Batman!

Last Saturday I enjoyed a demo of Batman The Miniatures Game hosted by Henrik in my FLGS Subcultures in Utrecht.

Batman TMG is produced by Knight Models from Spain, known for their earlier superhero licences. Now they have produced a ruleset, free to download on the Interweb, for their line of stunning superhero miniatures.

BTMG is a tactical skirmish game featuring a handful of models per side. Villains and their goons usually make up the more numerous gangs, while heroes and their sidekicks will be fewer (but STRONGER!). So I played the Penguin accompanied by three Goons (amongst them the giant Killer Croc) and as opposed by Batman and Nightwing. Mission objective was getting the Penguins illegal weapon crates to your table edge.

The most interesting aspect of the game (besides playing with superheroes!) is that it is an IGO-UGO game where the players plan their actions more or less beforehand by allocating counters/dice (every figure has a given number of them) to several activities like moving, attacking, defending etc. These dice give you extra actions on top of movement and the option to attack another player or defend against his attacks. So you get to boost some actions while being incapable to perform others.

So while some of my Goons made a run for the crates, the Penguin and Killer Croc attacked, the latter by sneaking through the sewers and emerging in turn 2 right behind Nightwing!























The rest of the game is straightforward and plays fast, just like the action movies it is supposed to represent. Table size can be small, despite the fact that firing ranges for firearms are unlimited. Gotham is dark and Gothic, so visibility is no more than 30cm (yep, the game is metric). So the action is close and personal. The Penguin got battered by the Bat, Nightwing got beaten up by Killer Croc.


The players alternately draw dice from a box, the colour of which determines who may start. Once all the dice are drawn, the game is over. SO we played six turns and in turn 6 one Goon dragged a crate to my table edge, winning the game!

The figures are stunning pieces of sculpting art and are priced accordingly. However, since an "army" in Batman will only be about 2-6 figures, starting a Batman team will still cost you significantly less than a standard wargaming army.

Until, I must warn you, greed sets in. I predict many of you, once hooked on these magnificent miniatures, will want to collect them all!

Many thanks to Henrik for providing me with a good game and an enjoyable afternoon and to Subcultures for hosting us!

PolderCon 2015! Now plus mini video documentary!!!!

Last Sunday the first edition of PolderCon went of with a big and joyous bang! With this, we aimed for a (almost entirely) pre-booked games- and workshop event. A wargaming show concept uncommon for Europe. 

So on Sunday, February 8th, 2015 some 90 players were welcomed by over 20 game hosts, workshop leaders and a few traders at our fledgeling Dutch wargaming convention to experience new and hitherto untried aspects of their wargaming hobby. They came from all over the Netherlands, Great Britain and Belgium to Utrecht NL to participate in games, workshops, good food and that thing wargamers like most right after playing: talking about wargaming! 

Below an impression (and no more than that!) of the day: 

Early morning, dragging in the many trappings of a wargaming convention. 

Building the many magnificent tables. All hosts were volunteers and had worked their pants off to present a great show, some even painting figures right up to the evening before! 

A glimpse of the table that would win a shared Price For Most Beautiful Demo: Ypenburg by Murphy's Heroes (Chain of Command)

Henrik making pictures of his extremely popular Batman table, incidently winning the Prize for Most Enjoyable Demo

Poised for the start.

Karwansaray Publishing, one of the show's sponsors, was also present. 

Our foreign delegation discussing the pros and cons of PolderCon

The start of any game: it works like this.....

And let the games begin! 

Below Henrik is playing his winning Batman game. As you can see, some players needed eyes in their back to survive this game!

 

But there was more to do than just gaming. Maartje and Pascal gave painting workshops in freehand and Non-Metallic-Metal painting that proved very popular!

As you can see, freehand painting does not come for free. Concentration is called for!

Elsewhere Shifting Lands gave a workshop in his fantastic terrain making skills. See his lovely stuff here to the right. 

In the meantime, behind the screens, our tireless volunteers packed the Goodiebags all visitors and hosts would receive on leaving. Filled with generous gifts from Subcultures from Utrecht, Scenery Workshop, Warlord Games, Sally 4th, Statuesque Miniatures and Karwansaray Publishing it would prove to be a fitting end of the day.

And that was not all there was to say about the organisation. All day long, our camera crew went around saving PolderCon for generations to come! Or at least for the promotion of the next edition....

More volunteers received the visitors, directed them to their games and workshops, collected entrance fees and -last but not least- handed out the much coveted lunch tokens!

With all this going on, yours truly tried to convey his scratch-building skills on innocent bystanders, exposing them to razor sharp knives and dribbling glue guns, all so they would make little houses out of junk. No blood was shed, no animals were hurt and only a few fingers were scorched by hot glue in the making of this workshop! 

Above little Joshua builds his 10mm skyscraper, despite being -according to himself- clumsy and un-creative. He propelled straight to the Prize For The Bravest Wargamer! 

The Great Too Fat Lardie himself, mr Richard Clarke, explained how to play Chain of Command to a throng of people and gave a workshop on that thing he does so well: hosting demos! Yes, that thing. 

Halfway the day we broke for lunch and everybody got together in the restaurant to get stuffed with food and chat!

There were Historical Events! Newborn miniature company Imaginative Miniatures sold its first miniature ever and added a giant bottle of beer to the purchase!

At the end there is always that humiliating moment that people who have done their best all day get called out in front for their troubles and get festooned with gifts because they Have Won A Prize. To avoid this, most refused to come to the ceremony  mumbling something about "having to clean up" or something and hoped it would all blow over.

So I of course took all people to them, climbed on a chair and gave a rousing speech, dispensing praise, prizes and gratitude to all who had contributed to this fantastic day.

Above the bravest of them all: Three demos And the Scenery building workshop!

Above Seb's winning Bolt Action table. Below a detail of the likewise winning Ypenburg table. 

Then I got to clean up, eat, drag myself home and fall over on the couch. What A Great Day!

NB: a mini video documentary made by Matthijs Diederiks

Castlefest 2014

Castlefest  is a annual festival combining music, fantasy, cosplay, LARP, games, pagan and Wiccan elements, good foods and drinks and general recreational activities all wrapped up in a big festival in the Keukenhof in Lisse. If you have ever heard of or seen the famous Dutch tulip fields: it’s at that place. The “Castle” part is played by the small castle situated at the center of the Keukenhof park.  

At the invitation of my LFGS Subcultures  I attended Castlefest to host demo and participation games for two days.

We were housed in a massive circus tent big enough to house the Subcultures store twice over. But since Tijn obviously lacked the means and/or the will to transfer his entire store there for the three days of the festival a large chunk of the tent was taken with the demo games, most of which were sold by the store. My games were the odd one out, as they were participation games not sold anywhere, since I largely made them myself. I must have heard the question “Where can I buy this? “ at least a dozen times… Some were disappointed by my answer, some were inspired and the latter category of people most made it worth my while! Quite a few people have visited my blog the last few days to seek more inspiration and ideas.

On Saturday I hosted the Indiana Jones demo, a large 6-player shoot-and-blow-them-up game based on the airplane scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. For four games the very young and the somewhat older and all ages in between had a great, chaotic and violent time trying to make off with the Ark of the Covenant. In one game they battled each other so ferociously, that the game eventually came down to a last Battle To The Death between Dr Wu Manchu and Major Helga of the Thule Kommandos in which they slew each other, leaving no one standing to claim the Ark!

Sundays, which I expected to be a quieter day, I hosted the Ninja Raid game  which as essentially a 1-on-1 game I thought more suitable for the smaller audience. The game especially proved a hit with the local kids running around and one kid must have played it three times at least! I actually lost count of how many times we played, but it must have been at least seven games in which Ninja and samurai fanatically tried to slaughter each other in the attempt to either save or kill the Daimyo. 

One of the more creative Ninja attempts was to simply knock on the garden door and ask for entrance. To my astonishment the samurai guard actually opened the door only to be attacked by two Ninja. While the samurai wasn’t the brightest bulb in the tree, he was a dead hand with a katana and managed to kill one Ninja and raise the alarm before getting himself killed. A bitter and bloody fight ensued in the garden where most Ninja eventually died without having a chance to kill the Daimyo!

It was the first time I hosted participation games at a large festival. While the audience is obviously much more generic than at a games convention there was plenty of interest for my games and I did not want for players. It was hot and there were stinging flies (not usually encountered at a convention) and unfortunately there was a music stage 50 meters away. Despite being called “The Meadows” and “The field of folk” a lot of the performers fell firmly and loudly in the metal category which proved a strain on my ears as well as my voice, since you had to explain the game over the sound of roaring guitars and screaming vocalists. It nearly cost me my voice, but it didn’t spoil the fun though!

I have seen dozens of beautiful people all weekend, many of them in even more beautiful costumes, but the costume that really impressed me was this Armoured Bear straight from the Golden Compass stories! Two people were brave enough to operate it. And with a very humid 28 degrees Celcius this was no picknick!

Below three stalwart Subcrew members on their way to a well deserved lunch break. 

So with tired feet and vocal cords but thoroughly satisfied I returned home on Sunday evening having hosted nearly a dozen games. My sincere thanks to Subcultures and the Sub crew for having and supporting me and  providing me with food and liters of water, to Erin for the delicious fudge, to Madelief for bringing me cold and alcoholic beverages just as I needed them the most and to all the players who made the weekend a success!