Bommerz over da Sulphur River

   Again, I am deviating horribly from my intended painting tasks, but as this is a completely stand alone project this was as good a time as any to get it painted and get a game in.

    Bommerz over da Sulphur River (I can't begin to tell you how unhappy my spellchecker is about that name) is a board game from Games Workshop that I stumbled on by accident while on eBay and knew I needed it in my life*. I figured it was something so different from anything else I had that it had to be worth a try.

* Board games don't count!

   It was brand new and un-punched when it turned up, so the idea of actually putting it together felt wrong. However, I bought this game to play and that was what I was going to do.

   I kept the colour schemes for all 6 planes pretty simple, the orks in a variety of colours*, while making sure the planes were an uniformed mix of colours. The Thunderbolts were given the same scheme as my 28mm Thunderbolt.

* My fledgling Ork army is

mostly yellow, so I gave two

of the planes that colour.

   I have now played a quick run through and it really isn't a bad game. It is very simple, with the full rules being on three sides of A4 which is definitely the direction that I am starting to look for game rules.

   With the game including a running series of dog fights (which the Thunderbolt eventually lost), an epic bombing run attempt on the first of two dams by three of the four fighta-bomberz and flak guns firing into the sky, it does scratch the itch feeling like the sci-fi version of the dam-busters that it is. The Orks did lose the game in the end as it turns out a 3D6 flak gun on a dam that already has a 1D6 flak gun on, make light work of the Ork planes.

Thanks for reading

Thunderbirds board game

   In lieu of a painting post, I thought I would do a post on a recent revelation I have had in my gaming life. I was not a fan of board games, the idea of grown adults choosing to play a board game over a wargame seemed like a massive waste to me and I was always slightly shocked when a podcast would talk about a great board game they had played or my club would run a board game only night. I had played Zombicide and really enjoyed it, but that's just a skirmish wargame that happens to come in a box with a board so it didn't break my theory. I had played Thunder Road and enjoyed it, so much so, I spent the next year trying to find one at a sensible price (but haven't actually played my copy at all), but, again, I could justify why I liked it away.
   My real problem came when the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast kept talking about board games and did a long episode on the Thunderbirds Board Game a good while back, as I am essentially a weak man when it comes to the new shiny toy. I figured this would be the perfect game to see what all the fuss was about.

   One of the guys I used to meet up with quite a lot has recently had a kid with his wife, and this has obviously changed his priorities and slashed his free time, but we have been planning a way to get him time to play games and look after his daughter to give his wife some free time, Thunderbirds seemed to fulfil the brief.
   The first outing of the game was played at Wayland Games without his kid, just to give us a chance to get our heads around the rules, although future games will be played in one of our front rooms. The game itself looked really complicated when we were first trying to set it up, but halfway through our first game we had the hang of it and were really enjoying ourselves. We realised we had played a few rules wrong in our first go - which was the ultimate reason we lost that game - so second game we played it correctly and the game really came alive. The idea of playing a co-operate game versus the game itself seemed counter-intuitive, but it really does work. The game throws multiple problems at you which can quickly become overwhelming and those are just the distractions designed to stop you fulfilling the actual game objectives.

Midway through our first play - we hadn't realised the first scheme card should have been face up. . .

   I am converted, it's as simple as that. Going forward my gaming time will definitely include at least some dedicated board gaming time.

Oh, and this happened . . .

Thanks for reading.