Something old, something new. Club Meeting - 26 February

We had another huge turnout this weekend just gone. The hall was packed with tables and plenty of dice were rolled. So, with Greg away sucking performing as expected at a Blood Bowl tournament it falls to me to let you know what went on.

We had a mix of old standards and new games played. First, the ones you'll recognise...

David ran two newbies through their first game of Bolt Action. It was a Russian horde on one side against a smaller elite German force on the other, with a couple of railway tracks in between. Both players thoroughly enjoyed the game, even the truly terrible dice rolls.

Meanwhile, some other Germans went up against the British army. There were no trains this time, but the Germans did bring along a rather old tank. I don't think this tank benefits from the Tank Fear special rule.

There was also a game of Dystopian Wars, with Gavin getting a feel for the game. It's not 6mm, but close enough.

Nearby, a group of Rebel pilots got rather unlucky when they encountered a squadron of TIE fighters led by Darth "Padawan murderer" Vader. As you might imagine, things didn't go well for the Rebels.

Finally, the brothers Haught set their phasers to shuffle and played the Star Wars Trek Collectable Card Game.

And now for the new games. First up, a game that many of us own models for, but none had actually played - Warzone: Resurrection. Fulfilling his role as club guinea pig, Damian was the first to roll some dice. He led the Teutonic Bauhaus against the undead forces of the Legion. Many natural 1's were rolled against him (this is a good thing in Warzone), but Damian still had a good time. I suspect we'll see more of this in the future.

I had a couple of games of 7TV with Regan. It was my Army list up against first his 'Heroic Soldiers' then his Rebel Troopers strike force (led by Luke Skywalker). Yes, 7TV really is a game where anyone can go up against anyone else. On top of this, the game's mechanics add a random element to the game that can make it both hilarious and deadly.

Finally, there was a new spin on an old(ish) game in the form of Fantasy Saga. As the name implies, this game combines Saga's funky dice and battle board mechanic with a selection of fantasy races. Most of the mechanics are the same, but it sounds like they've added to the rules with spells and special items. This requires further investigation.

And that's it. See you all again in two weeks for more gaming goodness. In the meantime, don't forget to pre-order Test of Honour. It's releasing at the end of the March and looks to be a whole lot of fun.

BLUDGEFEST IV

"Portobello Road, Portobello Road. Street where the riches of ages are stowed. Anything and everything a chap can unload, is sold off a barrow down Portobello Road. You'll find what you want on the Portobello Road."

Now if you're old enough to know where this little ditty came from*, you're pretty old man...

but once a year (sometimes twice) we invite nerds from far and wide to head to TCOW and disperse their unwanted plastic, metal, cardboard and resin to some other poor sod to store at their place, typically for cash but often for barter! It is the event known as BLUDGEFEST, and it was AWESOME!

So many different things for so many different games all looking for a new home!

And so many willing recipients!

They came from far and wide to sample the wares...

So much stuff!

But of course, being a club day, that also meant gaming was in action as well! There was X-Wing, Epic, Dystopian Wars, Kings of War and Blood Bowl all played.

Blood Bowl was awesome! Daryl and I played to get some practice in before SteamApe at the end of February.

And I should know better than to use Dwarf dice when playing Chaos...

And finally, Mike and Andrew broke out some nostalgia in the form of the old Decipher Star Trek CCG. Good times!

We closed the day with a rousing few games of Exploding Kittens! MEOW....BOOM!@@@@@@

And so Bludgefest ended....and it was great!

GAME ON!

* It's from Bedknobs and Broomsticks....which even features invading Germans.

DanCon IV - The Madness Continues!

What was last weekend? That's right, Auckland Anniversary weekend and that can mean only one thing...

DANCON!!!!!

And the tradition continues with the hats dictating all pairings but with a guaranteed Blue + Blue vs. Red + Red....with a couple of exceptions, namely the Cossacks and KV-1's in German Service

Each player brought 1,000 points of Mid War goodies to hit the tables with although one player had actually misread the briefing and brought a LW force. This was quickly cobbled back into a MW force though....Conscripts.

And so, with the tables set up and the hordes massing for action, we swung into it. As always, no stories of battle, just sit back and regale in the photographic glory that was DanCon IV! I'll tell you about the winners and losers at the end.

Ahhhhhh......shadduppa yo face!

Some really spectacular forces on display and a massive mix of nationalities covered.

But, of course there can only be one winner on the day and this year's honour belongs to Stu, who only a week before stated on Facebook that "I'm not a noob, I just suck because of dice and I tend to build historical lists rather than power game the shit out of a system."

Yeah, well...

Second and third were tied so we had a good, old-fashioned toss off to see who'd take which prize...

Gav rolled the 2 so officially came third with Jonathan taking second. Or the other way around possibly?

And of course, this is TCOW...the greatest prize of all is that of utter SPOONAGE...and in a massive reversal of fortunes last year's DanCon winner became this year's biggest loser...amassing a grand total of 4 points! Congrats Rob!

We owe a massive thanks to both Battle Kiwi and Mighty Ape for furnishing us with prizes for the event. You dudes seriously rock!

And I'll close with this image...nothing better than a smiling Cossack General, right?

I might just have that printed on a t-shirt....

GAME ON!