Other stuff of interest .....

In the run up to Christmas I have managed a couple of interesting things .....

First up myself Fish went to see the Wonder Stuff in Exeter - sorry for the poor picture.

An absolutely brilliant gig - started off with a few new songs - I particularly liked their first song Feet in the Fire .... They then went on to play the albums HUP and 8 Legged Groove Machine in their entirety. I will be looking out to see the Wonder Stuff again. 

I have also binge watch the 4 season of the Expanse - a cracking series and well worth the time investment watching it.

I have read the books on in series so I knew what to expect and what is being set up ....... Season 5 will hopefully be awesome. If you have the time read the books too.  

On a somethings just aren't going your way - after just having had the brakes on my brand new (well 4/5 weeks old) Specialized Rockhopper I was out on the beacon on a quick test ride and have now managed to rip off the derailleur ....... I don't seem to be much luck with it at the moment.

Happy Christmas 

Morts

Kill Team - Massacre in the ruins.....

Steedo and I had a quick game of Kill Team (I had asked DK but he was too busy and stood me up) - set in the ruins. My Skitarii versus his Deathwatch. The objective was to hold objective markers at the end of the game.

We managed to play the scouting phase which resulted in Steedo taking out of action one of my Rangers. Man down and the game hasn't started yet.

First turn was both of us advance - I was trying to get around the flank. Steedo's heavy bolter was causing more causalties for me, while my fire was hitting the 3+ saves for the Deathwatch meant I wasn't making the hits count.

Around of charges and shooting meant I was more Skitarii down and I was not getting knocking any of Steedo's marines. My Sicarian managed 3 out of 4 hit only to fail to wound ..... I kept rolling high on the Flesh wounds/Out of Action table.

We then suffered a power cut for about 30 minutes - but this didn't stop the game (phones and a DIY lamp kept us going, although I should have called the game over, as it wasn't going my way....).

In desperation I had my leader charge Steedo's and in a titanic struggle the Skitarii Vanguard cut down the Deathwatch and for the only time in the game Steedo rolled high! It was the end of turn 4 and the game was called over with 1 out of action for Steedo and 6 out of action for me .... A real massacre of my Skitarii Kill Team ......

We only made one mistake in this game, which was taking nerve test for flesh wounds - but this wouldn't have made much difference as the Deathwatch's nerve scores were 8 or 9. My team struggled because I wasn't getting the key rolls for hits and wounds which would improve either AP and damage, but I was rolling high when I didn't need too on the out of action table.

A very good win for Steedo ......

Morts

4 way Kill Team

So the collective (minus DK, who said he had to work) got together for a pre Christmas game or two....
We were starting off playing Kill Team - using the gathering intelligence 4 player scenario from the core rule book. Sylon and I set up the table with a fair bit of terrian - going for an abandoned fracking site in a jungle look.

The teams we took into the jungle were Skitarii - Morts (3rd game, but first with the Skitarii 1 win and 1 loss with the Imperial Guard); Deathwatch - Steedo (2nd game, first with the Deathwatch); Drukhari - Snake-eyes (2nd game, but first with his newly painted by DK wytches); Sylon - Imperial Guard in his first game.
The objective was to collect data (points) from controlling objectives. So at the end of a round you gained points if you had undisputed control of a objective market - 1 pts for  those close to to your deployment zone, 2 for those further away and 3 for the one in the centre. Starting places were rolled for (and we promptly forgot to do the scouting phase! But I don't think this had an effect on the game. Then we rolled for initiative and the game was on!

My Skitarii Rangers did a great job of getting some good fire on Sylon's team - managing to take out of action (OOA) his leader before he could issue any orders (which should have limited his teams abilities). Snake-eyes kept his Drukhari hidden, while Steedo and I  advanced and exchanged fire.
No victory points as we hadn't reached the objectives.
The second turn started with Sylon attempting revenge on me - getting a flesh wound, but also taking out is own plasma gunner. Steedo and I exchanged OOA in a continued firefight. Snake-eyes unleashed his wytches out to the objectives ..... Only to get them shot! I think I picked up a victory point.

The third round saw positioning for the objectives - I was gutted that my sicarian Ruststalker failed to even score a hit on Steedo's Deathwatch leader (only needed 3+ and managed to roll 1, 1, 2, 2) and then be cut down. The Drukhari were scoring hits, but Steedo was getting the saves!
The final round (4), saw a rush for the objectives with Sylon and Snake-eyes disputing one marker. Myself and Snake-eyes losing objectives to Steedo's Deathwatch..... But Sylon's rush with 2 guardsmen to the central objective was key - as we only managed to take out one of them!
The final scores on the doors were 5 Imperial guard, Deathwatch 3, Skitarii 2 and Drukhari 0.
We did finish the game at turn 4 as we were running out of troops - the game did play well (we were a bit slow, so we will have to have another game soon) and managed to play with the command points and specialist rules. Sylon was a bit frustrated by not being able to issue orders due to his leader being taken out in turn one - but he won so tough! The Deathwatch were difficult to kill - the saving throw particularly difficult for the Drukhari with low or no AP modifiers. I think a couple of Kalabite warriors with longer ranged weapons would be a good addition to Snake-eyes team.

After the epic Kill Team game we squeezed in a game of the Settlers of Catan (using my 90s German edition!), which we should play more.

And rather nicely I won, with Steedo coming in 2nd.
A good days gaming - hopefully I will get a few more games in over the holidays..... When they start.

Morts

Dwarf Army - Completed

So for years I have had some Dwarf miniatures from Citadel and Asgard (plus a couple of others makes). Recently I pick up a few axe dwarfs and crossbow from SHQ to finish off the units into groups of 12 figures, so they can be used in Dragon Rampant and for Kings of War (on the sabot bases). 

First up the whole army and the leaders (Asgard Lord, Reaper Cleric and the very old Corbett Shortstuff from the Dwarf Kings a Court). 

Then the Spear and Pike units (almost exclusively Asgard), a couple mixed warrior and crossbow units (warrior unit an even mix of Citadel and Asgard, while the crossbow unit was mainly Asgard). 

This is the heavy unit with the new SHQ axe warriors - the Red/Blue painted helmets was done to try to match in the very old Citadel armoured dwarfs in the front rank. I think it works pretty well. 

All based at the same time, so they match up pretty well. I was planning to put them on a gaming mat rather than the table top .....

I am planning to make a steam tank (steel behemoth in Kings of War) for extra power - just realised that I forgot to include the dwarf cannon (d'oh!). The other option is to use the Earth Elemental with the cleric.

Need to get to the table .....

Morts

Barbarians - Finished .....

Another months (possibly years) of hanging around the painting tray I have finally finished the sodding barbarians (apart from basing). They are a mash up of Frostgrave barbarians and GW Chaos bits. The plan was to get them as an additional unit for a Dragon Rampant/SAGA forces with the Gripping Beas Viking/GW mash-ups I did a while ago. Unfortunately I am not happy with then at all.

Group shot and then some close up pictures.

I have to say that like the Skitarii Vanguard, these were not the painting experience I hoped for - in fact they were a chore to paint. Oh well will try something else to paint.

Morts

A Game of Maurice - First game time in a while

Steedo and I had a quick game of Maurice in the afternoon (with copious cups of tea, rather than the copious amounts of alcohol). As it was the first game in a while, we played with identical armies (no special abilities) and mirrored terrain on each side of the river. The objective was to control both bridges - this was going to be a tough game for both of us.
The game started with the myself setting up first as the defender and Steedo as the attacker. I had set most of my army in column formation (Steedo had set up his whole army at one bridge) - but I didn't have any march cards to change formation or move, so I had to pass on the first few turns.
Steedo managed to get his cavalry across the bridge on my right flank while I still had my troops in column - and fortunately his attack was held off.

Meanwhile I had managed to get my cavalry across the other bridge and held off Steedo's cavalry (having almost been caught in the flank!). Steedo then resumed his attack on my right flank, which eventually led to the the loss of two cavalry regiments each and neither of us holding the bridge. We then returned to my left flank - where I managed to get both my cavalry units into an attack - one slightly disadvantaged my a ploughed field, however I had used the "Confusion" card to drag in one of Steedo's units to equal out the mud. This engagement was a win for my forces! Unfortunately for me we had ran out of cards and the game was called.

The final tallies were Steedo - 4 units lost, one objective held, 7 on the army morale. For myself 2 units lost, one objective held, 5 on army morale (but this was down to Steedo playing "Death of a Hero" twice, for 4 morale off me and later playing "Rousing Speech" to put 2 back on his!). In th spirit of the enlightenment we called it a draw and discussed who might win if we continued - possibly me as I might have be able to get around the back of Steedo's artillery, but the infantry fight would have been very attritional. In retrospect the capture of both bridges without any other way of get across the river made this a challenging battle in which the infantry played little part. Although I think the game played in a very historical way.
It was  really good to get Maurice back to the table - will need to get an Imagi-nations campaign sorted....... Too much to do and too little time .....

Morts

Kill Team - Skitarii Vanguard

Well after a month or two I have finished painting the Skitarii Vanguard for my kill team (not finished basing them, but that might take a couple more days). I was really looking forward to painting these, more than the Rangers, but I found them a real pain to paint - lots of fiddly details. I couldn't seem to get their overcoats highlights right (this is the second attempt on those). Not a joy to paint - hopefully they look ok and when the basing is done, they'll pass muster. No doubt when I'll spot some mistakes and details I've missed.

I went for a soviet style colour scheme - which I think works well as they work as cogs in the great machine. When the basing is done I will get a full shot of the complete kill team.
Of course now I don't have a reason not to finish the barbarians who have been haunting my desk for a year or so ..... They have not quite been the painting experience I hoped or assumed they would be. - perhaps I need at paint so individuals for a bit to get the paint vibe going again. This has been quite a frustrating time at the painting table.

Morts

A Half Century for DK

The collective gathered to celebrate DK's 50th birthday, in a surprise gaming day organised by DK's better half. The day started with myself, Sylon, Steedo and Snake-eyes heading up the 'Shill to watch England beat the Aussies in the rugby World Cup quarter final - a cracking start the the day!
Then off to DK's to secretly set up a game of Tzolk'in - the Mayan Calendar.  Then we waited for the birthday boy!
DK's wife duped him in to the Annex and he was duly surprised and equally disappointed by the lack of bacon sandwich and the fact that his "planned" birthday game session for a fortnights time was just a ruse ......
Then we started drinking ..... Well DK started on the 6 1.5 litre bottles of Lambrini we had got for him  and a game of .... Umm I can't remember but I think it was a pirate themed game sourced by Snake.
Then we started playing Tzolk'in. We had watch some play throughs, but the rules appear rather daunting. The game is a rather clever placement and the retrieval game. With moving cogs too make the placement and retrieval even move challenging. The objective was to collect corn, climb up the temple hierarchy, collect gold, stone, wood, crystal skulls and build stuff with the resources......
As implied by the name of the game (well the calendar part anyway), timing and planning is everything in this game. I have to say I had little of either in this game. I was briefly second, but this tragically didn't last, as I didn't have a clear way forward and ended up not being able to feed my workers so lost my victory points. However Sylon was on top form as the picture of the final standings on the board.

DK had done a top job of doing up the cogs, as always.

Tzolk'in had taken about 3 and a hall hours and a whole bottle of Lambrini by DK - after packingWe then started the second game - Quartermaster General: 1914.
This a area control, card management game for 5 player (which was convenient), which 2 players (myself and Snake-eyes) representing the Central powers and 3 (DK, Steedo and Sylon) representing the Entente powers. Again DK had done a nice job of the playing pieces - although the base colours were a little difficult to spot and differentiate. This is a really clever game with all the major events of the Great War covered - the cards could be used for attack and defence bonuses. I did struggle with which cards I needed to "prepare", so they can be used in battle and attrition. Especially as the Austro-Hungarian had a number of cards which only provided defence in certain areas - so when I thought I had defence cards they couldn't be used due to location limitations. DK was well oiled with Lambrini by this point and had a rather assuming turn, where he forgot what he had done and Snake-eyes trying unsuccessfully explain what he'd done, only to then run through the turn again ... We had a break for a pub tea and more beer!

On our return we concluded QM: 1914, with a result a repreat of the real war. Overall a really smart game, with many challenges. You really need to know the deck you are playing with and consider the areas you are going to focus on or that the cards direct you towards.

After a brief discussion we played a game of Skulls - which again I took an early lead only for Sylon to win in the end.

A cracking days gaming to celebrate DK's half century and an impressive amount of alcohol consumed by all but especially DK - about 3.5 litres of Lambrini and a larger top!

Morts

Kell - Snake-eye's character

So in between a epic game of Eclipse and work I have managed to complete Snake-eye's character for the pirate RPG campaign that we occasionally manage to play - too much to do and too little time.
The character is a cleric equipped with a quarter staff and crossbow.

Apparently he is meant to be a healer, but has now become the captain of his own ship ......

Hopefully Snake-eyes will be happy with him.

Morts

Back to the table - Eclipse

The full collective got together to play Eclipse for the first time in 7 years!!!! Actually it was the first time playing for Snake-eyes on Sylon.
The set up was taking a bit ok time so DK, Sylon and myself helpfully went outside and played Kubb (a old Viking game) - the first game was a win to DK and Sylon, so I called on Steedo's boy to my side, reasoning that his youth and spatial awareness from years of academy football training would help to bring victory to me. Unfortunately the boy didn't knock a single pawn over .... And DK and Sylon won again. To save me from any further humiliation in garden games we went into play Eclipse.

So Eclipse is a classic 4X game, where you have to create an economic engine to paid for fleets, research and exploration ..... and battle! We all had the same race (humans) so a totally level playing field for us. I started and decided to explore - unfortunately I found an attacking ancient so binned it and effectively lost a move .... Steedo ran into the same problem and the others were either luckier or did some research.
The challenge of the game is to get an engine going so you can pay for expansion, research and ships - but there is never enough money as the more you expand the more it costs. Certainly the issue that Sylon, Steedo and myself had was that we couldn't get the orange planets which pay for you to expand more .... Snake-eyes strategy seemed to be one of avoiding contact with the other civilisations (coward). Sylon when on his usual (might not be ..... but he does seem to rush in sometimes) attack things before you have fully buffed up your ships with researched upgrades. DK did some exploration and the jammy git came across the "morph shield", which cost nothing to power up, gave -1 to hit, +2 initiative and regeneration .... Which when coupled with improved Hull made his cruisers almost unbeatable. DK also got his economic engine for the game running - allowing more research and building.
As the game progressed Sylon was eliminated, by the evil DK and his bloody super cruisers, Steedo was his usual weaselly self by stealing my systems while I was busy trying and failing to reduce DK's lead. Git. Snake-eyes was hiding in his own little part of the Galaxy. DK was busy just collecting systems.

TL - Early game, TR - Mid game, BL - my fleet going head to head with DK's super ships (I did manage to destroy one), BR - end game DK's ships and the treacherous Steedo's red ships in my space!
Final scores 40 for DK, 32 for Steedo, 24 for Snake-eyes and myself and 11 for Sylon.

The game played well but was rather long (2.30am finish), but this was partly due to Steedo knocking  over a glass which then appeared to explode over the table and a brief discussion around Brexit. Hopefully we will play this again within 7 years, but there are a couple of things to think about are the player boards, which have lots on them and are easy to knock so you don't know what was where. The board does require a large table, as systems can go off in all sorts of directions. The catch up mechanism didn't seem to work in our game with himself and Sylon  (eventually knocked out) out of the winning the game with at least a third to go. Finally the "morph" shields were just too powerful when coupled with extra hull and improved weapons. Sylon said online other groups had only allowed one or two of its options - but Steedo said he was going to get rid of it.

Morts

In between the chaos ........

I have been struggling to get much done with returning to work and the throughly fascinating goings on in Britain's Brexit Parliament - which is much better than the final series of Game of Thrones .... Lots of twists and turns. Would be more entertaining if it wasn't going to impact my future or more importantly my sproggs.
Anyway I managed to paint a couple more Intercessors to join my Space Marine Kill Team (just gives a few more choices).

Not a perfect match but not bad. Should have been working on the Skitarii Vanguards and those bloody barbarians ....
Hopefully a game at the weekend, so that should be fun.

Morts

Brexit - what a mess!

Brexit - my thoughts on a complete cock-up and a failure of politics and leaders (in the loosest sense of the word).

First up I voted remain and would vote remain again (or even better revoke article 50), so I accept that my points have some bias in that direction - but I think that some of my thoughts are valid and would hopefully get some people to consider their position.

General EU ponderings
The first point is that the EU is not a perfect organisation, there is plenty of pointless waste - moving the parliament every 6 months or so is bloody ridiculous and must be stopped! It needs reforming, but that is difficult from the outside.
There are people in there pushing the political union idea too far too fast - this is likely to blow up on their face. For national identity to solidify you need more than monetary union (that was pushed too fast by Kohl and Mitterrand back in the 80s) and the Ryder Cup team to support - people across Europe aren't ready for that yet!
As far as I can tell National Identity is mainly focused on language, see the difficulties it can cause in the Northern Ireland assembly and elsewhere) - Europe doesn't have a common one, but English is taught as a second language in many places (that might be useful in the future).
I don't see a political union for Europe in my lifetime (so at least another 40years I hope) and a European army - well not until NATO disappears - which could be when the USA decides it doesn't serve a purpose for them. So I see these issues as scare-mongering by Euro-sceptics (is that like project fear?).
On the Euro-sceptics I genuinely believe that these people have held the UK back in getting the best from the EU, as they have caused successive UK governments to have weak and easy to isolate negotiating positions. If you start from "No" and offer nothing to those sympathetic to your position, I would guess that is pretty easy to out manoeuvre . (I feel some irony here with BJ currently complaining about the weakening his position with MPs trying to block No-Deal - Ho hum).

Trade
Keeping it simple - you do most of your trade close to home. Yes I could  travel to Yorkshire from Devon to do a weekly shop, but the transport costs and environmental costs make that a rather silly thing to do. Yes we can trade with any country across the globe, but the closest will be the easiest. Have you seen the postage costs to and from Australia? Also being part of a big gang helps when dealing with big countries which are very self interested in themselves (think USA and China).

Borders
As far as I can tell the problem with the UK's borders is self inflicted. Having recent travelled to a couple of EU countries I noticed the following - a border guard scanned my passport on the way in AND on the way out. So I was counted in and out - clever that. However on UK part of the journeys the I noticed that the UK border force didn't check as l left the UK only on my return - so we aren't counting them in and out, only in. And what a surprise we don't know who or how many people are here (a recent ONS report). This is a choice of the UK government not the EU.

The Referendum
Now I accept that 17.4 million voted to leave the EU for many differing reasons - but how to leave was not clear and certainly not a mandate for No-Deal. The main issue I have with the result of the referendum is how it is used and its validity.

It was an Advisory referendum (- this is important!), so can be ignored by Parliament, as the UK is a Parliamentary democracy. Especially in the light of events since the referendum, such as the failing pound and lack of investment, so leaving will hurt.
There was rule breaking by both the Leave campaigns - this is FACT and the verdict of the Courts - this would invalidate the result of the Referendum result if it was binding - this requiring another vote. I don't think you can keep banging on about the Invalid result, unless you think that Ben Johnson and Lance Armstrong should get their titles back for breaking the rules!
I also have a rather snarky point about the public not really very good at making big decisions and giving the example of Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" your face keeping Ultravox's "Vienna" off the number one spot for three weeks ....) - but it probably doesn't help my argument, but I think is quite amusing.

The Prorogation
This does stink of a tactic to prevent Parliament doing its job of keeping the government honest and working for the best interests of the people (although with the electoral system in the UK it doesn't usually do that particularly well - bring on Proportional Representation so people's votes count wherever they live! Sorry off topic there). So hopefully Parliament will be able to over turn this ploy - but I am not sure with the ineptitude shown so far this year by parliamentarians it is just hope.

Summary
I suppose looking at the last 300 years of Britain's history we have been at our most successfully when we are part of a Europe wide alliance - Marlborough (holding back Louis XIV), Pitt (Seven Years War), Wellington (defeating Napoleon) and Churchill (defeating Nazism) and least successful alone - the American War of Independence.

Even England's Kings knew that being in Europe was vital, Agincourt, Crecy and Spurs weren't fought to have less influence in Europe. So I don't understand the logic of removing ourselves from the rule making in Europe and the EU, it seems counter to what our great leaders of the past knew - you have to be in Europe to get the most out of it.

Overall the EU isn't perfect and is in need of reform, but on balance it is better to be in the the club, influencing it rather than on the outside looking in. Trading freely with your neighbours, with whom you have a shared history. Also the risk to the Union is too great and imagine how hard it is to pick apart 300+ years of union with Scotland, when you look at the problems we have got trying to unpicking 40+ years with the EU - it will hurt and be bitter if Scotland goes.

My thoughts on the shambles on UK politics.

Morts

Been away travelling ......

So August saw the better half and myself doing a small European tour, by visiting Denmark and Italy.
Denmark meant meeting up with my brother and his family, drinking blackcurrant mead (11%), and losing to the girls at Kubb (a Viking throwing game - so good I bought a version to play in England).

The trip to Italy would be best described as a flying tour of Rome, to see the sights .....

The Colosseum - which is awesome. Well worth buying your timed entry ticket rather than queuing in the August heat. The place in mind boggling .... I wonder how much of what we build now will be around in 2000 years and have the power to inspire.

We also took in the Palatine Hill (the location of the palaces of the emperors) and the forum (location of the temples ....). There was just too much to see ... only so many columns to look at before they all look the same). Among the pictures below are a temple towards the mouth of truth and Trajans forum.

Obviously a trip to Rome needs to take in the Trevi fountain and the Vatican - both amazing structures. We chose not to visit the Vatican museums due to the cost and time needed in line - perhaps another time (but being herded through the Cistene chapel with hundreds of others doesn't sound that appealing).

We also took in the Spainish Steps (which are steps - sorry they just didn't do it for me), the Pantheon - which did how the wow factor with its dome and Castel Sant'Angelo - or Hadrian's Mausoleum. If you visit Rome it is worth a trip here as you have panoramic views of the city and the other sights (as we did this as one of our last sites we were able to stand ticking off where we had been).

We were staying out of the city which was a pain in that we didn't see Rome at night - but we were only about a 19 minute walk from the park Aqua Claudia.

I have to say that the skill and engineering that went into this is more impressive than the Colosseum - a real wow!

Morts

WIP - Skitarii Rangers and other things.

So I have managed to finish off the Skitarii Rangers and a Ruststalker for the Kill Team (apart from show varnish and grass/tuffs).

Pretty pleased with these - I did find them a bit of a fiddle to paint and am glad that I am not doing a 40k army with them ....

Still got 6 Vanguard to do - hopefully before the end of summer.

Also started this character, using bits from the frostgrave barbarians kit - Snake-eye's cleric/wizard for a game (RPG which I don't want to talk about), still got some filling to do and apparently he will be dressed in blue and white shades.
Recently picked up a couple more Intercessors for the Space Marine Kill Team, so they can have few more options (but not many).

Still on the painting table are the barbarians .... I must finish these soon.

Morts

Kill Team - Skitarii started ... at last.

So I finish some buildings and thought what should I do next to avoid completing the barbarians ....
I looked at some old Rackham miniatures for Confrontation, even got as far as opening a blister pack and looking on the web for how a shield could/should be stuck on (still not completely sure), then thought Kill Team Skitarii need doing.

Now I have to say that these little blighters are a bit of a pain to assemble - as I don't have instructions, because they were picked up cheap off eBay - the legs and cloaks have to go together in a particular way. Having checked the web - some arms don't match with certain bodies. So on the whole a bit of a challenge - I went for numbers on the sprue close together, then stick them together - which seems to have worked. I have assembled them so they are basically the team from the starter set (I have the cards and want my life to be simple), with the exception that I have changed a Ranger for a Vanguard - so it is my team and I prefer the helmet to the hood. I have also paid over the odds (on eBay) for a Sicarian Ruststalker to add a little more melee punch to the team. Artists impression below - horrific looking thing.

But I didn't need or want 5 of them so an overpriced one will be heading to this team. God knows when they will be finished.

Morts

Made some stuff ......

So after all the sci-fi buildings for Kill Team and Starship Troopers, I found some cheap fish tank (not a new idea by any means) plants for jungle type off world foliage. In retrospect I probably should ha have reduced the size of the "weights" or removed them completely. But for £4.99 and some time not too bad an effort.

After all the sci-fi I was inspired to finish off a couple of other buildings that I have had hanging about for a bloody long time. The first one is a stable/inn which was picked up years ago at a pre-school fair (considering the big one if off too university in September!), I have been meaning to sort this for ages. I still plan to stick some barrels and other bits and bobs around it.

I think I could get away with using it from late Roman through to the Peninsular war - neither of which I have any figures for.... But it will fit into any fantasy setting and Dark Ages too!

Then I have this sort of flat-roofed dwelling (I think there is a post about playing with MDF which it featured in long ago) - I think this could find its way into Ancient Greece and fantasy games. Again I plan to stick some bits around it at sometime.
The sci-fi stuff has been grassed and some posters stuck on - I would like some control panels/computer terminals for the interiors - perhaps if I can make a games show this year.

Morts

Quacks of Quedlinburg - Played

After the Sellswords and Spellslingers game DK arrived and we played a couple of games of
Quacks of Quedlinburg. This is a game of brewing potions so that you can be the best Quack in Quedlinburg - but you must do this without making your pot explode with too many cherry bombs ...
The basic mechanic is you buy ingredients which you pull blind out of a bag and put into the pot - each ingredient has a value which moves you score up - but if you score more than greater than 7 cherry bombs your pot explodes and you can either score victory points or spend buying more ingredients. If you don't explode you get victory points and spend buying stuff. Effectively the game is a deck builder with the different ingredients interacting with each other in your pot and in some cases with others pots (black moth things).

The challenge is knowing when to stop pulling things from the bag and watching the probabilities. However knowing the probabilistic doesn't help when you inevitably pick the cherry bomb you don't want - Snake-eyes and I managed this on more than one occasion each!
We smashed through the game twice, because it is bloody good fun - possibly one for non-gamers to play as the idea and mechanics are quite simple, plus blindly getting ingredients from the bay knowing the risk is entertaining. Certainly a game worth getting to the table and to a collection.

Unfortunately Steedo managed to convincingly win both our games, DK and I managed a 2nd each and Snake-eyes got 2 losses. Then we played a game of Judge Dredd - Cursed Earth and lost! It is a tough game.

Always a good evening if you can manage 4 games!

Morts

Sellswords and Spellslingers - Protect the Village.

After about a years break we managed to play a game of Sellswords and Spellslingers. I dug out the previous characters that we had created last year. Steedo had Jackal, a rogue and Brutus a burly fighter. Snake-eyes had Houdicar the wizard and Malco the fighter. I had Brunhilda another fighter, Debs the healer and new boy Roger Redcap (replacement for Woody who died last game.

The scenario we played was defend the village - which was being terrorised by a Frost giant.
The game started with the giant appearing in the northwest of the table and our magnificent seven patrolling the perimeter .... Apart from Jackal who was in the WC and Brutus who was sleeping in a  wagon. Houdicar was luckily standing in the field in the path of the giant ..... Snake-eyes activiated his wizard 3 times ready to unleash a tiro of fireballs at the lumbering giant .... This could be a quick game ....but unfortunately the fireballs turned out to be just enough to light a cigar - real hamlet moment. The rest of the heroes rushed around the buildings to inception the giant and rescue villagers, with Roger loosing off a few arrows as he went! Apart from Jackel who started playing with his oil flask ..... until he remembered that (we read the rules) he needed to light the flask, so he wandered into one of the buildings to get a flame from a cooking fire.

We ran through the activations for the heroes again, with the giant getting closer, but this time Houdicar was successful with his fireballs - causing significant damage, Roger getting some hits in with arrows and Brunhilda slashing and hacking the giant - eventually taking him down. Jackal was disappointed not to throw his oil flask ......
Other notable events were the rescue of 1 villager by Malco, and the finding of a rope by Debs - but both actions gained an extra XP. But a good win for the magnificent seven (including Steedo's characters, who did .....).
Sellswords is a really nice RPG light which I/we should play more - perhaps solo. We all had a good laugh and the game had some tense moments - Steedo tried to inject some role play to his characters which was nice.

Morts

Shadespire/Night Vaults - Played!

I had a free evening so DK invited me over for a game or 2 of Shadespire/Nightvault by GW.
DK had done his usual very nice paint jobs on the miniatures for the game - git.
Some pictures below.

We played 2 games in the evening - both very close. In both games l was the golden sigmarine (or whatever they called) ranges and DK was the brutish Orcs. The game is based hex gridded boards which you get to pick each game - each one with different placements for terrain, troops and figures. The boards are nicely illustrated and DK had done a top job on the terrain pieces he had - but they are obviously flat. I don't know if it is the mini-gamer in me but I find it a bit odd flat board but really nice minis - I know it's a game and this speeds up set up massively, but in someways you could have card standies rather than figures and it wouldn't change the game at all.
The other big part of the game is deck building - which DK had done already (as he now has other friends outside of the collective - we do need to think of a new name), having played a few times.
There are 2 decks - Objective - where you get get objectives to score victory points .... Which you can then spend, paying for upgrades to buff your troops! You get 3 of these per phase. The other deck is gambits and upgrades. Gambits you play straight away when possible for an advantage and as already stated Upgrades you have to spend a victory point to activate - 5 of these per phase.
The game play rattles along at good pace and DK was kind  enough to let me do some "I've forgotten to do ...." semi retrospective card playing as the newbie ... (Double standards on the "fog of war" rules by me there).

So how did the games go? Pretty quick and close 8-7 to DK on the first - tactical blunder by me charging my last sigmarine rather than shooting .... Slightly lower scoring 7-6 to DK, should have been a solid win to me but I missed DK's final Orc 3 times in shooting and combat which gave him loads a points .....bugger!

With the design of the game part of it is the picking the cards for your deck - which impacts on how you play your warband. So there is the part of the time investment in created YOUR warband as well as the modelling side, but DK has done that for me in this case - but would I do the necessary homework off my own back? Difficult to say considering how long Kill Team is taking, but probably not enough - which is probably why I like games such as Kings of War, DBA, Maurice, Settlers where the picking cards is not an essential of the game - unlike Netrunner which I generally didn't have much  a clue about how to "synergise" the cards to be able to win.

A good evening with a easy to play tactical game - loads of thinking involved. Certainly would play again. Thanks for the games DK.

Morts

WIP -.Crashed and Dropship

So apart from playing a game I haven't got much painting done recently, been busy and a bit hot in dear old Blighty. But I have finished the crashed fighter apart from decals and static grass.

I don't think it's too bad as a bit of scenery (but I might have got the roundel orientation wrong).
I have also made progress on the dropship - still some work to do painting wise and some decals.

Getting there.

Morts

Played! Judge Dredd - The Cursed Earth

So after another break from gaming, due to weddings, helping with DofE expeditions and the like, Steedo came over for a very short notice game of Judge Dredd - The Cursed Earth (JDTCE) - was planning to pop down the local but that didn't happen!
JDTCE is a re skinning/variant of Lost Epeditions with a Dredd theme - the quality of the cards is very good - and the box matches Odin's Ravens so that's nice - they can sit next to each other on the shelf (gathering dust like all the other games .......). Steedo reckoned the the component quality was higher than in lost expeditions. The objective of the game is to catch Max Normal who has gone into the Cursed Earth carrying the Block Mania virus, before the perps (Satellat and Mean Machine) catch him. So we are chasing and racing to victory ..... Obviously if the team of 3 judges die you lose .... So more than one way to lose.
You set up a location track, then deal out encounter cards to either move on, gain experience (survival or negotiation), food, ammo or health. The encounter cards also help the perps move on, expend ammo/negotiation/health and gain radiation - which you can't get rid of and if rad tokens exceed health the character dies. There are also Psi events, now we did play this wrong (which may partly explain some of our lack of success, but not much), which means you add a card to the end encounters to play or take a health from Judge Anderson,  then each player takes a card, chats about it without being specific and the best (least worsed) is added to the end of the encounters.

We settled into a standard Street Judge level of the game and caught up and passed the perps, before sucumbing to radiation poisoning .... Then we tried the Cadet level and did worse .... So we tried it again and died .... Then again and the result was the same - death! By this time the pub had been forgotten (sorry Fudger) as we had to win a game!
Once more unto the breach we went this time playing Chief Judge (Hard) level, with a change on strategy - one of the judges (Giant) was going to take most of the hits and radiation - and we were doing to chase down Max.

This worked - victory!

The game plays well and Steedo and I enjoyed the challenge - hopefully it will get some more plays soon (before I forget the rules) and I will need to try it solo. But apart from character names and locations I am not sure it felt like Dredd (as I recall the comics from the mid eighties that are in the loft).  Anyway a good game!

Morts