Kings of War - linked battles.

We had a sort of mini campaign with Kings of War - Snake-eyes and myself each had 1000 points of Orcs (well my Oldhammer Hobgoblins) each and took on Steedo and Sylon with 1000 points of men and elves respectively. We were playing on 4 by 3 tables with 5 objective markers (loot scenario I think). The games were limited to 6 turns and no horde units). The number of objectives won would be converted to artifacts for the next game.  

Steedo and Snake-eyes table.

Snake-eyes' giant and chariots smashing into Steedo's war rhino!

This this encounter Snake-eyes almost destroyed all of Steedo's army - but came up short by 1. The upshot was that Snake-eyes would be able to pick 2 artifacts and Steedo none. 

Mine and Sylon's table. 

Sylon' Elven Knights trying to flank the Hobgoblin cavalry, but exposing their own flank to trolls!

Again there was a good victory for the forces of darkness with 2 objectives going to me and 1 to the elves. 

The games went pretty quickly, so we went for the big one! The initial forces were returned and each side got and extra 1000 points each (so 3000 points per side). With the extra artifacts Snake-eyes and myself were feeling confident of another victory for the Hobgoblins!

Initial set up and first moves below. 

I do think that there is something "cool"* about seeing loads of figures on a table. 

This time the battle didn't go the way the Hobgoblins planned.... On the left flank Snake-eyes troops collapsed against Steedo's men a complete turn around from their earlier encounter. The right flank of the Hobgoblins smashed through the elves but were running out of troops!

The pivot at the centre of the table.

The end of the game - just 2 Hobgoblin units (and most of the heroes)  left to try and take on 4 units of men, a beast of war and 2 war machines (and all the heroes).

So in the end a victory fo the men and elves (although we didn't point it out) - classic fantasy literature evil getting the early upper hand and extra artifacts but the forces of good winning in the end!

Overall I think the games went well and everyone seemed to enjoy them, but I am not sure if we should have saved the final game for another day as it became rushed at the end as we tried to finish quickly as DK had arrived (to play some other games) and curry needed eating to soak up the beer. 

After pack up - Snake-eyes had to leave which was a pity as we were planning to play Risk Legacy (we are about half-way through). But we pushed on with Nine Worlds (Steedo win), Have at Thee (me win), Codenames (no wins out of 6 for me!) and Coup (Sylon did very well with this one). 

A long days gaming (an quite a lot of tidying for me too!). 

Morts

Got some painting done .... And sort of finished the Hobgoblins ...

Well got some serious painting done. Haven't finished the bases yet - got a big game today. 

Some Harpies for Greek myths and rats for Frostgrave.

A demon and Medusa for Frostgrave. 

Now after 30 odd years I have finally completed all the C36 Citadel Hobgoblins* - very Oldhammer!

Top - Voxin the witch. Bottom - the last of the Warriors. 

A converted chariot - crewed by couple of the rocket launcher team.

Finally - the great Khan on a wolf. 

These will see a battlefield soon. 

I plan to do an army showcase for this lot.

*Still have some old Chronicle Hobgoblins/Black Orcs to paint!

Morts

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