Friday the 8th of March 2013

Unusually we had a fairly quite night. Around 10 lads playing Magic The Gathering outside in the cool night air, Barry and I played Wings of Glory, and a couple of lads played a quick 1500point Warhammer Fantasy game.

Barry's efforts to assist my Hun aircraft in gaining a well deserved victory!

Yep a mid air collision. One plane collected 0 damage the other 10! Shortly there after I shot his Ace to the ground and then his rookie pilot decided to collide with me, needless to say my plane was quickly sent spiralling to the ground in flames. But my last aircraft the float plane in the picture remained in the air, to score a well deserved victory. Please note the mat. A shot from google earth of an island to the north of Australia and its small airfield not in the photo. The image was downloaded at the highest resolution taken to officeworks and printed on a very large piece of high weight paper. $30.00 later and you have a really cool bit of coast to fly your float planes on. Thanks to Karl in Qld for this mat!

Hott

Got a game in at home with the lads. HOTT, yep Hordes of the Things, 15mm DBA fantasy. I messed up a little using measuring sticks with the wrong movement on them. It still worked and as per usual when rekinddling a game from the depths of the vault I lost. Quite, I might like to add, convincingly even when number 2 son rolled aweful movment pips/dice. Made a few mistakes in the rules as we went along as though we have all played DBA we have had very few games of HOTT. Actually this was a really nice way to spend an afternoon.

The set up, Combined Orc army at 48 points run by the lads. Vampire fueled undead army by yours truly.

2 Behmoths facing off against the orc riders and general hero, a giant spider and non other than Thrud the Barbarian as my big beasts! Please note that the 15mm Ralpartha wolf riders started life as 25mm models. Ditto thrud the Barbarian. How things have grown.

My loses at the end of the game, both generals, my knights and the odd skelington or 3. Yep I rolled lower than the number of lost elements when the general fell and game over. I think I killed off 4 wolf riders and an enemy behmoth and that was about it. Note the Here There Be Dragon Rules, never played 'em! But they looked good with the models on top.

Late Feb meeting

Big night but I did not get around for the usual array of photos. Thus only a couple to grace the page.

A big 40 K game, necrons vs 2 marine and a Tau force. Using the old rules still as only the lads know how to play them as many of us oldies don't have the new rules yet. Necrons lost but destroyed a lot of the enemies forces. The ability to ally is not new but it is nice when you only have 10 models or 500 points or so and would like a game. You can join with others!

Ahh space hulk! I got to play in this one.

 I played the original way back when but alas had not had the chance to use the shiny new version, manily because I did not buy it and it rarely arrives at the club to use. We had a new chap turn up and as he has not really gamed much before but has 40K models we roped him into a game using the Space Hulk set another playerbrought. This would be just the thing to convert him. Sadly new chum lost, and I won. Now I know that this is not how one gains new bodies for the club and yet by the end of the game he was happy to leave with a smile on his face even after losing and so we hope to see him next time.

I do feel that these are some of the nicest models in quality that GW have produced and I really feel miffed that I did not have the cash to buy it at the time. I see it on fleaBay but at $300 a pop I am unlikely to purchase.

On the paint bench atm.......................
The last of a FOG late Roman 15mm army 1 more unit of Auxillia
A smattering of Swiss and Burgundians to bring old Big Battle DBA armies up to FOG levels,again 15mm.
DBA War of the Roses, you guessed it 15mm.
I must move back into 28mm soon, eye strain.......15mm............argh


Oh look shiny new toys 6mm SYW...................hmmm

Sorry no Photos

Well games day on Saturday was a little quite. 6 lads turned up for an enthusiastic fantasy role play. I set the tables but no miniatures to be seen. Ho hum. That being said I have a soft spot for fantasy roleplay, cutting my teeth on Rolemaster during the 80s and 90s. I still play Pathfinder with my lads and a couple of their mates, good game and with the DandD heritage it still feels like a good old fantasy hack and slash.

Mind you with a small turn out I was able to get some painting done. 16 X 15mm Late Roman Legionaires 8 X 15mm Archers for the Romans 6 X 15mm WOR Knights. Ah the joy of it all.

KOW

Kings of War

Well I got involved with the Kickstarter and now have the rules, stacks of unpainted miniatures and a strong desire to get some of my celts out to smash some high elves hmmmmmmm? Yep the joys of Kings of War. My sonhas played it a couple of times but I have not as of yet. So this was my first outing.

Great game, no I am not saying this because of any link to the game or the cash I have spent. It really is a great game. I lost (no surprise there) but as the game of 1500 points unfolded the units did what I thought they should, you did not have to take miniatures off the units, it plays fast and furious, magic does not overpower the game, or shooting etc etc. Even big units of knights are not unstoppable. The basing of the celts did not matter too much, they were one miniature too big across but as you play in units and there is meant to be a 1 inch gap between units it all worked rather well.

 

Small troop sized units evaporate fast unless you get nice flank attacks and the ability to use humans, using any humans was a real bonus. I can see me even thinking about using this for Historical games too, a la Neldoreth and His Hours of Wolves website. Mind you the cancon games of Hail Caesar may put paid to this idea.

 

Thanks Mantic keep it up!

Why a local games club is good.

Well we set off on our gaming journey for 2013 with a decent gathering of like-minded souls. After the chaos that is CanCon a club night seems so civilized. Don’t get me wrong the gaming conventions are not be missed but for a good night in it is hard to beat a games night with your mates.

Well the 40 K game was rather good 4 marine players vs the Nids around 2500 points which is usually too much for a standard night and tonight it was no exception. Though the game did not really end before a few of the lads had to be picked up it still saw a pretty good victory to the marines. The tyranids did a lot of damage though.

So why Is it good to be part of a club? Well sadly we are about to lose two of our regular gamers. Both were big into 40K and one of them was dabbling with Warhammer Fantasy. Our older friend is off to Canberra for a job and decided to donate a nice selection of 40K buildings to the club which you can see on the table of the 40K game. These will be commonly found gracing our table in the future.

 

Our younger member leaving is heading into the army, so we wish them the best and a safe future, especially in the defence forces. Well how’s this for a nice offer. Said gamer, has donated all of his fantasy miniatures to club members. A nice small chaos warrior force and some dark elves, just enough to get a few more people up and running with WHF, thanks guys you are most kind. Try getting free armies when playing at home!

 

Another gaming club highlight was my first outing of Wings of War WWII with a bombing run against a small airfield. Well the game plays really fast, faster than the WWI game but has the same wonderful feel about it. No dice, nice planes, great cards, plays on a smallish table and well just plain fun. If you are a WWII aircraft fan then this might be just up your alley.

 

 

 

Other games, the usual magic the gathering hoard, two role playing games one based on Bushido/Runequest and the other Star Wars.

Bombing mission success

CanCon

Well another big CanCon. If you have not been to a game convention please go. There is always so much to see and do. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the miniatures though this is very possible. No me this year though! (got to be a first).

Highlight 1 Sold some stuff at the bring and buy!!!

Highlight 2 Sold some stuff with my son at the bring and buy.

 

Highlight 3 My son picks up the title of Orc Slayer by beating the orc armies he faces in the Warhammer Fantasy tournament, his first ever. Sadly it seems that Warhammer has become very much hero hammer yet again as tactics seemed to play second fiddle to shiny toys and magic! Regardless with over 100 competitors this is a rather good turn around compared to a few years back when less than 20 played.

Highlight 4 the Saga competition. I came dead last (dead get it) losing every game, my leader died three times and generally I was having a ball. I do really like this game. By the end of the day I was able to die knowing what I was doing wrong and now I feel confident taking the game into the club. What a good day.

Highlight 5   4 games of war of the roses in 28mm using a slightly modified Hail Caesar rules set run by Peter Rossetti and his band of Merry men.  We had treachery, prestige points, and the ability to hold royal titles similar to the old game King Maker which allowed us to field extra units. A swag of players on both side and much merriment as the dice swung back and forth. As a campaign was held with each game having a slight influence on the next you felt really involved all the time. I played a Lancastrian and at the end of my time had died in 3 out of four games in close combat, but we had won 3 out of the four games.

After 6 games in total (I missed the last two games playing Saga) the Yorkists proved to be the overall winners and claimed the crown by winning the final battle and the personal winner with the most prestige was a younger chap called Sean. What a blast and thanks heaps for running it Peter.

Highlight 6 Seeing Barry at the Wings of Glory tables teaching others how to play this fantastic game.

Highlight 7 catching up with Nic from Eureka, Dean from Olympian, Mick from Micks Metal Miniatures and Ian from War and Peace. This was the biggest CanCon I had ever been to and the traders sold well. Congrats to all at the Canberra Games Society for running such a good show.

Highlight 8 Best highlight of all playing WOR with my son.

January at the club

Well a Saga prematch (3^rd game ever) prior to the CanCon outing over the long weekend. My son played well but sadly fell to the Viking hoard at 4 points. I am just starting to get the hang of the rules, and really looking forward to the competition at Can Con.

 

Contemplating victory.

 

Marine vs Space wolf Marine in 40K. the marines won.

High elf Vs Warriors of Chaos the Elves one! Yay good omen for CanCon.

 

 

Magic The gathering on a smaller scale.

 

Last 2 for this year

We round off December with a Friday Night and a Saturday in the one weekend. Great night on Friday with extra funds built up over the year going back into the club via a Pizza Night! Often we buy terrain or bitz to make terrain but once or twice a year we can put some sort of lunch or dinner on too.

Baz and the Wings of War crew, nice scenario of Brits strafing the hun areodrome. The Brits Bagged 10 planes most on the ground for only the loss of 1 Brit!

40K game of Eldar vs Dark Angels, the angels won.

Iron Warriors vs Tyranids, Nids won.

Malifaux game who won????

Two lots of MTG on the night, I didn't get a shot of the older chaps pity.

Saturdays 40K game with the Eldar beating the Space Wolves in capturing the objectives.

MTG on the Saturday.

Yours truly provided Pizza a a truck load of lollies and a ginger Bread house, whilst gluing a British WWII sniper and a PIAT team together bring on Bolt Action.

See you after Christmas have a safe an merry time and think about what you can do for someone else.

What's on the paint desk now

Well what have I been working on teaser only no pics!
1) Saga Vikings for Sale at CanCon 28mm
2) Saga Saxons for me 28mm
3) Force on Force USA and Afghanies for me? 15mm
4) Bolt Action WWII but actually Crusader, Artizan and Plastic Soldier Company Brits, Germans and Russinas in 28mm for me.
5) 6mm, yes 6mm SYW imagination units for a Maurice lite game that may or may not ever happen but I have to admit. 96 infantry 18 cavalry and 2 guns and crew painted and glued to bases in 2 days is good going hahahaha. (mind you they are second hand and only needed touch ups).

saga of a failing norman knight

Well time to post a home game. My son wanted a game and I wanted to play SAGA so we agreed to a 4 pointer  to try out my new Normans. He used Anglo Saxons due to the great ability to max out your unit size and get bonuses.

Sacred ground, the three elements in the centre have to be held and you gain Victory Points for the number of troops in them per turn. The houses are just for the look. Being Normans I had it made, watch those knights run around and claim all the objectives. Normans on the right Saxons on the left.

A couple of turns in and I am in three out of three objectives with the Saxons only just entering the middle hill. Home and hosed or so I thought. Hmmm don't those levy have bows..................?

The view up Senlac Hill, woops sorry getting a little ahead of myself. Mind you by this stage I had come to see how inefective 8 warrior crossbows can be vs the Warlord. Should have gone for the Warriors instead. By now I was looking a little worse for wear. 1 unit Hearthguard Knights gone, Warlord gone and just about to lose the other unit of knights.

Notice crossbowmen running for cover but the Spearmen have driven off the Saxon warriors. Mind you I have not shown you the rest of the table!

 

At the end of the game, Saxons have 1 mini from a unit of warriors on the end objective, 2 minis from a 2nd Saxon unit on the same object, 1 Warlord, a few levy and a single warror on the middle objective. The Normans on the other hand have...................none, no not just no objective but no miniatures. But wait, this is points based and I was seriously winning in turns 1,1,2,2. At the end of the game 8 turns later. Saxons 130 points, Normans 96 hmmmmm. Well done to my son and looking forward to painting up another Norman Warlord cos this one just did not do the work he was meant to. Battle of Hastings it was not.