Desert Hazards

Continuing my slow buildup of goodies for North Afrika, I picked up the "Desert Hazards" Battlefield in a Box set this week, and very impressed I am too.  In it are four pre-painted wrecked vehicles - a PzIII, a Crusader, a M13/40 and a bogged truck - plus a couple of rocky ground markers and two desert bases.  Very nice indeed and great value for money I think!

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=143&art_id=2879

Dispatches Issue 2

Iron Fist Publishing has released edition 2 of Dispatches, the periodic e-magazine for its Battkegroup series of rules.
It includes rules for a Slovak Division in BG Blitzkrieg, lots of Q&A/FAQ, and an Ardennes 44 scenario.
Plus its free!  http://ironfistpublishing.com/?page_id=8

Mars Attacks!!!

Comade James reporting: I mentioned a few weeks ago that September was Mantic Month in my Garage Cave, and finally my kickstarter Mars Attacks arrived....

This is only the first part of the kickstarted goodies, I will get extra building pieces, another squad of US Marines, a saucer, giant ant, and lots of other goodies.....

The game is designed as a board game vice miniature game, so all the mini's are one piece, and are coloured to allow playing without painting.

The playmate is paper, although the neoprene deluxe version will be part of my kickstarter. The ruined brick walls clip together exactly like the Deadzone ones, allowing infinite combos of terrain. The nice thing about this game is the one piece scatter terrain, roadblocks, rubbish, broken rubble etc that all go to make up the look of the ruined town.

Like Deadzone, played on an 8 by square mat

The US Marines, including a missile launcher and LMG

The human Heroes, including a knight escaped from stasis from an earlier Martian mission....

The dreaded Martians, led by General Tor. Back rank has helmets, front rank without

The ruins pieces, including a wire fence, brick walls, picket fence and scatter terrain

The Martian figures have detachable clear plastic helmets that allow you to paint the figures before putting the iconic helmets on.

Gameplay uses the familiar Mantic system of short and long actions, that players of Dreadball and Deadzone would be familiar with. The abilities have been simplified however, and the cards are universal for either Martians or Humans. Like all Mantic skirmish games, Mars Attacks uses a D8 system, with exploding 8's, and a base 3 dice for each test, adding and subtracting dice according to modifiers, and then attempting to hit a target number.  The aliens tend to be better shots, whilst the Marines are better at close combat.

Once I manage to get a game in, I'll post a first thoughts .......

MOAB 2014

Comrade James Reporting: MOAB, the Mother of All Battles, is the annual gaming event held by Sydney gaming club Southern Battle Gamers. The convention has been growing in size over the years, and I myself have not been there for nearly 20 years, and was pleasantly surprised how big it has grown.

I managed to convince Significant Other at 430pm the day before to hop in the car with her kids and drive the 3 hours to Sydney so I could compete in the MOAB Bolt Action tournament. Significant brownie points spent believe me.......

I'll cover the tournament in a separate post, and will cover some of the action at MOAB here.....

Main hall, with traders along the walls and demo games and participation games in the middle.

Dropzone Commander...how good is that terrain ??

Cardboard never looked so good........

On the Seven Seas, by Osprey...

Jugula

Battletech, an oldie but a goodie....

Me old fave, Flames of War...

Obligatory Warhammer 40K tourney

One of the personalities in the Australian Bolt Action scene is David Bruggeman, or the Demo Gamer. Dave and his three teenage sons host massive demo/participation games of Bolt Action on amazing tables that they build specifically for cons. MOAB was no exception, and the following pics show their amazing multilevel table, built from 4Ground buildings and printed street textures glued to MDF panels.....

With the recent re-release of Space Hulk, I was pleased to see this amazing 3D version as a participation game....

Another fave of mine and Pauls, X-Wing, by FFG.....

Command and Colours:Napoleon board game converted into a miniatures version....

Overall the convention lasted three days, of which I saw the first two. As well as the main hall above there were several smaller rooms filled with gamers of all descriptions, including BloodBowl, 40K Apocalypse, Warmachine, Warhammer Fantasy and obscure historical games....
The traders seemed to be doing a ripping trade, and it was great to catch up with John of War and Peace games again (my opponent at Wintercon earlier this year)
Not sure if I'll get to MOAB next year, but I'm keen.....

Will be back shortly with the round up of my Bolt Action experience.....