Tuesday 28 April 2015

28th April - 27th April Deadman's Hand Game vs The Wife

Well I finished off The Wife's 7th cavalry gang for Deadman's Hand during last week and have now started up on my entry's for the Across the Dead Earth Facebook painting competition. My gang entry (the Engineers) is almost complete and I've made a start on my single figure (Penny, the nurse from the Sisters of Acquisition) as well as making headway on the rest of Penny's fellow gang members and my State gang from my original kickstarter package.


With her gang finished the only thing to do was to have a game to celebrate! This was the first game of Deadman's hand either of us had played. I picked it up last year as themed Christmas presents for the family after the wild west game at The Uncles last year. The Youngest got Indians, The Eldest Banditos, The Wife as you see above and I grabbed the Pinkertons. I also grabbed a 4Ground bundle to go with it although I've still got three buildings left to assemble, but I'll have them knocked over this week around work hopefully. I just went for a simple theme of "This town ain't big enough for the both of us", although I'm thinking we'll play through some of the scenes from the rulebook for a bit of campaign play.

The rules are nice and easy with a card based initiative and a hand that gives you some limited influence on the game combined with a single die (d20 or d10 depending on action) mechanic for shooting, hand to hand or morale actions. The hit mechanic is simple with a successful shot/strike applying under fire markers with a model able to take so many depending on his profile. An action can be spent to remove markers enabling you to make some risky actions and being able to spend a turn recovering from your bravery to continue on, which encourages some heroic (read desperate) maneuvers at times.

The game started with both of our gangs deployed in opposite corners of the table. The Wife opted to keep fairly grouped for the first couple of turns while I sent my gang running off in pairs in various directions with my repeater armed Detective (base gang member) hanging back behind a hedge to offer some covering fire.





A few turns in and we'd begun to exchange fire with my Special Agent (Boss) heading into a building to take cover from some carbine fire from The Wife's Troopers (base gang members). Another of my Detectives had rushed across the street taking a shot at a Trooper managing to get an under fire token on him then ducking into the Sheriff's office to take cover from any returned fire.


The Wife then started to have a bit of a surge, landing quite a few good hits on my detectives not enough to remove anyone yet, but enough to slow me down. But then she made her only major blunder of the game forgetting I had my Bounty Hunter (adv. gang member) sitting on the edge of the sheriff's office as she ran her Indian Hunter (adv. gang member) into point blank range for me where I quite happily took her offering and gunned him down. Across the other side of the board she did manage to lock me down with some well positioned Troopers, but was unable to land enough shots to put anyone out of action.


I decided then it was time to pull a risky move and sent my Special Agent across the street pistol blazing backed up by a Detective with a shotgun, of course they both missed wildly and ended up out of ammo (requiring an action on their next activation to reload). The Wife took a few shots managing to get a single hit on the Detective but was unable to do enough to make me regret my gamble. Several turns later saw my Detective taken out of the game but with help from the flank I'd managed to take out three Troopers and only had the one hiding in the back to deal with on this side. However this concerted action cost me my Bounty Hunter as The Wife's Officer (boss) gunned him down before he knew what hit him. Her remaining Trooper got a sight on the now solo Detective at the Sheriff's office and began to take shots.










The Wife managed to pass her Big Nerve test so the game continued but it was the beginning of the end for her. My Special Agent finished off the Trooper in the building. The Wife sent her Officer across the street toward my repeater toting Detective and not to be caught out I took a quick shot but both of our shots went wide. The final real activation of the game saw another Detective manage to get three under fire markers on the remaining Trooper. The Wife decided that yes this town definitely wasn't big enough for the both of us at this point and pulled out to lick her wounds and return another day to try to settle the score.

It was a good fun game and I'm hoping to get Toby round with the Outlaw gang we got him for Christmas to see how they play.

Monday 20 April 2015

20th April - 19th April Saga Game Vs The Wife & The Youngest

While I'm saving to build a few gaming tables for downstairs The Wife and I decided to invest in a couple of collapsible ones to fill the area for the time being. So we figured what better way to break them in but a family game of Saga. The Youngest was keen, but The Eldest was tired from her science club ball the night before so opt'd to have a bit of a nap instead.

I'd setup for a crossing the ford scenario so kept the table as it was but I ended up playing all seven points of my current Viking options vs the combine eight points of The Wife's Anglo-Danish and The Youngest's allied Irish warband.



Luckily I won deployment and took the side of the table with a nice open center for my thrall archers. I chose to just try to hold the bridge and The Youngest's Irish while attempting to break through The Wife's Anglo-Danish. This led to my Warchief and the bulk of my Hearthguard to hold the bridge with a warrior unit to soften the job. Over at the ford the Beserkers would be attempting to punch through the enemies line re-enforced with two groups of warriors. The Thralls would be sending fire as needed to assist either side.




The Youngest won initiative followed by The Wife, leaving me to act last. The first turn saw us all jockeying for position. Although I did push my warriors forward on the bridge early to try to thin out the Irish slightly. Over on the ford The Wife had moved a unit of her hearthguard up to challenge the ford, screened by some warriors on their flank. I managed to pick off two of the warriors with my thralls, then proceeded to throw the beserkers at her hearthguard losing two of the savage warriors but cutting her unit down amidst the shallow water.










The Wife then threw her warriors at the beserkers but they managed to repel them. The Irish hearthguard then smashed into my warriors on the bridge decimating them. I pulled them back and moved my first hearthguard unit up and pushed them back off the bridge. But the next turn saw them felled to the man by Irish javelins. 



After expecting the beserkers to fall in the previous turn they performed above expectations felling a few more Anglo-Danish souls before finally succumbing to the Danish axes of The Wife's second hearthguard unit although they managed to take down one final man with them.


The Youngest wisely decided it was time to re-enforce The Wife's now tattered position as I begun to send my warriors pushing my advantage. The warriors held the ford pushing back unit after unit of enemy fighting men (and dogs). The final two men of the unit finally stepped back, opening the way for the final full strength unit of warriors to push forward were they then felled the remnants of The Wife's hearthguard. Meanwhile on the bridge she tried to push through my hearthguard but their iron resolve and fierce nature meant they not only held their position while felling two of the Irish fighting men but did so without losing a man.



The final turn saw The Youngest unable to push past the iron willed Vikings on the bridge. The Wife was unable to do much over on the ford. My final turn saw The Wife make a mistake and cancel my thrall's activation, which then free'd me up to wipe The Youngest's last remaining war dogs. And with my final activation of the game managed to get three warriors across the table which gave me the game if only just.


We all had a great time and now we've got the tables downstairs we're intending to get some more games in. No more having to clear off the table for dinner each night :).



Sunday 19 April 2015

19th April - 13th April Crom game at The Uncles

The Daughters and I headed over to visit The Uncle during the school holidays as we tend to do and he had decided to trial out the Crom system of rules with us. Crom is a skirmish rule set located in the Hyborian age (Robert E Howard's setting for Conan for any poor souls not in the know). It works off an allocated dice pool system. Due to some technical difficulties with his printer we didn't quite have all the pages printed out and downstairs but movement is based on the total of your allocated dice and most other actions are based on a success/fail system.



The scenario saw The Youngest and I sneaking in to a Shemite city in an attempt to free Conan and then to stop Thoth Amon from raising and control a demon to do his bidding. The Eldest decided she wanted to play the evil side so took control of Thoth Amon's trusted guard as well as several minor henchmen and lackeys.




We began the game with The Youngest infiltrating the city disguised as a simple goat herder and myself snuck inside a wagon bed. The game played through rather rapidly with The Youngest quickly heading to the returning apprentices lab and almost destroying it while fighting off hordes of guards before she could brew the potion required by her master to complete the summoning. I mean while played a secondary role recruiting the aid of a couple of helpful locals and heading into a secret tunnel to rescue Conan, although I was lucky enough to run into the apprentice sorceress and dispatch her leaving the brewing to a lesser apprentice who never quite managed to brew the potion.

 









Thoth Amon's personal guard then returned and managed to subdue The Youngest though she managed to slip her guard and proceeded to lick her wounds for a few turns and regain her strength. Myself and the newly freed Conan proceeded to fight our way out of the front door of the prison and head to finish the task. The Youngest then chose to return from hiding and rushed ahead taking out the pre-occupied wizard and winning the game.










We all enjoyed the game and we're thinking about getting another one in when we all have a chance to get together again. The Wife, The Youngest and I just finished a game of Saga downstairs so expect another battle report in the next couple of days :).

Tuesday 14 April 2015

14th April Finished Panzer IV and 250/1 Halftrack

Been moving a few rooms around this week moving all the games and the last of the miniatures downstairs and shuffling the lounge room around, but I've still managed to fit in a fair amount of hobby time and even a game.


Painting wise I've managed to finish off my Panzer IV and 250/1 Halftrack for my Bolt Action Germans. Used mostly the airbrush on these ones and I'm really happy with the final products.






I've also almost finished off The Wife's 7th cavalry for Deadman's Hand, while I've been using the left over paint on my palate to make some progress on the trader's caravan for Anyaral. I'm going for a mis-match bright colour scheme so rather than trying to do it in one sitting I've been painting random sacks, etc as I go and it's starting to come along rather nicely. Hopefully I've have it finished in the next couple of week.


Once The Wife's force is done I'll be putting some Across the Dead Earth minis back on the painting table to paint up my entries for this months Facebook competition with the engineer's as my gang entry and Nurse Penny out of the Sisters of Acquisition as my single figure.

The Daughter's and I headed over to The Uncle's house yesterday and got a game of Crom in. For those not in the know it's a skirmish set of rules based in the Hyborian age (Conan). It's not a bad little system with character's having a dice pool that they assign each turn to movement, combat or special. I took a few pics and a few notes so I'll get to work on getting a battle report up in the next few days.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

7th April - 6th April 500 More Points of Scourge

Finished off my next five hundred points of Scourge for Dropzone Commander, and I'm working on what I want to add on next. My mate Toby has made a heap of progress on his resistance and we're hoping to get that game in soon (He chickened out of our game the other night after I beat him in Dreadball and The Youngest took out two games of Cthulhu Fluxx). The Wife's Shaltari are on the table at the moment and they should be ready for priming soon, then it'll be time for a larger game including the command decks this time.

Intruder Betas and Prowlers
Prowler Pack
Marauder Dropship
Slayer Squadron


Desolator
Desolator
Reaver Heavy Gunships

Current Scourge Swarm