Boardgaming weekend!

New friends, new games! On Saturday nine (!) people met to play boardgames at a mate's place. I started with the relatively benign Dixit: Odyssey, a family-friendly word-picture-story-association game. I recommend 'Whimsical ambiguity' as a winning phrase.

I then got to play Discworld: Ankh-Morpork for the first time. You don't have to be a Pratchett fan, but it does enhance the experience. Ankh-Morpork is an area control game where up to four players take secret roles to spread their influence across... Ankh-Morpork. The hidden identities have sudden-death winning conditions, so it becomes a paranoid race. I spent time planning my moves to obtain my goals, stab the other players in the back, avoid being stabbed myself, and trying to keep my identity a secret. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed it and look forwards to playing more.

In the first game, I was Lord Vetinari, and had to spread my agents across nine of the twelve districts. Unfortunately, Lord Rust attained his goal of dominating four areas first. Dragon King of Arms and Chrysoprase didn't go so well.

Vetinari (blue) loses to Rust (yellow)

We enjoyed it so much we played again: this time I was Lord Rust, but Vetinari was able to claim a win despite everyone's combined efforts! Great fun, surprisingly quick, highly recommended! No photos of the second game, unfortunately.

"Don't let me detain you."

I then had a quick game of Zombie Dice, a push-your-luck dice-rolling game. I came a close second with thirteen brains to the winning zombie's fourteen.

Finally, we all did two laps of Formula D (well, some of us crashed in the first lap...). There was a lot of good-humoured sledging, and I was able to coast it in through the pack for a comfortable win. Champagne driving! The only thing I dislike about this game is player elimination.

On the starting grid. Barks in green with orange spoiler.

Barks in the middle of the pack in the first corner

Second lap: Barks takes the lead

Barks wins!

On Sunday I played Tsuro for the first time. This is an elegant, fast and aesthetically pleasing tile-laying pathway game. We cracked out four games easily in under an hour.

Tsuro: My blue rock runs out of world!

Then I played Ticket to Ride: Europe. This was the first time I'd played this 'for real', having previously only played the iOS version. A timeless game, which I lost!

Finally, I tried King of Tokyo, a dice rolling game which had been mentioned to me after having played Zombie Dice. We only played with two players, and I won it very fast and a little too easily. I'd be interested to see how this goes with more players.

Every game I played this weekend was a first for me, except for Formula D, at which I had my first win. It's been a while since I've played a proper tabletop miniatures game (does X-Wing count?); I'm losing my wargaming cred...

In-game pics by me, all others via Google Images.

X-Wing, Waterdeep, Firefly

Got a little gaming in:

First, I had my imperial butt kicked by A-wings.

Then, I held my own for a creditable third in Lords of Waterdeep, on Gorillamo's blinged-out set.

Customised meeples

Note plastic rubies and pile of gold coins

Finally, I tried the new Firefly boardgame. I liked the idea, but it became a bit of a frustrating grind and we were relieved when the final heist came off.

Captain Nandi and the crew of the Bonanza

Happy name day, Blog!

Happy Second Birthday to Wargaming with Barks! It's been another fun year in the hobby, and I'm celebrating with you with wine, women, and song*. We're all here carousing and reminiscing about the stuff I've got done in the last twelvemonth. I think my favourite little thing was the Zulu project.

Here's a taste of some other things I got done:

15mm Russian counter-terror team

15mm African militia

Get to da choppa!

Blood Bowl Vampire team

River experiment

Larger than Lief

Hobbitses!

I painted more Lord of the Rings than I had anticipated, and less Saga. I made it to four Blood Bowl tournaments. After Blood Bowl (21 games), the most gaming I had was with a pleasantly engaging and thematic cardgame, Netrunner. I played quite a variety of other new (to me) games this year, all boardgames. I finally got to try Twilight Struggle. I've gone in for a few crowd-funded doodads, including a Jane Austen card game. Yes.

It has been a good year. Thanks for your comments and advice, it really helps. I never really see myself as a numbers-chaser, but I casually note in passing that I'm approaching 100 followers, am well over 100 posts, and have gone through the 45K hits mark.

As my birthday gift to you, I'm going to try and tweak the settings to remove the wretched Captcha gizmo, so that comments flow more freely. If I'm getting spammed, then I'll sadly reconsider.

Unfortunately, however, I'm going to be decreasing the frequency of my posts for a while because of external forces. Bitter, sinister, external forces. I'm not going away, but it will be a little quieter around here for a while. I'll pop around every now and then to dust things off and air the curtains. There is so much to be done...

* individual experiences may vary.

Eureka 15mm Bushmaster preview

I received a sneak preview pic today of the Eureka '300 Club' Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle. The PMV was sculpted by Mike Broadbent. Kosta Heristanidis is working on stowage, a remote turret, and IED jammers, and Alan Marsh is completing the infantry. Woohoo!

Nic at Eureka thinks the range may be ready for general release early 2014. You can place preorders for the Infantry here and the Bushmaster here.

• 300MOD50 Australian with EF88 (8 poses)
• 300MOD51 Australian with EF88 and LAW (2 poses)
• 300MOD52 Australian with EF88 and UGL (2 poses)
• 300MOD53 Australian with F89 Minimi (4 poses)
• 300MOD54 Australian command team, standing – 2 figs
• 300MOD55 Australian command team, kneeling – 2 figs
• 300MOD56 Australian sniper team, with helmets – 2 figs
• 300MOD57 Australian sniper team, bush hats and ghillie suits – 2 figs
• 300MOD58 Australian Carl Gustav team – 2 figs
• 300MOD59 Australian GPMG team, firing – 2 figs
• 300MOD60 Australian GPMG team, patrolling – 2 figs
• 300MOD61 Australian EOD team  – 4 figs, I dog
• 300MOD62 Bushmaster

Suggested pricing: Figures $0.80ea, AT and GPMG teams $3.50ea, dog team $4.50 ea, Bushmaster $15.00 (all $AUD, add 10% for GST).

Blood Bowl Humans- The Nuns

This will be the first in an occasional series going through my Blood Bowl teams in a chronological order, not including those already covered on my blog.

My very first Blood Bowl team was Dwarves. I got beaten a lot because I had no idea how to play.  It wasn’t just that I didn’t own the rules and had to rely on my opponents telling me what I could and couldn’t do, but also I didn’t have a clue about tactics. I didn’t take Blitzers because I couldn’t see the advantage in their (relative) agility, and because they didn’t have Tackle. I’d just line all my guys up on the line of scrimmage in defence. (Now I’m better- and I own a copy of the rules!).

A few years later, and I guess about over ten years ago, I had met a new wargaming opponent, Sangraal. He was teaching me DBA. The concept of units supporting adjacent units in a battle line and pushing opponents back sparked a few memories, and I said to him, “I think you’ll like Blood Bowl.” We then got into it in a big way, he’s run many Australian tournaments, and I haven’t beaten him in yonks (and I don't think we've touched DBA since...).

My first team in my re-finding of Blood Bowl was Shadowforge's nuns. I actually wanted to play the bunnies, but Sangraal got there first, and I’m glad he did because the nuns- The Bad Habits- were awesome. They opened my eyes to the potential of Blood Bowl to be non-GW, with conversions and customised support staff and allow you to really personalise a team. You know I'm having fun when I've got more support staff than players!

The Bad Habits

The linesisters

Sisters Patience and Goodness

Blitzers- Sisters Faith, Hope, Charity, and Salvation

Throwers- Sisters Sweetness and Light. These are some of my all-time favourite sculpts

Catchers- Sisters Chastity, Prudence, Virtue and Temperance. I really like human catchers.

Mother is the centrepiece of the team. She is still one of my favourite conversions, from a Reaper ogre. I went nuts with Milliput, and she always gains attention and compliments. My favourite moment with her was when I pulled off a last-turn highly unlikely play and got the ball from one end to the other and passed it to Mother, who caught it. To score, she needed to Blitz one opponent out of the way- Triple Skulls! I forgave her.

Mother

Before the operation

The Apothecary is the Reaper Angel of Light. I do better white now.

Apothecary

Other support staff from Shadowforge.

The monk is a generically useful figure for many games.

These are from RAFM.  The mad nun is my wizard, and I've had plans to change the lantern to a chainsaw. Someday.

Support staff

The reroll markers are also from Reaper.

Reroll markers

Cheerleaders are from the ever-useful West Wind and Shadowforge.

I love the cheerleader personalities.

I never went to a Catholic school, but it’s a common question I get from people who have seen the team. I also get a lot of questions about whether or not I have a nun fetish- sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t! Some friends got me a wind-up Nunzilla (she shoots sparks as she walks) to be a team mascot.

It's interesting looking back at these figures. I hadn't found my current painting style yet, and these are decidedly clunky, especially in close-up. There are a few chips I should touch-up. Still, I really enjoy the sense of uniqueness and ownership that the conversions and support staff bring to the team.