A quick update. …

Sorry it’s been a quiet month on Tales From The Mancave….the girls have been excitedly preparing for Christmas and I’ve been kept busy with shopping, wrapping, chopping, cooking and playing games that sadly aren’t the kind I’d usually post about. So I’m going to give a quick update to keep your all advised of what’s been going down.  Let’s keep this simple. ….

I managed to grab three Star Trek Attack Wing Reinforcement Blind Booster Bricks for the forthcoming Temporal Cold War OP Series. I’ll be trying to post about each vessel and stick some pictures up as soon as I can.

Sticking with a space theme I’ll move next onto Star Wars.  I managed to grab a viewing of The Force Awakens on opening day and was like a child in a sweetshop with Daddy’s credit card!  Lol. Gaming wise I managed to pick up the last remaining ship I required to complete my Star Wars X-Wing collection. …the Tantive 4. Now onto Wave 8.  Being a massive Imperial fan I also wanted to get my dirty hands on the impressive Gozanti class Imperial Assault Carrier to swell the ranks of my Imperial Fleet.  I grabbed one for a very good deal of £39.67 (including P&P) from boardgameprices.co.uk which I was very happy about!

Sticking with Star Wars Christmas was very kind to me and I managed to get a whole heap of Star Wars Imperial Assault goodies from my girls.  I received Dengar to add to my wretched hive of scum in IG-88 & Boba Fett. I’m aiming to put together the whole line up of Bounty Hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. …so I need 4-Lom, Zuckuss and Bossk.  Then I’ll have then go toe to toe with my other games worth of hunters….the Predators from Prodos’ AvP.  I also got a copy of the latest expansion for SW:IA Return to Hoth. Finally I was given a load of Villain and Ally packs to build my SW:IA forces; – a Royal Guard Champion,  Kayn Samos, Chewbacca, Han Solo, R2-D2 & C-3PO and Princess Leia. So I can now assemble the whole gang from the films.  Happy gamer!

I did post a while ago about me returning to the Judge Dredd fold at NAGA to have some games with Brent Jay and Co. Well I was watching some very good deals on EBay and add luck would have it I did manage to scoop up the whole lot for a very decent price of £37 (including P&P). I ended up winning auctions for gangs for Judge Cals Personal Retinue, Justice Dept. Mega City Judges and Specialist Judges. So they’ll go onto the gaming table for use at some point in January against Brent.

The Hairy Gamers (me and Tris) took a little road trip to Dragonmeet in London during December to collect our AvP Wave 2 pledges and boy was there a whole load to struggle through a busy convention with.  I now have 3x Alien Warriors, 2x Alien Queens, 2x Royal Guards, 2x Alien Crushers, 2x Predaliens, 2x Alien Eggs, 2x Berserker Predators, 2x Predator HellHounds, 2x USCM Powerloaders and 1x each set of Dice (USCM, Aliens & Predators). I also bought an extra two boxes of Alien Warriors from Asylum Wargames Online Shop for a great price of £10 each. You can grab some too by visiting them on http://asylumwargaming.tictail.com/ . These guys have great deals on all sorts of goodies residual if you’re interested in Macrocosm or AvP.

This takes me neatly onto Macrocosm. Despite the awesome Chris Nicholls being very busy with his adventure into fatherhood for the second time he managed to go above and beyond to send out my Macrocosm Malignancy pledge.  Once the chaos of Christmas has subdued I’ll try to take some pictures and post more about this! Thanks Chris.  If you too are interested in Macrocosm then you can find more details on the website at http://www.macrocosm.co.uk/

Whilst we were on our road trip I managed to teach Tris the rules for The Devils Run and we even managed to grab a couple of demo games on the stand the Word Forge Games team were using.  Both of us are mad keen for this game and with any luck I’ll be able to help Mark Rapson with some more play testing and reviewing of the game in the build up to shipping.  With so many ideas for this game, with me posting regular bat-reps and reviews and with Mad Max Fury Road available on Blu-Ray and DVD it was inevitable that others would be drawn into the TDR:R666 game. Recently Tris and I expanded the Hairy Gamers family by inviting Gareth Mosley and James Hall to join our ranks. Both have the R666 bug and are busy trash-bashing and scheming for when R666 drops.  James has been busy using any and all HotWheels and Matchbox cars he can get his busy hands on to bash together some cars to use.  I myself am waiting until my pledge drops to see what gaps I have in my collection before getting too busy with trash-bashing. My ideas are mainly for scenery and game tiles based on British Roads rather than the American ones in the game.

Guildball now. ….as some of my regular readers will recall I play in a local Guildhall league at Black Dragon Games in Hinckley. Sadlt this has not been going to we’ll for my Fishermen who have lost their opening two encounters against Craigs Mort-Union team (12-8) & Andy T’s murderous Butchers (12-4). This week I have a double header of games planned against David Mustin and Mark Southerd in store on Tuesday so watch this space for that.  I’ve gone in half’s on a Union Starter with David to get me a copy of Avarisse and Greede to add to my Union Starter of Blackheath, Decimate and Gutter. I also added a Harry “The Hat” Hallahan to my Union line-up this month as well as hopefully getting the miniatures I’m owed by Jay Finnegan in the form of Fangtooth and Hemlocke. At some point I’ll have to grab me a copy of Coin,  the Union Mascot, so I can play Union too. I’ll do a “Gaming on a Budget” post later to cover my Guildball activities.  Having seen a couple of demo’s at Dragonmeet and spoken to one of the brains behind Guildball, Rich, Hairy Gamer Tris had also picked up a great deal on a Masons team for Guildball so we’ll probably throw down at some point even if it’s just to teach him the rules.

Lastly im going to talk about Frostgrave. Not the game or any bat-reps or warband stuff but mostly terrain.  I managed to grab myself two of the old Games Workshop Mighty Fortress plastic kits from EBay as a starter for my planned scenery. I wanted to build the walls of Felstadt. I also picked up 84 Lemax Snow Covered Wintery Pine Trees, a Garden of Morr kit from GW and some rather large Amera plastic moulded kits for their F204 Large Hill Top Ruin (Fantasy Realms page) & Z236 Corner Ruined Building  (Future Zone page). You can take a closer look at thier range on the link below;-

http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=f

Once I get the chance to do anything with any of the above I’ll post something.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all!

Gaming on a budget – The Challenge (Month 2 – Part 5)

Morning Mancavers,

Last month we started our “gaming on a budget” feature with the aim of spending no more than £30 per month on a new game we hadn’t invested in before.  I decided to get involved with a low fantasy Medieval football style game by Steamforged Games called Guildball.  Having taken a look at the teams available and gotten some advice from friends and forums I opted to purchase the Fishermens Guild.  With their combination of maneuverability and speed they would be the best option for me.

Last month I bought the Fishermens Guild Season 1 Starter Box which came with 3 miniatures (Angel, Siren and Shark), a ball and some data cards for each player the miniatures represent.  I really really wanted one of the other team players called Kraken so I bought him too.  At this point I had slightly gone over my planned budget of £30 and I think including postage it cost me a total of about £34.80 leaving me short this month.

Starting out I only had about £25-26 to play with.  I initially decided to add in two new players to give my team more flexibility in terms of tactics and options.  I went for Greyscales and Jac.

Jac – Fishermen’s Guild

Greyscales – Fishermen’s Guild

Also to get my team going I opted to purchase some MicroArt Studios bases.  The only option I feel really matches anything like the feel I’m looking for my Fishermen is:-

Wood

These are nice and look like a ruined jetty or pier.  I picked up a set of 40mm bases (for Kraken) and a set of 30mm bases for everyone else.

A selection of DS Round 30mm “Wood” by MicroArt Studios

A selection of DS Round 30mm “Wood” by MicroArt Studios

In total my spend came to:-

Greyscales – £8.05

Jac – £8.05

2 x MicroArt 40mm DS Round “Wood” Bases – £3.60

5 x MicroArt 30mm DS Round “Wood Bases – £3.60

All in all I spend £23.30 + P&P which rounds me off to roughly £26 this month.  I should now have enough miniatures to give me options when putting together a team.  I really need to get involved and start playing with the Guildballers locally (the Andy’s, Pam, Jason W & Mark S) and have a read of the rules and build a pitch.  One of the things that really draws me to the game is the fact that I dont have to spend a lot of money on a fancy rulebook.  Its free to download!!  If you have been following this little endeavour of mine and have been thinking you too would like to get involved then why dont you download a copy of the rules and take a look for yourself.

http://guildball.com/Guildball_QPR_Public1.0.pdf

I can also go onto the Guildball Forums to pick up tactics and general Guildball advice.  Here is a link:-

http://guildball.com/forums/index.php?/index

Oh the hobbying never ends in the Mancave!  There will be more updates to share with you guys soon.

Ive been very busy making my Alien Versus predator minis and building an Aerial Hunter Killer from Pegasus Hobbies for my Terminator Genisys…..but more on these in a later update.

Star Wars Imperial Assault Campaign aka If you go down to the woods today…….. (@ NAGA 08-06-2015)

Last night at NAGA saw the monthly Imperial Assault campaign return.  After last months absolute battering at the hands of the Empire we decided on a more sedate leisurely session…..no more doors, no more Transdosian traps.  Our party’s soldier character Fenn Signis had suggested a little walk in the woods and this seemed like a great idea….until we saw the setup.

The setup for our Imperial Assault campaign. We are top left.

The mission was as follows……we, the Rebels, must disarm six explosives placed in the woods to halt the Rebel advance before the main forces can move in.  We have five turns to do so.  Each Explosive takes an Engineering action to disarm and if Mitch’s character, Fenn Signis is within 3 squares of the disarming character then we get to keep that explosive as a weapon to use.  We can use it by using an action to place it on an enemy.  It would be the ebst way to topple that ATST as it was hella tough!

Diala Passil – Rebel Jedi.

Fenn Signis – Rebel Soldier.

Mak Eshka’rey – Rebel Sniper.

Jyn Odan – Rebel Smuggler.

Alan, the DM and Imperial Commander, had to stop us from disarming them all or force each character to be wounded or take enough damage to “flip” them.  To aid him in this task he had a Self Destructing Probe Droid (top right), an E-Web Heavy Weapon (bottom right), an Imperial Officer (bottom left), two Red Royal Guards (left) and an ATST (centre).

ATST

Imperial officers

Royal Guards

Probe Droid

E-Web

So with a simple plan in place to rush forward and disarm as many explosives as quickly as we could whilst avoiding the firing lines of the E-Web and ATST we set forth.  If we could use the explosive charges on the ATST then even better but it was of secondary importance.

The end of Turn 1.

Turn 1 – Worryingly the ATST was not only able to escape from the small area it was placed in but it was surprisingly fast too.  The Jedi pushed forward to meet any oncoming attackers as the smuggler grabbed the first explosive, the sniper positioned himself to lay down covering fire and the Soldier advanced to try and shoot at the ATST.

The Imperial troops rushed forward to block us from getting past and grabbing boxes, the same tactics we had seen last month.  If the ATST hadn’t blocked firing lines and movement we could have taken a lot of damage, although the fact it could now fire at any of us was a huge problem.  The E-Web advanced as ordered by the Imperial Officer without a shot.

The end of Turn 2.

Turn 2 – The Sniper rushed forward to disarm a second Explosive, he wasn’t close enough to the Soldier, Fenn Signis, to retain it as a charge for use later though.  This left himself in a good position as the ATST couldn’t target him.  The Sniper opened up on the ATST to try and damage it.  It had 15 health points and we could use our explosives to blast five points of damage onto it.  Facing the fire power of an ATST someone in our team was going to get hurt rather badly this round.   It moved aside to allow the Royal Guards to intercept and block the Jedi and Sniper stopping the faster more engineering minded smuggler from getting past.  As the Imperial Officer assessed his targets he felt the explosive carrying smuggler was a priority target and blasted at her.  She took seven damage and was in a bad way.  If the ATST continued to unload on us like that we’d get beaten very quickly.  My smuggler used her dodging abilities to retreat and moved back to regroup and attack the oncoming Royal Guards.  After being blasted the Smuggler dodged away.  The E-Web advanced again with no shot at the Rebels.

The end of Turn 3.

Turn 3 – It was beginning to look like another loss for the Rebels as we had yet again become boxed in by superior numbers and tough to shift Imperial opponents.  We would struggle to grab the remaining explosives if we continued to get bogged down in Imperial troops.  The Empire deployed some reinforcements in the form of three Jetpack wearing Stormtroopers.  They would become an issue as they had deployed protecting one of the explosives we needed.  We decided to go for broke and push forward.  With firepower concentrated on one Royal guard we opened up a gap and rushed through.  The Soldier engaged the Stormtroopers as the Smuggler ran forward and planted her explosives onto the ATST.

Both the E-Web and ATST maneuvered for better firing positions as the Royal Guards continued to plague the Jedi.  The sniper remained in his position of advantage and took pot shots at the Royal Guards and ATST.  Two Stormtroopers advanced on the Soldier and the cowardly Imperial Officer shot him in the back of the head.

At the end of the turn the thundering sound of twisted metal was heard through the woods as the Smugglers explosive charge ripped at the legs of the wobbly ATST.  Another 5 points of damage.  Only 5 more to kill it.

The end of Turn 4.

Turn 4 – The Jedi had been badly hurt, as had the Smuggler, if we were to win this we would need to disarm some more explosives as quickly as possible.

The Jedi used his force powers to throw the Stormtroopers backwards and damage them.  The Soldier rushed past and grabbed the explosives they had been protecting before they could reblock the corridor.    This plan of ignoring loot crates and focussing on mission objectives seemed to be working.  Like a well oiled Rebel machine we slipped past the Imperial guards and disarmed everything we could hopefully leaving us in a strong position for turn 5.  We had to grab or disarm all the explosives by the end of turn 5 or the Empire would win.  It had been a slow start but once we got our game faces on we did well.

The ATST turned and fired at the Soldier to damage him as much as possible hoping to “flip” him and stop him using his explosives on it.

Both the Sniper and the Smuggler rushed under the ATST and the Sniper grabbed a strong position away from the threat of being fired upon whilst my Smuggler disarmed and grabbed a second Explosive charge.  Now the Soldier and the Smuggler were carrying a charge each and the the ATST had used its attack so couldn’t target the Smuggler who was well placed to plant more explosives and bring down the lumbering damaged walker.

The E-Web fired at the Smuggler and caused her to be sufficiently damaged that she would “flip”.  She was the first player to suffer in this manner and if Alan, the Imperial DM could do the same to everyone else he’d win.  The smuggler jinked her way closer to the E-Web and remaining explosive using her skills to help the team disarm one of the last explosive charges.

Another Probe Droid was deployed as reinforcements and as  last ditch desperate play our DM, ALan, detonated one of the explosives being carried by the Soldier causing him enough damage to force a “flip”.  Now two of the team were in very bad ways.  Maybe the Empire could grab a win next turn if they could concentrate fire on the remaining fit and healthy team members.

The end of Turn 5.

Turn 5 – This turn was make or break for the Rebels, we had to grab two explosives and the Empire had to stop us from doing so or “flip” the Soldier and Sniper to win.

Forming a plan based on necessity it was agreed that if the E-Web and ATST fired on the Smuggler she’d probably end up dead so I should activate her first and grab an explosive if I could.  Having taken the opportunity to advance on the Explosive whilst under fire I was close enough to move into the difficult terrain water and make an attempt.  I rolled my engineering check and made it!  Stage 1 of our plan was complete.  Only 1 explosive left to disarm.  The Imperial Officer and remaining Stormtroopers tried to cause as much damage as possible to halt our advance but with our second activation the game would be over.  The decision was whether to allow the Soldier to attempt to blow up the ATST with hjis explosive charges and risk the Empire somehow stopping us or to simply take the win and disarm the remaining explosive charge.  After a small team debate it was decided.  We couldn’t lose again!  The previously uninjured and healthy Sniper leapt out from cover behind the ATST and charged across the woods to grab the last box which had been guarded by the Imperial Officer.

Win for the Rebels!  The Mai Tai drinking moonwalking heroes of the Rebellion were at it again!  Grabbing victory from the Imperial jaw(a)s* of defeat.  A strong team outing saw us do what was necessary.  Now onto bigger and better things.  We have XP to spend and credits to use to buy better gear.  Lets see what next month brings.

* A little Star Wars joke there…….see what I did?

Great work guys…Alan Mathieson, Ed King, Mitchell “Mitch” Dunton and Dave Baxter

Legendary: A Marvel Deckbuilding Game (NAGA 27-05-2015)

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is set in the Marvel Comics universe.   Legendary is a deck building game for 1-5 players. It has a play time of about 45 minutes and works well with any number of players.  We played with 3 players (Nick, Brent and I) and the game lasted about an hour and a bit but we were learning the rules as we went.

To set up the game, players choose a mastermind villain (Magneto, Loki, Dr. Doom, etc.), stack that particular villain’s attack cards underneath it, then modify the villain deck as needed based on that villain’s particular scheme. Players then choose a number of hero decks – Spider-Man, Hulk, Cyclops, Wolverine, etc. – and shuffle them together; since players use only a handful of hero decks out of the fifteen included, the hero deck can vary widely in terms of what’s available.

In Legendary, players assemble a team of super heroes from the Marvel universe to try and thwart the schemes of an evil Mastermind.

Each player starts with a pre-determined number of SHIELD agents and Troopers.  Agents add to your ability to recruit Heroes such as Spiderman, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, etc.  Troopers are your basic fighting resource and they can support more powerful heroes as you battle the forces of an evil mastermind.  Over the course of the game, players will recruit powerful hero cards to add to their deck in order to build a stronger and more resourceful deck. Players need to build both their recruitment powers (to enlist more heroes) and their fighting ability (to combat the villains who keep popping up to cause trouble). Players recruit heroes from an array of five cards which are based upon SHIELD’d flying HQ, with empty slots refilled as required.

At the start of a player’s turn, he reveals a villain and adds it to the row of villains. Each other villain moves one space along the city trying to escape.  This row has a limited number of spaces, and if it fills up, the earliest villain to arrive escapes, possibly punishing the heroes in some way. Some villains also take an action when showing up for the first time, such as kidnapping an innocent bystander. The villain deck also contains “master strike” cards, and whenever one of these shows up, the mastermind villain (controlled by the game) takes a bonus action.  It also contains Scheme Twist cards.  As the evil Mastermind acquires more and more Twist cards he or she can affect the players in various ways

As players fight and defeat villains, they collect those cards, which will be worth points at game’s end. Players can also fight the mastermind; if a player has enough fighting power, he claims one of the attack cards beneath the mastermind, which has a particular effect on the game. If all of these cards are claimed, the game ends and players tally their points to see who wins. If the mastermind completes his scheme, however – having a certain number of villains escape, for example, or imposing a certain number of wounds on the heroes – then the players all lose.

Game Components

The base game includes a game board and a huge 500 cards:-

• 60 starting cards (Agents and Troopers)
• 30 S.H.I.E.L.D. Officers
• 15 Hero decks (14 cards each)
• 4 Masterminds (5 cards each)
• 7 Villain Groups (8 cards each)
• 4 Henchman Villain Groups (10 cards each)
• 8 Scheme cards
• 11 Scheme Twist cards
• 5 Master Strike cards
• 30 Bystander cards
• 30 Wound cards
• 60 Divider cards

The heroes in the base set are: Black Widow, Captain America, Cyclops, Deadpool, Emma Frost, Gambit, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Rogue, Spider-Man, Storm, Thor, and Wolverine. The Evil Masterminds are Dr. Doom, Loki, Magneto, and Red Skull.

How To Play

The setup of the game takes a little bit of time. The villain deck must be created (Consisting of Villains, Henchmen, Bystanders, Scheme Cards and Master Strikes). Then the hero deck must be built. You chose 5 different super heroes to play during the game and all of their cards are shuffled into 1 big deck. You then deal 5 heroes into the HQ for recruiting and you’re ready to play.

We set-up to play and our evil Mastermind was the Red Skull.  We chose Captain America, Spiderman, Thor Odinson, The Hulk and Iron Man as our heroes and dealt the top five cards from the combined Hero Deck onto the board.

Evil Mastermind Red Skull

The turns are actually quite easy and broken down into 3 steps:
1. Villain Phase
2. Recruit and Battle
3. Cleanup

1. Villain Phase. Play the top card of the villain deck. If it’s a Villain it goes onto the villain track. The track is a series of 5 different locations around the city. As the villains progress along the track, they get closer to escaping from the heroes (bad stuff can happen if they do). Each villain has a fight strength and some unique abilities.
Other cards that may appear are bystanders (who get captured by villains), Scheme cards (the effect varies depending on the Masterminds scheme), and Master Strike cards (which are basically the Mastermind getting his hands dirty and pounding on the players).

2. Recruit and Battle This is where you can add cards to your deck by recruiting them from the SHIELD deck or the Heroes deck or battle the Villains or Evil Mastermind. Almost all of the Super Hero cards will have either a recruit number or fight number. You use your recruit points as a form of currency to add heroes from the HQ to your play deck. Fight points are used to battle the villains on the villain track. If your fight points equal his fight value, you KO him and he is added to your score pile.
Hero cards also will usually have a special ability that will help the player in some way (such as drawing more cards or adding to other cards fight/recruit power).

SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson

HERO Thor Odinson

HERO The Incredible Hulk

HERO Captain America

HERO Spiderman

3. Cleanup Discard your hand and draw 6 new cards. This is the standard cleanup phase found in most all deck building games. Discard everything in play/hand and draw 6 news cards.

In our game we did manage to defeat the Red Skull and I won convincingly with 34 points worth of Villains and Masterminds versus Nicks 14 and Brents 9.

Overall I was very impressed with Legendary.  Once we picked up the rules it became quite easy to play.  It was only once I;d started writing this review that I realised Legendary:A Marvel Deckbuilding Game was related to another game that I had previously looked at and seriously considered Legendary:Encounters (the Aliens version of the same game).

Legendary: Encounters

The core box set usually retails at around £48/$60.  That isn’t too bad at all for a game with the almost infinite replayability that this game does.  I cannot fault the slick graphics and layout of the images which are typically Marvel…bright and engaging.  There are plenty of expansions to keep this game interesting including but not limited to Legendary:Dark City, Legendary: Fantastic 4, Legendary:Guardians of the Galaxy and Legendary: Paint the Town Red.  All are reasonably priced at around £20 each although Legendary:Encounters and Legendary:Dark City are stand alone games in their own right and subsequently retail at an average price of £45.

Legendary Expansions

The Deadites vs The Green Machine (Blood Bowl @ NAGA 20-05-15)

So last night at NAGA Wayne Phillips returned the favour for last weeks demo of Star Wars X-Wing by bringing his Blood Bowl stuff along for a game.  It had been quite some time since my last game, at least over a decade, and when I last played Games Workshop were still running the show.  Now the game is in the hands of the players and is using the Living Rule Book (LRB) which has some key changes made to both the Teams and the game rules.

We decided we’d run with League rules so following the full pre-game procedure and post game procedure but whilst playing we both realised we were treating the game as a 1 off and going for broke.

Wayne opted for an Undead Team called “The Deadites” and I lumped for an Orc Team called “The Green Machine”.

Waynes team “The Deadites” were set-up as follows:-

2 x Mummies – 240,000gps (3-5-1-9 Regenerate, Mighty Blow)

2 x Wights – 180,000gps (6-3-3-8 Regenerate, Block)

3 x Ghoul – 210,000gps (7-3-3-7 Dodge)

3 x Skeleton – 120,000gps (5-3-2-7 Regenerate, Thick Skull)

1 x Zombie – 40,000gps (4-3-2-8 Regenerate)

3 x Re-Rolls – 210,000gps

My team “The Green Machine” were as follows:-

3 x Black Orc Blockers – 240,000gps (4-4-2-9)

4 x Orc Blitzers – 320,000gps (6-3-3-9 Block)

2 x Orc Throwers – 140,000gps (5-3-3-8 Sure Hands, Pass)

2 x Orc Linemen – 100,000gps (5-3-3-9)

3 x Re-Rolls – 180,000gps

2 Fan Factor – 20,000gps

The teams setup…..Orcs playing up and Undead down.

The Undead inflict a single casualty on the Orc Team sending a Block Orc Blocker to the Dead and Injured Box.

The Orcs leave only 6 payers on the pitch for the Undead.

Having tossed the ball downfield the Undead play at damage limitation as the Orcs start to turn the screw and put even more players in the Dead & Injured box.

The intended pass is missed and drops just wide of the Blitzer receiver. Double coverage from a Wight and a Ghoul make it difficult to reclaim the ball.

The Undead swarm around the thrower as he desperately tries to throw the ball away downfield.

Having just decimated his Wight partner the ex-Reikland Reaver Zombie faces a block from the same Black Orc. The Black Orc stumbles and falls.

The Orc Thrower in the backfield is looking for a free receiver to pass the ball to.

The Undead pack the backfield to stop the Orc Blitzers from creeping through. The Black Orcs do what they do best and put the hurt on the Undead.

Orcs Line up to receive the ball again. Now they outnumber the Undead team.

Score to the Deadites!!! 2-0 on the whistle of halftime.

After twice fumbling his pick up roll the Orc Thrower is forced to chase back and attempt a blitz to recover the ball from the Ghoul. He slips whilst going for it and falls over leaviing the Ghoul free to trot in an easy touchdown.

First blood to the Orc team…..a Mummy is permanently removed from the field of play courtesy of a Black Orc. Almost the end of the first half.

After a bad kick-off result the receiving Orc team are caught flat footed and the Undead break through their lines.

The Ghould dodges away and scores for a 1-0 lead. The teams setup again.

The Ghoul escapes and runs for the line. the Orc Thrower goes back to try and slow him as the Blitzer Blitzes him. Double Skulls! After a re-roll….Double Skulls! Unbelieveable!!!!

The Undead build a loose cage but the only Blocker capable of getting back and putting coverage on is a Black Orc who will be outnumbered.

The Orcs scramble back to provide coverage but their slower players struggle to get back leaving their most potent blockers upfield.

The Undead swarm forward in numbers pushing the Orcs aside as the Ghoul gets up, grabs the ball and retreats into the safety of the Undead cage.

An Orc thrower and Blitzer chase back to bring the Ghoul down.

The Undead break the cage and escape downfield with a Ghoul carrying the ball.

With one Mummy down and another not in contact with an opposing player their threat has been negated. The Orcs roll onwards with Thrower 9 carrying the ball inside the cage.

The Green Machine rumbles upfield slowly causing carnage with its 3 Block Orc Blockers smashing everything in their path.

The Ghoul is knocked down and the Orc thrower carrying the ball advances upfield over the LoS.

A ghoul and a Wight roll around the right flank to attack the cage.

After turn 1 a mini-cage has formed in the back field. The Undead need to choose between blitzing with Mummies or going for the ball carrier.

The defending Undead team set-up conservatively to Kick-off to the Orcs.

The receiving Orc Team lines up looking to form a cage down the left flank.

The Line of Scrimmage.

Final Scores are in:-

The Deadites 3 – 0 The Green Machine

Casualties 1 – 5

Competions 0 – 1

A resounding and thumping victory for “The Deadites” with the Ghouls showing their real worth and stealing the show.  Clearly the Ghoul with 2 Touchdowns would be MVP.

For “The Green Machine” it was difficult to choose a single MVP as all three Black Orcs caused carnage throughout, one of the Throwers remembered his worth in the end with an amazing collection of rolls and the Blitzers were a serious impact.  In the end for the casualties alone I gave the MVP to the Black Orc that removed a Wight and a Mummy.

This was my heaviest ever defeat at Blood Bowl with a team im somewhat unfamiliar with but it all came flooding back.  There seemed to be some interest at NAGA for a game or two here and there so Wayne and I may look at setting up a once a month league with a few teams.  The dice did not favour me tonight and thats not an excuse because I was beaten by a better team coached better.  I enjoyed myself and will definitely be playing more.

Right I had better go as I have teams to paint and LARP gear to pack ready for Empire this coming weekend.

Firefly Boardgame (@ NAGA 18-03-2015)

Following the de-boxing and review of my Firefly game at the back end of last year I had been itching to give it a go with other players.  I had already tried it on my own as it is a game where players play against the game rather than each other.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4veccakd1lzjrjo/Firefly%20Deboxing.pdf?dl=0 

Last night at NAGA Derek Maynard offered to run a game.  So armed with my basic knowledge of the rules I set off to play in the shiny shiny ‘verse of Joss Whedon’s Firefly.

We had a few players;- Scott Moore, Owen Cartwright, Derek and myself.  We each rolled off to see who would pick ship and captain first.  Derek won, then I got to choose, then Scott and finally Owen.  I picked the Bonanza, a Firefly class ship from the original game, with Jubal Early (a bounty hunter who boarded Serenity with the intention to kidnap River Tam in return for a bounty in the Firefly episode “Objects in Space”) from the Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion.  Once my ships hold was loaded with parts and fuel I was ready to pick some missions.

I placed my ship at Silverhold, in the Heinlein system, on the game board allowing me to immediately buy some crew or gear to get going.  From the missions I had received I picked one from Harken, one from Patience and one from Amnon Duul.

Looking at them I chose to set course for the Red Sun system to collect my Cargo and hopefully swing by Londinium in the White Sun system to pick up my third cargo before dropping it all off at the various planets of the Georgia system.

The game itself takes an inordinate amount of space to set-up and play but I do think its worth the effort.  The mechanics of navigating the ‘verse aren’t cripplingly difficult but take some getting used to as you move between Alliance Space, Border Space and Reaver Space.

The trading element of the game is quite simple and adds flavour as you build a crew, get jobs and keep flyin’.  You might think that the big names of the series such as Mal, Wash, Zoe, Simon Tam, etc are the best cards and whilst they are powerful they may not be the crew you need or want for your jobs.  Some jobs are legal, others less so.  All crew need paying for jobs they participate in.

There are a number of large trading ports (Silverhold, Meridien, Osiris, the Space Bazaar, Persephone and Regina) that ships can dock at and buy fuel, pick-up crew and install upgrades to their ships.  You can also pick up additional job from the ne’er do wells or locals that frequent these locations such as Niska, Patience, Lord Harrow, Harken, Badger, Amnon Duul.

Now we’re all set-up we got underway.  Immediately I picked up some additional crew to help me start my jobs.  Saffron and a Lawman joined Jubal and we set off for Motherlode and Harvest in the Red Sun System to pick up jobs from Patience and Amnon Duul.  Having collected my cargo from each I set forth for the Georgia system perilously close to Reaver space to drop off my cargo and get paid.  It was my intention to visit Londinium to collect the cargo for Harkens job too but the other players movement of the Reaver and Alliance ships made crossing Alliance space difficult.  Also one of my jobs was putting a strain on my fuel supplies so I was “burning” only when necessary.

I stopped off at Persephone to collect more fuel and pickup more crew.  Helen, the companion was a handy addition adding to both my ability to fight and negotiate.  Some toy dinosaurs were also picked up as no Firefly class is complete without toy dinosaurs stuck to the dashboard.

I then had a run in with the Reavers.  My choice was option 1, try to evade and maybe lose a crew or two or option 2, fight them and possibly escape but the repurcussions for losing were far worse.  I had crew to spare having already started my jobs and didn’t need them any more.  I took option 1 and even with my re-roll from Wash’s Toy Dinosaurs I lost and had two crew killed.  Given that I would need to pay my crew if I finished the job this was a blessing in disguise.  Saffron and my Lawman got eaten by Reavers but I evaded and lived to fight another day.

I snuck past them as one of my opponents pulled a bounty card with my new companion on it.  She had only cost me $200 to hire but by turning her in I could get paid $2600.  Seemed like a good trade as I was close to finishing, plus it saved me paying her.  She got dropped off at Newhope in the Georgia system and my coffers were swelled with $2600.  I just had to finish my jobs, get paid and I had won.

I crept to Regina and unloaded my cargo.  I got paid and was now “solid” with Amnon Duul.  I drifted to Boros and dropped off Patience’s cargo, again picking up my pay and becoming “solid” with Patience too.  This achieved my first goal of being “solid” with two traders.  By holding over $6000 (I in fact had $7800) in my hand I was ready to pay off Niska for my ship and win.  I just had to get to him at Ezra one space over before Scott’s pirates came and stole all my booty.  They had been lingering around the edges of Reaver space running jobs between Burnham and Meridien.

In my next turn I “moseyed” one sector along docking at Ezra and delivered my $6000 and won, with Scott and his pirates hot on my heels.

Tense game, fun game.  Its probably not the right sort of game for a quick evening at NAGA as anything other than the scenario we played would probably take far too long to finish.  As it was we just about managed to finish the game and with set-up and take -down it had taken close to three hours.

Definitely worth playing more, just need to fins some players to join me.  Any takers?

Star Wars Imperial Assault Campaign aka Margheritas and High Fives (@ NAGA 09-03-2015)

The setup

The Imperial Forces deploy whilst we plan out starting positions inside the Imperial Bunker.

My “moonwalking margherita drinking” smuggler – Jyn Odan. A girl on a mission to collect as many crates of shoes and handbags as possible whilst dancing around Imperial blaster fire.

The First turn is underway, Daves super sniper emerges from the bunker to take on some Stormtroopers as Mitch’s soldier sneals out to fire at the E-web.

Turn two. The Imperials receive Royal Guard reinforcements and the E-Web finally succumbs to Rebel fire. The Empire try to blast their way inside.

Ed’s Jedi takes on the Royal Guard before he takes the hiding of a lifetime and gets saved by a stacked and packed Smuggler about town with two medpacks.

Having lost the token in the first room we beat a fighting retreat to protect the remaining ones as more Imperial reinforcements arrive……and yet another bloody E-Web.

Shopping complete, medpacks used its time to stress up and get me some Imperial kills.

Tonight’s Star Wars Imperial Assault Campaign started as an exercise is damage limitation.  Having failed in our first mission and gotten Han Solo killed last time out our morale was at an all time low.  At least tonight we started inside a sealed bunker that the Imperials had to break into.  So once the scenario was explained we set about planning.  We, the Rebels, had 8 game turns to stop the Imperial player and GM(Alan Mathieson) from killing us all and occupying the bunker.

Our goal was simple slow the inevitable advance of the Empire and do as much damage as possible whilst hoovering up as many crates of loot as possible.  If one of the Imperial models was occupying a room during the end phase and no healthy Rebel was present he could claim the token.  Once the Imperial player had four tokens he won.  We had eight turns to stop him.

My smuggler would act as runner and grab all the crates inside, being the weakest in combat and fastest.  Ed’s Jedi, Mitch’s Soldier and Dave’s Sniper would run interference and try to do as much damage as possible to the initial waves of Imperial troops before I joined them to harass and heal.  I would hopefully grab some med packs and stims to help keep the guys from flipping so the Empire couldn’t claim rooms easily.

First turn came and we easily grabbed the first crate, no med pack but a Sonic Grenade which may become useful later.  Mitch took pot shots and attempted to stop the E-Web from getting a good shot down the corridor and taking us out one by one.  Daves sniper left the safety of the reinforced bunker to battle the Stormtroopers outside.

As the turns progressed the massed firepower of the Imperial troops broke the resolve of the door and soon they flooded inside.  The Royal Guards seriously messed up our Jedi so a hasty retreat was made for the safety of Smuggler healing, who had now found two med-packs.  The Rebel Soldier and Sniper hid and took cover and took down more Imperials as they pushed forward.  By the end of turn 3 they were inside and by the end of turn 4 Mitch’s Soldier was in a bad way and the Imperials had claimed their first room.

Turn five saw the second of the rooms claimed by Imperials as Mitch’s presence wasnt enough to stop them due to him being flipped.  We planned to beat a fighting retreat and hold at least the last two tokens to stop the Imperial advance.

Now it was time for the Smuggler to shine, stepping forward to use her abilities and her grenade she threw it forward killing a Royal Guard, whose fellow Royal Guard also took damage before some vintage Blaster fire took him down too.  Breathing space achieved I used my abilities to moonwalk my marghertia drinking smuggler ass back into the safety of the room we were protecting.

Vader and his beefed up Stormtroopers arrived to help the Empire and another E-Web used the lift to appear in the previously lost corridor.

Being the lead healthy Rebel a lot of fire was thrown my way during turn 6.  Each attack I made that damaged allowing me to move and each attack directed at me also allowing me to move a space.  I was a dancing and a drinking….screw you you Imperial Scum.  Can’t hit this!  This girl has her booze and blaster, has shopped time she didn’t drop and ain’t going down without a fight!

Our GM informed us that at this point we had a technical win and wouldn’t get any negatives if we lost now.  Unbelieveably we had actually worked together and saw out our plan and were very happy with our “technical” win.  it was high fives time all round!

The E-Web and one of the remaining Stormtroopers began to fire on another door to break into it.  By the end of the turn sheer weight of numbers saw the resistance of the door broken and it seemed like the writing was on the wall for us.

Vader and his Stormtroopers snuck around the back and attempted to ambush Mitch who has evaded the worst of the fire by sneaking out the back door.  Now trapped between Vader and a hard place it looked grim for him.  Vaders damage output is ridonkulous and he’s mentally tough to put down.  Even if Mitch had two perfect actions of firing with maximum damage Vader would still have health left.  Vader threw everything he had at Mitch and following a jedi powered re-roll he managed to laugh at Vader befor slumping to Stormtrooper blaster fire against the door.

Turn 7 saw the Imperial Officer run through the now smouldering wreck of a door and claim the Imperials third token.  Two more Royal Guards advanced into the room we were holding.  Ed’s Jedi using his limited but awesome force powers to throw one down the corridor and Dave and I finished off the second.  The Smuggler was proving one evasive mo-fo dancing backwards down the corridor as the Royal Guard attempted to fight her.  By the end of turn seven the Imperial forces had claimed 3 tokens and the only way they could win now was to cause Dave’s Sniper, Ed’s Jedi and my Smuggler to all flip and get someone into the room I was holding.

Turn 8 began with another rush of Imperial troops.  Ed was busying throwing Imperials away from our rooms and Dave was sniping and taking down targets as the Imeprial officer snuck around the back to attack my Smuggler who had taken a beating from the Royal Guard in the last round.  i couldn’t attack as he activated due to being stressed so was left to face the inevitable attack and hope that my rolling was good.  The Officer fired, I took damage but managed to move backwards as a consequence.  He shot again trying to finish me off.  A bad roll left us ruing our hard work but thanks to a re-roll from Ed’s Jedi I man aged to stay in the game and hold the room.

Alan’s Imperials conceded defeat as our heroic Rebel effort yeilded dividends and we claimed our first victory in the Campaign.

Time for cocktails!

Imperial Assault Campaign – The Battle for Yavin (NAGA @ 19-01-2015)

Star Wars: Imperial Assault was released on December 31, 2014 by Fantasy Flight Games is designed for 2-5 players of Ages 14+.  The box literature and design of the game puts it at 1-2 hours per game.

So last night at NAGA we started the Imperial Assault Campaign that will be running every third Wednesday of the Month.

There were four “hero” Rebel players (Mitchell “Mitch” Dunton, Dave Baxter, Edward “Ed” King and I, Jason Marden) and our GM, Alan Mathieson, playing the Galactic Empire.  Our brave rebels were positioned outside a building, whilst inside and ready for war were an Imperial squad consisting of: three Stormtroopers, an Imperial officer, a probe droid and an E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster (a bloody great big tripod mounted immobile gun).  Our objectives were to grab the crates, destroy the Access Terminals and stay alive.

Alan had to leave early due to other commitments but we’d get a few turns played hopefully.  The game started without me so I missed how easy it was to setup and get into it.  By the time I’d arrived a few of our party had already taken significant damage from the well positioned E-Web sentry gun…..not helped by Ed opening the door to the bunker it was hiding behind.

Its created quite the buzz around the SWXW and NAGA communities I hang around in and was very eagerly anticipated with high numbers of pre-orders.  I will admit to not being a huge fan of the SW franchise and only having me and OH Lucy to play made purchasing this myself pretty low on my list of gaming priorities for 2015.

We discussed buying it at Hairy Gamer HQ with Hairy Gamer Tris and we both felt that it was a bit meh so wouldn’t invest.  Tris later grumbled something about “mistakes being made” and how he “just happened to be passing a shop with large stocks of the game” so he now has a copy.

Fantasy Flight Games has been doing great things with the “Star Wars” license including Star Wars X-Wing, and the release of “Imperial Assault” only adds to this reputation for exciting yet sensitive handling of the SW Universe.  It would seem that everything FFG touch turns to gold with regards to SW.  The quality of the components and the thought gone into the game cannot be questioned and it certainly gives a very SW feel.

As a new player to Imperial Assault at first looks it has the feel of old school games such as “Space Crusade” or “Heroquest” but brought right up to date.  Other players likened it to “Descent”, a game I have not played.  Bringing the classic play and style from games like “Descent” and “Space Crusade” into the SW Universe is a smart move. By all accounts from my fellow players it’s certainly a tweaked version of “Descent,” so if you’re familiar with that game, you’re going to feel very familiar with “Imperial Assault” right out of the box.

The box is huge and contained everything we needed to get involved.  There are a large number of  modular double-sided board pieces are gorgeously illustrated with classic Star Wars imagery.  The decks of cards have evocative images from the Star Wars universe.  The four books Learn To Play, Rules Reference Guide, Campaign Guide, and Skirmish Guide are well written, formatted, and organized.  There are also a number of sheets of token which required “punching out” before you could play.  Plus of course all the miniatures required to play the game which I’ll cover next.

There are a number of Rebel characters to play (shown by the buff/sand coloured miniatures in the picture below).  These include: a Wookie, a Sniper, a Jedi, a Smuggler, a rebel Commander, and a Soldier. Each has their strengths and weaknesses e.g. weapon range, movement and health, but working together means you can have a solid unit to try and complete the mission at hand. including Smugglers, Jedi, etc.  Each  can be further tweaked with the addition of equipment and gear.  There are also a “cast of thousands” of Imperial characters for the GM to play.  They range from the ubiquitous Storm Troopers, to Patrol Droids, to Royal Guards and Imperial Officers.  Again each can be tweaked by gear.

Jyn Odan, The Smuggler

Gideon Argus, The Rebel Commander

Diala Passil, The Jedi

Fenn Signis, The Soldier

Mak Eshka’rey, The Sniper

Gaarkhan, The Wookie

The GM plays the part of the Empire who is able to command almost limitless amounts of troops, while the rest of the players take on the persona of a single rebel character.

(Mitch – Soldier, Dave – Sniper, Ed – Jedi, Jase – Smuggler)

The game has two modes; the straightforward skirmish game pits two players against each other. The set contains enough pieces to cobble together Rebels versus Imperial Forces games with plenty of bad guys but less selection for the goodies. In the skirmish game, each player also selects 15 command cards, and these provide an interesting set of advantages. This ability to tinker and refine the game to suit your play style makes this version of the game stand out from its competitors, and also injects a fun Star Wars feel.

But the main appeal of Star Wars:Imperial Assault for me personally is its scenario-based campaign mode. The game comes with a beautifully detailed, narrative campaign book that allows upto five players to play through a series of Star Wars-esque adventures. This is the mode we will be using.  One player, Alan, takes the role of the Galactic Empires forces, whilst everyone else picks a single Rebel character to play. After you’ve stopped squabbling over who gets to play the Wookiee or the Jedi, play begins. By all accounts those that have previously played Fantasy Flight Games’ “Descent” will be on familiar ground here, missions within missions and small win conditions even when you lose; lots of baddies to kill, a goal to achieve, and an enemy determined to stop you. Each successful mission leads to the winning side getting rewarded with a ‘level-up,’ making each game as compelling as the last.  Grabbing crates of loot leads to Experience points extra gear to use and credits to be equally shared amongst the party.

The game comes with a variety of figures for play, including an incredibly cool looking, huge AT-ST, as well as figures for each individual rebel hero; Jedi’s, Smugglers, Wookies. Some of the limbs, weapons and parts on the miniatures are very fine and suffer the same frailty issues as some of the X-Wing miniatures.  Dave commented that before the box was even opened he had a broken leg on his Patrol Droid but in a display of the usual excellent Fantasy Flight Games Customer service a quick email resolved that and a new droid was dispatched.  The miniatures do have some very bendy components which can be put back in place with some warm water (this tends to occur on things like Lightsabres).  Tris did mention that elements of the AT-ST were quite difficult to assemble being an interference fit.  This meant a liberal application of brute force to get the bits together and a fear that the model would break under such strain.  This wasn’t to be the case but you have been warned.  They come unpainted, so if you’re a painter, this gives you a lot of “Star Wars” themed miniatures to work on.

The game board is modular and can take a bit of time to set up between missions, but it’s a great map system and improves upon the map tiles from “Descent.”  With the new board comes new line of sight rules from Fantasy Flight that might cause some consternation among some players. In an effort to streamline play and make it move faster, line of sight works as long as you can draw two unobstructed lines to different corners of another square from any corner of your origin square.

The basic rules only took us through the actions (move, attack, interact, rest, and special), how the turns work and combat (using the array of dice included in the game). The Rebels move one character, then the Imperials and so forth. The odds at this very early stage of play seem incredibly stacked against the Rebels but within the Star Wars reality, this was the case around the Battle of Yavin. As we hopefully explore the game in more depth in the coming weeks, it will become clear if this remains or if the game offers the Rebel Alliance a chance to get the upper hand.

Your characters basic actions and statistics are governed by his/her statline from the Characters Card.  The Key stats are Health, Endurance, Speed (for movement) and Defense.  The card also defines how many dice and what types of dice you roll for certain actions.

Combat is based on a number of coloured dice.  You roll the dice specified on your weapon (red, blue, green, yellow) and the total of the numbers rolled plus any modifiers equals the range your weapon can fire.  The number of “explosion” hit icons determines the damage taken plus any modifiers from special skills or equipment or weapons.  The number of “lightening” boon icons determines any special effects or additional damage based on skills and equipment. The defending character rolls a defense dice, either white or black dependant on what the characters card says.  Certain symbols cancel hits and other symbols cancel Boon abilities.  If you are hit you receive damage tokens equal to the number of hits.  Once you reach the same number of tokens as your Health, as determined by your character card then your character card is “flipped” over and all damage removed, leaving any other tokens such as Stress.

Your character can use Stress tokens to perform certain actions or take extra movement allowance (1 stress per square).  My character, the Smuggler, can take two stress tokens to interrupt an enemy characters activation and shoot them, like a “sentry” or “overwatch” type action.

The best thing about Fantasy Flight is that they’ve been able to, across their entire “Star Wars” line, create gameplay that promotes the feel of “Star Wars.” The game is paced briskly, there are more roleplaying and problem solving elements than you’d expect, and you feel like the fate of the galaxy is at stake. That you’re able to use actual “Star Wars” characters in the game is a bonus.

Another bonus is that the game brings extra playability to it with expansions. For those looking for the “big names” of Star Wars there is a steady release schedule throughout 2015 introducing infamous characters such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. By the looks of things each expansion comes complete with figures, cards to play with them, as well as new maps and missions specific to their characters. Again I feel that the limited selection of factions to play will hinder this game.  I felt the same way about Star Wars X-Wing (another Fantasy Flight Games product) but they will shortly be releasing the Scum and Villainy faction.  It would be nice for other film elements to be introduced.  I would love to see more prequel era stuff or different factions such as Bounty Hunters and Separatists incorporated into the game and hopefully the expansions can bring that to us. It would be a smart move for FFG to look at an expansion pack or prequel box to come out that will be Jedi vs. Seperatists focused. This game focuses pretty heavily on the Rebellion, though.  In fact it focuses mostly on the hours/days immediately after the destruction of the second Death Star, the Battle of Yavin.

Overall, I find this game a worthy addition to any Mancave, not just those of “Star Wars” fans. It’s made for a few great game nights in my house and I think it would do the same in your house. I’d recommend not playing with less than 4 players, though. Less than that didn’t seem as though it would be as fun. Games like this always seem to work better with larger groups.

The appropriate age-range is pretty wide, too. I had a lot of fun playing with a group of my peers. The basic rules are easy to grasp and the gameplay is very fluid, so I think the recommended age range is a little higher than it needs to be.

Summary

I’m going to give it an 8.5 out of 10. It looks great, has a lot of replayability, is reasonably easy to learn, and builds on a winning formula.

The models are nicely detailed and unpainted allowing for players to customize them themselves.  Sadly they can be easily broken.

I think the rules could have been laid out in a far more user-friendly way and perhaps were a little text heavy.  We certainly questioned the text of certain cards and the interactions they had. Then again, I don’t think this sort of game (costing between £65 and £80) is one that someone might buy on a whim.

There is a massive campaign version of the game just like FFG’s previous outing “Descent” as well as the option to play in skirmishes, offering enough replayability to make the suggested retail price more than worth it.

Demonic Caballists vs Fattie Stampede (Judge Dredd Playtest @ NAGA (12-01-2015))

Demonic Cabal from Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, my opponents for tonight.

Fatties Stampede from Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, my gang for tonight.

Demonic Cabal

Fattie with Placard

Fattie with Burger

Fattie with Pistol

Demonic Cabal Possessed from Judge Dredd

Demonic Cabal Cultist from Judge Dredd

Fattie Stampede and Fattie Fans from Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game

Demonic Cabal Cultist from Judge Dredd

Demonic Pact from Judge Dredd

Demonic Cabal Cultist from Judge Dredd

Demonic Cabal Grand Warlock from Judge Dredd

Demonic Pact from Judge Dredd

So tonight four games of Judge Dredd were run at NAGA.  Most if not all of the players were new to the game but not the theme/setting or the idea of gang based games.

http://www.warlordgames.com/judge-dredd/

I was playing the Fatties, a group of gluttonous greedy fat-boys who’s main strength seemed to lie in their toughness, their charge and their close combat skills.  My gang was led by a Fattie Leader.

http://www.warlordgames.com/new-fattie-stampede/

I was playing against James’ Demonic Cabal, who were all about summoning demons to do their bidding or possessing enemy models, they were led by a Grand Warlock.

http://www.warlordgames.com/new-demonic-cabal-for-judge-dredd/

The scenario set out for us (and every other table) was about escaping the table from a central 12″ square area.  One model from each force must setup within that 12″ so both James and I deployed our gang leaders in that area.  All the other models start off the table and must traverse through that area before escaping off the opposite table edge.

Our little corner of Megacity One for the Fattie Stampede and Demonic Cabal to contest.  The Fatties will be entering at the bottom and attempting to escape at the top.  The Demonic Cabal vice versa.

T

My Fattie Leader (proxied by Jabba The Hut model) and James Grand Warlock deploy in the centre of the board.

here was no justice in our game although the scenario dictated that should one of us break the law the model would be removed from play and would not score for the purposes of winning the scenario.  Every model MUST pass through the central area and spend an action inside it.  With all that in our minds we tentatively set about the game under the watchful eyes of Scott and Brent.

First turn begins and I deployed a second Fattie on my table edge and used his two actions to run him under the scenery then charge into the centre zone to support my Fattie Leader.  Fatties have a special ability that means when you perform two move actions or two melee actions the second move is at an additional D10+2″.  So my normally slow 3″ Fatties can barrel into combat gaining huge bonuses from a minimum of 6″ but a maximum of 15″.  The downside is that the whole move MUST be in a direct straight line……

James deploys a second Demonic Caballist to the table and advances him forward in preparation to join his Grand Warlock in the centre of the table to prepare for the great summoning.  Each Caballist spending an action to to support the Grand Warlock adds to the summoning roll for his Demon so James is planning to summon once all his Caballists are near his Warlock.

My second Ordinary Fattie is deployed to the table on the opposite side and sprints across the table under scenery (to avoid the Demonic Caballists with pistols) and enters the middle of the table.  Now my three Fatties are positioned on the far side of the centre area patrolling whilst James continues to deploy Caballists.  At this point I realise that James wants to summon Demons and to do so he needs his Grand Warlock so screw the scenario Im going to learn the close combat/melee mechanics the old fashioned way by giving some jerk in a pointy hat waving his arms around a good wellying with an angry Fattie Leader weilding a cleaver.

Ordinary Fattie #1 enters the fray bottom left and Ordinary Fattie #2 from the bottom right (hidden under the walkway).

Each turn you can either deploy a miniature or activate all your miniatures currently deployed.  Now all my Fatties are deloyed it seems prudent to activate them all, starting with my Fattie Leader.  I activate my Fattie Leader and move him into charge range of the Grand Warlock, as my second action I charge into him (a minimum of 4″ to ensure I get a bonus dice).  Totalling up the dice my Leader Fattie rolls 4 d10 attack dice (2 base + 1 for charging +1 for a special ability).  His attack goes through armour because he charged (Its called Bellywheeling I think) and so my four attack dice (9,9,7,5) beat James (9,7).  I use an ability to force James to reroll his two dice resulting in a worse result for me a 10 and a 9.  oh well.  I also use another ability to reroll one of my dice changing the 5 to a 4.  I then add my melee bonus on (+4) which ensures I defeat the Grand Warlock with two hits.  Each of my hits deals 2 damage ignoring armour (due to my bellywheeling charge) so a total of 4 wounds are caused on the Demonic Caballist.  Being a weedy demon botherer in robes compared to hungry tough angry fattie the Warlock folds like a bad poker player and dies in a bloody explosion of gore to some deft cleaver work.  Sadly now according to the scenario my Leader Fattie should be removed from play and he’s hiding from the fuzz, the 5-0, the po-po, the rozzers and therefore cannot score.  We determine that for the purposes of “having a laugh” and “dicking about” he stays in play but when he escapes the table he cannot score.

My Fattie Leader slams into James Grand Warlock and cleaves him in two as his two Caballists look on in shock.

Also being rather unfair on James we also determine that in order to see a demonic summoning the Demonic Caballist that just died was an ordinary Caballist in disguise and not the Grand Warlock.  Rather pleased with his work my Leader Fattie pulls a bacon sarnie from his folds of blubberous skin and eats it in celebration.

My other two Fatties start running for the table edge and go into hiding under towers to escape being shot at.

Evading justice my Fattie Leader runs for cover and follows his Fattie friend as they hide from James shooting Caballists.

James deploys the rest of his gang at once, including the recently un-deceased Grand Warlock and beings a rite to summon a Demon.  With four Caballists contributing James achieves his goal and summons a rather lacklustre mini demon within 10″ of his Cabal.  Each turn we must wrestle for command of the Imp and whoever wins controls the Imp on their phase.  James wins the roll off and gains control of the Imp for his turn.  This places the now angry Imp rather close to one of my Ordinary Fatties so he gets charged from behind.  Being a rather slow and lumbering beast of chubberiness my Fattie spins around and clobbers the poor sneaky Imp square in the face killing it outright in one blow.

James’ Lesser Pact Demon Imp charges my escaping Fattie resulting a a squashed Imp.

James Grand Warlock attempts to summon a Demon again as the little dead Imp isn’t considered a successful summoning.  Each Caballist spends its turn and actions supporting the rite and the Warlock begins his rite.  In total James manages to attempt a possession of the nearest enemy minion, which happens to be the Imp swatting Fattie hiding behind a bulkhead.  In a contested will roll the possession fails to take affect as the thought of a celebratory Bacon buttie is too much for the Fattie who has his mind on other things.  No successful possession.

Now its time for Team Chubbster, the Fatties again.  Both of my ordinary Fatties make double move actions and sprint off the opposition table edge scoring me a point each.

Fatties 2 – Demonic Cabal 0

My remaining Fattie, the Leader Fattie cannot score as he brutally murdered the false Grand Warlock earlier.  In an attempt to stop James simply walking his five remaining Caballists off the table and beating me 5 – 2 I begin to move the bulbous hulk up towards his Cabal.

James starts a new turn and again attempts to summon a Demon.  This time the dice are in his favour.  he scores a total of 13 on a table that goes upto 14.  That to both of us would seem a great success.  Upon reading the result, which is a successful summoning it appears that a medium level Demon has been summoned.  Just one problem, hes angry at being summoned against his will and sides with my remaining Leader Fattie.

In reality we should have continued but after some number crunching it was determined that even rolling badly it was likely that the movement 10″ flying demon and the Belly wheeling Fattie can easily catch and murder enough Caballists to leave James with not enough living Caballists to escape the table.

The game is called and despite ignoring the scenario the Fattie Stampede are winners!

Reviewing the game I would say it fulfils the criteria of a 28mm skirmish game.  It has a very dieselpunk feel to it.  Im not a massive Judge Dredd fan but I am aware of the setting and the miniatures do that setting justice if you pardon the pun!  Even accounting for the fact we used Necromunda terrain the game has a very Necromunda in Megacity One feel to it and I liked that!

The campaign settings seem a little over complicated compared to similar games and the scenarios have an element of roleplay to them which means even the less combat orientated gangs and mobs can compete.  However, in my opinion these types of games want to degenerate into pitched battles with cleavers and clubs and machine guns.  Maybe it was the scenario we played or maybe the gangs we had to use but something felt wrong.  I will definitely give it another chance with other gangs.

The rules are simple and it works very similarly to other turn based games such as Malifaux and Necromunda.  Phases are broken into turns, each team/gang going one after another in each phase.  The game is controlled by dice rolls, and only uses D10 dice.  So a 4D roll is rolling 4 D10.  Some rolls are contested such as Willpower checks and combat is a very simple.  The attacking minion rolls attack and compares results against an agility roll of a defending minion.  If you achieve more successes then you score wounds.  Wounds are removed from the minion and once reduced to zero the minion is removed from play.

Each model gets 2 actions per turn, this includes Move, Melee, Shoot, and Special Actions.  Want your model to run?  Move twice.  Want him to stand still and blast away?  Shoot twice.  If you win a round of combat, you can push the enemy away up to  2″, which means if you win combat with your first action, you can push the enemy away then blast them in the face with a shotgun.  Special actions vary from gang to gang and are fitting to the theme and flavour of each gang.

The starter sets of each gang/mob are competitively priced when compared to other similar styled games and a starting gang can be purchased for around £30-£35.  There is a similarity between the type of terrain required for this game and other similar games meaning those already invested in other games can easily get involved in this game.

The models are of a nice quality and the style of them invokes a nice sense of the setting.  The supporting documents such as campaign books and rules are finished well and reflect the cartoony style of the originating setting.

PROs – feel, theme, quality of miniatures, simplicity of combat, range of gangs/mobs, costs to get involved.

CONs – scenarios, campaign setting, difficulty of understanding certain elements of the ruleset.

OVERALL – 7/10

Welcome to 2015

Uuurrrggghhhh…….so alarm clocks are ringing all over the country to signal a return to work for the masses.  Christmas and New Year are over and I sit here trying to formulate the first talesfromthemancave update of 2015.

Firstly I hope the Christmas holidays brought you all happiness and cheer and that Father Geekmas and his Elves (no not the High, Dark or Wood varieties) delivered you all sacks bulging with geeky goodness.  It certainly brought me more work to get cracking with over the next few weeks.

Starting with Necromunda…..well after a good rummage in the loft some 18+ year old scenery was discovered loitering in a stack and store box so I resolved to clean it up and take stock.  I now have 82 original Plastic Bulkheads and the scenery from two Necromunda boxes and an Outlanders box.  This should be enough to get a decent sized game going.  I do need to flatten out some of the cardboard components as some have warped slightly over the 18 years.  Not a huge problem though!

This also meant that other goodies were found.  A whole heap of older miniatures which will need a good clean up but can be used or will fetch a few pennies via Evil-Bay.  A 11 player Naggaroth Nightmares Dark Elf Blood Bowl Team, a full 5 man squad of Adeptus Arbites for Necromunda, three Catachan Imperial Guard troops which will sub in as Orlocks and join the Orlock Heavy with Heavy Bolter.  I also found some very badly painted Skaven Blood Bowl players, an original Commissar Yarrick model, two Eldar Warpspiders and some Dark Angel models (a Captain and a Deathwing Terminator).

Some old school boardgames were found in various stages of completion and to be honest the only salvageable ones were MB’s Battle Masters and Waddingtons Key to The Kingdom.  I’m going to try and get the kids to play these at some point.

Santa (courtesy of my girls) brought me some Star Wars X-Wing Minitaures to add to the Mancaves collection.  I was lucky and received a Starter/Core Box, an A-Wing and an E-Wing for the Rebels but knowing me very well the bulk of my goodies were Imperials.  I got a TIE Bomber, a TIE Defender, a TIE Phantom, a TIE Interceptor and the Imperial Aces Expansions.  So I was a very happy geek.  I also received some pennies to go and get a good deal on some other ships so I managed to add a Decimator (£23), a Lambda Shuttle (£18) and a further TIE Fighter (£9.50) expansion.

It seems that every geek who didn’t already own a copy got a copy of the game of 2014 left in their stocking too….Cards Against Humanity.  My stocking was no exception as it contained a copy of the core game and the first expansion.  Lessons have been learnt.  Played a couple of games and my only advice would be never play it with your parents and definitely never play it with a recently remarried parent.  I am going to need therapy.  Cheers Dad!

I didn’t manage to get a great deal done with regards to advancing the many projects I currently have but I certainly managed to expand existing collections and start new ones.  Courtesy of an Amazon Wishlist and relatives who cant decide what to get you I managed to end up with some X-mas pennies and some Amazon Vouchers.  Knowing that 2015 will bring me some PRODOS Crusading to be getting on with I invested some of these pennies in a Warzone Resurrection Starter Force Boxset (Cybertronic) and a rulebook which over the coming months I shall be adding to and bringing you reviews and more information on via this blog.  My aim is to add a unit every month until I have a well rounded force to use in demo games and against more experienced players who will be teaching me to play along the way.  More about this in a later entry.

I received a 3ft x 3ft gaming mat from Gale Force 9 from my better half and kids too.  So I will now be able to take some better pictures of the items I receive and update my Star Wars and Star Trek collections with so look out for that!

In terms of games played well we visited friends and had family visit so we managed to get a few games in.  The game of the moment Cards Against Humanity was played lots and provided me with a therapy inducing insight in my fathers private life.  We also managed to teach my Dad and his new wife Smash-Up.  We had Bear Cavalry Spies vs Magical Monstrous Creatures vs Vampiric Ghosts vs Zombie Ants.  After 4 hours of playing the Vampiric Ghosts came out on top closely followed by the Zombie Ants and leaving the Bear Cavalry Spies trailing in third with the Magical Monstrous Creatures in last place.

I attempted to teach my daughter (and Step-Mother) Family Fluxx and Munchkin.  Whether the gin made this prohibitively difficult or she genuinely didnt get the premise I dont know but Munchkin was a disaster.  Family Fluxx was easily taught and small enough to carry other places and take on holiday etc.  So that was successful.

Overall a happy restful and enjoyable Xmas break at Hairy Gamer HQ.  I feel refreshed and ready for the assault on my various gaming projects.

Bring on 2015, bring on AvP, bring on Warzone Resurrection, bring on the Necromunda and bring on Star Wars & Star Trek.  Happy gaming guys and gals!