Last sunday's club was a bit of a odd one, it was the first club day where no one actually partook in any wargaming but instead we all, without making a deliberate plan of it, broke out the boardgames.
Well not straight away for me, I first had the important business of sorting out my character for Faction Ray's upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I am really looking forward to this as I haven't role-played in well over a year and this would be my first crack at the new 5th edition and also Ray creates brilliant settings for his campaigns :).
My character is a Dwarf Rogue by the name of Tralin Thumpinikle. The Thumpinikle Clan were once renowned for there brewery which was located in a town on the bordering outskirts of Dwarven territory where it enjoyed good trade from travellers. But one fateful day the brewery was raided by a human force of unknown allegiance. They ransacked and pillaged the town and the Thumpinikle Brewery, many of the clan perished trying to protect their livelihood and home but the attack was too fierce and only a handful managed to survive the massacre.
Tralin is the 3rd generation of Thumpinikle since the tragedy and like all of what is left of his broken clan have swore vengeance against those that destroyed their legacy. Tralin also has his eye on restoring the Thumpinikle name and is trying to invent the next great ale.
So there is a rough gist to my character, now I dont know the details on Ray's new setting other than its a black powder fantasy with a Napoleonic vibe - how awesome is that! My character generated pretty good stats, having exceptionally good Dexterity and managed to bag skills such as Insight, Perception and Stealth - aiming for the pathfinder roll. Also can detect traps and speak Orcish, not to mention play the lute! Also Ray suggested to us players (Me, Johnno and Phil) to roll on the personality table. Mine rolls made Tralin a pretty ruthless hermit - believes in survival of the fittest, is distrustful of people, preferring the company of animals - so Aragorn meets Porthos - brilliant :)
After concluding that business Leigh Phillips offered us a game of Spartacus. The game pits arena organisers against each other, you buy slaves, guards and gladiators to build up your "business". Slaves are your income, Guards protect you from Intrigue (Instant card effects) from other players and Gladiators earn you Influence in the arena.
In our game (Me, Ray, Phil and Leigh) Leigh and Ray took a early lead, Leigh specially since he managed to successfully bid on a particularity good gladiator. I initially struggled to stockpile my treasury as early spend outs literally broke me, but managed, using my character's (Solonus) specially ability, traded slaves, gladiators and guards for a slow build up of influence. but sadly not being able to acquire decent gladiators saw me in 3rd place. With Leigh the winner, closely followed by Ray.
It really is a very good game, I personally cannot stand the TV series which it is based on but even the disliked license couldn't prevent me from enjoying the game. The rules are very straight forward and within one round you will pick them up. The combat system is very good considering its a board game and the figures are specially nice.
If your a board game fan or like the idea of gaming the gladiatorial arena - I highly recommend this game and its expansions.
Also, on another table Tony, Dan and Johnno were cracking out the Zombicide. While I didn't join in there games, I managed to play the game the week before and again am very impressed with the game - I have played Last Night on Earth and Zombies!!! as well and defo prefer Zombicide over them - for me its the best Zombie board game and am hoping at this years Salute to pick up my own figure for the game :)
So not much wargaming today, well none at all but sometimes that isn't a bad thing, our hobby is a social one and it was nice to kick back and play a lil less and chat a lot more :)
Thanks for your time - cya soon ;)
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