GARAGE GAMERS GROUP
ISSUE # 18
APRIL 2015
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Garage Gamers Group (GGG) Cover: Knight Conversion by Shane Blomberg Editorial
Reviews on the Run
Gaming Tips
The Collector
Penny for your thoughts
Dog County Range Wars - Final
Eyes Around the World
Member Spotlight
Snake Eyes is evolving. Each month we try to make it better for you, the reader to enjoy. Sometimes it presents challenges, (like getting it out the day I want to), and other times it flows like...well you get the picture. Snake Eyes magazine is still free, and based on that alone I could write just about anything I wanted to providing no laws are broken. I appreciate that you take the time to read the editions that come to you, or perhaps you found on the Facebook page of Garage Gamers Group. It doesn’t matter, save to say that you are appreciated. Keep sharing the magazine, if you are one of those readers. We attempt to keep regular columns and regular contributors. If any items come into my view to put into Snake Eyes I sometimes attribute it to the regular writers, who look after that area. Recently, I did a call out over some 25 groups on Facebook that I belong to, requesting interest in submitting either a one off, or regular submission. I received some people willing to have a go and see there name in print. Two of them are new in this issue, and I look forward to sharing more of them and our regular contributors with you in future issues.
topped 200 members. Am very stoked about that, so great effort everybody, well done. I am tying down some final preparations for PentaCon, our annual tournament, so you can expect the date for that will (finally) be out next issue. There are more tournaments Snake Eyes is and will be promoting for the gamers out there. Eventually the plan is to create a calendar, showing the game system, the location and the dates. If you wish to have your tournament promoted wherever in the world you are, please feel free to send in the details. Shane Blomberg, the man responsible for the 40k Knight conversion either owns or has access to a 3D printer, which is how he was able to create the head, hand and weapon pieces for the excellent piece. I hope you all have a great month, and will see you next issue. Send your submissions in to: garagegamersgroup@ gmail.com and put Editor in the subject line. SEE YOU THERE
Garage Gamers Group has
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REVIEWS ON THE RUN With GGG Member Peter Toh Battlefront site at some future point. The second one is that, other than helicopters, there are no air support elements detailed or listed; again, maybe there is a another book in the works (maybe if this one takes off?), which will include this integral element?
What I have found is that the rule supplements are themselves are often quite good; they are usually quite accurately researched, contain a lot of eye-candy and are well laid out, so at a glance you can see the organisational layout of the forces they are covering.
Unusually for a Flames of War supplement, the respective forces are not all divided into their own separate sections. The 'Free World' forces (U.S. Army, ANZAC and ARVN) are, but the PAVN are divided across each of these, to provide 'a force in context' to the respective FW force in question. As a gamer aid, I can see this being irritating, as you might have to search the entire book to find some minor unit of your force during a game if you're playing PAVN... For gamers new to the period though, it presents an historical and contextual opponent for the relevant forces - not something FoW is typically accused of.
That last detail can be quite useful to folk like me, who tend to obsess over unit organisation details. Much of the data is of course meaningless if you don't play the game of course, but on a single page, or two, you can often find, in an easily digestible form, information that you could spend a whole book reading to find out.
Overall the forces included in the book are those I would expect to see represented in the Vietnam War, but bearing in mind that FoW is a 'toy heavy' system, there are also those forces which were somewhat less typical. The option to create an armoured or mechanised force is available for every combatant nation represented in the book, the PAVN's being associated with the ARVN section, so as to allow their use from 1971. Obviously you aren't tied to this, so you can always play the 'what ifs' of US Armoured versus PAVN armoured, for example.
As the Flames of War community is also quite vocal and quick to jump on errors in the books, I'm actually more confident in the information given in them, than I would be in the typical Osprey book, which don't have to deal with such vicious peer-review and to my cost, I've found to be wrong (Osprey uniform and equipment details are usually spot-on, organisational details often less so... trust me on this).
The oft-complained of 'beardy' elements are noticeably lacking. There is an option to deploy M132 flame-tanks in most FW forces and also the option to use the Shillelagh gun-launched missile by the M551 Sheridan (this is pointed out as unhistorical though, as is a US-PAVN armoured clash). The field-modified prototype to the M163 Vulcan (using a 7.62mm Mini-Gun) and other small oddities get a look in too, but so what? When they start talking about M103 tanks and Davy Crockett rockets, I'll shout "Whoah!" with the best of them... currently though, not a big deal at all in my opinion.
So the book... 133 pages, soft covered and printed in full colour throughout. I get the impression that they had a lot to squeeze in, so the period 'special rules' carry right onto the inside back cover. I could be wrong, as I don't own the items, but I believe that a portion of the book is composed of re-edited and presented versions of the original 'Ia Drang Valley' magazine articles and the previous FoW booklet 'Tropic Lightning'. Nevertheless the remainder of the book is packed with new content and the corresponding special rules to go with it.
The Americans get the most lists, with the expected 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) and the 25th 'Tropic Lightning' Divisions forming the umbrella formation for most of them. Besides the expected Airmobile, Armoured and Mechanised Companies that you would expect from these, you can now also field a full Air Cavalry Troop, an Armoured Cavalry Troop and a straight honest-to-God Rifle Company, with somewhat limited support. ANZAC has the option of Armoured, Cavalry and Rifle Companies and the ARVN has Tank, Armoured Cavalry and Rifle Companies. So largely the full range of units possible.
The first glaring omission that leaped out straight away is that there is nothing on the Marines; US, South Vietnamese or Korean. I'm guessing that they might be getting their own book, or lists will go up on the
The PAVN get the basic B3 Front list (c.1965) as appeared in the 'Ia Drang' articles, with the dubious (to me anyway) inclusion of a Tank unit in support. To be fair though, if you were fighting a nonhistorical opponent, a non-historical support unit would redress any imbalance. There is a list for PAVN Sappers and even a Local Force list, which was a gem to me, as it was complete with low quality units, booby-traps as fortifications and even SNAKE
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'local resistance' groups, who have some quite clever rules to boot! The last PAVN list is tied in with the ARVN lists and represents a 'Third Phase' force, complete with armoured and mechanised forces. While more able to go toe to toe with the ARVN and US armoured forces elsewhere in the book, I found this somewhat light on equipment variety to be honest. This complaint not withstanding, the forces do seem pretty well balanced with respect to their opponents, even if, ironically, lacking in any individuality or choice. There is no mention of the BTR-152 or BTR40 personnel carriers, nor the BRDM1 in the mechanised units, who are uniformly equipped with the BTR-50. The cut-off date for the supplement is 1971, so the later BTR60 or BRDM2 wouldn't be included in any case, but the other two are a sad omission, especially given the space devoted to US oddities. You do get the ZSU-57-2 for your AA units though, so it's not all bad. The Special Rules Section seems a well considered section. Beside rules for 'Med-Evac' and other period specific rules, you also get specific ANZAC and ARVN rules, so when you play them, you aren't just playing a 'USLite' force. Okay perhaps a little anachronistic and stereotypical, in the same way as the other supplements have been, but they seem like fun. Don't like them, don't use them. The PAVN get a ruck of special rules, which I feel are warranted, particularly the more low-tech lists, to balance the odds. Some of these are quite clever (admittedly no great recommendation coming from me) and cause an hindrance to the FW player... so thumbs up for these! The book rounds off with 8 missions, which reflect the typical styles of action in the Vietnam War and come in similar proportions. For example there is only one of the elusive 'Stand Up Fight' style of missions which the US so desperately sought. The others are more mobile or defensive in nature for the respective forces. Overall I feel that the book offers a lot for the potential FoW Vietnam gamer. It's neither perfect or comprehensive for the War itself (there isn't much space wasted on the historical background to the war - there are plenty of good books and web sites on this after all though), but what it sets out to do, it does well. It's slimmer than the usual hardback supplement, hence its lower price, but no space is wasted. I thought the £16 I spent on it was money well spent and I don't even play FoW... if you do play it and want to get into Vietnam, buy it! By Jim Hale
REVIEWS ON THE RUN With GGG Member Peter Toh
[email protected]
KINGS of War - As with most other wargames, each player has an army that equals a points value, so you can create a balanced force consisting of your normal units, war machines, cavalry, heroes… that’s pretty standard stuff in a lot of games. Each unit has a set of stats: Speed is how far they can travel in a turn, adjusted for terrain and haste. Melee is the hand-to-hand target number the player has to score on a number of six-sided dice. Range is the missile target number for the same D6 roll. Defence is the target number the player has to roll with every successful Melee or Ranged roll, and Attacks is how many D6 they roll at a time. Nerve decides what the unit does once they are hit, and finally Points is the value of a unit, how much it will cost you to have it in your army. The basic rules work like this; Speed decides how far a unit can move in inches per turn, adjusted for difficult terrain or how fast the unit is moving. Then, if the units are able, they can make a Ranged attack, followed by a separate Melee attack. To attack an enemy unit, you roll the same number of six-sided dice as your Attacks score. For every die that rolls equal to or higher than your unit’s Ranged or Melee score you get one hit, and you keep the number of dice that attained this score. You roll these dice again, and for every dice that rolls equal to or above your enemy’s Defence value you have scored one point of Damage. Once this happens you make a test against the enemy’s Nerve by rolling 2D6 and adding the number of Damage points you have scored (this is cumulative). This then decides whether the enemy unit is Steady (still fighting), Wavering (disordered and disrupted) or Rout! (annihilated, captured or chased off the field). These simple results means that you don’t have to worry about having the wrong number of models in your unit as the result affects the complete unit and not individual models. This means you could use one model to represent ten warriors. Units also have Special Rules that give them bonuses to dice rolls or special attacks, and there are magical artefacts that can help, too. There’s a small use of magic but this is covered by the Special Rules, so although you can have mages blasting the enemy in the game there’s no special multipage section with dozens of spells available. The rules are incredibly simple to learn and you can have a basic full-scale battle kicking off in about an hour once you’ve cracked open the book, if that. There’s no tables to continually refer to or templates to use, just a quick, intuitive game with easy rules that allow for a plethora of tactical choices. My first game took ten minutes to set up
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and two hours to play through, with two five hundred-point armies. Considering the complexity of many games out there, that’s great and perfect for me as I don’t like to spend hours poring over rules and tables so that we get a few turn’s worth of gaming in over several hours. They’re exceptionally clear and well written, and great fun to use. And then there’s the options, and this is where Kings of War begins to shine. Along with the basic rules you get rules and guidelines for: Timed Games – so you can use a chess clock to move the game along and stop your opponent from spending an hour or two making up their minds on what to do next. This is something I used in my second game and it was both brilliant and nerve-wracking. Expanded Terrain Rules – to simulate dangerous locations such as tar pits, swamps and living forests. Multi-Player Games – so that you can have more than two armies at the table. I haven’t tried this, yet, but it looks like it could be an amazing experience. Siege Warfare – complete rules for laying siege to and defending strongholds. I can’t wait to try this out. Campaign Rules – for ongoing wars and taking objectives such as towns and cities. It’s a great way to give the battles a long-term story and means a lot of commitment. I can see the multi-player games benefiting from this as players dominate and defend their territory. The book then moves on to Force Lists, armies and their histories, backgrounds and statistics, with any applicable special rules and details. The armies you can choose from are Dwarves, Elves, Men, Abyssal Dwarves (evil dwarves), Goblins, Orcs, Twilight Kin (evil elves) and Undead. There’s plenty of units, war machines, heroes and monsters to choose from so pick your force wisely. I have an 800 point Elven army which is doing okay, and right now I’m working on a 500 point Free Dwarf force. There’s more than enough here to choose from to keep you in games for months. Finally, the book rounds off with Tournament rules so that gamers from all over can wage war with each other in fair, balanced and official ways. All in all it’s a fantastic game, and what you get in the rulebook pretty much covers everything you’d do in a fantasy warfare scenario. There are no long-winded or complicated rules, and there’s no beating around the bush - the rules and options are laid out simply, cleanly and with minimum fuss. The production values of the book don’t really matter when you’re given such a solid, playable and fun game with lots of options you really want to try out. By Jonathan Hicks
BRISBANE BASED, AND AUSTRALIA’S DIRECT SUPPLIER WITH SOME OF THESE PRODUCTS, CAMPAIGN BOOKS & GAME LOGISTICS, WILL SERVE YOUR GAMING NEEDS FOR ANY OF THE ADVERTISED COMPANIES ON THIS PAGE. REASONABLE POSTAGE PRICES. CONTACT BARNABY DIRECTLY FOR ANY ASSISTANCE YOU NEED. CLICK THE LINK BELOW.
[email protected]
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Playing for a reason I was ten when I first heard the call of war gaming. There was a hysteria flowing through my friends for days. We were Lord Of The Rings crazy, playing out the battles in the playground with sticks every lunchtime. So the thought of controlling vast armies appealed to all of us, and it was just a bonus that we wouldn’t be hit with any sticks whilst doing it. Within a week a box of Isengard Uruk-Hai had been ordered and suddenly we were thrust into a world we knew nothing about. There were glues to be bought, clippers, a modelling knife and don’t even get me started on the painting. For a ten year old this process could seem daunting, however, when the first Uruk Hai was assembled and his broad shield and sword looked identical to the ones we had been pretending to wield every lunchtime, we fell in love. Suddenly, instead of taking to the School Fields at lunchtime we were to be found inside, two study desks pushed up against each other to form a straight plain. Twenty unpainted models facing each other. For months we expanded our armies, crudely
With GGG Member Lewis Cairns
assembling and fielding armies, imagining grand and glorious campaigns that each war band would progress through. Generally, I would lose. Without a firm grasp of the rules it seemed that there was always some Deus Ex Machina that prevented my Orcs from finally lopping off Aragorn’s head or trimming Gimli’s beard. But it wasn’t about the winning, and it never was about the winning. War gaming can seem like a frustrating hobby to those who are unfamiliar, they see it as a frivolous expense of plastic models, yet, to me, I was building worlds. I was shaping the face of Middle Earth with my dreadfully unlucky Orcs. More so, as the months progressed I began to know my army as if it was one of my friends. I knew how many Orcs would die if the mounted riders of Rohan charged, I knew how many men would die if I could push my large force cross the board and met the elves in combat, I knew that if I was fighting Dwarves then I sure as hell better bring some bows, because throwing Orcs at dwarves in close combat was similar to trying to erode a brick with a pi-
pette of water! Crucially, all of us found a new world to explore, a Middle Earth that had not been elaborated upon in the films, and with that came endless possibility. In my opinion, it is the endless possibility and promise that keeps war gaming alive. It’s the “What ifs?” and the “Yeah, but’s” and of course the “Oh my god” moments where things go so perfectly right that you feel like a hybrid of Bismarck and Napoleon. But of course, War gaming is about the fun. For many years, as a youngster, war gaming offered an escape from the stress of a tumultuous world of danger. War gaming allowed us all to believe, just for an hour that Orcs and goblins and magic and trolls posed more of a threat than any real life problem outside. As time passed my friends began to discard their hobby, opting to chose sports, study or girls as more meaningful past times. Whilst I too left
war gaming behind for years, I sporadically came back, once every year or so, to see what had changed, and to feel that familiar joy of seeing my Orcs get crushed into paste. War gaming is so much more than moving overpriced plastic miniatures about a study desk, shouting the names of special rules you don’t quit understand. War gaming is a safe vacation from reality that challenges you numerically and tactically whilst simultaneously pushing your imagination to work in overtime. In my humble opinion, there are very few pasttimes to rival the ingenuity four ten year olds can muster with a box of twenty Orcs and five die. Long live War gaming and may it live forever.
From the Collector’s Vault The great thing I love about being a collector is the broad hobby that it is. We have spoken about collecting within the miniature gaming aspect, but what about the fringes? I loved the Axis & Allies game when it first was released. Since then there has been a second edition, sort of a fast play version, as well as a Pacific and Europe set, that can be joined
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together, a WW1 set, a 1942 version and I had to have them all. But I digress, the point I am getting to is, whether it’s a magazine, that you may buy on a month by month basis if you don’t subscribe, or you have more than one gaming table, and I bet you have more than one favourite computer game, or console game? Well
guess what? You are a collector. It’s almost OCD sometimes when you HAVE to buy it, trade for it or make it yourself, just to have the complete set. So many games, miniatures etcetera and so little leisure time. Thank your games club next time you’re there for making your hobby that much better.
The Collector is a gamer with over 40 years in collectable games and wargaming...
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Forward Scout By GGG Member Glen
Taylor
Kindness and fun... Yes, in war gaming? We are supposed to kill each others army? Wipe them out to a man. Well yes that the one side of our hobbies, but just today I had the pleasure of seeing the above shine. I was lucky to get an invite to the Koodiminda Gaming Club WarMachine tourney Saturday the 28th of march. I would like to share my day. The morning started with a early departure because the call had gone out that breakfast would be served for those souls who arrived early. I had asked what I needed to bring and was told, “nothing”. So, I thought I would pick up some Danish pastries to go with breakfast. Well four bakeries later and no luck. When I arrived breakfast was toast, eggs and bacon, plus beans, and fried tomatoes. Massive servings for those about to do battle. The first game was a good one and though I lost, I had great fun. For those not familiar with the WarMachine community, they video tape the games and this was the table that the camera was above. Like a star I shone bright then burned out. Then it was lunch time and the BBQ was cooking. Steak and sausages plus salad and bread rolls. At this point I was thinking of boarding here. After lunch came two more games for one win and one loss. Both games had their ups and downs, but I learned some things for next time I played. This was followed by the awards and aftermath where war stories and future plans are talked. I was on my way home by 5.30pm, but what a day of gaming, and the kindness of our hosts was so good. A lot of work to run and organise and still they played in the comp as well. How, I don’t know? So that’s how it was and I would like to thank all who made my day a good one. Well all that’s left is my little bit of something of interest. The American Indian dog soldiers made sure they fought to the last. Each year, four soldiers where chosen to wear a length of leather called a dog-rope. During battle each soldier would attach the free end of his rope to the ground, pinning himself to the spot. He would not free himself until his comrades were safe. May your dice roll high, Glen
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ANZAC CUP 2015 Will run on the 18th and 19th of April 2015. The venue for this tournament is the Enoggera Barracks, with proceeds going to Legacy. It is a well run tournament, operated by the boys from WW40k, GGG members and for a good cause. See Facebook Anzac Cup
DREADBALL
The futuristic sports game The Blind Pig gaming club is running a Dreadball League! Started 21st February
Finnish Hall 62 Newnham road Mount Gravatt QLD 4122. 9:30am to 4:30pm.
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Dogtown howler
7¢
Edited & Published by Jacob Adams Esq.- Journalist & Photographer - Established 1867 Dogtown County - Member of Professional Newspapermen of N.Y. April 1869
Startling News...The Range Wars are finally over...Dog County Range Wars was a game tester, meant to play over 12 months. Sometimes the one turn a month was too much for some, too long between turns for others, but in the end the game creator, Glen Taylor, decided there was enough data gathered and time to shut the door on the interactive game. The winner at the time of game finish was Darian Chase. The winning Rancher required the most land combined with the most income. As owner of the GGG Ranch, and looking after the map turns, I could only expand so far, but enjoyed watching the moves unfold. As this was the tester game, Dogtown can go to new ways in the future, both exploring a game that exists in a town
Glen Taylor, Garage Gamers Group & Snake Eyes, would like to thank the following participants; Without the assistance of these GGG Members, Dog County Range Wars could not have been as enjoyable, challenging and informative as it has been, and Glen has asked me to applaud your efforts.
Paul Skuse,
Steven Azzopardi,
Darian Chase,
Tim Prenzler,
Shayne Treasure,
Drew Birkmyre,
Tony Arthur,
Jamie Federoff,
Andrew Wylie,
Michael Orton,
Sean Federoff,
Simon Mayes,
Mick Thornes,
Simon Machin,
John McDonnell,
Courtney Halvorsen, Ross Williams,
scale, as well as a larger map for more inclusions, like weather, disasters and happenings that one might expecting the old days of the west. The game structure itself, as mentioned in a previous Issue of Snake Eyes, will allow future creations of similar turn based games but with each having a unique theme. I will hold my tongue there, save to say I am still looking forward to the Pirate themed on, which will be played over several maps. Keep an Aye!, out for that one... Other themes are in the works now that we know what needs to be tweaked, to make it more playable.
Warhammer Quest Chaos Warrior (unpainted) Sale or Trade - $25
Red Duke GW Vampire (without mount) unpainted $15 sale/trade
Alessio Cavatore, Sean O’Hanlon, Martin Dorney, Shane Heirdsfield, Bryan Ansell, Cameron McCormack, Gregory Peatey
The Dogtown Howler will go on, as an advertising page in Snake Eyes. This will be a funded page, and the items listed are the property of the editor. Items listed here may also be listed on Mini Trades. Any person, member or otherwise may advertise miniatures for sale here. Please contact
[email protected] for details. Items listed are for sale or trade. Price does not include postage and handling, though local sales/trades may be picked up.
Necromunda Van Saar Juves NIB for sale or trade $35
Karloth Valois, (left) a Scavvy gang Character option for Necromunda. Item for sale/ trade is unpainted - $25
GW Brettonian Green Knight (Undercoated) Sale/Trade $35
Mk1 Rhinos for sale/trade at $20 each, several items, undercoated. Metal/plastic Mk2 Predator $30 (1 only)
40K Sisters of Battle/Adeptus Sororitas Army - $600 Sale/Trade
Warhammer Steam Tank - Metal Trade/Sale $60
LOTR Fellowship of the Ring sprue (multiple items) $20
Warhammer Grand Theogonist on Wagon (Metal) painted Sale/Trade $50
Bolt Action: Tank Wars & Hard Cover Rulebook for sale only, Unused and in excellent condition $60 for both. White Dwarf Weekly’s $3 each, contact for Issue numbers
WH40k Space Marine Vindicator Tank (painted) Sale/Trade $45 Location for all items on page are Ipswich, Queensland.
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As part of our ongoing club visits, in this issue of Snake Eyes we went and had a look at PUBHAMMER. It was a wet and dreary night in Brisbane when I hopped in the car on a Sunday night to make my way to The Junction Hotel, formally known as (The Muddy Farmer), for a look at a club that only games at night. The first thing I did notice were a lot of the gamers had pub meals before gaming, and had various drinks with a waitress appearing every so often to bring said meal or drink and taking the empties away. Could this be the secret I thought. I chatted with a few of the gamers, gleaning what was the norm at Pubhammer. I was introduced to the man behind it all, Kieran Bowman. He told me that the gaming club had moved around a bit before making a central location for their usual members. The location at the pub was free, as from the business perspective, more people in an unused area equals more food/drink sales. There are two main gaming areas, which had enough room for the gamers that were there. It would not take many more to fill it up, however.
Top right shows a game of Cthulhu Wars being set up by Hassan and Devin, while below that, Trevor and Sam are into a battle of Kings of War. Having not played either I was quite interested. Kings of War seems a viable option along with earlier editions of Warhammer, to make use of all of those miniatures collecting dust. Only when a function is booked for the upstairs area at The Junction, do the gamers at Pubhammer have to cancel their night, but plenty of notice is given in this case. All the gamers that were there where either involved in a game, or sitting around talking about games...
Kieran, facing camera, talks with fellow gamers whilst they enjoy a game of War Machine, below.
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A game of Malifaux in play. The pigs on the right were hand made by the player that owns them. Unfortunately I did not get his name and his opponent wished to remain anon.
Adam Kunde, an old gamer from my old club, The Warhounds, was on hand to talk about Pubhammer as well. He had turned up with some board games, pictured, ready to take on some opponents, or to fill a gap if someone turned up looking for something to play. This is a great attitude at any club, and sure to keep members coming back and new attendees becoming members. Pubhammer was a good venue, and unusual being a night venue for those who may not have the opportunity to play during the day for whatever reason. Most of the people I spoke to were friendly, if a little guarded but that may have been me being a stranger taking photos everywhere... SNAKE
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Nick and Adna with their Menoth versus Cryx (WarMachine) above left, whilst Michael and Callum above right, play a game of 40k, Blood Angels Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines
Pubhammer has Warhammer 40k, Deadzone, Werewolf, Malifaux, Cthulu Wars, War Machine, Kings of War, the occasional Bolt Action and of course, board games. The club meets every Sunday evening from 6 PM until around 1030 PM, unless another event has been booked. Food is available from the Hotel kitchens until 8 PM. They have a 40k League running There are 15-25 active members with 100+ on the Facebook site. Entry is a gold coin donation with goes back into terrain and game purchases, otherwise free entry. The Junction at Annerley Hotel is located at the corner of Ipswich Road and Annerley Road. Pubhammer is on the upper floor. Contact Kieran Bowman on Facebook or under Pubhammer for details.
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www.riverhorse.eu
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Star Wars X-Wing : Building YOUR lists By GGG Member Adam McGillivray XXGB Luke Tarn with R7 Gold Squadron with an Ion Turret Blue Squadron B-Wing with Fire Control System
Luckily, X-Wing is neither 100% list building nor 100% dice. It’s a fine combination of preparation, skill, and randomness. This means that there is no single rule-it-all win-it-all list. As well as your prep work, and your luck, there are other factors, which some can be learnt such as being able to visualize moves in your mind, being able to fly both high and low Pilot Skill (PS) for blocking other ships, or being able to arc dodge. Now for someone who is new to X-Wing, might look for a list that is forgiving, and straight forward to use. An Example of this would be: Luke and Tarn with R7, a Gold Squadron with an Ion Turret and a Blue Squadron B-Wing with Fire Control System. Now this list has two of the most survivable X-Wings, and two high hit point ships, one with a turret. This list is based on flying with in the current X-Wing Meta, it is a simple list to fly, and in practiced hands can be a dan-
Chewie Blues
gerous list to face.
YT-1300 Chewbacca with Gunner and Recon Specialist Blue Squadron Pilot with Advanced Sensors Blue Squadron Pilot with Advanced Sensors
Another list with a smaller model count, which has just as much fire power, and uses a big ship would be what is called Chewie and the Blues, with the smaller ship count, it means there is more room on the table, but there is a big ship which means you will need to get used to the big base (which is a bit harder to fly then small bases) – This list would look like YT1300 Chewbacca with Gunner and Recon Specialists, and 2 Blue Squadron Pilot with Advance Sensors.
“But I don’t like flying the rebel scum” I hear you cry. Well never fear, I have your jack boot wearing dictatorship covered. To start with the Empire generally favors quantity over quality. There are a few notable exceptions as Soontir Fel and the Phantoms. They also favor Green dice over Shields. So a good solid Swarm List would look like “Howlrunner, Backstabber, Dark Curse, 4 Academy Tie Pilots.” A smaller swarm list would look like “Howlrunner, Turr Phennir with Push the Limit, Black Squadron Pilot with Draw Their Fire, and 3 Obsidian Squadron Pilots”. Now swarms work best with formation flying, which is a learned skilled, where you keep you ships together nice and close to maximize firepower. You can practice this by grabbing 4 tie fighter models, and move them around your kitchen table around cups, plates or whatever other obstacle you have there.
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Obsidian Squadron Pilot Obsidian Squadron Pilot
Now how did I build these lists you ask? Well to start with, I am sure these are not new lists, and I am not breaking new ground with these. But they are solid lists. But when building my own lists, I come at it with 4 steps in mind. These steps are: Squad Framework, Synergy of Crew, Enhance the Strengths, Identify the Weakness. Now I will step through and explain what I mean by that list of steps.
Squad Framework So the first step is decide which faction you want to play,
7 TIE Swarm Howlrunner
Empire, Rebels, or Scum. The choice is here is based mostly on your personal preferences of background and fluff. Do you
Backstabber
want to be a Lawful member of the Empire, A terrorist part of the Rebel Alliance, or someone who lives in the grey with the
Dark Curse
Scum. But while you are making this choice, you do need to
Academy Tie Pilots
be aware that each faction provides different ships and crew, which comes with their own benefits and downfalls.
Academy Tie Pilots
So you have now decided on the faction you want to play,
Academy Tie Pilots
you need to look at what ships that faction offers to decided what you would like to play. When I build my lists, I start with
Academy Tie Pilots
a ship, theme or mechanic, and then I look at which ships fills the roles that I am after.
Synergy of Crew Once you have picked the ship types you want, you need to look at the pilots and their abilities to enhance the play style you are looking to play. For example, if you have a lot of high agile ships that does not have strong firepower, you will look at pilots that increase firepower across your squad. If you have a list with a low model count, then you need to find abilities to keep your ships around. Also do not look at pilots in a vacuum, but as a part of the squad, so you can find combos such as Dutch and Hobbie.
Enhance the Strengths
Howling Turr Howlrunner
Now that you have picked your star squad, you need to look at enhancements for your ships. These are things such as
Turr Phennir with Push the Limit
elite pilot skills and modifications. These should be things that
Black Squadron Pilot with Draw Their Fire
or assisting another squad member in improving their chanc-
Obsidian Squadron Pilot
help your ship assist achieving your main goal with each pilot, es achieving theirs. This could also be making a power house to distract your opponent from your main pieces. Titles are a
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great way to give your ships a little boost that is design for each
Frederico Nogueira-Dias has created this excellent diorama, titled ‘Next Stop Normandie’, shown below.
ship.
What I love about this piece is the little details like the dog in the street and the broken window shards in the building, evoking the wonder of what is inside. The brick colour is perfect, and the positioning is just right.
Identify the Weakness Now to find where you list is weak, and the best way to do this is play, play and play. Either at your local game store, or on Vassal, it doesn’t matter. The more games you play, the better you know your list. Another good way is to post it on your local and the FFG forums. But be aware, feedback from these sources are based on the other members experience and your experience and meta may be different. If you aren’t having fun playing your list, don’t feel locked into it. Change it, swap out upgrades. Change pilots or if you have no other options left, look at a new ship or a new tactic. In the end all that matters is your enjoyment of the game, and that is what X-Wing is all about. To improve your skills and enjoyment of playing X-Wing, it is always a good idea to run several different lists as often as possible, unless you are practicing for a tournament, or any stop on the road to worlds. This will help you maximize what ships you buy, encourages an evolving local meta, makes you a better player as you learn to deal with new and unforeseen situations as you run ships that behave differently, and open your eyes to new strategies that you might miss by running the same squad all the time.
It is the realism of this diorama by Boris Karbor, shown below, that I love with miniature modelling. Similar to Roy Well’s work, as shown in previous issues of Snake Eyes, a quick glance and one would think that this is a still from a motion picture...
Adam is a blogger and an avid X-wing player – You can read more of his writings over at http://teamcovenant.com/noxbestia/
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I’d like to say that I made this...but I would be fibbing. Lewis Pruneau created this. All I can say is WOW maximum effort...
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Misfire Comic Strips by Brian Solomon will be appearing in Snake Eyes from now on, for a look at them next time your online, the address link is http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.belloflostsouls.net%2Fcategory% 2Fmisfire&h=ZAQEAS87u and also available at http://www.belloflostsouls.net
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Mustafa Bekir made this, see photos, out of bits of cardboard, toothpicks and a bit of garden wire mesh, and he thinks that it didn’t turn out too bad...what do you think? Inspiring anyone? For the non 40k gamers what you are seeing is a scratch built looted Ork Land Raider, and a very good job of it.
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Scott Henry I never knew that wargaming as it is, even existed. Mostly I had played, and still do a variety of computer and console games. A gaming friend of mine, that I met at work, invited me to his Dad’s place last year to playtest a game. The game was Path To Glory. I was bowled over by the amount of miniatures and games that where there. I enjoyed the game that we had on that day, prompting me to harass my friend about when we were going back, and what other gamers are there to play? I was shown on the next visit to his fathers place, so many games that I cannot remember them all, let alone have the time to have a game of them all. Space Marines (40k), Warhammer, Old West, Dreadfleet, Zombiecide, Talisman, Necromunda, and most of these were from one shop. My friend’s Dad said his preference was 28mm miniatures, I learned that other systems existed like Flames of War, Lord of the Rings, Ancients and American Civil War in a smaller scale. Also there are games that can be collected and played in a larger scale again, or large scale figures can be used in current games with some tweaking of the rules belonging to that system. I have to admit, I was getting hooked by the excitement versus my part time job income of ’How can I afford to do this?’ It was explained that I can go to many clubs around Brisbane and watch games in play to see what ones I liked, and perhaps be invited to play in some of them. I am yet to do this, but it is on my things to do list. I am intrigued by the variety of games, systems, scales and miniatures that existed without me ever having known about it. The closest I guess was having a friend who played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but as I thought he was a bit of a nerd, probably more when he explained it one day, I assumed that all of that time of gaming was ‘made up’ as you went. Now I know that I didn’t even have his game right. Was it the way that he explained it? Or my nerd bias? Maybe both, but I regret now having a look back then, and that friend no longer lives in this state. So I am now considering which system do I start having a go at? I am interested in playing with the Space Marines, but also would like to have a go of Fantasy as well. That was the nature of the test game we had, although it was not Warhammer, we did use the figures from that game. I imagine that Beastmen would be interesting, or Chaos. Star Wars X-Wing looks good also, but don’t know about the affordability, as they don’t seem much cheaper on Ebay. There is also a store near me that plays some of these games so I have an option there as well. At the start of this article I stated that I had never heard of Wargaming. Since then I have had several games of different titles and systems. I am becoming a Wargamer. I actually won a box of tanks last year from entering a survey for Snake Eyes, so was pretty happy to get that, but don’t know whether I am ready for that system yet. I am trying to convince my Dad to have a go at one of the games, but he still see’s them as toys. I don’t know whether I will ever have a collection like my friend's Dad, but at least I will have some.
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www.perry-miniatures.com
28mm American Civil War from Perry Miniatures Alan & Michael Perry have what you need to cover this and other periods of war Check out their website
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Garage Gamers Group GGG or Garage Gamers Group is a collection of gamers with similar ideals about what makes a game fun and how to have fun with it… Snake Eyes is the GGG magazine, available Phone: 0419 729794 E-mail:
[email protected]
for free to members and selected organisations…
Or
[email protected] Facebook: Garage Gamers Group
GGG supports a gamers for gamers attitude
Snake Eyes Creators & Contributors Editor: Nick Chase Regular Contributors/Columns: Glen Taylor, John McDonnell, Kris McKiernan, Darian Chase, Michael Colclough, Peter Toh, Roy Wells This Issue: Lucas Cairns Adam McGillivray
For any further information on where to buy Michael Colclough
Simon Ford’s Game Board had to be postponed until next issue...look for it in May 2015 Issue of Snake Eyes
artwork please see http://www.warintheskies.com/
Trademark names in the newsletter have been used without permission & only used for promotional purposes for GGG. They include: Games Workshop & associated trademarks, StarWars X-Wing, Wings of Glory, Zombiecide, AD &D, Army Painter. Eureka miniatures,Warlord Games, Stone Mountain miniatures, Flames of War, Perry Miniatures and RiverHorse are used with permissions. Pictures are the property of Snake Eyes & have been used with the permission of members of the GGG. Other pictures have been used with permission where possible to promote event or products.
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