FTL: Faster Than Light Review

All right, so I'm pretty excited here. When I saw the Kickstarter pitch for FTL: Faster Than Light I immediately knew that it was going to be a game I liked. I impulsively backed it for $10 and sat back and watched as it got funded. It was also one of the first kicks I've started, and now that it has officially been released I think it's also the first for me to see the fruits of my investment. And what glorious fruits they are.

I downloaded my DRM-free copy of game (in the background while playing Minecraft - sometimes I absolutely love technology) I got as a Kickstarter backer and fired it up to try it out. The tutorial was easy to learn and informative, and I was able to jump right into the game after a very short time. The game starts with a single ship design (more are unlocked the more you play - something about being tied to achievements and the areas you explore) and three crew members, each of which was named. If I recall correctly I had Williams, Lunnig, and Merkel. I immediately sent them to engineering, weapons, and the helm respectively, and eventually they leveled up to be a superior engineer, weapons officer, and pilot - but for now they were just names at stations. I started my first FTL jump, not really knowing what I was doing or the best way to do it, and just figured I'd see how far I could get.

The game is fast-paced and fun. I would jump to a system under attack by pirates, where I could choose to fight the pirates or ignore them (I was generally always spoiling for a fight - not the best idea all the time, but such is the nature of experience), then to an abandoned colony where I salvaged some scrap, then to a planet with a lone survivor I added to my crew (named Charlie - he eventually became my Shield technician and main repairman), then to a merchant where I could trade goods...and as I looked at the sector map, an ominous red line was approaching me. This (I later learned) was the rebel fleet, searching for me and the vital data I was carrying vital to the preservation of the Federation. Staying one step ahead of the fleet would be vital.

And I was generally able to do that. I made it through 3 big sectors (there is an end point in each sector that allows you to jump to the next sector - but exploring the sector first is important, as it will yield parts crucial to your survival in the future sector, which increase notably in difficulty) and I upgraded my ship quite a bit. I picked up another crewman (also named Charlie, who I started specializing as my repairman, to let Charlie 1 stay at his shield console more regularly), I upgraded my shields, I bought a teleporter pad (so my crew could board enemy ships), and a story began to emerge. Perhaps the best part of the game was right near the end (of this session), where the rebel fleet was closing in and I made a long-range gambit to avoid them, trying to cut through a system with a red giant star. There was an enemy ship there firing on me, my ship was already damaged, and the sun was slowly heating up my ship. I needed to hold off until my FTL drive could spin up and I could jump away. The fight went badly, the enemy ship knocked out my Oxygen supply and started fires throughout much of my ship, most of my crew was damaged, and my hull was getting very damaged. Once my drive spun up I went to make the jump - only to realize that the system I was in was too far away from the exit system. I would have to backtrack several systems to be able to get there. Which would put me directly in contact with the forward scouts of the rebel fleet. Well, no other option right now...I jumped back to a previously explored (and currently safe) system. The fires were raging, having spread to much of the rear and port sides of the ship now, but I had gotten my crew out of there and into the med bay (where they were healing their injuries). I sealed all the doors on the ship, opened all the doors in the rooms full of fire, and then opened the rear and port airlocks, dramatically aware of the fact that without my Oxygen system up and running I was blowing most of my remaining air into space. The gambit put out the fires, I sealed all the airlocks and then opened all the interior doors to let what air was left fill the back of the ship, then sent every available (and freshly healed) crewman to the back to start fixing the Oxygen, engines, and the gaping hull breach in the engine room that was venting even more air. The crew fixed the Oxygen, sealed the breach, got the ship repaired, and it was time to go. The hull was badly damaged, I wouldn't be able to last long in a fight, and there would be 2-3 systems I would have ahead of me that would be swarming with rebels.

I made the jump, found a rebel patrol ship waiting, and began the process of fending them off until the FTL spun up. It went badly, and by the time I was able to jump again I was one hit away from destruction. The next jump wasn't just a forward scout - it was the vanguard of the rebel fleet. Their fighters began harrying me and I hoped to spin up the FTL before the cruisers could open fire - but a lucky missile shot from a fighter ended that hope and my game.

For 1.5-2 hours of gameplay, I had a ton of fun. I got oddly attached to the named sprites that had become valuable crew members. I always made sure to have them at their respective stations - with the pilot and engineer working together my Dodge chance went up considerably, my tactical officer notably reduced the cooldown of my weapon systems, and my shield tech kept those shields fully charged and able to weather considerable firepower. There was an emergent story that was the result of a string of random encounters, yet it was compelling and thrilling to the end. I unlocked another ship design, I learned a lot about the game and what good choices to make, and I learned that when they recommend to start on "easy" mode if you're not familiar with the game to listen to them. The game gets plenty hard, trust me. Easy will help you actually see the end of the game (hopefully) and unlock more items to start you off better in the future.

I strongly advise anyone who's interested in this game to get it. It's not to justify a $10 purchase for something that can give so many hours of replayable content.

Skarre1 vs. Grissel1 BatRep

Played a rather exciting game last night! I was trying out the Skarre tier lists"Ships in the Night" from No Quarter, and James was playing a list with "As Many Troll Infantry As He Could Field", I think. Anyway, the italic parts will be the fluff surrounding the actual BatRep facts. You know, for flavor.

The lists:
Doug: The Cryxian Heavy Coastal Artillery
Pirate Queen Skarre
Kraken
Skarlock
Revenant crew of the Atrementous (10)
Revenant canon
Warwitch siren x2
Iron lich overseer
Mariner x2 (marshalled)

James
Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller
Mug
Mauler
Kriel warriors (10)
- UA
- 3 cabers
Fennblades (10)
- UA
Burrowers (6)
War wagon

The board looked really cool, and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures. From the perspective of my side of the board there was the GF9 Khador Canon terrain piece to the left, to the right were 2 forests, and the center of the board was littered with barrels, hay bales, and other cover. the board itself was one of my Zuzzy mats which I'm painting to look like a field covered in ice and snow.

One of these canons.

Deployment went simply. My Kraken pre-deployed dead center to take advantage of the scenario (the one where there are two zones in the center of the board, and you need to control the one on your opponent's side - Onslaught, I think?), while the War Wagon deployed by the Khador Canon to run a hard flank with fire support for all that infantry. I put my revenant canon on the right flank to hide behind a forest (to better keep him protected while benefitting from the Ghost Shot ability), the Iron Lich Overseer (hereafter ILO) left of him with his 2 Mariners B2B, the war witches behind them, the skarlock overe there too, then Skarre just left of the kraken, with rev crew next to her. James basically centered the rest of his army in waves, with Burrowers out front (with AD), kriel warriors behind them, Fennblades behind them, and the warbeasts and Grissel in the back. There was a lot of Troll staring me down, but I had a lot of guns, and my hope was that by going first I could deal with them. Finally I used my tier bonus to Advance Move my Rev Crew and canon forward.

A small boat sailed almost soundlessly toward the frozen shore near the Scarsfell Forest in Khador. The air was crisp with the coming winter, and a few flurries of snows wafted through the air. As the boat approached the shoreline, the water began to froth around them and a huge Kraken surfaced, advancing ahead of the boat and taking its position on land. Moments later two Mariner warjacks also breached the surface, followed by a small horde of ragtag revenants, several of which were hauling one of the cursed canons from the Atrementous. As the boat reached the shore the horned Pirate Queen stepped off, sword and dagger in hand, flanked by a pair of warwitches, a hulking Iron Lich Overseer, and her personal skarlock. Without a word the force began to advance inland, knowing their target was not far away.

Grissel Bloodsong's kin had not fared well these last few days. Several hard-fought battles against Khadorans encroaching on Trollblood lands in the Scarsfell had depleted their numbers, but perhaps even worse their supply of hardy trollkin beer was exhausted. With winter coming on and her people needing her warriors to stay stout of heart, Grissel knew that they would have to move out and acquire more supplies. She had heard about an excellent opportunity - a Khadoran supply depot on the outskirts of the forest, brimming with kegs of beer and food. As an added bonus, this depot was home to a massive Avalanche Canon, in position to shell either the coast or the forest from miles away. Capturing the canon would be a huge asset for her people.

Turn 1 for me was mainly just running up into position. The Kraken went as far forward as he could, the Rev canon entrenched itself out of sight behind the forests where I felt sure that he would get at least a few shots off, the Rev Crew ran up and took position in some barrels for cover. The ILO ran into cover and had the mariners also run up into B2B with him, the warwitches following up behind them. Skarre camped her focus and ran up behind a barrel, the skarlock sacked a rec canon crew member, netting Skarre 4 more focus the following turn. All in all, not too bad. James blitzed everything forward, putting Hoof It on the kriel warriors and running them as far as he could, then running the Fennblades up behind them and following up with his beasts in the back. Burrowers burrowed (like they do) and waited. I've been on the other side of this before, but now I've seen a horde of Trolls with Touch, no KD, and a dangerous level of threat output fly 17" across the board toward me, getting right up in front of my lines. It's terrifying. Finally, the War Wagon lobbed a shot that got a perfect deviation and took out 2 rev crew and the QM (who apparently didn't calculate blast damage into his survival odds when taking cover).

As Grissel's trollkin approached the canon, she could see a grisly sight - Khadoran bodies stewn about and smoke rising from signs of battle. Across the field was a huge mechanikal monstrosity, as well as a collection of other Cryxian tools of war. Forming up quickly, they prepared to charge as the Cryxians whirled about and came for them. Running forward to meet them, Grissel only hoped that the strength of troll flesh would prevail against the fell power of the Cryxians.

Round 2 is where the fun happened. With kriel warriors up in my grill and already down 3 rev crew, it was time to bring the pain. Skarre had 10 focus, gave 3 to the kraken, and kept the rest. The rev canon blasted 2 kriel warriors (who both failed their tough rolls) and regained its lost crew member. Skarre stayed in her cover and put up Dark Guidance, giving all her Cryxians an extra die to hit in melee, the skarlock sacked the new rev canon guy for the promise of 5 focus next turn for skarre, and then the real guns opened up. One warwitch put a focus on a mariner, the ILO killed a warrior with Dark Fire, netting him a soul, then the mariners fired, forfeiting movement for Rat 7. The tightly clumped kriel warriors took a number of explosions, and with the warwitch focus, the jack marshal boosts, and the ILO's soul, about 5 or so kriel warriors went to meet Dhunia. The Rev Crew accosted themselves stunningly well, with Dark Guidance and Gang allowing them to tear through most of the rest of the unit. They did a little too well, in fact - I had to not take a few attacks, because I wanted there to be kriel warriors for the Kraken to eat! It did that as well, killing the two kriel warriors in range and firing off a relatively ineffectual shot into the troll back lines, but not being far enough forward that Mulg would be able to reach him. All in all I'd killed 13 out of 15 kriel warriors, including all their cabers, and I wasn't in a particularly bad spot.

The Troll retaliation was not too bad. The Burrowers popeed up in front of the Kraken, forfeited their movement, and shot him with slug guns for 9 points of damage. The Fennblades used No Quarter and charged, killing most of the Rev Crew (but not the Quartermaster!) and a warwitch siren, and generally all kinds of up in the way. The last kriel warrior took his swing at the Quartermaster and missed, and the War Wagon had no better luck. Grissel and her beasts advanced up behind the front lines again.

As the Trolls charged forward at the Cryxians, to their horror they saw canons flash and explosion ripple across their lines. Many hardy trollkin were torn apart, somescreaming in agony as their very souls were ripped from them, and some falling victim to the huge Kraken, which stuffed them into the vents on its sides. The undead pirates dispatched many with their pistols and swords, and it wasn't long before Bloodsong's kin began to lose hope. Their countercharge failed to inflict serious damage on the Cryxians, even with their burrowers ambushing the Kraken and firing their slug guns into it. Things looked grim.

Round 3 is where I messed up. I got excited by all the killing happening and forgot one very important thing: if I was going to kill Mulg, I needed to load up the Kraken all the way. I forgot this, and didn't do it. I gave him 1 focus, and apparently just didn't think about it. The rest of the turn went well - the rev canon blew up a few pygs and fennblades, got a crewman back, the skarlock sac'd him to promise Skarre 6 focus next turn, The Mariners blew holes in the Fennblades, all with the intent of clearing a path for the kraken to get to Mulg. They did pretty well, but unlike their Kriel warrior bretheren, the Fennblades were familiar with the "Tough" mechanic, and how to actually make it work. One key fennblade in the way toughed like 3 times in a row. The Rev Crew brought 5 models back to life, all of whom were put into position to inflict serious damage on the Fenns. Skarre moved up to kill a Burrower in the way - in retrospect, not a wise move. Combined with not loading up the kraken, this proved to be my downfall. she popped her feat, used her ample extra focus (still grumbling...) to heal back to full, and had 1 to camp. The Rev Crew, between feat and Dark Guidance, tore through most of the remaining Fenns nearby and were able to put a few pistol shots into knocked down models still blocking the Kraken. In the end, the Kraken was clear to attack Mulg, at ARM 24, and at P+S 25 with his 2 corpses. A second derp on my part meant that I forgot to turn him to face Mulg with BOTH arms...so with only 1 focus and 1 initial on him I didn't seal the deal. 2 attacks at dice+6 (!!!) dealt 12 and 13 damage, respectively, but left him standing well within charge range (or walk range, now that I'd damaged him) of Skarre.

Mulg's response to the Kraken.

James did his part perfectly. Grissel moved up and popped her feat and was able to get Calamity off on Skarre, as well as heal Mulg back to fighting status. The Mauler charged the front of the Kraken to get nice and close to Mulg, then cast his animus on the big guy and tried wrestling the Kraken (at ARM 24 he mostly looked a little silly - the best part being the chain attack, where he opted for an impotent head butt). Then Mulg walked up, needing 7s to hit Skarre and doing dice+3 on each hit. He hit the first one, dealt 14 damage (great time to crank a roll on 2 dice, right?), tried eating a Rev Crew with his free hand, found that the undead are really unappetizing, got extra angry and swung at Skarre again with his free feat attack and missed. One buy later and Skarre was a tree-ka-bob. The Mauler roared triumphantly as the Kraken went down - we figured that the timing had him convinced he wrestled the machine to the ground.

Another wave of explosions rippled through the troll lines, and where before a wall of troll flesh had protected Grissel and her beasts, now only the bodies of the dead and the moans of the dying remained. The horned warcaster summoned powerful fell magics to empower her forces, and the slaughtered Grissel's kin with gleeful abandon, the towering Kraken striding forward to inflict horrible lashes into Mulg's hide. Grissel saw her chance, though, even wounded as Mulg was. She charged forward and let out a mighty fell chorus that strengthened her kin and weakened their enemies. She invoked magic of her own to weaken the horned warcaster, and with mighty roars her beasts charged. Her mauler swung at the great colossal with all his might, eventually grabbing onto its legs and smashing his head against it in an attempt to bring it down. Mulg could see more clearly, though. Through the haze of pain he ignored the huge Kraken and advanced to the Satyxis, bringing his club down to shatter her power field, then with a mighty swing smashing her straight backwards into a copse of trees, losing sight of her. The Kraken immediately faltered and slumped, the Mauler doing its best to wrestle the great thing to the ground and roaring in triumph. The remaining Cryxian forces quickly began retreating, a few parting shots to discourage pursuit. Grissel surveyed the battlefield. Many of her warriors were dead or dying, though some would recover with food and drink. The depot was packed with supplies, and she knew that if they moved quickly many of her kin would live to fight another day.

This game was really fun. Even though I lost the idea of having a Cryx gunline was silly and fun. I need more practice with my Kraken (this makes exactly the second game I've used him), but I think with better application this list has serious tournament potential. It has a very long reach with its guns, it hits like a monster in melee, and it can deal with a lot of issues on the other side of the table. Even with no corpses the Kraken hits at P+S 23 on feat turn, and with 3 focus and Dark Guidance that is enough to put some serious hurt out. A few corpses will have him hitting much harder, and the Rev crew with P+S 16 swords in melee with gang are good backup, to say nothing of the potential to charge the Mariners in. The ILO ended up being very good, and I was able to use him and the Mariners as powerful and accurate backfield artillery pieces. The Revenant canon likewise did very well, killing several models and proving to be an excellent choice for Skarre's sacrifical strike. I'll test this list some more, but if nothing else the "fun" factor was incredibly high.

War Room follow up

All right, so after many software updates and trying to tell myself I wouldn't do it, I purchased the big bundle for War Room. Yes, I know, that was kind of dumb, but I kept asking myself if I would use it if I bought it, and I had to keep answering yes. So here I am, and I am really not hating it. There are far fewer bugs (though they are certainly not gone entirely), the whole program got a serious overhaul, the UI is still pretty bad for the most part, but the core functionality is there, and that what I wanted. I wanted to have all the rules handy at a glance for when I want to know the exact wording on a spell, and now I have it. Admittedly I'm probably the ideal target for this program - a rules junkie with an encyclopedic knowledge of the game who wants the latest and greatest rules and errata and doesn't need much help with list building, but so be it.

Last night I played my first game with War Room, and I have to admit I was impressed. Both players had War Room running and we connected it over the wifi and didn't pull out a single card. Getting used to not having physical cards to rummage through was weird, but after the initial confusion of figuring out where my rules were for models it was pretty easy. Damage tracking was relatively painless, rules reference was a breeze, looking up rules on my own and my opponent's models during play was incredibly useful at times (getting the exact wording of a spell he had, without tipping him off that I was looking at it was fun), and generally the program performed like it had been advertised originally.

I'm coming around on War Room. It's still not great, I doubt it will ever be a sleek piece of software, and the fact that list building frankly "sucks the big one" all mean that I'm sure a lot of people will not be investing in it. For me personally, though, I feel that I will be making ample use of the ability to access everything in the game at a moments' notice, and having the option (at least in casual play) of just forgoing cards entirely is quite a nice thought.

Kraken Paintjob

In an effort to not get incredibly depressed (tomorrow will be one year since my dad died...) I am trying to do some more painting. Working hard and ignoring emotions is healthy, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

Anyway, to that end I've been painting a Kraken for my friend. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out for the most part. My pictures are kind of crappy, but the biggest gripe I have is that the rust streak effect I went for really didn't turn out great. Most of the rest of the rust looks boss, but those streaks just look...well, you can judge for yourselves. I'm also accepting any good ideas about what to do to fix them.

Oh, and the blood isn't really that purple in real life. That's totally a weird camera thing.

War Room

Man, sometimes I REALLY hate the internet. I hate the fact that every time there's a new release from Privateer Press I have to circumvent the entire forum system until it stops resembling a blasted wasteland populated by obnoxious 12-year-olds. But I gotta admit - it's not like the complaints about War Room are without merit. I've been playing around with the program since it released yesterday, and I feel reasonably confident in giving at least some initial impressions.

On my iPad 2 the program runs fine. Great, in fact. It's smooth, goes between menus without problems, and generally does everything promised by those videos we've all been seeing. This is in sharp contrast to my Android phone. On my phone the program is incredibly buggy, freezes without warning or reason, crashes occasionally, and you can't use the back button on the phone - only the in-app button. Which only works when you make the proper oblations and ritual sacrifices. And it's feeling generous. Basically the program is un-usably bad on my phone. For the purposes of what I'm talking about here, I'm going to look at this program from the perspective of the iPad, and just really, REALLY hope that in a couple patches the Android issues will get straightened out.

All right, so I fired up War Room after months of hype, create my account, and dive in! I know that only the prime models are available without spending money, so I look at those. The program is actually pretty great as a virtual card system, I gotta say. It has all the cards in full, big formats with all the latest rules and the ability to click on them to learn specifically what certain rules do. Wondering the exact wording of terror? You can have it at a touch, no book flipping required. As someone who frequently references his cards and rulebook to try and work out specific combinations and timing issues, this rules-reference portion of the program is worth the price of admission alone.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to talk about War Room without mentioning iBodger - the free list-building tool for Android and iOS created by a fan, for other fans to use to make a great game better and easier to play. iBodger did exactly what it was advertised to do - it built lists. You could choose theme lists, it would make sure your points were right, it would adjust point values of models if a tier list did so, and even let you email lists. In preparation for War Room Privateer asked iBodger to cease updating the program, the assumption from everyone being that War Room would pick up the slack. Eight months later, now that War Room is out, I gotta say that...well, it kind of does?

This may be the biggest gripe people have - after the program crashing on their Android devices and - like me - paying for card bundles and having them just...not show up. (You have my money! I just want to use your program already! /rage) The list building part of War Room works well enough. you can select models, put them in your army, all that jazz. You can save your army, you can save the army of someone else you're playing against. Also pretty rad. My main issue comes in two forms: mercenaries and theme list support. There is no filter for mercenaries, and they show up with all the faction models. It's really unnecessary, and seems like a major design flaw. I really don't want to have to sift through a pile of mercenary warjacks I can't even assign to my caster just to find the ones I can. At least separating them out into blocks within the same category would be a major improvement. Theme forces though...man, I feel like they really dropped the ball on this one. Other than the ability to reference a theme force, there's no support. There's no graying out of models you can't take once you select a theme force. There's no model point adjustments (I get a point off of these two warjacks? Well, I suppose I better just make my list 2 points over and deal with it), there no prevention of those mercenaries, there's...nothing. You just make a theme force and have the rules for it handy. By itself it's not horrible, but we live in a post-iBodger meta. You can't get away with asking people to pay out the nose to use your program and then not give them the functionality they were getting for free.

I think the biggest crime here was the hype, honestly. We've been exposed to the imminent "War Room is coming! It's super awesome!" hype for months. With iBodger not being updated and a new book being out, everyone has been getting more and more anxious for this. No one writes out their lists on paper any more, everyone uses their phones. Privateer constantly hyped how good this program was, and how it was going to be the be-all end-all list-building program. I tried really hard to keep my expectations low - this is a new company making an app for the first time for a game they probably never play for a community that is absolutely rabid at the best of times. It was a recipe for disaster from the start. Do I think it excuses what's going on? No. Do I think Privateer should maybe have held off on hyping this thing until they actually had a working version in their hot little hands? Absolutely. Do I think they should have shut the premier list-building software down 8 months before their own proprietary system came out? Fuck no. It smacks of their dealings with Gale Force 9, except instead of a company they were doing business with it was a single guy doing them an immeasurable service because he loves their game.

I'm hoping War Room shapes up in the next few days with a series of much needed patches. It needs to act and act fast if it wants to succeed - these rabid fans will do their best to burn it to the ground if it isn't working as promised - and they made the serious mistake of promising a whole hell of a lot.

Objective markers

I built 3 Objective Markers for the local League here. From left to right we have a Menoth's Fury cache, a pirate rum stash, and a defiled Menite grave with a ghoulish hand bursting forth. Pics when they're painted.

Welcome back!

All right! So not much to post right now, other then me remembering after the last few months that I in fact have a blog, and should probably update it now and again.

Big news events: My Pressgang application got approved, and I've run a Journeyman league at Blizzard (which I've been pretty regularly going to on Tuesday nights).

I got an airbrush! More on that later, but it's super rad and I've been going a little crazy with it.

I have too many models. I need motivation to paint through some of this backlog!

The Old Republic is the bee's knees. Related: my inability to paint lately...

That's all for now, I'll make a real post later.