Gaming with Brad: Flames of Orion

Crimson Spectre advances through the blackened wasteland under the light of a full moon.

Brad and I recently played a game of Flames of Orion, a mech combat game designed by Steve (sovthofheaven) of Under the Dice/Hive Scum. For this particular game we decided to play a modified version of the scenario Hold the Line. The defining characteristic of this scenario is that each player only deploys one mech at a time. Once one is destroyed, the next mech is deployed until there is only mech standing, the winner of the scenario. Additionally, the scenario is set around one player defending a dropship, which we promptly ignored. For the game, I used a random collection of models to stand in as mechs and Dark Spirit. Brad used some 3d printed mech models designed by bigbossredskullz.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 135: Hands-on impressions of the new Ork Warboss

The new Warboss!

Having purchased some of the newly released Warhammer 40k Space Ork models, we talk about the new Ork Warboss model.

Photography: Jon Hodgson Backdrop book

Lexico Arcanus Tsuchinshan 9981600.11Z/f (Leica M4 + 90mm f2.8 Elmarit, Tri-X 400).

A while back, Trench Crusade teamed up with Jon Hodgson from Handiwork Games to create a series of backdrop books to enhance miniature photography, funded via Kickstarter. Recently, I saw that Julian Wild (@hightechoger), an incredibly talented photographer, got some of the backdrop books and used them to amazing effect. This inspired me to order one of the books, World War Ruins Backdrops, in their smaller A4 size. I received the book quickly and wanted to share a few images I created with it.

Gaming with Brad: GorkaMorka

Feeling so weighted down.

Anyone following our blog for the last few months has undoubtedly noticed that we have been gearing up to start playing GorkaMorka. Having just created some scrap tokens, we decided there was never a better time to collect an assortment of the Rebel Grots and play a game with our friend Brad! The last time I seriously played Gorkamorka was in the late 90s after the game was released. After all of the elapsed time, reading the rules was an interesting experience. What surprised me the most was the organization of the book. After reading about ramming and vehicle combat, you would expect to find the associated damage tables nearby in the text. Instead, you would often have to flip through multiple sections and pages to find the relevant information. This can make it difficult to find specific rules when you need them. The rules also aren't always consistent in their terminology, which can be confusing. For instance, the Rebel Grots have a limit on who is able to carry guns (and how many), and confusingly, the pistols are not considered guns (or gunz). Importantly, though, the game is still as enjoyable and funny as I remembered it. Even in the first game, Brad and I were constantly laughing about the weird and comical stuff happening. Additionally, we really got a kick out of how many different dice rolls and tables were needed to accomplish even the simplest tasks.