Let’s take a look at the games I was able to play on Friday at Fall In and how they went!
Fall In is a weekend-long event, but setup begins on Thursday and by Friday it is in full swing. In the following series of articles I would like to highlight the few games I was able to play out of the approximately 550 on offer. I was able to play two games on Friday, so let’s start there.
Battle of Mossflower (MESBG)
This beautiful, 4-player MESBG game drew its theme from the Brian Jaques’ Redwall series. 3D printed mice, squirrels, rats and stoats battled over a woodland hamlet with the goal of eliminating each other’s leaders. This was one of a very small subset of games that welcomed players under 10 years old, and the only one for which I registered both of my sons, who attended the convention with me. I will talk more about their experience with the con as a whole in the future.
The game was loads of fun, featuring some amazing cinematic moments that MESBG so reliably produces. A particularly memorable one included a squirrel hero being blasted out of a tree by a rat shaman, only to save the wound with a fate roll and then to roll a six for their falling check to land on their feet. There were several excellent, back and forth fights with the good mice coming out on top by a whisker!
Friday Evening – Battle of Corupedium (To The Strongest)
Depicting the final battle between rival successors to Alexander The Great, this six-player game was unfortunately the least visually impressive of the weekend and left a little something to be desired for some of the players. The board was divided into thirds, with each player taking a wing or the center of their army. I took the right flank of one army and played opposite my oldest friend. My flank was a bit stronger and extended farther than my opponent’s, but the center of the opposing army was stronger. The goal was to see if I could win on my flank before my army’s center broke. Essentially, I was trying to kill my opponent as fast as possible and he was trying to die as slowly as possible.
To The Strongest is an interesting system that uses a “push your luck” mechanic for activating your troops. It originally gained some notoriety for it’s total lack of measurement and dice (though we used D10 in this particular circumstance to save time). To The Strongest normally uses a deck of cards in place of dice, and a board divided into squares. The squares eliminate any need for measuring, and the cards are used in place of dice for both unit activation and combat “rolls.” Some player balk at using playing cards but there are plenty of examples of other games that use them. Personally, I only find this mechanic interesting when you are able to retain certain cards in a sort of hand that can be played at opportune times. For this particular game we replaced all cards with D10 rolls, likely to prevent the insane amount of shuffling a six player game would have required.
Units occupying a square in To The Strongest usually represent a large formation of troops, such as a Roman maniple or a Viking shieldwall. A unit is activated by drawing a card (rolling a D10, in our case) and will activate on anything but the lowest possible number (2+). The interesting part is that you can activate a unit as many times as you want, but the card (roll) must be higher than the previous one or your turn ends. So drawing (or rolling) a 9 or 10 means that unit is likely done for the turn, but drawing or rolling a 3 means you might have one or two more activations in the turn. I’m a big fan of mechanics like this, it’s one of the main things I love about Blood Bowl, and it is the most interesting part of this game. Unfortunately, there were several times where a 1 was rolled very early on, ending a player’s turn, which feels terrible.
Ultimately I was able to completely wipe my opponent off the board, thanks to above average rolling from me, abysmal rolling by him, and the advantage in manpower I held from the start. It was a fun time rolling dice, however, and it set a good tone for the weekend. Next up: Saturday!
