First Fleet Fight

First Uncharted Seas battle for my almost completed Thaniras Elves. Verses Colin and some of Graeme's Orcs (Colin leaving his beloved Dwarfs at home.). Two other US games were also taking place.

Slightly smaller than the recommended 4ft by 4ft table size with an Island in the middle of the playing area to split things up. At least the Elves had the weather-gauge in their favour at the start with the wind directly behind them.

The massed squadron of six orc frigates was an awesome sight as the wall slowly advanced forward, devastating an elven frigate squadron with their linked forward fire. That was until they got frozen in place by the Elves magic and were encircled and picked off in place by the Cobra Cruisers. Did manage to get the cruisers and a couple of frigates behind the Orcs and out of their devastating forward fire zone, but the damage had already been done to the Elven Phoenix Battleship which ended up rammed and taken prize.

The Orcs started to get frustrated with the Elves magic which they were not able to counter effectively. The carefully lined up shot against a cruiser by the Orc battleship went to waste as the ship was magically transposed out of shot.

The Orcs did mange to have effective damage control as they repaired their Battleship from five damage down to one. This proved to be decisive as at the end of the game their was only the battleship and one elven frigate left on the table hiding behind the island. Even sailing into the wing the frigate is faster than the battleship so was able to escape eventually.
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Martians! Mobsters! Munchkins!

Finally got my copy of Martians!!! off Phil. Contents very similar to Zombies!!! Don't think I need to punch and de-chad the tokens as can use my existing ones. As per usual with Twilight Creations one of the first things to do is check up online for FAQs and rules clarifications. Unlike previous games and expansion the rules weren't posted up on the TC site or BoardGameGeek in advance.

Started the night with a game of Family Business. A full compliment of six players lead to a lot of shutting out of participants as interrupt cards sent the turns back across the table. It not for the fact that it's a fun game then this could really annoy people but it was taken in the right spirit. The game could do with some more cards in the deck as we managed to get through the deck at least twice, might even of been three times. 'St Valentine's Day' was used to good effect twice to wipe out a number of mobsters.

Strangest quote in the game must go to the player of the Capone Gang after inspecting his mob, 'I don't recognise any of these names!', 'not even Al?'

True to life Dillinger had a couple of close escapes from the Hit List before becoming the final casualty of the game; leaving Jim with the sole surviving non-entity mobster and the win.

This was followed by a couple of games of Munchkin, the original version with both 'Unnatural Axe' and 'Need for Steed' expansions. Both were over quite quickly as, with more people than normal playing, there seemed to be more assistance given. Managed to win the first game after a string of volunteers helped me kill a high treasure monster. I gave up the loot but got two levels to jump to ten and the win. Not so good in the second game, as a joint victory happened when an elf assisted a combat with both participants at level 9, soon to be 10.
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Small Bites!

Munchkin Bites! one of the many alternate versions of the original game. Compatible with the original and the other expansions. A three player game everybody reaching level 9 prior to the winning kill.

Despite the close finish I didn't enjoy playing it as much as the original. The card balance didn't seem right with a lot of cards being passed between players due to charity and one card in particular that effectively allowed hoarding if you passed the charity cards to the right person. Also the cartoons and puns on the cards just didn't seem as good.

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Elsewhere Jim was refereeing a game of Uncharted Seas with an home-brewed convoy scenario with his own scratch built dwarven ships to supplement Graeme's fleets. Was a large game and took up three tables with five players, 2 Dragon Lords, 3 Dwarfs.

Details of the scenario are available on the Spartan Games Forum.
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Swede Three Kings

Back at the Hall this week and a good turnout despite of the 'summer' weather i.e. Throwing it down.

A good mixture of games going on. 40K Planetstrike, Zombies!!! (with expansions), Uncharted Seas, AK-47 and a game of Svea Rike which I took part in.

A three player game, with two experienced players and a newbie, so of course the newbie won with a massive land-grab, normally a bad idea given the number of cards and events that can do over regions. I came second with a large pile of gold thanks to some excessive merchant activity in the final stage of the game. My only chance was if 'War with Russia' happened so as to remove his Finnish provinces, but it never did. Martin trailed in last.
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SA-80 Monarchy

No club on Tuesday due to a meeting in the Hall, so a small gathering at Matt's to try and finalise the rules which appear to of morphed into 'SA-80 Monarchy'. Unlike the club drinks and cake was provided; Thanks Matt.

The unit list has expanded a lot but still no stats for Routemasters, so how militia are suppose to get around I don't know.

Played an unconventional (for AK-47) 2 vs 2 game with equal point forces on an over-sized table. Lots of tanks and mobile units on the board.

Much querying over the effectiveness of artillery as it did seem powerful as it could standoff and blow the toughest tank apart with some ease. We didn't play the official encounter rule so it was more like a conventional wargame with forces and reinforcements approaching from two sides, rather than AKs more usual popping up at a chosen corner or side. This gave the guns a lot more security than what they would normally have.

Despite this the guns are being tuned down a bit.
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AK-47 Monarchy

People were thin on the ground this week with only three tables up and running.

Fought a couple of battles as a group of oldtime gamers may have finally found a use for their old 70s\80s Cold War stuff. A proposed campaign on a later day Britsh Civil War (they claim that they've never heard of the 30's based campaign 'A Very British Civil War' but the ideas are very close).

So I got drafted to do a couple of trial games using the original AK-47 rules. First game I was the defender, second the attacker. In both cases the defenders position was nerfed by poor setup roles, weak armoured car forces trying to fend off tanks. Both ended in the attacker holding two out of three objectives (40pts vs 20pts) but unable to do the clean sweep as in both instances the clock ticked down rapidly.

Ideas for tweaks are already being collected to shift the setting into more in line with 1st world conflict rather than 3rd world bush wars.
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Jabberwocky Jappers

Phil's games store has finally opened in Ulverston. Jabberwocky Games is no longer just a website, but is the first dedicated games shop in Furness since System Games in the early 90's. A bit of a brave thing to do given the economic climate.



Missed the grand opening and apparently a good job too as supposedly the store was packed. Things were still a bit sweaty when I turned up at 12.15.

The usual suspects turned up as can be seen above with Colin guarding the entrance. For some reason all the old dears walking past kept chatting to him asking him what's it all about.

They even had Morris Dancers and Folk Singers laid on, but I think that might of been something to do with the local Folk Festival.



Finally broke and went on a bit of a spree. Bought the Uncharted Seas revised rulebook and Thaniras Elves starter fleet (with free blister pack), and the Race for the Galaxy boardgame. Also got an opening day discount and a free pair of Jabberwocky dice!

The Uncharted Sea stuff was selling quick and along with Flames of War probably made up the majority of sales. Seas definitely seems to be the in thing at the moment. Graeme was demoing it at the back of the room in sauna like conditions.



Somehow, despite a poor fantasy round, the FW team managed to win the Sci-fi\Fantasy quiz gaining Jabberwocky tee-shirts in the process. I was surprised that I was the only one on the team who knew who Thulsa Doom was. And also the only one to recognise the funky first series theme tune for Space1999. What is this and other worlds coming to.
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