To little to late?

Hello people,

What follows is an unashamed rant post. These are my opinions and I accept and stand by them.  I generally dont do tbis but on this occasion I need to vent, hopefully in a constructive manner. I'm not whinging, as much as it might seem like it and if it does then fair enough.

Thursday after work I headed down to Dark Sphere for some X-Wing. There's currently a well themed campaign going on and I've taken the chance to run some different lists to see how they work. If you get the chance then I heartily recommend getting involved.

Running Kavil I played a couple of games losing both, one closely, the other not at all closely. I still had fun and tested some ideas.

Coming home I found the third and final wave of my Dreadball Extreme Kingdom Kickstarter on the doorstep. Surely this should be a joyous moment of nerdgasm, tearing open the box to inhale aue'de fresh plesin. Not so much :/

What I actually did was open the box in disgust and dig out the contents so that I could snear at them! I then stacked the box in the Kickstarter section of my toys bookcase, which now measures at least three feet in height :(

I'm sure many of you are asking "why the rage hate Steve?". Some of you may remember that I've loved this game and previously credited it with rejuvenating my hobby a couple of years ago. That's right, I've have playing many, many games in both leagues and tournaments, much as I do X-Wing now.

Even as I became disenchanted with Mantic and their well documented crack addict employment of Kickstarter I kept my love of the game telling myself I saw the distinction between Mantic, Jake and the Dreadball community.

When the Extreme Kickstarter came up I told myself that I wasn't going to pledge but pick stuff up as and when it was released. The KS deals haven't always worked out as the best option , all of those "free" bonus figures never are and it's not as if figure quality has improved along the way.

HOWEVER.....when I saw the fluff and ideas involved I  couldn't stop so went in with a sweet spot £150 Frenzy pledge......LAST MARCH!!

Since then the only other project that's treated me as poorly is Heroes of Normandie and they're just two French blokes rather than a miniatures company with enough professional clout to pull down Mars Attack. However you look at it that's a major success for them but at what expense and to whom?
To me putting up a mission control simply isn't enough. Keeping backers informed is laudable but it's verged on the point of taking the piss.

In honesty I also backed Heroquest 25 which is also late and not saying a lot but I'm happy to wait given my fondness for the product and, again, they're not a big figures company dividing opinion within the community. Fair and objective? No, but that's my perogative. I'm sure Mantic don't care about my rantings, or anyone else's but that's their perogative.

As with any Kickstarter I had a choice and spent my money. After that you're locked in for the ride. Mantic have got my money but didn't get my time which I've since spent on X-Wing and Infinity. As such I no longer have the time or inclination for Dreadball or Mantic. In honesty I'd be tempted to Ebay it all but who'd take it off me? By the nature of events the market is now instantly saturated.

At the end of the day I'm more annoyed at myself than anyone else. I knew better but let myself get sucked in anyway. I've backed other KS projects, mainly graphic novels, which have been well run by decent people and delivered what they promised. Dreadball Extreme has undoubtedly been my worst ever KS experience by a mile. As a result I simply don't trust any other Toys KS and I won't back them. By the time that deliver I doubt I'll have the time or interest any more :(

Here endeth the rant, it's been very cathartic and more about myself than trying to influence others. By making the public statement I'm far more likely to hold to my convictions.

On a related note I turned 40 yesterday, ful membership of the Grumpy Old Man Club confirmed :)

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 :)

A Game of Two Tales

Evening all,

Back to the grind for three days and rather looking forward to the weekend and reacquainting myself with the brushes.

An oasis of geekdom I got in a game of Dreadball with Ian last night down at Enfield Gamers. Niffing  of varnish I dug out my Nameless while Ian opted for his beloved Forge Fathers. 

As it was thier first game I took two of each position, Striker, Sticky Guard and Hard Guard to give them an equal run. As the Away team I paired up the Sticky and Hard Guards in anticipation of laying some serious smackdown leaving the Strikers to scuttle about after the ball...except it didn't quite work out that way!

In short my Slam rolls were somewhat poor while the Fathers gave my lads something of an "lesson" which soon saw my injury box packed tighter a tin of John West. The Fathers were going full on with some big assists, Slams in the back and plenty of Stomps involved.

It didn't help that I forgot that Hard Guards have Can't Feel A Thing but it wouldn't have made a lot of difference. I was lucky to be avoiding multiple deaths! What also helped was the Father's total inability to handle ball while the Ref rolls pretty much all went my way.

So around about rush 6 I had a Sticky Guard a Striker left the pitch total, who thankfully manged to scuttle through for a 4 pointer. Speed and Skill 4 left them vulnerable to Gang-Slams but gave them good ball skills.

Around rush 10 the Slam game began to even up a bit as I put both Father Strikers off the pitch and grabbed a 1 pointer to leave Ian chasing the game a bit too hard. Managing to fend off the stumpys, despite a Striker kill a piece, I took the Landslide on the final rush and breathed out hard. It certainly didn't feel like a walkover!

As I'd thought Nameless are something of a combo team, with the ability to both hit hard and move the ball quickly, and refreshingly different to the Jack-tastic Z'Zor and Terratons I've been playing recently. Potentially able to take on most other teams effectively I think they could be vulnerable to specific targeting by Slam teams. I've seen it suggested that you need to target the Sticky Guards but I think it's the Strikers you need to go for.

Having said that next time out ill try a single Sticky, sprinting around to assist, with both Hard Guards and three Strikers. I think they might struggle against Striker spam and maybe the Asterians if they get some good Foul rolls. 

Looking forward to finding out :)

The Twelve Days of X-Mas - Day 8

So checking back I apparently started attaching paint to my Nameless team, the Wakadaisho Wave-Riders, back in November. Today I finally finished them off, bar numbering which will be a minor Day 8 job.

After quite a bit of work It's nice to have them all finished to a decent standard and that's all my Dreadball stuff to date fully painted! So more PPs for 2014 and a second finished project, as much as this one has been on and off on that count :)

I-Phone shots I'm afraid as I can't find the charger for my camera, though they've come out well enough and I'm sure it's just run off somewhere obvious I haven't looked yet.

As previously mentioned the Strikers had some alignment issues on the hex bases but in some ways it might be a bonus in terms of them actually fitting next to any other figure!

The Hitty Guards and Jon Doe are pretty slim by comparison. JD looks somewhat static compared to his less All-Star compatriots and the most Zoidburg :)

Obligatory team shot with the Spawn looming out of the background. Rather looking forward to giving these guys a run out, hopefully in the Enfield Gamer's upcoming Champions League. Not sure what the pre-game snacks might be :)

Turtle Soup?

Evening All,

Tuesday night at Enfield Gamers was our last club night of 2013 and with the Spirit of the Season in mind Ian's Judwan Land-slid me....twice.......in a total of about 15 rushes.

My dice didn't help too much but then I did also make some dumb-ass moves, something of a habit against Ian. Several of my lads ended up rolling around for several rushes at a time, which is sort of impressive against a non-Slam team.

Twice, across the two games, I went for a Dash and failed, whilst also getting smacked in head several times by a ball launch. One of these came from failing to pick up the ball from DB1 but another couple of times it was all down to a few tactical Feints. One feels that most of these events were somewhat avoidable!

While my Gaurds did their bit in laying the Slam the Jacks simply didn't turn up for the party. My Coaching rolls being distinctly random didn't help otherwise. As such even beginning to challenge the Jud score-rate just wasn't happening!

Not horrifically unhappy. Learnt a few bits and recognised that some nights the dice just aren't with you. Ian's well known for keeping them to himself :)

Rising from the Depths

Evening all,

Just a quick, slightly fuzzy, one as I've finally made some Nameless progress, finishing Big Bo-Bo and the hitty gaurds. The real work came in settling on a scheme that works across all of the positions but it got there.

6 Painting Points so far with the Sticky Gaurds, Strikers and John Doe (repaint) to go. Numbering is likely to be on the bases unless I get assaulted by inspiration. Unfortunately I've also noticed that in cleaning up the Striker mounts they all now face the point of a hex whcih is an arse but not the end of the world.

Tomorrow night at the club sees the tradition of Pizza Night plus a mini bake-off between a few of us. Proper nerdy eh? Bit more Terraton action for me and possibly a side order of Klingon!

Throw another shrimp on the barbie?

Confessions of a Gaming Pedant

Evening all,

It was round 2 of the Pudding Bowl, out pre-season Dreadball mini league, at Enfield Gamers Tuesday night at which time I persevered with my Terraton Wonnarua Warriors against Chris' Forge Fathers, Emerald Fury.

I also rocked up with my now pedantry packed Klingon Attack Wing fleet. Judicious investment of £50 plus various donations from Rich and Mr C see me with this little lot. Well pleased, Merry X-Mas to me! :)

Flicking through ships and crew cards I quite fancy going old school with the less crinkly Klingons and Khanto start off with and see where I end up.

Back at the club he game soon became something of a punch-up, often the case with myself and Chris, with both of us using our coaches for Attacking Plays as often as possible.

 Early doors a lot of my lads found themselves rolling around on their shells consistently failing to get back up. Not sure if that was down to a few too many stubbies before the match, or more worryingly too few!

Ganging up on the FF Strikers I managed to put both of them into the casualty bin, though Chris had taken the lead, at which point it became battle of the Jacks. Thankfully mine were somewhat more survivable with 3+ Strength and the ability to not be slammed in the back. Obvious really! Forge Fathers however CAN be slammed in the back, especially when you Teleport behind them!!

My star Jack, Steve-O, was soon toddling down the grid as fast as his little stumps would take him for a 4 pointer. Chris pulled back with a couple of 1 pointers until I paid proper attention and took a 3 pointer to go 5 up at the end of the 12th rush.

Weathering a final storm of FF fisticuffs I even manged a 2 pointer to take the game by a landslide, my first in a while, and my first win with the Wonnarua Warriors.

It did occur that a lot of that was down to an Attacking Coach, they make such a HUGE difference for a Jack team. After the first few rushes, rolling around on the floor, my dice did me proud, another big deal without cards or dice, though I did pick one up during the game.

For a tourney I know where my bonus MC are going. For a league I could see a slow start until that coach. I haven't run the Nameless yet but the Terratons are good fun so are definitely a contender for the new year league. We'll see!!

Riding the Learning Curve

Hello people.

Whenever any of us pick up a new system, game, force or team there's normally an "initiation" period when you learn what works, normally by working out what doesn't work. I've always found that I've generally learnt more from losses than wins and is never anything I have a problem with.

Which is just as well as that was my evening last night down at Enfield Gamers. A good nights gaming it was too! Our pre-season Pudding Bowl Dreadball mini league kicked off. Standard teams plus coach with a few house rules to try out.

Though a seasoned DB coach I was running my freshly varnished Terratons, second ever game, against Rich C's Veermyn. An uphill incline was duly anticipated.

However....the game was very tight throughout, I lead for most of it and produced, but failed on dice, two clear landslide opportunities. Even on the final rush I had the chance to take the game but her Ladyship (luck) took offence to the fumes and claimed her price :)

Running three each Gaurds and Jacks on pitch I didn't suffer a single casualty whilst populating the Veermyn box on a regular basis. Remembering to go for offensive coaching plays was crucial, leaving the coach figure in my Away card with my activation tokens provided sufficient reminder, and produced a half field 4 pointer to set up a regular feed upfield. Teleport produced unrivalled mobility, especially out of threat hexes, and allowed a heavy beat-down to be applied with surgical precision. Even the Jacks got involved in that one!

Plenty learnt and I felt the affinity "click" that will see them on the pitch for the foreseeable.

Prior to the turtle love Mr C ran me through Attack Wing with a throw together Klingon fleet. Any lingering resistance IS now entirely futile (sigh) with a small fleet firmly locked onto my wallet.

I do find myself enjoying the game though with this particular battle, my third, it soon transpired that Mr C, tourney regular, had constructed his newly acquired Federation fleet as a tourney force. (Picard and Spock int the same fleet??)

Cue beat-down with her Ladyship also sticking in a size 9 stiletto! To rub it in at one point Mr C rolled one too many attack dice. Apologising he re-rolled for a better result rather than just taking the original minus a git! (Typo intended)

This act wasn't however unnoticed by her Ladyship who quickly changed sides and did her best to even things out with a couple of close range barrages which saw the Enterprise limp away as last ship standing.

Despite all the pantomime villainy I enjoyed the game and learnt plenty tactically with the interest to learn more. Selected purchases are imminent.

Meanwhile it's Dark Heresy tonight and apparently  REVENGE is a dish best served cold!!! (and possibly whipped)

G'Day Cobber

Evening all,

Finally finished up the Wannarua Warriors. I had an idea for Aboriginal numbering but found out that various bodyparts were involved that made it somewhat impractical so plain old numbers it was. 16 PPs slipping into December after a 2 point November.

They did turn out last week at Enfield Gamers, though the Pudding Bowl was postponed until this week. Got in a game with Rich against his Terratons which turned into one almighty punch-up settled by the only Strike of the game in Rush 14 to see his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles victorious.

Rich did mention that the solid yellow made it difficult to pick out the Jacks so I've put their Launch Gloves into a bone which I think complements well.

I've also, horribly sensibly, numbered up the Z'Zor and Forge Fathers whilst the Nameless are coming along nicely. All the guards are basecoated though I still need to work out the Strikers. Their different forms make them much more interesting to paint in team colours.

So Pudding Bowl at Enfield Gamers, two games a night, across the next three Tuesday nights! Trial league rules for the New Year Champions League! You know where we are!

Lights, Camera, SLAM!!

Evening all,

After another weekend of various sporting mediocrity the real stuff kicks off tomorrow night with Enfield Gamers' Pudding Bowl x-mas Dreadball mini league.

As poor I-Phone shots attest I'm almost there with the Teratons. If I manage to finish them off tonight ill more than likely run them for the next three weeks. 

I've had to order some more sheets of numbers as my spares got eaten by one of Mr C's little spillages but with the Tons I've got a more "tribal" idea in mind.The Nameless are coming along with plenty of ideas in my head, will just have to see which ones make it out!

Godzilla vs Mega-Squid

Evening people,

As you can hopefully see, bar numbering, I've finished up the test figures for my Terraton, Wonnarua Warriors, and Nameless, Wakadaisho Wave-Riders. Just need to get stuck in and paint the rest.

Elsewhere WE are still waiting for Zombiecide to turn up :/

Additionally, attempting to read Skarsnik has succeeded in a manner as its so poorly written that its got me to pick up an actual book of interest and start reading that instead. Fusilier, the story of the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the AWI should hopefully provide the impetus to get back to painting mine once I'm through the plesin.

Wheres that brush.... :)

I am a Storyteller.........

.....and my story must be told! Remember that one?

Catching up with my merry week of gaming Tuesday night at Enfield Gamers was Dreadball all the way. Two games rotating between eight of us I took my Robots, Rust In Piece, playing Z'Zor and then Orx. Both were tight games, winning the first by 3 and loosing the second by 1, where I spent quite a bit of time recycling players through the casualty bin. Tech Support were kept pretty busy with the welder!

With the 'Bots I've found it a struggle to get going against an aggressive hitty team, especially with just the 6 players. I found myself using up quite a few actions transforming only to get punched off the pitch and then starting over again. Not impossible, challenging.
I did notice at the Milton Keynes tourney that a coach works very well for them, offensively and defensively.

We're going to be running a Pudding-Bowl mini league up to x-mas as a prelude to a Champions League in the New Year. Think I'll be running Z'Zor, really enjoy them.

Meanwhile, Wednesday night we picked up Dark Heresy and started what will be our final chapter before swapping over to a bit of Star Wars EotE. Instant blancmange kit and orange flavouring at the ready!

Summoned by Baron Harkonnen, aka the Flying Fat-Man,to his Inquisitorial rock-moon-space station he showed us a rather sketchy, low budget snuff movie. Working out that this wasn't just a prelude to "keys in the bowl" it turned out to be a ruck 14 years ago in a mine far far away between a disgraced Baron and a Mutie who were both part of a rebel group on a backwater Medieval world providing some form of super-ore to the Imperium. Records show the Mutie died while the Baron, who lost a leg in the fight, was executed by the local Arbites.

Bringing our back off of various walls we were then shown a more recent pict feed featuring our Mutie and two of his mates Scaly Pete and Metallic Micky. Apparently reports of his death had been mis-filed but then so had the Baron's execution as he's in a cell 100 meters beneath our feet. Fecking Imperial scribes!

So...we're dispatched to Sepheris Secundus aka Shite-hole Central to put down the resurgence of The Broken Chains with Baron Harkonnen arriving a week behind us. Waxing on he let slip that the Baron was actually something of a progressive type, educating instead of flogging his serfs. Disgraced by the Queen he fled into the extensive mine system setting up the Chains with Mutie boy with whom he fell out about the requisite level of "direct action".

First off we get to go and have a chat with our plethora of newly acquired skills. I'm psy-level 4 now which means an extra dice to turn Daemonhost with :) I've also picked up a number of Telepathic skills.....

"When we get in there just hold him down and I'll do the rest, don't say anything!

Mr C looked up, deer in the headlights of an off-plot sourjon, mixing bowl and whisk at the ready!

Busting in Rob the burly Arbite pinned our man to the wall, his bionic leg and nice but dim air confirming his identity even before I employed Mind Scan.

Sachet and milk into bowl, orange flavouring and whisk at the ready!

So basically I / we worked our way through the five levels of Mind Scan, with a Compel added in to reduce his resistance, whilst asking a large number of highly relevant questions about The Broken Chains and their supply chain contacts that were never going to answered. This is also known as driving the bus directly at the obvious plot holes :)

Whisk, whisk, whisk as hard as you can! If you can't get them back on plot, no-one can!

Eventually giving in we slapped an explosive collar on Baron No-Ore and trotted off to our transport, a freighter call the Pax Behemoth captained by the delightful Kobal Aizdar aka Al Jazeera. With a three week voyage ahead of us it was discussed that it was a good point to "develop" our newly acquired powers.

Rob's Arbite did a montage of shots from the gym, dojo and firing range.
Ryan's Assassin snuck around the cargo hold jumping out on random crew with a garrote.
I Compelled the crew into multiple event of spontaneous jigs, shantys and frigging in the rigging.

Mr C produced a lovely milky desert with a subtle citrus flavouring!

Meanwhile I came across this article about storytelling with gaming. Top Marks :)

They came from the Depths...

.......thirty millimetre high, reasonably cast plesin with a big mould line. Godzilla!!?

Apologies for the I-Phone photos but I'm being a bit lazy. Pretty much complete test figures for The Nameless and Teratons. Trying to go "marine" with The Nameless and antipodean for the Teratons.

Happy enough, just need to paint the rest  :)