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.

SIGMAR RIDES!! Club Meeting - 26 July

The Age of Sigmar has arrived! Well, later on in the afternoon it did anyways. A pretty miserable day out in the real world but inside the confines of THE GREATEST WARGAMING CLUB IN AUCKLAND (and we'll challenge any who think they're better...) it was all on! With over 30 gamers in the room, things would have been a little cramped for the planned WMH JML meeting, so they were moved to more salubrious accommodations.....in the annex.

So, as well as 4 games of WMH played by the leaguers, what else did we have going on? Well, regardless of your gaming desires and preferences, I really think we had something for everyone at one point or another! We had Flames of War, Bolt Action, Star Wars Armada, Star Trek Attack Wing, Kings of War v2.0, TNT and a demo game of Age of Sigmar played which drew quite a crowd indeed.

Here at TCOW, we're firm believers in the moniker "don't knock it until you've tried it" so try it they did! To whet their whistle though, Dave and Damo sat down for some Orge on Orge action in the first game of Kings of War using the new ruleset played at TCOW.

From what I could hear over on the Russian Steppes (playing 1500 points MW against Gavin) there wasn't much need for reference to the rules indicating that all the changes Mantic have made aren't really that difficult to get your head around and that they're intuitive. I'm really looking forward to getting my copy soon and actually get my arse into gear and get my Dwarfs finished!

Interspersed between the Flames and Kings of War games, 2 Bolt Action games were also being contested. Russians, Germans and Yanks all fighting the struggle...

Ryan and Monkey hit the space fields for some Armada action. Glad to see this still getting a lot of play at club! I'm still not ready to drop all the cash into it yet....soon though!

And then....it was time! SIGMAR WAS AWOKEN!

David G (of Mighty Ape fame) had brought in his copy of the latest offering from Games Workshop. We all know that there has been a lot of conversation about this one within the community at large as well as within TCOW. Now it was time to see just what the game played like. Using the forces in the box, the guys set out to bash at it and see what happened!

I didn't get too much of a chance to see the game unfold, so have asked The Bludgelord for his thoughts....

"It plays exactly like an easier version of 3rd Edition 40k. After two turns, I was aware that it really encourages you to blob up your force and just push all the models together - over and over and over again. Without end. It might have been the small size of the game, but it didn't seem to offer a lot tactically. It felt like it wasn't quite a wargame but not really a board game either."

"I laughed my ass off when I one-shotted the He-Man on his battlecat using the Axe of Fuck-You!" Awesome!"

"Seriously, the models are really nice though. I can definitely see guys taking these and slotting them into existing 30k or 40k forces or possibly starting a new one with them."

So there you have it! An honest commentary on the game from a long time gamer!

Given the small size of the game played, Damian (Pablo) took the other half of the table and ran Victor and David M (too many people with the same name!) through a game of This Is Not A Test (TNT), the post-apoc skirmish game people have been building up of late.

This will be something else in my queue of stuff to build...who doesn't like a good PA showdown!

And finally, ST:AW closed out the day with a couple of ship on ship intro games. Romulans vs. Borg and Kilngons vs. Romulans.

Yet another successful journey into the world of nerd....whatever your passion, we have it!

Another reason why TCOW is THE GREATEST WARGAMING CLUB IN AUCKLAND!

GAME ON!

Club Life!

Sometime, a picture can say more than all the words you write with them. Now, with that philosophical tripe out of the way....here are a few words and then a few more photos.

Club day on Sunday was a full bloody house, and that's an understatement! Unfortunately, some of our members took to a secret location to get their X-Wing fix as there just wasn't the room. Sorry guys.

With the Warmahordes JML attracting a dozen or so players and three games of Flames of War in practice for up coming events, namely WolfCry and Panzerschreck, there wasn't a lot of space for walking around and looking at things. To give you a sense of how cramped it was....here's a photo from up on high:

This was taken before the madness really took hold...

JML moved to 4x4 tables this round and points levels were increased which made for longer and larger games. Really good to see so much interest and activity on the JML. Just awesome!

Three games of various sizes and flavours of Flames of War also materialised. 1800 LW for WolfCry practice and 2000 LW doubles (although Pat was a single) practice for Panzerschreck. Germans, Soviets, Brits and 'Muricans all featuring in the games.

There was a great moment in the "doubles" game with Pat shooting Mike's IS-2's with his King Tiger. 3 shots, re-rolling misses and getting 2 hits is pretty good. Mike has the weaker IS-2's so he needs 6's to bounce the 8.8cm shells....

We also saw a game of Star Trek: Fleet Commanders Captains being played. Keeping with the current Star Trek love at club...

And more Trek with Damo taking Francis through an intro game of Attack Wing. Borg on Klingon action!

So much fun...that's the name of the game at TCOW!

Good luck to all our members mixing it up at WolfCry this weekend. If you're free, head on over to the Remuera Bridge Club and support our boys as they search for glory and the SPOON!

With Panzerschreck on during the next club weekend, there will be no club so we'll see you all in a month or so.

GAME ON!

Star Trekkin' at FTW....

The rumours are indeed true. Yet another system has started assimilating itself into the TCOW fold...Star Trek Attack Wing. Similar in play style to X-Wing this should be an easy pick-up, right? Well, for the most part it actually is. So much so that Damian has gone all out and just amassed a Borg fleet with plans for more...

I'd already bought a Constellation-Class ship to have a look over the components before committing to getting the game so Damo said we should get a game or two in at FTW and see how it played. As we're both new, it would be a good learning experience. What's the worst that could happen...?

Pretty easy game to start with, Damo's Scout Cube with some toys vs. my Galaxy-Class Enterprise with Riker and some Photon torpedoes (not to be confused with Star Wars Proton torpedoes). Should be a lock for Riker! Yeah....right! 

The Borg are damned tricky bastards! They don't turn like other ships, rather they just move straight in any direction and change their facing...so they can just shoot anyone! So Riker was gonna have to chase down the Cube and blaze away with his Photon's and then get close for the finisher...

Fortunately for me, I can fire Photon's out my ass...! 

Federation 1: Borg 0

So let's step this up a notch then...this game seems easy! So now, Damo gets his BIG BORG CUBE (Tactical Cube 138) and loads it up with all the toys getting it to about 90 points worth. 8 shield and 9 hull with Borg Ablative Armour means I need to hit him 21 time to kill....not much at all.

I'll need reinforcements....so how about Kirk, Spock, Chekov and Ilia on the Constellation-Class Enterprise...with more Photon's. Yeah, that'll do....

We'll just go ahead and put a classic pincer move on the damned thing and start blasting it with Photons. Need to get the shields gone real quick so I can start making a dent on the hull. This is around the time we figured out the whole Enabled/Disabled mechanic with crew, weapons etc....and I figured out that Spock is a bad ass for torpedoes. Damo also has a wee trick that means he can split fire with his 9 attack dice.

Riker and the TNG Enterprise are taking most of the Borg heat and with their Photon torpedoes being assimilated, only had their main weapons to assist the struggle. Best thing to do then...get in close! Riker has the ability that when he's shot at at range 1, he gets 2 shots back....even if he blows up!!!

The damage is being done to the Borg Cube and its getting down to the wire. The TMP Enterprise is on her own and down to her last hull....its Hail Mary time...Photon style!

The Cube moves away...and the Enterprise manoeuvres...

And fires...

Federation 2: Borg 0....but only just!


So, what's the worst that could happen? We realise that this is a bloody cool game and agree that we should buy more...DAMMIT!

So, you think that would be enough gaming for one night, right? WRONG! Scott has had a copy of Blood Bowl: Team Manager lurking for a couple of years and wanted to give it a whirl. Why not?! I remember playing a lot of Blood Bowl as a younger gamer and still have my Chaos All-Stars at home. The game is by FFG so you know its gonna be a good one!

Four of us played, Scott, Damo, De-Ron and myself as the Dwarfs, Orcs, Elves and Chaos (respectively). It is a very good game which gives you all the feel of playing games of Blood Bowl but also incorporates some coaching and luck. Definitely worth a look...and once its laid out on the table and you're really into the game...it looks AWESOME!

So, as always, a great night of gaming down at FTW!

GAME ON!