Game Day & Benefit for Sean

Our friend Sean Atkins, owner of Brainstorm Comics in Chicago, was recently diagnosed with cancer, so mark your calendars for Sept. 12, when you'll have a great opportunity to play games, buy stuff and support Sean at his upcoming benefit.

The event -- which will feature games run by several Chicago Skirmish Wargames club members -- starts at noon Saturday, Sept. 12 at Brainstorm Comics, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Suite 321 (that's the third floor of the Flatiron Building). They'll have raffle tickets for $1 (drawings held every half hour) as well as demos of board games and miniature games. Also: baked goods!

Email Matt at matthewsears81@gmail.com to buy raffle tickets or if you have any questions about the benefit. If you just want to support Sean, click here for his GiveForward page. Otherwise, if you're in Chicago, we'll see you on Sept. 12!

Wreck-Age Demo Day at the Gaming Goat

CSW regular Josh joined forces with the guys from Hyacinth Games to host a launch party at the Gaming Goat for the Wreck-Age PDF rulebook. It was a fun day full of gaming, snacks and more gaming. Click here to check out some more photos over on Josh's blog. Look for our official CSW review of Wreck-Age, coming soon!

CSW's Western Chapter Demos SBH

(Editor's note: The following post is from Ryan, founding member of CSW and current president of CSW's Kansas City chapter. His fantastic orc carrying the City of Chicago flag, pictured above, inspired our current club logo.)

I had the pleasure of introducing some friends to Song of Blades & Heroes recently. I prepared a simple one-on-one battle-royale scenario between a band of vicious lizardmen and bloodthirsty orcs fighting over a remote hamlet.

Since both players were new to the game, we chose to ignore the special abilities, except for ranged attacks. Overall I think the game went well and the rules, as can be expected with Song of Blades & Heroes, were pretty easily picked up. I even think that ignoring the special abilities didn’t detract much from the game. What follows is the tale of that battle...

Sure, I’ll tell you what happened here… if you buy me a drink and a meal. Things seem less fuzzy when a man has a full belly and a satisfied thirst. Otherwise I might accidentally leave out some of the details. 

Ah, that’s better. So, you see, my boy and me were putting in an honest day’s work in the smithy when the church bells start to ringing, which around here is never a good sign. Usually it means someone’s died, someone’s married or something bad is coming. Turns out in this case it was the latter. We set out running for the church with the hope of some protection from what was coming. Some of the shepherds, and most of their sheep, had met an unfortunate end when they was set upon by a band of filthy, stinking orcs. What? They really don’t smell that good, and I ain’t never even been close to one! 

Anyway, we made it just in time, because a group of them orcs and one of their ogre fiends started marching into view. 

Of course, before they could get to reaving and marauding, they was set upon by a group of walking lizardmen. I guess those shepherds didn’t get a chance to warn us they was coming... 

Well, we had a right nice view of all the action from inside the church tower. Didn’t want to be getting too close now, did we? They wasted no time closing on each other with arrows flying, axes grinding and steel ringing. 

At first the lizardmen seemed outmatched, especially with that ogre lumbering up from the rear of the battle, but those quick little orange lizards musta been awful lucky, as they took a couple good shots at that giant and got him right between the eyes, all four of ‘em I guess. 

Well, he came down with a mighty crash and things went from bad to worse for the orcs from there on out. The lizards ganged up on the remaining orcs until all that was left was the big bloke with horns sticking out of his helmet. 

He put up a pretty ferocious defense and was able to take down one of two of the lizards but they eventually swarmed him, and well, that was that. Luckily those lizards were preoccupied with their, ahem, spoils to care about sniffing us out and left dragging their prizes behind them. Here’s hoping we don’t see them anytime soon, eh? 

Well there you have it. Told you it’d be a pretty gruesome tale. Hope it don’t give you nightmares. Oh and safe travels. You’re gonna need it. 

--Ryan, Chicago Skirmish Wargames member

Coming up this weekend: Legends in the Fall in Mundelein, Illinois

Several of us here at Chicago Skirmish Wargames are planning to trek up to Mundelein, Illinois this weekend for Legends in the Fall, a game convention organized by Skip Peterson. We'll be there on Sunday, Nov. 20 for the War Chest flea market and to (hopefully) meet Jim Roots of Ambush Alley Games. If all goes well, we'll be able to get in a demo of Tomorrow's War with Jim.

If you're planning on being at Legends in the Fall on Sunday, post a comment here. We'd love to say hello!