SPALDING WARGAMING CLUB
I've discussed Black Orchestra on the Fen Orc Blog but on Thursday I had a chance to play it myself with Karl. I chose Dietrich Bonhoeffer (radical Christian) and Karl chose Claus Von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise). Bonhoeffer (left) founded the anti-Nazi Confessing Church; Stauffenberg (right) led Operation Valkyrie to depose Hitler With the rulebook to guide us as we go and the setting on 'Easy Mode', we swing into action... The board shows an abstract map of Europe, before the War, with Hitler and his Deputies in Berlin (plotting) and us heroes in Berlin Station (also plotting). You've got two traits to manage: your Motivation (we start as 'Timid') and Suspicion ('Medium'). Increasing Motivation is a priority: your special powers kick in once you become 'Motivated' (e.g. Von Stauffenberg gets an extra action and I deliver electrifying sermons) and once you get to 'Committed' you are allowed to carry out Plots against Hitler. You also want to keep your Suspicion low, because of the Gestapo. The other priority seems to be to wander round the board collecting Items. We get off to a flying start. Karl collects the necessary explosives for a Suitcase Bomb to blow up Hitler in Berlin. It doesn't work. Not enough red successes to kill Hitler, but not enough 'eagle' suspicion symbols to arrest Stauffenberg. The Suitcase Bomb Plot fails. Stauffenberg miraculously escapes suspicion and meets me on a train heading south. We start discussing engineering a train wreck to kill Hitler instead. Then we realise that, with Hitler's military support as high as it is, we're never going to snuff him. We need to start sabotaging the War Effort. Now we realise the importance of the Conspire Action, to lower Hitler's military strength. We roll really well, but the War is opening out and Hitler just keeps winning: Anschluss, France, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Norway... Karl has another daring plan while pretending to do War Work out in the East. Why not kidnap Hitler? He visits Auschwitz, just to get his Motivation really high, then rushes to snatch Hitler from Nuremberg. This time we're well-prepared with tons of Weaponry and Hitler is super-vulnerable. Sure... surely... But no. Look at all those Weapons and a Signature too, plus tons of dice: roll well Karl. Ah. Hide your face in shame, young man. This time, Stauffenberg goes to prison. I'd like to rescue him, but I'm way too suspicious. You see, Hitler keeps dropping in on me for surprise chats. It's very unnerving. I decide to fly to Zurich to prove my loyalty and leave Karl to get himself out of prison, which he does by resisting torture. Well done. We're back out East again, sabotaging the War Effort. I've had enough. I'm sick of being the timid cleric. I've got a Poison Gas Plot and shedloads of poison. I've been to Treblinka, I've seen what they're doing. I'm ready. This time. T h i s ... t i m e ... We've got Hitler cornered. We've got all the poison left in Europe. We've got the dice. We roll the dice. Bonhoeffer is sad. It's Fortress Europe now. Hitler is in the bunker. The regime is doubling down. There are almost no resources left on the board. Karl talks about another Plot. Something about a Sniper. One last push and we can end this. C'mon. One last time. Then the 'Documents Located' card finally shows up. We are exposed. The firing squad awaits. How did we do? Well, we wasted time at the start, not realising you need to bide your time during Hitler's periods of military supremacy and strike when he's weak. Once we figured that out we had two solid, well-resourced strikes at him that should have, damnit, should have worked.
But the Führer is only lucky, lucky man. He went to the destiny allotted to him by history: 30 April, mid-afternoon, the smell of burnt almonds and the sound of a gunshot from the study.
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A fun outing to Newark: wandering round the market, the big church, admire the Civil War era architecture, lunch at Strays jazz cafe - and then my True Love must spend an hour sniffing out bargains in charity shop. How shall I amuse myself? Google tells me that Wild Ways is a games shop in Newark. The Facebook page shows a really active gaming community based out of it. Catch is, there are two address. The first is in the town centre Arcade, but I draw a blank there. Perhaps it's out of date? So I go to the other, which turns out to be a residential estate on the edge of town. DEFINITELY not the right place (and don't go there, BTW). Back to the Arcade and I happen to glance up and see this: First floor, eh? But how to get there? The lady in the posh art shop is very helpful. She thinks she's seen people using the Green Door. Don't know what they're doing, she says, and I resist the urge to sing back like Shaky: but they laugh a lot behind the green door. No sign on the Green Door, but it's unlocked and the fantasy pennants are encouraging so up I go. Upstairs there's a lovely room where Wild Ways owner Lucy greets me. Some lads are playing Magic: the Gathering. Her son is on the couch playing a video game. There are shelves of second hand books and games and some new stock. Big folders bulge with out-of-print Magic cards. A chalk board advertises drinks and snacks. A sunny bay window overlooks historic Newark. Lucy explains what's going on. This isn't a secret society. It's just that they've recently moved into these great premises, but because the building is historic, they can't put a sign on the door until they have one that's been approved. And the premises are great. As well as this cosy room there's a larger space upstairs just for gaming tables. You see, this is more of a permanent club than a 'shop'. Lucy broke free from early years teaching to be a second-hand book seller, but this morphed into selling comics, graphic novels, RPGs and trading card games - until the gaming side took over. Wild Ways charges a modest yearly subscription if you want to use its premises, take advantage of the lending library and participate in its tournaments and events. The second hand stock is still there (lots of glorious 1st edition D&D, old GW stuff and Warhammer caught my eye) and Lucy buys in new stock to cater to the interests of her members. I had a great chat with Lucy (who used to be from Spalding - SHOCK!) and she's got a ton of experience and advice for our fledgling club. Wild Ways is well worth a visit if your Beloved is ever antiquing in Newark - and more than that, we should organise a Club Trip out there because as well as this great gaming community, Newark has sublime real ale pubs all around. Well worth the adventure it took to find! I could only express my feelings by asking Lucy to sell me something. No, not Scythe, something else. Cobra Paw, you say? It's a deal!
Blood Bowl experts have all had their say and the overwhelming opinion going into the Saturday night fixtures was that the Nuln Oilers and their coach Chris Peat were buoyant after their first league win and were ready to take on the despondent Dark Elven System of a Touchdown who let a commanding lead slip against the Fancy Dandys earlier this week. But it was the System of a Touchdown who came out swinging, grabbing a touchdown two turns into the game and a second two turns later. A fumble from the Oilers catcher let the elven Blitzers Jeff and Buckley pounce, pick up and score. Half time arrived and the Dark Elves were 3-0 up brimming with confidence. To make matters worse the Oilers suffered three KOs and one casualty. Could a second half comeback be on? Had the elves burned out too early? Had a small amount of low strength beer made the Elven coaching staff delirious? The answer to all of the above was a resounding No. The Oilers managed fumbles, trips when going for it, failed blocks... even the Ogre managed to catch the ball (literally a miraculous event, altars to Sigmar will be built in the pitch in remembrance) only to be overwhelmed, fall over and release the ball leaving the dastardly dark druchii clear through. Adding insult to many literal injuries, the Oilers thrower fumbled gifting a fifth TD to the elves. The speed and trickery of the pointy-eared, pale-skinned players was too much on the day and they ran out winners with a ridiculous score line. 5-0 it ended. In a complete contrast, Craig Jackson's Hazhuts Blue Bulls squared off against Alec Bell's Dwarven Donkey Punch. Dwarves pitted against their Chaos-worshipping counterparts. It was a violent grapple fest. In the second half it was six turns after kick-off until the ball was received. An enthralling 1-1 draw in a game of grinding, pummelling and slowly driving. The tackling prowess of each team cancelled each other out. What the game lacked in free-flowing movement and touchdowns, it made up for in intense tactical battles with the Dwarves riding their luck against the Blue Bulls and successfully hitting blocks to contain the devastating centaurs. Can the Warpstone Wanderers be taken off their perch, can the elves repeat their high scoring shenanigans, can the Oilers bounce back ...? Find out all the answers after the Wednesday Night Fixtures and the subsequent review. I've been Action Jackson ... and I need to sit down because the nail-biting, fist-fighting, point-stealing, violent-feeling, crowd-rumbling, player-fumbling SWC Blood Bowl championship is just too much!
Well, last night saw two of the most dramatic games we've had this season. A high scoring end-to-end rampage and a battle between two vertically challenged powerhouses of the game. These games had some extra spice prior to kick off and we'll see why in Martins Midweek Review (coming soon). League topping Warpstone Wanderers took to the field against Nurgles Rotters in what proved to be a clash of styles. It was the risk-taking, hand-shaking, dice-rolling, newbie-trolling, blog-writer, rat-fighter Special K Karl McMichael who came away with a 2-0 win. We got a word with the victorious coach below and he was in high spirits. Karl, how do you feel about the match? Daunting match tonight squaring up against the Rotters, those lads are tough to put in the ground proper. Nuffle was undoubted on my half of the pitch today. The Wanderers got away very light on damage, with 7 K.Os and a single death. Lightning speed and fearless ferocity in attack, but ponderous and flexible in defence. Any highlights for you? Chirable bought it, a sound clout to the skull in the closing minutes of the match. Monstite the rat ogre couldn't be kept down, returning to the field after being out cold twice. Vapskit's first time in the field saw him cruise to a touchdown after blitzing the ball carrier! All in all, we're looking good but it’s a long way to the top. Wise words... except for the part about a long way to the top. The Wanderers are top but have played more games so there's time for a reverse in fortune. Elsewhere the Nuln Oilers recorded their first win against the newly-named Robs Raiders. A glorious 1-0 victory. Head coach Chris Peat was buoyant and confident looking towards his next game against the dark elf "System of a Touchdown". The elves themselves were a somber bunch after allowing the Fancy Dandys to pull back a 3-3 draw after the pointy-eared pale-skinned purple-clad pretenders were 3-1 up. A lack of game management cost them dearly. Did these results effect the weekend fixtures? Can anyone stop the Rats? Have you honestly read the entire blog or just looked at the pictures? All this and more in our weekend review.
Hey there sports fans. It’s been a blistering start to the SWC Blood Bowl League. There’s been two solid weeks of heart-racing, groin-grabbing, high intensity Blood Bowl action so without further hyperbole lets get to our round up. The Warpstone Wanderers needed to bounce back from a shock draw at the (miniscule) hands of the Dwarven Donkey Punch and their Rookie Coach Alec “Blue Beard” Bell; but fear not Rat Fans! Head Coach Karl “Special K” McMicheal motivated his team to a superb bounce-back win, thoroughly trouncing the Nuln Oilers 3-0. The Oilers just couldn’t deal with the pace of the scurrying Skaven. Seven short days later and the Rats take the field again, this time against head coach “Bob Bobson” and his “Nameless Humans”. Another win for the Wanderers after conceding early. I caught up with Head Coach Special K after the game: The Wanderers put in a great display tonight! Yeah, we conceded early, but, at the end of the day it's about the game not the drive. Strong scrimmage presence was the order of the day, hard plays down the flanks and some canny passing. Opposition took quite the battering mid-game, after a quick pow-wow they conceded the half to avoid more carnage. So everything's going according to plan? I think the lads got a lot of experience from the win, Sneech is back on the pitch after the stamping he took last game and Vapskit dons orange for inaugural fixture next week. The Warpstone Wanderers are back up to 11 after a rocky start to the season. Fascinating insight into the mind of a man who coaches five foot tall vermin to play a life or death game of grid iron for the entertainment of the masses. The Nuln Oilers not only suffered at the hands of the rats but also suffered defeat in their league debut against Hahuts Bluebulls. The Chaos Dwarves, sporting traditional massive hats backed up by hulking centaurs and hobgoblins (they’re like goblins but smell worse and again, love a weird hat) were just too much as they overran the Human Defensive line. The Oilers nearly had a touchdown on the stroke of half time but the Oilers Blitzer couldn’t keep his feet. Head Coach of the Bluebulls Craig Jackson was in high spirits as he moves up the league table. Tune in next week for an update on the rest of the week's results.
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