Judge Dredd - Helter Skelter - a revisit

I put a game evening on the local gaming group, and the response was not massive. DK and Steedo (very late - domestic negotiations apparently), so initially I thought let’s get some miniatures to the table - a Rampant variant, Kings of War or even Maurice. If there had been 4 of us I was planning Risk - Europe, but it was not to be. However an unplanned early doors trip to the local put pay to the idea of a minis game - not enough set up time available. So off the shelves were grabbed Blackstone Fortress and Judge Dredd - DK hadn’t played Dredd (to be fair nor has anyone else for 2 or so years), so it was picked. 

We started with the base game - DK being Slaine, Steedo was Nikolai Dante and myself Jonny Alpha and the Strontium Dogs. 

Early game one with characters still to place - I think DK was making the early running, while Steedo was watching and working the game out. 

The end of the first game was a win to me with 3 tokens of reality and 2 kills - nice to get one over Steedo as he expected me to do a run for a token rather than beat up tone of his characters. However this was my high point of the night. 

For the second game DK the expansion king insisted on playing the Dark Judges. I changed to Dredd and Steedo chose the Strontium Dogs. The Dark Judges can only win by killing characters - which based on the comics is very thematic - killing a Dark Judge gets you 2 points, rather than the usual 1 for a character. 

This time Steedo was on it - I was too busy worrying about the Dark Judges who were doing a good job of killing Mean Machine and others. It certainly seems if DK would take this one, but Steedo spotted an opportunity and went for Judge Fire (I think) and took the victory - nice win. 

DK was a little frustrated, so want to play again with the same factions (I should have swapped to Slaine as the warp version might have been pretty good against the Dark Judges. Steedo was happy to go with the Dogs again. 

This time I went for a different strategy of getting all of the Justice Department on the board early, so they could swamp the others, especially the Dark Judges - unfortunately this didn’t work. I also made a mistake with Judge Giant - I should have pick up a token, when Judge Mortis moved into the same space as him, rather than move and shoot, as he was going to die anyway. Annoyingly Steedo learnt from my error - so when it happened to one of his characters, he at least got a point before death. 

This was a quick game with Steedo and myself keeping all of our characters fairly close together - I did this so I could use the group action ability of the Judges - but the cards didn’t come out in the right order. DK had also grouped his team, but on the opposite side to Steedo and myself, much to his chagrin. Steedo won this one with some quick grabs of tokens and killing Hershey and Anderson - I had a very poor game again - which I would like to blame on the cards …

Helter Skelter provided a good evening’s entertainment and makes me want to play it again - DK felt it was a bit like Unmatched, with your actions dictated by the cards in your hand. I might look to see if I can pick up some maps and/or adventuring parties from Wildlands (if your didn’t know Helter Skelter is a reskin of Wildlands), as the games are compatible.

We them spent about an hour and a half chatting before calling it a night. 

Morts

Progress on the Bavarians

I have started the last of the 15mm Age of Reason miniatures. The Bavarian sergeants and drummers for 4 battalions and the second battalion for the Kurprinz regiment (light blue cuffs). 

This last push is going quite well - current have 2 battalions of Schellenburg regiment on the painted table - dark blue cuffs. Hopefully these will be finished around the weekend - but we will see. 

Back to the grind stone. 

Morts

Light Infantry - Done

In the set of rules - Maurice, due to the fact they are really intended for the Austrian War of Succession or the Seven Years War, they have rules for light infantry. Because they also have imagi-Nations rules I thought I would get a light infantry unit for all the armies I have. 

So apart from some basing - here are the Saxon and Bavarian light infantry. Rather unimaginably red and green for the Saxons - green and light blue for the Bavarians. 

Rather pleasingly the Saxon army is finished - all needs basing now (a bit of a chore with these, but hey Ho). The Bavarians have got 4 infantry and 1 unit of hussars to do - then the 15mm early eighteenth century stuff is done.

Morts

Blackstone Fortress - the campaign creeps on ….. slowly

The collective managed to get together (I wasn’t ill) at mine and move the Blackstone Fortress campaign on a tad further. I decide to play any characters we had used recently, so DK was Janus Draik (he really wanted to be the robot again), Sylon was Amallyn Shadowguide, Steedo was the Ratlings - Rein & Raus and I was the navigator Espern Locarno.

Tiger-King was meant to be coming along, but some DIY set off his allergies - so bailed on us. But I suppose I didn’t have to be the baddies. 

We played a combat first against the Ur-Ghul - and with Steedo’s efficient use of rhe grapling hook wizzed about the board picking up the searchable items - which turned out to be 3 of the items to make the characters inspired - so that was a win. 

The first combat - we did some good tag teaming to kill off the monsters before they could do any damage. Then we got out of there. 

The second encounter was a challenge - where DK’s character picked up a wound, but it was pretty manageable compared to some. 

The third encounter was another combat - this time against the Negavolt cultists. DK with his wound rushed forward to grab a clue - still going on about his wound and to be fair being right about a recovery roll being a character action. I rushed out to get support DK and promptly picked up 2 wounds - one being critical. Anyway we managed to fight off the cultists, grab the treasure and run. 

A this point we called it on Blackstone and had a cheese break after sort the Precipice part of the game - buffing up the Amellyn. Again we were lucky with the hostilest we faced, as although they are tough there is a limit on the number of miniatures that the explorers have to face. The masses of traitor guard generally seem to be a tougher proposition. 

I retrospect I think we should have played the next encounter, I believe we have enough clues to attack a stronghold - which is exactly what the next game will be. Although will the team be tough enough. Should be interesting. 

The cheese break was supplied by Steedo - and was very pleasant. The plan was to get Valhalla to the table, with the Valkyrie expansion. 

However, my wife came back from watching Bridgerton with Mrs Steedo and things just turned into nice chat around the breakfast bar - the box for Valhalla got to the table, but no further than that. A good evening of banter and Blackstone Fortress. 

For Father’s Day with a little help from me (and Mrs Morts) I got the following from my absent daughters - thing 1 and 2. 

Another go at getting my pallet to see if it likes whiskey - last time I was getting there. Upped the anti with single malt this time. A toblerone because you can’t go wrong with a tolberone - end of. 

A Kings of War Drakon Lord - because I liked the miniature and I am a bit worried about how the dragon model I have will stand up to play as it is pretty old - nice miniature though. 

Morts

So bits have been painted

It has been back to work and still looking for a new job/career - basically source of income. However I have managed to finished some bits and bobs. 

A unit of Saxon cavalry - Roundway Miniatures (actually British Heavy Cavalry) for a GNW army. 

An ok job on these - not too happy with the flag, but the actual design is difficult to copy in 15mm. I will be basing the whole Saxon army when the imagination light infantry-skirmishers are painted in the next week or so. Just a few more bits to complete for the 15mm GNW are finished off. 

The final three Shieldwolf Valkyries have been completed - still experimenting with speed/contrast paints. 

Not sure they are speeding up the painting process - the speed paints. But I plan to do a whole army (celts) with them at some point. 

All done with bases completed - I think they’ll look ok on a battlefield. 

I my depressed state about missing out on UK GamesExpo, I picked up a pack of plastic cyclops by Dark Alliance - I have some of there not Lord of the Rings trolls. About a tenner for 12 minis - 3 each of 4 poses, not bad as they are the size of an ogre (mantic hero one for scale).

I would say that the quality of these is a step up from the trolls I have - sculpting and production. At least 6 of these will become monster infantry for a fantasy Greek army … and I am sure that I will find extra use for them in other games too. 

Planning a game this weekend - hopefully I won’t be ill this time!

Morts

The best laid plans ….

The better half and I have had this week off and on the whole it has been rather successful. 

Wednesday we did some gardening and now the garden looks nice and neat. Thursday we managed a 17 mile bike ride (the better half’s first real ride of the year - she does spinning, but that doesn’t count. Friday was a nice little hike around Lustleigh cleave.

The bridge at Hisley Woods - some rocks around Sharpitor. 

Hunters Tor - the view across to Easdon Tor - and the rather disappointing fort by Hunters Tor. 

Some challenging ups on this walk - over 1300 ft of elevation. But some stunning views. The Cleave Inn in Lustleigh also provided a quality baguette. 

Today I was supposed to be at the UK Games Expo, with some of the collective - I was looking forward to this, and for once had come up with a list of things/companies I wanted to see. Unfortunately over night I came down with a rather unpleasant stomach bug … so I had to bail out of the trip. Gutted!

Morts

Shieldwolf - Valkyries

I had a little time so I finished off 3 of the Shieldwolf miniatures Valkyries.

These are quite nice figures - the way the wings join the body are a little bit odd - I think it is where is the chain mail, armour and feathers. I did these doing an experiment with speed/contrast paints and normal acrylics. The speed paint flesh tone is not great - so I had to paint over them. Got three more to do, so will continue with the experiment.

Off to UK Games Expo at the weekend - got myself a list of people to visit and possibly things to get.

Looking forward to it.

Morts