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 :)

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 :(