Standard Template Construct

High Tech

Second session of Dark Heresy on Thursday night;

Mr C, our GM had been good enough to ping us all a quick re-cap e-mail:

Previously on Dark Heresy….

The acolytes are transported to planet Scintella the capital world of Calixis sector. Scintella is a Hive world, where the surface is polluted and toxic and the vast populations live in massive hive like structures.

They were provided cover ID’s and provided accommodation at Hive Sibellus until they were needed.

After receiving a message they acolytes made their way to the meeting place. Medicae-Interrogator Sand provided them cover ID’s as Coblast Assay employees and an overview of the mission which is to find who operated with Heresy technology on Saul Arbest a hive worker which lead to his death.

The acolytes were provided his address in Corcarla Division and made their way to in the hive.

After finding his sister Lili Arbest and questioning her, the acolytes find out the last time she saw him he was drinking Evard Zed with at a local watering hole called The Workers Union. She also reported him missing to Warden Locan.

The acolytes then questioned Warden Locan who agreed to meet them after his shift finished, however he took the opportunity to ambush them with 3 other men. After fighting off the ambush and killing Warden Locan, the acolytes discover drugs for personal use and a keycard on his person.

After retreating back to the habroom used by Saul and his sister Lili they find a mysterious stranger waiting for them…

Low Tech

No mysterious stranger but after regrouping and working out exactly how serious our, mainly my, wounds were we finally took the previous plot hints. 



Standing out like sore thumbs at the Workers Union and picking up a lead to catch up with Evard Zed we established that Mr Arbest had taken a knife wound and headed to the local ALMS HOUSE for MEDICAL TREATMENT. Strangely enough we headed along and talked our way in on the basis of my very convincing recent gunshot wounds. Taken to an examination room it wasn't too long until we were rudely interrupted and a grand old finale fire-fight broke out with the Doc unleashing a couple of experimental mutants on us.

Dispatched after a bit of a back and forth we conducted a standard floor by floor search picking up evidence and data as we went. In the top floor lab we came across the surgeon responsible for all the mutants, plus of few more "creations", a Tech-Priest of the Logican order. She was more machine than flesh and as such took a good hard pounding before finally going down (ooh err missus!).

A bit more evidence gathering and then some fire-starting from the paranoid Psyker and the newly paranoid paranoid Tech-Priest "nothing to see here.......honest!". After that it was home for tea, medals and experience points. I quickly invested in the Healer ability! :)

No Tech

So, an update e-mail, adventure run from an I-Pad, neatly pre-drawn out map and hastily sketched combat map on a piece of A4 with Dreadball figure proxies........spot the weak link!
To be fair an OOP GW Arbite with shotgun has since been E-Bay'd along with as set of 20 Dark Vengeance cultists. Quite looking forward to painting these up as hopefully it'll satisfy that particular itch. I've got plenty of AT-43 and Space Crusade floorplans in storage plus a full set of Space Hulk in the house so hopefully we can make a bit of progress there.

Not that there's anything wrong with the most powerful graphics engine known to man, as defined by Dr Sheldon Cooper...............IMAGINATION!  



On that note we finished off discussing how to sell various ill gotten gains on the black market and sourcing our Arbite an upgrade from his sawn-off shotgun to a combat variant. You could almost hear the GM's imagination sigh :)

Braaiinnnsssss II

Tuesday night down at the Enfield Gamer seven of us congregated around missions 2 and 3 of  Zombiecide! Seven of us because Charlie particularly enjoys playing as our resident Zombie-Master.

With several of us having spent some time reading through the rules Charlie's experience was massively enhanced as many more of his charges took to the board.

Mission 2 is simply to get one survivor to escape. Early doors we "activated" the top third of the board to bring out plenty of Zeds including an Abomination.............. ARSE!



This was quickly compounded by one of our number, who was rather well equipped  "biting the big one" whilst half of our number were running around with frying pans!

Feeling under pressure I decided to try something of a suicide run. My chaps "Slippery" ability allows him to step away from Zed populated tile particularly easily so I gave it a go. I needed no runner Zeds or any other random events to turn up and thankfully this was the turn of events.

Exit effected whilst the other guys holed up......a technical victory!




Mission 3 was "simply" to get one of the survivors to RED threat level for a full turn, that's 47 points of kills and 5 point objectives. I had the roller-girl so that was the co-op plan, I run round and pick up everything.

We also had CARS, two cop and a pimp-mobile. We did wonder about driving them round Ben-Hur style but got mobbed the moment we went near one so gave that up pretty quick. We also found ourselves an Abomination almost as quickly. Thankfully we also sorted out a couple of Molotovs on the run and got the Zeds to bunch up nicely a couple of times.

The rest of the boys cut me a path and "herded" the Zed-pods towards their fiery end.

Whilst I racked up the kills one amongst us, Mr Christian, failed to pick up a single kill. Looking for redemption he charged in at the last, rolled poorly and "bit the big one".

Another good nights Z-gaming. The more I play this one the more I wish I had got in on the Kickstarter. Somewhat aptly Amazon sent me an e-mail overnight suggesting it as my next purchase from them.............tempting!

Fair Play

Bit more Dreadball as I've finished up the Ref and The Enforcer (Arnie accent optional).

My general style of play means that I very rarely, if ever, trouble the Ref. Maybe that's whee I've been going a bit wrong with the Orx, not bashing the other team up enough. It's a, vaguely, interesting point as with Blood Bowl I got on better with bash rather than flash where as it seems to be the other way arounf with DreadBall. Hmm....

Looking for something a little bit different  I went for a sort of quartered Harlequin look which seems to have come off pretty well. Didn't even realise that she quite literally had eyes in the back of her head until I got round to adding some paint!

Last Tuesday down at the club was a Dreadball League night with MVPs a plenty. Bidding a big old lump for a big old lump (initially to deny him to my opponent) he was something of a beast and help me to two whitewash victories. Still no varnish on the main team seems to be paying off!

The Iron Man scheme is one I've seen a few other use and couldn't resist. Good result!

Another 4 PPs on the month and I'm managing something of a decent run. Might have to re-shoot the photos tomorrow as these ones aren't great. We'll see.
EDIT: Update the photos.....still not great, need to get a better set-up sorted.

 

Next up, Jon Doe, Wildcard and my Dark Heresy figs!



The Power of Paint II

So, finishing the job late on the evening before the relevant event the New London WAR-SPs took part in the Dreadball qualifier held at the Hammerhead show up in Newark.

Four games to the day I wasn't overly expectant so when the first result came in as a 7-Nil in the final rush (James -Humans) I was somewhat chuffed. With tourneys I've always been a mid table competitor and immensely happy with it.

Riding high in the rankings I was expecting a quick drop which surly arrived curtesy of some naff (Mike - Humas). Surely the newly painted curse had hit though it wasn't a thrashing which I put down to the lack of varnish as my last can had died when called upon.

Third game was a comedy of errors between myself and Chris's Veermyn though highly enjoyable, mainly thanks to GSOH in necessary spades. Somehow I edged a close win though neither of us would have begrudged the other.

Given mixed results all over I suddenly found myself in the championship game against a club-mate Rich W. As with games 1 and 2 it was Corp vs Corp and something of a strike-fest. A few stumbling sets of early dice saw me drop behind only for Lady Luck to redress the balance in the last couple of rushes to let me take the game!

Scarcely believing my first EVER tourney victory it soon transpired that due to my edged victory and Mike coming home with a 7-Nil landslide had pipped us both to the trophy!

In a final twist Mike had won the previous regional at Vapartnak and so had already qualified for the finals at Mantic Towers. With myself and Rich even on tourney points, Rich ahead on strike difference and myself taking the head to head, Mantic adwarded is both a final spot.…so a three-way then :p

All in all another very enjoyable tourney day. I sometimes flag a bit at these but once again was keen to the last. Didn't see too much of the show but seemed to be less to see than last time, which was a fair few years ago. Picked up a few supplies......and somehow four of the MVPs Slippery Joe, Wildcard, Jon Doe and The Enforcer.

Must have been good :)

PS: That's another 20 PPs in the bag too!

It is NOT Heresy....

Our Lord and Master :)

.......and I shall NOT recant!

Thursday night we kicked the role-play group back into action with a first session of Dark Heresy. Reduced numbers due to real world stuff it was myself (Psyker), Charlie (Tech-Priest) and Rob (Adeptus Arbite) taking on whatever Mr Christian had to throw at us. We're expecting a NEW fourth member of the group from next session so just one down.

First sessions are always interesting as you work out initial relations and the reason for the group coming together.

As pawns of the Inquisition we were each individually "activated" and sent to Location X to await our first set of orders.They soon came,....report to Lift B of Hab-Block Zeta.

As a 55 Kg, skeletal, albino psyker with cold dead grey eyes and the ability to freak most "normals" out by being in the same room who's already been left paranoid by the Sanctioning "process" such orders are....... unsettling.I also took Flagellant as a character trait deciding that I'd flip a coin each campaign day to see how what mood / personality I was wearing. Today I am mostly being proper skitzo!!

Me, but non-Skeletor

So rather than reporting as ordered I turned early and his myself away in some useful shadows to check things out first. At the appointed time and Arbite and then a Tech-Priest turned up got onto the lift which then descended into a sub-basement. A little bit later the lift returned empty.Just as I was deciding to go have a look I was grabbed roughly from behind by two goons being told that my tardiness was unwelcome. Well, I naturally kicked off and tried mind-zapping to no effect. Going flaggy my skinny white frame was no match and I was dumped into the lift which descended.

Cowering in a corner I pulled my las-pistol and as the doors opened fired at the first shape......just missing the Tech-Priest. Pulled guns and shouting ensued until we all calmed down. Establishing surroundings we were in a long dank corridor with a bulkhead at the far end....Nice!
The Tech-Priest and then the Arbite wandered down to have a look. I let them. A few minutes later their was a hissing sound and the knock-out gas, well ....knocked me out!

Coming round a nice chap in a lab-coat briefed us from behind a heavy duty window. Something to do with an indentured worker apparently killed and harvested for organs, including a few alien ones that were obviously implanted.

Mmmm...NUTS!

At this point I had become relatively surly and engaged in dragging my heels both figuratively and literally. Accepting the kit we were given I then started rifling crates whilst my new colleagues left. There was then and episode involving a couple of servitors, a 55Kg spaz-monkey with a power-wrench. Some more knock-out gas and a servitor bear-hug resolved the issue :)

At this point we all decided to play a bit nicer, with each other and our GM. Rob did suggest that I WAS actually role-playing my character pretty fairly. A bit of an honest conversation followed to help set the relationship between players and GM. No tears before bedtime :)

After that we actually got on with the adventure!!

Turning up at the relevant low-life hab zone we got to work, whilst I continued to maintain a healthy "vigilance", and soon started running an obvious tangent to adventure, much to Mr C's increasing chagrin :) Prompted to visit a local hostelry we declined.........repeatedly :) :)

Dakka Dakka with mutliple proxies!

Staking out the local enforcers, who we suspected of being in on the recent disappearances, once again in the face of obvious prompts to go elsewhere, we got vaguely ambushed by them and definitely sprayed by automatic fire. Thankfully, as with most Level 1 encounters, a lot of that fire went wild and we eventually dispatched.

 

Stripping the bodies, much to Mr C's continuing chagrin, we continued on our tangent and holed up for the night along with my newly fractured ribs and slightly soiled new flak vest.

 

So a good first session and new relationships establish player to player and players to GM :)

The Power of Paint

Last night was the second round of the club's Dreadball league.

First round was unpainted Plesin at which point I took a 7 point whitewash and scraped a 2 point win. One dead Jack and no experience made for a bit of a non starter.

Last night the New London WAR-SPs turned up based coated and washed. I played the bottom and then top teams in the league scraping a 2 point win and then eventually taking a 7 point loss. One dead Striker but another managed a 4 point strike to get the team's first XP and pick up an extra point of skill. Progress??

Tonight I've got the Gaurds 90%. Final highlights, maybe a glaze and then numbering. The rest of the boys are following along nicely and should be ready for a roadtrip to Hammerhead on Sunday. Hopeful of at lest equalling my CopperBowl standing.

We'll see :)

Back to the Future

Bit of a six degrees of separation type ramble coming your way. Only fair to let you know :)

As I continue to re-establish / re-find / nurture my full on NERD I've finally got back to my regularr read of 200AD and the Megazine. Another good / bad / NERD (delete as applicable) habit that I got out of and have sorely missed. I kept my suns running so I've got a load of back issues in a box in a storage unit to someday catch up on so for now it's a continuation of a re-set.

Scarily easy to drop back into I was THRILLED to the max to find an ongoing Strontium Dogs story in early-arc along with your good old fashioned boot in the face Dredd and dear old Ampney.

Flicking the net yesterday morning I stumbled upon a draft KickStarter page for Rogue Trooper and had to exhibit great control not to squeal in girlish glee (whilst in the office) or throw my wallet physically at the screen :)

Much as I've not hit up a KickStarter before being something of a minor cynic I've missed out on both Zombiecide and Dreadball much to my regret. Several at the club are currently eyeing up Mr P's Beyond the Gates of Antares which tempts but Troop just hit the parts of me that other Kickers cant!

INSTANT EDIT: According to THIS CHAP Rogue goes live on Friday and he has a link to a free download of the rules............oh dear :)

I was also going to link a KS commentary / mini rant by Andy Foster aka Heresy Miniature but I seem to have lost it. I've got a PDF to read :)