T-Day Specials

Thanksgiving Day was a good gaming day for the old boy.  The Eldest and I started it out with a few learning games of Castle Ravenloft Board Game.  It is basically 4e D&D streamed down to the bare essentials for an elemental board game.  Despite me failing to catch one very significant rule, we came very close to winning once and got throttled the others.   As with most role play experiences, it is a cooperative game that seems to do a fairly decent job of managing the 'bad guys' against the players.

Later that day we played a few hands of Dominion.  We split the games 2 and 2.  After six Eric made it over and we tried our hand at Ravenloft again, still having not won a game.  When Paul showed we threw him into the mix and that is when we found that we should have been taking treasure cards on every monster kill...  Oops!  That made it a much more balanced game and we got our first win!

Afterwards The Eldest went to crash and the Eric, Paul, and I tried a go at Space Hulk: Blood Angel from Fantasy Flight Games.  It was late and since I had been up since about 3am, I was a bit tired.  The mechanics took a few rounds to figure out, and I would like to try again when I am more focused and we can try three or so games back to back in order to figure out the best way to conduct the cooperative aspects of the game.

On Friday when the Eldest got off work we tried Ravenloft again as a two player and were very close to winning the next adventure.  Just one stinkin' gargoyle away from a win!  Later we went to the theater and caught RED.  I have been wanting to see it as it looked alike a great action flick.  It was perfect summer fare at the very tail end of fall.  I give it 3 1/2 out of 4 ex-CIA operatives.  John Malkovich was a hoot.

jp

Gaming? What gaming?

So I have a few minor updates on the gaming front, but not much since I've been traveling again for work and such.

I picked up Blood Bowl Legends and have started playing a campaign of that.  Also picked up a discount bin casino game and have been doing a bit of Texas Hold'em and such to pass short periods of time.

The Eldest and I played three rounds of Dominion the other night.  I went 3-0 and felt bad.  She likes the game, but her strategies didn't pan out or took too long to develop.

Tonight headed to Steve's to do what I hope is the last play test before we clean up the rules and ship them out for the next review cycle.

jp

FoW and The Walking Dead

On Saturday I was able to go to the de-escalation  tournament.  Paul ran a good show which had each player’s list shrink from 1750 to 1500 and finally 1250.   I brought my Italian Squadrone Esplorante with lots of little tanks.  First game was versus US Mech Infantry which I had a great start with, but when Morgan’s reserves all came in on the flank and rolled across the board killing all in their path.  Second game was against Michele from Des Moines and her Irish Recon force.  Solid game, I didn’t really read the scenario correctly and failed to grasp that her reserves came on right on the objective.  She played a solid game and with the Sherman’s coming in I really wasn’t going to bounce her off with an L-6.  Last game was vs. Kyle and a US Infantry team.  This was a pretty good game and I actually killed an entire platoon or two and only had a marginal loss when time was called.  Over all I was 0-3 with 5 points.  Not too good, but I had three good games. 

Sunday was Halloween and we did a bit of decorating, but only got about a dozen kiddos.  So I was able to bring in a big bag of left over candy, like everyone else to the office.  At 9pm, the first episode of The Walking Dead started.   The show was outstanding.  I never been a huge zombie guy, but I really liked how this episode wasn’t about them.  It was about the undead walking around.  Don’t get me wrong, they were there, but the story is what is driving this story, not the gratuitous violence.  The lead character, Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Grimes, waking in a world that was not the one he remembers, having lost his family, and beginning his quest to find them, still takes the time to find the crawler he encountered early in the show and provide the mercy that was needed.  Lots of promise is this one.  I’ll keep tuning in.

jp

Dominion Play

The eldest and I got to play some Dominion after dinner tonight.

We did three games with me taking two and her stomping me on the third.  Just took her a while to get warmed up I guess!

I'm going to try and sign up for the FoW tournament at the Game Shoppe on the the 30th.  I haven't played in about 6 months so it is about time to get stomped there too. I'll have to dust off the Italians.

Not much new going on.  Hope to go see RED this weekend and looking forward to The Walking Dead on Halloween.

jp
What me game?

Vacation Return

Back on the ground in the Big O! following a week in New Hampshire.  The Other Half had been wanting to go for years and we were finally able to make it out.

Look At The Colors!

The Other Half On The Lake

The Flume!

More Pics can be found here!

Didn't get much gaming in, but The Eldest and I played a round of Pandemic and Settlers of Catan Card game when I got back.  Hope to get in a board game night soon this week.

jp

Movie: The Social Network

Since I don’t play games in more…  Shessh!

The other half and I went to see The Social Network on Sunday.

In short, it was a good movie.  Well written and acted.  However it did not persuade me to go and join Facebook.  I have my own grumblings on privacy (funny since I blog, well, sort of blog) plus the feeling of its use as a mechanism for malicious code insertion.   But, back to the movie….  It is a Hollywood version of the founding and creation of Facebook told from the point of view of two law suits against the founder from people who were either ‘wronged’ or felt the idea was ‘stolen’ from them.   I’m sure the facts were played with loosely, as is Hollywood’s right to make the boring entertaining, but it felt like a good story.   I particularly liked Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal as it was just geeky enough and snarky enough to be entertaining. 

So even though I don’t “Facebook” I found the movie worth the price of admission.  I get it 6 out of 8 friends.

jp

 

 

A game? Why yes!

A few game to report since my wildly late last post.

First up I picked up ‘Small World’ and gave it a try a few times.  First game was a five player game at the Shoppe on the day I picked it up.  Solid game, easy mechanics.  The rules make it sound actually harder than it is.  I then played the Eldest twice each of us taking one game and then as a palate cleanser with Steve after some play testing.   The game is pretty fun and I’m sure it will be on the rotation for a while as it is fast and fun.

Play testing – The conversion continues, just real slow.  Between travel and work and kid stuff (don’t ask!) I’ve gotten less time than ever, but Steve and I have had two solid sessions and we are looking at one more major change then ship out the next version for the grand editor to review.  If folks are interested in a bit of play test, let me know and I’ll hook you up!

Songs of Blades and Heroes Campaign – I did get a game in this Thursday and won!  Eric’s Orcs, that thrashed me last time, took a bit of a beating during a Break Through game.  However his warboss still was able to kill Bobbie Jr. dead…  Long live Bobbie the Third!  In the end I left Eric with a few archers as the remainder of Victor’s Boys exited the board scoring victory points for the win.  Thanks for the Game Eric. 

Civ V was released this week and I did down load it on Wednesday, but only played a bit of the tutorial.  Since I have nothing planned this weekend but helping the Elder move back in to the house I’m hoping to get some evening hours to play a few dozen turns…

jp

--

I blog, honest…

Mud Fest

Not gaming related really, but...   On Sunday I did another mud run.

More pics here...   I wasn't told about the group costume thingy on the last picture, but I was a last second add for the event so it was OK.  As mud runs go, being an expert after only two, it was pretty fun.  The Soaring Eagle Vineyard was nice and scenic with a nice view of the countryside.  

Tripping again for work and will be missing yet another SoBH night.  Some rumblings of trying a Mech Warrior RPG/mini game campaign.  I'm probably one of the only mini gamers that hasn't played the game so I am interested in delving in to it.

jp

muddy

Saturday Board Games

Saturday Night I went to the Shoppe to play a few board games for a change of pace.  We tried two games, Small World and Factory Manager.

First up was a learning game of Small World.  We had a full five players with two of us being newbies.  It is an interesting game with deceivingly easy mechanics.  In fact, reading the rules made them harder then they needed to be.  Some subtle game play techniques and strategies along with the variable race/special powers seemed to ensure a strong since or re-playability with will be nice.  I think the regular guys would like it as it has a good military theme, if not a bit silly, but fun/quick play style.  The two newbies ended up coming 1st and 2nd with only a 2 point separation.

Next, a bit late, we played a game of Factory Manager.  It had been a long time since Steve and I had played so I was re-learning from the get go.  I made some huge mistakes early, combined with the misplaced board made for a bad results for me.  The gang was good to play with, if a bit too serious at times, but still a fun time. :)  I came in dead last...  by a large margin! :)

Good times,

jp
Better warlord then middle manager

24 days later...

Wow,

I suck as a game blogger...  Heck, I suck as a gamer lately.  Between work and the current vacation I haven't had much time for gaming.  I did get in on the last round of Songs of Blade and Heroes with the guys before I left for vacation, but will miss this weeks effort.  I went 0-2 for the last session making me 4-2...  It sucks loosing! :)

While on the road I did get a few games in.  Taught a couple Ticket to Ride and Pandemic.  They have played a lot of settlers, but hadn't tried these yet.  We got a few games of each after the 8 kids went down.  It was a hectic days.  Last Saturday was the Warrior Dash, the race that a group of us went to attend.  Here are some neat pics with a link to others...

The gang post run...

Should be back in September with more gaming action, at least I hope so...

jp
long lost gamer

Warmachine Saturday Nights

Since I've been doing all this 'oh so fun' business travel, I hadn't gotten much gaming in on a non-computer source.  Played lots of good old Spider Solitaire as well as the electronic version of Race for the Galaxy.  I'm getting better vs. the computer as I am up to winning 1 in 5 vice 1 in 20.

Since I was back, Paul and Eric came over for a few games of Warmachine on Saturday night.

Eric and I played a 35 point game with his Durgen Madhammer vs. my newly assembled Drake MacBain.  I also put into to play Dannon Blythe and Bull, the Bounty Hunters which ended up being the stars of both games.
Eric played a great game, keeping it very close.  He used some primed Nyss hunters to keep a flank in check that I had a full unit of Sam and Devil Dogs w/ a Mule.   Blythe and Bull marked Boomhowler and did a good job keeping them suppressed until they moved in to finish them up.  It ended with Blythe and Bull swarming Durgen as the new mark and hacking away.

Second game was Paul's High Executioner Reznik a few 'Jacks, a full Exemplar Errants w/ UA and the new Errant solo.  I used the Steelheads with Countermeasures to keep the Errants from shooting while having Blythe and Bull pick them off to help secure the flank.  It ended with a giant scrum in the middle with lots of dead Heavy Jacks...  Four I think...  It took the Bokur and MacBain to take down Rez, but it wasn't pretty. 

Good games guys and thanks...  Next time I won't make soup! :)

jp

Home...  For now...

Test Play Continues

So Steve and were able to continue our play test of the starship version of Song of Blades and Heroes.  We doubled the number of ships on the table and found some balance issues which I think were resolved.  We also spent some time brain storming some new concepts to add to the mix.  The biggest issue is the 'shooty' nature of the game vs. hand to hand.  It is a 'starship' game after all. :)

I think we are on the right track, and the 'double the size' seemed about right.  Steve and I broke out a list of other options we wanted to try, away from the 'preformated' ships that we hope to include.  These include a escort Swarm vs. Max Cruisers and Carrier centric vs. Gun boats among others.

I 'could' have posted this with Steve's re-post of the campaign, but man I've been to lazy and I needed to the count up!

jp
Travel is my middle name in July!

Song of Blades and Heroes

I'll I can say is that work is conspiring against me.  It feels like eons since I've played in the campaign, but luckily Steve is keeping it going.  I missed the session a few weeks ago and now I'm in San Antonio for this weeks.  Here is Steve's recap from the previous encounters...

jp

Something must have been in the air as five warbands became quite active last week.  The nefarious gnome and his rat-men warband were out and about and got attacked by a new warband.  Apparently some samurai from the Far East made their way to these lands and sought to make their mark with them.  Meanwhile Grut decided to take the orcs on a shortcut back to their lair - through the lands held by the Normans.  The Romans were also spotted but soon disappeared.  What was Tribunus Maximus up to?

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Gnome & Rat Men vs Daimyo Ogata & Samurai - Ambush

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As the gnome and his crew were wandering the countryside dropping off barrels of ale in random locations, they fell into an ambush by samurai and ashigaru led by one calling himself Daimyo Ogata.  The gnome and his rat men had faced many such challenges and moved forward boldly.  Deciding to flank about the large hill where he thought the bulk of the enemy lay, he sent rats to probe about a stand of trees.  There the ambush revealed itself and a samurai and ninja met the scouts head on.  While this battle was joined, a new addition to the warband, a large rat ogre, moved to get around the fray in hopes of flanking the two Asian warriors and put them down.  This is when the rest of the ambush revealed itself.  Daimyo Ogata showed himself and started yelling orders to hidden ashigaru bowmen - something about oni and apparently orders to engage it.  The bowmen quickly formed a battle line facing the rat ogre and let a devastating volley fly bringing the "oni" down.  While this victory seemed to embolden the invaders, it only redoubled the resolve of the gome and his gang.  Ratmen soon poured into the battle and threatened to overrun the lone samurai and ninja.  The Ogata ended up throwing himself into the fray only to find himself overwhelmed as well.  As the daimyo went down, so did the fighting spirit of the ashigaru.  The ambushers fled the field, taking their wounded with them and leaving the gnome and his gang to bask in another victory.

On the way to their camp, they had to cross a dangerous ravine where Shin, one of the yari spearmen fell to his death.  Back at camp the ninja recovered from her wounds but seemed a bit too fond of sake after that fight.  Daimyo Ogata was a bit worse for wear and had to rely on an elixir to ease his wounds.  While not a win, the loss could have been much worse.

The gnome and his gang sadly had to put down the rat ogre - his wounds too grievous to recover from.  While this was a set back, they stumbled across a wishing well and were rewarded with a charm stone. 

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Grut & Orcs vs Normans - Break Through

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After successfully driving the gladiators away from their lands, Grut decided to take a shortcut back to the orc camp - straight through the middle of the Norman holdings.  As much as Grut loves a good scrap, he thought that they should just push through any resistance that the Normans put up as they went home.  The Normans had a bit of an objection to orcs wandering freely and engaged them vigorously.  Seeing armed troops on the field was all Psycho needed to go off into a frenzy and charge into the Norman ranks.  Grut however, was content to try and get his warband to break through intact and pressed on while the berserker practically held the enemy back single handedly.  Psycho eventually fell to the weight of numbers against him and the Normans were able to run down a couple orc archers as well, but Grut managed to drag them away with the warband.

On the way to their camp, the orcs came across a tribe of lizardmen.  The shaman was being too belligerent so Grut just cut him down and looted their village for 25 gold.  After they made it home, the two archers made a full recovery while they recovered Psycho's body and got a priest to restore life to his corpse. 

The Normans fared reasonably well as only their mounted knight required any serious care and an elixir tended to that nicely.  As they mopped up and this incursion into their territory, one of the men found a keg of ale that apparently was randomly dropped off in the countryside.  Who could have left it there?

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Grut & Orcs vs Daimyo Ogata & Samurai - Accidental Encounter

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The orcs were out and about the countryside foraging as they awaited Grut to make plans for their next raid.  Meanwhile Ogata and his samurai were in that same area gathering wood and supplies and generally putting Shin's twin brother through his paces to make camp in this new land.  Not knowing what to do about the other in this accidental encounter, fighting soon broke out.  While the orcs were badly outnumbered, the samurai and ashigaru were scattered about which posed a problem for them as they were not accustomed to fighting autonomously.  The orcs however were used to this style of combat and soon gained the other hand.  The ashigaru bowmen Gisaku turned and traded arrows with Pin who while a more skilled bowmen, did not enjoy the benefit of the superior range the daikyū gave.  It was not long before Gisaku found his mark.  Meanwhile Shin's twin brother Shin was staring down the gullet of an angry lizard and his orc rider.  Needless to say, a yari wielding ashigaru was little match for for the orc and his mount who then turned for other prey.  Yohei was not in any better shape as an orc rushed him before he could get a shot in with his daikyū.  While he fought surprisingly well for an ashigaru, he did succumb to the relentless assault of the orc swordsman.  Slick rushed Ogata and while he fought well, the daimyo got the upper hand and cut him down.  Daimyo Ogata and Grut soon found each other on the field and were trading blow after blow but neither could get the upper hand.  Heihatchi seeing his Daimyo in trouble, moved to assist him but was shot down and the sashimono fell to the ground.  Distressed, Ogata tried to protect it but before long an orc archer charged down from a nearby hill and grabbed it.  Waving it in triumph, the fighting spirit soon left the samurai and they withdrew from the field.

As they made their way back to camp, Ogata came across a corpse by the road - a victim of the rampaging orcs no doubt.  Oddly enough they had left his coin purse of 20 gold.  Heihatchi and Yohei made full recoveries while Shin ended up a bit shaken from the experience but otherwise ok.

Grut and his warband celebrated their victory and teased Slick for having a case of nerves after his run in on the battlefield and drank to Pin's memory.  Hearing all the commotion, a centaur champion came upon the orc camp but seeing as they were an evil lot, decided to move on.

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Tribunus Maximus & Romans vs Normans - Dungeon Raid

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Somehow the Normans caught wind of what the Romans were up to.  They got word that the Romans were busy secreting their treasure into the dungeons beneath an old ruin in their territory.  With great stealth, they managed to slip into the Roman lands undetected and sought to uncover the secrets and treasure Maximus had hidden below.  Unfortunately between the secrecy of the Romans in hiding their wealth and the stealth by which the Normans sought to extract it, little is known about what went on down below.  

Two legionaries were later spotted getting some medical attention but otherwise in good health.  There are also reports that a patrol was sent out to try and retaliate against the Normans for defiling Roman ground but all that turned up was an empty cave.

The Normans were also spotted sometime after the incident honoring one of their dead.  Another Norman warrior in attendance was seen with some bandaged wounds but appeared un-phased by his injuries.  However they could have used a better day to honor their fallen as the cold, damp weather caused another soldier to catch a cold.

________________________________________

My apologies for any inaccuracies (but that's what a comment section is for right?) and for those whose names I left out (gnome, Norman leader, etc.) please drop in the comments so future reports are more complete.

Steve aka Daimyo Ogata

Test Play and Ivanhoe

On Saturday night Steve and I gave our new development hobby a test go.  It is a star ship combat version of Song of Blades and Heroes.  It went pretty well for a first test and we found a 1/2 dozen positive changes.  Afterwards Eric, Paul, Suzanne, Steve, and I played two rounds of Ivanhoe. This is a great little deck building game set in a medevil tournament.  As the players you have to win four of the five different tournaments; Jousting, Swords, Axe, Mace, Hand to Hand.  You have special cards that mess with things as you try to build the largest point total during rounds.

Paul had a great come from behind win in the first game and I took the second after four of us had one three tournaments.

Big thanks to Eric for picking up the game!

jp

Again with the slow reporting!

On Sunday Steve, Eric, and I got together for some holiday board games.  We started with Race for the Galaxy with the new expansion.  Solid game with I think Steve winning.  Susanne came by while we finished so I taught her the game quickly while the guys scarfed on home made chili and hot dogs.  

The second game had Susanne getting some great cards and she played them well for her first game.  In the end it was very close with me eking out a win at the last by one point.

Susanne took off and the three of us played a new game that Eric picked up called Cave Troll, as in "They have a Cave Troll" fame.  :)  It was  a fun little game.  I know Eric was hoping for more PvP in the game, but it was still a good, quick played dungeon crawl type.  I one our game with a solid lead thanks to Steve and Eric beating each other up.

Rob came by just as we finished and he joined in a game of Agricola.  I do enjoy this game, but I need to remember that it doesn't play as fast as I think it does.  I had to pack up an bail at 5 and we were only on round 8 or so which was sad, but the guys pressed on with Steve taking the game after Eric gave him a solid run.

On Monday Steve, Susanne and I took to the road and went to the Star Wars in Concert event in Des Monies.  The concert was pretty good and they had Anthony Daniels as he narrator.  We all enjoyed the show which lasted about 2 1/2 hours or so.  The orchestra was very good as were the chosen visuals.   Afterwards we met TJ and Casey for dinner at Fong's Pizza which is one of the coolest themed pizza places I've been to.  I had a slice of the Thai Pizza that was outstanding.  It was good to see TJ and Casey, but they were off to the late version of the show and we all took off shortly after eating.

This month looks to be a grind at work.  Most likely traveling every week...  Grrrr....

Hope you all get some good gaming in!

jp

Thursday Night Song of Blades and Heroes

I had to travel for work this league night and wasn't able to make it.  It also look like life conspired against several others and only Steve and Eric made it out to play.  Much sadness. :(

Here is the report from Steve, hopefully Eric can describe his band of Orcs a bit.

John,

Ended up being just Eric and I for the league and so we only played one game.

Eric decided to retire his previous war band as they had gotten pretty banged up over the weeks and brought in a new one - Grut's Orcs led by Grut himself.  I'm afraid you'll have to get in touch with Eric to get the details, but they were eight strong and scrapping for a fight.

It seems that this orc war band decided they wanted to take a walk through the escaped gladiator's lands - break through scenario to be precise.  Well Hunk and his gladiators weren't about to let the orcs get a free pass and decided to intercept them.  So four gladiators marched out and things started out slow for both sides - each approaching cautiously (i.e. only one activation on each side before turning over the turn) before the violence broke out.  Hunk went charging in as is his way and soon ran into his orc equivalent.  Unfortunately for him, Hunk's charge fell short and after butting heads with the orc berserker, Hunk was soon out of the fight and Celeris who was flanking Hunk broke off at speed.  Maximus and Tyranus on the other flank engaged and brought down an orc beast rider.  Flushed with his success, Max came around the hill to prep for the berserker's charge whom Celeris was leading right to him when orc archers fired from the woods in ambush.  While he shrugged off most of the arrows, one did graze him, stunning him temporarily which was all the opening the orc leader needed.  Charging down the hill, Grut ran Max through and Tyranus and Celeris opted to withdraw from the field.

From some reports, the orc beast rider made a full recovery.  Meanwhile, Hunk shrugged off his wounds, but Maximus did not recover and joined the ranks of the dead.

Both war bands made their way home through a haunted forest without event.

With that the gladiators opted to part ways as trying to hold their territory had become far too costly.

-------------------------

While I was badly out numbered, my guys were pretty good quality by comparison, but Eric's dice warmed up where I never really got going.  Eric taking out my two strongest models - particularly Hunk in the early part of the game - pretty well decided the scenario.  My major mistake was letting Max get into short range of the archers Eric ran into the woods.  He got 3 shots at me at a 4 v 5 combat and I was just asking to be knocked down with one of them.  

With the gladiators now worth only 277 points and having lost their 2nd best guy, I think they're down and out.  In the process of putting together a new band for next session.  Could go either undead war band or maybe samurai/ninja.  I'll be playing with options and looking at models so we'll see.

Steve

 Thanks for the update Steve!  Looking forward to some good Race and Agricola on Sunday!

jp

Father's Day Race

The eldest and I went to dinner at Hooters and then went and played two games of Race for the Galaxy with the newest expansion.

She spanked me on the first round 80's to 40's...  The new Prestige tokens add a different flavor to the game.  I need to check to see if we are doing the Prestige Leader thingy right.

Second game I won 38 to 37.  It went a lot quicker the first, but I think it was because we were trying to re-learn.

Right now I'm getting my butt handed to me by the computer version.  One win in a dozen odd games...  Grrr...

jp

Race for the Galaxy Players Rejoice...

Two items for Race for the Galaxy...

First the new expansion has been released, "On the Brink", has been released.  I guess it came out a month or so ago and I wasn't paying attention.  While I was waiting at the tournament yesterday I opened it up to start reading, so no unboxing as I ruined the shrink wrap, besides, it is a card game!

This version adds Prestige that can be spent in the game for effects (based on the cards) but also counts as VP so spend wisely.  Coolest card so far is the Death Star type card that allows you to blow up planets of your opponents.

I haven't played yet, but the Eldest and I are going to try it out on Tuesday as my Father's Day present.

The second bit of info is that someone has developed a pretty good downloadable AI for RftG.  Keldon's done a few games, but this one seems pretty darn solid.  So far I am 0-3 vs. the damn machine...  I think it cheats! :)

jp
Race'n

Warmachine Weekend Invitational

We ran the Warmachine Weekend Invitational on Saturday and had 14 folks show.  Big thanks to the Des Monies crowd for filling in the ranks.

We ended up having four rounds, with Des Monies guys Chad and JD going in for the title and big prize.  Chad's  Troll's took the day for a victory.

Other Interesting Sights:

Adam fielded McBain after putting him together in a drunken stupper the night before! :)

Alan from Lincoln, the sole Lincoln rep I might add, put together and played a 50 point Kraye list in under 24 hours...  That is a lot of gluing my friend...

Eric played in his first full WM tournament and did well.  Lessons learned and force compositions noted for the next event...

The Des Monies guys are good...  They bar has been raised!

Hooker needs to get more sleep before a match!

Thanks to those that played, it was a good time!

jp
PRESS

Saturday Warmachine

Had a few hours this morning, so I got to try to play a few quick games.

Eric and I played his Highborn vs. my Cygnar.  It was going all Nemo's way, but, as usual, I left the caster just a bit to far forward, allowing Madhammer to drop several shots on his dead.  Win Mercs.

Second game was Dan's Highborn with Ashlynn vs. Nemo again.  I got lucky on a chain lightening that hit Ashlynn for 9 points of damage, then got a sword knight to charge up, rolled a nine to hit and finished the job with solid damage.  Was worried about all the solo's he had flooding the left flank, but I tried to rush the other side to stay alive.

jp

Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign Meet Two

Thursday (Yes this is three days late) we had our second meet up for the Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign.  We had five show up, Paul, Eric, Bill, and myself with Steve hosting.

Since we had an odd number and I had the most wins, I took the option to sit out and watch the first round.  One of the pairing was Eric's King Vinter vs. Bill's Wild Gnome with the battle being fought in the mountain lands using the Hold Out scenario.  Eric had to deploy his force in split sections, but they showed up on the second turn which really didn't effect the game set up.  The battle was met in the middle with the Gnome's rats moving up in blocks.  The battle was fought hard, but the Gnome was victorious.  Bill found an Eldritch graveyard with gold loosing one of his giant rats and a wererat.  Vinter found a shrine that gave him a gold.

The other game was Paul's new Maximus' Veteran's of the 1st Cohort vs. Steve's Slave revolt of Gladius Imperious lead by Hunk-ra. The battle was fought in a standard field with the Difficult Ground scenario.  Paul took the victory after removing enough gladiators that Steve's small army was in peril of being wiped out.  One of Paul's guys picked up an illness and Steve found a trap and was able to disable it for a gold.

Second round had my Victor's Boys vs. the Gnome and his wererats.  We fought on open land with the difficult ground scenario, which was odd.  We did have a special terrain feature of a teleport field but neither one of us tried it out.  Bill focused on taking out my weaker dogs to force a test on the warband, while I tried to keep closing the gap without setting up the charge for his rats.  In the end it was the Gnome in the corner surrounded by some poisoned house guard.  I took the win, but it wasn't very pretty.  I found a cave that was empty and one of Bill's rat got ill.

The other game was Eric's King Vinter vs. Paul's Romans.  They played the Ambush with Eric hiding his forces with markers.   Paul won and got eh Murder of Crows  (?) while Paul was lucky enought to recover a forgotten treasure.

Since it was my third game I was able to apply some advances.  Everyone (except the dogs) went up in quality except Bobbie that I gave fearless.

So Victor's Boys as the currently sit.  I just bought Goosmire to the force:

Duke Victor - Personality           Quality 2+                            Combat 3            

"Special Rules: Hero; Leader; Noble

Jose D' Luk - Personality           Quality 3+                            Combat 2            

Special Rules: Sheild-Mage;  Shooter: Short

Marco, Polo, & Marlo      Quality 3+                            Combat 4            

Special Rules:  Heavy Armor

Bobbie the Ogrun                      Quality 3+                            Combat 5            

Special Rules: Heavy Armor; Big; Savage; Fearless

Goosemire the Troll Scout        Quality 3+                            Combat 4            

Special Rules:  Big; Dashing; Long Move; Outrider

Sneaky LeRoy                          Quality 3+                            Combat 3            

Special Rules:  Stealth; Shooter: Long, Sharpshooter; Poison

Argos & Magnus               Quality 4+                            Combat 3            

Special Rules: Animal, Greedy; Savage

Post if I missed something guys!

jp

Saturday Games

I got free Saturday night and went down to the shoppe for a few games of Song of Blades and Heroes.  I had created a 'big' list with Butcher and Man O' Wars that was mixed bag.

First  game was versus Eric and his new Leaderless Orc band.  It was breakthrough with Eric as the Attacker.  He had to get his folks off the board and I had to kill them in the process.  I got 1 point for every 20 points I killed, he got 1 point for every 15 off the board.  He had a great start that forced a morale test do to the loss of a banner, which spread out my team, but the Berserker had already done a pretty good job of taking out two miniatures.  With the one leader and having to split my forces, the Man O War had a hard time with the 'slow move' in getting to be a threat.  It was a close game with me getting 11 points and Eric 8.

Second game was a learning game with Adam.  He played the Khador list since it had a lot of repeat miniatures and I played by Victor's Folly list.  It wasn't a bad learning game, but Adam did get to feel the pain of the activation system a few too many times. :)

This week will see the second run for the Campaign.  I'm looking forward to that!

jp

Big Saturday of Gaming

As The Other Half is wont to ask, "Isn't 12 hours of gaming enough"...  It is a rhetorical question I am sure, because I think she knows the answer...

It started out with a Warmachine tournament that Adam ran.  35 point steam roller with 8 players.  First round I was matched up with Wayne playing Cryx and Montenabra in a Kill Box scenerio.  Wayne played it very well, and I left an unseen charge lane to eButch for the Deathjack (Overun for the win) which left him dead.  Quick and deadly, not how I expected the game.

Round two was versus Tony and eFeorra.  Tony went on a assassination run, letting it all hang out, but ended with three points shy.  Lola to face for the win.  Statistically, on average rolls Tony should have had the win on that one, but his dice crapped out on him

Round three was versus Lincoln Alex and Aspy.  A little more involved game, but I I kept missing a stupid Deathripper needing sixes and accidentally killed my own berserker.  This left a free line for the slayer to combo strike eButch to shreads.

I ended 1-2, but Adam ran a solid event and I had a good time, even if I was getting a bit brain dead doing basic  math.

Eric and I went to grab a bite to eat at a new Mexican place called Antojitos.  No website, but here are the two reviews posted.  It was really pretty good food for a little hole in the wall.  Recommend the trip for lunch or dinner.  I'll be hitting more often for Tuesday night dinners before heading to the shoppe!

After dinner Eric and Paul got their first campaign game in for Song of Blade and Heroes.  They ran an Assassination game (again!) in the Hill Lands with Paul's Wolves of Orboros lead by Kiya and other druids hunting down Eric's Ex-King Vinter and his magical revenge tour.  (Ok...  I made that last bit up!)  Vinter refused to be bullied by the dirty hippies and moved his forces out to confront the enemy that would dare to 'hunt' him down.  That didn't work so well.  Paul took Vinter out which ended the game.  Eric had lost Vinter and two of his Halberdars.  The  halberdars will miss a game each, while Vinter picked up Hatred of Dirty Hippies (Wolves specifically), additionally he found a Trap while exploring and the Harlot did a stand up job of disarming it to find 5 gold.  Kiya then found a 'Blessed Glade' and a Charmstone along with his win.

We then broke out Formula D and did a 2 car team, 2 lap race on the Sebring track.  That took a bit longer then normal given that we had to track two cars each, but it wasn't too bad.  Paul had a large lead, but crashed his lead car leaving me in first place, with Eric pretty far behind in second.  Eric crashed his rear car on a bad roll around a corner.  I finished in first, with second place in debate.  Paul's second car crashed coming out of the corner, in sight of the finish line while Eric and I battled the final corner, neither of us with break or tires to spare.  I timed out the roll nicely allowing me to accelerate in 4th gear out of the corner and putting me just ahead.  Fun game.

It was a fun day of gaming.

jp
12 hours?  Pish, give me 20!

Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign

Greetings,

We had the first night of our Song of Heroes and Blades campaign on Thursday Night. We had six folks commit so far, with two being unavailable due to work and family.

Attending Current Warbands:
Me – Victor’s Folly – Disposed Noble, Victor, his loyal retinue, remaining house guard, and hounds
Steve – Imperious Gladiator – Hunk-Ra and his savage Gladiators break free and fighting for their futures
Bill – Thieves Guild – Gnome Sharpshooter leading Wererat and trained large rat thieves
Bob – Sir Raymond’s Crusade – Mounted Sir Raymond with his knights and warriors

First round

Victor’s Folly vs. Sir Raymond’s Crusade fighting over Difficult Ground on a standard battle field. The game was going well, with first blood going to Sneaky LeRoy throwing one of his poison grenades and a walking knight. We got into a good scrum with him taking out my hounds and me taking out a mix of knights and warriors. As is often in SBH, when things start to fall apart they do so quickly. Bob hit the testing zone and soon found him taking multiple morale tests which saw his gang fall back which allowed me to get a few free hacks. Sir Raymond made a bad judgment and tried to turn the battle, only to come a bit short. The reminder of his warriors opted to leave the field. Post battle, Victor lost Magnus the Hound and found a cursed glade which his already hurting hound, Argus, suffered more indignity. Sir Raymond’s luck fared little better having lost his only mounted knight and a few minor injuries…

Imperious Gladiator Vs. Thieves Guild with the Gladiator’s having to Break Through the border town held by the Thieves. I only caught the tail end of the game, but it appeared that lots of punishing mayhem with plenty of bad dice rolls. Bill lost several Wererats to gruesome kill melee checks as they ran off the near side of the board. The battle ended with the Gnome deciding that his pride and noble nature had been satisfied when the last of the large rats were dispatched by one of the two remaining Gladiators. Post battle, Hunk-ra needed emergency surgery that cost all the gold he just earned and had one of the speed gladiators loose his life for his brothers while his twin took a -2 to quality for a game. The Gnome rallied his troops, but lost a Wererat (I think), but was lucky enough to find a Watchtower that was abandoned in their swamp.

Second round

Imperious Gladiator vs. Victor’s Folly with Victor trying to secure the bounty on Hunk-ra (Assassination) in the forest lands. Steve was pretty depleted, despite the win and couldn’t replenish his force. He opted to hide in the woods to let Victor track him down. Victor’s house guards, backed up by Bobbie the Ogrun engaged Maximus, but failed to do any significant damage. Hunk-ra, then berserkered his way up to Bobbie and swinging twice only knocking himself down on the second blow. Bobbie and Marco, Master of the Guard, took turns hitting Hunk-ra to finally capture the bounty. Post battle, Victor found a wandering begger and gave him a gold coin to receive a ‘thank you’in return. Shessh. Hunk-ra survived the battle this time and found a watch tower.

Thieves Guild vs. Sir Raymond’s Crusade fought an assassination as well in the scrub lands. Bill’s Gnome was hunting Sir Raymond, but couldn’t get a good activation. One glance I look over and Bill was down to three figs while Bob had most of his moving forward. Next thing I know the Gnome plugs Sir Raymond with a crossbow and game over. Post battle, the Gnome found an Alehouse while losing one of the Wererats (I think), meanwhile Sir Raymond found a ‘charm stone’ for a re-roll.

Next official instalment is June 3rd, but with Paul an Eric missing out, I’m hoping that they can get a game in on Saturday, plus Mark has shown an interest and is going to work on a force. Hopefully I can get him a learning game in on Saturday night.

jp

One Year Surgery-versay

Next Tuesday is a double decker anniversary.  It is mine and The Other Half's 10.2 anniversary...  10 years together followed by 2 years of marriage and it is my first year following my surgery for Gastric By-Pass.  It has also been over a month at what the Gastric folks cal "Onederland"...  That being your weight starts with a 1 vice a 2 or 3.  In my case I've stabilized at about 196ish + or - 2 pounds any given moment.  

The surgery, with out a doubt, was the single greatest contributor to the weight loss.  For me, I don't think it could have happened any other way.  But...  Here is the tricky point.  In October I was 214.  In that time I have lost ~18 pounds, but my body fat level has gone from +30% to 16%.  For that I give thanks to the 6am morning workouts.  They are hard, constantly varying, and truly enjoyable in a sick and twisted sort of way.  I think I can count on less then one hand the number of workout days that I've missed since October.  Traveling, vacation, work, training...  Doesn't matter, I'll get them in.  Equipment or no, something can be worked out.  Using the handy-dandy Air Force BodPod, I know that although I have lost 18 pounds of weight, my non-fat weight has gone up almost 17 pounds, which means I've gained 17 pounds of muscle and lost 35 pounds of fat.  

Happy snaps to follow:

Like I said, couldn't have done it without the surgery...  I was just too addicted to all the foods I loved but didn't love me back, but the workouts are what helped re-shape the body afterwards.  I won't be posting weight stuff here anymore...  Over at the workout side as things progress.  Surgeon thinks I have pretty much leveled off.  He may be right, but I would like to drop another 10 pounds of total weight while gaining some more upper body strength.  My next six month goal is to complete 'Linda' as proscribed.  Better known as three bars of death, it is ten rounds of decreasing sets (10-9-8-7...) of 1.5 times body weight Deadlifts (That would be ~300, my one rep max is 280ish), body weight Bench Press (200, but have no idea on the Bench as we don't do it very often), and .75 power cleans (150 while I currently am working out around 95...) so lots of room for growth!

Thanks to everyone that has been supported, it means a lot!

We now return you to your normally schedule geeky stuff! :)

jp
Keep on truckin'

Games and Movie...

Hello,

Saturday night Paul and Eric came over and we played three rounds of SBH.  First was Eric's list versus my Victor's Folly.  The scenario was chance encounter where each player deploy's his enemy's force one at a time, no closer then one 'Long' from an enemy figure.  It started strong for me getting two kills early on and trying to consolidate my position...  Then it all went down hill failing multiple early activations.  Eric held it together and used the 'Distraction' from the harlot to transfix my Bobbie the Ogrun and take him out of the game.

Paul and Eric played a game of control points.  Half way through I thought Eric had it won, but before you could shake your head and say 'WHHHAAATT', the Paul's Menoth had cleared the field.  The third game was Assassination, with me having to kill Paul's leader.  Well...  That didn't happen as Paul's force pretty much slaughtered me to a man before I could get to his head honcho!

We then played a road race game of Formula D in Chicago.  Two laps, lots of twists and turns.  Eric was behind most of the race, but pulled ahead in the last three turns.  Paul came in second and I did a slow putter in for third.

The gang is gearing up for a SBH league.  We started on earlier, but know that all the main participants have a game under there belt, we are set to re-boot with a few others added in.

On Sunday, Eric and I hit Iron Man 2.  I enjoyed the movie.  It wasn't quite as good as the first Iron Man, but I think some of that was the 'newness' of the whole thing last time.  The Avenger's ties were pretty strong and Scarlett Johanson's Black Widow combat scenes were pretty darn cool.  It was a great intro into the summer movie season and I would recommend the show to any comic book/action flick fans.  I give it 6 out of 7 Arc Reactors.

jp

Saturday Game Day

The local convention, Nuke Con, hosted a Games Day at a local high school on Saturday.  I ran several events and had a pretty good, solid day of gaming.

Dominion - Had two games with three different students.  They caught on to the game quickly and we had a good time as I hadn't seen a few of the cards we used in play.  Namely the Witch, whom I have been cursed now several times, and the Gardens, which is what helped me to win the first round.

Pandemic - Again, two games with a set of three students.  We played the base set plus expanded roles on round one and had know issues containing the viruses, having won with a good round or two of cards left to be drawn.  Second game we used the Virulent Epidemics, which made it a bit harder.  We did win, but had to do it on the last draw.

Formula D - Only had two kids on this one.  First race was Monnoco.  One of the kids got over aggressive early and had to sneak around the rest of the track.  Second race was Race City on  the back with me crashing into the wall, leaving one of the kids to finish in first.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Steve and Paul showed up around 430ish and we played two games of three way battles of SBH.  It worked out pretty well as a whole.  The first game was to capture the 'Ring of Power' in the center of the table.  Eric and I met in the center early and bashed heads, with my leader grabbing the coin and falling back.  Following the gruesome kill on Bobbie the Ogrun, Victor did some fleeing, dropping the ring.  Paul's Paladin leader steps up and snags the ring and heads towards the deployment safe zone.   Solid win for Paul.  Game two was a king of the hill type scenario.  I switched to a dwarf list and Paul made a small adjustment to his leader.  Paul jumped to a big lead holding the hill due to bad activation roles by both Eric and I.  It was a big bloody mess, with Eric whittled down to Zarzathor, his Dragonborn Leader, left on the table, a few of Paul's Paladin friends, but the leader being gone, and I was down to my Dwarf Lord and a Thunder Gunner.  Some how, the Dwarf Lord stood the longest on the hill, but Paul's force took the day with the most victory points.

Good times.

Really looking forward to the SBH league on our alternating Thursday.  Bill and Bob may be joining in too, which would be cool as they have been playing for some time.

jp
Play!

Thursday Night Song of Blades and Heroes

Hello!

Steve, Paul, Eric, and I got together and started our campaign for the Song of Blade and Heroes game (SBH).  Paul had an Elf list using his painted Harlequins, Eric ran Alexia the Necromancer with a few Risen undead and living support, Steve had his five Gladiator crew, and I ran a no shooting list with a solid leader, some heavy armor guys, an Ogre, a cheap shield mage, a dog, and a stealth dude.

Paul and I paired off since it was his first game - It went pretty good for me as I should have died a few times, but Paul and I kept tying on the combat rolls.  The Elves have a real high Quality stat that keeps them in there activations, but the lower Combat score hurt there ability to fight the big guy.

In the end, I whittled down the Elves only loosing my Shield Mage.  We talked about list building with the ideas, namely the author's dislike of shooting tactics and their higher cost value.

Eric and Steve's game was fought on the nice city terrain as the Gladiator's came out of the graveyard (?) to attack the Necromancer in the Inn (?)  -- Silly Scenarios! The Low Quality hurts the Undead plus Eric forgot their special rule of getting a +2 on Moral checks.  Opps!

I expect that Paul and Eric are going to revamp the lists for round two as they needed some tuning.

Tomorrow is Nuke Con Game Day.  If your board, feel free to come by for a game!

jp
Game On!

Nuke Con Game Day

I've signed up to run a few games at Nuke Con's Game Day, Aftershock on 1 May.

1000 - Dominion
1200 - Pandemic
1400 - Formula D
1800 - Song of Blade and Heroes Mini Campaign.

If you are board, feel free to swing by!  It is held at Papillion South High School.

jp

Week Summary

Had two gaming events this week.

Tuesday's normal game day at the Game Shoppe had us continue our slow grow league at 35 points.  I had a game with Mike S and his Cryx.  He ran Denegra and I had the Butcher, again.  Solid game, but his assassin run didn't quite get the run it needed and the Butcher was able to apply Lola to face, though it was close call.

Afterwards, Tony brought a friend and we gave him a demonstration of the game.  He has the summer off, so he was looking for a non-WoW hobby.

Saturday, Steve, Eric and I got together and played Rune Wars.  It was a brutal game.  I had the Elves, Steve the Humans, and Eric the undead.  I started very strong, but only had two food and messed up my timing and lost several elves the first two seasons as I expanded.  Eric's undead had a nice enclosed protected area, and Steve looked to be in the tough spot.  However, Steve was able to expand and roll, making great use of his units to clear out my Elven homeland and rolling to a victory in the end.

Paul showed up near the end of Rune Wars and when we wrapped up we played Formula D.  Four car, two lap race in France.  Paul had poll position, then me, Steve, followed by Eric.  Steve stalled on the start and looked to be doomed, but by 1/2 way through the first lap had taken the lead.  It was a cool track allowing 6th gear a few times.  I crashed on the second lap failing to stop once in a two turn corner.  Paul followed shortly afterwards.  This allowed Steve to coast to a first place finish with Eric nursing it into second.

We talked about playing on Thursday nights every other week for Song of Heroes and Blades league.  Hopefully we can get that worked out.

Great night of gaming guys.  Thanks much!

jp

Monday Night Gaming

Greetings,

Steve and Susan came over and we had burgers & asparagus for dinner.  The three of us went to the basement and played three games.

- Ticket to Ride – Susan hadn’t played in a year and she likes train games.  Her and I were pretty close, but she completed two extra tickets which got her the ‘most traveled’ and the extra routes.  Poor Steve misjudged his train lengths and ended up losing most of his tickets because he couldn’t connect the far distant ends.

- Dominion x2 – We next played two games of Dominion.  We hadn’t played in a few months, so we quickly reviewed and found that we had been making a mistake from the first time, namely not dumping the remainder of your hand after each turn.  That made a huge difference in circulating cards and getting more cards/gold to do stuff with.  The first game was pretty standard but had no ‘attack’ actions except the witch, but she really didn’t come out to play.  The main players were Festivals and Villages giving lots of multiple actions in the game.   I took a pretty aggressive approach to collecting Provinces and it paid off in the end.  The second game we ended up with all the ‘attack’ actions as well as the moat, which was pretty interesting.  Steve took a Thief route, Susan took a Spy route, while I cornered the Laboratory market.  The Spy/Lab combo worked well for Susan as she slowly cleaned out the Provinces and Duchy cards.   For me the highlight was having five of my six Laboratories in a single turn.  +2 cards, +1 action, followed with a woodcutter for +2 gold and an extra buy.  J

We wrapped up around 830, which was good timing and I got my food and gym stuff packed up before bed.

jp

Gaming?  Yes, gaming…

Here we are again...

Mid April and I haven't posted any game stuff.  I suck.

I've gotten some gaming and gaming related stuff done between work trips, but not a lot.

  I took some Khador, a Spriggian and the Uhlans to build when I went to Montgomery for a week, but my super glue exploded in the luggage, luckily I was smart enough to put it in a plastic bag so it didn't destroy everything else.

On Saturday we had our WARMACHINE 15 point Megabattle.  Ten folks showed up, which was a good turn out, we were able to play two takes on the scenario and everyone seemed to have fun.  Here are some happy snaps...

From Mega Battle

From Mega Battle

From Mega Battle

From Mega Battle

From Mega Battle

From Mega Battle

You can see the rest of the pics following the links above.

The rest of my gaming time, if you want to call it that, has been spent on Locomotion by Chris Sawyer.  It is a pretty old game, but it is a pretty neat transport system game if you like that sort of thing.  I've always been a fan of Chris' Transport and Roller Coaster Series, but I don't think he is moving any games lately.

Steve is coming over tonight to get some board game action on.  I'll update on what and how later this week... Promise.

jp
Wanting to game more

Recruits in KC

Dan, Adam and I went to the 50 point Steamroller event that Kris put on down at Recruits in KC.  Recruits is a great little con, running a whole $5 for entry, which makes it a pretty good buy on your gaming dollar.  The 3.5 hour drive each way was the only real turn off since we didn't stay for the whole weekend.

Kris had 30+ players for his event which means we had a 5 round tournament.  I had my fully painted Butcher list which consisted of:
- Decimator
- Berserker x2
- Juggernaut
- Full Winter Guard w/ UA
- Kovnik Joe
- Grey Lords
- Full Battle Mechanics
- Full Man Of War Shocktroopers
- Manhunter

I ended up 2-3, with my wins coming against relatively new players.  Two of the losses were close affairs, one was plain stupidity on my part.

Game One vs. Epic Thagrosh of Everblight
I did a great job of killing tons of stuff in his army, but left Thags enough room to fly in and kill the Butcher.  Stupid wings.

Game Two vs. Menoth
New player with the Testament.  His deployment was pretty tight, and bunched together.  His last attempt at an attack run was his feat getting Knights Exemplar in charge lane to Butcher, but only two could make it.  The Testament took a Rip Saw to the face twice in return.

Game Three vs. Cryx
Newish player with Epic Dhenegra.  He really didn't play to much to her strength, trying to Hellmouth some ends, but never going for the throat.  It ended on time, and I held the most points in the boxes.

Game Four vs. Cryx
Montenebra with 3 Seethers, Nightmare and Leviathan.  Once again I had this one pretty much in hand, killing most of the army, but where I thought I had covered the charge lanes on the Butcher, they were able to use overrun and a dead Man O War to get the charge to kill him.

Game Five vs. Cygnar
Sloan.  She is a B!^@# and I mean how.  Butcher, engaged in combat, Def 18, shot in the face.  End.

Kris ran a pretty smooth event, maybe could be tightened up between rounds a bit, but overall good time.  We stopped a Jason's Deli for dinner on the way home and it must have been kids from hell eat free night.  9pm and the place was packed with runaway 6 year olds.

Got to the Shoppe and our cars at around 1am, back home around 130.  Tired puppy.

jp
Stupid Sloan.

Saturday Morning Gaming

Went to the gym early on base and did my workout, then headed over to the Shoppe for a few games of WARMACHINE.

We are in our 35 point game paint/play/slow grow league.  First game was against Dan L.  he played Epic Cain and a whole mess go Gun Mages.  I had the Butcher, 2 Berserkers, 1 Juggernaut, MoW Shocktroopers, Winter Guard, Kovnik Joe, Battle Wizards & War Dog.  I did a pretty good job of closing the gap and engaging the shooters.  All except the one that mattered, eCain.  Dan got the win with eCain's feat up and guns a blazing.

Game two was versus Adam's old witch list.  2 Berserkers, 2 Kosite Hillbillies, Crow's Cutthroats, Yuri 'da Axe and his two buddies.  This game was interesting.  as only the Old Witch, the Scrap Jack and the Berserkers deployed normally.  Everything else was either advance deploy or ambush.

Adam used the Kosites pretty good to hold up the Winter Guard, while the Butcher went up the middle with his 'Jacks.  I got some good combos on tramples and slams to get some of the Crows and 'Jacks out of the way.  When the Old Witch popped her feat, Butch kept the focus, advanced into the danger, survived and dropped a big rock on her head and rolled really well on the damage.  Flat Old Witch.

It was a good game Adam.  You too Dan.  Thanks much.

Spent the rest of the day with The Other Half, got some dinner at Jason's Deli then came home and watched two episodes of  Rescue Me.  Neither of us was sure it was going to grab us, but both thought we ought to give the first disk a try.

Later still did some base and painting on the Khador...  Trying to get them ready for Recruits in KC next weekend.

jp

WARMACHINE Lincoln Tournament

Hey,

Six of us went to Lincoln for a Warmachine tournament that Sam was hosting at Hobby Town.  It was Tony, Adam, Dan, and I with Chris and Mike in a second car.  We played four rounds and I did exceptionally bad.  25 point lists contained:

• Butcher (+6)
• Berserker x2 (12)
• Juggernaught (7)
• Decimator (9)
• Man-O-War Kovnik (3)

Very Jack heavy, but it was fun to run with not a lot of surprises for what you were getting.  I played three experience players and lost with my only win coming from a newbie.  Tough games all around, but not the best player I suppose.

Big thanks to Sam for running the event.

jp

Butcher for the Wi.... Whaaat???

Saturday Gaming, Friday Edition

I took some comp time on Friday given all the travel I had been doing.  If nothing else I earned a butt load of credit and travel comp time to use the past three weeks.

Steve was between mid shifts so I invited him over for some gaming after he had his sleep.  He showed at 2 and we had a chance to play a few games.  We started with Song of Blade and Heroes.  It was the first time for Steve to play and only my second.  He had some painted Gladiator figures from a game that Suzanne got him at GenCon, so I created a gladiator list for him that was pretty nifty.   I broke out my GW Dwarves and created one for me.

It was a good solid intro to the game.  I had a few extra numbers on Steve, but he had the quality troops.  Despite my slow speed, I was able to get up on the hill to move closer to Steve's force, but it was Gladiator Boris' Berserk combined with Reckless that issued first contact.  Unfortunately, since he always had to advance, he couldn't get an attack off, allowing the Slayer to hit and take him out early.  Additionally the Iron Guard were able to gang up on LeRoy to take him out on turn five or so with a "Gruesome Kill", causing his band to fall back.  That is when the tide turned and the remaining gladiators said, "Hey, it is only Dwarves!  Come on!"

I moved my Commander too close and he was netted and killed pretty easily.  That caused my forces to fall back twice, once from the dead leader and once for being under 50% strength.  The band dispersed to the wind and they never recovered.  Steve was able to pick off the rest of the band solo fashion, while the gunners tried vainly to pick off approaching forces.

In the end Steve won taking out all the Dwarves.  We chatted about the game and both liked the system and may try to set up a campaign with the gang as it seems to play quick and simple.

We then set up a game of Agricola then ran down to Hectors for dinner real quick.  Good Mexican food and pretty solid pricing.  If I could drink I would have had the Dos Equis Amber, from what I remember of my beer drinking it is yummy.  As it was I had two tacos and was pretty full.  Steve, The Other Half, and I had a pleasant conversation while waiting and eating.

When we got back to the house we started up Agricola had a few rounds and Paul showed to deliver me a printed copy of the Song of Blades and Heroes series as he has access to some great printers at work that can handle the job effectively.  We chatted for 1/2 hour or so then Paul headed down to the Shoppe while Steve and I finished up the game.  Steve went with a Occupation and Improvement strategy, trying to leverage all the freebies to get extra resources.  I focused on a little of everything, but tried to get the extra actions (babies) as early as I could.  With the expansion rules, the new fuel requirements kept playing havok on my wood collection, slowing down my fence building.  Steve ran into trouble at the end between feeding his large family or building a stone home.  He ended up feeding the family as it looked to be more points then those lost on the home.  Final score was 28 to 37 in my favor, with my concentration on card point improvements making the difference.

Good solid afternoon/evening of gaming.  Thanks for coming over Steve and hope you made it through the Mid-shift OK!

jp
Off to Lincoln for WM Tournament.

Song of Blades and Heroes

I've seen Song of Blades and Heroes (SBH), from Ganesha Games, on the street for a while, usually associated at a post on Tabletop Gaming News.  I've always  kind of discounted it due to the really cheap looking cover.  Heck it looks as bad as some of those original D&D cover art.  Compare for yourself.   So it was with some trepidation that I plucked down an entire $8 on a PDF version of the rules while being board out of my skull one evening on my last work trip.

What I found was a really clean, simple to execute rules set for a generic fantasy gaming.   In a nut shell, each figure on the board has two stats; Quality and Combat.  The Quality goes from 2+ to 6+.  It is the number you need to roll on a D6 to activate the model this turn.  Combat is your martial skill and is a single roll up of your offensive/defensive/armor/weapon/skill/etc.  It ranges from 1-5.  One of the unique items I like on SBH is the activation system.  When you choose to activate a model, you roll between 1-3 D6.  Your choice.  For every die that comes up on or above your Quality level, you get an action.  If you get two or more failures in a single roll, then your turn is over.  This forces the player to decide how risk averse the are...  Roll a single die for everyone and you will get to activate everyone, but be very limited to only a single action.  These actions walk, jog, run, attack, powerful attack, shoot, etc...  each take 1-3 actions.  If your only rolling that single die, then you can walk up to your opponent, but you won't be able to attack him.

On Saturday night late, after I had the green light, Eric came over and we tired a quick game.  He had a small undead hoard with a Wraith, zombies, skeleton warriors and a few archers.  I had an orc list with a warlord, 4 warriors and 4 goblin archers.  What really struck each of us during the game was the importance of the leader's ability to make your Quality better while in the Long range.  Eric's zombies had a real problem being Quality 6+ after his leader left them behind.

They have a quick and dirty mini campaign that can be completed in a night once you get the rules down as an average game is suppose to be about 45 mins long.  Ours was a bit over an hour, but we did keep looking up stuff to make sure we got it ok.

Another great feature is that you can build your army as you like since they have an online warband builder that allows you to create a custom warband.  So break out those Warmachine or Warhammer figs and get to building boys!

Finally, the seemed to have expanded past Fantasy.  They have both a modern gun centric game using the same core rule set as well as a Napoleonic skirmish game which might be interesting.

jp
Another one?