A New Hope?

Hello people,

Another pretty standard week in Oddleg land with a good few games of X-Wing at Enfield Gamers on Tuesday and Dark Sphere on Thursday.

Yesterday was a trip up to Lost Ark for Dave T's latest Attack Wing event. Three good, hard and fairly fought, games with my Klingons which went a long way to restoring my faith in how good the game CAN be.

I also picked up my pre-ordered Scum & Villainy "investment". Basically it's two of everything to go with the pair of Firesprays and Hawks thst I've already painted up.

Having spent a strangely enjoyable afternoon unboxing everything the plan is to release a few bits to the tabletop as I complete a few other projects that have been gathering dust for a while. I've got plenty to play with and it will make me take the time to give new lists a decent play-test. 

In honesty I've been in a bit of a gaming rut recently, as has been Enfield Gamers.

As such we've updated things a bit and moved away from the club website and forums onto the club facebook page. We're also going to be concentrating on X-Wing, Bolt Action and To The Strongest for the next few months. The X-Wing league will be Scum themed culminating in a Tourney at the end of April with full  FFG prize support.

So Tuesday Club Night myself and Shaun will be running through To The Strongest and before I get my first lump of Scum I need to sort out the 40 sets of shoulder patch transfers for the Commandos thst have been sat around for too long. Then they need to find a table! 

Plans.....contact with the enemy. We'll see :)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Sunday just gone myself and Mr C made our way up to Lost Ark Games in Stevenage for some games of STAW and came away having discovered more than we had expected.

First off, Lost Ark Games;

Personally I'd been up to them once before for my fledgling X-Wing tourney. At that time they had a stall in the indoor market, which was also where we played. Initially a bit wary, and possibly a bit snobby about that one, I soon forgot that and had a great day.

They've since moved.....into a small office unit.......and it really works incredibly well! The open plan area is given over to a dozen 4×3 tables which perfectly suit STAW,  X-Wing, card and board games which seems to be their core business. The shop itself is in the boss' office with the meeting room given over to a couple of full-time 6x4s. Being an office there's a decent sized kitchen and adequate "facilities". 

Not the easiest place to find first time round but otherwise a stroke of genius with parking and scoff a plenty. Check out their Facebook Page, it's a literal gem of a place and well worth supporting.

Second up, STAW;

Dave T, an old gaming bud and former customer, had done the legwork to set the event up as a positive reaction to the increasingly negative OP meta. In other words rather than whinging he's set his own event up, writing a custom scenario and getting the word out.Good stuff mate, all too rare!

With a couple of dropouts it was five of us, who all know each other. With no OP prize to worry about we just played three rounds for fun with a three way to get us all some games. Turns out the scenario worked better as multi player which was a bonus.

More to the point we were all playing STAW to play STAW reminding ourselves of what a good game it is away from the OP Meta influence. Quite possibly the game as it was designed to be played! On the way out we were even discussing a club escalation campaign.

Doesn't get much better than that really :)

Here Endeth the SAGA

Hello people,

A bits and pieces weekend with the brush as I initiated my campaign on the Current Projects Tray (CPT). Sidestepping the 40 odd bare shouldered Commandos I went after the weaker members of the herd.

First up were the remaining SAGA Fatigue counters. I'd finished a few of the skull piles some time ago so sorted out the dropped shields with some generic Dark Age designs and stuck on a bit of flock. As is so often the case I moved back and forth between these and the Cave Troll, who has always been one of my favourite figures. Just highlights required I took my time with the soft flesh, as compared to the hide, which has never been one of my strengths!

Anyway, that's everything for SAGA finished up....must pick up the rules and dice at some point!

Floating around the edged of the painting station has also been a K'Tinga (OP Prize) and an accidentally purchased Kraxon (I actually meant to pick up a Gor Portas for the Breen Aide). Kraxon #3 got a standard paintjob while I decided to go with something different for K'Tinga / D7 #5. Taking inspiration from recent TIE Phantom repaints I had a go at doing a cloaked variant! Happy enough with both.

Couldn't get a clear shot of the Kraxon for some but you've seen it before! So 2 PPs for the Fatigue markers, 5 for the Cave Troll and 1 each for the K'Tinga and Kraxon makes 9 more on the month! As a reward it's more X-Wing at the club tomorrow night and then EotE Wednesday so the itch will be scratched.

Progress! :)

Long Weekend - Completion

Hello people,

I did actually get the last few brush-strokes on last night but it was getting late so I left it until this evening to sort out the photos and even cracked out the portable light-box!

In honesty I've probably put more work into the Firespray than I needed to, it's taken a lot of work to get straight but it was good fun doing it and well worth the effort. Well pleased with the end result :) In contrast the TIEs and HWK were no trouble at all; White Spray, Agrax Earthshade, Celestra Grey highlight with Mephiston Red and Drakenhof Nightshade for the wing panels. Simples!

So, 5 Painting Points for the Firespray and 1 each for the TIEs, HWK and Dominion Patrol Ship, Battlecrusiser, Battleship lot making 12 in total.

Reach for the Skies :)

Long Weekend Update #1

Hello people,

Once I finally managed to crawl out of my pit yesterday I did actually get round to some time with the brushes.

First up were my STAW Dominion Battleship, Battle-Cruiser and Patrol Ship basically because they were half done and giving me sideways looks from the painting station so I felt the "need" to clear the decks before moving on! Going for mean and moody I kept the palette limited with bright contrast "nacelle" areas which will get a bit of gloss varnish to finish. Blues with a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade seemed appropriate.

Moving onto the main event I unleashed my cunning plan, i.e. a quick way to paint my fighters into the bone and crimson scheme I've decided upon. I want to have them as a co-ordinated force along with the Firespray as splinter faction under an Independent Moff turned to near piracy in his local space-lanes. All of this feeds into the theory of having a limited Imperial faction against my major Scum "investment" but we'll see how that one goes.

Having spent a lot of time and effort painting the Firespray upto Dheneb Stone from a black undercoat it occurred that I could undercoat white, wash mid-brown and work from there. Agrax Earthshade did the job particularly well and really brought out the impressive level of detail of the sculpts which I'm sure will help as I go providing a level of pre-shading to work from.

The Firespray also got a little bit of love as I brought the red panels up a touch and started laying out the hatching. I'd been a bit nervous about that as freehanding isn't my strongest suit but it all came along very nicely and now that all the lines are in I'm feeling much happier about it :)

So today is poised for the back of the project to be broken. I know what I'm painting in what schemes and how!

Meanwhile, as a further distraction, I've recently noticed the upcoming Fallen Frontiers KickStarter. Flicking through the photos on their Facebook Page this is definitely how I like my Sci-Fi, I can't tell you just how much I LUST over these figures......oh dear ;]

A Mixed Bag

Evening people,

Despite a busy week I've still managed plenty of HOBBY with an evening of Halloween Zombie-Hulk Tuesday night down at Enfield Gamers and another EotE session on Wednesday, combined write up next week.

This afternoon myself and Mr C went upto Marquee Models in Harlow for their STAW First Contact OP event. We've been before, a few months ago, when the turn-out was a bit low and there was a player of an ilk diametrically opposed to mine i.e. Mr Power-Git.

Game 1 was a decent enough with a relative Noob. Game 2 was Mr Power-Git, 90 point Borg cube, who I managed to beat after he misread one of his many upgrade cards. Despite fleeting heartfelt satisfaction, he didn't react very well, it was still a tetchy 20 minute game so not my preference. Game 3 I got hosed by the Tournament Organiser, 90 point Borg sphere, who had earlier given Mr Power-Git a bye so he could play......and win the event!

After all that I placed 3rd of 9, three places above Mr C if you needed to know, somehow missing out on one of the three prize ships in the pack......ermmm...???

Big bonus of the day was bumping into a bunch of guys who used to be my regulars during my time with GW. It was really good to catch up with them and chat NERD, which had all always been a big perk of the job. They play every other Sunday in Cheshunt so I'll drop in next week.

Whilst there I also took the "opportunity" to pre-order my Scum and Villany "investment". I also picked up a HWK-290.....and also a TIE Defender and TIE Phantom. They're fine because they'll let me cross-over with some Imperial Slave based lists. Maybe I could do with a TIE Interceptor??

I also picked up the EotE Imperial and Rebels and Scum and Villany Adversary Decks which are definitely made for my "freeform" GM style.

Having stocked up for the month it's brushes at the ready,..... at least until Farcry 4 hits the doormat!

Happy days :)

Books and thier covers...

Alex gave me my best game of the day!

Evening people,

Myself and Mr C went down to Tabletop Nation in deepest darkest Essex today for their latest STAW event.

There was a bit of a back story as a few us who have been pretty regular down thee for a while now have experienced a few "issues" recently, that I won't go into, that have kind of soured things. Part of that has been poor attendances.

Myself and MrC had outstanding tickets that we wanted to get the use from so went along more in hope than expectation.

A recent change to the Organised Play scene was the format of a 90 point fleet plus a 30 point blind booster ship, that I felt was a really positive move to break the power players grip on events.

In the end we had eight players, which was reasonable. The difference was that I had three good games against three guys. Chatting to Mr C over a sarnie we came to the conclusion that no matter how many bods turn up it's the quality and attitude of the guys that you actually play that make or break your event. 100 guys and you catch all the idiots versus half a dozen similarly minded compatriots.

Today I avoided the two obvious power list / players and somehow still managed to take second place, which was two places higher than Mr C (again) by the way ;)

Another big positive was that over lunch all the players came together and agreed for all future events to be played with ship faction-pure lists i.e. a mix of ships from different factions which are faction pure in themselves. Again, this has been a major issue of contention that many, including myself, have felt have been blighting and otherwise excellent game.

At the end of the event, with plenty of spare boosters to go around, everyone walked away with three new ships for the price of their three games. Can't say fairer than that really.....can you?

Showcase: Star Wars - X Wing

Hello people, the possibly long awaited second installment of the series. 

I'm already diverging a touch as I don't play SW-XW so thus is a relatively second account based on a couple of games that I've sat in on and a few chats about how it differs from STAW, which I do play.

A few weeks ago I went without a game down at the club one Tuesday night and sat on the end of the table as Mr C and Shado tried out an Epic game with the Tantive IV making an appearance.

First off the mechanics of the game are the Flightpath system that features in STAW with the same Action system and stat setup. So far so good and my expectation was that it would be more maneuver with a touch less firepower. Again so far so good.

I've previously commented that I felt STAW has more variation across its five factions and a host of independents but a more abused meta. I recently discovered that SW-XW has even less of an issue as a lot of pilots and upgrades are strictly ship specific. I've come to the conclusion at this makes the SW-XW meta far more stable which would seem to mean that further waves of releases can be developed far more as envisaged rather than being abused to cover the balanced weaknesses. More and more I find myself readign through the latest release fluff.

It is still "just" two factions going at each other and there seems to be far less scenario play, especially at events. I have however noticed a steady schedule of more focused releases and was impressed, when I sat in, by the sheer variety of ships, there seem to be far less obvious choices.

EDIT: Sourcing links I notice the announcement of a third, Scum and Villany faction.

Showcase: Star Wars - X-Wing: (Fantasy Flight)

Fast and visceral, X-Wing puts you in the middle of fierce Star Wars firefights. Use each craft’s unique maneuver dial to secretly plot its movement action for each turn. After each player has locked in his movement decisions, the dials are revealed and ships are moved starting with the lowest skilled pilots. Pepper the enemy with blaster fire as you rush into the dogfight, or move into combat range slowly, attaining deadly target locks before you launch a devastating attack. No matter your plan of attack, you’ll be in total control throughout the tense action.

The Good;

-  FlightPath™ and the wider SW-XW mechanic is a strong, simple one qualifying for the "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" stamp of approval.
- The IP is very well managed with the character of Star Wars and all your favourite characters and scenes, from the books as well as the films, well represented focusing on the original trilogy.
- The Meta is equally as well managed and far less abusable. Release waves are well balanced introducing new tactics and strategies.
- Epic Play expands the game and brings the big ships into the game in a managable way strengthening the strategic side of the game and fleetbuilding.

The Bad;
- It's still just two sides and surely that has a limited scope, even Scum and Villany can only add so much. Thankfully there are no Gungans just yet :)
- There's somethign of a lack of organised play outside of fan run stuff  with most games and tournaments seemingly straight shoot-ups amongst the asteroid field.
- It's a good touch more expensive than STAW once you start getting into the bigger ships with a Tantive IV RRPing at £75.

My Ugly;
This is the game I rejected to play STAW instead feeling that STAW was more "rounded" as a game. In hindsight I stand by that but now feel that SW-XW is the more balanced game and has developed into a much more complete game.
Sounds like I'm trying to talk myself into it.......would want some scenario play though :)

Big-ish Day Out

Hello people,

As previously mentioned I headed down to Tabletop Nation on Sunday to take part in their ST:AW Tholian Web event. Armed with my previous experience I took almost exactly the same fleet and trusted to that most fickle of mistresses; Luck!!

First off and most importantly I had three good games against three good opponents so results were less relevant to the enjoyment of my day.

First game was against pure Cardassians whose lack of manoeuvrability hurt them almost as badly as Barrage of Fire. Her Ladyship also smiled on me at every critical juncture. A whitewash followed and a place on the top table (an unusual event!)

Klingons on the starboard bow!

Second game was against Mr C's pure Romulan cloaked mine fleet which dominated the game from Turn 1 (the mines that is). Despite redeploying via Echo Shift I eventually had to turn into the mines to take on his big boys. Her Ladyship smiled again and I managed to do considerable damage before dieing a good death, several turns later than is predicted.

The Thoian Web closes!

Third game was against a pair of Borg spheres captained by the Borg Queen and Picard. They flew in such tight formation I thought they were holding hands! ;) Again I manoeuvred by Echo Shift but eventually had to turn in. Martok and his glass gun (Ch'Tang with Barrage)

died an inglorious death without firing and it was all downhill from there. I've worked out that you need to engage Borg at range but the scenario didn't allow. 

Star-crossed Lovers??

All in all a good showing as the scenario and Her Ladyship favoured me initially only to grow weary of my efforts and cast me aside ;) I did however manage to take Most Sporting with maximum points which is an event win all of itself, with Tholian OP prize attached.

The other bonus was that playing without Resources meant getting back to the core game which was particularly refreshing :)

To round out the day myself and Rich got in a game of Bolt Action playing envelopment, Commandos defending Estonian SS. Playing Envelopment the game became all about transports as I ran out my Bren carriers for the first time. With the updated rules I can run a pair as effectively one transport. Once we'd worked out the finer points in got a seven strong D Section, Lt Ponsonby-Smyth and the Flame thrower :)

In short I deployed badly (again) allowing Rich too many holes to run his jackboots at. First turn saw my Action Dice out of the bag first which allowed the SS to make their Hanomag charge up the centre, much to my chagrin.

Thankfully Her Ladyship returned at this point as the mortar team once again scored a direct hit and brewed it up, much to my relief! This did have the result of effectively catapulting a squad of Panzer-Grens up the table who duly scampered through. After that steady application of a mobile D Section mopped up ably assisted by the AEC, with their first PzIII kill, and that mortar again. 

As the vehicle thing is new to me I made some mistakes with manoeuvre but learnt hugely from them. A solid win, plenty learnt and damn good fun :) 

Really must decorate the mortar team, or at least finish painting them! :)

Hanomag-Gumball 1945

Mortar strikes.......again!

Herr Flamm strikes back.......again!

Shoot, Scoot and Shoot again :)

Resistance is Futile....

Evening all,

A few of us from Enfield Gamers headed down to Marquee Models (MM) in Harlow for their first Star Trek: Attack Wing Organised Play (OP) event otherwise known as the Tholian Web.

MM had 8 players booked in but only 5 rocked up. Between myself, Mr C and Shado we had Klingon, Federation and two 4th Division Battleships. Between them the other two players deployed a Borg cube and two Borg spheres all tooled up with multi-factional upgrades and captains.
In short is was violent, dirty and...well short! Three rounds took a total of 2 hours and with a bye each round only two players got a full set of three games, excluding myself and Mr C.

With the least competitive fleet out there, amongst some fairly serious offerings, I got absolutely hosed against the Cube / Sphere fleet, sat one out and then was a single Hull Point away from taking Shado only for the dice to go against me. It was a good competitive game and well needed to save the day for me, figuratively as well as literally.

Fair enough MM are just getting their OP games of the ground and the local community should support that for it to flourish, you get out what you put in. Their are always going to be growing pains but that first game was awful and unfortunately it wasn't just the fleet that I was facing!! :/
There was a fair bit of post event chatter about balance, abusive lists and gamesmanship :(

However.....I find myself looking forward to the same event down at TTN next Sunday and really want to get a few games in with my Dominion. Happy Day!!

Big Fish, Little Fish

Afternoon all,

After a particularly poor stint without the brush I've finally got back to things and spent the afternoon re-painting up my recently acquired Dominion fleet of 2 Breen Battlecruiser, 2 Cardassian Keldons, a Koranak and the OP fighters.

Simple jobs but still pleasing after a bit of Google-fu the Breen I've kept deep and dark whilst with the Cardassians I've picked out a few more details without getting too busy. Just need to get them on the table, looking forward to a bit more than cloak, point and click that tends to be the Klingon mantra.

Hopefully something a touch more engaging. Meanwhile that's 6 PPs, hopefully a few more next month!

 

Its a WONDER-Full World

Hello people,

Just had the day down at Tabletop Nation for the latest Star Trek: Attack Wing event. I continued my record of a win and two losses as part of a highly enjoyable day out. I wasn't alone as the place was heaving with geekery as there were WarMa-Hordes, Malifaux and Heroclix events to keep us company. As a bonus I got to catch up with quite a few gaming mates I haven't seen in a while and have a geeky catch-up.

I've never been one to deny my hobby to others but I've also rarely advertised the fact. In recent years it seems to have become more acceptable. Recently myself and the missus have seen both Spiderman and Cap America at the flicks. I've noticed a lot more Geek offerings on the high street with Marvel proving understandably popular. The fact that you can pick up a Cap T-shirt along with your milk and bread feels like something a bit different. My good lady has a few and keeps waving new offerings at me. Not so many years ago these things had to be hunted out and came with a complimentary stigma and a quota of weird looks.

Where you can get your toys has also become more mainstream. I picked up the core of a Dominion Breen / Cardassian fleet today but couldn't get a Koranak. As the recent recipient of an Amazon voucher that's been successfully sourced, along with a Bolt Action rulebook at the heavily discounted price of £16.75.

Interesting times??

Undiscovered Country

Hello people,

Something a little different last night down at Enfield Gamers as myself Mr C and Rich C played out a hunch I had to do something a bit different with STAW. Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying the OP play but having played through a few of the scenarios that come with the ships I felt there was a lot more potential out there, especially multi-player.

So, I had a vaguely cunning plan and we spent the evening playtesting it until it actually worked!

Any such scenario needs a decent objective to fight over, preferably an interactive, in this case Deep Space 9. In our case we used the OP template and stats with the pylons firing but not the 360 central bank. As such there were blind spots to hide in, adding an element of manoeuvre. Later we also added four satellites equidistant form the station (we'll get to that one!).

All scenarios need victory conditions and in our case the idea was to have a number of them randomly distributed so as to keep everyone guessing to a certain extent, we had;
1. Teleport Cisco off of DS9 and escape off any board edge
2. Destroy one ship from each enemy fleet
3. Destroy the three pylons (Agility 3, Hull 2)
4. Fly over each satellite to collect Intel and escape with one ship off any board edge
NOTE: We decided that no-one would destroy DS9 as the idea was to be able to take control of it.

In our game two objectives were completed on the same turn as I whisked Cisco off the table just before Mr C claimed a Dominion Patrol Ship to go with my B'Rel

In short, this set-up worked but next time we'd look at doing thing a bit differently as it became fairly obvious pretty quickly who had which missions.
Basically you should have X number of objectives where X = number of player + 2. Each player has a deck of X objectives and randomly draws two of them.
As such, each player has two chances to win with the possibility of multiple players going after the same objective. It's also more difficult to second guess what your opponents are up to!

Something a bit different and multi-player. Please feel free to give it a go, more than happy for any feedback

Showcase: Star Trek Attack Wing

Hello people,

It's been a bit "emotional" recently, involving a brief bit of unplanned surgery (in an uncomfortable place), but that's all dealt with now and I have a few recovery days at home which means a bit of bonus TOYS-time.

So far this has involved a fair bit of Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare, which makes a lot more sense now having played the license in order. Being a bit between project I've also had a bit of a sort-out of the pile and a clean-up of the painting station. My Moria troll has turned up but a shortage of green stuff means that he isn't in one piece yet.

What I have been doing recently is playing a fair bit of STAW, Star Wars Attack Wing, which has been becoming one of my games of choice, and inspired what might become a semi regular Showcase set of posts. We'll see.

Showcase: Star Trek Attack Wing (Wizkids)

Star Trek: Attack Wing is a tactical space combat HeroClix miniatures game, featuring collectible pre-painted ships from the Star Trek Universe. Utilizing the FlightPath™ maneuver system, command your fleet in space combat & customize your ship with a Captain, crew, weapons and tech upgrades.

Players engage in exploration and combat, traversing sprawling Star Trek space maps made available via an in-store Organized Play program. As commander, players have the ability to customize, upgrade, and assign famous crewmembers to their fleets, which feature ships from the series' prominent empires and forces as well as special stats and abilities, and unique maneuvers on separate Combat Dials.


The Good;

-  FlightPath™ and the wider STAW mechanic is a strong, simple one qualifying for the "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" stamp of approval.
- The IP is very well managed with the character of Star Wars and the respective factions coming through well. Klingons have flying guns, Feds are very adaptable, Romulans are stealth orientated.
- Wizkids are providing plenty of support with Organised Play events packed full of participation goodies as well as winner prizes.
- The release waves are fairly even and keeps the meta fresh with constantly evolving forces and tactics.
- Price point is pretty good. £100 will set you up very well and you can do it for less than that. At just over a £10 per ship it's decent value and something you can manage well.


The Bad;
- The meta tends to lean towards power combos and lists more than other games and tends to dominate the OP scene. The ease with which you can mix factions can inspire a fair bit of Nerd-Rage.
- The OP prize structure is nice but some of the stuff is a bit too good and creates something of an armss race via E-Bay which doesn't sit well with many.
- The release schedule and OP packs have been subject to regular delay and lack of availability with some territories favoured over others. Once again E-Bay types have taken advantage

My Ugly;
This is a game that I initially steered away from unconvinced by the game itself and not being the biggest Trek-head, much more a Star-gamer. However, playing a few games of both STAW and X-Wing changed my mind. As much as I might have preferred it the other way round I feel that STAW is by far the more rounded game, offering more variation of strategy and tactics across a number of levels.

Most of all it's a good fun game that has converted an anti-Trek sceptic in to regular OP play and owner of the "Kirk" films box set. I still don't like Next-Gen, no game's that good ;), but that's fun because I at least get to try and space Ol Slaphead and the Bearded Gitbag!

Happy days!