LotR-LCG 'Journey Down the Anduin'

Date: 1/10/2015
Quest: Journey Down the Andun
Number of Players: 2
Heroes Player 1: Eowyn, Dwalin, Dunhere
Heroes Player 2: Legolas, Gimli, Thalin
Result: Success
Score: 148
Quest Mode: Easy

After four attempts at 'Jouney Down the Anduin' my son and I finally completed the quest on the fifth attempt.  We attempted the quest originally with the same decks we used in 'Passage Through Mirkwood', but that was not workng for us.  So I then elected to play with the 'Spirit' sphere, and my son was playing with the 'Tactics' sphere (he had to give up his Aragorn from the 'Ledership sphere).

When the first attempts with those two spheres failed, we then elected to customize our decks with some of the player cards from the next two Adventure Packs ('The Hunt For Gollum' and 'Conflict At The Carrock') we then also picked up the next expansion 'Khazad Dum' and added a few of those player cards and the hero Dwalin.

After those changes, we actually managed to complete the quest and were in no danger at all to losing the quest.  The 'Spirit' sphere did it's part in keeping my threat costs low, and the 'Tactics' sphere took care of defeating the larger enemies.  Our final score was 148.

After we completed 'Journey Down the Anduin' we then attempted the third quest in the Core set, 'Escape from Dol Guldur' with the same two decks.  This quest is the hardest of the three in the Core set.  From the get go we were doomed........ stay tuned for more on this quest.

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X-Wing Goodies

It feels like it must be Christmas.... Oh wait it is.  Being Eastern Orthodox, today is Christmas for my family and I.  So of course I had to add some X-Wing goodies for my oldest son and I.  I decided to finally add some of the Huge ships we were missing, and to duplicate some of our other models.

Here is a list of what we got.:

Rebel Transport Expansion Pack (new)
Tantive IV Expansion Pack (new)
Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack (#3)
Lambda-class Shuttle Expansion Pack (#2)
VT-49 Decimator Expansion Pack (#2)
TIE Phantom Expansion Pack (#2)

(not shown: TIE Phantom)

Now I just need to wait for my Battlefoam order to be ready so I have room to store all these ships.

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X-Wing: Z-95 Headhunter #4

I had forgotten to mention the other day that while we were at Desert Sky Games on New Year's Day playing Dungeons & Dragons, my son and I decided to add another Z-95 Headhunter Expansion to our collection.  This will make ship #4 for the Z-95's.

I decided to slowly build these ships up to eventually be able to play with a Rebel swarm, plus since my son and I share all the models, we can now play with 2 each if need be.

You can see our collection of X-Wing models HERE

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Battle Report: 1/3/2015 X-Wing

My son (Dark Knight) and I (Arrow) played our first game of X-Wing for 2015 last night and it was brutal for the Galactic Empire.

I wanted to try out a new version for me of a 'Han Shoots First' list, and my son elected to play with the Empire.  I was shocked, he always plays the Rebels and this was only his second time with the Empire.

Game: Dogfight
Points: 100

'Han Shoots First XY' [100] (Arrow)
Han Solo (YT-1300) [62]
[Millennium Falcon, Engine Upgrade, Veteran Instincts, C-3PO, Luke Skywalker]
Biggs Darklighter (X-Wing) [25]
Tala Squadron Pilot (Z-95) [13]

'Vaders Squad' [100] (Dark Knight)
Darth Vader (TIE Advanced) [33]
[Expose]
Dark Curse (TIE Fighter) [16]
Winged Gundark (TIE Fighter) [15]
Alpha Squadron Pilot (TIE Interceptor) [18]
Alpha Squadron Pilot (TIE Intereptor) [18]

Just about all of the asteroids were in the center of the battlefield, so my plan of attack was to sweep around my left side edge and hit the Empire from behind.  Well the Empire just about had the same plan for themselves, lucky for me Darth Vader had some bad flying skills which casued him to land on top of two asteroids eliminating his chance of any shots against Han.  The Rebels took advantage of this and Han got some early shots into Vader and lowered his shield.  Tala put in a few shots on Vader and eventually Han finshed Vader off.

One of the Empire's TIE Fighter was strong enough to bring down Biggs Darklighter, but Tala then returned fire and shot down the TIE Fighter.  Rest of the Empire fleet then made easy work of Tala and now they had to attempt to bring down Han.

This was not happening and Han easily brought down the rest of the ships.

Rebel Win

A huge mistake with Vaders flying cost 'Dark Knight' the game.  I think Vader needed to fly with 2 of the TIE Interceptors and concentrate on Han (and avoiding asteroids), the the TIE Fighters on the X-Wing and Z-95.

Obviously I had fun because I won, hopefully 'Dark Knight' did to.  It's just a game and I'm glad to see he changed it up and played the Empire instead of the Rebels.  Part of the fun of this game is getting to play with all the different ships.

Rebel Fleet

Empire Fleet

Han lowers the shields on Vader.

Han fires to his backside to finish Darth Vader.

Biggs goes down to the Empire.

Tala returns fire on the TIE Fighter.

Han up close and personal to finish a TIE Interceptor.

Long range shot and brings down a TIE Fighter.

TIE Interceptor flanks Tala for the killshot.

Han with the final blow.

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LotR-LCG: 'Passage Through Mirkwood' (normal)

Date: 1/2/2015
Quest: Passage Through Mirkwood
Number of Players: 2
Heroes Player 1: Legolas, Gimli, Thalin
Heroes Player 2: Aragorn, Gloin, Theodred
Result: Success
Score: 116
Quest Mode: Normal

Later in the evening yesterday my son and I attempted to replay 'Passage Through Mirkwood' in 'normal' mode.  This was only the second time playing the game and first in this mode.  I thought for sure we were going to get slaughtered.  Lucky for us, the Encounter Deck was in our favor.  Seeing how we were also a little bit more familiar with the rules and our card texts we were able to play some combinations that easily took down the enemies.  We managed to complete the adventure in only 4 turns. We played this adventure still using the starter decks and we will probably attempt the next adventure with the same decks.  I think once we play the third adventure that has a difficulty rating of 7, we'll probably have to customize our decks.

The next adventure will be 'Journey Down the Anduin'.  We will probably be playing this one sometime later this week.  So stay tuned.

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LotR-LCG: 'Passage Through Mirkwood' (easy mode)

Date: 1/2/2015
Quest: Passage Through Mirtkwood
Number of Players: 2
Heroes Player 1: Legolas, Gimli, Thalin
Heroes Player 2: Aragorn, Gloin, Theodred
Result: Success
Score: 169
Quest Mode: Easy

My son and I just completed our first quest for the Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.  Seeing how this was our very first time playing this game, we decided to play it in 'easy' mode instead of 'normal'.  It took us awhile to go through the first couple of turns since we were following the rulebook for each Phase to make sure we do not miss a step, plus we were still getting familiar with all the cards.  The game probably took us about 4 hours to complete (yes, that's a long time) but it included a lunch break.  Tonight we are to tackle the same adventure again, but this time in 'normal' mode.  Hopefully we'll be able to get through it a little faster (seeing how we'll be having 'The Fellowship of the Ring' playing on the TV, it may not take us any faster).

It is still a bit to early for me to decide how much I like this game, but one benefit for me is the Co-op play style.  It is a nice change of pace to actually work together with my son rather than always trying to beat him like in all the other games.  I can see for this reason alone that we'll be continuing to play this game.

Fantasy Flight Games also offers a nice Quest Log tracker online to keep track of all the adventures you played and the outcome of your results.  To access the log, click HERE.

I'll be updateing my stats online, plus I'll continue to do a short write up like this one here.

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D&D 5E: Hoard of the Dragon Queen 1/1/2015

In yesterday's blog post I mentioned I am going to include some of the other games I/we are playing like Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.  Seeing how we are a couple months into the adventure I will just continue these going forward instead of catching the blog back up.  I will try and keep these pretty short and quick.

Yesterday on New Year's Day 2015 we continued our adventure in 'Hoard of the Dragon Queen'.  We are playing with a Level 5 Human Fighter, a Level 4 Wood Elf Ranger (me), a Level 4 Dwarf Cleric and a Level 4 Wood Elf Rogue.

Currently in our adventure we are on a 60 day journey taking us from the town of Balders Gate to Waterdeep.  We are traveling with a caravan and tracking down some Dragon Cultists who we discovered are carrying gold and jewels up North.  During this journey we are met with some encounters.  Yesterday we picked up on Day 22 of our journey and ran into a few more encounters.  The first encounter was 'The Golden Stag' in which our caravan approached the stag.  Most of the members of our caravan that we were riding with wanted to hunt down the stag, with a few that wanted to protect it.  Beeing a Wood Elf Ranger with a background in Outlander and the ability to favor Beasts and Forests, I wanted to track down the stag and learn some information.  I succesfully tracked the stag into the forest and approached the beautiful golden stag.  We spoke in the Elvish tongue and he was grateful that I did not harm him.  He presented me with a Magical Golden Bow +1.  We also learned information that we must follow the golden river to the castle in the sky.  I then found my way back to caravan and we continued on to Waterdeep.

Our second encounter 'Payback' we came across a man buried in the middle of the road up to his head.  We managed to dig him out and then magically healed him so we can gain some more information.  He also told us he was working for the same people as us and was a member of the 'Harpers' organization.  He provided us information that we needed to find a roadhouse that was North of Waterdeep.

We finally reached the city of Waterdeep and quickly settled any debts we had from our journey.  We were hired on as workers the next day to fix a road from Waterdeep to Neverwinter.  Once we reached the roadhouse our Fighter was recognized from our 60 day journey from one of the Cultists and was challenged in a duel.  While he was fighting the rest of us decided to search the roadhouse and came across a trap door.  The Fighter won his fight and we waited for nightfall to back through the trap door.  As we picked the lock to the storeage room (where the trap door was located) we came across 6 Lizardfolk, the 4 of us quickly defeated them and we descended down the door that lead us through a tunnel to a swamp.  When we reached the swamped I noticed some footprints and we decided to follow those to a Lizardfolk camp.  We were then approached by 9 more Lizardfolk and took down 8 of them and knocking out the last 1 so we can interogate him.  Once he awoken, the Fighter intimidated him to provide us with some information that would lead us to the castle.  We then decided to rest at the Lizardfolk camp.

We then ended our adventure for the day, with all of us gaining a new level.  I am looking forward to seeing what Level 5 will bring my Wood Elf Ranger.  Our next session will not be until 1/11/2015.

I guess I really didn't keep this short :)

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Happy New Year! What's in store for 2015

First off to any readers out there, I would like to wish a Happy New Year 2015!

As you can notice, I spent some time last night going back to a simplified template for Blogger.  I still have some work I need to continue on it today/tomorrow.  One reaon going back to simplified was the Blogger app for iPad.  Now when I use the app to write a post, my fonts will match the template.  With my advanced template I was running, the Blogger app would publish my posts in a large font and not match my site.

Today is the day we try and make a plan for our hobbying/gaming for the upcoming year.  I hope you read yesterday's post on what was and was not accomplished for 2014 and we will be expanding on that.

First off I'd like to say again that 2014 was a good year for me in regards to hobbying/gaming.  I picked up the paint brush again after a long hiatus and finished quite a few armies for Bolt Action and had my second highest 'Painting Points' total ever.  On a personal note, the end of 2014 was not too good to me.  The Monday before Thanksgiving my Father past away after being on this earth for 79 years.  It was all of a sudden and we were not expecting it.  Your life changes after something like that and we had to make arrangements to send him back to Chicago and for my family to all go back there.  Now a lot of my time is going to be helping my Mother out to make sure she can continue with the finances and what not.

Bolt Action

On that note we are going to be starting with Bolt Action.  With 'Gathering in the Desert' not happening this year, I was going to be organizing a 1 day tournament for Bolt Action, 'Operation Desert Assault' on April 18th, 2015 (www.operationdesertassault.com), but with the circumstances mentioned above, I had to cancel/postpone the event.  I am unsure exactly what our family situation will be at that time and I may have to devote some finances to my Mother.  I am hoping to maybe just postpone the event to maybe late August or early September.

Gaming:  Bolt Action will more than likely be a top 2 game for me this year.  With 3 fully painted armies, ease of rules, I definitely see this game hitting the table a lot this year, either in the smaller 600 point games, larger 1000 point games or even Tank Wars.

Modeling:  This will be a tough one, I do not want to get my hopes up to high for the year.  I still have planty of models for the game that need to be painted for the three armies I have.  I think to be safe to say, I will concentrate on those models before I venture off on any new armies (but we never know).

X-Wing

Gaming:  In 2014 I was really amazed on how much I really like this game.  100 points in 75 minutes with quick setup and pack up.  I have a feeling this will be my number 1 played game for the year.  I am even going to try to attend some of the local tournaments / store championships with a 'lets have fun' attitude and get some more games in.  I along with my son recently joined the 'Phoenix Squadron' gaming club on Facebook to be more in touch with X-Wing events here in Phoenix.  I am hoping to get more games in with the members this year.  With the new Star Wars movie coming out in December, I can see a late push in the year getting more games in.

Collecting:  Well there is not much modeling in this game (I am not one to paint the already pre-painted models).  So we make this paragraph about Collecting.  My goal for the year will be to have all the ships in the collection as they are released.  We are pretty close to it at this point except for the 'huge ships'.  We'll be sure to add those also to our collection even though they may not see much playing time.  Obviously some of the ships we collect, we will have mulitples.  I am also going to get caught up on the 'Battlefoam' that we need for our ships.  I still need foam for Wave IV and Wave V and maybe a dedicated abag (currently we share the same bag for Bolt Action), this one I am unsure about and it will soley depend on the finances.

Dungeons & Dragons

Gaming:  Back in August my family got into D&D 5E and I am really enjoying it.  We meet every Sunday (when we can) at Desert Sky Games from 12pm-2pm (we actually also played today to make up some time from the Holidays).  We currently playing the first adventure "Horde of the Dragon Queen" and I hope we finish that one shortly and continue on to the second adventure "The Rise of Tiamat".  We will see what other adventures it brings us afterwards.  I think for 2015 we will stick to just one RPG game, with everything else I have, there is not time to expand into any of the others.  I even went out and purchased a new iPad Air just for this game (so I can have a larger viewing character sheet over my iPad Mini).

Collecting:  Even though they do have models you can use for D&D, we currently do not need them for our adventures and I do no expect to be purchasing any.  Even though Wizkids did just release D&D Attack Wing which is very similiar to X-Wing.... OK, let's not go there.....

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Gaming:  With the recent end of the year sale at our LGS Empire Games, my son and I decided to pick the core set for this game and the first 2 adventure packs.  I know this game is a 'living card game' and can get quite expensive to keep up with it.  All we have done so far was the get the card in their sleeves and start reading the rulebook.  We are planning to start our adventures tomorrow January 2nd.  We were debating between LotR and Star Wars, but with us already playing X-Wing and with the final release of the Hobbit movie recently, we elected to go with LotR.  Stay tuned to this site to follow our adventures while we learn the game.

Collecting:  OH BOY!!!! as long as we really enjoy this game, I can see us going back and catching up on all the expansion and adventure packs....

Now I am going to talk about some of our other games that we have previously played and may or may not make a comeback.  I know my son is going to be reading this, so these are a very slim chance and don't get your hopes up to high.

Warhammer 40K

Gaming:  I still have some armies left for this game (I did not sell them all).  I know I do not have the current ruleset (I don't think I even had the previous edition rules).  I would need to evaluate the cost of purchasing a rulebook to how much we would actually play before I make the leap and get a game in.

Modeling; I do not plan on any modeling at the moment.  I think I have still have at least 2000 points of Chaos Space Marines that need assembling and painting let alone quite a few models for my son. 

So there is a very slim chance in getting back into Warhammer 40k.  On a scale of 1-10, I would rank it a 3.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Gaming:  Even though I spent a little money and time getting some of my models out last year, I honestly do not see this game hitting the table in 2015.  I think Kings of War would stand a better chance.  Rank 1.

Modeling:  I do not see this happening in 2015, my son may be disappointed at this decision since we were thinking about updateing his Wood Elves last year.

Warmachine

Gaming:  I don't think I played a game of Warmachine since 2011 (maybe got a game in 2012, not sure).  I believe my rulebooks are still current and we do have quite a few fully painted armies.  I can maybe see getting in at least 1 or 2 games this year....anymore than that wil depend if the bug to replay bites.  Rank 3.

Modeling:  I have a Khador unit that needs to be finished.  Probably will not happen unless I really feel like painting.

Flames of War

Gaming:  There may be a chance for a game or two, but no plans at the moment.  Rank 2.

Modeing:  This may happen only because I would use the tanks in Bolt Action Tank Wars.

Legends of the Old West

Gaming:  If not Legends of the Old West (since Warhammer Historicals no longer exists) maybe another Old West skirmish game that may be out there.  Rank 2.

Modeling:  I have plenty of model and terrain for Old West that still needs to be painted.  Slim but a possibility.

Onto some possible new games in 2015.

Kings of War

Gaming:  Since I do not own any specific Kings of War armies (unless I can utilize some of my WFB armies) this is another slim chance unless the Fantasy bug decides to bite me this year.  Rank 2.

Modeling:  Not in the foreseeable future, but the models are not too expensive.

Beyond the Gates of Antares

Gaming:  This is a new Science Fiction game from Warlord Games that is based off of Bolt Action and written by Rick Priestly.  I also love Sci-Fi as much as Fantasy.  If I decide the pricing to get back into Warhammer 40K is too much, I may have to dive into this game.  Currently the rules are in Beta and are availble for free to download.  I'll have to spend some time in the very near future and give them a read thru to see how much I like the game.  Knowing the rules for Bolt Action, I should be able to easily understand them.  Rank 7.

Modeling:  They have just recently released some models for the game.  I have yet to see any up in person.  If I like the rules, I may order some to take a look at them.

Ok, I think I am now starting to stretch myself thin again.  Besidies gaming, my family and I have plenty of other hobbies.  We as a whole family love to go to the gun range (so ammo takes money), plus my youngest son just recently got into model rocketry, so I am spending time with him going to club launches.  Plus I used to race RC cars and Slot Cars and haven't touched those much last year either. Then there is the personal fitness.  In the Summer I started my diet again and picked up road cycling.  So I have been trying to ride as much as I can each week also.  It has been very busy.

I have also been thinking about consolidating/adding some of my other hobbies into this site (the model rocketry) and including D&D and LotR; The Card Game and others.  The name will still be The Old West Chronicle, but instead of 'Wargaming Out West' maybe 'Gaming Out West' or 'Hobby Life Out West'.  Making the blog more of an everyday blog instead of just a wargaming blog.  I am still undecided on this one.

I believe that is all for now....  time to start hitting the gaming tables for the year.

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2014 Year in Review

As with most miniature gamers who take up blogging, today is the day to write about what we acomplished and did not accomplish during the year.

For myself, all I can say is that 2014 was a huge success for me regarding gaming.  Seeing how in 2013 I only had 2 blog posts, and 3 in 2012, to already finish 2014 with 85 posts is an accompishment all by itself.

On to the actually gaming.......

Bolt Action

At the end of January 2014, I was introduced to a farely new 28mm WWII game called Bolt Action.  Seeing how I always loved the WWII era and have been waiting for a ruleset to catch on world wide, I jumped right into it.  A long time friend of mine (Tim @ Cursed Treasures) was bringing back his 2 day event "Gathering in the Desert" for 2014 and it was going to be Bolt Action (previously LotR).  I had 3 weeks to get an army built, painted and ready for the tournament.  I acomplished getting 1000 points of Soviets completed and had a great time playing in the event and catching up with some old friends.  My son had also played in the event with a borrowed army and also had a good time.  It was now time to get him an army built and painted so we can get some more games in.

I finished 1000 points of US for him, plus we managed to get a German army done and also added some new units to our armies.  I was able to get in 21 games for the year, most of them were in the first half of 2014.  After the summer my gaming and blogging took a little hiatus and I was concentratng once again on my personal health and exercising more.

We still have a lot more models to paint up and complete for this game, hopefully we'll get them done in 2015.

X-Wing

X-Wing really surprised me in 2014.  At first I did not want to get into 'another' miniature game with all my time contraints, but I am glad that I did.  My son was playing the game for most of 2013 and finally on my 40th birthday in March of 2014 I had him give me an introduction to the game.  Boy did I really like the game.  First off, there is nothing to paint (sure you can paint the models if you really wanted to, but I feel Fantasy Flight Games did a really nice job on the pre-painted models).  Second a standard game is 100 points which is to be played in 75 minutes.  This was a huge plus for me.  I really do not care to spend 3-4 hours playing one game, so to get a game in just over an hour was a huge benefit.  And finally it's 'Star Wars'....

I managed to get 20 games in for the year (with the last game being yesterday afternoon) and I see many more games for 2015.

Warhammer Fantasy

This was a bust for me.  I had some hope to revive this game in 2014 and managed to get 2 games in.  I also dug out a lot of my old models and started to touch some up, but the summer came and once again this game slid from me.  The time and money to get a unit completed in this game is starting to get ridiculous with Games Workshop pricing.

Flames of War

Another bust.  I also had some high hopes for this game seeing how I already had some models for this game.  I had my friend (Rob @ Drunken Samurai) re-teach me the game and also managed to get a game in with my son.  But seeing how at the time I was really into Bolt Action, another WWII based game (and in 15mm scale) was starting to look slim.  When Bolt Action released their Tank Wars book, my son and I did manage to use our Flames of War models to play some of the Tank Wars games.

Dungeons & Dragons

In August of 2014, Wizards released Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.  I always wanted to really get into D&D and did manage to find a group back in 3E, but that did not last long.  Before I bought any books for 5E, I went to find a group to play with.  I managed to get a hold of a Dungeon Master playing at Desert Sky Games who offerered to run a campaign for me and two of my sons.  We then also recruited another player and the adventure began.  We are now playing every Sunday from 12pm-2pm at Desert Sky Games and I am really enjoying playing 5th Edition.

Well that is about all for 2014.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on what to expect for 2015.

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Battle Report: 12/30/2014 X-Wing

I managed to get 1 more game of X-Wing in this afternoon before we move into 2015.  Unfortunately it was another loss for me.  That is 2 losses in a row, not a good way to finish 2014.  Hopefully we'll start 2015 on the right foot.

Seeing how we just picked up a YT-2400 last night, I thought it was a good time to give it a try.  I googled some lists for it and most of what I found were 'Super Dash' lists, so I decided to try one of these variants.

This game was going to be Rebels vs Rebels.

Rebels 100 'Super Dash I' (Arrow)
Dash Rendar (YT-2400)
[Lone Wolf, Heavy Laser Cannon, Recon Specialist, Outrider]

Corran Horn (E-Wing)
[Engine Upgrade, Veteran Instincts, Advanced Sensors, R2-D2]

Rebels 100 'Attack Of The Wings' (Dark Knight)
Luke Skywalker (X-Wing)
[R2-D2, Expose, Shield Upgrade]

Keyan Farlander(B-Wing)
[Heavy Laser Cannon, Push the Limit]

Rookie Pilot (X-Wing)


I was very happy with my deployment and the first moveds of the game.  Unfortunately when the E-Wing approached the enemy B-Wing, I was in no position for a barrel roll to get out of the front arc of the B-Wing.  After some direct hits from the E-Wing to the B-Wing and the B-Wing returning fire along with Luke Skywalker, the E-Wing fell pretty fast.

It was now up to the YT-2400 to try and finish off 3 ships.  The YT-2400 was able to finish off the B-Wing and do some damage to the Rookie Pilot, but it was not enough and the 2 remaining X-Wings finished off the YT-2400 Freighter.

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