Saturday saw me get up at silly o'clock to make the 2 hour and 30 min journey up to Nottingham to visit Mantic HQ for the Vanguard Launch day.
Lets just say winter is coming as I arrived with Tookey the temperature decided to drop...
We were let in a bit early and upon singing in we were greeted with our Giants and Frost Giant up grade..
Here is an examples of the Frost Giant kit which was put together on the day..
It was then a chance to check out all the lovely tables ready for some games of Vanguard and grab a quick cup of tea before the demos of Vanguard where underway.
Matt and Elvis talked through the basics of the game and let us all loose on to the tables.
There were plenty of warbands available for all to try on they day but
Tookey choose the Nightstalkers and yes I finally got my hands of the Northern a
Alliance.
We started a very basic game of just fighting one another just to get the hang of the mechanics of the game.
We set up 10 inches from the board edge just so we can get in to the fight a bit quicker.
I won the roll off to place my first mini and as we finish placing the final mini I also win the roll off to start.
It starts off a bit of a cagey affair but the fighting soon starts and Tookey finds out that the Northern Alliance are good at fighting and start to give out some hurt to the Nighstalkers.
Tookey inflicts enough wounds to make me take a nerve test on my Berserker and as she passes I am knocked down with one wound.
It starts to get heated on the hill as a Scarecrow has a whack at one of my Dwarfs but he stays firm as Tookey starts to have the run of bad luck with his rolling..through out this game with 4 dice he missed 5's at least 6 times...
My Snow Troll decides to go and avenge my Berserker on the right and starts to swing and I realise how good they are!
In the aftermath my Berserker is killed in battle.
Another big fight goes on as Tookey charges in..
One of my Dwarfs decides he don't like the look of the Butcher and helps out Huscarl adding another dice for outnumbering the big fella.
The Scarecrow on the left makes a killing blow and one of the Dwarfs dies in combat as I fail to roll to save.
I decide to attack Tookey's Reaper with my Ice Naiad trident which hits and freezes him to the spot but its not enough to kill so Tookey retaliates and kills him as my saving throw fails me again.
I decided to shoot at the frozen Reaper with my Ice Kin Hunter but its not successful..
The troll really starts to do work and starts inflecting some damage and pounds the kitty (thats what we call it but its called a Shadowhound) but Tookey kept rolling his nerve test and passing so it remained alive..
Tookey charges his Scarecrow in to help out the fight with his Butcher to stop the gang up bonus.
The Scarecrow goes to attack the Dwarf but Tookey's bad rolling appears and gets nothing.
I continue to attack Tookey's Butcher and finally manage to kill it in combat..got to love exploding 8s!
The fight on the hill continues to get nasty as the Scarecrow and Dwarf booth suffer defeats.
Tookey then runs up and charges his Reaper on the flank of my Ice Kin Hunter but only manages 1 wound and needs at least 2 to make a nerve test.
Huscarl kills the Scarecrow and turns his attentions to the Phantom while the Hunter and Reaper continue trading blows.
The Snow Troll really starts to get angry and kills the Shadow hound and follows up by adding another killing blow..
The Northern alliance start to smell victory is close and with a war cry Huscarl kills the Reaper on the hill and its called game.
Wow what a great game it did not take us long at all to get to grips with the game and its really easy as its all clearly laid out on the cards..
There were some bits that we needed help with but Matt and Martin were on hand to help if we could not find the answers..
It was a shame Tookey had some really bad dice rolls I mean really bad but we got the flavour of our war bands.
The Northern Alliance is a more harden fighting unit where as the Nightstalkers need a bit more finesse and like to control the board more.
The special ability of the Nightstalkers where they can force you to make a nerve test and if you fail it cost you your activation can be a huge game changer if you have enough command dice that is...
The Northern Alliance ability to bring one extra large base to the game is fantastic as the Snow Troll is awesome and I hear the Prime is even better!
The power dice again worked so well as you had to decided do you save you dice for your fatigued miniatures or should I add that extra dice to try and kill that mini... Really liking them.
I think its time for another cup of tea and a look around at Mantic HQ and the miniatures on display..
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