Far Side Newsletter issue # 1

What is this???

The Far Side... a group of strangely disturbed people over at Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, playing all kinds of games in a slightly off normal manner. Brave gamers in to try lots of stuff, though it doesn`t always actually launch...

AND NOW WE EVEN HAVE A LOGO

Designed by Andy, and as we spreak being printed on T-shirts:



But this post is kind of a newsletter of what`s hot and what`s not in our midst. I used to do this on the local TSA forum, but that is slowly going terminal so I thought `heck, I just as well could make it a semi regular feature on my blog`. You can find older letters to my disciples - in dutch - over at the TSA forum for those in any kind intrested in the ramblings of my clinical insane mind.

Djoef 4: Allaaah Ahkbar

`Den Djoef` is a yearly clubcompetition of the Far Side, with the biggest goal of it to appoint the `booze bitch` for the comming year, that person being the one having to run to the bar and collect the drinks for 12 months. The Djoef is appointed usually to the person who fails to reach his goal with the most points, as he states before the start (I usually vary my ambitions between top -3 and winning the whole shabang).
This year, i`m participating with a much nerfed ISA fleet (face it, 10 inch main gun is just to short, it would have had to be 12 to be perfectly balanced) and a top-3 statement, and I admit, I have been slacking the last weeks due to work pressure and even considered throwing the towel. I won`t, I will play all my battles, if only out of respect to the organiser, Sgt Looney. Still, top-3 WILL be hardpressed to reach this year though.
The previous three years where won respectively by Guy with his Centauri, me with the ISA and me with the Federation: modern era fleets.

The Far Side also keeps a record of all players who have participated in all kinds of campaigns, competitions and such, as a kind of permanent honor roll, from all over the years, which at current, being after the FWC / FT campaign but before D4 looks like this:

1. Tomsche - 1139,79 campagnepunten
2. Guy - 944,33 campagnepunten
3. Tom - 815,17 campagnepunten

4. Bjorn - 803,29 campagnepunten
5. Thomas - 490,62 campagnepunten
6. Erwin - 333,00 campagnepunten
7. Iwan - 323,47 campagnepunten
8. Andy - 304,53 campagnepunten
9. Sven - 191,35 campagnepunten
10. Faby - 188,69 campagnepunten
11. Guy B - 186,00 campagnepunten
12. Jurgen - 182,54 campagnepunten
13. Percy - 155,80 campagnepunten
14. Tristan - 141,20 campagnepunten
15. Wim - 114,00 campagnepunten
16. Svenn - 107,00 campagnepunten
17. Johan - 102,00 campagnepunten
18. Guido - 89,92 campagnepunten
19. David - 65,00 campagnepunten
20. Albert - 56,00 campagnepunten
21. Patrick - 46,00 campagnepunten
22. Nicolai - 36,50 campagnepunten
23. Tim - 28,83 campagnepunten
24. Svenius - 24,30 campagnepunten
25. Jo - 21,33 campagnepunten
26. Alexander - 18,33 campagnepunten

27. Nicky - 7,00 campagnepunten
27. Willie - 7,00 campagnepunten
29. Marc - 1,00 campagnepunten

I know this is a whole lot of gibberish to wade through, but I`m trying to use this first blog style issue as a `setting settler` as well...

6mm: Dead or Not?

No! Okay, the campaign ended after 5 months of the projected 12, but I take full responsibility of this on myself in hindsight. There will be a follow up around the Crisis period, but it will be:

* with a smaller map
* shorter projected duration
* no more Full Thrust
* players will have to choose 1 force and stick with them

However, it won`t start out vanilla, and I am going to try a completely new system in which the winners of the first campaign, humanity, WILL have a benefit in the beginning... but also a serious drawback.
Humanity WILL control all the girds at the start, and the aliens, laucnhing a fresh invasion, will have to try and take these off before time (aka, the campaign duration) runs out. The aliens as such will always be the attackers, and each and every battle will be played by a randmly determined rolled scenerio before the battle takes place.
But those are just ideas hovering in my head at the moment, still got a few months to work something concrete out...

Pulpy Heroes

So what about Pulp gaming, dungeon crawls, superhero gaming... they will be there. We`re just waiting for Andy to launch ideas and comming out of hibernation.

American Civil War

A side project with the yearly TSA megabattle weekend as the backdrop, this is a bit of a sideproject of Mr Scratch and me. We`ll be doing some battles in between, loose from everything else and no pressure on people to join in. When the forces are ready, we`ll play it, simple comme bonjour.

Proud Painters of the Galaxy

A small word for the brave Far Siders that fought a hard battle in the LPL over on Lead Adventure Forum this year, and for the sake of memory, one last time the result of the Far Siders brave enough to put deeds to boasts and join in:

Northstar ended 31st and first of TSA, with a 5 / 5 ratio, -49 votes, 130 bonus points and a total of 452 overall

Tomsche ended 41st with a 4 / 6 ratio, -436 votes, 150 bonus points and a total of 435 overall

Sgt Looney ended 53rd with a 4 / 6 ratio, -870 votes, 110 bonus points and a total of 376 overall

Skratch ended 57th with a 1 / 9 ratio, -1474 votes, 150 bonus points and a total of 351 overall

Andy0476 ended 69th with a 0 / 10 ratio, -1321 votes, 60 bonus points and a total of 249 overall

There where 72 patricipants, and to give you an idea, the winner in the end Frank had a 9 / 1 ratio, +1962 votes, 150 bonus points and a total of 575 points, while the `red lantern` Muskie ended with a 1 / 9 ratio, - 1850 votes, 20 bonus points and a total of 188 points.

Which makes us (well, except perhaps Sven, who had real tough opposition in the final rounds) a nice `bus` to speak in cycling terms.

Regiment of the Month

I better refer you to the posts of the monthly entries for this project, as it is only in it`s second month at the moment.

Gundanium!

Well, to close off the first ramblings, this is the title of the project the Far Side will make it`s `convention debut` as part of TSA in 2012. A game using japanese mechas, with half page long very quick play rules I`ve finished writing and just need to dress up when the suits are painted, as well as probably tinker a bit with once playtesting (not that it will require immense amounts of that, it is a fast play participation game, I`m not planning on having to explain rules for hours before a dice can be rolled) gets underway. You`ve probably arleady saw some references to it on other TSA blogs, and the rules (in dutch atm for discussions) are on the TSA forum as well in their `early bird` state.

I`ll reveal much more about all that once the time is right, and you really don`t wann know the insane terrain plans I have for 2013s project, involving Saint Seiya models and a Pandora box containing the scenery and which will click open to reveal the play area...


So thats it for this issue, in a few weeks or months I`ll pop along for a fresh one (yes, I write this very irregularly, basically when I feel like sharing thoughts) and let`s close off on this little thought:


Everything returns in the end, even Magic: The Gathering