Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: Review

So, I have not been able to play too many games this week, but I will post later about the games I have gotten to play. 

I should start the review by stating that I have never listened to Critical Role, but I am familiar with their work. This book is primarily written by Matt Mercer and details the campaign setting for Critical Role season 2. It provides detailed history, maps, and descriptions of all the regions and cities found within the continent of Wildemount. This book is very well written and uses some high-level vocabulary, which is not surprising, given the author. It only takes listening to Matt Mercer speak and run a game for about 2 minutes before you realize he is a highly intelligent dude. 

I am going to break this review down into 4 parts, background, rules, visuals, and overall.

Background :

I took a quick look through the background and history established in this book and I really like it. The history is kind of standard fare for a D&D setting in that there was once a great highly magical civilization that has fallen and now people are just starting to pick up the pieces. Two empires are about to go to war on the continent and the book offers you plenty of advice on how to play a wartime campaign and how to adjust the time frame back a year or so and avoid the war all together.

My favorite part of the background are the details on each city and region. The book gives you the population, ruler, and racial make up of each city and region. Additionally, Mercer also provides between 1 to 3 adventure hooks for each region, which I really like. Even if you don’t want to use the whole campaign, you can grab any region or city from this book and plug it directly into any high magic campaign you are running with little to no effort.

Thus, if you are a DM looking to find a world to play in, this book is great. I would highly recommend playing some D&D in this world. It has enough details that most your questions will be answered, but it leaves enough empty space that you can blend in your own events, characters, and places.

Rules:

In total, this book provides monsters, magic items, spells, new (and not so new races), sub-races, 2 new wizard sub-class, and 1 new fighter sub-class.

I’ll start with the races. The book has a lot of races in it, but the majority are re-prints from other books including, Aarakocra, Tabaxi, Genasi, Goliaths, Bugbears, Goblins, Hobgoblins and more. Now, if you don’t have the rules for these races, this is awesome. If you already have the rules for these races, its not great. I don’t own every 5E book, so I didn’t have some of these, so for me this was great. If you own every book, you likely already had all of these. There are rules here from a revenant-esque character called Hallow One, but I am left unclear as to how to apply them. I don’t this it is a sub-class and seems to just be a template you can place on a character at the start of a campaign or if a character dies.

The three sub-classes are all really good. So, while there are not a ton of options, unlike the options found in other books, all three are playable and could be placed in any setting. The fighter sub-class allows you to make a copy of your character in strange ways and fight from different tactical positions. The two wizard sub-classes are both great. One focuses on time magic, and the other on gravity magic. To go with these wizard sub-classes the book also includes extra spells which have to do with time and gravity. It specifies that only these sub-classes may use the spells, but also states the DM can allow these spells to be used by other wizards and even other classes. I would be tempted to add these spells to only the wizard list in an effort to help the class out (let’s face it sorcerer is OP as hell).

There is a nice range of monsters, with a wide range of challenge ratings. I think any of them could be used in other settings. Until I try them out in combat, I don’t have too much to say about them, other than the fluff is neat.

The magic items in this book are great. I am a fan of items that a have a modifier and cool abilities and most the weapons and armor in here fit the bill. There are several pages of items, and like the monsters, I think they could be placed into any campaign.

Visuals

The art in the book is awesome and plentiful. Additionally, it comes with a tear out map of the entire continent, just like the Eberron book. I am not a fan of the cartoony style cover, but I like the art. The style of art in the book varies, but overall, its great stuff.

Overall

If you are a fan of Critical Role this book is an auto-buy. Also, if you are looking for a new high magic setting to put your campaign in, this is a great book for you as well. The only person I would not recommend this book to, is someone who is currently happy with their current campaign setting, already has all the races in the book, and does not want/need additional background for their campaign (and if this is the case why are looking to buy a D&D book anyway?).

Airplane Bases

Well it finally happened.... this social distancing and working from home has left me board enough that I am working on the bases for Aeronautica Imperialis.

Here is my prototype. I am going to do imperial's with green radar and Orks with Blue Radar that way the radar color is different from the colors on the planes. Here is the priming process, the painted prototype and the prototype with a finished plane!

Stuck inside and assembling models!

Hey everyone,

I am not playing too many games this week since I am stuck inside. Put I am taking some time to assemble some models I have had laying around and I suggest you all do the same!

Here are the guard I have been working on this afternoon.

I am always jealous of the guard players that had time to really make their heavy weapons look like a diorama. But now, with the virus, I have that time! Enjoy!

Justin

Went to on a trip and now stuck at home!

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the lack of posts. We went on a trip out of the country and now are stuck at home. After I get my work together expect quite a few posts once I start painting!

Justin

Slight Delay, D&D and Adeptus Titanticus

A Slight delay but plenty of games played.

Typically, I am trying to make a lengthy blog post at least once a week on Sunday. This week, however, I had a slight delay because…. I was playing games. I hope you can forgive me, but to me at least, that seems like a pretty good excuse.

On Thursday we wrapped up the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign that I have been playing in. The DM saw it fit to add a final last fight against one of the pirate princes and it was pretty comical. The pirate prince had undead whales. We managed to polymorph one, but it in a bag of holding, then air drop it onto the pirate prince’s ship. I don’t think he expected that. After that the aliens invaded… If you have played this adventure or the classic adventures upon which it is based, you may not recognize any of this. That’s because its not the in book, our DM added quite a bit to do with the pirate princes and aliens. A lot of us are very busy for the next few weeks and we have not decided whether to switch to new characters or continue with our ninth level characters. Either way I am sure we will pick these characters up again. 

This week I ran D&D on Friday and it is likely the last game we will get to play for a while. I am teaching a lot and the stress of writing and running a campaign is just a little too much over midterms. I think its important for a DM to recognize when the time sink is becoming a bit too much and be honest with their players. So, for a while I am going to get ahead on writing adventures and play some board games. A few players have already mentioned they will DM as well.

On Sunday I played two games of Adeptus Titanticus. The first was a very small game against a new player. I wanted to try out the rules for Space Marines that I had written. I took all marines including: 2 bases of marines with bolters, 2 bases of marines with melta guns, 2 rhinos, and 2 land raiders. I ave my opponent a single Warhound with a Plasma Blast Gun and a Vulcan Heavy Bolter. We played the retrieval mission. Long story short the warhound demolished the marines, killing one land raider turn 1, then turning to destroy the rhinos and marines as they closed on the objective. Eventually after a round or two of a showdown the Warhound put the final structure on point on the Land Raider. Overall, I was happy that the Warhound dismantled the marine as I would not want them to be able to threaten titans directly. They did make a run at the objective (which is what I designed them to do). Here are some pictures from that game:

After that short game my regular opponent and I played a 2000 point game. When we play we use a variation of the matched play rules. One of us designs the mission and sets up terrain while they other player chooses what side of the mission to play. In this case I designed a balanced mission in which we played Engage and Destroy with the secondary from a different mission (the one where you hold table quarters for 3 points each). I took my new Nemesis Warbringer, a Warlord, a warhound, two Reavers, and three knight lancers. My opponent took a Warlord, two Reavers, two Warhounds, three regular knights, and two lancers. During the course of the game we did screw up the effects of the quake cannon (as per the new errata), but otherwise this was a great game. I learned that the new Nemesis Warbringer is extremely tough, as it took a ton of punishment. Eventually it was killed, and I killed a Reaver, and the resulting explosion killed another Warhound. As per normal all of the knights were killed during the course of the game. I barely won, a rarity in that game for me, but it was a solid whacky game. Here are some pictures:

Finally, we play-tested my board game twice. Only 150 something more plays to go. More on that later.

This Thursday we are going to try out the remake of the Dune board game and I am really excited so I will post some pictures of that later this week.

Justin

Painting old Epic marines for Adeptus Titanticus and Rules!

Got some hobby time today... and it resulted in this

Then I decided to draft up some rules and quickly came up with this. I hope to try them out soon.

Rules for Space Marines for AT

Largely, infantry and Space Marines follow the rules for knights and adhere to the rules for knights. Space Marines are grouped into units of the same type of model. They can get the same orders, and move and act in the same way. Essentially if you read the rules for knights, and replace the word banner with the word unit, and the word knight with the word model or base of infantry, then the knight rules work well for units of space marines. 

General Rule: 

Insignificant: Infantry, Rhinos, and Land Raiders do not stop the movement of any titan Scale 5 or larger. Titans may walk over these models. If the end their movement on top of one of these models simply move the insignificant model out from under the titans base by the shortest route possible. If there is debate about where the model should end up the owning player makes the decision.  

Space Marine Infantry

A unit of Space Marine infantry consists of 2-4 bases, which cost 10 points each.

Scale: 1  10 points per base

Ballistic Skill 3+  Weapon Skill 3+

Speed 6”  Command 4+

Power Armor

Infantry Bases	Attack Strength
	1-3	4+
1-4	4+	-

Direct hit 4-6, Devastating Hit 7-9, Critical Hit 10+  Structure Points 2:  0  0

Agile: Infantry Bases may move through difficult terrain with no penalty.

Cover Seeking: While in difficult terrain subtract two from all armor rolls against them.

Transportable: If they start their turn within 3” of a unit with transport, they my board the unit. Remove the infantry from the table and note that they are within the transport. They may disembark entirely within 3” of a transport at the start of their activation.

Weapons

Bolters-

Range Short 0-3” Acc -

               Long 3”-6” Acc -1

Dice 1 Strength 1

Traits: Rapid  

Close combat weapons

Short 1”

Long –

Str 1  Dice 2

Special rule for Close combat weapons-If attacking a titan in melee infantry may only ever target the legs. 

Options

If the squad numbers 2 or less bases they can be given the meltagun trait for 15 pts per base. (See Questoris Support Banner sheet). In total, only half the bases you have in your force may have meltaguns.

Rhinos

A unit of Rhinos consists of 1 to 2 Rhinos. You must assign each squad of rhinos to a space marine infantry unit that it has the ability to carry. Those marines may start the game in those Rhinos.

Scale: 2 15 points per rhino

Ballistic Skill 3+  Weapon Skill 5+

Speed 12”  Command 4+

Rhino Armor

Rhinos	Attack Strength
	1-5	6+
1-2	4+	-

Direct hit  6-8 Devastating Hit 9-11, Critical Hit 12+  Structure Points 2:  0  0

Agile: Rhinos may move through difficult terrain with no penalty, but cannot enter building or go on top off something taller than itself. I.e. no Rhinos on buildings. 

Transports: Each Rhino may transport 2 bases of space marine infantry.

Weapons

Twin Bolters

Range Short 0-3” Acc +1

               Long 3”-6” Acc –

Dice 1 Strength 1

Traits: Rapid  

Land Raiders

A unit of Land Raiders consists of 1 to 2 Land Raiders. You may  assign each squad of Land Raiders to a space marine infantry that it has the ability to carry. The marines may start the game in the Land Raiders.

Scale: 2 50 points per Land Raider

Ballistic Skill 3+  Weapon Skill 5+

Speed 10”  Command 4+

Land Raider Armor

Land Raiders	Attack Strength
	1-7	8+
1-2	4+	-

Direct hit  10-13 Devastating Hit 14-16, Critical Hit 1+  Structure Points 3:  0  0  0

Agile: Land Raiders may move through difficult terrain with no penalty, but cannot enter building or go on top off something taller than itself. I.e. no Land Raiders on buildings. 

Transports: Each Land Raider may transport 2 bases of space marine infantry.

Weapons

Twin Heavy Bolters

Range Short 0-6” Acc -

               Long 6”-10” Acc -1

Dice 1 Strength 2

Traits: Rapid  

2 Twin Laser Cannons

Range Short 0-6” Acc -

Long 6”-12” Acc - 

Dice 4 Strength 6

Casual 40k

Warhammer 40k casual event and not as much gaming as I’d like

Sadly, I did not get to game as much this week as I typically like to. I played some Commander Friday night and tried out my new Kess deck (https://edhrec.com/commanders/kess-dissident-mage). I mostly made this deck out of cards I had lying around, with the addition to some cards I picked up at That’s Entertainment! in Worcester. It is certainly not a top-level deck, but it is fun. I think she really allows you to use instant and sorceries to great effect even in a game of Commander. I will work on getting the decklist up at some point. I also go to play a single game with my new Simic deck (listed in a previous post), and it continued to do quite well.

This Saturday, a local store, The Armoury, had a casual 40k gaming event. I don’t really have a 40k list that I really like at the moment, so I played a weird version of Imperial Soup, seen here:

Imperial Guard- Cadians

Company Commander with command point returning warlord trait, and relic

Aradia Madellan Psyker character

10 guard X 3

Mechanicus Stygies VIII

Tech Priest

Tech Priest

5 Rangers

7 Rangers

5 Vanguard with 2 Plasma Calivers

3 Dragoons

1 Onager with neutron laser

Knights House Krast

Armiger with meltagun X 2

Knight Errant with fist, better missile launcher, and relic giving it a 2+ save

               This was not really a competitive list, but I had it all painted, so I figured why not?

I played two games, one against a mixed force of Iron hands and Mechanicus. This was a fun game and, I ended up winning. I was impressed with marines could do even without all of their abilities (as when they are allied they lose many of their abilities). Here are some highlight pictures:

After that I played against an Ork army. I ended up losing this game, but it was very close. My opponent simply had too many Orks! Here are some pictures from that one:

I did get a chance to make new draft of the board for my board game. I'll say more about this later and I need to work on making it more artistically pleasing, but I think this is fine start:

Justin