Competition Entry

The Sarcophagus and Greave read
"Vae Victus"

So, as mentioned, I'm painting a Dreadnought for this months's painting competition... not cos I think I'll win, just cos I've had it in the back of my cupboard for a while, and it needed doing... Also peer pressure; many peer pressures.

But, anyway - my Dread. It's meant for carpet-cleaning; by which I mean removing swarms of guants from the field. It has a twin-linked heavy flamer as it's primary armament, with an underslung heavy flamer to compliment it's powerfist... even if said weapon is instead mounted on the other side of his chest. Still, good combination; it can kill a dozen guants in a single turn with it's flamers, and then tie them up in melee for the rest of the game (gotta love fearless models being unable to run away) which I reckon is well worth 115 points.


I really like the glowing effect...
The one under the flamer isn't as good

Anyway, the painting - I like it. It's simple, yes, but it's done well. It's also - somewhat embarrassingly - my first proper go at highlighting... I'm lazy, I'll admit it, but normally I don't bother. Which, given that my army has a lot of black in it is probably inforgiveable, but shut up.

Still not sure bout the battle
damage, buy hey-ho

The base... I'm not so sure of. It was meant to look like the snow melted around the flamers, but really I shoulda raised up the areas around that to make it more noticeable. Ah, well, never mind, it's passable I'd say... given what I know I'm competing against, I have no intentions of winning, I'm just happy to get the occasional nod from passersby.

... I do like the glowing powerpack though, I'll admit that.

 

Iron Kingdoms - The Revengening

And, as promised, Satuday's blog... sorry it's a tad late, forgot about it a bit...

... So, back again with the next session, and boy, was it... well, boring for me. I spent literally the entire session crafting ammo. But, more on that later.

So, when we left off, James and I were on our approach to Southshield in order to investigate a contract with the head of the Garrison, and to find our erstwhile companions. We were also loaded down with a half-dozen rifles and swords we'd looted from the mercenaries we'd just defeated, but if there're rules for encumbrance, we haven't found 'em, so no matter!

Anyway, the journey to the city goes off without a hitch, and we are quickly directed to the general's office. Whilst there, she tells us two very important facts relating to the mission she has for us; firstly, that it was to kill the Necromancer who'd been holed up in the barn, and second that our party members had attempted to claim the reward without any proof, and had only succeeded in haggling us out of half the sum... Now, they found this immensely humorous, right up until the point when they realised that just meant they wouldn't be getting paid. In response, we explained what had happened, handed over the book we'd found, and asked about lodgings for a few days.

So, without further ado, we set off to find an inn to rest at, whilst looking for our foreign friends. And, that's basically all I did for three real-life hours; I sat in my room and crafted a frankly preposterous number of rune shots... Tell a lie - I sold off the looted equipment, bought myself a pistol and collaspable staff, and then because the fancy took me, a pocket watch... So, lets ignore me, and concentrate on the others.

Now, during this time Cara and Hunter, between making friends with a Rhulic chef, had been investigating a series of rumours, firstly about a group of Khadorans who were attempting to locate someone... Turns out it was two Cygnarans who'd found a book in the wilderness. The second rumour was about some trouble at the Morrowan Cemetary. Investigating further, they found a series of catacombs beneath the city. During this exploration they wandered blindly for a few hours and were nearly killed by a horde of giant rats. Eventually, they found themselves in a altar room, filled with dismembered corpses, and presided over by a corrupted shade. There, they faced their second toughest fight of the campaign so far, but eventually they managed to overcome the phantom using a holy knife given to them by the priest. Whilst searching the room, Cara found a grimoire, written in Cryxian, which detailed a series of experiments for using souls to power 'jacks... Now, at this point, they decide it might be fun to find us.

So, they return to the inn, and find a note for them, asking to meet us around dusk in the tavern. And they go "oh, sweet, job done" and go for a nap.

James, meanwhile has accidentally followed in their footsteps, and after investigating the cemetary, discovers the altar room but, running low on time, decides to return after our meeting... which went swimmingly  - we agreed to set off the following morning, and told them we've handed in the book we found the the General. This, admittedly, has them a bit put out, until they realise the grimoire they'd found was an older version of it - what the necromancer had used as a basis for his research.Bright eyed, they walked into what should have been an obvious trap.

So, yeah, soon as they brought out the book, they are surrounded and forced to transcribe it into Sulese. Then, once the Kaptain has left with the translation, they make a daring escape, before tracking down and killing his party, though they lost the translation in doing so. Flush with pride, and weighed down with axes, they return to the Inn for a nights rest.

... Then James gets mauled by a Wolf.

Pre-Birthday/Death Hulk

So, tomorrow is my 21st birthday, meaning today is the last day that I am in any way not an adult... bit sad really, but, well, it's been a good year - might as well end it before it deteriorates.

Anyway, so on Sunday I went round to my mates and play tested Death Hulk, and it went well. Still some minor kinks to work out, and we had to entirely redo the rules for jamming - plus trying to figure out enemy reinforcements was a pain - but we really enjoyed it. It had all the fun of 40k, but was a lot easier to play - you only control one man, and a 21x21 board was easily big enough to accomodate the simple scenarios... we're gonna try and make a more permanent board - or possibly invest in a d&d tile board - rather than use the print outs I made; but that's just because we want something a tad more permanent... but, yes - the game went well, the system works, and we're gonna open it up to others in the group first chance we get.

The background is my PC...
Yeah, that's Serenity.

Oh, and in other news - my entry for the walker/monster painting competition is coming along well. It's a dread with twin-heavy flamer and underslung heavy flamer (perfect for taking out hordes of gribblies) painted in my homebrew colours... Base will be icy, and if I can make it look melted under the flamers, I will.

Oh, and of course I'm then going to use it on my mate's new nid army... and possibly as a boss in Death Hulk is we can ge a big enough board... that will be a fun, tactical game - diving out behind it, unleashing a flurry of shots at it's weak point, and then retreating down a narrow corridor before it gets a chance to respond... or dying borribly as it unleashes a gout of burning prometheum over our hapless characters.

Deathhulk Spacewatch

Sorry for how long it's been - I've been out all but one day this week... I'll try from now on to post at least once every saturday, with a few bonus posts during the week if something occurs to me.

Anyway, the reason for this post is, as you can guess from the title, to do with the Deathwatch and Space Hulk, with a bit of Kill Team thrown in for good measure. I know it sounds a bit weird, but let me explain...

Now, week before last, ADB posted a very nice entry on his blog about his first session of Deathwatch - well worth a look, if for nothing else than the props they made - which made me really wanna restart the Deathwatch campaign we've had on hold for half a year... which, admittedly, is good timing because I'm nearing the end of the D&D campaign I've been DMing for about 4 years (not consecutively though - there've been season-long gaps at times).
At about the same time, the local Workshop had a birthday... I'm not sure which, but there was cake. Anyway, one of the attractions was 'Deathwatch Kill Team' - you pay some money, get to make a sternguard veteran with deathwatch parts, and play as them through a series of missions... Now, that sounded really fun, but I was running low on founds that week so... never mind. But it got me thinking...

Now, I have a group of 4 friends who I used to game with regularly, but now rarely get to see... because none of us have room to game, and until recently there was nowhere for us to meet up. But I thought it'd be quite nice if we did something similar - we each make a character, which when put together will form a legal unit, and then paint them up... not for any real purpose, just as a reminder for the old times.
What I didn't take into account though, was that one of them loved old Space Hulk.
Soon as I told him bout it, he got really into the idea of making a version of SH wherein we play a squad of basic marines, forwarded to the Deathwatch from various chapters, doing missions to earn points to improve our stats, acquire better weapons, maybe become a chaplain down the line... Well, it was too good an idea to drop, especially seeing as tight corridors and few models meant we could do it in a quite small space, so we ended up going to the pub that night and thrashing out some basic rules.

Now, since then, we've added more stuff in - ammo, extra equipment, stuff like that. We're still adding to it now - I'm actually about to add in rules regarding overwatching. But, in case anyone is interested, here are the basics for a game of Deathhulk:

- Everyone has 1 Tactical Marine; he has exactly the same stats and equipment as put down in the codex, except that he possesses 2 wounds.
- One Character is the Sergeant - he may exchange his bolter for a chainsword if he desires.
- The board is made up of a series of squares 1" across. These are the standard measurement for everything.
- Rather than the usual rules for movement, shooting and assault, characters instead have Action Points (A.P.) equal to double their initiative. Characters spend their A.P. to move, attack, or for miscellanious acts (opening doors, etc.)
- It costs 1 A.P. to move 1 square or shoot a pistol, 2 to fire a Rapid Fire weapon, and 3 to make a melee attack or fire a Heavy/Salvo weapon. Assault weapons cos 1 A.P. per shot, and template or blast weapons cost double (e.g. a flamer costs 2 A.P. to fire, a frag missile costs 6 A.P.)
-Weapon ranges are halved - a bolt pistol shoots 6 squares, a heavy bolter shoots 18. Template weapons affect every model within 4 squares, and blast weapons affect adjacent squares to the target.

Now that, I believe, ought to be enough to get you started. Hopefully we're gonna play test the rules tomorrow, so there may be updates to this come monday. Otherwise, take these basics and use them as you wish.

Volodanti Away!

Iron Kingdoms - The Beginnings

So, I'm gonna be writing about my Iron Kingdoms campaign here, so, here's my first piece... it's gonna be a less detailed than most, since most of it happened a few months ago. First though, a general introduction to the characters... well, other people's characters anyway.

So, the Group - we start ourselves with a mismatched quartet if ever there was one. We are;
-Firstly, a Cygnaran Noble/Investigator named James who happens to have a quad iron... lovely weapon, bit slow to reload though. He chose Intellect as his Archetype, so everyone gets a buff when nearby to him, and being both a support and a Noble, we made him the de facto leader.
-Second, there is a Sulese Mechanic named Cara... and by that I mean Arcane and Field, so she's rocking out in a suit of flaming armour and followed by her loyal labourjack; Smiter. She also has a gun-axe, so she's pretty damn cool. Also, she may or may not be a Cryxian spy, so this may get fun...
-Then we have a Mage Hunter/Cutthroat, and let me tell you; he's scary. Twin Assassin Blades, ambidextrous, Skilled Archetype and anatomical precision means he's causing a minimum of 6 damage per turn... and that's if he fails to wound. Not a clue what his name is though - he doesn't speak Cygnaran, and I doubt we'd have much to talk about really.
And, finally, there's Elyas; the Gunmage sniper... This is gonna go about as well as you'd imagine.

Oh, and before we start - there will be Spoilers for Urban Adventure.

Sessions 1

So, the campaign starts, and we're in south-western Cygnar, heading towards Southshield, the regional capital, to speak with the local general about some mercenary work... When, we're attacked by some baboon-like creatures. After a short fight (long enough for me to get out my rifle, realise they aren't worth the magic, and pack it away) I discover that the creature's glands are valuable should we extract them... This will come back to bite me, but for the moment, since we lack the ability to safely remove the glands, we stick them in the cart with Smiter.

Anyway, so we set off again, but soon come across a fork in the road, guarded by a Long Gunner. He tells us that the path he guards leads to a small fishing village, that was raided last night. A brief debate ensues, and we decide to investigate this; down at the shore, we find the soul survivor, a young woman who is attempting to dig a grave for her family. I, being a Morrow-fearing sorta soul, help her dig, before striking up a conversation, asking about what happened. James decides to investigate the area; look for any clues as to who attacked, or any other survivors... and the others decide this isn't worth their time... they spent the rest of the session hunting baboons, buying new clothes, and alienating anyone who can translate for them. So, they'll not feature again for a while.

Meanwhile, I - eventually - convince the woman to describe what happened... I'm not proud to say it took a bit of intimidation, but I needed answers damnit. Apparently, some men had dragged her younger brothers away, off inland towards a forest. James and I set off in that direction; his investigation and my tracking skills allowing us to follow the drag marks and footprints. Eventually, we realise that the pair of us will struggle to take on a group of this size by ourselves, and James sets off to reunite the party, while I scout ahead.

After a length of travel, I approach a clearing, and discover a member of the Order of Illumination, badly injured, slumped upon a treestump. I move in to help him, and he tells me that he was part of a trio who had come here investigating necromancy. Beyond the treeline there is an old compound, where a Necromancer and his allies were soon to commit  an atrocity. He weakened then, and I moved to help him staunch the flow of blood, but I am no healer... his death weighed heavy upon me as I approached the compound.

Now, this compound in question was a dilapidated barn surrounded by a high-wall. I could hear a lot of commotion from within, and climing a nearby tree, I was able to see why. A Talon Light Warjack fought five mercenaries; the bodies of two Illuminators and another mercenary lay nearby, whilst the 'jack carried a robed form in one arm. As I moved around behind the barn, a mighty crash shook the area, as the 'jack sprinted off into the forest. I knew my time was short, and loaded my magelock; firing a silenced shot through the lock and granting me access to the barn. A quick search, and I found the children; a pair of boys chained to the wall next to a bewildering array of Mechanik and Alchemical aids. Another two shots freed them, and we began to make our escape.

We were barely out of the barn before we heard yelling; it seems the sacrifice was meant to begin, and the lack of victims was discovered. Knowing the children couldn't outrun trained mercenaries, I told them to hide around the corner, whilst I prepared to lead them on a merry old chase. As the first one stepped into the doorway, I fired a quick shot, yelled something offensive, and made a run for it.

This, would, of course be the time James returns, on his own, and hears a shot fired, my call, and angry voices in response. As any bright-eyed noble would, he charged in, drawing his quad-iron, and began firing. He did, admittedly, do some damage, but mostly he just alerted them to his presence. Whirling around, they returned fire, and James was only saved by the wall he was crouched behind. Upon hearing this, I realised what had occured, and enterred into a protracted gunfight with the one mercenary who had ducked into the cover of the doorframe. It took some time, long enought for James to reload and kill one of his attackers, but eventually, I killed him... where-upon they charged James. The luck of the Gods was with him though, and James made it through by the skin on his teeth, and just managed to sla one with his rapier. This, it seemed, was too much for the mercenaries, and they quickly turned tail and fled... right towards me. The two survivors were caught in the ensuing crossfire, and swiftly put down. We then did a more thorough search of the compounds, and found therein a book written in Cryxian, and not much else.

From there, it was a relatively peaceful walk back to the fishing village, a tear-filled reunion between siblings who'd lost everything, and we returned to the road, intent to find our erstwhile companions, and to meet the general to discuss the events of the previous night. Which, dear readers, is where my first session of Iron Kingdoms ended. More to continue in the next post.

Iron Kingdoms - My Character

So, After last post - and considering I did a session so recently - I've decided to do a little blog on the adventures of Elyas Borne; the Gunmage Marksman... Marksman, in this case, being a nickname for him, given that it's neither a class, nor an ability.

So, yeah, I'm gonna seperate this out into blocks, if that's alright? Cheers then.

Concept

Alright, so, when we started doing Warmachine, I chose Cygnar, and my favourite unit was the Gunmages; pistoleers capable of charging their shots with arcane energies. Partially, it was cos they are a very effective unit, partially because they're so unique an idea (outside of Japan - it sounds like something that you'd find in a manga), and partially because they like to cosplay as Dick Turpin. Whatever the reason, I knew a gunmage was the one for me.
This, incidentally, limited me to the Gifted Archetype. I quickly selected the additional study ability, because the others weren't quite relevant... possibly barring the 'sense other mages' power, which would have helped out later.



I've straightened the barrel since...
Wow, that sounded a lot better in my head.

Now, normally when making a character in an rpg, I like to create, well, assassins - I dunno why, but whenever I have the option to make a character as I want them, I don a cloak and grab some daggers. This time, I wanted to try something a little different, and spectacularly failed.

Alright, well, it's not quite that bad. I was a Human Gunmage, and after some extended debating, I'd decided to take the rifle over the pistol. I'll admit, rifles are much less cool, and it meant I was gonna be in serious trouble if engaged in melee, but given that my party consisted of a Mechanic, a Nobleman and a Mage Hunter, I reasoned that if the enemy was ever in a position to get a charge off, we were already screwed.

So, I just had to pick my second career, and I was done. After some investigation, I narrowed it down to four choices; Bounty Hunter, Ranger, Rifleman, and Soldier. The first I dropped quite quickly - it wasn't really what I was looking for. Rifleman would give me a wide variety of offensive abilities for my character. Soldier would allow me to take cover at the start of any fight (very useful when you're squishy), and to return fire... well, skip my action to shoot at an enemy enterring my LoS. Finally, Ranger... Ranger makes me harder to hit in cover. I really didn't care about it, til I noticed another ability; Pathfinder. Or, for those of you who are unaware, Ignore Difficult Terrain. Now, this, I felt, would really help. Sprinting 14" through terrain, whilst a heavily armoured enemy is forced to plod through at 5" a turn would give me a huge advantage. And camoflauge, I reasoned, would help me avoid detection... So, there we have it - a Gunmage/Ranger combo, focussing on long-ranged assassinations... there's even a gunmage spell called 'Silenced' - perfect!

Background

Now, I moved onto his backstory - who was he, where did he come from, why was he not in the Arcane Tempest? Alright, lets browse through this - the name is not important yet; that'll be defined by the rest. So, where is he from? Well, Cygnar obviously, but where abouts? Remembering, this has to include motivation for everything else, I thought, "What about the Thornwood?" i.e. the place just conquered by Khador. Yeah - then we have a driving motivation, a clear-cut enemy, and a lovely chance for either interparty conflict and/or character development. So, why not just push it that little bit further - he's half-Llaelese, on his mother's side. This, of course, helps inform us of his name - primarily Cygnaran, but with Llaelese influence... bit of googling, and I found something I quite liked; Elyas Borne. Short, uncomplicated, but interesting. Works perfectly.
Moving on a bit, so, he's from Thornwood - narrowed that down to the outskirts of Fellig - which explains why he's a so adept at moving through terrain... but why does he use that rifle, rather than the traditional Magelock Pistol? Well, because his Dad was in the army, of course. That's how he met the mother - routine deployment in Llael. And, after settling down, he taught his children to hunt in the woods using his old long rifle.

There are runes on his base now.
Runes are cool.

Now, the last part - why isn't he in the army? His dad was an ex-soldier, so obviously, Elyas would have been pressured into joining when his gift was discovered... So, what if he just wasn't a good soldier? Growing up amongst the wild doesn't really prepare you for life in a major military academy, and an affinity for rifles will isolate you in the Arcane Tempest. So, obviously, being skilled but undisciplined, he was sent of to the Fourth Army - the reserves. And, being in the reserves when his mother's home, and later his own country, are invaded... well, that's enough to make anyone resentful. Lets add to this - his brother went MIA during the invasion, and Elyas now wants to find him...

So, there we have it - Elyas is a half-Llaelese ex-soldier, who grew up around Fellig. He signed up early, but dropped out when he became disillusioned with army life, and went searching for his family in occupied territory. When he couldn't find them, he started travelling, and eventually found himself with his present party.

Finishing Touches

So, just the equipment to work on, right? Well, he starts off with a Magelock rifle and ammo bandolier as standard... and not much cash. So, essentials people. First off, he needs a simple melee weapon; nothing big or expensive - if he's using it, he's in trouble anyway. So, what about a knife? Or, even better - a spring blade! Yes, it is just the hidden blade from Assassins Creed, but given that I can draw it without skipping an action (and without dropping my rifle), I reckon it's worth the slight cost increase. Now, armour - Custom Battle armour would be lovely, but I've other stuff to buy, so no thanks...  the model is wearing a big coat with metal plates attached, so armoured greatcoat seems perfect. This just leaves the accessories - a scope and bi-pod for his rifle (giving him an impressive 17" range and effective RAT 11 if he aims), and a rangefinder and bedroll for use out-of-combat. With only a few GP left, and very little ammo, I decided to save them up and buy ammo-crafting components first chance I get.

And here we are - a long post, but one I hope to follow up soon with details of his adventures... very soon I'd imagine - I'd like to put them down before I forget them.

Aaand I'm Back

Wow, I'm a little... surprised. I mean, I last time I posted I was moaning that I was 8 months from twenty - now I'm less than a fortnight from 21... I really am lazy.

Anyway, this post is gonna be an update - a long one again probably - about what I've been up to in the past 20 months, so, in no particular order;

I learned to sing! Not very well, I'll admit, but I did a half-year module on singing at Uni, and actually passed, for which I am unbelievably proud.

I started the following; D&D (well, I was already doing it, but now I'm doing it more than once a season), Star Wars D20, Deathwatch & Dark Heresy (a session of each, and the latter was round a mate's once whilst visiting, but still), and most dramatically Warmachine and Iron Kingdoms.

As an update to last time, I've now played several games of Gothic, and I can confirm that 6 Strike Cruisers and 3 escorts is a terrible fleet.


Still gotta base most of them - though, you can see the
Ironclad's sandbag if you squint.

But, yeah; Warmachine. Started a Cygnaran Army because the people I game with bought starter boxes, and, well, it looked kinda cool... And, I can confirm, it is.Very simple system, but with a lot of options, and the first game I've found wherein you can lose half your army in the first turn and still win. Over the course of my games I have a) found my squishy pistoleers fighting a unit of grenadiers with an immunity to ranged damage and come out on top and b) basically lost my best 'Jack, half my pistoleers and 2/3 of my character pistoleers (just shy of half my army) turn 2 and won... I've lost a few times too, but that's generally when I try to be clever.

Iron Kingdoms, meanwhile, I have found to be quite possibly my favourite RPG. Yes, I'll admit, the non-combat parts are a tad under-explored, but the simplicity and customisation is just staggering. Only aided by how much free content is released - seriously, every month they'll release new weapons, equipment, classes, enemies, encounters, and even diseases... admittedly free is a bit of a lie - it's in the monthly magazine - but, I buy that anyway.
As to my bloke; Elyas Borne - Gun Mage/Ranger (for those who are unaware, you pick two classes to start with). I'll probably go into greater detail in a future post - in fact, there's a fair chance this'll turn into a blog about his adventures, but, for now, we'll move on.

Right, now the thing I probably should have discussed at the time; over the summer I got involved in a Tale of Many Gamers. Now, for my mates, this was because one wanted a new chaos army, another was had just bought Dark Vengeance and was keen to give that a go, and I... well, I'm lazy. I have 4000+ points of Dark Angels, and less than a quarter of it painted... So, I wanted motivation. The whole thing lasted 5 months, and I ended with 1500 points of painted, based, and fluffed models. Really shoulda blogged about it at the time... But, hey-ho, never mind.
Speaking of painting; I'm in the midst of painting up a dread for a competition at the local Workshop, so may end up getting shots of that.

... Really can't think of anything else that needs discussing. I'm trying to make a fantasy campaign for GURPS, but that's a longterm project given how many RPG's I've got going on... I'm also trying to convert that Star Wars D20 above into a Fallout game, but that's been put on standby... So, yeah - I'm back, thanks for having me.

Update

I'd meant to include these last time - pictures of my Jetbike. Pretty simple conversion - the main thruster is from a Fire Prism, the vent at the front is a Sanguinary Guard jump pack, and the rest is just plasticard.

... Still not so sure on the head though. Used a Grey Knights helmet to give it a more knightly look - the sort they'd wear at jousting tourneys to keep the splinters out of their eyes (thank you A Knight's Tale), but it just seems wrong to me... maybe I'll replace it someday... or maybe I should attach a shield to his off hand, who knows?