Test game: Genestealer Infestation

 Back as promised with another test game on the Qala Debdou board! A bit chaotic in terms of preparation, as you will immediately see, but immensely fun, as I hope I’ll be able to convey in what follows.

A window of opportunity opened up for this very weekend, so I asked my mate Rodrigo if he fancied seeing the board in person and trying out what it could do. It all came together surprisingly easily (unusually so, in fact), but it was a total rush and our gaming time was going to be very, very short. That meant there was no chance to read a new rulebook or put together proper warbands, nor could we afford to stop every three minutes to check the rules. So we ruled out the ideas I’d had in mind (Stargrave, Planet28, Inq28 and a few others) and went for something we both know by heart and can play almost on autopilot. The good old reliable 2nd Edition.

Yup. We're that crazy.

More stuff! To make the whole thing even more entertaining, as soon as my Suberlings (10 and 6 y.o.) heard what was going on, they made it very clear they weren’t going to just sit and watch two bearded forty-somethings play. They wanted in!

Up to now we’ve played a few board games at home. HeroQuest, Zombicide, that sort of thing. And although they’re constantly messing around with my minis going pew pew, we’d never actually tried a proper wargame before.

Well, that’s about to change: their first game will be WH40K2, right there on the Qala Debdou board. I mean, really… what could possibly go wrong?

 Let's set the game!

The board

Since it’s still under construction, I left the upper module as it is. You might notice there’s a new addition since last time. That’s all the progress I’ve managed so far since the previous post.

What's that... thing?

It’s an elevator with a walkway. Since it’s already built, I just left it there. I’ll explain what on earth that thing is in my next post about Qala Debdou — hopefully with a bit more progress to show!

Faced with this new situation, my friend proved the true gentleman he is and immediately offered to take on the role of GM for a game involving the kids (with me giving the younger one a bit of help). When you’ve got friends like that, life’s just better.

Anyway! A Genestealer outbreak has erupted in a remote mining town on some far-flung planet out in the Eastern Fringe! Terrifying purestrains are roaming free everywhere, and the Genestealer Cult has come out into the open. Horror. Panic. Mayhem.

After a few encounters, the Blood Angels have already paid a painful toll. 

You see that foul xeno with rests of  a fallen Blood Angel?

A squad of Blood Angels has just landed to fight the filthy xenos and recover the geneseed of the fallen. Their objective is to find that particular Genestealer and retrieve the geneseed before it takes down in the caverns and it's irremediably lost.

They arrive in an assault ship: 

I bought that thing second-hand before I even had kids. Haven’t so much as touched it since then. But it was absolutely necessary for this scene

Suberling Primus will manage the Genestealers while Suberling Secundus (and me) will encarnate the Blood Angels. Our generous GM will handle the civilian population and any random events that may happen if the game unbalances too much.

Deployed!

The squad soon had to face their first enemy, who wasn't really that a hard match, but certainly slowered them. By doing so, it allowed a much more dangerous peril to show...

The Genestealer Magus!

 The Magus didn't hesitate to use his psychic powers on the Space Marines. Oh, yes, I didn't mention. Of course we used the Dark Millenium cards. You think I'm going easy on my kids for their first game? That's life, if you learn to play, you learn WH40K2 with Dark Millenium.

The Magus cast the psychic power The Horror, which fills the minds of living beings with visions of their worst fears. Given the kind of game we were playing, we decided it wouldn’t affect the squad as a whole. Instead, we rolled separately for each member (more tension that way!).

The sergeant was the only one affected, forced to fall back until he could pass a Leadership test. The rest of the squad, however, pressed on relentlessly and took down the Magus in a storm of bolter fire.

Move, move move!

 Three Space Marines moved forward, the sergeant fell back and another Space Marine stayed behind to face the Genestealer Primus.

In the meantime, the Genestealers feasted on the terrified civilians who tried to escape:

Om nom nom

Aaah! Too hot, too hot! I burnt my tongue!

Against all odds, the Genestealer Prime managed to kill a Space Marine in close quarters combat!

O-oouch

The Sergeant recovered and advanced towards his foul enemy, while the rest of the Squad reached the main building and stayed ther in overwatch.

Yes. Overwatch. Because this is 2nd Ed.

The Genestealer Patriarch, feeling the death of hs most loyal acolyte, came into the open and also casted his psychic powers. He used the Catalyst on a Genestealer (we're micromanaging the game), which became frenzied (doubled its attacks, among other delicacies!) and gained a 2D6 saving throw (just like a terminator). Gasp!
 

The monster immediately leaped upon the Space Marines

In the meantime, the Cultists made their way through the maze of alleyways, doorways and whatnot to take up their positions

  

The frenzied Genestealer killed a Marine

 

The Sergeant dealt with the Genestealer Prime

 

 Things were going awfully hard for the Space Marines. The Cult was really getting control of the town and killing civilians everywhere. So our GM introduced new elements. A valiant cop...

Sir, I'm gonna need your license to drive that machine and the documents...

It didn’t pass the inspection! Administrative offence! Call for backup, now!

At another point of the town, the Genestealer Patriarch was getting ready to cast his psychic powers again. But when he did so... I played the Daemonic Attack card which I just got on this round!! A breach in the Warp opened and...

A Daemon claimed the Patriarch! (Miniature added for dramatic purposes only)

Wow. So wild!

I’d really missed these crazy plays and those sudden twists of fate that can change the whole flow of a game in an instant. Needless to say, I was absolutely loving it, the GM was in stitches, and the kids were already hopelessly hooked on the game.

The civilians were slowly getting to the (relative) safety of the landing pad

While the Space Marines covered them

Along the game we were finally using the board. There were some movements within the inner stairs, some risky jumps Prince of Persia style, miniatures in risk of getting injured or stunned...

Parkour!

Genestealers proved to be quite lethal during all the game!

 Finally! The ship arrived to evacuate the civilians:

(I took some risks placing that model on that landing pad hanging into the void!!)

The murderous Genestealer climbed and climbed up the wall like a roided-up cockroach.

How did you get in here?

But was slain and fell down again:

Dramatic pic

The ship finally took off, evacuating the remaining civilians. Not that there were many left, to be honest. I forgot to mention it earlier, but among the townsfolk were the governor and his wife, and let’s just say their story didn’t have a happy ending...

At least for them...

 The Genestealers had a quite happy ending with them -and it's been reported that some Imperial citizens showed different degrees of happiness when the news spread. Of course there's an ongoing Inquisitorial investigation pending.

 

OK, this was it all! A few civilians were rescued, though the authorities consider the losses massive. The Genestealer Cult was somehow contained, waiting for future tougher action to be taken. The Blood Angels had some severe casualties and didn't retrieve the lost geneseed, so they may have to come back again anytime soon...

The possibilities are still open!

 

Some quick conclusions:

The game works nicely with four or five minis per side, even with a ruleset like WH40K2 (though you’ve got to treat each mini individually rather than as part of a squad). With larger forces it would probably get a bit more complicated, though still manageable, I reckon. Anyway, the game you’ve just seen took us less than two hours from start to finish. I don’t think we could’ve pulled that off with a ruleset we weren’t already so familiar with — but that’ll come in time.

Playing on a 3D board is brilliant fun. We pulled off some crazy, risky moves, made full use of the different levels, and the game was constantly on the move, hardly any static firefights at all. That said, the board is massive; you really have to decide where you want the action to take place, otherwise it’s just too much to handle. There are still loads of corners I haven’t tried yet, but I’ve already seen that it’s perfectly playable and genuinely has loads of potential.

However, one small issue — the landing platform. Not in terms of gameplay, but practicality. It’s right at the front and gets massively in the way, making it tricky to reach the back areas of the board. I was honestly worried a couple of times we’d knock it and break it. The painful conclusion is that I can’t keep that piece there. I need the board closer to the players so we can reach everything properly, and that’s impossible with such a big obstacle in the way. Luckily, it’s a removable section, so taking it out will be easy, though it’s a shame after all the work that went into it. I’ll see if I can fit it somewhere else.

No complaints though: this is exactly why I wanted to play, to figure out what works, what doesn’t, what needs tweaking or ditching altogether. So as far as testing the board goes, I’d call it a roaring success.

As for the game itself, I had an absolute blast. It was tense, full of twists and packed with action. I can’t thank Rodrigo enough for being such a generous and committed GM. The Suberlings were blown away by the game and by what a wargame can offer. A whole new world just opened up for them. In fact, they barely left the board all weekend. Looks like it’s going to be a busy week ahead… but if that’s my biggest problem, I’ll take it any day!

As soon as I can, I’ll get back to building the city. I still owe you an explanation about that structure from the beginning — and hopefully I’ll make a bit more progress too!

Hope you liked it!

Finishing old bussiness

 A very brief update today, about going back to unfinished bussiness I had set to oblivion for long time.

Delving into old shelves I found a nice stash of old Orks. Most likely from even before I started this blog. Most of them are 2nd Ed plastic Goff Orks, but you can also see some Space Crusade Orks turned into Evil Sunz and some other few gubbins.

Da stash!

I can make a full Mob with those Goffs, so let's pay some attention to them. They were painted in the most basic way imaginable. Full black, classic green skin and almost no details. There are no glyphs or marks, and for that reason I've concluded that I must had started painting them but, at some point and by reasons long forgotten, I never finished them. You can see what I mean in the pic below.

The paintjob is... basic. I believe this must be almost certainly 20+ years old

However, I thought I could make something without having to totally unpaint them. I could use what I already had as base coat and work from that point on.

For starters, I'm going to keep the green skin. Unlike other Mobz, in which I've been constantly switching skin colours, I didn't fancy doing this now. There's nothing wrong about having some consistent true greenskins in my army, after all! So I had to repaint the lips and also paint the ears pink, nothing more.

I kept the black garments, but highlighted them (not too much!), gave the Agrax treatment, and finally made some markings on the shoulderpads. It's an old mark I had already used long time ago for a commission and which looked appealing to me. I finally painted a classic chequered pattern on the other shoulder pad and changed the bases into my usual Renedra flat ones.

Unfinished, yet almost done

I didn't really want to make anything complicated, just finishing an apparent pending job, so I can count a new Mob into my army!

'Ere we go!

I'm still not sure of what to do with the other Orks on the foam tray you saw earlier. Should I try a full Evil Sunz Mob with what I have? Should I use that Ghazghkull Thraka as himself or as a mere Nob? The other characters need a pinting update, for sure, but that will come some other day. So many decisions to make!

Ya neva see dem koming!

 Ork goodies again today. While working on more Titans, I've been trying to put some order in the Orks box, which I have found to be quite a challenging endeavour. Mainly because, even if I call it a box, is more like a collection of boxes, bags and foam trays scattered all along the place. Which, all being said, I still find pretty Orkish anyway.

The thing is that I've put together all my Ork Kommandos:

Some of them were already mine, others came in later

 I've broken the non written rule of working only with old models, because I also happen to have this Kaptin from most awesome Knightmare Miniatures.

Da Boss

 I know that this guy kind of breaks the aesthetics of the Kommandos, but I liked the mini and felt that it should fit in here. I reckon it's a rendiditon of the old Freeboter Kaptin, but I have some plans for Freebooters in the future, so I'm taking the risk of making this mini into this unit. If I change my mind in the future, I can always pull it out.

I took some time to think about how to paint them. My first impulse was to use some weird camo pattern, something garish. The Ork idea of camouflage. But I think that's a path heavily treaded by many people over the years. However I came with some silly ideas along the way, mostly waving through real life  current camo patterns. For example, the former Belgian Army camo pattern looked like a good option:

Come on, even the troopers are already green!!

But I really didn't enjoy the idea. From that I jumped upon the US Army ACU pattern, which was once supposed to be the ultimate camouflage (and if you ever met anyone who has served wearing it, you may find different opinions on that idea). However, that's a thing I had already done long ago, and I wasn't so keen to repeat it.

At some point I even considered the idea of using Multicam pattern, i.e. some current, actual camouflage, buy I also discarded the idea. Somehow it really didn't feel right on those fatigues. It was only then when I found my particular solution. The uniforms. It was there all the time. They somehow resembled me WWII British Royal Marines, and that finally inspired me. (Disclaimer: my dear British friends, feel free to disagree, but now I see these Kommandos as Royal Marines and you cannot change my mind XD).

I cut out and replaced some weapons in order to avoid identical minis

Finding the correct colour was tricky, and I don't think I've really got it right, but at some point I had to make the decision to move along with it. After all, I'm not painting historicals, so these will have to do. In the end, these are my results:

Still sceptical about this one, but I'm keeping him for now

Kome on, Boyz, let's go infiltrate behind enemy lines

Of course there are shark mouths on the chainswords

Here you can see the whole unit:

Don't let otha Boyz ta tell yer wot iz ‘da propa way uv warfare

On this rear pic you can see the Blood Axes symbol, but in the colours of the WWII British Commandos patch, red over black:

Please note the glorious Swiss Army knives too!

 This is it. I have to say I had a lot of fun painting them, it's been a different kind of project, combining Ork foolinesh and a more serious approach. Now these fellas are ready to rock. But beware... ya neva see dem koming!

Ork bikes

 Today's title is quite self-explanatory! I had an old RT Ork Bike, which unfortunately experienced a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly -Thanks Ben for the term! I'm defintely using it! XD) 

It could use a repaint too!

In addition to that, I'm the luckiest, happiest man on Earth, as I had these other three bikes, courtesy of most gentlemanly Iain from Caveadsum1471. I had to complete the bikers with a few other minis and got to this point:

Biker fellas

 The poses of these Orks made them pretty suitable for a rider, so I really had little conversion work to do, except for the driver, which was repeated. With a subtle work I took the mohawks out and changed the weapons.

As I'm more into a Roguetraderesque Ork army, I mean, prior to Clans and so, I felt I could use some variety of colours. Though red was obviously the tying feature for them all, I went for other colours specially on the banners, where I used the kind of style I've used in previous pieces. So with that in mind I ended up with these:

The original one, refurbished

The horned skull on red field is the tying element for my army

Neither of the minis were original bikers

The banner may look weird for Orks, but it ties these with the Viking theme

They look happy

So I could call this a day and say I'm finis... No!

Bonus minis!

I also had some of the modern plastic bikes. Not in best condition, but enough to build another three:

Well, when I said "modern", I meant this model, of course

What do you mean they made new models after this one? How so?

The slightest of conversions to turn the helmet into a cap

The biker is a Gorkamorka model with original biker arms

I had partial bits for a fourth one, but I couldn't make them fit into a whole single model. Maybe in the future with some more time. But for now this is it:

Boorn to be wii-iiiild

There and back again

The Ork army keeps on growing!

I'm also just back for some days off with the family, so I'll be trying to catch up with your blogs in the next few days!