First games of Zombicide: Black Plague

I had my first try at the new Zombicide: Black Plague game last night. I had played the original Zombicide a couple of times and didn't enjoy it at all. I felt it was too hard and unforgiving of mistakes. I agreed to play this new version because I didn't have a game arranged for last night and thought it would be better than nothing. I wasn't expecting much but I really enjoyed it.

 

The new version has been tweaked to improve certain things apparently (although I have no real idea what these are). I did like the trays you got to organise things and the fact that you got to choose your starting weapons.

 

 

I played as Nelly, the tavern wench, which I liked as I got a free movement action straight away. Sadly I never got enough experience in either of the games we played to try out the orange and red abilities.

 

 

I think we had three other fighters a ranged character and a mage (who worryingly is called Baldric!). The first game we had to rescue six villagers from various locations around the board. There were also two crypts we could enter which held a powerful spell and a powerful crossbow. Much to my surprise we won and did so without anyone dying. Although there were a few close calls.

The second game was more complicated. We had to examine some markers until we found a blue one and a green one which would allow us to open specific doors that would grant us access to the two crypts which in turn allowed us to access an area with a book we needed to retrieve (I think). Sadly by the time we got there we were on orange and the four rooms spawned a host of runners walkers and fatties. Luckily judicious use of spells and abilities allowed us to clear it out. All we had to do now to win was get one character to red. We did manage that but lost one character in the process.

 

All in all a good nights fun with a good group of people playing cooperatively. I'm looking forward to the next game when hopefully the rest of Steve's Kickstarter pledge will have arrived. Then we might not get swamped because we've run out of walkers!

New Iron Cross army list PDFs

Great Escape Games have released additional force lists for Iron Cross. These cover NW Europe 1944-45, including British Airborne, US Airborne, Waffen SS, Volksgrenadiers and Soviet Assault Battalions. The pdf can be found here.

They also have a couple of other PDFs that may be of interest which can be found here.

Iron Cross WW2 rules first playthrough

As promised here's my thoughts on the rules after my first solo play through. I set up a 4'x4' table as shown below, the hedges I used as bocage. (Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures I couldn't find the lead to charge my camera.)

A crossroads somewhere in Normandy

I grabbed what 15mm figures I could find and made two 500pt forces. The Americans (shown below) had 3 Sherman 76mm, 2 M10 tank destroyers, an M20 scout car, a mortar, an MMG and 6 infantry units 3 of which had bazookas.

The U.S. forces

The Germans (below) had 2 Panthers, a Pz IV, a Stug IV, 2 Pak 40s, a nebelwerfer used as a mortar and 4 infantry squads.

The German force

I'm not going to do a full AAR as that wasn't the point of the exercise. My aim was to try out the rules and see what happened.

I didn't use any of the supplied scenarios but set up was straightforward. The game uses activation tokens as its main resource, activating a unit to move or react to an enemy move costs you one token. You start the game with one token for each unit plus one extra from your command unit. In this game the US had 15 tokens while the Germans had 12 tokens. I was a bit worried that this activating and reactivating wouldn't work too well solo but I was wrong. The US won the initiative and after I'd activated a few units I was starting to look at how many tokens I had left and how many the Germans still had and decided to pass the initiative over to the Germans while I had enough tokens left to react if needed. Also this allowed the US to see what the Germans were going to do and maybe adjust their plan accordingly when they got the initiative back. This planning your tactics and deciding when to react and when to pass the initiative over is the main part of the game and is great fun even solo.

In the Meeples & Miniatures podcast the authors commented that taking a force just comprised of a few Tigers or Panthers although it seems powerful is a bad idea. I wasn't so sure about this and nearly took five Panthers (100pts each) as the German force. However after a few activations I understood what they meant. Obviously as you activate and reactivate models you have fewer & fewer tokens left. The US with 15 tokens could do a lot of things but if I'd taken all Panthers I'd only have had 6 tokens to start with and would soon run out meaning the US could activate without fear as the Germans would be unable to react allowing the tank destroyers or Shermans to push forward and go for shots on the flank/rear unopposed. But that's not the only reason. If you have enemy infantry within 12" you're penalised when firing (maybe because your commander is buttoned up reducing visibility), unless you have your own infantry within 12" as well. So you need infantry support for your tanks which I thought was a nice touch.

I'd didn't find the lack of artillery a problem as I had mortars for indirect fire. Also one of the scenarios allows a preliminary bombardment which inflicts morale markers to weaken the enemy before your attack. I didn't miss air support either, obviously the airfields were shrouded in fog or the planes were tasked elsewhere. I didn't use smoke as I never really felt the need for it as I had plenty of cover on the table.

(What follows is mainly what I felt was wrong with the rules. This doesn't mean I don't like the rules or that they're bad. Quite the opposite I think they're excellent but with some problems that should have come up in play testing and been fixed. It looks like when they were streamlining the rules they went a little too far in places. None of the problems I encountered were game breaking or even difficult to fix. But may cause problems for inexperienced gamers.)

I did start to hit problems as the game progressed. The first was with line of sight. There is no mention of how you deal with LoS anywhere in the rules. Now in most cases this isn't a problem as you can reasonably say that units behind buildings or bocage are obviously out of sight. But then we get to woods, do they allow clear LoS as you can see through them on the table or do they block LoS completely. If you have a unit in a wood can it shoot out and be shot at in return? None of these things are that difficult for a pair of friends who are experienced gamers to agree on before the game. But these rules with their simplified approach while still having good tactical depth would be an excellent starter set for new players and I think they would struggle to know what to do. This isn't a big fix, a few lines could quickly clear this up and I'm surprised it hasn't been included.

My next problem follows on from this and relates to buildings. There are no rules for buildings in the game. A few activations in I wanted a few units of infantry to enter the church but I couldn't find how you do this. After a bit of thought I decided that taking an action to enter a building (units have two actions they can use each activation) would be reasonable. After the game as I was checking a few things in the rulebook I noticed that buildings were mentioned in the movement section as being counted as rough going, that is the same as a hedge or area of rubble.
Looking at how rough ground affects movement I saw that it has no effect on infantry. Fair enough the game is a bit abstracted in certain areas and I can live with that. Except looking at how rough ground affects vehicles the rule doesn't work. For example scout cars can pass through rough ground if they roll a 2 or better on a D6. I'm sorry there's no way a little scout car can enter one side of a terraced house and easily pass out the other side. An intact house is very different from a hedge or area of rubble. Again this is a reasonably easy fix and one wonders why it wasn't picked up in playtesting.

But that's not the only problem with buildings and here we go back to the lack of LoS rules. Lets say my US infantry enter the rear of the church and I have a Pz IV in the field on the other side of the church. Can the Pz IV react to the infantry moving into the church and shoot them, does it see them? Yet again this is an easy fix and I can't see how this didn't come up in playtesting.

The last problem I have with the rules is how certain things are explained. I'll give you a couple of examples.

One of the rules for mortars says that you get a +1 bonus to hit as long as some part of the target hasn't moved more than 4" from where it was first targeted. This seems straightforward, it's 8+ to hit the first time and as long as part of the target is within 4" of it's original position the next time that turn you shoot at it it's a 7+ and then a 6+ etc. Except the rule goes on to explain this by saying "This means that a player cannot activate the target unit, shuffle sideways 5" and then claim its not in the target area." Now I'm not very good at maths but I think that 5" is more than 4" so it is outside the target area. This could be a typo but it might not be, it might mean something else that I'm missing.

Another example is with Reactivation. The rule says the reacting player has to say what his reaction is and pay the token cost 'before any dice have been rolled'. So what happens if the first player then fails his activation, does the reacting player still lose his token for reacting even though he has nothing now to react to. I decided that if the player fails his roll the activation didn't happen so there is nothing to react too. This maybe what was intended I have no idea.

There's other areas where things aren't as clear as they could be but these rules aren't alone in that respect.

The only other thing I would say is that these are not 'fast play' rules. Both of you will spend ages each turn deciding on what to activate and whether to react or not. Especially with games where you may have 30 or 40 tokens each like at 1000pts. You could get round this by setting a time limit for each turn and using a chess clock app on your mobile.

Overall I like the rules despite the problems I mentioned. I spent most of my time during the game working out which units to activate and whether it was worth spending a token to react to a move or not. Should I risk it and try push forward multiple times with a unit and hope I made the activation rolls and not waste limited tokens or not. In other words I was thinking about tactics not rules which is the overriding strong point for these rules. I'll be using them again now I've got my 'house rules' sorted for the things I mentioned and I expect to have lots of fun doing so.

Quick Review: Iron Cross WW2 Rules

Time for another quick review. This one features the new WW2 wargame rules 'Iron Cross' from Great Escape Games which cost £12 inc p&p. So onto the rules (here I should say that I just received my copy today so haven't had time to play an actual game.) I have now had a play through of the rules and the post can be found here.

I'd seen mention of these rules on TMP but didn't know anything about them until I listened to the Meeples & Miniatures podcast 156 which featured an in-depth interview with the rules creators.I had no real interest in a new set of WW2 rules as I felt I was pretty well catered for with Chain of Command and Battlegroup: Fall of the Reich. However listening to the podcast got me interested in them and I ended up buying a copy. What got my interest was a combination of the 'simple' mechanics/approach and the tactical depth to the gameplay.

The rules fast play approach is something that I've found more appealing lately. I've been playing a lot of Kings of War Napoleonics (a home brewed variant) and a set of rules that you can quickly explain to a new player that has them thinking about tactics rather than mechanics after a couple of turns has become more and more appealing. This is what led to buy the rules after listening to the podcast.

Some of the stuff in the rules is fairly standard, for example the rules use a D6 for morale/activation and a D10 for combat and markers to manage activations. But what is unusual is that there are no weapon ranges. If you can see it you can shoot it. Also there is no separate melee phase. At 6" range and under firing is more deadly and the close combat/grenades etc is assumed to be part of the combat at that range. This may make the rules seem too simple but they're not. The big thing that sold me was the tactical depth presented by the activation system.

You get one activation marker for each unit you have plus two from the commander and these are used to activate your units, again fairly standard stuff. Where the fun happens is how you use these markers. The player with initiative activates one unit with a marker. He can then decided if he wants to activate another unit or activate the same unit again. If the same unit is activated again he must roll a D6 and get one more than the number of activations that the unit has undertaken e.g. activating a 2nd time he needs a 2+ on a D6. But wait, there's more. His opponent can interrupt the activation and spend one of his markers to activate a unit to react to the move (for example to shoot with an anti-tank gun) but needs a 3+ on a D6 to activate the unit. So your opponent can react to your moves by spending his activation markers but the more markers he spends in reacting the less he will have for his own turn. Plus the player with initiative can at anytime pass the initiative over to his opponent who can pass it back after he has completed at least one activation. So you have a cat & mouse game with resource management. Do you risk spending a marker on reacting or do you save it, if you spent one on reacting with your anti-tank gun but it misses do you spend another or cut your losses. Do you spend markers on the same unit and push ahead to grab an objective or will it get isolated and cut down in your opponents turn. Maybe you've planned ahead and saved some markers to react and protect your advanced unit.

Although it's a bit of a hackneyed cliche the game is like chess in that the basic rules are simple but the tactical gameplay is complex. The rules only cover 11 pages of the 32 page rulebook. The rest is taken up by the four scenarios and the four late war army lists (which cover a page each) and some gameplay examples. Units are 4/5 individual figures to a unit for 28mm or 4/5 figures on a base for 15mm, tanks are based individually, support weapons have 2/3 crew per base so you can easily reuse your existing stuff without rebasing.

Other stuff to cover, a hit inflicts a morale marker on a unit (think pins from Bolt Action) infantry can have 5 markers before they are removed from play. You can spend an activation marker to try and rally a unit and remove some morale markers. Individual figures can have any weapons you like as they are not taken into account. Firing is done with a D10 and a 5+ hits modified by moving, number of morale markers etc and that's about it.

If you want some more details then I suggest you listen to the podcast I mentioned above. I'm really looking forward to giving these rules a try. Now all I have to do find which box my WW2 stuff is in, moving house really messes up your storage system. Once I've had a game I'll post an AAR and link it here.

Kings of War Napoleonics

Yes its a surprise post, I'm not dead after all! Just not been in the blogging mood for a while. But here's a quick post about my foray into Kings of War (KoW) in general and Napoleonics in particular.

The majority of the figure gaming I've been doing over the past year has been 'Black Powder' Napoleonics in 28mm. While the rules are okay they never really grabbed me, but we could have a game with about 13 Infantry units, 6 cavalry units and 4 guns a side and be finished in about 2.5 hours which is pretty good for a game of that size. For a change of pace we tried out the 'Soldiers of God' Crusades rules I'd got when they were on sale as it gave me a chance to give my 28mm crusades armies a run out.

Although we found these rules were awful I enjoyed playing with the armies and I suggested giving it a go using KoW with the Kingdoms of Men list.

This was great fun and we managed to get in two games in one session. Then I made the mistake of casually mentioning that I'd heard of people using the same list as the basis for Napoleonics games. Which led me to agreeing to sort out a copy of the lists so we could try them out. Of course I couldn't find these anywhere so resorted to having come up with my own version.

We've played a few games with them now, constantly tweaking and adding or removing things to improve them. But each game has been fun to play and I don't think we'll be going back to 'Black Powder'. The latest version has included my first try at a points system and has added a few special rules to add flavour to the game.

We use the 2nd edition rules as is (with the exception that we don't use the 'Disorder' rules which don't work in a Napoleonic setting) plus some extras to fit in with the Napoleonic period. If you are interested in the list it can be found here Peter's work in progress KoW Napoleonics.

As I'm enjoying KoW I splashed out on an Ogre Mega army so I can play KoW in its intended form and hopefully I can get some ex-Warhammer players to dig out their old armies for a few games (once I get them painted of course).

Warhammer 40k Conquest LCG and gaming catch up.

It's been a while since I posted, not because I haven't been gaming, rather the opposite. One of the main aims of my move back home to Stockton on Tees was the prolific local gaming scene and I have been taking full advantage.

Beanie Games my FLGS is open Monday & Tuesday afternoons for gaming, 11am till 10pm Weds, Thurs & Fri and 10 til 5 Sat & Sun. Plus Middlesbrough Games Club is open Tues and Thurs nights and has an all day meeting on the first Saturday of every month. In addition Beanie regularly run tournaments for lots of games. And then there's clubs in Hartlepool and Darlington and a couple of other local FLGS's. So I'm spoilt for choice!

I've played a few board games like Zombiecide and Snowdonia, Battlore 2nd edition, which I love, and a couple of games of Golem Arcana which is great fun although it's been hard to find people who want to play; lots of X-wing; won a Star Wars Attack Wing tournament (I've no idea how); entered a Heroclix tournament (I have no idea why as I'd never played before); played a few games of Crescent & Cross which I like even though I hated Saga; played lots of the new version of Dust tabletop (which I love); a few games of Black Powder Napoleonics which much to my surprise I now quite like after years of hating it; I've played a few games of the new Infinity rules but there's lots to learn yet; I've got back into D&D with a great local group (every other Wednesday); bought yet more sets of rules which I haven't got round to playing yet. Thursday nights are for Android Netrunner, which I've been playing a lot; I've also played lots of other LCGs like Game of Thrones, Star Wars and most recently 40K Conquest.

So on to 40K Conquest. Beanie ran their first monthly store tournament on Friday night. There were 12 of us taking part which was a pretty good turnout. I'd had just two practice games beforehand but the friendly folks at the 40K Conquest Facebook page had helped me with my build. I'd decided to go with Dark Eldar with Eldar allies as shown below:

Warlord:
1x Packmaster Kith (Core Set)

Army Unit: (32)
4x Kith’s Khymeramasters (Core Set)
2x Altansar Rangers (Core Set)
2x Baleful Mandrake (Core Set)
1x Beasthunter Wyches (Core Set)
2x Biel-Tan Warp Spiders (Core Set)
2x Coliseum Fighters (Core Set)
3x Eldar Survivalist (Core Set)
2x Hellion Gang (Core Set)
2x Incubus Warrior (Core Set)
2x Kabalite Strike Force (Core Set)
1x Klaivex Warleader (The Scourge)
2x Murder of Razorwings (Core Set)
3x Shrouded Harlequin (Core Set)
1x Soaring Falcon (Core Set)
2x Sybarite Marksman (Core Set)
1x Syren Zythlex (Core Set)

Attachment: (5)
1x Agonizer of Bren (Core Set)
2x Bladed Lotus Rifle (The Scourge)
2x Suffering (Core Set)

Event: (9)
2x Pact of the Haemonculi (Core Set)
2x Archon’s Terror (Core Set)
3x Power from Pain (Core Set)
2x Raid (Core Set)

Support: (4)
1x Khymera Den (Core Set)
2x Altar of Torment (Core Set)
1x Archon’s Palace (The Howl of Blackmane)

I had no particular plan, I just hoped I wouldn't get my ass handed to me in every game! My first game was with another player new to the game who was using an Eldar deck with Dark Eldar allies. I managed to build up a decent force in my HQ while closing down his resources so had a fairly easy win.
My second game was very different. I played the eventual winner of the tournament who was also using DE/E. I got my ass handed to me! I could see I was going to lose after the first planet. He shut down my resources while completely outplaying me. Thankfully the game was over at the third planet to put an end to my misery.
The third game was also against DE/E but was much closer. My opponent was more experienced than me but I managed to keep things close until he played 'Calamity' and then capped the first planet with 'Syren Zythlex' which meant all the cards I could bring to the planet would be exhausted and he easily won the battle there to get the last planet he needed.
The last round was against Space Marines led by Cato Sicarius, I'm not sure if he had any allies. The planets fell in a weird order which meant we would have to go to the fifth planet for a win. This was a fairly close game with his big units against my more numerous small units. Judicious use of 'Archon's Terror' to rout key units plus 'Power from Pain' and 'Raid' gave me the edge for a win.

Overall I was pretty happy I went 2-0 and came 8th plus I learnt a lot. The Dark Eldar played like the fluff, causing opponents to groan in pain when I stole resources or routed units. There were a few Ragnar Blackmane builds going after warlord kills, as well as Chaos and Imperial Guard decks. So a good mix of decks. I'm looking forward to the next tournament.

Wargaming Overload Part 3

In addition to the ACW and ancients games I mentioned yesterday I've also played some Napoleonics and WW2 games.

Having made a start on assembling two 15mm Napoleonics forces 18 months ago I decided it was time to finish them up and finally get a game using the 'Napoleon at War' rules. I'd made the decision to buy painted figures rather than paint my own for two reasons. Firstly it would be quicker and second my poor eyesight and shaky hands make painting all the detail on napoleonics almost impossible. eBay buys of painted French and British armies had given me the bulk of what I needed but I was still short a few cavalry and quite a few infantry battalions. So I ordered a bunch of painted units from Stonewall Figures who offer a good range at great prices. They arrived quickly and they were soon based up ready for our first game.

Back in Feb 2013 I had a look at some options for Napoleonics rules and settled on 'Napoleon at War'. They're pretty straightforward and easy to pick up and we got a game with about 8 battalions of foot, 4 regiments of cavalry and some artillery completed in about three hours. It was fun but there were a few things I didn't like, particularly that there's no point in attacking in column as you get no bonuses and you get fewer bases for shooting so you're better off attacking in line. It sort of struck me as a Napoleonic lite game. Fun, easy to pick up but not a particularly accurate simulation of Napoleonic warfare. I think I'll go back and have another look at FoG:Napoleonic.

Talking of not particularly accurate simulations I was persuaded to have another run out with Bolt Action. Time to dust off my 28mm Russians.

It was a 1000pt game and I was facing some Germans supported by a Jagdpanther (at least my Churchill had decent armour, although its pop gun six pounder had little chance of hurting the Jagdpanther) with the mission to recover some intel from the centre of a village. After some initial sparring for position the main action started with both sides trying to recover the intel only to be cut down by fire or wiped out by an assault. Time ran out with the intel still in the village but surrounded by a mass of German & Russian corpses. The result a draw.

I can see the attraction of Bolt Action but it just doesn't do it for me. Chain of Command is still my favourite small scale WW2 rule set.

Tomorrow, amongst other things, I'll be looking at my participation in, of all things, a Heroclix tournament!

Wargaming Overload Part 2

I'd been looking forward to getting more figure gaming done after the move and I haven't been disappointed.

I've had a large 28mm ACW game using Black Powder which was fun but it confirmed my suspicions that Black powder isn't for me. It's great for getting large battles played out in an evening but the mechanics just don't appeal. I'm hoping that Longstreet will fulfil my ACW needs and I've taken the plunge and I'm getting two Pendraken 10mm armies professionally painted. I'll post some pictures of them once they're done.

Action on the left flank of the ACW game.

Although I've always enjoyed ACW, ancients is my first love. So I was really pleased to not only try out the full Impetus rules but also give Sword & Spear a go. I've played a few games of Basic Impetus and although I've had the full rules ages I've never been able to try them out. Luckily there's a few Impetus players locally so I've managed to play some games. The full rules are better than the Basic set but the combat is more or less the same. And that's the problem I have with them, for me the archery is just too powerful. There's a lot I like about the rules and I'd recommend giving them a try if you haven't already but they're not for me.

That brings me nicely onto Sword & Spear which has been generating quite a bit of buzz lately. The rules have lots of interesting mechanisms and require quite a bit of tactical thought which is a good thing. Plus the PDF is only £6.00 so you can't go wrong. The rules read quite well and it's quite easy to pick up the basics but there's a few wrinkles that you only noticed after playing. But that's no different from any ruleset, as you always get things wrong and miss things in your first few games. Overall I think they're a good set that can give you an enjoyable game and again I recommend giving them a try. But what I have found is that you concentrate on moving the individual units so much so that it feels a bit like you're moving chess pieces around a board rather than managing the massed ranks of an ancients battle. But I'm sure that many people will love these rules. Unfortunately my search for the perfect ancients rules goes on especially as we all know there's no such thing. I'm planning on going back to take another look at Dux Bellorum as I enjoyed the rules and I've found some variants to expand them into other eras. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Sumer to Sargon variant 'Warrior Kings'. At the bottom of the rather long page is an excellent AAR showing them in action.

Tomorrow I'll take a look my venture into Napoleonics using the 'Napoleon at War' rules.

Wargaming Overload!

So I've been in my new (temporary) home for six weeks now and still no new posts so what's going on? Well I've been suffering from gaming overload. The gaming scene is very active up here and it's possible to game seven nights a week plus most afternoons and weekends. So with me being retired and having suffered a dearth of gaming for the past year or so I've been pigging out at every opportunity. This hasn't left me with much time to blog. So here's a quick update on what I've been doing.

Most of my gaming has been X-Wing with some Star Trek Attack Wing thrown in for good measure.

I resisted X-Wing for a long time but I'm well and truly hooked now. I started out playing Imperials because I used to love flying the Tie fighter in the old X-Wing vs Tie Fighter PC game.

I added a Tie-Advanced and Slave-1 to the two Tie Fighters from the starter box because Darth Vader and Boba Fett 'nuff said. I played around with pilots and loadouts to get a feel of the game and then settled on a build I was happy with and played that for quite a few games until I learnt how to use them effectively. As there are quite a few Imperial players locally I decided to branch out and get some Rebels. Also because Imp vs Imp games take forever with their low attack dice and high defence. I decided to buy two B-Wings, a Z-95 and another X-wing after I read about a build using B-wings that sounded interesting. As it turned out not the best bit of planning I've ever done. I've done ok using two B-wings, an X-wing and the Z-95. But the B-wings don't really suit my type of play with them so lacking in manoeuvrability. But they do have one saving grace that I found out by accident, Autoblasters. This is a 5 point, range 1, Cannon upgrade and any normal damage can't be cancelled with defence dice, couple this with Ten Numb's pilot ability which prevents 1 critical from being cancelled makes it deadly at close range. (Old news for experienced players no doubt)

As I said I found this out by accident. I was playing a newbie who only had enough ships to make a 60 pt game. So to give him an easy win to encourage him to get into the game I decided to take a B-wing and just load it with the most expensive options I could and then add a cheap, easy to kill, Z-95 to round out the build. I thought this would be so crappy he'd have no trouble beating me. To cut a long story short, three attacks from the B-wing three dead Imperials and game over in no time. Luckily there were three of us playing that night so I lent him my now super B-wing and let him have a 100pt game with Vince.  He did get a couple of kills with it and had a much closer game so hopefully I didn't put him off!

I've also invested in Star Trek Attack Wing. I bought the starter set and subsequently added a Borg sphere. Like a lot of people I was put off by reports of the poorly painted ships but I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the Enterprise is so so but the Romulan warbird is quite nice and some of the Dominion ships are as good as X-Wing. But what I really like is the extra level of complexity you get with all the abilities and upgrades. Its based on X-wing but, tactically, it plays very differently. Sadly I'm struggling to get anyone to play as they're happy with X-Wing. But, strangely for me as I hate tournaments, I have entered an organised play event at my local club which takes place on the 17th. I'll let you know how I get on.

That's hardly scratched the surface of what I've been up to, so I'll post more updates each day this week. Hopefully that will get me back in the swing of updating things regularly.

What I'd like to play in the coming months

With my move finally taking place next Monday I should be getting back to gaming next week after a break of about six months. So more for myself than anything else I've created a list of games and systems I want to play over the coming months. The most recent addition to the list is the new Sword & Spear ancients rules. They sound like they're fun to play and have some interesting ideas. So being a rules junkie I had to buy them (the fact that they're only £6 for the PDF helped).

Sword & Spear - Ancients 15 or 28mm (Have various armies, painted & unpainted)
Impetus - Ancients 15 or 28mm (Have various armies, painted & unpainted)
Dux Bellorum - 10 or 15 or 28mm (Have various painted figs I can proxy)
Ronin - Samurai Skirmish 20mm (Have both sides and painted)
Mayhem - Fantasy any scale (Have 2 10mm armies painted plus some painted 28mm)
Maurice - 18C 10 or 28mm (Have 2 10mm armies both unpainted)
Napoleon at War - Napoleonic 15mm (Have French & British painted. But short a few units)
Longstreet - ACW 10mm (Have 2 armies both unpainted)
All Quiet on the Martian Front - 15mm (Have 2 armies from the KS both unpainted)
Chain of Command - WW2 15 or 20 or 28mm (Have 20mm Germans & Brits painted. But short a few figs. Also have some painted 28mm Russians and a ton of painted 15mm FoW stuff)
Battlegroup: Fall of the Reich - 20mm WW2 (Have some Germans & Brits painted. But short a few units)
Dust Warfare/Tactics - WWW2 28mm (Have masses of US and Germans)
Deadzone - scifi skirmish 28mm (Have 4 or 5 factions all unpainted)
X-Wing - Starter box
Dropzone Commander - Scfi 10mm (Have both sides and painted)
Battletech Alpha Strike - (Have enough painted for a small game)

Android Netrunner - Boardgame
Heroes of Normandie - Boardgame
Lords of War - Card game

Don't have but would like to try:
Malifaux 2e - 28mm (Have a ton of models for various factions but not the new rules/cards)
Dux Britanniarum - 28mm (have some painted and unpainted 28mm figs I can use)
Full Thrust - Space combat
Wild West skirmish of some sort not sure on the best rules.

That's a long list but I've probably forgotten some things. At least unpacking (when I get round to it) will be like Xmas.

Star Wars X-Wing for 'free' and an update on my move.

Things are finally coming together with my house move. I'd hoped to be all sorted out April/May time but I had a bit of a health scare which has put things back a couple of months (don't you just love getting old!). So I'm going to be renting somewhere now until I find a place to buy. That means a lot of my gaming stuff will be in storage so I'm currently trying to sort out what to take with me.

I have a bunch of things I want to play like the 'Heroes of Normandie' board game stuff I got from the Kickstarter which has just arrived and the X-Wing miniatures game.

I'd resisted X-Wing for ages as I thought it was expensive for what you got. But I kept reading batreps and it did sound fun and the clincher was that I found I could get the starter set free, well sort of.

Most people in the UK will know that Tesco have a reward scheme that gives you Clubcard points every time you shop. Normally I save these up all year and use the vouchers to buy scifi/fantasy books from Tesco Direct books as a Xmas present to myself. Last year I noticed that they had the 'Force on Force' rulebook available and I used some of my points to get it. So when the urge to splurge on X-Wing reared its head again I checked out Tesco Direct to see if they had it and they did! A quick check on my points total showed I had more than enough to buy the game and a couple of days later it arrived.

There's a lot more to the game than I'd thought and I've had fun playing it solo using an excellent AI opponent that I found online. I think the starter box is great value (especially as it cost me nothing) but the booster packs do seem expensive although you don't need many models to play a standard 100pt game. (Like wargamers will ever resist buying everything that comes out for a game!)

I'm off up to the frozen north next week to check out some rental properties and I'm planning on popping in to the local wargames club to say Hi and check out the local gaming scene at the same time. Hopefully I'll be back gaming and posting regularly sometime in July.

Another Tempting Kickstarter!

Although I'm still busy with getting ready to sell my house I do find time to keep up with what's new in the wargaming world. It was on one of these forays that I came across this Kickstarter called 'Warbands & Legions'. It's described as 'A counter based game of massed tabletop combat from biblical times to the dark ages.'

I've always been a sucker for ancients and this looks quite interesting. The art style will probably put some people off but I quite like it. The basic game only costs £30 inc p&p and for that you get the following:

Which looks to be a pretty good deal. I'm already thinking of adding the New Kingdom Egyptians army to a pledge. I haven't actually committed to the project yet as I'd like to see more on how the rules work and more on the campaign system thats mentioned.  The other benefit is that its due for delivery in April 2014 (although 'Kickstarter' times can be variable to say the least). If I do pledge I'll let you know.

A quick update

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but real life has gotten in the way of gaming. I've been up and down to the north east a few times in the past month or so to help out my sister. I won't go into details but it looks like I'm going to have to move back up north to help her out.

So this means I'm going to have to sell my house. Which means I'm going to have to do all the jobs I've been putting off for years to get it ready for selling. It also means all my wargaming stuff and a bunch of other junk is going to have to go into storage while I redecorate and sell the house. So that means no wargaming for me for a while.

What free time I've had I've spent playing 'Star Trek Online'. Like lots of gamers I also love mmo's and computer games and I've been getting my gaming fix via the computer.

I'd tried it at launch and a couple of times since, as its free to play, but it had never grabbed me. Now however I'm hooked. Its simple to get into but has lots of depth and cool features so why not give it a try.

Christmas Surprise

I logged in to The Miniatures Page this morning to find out some kind soul has anonymously gifted me a free year of Supporting Membership. I've no idea who did this or why, so in case you read this blog I'd just like to say thank you. You've given me the first genuine Christmas surprise in many years.

Merry Christmas one & all

P.S. Real life is still getting in the way of posting but I hope to get something posted before the New Year

A little aside.

For those of you expecting another Deadzone figure review, sorry. Real life has intervened so there will be a delay. So as a quick interlude here's a couple of things that might make nice stocking fillers.

I came across this by accident. It's a 2-player expandable card game, not my usual kind of thing but after a little research I decided to buy a copy. Look for a review sometime. They also have a Kickstarter going (who doesn't these days) for an expansion if you're interested.

Another card game that's piqued my interest is Field of Glory the card game by Martin Wallace.

From the website:

The game is split into two parts. You first decide which units you will fight with, constructing a deck of twenty-four unit cards. You then fight out a battle across a battlefield made up of five terrain cards. To win the game you must take control of three of these terrain cards. The army cards represent the main troop types of the period, such as heavy infantry, light cavalry and elephants., each having its own strengths and weaknesses. To be able to play units on to the battlefield you must discard other cards to pay the movement costs involved, giving you a number of difficult decisions to make.

The game is supposed to be of medium complexity and should take around twenty to thirty minutes to play. I'm a big ancients fan so I'm thinking about getting this as a Xmas present to myself.

Lastly is another card game Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front which is, of course, another kickstarter. The original game looks interesting again from their website:

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is a fast-paced two-player tactical card wargame set in WWII. Spearpoint focuses on WWII frontline combat, chaos, tension, and fun. 100 Unit Cards feature an assortment of historical German and US squad level infantry, artillery, armor, and aircraft. 50 Command Cards give support and intel to players. 25 Damage Cards apply unique Damage Effects if a unit becomes damaged. Combat is quick and tense and resolves using four included D10 dice. Standard and Situation games play in about 30 minutes including setup.

If you're interested there's a great review here.

So three quick games that might make nice stocking fillers. Hope Santa brings you something nice.

Quick Review: Deadzone Plague Troopers & Specialist

Today's random pick is two Troopers and a Specialist for the Plague faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

All the parts have different shaped lugs and sockets even the small heads so it's obvious which part goes with which figure. This is the worst set I've had for mould lines and flash which will be obvious from a look at the photos below.

 

Even with some cleaning up I can see from the photos that's there's lots of bits I've missed. I'm also disappointed with the sculpting of the weapons. They lack detail and look too 'toy soldierish' for my tastes. Maybe they'll look better painted up.

 

On the plus side the models all went together very easily and the sculpts look great. I'm finding it hard to choose between Plague and Marauders as my favourite faction. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

Too many mould lines for my taste but still my favourite pack of minis so far.

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box. Hopefully with no more badly fitting pieces.

Quick Review: Deadzone Marauder Pyro

Today's random pick is the Pyro for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

As there's only one mini in the pack there's no confusion about which parts go with which model. All the parts have different shaped lugs and sockets so it's obvious which part goes where.

 

There are minimal mould lines in only a couple of places but there is a bit of flash on a couple of the parts on the sprue. The parts cleaned up okay, just be careful trimming the lugs on the arms.

 

I dry fitted all the pieces individually and they went in with no problems. However as you can see in the photo below once assembled there's a big problem where the left arm should join the flamethrower. As the position of the arms is fixed by the lugs and sockets they're obviously in the right place so I tried trimming off some of the plastic on the weapon where it meets the chest but it made no difference. In the end I filled the gap with green stuff. Whether this is a one-off, some mistake I made or a design flaw we'll have to see once others build their Pyros.

 

Nice figure, I especially like the tank on his back. Gap aside I'm looking forward to painting this up. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

 

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box. Hopefully with no more badly fitting pieces.

Quick Review: More Deadzone Marauders

Today's random pick are different Trooper and Goblin Sniper sculpts for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

With the size difference between the two models there is no problem working out which part goes with which model. The sprue contains heads for both models, a backpack for the sniper and a knife for the Trooper.

 

There was a bit of flash on the weapons but hardly any mould lines on these models. Everything went together easily except for the Troopers right arm where the lug needed some trimming to get a good fit. The only other issue was with the sniper rifle which was bent but that was easy to fix.

 

Here's the assembled models, as usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

 

For Orcs these Marauders look a lot like gorillas, not that that's a bad thing. In fact space gorillas would be a cool faction.

 

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box.