Taco Bowl I 2018 in the books!

So,

Ever since I bought my first Blood Bowl box game way back when, I have always wanted to run a Blood Bowl Tournament. Now I had tried many times, but thee was no real interest with my group of players. I had run a few Blood Bowl days with a few folks, but with the game being out of print, it was hard to get folks excited about it.

Well last year when GW re-released Blood Bowl, a few of my gaming group got into it and played a few games. My son over lunch one day (while eating tacos) brought up the idea to do a tournament and I thought maybe it would be a good time to do something about it. As we were eating Tacos at a favorite place of ours the Taco & Dilla Parlor we came up with Taco Bowl I.

So with an idea in my head, I came up with this back story for the Taco Bowl:

Taco Bowl I came about after an up incoming Halfling named Paul Hairytoes went on an “adventure” across the Great ocean in search of new recipes. His travels took him to a far south western port where the locals made hard crispy corn shells that held various meats, vegetables and cheeses, the locals called these Tacos. Well, Paul Hairytoes found his newest creation and sailed back across the Great ocean to introduce this amazing, delicious creation to the people of the Old World.

Unfortunately, Paul had run into some trouble with gambling and betting on Blood Bowl matches before he went on his little “adventure”.  So, while on the ship back to the old-world Paul came up with a brilliant plan, He would change his name to Paco, no last name, just Paco and start selling his own brand of Paco’s Tacos (trademark pending). But Paul aka Paco, had to figure out how to get the word out about his Paco’s Tacos. His plan was simple; he would sponsor a new Halfling Blood Bowl Team called the Tiny Titans and sell his Paco’s Tacos to the crowd. This would allow him to get rich off Paco’s Tacos and let him bet against his own team, thus guarantying that he would never have gambling issues ever again, because Paul aka Paco knows, Halfling teams never win!

With that said, Taco Bowl I was launched, with Paco’s Tacos being a proud sponsor of the Tiny Titans and the glorious Taco Bowl I. Teams from all over the old world will travel the newest venue, the Paco’s Tacos Stadium or as the fans call it, The Taco Bowl.

As this is the first ever Taco Bowl I, this will be an invite only (as Paul aka Paco is trying to stack the deck to better his winnings). 

With the story set, I hand picked 8 players to participate in the first ever Taco Bowl I. The format would be simple, build a Million point list of no more than 16 players on the roster. Each round would have the teams reset but the players needed to keep track of kO's and TD's scored. I also allowed each player to pick one card out of the the various special cards used for the game.

The Mighty Taco Bowl I Trophy as well as the lessor Assassin Award & Mr. TD award, we spared no expense1

Now that we had eight players I needed a fun trophy for the event which was secured at the local party store and then my brother said we need something to put in the trophies. So it was decided that hot sauce packets from a local Del Taco were just the perfect thing! My wife found a "Taco" hat, and we had our prizes for this glorious event. 

Our venue for the glorious Taco Bowl I would be at Funkatronic Rex Board Games and More here in Phoenix. Mike the owner just opened the store about a year and a half ago and was looking to do something with me. And with it being right next door to the Taco & Dilla Parlor, it was a no brainier.  Plus it got a few new folks to come over to his shop.

With that, we were set and 8 players arrived at Taco Bowl I and we were able to get in two games each. Here are a few pictures from the event.

Everyone had a great time, we had two old pros (Myself & Mike G) as well as some veterans (Kat & Derek) and the rest were all newbies (Jerry, Robert, Mychal and John) some had only played one time and that was a few years ago (more like 7 but who's counting!).

After all was said and done, we had three winners for the day. My son Mychal took home Mr. Touch Downs, Derek took the Assassin award and Mike G took home the big Taco, being the First Taco Bowl Champion!

The Big Winners!

All in all it was a very fun day and I used this event to dip my toe into the waters of running a bigger Blood Bowl event. I wanted to see how everything would shack out and I am trying to get folks to join me in playing a small league for BB, we shall see on that.

TK

Smoke and Death

Well,

Robert and I finally after about 5 years of painting and planning, got a small game of ACW Black Powder on the table. Now we have played larger games, but we had this idea that BP could be played on a smaller table (8'x4') with about two brigades each. Now some of our game friends had said that BP couldn't play on a smaller table due to the orders and how far movement can take place. But we were not convinced that would be the case, so we put it to the test. Now to be honest, Robert was waiting for me to get my two brigades completed, hence why it took so long.

The Battlefield

We each took two brigades worth of stuff, which each brigade having a Brigade commander and four regiments along with a gun. Model count for my Rebs, put me in the 220 figures or so. Roberts Union had a few more, with these model counts, it reminded us of the WAB armies we used to play with at 2000 points.

The Brigade General in the center.

With the armies chosen, we rolled off to alternate deployment, which the Union arrived first and began to deploy. I choose to deploy with a strong middle and a heavy right flank. keeping only one Regiment to hold the left flank. My plan was to push the center faster than the Union could out flank me. But this is BP and I am notorious for not passing command checks. But it was a plan and I tried to stick to it.

Right Flank

Well as the game began, the Union pushed across the table pretty quickly in the center, while the left flank stalled and his right flank pushed to the edge of the fields. My left pushed up to the edge of the fields and a stand off ensued

Left Flank holding off the Union

. 

My Left Flank was getting hammered but they held their ground and the poor Union troops could not pass through their own lines, apparently the volley fire was too much for them. This allowed me to get one of my guns up to start laying down fire to support the left flank.

Mean while the fighting in the center intensified and the Rebs started to make headways on the Union troops in the woods. The Rebs must have had to Grace of God on their side because they hardly suffered any casualties during the fight. One Regiment was able to take the bridge and pour Volley after volley into the Union troops.

About this time, the Union center started to fall apart and the Rebs started pushing them back. One Regiment was able to get across the river and enfilade fire into the Union troops. After two vollies, the Union troops retreated back across the river to leave the battle.

The Union feeling the pressure of the Rebs Advance

Needless to say the Union troops started to suffer more casualties and soon the battle was over with the Union having a broken Brigade. The Rebs had pushed the Yankees back across the River!

The Union Center collapses!

So, how did the game play, it played great! The movement orders that a few thought would be too much, never happened and the game felt very much like a WAB game of old. It was great to see that BP can be played in a smaller setting (if you say 200 models a side is small!). And I am sure that Robert and I will be doing this again in the very near future.

Union Surgeon doing his best.

Now really this game was more for us to re-learn the rules besides try out smaller armies. We will be doing the Battle of Salem Church in about a month or so which we will have well over 1600 models on the table and Oh, this is all in 28mm people!

Stay tuned for that coverage in about a month or so...

This is the end...

TK

Gentleman, Start your engines...

So,

On my Amazon Wish List I asked for this awesome board game from GMT Games called Thunder Alley. Its a Nascar racing game that I was introduced too by Mike over at DaGreenskins Blog with his crazy idea to upscale the game to 1/64th scale cars. The plan was to build this for con games and honestly, Mike likes doing cool things to games like up sizing them!

Well I wanted a copy for myself but never actually pulled the trigger to purchase it, but my brother settled that dilemma for me by purchasing it for me this past Christmas.

Thunder Alley is a very unique sort of racing game in that it uses cards to move the counters rather then rolling dice. You are also racing a team of cars of your own trying to get them to place as high as they can. This then will get you more points at the end of the race to determine a winner. Also, when you move a car, you could be moving the whole pack of cars, which to me is always making the game very interesting.

To make the game more interesting, there are event cards that are generated after everyone was gone. These events could be anything from restarts to major crashes on the race track, it is very amusing to see these events come up, especially when it effects the lead car.

This game is a traditional board and chit game, and everything in it is high quality and well produced. You do get a lot of counters and plastic bags for them, which was nice that they included those.

 My only issue, which was minor, is one of the boards I got was torn apart, it looked like it was a bad seam. The good news was that GMT games took care of replacing the board rather quickly, they have an online chat and I had a new board within days of contacting them. I offered to send the damaged board back, but they told me to keep it. Great service and very quick on helping me out.

Needless to say I got the game on the table with the wife and my brother and his wife on New Years eve. My brother and I enjoyed the game very much, the wives, not so much. I look forward to playing more of this game in 2018 and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a race game. I would have to say I enjoy the game more than Formula D, and that says a lot. I am also now eyeing there other race Game, Grand Prix which uses the same card activation as Thunder Alley.

TK

Goals for 2018, sort of...

Well,

I have been thinking about what goals I want to accomplish in 2018 for my hobby, I know it’s already started, but I wanted to just put something down on the old blog. One thing I noticed with my hobby is that it really hasn’t been my hobby for a while. My hobby time has always seemed to be focused on others hobby projects, which is not a bad thing, but I needed to figure out what “My” hobby is.

So, I had to go back in time to figure out when I was really enjoying my hobby of playing with toy soldiers. That time trip back had me the happiest when I was really working on my Lord of the Rings projects. I was building terrain, painting miniatures and staying focused on LotR. Before that it was WAB and many of the WW2 games my buddy Drunkensamuari were playing.

At first, I thought it was the games themselves that I was missing, which was part of it, but then I did some more thinking on the matter and identified one important part. The real key was the focus on the hobby, I was lacking focus on my hobby. I was all over the place with different projects and was just working on those to fill time. There was no real rhyme or reason to what I was doing, just working on whatever I wanted. Now this was not a bad thing, but I felt like I was not getting anything done. In years past I could see my progress because I stayed focused on one project and I was able to produce more terrain or painted figures. I was spending time reading about whatever project I was working on and planning new armies, collecting models for these projects and planning new terrain for those said projects.

That was my issue, a lack of focus on any of the things I was doing. I was just going through the motions of doing my hobby and had no real focus. I think part of the lack of focus was just how many games that I was playing or were about to come out. As most gamers, I want it all, but the realization is that I may be able to buy everything, but I will not be able to play everything. Last year I tried and purchased many games and some only made it to the table once, some never even hit the table. This was causing lack of focus and too some degree, stress in my stress-free hobby.

So, for 2018 I am going to try to stay focused on a few projects and actively work towards those. With that in mind, here are a few things I will try to stay focused on moving forward.

CAV SO

I will once again be working on CAV SO, I am also working with the author of the game to try and get more exposure for this great giant stompy robot game. I have a large collection of models that need to be built and painted as well as a large 28mm scale Dictator that needs to be built and painted.

WW2 in 28mm

Bolt Action has been the main game of choice for us here in my gaming group. So I am sure that will stay the same, but most of us would rather play the 1^st edition on the rules as to the 2^nd edition. To that end, Drunken and I are working on pacific theater armies, he with Marines and me working on Imperial Japanese. I am currently reading “With the Old Breed” by E.B. Sledge, this is a great book that covers the battle of Peleliu and Okinawa and gives you a glimpse of what it was like to fight in the Pacific theater.

Blood Bowl

I will continue to work on the back log of all the Blood Bowl figures I have, I am currently working on repainting my wife’s old Elf team. All I am doing is touch ups as opposed to repainting. Blood Bowl was my second GW game, and I have a passion for the figures and just love the idea of the game. I am doing a little get together for a few friends called Taco Bowl I, which will see about eight of us playing three games against each other.

Warhammer Quest

So, Last year my brother moved to Arizona, we used to play lots of Warhammer Quest. Since he moved to AZ, we have been monthly getting together to play. Well one of the first things he told me was that I needed to paint up all my Quest models. So, this past year I have been working towards having a fully painted Warhammer Quest set. I am close to getting there, that’s if I stop looking for old Warhammer Fantasy models to buy!

Space Hulk

So, this was the first GW game I ever bought and last year I picked up the new copy. One reason for picking it up was that I lost my copies of the rules and the Deathwing supplement of the rules. Another reason is I like the new models, so I plan to get a fully painted up copy of Space Hulk before the year is up. I got one game in already with Drunken before the year was up, look forward too many more.

Frostgrave

Well I have still a bunch of models that I need to get painted, Drunken and I have plans to get this out on the table more this year. So, I will be working on getting another Warband completed as well as a few more creatures for the game. I keep toying with the idea of doing some snow terrain, but not sure on that one.

Saga

Rumor mill has it that we are getting a new edition of Saga this year. When I heard about that I put a hold on my 2^nd Viking army as well as my Moor army. We are all waiting to see what the new rules look like, and if they work we will continue to play and I will get two more armies ready for play. Heck, I may just paint the Vikings just for the fun of it as well. 

Black Powder

Well the ACW project for BP is ending, although it seems that there are only a few of us still working on it. This weekend Drunken & I will be getting in a game to remember how to play. We have also been talking about the War of 1812, so we could see where that goes.

So, there you have it, 8 things that I will hopefully stay focused on in 2018, we shall see how that goes. Stay tuned folks…

TK

Where has the time gone?

Well

It has certainly been a very long time since I posted here, you may be wondering why? Well I just haven't felt like posting, I mean I have tried posting but then the urge passes and I am onto to something else. Also it seems that most folks (myself included) have switched over to posting either to Facebook or Twitter. Another thing that a few folks have mentioned on other blogs, it seems that blog readership is in decline. Well that is true, most of the blogs I do follow are in the same state as mine, so in order to try to reverse that, I am going to start reposting here.

So with that I guess the next question is what have I been up to then? Well recently I have been drug back into the GW hobby! You see, GW has been revamping their "Specialist" games. Well GW re released Blood Bowl. Well BB is my weakness and I knew I had to have it!

So now with the new box set in my hands I started,working on a proper Orc team. You see out of all of the teams I have collected I never built a Orc team for myself. A few years ago I did scratch build an Orc team for my son out of GW fantasy kit models. 

Well not be happy with stock models I started to convert the models. You see I hate to have duplicate models, and converting is part of the hobby after all.

With that, the Azog Orkinals were born, since I am a Arizona Cardinals fan, it seemed like the rich choice for the Orks, plus Orks love red, so I came up with Red white and green as the colors.

Well after I did this team, I sort of dug out a few of my older teams and started working on them. Since I first started playing Blood Bowl, I always wanted to,build a Halfling team,. Too me it is just plain funny that Halflings would want to play Blood Bowl and the size of the models is jfunny to see on the board. 

Well for years I have been slowly collecting models and finally I had enough and decide to get them painted up as well. Going with the funny side, I decided to paint them up in the Tennessee Titans colors, because after all, Halfling are such a might team! 

And then my brother and I got in a game and he said he would like to play a dwarf team. So once again I busted out a few models and asked what colors to paint up this new team. Well my brother took one look at the models and said how about purple and white like the Minosotta Vikings. 

So there you have it, a few new Blood Bowl teams for the new year. So I will start posting more this year to try to reverse to decline of blogs and get back to doing my hobby here. So stay tuned for more content on Cursed treasures. And remember to Eat Pacos Tacos!

TK