Another Review of Warhammer Quest by Fantasy Flight Games

Though it's been out for a while (See Scott's previous review!), I only recently managed to get my mitts on a copy of Warhammer Quest The Adventure Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games. As many of you reading this will remember, I am a big fan of both card games and cooperative games. My favorite card game is hands down the Lord of the Rings card game, and this game seemed to share a similar concept. Because I am so well versed in the Lord of the Rings LCG, my review of this game will be colored largely by that. Spoiler alert: This game is very very good!

The Concept
Warhammer Quest is a cooperative dungeon crawler card game. Unlike Fantasy Flight's Living Card Game. the game is meant for 2-4 players, and scales accordingly by ensuring the heroes always have 4 actions between them. Unlike a bulky board game, the entire game is done through cards which makes setup relatively simple, and the playing space relatively small. Still, the game feels like an epic dungeon crawler complete with everything you'd hope to experience: loot, leveling up, and glorious combat.

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Netrunner: Democracy and Dogma Review

Hello All

Following on the AAR I posted up a week or so ago, today I have review of the latest data pack Democracy and Dogma. Myself and Maz give our thoughts on the cards in the pack, look at a few combos and options on how to use the cards.

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MW Panzer Company vs U.S. Infantry

By Luke Melia

The board before deployment. 

Andy and I wanted to get a practice game in before the tournament at the Williamsburg Muster so we decided to face off with our lists.  The tournament was 1500 points, in an open format.   Guess what I was playing?  That's right folks, Americans.  I know that comes as a shock to many of you, regardless despite my misgivings I made the sacrifice to play the old US of A.  Andy ran a Panzer Company out of North Africa.  The mission was Counterattack.  I used to absolutely hate this mission, but it is steadily growing on me the more I play and develop strategies for it.

My basic list is
2 Infantry Platoons
4 Lees
4 105mm Howitzers
4 155mm Howitzers
AA Platoon with 2 Bofors and 2 dismounted .50 cals
Recon Platoon
3 57mm AT Guns with 2 attached bazookas

Andy's List (please forgive me I am going off memory here so it may not be 100% accurate)

2 Command Stugs
3 Stugs
3 Panzer MKIV
1 Panzer Grenadier Platoon

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Bolt Action - My LRDG project comes to a conclusion, well sort of!

By Patch

Earlier this year I was fortunate to receive some of the new Warlord Games  Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) Chevrolet trucks and one of their Jeeps to review. I found them to be amazing and I was bitten by the LRDG bug. Something about their roguish appearance and mish-mash of vehicles made them truly appear like pirates of the desert and had me hooked. I reviewed those vehicles and provided a painting guide here.

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LRDG (Off Topic) - Episode 28

LRDG (Off Topic) - Episode 28

WARNING THIS PODCAST CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND ADULT CONTENT!!!

Greetings one and all, the LRDG is back in the studio. In this "special" episode the guys are joined for serious game discussion, karaoke singing and puns galore by the the former member of the Dweller's Below Podcast, the Kraken/ That Ol' Egg himself...  Chris Cousins! 

We briefly discuss "Magical Cards," gaming companies that actually support events based around their games and 80's music before getting into our main topics. We mourn the death of Warhammer Fantasy and talk about one of its successors... Kings Of Wars. Of course, the Turkey is flowing sooooo...  these discussion take some time and might be prone to occasional entertaining, digressions about... Well... lots of things.

Buckle up and enjoy! This one goes old school! 

WARNING THIS PODCAST CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND ADULT CONTENT!!!

If you would like to let the guys know about how much you hated (or loved) this episode, you can now find, and contact, us on Facebook under: LRDG Podcast. 

You can find this fine episode in the iTunes store or your can directly download it to your digital device HERE.

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Star Wars X-Wing: Ghost vs Gozanti Epic Game

Steven, Andrew, and Sean played a 200 point game of X-Wing. We wanted it to feel like a battle in Rebels, so had the VCX-100 "Ghost" facing off against a Gozanti Assault Carrier along with some support.

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HMGS Board of Directors Election

As most of you know, we are big supporters of HMGS and encourage all of you to become members to support our hobby.  Over the years, we have become very interested in how the major HMGS Conventions - Cold Wars, Historicon and Fall-In - are run.  We think that the HMGS organization and the wonderful conventions that they run are a big part of keeping this wonderful hobby growing and thriving.  HMGS is having an election to pick the next Board of Directors, and we would like to encourage you to vote, no matter who you prefer.  However, we do have an endorsement to make.

The WWPD Crew has become quite close with Keven Kelley over the years.  First, as an online and Flames of War gamer, then as a contact with HMGS and more recently just a good friend.  On the business side, WWPD has had a wonderful time dealing with Kevin when coordinating our frequent appearances at the HMGS Cons.  As you all can imagine, there is quite a bit of coordination between Luke and HMGS to get the show off the ground.  In most cases, we wound up dealing with Kevin in his position of Treasurer, or he has stepped in to facilitate communication between us and the rest of HMGS.  It has been a pleasure doing business with Mr. Kelley.

On a personal note, we have very much enjoyed gaming with Kevin over the years - both online and in person - and we never fail to have a good time.  Kevin has great insights into games and game systems, but also has intelligent and thoughtful things to say about the state of our hobby, the direction of HMGS, and just life in general.  It is always a pleasure.

We feel confident that Kevin will be an outstanding HMGS Board Member, and bring his thoughtful, analytical and practical mind to the many challenges facing the future of HMGS, the Cons and our hobby.  Let this serve as our enthusiastic endorsement of his candidacy.

You can read more about Kevin's platform (and all the other candidates) here.

Vote!

Jon, Luke, Eric, and Steven

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Long Time, No Heer: My Return to Flames of War

By Mitch Reed with Pictures from David Garvin

In the past I have penned more than a few articles on Flames of War that cover many aspects of the hobby, however now I cannot recall the last time I posted an article about the game.  I have not played Flames of War since the “Fall-In” tournament in early November 2015, a fact that shocked me because I was such an engaged player over the last few years.  My lack of play was not a conscious decision, and I guess I got wrapped up in other great games where I did not miss playing FoW.  Maybe a lot has to do with the fact that the new lines from Battlefront (Team Yankee and the Pacific) are not in my “wheel house”.  While they are great additions to the hobby neither of them gave me the same excitement as the Second World War and Eurocentric version of the game.

I guess it was an email from the I-95 Gamers Yahoo group many months ago that got me back into the fold.  It was for a Normandy themed tournament at Huzzah Hobbies in mid-April, and I quickly signed up for it.  The organizer for this event was David Garvin; a name I have never heard of him before and I thought (incorrectly) that I knew most of the folks who would try to organize a local tournament.

Bocage..... Sucks

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Netrunner: Tournament AAR

Hello All

Ben here from Breakthrough Assault, that small site from across the pond. It might surprise you but I'm not here today to chat about Flames of War, no I'm here to chat about (well, show you) Netrunner and A Game of Thrones the card game from Fantasy Flight Games.

I have been playing living card games now since last summer as with baby number two on the way I knew my painting time was about to disappear and I wanted something new to play that didn't need painting. A couple friends ran me through a few games of Netrunner and what was meant to be something I picked up a few sets of here and there and turned into a collecting obsession... I really must have all the cards! The price point to get into Netrunner was a little bigger than I hoped (but probably still cheaper than the average 40k army these days), so when A Game of Thrones was released I decided to pick it up too. I'm a massive fan of the show, I didn't want to decide to get into the game a few years down the line and have another big price point to over come.

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Star Wars Armada: Rieekan MC30 swarm vs Motti Dual-ISD

Rieekan leads a team of MC30s to strike against admiral Motti's twin ISD Fleet. The mission is Advanced Gunnery -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven

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The Bulgar Prince vs Late Roman Legion a 28mm manly scale battle of Art De La Guerre

By Eric Lauterbach

At Cold Wars I went a little crazy and did something out of character for me - I purchased  a 28mm Bulgar army in the flea market for a ancients.  The price was reasonable, but the army was big and cost rather large for my usual sensibilities. I bought it anyway with nothing else at the con nipping at my hobby dollars.  So for the first game with my brand new 28mm army, I played Sean's Late Romans. It is not that much of stretch, Mark Greenwald tells me. He has read accounts of Patrician Roman forces encountering early Bulgar type armies. So with that said, it was off to battle my new force.  The Bulgars mainly consist of Bow armed Cavalry that is medium or heavy plus impetuous heavy cavalry nobles that can be elite. To counter this Sean went Cataphract heavy with the standard heavy Infantry Legionnaire component.

Bulgar lines.

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 24

Download the episode here
Anarchy reigns supreme as Mike misses out on Episode 24! In this episode we interview Wayne from Battlefront about the upcoming Pacific books Gung Ho and Banzai. There's the usual noob news and the week that was in gaming.​

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Star Wars Armada: Dual MC80 vs Motti Dual ISD

Admiral Motti's Dual ISDs wage battle against General Dodonna's twin MC80s. The Mission is Dangerous Territory -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/wwpdsteven

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Saipan Invaded!!! USMC vs Japanese Beach Assault

By Eric Lauterbach

Hey, the new USMC and Japanese PTO books are in the WWPD grubby hands so its time for a Saipan style beach assault! Luke whipped up two Japanese lists and I came up with two USMC lists for a side by side 1500 on 1200 point game. Yes for the first test we always do, we get silly and have 3000 points on the table.  The beach assault mission is very similar to the Omaha beach landing mission and is good for that once or twice a year "get all the toys out" game. It has some completely different rules than a normal mission the biggest one is casualties are irrelevant.  Yup you heard me its purely on taking objectives by turn 12. Killed USMC infantry and man-packed guns get the zombie rule and come back as the next wave of troops. The victory is determined by when or if you get the objectives.

Japanese deployment

For this mission the zones are sea zone, surf zone and then beach zone and then it is the hinterland zone.

We added a few LVT in this pic for dramatic effect 

Hollywood photo.

Another Hollywood pic the actual number of landing craft we use is far less but looks stupid in the pics.

Japanese start pinned

Reminder this is two games side by side on a slightly narrower boards.

The Japanese have few bunkers that can crack the LVTs but we get lucky coming in.

The bush represents obstacles we treat it like wire.

The Japanese are two different types of company one fortified and one confident trained.

Luke intermixing his infantry platoons.. playing the rules not the game. 

John fails to pin both platoons 

Assault checked with Japanese attached HMG fire.

On the left the USMC is dealing with heavy bunker fire.

The first assault is checked.

Getting pounded but the Amtraks keep up the fire.

Time for the second wave of assaults.

Thank god the USMC pinned that bunker.

The Japanese run out of infantry in the hand to hand fighting.

The Marines kill the HMG bunker with satchel charges.

Things a looking good they have a toe hold on the beach.

Things are not going as well on the right.

Marines take more fire from the bunker line

Time to move on to the next bunker.

John going for it again

The next bunker goes down to USMC charges.

The Marines killed the bunker but took massive casualties nothing much left.

The Marines need to recycle and get the next wave.

The Japanese have moved troops down the line to re-enforce Tojo hill.

The second wave of troops is late!

The assaulting continues on the right.

The Marines second wave is coming in and they get a flamethrower Sherman

The second wave is slowly coming in.

The Japanese 75mm bunker is killing Amtanks left and right.

The Sherman with nothing but flame can't do much to bunkers at all.

Still trying to crack the line.

The Japanese have been getting troops in as well.

These silly light tanks will be a huge problem for the Marines.

Nothing but MGs but enough to generate pins.

Its taking too long to get the second wave up.

The Japanese try and take out the flame tank.

But the Niki team gets gunned down.

The second wave is clear obstacles and moving in the hinterland.

More Japanese tanks arrive.

John assaults the center 

John takes the trench line.

The Marines kill the infantry in the trenches but that bunker has to be killed to win.

The fire from the bunker and all the light tanks is too much the Marines can not get the assault off.

The Marines are running out of time to clear the objectives of Japanese.

The last Japanese infantry stand keeps making his morale checks.

The last chance assault fails.

With the turn limit reached it was too much for the USMC. Just enough Japanese were left to contest the objectives and prevent the win for the Marines. The game was long when you have to go 12 turns for a outcome so make this a all day game for planning. The Japanese tanks are too much for the Marines who are really expensive and good tank killing assets are limited. So I would probably reconfigure the USMC lists for this eventuality of hordes of Japanese light tanks. I can see this being a unrealistic crazy arms race between light tank and LVTs which should be a infantry on infantry fight.

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