MDRA Red Glare 2023

Posted on by tjkopena

I survived vending at MDRA’s annual Red Glare launch event. JUST BARELY.

Friday was so windy as to be very marginal for flying and not that pleasant to hang out in. Expecting the weekend to be even worse, people did manage to get in flights, but many rockets were lost in distant trees. Saturday was canceled as heavy rain started overnight and continued well into the afternoon. Once the rain let up the weather did get beautiful for a couple hours… until the tornado warnings started coming in. Apparently one was seen right nearby, and Brian from CENJARS reported that one touched down at the end of his street back home in North Jersey. Sunday started off much like Friday but then the skies showed us what wind really means. Mid-morning the wind shifted and picked up enough to bend my tent, which was staked down, weighted down, and tied to my car, which was also serving a windbreak. Fortunately Jim from PARA and somebody else happened to be on-hand right then to keep the side bars from breaking until I could reposition the tie-down lines to my car. Hardly anybody flew anything until sometime in the afternoon, when the wind finally died down substantially and there was a sustained push to get all the rockets into the air.

Apparently attendance on Friday was the highest it’s been in some number of years. But between the Saturday cancellation and marginal conditions Sunday, weekend attendance was much much smaller than last year. Various clubs in the region scrambling to hold last minute TARC qualifying launches for their local high school teams before a deadline Monday didn’t help either. So business was quieter than expected. But as per usual for an MDRA launch I learned a lot hanging out with Ken from Performance Hobbies, saw a number of folks I know, put faces to names for a bunch of others, and met some new people.

Staying in a micro cabin within Maryland’s Tuckahoe State Park nearby was also very convenient and nice. They’re basically 10x10x10 wood cubes with a double bed, two narrow bunk beds, a very small shelf-slash-desk on the wall between the beds, and pretty much nothing else. They do have electricity though, which was a requirement so I could recharge my credit card terminal & phone. Mine at least got just enough daylight & airflow to not feel claustrophobic or dark and the campground loop I was in has good visual separation between everybody. So Saturday’s cancellation was a bummer, but ignoring that context I had a perfectly good day holed up in the micro cabin reading novels and listening to the storm.

Beyond all that, the trip was made worth it quickly after arriving Friday when somebody came running up because they were about to leave, were worried I wasn’t coming, and really wanted to buy some of my MicroMaxx kits for their daughter. Another highlight was chatting with a pair of pre-schoolers I know from CENJARS who were expounding at length on the virtues of various rockets. Well, the slightly older one was expounding. The toddler mostly chewed on an old rocket clutched in their fist, though very politely they did offer me a taste several times…

Let it also be known that even without a fully functional roof rack, though admittedly having added a hitch cargo shelf, I smashed previous personal bests by cramming a truly ridiculous array of stuff into and onto the Subaru. Sadly though it was way too windy to setup my grid wall panels and so on. I wound up very artfully propping things up as low to the ground as possible so they didn’t blow around excessively.

In any event, onward and upward! We’re finalizing plans for Alice and I to go to the MARS club’s NY Power launch at the end of May for our next national level event.

Redcap’s Relicblade Winter Campaign: Day 3

Posted on by tjkopena

Round 3!

For some the campaign’s toll is beginning to mount…

While others continue to reap glory and treasure.

With the frontier in flames, the Adversary’s forces seek to consolidate their victories. Heaping piles of stolen supplies, weapons, and treasure are strapped to pack yaks and send to the rear for safety. The Advocate though directs those remnants of its splintered forces trapped behind enemy lines to make the best of their situation and ambush the yak trains. Neither side though knows what may be lurking among the trees and canyons along their routes…

This past week’s mission was a simple variation on the pack yak mission. Adversaries were given a yak to escort and deployed at the center of a table edge. Advocates deployed in the opposing corners. Moving the yak in the monster phase creates some weird dynamics. So instead we played:

  • If no one is engaged with the yak at the start of a round, it immediately runs in a random direction.
  • Otherwise, the player with the most models engaged with the yak at the start of a round may activate it along with one of those models, like a companion. The yak gets 1 AD, MOV 5, and no one can attack them because even amidst the apocalypse there are limits, people, and yaks are sacred.

Adversaries win if they get the yak across the board. Advocates win if they control the yak at game end.

Additionally, each board had treasure markers yielding surprises…

Despite the urgency of her Iguan allies’ escort mission, the notorious thief and brigand La’ra could not resist scaling an ice covered spire to ransack a lonely crypt set high above long ago. For her troubles not only was she beset by a graveling leaping from inside, but the sole treasure found was a Crown of Madness. Suddenly beset by horrors only she could see, La’Ra ran off the cliffs to grievous injury and continued desperately, manically crawling away from the crypt as best her broken body could. Abandoned by their mercenary, the Iguan escorts were overwhelmed by a team of Moldorf who reclaimed the yak and its looted treasures.

In warmer climes, the Warlord Karthor amiably lead his newfound yak friend through sun baked canyons. Their philosophical ponderings though were disrupted by the despicable Pirate Council attempting to waylay the innocent bovine. The enraged pig boss leapt to the defense of his friend alongside his legendary warriors Bei’Khan, Hamlet, Slappy, and Big Pink. Even thrown back and surrounded, the Pirate Council could not set aside their baser instincts. Heedless of their dire situation, they could not resist pocketing for safekeeping some shiny baubles carelessly left out in the weather on the ruins of a dark altar. For their selfless civics the remnants of their group that might have survived the pig onslaught were shattered by the shrieking howls of ghosts stirred by the pirates’ disrespect. As the blood haze settled in their eyes, the pigs were heartened by the zen calm of their yak companion who had quietly taken all of these goings-on in stride.

As they continue their journey through the canyons, …

… the legend of Karthor and his warriors only grows …

… and is writ forever into The Chronicle of the Pigs.

Redcap’s Relicblade 2023 Winter Campaign: Day 2

Posted on by tjkopena

Well, well, well, we meet again…

As dark forces march in the shadows, guesses at their ill intent susurrate across the wilderness. They’ve come for a legend, a power they believe to be within their grasp. But the full path to it remains lost in time, and what is known is daunting. What need be done to capture their ambition can no longer execute in secret. So they have come, in fire and in blood, to take secrets by force and gather tools by might. Already the frontier keens with the opening strikes of their campaign—barrows overturned, springs spoiled with offal, and villages ravaged as the Adversary gathers the implements of their quest…

La’ra has an argument with the local Dark Watcher pig commander.

Pigs and Moldorf go at it in a mountain spring.

Lady Aurelia fights a Shimerae (playing as a Basilisk).

Five players on hand for the second round of our mini-campaign, with seven engaged so far. Although the Advocates picked up a win in a first round catch-up game over the weekend, on Monday the Adversary continued to build momentum. The mission was a search for a magical weapon deemed necessary toward the Adversary’s greater agenda. Three markers were placed in each game, which then revealed as either a trap, treasure, or the desired demi-relic. Despite some infighting between pigs and lizards at the barrows—how we dealt w/ the odd number of players—the Adversaries walked away with the prize across the board.

“Why, why are we Adversary fighting amongst ourselves?!”

“This pig smashes that dwarf.”

Mountain spring rife with hidden treasure.

Village square.

For my part, the Lone Guard fought to defend a small village from being ransacked. Unfortunately the Iguan attackers were only a shield for the legendary thief and rogue La’ra to do her work. With the Lone Guard mostly embattled with a Basilisk in the village square, she managed to find the item and then flee wildly across the rooftops, despite being harried by a Ranger from below and his Sabertooth companion above. As she receded into the distance and the Iguan slipped away, the Lone Guard turned grimly to assess their casualties.

Entrance to the long abandoned funeral grounds.

An Iguan Witch and Lone Guard Infiltrator throw mindbolts and daggers back and forth at each other down an alley.

A Pig Warlord smashes an Iguan Witch atop a barrow.

Pigs and lizards mix it up.

The Lone Guard’s cat buddy catches up to La’ra but isn’t able to bring her to ground.

The Dark Watcher stands triumphant.

Alas, poor Raider Pig, whose injuries proved too grievous and his value not worth the Adversary’s influence…