Gaming Abroad

Back from a 3 week holiday in the States and Canada with my wife and time to get some hobby projects underway. Big thanks to Ryan for his posts, he sends me a lot of WIP pics so why not share them. Since I've been back I have gotten a bit done already so over the next few days I'll try to get some posts up.

Can't say the trip was gaming free, in fact when we stayed with Wil and his wife in Ottawa we faced off against a couple of his Canadian Warhammer Fantasy opponents. They provided me with suitable proxies for a Vampire Count army and in the basement of a local gaming store we hid from the oppresive northern sun for a day.

Now I'd like to say we kiwis did the country proud but I'd be full of crap. I faced a chap called John first with his very nicely painted Empire army - 2 Demigryph units and warrior priest spam, goodie. We had a very close game with the late stages being a massive grind in the middle of the table with my usual Ghoul King claiming an impressive tally of kills. As the 6th turn concluded though we tallied the points and John had won a minor victory over my visiting undead.

Wil had not faired well with his Ogres against Tom and his Chaos forces so with round one going to the home side we had some quick lunch from the Tim Horton's across the road(not that I bothered with their tasteless excuse for coffee) and swapped opponents.

Tom had a Warriors of Chaos army with a combination of Khorne and Tzeentch units. Standard 2 blocks of Marauders, Chaos Warriors, Hellcannon, warhound chaff, L4 Mage, BSB, Knights etc. Tom was a bt reserved with his movement which with his combat potential I thought he would have advanced. I on the otherhand moved my ghoul horde and Horror blocks towards his lines and after a couple rounds of magical exchange we were in combat. This did not go well for Tom! In a round of combat my Ghoul King clocked up about 8 kills, the banshees in the ghoul unit had already softened the Chaos units in shooting and with a truck load of poison attacks from the Ghouls his main block broke and fled swiftly being run down my the Ghoul King and co. Tom promptly conceeded and after a chat about some of his unit composition we watched the rest of Wil and John's game.

With some messy multiple unit melee going on, spells and challenges being flung back and forth and Ogres being sandwiched between a couple units of nigh immortal Demigryphs eventually Wil lost his game leaving the Canadians trying to make us sing their national anthem, seeing as we had no idea what thier heretical national ditty was we headed for the nearest pub and all took part of the local cuisine.

Also in Canada I was introduced to Heroclix. This guilty little purchase ticked a couple boxes for me. Its a game! It combines my 2 favourite hobbies, gaming and comic books! I only bought Marvel characters(mainly Avengers) so its like really cheap portable Action figures for me! Its dirt cheap! Wil and I royally cocked up the rules and after a hefty dinner at a BBQ restaurant our dinner comapanion Brad came back to Wil's and showed us how to play properly. Where Wil smashed my Avenger team and Brad's Symbiote trio with his Xmen quartet. Can't say its for everyone but I really like it(again I think because its like tiny superhero action figures). In short order I'll make the local chaps play it or as its so portable bring it down to Wellington with me and force it on Ryan and Jimmy ;)

Of course I couldn't be in the States and not take advantage of certain price differences so near the end of the trip in New York I found the GW store and scored a trio of Terrorgheists(one for Ryan), some Vargheists and a Stormtalon(also for Ryan). Discard the boxes and flat pack those sprues amongst the clothing in suitcase FTW!

When we returned I had less than a week to CTA and a house guest in the form of Psyche/Richard visitng from Sydney, plenty of gaming then ensued...