Australian New Year's Eve Gaslands Championship 2019

Phil hosted another year of good food, drink and company in his backyard with a chaotic game of Gaslands thrown into the mix.

Same limitations as last year, with each team being capped at 25 cans and sponsors or perks were not available. I took a tan car with a forward facing machine gun, and two bikes (the white helmeted rider also had mines).

We played Death Race with Walter (black car with a heavy machine gun mounted on a turret), Alex (black performance car with two forward facing mini-guns) and Mitch (white pickup truck with a ram and a forward facing mini-gun).

None of us had really played a game in a while (or at all), so we stumbled our way through the rules to the first gate (where each car's weapons would become live), and then the real carnage ensued (up until this point Wal's car kept getting love taps from us as we tried to ram him).

Mitch wiped out before getting to the first gate, and slept like a grandpa at the wheel for most of the game (he managed to wipe out in the first gear phase for that turn).

My bikes with their high speed were prime targets and soon fell (didn't help that I rode my second bike through the mines I dropped...).

Alex was blown to bits by shooting from Wal and myself.

Wal thought he had it in the bag on the home stretch before I (totally) risked on a corner ram (which due to the Rule of Carnage became a head on ram) to stop him. We both died in balls of flames to hand Grandpa Mitch the game and the tournament. It really is a fun game.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, may 2020 bring you everything you want. 

Prepping Bronze Age Greeks

Nothing exciting, but I've prepped the Eureka Miniatures Bronze Age Greeks I picked up the other week.

They'll go well with my satyrs and centaurs (also from Eureka Miniatures) that I painted many years ago (maybe in 2010 or 2011?). I also plan on building some matching terrain for them. Lead Adventure Forum has a Building Something contest coming up, so the timing is good.

Anyway, wishing you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2020.

A Song of Ice and Fire and Rangers of Shadow Deep Introduction Games

After a few months hiatus I was back at the League and Mark had his beautifully painted A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) miniatures from Cool Mini or Not (CMON) that he was itching to get out on the table. He provided both sides and we spent the morning playing a brutal game (I got slaughtered to a man!).

First impressions? The mechanics are elegant, the miniatures beautiful, and just like the background there's an element of strategy happening off the battlefield that I like (the constant command decision pressure of deciding to move a unit and risk my opponent seizing an area of the tactics board which is also needed or vice versa). I can't see myself getting into the game (way too many projects!), but if you like Game of Thrones and all that then this is pretty good at recreating the world. Although it's marketed to some degree as a boardgame, it's very much a wargame.

The afternoon session had me stepping into Jack's character for a Rangers of Shadow Deep game, run by Mark with Dave T, his son Jonathan and Bruce. I was flying blind for most of it, but picked up the basic elements pretty quickly. There were three rooms our band had to fight through, the knolls giving us a hard time. I controlled a Wizard, Caitweazel (I assume a variation of Catweazle) and an unnamed red shirt companion.

I had to leave just as the third room was entered, so got the update from Mark. Both Bruce and David's characters fell in the final room (mercifully surviving their injuries when rolled for later) as did all of the remaining companions. This left Mark's Ranger and Caitweazel (played by Jonathan) to struggle through, which they did, if only just thanks to some lucky shots with Mark's crossbow. A staircase was found at the end, so the scenario was won but possibly with a deficit in the next scenario.