X wing League. Game 1 Rebels Vs Scum and Villainy

Tonight is the first night of the Essex Legion X wing League to coincide with the build up to the new Star Wars film. There are 6 players and we hope to play at least 2 games each.

I have to admit I've not played in a while which is a shame as I've been waiting to use my Millennium Falcon I got at Salute this year.

The games are going to be a standard 100 point battle. As I am not great at making lists. I found a List Maker here where you can just click what ships you have and it creates a list with the extra equipment cards and upgrades.

I deiced to run with Chewbacca in the Falcon with marks man, Red Squadron X Wing pilot with R2 D2 and proton torpedoes and a Rookie pilot with R2 F2.

My opponent Paul was flying the flag for the Scum and Villainy using Two Star Vipers and a Kihraxz Fighter

We both are a bit rusty at the game so it was a good intro back into the game for both of us.

In Formation

We set up as so.

All ships turn towards the middle of the map trying desperately to avoid the on coming asteroids with the Kihraxz Fighter hiding behind the Star Vipers.

The Star Vipers acquire target locks against the Falcon and on one of the X wings.

The vipers manages to take off all the shields on the X wings while the Falcon gets two hits on one of the Star Vipers.

The Falcon moves forward while the Vipers and Kihraxz moves in for the kill. They distroy the Rookie X wing piolit dealing a double damage card and hit the Falcon which loses a shield. 

Luckily R2 D2 was on hand for the Red Squadron leader to fix both shields on his X wing.

The Kihraxz is hit by The Falcon and his weapons are disrupted which will not allow it to deal it’s devastating close quarters damage. (phew)

Sensing the danger The Red squadron pilot takes aim and destroys the Kihraxy pilot and target locks one of the Vipers. The two Vipers turn 180 to try and surround the X wing. The Falcon meanwhile does a full turn to advance into the battle zone.

The Falcon moves into the middle of the field as the X wing gives chase. The X wing fires on the target locked viper and destroys it.

The X wing carries on its pursuit of the last Viper while the Falcon decides to turn into an asteroid near missing (Chewbacca must be drinking something?) The Viper turns to engage its foe.

The Falcon shoots and hits the Viper and the X wing follows its lead.... Thus ending the game for a Rebel victory.

It was a very enjoyable game with very good dice rolls for both players. We were also lucky with the damage deck as my Rookie X wing pilot got a double damage card and Paul getting the worst card he could get which was weapons failure on his Kihraxz missing out on one of his biggest tools in close quarters firing.

So it was my first win in the league which is great but as Han Solo said “don’t get cocky” as its still early days and we will see what happens next time in a galaxy far far away...

It's A Month Till Star Wars! Crack Out The Clip Kits!

I have been supper busy this week and not had a lot of time to do any hobby related activity.

As it's only a month till Star Wars ( I've ready booked my tickets he he) and had an hour spare I thought I would dig out my Revell clip kits that I'd been given for my birthday months back and finally got down to making them

These are pre painted models which are hard plastic on a basic sprue that clip together pretty easily with simple instructions with no glue needed.

 X Wing complete with R2-D2

 Darth Vader's Tie Fighter (He is in there I promise)

Red Leader......Watch Your Six.

As easy kits go they are not to bad but I would add glue to the joints just to make sure everything holds especially if you want to play with them.

The scale of these models are pretty good and go well with the toy range that you may have.
The paint job on the X Wing is not the greatest and on the Tie Fighter it does not completely stick together flush but as shelf pieces for display or if you want to get some younglings into model making you cant go wrong and come on it's Star Wars!

Luxury Cruise... An Imperial Assault Mission

On sunday Macca brought down Imperial Assault to The Essex Legion. As a massive Star Wars fan I already play X wing and wanted to have a go at this!

I was playing along with fellow gamer Andrew who last week played a main mission but today was a side mission to the campaign Macca is working through.

Macca was controlling the Imperials for this mission. We were tasked to infiltrate an Imperial ship and steal a transport shuttle which was being repaired. We had to make sure all the main com systems were controlled by standing next to each of them and no other Imperial force adjacent to the square to capture it at the end of each turn. All Macca had to do was to wound all the Rebels which meant we were still alive but we had less abilities. If we got wounded again after that our characters would run off the board to fight for another day.

Andrew and I chose 2 charters each. I chose Jyn Odan a Sly Smuggler and Biv Bodhirk basically a dude with a huge gun! Andrew chose Mak Eshka 'rey a sniper and Fenn Signis a veteran.

Macca laid out the board with all the Imperials deployed

Story Time....
In a Galaxy Far Far Away.....

The rebels have been hiding in an Imperial ship for days climbing through sewers and hot vent systems to gain access to the main decks of the Imperial ship.  Finally the band of Rebels mange to find a loose vent and enter the ships decks..

The rebels begin to sweep the area and move to engage the unit of Stormtroopers before they are spotted while trying to gain control of the first com system.

The rebels managed to kill one of the Stormtroopers and begin to take control of the first com system.

The team deiced to split up (will this be a wise move?) An alarm sounds as the last of the Stormtroopers are killed and a shot rings out. Fenn is wounded... More Stormtroopers ahead!

Biv and Fenn decided to try and secure the corridor and at the same time wounding some of the Stormtroopers while Mak and Jyn try to sneak around the other side of the ships deck.

Suddenly an elevator bell rings.. (ding) in the corridor where Biv and Fenn are trying to hold off the advance of the Stormtroopers Dun Dun Da...  two Imperial Guard enter the battle.

Mean while. Jyn tries to sneak by and open the door to one of the side rooms but fails leaving Mak to do it. As the door opens to the surprise to them both a Protocol Droid begins to fire at them. The Droid cause the Rebels to act quickly and mange to destroy the Droid and gain control of another com system for the Rebels...

But little did they know Biv and Fenn were in trouble desperately trying to stop the onslaught from the Stormtroopers and Imperial Guard forcing Biv and Fenn back. They both manage to kill one Guard and Two Stormtroopers.... At the end of the round another Imperial Guard arrives. He begins to hack away and wounds Biv. The shear man power of the Imperials forces Fenn to flee along with Biv making it an up hill battle for the Rebels to complete their mission.

Jyn and Mak enter the main room wounding and killing an Officer and a Stormtrooper not knowing the fate of their fellow comrades in arms. Jyn and Mak are forced to take some damage after their encounter. Another lift bell rings (ding) more Stormtroopers arrive and the Imperial Guard hearing the commotion close in.

Jyn and Mak desperately open the next door and run from the incoming of reinforcements. As they do they secure the next com system.
Mak suddenly gets hit from laser fire and suffers more damage but Jyn and Mak take down 2 more Stormtroopers and another Imperial Guard before Mak finally has to flee the ship due to being wounded heavily... The Imperils are starting to close in on Jyn with only one com system left and Jyn only on a few more damage points left its a race against time..

The last Imperial Guard senses his chance and advances over to Jyn..... He then closes in for the kill which wounds Jyn ending the mission for the Rebels as all have now been wounded and hands a victory to the Imperials.


I really enjoyed this game you can senses the tension ramping up with each game turn and how the rebels have got the odds stacked agains them.

After the game we discussed that we should have really stuck together and cleared rooms out as a team. The Rebels work best using a more shoot and move tactic as the Imperials will just keep coming at you after every game turn.

I like the fact that this is a RPG style game in the Star Wars universe. I have not played many RPGs but this was nice and easy to pick up and play.

Even though we failed the mission we still had to do some end of game house keeping as the characters still get XP and money which we could spend to select new equipment  for the next missions as its only going to get harder.

As we packed away the board Macca showed me all the figure expansions that he had with him and I started to get shiny syndrome.. Every new figure expansion pack you get a unique side mission card and map which uses the main boxes tiles for new games in a campaigns. Thats not including the two box set expansions either...

The core box set is massive and was impressed with the figures and number of them you get as well as the size of the AT ST. Also included are a load of booklets for quick reference for the rules, the main mission book and one that I am excited about was the rules for the skirmish game!

Looking at the scale of the models I think I can use my toy AT AT and Millennium falcon for the Skirmish game. Whaoo!

I think this game might have to be on my Christmas list this year.... Hint Hint.

Are GW Returning To Their Old Games?

A poster popped up this morning around the web and on forums introducing a new Specialist Design Studio from Games Workshop. This Studio will be specialising in GW's older game systems such As Blood Bowl, Mordheim, Battle Fleet Gothic and even handling The Lord Of The Rings.

With Total War Hammer and Mordheim games coming out soon on PC and the fact that this has taken GW a long time to support these games is it a little to late or will the legions of fans still playing these games be rejoicing?

There's a lots of games already out there at the moment that have the flavour and style of these older GW games. So the question is are GW trying to make a quick buck on these old IP's or will they fully support theses systems?  This will be one of the big sticking points for gamers as well as the price point as the market is getting cheaper.

Also what happens to the living rule books for games such as Blood Bowl will these become obsolete as GW rewrites the rules of their games to feel more up to date? Will these be limited addition games?

Time will tell what GW will do with this new studio as well as how they carry on with Lord Of The Rings. If GW can pull this off right this could be a very successful move.

What do you think?

Charity Shops The Secret Resource for Wargaming

I love charity shops. You walk in and you never know what you will find kind of like Forest Gump and his box of chocolates..

I've been lucky of late as they have become a great resource for my wargaming habit and I have found some absolute bargains.

I found this complete D and D game the other day.

Even had theses two fellas in the box too! Ones a world eater from 92 and not sure but the marine must be in the same era.

I also found in one shop a tin which had tons of Khorne Berzerkers.

It also contained Lord of the Rings figures everyone from the Mines of Moria set minus Frodo and LOTR scenery which came up pretty well after after a bit of paint

I've even added to my library and grabbed these Warhammer army books and even some Black Library books.

 

As you can see you can find some gems in charity shops. So the next time you pass a charity shop or see a car boot sale take a look around as you never know you could be surprise with some war gaming goodies.

What Are Rainy Days For...

Well yesterdays weather was awful. I had to pop out and got completely soaked. When I got back in I put on a cup of tea and cracked open my KR cases to see if there were any unfinished models (which there are a few) or something quick I could paint. As I looked at the pile of metal and undercoated minis and set my eyes on these fellas.

These old GW models are great. They are full of character.

I took some pictures of these a few weeks ago before I started work on them. It didn't take me long to get these fellas painted the other day as I tried to keep it simple using minimal amount of colours. I just did a few touch ups here and there today to finish them off.

I don't know what game I can use them for yet but I am sure so thing will come up down the line where I can crack these out. I really did enjoyed painting these.

Next up was finishing my Iron Fang kovnik, I tried just using Army Painter Dragon Red undercoat on this first as I usually start off with a black undercoat then spray the Dragon Red after. It was a bit of a bright red at first but after adding some washes and just selecting a few colours and keeping the colour pallet simple it turned out to be something I am happy with. I will be sticking to using just the Dragon Red and the colours used on this model from now on and use it on with my Iron Fang unit.

I have a few Warmachine models to crack on with but on my to do list are these Skipknot Dwarf Clowns, I first saw them when Riot Ville Link Here posted them on his blog for his post apocalyptic circus and I just had to have them. I am thinking they would make great henchman.

Thanks Mr2Key For These Boys!

I am just thinking about a colour scheme, I may go for red boiler suits to match Slipknots first album cover..

Well it was nice to have a rummage around and take stock of what minis I have and which ones are needing attention as if you are like me I have found things that are half finished, did not know I had and some I have not even started yet. So days like this are good to get things finished off and make a a rather large to do list. Now wheres my brush...

We Are Legion Part 2

After my second game I took a stroll around the club and had a chat with a few of the members and had a look at all the games being played tonight.

Macca gets ready to take down the Imperium..

Croc's are on the loose

Germanicus explains the befits of praying to the dice gods when playing Warmachine.

Some fine examples of 40K armies on show

So it was now time to get back to some gaming. My third game was against Ben who was running Cryx and Deneghra.

Cryx run forward.. dun dun da.

My jacks move up and are shocked by the shear pace of the Cryx jacks. Then Ben rubs salt in the wounds for my poor movement ability and casts crippling grasp now putting one of my Jacks movement down to a mighty 2 inch move..

Ben pops feat. Now my Destroyer is basically crippled as it's previous -2 is stacked on top of another -2 to all my stats except my mat and rat.. Luckily Sorscha was not in feat range.

Ben's heavy jack decides to go for the kill and destroys my Destroyer...

Sorscha is put into a corner and uses her move then wind rush to move closer to Deneghra but she can't get close enough to take a whack at her so she casts razor wind but with no luck. Then look who pops up behind....by by Sorscha...

Ben played really well and used all the tricks he had in his battle box to his advantage. Note to self don't play against Cryx!

So 3 losses but I was more then happy to make sure my opponents had fun and got to grips with the main elements of Warmachine. The battle box games were fun and a good opportunity to run out Sorscha and her jacks as it has been a long time since she has seen the table top.

Prizes were handed out on the night to the winners of best painted, most wins and wooden spoon (no it was not me)

As it neared the end of the night I was invited to enter my name into one of the clubs chapters.

Guess which one I went for..

I enjoyed my time at the Essex Legion it was good to meet new gamers and to see a lot of game systems that I enjoy being played.
There's lots of plans for 40k campaigns as well as a Christmas X Wing campaign and a Warmachine journey man league in the new year.

I am defiantly going to try and get down to The Essex Legion when I can. It's not the easiest of clubs to get to for me but with the welcoming atmosphere and sheer number of games being played I am going to do my best..

If your free on a Sunday between 5-10pm and can get to the Hornchurch area check out Essex Legion.

Essex Legion Web Site

We Are Legion... Part 1

On Sunday I finally managed to get down to the Essex Legion. After taking a bus then a train and a another bus I finally got there for 5pm. Let's just say I live a bit out of the way..

On arriving I knew I was in the right place with the club t shirts and mugs proudly shown around the hall.

Do I spy a 40k campaign?

You can feel the buzz with 40k, magic the gathering, x wing, and today's order of business is intro battle box games of warmachine.

The first game of the night is against Menoth and the Kreoss battle box.
I was tasked with helping Mike through his first game of warmachine. After showing Mike the basics we get down to the game.

Sorscha ready for battle.

Mike moves quickly up field.

The Repentor moves up and sets the Juggernaut on fire and misses Sorscha.

All the jacks move to the middle of the battle field for a clash of metal. Mike casts defenders ward.

Mike quickly got the hang of casting defenders ward and the usefulness of Kreoss feat and knocks down my jacks.

Sorscha try's to take the flank but the Repenter spots her and sets her ablaze and sets up a Menoth victory.

Mike did very well and started to get the hang of his battle box very quickly and after a quick chat about the game and future additions it was on to game 2.


My next game is a bit déjà vu as it's against Menoth battle box again but this time against a familiar face Mr2key.

We all move into position for the battle of fire and ice..

The Juggernaut charges in.

Devastator has a shot at Kreoss and takes 3 point of health from the caster.

The Repentor takes a free strike from the Juggernaut with no damage taken.

While Kreoss moves up with his heavy jack and Sorscha swiftly moves away from the danger of the flames from the Repentor.

My jack gets pushed back 1 inch freeing Kreoss from my jacks grasp.

Kreoss moves to the right flank away from the fight. Sorscha moves then uses wind rush and pops her feat freezing Kreoss where he stands.


The Juggernaut walks up to Kreoss with full focus hits him until he needs only one more hit with the ice axe. I just need to roll anything other than double ones and victory is mine....

Then this happened.... khador dice rolls strike!

Sorscha is now open to the flames of Menoth and the inevitable happens she is set on fire...

 This girl is on fire.....

A very close game and Mr2key thought it was all over when Sorscha popped her feat and so did I but that's why we play these games as you never know what can happen.

I think it was time for a little break and have a look around at the other games being played at the club...