Rawhide!

Hello people,

Yes it's been a little while so here's one of those end of the week scatter gun round-up posts hopefully with a bit more content than the same old, same old.

This weekend I DIDN'T play X-Wing at all. There was Dave T's Attack Wing event up at Lost Ark today but I was running a 10K around central London. It was rather chilly!

I did play a couple of games of X-Wing at Enfield Gamers on Tuesday in preparation for Dark Sphere this Saturday coming. I ran a chubby swarm of Howlrunner, 4 Academys and two Saber Interceptors as I've promised myself to not run a Decimator three events in a row. In honesty I expect a bit of kicking but also to hone my dogfighting abilities. 

I'm going to call this Project Dunkirk, the miracle of the small ships, as I find it difficult to see past Decimators at the moment. Also the big ship meta seems to play into the hands of swarms.

On Tuesday I list to Dave, as per usual, running a K - turn heavy strategy whilst as failing to identify Cracken as Target 1. I varied my tactics against James, a good tourney player, and his BBHHH list to good effect. The Interceptors manoeuvrability was a bonus late game, as I'd expected. I did also get get the rub of the dice after the usual rough end from Dave.

Meanwhile Project Lambda is ready to hit the tabletop as the second shuttle's repaint is now complete. I'm currently thinking Vader in one with a Fleet Officer in the other. Further upgrades and support is option to various options. Meanwhile I'll be claiming another 4 Painting Points.

To complement Project Dunkirk I've recently picked up two TIE Bombers which I hope to give a run out tomorrow night. It'll keep the plastic crack itch at bay for a while.

On that note Wave 2 of my Dreadball Extreme KS turned up over the weekend, though my motivation to play hasn't quite come with it. I also paid postage and confirmed my delivery details for my HeroQuest 25th pledge......far more like it :)

Anyway, Lambda 232 is a touch newer, cleaner and well loved compared to ST-321 but still in the service of a Splinter Squadron, a rogue group of former Imperial pilots who somehow survived the batttle of Yavin and decided to go "independant". Life on the fringes is hard......

Kick It!!

Evening People,

So......

Have to admit that I was determined to ignore this one given people's various Mantic KS experiences but when I saw what Jake had come up with and what was on offer I rolled over quicker than a weeble on a windy day! Yeah, went for Rampage, at $150, as well because the whole Sponsor thing looks like a really cool twist.

When I refer to the Mantic KS experience in all honesty it wasn't so much mine as much as others. All subjective I appreciate but as someone who missed the original KS I picked up the Deluxe version (4 teams of 10) and then piggybacked onto others for season 2 and 3 and seemed to come out ahead of those original KS backers.

I'm honestly not looking to get into the debate about KS as a pre-order device / delays / business model etc. With KS in general I think both sides of the fence have learnt a lot about expectation and how to manage that. The BIG THING here is that I absolutely love DB as a game and can see me playing it well into my infirmity.

My comment was more that this time I felt that I could leave the KS alone and then pick up stuff as and when I wanted and not loose out or maybe even be a bit ahead. But when the KS launched I was really impressed with where DB-Ex was going and really wanted to be a part of it. If anything it was possibly even something of a back-handed compliment ;)

Having said all that I've found it remarkably easy to leave the daily update e-mails alone. I know I'm getting a good deal but then so are Mantic. As an ex GW chap I know that its all about the additional sales so I'm going nowhere near the add-ons! I know that at some I'm going get a big ol' pile of TOYS. Right now I'm not so worried about which toys, though the shark-man MVP is proper cool!!

Like I say, its about managing expectation. Right now I've made an investment :/ Come back in six months and I'm sure I'll be frothing like a good 'un :)

All Stirred Up

Hello people,

Not a lot of hobby-love to share thiss week until myself and Rich headed up to Milton Keynes for the Guardians of Tyr's Dreadball Tournament Season.
opening Round of

As previously I had two teams in mind in the Terratons, as a more challenging but rewarding team to play, or the Nameless as the stronger tourney team. Either way I was going to spend my extra 20MC on a Coach and a pair of Coaching Dice so, as I have before, I flipped a coin on it......... and came up Terraton.

Long story short I brought this home but still managed four good games out of five and a fun day.

As I've waxed before I really enjoy playing Dreadball, even when I'm not winning. I'm happy that I played pretty well, made a few mistakes and had my share of crap dice but no hosings. I also learnt a little bit more and once again came away re-enthused for a game that has to make it onto my all time top 3!

Chatting on the way home we both agreed that, like many systems, DB league and tourney rules can be abused, which doesn't put me off in the same way as with other games, BUT can be really awesome when played by good mates.

There was also a cherry to the cake when Robert, my Forge Father opponent with whom I shared and excellent game, offered me his prize for the day, the Azure Forest MVP chap, simply because he already had one. Nice touch that, one geek to another, even at a tourney.

Godd stuff :)

Lucky 13?

Hello people, the hypocrite returns ;]

Decent day out yesterday with Mantic. The venue was a novel one, a closed NHS drop in centre in the process of being renovated. Apparently it had only just been closed down when the Mantic chaps first went to view only to roll in last Thursday to find most of the electrics ripped and the water turned off. Thusly it was a touch "atmospheric" with a pair of portaloos in the car park, very good snack wagon though.

So, I was player 13 of 30 for Dreadball, a monster game of KoW, Dreadzone demos, a Warpath siege and a bunch of very popular seminars plus a zombie LARP thing. Scarily little H&S, we were all rather glad we got in on free tickets, simply wasn't enough there to charge for. Did get a little grab bag with a couple of DB coaches and a sprue of gobbos to take home.

Four games of DB netted three wins all against Corp, two by landslide, with the loss a very quick landslide to Rich's Judwan. With 20MC bonus I took a Dice and two Striker skills. Went with my back three lock out flying my Strikers about and barely throwing a Slam.

Playing as the Away team every game this generally did the job always having that final Rush if needed. Against Rich's Jud I set up the same way and very quickly realised that it was the worst thing to do, especially as he'd locked out his own backline. He could move mine around while I was in no position to do the same his. Went far more mobile but the damage was done all too quickly.

Judwan took the top three places and in a tourney format look very difficult to take on. It would seem you have to try and out Jud them, which isn't easy though maybe Veermyn have a good chance or Bots loading up on Strikers. Plenty of chatter post tourney on the subject, interesting to see the DB arms race shift.
 Rich took the title and the other four of us gave good account so a good day for the club as well.

H

Plenty of obvious interest in Dreadzoine and it was cool to see it all up close but still not going there. Maybe the rules and the cards at some point but don't see myself going any farther than that.

Apparently, maybe unsurprisingly, Mantic and Ronnie are very happy with KS and envisage one each quarter plus a few mini KSs for individual armies.
As I said before, each to their own :)

Monsters of Mantic

Evening all,

Another instalment of this weeks gaming down at Enfield Gamers which was all very much Mantic-tastic.

First up was another helping of Dreadball. With luck a number of us should be at the Mantic Day for Dreadball in Nottingham this Saturday, all dependant on reliable transport, i.e. Rich's rather sick car behaving. Sometime ago myself and Shado, aka other Rich, were awarded joint first at a Dreadball National qualifier and need to play off.

With a bonus 20MC I took Corp with an extra Gaurd and Coaching Dice whilst Shado took Sirens with an extra Gaurd and Card, a build he views as Corp with Run Interference. A more "competitive" game than I've played recently I went for the tactic of locking down the 3/4 zone with three Gaurds and, as the away team, flooding the midfield with three Strikers.

On a mild tangent I've never seen myself as an overly competitive type and read this the other day which struck a chord.

Back at the game Shado had real trouble shifting my backline and had to settle for 1/2 pointers while I had an open run for 3/4s. Shado's luck was pretty poor all game while I picked up plenty of useful cards and quickly stormed to 5 nil after four rushes.

Just as I was poised to take the game my own dice intervened and with a few sharp plays traded each way Shado clawed his way back into the game. Missing a number of 4 pointers I tried as hard as I could to snatch defeat but eventually ran out with a 1 point win...phew!

 Second helping was a quick run out of Deadzone with Rich. Taking Plague I merrily ate Rich's four Enforcers with my two Alphas whilst my other lads watched on for zero casualties. Didn't seem a massively balanced scenario but for an alpha set of rules everything worked and was slick enough if a little basic. Definitely happy to play further developed versions.

Have to admit that I've watched the Kickstarter somewhat warily. Many have commented on the KS phenomenon and its various issues including myself and I don't intend to rehash. Having said that I found it scary how many fellow geeks have thrown so much cash at an unknown product so quickly. I've read the blurb, watched the vid and read a number of Quickworthy posts. Now I've played a game and feel interestedly neutral about it.

However,...pause to roll sleeves and prepare wagging finger....

Apparently Deadzone is a sci-fi skirmish game. In my opinion it's a sci-fi board-game and at the moment a fairly vanilla one. A board-game on an oversized chess board in fact, sound familiar? Jake's posts allude to this but I do feel that Mantic, I do wish to make the distinction, themselves could have been more up front about this.

The vid tells is that Mantic have a reputation for delivering high quality Kickstarters. I feel that statement is questionable and that many feel similarly. Mantic probably have a reputation for delivering Kickstarters with shed loads of, apparently, free stuff. Again I wish to make the distinction.

I do feel I understand that the persuasive thread that Kickstarters allow Mantic, and others, to develop and deliver more product far quicker than they otherwise would.

I just get the feeling that the whole situation is becoming disturbingly disingenuous. I ended up having a bit of a rant Tuesday night. Why does anyone need she- loads of bonus figures and scenery add-ons, many that they'll pay cold hard cash for, for a two by two game of battle-chess? You wanna sell a butt-load of super cool 40K urban battlefields better and cheaper than GW then all power whilst priming the pump for your own sci-fi wargame then all power to you but can you just come out and do that please?

This is just my opinion and I can make my choices just as everyone else can. I have a very good mate who works for Mantic who I have no wish to offend. I can hardly throw mud as an ex GW manager of 6 years service. Dreadball has breathed new life into my personal hobby and I LOVE it.

However I do feel that the whole KS thing could get out of hand and that Mantic, along with others, are beginning to rip the absolute arse out of it. Us geeks seem to be getting KS blind / addicted and some could be taking advatage of that. Not asking for anyone to agree with me and i'll happily be proved wrong but I needed to get that off my chest.

Each to their own and I wish Mantic every success. I like an awful lot of their product but this one, or the manner in which it is being presented, is currently somehow leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and I find that disappointing. It's not going to stop me attending on Saturday if I can and if I'm a hypocrite for that then so be it. As I keep on saying each to their own.

Happy gaming to one and all :)

Confessions of a Dreadball Coach III

Not so much to confess this time round I have to admit so I'll see where I manage to get us to ;)

I played Craig last night, Shaun's son, and it was his fourth game so a bit of a learner. He also had Orx and Gobs so useful for me to consolidate what I'd learnt by passing it on. On that basis and as it was his first league game I ignored my various upgrades and skill increases.

We had a good game managing a three and four pointer each for a highly entertaining draw. Striking each turn simply didn't happen and there were several big punch ups over the ball.

The interesting thing for me was that this didn't matter so much as we both playing in a similar style, mine, with identical teams. I'm sure that this shouldn't be a surprise and the point I'm eventually driving at is about specific tactics for specific teams.

Lots of chatter around the DB community about the apparent dominance of Corp teams and the point that they're easiest to use because their all round abilities mean that you don't to vary your game to your opponent.

I'm relatively sure I touched on this in part Part II and I suppose its a development of the theme. Mr C and I chatted about that very subject on the way home with myself questioning my 1 card, 1 assisted slam, move the ball model. Read an interesting post on the Mantic forums today where a guys better half runs Veermyn against his Forge Fathers and often holds onto the ball knowing that he can't strip it.

Nothing wrong with sticking to a formula when you're learning a new team / faction / army etc but variation on a theme is key.

Goblin sandwich!

Back at the game we'd been having mixed luck and I'd been waxing on about the importance of doubling when picking up the ball. We had done quite well at slam prioritisation and a steady chain of goblins flowed through both injury boxes. Not having that extra dodge dice makes a big difference,....playing to your opponent then!
We both also had some outrageous exploding dodging with both Orx and Gobs performing a few deft pirouettes! 6s always welcome!

With only Craig's final rush remaining his was four points down with ball deep in his end.

Four Pointer! :)

Run to the ball and pick it up - Double.
Free run down the pitch plus a couple of dashes.
Throw to the Gobbo on the two point strike hex.
Two successes and double the catch.
Free run and a dash to the four point strike hex.
Final action for a one dice strike.
Score the four pointer :)

Gobbos CAN get the job done and anything that gives them a chance of a double is golden but with one dice and card they NEED a bit more luck than others.

You can make you're own luck apparently, just need to work out how ;) The thought that comes to mind is identifying where each team is limited an then targeting that.

Ill let you know how I get on! Promise :)

Pride and Predjudice

Hello people and welcome to another delayed after-action battle report.

Monday night Stewart dropped primarily so that I could make up my missed first round of the club's Warhammer Invasion campaign and secondarily so that he could take up my previously blogged intention to play a proper game of Dwarf Kings Hold without being an arse.

Primary task completed, I just about won the three game round thonged in the first, squeeked the second and romped the third, I was already in a better frame of mind and with a positive mindset, thanks to Project Pandora, I settled in to a cup of tea and opened my mind a little.

Based on the same set of mechanics as Pandora the game played very similarly, very much as expected.

A similar, but blindly drawn, token activation sequence provides an element of resource management as well as the need to co-ordinate your forces whilst pre-empting you opponent. Opposed dice rolls for combat also means that both players remaining active throughout despite the relatively IGO-UGO turn structure.

The basic mechanics are VERY simple, reminds me of LOTR in that respect, but racial special abilities and effects give greater variation than just the statline and give the Dwarves and Undead their relevant flavour.

Playing a couple of scenarios through, taking each side in turn, results were genuinely varied effected by tactics as much as the vagaries of the dice. Identification and control of various choke-points throughout the floor-plan add an element of  urgency and tension to the game as well as the scenario.

Use of fighting arcs and facings can be critical and can seem a little technical at times but not overly "rulesy", more efficient use of the rules which is unavoidable with any system.

All of these comments are just as applicable to Project Pandora and I've found all of the scenarios I've played to be well constructed and balanced. I do feel that both games tread a fine line in that respect and that it might not be so easy to construct your own scenarios. Thankfully Mantic are doing a good job of providing supplements along with additional troop types to spice up your games.

So, another good fun "little" game from Mantic. But one that deserves to be treated with respect!

The Price of Failure

Just recently my hobby life has been one big epic FAIL.
I've had to cancel a long list of various gaming engagements due to real life, mainly a bit of Ick and work going mental for a fortnight or so. Until last night I'd not rolled dice or played a card or picked up a brush in a couple of weeks and was getting the Geek DTs. Worse than that I've had to blow-out on my gaming mates, apologies lads :(

As some of you may have noticed I've also not posted in a while. Some of this was having a lack of much to post about but more, if I'm honest, was due to Blogger's recent update and the work browser's inability to cope with it. So basically NO BLOGGER AT WORK!

Doesn't sound like too much of a biggy but like many of us might I often upload post photos at home and then blog during my lunch-breaks or if not blogging browse my reading list. I didn't realise up until now how important this was in keeping me inspired to go home and make the relevant effort. TGN has just about kept me going but it's just not the same :/

Thankfully I had yesterday free and got stuck in to turning recent events around :)

Stewart dropped around last night for a night of GEEK which kicked off with him running me through Mantic's latest boardgame, Project Pandora, which I'd heard about and quickly labelled Space-Hulk but not. Based on Dwarf King's Hold it was going to have to do well to impress me. I've played DKH once before and wasn't overly enamoured but that was probably because I was tired at the time and suffering poor dice which lead to a little bit of toys out of pram......my bad :/

So in short we ran through the Training Mission twice, having a go with each side, Corporation and Veer-Myn, and then had a go at a proper scenario. In short I was well impressed :)

Despite assuming that it might be a little bit "bashed out" it's a really good game. Very tactical and you HAVE to try and think a few turns ahead. It easily produces the same claustrophobic tension of Space-Hulk with a clever token driven activation sequence that forces you into hard choices every turn.

Stewart is one of Mantic's Pathfinder chaps, and does a very fine job, and though being a good mate has had his work cut out convincing me about a number of Mantic's offerings. This time I was doing the job for him and I'd really like to go back and play DKH in the correct frame of mind. Guilty of thinking that these were throw-away games quickly and cheaply produced they're most definitely not! As a plug let me point you to Mantic's first Podcast, well worth the time!

Previously that afternoon I'd invested some more brush-time into the DW French. Have to admit I'd been struggling with these and the new GW wash (as previously bemoaned) which just wasn't getting the recess detail as I needed it to. Reverting to a bit of older Asyurman Blue helped greatly but was taking me farther away from my envisaged scheme which I wasn't happy with in itself.

As much as this is Fantasy Steam-Punk I want to my ships as ships. By this I mean an absolute minimum or no bare metal. In the real world, rolling around on the briney deep, it just didn't happen. Suspension of disbelief is fine but assuming that nothing will rust is just not on, at least not for me!

Envisaging gleaming white hulls and superstructures it's just a bit too boring for the figures and the setting while I  also want to stay away from any wazzy camo-schemes, just not doing it for me. Chatting through with Stewart, okay whinging at him, I realised that the extra washes were taking me towards a nice mid-light blue that could be worked up from a black undercoat which would save me time and wash-rage.

I had been thinking of blue accents against the white but why not white accents against the blue! Why not white turrets, weapon systems and bridges which would also mean no bare metals? I can still keep my tricholore smoke-stakes and it wouldn't take anything massive to colour code the Frigate squadrons should I feel the need!

So, first-ish thing this morning I've re-sprayed everything black and this evening will work up through Shadow Gray and Ice Blue to wash back down and see where I am. I shall update you later as to results, including state of mind.

Sometimes the price of failure is well worth paying :)