News for week ending 5/27/10

• Against the Odds has begun shipping Issue #28, featuring Tarleton's Quarter, a game about the British invading the Southern States during the American Revolutionary War. I'm sure there will be great articles as well, so looking forward to getting it.
• Mikugames has posted a preliminary date for when they'll start getting payments for their first game, Vol 1. Winter War 1939-1940. Beautiful map, great counters, and just a FANTASTIC looking game! I can't wait! Especially when the rest of the series comes out.
• Critical Hit Games added a few new ASL products. If you're interested, take a look. I won't list them all.

Looks like I'll be moving on June 19th! My gaming life can finally start again after that

News for 5/21/10

• DVG mentions that their game Guns Blazing (second game in the Down in Flames series) is in the last days of pre-order (ie today or tomorrow). Order it now if you want it at the pre-order price!
• Collins Epic Wargames' Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is in production! That means the people who ordered it should be seeing it in the not-too-distant future. Looking forward to it, myself.

Otherwise, another fairly slow week in gaming news. Girlfriend moved down, a new place found, so another month to get up and moving, and then I should be able to get back into the gaming thing! Then I can have some much more content-inclusive posts coming up!

News for week ending 5/14/10

Yay, more news!

• Clash of Arms put up a new pre-order: Persian Incursion, exploring the military and political effects of an Israeli military campaign against Iran.
  
• DVG is saying that their pre-order price for Down in Flames - Guns Blazing is almost at an end. If you want it at that price, order it!
• Decision Games is shipping World At War #12, covering an alternate history WWII scenario. Read the page for the situation and more information.
• GMT Games updated their schedule. One of the things mentioned was a September release of 5 reprints! Flying Colors, Here I Stand, Manoeuvre, Paths of Glory, and Sword of Rome will all be reprinted that month. I'm looking forward to it. May pick up all 5, money permitting :). Some great games in that list!
• Lock 'N Load will be shipping Lock 'N Load: Swift and Bold V2 early next week. All about the British paratroopers.

I gotta apologize for the lack of non-news updates. I was expecting to have a lot of cool things here, but it just hasn't happened yet. A lot of it is the fact that my girlfriend moves in this weekend, which means I had a LOT of cleaning up to do. Messy messy house, after all. Hopefully in another week or so! I really really want to do more with the site. Hopefully soon.

Warmachine game- 35 pts, Skarre vs Strakhov

Last Wednesday, me and Rob played another warmachine game. I chose Skarre, a caster I've never run before (in Mark I or II), while he continued to get practice in with Strakhov.

My list:
Pirate Queen Skarre
-Deathjack
-Skarlock Thrall
Min Bane Knights
Min Bane Thralls
Min Bile Thralls
Max Mechanithralls
2 Pistol Wraiths

I had never run Skarre before, so I took a variety of units. Banes to power Sacrificial Strike (plus they kill plenty in melee). Mechanithralls to power Ritual Sacrifice (plus... they can kill things in melee). Bile Thralls to pick of occasional threats, and the Deathjack to really grab my opponent's attention.

Rob's list:
Kommander Strakhov
-Beast-09
-Behemoth
-War Dog
Min Assault Kommandoes
-Flame Thrower
Max Battle Mechanicks
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Koldun Lord

Pretty standard army, and aside from the Assault Kommandoes, generally Rob's normal list against me. He also tried the Behemoth, which is a decent amount of ranged threat.

Rob took pictures of the game (although keep in mind, Rob's force is heavily proxied), and therefore has a better way of showing what happened (as well as the battlefield we fought on), but I will give a basic rundown.

In the center of the table, we had a ruin, and a forest next to it. I sent the Deathjack, Mechanithralls, and the Skarlock around the woods to try to get behind his line while the rest of my army (thralls + Skarre) steadily advanced straight up the middle. Rob tried to block the flanking advance with Beast-09, and sent his Assault Kommandoes to the middle to slow me down.

My Pistol Wraiths took turns Death Chill-ing Beast-09, preventing it from being an offensive threat (and keeping Rob nervous about the Deathjack getting the jump on him). The Assault Kommandoes met the Bane Thralls and took a pretty hefty beating, while the Great Bears got the jump on my Bane Knights, and killed about half the unit... but then took a beating.

As I advanced on his caster, Rob finally managed to get Beast-09 into combat with the Deathjack, doing some damage. On my next turn, I threw Beast-09 into the Behemoth, knocking them both down, and really allowing my army to advance much closer.

About a turn later, I ran my Bane Knights close to Strakhov, then following with Skarre moving forward, Sac-Striking, then casting hellfire until Strakhov had died.

Casualties for Rob were pretty light, overall. Great Bears and some Kommandoes, but the rest of his army was relatively intact. I had lost a lot of infantry, but that wasn't too bothersome.

I'm still getting a feel for Cryx under MkII, but it definitely feels like everything I put down is a threat to my opponent, which is nice. And I get to put down a LOT of models, which is also nice.

Rob is learning what he's doing though, and is getting better (and even beat another friend of ours just a few days ago!), so we'll see how the next fight goes.

Next game will be my first MkII use of Goreshade... and Bane Lord Tartarus :)

Space Hulk games from May 1st

Oops, little behind on posting this. Played two games of Space Hulk vs Rob on Saturday, May 1st, at the Family Game Store.

We were determined to try some other missions, having only played Mission 1 (several times).

We started with Mission 2. I took the Space Marines, Rob took the Genestealers.

In this mission, the Space Marines get scattered across the board, and their objective is to kill all the Genestealers, or stop them from entering the map.

Going to use a Slideshow for this one, since my normal play-by-play will be a little too dull. All pictures are taken at the end of the Genestealer turn (for both playthroughs).



Did alright for a while, but when the top of the board fell, the Genestealers were able to rush done to the only guy I had left... my Assault Cannon Terminator. He killed valiantly, but when he ran out of ammo, he was down to using just his fists. 3 Genestealers left to go, he fell. Nearly a victory!

The second game, we ran Mission 3. Rob played the Space Marines (his first attempt).

In this mission, there are two Terminator Squads. The ones on the top of the board are to bring an object to the bottom of the board. The bottom squad is there to provide cover, support, and a clear path.



Rob ends up losing, as you see. The Terminators are tougher to use, but since they are far more rewarding to play, in my opinion.

Overall, two great games, and what a fantastic time! Hopefully we'll break this out again soon and get through the rest of the missions!

Trying out Malifaux soon!

Alright, so I have decided on my Malifaux faction: the Neverborn. They are the original inhabitants of Malifaux, and do a good job of causing all sorts of issues for the new human settlers.

I'm going to be starting with the Lilith's Brood box. I don't know much about the game yet, but I know those Nephilim can actually grow from the small ones to the larger ones during the game, increasing their abilities.

I'll post more as I know more (and get them assembled, painted, and played). Working through the rules as well, can't wait to give the game a try!

Week ending 5/7/10 news

Another poor week, gaming-wise (really really trying to rectify it). Won my first game of Advanced Squad Leader on Tuesday during playtesting (never mind that the scenario was probably a bit unbalanced in my favor :().

• c3i #24 up for pre-order, from GMT games. Plenty of good articles and scenarios included, as always.
• Birds of Prey: Airborne Alert and Birds of Prey: Reinforcement Pack A are shipping from Ad Astra Games. If I ever actually played my copy of Birds of Prey (or even finished reading the rules) maybe I'd get them.
• Multi-Man Publishing is having a sale on some products, including an ASL Action Pack bundle for a few days.

That's all for this week. Again, hopefully a wargame of some sort tomorrow, but I guess we'll have to see.