Rogue Stars - first play through.

Steedo came around and we gave Rogue Stars its first play through. 

Steedo had the militia and I had the bounty hunters in a kill/objective scenario (it didn't really matter to be honest. 

The bounty hunters advance having initiative first. 

I passed so that I could clear my stress markers - and the militia advanced in response. 

First blood to Steedo as he took out the bounty hunters marksman - but the game switched around to the bounty hunters favour very quickly! The militia leader taken out and then two grunts in a single turn!

Below the bounty hunters' leader goes for the kill on the militia marksman!

This is where the game changed - he missed from point blank!

The bounty hunters took out the militia medic then started rolling really badly so the Steedo could steal the initiative and shot the bounty hunters .... His marksman hunting them down one at a time.  

 

The game is pretty quick to play once we got going (I have read the rules for months now) - we are pretty sure that we were getting the shooting and damage rules wrong as every hit seemed to cause a Out of Action (OoA), so no need to track wounds and pinned. We like the stealing initiative mechanic as this cause a couple of good rolls to be nullified! Also choosing when to try and steal the initiative is important as this with a couple of good rolls can put your opponent in a winning position ... Curses!

We also need to check the movement rules more carefully before the next game. 

Reading online characters should be made with at least 30XP (otherwise they are anonymous grunts) - I also found some interesting ideas for "redshirts". 

So I might have to do some repointing and have another go. These are a promising set of rules!

Morts 

A little painting done

Well I have done a little more painting to go towards Frostgrave denizens and Dragon a Rampant/KoW undead forces. 

A banshee (from Northstar's Of Gods and Mortals range)

A quick job on this but effective - I did miss a couple of mould lines .... Oh nevermind!

Another 6 ghouls ...

Will vanish and base up soon!

Nice to get to the painting table!

Morts

Another post ..... Agamemnon

I have always had soft spot for Greek mythology and the Trojan wars, so I was very interested in Agamemnon by Osprey Games when it came out a year or so ago and was on my buy list!

Fortunately for my wallet ns storage issues Steedo picked up a copy recently, so after a couple of ales we gave it a go.

As usual for an Osprey Game the box (I like the book opening box) and components are of a good standard.

It is an interesting tile placement game - you place the circular Warrior, Leader and Weaver tiles so at the end you collect the linking rectangular tiles. The player with the most rectangular tiles wins. 

Simples .......

Warrior and Leader tiles score the orange tiles by having the most spears in the run. The White tiles are collected by the highest value leader in the run - indicated by a letter (A being better than C etc). The dotty tiles are scored by having the most counters on the run (I should say "strings" as in "strings of fate"). Then you had the Weaver tiles with either delta (swaps two adjoining tiles) to phi (breaks a run/string) - these can be a pain as depending when they are picked up! I think I forgot to say you pick up you tiles blind in the basic game. 

Well the results were first game to me, then Steedo won the next two. 

This is a sutble game which deserves to be played again - it didn't set the room alight when we played it but it does make you think and I do want to see if I can improve my stategy. I will be returning to the games of Troy. 

Morts

Long time away ......

Well haven't done much recently painting or making wise - work has been awful but I will spare you my woes and pain!

On Saturday Steedo hosted a little games evening, attended by my good self, Snake-eyes, Sylon and Moonie (no DK as he was doing family things). 

The evening started with beer, pizza and a game of Have at Thee!

I really like have at thee - it is a vicious little game of sword play, which doesn't get to the table enough. 

We played a close game with Sylon and Snake-eyes going into the last round looking for the win ... They managed to do enough damage to each other to allow me to win ... Sneaky!

We then played a 5 player game of the Settlers of Catan (another game which needs more play time). 

To save time, let me just say I played a blinder! Win to me. 

(My last of the evening)

We then played a game of Coup - won by Sylon to show Moonie how it works ... So well that Moonie bailed at this point in the evening to earn brownie points from his better half. 

We then played Libertalia - which took me a while to get my head around ... So I came last and Steedo  managed to win!

Then we brought another classic to the table in the form of Cacassone (no farmers). Again a close game and another win for Steedo.... 

We finished off the evening with another game of Have at Thee - win to Sylon!

So on the night a fairly even share of glory .... Unless you were Snake-eyes! 

Morts

Apparently Steedo and Snake-eyes (who was crashing at Steedo's ) played a couple of games of Netrunner .... Things didn't get any better for Snake-eyes. 

UK Games Expo

On Friday the elite gaming squad - minus Sylon headed out on road trip to the Birmingham NEC to the UK Games Expo. It was an early start with a planned in full English stop. My first trip to a Toby Inn for breakfast and my first experience of a "breakfast Yorkshire pudding". This was a good call as this kept us going until 7.15pm (apart from a few midgit gems supplied by DK). 

After some quality driving by Snake-eyes we arrived just before 11am - first annoyance £12 for parking!

Then second annoyance - having to queue for 20 to 30 minutes to collect the tickets losing value gaming time!

This was taken at the end of the day but you get the idea. 

The Expo is much bigger than the Wargames shows that we have been going to over the last few years. The Expo had  hall 1 of the NEC and most of the ground floor of the Hilton hotel (which we didn't get to!). There was plenty ... Too much to see and do in the trade hall. 

Anyway we decided to split up and recce the hall for the first 1/2 hour and then meet up - although DK managed to go walk about for an extra 20mins. 

So our first stop was Fantasy Fight games who were running a number of their games to try out ( I would have liked to have tried the GoT card game). Snake-eyes wanted to have a go with New Angeles, so we tried that for a couple of rounds. This should be a good game with elements of co-op play, competitive play and hidden agendas - some of the game play reminded me of Battlestar. My main concern was the time it might take to play 4-5 hours. Anyway Snake-eyes liked it so much he later bought the game!

We then did some more window shopping before trying Nine Worlds. 

This was a fairly quick to grasp game with area control based on the Viking nine worlds - the mechanics were clever - allowing you to move yours or others players counters around to gain advantage (this reminded me of the King is Dead) - 5 counters in a world were needed to activate that worlds power. Steedo and I liked this game a lot. Steedo managing to get the bargain of the day by picking up a copyright for £20.

 We then wandered around for a bit - and tried out Karnage! A King of the hill type game. It was very light - the demonstrator said it could be a drinking game. It wasn't really our sort of game. But we gave it a go. I also left my phone on the table so had a bit of a worry for a bit!

Then the trade hall was going to close in about 40 minutes so we did the final shopping run. 

My little haul ...

I am little disappointed to hear that Airfix Battles will be not be supported - I understand that Morphius and Airfix won't be working together. But the game might be produced again in the future as "plastic soldier battles". Anyway it was a bargain with extra cards and it doesn't need figures to play as it has counters. 

The rest of the evening was spend listening to a very informational talk by Ian Livingston about Games Workshop, Fighting Fantasy (DK got his copy of Warlord of Firetop Mountain signed), Eidos (and Lara Croft) and his top ten games. 

The next talk was an amusing session by Shut up and Sit down. 

Then we headed home with talk of going for 2 days next year to play more and see more .... We shall see. 

A really good day!

Morts

Ghouls!

Well managed to get some painting done - some ghouls for Frostgrave and Dragon Rampant force (and possibly allies for Kings of War). 

First 6 of 12 done - ok paint jobs. All will be based onto 25mm mdf round bases. 

5 games workshop crypt ghouls picked up from the exeter wargames show last week and a mantic ghoul. Will do another 6 ASAP, then varnish and base. 

Must tidy the painting desk!

Morts

Show report

We undertook a short journey down the road to Exeter to the legionary show. Snake-eyes met DK, Steedo and myself at the show. 

Overall it seemed busier than last year. We spent sometime looking over the bring and buy where all but Snake-eyes found a bargain. After a mooching around the stalls for a bit we had a spot of lunch in the cafe - Steedo had lasagne with a fried egg on the side .....

Then we managed to get a couple of participation games in. 

First up The Walking Dead. 

I took on Steedo and Snake-eyes - using the basic set set. It was a fun game, the highlight for me was when Steedo tried to shoot a walker but managed a head shot on one of his own characters, which lead Derek to be swamped by walkers. The game was quick and we were given a figure for playing. Steedo then bought the starter set! Recommendation indeed. 

We then managed to get a game of Peter Pigs Men of Company B - Vietnam war. 

This pitted Snake-eyes and myself as the forces of freedom against DK and Steedo as the sneaky red Viet-cong. This was an interesting system with grid based movement, method of varying the game length (due to time constraints we sacrificed a turn) and different objectives for the sides. The Americans needing to search villages - the first 3 brought ambushes .....

The game ended with a victory to the VC. 

The haul from the show ...

A good day was had by all - still got a few things to get for Frostgrave and Dragon Rampant. 

The beginning of June we are off to games-expo uk! Should be good. 

Morts