Dragon Age

Bioware has been making great single player role playing games on the PC for a long time.  From Baldur's Gate, to Neverwinter Nights, and now Dragon Age.  When I heard that Electronic Arts would be joining forces with Bioware to work on Dragon Age, a little trepidation crept into my heart.  EA, really?  EA makes the games I don't play, what do they know about making an epic RPG?  I feared the worst, but remained optimistic enough to be a little excited about the game.

Diving in to Dragon Age: Origins was a radical change from Neverwinter Nights, but most of that change was for the better.  Though it took a while for me to let go of this aching for the radial menu I had grown so used to.  What did not change was the great storytelling and character development.  Infact, it was taken to a new level.  They push the experience closer and closer to that of being a person in an epic movie.  It's safe to say that the first Dragon Age impressed me.

Reviews for the sequel to Dragon Age were not wonderful.  Once again, I was worried.  Was the streak of excellence about to end?  I did not buy it right away.  Not to long ago, the price dropped down to the $30 sweet spot, so I nabbed it.  If nothing else, I wanted to find out what happened to Morrigan!

Well, apparently I didn't do my homework.  Dragon Age II is not a continuation of the Dragon Age storyline, but runs in parallel to it.  This put a little damper on it, and added to what seems an awkward start to the game.  Fighting familiar darkspawn, you find yourself fleeing Ferelden, leaving the blight behind to lead your own quasi-epic non-blight riddled storyline.

While some people complained about the occasional re-use of dungeons in the game, that did not bother me much.  The biggest shortcoming of the game was the lack of a high level purpose.  The first two-thirds of the game felt like you were some exceptionally gifted townie doing various mercenary work.  As time goes on, your fame and power grow, and you become involved in a bigger story, but it felt pasted in.  Maybe foreshadowing is difficult in a game, or maybe I'm too stuck in a linear mindset, but it felt fragmented.

Though the overall story lacked, your companions and enemies are vivid believable people for the most part.  To the point where you become conflicted as to which of your companions to chose to adventure with as you can only pick three, but want to pick more.  Except Carver.  Carver can go fall on his greatsword.

Dragon Age II featured an adapted conversation system, which I liked for the most part, because it allows you to be sure of the intended meaning that goes along with a response.  On the other hand, there seemed to be less important conversation related to questing.  I liked the parts in Dragon Age where you had to collect information from people, and sometimes debate enemies, with the outcome affecting the game.  Dragon Age II was more straight forward.

Overall, I would say Dragon Age = Wow, Dragon Age II = not bad.  Is Bioware + EA leading the best streak of RPG games off the rails?  I don't know, but maybe it doesn't matter if Star Wars:TOR is awesome and I never play any other game again.

Escalation League: Night 4 Results

Nine haunted wizard towers were fought over in week four of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles escalation league.  The scenario this week was a twist on the normal watchtower scenario, and players who secured the tower at the end of the game earned 5 bonus league points.  Here's the latest league standings:

Rank Player Total Score 1 Baughman, Josh 70 2 Willworth, Paul 65 3 Douglas, David 57 4 Flesch, Taylor 57 5 Vincent 50 6 Storme 48 7 Johnson, Ryan 45 8 Oliver 43 9 Flickinger, Jordan 41 10 Jones, Nate 34 11 Bailey, Chris 33 12 Kem, Eli 33 13 Maurice 33 14 Devyn 33 15 Holt, Ian 32 16 Sathrum, Ben 30 17 DeRemmer, Jeff 29 18 Macintyre, Kyle 29 19 Guzman, Issac 28 20 Kingon, Wiley 27 21 Kinyon, Matt 24 22 Ryan O 23 23 Bathke, Tony M. 23 24 Evans, John 20 25 Rosenous, Chris 19 26 Fogg, Mike 17 27 Dustin B 16 28 Schwarz, Gustav 15 29 Hines, Clayton 12 30 Scott, Terry 10 31 Johnson, Quinn 8

BEST GENERALS 1. Jordan Flickinger 2. Paul Willworth 3. Josh Baughman

MOST PAINTED 1. Josh Baughman 2. Paul Willworth 3. Storme

BEST SPORTSMEN 1. Storme 1. Kyle MacIntyre 3. Josh Baughman

Escalation League Week 3

The League continues strong with 27 players showing up for the first 1000pt battle on week 3.  People are able to fit a bit more fun toys in their armies now, so the table tops looked a lot different from the past couple weeks.  Here are the overall standings so far:

Rank	Player	Total Score
1	Baughman, Josh	53
2	Willworth, Paul	51
3	Flesch, Taylor	46
4	Flickinger, Jordan	41
5	Douglas, David	40
6	Vincent	37
7	Storme	33
8	Holt, Ian	32
9	Oliver	32
10	Sathrum, Ben	30
11	DeRemmer, Jeff	29
12	Johnson, Ryan	28
13	Bailey, Chris	27
14	Kingon, Wiley	27
15	Devyn	26
16	Guzman, Issac	24
17	Kinyon, Matt	24
18	Maurice	23
19	Ryan O	23
20	Bathke, Tony M.	23
21	Kem, Eli	22
22	Macintyre, Kyle	20
23	Rosenous, Chris	19
24	Jones, Nate	17
25	Dustin B	16
26	Fogg, Mike	13
27	Hines, Clayton	12
28	Scott, Terry	10
29	Evans, John	8
30	Johnson, Quinn	8
31	Gustav	3

And now those special standings I promised.  These are based on average performance so far, and only include those who have played more than one game so far:

TOP GENERALS    1. Taylor Flesch 2. Chris Bailey 3. Paul Willworth

MOST PAINTED    1.  Jeff DeRemmer 2.  Ian Holt 3.  Josh Baughman

BEST SPORTSMEN(3 way tie) 1. Josh Baughman 1. Storme 1. Kyle MacIntyre

Escalation League Standings Night 2: Team Scenario

The scores are in from the second night of the Warhammer Escalation League.  Twenty players participated in a team scenario where two 800 point armies teamed up to fight the combined forces of two others. Here are the overall League rankings so far.

Rank	Player	Total Score
1	Baughman, Josh	38
2	Willworth, Paul	35
3	Douglas, David	33
4	Holt, Ian	32
5	Taylor	29
6	Vincent	29
7	Flickinger, Jordan	27
8	Oliver	20
9	Guzman, Issac	19
10	Rosenous, Chris	19
11	Storme	18
12	Kingon, Wiley	18
13	Kyon, Matt	18
14	Dustin B	16
15	Bailey, Chris	14
16	Kem, Eli	13
17	Sathrum, Ben	13
18	Ryan O	13
19	Bathke, Tony M.	13
20	Ryan J	12
21	DeRemmer, Jeff	10
22	Hines, Clayton	10
23	Jones, Nate	10
24	Scott, Terry	10
25	Maurice	9
26	Fogg, Mike	8
27	Macintyre, Kyle	8
28	Devan	8
29	Evans, John	4

After week 3, we should be able publish more rankings like top general, painting, and sportsman based on averages.  See you next week for a standard battle with bigger armies.  1000 points!

WFB Escalation League - Opening Night Results!

The first game of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Escalation League crowded into the back room of Borderlands tonight.  We had more players than tables to play on, and appreciate everyone who hung on the sidelines until a table was available.  Luckily the games went fast and fun.  We look forward to many more full nights and watching everyones armies grow in future weeks.

Below are the league standings after the first night.  This overall score represents a combination of your generalship (game result), painting, and sportsmanship.  Where people have tied in overall score, degree of game victory and painting rating are used as tie breakers to determine rank.

Rank	Player	Game 1 Overall Score
1.	Vincent	19
2.	Paul	19
3.	Josh	19
4.	Ian H	19
5.	Chris R	19
6.	Taylor	15
7.	David D	15
8.	Chris B	14
9.	Ryan O	13
10.	Ben S	13
11.	Terry S	10
12.	Jordan F	10
13.	Issac G	10
14.	Jeff D	10
15.	Clayton H	10
16.	Oliver	10
17.	Nate J	10
18.	Storme	9
19.	Wiley K	9
20.	Kyle M	8
21.	Tony B	8
22.	Ryan J	6
23.	Maurice M	6
24.	Eli K	2
25.	Mike F	2
26.	John E	2

See you next week!  And until then, join us on Facebook in the Order of the Black Sheep Escalation League Group to discuss the league or call out challenges.

Counting Down, 7 Days.......

It's almost here. Just one more week and the Order of the Black Sheep and Borderlands Games Warhammer Escalation League will arrive. Bring the fun and get ready to roll some dice.

Everything starts somewhere. Sometimes finding that start is easy, but other times, not so much. My interest in gaming evolved over time, but it did have a few places that I would consider focal points that encouraged my interest. One of these things was a game called Magic Realms. This was a game that my dad owned, though I don’t remember ever seeing him play it. I remember being fascinated with it when I was in grade school, though I had only ever seen the side of the box which was where the name was at. Magic Realm. What could be in that box? To a pre-teen who like cartoons and comic books, the word “magic” ensnared my curiosity like nothing else. I mean, it’s a box, placed high out of reach, with contents unknown, and titled like that. How could I not be fascinated?


At some point, my dad let me check the game out. It was the first time I had ever seen the cover of the game and I was blown away. On the cover was a knight in armor, a dwarf, and some chick with a bow fighting a giant dragon, while in the background a badass looking wizard watched over it all. The cover alone was enough justify my youthful enthrallment in this item. If it was that awesome on the outside, what wonders would I behold once I opened the box. To be truthful, I probably didn’t spend more than a few seconds looking at the box before tearing into the contents, but these thoughts did get seared into my mind during the short time I had to process them. I was overdosing on pure, unadulterated awesome. Opening the box did not disappoint. Tons of cardboard counters, cards that read “Treasure” and featured descriptive names on the reverse side:
tiles that had colorful names of different forests and mountain terrains:

and large cards of different types of heroes with, to my young mind, some of the most amazing artwork in the world:


I was enthralled. But then the roadblocks came. Trying to read the rules was above my head. The rulebook was not the back of the box like I had been used to, but a giant book written in small font with a lot of words and technical phrases that I wasn’t familiar with. I quickly moved on from trying to decipher the rule book to looking at the game pieces and making up my own game for them. I made my own game maps and built little armies out of the game pieces and pretty much used them like I would my G.I. Joe figures, staging battles, pitting good vs. evil, and elevating heroes.
I played with the game like this for months, though I eventually lost many of the pieces and had to give up playing with it. The game always held a cherished place in my memory, but it wasn’t until I was much older that I had an opportunity to revisit it.

I couldn’t ever remember the name of the game a few years ago, but I had joined the site [url]www.boardgamegeek.com[/url] and was able to find the game once again. A trip to ebay and $80 later and I had a copy of the game once again. Opening it up brought the old memories back in a rush. I sorted through the contents, organized them, and sat down to read the rulebook. I figured that after teaching myself how to play Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and the Star Wars CCG, I could handle this old game. Well, I figured wrong. The rules were still pretty complicated and there were few clear example of how to play in rulebook. This added to the fact that I wasn’t sure if the game I bought was complete, caused me to shelve the game. I have looked up different guides on how to play the game but I haven’t had enough motivation since I got it to try to play it for real. Maybe I will at some point, but for now, I think I will keep it as a reminder of my childhood and first foray into the fantasy game genre.