Alive and KICKing

Afternoon people,

After a period of personal, and possibly global, Kickstarter apathy a couple of recent offerings have prised open my wallet with relative ease. Definitley something of an achievement let me tell you!

First up is the one you're more likely to be aware of, Heroquest 25th Anniversary  Just like when GW splash released Space Hulk I caved within a few hours on this one. Should I ever maange to produce any Oddleg offspring htey're definately going to have Dad inflict this one upon them, along with Space hulk and Dreadball!

All resin and plenty of high quality pieces this a huge Fantasy roleplay resource, even more than Space Hulk for Sci-Fi. Unfortunately an IP dispute has suspended things for the moment but fingers crossed everything will be sorted without too many issues.

The second is Metal Made Flesh a set of Bladerunner-esque graphic novels. A setting that really floats my sci-fi boat and likely to provide a great deal of inspisration for Star Wars EotE when it kicks off in the New Year.

Currently I'm in for the set of three graphic for £25, pretty much a 3 for 2, and have been upgraded to a combined hardback. Looking forward to this one turnign up BIG TIME.

They were at Comic Con but somehow I must have missed them. With shades of 2000AD and Aeon Fluxx i'm all over it now. Well worth a look!

Elsewhere Zombiecide is still MIA with a couple of messages unanswered somewhat frustrating :/

I had been thinking about how to paint so many zombies, thinking about a white undercoat and washes, and then saw what Carmen has been doing over on his BLOG. Excellent stuff he never fails to inspire!

To round things out I've been getting very tempted to pick up a Klingon fleet for Attack Wing. I've suddenly got a few quid in the PayPal account burning a virtual hole. Mr C also has one of the special event ships that I might just have to "borrow" on a semi-permanent basis ;)

Live long and eat Gagh!

Do you MIND??!!

Evening people,

So, last night was the potentially penultimate session of Dark Heresy. Moving on, oh so slightly, from last time out we arrived at Sepheris Secundus aka Shite-hole Central. We had made good use of our journey aboard the Pax Behemoth practising our various newly found skills :)

Personnally I'd mind warped the vast majority of the crew and set up the Pax Behemoth Am-Dram society dedicated to working their way through the entire catalogue of Gilbert & Sullivan.

Eventually leaving the Good Ship Lollypop Captain Al-Jazeera insisted on accompanying us on the shuttle down to our "clandestine meeting" (GM's words) which immediately set our Spidey-Senses a-tingling. As such I decide to play nicely and shake his hand for a clandestine Mind Scan.

Whisk in hand, Mr C sighed sensing the worst;
"He's wearing gloves!"
"I'll give him a kiss!"
Open the packet, empty into bowl........ and after all that he knew very little :/

Getting off the shuttle we surveyed Shite-hole central and the background cacophony of several thousand serfs with several thousand hammers, hammering at several hundred seams of rock. Even Minecraft has a bit more tech going for it, no mega-machines here!

Introduced to Captain Rotland of the local arbites I went with a decidedly Gallic double cheek kiss Mind Scan and then proceeded to "introduce" myself to anyone who didn't immediately flee my presence.

Whilst being escorted to Arbite HQ we mused that in Baron No-Ore we had our Spartacus, though a rather decrepit beardy version without muscles or combat ability, and several thousand serfs with several thousand hammers........BUT that's definitely NOT an option within the scenario book!

"Introducing" ourselves around  Arbite HQ we got them to bring up a holo-map of all the attack locations which with a quick Logic and Forbidden Lore - Warp deciphered the ARCANE EVIL ATTACK PATTERN and pinpointed the FINAL LOCATION. That much was in the book at least!

At this point Captain Rotland decided we should go and visit the Imperial Gaurd and various other side plots. Not feeling the need we went all Inquisitorial Seal on his ass and insisted on turning out the Fuzz and legging it down to Daemon-Summoning Central at double time.
Mr C sighed and turned through five pages of the scenario book......FIVE!

Dear old Baron No-Ore suggested a shortcut, which we again refused, only for us to end up at a read aloud section anyway :/ It turned out to be an old Broken Chains hidey hole with new psychically shielded extension built from psychically imbued RSJs. A quick angle-grind later we were wandering off with several big lumps.

Moving on to the FINAL LOCATION we set up our stake-out and waited and waited and waited, ignoring an obvious diversionary attack mincing a few hundred serfs with a few hundred hammers. Apparently the FINAL CONFRONTATION doesn't come with a couple of dozen Arbites at our backs.....

Tune in next week for more fun, frolics and whipped dessert :)

Lights, Camera, SLAM!!

Evening all,

After another weekend of various sporting mediocrity the real stuff kicks off tomorrow night with Enfield Gamers' Pudding Bowl x-mas Dreadball mini league.

As poor I-Phone shots attest I'm almost there with the Teratons. If I manage to finish them off tonight ill more than likely run them for the next three weeks. 

I've had to order some more sheets of numbers as my spares got eaten by one of Mr C's little spillages but with the Tons I've got a more "tribal" idea in mind.The Nameless are coming along with plenty of ideas in my head, will just have to see which ones make it out!

Godzilla vs Mega-Squid

Evening people,

As you can hopefully see, bar numbering, I've finished up the test figures for my Terraton, Wonnarua Warriors, and Nameless, Wakadaisho Wave-Riders. Just need to get stuck in and paint the rest.

Elsewhere WE are still waiting for Zombiecide to turn up :/

Additionally, attempting to read Skarsnik has succeeded in a manner as its so poorly written that its got me to pick up an actual book of interest and start reading that instead. Fusilier, the story of the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the AWI should hopefully provide the impetus to get back to painting mine once I'm through the plesin.

Wheres that brush.... :)

I am a Storyteller.........

.....and my story must be told! Remember that one?

Catching up with my merry week of gaming Tuesday night at Enfield Gamers was Dreadball all the way. Two games rotating between eight of us I took my Robots, Rust In Piece, playing Z'Zor and then Orx. Both were tight games, winning the first by 3 and loosing the second by 1, where I spent quite a bit of time recycling players through the casualty bin. Tech Support were kept pretty busy with the welder!

With the 'Bots I've found it a struggle to get going against an aggressive hitty team, especially with just the 6 players. I found myself using up quite a few actions transforming only to get punched off the pitch and then starting over again. Not impossible, challenging.
I did notice at the Milton Keynes tourney that a coach works very well for them, offensively and defensively.

We're going to be running a Pudding-Bowl mini league up to x-mas as a prelude to a Champions League in the New Year. Think I'll be running Z'Zor, really enjoy them.

Meanwhile, Wednesday night we picked up Dark Heresy and started what will be our final chapter before swapping over to a bit of Star Wars EotE. Instant blancmange kit and orange flavouring at the ready!

Summoned by Baron Harkonnen, aka the Flying Fat-Man,to his Inquisitorial rock-moon-space station he showed us a rather sketchy, low budget snuff movie. Working out that this wasn't just a prelude to "keys in the bowl" it turned out to be a ruck 14 years ago in a mine far far away between a disgraced Baron and a Mutie who were both part of a rebel group on a backwater Medieval world providing some form of super-ore to the Imperium. Records show the Mutie died while the Baron, who lost a leg in the fight, was executed by the local Arbites.

Bringing our back off of various walls we were then shown a more recent pict feed featuring our Mutie and two of his mates Scaly Pete and Metallic Micky. Apparently reports of his death had been mis-filed but then so had the Baron's execution as he's in a cell 100 meters beneath our feet. Fecking Imperial scribes!

So...we're dispatched to Sepheris Secundus aka Shite-hole Central to put down the resurgence of The Broken Chains with Baron Harkonnen arriving a week behind us. Waxing on he let slip that the Baron was actually something of a progressive type, educating instead of flogging his serfs. Disgraced by the Queen he fled into the extensive mine system setting up the Chains with Mutie boy with whom he fell out about the requisite level of "direct action".

First off we get to go and have a chat with our plethora of newly acquired skills. I'm psy-level 4 now which means an extra dice to turn Daemonhost with :) I've also picked up a number of Telepathic skills.....

"When we get in there just hold him down and I'll do the rest, don't say anything!

Mr C looked up, deer in the headlights of an off-plot sourjon, mixing bowl and whisk at the ready!

Busting in Rob the burly Arbite pinned our man to the wall, his bionic leg and nice but dim air confirming his identity even before I employed Mind Scan.

Sachet and milk into bowl, orange flavouring and whisk at the ready!

So basically I / we worked our way through the five levels of Mind Scan, with a Compel added in to reduce his resistance, whilst asking a large number of highly relevant questions about The Broken Chains and their supply chain contacts that were never going to answered. This is also known as driving the bus directly at the obvious plot holes :)

Whisk, whisk, whisk as hard as you can! If you can't get them back on plot, no-one can!

Eventually giving in we slapped an explosive collar on Baron No-Ore and trotted off to our transport, a freighter call the Pax Behemoth captained by the delightful Kobal Aizdar aka Al Jazeera. With a three week voyage ahead of us it was discussed that it was a good point to "develop" our newly acquired powers.

Rob's Arbite did a montage of shots from the gym, dojo and firing range.
Ryan's Assassin snuck around the cargo hold jumping out on random crew with a garrote.
I Compelled the crew into multiple event of spontaneous jigs, shantys and frigging in the rigging.

Mr C produced a lovely milky desert with a subtle citrus flavouring!

Meanwhile I came across this article about storytelling with gaming. Top Marks :)

They came from the Depths...

.......thirty millimetre high, reasonably cast plesin with a big mould line. Godzilla!!?

Apologies for the I-Phone photos but I'm being a bit lazy. Pretty much complete test figures for The Nameless and Teratons. Trying to go "marine" with The Nameless and antipodean for the Teratons.

Happy enough, just need to paint the rest  :)

Biddy, Biddy, Biddy......What's up Buck?

Evening all. I won't spoil the reference, if you get you do....and your my age ;)

Finished up Wyn and went for a nice white casing for "him" to stand out against my copper-bottomed Rusty Bucket's Buccaneers but with a few accent pieces to tie him in. I've often had a rough time painting white but seem to be getting there.

Elsewhere I've almost finished up test figures for the Teratons and Nameless while the Z'Zor still need numbering as do the Forge Fathers really, the runes don't make for efficient gameplay!

All keeps the brushes going :)

Socially Board?

Evening people,

Returned to Enfield Gamers last night for an evening of Formula D and Dreadball in anticipation of a new year championship and champions league respectively. Somehow I managed to win both events, each on the very last roll of the dice.

Two laps of Formula D with the advanced rules saw a far more "sensible" approach taken by the pack of six drivers, rather than the usual thrash round the track. It wasn't too taxing or slow and actually produced a far more realistic race. Rich has sorted out some home rules for KERS and DRS which add a bit more flavour and an extra layer of tactics.

The racing was fairly cut-throat with myself and Shaun constantly swapping pole position. Shaun got ahead of me into the last corner, looking odds on for the chequered flag, only for Lady Luck to spurn him and spoil me. No rules for pulling doughnuts but good fun.

Taking a little longer than expected myself and Rich cracked through a 50 minute game of Dreadball. Rich ran his Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle Teratons while I went all Striker Veermyn.

Close all the way the Teraton Jacks ball handling was decidedly mixed while the Gaurds struggled to do any damage. The Veermyn were as comical as ever with several chances to landslide the game repeatedly missed, no matter how many cards and coach dice I expended.

Playing with an Offensive Coach for the first time I had to make a concerted effort to remember him but he was definitely a massive plus. Stealing the ball almost at will I didn't miss the Guards who probably wouldn't have lasted too long anyway.

Nil-Nil after 14 rushes it was sudden death for the Terra-Jacks to fluff a simple strike and the Veermyn to finally redeem themselves. Still having so much fun with this game, blows Blood Bowl out of sight!

Saturday is a full on geek-tastic day of gaming with the boys. Given my dice last night I expect to the gallant make-weight. Just as well the oft forgotten social side of TOYS is such a good thing!

Have fun rolling dice people :)

Plot Armour

Hello people, bit of a mixed bag catch up post as its been another one of those weeks working far too hard for DA' MAN. Just as well I've got all this geekism to full back onto.

I missed out on the club Tuesday night but we did get a bit of Dark Heresy on Thursday. Following on from last time out it was last stand / final shootout time, though I didn't spend a lot of time involved!

Holed up by bank of escape pods we'd stumbled across the ghosts were good enough to run the pre-launch checks on them. Team Moron took little convincing to take up the more forward positions whilst one their squaddy type held back with the rest of. Commenting that they must have lead a charmed existence if this was their idea of combat tactics Charlie commented that now we were at the final event they'd lost thier "Plot Armour". Nice point :)

Contacted by some form of hovering holo projector the Dark Eldar Archon made all the usual promises about our apparent impending doom to which we made the equally predictable responses...at which point the projector went bang catching myself and Charlie in the blast. This also opened the webway portal from which poured a dozen or so Kabalite Warriors backed up by a couple of Grotesques, things were getting real ugly real quick!

I made a nuisance of myself with Fearful Aura while the rest of the boys took potshots at our unwanted guests in descending order of unattractiveness. Meanwhile Team Moron, bereft of Plot Armour, went down quicker than a $5 happiness consultant at happy valley's happy hour.

Splinter weapons were proving effective when they hit, as was Ryan's Nomad, Barret style, elephant gun. I was quite fancy picking myself up one of the pistols. Unfortunately this was the point when Mr Squaddy turned his coat inside out and took a shot at me. First time he missed.... so I spasmed him to the floor... at which point we repeatedly failed to shoot him, so he got up and cut me in half with auto-fire!

So while I had an enforced doze the lads kept up the firepower, though my unconscious form still exuded a Fearful Aura, with Ryan's Archon gun taking on the heavy lifting while the remains of Team Moron lept about the place soaking up Disruptor Pistol shots,....but rarely more than one.
With things looking pretty grim, well it IS the 41st Millenium and there is only WAR!!, Sgt HardAsFeth made his last minute appearance, Plot Armour heavily dented, and smashed the remaining Dark Eldar to bits....just as the hulk started to break up.

Looting as much as could be carried, including my snoring form, everyone bundled into the escape pods with frozen saint, sword and book in two. Returning to Baron Harkonnen we were somewhat underwhelmed with his lack of gratitude. We briefly mourned Team Moron, though more the fact that we ddin't get to take them out and dissed them heavily. We all then trooped off to our regular spot in the med-bay via the XP dispensary.
Hopefully I get to keep the armour I've so effectively befouled :)

Elsewhere I've attempted to stop whinging about what I'm not painting, playing or reading and actually DO something about it!

The Teratons and Nameless have been built, sprayed and vaguely threatened with paint. The Teratons will be green and yellow a la Wallabies while the Nameless will be a grey-green with orange detailing to make the most of the purple glory.

To that effect I dropped into my local GW earlier to try and pick up a grey-green. Somehow I ended up leaving with four possibles, a detail brush and the recent Skarsnik novel, parting with £22 in the process,....somehow it just happened.

Seriously though my reading has waned significantly recently and its something I want to kickstart. Ive always had a soft spot for gobbos and to be honest I can't imagine much easier reading than a Black Library offering!

We shall see :)