The last few club meetings have been either on 'special' days or big club events. Best I can tell, there was nothing particularly special this Sunday just gone... other than a whole lot of people ignored the weather to meet up and play some games. We even had a couple of kids tag along.
It's worth pointing out the
Sturges West Community House has space outside, as well as additional rooms, where kids can play. Your kids might not want to watch the adults play toy soldiers, but they could bring their own to play with other kids. This might be something to think about if you can't get a full leave pass from your other half.
Back to the gaming, we had a full room and it got a little tight at times, but everyone sucked in their respective guts and made it work.
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| Frostgrave, Magic, and HALO Fleet Battles (front - back) | TNT, Flames of War, DZC, Bolt Action: Commando (front - back) |
Frostgrave made a triumphal return to T.C.O.W as Molly finally got a game in. It was his fabulously painted dwarf enchanter and crew against my still work-in-progress goblin witch and crew. Our crews battled over Molly's new 4Ground fantasy terrain, a mix of
generic ruins and
Mordanburg houses. It really suited the setting and only needed some fake snow to complete the effect.
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| That's how the terrain looks straight out of the box (and assembled). |
As for the game, the less said about that the better. My die had trouble rolling higher than 10 for most of the game, meaning even the attacks that did hit had no effect. In the end, my goblins skulked off the table dragging two pieces of treasure while Molly's dwarves claimed four. On the up side, the game was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to my next one.
Next to us, Harrison and Peter got their post apocalypse fix with a game of This is Not a Test (TNT). The game has been on a bit of a low ebb of late, but it's a good bet things will pick up again once we start receiving the books (and other goodies) from the game's recent
Kickstarter. I only managed to get one photo of the game, but Harrison has posted more on
Facebook.
The Magic Commander league is still going strong. We had two tables of the usual suspects playing this week, with one game going until almost home time. Magic has a strong momentum with no signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, the massed ranks of the Soviet Union's armoured might clashed with some of the best the German Wehrmacht had to offer. I don't recall the final score, but things certainly didn't look good for the Ruskies when I snapped these photos.
If you're wondering where the blue buildings came from, I'll get to those a little later.
In the somewhat distant future of
Dropzone Commander, Alex's United Colonies of Man took the fight to Damian's Resistance on the streets of a war-ravaged city. This game was as epic as it gets, with both sides slugging it out for hours. If you'd like to see some more photos, Alex posted some to
Facebook.
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| The battlefield with a Coke can for scale (no bananas were available). | The UCM's artillery covers their dropships' advance. |
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| Resistance helicopters prepare to pounce. | The Resistance commander rides into battle in style. |
Gregory ran a couple of demos of
HALO: Fleet Battles, picking scenarios from the rule book that best showed off the main aspects of the game. Sadly, I wasn't able to get any photos of the games, but if you're a fan of the games it's well worth checking out. There's a ground combat version of the game coming, too.
Finally, David bought along some rules he's been working on for a pared down version of
Bolt Action called Bolt Action: Commando. The premise of the game is you field a single section of inexperienced soldiers. Models activate individually and gain experience over time. You also earn supply points that can be used to purchase equipment and improve the abilities of your soldiers.
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| The Commando battlefield. | Russians are not known for their subtly. |
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| Indians use buildings to cover their advance... | ...while one prepares an ambush for some DAK. |
The rules are still in beta, but if you'd like to give it a go bring a dozen models along to club and get playing. The games I saw lasted no longer than an hour, and that was due to poor dice rolls making most of the shots miss.
Considering the recent announcement of Bolt Action 2nd Edition, this might be the game that scratches out 28mm WW2 itch until later this year.
Remember those blue buildings? They were made by Faizel (aka Token) and his shiny new 3D printer. He also had some bags of 15mm tanks and Warhammer Epic vehicles. I didn't get any photos of those models, but they looked great. Plenty of detail, even on the Epic vehicles.
Faizel's setup his own Facebook page,
Token's Print n' Paint n' Accessories, where you can order your own goodies. This is probably the best way to get back into a game like Epic where the old models are no longer available.
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| Much detail. So crisp. Wow. |
That's it for this week. See you all at the next club day on March 24!
