On 2 December I played a game of Kings of War (KoW) and Deadzone (DZ) at Nerima against my perennial opponent and all-round good guy Takatori-San. I won the KoW game, but lost the DZ one, with the latter being one of the most closely fought and competitive games of DZ I've ever played. As is my custom at Nerima, I ended up chowing down on KFC. I'm afraid that I've been eating too much of the Colonel's secret recipe, having had it three times this week. I justified eating this greasy, cholesterol-ridden but oh so tasty junk food as a reward for participating in a boxing match two weeks earlier, my first bout after two years of training. Prior to the match I'd eaten cleanly, trained on a daily basis, and judiciously watched my weight for two months. After losing the bout on points and getting my face punched about twenty to thirty times I'm starting to rethink my hobby while indulging in all forms of crap food. I thought it important to step in the ring at least once though, even if I was scared shitless in the days leading up to the fight. I'm a big boxing and MMA fan, and I don't know, I thought it would be a good idea to experience fighting first hand. That idea is well and truly out of my system. Maybe. I'm more pissed at being so shit in my first fight than being intimidated about doing it again. I didn't do anything I normally do in training and sparring in the actual match. I learned that being scared of getting hit doesn't stop you getting hit, so it's better to just get on with the game plan rather than being a bloody punching bag.
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| My beloved greenskins. So green. |
That's for another post, however. The salient point here is that I'm getting back on the horse and returning to training and dieting today, and that means KFC will become a once a month treat every time I go to Nerima. I'm kinda embarrassed about going back to the gym and watching the footage of myself getting beaten up, but I guess I'll just have to suck it up. But for now my attention is back on my greenskins, and miniature gaming. For our KoW game we played the Bounty scenario, in which both armies were awarded Victory Points for destroying the enemy's two most expensive units, and controlling the center of the board. We played a small 1000 point game, and once we were underway I was reminded of how much I liked KoW's clean mechanics. We finished the game in less than two hours. Takatori-San had a Dwarf army composed of three regiments of Dwarves, one troop of Berserkers, a troop of handgunners and a pair of war machines supported by a Dwarven engineer. My Orc army had a Godspeaker, a battle standard bearer, a war drum for the +2 Nerve bonus and two Hordes of Orcs. They were supported by trolls, snotlings and two units of Orc archers. My plan for the game was to screen my Hordes with the expendable troops and get them into combat as soon as possible. The archers would not shoot, but advance as a mobile shield with the Hordes behind. The Hordes would be supported in turn by my command element, who would provide Nerve re-rolls and bonuses along with Heal spells cast by the Godspeaker.
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| Takatori-San's Dwarves. |
The plan worked a treat. My archers got pounded into oblivion by Dwarven firepower, but their sacrifice allowed my Hordes to close the distance without being badly compromised by shooting. Once they got stuck in they smashed regiment after regiment of Dwarves, who thanks to the annoying snotlings could not conduct a combined charge which may have threatened the unit. On the right my Trolls broke a unit of Dwarves by their lonesome, and on the left one of my Hordes marched into the path of some Berserkers who gamely tried to break the multitudes in front of them. The Orcs steamrolled them eventually, and by turn four all the Dwarven melee units were destroyed. Takatori-San conceded after a final shooting phase, and my greenskins closed out 2018 with a win. Not bad for an army that was all mostly grey plastic one year ago.
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| The archers act as screen against the artillery as the Horde advances. |
Takatori-San got his revenge in our next game of DZ, however, when his 150 point Enforcer strike force took down my all-girl Rebels. We played the Scour scenario, in which both teams had to acquire items and carry them off the board. It was a grim battle of attrition, with both teams being left down to two models apiece by the end of the game. When the smoke cleared, however, it was Takatori-San who got the victory. I was impressed by the Peacekeeper, whose durability made him almost immune to Rebel shooting. I was less impressed by my Walker, who couldn't seem to do anything of note against the armored Enforcers. She tried shooting, then jumping into melee, then shooting again, and failed to inflict a single casualty. The Enforcers ended up ignoring her and just walking out of melee every time she initiated it, relying on their armor and high Survive value to tank her non-AP melee hits. It might have been poor dice, but I might rejig her load out to specialize in melee for the next game. I might also try the flame thrower just for laughs.
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| The Hordes get into combat and steamroll Takatori-San's regiments. |
Most of the damage inflicted by the Rebels were courtesy of their snipers, whose Sniper Scope +2 dice bonus made them deadly threats. Rebel sniper rifles aren't Heavy or Armor Piercing, but the fact that they're mobile means they can pop out of hiding and fire rather than having to spend a turn setting up or use Command dice to shoot. Everything in the Rebel army is horribly vulnerable though, and in the first turn of the game I lost four models from shooting despite keeping them in cover. 6+ Survive is not good.
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| Deadzone! |
All in all, it was another good day of gaming. It might be the last one for 2018, but we'll see. I have both Doom and Star Saga still sitting unplayed and unpainted in my cupboard, so I might bring one of those to a JIGG meet rather than playing miniatures. I don't know what my painting project for 2019 is, but at the close of 2018 I can say that I transformed a mass of unpainted miniatures into something that kind of looks like an army, and played a total of five games - three games of KoW and two of The Ninth Age (T9A) - with them. As goals go I don't know what that means in the grand scheme of things, but it was a goal set, and mostly achieved. Kind of like boxing, but less painful.
It's time for new goals!
Next: TBC
Next: TBC
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