Hey, Some Summer Gaming After All

Well I guess I lied after my last post because I have managed to get in a number of miniature games.

First up was a couple of 40k games on with my son. Breaking out my 40k Orks after I had packed all my GW stuff away in the basement thinking I would not be playing them for awhile if at all. Our first game was 500pts Astra Militarium vs. Orks and then a 750pt battle adding in some extra units. The first battle was a loss for my Orks in a Crusade scenario using Hammer and Anvil deployment. I just couldn't get close enough to start doing any amount of damage to use units. 

The second was a Maelstrom of War scenario, Tactical Escalation. In this scenario I was able to come to grips with his main army and was able to wipe out most of his force till he conceded on the last turn. 

I really like the new edition of 40k and I find it plays a lot smoother than some of the previous editions and not having the mighty rule tome on the table is a bonus also! I don't play competively so I am not sure how it holds up in that environment.

The next game I played was Malifaux 2nd edition, I think this is only the second game of this edition I have played. I played against Shawn, my old nemisis. I decided to go back to basics with Perdita and Shawn fielded Ramos. Shawn beat me handily as I could not go after my objectives well with Ramos on the table. We did do a few things wrong but it was a good game to get reacquainted with the crews. The game mechanics haven't changed much other than tidying up some of the rules but the individual miniature abilities have changed a fair bit so it's a bit like learning the crews over again. We will probably try to get a few more games in and I will try to host my annual Malifaux weekend tourney again in the late fall providing I finally finish my kitchen renos, which are starting to take shape by the way. I can't seem to find the pictures I took of this game so next time I'll make sure I get some.

The last game was a 1850pt 40k battle against my friend Chet. He also fields Astra Militarium. We tried a new deployment method he borrowed from another mini game which had us taking turns placing markers on the board. Once the markers were within a certain distance of an opposing marker they were locked in place and their placement determined the deployment zones. This was a good game with lots of Orky mayhem going on. And though the final score was quite lopsided for Chet the game was actually fairly tight till the end.

Since the last blog we also got in another game of Call of Cthulhu rpg inwhich my PC died, well he was pretty much insane anyways and the rest of the party ran away. They did come back in daylight and did some damage control so a partial success I guess.

I also ran the last installement of Dragon Age RPG for the summer and have formed the greater plot in my head for when we continue this fall. The PC's were successful in the intro scenario but had to leave the area before the good will of the town enivitably turned against them.

And with all this 40k stuff going on I starting building and painting some Orks again, sucked back in again!

This was our setup for the 500pt battle. We set up the terrain thinking to deploy at the top and bottom edges of the picture but the deployment we rolled had us setting up in this direction giving the Astra Militarium the advantage of the built up terrain which Tristan wisely defended and I just couldn't 

get to grips with him.

This is the setup for the 750pt battle with the terrain a little more even. We had a diagonal setup.

The Orks closing in. Tristan's artillery officer called in fire on his own tank allowing me to finish him off!

The tank is gone with the explosion taking out some Guard leaving the remaining Orks to close in on the last of the Guard.

The table for the 1850pt battle.

The final deployment after using Chet's borrowed deployment method.

1850pts of Orks.

Deployment at the other end of the table.

My Blitza Bomba enters the board...and rolls double 1's crashing nowhere and forgetting to release it's bombs. Not the best debut but I'll remember it anyways!

Things have not gone well, my Shock Attack gun, after doing little damage to the enemy decided to fire on it's own units finally doing damage...to my Nobs. Chet's Vendetta gunship finished them off. Every Nob jumped infront of the bullets to save the Warlord and then failed all their armour saves destroying the whole unit.

So knowing painted units fight better I started getting some quick paint jobs in!

Malifaux Weekend 2013

This past weekend I hosted my 3rd annual Malifaux Weekend and for the second year I used the Gaining Grounds tournament format from Wyrd Miniatures.

All told we had 8 players including me and we were able to fit in all 3 rounds on Saturday which is pretty good for us as we tend to eat up a lot of time chatting...and eating. Again it was pretty relaxed and I think everyone involved had a good time. I supplied 2 tables and 2 more were brought by other players. Chet is making a very sharp game table with a place for cards on either edge and a sunken center section to insert terrain pieces and although the terrain wasn't quite finished the table looked very nice indeed.

My crew was locked in with the Guild and I stayed with a Perdita crew with only a minor alteration for my second game. The first match up was random and I played Alex on the mansion table managing a win against his Rail crew. Alex is a new Malifaux player but seems to know the game quite well already.

My next game was against my son Tristan and his Marcus crew on the Graveyard table and in this round I got a tie.

The last round was against Shawn(my nemesis perhaps!) again on the mansion table and I lost this round though the game was fairly close.

So the top three were: 1st Shawn, 2nd Ian and 3rd Tristan. I placed 4th. Honorable mention perhaps goes to Chet for possibly causing the most casualties while losing every round!

And of course thanks to my wife for letting the house be invaded by a bunch of gee...I mean gamers and feeding us all while entertaining two not quite old enough to be gamers.

But of course the main thing was everyone had a good time, we played games, ate food, had refreshments and just generally enjoyed the weekend.

After the rounds of Malifaux were played we cracked out some other games. We played Werewolf Saturday night and a variety of games on Sunday including some more Malifaux, Tide of Iron, X-Wing, Lord of the Rings LCG, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game and Smash Up another card game.

Soon this event may have to be moved to a slightly larger location and perhaps open it up to more people.

After that was all done and the house returned to normal I started to do some work reposing an Infinity miniature adjusting the position of a gun in a PanO Orc trooper's hand. I never liked the way it was positioned and when I accidentally broke it off it seemed like a good time to make some modifications.

The Frontier town.

The Mansion board.

The Grave board supplied by Ian.

Chet's Badlands board.

Ian and Chet in the foreground, Tristan and Ed in the background.

The action at the Graveyard.

Julian and Shawn battling in the Frontier town while Alex and I fight at the Mansion.

Round 2, Julian and Ed.

Me and Tristan fighting over the Graveyard.

The action in the other room.

Hey, it's Alex reading the stat card!

The round match ups.

And the final standings.

Repositioning the gun. I cut off the stock, pinned the arm and filled the gap with Green Stuff.

A better view to see the angle.

Game Weekends Galore

I have been gaming, planing and painting, oh my!

It started with a road trip with Tristan and Chet to one end of the province. We headed out Saturday morning and drove to Yarmouth, NS. where our friends Julian and Ian live. They usually make the trip this way so it was good to travel to their location this time.

We arrived around lunch time and Julian kindly fed us. We chatted a bit, and then played some games. Tristan, Ian and I played a three player game of Malifaux while Chet and Julian played a few games of X-Wing.

The Malifaux game went well. We used the multi-player variant from Wyrd Chronicles, Wyrd Miniatures' e-zine. I deployed in the center and on turn 2 or 3 made the fatal mistake of becoming fixated on one opponent and ignored Ian which he capitalized on. After that I was just trying to hold on for a few VP's. So lesson learned and I would be willing to give multi-player Malifaux another go though I think we would have to play on a 4 foot board instead of the 3 foot board we had played on. At 3 feet we were all just too close together right from the start.

After that we had supper and then pulled out Zombicide in which we were all killed, in fact I was killed twice. The first time was so early into the game though that I just started over.(no one wanted me to touch their dice, I don't get it.)

Later on in the evening we played a game of Fiasco which was fun but hampered by the fact that none of us had played it before and we started playing quite late, which interfered with the old creative juices.

Sunday we just chatted, had breakfast and headed home. So thanks Julian and Meaghan for their hospitality.

As soon as I get the pictures off my phone I will post them.

Next up is my 3rd Annual Malifaux weekend which I am doing some prep for though not as much as I probably should. Once again this will be a tournament format weekend and it looks like we will have 8-10 players.

The weekend after that is my friends annual Cottage Con weekend which is a fun weekend of boardgames.

In the meantime I am putting together another western frontier building for Malifaux plus playing a few practice games with Tristan. We also played a game of Dust Strategy board game. We have played that enough now that we are going to try some optional rules I printed off from a forum and one I came up with myself. So we will see how that goes. And on a similar theme I decided to paint my walkers from Dust Tactics/Warfare. I had painted the soldiers awhile but had not painted the walkers till now. I just painted them up with a very basic scheme and some weathering so they will look decent on the game table. I also had a fortuitous encounter in a game store with a chap who plays with a regular Dust group twice a month so I might try to get in for a game soon.

That's about it for now must get back to some prep work I guess.

The Malifaux jail under construction.

The interior, with two cells.

A game using the Terraclips, this time a 3 story building.

Top floor.

2nd floor.

The basement.

Seamus and crew enter the basement.The game ended in a tie.

Masking a camo pattern for Dust Axis walkers.

The camo sprayed, details to be added.

Allied walkers painted.

More Allied walkers.

A closer shot.

The Axis walkers.

Light Axis walkers

Light walker variants.

 

I've Been Pretty Slack

I have been pretty slack lately getting the blog out and it's not that I haven't been gaming it's just that I haven't felt like sitting at the computer to blog.

As a matter of fact I can't really remember which games I have played but I think it would include Star Wars LCG, Pandemic, Munchkin, Infinity, Malifaux, X-Wing and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. And this weekend myself, a friend and my son are taking a road trip to do a few days gaming at another friends house. Again some Malifaux and who knows what else will be brought out to play.

So here is the score sheet for the games I remember:

1. Pandemic-lost, players were me, my oldest son and my wife, Tristan and Michelle.

2. Infinty-lost, this was a 200pt game vs. Tristan. We switched armies from what we had been playing and I think I need to get use to playing PanO after playing Haq for the last little while.

3. Munchkin-win, players were me, Tristan and Michelle. The game was a little more ruthless now that we know how to play.

4. Malifaux- a big loss, I played my friend Chet and he destroyed me, that comes from not playing in such along time and not using a familiar crew!

5. X-Wing, 2 loses, Tristan and I took on Chet and Alex. The first game was a refresher and we lost. The second game was a lot of fun though we lost again.

6.Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay-win win. Hey it's a rpg, to play is to win! I DM'd the game and I think everyone had fun and it ended very Warhammer like, the players lived but...

Well that's about it, so here are some pictures.

The Infinity table.

A lower view giving a better view of some of the different elevations.

A PanO fusilier looking down the table.

A elevated walkway. Haq getting into position.

PanO soldier dropped.

2nd X-Wing game.

Tristan and I maneuver into position. Unfortunately my squad leader miscalculated and ran into an asteroid and then enemy fire, bye, bye squad leader. 

The rebels starting off.

Lots of Games

I played loads of game this time round between some at home and the demo games at Hal-con its been a pretty full period for games.

Tristan and I played another game of Battlelore in which I finally got a win. After finishing all the scenarios in the main rule book we have started the scenarios from the Dwarf expansion that Tristan has. We have been ticking off each scenario as we go so we know exactly how many we have played.

At Hal-con I ran a few demos. I was only there on Sunday and was running the demos by myself but I did manage to get some interest in the games I had brought, running a few demo games of Dust Warfare and Infinity and some detailed game turn explanations for Infinity and Malifaux for interested folks.

I also played a game of Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not. My friend Chet had brought the game down and we had 6 players while he ran the zombies until one of the players had to go and then he hopped into that players spot. It was a fun game and very tense action. We managed to get a win though 3 characters died, including mine.

Eric, another friend came over on a day off and we played a game of Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games . The first turn took quite some time because it had been awhile since we had played last and we were introducing vehicles. After the first turn the game came back to us and we played fairly quickly after that and I got a marginal victory. We had made our own scenario with 2 HUMVEE's of USMC troops coming onto the board accompanied by a truck with a unit of Iraqi army soldiers working with the Americans. The insurgents were in ambush already on the board. The insurgents waited for the Iraqi army unit to drive by and destroyed the following HUMVEE with a RPG hit causing 1 light wound. The second HUMVEE swung wide and took cover behind a building. From then on the American forces slowly caused casualties to the insurgents with the second team flanking around the enemy on foot. The Iraqi army unit was badly mauled in the action and the USMC took 1 KIA before chasing the insurgents off the board taking a few POW's in the process.  

We also managed to play a small game of Infinity which was very quick with me losing. We played at 100 pts with my PanO troops taking on Eric's  Araidna. This was still a learning game and I learned that when the other player has a lot more units on the board I have to be very careful with the few, if powerful, units I have. The game was very fun though and we will play this again soon.

Finally Tristan and I played a 800pt game of Flames of War pitting an American Infantry Co. against a German Armoured Panzergrenadier Co. I took pictures during the battle so take a look below to follow the battle. Tristan wants to give this another go soon as well. I found the 3rd edition to be clearly written, easy to look things up during the game and fast to play, so I give this edition a thumbs up.

Hal-con 2012

The games room, Sunday morning, just starting.

From the other corner.

My demo games setup, Malifaux and Infinity. Dust Warfare came out later.

The Empire was well represented.

Zombicide, my character(red)about to be pulled down by a dozen zombie's, no wait one of the other players throws in a molotov cocktail and kills them...and me.

The empty square where I was, many more zombies on the way. The player that killed me was killed very shortly!

Flames of War

Initial deployment. Germans at the top. Panzergrenadiers on both flanks with StuG's in the middle. American infantry spread out along their deployment zone at the bottom with Shermans on 1 flank and a mortar platoon and HMG platoon on the other. The 2 beige stands are the American objectives while the 2 turretless panthers are the German objectives. 

German turn 1. The StuG's have taken up position in the crops, 1 panzergrenadier platoon moved into the town while the other is flanking behind the hill to advance on the objective.

American turn 1. Mortars try to lay down fire(miss), infantry advances on the town while the Sherman's advance on their objective taking out a StuG on the way. HMG's take up position on the hill.

End of turn 2. StuG's and Sherman's trade ineffectual fire. German's consolidate in the town inflicting casualties on the exposed American infantry. Out of the picture, on the hill, the American HMG's are overrun by an assault.

A view as the Americans approach the town.

End game The Shermans are halted by StuG fire. The Germans hold the town as the 2nd panzergrenadier platoon completes it's sweep onto the objective.

Force on Force

The set up. The USMC supported by an Iraqi patrol prepared to enter the board. Insurgents hidden in the compound and 2 areas of bush, one near the road where the USMC/Iraqi will enter and the other group further down the road near the hill.

Looking up the road. Insurgents hidden on the left and directly ahead.

The Iraqi's are pinned down under fire, 1st HUMVEE taken out with crew dismounted. The 2nd HUMVEE is behind the building with it's crew occupying the building. The first group of insurgents by the road have been taken care of.

The 2nd group of insurgents(top right in the bush) suffer from USMC fire.

The USMC team in the building(far back) advanced along the hill and took the building while the other team moved to the white truck and pinned the insurgents to cover their advance. A sand storm had blown up to help cover the movement.

 Infinity

The board set up. PanO on the bottom, Ariadna on the top.

A street view from the Ariadna side. One of my fallen troops in the background.

That's all or now folks,