Miniature catastrophe - Major heartbreak.

My name is Shelly and I have a problem. I am addicted to collecting models.


This isn’t such a strange statement for a gamer to come up with. We all know we buy more miniatures than we can paint. Some of us are actually good when it comes to controlling the habit. Others aren’t. You hear it all the time down your local club about the numerous painting projects this guy has or the number of models that guy bought ages ago but still hasn’t used. I use both of these frequently. Like many gamers, I have (or had – read on) several armies/forces from different systems:

Warhammer - Dwarfs
40k - Dark Angels, Imperial Guard and Necrons
Necormunda Ratskin Renegades and Van Saar
Infinity - Yu Jing and Combined Army
Monsterpocalypse - Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes – Monsterpocalypse
Warmachine - Protectorate of Menoth
Malifaux - Outcasts
The sad thing is this hobby can make gamer do really impulsive things as there is always something new to try. Since attending the Cross Gaming Club for the last year and a bit, I have been sucked into new gaming systems. Before that I was a proud and devoted Dark Angel player with an army worth over 11000 points. I won’t detail everything here but it does have a full battle company and many, many tanks. Initially, I was aiming to collect a whole chapter which was obviously inspired by the pictures of the entire Ultramarines chapter featured in White Dwarf. Naturally this would take an enormous amount of time and is definitely more than varied enough to play a simple 2000 point, but achieving that goal would have been so great! Of course there would be a lot of time to devote to the painting of the chapter. Out of my 11000 or so points I would only guess that approximately 15% was fully painted and based, while another 70% was either base coated only or in the middle of being painted. As I’ve said before in previous posts, I don’t have a lot of patience for painting. And this isn’t helped when other ideas/projects come up. And neither does not having a competitive Codex. Under the new rules, it seems that non-regular Space Marine armies have suffered under the new 40k rules. I love my Dark Angels as they are my first army but this left me feeling slightly jaded.
Which is why I decided to wait for the next Codex to come out by starting a side project to spice things up a bit. After looking into (lusting after) both the Necron and Tau armies (this took a lot of thought), I went for the Necrons. The deciding factor was that they would suit my painting style, i.e. very little skill needed. Most of them have just been base coated in Boltgun Metal and then sprayed with Devlan mud or Badab Black. Shoulder pads and face masks have been lightly painted with either Red Gore or a very dark blue mixed with Mithril Silver, and other small details have been picked out (scarab design on the chests and wire from the weapons). By doing this, I would say that 80% of my 6800 point force is fully painted. I am very happy about this. But again I am feeling a bit jaded with them. So with the Necrons facing the same Codex issues, I was happily whisked off into another project.
I fell heavily into Warmachine during the first couple of months of playing at Cross Gaming Club. Watching everyone else play just kinda sucked me in. I took a look and fell head over heels for the Protectorate of Menoth. After a year of more or less using them every week and buying lots of minis solidly each month, I now have a stupidly large force (nearly 200 points with six casters – 7 if you count the epic version of Kreoss). I am still very focused on building on this. Painting has gone mostly ok but I still think that I’ve only painted under 50% of these guys. The good thing about this army is that I haven’t lost interest. Moving into the MKII rules hasn’t dulled what is a great game, I haven’t had a bad experience yet.
Alongside Warmachine, I have also looked at playing Infinity and Malifaux. I have a couple of starter boxes for both games but haven’t really used either, I have only had one game of Malifaux. Neither of these have seen even a sniff of paint. I like the different styles of play of these games and will hope to get some game time soon. At the moment, these starter forces are going to stay starter forces. I am not going to expand just yet.
I also decided to make a go of starting a Dwarf Warhammer army. I’ve always liked the Dwarfs and the first ever GW blister I bought (and painted!) was Dwarf Crossbowmen. I’ve always had a few minis but not enough to make a legal force. I did have at one point a legal force, but lost a full case of minis (which included all sort – Dwarfs, Guard, Dark Angels, even a Lord of Change!) while moving flats one time. So over the last fifteen years or so this small throng has just gathered dust. Plus I’ve never had an opponent to play with and when I started attending the club I had other interests. Just before Christmas last year, I was given an opportunity to get the Dwarfs operational by buying a big box of them of a fellow club goer. This no doubt would have made my throng legal. But then, GW decided to release the 8th edition rules which kinda put me off a little. So they stayed in their box, partially painted by someone else.
One other game I have glossed over is Monsterpocalypse. This appealed to me so much. Where else can you actually play a game that unfolds just like a big monster b-movie? Also, and this was the biggest draw of them all, the minis are all pre-painted plastic! After much hype, I have only played two games. Unfortunately there isn’t a great amount of interest at CGC, so my large force (which I built up alongside my Menoth force) is just sitting on the bench.
This pretty much illustrates my collection and my compulsiveness. I’m sure there are lots of fellow gamers in similar situations. But the compulsiveness came to light after an argument with the wife when she found out how much I had spent over the past year. When put together, the sums that I had spent each and every month prove to be really quite terrifying. For the same amount I could have got myself some driving lessons and a decent used car. It’s not really about the money, but it’s more that I felt I had to hide these purchases from my other half which led to the argument. Anyway as a result of my ‘strike two’, ‘I am trimming the fat’ in my collection. I had a good hard look at what I own and drawn up a list of the armies/forces I will keep (the ones I will use frequently and have a current interest in). The rest (ones that I am quite positively not going to use for some time) will go. I am slowly selling them on eBay a bit at a time. Again, it’s not about recouping some of the money I wasted, but about having only what I need as a gamer. Plus there will be a lot more space at the back of the wardrobe.
So here’s who and what made the cut:

Dwarfs – GONE - I was never going to continue with the Dwarfs anytime soon and it was just a silly pipe dream. They were the first army I really liked and maybe one day I’ll make a good go of collecting my own throng.
Dark Angels – GOING – My first full army with a lot of time invested in them. A lot of good games as well were had. Both DA and Necrons both suffered a little under the new rules, but I think the Necrons will have more chance of being sorted out first.
Imperial Guard – MOSTLY GONE – It was a nice idea, but I don’t think I would really have gone for a full Guard army. I only would have used them as allies, but that would not have been too frequently.
Necrons – STAYING PUT – See DA
Ratskin Renegades and Van Saar – BOTH STAYING PUT – just waiting for the next Necromunda campaign at the club.
Yu Jing and Combined Army – BOTH STAYING PUT – Haven’t started this game yet, but will definitely do so once the current Warmachine/Hordes campaign is over.
Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes – ??? – totally undecided about this lot. I would love to play this game some more, but would also just fancy keeping them as they look really great. This one needs some more thought.
Protectorate of Menoth – DEFINITELY STAYING – this army, and game, has really dug it’s claws into me.
Outcasts – DEFINITELY STAYING – Only just started!

This has a been a heart-breaking but cathartic exercise, but it feels slightly odd as all I’ve ever seemed to have done was horde stuff. I hope now that I can view minis in a more serious way. It’s great to have the flexibility in my forces, but most of the time it’s just surplus to requirements. I still feel the urge to splash out on a new unit or three, but know I have to be a lot more sensible about the hobby. Also, more discipline is needed when it comes to painting/modelling, I should have listened to my wife when she said I should only get more minis when I have painted the first ones! It is only a hobby after all and I can think of other things in my life that should take precedence over this.

I haven't had the energy to write about much this week (preparing for a charity run - which was a great event this year. I managed to get my wife to beat her personal best. I'm actually a little scared to try and beat mine from 10 years ago (I don't want to know how out of shape I have got, it's already going downhill) so I am happy to help my wife with (unwanted) encouragement), but I'll give it a go.
Tuesday at the club saw my Ratskins successfully complete an Exploration Action. they managaed to get rid of all the Zombies and Scavvies and save four Settlers.
My gaming new KR Multicase arrived the next day, but I waited to the weekend to move things around. Now my Necrons have their own Double Aluminimu case, but the two Monoliths will continue to travel separately. The new case now houses my entire Menoth force with plenty of space for expansion. Taking up a bit of that empty space for the time being is my Infinity (Combined Army and Yu Jing) minis along with my Malifaux (Outcasts) minis. I still do not know how I can tidy up all the boxes of Dark Angels that are cluttering the back of my wardrobe. I have a GW case that holds a basic force (a couple of squads each of Deathwing, tactical, devastators, assault, several characters, all three dreadnoughts and a couple of tanks). I'd like to put the remaining 75-80% of the force on some sort of shelving some day, but I'll have to annoy the wife a little more by keeping them in the back of the wardrobe.
Also I'm still waiting for this month's Maelstrom order, but I'm not really impatient about it as I'm going to take a couple trips soon to Florence (wife birthday) and Samadet (visit the in-laws). I have some time to figure out how the incoming Avatar of Menoth, Knights Exemplar unit, Paladin of the Wall and Errant UA are going to fit in with everything else. So this coming Tuesday will be a couple more games of Necromunda in lieu of playing in the big, mega, massive final game that is planned. I'm just gutted I'll miss it. When I come back though, I think I'll concentrate fully on Menoth (and by the time I get back it'll be time to order more Protectorate goodness) and start messing around with the themed lists (which calls for a second unit of Zealots...) as much as I can before Hordes MKII comes out and I get to have an excuse to start a Skorne force (I've already decided that they are going to be mostly green and gold).

Defeat of Big Scary Black Things / Defeated by Big Scary Black Things.

What a good night on Tuesday! This was a double-header that saw mixed fortunes.


First of all, was a game of Warmachine against Carlos and his Cryx. We agreed on 35 points so I used the same Severius list (with just a small change) I’ve been using for a couple of weeks now.
Severius
Vanquisher
Blessing of Vengeance
Exemplar Errants (full strength)
Zealots (full strength and Monolith Bearer)
Choir (full strength)
Reclaimer
Exemplar Seneschal
Gorman di Wulfe (in place of a Vassal - Gorman would accompany the Zealots and aid them with his Rust and Black Oil grenades.)

Carlos fielded:
Pirate Queen Skarre Warcaster
Corruptor - Helljack
Seether - Helljack
10 Satyxis Raiders + Satyxis Raider Sea Witch
10 Mechanithralls
Skarlock Thrall
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith
Necrotech
Scrap Thralls

I’m writing this a week after, so you won’t actually get a blow-by-blow account of the proceedings, but I’ll try to lay down the main flow of the game. I think that because of the way the terrain was set-up, Carlos’ force ended up in a bottleneck between patches of wooded terrain (which was good for me). I got my Errants to outflank him with Advanced Deploy which worked to a degree until I had to call them back to help protect Severius. Pretty much everything in my force performed well with the exception of Gorman. In Gorman’s defence, he did tie up the Necrotech plus I left him behind the Zealots which left out of range for the game. It might be a little easier for me to list the achievements unit by unit from here on in.

Severius: Performed well and managed to pop his feat at a crucial time (Skarre had been able to generate a horrid amount of Focus). He also utilised his BoV well, using it’s channelling bonus on Ashes to Ashes (I hit the first target, a Satyxis Raider, (now pow 13 because of the BoV’s bonus and Eye of Menoth) and then rolled a 6. All but one of the remaining Raiders survived their own pow 13 hits.) and being in the right place at the right time to channel Immolation a couple of times on Skarre.
BoV: Used it’s Bushwhack Imprint and Defensive Strike ability well when the Satyxis raiders charged.
Vanquisher: Strode forward and got in the way of the Helljacks coming towards it. It’s Flame Belcher was also effective against the Mechanithralls before it got taken down.
Errants: Advance Deployed on my right flank to pick off the Scrap Thralls with their Crossbows. Ran back to take on one of the Helljacks and stop it from charging Severius.
Choir: Very solid as they sang their songs of Prayer and kept giving my warjacks their buffs.
Zealots and Monolith Bearer: There will never ever be a reason NOT to take Zealots to the battlefield. As usual, they proved themselves taking out the Mechanithralls and putting a huge dent on one of the Helljacks (I can’t remember which one, they both had claws and were scary). The Monolith Bearer squeezed off his mini feat at probably the right time.
Reclaimer: Collected the souls of the Errants and Zealots that did die and ably gave them to my ‘jacks.
Exemplar Seneschal: Stayed behind everyone until the right moment where he took out one of the Helljacks in spectacular style. With all of his benefits (+2 for two or more Errants dying in his Cmd range, + 1 from Eye of Menoth, Weapon Master and his charge) the Seneschal boxed his opponent with 4d6+14 followed by 3d6+14 which was followed by his Smite chain attack for 2d6+14. Smite then knocked the Helljack back into Skarre, knocking her down. This made it easy for Severius to Channel Immolation through the BoV.

I was pleased how everything came together and pleased that I had worked on my forces synergies. I was caught unaware by Carlos’ tactic of Skarre bolting forward to cast Backlash (Warcaster suffers one point of damage when Warjacks in his/her battle group suffer damage) on BoV, and then getting the Satyxis Raiders to charge it. As the Raiders have Backlash on their whips, Severius was suffering two points of damage each time the BoV was hit. Severius took a lot of damage before I could shake off the raiders. Also I didn’t like the way Skarre was able to generate lots of Focus with Ritual Sacrifice which Carlos used to good effect. The Pistol Thrall scared me enough to take Gorman away from the Zealots and let them engage each other. All in all, I thought that this was a very good game and that both of us learnt a few tricks for our respective forces.

The second part of the night saw my Ratskin gang take on big scary Spiders in their campaign action. After last week shameful attempt at exploring, they were ready to give it another go. Again, the objective was to kill 10 big scary spiders and then I would gain another territory (of which I am losing at a steady rate to the house gangs). Things started off well with the gang starting in groups of 3-4 attempting to use numbers in their favour. I think I got first blood, but then the kill ratio was quite even. Eventually the spiders upped their killing and caused me to bottle after I had killed seven of the arachnids. So no territory for me, but I did collect a decent bounty for each of the spiders killed. However, this bonanza of credits was spent on replacing the two Ratskins who had rolled a ‘Dead’ result on the Serious Injuries Chart (and this is despite Ratskins being Resilient).
So I now go into the next campaign turn making a third attempt at driving out the spiders.

Minor hit and major miss.

Well, last night was fun.


First up was a game against a newcomer to Warmachine.
Mark fielded a Khador force with the Butcher at it's head. He also took the very immense looking Behemoth, a unit of Assault Kommandos and a unit of Man-o-war Shocktroopers.
I took Severius along with the Blessing of Vengeance and a Vanquisher. This was supplemented by full-strength Choir, Exemplar Errants and Zealot (with Monolith Bearer of course) units. And following these were an Exemplar Seneschal, a Reclaimer and a Vassal. The game was a bit one-sided as Mark didn’t use all of his point allocation and I didn’t realise this at all (not being entirely familiar with Khador troops). So I won’t really chalk this up as a win, but I will take heart from the fact that I started to remember the order in which I should activate models.
The game itself saw the Zealots reform well causing heavy damage on the Behemoth and then dying in order to become souls for the Reclaimer. The Errants protected my flank by taking out the Assault Kommandos (this could have been a lot tougher if Mark and I remembered that they were entitled to another attack each). But the Kommandos did enough to make sure the Errants stayed away from the main fight. The Vanquisher, aided by the Vassal made good progress on the Shocktroopers. Also, while engaged by the Behemoth at the end of the game, the Blessing of Menoth was not properly utilised. It did use it’s Bushwhack Imprint to Repel the Behemoth, leaving it open to a very effective Exemplar Seneschal (who himself caused a lot of damage). One thing about the Blessing I forgot to use was it’s affinity with Severius. Once in the game, I could have got a +2 bonus to damage with a channelled spell (this would be added to the +2 given by the Choir’s Battle hymn and +1 for Severius’ Eye f Menoth spell – a total of +5), Immolation would have finished off Behemoth leaving the Seneschal to take down the Butcher.
Speaking with Mark after the game, he definitely wants to take a cheaper heavy ‘jack (Kodiak for example) next time. He would also like to have been more offensive with the Shocktroopers (they could have put a dent or three in my Vanquisher) and Kommandos. Also, remembering to take the full allocation of points (the additional 11 points could have yielded another ’jack and maybe another unit) would have changed the whole complexion of the game.
But we will have a rematch in a couple of weeks to make it right. We probably want to look at having a 50 point game, in which I would probably take the same list and add another ‘jack and a solo or two.

The second part of the night saw me play my Necromunda campaign action. As the last exploration action was quite successful, I went for another one. This time I had to face giant spiders. All I had to do was kill 10 of the aforementioned creepy-crawlies. The spiders took the first turn and charged towards my Ratskins, leaving me to set most of them up on Overwatch. Second turn saw the Spiders charge. They took down three of my guys after everyone on Overwatch failed to cause a wound. I did manage to beat one of the spiders in combat leaving me with 9 more to go. The start of my turn saw me fail quite a few panic tests giving me a bottle roll, which I failed after coming up with a double 6! GAME OVER.
This was, to say the least, a very horrible way to finish the game. It’s like making my Necrons phase out after turn three. This was totally unacceptable, and the Ratskins will have to try harder next time.

Next time a the club I have a 35 point Warmachine game against Carlos who is also just starting out with the vile Cryx. I am looking forward to this as it will give me more practice with pSeverius. I want to use one specific warcaster for some time before trying someone else (I don’t know who will be next out of pKreoss, pFeora, the High Reclaimer and Vindictus). And having taken an extra two minutes (!!!) to look at the Forces of Menoth book, I think I can field some tiered armies currently which will make things a touch more thematic.

You will never believe this!

New venue, new luck? Maybe.

The grown-ups (committee members) at the club have seen fit to move the club away from the suit-filled Bell and Compass at Charing Cross, to the cosier St Christopher's Inn at London Bridge. Both are on my way home, so it doesn't make it harder or easier for me to get to. The staff seem to be friendlier and understanding and their basement is somewhat closed off from inquisitive drunk grabbers. The food and the loos (while they are exclusively ours (or rather belong to the basement/function room), they seemed to lack soap and paper towels (maybe a small oversight)), are just as good. The room itself is not as stuffy and there is marginally a bit more space to navigate around the tables. Overall, I think people like it a lot more than the previous establishment.
So, back to the gaming. After the last game, where I had my arse handed to me by several fleet-footed zombies, I had gained more than 50% casualties leaving me with only five (5) gangers to pick from. The only way around this was to pick have a Shoot-Out with someone, I didn't particularly want to be outnumbered two or maybe three to one. It just happened to be my luck that I only get two ramdonmly chosen gangers while my opponent (Donald and his Enforcers) got four. To add insult to injury, my randomly chosen gangers both had Move or Fire weapons meaning that they couldn't really shoot while edging towards the enemy (I've just had a thought on this, wouldn't it be fair to say that these aforementioned weapons would already be loaded and ready to fire? They just wouldn't be able to reload if they moved next turn). It was safe to say that my two Ratskins lost the fight. After doing all the post game stuff, I could now go into my next game with a full compliment of Ratskins.
I had decided to replay last turns failed Exploration move. Having fought the zombies once before, I knew what to expect. Instead of playing for loot, I played for settlers this time. I had to rescue as many as I could as this would decide what territory I could get. The game started of at a good pace with Seeawee started off Frenzied (as opposed to every other game where he suffered from Stupity) and took the fight to the Zombies. The rest of my gang tried to sauntered up behind Seeawee, watching in amazement as they saw thier brother's violent streak for the first time! The first settlers were encountered, but so were the undead. The first two settlers showed that they didn't actually need rescuing as they both took down a Scavvie and a Zombie each. this was distraction enough for my gang to rush forward in packs and dispatch with the foe. With the zombies falling everywhere, the settlers actually managed to simply canter off towards my table edge (although the first settler actually died while escaping) handing me victory. It also handed me a Settlement for a territory, which I couldn't keep so I was forced to sack it. this was no bad thing as it gave me a shed load of credits with which to replace the losses in my gang.
Going into the game in groups of four of five proved to be really useful, a total opposite of the last time where the zombies ganged up on me. I didn't feel the need to to shoot first, which was a good thing as I don't really trust Handbows. The Rat of the Match award would have to go to Seeawee, whose Head Wound actually became useful for once, as he managed to polish off two Scavvies and three Zombies. Mostly everyone else picked up at least one kill each which is always good for experience. Post game saw a couple of gangers gained a stat increase and my leader gained Infiltrate. But then the gruesome would start to happen and there may be a few mutations due to the Campaign rules. And it is these Campaign rules which made Seeawee wander off into the depths of the Underhive, never to be seen again.
So, I won. At last. I'm so relieved. So maybe it is a case of New Venue, New Luck!

A Very Cinematic Loss

Tuesday night saw my Ratskins involved in a truly brilliant scenario. Despite losing (what a surprise!) I really had a fun game. I had chosen to go for an Exploration move as I needed to gain Campaign Points. The scenario was called "Left For Dead" and involved plenty of Zombies (I can't imagine how they came up with that one!). It started of with my gang facing 20 randomly moving counters which consisted of 5 Loot, 10 Zombies and 5 Scaly's). I wouldn't know what these are until I came within 8" of them. The object was to kill all Zombies and Scaly's or move off my able edge with all 5 loot counters.
The game started off just fine. Picked off a Scaly of two along with a couple of Zombies in h2h. I even managed to shoot one (there rules concerning shooting were if you took a shot, you had to roll 2d6 and add the weapons strength. If this added upp to 10 or more, it would alert all the undead on the table and even bring on a few Zombies per turn). Things were going great until I got brave enough to take a second shot. This one did alert the rest of the horde and all the remaining counters were revealed. I now knew where the loot was. All I had to do was barge my way past the undead. The zombies were clever and, in true b-movie style, started to surround my Ratskins. Several went down and out but I was determined to fight on. I managed to regroup my remaining warriors and push for the loot. I grabbed a couple of counters and could have grabbed more. the Zombies kept coming and picked off more Ratskins. This put me in a dangerous position as I needed to make a bottle roll. I made the first but, in the next turn, I failed the second.
As a result I lost the game. No loot or territory were gained and two of my men died. But it doesn't matter. The game played out just like a good (or bad) zombie movie.

Success off the tabletop, and failure on the tabletop (again).

Last weekend, I managed to do something that happens to be improbable. I successfully sat down to paint. I got my 14 Ratskins painted to a very basic standard, although not completely as there are still some white bits. Once done, I'll probably give them a wash and then finish the bases and leave it at that. I don't have an incredible hunger to paint, but I have to get them finished. I actually want to move onto painting my new Infinity stuff. It will be nice to see some different models. After that I want to finish painting my Warmachine models. Then and only then, will I start to tackle my Imperial Guard and Dark Angels.
Last night's visit to the club involved a bit more Necromunda. While my campaign action was postponed, I looked for a casual game. I found one against Pete and his Van Saar gang. We opted to play a Shoot-out scenario which are always good for a laugh. When rolling for how many gang members would participate, I rolled only two while Pete rolled four! This wasn't looking good to start with. As our groups shuffled towards eaach other on the tabletop, we kept rolling to see whose nerve would break first. It turned out that Pete's gang lost it first, which was good for me as it meant some more experience at the end. We established the order of shooting, which saw my two Ratskins shoot second and joint third. Pete's first ganger missed with his shot and then so did mine. My other Ratskin failed to shoot which left them both at the mercy of the Van Saar's Heavy Stubber. This jammed after two shots (Pete rolled five shots for sustained fire) which didn't change things as it took my guys out. One of my Ratskins did get up only to be put down again.
This was a very quick game indeed. One of my Ratskins, Eecheyakee, picked up multiple injuries but survived, but both gangers picked up a stat increase. I also picked up a bit of income which enabled me to buy another ganger a Blindsnake Pouch which is always useful.
I now have to wait a week for my next game (my exploratory campaign action involving ZOMBIES) and my first taster of Infinity. I shall be reading the rules (for once) and will let you know if I like it.

Erm... fail better!

My latest game at the club saw my Ratskins pursue a campaign action against those muscle-brained Goliaths. I was hoping to get my first win this year (not an uncommon wish for any game that I play) and to do that I had to remember things. Those things included: remembering the fact that my leader (The Great White Rat) has got a Blindsnake Pouch (which stopped him from getting hurt a couple of times), remembering the fact that all games involving Ratskins are subject to Treacherous Conditions (I rolled for Toxic Fog which helped reduce the vision of the Goliaths) and remembering that some of my gang have been armed with move or fire weapons. Marcus (the Goliath owner) was otherwise occupied with a game of Warmachine, which I also have to get back into at some point, so a guy called Fishy (Ben) stood in for him. We set up for a Gang Fight scenario and I was hoping to (once again?) take advantage of my numbers – 14v9.

Having played two games with my hunters, I got a better idea on how to group my gang. I put the move or fire weapons in one group hoping to have them race towards the enemy and another of fairly reliable weapons (lasguns) coming up behind them. They were separate from my three infiltrators, who looked to spring a surprise.
Ben rolled and got the first turn in which nothing much happened. My turn saw a rather bold forward action as everyone ran towards the enemy. My infiltrators popped out of their hidey-hole and opened up on a pair of Goliaths. This turned out to be a little futile as last week’s bad dice appears to be still with me. Ben managed to get one of his gangers to throw a Hallucinogen Grenade. Although this did not have any effect on my Ratskins, it still moved around the table much like Seeawee (still suffering the effects of Stupidity, just kept moving aimlessly across the board until he got taken Out Of Action). I started to take casualties at a frightening rate while at the same time I wasn’t causing them. The gang stood their ground when it came to taking Bottle tests. It got frustrating when, not only were the few shots that actually fired failing to wound, the Goliath who threw the Hallucinogen Grenade took Flesh Wound after Flesh Wound getting up after each. At the end of the game, he took one too many and went Out Of Action.
I did manage to force Ben into a Bottle test, but he passed. In the subsequent turn, I failed mine making me lose the game. I did feel that I was onto a winner here and could have earned some campaign points for my Ratskins. It wasn’t meant to be.
The post game stuff saw my gang get a few useful skills which I can put to good use in my next game. No-one died or prematurely retired which was a good thing. My next game should be better (I’ll be looking to explore my surroundings and try to expand my territories in order to gain more Campaign points).

The strangest game I've played!

Last night I played the strangest game of Necromunda in my life. It certainly left me baffled as I couldn't figure out how it could have happened. I couldn't even put it down to me getting used to my new adopted gang (only their second fight under my leadership). I just... it went... the dice... what!
I went down to the club after French class as usual to get my Ratskins some more experience. The challenge I made couldn't happen as my opponent was already taking on another player. So I had a casual game against Carlos and his Pit Slaves. This probably should have been fun as long as I didn't get into close combat with them. We rolled for the scenario and chose The Hunters, in which I was to be the attacker. We would set up our models just like in the Gun Fight scenario, except that I would get all my gang available while Carlos got to take d6 of his gang. He rolled a one! As two of my guys had the Infiltrate skill, it looked to be twelve against one (although Carlos could deploy the rest of his gang on the table edges). After making the Initiative rolls it was clear that the odds were against the lonely Pit Slave the order of shooting put all of my Ratskins first. So we started the game and our respective gangs started to move towards each other. Eventually the shooting kicked off. What happened next would shock anyone.
Out of twelve Ratskins, only eight could shoot (one failed a Stupidity roll from a Head Wound and three others had move or fire weapons). The eight Ratskins that could shoot all failed to hit or failed to would. This was awful. The lone Pit Slave (a Servitor with the Bulging Biceps skill) opened up with it's Heavy Stubber. It took out my Leader and pinned three others. Three Ratskins fled the scene when the leader went down. And that was before Carlos took his turn.
Carlos brought the rest of the Pit Slaves forward. Out came another Servitor with Heavy Stubber and pinned those who were not pinned or fleeing. Two Pit Slaves came out and charged two of my fleeing warriors, and promptly put them Out Of Action with their awesome Buzz Saws. This triggered a Bottle Roll on my behalf which I promptly failed. GAME OVER!
That's right! GAME OVER!
I had the advantage but was let down by the dice. They failed to work for me yet again. Having said that, the dice made up for it in the after game by giving some nice skills and characteristic upgrades to the majority of my warriors (I now have another Infiltrator, two Ratskins have the Evade skill which could prove useful and one warrior has a full compliment of wounds).
That was possibly the most WTF game I've played in any system. Nothing went right at all and there was certainly no explanation as to why. The most annoying thing about the game was the fact that my leader was taken out right at the first minute yet again. The who should be the best Ratskin in my gang, could not even take the chance to show it. What an absolute disappointment. I just hope for the next game he can actually stand up for much longer than he has done so previously.

My new adopted gang.

My own Ratskin models arrived in the post and I can now say that I can field Bill's gang without Bill's models. I got them out of the padded envelope they arrived in and took a closer look. I realised that a lot of the models do not correspond with Bill's gang roster. This is only minor and I can work around it, I'll only have to raid my bits box..

Another game, another loss, another round of run!

Despite my first game of Necromunda in well over a decade ending in a rather bad loss, I had fun reliving the past. I was amazed that I remembered anything from that time at all and didn’t need much help remembering certain rules.

I turned up at the club, which was quite busy as all of the table were booked, all excited like my old teenage self. I put my coat and bag down and got my self a pint of bitter (I was a little early). I got to talking to another gamer who is selling pretty much all of his models (he is leaving the country soon). We had arranged for me to buy some Necrons from him (this little lot takes my army total to nearly 6000). Once I bagged my purchase, I watched some of the other Necromunda games being played. I actually missed my opponent playing his first game, but I caught his post game (rolling for injuries, generating income, etc). Once Dezul (real name Chris) had finished, he called me over to begin play.
Now Bill (the guy who dropped out of the campaign) had forgot to leave his Ratskins behind. This meant that I had to use a handful of zombie models to use as proxies to add to the few models that I had received from evilBay. Once I established which model was which ganger (the zombie with the bone club has a lasgun while the zombie with the green trousers has a shotgun), we got down to setting up. I had challenged Dezul and his Eschers to a Loot and Pillage scenario. This meant that he had to set up just a few of his gang (the remainder coming on as reinforcements) and set up the loot tokens which I would be after. I then set up my large gang (14 members) in 4 smaller groups in the hope that if one was hurt, their buddies could still carry on the fight.
To start off, the only thing I could do was to race towards the lovely loot. Then Dezul took a pot-shot with his leader (she was on overwatch) and took out my leader straight away. He also failed his reinforcements roll.
The next turn saw more running on my part. Those Ratskins that were under fire had frozen and pinned by enemy fire, couldn’t shoot back because they were mostly carrying muskets and blunderbusses (very short range weapons). This time Dezul managed to get some reinforcements to come on. They came on behind on behind my leaders’ group and toasted them with a Flamer! Just one Ratskin was left standing from that group, amazed that he survived. The amazement didn’t last long as he was taken out by the flamers’ buddy. Dezul’s Wyrd took shot at the Ratskins on the other side of the table and missed. His leader did much better and took out another scout.
I raced forward some more and grabbed some loot. Dezul’s turn saw some more reinforcements enter play. This brought another flamer, which in turn brought some pain to a couple more of my gang.
One of my braves then raced forward to grab some more loot, while two of my guys took out the newly arrived flamer and pal. This time Dezul’s Wyrd performed a little better and used his telepathic power to knock out one of my guys. Then the Escher leader had the best shot of the game where she shot one of my guys at long range. While this only caused a flesh wound, it was enough to make him fall two stories onto another one of my gang (thankfully he wasn’t hurt).
I spent the next turn trying to retreat back to my table edge in order to regroup. My shooting was ineffective. Dezul then led a charge with his Eschers. The first hand-to-hand combat of the game ended with a draw.
With the vast majority of my gang either down or out of action, I decided to tactically ‘bottle it’. It was clear that I wasn’t going to get anything more from the game.
So we both did our end of game stuff. I had a bit of bad rolling on the Serious injuries chart with two Dead results, one Capture and a couple of Head Wounds. With everything updated, my gang (Bill’s gang) were looking a little shell-shocked. There were unlucky to have a flamer sneak up behind them, but it didn’t retract from the fun. I later learned the Ratskins are resilient. This means that they can re-roll on the serious injuries chart. I can actually save my dead Ratskins and maybe get rid of the head wounds. One thing that I’ve agreed not to re-roll is the captured result as Dezul and I had already resolved the issue (he gave me back the brave in return for the loot I took). Any changes to this would prove slightly chaotic for Dezul in his next game.
But still, it was great to get back into the game. It has been a long time, but the wait was worth it. One good thing about this campaign is that the players can add some back story to it. So everyone has been writing some fluff for the narrative. I wrote a piece for the game against Dezul. I think I will centre my writing on two of the gangers (they are twins) rather than the exploits of the leader. The first piece was of fluff was about harmony within the warband and how it is disrupted by other gangs in the underhive. It has also shown a disruption in the harmony between the two brothers. Hopefully I can keep the fluff going in order to enhance my gaming experience.

Necromunda! I'm back!!!

Tonight’s the night for reliving my teenage years. I get to play Necromunda after such a long, long time. This time it will be in a pub basement with other grown men. It won’t be on a large slab of MDF supported by two trestle tables in my best friends room.

When Necromunda first came out, we played practically non-stop. We played with the Orlocks and Goliaths from the box. We didn’t know any other gamers and, most of the time, couldn’t be bothered to go to a Games Workshop to play. So we played each other, over and over again. We would usually disband our gangs from time to time and start again. This kept things a little fresh. In the end, we both brought ourselves a new gang each. I plumped for Van Saar while The Dude bought Cawdor (he also got a Delaque gang too). This saw the rising of my Reservoir Frogs and The Dude’s Witch’s’ End Receptionists. As per usual with the other games that we played (it’s also true today), I was mostly on the losing end. Mr Brown could not get his Van Saars to hurt the likes of Beelzebub and Barabbas in a truly bad way. In fact, Barabbas became a one-man gang in the end. He was a highly skilled machine just loaded with weapons (including a Mono-sighted Missile launcher)! The Dude’s tactic was usually sit back with everyone except for Barabbas, who would race forward and severely bruise my jump-suited wimps.
But tonight, it will be like starting over again. It’ll be like opening the box to reveal the cardboard scenery and those static-looking Orlocks and Goliaths with anticipation of this new game. Except that beer would be involved this time. There’s about a dozen players, including myself, in this campaign. I’m having to take over from another player who will be away for the next couple of months. I’ll will be using his Ratskins which should be fun as I’ve never played with an Outlaw gang before. It shouldn’t be so different, but this will be someone else’s miniatures. They will have a little character already as they have gone through a couple of preliminary missions. They will most likely have been painted already. As mentioned in the previous post, I will be getting my own Ratskins so that I may carry on with them after I give them back to Bill.
But still, the next couple of months might give me the impetus to bring the Reservoir Frogs name out of retirement. Hopefully this time, they can actually do the bruising.

A flurry of activity.

After some absence from gaming, I'm back. But I find myself troubled.

My gaming brain has been led astray by the many gaming systems I wish to involve myself in. This year, I’m starting off with Necromunda as there is a bit of a campaign going on at the club. I was fortunate to be part of it as I started while I was away on my honeymoon. But then someone dropped out. A fellow gamer, Marcus, immediately put my name forward as a replacement. The organisers said yes, but only if I took over the Ratskin gang of the guy who dropped out. I accepted, but was disappointed not to be able to use my Van Saars. So now I’m playing with a totally new gang (but having said that, even if I used my Van Saars’, it would be like playing with a new gang because I haven’t played Necromunda for over a decade). But then the idea struck me, that when the campaign is over I would have to give the gang back to their rightful owner. I would have a small gap in my heart without them. So I did something bad. I went to evilBay and scored myself a lot of Ratskins! This means that I can replace the gang with my own models (maybe change the names) and keep the gang alive. I hope this isn’t a foolish thing to do. At the same time, I am also thinking about beefing up my Van Saars. I am most likely going to add some reinforcements.
Next on the list, is Monsterpocalypse. I have been building up my Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes forces at a very steady rate. I now have more monsters to choose from (including a lot of Mega forms and Quantum King Kondo!!!) and a fairly flexible amount of units. I am hoping to get some games in down at the club soon. I now have made the conscious decision to not spend anything on MonPoc until Series 5 is released in a couple of months time. This is because I would like to get back into Warmachine.
Recently I purchase the Warmachine MKII rulebook and Menoth MKII card deck. All I need now to carry on the momentum would be a new warjack or unit. This would be ideal when the Necromunda campaign finishes. But then, this will be undermined by yet another gaming system. Infinity.
I have seen a few games of Infinity being played at the club recently and it looks to be a slightly more tactical game. I’ve been looking at the models for the various forces and have been taken in by either the Combined Army or the Yu Jing (most likely Yu Jing). This would mean getting a starter box and possibly the rulebook (I may just keep with a pdf that I printed). But starting with a new gaming system, means less time for 40K.
I will be adding some Destroyers and Warriors to my already large Necron force. This would be really great, as I like playing with an armada of Destroyers. They can really cause some problems during some games. While on the subject of 40K, I am still waiting for the Dark Angels to get a new lease of life in the shape of a new Codex (hopefully). Until then, I have quite foolishly entertained and old idea to have a small force of Deamonhunters. There have been a couple of deals recently (one at the club and one on evilBay) that I just missed out on, that really could have started this off. So now this idea goes back onto the shelf in the back of my mind. With all of these gaming paths to follow, I almost forgot about Warhammer Fantasy.
At the end of last year, I bought a load of Dwarfs that will make my own small force (heh) into a much larger (and legal) throng. I even bought the rule book as well. Who knows when I‘m going to get the time to learn how to play this amongst other games.

As a result, I just have no idea how this year is going to pan out. I think I have worked out a priority list of what I want to do, but that might be thrown out the window fairly quickly. One thing is for sure, the year will start with Necromunda.

Why do things happen at the same time?

I ask this because there is going to be a Necromunda campaign going on at the club. Seeing as I have committed myself to the Planetary Empires campaign, I don’t think I’ll have the time take part. I would have loved to taken my Van Saar gang along.


Hallow’d Way’s Reservoir Frogs were an unlucky gang, losing most of the time to their only opponents at the time. Due to a lack of interest in fighting from other gangs in the area, they took it as a sign to retire. Now there is talk of a comeback and potential participation in a campaign. Youngsters have now taken up the names of these legendary (useless) gang members, and hope to do Mr Brown, Mr White, etc, proud.

Knowing my luck, they will perform just as badly as their predecessors (and my Necrons, and my Menoth, and my…), but there’s no harm in trying.

Begin Again...

After a long abscence, I have recently come back into tabletop gaming. I got got interested in GW after hearing my best friend (here after referred as to as The Dude) talk about Warhammer during history class when we were about 13 years old. It took a while to actually get really involved in the hobby as my pocket money was limited. I got there in the end and started to play every weekend with The Dude. We ended up choosing 40k, with me starting my Dark Angel army and El Duderino picking Eldar. I will admit here that I didn't win too many games, even when we swapped armies just to check that the Eldar were not indestructable.

We played other systems with pretty much the same results. Space Hulk, Necromunda (I had a Van Saar gang while he took Cawdor), Blood Bowl (despite scoring the first point of the only game we ever played, my Orcs got clattered by those pesky Humans), Warhammer Quest and Gorka Morka.

Inevitably, we started to grow up bit, finding other interests (under-age drinking, the opposite sex, etc). We both kept our models, but I kept looking in on GW every now and then and buying the odd unit here and there. I've got back into the hobby over the last year and now play on a regular basis by going to my local gaming club (Charing Cross). I've tried to get The Dude back into the hobby, but no luck so far.

Going to a gaming club, has given me the idea to leave my 11260 pts Dark Angel army and take on a side project. My Necron army now stands at 4779 pts and will steadily grow each months until I have at least two of every unit that isn't Troop or HQ. I now enjoy using my Necrons and as they are basically Space Marines but also have the chance to get up again. As a result I have gone from mostly bad results, to average results.

It can only get better from here...?