Wednesday 7 February 2018

A good weekend!

Hi all

Yes I'm back from having a brilliant weekend in Plymouth attending PAW 2018.  A very welcoming bunch of folks, I was given a large space next to Wargames Terrain Workshop manned by the main man Dave Stone.  This proved to be both a blessing and a curse as I got to chat to my buddy Dave and ogle his amazing miniatures and terrain as well as playing a game of Death Match, but I had to firmly sit on my wallet as I desperately tried to resist buying all of his amazing dragon models!

Thankfully for the sake of my bank balance I had a few people who wanted to play the game....

My daughter came down (across?) with me and helped me with the hosting and very much appreciated it was too!



So I took a few snaps as players came up and played.  The first players to step up were a father/son combo.  They decided to not use Shaun and Ed, instead opting for post apoc Fred and Scooby Doo from Mystery Inc.




Sadly Fred didn't make it to the Winchester, but Scooby did and the son part of the combo won the game.


Next, my daughter tried her hand at the game for the first time and took the SotD men, although she didn't get very far...










before the boys fell to the horde.  Up I step with a cocky smile and take Daphne and Velma from Mystery Inc.




Despite designing the table and extensively playtesting the rules I didn't do well, although the highlight was Velma kickstarting a Harley before bogging down in a mass of zombie flesh...

The next chap to play took Shaggy and Scoob and did really well, with some very inventive game play.





Making it to the Winchester with a few zombie kills on the way.

On the Sunday, the first players were a mother and son combo.  This was probably my favourite game of the whole weekend, with mum taking Velma and son taking Fred.  The game went on for a long time with Velma racking up a staggering 18 zombie kills with her chainsaw and protecting a rather weak Fred (2!), making it to the Winchester in time for them to both have a pint and wait for it to all blow over.




The last player of the day, was quite obviously a long standing Roleplayer and his romp through post apocalyptic London was both amusing and inventive with myself and my daughter allowing some of his more outrageous ideas just to see how they panned out, including him doughnutting one of the cars in order to run down a slew of zombies before the car stalled and ran out of fuel. This left his character - Ed stranded and he quickly fell to a horde of zeds!!





Unfortunately I was so busy that I din't get to play any of the other games except Dave's Death Match, but here are some of the tables.  The one below was the winner of the "Best Demonstration Game" award and was a really beautiful (and huge!) Starship Troopers type game.








The below pics are of my battle against Dave at Death Match.  Btw Death Match is a really cool game, very tactical despite the low model count.  the tactics revolve around a lovely game mechanic - it also doesn't hurt to have beautifully painted models to play with.






So a brilliant weekend drew to a close, with a very exhausted Gobbo and daughter.  But there was one last bonus to the weekend and that was this....


Yup! my game won the "Best Participation Game" award!  I'm absolutely stunned by the award and literally didn't know what to say to the chaps who presented it to me.  I do however feel that it validated the hard work I've put into the game over the last 6 months!


Lastly is my swag that I bought at the bring and buy two board games that I'm sure will be just awesome to play.  What is not shown is a rather cool vehicle which I will be showing in the next couple of weeks.


Finally I would like to thank Clive Dudley for inviting me to attend the show, it was my absolute pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute (bar the driving...)

My mojo is now restored to a high level and I've already set up the board back in da Grotto, ready for the next chapter of my ATZ campaign, which will start back up again next week.  In the meantime I suggest you re-read the campaign to date over on my ATZ page (here) to remind yourself of the story so far...

hope you enjoy
dGG

26 comments:

  1. Was a great weekend mate, with a lot more time time to chat than we normally have at Salute. Congratulations on the trophy very well deserved ( Funny the two games that won both have WTW scenery on them ! LOL) Very nice pictures of the event mate and glad you've got your mojo back, look forward to seeing the next instalment of your ATZ campaign

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    1. Yeah, I enjoyed the weekend immensely. No coincidence that WTW terrain featured in the winning games 😄

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  2. It looks like you had a great time, Andy. Well deserved on winning your best participation game award. That must have been the icing on the cake for you. Most of the other games you showed looked really cool. All in all, it looked like a great event. I'm not surprised you've got your mojo back. That must have given you a massive confidence boost.

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  3. Marvellous post, Andy, full of wonderful pics, lots of interesting insights (loved your thoughts on your participants) and some loot too - and many mighty congrats on the well-deserved award too :-) Good to see the mojo is high and you're raring to go... Is it going to be all ATZ or is "Bushido" making a return to the Grotto too?

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    1. ATZ at the mo Simon, some Blood Bowl and some other bits from Xmas haul. Bushido is still very much a go-to game with loads of cool minis to come but not for a couple of months

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  4. Great set up and a deserved win. Looks like it was a great day out.

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  5. Well done mate. Table looked fabulous! Nice loot haul as well.

    I am intrigued by the mention of the vehicle though now!

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    1. No mystery for me I saw what he got, but won't steal his thunder ! LOL

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    2. The vehicle is on the paint table now mate 😊

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  6. Well done on all fronts, putting the game on, having a good time and being rewarded for doing so!
    Board looks great and no doubt would have been a great draw for punters and those that took part seemed to have had a ood time too.
    "Dead of Winter" is a great game, with really good replay value too.

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    1. I played DoW last night and it was really good Joe, I agree it looks like a game I’ll play again and again.

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  7. Congratulations! Absolutely top stuff Andy!

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  8. Huzzah Team Gobbo! :-)
    Glad to hear you and your lass had a great weekend Andy and the in-game shots of visitors enjoying your game speak volumes - and I'm so glad you managed to get your photographers hat on 'mid action' to record it for posterity!
    Nice photo's of the other games, with Dave's Death Match arena looking awesome - picking up the "Best Participation Game" award is a fitting reward for your efforts mate :-)

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    1. Thanks dude, your rules were a big help of course!

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    2. I can't take any credit at all mate - the rules were "Total AR:SE", and the hard graft was all yours :-)

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  9. dGG - Your game looks ace mate, the table is spot on and I can see why you won the best participation game. I've not had time to go back to see how you created this but can only say that the end result must have been worth the effort.
    It sounds like your players had a good time, that is unless they got eaten, but those that survived must have had a brill time.
    Well done

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    1. I hope they did mate, I think they did anyway!

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  10. Looks like a lot of fun. Well done. And congrats on the award!!

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    1. It was a lot of fun! Can’t wait to game on it myself 😊

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  11. Well done, Andy. Always nice to have all your effort and hard work appreciated. What did Mrs Gobbo think of your award? Pride of place on the mantlepiece?

    Glad you had a good timr - sounds like the driving was out-weighed by the day itself - that's a win in my book.

    And looking forward to seeing what happens next on the Isle of Thanet.

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    1. Thanks Jez, I’m trying to persuade her for a prime location.....
      It was definitely a great weekend and yes it definitely was worth the drive.

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  12. Excellent looking table dGG, and great to read your hobby mojo is returning. :)

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    1. Thanks PC! I’m hopefully gonna throw some dice for the first time in ages and lay some paint down as well! Mojo is thrumming

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