Gooooood Evening Sports Fans.....

Hi all

Wow! So looking back through my old posts to see when I last wrote about Blood Bowl, only to discover it was well over a year and a half ago!

Oh yeah, this post is about Blood Bowl... oops!

Here's a link to the previous post - https://dagobbosgrotto.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-newold-game.html

So anyway, I was looking for some online gaming a couple of weeks back, playing Warhammer Total War and Scythe, when I stumbled across an ad for Blood Bowl II.  Instantly I wanted that game, I'd played the first version on PS3, enjoyed it and then my son moved out and took his consoles with him.  I tend not to play too many digital games as I find most of them too annoyingly similar, but I do enjoy strategy games and love BB so I duly purchased the game on Steam and have been playing it ever since! Then I got the BB novels by Matt Foebeck off my shelf and reread them! then I purchased the kindle version of a short story anthology for BB. The obsession began...

Finally, I cracked out the box I had sitting on my shelf for so long gathering dust and started painting miniatures!

Meet the Ubersreik Underworld:

 

The Double U's are a mainly human team based in the Free City of Ubersreik, part of the Reikland and not too far from the infamous Castle Drachenfels. Ubersreik (click the link) is a major trading centre along the mighty Reik river and across the main trading routes to Brettonia.  The city is currently in a state of upheaval, following a removal of the ruling family - the Von Jungfreund, by the Emperor himself.  It is also the setting for WHFRP 4ed and a bloody dodgy place to boot! The Underworld are financed and owned by a very shady character indeed, the mysterious "Gobbo", although he is most definitely not a greenskin, that much is just about all anybody knows about him...

As for the team, they are up and coming, or so it is said (mostly by themselves). After a rather rocky debut, which they lost in the dying seconds, new blood has arrived to strengthen the team and drive them forward.

Yes I managed to play a game of BB for the first time in 25 years, against Damon's Orcs and lost 3-2 with the final touch down coming in the last turn of the game due to a double fumble by my Thrower. Despite that, it was great fun and I'm determined to get more games in before joining a local league, when they hit their second season next year.

Next weeks post, we will meet the team!

hope you enjoy

dGG

Blood, Sweat & Horses - update

Hi all

As my regular readers should be aware by now (if not, why not?), I've been working on my own game  - Blood, Sweat & Horses (Equorum Sudorum Sanquinis) for a couple of years now.  Starting out as a hobbyists side project for my own amusement and developing with the help of some awesome co-designers into a very good (imho) game, that is proving to be popular outside of my gaming group.

I have blogged about the development of this game before, so won't go into it too much. What I will do is let the pictures do the talking - from the beginnings (sourcing some minis and making a board) to demonstrating the game to a games publisher in Svotland.

minis from Irregular Miniatures

humble beginnings

the development of the main board

the very first playtest

that led to a vital piece of the game becoming developed

and the event deck coming into existence

and finally the missing piece of the game is devised

game boards for each player

the second playtest

with added nasty surprises

professionally produced cards which I love

and the game looks the part - more playtesting required to "play" the part

so onto Six Realms - a charity event here in East kent

and Broadside

with these two reprobates!!

the printable version of the board

and my dice tray - sorry Joe

later versions of the game now developing the event points system

Uncon 4.0 - it proves to be very popular

and CBK Gaming seem to enjoy it too

Uncon 5.0 goers seem to love it as much as those from previous Uncons

Family that races together...

still a very popular club game

and finally a published games designer enjoys the game at TTS (sorry for the blurry photo)

There are exciting times ahead for this game, as I move into (I hope!) the next stages of it's development.  More as and when it happens!

hope you enjoy
dGG

TableTop Scotland 2019

Hi all

For my first real post in 5 months...

Let's start off nice and gentle with a trip up north to TableTop Scotland (TTS). This August a small cadre of Uncon gamers made the gruelling 11 hour drive from Kent to Perth with half of the library for TTS 2019 - a gaming convention held annually (in it's 2nd year now) at the Dewars Centre in Perth.  TTS is the biggest gaming 'con north of the border and (i'm sticking my neck out here) the second biggest in the country after the UK Expo in Birmingham.

So what is TTS? Well it is primarily a board games con with all sorts of other RPGs and Tabletop action sprinkled in. For more detailed information check out the link here https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/. With thousands of attendees the weekend was absolutely buzzing! 

So why travel 500+ miles to go to a games con? Well, Uncon and All Around the Board (AATB) has a special relationship with TTS.  Last year, just prior to their first convention, a fire in the place where the fellow providing the board games library meant that they would have no board games available for attendees to play! Disaster!!

Step forward Uncon founder and all round lovely fellow - Darius, who offered the use of his library for the event (200+ titles, now over 300+). Of course the guys at TTS were incredibly grateful and welcomed Darius and a couple of hardcore AATB members with open arms.

This year, Darius was once again asked to provide his library to significantly enhance the official (and very impressive) collection and in need of a break from real life, I jumped at the chance of taking a long weekend in a beautiful country playing games!

beautiful country doesn't even begin to cover it!

The Uncon gang!

happy Gobbo

Anyway, on with the show! TTS is over the whole weekend and we turned up at 8am to help the organisers label the library and get set up. Doors opened at 9am and I immediately get drawn to the one outright wargame. This lovely participation from the War of the Roses using the "To the Strongest" ruleset. The miniatures provided by the Claymore club were beautifully painted and the game was fun although the rules were a little bland for my tastes.

I then went onto play loads of board games including the latest hotness - Jaws.  This was a lot of fun, played over 2 acts, firstly on Amity Island and then on the boat. What happens in Act 1 directly influences the play on Act 2, which I really like.  It is also a 1 vs many game, with one player taking on the role of the shark and the others taking on the main character inc Chief Brody.

I also managed to play some of my favourites including Sycthe (7 players) and Capt Sonar (a real time submarine hunt game with 8 players) and a rather amazing "Starship Bridge" simulator, where I took on the role of science officer.  This digital game experience was excellent with Jess taking on the role of Captain which came with the infamous captain's chair. With information coming from weapons, engineering and deep scans she coped really well and we kept our sector of space clear from enemy combatants.

I also, crucially got to play my very own design "Blood, Sweat & Horses" with some of the folks from the event inc a games designer/publisher, who really loved the game - reigniting my desire to see this game into published form.

Overall TTS was amazing, superbly organised by Dave, Duncan and the team, friendly and most importantly stuffed full of fun events, games, seminars and activities.  Even 4 hours spent in the local A&E didn't dampen my spirits although it did slow me down.... I hadn't even had a drink!!

very few pictures of the actual event sadly, as I was too busy enjoying it! Suffice to say I will do better next year.

hope you enjoy

dGG