Club Search- Newcastle Warlords

As part of my continuing efforts to try all the gaming clubs in the local area, last week I visited Newcastle Warlords. 

The club meets at St Marys the Virgin Church in Fawdon on a Thursday (7-10 pm) every two or three weeks (depends on when the hall is available). I actually found out about the club when the organiser, Steve, messaged me after seeing one of my blog posts on another clubs' facebook page, so I was keen to go along and try it out. 

First off, the church hall was only a 15 minute drive from my flat, so perfect travelling time for me. The 7 pm start also allows me to miss the rush hour traffic, so another bonus there. There were about a dozen or so gamers there that night, playing a variety of games including 40k, Age of Sigmar, Blood Bowl, Guild Ball and X-wing. 

As the club is just starting out, they are a little short on terrain and ask members to bring along their own stuff. They do have several gaming mats though for players to use though. This wasn't such a big deal for me, as I had some of my own terrain with me in Newcastle anyway. It's quite nice to get to use my own terrain every once in a while after going to the effort of building and painting it! It also gives me a nice incentive to get more terrain built and painted.

The cost was £4, which is a bit more expensive than the other clubs in the area, but still very reasonable for a club night. In addition, there is unlimited free tea, coffee and squash available. 

I had arranged a game on the facebook page and found myself taking on Stu and his Space Wolves with my White Scars. Stu has only recently got into 40k, so I went for a milder White Scars list to have a more fun and competitive game.

We played the Contact Lost maelstrom mission, as Stu had not played a maelstrom mission before. I didn't take full notes for a battle report. Since Stu had not been playing long, I wanted to have a chat with him during the turns and hopefully help with any rules issues during the game rather than spending my time taking notes. 

My 1500 pts army consisted of:

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Auspex, Meltabombs

5 Bikers- 2 Grav Guns, Meltabombs

5 Bikers- Power Fist

5 Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, Power Axe

5 Scouts- Close Combat Weapons and Bolt Pistols, Meltabombs

Landspeeder Storm

10 Tactical Marines- Meltagun, Meltabombs
Rhino
10 Sternguard Veterans- 3 Combi-meltas
Drop Pod
5 Devastators- 4 Missile Launchers
2 Attack Bikes- Multi-meltas

Stu's army consisted of (if I recall correctly):
Wolf Lord- Relic Axe, Combi-melta
Wolf Guard Battle Leader- Terminator Armour, Power Axe, Lightning Claw
5 Grey Hunters- Plasma Gun, 2 Plasma Pistols
Razorback- TL Assault Cannon
5 Grey Hunters- Flamer, Meltagun
Razorback- TL Assault Cannon
3 Thunderwolf Cavalry- Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer, Frost Claws and Plasma Pistol, Frost Axe and Bolt Pistol
5 Wulfen- 2 Pairs of Frost Claws, Frost Axe, two Storm Shields and Thunder Hammers
Venerable Dreadnought- Multi-melta, Storm Bolter
Drop Pod
Venerable Dreadnought- Multi-melta, Storm Bolter

I took a few pictures of the game as you can see below. Some of the stand out moments were:

• The Librarian managed to get Force off and killed the last of the Thunderwolf cavalry in combat, being brought down himself in the process. 
• The Sternguard arrived on the left flank, killing three of the Wulfen with their poisoned Bolter rounds. 
• The five remaining members of the Assault Squad charged the Long Fangs, only to have 3 of their number cut down my overwatch fire and the rest wiped out in combat. 
• The Devastators taking the last hull point from the Dreadnought to win me the game. 

Overall, it was a very close game. I won by 9 VPs to 8 VPs in the end, but got very lucky. Another turn and Stu would have most likely won the game. 

I was worried 3 hours would not be long enough for the game, but we managed to get in a full 6 turns and the game ended naturally, so it was actually pretty decent.

I also quite like that the club is every other Thursday. It clashes with Karate on a Thursday, so it will be nice to alternate between the two and get a wider range of players to play against. It will also be useful for the weekends when I am busy and cannot make the Sunday clubs.

Overall, I enjoyed my trip to Newcastle Warlords and will definitely be back there again.