Hi all, well, for those who have been following my blog from the start you'll remember that I started with a history of my gaming. This post included a mention of our son Tom who is a key member of West Cornwall Games Club as he really was the reason behind it.
Right, well I got into rather deep water over that, and having thought about my actions in a clear and precise manner I can now officially apologise to Daisy our daughter for missing her out of that post. Daisy is the best daughter in the world, as she is a hard working, kind, affectionate young lady. she is always willing to listen to her friends problems and give sound advise. She is a credit to herself and her family. She is a very talented artist and photographer, and I often get her to take pictures of my models.
Daisy is also a member of WCGC, and often comes along to play Gemma's complex board games or join in with psychiatrist or mafia. When she has a spare moment she often makes tea for the busy men playing with their toy soldiers.
I am sure that my gaming life would be a lot harder without such a great kid.
Love you darling
Neil
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Finished a bit of painting
Hi all, I thought I'd share with you my latest completed model. This time it's for Aeronautica Imperialis from forgeworld. I am currently painting up a Tau fleet for this fast paced game. We have a couple more guys at West Cornwall Games Club who are putting together Imperial and Ork's.
Hope you enjoy?
Hope you enjoy?
Saturday, 13 November 2010
I ran a Warmachine intro game this week
Hi all, well as you may of gathered I play Cyrx for warmachine. I ran an introduction game for a couple of new club members this week at West Cornwall Games Club and they both thoroughly enjoyed the system. We played 15 points per side and a it was Cryx versus Khador.
After running through the basics of play we kicked off with Cyrx first turn, nothing much happened other than to advance. Skarlock used his ability to cast one of Skarre's spells and successfully killed of one of the necrosurgeon's stitch thralls for extra focus next turn. The Khador also advanced in there first turn and the widowmakers took up a good position in woods to the side of the main advance. The 2 heavy Khador jacks shielded warcaster Sorcha from sight really well.
Round two found Skarre rolling up an additional 1 focus and placing that immediately on one of her deathrippers on the left flank, she put another focus onto the other Deathripper on the right flank. The right Deathripper ran up onto a hill, which gave it LOS to the Khador jacks. The other ripper also ran forward. Six Mechanithralls ran forwards and got into position to take on the Khador jacks when they advanced next. The unit of bane thralls came around from the right to make headway against the Khador jacks advance and possibly take on the widowmakers. Skarlock used the same spell to kill of another stitch thrall. The Skarre moved up and using the arcnode in the right hand ripper she put backlash onto the khador juggernaut.
In the Khador turn the Destroyer unleashed its bombard onto the Mechanithralls removing 2 of them. Meanwhile the Juggernaut charged the right hand ripper on the hill and did what Khador jacks do best. The widow makers walked up to the edge of the woods and opened fire on the Bane's on the right, to which one fell.
Round three saw Skarre rolling an additional 2 focus, then upkeeping the backlash on the Juggernaut before moving forward. Then she cast dark guidance. The Mechanithralls charged the rear of the Juggernaut on the hill to her right, and with the aid of dark guidance they steam fisted their way through the thick armour of the jack, crippling both arms and damaging its movement. The bane's also charged the Juggernaut and quickly reduced it to rubble with the aid of dark guidance. So with one dead jack a piece the action was heating up. Skarlock moved up and killed off the last stitch thrall for more focus next turn.
The Khador turn found the destroyer bombarding the Bane's on the hill with good effect and 3 fell. The the widow makers cleaned up one more with their hunting rifles. The tide of war had swung in favour of the Khador. Sorcha then stepped out of her cover behind the Destroyer, before popping her feat and freezing pretty much all of the Cryx.
Round four was a short round for the Cryx as most of them were frozen by Sorcha's Icy gaze. All that the Cryx could do was generate focus, so on top of Skarre's normal six she rolled another six due to ritual sacrifice. That meant that Skarre had an armour value of 27 for this round.......Phew! Skarlock was outside of Sorcha's icy gaze so was able to kill off the necrosurgeon for another round of extra focus.
The Khador turn found the destroyer bombarding Skarre and Skarlock, killing Skarlock in the process. Then one of the widow makers cleaned up the last Banethrall with his hunting rifle, then the remaining three widow makers fired at the mechanithralls, which finished them off. It was not looking good for the Cryx. Sorcha nicely moved back into cover behind the Destroyer.
In round 5 Skarre rolled up an extra 3 focus and cast dark guidance, popped her feat, and then charged the Destroyer. Using her great rack she knocked the destroyer over and having boosted the damage roll she caused some damage. Skarre then used her primary weapon to cause even more boosted damage, destroying the right arm of the jack in the process, another boosted attack with her sacrificial dagger hurt the jack even more.
All that the Khador could do was shake the Destroyer and attempt to hit Skarre, but with both arm systems crippled it was never going to be easy, suffice to say that failed. The Sorcha walked around into melee with Skarre, but was unable to inflict more than 3 damage due to Skarre's feat still helping her out with +5 armour.
In the Final round of the game, Skarre used great rack to knock Sorcha over and do 3 damage, then she cleaved her with takkaryx ending the game.
What a great introduction it was, and more importantly, we're now getting two more players at the club.
Lucky dice
Neil
After running through the basics of play we kicked off with Cyrx first turn, nothing much happened other than to advance. Skarlock used his ability to cast one of Skarre's spells and successfully killed of one of the necrosurgeon's stitch thralls for extra focus next turn. The Khador also advanced in there first turn and the widowmakers took up a good position in woods to the side of the main advance. The 2 heavy Khador jacks shielded warcaster Sorcha from sight really well.
Round two found Skarre rolling up an additional 1 focus and placing that immediately on one of her deathrippers on the left flank, she put another focus onto the other Deathripper on the right flank. The right Deathripper ran up onto a hill, which gave it LOS to the Khador jacks. The other ripper also ran forward. Six Mechanithralls ran forwards and got into position to take on the Khador jacks when they advanced next. The unit of bane thralls came around from the right to make headway against the Khador jacks advance and possibly take on the widowmakers. Skarlock used the same spell to kill of another stitch thrall. The Skarre moved up and using the arcnode in the right hand ripper she put backlash onto the khador juggernaut.
In the Khador turn the Destroyer unleashed its bombard onto the Mechanithralls removing 2 of them. Meanwhile the Juggernaut charged the right hand ripper on the hill and did what Khador jacks do best. The widow makers walked up to the edge of the woods and opened fire on the Bane's on the right, to which one fell.
Round three saw Skarre rolling an additional 2 focus, then upkeeping the backlash on the Juggernaut before moving forward. Then she cast dark guidance. The Mechanithralls charged the rear of the Juggernaut on the hill to her right, and with the aid of dark guidance they steam fisted their way through the thick armour of the jack, crippling both arms and damaging its movement. The bane's also charged the Juggernaut and quickly reduced it to rubble with the aid of dark guidance. So with one dead jack a piece the action was heating up. Skarlock moved up and killed off the last stitch thrall for more focus next turn.
The Khador turn found the destroyer bombarding the Bane's on the hill with good effect and 3 fell. The the widow makers cleaned up one more with their hunting rifles. The tide of war had swung in favour of the Khador. Sorcha then stepped out of her cover behind the Destroyer, before popping her feat and freezing pretty much all of the Cryx.
Round four was a short round for the Cryx as most of them were frozen by Sorcha's Icy gaze. All that the Cryx could do was generate focus, so on top of Skarre's normal six she rolled another six due to ritual sacrifice. That meant that Skarre had an armour value of 27 for this round.......Phew! Skarlock was outside of Sorcha's icy gaze so was able to kill off the necrosurgeon for another round of extra focus.
The Khador turn found the destroyer bombarding Skarre and Skarlock, killing Skarlock in the process. Then one of the widow makers cleaned up the last Banethrall with his hunting rifle, then the remaining three widow makers fired at the mechanithralls, which finished them off. It was not looking good for the Cryx. Sorcha nicely moved back into cover behind the Destroyer.
In round 5 Skarre rolled up an extra 3 focus and cast dark guidance, popped her feat, and then charged the Destroyer. Using her great rack she knocked the destroyer over and having boosted the damage roll she caused some damage. Skarre then used her primary weapon to cause even more boosted damage, destroying the right arm of the jack in the process, another boosted attack with her sacrificial dagger hurt the jack even more.
All that the Khador could do was shake the Destroyer and attempt to hit Skarre, but with both arm systems crippled it was never going to be easy, suffice to say that failed. The Sorcha walked around into melee with Skarre, but was unable to inflict more than 3 damage due to Skarre's feat still helping her out with +5 armour.
In the Final round of the game, Skarre used great rack to knock Sorcha over and do 3 damage, then she cleaved her with takkaryx ending the game.
What a great introduction it was, and more importantly, we're now getting two more players at the club.
Lucky dice
Neil
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
More painting tonight!
Hi all, well tonight has found me once again at the painting desk slaving over some Warmachine. I have 90% finished a unit of 6 Mechanithralls for my Cryx army.
Once they're finished tommorow(ish) I will post up a picture of them, but in the meantime I will post some pictures of some completed Cryx figures. This is for my benefit as well as yours, as it gives me strength to carry on!
Why do us gamers continue to buy figures when we already have loads of stuff to make and paint?
Lucky dice
Most of my battlegroup so far.
Converted pirate queen Skarre.
Skarlock Thrall
Converted Stitch(p**s) thralls.
Cheeky chap.
Ripper Bone jack.
Bane knight.
Once they're finished tommorow(ish) I will post up a picture of them, but in the meantime I will post some pictures of some completed Cryx figures. This is for my benefit as well as yours, as it gives me strength to carry on!
Why do us gamers continue to buy figures when we already have loads of stuff to make and paint?
Lucky dice
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Here's some content - My gaming history!
I have been sitting here all afternoon at home,watching the pouring rain lash against the window. During that time I have come to think about the vast array of gaming systems I either own or have played. This wealth of gaming experience has been gleaned from many years playing, writing and collecting.
I started gaming at the age of 10 when I was introduced by a school friend to Dungeons and Dragons; we played through many great adventures. I found D&D a fun system to play, and within its loose framework of rules we designed many good stories and characters. A few years later we moved onto the much more tightly ruled AD&D, which also proved fun. We began using figures to represent our characters in both D&D and AD&D and this in turn led to a need for a game system that used figures.
Our prayers were answered with the launch of Adeptus Titanicus by Games Workshop. This system revolved around battles between rival titans. I remember reading the rules so quickly that my first games really didn't do the rules any justice whatsoever. After the initial rush had subsided, I read the rules and got some good games in. The next logical step was to follow up with the purchase of Space Marines which, when combined with Adeptus Titanicus, formed the basis of the now ever popular Epic Armageddon. The Epic scale models really gave a depth to the game, with huge battles being played out on friends' relatively small dining tables.
After a while, I craved more complexity and deeper rules so I went in search of a new game to play. This came in the form of FASA's Battletech. This system was to be my staple right through until the mid 1990's. Battletech was a similar scale to Epic, but the complexity of the rules allowed a lot of different games. I wrote many scenarios for my group of gaming buddies.
At this time I attended a club in Luton, Bedfordshire and it was here that I found a very complex rule set in the shape of Challenger 2000 Ultra Modern Combat, by Bruce Ree Taylor & Bob Conner. I still have this game today and still love it. I have to admit though that I very rarely play it, due to a lack of willing opponents. One very memorable campaign found us re-enacting the first Gulf War. I also started playing Warhammer 40k whilst at the Luton club.
Shortly after I moved home and started to go along Finchley Games Club in north London. This was a great club which was not only well supported by its membership, but which was also looked after by the local store, Leisure Games, which was owned by the president of the club. It was at Finchley that I first discovered Call of Cthulhu as a tabletop role playing game, and wow, I was blown away. I started as a player but soon wrote my first story, the tale of Arthur Didcot. A few of us started to explore the possibility of running Cthulhu as a Live Action Roleplay (LARP). Our endeavours however were quickly halted by the release of the Cthulhu Live rules by Chaosium in 1997. Having quickly got hold of a copy of the first edition rules we successfully ran several events over the next 4 year period. I became more and more involved in larp and started attending most of the big UK events on a regular basis.
During this time I was still playing Battletech, Warhammer, Epic and a few home brew rules which varied from Celts/Vikings to sci fi. Most of these home brew systems were written by members of the club, and it was good fun play testing and making them playable. I gained a lot from my time at Finchley, and I thank all the members at that time for their time and sometimes patience.
So the early noughties found me moving to Cornwall and setting up a business, so most of my gaming was restricted to very few moments. I met my now wife Melanie in 2002 at a mutual friend's party, and after a while I was introduced to her kids. I hit it off with Tom straight away as we had a joint interest in wargaming. Tom and I went to the local GW and bought Warhammer 40,000 third edition. It was soon decided that Tom would assemble and paint the marines as space wolves and that left me the Dark Eldar. I have always like being the bad guys, so this didn't bother me. Having played a few games, he introduced a few of his school friends to the game, and few of them started to collect and play. I became a bit of a mentor, teaching all I knew about building, painting and playing. Things grew in size and Tom started the first official school club at Cape Cornwall School, which is still going strong and indeed now enter GW's schools league. Having left school and gone onto college, it was decided that we needed an out of school club, so we formed West Cornwall Games Club in the winter of 2006. We had our official launch night on the 28th February 2007. The club has grown steadily since that point and continues to provide a good environment to game in. I was determined right from the start to join the Gaming Club Network, although they represented the core beliefs that we had formed the club around. Soon after we were the second gaming club to become a GCN club in Cornwall.
Last year I took on the role of area representative for the GCN, and so far have managed to get a third club fully approved into the network, and a further 2 clubs are stage 1 approved. I chair regular meetings for these clubs, and amongst other things we are planning a Cornish games expo for late 2011.
So that's it in a nutshell really, 25 years of gaming so far.
In future blog articles I will be exploring the systems I still play today and those that have fallen by the wayside.
Lucky dice
Neil
I started gaming at the age of 10 when I was introduced by a school friend to Dungeons and Dragons; we played through many great adventures. I found D&D a fun system to play, and within its loose framework of rules we designed many good stories and characters. A few years later we moved onto the much more tightly ruled AD&D, which also proved fun. We began using figures to represent our characters in both D&D and AD&D and this in turn led to a need for a game system that used figures.
Our prayers were answered with the launch of Adeptus Titanicus by Games Workshop. This system revolved around battles between rival titans. I remember reading the rules so quickly that my first games really didn't do the rules any justice whatsoever. After the initial rush had subsided, I read the rules and got some good games in. The next logical step was to follow up with the purchase of Space Marines which, when combined with Adeptus Titanicus, formed the basis of the now ever popular Epic Armageddon. The Epic scale models really gave a depth to the game, with huge battles being played out on friends' relatively small dining tables.
After a while, I craved more complexity and deeper rules so I went in search of a new game to play. This came in the form of FASA's Battletech. This system was to be my staple right through until the mid 1990's. Battletech was a similar scale to Epic, but the complexity of the rules allowed a lot of different games. I wrote many scenarios for my group of gaming buddies.
At this time I attended a club in Luton, Bedfordshire and it was here that I found a very complex rule set in the shape of Challenger 2000 Ultra Modern Combat, by Bruce Ree Taylor & Bob Conner. I still have this game today and still love it. I have to admit though that I very rarely play it, due to a lack of willing opponents. One very memorable campaign found us re-enacting the first Gulf War. I also started playing Warhammer 40k whilst at the Luton club.
Shortly after I moved home and started to go along Finchley Games Club in north London. This was a great club which was not only well supported by its membership, but which was also looked after by the local store, Leisure Games, which was owned by the president of the club. It was at Finchley that I first discovered Call of Cthulhu as a tabletop role playing game, and wow, I was blown away. I started as a player but soon wrote my first story, the tale of Arthur Didcot. A few of us started to explore the possibility of running Cthulhu as a Live Action Roleplay (LARP). Our endeavours however were quickly halted by the release of the Cthulhu Live rules by Chaosium in 1997. Having quickly got hold of a copy of the first edition rules we successfully ran several events over the next 4 year period. I became more and more involved in larp and started attending most of the big UK events on a regular basis.
During this time I was still playing Battletech, Warhammer, Epic and a few home brew rules which varied from Celts/Vikings to sci fi. Most of these home brew systems were written by members of the club, and it was good fun play testing and making them playable. I gained a lot from my time at Finchley, and I thank all the members at that time for their time and sometimes patience.
So the early noughties found me moving to Cornwall and setting up a business, so most of my gaming was restricted to very few moments. I met my now wife Melanie in 2002 at a mutual friend's party, and after a while I was introduced to her kids. I hit it off with Tom straight away as we had a joint interest in wargaming. Tom and I went to the local GW and bought Warhammer 40,000 third edition. It was soon decided that Tom would assemble and paint the marines as space wolves and that left me the Dark Eldar. I have always like being the bad guys, so this didn't bother me. Having played a few games, he introduced a few of his school friends to the game, and few of them started to collect and play. I became a bit of a mentor, teaching all I knew about building, painting and playing. Things grew in size and Tom started the first official school club at Cape Cornwall School, which is still going strong and indeed now enter GW's schools league. Having left school and gone onto college, it was decided that we needed an out of school club, so we formed West Cornwall Games Club in the winter of 2006. We had our official launch night on the 28th February 2007. The club has grown steadily since that point and continues to provide a good environment to game in. I was determined right from the start to join the Gaming Club Network, although they represented the core beliefs that we had formed the club around. Soon after we were the second gaming club to become a GCN club in Cornwall.
Last year I took on the role of area representative for the GCN, and so far have managed to get a third club fully approved into the network, and a further 2 clubs are stage 1 approved. I chair regular meetings for these clubs, and amongst other things we are planning a Cornish games expo for late 2011.
So that's it in a nutshell really, 25 years of gaming so far.
In future blog articles I will be exploring the systems I still play today and those that have fallen by the wayside.
Lucky dice
Neil
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)