Posted By RockoRobotics

Up to this point, everything I have played from Privateer Press has been awesome, but I suppose that streak had to end at some point. The end is their new game called Grind. This full metal “battle” sport takes the “Play Like You Got a Pair” motto of Privateer Press to an all new extreme and drains the game of fun. If you want to play a sports board, go check out Game Workshop's Blood Bowl.

Review of Grind by Privateer Press

Other Photos

Posted By RockoRobotics

Considering the history of Wizkids, when I first learned of Wells Expeditions and Arcane Legions, I was a bit skeptical. Fortunately, I was in for a pleasant surprise when I actually got to play the game. Arcane Legions has its rough patches, but the game play is generally smooth and a lot of fun. There is one obvious and ugly downside. Arcane Legion's miniatures not only don't look very good, but the overall construction quality is poor at best. If this one problem can be overlooked, Arcane Legions is a definite must play because this game really does change the world of mass action miniatures combat.

Arcane Legions Website

Wells Expeditions

Tabletop Battlefield's Review of Arcane Legions

Roman Empire Army


Egyptian Imperium Army

The Killing Fields Scenario

Review of Arcane Legions by Wells Expeditions

Other Links

Photo Gallery

Posted By RockoRobotics

Related Links:

The Tau Forest Tigers

Adeptus Fanaticus

Pictures from the Battle

Live streams of the Campaign Battles

Tau Forest Tigers - Warhammer 40K Campign

Posted By testuser

My Army Showcase

Posted By RockoRobotics

First Look at Grind by Privateer Press

Posted By RockoRobotics

The World of Miniature War Gaming - 2009 in Review

Posted By RockoRobotics

Here are the Tactics of this Army:

This army has some symmetry to it. There are two Archer divisions and two Testudo divisions. Each set of these will make a run for an objective point.

The mixed cavalry unit will charge towards an objective point early on as cavalry usually do. I used the mixed cavalry because it provides the power of most cavalry units with extra damage absorption.

This leaves the Regulars and Minotaurs. These two formations are free lancers. Move them where you need them. While the regulars can protect themselves from archers, the Minotaurs have a little bit more difficulty as this. This is why I bring the Minotaurs up behind other units.

The Roman Commander should never try to engage enemies by himself. He supports other units by using his Armored Rush Special Order prior to having another unit attack.

Roman Empire - 7000 Points

Posted By RockoRobotics

Here is a run down of the quick tactics:

The cavalry will charge forward early to contest the objectives. Chances are they will end up dying, but it is worth to get those early objective points.

To support the Cavalry, I bring up the archers and either 13th Legion Atroci or the Cursed Legion. Hoplites are quick, but don't expect them to last too long....This is especially true if you forget to regroup it into a defensive position.

The problem with the Cursed legion is that it is slow. Regroup it to give it 3 movement in a hurry. Also, always keep it together with the Lord of the Dead to allow for massive respawning.

Egyptian Imperium 7000 Point Army

Posted By RockoRobotics

I built this Warband for the Episode of The Tabletop Battlefield in which we faced off Monsterpocalypse with WOW Minis. The strategy is to use Ona Skyshot and Varimathras to deal out and take damage while Lotherin and Varimathras' Vampiric Aura heals them from the back.

In my first game, this worked well and while Kyle got out to an early lead, I eventually racked up more kills at key times and won the game.

The second game things went south early. There were two VP's and I sent Lotherin by himself to one and that got him killed in a hurry. Without him, my other warriors took lots of damage and eventually died. Another mistake was not properly finishing off Ruby Gemsparkle. She ended up doing a lot of damage.

World of Warcraft Minis - Horde Warband

Posted By RockoRobotics

Shas'ui Christopher Lasser of the Tau Empire

Posted By RockoRobotics

Set just prior to the beginning of the Heresy, Legion follows the story of the manipulative Alpha Legion and their motivations for the role they will take in the coming civil war. After the diversion of Descent of Angels, Legion brings back an enjoyable story with solid action, entertaining characters, a few quirky moments, mystery, and all the elements of the 40K universe.

Review of Book 7 of the Horus Heresy Series - Legion

Posted By RockoRobotics

Board Size: 6' x 4'
Deployment: Except for deploying along the long edges of the board, normal rules are followed.
Control Regions: Two control regions are placed according to normal rules.
Scoring: Normal scoring rules are followed. The first player to 21 points will win.
Army Size: 7000 points
Command Points: 10

Arcane Legions - The Killing Field

Posted By Fiore

hguy

Posted By RockoRobotics

The Dark Angels descend from a group of knights called the Order. After his discovery on Caliban by Luther, Lion El'Johnson quickly became the leader of the Order. The story follows the training of a recruit named Zahariel. Zahariel eventually becomes a full Knight by killing the Beast of Endriago with the help of psychic powers. While on the quest, Zahariel encounters mysterious hooded humanoids who tell him that he is tainted and he needs to leave the area. These hooded characters never appear in the story again. After a war with another group of knights, the Imperium and arrives and the Emperor himself makes a visit to Caliban. Zarhariel stops the assassination of the Emperor and is thanked personally by the Emperor. However, he will never remember it because a librarian erases his memory. After the Dark Angels chapter is reunited with their Primarch, they leave to bring some planet of humans who wear masks into compliance. These humans wear mask to hide some disturbing secret, but the secret seems to be irrelevant to the story because it is never revealed. These people delay the compliance process because the Chaos demon they worship tells them that the Space Marines are evil. Luther almost betrays the Lion and then the Space Marines fight and destroy the demon. The story ends with many of the Dark Angels being sent home in disgrace. No explanation for the disgrace is given, leaving readers confused.

Descent of Angels is the sixth book in the Warhammer 40K Horus Heresy Series. The problem is it leaves out much of the 40K part and doesn't even mention the Horus Heresy. If it wasn't for the fact that this book is the first part of a Mini Dark Angels series, I would skip it and move onto Legion.

Review of Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon

Posted By RockoRobotics

Painting Cygnar Sword Knights for WARMACHINE.

Posted By RockoRobotics

Other Links:

Games Workshop
Recon Report Review of Space Hulk
The Tabletop Battlefield Review of Space Hulk
UnBoxing of Space Hulk

The Army Showcase's Official Review of Space Hulk

Photos

Posted By RockoRobotics

My Painted Brood Lord from Space Hulk 3rd Edition

Posted By RockoRobotics

Do you need help fighting for the Greater Good? Check out these short tutorials on how I use the various units for the Tau Empire.

For more Tactics, check out My Tactics Book and Tau Forest Tigers

Tau Empire Video Tactics

Posted By RockoRobotics

First Look at Space Hulk by Games Workshop

Posted By RockoRobotics

I'm writing this article on September 1st 2009. That means here in the United States, football season is just around the corner. The problem is, watching football is really boring. So someone, a long time ago, came up with this concept where people can build a fictional team of real players. The team scores points based on how the various players perform each week. They call this game Fantasy Football. Unfortunately, it doesn't make football any more exciting to watch. Fortunately, some one has got �Fantasy Football� right and wrapped it up in one awesome tabletop game. Of course I am talking about Blood Bowl by Games Workshop.


Blood Bowl is a stand alone game set in a spin off of the Warhammer Fantasy Universe. While each of the fantasy races has a team in Blood Bowl, the game itself is not set in the universe of Warhammer Fantasy. Many of the races(especially the Lizardmen and Skaven) would prefer to never see each other, let alone play a sports game together. The play style of the game is a mix of American Football and Rugby. Each team has 11 players or less(depending on the causality count) on the field and the object is carry a pig liver across the opponents goal line.


The gameplay certainly feels like a sports game. Movement tactics play a prominent role in the strategy of the game. It also has an area of control aspect to gameplay as the objective of a team is setup itself up to best protect the ball carrier. The usual aspects of football such as passing, catching, hand offs, and blocking are all present here and add extra options for players to use. I find that some actions, especially passing, take a few too many dice rolls and therefore limit their usefulness.


Not only does each team look different, but each team plays different and employs different tactics. My team, the Lizardmen, primarily run the ball with the fast little Skinks while the large Saurus Warriors keep them protected. On the other head, the Orcs and slower and are all about smashing their opponents to the ground. Each team is composed of three to seven different positions. In most cases, any position can fill any role, but each position has bonuses that encourages it to stick a specific role.


Stand alone games of Blood Bowl are fun, but the lack of diversity between matches can limit the games re-playability. Games Workshop addresses this issue with a fantastic league system. Players create a team and then work to turn the team into a Blood Bowl Dynasty. A mini-RPG system allows team members to gain new abilities and improve stats. Also, the real possibility that my favorite character can get killed affected my tactics in an individual game.


The starter set contains 24 plastic figures, a game board, the complete rule book, tokens, dice, templates, and quick reference sheets. With a retail price of $70, the starter set simply can't complete value-wise with other games. Both the 40K and Fantasy starter sets have a much better value. Except for starter set, the entire miniature line is metal. The models look good, but they are older sculpts and don't have the same quality as GW's newer lines. It is possible to assemble a full 16 player team for under $100, but even then, other games certainly score higher in the value department.


Randomness plays a huge role in this game. In addition to what I mentioned above, a number of crazy events can occur. Fans can rush the field, rioters can throw rocks, players can cheat, and the weather can change throughout the game. While fun, some of these events can really mess with a player and destroy their strategy. I tend to look at these situations as a reason for why a player must act aggressively because there is no guarantee another turn is around the corner.


While Blood Bowl has a few annoying and frustrating faults, I still had a blast playing this game. Good luck trying to find another game which contains such a detailed and awesome campaign in the starter box. From the disappointing moments of defeat to the adrenaline pumping �Final Countdown� moments, Blood Bowl brings all the excitement of a sports game to the tabletop....Just with a lot more violence....And that can never be a bad thing in the tabletop gaming world.

I'm writing this article on September 1st 2009. That means here in the United States, football season is just around the corner. The problem is, watching football is really boring. So someone, a long time ago, came up with this concept where people can build a fictional team of real players. The team scores points based on how the various players perform each week. They call this game Fantasy Football. Unfortunately, it doesn't make football any more exciting to watch. Fortunately, some one has got �Fantasy Football� right and wrapped it up in one awesome tabletop game. Of course I am talking about Blood Bowl by Games Workshop.

Blood Bowl is a stand alone game set in a spin off of the Warhammer Fantasy Universe. While each of the fantasy races has a team in Blood Bowl, the game itself is not set in the universe of Warhammer Fantasy. Many of the races(especially the Lizardmen and Skaven) would prefer to never see each other, let alone play a sports game together. The play style of the game is a mix of American Football and Rugby. Each team has 11 players or less(depending on the causality count) on the field and the object is carry a pig liver across the opponents goal line.


The gameplay certainly feels like a sports game. Movement tactics play a prominent role in the strategy of the game. It also has an area of control aspect to gameplay as the objective of a team is setup itself up to best protect the ball carrier. The usual aspects of football such as passing, catching, hand offs, and blocking are all present here and add extra options for players to use. I find that some actions, especially passing, take a few too many dice rolls and therefore limit their usefulness.

Not only does each team look different, but each team plays different and employs different tactics. My team, the Lizardmen, primarily run the ball with the fast little Skinks while the large Saurus Warriors keep them protected. On the other head, the Orcs and slower and are all about smashing their opponents to the ground. Each team is composed of three to seven different positions. In most cases, any position can fill any role, but each position has bonuses that encourages it to stick a specific role.

Stand alone games of Blood Bowl are fun, but the lack of diversity between matches can limit the games re-playability. Games Workshop addresses this issue with a fantastic league system. Players create a team and then work to turn the team into a Blood Bowl Dynasty. A mini-RPG system allows team members to gain new abilities and improve stats. Also, the real possibility that my favorite character can get killed affected my tactics in an individual game.

The starter set contains 24 plastic figures, a game board, the complete rule book, tokens, dice, templates, and quick reference sheets. With a retail price of $70, the starter set simply can't complete value-wise with other games. Both the 40K and Fantasy starter sets have a much better value. Except for starter set, the entire miniature line is metal. The models look good, but they are older sculpts and don't have the same quality as GW's newer lines. It is possible to assemble a full 16 player team for under $100, but even then, other games certainly score higher in the value department.

Randomness plays a huge role in this game. In addition to what I mentioned above, a number of crazy events can occur. Fans can rush the field, rioters can throw rocks, players can cheat, and the weather can change throughout the game. While fun, some of these events can really mess with a player and destroy their strategy. I tend to look at these situations as a reason for why a player must act aggressively because there is no guarantee another turn is around the corner.


While Blood Bowl has a few annoying and frustrating faults, I still had a blast playing this game. Good luck trying to find another game which contains such a detailed and awesome campaign in the starter box. From the disappointing moments of defeat to the adrenaline pumping �Final Countdown� moments, Blood Bowl brings all the excitement of a sports game to the tabletop....Just with a lot more violence....And that can never be a bad thing in the tabletop gaming world.

Review of Blood Bowl By Games Workshop

Posted By RockoRobotics

Over the past two years, I have taught you guys how to build all sorts of terrain on the Tabletop Battlefield. Just yesterday, I was teaching some friends on how to play Warhammer 40K and I thought I would take some pictures to show off all the different terrain projects mixed together.(Alright I'll be fair...@BrewCityGamers wanted me to take the pictures)


The board comes from Episodes 11 and 12 of Season 3.
Episode 12 - Episode 11

The ruined building, wall, and tank traps come from Episode 3 of Season 3
Season 3

The hills and trees were built back in Season 2 Episode 9
Episode 9 of Season 2

Since I'm all about sharing links, the 40K stat cards I have on the table can be found here.

My Warhammer 40K Battle Field

Posted By RockoRobotics

Arcane Legions Recon Photos

Game Overview

Photo Gallery

Posted By guilo410

fred

Posted By Gbiolchini

Likes ta Smash! 1500 points

Posted By Gbiolchini

Likes ta Smash! 1000 points