Showing posts with label scrabble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scrabble. Show all posts

Friday, 9 January 2015

2015 And A Huge Catch Up!





So its 2015, which means I get to say, Happy New Year! Its been a hectic time lately for me, where I thought I'd be blogging every week and posting lots of interesting things, I've been busy working and when I've got some gaming time I've been too busy enjoying it to take pictures and write up about my experiences. But heres to a catch up!

 Xmas at the Gwent Reavers means some of the uni lads are back and we get some more gaming in. Alun came back for some 40k, a 1500 pt game between my marines and his guard that we played in less than two hours and resulted in a reasonably empty board and a win for me. 

 

Some Sons of Anarchy has been played, with a ridiculoulsy close game between myself, Gav and Bam just monday. Gav had $55k, Bam had $54, and I managed to get to $52. Such a good game! My obvious highlight is visiting Caracara Studios... Ahem...



On Xmas eve I'd been looking at getting Game of Thrones on the Xbox. I'd had a go of the trial, and thought seeing as the first episode was only £4 I'd get that and perhaps the season pass. I turn the xbox on, it slowly loads and I notice a sale. GoT first episode £2 and the season pass for almost half price. Snapped that up! The games pretty fun too.

By Telltale games, its an adventure game that follows in the same veins as many of their previous games, like Sam and Max, Back to the Future etc, where choices and reactions are gameplay and the story keeps you engrossed. You follow a new factin, the Forresters that become embroiled in a brutal situation and you get to converse with characters from the show and books, all voiced by the actual actors which helps submerse you into the setting. A good pickup and I'm looking forward to more episodes!


One club day, Gav excitedly came upto the studio with Pathfinder, Rise of the Runelods. Myself and Morgan were intrigued so we set it up and randomly had a go at a scenario. ROTR is a card adventure/roleplay game, where you choose a character and begin an adventure. Our test scenario was ill advised and we were thumped. Morg read a little more into it and we'd realised what we'd done so began again but this time, from the start. Cue a couple of full days soley playing this.


I chose Seoni, a rather wild looking sorcereress whose cleavage reminded me enough of Marg Tyrell that I didn't care about her stats or any advancements. Judge the book by the cover though, cause shes been awesome to play. Her spells have kicked some ass, and shes been the reason we've completed a couple of the harder scenarios. The last one we did, beating Mammy Graug was a nightmare but somehow I managed to roll just enough on a bazillion dice to beat the mother ogres insane boosted combat stat. It really felt like an achievement too, and its made me want to play a lot more of this type of game in the future.  


Did I mention that myself and Morg love a bit of Scrabble? Not as much as I like doing this kind of thing... But we did get a few games in and I managed to pip him to the post in a couple of close games while he destroyed me in another. I did give him a beating in another so the thrashing hurt a lot less, but sometimes you just get shit letters!


Oh X-Wing, I do love you so.


As you can see, I've been doing some customising, including the Rebels YT-2400 and three A-Wings I've got too. The grey and orange has been expanded upon with Thunderhawk Blue, which has added a little of variety without getting in the way of the main scheme. 


Oh, and this finally happened.


I've been tempted for a while, but over Xmas I finally spoiled myself (partly because my 4 Forward had disappeared) when I saw these Darksun templates from http://www.cogotwo.com/ and knew I needed them in my grasp. Delivery was quick, they're already masked off for you to paint and with some Thunderhawk Blue sploshed on they looked absolutely stunning. I cannot recommend getting some of these enough if you're into Xwing!


Lastly, we played a rather large game of Xwing between 5 players. Louis using a few headhunters from Scum and Villiany (we said he could have a go as hes hoping to get some of them when they're released so used the stats that FFG have shared) along with Bam and Josh using Imperial forces against myself and Gav with Rebels. I think there was 350 points on each side, including two YT-2400s, the Falcon, and three decimators. It turned out to be a brutal game, and came down to one Awing and a Decimator as the final two ships... pretty damn close when you consider how much was on the board! The Imperials edged it, bloody swines! Those decimators are big buggers fair play, but they're certainly not invincible! I also played a game against my nephew on Xmas day that he won, I did take a couple of pictures of the forces we used but havent got them to upload, but they are on my instagram which can be found right here!

I think thats most of whats been happening blogged about anyway, hopefully I can get back to being more regular with these posts, I want to do a more in depth look at Pathfinder, some more Xwing posts perhaps some tactics and batreps, some Necromunda things that may happen in the future and also any other games we get to play... And I'll also have to chat about Resistance.... 

But for now thanks for reading and I hope your 2015 is a cracker!

Sunday, 6 April 2014

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!