27th May - 26th May Dropzone Commander vs Toby

I didn't get anything done this week hobby wise apart from airbrushing The Wife's second Shaltari purchase for Dropzone Commander. She's almost finished off her starter pack and I think they're coming along really well, there was a couple of colour scheme hiccups but they're all smoothed over now and I'm sure the next look will look even better.

Toby and myself have been going to fit in a game with my Scourge vs his Resistance but due to his lack of motorbike appropriate carry case it's been a little tricky lately, but he managed to get a hold of a car this week so brought his stuff over here (where it now lives for the moment). I hadn't got a game in myself for a while so it seemed like a good idea to me.

The first couple of turns were a little clunky as I refreshed myself with the rules again (I really should have re-read the rule book in the morning but......) but by the end the game was running smoothly, although there are a few things we're going to hit the forums to double check we had them right.










After only playing The Wife's Shaltari the stay-ability of the Resistance took me by surprise, with the few shots I managed to actually land (who'd have thought 2+ rolls would be so hard?!?) and then the fewer that damaged (again mostly 2+ or 3+) still leaving the vehicles on the table (damn these multi damage point vehicles in starter sets).

We called the game after the fourth turn when it was clear that despite horrible dice rolls I had managed to secure a victory with two markers that would be safely off the table before the end with no chance left for the Resistance to intercept. I may have been throwing skimmers into terribly open positions but I took out both of his Lifthawks leaving him unable to re-position or chase my withdrawing Marauder dropship or Invader APC. Unfortuately for me there was no way for my one remaining Anti-Air tank to do enough damage to his APC to prevent him from getting off the table although I did down the Lifthawk carrying it, the vehicle managed to avoid being destroyed in the crash and safely got off the table.

I didn't get enough shots to justify a full battle report this time but I did manage to capture some of the more cinematic moments

The Resistance Fighters take down the Marauder with a stream of rocket fire

The Scourge Warriors take aim on the Battle Buses below but fail to take a single vehicle out

The Scourge Reapers take out the first Lifthawk at the cost of one of themselves and the last Scourge Hunter

The Reapers close in on the withdrawing Lifthawk containing the objective carrying squad taking it out only to watch the APC continue off the edge

21st May - 20th May Follow Up Across the Dead Earth Game vs The Wife

After the first game two days ago The Wife has been keen to try again. Covered a shift at work Monday night so I ended up with last night off so The Wife being on her days off decided that it was the right time to take her vengeance.

Once again I let The Wife pick the deployment zone so we ended up in opposite corners. We rolled off for initiative and the game was away.



As per normal the first turn saw both of us heading towards the centre of the table and the loot. I decided to focus on the two piles in the open. The Wife also sent most of her gang towards the two of them and the handy building offering some firing lines, however her assault and medic gang members headed for the three storey ruins.

This time the second turn was slightly more interesting. While I managed to pick up the first loot token The wife was in a much better position with her assault member almost on loot herself and the rest of her gang, including the medic who started to come across the cover the flank and the central loot marker.

 The third turn saw the firefight begin. The Wife moved her sharpshooter up onto the roof of the building and into the covered corner, however my sharpshooter had been Watching and Waiting. His shot winged her but the tough woman kept on her feet and made it into her covered position, she then took a shot in return with deadly accuracy, but what's this!?! The bullet some how shattered (perhaps it was flawed on manufacture) on the four leaf clover my sharpshooter had found on the ground, saving him this time. The Wife's assault member finally finished scaling the ruins and grabbed the loot from the top of the building. My scout decided that it might be best just to get this loot back to camp now and took off back to the deployment zone. The Wife began to try to flank me with her scout on the far edge, but Angry Aaron my assault ganger charged in to hold her off. The Wife's leader bellowed for her sharpshooter to take another shot but this time her shot went wide perhaps she was flustered from the failure of her previous seemingly deadly shot. I decided to follow suit with my leader ordering Angry into a round of combat, which he ended up loosing but kept on his feet, he then moved to a better position and took a wild shot at the sharpshooter in her cover but failed to hit. The turn ended with my medic Villa GP grabbing the final loot marker, spotting his rival physician across from him he began a series of vile taunts but his female counterpart remained unmoved by his tirade and he pulled back to get some cover between him and the steadfast rifle toting woman.

 The Wife won initiative this time and her sharpshooter once again took a shot at her opponent, this time taking her time to aim and wham down he went the first knock down of the game. A cry of Medic! went out and as quick as that Villa was there. Cliff (my leader) gave the order and Villa quickly dragged the downed man out of sight of the deadly woman's line of sight. He followed this up with a quick shot that again failed to do anything but damage the building further so he pulled in to hug the wall. The Wife's scout pressed her advantage in the combat and managed to put Angry down and then took the time to finish the downed man, the first out of action of the game to The Wife too. Time to leave I was thinking. It took both his actions but Villa managed to get my fallen sharpshooter up and he quickly head for home deciding it was time to go. The Wife swung her medic around over the road and moved her leader up to the roof to offer more fire down upon my fleeing gang.

The next turn The Wife again won initiative and decided to begin by (heady with her success last turn) running her scout into combat with Cliff. The sheer immovability of the man and her fresh memory of the amount of damage the man had caused last time their gangs met caused the young woman to momentarily lose focus and she dropped both her weapons. Cliff took advantage of this and proceed to put the girl down and take her out with quick efficiency. The Wife's sharpshooter went into Watch and Wait and upon moving Villa was gunned down out of spite though my sharpshooter quickly dragged his fallen companion out of range of the woman's rifle. The final turn saw me get initiative and Cliff called it a day using his action to stream for the deployment zone and the gang quit the battlefield.

We rolled up the after battle effects this time just so The Wife could see how it worked. I got lucky with Villa having to miss the next battle and Angry suffering a minor wound that five credits would fix up. The Wife on the other hand would have learnt the lesson of pushing her luck with her poor scout rolling an arm injury and a permanent -1 to her melee, Cliff didn't appreciate being attacked I guess. Still she was quite happy to call it a victory though as she made me quit the table. Another great game. I haven't looked at how our rosters are meshing next week yet but hopefully another game of something soon. The Wife got a bit of work done on her Shaltari for Dropzone Commander so possibly another game of that.

19th May - Across the Dead Earth Game vs The Wife

We've been trying to fit this one in for a while, but with our rosters and the school commitments for our daughters it's been hard to find the time, that combined with the fact I was trying to get the Sisters of Acquisition painted up for her meant it'd taken a while to get things sorted out.

Today finally saw it all come together. I had a little play with the skills and load out of the models and matched the points values to my current gang. Then we set up the table and ran her through the rules and each characters strengths and skills, The Wife picked her deployment zone and I set up opposite her.

The first couple of turns we headed circled around the buildings in our way heading toward loot counters. Although both of us were moving sharpshooters to higher positions, I made use of my Leaders Orders, where The Wife opt'd to use the greater movement to head for one of the central loot tokens in order to grab and dash.

This opened up a great shot for my sharpshooter and taking advantage of an initiative win I took a shot at her leader. My first shot with my new sharpshooter, double sixes saw his Head Shot ability kick in and just like that she was out of action. A great start to the game for me, not the best for The Wife though. Her sharpshooter got into position but unfortunately she was just out of range to take a return shot at my gang member, and couldn't see anyone else yet. She decided to chance her scout at a grab at the same loot her leader had just missed out on and managed to get there and pick it up. My scout charged in managing to engage her but unable to start the melee.

Her assault gang member then risked a rush at her opposite in my gang. Unfortunately for her it didn't have the desired effect and ended up with her taken out by Angry Aaron's SMG. Sister Penny her medic rushed to her aid, got her up and tried to leave the scene but a hidden Tripwire halted her out in the open. My leader Cliff, took the opportunity to flank Sister Sledgehammer and put her back out of action with a shot.

The next turn The Wife moved Sister Penny back in to help her fallen sister, but alas she was unable to raise the women back to her feet (I double checked with her before she started the action but she was determined). Cliff took the shot on offer missing once but knocking her out with the second shot. The Wife's scout attacked mine, but after a drawn first round she manged to get the upper hand and knocked out my scout. The only catch being my sharpshooter then had an open firing line at her scout and he put her down next to her fallen opponent.

Her sharpshooter then took the shot at Angry putting him down, but Villa GP rushed to his aid bringing him back to his feet. He then headed toward his assailant taking cover underneath her out of sight. The game rolled to it's close from there with Cliff taken his two victims out of action and after a couple of turns of inaccurate shooting Angry Aaron finally managed to put The Wife's sharpshooter down.

We had a recap of the game at the end and The Wife worked out where she went wrong, so she's challenged me to a rematch sometime soon.

14th May - 12th May Across the Dead Earth Game vs Toby

Not quite as much gaming accomplished this week as planned due to The Wife getting a call in to work on Tuesday, I guess we'll just have to settle for more money to spend on the Home Raiders Kickstarter :).

However still managed to get in another game with Toby, this time we decided to head back to our mini trial campaign of Across the Dead Earth. The last game saw me handed a loss, thankfully due to the efforts of Villa GP my medic it was a loss without injury, but a loss none the less. Due to a bit of hobby time spent finishing off a few bits of terrain we had a slightly more cover heavy table to play on, although I there was still plenty of firing lines for Toby's sniper.

Cliff surveyed the area, after the touch up they'd received a few weeks back the gang needed something to celebrate and it looked like there could be a few bits and pieces lying around that would justify a bit of..... Damn! Looks like we've got some familiar company. "Look lively lads, it's time to get some back on these boys"

We deployed on the long edge of the table from each other. Toby won the initiative and the first turn saw us both heading for loot counters. We've house ruled that it takes an action to pick up loot so neither of us managed to grab any although we both were within range of tokens for the next turn.



The second turn saw Toby with initiative again, but at least I knew which two dice to put aside for skill test now :). His leader got to the loot but unfortunately for him there had been an information error and the loot was actually another full turn away from him stalling him slightly. Cara Loft my grunt with a pistol clambered into the ruined office block but fell a few inches short of her loot counter and leaving her in the open for Toby's sniper to take a shot on the following turn if he so desired this turn having moved and secured the first loot token of the game. On the other side of the table Villa GP had grabbed loot himself and Angry Aaron (my assault member) moved to the crumbling wall of the large structure in order to hoist himself up the next turn. Toby's dog this game was causing a great amount of amusement failing most of it's obedience rolls finding something in the hedges far more interesting than anything it's owners were saying. His melee specialist (currently merely a grunt with rage) headed quickly toward the office block and Cara, but he had forgotten one thing. Cliff was in position to cover the young gang member, and sprang out in her defence opening up his shotgun from short range with devastating results putting the slightly crazed man out of action.

The third turn again led by Toby had his sniper take a shot a poor Cara, but a gun jam saw that end to no effect. The plucky lass moved up to the window for cover and took a wild shot back ignoring the loot around her boots in order to try to get her own back. His leader headed into the dark interior of the building finally finding the loot he'd originally been searching for. Villa meanwhile dropped the loot off at the holding point and waited to see where he would be of the most use. Toby's dog finally deciding that the bushes weren't that interesting after all headed through the gates after his master, but found an interesting tree on the way and once again got distracted. Angry having climbed the wall secured more loot for me. The melee gang member failed to do anything but bleed a little more after after some thought Cliff decided he couldn't see any thing to stop him and finished the man off before heading round to flank the sniper who was distracted by pistol round and his own slightly non-firing weapon.

I finally won my first round of initiative here so Cara quickly grabbed the loot and attempted to get the hell out of the snipers vision, but the steep dropped stopped her in her tracks. Toby's sniper grinned as he finally worked out what was wrong with his rifle, or so he though. Should metal make that noise??. Toby had managed to roll double sixes and destroyed his weapon, the now useless sniper risked the jump and ran for the friendly edge trying to escape with the loot now to make up for his lack luster efforts. Villa moved up the road hoping to cut some one off if needed. Toby's gang leader opted to leave via the gate, possibly to support his sniper buddy. Cliff decided to head toward the pair loosing a round from the shotgun but his rival managed to duck behind the bushes narrowly missing getting hit. The dog headed for the last loot token making it, but once again the new tree distracted him. Angry decided to try his luck and went for a shot at the rival leader but the range proved to be too much leaving him with not much to do up on his ledge.

Again initiative was mine for what would be the final turn of this game. Cliff lead off the turn first taking a shot at the sniper putting the unfortunate man out of action, then spun and took aim before firing again putting Toby's leader well out of action as well. Toby's dog finally managed to not become distracted and grabbed the last loot counter and jumped the broken wall corner, but Angry seeing his chance to shoot something ran along the edge and finished the game putting the dog down with a well placed shot.

I got a little distracted with the last turn of the game so I didn't manage to get any more shots. The after action rolls saw two of Toby's gang members lose a permanent point of toughness and his melee specialist a point of move. His leader was lucky with a minor injury costing him only ten credits. With the replacement rifle poor Toby was done and down to twenty credits. My haul however from the game was much larger and saw some improvements to all the members of my gang along with a new recruit a Sharpshooter named Tucker.

Great game and I'm thinking we'll trail some passive income rules before the next one and draw up a rough territory map. The Wife is keen to get her first game in soon, so hopefully between her, Toby, The Uncle, The brother and I we should be able to work out some sort of casual ongoing campaign once we've got things down.

 I'll try and get the pictures of the finished Sisters of Acquisition up soon, but it may have to wait until my days off.

12th May - 5th May Deadman's Hand Game vs Toby (Outlaws)

Finally got a game of Deadman's Hand in with Toby last week. We'd grabbed him the Outlaws box as a Christmas present last year when we'd grabbed all our own gangs. A little bit of friendly pressure and sure enough they got pushed up the line in his painting queue and we're all ready for a game.

I got a few more building put together since The Wife and I had our first game, so the table offered a bit more cover than our previous game.

Once again the scene is set. The Pinkerton's having ousted the corrupt 7th Cavalry settled in and proceeded to clean up the streets. Unfortunately some of the more undesirable elements that had been cleared off  decided to band together and attempt to do some clearing out of their own.

The first two turns saw both of us spreading out through town. I sent my Detective with the Repeater up to the roof tops in an attempt to cover the street approach. The Special Agent along with a couple of detectives headed behind the main street buildings, while the Bounty Hunter took the remaining two and headed through the Sheriff's office in an attempt to surround the Outlaw force. I believe Toby had the same idea, but used the multitude of rear and side entrances of his table edge to get into some really nice firing positions.

It was during the third turn the the game began in earnest with shot's being fired on both fronts, but Toby's elevated covered positions proved to hard for me to crack with not a single shot of mine managing to place a single under fire marker on him, while his shooting proved to be effective leaving me with several gang members under fire. 

The forth turn began and after some woeful initiative cards on my end and some brilliant ones on Toby's I decided to take a rather large risk and played one of my face cards allowing me to swap three initiative cards between the gangs. Now having the bulk of initiative I decided to take a risk and rushed a couple of detectives out of cover and into point blank range of the Outlaw leader but only managed to score a single hit on the man, even after burning a second card for an additional modifier for all shooting against the man that turn. At the end of the turn the final result was one under fire marker for the Outlaw leader with three on my shotgun wielding detective, who had missed completely, and one downed detective after some devastatingly accurate return fire.

The next turn saw my lack of accurate shooting continue, while Toby managed to spread a few more firing markers around and would have taken another Detective out of the game if not for another card from my hand. The next turn saw my luck turn though. Finally I was landing some shots managing to take out his right hand man with a single shot and spreading some under fire markers across several more, while not taking too much fire myself. A couple of turns later things were in my favor with myself short the poor shotgun wielding detective who just could not land a shot down along with the Bounty Hunters second back up man. However I'd removed Toby's entire flanking operation with some fancy shooting from the Special Agent and his partner. And finally with the last action of that round my Detective on the roof top who had yet to hit a single target in the game thus far. Finally found his range and put two incredible shots into the Outlaw leader putting him down and sending the Outlaws packing.

Another good game. I have to admit even though the dice gods were against me from the start combined with a couple of tactical blunders, having already had a game in me and making use of at least one of my cards each turn definitely gave me the edge on this one. Toby enjoyed it though so along with The Wife and hopefully both of The Daughters I should be seeing this on the table a bit more as something in the quick afternoon game category.

Hobby-wise I've finished off the Sisters of Acquisition for Across the Dead Earth today, and I think they've come out fairly well, although to be honest I did rush a little to get them finished off. I've got a fair chunk of the State finished as well along with the Trader's Caravan so with any luck I'll have the painting table cleared next week ready for my next big project. I've decided it's time to stick together rather large amount of various zombies I've got for a few reasons. One I want to have a play with the sollous rules for Across the Dead Earth, Two getting them finished and stored away will help clear up the miniature shelves a fair bit and Three I'm intending to do the bulk of the painting with the airbrush so I can play around with some different techniques cause let's be honest they're zombies so of course they'll look a bit ratty :).

Just finished playing the second installment of our micro practice Across the Dead Earth campaign with Toby tonight too so expect another battle report soon along with pics of the finished Sisters

5th May - Completed Across the Dead Earth Engineers and Nurse Penny

Put the final touches on my entries for the Across the Dead Earth Facebook group painting competition this morning. Then after a trip out to watch The Eldest compete in the district cross country (10th and onto the regional comp this year thanks for asking :) ), I came home and after a spray of matt varnish I took a few shots to post up.

I'm very happy with how they all came out Engineers and Nurse Penny both. I've taken the opportunity to play with some skin tones, washes and highlights and it was worth the time spent I think. As I painted her up I wasn't as happy with my choice of Penny as my single figure entry but after finishing her off and getting the basing done I think she's finished up rather well after all. Unfortunately the transparent paints I'd ordered to get her stockings done haven't arrived yet and as I'll be at work everyday from now till after the competition closes I played around with some very thinned out paints and basically just washed over a few layers which while not showing up as well in the photos as in the flesh... metal, has left me with a pretty close approximation of the sheer effect I was going for.

I've kept my usual AtDE basing on the Engineers but on Penny and I'll continue with the rest of the Sisters of Acquisition (who are on the painting table in various stages of completeness along with The State) I've gone for a roadway look which I think once I've got all the girls complete will give them quite a nice thematic basing and tie them all together rather well.

The Engineers

Barnabus the Leader

Watt the Medic

Daisy the Heavy, Tricky the Scout and Chinny the Sharpshooter (L to R)

Nurse Penny

 The Engineers catch Nurse Penny out in the open apparently all alone.

That's about it for now. Going to head back downstairs and get the table setup for a game with Toby tonight. Pretty certain it'll be either a game of Deadman's Hand or Across the Dead Earth or time permitting maybe both.