Thursday, October 29, 2015

King of War, that's me baby!

So I forced myself to hit game night this week to help support the KoW movement in my area. My dwarfs were already packed up, so a quick visit to easy army builder, and I had a 1000pt dwarf army all worked out. Grabbed some dice and a tape measure, and I was good to go.

My opponent was also a new KoW player, just learning the game, and he threw down with some goblins. Talk about your classic match up. We were both using GW models, so it really looked familiar on the table.

Neither of us were rocking any magic items in our lists. I brought:
War smith
horde of ironclads
regiment ironguard
troop of xbows
troop of rifles
cannon
iron behemoth 

He brought:
king of chariot
shaman
regiment of sharpsticks
regiment of spitters x2
regiment of fleabag sniffs
regiment of trolls
sharpstick thrower x2
slasher

I was quite outnumbered and more than a bit worried. We rolled up the Loot mission, and luckily I got to go first. For the most part, I ran as fast as I could towards the loot counters. Terrain slowed some of my marches though. Cannon shot missed. (I'll say now we screwed up and added a -1 penalty for long range)

His turn, he did some shooting, putting a marker here or there, but otherwise, just moved up as well. (Also, no pics again, sorry...was more concerned with playing than with photographing)

My ironwatch moved up to threaten two counters, while my ironguard moved up across from his trolls and sharpsticks. My iron behemoth hung back a little and belched on the trolls for a few hits. My other shooting was concentrated on his slasher and I actually waivered it.

His trolls charged my ironguard and his sharpsticks were just in the flank and hit them as well. Now my behemoth was close enough to block the slide move. But a look at the rules showed us an unclear answer, so we pushed the behemoth back to allow the sharpsticks to get in the slide, he gains the first loot counter with that charge as well. His king on chariot charged my horde of ironclads. Shooting went towards the cannon. He rolls a 10 which would route my cannon, but my war smith was there so he had to roll again...and another 10 pops up. Ugh! My ironguard though stood like a boss against his trolls and sharpsticks, as did the horde vs his king.

My behemoth was looking down the flank of his sharpsticks and just rolled over them, taking the loot counter from them. My guard crashed into the trolls, sending them on their way as well. The horde countered into the king and barely did anything. With my cannon gone, the slasher was in range of my xbows and his fleabags had taken a loot counter behind it. My warsmith tried to shoot the slasher but missed, so I had no choice but to shoot it with the xbows sending it off thankfully. My rifles were in poor position on the left side now that combat was engaged, so they started to shift towards center.

His king bounds in to smack my horde around some more, and his fleabags turn around with the loot counter and start making their way back to his board edge. His shooting didn't do too much, nor his wizard.

My guard charged a spitter regiment and sent them packing while the behemoth swung around with the hopes of eventually hitting the fleabags. My horde again hit the king, putting some wounds on him and waivering him. My warsmith moved up to get just in range of the fleabags, hit them once, and then waivered them! My xbows whiffed and the rifles moved to support the horde.

He moved his king back to hopefully get a TC charge against my horde, and give his throwers a chance to do some real damage. His other spitters fired on the guard doing nothing. His wizard, now blocking the center loot counter from my horde, blasted them, but they stayed put despite the large bolts sticking out of them now.

My guard had a long charge on his king, so they took it, slamming into his flank and crushing him. The behemoth moved up and flamed the fleabags, but they hung in. The horde charged the wizard, but only did two wounds, leaving him standing there.

He shot into my horde, getting them up to 12 wounds, but still they stayed. His fleabags moved away, but the loot counter slowed them down.

Last turn, I had to kill his wizard to claim the center loot, or route the fleabags to remove his loot counter. I shot the fleabags with everything I could, but they did not route. So now it was up to the horde...charging into the lone wizard, smashing him with 5 wounds, and then rolling a paltry 3 for the nerve test, one less than I needed to route him. The wizard held back the tide of ironclads and kept them from the loot.

His last turn could not see him gain another counter, so he focused firing on my horde and finally dispersed the dwarfs. Game ended in a tie.

All in all, a great game. Right down to the wire. Two dice rolls that go my way, and its victory for the dwarfs. But alas, the sneaky goblins hold on, battered, but still kicking.

We did screw up a few times, but for the most part, played the game correctly. We discovered the long range penalty goof about half way through the game. The one piece we are still mulling over is when do you nudge other units to make room for charges. The printed rules and FAQs are not real clear. The mods on the forums are very direct with their opinions, but they really need to update the FAQ to match it.

Had a great game though. Was very fun. Reminds me of when I started playing Warhammer. My gaming group is starting a league next week. So hopefully will draw in even more players. Now I just gotta decide on which army to bring. Till next time.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Did you see that warpstorm?

So yeah, hit a rough patch there. It is not quite done yet I'm afraid, so we'll just have to play things by ear for a while. That being said, I have actually been doing some stuff. One of these years I may even photograph what I'm doing.

So lets recap shall we:

1) still doing the D&D Encounters. I did have to skip one week due to the rough patch, but otherwise have been going steadily. In fact, the last time was quite enjoyable. Mr. Brag about My Character wasn't there and wow, what a difference did that make. Other people could actually talk and joke a little. Also, there was a father/son combo at the table. That was really nice too. I think D&D is a great family game. I've always enjoyed playing with my kids. I just wish I could get my wife to try it. Oh well. Oh, and I even painted a model for it. I decided to switch my character around (which you can do in Encounters) and decided the table needed to be graced with a fully painted model. It isn't golden deamon worthy by any means, but it is far better than the pre-painted ones that most people seem to use. Sometimes it makes me want to bust out some of my old Ral Partha lead minis. So listen up gamers, take some pride and buy a good model for your character, and paint it up right and proper.

2) I've been keeping an eye on the new 40K Tau releases popping out. Some really pretty stuff. Too bad I'd need to take out a loan to get any of it. Also, GW sells out of the Tau battleline terrain set before it even releases?!? Whose stupid idea was that GW? Brand new product, and you don't even have enough stock to make it to release?? Your models are pretty, but your business actions make me want to kill you. You guys are giving lawyers a run for their money.

3) Alright, I'll be honest....I've also been playing Neverwinter this past weekend. They had this small event where it was really easy to get XP for your characters, so I made sure a few of them reached level 60. I could have been painting or some such....I know....but I really like the game, and it was fun. Although I did burn out on it a bit...so it is taking a trunk seat for a while.

4) Malifaux - that is right...Malifaux. Some friends of mine have dove in after the death of WFB. I let one of them run me through a teaching game. I've looked at the factions and models...but so far have avoided making an actual purchase. Seems interesting....jury is still out though.

5) How could I almost forget, Star Wars Battlefront Beta! Hell yeah! Huge SW nerd here....I cursed up a storm playing that game. Very fun and frustrating. About what you would expect. I've already pre-ordered it....so the wife is going to get some ear-plugs when it comes out. 

So I've been gaming...in one way or another..which is good. But I have these thoughts running through my head pretty much all the time now on various topics. Here's another list:

1) Death of Warhammer - still boggles me. And is really impacting my desire to work on my Empire army. I do have KoW that I can use the models with...but right now KoW needs work to gain a better foothold in the local scene. And I'm not up for that right now.

2) Planetfall - I really need to get back to painting up my starter set. I really liked the game when I read it, and played a test game. I also really like Spartan games. There is also a Firestorm Armada player base, so maybe I can do some demo games for that group once I'm ready.

3) Slipping into the third slot is Bolt Action! I'm a huge fan of WWII games and this one seems to be the perfect one to scratch my 28mm itch. I really want to work on my Brits, but I really only have standard infantry and a couple of vehicles. I don't own any support weapons for them. I do for my Germans...but again...want to do Brits. It makes me wonder if my motivation is tied to the fact that I need to make purchases? Wouldn't that be awful?

4) 40K has reared its ugly head recently. Here is the thing with 40K..it was my first real mini wargame. And it has great background...and it is so easy to imagine battles and such. The reality though is that I'm quite intimidated to play it now with all the changes it has been through. Remember, old man here. That and that GW is a giant cock-sucking company makes it hard for me to commit time to it. But there still is this draw to it.

5) Which leads me to Gates of Antares. I just pre-ordered the starter set for this game. It is based on Bolt Action rule set which I really like, but is d10 instead of d6 based which seems interesting. And since it is Sci-Fi, I could maybe use my 40K armies to play this. But we have to wait a little while until it is released.

6) And rounding out the group is Warpath. I had originally been all excited for this kickstarter. But Mantic made some odd choices that really closed the door quickly on this. First off, no Marauders (their version of orks). How can you skip one of your base armies?? And honestly, the kits and such just didn't excite me. I think the two player starter combo was great....fantastic value, best of all the options. But getting that would require me to invest more..which I'm just not ready to do. So I passed this time around.

So there you have it folks. So much going on, but none of it ever seems like enough. Until next time.


Monday, October 5, 2015

Where did September go?

Wow, October already. Who knew? Anyways, what the heck have I been up to? Well, lots of talking mostly. I have continued to go to the D&D encounters games. However, I was forced to sit at a different table these last two times and my enjoyment was greatly diminished. You see, there were one of "those" guys sitting at the table. You know the type, the one that constantly brags about his character and then tries to make a joke at the end of every sentence the DM completes. Yeah, I had to put up with one of those guys for two different nights. Ugh. The up side, is that it made me reach out to some friends of mine to form up my own group again. The group is as yet still unformed due to minimum numbers not yet reached, but there is hope.

Also, I have been working on some models. There is a Flames of War tournament in November that I am considering going to, but it required models I did not yet own or that were still in blisters. So yesterday I busted out the clippers and superglue, and went to town. I got two challengers built and three universal carriers done. I then primed them all in Firefly green from Army Painter.

Not only that, but I also recently purchased a new plastic tank kit from Warlord for my Bolt Action British. I got the super sexy Cromwell tank. That was also assembled and primed. That was a nice kit. The instructions took a little bit of translating, but overall, were sufficient. Had I thought to take pics, I could have shared them...maybe next time.

So if I did everything right, I now have all of the models I need for the FoW tournament in November, assembled and primed. Also, I have a functional model to use in Bolt Action.

If we can remember properly, I was supposed to be focusing my efforts on getting my new Empire army done. So how is that going? you may ask...well not great. I have procured pretty much everything that I want. In fact, I have one last trade on the books to complete, and then I'm probably done. I did prime two models to see how they end up looking painted. However, I've been slack and haven't gotten any farther with those two.

I will say I'm really surprised that the local WFB community has pretty much given up on that game completely. In fact, I am just surprised that I'm not really seeing any support for 8th at all on the web. People are either abandoning it completely, or trying to fix the whole shebang. I think both of those options are silly. Why not just fix the last two armies that didn't get a book, and focus on Swedish Comp to help keep it all friendly and balanced? But basically, I get the feeling that I will be hard pressed to find an 8th edition opponent any time soon. That really saddens me. Why let GW kill off a great game and replace it with PoS....sorry..I mean AoS?

Lets face it, PoS...I mean AoS, is a model line, nothing more. I can't even read posts about it without cringing. All the while, 8th edition is still there. You still have the rules, the books, the models. And unlike other edition changes, you don't have something that is replacing it.

I'm all happy for KoW, because it is a good game, but it also isn't WFB. WFB does offer a different experience. My Empire army will work with KoW, but I also got a whole bunch of the models because of how they play in WFB. I want to play that army in WFB. Am I the only one?