International Tabletop Day at the Reavers!

And so International Tabletop Day has come and gone, and my word was it a cracking event. Not only did we have members from the Tredegar Reavers and the Crow Valley Crusaders as usual, but we had a good dozen or so people who weren't members of a gaming club come for a visit to try some tabletop goodness, and judging from the comments everyone had a great time!

Above we have Morgan, Gareth and Alun playing some Magic the Gathering, of which I had a go later on in the day and although I'm still unsure of how it works, did enjoy and wouldn't mind a few more games to see if its something I want to get into. Excuse Morg scoffing his face, breakfast pizza. Lucky bastard!

The Crow Valley Crusaders brought some games and tables up, and set up this awesome looking Infinity display. The bottletop barrels were great, as were the use of toys for vehicles. 

Heres one of their members setting up Deadzone, a game I really wanted to try but didn't get a chance too. The scenery looks pretty cool and I've noticed Mantic have announced that they'll be bringing it out more widely soon... interesting!

One of my favourite board games of all time, Scrabble, got plenty of use and there must have been 5 or 6 games played in total. I lost one and won a game, but enjoyed both immensely. 

Of course No Quarter was played, Huw putting on another great game that got plenty of peoples attention. Huw scowling while mentioning Mikes name could become a new tradition at club!

Chaos in the old world, with a daemon dice!

The aim of CITOW is to get your Greater Daemons together for an intense hugging battle where the softest yet firm hugs win out. In truth, Morgan played a card from the Khorne deck making all the greater darmons in play jump to the same region to do battle... but before a weapon was swung I used a card to get my Lord of Change out of there! 

Scuse the mug, but my mate Louise... I mean Lewis popped over with his lady for a visit. 

Things getting serious as Byron and Shaun look to be in a good postion to win.... but who does?

Heres how the hall looked at mid afternoon, we had people come in and out all day, such a good turnout!

More No Quarter, but with a new cappin' on board! 

Dungeon Petz, a strange game that I didn't quite understand but the players seemed to be loving it. There were different counters for sand, grass, food, and poo. Yes, they were brown! I think you had to look after the pets and nurture them to sell them on. I could be wrong, but thats the sense I got. Louis and his lovely other half also brought Ticket to Ride which I didn't get to play and I really wanted, dabnammit!

So CITOW ended with Byron almost winning, only for Shaun to steal victory from him. The Skaven expansion added some cool elements to this and was a great laugh.

These guys were also part of Dungeon Petz, and I think they either help you or they live in the dungeons that the game takes place in. Cool little counters though thats for sure!

I pulled CubeQuest out for Alun to try, and it wasn't long before EVERYONE was having a go. We tried to set a league but ran out of time, it was hilarious though watching people going from just flicking the cubes over to them actually trying serious tactics out, some great moments fair play.

Five of our visitors had a great time playing Guards! Guards! I really like the look of the hexagonal board and even though I'm not sure what was happening, they players were well into the game and you could see them schemeing over their cards!

As you can see, getting down low to line up a shot in CubeQuest became a nessecity!

More Magic being played, this time between Byron and Morgan.

More hardcore Scrabble action, defiantely an all time classic!

Just some of the games that people brought to play. This isn't even half of them, we had over 30 games for people to choose from!

Heres my hand while playing Gloom, one of my favourite games to play with people new to tabletop gaming. My friend Cassie brought a couple of her mates over as they were interested, so I took them through a game. Some of the little stories that were told were fantastic, and a copy was bought on amazing when the game had finished!

More CITOW

More of Gloom being played by some of our guests.

You can tell when Louis forms a plan, he has that evil smile on his face! Probably about to make someones character happy in Gloom, devious man! 

Without a doubt, the most concentration I've ever seen on Byrons face was when we played CubeQuest. Such a great game, and its quick to play!

All in all then a great day, and one I feel should happen more than just once a year. Everyone seemed to have had a great time and so many games were played! It was incredibly rewarding seeing everyone enjoy themselves and be inspired by new games and meeting new people, and I can't wait til we put on another event like this. I have to thank not just our members but also the Crow Valley Crusaders, especially Byron who helped coordinate the event, organising these things are half the battle! Mainly though I have to thank every person who came and rolled a dice, drew a card, or flicked a cube at me from across the table, it was an amazing day and one we'll be having again!

For more info on our clubs, visit the Tredegar Reavers and the Crow Valley Crusaders or just give me a shout on here. Thanks for reading!

New Eldar vs Tau Batrep! 2.5k

Eldar vs Tau Batrep, plus a little more action from Tredegar Reavers Monday night!

And so my pointy eared friend Alun has picked himself up the new Codex Eldar, and challanged the Tau of my caste, the Tee'emen' Tau to a game. 2.5k, which was courageous considering the 3 hours we had to play and set up! We rolled for mission and got the Scouring, I only had two units from fast attack but 5 troops, so I'd have some chance even though none were that protected. Alun won the roll to deploy first, so I set up to counter this. I then stole the initiative!

Aluns list was this.

Farseer - Singing Spear, Runes of Witnessing
10 Warlocks
Illic Nightspear
10 Dire Avengers - Exarch with power weapon and shimmershield
10 Rangers - upgraded to Pathfinders due to Illic
10 Fire Dragons - Exarch with Firepike and Fast Shot - attached Wave Serpent
6 Striking Scorpions - Exarch with Scorpions Claw, Crushing Blow
5 Dark Reapers - Exarch with Tempest Launcher and Fast Shot
Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun
Succubi - Agoniser, Haywire Grenades
8 Kabalite Warriors
9 Incubi - Klaivex with Demi-klaives, Onslaught - attached Raider with Dark Lance

Mine was...

Tau Commander

Ethereal

Fireblade

8 markerlight drons

10 pathfinders

Riptide

10 firewarriors

10 firewarrios with devilfish

2 x 6 of firewarriors

10 kroot with shaper and Krootox

3 crisis suits

2 x 6 stealth teams

 2 hammerheads, one with Longstrike

broadside

I think thats it anyway! 

 My first turn consisted of very little moving, and making sure the Dark Reapers died. These worried me the most as their firepower can damage some of my important elements of my army. Many units worth later, and they're dead. First blood! The rest of my fire kills off 7 warlocks accompanying the farseer, leaving just the farseer himself and 3 warlocks. Not bad! This would stunt the psychic powers a little.

No Dark Reapers!

The next two turns sees some fire dragons disembark out of their wave serpent, and taking three of my stealth team out situated nearby. Unable to kill many they then take four wounds off my riptide the next turn... yikes! My pathfinders also come under fire from the advancing dire avengers and fail a morale check and run off, thats no good! My Riptide fires a heated Ion Accelerator shot at them, but due to the shimmershield invun and the Farseers Fortune only one dies from the riptide and a couple of fire warrior squads. Thats harsh! My other stealth team on the left flank continue to harrass the enemy, cutting down a couple of scorpians lurking behind an aegis defence line. 

My allies fail to arrive, a Crisis team and a Kroot squad, but Aluns Dark Eldar allies come on and make an impact after I'd finally managed to wipe out the Dire Avengers, but it took a lot of firepower! Incubi burst out of their raider and charge into a Firewarrior squad with my ethereal, killing them easily. I manage to whittle them down, but due to Fortune once again there are still five... Eldar are hard to kill if they get that! Elsewhere our vehicles don't do an awful lot. Aluns vehicles fail to hit anything, and mine don't do much wounding. 

After being left with one wound, the riptide manages to kill one of the fire dragons and charges into them, hoping to squish them both. Alun rolls overwatch... 6 6. One fails to wound.. but I fail the invun on the other and the riptide goes down... bugger! The dragons then charge into a 6 man fire warrior squad, but my crisis team arrive, kills one and the other tries to run, but I luckily catch him and he's dead. Meanwhile at the four point objective in the middle of the board the surviving incubi issue a charge, but due to my Grav Inhibitor drone he fails it and doesn't make it into combat. We have to call the game there, and Aluns incubi are a hairs breadth away from the 3 inches they need to be withing the objective, Alun suggests rolling to see if they're within range and loses the dice roll, giving me a win. However I prefer to call it a draw, as we don't know how the fifth turn would have turned out and it was a pretty close affair, I can let the tiniest of measurements get me a win! 

I thought I'd get Aluns take on the new Eldar Codex so he sent me this... 

"Well, as always, finding the correct synergy is key still in the Eldar codex; as an example, losing my Dark Reapers in the first turn severly hampered my initial plan, as that part of the synergy was lost. However, if you build your list correctly, you have what I would call a 'supporting synergy' - meaning, despite the loss, I still had enough potential to come back. Psychic powers are impressive to say the least, the only downside was that you have roll; so much for being the greatest psykers, eh? Though, one of the best part of the powers is that they now work on -friendly- models; no 'Codex: Eldar' nonsense, just friendly. This helped immensely in regards to helping my Incubi survive (I took Dark Eldar allies, who aided to the synergy outstandingly). I wouldn't even say I took a competitive list, but it was a 'strong' list in the regards that it could still do feasibly well; plus, it showed that you DON'T need a Wraithknight to win your games if you use Eldar. But, first thoughts? Great codex; I'm looking forwards to using some of the other units that I haven't tried, such as the Phoenix Lords (though only in large games) and maybe the new fliers and Wraith units at some point."

Fair play it was a great game, and the new Codex gives the Eldar some great little tricks to use, particularly good are the Striking Scorpians, even tho they played little part in this battle getting infiltrate and move through cover is amazing! Hopefully I'll have some more games against them soon. 

Onwards, and we have Louis and Jordan with an Imperial Guard and Space Wolf combo against Chris and Andrew who fielded Khorne and Nurgle lists. I've no idea who won but it looked absolutely brutal!

Also being played was No Quarter, the pirate game Huw has created. 

Please watch your eyes as miniature nudity is coming up! Huw has sculpted all of these and cast them himself, the dirty little bugger! They look hilariously good though!

More ingame action

Yes, a lot of shenanigans go on in this game, STD's are pivotal!

More action happening this time indoors, here we see two floor plans for buildings. 

Watch your eyes...

Well, I can't even comment on that guy! If you're intrigued with No Quarter Huw has set up a page on facebook... Scurvy Dog

Go have a look! I'll be back soon with some more goodness, so see you all again!

Necrons vs Tau/Space Wolves

Greetings all, another game for my Tau, this time I'm allied with Morgan and his Space Wolves to take on the Necron threat commanded by Alun! Alun had 2000pts to play with whereas myself and Morgan split that in half for 1000pts each. We won the dice roll to set up so went first, Hammer and Anvil Deployment and The Relic was the objective... could be tough!

Night fighting was enforced in the first and second turns, meaning not a lot of damage could be dealt by either force. I forgot to take Blacksun Filters!

Morgans Thunderwolves were charged and weakened by Aluns Wraiths. Just as the Thunderwolf cavalry thought they had won a Necron flyer came on and decimated the unit. Meanwhile Morgans Grey Hunters advanced to control the Relic and bring it back, my Firewarriors staying back to cover their return. As dawn began more ranged damage was done. 

Alun deepstriked a 10 strong unit of Necron Deathmarks with their single beady eyed heads locked on my Riptide who dealt out destruction with his Ion Accelerator. They aimed and rapid fired into the huge Tau tech and left it on one wound remained. The Riptide returned fire, decimating 7 of them even though two stood back up. The Firewarriors in the centre then rapidfired under the guidence of the Fireblade and fell them, 36 shots tearing through the mechanical creatures. 

A bloody battle erupted for the Relic as the Grey Hunters were assaulted on all sides. Scarabs kept them in place so Imotckh and a unit of warriors with another Necron Lord could get stuck in. Both sides piled models in, and there wasn't many left. As the Necron flyer zoomed in to use its deadly death ray my broadside calmly took aim and blew it up with a well aimed shot from its heavy Railgun.

The game ended on Turn 6 with both sides vying for control, but me and Morgan had won 

by claiming first blood and I thin Warlord also. So close! We did have more numbers left at the end of the game and if it went to a Turn 7 I would have been able to claim the objective, 2 firewarriors almost in range to claim!

Also being played was another game of 40k, newcomer Paul had a force of Eldar from yesteryear and wanted to be inducted back into the game, so he teamed up with Louis and his Imperial Guard and they versed Andrew and his DeathGuard and Jordan and his Tyranids.

I have nothing in the way of details I'm afraid, you'll have to make to with pictures!

Bam inspects the carnage being wrought by both sides, wishing his space marines could join in and blow them all up!

Huw was here too with No Quarter... heres what he had to say about it!

"The three players each had a group of three figures each and had no special orders other than to go into the port of New Blaina and do what they liked. New blaina is abit of a lawless frontier town with five taverns three brothels no church and thats the nice partof town.

theres no law and no government even though its nominally a British posession so order is traditionally kept by a party of sailors and marines from whatever ships are in port."

"Ash chose to go looking for trouble in a locals bar and ended up in a knifefight, Carl tried to break it up with his sailors but some heavily armed locals persuaded him to move along. after settling the argument by killing the locals ash headed towardsthe main square.

Pete headed for the biggest tavern and got into a conversation with the owner finding out thsat a navy message boat had left 20,000 in sacks in the jail and that Mad Gerald, a local weirdo who keeps crocodiles as pets knew how a way of getting in. Picking up a local drunk to act as aligator bait he headed for geralds cottage...."

"Meanwhile mike had been stopped by carl who wanted to search his bottom for drugs, an angry crowd gathered and instead he done a scarper letting mike go.

Alun went to the nasty bit of town and decided-in broad daylight, to do a bit of housebreaking, which brought carl running to make an easy collar.

Carl took him to the nasty little jail house and slung him inside where the only thing to sit on were some big sacks full of shiny silver coins, after stuffing their pockets Aluns mob found the back wall was falling down which they were abble to hack thru with their swords and guns which carls coppers had failed to take off them. meanwhile Petes crowd nicked a horse and carriage picked up some whores and headed for the jail shouting loudly that the jail was full of british silver and anyone helping stom it would get a share"

"Long story short: everyone run for the jail, carl split his force in half to stop mike who had nicked a rowing boat and was trying to rob his battleship and even tho he shot dead all ashleys gang didnt have the men to hold off the mob. Carl scarpered handing the navy payroll over to the pirates and setting himself up for a court-martial next time around. Alun who had sided with carl to defend the cash got nowt but pete said he could come with him, mikes gang got shot to shit (again) and he rowed off on his todd, Ash's one surviving character took his share of the silver and booked into the third floor of the whorehouse and is probly there to this day. The End."

So there we go! 

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!