Firestorm Armada

Last week I took a 90-minute drive to a game store where I'm planning to run a DW tournament soon, mostly to see the store, make sure I could find it, etc.  I also met some of the local players and introduced myself to a guy running demo games of Firestorm Armada.  After asking him how it differed from the other Spartan Games, I decided, while driving home (and taking a route which went past my FLGS), that if the lone 1st edition FA rule book which had been sitting on the shelf for at least a year now was still in the store... (a likely possibility) then I would buy it and complete my Spartan Games collection.

I also picked up a deck of STAR cards!

I've been interested in the game and the fleets for some time now, and some of the newer models released have caught my attention, but I've been putting all of my attention into Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars.  Well, now I'm starting a Sorylian fleet, and I'm thinking about a second fleet so I can run demo games of this one; although this might be a Spartan Game I only play since there seems to be a good group already playing to the south of where I live.

Historicon Afterthoughts

I attended Historicon the other week and it was the first gaming convention I had ever attended.  In fact, it was the first convention of anything I had ever attended since I accompanied my father to the Cow Palace in San Francisco Bay Area a few decades ago for a gun show.

I can't really put the experience into words.  Except that I distinctly remember many hours spent in my grandfather's basement when I was a young boy and paging through model railroading magazines, picturing in my mind what it might look like with scale equivalent model soldiers marching across the train tracks featured in all those magazine photos.  And at Historicon I saw those faded childhood fantasies brought to life on several score of tables.

Next DWVA Event

Dystopian Legions

Big news today about a new scale of Dystopian Wars.  I didn't even know anything about it until I was paging through some photos taken at Gencon and posted on FB.  At one picture I stopped and looked more closely... those looked like DW tanks!

I checked out the Spartan website, and it looks like they have indeed announced a new line of models and a new system for 28mm scale models (including infantry).

Historicon 2012

I had never attended a gaming convention before this weekend's Historicon 2012.  I almost attended last year, but with the new venue only 30 miles from where I live this year I had no reason not to attend.  I decided to try to experience the full range of the event, from participating in games to hosting a demo event for Dystopian Wars.  With loaned models and help from local DW players we provided a basic run through of the game for 2 sets of 4 players, and plenty of others stopped by Saturday morning just to see what was going on and pick up some flyers.

Later that day I spotted some familiar models incorporated into a scratchbuilt model of an airship for a Victorian Martian scenario.  Great stuff all around.

Perfect Camouflage

I was impressed by the match between the paint scheme on my Uusual Opponent's CoA ships and the Dreadfleet play sheet we like to use as the table surface for our Dystopian Wars naval games.  This was not intentional, but the perfect camouflage was evident when my Opponent, during turn 2, actually lost track of where he had positioned his frigates.

Assault on Green Island Airfield

BATTLE REPORT
Assault on Green Island Airfield
Imperial vs. FSA vs. Covenant
1000 MFV each force, naval, air, and armored

The set-up for this scenario was a bit lopsided: I had 1000 points to set up on the island in the center of the board, including a bunker and airfield; my two opponents each had 1000 points on opposite sides of each other.  The objective was to assault and hold the airfield with AP.  Clearly my force was going to be the nut in the vise.

I put some land units on the island for defense, some medium flyers above the island, and some ships to either side, everything prepared to move in any direction.  My plan was to keep forces close to the island and respond to threats as they advanced, from either side.