tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35056224447089961822024-03-23T11:34:23.802+00:00Orbital Bombardment - The Miniature Gaming Blog and PodcastProviding all your blog, podcast and video needs for the world of Dropzone Commander!Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.comBlogger302125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-4736068363775285232019-06-24T16:13:00.000+01:002019-06-26T11:14:59.931+01:00Totally Unofficial Dropzone Commander V2 Errata<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When a new game is launched there's bound to be teething issues, right? A typo here, a clarification there, a Traffic James every so often, and the new Dropzone Commander rules found in <i>Battle for Earth</i> have proven to be no different. Well, I suppose you could say it's a little different, considering the development time, competent play test groups (meant sincerely, before salt gets ground out) and a great core rules set to build from.<br />
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Let's not beat around that busy, bustling bush though, there are issues with the new rules. Completely setting aside the differences to V1 and whether they are better or worse, as this is a point of opinion, there are substantial holes in the core rules, which if followed to the word (and not to 'having fun rules', as alluded to in the second paragraph of the book) would make V2 almost unplayable. That's not an exaggeration, on my first read through I had over a dozen questions regarding mostly core concepts!<br />
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So with that in mind I have set about using my experience of V1 and war gaming in general (which to those of you who aren't familiar with me, is <i>plentiful</i>) to fill in gaps and make V2 a, well, playable game, by issuing a completely unofficial, I'm sure soon to be shut down / made irrelevant, errata for those of who require RAW to play our games! This is a list of clarification, rules expansion, and some amendments to rules, but always made with what I have presumed to be the book's intention. I'll include examples and explanations by number below the changes.<br />
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If you give them a go let me know how it goes in the comments, so we can feedback any useful information to TTC. Also if there is something not addressed here let me know and I'll look into it. The goal is to make Zone as good as it can be after all!<br />
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Fore-note: Although I participated in very early Alpha testing for V2 I have not done any Beta testing, or spoken to Dave Lewis or TTC in any capacity regarding rules. This is done off my own back, using my own intuition.<br />
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<b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">OB Errata .2</span></u></b><br />
<b>1) Aircraft Landing</b> - Aircraft may not land within 2" of non-friendly vehicles or landed aircraft, measured from the centre of the aircraft.<br />
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<b>2) Activating transports with Squads</b> - A player will choose which empty transports to activate with a Battlegroup as normal, but if they wish to use the transport to interact with a friendly squad (i.e. embark them) they will announce this on activating the squad. The transport will then move and activate with the squad, in regards to any moving and shooting actions. Transports with Squads embarked at the beginning of their activation share an activation with the embarked squad, in regards to movement and shooting. If a transport holds multiple squads it should treat them all as the same squad in regards to moving, allowing the transport to disembark all squads simultaneously (as it can only make one disembark a turn).<br />
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<b>3) Embarking / Disembarking ownership</b> - The transport of which a squad is embarked into / disembarked from counts as having made the 'action'. Units which have embarked / disembarked may not interact with any further embark / disembark 'actions' this turn.<br />
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<b>4) Embarking / Disembarking range - </b>Addition to the 2" rule "...or if the model does not allow for a unit to be within 2", touching the transport."<br />
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<b>5) Units inside a transport and abilities</b> - Any units embarked on a transport or in Holding do not count as being on the table and may not use or confer any abilities they posses (e.g. The Screamer's penalty to searching and fortitude, and all scout's influence range). As such a unit housing a commander does not count as being on the table if embarked or in holding, and the CV of the unit may not be used.<br />
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<b>6) Move & Fire: 0" and Disembarking</b> - A unit which has disembarked counts as having moved, for the purposes of shooting.<br />
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<b>7) Failing fortitude and embarking directly into a transport</b> - If a squad fails a fortitude test and wishes to embark directly into a transport, it must either be a ground transport or a landed aerial transport, following usual embarking restrictions.<br />
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<b>8) Destroyed aerial transport containing units</b> - Addition to Shooting at Aircraft rules using these damage rolls "If any embarked units survive the damage place them within 2" of the destroyed transport. If a unit containing other units is destroyed, roll for each of the units inside and any that survive are placed within 2" of the originally destroyed transport. Once all surviving units are placed remove the originally destroyed transport from the table. Any units destroyed in this way score kill points for your opponents. <i>e.g. a Condor containing two bears, which in turn house 3 units of Legionaries each, is destroyed. Using the Shooting at Aircraft rules determine if the Bears survive. If any do not, then roll for each Legionnaire unit within it. Place all surviving units within 2" of the original destroyed transport.</i><br />
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<b>9) Reaction fire and assigning shots</b> - Units will perform reaction fire one at a time, one after the other, until the target is dead or the opponent decides to not perform any more reaction fire. The owner of any units able to reaction fire decides which order to perform the shots.<br />
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<b>10) CQ outside of a garrison</b> - Separate section, in addition to the current. "As with CQ inside a garrison the attacker must be in body/base to body/base contact with the target, and all attacks made with a CQ weapon hit automatically. Any successful damage is applied on a unit to unit basis however, and is not spread across a squad (i.e. a unit can only damage a unit it is in contact with). Units which suffer damage from CQ attacks outside of a garrison do not require a fortitude check.<br />
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<b>11) CQ and using non-CQ weapons</b> - If a friendly unit is touching any enemy units it may only target those enemies with CQ weapons. If the friendly unit has other, non-CQ profiles, it may use these on other targets (even from the same squad, they must just not be touching).<br />
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<b>12) Reduced-X </b>- Instead of adding 1 energy per remaining shot, the unit may add one energy per remaining DP. All other rules remain.<br />
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<b>13) Battlegroup limit</b> - The number of Battlegroups allowed in a roster is only limited by the allocation of the roster type. i.e. in a Clash size roster you may have up to 9 battlegroups.<br />
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<b>14) Transports outside of Auxiliary and Transport Battlegroup</b> - If a unit outside of Auxiliary and Transport Battlegroup has transport capacity it may only only carry squads from it's own Battlegroup.<br />
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<i>Note: Where the term 'action' is used, this is to differentiate it from actual in turn actions, such as moving and shooting. I don't willingly use it but my literacy skills have failed in finding a different word. If you can think of an alternative, suitable term, please comment below!</i><br />
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<b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Explanation</span></u></b><br />
<b>1) Aircraft Landing -</b> The current rules don't allow for Aircraft to land within 2" of friendly vehicles, causing big issues when attempting to embark squads, a problem which this solves.<br />
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<b>2) Activating transports with Squads</b> - There is an unusual interaction between aircraft and embarking infantry squads now, where if the infantry squad is in a garrison and the aerial transport is not already landed they cannot deploy directly into the aircraft, as their activation's do not trigger simultaneously. The change to this rule will allow the aircraft to land, then the Infantry to embark, and then for the aircraft to move again.<br />
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<b>3) Embarking / Disembarking ownership</b> - The rules for this just simply aren't in the book, and it is too vague for it to be 'either or both the transport and squad' as it is currently. This puts the onus on the transport when rules are concerned, and seemed logical for it to be the transport performing the 'action' rather then the squad.<br />
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<b>4) Embarking / Disembarking range</b> - Yeh. Giant floating bouncy castles and rulers exist within our plane of reality. Just saying. I didn't want to give an extra 1" of movement to units, so this seems a fair compromise.<br />
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<b>5) Units inside a transport and abilities</b> - Another spot where rules aren't present, but are inferred through other rules; i.e. "a Unit is ignored for all game purposes". It makes aggressive commanders who don't want to be on the table turn 1 considerably worse, and attempting to redeploy any commander a hassle, but this is in the leaning into the way the rules are written.<br />
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<b>6) Move & Fire: 0" and Disembarking</b> - Clearly it's not the intention to allow Kodiak's to disembark and shoot! I hope... This marries in with the rules for move and fire from V1.<br />
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<b>7) Failing fortitude and embarking directly into a transport</b> - This is a clarification using the current RAW in the book, re aerial transports and landing to embark/disembark. If you fail fortitude out of activation you don't have the opportunity to land an aircraft. If you fail in activation, using errata rule "2" you can have the foresight to land the aircraft, make and fail the roll, and the embark directly into the transport, and then move it afterwards (because they move as a squad).<br />
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<b>8) Destroyed aerial transport containing units</b> - I can probably write this clearer (but I'm on lunch, so you'll get what you're given), but it gives guidance on how to deal with these situations.<br />
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<b>9) Reaction Fire and assigning shots</b> - There is a discrepancy in the Reaction Fire rules where it mentions it is performed squad by squad, and then later in the same paragraph unit by unit. I am erring on the side of V1 rules for this, which never proved to be a problem in my experience.<br />
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<b>10) CQ outside of a garrison</b> - It's clear that the rules for CQ are written with only Infantry in mind, and it makes no sense for multiple hits against 1 vehicle to be spread across the squad who could be many inches away from the target.<br />
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<b>11) CQ and using non-CQ weapons</b> - This is my interpretation of the RAW. It cannot be intention that if an Oppressor touches an enemy unit it can only use it's CQ weapon and nothing else? In my opinion you should be able to use all your weapons on an enemy you are touching, but I am sticking to the rules as much as possible.<br />
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<b>12) Reduced-X - </b>Now this is a rule change. When I first read this rule and realised that Eviscerators can deal a single E23 CQ hit per base I had to re-read it a few times, but that's RAW, and a Dragon Ball Z measuring of power! The current rule allows lots of different infantry units to amass outrageously powerful shots which can target vehicles, but more dangerously aircraft! Imagine a Pungari squad unleashing four E12 shots into your aircraft! This mitigates the abuse that this rule <b>will</b> receive (except from UCM Flakk teams as it turns out, but there's only so much a boy can do). #bringbacksmallarms<br />
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<b>13) Battlegroup limit</b> - This is more of a clarification for those of us with V1 hangover (which limited a roster to 6 Battlegroups), but I couldn't find a rule to say you can't take up to the max compliment allowed. Will your force be any good? Probably not at Clash or Skirmish, as each group will be to watered down, but it's worth mentioning.<br />
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<b>14) Transports outside of Auxiliary and Transport Battlegroup</b> - The rules are vague (that's a shocker) as how to handle transports within 'proper' BGs, and if they can interact with squads from other BGs. To simplify the confusion this will cause, I've drawn on similarities from V1, and limited them to only carrying squads within a BG, following all the other normal (and OB errata'd) transport rules.Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-61654123216507777132019-06-20T13:33:00.001+01:002019-06-20T13:33:24.601+01:00Are we back? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
.......Meanwhile in OB towers......<br />
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"What's this? Looks like ancient technology, TECHBOY! Can you check it out, does it still work?"<br />
"11000011100001110000"<br />
"It's a bit dusty. Where's the Gimp when you need him. Eww, there's cobwebs EVERYWHERE!"<br />
"000111000000111010101000100100001000"<br />
"Alright, alright, no need for that language. Look, I've turned it on. Oh......it's this. Are you sure?"<br />
"00111001010110101010001"<br />
"Well ok then, here goes nothing........"<br />
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It's here, it's finally here. Dropzone Commander v2.0<br />
...and I for one, am excited.<br />
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I have had the book since 31st May, as I picked it up at the UK Games Expo, where I also had a lovely chat with Dave Lewis (on the Sunday). I read through the Dropzone section during the following week, then went on holiday (to Cyprus, it was lovely - thanks for asking). <br />
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I arrived back to the cold damp post-apocalyptic nightmare that is Gatwick Airport in the early hours of Friday morning knowing that my first game of DzC 2.0 would be played in the evening, I should probably make a list. <br />
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I should have had another look at the rules, to refresh the unlearning I had to do.....oh well. At least I could rely on Joe to have read them, and bring his book and command cards.... nope, thanks Joe you're a star. <br />
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We played the first mission in the book, in old skool style (not a forest in sight). We chose 1200 as our entry point as we wanted to try lots of different toys out, this was <strike>probably</strike> certainly too much. <br />
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I went with 4 battlegroups: <br />
<strong>Command</strong><br />
Phoenix (CV3 commander inside)<br />
4 Wolverine A<br />
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<strong>Armour</strong><br />
6 Katana, 3 Rapiers, Albatross<br />
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<strong>Frontline</strong><br />
2 Legionnaires, 2 Legionnaires, 2 Bear APCs, Condor<br />
2 Praetorians, Raven<br />
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<strong>Vanguard</strong><br />
2 Hazard Suit Teams, Raven <br />
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<strong>Auxiliary (non-transport)</strong><br />
2 Archangels<br />
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Joe went with 5:<br />
<strong>Command</strong><br />
2 Enyo<br />
2 Mercury, Triton<br />
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<strong>Armour</strong><br />
2 Phobos, Neptune<br />
2 skimmer AA (can't remember their name DAMNIT!), Neptune<br />
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<strong>Armour</strong><br />
2 Phobos, Neptune<br />
Zeus (CV2 Commander), Odin, Neptune<br />
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<strong>Frontline</strong><br />
2 Immortals, 2 Immortals, 2 Juno, Neptune<br />
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<strong>Vanguard</strong><br />
2 Sirens, Triton<br />
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Don't worry, this is not a long drawn out battle-report. Firstly because we only managed 3 rounds of the game and secondly, this is just a first impressions. <br />
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<strong>Things I liked:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Garrisons and how infantry interact is a definite improvement</li>
<li>Close Quarter fighting - really like the way it works now</li>
<li>Collateral Damage - is great</li>
<li>Fast Movers (or the new 'Fast' rule for aircraft)</li>
<li>Heavy dropships are now worth taking</li>
<li>APC movement and scan bonus</li>
<li>Pre-measuring</li>
<li>Scenery damage - specific units for the job now rather than everyone can do it. </li>
<li>Criticals (the way it works now, you could feasibly crit on a 2 (as it's based on energy +D6 vs armour)</li>
</ul>
<strong>Things that are ok:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Hidden objective searching - it's heavily weighted towards late game finding, whether you've been searching previously or not. Which doesn't make much sense (to me anyway). I think there should be a bonus if you have previously searched, maybe a bonus if there are multiple squads searching? </li>
<li>Drop and Shoot - a sore subject with some of the OB crew. It heavily favours multi-shot weaponry where you can mitigate some of the down-side. </li>
<li>No more half-movement when disembarking. Not sure how I feel about this. Makes engagement with enemy happen sooner, and buildings that were out of reach become easy to enter. </li>
<li>Commanders</li>
<li>Command cards - I really like where they are going, with customisable decks of 30 unique cards. Obviously we are not there yet. I don't like the card size. Just use standard size!!</li>
</ul>
<strong>Things that require clarification or I don't like</strong>:<br />
<ul>
<li>Some interactions with embark/disembark and entering/leaving a structure (garrison)</li>
<li>Objective passing - can be by unit holding or receiving, make it too easy to chain a movable objective off the board</li>
<li>I think that they have made the Ferrum almost unusable. It's too random and squads of starsprites cannot join up WtActualF??? </li>
<li>Army builder is clunky, not really intuitive and does not print in a friendly way. There needs to be a front sheet that lists battlegroups and squads within. </li>
<li>The generic force organisation chart removes some of the flavour that factions had. </li>
</ul>
Well I think that is it from me. I want to keep writing and playing. <br />
Lets hope that DzC is getting a resurgence and a second life. <br />
Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-17889611732477538232018-04-10T17:45:00.000+01:002018-04-10T17:45:08.997+01:00OB Podcast Episode 21: A New World... Relatively Speaking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Oh my it's been a long time, but we're back, and poodling about Games-Space in our brand new shonky spaceship, the HMS Orbital Bombardment Ship Goodship!<br />
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Alex, Dan, Ed and Mike take to the microphones to deliver some news in an 'alternative' fashion, and to discuss some icy dealings in Frostgrave and some chickpea related dealings in Infinity; that's right, we're no longer bound to only Dropzone Commander! How exciting.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/427343289&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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Intro & News In 60 Quick Ones - 00:00<br />
Frostgrave - 10:20<br />
Infinity - 32:30<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Most sound effects used in the Orbital Bombardment Podcast are from http://www.freesfx.co.uk</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04233229133002770241noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-19025339685297765272018-01-12T17:08:00.001+00:002018-01-12T17:09:09.965+00:00The More Famous The More Fabulous<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xTLQCh7R6bTIdILXGJDcqlnBJ4bXJLi4GlfOIrNsFoVAMS8-uOFVVLPeZKgUamLJ4r2ubREyZSJPj6a1hSB-EoIGtoYSBvPOSdFFVW3BHCnuClO1BZ-YgZyIya4qfgX0aCYSk2VE2-mZ/s1600/All3badgulls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xTLQCh7R6bTIdILXGJDcqlnBJ4bXJLi4GlfOIrNsFoVAMS8-uOFVVLPeZKgUamLJ4r2ubREyZSJPj6a1hSB-EoIGtoYSBvPOSdFFVW3BHCnuClO1BZ-YgZyIya4qfgX0aCYSk2VE2-mZ/s320/All3badgulls.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Blogging can be a dirty job. Having to wipe away the dust from your keyboard and chase away the spiders hidden under the number pad when you have some news to report on can be a filthy and jump-scare filled experience. At least though we have something to post about!<br />
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We have three spanky new Famous Commanders for you all to feast your peepers on, as well as a Q&A from TT Combat! Go on, treat yourself, take a looksie!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Jungle Devil</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfL36OEfp6k2bFue1vNCUhpkgapIdGJcJ84ueeL_pS8RcwFKeKnJhVmNSfhsMLYp3SX4lAfwWu2waAsnqx4wh5upW8LY7z_vLkjOrAvqaUoSLO2s6c-HnbHcQgUsZJuVK03xl-HV0O91K/s1600/NoClueWhatThisIs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfL36OEfp6k2bFue1vNCUhpkgapIdGJcJ84ueeL_pS8RcwFKeKnJhVmNSfhsMLYp3SX4lAfwWu2waAsnqx4wh5upW8LY7z_vLkjOrAvqaUoSLO2s6c-HnbHcQgUsZJuVK03xl-HV0O91K/s320/NoClueWhatThisIs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Weird Screamer Thing? No idea, probs don't want to know</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4VAgyIctAri_t2etEGfV0TnLoj23bRdQ9zXgEcOBnfMhnWMWU280zMOYxpCUwsgJCh9kB6NOPiT1M9BZPTngYfUc2QU-KfgEzzWkr_fXzSXakHhD6BWi8LFBle9meb-GEKM3YfMw-apQ/s1600/PVariant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4VAgyIctAri_t2etEGfV0TnLoj23bRdQ9zXgEcOBnfMhnWMWU280zMOYxpCUwsgJCh9kB6NOPiT1M9BZPTngYfUc2QU-KfgEzzWkr_fXzSXakHhD6BWi8LFBle9meb-GEKM3YfMw-apQ/s320/PVariant.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The St Nick's War Sleigh</span></td></tr>
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We saw the renders for the over-compensating Poseidon a while back, but have only seen the claw for the 'Hunter Killer Walker' and gun (I think) for the Jungle Devil during the last Christmas calendar (again, I think. Seriously it's been ages, I've had like four very unhappy unBirthdays during our down time).<br />
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It's nice to see newness after what seems like a Game of Thrones long Summer-time, but it's a shame I don't care about it? Any news is good news at the moment though of course! These also look to have an alternative painting style to previous miniatures and perhaps TTC have brought the miniature painting in house, which would be a shame because Hot Drop Studios clearly did a better job (#bitchydan).<br />
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In addition to the piccies above the ever-devoted Talon's Emily Kindlysides and Michel Goulmy put together a great set of questions with the help of the community and liaised directly with TT Combat for a few answers to questions pressing on fans minds, which I will sign off with just below (for clarity of source, the below was 100% stolen from Facebook).<br />
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Until next time, in four months, eat well and drink badly, or visa versa depending on your life style.<br />
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<b>When will DZC and DFC be available on the webstore?</b><br />
<i>We’ve pencilled in the relaunch of the whole range of DZC and DFC on the TTCombat webstore for the end of this month.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>What's the plan for US distribution?</b><br />
<i>We’re good to go pretty much whenever you are! Existing distributors from Hawk are still on board, so we’re just waiting for the orders. You know a store you’d like to see DZC and DFC in? Tell them! Tell them over and over until they have no choice. We’re working with more US distributors, but the process takes a while to sort out a good deal for both us and them. The more demand from retailers, the quicker the process will go!</i><br />
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<b>How will you be addressing the issues with international support?</b><br />
<i>International (like Australia) is a bit harder than Europe and the USA, as those are the two biggest markets, and so are easiest to cater for! We’re looking to expand into the rest of the world soon too, it’s just a case of being able to find the right distributors and keep up with the demand! If you know of stores that want to stock our products, get them to email sales@kingsleydistribution.co.uk who deal with all of our retail orders.</i><br />
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<b>Will TTC be providing regular updates on DzC and DFC? If so, through what channels?</b><br />
<i>Regular updates are a must! New miniatures and rules coming thick and fast once all the dust has settled. We’ll be updating our webstore, and providing information through there and here on Facebook! We’re planning on making a brand new website for Dropzone and Dropfleet that will have information, articles, background, rules, event information... lots of stuff!</i><br />
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<b>How will we revitalize and/or grow the player base?</b><br />
<i>In our opinion there are two important things to:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>1. Get the games into more retail stores. The more available the games are, the more people will pick them up. We work with a lot of retailers at the moment, but if you have a retailer you want to stock the games: tell them you want them. Then when they do stock them, buy stuff and offer to run events and demos!</i><br />
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<i>2. Having the games in stores is well and good, but without new releases, no one will keep playing. We all know there’s been a lack of new releases over the last year, and that’s because Dave has been busy doing other stuff. Now he’s back on design, we’ll have more releases coming! Getting new releases out to the stores isn’t a quick process though, especially when taking over a new company. So please be patient with us! We’ll have lots of new stuff releasing frequently, which will really help keep people interested.</i><br />
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<b>When will we receive information about the Talon program?</b><br />
<i>We’re looking to relaunch that this year. It’s very important to the game, and we’d like to make sure we’re doing it right. We’d been working on a similar scheme for RUMBLESLAM for a little while, and it seems sensible to combine everything into one place with a similar operating procedure. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to promote RUMBLESLAM or Carnevale if you just want to do DZC and/or DFC, but if you like more than one game you’ll be able to run events for all of our games and be supported through one channel (and use your points on all our ranges!).</i><br />
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<b>Will TTC be at Gencon (or other shows) with DZC/DFC?</b><br />
<i>Yep, we’ll be at Gen Con and others in the States through Don, and will be flying the flag at UK Games Expo, Salute, and Crisis to name a few!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Will TTC be following up on Hawk's aborted plans to encourage organized play/tournaments?</b><br />
<i>We’d love to! We’ve got a lot to get sorted before jumping into organised play events and tournaments, but it’s something we’re currently doing for RUMBLESLAM, and something we’re writing the Carnevale rules to incorporate from the start. That idea will definitely carry over to DZC and DFC! Organised play is one of those things that’s hugely important to the hobby, and there’s nothing quite like getting a room full of excited gamers together! In all honesty though, running tournaments isn’t our priority right now – getting the miniatures made and out to stores is. All of that stuff will be a lot easier to keep running once the initial start up is done, and we’ll be able to shift our attention to more fun things like tournaments.</i><br />
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<b>Where are the Ebooks and rumoured app for the games?</b><br />
<i>¯\_(ツ)_/¯</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Is DZC V2 still on target for an April release?</b><br />
<i>Potentially, but we think we’d actually like to push it back a bit. We’re talking about the best way to get the new rules out, and aren’t quite decided yet. V2 rules are almost entirely written and tested, but there was never a plan in place to add anything else to the V2 release. We started our discussions off talking about whether Reconquest would be needed, and in the state we saw the new rules, you’d still need those books to play the complete factions. We’re not so keen on having to have multiple books to play a game, and it seems a little weird to back the new rules backwards compatible with older units, when this is an opportunity to consolidate everything that’s happened with the game up to this point, and also make a few tweaks while we’re at it. Of course, this version of V2 requires a lot more work, but would potentially see new miniatures, new story, new art, photos, and painted minis instead of just a new rule set.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>With that in mind, we’re discussing a potential open beta for the new rules, as well as free downloads for all units. None of that is definite right now, but we’re talking about the best way to revitalise the game, and we’re not sure a quick release new rulebook is necessarily the answer.</i><br />
<i>Are the updated rules going to feel more streamlined than they currently are?</i><br />
<i>We think so!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Is there any way we can get rid of the D6 in DZC V2 and maybe introduce the D10?</b><br />
<i>We’re actually going to change it to a D2. Coinflip Commander is here!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>When will we see DZC Reconquest Phase 2 units? Can we have a preview?</b><br />
<i>We’re hoping they’ll be available with the webstore launch. As for a preview, yeah why not?</i><br />
<i>Will there be a huge selection of 10mm scenery available for more varied game boards?</i><br />
<i>Yes. Huge selections of affordable scenery is our jam. In fact, Scott wanted to show a quick render of some of the MDF kits he’s been working on.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Will famous commanders be balanced for tournament and regular play?</b><br />
<i>This is a conversation we’ve been having quite a lot recently, and there are differing opinions on it. Personally I think that named characters should be able to be used no matter where you are, but others feel that they should deliberately be very good and not necessarily balanced for tournaments. We’d love to hear the community’s thoughts!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Where is the KS fulfillment?</b><br />
<i>Around 75% at time of writing.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>When will we get our store credit for the undelivered Kickstarter stuff (maps, etc.)?</b><br />
<i>I’m afraid I can’t give an exact date for that. We’ll be sending them out to backers in waves – there’d be nothing worse than getting thousands of orders all in one week and putting a big delay on fulfilling them! We’re looking at Q1 this year for the first wave.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Will there be a look at internal faction balance in DFC?</b><br />
<i>Definitely at some point!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Will show exclusive models like the Athens ever be available as Hawk has done in the past?</b><br />
<i>Yes.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>When will we be seeing the "fifth race"?</b><br />
<i>TODAY! No, not really. I don’t have any specific answers for this one. Is “soon” a good enough answer? New races helps more people get into the game, as the more varied styles you have, the more likely you are to find something you really connect with. So yeah, it’s definitely on the horizon.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Any plans for a Voidgate only pack?</b><br />
<i>I don’t know! It’s kind of annoying that you need Cruisers to get Voidgates. I’ll ask around to see if there’s a chance to do them in resin. No promises!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>What role will new ships (monitors, destroyers, dreadnoughts) play in the mechanics of DFC?</b><br />
<i>From Dave:</i><br />
<i>Monitors – Frigate sized ships but very heavily armoured (2+/3+), well armed but VERY slow. Fluff wise, they have no FTL capability and are really just mildly mobile orbital gun platforms.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Destroyers - basically they sit between Frigates and Cruisers in size, capability and cost. Generally (but not always), they require Weapons Free to get the most out of them (unlike Light Cruisers and Frigates) but pack very respectable firepower in return. Dreadnoughts - these are the absolute kings of the battlefield. Monstrous in size, massively armed and extremely hard to kill. A serious investment in points (at tournament level especially). Total bullet magnets with massive signatures - a big commitment but a scary prospect to face.</i>Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-59872191540834891902017-11-29T11:35:00.002+00:002017-11-29T13:00:21.377+00:00Space Samurai and BikesInfinity, Infinity, Infinity........ where do I start?<br />
The beginning would probably be the best idea.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0TuQQag0Jqq2YtZ4L3LJe3C_tQqiySS_Cc6CB9p_kLc97ZEvXEXFr1qgYgGAyZrfyCX7eZvMLyA8w-UJZKbQRXTwe7ZxR-i-uD3lA8Q5iC72HXgE-bzqMhi6TanEjM4Guych2OGJwro/s1600/_samurai_clarke__by_madiblitz-d5upnq4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="977" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0TuQQag0Jqq2YtZ4L3LJe3C_tQqiySS_Cc6CB9p_kLc97ZEvXEXFr1qgYgGAyZrfyCX7eZvMLyA8w-UJZKbQRXTwe7ZxR-i-uD3lA8Q5iC72HXgE-bzqMhi6TanEjM4Guych2OGJwro/s320/_samurai_clarke__by_madiblitz-d5upnq4.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
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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).<br />
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Alex (over at the <a href="http://epituderusk.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Epitude Rusk blog)</a> is a massive fan boy of Infinity. He has a butt-load of models and even more scenery. He <strike>bullied me into</strike> 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.<br />
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The main reason was critical hits or crits as they are more commonly known. I also couldn't get my head around needing a higher number than your opponent when you both require different numbers.<br />
Back to the crit thing, let me give you an example; I had 4 shots needing a 13 or lower on each dice, the model I was shooting has 1 shot back needing a 6 or lower (on a D20 - Infinity is a D20 system). I get 4 hits, my opponent rolls a 6 (which is a crit) which negates all my hits. Bullshit. That one situation put me off even looking at the game for a long time.<br />
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Fast forward to December 2016 and I find myself looking through the infinity rulebook online (<i>quick shout out to Corvus Belli the creators of Infinity; their online resource support of the game is utterly tremendous. From free rules, tokens, templates and FAQ to their Army builder and tournament organisation system - it is above and beyond)</i>, and ogling the lurvly models (mainly the models from the Japanese Sectorial Army - JSA. Rule of cool, right?). I found myself a bargain and bought a model. It was Yojimbo. If nothing else, I would enjoy painting him. He is a Samurai on a bike!<br />
I had another demo with Alex, but this time I was prepared. I had read through the rules and actually had an understanding and a desire to play. I really enjoyed it. I went out and bought the JSA starter set. Alex then sorted me out with a load of Yu Jing models that he had kicking around and I quickly found myself with over 300 points worth - in Infinity terms, an army.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2Gse6lT9jJwMxyV11Sn5-pBRQfvS950NrMAXJdAOHpNOushng9Aa5ZHAT3GGI3Sv3b9wUtdZGLMJC4VagZvAhwanwbQv7ldy62VAD0X74vorietcqejh2G7AJp-WANzy3Ygg8N-QCSA/s1600/INF-280716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2Gse6lT9jJwMxyV11Sn5-pBRQfvS950NrMAXJdAOHpNOushng9Aa5ZHAT3GGI3Sv3b9wUtdZGLMJC4VagZvAhwanwbQv7ldy62VAD0X74vorietcqejh2G7AJp-WANzy3Ygg8N-QCSA/s400/INF-280716.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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2017 for me has been a year of Infinity. I have been playing it and enjoying it more and more. Slowly but surely it is becoming my main game. This is a little difficult for me to admit as I still have a hell of a lot of love for Dropzone Commander, but a massive transition for Hawk Wargames and lack of support for over a year makes players start to look elsewhere.<br />
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So here we are now. I have 1100 points worth of JSA and a further 450 of Yu Jing, I have played in a tournament (UK Games Expo) and I even won a game at the tournament too! As I now have a fair few games of Infinity under my belt (30+) I feel I am beginning to understand it more. There is still a lot I don't know and I learn new things each and every game. Infinity is a DEEP ruleset, there is so much going on. Playing the game is very cinematic. You get moments of sheer joy and absolute torture. Obviously luck comes into any dice based game, but more and more I feel that I can put myself in decent situations to help mitigate the lucky dice, or at the very least have the odds stacked heavily in my favour.<br />
I love the puzzle of Infinity, trying to work out the best tools for the job. I like how you design lists for specific missions, like you are sending in a team to get a job done. The mission is key.<br />
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I am attending my second tournament this weekend - the St.Albans Smackdown. The good news is, all the OB boys are coming too. Yay road trip!!!!<br />
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Alex playing Nomads<br />
Dan playing Haqqislam<br />
Ed playing Steel Phalanx (Aleph sectorial)<br />
Joe playing Combined Army<br />
Me with JSA (Yu Jing sectorial)<br />
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I have even finished painting my army for it so below are some pictures of the models I am taking (apologies for the photos - camera phone in poor light conditions)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neko - badass Samurai</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new Shikami model, one of the best looking sculpts</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rBqE0djHlToe1VD7gR0XJFJqRi337QnuOFXr4iSWvvFEkpA0EFyqFrhNJQbPo-t099wFTOc-M_nGs2-Gcj6uOl-vqBeCP8vgUO4ttuNWnaLWQrH5hLb0vgKTWcvfy1x_ilFOPKn8JmM/s1600/DSC_1067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rBqE0djHlToe1VD7gR0XJFJqRi337QnuOFXr4iSWvvFEkpA0EFyqFrhNJQbPo-t099wFTOc-M_nGs2-Gcj6uOl-vqBeCP8vgUO4ttuNWnaLWQrH5hLb0vgKTWcvfy1x_ilFOPKn8JmM/s400/DSC_1067.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yuriko Oda and her Yao Zao - a decent Engineer!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGu9qiraqbe10iHdJxOBWMKVteMu_72jlGVpQ5ZCBnO5-AE1_loANiPRYPrTMHvUtU1ldc-D1nSq-dXVx8NvbAKeAgkWcDfwvQz0lk_FQMDwH0QAGNZ2ZZP9yyV3USnHAIg6NUvL55b8g/s1600/DSC_1065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGu9qiraqbe10iHdJxOBWMKVteMu_72jlGVpQ5ZCBnO5-AE1_loANiPRYPrTMHvUtU1ldc-D1nSq-dXVx8NvbAKeAgkWcDfwvQz0lk_FQMDwH0QAGNZ2ZZP9yyV3USnHAIg6NUvL55b8g/s400/DSC_1065.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keisotsu Fire team with a missile launcher and a Kempetai to boss them about</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1v6pj0BAu0Q9cTb3CC1tzlYWHYbMtkTdMMHB1aThYyQu3X0XHeVaHXEVqV5aDYlD0D2ZL-hmuiT9VD9UcSR5LaoVKn8lZp-uhByutf7IGpCfQQ7pf-eom6P4LpVHtTAqAOWYc7v9LqY0/s1600/DSC_1068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1v6pj0BAu0Q9cTb3CC1tzlYWHYbMtkTdMMHB1aThYyQu3X0XHeVaHXEVqV5aDYlD0D2ZL-hmuiT9VD9UcSR5LaoVKn8lZp-uhByutf7IGpCfQQ7pf-eom6P4LpVHtTAqAOWYc7v9LqY0/s400/DSC_1068.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doctor and her Yao Zao worker bot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWPaLd31rEBpZWqRCQjtJAF-0MnIUKGu971HAzhgy9K1TyQLz_r5sUpIGNMQfr6jUPniG6FgYwTA3K0VR6xKXF-xkIYYIdM4djMj2fw60sejUrafCFkFkaxNOAwuU7IjcMM64gt8bsc4/s1600/DSC_1080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWPaLd31rEBpZWqRCQjtJAF-0MnIUKGu971HAzhgy9K1TyQLz_r5sUpIGNMQfr6jUPniG6FgYwTA3K0VR6xKXF-xkIYYIdM4djMj2fw60sejUrafCFkFkaxNOAwuU7IjcMM64gt8bsc4/s400/DSC_1080.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raiden with Heavy Rocket Launcher</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioG_DZ8it3EqnBiF9mrO18tyvWA9K-wW2iJKjZgvqrrDiUSJGGGLBy_-QNfXhjjI7hPJQZCFayqVoeCPwzJBUTk811dHUp7JLz4wciZlAmTcu8QlcOmd6YsBluezuRTK6f-G5T8p2MTpU/s1600/DSC_1070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioG_DZ8it3EqnBiF9mrO18tyvWA9K-wW2iJKjZgvqrrDiUSJGGGLBy_-QNfXhjjI7hPJQZCFayqVoeCPwzJBUTk811dHUp7JLz4wciZlAmTcu8QlcOmd6YsBluezuRTK6f-G5T8p2MTpU/s400/DSC_1070.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crit-bot 2000 - HMG wielding total reaction REM</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJeVx0AUglmrhIi0g6dYVm_FwMv0b18Zzfzwt0YeTnJbTQbkW54cttQDIGThRo3XKOqS7ukumlihWZjFkWR4fe8ZAybsUuaPlJN5-2o734nHw8U3s5eERlSGXIrK9iHZzd9Hv9mJNmd8/s1600/DSC_1071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJeVx0AUglmrhIi0g6dYVm_FwMv0b18Zzfzwt0YeTnJbTQbkW54cttQDIGThRo3XKOqS7ukumlihWZjFkWR4fe8ZAybsUuaPlJN5-2o734nHw8U3s5eERlSGXIrK9iHZzd9Hv9mJNmd8/s400/DSC_1071.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shinobu, she be nasty</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IPvIblTIKrkygtWbv3V4jr-zx1ogzCFU4ZqZiQA6ASxDpkcD_nKnr3O3QHrrTx8TMCazpvfr6chyphenhypheng-TurYddBmVis3tHqZLmTQVzs7rfgaU_XDrU7PmXSbD1Nd1vYc63-QDwJArPDCM/s1600/DSC_1072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IPvIblTIKrkygtWbv3V4jr-zx1ogzCFU4ZqZiQA6ASxDpkcD_nKnr3O3QHrrTx8TMCazpvfr6chyphenhypheng-TurYddBmVis3tHqZLmTQVzs7rfgaU_XDrU7PmXSbD1Nd1vYc63-QDwJArPDCM/s400/DSC_1072.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ninja killer hacker - I have recently come to appreciate her more and more</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAsVxWELt-6A_3ELvSkX98ON7id65CUTV7Wa4-qKHgROO21ESph9HDFPkc3ZxsPzyGgZyhEW6GLpt1ftSLj-zTHFQLc_coO0ukxEjGGxVikejO1-KqDCCQM_2Ea7q4j6w0R65VeenKlQw/s1600/DSC_1073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAsVxWELt-6A_3ELvSkX98ON7id65CUTV7Wa4-qKHgROO21ESph9HDFPkc3ZxsPzyGgZyhEW6GLpt1ftSLj-zTHFQLc_coO0ukxEjGGxVikejO1-KqDCCQM_2Ea7q4j6w0R65VeenKlQw/s400/DSC_1073.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My HVT - not an Infinity model, she is from the Clan Ito Bushido range </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQM-H5s4jLTCFeUFlIWuRkK6hnAMsTfKQ-PbhG5fHPGkeowV5WRnyKRMb_sxWCdRcIfcqUTIq9_M4xD2DVn0Dxqnpum7gMv5bGpH-nI8-2jg-Rj62qZmkuH_9VbPMNDyLX8jDN9JZX3uM/s1600/DSC_1074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQM-H5s4jLTCFeUFlIWuRkK6hnAMsTfKQ-PbhG5fHPGkeowV5WRnyKRMb_sxWCdRcIfcqUTIq9_M4xD2DVn0Dxqnpum7gMv5bGpH-nI8-2jg-Rj62qZmkuH_9VbPMNDyLX8jDN9JZX3uM/s400/DSC_1074.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The deadly Rui Shi, one of my absolute favourite models</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob_zPCgsGpKbI0vEU_l8HrFJvx67QuYHAa_nGktpp-JxOdyA2rpxdQ5E6DSoR3tbLNKkiMXs-QY93m7iMkgegGbNiggTv-Fgm-KQPjG4nRH8at2udkD7VYqfbW_lo0bjyDsE9n3ETGSM/s1600/DSC_1075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob_zPCgsGpKbI0vEU_l8HrFJvx67QuYHAa_nGktpp-JxOdyA2rpxdQ5E6DSoR3tbLNKkiMXs-QY93m7iMkgegGbNiggTv-Fgm-KQPjG4nRH8at2udkD7VYqfbW_lo0bjyDsE9n3ETGSM/s400/DSC_1075.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aragoto with Spitfire, can be outrageous if played correctly</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwihHmquqb5po39U4L85hYNfrl1INU8MZ6_AVYL9WJO7ENzpWcd8ouJZerF1E3hd2Wb8cM8mvgTlfYCYZWjJzGaCt0EhlSxtxlpdpv5CVDWjIQN7gGIP_FIwapUvtw6cMUs5lV8fRjdDs/s1600/DSC_1076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwihHmquqb5po39U4L85hYNfrl1INU8MZ6_AVYL9WJO7ENzpWcd8ouJZerF1E3hd2Wb8cM8mvgTlfYCYZWjJzGaCt0EhlSxtxlpdpv5CVDWjIQN7gGIP_FIwapUvtw6cMUs5lV8fRjdDs/s640/DSC_1076.JPG" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">O-Yoroi TAG. He is a big nasty bastard!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijjuNKLfPm5aNfn-7OrneFMFGu1FpuWpEv81gsqJ5mb3G0dbsUHSnjnStgDjIjz9tJspkhqx1PQMaKQdIm2-k8lD70vIoIru1EwdrBU71rTuOcqqoKDTQy-FOUcVCMdJd6FsUxiqllO5I/s1600/DSC_1078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijjuNKLfPm5aNfn-7OrneFMFGu1FpuWpEv81gsqJ5mb3G0dbsUHSnjnStgDjIjz9tJspkhqx1PQMaKQdIm2-k8lD70vIoIru1EwdrBU71rTuOcqqoKDTQy-FOUcVCMdJd6FsUxiqllO5I/s400/DSC_1078.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first Infinity model, Yojimbo, also my most recently finished Infinity model - only took a year!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYFVKL-cDER9ogu7EymUN-dgVnJMtMN33HfCp1Bna7xiznEGHhsIpQZLu4Kn_lGUxDKJxA-jZfoWZfMGP-9D60cmx6TrZHD3JgNjK_ogqXO117b68oOcweSrii_ROrOomyZK4BmH4aYQ/s1600/DSC_1081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYFVKL-cDER9ogu7EymUN-dgVnJMtMN33HfCp1Bna7xiznEGHhsIpQZLu4Kn_lGUxDKJxA-jZfoWZfMGP-9D60cmx6TrZHD3JgNjK_ogqXO117b68oOcweSrii_ROrOomyZK4BmH4aYQ/s640/DSC_1081.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole family that I am taking to Smackdown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Well that is all for me for now, I will come back after the tournament to let you know how I have done. My expectation are set to low. If I win a game and be competitive in the other 2 I'll be happy!Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-7812760687498775772017-11-16T12:01:00.000+00:002017-11-16T12:01:16.344+00:00Learning This Game Could Take Forever...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6p68iDgPcph1WiXLOTxprKzJHlvV1eyEjmmrsOJJ-HkERJaXdGa5EPp7EwxMluXwoRX9KUzHxWFtDrfG_2Q0FFIi2COsIpvMEs3R7b1LUc3rY7x47BfQsqgsVY2i9mWbw00N-vci6vgY/s1600/cb_infinity_haqqislamhassassin_lowresfinal_by_chesterocampo-d7042vl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1219" data-original-width="877" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6p68iDgPcph1WiXLOTxprKzJHlvV1eyEjmmrsOJJ-HkERJaXdGa5EPp7EwxMluXwoRX9KUzHxWFtDrfG_2Q0FFIi2COsIpvMEs3R7b1LUc3rY7x47BfQsqgsVY2i9mWbw00N-vci6vgY/s320/cb_infinity_haqqislamhassassin_lowresfinal_by_chesterocampo-d7042vl.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I had flirted with Infinity a few years ago, picking up a Tohaa starter set (for those that know the game, you can stop your judgement right now, I didn't know okay!) and a few extra models to assemble a very modest 200ish point list. Back then I couldn't comprehend the love that some people held for the game, put off by the sometimes very 'Rambo' nature of the order allocation and savage learning curve. My interest waned quickly after a handful of small games, admittedly not giving myself time to become used to the sight of this Beast and instead just glancing towards it indifferently, being put off by it's bulky, awkward form.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4bHratz33343RIFfLRLSMt0AI3f0LhsB5MwftXQEczfAo29QQhgmd-OM6El0Kn31_6W2Uxm_t9zmnrByb-KW2mVR0rVHHedcuswWKkNa-6-C6PHQU5Vd0S-Mud-OQrgCTOm8u96eXRyI/s1600/INF2804421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4bHratz33343RIFfLRLSMt0AI3f0LhsB5MwftXQEczfAo29QQhgmd-OM6El0Kn31_6W2Uxm_t9zmnrByb-KW2mVR0rVHHedcuswWKkNa-6-C6PHQU5Vd0S-Mud-OQrgCTOm8u96eXRyI/s320/INF2804421.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No pictures of my minis unfortunately, they're way back on<br />
the painting schedule...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fast forward to the year RIGHT NOW and I'm trying to cobble together a 300pt list for my first ever ITS tournament (Corvus Beli's official Infinity tournament system), the St Alban's Smackdown! How did this happen? Well, all the OB buoys got into Infinity again earlier in the year but in a heavy way, and although I'm not one to be pressured into playing anything (unless it's my wife suggesting something, in which case MOP, Marital-Obligation-Pressure, comes into play), it is difficult to not become involved in a games system that literally everyone else is playing (especially if at the time they are playing nothing else...). Also I fancied giving it another go, not really giving it the chance it deserved before, but this time with a new faction; Haqqislam (New-Islam). Or rather, HaqqisDan (New-Is-Dan).<br />
<br />
The game is still deeply confusing and frustrating when you forget or just don't know a rule, the learning curve is probably more beastly than ever, and the miniatures are still a total pain right up inside the colon to make <i>and keep stuck together </i>(although this looks to be being addressed, with the newer 'fited' metal models). But. <b>But.</b> <i>But...</i><br />
<br />
...I'm enjoying it far more this time around. In my hunt for a new system to satisfy my perverted needs (I like to dominate my opponents) I have put my fingers into lots of different games, which has relaxed my tolerance for the way I view Infinity. I'm trying to regard it as a deep rules set, Challenger Deep in fact, rather than an obtuse one. I've now played enough 300pt games to know that I like it and am happy to pull out some mini's every so often, and spend my limited gaming time trying to break and saddle this Beast.<br />
<br />
So, this tournament then. At the time of writing I don't know exactly which missions we will be playing, but it looks to be Power Pack, Supplies and The Grid. I'm happy that we have a general idea of the missions we'll be playing, as trying to learn each of the missions in the ITS book is like being taken into the middle of the Pacific without a life jacket for your first swimming lesson. Using the models that I own or can steal from a buddy, I think I will end up taking lists similar to these;<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cEqNbXQ7xKmy1i0QsnD6RwrGkmNMmQqqpCbHNH1z5pecSvszDwYm9-QlBXfa4pHhjl3JWi4ABA5d4Glaf0tAxLTiD3F7lYSw1ThHww373yKqkLJtXJvzhx46Djj1miwdTNeliZe-34pd/s1600/InfHaqqList.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="1391" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cEqNbXQ7xKmy1i0QsnD6RwrGkmNMmQqqpCbHNH1z5pecSvszDwYm9-QlBXfa4pHhjl3JWi4ABA5d4Glaf0tAxLTiD3F7lYSw1ThHww373yKqkLJtXJvzhx46Djj1miwdTNeliZe-34pd/s640/InfHaqqList.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left - Power Pack, Supplies - Right - The Grid</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The left list has got specialists, it's got Haqq shenanigans in the Fiday, Saladin and Mutts, and I'll likely be using Tarik as my Datatracker (yet to figure out if that's a good idea or not). I've veered away from numerous Hackers and hackable units just to make it one less thing to remember, as this is my first Infinity tourney ever and am likely to get floored in each game anyway. This way at least I'll understand why I'm being flattened! It's not fancy, and I'm sure I'm missing a trick or two somewhere, but it has a few solid attack and defence routes which I can play too. The Grid poses issues as you need Anti-Material weapons, and I may have gone overboard on AM guns and Forward Observers to control Antenna, but it's hard to resist a seventeen model list! If you have any minor tweaks or suggestions for the list, please comment below!<br />
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Anyway, that's that for now. I'll probably do a summary of how the tournament goes and if I discover whether I could ever take the game seriously or not!Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-33037987648896928472017-10-25T11:05:00.002+01:002017-10-25T13:46:54.589+01:00TTCombat Acquires Hawk Wargames<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrTP3-sNtLlxR1VJ1bavJUOh0wAJouV8Yx73CuhO1J8lNbLp2fzqh57m7oXsm-N07tG-XbDtPQ-j9rU6-A7tn9_KT85nHQDH53PbYpijxtJbmKOsGWeBfE3TLwpv82D-x9IJHIf33EMGUu/s1600/TTCombatHawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="960" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrTP3-sNtLlxR1VJ1bavJUOh0wAJouV8Yx73CuhO1J8lNbLp2fzqh57m7oXsm-N07tG-XbDtPQ-j9rU6-A7tn9_KT85nHQDH53PbYpijxtJbmKOsGWeBfE3TLwpv82D-x9IJHIf33EMGUu/s320/TTCombatHawk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's been a while since I have penned anything Hawk related. Penned anything really, actually, I've been a bit slack of late. Sos 'bout dat. I assumed my next post on a subject associated with our favourite bird of prey studio would be related with Dropzone Commander V2, and although this article is a little about that, it's mostly about the ground breaking news (as of yesterday, that's still pretty quick for us at OB) that has left the best of us gobsmacked, shell shocked, and 'in all of a tizz'.<br />
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<b>TTCombat, the wargaming wing of Troll Trader, have acquired Hawk Wargames.</b></div>
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I've always loved the word 'acquired'. It's just a fancy word for 'I've taken this, and it was yours but now it's mine. Hah.' I associate it with the Resident Evil franchise, where you basically either steal or loot gubbins by 'acquiring' it. Lucky that punk Leon didn't get shot, no good looting punk. I'm not suggesting that TTCombat looted Hawk, this is just an observation of the word...<br />
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Anyway, enough of that, have a goosey gander at the statement;<br />
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<i>Today we have an extremely exciting announcement here at TTCombat. We have completed a deal with Hawk Wargames to purchase both the incredible Dropzone Commander and Dropfleet Commander.</i><br />
<i>For the past few months we have been talking to Hawk about handling their logistics. The difficulty of off-site production combined with fulfilling one of the most successful UK wargaming Kickstarters of all time was putting strain on their business.</i><br />
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<i>David Lewis is one of the most talented designers in the industry; he’s made two amazing games and a beautiful range of miniatures to support them. However, as time went on, David found himself spending most of his time running a company and dealing with the fall-out from the Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter.</i><br />
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<i>After discussions on how to best move the business forward into 2018 and beyond, we both came to the conclusion that it would be better for Hawk Wargames to become a part of the TTCombat family.</i><br />
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<i>David is of course staying on as lead designer and will now have his time freed up to do what he does best: design breath-taking miniatures. The TTCombat team have been working on a range of buildings and accessories which will launch alongside Dropzone Commander 2.0 at Salute in April, and there will be plenty more before then!</i><br />
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<i>We have a lot of moulds that require remaking, so some supplies may be a bit short while we facilitate the transition, so we please ask all the DZC and DFC fans to be patient with us during this time. If you’ve followed TTCombat in the past, you’ll know that it won’t be long before everything is up and running.</i><br />
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<i>The Dropfleet Commander Battle Fleet box deals will finally see release at the end of November and we are already building a good quantity of stock to ensure we can meet demand. David has already begun work on the destroyers for Dropfleet and they are looking fantastic!</i><br />
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<i>The Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter still has some items outstanding, and we at TTCombat will be ensuring that all backers will receive all of their rewards promptly. If we have to make your toys from scratch then we will get pouring resin! There are also some outstanding vouchers, which of course we will be honouring via the TTCombat webstore. Once we have organised the stock we have collected from Hawk and got it all listed, you’ll be able to choose from any Dropzone Commander or Dropfleet Commander products, or the full range of TTCombat games, scenery, and accessories!</i><br />
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<i>The next couple of months will be a little hectic as we get everything back on track, but once we do, hold on tight! We have some exciting years ahead... a third Commander game in 2018 anyone?</i><br />
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<i><a href="https://ttcombat.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">TTCombat</span></a></i><br />
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I think the biggest question being asked by the community is; "I don't think I'm sexist, but I probably am or have been at least a little by accident?". Now focussing a little more specifically on Hawk's clientele; "Err... WTF LOL? Dis Gud?!?". I've met a lot of you, that's how you talk, trust me.<br />
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With this 'merge' literally just happening it's definitely too early to 'acquire' some hand guns and ink ribbons and run into the forums to shout about the apocalypse, shooting your DessertPuddingMagnumIceCreamGun in the air and getting the other hand all mucky and blue with ink from that ribbon you grabbed but don't know why but looked like it needed saving? On the other hand it's of course natural to have concerns. Late last week we met up with Hawk to discuss V2, and when they broke this news to us I raised an eyebrow all the way to the ceiling. The current IPs that TTC own aren't exactly noteworthy, with Carnevale probably being the biggest due to the recently successful KickStarter and the others (Rumbleslam and Relic, amongst other less known titles) being much smaller games in market share, player base, and scope of future development, making Hawk Wargames somewhat a coup for TTC. Dropzone and Dropfleet Commander are certainly going to be their main game, that is unless of course they are crazy and under finance Project DropEverything Commander.<br />
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TTC are also associated with scenery, cheap but decent by public standards, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are vertically integrated; they own all their own casting and production machines and all Hawk products will be manufactured in house as is my understanding. This is a bonus and bound to help with distribution of both game systems in UK and Europe, with US distribution still reliant on their distro partners across the pond. This is, of course, if Hawk's resin can be copied to an acceptable level. With Dave behind QC though I'm sure it will be more than adequate, he is the world's premier resin snob.<br />
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We're all optimistic for what this merge represents for the future of Hawk's game systems. Although TTCombat remain a largely unknown factor when handling a property this large it can only be good that the management side of affairs, which Dave freely admits he has never liked, is now handled by a company which can produce their own gear. With this in mind it means Dave can focus on his two games, and with as much potential as Zone has (I'm sorry Fleet fans, Zone has more legs to it in my sure to be controversial opinion) maybe we can see it become fulfilled, rather than loiter in the shadows of giants, eating the scraps of malcontent gamers left in their wake.<br />
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It's fair to say I am still underwhelmed by what Dropzone Commander Version 2 has to offer right now (an opinion not necessarily shared by the other OB buoys), but I am still so fond of the game and company, and hope that this merge works for all parties involved; including all the boys and girls who have already invested in the games.Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-69562809188153015042017-10-02T10:37:00.001+01:002017-10-02T11:04:57.636+01:00Goodbye DzC Version 1: The Long Kiss Goodnight<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0dnA9naWxj1Vtc8ZnWLoxqyXNjvpTBlHd1MdYWsdMUqUAwOHgzTGfbv0PhaQ2SK7pMLDMWj207i0efFl0GtiYPVnvFNzSO6iuq8f9Gt4C99J28ChDdrlGALDPx2Hn7Hb-YbFWMf8zZs/s1600/DzC+xx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="960" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0dnA9naWxj1Vtc8ZnWLoxqyXNjvpTBlHd1MdYWsdMUqUAwOHgzTGfbv0PhaQ2SK7pMLDMWj207i0efFl0GtiYPVnvFNzSO6iuq8f9Gt4C99J28ChDdrlGALDPx2Hn7Hb-YbFWMf8zZs/s400/DzC+xx.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out my mad MS paint skillz!</td></tr>
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The end of an era, the passing of an old friend......<br />
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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.<br />
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I digress, I want to talk about Invasion, and why the hell not. I won. Again.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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My main reasoning for bringing unpainted model was that Resistance has never won an Invasion tournament before, the only faction without a major win, so I took it as an opportunity of a challenge to try and change that. </div>
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So, my list. Mainly based on sound theory and 2 whole practice games, maybe 3...</div>
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I’ll start with the Command battle-group. This contained the trusty Thunderstorm and 2 Typhoons. Primarily used for urban renewal and a great way to deal with tough units. Ideally I would have liked 3 Typhoons, but you can’t have everything. The Typhoons with 3 E10 shots, Strafe and the ability to increase range by dropping shots made them my MVPs</div>
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Next my armour group, this contained 3 Gun Wagons in a Kraken and 3 Thunder Wagons. Although they don’t really synergise together, they keep a weak battle-group around all game. In my experience with playing against Resistance, if there is a battle-group containing just Gun Wagons and their Kraken, it is normally destroyed by turn 4, meaning you are a battle-group down. The Gun Wagons are extremely reliable AA, throwing out a decent amount of shots with high accuracy. </div>
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On to Infantry. In Dropzone, I like to keep my Infantry to as few battle-groups as possible, for one main reason, to maximise activation efficiency. With Resistance, a standard army will have more infantry than any other faction. I have taken 6 squads but I’ve seen armies with 8-10 squads of infantry. When activating one of my Infantry groups, I would normally have 3 squads to use, or search with. This really helps with objective finding missions. As you can see from the list, I relied quite heavily on the exotic choices like Sappers, Occupation Veterans and MFR, including only 1 squad of basic troops (the Resistance Fighters). The major weakness of the Resistance is their ability to move from building to building swiftly, and extracting the objectives off the table; this is why I included the MFR and Freeriders. </div>
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My next battle-group is the Zhukovs, they are a formidable AA threat striking fear in the hearts of many UCM, Shaltari and Scourge generals. Although they won’t normally achieve their points back they make your opponent play around them. </div>
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Lastly is the fleet group, sporting a single Archangel Pathfinder. As a UCM player, I don’t like fielding only 1 fast mover as it will normally lead to being down a battle-group activation more often than not, but how can you not have a Pathfinder? 2 E7 shots hitting on a 2+ anywhere on the battle-field. </div>
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So that is my list covered, onto the games themselves. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Invasion in all it's glory</td></tr>
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<br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Game 1</span></b><br /><b>Opponent:</b> Kanan<br /><b>Faction:</b> UCM<div>
<b>Mission:</b> Bunker Assault</div>
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<b>Score:</b> 19-1<br />
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A perfect start for me with choice of mission. The Resistance's biggest selling point is their ability to hold Focal Points, and a slow roll to dominate them all. I came up against 2 broadswords though, a tough prospect. It took me 5 turns to remove one, and I didn't touch the other. In the end I got to all the places I needed to get to and got over 1100 kill points on the way. Kanan was a great opponent and a lovely guy. </div>
<br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Game 2</span></b><br /><b>Opponent:</b> Phil H<div>
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<b>Faction:</b> Scourge</div>
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<b>Mission:</b> Crucible</div>
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<b>Score:</b> 18-2</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Highlight of the weekend. Spot prize for Bethany, first player to lose their commander</td></tr>
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Crucible is a tough mission. I went aggressive, and was rewarded for it. I think my opponent may have forgotten about the Critical Location in the centre, either that or he gave it up knowing that whatever was placed there would be annihilated. I lucked out in turn 2, by destroying a 30 point building in one turn. It just happened to have Evisceraters and Destroyers in. I managed to extract 2 objectives and hold the Critical Location for 4 turns, together with another 1100+ kill points for another big win.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"> Game 3</span></b><br /><b>Opponent:</b> Steve S<br /><b>Faction: </b>PHR</div>
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<b>Mission:</b> Ground Control</div>
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<b>Score:</b> 10-10</div>
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Not a great mission for Invasion. It's a bit bland. 4 turns of not much happening followed by 2 turns with a calculator. Steve was a great opponent, but I think I suffered from making a couple of mistakes and succumbing to a couple of clutch rolls that ultimately meant I didn't win the game. The worst of which was a Neptune shooting a Jackson, rolling the 6 to damage it, then it gets wrecked, followed by both bases of infantry being destroyed on a 4+. If any one of those had survived it would have been a whole different story. But a draw is a draw. I had a minor kill point advantage, but that doesn't matter if you don't win the game!</div>
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At the end of the day I had accumulated 47 points from 3 games. Joe had 49!!<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"> Game 4</span></b><br /><b>Opponent:</b> Christian C</div>
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<b>Faction:</b> UCM</div>
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<b>Mission:</b> Surging Strike</div>
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<b>Score:</b> 19-1</div>
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Due to an unfortunate accident with Joe's wife (she's doing OK now), Joe could not attend on day 2. This was really bad luck for Joe, he was in a good position.<br />
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This was quite literally a game of 2 halves, mainly due to Christian's dice. To begin with the were hotter than a strip club in lava land, let me give you a couple of examples... One volley from 3 Katanas on the building with my Sappers in, good-bye Sappers to falling masonry. The whole squad gone. That was followed up by 8 shots at a Free-Riders base, needing 6's to hit he got 6 hits, and then with 5's to wound, he got 5 wounds!!<br />
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By the end of the game though, Christian couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo (what does that EVEN mean?). The game hinged on a couple of things that happened in the 6th turn. I had been keeping hold of a Brave Gamble from turn 3, I drew out an Espionage by trying field repairs, then used Brave Gamble to take out a Gladius with my Thunderstorm. I then blocked off a Focal Point from his Broadsword with it. The Broadsword then rolled a 1 to damage the Thunderstorm. It couldn't have gone better for me.<br />
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In the end I finished very well and got a large win, and a decent amount of kill points too (1000+).<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Game 5</span></b><br /><b>Opponent:</b> Charlie H</div>
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<b>Faction:</b> Shaltari</div>
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<b>Mission:</b> Military Complex</div>
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<b>Score:</b> 10-10</div>
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So we get to the final game, due to the huge wins I've had, I have an 11 point lead over 2nd place, and a 13 point lead over my opponent.<br />
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This made the game a bit of a non-event. I knew a draw would more than suit my needs, and after turn 3 that was least the game would be as I had found 2 objectives. Charlie also found 2 and had no chance with the last as the building was getting pummelled by my Thunderstorm and Typhoons. We called the game on turn 5 with over an hour left of the round as there was nothing more to do than go through the motions.<br />
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Charlie is a great opponent - he knows what he is doing with his Shaltari and I hope next time we play it is a proper game. Don't get me wrong, I knew what I was doing. I played for a draw as that is what I needed. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkOXkeS6Z_TDdOonGXHwI-JJDrvzAsQqntwPw5YTPaSpUwufgAvPhFbIpa0zKh9nhqkiPhMyCIVlhwqFNM_1qZFpL0C4MN9VXZBX-UGxFxXmeQCUdwlDiqKcj8OY3dK0Jww2DTkKLh1g/s1600/DSC_0970.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="825" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkOXkeS6Z_TDdOonGXHwI-JJDrvzAsQqntwPw5YTPaSpUwufgAvPhFbIpa0zKh9nhqkiPhMyCIVlhwqFNM_1qZFpL0C4MN9VXZBX-UGxFxXmeQCUdwlDiqKcj8OY3dK0Jww2DTkKLh1g/s640/DSC_0970.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Say cheese!</td></tr>
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After all the dice had been laid to rest (or unceremoniously burnt) I was crowned Champion, for the 4th time, and the last time for version 1. These were probably my last games of Dropzone Commander, until the new version comes out (insert sad face). Although I will be beta testing V2, so don't feel too sorry for me.<br />
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Maybe we at OB could do a last hurrah video of version 1.... Who knows.<br />
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Happy gaming everyone!<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"> Invasion Roll of Honour</span></b><br />Feb '13 - Andrew Page - PHR (1 day, 3 game event)</div>
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Feb '14 - Dan Cates - Shaltari</div>
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Sep '14 - Dan Cates - Shaltari</div>
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Jan '15 - Mike Burch - Shaltari</div>
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Sep '15 - Leopold Stein - PHR</div>
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Jan '16 - Mike Burch - UCM</div>
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Sep '16 - Erik Robertson - Scourge</div>
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Jan '17 - Mike Burch - UCM</div>
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Sep '17 - Mike Burch - Allied Resistance</div>
Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-7914165302941362292017-09-22T09:00:00.000+01:002017-09-22T09:00:59.406+01:00Autumn Invasion 2017: The Lists<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was taken many Autumns ago, in the fire of our youth</td></tr>
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<i>'All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey, I'm out for a walk on an Autumn's day, I'd be freezing off my nuts in Aberdeen, Croydon dreaming on such a winter's day.' - Croydon Dreaming, The Zone's and Fleet's</i></div>
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It's that time of year again. It's raining, it's windy, it's getting cold, and every single person is complaining about the weather. I mean rainier, windier, colder, and moanier of course, after all, our Summer's are English. Its's Autumn everyone, and with it we greet Hawk's annual September tournament; Autumn Invasion! If Hawk are able to release V2 this year it will also be the last V1 Invasion tournament, which heralds the end of an era!</div>
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Three of the six of us are going this time, Alex, Joe, and Mike, and is customary I have all their lists to cast my miniature, laser-sporting, electric, beady eye over and critique in this version for the very last time. Let's get on with it before I well up and romance about the good times...</div>
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<b><u>Mikey Bee, Please Mess With Me - Allied Resistance</u></b></div>
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After three long years of waiting Mike's not-so-secret project has finally been finished and is ready to be unleashed upon the public! Well, kind of finished. His Infantry aren't finished yet, and he has to buy his T-Wagons on the day, but at least he's finally playing the army. The list is of the Allied flavouring which in my opinion is the stronger faction over Feral, as I find the exotics and cards to be better and more useful in a variety of situations (unless all you want to do is turn Infantry into Berserkers of course).<br />
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On first glance the list seems to lack Infantry but it is dotted about like hundreds & thousands on a glazed doughnut. The core Infantry battlegroup is a hardy one and being able to funnel twenty Occupation Vets into a building of your choice is always nice! MFR's are the best exotics in the game and although are a little vulnerable in their Super-Raven (due to lack of air saturation in Resi lists) they are mobile enough to reach and achieve any plans you make for them. Sappers will help with early game search rolls as well as providing cover on the battlefield, whilst the Freeriders are this armies most effective way of getting objectives of the table.<br />
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Anti-Air is covered in the Resistance trinity, and as long as Mike's luck holds out over the weekend it should serve him well. Zhukovs are the best air denial unit in Zone, and Gun Wagons remain as predatory and resilient as they've always been. The luck aspect of his AA trinity will be with the Pathfinder and could be key in games. With a single unit of standard Infantry he will be unlikely to have Forward Observer vision on the battlefield so will be rolling attack runs every turn. There is always the issue of a single Fast Mover turning up as well, and without it on the table he will be down to five Battlegroups. I would have chosen two Pathfinders as they become dependable, but admit it is a big points sink.<br />
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As with all Resistance forces, this list sweats Anti-Tank like a fat jogger attempting a half marathon. The Occ Vets pack four reliable E11 shots, the Thunderstorm is as obtuse as ever, and Typhoons are the best gunship in the game. Notice how I've mentioned several units being 'The Best'? That's not bad writing, the Resistance really do have pretty much the best of everything! I have no idea how they haven't won considerably more events.<br />
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<b><u>Joey Dubaya, You Know I'll Smother Ya - Shaltari</u></b><br />
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Joe is venturing a little out of his comfort zone this year, peeking his little head out of the safety of his warren and jumping into a Caiman. It may be a fairly standard state of affairs to see Shaltari lists boast two or three Caimans at the moment, but for our Jojo it's out of the norm for sure. I think he said he wants to get the most out of Drivezone Commander whilst he can, and honestly why not? Because it's bullshit, that's why not.<br />
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The spread of troops is good and fits all requirements. Pungari <i>will</i> find the objectives you need and saturate falling masonry hits for your warsuits, Braves are great to throw into any situation, and although Firstborns may not be the best Exotics are steadfast and reliable in CQB (and being Shaltari you will normally get to pick which CQB they end up in). Mike and I managed to persuade Joe into bringing more troop gates this year and I think he will be happy with the freedom they award.<br />
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He has spent too many points on AA for my liking but you can't argue with its effectiveness! Twenty E6 AA shots a turn from the dedicated units will see Joe laughing at Scourge and UCM, and the two Totems are superb at sniping important light dropships (although perhaps he needs one more gate to see the full advantage of two Totems). I would have dropped the Birdeaters and squeezed in something else; Firebirds, maybe?</div>
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The AT is very focused as it tends to be with all Shaltari lists. The Caimans will harass units from across the board, and the Gharial and Totems provide hard hitting close quarters AT when a unit absolutely, positively has to go.<br />
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I think the list would really benefit from a Firedrake or fourth Eden, but knowing Joe's style he's more likely to zoom about the battlefield making Sci-Fi rocket noises that gate his Hogs across the board anyway.</div>
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<b><u>Alex Arrr, More Abused Than Winrar - Feral Resistance</u></b><br />
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Now here's a lad who does like going Feral! It seems like only yesterday when Alex first fielded Beserkers, rolled high for their CQB and picked up what seemed like six hundred dice, and instantly fell in love. He's not even using Skulltaker and is sacrificing the superior Allied deck to back four bases into his main Infantry squad! Each to their own of course, and by rule of thumb not all of his dice can be bad if he rolls six hundred, right... right??<br />
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The theme of the list is seems very much to be that of a medieval general; 'If we can keep throwing bodies in the way, we're bound to win!', with twelve Infantry bases (eight of those being Exotic) stuffed in there! I have seen Alex field twenty Infantry that said, so I am a little disappointed by this conservative figure... He'll be strong in CQB and building occupation as long as he can get there first, but could run into trouble with extracting objectives in the late game. I'll also pass a nod to the drive-by Occ Vets in busses, one of the most janky but effective combos in the game.<br />
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This much Infantry should also couple in nicely with his Command BQ which is democentric (and also fairly copy/paste to most Resi Command BGs at the mo), allowing him to level the buildings he wants gone and cram boys and girls into the ones he does. It takes a lot of commitment to make that kind of plan work well, as you less able to adapt to a changing battlefield, so he best get his thinking hat on. The contingency of a squad of Thunder Wagons is always helpful to bring more demo when necessary and blast poorly deployed units with a fat template.<br />
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Alex has gone for a safer and more dependable approach than Mike to AA, with six Gun Wagons and two Zhukovs. This combo is well tested and can take full advantage of any accidental manoeuvres or mis-deployment by an opponent. Having more units on the ground will also make securing Focal Points and Critical Locations easier.<br />
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Let us know what you think of the boys lists, and if you are going to Invasion give 'em hell!</div>
Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-26975821278293898532017-09-19T13:57:00.000+01:002017-09-20T09:26:33.735+01:00Upcoming Hawk Tournaments & Events<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Normally I would I would put my detective hat on and scour the interwebs for details of all the upcoming Zone and Fleet events taking place in the near future for our podcast's news section, but with us having not podded for a while I thought it would be a good idea to list them on here for you instead!<br />
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There isn't a huge amount happening towards the end of the year for either system, but for those perhaps willing to travel to an event you may still be able to get your Hawk fix by the end of 2017!<br />
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The biggest and most immediate event is Hawk's flagship Dropzone Commander tournament, Autumn Invasion, which is coupled with their Open Day. I think there might be a few spaces left in the tournament (which unlike past events has been capped at 40 people) but even if you don't want to play it is worth popping down to have an ear bash with the Hawk crew; who knows, maybe more news nuggets for V2 will fall from their kangaroo-like info pouches!<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">September</span></u></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dropzone Commander;</span></b><br />
<a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10161" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Autumn Invasion / Hawk Open Day - Sat 23rd - Sun 24th - Croydon, England - 5 games, 1500pts</span></a><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">October</span></u></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dropzone Commander;</span></b><br />
<a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10057&p=89693&hilit=michigan#p89693" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Midwest Incursion 2017 - Sat 7th - Michigan, US - 3 games, 1500 points</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10195" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Dutch Dropzone Commander Beta Testing - Sat 7th - Arnhem, NL - Bring one faction</span></a><br />
<a href="http://edmontononslaught.webs.com/apps/webstore/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Edmonton Onslaught - Sun 22nd - Edmonton, Canada - 3 games, 1500 points</span></a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dropfleet Commander;</span></b><br />
<a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10195" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Dutch Dropfleet Commander Tournament - Sat 7th - Arnhem, NL - 3 games, 1250 points</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10057&p=89693&hilit=michigan#p89693" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Midwest Incursion 2017 - Sun 8th - Michigan, US - 3 games, 1250 points</span></a><br />
<a href="http://edmontononslaught.webs.com/apps/webstore/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Edmonton Onslaught - Sat 21st - Edmonton, Canada - 3 games, 1250 points</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=10227" target="_blank">Midlands Maelstrom - Sat 21st - Worcester, England - 3 games, 1250 points</a></span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">December:</span></u></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dropfleet Commander:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/dropfleet-commander-fleet-muster-ii-10th-december" target="_blank">Fleet Muster II - 10th Dec - Cardiff, Wales - 3 games, 1250 points</a></span><br />
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If you have a tournament or event you would like listed here, please comment below or pop us an email with a link to some information for it!Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-79311897694458380662017-09-11T16:08:00.002+01:002017-09-11T17:25:15.371+01:00How To Run A Successful Blood Bowl League<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are few things in life more difficult, frustrating and often fruitless than trying to arrange for a group of gamers to have a series of constructed games and events, and feed important results back to you in a timely manner. The only examples I can think of which would be more difficult, frustrating and fruitless would be using your vote for the good of the country, telling your wife that "we can't have any more pets", and trying to forget the lyrics to Barbie Girl.<br />
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Every club and friendship group needs that person though, that woman or man who is prepared to pour the same level of energy into an upcoming league or campaign as an engine boy shovelling coal on the Titanic. Often though, like the Titanic, the best laid plans will be sunk by an unforeseen event, and the most common iceberg for gamers is long term commitment. I don't blame people for this though, as promising a lot of your hours on a single system for a prolonged length of time can be hard, especially if you find yourself not enjoying it or if 'real life' just happens to get in the way.<br />
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After the re-launch of Blood Bowl I decided to take the plunge and arrange a league; the M.A.D. Open! We're now at the very end of the season with only three games left to be played (one Semi-Final, Final and 2nd Runner Up games) and the season went unusually well, with all the participating coaches being very receptive to the format which helped things run smoothly. We had sixteen teams split over two divisions, with ten players finishing all of their required games (which is amazing, more on that later) and a total of forty five games being played in total!<br />
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Before we get into the meat and gravy of the post, I recommend having a quick surf around the league's website;<br />
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<a href="http://madopenleague.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">M.A.D. Open Blood Bowl League</span></a></div>
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Here is a list of why I think it went so well, and tips to get your league or campaign up and running!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">1) Choose a popular system and gauge interest</span></b></div>
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This isn't Blood Bowl specific and needs to be assessed first. And well yes, it's obvious right? Not really. It's all well and good telling people you're going to be running a Mordheim campaign (couldn't think of an example from the tennies), to later realise that only you and Rufus Bobington play the game and can't get anyone else into it (and nobody wants to play six games against Rufus Bobington). It doesn't matter how good a game is, if people aren't actively playing it or need to buy a brand new set of models it is always going to be an up hill struggle.<br />
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Even in the case of popular games which are played regularly, people may just not be up for the commitment of an entire league, so you need to ask about and see realistically how many people will be interested in a campaign. Either use your talkhole and approach your fellow gamers human to human, or use social media to ask the question and make a list of interested parties. If you deem there to be enough bodies to start something worthwhile take a look through your list and do the following;<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">2) Check the character of the interested parties</span></b></div>
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This seems a little harsh, but everybody knows a few characters (and have definitely been one at some point) who promise their commitment and seem really up for it, but you know that they'll only come for one or two games and then never bother again. If you have eight people in your list and five of them are flakier than a 99, then is it worth your time? If you don't think it is you don't need to address these people, just say it turned out 'real life' got in the way. G'damn Real Life, always getting in the way...</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">3) Make sure you are committed</span></b></div>
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Who's ever drafted the most kick ass character and gotten one session into an RPG Campaign only for their GM to never bother doing it again? Hands up! Yes, you at the back, be honest. That's right, every single on of us has suffered that disappointment. Don't be that person, and be in it for the long run.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4) Get your league rules prepared, Ball season is here</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhlx4SaRISr2E4kTQ2y-TLuwqz4hyPgxboy8MdHw1XXbLvAHx5o1_aZ3wks2Y0ZgHZAnbVfl5EksGQxNxX6SdAFlBYP8cEcfzn5FuXhg9WJH9RidyY5LHxGq3r1e1OMVkZ1ZOF_nefZy0/s1600/1+week5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="437" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhlx4SaRISr2E4kTQ2y-TLuwqz4hyPgxboy8MdHw1XXbLvAHx5o1_aZ3wks2Y0ZgHZAnbVfl5EksGQxNxX6SdAFlBYP8cEcfzn5FuXhg9WJH9RidyY5LHxGq3r1e1OMVkZ1ZOF_nefZy0/s320/1+week5.PNG" width="289" /></a>Right, lets's get Blood Bowl specific! After sounding the Gorn of Hondor on our clubs Facebook group I had about eighteen potential coaches answer the call, which took me a little by surprise. I knew that BB had gathered momentum after the re-launch but hadn't expected quite so many teams to turn up! It was a mix of old and new players, and I needed a lay out which catered for everyone.<br />
<br />
The material in BB Death Zone S1 for running a league is very helpful, although needs Salt Bae levels of seasoning to be applied to the real world. I decided to split the League into two divisions (North and South) of eight players, each of which had their own separate league tables. The top two teams of each division would then qualify for the play offs, consisting of a semi-final and final, as well as a second runner up match.<br />
<br />
From experience I knew that as our club meets up once a week on a Friday, and that most people either don't want to play Blood Bowl every single week and / or can't attend weekly, and also that we were bound to get drop outs, we would never get every coach to play each team in their division within a reasonable time (or realistically ever!). With that in mind I decided on the following;<br />
<ul>
<li>Each Team may play a maximum of six league games.</li>
<li>League games can be against any team in the whole league, and not just from their own division.</li>
<li>The league ran from one specific date to another, the total time being approximately four months.</li>
</ul>
<div>
There were a bunch of other rules <a href="http://madopenleague.blogspot.co.uk/p/league-rules.html" target="_blank">which can be found here</a>, but these three were the most important. Six games seems easy enough to arrange but if you only meet up once a week that's <i>a month and a half</i> of gaming time. Do you want to play one game in a row for over a twelth of the year? And that's not counting any potential friendlies you agree to! I don't want to have my BB experience compressed like that! So four months seemed an appropriate amount of time to allow coaches to fit in all their games, and as noted before most of our coaches got all six games in, and about a third of the coaches even squeezed in some friendlies!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It was also important that coaches had the ability and opportunity to actually play their games and not be stuck in a league with no active teams, so I was very keen on allowing everyone to play anyone. It was worth the risk and didn't affect league results wildly, if at all.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5) Get organised</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I can't stress this enough, your league will dissolve like a bath bomb in a sewer if you are not organised efficiently. Here is a list of everything I got together (either through making myself or finding online) and distributed where appropriate to the coaches;</div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Website</b> - This probably isn't a must have but it's so easy to set up a blog to keep everyone informed.<br />
<br />
<b>Standardised roster </b>- As you will often end up checking team rosters it helps to have each one coming through in the same format. Also it was my intention for rosters to be visible to all coaches for transparency and found one which would copy & paste easily for my intentions <a href="http://madopenleague.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank">(have a look at what I mean here)</a>. I hosted the roster file on a Google Drive and distributed it through the website and also on our Facebook group.<br />
<br />
<b>League table/s</b> - Make one in Excel or paint or whatever, or download one that you can manipulate easily. If your league table is confusing people will moan and you don't want that, it's just a pain in the hole. Decide your points awarded per game (3/1/0 normally) and tie deciders for position (TD/CAS/FAT normally, and I added Div Played to encourage games within divisions). You will want to find somewhere public to display the league as people will be interested. I know that there are online leagues, possibly through the NAF, but I have no experience of these (if the excellent community is anything to go by though, they are probably superb).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnwuY-KChvP4W9f2Um1jFXhAd5b5UvWzTn3XG5dsRVzXmMvSQFcT6QZmBVlEn_wFDAoc4P30flLuBbHDxFF1GkANQrJEVsH0f7bKCpdqYNtECWORPCGkfso49N2h1VG4X2IGhHKh5_kPS8/s1600/Resultsexcell.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1544" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnwuY-KChvP4W9f2Um1jFXhAd5b5UvWzTn3XG5dsRVzXmMvSQFcT6QZmBVlEn_wFDAoc4P30flLuBbHDxFF1GkANQrJEVsH0f7bKCpdqYNtECWORPCGkfso49N2h1VG4X2IGhHKh5_kPS8/s320/Resultsexcell.PNG" width="320" /></a><b>Record of all games and full results</b> - This is the trickiest part of the whole process. Most coaches can be relied on to track their teams correctly, but you are expected (and rightly so) to keep a track of every other little thing. In order to do that you will need a robust Excel document displaying week on week games, see a screen shot of mine next to this paragraph. It's the most important part of your organisation and you need to be on top of this at all times.<br />
<br />
<b>Record of team rosters </b>- Keep each roster for continuity.<br />
<br />
<b>Record of team total league </b><b>achievements</b> - A team's final roster can't be relied upon to give accurate data to the number of TD, CAS and FAT across a season, because the sad truth is that players die and that will skew data. Keep a running total of a teams league achievements from the start and you won't regret it. It also helps if you mess up the league by accident!<br />
<br />
<b>Record of player achievements</b> - I actually only realised this too late, but if you plan to do some kind of end of season awards you will need to keep individual records of players too. This is important as you may have high scoring players who end up dying and become forgotten, much to the annoyance of their coach. This is easier than it sounds as not every player will earn SPP each game, and will just be a heap of copy pasting if your rosters and records are Excel files.<br />
<br />
I think that's everything... It's a lot, right? I told you, you have to be committed! Once the set up is done though the maintenance isn't actually too heavy believe it or not.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">6) Keep your coaches invested</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqU40Wn1ekhfEtrJa21-cIIdxTD8VHFr-VH6A5UfR8HmV2lda-jVwQQKzbyvcUqEMsJndk-MkVDsJZM03mYkKjZ8TJNoQ0JTRF5FzjeGReD8Er4980oRNgOwoqhiECHbN34-jyFs6F8aaV/s1600/1+Week7.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqU40Wn1ekhfEtrJa21-cIIdxTD8VHFr-VH6A5UfR8HmV2lda-jVwQQKzbyvcUqEMsJndk-MkVDsJZM03mYkKjZ8TJNoQ0JTRF5FzjeGReD8Er4980oRNgOwoqhiECHbN34-jyFs6F8aaV/s320/1+Week7.PNG" width="247" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I think one of the main reasons the momentum for our league persisted week in, week out, was that I posted weekly updates from each game and shared it with the club. A narrative was created to be the voice of the league by writing 'highlights' from the perspective of two presenters, Phillipe Flabbybun (a bubbly Halfling Ex-Pro) and Arnild Swoonzenorger (a coarse Norse Barbarian), and asked coaches to let me know of any special events that happened in game (a successful Dwarf dodge, a Goblin getting eating by a troll, a Khemri team actually managing to pick up a ball, etc) and described them within the context of a match report. It engaged people and brought a visualisation of their game to life! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I understand that this isn't for everyone. It can be time consuming and difficult if you're not inclined to writing, but there are other less intense ways of connecting with your coaches. A post or two a week on a clubs Facebook page or forum to whip up some friendly banter will go a long way to making sure that your league makes the distance. Not everyone will get all of their games finished which is fine and unavoidable, but if you can get the majority of coaches over the line you can regard the league as a success.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">7) Hound those lazy buggers</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Coaches are going to get slack and not send over important information at some point. I was very lucky and didn't have to chase much, but when it was necessary I was polite but forceful. You are providing a service, which is most likely free, and the very least they can do is send you a bloody roster! If a coach continues to ignore or not send what you need then just tell them that they can't play any games until they do. You don't need the hassle, and if they're not really committed to the league then you also don't need the dead weight.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And that's it! If you are running a league for a club to keep people attending then I suggest incentivising any matches played at the club. In our case, an extra 10k GP was awarded to each team in the 'money' phase of a games end for playing at club, as the game was 'streamed over Cabalvision'. More narative, more fun, more bodies down club.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I hope this helps and if you have any questions or comments just ask, and if you would like any of the Excel material used send an email to (orbitalbgamers@gmail.com) and I can ping it over!</div>
Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-28009809242165433652017-09-05T16:41:00.000+01:002019-06-17T11:52:26.620+01:00The Occupiers of Atlantia<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQMrlmf_f84mjGyV4f_wl_2cL4XxQIq0MeAqOasRaW6DTrZFbj3Ffqm0hJsP_nk46F-9H_bFxLgbUxfsTjNbA7jjC6BBvGaok8Ql-cvi8rykvyWbQ3-b7l0O5BPZSBVqAX4myPq4gEtR-/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQMrlmf_f84mjGyV4f_wl_2cL4XxQIq0MeAqOasRaW6DTrZFbj3Ffqm0hJsP_nk46F-9H_bFxLgbUxfsTjNbA7jjC6BBvGaok8Ql-cvi8rykvyWbQ3-b7l0O5BPZSBVqAX4myPq4gEtR-/s1600/Untitled.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The crew on route to Invasion. I think this may have been taken whilst we were being given our hosts.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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:</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As you can see, I
couldn't be further from delight. Everything did get finished though
(at 2:30am Saturday morning, with snow flock still drying, and to be
up at 6:45am to catch a ride to Croydon) and to my delight it was all
worth it! I managed to get my large grubby mits (still covered in
snow flock and bright pink paint) on best painted army, and also
managed to nick third place! Before the winners were announced it was
already the most fun Invasion I had been too, and winning both of
these places meant more to me than winning the last two years. As to
why, we need to look a little closer at my army choice...</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I knew before the
tourney that I had no hope of retaining my champions belt. Why? Well,
for a start Mike was going with Shaltari, and he had never lost with the hedgehog peoples (literally, never).
Secondly, and most importantly, I was using Scourge. As much fun as
the Scourge are (possibly the most 'fun' army in DzC) they are not
tournament winners, because they flounder on focal points.
Due to a lack of dedicated ground units who can take a pounding, and
also the most useless commander of the all the races who cannot
contend focal points, facing the wrong army on missions such as Take
and Extract are an automatic loss. By wrong army I mean mainly
Shaltari and Resistance, and PHR to some extent (A quick note to
Shaltari players: if you get beaten by a Scourge list on a focal
points mission, you have done something wrong.). To boil things down,
I have marked the key points below:</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Why Scourge can't, or
shouldn't, win focal point missions:</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><b><span style="color: yellow;">No commander able to
contribute 175+ points</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: yellow;">Ground units worth
little in value and/or vulnerable like a baby duck</span></b></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Because of these points
Scourge either have to:</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: yellow;">1) Deploy all units in
front of the enemy, in the hope that you win activation (no certain
thing) and again hope that you destroy that nasty Hades/Caiman/squad
of Gladius/Odins that are about to ruin your day.
</span></b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is not a viable
tactic in a tournament as kill points count towards the total win. If
you do not get activation and/or your dice rolls go poorly you will
be pulling models of the table before your tears of sadness can hit
the plywood. As such not only have you lost, but you have gifted
your opponent (and denied yourself) three or four extra tournament
points.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: yellow;">2) Try a sweeping attack
on a vulnerable unit. If it works, you may get to attack something
else, but if not withdraw and hide for the game to limit your loses.</span></b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Sadly this is what I
had to do in two games. I won one, Bunker Assualt, against a PHR army
by not <br />
deploying my Despoiler's nine tanks until the last activation
of turn 6 to steal a focal point. I lost the other however, as I was
playing a Shaltari army at Take and Extract. Before the game started
I new I had lost (as I could never win a focal point against two
Caimans, two Jaguars, two Tarantulas, a Coyote with CV 4, four
squads of infantry, a Warspire and a partridge in a pear tree. I literally didn't have that many points to
deploy on the ground!) but the deciding factor was by how much. So I
did a fleeting run in with some Prowlers and Reavers, who
spectacularly failed to cause more than two points of damage over
three turns of shooting (and those damage points were from two
Intruder shots...). After losing two Reavers and an Intruder I called
it a day and withdrew everything to my side of the table, to keep the
loses to a minimum, and deployed the bare minimum necessary to
contest the focal point on turn six.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjzl-MhunmwsvG4Yqp1GpMOx3FOk8WeIwhjImgIvaqg6GGcSr7eYWvvRHn4MIut2BXLhOgLsKM6Evqmi5ZUqv8sZIyd8k9n8UV59jaJNg7suTWtji_sX8AyJHoUgGiX4u3_PTFE_q54s2/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjzl-MhunmwsvG4Yqp1GpMOx3FOk8WeIwhjImgIvaqg6GGcSr7eYWvvRHn4MIut2BXLhOgLsKM6Evqmi5ZUqv8sZIyd8k9n8UV59jaJNg7suTWtji_sX8AyJHoUgGiX4u3_PTFE_q54s2/s1600/1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Seem gamey to you? It
does to me, and in a friendly game believe me, my Hunters would have
deployed and been destroyed in their droves... I mean they would have
spectacularly lit up the Jaguars and won me the day! This was a
tournament though, and I was currently in first place with a tiny
points gap to 2<sup>nd</sup> place. If I could reduce my deficit to a
small amount, and the rest of the games played out to draws, I could
still nick the tourney.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As it turned out it
wasn't to be, but I didn't mind. Third place, in my opinion, is about
as good as a Scourge player can hope to be in a large tournament
(whilst being surrounded by Shaltari) and the fact that I had played
so defensively did me a justice in the standings.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Talking about Scourge's
drawbacks wasn't really where I wanted to go with this post, but oh
well. It's an interesting discussion point never the less. Hopefully
with the introduction of the Oppressor I can sack off the Desolator
and actually compete on the ground. Who knows. All I do know is that
I had to be gamey to compete with the way the army currently works,
which is a little sad considering the way the race is meant to be
played.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As I had already lost
the fifth game before we started playing, because I was up against Shaltari, do I
think they are 'overpowered'?<br />
<br />
Yes I do.<br />
<br />
But I intend to discuss that
another day, with spreadsheets to gather information, alchemy jars
and Bunsen burners to melt down the models (Skeleton Jack Christmas
style) and a little help from the rest of Team OB to explain why.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It is definitely worth
adding that on objective missions Scourge are a huge threat, and I
even beat a five infantry Shaltari army at Military Complex (that's
right, four squads of Braves and one Firstborns)! Who says you have
to be Shaltari to create shenanigans? To find out how I did it you'll
have to have a listen to Podcast 5!</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I'm going to end this
unintentionally sombre post on an upbeat note.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Every game I played at
Invasion was fun and taxing, even against the newer players of the
game. I had the best time I have had at a tournament in ages
(possibly because I wasn't using Shaltari?), and I am the most proud
I have been of an army in my Scourge!<br />
<br />
What will I be doing in the future? Well expect to see a review or two on a few unloved models; Tormentors, Slayers, and the Annihilator, as I continue my quest to have fun with the Scourge beast.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For picture based
viewing pleasure for your eyes (don't stare too hard now), I present
to you the Occupiers of Atlantia. Or if Skullsword's resistance are
about, the Harassers of Snow Mountain.<br />
<br />
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Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-31287279797327471752017-09-05T15:06:00.000+01:002017-09-05T15:06:53.805+01:00Changing Times<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Those of you who have astute observational skills and superb attention to detail (or have either saved links to the blog or clicked a GoGogle link) will have noticed a couple of minor changes to the site:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Firstly our URL has changed from DZCBlog to OrbitalBombardmentGamers. </li>
<li>Secondly we have a shiny new email address, orbitalbgamers@gmail.com. </li>
<li>Thirdly, none of the page links to our old posts work (more about that later).</li>
</ul>
<br />
We have been blogging specifically about Dropzone Commander and Hawk Wargames for nearly four years now, with our first instalment landing on the 12th Feburary 2014! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time writing exclusively about Dropzone and I hope that our posts continue to help drive people into the hobby and game (well, when the links work of course).<br />
<br />
However, which is a fancy way of saying 'but', the content driving the blog has somewhat diminished over the last year, which I'm sure regular visitors will have noticed through the distinct downturn in posts and podcasts going up on the site. It's no secret that Hawk haven't been 'focused' on their main game system for a while, and of course we now all know that this was due to the internal and ongoing development of Version 2. All this downtime led to myself and the lads investing less time in Dropzone and more time in other systems, such as Blood Bowl, Guild Ball, and Infinity, and this has driven us to the following decision;<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Orbital Bombardment will no longer be a specific Dropzone Commander blog. We will now be posting and pod casting about our general miniature interests and any games which take our fancy. </i></b><br />
<br />
I want to be very clear, <b style="text-decoration-line: underline;">we are still playing and enjoying Dropzone Commander</b><b><u> and that we will certainly be covering it as V2 drops and thereafter</u></b>, but we have all been in the hobby since what feels like we can talk (or at least moan about all the bullshit) and of course play other games. Personally, I want to get back to writing as I miss it! I enjoy the process and lately have applied my creative indulgences to our local Blood Bowl league (<a href="http://madopenleague.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://madopenleague.blogspot.co.uk/</a> for those interested).<br />
<br />
As for the site, it is a bit of a work in process and as mentioned previously our links are not working correctly, which is a colossal fist sized pain in the arsehole. I'll get it fixed soon as I work a page overhaul for the various game systems I expect us to be covering in the future.<br />
<br />
<br />
I hope you all enjoy the new world, and are looking forward to all the new rules and mechanics for us <i>(Mike edit; Dan)</i> to call bullshit on!<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-13352991102253244532017-07-21T13:16:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:43:50.324+01:00Dropzone Commander: 2nd Edition<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75puwBsDaAEJb55jR87QDQ_eoEqY5vrhIenTN7lEpciHhVngosmp1Riw_-8mdLWa4hr4cyHIK81djLJPSx_JUAacD0J-hvolSdpFLuMYl6CavWsCpCAXmQvX5ehSnpwxk_8TnV8O-Q1Y/s1600/20229111_1134244890014429_2596472708084372567_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="710" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75puwBsDaAEJb55jR87QDQ_eoEqY5vrhIenTN7lEpciHhVngosmp1Riw_-8mdLWa4hr4cyHIK81djLJPSx_JUAacD0J-hvolSdpFLuMYl6CavWsCpCAXmQvX5ehSnpwxk_8TnV8O-Q1Y/s640/20229111_1134244890014429_2596472708084372567_n.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my new favourite piece of artwork. It is just bloody lovely</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Official news, it's coming, this year too!!!<br />
<br />
Here is Hawk's official statement:<br />
<br />
<br />
<i> "Hawk Wargames is excited to announce Dropzone Commander: 2nd Edition!<br /><br />The current Dropzone Commander system is highly regarded and we are working on bringing you a new edition that retains its excellent core mechanics whilst improving many aspects to reflect warfare in the 27th Century.<br /><br />We are in the stages of alpha testing the proposed changes and a closed beta will also take place with our Hawk Talon scheme. We expect a release in Q4 2017 with a release date announced closer to the time.<br /><br />2nd Edition will bring balance to existing units and enhance a player's collection, not invalidate it. We want every unit to be playable. New units are in development which will be previewed over the next few months.<br /><br />Beasts of War have interviewed Dave and they will have a video for you on Monday with more details including proposed changes and even more new artwork, including this incredible Archangel squadron! <br /><br />Make sure to spread the news by sharing this post and let us know in the comments what you're looking forward to in the new edition." </i><br />
<br />
<br />
Well, we are all giddy with excitement and really can't wait. <br />
<br />
What do you want to see?<br />
<a name='more'></a>Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-3725867023783618652017-07-11T14:05:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:43:38.059+01:00Critical Engagement 2017 - The Breakdown<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l2bAdfsDiB-_a2CXL1VUUWxk6JNJ-FD-4MTG_QOuZUOSdur7lGPMvM9OB2V48eBlpmII3w5TXQqNuvzocpEXPpKKn5g9ji6Fmn7GxAZzY3EoksQh7KpEhwnZ-VYWvsjsHSSkzNuJCnc/s1600/title+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l2bAdfsDiB-_a2CXL1VUUWxk6JNJ-FD-4MTG_QOuZUOSdur7lGPMvM9OB2V48eBlpmII3w5TXQqNuvzocpEXPpKKn5g9ji6Fmn7GxAZzY3EoksQh7KpEhwnZ-VYWvsjsHSSkzNuJCnc/s400/title+image.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What the hell is Pete afraid of? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So what does it all mean? Well not a lot really, but we had a bloody brilliant time.<br />
<br />
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!!! <i>[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.]</i>).<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The day ran extremely smoothly with hardly any rules queries <i>[Dan edit; most came from Hawk Louis!]</i>. The only arguing and shouting coming from the human fog-horn known as Pete; luckily he had his inside voice on!<br />
<br />
Below are the final standings. These are slightly different from the day as there were a couple of errors spotted in post-production. The main one being that we gave Joe the 3rd place prize instead of Amit - Doh! But with Joe being a good sport he is giving up his prizes and passing them on to Amit. Stephen managed to retain his Critical Engagement crown and walked away with a whole host of prizes, including the coveted DeepCut Studios mat which was used as our filming table on the day.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoNEhT8SfIGAbrdjXfa77-XIp96mcTnLO0WMVQmRNPry5qFmqcQEDw1H9uVRRO4jbwTcDJyJ5lViUUIGej-cw2FmRflGXwTEgRiYPrQbiqBGkUC3uBMHxBp-U0xY5eJoH-OZ0K6MaPvs/s1600/results.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="563" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoNEhT8SfIGAbrdjXfa77-XIp96mcTnLO0WMVQmRNPry5qFmqcQEDw1H9uVRRO4jbwTcDJyJ5lViUUIGej-cw2FmRflGXwTEgRiYPrQbiqBGkUC3uBMHxBp-U0xY5eJoH-OZ0K6MaPvs/s640/results.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I (Mr humble and modest) actually scored more points than the Champ, but don't read too much into it. Apart from the first game (which was random) I was paired with a mid-low placed player so that I didn't interfere with final standings and results. I could run through all my games, but really there is no point. I did, however have to work extremely hard for each point I scored as my list contained only 1 unit of Infantry (plus a Corrupter) and had 6 AA shots (4 minders and 2 Harbinger Mini Arc Casters).<br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-style: italic;">Dan: </b><b>Hold Up</b>, It's a take over, bitches! With the tournament featuring a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnUpiuvhR7SDNzMUd6V09LSlE/view">duo of fully original and two already tweaked and tested missions</a> I wanted to butt it and relay some general feedback, in case you gorgeous readers fancy playing them at home!<br />
<br />
<b><u>Bunker Strike</u></b><br />
Bunker Assault meshed with Surging Strike, where the FP closest to your opponents deployment zone is worth 3 VP to you (2 as normal to your opponent). We know it works well (we would say better than the original), so not much feedback here. If this variant became tournament standard it would be no surprise or bad thing.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Civilian Extraction</u></b><br />
This was the most unique of the missions and got the most feedback, which I fully expected. Some complained that it was stupid (100% of which were those who lost, and perhaps didn't read the rules properly) and some said they really liked it (funnily enough, 100% of those who won). I think the mission works, but there will be tweaks, and these are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Removal of -1 VP for losing a Survivor Objective; it rubbed people up the wrong way, and I understand that. I don't think it is necessarily a bad mechanic, it can just punish people sometimes.</li>
<li>Addition of second Critical Location; both to be 6" from the centre and straight along the middle of the board, towards to the players deployment zones. Will perhaps change them to score like Flight Zones (turns 3 & 6) but that requires further testing.</li>
</ul>
<div>
These changes should put it in place to work in 1500 points, although the SO buildings may have to become bunkers due to demo.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><u>Forward Air Base</u></b></div>
<div>
Another shiny new one with a unique selling point, Flight Zones. Also corner deployment (all in readiness) with buildings along the central line, which allowed access to a players closest building in turn 1. Literally only had a single moan from a player who (self-admittedly) brought far too little AA with him, so I writing this down as a success, and I believe it will scale nicely to 1500 points.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><u>Military Complex (WMD)</u></b></div>
<div>
The first custom mission we ever penned, as far back as 2014 and originally called Backbreaker. Military Complex as normal, but you can only extract the central objective of your opponent players edge (for 3 VPs, rather than 2). This works and is a great variant to MC and Targets Of Opportunity, and has even started to be used in other tournaments!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We also ran some gnarly custom Scatter Terrain rules over the weekend, and I'm happy to report that I had no complaints or criticism! Well, expect from Alex, who failed to destroy an A4/8DP piece with his entire army, including a Thunderstorm. If you have Scatter Terrain at home to use I fully suggest adding it to your board, as it adds a real depth to your warzone. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anyway, that's all, back to Mike!</div>
<br />
<br />
<b><i>Mike: </i></b>Here are some pictures of the winners and losers<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip35_vusj9Pgoo8q2AC8kNAFNeyjx73ifRFv1LGXONN5oC50eoZFSsFf5bh3_Y3ByUVQg0X80mMq7ueJqgYhVP1E21IWSq_BpSIvvciUxJ6Qd7EODVOqSq0TsZFMjpEaRGmrpt3a0qfyA/s1600/Bryan+sport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip35_vusj9Pgoo8q2AC8kNAFNeyjx73ifRFv1LGXONN5oC50eoZFSsFf5bh3_Y3ByUVQg0X80mMq7ueJqgYhVP1E21IWSq_BpSIvvciUxJ6Qd7EODVOqSq0TsZFMjpEaRGmrpt3a0qfyA/s320/Bryan+sport.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our best sport, Mr Bryan Parke - his first ever<br />
Dropzone tournament. He won 2 games!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-OEiCHGqDvnnIVrwn8G-H4TFLUbWXrWchj84zsT0I7ofdWnJ8aEwRjYFBrpAqP8r4vUpIbVxSabtleFZ7xqSqReAxlchEhSQqf0Xdl2-BqJxCmFyI-rLX_BKdSmx1jDIvL-oPCmbJnhc/s1600/Ed+painted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-OEiCHGqDvnnIVrwn8G-H4TFLUbWXrWchj84zsT0I7ofdWnJ8aEwRjYFBrpAqP8r4vUpIbVxSabtleFZ7xqSqReAxlchEhSQqf0Xdl2-BqJxCmFyI-rLX_BKdSmx1jDIvL-oPCmbJnhc/s320/Ed+painted.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Best Painted: Our flamboyant TechBoy with the lovely PHR</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmX1v_yRfvX8LeUwKKWdBbqLOS9ZC9UK3ggJrFpmguoV_aT_JfRAfVBRqi5cAefOebEBqf5Dei7s5IwXuR9XJPrRrX-x07zoiGcKBsT4MTa23NjS4KNi0IIywOjfAzvYK8ucW9TqeZQI/s1600/kanan+wooden+spoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmX1v_yRfvX8LeUwKKWdBbqLOS9ZC9UK3ggJrFpmguoV_aT_JfRAfVBRqi5cAefOebEBqf5Dei7s5IwXuR9XJPrRrX-x07zoiGcKBsT4MTa23NjS4KNi0IIywOjfAzvYK8ucW9TqeZQI/s320/kanan+wooden+spoon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There can only be one... wooden spoon... Well done Kanan!<br />
Had a <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">smile on your face all day!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgbY52rd8wBnxhBIcdWIIbW5Ceo8ardqLWdIfvC3XhjxGCNfGB1M-mD4KVJPwdNGLyKFnqCfOcEFV_gAkz4SSz63DLWPm-pQSt6lKYPygJ_S0W3Jt0ZU0nMqRrcsPNUfZ3pm9omkZ75A/s1600/Amit+Scourge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgbY52rd8wBnxhBIcdWIIbW5Ceo8ardqLWdIfvC3XhjxGCNfGB1M-mD4KVJPwdNGLyKFnqCfOcEFV_gAkz4SSz63DLWPm-pQSt6lKYPygJ_S0W3Jt0ZU0nMqRrcsPNUfZ3pm9omkZ75A/s320/Amit+Scourge.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top Scourge player and 3rd overall, Amit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxXjBuOw94tKd_GBBeCUZhyphenhyphen546t_FPtqj4s8KkWjBANvuhUHRj87ochJf6uljDjlxGGy87F9DZWqFZtvYD9HgiTV3aamaZPHMQCcnq27FYnD1EP8p1CG5mmqzYtB32PZP1YXyaUcpGyoA/s1600/Dave+UCM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxXjBuOw94tKd_GBBeCUZhyphenhyphen546t_FPtqj4s8KkWjBANvuhUHRj87ochJf6uljDjlxGGy87F9DZWqFZtvYD9HgiTV3aamaZPHMQCcnq27FYnD1EP8p1CG5mmqzYtB32PZP1YXyaUcpGyoA/s320/Dave+UCM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top UCM player Dave - also most distracted player<br />
(listening to rugby during first game = 18-2 loss to me)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifg4rsM3Ib6qAOCR1JJgGIwwDt9Pb_9Toey89R3lmX7ogllkDXdYkvtlfSeRiUCw_AC8zo6S_0rWSHvM7hT286Zo7OpLW0Xf3_rPmeA_dkgi3KbpGCWNs1wVe5QME_nvMjK2UXaYI-zqY/s1600/Ed+PHR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifg4rsM3Ib6qAOCR1JJgGIwwDt9Pb_9Toey89R3lmX7ogllkDXdYkvtlfSeRiUCw_AC8zo6S_0rWSHvM7hT286Zo7OpLW0Xf3_rPmeA_dkgi3KbpGCWNs1wVe5QME_nvMjK2UXaYI-zqY/s320/Ed+PHR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top PHR and second overall, Ed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssuLanDvXRsyG60dgrw0TravUI_aIVGdjs8kS0QBpmxSU4UJg7tY-9Iotew6kdicxYGEWPgbfs3w121f_OyPqzLnJijjJwQ1lB6SsWixr7TzvZbHhoIpjKPjRHkDhD0IqGKcKs6vC15A/s1600/Joe+Shaltari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssuLanDvXRsyG60dgrw0TravUI_aIVGdjs8kS0QBpmxSU4UJg7tY-9Iotew6kdicxYGEWPgbfs3w121f_OyPqzLnJijjJwQ1lB6SsWixr7TzvZbHhoIpjKPjRHkDhD0IqGKcKs6vC15A/s320/Joe+Shaltari.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top and also bottom Shaltari player, Joe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJY3XgbfvoUkeBepkVQ38bBvmSAzAV1-NWMPXyeEVWTxfFSG66IuYEMtgMuJJB_gaQmqFnUAPEiqkanrWOBGnAZIoQnRUVOehTlh8YRvu4lVUtvky0XhcqJJPSJ_xWbQelZxQH0taaFdM/s1600/Steve+Resi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJY3XgbfvoUkeBepkVQ38bBvmSAzAV1-NWMPXyeEVWTxfFSG66IuYEMtgMuJJB_gaQmqFnUAPEiqkanrWOBGnAZIoQnRUVOehTlh8YRvu4lVUtvky0XhcqJJPSJ_xWbQelZxQH0taaFdM/s320/Steve+Resi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top Resistance player, Steve</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ2PofxFquC8RY503_aqKqOkAqjiWRggMtQD2ypDq_CdtzM-CuGQzRuZUbqTN1B9G4fYgbiAQJOxmSQMtwbn7A7KfqYu7vgLQEhtqQUxlJ1P9fKyQTVLpNF2r1W1iJgONbctxxvYWFklI/s1600/Steve+Champion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ2PofxFquC8RY503_aqKqOkAqjiWRggMtQD2ypDq_CdtzM-CuGQzRuZUbqTN1B9G4fYgbiAQJOxmSQMtwbn7A7KfqYu7vgLQEhtqQUxlJ1P9fKyQTVLpNF2r1W1iJgONbctxxvYWFklI/s320/Steve+Champion.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Champion Steve, winning by 1 point from Ed </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQv2V1BMUhSTZo-Nwz2pbEPOyXSF0r4FkXc1y1L6iNX4svg_6jT6Njyo5LYTs_H8zj0hiZznxYdBbwmGWcNeV843l_kT27q6UY4zVXaJnZ-yXFJUJPX0IHhse-uIl6a6EnzjWnkYyUWk/s640/SD+t-shirt.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special OB prize to the highest placed non-OB member: An OB Wannabe T-Shirt. Expect to see this all over town!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQv2V1BMUhSTZo-Nwz2pbEPOyXSF0r4FkXc1y1L6iNX4svg_6jT6Njyo5LYTs_H8zj0hiZznxYdBbwmGWcNeV843l_kT27q6UY4zVXaJnZ-yXFJUJPX0IHhse-uIl6a6EnzjWnkYyUWk/s1600/SD+t-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQv2V1BMUhSTZo-Nwz2pbEPOyXSF0r4FkXc1y1L6iNX4svg_6jT6Njyo5LYTs_H8zj0hiZznxYdBbwmGWcNeV843l_kT27q6UY4zVXaJnZ-yXFJUJPX0IHhse-uIl6a6EnzjWnkYyUWk/s1600/SD+t-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
Hope you have enjoyed the coverage of the tournament, there will (hopefully) be 4 full length game vids uploaded to you tube at some point in the future... TECH BOY!!!<br />
<br />
Joe even said he'd do a tournament write up... Satan called, it's getting chilly down there!<br />
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See you all soon!Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-83392429300804471102017-06-30T14:18:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:42:58.334+01:00Scatter Terrain Rules<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNCMw2l-ZuIGwsDEpZnzbYxAuTnchM22Pl-OexSPfBse4tU-5LZjTgWM6iUr5V4nmsWWGPz2FtigBjf6kZtGSNi3adlOvbZ6lw73T469KGj8lQdmZpMp-6SDLPvR4FTGE0TOYvEXD7wfo/s1600/EpiRusk+ST.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieNCMw2l-ZuIGwsDEpZnzbYxAuTnchM22Pl-OexSPfBse4tU-5LZjTgWM6iUr5V4nmsWWGPz2FtigBjf6kZtGSNi3adlOvbZ6lw73T469KGj8lQdmZpMp-6SDLPvR4FTGE0TOYvEXD7wfo/s320/EpiRusk+ST.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shamelessly stolen from Alex's blog, Epitude Rusk</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
ONE WEEK PEOPLE, IT'S ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY! ARE WE READY?!? WHERE'S ALEX, HE HAS ALL THE SCENERY!! CAN I PANIC? NO, DON'T PANIC!! MAYBE A HEALTHY LEVEL OF PANIC IS GOOD?? LIKE WHEN THE GOONIES SEE THE FRATELLIS ON ONE EYED WILLIE'S PIRATE SHIP!! NO, THATS TOO MUCH PANIC!! UH, UH, OKAY, MORE LIKE WHEN SOMEONE ALMOST DISCOVERS THAT HANNAH MONTANA IS HANNAH MONTANA IN THE ORIGINAL DISNEY SERIES, OKAY, COOL, THAT MUCH PANIC!!</div>
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<div>
It's almost time for us to stop banging on, and on, <i>and on</i> about Critical Engagement; however, that said, it is not quite time, so before I get to the meat of this post, I just have to say...</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you have no plans on Saturday 8th July, come down to London and play some Dropzone Commander with us at Critical Engagement! If you do have plans, cancel them, and make new ones with us!</span></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Details can be found on this <a href="http://dzcblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/critical-engagement-2017.html" target="_blank">post</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1194204820705748/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>!</span></div>
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Right I'm done, thanks for waiting. Ages ago I posted about some scatter terrain I had been working on for the event. Return readers may have noticed that I have absolutely not followed up on my promise to post updates to that article (life is full of broken promises and disappointments, use this as a lesson for the future) as, frankly, I haven't done any work on them due to life, commissions and straight up lazy/forgetfulness.</div>
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<div>
But, but, but!! I'm happy to say that our Quartermaster Alex has been feverishly working away in the War Vault to produce a seemingly endless line of scatter terrain for us to use at the tournament! With an abundance of based, rusty vehicles it only seems right that I wrote some rules so that they can players can interact with the terrain pieces. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjes0W2q98yyErZZeOet24jfZoAyIct2GVD8TYcSSl_606N4fznGKpXJgnkroOT9wZFWRG6LlLccd0B-sxvTf1EL8PB4G0bk4uq8Ijj6JhiZVnd56quyBDkp9CKgz7PBIeZXj5jsTNy4SY/s1600/STrules.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="612" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjes0W2q98yyErZZeOet24jfZoAyIct2GVD8TYcSSl_606N4fznGKpXJgnkroOT9wZFWRG6LlLccd0B-sxvTf1EL8PB4G0bk4uq8Ijj6JhiZVnd56quyBDkp9CKgz7PBIeZXj5jsTNy4SY/s640/STrules.PNG" width="538" /></a></div>
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<div>
Going into designing these rules I wanted scatter terrain to be important enough to affect the battlefield and cause interaction from players, but not become entirely game changing as a result. I'm happy with the way the rules have come out, which are a blend of building and special movement rules, with some notable exceptions (focus fire works, for instance). They are fragile enough for a player to sneeze at and remove, but also if terrain is not taken into consideration it could hamper an activation; for me, that's perfect.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XDkmP6GyY4G-wZf5qTo8Kc9TcaMigWoa4ssD4G4wIRpwUkD3MpCI0jtC8_AXM2kgC_byyn3rNO3lC_Re28uDXhr-53bFR5JgXjFXTqQMeoZy1yDvriVpsgJTrCxuFv2Vtz7yEkDblXE7/s1600/ST+Large.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="412" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XDkmP6GyY4G-wZf5qTo8Kc9TcaMigWoa4ssD4G4wIRpwUkD3MpCI0jtC8_AXM2kgC_byyn3rNO3lC_Re28uDXhr-53bFR5JgXjFXTqQMeoZy1yDvriVpsgJTrCxuFv2Vtz7yEkDblXE7/s320/ST+Large.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of large, impassable Scatter Terrain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At Critical Engagement we will be fielding only one size of scatter terrain per board and marking the <br />
tables with the rules specific to that scatter terrain, in order to make it easier and fairer for the participants of the game. I will also probably cap the amount used per table to around six pieces, so that the battlefields have a taste of the terrain and don't end up 'bloated'. </div>
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<div>
In a casual game I would toss all sizes of scatter terrain on a board and simply agree with my opponent before any dice were rolled what each piece qualified as. Easy!</div>
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<div>
With the introduction of board altering pieces like these I would also like to encourage players who have added scatter terrain to their battlefields to make them uneven, and actually make picking a deployment edge or zone relevant. Picking an edge or zone could be added to the first activation roll in missions; </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Player who wins dice-off chooses either a deployment edge or zone <b>or</b> chooses which player activates a battlegroup first.</li>
<li>The player who lost the dice-off chooses the option which was not selected by the winner.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Now, I'm not saying that if you're playing against a Resistance player you should pack every road with scatter terrain so that their Thunderstorm can't drive anywhere, but at the same time I'm not saying that those giant stupid mobile football pitches shouldn't be gummed up <i>a little </i>if you decide to pick a board edge rather than choose first activation. It's thought provoking, and that's the point.</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-OiJ1OMhIujTmlOS0ZERExDckU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">For a PDF variant you can click anywhere on this whole, entire sentence to download the rules!</a></div>
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Let me know what you think and if you would change anything, and even better, if you used them in a game and how they played!</div>
Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-66745765706337881362017-06-22T20:23:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:42:36.902+01:00OB Podcast Episode 20: Bigger Isn't Always Better<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6gUB-W4wIxlWQ9m8RROIgK6ti0mlX97hyphenhyphenD7CZfUlyuZljdr58zztwLCgk_IZT2ZVZ0mImeh6kfznwP9uWKD13c2fvzkcOtf-fV7gsCtvz2M7dI9BM14QVxUGKmtgwdJU38oxu5WpQeOL/s1600/OBPod20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="640" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6gUB-W4wIxlWQ9m8RROIgK6ti0mlX97hyphenhyphenD7CZfUlyuZljdr58zztwLCgk_IZT2ZVZ0mImeh6kfznwP9uWKD13c2fvzkcOtf-fV7gsCtvz2M7dI9BM14QVxUGKmtgwdJU38oxu5WpQeOL/s640/OBPod20.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
Come and relax in the hot box with us whilst we have a chatet about upcoming events (including <a href="http://dzcblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/critical-engagement-2017.html" target="_blank">Critical Engagement</a>), 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!<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Timings:<br />
<br />
Intro - 0:00<br />
News - 03:00<br />
WAYPA - 26:25<br />
Discussion Zone - 1:08<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/329540082&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe>Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-38917751311028762362017-06-21T09:00:00.000+01:002017-06-21T09:00:49.991+01:00The Right Expo-sure.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1nlKwkU2Ep9EJOyrsIdjAGRDzypmgVBLl-g11yP6VLjzaqNynQWhOrw2-HRi80umjNwBfid-zpvfaayFaxBn13e3JAzCKlmmIgxECLEPeT9MUuTSzCTfKu4lg7GHiHzGaZcDmvTPxc0/s1600/district-9-spaceship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1nlKwkU2Ep9EJOyrsIdjAGRDzypmgVBLl-g11yP6VLjzaqNynQWhOrw2-HRi80umjNwBfid-zpvfaayFaxBn13e3JAzCKlmmIgxECLEPeT9MUuTSzCTfKu4lg7GHiHzGaZcDmvTPxc0/s400/district-9-spaceship.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Well hello there my spaceship loving fans, I am back.<br />
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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!!!<br />
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I have rested up and have poured my feelings into this post for your perusal.<br />
Some of which could be controversial, but it is for a good cause.<br />
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<b><u>Reminder of my list:</u></b><br />
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<b>SR15 Flag battlegroup (260pts)</b><br />
1 x New York - 260pts - S<br />
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+ UCM Admiral (40pts, (5AV equivalent) with battleship bonus<br />
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<b>SR7 Line battlegroup (175pts)</b><br />
1 x San Francisco - 111pts - M<br />
1 x New Orleans - 32pts - L<br />
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L<br />
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<b>SR12 Line battlegroup (250pts)</b><br />
2 x Lima - 74pts - L<br />
2 x New Cairo - 176pts - M<br />
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<b>SR5 Line battlegroup (132pts)</b><br />
1 x Seattle - 132pts - M<br />
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<b>SR7 Pathfinder battlegroup (194pts)</b><br />
3 x Santiago - 66pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
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<b>SR7 Pathfinder battlegroup (194pts)</b><br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
3 x Santiago - 66pts - L<br />
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<b><u>The missions we played:</u></b><br />
<b><u></u><br /></b>
Game 1 - Station Assault with Battleline deployment<br />
Game 2 - Mixed Engagement with Distant <br />
Game 3 - Moonshot with Column<br />
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I was quite happy with my list overall. I feel having my Admiral in the Battleship had the most substantial impact to the games. Not having my command deck for potentially 3 turns out of 2 of the games. (1 of which ended on turn 4).<br />
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This meant I had no defence against opponents cards with no chance of espionage's. One of my games I got played the Shalatri card that's stop me from playing any cards this turn. This was quite luckily for them the only turn I had just got a full hand of cards.<br />
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I really enjoyed using the Seattle, the front turrets being on one profile is very handy. I was thinking about dropping the battleship and adding 2 more Seattle's but this would leave me short on points towards an Admiral.<br />
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<b><u>Lets talk drop capacity</u> </b><br />
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All of my opponents had a high amount of drop capability, probably even more than me.<br />
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Game 1 was against a nice chap called Daniel, who was fielding PHR. He had 10 x Medea strike carriers and 3 x Orpheus. The Orpheus's were amazing, those 12 shots per broadside was making small work of my strike carriers. I cant complain as Daniel's dice luck faded away as I managed to harass his troopships without fail. This would have ended a 10/10 draw, but kill points awarded Daniel plus 2 VP and me 5 VP. Making it a 11-9 Win for me.<br />
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Game 2 was against Tom, he had brought UCM. Our list's were quite similar. Tom had 7 strike carriers and 2 troopships, 5 corvettes to my 6. We both had battleships but of a different class.<br />
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This was the game that me, Tom and our surrounding tables (Daniel was there from game 1). That corvettes (generally UCM ones) are not worth their weight in gold or space points.<br />
The first match with Daniel all 6 of my corvettes was chasing his strike carriers, did I do much?.. nope. You would have thought that the ship designed to kill strike carriers actually could an average amount of damage.<br />
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Match up two with Tom both our corvettes went for each others strike carriers. In the whole game I think we killed one each, with both of us still having next to a full squad left at the end of the game.<br />
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UCM Corvettes, are Anti Corvette, Corvettes. -<i>I just tried to get as many of the same word in one sentence.</i><br />
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I would rather spend the points on 4 more strike carriers, they have much more of a chance to survive an attack then me trying to kill my opponents strike carriers. <br />
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Don't even think about trying to wound void gates. They have so much point defence you have to focus all shots at one gate at a time. Problem is they have there own corvettes taking you down while u are trying to do this. One thing the Santiago's are good at, is killing Shalatri cloud-fliers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>when you thought you brought all the strike carriers</i></td></tr>
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Ok while we are on Shalatri, is anyone else not having fun playing against them?.<br />
Game 3 for me was against Shalatri, and every game I have played against them I have wanted to never play dropfleet again. The UK Games Expo was my second tournament, I was hoping I could put it down to a bad first tournament or maybe even getting to know the meta game. But I was wrong all my training games against Shaltari had the same impact and the last game of the day has left this heavy burden over me not wanting to play again.<br />
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I just would not like to play against any Shaltari in a competitive situation. I may play again in another more local tournament but I would rather just concede my game if I get matched to the hogs.<br />
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Strong words I know. I am an experienced gamer and play many systems I can tell when something is just not right.<br />
I will back my last opponent up, in that he played a great game and if he wasn't a nice guy to play against I may have just walked away from it.<br />
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I love the game and think it is a very good game it just needs balancing and a better flow of play is needed. The launch asset phase seems to put a heavy break on the flow of battle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>someone make this for me</i></td></tr>
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I am going to try and run through a few things that have had me pulling my teeth out. I welcome you all for your opinions in regards to these points, as these are just my feelings. Very strong, educated feelings. <br />
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Why do Shalatri have to break all the rules in the Drop Zone/Fleet Commander universe??? In Dropzone the hogs are now spot on, and I think they are the army that they were meant to be. But this wasn't always the case.<br />
Is the faction trait to be able to break rules??. Unbalanced/ bending rules is <b>not</b> Shenanigans, and trickery. Why do Shaltari need to deploy completely different to everyone else. I'm sure we could make some rules to make it mesh with the main system of deployment . I'll admit that I like that its different and enjoy the teleporting gate system fluff and idea. Just don't make it benefit this faction over all overs.<br />
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In Dropzone Hawk raised gate points to accommodate for the fact that any unit could use the gate. This worked side by side with the fact that if you lost all of your gates you couldn't redeploy or bring the units off the table back on.<br />
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Very similar to if you kill a mother-ship, no more troops. Problem is mother-ships do not need to get in harms way, compared to normal troopships. If you did work your way to your opponents half to kill one, you wouldn't stay long. The full might of the rest of the fleet would be lighting you up from all over. They can also use other void gates to be within the area of affect, chaining themselves all over the place. Do they need to make the gates more expensive? or do we need to make other more damage dealing units cost more?<br />
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The Void gates charged air abilities; every other race has to take troopships which die very easily to be able to take a defence battery. These chaps can get one for 15 points, along with a weapon that hits on 5+. Kill the void gates you say? have you tried to kill them in atmosphere when most lists are fielding around 10? Most troopships are only going to get to a central location or a non home quarter cluster if they are lucky, and if they do they probably wouldn't last a turn. That's 1 or 2 turns of trying to drop a battery. I say trying because you know the Shaltari gates got to the cluster way before your troopship, and is now shooting down every drop ship in sight. The other thing to take into account is that it is very costly to say have 5/6 troopships to try and get a defence battery to every cluster.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjm0lBOil3ZRwwyTc1zAGGwLsZatBkptnKR41fSbNIz6celIKBQ6iyW0XorKTQamI0rZZCl1eLCbxgezdLLhCAGXDjlW5OPEkwrOunBzXksVg-OMPUZZG5dEroFsYKjjdvLCx1Lmitq3k/s1600/IMG_4805.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjm0lBOil3ZRwwyTc1zAGGwLsZatBkptnKR41fSbNIz6celIKBQ6iyW0XorKTQamI0rZZCl1eLCbxgezdLLhCAGXDjlW5OPEkwrOunBzXksVg-OMPUZZG5dEroFsYKjjdvLCx1Lmitq3k/s320/IMG_4805.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Infantry and tank markers</i> </td></tr>
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Add up all the variables and you can see your potential for getting any troops to the ground is very low.<br />
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Couple that with Beam close action weapons of the Turquoise and the guaranteed damage of the Particle lances. The rest of your fleet is going to have a hard time as you cannot do anything to defend against them. <br />
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Point Defence (PD) on Shaltari ships is really high, they were designed like this, because... I have no idea. They have lower armour yeah true, but once you are in their normal scan-signature range they will shields up and protect against critical hits anyway.<br />
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I haven't yet seen any Shaltari army with fighters or bombers in, is this due to other weapons being better and the high PD to counter bombers? <br />
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I think that troopships in general need to be more resilient, that Void Gates should have to choose between firing and deploying troops, you are going to loose 1 per cluster so not that much of a change. And maybe increase the to hit roll. I don't know really, I'd rather not say how I would fix anything, it just needs changing. It is not fun playing against them, so I just wont play. I just want to have fun while it's a fair fight. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPZOImm5qYoQds2R7PKd_xjG3itc-XjqbtRh1hGhpJuYW_jK1Q_WAL9t1sybNBaN37yTPNkDckmw_xwdFYmYKY2eCiPGy8MMohEn67V5m4P-1CZJNvKg0xo1eILAuhgnJF2eA0U3cOHQ/s1600/IMG_4803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPZOImm5qYoQds2R7PKd_xjG3itc-XjqbtRh1hGhpJuYW_jK1Q_WAL9t1sybNBaN37yTPNkDckmw_xwdFYmYKY2eCiPGy8MMohEn67V5m4P-1CZJNvKg0xo1eILAuhgnJF2eA0U3cOHQ/s320/IMG_4803.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>low, atmosphere, minor and major spike markers</i></td></tr>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
I'm thinking some soft changes and this could be the awesome game we want. Other members of the team have an issue with the flow of the game. With problems with the activation cards slowing the pace down, to the launch asset phase. I think a lot of it comes down to all the book keeping.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPZOImm5qYoQds2R7PKd_xjG3itc-XjqbtRh1hGhpJuYW_jK1Q_WAL9t1sybNBaN37yTPNkDckmw_xwdFYmYKY2eCiPGy8MMohEn67V5m4P-1CZJNvKg0xo1eILAuhgnJF2eA0U3cOHQ/s1600/IMG_4803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPZOImm5qYoQds2R7PKd_xjG3itc-XjqbtRh1hGhpJuYW_jK1Q_WAL9t1sybNBaN37yTPNkDckmw_xwdFYmYKY2eCiPGy8MMohEn67V5m4P-1CZJNvKg0xo1eILAuhgnJF2eA0U3cOHQ/s1600/IMG_4803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike><br /></strike></div>
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People are getting quicker though, I think it takes a good few games under your belt before you are ready for a tournament scene. Also to know your ships well, quick reference sheets will do the same trick.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJYtTJjLB-gNrrJ-wodzpp0Pi95FD21Bsr6zRCUjGNoQ1HvplY3rxnbFylqGuWbyYeyxQYjWwtgM-XhC_PLR9fMfwFfMkRWN-1t-K429G7K_0DDOYr6N_osG_WIKxR0Hclf3WQFAeFhA/s320/IMG_4804.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>In low orbit with minor spike</i></td></tr>
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What I've been doi<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJYtTJjLB-gNrrJ-wodzpp0Pi95FD21Bsr6zRCUjGNoQ1HvplY3rxnbFylqGuWbyYeyxQYjWwtgM-XhC_PLR9fMfwFfMkRWN-1t-K429G7K_0DDOYr6N_osG_WIKxR0Hclf3WQFAeFhA/s1600/IMG_4804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJYtTJjLB-gNrrJ-wodzpp0Pi95FD21Bsr6zRCUjGNoQ1HvplY3rxnbFylqGuWbyYeyxQYjWwtgM-XhC_PLR9fMfwFfMkRWN-1t-K429G7K_0DDOYr6N_osG_WIKxR0Hclf3WQFAeFhA/s1600/IMG_4804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>ng personally is marking a group with a spike or layer if the whole group has the same. Only changing to individually once I needed to. Also ending my turn and letting your opponent start their turn while you add markers to you ships, this helps speed up the process. <br />
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That all from me for now, but let me know what you think.<br />
Joe<br />
<br />skullswordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830370864131020136noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-80409567704167397322017-06-01T08:23:00.000+01:002017-06-01T12:51:29.212+01:00NAVEL EXPO-SURE<div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Me (joe) and Ed are travelling up to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham., and </span>are both attending Hawk's largest to date Dropfleet commander tournament in the UK!</div>
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The tournament is on Saturday 3rd June, during the <a href="http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/" target="_blank">UK Games Expo</a> that runs from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th. We are driving up on Today along with Mike and Sir <i>[edi: Madam]</i> Bethany to get settled into our surroundings and wet our throats a little, or maybe even a lot.<br />
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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 <b><a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0159/4298/files/UKGE_2017_Dropfleet_TOURNAMENT_PACK.pdf?11338818012905486614" target="_blank">Tournament Pack</a></b> and an FAQ just in time for this event which I believe is to add in some much needed balance to the game.<br />
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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.<br />
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I will be taking my UCM-Taiidan Fleet, for those that know of Homeworld...salute. The army is not finished but does have enough colour to be recognised as the same fleet, there is just so much detail, and don't even get me started on the point defence guns. One Jakarta has close to 48 of the things...... repetitive..... uurrrgh!<br />
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I have jumped in on the deep end and purchased custom foam from <a href="https://www.feldherr.net/" target="_blank">Feldherr</a> cases. If you haven't heard of them or haven't seen any of the Dropfleet foam first hand, feel free to come have a little look at the case I'll have with me. It is very well costed and I would have been stuck this weekend without it.<br />
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<b><b>The List:</b></b><br />
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</b>
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UKGEXPO - 1245pts<br />
UCM - 11 launch assets<br />
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<b>SR15 Flag battlegroup (260pts)</b><br />
1 x New York - 260pts - S<br />
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+ UCM Admiral (40pts, (5AV equivalent) with battleship bonus<br />
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<b>SR7 Line battlegroup (175pts)</b><br />
1 x San Francisco - 111pts - M<br />
1 x New Orleans - 32pts - L<br />
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L<br />
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<b>SR12 Line battlegroup (250pts)</b><br />
2 x Lima - 74pts - L<br />
2 x New Cairo - 176pts - M<br />
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<b>SR5 Line battlegroup (132pts)</b><br />
1 x Seattle - 132pts - M<br />
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<b>SR7 Pathfinder battlegroup (194pts)</b><br />
3 x Santiago - 66pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
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<b>SR7 Pathfinder battlegroup (194pts)</b><br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L<br />
3 x Santiago - 66pts - L <br />
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In making my list I have tried to put a bit of everything in. I kept coming up low on launch assets, so I opted for the New York battleship with the nice little buff it got recently. I had to drop an Atlantis for it, but the one test game I've had it seemed to mesh well with the rest of the fleet.<br />
<br />
At our local club we have come to the conclusion that troopships die very easy, possibly to the point where they need a buff? I'm not sure that in some scenarios troopships excel, but they are always on the 'to kill' list first. Normally I have been running 2 troopships, but they both seem to die turn 3 or 4 so I dropped one for another 3 Strike Carriers making my total of 9 strike carriers (yes I am very ground asset heavy). It's almost a straight points swap which is handy.<br />
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As a summery I would say my list is heavy on the strike carriers, but also very toolbox.<br />
<div>
<br />
This is ed's list and he is taking his much loved Tron PHR;</div>
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<div>
<div>
Current list: UKGE v2 - 1226pts</div>
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PHR - 8 launch assets</div>
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<b>SR15 Flag battlegroup (285pts)</b></div>
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1 x Minos - 285pts - S</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklcXfj4ua1eDaKH71Ys11jQHewCvN1oAg7h-IQmWKrFnlGjkdnSW_Uk5E8sRJtczMgM-04BZoPDuIfQpe4Uh5rnfP-eHYOhvFNBiHlu9yZTgCwU0dLcHIlfBHwmC8x0xZmnRdYK4zhrg/s640/blogger-image--1686771528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklcXfj4ua1eDaKH71Ys11jQHewCvN1oAg7h-IQmWKrFnlGjkdnSW_Uk5E8sRJtczMgM-04BZoPDuIfQpe4Uh5rnfP-eHYOhvFNBiHlu9yZTgCwU0dLcHIlfBHwmC8x0xZmnRdYK4zhrg/s400/blogger-image--1686771528.jpg" width="400" /></a> + Vice Director (40pts, 3AV)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>SR10 Vanguard battlegroup (180pts)</b></div>
<div>
1 x Bellerophon - 180pts - H</div>
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<b>SR6 Line battlegroup (172pts)</b></div>
<div>
1 x Ganymede - 135pts - M</div>
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1 x Calypso - 37pts - L</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>SR5 Line battlegroup (130pts)</b></div>
<div>
1 x Orpheus - 130pts - M</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>SR8 Pathfinder battlegroup (232pts)</b></div>
<div>
2 x Medea - 78pts - L</div>
<div>
1 x Medea - 39pts - L</div>
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1 x Ikarus - 115pts - M</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>SR6 Pathfinder battlegroup (207pts)</b></div>
<div>
3 x Echo - 90pts - L</div>
<div>
2 x Medea - 78pts - L</div>
<div>
1 x Medea - 39pts - L</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Ed has been playing about with lists for a few weeks now, and his last was a bit low on launch assets but this seems to be coming in right in the middle of the pack. It looks like most of the assets normal play will be defensive, but if you let your guard down those elite fighters will tear you up with their easy critical's (are they actually drones??)! Ed is packing all the guns though, so damage out-put will not be a problem, not to mention the torpedo welding MINOS.<br />
<br />
Ed has a love for the Calypso's and denying me those critical hits by mucking around with my poxy dice! We had one game where I couldn't do a sodding thing going up against 2 of his Calypso's (before nerf). I am so glad for the Nerf they got they are still very good, but now not broken.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLVu1HC6w8DAjzV3h3h3wRMiy1N_8e0bTm1L6U3pztv5bjsj1dziCRbubj6vRDznU7o8zJSvxT98POOo4TDYiRzsmOeVFH1Ti7pEIMVqlo-w6SmpD9rcDPkWVBT0_TzAwxD6I8HS3e5w/s640/blogger-image--487745213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLVu1HC6w8DAjzV3h3h3wRMiy1N_8e0bTm1L6U3pztv5bjsj1dziCRbubj6vRDznU7o8zJSvxT98POOo4TDYiRzsmOeVFH1Ti7pEIMVqlo-w6SmpD9rcDPkWVBT0_TzAwxD6I8HS3e5w/s320/blogger-image--487745213.jpg" width="320" /></a>Comparing to my list only, I have a few more strike carriers than Ed, but he has a nice amount bombardment which is nothing to be sniffed at let me tell you. PHR cruisers seem to have the best mix of weapons; Launch 4 and a double burnthrough laser... No thanks. The Ganymede, despite the name is one of the best troopships. No change that it is the best, bombardment and a lovely mix of medium calibre weapons. I'm not looking forward to getting broadsided by any of these hard hitting half human traitors!<br />
<br />
Let me know what you all think, and hopefully we can get a tournament report out after. While we are in Birmingham we are going to try and visit a new board game cafe that has opened up by our charming friend Simon Edwards. If you would like any more info look <a href="https://www.facebook.com/meeplemayhemuk/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I'll look forward to seeing many of you over the weekend! Happy expo-sing yourselves..... Ed's gonna have a blast!</div>
skullswordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830370864131020136noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-70630567875927484592017-05-26T10:13:00.003+01:002017-09-05T17:42:02.350+01:00Critical Engagement 17: Missions and PrizesGreetings valued readership<br />
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As I mentioned in a previous post about our annual tournament Critical Engagement '17, I have put together the missions pack.<br />
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Also we have locked in some of the finest event sponsors for prize support.... exciting times!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCtx80tCOsLrXAif3hoYNywfeirni0lCipLMlntQPDj2heOx__xYMz2ch7bbu458IjAfatNiV-F-Dw-NedhuYVAL7lwEwQkm-4dGAZOVooXlWwd5FyQyH-0tlSzXqibq-uAVpo0SqnCw/s1600/DO+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="136" data-original-width="800" height="54" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCtx80tCOsLrXAif3hoYNywfeirni0lCipLMlntQPDj2heOx__xYMz2ch7bbu458IjAfatNiV-F-Dw-NedhuYVAL7lwEwQkm-4dGAZOVooXlWwd5FyQyH-0tlSzXqibq-uAVpo0SqnCw/s320/DO+logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://darkops.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">https://darkops.myshopify.com/</a></div>
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We are pleased to announce that DarkOps, wargaming terrain producers of the highest order, will be supporting Critical Engagement for the second year running, with some prize support and a gift for each attendee.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4VXKH1F9u1KPOkKY5CZRmGMqGZx9-SQpyFuqNU2I_0jtTtt2TJux8QveLba16SoGV_TFk0bMCnaN7tNkdtXSAGVoBuF4g24u18yYFmj8i_QM-UBPf8A1VBEUVfA8OpjWSR_PzYEi4gw/s1600/IMG_0609_e5f0f2ed-c718-4647-9a11-052b07bbc994_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="266" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4VXKH1F9u1KPOkKY5CZRmGMqGZx9-SQpyFuqNU2I_0jtTtt2TJux8QveLba16SoGV_TFk0bMCnaN7tNkdtXSAGVoBuF4g24u18yYFmj8i_QM-UBPf8A1VBEUVfA8OpjWSR_PzYEi4gw/s320/IMG_0609_e5f0f2ed-c718-4647-9a11-052b07bbc994_large.jpg" width="177" /></a></div>
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Go check out their range of DarkZone 10mm scale buildings plus other amazing scenery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkoBt7PA_knwa_kuw4peYg5hCw0zNjsxK68WQXmtrO-tQSjE5HA47-alKJ-xMOJCAHZJfDBD0jiK2Di4ec2Uwdzl6tMnUoryTqXqYR-nXR7dD5Zc8R37U_v_SOmqneKfU56GQ196cgzo/s1600/DC+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="1480" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkoBt7PA_knwa_kuw4peYg5hCw0zNjsxK68WQXmtrO-tQSjE5HA47-alKJ-xMOJCAHZJfDBD0jiK2Di4ec2Uwdzl6tMnUoryTqXqYR-nXR7dD5Zc8R37U_v_SOmqneKfU56GQ196cgzo/s320/DC+logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.deepcutstudio.com/" target="_blank">http://www.deepcutstudio.com/</a></div>
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Our next sponsor are creators and purveyors of some of the most gorgeous gaming mats on the market. Their Dropzone and Dropfleet range are some of the best looking and most extensive that I have found. Some really beautiful creations. Take a look for yourselves - you'll be impressed!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9bPGA64f3Z1U-ez4wj4a0XPvFVSBhFpKhzdqsTpe6oXdah7CHz3qLCqsMqup3RB2-0y2mrHqv5BjuP2wRNOFAqg8704cP5huLITKtoLsPpy9GIx-63rGvjbFFt3z08uQOWazsKxx83c/s1600/dropzone-commander-game-mat-night-cityscape-4x4-600x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9bPGA64f3Z1U-ez4wj4a0XPvFVSBhFpKhzdqsTpe6oXdah7CHz3qLCqsMqup3RB2-0y2mrHqv5BjuP2wRNOFAqg8704cP5huLITKtoLsPpy9GIx-63rGvjbFFt3z08uQOWazsKxx83c/s320/dropzone-commander-game-mat-night-cityscape-4x4-600x600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Deepcut will be supplying a beautiful night-scape dropzone mat which we will use for table 1 and be giving away as a prize for the champion of critical Engagement '17<br />
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Hawk Wargames (bless their cotton socks) will also be in attendance and supplying prize support. We have some more details about this coming at a later date with something extra we will be doing...... but that is for another post, another time.<br />
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So on to the meat and gravy of Critical Engagement, the missions.<br />
They can be downloaded from our Google drive <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1KnUpiuvhR7SDNzMUd6V09LSlE" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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We are introducing 2 new missions, bringing back a favourite and adding a standard Hawk mission with a tweek.<br />
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<b>Mission 1 - Bunker Assault</b><br />
Standard Bunker Assault but we have added the bonus of an extra victory point if you control the Bunker closest to the enemies deployment zone.<br />
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<b>Mission 2 - Civilian Extraction</b><br />
A brand new mission, which we debuted on the blog last month. It has been revised after some play-testing and we think it is a great fun mission to play.<br />
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<b>Mission 3 - Forward Air Base</b><br />
Another new mission, allowing aircraft and vehicles to hold flight zones whilst the infantry search for the elusive objectives. Another fun and interesting mission to play<br />
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<b>Mission 4 - Military Complex (WMD version)</b><br />
This mission was first seen at Critical Engagement 2016. It is standard Military Complex, but the central objective is a nuclear warhead and needs extracting off the opponents - to deliver a WMD into the heart of the opponents main force.<br />
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Well, that wraps up what we will be playing on the day, if you are interested - don't hesitate. Come on down and join us<br />
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Tickets are £15 (paypal to 1stfounding@gmail.com)<br />
1000 points clash, with a limit of 1 rare squad per rare choice (instead of 2)<br />
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Let us know what you think of the missions in the comments<br />
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<br />Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-36575601800943686762017-05-16T13:55:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:41:38.150+01:00Invaders, They're Coming Over The Hills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Until I looked up the lyrics for the classic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzatkTmHqyg">Iron Maiden, British Heavy Metal track 'Invaders'</a> to paraphrase the title of this post, I had no idea that the perfect lyric "<i>Invaders...Marauding"</i> 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.<br />
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Anyway; <i>Invaders... Marauding.</i><br />
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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!<br />
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I've noted Invaders as being alternative for the simple fact that they just aren't used past the starter set, with the Intruder Alpha (the similarly named, light dropship troop transport) being seen as vastly superior. That isn't just our opinion at OB, although it <i>is</i> strongly our opinion, but is also that of the wider community too. The fact of the matter is that the Intruder is just better! I think it's only fair that I explain why, so let's get out them circles and stick some sexy bullet points on this mother;<br />
<br />
Intruder > Invader because;<br />
<ul>
<li>Intruders are incredibly manoeuvrable, with a top speed of 30" and the ability to deploy Infantry into a building from up to around 20" away, or building hop a unit up to 17". If deployed in a Marauder, the Invader can deploy Infantry into a building up to 19" away, and can only building hop Infantry if it is already deployed, and only up to a pathetic maximum of 5". To emphasise how bad the building hop range is, Infantry who have a move of 2" can move between buildings up to 4" away. This manoeuvrability also allows the Intruder to safely whiz Infantry across the board and out of the way.</li>
<li>Intruders are easier to hide (all aircraft measure to stems, but the Marauder is bulkier and will stick out more).</li>
<li>Two squads of warriors in Intruders are 49 points cheaper than two squads in Invaders, in a Marauder (and a squad of Warriors and Destroyers in Intruders 3 points cheaper!). In fairness to the APC, you do get three bases of Warriors for your troubles, but that is 7 points shy of a squad of Minders! </li>
<li>Intruders offer battle group flexibility. Being able to place one squad of Warriors in their own Troop battle group in your roster allows for far more options within your force. With the list you will see below soon, I really struggled to fit in six battle groups. </li>
<li>Marauders, and Invaders, are vulnerable. Although this article is on Invaders, Marauders should be seen as part of the package deal, and also part of the problem. Intruders I find to be more survivable when it comes to advanced deployment simply because of their speed, and also that only AA can target them.</li>
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So, that's a pretty inclusive and lengthy list of reasons as why not to bring Invaders to the party. It's worth noting that UCM have the same issues with Bears, and PHR have it even worse with Junos (due to the Neptune's speed and the Junos limited capacity of two bases).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot of the production line</td></tr>
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One of the reasons for my experiment was that myself and the boyz had discovered that light dropships were superior pretty early on in our DzC careers, and as a result I had never used Invaders in a list! I also wanted to see that if despite all the short comings they could be used in a 'hostile' environment. </div>
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I mused for a while over a list, and this is what I settled on;</div>
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Six battle groups; Check! Four Infantry; Check! CV4 minimum for a Scourge boss; Check! Really the only thing I missed out on in this list was the second unit of Exotics (which would be Destroyers), and honestly, I did miss them. I had a single prep game against Joe's Shaltari on the Friday before Coastal in order to shake of the rust (as I hadn't played a 1500 point Dropzone against since November!), which resulted in a draw and gave me some initial food for thought regarding the Invader; Coastal was going to be tough.<br />
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It turned out to be just that, but also very successful for me...<br />
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<b>Game 1: Military Complex (WMD)</b><b> - 20-0 - </b><b>Oz with PHR</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warriors bravely,(as brave a zombie can be), <br />
facing off against Sirens</td></tr>
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Having played this game against Joe, I had an idea on how to deploy my Invaders in order to get the most from the squads, having made the mistake of putting both squads into my 'home' building in our game. Not being able to building hop a squad with an Invader from your 'home' building to the closest middle building on Targets Of Opportunity or MC (unless it is within 5", and you are willing to risk your Invader to AT fire) is a real issue for APCs, and it forces you to keep a squad on board for a turn 2 disembark. This results in less search rolls on turn 2, which could be critical if you are playing against a strong demo list. As it was Oz was fairly new to the game, and it turns out that I have DzC ingrained on my soul, and used every ounce of my experience to win this game. Mike called me a newb stomper, because he's supportive like that, but I will note that Oz went on to annihilate his next two opponents with his double Njord list and finished 5th! Good work chap!<br />
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<b>Game 2: Bunker Assault - 12-8 - Papa Burch with Scourge</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing Mike, but, but, but... This was a tournament, and I'd never beaten him at a tournament before, <i>and </i>he's a better player than me, so to say it was a dread pairing would be fairly accurate. As it turned out, I managed to snatch a win after a couple of mis-deployments in the first turn (yes, the first turn, that's how tight our games tend to be) which I genuinely thought would cost me the game. My Intruder AT fire turned out to be strong however, with my transports matching the total damage that his Reavers caused all game (mostly due to a lack of ground targets on both our parts), and with a few key troop deployments I grabbed the win by 1 VP and an extra point from kill points.<br />
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The Invaders did what all troops do in this game when your opponent has an Annihilator and Monitors; very little. Against lists which did not pack blasts and too much AI I would have been tempted to bring them on turn 1 and deploy them into buildings to unleash hell (which with an Overseer boosting their shots, they really do!) but que sera sera. As it was they snuck on turn 4 after all of Mike's AA was dead or indisposed, and loitered around until end game to bunker up their troops. In this mission it was the Corruptor that secured me the win by squirting Razorworms into his 'home' bunker, as by having only two Intruders in the list meant getting there was always going to be an issue. I would have also preferred to have 100 points of Destroyers over the 81 points of Warriors which come inside the Invader.<br />
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<b>Game 3: Careful Advance - 15-5 - Dave Clark with Allied Resistance</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Now don't get me wrong, again, I enjoy playing Dave, but, but, but, <i style="font-weight: bold;">but</i>... You can shove four Typhoons and a Thunderstorm in one battlegroup right up your muck crease. Typhoons are bad enough, but <i>four</i> of them, seriously? Bullshit move, Clarkey. Anyway, as it turned out, after spending 280 points on choppers Dave had little on the ground to contest Critical Locations in turns two, three, and four which gave me a four point lead after he obliterated my home building and extracted his objective (making it 6-2 to me at the top of turn 4).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get in and out, quick sharp!</td></tr>
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I made a deployment error by sticking both my Invader Warrior squads into my home building, fully well knowing that Dave would decimate it within the first couple of activation's of turn 2, but even after a Brave Gamble (card is bullshit, basically three Quick Thinking's in one deck, it's bullshit!) on his Typhoon squad almost brought down the building after I won initiative, a clutch Underground Monorail allowed both squads to 'flee' into the central building and become occupier, which resulted in a CQB between six Warrior bases, my Eviscerators, and Dave's MFRs; I had 66 dice! I'll also note that they unbelievably only lost seven men, but then rolled a one and ran away. Luck's a funny thing.<br />
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Under the duress of typical Resistance building demo and an overheating Thunderstorm, I managed to find the central objective and my Oppressor ended up holding onto it at the end of the game to give me a 5 VP lead; I was never,<i> ever </i>winning the Kill Points battle. I think the rustyness of both our games showed, with in my opinion Dave's two Pathfinder Archangels (oh yes, he had two of these too. Resistance should win <b>everything,</b> they're so good!) picking the wrong targets for most of the game. Instead of downing the Eviscerator's Intruder he went after a Marauder loaded with Hunters (which I kept loaded as bait, it was worth the risk), which he could have just waited to disembark and tear up with the T-Storm and Typhoons.<br />
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If it had not been for the Underground Monorail in turn 2 I would have not been nearly as strong in that central building, and the issue of building hopping units with Invaders would have become a big issue again, especially with the threat range of Sappers and Typhoons who could have taken out the APCs. If not for my experience of the game, and luck dry-humping my leg, it could have been very different indeed.<br />
<br />
After this game I was on equal points with a lovely chap named George, but nicked the 1st place medal on Strength Of Schedule (Mike came 3rd, and Dave came 6th). A real hard tournament, but so, so good. Dropzone remains hands down (and hands up) the best strategy wargame on the market!<br />
<br />
<br />
Invaders though. Invaders. Hm. <i>Invaders... Disapointing.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>If I were to give a summary of 'APC configurations', it would be that they are usable, but in the most ironic of ways only for experienced players of the game. I understand why they come in starter sets, but they game would maybe be easier to teach and more immediately accessible if they came with light dropships instead (Shaltari and Resistance excluded, as with everything in Dropzone...).<br />
<br />
The biggest positive I can take from the transport configuration is having three bases of troops at my disposal, which I enjoyed. It meant that I could be a little more cavalier with the squads in CQB, as they were 50% more durable than 'normal' which helps against solid CQB units such as Valkyries and Occupation Vets. Also falling masonry is less of a big deal too for the same reasons. Having the option of three squads leaning out of a window and shooting up to 18" is remarkably good, although that does require an Overseer to be nearby which isn't always a given.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Free-range Invaders</td></tr>
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For the most part though the initial bullet points remain, big, glaring and unavoidable. No disrespect meant to Oz, but if I had played against an old salty vet like myself in the first mission, or even a demo list like Dave's, this tournament would have gone in a completely different direction. I would have lacked the simple manoeuvrability to compete with quicker lists. The fact that you cannot building hop between buildings more than 5" away from each other is garbage and kills the unit. I also always felt vulnerable, with a constant dread feeling that someone would realise that the Invaders is only A8, DP2, and very easy to remove in the current meta, where high energy and multiple shots continue to be prevalent. You can't even use a Call For Extraction effectively on a three base unit of Warriors, as they can't deploy into an Intruder, and I don't think any new Invaders could embark onto the original Marauder (as they weren't bought with the squad, not 100% on that though).<br />
<br />
It would be unlike me to moan and not have a suggestion or two for fixes to the biggest trouble areas APC configurations face, so let's drag out those bullet points once more;<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Allow APC's to disembark/embark out of their dropships, and disembark/embark their cargo up to their full movement value. This would give them a potential first turn building embark of 22" (dropship MV [12"] + deployment [3"] + APC MV [6"] + embark directly into building [1"] = 22"). The only possible issue with this is that it could allow first turn deployment into central buildings, but is that really a problem? APCs need a selling point, and if you want to risk being occupier in a central building in the Age Of Demolition that's your risk to take. It would allow for an 8" building hop, which is very important, and evens out with Shaltari who can already deploy into central buildings on the 1st turn (23" potential from an Eden/Haven on 1st turn). </li>
<li>Tougher medium dropships. I'm not talking about a whole new sculpt, but perhaps adding a Beta class for the Marauder and Condor, to up their armour to 6, or increase their DP's to 4.</li>
<li>A variation of the Katanas / Fireblades smoke rule for the first time they deploy from their medium dropship. Invaders wouldn't need this, as if they can deploy their full move they would get a skimmer bonus, but it would be perfect for the Bear and Juno.</li>
<li>Change of objective rules to promote more bases. Not a change to the unit at all, but to the core Objective rules. I get no benefit for having more bodies in buildings at the moment, so change the rules to give bonuses to bigger squads (+1 to search rolls, for example, although Pungari would be outrageous thinking about it).</li>
</ul>
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In my opinion some of the above would go a way to making APC configurations for Scourge and UCM more viable in the competitive game.<br />
<br />
But that's just Scourge and UCM...notice how I haven't really mentioned PHR? Well, that's a different issue altogether. Neptunes and Junos are slow, and can only hold two bases of Infantry in each APC. Even with the above suggestions, it would give PHR an underwhelming first turn building deployment of 18". The release of the super-fly Valkyries essentially built a flat block over the grave of the PHR APC game, which was already 6 feet deep.<br />
<br />
I've also not mentioned Resistance. Why? Because they don't need any help! As with PHR their first turn building deployment would only be 18", but the Resistance <i>sweat</i> demolition and would gladly allow you to occupy a middle building fist turn. They can easily drop that it and then swarm the remaining two central buildings with their numerous squads! Lifthawks are great (no matter what the haters say about 'Dropship Tax'), and being able to to house three separate squads of two bases is far better than having two squads of three bases.<br />
<br />
So there you go. This analysis was long in word count, but also long over-due. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, and any suggestions you may have to help us see more APCs in the game!</div>
Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-90054619049356703412017-05-11T10:31:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:41:06.905+01:00Coastal Assault 2017Sunday bloody Sunday............<br />
<br />
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<br />
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4 of us departed from the penthouse apartment of OB towers in Orbital Bombarmentonville and descended on Brighton for the third year running.<br />
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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........<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Well lucky for you, we ended up at Dice Saloon and played games.<br />
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18 players braved the mild weather to get there and TO Michael Russell even broke a rare smile at the sight of us all.<br />
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Ed (PHR), Alex (Allied Resistance), Dan (Scourge) and I (Scourge) said our hellos and found our first opponents.<br />
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I won't go too heavily into games, a brief overview and then some stolen pictures from Faceache<br />
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GAME 1<br />
Opponent - Emily (Allied Resistance)<br />
Mission - Military Complex (WMD)<br />
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For those that don't know what the WMD is, I shall explain. The central objective is a WMD and can only be extracted off your opponents board edge (it also grants 3 vp if done).<br />
<br />
This was Emily's first tournament game....ever. She's been playing for quite a while, and is very active within the Dropzone Commander Community Facebook group.<br />
The game was pretty tense up to the middle of turn 5 when I was 2-1 up (extracted 1 objective, Emily held one) I then found 2 including the WMD to be 4-1 up at the end of turn 5, by the end of turn 6 I had won 8-0. That was a massive swing.<br />
We had a great game with lots of killing, and some mad-dog occupation veterans that obliterated a squad of Destroyers in 1 round of combat!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These Destroyers did not get out of there alive!</td></tr>
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I had a decent kill point bonus and ended with a 19-1 win.<br />
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GAME 2<br />
Opponent - Dan (Scourge)<br />
Mission - Bunker Assault<br />
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Dan started his excuses early saying he was tired and blah blah blah. Sleep when you're dead!<br />
We had a really tactical game, where we both tried to capitalise on each others very minor mistakes. Unfortunately for me my 2 main fiendish plans failed; the first through bad luck and then a silly mistake, the second through luck of the dice.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not from our game, but I certainly spot Dan's Scourge</td></tr>
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I'll talk a little about my initial plan for victory. I managed to have the potential to get the jump on Dan's loaded Hunters and Minders. If I on activation for turn 2 I could cause mayhem for him. Of course Dan won activation, I had forced him into activating his Hunters though. His marauder deployed them then came after a Reaper, I elected to reaction fire with 2 - leaving 1 for the Minders in my turn. He shot that last reaper and destroyed it. It was a silly mistake to elect to reaction fire, and also I should have waited until he allocated shots.<br />
Dan was very weary of my Annihilator and a 24" exclusion zone around it was maintained for the majority of the game.<br />
The game ended 8-7 to Dan and he had a very slight kill point advantage and he won 12-8<br />
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GAME 3<br />
Opponent - Adam (Shaltari)<br />
Mission - Careful Advance<br />
<br />
The return of the Shaltari brick. I know it well, unfortunately for Adam I know how to play against it; having used and abused it for so long.<br />
Adam only had 5 gates. 1 Gaia, 1 Eden, 1 Spirit and 2 Havens (plus a Firedrake if needs be) he also only had 3 squads of infantry (2 Pungari and some First Born). Adam also had a dreaded Panther.<br />
Talking of which, a top tip for all you zoners out there. When looking at an opponents list, spotting a Panther, discussing said unit with opponent, DON'T then proceed to place troop transports in direct line of fire to opponents deployment zone.<br />
YES I did that, and YES it was shot down on turn 1. <span style="font-size: x-large;">YES I'm a dick-head.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not from our game, but it has Adam's Shaltari in....so why not</td></tr>
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Luckily on turn 2 I found an Underground Monorail and managed to get to the centre building rather easily. Adam placed his First Borns in the centre building (after surviving 5 hits from Reapers - 5/5 passive saves!) but I overwhelmed him with 4 bases of Destroyers and warriors after finding my home objective. Adam found his too, but he couldn't quite get to one of the critical locations on turn 2 so I got an early advantage. After finding the central objective and extracting it the gap remained as Adam's brick sat on one CL and my Overseer sat on the other. The game ended 9-6 to me and with a minor kill point bonus I won 14-6<br />
Another great game between us (although Adam may not think so).<br />
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I came 3rd overall, 6 points behind Dan and George. I had a great time. DzC really is a tremendous tournament game.<br />
Ed came a very respectable 4th and Alex....... I don't think he want's to talk about it.<br />
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I really like how the ties were split. Strength of schedule was a great idea. I will be stealing that for Critical Engagement.<br />
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A huge thanks to Michael Russell for TOing and to Alex (love you xx) for driving. <br />
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Here are some shots of the event (stolen) and the winners (mine).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winner winner chicken dinner, he's almost happy too</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0hvEktmAyEazVrCwIvpv-x8aPBv23Zrv8VoYBQ9SkLzOV7onAxBtPgN9avkaTFSWOQ6vyjDKG0sV_9utdrHSYs0H2I6lRznHevLZtkR1IWfQb3tEced4TesHvvv4KCmzXBNkpkziSgk/s1600/DSC_0719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0hvEktmAyEazVrCwIvpv-x8aPBv23Zrv8VoYBQ9SkLzOV7onAxBtPgN9avkaTFSWOQ6vyjDKG0sV_9utdrHSYs0H2I6lRznHevLZtkR1IWfQb3tEced4TesHvvv4KCmzXBNkpkziSgk/s320/DSC_0719.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George looks pretty happy with 2nd place, Tim (Coastal Assaults previous champ)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiwKXjDVeBUbtLPD6TWowZ3ngmkE0-5MWpDwYEwB-Pd8Tl6PrJQ8Nma_iWtj2EfwZb36LiYIjriWualiwCkK954blxfGBiBQDQ0uKpJNGWcFw1VkXh2sqXyl4dny7DVmbYZc_eP5wN0w/s1600/DSC_0721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiwKXjDVeBUbtLPD6TWowZ3ngmkE0-5MWpDwYEwB-Pd8Tl6PrJQ8Nma_iWtj2EfwZb36LiYIjriWualiwCkK954blxfGBiBQDQ0uKpJNGWcFw1VkXh2sqXyl4dny7DVmbYZc_eP5wN0w/s320/DSC_0721.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EXT1lEy3o8j9s2GIzioljn6iGCTbD5Y-Y6VVG6urPXdRJP93yo-Q3DkeS-z038x_XRawOIZhZlqEanC-RYsQEy6lYtTS_CG3rGlz5VSoO6rRGkRJtDgM5GRV0MV-XPyIlql4FEv-PCQ/s1600/DSC_0722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EXT1lEy3o8j9s2GIzioljn6iGCTbD5Y-Y6VVG6urPXdRJP93yo-Q3DkeS-z038x_XRawOIZhZlqEanC-RYsQEy6lYtTS_CG3rGlz5VSoO6rRGkRJtDgM5GRV0MV-XPyIlql4FEv-PCQ/s320/DSC_0722.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEczxbU2nwnukLW7TFxU9GXCrX9OL_fB02EvUR8M5B7-b9w9h7mr8JXJsHr_H7lxcbOO9tAYXwNVVimeZ_xMypHCzfGcGHPxs5blLvps7KSIboHjd9-o1ClNpnB2FyhYZAxTe7hXlYpN8/s1600/DSC_0723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEczxbU2nwnukLW7TFxU9GXCrX9OL_fB02EvUR8M5B7-b9w9h7mr8JXJsHr_H7lxcbOO9tAYXwNVVimeZ_xMypHCzfGcGHPxs5blLvps7KSIboHjd9-o1ClNpnB2FyhYZAxTe7hXlYpN8/s320/DSC_0723.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96gmDOs_Wcd99oVT0aTBbYvmZrr53LEZBuErwQuHMG5hZ29qaPkyprWQA2cEGKzZhiXoyLXTk0eZV53z3zSqpqTAvOaZe1HJYw6dJ14kA7hrgPX_AW4SGg3DxThJ_qroUrDkwtNKJuOE/s1600/18268417_10158674774870646_8285975868648220559_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96gmDOs_Wcd99oVT0aTBbYvmZrr53LEZBuErwQuHMG5hZ29qaPkyprWQA2cEGKzZhiXoyLXTk0eZV53z3zSqpqTAvOaZe1HJYw6dJ14kA7hrgPX_AW4SGg3DxThJ_qroUrDkwtNKJuOE/s320/18268417_10158674774870646_8285975868648220559_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Round 1 commences</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMiFU2U0oHSjiCBnmzxN2SLgupKAoF_iIUsK8JfY_TfjyyPWusX3mnMBcmhnwqKVHRlk_AFt92DiJxQ387w-sfpW_UgoE4pSLqXKp3ZCLkY70PxNF9JryNNY0yhzrFW8MCTqwdnml0RM/s1600/18268535_10158674775065646_3056419600572656823_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMiFU2U0oHSjiCBnmzxN2SLgupKAoF_iIUsK8JfY_TfjyyPWusX3mnMBcmhnwqKVHRlk_AFt92DiJxQ387w-sfpW_UgoE4pSLqXKp3ZCLkY70PxNF9JryNNY0yhzrFW8MCTqwdnml0RM/s320/18268535_10158674775065646_3056419600572656823_n.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Action through round 1</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcgPTshPs0SV9h_vOO08iyHo-NN2YDWOLTfCOIXTVy7B64hkFX7vvsv4NrFzxaKkuiGIZcsz9GIOz699uXU2Tdehb8gSFNBSOkWzVk7umbD2CIxg3fzyCigYvOtarjo2wuZcFg-hU2MwY/s1600/18278825_10213165451720609_8939952178119691996_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcgPTshPs0SV9h_vOO08iyHo-NN2YDWOLTfCOIXTVy7B64hkFX7vvsv4NrFzxaKkuiGIZcsz9GIOz699uXU2Tdehb8gSFNBSOkWzVk7umbD2CIxg3fzyCigYvOtarjo2wuZcFg-hU2MwY/s320/18278825_10213165451720609_8939952178119691996_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bethany's Resistance</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCABKZthC6BwCNJBn0aMKSHcMPfDJYArKNC0mmjHk-UcQpKqU9Vkxp4U2JNV2hTXsgywamBEhPGgOdzrXLd7w_IAlQcHqY63TWQ7eZbxb15cuq58pOzki2O3VhOANKI-OoZWYFq5yVO0/s1600/18319052_10213165462640882_6973128102903970923_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCABKZthC6BwCNJBn0aMKSHcMPfDJYArKNC0mmjHk-UcQpKqU9Vkxp4U2JNV2hTXsgywamBEhPGgOdzrXLd7w_IAlQcHqY63TWQ7eZbxb15cuq58pOzki2O3VhOANKI-OoZWYFq5yVO0/s320/18319052_10213165462640882_6973128102903970923_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim's Shaltari (won the peoples choice: Best Painted)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLdKfHSPE-8huEKBCMVwSNvtTICGkeoa3z9guG0ozZy4mRKHCZ9T208FgbQJs34sTslda2g4CPIHJcV21yevMRgzaV6k7e-wfgkEz3r6G35PB9gS1cghEaucOUvYZO0tWI5kNj6LVD-Q/s1600/18320710_10213165490401576_1942102737815376510_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLdKfHSPE-8huEKBCMVwSNvtTICGkeoa3z9guG0ozZy4mRKHCZ9T208FgbQJs34sTslda2g4CPIHJcV21yevMRgzaV6k7e-wfgkEz3r6G35PB9gS1cghEaucOUvYZO0tWI5kNj6LVD-Q/s320/18320710_10213165490401576_1942102737815376510_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Round 2</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg77YzaqaWXb5RRcyt2pS-7aCoDM3qX7S9mIATP76NKdKlHI9nnK5B25DVe7lAGdtC6G2ZFSNn9P8UYVdjaMEBdJXx3ccvXN0XNurQmfCPkplDeDhHHa3wtmvbcI9wOSrm_Jyb9fSxKo-E/s1600/18320884_10213165449920564_1094533017696808266_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg77YzaqaWXb5RRcyt2pS-7aCoDM3qX7S9mIATP76NKdKlHI9nnK5B25DVe7lAGdtC6G2ZFSNn9P8UYVdjaMEBdJXx3ccvXN0XNurQmfCPkplDeDhHHa3wtmvbcI9wOSrm_Jyb9fSxKo-E/s320/18320884_10213165449920564_1094533017696808266_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ed's Tron PHR</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClSavSlaIsM1OjxIaN1LP-GMlXzpQUrhfvI1doWfsH9bBVEfHszxl5QtOpe9tBNUJK-m7jFV7PYIWFsI4kSJnsEh2OpOJnHRljO67gf1TaZIGXSXCTVdWmMvf3ncRzMs13kZ1vHhgSik/s1600/18402022_10213165453800661_8125080496206998291_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClSavSlaIsM1OjxIaN1LP-GMlXzpQUrhfvI1doWfsH9bBVEfHszxl5QtOpe9tBNUJK-m7jFV7PYIWFsI4kSJnsEh2OpOJnHRljO67gf1TaZIGXSXCTVdWmMvf3ncRzMs13kZ1vHhgSik/s320/18402022_10213165453800661_8125080496206998291_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My line up for game 1</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjLVXmIh6G14GEBJoJIEiGjq24og0_rNyfrkdLHukO8XondCjz6HNIiT1QS93RjtB6wtxPtYxut1NWQTCiq5Y9KAJESsXNhpBIkSEZ9DhEKoSnwmTtBkJmdVXLqPXEeDw2RXIOht1YZc/s1600/18402055_10213165467441002_8781286333284989653_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjLVXmIh6G14GEBJoJIEiGjq24og0_rNyfrkdLHukO8XondCjz6HNIiT1QS93RjtB6wtxPtYxut1NWQTCiq5Y9KAJESsXNhpBIkSEZ9DhEKoSnwmTtBkJmdVXLqPXEeDw2RXIOht1YZc/s320/18402055_10213165467441002_8781286333284989653_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis' GOLD Robots</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6YgIBbvVLHPIk2hqPBnURZLlBoe5h8OpttuWiXnTYe7FLCMHeCk1JhRmaGeTK8OWpQt8Flp25ZBAy7ZE339NhC7NQjQjOSXfdzG6awvXuVlMecTbogSqRDAMvbZygMZrgU9Ie5JEDFw/s1600/18403927_10213165445000441_496044350776188893_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6YgIBbvVLHPIk2hqPBnURZLlBoe5h8OpttuWiXnTYe7FLCMHeCk1JhRmaGeTK8OWpQt8Flp25ZBAy7ZE339NhC7NQjQjOSXfdzG6awvXuVlMecTbogSqRDAMvbZygMZrgU9Ie5JEDFw/s320/18403927_10213165445000441_496044350776188893_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephens Resistance</td></tr>
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<br />Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-34398312912998543832017-04-28T14:37:00.000+01:002017-09-05T17:40:21.226+01:00New Mission: Forward Air Base V2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCFuLZ4uhko0ha1YiE5ArZ0c5aHtVizi5UELQoCyVIFovn4Snj0-s8ARg9uIYrFhpj2RqTWzq41yWfR4bFeRYDWjxuPvoG4mBTXl7PuWfkNPkeI0UdG8tv28JSaJmmhh90yFEoOSAqTrFf/s1600/sun_tzu_quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCFuLZ4uhko0ha1YiE5ArZ0c5aHtVizi5UELQoCyVIFovn4Snj0-s8ARg9uIYrFhpj2RqTWzq41yWfR4bFeRYDWjxuPvoG4mBTXl7PuWfkNPkeI0UdG8tv28JSaJmmhh90yFEoOSAqTrFf/s320/sun_tzu_quote.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Took me a couple of goes to understand this one #brainpower</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As the great Sun Tzu (great name, great hair, and just generally a great attitude) once said, back in the 80's I think, <i>"No plan survives contact with the enemy"</i>. He was of course chatting about war, but this is a philosophy that you can attribute to a large number of different items too, for instance; <i>No fruit survives contact with the work fruit-bowl</i>, <i>No toothpaste survives contact with my teeth</i>, <i>No Tory promise survives contact with reality</i>, and this is true as well with missions design; <i>No mission design survives contact with your friends, they will gut it and ruin it and deform your vision into something completely obtuse and repugnant</i>. It's okay really, they haven't been too bad, and actually although I wouldn't like to admit it to them, they've been quite useful!</div>
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We are ready to roll out the second version of both our new missions, and I have for you today Forward Air Base V2!<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
In essence this mission hasn't changed tremendously, with the units able to score remaining as only Vehicles and Aircraft. What has changed is the location of the Flight Zones, which have been pushed out into the 'neutral' corners of the board which makes it that little more difficult to reach them and requires more commitment, and also how the Flight Zones score. Rather than scoring 2 VPs for owning a Flight Zone on turns three and six, you will instead earn 1 VP on turn three for ownership and none for contesting. On turn six normal Focal Point rules apply, with 2 VPs going to the owner and 1 VP awarded for contesting.<br />
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Having them only dish out a single victory point on the third turn makes it worth while to consolidate on a Flight Zone early on, but not catastrophic in the event that one player would not be able to contest, as they will only be marginally behind in points. Bringing the scoring back to 2/1 on the sixth turn encourages players to commit more firepower to these areas and lay down effective AA coverage.<br />
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Having played this at 1000 points and having a real good game against Tech Boy (even with no objectives being found until turn five!) I will enthusiastically give it the '1500 point seal of approval'! You can see the new mission details below, and download the PDF through the following link. Let me know how you find it!<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-OiJ1OMhIujUVZwVzl0WVQwSkU/view?usp=sharing"><br /></a>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-OiJ1OMhIujUVZwVzl0WVQwSkU/view?usp=sharing"><span style="font-size: large;">Forward Air Base V2 Mission PDF</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzxEbH4zGETUmymEpxKKaA6V9GsK1z4Dpdt2nlHhJaPOhUXLauN8z-siZTXqLp5mTwGoiSPVQLCfRMFkdVCiI58eERUebYIWkOOKEiZoG3mDFJTjZYWV8tG-1sLj9rMBZZwMyIWILa2yBo/s1600/FAB+V2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzxEbH4zGETUmymEpxKKaA6V9GsK1z4Dpdt2nlHhJaPOhUXLauN8z-siZTXqLp5mTwGoiSPVQLCfRMFkdVCiI58eERUebYIWkOOKEiZoG3mDFJTjZYWV8tG-1sLj9rMBZZwMyIWILa2yBo/s1600/FAB+V2.PNG" /></a></div>
<br />Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-60958843230235878462017-04-26T14:39:00.002+01:002017-09-05T17:40:11.862+01:00New Ships At Salute 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4B0u0sKDR6exgVJpsBqVqjKaytQh_gPWmXGpVxrloX-xBcnuaRQgpN7k3ZqRooKY5-oQBBEnlTIWqHHVVBSMYsnzF7xcAbvHHklycHLCAItFtsBTJyxdPjx6-YIJorwDEbTrayJbm0tyC/s1600/Salute2017+Akuma.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4B0u0sKDR6exgVJpsBqVqjKaytQh_gPWmXGpVxrloX-xBcnuaRQgpN7k3ZqRooKY5-oQBBEnlTIWqHHVVBSMYsnzF7xcAbvHHklycHLCAItFtsBTJyxdPjx6-YIJorwDEbTrayJbm0tyC/s400/Salute2017+Akuma.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Salute has now been and gone, and with it not a whole lot of new information from Hawk about their plans for the year. This was to be expected however, and I'm not too concerned about their outlay; they do live in the thirteenth hour after all!<br />
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In addition to the last minute reveal of their Dropzone Commander show only model for this year, the Shaltari Scorpion, there were also some 3D Masters for a couple of new Cruisers (correct the classes if I'm wrong in the comments, I'm only guessing on the size of the ships) on display!<br />
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The Akuma comes in at the size of half an ice lolly, split vertically up the stick, and if you put your ear to it you can hear the sound of a shoal of sperm whales. The Perth just has lots of guns, of course. It is a UCM ship in Dropfleet after all...<br />
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Also on show were the new Advanced Sector tokens, which I think we've seen before, but not painted? I don't know, just enjoy the picture.<br />
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And that's that! A short but sweet post for you Fleetists out there, and a little late now, but I forgot I had the pictures on my phone until literally 10 minutes ago, so sue me. Actually don't, we have too many American readers to leave an invitation like that in the open...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxMA5iu6ewRNr5iN4qsdYJ-khbVhPODqgWcon7uDzcw3F8p_hzlp4ZcXLI4AIo6tMK-veKHCNccgbQEzyDV9qt1pb901Sh01W-GRumbyHPJsEzjVsy6DLMH0dctnB_L7R16Z001doage9/s1600/Salute2017+Perth.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxMA5iu6ewRNr5iN4qsdYJ-khbVhPODqgWcon7uDzcw3F8p_hzlp4ZcXLI4AIo6tMK-veKHCNccgbQEzyDV9qt1pb901Sh01W-GRumbyHPJsEzjVsy6DLMH0dctnB_L7R16Z001doage9/s400/Salute2017+Perth.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apologies for the poor focus picture</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Dan Cateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15833384756094198088noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505622444708996182.post-42076762642254220102017-04-21T14:35:00.001+01:002017-09-05T17:39:59.969+01:00Critical Engagement 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1LKCFwtpKh5CT6W3K6g3R7JuQKcZsbLpjS49WlWhe6oo3-qPp-nzZG2iiAfn4skVxOODXiRlWJWqpAHM0HdauwNtJII_mg5BoFgSKGgkSmCnebdOPNCtM9fTib-LU9-Mhhis4RC5XYk/s1600/ce17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1LKCFwtpKh5CT6W3K6g3R7JuQKcZsbLpjS49WlWhe6oo3-qPp-nzZG2iiAfn4skVxOODXiRlWJWqpAHM0HdauwNtJII_mg5BoFgSKGgkSmCnebdOPNCtM9fTib-LU9-Mhhis4RC5XYk/s320/ce17.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It's here, it's finally here.... Probably the greatest tournament known to man, woman or beast!<br />
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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.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Rules pack can be downloaded <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1KnUpiuvhR7OE56Z1psdG1BcW8" target="_blank">here</a></li>
<li>Custom Mission rules can be downloaded <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1KnUpiuvhR7SDNzMUd6V09LSlE/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a></li>
<li>The Facebook event is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1194204820705748/" target="_blank">here</a></li>
</ul>
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<b><u>Summary of the event</u></b><br />
Saturday July 8th, Chessington, South-West London, KT9 1PE<br />
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1000 point clash, only one of any rare choice<br />
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4 games, featuring 3 custom missions, 1hr 45mins per game<br />
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£15 for the day - Car parking available on site, tea coffee and doughnuts all day too!<br />
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<b><u>Prize Support</u></b><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://darkops.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">DarkOps Wargaming Terrain</a> – Purveyor of legendary
buildings - darkops.myshopify.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.deepcutstudio.com/" target="_blank">Deep Cut Studios</a> – Purveyor of
luxury games mats - deepcutstudio.com -</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span><i>Gorgeous Night Cityscape mat</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.hawkwargames.com/" target="_blank">Hawk Wargames</a> – Purveyor of
exquisite wargames, and masters of teaching patience - hawkwargames.com – <i>Loads of gubbins!</i></div>
Mega Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817834640979979885noreply@blogger.com2