Hive Primus heating up!

   We got together to play more Necromunda and my game group had an absolute blast!  For this battle, we had some fun setting up the terrain (three hours of fun, in fact!) and then everyone chose a faction and used all the start box for them.  There were a couple of points to all this.  

  First, I brought in the Tinkerturf terrain and the TTCombat MDF terrain so that we could have something other than the 'standard' stuff for the game.  Zone Mortalis is fun, but it really loses that '3d' element of Necromunda that kept all us old neckbeards coming back for more, while the Zone Mechanicum terrain is still only single-level and boring despite the insane detail.  How about just some hab-blocks and multi-level walkways?  The terrain and immersion part of this game is one of the largest draws.

  Then, we used the Orlock, Goliath, Delaque, and Escher (I used my wife's stuff!) to really show off the differences between the bands and their weapons.  We even went with 'custom (10)' crews so that everyone had the opportunity to try out most of the options.  This definitely created some imbalance, but it doesn't matter right now.  

  Finally, we combined the entire game- both sets of terrain and all 4 gangs- on one table so that everyone would be paying attention to everyone else.  My gaming group may be proficient in D&D, but this game is totally new and I wanted to present every opportunity to reinforce all the rules.  There's a reason...

  I introduced Tactics Cards to each of the players for the first time as well.  This gave them a chance to see even more uniqueness but to realize that they can build strategies around more than some equipment and hopeful dice-rolls.  This is where all of my cunning plans fell apart.  

  The first thing that happened as we finished deployment and established initiative for the first turn was those perfidious Delaque shut out the lights!  He found a card in his deck that I didn't even know was there (and I typically play the Delaque right now!) and popped it on everyone.  As the fighters got into their positions, the lumen-globles shut off and visibility was limited to 6".  This tactic was literally a game-changer and slowed ALL the action down to a crawl.  

  At the end of each turn, we could roll to try to get them back on, but it took three turns to get them back on.  By that point, the Orlocks realized that they were outnumbered and surrounded and used their discretion to slink away and not lose anyone.  The Escher saw that their nearest opponents were gone and began dashing across the table to engage with the other two.  The Delaque tried to stay hidden and together (they were rookies, after all), but that just gave the already short-ranged Goliaths plenty of opportunity to drop Shredder ammo and Frag grenades on the trench-coaters.  It was brutal as their lights-off trick backfired spectacularly.  However, the Delaque weren't without their small victories, taking out the Goliath leader, a champion, and another ganger for good measure on their way out.  The Eschers arrived just in time to see the Delaque bottle out and decided not to challenge the infuriated brutes that were left.  

  Even though the game only went four turns, the scoring resulted in the Delaque winning by a score of 6 to 2 (Goliath) to 0 (Orlock and Escher).  They suffered immensely for it, losing half their gang and not being in a great position for the next engagement (if we were playing a campaign).  The point, however, was really to get into the rules and repeat the game turns enough times that my game group feels confident for the next step.  

  What is the next step?  CAMPAIGN MODE!  The guys really like the game, especially the post-battle stuff and continuing action for the storyline.  Between creating memorable deaths (in the darkness!) and creating infamy for fighters (everyone knows Zed with his unerring harpoon gun!), this seems like something they'd enjoy for a sustainable period.  Plus, this gives me more time to spruce up my D&D stuff...

  Well, that's it for now!  Let me know if you're crawling through the Underhive and had the lights go out at the worst time.  As always- Happy Gaming!

The Lion is finished!

   Well, we were not able to get the game this weekend like we planned.  Maybe next weekend...  But I still have to show of the final results, so here it is!  Be sure to check out the last post to learn how I painted it.  Now on to the pics.  

  I will admit that this model is aweome!  GW is great at making models (they are a model-making company rather than a wargame company, according to them), but this is one of the best for a couple of reasons.  The most obvious is that it really captures the 'knight' aesthetic.  And then all the details and the scenery of the base really brings the model to the next level.  

  The two Watchers on the base weren't super-detailed but they carry the Lion's gear, like good squires.  When painting it, I had to make some artistic decisions about these guys.  The Lion is already pretty dark, so I had to figure out how to paint the little guys without drawing the viewers' eyes down on the  model.  I chose to use a dark purple instead of the maroon shown on the box, as red is too striking and can affect the colour-balance.  I think I like the results.  

  The face is especially fun to paint as it was probably one of the easiest bare skins I've even done to end up with such strong results.  Again, from that artistic approach, I had to figure out how much highlighting to put around his hood to keep the viewers' eyes up there without making that hood not match the rest of the model's green.  Again, I like the result- if I do say so myself!  

  The shield is detailed in that last post.  The problem is that there is no other red on the model and I had to keep it balanced as well.  The Eagle-head is supposed to be golden in colour, but doing that would have made the model shift attention to that side with the complimentary red and gold.  So I decided to paint it the same white as his chest and kneepad icons just to keep the balance.  Plus, I'm actually good at painting white and I like to show it off.  

  Finally, the sword was the biggest obstacle to finishing the model.  I didn't know how I was going to paint it but I knew that I couldn't really use a chromatic colour if I wanted to continue the 'knight' aesthetic, so I had to go with metallic.  As before, this is a bit more detailed in that last post, but I had to struggle to get the blue-glow effect on top of the silver.  This part still doesn't satisfy me, but it's done and still contributes to the overall look.  

  I enjoyed the end-result of this paint project.  And my son's eagerness to use him has me proud and terrified- I don't want to see the Lion "ginsu" his way through my armies!  But he'll look good doing it, and I did that, so I'm just going to have to suffer through it.  Because I also want to see this beauty hit the table.  Let me know what you think (including any constructive criticism) below.  

As always- Happy Hobbying!