Bot War – Robots out of IP (Spring Clean)

I do love this guy very much. Bit hard to tell from the picture but he is two shades of orange. His torso and arms being a light brighter orange than his missle racks and legs.

He has a great ability to once a game triple his range attack dice but also take 5 damage (he only has 6)
This means that almost certainly he is going to delete most things he turns his missile racks towards whilst likely condemning himself to death at the same time but hell its a spectacular way to go and as long as the points swing or scenario importance of the moment calls for it then it is far from a waste

So my daughter and wife were out for the day with some friends so left us boys with nothing to do so both of us said how about a day of playing Bot War (whilst also catching up on WWE)

First game had Elliot trying to get an energy crystal from one side of the board to another.

The first bot carrying the poison chalice was pretty swiftly dispatched but like a great rugby full back another came sprinting in from behind to scoop it up and carry on the charge.

Various fights happened throughout the board and Elliot did a good job of distracting me on the opposite flank and wasting time and resources whilst still kicking my toys in on all fronts.

The next carrier was also dispatched and again pretty smoothly obtained by his little backup who put all his might into his wee bot legs and sprinted to the board edge before I could bring him down

Next match saw us divide our forces into 3 equal groups.

One force would be a scouting force that was out and had encountered another scouting patrol

The board was split in half and you could deploy your force anywhere within the your half.

Then each turn after the first you could roll a dice for one of your other 2 groups.

depending on the roll meant they would either not arrive, arrive on the left flank, right flank, your end or the enemies end.

In the 2nd turn both of our reinforcements arrived, his all arrived on one side and mine all arrived on the other.

Elliot had one bot surrounded but some how it took me far too long to dispatch him and he stood firm wasting alot of my time.

He knew how powerful my walking talking missle battery could be so he put alot of efforts into dispatching him which he did in pretty good time and then moved on swiftly cutting down my bots who tried so hard to fight the good fight, they dispatched a few of the baddies but not enough to stop from being overrun and meet their demise.

3-Nil to the boy, one day I shall get the proud day of beating him! Today was not that day though

It was not till I was quite a way into painting this one that I really noticed his unusual hubcaps and I should have made him look like Kit from Knight Rider!

I don’t know if the inspiration for this mini was Hot Rod but it certainly is how he looked to me so I used not exact colourings but at least how he appears in my mind when I think about him

I co host a podcast with my friend and co-hort Mr Richard Simpson

in our latest episode we discussed Bot War, my wounds were still fresh baving taken my kicking from Elliot only a couple of hours before recording

Episodes are available on itunes and wherever else you might get your podcasts from

All set up for our first game. Always a little nervous with that first game with my 11 year old son because you really want him to enjoy it, I don’t want to let him win because I have never understood the point in that but also I don’t want to destroy him and dishearten him. Luckily though Elliot and my daughter Eden (7) are both very gracious losers when we play family games, there is a lot of above the tabletop banter and I encourage us laughing and joking and calling each other names in a well meaning spirit because it all just makes it more fun and highlights that it’s all light hearted and not to be taken too seriously.

So with all that being said, how do I get my son to have this same attitude and not be so bloody ruthless with me and kick my toys in so viciously

We set up for the basic scenario which is essentially taking and holding certain spots on the board. We had 4 of them roughly across the middle of the table

the acid house terrain is just so great and easy to set up and pack away for this and I look forward to using it for epic Warpath too in the future

I made a solid advance and took control of two of the objectives and Elliot grabbed one for himself

a a few long distance exchanges and this is where I should have seen what was happening. I ended turn one thinking

”wow these bots are really fragile”

Elliot must have finished the first turn thinking

“wow these bots are really powerful”

The dice gods were giving me their first indication that they were favouring youth on this day.

The game continued with exchanges across the table, I think by turn 2 I had lost two bots but I had the edge on victory points so I was lulled into a false sense of security that I had the edge of experience and wisdom of age behind me. Little did I realise the the blind optimism of youth was going to be my undoing. Elliot fresh faced and completely unphased by being in a “losing” position he continued his advance and contested on of the objectives so at this stage my advantage was not allowed to grow yet his advantage of kicking my toys in was ramping up.

Energy was dispersed amongst our troops and I made some poor choices of favouring some bots that were brutally dispatched by the wide eyed youthful scumbag across the table from me.
No quarter wise given and at no point did my hobby prodigy ever consider the relentless kicking I was receiving and what this might be doing to my self esteem so that continued to the end of turn 4 in which I had the edge in victory points and was winning 4 to 3, alas I had the minor inconvenience of having no more units left alive and doing whatever auto bots version of breathing is

I swore vengance and swift retribution to my new nemesis and you shall see soon enough that my fuel for said vengance will only grow and intensify as I can’t beat this little shit for love nor money!!

And so the last of the good boys is done.

Just need to get their bases all done which shouldn’t take long

A little bit annoyed with myself that I hadn’t noticed that this bot could very likely be a Mini Cooper and had I noticed I could have done it in British racing green with a Union Jack on it somewhere. Oh well, I pity the fool that’s the last of the ones I will paint before the first game against my son