Burlesque Update #12

It's been pretty quiet on the burlesque front for the past couple of months, at least in terms of actual performances. But things are moving once again, so I thought that it was time for another update, covering things that are past, things that are present and things that are yet to come.

2019 closed out with Maya and I going to see burlesque royalty in action - the fabulous Dita Von Teese performed a couple of shows in Sydney. We both glammed up for it, and got to see an excellent show - fantastic production, amazing costumes and some jaw-dropping performances. We didn't get to meet Dita after the show (that was for people willing to pay), but we did meet some of the other cast, including the compere - US drag-queen Jackie Beat.

In early January I was given an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while now - march in the world-famous Sydney Mardi Gras Parade. So I took it. I marched with a group called Retro Equality, which is a loose alliance of retro/vintage style pinup models, and similar people, including a few burlesque performers. Whilst not choreographed - members of our group just did their own thing, and were left to create their own outfit as individuals - doing the parade is a performance of sorts, as you really have to do something a little more interesting than just walk. You at least have to wave. Smile and wave. And maybe manage the odd twirl. Or flash of petticoat. For 50 minutes. Over 3km. In front of 300,000 people. And a live TV audience.

Anyway, after applying to be in the parade I saw the perfect dress, bought it and themed my whole outfit around it.

Yee Haw! Retro Cowgirl!

Look closely for the Die Hard brooch.

This is the only full-length shot I got on the night. At the time of writing this I'm still waiting for the pictures the group's photographer took throughout the evening. That will include some taken during the actual march (these were taken beforehand, in the marshalling area).

(This was the vehicle the group from the UK High Commission were marching behind. Of course.)

And here I am with two other members of our group, Miss Surely Knot and Ms Emmeline Spankhurts, both burlesque performers of far greater experience and talent than I.

One of my son's radio friends was doing a live broadcast of the show for their station, and sent me some pictures of our group as we went past. You can see me kind of centre-left, just under the streetlamp. And look at that crowd!

Photo by Ti Butler

Aside from that, much time has been taken up preparing for the Canberra heat of Burlesque Idol 2020. In my last update I said I'd been selected to perform in this, my first competition. Although I was doing an act I knew well, I put work into improving the costume a little, as well as tightening up the moves to make it extra slick and, I hoped, more entertaining.

Did I win? No.

Was I the runner-up? No.

Did I give the audience the best damn performance of my life? I certainly did.

And did I have an amazing time? Too bloody right I did!

I've worked pretty hard over the past few weeks for this performance, and I really felt it was worth it. It was exciting hearing the judges' feedback emphasise and praise the parts of the act that I feel are the standout moments, so that was a real thrill.

And what an audience. Loud and enthusiastic from start to finish.

Anyway, there's official photos to come, but here's a couple of backstage shots of my performance outfit and the award ceremony outfit.

No rest for the wicked, though. I've been developing a new act over the past few months. There's still a bit to do on it, but I'm performing it at the end of March, so I have plenty to keep me busy there.

And new classes start later this month, which will once again end in a couple of showcase events, similar to last year. And I'll be using the sessions to develop another solo act. This time I'm planning something new for me in a couple of areas. Firstly it will, if it goes to plan, use props rather than just costume. And, secondly, I will be performing as a guy rather than en femme. Given that I started doing burlesque as an extension of my crossdressing, this is something of a shift in how I'm approaching it now. I'm still going to stick to my stage-name, though. Given its origin it's more than suitable for use by any gender.

This next set of classes will also see both Maya and Catherine developing their first solo acts, so the showcases will be more of a family event than even the ones we did last year.

Look out for another update in a couple of months, or follow Isadora Persano on Facebook!

More Instant Thunder

Four years ago I gave a strange little boardgame called 'Instant Thunder' a go. It's a game covering modern air-combat, which uses counters on a square-grid and has a semi-abstract method of representing distance and altitude. It seems odd when you read it, but plays surprisingly well and feels 'right'. The link in that first line will take you to my first post on the game, which has lots of details on how it's played.

Anyway, I got it out agan today, with some new (nicer) counters, and ran through the first two Tawain 1958 scenarios. I took lots of pictures, but they're a bit samey, so I won't show you too many.

The first scenario gives the Taiwanese two F84 Thunderjets and a couple of F86 Sabres against four Chinese MiG 15s. The Taiwanese have rockets on the two F84s, and a slight edge in pilot quality, but the MiGs are better-armed and slightly faster.

This is the deployment at the start of Turn Two (aircraft are randomly deployed at the start of each turn). Some of them are stacked in formations.

And this is how they ended up after movement.

There was some shooting on the third turn, but no damage. On the fourth turn, though, this happened - the Chinese (red) managed to mob the F84s.

And shot one down.

 A couple of turns later they got one of the F86s

 It took until near the end of the fight before Taiwan scored a kill, and even then it was the Chinese novice pilot which fell.

You can see how the single line of squares works in the picture above; the MiG at the top right is within gunnery range of the F86 on the far laft, as the line runs off the left edge and then up to the next row on the right.

Wham!

The last turn saw the lead F86 pilot tailed and shot down, giving the Chinese an extremely convincing win.

I then set up the next scenario. This saw the Taiwanese fielding seven F86s and the Chinese eight MiG 17s. Again Taiwan had the edge in pilot quality whilst the Chinese had the faster planes.

Deployment ...

... and the end of the first turn's movement. The order of shooting is left to right, so the Chinese very much had the edge.

And took down a Taiwanese plane.

And so it continued.

Again the Taiwanese lost their lead pilot.

Despite now being heavily outnumbered they still managed to get in some shots on the Chinese, but their damage cards didn't result in any serious hits.

Into the last turn and the Taiwanese had lost three aircraft, and only managed to damage a couple of MiGs in return.

And that's how it ended - no Chinese losses but two damaged planes, against three Taiwanese planes shot down and one heavily damaged. Another win for China.

The next scenario features the first use of heat-seeking missiles, but I'll be playing that after the weekend. And I have counters printed off for some 1995 Peru/Ecuador action too.

This is a fun game; a little strange until you get used to it, but with decisions to be made and enough luck to keep it both frustrating and interesting.

You can download the rules and an extensive set of scenarios HERE. As I wrote in my original post, the scenarios are worth reading, because they show how different missions can be run on what appears to be a limited game-board.

HOTT 52 - Week 10 - The Necromancer vs Geoff's Medievals

Geoff offered to play HOTT last night so that I could ensure my weekly HOTT 52 game in a week that is otherwise a bit busy. Thanks Geoff.

He then proceeded to hand me my arse on a plate. Twice.

I used my undead. He used his generic medieval figures. I took lots of pictures, which you can see below, but in both cases I defended and then got smashed by his knights. My hordes did not perform like Caesar's Tyranid hordes did last week. Mine rolled a series of 1s and 2s in combat (five consecutive combat rolls of 1 in a single bound, for example).

The first game.

I went for a surgical strike on his archers. It didn't work.

My archers did take out his flanking cavalry, though.

Geoff's archers hold off my mounted. The battle-lines get closer.

Charge ...

... and victory.

The second game. I dropped the flyer and added another rider.

I kept my knights in reserve, so I could counter-attack with them.

The riders of both sides fought on one flank, and I got the advantage with an early kill.

Geoff charged again ...

... and I rolled lots of ones. My horde line disappeared.

Geoff finished up by using his Paladin to kill my magician general.

Another massacre.

Afterwards I remembered that I wanted to try out a version of the army without the magician general, having it led by the Four Horsethem as heroes. So I'll have to try that another week.

Battlesworn Musings

One of the side effects of helping to test 'Challengers of the Great Beyond' has been that it's given me the inspiration to go back and look at the game it's derived from, 'BattleSworn'. CotGB does tidy up some of the grey-areas in BattleSworn's mechanisms, which has been helpful. But it's also inspired me to think about actual changes to the game, mostly where the new set offers a neater mechanism for certain class abilities than the original set does.

I have a working document of changes on the go. However I'm not sharing it just yet, as it's mostly a mess of random thoughts. But there are a few class changes and/or clarifications that I thought would be worth sharing for anyone who plays the game to try out.

Here they are. They cover classes both in the original game, and in the 'Knights and Knaves' expansion.

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Bard

Taunt: (Clarification) A Bard may also spend one Action to taunt the closest opponent in his line of sight. The taunted figure must immediately move directly towards the Bard using a Reaction if one is available, ending in melee if this is possible, even if the Bard is not the closest enemy. On subsequent turns the taunted figure must spend one of their side’s Actions or Reactions to move directly towards the Bard, and again this may become a charge and end in melee.The taunted figure may not move further away from, or move out of LOS of the Bard. The effects of Taunt end once the taunted figure is in base-to-base contact with any enemy, or if the Bard is no longer in LOS of the taunted figure. A Bard cannot Taunt again until any previous Taunt of his is ended.

Cavalry

Mobility - When making a move that does not end in combat, Cavalry may either break off from melee, or make a single pivot at any point during the move, continuing the move in the new direction.

Slot Limitation - A warband may include up to four Cavalry at the cost of one slot each.

(This is a complete rewrite of the class. Cavalry in the original game is pretty useless; it costs two slots,  and they are worse than the Flyer. In addition their ability makes them better in rough terrain, which doesn't seem intuitive. This change makes cavalry worth having, whilst giving them an edge of sorts in the open.)

Chaos Warrior

(Clarification) If two Chaos Warriors fight each other then they must both roll a D6 for their bid.

Giant

(Clarification) The melee knockback move is always straight back from the giant - measure from the centre of the giant through the knocked-back figure. The figure stops when it meets new terrain; it does not enter it.

Ranger

Change ‘Like The Back Of My Hand’. After setup a Ranger selects one area of terrain on the table. They can ignore this piece of terrain for movement purposes. As a miscellaneous action the Ranger can change their piece of terrain,

Sniper

Does not have to shoot at the nearest target. Gets +1 dice when shooting if its side has the initiative, Cannot bid 1 when shooting. Cannot bid 6 in melee.

(The basic Sniper isn't that exciting. And generally there's no reason not to have one if you have one or more Shooters, since you rarely bid 1 anyway. This change makes them a little bit different from the basic Shooter.)

Sorcerer

Ignore the rule that has a Sorcerer taking an extra hit from any damage. Instead a figure targetting a Sorcerer ignores rolls of ‘1’ when rolling damage. Rolls of ‘2’ from cover or the Rogue ability (if the Sorcerer is multi-classed) still count.

(This change still makes Sorcerers easier to damage. But the original rule felt clumsy, and wasn't clear either - does a Sorcerer take the extra hit if no hits were scored, for example. This is a simple change which has the same effect.)

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Finally, here's a possible new class, based on a mechanism we were looking at putting into CotGB, but didn't, but which seemed too good to waste.

Swashbuckler

Thrust And Parry - If you are the low bidder in a melee, your opponent reduces the number of dice they roll for their attack by the number of hits you scored in yours. Hits absorbed by a Tank still count for this purpose.

eg You bid 3 and your opponent bids 4. You roll three dice for the attack and score two hits. When your opponent rolls their attack they only roll two dice.

Quick - A Swashbuckler may not multi-class with anything that is not normally allowed to bid a '1' in melee.

Slot Limitation - A warband may include up to six Swashbucklers at the cost of one slot each.

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Chaos!

Sorry that updates have been a bit thin on the ground for the past few days; I've been otherwise engaged. However for those of you following such things there's a Burlesque Update coming soon.

Anyway, I managed to fit in a quick game of HOTT last night. Fired up by last Thursday's big battle I got out my two Chaos armies, randomly generated a couple of armies and set to.

Both armies had a core of Chaos Marines, plus a Greater Demon (god) and some Land-Raiders (knights). Slaanesh fielded hordes and their War-Altar behemoth, whilst Khorne has more knights and some Chaos Hound beasts.

Slaanesh defended, their force split by an impassable volcano.

Khorne attacked with their left wing, looking to use a superiority of knights to destroy the Slaanesh troops there.

The attack broke up a little as Slaanesh fed Marines and hordes to the flank in support.

Both sides had terrible PIP rolls (lots of 1s and 2s) leading to a patchy attack and response. Slaanesh moved the War-Altar out of the line towards the main fight.

Khorne sent in Chaos Hounds to attack the Slaanesh right. They were driven off and that was pretty much the action on that flank over for the rest of the battle.

Over by the volcano Khorne was having the best of the fight.

The Chaos Marines of both sides were fighting in the centre.

Slaanesh got the edge there, turning the flank of Khorne's line.

Khorne was now pushing troops towards the Slaanesh temple, but poor PIPs made it hard for the Khorne commander to keep the attack moving. A group of Slaanesh cultists were dispatched to delay the advance.

The Slaanesh commander came under attack from the flank, but drove back and destroyed the Khorne Land-raider.

And now the Slaanesh War-Altar was moving up to threaten Khorne's commander

The Khorne commander was surrounded and destroyed, to give Slaanesh a narrow victory, both side losing about 8AP.  

Neither god appeared; in the whole game only one side rolled a 6 for PIPs, and that was towards the end when they were better used keeping the momentum of an attack going.