Building a Tervigon? A phrase for the slacker in all of us.

Todays little technical malfunction tickled my funny bone somewhat and I began to think that "Building a Tervigon" should enter common language as a phrase to make you sound busy when you're not really doing anything. For example:

"Daddy you've been in the toilet for ages, what are you doing?"
"I'm building a tervigon pumpkin."

Anyone else fancy coming up with some whitty uses for the phrase "building a tervigon"?

(FoW) - My First Foray into Flames of War

Last night I met up with Daryl (40k Daemons player) at Maelstrom for a trial run of Flames of War. Since we didn't have any WW2 models, we trialled the game using Epic 40k miniatures (it was odd how well the Space Marines mimicked the Germans....).


The gameplay is refreshing quick, and relatively simple. The biggest departure from other wargames that I've played over the last 24 years is that the roll to hit is based on your opponent's level of experience, rather than your own. This is to simulate how well the opposing army has been trained in utilising cover and generally keeping out of harms way. The other big difference is just how easy it is to resolve an attack, especially when it comes to tanks - either the shot penetrates and destroys the tank, or else the crew bail out. That's it!


We picked two 1,000pt lists, an infantry-heavy Soviet side with a few howitzers and T-34 tanks, and a German army of Panzer-IV tanks and half-track mounted troopers. The game lasted under an hour, and ended in victory for the USSR. The battle was swung by the overwhelming rate of fire that came from the Red Army infantry teams - the Russians outnumbered the Germans by 4:1 and despite the protection of the half-tracks, they made very short work of the elite German units. The howitzers were also quite effective when they dropped their 6" square templates on a unit, however we found that it usually took several 'Ranging In' attempts before the barrage found it's target, and by that time the opponent was granted a hefty save, due apparently to them being able to prepare for the incoming shot because of the time taken for the multiple 'Ranging In' attempts.


All in all, Flames of War seems to be a quick, fun and relatively simple system to get to grips with. It was our first game and, using 1,000pt armies, we were done in an hour - including time spent checking the Quickplay Reference Sheets for the exact rules. By the end of the hour, I'd be happy to say I'd grasped the main game mechanics, although of course there are a few special rules to learn (though nothing like the amount in 40k!). I'm certainly not thinking of taking up FoW at the exclusion of all else (ie I'll still be playing 40k and building my Tyranid and Squat armies), but it does seem like a fun game and something I will be dedicating some time to over the sumer.


(PS - since this is predominantly a 40k forum, I will prefix my blog entries on this topic with 'FoW' so people can filter out the non-40k entries).

The Dice Man Cometh

Can't believe that no-one else on the blog has mentioned this yet, but we now have our own Claws and Fists dice!

(a bit blurry but you get the idea)

Hopefully, Andy will edit this post to include where he ordered them from but they are awesome...(Andy: I got them from the good people at Dice and Games)

Look Who Made the Front Page...

Just a quick one from me (I know I've been saying that a lot recently) but a few familiar faces just made the front page of the "Whats New Today" on the GW website here. This was taken during game two of the Doubles Tournament on Saturday, from Left to Right you can see Alex and Matt (From the Fang), my Chief Minion Gav (who looks like he was blogging), Me and then Chris my partner in the doubles.

Well thats all for now, I'll try and find time this eve to post more about the weekend so check back soon.

TheBaron Out!

I rolled: 7 (4/3)

Improving on Perfection

As regular players, we've all played more than our fair share of the standard missions. Of course, there is the Battle Missions book to dip into, although I hear that some folks don't rate it that highly. Personally I've not tried it yet, so I'll reserve comment for now, but my initial feeling is that the games therein are very specific.

So my question is, what would you do to make the game better?

This weekend, I've been thinking about simple tweeks to the existing missions to add a little randomness and spice to proceedings. I'll publish my thoughts once I've heard yours!

G.

The Model

I got round my girlfriend's house yesterday after work to fin her wearing my Team C&F t-shirt! Obviously she doesn't realise that the wearing of the sacred item is an honour bestowed to very few people. However, she does look better in it than I do.