Olympic OGAM Day - the morning

James and I have talked for a while about the idea of organising an Of Gods and Mortals gaming day. With relatively small tables needed it would, we reasoned be quite easy to get a few like minded souls together in the room above a pub and play for the day. So we went ahead and booked it and invited some like minded souls. We agreed on a Greek themed day, rather than a godly free-for-all as we always like a bit of a theme to our gaming.

Unfortunately the pub neglected to mention the Nottingham Marathon would be on the day we had earmarked, rendering the car park inaccessible and meaning transporting even the small amount of scenery and soldiers a chore. However in nearby Newark there stands the very lovely Letsxcape Together Board Games Café run by one of James' chums who very generously agreed to step in at the last minute. It's a lovely café with excellent food, cakes and drinks in a historic building on Newark's market square. Well worth a visit even if you aren't planning on playing a board game.

In the end a couple of last minute Covid related drop-outs (get well soon guys) meant there would be just six of us, which fitted very nicely into the basement of the café - three from Nottingham - James, Martin and I and three from Leeds - Kev, Chris and Tom. As part of the point of days like this is to play new opponents we decided to play Notts v. Leeds in the games.

First up I was to play Tom - a Clash on the Tomtans if you will. James played Chris and Martin took on Kev.

I took my Hermes force - the god himself, Odysseus and Orpheus and a Cyclops (downgraded to big, rather than huge as he's not all that large) and with the ability to throw rocks. For mortals I had eight hoplites, six archers, five harpies (Q4, C1, flyer long move) and five sheep (Q4, C1, Animal) whose sole raison d'etre is to generate an extra die for Hermes (or bring him back if he gets killed).

Tom had a Zeus list with Cyclops, Hydra, Minotaur, Skeletons some nymphs for praying purposes and satyrs.

We played a slightly tweaked version of the temple scenario.

Orpheus and the archers seized the temple

Zeus and his lads turned up

Harpies flap in to view

Meanwhile on another part of Greece... Chris' Athena worshippers faced the Amazons of Poseidon. The harpies were protecting the well from trouble.

And further off Martin's Hecate force clashed with Kevin's Pan's People.

Back at my game Zeus and his force closed in.

Hermes pushed up at a leisurely pace.

Zeus sent his heroes to deal with the harpies.

While the Cyclops got stuck in to the Skellies.

Lightning strikes began to whittle the hoplites.

Meanwhile Poseidon had managed to summon a Kraken.

To great surprise on my table Hermes banished Zeus. Which saw the nymphs flee the table.

But the big lad was soon back.

Rain was affecting the archer's shooting.

Over by the well it was *all* kicking off.

However back at the temple Hermes got himself banished, many of his mortals fled and it was easy pickings for Zeus and his heroes to mop things up.

 A great fun morning's gaming - our game swung (as OGAM tends to) quite alarmingly with Zeus only getting the upper hand in the closing stages.

Then it was break to sample some of the excellent Letsxcape catering.

Another Greek Threesome - Of Gods and Mortals

Martin and Matt came over for another *not practice* of OGAM ahead of our informal gaming day this weekend.

Martin had Hecate, I loaned Matt Hades and I took Hermes. A Triple H game.

Same rules for multi-players as the game last week.

Hades ponders his undying legions from his marble throne.

Odysseus hangs out with the harpies

Hermes hid his sheep in the woods.

Hecate had Satyrs with her. These were the sober ones.

Hermes with about half his crew. I had once more succumbed to spreading forces across the board. Just because you *can* doesn't mean you *should*

Martin's minotaur got stuck in.

Matt's skeletons proved remarkably resistant to moving.

For several turns.

Odysseus did his best to marshal Hermes' scattered men (and women. Winged women).

Still the skellies stood still.

The drunken satyrs found themselves being lectured on the afterlife by a priest of Hades.

Hermes got started on by the Shades of Hecate.

His hoplites came to help him out.

Hecate's arrival saw him do a runner.

The sober satyrs closed in.

Hades undead hero clashed with Medusa.

Finally Hades hordes lurched in to action.

Catching the harpies.

Hecate and Hermes carried on duking it out

Hecate won, banishing Hermes. Which saw all his mortals flee, so he wasn't coming back!

With Hermes dealt with, the king and queen of the underworld went at it.

Eventually Hecate triumphed and Hades was banished.

The undead summoned their Lord back and after a few more rounds we realised that having lots of undamaged "mortal" undead and two gods with Raise the Dead meant a clear outcome was unlikely with time ticking on, so we called a halt.

A good fun game. I realised that my force may be a bit light on "combat" mortals and over reliant on heroes - not sure there's time to make changes before this weekend - but food for thought.

Lord of the Rings three way game

Over to my chum's house for a game with him and his son. Young N. has been crafting away building all the scenery we used (mostly scratch built - there's a single GW Rohan house in there) so I just bought my Easterlings.

N. took the forces of Rohan and his dad had men of Minas Tirith. The activation system in the MESBG means three player games are perfectly possible - just all roll for priority and play out in order.

To make it a little more than just a stand up fight we scattered some objectives about the Rohan village for us all to grab.

Poor quality pics as I only had my phone with me.

Eyes on the prize(s) the Easterlings head for the centre of the village, where the Minas Tirith men come to meet them (6s to wound all round made this a bit of a grind).

Allied Khandish archers peppered the Rohan flanking force with shot. Forcing at least one of them to walk towards the village.

Kataphrakts rode to hunt down some Rohan warriors on foot.

However some of the Rohan cavalry now arrived in the village.

Eddie the Easterling made a dash for the board edge holding tight to his sack.

Taking a leaf (arf!) from Legolas' book the rangers climbed up on the roof to try and shoot down the fleeing Eddie.

An almighty scrum kicked off in the village, with Captains going toe to toe.

More mayhem around the fire.

Soon after this Courage tests began to bite and most of the forces fled. Although the Easterlings had claimed two objectives, so had the Minas Tirith men and as they still had men on the board they were declared the winner.

Great fun game and nice to get the LotR toys out. *Looks again at the Shadow in the East campaign*