Relic Knights... The beginning

It's that time of year again! CHRISTMAS... but that's not what we're talking about. I am going to discuss the current issue of Relic Knights.

Now, a few posts ago I mentioned I was going to go into an epic battle of the Soda Pop system called Relic Knights. It's a card based system which enables the player to control manga characters! I was due to play last week with @thetweetsofmatt (Matt for short) but because of complications it had to be shelved. This week was the time!
*DISCLAIMER (in really big letters) - Some things will be wrong in this post because we are new to the game so please don't take everything as gospel; it's a learning curve. It's not perfect yet!*

So models out, cards ready and it is the time to get it on! Now, a few things which are different from most games I've played before: 

- You can deploy ANYWHERE on the board but not within 9" of another model or objective (friendly or otherwise).

- You have a primary and two secondary objective markers

- (Kind of like Malifaux) You flip for Primary (5VP) and Secondary Missions (3VP) (these are different to each player) and you have a faction specific mission (2VP).

- Killing a unit earns you 1VP but takes a REALLY long time to do in some cases. 

- Your 'leader' (Questing/Relic Knight) confers an ability to their Cadre (crew).

- In order to activate models there is a queuing system which, dependent on the game size, has a number of slots. In the game I played in, there were two slots available - so two models could activate. This enabled me to cycle models quickly ensuring that I could complete the objectives.

- There are no designated turns, instead models are placed in an activation que which is recycled. This can mean that if I have 4 units/models in my cadre I could go through the whole game only activating two of them constantly. Yes, this does put me at a severe disadvantage in the game if my opponent is rotating activations and using models to greater effect. 

- Because it is not turn based, reaching 7VPs will win you the game (I do need to check this though!)

- No range... just need Line of Sight!

- Each unit activates in the following way - move, action, move. On a card there are two movement values; one for the first movement and one for the second! Actions can be anything from attacks to picking up objectives. 

- Each player has a hand of 5 card which is called Esper. There are 6 different colours which can be used to buy attacks on character's cards or even dodge attacks!

So, here is our deployment. Got to play on a really nice board which is a composition on the GW tiley thingys and a MDF selection of an 'underhive'. 

First, we placed objectives. I'm not sure in what order we should have done this but we flipped for missions first. Matt got some missions which were totally out of his comfort zone/ability to do with his cadre; they were so out there I can't even remember what they are but lets be honest... it's really all about me! 

My missions were:

Primary (5VP): Collect a token from each of your opponent's objectives and place in back on your primary objective. For this, my Primary Objective is in the centre of the three green objectives. It is the objective which is more or less in the centre of the board.

Secondary (3VP): Place a token on all 3 of my objectives. Gain the VPs if they are still all on the objectives when your opponent burns through their Esper deck.

Faction Specific (2VP): Complete a mission before I burn through my Epser deck.

Now you've seen the board... LET'S MEET THE TEAMS!

In the Green Corner... weighing in at a lofty 35 grams... Cerci Speed Circuit!

In here I have a unit of Hells Belles (jetbikes), Rin Farrah (big rifle) and Princess Malya and Mr Tomms (or something like that). A Relic Knight, a troop unit and a solo - a bit of variety. Every Relic or Questing Knight comes with a (sometimes) small totem which is the soul of that character (it's more or less along those lines). This totem cannot be killed in the game!

In the Yellow Corner, the heavyweight contender weighing in at 78.5 grams... Doctorine! 

Matt and I had the same mentality; take stuff and see what happens. It means we took a little bit of everything to really see what it does and how it works in the game. Here you can see (be aware that these might not be their actual names... don't expect me to remember that!); Little Red Riding hood and the big bad wolf (front left, back right), two students (troops, front middle and right), a librarian (far right) and 3 academy guard (those big things... yeah I know!).

On to set up. Not being able to place minis within 9" of each other made it an interesting set up because it was looking at what could match up with what and what I need to use to fulfill the mission. Here you can see Matthew's hand posing greatly across the table!

I've yet to deploy my tiny totem but I do have my sniper Rin in the bottom left corner of the board just below the red boxes, my Relic Knight in the upper right corner of the board hiding under Matt's tape and a unit of Hells Belles on the horizontal platform 2/3rd of the way up on the board.

As the game was taking shape, my Relic Knight was bouncing from place to place, collecting things and swinging a big sword! She does have thrusters which means exactly what you're thinking...well...maybe not that... She can essentially fly, which means jumping onto different levels in this game made her hard to catch.
What I didn't realize was that the Hells Belles (those JUMPING BIKES), don't have thrusters... therefore the platform I put them on was very difficult to negotiate!

Here you can see Rin casting her eye over the battlefield wondering what to shoot at next.

Eventually, I earned my first VP by taking out the students (on the pic below they are on the right at the forefront). Swiftly followed by more and more VPs! I got my secondary objective (hold 3 objective markers when your opponent runs out of their Esper deck) and my 3rd (complete a mission before I run out of Esper in my deck). This put me on a 6-0 VP swing.

As previously stated, the missions which Matt drew were not favorable and to be fair, mine really were! All I needed was one more VP and that was the game. We did decide to call it at 6-0 though! 

(LoS trackers are AMAZING for this game, particularly on a board like this one!)

The Hells Belles are getting chased down by the Academy Guard... this isn't going to end well... RUN AWAY!

Above, a picture of the Doctorine Relic Knight (Little Red) and her Totem (the wolf).

So my experience in the world of Relic Knights has been an enjoyable one! I am looking forward to playing more and I have expanded my collection with the starter set of Cerci off ebay! Can't wait for it to come! Only looking for two more models now!

Here are some of the Doctorine models that Matt has:

I do really like the feel of the game and it is something new and exciting to try. The downside? It's not stocked to its full capacity in the UK. My LGS currently can't get hold of any of the models and they are not on many UK websites either. If the game is to grow, it needs to be in LGS's all over!

I will actually attempt to PAINT some of my models this week (as I have two sets of most of them so one can go off to be painted by someone who's decent!).

In other news, any of you on twitter will have seen my two days of absolute spam in which I think I've posted up over 300 photos! I was asked to take some pics for Titan Games for their commission painting service to advertise their work. I was really happy with the results but this I think is my outstanding photo of the night! Thought I'd just include it to give you a sneak peak! Check out my twitter feed for more!

In my next blog post I will be talking about the Port Maw: Apocalypse game I participated in on Saturday (6th). Here is a picture of some of my opponent's army. I can tell you that it was a brutal game which ended in a lot of orky bloodshed and many loose necron wires!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy