Demo Games - Teach 'em or Crush 'em?

On Tuesday, I helped Gaz run an intro game of Dystopian Wars at the club.  We just used our starter fleets, minus the bombers, with some random scenery.  Only one other person was actually playing (he was expecting more,) but c'est la vie.  It was an enjoyable evenings gaming, lasting only two turns, but taking some time to explain the nuances and strategies as well as the rules.

   
The last time I ran a full intro game was when we were away at the DW tournament in April.  At that time, I thought it best to "go easy" on the new guy, and played in such a way that not only would he get to experience most of the common situations (different guns, aircraft, collisions, boarding etc,) but also get an easy win.  Afterwards, I hear grumblings that, for whatever reason, he didn't like the free win.  It couldn't have been too bad, as he bought a starter fleet from one of the traders there.  Oh, btw, I let him win against a random fleet I made up on the spot, my tournament Empire of the Blazing Sun list is still undefeated!

Now I don't believe you wanted to do that. . .

This time, when I took over at the start of turn 2, I decided to play with the view "the burned hand teaches best" and punished a poor move by sinking the opposing flagship.  However, I left worrying that this had been a bit rude.  We'd introduced the mechanics and given a generous amount of advice, but should I have also given the easy win?  I certainly don't play wargames to win,  far from it in fact, and I don't know any others to whom winning is the most important thing in a game.  So does it follow that a new player would feel better about a game if they get an early win in?

Anyway, Corrado, hopefully you enjoyed Dystopian Wars - next time, try and keep your Battleship less exposed!

RAFWA Championship 2012 Photos 1

I've started working through my photos from last weekend.  Normally, I'm hopeless at taking pictures, but as the Mrs set the camera up for me, at least some turned out okay.

   

Friday nights demo/practice game.  Boozed up gamers teaching other boozed up gamers how to play!  Carnage.

Big Al's Federated States of America Fleet

Gaz's Kingdom of Britannia Fleet

 Rob's Covenant of Antarctica Fleet (with missing turrets and proxy Bombers)

My Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet

For some reason I don't have an fleet photo of Woody's Prussian Empire, but you can see them this deployment shot:

This was a great table to play on.  Somewhere in the Southern Ocean, two fleets have engaged each other.  Unfortunately, a Sturginium spill has caused the currents to become extremely erratic.  Each turn we rolled a random direction and each iceberg would move an independently determined D6 inches in that direction.  Again, carnage.

 

Towards the end of the game.  We used the new field orders rules, so both sides rolled randomly for their objectives.  I think the Covenant had to destroy all large and massive vessels, while the Prussians had to destroy 50% points value including all small vessels.

The core mechanic of Dystopian Wars at work here with the Rob's Particle Accelerator. Rolling twelve dice, he scored an initial six hits, but kept rolling sixes to generate more hits. From those initial six, he ended up with twenty six hits.  Too bad it was only against a cruiser! 

The Solomon Islands table.  The rocky reef in the middle slowed movement to half rate except for small ships (and flyers obviously) but it didn't obscure line of sight.  Otherwise, this was a normal table.

Turn 2, the Empire of the Blazing Sun can put out a lot of long range fire.  It helps when Al couldn't roll defensive dice for toffee.

Close to the end.  My objective was 50% of the enemy fleet including all medium ships.  The FSA had to take out all my naval models.

End of the same turn, captured a Gunship and Frigate for double victory points.  Everything but the FSA Battleship and a couple frigates were gone, resulting in a comprehensive Japanese victory!

February Gaming

February has been a fairly unsettling month so far - Mrs had a wee holiday, I had a chest infection, job interviews, a birthday party and a funeral.  Honestly, it's been very up and down, leaving little time for my nerdly pursuits.  I've not picked up a paint brush all month and only managed two games so far this month, both early on.

First up I had another Dystopian Wars battle against Gaz at the club.  We're both going to a tournament at the end of March (Gaz is actually running it) so we've been working on some of the more complex rules and, of course, our lists!  For this occasion, I proxied a squadron of three Gunships with the cruiser models.

The two fleets looked were:

Empire of the Blazing Sun

Hachiman Dreadnought
Tenkei Sky Fortress
Tanuki Class Gunships x 3
Yurgi Class Destroyers x 3
Uwatsu Class Frigates x 5
Torpedo Bombers x 5
Torpedo Bombers x 5
Fighters x 3
Fighters x 3

Kingdom of Britannia

Magesty Class Dreadnought
Tribal Class Cruiser x 3
Orion Class Destroyers x 4
Doncaster Class Bombers x 2
Hawk Class Scout Rotors x 2
Dive Bombers x 5
Dive Bombers x 5

Both fleets were heavily weighted to my left (err, port) side, with only the cruisers, gunships and some tiny flyers on the other flank.  The Brit Dreadnought decided to halt and make use of it's long range firepower, while the rest of the fleets closed in on each other exchanging fire.

The following turn saw my frigates mauled by the British bombers and destroyers.  In return, I destroyed one scout rotor and one cruiser and damaged the remaining cruisers, bombers and rotors.  The tiny flyer squadrons repositioned on the battlefield, making use of their long movement range, although no squadrons engaged the enemy.  The Brit Dreadnought took a lot of rocket hits for no damage, but inflicted none in return.

It's a running joke that I make a priority of wiping out Gaz's destroyers (they mauled me the first time he used them and I was scarred by the experience.)  My Dreadnought, Sky Fortress and remaining frigates combined to wipe out the British destroyers, bombers and rotors.  More long range fire at the Brit Dreadnought, but for little effect.  My gunships destroyed another cruiser and effectively crippled the last.  Gaz powered his Dreadnought forward, putting a point of damage on my dread and finishing off my destroyers.  All the torpedo and dive bombers on the table had used their ordinance, so it was down to the three large ships to finish the fight.

Having managed to manoeuvre side on to both my Dreadnought and Sky Fortress, Gaz unleashed the full might of his Dreadnought.  Both my ships were damaged, the Sky Fortress' assault marines were heavily depleted and my Dread lost it's shield generator.  Again, my return fire was completely ineffective (although I managed to knock out one of the two generators with a game card.)  Our time was up and the Empire of the Blazing Sun had proven clear victors.  A victory only tainted by my inability to scratch the British Dreadnought.

I still have serious misgivings over the new Kingdom of Britannia rules Spartan Games have released.  And I have severe misgivings over that Dreadnought!  Although it's only devastating up close, two shield generators AND a load of defensive fire mean it can take an heap of punishment .  My rockets and heavy guns simply struggle to get through that!

However, I'm feeling much more comfortable with my Empire of the Blazing Sun (apart from the paint job, which is starting to look like the rush job it was.)  Three gunships will definitely be going on the tournament list, while the three cruiser won't even be going in the box!  I like the Sky Fortress well enough, but mainly for the two extra flyer squadrons and the rockets, but it's still too puny at mid range for the hefty points price.  I think I'll try the same list with either the Tsukuyomi Gyro or, possibly, three Inari Scout Gyros.

A few days later, we had a run through of the Horus Heresy board game from Fantasy Flight Games.  We randomly chose our sides (I was the Imperials whilst Gaz was the traitors) and worked very slowely through the first few turns, getting comfortable with the rules.

The game is set during the final action of the Horus Heresy, the seige and assualt on the Imperial Palace.  As many of you may know, the history of 40K has the Imperial defenders barely holding off the overwhelming Traitor forces, when the Emperor is somehow able to teleport onto an orbiting space ship and kill Horus, albeit at the cost of his own life.

The board game lets you recreate this play for play with the Emperor, Horus, eight primarchs, space marines, daemons, titans (and more) all present in the game, with areas on the board representing the Imperial Palace itself, space ports, factories and Horus' orbiting battleship.  However, there are a few other ways to secure victory without following the traditional path.  Obviously, killing Horus or the Emperor (wherever they may be) is fairly straightforward way, but you can also win by holding all four space ports (denying or allowing reinforcements) or by the Imperials holding out until the end of the game (at what point Imperial reinforcements arrive in overwhelming force!)

There are some great mechanics in the game.  The initiative tracker gives you lots of strategic options, as does the card driven combat, while the Tactical Map is a small game in itself!  Like many Fantasy Flight games, there are lots of random and fluffy events (orbital bombardment?  Yes please!) and the scenarios booklet lets you play the board game in lots of different ways.

All in all, great fun and a great evening game, even though I lost through leaving two of the spaceports undefended (in my defense, if I was more familiar with the Unit Limit and Initiative rules, my assault on the space ship would have been much more effective though!)

No games this week, but I've a couple days to myself now and plan to get some painting done and, with any luck, something finished!

A Quick Update

Just a quick post on this weeks progress.

We had another game of Dystopian Wars at the club (which has been packed the last couple weeks) with my Empire of the Blazing Sun and Gaz's Kingdom of Britannia fleets.  No photos I'm afraid, but it was a solid victory for the Blazing Sun.  It was also a timely reminder that painted models always do better than unpainted ones - my newly finished Dreadnought and Destroyers both performed admirably.  However, the only undercoated Skyfortress, on it's debut, was unceremoniously blown out of the sky!

  

It was our second game using the updated rules from Spartan Games.  I still hate the new Britannia generator rules (I have to read these again as they seem waaaay too powerful now,) but the new EotBS movement rules are suprisingly useful.  If anyone out there is using the new rules, I'd heartily recommend reading this post of the Spartan forum to clear up a lot of grey areas!

I also had a try of making my own storage tray this week - it's surprisingly effective, although I don't think BattleFoam need to worry too much!

In other news, my order from Museum Miniatures has arrived (some 15mm Landsknechts,) and they look good enough to probably put in another order while their 25% sale is still on.  I've finished up the first batch of figures for my Italian Wars project and am just waiting for some bases to arrive so I can get them completed.  We're planning another Black Crusade session, but I think we might end up waiting for the first supplement (just released) before going any further.

Fortunately for my nerd time, the sporting schedule is due to relax a bit next week, leaving more painting time!  I'm sure I could have got a lot more done this week if it weren't for the football (far too much nonsense to talk about,) the snooker (always bet on the thinner guy,) the tennis (Andy Murray's Scottish again,) the womens tennis (is this even a sport?) and the cricket (best team in the world my arse!)

Have a good weekend everyone!

January, WIP

Just over halfway through the month, so how am I getting on with my resolutions.  Well, not bad to be honest.  Frustratingly, I've not been able to finish off any individual projects so far, but plenty of progress has been made.

In order of "almost completedness:" 

• Dystopian Wars Empire of the Blazing Sun Dreadnought and Destroyers (yes, before anyone asks, this is the same ship from October 29th last year)
• Vexillia 15mm Landsknecht Arquebusiers and Crossbowmen
• Battlefront 15mm German Pioneers
• Bolt Action 28mm SS

The biggest problem I'm having is deciding when a miniature is finished.  For instance, those Landsknechts are covered in little details (powder cases, drinking horns, sidearms) and I can't seem to say "That's enough detail, he looks fine, get on and base them!"  Add in the fact their uniforms are painted in a variety of colours, they are taking much longer than planned.

Away from the painting table, a pleasant surprise arrived in the post this morning - a Covenant of Antarctica fleet box set from Spartan Games!!! I won this prize from Tabletop Fix, so a big thanks to both them and Spartan Games.

We've had another Black Crusade session (our third,) this time with some new characters (Chaos Space Marines) and a heavy combat mission.  Still loving the rules, I'll try and get a write up of this session up in the next few days.  The first supplement is due for release shortly, hopefully once it's out, FFG will get on and product some player and GM books for this great game.

Lastly, for this update, my Infinity eBay purchases look like they've gone missing.  There shouldn't be any problem getting the cash back, but it's still a hassle.  Particularly considering I paid a lot less than the RRP, it'll cost more to get the same collection of figures.

First game of 2012 - Chaotic Dystopian Wars

Tuesday saw the first wargame of 2012! Dystopian Wars at the club, with my regular opponent and his Brits against my (ahem) almost painted Prussians.  This was all the more impressive considering it took me four months to get a game played in 2011.

We tried out all the latest rules updates as posted on the Spartan Games site here and here.  We also took it as an opportunity to go over the rules and correct some rules we had been misinterpreting (bravery and commander mainly.)

Tiny Fliers are now a whole lot easier to manage, movement hasn't changed much, but the attack and defence rules have been well streamlined and are much more straightforward.

The Field Orders generator and game set up are great additions.  Before you pretty much had to decide your mission and terrain yourself, now there is at least some guidance.

The left flank was the scene of absolute carnage - 8 destroyed and 3 captured!

Nation rules.  Hmmm, not too keen on the new KoB generator rules, but that's probably because a) I couldn't even chip the paint against the Battleship last night, and b) felt my Prussians didn't get much love with their new rules (oooh!!! 1 extra dice after damage!!!)

Still, as a trial game, it was quite succcessful.  Although we played two hours, only two turns were completed, but I think we ironed out a lot of issues we were having.  I still have a couple areas I'd like cleared up:

Is defensive Ack Ack combined or linked against tint fliers?
Against tiny fliers, does everyone in range get Ack Ack?
Clear up the exact order for dogfighting.

A rematch is due next week, but I think I'll go back to my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet (they might just have some reinforcements available!)

Just A Quick Update

An early Christmas present is (hopefully) on it's way to me this week!  Tabletop Fix ran a competition recently for a Spartan Games prize, which I didn't win.  However, the actual winner never claimed their prize and I won the subsequent rerun!

So a Covenant of Antarctica fleet box and Dystopian Wars rulebook en route.  After this drubbing, maybe these guys will perform a bit better than my Prussians.

On the Italian Wars front, however, actual work has yet to start.  Seriously, what is it with the Royal Mail? There's one day of flooding and a couple days of icy weather up here, and our mail delivery is running five days late?  I've some miniatures on order from Vexillia Limited and Museum Miniatures, although when they arrive is anyone's guess.

I have been having a look through the various army lists and have decided to start off by building up early French and Milanese armies.  The deciding factor boiled down to the local book store only having Osprey's Fornovo Campaign book in stock.  This has been a fairly entertaining read, charting the first campaign of the Italian Wars, leading upto the Battle of Fornovo - a score draw between the French and Italian City States.  It's also given me some great modelling  ideas, including a command stand of Charles VIII taking a leak (where he was almost captured!)

What A Christmas Present!

Just had to post this Xmas offer from everyone's favorite, Spartan Games.

Quality.  Unsurprisingly, the Mrs said no.

I think I'll add a "donate" button to the blog, just in case anyone out there is feeling particularly generous.

Dystopian Wars Blazing Sun Reinforcements - WIP

On the painting table this week are some reinforcements for my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet:

These are the "Japanese" faction from Spartan Games' Dystopian Wars.  The Dreadnought is joined by a squadron of five Destroyers and a pair of Inari Scout Gyros.  I'm constantly surprised by just how much detail Spartan have been able to cram onto each of their models;  the dreadnought in particular has a huge amount of small hatches, doors, windows and pipes visble.  Even the hull itself is textured enough to show detail, even after a huge amount of drybrushing.

This thing is absolutely covered with little details.

On each model here, the white hulls have all been finished, as has the wooden decking.  I've started the metals on the Gyros and the Dreadnought and, again, just started the red on the Destroyers.  I like working on two or three different things at a time to help break up the occasional monotony of painting.  Once, the metals and red have been finished, I'll colour the ship lower hulls with a dark brown, add some fleet markings and decoration and, sigh, begin the mind-numbing job of painting the individual windows (there must be close to 100 of these over all the different ships I have!)

The best paint palette ever!

Despite the paintwork not being finished, these have all had their first game of Dystopian Wars, against my usual opponent, Gaz, and his Kingdom of Britainna fleet.  The game ended up being a minor loss to me; not only did I deploy my flyers on one flank (meaning they were out of the action for most of the game,) but I was woefully short in squadrons to activate, 6 to 9, meaning I wasn't able to pick where and what to fight or make the best of my long range firepower.  We're still coming up with a few rules issues after each game, but compared to our first game, the turns flow by quite smoothly now.

Lastly, there has been another flurry of Spartan Games announcements and previews this week.  Instead of posting some here and blethering on, I suggest anyone interested take a look over at Tabletop Fix.