One of the local gamers, Garret, back the Carnevale Kickstarter. In the lead up to getting his goodies he industriously prepared a water table with clever magnetic cobble stoned blocks for a great looking modular table. Part of his goodies included Venetian inspired laser cut mdf from ttcombat with some sort of matboard detailing.
I ended up getting to see the whole effect this week when he invited me over to be the opposing player in his first game. We skipped the 'learn how to play' scenarios which are super basic (scenario 1: learn to move!) and jumped into a scenario where we both want to grab a token in the middle. Gangs start *VERY* close so the mayhem kicked in right away.
I played some fishmen/Cthulhu-esque gangers with slaves that my fishmen can eat to heal. Garret played some sailor/gondolier plus angry townsfolk. Gangs seem to run 6 to 10 figs, and have a fun specific style (there are 4 factions). The rules have some specific actions that seem thematic with rules for aquatic movement (i.e. most people are bad at it but the fishmen do it well), drowning (something you typically try and do to others), grappling (which does no damage [except for falls!] but allow you to toss your enemies into bad spots), and jumping (possibly you move too fast, but it's fun to hop off railings, mooring poles, and up buildings like some sort of anime character). 
Ranged combat is pretty limited and there are some spells as well. There are some consumable traits (will and command) which allow you to boost rolls at a critical time. You end up with close ranged mayhem and some tough decisions about order of moves and where to stand (models are not allowed to move through each other, friend OR foe). 
One of the funnest part was a massive card deck of 'agenda cards'. These gave you strange objectives to achieve (attempt to drown 3 different models, kill the enemy leader, jump at least X inches with 1 model using 3 actions in 1 turn, etc). When you do so you gain victory points and a new card. It can result in you engaging in strange or sub-optimal tactical behaviour in order to set up an agenda to benefit your chances of winning the victory point game.
We'll be taking the rules out for another spin sometime (we are both pretty busy and don't get to wargame much) to rectify some of our mistakes and try out the 2 factions we didn't play this time.
Sounmds interesting... I really like the water table. Do you know how he made the water?
ReplyDeleteGarret is out of town. When he gets back in I've asked him to comment here and he can list the products he used.
DeleteThis layout is really cool!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it looks pretty awesome and is quite versatile. He also has put it on a lazy susan so we can spin it to make it easy to access models. It's a bit wobbly so I'm not totally sold on the utility vs annoyance, but it's a pretty cool idea as well.
DeleteHey Codsticker - Water was made with resin (Enviro Tex Lite - pour on - High gloss, https://www.amazon.ca/Environmental-Technology-16-Ounce-Pour-Finish/dp/B000LNS9CW). I had spray painted a metal sheet with a mix of blue and green (valspar brand from lowes, blue and green, cant remember names anymore, but brighter water spectrum :P), then build the wooden frame onto the metal, making sure there was no gaps and sealed the wood. once that was all done i leveled board and poured on the resin. once it was poured i put a claen piece of wood over to keep dust and such out while it cured. I over killed on curing period just due to our humidity. really happy the turn out.Staring with a metal sheet was as daveb said so i that i can magnetize certain portions to it as needed. maybe unnecessary but cool feature none the less
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