Village Games' Blog

We had another week of the combat cards campaign at the shop recently. It was a new scenario, derived from the fact Russian forces won the majority of battles in the previous round, which had the Germans on the offensive again.   

Everybody showed up eager to play – especially the German players, who wanted to avenge their rather lackluster performance the time before. All of the games proved to be very intense and full of on the edge moments.  On a couple of the battlefields the games went right up to the final time limit before they resolved themselves. An exciting week indeed! 

In the end, this round proved to be a rough one for the Russians, as the Germans took three out of the four games.  Fortunately, most of the German wins were only by a narrow margin which still keeps things close. Each scenario though, is taking on more and more significance with the close number of victories for both sides. 

Well, until next time enjoy the pictures… 

Dan

Recently the shop hosted a preliminary round of the Games Workshop ‘Ard Boyz 40K Tournament. It is a pretty hardcore tournament, with players fielding large armies and playing extended duration games.  Unfortunately, the ‘Ard Boyz does not require the armies used to be painted, so an opportunity is lost for some impressive looking tables. None-the-less the tournament is a good one, with the players having a great (but exhausting) time. 

The next round for the winners is the regional semi-finals, one of which is being held at the shop on August 8. We have already had participants signing up from Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. For the winners of the regionals the next stop will be the nationals in Chicago.

Anyways, we are planning on putting on a top-notch program for the regionals in August so it should be a great time. If you are in the area that day and interested in some cool 40K I would highly recommend stopping by and checking out the action. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the battles raging that at the preliminaries. 

Until next time… 

Watch Out For ‘Dem Orks! 

Dan 

Just a couple of shots from the Saturday morning modern micro armor group. They have renamed themselves the ‘MSP Treadheads Modern Micro Armor Group’ (‘MSPTMMAG’ for short?). Anyway, they are really trying to get the word out and recruit new players. They have been running a variety of interesting and topical scenarios to show the possible insights that folks can garner through modern gaming.

The group has also been trying out a variety of different rule sets so there are choices when it comes to playing out a specific scenario, depending on what the emphasis of the scenario is. If you might be interested, I would recommend checking out the group’s posts on our forums for the next time they are going to be at the shop. They really are a fun group, and incredibly detail oriented!

The scenario pictured below I believe was a US infantry company dueling with insurgents in Iraq, but I am not certain on that.

Until next time, enjoy the pictures…

Dan

Recently we kicked off the Village Games’ Summer ’09 Combat Card Campaign. It is set in WWII during the battle of Kursk on the Eastern Front. Specifically, it is dealing with the battle for Ponyri Station.

Folks had been building their armies for this for quite a few weeks. People did this partly because the campaign had the prerequisite of painted armies and terrain, and partly because everybody who wanted to participate wanted the campaign to be a very cool event. On the first night the hard work really showed off with some outstanding armies. So good in fact, that uniforms and camouflage patterns were even correct for the theater and time period – and many of the armies even had aircraft painted in the correct camo schemes!

All of the forces had to be built off a proscribed order of battle (copies are posted on the Combat Cards’ website: http://www.CombatCards.info). The lists are historically based and balanced, with players selecting off of a menu system. In addition, players had to bring their own terrain (up to two square feet’s worth) and, of course, their own copy of the Cards.

As part of the campaign, folks will be play testing a supplemental deck for the Combat Cards – the ‘Campaign Cards’. It is a really innovative way to incorporate player’s battle records into the campaign and rewarding them for success, without condemning their opponents to certain defeat if they don’t have as successful a record.  From the feedback I have heard so far, everybody is very excited about it.

The campaign is going to have a great rhythm to it – the scenario for the next session is posted online about a week ahead of time (again at the Combat Cards site) and includes tactical tips for both sides. Then, before the actual night’s battles begin, all of the players gather together to discuss the scenario and go over the intricacies of it. Then we have a little ‘tactics talk’ – a general discussion of modern strategies and tactics and how they relate to the Cards. Then it is off to the battlefield to test our skills! Afterwards we gathered back up to debrief and discuss how the battles went, what tactics would have worked better, etc.

For the first week of the campaign the Russians got the better of the battles – three out of four wins were Russian! This will greatly affect the next scenario – as well as grant the victors access to the Campaign Cards for the next session. So far, I would have to say, the campaign is off to a great start!

Until next time…

Hail to the victorious Motherland!

Dan