General Gaming

It has been awhile since I was last able to blog – hopefully I will be able to resume doing it with some frequency again now.  In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the really exciting things going on at the shop this summer.

We have been placing an emphasis on making the shop the best place to play your game.  We want to make the trip worth your time in terms of creative approaches to leagues and campaigns, a more equitable (but no less cut-throat) level of competition and player rankings, and a general fun club-like atmosphere during events. To that end, here are some of this summer’s big happenings  at the shop:

WARHAMMER 40K FUNDRAISER TOURNAMENT

The third weekend in June we will be hosting a tournament to raise funds for a couple of local firefighters (that I have worked alongside for years) who are battling cancer. It has tapped their resources and made an already difficult situation even more challenging (one of them is even a single mom!) so we are going to have a little fun to help them out.

The tournament will utilize some crazy scenarios designed to test your strategic and tactical thinking.  In addition, as an addition complication and to drive people crazy, folks with have the ability to ‘buy’ (i.e. donate money) special dispensations such as: buying a complete re-roll, buying off a wound, buying an extra 6” of movement, etc.  But that is not all, players will also have the option of outbidding their opponent to prevent them from getting their special allowances.

All in all, it should be a good time with door prizes being generously donated by the shop and GW to be given away all day. The winners, while not getting ‘prizes’ per se, will get gaudy medals and an Olympic-like kazoo serenade at the end for their great generalship (though there will also be an award for the most annoyingly obnoxious as well…)! And all of this will help members of a fraternity that help keep all of us safe…

WARHAMMER 40K SUMMER LEAGUE W/PLAYER RATINGS

This exciting league is based around Player Ratings, which in turn are based on the mathematical model used by the world chess associations (slightly modified to take into account the nuances of 40K). The rating scale is designed to reward players for playing up to, or exceeding their, expected ability against a given foe.  It also prevents leaders from ‘farming’ points off of less skillful, or newer, players. It adds a sense of tension and drama to every game – even the mismatch of leader vs. newbie – due to the sliding scale of rating points at stake.  The Player Rating system is tied to the player, not the army, so you can modify your force during the course of the League – or even just flat out switch armies mid-stream. It doesn’t change your rating – only your skill does!

In addition, we are using innovative scenarios developed just for Village Games to keep the games interesting and fun. The next League starts up in early-June and will be played on Thursday nights – talk with Trent or Dan if you are interested.

FLAMES OF WAR SUMMER LEAGUE W/PLAYER RATINGS

The league is structured much the same as the 40k league above and will be starting in early-June.  The setting will be a Mid-War affair with players either having to be Allied or Axis.  It will be played on Saturday afternoons and will even have some pretty big prizes for the winners!

WARHAMMER FANTASY SUMMER CAMPAIGN

This much loved event will be returning in early June as well. The setting, rules and rewards have all been refined based on the player’s wants from the Spring Campaign so it should be a lot of fun. Grover will be running this at the shop so if your are interested stop by and talk to him.

COMBAT CARDS SUMMER CAMPAIGN

The Combat Cards will be returning to regular play with a summer campaign/league.  The League will include the Village Games Player Rating system as well as a new force building/scenario method from the folks at our own local Tactical Assault Games.

WAR OF THE RING SUNDAYS

A group of die hard fanatics has really developed around this game and they have been recruiting hard for the game. They generally meet on Sundays, but have been known on a couple of occasions to meet on other weekend days just to brainwash  demo to new players. Eventually a League/Campaign will be formed for this as well later in the summer.

POKEMON LEAGUE/WEEKLY TOURNAMENTS

The Pokemon crowd has grown tremendously at the shop so we will begin running weekly tournaments on Friday nights for them. This will be in addition to the usual Friday night League night and Friday night Demo games.

‘FLYING LEAD’ SUMMER CAMPAIGN

This great rules set from Ganesha Games will the centerpiece for another campaign starting in June on Tuesday nights.  It is a fast paced, easy to learn game with almost unlimited potential for creativity. The last campaign was a fantasy based one which I believed resulted in the serious roughing up of some undead hordes.  The group that plays is a lot of fun so if you are interested in trying it out  talk with Dan or Mike Z.

Well, there is a taste of some of the events we have coming up.  As always, the newbie and the curious are always welcome to join in or just come up and watch.

We aren’t even close to being done yet either, there will be a couple of tournaments, some other leagues and a few other special events this summer so keep watching the website for more info.

Until next time…

Keep your dice hot, your sunscreen on and your gaming spirit happy!

Dan

We just got back from the Con of the North game convention, and what a convention it was! The shop hosted an entire room of events all convention long, with an estimated 400 players playing in the room throughout the whole weekend.

We had a nice mix of games including board games, mini card tournaments, miniatures games, historical miniatures – we even ran demos for airbrush painting and plaster casting.  We brought with us as much staff as we could spare and an army of volunteers to run everything.  By all accounts they did a wonderful job as we heard nothing but compliments about the games they ran – thanks guys!

After the shock of the weekend has worn off, we will think about next year.  Until then though, enjoy some of the shots of the room in action.

Until next time…

…I am going to get some sleep. J

Dan

Around the shop lately, a lot of regular faces have been missing.  Folks who normally come up every week to play have suddenly vanished.  When we do see them again, they sheepishly explain that money is tight for them right now so they can’t afford any new armies, really can’t afford any packs of cards, etc., and so they haven’t been coming up. While we can certainly appreciate the toughness of the today’s economy (remember if the customers don’t have any money, neither do we…), that mind set is the opposite of what folks should have.

Just because you don’t have any disposable income to spend on your hobby, does not mean your shouldn’t still be involved with your favorite past time.  When things are tough, you should make even more of an effort to stop by your local shop to play games with what you have, talk strategy and tactics, or just work on projects (painting, deck building, etc.).  After all, we all love this hobby because of the joy it brings us – in tough times we need it even more.  I know this may sound shocking coming from a business that needs folks to spend money to survive, but there is a bigger picture to be viewed here. When money is tight, and you can’t afford to buy any new stuff, you should take the situation as an opportunity to enjoy the other important aspects of our hobby – preparation, anticipation and playing!

The lack of resources to go shopping only means you now have a chance to pursue those projects you have always talked about, but never really had the time for.  It gives you a chance to paint the armies you already have (who among us doesn’t have any unpainted lead/plastic?). It gives you an opportunity to research and learn new techniques for painting & basing your miniatures, or to get around to making that cool unique terrain you always wanted to build for your games (much of which can be built from recycled stuff around the house - a topic for another day).  How about sorting through your cards to build a new and unique deck? Or going through a board game that you never finished reading the advanced rules for? The list goes on and on...

The break from shopping also gives you an opportunity to think about how you play your favorite games, develop alternate strategies and think about what would make a good game.  Is there a better way to play your favorite deck?  Is there another strategy you could try for that board game you never seem to be able to win?  Is there another way to configure your army from what you already have?  Can you come up with a new way to deploy the army to better utilize your assets? 

Scenario setting is such an important part of any game, this would be a good time to develop your skills in this area as well.  Is there a historical period or battle you have always been fascinated with?  Can you create a scenario for your favorite game to allow you to explore it?  Is there a variation on a published scenario for your favorite board game that would add an interesting twist?  Are there restrictions on deck building (e.g. commons only, no creatures, no healing, etc.) that could make for an interesting little mini-tournament for you and your friends?

All of these things are of course a great prelude to the real point of our hobby – to play games!  Playing games with friends and live opponents is the final piece that makes everything else worthwhile.  And money or no, you can always do that with what you have already got (unless of course you have to pay people to play you, but that is another topic that really needs to be addressed by a different kind of professional… J).

While all of the activities we talked about above can easily be done at home, there is an even better place to enjoy them and get the most out of your efforts; a place where there are lots of other folks who share your passion, creativity and love of the hobby – the game shop! 

Obviously your local game shop is a great place to play your favorite games, but it can also be a great meeting point for other projects as well.  You can set up terrain making nights for your game, so that you and the other regular players can help each other design and build cool stuff for future games.  How about scheduling a painting night?  A basing & flocking night?  A bits swap event for trading cool extra parts?  A card trading and deck building night?  A mini-tournament (not ‘sanctioned’, just for fun) for your favorite card game?  Or maybe organizing a campaign, and then having campaign planning and play nights? (That is happening right now in our shop…) Many board games include rules for mini-campaigns – how about scheduling a series of events to play that out? All of these are a great way to enjoy your favorite games as well as a cost effective way to get the most out what you already have purchased.

The bottom line is to take advantage of the current economic environment to pursue all of those little projects you have always wanted to do, but never really had the time to.  Sometimes a forced break from something is really a blessing in disguise.  Remember though, when the money does return (and you know it will, it always does) you want to make sure you give back by supporting the local store that supported you - make as many of your purchases through them as you possibly can.  This way they can continue to offer the same services to others who love our hobby but have hit tough times, as they offered to you.  Now when you make those purchases though, you will have confidence of knowing that what you are buying won’t just end up on a wish list of projects.  Eventually you will get the most out of it, simply because lately you have been doing exactly that for all of the stuff you had bought before!

Now, back to the fun…

Dan

I have started (or rather resumed from earlier this summer) a new project – 1/72 Modern US forces.  The plan is also to build an insurgent force to play against as well – something set in Iraq or Afghanistan. I know we can never really simulate a completely what is going on in those two lands, but some insight into the challenges the combatants face could prove enlightening.

I also really want to get the 1/72 scale stuff going at the shop.  The models are pretty darn good, they are very affordable, and they are available in a wide variety of periods. In addition to the modern stuff, I have a bunch of WWII stuff ready to base up and use as well.  Plus I also have my eye on some WWI forces, Vietnam and Korean War era battles, some…well, I digress.

These forces are being based for use with the Combat Cards (yes, they work for modern as well!) which means they have to be based into some sort of unit structure. I chose “fire teams” for the US stuff as that is a fundamental part of the small unit deployment. A problem arose though, when I tried to mount the figures on my favorite round style bases. On a smaller, more manageable base the figures were too crowded together and looked a little silly. But when I mounted them on the next bigger size base, they looked too far apart and the base itself became rather cumbersome to handle.

So I had to find an alternative solution. Since the command units were going to be a single figure on a single round base, the thought occurred to me to mount the teams on “joined” single round bases – i.e. a chain of single bases that resemble a stream of bubbles (or so I think).  By flattening a small section of each round base, joining them with wood glue and then reinforcing it with a small section of craft stick over the top I was able to quickly and efficiently create the needed bases. I then mounted the figures on them (after a painstaking process of removing them from the circular bases), added some water putty/plaster to hide the underlying structure and then proceeded into my usual routine for painting them. So far it looks like they are going to work out very well.

I also have a pair of Stryker personnel carriers and an Apache helicopter to finish up to go with the troops. Then I will have to get the insurgent forces ready, but hopefully those should take quite as long as I now have the method down. I will update the blog as soon as I get more stuff done.

Until next time…

Happy hunting!

Dan