A Rockin' Radio Show

So a couple of mates have just recently recorded their second show on a community radio station here in Auckland, NZ.

Check them out. It's a very eclectic mix of rockin' awesomeness. It opens with Goblin's theme for Deep Red for goodness sake! How awesome is that! (I am a fan of Dario Argento and Goblin).

The show you are looking for is called "TMD with Chocolaty and the Rat".

The link to the radio station is here: http://fleetfm.co.nz/

Download it. Definitely worth a listen.

EDIT: Sorry I should add... they're not a professional station... there may be some naughty words said.

Tombstone

Well... not quite as Wyatt was having a day off, but the rest of the Earp's were here with Doc.

My Lawmen were also on hand to help out against a large band of Cowboys.

A nice big Wild West game using the Legends of the Old West rule set to start the day off. Mark and I would be on the side of the Law. Garth and Phil were trying to run us out of town with the Cowboys.

The Lawmen and Earp's moved up to take commanding positions in the buildings on their side of the street. The Cowboys did likewise, but they were going to have to move closer. A few started moving over the fences to close with the Law...

Mark and I were quite happy to stay where we were and use our range and better shooting ability to start picking of the Cowboys. 

The Cowboys were going to have to move and they did. As the Earp's were so tough, the Cowboys decided more numbers were needed them to try and take them out. As they re-positioned, my Lawmen were able to remind them who was still in charge of this town.... the body count of dead Cowboys start to rise and rise quickly.

Neither Cowboy gang had many members left by this stage. The Lawmen had only lost a couple of upstanding citizens. The Earp's (i.e. Mark :) ) had had enough, so they burst out of the building they were in and were determined to finish things. This left the Cowboys with one last gamble... trying to stick Doc with a knife in hand to hand combat...

The Cowboys fail to finish off Doc and having lost so many of the gang.... they loose their nerve and flee from the town. So, thoughts on the game? The Earp's are tough. Real tough. Glad they were on my side! Possibly a bit too tough for a one off game like this. Would be interesting to see how they fair against a gang that has earned experience across a campaign as I think the special rules made a big difference. 

As for the rest of the game though..... the Cowboys were spread out across the table. I think this played into our hands as we could just sit and use our better shooting ability to pick the Cowboys off (some good rolling also helped!). Had the Cowboys used their own rifles (they would have out ranged my repeating rifles) to keep us pinned and then used their numbers to work around the flanks... then I think things would have been quite different. A group of them heading round one or both flanks would definitely had got me worried. Although it still probably wouldn't have worried the Earp's. Maybe next time, the Cowboys should have a couple of characters of their own to keep some balance.

Where did we go from here? Well, we decided to play another Warhammer Historical game. This time with Gladiators! Garth, Phil and I would each have 4 gladiators. It would be last Gladiator standing wins. This was going to get bloody.....

Each player could field one gladiator at a time. Each time your gladiator died, another could be enter the arena in the next movement phase. 

I won't go into too much detail, but in the end only one of Phil's gladiators remained. Bloodied, but alive.

As per the rest of the Warhammer Historical rule sets (same mechanics as LoTR), the game play and rules are simple. Nets and what happens there feels a bit odd, but I think that's more about getting the hang of the rules. It does feel like it is missing something. I do think a gladiator getting the initiative and successfully charging into a combat should get some sort of bonus, but I also guess a gladiator being charged will know exactly how to handle it. It doesn't feel like there are any tactics in this rule set.... it's more about whoever can roll higher. A campaign might give it a much better flavour though.

Finally, Mark and Phil had a game of X-Wing to finish off the day. I would have had a game after them..... but they were too slow.... to much chit chat! :)

I had some fun taking some pictures though.

Mark fielded the Rebels (YT-1300 & B-Wing). Phil had the Imperial forces (Tie Fighters & Tie Advanced). Lot's of shooting and damage from both sides followed by collisions at crucial stages made things hard for both players. It came down to the wire with both Rebel ships only having 1 hull point each. The Tie Advanced had full hull points and the one remaining Tie Fighter had 1 hull point left..... the Rebels choose a good time to shoot well having struggled all game.... finishing off both Imperial ships before they could return fire....

I suspect that at this moment Phil is checking up on the X-Wing FAQ/forums in regards to a certain YT-1300 combo of Han Solo/Gunner/Target Locks.... quite a few re-rolls were had in a couple of turns.... but as it stands. The Rebels won the day.

Finally, Happy Birthday Mark! Was a bit of a quiet day, but hope you enjoyed (2 wins... how can you not be happy :) ) and do enjoy your actual birthday on Tuesday.

Another Sunday Session

Another Sunday has passed with some relaxing dice rolling and talking crap (and there was quite a good story discussed this weekend, but I best not say any more!).

I arrived later than normal as I was having a particularly slow day after being at Wedding the night before. There was an open bar at the Wedding reception..... :)

When I got there, a big Wild West game was underway... loads of Mexicans, Indians, Cowgirls and Cowboys! Two new gentleman had also joined us. They were setting up for a game of 40k which lasted them all day!? I took a few pics of the games anyway (no idea of the end result for either):

At the end of the Wild West game, we decided on playing a few games of Malifaux since I had assembled my gangs. I would face Phil first and he had decided to run an Ortega gang. I went with Seamus and his Rotten Belle's.

My force consisted of:

Seamus w\ bag o' tools, red chapel killer and sinister reputation
Copycat Killer
Madam Sybelle w\ bleeding tongue
2 Rotten Belle's
Nurse

For the Ortega's, I think Phil had:

Perdita
Papa Loco
Santiago
Nino
Francisco

We also tried some strategies... the Ortega's would have to sabotage some key buildings, whilst Seamus just had to stop the Ortega's from getting close to the Resurrectionists deployment zone.

I think we started too far away, but that was okay. Worked for me...

My gang are the black models (hiding in the shadows...?? I really need to get back into a painting mood, but I'm having too much fun assembling my new 4Ground buildings). Both of us basically spread out along our deployment zones.

Nino used his special rule to deploy right next to the building to be sabotaged, so I had little chance to stop that.... but he didn't last long. Madam Sybelle let out a blood curdling scream at him as he placed the charge. Seeing him drop to knees with that... she summoned one of her Belles to finish him off....

Perdita and Santiago closed though and started to hurt the Belles.

Seamus headed over to help out after he and the Copycat Killer shot Papa Loco to pieces. There was no way I was letting that guy get close! By now Madam Sybelle has taken more pain than she can handle... but "arise my sweet".... Seamus summons more Belle's....

But the rest of the Ortega's are dead with Perdita somewhat hurt. At Seamus' command the Belle's start to close....

We forgot to set-up a turn counter, so ended the game at that point. Based on our strategies, I had 4VP ( for defending my deployment zone. Phil had 4VP for sabotaging the key building and one other. So a draw. Although... the Ortega's had left a few warm corpses for Seamus.... 

Onto game 2 and this was against Rob who wanted to try Lilith. Uh oh thought I.... I remember playing her a while back and using her dirty trick... (illusionary forest & sudden darkness). This wasn't going to be fun I thought.

Rob ran with..

Lilith
Mature Nephilim
3 Terror Tots

Anyway, we deployed. Both of us grouping our gangs together. And to make things easy... we just headed straight for each other. I don't even remember what my strategy for this game was... I think I had to get to the Neverborn deployment zone. The set-up:

The Nephilim was quickly into combat, but not before Madam Sybelle's scream put some hurt on him and Lilith. A good start (helped by the fact that I remembered to spend soul stones).

Lilith soon joined the fray, but scarpered not long after as she would have been left isolated at the end of her activation. That wouldn't be a good thing for her....

Unfortunately the dirty trick wasn't helping Rob.... I made sure I stayed together in a tight knit group. If she charged someone.... others would be able to charge her... As it was I had a fright when Seamus killed one of the Tots. The Nephilim wasn't so happy on seeing this and was able to be placed right into base contact with Seamus! Seamus just grinned though... a Nephilim was going to no worry for him. Apart from the splashes of black blood burning everyone though.

Soon it was just Lilith and a Tot left...

Lilith was surrounded and hurting. Seamus was still grinning... So we called it there. Next turn would have probably seen the end of Lilith, although if she activated right, she still could have made someone hurt.

As it was, I don't think either of us had got anywhere near our strategies so 0 VP's each... technically a draw then? :)

I'm enjoying this Malifaux game. Although it was frustrating drawing crap hands every turn. It can really hamstring you if you can't cheat fate. I was hoping to get off a couple of abilities, but just couldn't get the right cards.

As for Seamus and his Belle's... really glad I got them. Am enjoying running them (I know, I need to paint them). The Belle's combined with Madam Sybelle are working well for me and I'm starting to get the hang of using them to compliment each other. Seamus is just nasty :)

The only gang member I'm struggling with is the Nurse. Just can't figure out how to use her yet. Feels like I should be using her to buff my own gang members, but I'm not so sure.... more reading on forums required here I think.

I had also best go read the rules ready for next weekend. We were definitely rusty and I know I made a few rules mistakes with my gang by not reading the cards correctly. Like only being able to shoot once per activation and summoned Belle's are slow on the turn they activate.... whoops.

Until next time.