It’s been a while - things up in the air so to speak

Well I have been distracted recently - we did get a game of Nine Worlds in at Steedo’s about four weeks ago!

A nice game that we don’t play enough. 

It was a win for Steedo, then DK, myself and Snake-eyes at the back … we then played a couple of games of Valhalla, which were a win for DK and myself if I recall correctly.

I was out on the moor 3 weeks ago - managed to dodge the worst of the rain - it has been very wet recently.

A nice view of Buritor reservoir.

The reason for the distraction is I am planning to get out of education after 25 years and trying to find another job … so this has taken up my focus. Hopefully I will find something to pay the bills and I can get back to painting little bits of plastic and metal and playing games …

Morts

Xenos Rampant - Space Marines versus Bugs!

So I finally managed to get Xenos Rampant to the table in a IP mash up as Space Marines checked out an abandoned outpost only to be set up on by Bugs from the Arachnid empire … not Tryranids! 

I had set up the forces as Space Marines - Lieutenant (Elite), Dreadnought (Fighting Vehicle, with Walker), Intercessors and Assault Intercessors in squads of 5 (but with enlarged squad size, so 2 hits to remove a mini). The Bugs were a Tanker bug, 2 units of 5 warrior bugs, 1 unit of hopper bugs and a unit of Firefly bugs - all the units of bugs had swam, so again 2 hits to remove a model. Due to the actual size of the bug models I think that 2 hits seem right) - also they would take up a lot of a space! The game was played on my 150cm by 90cm table, with deployment in opposite corners. 

The battle of Compound F162 was about to commence …

I won initiative, but the relative speed of the bugs meant that they were get to the compound first. I did forget to put some rough ground on that table - although I’m not sure that it would have made any difference. 

The advancing bug menace!

The bugs are over the wall and will be Wild Charging next turn - they do suffer some damage from the intercessors and dreadnought.

Bugs - thousands of them (9 or 10 actually but it doesn’t sound as good), trying to overwhelm the dreadnought.

Things looked a bit dodgy for a moment - but the armour 6 on the dreadnought made it a tough cookie for the bugs - but it sustained 1 strength point of damage. The marines lost a man. The lieutenant was wandering why he had send the assault intercessors around impassable woods - especially as the hopper bugs had redirected to flank the marines by the wall.

The bugs have fallen back from their assault - time for a breather… I must admit that at this point I thought the balance wasn’t quite right and the Space Marines would have this game …

But no! The lieutenant blasts at the sand bugs - but the hoppers swoop in on the marines - with devastating consequences!

The lone survivor of the intercessor squad cowers behind the lieutenant … then things got very cinematic!

DK activation roll was snake-eyes (blue), which cost him a lot. As I would be able to shoot next turn with the lieutenant. The double 6 is the rally roll for the single marine - he knew no fear! Then the lieutenant obliterated the 3 warrior bugs in front of him … simples, a ready cool moment in the game.  

DK again swoops in on the marine leader with the hopper bugs, and almost straight out of the most cliched 40k story the power of the Emperor of Mankind channels through the warrior and with the slashing of his power sword the hopper bugs are removed from the sky (and game).  Brutal DK and the bugs had now lost 3 out of 5 squads … the planet would be cleansed!

However the bugs had other ideas and proceeded to spit acid at the lieutenant and surviving intercessor, which tragically overwhelmed these heroes on the Imperium.

But all was not lost as the assault Intercessors finally get into action - destroying the firefly unit of bugs … but hilariously failing their courage test and routing from the field of battle … these marines knew fear!

All that was left on both sides were the Tanker bug and Dreadnought …

They briefly tussled, but it was decided that it was time on the game … and a draw was called. 

Walking away, nothing to see here …

The game played fast and fun - I think we made a couple of errors when counting hits to strength points and with some courage tests,  but overall pretty clean rules wise. I think I called it right but buffing the units with increased squad size/swarm, but not increasing the model count. It would have been too crowded. The elite was tough and I am glad that the standard space marines were classed as heavy infantry - I had read that a number of people were running this in their games - also it does give terminators (if I get any) much room to be the bestest. The armoured vehicle - dreadnought again was a tough nut - as it should be - I didn’t give the tanker the anti-tank trait as it didn’t seem to fit the army theme (I might use the blaster bugs for that …). 

 As it was both DK and I had fun and the game played smoothly on the whole. Now I need to do stats for some of the other 40k models I have. 

We then had go at Valhalla card and dice placement game - a quick run through the rules and we were away. A pretty close game but I ran out 25-19. I really would like to play this with 3+ players, as I am sure it would change the dynamic. 

Morts

Voidscarred Corsairs - building the team

For Christmas I purchased myself the Voidscarred Corsairs Kill Team, but decided to put off the build until I had painted some stuff which had been hanging around the painting queue for a while (3/4 years). 

I decided that was going to have every option available in the team, so I bought 5 guardians off eBay to be converted into Corsairs - these are on the bottom row. Two are just basic head swaps and a green stuff fabric loin cloth as standard warriors. The female guardian is also a standard warrior with power sword and pistol. One is now a heavy gunner and the one on the right has now had the pistol removed and is a Kurnarthi (blade master/assassin) - which I read last night, so thought I needed to sort that out. I need to go around with some more green stuff before priming. Planning grey armour with purple fabrics, so there is a theme with my other Eldar.

Should be interesting to paint, but I am concerned that these will be like the Skitari with lots of annoying details.

Morts

Oldhammer Orcs - C15/16

The last of the old C series Orcs have been completed, along with some touch up of 3 who had been painted years ago - they needed to be matched, skin tone wise (they were very dark green). 

The Orcs above were new to me years ago off eBay - overall I am quite happy with these - the scimitar is another plastic fix as the original was long gone by the time I picked up the miniatures. 

The 3 on the right are Orcs I bought in the 80’s - they are the ones who needed a touch up on the skin tone. The one with the axe and shield (which is a modern plastic one) had a miss moulded left hand, hence the conversion by adding a shield. The archer on the left is the only slotta base Orc in the set. It has only taken 4 years to paint these from undercoating back in the first lockdown. 

I plan to get these based up with the Ral Partha Orcs and I will get a whole force photo. Might even try a game with them as well.

Morts

A return to the Heroquest Dungeon

The BHD invited the Heroquest crew - aka myself, Steedo, DK and the BUR around for another game. Available were Heroquest, They Come Unseen and Escape from Colditz (still in shrink wrap). With very little thought we went for Heroquest, as we knew the rules … I have a copy of They Come Unseen, but haven’t played it in a while (years) - I think I plan play that next with BND. 

So we’re resumed our characters and headed into the dungeon to rescue bold Sir Ragnar, who had been captured by the Orc Warlord. And believe it or not we stayed together as a team - with some excellent support for each other’s characters - ie healing potions and spells. 

The healing was needed as the two “tanks” of the party the barbarian and dwarf were rolling particularly poorly - I think that Steedo managed to roll 4 sets of misses consecutively! Some shocking dice. And it was left to the BUR as the wizard to take on the the denizens … and defeat them almost single handed. We managed to kill all the orcs in the area without the hostage - then the team headed over to the only part of the board unexplored (and therefore containing the hostage), and the MVP of the team BUR’s wizard died (although he was allowed to respawn after missing a turn … like we had to last game) - the only casualty in the game. We almost managed to cock up the rescue, when the greedy elf (DK) searched the room with Sir Ragnar and found a wandering monster (we killed all the other inhabitants), where the Dungeon Master (BND) allowed us to get the kill, so we could tool up for next time.

A good evening’s entertainment - although I think I overdid the beige snacks and chocolate this time. Must be stronger next time.

The next day I was out on the moor.

A nice day out - a cold southerly wind, but good visibility. TL Great and Little Mis from the south, TR Great Mis from the north, bottom pictures Dead lake (BL looking west, BR looking east) crossing area.

Morts

Some Orcs - very oldhammer

We have a busy weekend, with visitors from afar. However I did finish off some old Citadel C15/16 Orcs which were prepped back in COVID times … nearly 4 years ago! But they are of a much older vintage than that. I should go back and see when some of the others were done. I think I had planned to complete all of them (still 6 to paint and 3 to touch up) back in the first lockdown, but like all gamers I got distracted. The plan is to finish the last ones off before I start anything else (that means you Voidscarred Corsairs). 

Bases to be finished and they will join a Dragon Rampant/Kings of War force - and possibly a Warhammer army sometime. The orc in the middle has a plastic scimitar and spearhead as the originals hadn’t survived the test of time. 

My brother also brought over these little chaps - which he had cast over an open fire at a Viking museum. I did post out that they looked like Swedes rather than Danes from the Great Northern War - and with a little hunting I found the molds on the Prince August site - Karoliner 901 musketeers.  

I will dutifully clean them up and paint them as Swedes and return them to Denmark. 

While my siblings were about we had the opportunity to play a few games (not Valhalla) on Saturday evening. One night Ultimate Werewolf went down well - a number of games played after the rules were run through (which was quite amusing in itself). Then Pass the Bomb - a win to my sister - the timer does put the pressure on. Then another run out of Goat Lords - a sneaky stealing cards game - another victory to my sister, who did seem out of it for a long time. 

Good fun had by all - and doing rather well on the game front so far this year. BND has organised another Heroquest for the end of the week. 

Morts

Valhalla - dice placement game

My brother has popped over from Denmark for the weekend - so we took the opportunity to try out a game on Saturday morning. I chose to have a go at Valhalla - the game that DK got for me for Christmas. The game is a card and dice placement game. The objective of the game is to have the most points of warriors in Valhalla. So you draw warrior cards which you place on the board - when you attack you roll dice, with which you arm your warriors - the defender does the same and you compare the total strengths of the armed warriors and any cards played. If the attacker wins he places the his armed warriors in Valhalla and takes a shield from the opponent - if the defender wins he can choose to put his armed warriors into Valhalla (in a two player game I don’t know why you wouldn’t put them in), but no shield. 

The game plays fairly quickly, there are some interesting decisions you have to make, the more powerful the warriors the more dice you need to arm and the more points they are worth in Valhalla. There are are various bonus cards and ways to add to scores as you play. We played two games - a win to me 24-13 I think) and a win to my brother 29-28, mainly off my failed attacks. In both games I forced game end conditions by taking all the shields. Needless to say we played with many mistakes - partly down to having mixed in expansion cards in the base deck (I have now sorted them out a bit - I haven’t opened all the decks yet) and not knowing what all the symbols meant - a visit to BBG sorted this to some extent during the second game. 

The cards are of a really high quality with nice art, and we both enjoyed the game (well we played it twice) - I would like to play another again, I think it would work well with 3 or 4 players possibly being the best. 

Morts