Friday 27 January 2012

Warrior Heroes - Tried it out for the first time.

Had my first ever game of Warrior Heroes last night at the club. Was very interesting. I have not really tried any rule sets which use a "reaction" system as such. Well one as controlling as the Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventures one. That is for sure.

The game was simple. Three hastily put togather warbands, attempting to sally forth from a city to wipe out some beseiging enemy artillery. In this case, some undead screaming skull catapults.

I dug out my D&D pre painted plastics to play the part of an Elf warband. All Rep5. Four Archers, two sword and shields and one healer with a bow on and my Hero of course.

The other two war bands were humans and dwarfs. The game started well enough. Then I moved, my band forward and promptly got a reaction test from a PEF or possible enemy force marker. The result, my archers stood and shot. My warriors piled in recklessly!

This was the start of a trend. well sort of. The humans and dwarfs then got stuck in, but my band got whittle down, as I lost one archer Dead, and one OOF.
The skeleton arhcers and warriors thankfully didn't manage to kill my hero or my warriors, before some of the skele's got drawn into other fights.

For a short while an almost grande mele broke out, but the dwarfs, charged on with some human berserk and made it o the trench line. Just as my hero finished off the last of the initial skeletons warriors. Then the artillery fired for the second time, the first having gone wide somewhere.
The deviation, meant it clouted my hero and a pants roll of the dice by me and a good one by the evil GM/monster player Colin, meant it was curtains for the brave elven hero! Splat!

Oh well, my remaining war band members, fought on, the healer helping support the human shield wall and rescuing one human as he went down to a mounted skeleton. This was short lived however, as the following round both he and the human were promptly killed.

Over the in the earthwork trenches, the Mr Big-Bad, the undead has stepped up to the dwarfs only to discover his trenches were not wide enough to allow an out numbering bonus and so, dwarf ve Mr Bad, came down to a slugging fest. One in which the Dwarf prevailed.

About now we started to worry about the dreaded reinforcement roll, and knew that any moments the undead could get more help. So as the elves and humans on the hill top tried to wipe out the lastof the undead cavalry the dwarfs piled through the trench, taking out one then the other of the war machines at last.

Just at the final roll of activation the bad guys got their double needed to bring in the reinforcements.. but but them, it was done, the siege engines were dead, Mr Big-Bad undead was down and destroyed and the survivors were hell bent on getting back to the city for beer and biscuits..


All in all a fun game.

What did I think of of WH:AA .. hmmm well.. its ok. I try and make sure I don't settle my mind on a rule set till I have played around three games as a whole.
I can see why it does things it does, but I think the randomality is a tiny bit hi on the reactions.. Its a rule set i was considering for my own fantasy campaign, and will try a game or two more but I am more likley to go with my home brew rules I think.

I will however try and get another game in. Some things we learnt.. Snori the dwarf is a killing machine! Infact, dwarfs are killing machines. Screaming skulls hurt. Shields are a must.. everyone must have a shield.. its just that simple!
Magic is risky. There is never enough loot and out numbering is always good if you have the numbers.



Tuesday 24 January 2012

Warhammer Fantasy - Maps Resource

Warhammer Fansty Role Playing Game was one of the first RPGs I ever bought. Infact I think it was the first. Anyhow.. here is a link to a map resource site for the old world.
Useful for any Warhammer Fantasy Battle players too.


http://www.gitzmansgallery.com/Warhammer_Maps/index.html

Well worth a look, if you are interested.

Sunday 22 January 2012

Penkridge Table Top Sale - 22nd Jan - Staffordshire

Like many folks I love hunting for a bargain. And today I managed to pick up a few. My self and a few club mates, have been to a number of the Warboot Shows organised by Paul Ried at MAWS club, in manchester (see previous show reports) and have generally managed to find a bargain or two, and deal to be done that makes a trip out for half a day or a day worth the effort.

So today four of us, piled or should be crammed into my car and headed over to Penkridge in Staffordshire. From North Wales it took 1h,20mns to get to Penkridge. Straight off J13 of the M6.

Parking at first was a problem, being a Sunday and the church being just next door as such, but a local gamer pointed us in the right direction, namely, a bit further up the main road, a hundred yards or so and on the left next to the Methodist church.. Free car parking. And only a slight walk to the hall.

There were a mix of private sellers, shops/business's and semi traders as I tend to call them. People who regularly part time trade in minis or games etc.

So here are some photos of the show, firstly, before you say "not many people there", these were taken at 1pm after I got tired feet and a lot of visitors had already come and gone. I didn't manage to get any shots of the re-enactors either. It was quite busy till around 12hr.

I will discuss my bargains later.. :)

(Click on the images to expand them & Apologies if I have miss labelled any traders)

The central area, with Lesleys Bits Box on left. Demonstration game on stage.

Minisryou - Selling painted GW figures

Left wing area, with snack bar at end.

Minisryou definitely the smartest table, next to the South Stafford Models.

Minisryou 40K painted army for sale. Looked impressive.

Errrr central area again and trader I have forgotten the name of. Sorry!

Chaps from www.magicgeek.co.uk with lots of card games

www.tritex-games.co.uk Stand, selling prepainted plastics individually and sets.

Tritex-Games again.

Magic Geek stand. Lots of CCG stuff and games.

e-collectica games stand. Really really nice suppliers of boards games. They have a website!

And a market stall soon too! With an openning day discount. Seriously if you play board games, gives these folks a try.

Wargames Miniatures stand, lots of resin items, and scenery. Inc some build buildings.


South Stafford Model Club display. Some very nice pieces on show.

Un known trader, with mix of stuff, mostly in westwind and dystopean wars.

Stafford Games stand. FOW and Warlord Games and Mantic etc.

The other view of model stand.


James Resins Stand, a mix of resin terrain pieces mostly for 15 and 20mm scales. Some nice stuff, but too small obviously..!

James resins price lists. Always good to see an upfront and clear pricing.

KRGames 1:600th figures - www.krgames.co.uk

The organisers own stand with lots of GW, BTD and other bits and bobs.

Well my shopping haul for the morning was;
9 x LOTR metal figures, bought loose for 50p to £2ea depending.
1 x LOTR strategy battle hardback book (worn) for £2.
2 x Boxes of plastic LOTR figures for £10
1 x 2.5oz Pot of Masters Brush Cleaner £3 (The stuff is brilliant btw)
And..


1 x Figures in Comfort Legion Case! (RRP £200) for £40.

The case contained three triple depth vehicle trays, a couple of un-used single depth pick and pluck trays and another used, figure case in side. Looking very similar to battlefoams stuff from the USA. Though not quite sure its the same. Anyhow, for £40! The case alone empty was worth it, as it will happily store and transport my FIC Correx "Company Boxes" that I have.


So all in all a great trip out. The tea and coffee, food and snacks were well supplied throughout the morning, with burgers and cup cakes available to purchase from the snack counter too.

I did feel however the show was maybe a bit heavy on the "Business Traders", rather than the individual sellers, but then someone has to help pay for the hall and tables etc.

So all in all a great day out, some good bargains grabbed and, apparently the organiser is considering maybe doing another in 6 months or so. As long as it does not clash with anything else I am going too and I have some pennies to spare, it is one I will definitely consider again!

Thank to the organisers