Warzone Resurrection Demos at Overlord Games Show

So Sunday morning Team Coventry (Allan Powell & I) headed off to Abingdon in deepest darkest Oxfordshire with an ex-alumnus of Abingdon Games Club, Rob Alderman of PRODOS to run some demos and generate more interest in PRODOS’s fantastic game Warzone Resurrection.

It was a long day, a hard day but all in all I feel a very successful day.  There were a steady stream of visitors through the shows doors from 10-00am (opening) to roughly 3-00pm when the show started to quieten down.  The stall had a lot of visitors and people looking for demo games and Allan & I duly obliged.

I came away with the Cybertronic Mega deck and some new dice for demos.

I think all in all we ran 6 demos to new players of various ages and levels of experience.  A great day and we would definitiely do it again!

Same time next year chaps?

Lessons learnt as follows:-

Rob Alderman has an unhealthy addiction to jaffa cakes

when asking a younger player to roll small you mean numbers not how far the dice rolls *LOL*

children with a will to defeat their parents can miraculously pay very close attention, be very focussed and make amazing rolls!

for some reason I am considered a bit of an SME on Cybertronic (maybe I buy too much?)

I need to make so much more terrain than I currently own but not nearly as huge ideas as my current plans

There is always room for more dice!

I love demoing!

The demo table. Dark Legion vs Imperials.

The PRODOS stall.

A display case full of WZR minis. Top to bottom – Bauhaus, Brotherhood, Cybertronic and Capitol.

A display case full of WZR minis. Top to bottom – Dark Legion, Mishima then Imperial.

The PRODOS stock. I think we only left with 3 starter boxes in the end.

Allan demoing to a new player

The crowd gathers. The little lad in the front then had a demo and won resoundingly.

Some Imperial trenchers in a crater fire upon Dark Legion Undead Legionnaires.

A wounded Razide emerges from the crater to attack the Imperial Trenchers holding the left flank.

A WZR game in all its demoing glory.

The game in progress as Rob sells on the stall.

Deep in thought pondering his next actions

“Fire, Fire Fire!” orders Brigadier Rist to the Trenchers as they open up on Alakhai, the Warlord from Dark Legion

General Gaming Update/Name and Shame

Its been about a week or so since my last update and whilst nothing of earth shattering importance has occurred I feel I should still do a bit of an update to keep people up-to-date with where we are.

You could also view this as a bit of a warning…..of late I’ve bought lots of stuff and some online retailers are very suspect in their service and ability to do simple things….name and shame time.

Warzone – well Wayland Games messed up my Armoured Chasseurs order sending me two boxes of the Old Version rather than two boxes of the New Version (released 31-01-15).  So I contacted them and they insisted i raise a Helpdesk ticket to resolve their mistake.  So now they’ve contacted PRODOS and advised them to ship some new ones to me.  Well despite having a very clear order and the information in front of them they only advised PRODOS to ship 1 set so yet another helpdesk ticket and another phonecall later and they have asked PRODOS to send another set. *sigh*

I did manage to pick up two squads of Mirrormen to join Pieter Diamond so lots of models for assembly.  Thank you Black Dragon Miniatures

Lastly I ordered a Mishima Starter Box force from Wargames Miniatures on EBay, who seem to have the same service team as Wayland and have, since 2nd February, failed to dispatch my order despite two messages requesting they do.  They have until the close of play today for it to arrive or I will be raising a dispute against them and using Paypal to get my money back.

Allan Powell and I will be attending Overlord Gaming Convention/Show on March 1st in Abingdon to run some Warzone Demo’s so please do come along and grab a game with us.  It would be great to expand the community and get others interested in what is an excellent product.

I’ll also be going over to Leicester on Wednesday evening to join Anthony Evans as he demos Warzone Resurrection at Tabletop Tyrant/Gifts for Geeks.  Im looking forward to getting some more WZR gaming time.  I may even have to book some tickets for the UK Games EXPO Warzone Resurrection tournament (sadly I fear it clashes with Empire 1 2015)

Lastly in WZR I bought some excellent resin bases for my WZR models from bases4war (http://www.bases4war.com/).  I went with the Battlefield Debris range and picked up 40 small (30mm lipped) and 10 medium (40mm lipped) for basing my Cybertronic on.  These are excellent bases and will really unify my Cybertronic forces.

http://www.startrek.com/article/first-look-attacking-wing-kazon-ogla-razik-expansion-pack

http://www.startrek.com/article/first-look-attack-wing-wave-12-tholia-one

Star Trek Attack Wing – The previews for the new Wave 12 ships begin to find their way online so its time for an update.  Well my Wave 11 ships arrived quickly and reasonably cheaply from Chaos Cards without issue.  I *think* they worked out as £9-95 per ship, which was cheaper than using one of the American traders and cheaper than most if not all of the FLGS.  Looking forward to another Romulan ship in Wave 12 which sadly hasn’t been previewed yet…..the IRW Haakona.

Taken from Memory-Alpha:-

“The IRW Haakona was a Romulan D’deridex-class warbird that was in service with the Romulan military in the mid-24th century.

In 2365, Subcommander Taris was the commanding officer of this ship. In that year, the Haakona covertly downloaded logs from USS Yamato and then followed the USS Enterprise-D to the planet Iconia. However, the warbird had acquired the same malevolent Iconian software transmission in the download as the Enterprise-D, and was experiencing similar system malfunctions, which Taris blamed on Starfleet sabotage. Nevertheless, on the warnings from the Enterprise-D the Haakona destroyed an Iconian probe before it could make a scan, prolonging its survival.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard escaped from the surface of Iconia onto the Haakona using an Iconian gateway, and was shortly after beamed back to the Enterprise-D. By that time, the program had activated the Haakona’s self-destruct sequence. The Enterprise-D transmitted instructions on neutralizing the Iconian program to the Haakona before its departure, saving the Romulan vessel. (TNG: “Contagion“)”

Speculation abounds as to what we’ll be seeing on the Haakona but I’m going to go with a Subcommander Taris card, maybe a CS6 or 7?  An Iconian Gateway/Probe?  A Romulan version of Self Destruct perhaps?  Maybe some generic Romulan Security Officers as many were used in this TNG epsiode (and later went on to become named STTNG CCG characters/cards.  Lets hope for a decent ship for the Empire this time around!

Star Wars X-Wing – Due to a recent expansion at NAGA I now find myself on the Star Wars X-Wing Club League table in a lowly 7th position.  I’ve made an official challenge for the 5th place position after the forthcoming game between Alan Mathieson and Mithell Dunton, so we’ll see how that goes.  It could be my usual list or I could mix it up and go with dual Phantoms.  This depends on whether my second Phantom arrives in time. *crosses fingers*

So Bases4War, Chaos Cards and Black Dragon Miniatures all get the thumbs up from me this week but sadly Wayland Games and Wargames.Miniatures both need to seriously up their game or risk further naming and shamings and loss of custom.

Miniatures Art Team Barrel Scenery Sets

Some of the guys who play WZR in Poland and frequent the WZR Page cast some awesome resin Barrels and scenery elements to use in games as Cyberpunk, Dieselpunk, WW2 or Industrial terrain.  It was a roaring success and almost overnight prompted them to offer the same scenery out to others due to massive interest.  I immediately purchased a very reasonable MEGA-Set including 80 pieces of terrain and 11 laser-cut MDF bases.  Postage was amazing even though it was from outside the UK.  They shipped immediately and are now running a small endeavour to sell their scenery commercially.  I cannot recommend this stuff highly enough.  Its a great price and great deal.  It would suit any game from WH40K to Warzone Resurrection to Necromunda to any similarly scaled and styled game.

Check them out on their FB page!

https://www.facebook.com/MiniaturesArtTeam?fref=photo

or better yet go to their website:-

http://miniaturesartteam.blogspot.com/

you can also email them with commission paint jobs or other resin casting requests:-

gowin.jakub@gmail.com

Small Scenery Set £11

Medium Scenery Set £19

Large Scenery Set £25

Mega Scenery Set £30

Cartel Tactical Centre (Community Magazine for WZR)

Being a recent convert to WZR its really aided me to have supportive and helpful players out there willing to give you ideas, explain certain rules and create fluff and scenarios to support my wargaming.

Cartel Tactical Centre (CTC) is a fan-made magazine covering Prodos Games’ Warzone: Resurrection. We will have regular issues available for download via Dropbox and some FB interaction via a dedicated page.

These guys in particular go above and beyond to produce a monthly magazine called CTC available on Dropbox:-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/32hbvoznvbb0uv3/CTC%20Magazine%20Issue%202%20Jan%202015-%20Standard%20Quality%20for%20Screen.pdf?dl=0

you can also visit their FB page:-

https://www.facebook.com/CTCMagazine

you can also contact them directly via their email CTCMagazine@outlook.com

Here are some examples of the great work CTC do!  Enjoy!

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!

Mancave Update 12-12-2014

Its been a few days since the last update and not a great deal has happened.  With the rush of going to Germany this weekend and Christmas approaching I’ve not had much chance to do a great deal.

I submitted my article for the gaming magazine and am waiting to hear when it will be published.

I received all my Wave 9 (2 x Changs Bird-of-Prey, 2 x Scimitar and 2 x ISS Defiant) and Wave 10 (2 x Hideki Fighters, 2 x Regents Warship and 2 x Vidiian Warship) ships for STAW and will be deboxing them over the next few nights.

I popped into my FLGS Escape Games to pick up some card sleeves and spoke to the guys there Tim B and Scott Y.  The place is looking great and they have huge plans for the future.  Lots of things on the horizon there including demo-ing Warzone Resurrection and AvP for PRODOS and running their Star Trek Attack Wing Tournaments in the new year.  Very exciting times ahead and plenty of stock so get down there and support Escape Games if you’re local.

I ordered some Chaos Cultists to build into a Necromunda gang so that needs to be added to my huge, overflowing list of geekery tasks that need to be completed.

So much to do and so little time to do it.

The futures bright…..the futures AvP!

Update (Star Wars: X-Wing, Crusading, Mutant Chronicles)

So yesterday whilst being a good father, devoted partner and cheapo perusing the Black Friday deals on Amazon I stumble across some very cheap Star Wars: X-Wing goodies coming up.  Further investigation also finds me the cheapeast copy of the Core Starter Set for X-Wing I’ve seen anywhere recently.  I really dont think I should get into another game but its such a good deal…..so about £30 later I am the proud owner of a Star Wars: X-Wing Core Set, a TIE Phantom and a TIE Defender.

So now its time to plan for the SW: XW guys at NAGA to get their revenge on me for beating them at ST: AW by letting them school my Imperials in a very steep learning curve.

In other awesome sauce news I’ve applied for and been accepted as a PRODOS Crusader so I will be taking every opportunity to get some AvP demos at venues and locations locally.  If you know of a shop that would like a demo or a games club then please hit me up and we’ll arrange something.   As part of being a Crusader I will be picking up some Mutant Chronicles: Warzone Resurrection at some point…..possibly at the Black Dragon Miniatures Opening on December 3rd.  I’m think maybe Dark Legion, Brotherhood, Cybertronic or the British styled Faction with the gas weaponry.

Last bit of news in this update…..as The Hairy Gamers Tris and I will be writing a monthly article for a new wargaming magazine…Ravage which is based in Spain.  Hopefully you should all be seeing some of our work in that magazine.  We’ll be reviewing the “space combat” games.