30 June 2012

Follower Guest Spot #3

Not having much to report on my own geeking/gaming over the last week or so, and not wanting to let my more regular blogging of late suffer, I'm going to treat you to another slice of blogging loveliness from one of you chaps. This time, from Gareth the Grot's new blog, Drums in the Deep.

Any of you who are LAFers will quickly realise that Mr. the Grot is LAF's very own Funghy-Fipps. I'm delighted that another Bob Olley enthusiast will be spreading the word, starting with a ballista-wielding ogre. Maybe his blog will cost the rest of you as much money as his thread on LAF has cost me!



Blog link -> here

Until I have something of my own to share, happy geeking,
Rab

24 June 2012

No gaming, but...

... I did get to shoot a cannon at the medieval fayre at Tatton Park in Cheshire. Twice! It was so awesome, I can't tell you. Suffice to say I had a broad silly grin plastered across my face for the rest of the day. A chap who goes by the nickname "Chutny" snapped this fabulous photo just as the gout of flame shot from the mouth of the barrel:

.
Rab goes BOOOM!

SO, prepping my kit (I went as part of the living history display with the Company of St. Margaret and took part in the semi-scripted battle each day, which was also ace) wiped out the week before last, hobby wise, and this week has been spent drying out and cleaning kit before packing it away again.

I have got the river sections I mentioned last time sorted with a first layer of flock. I'll add some static grass, foamy bits that I use as small bushes, and maybe a clump or two of foliage to finish them off, but they're playable now.

In other news, I've taken up an instrument for the first time in my life. I was given a traditional Victorian tin-whistle (a Clarke's, in the key of D if you're interested) for my birthday and have been torturing anyone within hearing range with my stumbling attempts.

I hope you're geeking, and other hobbies, are giving you as much pleasure,
Rab

ps - welcome aboard to CLAM and Adam who have joined the band of you who kindly Follow this blog. Remember, (nice) comments are always welcome!

12 June 2012

A song of father and son

With No.2 Son (asleep in the car) and Darling Wife (asleep in bed) occupied, No.1 Son and I settled down to play a game. He is coming up four and a half, so I sensed the time was right - and it was! He's shown an interest in my knights before (something I've encouraged with suitable books and days out) and in previous posts I've shared some of our adventures. Today (well, last Saturday) I thought we'd step up a gear and try Song of Blades and Heroes on one of the two gaming boards he'd help make a while back.

First up, we had a 'tournament' between two knights each with a couple of ladies/princesses watching and cheering their champions on. He picked up the rules (activation dice, successes and failures, combat rolls, movement) almost instantly, and he proceeded to absolutely kick my behind with some monstrous dice rolls. In this game I didn't include combat values and just left it as a straight dice-off. I also gave him a different colour dice to use for combat to try and separate out the two steps of the turn (activation/combat).

Battle is joined...

Yup, his dice is the red one...

I'm going to activate this one, Daddy! (You can also see the balsa-ish strips of square section that I cut to length for measuring short/medium/long distances)

So, outnumbered 2:1 and outrolled, my second knight went down under the swords of his opponents
After that he really wanted to play again, so we went for a story-fuelled battle, including combat values and figures with different Quality.

After the delights of the tournament, the princesses needed to be guarded safely back home. All four knights and one squire volunteered. As they made their way happily along a sudden feeling of dread swept over them. A stench of decay filled their nostrils and dusty creaking sounds could be heard. The party decided to take refuge in the tower on the hilltop where the princesses could be safe while the knights dealt with whatever evil lurked behind the hills.

The vile necromancer, Jared, has summoned his minions to capture the princesses. Who knows for what nefarious ends?

Jared takes up a brave position at the rear

Two knights take the lead, heading to engage the enemy

They're behind us!

Not to fear, the red dice of chivalric doom is here!

That's two successes again, Daddy.

Oh sir knight, you're so brave!

Quick, princess, run for the tower

Jared's minions prove unable to get in the way (Three failures. Again!)

The princesses safely in the tower are able to watch as the knights deal comfortably with the threat.
With the last of the skeletons returned to dust, and the knights with their scratches and bruises gently bathed, an impromptu feast was held. The only thing that clouded their celebration was the knowledge that the necromancer had evaded their grasp. Would they see him again? 

Mwahahaaha....

The little man enjoyed himself enormously ("I killed all of yours, Daddy, didn't I?"), as did I: our first game using published rules. So proud! To set up the game I just gave him the knights I had to hand and grabbed a bunch of skeletons. I was a little concerned it was uneven (I didn't bother checking points values) and offered him another one from the "in progress" pile but was flatly refused. "It isn't painted, Daddy; I can't use it, that's against the rules!" Good lad.

We spent a bit of time on Sunday painting up some resin - river sections and a couple of small thatched farm buildings which he got enthusiastically involved in. "They'll make our next game even more fun!" I'm just waiting for the repair job I've done on the river sections to dry and then we'll flock them at some point this week.

I hope you've equally enjoyable geeking over the last week or so,
Rab

ps - I forgot to say: Miniature Heroes are fabulous to deal with. I wanted a few shields and emailed them when the postage came out at £3.10 on their automatic cart. They popped them in an envelope for pennies over the cost of a first class stamp. Hurrah for excellent customer service. http://miniature-heroes.co.uk/

9 June 2012

NAF Cup report - Part 2

Okay, with a spot of grub inside us, we geeked on into the evening. My third opponent, mark_turner, was much more entertaining and I began to enjoy myself again. He'd brought another of the NAF sanctioned, but unofficial by GW standards, teams - Underworld. This is a mix of goblins and skaven, so pretty slippery. I failed a Go For It into the end zone to score at the end of turn 4 (I only needed a 2+, ), and that was definitely where the rot set in. I got two Blitzes against me on kick-off etc. To give Mark his due, he took clever advantage of the luck going his way when it did (it wasn't all one way) which left me unable to capitalise on the good dice I got from time-to-time. That was something that really became apparent to me over the tournament - a new/underdeveloped Pact team hasn't much resilience or ability to change tack, at least with me on the coach's bench!

Mark, with his Deep Down Dodgers. They had a fabulous display stand as well, which I forgot to snap.

It all started well. This is just before I start my ultimately doomed dart down the left flank.

Game 3 (vs Underworld)
Score: 0-3
Casualties: 1-0
Result: Defeat

A good night of silly card games and a beer or two, then a slap-up breakfast of truly gargantuan proportions, and back to the gaming.

My first opponent of the Sunday was Simon, probably my favourite of the weekend. We had pretty much the same sense of humour and there was generally a good feeling of jollity not only on our table but on those nearby; everyone was having fun. My notes for the game start with "Simon rolled lots of ones" and while it didn't carry on that way (I got my share as well), I did have the better of the luck, something I needed against a well-developed orc team being handled rather well.

Simon, with one of his very short moves. Rolling ones tends to do that!

 Game 4 (vs Orcs)
Score: 2-0
Casualties: 1-1
Result: Victory

Then came lunch (weird timing, I thought, but something to do with contracted catering hours), and on to game four pretty sharpish. Opponent five was a viking, a genuine mountain of Scandinavian with the nickname netsmurf.

netsmurf using his dice tower to power his orcs into my little lead fellows
Yup, that's my minotaur in the dead box. My apothecary failed to bring him back. It just got worse from here.


This was a truly brilliant and chaotic game in the true spirit of bloodbowl. In a desperate attempt to hold on for the draw with less than half a team still on the pitch I pulled off my favourite turn of the weekend. I managed to dodge an isolated troll out of a tackle zone, run across the pitch, go for it twice through more tackle zones and into his cage. I then did exactly the same with my isolated ogre. I thought netsmurf was going to either have a heart attack or punch me. He was standing and bright red. He then managed the score and saw the funny side, congratulating me on my risk-taking.

Game 5 (vs Orcs)
Score: 1-2
Casualties: 0-4
Result: Defeat

And then onto the final game, desperately hoping to get a victory to balance my weekend, only to find I had chaos dwarves at the other end of the pitch. el_afable was a top bloke and it was a very pleasant way for the weekend to finish.

A rather demonic picture of a thoroughly nice chap.
 More silliness in this game. I was being rather reckless by now, and the same story as last game (conceding five casualties) meant there was little else I could try after about halfway through the first half. I managed a pretty good score, linking players and even with a dummy run but that was it and he got a well-deserved victory. As a sop to my pride I'd like you to know that I had the ball and was on my way deep into his half at the end of play.

Game 6 (vs Chaos Dwarves)
Score: 1-2
Casualties: 1-5
Result: Defeat

In the car on the way home the four of us chatted and pretty much came to the conclusion that, although there had been some great moments, we enjoy gaming time much more where we're actually playing against/alongside each other so will put more effort into organising days where that is possible.

Happy geeking,
Rab

6 June 2012

NAF Cup report - Part 1

First, welcome aboard to Paul of the Man Cave as the latest follower of this blog.

Now, the long-promised report of my team's (less than) glorious outing to the NAF cup a couple of weekends back. For those unfamiliar with bloodbowl tournaments, it's a six game affair; three on the Saturday, three on the Sunday. Teams are chosen to a set value, as might be expected, and then before each game (having seen one's opponents) one player on the team is given one of the standard range of Skills they are permitted. Then it's two hours of frantic dice cursing... ;)

The calm before the storm - Warhammer World as we start to set up.
My first opponent was a nice chap called Rez who had brought Wood Elves. I wasn't expecting an easy game, tbh, as they're so damn fast and Chaos Pact, well, aren't. I'd been hoping to mash them up a bit, though, with a paltry Av7 across most of the team. Nope. Suddenly either Av7 had become impenetrable, or my little monsters were just weaklings. I enjoyed the game, honestly, but it was a bit of a shoeing. The pics below show the build up and then the scoring of the first I conceded. One of the nice things about tourneys is that you catch up with previous opponents to see how they're getting on and congratulate/commiserate as appropriate, which is what happened between me and Rez.

Opponent number 1 - Rez with his wood elves, Wyld Stallyns II

That'll be my defence ripped apart like soggy paper, then!

Touchdown! Hurray! But for the other team! Boo!
Game 1 (vs Wood Elves)
Score: 0-3
Casualties: 1-0
Result: Defeat

My second game wasn't quite so enjoyable. It dragged more than a little and my sense of humour and that of my opponent didn't match up at all. I won, which was nice, but I didn't bother taking any photos. I also felt I was using my team better and not making some of the silly positional errors that I had in the first game.

Game2 (vs Goblins)
Score: 2-0
Casualties: 5-2 (mwahahaaha)
Result: Victory

More results soon.
Rab

3 June 2012

God bless you, Ma'am

To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, let us have three cheers to honour her sixty years of service and faultless dedication to duty.

Hip, hip - hurrah!
Hip, hip - hurrah!
Hip, hip - hurrah!