Historicon, the good, the bad and the trolls

I am always amazed that there are so many great games that go on under one roof during Historicon.  Part of the reasoning behind this revolves around the fact that they cover all ranges; fantasy, historic, modern, sci fi and include land, air and naval battles.  Seeing those 1:200 scale WWII air combat games was really neat as well as seeing the huge composite battles with so many well painted armies.
This event hosted a doubles tournament with five tables.  Most players had completely painted armies which is always a plus from an aesthetic point of view.  I was surprised by the number of evil players, I think there were three all good army, and one mixed out of 11.    Our player extraordinaire, Mr. Snack Crumbs, actually took time to take pictures during his two games (there was a oversight, his team only played twice) and posted about it here.  I did not play the same teams as they did.  This was a warm up event before the Grand Tournament up at NoVA at the beginning of September.  The rules and event for which can be found here.  Now, on to the comments and info..... More beyond the break.....

Reward for the campaign

The diligence of participating in our current campaign will be rewarded.  Winning the most hex tiles, and therefore having the most Kingdom Points will bring you fame and fortune throughout Middle Earth!  Which means we will know who won.  To that end I wanted to bring in something that was unique and allowed everyone to have a shot at the ultimate reward.  Okay, maybe not ultimate but a prize anyway.  So at the end of the campaign we will raffle off a pair of unique dice.


Every KP you have will get you one raffle entry.  They are machined out of a single piece of aluminum and are slightly smaller than your typical 16mm dice.  Not a lot, but I thought it would be a nice unique piece to add some incentive to the bunch.

BFG Gaming Session

I am planning on a BFG gaming session at 630 pm on Tuesday night on July 20th at the FTW game store. If you have a fleet and know how to play, great; bring 500 pts. If you don't learn how to play, no problems. Bring what you have or I'll lend you some models. I'll help you learn to game.

BFG resources: Rules and Fleet lists can be found here and
Turn Sequence
How to inflict damage


Update: Space tables at FTW Games, just waiting for us

FTW Games grand opening

This Friday June 4th FTW Games will be open for the first time! Hours are 2pm to 10pm.

FTW Games will carry Vallejo Paint, micro art studio bases/bits, Infinity, Warmachine, Sabol Army Transport, Army Painter, Games Workshop, Gale Force 9, Battlefoam, Magic, Comics and Flames of War.
Link to a previous post about the new store.

FTW Games
13176 Midlothian Turnpike
Midlothian, VA 23113
804-464-1873

BFG Modeling Competition

The annual modeling and painting competition for BFG is now open.
More information here.

And yes, there are prizes!

BFG Game at Hobby Town July 18th

A few of us (me, the Bennetts, and the Lesers) are planning to play BFG at Hobbytown this Saturday from 10AM to 3PM or so. Join us if you want to learn more. I should have enough models for all to play at least 500 points.


Update:
A total of 8 of us showed up for BFG today, myself, the Bennetts (3), the Lesers (2), Chris and Harry. Harry is from Albany NY in town visiting friends. Somehow he found us on the web and showed up with 1000 pts worth of very nicely painted Chaos cruisers. I thought it was perfect as he allowed us to play four on four. I hope the next time he comes we can all set up another BFG game.

As it turns out, some other 40k players also declare themselves BFG players. It would be great if we can set up a club head to head competition!

We played 3.8k per side and had a great time.

The scenario was Fleet engagement; we chose Wedge and Chaos chose Cross. The two fleets deployed on long edges parallel to each other facing opposite direction. This prevented the Imperial fleet from charging Chaos with its armored prow. We did what we could to maneuver toward the enemy but seemingly always one arc behind. This led me to realize that Imperium should not try to come directly toward their opponent but should instead come on at a converging angle so that the current enemy ships are toward the one corner of our front arcs, expecting that once the enemy ships move, they will remain in the other corner of our front arc.

Previously I have also been reluctant to leave bomber markers on the table because of fear of being taken out. However, I think that the chances they will be taken out by ship fire is remote (requiring 6s to hit). When enemy carriers launches fighters to take out your bombers they aren't launching bombers or assault boats against my ships. In addition, interesting enough, damages taken by attack crafts are renewable (with re-rolls) similar to shields. By having bombers out, I have alsos extended the range of my bombers to 40cm per turn.

Final thought, the obvious thought. Concentrating fires to cripple ships is more effective than spreading fires across many ships' shields.

BFG Event at Hobby Town May 16th

We are trying to get together at Hobby Town on Saturday May 16th at 130 pm to play BFG. Those that have models bring 500 points. Those that don't I'll provide 500 points worth of models.


Speaking of models check out these pics:

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/lib/comp/gothicomp05/index.html
http://www.epic40k.co.uk/lib/comp/gothicomp06/index.html
http://www.epic40k.co.uk/lib/comp/gothicomp07/index.html
http://www.epic40k.co.uk/lib/comp/gothicomp08/index.html

GothicComp is an annual competition of BFG models. For more info on the 2009 competition go here.

BFG Event

I am thrilled at the positive response to last gaming night's BFG intro. I am contemplating another BFG event, but this time on a weekend afternoon so as to not interfere with the impending start of our LotR campaign. Tentative date would be either Saturday May 9, May 16, or Sunday May 17. Sunday may be better as I understand there is a gatherings of 40k players on Saturdays.

Thus far we have a few players with fleets.
Jeff: Imperial Navy, 500 pts
Matt: Chaos, 500 pts
Daniel: Space Marine, 500 pts
Chris B: Imperial and Chaos, 1000 pts each.
Eric M: Necrons, 1000 pts?
Huan: Imperial and Chaos, 2500 pts each.

We will be teaming up with 500 points fleet each. All are welcome to attend and as seen above, I have plenty of models, I will lend out 500 points fleet to any one who doesn't have models ready to play.

Gaming Night 04/16/09: BFG

About 5 to 6 of us played an intro game of BFG tonight. I thought it was a good showing. I think there has been enough interest for another BFG gaming night. If the regular club LotR gaming get into campaigning and interests in BFG remain up, we might want to consider an alternative time for BFG (once a month?).

Some thoughts from tonight:
Planetary gravity well: free turn toward the planet only at the beginning and or end of the movement phase.

Fleet interests:
Huan: Imperial, Chaos, and Tau (to be painted)
Chris: Imperium and Chaos
Eric: Necron (to be painted)
Daniel: wants Space Marine
Matt: wants Chaos
Jeff: ?

BFG resources:
Warp Rift BFG fan community magazine
Port Maw
and my favorite forum: BFG on Warseer

Alternative Models:
For anyone contemplating a Tyranid fleet, many gamers have bought the Tyranid 40k warrior set and the customized the models for BFG use.
Other companies (non GW) include
Spartan Games
Babylon 5 ships

Gaming Night 04/02/09 & 04/16/09

With an every other week schedule, our next 2 gaming nights are April 2nd and 16th. As far as I know, nothing special is planned for the 2nd.

The 16th will be Battle Fleet Gothic Introduction night. Go here for the basic rule, and the "Ships of the Gothic Sector" for the ship profiles. I will provide everything else needed to play.

The Imperial fleet will consist of:
the Lauviah Dictator class attack carrier
the Harbonah and Zaphkiel Tyrant class attack cruisers
the Melchisedec Dauntless class light cruiser

The Chaos fleet will consist of:
the Arioch Devastation class attack carrier
the Gamaliel and Kushiel Carnage class attack cruisers
the Beleth Slaughter class fast cruiser

Each player well control one ship or so. I will try to get there by 530p so we can start playing by 600p.

Club Night Poll

Currently we are meeting at Hobbytown every other thursday nights at 530p/6p. This makes the next meeting 2/26/09.

Question: Should we meet
A. Every other Thursdays?
B. First, third, and fifth Thursdays?
C. Second and fourth Thursdays?

First Club meeting

Tentatively scheduled for 6 or 630p Thursday 29th at Hobbytown. Details of club membership and activities will be discussed then.