Village Games, July 21st, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

John and Josh played a match of Flames at Village last Tuesday. I think this was the first Flames night in a month or so.

Well, Elefants are big...

In the end, John actually annihilated much of Josh's force. However, Josh had one or two tanks remaining in most of his platoons. They ultimately ran out of time, and initially called a draw. However, upon review of the victory point system in Flames, Josh technically won as he destroyed two of John's platoons to his one platoon lost. All of that despite suffering heavy losses to Josh's force! I think part of the issue is John lost his 88mm, which I think is classified as a "platoon" for game purposes. Anyhow, it was a fairly quick game, under two hours I think.

Village Games, July 12th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

We had our usual monthly LFR game day at Village Games this past Sunday.

We had three morning games scheduled, but due to a lack of minimum players in one game and some no-shows in others, we melded down into two of the modules. The two modules were EAST 1-1 (East Rift: 'These Hallowed Halls', L1-4) and AGLA 1-1 (Aglarond: 'Lost Temple of the Fey Gods', L1-4).

I played in AGLA 1-1 (Aglarond: 'Lost Temple of the Fey Gods', L1-4). I've actually played this module before, so I used a new character: Merrin Berryfoot, a halfling rogue. I have a couple of other characters I've created, including a human Tempus cleric, but I really have wanted to play the halfling rogue. Nicholas DM'd as usual. I think we might have actually had four players (the minimum for a game), but I believe he defected to EAST 1-1. Daniel didn't have his session to DM, so he joined us. He played Fargrim, a dwarf fighter. Angie played her usual character, the gnome bard Roselyn. Joe also played his usual character, the human evoker Gil-Glin. Everyone lived, though Fargrim was dropped and frequently heavily damaged. Of course, he's a fighter.

This was EAST 1-1. I was originally scheduled to play in this, but due to the player situation I opted to go play with the usual suspects. Also, a lot of these guys were friends or related, and I suspected they would like to game together. It seems every time I try to play EAST 1-1 something happens. The game gets canceled, I get bumped or some other fortuitous event occurs. Drat!

This was our last group. Originally, EAST 1-1 was actually the only scheduled game, but as we had enough people we split into two tables. We ended up playing MOON 1-1 (Moonshae Isles: 'Nature's Wrath', L1-4). Myself and Angie continued using our characters from earlier, but Joe switched to a human psion. Daniel left to go run EAST 1-1 as scheduled, and we were joined by Mike. I've played in LFR with Mike before at The Source out in Falcon Heights, and he brought his halfling paladin Burlap. The module wasn't the greatest, at least in the lower tier. We had a bit of a discussion at the beginning over whether we should play up or not. We decided as we only had four players with characters at mostly the lower end of the L1-4 range that it would probably be wisest to play down. Merrin (my character) did come close once or twice to dropping, but most of the PCs came out with little damage. The storyline did make for some comedic RP though.

Village Games, July 7th, 2009 'Fear and Faith' Game

While at Village last night, I saw a couple of guys playing a modern skirmish scale game using the 'Fear and Faith' rules. The rules set is produced by Ganesha Games and is essentially a modern catch-all horror setting.

Village Games, July 5th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

There was a fair crowd for painting yesterday, despite the Combat Cards League taking away a few of the regulars. Most of the guys painted in the backroom so I ended up missing a lot of the goings on.

Ben was out front, continuing working on his Eldar for the upcoming Rogue Trader tourney.

Village Games, July 7th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Summer League Opener

Last night was the first day of the Combat Cards Summer League.

There were six players total. A seventh showed up but the eighth wasn't able to make it, so #7 had to sit out.

The campaign is based during the Kursk campaign, specifically at Ponyri Station. Ponyri was a heavily fortified railway station, which sat on the main rail link between Kursk and Orel. It was also a major agricultural marshaling yard area for the surrounding region's collective farms. It would see some of the most brutal fighting of the Kursk campaign.

This was Dan versus Herb.

Another pairing at war.

Josh meeting his doom. Josh had almost no terrain and had some force construction issues involving artillery if I remember correctly. At the end all he had left at the final turn was a couple or mortar stands behind the buildings at the lower left. Unfortunately for them, their commander had long been useless and as a result they pretty much sat there as easy pickings. He should do better next round though, provided he doesn't take the same forces. ;)

Online, Blackstar Server, July 5th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

Played another LFR game last night on Open RPG on the Blackstar server.

This time it was CORE 1-3, 'A Sense of Wonder'.

I played Sora, my L3 elven rogue. We also had Joey playing Balasar, his L4 dragonborn sorcerer. Another gamer was playing Rolen, a L2 elven ranger. Willk played William Strongmane, his L3 human shaman (I think). Kal Agrim played Thamoir "Moonflower" Amanodel, a L2 eladrin wizard.

Tim DM'd the module, who'd also DM'd the previous online module I played in (TYMA 1-5 as listed below).

The module was OK. We had some timing issues. I know Willk had some comp problems. Anyhow, we did finish the game. Moonflower got dropped and took some heavy damage but survived. Sora did OK, and I leveled to four after the adventure.

Online, Blackstar Server, July 4th, 2009 'Living Forgotten Realms' RPGA Play

Last night, I finally got Open RPG running. It's a program used to play RPGs online. You can use maps, minis, and it has all sorts of stuff like a dice roller and the usual online RPG items of interest. It also uses macros if you're into that sort of thing.

It wasn't the easiest program to install, a common complaint about the program. But that was OK with me, as it's free. Somethings are worth the effort.

After gabbing in the lobby for a few hours while doing up some Armorcast terrain, I discovered a possible LFR game running, TYMA 1-5. It's the newer Tymanther LFR module, which I believe game out on Wednesday. Anyhow, I figured 'Why not?'.

So I joined up in the room to play TYMA 1-5. The game was run by Tim. Our group included a full house of six. We had a gnome L4 sorcerer named Nyssa, played by Damon. There was Joey playing Balasar, a L4 dragonborn sorcerer. Yes, two sorcerers. Cyril played Skye, a L4 shifter fighter. Rich played Thain, a L3 dwarf warden. Ben A played his L4 bladeling avenger, a worshipper of Ilmater. I played Sora, my L3 elven rogue.

The game went pretty well, better than I thought. I've gamed online for years, since the mid 90s. The "all-in-one" system, with maps and so forth, is a godsend to gamers. Everything you need is there. We finished in a bit more than average real life time, but online gaming can often stretch on a hair longer.


This is a screen shot of Open RPG in use during the game. You can, of course, rearrange the various windows to your liking.

For more info on Open RPG: http://www.openrpg.com/

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Skirmish Game

Couple of the guys at Village were playtesting (I think) some Skirmish rules for Combat Cards. Basically a 25-28mm skirmish style rules using the card based Combat Card rules. It was a modern game, terrorists/Taliban/similar vs USMC I think.

Guys played on a felt mat with some appropriate terrain. Hot Wheels trucks?! Anyhow, don't know how this one turned out. A draw perhaps?

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

At the Village on Tuesday, I spied a father/son group playing a FoW match in the RPG/CCG room. They were playing a North Africa scenario with Brits vs Germans. I have no idea how it turned out, though it did appear as if the Brit arty was doing a fairly good job. It should, given the bonuses the British forces get in the game for arty. ;)

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

Pretty decent turnout this past Tuesday. I think part of it is that there are a number of leagues that will be starting in the near future, including Combat Cards, a Warhammer Escalation League and one or two others I think. Warhammer PlanetStrike is one of them I believe. Lots of guys painting Flames of War stuff for Combat Cards (and/or Flames of War). A number were also working on 15mm range terrain; apparently they get two square feet each for the CC League. I didn't get many photos this night and only one really from painting.

Ben at work as usual on his Eldar. He blended up a nice pink color for his Eldar Hearts vehicle unit. I will try and get a photo of all his stuff if he brings them next week.