Saturday 16 May 2015

Tabletop Day 2015 and Dungeons And Dragons Attack Wing.

The 11th of April was this years Tabletop Day, so off I trotted to The Wayland Games Centre (formally, Tabletop Nation)

I took my camera along, as when I had gone in 2013, there had been loads of demonstration games going on featuring lovely looking miniatures and I thought I'd get some great pictures. I was mistaken. There was but one demo table there on the day which consisted of a couple of participation games of a new title called Guild Ball and the opportunity to buy it. I was pretty disappointed. Guild Ball is a fantasy football game. The models are nice enough but it didn't really appeal to me.

Fortunately, I had other things to do.

I had travelled with my best mate, Richard (if you scroll down a bit on this blog, you will see a picture of him asleep on a train) and he was to run a couple of Attack Wing tournaments, Star Trek and the newish Dungeons And Dragons. Now, I didn't really fancy the D&D game. I already owned a load of stuff for Star Trek Attack Wing and some for the X-Wing Miniatures Game which is very similar. I didn't need, so I thought, another game using the Flightpath System. Also, having looked at the D&D Attack Wing minis in their blister packs and boxes, I thought that they looked cheap, rather like kid's toys and way overpriced. So, we played the Star Trek Tournament and it was, as it always is, great fun. Then came time for the D&D. I hadn't intended to play in this tournament. However, with the lack of participation demo games going on and the offer to borrow whatever models I needed from Richard (he has bought every release for this and the Star Trek games), I thought, why not.

I had thought the models, when in their packets, cheap looking and childish. But once they were on the table, I understood...They are awesome in a totally over-the-top way. Compared to Star Trek Attack Wing and X-Wing models, they are huge, but all the better for being so. They don't have great build quality but they are just fun.

Below is a picture of the force that I chose to use.
It consists of a Frost Giant, a Stone Giant and a Red Dragon. I didn't know how well they would do compared to other stuff in the game, but I liked them so that's what I went with.

It turned out that they didn't do too well at all. The combination of my lack of experience (this tournament being my first three games) and the not really knowing how to use these models to their best (is that the same thing?), meant that I lost all three games. It was fun though, my favourite moment being when my Red Dragon breathed a cone of fire on three of Richard's Gargoyles, killing them.

 The winning build consisted of a Silver and a Gold Dragon. Here it is.
They made a pretty formidable pair. They were run, one dragon each by two of the Star Trek regulars, Mike and David (who had, as I, not originally intended to play in the D&D). I think these models were also borrowed from Richard. We had been taking the previous Star Trek tournament quite seriously. The D&D though was played with a more relaxed attitude and thus, for me anyway, was more fun. Mike had decided that his dragon, the gold one, was called Steve and came from Lisbon. Why? I don't know.

I have since bought into the game. I bought a starter set very cheaply from Richard (who had bought a second after turning up at Dark Sphere (another awesome discount gaming shop) to play in a tournament and finding that he had left his original one at home). I have added to my collection with prize dragons (As with Star Trek Attack Wing, you can win cool limited edition gaming pieces by taking part in Organised Play events at participating retailers) and from the second tournament that I played in's blind boxed model. The current group of tournaments (which will continue running over the next few months) feature a blind boxed game piece. The official rules are that you have 90 Legion Points (that's what Wizkids (the company that produces the game) have called the build points in this system) to create your force, then an additional 30 points to add to it from the model and cards in the randomly allocated box. This is the same as in the recent Star Trek Attack Wing "The Collective" and "Resistance Is Futile" Borg tournament campaigns. Also, as with each of the aforementioned Star Trek campaigns, there are five models to collect. The ones for D&D are a Human Paladin, a Human Fire Wizard, a Wood Elf Druid, a Human Ranger and a Half-Black Dragon Fighter (the most notable feature of which is that it has a tail).

I am really enjoying this game. I'm taking it a lot less seriously (the models help with this) as I have Star Trek Attack wing in the past and am thus finding it more rewarding.

One more thing...Tiamat. If you know a bit about Dungeons And Dragons, you've probably heard of Tiamat, the queen and mother of evil dragons in this setting. Wizkids have already released a model for her. Here she is in all her multi-headed glory.
I actually think it's a horrible model and at around £40 (that's the very cheapest I could find it), I won't be buying one. But I thought you might like to see it anyway.

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