Tag Archives: wargames

January update

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Hi, folks.

I’ve been hitting the painting and building quite a fair bit this winter; it’s my favourite season to do so, and it’s relaxing in its own way. Lately, I have been working on some figures for my Rotten Rodents stable in the tabletop game Rumbleslam, which my wife and kids got me for Christmas.

This is a wrestling/fantasy tabletop game featuring heaps of dice, colourful characters (with some nods and sideswipes at real-life wrestlers, old and new), and some lovely models. While we get a team of orcs, goblins and a troll, as well as a more human team (though also with an ogre) to face off against each other, I picked up a box that caught my eye: this being the Rotten Rodents.

Molerat Pugilist & Sewer Rat.

These guys are pretty disgusting, ranging from a potion-flinging high-flyer, to a boil-covered hulking rat, and so I started with two of the easier figures to paint, which are the Molerat Pugilist, and the Sewer Rat. While these guys are considered ‘jobbers’, what folk outside the wrestling world might call ‘fodder’ essentially, they can be joined by a superstar; I picked up Sir Scratch Flagon, the armoured mouse who I believe references ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner, right down to his pose and his chainmail-covered head. I’m still in the process of reading through the rules, but Sir Flagon here seems to have some decent defence stats, which is something the rest of the stable struggles with.

Sir Scratch Flagon.

In terms of Frostgrave, me and my son have been gearing up for a game soon. I am painting up a few pieces of terrain in one go, which is quite simple as the grey primer takes care of most of the surface areas of these old ruins. I have been working on this ruined tower the most, and have recently given it a Nuln Oil wash, waiting to paint the snowy sections and icicles that you can likely see along the top of the miniature. I figured this piece would be useful for a scenario like The Silent Tower but would also make a pretty useful 2-storey structure for housing treasure.

A rotting ruin, waiting to be explored.

I have been dividing my painting time between terrain, my warband, and my son’s warband. Building his wizard as an Illusionist, I asked him to pick the colours before I tackled each figure. I have currently painted 7 of his figures, with only a few left to go. The first scenario we are keen to tackle is Dark Alchemy from the Frostgrave Folio supplement book, where we use a small warband each and play cooperatively against a hulking alchemical beast, before escaping from one of two doors on the outskirts of the board.

Illusionist & one of his thugs- part of my son’s Frostgrave warband.

Cue the Alchemical Monstrosity, which is represented by this mushroom golem miniature I’ve had in my cabinet for over a year. Giving this beast a new lease of life, I thought he would be perfect for a beast forged of an alchemical explosion, with various mushrooms and ingredients mixed together to make a homicidal hulk, hell-bent on stopping our escape. I have some ways to go with this mini, including drybrushing, but he isn’t a million miles away from being tabletop-ready.

The Alchemical Monstrosity.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read. I hope your first projects of the new year are going well, and here’s to another year of building, painting and gaming.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt.4

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Hi, folks.

After a few weeks’ break, I jumped back into a game of Five Parsecs from Home, returning where my crew had left off. In turn 3, Griff’s crew had faced off against a small group of swarm, and although they had come away successful, their encounter with the bug-like aliens triggered an invasion on the upcoming turn.

In the invasion turn, we rolled the dice and found that we didn’t escape the world during the opening phase of this invasion, instead being forced to hold out for 6 waves of combat, or until we Hold the Field. With Glitch in the infirmary, I was having to lean on my less combat-enthusiastic companions to pick up on some of the heavy lifting; this mean bringing Derrick, Vul, and Maimar into a fight against 6x swarm brood in this battle. The weapons loadout remained the same from the previous turn, as if the invasion caught our heroes completely off-guard (which… it kinda did).

With the swarm brood falling under the behavioural bracket of ‘beasts’, they were deployed in pairs, stuck together in pairs, and would mainly seek out cover unless there was a clear opportunity to make a successful charge. Their lack of projectile weaponry (they only have claws) did not present much of an advantage to Griff’s crew, as the swarm were always in cover, and if there’s one thing Griff’s crew can do consistently, it’s miss the most basic of shots in the open. Cover was a huge problem.

Klano, still wearing the jump-belt repaired by the team in a previous turn, leapt towards the nearest pair and became locked in a brawl with them. Despite his ingrained K’Erin tendencies to love close combat, he did not manage to wound the brood. Instead, one of the bugs landed a natural six after rolling to hit him, and removed him as a casualty. On the right flank, Derrick stuck with Vul and blasted one of the brood to the afterlife with a squeeze of the shotgun’s trigger.

On the far left flank, the pair of bugs snuck up on Salisi and dove into combat. While they didn’t manage to wound her, she herself was able to land a blow on them, albeit with no wound; this pushed one of the bugs back. When she was free on her next turn, she took aim with her colony rifle and put it down.

Both Maimar and Griff made some questionable shots, though Griff was aiming through cover. Maimar’s needle rifle, despite getting two shots per turn, was only hitting 50% of the time, and scored no wounds throughout the game. Vul, with dual handguns in his tentacles, took down another of the brood, with Griff eventually cleaning up the rest.

In quite a strange battle, the crew came out on top, and relatively swiftly at that. XP was assigned and attributes improved; I’m looking to increase Klano’s defence somewhat in the turns to come, as well as the reaction scores of the less-combat-inclined members of the crew, who spent most of the battle operating in the slow phase of the turns.

There is nothing to loot, nor is there time to really sit and ponder the job as the invasion is ongoing, and with the field successfully held, Griff and the crew evac in their ship (which was thankfully fully fully repaired in the previous turn) and make for another world. We are allowed to role on the character chart, post-battle; Griff receives a hearty meal, which lets her shrug off an injury in the infirmary when next she is hurt.

As they head towards a new world, past rivals and troubles ablaze behind them, who knows what turn 5 will look like.

Thanks for reading.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt. 2

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Hey, everyone.

In part 1 of the Five Parsecs from Home campaign I’m currently playing through, Griff and her team of misfits made 9 credits off a corporate job, angering another patron in the process and turning her into a bitter rival. They received a bundle of XP (and some grenades), and Salisi, our empath bounty hunter, had some other pressing matters elsewhere in the galaxy and left the crew for 2 turns.

Left to right: Amano (Glitch), Salisi, Vul, Griff, Derrick, Klano, Maimar

The beginning of turn 2 sees the crew going about their business; we pay off 4 credits from our ship debt, use our on-board purifier to cleanse and sell some water to the locals for 1 credit, and Griff explores the town to gain a rumour. Vul recruits a new crew member to fill the void left by Salisi, finding an Engineer named Maimar to join our cause. Amano hits up the market, selling scrap for 3 credits, while Derrick takes another crack at trying to repair the jumpbelt he found at one of the stalls in the last turn; he fails to fix it.

The crew is fortunate enough to get another job from Payton Malik, our patron contact. The next corporate job pays +3 danger credits and is urgent, needing to be done this turn. In return, we would receive the Persistent benefit, meaning this patron will still be available if we travel, and the condition Busy, which would guarantee a job offer from this patron next turn if this one is a success. The downside is the enemy is packing a VIP (one of their number has +1 Toughness and a +2 Combat skill).

Accepting the job, the deployment condition rolls as being Gloomy, reducing max visibility to 9″, so ranged combat is going to take place quite close. This also means that characters who fire can then be targeted at any range, as they can be spotted through the murk. The enemies are security bots once more, and we’re in another run-down slum beneath the pipework of this busy fuel refinery world. Time to get to work.

A run-down hovel in the lower levels of the fuel refinery world.

With no numbers restriction on this job, the current crew were in attendance for this one. While Griff, Glitch and Klano have their favourite arms, Vul brought dual handguns for the first time, and Derrick brought a shotgun; our newest recruit Maimar brings a handgun and a blade. Longer ranged weaponry would be of less use in the gloomy conditions.

None of the crew makes the quick actions turn in turn 1 of combat, and the security bots get the first moves. Being defensive in their behaviour, the 5 bots are posted in 3 teams, 8″ apart, and will remain in their half of the board (and within cover, where possible). They can’t fire with either their military rifles due to the murkiness, and they aren’t yet in range to use their handguns and rippers.

Derrick and Vul discuss how they’ll secure the old ruins, while Griff and Glitch return the bots’ fire.

Klano moves towards the ruins, and dashes into the shadow of a hulking steel structure, the topper from an old doughnut shop. By the second turn, he and Glitch are able to get into the quick actions round consistently, and begins brawling with two of the bots on the upper flank. Despite being able to roll twice during the Brawling phase, due to being K’Erin, Klano misses with most of his attacks, and those that do land fail to injure the bots. Glitch and Griff take opposite avenues around the ruins, returning fire; Glitch takes a hit, but like the first game this doesn’t amount to anything and she shrugs it off.

Maimar sees an item on the boundary, a piece of curios that was to be this board’s ‘Notable sights’. He spends several turns making his way to the crate, finding only junk that can be sold for 1 credit. Klano is bested in close combat by one of the twitching bots, and he is removed from the game. Vul and Derrick reach the ruins at the centre of the board, managing to hold the line undisturbed for a turn; this is a Secure mission, after all.

The security bots wound Klano and move to solidify their defences.

Glitch lands a hit on a bot, but they roll a 6 for their save and continue to fight. Griff takes aim and blasts the bot who struck down Klano on the previous turn, and they fail their saving throw. After a second consecutive turn of holding the objective, Vul and Derrick secure the centre of the board, and on the next roll the remaining enemies withdraw.

Griff takes a moment to aim before putting a shot through one of the bots’ heads.

In the aftermath of the battle, the crew gains +3XP each, with Griff gaining an additional +1XP for destroying a bot. Klano receives +1XP as a casualty. They receive their danger pay of 3 credits + 3 after rolling 1D6, and a set of loaded dice as loot. On the campaign events table our ship seems to suffer 2 hull points of damage during routine maintenance, and on the character events table, Derrick receives a letter from his wasteland planet, and on the roll of a 5 we get a quest from it. Looks like we know where we’ll be heading as soon as the ship is repaired.

That’s all for campaign turn 2, however. Here’s hoping the 3rd turn is much kinder to Griff and the crew.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Reilly’s Rangers

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Hi, folks.

This past weekend, I spent a lot of time painting miniatures with my eldest daughter. She was painting up wood elves from LOTR, as well as a few rangers and armoured Galadhrim, and I was working through my pile of Fallout shame.

I set myself a goal to at least get Reilly’s Rangers completed, as they have been sitting in their armour colours since 22nd December. Thankfully, there are only 5 of these miniatures, so it wasn’t a huge undertaking, though I do feel I get to the stage of painting where I end up with flesh-tone fatigue, where I just can’t be bothered with what is usually one of the last steps, and filling in the faces and any and all exposed skin.

Left to right: Theo, Brick, Reilly, Butcher and Donovan.

Reilly’s Rangers are a mercenary group from Fallout 3, the leader of which you find recovering in the ghoul city of Underworld. The Rangers are trapped in the Statesman Hotel in D.C, under siege by a horde of super mutants, and it is up to the player character to intervene. There are a few different outcomes depending on how the player proceeds, but it is a memorable mission for sure. Reilly and her squad are some of the friendlier mercs in the wasteland, and have made it their job to wipe out the super mutant menace, as well as map the wasteland itself.

In Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, the Rangers feel like an elite unit, boasting some cool skills and auras. They are a part of the Survivors faction, but can be run as their own 5-person unit also. Their skills are as follows:

Reilly: models within her presence range (red) get to add 1x armour break on all attacks against super mutants.
Butcher: able to heal 1x damage counter from a model within yellow range and line-of-sight.
Donovan: comes equipped with a robot repair kit and a power armour patch
Brick: comes equipped with unique minigun called Eugene, and the perk Bloody Mess.
Theo: is omitted from the count when determining advantage

They can also make use of the Ranger battle armour as well, which gives +2 to physical and energy damage, as well as +1 to the luck attribute. Their stats make the Rangers look pretty damn resilient, much like their in-game counterparts, with a range of skills to take on most situations. I’m yet to play a scenario with them, though I’m contemplating running the Atomic Sprint! scenario with the Rangers as the opposing force to the super mutants. This game type feels more like an attempt for the super mutant suiciders to stretch their legs, I feel Reilly and her team would be a decent opposition to them, despite likely being outnumbered.

Anyways, that’s all for this one. Thanks again for reading, and take care.