Sons of Anarchy and the 50k

Greetings overlords, to another DBD post. Yes, two in one week, tis madness! First of all however, I have to thank you all for this.

My humble blog about gaming, whether it is war or board based, has reached 50,000 views. I'm a little surprised as it wasn't long ago I posted about the 40,000 views and I'v ebeen to busy over the last few months to be that active, but still people come from far and wide to look at some of the oddities I've posted, and I cannot thank you enough. 

A quick pic of the grots I took to Dragondaze, largely done bar a few details and I will prob do bases at some point too. Better pictures will come when they're finished!

But now for the main event of this post! 

As I mentioned on the Dragondaze post, I'd bought myself a new game, Sons of Anarchy. I absolutely love the show, so the game was appealing to me immensely. 

You start off with a screen, with which to hide your stash behind, your club house with the basic rules and what you have, and then a series of locations across which you ride and exploit via specific area traits. For example, one location may allow you to buy 2 guns and 2 contraband for four cash, then another will allow you to sell one gun for four cash. Did I mention that cash is key? Well whoever ends up with the most cash wins the game, so combo-ing these deals is key to getting the most cash. 

Obviously. if you're a fan of SoA like myself you know that this game sounds a little too quiet for a Men of Mayhem game... well thats where the throwdowns come in. If two gangs are in a location, that area cannot be exploited. A throwdown however can be ordered where the two games go at it in a fight. Prospects give you +1, Members give you +2, and if you choose to use a gun, they can give you +3/ Also, if guns are used and whether you win or lose the dice roll, players choose which of their members go to hospital and potentially die. Theres an ER room and St Thomas location cards for a reason! You also gain heat for such actions, which can lead to you finding it harder to deal drugs in the contraband phase. Here, players secretly hold how many drugs they wish to deal, and depending on the combined total you get different amounts for each contraband. The less, the more its worth, where as if a lot of drugs are being sold you flood the market and make them worth less.

Its a great little game that takes little more than an hour, although now we know how to play it'll take even less. Above you can see how my stash was hidden, and I ended up winning the game too, think watching the show gave me an edge! I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game tho and look forward to a full four player game. Even if you're not a fan of the series I think people will enjoy playing this, so its a great little game to mix in with other games you play. And for £30-35 its a good price point. 

We also cracked out Munchkin to give a new member an intro to tabletop gaming, and he ended up with the best starting hand I've ever seen. At level 3 he had a level 16 combat capability... lucky sod! He ended up winning too so he was well chuffed with himself. I'm hoping next monday some X-wing will be played, having some withdrawel symptoms so hopefully a member will be looking for a game. Thats all for now though!

Dragondaze Convention!

So Dragondaze has come and gone, and I can honestly say it was a great day! As you may or may not know, myself and Louis from the Gwent Reavers went down to represent the club and also the GCN along with our brother GCN clubs to run demo games and chat about the Gaming Club Network. We ran Gorkamorka, there was also Deadzone, Warmachine, X-Wing, Heroquest, Bushido, Warhammer 40,000, plus a multitude of other games being played and shown off. More on these as we go!

Heres our table, quite simple as we have been so busy with moving and I myself have been getting the business up and running that what I'd like to have done just wasn't anywhere nearly possible enough. I wanted a small representation of Mektown, but we played it simple and used what we had. Still looked cool though if I'm honest and was glad to get my Grots more or less finished.

Heres Andy setting up a massive game of Deadzone! They'd been working hard getting everything painted and it looked great fair play.

A game of Relics was set up for people to enjoy and try out, some really good looking minis for this game.

More of the Deadzone table by Mid-Wales Wargaming, below you can see it almost finished.

Hats off to you lads!

Heres a game of 40k being ready to be played out, Space Marines vs Orks. Kill the Orks and their oppressive ways!

Special mention to this, Across the Dead Earth. Some really nice ideas and terrain features here for a game not yet out, such a lot of promise though!

Love the use of toy cars to add to the rubble strewn streets. The games maker, whose name escapes me (sorry man!) showed me one of the buildings that shows multiple levels for models to explore and fight over.

I'm sure this is how the X15 looks when it takes kids to Crosskeys College every morning. Broken tank too!

Heres the maker himself, handsome bugger too! You can visit his facebook page at Across the Dead Earth so go check it out!

I believe we have a Mayor here!

Winner of the most smartly dressed fella award goes to this chap! I don't remember the name of the game but it involved dragons flying around on a hexagonal based map, and if the game is as good as he is dressed, it was a classic!

Some Warmachine ready to start.

Dreadball ready for kick off.

Heres Tris from the Towy Valley Tyrants, demo-ing Mantics upcoming Mars Attacks game. I don't think Tris had much free time so you can tell he was busy!

View from up on the balcony in the Newport Leisure Centre.

Some of the trade stands.

Our little GCN display stand.

The Bitz Box I believe, another of the busier stands! A wealth of bitz and boxed sets, I know a few people who had some cracking little bargains.

Paul from Gemini Miniatures explaining his game Bloodfued to a potential customer.

There were some great costumes being worn throughout the day, the gentleman in red came up to watch some Gorkamorka later on, seemed like a nice guy!

The Battleboards stand showing off some great additions.

I'm not sure who produced these, but I did chat to some roleplayers who mentioned the models were really good for what they wanted in their games, Andrew from our club purchasing some for himself.

Just one of the many talented people at Dragondaze, Jon Gibbons. Some incredible art fair play!

A huge selection of historical models by Eagle Figures.

Some of the board games on offer looked great fun, King of Tokyo is on my to get list for sure.

The incredibly awesome Dice Bag Lady was a last minute addition to the convention, and it was great to meet her in person. My dice bag is now outdated as it has our old club logo on, so I will be getting my new blog logo ready for a new bag. Get that hand fixed Annie!

More of the costumes at Dragondaze, hug the face not the shoulder!

Another talented artist showing off their work, this time Linda M Jones of She Black Dragon.

Warmachine!

More of the Deadzone.

One group brought Bushido, I love this little board and was well impressed with the trees.

Another view from up above.

There was a lovely couple who had come all the way from Belfast to show off Dust Tactics, nice little display and looks like a great game.

Lord Vader with his personal bodyguard inspecting the destruction of a Z98 Headhunter being flown by Rebel scum.

Gorkamorka in action, both my vehicles were wrecked, Louis crushing the mast on my cutta which proceded to fall and smack 6 grots off tkae them out. Not fair! I did beat his nob to a pulp though in combat.... make of that what you will!

Deadzone in action.

Andrew on his 41st trip to the Bitz Box.

Now this was a delightful find! Counters, The Board Game Cafe had brought an immense collection of games to Dragondaze where people couple pick a game, play, or even be taught by one of the Counters staff how to play the game.

Heres Edmund and Cheryl playing some Sons of Anarchy with one of the lovely staff from Counters. Myself and Louis managed to find a bit of time and so she showed us Forbidden Island, which we nearly completed on the first attempt until the Helicoptor Port was sunk before we could save it!

More games being offered by the Counters for people to play.

The raffle prizes were immense, I myself had managed to contact a gentleman at Games Workshop HQ who donated some Black Library and gaming goodies, which was one by Lee from Mid Wales Wargaming! Didn't know what to say when he proclaimed that 'Your name is on my box!'.

The Forearm of Blockages doing the rounds in Xwing.

Couple of classics ready to be played, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic,

Another couple of great costumes, this time representing the National Roman Legion Museum.

Lee having the shock of his life after being scream at by a sneaky Dalek!

I think the Dalek wanted to try Deadzone.

Andrew getting in on some Gorkamorka, where they both decided to pick on me. Again, my mast was crushed rendering 5 grots knocked down and my Lugga damaged too. Andrews Nob trying to get off a careening buggy, slipping, then dying was hilarious though!

More of the Gorkamorka game.

And thats it from Dragondaze! So much more happened I just didn't have time to get as much coverage as I'd have liked, nor played as many games as I'd have liked! I did purchase the Sons of Anarchy board game however so I'm looking forward to playing that, and Gorkamorka was hilarious, several onlookers enjoying my torrid luck.... swines!

And so its left to give Simon Powell a huge thank you for having us on behalf of all the GCN clubs, and congratulations for running a great day. You've built a great foundation to work from so 2015 Dragondaze will immense! Also huge thanks to our GCN brothers, always great to catch up with you all and bang some ideas around. Also a massive thanks to all the traders, staff and visitors who made the day run so well. I'm already looking forward to next year and hopefully bigger plans for our display board, fingers crossed we'll have more time! 

Hopefully Barnardos Young Carers will receive a welcome boost from the event, not just in terms of money but awareness. All in all a great event, look forward to seeing you there next year!