We had a great summer. It started with TentCon for 40k on the first weekend of June. The following weekend was the AoS Coalescence global narrative event. The 8th Edition of 40k dropped soon afterwards. Which lead to the GW Fate of Konor global campaign. And it came to a glorious end with another fantastic NOVA Open. Including the first ever Kidshammer event at a major con.

I don't have the strength right now to do a full recap, because there was just so much good stuff this summer. Victory Gamers has grown from about 6 people in 2015 to over 30 people on our mailing list and 20+ active on our WhatsApp chats. It should only grow as we prepare to launch new AoS and 40k campaigns starting in October. Stop by, say hello, and join the fun!

Victory Gamers held its second annual narrative-based, Apocalypse-sized, all-day outdoors Warhammer 40,000 gaming event this past Saturday. If you follow this page, you know Tentcon 2016 was so much fun. Well, Tentcon 2017 took it to a new level. Thirteen players, two 6x8' tables, 26,000 points of models on the tables with fantastic custom-built and painted terrain with custom-crafted missions. So much fun.  Here's a couple (hundred) photos, not necessarily in chronological order.

Awards:

Best General- Jungle Hunt Table:  Michael B. (tie-breaker with Alex D.)
Best General - Vale of Tears Table: Trevor A. (tie-breaker with Casey B.)

Best Sportsman- Jungle Hunt Table: Alex D.
Best Sportsman- Vale of Tears Table: Felipe C.

Best Painted: Michael B. (runners up Jesse G. and Casey B.)

Already looking forward to Tentcon 2018!

Apologies for the long gap in posts, but so much is going on! Victory Gamers has been busy on several fronts to increase the quantity and quality of gaming opportunities:

• Warhammer 40k: We've been using the calm before the storm of new 8th edition ruleset to get ready to hit the ground running.
  • Tentcon 2017 - The second annual massive Apocalypse-style narrative game fest is taking place on Saturday, June 3. Thirteen players and over 26,000 points of models on two 8x6' tables. Two custom multiplayer missions. Tons of cool terrain. This might be the last hurrah of 7th edition, since rumors have 8th edition coming out in June. If it is the end of 7th edition, we plan to send it out in all its wacky style!
  • Kill Team - In April, Games Workshop released Shadow Wars: Armageddon - a highly anticipated small unit ruleset, together with some spectacular new terrain pieces. Of course, Victory Gamers had to get one of the box sets, and after going through the ruleset - we're in! Working with Victory Comics to host a weekly 40k Kill Team Night at the store, likely Saturday nights. Plan to kick off in mid- to late-June, once Tentcon and Coalescence are wrapped up.
  • More space! - We love playing at Victory Comics. The store and people are awesome. The downside is that a lot of people feel the same way, so it can be challenging to find space in the evenings and weekends, particularly for games as large as 40k. So, we are starting to rent a large room at the Falls Church Community Center one Sunday a month and are in discussions for another location on one Friday night a month. Space should never again be a problem if these discussions pan out.
• Age of Sigmar: This game has gone from fringe to fabulous in a year. If you have not given it a go yet, you should! (I wrote a post saying that almost exactly a year ago, so I told you so!) We have a regular AoS night on Tuesdays at Victory Comics. We're in the last five weeks of the second of our 15-week campaigns, and participation has tripled at least since the fall.
  • Coalescence - Victory Gamers will be participating in the global Age of Sigmar narrative event called "Coalescence", which will be held on June 10. We will be running the event split on Saturday night, June 10, at Victory Comics, and Sunday afternoon, June 11, at the Falls Church Community Center. More to come on this, but it looks to be something for the memory books.
• Kidshammer: The kids gaming group is also going stronger than ever, and will take it to the next level by running a two-day event as part of the 2017 NOVA Open. The NOVA Open is the largest tabletop gaming convention on the east coast and is a ton of fun. We are so excited by being allowed to be part of NOVA! We also launch a new dedicated webite at www.kidshammer.org. Check it out for everything that's going on. Also, check out an interview that I did about Kidshammer on the Rolling Bad podcast on April 23 episode.
• Star Trek Assault Wing: This group has been playing at Victory Comics on Tuesday nights, and as we've shared space with them we've discovered that they are an awesome group of gamers. Always a lot laughter and excitement going on at their tables. So we are thrilled to promote their events and consider them as part of the Victory Gamers family (we love you guys and gals!). 
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault: The latest addition to the Victory Gamers family, even though it's been a game we've been interested in for years. It is perfect for anyone who loves the Star Wars universe and the game play is fast and balanced. Thanks to Bill Y. and Ted W. for getting this started. Looking forward to doing more in the second half of 2017.

I had the pleasure of attending the Las Vegas Open again this year with my two boys. The LVO was held the first weekend of February in Bally's Casino. It featured the largest 40k singles tournament in the world - over 500 players! It was also the host of the first North American Age of Sigmar grand tournament. On top of that, the Games Workshop community team was there and Forgeworld brought their resins goodies for sale. In addition to tournaments, there were friendly games, narrative games, and hobby workshops of all kinds and levels. And if you were still looking for more, you could probably find something to do in Vegas. Another great job by the Frontline Gaming crew on hosting a very enjoyable con!

Here are way too many photos from our time at the event. Most of the pictures are from my games in the Age of Sigmar tournament.

It's been awhile since the last post, but that hasn't been because of the lack of things going on. Quite the contrary! It's been a very busy fall for Victory Gamers, with activities planned through the remainder of 2016 and big dreams for 2017.  Here's a quick run down on what's going on.  Plans for 2017 will come in a later post!

• Star Wars: Imperial Assault.  It's happening!!! First event is Thursday, December 8, from 6-9 pm at Victory Comics. It will be a skirmish tournament-style event. A couple of people have stepped forward to make SW:IA a regular event for Victory Gamers, with a regular gaming night on Thursdays starting sometime in the near future. This is a great game: easy to pick up, solid mechanics, and a challenge to master. And it's STAR WARS! So excited. Check out the new Star Wars: Imperial Assault page on this website to keep abreast of news and events.
• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. The Verdant Corpseland Season of War campaign has been a huge success. Over 15 people have participated so far, armies have been built and painted, and games have been played every Tuesday night since the campaign kicked off in September. The game is becoming hugely popular in the UK and is growing rapidly in the US since the release of the new structured play rules last summer. If you are on the fence, get off and get in the game. It doesn't take a huge time or money commitment to play compared to Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40k. I guarantee you will have a good time!
• Warhammer: 40,000. WH40k continues to be the center piece of the Victory Gamers club, with a large group of regular players. Friday Night Fights are a weekly thing, and we are kicking off a Kill Team campaign in December. The new Games Workshop approach to customer involvement is fantastic. The company is fun again! I can't think of a better time to be playing the game than right now. But 8th edition is coming, which I expect will make the game even better. If you left 40k during 6th or 7th edition because of game imbalance, rules bloat, or crazy GW policies - come back: it's night and day from even a year ago, and the future is very, very bright for the game.
• Kidshammer. Our twice-a-month kids Age of Sigmar gaming group is going strong too. There is a core of regular players and new faces all the time. Won't go into much here, since this is the oldest of the Victory Gamers initiatives and has been talked about at length in the past. But if you know a kid that might be interested in table-top miniature gaming, look to the Kidshammer page on this website for gaming days.
• Star Trek: Assault Wing. This isn't really a Victory Gamers initiative, since Gareth at Victory Comics and others have had this gaming group going for a while now.  But the Star Trek gamers share the same Tuesday nights time as our Age of Sigmar gaming group, and as we've gotten to know some of the players, Victory Gamers would like to do whatever we can to promote the Star Trek: Assault Wing game. It looks like a load of fun and the players are passionate (in a good way!) about the game. We've create a page on the Victory Gamers website to promote it, and hope to develop more content in the coming months.

Also, our first ever Victory Gamers Holiday Party will be held on Saturday, December 3, from 5-9pm at Victory Comics. We'll be having multi-player 40k and Age of Sigmar "Santa Scramble" games going with prizes, food and drinks. All are welcome to come and socialize. If you want to play, contact me using the "Find a Game" page on this website.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but that's all for now. Hope to see you rolling dice soon!

No captions and in no order, here are about bazillion photos from the 2016 NOVA Open.

It's been a busy summer for Victory Gamers and the fall is looking to keep up the fast pace!

The summer started with Tentcon the first weekend in June, with nine players and 18,000 points of models playing on a 12' x 6' table. A write up and photos from that event are in the News & Events archives for June.

The summer ended with the NOVA Open, where several of our members competed in various Warhammer 40k events. The club fielded two three-person teams for the Trios competition: Me and my two boys on one team (Orks and Khorne Daemonkin) and Tito, Trevor and Michael H on the other (Tau, Black Templar, and Ultramarines). Tito, Trevor and Mike came in third in painting and third overall.  Trevor came in second for the exploits of his Warlord. And both teams tied for first for storyteller, with the edge going to Tito, Trevor and Mike. You can read a write up at this blog.

In addition, Mike H and Michael B went on to compete in the Warhammer 40K GT, where they both notched several wins against very hard competition.  Mike B's chaos renegade army was judged one of the best painted in the GT and competed for the top painted prize. Four straight days of 3+ games a day of 40k. Wow,

NOVA was incredibly fun and I loved every minute of it. The gaming, meeting up with new and old friends, catching games of Lord of the Rings, AoS, Warmachine, Malifaux, X-Wing, Magic, Blood Bowl (you name it, it was there). And Friday and Saturday night I lost my voice singing along with the house band in the Charity Lounge.

I also loved all the prep work that went into getting ready for it. The Victory Gamers players started a WhatsApp NOVA prep chat that exploded with ideas and talk all summer long, not just about 40k prep. It was such a hit that we are opening it up to everyone in Victory Gamers to join in.  We also prepared as a team, spent a weekend testing the missions and our lists, egged each other on for better and better modeling and painting, made custom t-shirts for the event, and built a bitching battle board to display our armies on at Trios.

In the down time from NOVA prep, Victory Gamers helped run the summer Season of War for Age of Sigmar at Victory Comics. This was a global GW campaign and the first for many, many years. It was a hit globally and brought out a lot of new AoS players in the area. It was great meeting new people and sharing some love of Age of Sigmar.

Yeah, summer was a fun time.

But there are lots of fun things planned for the fall too!  First off, we're hosting an Age of Sigmar Season of War campaign at Victory Comics starting Sept. 20 and going through the end of the year. This is a great way either to get into the game if you haven't already (you should, it was good before; it's great now) or to take your game to a new level. Check out our Age of Sigmar page for details. Victory Comics has Tuesday evenings as Age of Sigmar event night, so there will be regular AoS gaming at VC every Tuesday evening.

Second, Kidshammer is back to Sunday afternoons twice a month after a summer shift to Tuesday evenings. This is going to be even better since the release of the General's Handbook in July that really revolutionized the way the game is played.

Third, 40k gaming continues with Friday Night Fights and regular gaming. The 40k group has really grown over the last year and is still getting bigger. We're looking at starting Kill Team this fall, which is something we've been trying to start for awhile. I think it is on for this fall. Many of us have been bitten by the tournament bug, so we will be sending players to the local monthly RTTs in the area and helping them prepare. And terrain. We will be building more and better terrain for our games. Beautiful armies deserve the most beautiful grim dark they can get.

Pictures from the NOVA Open below. Thanks to Mike B, Mike H and everyone who sent me their photos. Enjoy, and hope to see everyone rolling dice soon!

Victory Gamers is joining forces with Victory Comics to start a summer Age of Sigmar learning league this summer, every Tuesday night from 6:00-8:00 pm at Victory Comics.

Learn to play a quick, fast-paced fantasy table top war-game with some of the best miniatures available. If you're a long-time Warhammer Fantasy player, dust off your models and get them back on the table! If you are a 40k player who is waiting for the right moment to give fantasy a try, now is the time. With an incredible new General's Handbook out with multiple ways to play, together with a global summer "Season of War" campaign being launched, this is the best time to give Age of Sigmar a try.

First off, Victory Comics will be hosting a "Gather Your Forces"night on July 12 to kick off the "Season of War" campaign. Victory Comics will have special discounted rates for Warhammer sets to help new players join in the campaign, as well as dedicated tables for you to start buildings and painting your new models.

Second, on July 19, players will swear allegiance to one of the four Grand Alliances (Death, Destruction, Chaos, or Order), and send forth their armies into the opening battles of the Season of War! Players choose their armies as described on the Age of Sigmar rules sheet. Each army must contain at least 3 units that each contain at least 10 models. Victory Gamers will have "loaner" models available to help players flesh out their armies.

The following weeks escalate the battles, with each army adding additional forces to its roster: 

• July 26: Add a hero to champion your army and devastate the enemy.
• August 2: Add the might of a monster to bring the big hits and terrify the foe.

Finally, on August 9, fortifications will be added to be razed and ruined by the competing armies. 

If you are interested in participating, please let us know either by checking into Victory Comics Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/VictoryComics/) or by sending an email to [email protected].