'Twas the day before DanCon, up at Sturgis West House
14 gamers rolled dice, while avoiding their spouse;
The terrain on the tables were laid out with care,
In hopes it would block line of sight here and there;
The children all opted to stay home instead,
While the gamers were happy they weren't 'round their legs.
As the above suggests, we had a great turnout this weekend. Normally this wouldn't be a surprise, but it's a holiday weekend here in Auckland and the weather is good. You'd expect more people to have headed to a beach to make the most of the weather.
Not us. We're gamers.
We had six tables covered in models and terrain and five different systems being played. Most were old stalwarts, but this weekend saw the first outing of Beyond the Gates of Antares at T.C.O.W.. Let's go through what got played...
Kings of War
Dan and Damien decided to skip getting in some last minute practise for DanCon and busted out the movement trays instead. It was Dan's Undead against Damian's Wizard Stinkfinger and his Ogre hordes. I didn't see much of this game, but I suspect the Undead will be feasting on those Ogre corpses for some time.
 |
| Damian's Warbeast tramples through the Undead lines |
 |
| After the battle |
Flames of War
Jonathan and Daryl took DanCon a little more seriously and got in one last game before Monday's event. It was Jonathan's German Grenadiers holding out as long as they could against Daryl's Cossack horde. Things did not look good early on for the Germans, but I missed how this ended.
 |
| The Russians advance on a German position |
 |
| That's a LOT of horses |
X-Wing
Roger and I had a fairly one-sided game of X-Wing with his Imperial TIE Defenders and Special Forces TIE turning my ARC-170s and T70 X-Wing into space dust. I did have one small victory, as I managed to damage one TIE enough that it blew up as it flew into an asteroid on the final turn. The dice were against me for the most part, but the game was still fun. Even if we did end up with most of the ships bumping into each other in the middle of the tables.
Ironically, this was the one game I didn't get any photos of. It was that engrossing.
Dropzone Commander
There were two separate games of DZC - one saw David's Shaltari taking on John's Scourge, and the other had (other) Damien's Resistance facing the technological might of Darren's Post-Human Republic.
I didn't see the outcome of David and John's match, but Darren seemed to share my luck with dice and he made some rather unfortunate rolls.
 |
| David and John's table It looks like there is a chance that track could bend |
 |
| David's gold and turquoise Shaltari |
 |
| Damien and Darren's table |
 |
| Cue the Airwolf theme... |
 |
| Meanwhile, a Resistance aircraft gets the drop on the PHR |
 |
| Basically, it's Mad Max vs Star Trek |
 |
| 13 dice needing 4+, what's the worst that could happen? |
Beyond the Gates of Antares
I'd been curious about this game ever since it's somewhat disastrous Kickstarter project. I'm pleased to see it's finally made it to gaming tables and this was my first chance to actually see it in action. At first glance, it seemed Bolt Action with smaller squads, and (not really) aliens. Turns out there's a lot more too it than that.
Mark and Rob travelled up from the depths of South Auckland to challenge Faizel to a couple of games. Mark bought the power armoured Concord, Rob had the monkey-like Ghar, and Faizal had some flinty Boromites.
The models look great painted and there's a lot of character there, but I'm not sure if it really appeals to me. I might wait for a few more models to come out and see if there's anything that really grabs my attention.
 |
| The Boromites take cover from the advancing fire coming from the Concord |
 |
| A Concord vehicle and supporting drones |
 |
| A bigger Concord drone, with Order Die for scale |
 |
| A typical Concord unit with attendant drone |
 |
| Another unit taking cover behind a rock while a drone blazes away |
That's all for this week. Next club meeting is the fifth Bludgefest. Hopefully the weather's just as good and you can all make it along!
