17th November - AtDE Game vs The Uncle vs The Brother

Two days, two games not bad stats if you ask me. Caught up with both The Brother and The Uncle at The Uncles house today and ended up playing another game of Across the Dead Earth. The Uncle and I played the pre-made gangs again, but we quickly rolled up a third gang for The Brother. The gang creation rules were quite simple really and we had this done in no time at all.

The table was still set up from our last game so all we did was add an additional three tiles making it four by three. We decided that a loot counter based game would ensure that we all got involved and make it harder for two gangs to team up against the other. The loot tokens were blind drawn and the winner would be declared by the total points held at the end of the game. Loot could be taken off the board through your deployment zone but you could not look at the value until the game had ended. The Uncle had also dug up some more scatter terrain so we had a nicely crowded table to play on.

The family gang came in from the north (The Uncle), where as the two savage gangs came from the south (The Brother) and the west (myself).

 The savages met by Ronnie quickly took to the flank of their muscle bound opponents. The first turn was spent getting into position, though the leader of my rival savage gang managed to loot the rear vehicle. Skylar entered one of the ramshackle buildings and prepared to loot the premise.

Now I got a little distracted by the game at this stage, although my brother also runs a blog and I'll put a link up to his post once he gets his post up as there was a fair amount of action between his gang and The Uncles, as I was rather cautious of Drexyl on watch and wait covering the loot across the road and took a few turns to re-organise myself. Ronnie did manage to take down a rival savage through a window though.

Topper then pop'd round a corner and showed just why an assault gang member with a scattergun can be so devastating and I attempted to cover the window with Pyro to free up Ronnie for a bit more flexibility but The Brother's scout ended that idea by then coming up to the window and dropping a grenade through it, which would end up taking Pyro out for a good four turns and also as it happens Shay-man as I refused to leave him down while I had a medic handy.

Topper proceeded to get some revenge of the scout taking him down. He tried to put him out of action but failed to manage it.
I thought this was the beginning of a comeback on my part with me being the only player who hadn't managed to retrieve a loot counter at this stage of the game.




Unfortunately the next turn removed any ideas of a spectacular come back on my part. Shrimp got into a melee with Skylar as she had in the last game, unfortunately unlike the last game she dropped her axe (That's not a knife event card) and was knocked down and then taken out by the hidden assassins blade in her opponent's umbrella handle. Ronnie decided to risk popping his head out in an attempt to take out Drexyl and clear the path for his gang mates to loot the convoy but the sharpshooter got him with a Head shot and suddenly my gang was two members short with two more tied up in a medical situation.

The next few turns saw The Uncle capitalize on the now clear roadway loot and begin ferrying it to his deployment zone. The Brother attempted to get his second count off the board but Topper saved the day knocking down his remaining three gang members, including one Quick draw (Event card) which while both men managed to get their guns up Topper and his magical scattergun won the day to the suspenseful musical accompaniment provided by The Uncle during the rolling proceedings

In the course of the next few turns Topper managed to not only take out the rival savage's gang leader, but also survived a blast from the medic's flamethrower and then put him down in his following activation. After which he picked up the loot and made his way back to the board. (In theory, we called the game once The Brother's last gang member was knocked down, although not one had been put out of action).

On the other flank Shay-man finally managed to stabilize the grenade shocked Pyro, who proceeded to run over to attempt to prevent Ezra the family medic from grabbing the final unclaimed loot counter. Of course he managed to trip (Event card Tripwire) and while he survived the grenade Skylar attempted to lob at him (which actually rebounded back beyond her, but she survived the blast) Ezra decided that seeing as Topper's scattergun had been so effective he'd have to have a go with his and the clown like ganger bit the dust again.

The final ranking was The Uncle on top with myself next and despite an incredible effort The Brother coming in last. If it wasn't for The Uncle putting Drexyl on watch and wait effectively keeping me from the roadway the game may not have gone the way it as I wasn't game to push towards the loot.

The rules handled the third player without any real hitches, the only change we made was a slight alteration to work out initiative, rather than adding enemy knocked down/out of action miniatures to our rolls we subtracted friendly knocked down/out of action ones and it worked well in the three player setting putting the emphasis more on your own gang rather than allowing you to take advantage of someone elses agression.

As soon as his post is up I'll link The Brothers blog here for anyone that's interested. Link now up Stand and Deliver Wargaming - Across Dead Earth Post-apoc Skirmish

16th November - Family Saga Game

Viking & Norse Gael View

Anglo-Danish & Irish View

Decided to get a game of Saga with the whole family. The Eldest and The Wife had yet to have a game, so to even things up a bit we decided to put myself and The Youngest on opposite sides. The Eldest and The Wife decided to head out and do the shopping and they'd leave us to carry everything downstairs and set up (It hit about 45 Celsius today so outside in the covered area with a couple of fans running was a necessity). The forces were a coalition of Anglo-Danish (The Wife) and Irish (The Youngest) vs the combined might of some Norse Gael (The Eldest) and Vikings (Myself).

Viking Ford

We decided to play the battle at the fords scenario with the turn sequence suggested in the multiple player scenario (one combined orders phase and rolling off each turn for first active round with play going clockwise after that). The Wife and The Youngest won the roll off for deployment and I'll admit I was worried once they'd finished (they got to deploy half of their troops before us then the remaining in response to our full setup). The Eldest and myself held one ford each where our opponents blended their forces. My ford seemed to have some pretty heavy opposition at the beginning.

Norse Gael Flank

The game went the full seven turns and we ended with a win to the Viking & Norse Gael with nine points to none. The Youngest went for a last minute point grab but unfortunately for her The Eldest had the last turn and killed her last wolfhound and handler.

 The Anglo-Danish hearthguard push the ford to some Norse Gaelic resistance but the hearty warriors with their Dane axes are decimated and thrown back.

The Vikings push over the river with a unit of warriors, they fell two hearthguard but are pushed back by the Irish Curadhs (Champions) in a rather tattered state. Unfortunately they leave an opening behind them for the second warrior unit to push up through.

 This unit smashed through with devastating effect all but destroying a Anglo-Danish hearthguard thanks to one of the men hearing Valhalla calling (Viking ability sacrificing up to three models for extra combat dice) and leaving an Irish Curadh dead before the last standing man holds himself upright on the rivers edge daring the remaining two Irish hearthguard to come in and finish the job. Final tally seven dead Viking warriors in exchange for three Anglo-Danes Hearthguard, one Irish Curadh and two Irish Hearthguard.

 The other ford had bogged down massively with neither side gaining any ground by pushing the ford so they had lined up on either bank and proceeded to weaken each other with their javelins.





Meanwhile the Viking hearthguard rushed through the gap created by their fierce brethren taking down the remaining Irish Curadh.

On the other side the pelt clad beserkers streamed across the ford tearing down the last of the Irish in front of them in an attempt to reinforce their solitary brother upon the bank.

Moments later the Anglo-Danish chief managed to pull down the lone almost super human warrior (he almost survived four hits missing just one save). The beserkers quickly avenged their fallen comrade, with the Viking warlord and hearthguard killing off the Anglo-danish warriors on the other side.

The Youngest made one more attempt to gain a few points for their total.....

But The Eldest didn't like that idea finishing them off and moving across the river for another few points for us

The final view of the Norse Gael flank, four points over the river (warlord and two warriors)

The Eldest and I took the day nine points to none, though there were several times were the game could have gone either way. Tactically the girls are both really improving. The main game changing moments came down to the battle board rolls in the orders phase and the luck of the dice during combat in most instances.

Viking flank, five points for us (Warlord, one beserker, one hearthguard)

10th November - Across the Dead Earth Game vs The Uncle

Everything went to plan and we got that game in today. The rules played smoothly and we'll hopefully get another couple of games in before the year is over. I really enjoyed the way the event card mechanic read and as we managed to use most of the fun ones during the game it played out as I thought it would. The only thing we didn't really use in this game was the grenades and that was purely as we both forgot we were carrying them in the heat of the moment.

The contended area

We setup the board as a small ramshackle trading settlement. A rather large State convoy had been overwhelmed by a roving horde of Sollus and after the plague victims had moved on our two rival gangs moved in to scavenge the much needed medical supplies from the two medical trucks and hopefully some intel about upcoming State movements from the command car that had crashed through into the settlement.

The Family head in from the North

The Red Claw from the South

The two gangs headed in from opposite sides of the road The Family (The Uncle) and the Red Claws (Myself). The Uncle has yet to paint his AtDE minis so he subbed in some alternates from his collection

You can almost here her saying
"Look at the pretty birdies"

The Uncle won initiative and sent Ezra (Medic) straight up towards the supply filled trucks (We had ruled that looting the trucks/car would take an action for this game signifying rifling through the vehicle or grabbing everything off shelves). My first move sent Shrimp (Scout) round the corner heading towards the command vehicle and saw our first event card "Look Out!" a failed save roll sent Shrimp crashing to the group dazed by some fallen roofing. This caused me to send Topper (Assault) and Shay-man (Medic) over to give her a hand, Topper to cover her and Shay-man ready to try his medical skills on her next turn.

The remainder of the turn saw The Uncle move to control the centre of the table with Drexyl (Sharpshooter) moving to cover the roadway and Adam (Leader) and Reggie (Assault) heading up toward the central objectives and getting into cover. I sent Fatboy (Heavy) over to the wrecked ute and Pyro (Grunt) forwards to attempt to get them into range and try to give The Uncle something to think about before he attempted any wholesale looting of trucks. Ronnie (Leader) moved up and spent his last action ordering Fatboy to get his head down.

The Uncle won initiative for the second round and sent Skylar (Scout) heading for the command vehicle but as she got there it turns out the driver had cleaned out the vehicle and dragged himself into a nearby building (event card "Information Error"). Ezra then looted the centre van and headed for his edge liberating the much needed medical supplies for his family members. Shay-man revived Shrimp after a bit of work. The bulk of this turn saw Fatboy W&W and Ronnie and Pyro moving up slightly. This allowed Reggie to take a shot at Ronnie, he managed a hit but didn't even manage to slow the old warhorse down. This caused Pyro to launch a torrent of abuse at the Family gang member (event card "Taunt") which caused the young man to lose his cool as he settled in to W&W himself.

Another turn and another initiative win for The Uncle. He chose to move Drexyl out to back up Skylar and take a shot at Pyro but his shot went wild. Shrimp moved in and engaged Skylar but didn't have the impetus to get a decent swing in. Skylar then began the melee but failed to penetrate Shrimp's defenses, sensing an opening Shrimp swung back mightily with her axe and knocked Skylar to the ground. 

 As we'd agreed that the trucks had to be looted from the back The Uncle moved Adam to the back of the un-looted van. After a quick thought Fatboy opted to use his W&W to take a shot at the opposing gang leader leaving Pyro to deal with Reggie's impending uncontrollable charge and scores a hit putting him out for a while. Ronnie then took the opportunity to W&W, just before Reggie responded to the previous turns taunt. The young man then charged Pyro and was clipped by Ronnie's SMG but his momentum kept him upright and he engaged with the flamethrower toting gang member. Sensing a chance at overwhelming odds Fatboy then charged to the rear and put Reggie down with some well timed knife work. Pyro then ran over to get Drexyl into range of his flamer and bathed the sharpshooter with deadly fire (rolled an eleven!!), but Drexyl must have been tipped off and was wearing some flame retardant clothing (the double ones that were the only roll that would save him).

Finally initiative comes my way. Pyro decides that he missed due to range and moves closer but Drexyl out draws him (event card "Quick Draw") and put him down. He then decides it's time to regroup with the others and heads back toward the convoy. Topper then loots the drivers corpse and heads back toward the Red Claw meeting point. Fatboy leans down grinning and tilts Reggie's head back ready to finish the boy off but finds a pale grinning visage looking straight at him with a pin between his teeth, Boom!! (event card "Sacrifice") Both men are taken out of action. Ronnie skirts around the edge of the trucks and takes a shot at Drexyl putting him down. He looks over and spots Pyro lying in his own blood and calls out for Shay-man to come running (event card "Medic!!") Shay-man quickly stabilizes him and then ducks into the nearby cover of the ramshackle building. Shrimp attempts to take Skylar out but is unable to finish the down gang member off.

That pretty much ended the game, the last few turns saw Pyro practically set himself alight trying to take Drexyl out, but then my gang members finally worked out which end of the knife to use to take people out of action. It was on the sixth turn that Ronnie put Ezra down the loyal medic unwilling to leave his fallen leader behind.

We'll probably have another couple of games with the sample gangs from the rulebook before we roll up our own starting gangs and we're going to look at organising some multiple story buildings and a bit more scatter terrain. I've started painting up my Family gang minis so I can get a game in with The Daughters or The Wife sometime soon, though my new three points of Vikings for Saga will hit the painting table after that I'd say.

9th November - Painted Across the Dead Earth "Red Claw" Gang

I had my first package (and second a few days later) of Across the Dead Earth turn up the other day. Thanks to the Kickstarter I'll be getting bits and pieces for the next two years, which I'm really looking forward too. The first package consisted of the rules, counters and cards and three gangs. The gangs being "Adams Family" a roving group of survivors with more of a family feel, the "Red Claw" a savage gang, think slightly crazed take what we want style and "The State" which is the faction that has taken control of one of the larger areas of post apoc English cities and surrounding areas. From a game point of view there is no difference between the style of gang it just comes down to outfitting and class options. The second package was a lovely resin building kit, a really nice thematic bar which I'm looking forward to getting on the painting table and having a real play with some different techniques.

My Uncle had also jumped on this one at the level lower than mine, so just the one package for him. We've been speaking lately about trying to get some sort of ongoing game happening and this one ticks the boxes, small size, character progression, the ability to set up a campaign with consequences hanging on the scuffles that take place and it'll let us add players in here and there depending on schedules without having too many disadvantages piling up.

While I think I'm leaning toward the miniatures that came for The State faction I opted to paint up the savages having just finished the Bolt Action weapons teams and felt like painting something not quite so uniformed. I got to play with two new techniques on these guys. My Flockbox and some static grass rather than the pre-made tufts I usually use, which was very cool once I got the hang of it, and I borrowed some weathering powders from Toby which gave me a chance to take all the shiny, clean looking clothes my savages were wearing and muddy them up a bit. As I'm going to be heading to My Uncles tomorrow for our first game using the system, I did these guys in record time getting them done in three roughly two hour painting sessions and then around 30 minutes to do the basing. A.A.R. to come in the next few days hopefully.

Ronnie, the Leader of the Red Claws

Shay-man and McHeed (Medic class)

Fatboy, (Heavy class)

Topper, (Assault class)

Pyro, Topper's brother (Grunt [No class]){But he has a freekin Flamethrower, come on who needs a class when you've got a Flamethrower :) }

Shrimp, (Scout class)

The full Red Claw gang

I'm not sure if I'll be playing the Red Claws or if I'll be creating my own Savage gang for the game tomorrow but either way looking forward to getting these guys on a table.