Tyranny of Dragons II Campaign Open!

"Don't you dare make a Skittles joke, worm."

A while back we started working on our scheduling system to fit in all the games we wanted to during the season.  Well, not all the games - we can't do that.  It's impossible, so we make compromises.  We can manage two per season, and we feel that's pretty good.

Now the day is split into two wargame sections prior to RPG's in the evening.  At noon, we start Frostgrave!  The later part of the afternoon is now devoted to the Attack Wing campaign!  Pitch in and help your team (Good vs. Evil, naturally) win!

Tyranny of Dragons II is the first of our organized team play campaigns.  These campaigns are designed to allow anyone in the club to play, just by walking up to the table.  Attack Wing is really good in this role, as the cards and counters conveniently track all the rules for you.  

That's not all that makes this campaign season awesome!  We'll be running an all day Campaign Day event, and there will be public campaign battles as well!  We'll keep you posted on public event information, including venues and registration fees.  Prize support?  Let's generate it!

Lots of cool stuff coming up this season, but we have to keep a lid on it for now.  Expect a few big announcements in the coming weeks.  See you on Game Day!

D&D Attack Wing and the Rise of Flightpath

Our 2nd year of D&D Attack Wing is coming around in a few weeks, and I wanted to take this opportunity to address a few things regarding the phenomenal success of the Flightpath games not only with our club, but the entire gaming community.  We've seen our schedule shift, through multiple votes and meetings, toward including more and more of these games since we got our feet wet early last year.  Why?  Let's discuss.

We used to be aghast at even using pre-painted miniatures, but a few years ago Pathfinder Miniatures began releasing a new standard of pre-paint.  Impressed with the new standard and how some previously unavailable miniatures were now featured, we looked into Attack Wing when it was announced, and decided that even if the game turned out to suck, we'd still have the miniatures.  Now, miniature gaming here at the Wargate has really been about RPG's for the last few years - still had a sour taste in our mouth from all the GW Kool-Aid.  While warband / army miniatures is on the rise in popularity again, Flightpath has fundamentally changed our scheduling, and consequently our gaming experience.

I think we can point to the fact that in our case, we could chuck out all the cards and cardboard chits and still have the minis for whatever game we want to play.  That's one reason, but I don't think it's the main reason we've decided to keep three Flightpath games on our schedule for this year (and going forward).  Last week's meeting determined that Star Wars:  Armada would win out over the more traditional (for us) Tomorrow's War in Season 3 this year.  No, good sirs and ladies, it's not just the pretty miniatures.  The main reason for this shift is far more basic.

Flightpath games are fun.  That's it - four words describing why we support this game.  Basic, to the point and (generally) self-contained, these games are very attractive for a sort of beer-n-pretzels game that's also competitive and not grossly unbalanced, despite some ill luck with the dice.

Real terrain makes the games even better!

Add to that the fact that now our players can control a Tyranny of Dragons as their force, and you've got a recipe for success.

D&D Attack Wing occupies a special place.  It's a great "party" game, and like the other Flightpath games lends itself well to team play.  This is what we needed, and these games provided a sense of community during our recent dark days.  The entire club loves these games and are instantly engaged, and new players can be engaged just as quickly.  This is the real power of Flightpath, and the secret to it's success.

 New Attack Wing stuff is set to arrive this year, along with the new D&D story arc from Wizards of the Coast.  The publication schedule really suits us, and now that D&D is the mainstay of the Wargate once more we're very comfortable with that.  Boardgame Geek gives us a great place to get familiar with the line, including the Organized Play packages and upcoming releases.  Don't worry about the line fizzling out for a while.  Hopefully, with our support, the release schedule will have a great success with each push.

See you on Game Day!

Tyranny of Dragons Campaign Open!

Huzzah for the return of battle games!  It's been a while since we broke up with the game / company that had been our longtime love (and who will no longer be mentioned here), but now that we're past all of that we can look ahead.  Enthusiasm is high, and that's a quite welcome change of pace after the doldrums hit during our "breakup".

We have begun our new campaign, yes...and it's ambitious.  Entitled Tyranny of Dragons, the overall campaign is based on the new story arc from Wizards of the Coast / WizKids for D&D 5th Edition and D&D Attack Wing.  This is our first campaign using what we call nested rulesets to join every level of the conflict, from Skirmish and Battle games using 28mm models to Attack Wing's specialized game pieces.

Each game played for Tyranny of Dragons has the potential to influence our Schedule 1 RPG as well.  Look for an update on that later this week.  In the mean time, ready your forces and check out the Tyranny campaign page to figure out where you stand.  We'll be following Attack Wing's development closely and adding new figures to the dragon's forces as the season progresses, so make sure you're in the right spot now.

A new paradigm has dawned here at the club, after many months of suffering, despair and unease.  It's up to us to not allow a single company to hold so much sway over our club.  We're returning to an older time with our gaming style that doesn't rely on some company that doesn't care what we do (as long as we buy their material) pressing shoddy rules and unbalanced lists into the hands of the masses.  We are very competitive, and as such we are able to gauge what is and isn't poor competition design.

Game Masters will now preside over many wargame scenarios, including this season and next.  This is a big change for us, but letting them decide most of the scenario's parameters will remove a lot of the trepidation we used to have about the fantasy and sci-fi battle games we used to play.  It also allows us to introduce new concepts to our normal battle games as well, such as battlefield events, special units, cross-system bonuses, and even having neutral / unaffiliated parties to battle as well.

We support the gaming industry - the elements we support should support us.  I think Wizards (and WizKids) know that...and the support for events is fantastic.  We'll not have to worry about this, now that we understand that WE are empowered.

That said, with all the new stuff arriving for the brand D&D is set to be a MAJOR fixture over the next several years.  We've always loved it as a property, so we've decided to go ahead and move to the current generation to help support it, rather than tarry in the older editions.  We'll still be doing all the editions, but 5th is here now.

It looks good, feels good...and dog-gone it, people like it.