Hive War against the authorities!

   This weekend saw my buddy come down for his annual visit and our regularly-scheduled Necromunda bash.  For the first time, he brought down his own crew and it was one that I wasn't familiar with at all.  In the lawless wastes of the Underhive, the law shows up rarely but hard...

  This weekend of gaming was a welcome one away from work, a fantastic chance to hang out with an old friend, and set records for games played in a short weekend.  I played my buddy, then my wife played him, then I played him again, and then I played my son- that's four games in two days!  We could have even added another on Friday night, but I was tired and my buddy was forced to listen to me rant from exhaustion. 

  Because we played so many games so quickly, I didn't take down detailed notes to follow the play-by-play.  But I did take copious amounts of pics and will give [very] brief description of each game.  If this were campaign play, many of the fighters were outright dead and others should have been in recovery during their battles.  But it was just a series of skirmish games- even if my wife is already primed to campaign!  I've taught her well...

Game 1

  My buddy brought his Enforcers.  He's been working on them for a long time but finally got a 1000 credit crew together to run against me.  We set up using the TTCombat stuff (fumbling with it for over an hour because we're not dexterous and terrain is fun) and got the first game going.  

  The funniest parts of this game involved some well-timed Tactics cards.  First, he deployed Trembra in the back corner away from her boyfriend (the leader) and kept her shotgun from having an impact for many turns.  That was annoying because my normal 'fist' depends on Cxauth's group activations to use the powerful weapons in order.  

  But it wasn't over as I then used a card to move his armored anvil backwards.  This stunted his charge and completely changed the whole battle moving forward.  The Silent Ones ended up winning the game, but it was at a cost- Iagorth suffered death!  

Game 2

  This time, my wife brought out her Carrion Queens to face the Enforcers.  Unfortunately, she was not prepared for the Enforcers.  The game was quick as one of the women was sniped, then Jelena climbed up to check on her down colleague only to get sniped herself.  Marksman plus Rending means even a leader can't survive that round!

  To make matters worse, Marika aimed her plasma pistol at one of the Enforcers and suffered the unstable rule, exploding herself and leaving the Carrion Queens without a leader.  Obviously, a voluntary bottle was in order...

Game 3

  After some victory laps, my buddy and I lined up for another game between my Delaque and his Enforcers.  This one didn't go as well as the hand flamer-wielding ganger (Dendrah) was displaced in deployment and the rest of the gang was a bit more cautious.  With great dice rolls and armor that is invulnerable, the Enforcers simply walked through everyone wearing coats.  With only two gangers standing and everyone else dead or down, it was time to quit the battlefield.

Game 4

  Finally, my buddy left for home and my son busted out the Cawdor cultists to battle the Silent Ones.  He felt bad because he didn't play my buddy, but he was worn out from a week of work and I couldn't blame him.  But his need for war eventually took over and he plopped down for our battle.

  The only thing I can describe about this battle is... FIRE!  I had the hand flamer put a couple of cultists to flame, only for the entire Cawdor gang to close and unleash their flamethrowers onto me.  We had gangers running in every direction trying to put out the flames and losing actions.  We had models succumb to being immolated slowly and drop out of the game.  It was hot.  After the smoke cleared and the bodies littered the battlefield, it was the Cawdor that lost their nerve and quit.

  It was a great weekend of gaming!  Four games in two days and with the buddy that I grew up in the hobby alongside makes for memories.  It was awesome getting to play against the Enforcers and even cooler to spend so much time trying to find that balance for each opponent.  I bragged incessantly about how 'unique' each gang feels and how well GW was able to make it all feel varied and still balanced.  Of course, I don't like fighting the crazy-armored cops but I didn't feel that I didn't have a chance at any point.

  That's it for now!  We plan to get a campaign going (maybe in September when he comes down uncharacteristically soon) and much painting needs to get finished, but this was a great motivating weekend!  Let me know if you've had a glut on your hobby in the comments below.  Until then- 

Happy Gaming!

Border Dispute in the Underhive

   My wife challenged me to a battle again, remembering that she's on a winning streak.  Her Carrion Queens have been beating my Silent Ones for a bit and her confidence was definitely built.  I can't resist the opportunity to humble her, so we took to the Underhive again.

  This time, I chose to use a different band.  The Silent Ones haven't been cutting it lately so the Sump Dogs made their appearance.  While my son is building a new Orlock gang, I decided to put the old one to work again.  The wife set up the terrain as another small settlement for us to battle for and then chose the scenario "Border Dispute".  

  In our battle, we would start with a smaller warband and then add reinforcements until our entire crews were available.  The mission goal was to defile the gang relic for each.  Outside of that, everything else is the typical 'meeting engagement' battle where taking your opponent out before you quit the battlefield is the real goal.  With that, we deployed and got ready for war!

  The silence of the abandoned settlement was broken by gunfire almost immediately as the two gangs set to claim it for themselves.  Narkas was the first to sneak up and put a round from his stubgun into Brae, seriously injuring her.  As the rest of the Sump Dogs moved to guard their relic or advance, Jelena ordered her ladies forward and to fire-at-will.  Reyna shot her lasgun at Jackson, but his armor turned out to be too much protection, leading Jelena herself to fire the needler and took him out of action.  Toxin seems to beat armor.  Seeing his friend go down so quickly led to a failed bottle and Narkas fled the battlefield even as Zed and Roky showed up.  Emboldened, Nakomi joined her sisters for the next round.

  With the action began, the two gangs started shuffling around the buildings and squeezing shots at each other.  Kaiya aimed and missed Zed and Zorann sensed Lander as he snuck into cover, jumping from the shadows and pinning him with a point-blank shot.  Unfortunately for her, Gunner Ski was near enough to help his buddy and injured Zorann with return fire.  Zed gathered his senses again and let loose his harpoon at Kaiya, catching her armor plate and dragging her closer for the upcoming charge.  It was a ton of action on that side, while the other side saw gangers climbing for better views or jumping into shadows to keep from being seen.  Both Brae and Zorann recovered while Olinna and Marika showed up to fight, staring at Jon Krow and Grim sneaking into the battlefield from the same way.

  Now everyone was basically involved and very close in this cramped area.  Zed started off with a harpoon flying for Marika, piercing her and dragging her closer as well.  At the same time, shots from Olinna pinned Jon Krow and Katy Kat was forced to duck the attention of Gunner Ski.  Marika, hearing the commotion and gaining a new sense of urgency as she pulled the harpoon from her thigh, stood and let off her plasma pistol at Zed, knocking him to the ground for a bit.  Lander stood and shot Zorann again, pinning her to the ground, even while Kaiya focused her firepower on the prone Zed, wounding him.  Grimm moved up with his shotgun and knocked Nakomi from her perch high up on a ladder.  Unfortunately, her three-point landing made the fall useless, but she still found herself bleeding from the shotgun round.  As the rest of the ladies scrambled for cover to keep their advantage, Jelena casually strode forward and unleashed her needler at Grimm, injuring him with the poison gleefully.

  This was enough to break the nerve of the Sump Dogs.  They were outnumbered right from the beginning and their attacks were ineffective compared to the Carrion Queens'.  Zed, Grimm, and Gunner Ski all quit the battlefield immediately, grabbing Mo Two-Fist on the way out.  The rest of the Orlocks agreed and bottled out, leaving the Eschers to claim this area.  A quick visit to the doc found Jackson's injury to be a spinal wound.  This was not a fair trade as Jackson was an important enforcer and the Sump Dogs really needed the territory.  

  And the wife gets her third win in a row!  She's finally got some of the tactics and a ton of the luck involved in this game, giving me a challenge every time we descend into the Underhive.  And now it doesn't appear to matter which gang I use...

  Let me know how your battles, especially against common opponents, have gone.  In the meantime- Happy Gaming!

When life brings you lemondade...

 

  As I sit here and try to come up with something to blog about, I realize that I'm just under a truckload of stress suddenly.  And this isn't the bad kind of stress- it's the sudden craziness of real life and all.  Since this is a blog about my gaming hobby, I'll only touch on that real-life stuff for a minute (I promise).  More importantly is the gaming stuff that I'm trying to keep up with.  Let me explain:

  The business I work for is a small one that is expanding at a warp-speed rate.  Luckily, my bosses are all very intelligent and are keeping this going smoothly, even if it's before we technically planned for it.  One of our competitors is consolidating their area and is offering a portion of their clients to us for their own transition.  Then we have the 'Fair season', meaning that the business is at every event on every weekend to promote ourselves.  Add to that new equipment, new employees, and new policies and you can see how time isn't as available as it used to be.

  We got a call from our property company noting that the owner is selling and presenting some opportunities that we weren't prepared for.  Much time is being spent on phone calls and planning so we don't end up playing 40k behind our cardboard box in the alley.  On the plus side, I may be able to build out my hobby room of my dreams here soon!

  Finally, my son (and regular gaming partner these days) is enjoying a long-term relationship and joining significant social activities.  While I'm away at work enjoying the oppressive summer sun, he's dressing up as the Joker and going to local comic-cons to show off his newfound love of cosplay (and impressing his girlfriend).  His time for gaming in the grimdark is also lacking but he's having a blast otherwise.  

  Now I get back to the hobby!  First- I've joined another Pathfinder campaign.  The last one saw me using a Rogue that fit the Inuyasha combat archetype (tons of acrobatics) but fell victim to every magical trap in every dungeon we entered.  This time, I'm playing a Paladin (a GOOD one!) with the accent of Sean Connery and the need to protect everyone he's around.  My dice are still unfriendly (I'm not the DM, which appears to be the trigger for which side of the die it stops on) but at least I'm not putting the rest of the party at risk with rusted lock-picking tools anymore.

  The TTRPG things seems to be a theme right now as I also received more very recently.  It started with my buddy paying me for helping him with his business in books- almost the entire set of Exalted 2nd edition!  I've played in this world a couple of times before, normally as a human trying to survive in this world of mini-dieties as the role-playing opportunities are more fun.  My buddy is also a RPG gamer and we hope, some sunny day, to be able to play together.  If it's not D&D, it may be Exalted.

  Keeping the theme, another buddy sent me some overstock that he had in his collection.  The box randomly arrived at my door and I called him to find out what and why.  He forced me to open the box and, getting over my SE7EN suspicions, I found almost the entire set of Legend of Five Rings 2nd edition RPG!  The game system is awesome, using the d10 pool mechanic, and the setting is awesome as it's fantasy but set in the samurai time-period.  I've played in the system before and dug it.  The game also reminds me that I need to get back to the Test of Honour stuff we both have...

  Now we're to the miniatures and GW wheelhouse.  I realize that I've fallen behind on the Underhive stuff (or, more specifically, the Ash Wastes).  The Book of the Outlands and giant cargo-hauler have been released and I forgot all about them.  Of course, I also haven't built the models from the box anyway, so I'm really behind.  And now there's some Goliath bikes coming out!?!  They are amazing and remind me to get back to that world.  

  Out of the GW complex- it turns out that Hasbro has released the Frozen Horror expansion for Heroquest and I didn't see it until I watched a couple of unboxing videos for it.  I love miniatures, role-playing, and fantasy and this game is where it all really came together and started.  I refuse to fall behind on that one!  I need to dig through the Amazon.com to find one at some point.

  When life drives a truckload of lemons up your driveway, you need to figure out the best lemonade recipe.  When life brings you a truckload of lemonade, you just start sipping and enjoying the summer days.  In all of this craziness, I need to find my lawn chair...

  Hopefully I'll have a batrep or hobby post soon.  In the meantime, I'm living vicariously through you, the readers.  Let me know what you're doing in the comments below or just commiserate on the fun of your real life.  In the meantime, Happy Hobbying!