Games Night

Saturday saw my turn to host a games night for the collective - a full turn out apart from Tiger-King, who apparently had something better to do with his time than play games. 

I had settled on playing Catan and Munchkin as fairly light social games, rather than a more brain burning game (and the fact that these are the only games which can accommodate 5/6 players). I had planned on using some of the scenarios from the Traders and Barbarians Expansion - but I only have the expansion for 4 players and am too tight to spend £25 on the 5/6 player expansion. However we did use the friends of Catan expansion (which was a good addition to the game). There was a short recap of the rules, as everyone had played the game before - although DK claimed ignorance of this at one point. We worked through the game fairly quickly - stopping for a Cheese board break, with garlic jams (thanks for those Steedo) and crackers - always a quality part of a games night. 

There was a couple of controversial moments in the game - one where I wouldn’t let DK pick up some missed ore in retrospect - fog of war and pay attention! This was where he claimed not to know the rules… and the moment where Sylon picked the bricks (which were in short supply) that DK had just collected - DK claimed that Sylon had seen what card to pick in the mirror … shocking allegations. A game full banter and in the usual way for the group how can you stop someone else from winning. The game was fairly tight with Steedo making the early running, but falling back with DK being the threat, until I got to the required 10 points with 4 cities and 2 points from Development cards. Go me!

I would like to get Catan back to the table with some of the scenarios from Traders and Barbarians, sometime (but a max of 4 for that - but that brings Risk:Europe and Raiders of the North Sea into the equation).

I was planning on Munchkin next (mainly because I haven’t really played it), but the rest of the collective decided that we would play Ticket to Ride Europe - which is a fine game. So we set about setting up and clarifying the rules - where there some dispute over the picking up of cards, but fortunately DK was on hand to read the rules out loud to show that he was wrong (sorry DK but it was funny). So we started off in the usual way of getting in each others way - again lots of banter as we raced for our routes. 

This time Steedo was out in front as the winner of this game, with Snake-eyes and myself following him. 

 At this point DK had to head off to a local festival to pick up his eldest sprog, but the rest of us (me obviously) stayed for another game - Snake-eyes,  had brought Skulls. Another entertaining game, with Steedo down to one card fairly quickly - which was a skull, which limited the bidding process somewhat. Snake-eyes came out on top in this game. 

A good night of gaming - not necessarily the most taxing of games, but they allowed us to enjoy the company and have a good laugh, without the Analysis Paralysis, which sometimes occurs with the “deeper” games. 

Morts

Hobgoblins done and some more Chaos for 40k

So I pushed on with the last 5 Hobgoblins from the Kickstarter - just need basing and varnish.

Pretty happy with these boys.

Unfortunately while checking rules for Xenos Rampant and 40k, it appears that units should be 10 or 5 miniatures strong. Unfortunately the Cultists of the Abyss and Traitor Guard from Blackstone fortress are 8 figures and 14 (16 if you include the 2 Blooded gunner figures I picked up a while ago) figures respectively, so I had to get a few more to get to 10 figures each. 

I took the opportunity to convert some into particular troops for the Blooded Kill Team. 

Top - a cultist converted into a Blooded Flenser on the left and a standard traitor guardsman on the right - just a small change to his gun. 

Middle - a traitor sharper shooter, with a cultist head and space marine sight on the rifle on the left. On the right a Corpseman with a stim needle. 

Bottom - 2 cultists to join the Cultists of the Abyss, no work done on these as they should just be able to join.

Got to assemble the Ad Mech breachers at some point.

Morts

More Hobgoblins

So after doing the heroes I thought I would crack on with a few more of the Satanic Panic Kickstarter Hobgoblins. I managed 7 over quite a busy week. These are ready for varnish and then grassing, but I think I’ll do that in one go when all are painted. 

The command group - well 2 of them - Discipline Master and Standard/Musician and a warrior with 2 handed weapon. 

The berserker figure with different load outs. 

Another berserker sort with different load outs. Quite fun to do - just 5 more to do and all the figures from the kickstarter are done, and I have another unit for Dragon Rampant or Kings of War. 

Got the collective over a game at the weekend - going for something light such as Catan and Munchkin.

Morts 

Hobgoblin Leaders

 Sitting in the painting queue for some time have been these 2 Hobgoblin leaders from the Satanic Panic kickstarter I backed a number of years ago. 

While I was pondering what to paint next I did these - need some varnish and  the grass sticking on. 

The warlord - nice simple to paint figure - happy with this chap. 

The mutant hero - this is based on the old Citadel C36 Gyokurinti the Strangler miniature http://www.sodemons.com/rhhobgoblins/c36hobgoblins/c3601-gyokurinti/index.htm

I think the kickstarter did give him a name. Again happy with the result on this one. I have 12 figures from the kickstarter to paint, so these might bump up the queue … not that the is a queue so to speak.

Morts

Some Painting and what to do next …

With most of the 40k and Starship Troopers completed, what to paint next. 

So I looked at the undercoated stuff and found the Actual last SST mini - a robo-dog and some Mantic terrain pieces, so I got the speed paints out and had a play - not the best work, but they will be find on the table. They all need some varnish, but the speed paints can be a little tricky and can lift a bit, so I will give them some more time. Once the varnish is done I put some grass on the bases as well. 

The question is what to do next? I have 3 Ad Mech Destroyers/Breechers to assemble and paint. There are some traitor guard/command to do - but I would like another 4 minis some that there could be 2 squads of 10. I might look at getting some of the Stargrave Scavengers to make up the numbers, come to think of it 2 couple of cultists would be useful too.

Then there are the other projects which have been on a back burner for a few years; 15mm 18th Century stuff for Maurice; 15mm WW2 stuff; Lord of the Rings; Some 28mm celts for Kings of War/Dragon Rampant/OGAM …; some Greeks for stuff …

But what to do next? Nothing jumping out at me at the moment … 

Morts

The last of the Starship Troopers

 So with a tad of effort I have painted the last of my Mongoose Mobile Infantry. They were done to match the ones which I painted for the first edition of Kill Team. 

The one in the middle is one of the originals - the 2 either side are the new ones - I do wonder if I should have tried to press mould the Cadian skull shoulder pouldron which I used on the unit a couple of years ago. Anyway they are done now - so 3 ten man squads of MI to fight the bugs!

Morts

Marauder Platoon

For Starship Troopers and obviously anything else I feel like (Xenos Rampant or Imperial Guard proxies in 40k) I have completed the M9 Chickenhawk Marauder Suits.

As a group of three models - 2 with utility claws and one with a flamer. I would like some extra warning transfers (I did try painting a few, but they were crap so I painted over them). 

The individual walkers - top is a complete Mongoose model and was painted a while ago (which is why the base is a slightly different colour) - I did add a little chipping when I was painting the other 2. The middle one is basically the same, but there was no rotary cannon on the sprue, so after a rummage in the bits box a bolter gun with magazine was stuck on as a proxy (the best option available). The bottom shows the flamer variant - here a Tau flamer has been used because the one in the original kit looked weedy and rubbish. I think the Tau stuff does match the SST ascetic quite well. 

Overall quite pleased with these - not the best kits in the world (need to do the feet on all of them), but they have turned out okay. Might even use them in a game sometime.

Not much sci-if left to paint … must resist the urge to buy more.

Morts

A Study in Emerald - a evenings’ distraction

So we travelled down to Kernow to Snake-eye’s crib for a quick game of a Study in Emerald. While we waited for Tiger-King to arrive, Steedo, DK, Snake-eyes and myself plan a couple of games of Skull (I believe that DK and Steedo won a game each). 

We settled down to start the main event game with a frenzy of beige snacks - never a good thing. 

Early game or start - the game is interesting as we have secret loyalties, which mean that if one of your “side” is in last position you will lose even if you have the most victory points - very frustrating. You also have to spend part of the game working out who is on your side  - well you should, but I was fiction what I was doing, so it was only later in the game that it became apparent who was what. You have to decide if you collect points by controlling cities (which can be taken away from you with their points) or to collect agents and cards to build your hand. 

DK made the early running followed by Steedo and my good self - Snake-eyes and Tiger-King holding off scoring for a while. The main scoring was by controlling cities, which DK getting to 21 points by around 10:50pm - might be an early night - 22 points needed to end the game for final scoring. But he was pegged back and the lead switched between DK, Steedo and myself, with Tiger-King stubbornly sticking to zero points. Steedo decided around this time to switch allegiance and come over to the loyalists to the cthulhu and Tiger-King left as the only humanist in the game. Now you would think that 4 versus 1 would give the advantage to the 4, but as we were all trying to win Tiger-King was all but ignored as we tried to get to the elusive 22 points to end the game and win. While we were distracted Tiger-King was moving around the board killing the Cthulhu royal and bagging potential points for the future, quite quickly - I tried to intervene but my vampire turned out to be a double agent and the killing spree continued … the penny them dropped that Tiger-King would win if one of use was in last place! One of the stupid rules is that if a loyalist to the Cthulhu is in last place, all the other loyalists are disqualified and the humans win - as there was only one of these left …

Anyway time was ticking on - approaching 1am, so Steedo played the great Cthulhu card and destroyed Paris and DK’s points there … I then triggered the all out war track, causing game end conditions … there had been a number of calls to make the game stop …

The final scores on the doors 29 to me, 23 to Snake-eyes and Steedo, 22 to Tiger-King and 19 to DK … a moral victory to me, but because the rules say that if a loyalist is in last place the rest are disqualified it was a technical (rules lawyer) victory to Tiger-King. 

A good time was had by all - an interesting and fun game, with lots of depth and complexity, but one that I think shouldn’t be taken too seriously. 

Thanks for hosting Snake-eyes and for Nic (his better half) for supplying pizza and coffee!

Morts