I remembered my camera this week, which was a bonus, so some decent piccies again here I hope. On Sunday I even get an event off for good behaviour now that newly approved Judge Date tries his hand for the first time, so look out Heroclix world, the Duck shall conquer all before him, well providing I can roll over seven for a change that is! Hoping for a good turnout on Sunday so we can ask Judge Date some really awkward questions, lets get all those really finicky rules characters and giants and transporters out shall we. Tee hee hee, revenge is such a sweet dish.

I managed to claim another Doombot™ today, but alas Paul Atherton was A.W.O.L. so my Hive didn't grow in size. Tomorrow Collateral Damage© should be available and the Hive Trooper and OMAC forces shall begin in earnest (having only six of each at the moment doesn't constitute a real force yet). Mwhahahahahahahahahahahah! Well, I have digressed enough, on to the tournament review.

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) .... and a GamesWorldUK Heroclix Tournament 16-02-06!

Which of these of these images shows a team that poor old Crimson Duck has had to face in a friendly house game on one of the three last games played? THAT'S CORRECT! ALL OF THEM!!

'10' ... or ...1 in 6 ... or ... 16.6%

This is the number I have usually been needing to hit one of my oppenents characters in the last three 'friendly' games I have played from the very start - before they hit me and knock my attack values down. Am I bitter? Have I let it get to me? Will I let it affect how I play from now on.? Oh, you bet! The gloves are off. 'Testing' of Collateral Damage© has ended. Cans of Coke will now be 50p each at mine and it will be 40p for tea. Pengiun biscuits will be 25p. All takaways ordered from or delivered to my house will be subject to a 10% commission. Mr Date is currently exempted from these fees

Stephen Hunt and Paul Brown invented a new game tonight ... SleepyClix©! Calling time and checking who had picked up the wins, the reply came back 'errr its a draw'. "Who had the bigger total build points?" says I. We have the same. "So who had the most kills then?" I asked. We got the same. What are the chances of that? Well after some investigation I discovered that both had built 200 point teams and neither had KO'ed anything. What were you doing chaps? Reading poetry to each other? Well drawing knowledge from the dark depths of his mind the Duck stated that this situation called for a roll off to see who picked up the win. This must have been the most exciting point of the match-up and Paul Brown won it. I still can not believe no one was KO'ed in the whole round. Is it true that Paul Brown won this match without ever making an attack roll? If so that must be some sort of first surely???

Ste Date beat Parry thanks to the miracle of Trickshot and shooting through Green Arrow™ in Stealth. How do you hit that without a Superman™ or Ultimates™ Team Ability? Get up close and personal. Parry wentfor the option of running away and hiding instead to preserve some points. Ste picked up 247 points to Parry's 152.

The last game in the round was far more close and exciting than the other two, thankee the Lordee! Ok, I lied, it wasn't actually close at all. Craig's boys destroyed the poor X-Men who dont seem to fair too well too often picking up a 469 point haul from the round. Liam did at least smash Spymaster™ to avoid a zero point total, but didn't come in too much better at 27 points.

Is that Parry lurking behind a building? Watch out for the Green lantern with Trick Shot. Too late! Ouch!!!

The X-Men (or is it the Ex-Men again?) rush headlong down the street ... like proper heroes!

Paul Brown took on James Cook and was savage and relentless in his destruction of James' "Avengers" as he took up a sniper position with Manticore and made Captain America, Shaman and Northstar's lives a misery for a round. There was little James could do against the long range of Manticore who was also sharing Positron's 17 defence and camping on an object. Eventually he was beaten to unconsciousness, well his clix were at least.

Liam was awarded the bye for the round, which actually seemed to quite please him, odd as most players prefer to get a game in over a bye, could he be tiring of seeing his X-Men defeated? That left Ste Hunt to try for redemption against Parry on the losers table with his "Chick Flick Action". Well I have to say that the team was very aptly named as for a second consecutive game they lost like girls, although this time at least it wasn't at a sleepover party. It was actually totally the opposite in this game as both teams got stuck right in and kicked the living daylights out of each other. The late stages came down to Robin™ against Natalia Kassel and her distracting cleavage. In a very close and dare I say exciting finale, Robin just about took the honours for his team being the last man standing. He had two clicks of health remaining. That's what you call a close and absorbing game. The first game was also close, but the only thing it was absorbing was people's will to live! This was indeed a fruity battle, with both teams sets of clix adorned in orange rings to differentiate them from each other. How exactly does that work then guys? Were the orange rings subtly different shades or were you both too lazy to take them off and/or replace them with another colour? Or perhaps it's becuase both teams were so successful in the first round you didn't want to change, having taken out 27 points between the two of you!

I think I should give Paul a copy of this map he seems to really like it, half of it anyway!

I'll use orange rings so I can tell my team for yours. Good idea, so will I!

On the next table along Parry was doing a fine job with Batman™, Robin™, Huntress™ and the universe hopping Echo™. Despite an eary mistake to expose Batman™ unnecessarily, he was able to use Leap/Climb to full effect against Craig's figures who overlooked the tops of the buildings. This forced the Deadpool™ and Cable™ LEs to come at them down the steps. It was another tight finish in this game, but better dice rolls pretty much secured the win for Parry as he wrapped up a 251 points to 144 win.

Having lost two out of two tonight, the usually strong and irrepressible Mr. Hunt was able only to pull back 200 points with a bye in round three. A very meagre event for the Huntmeister and he hadn't even played the top team in the tournament so it could have potentially been worse. I am sure we will see him cheese up after this display - even if its in a freindly house game where he could perhaps use the new Veteran Green Lantern™ and Adam Strange™ and run them both into a bush in front of the rest of the team so I need a 10 or better to hit anything from the off with my randomly selected team. Could he be such a **** to a long-standing friend after the travesty of the two games against Craig earlier in the week I hear you all ask? Oh yes, indeed he could. The Approved Play format appears to have mutated these two into win monsters who must elliminate their opponent at all costs, even when its a little old lady trying to cue for the groceries. Get out of my way hag ... outwit, perplex and charge at her before she gets the last of the kiwi fruit. I best have a probability controller too just in case!

So the other game of the third and final round was played out between Liam's Ex-Men and Captain James Cook, shouldn't he be more at home playing Pirates of the Spanish Main©? Ahoy there James me hearty! Well James may not have discovered any new continents today but he put on a good show for his first tournament as he won his final game. The "Avengers" conquered the Ex-Men with James clocking up 268 points against Liam's 121.

Battle of the snipers or a lesson in Heroclix ranged combat? It wasn't close and it wasn't pretty!

2 bottles of Lucozade can't give Craig the energy he needs to beat Parry, nor can it prevent him from being in bed at 6.30pm the next day even though his Collateral Damage© brick boosters are waiting for him downstairs ... how can this possibly be? World of warcraft addiction?

Ste D. was very sporting for the final and after a couple of shots ran in base to base with Parry so he at least stood a fighting chance of doing some damage. To be fair, but for a bad dice roll when he needed seven with Robin™, Parry could even of won the game thanks to Ste's deliberate anti-tactic of the charge forward. As it was there was a third consecutive very close finish for Parry, but unfortunately this time he was on the losing end of it. Two out of three aint bad, as Meatloaf may say!

So Mr. Date won his third Middlesbrough event, but what was actually his first GamesWorldUK event at Middlesbrough Gamers Club. Well done Ste. Well done Parry too. Not only did you play well and hard and get to the final, you also sneaked the Fellowship vote so you also got to take home the Ali Blair LE, the same prize as the winner. Good show sir! The Fellowship vote was actually tied so I also awarded Captain James Cook an LE (thanks to the extras provided kindly by Jules Breen last weekend) as it was a night to be generous. An honourable mention must go to Parry's brother Liam who once again played an X-Men™ themed team, despite it not being the greatest team, as he likes the X-Men™. I shall have a delve in the LEs I have and fish you out an X-Men™ LE for that.

Oh and I can't resist one last one ... as we had three tonight, I think it is fair to say that for Heroclix too many Cook's (or Cooke's) doesn't spoil the broth. Apologies, that was truly awful, but what do you expect from me for goodness sake?

The final in progress. Green Arrow™ fires off a few shots from the nearby roof, but then plays like a gent and runs in to give Parry a fighting chance. Kudos to Mr. Date for this fine sporting gesture.

Final Swiss Round placings were as follows ...

No thanks what so ever to Craig and Ste Hunt for the thrashings they gave me in the allegedly 'friendly games' at my house this week. Remind me not to play either of you two when Sinister© hits the shelves in three months or so.

Next event on Sunday coming, Ste D shall be Judge so I shall unleash havok on the world!!!!!

Oh and does anyone apart from those two cheeseheads fancy a friendly game next week, preferably keeping defence values below 19 if possible?

Here we see the Winning Team, as Ste D is too modest to pose, plus we are all sick of the sight of him and Hunt, Parry Cooke (centre) and the real James Cook (right) who shared the Fellowship vote

Perplex

The game of Superhero combat ... and hiding in bushes ... and being a super-git!

FOR THESE TWO IT IS AT LEAST ANYWAY!

Here they are ... the two ****s together. Is this just a 'friendly' game? Booo hisss, your good enough for each other, thats what I say! "Get orf moy land!"