Joshin November 30th

[Auxryn]

No problem. I'll use firewarriors for the normal guys and sergeant, pathfinders for the special weapons, and a drone for the flamer.

[ashmie]

Had a leisurely morning. By the time I'd been for a run, done a workout and got showered it was 2:30pm. I might make it there today guys but just to say hello and see whats going on. Have a good one.

[Primarch]

Thanks to everyone for another good day of gaming. I got in three games of three different systems today, so that was good.
First of all, I played Ronin against ToD. My Ikko-Ikki got into combat with ToD's Samurai pretty quickly and despite taking a few casualties, were able to overwhelm them.
Having finish Ronin pretty quickly, ToD demo'd Drop Zone Commander for me. It seemed ok overall, but there was nothing that really struck me as being parricularly engaging about the system. The rules were fairly straightforward, but the only real selling point is the aesthetics of the minis. I may be tempted to pick up a force, but Firestorm: Planetfall is looking really tempting as well.
After lunch, I had a crack at the Judge Dredd game against Yellowstreak with Lovejoy providing rules support. My ape gang got creamed by Mega-City One's finest. Again, a solid set of rules, but nothing I found especially noteworthy. Not being a huge Dredd fan, it seemed like an ok game. Given that we only had 7 minis on the table in total, it didn't seem very detailed.

Thanks to ToD, Yellowstreak and Lovejoy for the games. See you all at the next one.*

*December 21st in Zengo.

[The Other Dave]

Yeah, Ronin was good fun! I just seriously underestimated the badassitude of my samurai. Nice straightforward system.

And I agree about DzC - there's nothing wrong with the rules, nothing is broken and it's fun enough to play, but it's a bit thin, tactically speaking. Still, the minis are nice and other people are actually willing to buy into it, so I'll stick with it. I do want to try out Planetfall, too. I really like the look of the Sorylian line.

Thanks to job for getting a game in, and double thanks to Auxryn for catching a pretty glaring rules mistake I'd been making. I was actually kind of surprised at how my infantry-heavy force did - I managed to win, even after all my tanks got shot up and my Desolator electrocuted half my army, just because I had stuff on the board to take the objectives and job didn't (job, I realised: Really, I could have just bottled up in those two buildings, staying away from walls and windows so you couldn't shoot me directly, and held the objectives there until turn 6 ended, getting a 2VP to 0 victory it would require you to literally tear down the buildings to deny me). It's slightly rock-paper-scissors-y in some ways, and I can really see how 1500 points will probably be a lot more interesting tactically than 1000, but it does seem like there's room to take different approaches to the game. We'll see!

I won't be able to make it to Joshin in December - got a speech context that day - so I'm going to start thinking seriously about next year's resolutions over the next few weeks, since that turned out to be pretty good for my painting resolve this year (even if I did end up changing my plans several times, having a plan to change helped, heh). I'm thinking I want to finish my 10mm Middle-Earth for January's Joshin day and some movie tie-in action, but past that I'm going to have to give it a good think. Lots of fun games kicking around these days!

[job]

@ KJ_1066: Thanks for the game. It was a lot of fun. I'm sorry we couldn't quite wrap up the game, but all things considered we were able to get through the meat of the game and refresh on all the rules at the same time. Whatever, it looked good on the table and the game was close.

The armies line up.


The armies close on each other.




@ ToD: Thanks for taking me through my first game of DzC. It was fun, but I learned not to move my transports loaded full of troops before even on AA vehicle.


yeah, I guess there are also other tactical points we'll have to work out like bottling up in buildings, or where to deploy AA best, and how to use those special attacks. Anyway it should be interesting and I hope to expand my force later.

[Auxryn]

Thanks to Dekana for a great game against Imperial Guard vets.

game.jpg

I considered doing the whole report in orky talk, but I doubt I could pull it off and I know it would be more irritating than worthwhile. Anyway, here's what happened:

We played a maelstrom game with 2 objectives on my side, 2 on Dekana's, and 2 in the middle.
I deployed most of my fast stuff, including meganobs, on my left and my 'ard stuff, including The Yellow Gorkanaut on my right.

My plan was that the 'ard stuff, being the gorkanaut, some kanz, and a mob of boyz, would walk forward and take the center objectives while the fast elements shot forward and tried to krump everything from the side.

It turned out that Dekana's chimeras were all packed with plasma, and he managed to put paid to my Meganobs by round 2. Perhaps I should have hidden behind the wrecked trukk, not in front of it. Fortunately, my Shokk Attack Gun then rolled box cars and filled the IG parking lot with tenacious D.

As chimeras were sucked helplessly into the vortex, the remnants of my fast attack group continued to push the guard back and the grinding advance of the gorkanaut and friends took the center objectives and gave me control of the board and the game.

At that point we called it. Dekana was technically still ahead on points, but it seemed pretty likely I would surpass him in the next couple turns.
The IG were hurt in this game by the maelstrom's need to control and score objectives all around the board. Focusing anti-tank firepower on the kanz and gorkanaut wasn't really possible because that firepower was needed to shoot meganobs, but once the ork walkers got to the center of the board, the IG were literally backed into a corner.

Overall it was lots of fun and closer than it sounds, and I think we both learned a bit from it.

[Lovejoy]

Thanks to everyone who played Dredd today. I didn't play myself, but enjoyed refereeing and giving some rules guidance.
In all we had four players, three of whom played today for the first time.


Let the Dreddening commence!

-Game 1, Underdweller's street gang ('The Switchblades') vs. Konrad's well established Judge force.
Quite a close one, despite the advantage in veterancy for the Judges. The gang had the numbers and some decent heavy weaponry, (although strangely, considering their gang name, not a knife among them). A street punk with psychic powers was able to wipe out two rookie judges with a nifty fiery finger ability, and there was a sticky period for the 2 remaining Judges, with Psi Judge Steele cowering under a stairwell being shot at a lot, before the fuzz ultimately won out by arresting or executing everyone.


Konrad ponders his approach, Switchblades have the angles covered. This won't be easy.

- Game 2, Prim's Ape Gang vs. Yellowstreak on Judicial duties. Unfortunately not as close this time, with the Judges lawgiver shots finding their mark and quickly neutralising the melee threat of the gorillas. I think that the Judges can be quite a tough preposition for apes, since they're like a street gang but without the cheap bodies. The names of Yellowstreak's characters were Judge Rodney King, Judge Woo with his dual lawgivers, and Psi Judge Carrie. Apparently these names represented something of their personalities.


Some blurry apes. Sadly, these poor simians are all dead now.

Thanks again to everybody. I'll be bringing Dredd more regularly to Joshin from now on if there's interest.

Prim, I hope you'll give it another crack, I think if you try out another gang with more toys and quirks it'll be a more satisfying experience. The talents today were quite limited partly due to low levels, partly because to keep things simple. Lots more room for customisation in campaigns of course.

[komura]

@Underweller & Kojibear
Have you enjoyed 40K game with beginners club member yesterday?
@Prim & Lovejoy
See you at December 21 in Zengo. At this occasion Could you introduce me RONIN game.

[Konrad]

Great pics and great reports. Did we have a full house or what?
@Dekana- Those glowing smoke markers were great. Sorry to see so many of them on your Chimeras though. Don't despair, you sort of got caught on the bad end of bad match up. You'll get em' next time.
@Underdweller and Lovejoy- Thanks for the Dredd guys! That was nail biting close. I was so close to getting one of those rookies to level up to Hero! "He was just a rookie, dammit." I seem to say that quite a bit. That "flaming finger" was quite a surprise. I actually hope he survives. I want that punk warming an iso-cube!
And Judge Steele does not "cower". She was striking a cool,crouching pose, ala Black Widow, while using her psychic powers to stop that torrent of machine gun bullets mid- air. We are the Law. We don't cower. We wait for back-up.

[The Underdweller]

@Komurasan - I had a fun game with Mr. Nakanosan and his friend. I think I had the advantage due to the scenario (The Relic), but the Necrons managed to wipe out almost half my army before they were defeated.

I know they are members of the Beginner's Club, but I didn't realize that yesterday was their first time ever to play 40K until I asked them after the game- they knew the rules really well for having never played before!

@Lovejoy and Konrad - yeah, Judge Steele didn't have to cower, not with her special Judge armor and extra Psychic armor keeping her safe. Still, I bet my Heavy Spitgun gave her a scare, it came pretty close to doing her in before my leader was blown away... Anyway, fun, and close game!