RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE 2016

Looks like George rolled a FUBAR to me....

This weekend saw the second annual Rumble at the Jungle Bolt Action event hosted by those awesome peeps at Mighty Ape  . This year's event was a 1000 point affair and was played under the recently released second edition rules.

14 players in total turned up early on Sunday morning to start rolling dice and seeing what's working and not working under the new regime. There was a reasonable spread of forces across the 14 players. Nationalities counted were American, British, German, Japanese and French (yes, French!). We played 4 missions in total; No Man's Land, Key Positions, Point Defence and Meeting Engagement. All the tables had a great mix of dense terrain with great lanes of fire for all to use.

And of course, the beautifully painted armies on display as well! There were some absolutely gorgeous paint jobs, including Monkey's spiffing Dad's Army force. Here are a heap of photos I took of the action and the army parade as well.

French.....French everywhere!!!

Who would burn a bus....?!

I don't like cricket...oh no...I love it!

Steve's British

Monkey's Dad's Army

Dan's USMC....in the snow.

Matthew's Germans, complete with horse-drawn cart for the Neb!

Andrew's Brits

Michael G's Brits

Ryan's Yanks.

And my Yanks, led by George S. Patton himself!

HELLCAT!!!

And now to the winners....

Best General: Saul

There was a 4-way tie for 1st place and it came down to attrition points to split them.

Best Sport: Joel

Best Painted: Monkey

The Rumble Bunch.

A massive thanks to Dave from Mighty Ape for hosting us and the event. It was an absolute blast and one well worth repeating!!

Balancing Metal Sticks - Club Meeting 25 September 2016

Who would have thought that balancing metal sticks on a wire could be so much fun? We'll get to that at the end of the story because, as Auckland's Premiere Wargaming club, we should probably show you the wargaming we did, right?

ON WITH THE SHOW!!!

Bolt Action

With Rumble in the Jungle  just a couple of weeks away, we decided that we should really come to grips with the Bolt Action 2nd Edition rules and all the changes that are in there. We had a total of 3 Bolt Action games going this weekend. Dave and El Pres, Monkey and the Bludgelord and myself and Saul all fighting in a 28mm WW2 paradise.

Some amazing games being played here and everyone helping each other out with the new rules as well. For the most part, nothing has really changed and it's still a great game but its just those little differences that sometimes get ya!

It also sounded like everyone was having a great time playing which is kinda the main thing, right? If you cant have fun playing toy soldiers, you're probably doing it wrong.

Here are a few more (Bolt) Action shots....

Can you just hear the fun? The results of the games, from my understanding, were:

Dave vs. Dan: Germans vs. Marines: Draw
Monkey vs. Damo: SAS vs. FJ: Win to the SAS
Saul vs. Me: British Airborne vs. Yanks: Crushing victory to the Yanks.

I also got to try out the new Battle Kiwi dice tray in anger as well...

As well as Bolt Action, we had some more WW2 battles being fought in a smaller scale. 2 games of Flames of War making an appearance.

Pablo and Darren got stuck in with some Guards Churchills trying to walk over some SS Grens.

Mike and Jon also battled with Mike's Hero Strelk trying to break through the German lines in East Germany.

With FlamesCon just around the corner, I sense there may have been some training games going on here....very untoward!

The guys in the corner got another game of Battlestar Galactica in and this time the Cylons came out on top reducing the Galactica's morale to nothing.

Last game played was called Suspend. You should check this one out as its a great game for all ages. Basically, its reverse pick-up-sticks where you try to balance your sticks on the wires already placed without causing the whole thing to tumble. Nerves of steel needed here!

Another stellar gaming weekend at club!

The dates for October will be slightly different to allow for a couple of tournaments, so keep an eye on the club page for updates.

Until the next time...GET YO GAME ON!!!!

Are you....board? Club Meeting - 11 September

If you're standing still, you're stagnating and we like to keep things fresh and lively at TCOW (which I have heard referred to as the GREATEST Gaming Club in Auckland, something I'm not able to refute...). So, to mix things up a little, this weekend saw the inaugural TCOW Board Games Day played out at our usual haunt. A chance for the club alums to break out some of the boxes that sit on shelves, begging to opened and their contents used for the means for which they were manufactured.

And despite some people not being able to attend, we still managed to crack a few goodies out and have a heap of fun!

The biggest attraction was Battlestar: Galactica (with Pablo's beautifully painted BSG model standing in to add a little more depth). 7 peeps playing this one and trying to figure out who among them was really a toaster in disguise. I couldn't help myself so went around checking everyone's cards to see who it was.

The game took up the whole meeting, with most of the accusations being leveled in Dave's direction despite his consistent denials. To be fair to Dave....he wasn't lying either.

Unfortunately, the final decision came down to a die roll with the humans needing a 7 or 8 (on a d8) to win it....

Andrew and Craig played a game of Vegas Showdown. I've never seen this one before, but its all about building the best casino. It really appeals to my inner Joe Pesci...

As you can see, Andrew is right into it!

The Bludgelord and his Bludgelings turned up for the beginning of club, so he and Monkey played some Magic (a table is a board too!)..

While I school El Pres in the ways of Blood Bowl. He's recently acquired a Dark Elf team and as an old school Dwarf player, needs to re-adjust play styles, he found out.

Quite nice to see Dan actually playing a game at his club...

This one ended as a 1-1 draw after a single half (so we could play other games) and Dan realising the true power of Assassins and Witch Elves...

With the Bludgelord departing, Monkey sat with us and opened a copy of Torches and Pitchforks. This one is a ball of fun and plays very similar to Munchkin but with a few twists. The moors are especially exciting, more so when there's a Glob lurking...

Monkey won that one by beating a Giant Rat in the moors despite me besting the Glob. 

Once that was done, we cracked into some Exploding Kittens

This one needs no explanation....Meow, BOOM!!!!

Stu and his boys also kept true to the wargaming side of the club by getting in a quick game of Dragon Rampart.

He does kinda look like a disappointed math teacher, right?

And that was that. Fewer people, but more games and a heap of laughs, especially over on my table. Its definitely something worth repeating!


Now, a heads-up for y'all. It's likely that some of the dates for TCOW will change in October to allow for Rumble in the Jungle and FlamesCon, so watch this space for confirmed dates. And if you haven't entered either of these events, why the hell not?!!

Rumble in the Jungle, Mighty Ape's Bolt Action event!
FlamesCon 2016: Flames of War LW tournament.

So, until next club. Game On Toasters!