M.A.G.U.S. - boarding the ship at night

Introduction

We missed one game due to illness, but we continued right where we left off: the adventurers are on a small boat, with a couple of men rowing them towards the ship. The sky is dark with no stars shining, and the waves crash over and over the boat.

How do we get up?

The red die represents a torch walking up and down the ship. The adventurers tried to approach the front of the ship, timing it so that they can all get up before the guard sees them.

Climbing a rope ladder while rocked by waves is no easy task, especially because the impatient Shamil jumped on before Armatio could climb to the top. They did manage to hamper each other enough that only the two of them got up the ship when the guard reached their spot and alerted his companion.

By the time Biznard could get up the ladder, battle was already in progress. Someone was also shooting arrows at them, but with no success due to the darkness.

The veteran of many battles, Biznard realized that the arrows are coming from up top. So he tried to climb the ropes to get to the top of the mast. He got an arrow in his shoulder, but climbed on, and managed to grab and pull the sailor from the crow's nest.
In the meantime, another combatant, armed with a rapier, came out of a cabin.

Biznard is looking on from above as Armatio checks the back of the ship for more enemies. Shamil managed to surprise the new opponent, and got him with a garrote.

After a couple of rounds of choking, the poor man managed to get away, in time to be smashed in the knees by the returning Armatio. The knight and the assassin then rushed to put out the fire caused by a dropped torch.
Biznard took the short way down, sliding down the ropes and ladders, but was not quick enough and slided all the way into the water. He was close to drowning, but the guys in the boat managed to rescue him.

After a short rest, the adventurers climbed down into the hold, and walked around shouting and causing much noise. This attracted three sailors playing dice in one of the rooms. One was carrying a harpoon and inflicted enough damage to Armatio to knock him out, but in the end, they were killed. With all the ruckus about, a dwarf climbed out from below, carrying a huge crossbow. He managed to get off a shot, hitting Biznard right in the stomach. The barbarian did not care, and with a hit of his mighty warhammer, crushed the skull of the dwarf.

With the last of their enemies dead, the adventurers searched the ship, looted the gold in the captain's cabin, and took 10 bottles of wine (as they had no way of telling which was special) and 2 barrels of moonshine (just because). They sat down to meditate and called the guys in the boat up for a drink.

An hour hadn't even passed, and the guys on watch sighted two small fleets of boats rowing towards the ship. From the direction of the harbor, the sailors hired by the Squids must be rushing towards the ship to commandeer it. However, the other boats, approaching from the rocky shores of the bay, were unidentified.

The adventurers could not decide whether to stay and guard the ship, or flee with their loot. In the end, Shamil consulted his sixth sense, which told him to run away as fast as he could. They rowed towards their hired sailors, but did not manage to convince them to return. So the adventurers had no choice but to return to their inn, tired and bleeding from many wounds. Biznard still carried a five foot long bolt in his stomach, so the innkeeper sent away the waiter for a healer.

To be continued...

M.A.G.U.S. - ejszakai kommandoakcio

Why is this post not in English?

Bevezető

Egy alkalom kiesett betegség miatt, most azonban folytatjuk ott, ahol abbahagytuk: a három kalandozó néhány markos legény kíséretében halad a hajó fele. Körülmények: vaksötét éjszaka, hullámos tenger.

Feljutni a hajóra

Messziről látszott a hajó oldalán előre-hátra sétáló fáklyás őr. A kalandozók megpróbálták a hajó orrát megfelelő időzítéssel megközelíteni, hogy tudjanak mindhárman feljutni mire az őr odaér.

A viharos tengeren azonban a kötéllétra megmászása nem volt könnyű feladat, főleg, mivel a türelmetlen Shamil nekiugrott, mielőtt Armatio felért volna. Azt érték el, hogy akadályozták egymást, és csak ketten jutottak fel, mire az őr észrevette őket, és riasztotta a társát is, aki a hajó másik oldalán sétált.

Mire Biznard is felkászálódott a létrán, már javában dúlt a harc. Valahonnan a hajó háta mögül még nyílvesszők is záporoztak, de a sötétség miatt nem találtak célba.

A harctéren gyakorlott Biznard kideríti, hogy az árboc tetejéről lövöldöznek rájuk, és igyekszik felmászni a kötéllétrákon. Kap egy nyílvesszőt a vállába, de ügyet se vetve rá tovább mászik, és kirántja a tengerészt a kosárból. Időközben egy rapírral felfegyverzett alak mászik elő az egyik kabinból.

Biznard felülről figyeli, ahogy Armatio felderíti a hajó hátsó felét, de nem akad további ellenfélre. Shamil hátulról meglepi a rapírost, és fojtóhurkot akaszt a nyakába.

Pár kör fojtogatás után az alak kiszabadul, de az éppen akkor visszatérő Armatio derekasan nekivágja a kardlapot. Ezután tűzoltással foglalatoskodnak, nehogy az elejtett fáklyák felgyújtsák a kötélzetet. Biznard lecsúszik a kötéllétrákon, de nem elég gyors, és kiesik a tengerbe. Kis híján megfullad, de a csónakosok a segítségére sietnek.

Rövid pihenő után a kalandozók behatolnak a hajó belsejébe, és nagy zajjal, kiáltozással haladnak lefele. Ezzel előcsalnak három kockázó tengerészt az egyik teremből. Sikeresen elintézik őket, bár az egyik szigonyos kiüti Armatiot. A dulakodás zajára egy nyílpuskás törpe mászik elő a legalsó szintről és hasba lövi Biznardot, aki az est hátralevő részében egy másfél méteres nyílvesszővel a hasában mászkál. A barbárnak persze ez meg se kottyan, és Shamillal együtt megölik a törpét is, akinek a hatalmas buzogány a gyomráig viszi a koponyáját.

Ezek után van idejük átkutatni a hajót, elemelni valami pénzt az kabinból, felszedni 10 üveg bort (mert egyikük sem tudja megállapítani, hogy valamelyik különleges-e) és 2 hordó pálinkát  (csak úgy). Leülnek meditálni és felhívják a csónakosokat inni.

Egy óra sem forog le, és az örködő csónakosok észrevesznek két csónakrajt is, ami a hajó felé tart. A kikötőből valószínüleg a Tintahalak által felfogadott tengerészek jönnek, de az öböl sziklás bal partja felől ismeretlen csónakosok közelítenek. 

A kalandozók tanácskoznak - van aki a menekülésre szavaz, van aki a hajó örzésére. Végül Shamil a hatodik érzékéhez fordul, ami az sugallja, hogy meneküljenek. Szembemennek a felfogadott tengerészekkel, akiket nem sikerül meggyőzni a visszafordulásról. Igy aztán megtörten, fáradtan, több sebből vérezve, a kalandozók visszatérnek a fogadójukba. A fogadós elszalasztja a pincérfiút vajákosért.

Folytatás következik...

Review: Alien vs Predator

Introduction

My second boardgame review, although Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins is a halfway cross between wargame and boardgame. There is a list building element to it if you buy more miniatures and expansions, but once you get down to business, there is a gameboard with fixed length moves. I played a match with only the starter set, so the default lists for each player.

Setup

We had all three factions played. 

The Predators were only two, but had mimicry tokens which can't be distinguished from actual Predators until in line of sight. Their objective was to plant explosives in 3 of the 4 big rooms.

The Aliens were most numerous. Their only objective was to amass 5 kills.

The Marines were 5, but had good shooting capabilities. They had to destroy all 4 vents on the map.

Playing the game

I played the Marines - it was terrifying. All I had was a lot of blips all over the map, with the Aliens closing in and Predators walking in the distance. My friends, we are way to squishy for this galaxy!

I quickly destroyed the two closest vents and scored a kill on the Aliens, securing the nearest corridors, while the other players just positioned their forces.

Soon I was under siege and fighting for my life against the Aliens. The Flamethrower could have worked wonders, but I rolled poorly. Lesson of the day: always take a smartgunner. Those rerolls on to hit, combined with a healthy rate of fire, did a lot of work.

The Aliens spent all their forces trying to kill Marines, but only managed to frag one due to a combination of poor rolling and tactical cards played. This held me up in my starting position, and by the time I could start advancing towards the other side of the map, the Predators had already planted two bombs.

In the end, it came down to a single round. The Predator smashed its way through the door I closed in front of him and ran into the third large room. My Marines were on sentry duty and fired everything at him, but even the combined firepower of the smart gun and a pulse rifle were not enough to take down a Predator in one turn. With their objective completed, the Predators won.

Aftermath

A somewhat complex game, but easy to grasp if you have experience with wargames. The to hit rolls and armor saves modified by the strength of the weapon are all too familiar at this point.

As we discussed, the key to a balanced a game would be that the Alien player should hold off until he's in a good position to assault both of his opponents. It is also paramount to kill one Predator before they plant many bombs to avoid situations like our own where it's practically an auto-win for the Predators at a certain point.

The miniatures are of good quality and they look awesome with the right paintjob.

Expansions could alter the game dramatically by introducing new models, abilities and mechanics.

All in all, a fun game worth a look.

Age of Sigmar: Daemons vs Beastmen vs Skaven, 12.11.2016

Three-way Triumph & Treachery: Artefact of Ultimate Power! 1000 points for each player.

Army lists:

Daemons

• Great Unclean One, general, Chaos Runeblade, Great Destroyer
• Epidemius
• 3x 10-man Plaguebearers, full command
• Soul Grinder

Beastmen 

• Doombull (proxied by Bloodletter standard bearer), Great axe, general, Chaos Runeblade, Lord of War 
• Ghorgon (proxied by Slaaneshi spawn)
• 3x 3-man Bullgors (proxied by Bloodletters on 40mm bases), Great axes
• Warscroll Battalion: Bullgor Stampede 

Skaven

• Plague Priest, general, Crown of Command
• Verminlord Corruptor (proxied by a model on a large blast template)
• 2x 20-man Plague Monks,  Foetid Blades, Icon of Pestilence
• Plague Furnace (proxied by models on chariot base)
• 2x Warpfire Thrower
• Warscroll Battalion: Congregation of Filth

Summary

We spent four turns just maneuvering and thinning each other's armies, with the first grab for the artefact taking place in turn 5. Well, all of our generals were slow, so it made sense not to try a run for it. The game got pretty tense then, with the winner emerging in the final turn.

Deployment

I deployed first, placing the Grinder, the Great Unclean One and a squad of Plaguebearers on the table. My opponents then deployed as far as possible from the Grinder - Skaven top left, Beastmen top right. Come to think of it, the Grinder underperformed this game. However, he had a massive psychological effect, and determined a lot of the other armies' moves. I think it was worth it.

Turn 1.

I let the Skaven go first. His positioning made it for an obvious attack on the Beastmen, and I didn't want to chance the Beastmen moving away, towards me. So the Plague Furnace and the two units of Plague Monks advanced, with the Plague Priest appearing on the table.

I was up next and moved everything up the field.

The Beastmen advanced towards the artefact, keeping the middle ground between the Daemons and Skaven.

Turn 2.

I got first turn so I cautiously moved up the field. I positioned the Grinder at maximum range from the Doombull and unloaded all the shots, causing only one wound.

The Skaven split their forces, moving the Plague Furnace and one unit of Plague Monks to assault the Beastmen. I believe this was a tactical error, as it set up 2/3 of the Skaven units against everything the Beastmen deployed on the first turn. However, that Plague Furnace is terrifying, so it could have gone well.

However, the Plague Furnace did absolutely nothing (except rolling 1s). By the time the Beastmen finished their turn, they had melted away the rats, only loosing one unit of Bullgors in the process.

Turn 3.

I went first again. I sent one unit of Plaguebearers to oversee the objective but keep behind the hill so as to deny a charge. I sent in the Grinder to take care of a unit of Bullgors that had advanced towards me, while shooting the Doombull, but causing no damage.

Of course, the Grinder failed miserably in inflicting damage. The Beastmen capitalized by sending in the Ghorgon.

By the end of the Beastmen turn, the Grinder was down to 1 wound.

The Skaven went next, moving the Verminlord Corruptor up the field.

The Skaven player chose the Beastmen to go first in combat, assuring the destruction of the Grinder.

Turn 4.

Skaven went first, sending in a unit of Plague Monks to deal with my Plaguebearers and moving in the Verminlord to protect the general heading towards the artefact. At this point the Tally of Nurgle (as kept by Epidemius) reached the first level.

I went next, sending in another unit of Plaguebearers against the rats. With both units having the Nurgle keyword, the Tally was sure to go up soon.
I kept my general away from the fray, allowing the Skaven and the Beastmen to duke it out.

Which may have been a mistake at this point.

The combined charge of the Ghorgon and the Doombull evaporated the Verminlord. The Skaven were now mostly out of the game, with the weapon crews trudging up the field with their short range firethrowers.

Turn 5.

Beastmen went first. The Doombull ran for the artefact, capturing it. The remaining troops advanced towards me, but failed their charge.

It was my turn next. I moved up the Great Unclean One, and rolled to charge. 9 needed to get up the hill and reach the Doombull. Double six!

I also sent in the last free unit of Plaguebearers to hold up the remaining Beastmen.

That went worse than expected, with the Beastmen tearing through the lesser Daemons. However, I still had one guy left, and he tied up the Bullgors. The Doombull inflicted no damage on my general.

Skaven turn! Out of options, the Skaven general charged in and managed to take off the last wound of the Doombull.

And then promptly died to the Great Unclean one.

Turn 6.

This was the first turn where the game could possibly end. It was tense and I forgot to take pictures. 

The Skaven went first, shot the Great Unclean One with an overcharged warpfire thrower that only managed to wound itself, then charged it in the hopes of tying me up. No success.

I captured the artefact, then charged the Ghorgon, killing it. I brought Epidemius out of the forest, just to present another target/distraction.

The Beastmen went next. The Bullgors charged the Great Unclean One, but did not manage to kill it.

At the end of the turn, the Skaven player rolled a 3 on a d3, so the game ended. Daemon victory!

Aftermath

We discussed the battle while tidying up the table. It was a tense and close game, and we had each had a chance at victory. 

The Doombull really shined at damage output. I had witnessed the Bullgors inflicting horrendous casualties before, but the way the Doombull ripped apart the Verminlord now really had me respecting it.

The Skaven did what they supposed to do and died in droves, inflicting casualties of their own. The player was disappointed that he couldn't deploy his whole army and missed the ranged support of the firethrowers. Not sure if anything could have been done differently, as deploying only the firethrowers would have left him woefully at understrenght in the beginning.

As for the Daemons, this battle showed that Nurgle units are really resilient, though not very killy. It was an unexpected surprise that most of the Skaven units also had the Nurgle keyword, so their kills also racked up the tally, and they also got the bonuses. 

The game type was very fun, and it's not called Triumph and Treachery for nothing. A lot of time was spent trying to sweet talk our opponents into doing stuff, with alternating success.

Painting Chaos Chosen

Introduction

This squad of Chaos Chosen was bought for use in DnD, but I am planning to squeeze them into Warhammer, too. Therefore, they will be painted in a Word Bearers color scheme.

Prime

Prime in black. I usually prime in white, but painting the squad of Chaos Marines taught me that sometimes, a black primer serves better.

Paint the red armor

As with the Chaos Marines, start with dark red. A couple layers should be needed to completely cover the black primer. I painted on 2 full layers, and then another half layer wherever the black was shining through.

I had an idea of how to proceed, but as it involved some new techniques, I decided to try it out on the two regular guys first.

So, after the two and a half layers of dark red, came a thick edge highlight with blood red:

Then a thinner edge highlight with bright orange:

And finally, a dark red wash (Carroburg Crimson) to mesh it all together.

When the whole thing had dried, I found that the contrast is way to stark between the red and the orange, so I took a slightly different route for the other three guys.

After the thick bloody red edge highlight, I mixed 1:1 dark red with bright orange and used that for a thin edge highlight:

Then I added small bits of bright orange highlight:

And again, wash with Carroburg Crimson. Armor plates finished.

Paint the details

Again, I wanted to try out the color scheme on only one guy. I gave him a brown basecoat on the horns as well as all leather details; and a gunmetal basecoat on the metallic bits that weren't armor plates - axe head, armor trims, bolts.

I originally wanted a brown-bonewhite blend for the bone parts, but I changed my mind halfway through. The bone parts got a white basecoat...

... and a sepia wash (Seraphim Sepia).

The leather and metal bits got the usual black wash.

Time for the highlights! I started with a thin edge highlight with leather brown on all the leather surfaces: the skirt, the belt and the weapon handle.

I highlighted the metallic parts in 4 steps. First, a thick edge highlight with gunmetal on all the metal bits.

Bronze highlight for the bronze bits.

Then a thin silver highlight on the metal parts.

And just a hint of gold on the bronze parts.

The last step was a thin bonewhite edge highlight on the bones.

All in all, I was happy with the paint scheme. The rest of the squad followed suit, although I did change a couple of steps here and there. I began with the brown and gunmetal basecoat.

But this time, the boney parts got a bonewhite basecoat instead of white.

I went for a the same sepia wash. I think it looks better this way, especially if alternated - the small skull on the head of the standard bearer had a white basecoat, and it contrasts a bit with the horns.

I also went a different path when changing leather. Instead of leather brown highlights on black wash, I instead did the highlights first...

... and then applied a brown wash (Agrax Earthshade). It meshed the colors into each other nicely, leaving also a leathery shine which I was happy with.

A thicker bonewhite edge highlight was followed by a thin white edge highlight on the boney parts.

The steps for highlighting metal did not change.

The final two models, the champion and the drummer went through the same steps: brown, gunmetal, bonewhite basecoat.

Leather highlights on brown.

Followed by Agrax Earthshade. All the other highlights are in place too: bonewhite and white on bone, light blue on the dark blue loincloth, silver on metal.

The one thing left was the champion's mutated arm. At first, I basecoated it in bone and threw a dark red wash (Carroburg Crimson) on it, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I needed a fleshy look to it. I went with bonewhite over the boney part and skintone on the fleshy parts, only leaving the reddish bone to be seen in a couple of places, notably the upper end.

Then applied the dark red wash again, followed by edge highlighting with the basecoat colors. Much better!

I followed up with a fleshtone wash (Reikland Fleshshade) on the fleshy parts for that wet, raw skin look.

Squad painted! 

Basing

Given the amount of time I've invested in painting these guys, I wanted something special for their base instead of the usual grassland/woodland type. I went for cracked earth.

Start by gluing on large bits of chopped up cork and smaller bits of rock. Apply PVA glue generously, so that the flocking holds and it also meshes together.

When painted in a reddish brown, the different pieces should not stick out overly much.

Follow up with a heavy brown drybrush.

Black wash in the largest recesses to darken them up.

Then an overall brown wash (Agrax Earthshade) to mesh the colors together.

It already looks pretty good, but I decided to go further with a brown edge highlight.

And a minimal brown-bonewhite mix edge highlight.

All this should pop out the edges and leave the recesses in shadow.

Finished!