Sunday, 28 September 2014

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...



Saturday, 27 September 2014

Pirates of the Galleons Graveyard pt 2

Prisoner in the Citadel!

Never too much pirate music!

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!









Sunday, 21 September 2014

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"


Saturday, 20 September 2014

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!



Friday, 19 September 2014

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