21st December - Saga Game, Hobby and Christmas Tournament Preperations

It's been a bit of a busy week with the Christmas build up at work but I've persevered with hobby along side it all.

I was up at The Brother's house on Saturday for The Sister-in-Law's birthday so we decided to get a bit of a game starting before lunch and then finishing it off after we'd returned. The game had The Brother, The Eldest Nephew, The Eldest and I face off in the A Feast for the Crows scenario.

The game began with the normal first turn moving spree. The Nephew used his second turn to send his rather heavily armoured Beserkers across the table at me and even though most of his men were swiftly recruited to Valhalla only six of my brave Warriors fell. On the far edge of the table the Pagan Rus and Norse Gael quickly closed on each other.

The Norse Gael warriors closed on the Pagan Rus but fate was not with the brave souls on this day and while they did bring down one stalwart Rus Hearthguard only one Dane axe wielding man survived to pull back from the fray. On the other Norse Gael flank my warriors slammed into The Eldest's other warrior unit crying out to Freya and Ullr. While two of my men fell they pushed back the Norse Gael leaving four of them lying dead at the site of the skirmish. The Nephew then closed the turn with a cheeky Loki taking my surviving two warriors from his previous attack.


The Brother took the opportunity offered to him and charged The Eldest's exposed warchief taking him out and unfortunately for my daughter her cursed dice continued as she failed to kill any of the attackers. The Norse Gael warriors hurled their javelins at my warriors felling two more of the brave men. This was followed up by a brutal attack killing two more of my men with her losing one of her hearthguard. I retaliated with a charge from my own hearthguard cutting her remaining hearthguard down.

I decided to take the offered bait from The Nephew charging my Beserkers into his Hearthguard the brutal combat ending with all men lying dead on the ground. I then decided enough was enough and put The Eldest out of her misery for today's game finishing off her remaining warriors and vanquishing her from the field. The Nephew then decided to send his warchief over in an attempt to draw me out for a duel, but with the constant use of his fatigue the poor man fell short. With the generous amount of fatigue on the board thanks to the combats The Brother finally pulled Endless Waste out of his arsenal and began to reap the victory points.

The last couple of turns had the Great Winter roll in limiting all movement. I looked at closing on The Brother's forces but they were sadly out of reach. The Nephew Loki'd my second tattered warrior unit and I finally gave in and closed on his warchief although I brought a handy group of hearthguard along with me and at the cost of one of my loyal followers took out the rival warchief.

The final score saw The Brother take victory with sixteen victory points although I wasn't far off the pace with twelve. The Nephew got a respectable ten and unfortunately The Eldest only managed four and a half, but I have to point out that her dice were heavily cursed on the day.





Painting wise I took a break from my Abyssal Dwarves and knocked over a Jotum for my Pan O Infinity faction. I'm not sure if it will ever actually be played with now though as The Wife has decided she likes the look of the Tohaa which we've now bought the bulk of a first attempt at a 300 point force.

I've also got the table's set up for the Christmas tournament. It's looking like there'll be ten of us playing so I've got five 3x3 play areas set up. I'm thinking we'll be running two boards as Crossing the Fords, two as just a standard fight and possibly one as Sacred Ground.

Finally I've almost finished a small stone circle for the Sacred Ground board, I just want to add a few vines or some poison ivy to the stones themselves and I've gone back to my Abyssal Dwarves starting work on my gargoyles.

18th December - Finished Tables

One last days work then some driving and the tables are done (just have to get time to paint/stain the legs and shelving but that can happen when/if.. it does). Had The Youngest helping this time round and she did a great job.

We got two tables over in the end on Monday as The Wife's car was in getting hail damage repaired so I had to duck out after loading the trailer with the other two tables and Toby got held up doing some running around for his parents (who had graciously allowed us to work out of their garage, use the tools and store the tables there for the last three weeks, a big thank you to them for that), but two was enough for us to get out all my newly arrived second wave Cthulhu Wars for games night and fit it all nicely with room for all.

Toby came round the next morning and dropped off the last couple of tables, but I was up at The Brother's house getting in a game of Saga (battle report coming in the next few days once I get some time) so while he got one in the table with the battle board shelves was too much for him so I finally got it in the house yesterday. Now I have to rearrange a few things downstairs to make it all fit a bit nicer but I'm happy to have them all here all ready for Christmas.

Two, that's right two different types of shelving!!

8th December - Another Table update

Spent the day working away until we had to leave to pick The Youngest up from school, but we got a good solid effort in again on the tables with The Wife also coming along this week to give us a hand {which she bloody well should seeing as it's her present to me and all :) }.

Toby and myself put together the last table with the slated shelving for my Games and Gears battle boards while The Wife and The Eldest put in some hard work sanding and staining the table tops.

Toby demonstrating proper sanding
techniques to The Eldest

And away she goes

Getting that nice smooth finish

The Wife getting things done

Boxing in the table for shelving

Now a lesson on staining

I think they've got it

Now after we left Toby unbeknownst to me continued on as I had mentioned I'd love to get them home next week for games night (I received wave two of my original Cthulhu Wars pledge so that's what we're playing with next week), plus it's time to ramp up our practice matches for the upcoming Christmas Saga tourney and this is now the state of the tables.

Basically leaves us with a light sand and another coat of stain, then some paint on the legs to get done next Monday then the trip (or two) to bring them home. Again a big thank you to Toby for his efforts and of course The Wife and The Eldest. Next week we put The Youngest to work as well :).

8th December - Painting, Basing and The Family begins Saga practice

It's been a pretty busy couple of days in the household hobby wise. I decided to really push to finish off my Abyssal Dwarf Immortals/Blacksouls and at the same time did the finishing touches of my Frostgrave Thaumaturge and apprentice.

Christian the Humble
Thaumaturge Extraordinaire
and Worker of Miracles 

And his apprentice Fred

I have to admit these aren't the best photos I've taken but I figure they'll appear again in another Frostgrave report at some stage

Observing the field

I decided I wanted to keep the lava feel to my Abyssal Dwarf force that I first started in my Lesser Obsidian Golems, but after seeing some of the bits and pieces The Brother has done with pumice pastes I decided to give it a go. I'm happy with the final effect and I think I'll be continuing with the pumice over the mix of basing gravel I used on my first attempt.

While I've been doing this The Eldest has had a couple of games of Saga against The Youngest which she won 15 to 11 though The Youngest had forgotten some of the rules for her Irish with their Champions so they're intending to have a rematch in the next day or so. Her second game was against The Wife and ended after a complete bloodbath with both sides left with the warchief and a man or two but again she nabbed a victory 15 to 14. In The Brother's house The Eldest Nephew has been challenging his father to game after game trialing several different factions but I have been informed today has finally tasted victory pushing past Welsh lines with some brave Viking warriors and pushing across the ford winning the day.

Heading back to Toby's today to get some more work done on the tables. Hopefully we might get a couple completed to the point we can bring them home this week.

3rd December - Hobby Update

So I haven't really got a lot of gaming in this week, although The Eldest and I did manage to get in the first three scenarios of the Malifaux stater box more on that to come. I've basically either been at work, chained to my painting desk or building my Christmas present from The Wife as she's now working on opposite days to Toby who has been doing the actual construction himself.







So for Christmas this year The Brother and I have decided to start the Annual Torrent Christmas Saga Grand Melee, but to pull this off I'd need something more substantial than the two collapsible tables I currently have downstairs. Enter The Wife and The Mother (and a few hundred from me) who have gone in together to buy me the materials to build four gaming tables, combined with Toby's ability to actually put wood together in a large scale and have to stay together for a permanent sort of time frame. With The Eldest on holidays already she decided to come round and help out this weekend performing such tasks as sawing, gluing, drilling and the ever important stress testing. We got three put together this week, so a few more set of days off to go on them before they're done but they'll be ready for the big event.






While we were down in Sydney we stopped into MOAB which just happened to be on the same weekend. The Eldest spotted some Malifaux stuff and liked the look of it so we did a bit of research upon our return to the hotel and decided to look into it some more as it sounded interesting. Once we got home we watched a few YouTube videos and decided we'd pick up the two player starter box. I took a break from my endless painting of Abyssal Dwarves on Monday and put the minis together and we sat down to have a play. I have to say I'm hooked. On first look I went "Oh it uses cards instead of dice" but after playing I think it actually is a rather cool mechanic. The ability to use the cards in your hand to cheat fate adds that extra level to it, especially once you start adding more models into your warband. Cheat fate is essential if you are currently losing what ever the draw is for (combat, initiative, etc) or aren't happy with the damage you've done you can play one of the cards from your hand to up your total/damage. With a small number of models you're tempted to cheat fate every test but once you add more numbers it becomes an extra layer in your thinking whether to save the big card in your hand for a more important model or will you draw higher than anyway. I'll be grabbing myself a Gremlins box in the next couple of weeks, just waiting for The Eldest to decided if she wants to expand on either faction in the starter box and to get a game in with The Wife and The Youngest to see if we need anything else.

Painting wise the dwarves are done, well almost. I'm up to basing, then I'll paint the eyes in and give it all an Army Painter wash. I'm pretty sure I'll be giving myself a break by painting a couple of TAGs for Infinity next although Nephew One is thinking of Vikings for the Saga tourney so I may need to paint up my extra Warlord just waiting to hear the result of their game yesterday.

25th Nov - 23rd Nov Frostgrave vs The Wife

Decided to set up a game of Frostgrave the other day so I could get in a game on my latest boards from the Games and Gears Kickstarter a few years back. As luck would have it, it would also be the day my Thaw of the Lich Lord Frostgrave supplement would turn up :). We played just a straight up treasure grab with four central zombies, three boars and one of the new blood crows that would spawn at a random turn. Once again my Anyaral figures proxy'd for the beasts.










The Wife won the deployment and chose the far end of the table so we set up and rolled off for initiative, which she again won.

The first turn was uneventful with Jenny Crafter of Trinkets successfully casting Strength on herself being the only successful roll of the turn. Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles was going to have a slow start it seemed with not only his spell failing but not a single archer in the warband managing to hit a target.

Turn two started and Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles began to work his magic sending a Blinding Light at a nearby Boar distracting the beast as his Man-at-Arms and Barbarian hirelings worked together to pull down the enraged beast. A second beast had appeared and was about to charge the noble wizard but another faithful hireling slammed into the creature and quickly put it down with some deft polearm work. Meanwhile several Zombies had shambled their way closer to Jenny Crafter of Trinkets and her warband responded, though with little effect the rotting monster left standing with a crossbow bolt in the remains of it's armour and Jenny herself standing looking at the crumbled remains of the rock in her hand after her attempt at a Grenade. My sorry apprentice attempted to cast Shield on the Infantry man in his care but apparently needed more study not only failing to give the man protection but wounding himself with a small amount of backlash. Apparently it was not the day to be an apprentice as The Wife's apprentice also suffered a painful failure with her attempt to Curse an oncoming Zombie. The Zombie's then began to grapple with the Enchantresses band though one fell to a well trained Infantry man the other overwhelmed it's opponent and the man was left barely standing wildly swinging his weapon trying to keep the monster at bay.

My Man-at-Arms seeing his friend engaged with a Zombie and seemingly hard pressed to keep from it's snapping teeth leaps to the barricade and fell the beast with a mighty blow, though it's unnatural vitality allows it to regain it's feet. Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles looses his head momentary and rather than cast his mighty magics at the creature runs up to it and whacks it on the head with his staff not only gaining the abominations attention but some rather nasty scratches. Jenny Crafter of Trinkets again picks up a rock and again watches it crumble to dust with as she imbues it with power as her Crossbowman moves to get a better shot at yet another Zombie. Her Infantry men close in and put the beast down quickly so one peels off to assist his beleaguered ally. The final Boar is mobbed by members of my warband the my apprentice takes a moment to Heal himself. The Wife's apprentice is again racked with pain from another badly failed spell and is forced to watch as the Infantry man in his care is finished off by the undead foe before him. The Barbarian yells a cry and leaps into the fray to save my wizard but a well placed blow from my Infantry man kills the Zombie, while at the other end of the table The Wife's Infantry man finished off the Zombie before it could feast on his fallen comrade.

The turn began with no monsters on the table and Jenny Crafter of Trinkets showed her bloodthirsty side starting the turn by killing my Thug as he attempted to grab some treasure. Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles cast a quick Shield on the Barbarian as he charged forwards in retaliation. The Wife's apprentice attempted to Elemental Shield himself but failed woefully and was again wracked with backlash. His cries attracted the attention of my apprentice who quickly cast a Glow spell and an Archer quickly uses the highlighted figure as a target and felled the budding wizard. My other Archer decided to try his luck at Jenny Crafter of Trinkets herself but his shot went wide. Meanwhile one of her Infantry men grabbed a chest and my Ranger once again managed to miss his target.

The Bloodcrow finally appeared attracted by the bloodshed. Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles tried to blind the archer but the soldier managed to resist the spell. Jenny Crafter of Trinkets tried her Grenade spell once again but again the rock crumbed to dust in her hand. One of her archers managed to fire into the Barbarian. My apprentice decided to keep a good thing rolling and Glowed another member of The Wife's warband but my archer failed to do more than hit his armour. The Wife's archer decided that the Bloodcrow was a greater danger and fired a shot off but failed to penetrate the birds tough hide. My other archer decided to try his luck at Jenny Crafter of Trinkets again and this time the shaft flew true leaving the master Enchanter gravely wounded. My Ranger once again missed his shot, while the Bloodcrow attacked The Wife's archer raking him with it's talons.

 








That was the beginning of the end for Jenny Crafter of Trinkets as my warband got to grips with hers. Her archer's finished off the Bloodcrow but my Barbarian then smashed into them like an elemental force and crushed one with a single mighty blow. Jenny Crafter of Trinkets despite multiple failures decided to try to cast one more spell in order to Heal herself, but the resulting backlash dropped her like a stone and her warband retreated dragging their fallen with them.

The after battle rolls luckily didn't cost The Wife any of her warband, but we're thinking of starting with fresh wizards soon anyway now we're all familiar with the rule set.

Meanwhile in the painting world they're getting there :)