Victory Gamers had its first ever TentCon last Saturday, June 4. What is TentCon you ask? It's nine players, nine armies, 2000 points each, on THREE side by side tables (12'x6'), with a blend of competitive and narrative play. And yeah, we played it in a 20'x10' tent in my backyard all day with plenty of food and drink. Good time! 

Results of TentCon are:
Best Appearance: Jesse's Space Wolves
Team Victory: Imperium (Jesse, Tito, Michael H., Trevor)
Army Victory: Michael B's Chaos Renegades (broke tie with Steve D's orks)
Best Opponents: Tito and Michael B.

If you are interested in learning more about the scenario and mission/rules, check out this webpage.  Photos from the event below.

Victory Gamers' 40k group is taking its games to new levels. The Pyrriah Campaign narrative is growing bigger and bigger. Check out the 40k narrative page on this website and the companion Pyrriah Campaign website for more details. While we're still excited by weekly pick up games (we pretty much have a least one game going every weekend, usually a Friday night), the narrative campaign helps put a story behind every battle and give an extra push to make every model special.

It also is a catalyst for playing 40k in slightly different ways than usual.

On the big end, there are epic battles being planned. The first will be held on Saturday, June 4, and is being called "Tentcon" since it will be played in someone's back garden in a wedding reception sized tent. There will be grilled food and drink and an epic battle, some 16,000 points of models and a battlefield consisting of three 6'x4' tables side-by-side. The game is both narrative and competitive and looks to be a blast. You can read all about it, including the primer, on the Pyrriah Campaign website.

On the smaller end, we are getting ready to launch Kill Team sized games as part of the "Neversun" campaign. Set in a desolate Mechanicum facility in the arctic wastes of Pyrriah, this small unit game will blend in as part of the larger Pyrriah campaign. It will be a blend of 40k fluff and rules, combined with "Mallifaux" influenced missions and objectives. It also will be a showcase for unique models and terrain pieces.

If you're interested in finding out more or joining in, contact us through the Find a Game page on this website.

You should give Age of Sigmar a try. You really should. I know, the ruleset is basic and it's no longer really Warhammer Fantasy. I think that's a good thing. Of course, others may disagree. If I were a longtime Warhammer Fantasy player, I'd be pretty steamed about my game getting discontinued and replaced with something so radically different, and nothing I am going to say can ease that hurt.

But I'm not a longtime Warhammer Fantasy player. I always was interested in Fantasy, but the model count required seemed too high and the ruleset was too complex. As a fervent Warhammer 40K player, I just didn't have the time or money to join in with my Fantasy brethren.

Age of Sigmar changed that. It kept a lot of the things that made Fantasy attractive. The models are still fantastically good, as you would expect from Games Workshop. The characters and armies remain flavorable (although the fluff did suffer a bit in the transition, however). You still have that high fantasy flair.

But Age of Sigmar is more accessible, I think. The basic ruleset makes it easy to pick up, especially for 40K players. And you can scale the game to whatever size you want. Skirmishes to epic battles are possible. I think the sweet spot is about the equivalent of a 700-1000 point game of 40K, but you can easily go higher or lower.

Yes, you do need to customize the game. It's not great "straight out of the box" with complete strangers as opponents. You need some prior consensus on what you and your opponent want the game to be. In our Kidshammer group, we play it as an introduction to table top wargaming with lots of house rules.  For example, we play tournament style with a shared primary objective and individual secondary objectives worth variable points (a la "strategy and schemes" of Malifaux) with many of the objectives taken from 40K (Kill the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker). You do need to work out some kind of comp, but it can be quick and dirty and doesn't require the list accounting that goes into playing 40K.

If any adults (well, non-kids) want to give Age of Sigmar a try, let me know. I have a ton of figures that I can share for a demo game, and I'm happy to teach the ropes. If there is interest, I'd like to host one of Games Workshop's new campaign events at Victory Comics this year.  If you are a former Warhammer Fantasy player, dust off your Fantasy models and get them back on the table where they belong. And if Age of Sigmar is not your cup of tea, there's always Mantic's Kings of War to give a try.

Just returned with my two boys from Las Vegas and the 2016 Las Vegas Open, organized by Frontline Gaming. It was our second year attending, and what an incredible event! If you like table top wargaming - 40k, AoS, Warmahordes, X-wing, Malifaux, anything! - you will love a convention. So many great games, beautifully painted models, and enthusiastic gamers.

Some people stay away from conventions because they don't like "competitive gaming" or tournaments. That's fine, but there is so much more going on than tournaments. We played in a two-day fluffy narrative 40k event and the only competition going on was who could be the most enjoyable opponent. There are also hobby seminars and painting classes going on.

If you can't make the trek to Vegas or Chicago (Adepticon), good news! One of the largest and best run gaming conventions in the world is right in our back yard - the NOVA Open.  It runs over Labor Day weekend and is in its fifth year.  Check it out at www.novaopen.com. (Victory Comics is a sponsor of the NOVA Open - yay!)

Below are way too many pics from the Narrative event, hosted by the Narrative Guys.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season and is ready to get back into regular gaming! If so, Victory Gamers has some great things to offer in the new year:

• ​Kids-hammer continues in 2016, building on the successful launch in 2015.  New this year is tournament play! Check out the Kidshammer page for more information on this new opportunity. We'll also be doing terrain builds and helping out the NOVA Open crew on their weekend terrain days. Victory Gamers will also show the ropes of painting by participating in the open painting sessions at Victory Comics.
• 40K Narrative play gets bigger and better. We're adding armies to our Pyrriah Campaign and looking for new or experienced 40k players to put their armies to the test in the cruel world of Pyrriah. I'm playing in the Las Vegas Open narrative event in February, which is run by The Narrative Guys (check out their Facebook page!). Hope to bring back ideas to take our narrative campaign to an even higher level. 
• Star Wars:Imperial Assault launches. With The Force Awakens out over Christmas, there is a renewed vigor in playing in the Star Wars universe. X-wing is awesome for battling in space, but if you ever wanted to battle Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker and command Wookies and stormtroopers, then SW:IA is the table top game to do it. We're working with Victory Comics and the event organizer at NOVA to set up organized regular play this spring and summer as a lead up to NOVA on Labor Day weekend. More news to come on this.
• Dropzone Commander/Warmahordes/Malifaux gets in the mix.  I'm going to try to sneak in a few of these games this spring. If anyone is interested in joining me, drop me a line via the "Find a Game" page and we can schedule on.

So things have been going well with the group. We've had four Kidshammer sessions so far, with 6-10 kids showing up per session. Age of Sigmar has been a hit. The kids have had no problem grasping the rules. I've added some organized play mechanics taken from 40K and Malifaux to make the games more than just a Braveheart style rush to the middle. Always looking for more players, so if you know any kids who may be interested in miniature gaming, have them stop by! We are planning tournament/league play in the new year, and may start introducing 40K.

Meanwhile, the group has also been playing 40k in a campaign or narrative setting. You can find more about that by visiting the "40k Narrative" tab on this website. The narrative is just a canvas to express some of the more thematic and artistic elements of the hobby (as well as smashing faces). A couple of us like to write, and I like to make terrain, so hopefully the narrative will feature interesting story lines and evocative scenery. We're just getting started, so if this sounds like fun to you, contact the group via the "Find a Game" tab and let us know you'd like to participate.

So what's up in the future? A few games keep catching my interest to play more of in 2016. Dropzone Commander remains top of my games to pick up. Star Wars Imperial Assault also deserves to be played more, and Victory Comics is willing to lend support to starting league play. And finally, I got to play a demo game of Warmachine in 2015 and would definitely like to play more in 2016. Again, if any of this of interest, drop me a line via the "Find a Game" tab and we can see how to make these ideas a reality.

Just a reminder that we will be having our third meeting of the Kidshammer kids tabletop wargaming group this Sunday, 1-4 pm, at Victory Comics. We have a strong core group of players, but we always welcome new ones. Having a blast playing Age of Sigmar.  We will provide models, dice, and everything else needed to play - just show up! Check out the Kidshammer page of this website (www.victorygamers.org) for more information.

This Sunday was the first meeting of the new Kidshammer kids gaming group. There was a strong turn out, and the kids had fun. We played Age of Sigmar, which is a great introduction to miniature wargaming. The results?: Daemons beat Woodelves, Stormcast Eternals beat both Vampire Counts and Goblins in back-to-back games, and Dwarfs (Duardin ) tied Orks (Orruks). Next meeting is Sunday, October 25, 1-4 pm, at Victory Comics. Spread the word and join the fun!

Victory Gamers is participating in DreadTober. At this year's NOVA Open, a group of bloggers discussed how wonderful it was to see everyones different paint styles, and how it might be fun to have bloggers all paint something similar, and see what each comes up with. Not so much a true competition, but just for fun. So they came up with DreadTober!

I've decided to do the Victory Gamers entry in the theme of The Martian (great film - see it if you can!). Here are all the installments. and pictures of the final product.  Hope you enjoy!

PS - I tried to keep true to The Martian dialogue, which included some swear words.  I bleeped them out, since I hope we have minors reading this site. Just saying, in case you disagree with including the swear words or bleeping them out.  There was a reason for both.

PPS - My 13-year old son was in charge of the video and music.