A little box of magic

Since I bought the "Eldrazi Assault" MTG intro deck I've been enjoying it!

It is an immensely popular game at Athena where I work and even my son has hopped on board and bought himself a deck, so I've been able to get a few games in. Compared to my usual games involving dozens of models and rulebooks and dice, MTG is extremely portable I can easily keep a couple of decks in my bag so I'm always ready for action.

I've also discovered the joy of boosters! Buying one and opening it brings a certain (albeit small) rush of euphoria as I carefully tear it open to see what cards might be inside. I often say it's like a "mini christmas" every time you open one.

A Magic deck fits in this small box

From observing the many customers in-store I see varying levels of competition. There's casual players who are those that want to enjoy the game at its lower (easier?) levels. Then there is a sliding scale going on up to the serious (for want of a better word) players, who are constantly tweaking their decks with creatures, spells and lands ranging from a few pence up to and often exceeding £100 (per card).

I have myself begun to adjust my primary deck with a couple of cool cards I've found in boosters, I've yet to experience buying single magic cards (although I have got my eye on a couple) Athena Games have an absolutely huge collection available here.

Along side my primary deck I have also amassed quite a few colourless Eldrazi cards which I feel inexplicably drawn to, they favour mighty, slow, behemoths that take a perilously long time to summon - but - once they enter the battlefield they can often stomp your enemies into dust! This has inspired me to purchase a dual deck "Zendikar versus Eldrazi" (for the Eldrazi half at least) which actually helped me win not only my first victory (against another new player) but also a second win against a more established opponent! So this has greatly hyped the Eldrazi in my mind and I think they're going to be featuring much more in my future :)

I need to learn (and memorise) some of the newer cards I now have and hopefully get in a few more practice sessions at work, but I'm feeling more comfortable with the game and look forward to it and it's always available, in my backpack and easy to transport around!

So . . . . Magic

What is all this Magic the Gathering about then?

I'm looking to try my hand at MTG because since I began working at Athena I've realised how astonishingly popular (and portable) it is.

Historically I've never been into card games of any kind, "toy soldiers" have traditionally been more my thing, but I feel I could dip into MTG as it seems relatively cheap to start up and looks like I'd have a plethora of opportunities to play & learn at work.

My first instinct has been to go for an intro deck but after seeking advice from some local players I've been advised to go for either an event deck or a dual deck. Intro decks are your basic startup deck with rather run of mill cards for ease of learning. Event decks are better structured for competitive play (but I imagine a bit trickier to learn?) and finally, dual decks are designed for two players to begin their MTG journey side by side.

Also for my consideration is the five colours of magic, these are the different sources of power (and effect) available and are something like.

• White - Protection & order
• Green - Life & nature
• Black - Decay & death
• Red - Fury & chaos
• Blue - Deceit & intellect

So I need to pester my workmates for a little more info and take the plunge with some form of structured deck, stand by for more info :)

And after some more talking and pondering, I got myself an "Eldrazi Assault" (Red & Black) intro deck with two boosters included. It's given me a ton of cards to start with and try to figure out.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (episode II)

So I've realised I love Star Wars and I've got my hands on the new force awakens core set, so what do I get next?

Well I've never been the most serious sort of gamer (or person) so I thought to myself "what looks like it'll be awesome?"

T70 X-Wing.
My first thoughts were that the T70 XWing looked better than original T65 - pretty forward thinking for an old, original trilogy fan? So that's what triggered my first decision to go with the new "Force Awakens" core set.

Having played a few games now, I've come to realise the T70 is a very capable all round ship, able to take the punishment dealt out to it as well as being able to hit others pretty hard (especially at close range).

A-Wing.
Then I thought about the A-Wing, it's a ship that appealed to me and I'd heard they were nimble little fighters, so I decided that two of those would be my next step.

With a little experience I have discovered the A-Wing is fast and agile, but lacks any real punch. Whilst I am able to lower their base points to a mere 15 using a Chardaan refit card, I feel they need a little something to help them survive an encounter with hostile forces.

K-Wing.
I knew absolutely nothing of this larger ship before buying it, I'd not seen one in action and of course being from the expanded universe, I hadn't seen one in any of the films either. But I'm thinking "look at the size of that thing! I need one".

Having flown this a few times now, I love it! The K-Wing is rather slow and cumbersome and it's maneuvere dial allows little in the way of fancy turns & rolls. But the thing is a flying tank, it can take a beating and especially when equipped with the twin laser turret upgrade it can pose a serious threat to enemy fighters.

So, what's next?
At the moment I'm thinking another T70 might be a good thing, 3 of them can easily make up 100 points and they seem like they are decent enough ships in game. But I've gotta say - K-Wings are my kinda lump! I'm certain I'll be getting 1 or 2 more of these and slowly but surely I'll be dodging asteroids and zapping bad guys with those turret mounted lasers ;)

The mighty K-Wing in action

Bolt Action - WW2 miniatures gaming for the modern gamer

This was a game I noticed upon visiting Aftermath I saw all the superbly painted 28mm soldiers and after sitting in a game for a while decided it looked like something I could get into.

Soviet T34/76 from Warlord games

I promptly visited www.warlordgames.com and saw a wide range of great looking armies and after some reading and research decided that the Mother Russia would be the nation for me! I soon got myself some very reasonably priced plastic Russian infantry (less than £1 each) and my collection began! I now have 3 box sets (120 men) and many, many other soldiers from various sources.

The game and it's mechanics are simple at their core, you can move (6" normally) and shoot your enemy, hitting them on a 3 and each hit causing a wound on a 4. These rolls are of course affected by a variety of modifiers which are applied depending on each situation. Each nation has a set of national traits which might be the ability to move and fire without penalty or maybe never fail a morale test when charging an enemy, there are many to choose from, for my Russians it includes a FREE squad of conscripts and the ability to retake failed morale tests that are triggered by heavy casualties, as well as slightly improved artillery strikes.

One of the great things about the game is it's relative simplicity, generally speaking all the infantry are the same with very little in the way of "stats" your regular soldier hits targets on a 3, gets wounded (from hits) on a 4 and has a morale of 9 - that's it - all the stats the standard infantryman has! A game can be played out using nothing but squads of infantry like these, but of course you can have more.

Other troop types will typically include inexperienced or Veteran who are as you would imagine lower and higher quality compared to regular. Inexperienced soldiers have less morale, are wounded slightly easier and are less accurate when firing. Veteran infantry whilst not being any more accurate have better morale and can be hard to kill.

Then of course once you've got your infantry there are support elements (tanks) like HQ units, weapons teams and vehicles (did I mention tanks?) HQ units will typically be an officer who provides morale boosts to nearby infantry, medics and air/artillery observers who will call in off table support (sometimes on his own side!) Weapons teams are often quite fun with snipers, machine gun crews, flame throwers, mortar teams and a variety of field guns.

Did I mention tanks?
These are a hugely popular support item, with countless makes, models and variants available from the smallest scout cars to the mightiest super heavy monsters. Everyone has their favourite and most loved (or feared) tank, for me it's the cheap and cheerful Soviet T34/76 a good all rounder, a jack of all trades. The game can be played using just tanks, armoured platoons for you treadheads out there and comes with it's own supplement Tank War for those that want to recreate armoured engagements (but you can get by without the book if you like).

Another fantastic feature of the game is random activation, each unit of infantry, HQ, support and vehicle gets it's own order die. These are placed in a bag (or cup) and drawn blindly to see who goes next, this adds greatly to the game, you've got to be careful where you move your squad because the next move could be yours or that enemy squad who are waiting to blast 'em!

There'll be more to come, but for now visit www.boltaction.com to learn more ;)