The Road to LEAD MOUNTAIN......

.....is not so much paved with good intentions as much as it is childish glee and greed bent in all angles to somehow reach adult justification.

As it kind of fits the season, though I'd be banging on no matter the date, I shall explain;

Some many months ago a few of us were dabbling with some Pulp gaming, lead mainly by Jon who directed our gazes to various manufactures including Pulp Figures who have a number of very fine offerings. I then discovered that as something of a side project PF's main man, Bob Murch, was also working on some particularly lovely woodland Indians for the Huron / Iroquois war.

I drooled over these figures during many a lunch break as I'm a sucker for AWI and the Black Powder skirmish thing. The Last Mohican has to be a Top 10 film for me. They're also really nice, lovingly crafted figures. Having previously read a bit around the subject I found myself a copy of Orenda on Bob's suggestion and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I've dabbled with the period previously on a number of occasions, most recently as my St Peytersburg project being a Sleepy Hollow village to range through any historical genre I fancied. Scenery was built, many figures were based and base-coated, some figures were even painted. Musket and Tomahawk was purchased and played. Mordheim was ported across to provide Zombies vs Redcoats. STUFF happened....until it didn't anymore as the unholy trinity of time, money and opponents, aka reality, confined everything into a variety of storage boxes.

So imagine my delight when I discovered that those figures had been developed into Flint and Feather as part of Crucible Crush. All of a sudden it's a package deal of figures and rules all wrapped up in a starter box set. These days, to me, easy access into a genre / period is a big deal. Old school demanded that you do all the legwork yourself and to an extant you got a greater sense of accomplishment, assuming you actually got there. More and more these days entry point boxed sets are coming onto the market.

When I worked for Gee-Dub I did pretty well from the maxim; "Sell the Hobby not the Product" because once you're into the hobby you sell yourself the product.  For myself, and I'm sure many others, it's more about limiting myself and despite the commen sense in that I often rail against it despite the shadow of the mountain over my shoulder.

Kind of half the point isn't it?

Happy Christmas to ME

Hello people,

Not a lot of hobby love going on recently outside of my traditional Xmas present to myself which this year was one of Micro Art's particularly excellent battlements for Infinity. A couple of the guys at the club have the District 5 versions so I went for the Wharehouse version for a bit of variety and I felt it fitted my scenery set better.

It's a bit more blue-grey than I expected though the buildings it on it fine and I'm sure I can darken my bases if I really feel the need. I've got a league game on Tuesday so it'll get a run out then, so to speak.

Meanwhile I need to get back to Rob's Tohaa. I've made a bit of progress and I really want to pick up those Geckos as guilt free as possible. Spirit of the season and all that :)

The Sprit of the Season

Yesterday myself and Nigel squeezed in a final day out flying casual down inWoking.

I pulled another respectable 3 and 2 with a vaguely experimental triple Black Sun Ace toting Crack Shot with TLT / Bossk Palob. It was fun to fly but really needed to win the opening engagement. Dropping Palob, who was generally priority target, would give me a pair of feedback Zs to run as blockers but no Palob. First world problems ;(

The event itself was very welcoming and we'll run with tea, coffee, pastries and faction themed cake available :) Prize support was impressive with complementary Xmas target locks from Cog O Two and a couple of prize kits from I Buy Wargames.

During the lunchbreak we dropped into I Buy, mainly as I needed to restock some paints at which point I my my regular impulse purchases of a few more Army Painter brushes and also a copy of Tabletop Gaming.

I can't lie I've wanted, yearned for even, a good toys magazine for many years and endured many substitutes and false false dawns. Even with the rose tints on I can see the difficulties to produce a viable publication in the virtual age but that doesn't stop other hobbies.

First impressions are very good. It's a high quality weighty perfect bind production with a modern, professional look throughout. I'd compare it, favourably, to Edge in that it's clearly aimed for the grown up geek. All the expected bases are covered, though a quick flick reveals the content of this particular issue to be more Fantasy and Sci Fi than Historical.

It's rather inspired me to read every last word and do a proper review, rare indeed! Meanwhile if you see it about I'd suggest it's well worth a fiver to have a look yourself, I'm already tempted to subscribe!

Happy days ;)

By Your Command

Hello people.

Tuesday night down at Enfield Gamers Phil ran a couple of us through the Battlestar Galactica board game, so cue a trademark impressionistic review ;]

Boardgamegeek.com says;

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival. Based on the epic and widely-acclaimed Sci Fi Channel series,

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game puts players in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and must all work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game secretly side with the Cylons. Players must attempt to expose the traitor while fuel shortages, food contaminations, and political unrest threatens to tear the fleet apart.

After the Cylon attack on the Colonies, the battered remnants of the human race are on the run, constantly searching for the next signpost on the road to Earth. They face the threat of Cylon attack from without, and treachery and crisis from within. Humanity must work together if they are to have any hope of survival…but how can they, when any of them may, in fact, be a Cylon agent?

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is a semi-cooperative game for 3-6 players ages 10 and up that can be played in 2-3 hours. Players choose from pilots, political leaders, military leaders, or engineers to crew Galactica. They are also dealt a loyalty card at the start of the game to determine if they are a human or Cylon along with an assortment of skill cards based on their characters abilities. Players then can move and take actions either on Galactica, on Colonial 1, or in a Viper. They need to collect skill cards, fend off Cylon ships, and keep Galactica and the fleet jumping. Each turn also brings a Crisis Card, various tasks that players must overcome. Players need to play matching skill cards to fend off the problems; skill cards that don't match hinder the players success.

Fate could be working against the crew, or there could be a traitorous Cylon! As players get closer and closer towards reaching their Earth, another round of loyalty cards are passed out and more Cylons may turn up. If players can keep their up their food stores, fuel levels, ship morale, and population, and they can keep Galactica in one piece long enough to make it to Earth, the Humans win the game. But if the Cylon players reveal themselves at the right moment and bring down Galactica, the Humans have lost.

I'm a huge Galactica fan and had heard good things about the game but in honesty found things a little bit slow to start off with. That was probably because there just three of us, the minimum number required, and we were obviously learning our way. Once things picked up the subtleties of the game came through as different characters archetypes have access to different resources.

I was Cylon from the outset and it became quite a fine balancing act to not be too obvious about it. I did rather give myself away at one point at which point the sub-game of bluff and deceit kicked in fully additional another dimension entirely which with more players would become far stronger.

All in all a good game I'd happily play again. Good stuff ;)

Red or Dead

Well what do you know? Two posts in two days and for once not a card in sight ;)

This time it's PROPER wargames as I've finished off a few more of my Nomads, this time the Corregidor Alguaciles box set adding an HMG, Sniper, Missile Launcher and Grenade Launcher to the ranks. As a tooled up linked team of five they can, potentially, deal out some serious firepower.

I even got a game in Tuesday night as part of Enfield Gamers league campaign. These guys got left in the case, with thier whiff of fresh varnish they'd die horribly, as I tried out a linked team of five smoke grenade toting Jaguars and the Gecko mini-TAG as a step up from my regular Mobile Brigada.

Both did rather well, the Jaguars securing the Armoury objective, under cover of smoke, while the Gecko formed a mobile reserve shooting up a Haqq TAG that wandered into the open to evicerate my Intruder Sniper. In short, with some compliant dice, it all went swimmingly well and the Haqq were in retreat during thier final turn to take the game comprehensively.

We still got a few bits wrong but half the point of the league is to get in enough regular games to actually improve. That's been an objective for a while now ;)

So another 8 Painting Points on the sheet and I'm on a bit of a roll. Rob's Tohaa haven't been getting any love so I've set myself the target of having them all done by the time I go back to work after the New Year. Still no the greatest photos, these are from my phone which are a vast improvement on the tablet so I'll have to get the proper kit out soonish.

I work better under a bit of pressure :)

Life on the NET # 7

So it was the Gaurdians of Tyr Netrunner team championship on Saturday which was once again something of a step into the unknown and a huge learning experience.

 

As a headline I went 4-4 with two wins as Corp, both by killing the Runner, and two as Runner, one of which was timed, as in I was ahead when the round finished. I learnt plenty on both sides of the fence and was far happier playing a more focused Kitt Runner rather than a scattergun Criminal.

 

Once again my lessons were split between timing issues, what to do when for maximum effect, as well as facing new IDs and deck builds. A few times with Kitt I installed key programs to be used next turn only to realise that I'd just given my strategy away and my opponent a turn to prepare.

 

All but one of my opponents were helpful enough to answer my questions and explain what they were doing along the way. My final opponent had been to World's this year and continued to play in that vein. Fair enough, a lesson in itself as he crushed my Run, but all the more satisfying when I Scorched him into the floor 

 

As with the X-Wing championship the team format gave the day a less full on feel, at least at our end of the tables, and was just as fun as any other Gaurdians event. So another alternate art card, a few more possible deck tweaks and a bunch more games under my belt. Happy days :)

 

The day also brought my tourney / event to a close for the year. It'll be nice to play casual for a while, on all fronts, though I've already got plenty booked in for the new year!