Mortal Realms

Well I managed to pick up a couple of copies Mortal Realms - for the Chainrasps, wraiths for Kings of War or Dragon Rampant.

I have another copy on order - so I will have 30 wraiths, 18 dice, 3 rulers and 9 Stormcast eternals - not sure what to do with these to be honest. I was thinking that I could convert them into Grey Knights for Kill Team ..... But I am not sure.

Morts

Twilight Imperium 4 - Annual Championship in Cornwall

The collective headed down to Snake-eye's place for the annual Twilight Imperium game - who would be crowned champion for 2020 and be the proud owner of the trophy?

Steedo didn't look after in very well this year.
The journey into the wilds of Kernow involved a stop at Strawberry Fields for a quality breakfast!


And if your were DK 16 orange Rennie!! We did check this the max for 24 hours - not the 24 minutes DK!

We went for the same drafting process (adapted for Risk: Legacy) we used last year. The races chosen were; The Naalu (Sylon), The L1Z1X Mindset (DK), The Federation of Sol (Snake-eyes, who took it to annoy DK), The Univerisites of Jol-Nar (Steedo) and The Clan of Saar (myself).
Then we set up that Galaxy - where we did make a little error placing tiles so that Steedo and myself had very poor starting systems. There was some brief discussion about whether or not to play to 10 or 14 victory points - but it was agreed LAST YEAR that we would play to 10 after the 14 point (10 hour) epic.

We then got down to playing - it was a very close and tense affair with a few early VP points scored and DK spilling coffee over his cards. This meant that DK missed picking up the technology card, as he thought someone else had it (which they didn't) and it led to Steedo and myself missing out on the secondary action of Sylon's politics card (This meant for me I couldn't score a hidden VP) - Frustrating as it was, we couldn't replay and rerun the process - A fog of war moment!

Then Snake-eyes making a quick rush for Mecatol Rex. Which he was able to reinforce with air drops. DK tried to blast Snake-eyes off the capital, but he was unable to (partly to due to not having a bonus card, as Sylon was still drying off DK's cards after the coffee incident). So Snake-eyes picked up a couple of VP. The next turn saw DK having to keep his ships in orbit around Mecatol Rex and Sylon allowing Snake-eyes collect another couple of VP! Madness I say!

The next turn saw myself take Macatol Rex from Snake-eyes - with a cunning move using the Saar's special trade agreement card in concert with Steedo. However for some reason I allowed DK to have the Impeial Action on this turn - Stupidity I say! This gained DK 1 VP and COST me 2 VP!!! D'oh!

Meanwhile Steedo was quitely gaining VP and Sylon planets. We also got to vote on the Dreadnoughts weapons limit (Last year DK passed it and caused such pain to Snake-eyes and myself), but "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and space is very cold" to para-phase Khan in Star Trek 2.

The game was going at a good pace for us - with Snake-eyes and Steedo taking the lead, closely followed by DK, with Slyon and myself chasing the pack. I was frustrated as I was holding Mecatol Rex, but I was being thwarted in my attempts to get hold of the Imperial card! Objectives to score and points for holding the capital all being missed!

The last turn was a mad rush to grab points - the key to who was going to win, was going to be who was going to score first (how Steedo won last year over DK). For the last turn Snake-eyes was going to scored first ....... then Sylon then played a card which meant that Snake-eyes wouldn't have the Tactics and Strategy tokens to score the 2VP he needed to win. Steedo was looking confident .... was he going to retain his title. I was charging around capturing planets (which gained a trade good - needed for an objective). Fortunately the DK played the Leadership card which allowed Snake-eyes to recover the Tactics/Strategy tokens for the win! The final scores on the doors were Sylon 6 (chould have done more with his position), DK 9 (and desperate for promissory note which no one would give him), Snake-eyes 10 and the WIN, Steedo 9 (but potentially 13 I think) and myself 6 (but potential 9 if I could have scored - and I also had enough for another point, but you can only score one point at a time).

A very good game (probably the best we played) and the quickest at 7 and half hours! Still only want to play to 10 points! And a first win for Snake-eyes - well played

After this we played a game if Escape from the Aliens from Outer Space, an old style hex grid based game, which DK won. A bit like battleships - hmmmm. Probably needs another game.

Then we played a game of Mission Red Planet - I like this game but didn't have a good game (too tired is my excuse), but a better game than DK (too much Lambrini and Rennie I guess), We all thought that Sylon had this one in the bag, but Snake-eyes had it at the end!

The most little astronauts we have ever had on the board.

An enjoyable day and well done Snake-eyes.

Morts

Risk - Europe 3 players variant

So after about 2 years of hibernation we managed to get Risk - Europe to the table again. The game is written for 4 players - but as only myself, Steedo and DK were playing we had to use the 3 player variant, which involved having a mercenary army (green in the pictures), who are controlled by the first player for a round (8 turns of playing order cards, before battles are resolved). The mercenary army starts with 2 cities and 10 footmen randomly chosen.
DK was the purples who placed first(By winning the bidding) in London, then myself (blue) Rome and Steedo Berlin (orange). However I win the bid for the bid for First Player.
The first round saw me reach the heady heights of 6 crowns - needing 8 for the win. However this made me the threat! So they turned on me... I had also made a tactical error by not heading east from Rome, but had headed north to Zurich (only for Steedo to take it).
I had manoeuvred and reinforced the mercenary forces into good positions against Steedo, but less so against DK.

Picture shows action during the at the end of the first round (might be second round) as DK had taken Madrid from me, and the Mercenaries were about to take Berlin from Steedo. By this point Steedo has caught me up, with DK close behind.
The second round saw DK as the first player - so controlling the mercenaries. This round saw major expansion in the east by Steedo and DK getting plenty of tax revenue as he had linked his territories and myself being reduced to Rome and a couple of same enclaves in Europe (and less victory points than the mercenaries..... The embarrassment of losing to the Non Player!).

The start of the 3 round saw DK in an almost unbeatable position, but Steedo in charge of the mercenaries..... DK made a rush for Athens only for Steedo and myself to come up with a blocking plan with the mercenaries out on Constantinople, and a diversion attack on Dublin from Scotland.
So while I was diverted by trying to stop (and extent the game to a 4th round) and DK by trying to win, Steedo manoeuvred the mercenaries out of a couple of cites allowing then to be taken easily by his forces .... and DKs attack on Athens failed, and the purchase of a second crown card, Steedo won with 8 crowns - hopefully not foreshadowing of next week's Twilight Imperium epic ....

A really good game, plenty of talking points - DK had 18 coins, more than enough to win the  game by buying crown card. DK also ran out of footmen because he wasn't buying the Seige engines (which are really good, but you do need to make sure you have some footmen to take the hits in combat). I think Rome is a city to go for at the end rather than the start, as although it is worth 2 crowns (all other cities are worth 1), the bonuses from other cities are better - extra troops or discounts, which are useful earlier in the game. I think Snake-eyes had the same problem the first time we played. The mercenaries were an interesting addition, well used by DK and Steedo - after I had got them into position (having 1st player early on did not benefit me too much). DK's well defined and linked empire was impressive and came so close .... Steedo's build up in the northeast was well managed.

Next time we will use the mission cards instead of being able to buy crowns -  should be interesting.

Good game - hopefully we can fit in another game (either 3 or 4 player) before the end of 2020.

Morts

New Year - so much to do.

Well the new year is upon us, so looking forward to lot to of "jokes" about twenty-twenty .......
This holiday season I have managed a few games - a quick (8pts for victory) game of Catan with the better half and offspring.... which the eldest sprog won. But they were up for a game, so a win there anyway.
Then today eldest sprog, her other half and my other half managed a game of my first edition of Dungeonquest .....

A classic dungeon crawl - which managed to defeat us all and keep its treasure! So a bit of fun after New Year's Eve involving 4.5 pints and a bottle of red wine ..... so I'm feeling a little tired.
For Christmas I picked up a copy of Frostgrave - The Perilous Dark and the latest Miniature Wargames. Hopefully I might get some more games in - possibly some solo ones.
On the horizon is the annual trip to Snake-eyes for the Twilight Imperium championship ..... A report will follow (I am not expecting to win .... again).

The new year does mean I have to look at all the stuff I have and decide what should be culled from the collection as some of it hasn't been played with in years ..... And consider what will be played over the course of the year. I will have to ponder on this.

Morts

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