"We Are Returned!" Part 1

The Warp Storm Materializes!
Several years ago, a blog was created, Game Thug and I wanted a record on really cool events we were doing at our LGS (Local Gaming Store), namely the 40k apocalypse games that we ran year in and year out, unfortunately this plan never came to fruition.
Real life, the dreaded foe of many war-gamers and hobbyists decided to disrupt our grand design. Now over half a decade later, I come back to this humble blog. I originally chose the name warp storm after one of the most fearsome instances of chaos and destruction that isolates worlds and tests a warriors mettle. It is only fitting that as I start fresh, now that the warp-storm has been lifted, I may chronicle my hobbies.

'Ere We Go!

The last couple of years have been a maelstrom of compiled events, failures and successes. Such instabilities has made it extremely difficult to do any form of hobbying for any prolong period of time, and unfortunately I had to sell the majority of my wargames to get by. That being said, I have been a chance to start anew, both in and out of gaming. New LGS, new games, new people, new experiences...these things didn't stop me from visiting old friends like Game Thug, playing a game of 40k, and even travelling back to my old LGS (though it has had a serious face lift).

Here is a compilation of my gaming history to bring you up to speed with what I have been up to.

ADVANCED DUNGEON'S AND DRAGONS 1st Ed. (or how learned to stop caring and become a hermit)

The Tiefling's Game

I moved to a very small town of 200 people in eastern Canada, and it was very good for me, I learned a lot, like I never want to live in a small town of 200 people in eastern Canada again! My new 'local' gaming store, was about 45 mins away, which made travelling in very difficult. Moose also made travelling difficult as did crappy roads, and Canadian winters.

Not knowing people is usually not a problem when you walk into a game store, the store owner is usually passionate about something you have a passion for, and the other patrons are eager to engage in a fresh conversation about different tactics, meta etc. This was not the case...this was the Deliverance of LGS (minus the banjo playing...and Burt Reynolds).
Plan B: I still have friends back home, lets play DnD over skype. I thought to myself, how bad could
it be?

It was fun, if your idea of fun is sitting alone in your room, while you over hear your friends having a great time (but not the details due to crappy audio), and all you can stare at is a window showing the battle mat, and when you try to speak you are practically yelling to be heard, then everyone has to stop, and listen to what i was saying just so you could do something. Fun right? No?

I didn't realize it at the time but i was an electronic buzz-kill that my friends put up with cause they felt guilty that I was not with them, and to be honest, I am thankful for it.
It was my only form of social interaction, I got to play DnD with my friends. As a wizard i didn't need to speak that much, and it was nice to hear my friends discuss stuff, but eventually it became too frusterating for everyone, and I left.

WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING (WAR, what is it good for?)

I was one of the thousands of people that  bought WAR when it came out, I was also one of the thousands to leave the game a month after launch. The game was a BETA, it was not ready for launch, it was fun but largely unplayable, and it stayed that way for 2 years after launch. Shortly after I stopped playing DnD i decided to resubscribe, the allure of the game, and the ability to play as some of my favourite miniatures in my (at the time) 2nd favourite wargaming IP, hooked me in. To be honest I still like this game, I met a lot of people, made a bunch of friends and got to have my first real taste of competitive gaming.

"GOBSTAR SMASH PUNY WITCH HUNTER!"

 While in real life I was socially isolated, here I could be a social butterfly (except a deadly one, that could lead armies, and was armoured, and stuff!). Taught me alot of really important social lessons, like how to not be a douche or how to be one when you need to be. Oh and that you should pretty much always (ALWAYS) mute me if i am playing mad deeps! Good times, and this game would stay in my life till EA closed it down.

 I never really over dosed on it like one of those WoW horror stories I.E getting sucked in and losing everything because of it. What it didn't help me with was the fact that I would brood, and game let me do it easier.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS v3.5 (House Rule edition)
Alright, so i was able to get out of the small village, and move to a small city. After about a year, I was able to get over the anxiety of basic social interaction, or the fact that more than 10 people could exist in the same room at one time,
I heard somewhere that people who live in Antarctica for any long period of time have to learn to reintegrate with large amounts of people, due to isolation. the time spent in the near to the middle of nowhere (cause the middle has an identifiable position), and then gluing myself to a computer on top of that, might be related to the issues faced by those polar researchers.

  I got to meet some new people, people that wanted to play D&D, I too longed to play again, especially with live breathing people. The problem was, we didn't have a dungeon master, which isn't really a problem when you try hard enough. So DnD became a thing, and a fun thing, till one of my players went off the deep end, like back flip, 5 point dive, into the sea of drugs, madness, and crazy women. So that WAS a thing. So yeah, don't let your sexually frusterated friend invite their manipulative drug-laced super crush to play DnD with a bunch of computer nerds, Spoiler warning: It ends badly.

(Part 2 Coming soon)

Model?

http://alephsector.blogspot.com/2008/10/tarsis-major-map.html

Campaign Concept

I had a really cool idea for a campaign for 40k...i briefly discussed this with Game Thug but i haven't been able to "put pen to paper" on the subject.

Think of it like Warhammer 40k meets Command and Conquer meets Axis and Allies!

My idea for a campaign is simple and quite complicated. A Four Player all out war on a Hive World! Now when i say that i mean maps, force roosters for the whole campaign, map and missions. The whole shebang! Now this is a very daunting idea as an all out war requires a lot of work; like where the missions will be assigned or how to keep it.

First off this is an Imperial Guard Campaign vs. Something (ideally Chaos*), The planet in question is under attack by and it is left to 2 Regiments of Guardsmen, Adeptus Titanticus, and the Imperial Navy to protect it. All players play out the campaign like generals in a war movie (with either a Axis and Allies box or Epic Scale units on a map and those really long sticks that move your men!)

The whole purpose of this campaign is to be as fluffy as possible, develop personality for the forces and record it (battle reports galore!). The purpose of the campaign is one word: Immersion! I want to be able to hire Dan Abnett to write a book about our war its just that cool.

I would really like to work on it, figure out a plan that will work to make this idea a reality as well as find a bunch of nut ball players like myself that are willing to go through with it.


Each Player will have their own advantages for recruitment and attack. There is a lot of things to work out, whats realistic and whats not. We just make a Campaign Booklet and go from thier or rent ourselves a GM and get him to do all of out laundry...either way, i am excited!

Campaign

Jontar has been wondering about running a campaign; I forgot to ask him if he meant a standard one, or a strictly Apocalypse campaign.

I'm enthusiastic about the idea in principle; now comes the mechanics discussion.

'Ere We Go Again

-Once again into the Fray

Doom is on the horizon for our Local Game Store, as we prepare to unleash the Apocalypse of Warhammer 40k! This time we have gotten 16 players, 4 teams and 10,000pts each making this the biggest game that most of us have ever played! Having had a lot of success with our previous apocalypse game, Game Thug and I have spent the last several weeks plotting and scheming, calling up everyone we know and threating them to play on the 19th or else they will be savagely beaten, then ridiculed for being a wimp!

This proved to be largely successful as we seemed to have gotten the attention of not only our gaming communities but the authorities as well. Suffice to say our game is going to be on schedule! I am now bringing my long unplayed Word Bearer army which should be a blast as i fight along side a Green tide of Orks! The only downside is that Game Thug has seemed to have gotten his hands on a second Titan...and i fear how my Spikey boyz will fare while looking down the barrel of a Vulcan Mega Bolter!

Suffice to say it will be fun none the less, and we have made alot of plans to make this game alot better then the last. We will be starting bright and early, arriving at 10:00, Breakfast and Lunch plans have been made and we have the store to ourselves!

Now to get back to painting my guys for the game (no rest for the wickidly awesome!)

Apocalypse Begins

-Warp Storm's first 5th Edition game was made by the stuff of legends as players of the Tau Empire and the Imperium destroyed each other in a 10,000 point Apocalypse game.

the Apocalypse expansion book was sitting on my desk collecting dust when i decided to take the initiative and arrange a game, but also 5th edition was coming out. I wanted to give 5th Edition a shot so i got a bunch of my gaming buddies together to play up the carnage. Not before too long we had ourselves a group of die hard 40k players that were ready to let some dice fly.

August 16th was the day and we all met up at our local game store to duke it out. Game Thug and I were planning this day for over 2 weeks and we were ready to play. a couple of my friends that played other miniature games and they wanted in the action. -What better way to introduce new gamers to 40k then letting them muck about with a Titan?

the plan for the day was simple...start at 11 Am finish at 9, kill lots of guys and sometime have a break for lunch. in retrospect a little more planning would have gone a long way. We were still relatively new to the rules and we only got 3 but we had a blast!

The table was set up and the lists and battle plans were made... now it was time to figure out who was going to deploy first. We took a gambit and bid for 4 minutes while the Tau player bid for 10. I didn't seem to have a problem with that as i had a Drop pod army
-Coffee cup army as i am waiting for the DPs to be realised this October.
Neither did my buddy Schatten as his army consisted of 3 Leman Russes, 3 Basilisks and a Baneblade for good measure. Game Thug was bringing the Titan and some Rhino'd marines.

The Guard Player however was not to pleased. I sat and watched some of the fastest deployment in the history of the Imperium. He was not fast enough and several heavy weapons squads sat out of the first turn.

The game saw some a lot of heavy hitting from both sides...A previously useless squad of 5 Speeders flanked the tank company and launched missile in their very vulnerable rear. By the End of the game all the Battle Tanks were destroyed, however the artillery(titan and Basilisk alike) were untouched. The Bane Blade took some heavy damage but was still in the game.


The Tau forces seemed massive but that didn't stop us. I sat around contemplating my Navel for 3 hours before i could strike with my army...half of my entire army pounced onto the board edge. Assault Marines quickly found their way with Tau Crisis suits that were holding the left part of the board!


Finally the Star of the hour appeared... Librarian Johannes in Terminator Armou! He deep striked into the perfect position unleashed Fear of the Darkness and laughed as units ran off the board left right and center. Then he successfully became the fire magnet as he made 32 armour Saves, taking two wounds in the chest before being in a Hammerheads Sits. Unfortunately he took a Rail Gun in the face as he went down for the count. 125 points space marine goodness redirecting over 2000 points of firepower to him is a winner in my book any day!

-When it works it is awesome

The army of Tau rail guns was quite brutal as they ripped though tank and man alike, and it seemed like the far edge of the board would be forever entrenched by the alien scum. however little did they know that the rest of my army was still inbound in their faithful Tim Horton's Transports. They were forced to Capitulate as we captured almost every point on the board.

-Roll up the Rim to win!


Over all we had an amazing game and we are all looking forward to bashing each others heads in again as soon as we can. we have Brushed up on our 5th edition and we have have taken up suggestions from this game to make our next game just as epic if not more than this game.
-I have learned my Lesson and I plan to field something that is on the board first turn. My love and Joy; the Forces of Chaos

Apocalypse Game 16 August 2008

At our LGS, a handful of us organized and played our first Apocalypse game. The Imperium side featured 5 players: Game Thug with 3000 pts of Doombringers Space Marines (and including the mighty Reaver Titan), Souldrinker with 3000 pts