The Bulwark

Lace up your cleats, put on your helmet and poison your knife, Blood Bowl is just around the corner. Bylliam Toofgobbla is your host again as 16 teams struggle for the most points at the end of 16 turns. Players you choose will gain skills, as they become star players adored by fans. Humans, Elves, Orks, and more face off against each other in this parody of American Football where the only way to achieve greatness is by creating a grand ascent of the dead and defeated. Your players will die, become injured, and develop horrible mutations all in pursuit of glory!

While we can certainly take the time to paint the models, and get a board together, we let Blood Bowl do the work for us. Two hosts will hold league nights at their house and run two copies of the Blood Bowl game by Cyanide Studios. Using hotseat mode you and your opponent will be able to sit face to face and do everything they can to remove each other’s blockers.

We look forward to starting a great season, and if you are interested join us at the Round Table on Pilsbury on August 29^th.

If computer games aren’t your thing and turn based strategy only makes you want to scream, perhaps the recently announced Blood Bowl LCG by Fantasy Flight Games may be up your ally?

A couple of exciting announcements coming from the Bulwark! Starting in July we will have membership cards which will be used to record the payment of monthly dues.  This will offer a sure fire way of telling who has, and who has not paid their club dues, and make sure club organizers don’t accidentally double charge members. The last thing the Bulwark wants to do is divert any more of your hard earned money than we need to. Besides, an extra $10 is a new chapter pack and can be put towards a lot of gaming fun!

Speaking of chapter packs, the second week of the Game of Thrones Living Card Game league is roaring along, JD is currently sitting at first, with Drew and James sitting next to him at the leaders table Monday night. A full list of our league standings appear below.

The players of the Strange Aeons Warhammer Escalation Campaign (say that five times fast) have had their first round this month. Right now Karen Hechel is on the top of the stack commanding her Tomb Kings army, with Drew and Betsy trailing closely behind. Each of them also has an extra Empire point which they carry into the campaign proper.

Coming up in June and July the Bulwark will be hosting the Dungeon Bowl! Members are encouraged to create 4 man teams with the goal of getting their party through a dungeon to the finish line faster than other PC opponents. The event will run in an Eberron setting and will run like a league as well. If you and your friends think you are the best adventurers this side of Karrnath stay tuned for details!

As always, the Bulwark tries to bring you the best in Chico gamin. We have a lot of private games that are hosted at the Bulwark which aren’t mentioned. If you would like to take advantage of our large tables, library or gaming aids and host a game at the Bulwark simply send an email to Blythe@thebulwark.org or post a comment on our Facebook group. We are open 7 days a week as events come up, and we can pencil your group in anywhere.

A Game of Thrones – The Battle For the North
1st – JD
2nd – Drew
3rd – James
4th – Ben
5th – Ryan
6th – Andy
7th – Joelz
8th – Margo
9th – Don
10th – Pip

Strange Aeons – Warhammer Fantasy Escalation
1st – Karen (Tomb Kings)
2nd – Drew (Dwarves)
3rd – Betsy (Lizardmen)
4th – Ben (Dark Elves)
5th – Damon (Skaven)
6th – Spencer (Gobbos)
7th – Andy (Empire)
8th – Ryan (Orcs)

Last night The Bulwark hosted a newbie night for A Game of Thrones the Living Card Game. This fantastic game pits players against the other great houses of Westeros in a dangerous game of politics, power, and displays of military might. Each house has their own unique feel, and the game thrives on group mechanics and chains of victories instead of hoary combos that win the game in a few turns.

The local community is happy to welcome several new players into the hobby, who each assumed one of the core houses of Westeros. Margo Franks as house Stark emerged victorious after house Lannister over extended themselves and allowed Stark to press the advantage.  In the adjacent room, on the Jared Gilmore Memorial Table the Bulwark Vets had a dragout two and a half hour game end in a Targaryen victory (lead by Drew Flicker) with Martell one challenge from victory (played by Karen Hechel). “If Drew would have made me loose that stupid challenge I would have won,” Karen lamented. Oh well Martell, maybe next time.

We are happy to welcome all the new players to Chico’s premier A Game of Thrones Living Card Game league as we start up our second season.

Ever get tired of getting your butt whooped by someone who has spent way too much on a hobby?  Ever want to throw your cards out the window because some guy with more discretionary income than the GDP of an island nation had four legendary rares in his deck?  Situations like this are prevalent in most hobbies, someone will always have more time to devote to a hobby, or throw more money at the game than you. Finding a game, especially a commercial one, that rewards frequent buyers but doesn’t punish the casual player can be hard. These situations often rear their head when it comes to CCGs.

Thankfully in A Game of Thrones Living Card Game, Fantasy Flight Games has solved this problem in a very clever way. Instead of producing sets of 300 cards that are used for a few months, Fantasy Flight produces Chapter Packs which contain 20 new and unique cards which are released once a month. These packs cost about $10 – $30 and contain every card in the miniature set.  This means you don’t have to buy two boxes and hope you get that Jace Beleren, but instead open up one pack to get a good mix of cards for well rounded decks.

The game itself is very balanced.  There is no mana flood and you can’t get “mana screwed”; the game’s resource, gold, is produced by your plot cards as well as location. Each turn these plot cards make broad sweeping changes to the table by manipulating rules or affecting cards in play, as well as changing your turn order and the damage you do with a successful attack. Meanwhile changing titles confer bonuses to the player while forming a relationship between the Houses your opponents have taken control of.  The game goes on until a player achieves 15 victory points, but getting there takes an understanding of not just your deck but a political savvy and understanding of the climate of the table.

Each Tuesday the great houses of Westeros gather at the Bulwark at six o’clock to play A Game of Thrones.  We will be happy to lend decks to new players, and the starter pack is readily available for $40.  When you purchase a starter pack you get four decks, and the play set which includes “gold” tokens, “power” tokens, a board and plastic title icons.

In the infamous words of Cersei Lannister “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”