.