A tale of 7 gamers - updated!

So, because I obviously don't have enough going on in my hobby life right now I've been drawn into a fun tale of gamers project.

It's Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which I haven't played seriously since probably 4th edition, and I'm really looking forward to being able to get stuck into what looks like (from the few games I've observed of 8th edition) a decent rules set.

I'm starting up an Empire force, just for something totally different from my usual Chaotic proclivities, and picked up a battalion box and general last night from 4Tk Gaming.

TNG @ 4TKGaming 25/04

A great atmosphere at the club tonight, so much enthusiasm for the hobby on display, with lots of new games being tried out in the aftermath of another excellent Salute.

On display were (in no particular order):

Dystopian Wars

From the Dystopian Wars website:

The Dystopian Wars game is set in a Victorian Steampunk world and we have designed the rules to ensure a fun game with a large selection of high quality models in a couple of hours. The rules support Naval, Aerial and Land models from the outset, so that you can set up battles and scenarios in any combat setting.

We had a couple of 'first games' of it going on tonight, some hilarious episodes based on the exploding dice mechanic and some highly unlucky critical hit table rolls!

Dystopian Wars mid-game

Building a #dystopianwars board with @JohnnyHawkwind

One of my main purchases at Salute this year was an Empire of the Blazing Sun force for Dystopian Wars. There was a great demonstration board on display at the Magister stand and @JohnnyHawkwind and I immediately parted with enough cash to grab the uncharted seas sea walls, docks and harbour gate sets and an airstrip, residential and industrial set, all from Spartan Games.

the magister board - the inspiration!

Salute 2012 and #warmongers #miniswap launch

Salute is tomorrow! This year is much more exciting than previous ones, mainly due to my massively increased participation in the gaming community through Twitter and my 'blog, looking forward to the #warmongers lunchtime gathering and putting some faces to twitter tags :)

#warmongers #miniswap is go!

This week saw the launch of the miniswap, which is rather exciting (for me at least!) We have 6 pairs of miniswappers taking part in the inaugural swap, and as this was my aim I'm really chuffed to have gotten commitment from a fabulous bunch of #warmongers all looking to participate in the right spirit.

Some of us will be doing our swaps at Salute and I'm planning to purchase suitable models there so that it can be something nice and new :)

You can see the full details of the pairings on The Shell Case Forums and we'll all be posting updates on twitter using the #warmongers and #miniswap hashtags. I'll also do some progress posts on this blog to keep track of it all and record it for posterity.

What to buy at Salute?

Thanks to the handiness of twitter I already have a bunch of Dystopian Wars stuff (the Empire of the Sun, to be precise) coming my way, so I don't have any real firm idea of what to get. This in itself is rather dangerous, last time I just wandered around picking up random stuff and spent all my cash in about 40 minutes! :-S I need to pick up three models for others to paint as part of the miniswap (I'm only painting two in return, I win!) so that will involve some interesting shopping, and I have a hankering for some Forgeworld goodness, probably in the form of a Contemptor Dreadnought, and probably a 'matched' Decimator Demon Engine.

I don't really want to spend too much time filling the Great Beast's coffers however, last year I picked up quite a lot of VBCW stuff that someone else is currently painting up for a demo game on the day, so I might find some bits and pieces to add to that. I'm also keen to play a few demo games this year, see what's out there.

I also have an embryonic secret project in mind, which would take *forever* to complete, but would be a fun diversion alongside my other hobby bits and I may be able to find some cheap stuff in the bring & buy area for that...

In all honesty though I'll probably just find some nice single piece projects to work on, stock up on modelling supplies (basing materials, etc.) and see if I can get out of there without my bank (or fiancée) cutting me off at the knees!

I'll be tweeting pics and news on the day: @peppermint_cat and everyone will be making good use of #salute2012 on the day (internets dependent of course).

- rob

Relics battle report 1: Orcnar vs. Vaettir (300pts)

@Comaboy_77 and myself played a 300pt game of Relics last night, he'd already played a game against @JohnnyHawkwind's Britanans and so was looking for revenge against a different kind of opponent, my Orcnar.

The forces

Orcnar

• Beorn (Commander)
• Abifan
• Rifan
• 3 x Unmann
• 3 x Unmann
• 3 x Docga

Vaettir

• Evocatour (Commander)
• Huntawalu (Commander)
• Vstonin
• 3 x Varrier
• 3 x Varrier
• 2 x Varbres
• 6 x Elvspon

Setup

Pretty straight forward really as neither of us had any real ranged threat on the board (Dave was hankering after his ranged spell-slinger and I'd certainly like to try out the Grymann some time, early turns with pure melée forces can feel slow in any system!). I tried to balance my two big guys (Rifan and Abifan) to cover my flanks and held the Docga back slightly for counter-charge purposes.

Orcnar deployment

Vaettir deployment

Early turns

Lots of manoeuvring around, mainly headlong towards one another(!), but eventually I managed to get my Abifan in a position to try out his earthquake attack. Lined up nicely on the Vstonin, rolled the required 4+ and then discovered he's immune to the effects of knock down counters! Arrgh!  

Ready, aim, earthquake!! /ignored /cry

Turn 4 

This is where things began to get interesting, after another turn where my Abifan failed to have any impact with his 'ranged' attack I charged him into the mix through the centre whilst my Rifan was engaged on the right by one of Dave's Varrier unit, his other getting the charge in on my Docga. All this while he had been using his spells to useful effect, though had been particularly unlucky to fail in casting Distraction on my Abifan (on six dice needing a single 5+ result!) meaning I could smash into his Huntawalu causing a hit. He then moved his Vstonin into the fray and managed to get a knock down counter on my Abifan, but unfortunately couldn't take advantage of it.

The position after 4 turns - things beginning to get SMASHY!

The view from the Vaettir side of things...

Turns 5-7

Things turned somewhat attritional, the Vaettir managed to keep dodging the attentions of the Rifan on the right but my Abifan got a supporting charge from the second Unmann unit, which helped to balance things up nicely. The Vstonin, whilst nasty, struggled to make any impact rolling just three dice against the Abifan, which gave it time to take out the nasty Huntawalu before switching his attacks in the Vstonin's direction...

Smash, crush, DESTROY! (or not)

Huntawalu receiving some close attention from the Abifan

Vstonin fights back!

Clearly enraged by the death of his commander (we forgot the first morale check for death of a commander, we incorrectly assumed it only happened on the death of your last commander model, not so, whenever any commander model dies any unit within its command range must take a morale check), the Vstonin wreaked his revenge on the Abifan, first of all knocking him down and then smashing him to pieces (me failing two 4+ saves in the process, ack!)

I managed to get my Beorn in to charge range of the Evocatour, who he finished off with no difficulties, and then switched to supporting the Unmann in picking apart the Vstonin, finally bringing him to his knees. The problem with all this was that there were no even more Elvspon running around, though we did remember to do command checks when the Evocatour departed (though incorrectly lol, we really weren't having a good day with the command and morale rules!)

Huntawalu dispatched, now onto the Vstonin! Oops, the Abifan forgot to stay alive :(

Pesky Varriers and Varbres will not die!

Honourable mention

Dave's super-elvspon deserves a mention here, he managed to take out not one, but two Unmann requiring double 3's or better to do so! Not one of the Orcnar's better days in that respect lol!

Elvspon begin to take their toll on the Unmann :-S

End game

I think it's fair to say that at the end of turn 5/6 we both thought it was all done bar the shouting, shaken Vaettir all over the place, Dave down to his last couple of elvspon and basic units. That said, the Vaettir are capable of fighting pretty well when backed into a corner! Dave passed a large number of 4 and 5-up dodge saves and I rolled pretty atrociously even with fercious and brutal units at my disposal. He picked off pretty much all of my remaining Unmann with a combination of elvspon mightiness and Varrier/Varbres good rolling, but that still left me with my Rifan, Beorn and Docga to carry out the mopping up operation.

The last survivors of the encounter

Heroic Elvspon, killed 2 Unmann!

The victorious few!

Summary

A great fight then! I don't think either of us would take exactly the same army again, I really want to try out a Niwian to give my flanks more flexibility and some Grymann to give me some interesting ranged options. I think Dave will be dropping the two Varbres, or boosting their number, 2 really just didn't have any effect. We may very well see some proxying of his ranged spell-slinger as well. What was interesting about the turns is that they move fast when there's no melée or ranged going on, so we rattled through to turn 4 pretty darn quickly and got into the sticky business of smashing each other into a sticky pulp (ok, I'm sure the Vaettir wouldn't smash, probably just slice open a choice artery and dance away, but meh, whatever, Orcnar SMASH!)

I'm keen to play a game against Paul next at this elevated points level, the Britanan ranged threat would pose a different kind of threat for the Orcnar, I think I'll need to take a lot of Docga to counter it and stop him sitting there in pretty lines waiting for the whites/reds/yellows of the Orcnar eyes.

It was nice seeing all of the newer models out on the board on the Vaettir side, it's a brilliantly characterful army and looks great on the table top. I still love the look of the Orcnar though, the Abifan and Rifan tower over everything else on the board (even the Vaettir supposed 'big guy' the Huntawalu) and really impose themselves on the battlefield :)

That's it for now, I'm sure we'll be playing lots more soon!

- rob

the great #warmongers miniswap extravaganza!

As a result of me eavesdropping on a twitter exchange between @sylvester_33 and @MarcUpdates, whom I'm sure all dedicated #warmongers already follow, it was suggested that we should try to organise the first #warmongers mini-swap and paint on a grand and global scale!

What is a miniswap?

A miniswap is a simple idea, everyone who wants to take part puts their name in the hat and then a random draw gives you a name of someone else in the miniswap. They send you a mini to paint (it's through snail mail, so a standard 28mm infantry model is probably about as big as you want to get!), which you dutifully apply your best brush skills to and then return for them to add to their collection.

Of course because you're part of the same miniswap, someone else will get your name, you'll send them a mini and they'll paint it up for you :)

We have some great brush skills out there in the twitterverse all allying themselves to the #warmongers hashtag so you've every chance of getting a rather good looking figure out of this, unless I pull your name out of the hat of course, sorry about that...

To get involved first head over to The Shell Case Alliance forums and sign up, once we have sufficient numbers (a dozen or so) I'll draw the first names for everyone and post the results, from there it's up to you to organise address swapping and get the thing moving.

Salute 2012

Anyone going to Salute on the 21st who would like to be put into a 'sub-group' for doing the miniswap in situ, just mention that in your sign up post and I'll do a pre-Salute draw. We're doing a #warmongers get together anyway so it sounds like an ideal opportunity to save one batch of postage costs to me!

Go, go, go!

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to The Shell Case Alliance and get involved, the first annual #warmongers miniswap extravaganza is go!