Village Games' Blog

It has been awhile since I was last able to blog – hopefully I will be able to resume doing it with some frequency again now.  In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the really exciting things going on at the shop this summer.

We have been placing an emphasis on making the shop the best place to play your game.  We want to make the trip worth your time in terms of creative approaches to leagues and campaigns, a more equitable (but no less cut-throat) level of competition and player rankings, and a general fun club-like atmosphere during events. To that end, here are some of this summer’s big happenings  at the shop:

WARHAMMER 40K FUNDRAISER TOURNAMENT

The third weekend in June we will be hosting a tournament to raise funds for a couple of local firefighters (that I have worked alongside for years) who are battling cancer. It has tapped their resources and made an already difficult situation even more challenging (one of them is even a single mom!) so we are going to have a little fun to help them out.

The tournament will utilize some crazy scenarios designed to test your strategic and tactical thinking.  In addition, as an addition complication and to drive people crazy, folks with have the ability to ‘buy’ (i.e. donate money) special dispensations such as: buying a complete re-roll, buying off a wound, buying an extra 6” of movement, etc.  But that is not all, players will also have the option of outbidding their opponent to prevent them from getting their special allowances.

All in all, it should be a good time with door prizes being generously donated by the shop and GW to be given away all day. The winners, while not getting ‘prizes’ per se, will get gaudy medals and an Olympic-like kazoo serenade at the end for their great generalship (though there will also be an award for the most annoyingly obnoxious as well…)! And all of this will help members of a fraternity that help keep all of us safe…

WARHAMMER 40K SUMMER LEAGUE W/PLAYER RATINGS

This exciting league is based around Player Ratings, which in turn are based on the mathematical model used by the world chess associations (slightly modified to take into account the nuances of 40K). The rating scale is designed to reward players for playing up to, or exceeding their, expected ability against a given foe.  It also prevents leaders from ‘farming’ points off of less skillful, or newer, players. It adds a sense of tension and drama to every game – even the mismatch of leader vs. newbie – due to the sliding scale of rating points at stake.  The Player Rating system is tied to the player, not the army, so you can modify your force during the course of the League – or even just flat out switch armies mid-stream. It doesn’t change your rating – only your skill does!

In addition, we are using innovative scenarios developed just for Village Games to keep the games interesting and fun. The next League starts up in early-June and will be played on Thursday nights – talk with Trent or Dan if you are interested.

FLAMES OF WAR SUMMER LEAGUE W/PLAYER RATINGS

The league is structured much the same as the 40k league above and will be starting in early-June.  The setting will be a Mid-War affair with players either having to be Allied or Axis.  It will be played on Saturday afternoons and will even have some pretty big prizes for the winners!

WARHAMMER FANTASY SUMMER CAMPAIGN

This much loved event will be returning in early June as well. The setting, rules and rewards have all been refined based on the player’s wants from the Spring Campaign so it should be a lot of fun. Grover will be running this at the shop so if your are interested stop by and talk to him.

COMBAT CARDS SUMMER CAMPAIGN

The Combat Cards will be returning to regular play with a summer campaign/league.  The League will include the Village Games Player Rating system as well as a new force building/scenario method from the folks at our own local Tactical Assault Games.

WAR OF THE RING SUNDAYS

A group of die hard fanatics has really developed around this game and they have been recruiting hard for the game. They generally meet on Sundays, but have been known on a couple of occasions to meet on other weekend days just to brainwash  demo to new players. Eventually a League/Campaign will be formed for this as well later in the summer.

POKEMON LEAGUE/WEEKLY TOURNAMENTS

The Pokemon crowd has grown tremendously at the shop so we will begin running weekly tournaments on Friday nights for them. This will be in addition to the usual Friday night League night and Friday night Demo games.

‘FLYING LEAD’ SUMMER CAMPAIGN

This great rules set from Ganesha Games will the centerpiece for another campaign starting in June on Tuesday nights.  It is a fast paced, easy to learn game with almost unlimited potential for creativity. The last campaign was a fantasy based one which I believed resulted in the serious roughing up of some undead hordes.  The group that plays is a lot of fun so if you are interested in trying it out  talk with Dan or Mike Z.

Well, there is a taste of some of the events we have coming up.  As always, the newbie and the curious are always welcome to join in or just come up and watch.

We aren’t even close to being done yet either, there will be a couple of tournaments, some other leagues and a few other special events this summer so keep watching the website for more info.

Until next time…

Keep your dice hot, your sunscreen on and your gaming spirit happy!

Dan

With the recent surge in interest in playing in campaign games, I set about getting one together for the historical players. I developed a relatively straightforward and simple system for running the strategic portion of the campaign based on a map divided into ‘Sectors’.  After creating the map, I realized how much cooler it would be to have a three-dimensional map like the ones  used by the real military planners – so, I made my own…

The map is broken into sectors which are represented by 4” square tiles. Terrain has been represented on each tile in a very small scale. The campaign has been set-up so each sector also corresponds to a 4’ square tabletop for the tactical battles with miniatures to be played out on. This allows the terrain on the tile to be translated to the tabletop in exact proportions, i.e. 1” on the tile equals 1’ on the tabletop (happily convenient, eh?).

Units are represented on the map by counters. Each unit has a certain amount of activation points to spend for maneuver and attack.  At the end of each campaign turn though, units have to check to see if they can be resupplied; if they can’t then they have to spend the next turn in a ‘Depleted’ and inactive state. This feature means that while both sides in the campaign will be working feverishly towards their stated objectives, there will also be the added element of making sure they don’t over extend their forces and leave them stranded.

As we run through the campaign, I will try and post updates to let folks know how it is going.

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

As I was cleaning out some old photos, I found this dramatic shot of a ‘nighttime’ Combat Cards game. It just looked to cool not to post it.  It was a 15mm WWII game between the Russian attackers and the German defenders somewhere on the Eastern Front in mid-1944. I believe the Russians pulled this one out, but my memory on this game is a little foggy.

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

Here are a few random shots of recent games of Flames of War at the shop.  The guys have been running a campaign over the last few weeks, which have lead to some rather interesting battles on Saturday afternoons.

I think they are wraping up the current campaign in a few weeks and will be starting another one again real quick after that, so if you would be interested in joining in stop by and let them know (if you can get a word in between the ferocious tank battles… J).

Until next time…

Keep your head down!

Dan