October: Boxed Game?

Theres been speculation for some time now about an all inclusive boxed game coming out from GeeDub. Last year rumours for Blood Bowl were rife. Three teams, seperate sculpts, bit of a story... I was incredibly intrigued to say the least. But then rumours dissipated and new murmourings became visible.

Inquisitor.

Rumours for this was that GW wanted to get back into the skirmish games market, where other companies had been doing well GW had given up on its specialist games market due to poor - mediocre sales despite a cult fanbase for all its games. 28mm, 3-4 warbands in the box all sound good for a new version of Inquisitor, and if theres one thing that could back this up is that in White Dwarf we've seen hints at future releases... Matt Hutsons Black Templars having units added to it and then Space Marines coming out next? Jes Bickhams Tyranids could well be getting some love after he'd kept adding to them.... So the hint for Inquisitor? Blanchitsu wasn't in the last issue, but in the previous few months every single Blanche article was about Inquisitor warbands in 28mm. Yes, this kind of model does have great scope for conversion, so it would be a prime target for modellers... but 4+ months in a row? Surely this is GeeDub quietly introducing new people and reminding us veterans what Inquisitor is. 

What if we have been totally fooled however, and GW are doing something different?

What if the secret release turns out to be Necromunda? Its ideal for getting back into skirmish games, plus with the technology that could go into making the terrain it'd sell to 40k players too just to get their greedy mitts on some underhive terrain! Add on packs could easily work, picture this. For £70 you get a boxed game with three or even four gangs inside. Goliath, Orlock, Delaque, and Escher. Thats four playstyles and something to appeal to female demographic. You also get some nice terrain, and all the bits and counters you need to play. 6 months down the line, an addon pack comes out. Van Saar and Cawdor are included, a few more rules, and a bit more terrain. This keeps people interested in the game but also getting purpose to use the terrain for 40k gives added incentives for people to buy it. Another 6 months and you get ratskins and redemptionists and so on. 

The most likely scenario is that the Inquisitor game is released, which could also work well with expansions down the line. Myself? I'd love to score some touchdown or earn me some creds....

The New Year

So 2013 has arrived, and after a busy couple of weeks I've finally been able to get some time to do a retrospective post and a look ahead to the new year. Firstly, as club was shut over the holidays a few of the guys came over where we spent the day playing Blood Bowl, eating pizza and krispy kremes, and introducing the lads to Rare Exports. I won two of my games with my humans, but lost to Morgan who simply had the better dice rolls. I couldn't get any of his players off the pitch! I did manage wins against Aluns humans and Owains Dark Elves though, plenty of winnings and I managed to dig out the old Special Play cards that added an extra bit of fun to the game.

 So looking back over the past year, and its been huge for myself personally. Not only at the tail end of 2011 did I find a wargaming group with a great bunch of guys I now call friends, but I became Chairman, helped to rebrand the club and we became members of the GCN, which is an honour. This means we'll be advertised on their website, and invited to events such as Hammerhead which is in February, which a few of us may be at! 

The biggest part of wargaming calender was most certainly the release of Warhammer 40,000 6th edition. There were so many rumours, people burning effigies in the streets, others creating new statues to the gods to earn favour, all in the hope or disbelief of what they heard were in the new rules. Well, the rules came out, and they've been pretty sublime. They have added new tactical decisions, reasons to take new units and mix things up, generally just so much better than I could have hoped for.  We've played many games since its release and I think every game has been enjoyable whether its a comfortable win, horrible loss, or a tight game.

Something else of note for me in 2012, was being able to play in Warhammer World in Nottingham. Playing apocalypse was tiring, exciting, tedious, amazing, such a mix of emotions as you play, and the await while your opponents play their turn. With each turn taking around an hour it was hard at times but the amount of stories and events that happened in just one game more than made up for this. Highlights for me was my Legion of the Damned taking over 120 shots from various weapons before 'dying', my Chapter Master Vincent Eniko taking on Imotekh the Stormlord and utterly destroying him, and just seeing my force set up on the Battle for Fort Pain board with everyone elses armies. It was astounding! Anothing highlight was meeting James and his wife. James is a great guy and we chat regularly on Facebook about life, gaming, jerky and much more. It really is a highlight of the hobby that through its social interaction new friends can be made.

So 2012 was a great year, but what for 2013? Well, what you see above is a box of Skaven Gutter Runners. I've long had an affinity for the ratmen, and as they were my first team, I've decided to have a go at converting a whole team from scratch as a slowburn project... that could become a crazed fast convert-a-thon as I hurriedly claw and sratch my way to make a team to compete! 

Another aspect is that I've heard from someone within GW, that as Warhammer Fantasy Battle is 30 years old this year, there 'could' be some sort of surprise release in the summer involving perhaps a campaign book or even a boxed set... intriguing! Intriguing enough that I may just start collecting a Fantasy army for the first time. Skaven are obviously an option, but Beastmen are the leading temptation so far. I love the feral and brutal look of them, so may skip my hooves down to my local store to pick up a box or two. I'm also intrigued that the new Tau codex is possibly around the corner... this could influence whether my attempt to get into WFB will actually happen!

Club wise we're just looking to improve what we have in terms of terrain and tables, get more exposure and hopefully more members. More members means more income, and more income means more things for the club. Hopefully Hammerhead will happen for us and we'll get some interest from that, and also Huws Pirate game keeps developing nicely, could turn into a treat!

Blog wise, I'll be here blogging all the latest from myself and the clubs activities, wargaming news and rumours and hopefully a few more videos here and there. I'd also like to see who is interested in meeting up at Games Day 2013, as I'm intending on going again. For now though, I shall wish you all a farewell and I hope your new year is a great one.

Blood Bowl All Dayer and the Night After

So our Christmas all dayer at club has come and gone, and boy did we have a blitz! We got four games of blood bowl in, there was some 40k, and the pirates squng their hooks around in the air again too!

So blood bowl consisted of 4 players... Me, Morgan, Alun and Louis. 3 human teams and Morgs Norse didn't mean much in terms of diversity, but it did become very much about tactics as we knew all the strengths and weaknesses of the others! 

My first game was against the Norsemen, and it started well but then bad dice rolls started to affect my game..

And I lost 2-1 in a reasonably close game. Louis on the other hand gave Alun a thumping... 4 or 5 - 0 I believe... ouch!

Owain was a miserable deck swabber...

Cappin' Huw soon put paid to that with a healthy dose of encouragement! 

Heres the game between Louis and Alun

Things like 'Billie Piper went for it but fell!' and 'you killed Elle Macpherson' were just some of the hilarious things heard during games with Louis and his Bunny Girls.

Pirates!

I somehow forgot to take pictures of my game against Alun, probably because it was incredibly close and exciting! We ended with a 2 - 2 draw and smiles on our faces. Morgan lost 1 - 0 to Louis in a really close game. This left me against the bunnies and Alun and Morgan to play! I needed Alun to beat morg to make it to the final and beat Louis who had won his previous two games... No chance! 

However... there was one... I beat Louis 4-0 in a one sided game, where dice rolls decided to be my friend! I managed to injure a few of his players and he was unable to stop my ogre bounding around picking on swimsuit clad ladies. 

Alas, it was not to be... Alun lost to Morgan and I was unable to play in the final despite my confidence. 

And the final? Morg won 4-1, the injuries I cause on the Bunnies meant Lou was missing a couple of players giving Morgan an advantage from the get go... and a big win. What an awesome day though! It made me realise how much I miss Blood Bowl and I hoped to get my revenge against Morgan... Luckily... I didn't have long to wait...

 Next night we arrive to club and eagerly set the board up. Myself and Morg have a match, both extremely confident, me coming off a big win and getting a couple of advances and a lot of money to buy a blitzer and a catcher, and Morg having a rising star player in a ST 4 runner....

Morgan taunts my ogre before kick off, saying his dauntless st4 runner will take my ogre on. Fair enough I think. I recieve, blow a hole open allowing my ogre to run down and blotz Morgs star player runner. Knocked down... injured... misses rest of the game at least. First turn, complete success!

From there I slowly gather my pace and roll up the pitch to go into half time with a lead and a couple of players up. From there Morg finds it hard to get back into the game and I win 3-0. REVENGE!!! As you can see, casualties for Morg were a tad heavy!

Always a good sight!

A sad Morgan means happy club. HA! Awesome game and I win 80,000 gp's from the game, I've been earning a lot of money fair dues! Every game thus far I'd won 60,000 at least, cannot complain. 

Elsewhere the last club night of the year saw young Corey take on Chris and his Dark Eldar, a game in which the youngling won by tabling his opponent!

Mike attaching weapons and arms to his pirates, ready to punish some scurvy sea dogs no doubt!

Most ship building takes place in the docks, but theres so many hookers hanging around them now we have to revert to the old table instead. 

After my match Morg plays Owain and his Dark Elves, a game I think Morg won 2-0. 

Lastly, Edmund brought over a Warmaster/Lord of the Rings game, with this really awesome little board to play on. Looks great!

And thats 2012 wrapped up as far as club nights go, we'll be back on the 7th of January, but we should be getting some gaming in before then, hopefully some Blood Bowl and even some other systems I'm yet to try... so look out for more posts over the holiday period!

BLITZ!!!!!

I know what you did, you read the title of this post and said it to yourself in the same way I said it as I typed it. With much volume, aggression and love. We all know 'Blitz' means one thing, and that's Blood Bowl. I have an incredibly squishy bit of my heart dedicated to this game, so when a new member suggested playing something imagine my smile when he accepted my challange of a game. YES!!

We'd both taken Humans, alhough I did have my old Undead team but I couldn't remember their stats so well so went with my Mordheim Raiders. Edmund also took Humans, so this would prove a pretty close affair. Humans are well known for being one of the most tactically sound teams in the game, being able to do a litle bit of everything. Depending what team you play against, you should be able to do a little of the other. Against Wood Elves? Barge em round and slap em til you have numbers then overwhelm them by stomping down the pitch. Against Dwarfs? Use your speed to keep ahead of them and try to pick one or two of them off by ganging up on them. They can do it all! This would prove interesting then!

 

I managed to score reasonably quickly and put Edmund on a bit of a backstep. I'd taken one of his guys out early, but he'd taken an apothecary and brought him back. Buggers!

 Then it starts to get crazy... Edmund rolls dice like he's playing Orcs or one of the other brutal teams, and starts to flatten my defence!

 I lose 5 people in total, 2 of which completely died! I was able to score another two touchdowns however before I lost all these, and the game finished 3-0 to me but Edmund had done plenty of damage and looked more than content! A good game, plenty of laughs too!

 It was awesome to get the old team and pitch out again, hopefully some of the other guys will be interested in playing a few games, Louis already has mentioned about getting his bunny girls out, so it seems my team will gawp around looking at scantily clad women playing football!

 Throwers Eye View.

Look at these braggards. Rough, violent, and probably all drunk on rum while hassling the wenches at a local serving bar. Yep, Huw's brought the pirate game back up!

I'm not entirely sure what went on, but I should be playing either next monday or the monday after, shall see! Looks like a laugh, although mutterings of Huw making bits up were heard and chortled about.

I remember Iain robbing a bank, Andrew had to back stab Bam, who then killed his treacherous foe, and Mike couldn't get to shore for ages, I think for bad rolling for rowing!

I'm not sure if Bam said one of his secret missions was to capture a ship, but I don't think he was able too being the other side of the board. You'd wanna steal on of these sea-faring beauties though, they look awesome!

Louis and Chris also played some 40k, Chaos vs Chaos. I didn't really get any pics of this game though, but I think Louis won against the Khorne Bezerkers. I want the Chaos players to pick their Chaos God and represent him in a 4 way all on all battle, I think it would look awesome!

Talisman Preview

I saw this rumoured about many moons ago, and then a teaser for it not so long back on the GW website. Well now we actually have some gameplay footage!

It seems very much a straight adaptation of the board game, which will please most people no end, me being one of them. I never got to play the board game, so this is something that really intrigues me. 

I've always considered myself as a wee bit of a videogames fanatic, as I co-host a videogames radio show at our local station BRfm where we have a two hour show every fortnight. As we know, GW have lisenced their games out before, with varying degress of success. Space Marine I felt was a great game, which borrowed from Gears of War as much as Gears borrowed from the 40k universe. I still own Final Liberation, a turn based stragey game based on epic, which I had immense fun on even though it not being that good. There was Shadow of the Horned Rat, Fire Warrior, Warhamer Online, Blood Bowl, Kill-Team and probably several more. It seems surprising in some ways that GW games haven't caught on more.... I look at the background for the games and its so rich and detailed I'm just waiting for a developer to come along and lap it up into what I've been waiting for. A pure triple A game. 

Will it happen? Maybe one day... but then again I've never been happier saving on batteries and rolling my bright orange dice.