Winter Warmer?

So as previously promised its part deux of the Mantic Day roadtrip.

As previously mentioned it was held down in Hockley, Essex at Tabletop Nation. With an open mind and a styrofoam coffee cup we set out four up in Rich's car happily chatting geek for the hours drive.

I had googled up their flyer and had a read but until arriving I didn't realise it was also Wayland Games HQ (not going there!).

A Nation of Tabletops

Wandering around bumping into some old faces it reminded me of the Foundry open days I occasionally frequented many years ago.

Reassuringly expensive

First impressions were good there being plenty of good to high quality gaming tables available and plenty of flyers for their weekly games nights. There was plenty of room with tea and coffee on tap and some welcome cakery. It was rather brass monkeys with heaters installed just the day before but nothing too terrible.

All in all good facilities, on many necessary levels, and plenty of room to develop and expand into. Still a bit work in progress so I'm informed. You do need to take your lunch as there's nowhere on the doorstep but a cafe is an apparent future addition.

From the flyer I recognised a few olds gaming buddies from a number of local clubs which was heartwarming to see.

Just browsing round the racks was pleasant enough but seemed to confirm my recent observations about industry creep towards GW practices and prices. You takes your choice and, hopefully, gets what you pays for. New starters certainly aren't shy about the quality / price coefficient!

Back at the point it was a very enjoyable day at a pretty good venue, hopefully to become a very good venue. Locals have a real gem on thier doorstep.

The chatter during the trip home was all that its "only" an hour away. Evening events just a bit impractical but at the weekend??

Good stuff :)

Scarily, scarily expensive!





Smash and Grab

Brace yourself people its another two parter except this time some actual gaming is involved! With my better half away for the weekend I took the opportunity to go down to Tabletop Nation for Mantic's Dreadball day.

Having heard and read a fair bit about it and as a fan of Mantic's previous boxed games offerings I was keen to have a go. Hell I was just keen to roll some dice.

As a headline I was impressed! Despite obvious comparisons its definitely not a Blood Bowl clone. Think more of Speedball for those of you that remember :)

As often with Mantic there's a simple mechanic with the devil in the detail and a strong element of resource management. It makes for another trademark tactical thinker whilst also rewarding proactive play.

Statlines are basic with plenty of action based options. Actions are completed by achieving a number of successes against a target number. Number of dice rolled is the variable.

Nothing complex but 6s explode for a bonus roll and how much you succeed by gives you bonus actions or defines how hard you hit. Positional and combo play is key.

Rolling play with no reset after a score keeps things fluid as does the incremental scoring system. 1 point for the easiest score upto 4 for the most difficult. Game score is the differential so a couple of big scores can win it for you before time.

In short lots and lots of variation and options. Tactics far beyond a Blood Bowl cage are a definite requirement. Games are quick and pressurised. I'd originally been dubious of chess clock Kings of War but with Dreadball I'd be an instant proponent.

Played three games as a novice and quickly picked it up with plenty of spare time for a mooch between the racks and glances over shoulders. Would have been more than happy to have played a bit more as a mark of my interest.

I did manage to resist "investing" in a starter deal mainly due to my hiatus status. Talk has been to get the PDFs and proxy the figures but I feel that would be somewhat disingenuous even in the face of some criticism of an established company using kickstarter. The undoubted demand settles that issue!

Humans, Orcs, Veer-Myn and Dwarves first up with plenty of others to follow including droids and tentacled xenos. How could any Bowl/Ball-Head say no?

One to mark for definite action once I'm reestablished. Humans in London Wasps colours I think :)

Don't get me started?!

Browsing around TGN the other morning I noticed that Warlord have released a starter set for Bolt Action Assault On Normandy. Rulebook, dice, 20 yank and fritz PBI a piece plus and a ruined farmhouse to do battle over. £60 for a tidy little boxed package.

A good idea I've often wondered why more manufacturers haven't taken the same path, all seems very no-brainer, or is it a case of how they might be following?

Is this the slippery slope..........

.........to this and all that comes with it?

I'm, hopefully, quite obviously referring to GW and their particular business model and practices. Controversial as it might be I don't think anyone could deny that they've raised / dragged up standards and expectations across the hobby. I spent 6 years with them 5 as a store manager so I'd like to think that my opinion holds some validity but feel free to disagree :)

Full colour perfect bind rulebooks and supplements replete with fluff and hobby sections. High quality multi-part plastic regiment sets and terrain pieces, many good to go from the box. Stores that are actual hobby centres with painting and gaming facilities and the customer service to back it up.

None of this was invented by the big Gee Dub but like or loathe they certainly refined it.

Turning tack I'm going to chanter on about two companies that I got in on the ground floor with Privateer Press and Battlefront.

When both appeared they were a breath of fresh air to the jaded GW bred gamer, or at least for me and many I gamed with. Both felt like they benefited from NOT being GW and a little bit cult even. Both had good the necessary good product but seemed able to present a less corporate and far more personal appeal. It felt GOOD to spend your monthly hobby fix money with them and like you were finally bucking the GW system like you always wanted to but could never quite manage.

But I digress from my intended point...... :)

These guys and their games found justified success and their business grew. They also grew up in all sorts of ways an necessarily to.

Full colour perfect bind rulebooks and supplements replete with fluff and hobby sections. High quality multi-part plastic regiment sets and terrain pieces, many good to go from the box. Stores that are actual hobby centres with painting and gaming facilities and the customer service to back it up.

Sound familiar? Yeah maybe :)
Good thing all round? Your choice.

I'm well gone from 40K and Fantasy for many reasons we all know too well and I'm not going to repeat here. In time I also dropped away from Warmachine, Hordes and Flames of War pretty much for the same reasons. Recently looking back at all three the initial investment cost and  then ongoing maintenance cost seemed to be similarly scary.

So my eventual point revolves around the GW business model whatever whoever might think of it warts and all. For the smaller wargames company NOT being GW seems  to look attractive to many including your potential customers. The success that this might bring would seem to bring you back towards said business model whatever whoever might think of that particular course good, bad or indifferent.

For myself I've experienced myself falling away from companies and products that I've enjoyed and wanted to succeed as a potential result and outcome of that very success.

My ACTUAL point is does anyone, including said wargames companies, feel that treading the path towards the GW business model HAS to lead to lead to a fixed point? Is it a "price" that companies and their companies are happy to pay?

Hmmmm........

Sixth Sense

Pretty much part II this one.

As previously posted i made it down to the club the other week. Was only about for a couple of hours but enjoyed sucking up some nerd "secondary smoke" of others miniature melee.

No dice rolled but happy enough to get a bit of a fix it occurred to me on the way home that this hobby of ours hits every sense and maybe another besides;

Sight; Nothing more impressive than a table groaning under a stunning set of terrain playing host to two fully painted forces of whatever floats your boat. Shows wouldn't give specific awards for this otherwise.

Plenty of us have given a moments silence at the sight of the tin horde advancing over book hill or the display game of fading glory, snobbish as it may be.

Sound; From jolly banter to inglorious rules lawyering, woeful groans and jubilation offered to the dice gods.Most of us have heard it all as well as the soundtrack in our heads from our favourite movies.

Smell; Nothing like opening that new regiment box, the first leaf through the pages or the first step into the gaming hall. We all know exactly what I mean or definitely should!

Taste; The tang of the thankfully non toxic acrylic from the brush. The sweat of a anticipation prior to the bones being rolled. The fried goodness of bacon butty and vaguely soggy chops. Victory or defeat.
Mmmmm..... tasty!

Touch; Pewter or Plastic? What weight do you prefer in your non brush hand? Do you caress or cast your dice towards statistical oblivion?

The Itch; When was the last time you got your fix? Stroked the brush, rolled the dice, spontaneously added to lead mountain? I FEEL the itch :)

I see lead people.........do you? :)

Grrrrrrr......

Not so much a musing as a rant though one with, hopefully, a purpose as a try out for a new line of post as part of the whole enforced hobby break thing. A view from the sidelines if you will.

Nothing wrong with a rant as long as it has a point to make. I've read quite a few that I've enjoyed greatly and have made me have a good think.

So today's subject is re-blogging. Some time ago I chatted on about competitive blogging having noticed a number of offenders afflicting various blog groups / rings etc.

Recently I've noticed the phenomenon of re-blogging as a single post as in a post that's a link to someone else's post. Originally I was unimpressed seeing such an act as hijacking someone's time, effort and insight. All in all a further mutant strain of the filler post.

My ire has been liberally fuelled by the fact that I've regularly scrolled through TGNs blog roll to find the original two down from the re-blog. Grrrrr.....

Being a quizzical / sucker sort of a chap I've still continued to follow through on a few of said posts that had caught my eye. I have to admit that I've stumbled upon a few posts and blogs that I was rather pleased to find and seen my watch-list grow such as THIS ONE!!

So hypocrite or convert? Feel free to let me know :)

To me it seems, as ever with the blog- o-sphere a matter of quality and repetition. By this I mean primarily on the part of the re-blogger.

Do they offer their own quality product? Do they need to if the link leads you to the end of a rainbow?

How does the original poster feel about the whole thing? Is this a form of flattery or battery?
I've been linked to a couple of times and been quite chuffed :)

What's the motivation? Share the love or pad the profile out a bit?

Does anyone (else) care??.............

Only H.U.M.A.N

Should set out my stall now and admit to the first instalment of a two part vaguely related post.

Bolt Action....in action!

Made it down to the club last Tuesday for the first time in a while. Bit of a test run for how my recently extended hobby commute might work out. Was only about for a couple of hours in the end but enjoyed catching up with the toys-boys (no innuendo, no Zs).

When I've been explaining my miniature affliction to a "normal" I've almost always attempted to draw attention to the social side of what might otherwise appear to be a rather solitary hobby.

It suddenly occurs that video games are far more reclusive, offline definitely online on slightly less so, where the proper nerds need to congregate and, possibly, not just for mutual protection.

But I digress which might become more of a regular feature :)

So in short I didn't roll any dice but still got to immerse myself for a bit. The 40K infestation reared its head briefly as I sought out and then flicked through the Chaos Codex wondering how viable a cultist base force might be.



I feel the pain!



Flicking through the various unit entries considering their relative stats points and special rules I realised that I didn't have the blindest clue anymore when, some years ago, I had the second sight that allowed me to pick out worthy vassals from the pages themselves.

Not so sure that's such a bad thing :)

A few of the guys were running through some Bolt Action action four to the table learning as the game played through. Positive human experience +1.

Two of the 40K games featured Gaurd deployed behind Aegis Defence Lines which I'm aware are now part of the army list.

I was then joyfully informed by one such player how "We've already broken this game!" and how scenery can be traded in for groups of static quad autocannons. I scurried away as he informed his how "we've worked out that I could get 21 on the table!"

I closed the codex and gratefully returned it to its owner. Positive Human Experience -1. Or am I being a bit harsh??

So back at the apparent point a lot of this geek-tastic hobby revolves around actual human interaction which to some might be something of a surprise. The quality of that interaction, and its relevant importance to those engaged within it, may vary but it's always there.

Live long and prosper my friend :)

That was the month (and a half) that wasn't

Hello people!

So as some of you may have noticed September was an utter non-event on here. I have now moved and the vast majority of my stuff is now in boxes up a loft. As such I can pretty much guarantee non more Painting Points this year. Bit of a shame in some ways well worth it in other non-hobby / geek related areas :)

Yes it's all about a girl! Not a boast post (honest!) but relevant because WE are in the process of buying a house. Three bed with conservatory and garage. Further relevance is that I've been guaranteed a games room of some description probably by doing some work on the garage.

So recently I've been reduced to being a browser rather than a blogger whilst contemplating how to keep things spinning along on here. I've finally had the epiphany of providing a view from the fence during my enforced hobby abstinence preferably when I have something relevant to comment upon.

So without further ado I took a lunchtime breath of air around Leadenhall Market the other day and took a wander into Waterstones to browse the graphical novels only to find this lot proudly displayed at the front of the store. Bit of a mix along the nerd-o-meter I grant you but I still never expected to stumble upon Magic and Zombies!! and Warhammer Invasion in my nerdiest of dreams.

So the question; Is geek becoming more mainstream? Is it just a case of more.... ahem.... exposure? Do we all owe Big Bang so much to be able to come out of the closet more freely.

Over the past few months I've discovered a few nerds-in-arms at work mainly when caught browsing at lunch. Somehow it seems so much more socially acceptable. Is there more of a divergence as more "traditional" board game offerings make more headway into the hobby from Settlers of Catan to Zombiecide and many tabletop conversions to board-top and card game?

In offering some form of conclusion I'd suggest that geek in general has become somewhat more acceptable or at least we're less afraid of coming out from behind the lead mountain. Surely this has to be a good thing.... :)

Just out of interest this is my first blog by app! No internet at the current abode :( Not sure if I've uploaded the photos properly but were about to find out and I'm sure I can fix bits on the work stand-alone at lunch tomorrow. Assuming I can get everything to work then blogging while travel will become a regular thing.

So without further ado.......

EDIT: Only thing seems to be that Blogger app sticks all the photos at the bottom of the post or at least I haven't worked out how to put htem anywhere else.......yet. Minor victory!!