Necromunda week 3: meet Cree. Also, RIP Cree.

"Is that kid still hanging around outside? Tell him to get lost. Whad'ya mean he's got himself a jacket!? Get him out of here!"- 'King' Rogan Ironfist

So now the Yellowjackets and the Misfits have forged a grudging respect for each other. 

After my last game, a juve from my settlement latched onto my gang, frustratingly cutting into my profits and necessitating the purchase of a laspistol for him, not to mention having to model and paint him! This unwelcome Juve, known as Cree, would have to prove himself worthy of that jacket!

First, Danzig and his band of Goliaths with questionable eating habits attempted to rescue Hannibal, their lame Heavy, who I'd systematically tortured. I rolled a 2 to determine how many guards I'd left with him. I chose trusty old Lynch, the lasgun ganger, and I threw Cree into the mix, trial by fire.

The Goliaths sounded the alarm early with their characteristically poor shooting, effectively discharging a shotgun into the air to announce their presence. Steve's whole gang had turned up (minus Chucky, who's old battle wound was giving him gyp), and he never liked sneakin around anyway

It became swiftly apparent that my reinforcements weren't going to turn up in time to help, so Cree, desperate to be a real Yellowjacket, charged towards three Misfits. With a reedy little battle cry, he shot Jaws cleanly in the chest, taking him down. In awe, Vorheese broke and ran! 

In Steve's turn, Ghostface returned fire at Cree, who was hit but unhurt. I began to think that this little Juve might be a hero after all! Unfortunately, he tripped and fell over a railing, injuring himself as he landed. Danzig, the meltagun toting Goliath leader, strolled over and unleashed the melta at the stricken juve, taking him out of action many times over. 

Just as three of my gang arrived to help, it was already too late, Lynch was taken out of action and I bottled.

Now for the tragedy! Poor Cree, the eager juve who had just wanted to prove himself, who took on three of the Misfit's best and almost came out on top, was very, very dead!

Worse, in a dramatic shift of events, a Lynch was captured!

We decided to play the counter-rescue straight away after our post battle sequence. Most of my guys hadn't even turned up, so only Lynch, the captured ganger, had an advance. +1 initiative

Three misfits guarded Lynch, on the highest, remotest building on the table. Perhaps the cannibalistic Goliaths had heard wrong. Lynch, not Lunch, you morons. Everyone but Graf turned up to help out with the rescue

What followed was an almost picture perfect pincer attack. Kyne and Knave , the hired gun, took the centre route. Rogan and Brannan took the low road, Harkan and Sevan got into a firing position. 

Harkan let rip with his heavy stubber, but once again failed to wound anything after successfully hitting! Unsurprisingly, his heavy weapon sounded the alarm. Cunningly, I'd crept Axel and Bryce underneath the Misfits. Bryce sprinted over and freed Lunch (bagging himself some welcome XP in the process), while Axel let rip with his flamer, taking Hannibal and the Juve down, but failing to wound Ghostface. 

Knave finished off Ghostface by rapid firing his plasma pistol. Just like in my game, reinforcements arrived, and Steve bottled, no doubt worried that Hannibal might become the most injured Heavy in Sourbridge history. Fortunately, all his guys made a full recovery. 

Post game, Axel unsurprisingly advanced, becoming an armourer.

Bryce advanced twice, becoming a top juve, gaining +1 WS and the True Grit skill.

With my stack of creds I bought Rogan a plasma gun and chainsword, as befitting the self-proclaimed King, gifting his boltgun to Brannan, my Weaponsmith, and his sword to Kyne, so now I've got some modelling to do. 

Now the Misfits and Yellowjackets have tangled enough, a youth has lost his life. I heard there's another Orlock gang in town flying yellow colours. I'm coming for them next...

Pirates of the Galleons Graveyard pt 2

Prisoner in the Citadel!

Never too much pirate music!

http://youtu.be/9IQvKvJqPLA

This time, Roth is searching the Corpse Reef for his scattered fleet. It becomes apparent that Arranessa Saltspite has landed on an island home to a Sylvanian Castle, probably hoping to steal some treasure. Unfortunately, she's now under attack from the undead denizens of the Citadel. 

My mission was to use the Heldenhammer to breach the Citadel walls, allowing Arranessa to escape. Once completed, Aranessa had to escape the seascape in her Swordfysh. Unfortunately for me, both the Dreaded Reaver and the Curse of Zandri would be stalking me along the way. 

I wasted no time in navigating the treacherous reef and dropped anchor near the Citadel. I brought the Heldenhammer's crushing Hammer of Sigmar down and...did nothing. The guards of the Citadel opened fire and caused a bit of damage to my flagship. 

At the end of the third turn, both the Reaver and the Curse had arrived, and I was no closer to breaching the Citadel Walls. The Curse of Zandri shocked me with King Amhanotep's excellent command rating, managing to broadside the Heldenhammer swiftly, setting it ablaze with the light of Ptra.

Finally I used the Hammer of Sigmar to breach the walls and free Arranessa, who wasted no time getting back to the Swordfysh, unfortunately, a bad turn of fate produced a Bone Hydra and Lychworm to bar my path. 

The Heldenhammer took an absolute beating. At one point, it was on fire, the rigging was ruined, the wheel stuck and only turning left, it was adrift, cursed by the undead manner, and had numerous crew and hull damage attached to it. Most of the damage was caused by the Zandri but as I attempted to escape jeopardy from the Lychworm, I overshot and ran aground, causing a pack of Bloodsharks to begin their attack. Fortunately though, Arranessa successfully destroyed the Bone Hydra, and on literally the last turn, managed to break free from the reef and escape! Victory for the alliance!

Next time, Dwarf vs Chaos dwarf (and a little bit of Arabyan Sorcerer) clash in a battle for barrels of grog! Yarrr!

Necromunda week 2

A successful second outing for the Yellowjackets, in another gang fight against the 103rd Disgraced, an orlock gang with military pretensions.

A short game, I first inflicted five hits with Harkan's heavy stubber against a ganger....of which none wounded. By the second turn I picked up my momentum. My leader, 'king' Rogan, scored a wounding hit with his boltgun, and Harkan hit just once with his stubber, wounding the enemy and knocking him from his platform. Humorously, it was the fall that took him out of action. Axel came out of the tunnels, running into the open and flaming the Disgraced's leader. With three down/out, they bottled and I won. 

Post game, Rogan gained Nerves of Steel, Graf and Kyne gained a BS bonus, Brannan became a Weaponsmith and Bryce became Impetuous. None completely bowled me over, but Rogan is now pretty hard to pin. 

Territory...could've gone better. I had 5 guys to work, so I started with my settlement. Lo and behold, some unwanted tag-along juve joined my gang, taking me into the 10-12 income bracket. Great. Then I took a calculated gamble. Reasoning that I was going to take a financial hit for moving up a bracket, I decided to roll 3 dice for my second archeotech hoards. Rolling 4,5 and.....spinning dice.....moment of suspense....bounced off some guys ratskins...4. My lucrative archeotech hoard got gutted out and became a pathetic set of ruins. 

At the trading post Rogan got offered a silencer and a weapon reload, which I passed up on, just buying a laspistol for the unwanted juve.   

Rogan also insisted on the following piece being published in the Sourbridge Rag (edited for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and occasionally, violent diagrams)

"To the piece of filth that followed us to our tech stash. You know who you are. I wouldn't spend any time around the Junkyard if I was you"

Space Hulk! Genestealer painting step by step

I promised myself I wouldn't even take the cellophane off space hulk until I'd finished Bo5A.

I kinda stuck to that. In an unprecedented display of efficiency, I finished the 5 armies box (minus thranduil, who needs a rework), savagely tore open the box and started devouring it's contents. 

Obviously I know how I'm painting the Blood Angels, I just need to replenish my stock of the right reds. I was completely clueless with the genestealers, so I made it up as I went, kind of with the creepy, 1995 video gane version loosely in mind. Below is the step by step (note- bases and claws aren't done, as I'm undecided on them, and in any case the bases will be done en masse)

(White undercoat)

1. Airbrush the 'flesh' VMC violet. Progressively lighten with VMA pale bluegrey, VMA white, concentrating on the back of the bulbous head, the face (from 45defrees above) and the tops of the hands.

2. Wash the recesses and areas wher the flesh meets the carapace with a 50/50 mix of violet and black, watered down about 1:8 paint/water

3. Wash the veins with 1:8 VMA light sea blue/water

4. Highlight the eye sockets, mouth, veins, knuckles with the original progression ( violet/pale greyblue/white)

5. Block in the carapace with a 1:5 mix of VMC light turquoise and black

6. Edge highlight the carapace staring with 1:5 light turquoise/black, through light turqiuse to white. 

7. Paint details, eyes teeth/tongue to preference.

Never really liked Tyranids, but in a space hulk context Genestealers are the ultimate baddies. Hopefully I've done then some justice whilst maintaining an element of speed (3 hours work roughly)

Now just three more batches and the broodlord, then I can start on those glorious terminators...

Space Hulk!

Hoooo yaah!

Bo5A- the night of basing

So I was off my tits on energy drink when 
I got home from training, so I decided to start the basing. About. 90 minutes later, I've based everything that's painted. I still need to paint the base edges black, but that's best done when the grass is set

As always, the basing makes very rough models seem very cohesive. 

The painting queue...

Bo5A nearing completion

So now all the units from the core box are painted, it's mainly down to the laborious chore phase. Painting the sanded bases Battlefield Brown was not exactly fun, but bring everything a step nearer completion. Somehow, I have an extra unit of dwarves, painted em without realising. The eagles and ruins got a base coat too

To do-  

Evil characters

Good characters

Eagles

Beorn

Finish basing

Bo5A update

Ugh, I'm sick. But I broke the back of the infantry painting of my BO5A set

Goblins, wargs, and warg riders done, men of Dale done, elves done, dwarves. ( still on sprue) but mostly done. I think they'll take maybe another concerted day of painting to finish the dwarves, the eagles, and the characters, then maybe a day of basing, which is always a slow process, then I can get some practice games in while I paint the funky stuff 

The painting standard is deliberately low, I just want to get then done and give the impression of blocks of colour. Generally, I've been airbrushing a primary colour, picking out the hands and faces, weapons and armour, then heavily washing the whole frame.

My aim is to have everything done by the release of the final movie this winter , so we can play a huge gar beforehand!

Necromunda Week 1

A successful first outing for the Yellowjackets, getting into a gang fight with the Misfits, Steve's Goliath Gang.

Harkan, my heavy stubber guy, managed to open the bloodshed by wounding Ghostface. My leader, Rogan Ironfist, took the Misfits flamer out of action with his boltgun, after the flamer burned Lynch and took him down.

Axel, my flamer-toting heavy, took his other heavy out of action, and the Misfits chose to bottle out rather than take unnecessary injuries. 

After the battle, Lynch survived against the odds and got an advance (+1BS)

Due to underdogs, winning, and scoring a wound, Rogan gained a killer reputation

Harkan got an extra attack (not too useful on a heavy?), Axel got +1WS (again, not blinding).

I worked my two archeotech hoards, spore caves, tunnels and settlement, to earn a ton of creds (110 after upkeep!)

Trading, I bought a Ratskin map and a grav chute, which I gave to Harkan. I also hired a scummer (we weren't allowed to for the first game), an evil-lookin guy called Knave. 

Steve was unlucky with his injury rolls. His heavy rolled a 6 on multiple injuries, ending up with a leg, arm and head injury, horrible scars, impressive scars, and captured by me! Poor guy...

All fear the Yellowjackets!

Pirates of the Galleons Graveyard part 1

Corpse Reef!

Cue pirate music! 

http://youtu.be/9IQvKvJqPLA

In Corpse Reef, Jaego Roth has reached the barrier reef at the edge of the Galleon's Graveyard. Made of bone and dead sailors, it is identical to the mad dreams of his father (guess he doesn't seem so mad now, eh?)

Roth spies the Bloody Reaver in the mist, appearing, disappearing, taunting him.

He knows he can't sink the Reaver in these conditions, but resolves to take first blood. In this scenario, the first ship to take 8 damage cards must withdraw. 

Roth took advantage of the wind at his back to race through the reef, a couple of close calls nearly colliding with the islands. The first broadside of the game scored a few hits, but the Reavers ability to repair damage is horrendously powerful. 

The two ships drew up alongside each other and let loose, Noctilus succeeding in ordering Fire as She Bears! And killing a few of the Heldenhammer's crew. 

Fate insisted that a sea giant turned up, but Noctilus has an ability to control sea creatures, so it turned around and sought out the Heldenhammer

At anchor, the Heldenhammer launched a sneaky little ship, laden with blackpowder...

As it reached the Reaver, it exploded and caused three fires to break out on deck!

Unfortunately, an assassin boat was travelling in the opposite direction. The assassin, no doubt an ancient pirate Wight, sought out Roth and wounded him. 

The Reaver smashed into the Heldenhammer. Roth and Noctilus fought to a stalemate in a duel, but the vast crew of the Reaver was too much for the Heldenhammer. Despite being thoroughly ablaze, the Reaver was successfully repairing damage, while the wounded Roth was failing. After taking 8 damage cards, the Heldenhammer was forced to retire, limping out of the Corpse Reef with morale in tatters. 

Next week, part 2!

Dreadfleet part 0.2

Now to meet...

The Dreadfleet!

Count Noctilus of the Bloody Reaver

Nyklaus Von Carstein eventually became known as Count Noctilus, vampire count of the seas. The Bloody Reaver is held together from the hulks of destroyed ships, bound by Noctilus' foul will and crewed by his undead minions 

King Amanhotep of the Curse of Zandri

In order to pay his fleet, Roth raided the Khemrian city of Zandri. Unfortunately, the gold he took brought a curse with it, and now King Amanhotep follows his every move 

Skretch Half-Dead of the Skabrus

Skretch Half-Dead has manages to construct a ship from the bloated corpse of an orb leviathan.

Vangheist of the Shadewraith

The Shadewraith floats above the water, an insubstantial ghost ship piloted by Vangheist and his ghost crew

Tordrek Hackheart of the Black Kraken

(Somehow I forgot to photograph my Black Kraken)

Tordrek was a talented dwarf engineer of Barak Varr, but second best to Brokk Gunnarson. In a moment of madness, he shot Brokk a dozen times with a rivet gun. Cast out and shamed, he took his experimental submersible and entered the Sea of Chaos, finally arriving, half mad, in the seaport of the Chais Dwarves. Long dead, his soul is bound to the Black Kraken by the daemon powering it's engines. 

Soon, part 1...

Dreadfleet part 0.1

Time to meet the protagonists, the Grand Alliance!

Captain Jaego Roth of the Heldenhammer

Jaego Roth of Sartosa was the son of a seafaring legend known as the Mapwright. Following in his fathers footsteps and becoming a pirate and privateer of some renown, he eventually tired of adventure and returned home, only to find it ablaze and his family dead at the hands of the Dreadfleet. 

Captain Arranessa Saltspite of the Swordfysh

Shunned as a mutant, Saltspite also found a home as a pirate on the high seas. She has famously amputated her abnormal legs and replaced them with the blades of a sawfish

The Golden Magus of The Flaming Scimitar

A sorcerer of some renown, The Golden Magus powers his ship with elemental magic. His sorcery is knowledge helps Roth discover the secret of the Mapwright's artefacts 

Red Brokk Gunnarson of Grimnirs Thunder 

Red Brokk was the most gifted engineer in the dwarf port of Barak Varr. He was shot a dozen times by Tordrek Hackhart out of jealousy, but survived. One of his experimental ships was wrecked by the Dreadfleet, causing him to be rescued by Roth. Reunited with Grimnirs Thunder, his pride and joy, he has joined the Grand Alliance

Prince Yrellien of the Seasdrake

Yrellien is encountered later in the campaign, and joins the Alliance after an encounter with the Dreadfleet. He has the ability to send his dragons roaming.

Next, the Dreadfleet itself!