A tale of two tables: Spaceship vs. Castlelands

I wanted to do an experiment with insubstantial space goo and Kyoob; so I put together a spaceship out of terrain I had available.  Needless to say there are a lot of anachronisms and a lot of stand-ins.  But the layout is legitimate, and I like to think it just gives it a Druillet space-caravan kind of juxtaposition.  For now.  Spot the cat.

Below is a detail of the forward area of the ship.  Bottom is the air-lock, showing as closed.  To the left is the ship's cockpit, with a two-star chokepoint at the entrance.  Above would be crew quarters (I need some hi-tech bunks or something.  There's just a couple of potted plants right now).

Connecting the front and end of the ship is the corridor, serving as scrubber plant farm and protection from the dangerous engine.  The flat black tree thing represents a locked door: #70, which needs a model with 10 LOAD/UNLOAD to access.  This one has a capacity of ten stars; as does the hatch to engineering.  I've discovered it's important to allow access to an an epic map!

Below is the aft of the ship.  Engineering section distinguished by uncommon hazardous environment, as signed.

Here is the ship with its armoured shroud off.  I had some fun on this map playing the scenario below:

Cat feat.

Space marine ship docks with ghost ship: power off, life support down.  Squad of three bolter marines, one plasma cannon marine, all with 10 ATMO  + 10 PRESSURE go in.  They search and clear the forward area and determine the hatch to the rear of the ship is impassable.  Techmarine Kyoob comes aboard, will unfoul the hatch and fix the power and life support.

At that point Master Draeger and the Sarge come aboard (helmetless models are NOT allowed 10 ATMO/PRESSURE!) to inspect.  Right then some devious ectoplasmic space goo starts using its 100 WILL to take thrall of Kyoob in the corridor.  The goo now uses Kyoob to access the engineering controls and terminate the ship's life support.

Using Kyoob's advanced weapons the ectoplasmic goo can likely mulch the remaining tac marines if it cannot enthral them.  If Goo/Kyoob reaches the cockpit for'ard, he/they can unlock the two ships and leap into hyperspace.  Grand theft spaceship!

In other news, I needed a castle and surrounding lands to test some ghosts and haunted horse archers:

Below, the interior of the castle with keep.

Did a little more work on it, including tiny chair.  Go BC Shavers & Hobbies.

Mongols!  I'd better go and paint that cockatrice.

I hope you have enjoyed my views.

- C.

Bash Yer Neighbor

I ran a BRUTAL scenario to help me work out how best to divide attacks, generally resolve weird crap and What To Expect.  This was in the form of a sports game.  No "Hearts and Minds" cards or powers were permitted (ie: no 100 WILL).  Purely pugilism.  Charles Coal, CL (Chaos Lawyer) officiating.  Each of my available 'teams' is accorded a Dude and three followers.

To decide who would go I rolled for "Instability" using some D6s, and Odkolek (top right zone) threw the first blow, how uncharaceristic of him!

Then it was the Star Wolf (bottom left zone) and her minion-hounds.

I rolled again to see which direction they would attack, with 1-2-3 being R and 4-5-6 being L.  They both attacked Mufon the Space Dwarf!  Guess he smells bad after all that time in deep space in that little ship...

The Star Wolf zorched two of Mufon's mallet-bots with eye bolts (5+5).  Then (see below) the #20s hit.  (I am omitting a lot of attacks which would simply be ineffective against Mufon and his followers because none of them have any normal wounds, only stars.)

Mufon dishes out four stars of damage.  My fateful decision was to divide this between the two attacking factions, taking out only followers.  What I probably should have done is focused on either the Star Wolf or Odkolek, which would kill them and nerf their faction completely.  Still gonna die though...  with five star wounds against!

Charles calls the survivors of the first round to the inner ring.  We roll for "Instability" again, and again the main aggressor is Odkolek.  Because it was fluffy I also threw in Kraak's team (top left zone).  Can only be patient to kill something for so long.

O. and K. choose their direction of attack.  They both attack the Star Wolf!

The Tek Arrows of Skinks, stellar-lupine eye bolts and Kraak's photon bombs dispense some killing.

We ended with a showdown.  The Star Wolf was doomed.  But her survival to use her three #20 attacks meant she could still rip out one opponent's throat before the bell.  I chose Odkolek, as they have shared a battlefield before.

And Kraak's faction of Void Reptiles is the winner!!  If that sword-brute is smart he'll just run away.

Kraak has performed exceptionally well lately, and I wouldn't mind pitching him against some ruffians in the Turok game yet-to-be.  Once I'm over this stupid cold.  'Til next time!

<HR!S

With the Foul Sea at Our Backs

Corinne the Young sniffed the stale, clammy humours of the Sea of Despair, that curled around her feet and those of her army, the 32nd Legion de Sang.  The sea at her back was the limit past which none of them could run.

Baking in the sun, foul cultists, inhuman knights and ravenous ogres hurled insults and curses at the massed men and horses... spitefully waiting to wear down the puny men beneath the burning rays.

Corinne wiped sweat from her sunburnt brow and braced herself against the Celestial Hurricanum.  She drew in the hot air of the plain and called out a blessing in the name of Sigmar.  Her men responded with a weary fatalistic cheer, tinged with hysteria but also something like relief.  This would be the decisive battle, at last.

The pistoliers darted forward, racing around the crown of the hill, with terrible Dragon Ogres stalking them on the flank.

"Knights of Reiksguard, manoeuvre!!" yelled Corinne.  "Seal the flank!"  Faithfully Calogero wheeled his unit and stared down the immense beasts.  Meanwhile Willie muttered angrily in the words of his Order, and a preserving magic enveloped the knights.

The Dragon Ogres, disconcerted that their meal has darted down the slope, find themselves receiving a mighty charge!  Meanwhile the pistoliers obliterate a unit of foul Chaos Hounds - and are themselves inexorably crushed by terrible Chaos Knights in reply!

With an earth-shattering roar, the Chaos army surges forward.  Corinne focuses the energies of the Hurricanum to spin and bewilder the centre unit of Dragon Ogres.  Winds of magic push back the enemy, for the moment; while gunpowder cracks and lead makes fun of armour and the air fills with acrid smoke.  An enemy sorceror is felled by the fanatical Witch Hunter's gun... the Hunter cackles inappropriately.

As the mighty Chaos Knights sweep down the line, threatening to roll the Legion up, Corinne shouts commands, encouragement, insults... anything to hold, hold, hold!  Captain Gailor and his shredded unit of Outriders mount a defense against the now reorientated Dragon Ogres - for just long enough!

The Knights pursue the broken Dragon Ogres on the flank through a wood and many noble sons perish to sticks and stones.  They blow down the hill on the Chaos side of the board to menace the Nurgle cultists from the rear - they can only delay the numerically superior foe...

Now the die is cast.  The massed units crash together like killing waves in a tempest.  The prayers of the battle priests cut through the cacophony, heartening the men to redouble their blows, shielding them from foul blades, horns and magicks...

On the left, the Chaos infantry breaks!  Corinne, stunned, quickly orders her troops forward to take precious ground!  The Chaos knights gallop to intercept the now moving Empire line.

One bloody combat to the outcome.  The enraged Chaos knight champion, his unit worn down, duels with Priest Blackwolf, who is undaunted with the fortifying energies of the Hurricanum!  Bitter blows traded, the knight finally falls to his holy hammer!

Sensing the end, Corinne drives herself furiously into the heart of the fighting, mustering what blows she can against the bulging beasts.  Her last wound is taken by a Dragon Ogre; and she closes her eyes with the horn of victory sounding in her ears, and thanks to Sigmar on her lips.

This may be my favourite game I have played with the Empire.  A solid victory for the Men, with a little cruelty by the dice gods on both sides.  My thanks to my gracious host and opponent Ric.  A most pretty game.  Thanks for reading!

Ur-Wolves

Hi everyone, here is a game table update while I complete the story of my last game.

In the dimension that houses Teviotdale, certain areas are haunted by ur-wolves: dead or undead, wrathful hounds-of-the-wild that fiercely defend certain areas.

Ur-wolves are in a manner of speaking an area effect.  One D10 of ur-wolves will manifest in each diagonal board square as in a checkerboard pattern.

This is only normally represented on the table when wolves appear in response to a player entering the square (the trigger for manifestation).  Unless you happen to have a lot of models.  Each wolf is worth 6/^^^.  That can be 60/^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ coming atcha!

Odkolek has managed to clear one square.  The wolves, beaten, count as being driven back, and vanish.  If you can't destroy them outright...

So long as the square is occupied by the victor/destroyer or a member of their faction, no wolves shall return...

thanks for reading...

Turok Testbed

A blocky red space capsule touches down, and Mufon the Red Space Dwarf barges out.

"Alright, sir, my name is Mr. Reasonable, and this here is a matter/antimatter carbine: Please come this way for hunt registration and qualification."  100 WILL plus 100 RESIST means that Wolframite Mr. Reasonable will prevail against Mufon's 100 WILL... eventually.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Teviot Defunct Area Hangar, and for our newcomers, my name is Chris and I am here trying to explain to these two cats why I can't sell them both air protection pieces for the price of one because 'the two of them are a faction.'

"The environments you are about to enter to hunt in are extremely dangerous.  The first hazard is poisonous gases produced by the ground.  You will need to purchase air protection pieces for the price of ten credits per model, with no exceptions; unless you are already equipped with 10 ATMOSPHERE or a durable equivalent.  I emphasize, the price is ten credits per model."  The cats look confused and outraged and, spluttering, prepare their counter-argument.  "The second, or some might say primary hazard of this hunt run, besides ur-wolves, of course, is Egyptian Death Hippo...

"That sounds like some mighty good gaeme, laddie!"

Swimming Eagle sighs.  "It's really not as fun as you might think.  Egyptian Death Hippo will f#@ing kill anyone sir, in all due deference.  My best advice is to not provoke him.  Have a good hunt and remember to hunt sustainably.  If you live."

Slaughter at Seaward Station

 It seems that the Guild and the Arcanists are building a grudge.  In house, there are two Arcainst crews, and me, the Guild player.  We have been playing shared scenarios, until we have a good handle on the rules.  This time the Ortegas launched an ambush on everyone’s favourite showgirls.

 Playing a range-heavy crew is nothing new to me (I also play Gunnbjorn and Imperial Guard).  Target priority is a motto with forces like this, which can be hard when you don't know what things do on the other side of the board.  On the first few activations I concentrated on the support models (the mannikins) in an attempt to reduce the nasty magic being thrown at me.

 Luckily, I have much better luck with cards than dice.  The showgirls were forced to walk into waves of hot lead to reach me, and even after their teleporting shenanigans some damage was done.

 Alternating activations puts an interesting spin on gameplay and tactics, and then there are those triggers.  Perditia has this thing that if you miss her she shoots you, making it very risky to try an assassination.

 And then there is the companion rule, which my crew has a lot of.  Usually only one model is to activate, but if that model has a companion close they can both activate.  For the Guild, this allows me to set up firing squads, up to four guns firing at once with multiple shots.  If the Guild wants something dead it happens.

So far, Malifaux is an awesome game.  As a skirmish game each model is more important and the inbuilt synergies come to the fore.  The fate deck is the biggest difference (triggers and cheating are awesome) and it gives the game a western feel which is fitting.  And did I mention the awesome minis?

Until next round...

Refugees

Hi everyone.  These are a couple of images of my game space and the things I'm trying out.

These people are refugees from the universe of Elric the Necromancer.  They have come to Teviotdale by tesseract to seek asylum.  Swimming Eagle is accompanied by two Teviot Peacekeeper droids and a Marine with a matter/antimatter carbine.  Slash'i lurks at the edge of things...

"This way, ladies.  You belong far from such evil."

'til next time.

<HRIS