21st February - 19th February AtDE vs The Youngest

Arwen and I managed to get around the table again on Sunday afternoon for another game of Across the Dead Earth. A quick shuffle of terrain and we were good to go. We've not quite got around to naming our gang members yet (I may have as I wrote this up) as there may be some rebuilding of them before we start any sort of progressive gaming with them. I'm also beginning the hunt to find models that scream Forest-kin to me so I'm using models from my other AtDE gangs for the moment. It was definitely a much smoother run through this time, not that it's a hard rule set to pick up. We decided to limit it to a six turns as someone had some previous homework commitments.

The late afternoon sun began to slip behind the hills, there wouldn't be much time to get this done. Rumors of a caravan raid and dropped cargo had drawn them here but across the way there was the distinctive glint of sunlight on metal. The rumors had obviously attracted others....


The two rival gangs quickly began flitting across the landscape, moving quickly to get into the best firing lines while keeping to cover the best the could all the while focusing on getting the prize. Finally as the Forest-kin Alpha ran into the doorway of a ruined building a shot shot rang out as barked orders had Eagle-Eye attempt a long range shot at the distant Engineer leader though the range proved too far.

Continuing on his way the Alpha headed to the rooftop and quickly filled his pack with the forgotten items, there'd be time to assess the haul later. Across the clearing a crossbow toting Engineer began to swiftly do the same thing with another dropped stash; Eagle-Eye seeing a shot lets off another sighting through a long broken window, but the round merely grazes across the man's shoulder leaving the Forest-kin sniper to adjust his sight. The remaining members of the gangs continue to move attempt to apply pressure to the opposing men and women while protecting their own. Hare-tip the Forest-kin scout tries a shot of her own at her Engineer opposite but again the shot goes wild as the range proves to be too far for effective shooting. The Engineer medic closes in through the ruins towards Hare-tip but as he advances the time weakened structure crumbles further and despite the sharp cry of "Lookout!" from his fellows he is knocked to the ground by broken concrete and bits of rusted rebar. Sensing danger approaching her scout the Alpha Mother moves up ready to support her family member, or give first aid which ever may be required.

Hare-tip moving to the other side of the window fires off another round this time at the heavily laden Engineer crossbowman and a well placed shot drops the man to the floor with a grunt of pain. Perhaps spurred by the sound of his fallen comrade the Engineer medic regains his feet shaking off the effects of his heavy blow to the head. The Forest-kin Alpha begins to head back toward the meeting point again barking orders at Eagle-Eye positioning the man to cover the flank approach of his Forest-kin family members. The Engineer scout begins to climb the ruins looking to the higher ground for a better shot. With no enemy yet in sight Eagle-Eye settles down to watch and wait and is quickly offered a target by the Engineer heavy who after calculating the risk makes a dash for the cover of the rocks nearby but is taken down by the Forest-kin sharpshooters careful shot. The Engineer leader settles down to watch and wait himself decided to play a denial game for the last remaining stash of loot rather than risk the firing lines of the entire Forest-kin family.

The Engineer assault trooper tries to pick himself up but the bullet seems to have hit somewhere relatively vital so the man is forced to stay down and apply pressure. Hare-tip decides to rely on her speed and agility and risks the firing line of the Engineer leader and runs to grab the remaining loot, but after the rifle barks out she is left attempting to crawl back toward her Alpha Mother clutching her side. The higher ground seems to pay off for the Engineer scout as he lines up a shot at the Alpha but the Forest-kin leader shakes it off and continues to move dropping the loot safely off near the bug out point and head back into the fray to protect his family. The Alpha Mother begins to clear the path to her fallen daughter dropping her opponents medic with  a blast from her shotgun, but the man quickly patches himself up and regains his feet.


The sense of urgency growing in the Engineers ranks the medic continues to move heading over to the fallen assault gang member and patching him up. The Alpha begins to head around the building hoping to flank the Engineers, stopping to finish off the heavy along the way. The rest of the Forest-kin family move to cover the remaining loot while being careful not to expose themselves hoping the deepening twilight lasts long enough for their Alpha to flank and take out the dug in Engineer leader. While the remaining Engineers begin to fall back relying on their leader to cover the withdrawal.

Hare-tip manages to regain her feet and despite taking another round from the Engineer leader stays on them. The Alpha rushes around the corner and tucks into the far wall, knocking down the Engineer medic on the way with a blast from his hand cannon.

Finally the with the shadows have become an engulfing blackness across the area and the gangs are forced to withdraw, slipping back through the surrounding rocks and trees like phantoms heading back to their camps to see what prizes they managed to secure.

It was a nice tight game with both of us securing one loot marker each, but after revealing the values it was a slim victory to me. It was great to get a good game of Across the Dead Earth in as it's been a while since I've had it out on the table, Arwen really enjoyed herself as well and I'm thinking I might have the motivation to pull out some of my Urban Apocalypse Battle Systems terrain to set up a more urban style area to play on. Meanwhile the weathers looking good today I'll try to get some better shots of those Malifaux Gremlins and get them up this afternoon and I potentially have a game of something happening today against Toby so possibly another battle report in the near future as well.

11th September - 10th September Update

I've not had a lot of time for hobby lately (with someone out on holidays at work and covering the holes in the roster) but I've been squeezing it in where I can, of course this means less involved updates for the moment. I've played a few games of Sentinels of the Multiverse with The Daughters. Had a game a few weeks ago so I picked up last week. It's great for my current limited time frame. I've also glued most of my Abyssal Dwarf army for Kings of War, just waiting for a few missing pieces and I've still got to put the golems together but the hundred odd models I've got done will be enough to start with.

Tabletop wise I've got one of the guys from board game night interested in Infinity (he's looking at getting a Combined Army Morat starter box). The Eldest and I currently have a Guildball game going on one of the tables downstairs which we had to put on pause due to her assignments/my work. Finally The Wife and I squeezed in a quick game of Across the Dead Earth.

We just set up a small table with a single loot counter, both gangs coming to check out a rumor of a great haul to be had. It was a quick bloody encounter with The Wife and I both ending up with most of our gangs knocked out. She played boldly and for a few turns it looked like it was going to pay off for her, unfortunately for her boldness turned into recklessness and I'd soon put all her gang down and left the table with my reward..... It was a scam 5 measly credits damn State arena setups, the bastards must have been watching the whole thing from up in the hills...

My sharpshooter takes posistion

The Wife's sharpshooter
takes aim and puts down
my scout

The doctor is quick to
come to her aid, just not
so quick administering it

My leader takes a shot at The Wife's
assault gang member

My assault ganger takes
her down

The Wife's leader gets
brave

Once again my leader misses

The Wife's sharpshooter doesn't

My sharpshooter finishes off
The Wife's medic and
sharpshooter

And her leader is down
giving me the game

I'm looking at finishing off the game against The Eldest on Sunday and I'm hoping to get a decent start on my Abyssal Dwarves before I go on holidays in a few weeks but it'll depend on how much time I've got.

10th June - Painted Across the Dead Earth Sisters of Aquisition and The State

Just a quick post as I'm on the mobile. Gave up on outside and got out the Foldio so I could get some decent lighting for a few pictures of the last couple of weeks painting efforts. Without further ado

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.