Feast of Blades 2013 A quick look

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! I had the chance to go down to Denver with my good friend Mordian 7th to attend the annual 40k Grand Tournament called Feast of Blades. While Feast of Blades has a highly competitive side to it (with Invitational and Open Tournaments) both Mordian 7th and I went down to participate in the narrative Apocalypse game. I went along to help Mordian 7th move all of his guardsmen and more importantly help him remove the casualties that were inevitable when playing Imperial Guard in Apocalypse.

Before the game got going I had a chance to wander around a bit and snap some pictures. Here is the main hall of Feast of Blades:

A sample of the terrain used for the gaming tables:

A World Eaters Banner was placed near our Apocalypse gaming tables:

Mordian 7th begins the Imperial Guard deployment:

Mordian 7th and I were the only Loyalist players (there was a Blood Angel force but they were recalled back to Baal to deal with a family emergency) facing off against Tyranids, Chaos, and Angron and his Heresy World Eaters. We were massively outgunned and out pointed so the guy running the game let us use a scratch built Warlord Titan!

The Titan didn't really help at all. We were still massively outgunned with 'D' Weapons; still we both had fun! Let the game commence:
World Eater Drop Pod Assault turn 1:

 They are inside the Void Shields!

 Chaos was all over us in Turn 1 before we could do a thing, it was not looking good for the Guard:

 Tyranids burrowing up in front of the far Guard flank:

 While the Imperial Guard was trying to hold the line long enough for the Space Marines to show up there was a large surge of Green on the far flank. An awesome Ork Bastion drops in while the rest of the Ork army arrives:

 The Ork Bastion was stunning:

 The army was full of custom models that were very well done:

 One of my all time favorites! A stunning Ork Lifta-Droppa:

 Here is the Ork view of the battle unfolding:

 From the Chaos backfield looking at the desolation that was the Imperial Guard gun-line:

After several hours and the loss of just about every Imperial Guard model (some twice) Mordian 7th and I decided to call it and let some of the later arriving folks a chance to get stuck into the game. The Guard held (sort of) long enough for 20,000 points of Space Marines to show up and try and hold back the forces of Evil. All in all it was a lot of fun but I really prefer the more narrative non-Apocalypse games myself. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

GenCon 2013: Roleplaying Games Galore

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! It has been a flurry of blogging lately covering my GenCon 2013 experiences and tonight we will look at some of the Roleplaying games that caught my attention enough for me to stop and play for a while. I have found a new passion for the Shadowrun 5th Edition Roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs and that is where I would like to start.

First off, I managed to get into the special GenCon-only 'Dante's Inferno' game of Shadowrun. This event was held in a custom round room with Shadowrun art on the inside and outside. The two GMs for the event were both in costume which really added to the atmosphere of the event!

Here I am standing on the outside of the 'Dante's Inferno' area with the outside artwork of downtown Seattle circa 2075:

A look at one of the GMs who happened to be the target that needed to be protected inside of Dante's Inferno:

I failed to grab any pictures of the inside of the area, I was too busy trying to keep the target alive! However the inside area was all done up to look like the inside of a swank/posh nightclub complete with Shadowrunners lurking in the shadows! It was something I will remember for sure! 

To continue the Shadowrun coverage, I snapped a shot of Jason Hardy (line developer for Shadowrun) being interviewed:

A look at the Shadowrun 'play-area' where there must have been 10-15 tables of Shadowrun being played (all part of Catalyst's Living Shadowrun Campaign):

I was hooked on Shadowrun at Origins 2013 and all it took was one game of Shadowrun for my friends to be hooked as well. My group of friends actually played more Shadowrun at GenCon than I did! Of course I spent my time elsewhere after ensuring they all got into games:

I am glad they found the game enjoyable, so much so they all went out and bought Shadowrun Rulebooks. Here is a look at a very expensive display case I found lurking in the convention halls (Some of those books are $200+ U.S.D.:

Taking a break from Shadowrun for a little bit let all of us (5 total) get in a game of Deathwatch in before we all went out for drinks! It had been a long day (the game was Friday night) already for me at this point and I was running late to get to the game but I made it only to find out that the GM for the game was THE WRITER of the entire Deathwatch line! What better GM could you ask for? Here we are all gathered to bring the Emperor's Wrath to the Xenos:

The last event that I will cover here is really a miniature event but we have so much fun roleplaying during it that I really think of it as a Roleplaying event. It is time for FORMULA WAAAAGH!!!!!!! Last year's event was our first but certainly not our last:

 It was a grand time with much Orkiness!!!! I don't believe that anyone actually made it around the track! The addition of the stream that ran through the course played havoc on the racers:

The Mad-Doctor van Oosten plotting our doom with his mighty gretchen wagon:

Doctor Peel trying to figure out how he can kill the Warboss 'on accident' while the GM looks over the rules:

Speaking of rules...they were the same as last year:

On Friday morning I managed to get into an event that most call a 'must see' at GenCon...........

The 'breakfast' was side-splitting funny with contestants being called up on stage to run through Tracy's Improv Style Adventure that played on their responses. Not the best description but it was very funny to watch! Here is a look at the action:

Well, that is all for tonight. Take care and stay tuned for tomorrow's coverage of the GenCon 2013 Cosplay experience! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Formula Waaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings once again! The GenCon recap continues, this time covering one of my favorite times out at GenCon. A group of friends (4 of them from around the world) and I stepped up to the challenge of Ork Buggy Racing on a Saturday morning.......

The table was laid out in an oval with Ork Fans along the infield and outfield areas, this would become very important later on. Yes, there was an Ork Leman Russ tank which also would come into play at a later time.....

The collection of racing vehicles was fun and each one had something special about them. Several of the buggies/trikes had passenger Boyz and one even had a Nob. Much to our amusement there was a Grot wagon which was snapped up by my friend MvO.

Here is the wagon (and its reference sheet) I ended up with. This guy was the shortest wagon which I thought might help when it came to weaving around the wrecks on the course. I named it the Mini Ork'Opper.

The setup at the line just before the Warlord signals the start of the race. I ended up setting up last and instead of trying to squeeze into place along the start/finish line I ended up setting up towards the back (we were NOT late arriving!). My clever plan was to shoot my way forward weaving through the flaming wreckage. We waz the smartz ones!

The Warlord signals the start of the race while the tank looks on....

Here they come around the first corner while some are just getting started. The race sequence was handled by a random draw from a deck of cards.

Mordian7th (standing with his buggy sheet in hand) and MvO looking on a the chaos unfolds in front of the first jump.

The infamous Dr. Peel waiting for his turn to start shooting at his fellow racers or the crowd!

One of the other racers somehow called in a favor with some copter boyz and they launched a sneak attack! Blue on Blue...or would that be Green on Green! The crowd interference/enthusiasm was just starting, it seems that everyone wanted to get in on the fun!

Rocket Boyz leap out and hope to have some fun.....

As the mass of racers fight their way (literally in several cases as we were all shooting at each other) around the first corner the crowd goes wild and several jump on the track to join in the fun! There were dirty trick cards we were dealt at the start which were very funny and where the crowd interference came from. The Orks that jumped on the track were under the control of the player which played the card which of course led to several boarding actions as the buggies roared by. Several fights broke out as the racers had to fight off boarders while still trying to control their somewhat out of control buggy.

The first jump and the mass pile-up as everyone jockeys for space and speed to clear the jump.

Almost everyone did not clear the jump (most nose planting or spinning wildly out of control) while my short little buggy managed to clear the jump and the water obstacle AND maintain control. This put me in second place with only Mordian7th in front of me (the others in the picture here are spinning out of control and having serious mechanical difficulties).

Mordian7th wonders if his driver can somehow pull out of crash into the wall. One buggy is going the wrong way while trying to fight off some over eager fans.

There is mass chaos around the second jump with most everyone (except my little buggy) having serious mechanical problems (from all the shooting everyone was doing at each other) and the attempt to maintain the suicidal speeds everyone was traveling at. There were several buggies that spun completely out of control and went into the crowd.

Coming around the far corner now in the lead!

Crossing the start/finish line completing 1 lap! Oh what a lap it was! I am not sure I could have survived another lap. At this point the Leman Russ opened up on the last place teams to encourage them to go faster! The Warlord wanted speed!

Here is an overview shot of the end of the race.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers and maybe the only to finish a lap.

The devious Dr. Peel had a horrible driving accident and spun wildly out of control; through sheer will he managed to fling his out of control buggy at the Warboss. This knocked the Warboss off his podium but unfortunately for the Dr. the Warboss did not die......

All in all that was a great 4 hour game. Yes, 4 hours and we got 1 and 1/4 laps in, but what a grand Orky time was had by all. Thanks for looking!