May The Fourth Be With You!

Yes, it's Monday night, game night. Celebrating 4th May this week with a game of Star Wars X-Wing. Dave brought his fantastic miniature collection and Lewis supplied the fabulous terrain.

Greg and I were the X-Wing fighter pilots, while Dave had Chewbacca piloting the Millenium Falcon (while Han was fixing the turret?), in a mad dash to collect the stranded BB-8 Droid.

Lewis and Blair were on the Dark-side, with a bunch of Tie-fighters, also after the droid. The table and ideas based loosely on scenes from The Force Awakens. I also had the movie soundtrack playing as mood music. A great game that saw a victory for the Empire. The Millenium Falcon sustaining too many hits before the X-Wings could provide support. A great game! May the fourth be with you!

That's not right! Hand me the hydrospanner!

Star Wars X-Wing + The Force Awakens

Chocolate Empire. 

On boxing day I went to the movies to see Star Wars VII, The Force Awakens, in 3D! I really enjoyed it. Funny moments included:

1. Harrison Ford appears and a young boy behind me yells out in excitement, "Indiana Jones!"
2. The boy is so excited, he yells it out twice more.
3. Luke's so surprised to have a visitor, he is literally speechless.

Hopefully that review didn't give away too much. Seriously though, I loved being taken back to the 70s (when I first saw Star Wars). It was like being a kid again.

Thanks to Dave's growing collection of miniatures, our games of Star Wars X-Wing have continued to keep us guessing the best strategy for defeating the Empire. The Alliance often takes a hammering from those dreaded Tie-fighters. This game was a good one for the Rebel Scum. However, a few more turns may have left them as space dust.

You might notice that my ship looks rather like the giant mobile trading post Sandcrawler from the desert sands of Tatooine (where Luke Skywalker first encounters the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO). Indeed a close inspection of my cards shows my Outlaw Tech to be suspiciously like a Jawa! Scum only!

God bless you and enjoy your week!

Immortals Club + Monday Game Night

Immortals Club, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Monday game night at Immortals Club in Hamilton... and what a night it was! I went down to collect painted 54mm Perry miniatures for the epic Gallipoli diorama, part of The Great War Exhibition to be unveiled on Anzac day 2015. Dave brought his Star Wars miniatures along as well, so we ended up in a battle amongst the stars against the Empire (Daniel, an expert X-wing player from the club). There was plenty of other action on the other gaming tables also, including Lord of the Rings, Warmachine, Flames of War and Warhammer. It was good to see Marti, another Tamahere dad, playing Warhammer 40k too! A fun night out and a good bunch of folks!

More troops for the Gallipoli diorama.

Daniel the dangerously awesome.

Dave sends the cavalry in my direction.

Tie Fighter Swarm!

Daniel masterfully rams his own ships... again and again.

We gave as good as we got!

Alas, we were out matched.

The Empire Strikes Back!

Well done Daniel! I certainly enjoyed your wit and tactical advice. Well worth a return visit later in the year for a rematch.

For those in the Waikato, the Immortals meets at the Hamilton Sports Fishing & Power Boating club on Grantham Street from 6:30pm every Monday night (except the last Monday of each month and public holidays).

Star Wars + A New Hope + Happy New Year

Monday night, game night. One of the last games of 2014. Plenty of fun with Dave and Blair playing Star Wars X-wing. Another win for the Empire but to be honest, I'm not sure how I pulled it off. Having more ships on the table always helps! Win or lose, the real joy comes from a year full of gaming with good friends.

So I leave you with these photos and a promise there will be more games in 2015.

And for the lads...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!