The Viking Invasion - well a Kings of War battle.

So for this festive season my brother and his family are over from Daneland. My nephew the little Dane was keen to try some miniature games (I have bought him the GW mini starter sets for Age of Sigmar and 40k for the last two Christmas'). 

So I set up a 1600 point elves versus orcs (Hobgoblins) in a Kings of War battle. 

Initial set up the little Viking's wolf-riders on the left flank with the trolls in the centre. 

The next few moves were manoeuvring and the elves shooting enough arrows to remove an Ax unit and exchange a troop of Silverbreeze cavalry for a regiment of Wolf-riders. 

Top stop the elf knights getting a charge on the second regiment of wolf-riders the Hogoblin hero charged - this was a key moment. 

The elf infantry got the first charge in on the trolls - causing significant damage. .. But not enough to rout them!

After getting a couple wavers on the trolls the elves finally routed them - but the regeneration was a pain to deal with. But the Hobgblin hero and the wolf-riders overwhelmed the elf Knights and a regiment Spearmen......

The hobgoblins surrounded the last of the elves - the King, Standard Bearer, Mage and a regiment of archers. At that point I had to concede as there was nothing more that could nbe done for the elves.  

So the first win to the little Dane .... 

Then we played a quick game of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game - quick because I hadn't read the rules or played the game in years and years .... Anyhow the little Dane's  2 warg riders and Uruk scouts defeated the 3 warriors of Rohan and to rangers of Gondor. 

Hopefully the two wins with encourage my nephew in the cool and in no way nerdy world of wargaming and boardgames......

Morts

Its nearly Christmas ...... Where has all the time gone.

Well Christmas is nearly upon us and what have I been doing ..... Well on the gaming front not too much. I have started painting some Chaos Barbarian types (not too pleased with the paint job to be honest).

A couple of weeks ago Steedo and I played two games of the Kings is Dead. One a standard game - win to me for NOT playing the last card. Second game with the Mordred rules - win to Steedo for playing the last card (the change in the rules in the Mordred variant). 

The King is Dead is a cracking little game - probably best with 3 players to make it more challenging, as Steedo and I matched the followers counters in both games.  

Last weekend was the better half's works do in Isca with my good self on driving duties, so I took the opportunity to organise a session in Board with Steedo and Sylon (DK was on his works do and Snake-eyes didn't give a reason ....). 

We played Betrayal at the House on the Hill - a first for all of us (apparently Snake-eyes has had an unplayed copy in the year for a couple of years). 

The initial ground floor and upper floor layout, until it was pointed out we had space out the different floors (making the game take up a lot of space). 

The floors more spaced out. 

The game plays fairly easily to start with, the players placing tiles and investigating rooms, collecting equipment and hopefully improving stats. The game changes with when the 'haunt' starts when the number of Omens is rolled on 6 dice - then one of the players becomes a traitor trying to stop the others reach the objective. In this game I was the traitor, with impossible to stop assassins - Steedo and Sylon tried to wrestle the spear (I had picked up earlier in the game) from me and needed for them to win ... But I killed them. Go me - a win! 

There is quite a lot of replayability with this game and it was fun, but with the 'haunt' we had pretty much impossible for the others to win - which is a criticism of the game. It is also quite a light game - mechanics are simple and I think it is accessible for non-gamers, sharing some similarities with Dungeonquest and 221B Baker Street the Master Detective Game. But there wasn't massive amounts of stategy required.

Then we played Pandemic the Cure - a dice based game. Played it twice, mashed it the second time. 

Nice game - plays well, but I found the original more challenging and fun (but probably not really a fair comparison after only 2 games). 

Then we moved on the intellectual giant that is Rhino Hero -Super Battle (photo off inter web as I forgot to take one as we were under time pressure as the call to collect the better half had come in). 

It was alright .... Sorry didn't add to the madness of the original in my humble opinion. We didn't actually finish this due to the need to be elsewhere, but I was the highest up the structure, so I'll count that as a win. 

Might try to get something else on before the end of the year..... If not Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Morts