Wednesday 31 December 2014

Looking to the Future

It has come to that time of the year where everyone looks back at what they've done and promises that things will change within the next year. For some, this comes true. For others, it's just complete bollocks!

I thought that I would have a look at a few highlights of my year in geek and what I'm blatantly not going to be doing in 2015!

So my highlights...

- I've been involved in the Malifaux tournament scene; attending the GT - largest Malifaux tournament EVER... until the Yanks get hold of it at the next 'Con'.
- Won a wooden spoon (At a Malifaux tourney)... although I'm not sure it's a highlight but I did get a spoon out of it I can use for cooking!
- Played a wide variety of games systems which has enabled me to enjoy the hobby more; Malifaux, 40k, WFB, Relic Knights, MTG, Star Trek Attack Wing and even Batman!
- Taken a shit load of photos to share with the Twitter community!
- Demoed Malifaux games and have helped people get into the hobby.
- Run 40k and Malifaux tourneys down my LGS.

So some fantastic things to be proud of this year. I know there has also been a lot more going on outside of my own little gaming circle. Events such as WAAC have raised a substantial amount of money to help in the fight against Cancer, something I'm proud to say I've supported.

There is a load of people to say thank you to this year and it's hard to name all of them without going into an Oscar speech! What I will say is, everyone who has been a factor in the 2014 year of geekery... Thank You! Unless I didn't get on with you or you were a cock then fuck you, you're a cock!

So what of 2015? What does the future hold? Well, looking into my crystal ball I can surely tell you that a lot more money will go into plastic crack!
Quite simply, I'm after a few things:
- Be competitive in the Malifaux Tournament scene; this means not just taking a 'thematic' build or models which I think are good but actually play test and have a set number of masters (3 ideally) which I can use at any given time to compete at a tournament level.
- Have a batch of models painted! This will probably be on most people's list if they were brutally honest. I have many things to paint and I need to sort it and get going! I have tried not buying anything until I've painted what I've got... but I'm too weak! So... Need to pull my finger out!
- Read more fluff... I know, it's speculative!
- Build my Malifaux Dreamer Board! Need more dolls house scenery but don't worry... I'll get there!
- Play more games and find time to regularly play.

Only a few things really, so not much for 2015. I'm sure more will be added to the list as the year goes on but for now they are all very manageable and achievable targets.

I hope those who are reading this will have something in store for 2015. It promises to be a fantastic year and I'm really looking forward to it!

So, I'll see you soon!

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Christmas Festivities!

Well it's been an interesting Christmas period in terms of gaming! I've managed to pick up very little in the way of gaming and then 2 days of intense hobby come along at once! I've written this over two days so please don't think I'm doing some weird Back to the Future shit where I start writing about yesterday as if it was today and then today as if it was today... wait... no... that does make sense... Anyway... MARTY, WE'VE ONLY GOT TEN MINUTES TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE! *cough* Let's get on with it...

Today (Monday), I've managed to play my old uni mate Midders/Rich/@deathbyblowpipe who has recently picked up the hobby in the last year or so! He has started out with WFB (Warhammer Fantasy) and is collecting Lizardmen. This is only the second time I've played him, the first was a steamroller as my Bretonnians mauled his Lizards with well planned and co-ordinated attacks... and the fact he was a noob! #NoobStomper. This time, different story! If you've been reading the blog... or more likely, if I actually put it on the blog, I've just picked up Chaos Dwarfs and their delights! I had a small game with them a few weeks ago where I was fairly happy, this time was 3000 points and I used every single one of my models! To say I was stretched was an understatement! It was a good test to see what I could do whilst starting out and seeing what gaps needed to be plugged in order to have a successful CD army. Now besides the game the other week, it has been well over a year since I've played fantasy... I think the last time was against Rich so the rules were very rusty! I even got confused between systems! DAMN IT! Why are there so many awesome games to play! Anyway, we muddled through and had an excellent game!

I would like to point out that we are playing over Rich's house and yes... I have kept true to my love of Malifaux by including my Black Friday purchases in there as scenery! Go me!


So I took (roughly):

Sorcerer-Prophet w/Book of Ashur (Lvl 4)
Daemonsmith w/Dispel Scroll (Lvl 2)
Daemonsmith (Lvl 1)
Cellestan w/Battle Standard (Razor Standard)
30 Infernal Guard w/Great Weapons
20 Infernal Guard w/Blunderbuss
30 Infernal Swordsmen
3 K'daai Fireborn
2 Magma Cannons (Like the Dwarf Flamethrowers)
2 Deathshrieker Missile Launcher (Like a Mortar)

Rich took (from memory so don't fecking kill me if it's wrong)
Slaan (cock)
Saurus Old Blood
Saurus Old Blood w/Cold One
Saurus Old Blood w/Cold One
Saurus Old Blood w/Battle Standard (Razor I think)
2 Skink Priests
3 Kroxigors
16 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
5 Chameleon Skinks
30/40 Saurus Warriors
25/30 Temple Guard
10 Saurus Warriors
9 Cold One Riders
3 Shitty Flying Razor things... (Annoying as fuck!)

How did the game go?! I hear you ask... I don't want to talk about it! But there is no point in writing a blog post if I'm not going to talk about it... so here we go - a brief run down!

Encounter Type: The one where you roll of each unit to see which side of the board they start on. I have to be honest, I got REALLY lucky with my rolls, as if you roll a 6 - you choose where they go! Well... It just so happened that I rolled a few 6s!





We start off with my first and second turns and things went relatively successfully but cannons and launchers decimated his units of Sarus Warriors and Temple Guards. The templates are amazing against them! Particularly with their abilities! 
The Fireborn got shot off the table by shitty poison skinks... Not bitter!
What Rich did do is get Throne of Vines off from the Lore of Life which with 2 irresistible force rolls he dodged the miscast... TWICE... not bitter!
A Dweller's Below spell took away 15 of my 30 man great weapon unit leaving a flank exposed and then were chomped up by the Krox and Cold Ones!



Turns three and four saw units dwindle from my side, leaving turn 5 to have a unit of untouched Swordsmen and a Magma Cannon on 1 wound with the majority of his army still left! An interesting conundrum as we called the game with all his units bearing down on me!!!




For a game with a new army, I thought I did alright. There are obviously things that I would like to change but due to figure limitations I couldn't. I thought that the force was strong enough to go toe to toe with Rich's, I just didn't pick the right battles and pick the right match ups on the field! Rolling so many 6's for deployment I should have concentrated on one flank and made the rest of his army come towards me and try to enclose me. As it happened, I spread myself out too thin... obviously still too much Bretonnian thinking in me!

Really enjoyed it and hopefully we can catch up soon and get another game in!



Also today (Monday), I went to collect my Black Friday order from Wyrd. I would have collected it sooner but I made the grievous mistake of sending it to my work with the expectation that it would be shipped across before I finished for the holidays... I was wrong. Subsequently I went on a week's long vacation away from the city and couldn't collect it! So my minis have been gathering dust in a Royal Mail office for a week! Thankfully, I know have my parcel and I am ready to go! To be honest, I could remember the majority of my order but I found a nice surprise at the bottom which I had forgotten about!
My order consisted of:
Levi Crew
Hannah
Abomination Box
Jack Daw (metal)
Molly (metal)
Desolation Engine (Plastic)
and my nice surprise ... Hunter (metal)


As for the Unveristy box you can see... Well, I can take them with Levi... Thought I'd buy it!


Just what I needed! Lucky for me, I have arranged a mega day with Matt (@thetweetsofmatt) at Titan Games tomorrow...which is now today... how weird... In the offing is Malifaux, 40k and Relic Knights. The store itself is only open 6 hours so we have made the decision to drop Relic Knights because we've played it fairly recently and I still haven't built Betty and Lugg yet so we can play another time! Disappointing I know but I may be able to get a game in on Friday of it so all hope is not lost!

Well, Malifaux and 40k... Hmmm...

Oh yeah, why it's lucky I picked up my BF stuff... I want to start playing Levi! But after listening to Joel (@Joel_Henry) on Before We Begin podcast talk about Dreamer, it's really ignited by spark to play him too. There is a tournament in a few weeks at Titan (after the Masters side events) which I am going to so I'll put on cruise mode and play Dreamer there! In the meantime, I want to try Levi and get him working! So tonight I spent 2 1/2 hours building all these WONDERFUL models which were definitely not a pain in the ass to put together at all... any of them!!!


Really pleased to get them done, even if my back is killing me!


So tomorrow, a Levi crew which I would imagine features Levi, Alyce, Teddy, Metal Gamin and a Trapper as staple and things around it and then 40k! Matt has just got back in to 40k and therefore is building up a force. The lucky fuck has been given... GIVEN... a Blood Angel army for free as the previous owner hates the new codex so gave it all away! Meh!

I saw Matt today and told him that I would give the Tau a run out but I feel it's a slight injustice since he's playing a all out assault marine army (ish) so blowing him off the board in the first 10 minutes would be great fun for me as I powergame my way to victory but no fun for him as I soullessly crush his hobby into oblivion making him give away all his Blood Angels and never pick up 40k again. So, I'm going back to a list which I played a few months ago against Nathan (@NinjaNathUK) - Sisters with Marine Allies.

My list goes a little something like this (just a rough outline):
Cannoness
2 x 10 Sisters w/Condemner Boltgun and Simcrumlum
3 Exorcists
Tiggy
5 Scouts
3 Assault Centurions
3 Dev Centurions (Grav)
2 Land Raiders (Transport)

Simple list. Simple idea. Simple game.

Well... let's see what tomorrow brings...

***While I'm waiting for tomorrow, whilst down Titan today I was looking at Steve (@furryjamhats) Necron army which is ALL from Mantic's Mars Attacks! Really cool design and it's going to be a sweet list when it's all done! Which for Steve, shouldn't be long! Here are a few spoilers:






***

Well... the day of geekyness is finally here! Two Games, Two Systems, Two Players, Six Hours, One Store!

First up is a gentle game of 40k! Yesterday I told you what I would be playing and Matt has taken a simple BA list: (only a rough breakdown!) Libby w/jump pack (lvl 2), San Priest (jump pack), 2 x 10 Assault Marine Units, 10 San Guard, 2 x 10 Tact Squads in Rhinos, Furioso Dread, 2 Dreads with Assault Cannons and Missile Launchers, Dev Squad with 2 Plas Cannons and 2 other heavy weapons... I don't know cos they didn't last past turn 1!

We have rolled for Mission and we are playing Kill Points with Standard 'Dawn of War' deployment... if it is called that. The one which is 12" in along the long table edge.

Rolling for Traits; I got 2 which was fairly useful in the game we are going to embark on!

Well my list - 1850!

Matt's Psychic Powers:
So I rolled for Tiggy... and got these bad boys...

Deployment for me.
Deployment for Matt. On the top platform are a unit of devastators.
Matt has set up another rhino at the bottom of the picture and a dread behind the tower which has the other two dreads there.


End of Turn 1:
Highlights of Turn 1:
My army has killed a Dread and wiped a whole squad of Devs away.


Turn 2 and 3 Highlights:
- San Guard dropped near the Land Raider with Dev Cents and Tiggy in.
- Concentrated firepower reduces San Guard squad to 4 models.
- BA Warlord Dead
- Assault Cents and Land Raider destroy the final two dreadnoughts.
- Assault Squads deepstrike in and hit with their scatter, placing them right behind Sister's lines.
- 1 Exorcist has lost its missile launcher... bollocks!
- Both Assault Squads reduced to 4 marines each after fire.
- BA's kill 3 Sisters of Battle during shooting.
- San Guard assault the Dev Cents and take off 1 wound.
Turn 5, 6 and 7 highlights:
- Tiggy gets off Invisibility which means the San Guard are hitting on 6s.
- Dev Cents are held up for the rest of the game.
- BAs KILL a Centurion in combat!!! YES! A KILL!!!!!!!!!
- Assault Marines wipe out a unit of SoB.
- Assault Centurions wipe out a Tact Squad and two rhinos


The final score... 11 - 1 in my favour! A really enjoyable game and I had a lot of fun playing! Weather Matt did is a different story but it was a lot closer than the scoreline suggests. It was just a case of wiping units off the board which this list is very good at! We will definitely play again! Maybe next time I can finish Tau off and use them!

Now... MALIFAUX!

After that game it would be a much closer affair in this one! I talked to Matt last night and he said he had two lists which he could use. When it came to it, he chose his 'new' crew list which was a Viks build. Matt had never played Viks before, which was great because I had never played Levi so it really was a learning game!

So the pool is:
Strat:
Interference (Gaining Grounds 2015)

Schemes:
Line in the Sand
Distract
Assassinate
Bodyguard
Deliver a Message

Deployment:
Standard

All the cool kids are taking the GG15 Strats and I though; 'I want to be like one of them!'. So I bought myself a T-Bird's Jacket and got the Gaining Grounds Strats off the net and we are away!
For those uncool kids who haven't been keeping up with the latest fashion from the States the new GG strats are a variant on the old strats but add something a little different to the game!

Today we are trying Interference and the wording of the strat goes like this:
Divide the table into 18" x 18" quarters

At the end of each turn after the first, a crew earns 1 vp if it controls two or more table quarters. 
To control a table quarter, the crew must have the most unengaged non-peon models with the table quarter. These models cannot be with 6" of the centre of the table , or partially within another table quarter.

A really interesting variant on the old and something I'm really looking forward to playing in the New Year when the Malifaux Tournament Scene kicks off again!

Looking at this scheme pool, it doesn't really suit what I want to play in terms of Levi which has been my problem in 2014 that I want to play a certain master and I have to make the Strat/Scheme fit him instead of the other way round! Well, by using Levi I can see what he is capable of. I've selected a crew using the models that I built yesterday (ToMBesque really) to see what can be done with them. I know that want to summon many many A-bombs so I've brought in Hannah!

The crews? Here they are:

GPG (GeekPhotoGuy... incase you were wondering)


Faction: Outcasts

Master: Leviticus
--From Ash
--Pariah of Iron

Crew:
Rusty Alyce
--From the Aether
--Oathkeeper
Hollow Waif
Hollow Waif
Abomination
Abomination
Abomination
Soulstone Miner
Freikorps Trapper
Hannah

Schemes:
Bodyguard on Hannah... Great choice... :-/

Matt (@thetweetsofmatt)


Faction: Outcasts


Master: Vik of Ashes

Crew:
Vik of Blood
Trapper
Ronin
Taelor
Johanna
Malifaux Child

Schemes: Bodyguard (Johanna) and Distract

An interesting crew build with a clear goal in mind! I think it would foolish to try Assassinate and even Matt isn't that stupid to try it on Levi... Oh wait... he didn't read the card!

So this is how it went down...
So Hannah was the wrong choice as I really didn't read the card and got the 'Shiny Model Syndrome' so I had to include her cos she's so super-happy-awesome... In a Levi crew doesn't really work. Well, not in the build I had. Effectively I was 10 SS down and 3 victory points due to putting fecking bodyguard on her! Against a Vik's crew... shit!

In the first 3 turns, not much happened to be perfectly honest. I thought that I should take Assassinate because of the low wound count on Ashes. I have been told by a few podcasters (PANZER!) that Levi can just delete people off the board. As it happens, I got a bit lucky... Levi just like a boss walked up to Vik of Ashes (if I've got these mixed up I'm sorry) and managed to gain the trigger which enables him to discard cards and gain + flips. I got rid of 3 and was on +3 flips...

Well shit... Annnnd... Delete!
To say I was under the kosh is a bit of an understatement! The child and Vik of Blood went in to Alyce leaving her on 1 wound. Vik of Blood went back in to Rusty on the next turn but a soulstone prevent stopped all damage getting through. This left Alyce to smash back... she managed to severe damage Vik of Blood and Moderate dam the Child! Phew!

At the start of the game my hand included a black joker which I held until the discard phase of turn 5. Matt drew the BJ on the third turn. Instead of the secrecy to do with holding cards... We just played them face up and went down to business!

Beginning of Turn 4:

Beginning of Turn 5... Levi lies in wait!

So the game ended at the end of 5. The score? 7 - 5 in my favour! Assassinate did the job!

Game Highlights:
- Levi Red Jokers damage on Ashes
- Levi severes on Taelor after the Trapper has stripped 4 wounds off
- Alyce severes on Blood
- Hannah (Levi's Hannah) gets hit off the board by Ashes and a Trapper - Bodyguard Lost
- Johanna stays in a corner and ONLY JUST gets out of her 8" away from her deployment to score all 3 VPs
-  Hannah (Vik's Hannah) steals Levi's shooting Cast action and shoots Levi in the face... but misses!

A brilliant two days worth of gaming just in time for the New Year! It really does promise to be a fantastic year! Looking forward to it already!

Thanks for reading, have a great New Year!

I'll see you soon!