Market Garden

So I joined in on an epic scale, epic battle of Market Garden with 8000 points of madness and chaos on table. Being a noobe at Flames, I basically just turned up to roll dice and move a few things about, along with trying to learn a few more rules. Between the lads they laid out one of the best tables I’ve seen. It was seriously  impressive. The two teams were.
Allies     Will, Mark H, Rob
Axis        Paul, Phil, Blair
Will organised the scenario rules, with deployment Zones & Objective Placement laid out as in the diagram below.

Themed around Operation Market Garden.

Force selection:
· Each team has 4000pts split into 2 companies
· 1st company is 2500pts (this is the “attacking” force)
· 2nd company is 1500pts (this is the “defending” force)
· Up to 100pts can be moved across the forces, i.e. if the team decides a stronger defending force is required then they can re-allocate 100pts, bringing the total up to 1600pts, but only leaving 2400pts for their attacking force.
(This allows teams use up points left over, but also allows teams to make some decisions of where they think that extra platoon is going to be most useful).
Forces should only be selected from the “Market Garden” or “Bridge by Bridge” Late War FoW books.
The British “defending” force must be a British Parachute or Air landing Company.
Table set-up: Table can be laid out in a mutually agreeable way prior to the game. Preferably with a bridge somewhere, but only 1 river! There should be a “town” area in each of the defenders deployment zone.
Objective placement:
For objective placement during stage 1 to 3 below, the British players place their objective first.
1. Both players place an objective in the area outlined by the red box labelled “C”.
2. Both players place an objective in the area outlined by the red box labelled “D”
3. Both players place an objective in the area outlined by the red box labelled “B”
4. The British “Attacking” player places an objective in the area outlined by the red box labelled “E”
5. The German “Attacking” player places an objective in the area outlined by the red box labelled “A”
This gives a total of 8 objectives (the bridges weren’t the only objective!)
Force Deployment:
1. The British “Defending” Company deploys first. Half the platoons must be deployed on the table (rounding down), of which 1 can be held in ambush. The remaining platoons are held in Reserve. The company starts in Prepared Positions.
2. The German “Defending” Company deploys second. Half the platoons must be deployed on the table (rounding down), of which 1 can be held in ambush. The remaining platoons are held in Reserve. The company starts in Prepared Positions.
3. Both “Attacking” Companies are deployed simultaneously.
4. Both teams roll a die. Highest roll takes first turn.
5. Before starting, the team taking first turn deploys all Independent teams
6. The second team places all Independent team
7. The first teams “Attacking” Company now makes any reconnaissance moves
8. The second teams “Attacking” Company now makes any reconnaissance moves
9. “Defending” forces do not get to make reconnaissance moves
10. The first teams first turn now commences
Victory Conditions:
1. One of the Attacking Companies fails company morale
2. One of the Defending Companies fails company morale before turn 6 (if after turn 6, then it is ignored, they have done their job). Platoons from this company remain on the table, but start each turn pinned down
3. One side captures all 8 objectives
4. At the end of turn 8, the game ends. Winner is determined by total VP’s
VP calculation:
1. Each side gains a VP for each objective held (if an objective is contested by both sides, then neither side gets the VP)
2. If a platoon from the “Attacking” force holds an objective that is over the halfway line, then that side gains a bonus VP
3. If a platoon from the “Attacking” force holds the objective that was furthest away at the start of the game, then the side gains 2 bonus VP
4. The German side gains a VP for each British platoon destroyed
5. The British sides gains a VP for each platoon still over 50% strength
______________________________________________________________
So here’s a bunch of photos I took during the game.

I wont comment on to much detail of the game as I’m sure the boys will do a much better job of that than I can. But the end result was the Allied won on an 11 to 10 point difference. So it was right down to the wire with the Allied forces taking more objectives in the very last turn of the game,  but taking more casualties overall.

Thanks lads for a great game.

Here’s a link to Will’s photos he took during the game as well. http://s872.photobucket.com/

Demon

Started working on my big Demon again after about a year of him sitting on my shelf looking at me. Still a huge amount of work on him to go, but he's starting to come to life now.

Figure Painter

http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/

An awesome little magazine for the price of half a coffee.

https://www.facebook.com/FigurePainterMagazine?hc_location=stream

Here's a snip from one of the pages, well worth the price.

Back 2 Base-ix

Oh my God, The tidy pixies have struck. Yep my painting desk is looking crazy clean and tidy after my Back2Bas-ix rack stands turned up today.

After seeing Mark’s ones on his painting desk, and having a rather large accident with turps on my own desk several weeks ago, I decided to spend a bit of coin and get myself organise.

I’m stoked with them, they are easy as to put together, just watch the videos online on how to put them together, and wham bam one tidy desk.

http://www.back2base-ix.com/   I’d definitely recommend them.

Getting my Fix

I’ve well and truly got my fix of gaming over last week, even with the longs hours at work. I got in five games of Net Runner over last week, along with a couple of hours basing and base coating my Russians for Flames of War. Then 4 games of King of Tokyo on Sunday night and a an epic battle of FOG during Sunday. Cant believe it’s Tuesday already already. I need another weekend to recover.

Chris and I played a 600 point FOG game. First game in a long time and the rules were rather rusty as hell, but started to come back quickly. My Egyptian tactics are starting to work, or more to the point I’ve finally started to learn how to use them. Chris was running his Spanish Sertorius, and had quite a bit of bad dice luck at the beginning, which gave me the lead and the ability to out flank him. In fact i got in two intercept flank charges with my Light Chariots (pretty sure that's the first time I have ever managed to intercept with the Chariots). But he managed to grind me down over turns as his heavy foot finally caught up to my Medium foot bowmen. “Splat” . So it came down to some equal match ups and dice rolling in the last turn. I came out on top by 1 point. It was one of the closest games I’ve had of FOG. 

I really must get around to finishing off all my Chariots, ….one day soon I hope.

The Evil plan has sprouted wings

Now that I have completely corrupt my wife into playing board games my evil plan has sprouted wings and taken off. I’ve started to expand this idea of board games into more complex games. So for her birthday I bought her a few girlie things for her of course, but also got us a couple of Living Card games, both from Fantasy Flight.  NetRunner and Call of Cthulhu. Got them on sale, so I got them for a really good price.

So far we have just been playing Net Runner. (I’ve won 1 out of 4 games so far), Safe to say I’ve been getting my butt kicked. I’ve been playing the Runner and she has been playing the Corporation just until we get the rule down pat. It’s been a surprisingly fun game. The rules are a bit get get your head around and they aren't that well explained in the rule book.  If you can get past the jargon its a great little game. I’m looking forward to trying out some of the other Runners in the base game. The best part is my wife is really enjoying playing it.

Russian Madness

Yes, I’ve finally caved in and started an army for Flames of War. Got the books and enough to get me well and truly started. So today was my first game running my Russians, and my first game of FOW by myself. (I’ve played a few team games) Since I haven't had time to read any of the rules, it was a very fast and step learning curve of madness and destruction as Will shredded my forces.

 

I’m thinking of changing me name to “Full Stop” , you know that dot that appears on six sided dice that looks like a “Full Stop”. I kept rolling it today, rather a lot. I’d roll it, and all my cool looking little tanks would come to a permanent full stop for the rest of the game. 

There’s nothing like learning buy losing, I know cos I’m really good at it. Anyway it was still good fun, and I’ve got lots to learn and got some new toys to paint.

While I was playing Flames, the guys rocked out a few games of Dreadball as well. Looking forward to getting my fully painted team out for some more games.

Game Stats

I’ve been keeping a record of my games for a since last year, mainly out of curiosity. As I’m a classic magpie gamer, although starting to be less so with the number of games I now own. If I compare the investment in dollars to usage, it’s a rather interesting outcome so far this year.

With FOG Ancients being played the most, and having spent nothing on that, it’s an outstanding investment. Followed by Infinity, which I’ve only spent $150 on this year. When I say investment I mean one’s entertainment budget, as I always look at it as an investment in keep me sane.

By far this year’s investment has been in all the extras, that's paint , brushes, tools and building materials, along with purchases of board games.

Last year board games starting to make it into regular play, but this year they have really ramped up. A lot of that is due to having gotten my wife into playing board games with me, so I play a lot of games during the week with her rather than vegetating in front of the TV. King of Tokyo taken the top spot in  board games very quickly, thanks to its fast game play and awesome theme.

DreadBall – Rock City Roach’s

Haven't posted anything for almost two weeks, thanks to work and general life getting in the way. But I’ve been getting some good gaming in, with Dust, Infinity and a couple of new games. Mark and I played out a few games of Blood and Sands Gladiator game. But best of all we started playing Dreadball and absolutely loved it. Mark had got in on the Kickstarter but never gotten around to playing it until last weekend. I’ve already gone and got the Locus Team and started painting them.

Mob Wars

A few more roads completed and the city block is starting to come together nicely.

The big white board is going to be a large park, and if I plan it right I should end up with a nice usable park for lots of other games as well.

Strategy or War and X-Wing

I tried out a new Kick Starter card game yesterday, which Phil had purchased. 

Strategy or War. Took me to well past half way through the game to really get the gist of it. Each one of the 5 card decks is completely different and plays completely different. It has a few strange mechanics that I didn't think much of, and were a little odd. Or maybe it was just the way they represented them.  I only played one game, but the deck I used seemed to be very limited to one actual strategy against Phil's deck he was using. By the time I had actually worked it out it was too later, and I lost the game. I probably need to play a few more games

We then got into some X-Wing, and I finally broke out Slave One after having it since it got released. My first game against Phil was an epic slog fest, with two critical pilot hits on my best fighters making them flying Muppets. It turned into who was luckiest with the dice. Which turned out to be me for once, with the last man standing a lonely Tie fighter and everything else destroyed.

 

My Second game against Mark, was completely different, second turn Slave One was destroyed by Super Dave. ...(I mean Wedge) ..LOL... and his concussion missiles. Two critical hits which turned into two direct hits ... ouch.

 But my dice rolling was awesome and the Tie Interceptors were rocking out the pain, so Super Dave didn't have a chance and I won that game as well.

 

I definitely need to play more X-wing, especially if I can actually win the odd game or two.

Settlers of Catan:Traders & Barbarians

So the wife and I have been playing the Traders & Barbarians expansion over the last few nights for Settles of Catan. It has some very good 2 player scenario.

 

I'd highly recommend it for an expansion,  especially if you want a 2 player version. It puts some very nice changes and additions into the base game. Great fun and the average game comes in at 45-60 minutes, so its easy to fit into gaps between larger games.

Mob Wars

 So I got given a new iPhone 5 from work ( really hate that ..lol) so just took a few close up pics on it , of my Streets for Mob Wars to see how blogging straight from the phone is like.

Still got a lot to do, but getting there.