Sunday 31 May 2015

It's a long weekend and that means one thing...

And rain it did.

In spite of the weather there was still a strong turnout at T.C.O.W. Around 30 people playing many games throughout the afternoon. We even have a couple of Hamiltronians visiting for the day.

There was also a selection of product from B.I.O. Games available for sale, which drew the interest of attendees. The magnets were especially popular, with several people picking up packs. The table also drew the attention of one peculiarly-dressed person...
"Sartorial" isn't the word that comes to mind when thinking about Damian.
This week saw the return of the ongoing Warmahordes Journeyman League. The time around it was the second round of 15 point games. Giving budding generals some more experience before we all move on to bigger 25 point games in a month's time.

There was a bit of concern when League organiser Matt was a little late arriving, but he turned up eventually and the search teams were told to stand down. The players were not deterred, and four games were underway soon after. As a bonus, he'd bought with him official League patches. I guess we'll figure out how best to affix them to our clothing/model transport bag/pets later.
Faizel's Legion vs Molly's Searforge

Martina's Trolls vs Peter's Convergence

Xcerus's Trolls vs Francis' Circle
I even managed to sneak in a game of my own later in the afternoon. My first three league games had been against Hordes armies, so I decided to change things up and take on Molly's Searforge dwarfs. It was a bittersweet battle for me. On the one hand, my Trolls were outnumbered almost 2:1 with a solo that could do little against Molly's Warjacks. On the other, I have my own Searforge list at home, so it was good to see them on the tabletop.

The battle was relatively short, but exceptionally violent. Molly's Grundback Gunners were quick to remind me just how effective they are when they opened fire on my Warlock in the first turn. A couple of turns later, I'd managed to draw Gorten into the open and bent all my efforts to assassinating the Warcaster. Unfortunately, the dice were against me and Gorten ended the round on a single point of health. Next turn, Molly reminded me how nasty Gunners can be by using three of them to finish off my own Warlock. One failed Tough roll and it was all over.
Molly's Searforge, complete with helpful numbering
Meanwhile, fierce battle raged on a pair of Dropzone Commander battlefields near the doors. Invading Scourge clashed with valiant defenders of the United Colonies of Mankind amongst buildings of an abandoned human city, and super-advanced Post-Human Republic took the fight to the tribal Shaltari.

Watching the game being played it's easy to see why it's become so popular. The models are top quality and each faction is stylistic different from the others. It will be interesting to see if the upcoming space game will be as popular, but I suspect it will be.
The forces of the Scourge prepare for battle...

...and the UCM do the same.

The Post-Human Republic advance towards the Shaltari...

...while a massive Hades Super-Heavy Walker lurks ominously under the table.
I missed most of these battles, but there was one particularly noteworthy moment. The Scourge were attempting to destroy a build (and the UCM infantry inside it). Their heavy tanks poured eight shots into the building over two turns, needing 2+ to hit. The number of shots that ended up hitting? One.
That will be the last time anyone borrows my dice.
Nearby, a demonstration game of Outrider was taking place. I missed out on this the last time it was played at T.C.O.W., so I was interested to see how it played. Based on what I saw, it's sort of a combination of Wings of War and Mad Max, using cards to determine both vehicle stats and movement. It also provides you with the opportunity to customise your own vehicle - taking a cheap Hot Wheels car from The Warehouse, giving it a suitably rough repaint, and adding a weapon or two (don't worry about WYSIWYG, that's handled by the cards). I've not taken the plunge yet, but it's tempting.
So. Many. Cards.

Next stop: Valhalla.
Finally, the back corner was devoted to the eternal struggle of light vs dark, good vs evil, American accents vs British accents: Star Wars. First up was X-Wing, with Darth Vader and a pair of TIE Advanced taking on an alphabet soup of Rebel ships.
Darth and his cronies

Mid battle against an A-Wing, B-Wing, X-Wing, and Y-Wing
Unfortunately for Darth, the firepower from the Rebel ships was too much for him and he was out of the battle faster than Jek Porkins.

Once the battle was done it was time to bring out the big ships. Literally. It was time for some Star Wars Armada. Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Empire would have a considerable advantage in this game, what with the Rebels not having much in the way of decent combat-capable capital ships. It's always seemed like the strength of the Rebel fleet was in its fighters. Turns out this isn't always the case in a game. From what I saw, the Rebels were more than capable of holding their own against the Imperial aggressors and managed to pull out a win or two.
*cue John Williams score*

The Imperials and their cheese wedges of death

The rag-tab Rebel Alliance displaying a greater reliance on smaller ships
And that's it for this fortnight. It looked like a good time was had by all, even those of us with useless dice. Tell ya what, it was such a success let's all do it again in two weeks time.

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Club Weekend Yo and a Guest Blogger


Oh yeah! It's game time TCOW'ers! Sunday is a happening thing, so head on over to Facebook and arrange your games. Are we going to see the introduction of TNT to the mix or is this weekend going to be something else?

I do believe that the Warmahordes JML is continuing and there may even be an increase in the points levels, which should add a new level of flavour to the games!

As well as club on this weekend, the Bolt Action Store Champs are on over at Hobbymaster in Ellerslie on Sunday. 1000 points of LW Bolt Action goodness...and I'll be there stirring up trouble in true TCOW fashion! I'm hoping to win a couple of games as well, have to break out of this spoon mould some time!



If you're in the vicinity, come on in and say hi. The guys at HM have also stocked up on BA so they may have that bit of kit you've been missing.

So as I wont be able to attend TCOW this week, I invited EOI from the club for a guest blogger for this weeks meeting and was INUNDATED with responses...but there can be only ONE! So, expect to see a blog update from Mr. Andrew McColl next week letting the world know about out shenanigans! 

GAME ON!

Monday 18 May 2015

IN THE CLUB!!! 17 May Meeting....


Ahhh, Sunday. As a gamer and a nerd/geek, its always great to know that every other Sunday, I get to head out, man dollies in tow, and meet up with a group of like minded individuals. And then we play man dollies!

This Sunday was geared around blowing the dust bunnies off our DUST models and get a game in. There has been some bad blood for the system floating around of late but we seriously enjoy playing the game, as was shown by the number of games that we got in.

Dave brought along his awesome desert board to play on as well. His Axis units are painted to match, and they really do look right at home there. He took on the Bludgelord and his Ribbitski line with KV walker support. I didn't catch the result though...



Faizal wanted to get some more DUST games in, having not played too many. He took on Damian "Pablo" C and his Axis first and got a whole heap of stuffs blown up...Twin-Twin 88's are just broken and Pablo really does enjoy a good n00b stomping!





So to make Faizal feel a little better, Monkey said he would take him on with his Rangers and all seemed to be going well....until....


Time for a cooking! Scusami!! I always love it when The Chef arrives....and I'm not playing!

Jon and Rob were getting some FoW practice over on another table. They were playing 1800 points, LW...but I don't want to infer that they were tuning or practicing for WolfCry...at all!

Jon was playing a German Grenadier company with Ludwig Windgruber in tow and Rob was running Commandos with some tank support and an arty park (BOOOOOO!!!!).




Looked like they were having a great time of it. I should really remember to get results from people and write them down though! Hey, at the end of the day, everyone is a winner.....right?

We also had a couple of intro games of Warmahordes going on by the window-doors.






















While all this awesomeness was going on, I was playing Andrew at his first game of Bolt Action with an appropriate amount of seagulling happening at the same time. Andrew has a beautifully painted (mostly) British force with a Cromwell and a couple of cheaty carriers...


I took my Yanks with a Sherman, Greyhound and M3 for support as well. We decided to play Max Attrition, really easy and simple way to get the basics down.

I would like to add, on the record, that I am not now, nor have I ever been a n00b stomper...I am a n00b myself....but sometime the dice just go in your favour, as was the case this time around.



I managed to get a first turn range in with my mortar which killed off Andrew's 25 pdr. In a repeat of my game against Rob, Andrew called in an Artillery bombardment right by the bulk of my force and once again, rolled a 1 meaning it was now MY artillery....I moved it toward his stuff and did a heap of pins. No kills though.

Recce vehicles are just great. Especially when they can get in behind the enemy...Andrew didn't like it though.


Final turn of the game, I get my CO killed though but by then, the damage has been done though and I walk away with a 4-2 win.

And last but not least, Pablo wanted some more n00b stomping so took on Pete at some X-Wing. After Pablo killed Vader in the second turn, it was pretty much all she wrote for Big D and the Ijits....



So that was another TCOW meeting. 5 systems played and a great meeting all around I think. If you disagree, you know who to direct complaints to...

GAME ON!

Sunday 10 May 2015

Something Dusty....


Its been 2 weeks since the last club meeting, the first ever Bludgefest, so you know what that means...its Game Time!

This week, we go back to having a bit of a themed day and the theme for this weekend is DUST. That's right, break out your SSU, dust (pun intended) off your Axis and unbox your Allies because we're taking this thing back...all the way back to 1947 where the war isn't over and nothing is as it seems.

Now this of course doesn't mean that just because you don't play DUST you cant turn up and play other games. That just isn't the TCOW way. 

You wanna play SAGA? Come to TCOW! 
You wanna roll Bolt Action? TCOW is the place! 
You wanna hit some Flames of War? You know where to come!

So if you're free on Sunday between 2.30 and 6.30 and want to play some games or even just watch/seagull come and see us at TCOW!

Sunday 3 May 2015

Bludgefest 2015 - SO MANY TOYS!


There are moments that ideas are formulated and they just fit. They make perfect sense and everyone can benefit from them. Sliced bread, bottled beer, acrylic paint...all examples of these kinds of moments. And then there are those moments that are so momentous, they shake humanity to the core. Bludgefest is one of those moments and I witnessed it in all its nerdly glory!

This one was Damian's idea. Bring the stuff you don't want down to club, put a price on it and see who wants to buy it. A concept so simple, its simplicity is genius. So that's what people did...in vast numbers! It was a veritable Portobello Road of geekiness with so many cool things... FoW, KoW, 40k, Warhammer, DUST, Warmahordes and everything in between. I spotted this little gem in the corner, which James was selling:


This one got picked up by Monkey for an absolute song! Well done mate, looking forward to cleansing some 'Stealers soon!

All told, we had about 40 gamers through the doors at one time or another trying to bag a bargain. Bludgefest was a great success and is something that will be repeated, watch this space!



Lets not forget that it was also a chance for the guys to get inside and play some games too! The TCOW WMH Journeyperson league was back this week and there were a heap of people getting their games in to add to their overall points. I forgot to grab my Menoth box on the way out the door, so managed to get a total of 0 games in....lame! Must remember next time! As always, a heap of fun. Its just one of those games that keeps giving!



Other systems were well represented as well. Mike and Jon notched up another SAGA game with Mike's Normans trying to stop Jon's Vikings getting across the valley with some Norman livestock. This game went in the Vikings favour I believe, which has lead Mike to vow to get his Danes painted...nothing like a bit of competition to get you painting!


And still flavour of the month, Bolt Action had a couple of tables going. David and SnuSnu (real name unknown to me) played a Russian vs. DAK battle with the Red Tide washing over Rommel's boys from what I understand. Weight of numbers besting the Germans on the day. Some beautiful painting on display here too!



El Presidente was also giving Rob a walk-through of the game. Rob has just bought a Brit Para army so needed to dive in. Dan took his Marines up against them. I took over this game half-way through on the Marine side. Unfortunately, its also where the tide turned for Rob. His called-in artillery strike turned on him and I placed it where it could do maximum harm. 1 unit wiped out and the rest shell-shocked, the 'Muricans started their roll to wipe out the Limeys. Result, 5-0 to the Americans (Maximum Attrition).


I really do enjoy Bolt Action. So much fun!

Damian C and Alex also managed to get a game of Dropzone Commander in. Buildings were destroyed and lots of little tanks marching around. I don't really understand the rules of this one too well, but it does look good on the table!


Last but not least, David G gave Wayne an intro Kings of War game with the new v2.0 lists. Its been a while since we've seen KoW played, but given the v2.0 rules are just around the corner. we could be seeing more. Must get my Dwarfs painted...

And thus, Bludgefest 2015 came to a close. I left with my 4 Hellcats, Barkmann, AirCav tokens and Zulu Wars Brits tucked in my bag so the wife doesn't see them and left. 

Its good to be a geek....