What a Rush!

After some exciting weeks the Dreadball Kickstarter journey is at an end, finally settling on an amazing total of $728,985!!!  The last 48 hrs saw some huge activity, unlocking even more great stuff, including not one but two new teams:

And new MVPs too:

Personally, I am very excited on one hand and relieved on another that this is over...for now.
These models are like some sort of drug: I know I have enough already, but I NEED these new ones!
Man Cave readers can look forward to some Dreadball related modelling and game reports in due course.

Last Hurrah for Dreadball

Only four days to go on this amazing Kickstarter.  If you've missed the last few updates, there is now yet another alien team and a few MVP funded - the elf-like Asterian team (pictured above), their MVP Mellisadra, and another Forge Father team MVP - Yurik "Painmaster" Yurikson.  And now there are also  hints about the DreadBall Mech pictured below...

The current total of $463k pledged is pretty amazing!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

EDIT: Just cracked half a million dollars! 3 days to go...

Undead Team

Introducing our Undead Blood Team the Cheese Eating Monkeys.  This team was conceived, designed and named while we were in Paris for a week last year.  Each player is named after a famous French General which the Lad had to research while we toured that various monuments and museums, which was pretty cool.  Here they are:

I mounted the Mummies on double bases to make them that bit more imposing on the pitch - as 5ST players they should tower over the others!  Here is the Team Captain in the number 1 jersey, Bony-Parts, and his offsider deGoul.

The Wights - these guys always remind me of Judge Death!

Agile but Fragile: The Gouls

The Zombies just love Cheerleader Braaaiiinsss....pity there isn't much!

The Skeletons

The Gang all ready for Kickoff!

Stay on Target!

I'm not immune to the new hotness and ordered a set this week - reckon this might even tempt the Lad away from Blood Bowl for a bit too!

I ended up ordering the base set (shown here, comes with 1 X-Wing and 2 TIE fighters) and one of each expansion: X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter and TIE Advanced. I got to see the models first hand and they are just beautiful!  Sadly I have to wait for my starter set though.  Comrade James got a set too so we will be able to have a good dogfights together!

Here is the FFG Tutorial Video:


[EDIT] Sadly, this went horribly wrong. No stock, waiting, waiting...no more coming...but at least I got my $ back

Dreadball Update

The kickstarter is going from strength to strength, almost at $340k and unlocking more teams with 10 days still to go.  Since my last post there has been extra MVPs added but most excitingly a new insectoid Alien race and now transforming Robots are about to burst onto the scene - awesome!

However, the great popularity of this project is causing the Mnatci biys some concern that they wont be able to get everything out for Christmas, so they have now capped the number of Jack and Striker! packages that are available - better get in quick!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

You might also be interested in this 'first impressions' post about the game at the Blog Shades of Chaos
http://www.shadesofchaos.com/2012/09/dreadball-1st-impressions.html?m=1

Ye know what day it be ?

Aye, its International Talk Like a Pirate Day again me hearties!  And a grand day it be too, filled with rum, loot and dubloons :-)  And in the best traditions of the Man Cave here be this year's saucy pirate wench!

Nice Booty!

A few games recently

Each year Comrade James and I generally find ourselves together in Sydney at some stage and get together for some gaming fun after hours. This year we christened the new Sydney 'Man Pad' while sampling my Barmy Bishop Bitter! And an extensive sampling it was...

Death Angel - played a couple of games and tried out the Deathwing and Space Marine expansion sets.   The first game saw us take two combat pairs of Terminators each and ended horribly with all Marines KIA barely half way through the mission.  The second game we took three pairs of Marines each (using the commensurately increased number of 'Stealers of course) and fought our way through to a down to the wire Victory with four Marines remaining - a mere 66% casualties sustained!  Good fun.

Spearpoint 1943 - the first game saw me playing Germans against James's US Forces in a head to head encounter.  I started off with a pair of Panthers bearing down on a remarkably resilient Sherman and some screening troops, before I committed a wave of Infantry, support weapons and a Tiger I.  James established an effective artillery support line which did some real damage and I was fortunate to sabotage his P-38 Lightning so it never got on the table.  He managed to kill off the crews of the Tiger and one of the Panthers, but in the end I was able to overwhelm his infantry line with mortars and MG43 teams and claim the Victory.

We then played with James's newly acquired Village/Defensive Line expansion set - the additional terrain really increases the straying power and survivability of infantry units, who really get chewed up quickly in the standard game.  The components are beautifully done and are double sided so you can play in either summer or winter (with snow).  I took and infantry and artillery heavy force which did well in the terrain and cleaned up James's Combined Arms force in the rubble nicely!

 

Apparently the Russian Front expansion for Spearpoint will be a Kickstarter project later this year and I will definitely be pledging up for it. 

Patton's Best - we dragged out this classic Avalon Hill hame from the 80s.  If you aren't familiar with it, its a solitaire game in which you command a single M4 Sherman and its crew from the US 4th Armoured Division as it breaks out of the Normandy area, crosses France, relieves Bastogne and drives on the Rhine.  The game was new to me and we played some introductory engagements to get me ready for a proper campaign to start shortly.  The game mechanics are very similar in nature to B-17 Queen of the Skies and you can read a BGG review on it  One of the unique aspects of the game is the fog of war and "Tiger shock" effect - essentially the Pz VI Tiger tank caused great consternation to US tank crews.  Accordingly, EVERY German AFV is a Tiger and every anti-tank gun an '88' (and they hit like one too) until proven otherwise, so its very much in your best interests to scout well and identify enemy units as soon as possible!

Duel of the Giants - ended up not getting time to play this unfortunately but we dragged it out and looked at the awesome components anyway.

Munchkin Booty.  Another recent addition to James's collection, he managed to beat me soundly in two games - love the theme of this game!

Kittens in a Blender.  My own new game - who could resist?  Essentially the curious cats are exploring the kitchen - save your own cats and make the others pay!  Yes, its a twisted and fun as that sounds.  James smashed me senseless and we both had a great laugh with it.  

Being a game for 2-4 players, I took it home to the family.  After the initial outrage and horrified comments we got into it and they were blending the kittens with great enthusiasm!  Indeed the Lad showed a particular penchant for sacrificing his own kittens to get everybody else's' - a tactic reminiscent of General Douglas Haig in my opinion and that eventually won him the game.  Nice!

Major Hammerfaust

Saw this new release from Mad Robot Miniatures this week - I'm think about getting him as my WWW2 German Mechanised Infantry Commander.

I don't think much conversion work would be required but he definitely has that 'more-than-slightly-annoyed Teutonic' look!  Maybe I have finally found my Hellman of Hammer Force character!

Buy him here

Dreadball Core Rules

Are now available for a sneak peak - check them out and push a few figs around a hex grid to see if you like them!  Find them here

Dreadball Designer Interview

This week saw the podcast "Meeples and Miniatures" release episodes 93 and 94 which have interviews with the Dreadball game designer Jake Thornton and Chris Palmer from Mantic Games respectively.  While somewhat lengthy, I found them very interesting - particualrly Jake's background with GW and the steps he went to during game design to deliberately make DreadBall play differently to Blood Bowl.  Well worth checking out.  Check it out here

And as if that weren't enough, check out the concept art for the next expansion team, the Judwan aliens - sweet!

Now at $230k and growing with 16 days still to go.  This is now what you get in the Striker! package:

Dreadball Video

OK, I have been harping on about this a bit lately, but that's because its so cool!
Firstly, check out the awesome original sculpts of the figure range here

Then watch this video of the gameplay


Then check out these latest figures being sculpted - wicked!

Norse Season 2 Commences

Season 2 for Odinn's Champions commences this week, this time having been elevated to the Minor League.  The Minors have 16 teams split into 2 conferences, and Odinn's Champs have drawn the tough looking Group Bahamut. Some well developed teams in there will really give the Norsemen a run for their money, though will also ensure that inducements are always in their favour.  The Woodland Styders are Rookie division rivals from last season and the Norse will be looking forward to avenging their defeat at their hands this season, while the Hammer of Hashut are a well developed Chaos Dwarf team that will no doubt cause some consternation in due course.

Group Bahamut

	Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Woodland Stryders	Wood Elf Grimrod	1,320k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	River Stir Slayers	Human ModelWarrior	1,510k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Odinn's Champions	Norse Right Stuff & Paul O´G	1,240k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Brutle Orcs	Orc Phil W	1,640k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Crimson Breweries	Dwarf Lelruthus	1,740k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Didditon Oddrugs	Skaven Peter M	1,850k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Hammer of Hashut	Chaos Dwarf Big Pete	1,740k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Black Mountain Lochers	Ogre Carbrawn	1,800k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)

Group Tiamat

	Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Phullagore Ravens	Ogre Ben P	1,920k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Belconnen Bluetongues	Lizardmen Drakeular	1,310k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	FUBAR Fellows	Dwarf Simon M	2,100k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	The Savage Rose	Wood Elf Luke	1,980k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Chaos Madness	Chaos Andrew V	1,840k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	The Midnight Hour	Necromantic James H	1,400k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	Barak Varr Dreadnaughts	Dwarf Big Pete	1,510k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)
	All French Company	Human Michel	1,420k	0 0 0	0	0 - 0	0 - 0 (0-0)

Round 1 will see Odinn's Champs play the Dwarves of the Crimson Breweries (with half a million in inducements!), followed by the Brutle Orcs in Round 2.  You can watch the team standings progress at the ladder here

Go Champions!

Norse Coach Right Stuff at the CanCon 2012 National Championships

DreadBall Update

The DreadBall kickstarter is almost at $180k and going great guns with 21 days still to go! I think the rate of pledges will probably tail off now but I'm sure it will crack 200k.

The latest Mantic podcast (episode 4) also has a bit more detail about where the game came from but as it was recorded prior to the kickstarter going live some of it is a little dated.  You can find it on iTunes.

There have been a few updates about what that means for the future of the game, but at that level there will be another 2 MVP figs as well as the new female player figs added to the Striker! level.  Have a look here and here for more detail.  Also check out the designer's blog here.

Essentially it looks like the rate of support will be sufficient to build all the currently planned stuff.  After that, at 200k support, Mantic plan to develop...

Season 2 introduces the next wave of teams, MVPs and other exciting personalities to DreadBall pitches across the galaxy! With 4 new teams, many new MVPs, coaches, cheerleaders, and more, there's something for everyone. All of the above comes in a brand new expansion rulebook so you can take your leagues to a new level.

so it looks like DreadBall will go from strength to strength and be a supported game line - Awesome!

EDIT: The stretch goals for the Enforcer and Buzzcut MVPs have now been met and the total stands at $195k!!!