Labour of Lurve

Hello people,

I don't normally do WIP post but I have an ulterior motive, just not mine!

Ian Dawe one of our founding members, at Enfield Gamers, will soon be cycling several hundred miles across Africa to raise money for Teens Unite who do great work with teenagers fighting many types of Cancer.

To help Ian on his way are running a one day X-Wing tournament to raise funds and awareness for the charity. For more information and donations visit https://www.justgiving.com/ian-dawe1/

For tournament info please see the Facebook Event Page

Personally I'll be going Imperial with a Firespray-31 list, probably with a trio of TIE Interceptors. I've pretty much got the bas colours on now. A bit of pre-highlight, details, transfers pre wash and weathering. The grey sections will be black and white chequer and I've picked up a couple of Tau transfer sheets to go all Manga-esqe.

Really enjoy this one. Looking foirward to getting it on the table even more :)

Orctober - Something a little different

Hello people,

Another lazy weekend and time with the brushes has seen my contribution to Orctober completed. There was something of an ulterior motive as I've been fancying the new Ork figures since Black Reach but it was never going to happen.

I've got a use for these guys as cybernetically enhanced mutants, which feels very Ork. Many years ago, for the Armageddon campaign, I converted up some bikers and painted them with human skin-tones as muties. With these guys I started with my usual greens and then worked in some Cadian Fleshtone up to raw highlights followed by 3 or 4 layers of green wash.

Everything else was kept pretty basic, to reflect thier lack of status. Pretty pleased and another 6 Painting Points, even broke out the Light-Box fo the photos :)

Ever-Flame

Hello people, 

As I'm sure I've mentioned before I cut my wargaming teeth in same way as so very many of us, with GW. I've been a full on fan-boy working for them for six froth-tastic years until, well I decided not to anymore. There's very few of thier offerings that I haven't actively played (Gorkamorka / Man O War).

But that's long behind me now. As much as I can't not take an interest in the GW sphere it's just not for me anymore. The golden memories will remain, the less wonderful ones will be forgotten.

I have a grown up job, real world stuff to deal with and have morphed to a skirmish / board / card gamer as a necessity to keep on playing toy soldiers. Life is good....ish......enough.

As an ex I'm not (too) bitter and despite regular sharp intakes at various policies and sales strategies I still admire what hooked me in the first place....The figures!

I've seen a lot of campaigns,  and promotions come and go over the years as well as any number of new and re-releases from both sides of the fence. As grizzled and sceptical as I now am I have to admit that the new Nurgle End of Times stuff has absolutely stunned me.

Like I say, it's all well past me know and I'm never going back but WOAH!! This week I just HAD to go and pick up the last couple of White Dwarf(s) just to have a read off the fluff and rules (not that I'd understand all of them now) about these beasts. If I could justify the purchase, I would but I'm very sure I just can't.

On that basis you could say that I might just have set light to a fiver but sometimes it's not about that, it's about feeding the flame that's given you so much :)

Jolly Boys day out

Hello people,

Tuesday night down at Enfield Gamers we continued the Jugula campaign with a day event at arranged by some backwater Magistrates to appease and distract the locals from the Roman yoke.

House Trottarius travelled up from Peckham having impressed in recent events with a number of wins and a few honourable defeats. A couple of casualties early doors have been balanced by the advancement of the the whole Ludus. Dominus Delanus has been well pleased....luvly jubbly!

Introducing for you entertainment, (L-R);

Rodanius - Murmillo - A simple lad, bit of a plonker at times but favoured by Delanus. The tank of the outfit, recently worked out what the pointy end of his sword is for - Palus; +1 Attack
Boycanius - Secutor - Razor sharp but mouthy. Looks for the opportunistic, flashy kill. Quick feet around the arena - Palus;  +1 Movement
Damianus - Thraex - A young lad, very intense, shunned by Rodanius. Enjoys his trade almost a little too much, likes to play with his opponents - Palus; +1 Defense
Marlenius - Dimacharius - An instinctive fighter, emotional in the arena. Brooding, blows hot and cold around the Ludus. Very, very close with Boycanius - Palus +1 Attack
Trigarius - Hoplomachus - Dumb but dependable. Same "lucky" spear his entire career. Eight new shafts, nine new heads but still the same spear. - Palus +1 Attack
Albertus - Retarius - An ex-sailor of some experience with a net. Sailed many seas and has a story to tell for every one of them. The elder statesman of the Ludus - Palus +1 Attack

This week the trip north didn't sit too well with the lads. Somehow they never seemed to get into the groove of things. Despite taking the initiative an working around the arena pretty well they somehow lacked the....execution, and failed to make their advantage count. After that they rocked onto the back foot and slowly slid to defeat.

Thankfully no one died, always a bonus, but with the Ludus' newly found Popularity and Fame has massively increased costs and the trip only barely turned a minimal profit. Such is life, two weeks to recover before the next event...."This time next year Rodanius..... :)

Hang Em High

Hello people.

Wednesday night was yet another quality session of Star Wars EotE love. This time out a few adventure threads came together,.....in a kind of noose type way.

Following on from last time out it was time to roll initiative as events warmed up. This in itself was an event as though each player makes a separate roll to establish an order relevant to the NPCs the players who takes which slot each round. Thus there's an element of cooperative management.

On this occasion the lads couldn't decide on a coordinated plan. 7s and Sin in particular held the opposed views of negotiation and shooting first. I'll leave you to work out the relative camps.

As a result I had the lads hold their individual results with the ability to with old their action. As such 7s acted first and attempted to make first contact with the Grey suited handover team. Meanwhile the Black suited combat team of four entered via all three bulkheads with lots of verbal including "get down" and "cover the droid". Anyone making a decent Perception check realised that they were zeroed in on 7s but not aiming at him.

Once he had the chance Sin blasted one of the Greys who lunged for the data slates on the floor despite his slightly ventilated state. He did manage to return the favour while his mate took cover behind him.

Meanwhile Perit took missed a Black with a stun dart to the neck, Tanner dived for the slates and 7s.....waved his arms about in the air. Whilst the boys in Black kept up with the shouted commands it became clear that they'd been sent in to recall Team Zeta, the lads, and had somehow tracked them in.....via 7s! 

The main catalyst for the firefight that followed, other than Sindori, was the arrival, with a brief burst of dark light, of a swirling cloaked figure shooting stun bolts from their hands. 7s happily made the connection back to the dead tramp in the alley while others tried to do something about it.

 

Meanwhile Agenai legged it along a tunnel. 

Through a storm of chod dice Sindori fired at everyone, mainly missing, Perit dropped the Black CO, Tanner wrestled for the data slates and 7s.....waved his arms about in the air. Meanwhile the Blacks had a go at Mr Cloak ineffectually until Sin shot one of their number to get some back. 

Meanwhile Agenai legged it along a tunnel. 

By the time Agenai turned up for the party two Black and a Grey were down and out while Sin and Perit were to ventilate Mr Cloak who was doing his best to grab the slates but making hard work of it.

In a final flurry of fire Perit found unconsciousness via stun-bolt while Mr Cloak threw the remaining Grey through the bulkhead door to follow himself. The boys were left with the remaining two Blacks and a variety of health levels. Trotting over to treat Perit 7s gleefully opened up his med-kit to find half of it taken up by a tracker. It really was that simple!

And thusly a Temporal Distortion (bed time) brought the session to a close with a potential tunnel chase in the offing.

I had thought we'd get a bit further but as discussed previously the narrative effect of the dice can slow things down a touch, though it's a price well worth paying!

Until next time Dungeoners,...don't have Knightmares!! ;)

Books and thier covers...

Alex gave me my best game of the day!

Evening people,

Myself and Mr C went down to Tabletop Nation in deepest darkest Essex today for their latest STAW event.

There was a bit of a back story as a few us who have been pretty regular down thee for a while now have experienced a few "issues" recently, that I won't go into, that have kind of soured things. Part of that has been poor attendances.

Myself and MrC had outstanding tickets that we wanted to get the use from so went along more in hope than expectation.

A recent change to the Organised Play scene was the format of a 90 point fleet plus a 30 point blind booster ship, that I felt was a really positive move to break the power players grip on events.

In the end we had eight players, which was reasonable. The difference was that I had three good games against three guys. Chatting to Mr C over a sarnie we came to the conclusion that no matter how many bods turn up it's the quality and attitude of the guys that you actually play that make or break your event. 100 guys and you catch all the idiots versus half a dozen similarly minded compatriots.

Today I avoided the two obvious power list / players and somehow still managed to take second place, which was two places higher than Mr C (again) by the way ;)

Another big positive was that over lunch all the players came together and agreed for all future events to be played with ship faction-pure lists i.e. a mix of ships from different factions which are faction pure in themselves. Again, this has been a major issue of contention that many, including myself, have felt have been blighting and otherwise excellent game.

At the end of the event, with plenty of spare boosters to go around, everyone walked away with three new ships for the price of their three games. Can't say fairer than that really.....can you?

Voice Over Internet

Hello people,

Wednesday night we once again gathered for a bit of EotE love. The twist was that this time out Ryan returned via Google Hangouts which, once Charlie had persuaded my laptop to behave, worked incredibly well. I also got a free PC check-up which was a bit of a brucey.

I've used Google Hangouts before when Rich was running a specific GH EotE campaign. It worked well enough, GH has an EotE dice App and Rich could put various screenshots, but the whole experience lacked the atmosphere of all being sat around the same table, which seems a fairly obvious thing to say!

Following on from last time out the boys brought Agenai up to speed, much to his consternation, before putting him to work sneaking their gear out of HI-HI, given that they were heading down to the lowest mining levels in their fancy gambling duds.

Arriving in Grey Sector the boys realised that other than knowing that their contact was the foreman of Grey-17 they hadn't gathered any other Intel and were doing a good job of standing out. In honesty it didn't take too much to work out that the HSE hadn't quite made it down here just yet. Run by Black Dogg Amalgamated Grey Sector is located close to the asteroids crust with each mine located in a number of clusters serviced by a dual mono-rail, a heavy version for ore and a lighter version for workers.

Making their way down to Grey-17 the lads worked out that is was pretty low tech, a few cameras, foreman and supervisors rather than full on security, no obvious HI-HI presence. All rather wild-west...under-ground....in an asteroid. The boys also noticed that the vast majority of workers were wearing a motley collection of old flight and pressure suits all of which with built in air supplies as a consequence of working so close to the crust.......squeeky bum time!

Hitching a lift to Grey-17 the lads strolled in to the local operation with a container crate doubling up as an office. Leaving Perit outside to cover their back and giving 7s direct instructions to disable his speech function the crate got a lot fuller as it already contained a Rodian and two Gammoreans, one of whom was sporting some interesting cranial furniture while the other mainly slobbered.

Agenai took the lead with the Rodian fireman, Guido, cutting straight to the point that they were here to meet their contact. Guido played things coy, very coy.....to the point of ignorance in fact leading Agenai to suspect that he was a stooge, foreman or not. Challenging him Guido got rather defensive and deciding that he needed to go and fore his men. Piling on the pressure Agenai stepped into Guido's path, Trandoshan vs Rodia, at which point the Gammorean with the cranial furniture introduced himself as Gonk.....with a cut glass accent reminiscent of Sir Ben Kingsley.

Assuming his muse Gonk explained that Grey-17 is sub-let from Black Dogg following their bulk mining of the area. The location close to steroids crust allows certain opportunities to be carved, quite literally, form the rock. Clandestine meeting points would be one of them. Mining the finer seams is both a cover and an almost profitable sideline. Much like Gonk himself!

Satisfied with their calibre Gonk lent them a selection of fetching third-hand pressure suits and Guido as a driver / guide.

Thrashing it through a network of  darkened sub-tunnels in an eight-wheeler the lads arrived at an overlit bulkhead door. It wasn't quite a neon sign saying TRAP but it was fairly close. Indicating that this was as far as he was going Guido revved up for the return trip. Agneai stayed on board refusing to get off.....so Guido floored it and took him with him.

Left in their dust Perit backed into the substantial shadows to cover the main tunnel while Sindori, Tanner and 7s edged towards the bulkhead which lead to deck-plated rock chamber. Moving in they were soon joined by two average height bipeds in in a couple of high-quality full-iridium-face-masked pressure suits.

Following their voice distorted instructions for the handover a pair of data-slates were placed onto the deck for a simultaneous handover....just as Perit picked up a couple of combat suited chaps tactically advancing toward the neon sign. Cue handover / contact in 3....2.....cliffhanger!!! :)

Winter is Coming

Hello people,

As mentioned previously I've recently finished reading the second Game of Thrones offering A Clash of Kings, which at seven hundred odd pages feels like something of a less than my minor achievement. 

I have to admit this was my second attempt. The first time round I struggled to find time but having made the effort to do so this time round let me get properly into it and then I was having trouble putting it down.

Browsing Amazon a little while ago to ensure that part three ran on seamlessly with, should I wish to do so I stumbled across Metro 2033 which is about near-future post-apocalyptic survivors fighting to exist in the Moscow Metro.

This ticks many boxes for me; near future, post-apocalyptic,  Soviet and potentially plunderable for EotE story-lines.

As I'm also a big fan of similarly themed first-person shooters I also picked up the X Box 360 game. The X Box hasn't seen too much gaming time recently in favour of the brushes but I could do with a little variation at the moment. As with my reading I do often look to flick between genres to keep things fresh.

In both cases I'm kind of experiencing the lull before the storm with various Dreadball and Heroquest KSs due at the end of the year along with Farcry 4 which will be a rare full price "investment".

Winter is coming but hasn't arrived just yet!

Orktober Prt II and the Weekend Workbench

Hello people,

I've had a particularly lazy weekend and it's been great. I have managed some hobby stuff, primarily organisational , as a backwater to last week's Commando Bonus Points.  With a major project moving to conclusion I've decided to finish off a few of those peripheral projects that have been knocking around for a while.

First up is my Orctober project. I've always fancied painting up one of the Black Reach Orc Warlords but stretched for a valid reason. As the idea of Orctober is to do something vaguely meaningful these guys have had a number of Kromlech's bionik arms grafted onto them and are likely to appear in a sci-fi roleplay campaign not a million miles away sometime soon.

This afternoon I've also put together another dozen pin markers for my Commandos, don't want to loose momentum, as well as prepping the Gates of Antares Hansa and Boromite Leader figures to join the ultra-modern / low sci-fi gang that has been sat on the painting tray for the last few months now.

I've also decided to go full Manganese pirate with my Scum & Villainy re-paints, starting with Firespray. Bone and crimson with a bit of black edging. Ork checks and dags with a few bits of Tau text. Probably a suck it and see thing.

On that note MrC dropped in Sat afternoon for a few games of X-Wing, mainly as he'd recently picked up his copy of Rebel Aces and was looking to give them a run out. I was more than happy with that as I wanted to try out a couple of Firespray lists I've been playing around with.

Reading a thread about using B-Wings as close-range brawlers I was thinking the same for Firesprays running Kath Scarlett with TIE Interceptor support. I'd also had a go at a twin Firepray list with Kath supported by a longer range Heavy Laser Cannon variant. MrC suggested I try the twin list, which three games later was proved not to work.

A further game later the following worked much, much better;

Sisters of Mercy;
Firespray - Kath Scarlett - Predator - Mara Jade
TIE Interceptor - Alpha Squadron
TIE Interceptor - Alpha Squadron
TIE Interceptor - Alpha Squadron

I've also finished reading GoT: A Storm of Shields and caught up on 2000AD.

Pretty decent weekend :]

Are you not Entertained?

Hello people,

The recent Gladiatorial theme around Enfield Gamers has continued as Rich has recently picked up a copy of the Spartacus boardgame which sports the tag-line A Game of Blood and Treachery...which is highly accurate.

The blurb is also rather accurate;
In Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery, an exciting game of twisted schemes and bloody combats inspired by the hit STARZ Original series, each player takes on the role of Dominus, head of a rising house in the ancient Roman city of Capua. Each house is competing for Influence to gain the favor of Rome. Through a combination of political schemes and glorious battles on the arena sands your house will rise in fame and stature. As Dominus, you have a variety of resources at your disposal. Guards protect you from schemes launched by rivals. Slaves run your household and earn gold. Gladiators compete to bring glory to themselves and influence to their Dominus.

Three main phases occur in each game round of Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery.
The Intrigue Phase is when players launch their Schemes, hoping to raise their fortunes while undermining their rivals. Schemes and Reactions are represented by cards in the Intrigue Deck. Players wield their Influence to put their Schemes into play, often asking for (or bribing) another player’s help in hatching the most complex plots.

The Market Phase is when players buy, sell and trade Assets (Gladiators, Slaves, Equipment and Guards). Players also bid against each other to acquire new Assets at Auction. Wealth is not the only path to success as players bluff and bargain with each other to acquire the Assets they covet.
The Arena Phase is when the bloody games are held. Gladiators from two rival Houses are pitted against each other in a brutal fight for glory. The spectacles of the games are represented by miniature combat on the arena board. Fighters pit their Attack, Defense and Speed dice against one another to determine the victor. All players seek to increase their fortunes by betting on the outcome of the gruesome conflict. Fighters who emerge from the arena victorious gain Favor and their Dominus gain Influence.

The goal of the game is to become the most influential house in Capua, securing your family’s power for years to come. During the game, players will bribe, poison, betray, steal, blackmail, and undermine each other. Gold will change hands again and again to buy support, stay someone’s hand or influence their decisions. Will you be the honorable player whose word is their bond or the treacherous schemer whose alliances change with the wind?

 

Tuesday night we also cracked out The Serpents and The Wolf, the expansion allowing six of us to backstab, plot and occasionally do battle in the arena. Myself, Rich and Mr C had got a couple of games in a couple of Fridays back so had a bit of an idea what we were doing but it's not a difficult game to pick up.

The game itself is yet another high quality offering with good elements of resource management (gold does tend to talk though) and plenty of interaction between players. The combat system once onto the sands is quick, simple yet has enough to producing an engaging combat. Each house has its own special rules and abilities, flavoured to the series, and there are genuinely multiple ways to win the game, it's not an auto to build a stable of stone cold killers.

With the expansion the idea is for upto four Houses putting forward a combatant into the arena to fight in teams of two. We gave that bit a miss with three new players but it soon proved that it was otherwise too easy to sideline the more combat ready Houses. I'd made the early running, BIG mistake, only to be hauled back down toward the gutter. By mid-game a definite alliance had appeared between MrC and Rich. The rest of us weren't having that so when Ian had a chance for glory we backed him all the way!

Give it a go if you get the chance, well worth it for the quote opportunites alone :)

Bonus Points

Hello people,

As a result of twisting my ankle playing football yesterday I've been forced to have today off sick. It's been horrible.........obviously!!

The bonus, other than two posts in one day, has been an unexpected glut of brush-time, ankle appropriately raised. As such I've finished off painting A, B and D Sections for my Commandos as well as the vaguely converted flamethrower.

I've obviously got a few spares knocking about but that's pretty much about 1200 pts now so plenty for a while. Besides I'm not sure I want to paint another Commando backpack for a little while.

I also specifically use the phrase painted as I still need to put the the shoulder patch transfers onto all of these and the remaining weapons teams, about 40 figures in all. A fun filled night at some point :) Better photos as well!

Meanwhile that's 30 figures for a whopping 60 Painting Points. I still need to sort out the pin markers as well as smoke templates so not quite a completed project just yet but still a big lump of painting off workstation.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow and then the club :)

Slice and Dice

A couple of Wednesdays back saw another consecutive session of Edge of the Empire as Sindori returned to the group after last time out and who hadn't been off gum running with Agenai.....oh no!

Once again the newest member of the group stepped to the fore, Tanner Voss force-sensitive Slicer extraordinaire. Jon, as  a player, has a talent for sensitive characters and the detail that they demand. He also has a habit for stuffing up my best laid schemes with the least effort and minimal intent with he ability to roll killer dice at a crucial moment....most of the time  

Name: Tanner Voss 
Race: Human
Career: Technician - Slicer 
Background: Tanner hails from the core worlds though he doesn't say exactly where from. Talented with computers from his youth Tanner could see things in the code that many others of his kind couldn't. Different enough as he, and others, have suspected that he harbours a level of sensitivity to the Force. Always on the move Tanner often goes farther than his contracts stipulate his need to explore a system or database as much a compulsion as anything else. This need has often found him in places he shouldn't be..............in more ways than one!

Back at the action Perit and Tanner headed back to Mr Fixit with 7s on autopilot though he blanked out for a bit to find himself reattached to his previous chassis minus his special black box which Tanner and Perit had agreed would stay with Mr Fixit for a while. Mr Fixit was also keen to offer his various services and the lads left with a promo pamphlet of the wonders of cybernetics.

Tanner also spent some time checking out the three McGregors data-slugs which turned out to be a full inventory of clients and thier storage, an as yet unactivated credit chip and some bio research data. Being the paranoid kind they were adjudged to be matters for another day!  Catching up with Sindori and heading back to HI-HI the chaps were keen on getting in some R&R before heading back to Von Furzt. They decided not to go empty handed with Tanner tasked to locate and copy the data that R4 had previously returned with. R4 hadn't yet been processed but the boys were pretty banged up and so recovery was priority 1. 

On the way to the maintenance bay 7s ran into Company Sergeant Chung who wanted a quick update....so 7s lied his metallic arse off....poorly. Chung suggested that maybe 7s should download his memory logs so Chung could examine them....so 7s lied his metallic arse off....poorly. Thankfully, for him, a lucky Deceit roll saw him through.Chung ordered a full systems analysis and a full team debrief at a few hours before heading back to see Von Furzt.

(As an aside MrC has occasionally tried to use his droid status to his advantage claiming perfect recall of any given situation so it was nice to play the other side of the coin - yes I know I'm a git)

Once rested Tanner got to work though by this time R4 had been processed and the data files from Tinsons so it which meant hacking into HI-HIs main system, no easy feat even for Tanner's force sensitive hacking abilities. Setting to work he got in decently enough, though not without the notice of the firewall, and located the Tinsons data packets. Copying them to a data slug proved more difficult with a near magical roll involving both a Triumph and a Despair.

Perfect copy of the data but the system knows......and it's telling! Time to log off!!

Summoned to Chung's briefing 7s once again prepared to engage lie like a bad rug mode before Tanner stepped in and went with the honesty version  of deceit admitting to hacking the system to see what he could cross-check against the Tinsons data. The lads then gave a mainly truthful account of their dealing with Von Furzt, including 7s photo uploads, which halfway satisfied Chung to the point he insisted that they call in immediately after meeting Von Furzt. He even reissued 7s with a Med-Kit!!

Heading back to the Bothwai Bantha Revue Bar Sindori once again managed to sneak a small arsenal in with him and once again engaged in a few rounds of Sabacc. Moving through to Von Furzt's office security had been noticeably upgraded and included a second set of security scans. Sindori didn't make it this time and refusing to give up hi weapons was escorted back to the Sabacc tables. Von Furzt was still edgy demanding to know if anyone had been "stupid enough to come in here with any implants".

It was at this point that 7s came over all open and honest "only the implants that HI-HI put in us". Cue barracking and head holding by the rest of the party. After a good deal of back-tracking Von Furzt insisted on moving negotiations to a covert high-security interview room aka interrogation cell where matters progressed to the chaps agreeing to everything he had previously suggested. 

To that end Von Furzt revealed his contact in the lower levels of the mines, a foreman code-named MID-KNIGHT who would act as intermediary for the buyers who should also have intel on the location of Kanto and Jared. Swiftly ejected from the Bantha the boys quickly checked in with Chung informing him by text message that they were heading down below.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go........

Slave to the Darkness?

Evening All!

So...4 games with 3 Z-95 Headhunters and 2 Y-Wings. Expecting to take a battering I somehow pulled three wins and ended up spending the final round on the top table. I did then take a bit of a pasting, despite giving a decent game, and dropped down to fourth of ten players but that was still a major result....and one place higher than MrC ;]

The List: 99pts
Z-95 - Airen Cracken - Swarm Tactics
Z-95 - Bandit Squadron
Z-95 - Bandit Squadron
Y-Wing - Dutch Vander - Ion Turret - R2-D6 - Veteran Instincts
Y-Wing - Gold Squadron - Ion Turret

I'd slapped it together wanting to try out Z-95s and Ys ahead of Scum and Villany and picked up a few synergous bits between the options which apparently worked rather well. It took half a game to settle but after that I worked my options a lot better and starting manoeuvring as a unit.

The 95s swarm well but are fragile while the Ys are proper tanks and with a pair of then I can pull circuits and cover a wide area with Ion fire. All in all a good day out.

As I was always likely to I picked up a Slave 1 on the way out. Thinking either going full Boba with the paint scheme or working up something a bit more Black Sun, bone and crimson most likely.

Fully converted to the ways of X-Wing I am :)

Something a little different Prt 1

Hello people,

Something a little different.....Orctober

Follow the link and have a read, take part if you feel inspired. Basically it's paint some Orc(k)s month.

I'm rather keen as I've always been a total fanboy for greenskins, they were my first ever army, Warhammer for the record, and there's been mutilple incarnations of warbands, teams and battlegroups ever since.

As you might have worke out I have been inspired but without any form of Orc(k) project in sight I've groped around for a tenuous justification.

I've ordered some bitz from E-Bay. I'll show you when they turn up ;]

Omnipotent Fowl

Last night at Enfield Gamers we kicked off the Britannia Jugula campaign with six newly formed Ludi and their equally green Lanistas (Lanisti?). There was much hamming it up and Spartacus quotes a plenty, especially where Jupiter's prize male chicken was concerned. In fact there was as much effort put into making grammatically poor threats as there was playing the game.

I am running Ludus Peckhamus of House Trottari hailing from the marshland to the south of Londinium....which partially explained the smell.

First up I faced Rich and his well hated Sagittarius. In honesty I started playing the deck building side of the game fairly well, building Vox Populi and marshaling my resources. It didn't help when I pretty much let myself get outmanoeuvred on the sands which was quickly stained red by my Secutor, a dead kind of red in fact!

To be honest I was having trouble "seeing" potential manoeuvres on the gridded board and it was costing me dear. That was until the penny finally dropped, clanged even, at which point I pinned two of Rich's lads up against a wall and smashed the both into it repeatedly to take a shock 4-2 win.

Push backs are an important part of combat. If you don't have the space to move back into you take an extra wound. Suddenly I only had to beat Rich's "roll" rather than double it!

Second game was against Shaun who tends to play the long game so I got stuck into him early. Problem was I failed to make it stick, manoeuvre again, and we ended up in a mass scrum in the middle of the arena. Eventually Shaun ground out a 4-1 win.

Third and final game of the night was against Paul who came at me from the off but fairly piecemeal. His dashed out and netted my new Sector which would have proved far more effective if he'd had someone to take advantage of it with.

I was effectively forced to fight around my netted man with fairly minimal resources but still with a touch more than Paul who hadn't built up at all in order to press on me. My advantage and defensive posture told as I forced Paul to engage on my terms and took a convincing 4-1 win.

Applying the campaign rules I had somehow done rather. The two dead Plebi were easily replaced from the slave pens while Rodanius my Murmillo tank and Triggorus my Hoplomachus (a spear is just a broom handle with a point) had both gained enough XP to ping up a level to each going another point of Attack bonus. This in turn garnered Ludus Peckhamus an amount of fame and reputation.

Not quite sure what that means just yet other than a target on the back and higher running costs I'm sure :)

For a "simple" game there are lots of little details to remember to apply. The quick play sheet had a section "10 things that you will forget". That does however mean that there's plenty of depth both tactically and strategically. Even as a fairly seasoned hack (cough) it took a bit to keep up though this was mainly because I was to busy having frenetic fun.

Frenetic is definitely the correct phrase, there's a lot going on on both sides of the arena and plenty to keep track of and second guess. It provides a good "buzz" to the game. 

We played through three rounds in about 2 1/2 hours as newbies with just decks and quick play sheets more than happily :) For the campaign it'll be every other week to keep things fresh and avoid overload. 

By Jupiter's omnipotent male hen, thou knowest where we reside!!