Monday 31 March 2014

The one where I demo Faux!

No, you're not dreaming! It is actually another blog post! It's getting to that stage in my working schedule where everything is just getting so busy that I hardly have any time for hobby! The good news is that in 2 weeks I have Easter holidays! Huzzah! This will mean I can get some stuff painted and glued together! My plan is to get everything glued and at least base coated before I get anything else... I say that and Fuhatsu from Malifaux's Ten Thunders hasn't been released yet so my plan will likely change! In terms of 40k though... I have desperately been trying to spend my hard earned cash on some GW product but nothing excites me or grabs my attention... If they do the GK dex that WILL change! All in all, I am content!

So today's post... I'll be looking to cover a few odds and sods!
Firstly, demo Malifaux game with @Wilsongrahams - Graham to you and me!
Now Gra has been looking at Malifaux for some time, along with @79sponge (Mark/Sponge) and we've been trying to find a time to have a quick demo game to show them the ropes! Graham has expensive taste... Miss Terious the Death Marshal, event only model, going for £60+ on ebay! Now I know one of the Malifools is doing an all woman Guild build based on the Ortegas, I must show him the pictures!
Well, we were all set to pop down a gaming club on a Tuesday and I was picking Graham up and we'd meet Sponge down there... but Sponge ditched us for this shit-almost-non-league football team... someone called Wolves? Nope? Me neither! One down and just Graham to play! It was my intention to use my #ToMB crew and get some practice in with Pandora but when I unpacked the whole crew and got everything out I realized I actually left the stat cards at  home... tool! Therefore, I ended up playing...

A bit of a mish-mash! If I'm honest, I'd have liked to have played Mei Feng but in a demo game when I don't know really what she can do, there was no point in me trying to learn rules as well as teach Graham the basics! So a smashy build on a ruined city in deepest Malifaux, blown open by the Guild in search of soulstones!
Graham was playing the box set Ortegas but I think the thought of using Death marshals crossed his mind, which wouldn't have been a problem! I've been looking at using my TT for some time now but without everything back I can quite get the synergies I want! I will be looking to run Lynch, Wrastrels, Huggy and Kang as staple with potentially some ninja goodness running round in the Pubfaux tournament I'm off to, or even the Malifaux campaign at my LGS! I'll come on to that later!
Back to the demofaux.
It was a craaaazy game full of real twists and turns, the thing that attracted me to Malifaux in the first place! We decided just to go for a straight up smash in the face game which enabled us to see what our characters can do and see what happens when they get stuck in! As it happens, that douche from the Ortegas with the gatling gun is a bit tasty!

Models in place and it's all dandy! What would ensue is a game which Graham dominated from the outset! The fact is...Guild are rock and against a long range shooting crew, I had no real answer but my flips did not help... well some of the time...
:
I got to the stage where I was damaging and I was on double - flip and it was going so well until...
If only! One day...soon!
Other notable pictorial highlights include:





It basically came down to the gatling gun Ortega...whose name escapes me and my rail worker! It came down to the final damage flip in my turn and just to show you...my hand looked a little like this:


I think it was safe to say I had a reasonable chance of kicking the gatling gun up the Ortega's ass!
Eventually... I managed to beat him but it came at a great price to the TT! All but one rail worker on 2 wounds! All in all, a fantastic game with some great moments and exciting drama all across the table. Talking to Graham, I hope he enjoyed it too! He seemed to! Hopefully we can get some regular games in!

Talking of regular games (SEGWAY!)... my LGS (Titan Games) are hosting a monthly Malifaux Campaign day! The premise is that you declare your allegiance for a particular faction and play 3 games in one day out of the Malifaux rule book. We haven't quite worked out all the details yet but after this week, we will have. I wanted to play one Strat from the rulebook per gaming session with a set scheme depending on your faction. I know this limits the randomability of the draw and the inexperience of most of the players in my LGS mean that it would be easier to get their heads round two schemes and one strat per week rather than chopping and changing all the time! The outline works very much like the Star Trek Dominion Wars outline where factions are declared and points are earned for that faction and you have a 'best in faction' for that month.

Which leads me on to Star Trek Dominion Wars campaign! (Wow! I am shit hot tonight at this!) On Saturday (because I have no life), I popped down to my LGS to play a bit of this and that, not realizing that this event was going on. I purchased a Star Trek ship to increase my fleet which currently stands at 3! So I was forced (at razor point) to enter the competition!
My fleet (100 points) looked like this:

Yep! You guessed it... Romulan! The only reason I like them... the new(ish) Star Trek film where that ship comes through the warp... must watch Star Trek now...
Well, I ended up with this and you're going to laugh at this but I ended up playing a 10 year old girl... that's right, laugh it up! This 10 year old girl was actually played a tricksy Dominion list which was a little bit hard to break down! Now, I haven't played a lot of the Star Trek game and this campaign is in the 5th month out of 6! So I've got little/no experience of this game and no idea what is happening!
Apparently, the 'asteroids' on the table (which fire at you!) aren't victory points! So in this game I had actually destroyed 3 of these before someone told me!!! Nevermind... back to smashing ships up! It was never going to be easy as in this game the ships don't turn like X-Wing so it's a bit like watching a fat kid in a sports day race - slow, lethargic and when he turns something is bound to go wrong!


Eventually, I managed to bring down the two Dominion ships which were on the table and win the game 100-39! Now, I can tell you've read that and you're pretty impressed that I've beaten a 10 year old girl into the ground over a game of spaceships and yes, I do feel good about myself! Now that's over, it was on to the next round!
Unfortunately, we were now a player down after one of the lads had to leave in an emergency. That meant we were down to 9 players, so someone had to step aside... I volunteered because let's be honest, I'm a fucking hero! I withdrew from the tournament so that people could play who actually wanted to play! I do really love the game, I just wish I had of played from the start so I could have gained all the promo figures, despite them being released anyway in a few months!

In a few months... joking! I can't segway that well! But I can do... At the end of this coming month (April) there is a new game coming out... a game which pits opponents wits against each other in a brutal combat driven game involving dice and cards! It's name... simply MARVEL DICE MASTERS... Holy crap! A game of cards and dice?! WOW!
Let me give you the hard sell (yet again, I'm not on commission for this but I should be!)... £1 booster packs!
There is a guy on youtube who has reviewed the game! He's a little bit happy about it...like American happy! You know... but it's still good to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMxUIQlA9ys
And you can see the game being played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLm_4QRVjeE 
Here are a few screen shots of the game:


It's out the end of the month and I am SO FREAKIN' EXCITED! I'm so excited I've already pre-ordered my booster box and starter set! It is well worth a look! I really like the look of the game and the feel of it... if you can't tell!

Lastly, some of you who read this may go on kickstarter at some point and see what is on there! Some of you may have seen, or backed, Guildball! A soccer game which is played on a 3x3 using terrain! Something different than Bloodbowl/Dreadball but something which seems familiar! I found out that one of the lads down my LGS has some part to play in its development and has a few tester teams, hopefully soon I will be playing him and he will give us all an intro game to see what it's about! Again, another game that looks awesome!

On my final PPS, I have to make a tough choice over the next week or so and that is coming up with an idea of what I want to do with my hobby in terms of models! Now, I have a fair range of models but I have managed to calm it down recently (after the great Chaos spending spree of 2014!). Looking at it now, I feel that I don't need my WFB armies or at least trim down to one army! I have two currently and I haven't used either in over 18 months! So... I think I know what needs to be done! One evening I will have to go back in to my garage and look at what is there and what can be sold! Clearly money is needed for the amount of Marvel goodness that is going to flood my house! I also think my Mrs will play this too! On top of My Little Pony ;)

Right... I think that's me for today but I will be blogging later this week about the Midlands Team Challenge for 40k that we've got going on at Warhammer World on Sunday!
Until then, keep geeking!

I'll see you soon!




Friday 21 March 2014

The one where I went for Malifaux and ended up with 40k!

Well dear readers it has been something of a tempestuous week! I've not had much time to do much hobbying over the last 5 days and I think I've suffered for it! I told you last time about how I tried my #ToMB force out and that was the idea this time on the way to my LGS (Titan Games). I was super psyked to say the least! To be perfectly honest I was going to be on it like Sonic but I just didn't turn out that way!
I turned up and unfortunately there was no-one to play! DAMN IT! I want to kill things with Dreamer and Lord Chompy or mess with your minds with Pandy! It came to me after I painty Pandora that I could have gone for comic effect and painted her like Andy Pandy... worth a punt!

I'm going to look in to that... Stay tuned!

Oh, anyway, back to my story of woe! I went down the LGS and with no-one to play I was forced... into playing Kill Team for 40k. Those of you who don't know Kill Team (from what I understand) has the following rules:

200pts
No 2+ saves of any kind
0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast Attack, 0-2 Troops
Armour can't be more than 33 all round
You must buy units but use them individually
Highest Ld is the 'leader', no Gary Glitter style but like leading a team!
You must give 3 of your war band/Kill Team a special rule which can include Relentless, FNP and Ignores Cover (I know this because these are the 3 I took!)

Well, I was going to take Tau (borrowed from the store) but after realizing that Tau are complete bollocks in Kill Team as you can you only take like 4 units which fulfill the requirements! So, I went for Chaos! Now, I could have taken 40 Cultists just bare, making them just a blob walking up the board, however I settled for:
5 Noise Marines, Blast Master, DoomSiren
10 Cultists, Flamer

I had to give 3 abilities to models so I went:
The Blast Master - Relentless
DoomSiren - FNP
Marine - Ignores Cover (on a bolter...not bad!)

I was playing against 3 other players. We were going to do 1 on 1 but we might as well of put us together! So, I was facing another CSM list, a DE list and a Eldar list!
I can't really remember what was in the lists, I know 'you're fucking useless!' is running through your minds but I can give you a brief outline:

DE:
5 Harlequins
10 Warriors with a Blaster that ignores cover...powergaming bullshit!

Eldar:
5 Dire Avengers (1 exarch with some bollocks on it!)
10 Guardians

CSM:
5 Marines (and a champ with a power sword or two or something like that)
10 cultists!

WOW! What an exciting run down! Aren't you glad I tried to run that down!
Well, we decided that every turn we would roll of initiative and see which of us gets to smash each other in the face and which one would just be there to die! Luckily, the power armoured machines went first! The set up was a 10x10 square in the corner of the board! Well, with 15 models the 10x10 was tight!



Now, you might look at those pictures and go... They don't look like noise marines! And... you'd be right but give me a break hey! I only picked up the game 10 minutes ago! So they were my proxy noise marines!
The game went to and fro, it actually ended up that the 2 CSM lists and Eldary lists allied up for the first few turns and walked towards each other. The blastmaster...well...with relentless... 3 guardians dead in the 1st turn!
One thing to note... The Doom Siren AND the Cultist Flamer finished off all of the Harlequins!
Before I forget... We are playing 6 turns (not in the kill team rules but it makes for a more exciting game) and you have to hold the objective on top of the platform...
As demonstrated here!

Well, walking up the board and smashing people in the face was the order of the day! I do like Kill Team very much and I think it's a great way in to 40k and an excellent tool to refine skills!

Anyway, I digress.... So, I start by going up the board. Directly opposite me is the DE player and that blaster is complete bollocks! AP1 or some shit! Well... hmm! You wouldn't catch me taking anything as bollocks as that... oh wait!
My Cultist flamer took 10 shots against him from the DE warriors... 3 hit... 0 wounds! Terrible terrible dice rolling! I thought Pete was bad... not quite this bad! The important thing is...he survived and got rid of 2 harlies!
My CSM oppo decided that he would go for the Eldar contingent which helped! He managed to whittle down the Eldar to three models before he bit the dust!







 There you can see my Oppo's team! The one before that... A guardian, a cultist and a CSM walk into a bar... The CSM leaves... No joke... that's actually how it happened...true story!

I'd like to tell you it ended well for everyone else but it didn't! I managed to lose 3 marines and kept everyone else alive! I was literally the last man standing! Huzzah!
It was a great game and something which brings a new dynamic to 40k, almost Rouge Trader stylee with smaller units running round the board! A fantastic experience!

We even had time for a little bit of fun...




I know... I'm so cool!

Right, back to the good stuff!
I have picked up Rivet Wars recently and the other day I managed to play it! I played 3 games against the Mrs and she won 2!!! Another fantastic game with some AWESOME minis! I actually bought the game on the basis of how awesome the mini's looked! Don't take my word for it... have a look:














The great thing about it, stuff just comes back on! Constant reinforcements! Huzzah!

Sweet eh? I will go in to this in more detail in another post because I really have to go! I have managed to hurt my wrist (not by doing that) and my leg through being a hero for Sport Relief! I know... worship me!!!



Well, before I go I want to show you how my Ten Thunders are coming along from @NigelSBartlett:
Cannot wait until they're all done! Apparently... they're near!!!

Thanks for reading! I'll see you soon!