Sunday, December 9, 2012

40k Campaign - Violent street fights in the Hub


So yesterday had some brutal small scale firefights in the depths of the Hub.

Some modifications and clarifications were made to the lists. Yes players could use special characters and the cultist or Imperial Guard unit could be used as their compulsory troop.

We all played the Battlefield recon mission from the back of the hardback 40k rulebook. It entails sides only having 1 objective each worth 2 points and the bonus points from warlord, first blood and linebreaker.

Round 1 - Ashen Angels vs Daemons
I took charge of the Ashen Angels as they made preperations to enter the sub levels. As they coordinated with PDF units holding an Imperial garrison, daemonic forces in league with cultists tore their way free of the warp.

The Tzeentchian fiends took the Marines by suprise and after a volley of warp spawned flame the tactical squad was seriously depleted. As the marines and guardsmen desperately attempted to hold the strongpoint Terminator reinforcements arrived from the left flank, pouring bolt rounds into the Flamers.

The Sorcerous leader of this coven raced down the barricaded streets flinging bolts of eldritch energy into the Terminators while gibbering horrors materialised to take hold of the now defenderless Imperial base.

After a heated firefight between the towering Imperial bastions the Terminators were reduced to a single man, though with Assualt cannon churning he failed to withstand the Sorcerers onslaught of magic. Having cleared the defenders from this key location the cultists who had observed the skirmish from the safety of a bastion headed off under the guidance of their daemonic lord.


Win to the Chaos side.

While we played that out Joel and Conan had a streetfight between Orks and Blood Angels in the sub industrial zones. Joel can report in more detail but I believe after the Orks failed to dislodge 2 guardsmen from their objective the control of the territory was a draw.

Round 2 - Ashen Angels vs Orks

The Orks seeking out their newly spawned kin happened upon a patrol of marines in a former habitation block which had fallen into disrepair. The marines entrenched themselves at the end of a clear thoroughfare sighting the mass of greenskins marching into the area.

With a whir of rotor blades the Orks copter swung through the tenemants spying the black armoured marines and hailing his fellows let fly with his rockets! A marine was torn apart as the missile hit its target and the Ork warboss encouraged by the prospect of a fight belted down the street with his warbike, swerving into the shelter of a ruined plaza as the Imperial guns attempted to fix on him.

Marines moved into the ruined apartments and let fly with bolter and plasma rounds at the Orks while the guardsmen failed to strike the warboss who now bore down on them. As the Ork boyz bustled down the street towards the Imperials, filling the air with rounds from their shootas, the warboss broke cover and crashed into the guardsmen. With dismay the humans flailed at the green warlord but with a bloody crunch of his powerclaw he easily broke the unit and ran down the survivors.

The marines retaliated and with concentrated fire brought the Warboss down. However the Shoota boyz were not be to discouraged and with a roar continued to advance adding more ammunition to the hail of fire from their crude firearms. After the early salvo the ork copta had harrased the power armoured marines but with little success had fallen back to a safer distance to add to the marines suppression.

With the green tide thinning and marines still falling the firefight ended in a stalemate. A handful of Tactical marines and the terminator sergeant hunkered down and the avenues end while Ork 'yoof's retrieved thier immature spores growing in the rubble.


While that was played out Aaron and Conan had a dispute over territory with the bedraggles Blood Angels coming under attack from Alien monstrosities. It seems a Xenos cult had been dormant within the labour forces and with the growing violence made their move against the Imperial establishment.

A massive Hive beast successfully spawned numerous 'gants' throughout the conflict, threatening to overwhelm the Imperial defenders numerous times. However as the local defence force held their stongpoint and the marines met the alien horrors out on the street, the imperial defenders eventually taken over by the Brood forces.

Round 3 - Ashen Angels vs Tyranids

With things not going well for the Imperial forces, the marine patrol moved to the industrial area where the greenskins and Blood Angels had come to blows. Picking their way through the metal works and catwalks the astartes came into contact with the reported xenos hive beasts. Taking position in a tall steel structure the Imperial Guard layed down long range fire as the marines moved out on the ground level to halt the xenos progress.

Cutting down Genestealers early on did little to halt the swarm and with some success the identified Tervigon added more to the infestation. As the small xeno forms swarmed through the girders and bracings a unique bioform floated into view. The marines held their distance as this 'Doom' pulsed out waves of psychic attacks but the marines managed to weaken it before it ruptured itself with a burst of psychic energy.

Eventually the Imperial forces were reduced to a solitary marine as the remaining guardsmen fled from the alien creatures. With any resisitance cleared from the area, the brood followers found an abandoned drinking establishment and sated themselves on the spoils while the hunter-slayers spawned by the brood mother stalked off in search of new prey.


Again a loss and Conan fared a similar defeat at the hands of the daemons. However a glimmer of hope appeared as Cody having arrived from work brought the cheese into play. With an Imperial Guard squad as minimum he used a Heavy incinerator Dreadknight and none other than Draigo himself. Needless to say things did not go well for Joel's Orks and a single victory point was gathered for the oppressed Imperial forces.

So it had been a very one sided day with the agents of disorder running rampant over the Imperial defenders, this would make it very difficult for the authorities to maintain their fragile hold on the deepest parts of the hab blocks.

With a grind of stressed servos the power armoured figure hauled himself atop the towering steel framework. Striding across the groaning steelwork he halted at the platforms edge and gazed out through crimson lenses at the foundation of his new domain. Gunfire barked out in the stygian gloom and this leader of traitors and murderers smiled within his horned helmet.

It mattered not that his blade had yet to be drawn here. It mattered not that his own chosen were veritably seething at their restraints to engage in the disorder. His agents had whispered their words into the ears of those dissident and they had acted against the Imperium with their own means, however alien or eldritch they may be. Screams of rage and terror alike joined the gunfires melody and the Lord of damned warriors was pleased, knowing that the corpse god's ignorant followers were being put to death.

Let them dispatch their pitiful guardsmen and feebly loyal Astartes to quell this chaos, the more they sent down here into the depths meant an easier climb upon the heap of their remains to the next fields of conquest.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Playing both sides - GM'ing the Campaign

This weekend I will be hosting some players for a variety of gaming. These will include the start of my narrative 40k campaign, some D&D(my regular players can use their Monday night characters) and NZTC practice with Warhammer Fantasy.

Joel and Conan have been kind enough to send in their backgrounds and Initial lists for the campaign so as GM I'd better point out what I'll be using. Now as GM I plan on using forces for both sides and filling in where needed.

"This is Henry Mackryn for the Chyrossian News Network, reporting from outside the Governor's Palace on Chyross Prime.

Chyrossian Governer Marcus Towerson has relayed his official apologies to Imperial institutions in the Sector, in regards to a decline in productivity on the IDCC/the Hub. His office has informed the numerous clients and dependants as to the investigation and ongoing performance management of high ranking staff running the IDCC. This aims to determine where the breakdown between the indentured population and the administration has occured. He has assured that the manufactorum facilities of the Adeptus Mechanicus will be unimpeeded by any delays in components or materials handled and distributed through the 'Hub'.

Governor Towerson has authorised the deployment of additional Defense Forces to the habitation blocks of the Hub and assures the public that the rumoured reports of Xenos and Astartes sightings are the ramblings of obscura addled vagrants. Our sources have been very specific in their descriptions of Astartes sightings. Red armoured marines in the sub manufactorum districts, engaging in street level firefights with criminals in green gang colours and tribal markings and the leak of pict captures showing a small strike craft of the Ashen Angels chapter docking in the PDF bays on the main Orbital defence array, portray Governor Towerson's comments as simple words to placate the affluant Chyrossian citizens on the Prime world.

This reporter thinks that a conflict on the Hub was inevitable. With a historical decline in housing and services for the working population and a massive increase in interstellar trade and the stresses in must be putting on the security systems and protocols something was bound to give in the bustling heart of our sector.

Back to you in the studio Jansah."


Since I bought Dark Vengeance as soon as it was released I thought I would use both forces included to form the basis of my campaign forces.


For the Dark Angels I will label them as the Ashen Angels, then I can nicely use the various Blood Angel models and parts with the Dark Angels and any new additions that may come out in the new year. For now I will use the Space Marine codex for simplicity.

5 man Terminator Squad inc Serg with Power Sword, Assault Cannon and Chainfist

10 man Tactical Squad inc Serg with Plasma pistol, Plasma gun and Plasma Cannon

10 Imperial Guard inc Grenade Launcher and Autocannon

This will nicely represent an Astartes Strike Force allying with the resident defence force. I can combat squad the Tactical squad for flexibilty and the Terminator Sergeant will be the functioning Warlord until I include a real HQ choice.

For the Chaos side I came up with the following

Chaos Lord, Khorne, Plasma pistol, Axe(Sword)of Blind Fury, Sigil of Corruption, Vet of long war

5 Chosen inc Champ with Lightning Claws, Power axe, Power Fist, Vets of long war

10 Cultists inc Flamer
10 Cultists

Obliterator

Much more aggresive build with the Lord and Axe in there but they're Chaos and they're on the Hub to cause some serious trouble! Represents one of the Chaos Warlords who has infiltrated the Hub's Industrial levels and herded out some cultists to cause mayhem.


Thursday, December 6, 2012

MIA Blood Angels - Hub campaign

Next campaign force to debut was sent in by Conan who will be playing on Saturday.


FIRST THERE WAS THE LIST.

Brother-Chaplain Tiberius (formerly Sergeant Tiberius).
- Make-shift Crozius Arcanum (really just a bloody big power-mace), Rosarius (an Iron Halo taken from the corpse of the former mission-commander and forged into a mask bearing the visage of Sanguinius) & an infernus pistol. [115 pts]

Tactical Squad 'Spada' (now in the grip of the Black Rage and practically Death Company).
- 5 Marines with bolters and close combat weapons. [100pts]

Squad Delta747 aka "McManus's Iron Weasels", "The Iron Weasels" or more commonly "those Weasel bastards..."
- Sergeant McManus, his latest 9 PDF recruits of questionable moral fibre & a rather handy flamer. [55pts]

Terminator Squad Invicta
- Sergeant Quintus & 4 Terminators with an assault cannon. [230]

Total: 500pts.

THEN THERE CAME THE FLUFF...

Several years before the current situation on Chyross IV aka "The Hub" a squad of Blood Angel marines were sent to assist with an Inquisitorial investigation. They never reported back and the Ordo Hereticus never disclosed their true purpose.
Recently reports of the rapidly escalating chaos on the planet reached a nearby Strike cruiser with sightings of black-armoured Space Marines claiming to be Blood Angels. The ship's commander ordered a swift response, despatching Terminator Squad 'Invicta' to deal with what could be brother-marines suffering from the Black Rage. They teleported to the planets surface to meet with the less-than-reliable witnesses, 'McManus's Iron Weasels' - a local PDF squad, who claimed to know the errant marines' whereabouts.

Finally tracking their objective to deep within the under-city, Squad Invictus were prepared for a bloody but brief confrontation. What they did not expect was fully-aware marines, holding on to their sanity and led by an unknown Chaplain. This 'Brother-Chaplain Tiberius' turned out to be the former sergeant of the squad, and went on to reveal that they have been fighting against the forces of Chaos - the influence of which is amplifying the effects of the Black Rage. He claimed that he had seen visions of Sanguinius, beseeching him to don the armour of a Chaplain that he might guide his battle-brothers away from madness.

Eventually convinced that the Chaplain's words were true, Squad Invictus joined forces with the remains of Squad Spada to invesitgate and combat the worshippers of Chaos. As "McManus's Iron Weasels" had a reputation for frequenting the less savoury districts of The Hub, they were ordered to assist and begrudgingly complied. Now this unlikely force, united by (somewhat) common goals ventures deeper into the bowels of a city gone mad. Who knows what horrors await them there...


Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Orks in the Hub!


Joel from The Brush of Doom sent me through his background to post for his campaign force.

In the depths of the Hub a community of orks has been growing from some spores that were accidently smuggled there by a a sushi chef. These "yoofs" are starting to shed there teef and become "da ladz" and the next generation is coming through. Meanwhile a Missionary warboss and his trusty copta buddy have found themselves on the planet having hijacked a transport ship. Working their way (read "speeding dangerously") through the lower levels causing havoc (humans are less tolerant of evangelical Gork followers than the average ork) they chanced across "da green gang" who became disciples of Gork and seek to spread the Waaagh whereever they go...once they figure out how to get out of the Hive.

Warboss: Warbike, Pklaw, Attack Squig, Cybork body 150

30 Shoota Boys: Nob-Pklaw, 'eavy armour, Bosspole,big shoota 230
10 Nurgle cultists "yoofs": flamer 75

RokkitCopta 45

500

This is a perfect example of what I want out of these early steps for the narrative campaign. Fantastic job Joel!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

40K campaign - Heresy in the Hub


The Imperial Distribution Centre for the Chyross system or The 'Hub', has been the centre for transport and goods in it's region of space for centuries. The world on which the IDCC was built was once Chyross IV but with cavernous storage facilities, sprawling habitation blocks for the indentured labour forces, skyhook relays for the orbital transit platforms and fortress like spires filled with Imperial bureaucracy, it bares no resemblance to the planet surveyed by the Priesthood of Mars.

In recent months criminal activity and violent crime has seen a steady increase within the labour population. The security forces based on the Hub have been stretched to their limits, with extreme cases of Arbite units going missing in the subterranean hab blocks. Civil unrest and public protests against the ruling administration has also been reported. The Chief Administrator Gollen Corschel has applied to the Imperial Governor on Chyross Prime for aid. Governor Marcus Towerson has authorised units from the Chyrosian Planetary Defence Force to reinforce the Hub until the civil unrest has been quelled. If this behaviour in the labour population was to escalate further, the effect on the systems and production of the Hub would be disasterous for the sector.


The forces responsible for these increasing disturbances are agents of the dark powers of Chaos itself. Units of Traitor Marines have secreted themselves within the labyrinthine levels of the Hub's Industrial zones. Making contact with minor cults within the populace, they have fanned the fires of resentment in the beleagured labour clans. Letting the newly heretical fanatics take the brunt of Imperial pacification, the Traitor Astartes siphon more resources towards their nefarious goals.


This is the outline for the setting of a narrative campaign I am about to start for 40K. This campaign is open to any players I know in the area, even those a bit further away could participate if they want too. My intention is to provide a localised setting for our games other than a random collection of terrain on a table. For newer players and those who have made the transition to 6th ed it could be a way to start a new army or just get some models painted that have been neglected for sake of competitive play, It could of course have the end goal of getting a nicely thematic army painted up for competitive play as well.

As I am taking part in a 'Tale of X Gamers - Horus Heresy' set up by Pete at Fields of Blood, this could be an oppurtunity to learn the ways of Warhammer Pew Pew Pew(as someone called it)and help shape those Heresy forces too.

I am currently painting up the Chaos forces from the Dark Vengeance box set because without this the fantastic miniatures would just join all the other hordes of grey plastic and metal in the boxes of my gaming room. I know that some of the DV units are not that flash if at all for competitive play, but on a smaller initial scale they could be perfect for causing trouble on the Hub.

This Saturday will have the first games for the campaign at my place - Sunday will be more Fantasy focused though with small forces we can always do a bit more 40k. Forces are to be based around '40k in a flash', combat patrol, 40k in 40 minutes etc. Wins for either side at this stage will stack points and start to indicate how initial encounters are shaping the environment and inhabitants of the Hub. I have no restrictions on any codex I can think of as long as the player can come up with an appropriate reason for being on the Hub. Its a very large, very old place so whether its a 'counts as' Genestealer cult, Eldar Outcasts or an Inquisitive Necron Overlord I don't mind at all, just pick a side you will contribute victory points to, either the Imperium or Chaos forces.

Later on I plan on having random events happen within games as one side or the other brings greater forces to bear on their opponent. Team games are always fun and in the future if people are enjoying it a bit of Apocalypse could be planned.

For those chaps coming to game this weekend and wanting to start shaping the narrative these are the restrictions around your forces.

Army limitations
Each player’s army must conform to the rules below:
• Armies are no more than 500 points
• You must have one troop choice
• You may have one HQ choice but no more than one. You do not have to take an HQ choice.
• You may spend any remaining points on anything from your codex list from the Standard Troop Organization chart.
• No special characters allowed
• No vehicles with a total armor equal to or greater than 33 for front, side and rear armor combined.
*Depending on your alliegence you MUST include either 1 unit of Chaos Cultists from Codex Chaos Space Marines or 1 single 10 man unit of Imperial Guard chosen from the Infantry Platoon(this does not include the usual platoon command and 2-5 squads - just 1 10 man squad is required). These represent local forces embroiled within the growing conflict. They will be treated as Battle Brothers to your parent forces under the 6th ed ally rules for purposes of the narrative.

Usually these type of rules have a restriction on wounds, monstrous creatures and 2+ armour but unless players have any major issues I would like people to play with what they like within the limitations. Someone may really want to paint up and use a Terminator squad for example. I have a lot of various Imperial Guard, Chaos Cultist and Necromunda models if people want to make use of them or proxy for their 'local' forces.

If interested, have questions or already coming please feel free to comment here or email me. I have already been sent a brilliant story and list From Joel at Brush of Doom about his Ork 'Priest' and his cult of Gork!

Should be good fun and motivate me to post more narrative battle reports.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Horus Heresy - Raven Guard Sergeant complete

Here is my first Raven Guard HH miniature completed as of last night.


I've done a freehand Raven Guard symbol on the kneepad, heavy weathering on the cloak and added a dusty look to the lower parts of the armour, a half green field on the shoulder to designate tactical squad and some wear on the Lightning Claw blades.

Did what I could to make what could be a very boring colour scheme to paint a bit more interesting. If I add the same simple weathering and damage to the rest of the tactical squad when I work on them, it should work well. Small additions like equipment pouches and grenades should break it up too.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Horus Heresy - Raven Guard serg WIP

Quick post updating my HH progress.

So before I get to play with any real Forge World models I've been working on this chap with the intention of using him as my sergeant. Pics just quick ones with the phone, I'll post better quality pics when completed.

Using the model from the previous post, I found a single MKIV head from the old Black Templar sprue(should have molded copies before I took to it with a knife for damage - doh!), lightning claw and a BT pistol.

The dirty black look is from an adeptus battlegrey base with multiple black and earthshade washes giving plenty of drying time between. Highlights are a combination of thunderhawk blue, fortress grey and stormvermin fur. I still have more work to do on the lightning claw and have only base coated the cloak in thunderhawk blue. I plan on weathering this marine heavily as they are on the run from traitor forces following the Dropsite Massacre.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

HH Raven Guard - pre planning


Nice to see people jumping on board the Horus Heresy project with enthusiasm over at Fields of Blood. Welcome to 40K or should I say 30K for a few gamers including Sam at Hashuts Right Hand and John at Stumpy Heaven.

Looking at what my initial purchases from Forge World will be, has brought me to the following.
1 X Legion MKIV Maximus armour
1 X MKIV Maximus Armour
1 X Umbra Pattern Bolters

This will give me 10 marines in the appropriate armour for the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V. The Ravenguard primarily used the MKIV armour as they were outfitted later in the Great Crusade than some other Legions.

Once we move past the initial confrontations I will use a lot of MKVI Corvus pattern bodies as per Deliverance Lost. This wont be too bad on the wallet as they are a bit more abundant in the common plastic box sets.

Rummaging through my plentiful bits box of Marines stuff I found 3 of the 4 Marine characters from the Masters of the Chapter box set. This one in particular seems to have the appropriate armour so I thought I would do minor kitbashing and use him as the Sergeant in artificer armour. I plan on changing the head and both hands. Should be able to give him a bolt pistol and lightning claw(its suits the Raven Guard) without too much trouble.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Tale of X Gamers - Horus Heresy - Raven Guard



Pete over at Fields of Blood is setting up a Horus Heresy ongoing project and campaign. This is awesome and I encourage other gamers in the area to participate.

After throwing around the idea of Blood Angels losing the plot on Signus Prime or Imperial Fists defending Terra, I'm not going to do either of them. Instead looking at the early stages of the Heresy and the Dropsite massacre on Istvaan V in particular, I'm going to work on Raven Guard(thanks for the suggestion Pete).

The initial force will be based around the survivors on the run with Corax. No Rhino transports as they will have been destroyed by the traitors, just footslogging beat up Raven Guard marines. Thinking fairly desolate dark rocky bases, model a few marines crouching or in sparse cover.

With the next HH FW book hopefully containing the Massacre stuff I will get some special rules around the Raven Guard Hit and Run tactics and assault squads.

Other future possibilities include making some of the deformed 'talons' from Deliverance Lost as well. Could even sneak in a couple Alpha Legion.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Skitterleap 2012 - Wryth's View


Last weekend I went to the Skitterleap Fantasy tournament in Wellington. I took a dual Terrorgheist list with my usual Ghoul King and friends in a Ghoul block/bus.

Here is a brief summary of the games I had.

Game 1 - Dawn Attack - Mal Patel - Lizardmen
I faced the Death of a Thousand Cuts list early on. Mal's many many chaffy units arrayed themselves across from me and his Slaan managed to take out my Ghoul King in turn 2 with a powerful Final Transmutation, rolling a 6 with the expected "take it off!" Army wide immediate crumble softened my Terrorgheists and other units up while the baby Necro took over control. In hindsight I should have sat the two gheists in the back corner for point denial but I surged them up a flank to scream some chaff. With all the poisoned attacks they didn't last long. I did manage to claw some points back though with multiple charges on skink units causing them to flee. The Wight King ended up being the last survivor of the Ghoul unit not counting the Wraiths who went on skink hunting duties. In the end it was 15-5 to Mal. A thankyou to Mal for some advice during the game, eg multiple charges on the skinks. His list can be quite difficult to deal without some pointers.

Game 2 - Blood and Glory - Hagen/Pete - Lizardmen
With another tour of Lustria underway I faced Hagen's Death of 999 cuts! With just having faced a similar list I was better prepared for this game. Hagen sat back with his Slaan and a mixed unit of skinks, Kroxigors and a pair of Scar vets while the usual skink harrasment went on. I picked away at units with the Gheists, Wraiths and magic - the ruby ring on the baby Necro was fantastic all weekend - thanks for that advice Joel. My Ghoul King block slogged across the table and in the fifth turn managed a charge on the big mixed unit crushing it in one go. Pete had taken over play at this stage as Hagen had other commitments. Apparently Lizards were not where they were supposed to be which was fine by me. Game ended with a win for the VC 15-5 to me.

Game 3 - Watchtower - Tom Dunn - Daemons
Daemons and Tom's no less had me a bit wary but it was Watchtower and I had a plan. Simple really, put the Ghouls and all the characters in the tower asap. Well suprisingly it actually worked. Tom had control of the tower but without an eligle unit to occupy it, it was left vacant. I walked my block up to it and held the Terrorgheists back sending zombies and chaff off to be a nuisance. Tom advanced both hordes of bloodletters around opposite sides of the tower while Billy the Bloodthirster neglected to come within scream range. I took out a fiend early on with the ruby ring and once I was in the tower proceeded to successfully death snipe the Khorne heralds. A Terrorgheist successfully beat some Screamers and a Bloodcrusher or was that reaper Tom ;) in combat on a flank due to thunderstomping the screamers. Tom had some very unlucky rolls for charges, his right side bloodletters failing three charges over successive turns vs zombies. The twin Gheists managed to Scream down his Tzeentch herald and Billy attacked the tower only to be fed poisonous ghouls. He declined any further assaults and with Death magic spewing Purple suns from the tower each turn he retreated to the far corner of the board. End of game with a surviving Terrorgheist on 1 wound in combat with Bloodletters I had won 14-6. I was pretty happy having held a lot of points back in the tower.

Day 2

Game 4 - Meeting Engagment - Sam Whitt - Dark Elves
With trepedation we started rolling for which units will have 'slept in' luckily for me it was simply some Zombies and bats while Sam had some Dark Riders and his Sorceress napping. With his extremely fast list lead by a Dragon riding Lord this was not a problem for him. This was to be a game which went back and forth with both sides working away on each other very evenly. With the first day pitting me against the MSU shooting Lizard lists this wasn't all that different as Sam had crammed in the maximum amount of shooting allowed, 90 shots I believe. The one saving grace of this though was the Dark Elf shots were not poisoned like thier Lustrian neighbours so Sam used a lot of shooting trying to whittle away at the Crypt Horrors. With all the shots that hit and failing to wound the Horrors would have looked like pin cushions by the end of the game. Sam did a very good job of outmaneuvering me and my zombie blocks and Wraiths mainly repositioned each turn to try and eventually net some shades or Dark Riders in. We both suffered from overzealous mages as Sam suffered miscasts 2 turns in a row killing his Sorceress with strength 6 hits and my Master Necromancer got a bit carried away with a Purple Sun(must have been all the successful casting against the Daemons) and got pulled into the Chaos wastes. This Purple sun would last the rest of the game floating about my main battleline and nicely keeping some of Sam's harder units like the Hydra at bay for an extra turn or two. With more turns of ring around the undead hordes, the generals finally clashed in the games final stages. Sam nicely charged my Ghoul bus with his Dragon Lord and Hydra after a turn in which he triple breath Weaponed them whittling down thier numbers. Sam issued challenges as this combat went on over a couple turns and the Ghoul King promptly threw in succession, the Ghast then Wight King in front of the Dark Elf Lord while he butchered the Hydra quite convincingly, though not without taking a wound in the process. Then in the very last rounds the Ghoul King after having killed the Dragon I believe went face to face with the Druchii Lord. With matched Initiatives and similtaneous dice rolls we rolled our hits, wounds and saves and with cries of entertainment our Lords managed to kill each other in the very last round! With a tally of the VPs we were only 35 points difference!(and in my favour - moral victory ;) a very well deserved 10-10 draw as it was without selling short any other opponents, one of the best games of any wargame I have played. Thanks Sam it was awesome.

Game 5 - Battleline - James Milner - High Elves
This was a very nice game to end the event on. James like Sam is on the NZTC team with Joel and myself. I also play High Elves so was familiar with the units used, however I will lament the Book of Hoeth and the many many irresistable spells that followed. James deployed well dropping Eagles and Archers while I set up mainly across from a large Elven tower complex. Opening shots had me move the Terrorgheists aggresively only to have James snipe one with Spirit Leech exploiting the horrific Leadership of the undead beasts. I certainly got a taste of my own medicine after running my Necro Death Sniper all weekend(should give him a rifle) as James used the spells to good effect. James placed winged speedbumps in the path of my Horrors and Ghoul bus and with a well timed soulblight nerfed my Crypt Horrors before unleashing the fury of the White Lion horde. Losing all the big fellas in one go hurt but I replied with the Ghoul King and co and took revenge. After a successful panic check on the Elf Mages unit which James was exceedingly thankful for, he moved them into the Elven tower and waited out the game. James won a deserved 13-7 and had some good advice for me in regards to exposing my big points Gheists to the Death magic. If I had held them bak it would have been a closer result.

In the end I finished middle of the pack and was quite pleased with that considering the caliber of opponent I faced. I played against some highly ranked players, fellow team members and... Hagen ;) - Hug?

I did not suffer any crushing defeats though failed to gain that in victory too. With some thought on the list I will drop for ghouls and get another 5 dire wolves as a drop as I felt a little lite on chaff with the Wraiths being deployed as characters. I also must practice my Terrorgheist use a lot more, knowing when to commit them or retreat as seen against Mal and James. The Ghoul King is still awesome even though he lacks in defense(everyone passed their beguile checks) though his Wight king bodyguard made a big difference with Nightshroud.

Congratulations to Joe, Mike and Wil placing in order, Sam for best painted and Bo for Sportsanship. Cheers Pete, a great event and people as always.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

First game against Skaven


Went for a quick game this morning at Petes place, my first encounter with Skaven so knew it was going to be a fun learning curve. I had a little idea about how they played, I had heard the A Bomb was nasty, lots of random effects, nasty warmachines and cheap troops. The last one in particular I was familiar with at least.

We rolled battle for the pass and hell's no we rolled again and got blood and glory. I like B&G because I have a ton of banners now in units I don't need to get in the front lines.

I took:
Vampire Lord, Lvl4 vampires, barded nightmare, HA, shield, dragonhelm, ogre blade, 4++, red fury, quickblood

Vampire, Lvl1 death, barded nightmare, HA, shield, sword of striking, enchanted shield, book of arkhan, red fury.
Necromancer, Lvl1 vampires, ruby ring of ruin, dispel scroll.

10 dire wolves, doom wolf.
10 dire wolves, doom wolf.
25 Zombies, standard bearer
25 Zombies, standard bearer
20 Zombies, standard bearer
20 Zombies, standard bearer
20 Zombies, standard bearer
20 Zombies, standard bearer

12 black knights, full command, lances, barding, banner of swiftness

2 Varghulfs
Terrorgheist

Pete had (from memory)
3 big blocks of slaves, clanrats with screaming bell, 2 units of gutter runners, hellpit abomination, doomwheel, warp lightning cannon and plague catapult, a unit of stormvermin and heaps of little characters all over the place.


I don't have many pictures as the battle was rather enthralling.

Pete took first turn and with shooting annihilated both dire wolf units down to the single doom wolf, and took the terrorgheist to 3 wounds. The warp lightning cannon got a flank shot (silly Ryan!) down my knight bus killing 5 or 6 and hitting the terrorgheist also! Thankfully I pulled out a timely 6 for my regen save. His doomwheel decided to shoot his own HPA but rolled a misfire, then got extra D6" movement as his "penalty". Magic only really hit the knights down a few more models, leaving me with only 5 BK before I moved!

In my turn Pete popped the banner of you can't fly or shoot very well, only affected my terrorghiest but that was enough. The storm drowned out his scream at the unit of gutter runners next to him who were peppering him with darts. I charged my knights into some skavenslaves to stop them getting shot, moved cautiously back with zombies and single dog caused an engineer to run from a charge. Magic was ineffectual but did draw the dispel scroll.

Turn 2 was me grinding down the slave block with knights, and chasing a whole unit of slaves down with 20 zombies as they only fleed 2". Omnomnom. My terrorgheist beat up the gutter runners that charged him thanks to no poisons and an impressive thunderstomp. A convenient plague catapult misfired over my knights and I got to place it over the slaves, enabling me to quickly take the unit down. 

Turn 3 I reformed my knights and  charged the screaming bell unit, got an epic magic phase giving me 5 knights back and a fully healed terrorgheist. Meanwhile my varghulfs were getting tons of poison shots and making tons of regen saves, chasing a unit of gutter runners down then heading for the warmachines. My vampire hero chewed through several skaven heroes that were thrown under the bus, and when he finally got a change to smash the grey seer he did one wound total, his horse did another, then he drank his potion of get all wounds back. So that's what that feels like from the other side.

And then then below happened.


Wider overview


I had a plan though, survive one round and then scream at the hellpit then finish him off with vampire lord. I did survive the first round, smacking lots of slaves up with the Lord to only lose combat by 1. Unfortunately in my turn the scream rolled a 3 on two dice and did one wound, and the vampire lord only made 1 wound on the hellpit thanks to an impressive 4 passed regen rolls by Pete. My vampire hero was still flailing around trying to beat the grey seer and failing. I lost combat really badly and the whole unit crumbled.



Hmmm. To complete the devastation a plague spell on one block of zombies in the next turn jumped into my necromancers unit and he failed his toughness test, 2 crumbles left me with a few dozen oblivious zombies and a single varghulf running into the distance to save some points.


All in all not bad. Learnt a lot and I did feel pretty confident at the bottom of turn 3. Pete mentioned the zombies clogging up the left flank was great, and the terrorgheist did well initially taken a warp lightning cannon hit then getting the gutter runners and doomwheel, but he let me down at the crucial point. Also as was pointed out to me I should of had the necro with ruby ring on the right flank throwing flames at the hellpit as soon as he emerged, would of made quite a difference. My level 1 death rolled aspect of the dreadknight, switched to spirit leach but never got the change to try it out.

Skaven are fun! Looking forward to the next match.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Quick update few days before Skitterleap

Only a few days out from tournament this weekend and I have vowed not to have yet another late painting night. Hopefully get the last few pieces finished tomorrow. Here are some pics of my progress

First up my zombie dragon (using terrorgheist rules for tournament but prefer zombie dragon model)



Mounted Vampire thrall, also known as 200pt scroll caddy.


 

Zombie block 1


Zombie block 2


Picture of army core and Varghulfs


Picture of whole army pre work on zombie dragon with a travelling board I am working on.



So quite a fair bit of work done. Main bits left to do are the basing of the knights and the zombie dragon, making 1 more zombie (79 done out of 80),  and finishing zombie dragon to tidy tabletop standard. I think that is achievable in the few nights I have left.

Monday, October 22, 2012

What Next?

I am currently doing the finishing touches on my Vampire Counts army for Skitterleap this weekend. As we all know an army is never truly finished but with selection of units I will have painted the undead are good for now.

So with no events planned for the near future except for the Team Champs in Feb and not willing to paint for other people at the moment, I find myself in a luxurious position I havn't had for a while. I get to paint whatever I want... thing is, what?

I really want a new 40k army and I know my regular gaming buddies have heard me say this an awful lot so I'm sorry. I've had a very good time with the Eldar and they're really fun in 6th ed but after 4 years of consistent play I want new toys. I think 6th ed is a good system and have enjoyed all the games I have played I just want a project to be passionate about like I was with my Eldar.

So ideas I have had and like are as follows. Most stuff is inspired by the Horus Heresy and with all the awesome kits FW is putting out any project would incorporate some heresy era models. Also all these ideas are Loyal or Chaos marines.

Alpha Legion leaning more towards heresy era with a less chaotic appearance. They are one of my favourite chapter in the HH books but I think they could look quite boring on the table if I stayed true to their fluff as they strive to appear very uniform without embellishment on their armour. I could go the new chaos codex route and use Huron for Master of Deception, cultists and marine squads and 'chaos' it up a bit more.

Imperial Fists. I like the idea of them being stalwart defenders and picture models based on fortified emplacements or on ruins. I would embellish the armour somewhat adding more gold to the yellow I think. As it uses the marine codex there are plenty of unit options available and I definitely would pack some Sternguard in there.

Night Lords. Always liked the imagery though I thnk they blinged them up a bit too much in the new CSM codex. Too much gold on that Helldrake for me, not nasty looking enough. Would try to make them very dark looking trying to emulate a dark environment. Where I could use the Blood Angel codex I would most likely use the new CSM one.

Blood Angels. Just finished Fear to Tread and at the end of 5th I was playing some fun games with the BA. They give me a lot of scope to make an angelic army with all the bells and whistles but I also like the idea of the feral bloodthirsty blood angels that were roaming the battlefield of Signus Prime in the later part of the book. So a lot of variety here. They play quite well and have the flying brick - stormraven which gets all the nice new flyer rules in 6th.

Dark Angels. New book coming, rumoured to be a Matt Ward book! Will most likely have broken plasma units in it thanks to Mr Ward. I have the Dark Vengeance models which also goes for the above Chaos options. Would model and paint them as more individual knight like units using the black preheresy colour rather than the green.

Generic Chaos Marine army. Don't worry about a legion and just go all out mutated evil. Savage bezerkers and Daemonic influences.

So if anyone has any suggestions or votes for something I've listed or something they themselves think I could pull off please share. It doesn't have to be marine based at the end of the day. Elaborate with possible units and allies if you want, never know what the community can come up with.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Vampire Count FAQ

Oh happy days

The FAQ is finally out for VC and yes you can scream into units in combat that the screaming unit is not itself in combat with and this with Skitterleap less than a week away!

The dual Terrorgheists I'm using just got a bit better.

Also nice to see the overrun/crumble issue has been officially clarified to no a charging unit that crumbles and undead unit can in fact not overrun.

Get it here

Chaos Marine FAQ



Nice quickly released and extremely small FAQ.

Good to see we can in fact have 35 plague zombies in a unit and even cheaper Hellbrutes. Not like I dont have enough zombies for my VC, I'm sure they can make an appearance on 40k tables for fun games too.

Get it here

I really like the balance of thr CSM codex so this small FAQ hopefully reflects some good playtesting it may have had.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Looking for a White Dwarf

Talk about bad timing.


My subscription to White Dwarf ran out with my final issue being the one before the new format magazine. Expecting the usual surplus that GW and other gaming stores have I did not secure a new subscription straight away thinking I could at my leisure go and pick a copy up.

Well I was wrong. Obviously the issue has been out for a while and the next is not far away - though I have now organised a regular subscription now. I have not been able to get my hands on a copy of the new format White Dwarf at all. GW in Wellington has sold out twice and apparently it is sold out from GW direct as well.

This is all my own fault for not being onto it enough to get a copy. However I have every issue of White Dwarf since the early 90's and really want this one too.

If anyone out there has a copy they would part with or knows somewhere with some still in stock please let me know and I can follow it up compensating appropriately.

Contact me here or via my email in the link under Wryth on the contributers list.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Star Wars RPG - Part 3 - It's all Marks fault!





Long time coming I know but here it is, the final SW rpg post from that infamous 'fun' game...

So with all the players banded together at last! They set out in their stolen courier van to Aramur City's industrial area. They travelled through the city with little delay as most other traffic headed back in the direction of the starport. Leaving the commercial areas they crossed major arterial highways which headed into the mining facilities in the eastern mountains. Taking an exit the van turned down a sweeping off ramp and passed into the shadows of the roadway above.

The headlights of the van illuminated debri strewn across the road in the form of a large dumpster and rundown vehicles. Conan at the controls swerved the wide van to avoid a minor collision throwing the unsecured passengers in the back into each other. As they questioned the ability of the merc's driving blasterfire erupted from behind the dumpster and highway support struts. The panels of the van blackened under the assault and with the other players clamering to react Conan successfully swung the van completely around with it's rear exit facing the assault.

Ryan and Conan exchanged fire with their assailants from the driver and passenger windows with Aaron(the Jawa) clambering over them with jetpack in tow attempting to exit. The attackers looked to be an armed street gang taking advantage of the chaos in this sector, unfortunately a van full of armed player characters are not the ideal victims of a car jacking. Leon burst out and broke right, opening fire from his heavy blaster cannon upon the very outclassed criminals. Cody having kept his toys concealed in the earlier bar fight, leapt from the rear doors, landing in a suitably Neo pose and igniting his twin lightsabers!

At this point and with no regard for the initiative order Mark proclaimed loudly from his seat at the table "Filthy Jedi! Kill him!" or words to that effect ;) There was the expected "Are you really going to say that?" with Mark being true to his character replying in the affirmative and this is where it all went pear shaped.

Mark opened fire on Cody as he was engaging with the crooks. This drew on Stu to defend his fellow Jedi and upon Cody being free of thugs in reach had Mark's character flung within range by a Force push. Leon having spent his time blowing large holes in the crooks decided he'd best defend his bounty hunting mate. Aaron awkwardly clambered free of the drivers compartment and rocketed into the air with his jetapck. Now seeing as the trio of Ryan, Conan and Joel were all seated together at the end of the gaming table they had already worked out their next move. With the other two subgroups clear of the van, Conan gunned the engine with Joel's wookie hanging on for dear life in the back and sped the van back the way they had come towards the onramp.

In amongst the sudden infighting Leon took offense to this act of retreat and sighted the damaged vehicle with his cannon... 1 die roll later and the van and its contents went into a careening flip horrifically damaging the player characters inside. At this point I think it was Ryan who had suffered enough damage to transform his smuggler into a red smear upon the road so he used his force point(which can be used as a get out of the sh!t option) so instead with the shattering of the windscreen he rolled out as the vehicle flipped up and over him to land upon its roof. The other batterd two joined Ryan and they fled for the refuge of some small buildings near the onramp to wait out the fight.

All the gang members were well and truly down or fleeing at this point. Mark had been knocked out cold with no dismemberment as I recall due to some repeated force slamming via Stu, thats right 'force slamming'. Leon was in a game of run around the intervening terrain and blow up the Jedi while Aaron was dropping stun and frag greandes on Cody from his aerial position.

In the end the details are hazy but I think Aaron escaped into the night screaming "Utini!" on the wings of a jetpack at the Jedi. Cody and/or Stu had been dropped by the combination grenade/blaster cannon combo and if Leon was still standing he wasn't in a good position either.

So even though this all went to crap in a can it did leave the RPG virgins wanting more. The Wellington based lads are very eager to start a regular monthly game which is fantastic and I am more than happy to run for them. In whatever system we do end up playing I will enforce one thing, the players will agree to be a functional party before the game starts. This will allow us to avoid the situation that occured, even though if you were there it was hilarious with all the good natured name calling and yelling about that table. I will point out that the players barely got through half of the material I had prepared so this leaves me in a good position to start with in a future Star Wars game.

Tonight after a couple month break in which I played an absolutley useless barbarian(any roll over 10 on that D20 would be nice) I embark on the DM'ing of another RPG game. It will be the start of a story I've had in the back of my head for a while and the regular Levin guys can use the Pathfinder/D&D characters they've used in Aaron's fun game if they want.

Whatever happens tonight it will be ok though, as a certain Imperial bounty hunter won't be there to implode the group =P

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Dark Night Rises

Gathered my army for Skitterleap all together last week and realised quite a bit of work still to be done.



Over the week I have managed to mostly finish my 40 skeletons who were half done, finished and base another 60 zombies (80 total done now) and do a fair amount of basing work. Thus leaving me with 2 weeks to focus on the big part of my list, the black knight bus and the two mounted vampires. Don't have any specific model pictures at the moment as I finished last night and my phone camera isn't good in the dark

I do have a couple of shots from some Sunday gaming at Chateau Dunne. First up played Pete himself with his Night Goblins. 




Game went back and forth for a while. I put knights on the flank but between itchy nuisance and hand of gork I never made it to the big target they were heading for. Terrorgheist got on same flank and screamed his way through most a spider, unit of archers and finally both doom divers. Summoned unit of zombies and dogs drew out most fanatics which hung around Pete's army most of the game until my knights destroyed a squig hopper block (taking heavy losses) and popped them killing the 3 nearby fanatics. Lost two varghulfs who took a few wounds on the way in then failed to kill more than 4 night goblins with 10 attacks and 2 thunderstomps leading to a double combat res crumble for them. Game ended a draw with my characters, knight bus and terrorgheist alive and on Pete's side surviving was a big block of gobbos and 4 (!) characters all hiding out inside hand of gorking away from my two angry mounted vampires who managed to dodge death by doom divers after their black knights disappeared.

I had a game versus Tom and his Khorne with splash of Slaanesh daemons army. Forgot to take any photos as it was rather short. Turns out a Bloodthirster is rather good in combat, a 20" charge and 2 killing blows on my vampire lord put him back in the ground while my varghulfs got bogged down by daemon chaff. My zombie horde managed to last 2 rounds against each respective bloodletter horde, could have been longer had I a vampire lord still around to keep topping them up. My terrorgheist didn't have room to land close enough to his Bloodthirster to scream before his charge thanks to my poor choice of side and Tom's excellent placement. Instead he showed a unit of screamers what screaming is before crumbling from the Lord demise (him and 4 zombies my total loss from general death!). Skeletons and foot vampire with book of arkhan managed to almost get through the chaff on the right flank but were in line for being flanked by angry bloodletters so I conceded.

In other news I put together some infinity terrain I recently acquired. These holo boards (http://www.slavetopainting.co.nz/collections/infinity-accessories/products/infinity-holo-ads-terrain) arrived at my place in less than 2 working days (bought Sunday night, here Tuesday day), kudos again Slave to Painting and I get a free lollipop to get me started. The big one will need gluing to stay together (hence the rubber bands) but will paint the stand first. The other two sit there happy as with about 15min of pushing out of the laser cut frames and slotting together. Fantastic terrain from micro art studio.


More work to be done on the Fantasy army this week, hopefully have some daylight shots of the new hordes of zombies and finally get some decent colours on my black knights.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Star Wars RPG - Part 2 - B&E Jedi style


Part 2 at last...

After the 'incident' at the bar the three groups of galactic entrepreneurs made their way through the evening streets of Aramur City to the spaceport. Sounds of distressed citizens and traffic grew as they converged on their destination and as they crossed onto the main thoroughfare to the port came across a mass of halted traffic and growing crowd. Still not making any attempt to join forces the trio of groups all made their approached differently.

The Imperial bounty hunters with their Droid dragging Jawa forced their way through the throng to the security guards stationed at the entrance. The guards had no specific details of events in the city but had been tasked with only letting registered ship crews into the port. There would be no exit from the planet though as a forcefield had been emplaced over all docking bays to prevent departure in case of a warranted medical incident. Mark, Leon and Aaron politely presented their IDs and were permitted into the port to check on their ship and stow the Jawa's damaged droid.

As the Imperial trio got access Stu and Cody the Jedi on the run made for an alternate entrance. Shying away from the crowds they wandered off around the exterior wall of the port looking for an access point and soon found one clear of and guards view. With concealing hoods up and a flick of telekinesis from Stu at the security camera out came the lightsabers at last, for the time honoured tradition of busting into somewhere. I swear in all the games I've used over the years the lightsaber is used for cutting through doors, walls and floors more than combat, it is the practical tool of the Jedi in any situation. Stu even made the effort to block line of sight from any bystander as Cody easily cut through the simple door. Scurrying down the maintenance corridor the pair easily blended into the horde of space farers milling about in the central promenade of the port.

The third group of Ryan, Joel and Conan had the easiest passage through the crowd for two reasons. Joel's bikini clad Wookie simply moved through like Moses parting the sea while any civilians who glanced at Ryan's smuggler cleared out of the way quick as his condition worsened, the infection from the bite inducing a feverish sweat and pale complexion. After a cursory examination from security the trio was hastily escorted to the spaceports A&E facility. The waiting room was a mess of different species all spreading wild stories as to what malady had fallen on the city. As Ryan had the only genuine medical issue he was seen immediately by a Mon Calamari doctor. With the 'it's a trap!' comments out of the way various medical drugs and bacta were injected into Ryan's character until the infection was stabilised. The Doctor took samples as to prepare for any further cases. Conan's merc seemed to have staved off any spread of the wound he had suffered but was treated as well for good measure. They were clever enough to question the Doctor about Cerulean Sciences, the company the guards ID badge had identified. The Doctor told them that Cerulean Sciences had an administrative and lab facility in the eastern industrial part of the city. This was also where the start of the public disturbances and injuries had occured. After a failed attempt to convince the Doctor to part with some medpacs they left the A&E.


After stashing the inoperative protocol droid on their ship the bounty hunters made their way out of the docking bay onto the main promenade as the Jedi duo came by(convenient eh). Recognising each other from the bar Stu and Cody concocted a suitably bulls*&t story as to who they were and why they needed passage off world. Mark, Leon and Aaron agreed to give them a ride if they could get leave to depart. Not seeing much else to do in the port other than be jostled about by irate travellers they made their way back out into the city(2 groups combined, 1 to go).

The Mercs - Ryan, Joel and Conan left the port as well with the interest of having a nosey at this Cerulean facility and any carnage ensuing in the industrial sector. Lacking any form of transport Conan spotted a large extremely dirty red hovervan obviously used for a courier service. Looking in through the windows at the mess of food wrappers and debri he decided to persist and break in(yeah we know whose van i'm talking about). While this 'subtle' attempt at auto theft was ensuing the now combined group of Mark, Leon, Aaron, Cody and Stu were approached by a disheveled yet attractive young human woman. Her business attire placed her as a young professional but her unkept hair and tattered clothing showed her to have been subjected to more of the city's current mayhem than others.

She breathlessly introduced herself as Hailen Wordew, administrative assistant to Mills Obera, CEO of Cerulean Sciences. Her boss had dispatched her to find a group of able bodied fellows to escort some important documents and himself to a starship at a facility not under the forcefield subjected by the starport authorities. When questioned as to why the muscle was needed she said that some lifting may be needed and that Mr Obera was in an agitated state and she was simply following orders. Aaron in firm Jawa mindset was already looking for a ride before Hailen finished talking. He spied Conan's ugly Merc making a balls up of unlocking the van and with a squeal shoved him out of the way and easily got the door open. Impressed by the Jawa's mechanical skill Conan assisted Aaron in hotwiring the transport and with a quick pooling of interests all the groups were teamed up at last... maybe this wasn't a good idea though...

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Undead additions

Few more additions to add to the undead monster mash list I'll be running against Joel on the weekend (http://thebrushofdoom.blogspot.co.nz/). Monster mash because my rare section is 2 varghulfs and a terrorgheist, and my mounted blender vampire lord is basically a monster himself. Going to try some ghouls in core which I haven't done since before new dex came out, skeletons not giving me much love and wanted to diversify some threats so it's not all about my knight block. So the ghouls will have a red fury, 3+, biting blade, luckstone, dispel scroll caddy vamp to run around with and do some damage.

The photos are a bit dark because once again it is overcast in Wellington and using my phone for photos.


First up is my vampire hero on foot

Some more dire wolves, bringing me up to 20 done


First Varghulf, Victor


Second Varghulf, Vincent 


Some WIP, ghouls and zombies in the background.



Sunday, September 23, 2012

Star Wars RPG - Part 1 - its a cantina scene



Last Saturday after a very full day of wargaming I ran a fun game using the Star Wars Saga edition rpg system. As I was going to have a few more players than normal(ideal party size is usually 3-5 players and a game master) I had the guys email me through what they'd like to play so they would be ready before hand.

With Leon's assistance we had pretty much all the characters good to go before we played and with talking to the players throughout the day could nail down their concepts a lot better so the character could actually be functional- looking at you Joel ;)

The cast of player characters were

Cody - human male, angry Jedi close comabatant
Stu - human male Jedi specializing in force powers
Aaron - Jawa with a Flamethrower and a Jetpack
Leon - human male soldier in heavy armour with a massive gun
Mark - human male, trained in Imperial service and hunting rogue force users
Ryan - human male charismatic smuggler - Mal from Firefly/Serenity
Conan - human male, butt ugly dual wielding merc
Joel - female Wookie, unarmed fighting specialist - initial confusion of Joel wanting to be a 'priest type' clarified into him wanting to be a monk type which then made sense

So after a gaming feast of fish n chips we filled my gaming room, distributed the D20s and got started. I gave the players time over dinner to decide whether they knew each other and thankfully the 8 of them split into 3 groups. Cody and Stu being the rogue Jedi. Joel, Ryan and Conan forming an independant trio of freebooters. Mark, Leon and Aaron making a trio of pro Imperial bounty hunters. Now I will refer to the players and characters as one because I didn't actually bother to learn their character names during the game anyway.

The planet of Seeriona sits on the Outer Rim near the end of the Corellian Run. A world whose major continents are covered in jagged mountains and alpine forests. During the Clone Wars Seperatist forces took control of Seeriona whose independant city states failed in uniting to oppose them. The Seperatists landed their driod task forces and began extensive mining operations, plundering the mineral content for their war machines. With the end of the Clone Wars and subsequent rise of the Empire, Seeriona has again become independant and is now in the process of ecological and financial recovery. This has lead to a variety of enteprising businesses establishing themselves in the cities and industrial complexes left behind after the war. With this comes a variety of individuals arriving for fortune, work and whatever they can get their hands on.

In a downtown bar/cantina(yes someone did have the cantina theme on their phone, sigh) not far from Aramur City's spaceport a trio of groups busy themselves with their own business as the day grows late. A weathered Bothan with grey streaking his golden fur tends the bar doing his best to avoid small talk with his current patrons. A pair of human men in hooded jackets sit at the bars end doing their best to avoid eye contact with anyone else. A heavily armoured man sits cautiously upon his groaning seat while his table companions of a chattering Jawa and a clean cut man with military bearing converse. In the bars centre with an array of empty vessels upon their table is a pair of human men and a Wookie. The first, a square jawed handsome fellow plonks a tray of fresh drinks down. The second a scarred, hardened looking individual refills his while the Wookie wearing a yellow... polka... dot... bikini over her shining fur helps herself to more.

From the bars small lobby where a protocol droid watched over the enforced weapons lockers came cries of distress from the droid. With a crash the tarnished droids body clattered down the steps into the bar and stopped upon colliding with the bounty hunters table. A pair a men staggered down the steps, one in a very worn brown jacket and the other in a blue security uniform. Both seemed very inebriated by their manner and incoherent moaning. They stumbled into the bounty hunters table drawing am aggresive glare from Mark and Leon while the Jawa - Aaron, his golden eyes gleaming at oppurtunity slid off his stool to 'assist' the fallen droid(frakkin Jawas).

Admist jeers at the drunkards from the players, Ryan took his beer and threw it into the jacketed mans face and scooted to the far side of the table behind the swimsuit wearing Wookie. At this insult the man let out a shriek and charged at Ryan with grasping hands outstretched. Conan sprung from his seat and grabbed the assailant doing his best to restrain him while other players made their way from their seats towards the weapon lockers for fear of escalation. Joel's wookie swung at the grappled man and with a horrific crack he slumped in Conan's grip his head resting at an unnatural position. While this occured the security guard had sighted the Jawa under the table and made a grab at him, in swift retaliation Aaron drew his hold out blaster he had successfully concealed in his tattered robes and planted a shot dead in the guards chest. With a thump the man fell to the floor with a plume of smoke rising from the wound.

As the two antagonists were now apparently lifeless it was startling to see both bodies start to convulse and develop a feverish sheen. Ryan quick to take advantage as Aaron continued 'helping' the droid, knelt over the security guard and started 'looting' the injured man. As he drew a security card and a cred chip from the pocket, the guard grabbed the offending limb in a vice like grip and bit down hard into Ryan's forearm resulting in a scream of pain. Still in a grappled state by Conan the other man snapped his head about and sunk his now blackening teeth into Conan's shoulder while ineffectively scratching at his armourd chest.

Aarons Jawa retreated from the guard firing shots from his pistol as he scurried under tables for protection. Ryan threw himslef out of reach as Leon, who had now retrieved his heavy rifle opened fire at the guard raking blaster shots into him. Conan maintained his grip while Joel unsheathed his claws and ripped into the deranged man.

Quickly the two were put down... again and the Bothan bartender started hooting and hollering with a variety of colourful language for everybody to get out of his bar.
Aaron grabbed a foot of the now inoperative protocol droid and taking advantage of the confusion dragged it out into the street making for the spaceport while Leon and Mark followed past Cody and Stu who had managed to observe the fight and keep their abilities and lightsabers hidden. Ryan whose wound was unnaturally rapidly worsening found that the guard's card identified him as an employee of Cerulean Sciences, but along with Conan was in need of immediate medical attention so also headed for the spaceport A&E with Wookie escort.

As the three groups all headed for the port sounds of conflict rang through the streets and plumes of dark smoke rose from the industrial sector.

in part 2 - spaceport - getting the characters together

Monday, September 17, 2012

A Gathering of Gamers - Wrythcon

The weekend just past had me host 9 other gamers for a day of mayhem on the tables. This was dubbed Burcon...(thanks Mark), Nerdstock(Ryan) or Wrythcon as I tryed to encourage hopelessly.

After a frenzied finale to the big spring clean I had started mid week in the gaming room on Friday night, Leon W(Napier), Ali and I watched Conan the Barbarian(the new one) on bluray while I put together some more of the lovely models from Dark Vengeance - Whatever your opinion of the movie I thought it was ok as simple entertainment and Jason Momoa(Ronon Dex and Khal Drogo) gave me plenty of cheesy moves to pull while I play a Barbarian on Monday nights new fun Pathfinder game(time for a wee break from GMing).

Following this very late night I got up early and started setting up the tables. As Levin was suffering from the tempermental weather like most of the country I set up 4 tables in the garage and kitted out the gaming room one with terrain. Visitors from Wellington and Levin soon arrived and after introductions and some hugs where needed(thats for you Stu) the gaming started properly.

I played Joel's Orks in a 1500 point game of 40k with the Crusade scenario from the rulebook. I used an Eldar list with modifications from Call to Arms, dropping the second Wraithlord for a trio of Scatter Laser Warwalkers and the Avatar for a second Farseer to try out the new Divination powers alongside Eldrad's array of Codex powers. We got stuck in on a table depicting an Imperial base with Joel's green horde stacking mainly on my left. Joel will most likely post a very good battle rep from the Ork perspective with the many photos he took over the day on his blog so I wont go into detail. Suffice to say every round I cast a reroll to hit, 4+ invuln save and Fortune on the Warwalkers and blasted away, Fortune on the Wraithwall(yay dual power Eldrad) lobbed webs into his masses with the Nightspinner and killed anything that advanced close to my lines with the Wraithguards Wraithcannons. I won holding my objectives and having racked up Slay the Warlord and First Blood. In my opinion Joel was not aggressive enough with his large Boyz mobs but we talked about that after the game and I expect to see some new play styles from him soon. Also Joel killed only 2 models of mine each game turn bar one where he racked up the Pathfinders and a Jetbike squad, not really a good tally me thinks.

While we played Leon W and Conan(not the barbarian) had a pretty one sided game of 40k with Leon who has not played 40k in 10 or so years using Cody's Grey Knight army against Conan's Blood Angel hybrid list. Between Leon's amazing dice rolling - powers of Entropy apparently, and Conan's lack of dice skillz the Grey Knights pretty much tabled the Angels only losing a strike squad in return. They both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves though with the dice results being blamed for everything including the GFC and Middle East situation Im sure.

Ryan with his bike heavy Marine army went against Stu's Necrons including his newly arrived trio of flyers. I'm sure Ryan will comment but seems he got his power armoured arse whooped by the dirty Tesla toting 'crons o doom only destroying a command barge for the cost of his whole army!

Leon C played Mark in a 2400 game of Fantasy. Leon brought his Lizards to play with a variety of units while Mark borrowed Joel's Empire army after like Leon W having not played in many years. With checks to the table it seemed one sided pretty quickly with Mark's Empire keeping Leon's Lizards in one corner of the table. Final result was a convincing win to Mark and Leon ready to get his Daemons back on the table again.

After a visit to the local K Fried which according to the visiting players has superior chicken to their own offering(who knew!?) we got to a team game of 40k. A simple split of armies had Leon W, Ryan and Conan being Team Imperial with Grey Knights, Space Marines and Blood Angels, Cody arrived after work and spent the game offering advice and cruel jeering for the Imperial team. Opposing these pillars of humanity were Joel, Stu and myself with Orks, Necrons and Eldar - what unholy alliance was this! Needless to say we ignored all allied rules from the rulebook and simply played that psychic powers and other army abilities could only be used on the players own army. Merging a couple tables we set up 5 objectives and a central relic which we would roll on the archeotech chart for a laugh to see what it did.

Dirty Team Xenos =D got first turn and set about causing as much trouble as we could. There was a lot going on the table so from my Eldar perspective I was happy over the game to kill both Vindicators with my Wraithlords Brightlance(finally did what it says on the box!), taking and holding the Relic(worth 2 extra VP) with Eldrads Wraithguard squad eliminating all the GK terminators heading in there direction, causing troubles for the Imperials with the good old Nightspinners web and the shuriken cannon from a jetbike squads stripping the last Hull point from Conan's hovering Stormraven!. Stu's Necron flyers went hard on a flank deaing fairly well with all who opposed him. Joel's boyz surged across the board harrasing the marines on their own objectives adn the funniest thing I thought was Joel's Lootas gunning down Conan's DC Dread before it got a chance to assault them. I wont deal with the Imperial opinion of these events leaving it to Ryan to spread his propaganda against the Xenos forces but after a long 4 turns we called it with little Imperial forces left on the table and many VP's in Xenos control - team Xenos wins.

After a tidy up of the garage and a dinner break we were set for the Star Wars rpg in the gaming room, this would be some players first ever rpg and as I will post soon it helps for everyone to work together right?