Brave the Halls of Moria!

It's been quite some time since we've visited Middle-Earth.  Not for the lack of trying, however - we've literally been so swamped with mad gaming it's coming out of everyone's orifices.  Yet, the new season starts next game day, and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game has it's triumphant return to Schedule 1!

This time, we're trying some nifty new things new all around.  The campaign is more of a dungeon crawl than an open wilderness battle.  It's set amidst a fouled reconnoitering of Moria by several groups of Men, and their mad flight from evil while trying to grab anything of value that they can along the way.  The terrain used will reflect the constricted areas of fighting, and the maps will resemble Dungeons & Dragons maps more than the sort we're used to.  Yet, we hope to open a discussion on how this sort of game can be achieved and look forward to sharing ideas all around.

This season's Halls of Moria (which has it's page on the State of Play -->) will be played cross-chapters!  That's right folks, the Smith & Co. down at the Texas Chapter will be fighting for treasure as well!  We will be holding a conference with those guys during a very long overdue reunion that is set to take place sometime in the next week to go over everything, but rest assured we'll see a lot of action in the first wargames season!

We're readying a metric ton of cool stuff to be traded / eBayed off for some of the stuff on the itenerary.  A full inventory and budget plan will be presented on Game Day in the next few weeks.  Big thanks to all the movers and shakers out there - you know who you are.

Be sure to check out the State of Play to get the skinny on the new campaign! We love your comments here, but cruise by FaceBook as well to discuss The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, or whichever game you like.  Just remember to keep as quiet as a goblin in the dark whilst navigating the unforgiving chambers of Moria...

2014 Campaign Schedule

Howdy folks!

2013 is wrapping up, and so is the last season of the year.  The Toropets-Kholm Offensive has been great fun, and this last year we had five total wargames campaigns.  We had 3 RPG campaigns, 4 if you count Greyhawk as two!  That's a pretty good haul for the year!

So what's in store for next year?  We've got a ton of awesome games coming up, that's what!  We're excited about the upcoming games, and the projects are ramping up.  In order to help facilitate some of those, we're posting the 2014 schedule so everyone can see it.

Wargames Seasons

1. (January -February)  Lord of the Rings (Schedule 1) and Flames of War (Schedule 2)
2. (March - April)  Clan Strife
3. (May - June)  Warhammer 40,000
4. (July - August)  Warmachine
5. (September - October)  Warhammer Fantasy Battle
6. (November - December)  Flames of War

In addition, there are two major RPG campaigns planned for 2014 as well.  In March, we begin a Dark Heresy campaign that will cover the next few months.  We're really going to put some time into that one, and stretch the system as far as we can before adding any of the other 40krpg books to the mix.  After that (November) Legend of the Five Rings, 4th Edition will be on the table to go along with all those clans - what with their strife and all.  I personally am looking forward to that one - with GM Skim at the helm, I'm sure the samurai swords will all be sharp.

Signups will be required for most campaigns coming this year, and we'll get your Lord of the Rings signatures this coming Game Day.  Also, we're excited to be working with The Smith and our Texas Chapter to get some serious gaming done in 2014.  We love working with other game clubs, and to that end there's a lot of potential stewing up.  There's wars and rumors of wars on the horizon, so don't take this schedule to mean this is ALL we're doing next year.

You should still get your giant robots ready, though.  You'll probably need those.  Dragons, samurai and Nazis are all optional.

D(emo)-Day at the Cave!

This past weekend, the Wargate hosted a Demo Day at the Cave (our friendly local game store) for Flames of War!  Several club members showed up to help show off this awesome game, and we had great fun with some buddies who frequent the game store.  We made a video cataloging the event, and it's available here for you to check out what went on Saturday, December 14th, 2013.

Please forgive the background noise...

Throughout the two demo games, we answered questions and ran through how Battlefront organizes its' product lines.  There was a lot we couldn't get on camera, but the momentum towards Flames of War here in Ada has definitely picked up.  We're going to do all we can to promote some competitive gaming for the system, and are considering sponsoring a tournament day as well if the interest is there.  Beyond that, there's always the campaigns we run here on the site.  There's always room for more fighters on the Eastern Front!

To everyone involved in the Demo project, thanks for turning out and making it an awesome day.  You guys are great fun to hang out with, and were patient with us for being novices at making web videos.  Apologies for the terrible production value - but we just received our nice lighting rig (courtesy Jerry Wargate) and installed new software for media production.

Now hopefully we'll learn how to use it!