ISSUE # 18 APRIL 2015

GARAGE GAMERS GROUP

S N A K E E Y E S 2

Snake Eyes is evolving. Each

month we try to make it better

for you, the reader to enjoy.

Sometimes it presents chal-

lenges, (like getting it out the

day I want to), and other times

it flows like...well you get the

picture.

Snake Eyes magazine is still

free, and based on that alone I

could write just about anything

I wanted to providing no laws

are broken. I appreciate that

you take the time to read the

editions that come to you, or

perhaps you found on the Fa-

cebook page of Garage Gam-

ers Group. It doesn’t matter,

save to say that you are appre-

ciated. Keep sharing the mag-

azine, if you are one of those

readers.

We attempt to keep regular

columns and regular contribu-

tors. If any items come into my

view to put into Snake Eyes I

sometimes attribute it to the

regular writers, who look after

that area. Recently, I did a call

out over some 25 groups on

Facebook that I belong to, re-

questing interest in submitting

either a one off, or regular

submission. I received some

people willing to have a go and

see there name in print. Two of

them are new in this issue, and

I look forward to sharing more

of them and our regular con-

tributors with you in future

issues.

Garage Gamers Group has

topped 200 members. Am

very stoked about that, so

great effort everybody, well

done.

I am tying down some final

preparations for PentaCon,

our annual tournament, so

you can expect the date for

that will (finally) be out next

issue. There are more tour-

naments Snake Eyes is and

will be promoting for the

gamers out there. Eventually

the plan is to create a calen-

dar, showing the game sys-

tem, the location and the

dates. If you wish to have

your tournament promoted

wherever in the world you

are, please feel free to send

in the details.

Shane Blomberg, the man

responsible for the 40k

Knight conversion either

owns or has access to a 3D

printer, which is how he was

able to create the head,

hand and weapon pieces for

the excellent piece.

I hope you all have a great

month, and will see you next

issue.

Send your submissions in to:

garagegamersgroup@

gmail.com and put Editor in

the subject line.

SEE YOU THERE

Garage Gamers Group (GGG)

G A R A G E

G A M E R S

G R O U P

SNAKE EYES A P R I L 2 0 1 5 I S S U E 1 8

Cover: Knight Con-

version by Shane

Blomberg

Editorial

Reviews on the Run

Gaming Tips

The Collector

Penny for your

thoughts

Dog County Range

Wars - Final

Eyes Around the

World

Member Spotlight

S N A K E E Y E S

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S N A K E E Y E S

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REVIEWS ON THE RUN With GGG Member Peter Toh

Battlefront site at some future point. The second one is that, other than helicopters, there are no air support elements detailed or listed; again, maybe there is a another book in the works (maybe if this one takes off?), which will include this integral ele-ment? Unusually for a Flames of War supplement, the respective forces are not all divided into their own separate sections. The 'Free World' forces (U.S. Army, ANZAC and ARVN) are, but the PAVN are divided across each of these, to provide 'a force in context' to the respective FW force in question. As a gamer aid, I can see this being irritating, as you might have to search the entire book to find some minor unit of your force during a game if you're playing PAVN... For gamers new to the period though, it presents an historical and contextual opponent for the relevant forces - not something FoW is typically accused of. Overall the forces included in the book are those I would expect to see represented in the Vietnam War, but bearing in mind that FoW is a 'toy heavy' system, there are also those forces which were somewhat less typical. The option to create an armoured or mechanised force is available for eve-ry combatant nation represented in the book, the PAVN's being associated with the ARVN section, so as to allow their use from 1971. Obviously you aren't tied to this, so you can always play the 'what ifs' of US Armoured versus PAVN armoured, for example. The oft-complained of 'beardy' elements are no-ticeably lacking. There is an option to deploy M132 flame-tanks in most FW forces and also the option to use the Shillelagh gun-launched missile by the M551 Sheridan (this is pointed out as unhistorical though, as is a US-PAVN armoured clash). The field-modified prototype to the M163 Vulcan (using a 7.62mm Mini-Gun) and other small oddities get a look in too, but so what? When they start talking about M103 tanks and Davy Crockett rockets, I'll shout "Whoah!" with the best of them... currently though, not a big deal at all in my opinion. The Americans get the most lists, with the ex-pected 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) and the 25th 'Tropic Lightning' Divisions forming the umbrella formation for most of them. Besides the expected Airmobile, Armoured and Mechanised Companies that you would expect from these, you can now also field a full Air Cavalry Troop, an Armoured Cavalry Troop and a straight honest-to-God Rifle Company, with somewhat limited support. ANZAC has the option of Armoured, Cavalry and Rifle Companies and the ARVN has Tank, Armoured Cavalry and Rifle Companies. So largely the full range of units possi-ble. The PAVN get the basic B3 Front list (c.1965) as appeared in the 'Ia Drang' articles, with the dubi-ous (to me anyway) inclusion of a Tank unit in sup-port. To be fair though, if you were fighting a non-historical opponent, a non-historical support unit would redress any imbalance. There is a list for PAVN Sappers and even a Local Force list, which was a gem to me, as it was complete with low quality units, booby-traps as fortifications and even

'local resistance' groups, who have some quite clever rules to boot! The last PAVN list is tied in with the ARVN lists and represents a 'Third Phase' force, complete with armoured and mechanised forces. While more able to go toe to toe with the ARVN and US armoured forces else-where in the book, I found this somewhat light on equipment variety to be honest. This com-plaint not withstanding, the forces do seem pretty well balanced with respect to their op-ponents, even if, ironically, lacking in any individuality or choice. There is no mention of the BTR-152 or BTR-40 personnel carriers, nor the BRDM1 in the mechanised units, who are uniformly equipped with the BTR-50. The cut-off date for the supplement is 1971, so the later BTR-60 or BRDM2 wouldn't be included in any case, but the other two are a sad omission, especially given the space devoted to US oddities. You do get the ZSU-57-2 for your AA units though, so it's not all bad. The Special Rules Section seems a well con-sidered section. Beside rules for 'Med-Evac' and other period specific rules, you also get specific ANZAC and ARVN rules, so when you play them, you aren't just playing a 'US-Lite' force. Okay perhaps a little anachronistic and stereotypical, in the same way as the other supplements have been, but they seem like fun. Don't like them, don't use them. The PAVN get a ruck of special rules, which I feel are warranted, particularly the more low-tech lists, to balance the odds. Some of these are quite clever (admittedly no great recommen-dation coming from me) and cause an hin-drance to the FW player... so thumbs up for these! The book rounds off with 8 missions, which reflect the typical styles of action in the Vi-etnam War and come in similar proportions. For example there is only one of the elusive 'Stand Up Fight' style of missions which the US so desperately sought. The others are more mobile or defensive in nature for the respective forces. Overall I feel that the book offers a lot for the

potential FoW Vietnam gamer. It's neither

perfect or comprehensive for the War itself

(there isn't much space wasted on the histori-

cal background to the war - there are plenty

of good books and web sites on this after all

though), but what it sets out to do, it does

well. It's slimmer than the usual hardback

supplement, hence its lower price, but no

space is wasted. I thought the £16 I spent on

it was money well spent and I don't even play

FoW... if you do play it and want to get into

Vietnam, buy it!

By Jim Hale

What I have found is that the rule supplements are themselves are often quite good; they are usually quite accurately researched, contain a lot of eye-candy and are well laid out, so at a glance you can see the organisational layout of the forces they are covering. That last detail can be quite useful to folk like me, who tend to obsess over unit organisation details. Much of the data is of course meaningless if you don't play the game of course, but on a single page, or two, you can often find, in an easily digestible form, in-formation that you could spend a whole book reading to find out. As the Flames of War community is also quite vocal and quick to jump on errors in the books, I'm actually more confident in the information given in them, than I would be in the typical Osprey book, which don't have to deal with such vicious peer-review and to my cost, I've found to be wrong (Osprey uniform and equip-ment details are usually spot-on, organisational details often less so... trust me on this). So the book... 133 pages, soft cov-ered and printed in full colour throughout. I get the impression that they had a lot to squeeze in, so the period 'special rules' carry right onto the inside back cover. I could be wrong, as I don't own the items, but I believe that a portion of the book is composed of re-edited and present-ed versions of the original 'Ia Drang Valley' magazine articles and the previous FoW booklet 'Tropic Light-ning'. Nevertheless the remainder of the book is packed with new content and the corresponding special rules to go with it. The first glaring omission that leaped out straight away is that there is nothing on the Marines; US, South Vietnamese or Korean. I'm guessing that they might be getting their own book, or lists will go up on the

S N A K E E Y E S

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REVIEWS ON THE RUN With GGG Member Peter Toh

KINGS of War - As with most other wargames, each

player has an army that equals a points value, so you can create a balanced force consisting of your normal units, war machines, cavalry, heroes… that’s pretty standard stuff in a lot of games. Each unit has a set of stats: Speed is how far they can travel in a turn, adjusted for terrain and haste. Melee is the hand-to-hand target number the play-er has to score on a number of six-sided dice. Range is the missile target number for the same D6 roll. Defence is the target number the player has to roll with every successful Melee or Ranged roll, and Attacks is how many D6 they roll at a time. Nerve decides what the unit does once they are hit, and finally Points is the value of a unit, how much it will cost you to have it in your army. The basic rules work like this; Speed decides how far a unit can move in inches per turn, adjusted for difficult terrain or how fast the unit is moving. Then, if the units are able, they can make a Ranged at-tack, followed by a separate Melee attack. To attack an enemy unit, you roll the same number of six-sided dice as your Attacks score. For every die that rolls equal to or higher than your unit’s Ranged or Melee score you get one hit, and you keep the number of dice that attained this score. You roll these dice again, and for every dice that rolls equal to or above your enemy’s Defence val-ue you have scored one point of Damage. Once this happens you make a test against the enemy’s Nerve by rolling 2D6 and adding the number of Damage points you have scored (this is cumula-tive). This then decides whether the enemy unit is Steady (still fighting), Wavering (disordered and disrupted) or Rout! (annihilated, captured or chased off the field). These simple results means that you don’t have to worry about having the wrong number of models in your unit as the result affects the complete unit and not individual mod-els. This means you could use one model to repre-sent ten warriors. Units also have Special Rules that give them bo-nuses to dice rolls or special attacks, and there are magical artefacts that can help, too. There’s a small use of magic but this is covered by the Spe-cial Rules, so although you can have mages blast-ing the enemy in the game there’s no special multi-page section with dozens of spells available. The rules are incredibly simple to learn and you can have a basic full-scale battle kicking off in about an hour once you’ve cracked open the book, if that. There’s no tables to continually refer to or templates to use, just a quick, intuitive game with easy rules that allow for a plethora of tactical choices. My first game took ten minutes to set up

and two hours to play through, with two five hundred-point armies. Considering the com-plexity of many games out there, that’s great and perfect for me as I don’t like to spend hours poring over rules and tables so that we get a few turn’s worth of gaming in over sev-eral hours. They’re exceptionally clear and well written, and great fun to use. And then there’s the options, and this is where Kings of War begins to shine. Along with the basic rules you get rules and guide-lines for: Timed Games – so you can use a chess clock to move the game along and stop your opponent from spending an hour or two mak-ing up their minds on what to do next. This is something I used in my second game and it was both brilliant and nerve-wracking. Expanded Terrain Rules – to simulate dan-gerous locations such as tar pits, swamps and living forests. Multi-Player Games – so that you can have more than two armies at the table. I haven’t tried this, yet, but it looks like it could be an amazing experience. Siege Warfare – complete rules for laying siege to and defending strongholds. I can’t wait to try this out. Campaign Rules – for ongoing wars and tak-ing objectives such as towns and cities. It’s a great way to give the battles a long-term story and means a lot of commitment. I can see the multi-player games benefiting from this as players dominate and defend their territory. The book then moves on to Force Lists, ar-mies and their histories, backgrounds and statistics, with any applicable special rules and details. The armies you can choose from are Dwarves, Elves, Men, Abyssal Dwarves (evil dwarves), Goblins, Orcs, Twilight Kin (evil elves) and Undead. There’s plenty of units, war machines, heroes and monsters to choose from so pick your force wisely. I have an 800 point Elven army which is doing okay, and right now I’m working on a 500 point Free Dwarf force. There’s more than enough here to choose from to keep you in games for months. Finally, the book rounds off with Tournament rules so that gamers from all over can wage war with each other in fair, balanced and offi-cial ways. All in all it’s a fantastic game, and what you get in the rulebook pretty much covers every-thing you’d do in a fantasy warfare scenario. There are no long-winded or complicated rules, and there’s no beating around the bush - the rules and options are laid out simply, cleanly and with minimum fuss. The produc-tion values of the book don’t really matter when you’re given such a solid, playable and fun game with lots of options you really want to try out.

By Jonathan Hicks

warpforged@gmail.com

S N A K E E Y E S

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Playing for a reason With GGG Member Lewis Cairns

P A G E 7 I S S U E 1 8

assembling and fielding armies, imagining grand and glorious campaigns that each war band would progress through. Gener-ally, I would lose.

Without a firm grasp of the rules it seemed that there was always some Deus Ex Machina that pre-vented my Orcs from finally lop-ping off Aragorn’s head or trim-ming Gimli’s beard. But it wasn’t about the winning, and it never was about the winning. War gaming can seem like a frus-trating hobby to those who are unfamiliar, they see it as a frivo-lous expense of plastic models, yet, to me, I was building worlds. I was shaping the face of Middle Earth with my dreadfully unlucky Orcs. More so, as the months progressed I began to know my army as if it was one of my friends. I knew how many Orcs would die if the mounted riders of Rohan charged, I knew how many men would die if I could push my large force cross the board and met the elves in com-bat, I knew that if I was fighting Dwarves then I sure as hell better bring some bows, because throwing Orcs at dwarves in close combat was similar to try-ing to erode a brick with a pi-

pette of water!

Crucially, all of us found a new world to explore, a Middle Earth that had not been elab-orated upon in the films, and with that came endless possi-bility.

In my opinion, it is the endless possibility and promise that keeps war gaming alive. It’s the “What ifs?” and the “Yeah, but’s” and of course the “Oh my god” moments where things go so perfectly right that you feel like a hybrid of Bismarck and Napoleon.

But of course, War gaming is about the fun. For many years, as a youngster, war gaming offered an escape from the stress of a tumultu-ous world of danger. War gaming allowed us all to be-lieve, just for an hour that Orcs and goblins and magic and trolls posed more of a threat than any real life prob-lem outside.

As time passed my friends began to discard their hobby, opting to chose sports, study or girls as more meaningful past times. Whilst I too left

together, a WW1 set, a 1942

version and I had to have them

all. But I digress, the point I am

getting to is, whether it’s a

magazine, that you may buy

on a month by month basis if

you don’t subscribe, or you

have more than one gaming

table, and I bet you have more

than one favourite computer

game, or console game? Well

guess what? You are a collec-

tor. It’s almost OCD sometimes

when you HAVE to buy it,

trade for it or make it yourself,

just to have the complete set.

So many games, miniatures

etcetera and so little leisure

time. Thank your games club

next time you’re there for

making your hobby that much

better.

The great thing I love about

being a collector is the broad

hobby that it is. We have spo-

ken about collecting within the

miniature gaming aspect, but

what about the fringes? I loved

the Axis & Allies game when it

first was released. Since then

there has been a second edi-

tion, sort of a fast play ver-

sion, as well as a Pacific and

Europe set, that can be joined

From the Collector’s Vault

S N A K E E Y E S

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I was ten when I first heard the call of war gaming.

There was a hysteria flowing through my friends for days. We were Lord Of The Rings crazy, playing out the battles in the playground with sticks every lunchtime. So the thought of controlling vast armies appealed to all of us, and it was just a bo-nus that we wouldn’t be hit with any sticks whilst doing it.

Within a week a box of Isengard Uruk-Hai had been ordered and suddenly we were thrust into a world we knew nothing about. There were glues to be bought, clippers, a modelling knife and don’t even get me started on the painting. For a ten year old this process could seem daunting, however, when the first Uruk Hai was assembled and his broad shield and sword looked identical to the ones we had been pre-tending to wield every lunchtime, we fell in love.

Suddenly, instead of taking to the School Fields at lunchtime we were to be found inside, two study desks pushed up against each other to form a straight plain. Twenty unpainted models facing each other. For months we expanded our armies, crudely

The Collector is a

gamer with over 40

years in collectable

games and wargam-

ing...

war gaming behind for years, I sporadically came back, once every year or so, to see what had changed, and to feel that familiar joy of seeing my Orcs get crushed into paste.

War gaming is so much more than moving over-priced plastic miniatures about a study desk, shouting the names of special rules you don’t quit understand. War gaming is a safe vacation from reality that chal-lenges you numerically and tactically whilst sim-ultaneously pushing your imagination to work in overtime.

In my humble opinion, there are very few past-times to rival the ingenui-ty four ten year olds can muster with a box of twenty Orcs and five die.

Long live War gaming and may it live forever.

S N A K E E Y E S

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S N A K E E Y E S

Forward Scout

By GGG Member Glen Taylor

May your dice roll high,

Glen

Kindness and fun...

Yes, in war gaming? We are supposed to kill each others army? Wipe them out to a man. Well yes that the one side

of our hobbies, but just today I had the pleasure of seeing the above shine. I was lucky to get an invite to the

Koodiminda Gaming Club WarMachine tourney Saturday the 28th of march. I would like to share my day.

The morning started with a early departure because the call had gone out that breakfast would be served for those

souls who arrived early. I had asked what I needed to bring and was told, “nothing”. So, I thought I would pick up

some Danish pastries to go with breakfast. Well four bakeries later and no luck. When I arrived breakfast was toast,

eggs and bacon, plus beans, and fried tomatoes. Massive servings for those about to do battle.

The first game was a good one and though I lost, I had great fun. For those not familiar with the WarMachine com-

munity, they video tape the games and this was the table that the camera was above. Like a star I shone bright then

burned out.

Then it was lunch time and the BBQ was cooking. Steak and sausages plus salad and bread rolls. At this point I was

thinking of boarding here.

After lunch came two more games for one win and one loss. Both games had their ups and downs, but I learned

some things for next time I played. This was followed by the awards and aftermath where war stories and future

plans are talked.

I was on my way home by 5.30pm, but what a day of gaming, and the kindness of our hosts was so good. A lot of

work to run and organise and still they played in the comp as well. How, I don’t know? So that’s how it was and I

would like to thank all who made my day a good one.

Well all that’s left is my little bit of something of interest. The American Indian dog soldiers made sure they fought to

the last. Each year, four soldiers where chosen to wear a length of leather called a dog-rope. During battle each sol-

dier would attach the free end of his rope to the ground, pinning himself to the spot. He would not free himself until

his comrades were safe.

S N A K E E Y E S

9

DREADBALL

The futuristic sports game

The Blind Pig gaming club is running a

Dreadball League!

Started 21st February

Finnish Hall

62 Newnham road

Mount Gravatt QLD 4122.

9:30am to 4:30pm.

ANZAC CUP 2015 Will run on the 18th and 19th of April 2015. The venue for this tournament is the Enoggera Barracks, with proceeds going

to Legacy. It is a well run tournament, operated by the boys from WW40k, GGG members and for a good cause. See Facebook Anzac Cup

S N A K E E Y E S

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Dogtown howler 7¢Edited & Published by Jacob Adams Esq.- Journalist & Photographer - Established 1867 Dogtown County - Member of Professional Newspapermen of N.Y. April 1869

Glen Taylor, Garage Gamers

Group & Snake Eyes, would

like to thank the following

participants; Without the as-

sistance of these GGG Mem-

bers, Dog County Range

Wars could not have been as

enjoyable, challenging and

informative as it has been,

and Glen has asked me to

applaud your efforts.

Warhammer Quest Chaos Warrior

(unpainted) Sale or Trade - $25

Red Duke GW Vampire (without

mount) unpainted $15 sale/trade

Necromunda Van Saar Juves NIB for

sale or trade $35

GW Brettonian Green Knight

(Undercoated) Sale/Trade $35

40K Sisters of Battle/Adeptus Sororitas Army - $600 Sale/Trade

Warhammer Steam Tank - Metal Trade/Sale $60

Warhammer Grand Theogonist on Wagon (Metal) painted Sale/Trade

$50

WH40k Space Marine Vindicator Tank (painted) Sale/Trade $45

scale, as well as a larger map for more inclusions, like

weather, disasters and happenings that one might ex-

pecting the old days of the west. The game structure itself,

as mentioned in a previous Issue of Snake Eyes, will allow

future creations of similar turn based games but with each

having a unique theme. I will hold my tongue there, save to

say I am still looking forward to the Pirate themed on,

which will be played over several maps. Keep an Aye!, out

for that one... Other themes are in the works now that we

know what needs to be tweaked, to make it more playable.

Steven Azzopardi,

Tim Prenzler,

Drew Birkmyre,

Jamie Federoff,

Michael Orton,

Simon Mayes,

Simon Machin,

Courtney Halvorsen,

Ross Williams,

Alessio Cavatore,

Sean O’Hanlon,

Martin Dorney,

Shane Heirdsfield,

Bryan Ansell,

Cameron McCormack,

Gregory Peatey

The Dogtown Howler will go on, as an advertising page in Snake Eyes. This will be a funded page, and the items listed are the property of the editor. Items listed here may also be listed on Mini Trades. Any person, member or other-wise may advertise miniatures for sale here. Please contact snakeeyes.magazine@gmail.com for details. Items listed are for sale or trade. Price does not include postage and handling, though local sales/trades may be picked up.

Karloth Valois, (left) a Scavvy

gang Character option for

Necromunda. Item for sale/

trade is unpainted - $25

Bolt Action: Tank Wars & Hard Cover Rulebook for sale only,

Unused and in excellent condition $60 for both.

White Dwarf Weekly’s $3 each, contact for Issue numbers

Location for all items on page are Ipswich, Queensland.

Mk1 Rhinos for sale/trade at

$20 each, several items, un-

dercoated. Metal/plastic Mk2

Predator $30 (1 only)

LOTR Fellowship of the Ring

sprue (multiple items) $20

Paul Skuse,

Darian Chase,

Shayne Treasure,

Tony Arthur,

Andrew Wylie,

Sean Federoff,

Mick Thornes,

John McDonnell,

Startling News...The Range Wars are

finally over...Dog County Range Wars

was a game tester, meant to play

over 12 months. Sometimes the one

turn a month was too much for

some, too long between turns for

others, but in the end the game crea-

tor, Glen Taylor, decided there was

enough data gathered and time to

shut the door on the interactive

game. The winner at the time of

game finish was Darian Chase. The

winning Rancher required the most

land combined with the most in-

come. As owner of the GGG Ranch,

and looking after the map turns, I

could only expand so far, but enjoyed

watching the moves unfold. As this

was the tester game, Dogtown can go

to new ways in the future, both ex-

ploring a game that exists in a town

S N A K E E Y E S

11

As part of our ongoing club visits, in this issue of Snake Eyes we went

and had a look at PUBHAMMER. It was a wet and dreary night in

Brisbane when I hopped in the car on a Sunday night to make my

way to The Junction Hotel, formally known as (The Muddy Farmer),

for a look at a club that only games at night. The first thing I did no-

tice were a lot of the gamers had pub meals before gaming, and had

various drinks with a waitress appearing every so often to bring said

meal or drink and taking the empties away. Could this be the secret I

thought. I chatted with a few of the gamers, gleaning what was the

norm at Pubhammer. I was introduced to the man behind it all,

Kieran Bowman. He told me that the gaming club had moved around

a bit before making a central location for their usual members. The

location at the pub was free, as from the business perspective, more

people in an unused area equals more food/drink sales. There are

two main gaming areas, which had enough room for the gamers that

were there. It would not take many more to fill it up, however.

Top right shows a game of Cthulhu Wars

being set up by Hassan and Devin, while

below that, Trevor and Sam are into a

battle of Kings of War. Having not played

either I was quite interested. Kings of War

seems a viable option along with earlier

editions of Warhammer, to make use of

all of those miniatures collecting dust.

Only when a function is booked for the

upstairs area at The Junction, do the gam-

ers at Pubhammer have to cancel their

night, but plenty of notice is given in this

case. All the gamers that were there

where either involved in a game, or sitting

around talking about games...

Kieran, facing camera, talks with

fellow gamers whilst they enjoy a

game of War Machine, below.

S N A K E E Y E S

12

A game of Malifaux in play. The pigs on the right were hand made by the player that owns

them. Unfortunately I did not get his name and his opponent wished to remain anon.

Adam Kunde, an old gamer from my old club, The Warhounds, was on hand

to talk about Pubhammer as well. He had turned up with some board

games, pictured, ready to take on some opponents, or to fill a gap if some-

one turned up looking for something to play.

This is a great attitude at any club, and sure to keep members coming back

and new attendees becoming members.

Pubhammer was a good venue, and unusual being a night venue for those

who may not have the opportunity to play during the day for whatever rea-

son. Most of the people I spoke to were friendly, if a little guarded but that

may have been me being a stranger taking photos everywhere...

S N A K E E Y E S

13

Nick and Adna with their Menoth versus Cryx (WarMachine) above left, whilst Michael and Callum above right, play a game of 40k, Blood

Angels Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines

Pubhammer has Warhammer 40k, Deadzone, Werewolf,

Malifaux, Cthulu Wars, War Machine, Kings of War, the

occasional Bolt Action and of course, board games.

The club meets every Sunday evening from 6 PM until

around 1030 PM, unless another event has been

booked.

Food is available from the Hotel kitchens until 8 PM.

They have a 40k League running

There are 15-25 active members with 100+ on the Face-

book site.

Entry is a gold coin donation with goes back into terrain

and game purchases, otherwise free entry.

The Junction at Annerley Hotel is located at the corner

of Ipswich Road and Annerley Road. Pubhammer is on

the upper floor. Contact Kieran Bowman on Facebook or

under Pubhammer for details.

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www.riverhorse.eu

Star Wars X-Wing : Building YOUR lists

By GGG Member Adam Gill

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Luckily, X-Wing is neither 100% list building nor 100% dice.

It’s a fine combination of preparation, skill, and randomness.

This means that there is no single rule-it-all win-it-all list. As

well as your prep work, and your luck, there are other factors,

which some can be learnt such as being able to visualize

moves in your mind, being able to fly both high and low Pilot

Skill (PS) for blocking other ships, or being able to arc dodge.

Now for someone who is new to X-Wing, might look for a list

that is forgiving, and straight forward to use. An Example of

this would be: Luke and Tarn with R7, a Gold Squadron with

an Ion Turret and a Blue Squadron B-Wing with Fire Control

System. Now this list has two of the most survivable X-Wings,

and two high hit point ships, one with a turret.

This list is based on flying with in the current X-Wing Meta,

it is a simple list to fly, and in practiced hands can be a dan-

gerous list to face.

Another list with a smaller model count, which has just as

much fire power, and uses a big ship would be what is called

Chewie and the Blues, with the smaller ship count, it means

there is more room on the table, but there is a big ship which

means you will need to get used to the big base (which is a bit

harder to fly then small bases) – This list would look like YT-

1300 Chewbacca with Gunner and Recon Specialists, and 2

Blue Squadron Pilot with Advance Sensors.

XXGB

Luke

Tarn with R7

Gold Squadron with an Ion Turret

Blue Squadron B-Wing with Fire Control Sys-

tem

Chewie Blues

YT-1300 Chewbacca with Gunner and Recon

Specialist

Blue Squadron Pilot with Advanced Sensors

Blue Squadron Pilot with Advanced Sensors

“But I don’t like flying the rebel scum” I hear you cry. Well

never fear, I have your jack boot wearing dictatorship covered.

To start with the Empire generally favors quantity over quality.

There are a few notable exceptions as Soontir Fel and the

Phantoms. They also favor Green dice over Shields. So a good

solid Swarm List would look like “Howlrunner, Backstabber,

Dark Curse, 4 Academy Tie Pilots.” A smaller swarm list would

look like “Howlrunner, Turr Phennir with Push the Limit, Black

Squadron Pilot with Draw Their Fire, and 3 Obsidian Squadron

Pilots”. Now swarms work best with formation flying, which is a

learned skilled, where you keep you ships together nice and

close to maximize firepower. You can practice this by grabbing

4 tie fighter models, and move them around your kitchen table

around cups, plates or whatever other obstacle you have there.

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7 TIE Swarm

Howlrunner

Backstabber

Dark Curse

Academy Tie Pilots

Academy Tie Pilots

Academy Tie Pilots

Academy Tie Pilots

Howling Turr

Howlrunner

Turr Phennir with Push the Limit

Black Squadron Pilot with Draw Their Fire

Obsidian Squadron Pilot

Obsidian Squadron Pilot

Obsidian Squadron Pilot

Now how did I build these lists you ask? Well to start with,

I am sure these are not new lists, and I am not breaking new

ground with these. But they are solid lists. But when building

my own lists, I come at it with 4 steps in mind. These steps

are: Squad Framework, Synergy of Crew, Enhance the

Strengths, Identify the Weakness. Now I will step through and

explain what I mean by that list of steps.

Squad Framework

So the first step is decide which faction you want to play,

Empire, Rebels, or Scum. The choice is here is based mostly

on your personal preferences of background and fluff. Do you

want to be a Lawful member of the Empire, A terrorist part of

the Rebel Alliance, or someone who lives in the grey with the

Scum. But while you are making this choice, you do need to

be aware that each faction provides different ships and crew,

which comes with their own benefits and downfalls.

So you have now decided on the faction you want to play,

you need to look at what ships that faction offers to decided

what you would like to play. When I build my lists, I start with

a ship, theme or mechanic, and then I look at which ships fills

the roles that I am after.

Synergy of Crew

Once you have picked the ship types you want, you need to

look at the pilots and their abilities to enhance the play style

you are looking to play. For example, if you have a lot of high

agile ships that does not have strong firepower, you will look

at pilots that increase firepower across your squad. If you

have a list with a low model count, then you need to find abili-

ties to keep your ships around. Also do not look at pilots in a

vacuum, but as a part of the squad, so you can find combos

such as Dutch and Hobbie.

Enhance the Strengths

Now that you have picked your star squad, you need to look

at enhancements for your ships. These are things such as

elite pilot skills and modifications. These should be things that

help your ship assist achieving your main goal with each pilot,

or assisting another squad member in improving their chanc-

es achieving theirs. This could also be making a power house

to distract your opponent from your main pieces. Titles are a

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great way to give your ships a little boost that is design for each

ship.

Identify the Weakness

Now to find where you list is weak, and the best way to do this

is play, play and play. Either at your local game store, or on Vas-

sal, it doesn’t matter. The more games you play, the better you

know your list. Another good way is to post it on your local and

the FFG forums. But be aware, feedback from these sources are

based on the other members experience and your experience

and meta may be different. If you aren’t having fun playing your

list, don’t feel locked into it. Change it, swap out upgrades.

Change pilots or if you have no other options left, look at a new

ship or a new tactic. In the end all that matters is your enjoyment

of the game, and that is what X-Wing is all about.

To improve your skills and enjoyment of playing X-Wing, it is al-

ways a good idea to run several different lists as often as possi-

ble, unless you are practicing for a tournament, or any stop on

the road to worlds. This will help you maximize what ships you

buy, encourages an evolving local meta, makes you a better play-

er as you learn to deal with new and unforeseen situations as you

run ships that behave differently, and open your eyes to new

strategies that you might miss by running the same squad all the

time.

Adam is a blogger and an avid X-wing player – You can read

more of his writings over at http://teamcovenant.com/noxbestia/

Frederico Nogueira-Dias has created this excellent

diorama, titled ‘Next Stop Normandie’, shown below.

What I love about this piece is the little details like the

dog in the street and the broken window shards in the

building, evoking the wonder of what is inside. The brick

colour is perfect, and the positioning is just right.

It is the realism of this diorama by Boris Karbor, shown below,

that I love with miniature modelling. Similar to Roy Well’s work,

as shown in previous issues of Snake Eyes, a quick glance and one

would think that this is a still from a motion picture...

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I’d like to say that I made

this...but I would be fibbing.

Lewis Pruneau created this.

All I can say is WOW maxi-

mum effort...

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Misfire Comic Strips by Brian Solomon will be appearing in Snake Eyes from now on, for a look at them next time your

online, the address link is http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.belloflostsouls.net%2Fcategory%

2Fmisfire&h=ZAQEAS87u and also available at http://www.belloflostsouls.net

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Mustafa Bekir made this, see photos, out of bits of cardboard,

toothpicks and a bit of garden wire mesh, and he thinks that it

didn’t turn out too bad...what do you think? Inspiring anyone?

For the non 40k gamers what you are seeing is a scratch built

looted Ork Land Raider, and a very good job of it.

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I never knew that wargaming as it is, even existed. Mostly I had played, and still do a variety of computer and console games. A gaming friend of mine, that I met at work, invited me to his Dad’s place last year to play-test a game. The game was Path To Glory. I was bowled over by the amount of miniatures and games that where there. I enjoyed the game that we had on that day, prompting me to harass my friend about when we were going back, and what other gamers are there to play?

I was shown on the next visit to his fathers place, so many games that I cannot remember them all, let alone have the time to have a game of them all. Space Marines (40k), Warhammer, Old West, Dreadfleet, Zom-biecide, Talisman, Necromunda, and most of these were from one shop. My friend’s Dad said his preference was 28mm miniatures, I learned that other systems existed like Flames of War, Lord of the Rings, Ancients and American Civil War in a smaller scale. Also there are games that can be collected and played in a larger scale again, or large scale figures can be used in current games with some tweaking of the rules belonging to that system.

I have to admit, I was getting hooked by the excitement versus my part time job income of ’How can I afford to do this?’

It was explained that I can go to many clubs around Brisbane and watch games in play to see what ones I liked, and perhaps be invited to play in some of them. I am yet to do this, but it is on my things to do list.

I am intrigued by the variety of games, systems, scales and miniatures that existed without me ever having known about it. The closest I guess was having a friend who played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but as I thought he was a bit of a nerd, probably more when he explained it one day, I assumed that all of that time of gaming was ‘made up’ as you went. Now I know that I didn’t even have his game right. Was it the way that he explained it? Or my nerd bias? Maybe both, but I regret now having a look back then, and that friend no longer lives in this state.

So I am now considering which system do I start having a go at? I am interested in playing with the Space Marines, but also would like to have a go of Fantasy as well. That was the nature of the test game we had, although it was not Warhammer, we did use the figures from that game. I imagine that Beastmen would be interesting, or Chaos. Star Wars X-Wing looks good also, but don’t know about the affordability, as they don’t seem much cheaper on Ebay.

There is also a store near me that plays some of these games so I have an option there as well.

At the start of this article I stated that I had never heard of Wargaming. Since then I have had several games of different titles and systems. I am becoming a Wargamer. I actually won a box of tanks last year from enter-ing a survey for Snake Eyes, so was pretty happy to get that, but don’t know whether I am ready for that system yet. I am trying to convince my Dad to have a go at one of the games, but he still see’s them as toys. I don’t know whether I will ever have a collection like my friend's Dad, but at least I will have some.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Scott Henry

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28mm American Civil War from

Perry Miniatures

Alan & Michael Perry have what

you need to cover this and other

periods of war

Check out their website

www.perry-miniatures.com

Phone: 0419 729794

E-mail: garagegamersgroup@gmail.com

Or snakeeyes.magazine@gmail.com

Facebook: Garage Gamers Group

GGG or Garage Gamers Group is a collection

of gamers with similar ideals about what

makes a game fun and how to have fun with

it…

Snake Eyes is the GGG magazine, available

for free to members and selected

organisations…

GGG supports a gamers for gamers attitude

Garage Gamers Group

S N A K E E Y E S

Trademark names in the newsletter have been used without permission & only used for promotional purposes for GGG. They include: Games Workshop & associat-

ed trademarks, StarWars X-Wing, Wings of Glory, Zombiecide, AD &D, Army Painter. Eureka miniatures,Warlord Games, Stone Mountain miniatures, Flames of

War, Perry Miniatures and RiverHorse are used with permissions. Pictures are the property of Snake Eyes & have been used with the permission of members of the

GGG. Other pictures have been used with permission where possible to promote event or products.

24

Snake Eyes Creators & Contributors

Editor: Nick Chase

Regular Contributors/Columns:

Glen Taylor, John McDonnell, Kris

McKiernan, Darian Chase, Michael

Colclough, Peter Toh, Roy Wells

This Issue:

Lucas Cairns

Adam McGillivray

For any further information on

where to buy Michael Colclough

artwork please see

http://www.warintheskies.com/

Simon Ford’s Game Board had to be post-

poned until next issue...look for it in May

2015 Issue of Snake Eyes