A 'spiked' keg, Zombies and the Scooby Gang!

This week I made the regular, but a rather bracing brisk walk on this occasion, down the hill to Arabianknight’s refuge of gaming delight, on a dreich Scottish winter evening. We’d planned to re-visit the congenial Star Wars: Pod Racing, however with one thing or another, we ended up playing a hastily arranged game of Fear and Faith instead. Arabianknight had selected another delightfully wacky scenario from the ‘Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters’ supplement, Zombie Kegger!

Nothing says you’re grown up like going to collect a college kegger…they’re totally great…except when some big bad nasty spikes the hooch with zombie juice!

Our game had the zombie hoard protecting the 'spiked' keg from the Scooby Gang. Yep, they’re back! They were last seen in Zoinks! It's Freddy Kreugar!  I opted for the zombies, but quickly regretted the decision after having a closer look at their anaemic stats! But hey, what did I expect – they’re zombies! The Zombie Kegger scenario included rules for picking up or throwing the keg, especially useful for the defenders. Also, any monster carrying the keg could deliver a dose of ‘zombie juice’ to any destroyed model, spending an action to raise the model as a Party zombie!

The Thief was robbed?!

Songs of Blades and Heroes campaign game 9, ‘The Heist’, was a fitting title as Bayaz and his lads "wuz robbed!"

Outlaw Ned the Bed gets the wrong end of a Sonic Screwdriver

Continuing our foray into In Her Majesty's Name, Arabianknight and I played another casual experimental game using the same Companies we used previously for the scenario set in the Old west town of Obsession. This time I was over at Arabianknight's fine gaming establishment, where once again he'd set up a suitably enticing table using his ever expanding range of DaveGraffam models. 

There were Romans at the door. Lots of them!

Today, I took delivery of the 'Legions of Rome' army deal from Warlord Games for my anticpated  foray into Hail Caesar.

This set arrived very quickly from the initial order, so quick it caught me out and I had to arrange an alternative delivery date with the postal service. So why the Romans? Wasn't I thinking of a Carthaginian army? Yup, but after a lot of deliberation it came down to a head and heart kind of' thing - the possibilities for a Carthaginian army ticked all the boxes, possibly utilising some of my Saga miniatures, but at the back of my mind I just fancied having a Roman force.

Liquid Courage, a Buxom Barmaid, a drink spilled...

Bayaz, First of the Magi, suspecting mutinous thoughts amongst his weary warband, leads them to an infamous drinking establishment hoping to re-tie the bonds that have led them thus far on their adventure. As he enters the forecourt and sights the huge Ogre bouncer brooding next to the entrance, with snatches of laughter, pipe music and a curious mix of odours emanating from inside, he halts the warriors. "The Blue Oyster Bar: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."  With that warning, the warriors gleefully head inside...

The Wild West Show and Crazy Europeans in a town called Obsession

Surreal goings-on in the town called Obsession. The talk in Rogan's Bar was all about strangers in the town, questioning many of the local traders. Some said they were scouts from an unknown outlaw gang. Others heard rumours they were from Wild Bill Hickok's Wild West Show. Indeed the MacDoogle brothers were staunchly sticking to their story about 'Europeans' slinking about the outskirts of the town. But the brothers were usually jaked anyway.

The Great Recession in the Verse

Still in then throws of a lean gaming period (for me), I really appreciated the opportunity of another game of Firefly, the board game,  over at Livingston Battleground today. A two-player game against an experienced player, 'J',  with all the current expansions in play. It was a challenging game for both pilots, as life in the 'verse often is!

The scenario, 'The Great Recession', somewhat appropriate considering my recent gaming activity, had us competing for a drastically reduced number of jobs with the winner being the pilot with the most cash, less costs, after four of the contacts had no more jobs to offer. I managed (don't ask!) to get no less than five outstanding Warrants making any dealings in Alliance space, um, difficult!  J got the win, having the most cash as per the triggered victory condition (see photo), although it was reasonably close; if I wasn't delayed with a tricky entanglement dodging and scrapping with those bloody Reaver ships, I could've been me! 

Apart from the usual challenges navigating the 'verse, the pilots had to deal with an angry fleet of Reaver ships, somewhat ruthlessly provoked by me early on, hoping to steal a lead on my competitor!

If you're a fan of Firefly (me, me!) then I can highly recommend Firefly the board game. Its relatively easy to learn and goes a long way to simulating life in the 'verse. As with many of the GF9 games, it does contain a lot of tokens and cards and needs quite a bit of 'space' to play. It isn't a quick game, with the two-hour to play estimate for most scenarios being very optimistic! However, there is an excellent set of solo scenarios included and what with the expansions and online support its worth the effort. 

I came across and excellent tutorial on YouTube recently by GrumshBGG, which I recommend to anyone interested in this game.

Mid October round-up: The Rim, The Forlorn Hope and a right Saga!

It's all been a bit quiet on the gaming front over last few weeks due to one thing or another. Too many commitments, too little time. Same old story!

Anyway,  I did manage to join some of my buddies over at Livingston Battleground last weekend for  another game of the excellent Firefly board game. It was great to see the latest expansion in play, Blue Sun.

This includes a map expansion which adds two new tiles to the board. These align with the left edge of the old board, completing the Murphy system and mapping out Rim Space with a new system (Blue Sun) and a new Supply Planet, Meridian. It also includes new supply cards, nav cards and contacts.

I'm still not sure how the goal card we used, however, can quote '2 hours' to play - unless that was the time required to pack up all the cards and tokens afterwards!

I also 'endured' game 7 of our continuing SoBH campaign recently, where my First Law warband, now officially given the title 'Falorn Hope', were at the receiving end of yet another drubbing at the hands of the dastardly elves. Unless the batteworn and reduced human warband can get off the ropes it'll be all over for them by battle 10.  

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my usual camera and was so wrapped up in how Bayaz, First of the Magi, (and possibly the last given this battle!), attempted to extricate his warband from a deadly situation, I neglected to take any BatRep notes. Luckily for me (or not!), my opponent, ArabianKnight has posted up all the gruesome detail over at Wee Blokes.

Finally, I also demonstrated Saga for my brother-in-law, who is no stranger to the Battleshed, usually with a new board game or card deck to try. He's a regular FoW and WHF player too, as I've been at the receiving end of his Vampire Counts and German heavy armour on  numerous occasions! 

I used a similar set-up to the demo with ArabianKnight previously. Basic battle, 6 points, using some of my Empire Warhammer miniatures to act as the Viking warband facing the Scots.I failed to convince John, however, that the mounted Scots Hearthguard weren't some devious plot to include uber-warriors on my side.

In my defence - their only 'advantage' is the long move (and are disadvantaged when being shot at and lose cover bonuses); as Jamie can attest over at Livingston Battleground, having a full group of charging mounted Hearthguard does not mean they still can't be stopped and decimated by a group of indifferent warriors lounging on a hill! :s

So a quiet few weeks, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Over the next few months I plan to revisit Warhammer Fantasy again, as my brother-in-law is ever so keen to let his Vampire army have a go at my semi-retired Empire troops - can't think why ;) Dead Man's Hand and In HerMajesty's Name are also pencilled-in and my next 'big' project will be to build a Carthaginian army for Hail Caesar.

Not so merrily down the river

After a long summer hiatus, our SoBH campaign game between arabianknight's Woodland Realm elves and my First Law humans resumed with an unusual challenge - a spot of river rafting! This scenario, The Haunted Wreck. 

The warbands have heard of the wreck of a treasure ship which was broken up by a violent storm. Only one sailor, by the name of McGuffin, survived and he was driven mad by his ordeal. He keeps saying, "their dead hands reached for me. They were dead I tell you! They reached for me..."

Both warbands seemingly commissioned the same carpenter to provide a couple of basic but hopefully sturdy rafts, so it was on a fresh autumn day the two parties found themselves anxiously standing on riverside beaches and arguing amongst themselves who would be the raft pilots. For the First Law crew, Black Dow was volunteered as he was still nursing an injury and new recruit 'Red Hat', wanting to impress, volunteered to pilot the second. Threetrees was recovering from his previous injuries and stayed ashore, although the others thought this was probably for the best as the muscle-mountain might sink the raft!

So it was that the first raft got awkwardly underway, with Red Hat, Logan, Ferro and Jezal on board. The remaining warriors followed on the second raft, with Black Dow grumbling at the helm, Bayaz unsuccessfully attempting to appear resolute and Curnden Craw shouting jibes to his compatriot, Red Hat in the lead raft. After a very nervous hour of crashing into banks, almost capsizing and a couple of crew overboard incidents, the bedraggled human warband headed down-river.

The humans eventually spot the elves ahead on their rafts - heading straight towards a large wreck beached on one of the rivers numerous islands. Game on! Bayaz watched the elves come alongside the wreck whilst letting one of their crew nimbly spring aboard. Almost immediately there is a loud pop, the air appearing to momentarily shimmer. A figure appears near the bow of the wreck in the garb of a pirate captain! The ethereal captain raises his sword and gives a rictus grin. More 'pops' and 'shimmers' follow; a nightmare crew of ghostly skeletal warriors and archers form up alongside the pirate captain.

Bayaz quickly recovers from his surprise and shouts orders for this rafts to steer clear of the wreck for now, hoping the elves and the mysterious pirate crew will be so pre-occupied with each other it'll allow his warband to take advantage of the situation. 

The elves board and quickly engage enemy skeleton warrior and archers. A hard fight ensues, with the elves valiantly skirmishing on the deck against the skeletal warriors, with supporting fire from their archers on the rafts. The skeletal archers return fire, with arrows grazing armour and shields on both sides. The elves eventually manage to get a couple of their warriors behind the pirate captain and, after overcoming their Fear, they attack. The pirate captain screeches and desperately attempts to counter the skilful and focused attack from the elves.

But it was too late, the elves rain blows  and with a deafening 'crack' which momentarily stuns all the combatants, the pirate captain quickly leeches out of existence. The skeletal warriors all stop fighting and as one run to the wrecks sides and jump overboard, following their captain into oblivion , their dry bones sending up an acrid smelling, hissing steam cloud wherever they hit the water.

The meantime humans eventually come alongside and try to take out the rearguard of elves still on ship (transfix from Bayaz, Curnden fluffs his boarding). Opportunistic? Och Aye!

Whilst the elves regrouped and uncouple from the wreck. Red Hat, quickly mastering his piloting skills , manoeuvres his raft against the current and blocks the elves. The elves, still battle high, take the initiative and board first. Melee ensues. A very hard fight, with blades and arrows flying. Ferro, Logan fall. Jezal is pushed overboard but comes up on downstream island. Red Hat sizes up the situation - being alone, outnumbered and still holding onto the tiller, abandons ship and ends up on same island as Red Hat.

The humans are all but in rout, so the elves confident and treasure-laden, but typically merciless...sent an arrow Red hat's way whilst semi-drowned and beached. It was all Bayaz could do but order his raft to divert to the other side of the island  to pick up Jezal and the injured Red Hat.

Bugger! Another CP lost. The First Law crew still weary after the last two rough encounters. However, with the tower of Threetrees and  the exuberant Nicomo Cosca back in action, the crew are seriously wanting to recover pride.. and treasure.

In the intertest of balance... the elves point of view.