The Gate Stormers

Posted By Drew on August 5, 2011

One of the easiest places to lose track of what we are consuming, especially while gaming or while hanging out with our friends in general, is through our choices in beverages. For this I have a few thoughts to help develop control, but not sacrifice variety or flavor if at all possible.

Cold drinks are going to be the most common option for people to reach for, and those can come in any number of forms. Some people like to drink soda, some people like juice, others enjoy iced beverages such as tea or coffee, while others still go for a more adult variety of options like alcoholic drinks. Lastly, and obviously the best option, is water, although there are plenty of other options besides what I have listed already.

Next of course you can expect to find the hot beverages, such as hot teas, coffees, hot chocolate, cider, and of course, you can also find some alcoholic beverages here as well.

As far as the consumption of these fine drink options go, the rule of thumb, in my opinion, should be two drinks with sugars/flavors/alcohol/additives,  to be followed by how ever much water or unaltered beverages as you please. This could mean in the course of a game having a glass/can of soda (bottles tend to have multiple servings, so watch out here), a beer, and then following up with water, iced tea or coffee (nothing added), hot tea or coffee (nothing added).

Some of these beverages do take a little preparation to be ready for in order to have it on hand, but honestly, it is boiling water! So plan ahead and enjoy you many options open to you.

For providing coffee or tea hot, I’d recommend having a one cup brewer on hand, I know they can be a bit pricey, but with my current schedule I’ve found having one to be ideal for both myself, and any company I may have. This allows for people who have different preferences to be able to be accommodated without having anyone being put out for their tastes.

Iced tea is best brewed hours before hand, and by mixing different tea bags together you can get some pretty interesting flavors. I like to make it in a 2 liter pitcher using 2 green tea bags and 2 mint tea bags. For those days I seem to be ripping through the iced tea I also have some of the “cold brew” tea bags around for a quick refill when needed.

To stretch out the flavors of these options, you can of course add fresh lemon or lime wedges to the water and tea options, again adding versatility without killing your budget.

The next update will include a bit more on beverages, and recommended storage/serving in your gaming area.

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Tags: Healthy Gamer

Posted By Drew on August 1, 2011

Coming later this week will be a new entry into the Healthy Gamer project, and hopefully a standard blog update as well. Things in my life have been getting a bit crazy, so I’ve been doing the best I can to keep things going.

For anyone interested, if you would like to participate with the blog, to contribute articles, or maybe to join us on the new podcast to be launched in August, “No Badger, No Gnome”, shoot me an email at drew@thegatestormers.com. Any feedback, comments, articles, or what ever you have to say, is always welcome!

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Posted By Drew on July 18, 2011

A few weeks ago, Jonathan Reinhart of the CWF Gamecast posted on Facebook that he would be hosting a historical gaming event at Battleground, things to be planned were painting, games, and discussions. When the event was initially launched he did not indicate as to which location it would be held at, and having made plans for the day prior to the announcement, I declared the event to be in Plainville. A decision that Jonathan went along with, even though he didn’t have to.

Unfortunately, the event did not go off with a big bang, as I was hoping it would. This was my first venture into the genre of historical war gaming, and I was hoping for a bit more of a turn out.  Unfortunately, likely due to the Magic M12 release event, the attendance was initially just Jon and I, and a little later one of Jon’s listeners came by with his daughter to check out what was happening.

The only game I played that day for the event was Axis and Allies: War at Sea published by our beloved Wizards of the Coast. Personally, I have never been a fan of the “collectible” miniatures games, mostly because I don’t like the paint on the models, and if possible,  I prefer higher quality plastic to be used as well. The game itself though was quite enjoyable. The mechanics were pretty simple, which really allowed me to step up and start playing with only minor coaching from Jon. Don’t get me wrong, the game mechanics are simple, but the strategy for this game will likely take a fair amount of time to develop to a point where a player can be a force to be avoided if possible.

In the first round I was playing as a joint American/Australian naval force of three ships and a bomber squadron, and Jon had a Japanese force with two ships, a submarine, and a fighter plane.  After 8 turns, I lost the first round. For the second round I decided to switch sides and play as the Japanese, and managed to defeat Jon pretty quickly, which was fun! For a “Beer and Pretzels” game as Jon likes to describe it, it was fun, although I do believe a lot can be gained from the addition of beer and pretzels to just about anything.

After the game we sat down and discussed various subjects ranging to our friends and families to what we think of various game related products we saw around the store. A short time later Jon’s listener came into the store and brought with him a game that looks like it will be a lot of fun to play. It is called Napoleon’s Triumph, published by Simmons Games, and is based on the Battle of Austerlitz. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a review of this game soon!

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Posted By Drew on July 3, 2011

It is now July, and despite my sincerest efforts, my site is woefully barren of updates. Further efforts from this point on will be redoubled, hopefully getting more responses and input.

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Posted By Drew on June 27, 2011

The Gate Stormers Podcast has died an ignoble and quiet death. One brought about by inexperience and a bit of over thought. But worry not my noble friends. Soon a new podcast shall grace the inter-webs and it shall be co-hosted by none other than Jon Reinhart! The name of the new podcast shall be “No Badger, No Gnome”. Recording starts soon! The Gate Stormers website shall remain up and running, with a promise from me to get back onto the updating, although it will likely only be one update a week, with occasional updates to the projects. Any one who wishes to contribute to the podcast, or to the website, with full credit or anonymously, feel free to contact me at drew@thegatestormers.com.

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Posted By Drew on June 8, 2011

Now, the Megabattle itself is such a huge battle that it can be almost impossible to track everything that happened at once. So here is my best recollection of the events as they occurred and as I observed them.

To determine initiative and placing order both teams submitted secret bids for how long their set up time would take, with the lower of the two being chosen to go first. Order submitted a bid of 3 minutes, while Disorder did what they have done in the past and put in for 28 minutes, which is just under the 30 minute maximum allowable bid. The way this works is that the whole team puts their models that are going to be starting the game onto the table all at once. Any thing that does not make it onto the table is pulled and put into reserve, any unit that is not completely deployed, the whole unit is pulled and put into reserve.

After a furious 5 minute planning period, the Order team deployed their forces along the table edge, with very few if any areas left with out some kind of force on it. This was followed by the Disorder 5 minute planning period and leisurely 28 minute deployment, where there were noticeably more voids along the table edge. Both sides fielded an impressive array of titans and other super heavies, including a store favorite, the Emperor Class Titan built by one of the regulars, taking up an entire 4,000 point army list.

Once the deployments were completed, the game began. Upon completion of the moving phase, the forces of Order started to put the full force of their ranged weapons to bear. Their opening barrage was so powerful that it was responsible for the removal of several super heavies, including a titan, an Ork stompa and Skullhamma. As Disorder’s turn began, their forces had been beaten heavily already, and they started to bring out more models, deploying all around the table using deep strikes and flank marches so as to infiltrate the lines of Order and get into a melee as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the Disorder attack was not as successful nor potent as that of Order. Turn 1 came to a close after several hours, at which time everyone broke for lunch.

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Posted By Drew on June 8, 2011

Here are the images of the table, as best as I could pull from my phone.

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Posted By Drew on June 7, 2011

So, due to the length and epic awesomeness of the Megabattle, I will be posting daily this week on the progress of the event itself.

The day began at 6 am, when I pulled up to the hotel and found the truck already at the back door filled with the tables and terrain. After going into the building and walking past the room rented the previous year (a closet by comparison to where the event would take place) I found D in the room setting up the supporting tables. It was at this time I learned we were the only two people who had arrived so far. Once I let D know I was there, we took a moment and planned out the next course of action, he would bring in boxes of terrain, and I would put table cloths on the tables, once that was completed we started to bring in the actual play tables. This whole process took, if I remember properly, about 15-20 minutes.

Next we started to set up the tables themselves. starting at the “southern” most areas, which consisted of forest terrain. As we were doing this we were trying to determine what may be needed to keep the playing surface as level as possible. This was a challenge as the table actually had a gradual elevation change resulting in a total of about a 4″ inch increase by the end of the “northern” most section, an arctic field covered in iced over rivers.

Fortunately, as time progressed and we were assembling the tables, reinforcements arrived to help us build the table at about 7. These were some of the players and one of the store employees, Chase, who is the manager of the Plainville location of Battleground Games and Hobbies, as well as a celebrity of sorts within the BG community. Chase and a few of the other regulars had figured out a way to assemble the table to address the height changes in the back room the night before. With his assistance, D was able to properly assemble and adjust the table construction and to direct our helping hands to where they could best be used.

Once assembled, through the use of boards, foam, and table cloths, the next step was to partition the deployment zones. One of the players was setting a line of glass beads at a 30″ distance from the board edges has Chase and I were measuring the deployment zone widths and laying parallel lines of beads so that everyone knew where the zones were. As this was occurring D and one of the other players were starting to place the terrain, beginning with the city, where terrain was easiest to place due to the streets marked on the table. Once the deployment zones were clearly marked and the terrain was completed many of the other players had arrived, and it was about 8. From this point it was a series of fine adjustments and minor tweaks to the table being made by both D and Chase to be to what they expected.

The unsung hero of all this construction and adjustment effort though, was a simple and humble pocket knife. It was my pocket knife as a matter of fact. It had been used to adjust things, to trim, the separate, and perform countless other tasks as well.

Tomorrow will be pictures of the table and a description of the deployments. Thursday will be pictures of the deployments and a breakdown of the game itself, maybe if I can scare some up, some thoughts from some of the players.

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Posted By Drew on June 6, 2011

The 4th annual Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Megabattle, hosted by Battleground Games and Hobbies, is over. The epic fight ended in three rounds, taking about 9 hours to play. The heated battle ended due to the forces of Order accruing a jaw dropping 25 victory points, while the forces of Disorder had only achieved 3. More updates on this awesome event will be posted through out the coming week. Then, we will be back to business as usual here on thegatestormers.com.

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Posted By Drew on May 16, 2011

Ok, so I know I haven’t been great at keeping the page up to date, and I apologize for that. In the works is episode two, which should be up shortly, and a new healthy gamer as well (both expected by the end of this week!) and other projects shall be worked on as well.

The important thing right now though, is an update on the annual Battleground Games and Hobbies Megabattle to be held on June 4th. The final headcount is somewhere between 40 and 42 players, which is unfortunately 10 to 8 players short of the 50 player goal. Due to the fewer players, the table set up will be changing. Instead of a main table with four satellites, the whole affair will now take place on one massive table!

I have it on good authority that this table will span several different kinds of terrain, including a war-torn cityscape. But what is a Warhammer 40K game without destroyed buildings strewn about?

For the next few weeks leading up to and immediately following the Megabattle will be the main topic of discussion. Soon after though you can expect us to get back to the nitty-gritty of gaming as a whole. So stick with us and you’ll be hearing more soon.

If you have any topics you’d like to recommend let us know and we will be glad to cover it, please send suggestions to contact@thegatestormers.com, and as always I can be reached directly at drew@thegatestormers.com.

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Tags: Battleground, Table Top Wargames, Updates