An Innsmouth Halloween

The Campaigner and 'Gamer Dad'

'The Campaigner' is a new free e-zine produced here in Oz, with the inspiring motto 'Its not just a Hobby, Its a Way of Life'

The Campaigner hopes to offer hobbyists content that both interests and educates them. To provide them with the right tools to sensibly and realistically approach any challenges that come their way. Content that covers the considerations of everyday enthusiasts and allows them to better engage in their hobby. Quite importantly, The Campaigner will present a considered and professional approach that will provide the community with a unified front. A voice that will speak not for the products, but for the people.

On the back of my article 'Training Your Opponent' in WI291 in Jan this year, I was delighted to be invited to write a regular column style article for the Campaigner, as a 'Gamer Dad'.  Finding the time to do that justice has been challenging, but I am hoping to have my first piece in Issue 2 in late November.  So I'm brain storming some ideas for articles and would be delighted to hear any suggestions.

http://thecampaignermagazine.com/

Chainsaw Mayhem

Presenting our latest Star Players - Chainsaw specialists!

Urgroth Bolgrot - Willy Miniatures Figure

As mad as a Scotsman!

Helmut Wolf - Willy Miniatures figure

Beers with a new Buddy

This week the stars finally aligned and I got to meet up with Alan of Dux Homunculorum fame (infamy?). And where do gamers go to meet up and have at good chat? Somewhere with beer of course!  Beverages, burgers and discussions on everything from travel to favourite gaming periods and blogs all naturally ensued.   Sadly, no Brian Blesseds were in attendance on this occasion.

Image courtesy of Dux-Cam

The hours flew past pretty quickly but we have some definite plans in place to trade gaming tutorials - he to learn Incursion and me to learn SAGA.  From what he tells me it would be right up my alley - I already have the figs and no doubt the Lad will be beating me at that soon too!  He also got me thinking (again) about Arthurian gaming with his tales of being a clever chap studying Late Roman History in Britannia.  Great to meet you Alan - looking forward to the next session!

Oak Lord released

The other day I put up a post (here) with some very cool looking tree miniatures.  One of these was the wonderful and very spooky 'Oak Lord' figure by Wargamma.

I just got an email from James there letting me know that the fig has now been released in resin - and at 21 cms tall (8.5 inches for you non metric wierdos!) its quite a beast!

Go on...you know you NEED one...

http://wargamma.com/products/oak-lord

Forbidden Thirsts

Saw this pop up at RPGNow and thought I would share it!

It's tiki! It's eldritch! It's THE TIKINOMICON: 

13 COCKTAIL RECIPES TO DRIVE YOU MAD!

At the end of a long day of struggling to save the sane and orderly universe from gibbering cosmic evil, you could probably use a good drink. Well, we don't have recipes for those, but if an evil drink will do, then this is the book for you.

Lavishly illustrated and filled with nightmarish fun, THE TIKINOMICON is a swanky tiki cocktail recipe book that will make you scream for more. Mix up a few Daemon Sultans for the investigators, or share a fiery Curwen Street Special in a scorpion bowl. You'll see the fourth dimension in no time! 

"Ph'n glui mglwnafh Tikinomicon R'lyeh waghnagl ftaghn." -- The Key and Guardian of the Gate 

"I don't drink." -- H.P. Lovecraft

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/0/Name-Not-Found?products_id=105326&src=sub&

And it that doesn't tickle your fancy, how about a tall, foaming glass of Mythos Lager?

Evil Trees

Just found this very cool looking Tree model, about to be released.  Awesome for Pulp/Horror gaming, but wouldn't he make an epic Treeman (Star Player Deeproot Strongbranch?) on a Blood Bowl pitch!  Looks like he would take up 9 squares though :-)

http://www.mrdandy.com/wargamma/
(EDIT: See update here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/oak-lord-released.html)

After something a bit smaller?  This guy looks pretty cool too!

http://www.thecombatcompany.com.au/tp01-ultraforge-miniatures-treelord.asp

Judge Dredd

Went to see the movie on the weekend - very cool.  Sure it had bits that might have been better, but was it a rollicking yard of our fav Judge in Mega City One filled with action and mayhem?  You bet!  And no taking his helmet off in this version, thank you very much!

So I got home, unsuccessfully searched for my old game "Block War" and pledged $5 for a Judge Dredd figure in the current Kickstarter game.  I wont be playing JD skirmish games, but he'll make an awesome Human Player for Blood Bowl!  Or a Referee for a variant of DreadBall...DreddBall: "You made a foul Creep!" - BLAM! (and yes, I'm proud of my self restraint in not getting a big package deal!)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1990654819/judge-dredd-miniatures-game-block-war

Gunship is Coming!

After shedding a bunch of cash of Kickstarter over the last few months, its great to see some production pics of one of my first pledges, Gunship: First Strike.  There have been a few production delays - mainly quality control stuff but all good now, and the first production pics have come through.  Definitely looks worth the wait!

Building an Elder God

Picked up this fun game the other day, which turns out to have been a kickstarter project by Signal Fire Studios.  A Fun card building style game in which you attempt to build your own Eldritch Horror before the others, and you get a shotgun to make sure too!

The family of 4 played together first up (the Lad won) but the girls bailed on us after that and we male cultists lined up to do battle once more...accompanied by chants of R'lyeh Cthulu fhtagn...and exclamations of "I will swallow your soul!!!!"  Good times indeed :-)

Have you ever wanted access forbidden knowledge to tap into the hidden secrets of the universe and the dark mysteries of the Great Old Ones? Of course you have! These secrets will allow you to grow you very own incarnation of a tentacled horror from beyond the veils of space and time. Oh, sure, some would call you “insane,” but who will be laughing when your new pet devours their home town?

Problem is, some of your research buddies have acquired the same dark knowledge as you and are working on growing their own monstrosities. No way do they get to steal your glory! You must ensure your beast is complete first—which is why you brought your trusty shotgun. And if your precious, slimy baby is injured you brought your travel copy of the Necronomicon as a little healing insurance. Do whatever it takes … for whoever’s first grows to completion wins … everything!

400 Followers!

Woah!  Guess we must be doing something right in the Man Cave then!

Thanks so much for the awesome support as we switched from Blood Bowl to Vikings to Cthulhu to Weird WW2 and whatever we fancy in between - thanks everybody!  And thanks especially to Billo - our 400th Follower!

New Season starts for Odinn's Champions!

The new Blood Bowl Season started with a Krrrrunch! this weekend: Odinn's Champions' match 1 being vs Leigh's seasoned dwarf team "Crimson Breweries".  Dwarves are a tough matchup for Norse and these guys bristled with guard, stand firm and mighty blow! Reilly had $550k in inducements, and after considerable thought wisely maximised for survival - taking 2 blood wiser babes, a spare apothecary and star Yeti player Icepelt Hammerblow. Weather was fine, Lee won the toss and chose to receive, and also won FAME with his 7 Fan Factor.

The teams line up to start the match

The Norse kicked deep to cheering fans (both teams got a reroll) and the very first dwarf block KOed a Norse Lineman. The second block injured the Norse Lineman next to him - miss next game. Hmmm... A dwarf runner scooped up the ball and mad a short pass to the other runner (ST4), who was protected behind the strong dwarf line.

The Norse started moving up to meet them but the dwarves were strong with all that guard. The Dwarves shifted to play to the right hand of the field and a nasty looking troll slayer ran in to badly hurt a Norse blitz - 3 players down in only turn 2! Plus another couple stunned. Shaping up to be a tough game. Luckily the dwarves started to really focus on Icepelt, isolating him and ganging up for blocks to get him and his claws off the pitch. A least that kept them off the Av7 Norsemen, whose blocks went doing much at this stage, but then Icepelt got smashed up by a troll slayer and badly hurt. Reilly wisely saved the apoth for his own players but the team was evaporating fast with just 6 men left on the pitch for Reilly's turn 4. (Note: turns out you cant use an Apoth on a Star Player - thanks Leigh, we didn't know that!)

The Dwarves push forward against a much thinned Norse defence

Undaunted, the Norse crowded in on the ball carrier to get some pressure on but the Yeti remained ineffective. Another Berzerker was stretchered off KOed, and with a corridor free the Dwarves went for a hand-off but  fumbled it. A Norse thrower dodged through 3 Dwarf TZs but couldn't pick it up and it scattered away. Another lineman went to the casual box (another Miss Next Game) and still Right Stuff held on to his apoth in case the remaining valuable players get killed. Wise play. The Norse thrower followed him off the pitch to the KO box on the next block. The Yeti also followed, KOed on the next block. Down to only 2 Norse players, the dwarves scooped up the ball, completed a quick pass and scored. All the Norse returned from the KO box and it looked a lot healthier now with 8 facing the Dwarves with 3 turns to half time.

The Norse sprinted a runner and a blitzer downfield, scoped up the ball and did a quick pass to grab the completion SPP. The Dwarves intercepted the Norse scoring threat, KOing the Norse runner and dropping the Berzerker to the ground. The Yeti lept up, actually dodged away from the Dwarves around him and ran down field to assist, only to trip over his own shoelaces and stun himself! The Dwarves swarmed down onto the ball carrier - a  last Norse minute glory play failed and the half time siren sounded.

The 2nd Half commences!

The second half began with the 8 Norse receiving -  runners ran deep on the left side and there was much excitement as the first dwarf armour broke for the game...but it was only a stun. A Norseman tried to scoop up the ball but wasn't able to control it. The Dwarves surged to the right and Reilly tried the old switcheroo to the other side with the Yeti and the other runner. Nuffle didn't favour the play though and the runner failed to go for it... Meanwhile the Norse were outnumbered and getting crammed into the far sidelines, where one got surfed into the crowd. Meanwhile the Norse retrieved the ball and got it to their thrower, poised mid way in the Norse half. A Dwarf blitzer with jump up appeared from nowhere to sack the ball carrier and ran it up, until the yeti decided to tear chunks off him and sent him to the casualty box badly hurt - finally a Dwarf leaves the pitch! A Norse lineman scooped it up, sprinted and spiralled an accurate short pass downfield to a runner who caught it nicely but got blitzed to the ground. Meanwhile the crowding continued and two Norse couldn't stand up to 8 stunties and went into the crowd KOed. The Dwarves scooped it up and fired a pass to a do a downfield troll slayer - Norse interception!!! Now what could they do with it with just 4 players remaining...

Running downfield the Norseman with the ball swung right but was all alone in enemy territory and got sacked by a troll slayer. The Dwarf str4 runner grabbed it up and started the long road downfield to glory. He passed to a troll slayer who was in position to score next turn. The Norse thrower based him while another lineman was badly hurt, but was apothecaried to the reserves box...followed rapidly by the Yeti who was badly hurt as the troll slayer dodged around but then tripped over the line trying to score! The ball went out and was thrown in - a chance existed for the Norse to tie it up with just 2 players left on the pitch!

On the last turn, the Norse thrower dodged away, picked up the ball and fired a pass to the Norse runner in scoring position...interception by a troll slayer!!! He then ran down to try his own passing play to a waiting runner in scoring position - makes he throw, inaccurate, reroll- accurate! But its not caught and bounces away.... Dwarves win 1 nil, inflicting 6 casualties on the Norse and taking just one.

The Norse got 50k in winnings, just 10 short of the much desired Ulfwerner, so next game should see the purse big enough to attract one to the team.  MVP went to one of the runners, and one Lineman skilled up with the Tackle skill.  Overall a good result against a tough team - 2 Miss Next games, no niggles, no stat breaks and no deaths.  Cant complain about that!  Next game is against the 'Brutle Orcs'.

Thanks for a great game Leigh and I hope Crimson Breweries do well.  
And good luck developing that 3Ag Leaping Deathroller you want to build!!!

A Lucky Bugger!

You may have noticed that blog competitions are getting very popular these days.  Kudos to all of those who have generously helped to build a real online community.  I was chuffed recently to win the competition James was running at his blog 'Lost in the Warp'

http://www.lostinthewarp.com/2012/09/contest-winner-and-rocinante-warjack.html

James has some awesome stuff at his blog, from W40k to Blood Bowl, from Warmachine to Dust - if you haven't been there before - go check it out!

So what did I win? Well he gave me a choice actually, and sent me a list of limited edition Games Day figs and asked to me choose - it was a tough choice to be honest, so I enlisted Right Stuff's help and between us we decided to go with the 2006 games Day Demon Slayer fig - which we intend use as a coach/turn marker for our Dwarf Blood Bowl team!

The 2006 Game Day fig as posted at Cool Mini 

Thanks indeed James - he will be put to very good use indeed and I promise to post pics once he is painted up.

So as my way of saying thanks to James and giving back, I have decided to jump on the bandwagon and will also run a competition to celebrate when the Man Cave reaches a Quarter of a Million hits.  I'll have a look around the cave and see what goodies I have available!  In the meantime I'll enjoy my special figure and count myself as being a 'lucky lucky b@stard!"

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.