Friday 18 July 2014

Great Ganesha! Multiplayer fun had by all.

Last night I was greatly delighted to play two very enjoyable four player games. (un)Fortunatley, I had so much fun that only a very few in-focus photos were taken of the games - all the guphawing makes my hands shake and I can't take photos...


The first round was a 900 point a side game of Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robot Battle Royale which saw the humans of the European Empire take on three kaiju who were holidaying in a distopian future Paris. 

It didn't end up going well at all for the imperial forces. The infantry and their air support were all either fumigated to death by one enormous fishy-poison cloud from Dagon (fishman kaiju), or else suffered from his oh-so-acidic spit. I.R.N. Mech was finished off by a well aimed punch from a rather crippled Mantis, and the Goliath tank and Grendal (furry kaiju) more or less exploded each other to extinction. There was much close range bombarding from the tank which caused a lot of damage to everything in the vicinity including itself, its friends, the kaiju and buildings.

The second game was a four player Song of Blades and Heroes battle to the death, pitting a warband of nasty Greek myth inspired creatures, satyrs, Greek gods and furry critters against each other.

We were using a phenomenal scuplted gaming table which was a real pleasure. Here, Apollo gets ready to go head-to-head with the minotaur.  

Amid much laughter (hence the blurry photo), the heroes of Wyldewood advance to join the fray.

Bypassing the melee between the nasty creatures and the two gods, the furry critters embarked on an all out assault on the satyrs across the bridge. It started badly when statistical differences left individual critters exposed (like our dashing polecat friend above). Later on, a beaver-mole partnership would see several satyrs slain before Pan, the satyr's hero, joined the fray and finished off the furry ones.

The last couple of turns saw a duel between Pan and a witch which ended with a badly wounded Pan eating off her face... But oh such a good game.

Thursday 17 July 2014

Song of Shadows and Dust reviewed by Play Unplugged (and used for gladiator game!)

A couple of nice (unsolicited!) surprises this week:


I saw that Tim in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been playing gladiatorial bouts with his kids using Song of Shadows and Dust. Check out how he got on HERE.

Tim has also just posted his first AAR for a regular game between a weavers guild and some local militiamen. Check it out HERE.

In slightly unrelated news, I have also just read a great review of the game by Scott Pyle over at Play Unplugged. 


"Ganesha Games has been producing outstanding, fast-playing skirmish battle games since the release of its now classic Song of Blades and Heroes (SoBaH) more than ten years ago. Since then, this versatile, D6-based rules engine has been bent to many different genres. In Songs of Shadows and Dust (SSD) author Nicholas Wright takes his turn, adapting SoBaH to first century BC Roman gang fighting. These battles resulted from political feuding between rival factions of the time, and often included bloody street brawls where gangs of toughs hired by either side fought it out..."

Check out the full review HERE

Wednesday 16 July 2014

Irregular Wars 2nd edition chance cards

I have been testing out an online customised card deck maker to make a deck of chance cards in Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End (2nd ed). I like the way these look in the preview shots and have ordered a trial pack to see if they live up to expectations.

Below are just a sample of the 52 cards in the deck. Now I just have to play a little game I like to call 'waiting for the postman'.





Tuesday 15 July 2014

Gearing up for more Mighty Monsters!

Having had a longer-than-wanted break since my last bout of Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots Battle Royale, I'm gearing up for another bash. Such a fun game! Here are the various monsters, mechs and army units that I now have ready. Each monster (vel sim.) is based on 300 points, allowing me to easily pick and choose between running 300, 600 or 900 points per side.


The forces of humanity - European Empire and an Independent mech

I.R.N. Mech
Imperial Response Group
Goliath IV

Chaotic Kaiju
Mantis
Dagon
Grendel

10mm Irish for Dux Bellorum

Having recently finished a Romano-British army for Dan Mersey's Dux Bellorum, I'm happy to now present their opponents - the wild Irish of the Ulaid (the early Medieval kingdom covering much of Counties Antrim and Down.

This is a compact, but relatively brittle, army in game terms and consists of a unit of warrior companions (complete with the king's favourite hound and giant champion), and four units of noble warriors. That's it. Five units for 25 points, leaving me 7 points for strategies and extra leadership points. 

Warrior companions. The king and the warriors with swords are Irish elite warriors from Magister Militum; the hound is from the Eureka Minitures' woodland pack; the champion is a Baueda Viking; the spearmen are Pendraken Welsh spearmen and the lovely warrioress is Pendraken's 'Keira'.

The noble warriors are made up of the same packs as the companions, a mix of Pendraken, Eureka and Magister Militum. I decided that each base would have ten figures on them, roughly Magister Militum elite warriors and the other packs mixed to make up the remainder.

Like Dan, the author of Dux Bellorum, I have misgivings about having designated 'wardog' units in wargames. That said, they are allowed in the rules as a 'strategy', and I have the figures, so why not. Hounds from Eureka.

Monks from Pendraken. The kneeling chaps are from the Norse range, the walking 'pilgrims' are from the Medieval range. These are another 'strategy' which my Irish may like to take. Alternatively, my Romano-British army can also field them.

These sheep are from Irregular Miniatures. They are classed as 15mm but are tiny at that scale. At 10mm the adult sheep almost come up to the warrior's belts. Another 'strategy' available to the Irish in Dux Bellorum is the use of stampeding livestock. So be it.