Space Samurai and Bikes

Infinity, Infinity, Infinity........ where do I start?
The beginning would probably be the best idea.

I have known about the game for a while, when I say "known about" what I mean is, I was aware that there was a game called Infinity. I have always been predominantly a 'one game' kind of guy, as in, I will play one game as my main game to the detriment of all others. I dabble with the odd casual game in and around my main game too. I started with 40k back in 1995! I played that until the end/half way through 6th edition when my interest in it was really waning, I then picked up Dropzone Commander and have played that pretty religiously from the end of 2012 until now(ish).

Alex (over at the Epitude Rusk blog) is a massive fan boy of Infinity. He has a butt-load of models and even more scenery. He bullied me into gave me an intro a long while ago maybe early 2015 or late 2014ish. I really didn't enjoy it. In fact I'd go so far as to say I hated it.

Learning This Game Could Take Forever...

There's been a rather large void to fill in my life since Dropzone Commander has not just taken a back seat in my gaming car, but instead has been tossed in the trunk and forgotten about, rolling around like an old, half-sucked Chupa Chup collecting fluff and losing its flavour (Cola, if you were wondering). With the passenger seat of the Gamesmobile now empty I have been looking keenly for any hitchhikers to play with, like a sinister old man from a horror movie. In my wake of hitchers I have had the fortune to pull over and give a lift to Corvus Beli's game of anime science-fiction; Infinity.

Never before have I encountered a game which has gorged itself to obesity on such complex and layered rules, and gorgeous but fiddly (some would say badly cast) miniatures. A game which clearly didn't care about the difficulty curve for new starters, or for that matter players with an intermediate grasp of the rules. A game which feels more like an RPG where not just the GM has to learn every little detail, but each player who wants to have a moderate chance of winning (and for some, a chance of enjoying) a contest.

Infinity is the most unashamedly decadent game I have ever played. Corvus Beli have cultivated a true Beast of wargaming, and clearly there is a niche for it, as this Beast is confidently galloping forward and chomping down gamers left and right.

Goodbye DzC Version 1: The Long Kiss Goodnight

Check out my mad MS paint skillz!

The end of an era, the passing of an old friend......

September 24th 2017 will be forever marked as the last day of the last Invasion for Dropzone Commander version 1. I will certainly miss it, but out of the ashes will rise a new version. A better version? Who knows at this time.

I digress, I want to talk about Invasion, and why the hell not. I won. Again.

For those that have listened to the Orbital Bombardment podcast, I have been planning a ‘secret project’ for a couple of years now. This happened to be an L.A.P.D. themed Allied Resistance army.

As this was the last chance to play the original Dropzone Commander I wanted to finish them and take them, alas I did not finish painting the army.

The Occupiers of Atlantia

The crew on route to Invasion. I think this may have been taken whilst we were being given our hosts.

As is customary with all tournaments, and was noted in my last blog post, the three weeks before Invasion were spent mostly with me glued to my sofa painting tiny blocks of shaped resin. Normally for a gamer this would be a delight; to have a solid reason to chill out (or cotch as the street kids say) on your sofa, listen to podcasts and paint your hobby. However, it gets to a point when this stops being the case. In fact I'm going to let a selfie of myself from the day before Invasion highlight just how fed up with painting blue and pink I was:

Critical Engagement 2017 - The Breakdown

What the hell is Pete afraid of? 

So what does it all mean? Well not a lot really, but we had a bloody brilliant time.

We had 20 players turn up on the day (including myself as the odd man). Unfortunately we had 2 drop outs in the week before and one no-show on the day (mentioning no names Hawk Sean!!! [Dan edit; you clearly mentioned a name there, Hawk Sean. Right there. It says Sean. Sean, of the Hawk. Seanus Hawkimus. SeanbotXX6k. Sean The Russian.]).

We set up 10 beautiful tables, with ALL custom scenery painted - no bare MDF in sight! A huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the team effort to get it all looking pretty and an extra big thank you to Betty for all the scatter terrain and bunkers.

OB Podcast Episode 20: Bigger Isn't Always Better

You look like you need to hit the gym! And by gym, I of course I mean our gym, Orbital Gymbardment. And when visiting the Orbital Gymbardment I will refer you to our two main (and only) areas, the massage parlour and the sauna, in the later of which you can join us for our latest podcast episode!

These intros are becoming increasingly tenuous, right? Maybe its the heat in the UK melting my brain, which is currently dripping from my tear ducts onto my keyboard. How do you get brain juice out of a keyboard?

Come and relax in the hot box with us whilst we have a chatet about upcoming events (including Critical Engagement), our time at the UK Games Expo and why we are running a 1000 point tournament, and more importantly why you should try the smaller points size out!

The Right Expo-sure.

Well hello there my spaceship loving fans, I am back.

The UK Games Expo 2017 is over and we are all hibernating as the four days of gaming, drinking, and generally being a bit silly has come to end. Also the weather here is like a normal English summer... RAIN!!!

NAVEL EXPO-SURE

Me (joe) and Ed are travelling up to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham., and are both attending Hawk's largest to date Dropfleet commander tournament in the UK!

The tournament is on Saturday 3rd June, during the  UK Games Expo that runs from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th. We are driving up on Today along with Mike and Sir [edi: Madam] Bethany to get settled into our surroundings and wet our throats a little, or maybe even a lot.

It's a 1 day tournament of 1250 points, clash sized, playing 3 games of 3 hours long (yeah its going to be a long day, but a fun and very rewarding one). Hawk have released a Tournament Pack and an FAQ just in time for this event which I believe is to add in some much needed balance to the game.

Currently they have 34 players signed up. Only just a few months ago they increased the player limit to 64 from 32, so there is still some space to get in on the action. I'm not too sure on how the scoring system is going to work with just 3 games, but the boys down at Hawk are a smart bunch, and am sure they'll figure something out.

Critical Engagement 17: Missions and Prizes

Greetings valued readership

As I mentioned in a previous post about our annual tournament Critical Engagement '17, I have put together the missions pack.

Also we have locked in some of the finest event sponsors for prize support.... exciting times!

Invaders, They're Coming Over The Hills

Until I looked up the lyrics for the classic Iron Maiden, British Heavy Metal track 'Invaders' to paraphrase the title of this post, I had no idea that the perfect lyric "Invaders...Marauding" existed in the second chorus. Either Iron Maiden are fans of Dropzone Commander and managed to leave a note in the past for themselves (like a reverse Blue Peter time pod), Dave Lewis is a secret-but-not-so-secret Iron Maiden fan, or it's all just a big, rather deflating coincidence.

Anyway; Invaders... Marauding.

I wanted to experiment with something a little 'alternative' in my Scourge list and general army meta, and with Coastal Assualt approaching I deemed it a more than adequate staging ground for this test. What test? Why, using Invaders in a Scourge list of course!

Coastal Assault 2017

Sunday bloody Sunday............

No-one likes waking early on a Sunday, especially not me, but it was for a good cause; I got to play Dropzone all day whooo hoo

4 of us departed from the penthouse apartment of OB towers in Orbital Bombarmentonville and descended on Brighton for the third year running.

Just outside of Brighton, we all had a major dilemma. Do we sack off the tournament and head on to the 'Ladyboys of Bangkok' live cabaret show or carry on as planned........

Critical Engagement 2017

It's here, it's finally here.... Probably the greatest tournament known to man, woman or beast!

As last year was such a success we will be doing it again, same format but with some different missions. We had 24 players last July, let's see if we can top that.

New Mission: Forward Air Base

A week has gone by, allowing you lots of time to observe, bite into and digest our first new mission, Civilian Extraction. How did it taste? Like a juicy, medium-rare steak? Or perhaps more like a sweet piece of mama's pumpkin pie? Or maybe you didn't like it, and it tasted more like a glass of hot bin juice.

How ever you liked last week's mission, I have a new, fresh and steamy serving for your palate to experience today; Forward Air Base!

New Mission: Civilian Extraction

Other games may have distracted us from our blogging efforts for a while (although in the most golden of ironies not Ed), but I can report that we are trundling along in the background and still getting ready for Critical Engagement in July. One of my favourite parts of Critty E (as the event is broadly known on the streets, just ask your local rude boy for confirmation) is the freedom we have on rule and mission creation. After all, it's our tournament, and we'll do whatever we ruddy well like!

With that in mind, I have created the following mission, Civilian Extraction, which features a brand new rule and objective type to fight over; Survivor Markers and Survivor Objectives!

Ed and Joe Drop into Warboar

We've selected Bettys new hair do.

Dropfleet has just had an official tournament in the dark grey area of London town known as Bromley. The tournament was held as a way of seeing how players were playing the latest work of the Hawk chaps, but it was also held to playtest the new command cards for Dropfleet.

Invasion Report: Reconquering the Colonies

Hey ho bloger-sphere, how the devil are you?

You may have already heard the word.........I won Invasion for the 3rd time. Not only that, but it is a hat-trick of Winter Invasions for me; 2015, 2016 and 2017. That is 2 with UCM and one where I basically cheated and took Shaltari.

The tournament went right down to the wire and was only determined on the last activation of the last turn. The event ran really smoothly and was great to see all the friendly faces. There were 38 competitors, which was a little disappointing to see - big drop from September, and a slight drop from last Winter.

There was tid-bits of information and some beautiful artwork to see from an 'as yet unknown' project, more to come on that I hope.

Is the Broadsword getting some Flak?

Good morrow avid readership.

It is I, Lord MegaMike, back to regale you with stories of artistry and war......

Almost an age has slipped past since (as some of you longer-term readers may remember) I was reviewing the newer units from Reconquest Phase 2.

The Broadsword was one of the units that I was not immediately smitten with. Well good news - I have grown to like it. So much so that I have even painted it.

Rise of the Phoenix

Title and pic is a bit overly dramatic

Basically, I'm playing UCM again, and I'm taking them to Invasion at the end of this month. Mainly because there is not a lot of love for them, they are the perennial underdog.

I'm not sure in the current meta (do I even know what it is at the moment??) that the UCM are that effective, hey ho, I'm taking them anyway. I'm going in.....

Warfare 2016 - The Army Lists

It's that time of year again. The days are short and dark, the trains forget how to keep time, and the cold is determined to slip into all my special places. That's right, it's November, and that means complete bleakness for the next four months in the UK, although politically England has been in a state of November for number of months now, so at least we're prepared for it this year.

A lighthouse in this Mist of Misery however is Warfare 2016! For those unaware the Warfare exhibition is traditionally a historical event (ranging from anywhere between WW2 to Ancient Egypt, and maybe even further back in time; Dinosaur War-Simulator [8.76mm]), and the horde (not hoard) of tournaments for these systems go to show that they are very much live and kicking! Starting from last year though a TO had managed to squeeze in something a little newer (although at a very familiar scale), all of our favourite Sci-Fi game; Dropzone Commander! The tourney is a two day affair with five games, set at 1500 points.

Much like last year all the boys are off to it except me, which gives me the joy of critiquing all of their lists; let the criticism begin!

Mikes Autumn Invasion 2016

Well it's been over a week now, so I guess I should relay my experiences over the weekend at Croydon Conference Centre.

It was a lot of fun, and as you may already know by now, I finished up 4th - missed out on the top 3 by a solitary dice roll - more on this later.