Ghost and X-Wing Batrep

 So its been a quiet due to many reasons, but here we are with an X-Wing Battle Report. 100 pts, Rebels versus Rebels! Gav hadn't played for a while and wanted to give a K-Wing a go, and having painted up a B-Wing I just had to use it in a batrep. Heres my list!

Keyan Farlander, no upgrades.

2x Blue Squadron B-Wings with Fire Control Systems

Gemma Sojan with Chaardon Refit, and Lone Wold (I'd also taken the card that allows me to take an elite pilot talent)

Gav had taken Wedge in his X-Wing, Dutch Vander in a Y-Wing, and Esege Tuketu in the K-Wing. I forget the upgrades he chose, but there was a blaster turret and recon on the K, wedge had decoy, and I think the Ywing had a droid that gave him a free target lock when he did red moves and some photon torpedoes.

First turn we were both pretty cautious, but soon we were locked in action. 

Wedge got into range one of Keyan, and took four shields off with a torrent of fire. The K-Wing took another shield off and gave me a crit, a direct hit. Gav however rolled two blanks with Dutch and thankfully Keyan lived on for a round... but not for long. I stripped the shields of the K-Wing but no other damage. 

The next turn was just about getting out of the way ready to make another pass, although Wedge did a K-turn and finished Farlander off. Boo!

 

After a couple more K-turns and my B-Wings taking some damage the A-wing and a B-Wing took out the K-wing, then the B's swept in and took out Wedge. Needless to say with the Y-Wing out of position and three ships looking to gun him down, Gav conceded. 

So what did I think of the list? Keyan didn't get much use and its the first time I used him, my preferred B-Wing elite pilot is Ten Numb, Mangler cannon and a couple other upgrades so it maximises his ability to get those crits through. I do love Blue Squadron B-Wings though, even at pilot skill 2 they survive fire and then dish it back out, and Gemma with Lone Wolf also works well. Being in range one rerolling one blank with an extra evade dice is useful and helps her attack get some reliability too. I'm not sure what to make of the K-Wing and I'm unsure as to whether I'd get one, but they do get raved abotu so perhaps one day. 

Also, Gav being the darling that he is, picked this up for me from Firestorm Games who are based in Cardiff. I'm hoping to do an unboxing post soon, possibly in video! The cards look great though and I can't wait to use this, not only is it massive but with a native 4 firepower its gonna do some damage!

Scum and Villainy Progress

'This blog post is a wretched hive for scum and villainy. We must be cautious'

 Ah the Scum and Villany, the third faction for Xwing came out a little while ago yet failed to post my progress so far. I hadn't intended to add any weathering to the models but they looked to flat and as my highlighting skills aren't great weathering is a great way to add some edging to models... so out came the silver!

Let it be known, I'd pay plenty of Galactic Credits for some Scyk Interceptors. I didn't fancy these when I first saw the stats, but playing them they're so much fun. You can make them heavy therefore adding cannons, they're quite survivable especially if you take Serissu, who is the opposite of Howlrunner in which nearby ships get to reroll an evade dice and I just love flying them around the board. I've gone for a purple and light grey scheme, but I'm undecided yet whether I like the yellow for the canopies. I'm kinda tempted to go for a cherryish red.....

Heres the Starviper, a ship I've only run once but it didn't seem too bad. The only grey I've added on here was for the weapons and engine, I quite like the panels/wings plain as the metal contrasts nicely with the purple. 

And finally the IG. This ship is also incredibly fun to fly, and whiles its a big ship, you can't fly it like one, its just not quite as durable as the Slave, Falcon or certainly the Decimator. But it can do so many good things. I'd love to get another to try out some of the awesome combos that A, B, C and D can do, plus they look awesome. Its a cross between Galactus and Cyclonus. Don't know em? Google!

So thats how Scum looks so far, little touch ups and whether to redo the canopies and they'll be finished. I don't plan on adding much more as I can use a lot of my rebel ships with them if I wanted to play a big game but another IG might be nice.

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!

10 years and an Update.

As you may or may not have noticed, regular posts on Death By Die have become a rare thing. Its not because I've lost interest, motivation, or my passion for tabletop has waned. Its been life, that ohg so hectic thing! I've recently opened up a photography studio in the valleys of South Wales, and its taken over my time. However, times are a changing. With the studio up and running, and a PC at hand to 'work' on, it means that blogging can once again come to the fore. Not only that, but with the studio being fairly spacious and the club being a bit smaller in terms of members, the Tredegar Reavers have moved to Abertillery and we'll be having our first club night here on Monday. Not only that, but the club has been renamed, more on this later! 

Before we get to whats happening and what may lie in the future, what6 has actually been happening? Well, a few weeks ago we had our Tenth Birthday celebrations. Yes, the Tredegar Reavers got to 10 years old this year and many games were played to celebrate. One of the new darlings of the group, is Munchkin!

I didn't get to try it this day, but soon after I did and have fallen in love with it, Its nice and quick, deviously tactical and games where you can equally help and backstab other players are always going to be good! I've even got my own copy now, so heartily recommend to anyone else out there!

With some visitors from the Mid Wales Wargaming Society, one of their number was keen for some 40k action, so myself and Alun took on his Necrons! It was Matts first go at using the new tactical objectives, so we did have an edge... but he did have a C'tan! 

Our first turn gave us 3 cards, one of which was where you have to get all objectives and claim a nice bonus. Looking at the battlefield this could be acheived... I had two drop pods to bring down first turn, this landed on objectives, and Alun zoomed a Raider across the board to capture the 6th objective. We'd both spoken before about whether it was possible, and thought maybe at the end of a game where the battle is probably already won, never thought we'd manage on the first turn!

Matt suffered some bad luck throughout, his monolith simply not wanting to deepstrike and being delayed until turn 4 after rolling for mishaps.  The C'tan made a meal of killing my dreadnought, which held up the star god shard admirably.

From what I remember the Dark Eldar managed to get into combat and did reasonably well against the Necrons, although they did lose some numbers.

Alun looking Dark Eldar-like. With a bit of 'gimp' thrown in. 

As the game went on we could see we had the edge and pressed home the advantage. Matts luck was still lacking, and we won the game by a large number of points. The Monolith did finally land, on the landing pad of all places and did some damage, but it was too late in the game. We all enjoyed the game though and it looked pretty good! It was nice to play against Necrons and actually win too, I've not had much luck against the metallic blighters! 

We also got some X-wing on the go too, I battle and triumphed against another of the MWWS members, this time Lee, who you may remember just got a win against me in the tourney we recently played for Help For Heroes, I really enjoyed playing Lee then and the same was true for this. We both learnt a little from playing each other, and luckily this time I managed to get the win. My nephew Josh also played Lee, and lost after they were both down to just one ship each, but Lee was able to win. 

Here they are looking at the range of a firefight. Note Graham sat down, the other member from MWWS who came down to visit and general allround nice bloke. He even got an extra cake! 

Heres Mike having an intro game against Bam. I don't remember who won but Mike did say he enjoyed the game, more people to fight against hopefully! 

Myself and Bam played, and it was he who took the win. Always fun playing Bam, we've known each other a while so winning is always nice, and the trash talk is always good!

Owain turned up eventually and Dredd was played! 

He and Mike battled it out for control of Megablock, and they seemed to enjoy themselves immensly. Looks like the Adeptus Arbits have close ties to the Judges... Hmmm..

And there we have the tenth birthday of the Tredegar Reavers. 

As I mentioned in the introduction, we'd decided to move the club. Convenience and money being the main issues, as most of the members were now from other areas Tredegar was becoming a difficult place for many of us to get too, and with only 3 and a half hours it was difficult at times to fit games in that were more involving. We were also paying a lot for what was, in all honesty, a really good venue but it was simply too expensive for us. 

Now however even though its a smaller space, we can still fit four 6x5 tables in here easily, have a slightly larger store room and its only half the price. Perks of having your own studio! We also now have internet access, which means blog posts can be done while at club, which is a huge bonus for me. The main benefit, is that we now have 8 hours of gmaing time! from 2-10pm every monday, we  shall be rolling dice, flipping over cards, or painting our latest models. With the move, came a name change. Abertillery Reavers did not seem right in my mind, and I wanted it to be more all encompassing. So reborn.... 

The Gwent Reavers. This covers the more general area and better shows where its members are from. Lets hope we continue to grow and evolve to become an even better gaming club! 

As for the future of this blog, expect more posts, whether about news, reviews of games, and I'd love to get into making videos too. 2 HD cameras will make that tempting! Cheers for sticking by the blog anyways, there be more to come!

The Longest Night: CVC hardcore gaming!

If that first image hasn't scared you off this post, then nothing will. Welcome to a little report about the Crow Valley Crusaders Longest Night event. Running from 9am on a saturday, until 6pm on sunday, its a heck of a gaming session! Much Kudos to Byron who was there the entire time, nutter! Myself and Alun travelled down, getting there in time for the pizza order and staying until 7am, so a good 12 hours for us. We even had a few guys from the Towy Valley Tyrants, another of the GCN Welsh clubs and general good guys to boot. They were just setting up an huge 40k game, about 5k points per player so 20k in total!

As you can see, it looked like a cracking game, countless orks, huge Eldar machines of war, and some of the Imperiums finest all battling for supremacy. 

Byron and Gareth getting some Dreadball in, I heard there were a few games of this played. 

Whats a gaming day without some Cubequest?

As for me and Alun, we played a doubles game, renewing our rivalries with the CVC taking on Shaun once again but instead of Mike was Dave and his Chaos force. 

We got some luck with tactical objectives and managed to get a nice little lead and hold it for quite a while. Note similar shirts. 

It didn't all go our way of course, many Dark Eldar were harmed during the making of this battle.

 luckily this fight went our way. My Chapter Master slayed Shauns, much enjoyable!

This was nasty however... Shauns termies deep striking down, just clearing the inch needed to teleport and need not roll on the mishap table!

We held on for a good victory, winning 24-13 I think it was. Capturing objectives worked well as either we needed to obtain the ones I held back on, or the ones opposite where Aluns Dark Eldar were facing so he could boost across and swipe them. Great game and look forward to more! 

I also played some X-wing against a great guy called Scott, who used this against me. 

Scotts an experienced player, and showing me his collection I wanted to steal it and run! He had loads of ships and it was very impressive to finally see the Tantive in person! Scott mentioned that I'd forgotten something in the game that would have helped me most likely win, unfortunately he took out my headhunter and claimed a victory for the Imperial. What did I forget? Corran Horns ability to shoot in the end phase! I could have finished a couple of ships off with this and most likely have a rebel win, ah well, we play and learn! Scotts a great opponent though and I really enjoyed the game. 

A game of Zombiecide in full swing, looks insane! 

 

As myself and Alun readied to board our transport shuttle, I noticed this artisan had drifted off to the land of nod, somewhere near where myself and Alun were headed! Poor Gareth, hes lucky I didn't get a marker pen out though, could have given him some Savage Orc Tattoos!