In Town with Time to Kill!!

As far as 20th Century Fox is concerned he's Heresy's "Hurn the Hunter". As far as the Star Wars boys are concerned he's a potential nightmare to take on. To me he's another of Heresy's "alternative" sci-fi figures added to the collection.

Good fun to paint, he should be excellent fun on the table-top. I'm already thinking through Flying Lead stats and wondering how many points a personal cloaking field will cost!
I've ended up going for an SS pea-dot skin tone, which is original, as some semblance of his chameleonic abilities. Just recently, I rarely seem to be painting a "standard" skin tone. Might make for a nice change of pace.

I've also expanded my Bone Griffons with a squadron of three Phantom class destroyers. A quick three PPs courtesy a la drybrush and wash. They're slightly late for the campaign the final round being this Tuesday but will deploy for the mutli-player "fun" games to follow.
I did have some trouble ordering them from one of the growing horde of independant internet sellers. As part of a larger order, mainly paint, various bits went in and out of stock that took several e-mails and almost a month to be despatched and i'm STILL due a minor refund.

I don't think i'm alone in thinking that discount sellers shouldn't be allowed to provide discounted service. I'm aware that they're operating on tight margins with minimal staff, stock and space but they chose to do so. I have choice to........ rather a lot of it!

Rant over :)

Hamming it up

Afternoon people.

I went and saw Spam-a-lot last Saturday at New Wimbledon Theatre and it was excellent!! No womble jokes but the quality of the ham would have put Marks and Sparks to shame.

All the best gags were rolled out with an extra few thrown in to keep the faithful guessing. The whole "hue tracks of land" bit had Lancelot outed from the closet with the lady of the lake turning up on a regular basis.

Marcus Brigstock played Arthur, which I didn't think was very "him", pretty well and was something of the straight man of the piece.

Rude Frenchmen (really??), The Knights who say you know what, Tim the Sorceror, Brave Sir Robin, a fluffy bunny and a shrubbery. All accompanied by a bottle of Holy Gr-Ail, I kid thee not.

Winner :)

All good fun, which has always been my prime motivation for gaming, other than my crippling dork-side ....obviously.

So I decided to take a little bit more of that attitude down to the club on Tuesday for the next round of Uncharted Seas.

'Twas a fairly quiet evening. We've decided to have our latest six month meeting and there are some dificult decisions to be made, so levity seemed approprite.

Eventually, it was sorted out that I was to take on Malk and his Dragon Lords, including his dragon. I've been AWARE of the flying rules existence for a while now. I've downloaded, printed and even LOOKED at them. I hadn't actually played with them, which is when I actually pay atttention, so it was going to be interesting.

I'd heard about thier effectiveness and was relatively wary. I was even less impressed when the game started, once again, with the wind in the faces of my sailed cruiser. I did actually pay attention this time and kept my fleet together, moving at thier slower pace.

I hadn't played against Dragon Lords either and Malk was soon demonstrating their effectiveness at range. Tacking to and fro he maintained his range from me sending in broadsides with relative impunity. It was most instructional!!

Despite some useful manouvring of my own to return fire, aped i'm sure, it soon becam clear that I needed to close the range. Initially wary of the dragon and targeting it early, I soon realised that I couldn't be held up by it and pushed on.

And then in the space of two turns the destruction was unleashed. I reckon it was because Malk was leant me the use of his dice. Quite simply, they betrayed him!!

Somehow, my two battleships had taken and prized his batleship and twin heavy cruisers and heavily injured the dragon to the point of ineffectiveness. The game turned viciously and I somehow scored the most decisive victory that the campaign has seen to date. I still don't know quite how.

A game against an excellent opponent that taught me plenty and somehow landed in my lap. Can't ask for anymore really. I duely apologised and tried not to gurn too much.

Last night's game however was almost a very different story. Almost :)

That SINKING feeling

It was club night again this week and I drew Jon's Orcs as my next opponent in the Uncharted Seas campaign.

Overall, i've been doing fairly well with a recent Major Victory propelling me up the table. Jon's dice have a reputation for letting him down at inopportune moments so I was feeling quietly confident.

I decided to try and counter the Orc's close-quarters agression by meeting that head on with a fairly agressive fleet list, featuring plenty of broadsides and an intention to close the range quickly.

I paid little attention to the wind direction slowing the majority of my fleet (doh') and soon found my Battleship out on it's own. I felt that it could happily survive Jon's dice, serving as a dangerous lure, to allow me to deliver a killer blow with the rest of my fleet.

One particuarly broadside against "The Noxious Pearl" of a dozen or so dice scored 23 hits, just one away from a double critical!!

I soon found that I had underestimated the strength of the wind and the jaws of my pincer simply served to fragment my force further in the face of Jon's juggernaught.

Using the dice that Jon lent me (DOH') my firing was patchy at best and a few desperate gambits failed to come off fully. Edging back towards a draw, Jon's final shots despatched my Battleship earning him a Minor Victory, missing a Major by just 5 points. He honestly deserved the biggy!

Lessons learned during an enjoyable game :)

Meanwhile, it has become obvious that the only real painting day of the month will be this Sunday and so to save a NIL result I shall stoop to painting a couple of Space Hulk objectives. Oh, the DESPAIR.

On the upside, should you creep to the end of OUR garden you will find The Games Room fully prepared and ready for dice to roll. A donated mini-fridge will soon be added :)

So with next Tuesday's roleplay being my Star Wars tie-up and Jon's D&D set-up i've decided to christen it's first use with a barbeque. The missus will be away in Germany on a business trip.

DOUBLE SIX ;)

The Bare Bones

Something of an Undead theme this week as i've finished off Big Trev's Khemri Liche Priest and Battle Standard Bearer.

Same technique. At the just washed state on the left and with detail and highlight below. Hopefully there's you can tell the difference other than the state of the bases!

I'm pleased to have them all done and it's been interesting to paint some Fantasy figures for the first time in a while.

I've found myself scouting various Warhammer websites during lunch-breaks, especially Chaos Dwarves for some reason, but I still couldn't bring myself to play again.

It's a shame but the thought of actually playing a game makes my skin crawl. Hmmm :( I'm fairly that these boys will be appearing on a E-Bay page near you sometime soon. Says it all really!

Meanwhile on Tuesday night "down the Club" Ian donated us two packs of luxury choccie biccies and Charlie's dice donated me my first victory of the Uncharted Seas campaign.

It was just "one of those games" for Charlie. Wasps had similar against Bath last Saturday, though it hasn't cost Charlie a semi final place.

Not much he could do and I did FEEL suitably for him as all gamers have. Not that this stopped me taking the win.... as all gamers have!

I've pretty much decided to FINALLY get stuck into Space-Hulk, those figures are just SO excellent and I actually WANT to be playing the game. BIG difference!!

I've also had my eye on one of Hasslefree's Halflings to use for D&D when we swap over from Star Wars.

Anyway, it's payday and I fancy a curry.

Merry long weekend to you all!!

It's a long,, hard life...

This time tomorrow I shall be jetting my towards a sun-kissed week in Tunisia :)

As such, Mr Christian was good enought to host a Good Friday session of Star Wars roleplay round at his place. Hosting levels were excellent and I proceeded to stuff my self stupid as any good GM should.

We played out the current mission, a shipjacking with a twist, over the course of the afternoon and a very close run thing it was indeed.

Abandoning the stealth and deception shown on previous occasions, though Ian's stealth rolls didn't help the boys went for an announced frontal assault!

Despite some reasonable hints being dropped no-one had caught on to the time sensitive cargo being somewhat "live".

A fair bit of friendly fire ensued, once again, which resulted in some severely damaged "cargo" and Aarron successfuly strafing Ian in the back!

The Betty's crew fought back hard trashing a skiff, a speeder bike, Jon and Mr C. With the attack stalled the shuttle went airborne witht the battle continuing in it's cargo bay.

A natural 20 put down Big Vin, the Betty's captain, and my natural 1 saw Bo the Bruiser fall back out through the closing hatch!

Another skin of the teeth result sparked conversation about the challenge level set, though we are using a lot more of the rules these days. Working the numbers saw the final battles total CL "Challenge Level" one point higher than the groups total levels. Fair fight then.

On the way home Charlie and I we chatting about how to vary the make-up of opponents in terms of quality versus quantity. With a group of six level four players I now have 24 CLs to play with.
A combat droid is CL 1............
So far today i've cleaned the flat, cleaned out the fridge and got myself 90% packed. The last few bits include my somewhat eclectic reading material for the week. I'll also be packing a pad to scribble down any EUREKA moments........ it's a small pad!

We played the first round of the Uncharted Seas campaign on Tuesday night and myself and Aaron were one of three draws. I'm finding the fleet construction a bit limiting as I continue with my cruiser theory.

I'm thinking of adding a pair of heavy cruisers and dropping catapults all together but Aaron should thier indirect fire value in a particuarly pointed manner. Decisions!!

I've also managed to get plenty of paint onto Big Trev's stuff. I've used as many of GW's foundation paints as possible for speed and with washes drying the results so far are very encouraging.

Anyway, i'm off. Pester you some more later :)

Whiff of grape-shot

Or more to the point....... varnish.

As previously mentioned the curse of the freshly painted figures raised its pungent head on Tuesday night and my dice ran for cover.... little buggers!!

Myself, Ian and Charlie were trying out multi-player Uncharted Seas and the stripped down mechanics allowed things to happen pretty easily.

I've had this theory about not using a battleship but events and fleet composition rules say otherwise!
Freshly painted sighted sir! Just send a couple of frigates, the fools won't stand a chance!! The manoeuvre below was well planned and executed with a minimum of smugness.

A sinking was assured until the dice hit the table...... shocker!! Thankfully, for me, Ian and Charlie took out each other with a couple of magazines exploding whilst I looked on and then, with the only battleship left afloat, cruised in to claim victory.

Another magnificent theory exploded!

Rather busy with life otherwise this week bar a few bits and bobs.
I've downloaded and printed the AT-43 rulebook from the Confrontation website recently. All the army books are there as well. Two thumbs up!!

So I've been reading through as and when and have been really impressed by the cohesive background. Feels very "Blade Runner" to me which I like. Plenty of inspiration there for a couple of potential other projects including Star Wars.

Meanwhile i really need to get round to Trev's stuff. Got a bit of time off next week so a big green beasty looms large with my conscience.

Make way for Grand-father Nurgle, Lord of the Lurgy..........

Yo-ho Heave Ho!!

Finished the second Bone Griffon starter fleet and "inspired" by Aaron's alternative Orci i've tried something slightly different...... such as The Bone Beast here.

Not so sure on the name, happier with the result.


The Black Pearls. I want to try out squadroning Cruisers in pairs and thats as much excuse as I need. It'll also give the fleet as a whole a more rag-tag look which I think suits.

The final cruiser is of the slow, catapult, variety giving me a squadron of three contary to my theory as propsed above. Excellent!
The White whales, three of which are somewhta patterned Killer Whale like. To that end i've also gone back to some of the original Orci, below, and used the scheme reversed.

The entire fleet, plus my sofa in the background. Getting another game or two in tomorrow night at 600 points. The odour of varnish may be noticeable to the dice so I may get my metaphorical feet a touch on the soggy.

Otherwise thats another 16 PPs and another project complete.
Big Trev's stuff needs to be next :(

Balls of Iron

I have to admit that I didn't really fancy Wasp's chances against Sarries on Sunday. Our pack and scrum has been an issue recently whilst there's has been the basis of their game.

The short story is that we won 9-0 and it was a far more entertaining game than the score-line suggests!

Adams Park was full and the crowd in particuarly good voice. We got well stuck in from the off and both teams had a good crack at each other.

What satisfied me the most was the dominance of our pack bullying thiers all over the park. We won a host of penalties at the scrum including a penalty try that wasn't given.

Brendan Venter had this to say:
"It's a tribute to their discipline in defence, but I do find it amazing that not once did they stray offside, put a hand in a ruck, commit any penalty offence."

Whatever mate, talk to the hand!!

Club night last night and a couple of us got in refresher games of Uncharted Seas whilst 40K made it's regular opinion plus a blast from the past with Dark Future with original tracl pieces!

My Bone Griffons took on Aaron's Bone Griffons on a brown sludge sea as we wrestled with our mutual vague recollection of the rules.
More by luck than judgement it was Aaron to utter the phrase "You sank my Battleship" whilst he shot up my cruisers and we tried to find a use for our Orci (undead whales).
Meanwhile Charlie's Human's took on MrC's ghostly (unpainted) Bone Griffons, lots of them about it would seem, on a very dark sea...... possibly at night.
Mutual destruction saw just rather leaky Battleships left at the end.
At the end of the night our objective had been met. Rules have been refreshed along with enthusiasm. Good stuff!

Aaron's white whales sparked MrC into talking about painting up his ships as a ghost fleet which I think could be doen really nicely. I recently picked up a second BG starter fleet for the upcoming campaign and am tempted to be "inspired" by the guy's paint schemes. Best build them first.

Meanwhile, i've been reading through my Oni army-book with vigour and the army box-set I ordered has been dispatched :)

I've also worked out that my laptop doesn't have a DVD drive, which is why the game won't work.... oops!! Might just invest some of my pay-pal money in a download or a DVD drive....... decisions.....

It's all in the bones

The randomness of dice that is.

Uncharted Seas:

The Bone Griffins performed pretty well last night, though Jon's Orc fleet wasn't helped by the wind direction being totally against them.

Luck see-sawed for both of us. The all catapult battleship sank a cruiser on the very first turn. I, or my dice, then failed to take advantage of it's long range firepower and it quickly became a bit of a white elephant. All broadsides is temtping but 1 catapult with 2 broadsides seems more effective currently.

The Orci proved very effective in the ramming and boarding stakes. I preferred the fast cruisers simply based on speed and they should do well operating with the Orci.

The luck element was ably demonstrated when my last remaining cruiser tried what I felt was an ambitious ram on Jon's slightly worn battleship.
For the boarding action, even with a card giving me +2 bonus dice it was six dice each at 4+ to hit, 6's counting double and giving a re-roll. I rolled yahtzee and apologised through my grin.

I really like the "bonus 6" mechanism and it produced several wince enducing results across all four games played.

Star Wars:

Previously, in a galaxy far far away, the latest Send in the Clones session happened last Thursday and required the "heroes" to secure three cargo crates from a fortified gas mine.

An unexpected amount deal of stealth and guile was deployed to the point where I was quite concerned as to wether we'd see any violence at all!!

Thankfully, ideas eventually stalled and after a good healthy dose of laser-play the group limped off all nursing wounds with one of the skiffs rather battered.
The lady de luck was particualry fickle with the Jedi whose lightsaber would seem to be a more ornamental than practical weapon. Thankfully, for him, his opponent was equally inept.

The opening mission is now almost complete and i've been, relatively, busy sorting out the over-spanning story arc, ....eh?, but do need to finalise some finer details....... such as the choice of next mission.

My the farce be with you,... always :)

Shiver me timbers

With the girly away I ended up working this weekend so had Friday and today off instead.

Having picked my Bone Griffin fleet up form the Post Office first thing Friday i've got them all painted in time for the club tomorrow night. I've gone for an Egyptian look to go with the whole galley thing.

The battleship can be fitted out with whatever combination of broadside and / or catapult decks which fit snuggly so i've been able to paint them seperately and leave them inter-changeable.

The slow, heavy, cruisers with an additional catapult lashed to the deck adding some long range firepower.

The lighter cruisers. Faster but dependant on the wind conditions, unlike the rest of the fleet oar-powered fleet.

Three of the six Orcus. So is the plural Orci? Who couldn't be excited by 1/600 scale resin undead whales? No...really!!

I think i've decided to base the fleet, probably using some very tightly cut flat bases. I picked up some of GW's water effect over the weekend and given the price i'm hopeful of it turning in a good result.
An enjoyable project but not massively demanding, so for Painting Points i've decided 1 for each Orcus, 2 each for the Cruisers and 4 for the Battleship giving a whopping total of 18 PPs. Nice :)

Anyway, newly painted figures on the table tomorrow night so I'm already getting that sinking feeling!!