Reasonably Clever

The 2008 CITY vs Castle battle was fought using the QuikWars subsystem of the awesome Brikwars rules system. (Go check it out!)

This year’s battle was simplified even further (mainly because I forgot to review the QuikWars rules before we started.)

• Each minifigure can do two things each turn: Move up to 6″ (along the length of a technic rod I built) and take an action of some sort.
• A HERO figure can also try to do something “amazing” each turn. Amazing activities work on a roll of 1-5 on a d6….but if you roll a 6 then something terrible goes wrong with the attempt.  Since the CITY advent calendar has fewer minifigures than the Kingdoms set, CITY gets two HERO figures.
• Combat is very simple. A figure can attack another figure with hand-to-hand weapons and knock the other character out on a roll of 5-6.  Ranged weapons will knock out a character on a roll of 6. An unconscious mini can be revived by a hero’s HEROIC ACTION, or by another mini on a roll of 5-6. A failed revive roll, though, means the character dies.
• Any other rules will be made up as needed.

Dice were rolled for first pick of the calendars, and returning champion Player B dodged the CITY bullet yet again. Newbie Player O would just have to make the best of it.

The focus of this year’s war was LEGO’s Grand Emporium set. Each player had to loot as many items as possible from that set, returning with them to their staging area.  There would be 27 turns total – 24 “door opening” turns and then three turns on Day 25 to complete the challenge.

Once both players were comfortable with the rules…the fight was on.

Player O opened up the CITY Advent and hunted out door one…

“Why aren’t these in order?” she asked. A fair question…and one we didn’t have a ready answer for.
Impartial Observer (2008’s Player A) had a guess: “To keep things interesting.”

Soon enough Player O had found the day’s set – the Snowman. Due to the lack of minifigures in the CITY set, it was decided that this would be a Magic Snowman like Frosty, and would be the first CITY hero.

Player 0 was quick to finish the build, and completed her first turn by sending Frosty out towards the Grand Emporium.

Player B, meanwhile had opened up the Kingdoms Calendar to find the same mixed dates as the CITY layout.

Quickly assembling her first set, the Blacksmith was dubbed the HERO of the Kingdom…

…and raced off towards the center of the table.

The first round of the 2010 Advent Wars was complete. A quick and easy turn.

Things would only go downhill from here.