Shadespire

Recently Games Workshop have released a rather good little game called Shadespire.

Unusually for the modern GW this isn't really a miniatures game but a combination of a boardgame, card game and miniatures skirmish game.  In actualy play I feels to me to be primarily a card game with the other elements interacting around that core card-based system.

Also unusually for GW, its an "everything you need in one box" deal.  Sort of.  The miniatures need clipping from the sprue and assembly, although they are push-fit once you get them off the sprue.  They can be then used unpainted, but of course I'll be painting mine.

With a step back, this game feels like Games Workshp parking their tanks on Fantasy Flight Games's lawn in an attempt to grab a bit of the X-Wing style gaming action.  The fact that the miniatures don't come assembled and pre-painted means that FFG will retain the edge for the casual gamer market, but hey ho...

Anyway, having bought the base game and run a few solo games to get the rules sorted in my head, I dived in and bought four more "gangs" (?) to add to the two you get in the core box.

I decided to paint them in the "standard" colour shcemes as set out in the Games Workshop artwork and example miniatures.

Steelheart's Champions
I was planning to paint these in a more grimy and used sort of scheme but I'm glad I comitted to going "standard".  I think they turned out pretty well.  As a note, the shieldmaiden mini was incredibly prblematic to fit together.  Not sure if i did it wrong or had a miscast, but i had to carve out quite a bit of the interior plastic to get the parts to fit.

Garreck's Reavers
Khorne berserkers.  Go nuts lads...

Ironskull's Boyz
Orcs.  Although apparently, Games Workshop are now calling them Orruks.  I presume this is for IP and copyright reasons.

I couldn't bring myself to paint this in the GW standard colour scheme because, well...yellow.  Ugh.  Not only is yellow a difficult colour to paint, usually because of the quality of the paint itself, but it doesn't exactly scream "brutal killer" to me.  So I went with a bare metal approach, and mixed up the metal types to try to giv a ramshakle, yet uniform look.  I guess these Orruks grabed their armour before the goblin artists got hold of them and dunked them in yellow!

The Chosen Axes
Another GW rebrand, these dwarves are now called duardin apparently.

GW haven't really done dwarves right since the very early Citadel days (in my view), but these little fellows are excellent!  I also like their play style at the moment and they might become my default team.  Still to be decided of course as I'm not yet experienced with the game.

Spiteclaw's Swarm
The Skaven (rat men) have long been one of my favourite Warhammer races, although I've never collected an army - mostly as the sheer mass of miniatures needed was too daunting to contemplate.  

Not painted yet...images coming


Sepulchral Guard
Cool undead.  

Not painted yet...images coming

There are two other gangs available but I haven't bought these yet as they are variants on the ones that come int he base game.  As Shadespire appears to be a card game and you need these boxes to get all the cards, I suspect I'll be purchasing them at some point.

I'm looking forwards to playing more of this neat little game.

L'Art de la Guerre - Armenians vs. Classical Indians

L'Art de la Guerre is now our default game on the table and tonight I took the Armenians into the fray in a friendly game against Mal (not a club tournament game).  Mal brought Classical Indians  to the fight - pretty much an army designed to kill the Armenians, with a wall of mixed bow/sword infantry and elephants.  Hmm...this'll be a tough fight.

Terrain dropped all on my side of the board which was actually not that bad as it meant where I'd intended to fight was free of any obstructing terrain.

The deployment saw a very small but powerful Classical Indian force occupy the centre of the battlefield.  My Armenians put what "formed" strength they had (pikes and cataphracts) in opposition and spread out the flanking cavalry and horse archers to try a double envelopment.

On my right flank I moved from the get-go to try and sweep roung the flank and I'd intended this flank to take the Indian unguarded camp.  A good start was met by expert moves from Mal to close off the flank.  I withdrew the horse archers and abandoned my plans here.  As it turns out they'd come in handy later...

Off the blocks, an aggressive flank move...

Damn, they blocked it...RUN AWAY!!!

KEEP RUNNING AWAY!!!

My left flank attamet was successful however, and would cause trouble of the Indians throughout the game.

As with most battles the decisive point would be in the centre of the battlefield and our lines closed quickly.  Indian archers did some damage on the way in, which was disconcerting.

The Indian archers tried to kill off the Armenian javelinment before they could get into the elephants.  Javelinmen are the best melee troops to take on Nellies in ADLG.

The uncontrollable Indian heavy chariots saw their chance against the unsupported Armenian Seleucid pikemen and charged in.

Shortly after the two lines were fully engaged.  Casualties were taken everywhere and losses mounted on both sides.  At this stage we were neck-and-neck in the gallop towards army break.

The mediocre pikes were inconsistent with one making a breakthrough and the other taking a beating.

And over on the left flank, as mentioned earlier, things aren't going well for the Indians.  Armenian archery kills off the elephants, and the horse archers envelopment causes a lot of problems and the Indian line is chewed up.

The Armenian cavalry archers, unwilling to engage, fall back and open a route for the elephants to rumble into.

But it does the elephants no good and they're shot to pieces.

All along the line the battle rages with losses on both sides.  The general trend is that the Armenian right flank takes a pounding, while its left flank pounds the Indians...

Finally the Armenian horse archers are given the order to sack the Indian baggage...

Not many Indians alive on the left; not looking good for the Armenians on the right.

And then, in the final turn both armies broke simultaneously!

An excellent, tense game ended in a just draw.  Another highly enjoyable bash against Mal in our current game of choice.

Additional

Durham Wargames Group's regular gaming is done on a Thursday night, and tonight I thought I'd take a few snaps of some of the other games going on.

Setting up for A Very British Civil War.  Here the battle will take place over the Durham Market Square. 

You can read all about it on this blog.

Preparations for what looks like a Russian or Eastern European battle in the making.

And a couple of boardgames on the go.

The excellent Smallworld.

You can see it played here:

And Powergrid.

Oh, and as well as our game of ADLG, Phil took his Visigoths into a friendly against Bob's Samurai.

Apparently it was a close fight that was decided by the Visigothic "furiuos charge" resulting in a win for the hairy Goths.

All told another wonderful evening of recreation and gaming at the club.

Firefly - Harken's Folly

And so to another game of Firefly.

"The Big Damn 'Verse"

We decided firstly to "go light" and play the base game with most of the stuff from the expansions removed.

We set up and randomly chose the scenario to play; in this case Harken's Folly.  

Commander Harken: "You and you crew are bound by law. Formal charges will be transmitted to the central authority."

So we had three victory goals to do in sequence:

1. Get "solid" with the four other contacts

2. Lead Harken on a wild (juggled) goose chase

3. Get into the VIP party and gather the intel to become a big player in the information trade.

We also randomised the captains we'd be playing and my wife got the powerful Nandi...

Everyone likes Nandi, they'll work for her for nothing!

"I appreciate your coming."

I got the gun runner Marco (who made the mistake of only paying Jayne 7%)...

He's a solid character, able to buy weapons at half price but also counts as "Transport".

"7% is standard"

Kicking off and needing to get solid with all the contacts (except the Alliance's Harken), Nandi began on Persephone working a job for Badger.  Marko began at the Space Bazaar on a milk-run for Amon Duul.

Early game saw us both working the Red Sun lanes, harrassed by Reavers.

"Reavers? Ain't logical. Cuttin' on his own face, rapin' and murdering - Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight... or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there's a woman, or if I'm gettin' paid - mostly only when I'm gettin' paid. But these Reavers... last ten years they show up like the bogeyman from stories. Eating people alive? Where's that get fun?"

And as we worked our jobs, Nandi headed across Alliance Space to Georgia - still pursued by the dreaded Reavers.

Meanwhile Marko worked Alliance Space itself, a dangerous situation as he'd picked up a Warrant for his arrest early on.  This would become a feature for both crews as throughout the game we struggled with the "Aim to Misbehave" tasks.

The inevitable happened (more than once) and Marko got boarded by the Alliance.  Paying the fines seriously dented his funds, but at least the jobs were getting done.

"Is there any reason you don't wish to discuss your activities?"
"Don't see as its any of your business is all; we're very private people".

Mid-game saw us both risking life and limb in the outer territories around Georgia, working Dung Runs for Patience and struggling with the "Aim to Misbehave" tasks.

Marko continued to accrue Warrants and get hit by the Alliance, while Nandi suffered terribly from the Reavers.  Twice she picked up figitives from the Space Bazarre, transported them all the way to Georgia, only to be hit by Reavers and having the fugitives eaten by these space devils.

We'd both accrued shiny crews, although Nandi's were disgruntled at working for Niska!

"This is how it is. Anybody doesn't wanna fly with me any more, this is your port of harbor. There's a lot of fine ways to die. I ain't waiting for the Alliance to choose mine."

Niska, "When you die, I can't hurt you any more. And I want two days at least, minimum."

Marko's crew is better behaved, probably because Emma was "keeping everyone happy".  Ass ever though, he's carrying a Warrant, a stash full of fugitives, and he's running low on fuel and spare parts.

"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here is us, on the raggedy edge. Don't push me, and I won't push you. Dong le ma?"

 Marko carried on the risk of meeting the Alliance in central space while Nandi got locked in some tough times trying to complete some jobs around Silverhold, heavily harassed by Reavers again.

And then Inara joined Marko's crew!  Because nothing says "respectable" like a Companion.

"And what exactly was our net profit on the famous wobbly-headed doll caper?"

Shortly after Marko slipped ahead by gaining the first Goal - becoming solid with the four contacts.  It cost him a lot though and he was now carrying three Warrants!  If the Alliance caught him now, it'd wipe out his funds.

Shortly after, Nandi caught up and the chase was now on to complete the two remaining goals...

As with every game of Firefly we've played, just as the mid-game seems to be dragging, the end game comes on quickly and someone wins, almost unexpectedly.  Marko was able to keep his lead (but only just) and finished the last two Goals to take the win.

Another excellent game of Firefly, which is a good solid boardgame made all the better for us as we're huge Firefly/Serenity fans.

Great fun was had as always with this fun game.