Well that's Embarassing

 Certainly not the start to the New Year I expected. Here t's been over a month since the New Years Post & my blog has been...forgotten?

Well no, it hasn't, its just been a whirlwind of activity behind the scenes. Gaming has occured, with a couple of Club Nights (images below), a Swapmeet early in January, that required my digging through boxes (as per one of my noted goals) to prep for that. Also figuring out the new dates for this year to host the fella's over for our continuing Stargrave campaign.

Lastly I've jumped into assisting & organizing a Mordheim League starting up in early Feb at Red Claw. So thats had me busy digging out stuff for that & writing up the scenarios to launch our 'Road to Mordheim' campaign. It will consist of 6 scenarios to 'flesh' out peoples warbands on their way to Mordheim. It sounds like we have a lot of new players who are eager to jump in. Seems one of them was so excited, they showed up to the store 3 weeks early! Though dissapointed, I doubt that has dampened their excitment.

So what games have I done thus far this year? We had 2 club nights in Jan. Gaston & Scott played a Finnish War

Another group of us played A Touch of Evil, hosted by Dan.

I played the Witch Hunter, this was early game where I had found a Coachman, a blade & sine other assistant who provided me with extra Health!

 

For our 2nd club night, Bruce brought out a Chariots game, which had 5 of us or was it 6, racing around the track to the roar of the crowd.

Our first casualty! There was much whipping & ramming going on!

There are 3 resource markers on your track, which sadly I didn't take a photo of, which you really need to pay attention too. In the early game its easy to just sluff it off, but did it ever become important later on...as chariots became quite susceptible to becoming a wreck. Lots of good fun, & I am trying to remember who won...it was either Taylor or Kurt?

 

So that catches me up to this point, with our next club night this Tuesday. It looks like another night for "The Thing in Outpust 31!"

I will attempt to be more active again!

Happy New Year!

So there we have it, another year past & the potential that the New Year brings!

 

This is the time when we reflect on our past, then look to the future, though I will not go as far as making resolutions ( I'm old enough to know that  many of those end in failure) I do create some expectations for myself. So here is my list...

1) As gamers, we are collectively looking to get more hobby time in. However as we also know, life likes to throw hurdles in our way to accomplish that.

Not to be put off, it is still an expectation to get more hobby time in as its great for stress relief & allows you to share the results of your labours on the gaming table for like-minded folks to enjoy.

2) I also need to dedicate more time to painting the miniatures I have.... Those who know me personally are likely laughing at this moment. I have a lot.

Which leads me to my next expectation....

3) Continue to divest myself of the things which I've spent years collecting, but haven't seen the paint table since. I have a few gaming chums who have been at me about this for some time.  As time passes & with the loss of several gaming friends this past year, it sheds a light on the truth, that I am on the downslope of the rollercoaster of life. Not that I dwell on it overmuch as I still have that youthful exuberance when it comes to gaming & am not expecting to pass anytime soon.

With this in mind, I will be focussing on keeping the stuff for the games I am currently involved in & enjoy, whilst passing along those that will not. This isn't to say that I will never see them again. If sold locally, there is a good chance I may see them on the gaming table.

So there we have it, 3 expectations for myself this year. 4 would be too much & 5 is right out! (Now where have I heard that before 😃)

As to the gaming front for this year.

I am still having my monthly gathering at my place & we are midway through our Stargrave Campaign. This is the first runthrough with this system & we have found some things that need some houserules. But I expect we will play this again. With that said, I will need to continue painting up crews & critters for this system

LOTR strategy game. I bought this system when it was first released back in the early 2000's. Still have yet to paint a single figure from it, but I have a massive amount & its one of the systems I plan to keep. Currently I am 3d printing the files for Helms Deep. The ramp is completed & a couple of the wall pieces at this point. I have both the FDM printers working on this.

 

Image by Adam Brucass

The 2 pieces of the Gate

How these pieces compare to the original GW Helms Deep box set

One of the newer gaming fellows has a bunch of these forces painted & I can use his as I get mine to the paint table. We also went through the stuff I have & already begun to downsize it.

Mordheim!!! Well its happening. In November I had a couple fellows over & we played a game of Mordheim. That was the catalyst to hype me back to getting to playing this again. So plans are afoot to start up another campaign this year at Red Claw. An Edmonton Mordheim Facebook Group has been started & our first intro/bit swap meeting is happening this coming Sunday.

Pulp Alley! Another system which needs to see the table more. Bruce is our groups guru atm for all the pulp gaming our club does. I hope to see more of it this year!

Kickstarter games. If you haven't gotten involved with a Kickstarter raise your hand. Yes figured as much....we likely all have. I am still painting Zombicide zombies from the very first kickstarter I did. Many others have arrived since, & I would like to see these come to the table more. With this in mind I will endeavor to paint the beginning scenario figures to start, just to bring it to the club. I know we could go with unpainted miniatures to try the game, but it just lacks something when we do.

I think thats enough rambling for the start of this year. Wishing everyone all the best & I look forward to seeing your gaming antics & projects on he blogs I follow.

 

Merry Christmas

 

 As the stores close & everyone heads home to enjoy time with their families & friends. I wanted to wish you all Merry Christmas.

 

Soon we will have new things to occupy our hobby time, & I look forward to seeing yours. Thanks to all who follow my blog throughout the year!

EWG - The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31

This eve was our last club night for 2022. Evan brought out The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. Funny enough the local weather added to the thematics as it was a balmy -35C w/o windchill.

 

So we had 7 brave souls travel to Red Claw to participate. As you can see from the background....there was noone else at the store except the staff!

 

This was most of the players first time with this game, so we needed to rely on Evan to keep us in line as there is a lot to take in.

 After picking our characters, I had MacReady, we started with our first mission with me as the Captain. At this point we were also dealt a blood card, of which 1 would be infected.

The mission cards state how many members the Captain must take along & also shows which category of characters the team must be comprised of. Those not selected get to remain in the Rec Room.

 

If the mission is successful, the room token is flipped to see what is within. In this case it was "The Thing" & a battle with it would ensue. The goal of the missions is to collect needed equipment. Of course the requirements differ for each mission & as the cards played by the team members are shuffled...the guessing & blame game begin once the sabotage cards start showing up.

 

It smoke is detected, it will need to be dealt with. There are several ways to lose the game & having 4 rooms destroyed by fire is one of them. Just hope someone has a Fire Extinguisher!

If the mission succeeds the token is flipped...great its the Thing again!

And again! Failure to defeat the Thing, causes all the tokens to be reshuffled & distributed again on the on searched rooms. Adding to the fun, is that more infected blood cards get dealt out as certain milestones are hit, this creates more unknowns until the Flame Thrower is found & people are flamed! Hopefully not the humans amongst them.

Thanks Evan for bringing this out, we look forward to seeing it again!

 

Stargrave - Skymine

On Sunday we played our next Stargrave Campaign scenario - Skymine.

As prep for this I needed to find some scenery pieces to represent the 'holes' in the station. Once again Thingeverse came through, with some created by Studio_Bulwark.  After printing & painting them, I added images from Neptune as the surface below mounted to cardstock & glued to the holes.

 

We had 5 crews enter the Skymine & sadly had not a single player roll a 1or 2 for initiative.

 

We played it that the entire scenery piece was 'the hole' so anyone stepping onto it would require to roll to see if they fell through.

 

I also added 4 'mine maintenance personnel' (treated as Ruffians for stats) who wouldn't do anything until attacked. (They were busy trying to fix the station).

 

We also rolled each turn on the Random table, treating any rolls not being a human/robot, as a further roll on the Unwanted Attention table. This generally led to 2 rolls on that table per turn & we had all sorts of nere'do'wells arriving.

 

As is typical, there were a lot of smoke grenades launched & they tended to hang around for several turns. 

 

Due to our number of players, the next time we play this, we will likely increase the odds of the Gusts by 1 for each turn of play. We had already decided that any smoke grenades would have required to roll again for dispersing if a gust occured. Failing dispersal, it would then move the 2" in the direction rolled. Any Smoke that ended touching a hole, would be sucked out & removed from play.

 

We also had it that if any player who was carrying an objective token failed a test, they would drop the item which would then also roll to see if it was moved. Further, we played it that if multiple players rolled to have a gust occur, then failed TN's would move the figure by 2" per gust roll. Thus if 3 players had rolled to cause a gust, figures would move 6"

All in all a good game, which while we didn't have any gusts occur, the holes provided a great escape for figures that had grabbed objectives & needed to get out quick.

 

EWG Club night: Congo - Relief!

OK so I forgot the actual name of the scenario, but it was a 4 player game of Congo, hosted by Bruce, that pitted basically 3 factions against each other. Factions were determined randomly & I got the Tribesmen.

 

Then there was a force of Adventurers / British troops holed up in a fort, however their supplies were limited & amongst them was the Damsel in Distress who was worth many VP's to the group who controlled her at the end.

 

A Paddleboat was attempting to rush supplies to the Fort & had British Marines & some firepower to deal with the nere-do-wells attempting to storm the fort

 

The last faction were Zanzibari Slavers (I think) but I didn't get a photo of them as they deployed at the far end of the table. 

Scattered across the table were various counters of different colours. Some offered treasures worth VP's, other's equipment & the red ones were ammo, which if desired, troops within the fort could sally out to snag.

My young warriors fall upon some Jetpack troops & managed to slay one, sending the others reeling back.

 

Meanwhile my scouts had found some dugouts & I was attempting to use them to block the river to slow the steamer. Sadly the dugout was crushed by the steamer & the scouts all slain.

 

By this time I had gotten my cannibals onto the bridge overlooking the river gap...now it was just a matter of...

 

Crap, I hadn't selected the correct action cards for the turn before the steamer got beneath & then beyond the range of the rocks I could have hurled atop them as a shooting action.

 

So the Steamer did manage to get to the fort, however most of the forts defenders had been slain.

 

The Zanzibari's were wiped out to a man (again thanks to my Ruga Ruga's)who shot them down & then rushed to snag the treasures that had fallen.

Certainly an enjoyable scenario, with a lot going on to keep everyone busy. Each token can in effect be carried by 1 man of a group, so if their numbers drop, so too do the tokens carried. 

Thanks to those who braved the insane cold temperatures to participate.

Middle Earth SBG - Helms Deep & Pelennor Fields

I was invited out to participate in some LOTR Miniatures gaming today. There was going to be 2 scenarios running. The Battle of Helms Deep & Pelennor Fields.

I assisted by bringing my 2 GW Fortress sets - Helms Deep & Minas Tirith, which were used. For Helms Deep I was scrambling last night to set up extra wall pieces & then had to come up with a plan to have the gate house raised. This in turn led me needing to make a quick ramp. Its amazing what can be managed at crunch time.

 Here are the images from the Helms Deep game, which I didn't play in.

 

From what I heard, it was a hard fought victory for the forces of good.

On the second table, where we played the Battle of Pelennor fields, things were looking grim for the forces of Sauron as Theoden arrived with his mounted troops, while on the other flank Aragorn arrived with the Grey Company & the Army of the Dead.

 

We were able to take down Aragorn, though it drained most of Gothmogs abilities.

Eventually the second wave arrived in the form of 3 Mumaks & the Easterling Cavalry. The Mumaks turned the tide, and we were lucky enough to win Priority when 2 of them went berserk & trampled.

 

At that Point the Witch King had arrived & with the stampeding Mumaks, destroyed the Rohan mounted troops & many of their Heroes thus winning the day for Mordor! 

Made for a good day of gaming! Thanks for inviting me.