Warhammer 40,000

Playing some Family Magic in The Bahamas

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

A deck of Magic cards is never too far when the family travels. Our latest family trip, minus Christian as his schedule prevented him from joining us, was no exception. It got me to thinking that I should maybe list out where our Magic decks have been.

Our latest vacation took us to the Bahamas. I won’t bore you with all the details but it was a lovely trip. The beach where we stayed was stunning. Unfortunately, strong winds over the ocean meant that we could not go swimming in the sea for two of the days we were there due to the strong undertows.

As happened with another recent trip, bringing Magic cards with you does mean that you should prepare for a little extra scrutiny when going through airport security. I guess that a Commander deck into an Ultimate Guard Boulder looks quite unusual when going through the scanning machine. And so our bags got pulled for a closer look. This also happened on a skiing trip Noah and I did to Whistler a couple of years back. Interestingly, the same did not happen when we left the Bahamas. Maybe the person manning the scanning machine was a Magic player himself and recognized the odd black square on the screen as a Commander deck.

While the opportunities to play were limited, Noah and I did manage to squeeze in one game one evening. His upgraded Warhammer 40K Necrons deck, led by Imotekh the Stormlord, went up against my unmodified Zinnia, Valley’s Voice deck from Bloomburrow.

Noah wisely took out his (there is a story there for another time) Mana Crypt before the trip, recognizing not only that it was a pricy card but also that it was now banned in Commander.

It was a closely fought affair but the Necrons prevailed as they have so often done in the past thanks to the ever-growing wave of Necron Warrior artifact creature tokens. I had started strong but not being able to shut down his token generating engine meant that I soon lost my early advantage. It was at least not the crushing rout Ruhan suffered during our last trip!

Magic in the Bahamas
Bahamas trip

Sadly, there was no opportunity for other games as the trip was quite short and there were too many other things to do.

Our decks have travelled with us on a few other trips but I have not really tracked our world Magic experiences in the past. I will try to do a better job of it going forward.

Warhammer 40,000 Commander for Thanksgiving!

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Thanks to the awesome folks at North of Exile, four new Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks showed up at our door Friday morning.

Christian had been looking forward to this release ever since it was first announced. What can be better than the combination of two his of his favourite games? He had already left for class so I texted him to let him know that there was something awesome waiting for him when he got home.

Christian knew that he would pick up at least one deck as soon as they were unveiled. When further details emerged, he changed his mind and decided to go for two: The Chaos and Tyrannid decks. We chatted some and I told him that I would buy one and it was not long before Noah joined in the fun. Noah opted for the Necron deck and I went for the Imperium one.

North of Exile was able to hook us up with the four decks at a great price even as the decks began to surge in price as previews began.

When Christian got home Friday evening, we immediately cracked open our decks and got ready for war. Christian played his Chaos deck. It was a relatively short game with Noah going out first without ever really being able to mount a credible threat. After a slow start (shuffling new decks is very important I keep telling myself), I was pretty happy with my board state. Then Christian pulled a board wipe and things changed instantaneously. It was still a close affair but in the end, the forces of the Imperium were overwhelmed by Abaddon and his Chaos army.

For our second game, Christian switched to his Tyrannid deck. It was his turn to suffer a slow start. A few turns into the game, I was given the choice of eliminating him or deal with at a growing Necron threat, which included 14 Necron tokens. Christian offered a deal in which he would deal with Noah if I let him live. With a board wipe in hand, I opted to finish off the Tyrnannids, knowing I could deal with the Necrons as well. I turned the deal down and took out Christian. The board wipe then decimated the Necron threat thanks to my having an Assault Intercessor to inflict 2 points of damage for each creature Noah lost. His Psychomancer dulled that damage but when the smoke cleared, he was down to 3 health. Noah was able to rebuild a bit on his turn, showing how powerful the Necron deck can be. Fortunately, on my next turn, I drew a Knight Paladin and the game was over.

For our third game, Christian switched back to his Chaos deck. He opted to bring his Commander out early while Noah and I slowly built up. I drew a number of ramp cards and quickly found myself with an abundance of mana. For his part, Noah had plenty of removal and used it deal with Abaddon not once but several times. The last time Abaddon came out, he cost 11 mana!

While the brothers fought each other, I built up a strong position using all that mana now at my disposal. A very frustrated Christian conceded and Noah turned his attention to me. But by then it was too late and the Imperium once again swept the Necrons out of this part of the universe.

As this is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I’m hoping we can squeeze a few more games in. Perhaps we will switch through the decks to get a feel for the different flavours. But I also have to go build more Tau’s for my army! And there’s turkey still to be eaten!

When one expensive hobby is not enough

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Some time before Christmas, Christian discovered Warhammer 40,000. He’s been listening to podcasts telling the lore of the game and asked for a starter set for Christmas.

I knew enough to know that Warhammer 40K is a pretty deep and intricate game. There are three starter sets to choose from. Unsure how much we will end up playing this game, Santa Claus opted to get Christian the Elite Edition, the not-the-smallest and not-the-biggest set. A good selection of miniatures and a basic piece of landscape (a cardboard insert essentially) along with everything else needed to get started.

He spent a good portion of the break putting together and painting his new miniatures. He’s about two thirds of the way through them now with the larger more detailed ones still to be done. I’m pretty impressed with his first painting attempts. But today was the day when he finally took the plunge into the game itself.

The first introductory mission is an ambush where the Space Marines have to get through a line of Necrons. We played two games, taking turns playing the Marines. In both games, at least two Marines made it through and survived the Necron ambush.

As I write this, Christian is introducing his brother to the same mission. Then the plan is to replay the mission with the optional more advanced rapid fire rule that might give the Necrons a bit more of an edge. And then, we’ll be on to the next mission.

If we all (or even some of us) get more serious about this game, we are going to need a bigger gaming table! I don’t think that Sarah will agree to turning the living room into a massive battle ground.