Awesome time at Warstore Weekend

So Jay, Mike, and I made the trip up to Warstore weekend for some gaming as well as a chance to get away for a bit. Its the first time the three of us have done a gamer thing in a long time. It was pretty awesome.

Saturday I wake up at 4:15am and get ready. I get a text from mike around 4:20 that Jay is picking him up. At this point it takes me 5 more minutes but them in all ready to roll out. I get another at 4:30 saying they are stopping ot get get drinks for the road. All in all I could have slept another half hour, but oh well who cares, they arrive right aroung 5 and we hit the road. Traffic was a breeze we actually got the Hotel before 9am. Which is great since we thought it would be like 5 hours, but it was less then 4.

I don't want to knock on Jersey too much here, but I gotta say, the whole it smells like butt in Jersey thing is totally true, we got out of the car and BAM, ass stink!

Check in isn't for a few hours so we roll into the hotel empty handed ready to demo some games. So the whole thing was laid out in 4 big ballrooms in the Hotel. Room 1 was paint and take, room 2 was mini games, room 3 was the shop, and then there was a room about twice the size of the others where they held what looked like the flames of war, 40k, and PP tournaments. When we arrived, the warstore store hadn't opened yet so we went to each room and scoped them out. In the largest room there was a demo of Heavy Gear.



So we all took about an hour and learned the game. here are the basics, you have a couple minis, roll some dice, use way way way way too much math, and see what happens. Then we demoed their gladiator style combat game, wbich used the same system, but added even more math. So we were looking over the minis and the guy who ran the demo let it slip that our little 5v5 game was two $45 box sets. These models are all metal, but they are about the size of a space marine. So thats $9 piece for small mechs. They did give us free tape measurers so it wasn't a total loss. Also they gave us there little raffel tickets, which I kinda rolled my eyes at, since I basiclly didn't want their stuff even if was free. But what I found out was way better. You could trade the tickets in to Warstore for Swag. That made me a happy Panda.



The demo ended and we strolled over to the warstore store. Hoping to find some cool stuff. The selection was very limited, and I wasn't able to find any heavy crusiers or gunships for my Firestorm fleet. What was awesome was that if you got 40 tickets you could get a free box set from any of Spartans lines. So I set my eyes on the Ralgard Uncharted Seas box set. As we left the store Mike and I realized we had lost Jay. but its not usually hard to find a wookie, and we found him looking for us. The malifaux tournament was trying to get under way, but only 2 people had shown up. So we grabbed our models and joined in.



It was a pretty fun time. I decided to take Kirai all 3 games, since I didn't want to bother thinking of list ideas. I got to play 2 random guys, and then met mike at the final table. My first game was going very well for me, but my opponent was a really slow player. Time ran out as I was in the middle of my 6th turn. It annoyed me because I had only activated 1 model. Had I gotten a full turn, then and 8 point game would have been likely. Instead I got 5. My second game I slaughtered my opponent. He was new, and I tried to hold back, but I just ended up crushing him.

For the last game I ended up facing Mike, and we were pretty tired and didn't want a hyper competative game so we both decided to try something new. I made his list and he made mine. I gave him a swamp theme list: Zorida, JuJu, 2 Slurids, 2 Waldegeitst, and a Terror Tot. He gave me Nicodem, Kill Joy, 2 vultures, a punk zombie, and some dogs. High lights went like this. Zorida obeys punk zombie to hit Nico, he cheats red jocker for damge, and adds a moderatore for 9 damage, I prevention flip and get the red joker stopping all damage. Next turn Kill Joy kills Nicodem off another Obey. The Hanged killed off both slurids and the terror tot. Kill Joy took out a Waldegiest and JuJu. We were playing get to the other side of the board as our onbjective, and ended up with Zorida, a Waldegiest, and JuJu (he came back) in my deployment zone and Killjoy and a hanged in his. He won on scenario and got an extra scheme on me so he won 8-4. Tournament shook out like this - Mike won with 22 points. Some guy who I didn;t play took 21, Jay had 20, and I had 17. So grats to Mike on a big time win. We each got 5 tickets for playing, and Mike got 5 bonus tickets for winning, Jay got 1 bonus for 3rd place. Mike also recieved a pretty sweet metal mini case, with room to hold 200 infantry figs.

After the game, we checked in, dropped out stuff off and grabbed dinner. I just want to say that people in New Jersey are crazy drivers. The food was good though, I got a pot roast.

We got back to the Hotel, grabbed our gear and went back to the minis room for the Firestorm Armada mega battle.



We were hoping for a nice turnout, but it ended up being just the three of us. Around turn 4 another guy jumped in with half a fleet, but he was really just trying to learn the game. So they scored the battle on kill points. 1 for a frigate, 2 for a cruiser, 4 for a battleship, and 4 for holding a planet. We each had 2 deployment zones and set up half our fleet in each. I then proceeded to Whomp their asses. Not really, but I did really well. I can't really remember any of it, since we played for like 4-5 hours, but damn was it a blast. I ended up with a strong victory with 38 points. Jay took 25 and Mike took 21. I really do love that game. I got a $30 gift certificate to an NJ game store for the win. I was preplexed by the prize, but we also got a ton of tickets. 5 for playing, and again 5 for first, 3 for second and 1 for third.

As this ended around midnight, we decided to call it a day. We made it back to the room and then i found I couldn't sleep. I was still a bit wired, and then there some snoring issues, but either way I was still awake. So I stumbled back down to watch some games. I caught the end of a midnight madness Warmachine tournament. The top tables spoke volumes about the games balance issues. 2 skorne, 2 Khador, and 2 Menother players made up the top three tables. The tournament before also had a Skorne Khador finale. But it was a fun time. I chatted with random guys about Wyrd and Privateer, and eventually went upstairs around 4-4:30 I had been up for 24 hours by that point and passed out.



We woke up and got breakfast the next morning and decided our next test game would be, Uncharted Seas. The night before we pooled our tickets and they said it was Ok for me to get the Ralgard box set. We set up our ships I was using the Bone Griffons. About 5 minutes into the first turn the shop opened up, So I ran over and grabbed the Ralgard. I then found out they had reduced the tickets needed to get the box sets to 30. So I gave the 10 spares back to mike, so that he could get a set too. I subbed out the Griffons for the Ralgard and we played a 4 player free for all. I was winning early, then got hammered. the 4th guy was eliminted when Jay blew away his battle ship. As the game wore down it looked like this. Jay had his battleship. I had 2 cruisers, one of which had only 1 life left. Mike and a wounded Frigate and his battle ship. So Mike rammed Jay battleship to battleship, and they beat the crap out of each other. Jay ended up taking mike down, but in the process took a heavy beating leaving with only crew point. I tried to get my last cruiser close enough to board Jay and take out his last guy, But I was killed trying to close the gap. So jay took 1st, me 2nd, and Mike 3rd. With that we got another like 20 tickets and Mike got himself a box set of the Imperial Navy for U.S.

We hung around a bit longer after the game in the Shop. Mike and Jay grabbed some really sweet terrain pieces, and I got a Soda Pop mini. I have wanted to get this one for a while, so even if I never play the game im glad I bought her model.



After that we went to the game store the cash in my certificate. I ended up getting the U.S rule book, since they didn't have any FSA stuff I needed.

It was a really great trip all in all. Im very glad we all decided to it. I look forward to maybe going again in 2012.

Warstore Weekend

Its been way too long since Jay Mike and i went on a gaming adventure. So about a month and half ago I started looking for a local tournament we could all attend. and the Warstore weekend popped up. I was intrigued, but thought it was more of a pipe dream. So I floated out the idea, expecting to be shot down. Instead they both jumped on it. Then with the ball back in my court I faltered, after some serious pushing by them to get me to take the idea seriously, we decided to sack up and hit the road dark and early this weekend to make the trek to New Jersey for the Warstore Weekend



Right now I know for a fact that my Sorylain Fleet and Malifaux Crews will be joining me on the trip. Im pondering the idea of bringing the Chaos or the Ogres as well, but they might get left on the bench. There is a 500 point 8 man free for all saturday night, and I have a few basass cruisers that want to wreck some face. Im on the fence about the malifaux tournament. Its 35 soul stones, 1 master. I would likely take Kirai for this event and i think I could do well. My hang up is that I want to maximize my gaming time, and Im not sure if I want to play random pick up games and demos or a structured tournament. So I'll have to ponder that one a little more as we get closer to the day.

But either way I'm psyched up and ready for a kick ass weekend and some serious gaming hours. I doubt I will sleep much saturday. Probably suppliment sleep with Redbull and Pizza. or maybe something less cliche.

Malifaux Battle Report

This is a 2fer as I played a pair of games last night against John, one the chantilly guys who has made the migration out to Huzzah. I played Perdita in both games, taking Fransico, Santiago, Nino, and an Austringer for my 25 point list.



Game 1 vs Ressers.
He took McMourning, 4 Dogs, 3 Necro Punks, A Flesh Golem, and the Grave Spirit. We ended up with a shared Deliver the message as our strategy. This is actually my first Shared objective game. I chose Kill Protege and Assassinate. Figuring killing his models would be my best bet in this game. I ended up falling victim to the strategy. he hauled foward and lived through as much as he could and ended up delivering the message on turn 2. I proceeded to pick him apart pretty badly, but He ran McMourning the heck away from me, and killed his grudge model when the construct got into Nino and dropped him. I was in bad shape based on the objectives so i was force to over-extend Fransico and Perdita in a last ditch effort to catch up on VP's. It wasn't enough as McMourning hid until he had a clear shot, then ran in and burned severl stones and killed Perdita. It was a rough game, but thankfully short, so we decided to go again.



Game 2 vs Arcanists.
This time I faced Collette, who added in 2 corphyee, and Cassandra. Its the only list I've faced with Collette, so I was slightly familiar with it. We got seperate strategies but both flipped Claim Jump, so it was essentially a shared mission again. He took the 2 arcanist specific schemes, I took Body Guard and Raid. He started fast having The Corphyee duet up and ran down my left flank. By turn 2 he had completed both schemes. I was reeling a bit for his speed, but kept my head. the Duet ran in and killed Nino with a red joker flip for damage. I spent my entire turn killing the stupid thing. and he burned several stones to try and keep it alive. Finally Perdita went and put a stop to all that nonsense. The next turn I did the same to Cassandra, but the soul stone spending kept her alive. He was low on stones from keeping cassandra and the duet up longer and I was closing in on Collette. My next turn I threw all 3 family members up and they went to work on Collette. He used his last stones but she managed to live. He then magicians dueled Perdita and hit her a little bit. Things were going well for me at this point. My Austriner was sitting on the claim jump. Cassandra and Collete were pinned to the right board edge with Santiago haning back to shoot and Collete in melee with Fransico and Perdita. I lost init 6-2, but spent my last soul stone for a re-flip, getting an 11. I went for the alpha strike on Collette who managed to stay alive a lot longer then I anticipated. She finally had no choice but to pop out of the combat, killing Cassandra in the process. But the Ortegas did not let up as Perdita and Santiago kept shooting her until she finally died. It was a very good win for Perdita, and she is now 2-1 (both wins vs Collette).

Board Game Review part 2

For part 2 I have chosen Dominion. This is a pretty interesting game and one I knew nothing about prior to testing it at Gen Con. Its not new, there are like 4 expansions to the original game at this point, its just that its made by Rio Grande and almost every one of their games is a resource management game that either confuses or bores me to tears. Dominion is quite an exception to Rio's normal M.O. Sure you still have to manage resources, but thats not the focal point of the game. The game is focused on deck building. The box set comes with around 500 cards, divided into treasure, victory points, and action cards. So a break down of the game.

There are i believe 24 different action cards. You start the game by picking 10 of them. You can do a random draw or a theme game from the list in the rule book. Place the 10 chosen action cards in the middle of the table, usually in order by cost. Then at the top place the stacks of Copper, Silver, Gold, then the Estates, Duchy's, and Provinces. Each player begins the game with a 10 card deck. Those 10 cards are 7 copper and 3 estates. The Estates provide your with 1 victory point each, but they have no in game effect, so drawing them during the game is a hindrance. Copper each give you 1 point of money, (we usually say gold, but it can be confusing since there is a card named gold.)

Each player then draws 5 cards from his deck and play begins. On your turn you look through your hand, you are allowed to play 1 action and buy 1 card. As you progress through the game you will buy action cards that can give you bonus actions each turn, additional buys, the ability to draw more cards from your deck, or even bonus money. Once you have played every card you are able and purchased a new card, you then discard every card remaining in your hand. Draw 5 new cards and your turn is over. Play continues in this manner until one of the two end conditions are met. Either 3 of the action decks have been bought up or all of the Provinces are bought out. Provinces are the highest victorys point card so people tend to buy them whenever they are able, it has been the most common ending condition for us. Once the game is over you go through your deck, pull out all your victory cards and count them up to see who is the winner.

The game plays very quickly, and we have found it to be a fast favorite among our group. The only issue has been getting the game sleeved, to protect the cards from wear and tear. Dominion is definetly one of my favorite games, we have picked up one expansion. Its called intrigue, and it comes with more treasure and victory cards to allow the game to be played by up to 6 players.



I Have played this game a good 10 times since Gen Con and I am still itching to play it more, so my rating is going to be a very solid A.

Board Game reviews

Since Gen Con Ellen and I have been on a board game kick. Before we left between the two of us we owned 2-3 board games. Mostly cheap card games such as Bang and Apples to Apples. We do enjoy playing thse games, but have never really gone out and increased our collection. This changed a lot with Gen Con. Since then between the two of us we have purchased 5 new board games. And I really enjoy every single one of them. So I will be reviewing them as I feel like it over the next week or two.

So Game #1 will be Chaos in the Old World.
Its a 4 player game, and not a very quick one, so it can be tough to get the right number of people to play. The game allows each player to take control of one of the Warhammer Chaos Gods and attempt to destroy the old world through corruption and battle. There are two ways to win. Every time you destroy a city you gain victory points. If your point total reaches 50 at the end of a turn you win. If mulitple people reach 50 at once, the person with more points wins. The Second way to win is the corruption dial. There is a different condition for each god to be allowed to turn their dial. Each turn gives you a bonus, and the last space on the Dial says you win. The Dial trumps the points as a win condition. Each god is incredibly unique and play vey differently. There are 3 unit types for each faction, Warriors who do the fighting, Greater Daemons, who do the fighting better, and Cultists, who you use to destroy the cities and corrupt the humans.

Khorne - The god of blood and battle. Khorne has the fewest cultists, making it hard for him to corrupt cities. His easiest win condition is to get his dial clicks. Khorne is allowed to turn his dial once each turn if he kills an enemy model. This is a very easy thing to do so Khorne is usually able to get his Dial turns very quickly.

Nurlge is the god of pestilance and plague. He has the most models, but his warriors are weaker then the others. Nurgle has the most clicks on his dial so he generally tries to win by corrupting locations and getting victory points.

Tzeentch is the god of magic and change. He is able to switch back and forth between the two roles and play the board as it develops. Tzeentch gains dial advancement by corrupting locations with heavy magic. Magic occurs when Tzeentch plays magic power cards or when there are Warpstone Mines.

Slannesh is the god of pleasure and pain. He is like Tzeentch in that he can play either the dial or the points. His dial is the shortest so it a strong way for him to win. Slannesh enjoys corrupting the powerful people of the world so when he corrupts cities with powerful heroes or nobles he gets to advance his dial.

So thats the general break down of the gods. Its a pretty fast paced game and its a lot fun. In the half dozen games I have played I have found that there is a good balance among the gods. I say this despite the fact that Nurgle has never won a game. I still think Nurgle is no more or less powerful then the other 3. It is a very fun game, and even people who know nothing of the world have enjoyed playing this game. In fact most of the people i have played with know nothing of the Chaos gods or the warhammer world and they still seem to enjoy it. The biggest knock on the game is the limited number of players. I understand that there are only 4 chaos gods and that is why there are only 4 players allowed, but I really wish that more then 4 people could play at once, were that the case the game would come of the closet more often.

I will give Warhammer: Chaos in the old World a B grade. The game is fun and the replay value is decent. It suffers from its small play size which is a shame as the game really is great.

Game Report Ogre Kingdoms v High Elves

I played my first 2k game of 8th ed fantasy yesterady, and what I think is my 3rd overal game of the new edition. I like the new edition and it has helped turn the Ogres from the laughing stock of fantasy to a decent list with some nice options.

My basic list looked like this
Tyrant, Butcher, BSB, 2 units of 5 Bulls (plus hero for 6 man units) 2 units of 2 ledbelchers, 3 Ironguts (plus BSB), 3 Man eaters, and A Rhinox Rider.

My opponent took 20 seaguard with a bsb, 15 phoenix guard with a level 4 mage, 15 sword masters with a named hero, 20 bowmen, and 2 bolt throwers.

His magic was pretty strong, but I was able to handle it with the butcher. He ended up moving his Phoenix guard into a building and I shruged and ignored them the whole game. He set up his sword masters and I olbiged him with a huge charge. I sent in both bull units, with a butcher and tyrant, as well as my Rhinox Rider. His attacks were pretty brutal, but mine were far worse. he was left with only his named Hero and Standard. They fled and I ran them down. On the other side My Ironguts got pincushioned by the bolt throwers and archers, but the BSB made it into melee. He spent basically the whole game slaughtering first the archers, then the bolt thrower crews. The Seaguard were the biggest pain. They shot down the maneaters, killed off the Butcher and his unit until Finally the Tyrant came in and set them straight. The game ended then, he had his Phoenix Guard alive and nothing else. I had my BSB, My Tyrant, My Tyrant's unit had only lost 1 bull, and 2 leadbelchers. The Tyrants had also catpured 3 banners. So it was a nice win for the Ogres. I was shocked by his hiding the phoenix guard the way he did, I was very nervous about them, but was able to ignore them.

All in all I had a ton of fun, the guy was very nice, he helped me with the rules, and really helped give me an even fun game to play with the ogres.

Game Report, Seamus vs Leviticus

Got in a game last night vs Leviticus. Its my second time facing him and this time I saw a very different type of list opposing me. It had 3 models to start the game. Levi, Alyce, and Kill Joy (Who even starts off the board.) I used Seamus with 2 neco-punks, 2 punk zombies, and 2 Belles. He had 7 stones I had 2. I got break through for my strategy and took army of the dead and Grudge (Alyce) for schemes. I can't remember what he got or called.



Turn 1 we both start moving up. He sacs leviticus to pop out kill joy. I start spreading my guys out becuase I don't want him engaging multiple targets. Turn 2 he wins init and Kill Joy goes hauling into a Belle and wipes her out.



I responded with the Copy-Cat and Seamus popping the big guy with a pair of .50 cal pistols and a couple spell shots. Kill-Joy died and I sighed a nice bit of relief. leviticus and Alyce moved in a bit and I started trying to wear them down. Alyce got taken out by a Necro-Punk and newly summoned Belle. Levi went to work pretty hard core turning a lot of my stuff into Abominations. I was killing them off as soon as he summoned them, but I was using my activations to kill off models that used to be mine. I was quite a pain. But each turn I would kill a few things and push my crew up a bit. Seamus was in the thick of it every time and was drawing a lot of cards. It helped me get a 3rd belle out too. Finally one turn looked like I might get the chance to kill his Waif and Levi. A belle walked up to levi and whacked him with her parasol dealing 2 damage. his wasting ability would ensure he dies. Seamus then hauled it 8 inches as close to the waif as I could get him. I was 8.5 inches away, just out of range to shoot her down.



So levi popped back up and tried to cut seamus' life in half. I had soul stones so I stopped those and he called it there. He was in a bad way at that point my 3 bellles and last Punk Zombie were getting closer and he was getting cornered. All in all I would say it was a damn good game for Seamus.