AAR: Ronin: Kalissa's Historicon Test Game Two

       With Historicon coming on the horizon, we decided have some friends other to play a second game. It is always good to test out all the possible options. We had all, but one faction play in Kalissa's scenario in this game, which were the bandits. The reason why was because they were not all labelled yet. There are a lot of peasants in that faction that are pretty weak. However, in this game, we had way more faction combat. The Chinese did not survive, nor did the Sword School. Apparently, running into gunfire had the same effect in the 1600's as of now. I am not sorry about it. I had two guys left by the end of the game. The big winners were the Japanese Samurai and the Koreans. The Sohei Monks were in a fair condition, but the Swordsmen did some work to them before their near demise. I must say that I am looking forward to seeing how the games play out at the show. Anyway, here are some more shots.

Thursday Gaming: Lord of the Rings: Narrative Campaign and such!

  Bring people to the dark side of our hobby can be awesome. With my lovely wife running Demo games, it does not take long to convince people to play games we play. In this case, we found a person who wanted to play 40K Warhammer with no figures who wanted to play said game. We should him how cheap it is to play Battle Companies. It helped that our friend, John, gives away starting a company for free. It is an awesome way to start some into a game. The next best step is to have that said person play a game. It is a firm believe that people learn better while playing a game through. In our case, I think we will see a repeat player.
   However, Thursday Night was suppose to be a Narrative Game Night for our Lord of the Ring campaign. In this case, it was an Ambush Mission with Wargs attacking. In some of these pictures, you will see Warg Riders. Those are mine as a proxy  force. Apparently, after some calculations, I need just a heavy 200 Warg Riders to challenge my wife's Rohan army at this point. No problem! I did not play in this game, since I have been somewhat behind. Honestly, I do not want to give up on this campaign yet. I am stalled for my own behalf, since this last mission is the only one I am interested in. I would have been fine with the further campaign, except for two problems. One, the campaign does not connect well. The second, it does not make sense. Example: the second scenario has us clearing a ruins with a badass Barrow Wight defending it's territory. The story has us camping there and doing this mission. However, if you were given a choice between a Hilton Hotel or a Super 8 Motel in the ghetto after gun shots, where would you stay? And why would you investigate said shots, unless you were a cop paid to do so?
      These are just thoughts. Since there are plenty of people playing along, I guess I cannot completely complain. I just wish that people would be as interested and invested in historical campaigns. Anyway, enjoy our Lord of the Rings games. They are a lot of fun!

 

AAR: Bolt Action: French Country Encounter!

    Sometimes, it is just easier to play games at home. In this case, our friend, Cy, Kalissa, and yours truly decided to play at our house the last Saturday. There were a bunch of 40k tournaments and such going on nearly everywhere. One was a 40K Pre-Tournament. What the hell is that? Why not just say it is just a tournament? It just seems redundant to me.
    Anyway, about our game! We decided to play Bolt Action since Cy had never played these rules. Like all games Kalissa and I play, we do not care about points. I like the quote from the first Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean by Captain Barbossa: "They are more like guidelines!" That is how we feel about points. Plus, real combat tended to not be fair. So of you might think that the four Panther tanks might me a little strong for a list, but they proved to not hit well. The only Panther kill in the game was a half-track destroyed loaded with infantry. Only two infantrymen died in the half-track destruction. Not the result I was looking for. I also went with my psychotic moves with my 222 Armored car. Like normal, it died in a ridiculous fashion! It got killed with a British light mortar!
   Overall, I think Cy enjoyed the rules. The game ended in a "Draw". We could not finish the complete game, but I think we will be able to play another one soon. It just was not possible to continue later with this game, since the mat was a commission project that had to go out. I was just happy to carry on the tradition of play at least one game on a project before it leaves. Anyway, here were the shots of our game. Enjoy!