VENGEANCE!

This is not a post about revenge. It’s a post about the largest Guild Ball event I’ve been to, and possibly the largest in the UK. As such, this is a long post about Guild Ball – you’re warned! This year marked the third anniversary of the event and I finally overcame my social anxiety and concerns for my ability at the game to go along for the weekend extravaganza of Guild Ball and gaming. jumping in a hire van with five other Surrey Spartans, we began our literal Road to Vengeance after weeks of “planning” and “preparation”.

Barry’s Birthday Bonanza Snake Draft

Fellow Surrey Spartan and good friend of mine Barry (of Roll Better Podcast fame) turn another year older – only his 27th, I’m assured by ‘sources’ from said podcast – and since he, like many of my gaming club, are keen Guildball players local pundit John Parish (also of Roll Better fame) kindly organised a snake draft as part of his celebration.

A Return to Space (Games)

Time for a lighter blog entry this week – as predicted, after my Drop Fleet Commander game on Wednesday evening my enjoyment and excitement for the game returned. The initial rekindling of my enthusiasm for the game came after flat-mate Matt took his UCM to table against PHR player Laurence from our group. The brief after-action report I got from Matt energised me for a game of my own, so I got in touch with Laurence and arranged one!

Space Battle! [Drops Fleet]

When I threw down the gauntlet to Steely Dan, our local Scourge player (alien parasites like a more invasive and domineering version of the Goa’uld from Star Gate) to the biggest game we could manage I was wholly surprised when he turned up and said, “Do you want to just have a big space battle?”. But I was up for it.

Surrey Spartans Big Bad Escalation League – Month 1 Lists

So the time has finally come! Pairings are as below, and the lists are also her. Use CTRL+F and search a players name to go through them, we’re not getting individual blog posts because I have to submit a novel to publishers today so don’t have time for it.

Felix Newman vs John Parish
Michael Measures vs Matthew Hobbit Doran
David Johnson vs Jon Thunder Chadrock
Michael Blackman vs Marcos Balsamico
Paul Ellison vs Steve Walters
James Abbott vs John Laffan

Go, go, power gamers!

Surrey Spartans Big Bad Escalation League – Month 1 List & Review.

I’ve chosen a heavy metal theme because when I eventually finish converting up my chariots and cavalry they’ll have a Mad Max theme going on, based of all the wonderful things from that full and thought provoking film series. And also it gives them a bad ass element that Undying Dynasties channel well. Metal and Undeath have that sort of timeless bond that is so rarely found in fiction. It makes both aesthetic and thematic sense while also appealing to my personal sense of awesome. Whether or not I can keep it up we’ll see, but I have plenty of source material.

Big Bad Chad’s Big Bad Spartan 9th Age Escalation League (2017)

This post is mainly for the Surrey Spartans playing in the 9th Age Escalation League I’ve organised. Below are the rules, which will be subject to change if and as necessary. We’ll be starting games in March 2017, at the deadline for starting lists is 25th Feb 2017. If there is a new rules drop during the League, I will work out an ad-hoc work around.

Surrey Spartans Smackdown 2016

And so the Spartans Smackdown has finally come around! It was a great two days of gaming with a large number of great people. My normal trepidation about the character of people who play Warhammer/9th Age and their unnecessary pedantic ism was swiftly banished and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire event.

Building Dread Elves, Not Dead Elves – Final Entry; I Dreamed a Dream…

I have abandoned the Dread fleet. The black flag flies no more, instead lying tattered and frayed upon sands stained with elven blood. The dark cloud of Ninth Age 1.2 has done what no player or foe has done before now. It has robbed my Dread Elves of their claws and has broken my will to lead them. The Dread Elf dream is dead. Why? A fair question.

Building Dread Elves, Not Dead Elves Part IV – The Scent of Cheese and a Ringing Bell

My fourth practice game in September was against Mike’s Vermin Swarm, as mentioned previously. Having already played Mike I was confident I could beat him. He had changed his list, adding in even more ranged firepower and somehow shuffling points about to get not one but two war platforms. He’d used this new list to beat John P, a regular tournament attendee and very good player, so perhaps I should have had slightly less bravado about going into this game. Mike was also the one who clarified how powerful the Magic Resist rules are to me, so again I should have gone in with a fairly sharp mind.