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!

Testing The Devils Run:Route 666

Once again, last night, Mark Rapson, of Word Forge Games, and I threw down and tested some more scenarios from WFG’s forthcoming Kickstarter The Devils Run:Route 666.

Last week we tested the first of the Brit Attack Muggy scenarios where a fleet/swarm/bunch of Brit Attack Muggys attacked a convoy of Hauls Angels vehicles to cripple and steal an objective from one of them.  This week saw us complete the Muggy scenarios with the follow-up “Blew The Bloody Doors Off!”.  This scenario saw the remaining Brit Attack Muggys (we lost poor departed Ronald RIP to a long dive off a bridge into a river….may he rest in peace) of Michael, Charlie, Keith and Bill attempt to escape with their hard captured booty through a tunnel and off the end of the 5th tile.  As long as Charlie made it off I would win.  The plan was simple….keep those Hauls Angels off Charlie whilst he made a run for it.

Charlie could not be the target of ranged attacks if he was within 1-2 squares of any other Muggy, Michael added +2 to all other Muggy Evade rolls if within 1-2 of another Muggy, Keith was more difficult to hit as he adds +2 to all BS tests against him and Bill allows all Muggys ahead of him to re-roll a single failed Ballistic Skill (BS) dice per turn.  Knowing what my boys could do I set out my stall.  Bill would bring up the rear using his twin linked minigun turret to fire behind and keep anyone approaching off the Muggy’s sixes whilst improving everyone elses attacks.  I didn’t expect to attack much as the majority of my Muggys can only fire directly ahead although they can be all fitted with the turret.  Charlie would be central with Keith and Michael sat either side stopping the Hauls Angels from swiping him.  Seems simple innit?

The game started and it seemed to be going to plan.  Again the Brit Attack Minis were every bit as good as I (a huge Mini fanboy) had hoped and they do not disappoint.  Charlie was untouchable as he kept another mini close at all times.  This meant that Marks Hauls Angels would target the other minis first.  Bill was the first to fall but the aim of this scenario was not for me to escape with all my cars…..just Charlie.  He was my priority so the other guys could be sacrificed if necessary.  Bill went down first.

Keith was targetted next but despite Mark doing everything he could to side swipe him off the road Keith rolled an amazing Armour roll of 2 or less on a d10 no less that 3 times in a row to reduce the damage from one of Marks cars to a single Chassis Point (CP)!!!  Keither even had the lowest Armour (A) of any of the Muggys and couldnt rely on Ronalds Armour (A) re-roll as he was brown bread guv!

I was using the intervening terrain to weave and evade the slower Hauls Angels vehicles.  I wasnt affected by rough ground nor did I pay a penalty for moving diagonally which meant I kept my speed up and simple blasted off down the board hiding behind rough ground to slow Marks relentless assault.

Keith evaded and escaped the clutches of Hauls Angels with superior speed and maneuverability eventually catching up with Charlie and acting as his wingman as they escaped through the tunnel to freedom!

Victory to Brit Attack again!

With plenty of time left we setup another new scenario involving Justice chasing down some of the Laws Haulage gang.  Justice are a primarily female led gang inspired by the teachings of St Michael and Justice.  Over time their methods have become more brutal and they really do have some nasty and neat tricks to tackle the enemy.  I had thier Leader, Cadence on a bike armed with a Harpoon called “The Gatherer” which not only removes Chassis Points (CP) but also Armour (A) when it hits thus making the defensive capabilities of the target even worse.  A very nasty weapon indeed and this would become important as she had a mission to track and catch the lead Laws Haulage vehicle.  No other member of Justice could attack it.  To help he in this she had a special rule meaning any Laws haulage vehicle had to take a target priority test before they could used a ranged attack against her.  If they failed they could not target her.

I also had two junior members of the Justice gang and an Executioner.  This badass Valkyrie nutcase wields a huge sword and can really put the hurt on if she gets close doing 4 Damage per hit!!!

Collectively all my Judges could completely remove a vehicle from the game if they took off more than 50% of the remaining Chassis Points (CP) in a single turn so high damage weapons start that ball rolling and supporting Judges can then remove 2 or 3 hits and completely take out the vehicle.  This is a great mechanic for the weaker bikers of Justice.

First round saw the Executioner strip 4 hits off a Laws haulage biker before a lower judge  finished them off.  Cadence tore some armour off her target and reduced his overall Chassis Points.  My remaining two bikes ganged up on Marks second bike and took it down reducing it to a smouldering wreck on the road.  Next turn the Executioner did her thing again lopping the head off the passenger on the Laws Haulage Trike armed with a Flamer.  This was good as I hugely fear that trike mounted flamer.  You get no defence against it.

With one vehicle completely removed and two smouldering wreck blocking the road Mark decided to make a run for it and race away hoping to lose Cadence.

A lucky recovery/repair roll (roll 3 d6 and if 2 are gained your downed vehicle is back and can move its Minimum Move (MM), if 3 are gained I.E. a 666, then the vehicle is back and can take actions normally) brought Marks trike back into the game.  He slammed on the brakes hoping to smash into the Executioner but she evaded leaving him to be left for dust behind.

Rather than give the trike a free shot at the Executioner I too slammed on my brakes and moved behind him to attempt an attack using that devastating sword.  This would leave me vulnerable to being left behind as the game progressed.*

*As vehicles move forwards the last tile is moved from the back and adds to the “rolling road” effect so essentially the road is always changing.  This means any vehicle left on the rearmost tile when it moves is lost permanently and left behind.

When Marks target car moved off the third tile both the Laws haulage trike and my Executioner were left behind and lost.  It wasn’t an issue as she had accounted for 3 casualties and couldn’t actually target Marks car….only Cadence could.  She was only a few squares back sitting in his blindspot and stopping him from slamming on his brakes and taking her out.  My remaining two bikers sat just behind as wingmen now that the Executioner was gone and Mark had no other vehicles remaining.

Slowly but surely each hit from Cadences Harpoon stripped more Chassis Points (CP) and Armour (A) from the Laws Haulage car until with one final killing (Critical no less!) blow she took him out.

Victory for my Justice as Cadence and the Executioner proved what psychopathic badass Valkyries on bikes they were and wrecked everything in sight.

We decided that perhaps the bikes were too fragile because had Mark successfully achieved a swipe or ram on my bikes they would almost certainly have been destroyed or in a very bad way.  We also determined that the Executioners sword whilst fun was ridiculous and simply did too much damage if it hit.  We tweaked some numbers and ran some math and Mark took away some new stats to test another day.  i think the Justice will appeal to anyone who likes “the Eldar” way of doing business.  Hit hard, hit fast but dont be built for attrition.  You know you’ve taken a hit off them but if you get into good positions and can target them you will kill them.  I await further Justice expansions to see what effects they have.  they work well as a team and there are some truly tasty buffs between them.  I think Mark is 100% right that the Executioner is unaffected by some of the rules that buff Judges otherwise she’d be a little OP.  As it was she needed a tweak or it was simply too powerful.

Onwards and upwards for Mark, Word Forge Games and my other project The Hairy Gamers as we all head to Dragonmeet in London at the weekend to either exhibit our games or loiter and make nuisances of ourselves.  Hairy Gamer Tris and I will be at the WFG stand at some point to take in some demo time.  Come say “Hi” to us and the WFG Guys.

The Devils Run:Route 666

Some of you may know that I occasionally get tempted by a Kickstarter here and there……..well I backer one earlier this year which Ive mentioned a few times, The Devils Run:Route 666 by Word Forge Games.  Its very Mad Max in its style and inspired by older games such as Car Wars and Carmageddon and Dark Future.  I’ve been itching to give it a go and luckily on Tuesday night I managed to get out to Leamington Games Club to meet with one of the brains behind Word Forge Games, Mark Rapson.

Mark Rapson of Word Forge Games

The idea was that we’d have a run through of WFG’s recent successful Kickstarter for The Devils Run:Route 666.

I’d had a quick flick through the rules and had a vague idea how the game should work. There’s no better way to learn a game than through playing and I hadn’t pushed any miniatures around in anger so I was keen to give it a go.

We setup using the miniatures in the core game with me playing Laws Haulage and Mark taking control of The Hauls Angels. The scenario was straight from the rules with or respective gangs racing to grab an objective/token.

Each gang had a car sized miniature, a bike and a trike/buggy with each having its own abilities and benefits. The Law Gang had a twin minigun buggy whilst the Angels had a flamer equipped trike.

Having won initiative I opted to setup first placing my fastest vehicle ahead to race off and grab the objective. My buggy sat out on the flank where the rougher terrain didn’t affect its movement. The car came up the rear to hamper Marks gang.

The mechanics are deceptively simple and within one round I had them down and was quite happy with how things worked. The game is refreshingly easy to learn and really makes me glad I backed at an early stage as my decision to do so was validated within moments of playing.

The game time isn’t too long and setup isn’t a laborious activity making this game a perfect tabletop game. The ease with which rules are learnt and shown means anyone can get into the game in an evening and still allow plenty of time for a couple of games.

Having narrowly lost my intro game Mark offered me the chance to help playtest a scenario involving the Brit Attack gang and their Mini’s.

My Brit Attack gang consisted of all five named Mini Drivers. Michael, Ronald, Bill, Charles and Keith and their fleet of Minis were to attack a convoy of Marks gangs vehicles and destroy a target vehicle.

Mark gave me a Mini to take away as a thank you and it is an amazing miniature. I’m looking forward you assembling him and slapping some paint on him at some point. It’s a little smaller than a Matchbox or Hotwheels scaled vehicle as my attached picture shows but not detrimentally so. It’s the actual wheelbase of the mini that is key in TDR:R666 rather than the size of the car. A Mini or “Muggy” should be roughly 35mm by 35mm.

My Minis were quick, nippy, evasive and worked well as a team. They are everything I hoped they would be and more and I’m so glad I backed the Brit Attack. I’m looking forward to future games testing out the other Brit Attack models such as Cab Croozers, Lord Hood and the Beefeaters. I also backed The Hunters and shall look forward to testing them out too.

For TDR:R666 backers you will not be disappointed in this. Mark and Co really have developped a great world to play in and have some great plans for future expansions. You may even recognise some of the White Van Drivers for Brit Attack when they get released!

The game is slick, has beautifully manufactured miniatures, a simple elegant ruleset with some flavorful and characterful models and characters in game. If you enjoyed Dark Future or Car Wars you will love this game. The scope for personalisation and modifications to you gang is almost endless and will provide you with years of gaming for very little outlay.

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