Shootout in Jaynestown - Wild West Exodus AAR

One of the games I've recently delved into is Wild West Exodus. It is, in a way, a kind of replacement for both Warhammer 40k and Warmachine/Hordes. While the models may be expensive enough to turn some wargamers away, the game doesn't require many models for a good sized game, especially if one invests heavily into the Underbosses and Sidekicks (i.e., the "characters"). And the rules are not nearly as cut-throat as Warmachine/Hordes, nor do they need constant practice to maintain a level of competent play. 

Recently, one of the local gaming stores had a WWX day, in which members of the community who already played or were interested in the game could come out and play a few games. We had enough players to fill up two games with four players in each, with each Posse looking to be the last one standing when the dust settled. 

I was one of the two Warrior Nation players, and somehow we both ended up on the same table. 

And on the same side! Tommy, Jr. had his Warrior Nation as well, lead by the ever-terrifying Geronimo in all his werebear glory. 

Tom, Sr. was fielding a Union force that was very heavy on the characters, lead by the axe-wielding Lincoln. 

And opposite me was Rob, with his Outlaws and the infamous Jesse James. 

Tommy and I advanced across the table, content with dealing with Rob and Tom instead of each other. My horde of Braves advanced, hollering and whooping, into the center of town. 

Rob scored an early and important blow against me, however, when he used his Iron Horse (basically a grav-bike) and its rocket launchers to destroy Walks Looking, a Warrior Nation character who is absolutely deadly in combat.

As Rob fought off the Indians, he also skirmished with Tom's force. 

Tom had bigger concerns, however, as Tommy was out to put his Pa down! 

The powerful guns of the Outlaws took a toll on my Braves, eventually wiping most of them out. Even Sitting Bull was incapable of taking down Jesse James before being turned into swiss cheese. But the Energy Beast was able to do some damage. However, Stone Fist (the horse with the two cannons on it) couldn't seem to find his range. It seems like I'm incapable of judging what 24 inches looks like. 

The Union was forced to retreat, hoping to stall the time before Geronimo was able to get into close combat with them. Unfortunately, this put Abe & Co. in the range of the Outlaws' guns, and Rob was able to score some hits into the opposing Posse. 

The tide soon began to turn against Tommy, who had spent most of the game being ignored as Rob, Tom and I fought. Realizing that most of his Posse was still pristine, I began to fire bolts of spirit energy into Geronimo. 

Rob realized the same thing, turning his attention to focus both on Tom and Tommy. I was glad for the relief!

Tom was knocked out first, and the Tommy went down. By this point my Posse was severely mauled, with only Stone Fist left standing. Rob's remaining models quickly sent the Indian and his horse packing. So when the guns finally stopped firing and silenced settled on Jaynestown, it was Jesse James who was left standing tall.

It was a fun game (if a little long), and it's definitely cemented my interest in the rules. Hopefully the community grows as a result of the game day, as there were plenty of other people interested who were asking questions about the fluff and mechanics. 

Painting Update - Blood Bowl

For a long time, I've liked the idea of Blood Bowl. I still regret not spending the $100 I could have back in high school to buy the 3rd Edition Starter Set from a local comic shop years ago. I enjoy playing the (somewhat disfunctional) Cyanide computer game, but I've never gotten to play the tabletop version.

However, I've managed to gain some interest in the game and have the makings of a local league - the Stomping Grounds Blood Bowl League.

To actually play in the League, however, I needed a team. Looking around, I managed to get a really great deal on a couple of the plastic orc starter teams from the 3rd Edition starter - somewhat fulfilling earlier dreams - and put them together to fill out a decent Orc roster. 

Black Orc Blockers are one of the biggest draws of the Orc team. While they don't start with any skills, they have ST 4 and AV 9. They're probably not going to be picking up and carrying the ball all that often with AG 2 and MA 4, but they'll be perfect for hitting other players pretty hard. 

Orc Blitzers start with the Block skill, making them essential to any Orc team. With MA 6, they can quickly cover ground on the pitch and try to either break open an opposing team's formation or trying to take down a ball carrier. 

Orc Linemen (Lineorcs?) don't stand out in any way compared to the other members of the team, but they do have AV 9, making them difficult to seriously injure. 

Finally, Orc Throwers - sort of strange on a team that's more likely to pick up a ball after smashing the guy holding it. But Throwers can handle the ball better than anyone else on the team, since they start with Sure Hands. And if you ever need to clear the ball out of a bad situation, they have the Pass skill. It doesn't mean that the orc receiving the ball will catch it, but at least you can move the ball away if your Thrower gets himself into a bad spot. 

That's the team - 18 players, with a few more Lineorcs in the wings in case they're ever needed. 

I'm now looking at putting together another team, perhaps an Undead team using the Reaper Bones line. The Undead Burg Boneheads might be a pretty cheap team to put together.

And I'll let you guys try to guess what team I've based the colors on!

Painting Update - All Quiet on the Martian Front

I've been working on a few projects lately, which hopefully I'll get a chance to share soon. For right now, I'd like to show my progress with the All Quiet starter set.

The American infantry units have been based and spackled (using DryDex, which is what I use whenever I need to fill in a base with miniatures that have integral bases.) I just need to clean up the edges. 

I'm planning on creating a fictional unit in the All Quiet universe, based on the real life "Jersey Blues" from the American War of Independence. This will give me the chance to do something a little different from the usual brown-and-green miniatures you see for the American forces in All Quiet. The infantry will be painted blue, tan and khaki, and the tanks painted blue. 

Speaking of tanks, I had to do a little cosmetic work on the American tanks before priming them. Since the tanks run on powerful steam engines (made possible by reverse-engineering Martian technology) they have these big rectangular coal hoppers on the back that are empty. I decided to fill them in with beach sand and some watered down white glue. Hopefully, once the painting is finished, these particles will resemble coal. 

NJCON 2015 - The Loot

It wouldn't be a convention without a vendor hall, and NJCON actually had two. The first was a bring-and-buy room, where one could bring some items to sell, pass it along to the convention workers, and then see if anything had been picked up at the end of the day. I wish I had taken advantage of this, but maybe next time.

The actual vendor hall had seven shops set up, covering everything from terrain to bases, miniatures to books. Having saved up a little spending cash, I took a look around to see if there was anything I wanted. 

If you remember my All Quiet AAR, I played at On Military Matters, who ordered an All Quiet starter set for me. Since I haven't had the opportunity to get over to the store, I was able to pick up the box set at the convention. I don't plan on buying any other All Quiet miniatures, since there are other people in the area who have plenty enough for big community games, but I'll be happy to paint up the human and Martians in the starter and add them to the community resources.

From Maplewood Hobby I bought a few interesting items. The first was a steal that I was surprised no one else had bought yet. It's one of the currently out-of-print Corvus Belli DBA army sets - the Ancient British. These are absolutely stunning miniatures, with plenty of details and not a whole lot of cleaning necessary. It doesn't have any bases in the set, but those are cheap to eventually purchase. And the set, while originally produced for DBA 2.2, is still viable and offers plenty of options for the DBA 3.0 army list.

I also picked up the Blücher rulebook and the Hundred Days card set. I've heard plenty of good things about Blücher, and I'm still looking for a good Napoleonic ruleset. More importantly, I can play Blücher much like I did Kings of War - without any miniatures! The cards are fantastic, covering all the units available during the Hundred Days campaign.

I also got an award for winning the first game in the SAGA tournament - an objective marker/bases with some cool looking runes. I'll trying painting this up with some sort of glowing effect. 

NJCON 2015 - SAGA Tournament AAR

As cool as the participation games looked, the main reason I went to NJCON was the SAGA tournament. Truth be told, I was a little worried, as it had been a while since I've played any SAGA, and I wasn't sure if I was going to get my face smashed into the cloth-covered tables during each of the games.

As it turns out, this couldn't have been further from the truth. The other five players in the tournament were all incredibly nice. They were either looking to get some games of SAGA in after a long time not playing, like me, or hadn't been playing for very long. This gave the tournament a very relaxed air, as everyone was quite happy to get a few games in. 

The warbands were varied but basic, and this tournament could easily have been set during the 800s or 900s in England. There were two Viking players, and one each of Normans, Welsh, Anglo-Dane and Anglo-Saxon. 

My first game was against John and his Normans. He'd taken two units of mounted Hearthguard, two units of mounted Warriors, a unit of crossbow Warriors and a unit of archer Levy. The scenario we played was Sacred Ground, where the three terrain pieces on the table were the objectives. At the end of each opponent's turn, the player would count how many victory points he scored based on how many models he had on the terrain, and what the models were (Hearthguard being worth more than Warriors, Warriors more than Levy, etc.)

On my left, John charged a unit of Warriors across the table and into one of my Warrior units. He managed to to some damage, but in the next turn I had my Berserkers attack. I lost the unit, but the Norman Warriors were reduced down to a single model, and my own Warriors spent the rest of the game chasing after him. 

In the center, my Hearthguard and Warlord planted themselves on the hill. On the right my unit of Levy worked their way into the woods, while the smaller unit of Warriors moved in between the two pieces of terrain. 

From here on, John and I worked away at each other's Warbands. I managed to reduced several of his units down to only two or three models, but never had the ability to actually kill them off. John, meanwhile, managed to destroy both the smaller Warrior units and the big Hearthguard unit. However, as I had scored a large amount of victory points from having my Hearthguard sit on the hill, I did managed to win the scenario. 

My second game was against Cliff and his Anglo-Danes He had two units of Hearthguard (one with Dane Axes), three units of Warriors and a unit of Levy. We played using the normal terrain rules, with a hut being set down on one side of the table and woods on the other. The scenario was the Challenge, where our two Warlord started locked in combat with one another in the center of the table as our warbands came in from behind. 

On the left side I sent a unit of Warriors sneaking through the woods. Cliff countered them with his Dane Axe Hearthguard. The axes fell and the woods were awash with blood. A single Viking Warrior scrambled back out of the woods, with the Danes in hot pursuit.

On the left, a twelve-strong Dane Warrior unit slammed into my Levy, who had ineffectually shot at them. While only managing to cause a couple casualties, Cliff used the "The Push" Battleboard ability and sent a large amount of the unit off the table. I tried attacking with my Berserkers, and while they caused plenty of casualties, but couldn't get rid of the Warrior unit, and I lost my Berserkers in the attack.

In the center, my Hearthguard and Warlord clashed with Cliff's Hearthguard, Levy and Warlord. While Cliff did get his Hearthguard unit into combat with my Warlord, they didn't managed to kill him. I had led Cliff in wounds caused to our Warlords, and I attack with my Hearthguard, killing Cliff's Warlord and winning the game. 

My final game was against Tim and his Vikings. We had both won our previous two games, so the winner of this match was going to be the overall tournament winner. 

Tim's warband had two units of Hearthguard and four units of Warriors - he wasn't messing around with any Levy! We were playing Clash of Warlords, with some slightly altered rules - both warlords would be deployed first, exactly opposite of one another, L length from the table edge. Our two warlords faced off, obviously after some perceived insult or badly received joke in the nearby drinking hall. 

Tim tried to get a unit of Warriors around the left side of the table, behind the drinking hall. I ran my own small unit of Warriors into them. While my unit perished, I also managed to remove Tim's Warriors using the Viking "Loki" ability. 

On my right, the Levy did... nothing. Apparently this game they decided to take up thumb twiddling as a hobby. Guess who's scouring the bottom of the longboat for the rest of the month?

All the action took place in the center as Tim and I traded units. He ran his Berserkers across the table at my own big unit of Hearthguard, but some lucky defense dice kept most of the Hearthguard alive, and they counter-charged and killed the frenzied enemies. My own Berserkers went after Tim's Warlord, but were blocked by some Warriors and died in the melee. Tim and I wore each other's warbands down to only a few models apiece. But it was Tim who emerged victorious when he had his Warlord and few remaining Warriors attack my Warlord, cutting the rival Viking leader down. 

With that, I managed to place fourth overall. While I had won two of the three games I played, ties were decided by slaughter points (i.e., how many enemy models had been killed during the game) and most of my games had been Pyrrhic victories. I didn't walk away empty handed, however, but I'll talk more about that in another post later this week.

Most importantly, I had a great time playing SAGA and meeting some awesome players. We even managed to get some passers-by interested in the game, and at least one was seen walking out of the vendor hall with a rulebook and starter warband in hand.

Personally, this has reinvigorated my interest in SAGA, and I think I'll try pushing it a little harder in my local community. Since I own four warbands already, getting some demo games in shouldn't be that hard.