CodeBlade

While I look at some slightly more interesting terrain options, I picked up some mega cheap Infinity terrain so that my next game can be fully 3 dimensional.

Very much a test game to start with, learning the rules and taking time to work out what each model could do.  I used a 2×2 game mat from Core Space, and used Human Interface floor tiles to proxy as buildings (I called them all 5” high each).  I also used the Human Interface tokens as proxy tokens.

I didn’t consider for one second that I would batrep this test game, but part of me wished I did.  Even though I played both sides (it is designed as a 2 player competitive game), it was an incredible game.  It left my mind boggling with possibilities and desperate to play it again.  I want to try out the control based factions, and explore the full extent of the mechanics.  A game hasn’t done that to me for a very long time.  I’m trying to temper my expectations for now, but based on game 1, this could be a very special ruleset indeed!

I won’t “review” the rules here – I hope to discuss them via a batrep in the near future (once I’ve got a proper board setup etc!).  In this game the Compliance Officers got off to a very fast start, but the Iron Samurai managed to turn the tide by winning the attrition battle, which stopped Compliance just before they reached their win condition.  Samurai eventually won by downing all of the Compliance Officers as they retained superior numbers and made them count.

Very interested to see what happens next time!

I planned to have a run through of the rules in full proxy mode, even with unpainted models.  Very unlike me, but I was too excited to test these rules.  I sat with the rulebook and the box of Human Interface models and started seeing which models would be suitable for which factions.  Then a very happy accident occurred.  I remembered that I had taken some of the Human Interface models the other year in order to take my first steps into painting with oil paints.  Turns out they were perfect for two of the factions in the rulebook!  So they are now CodeBlade models!!  Say hello to the Iron Samurai faction and the Compliance Officers!

I created the two forces to match the models primarily, but also chose to squad build quite equally.  The squad point value for each model is based on their “Personal Honour” characteristic, and you build to a value of 10.  So I chose to build each squad with one model with a value of 3 and three with a value of 2.  That gets to 9.  Then each squad took one model from the Freelancers faction which has a range of models with a value of 1.  I took a “muscle” freelancer for each squad to make a total of 10 PH for each squad.

Interesting to note here, is that the Iron Samurai and the Compliance Offices (and also the “muscle” Freelancers for that matter) are the most ‘traditional’ in terms of wargames.  That is they major on ‘kinetic’ skills which means physical damage.  Outside of those two, there are factions that major on Stealth or Hacking skills – these are control mechanics.  There are factions that have hardly any kinetic skills and are almost 100% control.  That will be very interesting to explore, to see how that works and balances with the objective play.

CodeBlade gives you character profiles and a token sheet you can download and print, but otherwise leaves you to source your own miniatures, terrain etc.

Now, I picked up the Human Interface: Be a Better Human kickstarter a few years ago, and have been meaning to throw it out ever since.  I decided I would cannibalise it for anything I could potentially reuse for CodeBlade (or any other games for that matter) and put the rest in the bin.  So I took floor tiles, tokens and of course all of the miniatures.

I picked up the CodeBlade rulebook pretty much on a whim.  It was cyberpunk, it was available, I bought it.  The designers, Neurocraft Studios, have a website which contains some background lore and the initial downloads for the game, but aside from that there is very little social media presence and no battle reports (yet).  It really is that new.

And I am so glad I did pick it up on that whim.  It’s very promising indeed!  One read through of the rules and I got very excited.  Time to explore!