Tabletop Gaming Live 2018 Part 1

Today I visited Alexandra Palace for Tabletop Gaming Live 2018.

I got there just before opening time.

Once entering the hall there were games being set up ready for the crowds as I managed to get in just before opening time to get the layout of the show.

 

First up I visited DMB Games and had a chat about his fantastic looking dungeon tiles..

Talking to Andy the creator at DMB Games the range of current products of pre painted resin tiles with accessories such as doors and even coffins are readly available with some exciting plans for the future.

So if your looking to add some 3D elements to your dungeon crawlers then check out

DMB Games.

Walking round I saw this grate looking table for the Batman Miniatures game ready for demos on the Wayland Games Stand.

Opposite on the River Horse Stand a sneak peek of the upcoming Kickstater for Mocking Jay was on show and demos were available.

Before it got busy I wanted to have a few demo games.

First stop the Mantic Games Booth.

Tookey and I made it to the Mantic stand and had a quick demo of Vanguard with none other than its creator Matt Gilbert.

I was playing The Northern Alliance and Tookey was the Abyssals.

We set up and after a quick run through of the rules we start out command dice roll.

Matt did say the Abyssals were slightly more powerful in this demo but he did help balance the game with allowing me an extra blue power dice.

Tookey starts and runs his leader forward I take a shoot at him with my Elf bowman but he misses. Tookey moves his Flame Bearer and fires using one of his command dice to extend the range at one of my Dwarves and I fail to save him.

In rage my other Dwarf runs up the field. Tookey moves his Abyssal Guard forward to meet the Dwarfs advance

The Dwarf takes a swing but misses the Abyssal Guard over the wall.

Mark sneakily moves his other Abyssal Guard around the flank.

As we have our command dice we can use this to add dice to our rolls, add special abilities or even fatigue our models to make another action like to shoot or move again. Also at the end of the round you can use the command points to clear fatigue.

I choose to fatigue my Elf bowman to hit Tookey's leader and this time I hit and Tookey fails to save and takes one wound. As the round ended I used my remaining command points to un fatigue my Elf bowman.

We go to round two and re roll our command dice and I go first.

My Dwarf attacks the Abyssal Guard and kills him moving 3 inches towards the Flame Bearer  

Tookey smells blood and charges his Abyssal Guard on the flank into my Leader and its the rear arch adding more dice and pain.

Tookey rolls to hit and 2 damage is taken with one life left on my Leader after my save rolls.

My Elf bowman attempts to shoot Tookey's Leader to stop him charging in to my leader.

Tookey then blast my Dwarf with a huge fire ball which I cant save another dead Dwarf.

Then Tookey charges his Leader after my Elf bowman fails to stop him and just like that she was dead...

Round 3 and we roll more command dice and I go first seeing the impending doom my bow man shoots at the Tookey's Leader with an extra dice from the command dice ability and guess what he misses...

So Tookey rolls in and finishes the job.

You had one job!!

Well that was a fast and furious game.

 The game flows really well and the command dice add a nice mechanic where you can add extra actions or abilities to your war band.

The cards for each character is a grate way to see what your abilities are and

once we had a couple of turns it was easy to play through.

Tookey and I are going to the Vanguard Launch day in October so this demo has really got us looking forward to more Vanguard.

The rule book for Vanguard is half price at the moment on Mantic Games website here.

Before we left Matt gave me a peek at the Kickstarter Exclusive Ice Elemental for the Northern Alliance..

Right  then after that grate demo game lets see what else is going on at the show....