Tower of London Poppy Visit

Everyone by now should have heard about the wonderful exhibition that has been on show at the Tower of London - I am referring of course to the ceramic poppys commemerorating the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War by artist Paul Cummins entitled ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’. Over the past few months 888,246 ceramic poppies have been planted in the moat, one for every British and Colonial fatality during the conflict, a very moving and poignant sight.

Thanks to the Military I finally managed to get on a Force Development trip to the Tower to see this exhibit. Unfortunately as it was after the 11th November alot of the poppies had started to be cleared away, along with the cascade of poppies coming out of the window.

There was still a good number to see though as you can see in the photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very good day at the Tower and I was priviledged to be able to visit and commemorate the fallen.

All Quiet on the Martian Front - Wargames Club Starter game

This game was played by my two good friends Nick S and Nick A at our wargames club in Huntingdon UK. I saw the All Quiet on the Martian Front Kickstarter and it looked like it was extreamly succesful - alot of new models and such have been released and available to buy, but as yet I have seen very little blogged or online in the way of people playing it.

So it was great to see the two Nick's trying out a starter battle.

Nick A had 3 x Martian Assault Walker and Nick S had a load of US Tanks with stands of HMGs, Infantry units, Roughriders on motorbikes and a Command Unit. Each Infantry unit had a forlorn hope section that could assault the Martians.

 

The US troops also had a rule where they can spend command tokens to bring back destoyed units as reinforcements. However, all this didnt make much difference as the Alien Death Machines heat rayed everything in front of them and march on with their invasion relentlessly.

Martian Advance

Civilians run for their lives

Infantry cautiously move into position

Armoured attack

Armour flank the Martians

Heat Ray disintergrates poor soldiers

Enter the Roughriders

Battle is fierce

Command call for reinforcements

The Martians victorious continue the invasion

7th Voyage - Jason and the Argonauts AAR

Its been a while since this game took place but I have been snowed under with work and not had much time to blog (seems to be a regular thing at the mo)

A friend of mine Alex has been after a game of 7TV for a while and I thought I would offer something slightly different with another of Crooked Dice's systems 7TH Voyage. This system is near identical to 7TV but is set in the stop motion film and tv era of Ray Harryhausen amongst others.

So I set up a Jason and the Argonauts game with the scenario of recovering the Golden Fleece. I mishmashed it abit as anyone who has seen the film will know the fleece is protected by the Hydra. Well I havnt got a Hydra painted yet so laid out some temple terrain which housed the fleece and pitted the Argonauts against King Aeetes and his skeletons (mishmashed see as thats a completely different scene in the film

Alex took the Argonauts with Jason, an Argonaut and some veterans whilst I took the Colchis crew of King Aeetes with his warriors and some skeleton warriors that could be summoned.

 

 The two forces advance on each other

 

The Argonauts prepare to claim the Golden Fleece

 

Archers take the high ground

 

Colchis Warriors prepare to defend the ruins

 

Clash at the temple

 

The Argonauts gain the fleece whilst the Veterans attack the Colchis Warriors and wipe most of them out

 

King Aeetes finally summons his undead soldiers to attack the Argonauts, whilst a Veteran charges in and takes out the archers

 

Whilst the Skeletons are engaging the Veterans King Aeetes cast Pillar of Wrath on Jason

 

Pillar of Wrath causes Jason and an Argonaut to catch fire

 

More Skeletons are summond and bears down on Jason (still burning)

 

Jason survives being burnt and manages to take out the advancing Skeletons and the game ends. Totalling up the victory points the Argonauts win a minor victory being in possession of the Golden Fleece.

 

Bloodbowl Match Black Mountain Bloodjaws vs The Brewers

Game 3 of the season and another divisional game against the long standing human team the Brewers.

This is the last divisional game before we go onto the cross division games and I was sitting so far at a win and a draw (4 pts) The Chaos Dwarves were on (0 pts) and the Brewers were on (4 pts) with the Marauders on (4 pts)

So anybody (except the poor Chaos Dwarves) could go top of the division.

The weather yet again was nice and the Brewers had the edge on the fans. The Bloodjaws brought along Ugroth Bolgrot and his chainsaw.

The Bloodjaws lost the toss and kicked to the waiting Humans, it looked like the weather was about to change but only a gentle breeze wafted through the stadium. The Brewers start their drive with their Ogre stunning a Black Orc. The Bloodjaws steam in to contain the the Brewers advance. An Orc blitzer sidelines a lineman and the crowd (fortunatly Orc fans) KO him.

An Orc blitzer tries to dodge to blitz the Human ball carrier but fails and falls over. The Brewers slowly advance again and two lots of double skulls ends the Bloodjaws dismal half as the Brewers Catcher sprints into the endzone to score. TOUCHDOWN 0-1.

Second Half.

The Brewers kick and the Orcs get some Brilliant Coaching as a Black Orc catches the ball on the line of scrimmage. The Bloodjaws drive ahead and Ugroth forgets to oil his rusty chainsaw as it feebily fails to break any armour.

 An LineOrc blitzes a human catcher and KO's him whilst the Bloodjaws smash through the humans. No real lasting damage is caused and the Brewers are soon up and defending well. The Orcs manage to cage the ball in the Brewers backfield but the Humans manage to blitz the ball carrier after a horrendous failed block by a Black Orc.

The ball pops free and is regained by a Bloowjaws Blitzer who storms towards the endzone and no human can catch him. The blitzer scores TOUCHDOWN 1-1 and the game ends. Another hard fought draw for the Orcs.

News comes in from the other match in the division and thats a draw also. The Bloodjaws, Brewers and Marauders are all on 5 pts whilst the Chaos Dwaves languish at the bottom on 1 pt.

Cross divisional matches next and they should prove very interesting.

Thats it for now, goodnight sports fans.

Bloodbowl Match Black Mountain Bloodjaws vs Temperbay Marauders

The Bloodjaws are ready for their second divisional game after the comprehensive win over the Chaos Dwarves. This match would be against another Orc team which has been strongly embedded in league play for two seasons.

The weather was fine and the Marauders had the edhe on the fans in the stadium. Although the Bloodjaws have brought along Star Player VaragGhoulchewer.

The coin is flipped by the ref and the Marauders win the call and elect to receive. The Bloodjaws set up and the ball is kicked, whilst in the air Temperbay receive some good coaching which will help their rolls.

The Marauders start well, crunching a Bloodjaw lineorc then collecting the ball and get their cage rolling. Varag blitzes but double skulls and falls over!!! Temperbay grind ahead and manage to CAS an opposing lineorc. A Marauder blitzer breaks free of the grind but the Bloodjaws blitz him and get a CAS Serious Injury.

The Bloodjaws managed after a few plays to get a lucky blitz on the ball carrier and kock him to the gound. The ball is free and then a Bloodjaw Black Orc skulls out and falls over. The Marauders get another CAS, this time on a Black Orc and although the Bloodjaws defend valiantly the Marauders grind out a score on turn 8 TOUCHDOWN 0-1.

Second half and Temperbay kick and manage to blitz the Bloodjaws!! the Marauders definately managed to bribe Nuffle and the dice gods. The Bloodjaws finally manage to collect the ball and attempt to put the hurt on the Marauders.

Although they manage to crunch the Marauders Troll it gets up easily. The Bloodjaws try moving the ball down field on the flanks and a Black Orc fluffs his block on the Troll. Temperbay blitz the Thrower carrying the ball and gets a CAS with the ball scattering free.

The Marauders try and dodge around the opposition to collect the ball but fail and the Bloodjaws scoop it up and scamper away. A blizter screams towards the endzone and manages to cross the line at the whistle scoring. TOUCHDOWN 1-1.

A hard fought draw and the Bloodjaws had a few casualties.

Across the Dead Earth Kickstarter Goodies Arrive

As mentioned previously in a few posts, I was heavily involved in the Across the Dead Earth Kickstarter investing heavily for a very favoursome reward package.

Across the Dead Earth is a fantastic Post Apocalyptic skirmish game primarily (at the moment) centered in the F-UK (Former United Kingdon) this makes the background fluff very interesting to read.

The game has been produced by Rich Chapple of Dead Earth Games and its great to see a new independant games producer with the dedication and drive to put together a rather cracking new game.

So onto the Kickstarter goodies. These arrived through my door on Monday after being posted the previous Saturday (great service) and unlike many other Kickstarters, this on has delivered on time and with great product.

My Goodies included so far (as I will receive all gangs, expansions and anythign else they produce for the next 2 years!)

The Rule book including sheets of counters and cards

Three gangs worth of miniatures

A lovely art postcard with a very thoughtful personal message from Rich

All the Swag

 

The Rulebook  

Front

Rear

The Miniatures

The Family including Mercenary Crimson

 

  The State

 

The Redclaws