Last Sunday I attended the TRIAL BY FIRE tournament for the Walking Dead All Out War skirmish game. The event was organised by Paul from "Weight of Fire" with scenario/rules help from Daniel Meadows, and took place at Element Games in Stockport.
They really put a lot of effort into making this a special event. It was very well organised, the prize support was fantastic, and the whole thing ran very smoothly. Dan Meadows who is one of the most knowledgeable All Out War rules experts was on hand to answer any rules questions / disputes.
This is the second themed tournament that the W.O.F. guys have organised for All Out War. The first I attended last December was called "Winter's End" and was snow/winter themed... this one had a fire theme. There were four new interesting scenarios designed specifically for this tournament, and they all had different ways of introducing fire onto the board - which would then be spread around by walkers making everything a lot more dangerous.
All the participants got a goody bag containing a special scenario booklet, some scenery from Mantic Games, some special tokens for use with the scenarios, and a free miniature. Very nice stuff!
There were 16 participants in the tournament - I think at least a third were from a local group in Burnley who play All Out War regularily... the rest had travelled from all over the UK, some staying in a local Premier Inn across the road from the venue. I had an hour and a quarter drive over the Peak District from Sheffield in torrential rain to get there for the 9am start.
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| Scenario 1 |
So we played through 4 scenarios. In the first one we had to pick up two tokens and then get our survivors to a car, repair the car, and then drive off the board - of course whilst this is going on we were trying to kill each other and not be killed by burning walkers! - I don't think anyone managed to fully repair their vehicles before the end of the game, we certainly didn't in our game! - But I didn't do too bad over all, getting 6 out of ten points for this first game... off to a good start!
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| Scenario 2 |
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| Don't get too close to the flare - something will drop on your head!! - Scenario 2 |
The second scenario involved collecting and throwing flares - then at the end of the turn supplies would be airdropped onto the flares.. squashing anything in the flare dropzone. It was a race to collect 4 airdropped tokens...whilst avoiding the usual dangers - and somehow I managed to do it! - Giving me a 10-0 win for the second game!!
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| Scenario 3 - (pic from Weight of Fire) |
There was a brief stop for lunch, and then we were into game 3. This scenario had wildfire spreading onto the board from both sides. I was up against Richard Stockdale (the overall winner of the tournament) for this one, I knew I didn't have much of a chance as he's such a good player, but I was determined to give it a good go! In this game we were trying to rescue an injured survivor from the opposite side of the board and drag it back to our own side.. It seemed like Richard had built a team specifically for this scenario - he managed to get to his injured survivor really quickly - I targeted his character doing the rescuing multiple times... he took a few minor hits, but not enough to stop him - I managed to position Clementine just in range to throw her grenade at him - this could be the game changer!!.... and she fumbled her dice throw. It was all downhill from there. Richard got his survivor back safely and ended the game. 10 points for him... 0 points for me.
The last game of the tournament was against Phil from the Burnley Gamers... this was more of a straight forward kill fest - survivors getting "kill points" for taking out other survivors. This game seemed like it could have gone either way for the first 5 turns, neither of us getting very far whilst struggling against the walkers... then some bad rolls against walkers ended up with two of my team being bitten and finished off... Phil took out another of my team... and then it was all over quickly.. He had more Kill Points than me plus a load more searched tokens.. so that was another 10-0 defeat for me.
Despite the last two games ending up with me having no points, they were fun games, and tense at times - very enjoyable! Everyone I played against was very nice. It was competitive, but with a very friendly atmosphere.
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| My Team - "The Governors Grievance" |
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| (Final Results - pic from Weight of Fire) |
So we are entering uncertain times with Mantic's All Out War game. Mantic have been hinting at new models and factions for All Out War for ages, but not much seems to be happening... In the meantime they have released a new game set in the Walking Dead universe called "Call to Arms" which uses the same miniatures but different mechanics and scales things up for playing big battle Walking Dead games on a big tabletop. I've got to say that personally this doesn't appeal to me. I like the All Out War mechanics, and one of the big appeals is that it is played on a small board. I like the tactics of All Out War - using the Walkers movement against your opponent for example. Call To Arms seems to just be a big shoot 'em up on a big board.
I have heard a rumour that the new releases for Call to Arms will be faction packs of groups of miniatures, and that these will be useable for both games, with the cards for both All Out War and Call to Arms games included in the boxes. I really hope this is the case, and Mantic continue to support All Out War, it is a great game!!
Thanks again to Paul and Dan for organising such a great tournament! Thanks to Element games for hosting and everyone who provided such great prizes, and lastly - thanks to all the other players for making the day such a fun and friendly experience! See you all in the new year!
