Archive for January, 2015

#agoodyeartogamehard #imperialassault #starwars

Posted: January 23, 2015 in Gaming
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So Imperial Assault – first up thanks to those who braved night 1. After a shaky start bringing all the little rules together we all got running quite smoothly.

I have to say I enjoyed it and found it surprisingly good.

The initial map was deceptively small. The mission quite simple and the imperial force appeared quite small.

The team quickly realised that appearances are deceptive.

With heroes having good much broader skills and options as well as significantly more health one could think the odds very much in their favour.

The Imperial force however packs quite a punch , even the spy droid carries a hefty punch. One quick notice was the Imperial defence. Rolling a much better odds on black. Presumably accounting for military training (we noticed the Rebel Trooper had this too)

While heroes can ‘flip’ their downed character for a second chance, they can also rest to recover wounds and stress. They can also take stress to perform special feats. Significantly more life than the average Trooper of the Empire. But the Empire gains threat points every round allowing reinforcements to be summoned.

The players tonight fought their way violently through the imperial patrol towards the becon station. But before they reached the door a re enforcement squad of troopers emerged from the forest. Thankfully they were cut down quickly. Though the imperial Officer was still shooting even as the bloodied heroes blew the doors wide open.

Sirens cried as they stormed inside the base to be met with a surprise. The base staff themselves. With a huge cannon right in their faces a couple of characters found their sheets flipping as the damaged piled on.

Two terminals down and the signal still broadcasting the heroes now faced the main control room filled with Troopers and another officer. A brave charge went out and while the Troopers dished out some harm they still met their doom, but their departure only hearalded yet another squad coming up from the Lowe level. Blaster shots flew in all directions, the heroes resorted to blasting the terminals in the last to action phases. Very bruised and with more than a few wounds the signal was in the very last roll silenced. Victory to the Rebels as the Empire fell back.

While licking their wounds they discover the signal was nothing more than a trap! Some vital Intel earned and some Xp the victors headed home on board their shuttle, ready to face the next threat…..

There was tension, cinematic feeling and some good old heroics. All in all a good session.

#Epic #Armageddon flyers on a budget

Posted: January 15, 2015 in Hobby
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So with the reduced availability of eldar flyers I decided to try and make my own. Scouring the Bits sites for suitable components I stumbled across a flyer made using an epic eldar jetbike. Taking that as a sign I started last night and by the end I had made decent progress on 2 nightwings and 3 phoenix bombers.

The bonus is that they could possibly be used by both Eldar and the dark cousins, Dark Eldar. And after seeing Elsmore’s painting log I decided to steal/borrow the idea and paint mine the same way, as Prince Yriel’s Raiders.

I also managed to get some more work done on my Eldar revenant titan (a 40K wraithguard)

  • Original inspiration

  • First and ongoing attempt at Eldar Nightwings

  • Ongoing progress on Eldar Phoenixes

  • Elsmore’s Yriel’s Raiders

#FridayGeeknight #agoodyeartogamehard

Posted: January 12, 2015 in Gaming
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So Friday seen the first geek night at our place this year. On the table we had Zombicide, Luchador and Titcket to Ride Europe and some fresh blood who had not played any of the games, other who had played some and me, the gaming Buddah who had played them all. The BBQ meats had been eaten, the beers were cold and the Doritos were open. Let the carnage commence…

We started with Zombicide, everyone using the iOS app to keep a record of their characters. We played scenario 4 which involved walking down a main street with 2 large buildings either side. We needed to get objectives in each building then escape through a spawning point.

With an abomination spawned early on we were hard pressed to achieve victory and when a second showed up it was all over. As the pics show we had 1 Abomination coming each way for us. Good times! We would suck so much in The Walking Dead.

Next up was some light relief in the form of Luchador – Mexican Wrestling Dice. Now, we did some alpha testing on this 2 years ago and I am so pleased that I backed the Kickstarter for version 2. The game has come on leaps and bounds over the years and the new version has updated rules for tag teams, royal rumbles and special moves for your wrestlers. Great game.

To round out the night we played a 3-way Ticket to Ride Europe. Again another new game for 1 of our party but he soon got to grips with the rules and we were merrily on our way building railroads across Europe, racing for our destinations. A battle around Brussels and Paris erupted but a convenient placement of a station ensured I punched my ticket and scored big points heading North East towards Moscow and beyond.

Salvaging a Deus Machina

Posted: January 11, 2015 in Gaming, Painting
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The advance scouting drones came back with reports from Syphonia Prime. Their discovery caused an immediate scramble and a titan dropship was dispatched to the co-ordinates identified in the report. Before the dust had settled from the landing pod the salavge team were off. Coming upon the blasted hulking mountain of metal the tech priest accompanying the team slowed his transport and sent out his nooshpere to see if any readings were still be transmitted by the damaged titan. They had discovered Valoris Rex. An ancient Lucius pattern Reaver Titan from the Cockatrices Legio Titanica, Valoris Rex had been thought lost and destroyed. Not so, it seemed.
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This Reaver titan was painted initially in 2009 as a support element for my Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter as part of a ‘Tale of Painters’ blog. I went with Cockatrices as they are quite a unique colour scheme and complimenting the green and yellow of the Mantis Warriors. However, after painting up 5 titans for Legio Gryphonicus “War Griffons” over the years I decided it was better to repurpose this beautiful model for my current titan legion.

Luckily both legios have a lot of yellow in their colour scheme so it won’t take too much effort to get this titan re-inducted into a new Legio. I will keep the heraldry however to honour it’s original titan legion.

#Epic #Minigeddon #Armageddon Games last night

Posted: January 9, 2015 in Gaming
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Continuing my resolution from last year I got in not 1 but 2 games of Epic last night. Granted, it was Minigeddon 1,000pt games and we only played 2 turns each game but it was enough to get 2 new players into the game mechanics and another to relearn the system.

We played Orks, Imperial Guard and Space Marines at 1,000 points

Orks

  • Boyz Mob, 2 nobs, 2 grots and battlewagons
  • 3 Stompa mob with 2 dreadnoughts
  • 8 warbikes
  • 5 Gub wagonz with Oddboy

Space Marines

  • 2 Tactical Formations with rhinos
  • Land Raiders

Imperial Guard

  • Steel Legion Infantry company with chimeras
  • 3 Hellhounds
  • Baneblade
  • Warhound titan

It was enough to show the mechanics of using infantry, vehicles, transports, war engines and characters and was an absolute blast. The guys learned the benefits of last minute marching to grab objectives, laying down just enough blast markers to break formations, engagements and supporting fire and rallying and regrouping. Good times.

  • Guard vs Space Marines – 2-1
  • Orks vs Space Marines 2-2
  • Orks vs Imperial Guard 0-2

#Epic #WIP Aspect Warriors

Posted: January 8, 2015 in Painting
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Now I’m positive this is so far from sub-optimal but I just love Warp Spiders, the Howling banshees and Dark Reapers were close to hand when rummaging through the bits I had bought on eBay so I started with them. This will be another 325 points added to my Epic Eldar which will bring the total to 675 points for the month. With a game planned for tonight I hope to get these aspects finished at the weekend.

I debated whether to paint them in their standard aspect colours, use the craftworld colous or a combination of both. I settled on a combination as an be seen on the dark reapers. I will use their standard aspect colours where appropriate but will bring in the purple helmets and bone weapons where I can. Think it works ok.

#Malifaux #Reckoning Somer vs Somer

Posted: January 7, 2015 in Gaming
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Last night was another gremlin v gremlin for control of the Bayou. We flipped and got Reckoning with Line in the Sand, Bodyguard, Assassinate, Entourage and Make Them Suffer. Quite a lot of killing was anticipated, expected and resulted from the ‘Killing Zone’ table layout.

I took:

  • Somer
  • Lenny
  • 2 Warpigs
  • 2 Slop Haulers
  • Skeeter
  • 2 Bayou Gremlins
  • Entourage (Revealed) and Assassinate

while David had:

  • Somer
  • Lenny
  • Gracie
  • Burt
  • 3 Bayou Gremlins
  • 2 Slop Haulers
  • Bodyguard (Gracie) and Make Them Suffer

David started quite aggressively having Somer ‘Git yer Bro’, healing around him and Lenny throwing Gremlins up the table followed by Gracie saddling Lenny up as well. I summoned Gremlins but with scenery was forced to either hug cover or risk getting exposed in death valley. I ran the warpig on the right up in preparation for a pig charge in turn 2 and the pig on the left ran to the mouth of death valley and got shot off the table early turn 2. My skeeter landed in the middle of the alleyway to cut down some shooting but not enough.

Turn 2 earned both of us Reckoning points as the warpig destroyed a lowly gremlin and in return Gracie walked in and took 4 wounds off the pig. Lots of shooting and David declared Make them Suffer as he shot a poor gremlin off the table.

Turn 3 David continued to whittle my forces down earning another Reckoning and Make them Suffer. Somer shot Burt away but I couldn’t get the slop haulers to land any damage to earn the Reckoning point. Somer had positioned himself over the halfway point and I knew I could get to the enemy deployment zone for the full 3VP.

Turn 4 and Lenny smack David’s Somer who had no soulstones left. A cheated severe took the 5 wounds needed to put Somer out of the game for Assassinate. Gracie and the other Lenny charged my poor slop haulers who were mauled. David declared Bodyguard on Gracie who was also healed by the slop hauler.

Turn 5 seen my Somer take a shot at a slop hauler, missing and judging to be just out of single walk range of the enemy deployment decided not to shoot again and double walked behind a wall.

With a failed card flip to see if the game continued or not we called it. 8-6 to David. Great game.

#Hobbytime #Epic #Agoodyeartogamehard

Posted: January 6, 2015 in Gaming, Painting, Resolutions
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So 5 days in and 350 points of 1 Epic force assembled, painted and based. Not bad. Guardian Formation and transports completed. These were the first epic models I had painted in 5 years but by the end I was getting back into the way of things with extreme highlighting to make the effects noticeable from a distance. Looking forward to painting some Aspect Warriors next.

Also tonight is our first club night of the new year. Going to get my Malifaux fix for the week. Thinking Molly this week for some fun (and the new plastic Rogue Necromancy 😉 )

2015: A Good Year to Game Hard

Posted: January 2, 2015 in Gaming, Hobby, Resolutions
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gamehard3

With my resolution from last year to play every system I own falling just shy in the home straight I will attempt to complete it this month. I only have Epic: Armageddon and Dystopian Wars left and both games have seen a resurgence in popularity locally. I possibly bit off slightly more than I could chew last year and was trying to juggle too many hobby things with wedding plans that always seemed to fall on a weekend. Despite this I managed to play a fair few games, attended 2 big tournaments for Malifaux, ran 2 large convention tournaments for Malifaux and got some more new blood into the hobby.

I had a blast playing some of my games that have been neglected, especially breaking out my Panzer Grenadiers for Secrets of the Third Reich, running them with some mecha units and Nazi werewolves. Who doesn’t love Nazi werewolves? With the rumours doing the rounds of a 2nd edition to SoTR using Kickstarter I have some hobby funds labelled for adding drop troops to my Panzer Grenadiers.

I also managed to get a game of Warmachine/Hordes in using my old Cryx forces. I love some of the aesthetics of the forces and absolutely adore my Circle Orboros models but I find this game a little too much of a learning curve for me to invest heavily in. I will continue to paint what I have, pick up a model here and there and throw down some dice when the mood takes me or a game is offered.

Epic has recently seen a rise in participation in 2 local game clubs which just sends me giddy with excitement. Epic/Space Marine was the first wargame I ever collected and I still remember my first purchase of the Epic Chaos Horde box, having no idea about the game the tiny miniatures just appealed to me. This year I will be starting 2 forces and will be gaming with them every chance I get.

Guildball will shortly be landing on the doorstep and as I backed it heavily (my largest kickstarter pledge) I will be getting some games of this organised. This definitely looks like a beer and pretzels game and hopefully the price point won’t immediatley put people off. The models are beautiful and the gameplay is fast, furious and fun.

So where does that leave me for this year. Well, as the title suggests I am going to try and get as many games in as possible this year. I will continue with Malifaux in a big way, the Bushido boardgame will be arriving later in the year and Epic and Dystopian Wars will see more tabletop time. So my resolutions are:

  1. Achieve the Rainbow award on Malifaux Rankings (Play all 7 factions in tournaments) Having collected so many models it doesn’t bear thinking about I want to use all of them this year.
  2. Play at least 1 game a week – This will include new and old games, as a side note I would like to try as many new games (wargame and boardgame) as I can
  3. Paint 2 3,000 point Epic forces – This will be good to paint up my existing forces and have more armies for other gamers to choose from.

So that’s it. These resolutions should be achievable and I have already started by painting some Epic and playing a game of Zombicide yesterday. Here’s to the rest of the year!

 

  • The game begins

  • Not looking good…

  • Il-Kaithe Guardian formation