SAGA Painting Competition

Calling all SAGA players!

The guys over at The Tapestry (www.sagatapestry.com/) are running a painting competition. They've done one before where you had to paint a Warlord, but this time it's different....and something that could get you guys who are still waiting to get started the push to hit it!

Why not head on over to the site and have a look. Not sure what the prizes are yet, but its bound to be something good!

The Tapestry is also a pretty good resource for you SAGA guys, so give it a look.


GAME ON!

Club Meeting 22 February or Renewing Ones N00b Status

Even though BattleCry had a firm grip on the Auckland wargaming community this weekend, TCOW was still open for business today for those souls who wanted to get in and have a game despite not being at the tournament. Around 10 people showed up and even with the relatively small numbers, we still managed to see games of Warmahordes, Dropzone Commander, Flames of War and DUST played today. Not a bad effort at all!

Now, there are those days as a wargamer that you just cant win no matter what you do and today was one of those days for me. I'd lined up a 1600 point LW Flames game with Mike and noodled a little list from Bridge at Remagen which had almost all the flavours of German heavy tanks in it! Yay for kitties!

And that was pretty much where the fun ended for me today....Mike took some CV American tanks and ran them straight at my RV heavies and just decimated them....not once, but twice in the space of an hour! Some days.....

I did manage to blow Mike's CiC up in game 2....moral victory.... :0(

So I thought I might have a bit more luck against Ryan! I mean, I must have gotten all my bad luck out of the way in that first hour, right....?

Wrong. Another loss here. I did manage to get rid of a Panther platoon with some long range Tiger shots in turn 1, but thats about all she wrote on this one. Once Ryan's grens had overrun my King Tiger packed on the far objective, it was another aria for the rotund lass....

Dead Panthers!

Before the slaughter.

Over the other side of the hall, Damian C and Adam were engaging in an intro game of Dropzone Commander (DZC). I would have liked to get a bit more of a look at this one as it is something I'm interested in adding to my list of systems. Maybe next time...

Andrew was also doing an intro game, this time of Warmahordes, taking Martina through the basics with a Khador on Trolls battle-box game. As always, Warmahordes is a helluva lot of fun and I think this was no exception!

Finally, I also managed to fit a game of DUST in against Ryan. 100 points of my Axis vs. his Allies. I threw in a few of the new Babylon toys from my NDAK box set to see how they'd fare. This one eventually came down to a shoot-out with time running out. I got a team on to an objective and took the game, so not all was lost today! I did manage a pretty good save roll at one point....6 hits and

BOOM!

A bit of discussion around Bolt Action as well tonight with most people agreeing that we're going to look at playing in 15mm as well as 28mm. Seems like a good deal to me....I'll still be getting the 28mm stuff though!

So, another fortnight and another club meeting done and dusted! See you next time!

Behind Enemy Lines

It's official! The inaugural episode of the Behind Enemy Lines podcast, starring El Presidente and yours truly is now live for your listening pleasure.

This is out first go at this kind of thing, so we really would appreciate your honest feedback on what we can do better, suggestions for things you'd like to hear on the show and that kinda thing. Its really the only was we can improve!


wwpd.libsyn.com and look for Behind Enemy Lines!

Sunday is Funday...and an announcement of sorts.

Even though Battlecry is on all weekend, and good luck to all the TCOW'ers that are playing, we're still opening the doors for those of you not heading out so you can still get your gaming fix on. Plenty of parking, aircon and games. Perfection!

So if you're wanting a game, head on over to Facebook and arrange something. I think there is going to be some Dropzone Commander, maybe some Flames, a few LCG's as well so it should be a heap of fun!


Something else that has been working in the wings is about to go live as well. Dan and I have been working with Mike Haught on recording and publishing a regular podcast dealing with wargaming news with an NZ feel. We're pretty happy with the results and this should be live for you to listen to soon.

In the mean team, get on board and support us. The podcast is called Behind Enemy Lines and we've got a Facebook page set up over at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/340996936098135/
Please share the group and the podcast with anyone you feel might be interested.

See you Sunday. GAME ON!

Anglo on Anglo!

Obviously, TCOW isnt the only place to get your gaming fix in West Auckland. A few of us also frequent a place called FTW Games in New Lynn. Its a hang-out/retail store for players of all kinds of games...Magic, Boardgames and Wargames all have featured in my Tuesday night visits. A great bunch of guys and girls there as well making all welcome.

This week I headed down as I heard there was going to be some Infinity and wanted to check it out before I committed to ANOTHER system. I took my Saxons and SAGA gear down with me as well. Scott has 6 points of Danes that he keeps in store and he sounded like he was keen for a run.

As we're still really trying to learn all the rules, we settled on Clash of Warlords for out mission. Basically, kill the other guys Warlord and you win. Pretty easy!

So we set up the table and deployed across from each other. My force consisted of 2 units of 4 Hearthguard, 2 units of 8 Warriors, 1 unit of 12 levies with spear and shield and 1 unit of levies with slings. Saxon levies are a little better than everyone else and I get bonuses on my battle-board for units over 10 figures.

Scott (from memory) was a unit of 8 Hearthguard, 4 units of 8 warriors and a unit of 12 levies with slings. Scott's Hearthguard are armed with Dane Axes which are pretty cool. They lower the armour of the unit they fighting by 1, but as they're two-handed weapons, no shields so their armour gets lowered as well.

Scott kicked things off and rolled his SAGA dice for activations. His Danes pretty much rumbled toward my Saxons. As his slingers were out of range, no casualties this turn. My first turn was pretty much the same, the Saxons heading toward the Danes.

Back to Scott and the Danes keep heading towards my lines. It looked like our warriors were gonna get into some melee action in the centre of the table. It should be a relatively fair fight...if we had fair dice! Scott's night of horrible dice rolls was about to start...

The end result of the first melee, 2 dead Saxons : 6 dead Danes!

Our slingers then started exchanging fire on my right flank but not many rocks were getting though and numbers in the unit stayed full.

On the left flank, my spear-armed levies were making ground toward another of Scott's warrior units. It was only a matter of time before the fight was met!

Now, this should be a pretty even fight with my levies with a better armour and fight dice rating than most others. With a few extra abilities thrown in, I get to an even keel and we start rolling... I score a number of hits and Scott rolls for his saves...

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with SAGA, to save a successful hit in melee, you have to roll a 5+....

Little did I know just how important my unit of levies would become! Scott now decided to get his Hearthguard and Warlord into the fight...having seen his warriors decimated by lowly levies! So up the hill they go, into the fight! This one may not go so well for my levies....

They do manage to take a few Hearthguard with them as their numbers start to dwindle. Scott throws another unit of warriors at them as well. I think he might we worried....and with good reason! I am rolling an obscene amount of 5+ saves at this stage! But, slowly but surely my valiant levies are whittled down.

Now is when I really need to start getting my Hearthgurd into the fight. Lord Sir Lemmy takes his entourage up the hill while their mates scout ahead. They push into the warriors to remove them from the equation and after a couple of rounds of fighting while the levies hold up Scott's Hearthguard, they're gone.

Unfortunately, my levies have left by this stage leaving Scott's remaining Hearthguard the room to face mine. I'm left with a single Hearthguard after the melee while Scott's depart. Scott's Warlord looks around and sees a unit of warriors that he can take with him as "Saxon Fodder" for what will become the telling fight....GRUDGE MATCH! 

Its Scott's turn so he rolls his SAGA dice...and then more...he loads up on abilities because, given the way he's been rolling, this could go badly. So, he rolls 6 hits. This first is ignored. Down to 5. I have 4 Hearthguard within VS of Lord Sir Lemmy....all I need is one 5+ on five dice.....and the way I've been rolling, I think I'm good here!! I roll and......

3,2,2,1,1.......shit.

Brave Lord Sir Lemmy passes from the land and the Dastardly Dane is left with the spoils. As he walks away, I can hear him singing...."he's got the look...he's got the look."

I hate Roxette.

Painting Blocks....

Like most wargamers, I have a rather large stash of unpainted plastic and lead just waiting for the day that I actually need to put together that particular army for that particular tournament. So, that being the case you would think that there should be no reason for getting a painting block, right?

WRONG!

They can just happen for no reason whatsoever but there are ways out of it:

1. Sign up for a tournament! Nothing gets you painting like the realisation that you're 3 weeks out and have nothing painted to put on to a table top! I also recommend this method if you're wanting to buy new toys but your better half is against it.

2. Buy some new models. Yep, this one is a no brainer. Everyone knows that as soon as you get new models in the house, you want to get them out, assembled and painted ASAP! This, of course, isnt the most cost effective method of getting out of a slump...

3. Watch a movie. This one is good for the historical gamers out there, even....cough....Napoleonics. Seeing a well made war movie can often provide impetus for painting.

4. List writing. Going through your intel briefings or source books and noodling lists you want to play with the toys you have and then noting which ones are painted and which arent....then painting the ones that arent!

So, those are some of the ways I get out of slumps....how about you?

Did You Forget Something?

I love it when every other Sunday rolls around. It means I get to head out of the house and play toy soldiers with a group of other like minded fools. This Sunday was going to be no different.

With a reasonably moderate turn-out by TCOW standards with about a dozen of us hitting the tables. This didn't stop us from having 5 systems being played though! A couple of games of Warmahordes, a game of Kings of War and one of Flames of War. Francis FINALLY got his Myth Kickstarter (we're not mentioning any other ones) so took Damian and Gav through a test run.

I didn't get too much of a chance to have a look over the game, but by all accounts the mechanics are pretty good and its a bit of fun. I'd say it will see another appearance at TCOW.

Now, it isn't often that I (as the perpetual n00b) gets to school anyone on how to play a game, but that's the position I found myself in. Dan wanted to finally have a run with his SAGA war band and learn the rules and with me having had about a half dozen games, gladly obliged. My Saxon's were ready to take on the Christian Orders....and Brave Sir Robin.

So, we set-up for a Clash of Warlords battle and diced off for deployment....

The rules of SAGA are very clear what happens in this situation. The player with the most impressive facial hair wins ties....

I didn't really note down too much of the action but Dan did find out that Saxon levies aren't too bad when it comes to battle...and shooting. Eventually it came down to a Warlord v. Warlord fight. Arthur, King of the Britons vs. Lord Sir Lemmy. With Arthur's retainers already on their way back to Camelot he just couldn't take the punishment Lemmy dealt....VICTORY TO THE SAXONS!

Photos of the battle as I remembered to capture it here:

The battle lines are drawn!

The Knights thunder in....

And Saxon slings halve their number!

Arthur and the Knights mount the hill...

And the melee is met!

VICTORY! Saxon Time!

And with that, Dan's first game came to an end with his Knights broken and his false king dead. The Saxons reign supreme!

So, with other games wrapping up we wandered over to watch the final throes over Andrew M and Monkey's Warmahordes game. Very few models left on the table it was coming down to those final important dice rolls. With Monkey's Caster left on 1 health and Andrew poised to attack, boosted no less, he rolls....

So with the terrain packed away and the toys in their boxes, we finished our conversations when Andrew H piped up and said..."Where's Gav? He's my ride?"...

Oh, how we laughed....even more when, luckily for Andrew, Gav pulled back into the car-park!

And that's TCOW for another fortnight....

Club Meeting time!

After all the hype and pomp thats associated with DanCon, its time to get back into the swing of things with a new week and a new club meeting.

As always, games are being arranged over on Facebook with Flames of War, Kings of War, SAGA and Warmahordes looking like they're gonna to see some game time.

So, if you're wanting to get a game in, you need to get your opponent sorted NOW!

This week also saw a new NZ Wargamers forum being started, so if you're wanting somewhere else to talk nerdy, why not head on over and register?

www.wargamernz.com is the site, head on in for a look.

There is also something new on the horizon...keep an eye on this space for more details next week...

In other news, the results of DanCon were added to the national rankings over at The Fields of Blood with some TCOW alums featuring in the top 25 and potentially being in Masters contention. Power gamers!!!

7. Andrew Haught
10. Mike Haught
17. Dan Linder
19. Greg Lockton
23. Damian Caulfield

See you Sunday. GAME ON!