All posts by HarryHopkins87

I've been involved in the hobby world since I was 11 years old and have dabbled in all types of games from tabletop wargaming (Warhammer 40k, Fantasy, Malifaux, Deadzone, X-Wing Miniatures), card based games (Magic, Yugioh) and sports based tabletop games (Dreadball and Guildball). I was one of the original founders of 2D6 Lodge and am usually found at the club every Friday night. I am also an avid movie, video game and comic book fan. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the club. HHH

Work in Progress (09/08/15)

Hey guys, so I am in the middle of several projects at this time but I wanted to show you a couple that I am doing specifically for the club.

 

First we have some Age of Sigmar models getting prepared for the school club that runs before ours on Friday afternoons.

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First I’m going to start with the Chaos forces as I am a known worshiper of the Chaos Gods. These are lovely models and am looking forward to getting these guys on my painting table.

Next we have something special that I’m not sure people have had a chance to play. A while ago we were lucky enough to receive a couple of starter kits from Mantic games for the Mars Attacks! tabletop game and they have been in the school cupboard for a while but I thought I would bring them home and get them painted up in case anyone wanted to give it a go. In the starter kits we got several playmats and loads of terrain pieces. I have put together a couple of playmats of my own from some cork boards which are the same size as the ones that we were given. This is one of the mats I have in progress with some of the models we have.

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This is going to be a fun little project and I will be posting some more photos of it over the next few weeks.

Hope you enjoyed this post.

HHH.

Club night (07/08/15) Bolt Action, DzC and DOOM!!!

So another great night  on Friday! We had loads of people down and other games being played.

So let’s get into it.

So first we will head to a controversial battle between the forces of USA and the British army. Must be a training exercise.

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Looks like this American tank has a tasty morsel in it’s sights. To good an opportunity to miss.

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The Americans slowly make their move forwards, forcing the British on to the defensive.

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Unfortunately, the power of the USA is too much for the British and are wiped out to a man. No wonder they are considered the greatest power on the planet.

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Next we continue a few miles away where things can only be considered as a major “friendly fire” incident, as the USA face off against the USA.

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We start things off with Scott’s army in a line formation and George’s army in  a more scattered formation, both of them with their tanks in the open ready to do some serious damage.

 

As the marines make their way forward George quickly move his tank to the centre of the board. During this time the foot soldiers make mincemeat of each other.

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Scott’s tank get lucky and escapes incoming fire from George’s and heads out to assist his dwindling allies. By the end not much is left on the table, but the only victor is the true enemy from the East.

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Me head many years into the future where the warfare has advanced but there is equally as much death. With Daniel’s UCM forces preparing for a defensive fight, while Roger’s Shiltari launch an invasion force to wipe out any resistance.

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Time for some futuristic skirmish action. DOOM!!!

Ollie and I have once again joined forces to survive and escape this hellhole station and it’s evil task master Dan Kirk (the anti-christ of DOOM).

 

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As soon as we head out from our starting point we are instantly attacked by the invaders. With my upgrade cards I can quickly cut through any enemy that I come across while Ollie can back me up with his range and damage advancing upgrades.

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We head towards the next section of the station and come across a Mancubus but thankfully due to our combined strength we rip through the bastard.

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Things look all clear for now as we head through the next door…

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…AMBUSH!!! The ultimate evil has laid a trap and has cut me off from Ollie! But luckily with my trusty chainsaw and Ollie making it through the door allows us to make short work of the Imp and Zombie that are sent to kill us.

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We make quick work of any invaders we come across till we find the portal that leads to the final section of the station. Ollie is attacked by one if his mortal enemies, a Demon, but is lucky enough to avoid its attack and we regroup to finish them off, gather supplies and head through the portal…

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… To pure HELL! We come across multiple enemies in the form of three Imps, two Mancubus and worst off all a Cyberdemon. I was unlucky enough to have my chainsaw broken in a previous fight and was knocked back through the portal by the Cyberdemon. Ollie is left to defend for himself. He takes out the remaining Imp’s and holds his ground against the Cyberdemon as I make my way through the portal, Ollie passes me his chainsaw and we chop the Cyberdemon to pieces then make quick work of the Mancubus.

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This leaves us alone in the final section to get our barrings and take some time to regroup and recuperate. We prepare for the next invasion.

So it seemed to be a great night with some great games played. As always this makes me look forward to next week even more.

As always I hope you enjoyed this post, see you all next week.

HHH.

HALO: FLEET BATTLES!!! Battle report.

So I have been able to get my first proper game of Halo: Fleet Battles.

Thanks to @mterminatorw for inviting me to his place and playing.

So as this was my first chance to play the full game after practicing just the Battlegroup phase it was a great experience to use everything in my Fleet.

So let’s get started.

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So this is the setup that we started with, no small encounter, we went straight to the defence of Reach. Michael was playing the defending UNSC fleet while I was launching a first wave attack against Reach with the Covenant. We both had around 1000p (give or take a few points).

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Things quickly started to escalate when I lead my main force into the asteroid fields and the UNSC was quick to react and meet me up close and personal.

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The UNSC battlegroup got the first damages on mine with its first volley (those MAC cannons can pack a serious punch when combined together). Not to mention all of the bombers that are hanging around my Battlecruiser.

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i soon retaliate by destroying one of the Paris class elements and reducing the incoming firepower from this battlegroup.

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Not only do the UNSC bombers succeed in damaging and hitting a vulnerable system on my Corvettes but now he has launched boarding parties. Time to let the Elites have some fun.

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While the action continues on the other side of the asteroid field my bombers are able to some serious damage against this Paris class element causing 2 damage tokens and a vulnerable token in just one attack run. This leaves it easy prey to my battlegroup that is descending down on them fast.

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Thing start to get really close in the centre of the asteroid field as Plasma lances and MAC cannons are starting to go off a short range causing some major damage and loss to both fleets.

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This is where things start to get really interesting. UNSC troopers have been able to board one of my Corvette elements and are causing some serious damage on board and soon make there way to my core where some well placed chargers send it into overload.

 

 

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The resulting CRITICAL CORE BREACH  is powerful enough to take out one of the other  Paris class elements and deal damages to the final Paris class element and the supported Marathon class element. Not to mention wiping out any wings in the local area.

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As the remaining ships launch their final desperate salvos and boarders it looks like it could be anyone’s game.

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And this is where we come to possibly the best play in the game. A group of Spartans have been able to board my centre Battlecruiser and have snuck a HAVOK tactical nuke on board hoping to rid the sector of the alien menace. They  quickly fight past the remaining Elite and grunt defenders and make their way to the centre of the ship and plant the bomb. They fight desperately to return to the waiting Pelican. Can they make it in time…

The answer is…

NO!

 

 

 

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With the HAVOK’s timer reaching zero it vaporizes every living thing in the local area. Leaving nothing but dust and echoes.

This was the final and most successful attack in the game, wiping out every last ship from local space. Leaving Reach secure till the next wave of Covenant arrive and hopefully giving the rest of the UNSC defence to gather and prepare.

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But whats this?!? It seems like one lonely bomber wing has survived to tell the tale. This guy was lucky enough to have survived the HAVOK nuke but he has quite a trip to make his way back to Reach.

This scene reminds me of something but I can’t remember what…

Well as this was my first game I got great satisfaction from the result. We had a great game with some fun moments and look forward to the UNSCs revenge against the Covenant menace.

I hope you enjoyed this battle report and I look forward to doing more in the near future.

 

HHH

 

Club night (31/07/15) BOLT ACTION NIGHT!!!

Alright guys! So we had a good night on Friday, even though it was quieter then usual. We had all out war happening on the gaming tables.

Here’s some photos of the nights action.

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Daniel’s perfectly laid out terrain looks amazing but i’m not sure how long it will last once the bullets start firing!

 

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Steve’s army is soon to invade this German held town .

 

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George’s Americans are heading further into the countryside to bring the fight to the Daniel’s German army.

 

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Looks like the hamster in running furiously on his wheel in Chris’s head planning ahead to repel Steve’s American’s.

 

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Seems like the German tank is slowly but surely making its way down the field taking out as many Americans as it can. Things are starting to look bad for the Allies.

 

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Where as Steve’s Americans are making quick work of Chris’s German tank.

Seems like the War will continue to go on… till next week.

 

Well like I said not the most active night but we got some ferocious action from the world of Bolt Action.

 

Here’s looking forward to next week.

 

HHH

 

Introducing Halo Fleet Battles

What I will be talking about today is something that I have been looking forward to since Salute 2015, the release of Halo Fleet Battles, from Spartan Games and 343 Industries.

So you know i’m not going into too much detail in the rules, but I will explain the basics of the game.

What I will start with is some photos and descriptions of the contents of the boxset.

Lets start with the fun part, the ships.

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As you can see above you get plenty of ships in the box, although I actually have two boxset’s worth of Covenant ships.

The ships are easy to put together and come on the sprues in such a way that you barely need the instructions to put them together (although the Paris class Frigate comes in one piece).

The ships you get in the boxset are:

  • UNSC (32 models)
    • 1 Epoch-class Heavy Carrier
    • 4 Marathon-class Heavy Cruisers
    • 27 Paris-class Frigates
  • Covenant (17 models)
    • 1 ORS Class Heavy Cruiser
    • 2 CCS Class Battlecruisers
    • 14 SDV Heavy Corvettes

The boxset gives you more ships for the UNSC but that is mainly due to the fact that the Covenant ships have much longer range and much stronger weapons. The UNSC have the obvious numbers advantage plus they can move faster then the enemy ships.

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*An example of a game setup of Halo Fleet Battles*

Next lets talk about the rulebooks. The core rulebook as shown on the right is absolutely packed full of amazing lore information, pictures from Spartan Games own collection of Halo ships (Including the beautiful Assault Carrier that should be out by the end of the year), and of course all the rules you will need to play the game. The other book has game setups and special scenarios to play the epic space battles that lead up to and decide the fate of the UNSC fortress world of Reach.

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OK, so now lets talk about who will lead your fleet.

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*Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth*

 

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*Supreme Commander Rho ‘Barutamee*

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The photo above shows the Commander cards that have the special rules for the character who will lead your fleets. They explain their rank, command ship names, standard rules and special rules (which are used in the game to give advantages to your fleet) plus that commander’s UNIQUE ABILITY, a special rule that the commander can use mid-game. Next to these cards are the special ORDER DICE, these are used in game to play the standard/special rules and help in deciding who has initiative.

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These are the ship profile cards that come in the boxset and explain all details of the ships that you will need to play the game, ex, ships type, movement, damage track, weapon profiles and special rules. They also show the different formations you can have the ships in. You can either have a UNSC Epoch class Heavy Carrier alone, or you can have it supported by a Paris class Frigate, this give you the advantage of having more firepower and better defenses while having to pay slightly more in the army list. You also get the profiles for the squads of fighters that are launched from the larger ships,  bombers and even boarding craft, some of which can contain Spartans or even Elite Zealots.

Below is an example of the ship templates, that have an easy to use profile listed on it as well as showing the different arcs of fire that the ships can use. Some weapons can fire in Fore, Port or Starboard arc, and some weapons can fire multiple arcs.

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Lets talk about Tokens.

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The photo above shows examples of the tokens that you will use in the game. The top line are used for Covenant interceptors, boarding craft, bombers and the Zealots that can be sent to attack enemy ships. Then we have the UNSC variants, bomber, boarding craft, two types of interceptors (which have slightly different profiles) and the spartans which can cause some serious damage if allowed to get aboard an enemy ship.

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Next we have the playing dice that will be used in the game. In the boxset you get 20x special D6 and 2 x D6, (these are used to decide initiative and rolling for damage dealt against boarded ships).  The special dice are 6 sided but only have 4 types of symbols, these are (2) 2 successes, (1) 1 success, Miss and FAIL! These dice can actually have differing results when shooting against other ships as there is a special rule called ‘FIREPOWER RATING’ where certain weapons or space phenomenon can effect where on the rating chart you roll giving you better or worse chances of doing damage.

Next we have the terrain templates that come in the boxset.

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I think these are great! Great detail!! And some great rules. They can effect movement, shooting and even damage ships. Better be careful when moving near those planets, one misstep and all they’ll find of your ship is a massive crater.

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Final part of the boxset is the Reference Sheet, giving you all the details you’ll need for easy use while playing and blowing stuff up!!!

This is obviously just a small overview of the game but if you are interested in a more detailed look how about you pop down to the club for an intro game, I’ll be running them anytime someone wants a go.

Also if you are interested in the game you can find it in the link below or from several independent stockists.

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HFBB01

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and look forward to your opinions and responses.

 

HHH

Club Night 24/07/15

Alright guys! So we had another amazing night of gaming last night with loads of different games going on at the same time. As usual many photos to follow. Please enjoy.

First off we were lucky enough to have an introduction to Dropzone Commander for anyone who fancied it. Thanks to @James_Alex_B from @HawkWargames for coming down and showing this off as well as being kind enough to donate a rulebook plus plenty of the terrain used in the game for anyone who wants to play in the future.

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Before everything kicked off of the night we had a tense game of Guildball between @NationofLee Fisherman and Luke’s Morticians, as is usually the case Shark is able to make it to the goal and score without much hassle.

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For the first time we got some people playing Age of Sigmar at the club. It looks to me that the Tombkings force has their work cut out for them against those Sigmarites but they quickly get the upperhand when some fresh troops are resurrected to bring more pain.

 

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Now we come to a very interesting game of Malifaux, a three-way battle. Seems like some Arcanists and Neverborn are having a bit of a scrap, at which time the Guild makes an ambush to bring these criminals to justice. Unfortunately, the Guild underestimated how many enemies they would be facing a take a nasty beating. They were able to make several arrests before retreating. Better to survive and fight another day.

 

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Next we come to the intro table to the new game from @spartangames and 343 Industries Halo Fleet Battles. I was able to build and paint everything and read the rulebook in two days in preparation, and I was exhausted by the end of it but was happy to show it off to the club. Had some interest from a couple of players and hoping to show it off to others soon.

 

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It seems like the Dropzone bug really bit last night as we had a full game going on at the back of the room. Seems like some big ships and even a gigantic walking tank are about to make a mess of each other.

 

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Finally we had another epic battle from the world of Bolt Action. Something tells me that tank is going to make someone day really, really bad.

 

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Some amazing games last night and great to see so many people again.

 

Looking forward to next week!!!

Upcoming post for the weekend of 25th July 2015

Hey guys,

So it’s been an exciting week for me. Not only have I been off work all week but my preorder’s of Halo Fleet Battles arrived on Wednesday and I have been working hard the last day and a half building, painting the models and learning the rules ready for an intro night at the club.

In regards to this I will be posting three articles this weekend, one for the events of club night, including the intro games held for DropZone Commander, my intro games for Halo Fleet Battles and an article on the game in general including my impressions of the models and how the game plays.

Look forward to writing along with plenty of pictures.

See you all soon,

HHH

Club terrain repair and repaint

Hey guys, so I’ve spent my weekend sorting out and repainting some of the terrain we use at the club to give it a more eye catching look.

Below are some pictures of the finished pieces with some Marine models to represent the terrain. Hope you all like.

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I still have some pieces to finish and all should be done for use on Friday. If you guys have some small pieces of terrain that you may be willing to donate to the club or just want it painted in the same style just let me know as it gives me some more uses for my airbrush.

HHH

Harry’s First Post!!!

Hello everybody 🙂

My name is Harry and this is my first post as an administrator for the 2D6 Lodge website.

I was one of the first founders of the 2D6 club and am frequently found at the club on Friday nights. I have been part of the hobby world since I was 11 years old and played games such as Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy, Malifaux, Guildball, Deadzone, Dreadball and will soon be playing Halo: Fleet Battle coming from Spartan Games when it is released on Monday 20th July 2015.

Most of my future posts will include details of what happens at the club nights as well as photos from the night, projects that I am personally working on and upcoming games and releases.

Looking forward to seeing people at the club soon and posting online in the future.

HHH

2D6 Lodge Club Night: 17th July 2015

Well we had quite the night on Friday at 2D6 Lodge Club Night, with most of the large tables being used for some exciting action going on.

The first table was a mighty battle of Malifaux between the Outcast crew led by Victoria of Ashes against the Arcanists crew, led by Rasputina.
What seems like a obvious advantage for the Arcanists having an Ice Golem and another large monster on their side soon changes with the Outcasts speedy ladies who race up the field and make the first kill.

Towards the end the Arcanists gained the upper hand leaving the Outcasts with only four member remaining but that doesn’t stop the girls taking down the ice golem before calling the game.

Next we come across a small battle between military forces in an intro game of Bolt Action – the fastest growing game currently at our club!

Now we come across a titanic war between robotic forces in a game of Battletech. Andy’s Light Lance of Succession Wars BattleMechs struggled against the three bigger beige-coloured Outer Rim Mercenary BattleMechs. Particularly, the poor, over-armed Wolfhound struggled with its heat and was shredded by the much larger mercenary Exterminator after only a small amount of resistance.

We travel into the far flung future of the 41st millenium now and witness a grand war between the almighty but evil forces of Chaos vs. a mixed collection of Space Marines, Imperial Guardsmen and Necron forces.

The gigantic Imperial Knight quickly catches and utterly obliterates the Chaos Land Raider but the Marines inside have already been able to disembark just in time to launch their attack against the loyalist Marines.

With the Knight on the rampage in the Chaos lines it all looks lost but Chaos is eternal. GLORY TO CHAOS!!!

[Editor: Harry does have some Chaos biases that should be pointed out to readers here 😉 ]

Finally we head back thousands of years to WWII and a skirmish between the forces of Canada and India in a game of Bolt Action.

Well I’d call that an amazing night of gaming!!! Hoping for another great one next week when I will be running intro games of the new release from Spartan Games, Halo: Fleet Battle.