The Giant’s Lair

Rejoice, rejoice!   

Good news people, your prayers have been answered and the Gods have finally smiled on the South West of England.  This Saturday will see the grand opening in Plymouth of ‘The Giant’s Lair’ the South West’s Premier Gaming Venue.

From the venue's website: 

Opening 1st of October 2011

The open day allows players and potential players to check out the Lair and to see what all the fuss is about.
Throughout the day we will be running:

• Apocalypse sized 40k madness
• Warhammer monster mash up
• Space Hulk missions on giant 3D board
• Demonstration games of WWII tank battles
• Talisman board game bash
• Tables set up to come and play on
• Raffle where you can win some great prizes
• Membership sign up with the chance to win a massive replica sword!
• Spot prizes on the day
• Food and drink available in our bar and kitchen area 

Come and get involved in the mayhem or just pop by for a coffee.
Open from 0900 onwards.
We can't wait to see you at the Lair.

Having been for a sneaky look around last weekend, I can confirm that it is officially awesome with loads of purpose built gaming tables, a bar and even a working toilet.  If fact, I would give it my seal of approval, if I actually had one.

You can look at some of the photos of the Lair being prepared on the book of faces, and you can find directions here.

 

Anyway, make sure you get down there this Saturday for the grand opening, and make sure you tell them Frugal Dave sent you!

Happy Gaming

Haterz an Fanbois FTW. LOL!!!!!!1 B-)

You can tell if a person is racist, they generally start their sentences with ‘I’m not a racist, but…’ before saying something racist.  It was this thought that stopped me from starting this post with ‘I’m not a GW hater, but…’.

I would like to make it clear that I’m not a GW hater (or a racist for that matter); I love loads of their games including the 8^th edition of Warhammer Fantasy, I’ve been buying GW products for years, I paint their miniatures using their paints and I play their games in my spare time.  I’ve joined a club where I can play GW games with other GW fans, I’ve even spent three years of my life writing a blog mostly dedicated to playing GW games.  To me GW is one of the best games companies out there and I even divert my journeys up and down the country to pop into Warhammer World on occasion.  I am not a GW hater. 

This brings me neatly onto Dreadfleet, and why I’m not going to buy it.

 

In case you weren’t aware, Dreadfleet is the new GW boxed, standalone, limited edition game, recently made available for preorder.  There has been a lot of love and hate on the internet about this, but one thing that is clear is that people are buying it.  I’m not going to, for a number of reasons, but the main one is:

I haven’t seen any reviews of it

Sure, there are videos out there, lots of pics of the components, even promises of gameplay descriptions.  But no independent reviews.  To me this means that I am being asked to part with my money for a game that could turn out to be rubbish.  I’m pretty sure it wont be rubbish, but why should I buy it when I could spend the same amount of money on a boardgame that has got rave reviews?  If I had £70 to spare (which I don’t) and I had lots of gaming time going free (I don’t) then I’d look at some of the following instead (all available for £70 or less each; all text and photos from BoardGameGeek):

Mansions of Madness: Horrific monsters and spectral presences lurk in manors, crypts, schools, monasteries, and derelict buildings near Arkham, Massachusetts. Some spin dark conspiracies while others wait for hapless victims to devour or drive insane. It’s up to a handful of brave investigators to explore these cursed places and uncover the truth about the living nightmares within.

 

Horus Heresy: In the Horus Heresy board game, the most legendary battle in the history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe unfolds across the razed plains of Terra and in the frozen orbit above. Deadly fighting ranges from the Emperor’s golden Inner Palace to Horus’s flagship, the Vengeful Spirit.  Taking the side of traitor or loyalist, two players control either fearless Space Marine legions or deviant Chaos Space Marines, mighty Titans, Imperial Armies both loyal and traitorous, and a fearsome array of other units, including the Emperor and Horus themselves.

Tide of Iron: (see my review here) Tide of Iron is a game of World War II tactical conflict for two to four players. The components in this base game allow players to simulate the dramatic struggle that took place between American and German forces in Northern Europe during the years 1944 and 1945.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark: Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a semi-cooperative game in which two to five players will take on the antagonistic roles of heroes and Overlord. Up to four players will choose characters with a wide assortment of skills and innate abilities to be the heroes who will explore dungeons in search of treasure and adventure. One player will take on the role of the Overlord and will control the dungeon's many traps, puzzles, and monsters.

Of course when Dreadfleet gets released, it may get the greatest reviews ever, turn out to be one of the best boardgames of all time and I’ll have missed my chance because it sold out.  But I’m not prepared to bet £70 on that happening.

Happy Gaming

Where I hide my Naughty Space Pixies …

‘Conan!  What is best in life?’

‘To crush your enemies; see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.’

‘Conan! That’s great but you need to get your chores done first…’

Ah yes, there are things we all enjoy, but unfortunately we have to get the boring stuff out of the way first.  For the last few weeks, I have been in the library of Frugal Towers; researching, writing and getting rather stressed as I put the finishing touches to an academic project I’ve been working on.  However, the work has now been sent off and I’m free to paint, game, generally geek out and then write about it in a mildly amusing, but ultimately badly planned way.

Old School Raider with an old school finger attached

 The main news of the past few weeks is that I have finally completed my Dark Eldar.  I bought my Dark Eldar (or as I like to call them ‘Naughty Space Pixies’) a couple of years ago and left the box gathering dust on a shelf.  When the new Naughty Space Pixies Codex was released last year, I got them out of the box, assembled them, painted a couple and then put them back on the shelf to gather dust.  Eventually I had to paint them all so went for a quick scheme of basecoat, wash and highlight, with minimal detail.  So now I have approximately 1000pts of NSPs on the shelf gathering dust. 

The (semi) interesting fact about these NSPs is my storage technique. I ordered some 25mm self adhesive magnetic discs from Hasslefree Miniatures, at £10 for 100 though smaller packs are available.  Like a lot of gamers out there I’ve experimented with a few different methods of storing my Pixies, Gnomes and Galactic Knights, but I think that these magnets are the way ahead.  The discs only take a second to apply, and once in place are pretty robust.

Once the figures are stickered, it’s simply a case of finding a suitable receptacle to keep them in.  I’ve gone for a metal tool box that I got from a carboot sale for a couple of pounds, but for another unit I’ve used a boxfile with self adhesive steel paper in it.

Even the smell of ginger hair cannot dislodge the magnets.

For me, one of the main benefits of magnetic bases is the ease that the figures can be put away, no messing about shoving the figures into foam holes, just stand them up in the box and they hold themselves in place, winner!

As I rarely travel too far for gaming I think these are a good (Frugal) option for storage.  Anyone who regularly flies or takes trains to tournaments may want to consider something more robust, but then if you’re the sort of gamer who flies to tournaments then you’re probably not the type to worry too much about Frugal Gaming.

So, I’m back, I’ve completed an army and I’ve adopted a new way of storing figures, what more could you possibly ask for?

If you're interested in magnets, you may like to check out my Blood Bowl article.