Rediscovering Thunderbolt Apache Leader

Got some hobby supplies sent up from the Canberra Strategic Reserve, including a few games, delivered by Comrade James Safehand post! Amongst them was this gem by GMT Games in 1992: Thunderbolt Apache Leader.

Box is a little battered/loved!

Comrade James introduced me to this in 1994 when it was only a few years old, and I got my own copy at the time. It was my first of many GMT games and that we played together, but I always loved how immersive and narrative TAH is. We played a particularly good set of campaigns together while at sea in 2007 but sadly the war diaries have been lost.

Contents are all still in great condition!

Interesting Fact: This game was the first one that veteran games artist Roger B McGowan (you'd recognise much of his work) did entirely on Computer - revolutionary at the time! See more of his work on Twitter @RBMStudio1

There wasn't a lot of additional material brought out for it at the time, but I did manage to track down this little article from a small wargaming magazine Called Panzerschrek,- this article is from Issue #7 in 2001

TAH has since spawned a whole array of games in the "Leader" series. The Game's designer Dan Versson left GMT Games, started his own games company (DVG) and released a revised version of TAH a decade or so ago, taking the game's mechanics (and graphics) in a different direction.  I'm sticking with my classic edition!

Rendezvous in the Western Approaches

"Little Creatures" - the must stop brewery in Fremantle

This week Comrade James and I were independently on the West coast of Australia for our respective employers, far flung from our usual haunts.  What was to be be done? Pizza, Beers, Hobby shopping and games of course!

A pilgrimage to the famous Hobby Shop "Tactics" in Perth - a great selection of goodness. Hobby dollars were spent without remorse, including some great pickups for our growing Aeronautica Imperialis collection.

After a pizza and a few pints, it was down to buisness, starting with an old favourite game of ours: Flying Circus. This a WW1 version of GMT's Down in Flames series which we have played to death over the decades, and it never fails to entertain (especially with Spotify playing WW1 trench songs in the background)

And then it was time for something completely different: Steam Torpedo which despite its confusing rules explanations, turned into quite an absorbing game of sub v sub combat in a Dieselpunk theme (with Hunt for Red Octiber themes in the background of course)

Overall, a fab way to spend a day far from home with a mate you've been gaming with for 30 years!

Father's Days Blood Bowl

Father's Day in Australia is in September, and both Comrade James and I have traditional grudge matches with our offspring on this important weekend of family machismo!

In Sydney this year, Reilly and I got some DungeonBowl on with DeathMatch twists!

Loved the MVP Wandering Werewolf - somehow the teleporter in that room just sucked everyone in!

Somehow, I managed to leap a Gutter Runner around the Guardian Ogres and squeek over the line (get it?! - Dad jokes are legal for Father's Day)  to claim the first ever Father's Day win by this Dad,.

Meanwhile, in another State, James threw down with some Blood Bowl Team Manager with 2 of his progeny

Shamrock Cup 2021

21 years ago, Comrade James and I started an Olympic Bloodbowl tradition (see here).  With 2021 being an COVID induced Olympic year, the Shamrock Cup was again up for contention. The recent lockdowns had delayed our chance to play so instead of the traditional best of 3 series, we rolled it up into our Round 5 grudgematch in our local Odin's Cup Season. My Capital Crusaders (Vampires) v James’s Vax Valley Horrors (Necromantic) winner take all!

The Teams shake out for the start of the match!

Tragically, the traditional 'chilli ball' has gone missing since the cup was last contested (I suspect dodgy Refs or a Skaven conspiracy) so the game was played with a disturbingly mundane and functional ball.

The First half saw me win the toss, receive, get a touchback and punch though with a bubble defence around the Vampire ball carrier. Despite James taking a Thrall off the pitch seriously injured in Turn 1, I had enough momentum to drive downfield, blitz off the marking players and score on Turn 3. Receiving for his drive, James had some unlucky dice and I was able to turn him over to score again at the end of the second half. Trouble for the Necro Team but with a whole half to go, anything could happen.

A quick TD saw the Vamps 1 nil up 

and then 2 nil up going into the second half

The Necro juggernought was out for blood as the second half started and thralls started leaving the pitch (2 in one turn) but the S4 Ag2+ Vamps and their hypnotic gaze are brutal players, and were lucky not to get more than stun when their fragile armour broke. After carting a Ghoul and the Werewolf off to the casualty box, the Vamps started to get the upper hand and the Thralls were being uncharacteristically resilient. After a series of ball bounces and deckings of carriers, James was unlucky to have his Ghoul trip over while sprinting down the sideline with the ball. I promptly surfed him into the crowd (Reilly will be proud) and ducked away to complete a Vamp passing action and go up 3 nil with just a few turns to go.

The Vamp ball carrier ran downfield, sprinted twice and completed a short pass in Sunny Weather

With the Ghouls and Werewolf off pitch, this was a tough spot for the Necro team

And Vamp 3 scored his first TD for the Season

And so the Vampires won the Shamrock Cup! As ever, James was a wonderful opponent and it was a very enjoyable game. I was really glad we could get our match in before I move interstate (again) in two weeks

And thus the Shamrock Cup Board of Honour records the following winners

                2000: Paul (Skaven)

                2004: James (Human)

                2008: cancelled due to excessive Warpstone consumption

                2012: Paul (Skaven)

                2016: James (Dark Elf)

                2020: delayed due to Nurgle's COVID-19 Rot

                2021: Paul (Vampire)

What a great ongoing bit of gaming fun - 2024 will see the next edition of this Grudgebowl classic!

July Hobby Roundup

Well July continues and COVID lockdowns in other parts of the country mean that there have been no gaming with Reilly or my usual mates in Sydney. But we have been lucky where I am and I have started a small 6 player Blood Bowl league with club mates which has been a blast!  

The new Man Cave Stadium can facilitate 3 matches concurrently

As Commissioner, my focus has been getting everyone onto the new BB2020 rules and doing some player development. We have a broad range from experienced to brand new coaches, and everyone has a different race so there is quite a bit of diversity.

To help the coaches enjoy the league experience, I have been publishing a newsletter after each round, which has been well received

This season I have resurrected (!) my Vampire Team as the Capital Crusaders. As you expect from a Tier 2 team, they have been a bit slow off the mark but I am having fun with them.

Separately, I have been playing with Tabletop Simulator with some of the Sydney lads. To be honest I'm not enamoured with the pseudo miniatures games part of that, but the board wargame modules are superb - like upgunned versions on Vassal really. Hoping we can get a few more games going semi-regularly.

June Hobby Round up

June saw my terrain painting focus continue, though we did play a variety of games along the way.

Really visually exciting was this great 40k Necrons v AdMech thowdown with my mate Patch and his 10 year old apprentice Commanders. This was the christening of the big urban battle terrain tiles and I was really pleased with how it all came out, with the colours in both lovely armies really popping on the light and desaturated tiles.

Also played a big game of General d'Armee at club buddy John's house, in which I commanded a wonderful looking French Division and marched it to its spectacular doom while assaulting an allied British and Spanish defensive line

Along the way Reilly did some work on our old Tyranid Army, adding a few more units to the Swarm and pitting them again a few of his University mates.

I also introduced two new gamers to our gaming group and have been playing soem games with them. Markus has a lovely Deathwatch Kill Team and we hav played 2 and 3 playr games of that recently which was fun.

This was the Necron that just wouldn't die - he soaked up 4 flesh wounds and kept repairing the damage! Reilly painted a honour mark on his after the battle

These are my Space Hulk terminators, most decades old. The Blood Angels on the left are from the original metal box release that I got in my University days

Comrade James and I unearthed our classic Terminators and threw down for a few Space Hulk missions. We tried to dial in Reilly (in Sydney COVID lockdown)  to command the Genestealers but we need to work on the tech to enable that better

I also help my mate Gavin start to base his Ancient. Now Gav never does anything by halves, so I'm talking about 500 Spartans, 500 Athenians plus some Cavalry and skirmishers. He is using 32 figure units on 2 bases, and all the figures are painted so we had to work out a way of basing that looks good, is storable, and is easily repeatable.  We potted about for a few hours and settled on this process:

This is the completed test unit on the table and looking the business, arrayed for battle. Gavin has now industrialised the process and I cant wait to see them all finished! He is now muttering about adding another few hundred Thebans to the mx...

And finally, I have been running some demo games of Blood Bowl so we can get a small League running in July. Cant wait!