A little X-Wing on Labor Day

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! It has been a crazy time lately here in Colorado, my health battles continue with another surgery looming on Thursday this week. I am finding it hard to spend anytime at the painting desk lately but I did manage to sneak in a game of X-Wing over the long Holiday weekend. My buddy Joel and I have played a few games of X-Wing in the past but we had always gone very basic and used just the quick start rules; this time around we both wanted to try the 'full' game with all the added upgrades and rules. I must say the game of X-Wing is awesome, especially with all the added equipment, pilot upgrades, droids, etc. I took a few pictures during the game and here they are:

Me in my special Imperial Academy T-Shirt. I thought it would help but alas it did not....

The Space Map from Maps of Mystery. I have always found his maps to be awesome and love the fact that they fold up and store really well. The maps are double-sided and roughly 2' by 3'. 

The forces of the 'good' guys (Ha!).....the Empire!!! It being the first time we used all of the special cards it was interesting to choose which ships to take with what upgrades. I went with 2 named Tie Fighters, a basic Tie Interceptor, and a named and loaded out Tie Bomber. 

The 'bad' guys, i.e. the Rebels choose to attack the Empire with a couple of Rogue Squadron X-Wings, a rookie Y-Wing, and an A-Wing.

 Boo! The evil Rebel Scum.

Yay!! The Forces of Righteousness!

During the game I kept running into some difficulties that may have been caused by my Chemo treatments, I kept forgetting to use 'action tokens' and the first turn I had a complete 'brain fart' with the Tie Interceptor's movement. Yes the Tie Interceptor is facing completely backwards.

The game continued on with the Rebels gaining the upper hand fairly early on despite their ships hitting every single asteroid at least once.

At the end of the day the Rebel Scum managed to drive off the forces of the Empire killing all but a lone Tie Fighter who flew back to report the Rebel presence in the area. I LOVE Star Wars gaming in all forms and I really enjoy how X-Wing captures the look and feel of spaceship dogfighting in Star Wars. I have to really work out a way to use this game when I run Star Wars Role Playing Games (I have written over 15 SWRPG modules) as I think it really captures the experience. 

I can see how involved list building can get with this game and I am sure there is all sorts of Synergy between certain cards/ships and other cards/ships. I am just a casual player but I am sure there are those out there that really get in depth with their lists. For now I will just enjoy the game and leave the competitive side to others. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

First Thoughts: 40k Conquest by Fantasy Flight Games

Greetings one again InterWebs. I had the chance yesterday to play the brand new 40k Conquest 'Living Card Game' from Fantasy Flight Games and I thought I would share my initial thoughts.

The game is a 2 player 'deck building' type of game which is not something I usually get into, however this was quite easy and fun to play. Everything you need is included in the box so you don't have to go out and buy booster packs looking for that 'rare' card.

The Game includes cards for the following races: Space Marines, Imperial Guard (Astra Millitum or something like that), Chaos, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, and Orks. With these cards you build your deck and set forth to conquer the planetary system that is the goal of the game. Here are some various in game photos showing just some of the cards in play:

Chaos (my first attempt at the game):

 Chaos Warlord and Chaos Fanatics attacking a planet:

 Chaos troops backed up by a Black Legion Heldrake (freaking nasty card):

I lost the first game by having my Warlord killed out from under me during a planetary assault. This is one of the ways to win/lose the game. The time taken to play this game in minimal so my friend Joel and I decided to try another game with different races involved. So I set out to give the Orks a try:

 Discard pile, snotling tokens, and captured planets:

 This picture shows a rather tense time of the game as Joel and his Tau forces tried to stop the 'green tide' of the Orks but it was not meant to be. This game actually took less time than the first and we were done with this game in about 1/2 hour.

I enjoyed this game and thought it was something that could be played quickly with minimal setup and rues instruction needed. I liked the fact that everything you needed to play was in the box. I loved the artwork on the cards; it was nice to see some new artwork for 40k.

I can see Fantasy Flight Games having an easy time supporting this game with future supplements and expansions. The only thing I could complain about is the lack of planets included in the base game, you need to use 7 of the included 10 planets per game and that means you will be seeing the same planets quite often in your games.

All in all I had a lot of fun playing this and would recommend it to fans of 40k. It is an easy game to take with you and doesn't really need a large space to play, perfect for the travelling 40k player.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Take care!

Space Hulk Terminators: Paint in Progress

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! It has been a little while since the last post but I am still here; still dealing with some serious medical issues. I have been able to get a little painting in when I can and I am currently working on the Space Hulk miniatures for a friend. I would like to share some paint in progress shots of what I have so far.


The group of Terminators so far:

 A few closer shots:

I really like this miniature, so dynamic!

Here is a look at the Librarian in blue:

I still have quite a bit of work to do on these but it is nice to paint something again after several months away from painting. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Take care!

First Game of 7th Edition---Horus Heresy Style

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!!! It has been a long time since my last post and I can only blame it on my ongoing health battles. I managed to actually get a little game time in with my good friend Mordian7th over the 4th of July holiday. It has been a tradition for the two of us to play a game of 40k on the 4th of July holiday and I was concerned we might miss it this year. As it turned out we were able to get together and decided we would try out the new edition of the rules while playing with our Horus Heresy armies. I went with my Salamanders and Mordian7th went with his Thousand Sons. It was nice to get out of the house that didn't involve a trip to the hospital or a doctor and I must say I had some much needed fun.

Mordian7th and I decided to play a 1500pt game to keep it simple as we adjusted to the new rules. Here is my 1500pt Heresy-era Salamanders army list:
HQ: 
Praetor M’tonga Chaga’st 
Master Crafted Thunder Hammer, Iron Halo, Stormshield, Mantle of the Elder Drake, Digi-Lasers

Epistolary U’uka Obataiye (Librarian lvl 2)
Artificer Armor, Refractor Field, Stormshield, Inferno Pistol
Troop:
Tactical Squad Mas’kini (10)
Nuncio-Vox, Artificer Armor (Serg), Melta Bomb (Serg), Master Crafted Power Weapon (Serg)

Tactical Squad Sim’baa (10)
Nuncio-Vox, Artificer Armor (Serg), Melta Bomb (Serg), Master Crafted Power Weapon (Serg)
Rhino Transport

Tactical Support Squad (5)
Meltaguns, Combi-Melta (Serg)
Rhino Transport
Elites:
Legion Terminator Squad (5)
Powerfist, Thunder Hammer x3, Storm Shields x5, Master Crafted Thunder Hammer (Serg)

Land Raider Phobos Transport
Hull Mounted Twin-Linked Heavy Flamers, Pintle Mounted Multi Melta

The game was played on some of Mordian7th's new urban terrain tiles (from some random kickstarter he backed) which I thought looked stunning. Here are some pictures of the table before the armies rolled onto it:

 There are so many little details printed on the tiles like crushed soda cans, bloody footprints, leaves, trash, etc. I really thought these tiles added a lot to the look of the game!

Here are some pictures of the initial setup of the armies:

1k Sons Assault Squad waiting to pounce:

 Lots of 1k Sons hunkered down behind a Skyshield Platform:

 Salamander Tactical Squad with Praetor holding an objective:

 Terminators ready to roll down the street to unleash Hell on the 1k Sons.

The game started with the Salamanders going first and the mad rush to grab tactical objectives (the orange d6 dice scattered around the table) was on. I was concerned about the 3 Landspeeders and 2 Predators the 1k Sons brought to the table but the Salamanders stayed strong in the face of such firepower.

Salamander Tactical Support Squad and Librarian rushing forward to kill the 1k Sons Scorpious Whirlwind Launcher which is just nasty and had to die quickly:

 The 1k Sons milling around in the backfield. I am glad they milled around back there instead of pressing forward with the Predators:

 The 1k Sons Assault Squad moves to capture an objective they needed (orange d6 dice):

 The mad rush of the Tactical Support Squad comes up just short as their Rhino Transport is disabled. It was time to make a dash for it on foot:

 1k Sons Landspeeders started to drop from orbit (Deep Strike) and it was not looking good for the other Rhino Transport:

 The Tactical Support Squad still trying to kill the 1k Sons Scorpious Launcher while trying to avoid getting blown to bits by its return fire:

 1k Sons rushing to protect the flank with the Scorpious Launcher and deal with the threatening Salamanders:

Poor 1k Sons Assault Squad couldn't quite make it into the building to assault the waiting Salamanders, this left them sitting all alone in the middle of the street facing down a lot of Salamander bolters:

 The 1k Sons move some firepower forward to press an assault on the Salamanders:

 The Salamanders respond with a charge from their Legion Terminators:

 The result of the Salamander charge:

 The result of the Salamander Tactical Squad unleashing 'Fury of the Legion' on the 1k Sons Assault Squad:

 Salamander Terminators now moving onto the 1k Sons Predator. The Salamanders having the 'move through cover' special rule allowed them to assault through all kinds of terrain catching the 1k Sons flat footed at times:

 The Salamander Terminators continue on after destroying the 1k Sons Predator:

 The last of the Tactical Support Squad and the Librarian finally managed to disable the Scorpious Launcher only to get washed off the table next turn by the 1k Sons 'Fury of the Legion' gunfire:

At this point it was getting awfully hot up in the game loft and it was the end of Turn 5 anyway so Mordian7th and I decided to call it a game; we tallied up our victory points and the Salamanders came out ahead 11-8. Both Mordian7th and I really enjoyed our first taste of 7th Edition; I really enjoyed the Tactical Objective cards which I thought gave the game a 'real feel' as units were scurrying around the table top trying to achieve vital objectives all game (instead of the mad rush at the end of the game). I also enjoyed the Psychic Phase being its own phase instead of trying to remember which game phase the different types of psychic powers went off in (previous editions). I found vehicles to be slightly more durable but everything still dies to a Lascannon. All in all I really found the game entertaining with never a dull moment as my troops had to scramble to achieve vital objectives all the time.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!