Saga Day 3

This past Sunday, my friend Mike and I hosted another one of our Saga Days to help introduce new players to the game. We invited a mix of veterans and new players so each newer player had an on-table 'coach' as their opponent. I set up three Saga battlefields on my main table and a fourth on some fold-up tables in my game room. Eight players plus Mike and I as hosts. We had a mix of Viking, Crusades and Age of Arthur armies present. Good times were had by all. We tried the first four scenarios from the recently published book of battles, one for each game.  Photos and a short video for your enjoyment are included below.

X-Wing 2.0 - Part Deux

Earl, Mike, Rob, Ralph and I got together last Friday at Ralph's to play another round of X-wing 2.0. Earl came to kibitz and took some of these photos so I could be in them (in blue). Thanks Earl!

I played my game against Mike's scum swarm for game one. Mike out-flew me early and bumped my list relentlessly, which was great for him, less so for me. My B-wings weathered the storm and took out some of his lighter swarm ships - mostly Z-95 headhunters. I was impressed by the scum Kihraxz fighter and what a horde of Z-95s can do. In the end the durability of the B-wings served me well.

My second game was against Ralph and his Tie swarm comprised of pairs of tie fighters bracketing a tie advanced. Six ships in all. I chose to grop my B-wings and Y-wing and flank with my X-wing. Ralph sent one group against my flanker and the one against the B-wing group. I quickly swung my X-wing left to rendezvous with the main force, not wanting to offer a 1 vs 3 to Ralph's right squadron. This kept them out of the fight for a couple of turns - long enough for my B-wings and Y-wing to gang up on his other three ships. Luck was with me on this game with the B-wings hitting hard with target lock re-rolls and getting very lucky on their single-die evade rolls.

NROW Play Test at Charlie's

Last Friday we got together to play another game of Napoleon's Rules of War at Charlie's place. On the menu a test with French against Spanish and British as a change of pace over the Austrians that have been facing off against the French in recent play tests. New rules to try were cavalry react and counter-charge. The former needs a few tweaks, but the latter seemed spot on and worked nicely.

Having been French a lot lately the random draw chose French for me again. I partnered up with Rob, Ralph and Earl. Opposite us were Bob, Robert and Mark. I took up the attack on the right side. My attack went reasonably well in the center, but on the right Mark's counter-charging cavalry sent my infantry running to the rear in droves. When we stopped the battle was still in question, but the French had made significant progress against the Allied center with the guard about to go in for an attempt on a coup-de-gras attack.

Photos for your enjoyment, and a video at the bottom:

X-Wing 2.0 First Games

Last Friday five of us got together to try out Star Wars X-Wing 2.0. It was a fun game with a lot to learn and many mistakes to make. There were dice thrown, asteroids crashed into an much mayhem. I ran a Rebel list with two B-wings, an X-wing and a Y-wing with an ion cannon turret. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but with four ships, two of which were B-wings with hull upgrade, I had a lot of health to lose. The list worked well and was durable although I need to learn not to crash my X-wings on asteroids when they have 1 hull remaining....doh!

Photos below of the fun had by all.

My homage to Thrawn and his X-wing videos on Youtube:

Northern Conspiracy February 2019 Game Night

Last Friday the club got together for it's February game night. I played in Ralph's 30 Years War Nexus game which I play tested previously. I chose to be on the opposite side to see how the other half lived.

This was a great game and went down to the wire ending up in virtually a draw. The Spanish tercios are juggernauts as they should be and the Imperialists played them very well. Our plan to hold in the center and win on the flanks, eventually started to work, but a touch late as the Spanish tercios mostly had their way with our new model pike blocks. Lucky for us Bob and Mark brought their flanks into order just in time. Fun game and the rules seem to be coming along nicely.

Phil ran a well attended and raucous WWII air-to-air game which everyone seemed to have fun playing.

Ed M. and Kevin had a couple of jousts using Ed's jousting rules.

A big thanks to all three game hosts.