Denver Area Gamers Scheduling Thread

[Landlubber]

I agree with Chris.

The 21st of March would work fine for me.

The beauty of X-Wing is that it is a fast game--even for a beginner, one game shouldn't take more than an hour. I think Attack Wing is similar, but I'm not sure. We could do an X-Wing/Attack Wing day, since both games take up a smaller amount of space (no pun intended) than Firestorm. With the miniatures and other equipment that I currently have, I could run two complete X-Wing games at the same time, no problem. And I'd be totally cool teaching new folks how to play!

If we ran both systems, folks would likely have enough time to try at least one of each.

[Dakkar]

I'm down for alt-game plans, and all three games could be run in an average afternoon. I have X-Wing, enough STAW for 4-6 players, and two Planetfall factions (Aquans and Relthoza).

Where would we play? Collectormania? Gamer's haven?

[Landlubber]

I was thinking Collectormania. Seems to be a good compromise for those in Denver and those in the Springs.

[Stephan]

I vote Collectormania AND there's an amazing BBQ place just down the street that we could hit afterwards if folks are so inclined.

[Dakkar]

Barring snowstorm, I can do that.

[captainrockman]

Collectormania and the 21st work for me.

I am up for anything, but am still getting my feet wet in DW, so I'd be down for a slightly bigger game by that point if people are interested.

[Quickdraw]

The 21st works and Collectormania seems to be the best bet for a meeting of worlds. We can play it by ear but I'm up for a big DW naval game. Or I can bring all the X-Wing. No biggie to me either way.

[Landlubber]

The 21st works and Collectormania seems to be the best bet for a meeting of worlds. We can play it by ear but I'm up for a big DW naval game. Or I can bring all the X-Wing. No biggie to me either way.

Same here. We have enough different factions now that we could do one large Grand Alliance vs Imperial Bond game, using the two activations per side rule like we used at the con. Maybe each player could control two squadrons, or something like that--we could adjust the Firestorm escalating engagement scenario, perhaps.

Or X-Wing. I'm flexible.

[Landlubber]

OK, let me pitch an idea for our March games day at Collectormania (which I'm assuming is going to be on the 21st) if we decide to play Dystopian Wars. I'd be up for either DW or X-Wing, but here are my thoughts if we play DW.

Between the players in Denver area and the Springs, we're starting to amass quite a collection of fleets. I think it would be really, really cool to see all of those fleets on the table. I propose we play a large Grand Coalition vs Imperial Bond scenario game. Here's what I'm thinking:

-we adapt the Escalating Encounter scenario (or whatever it's called) from Firestorm Armada for deployment. Players within Coalition and the Bond can discuss amongst themselves their order of deployment.

-scenario would be a "capture and hold territory" mission: I'm thinking a decent-sized ring of islands in the middle of the board. Points awarded for ships inside the ring at the end of each turn. We'll say the seafloor inside the "ring" is has oil/mineral deposits, or something. The particulars can be worked out later.

-each player has 550 points (we can adjust this) to field a battlegroup consisting of one small, one medium, and one large/massive naval squadron, plus one aerial squadron if points allow. In order to see the most colorful arrangment of ships on the board, we could throw in a house rule to allow players to mix Major and Minor factions that are close allies. For example, the FSA's close minor faction ally is the Royal Australians (I think--I don't have the book in front of me). Therefore, I could bring FSA frigates, Australian cruisers, and an FSA battleship. Or something like that.

-in the event we have an odd number of players, the side that is short gets to field an extra battlegroup (based on what I outlined above) so that the numbers of battlegroups are even. I have fleets in both the Bond and the Coalition, as do most of the rest of our group, I think, so I doubt this would be an issue.

-to keep the game moving, we could run opposite activations (one Bond player and one Coalition player activate simultaneosly), and we could treat each battlegroup as a squadron. So each player, on his turn, would activate all the ships and aircraft under his command. I think this would help ensure we didn't spend 4 hours on two turns.

Just ideas. What do you all think?

[Quickdraw]

This is definitely not a bad plan. I think its compelling.
It would be prudent to do a roll call of each of our owned factions as we confirm who will be there.
I will start:
I plan on attending and can field Russians or Antarticans.

[Landlubber]

I could field any/all of the following:

FSA with Royal Australians (GC) or vice versa

EotBS with Chinese Federation (IB) or vice versa

RoF with Chinese Federation (IB) or vice versa

Again, if we're looking to get the most variety of factions on the board, I say we toss out the Major/Minor Power rules and just go with what I outlined above. So I could run Chinese surface vessels with French air support, even though the Chinese are a Minor Power and are not a Close Ally to the French (although both are Imperial Bond). So I would say our restrictions should be the point total for each battlegroup, and no mixing Coalition and Bond forces.

[Stephan]

If we're going DW in March, I have Prussians, French, and Covenant that I could easily field at 550pts.

[Landlubber]

If we're going DW in March, I have Prussians, French, and Covenant that I could easily field at 550pts.

I forgot about the Covenant being with the Free Nations faction. Hm. We could try a three-sided game, with the third side comprised of Free Nations forces (Covenant, Commonwealth of Free Australia, Separtist Ottomans, and League of Italian States). Or we could fold them into the GC or IB (the enemy of my enemy is my friend). A three-sided game might be a bit cumbersome, unless we could figure out a fair way to work them into the simultaneous activation mechanic. Otherwise we'd never get past turn two!

Alternatively, we could have a large Free Nations force already defending the objective, and the GC and IB forces would have to take it from them. If we did that, for the sake of fairness it would have to be probably a 2000-point fleet, as it would be getting hit from all sides. I could certainly loan my Australians to the Free Nations fleet--the box set allows you to build either Royal Australians or Free Australians, it's just a matter of switching out weapon systems on the battleships and cruisers.

Either of those options could be a lot of fun, but would make for a LONG game. But hey, those are fun to do every once in awhile!

[Quickdraw]

The Free Nations defending the objective is a cool idea but it could be cumbersome.
We could also keep them off the table and have them handy to add to a side if we find one is outgunned. It could keep things even.

[captainrockman]

Thanks for considering a big DW game. I am excited about this!

I can field Polish-Lithuanians and/or Russia. I am thinking PLC for this one though.