Brief respite

Rumors had long persisted that the first victims of the Necromundan Plague had been hastily interred in a mass grave just outside the hive proper.  This burial site, known in hiver ghost-tales as Deadwalk Alley, had allegedly taken the lives of more treasure hunters than even the Great White Spider herself.  What's more, the journey to Deadwalk was scarcely three day's outing from Sump's Drift, which meant the list of vanished treasure seekers grew by the month.  Each crew had the perfect plan; the ideal gimmick; the sheer pearls to take their fortune and run.

Almost none of these returned to their homesteads, and those who did soon lapsed into fever and delirium before they could account for their misadventures. 

The burial site was originally an old family plot.  The Rameero clan, lead by patriarch Jorge, had made their home amongst the ruins of ancient infrastructure for centuries.  Their wealth meant that they lived in luxury, made all the more ostentatious by their distance from the hive proper.  This fortune lasted for generations, until one day old Jorge returned home from a rat hunt on a stretcher; borne by the house-servants in a delirious stupor to the estate's own medical staff.  The medicae were helpless to stave off the mysterious disease that had taken hold of the old man, and he soon passed on amongst the weeping, sobbing, sniffling, coughing, gasping, ever-weakening members of his proud clan...

Soon the Rameero homestead was all but vacant, as the myriad servants fled and the family wasted pitifully away in their beds.  Enforcer patrols could make no contact with the main estate house, as the servants had welded the 3-meter-tall main gates shut, and attempts to access the home's communications portal were met at first with delirious ramblings and screams, and eventually silence.

Despite the radio blackout, the Enforcers saw figures moving in the house, staggering between the many windows.  Eventually, the security figures withdrew, after hours of futile attempts to contact the famously wealthy Rameeros.  The proud old manse stood amongst the rusting backdrop of pipes, steel beams, and ash slag, and for years, no one dared speak of the wretched Rameero clan.


However, as is always the case, fact began to mingle with hearsay and rumor, gradually leading to the fantastic tales of walking d- 

"-Dammitall, yer no more likely t'listen teh me than y'are to swear yer own dear sweet ma' was a saintly virgin a'fore she met yer da', ain't ye?!  S'wot I thought, innit.  Well, since there's no sense in yer head, I might as well tell ya them stories are, well... let us just say they aint even a bit o'erblown, as 'twere.

You lot find yer way to the old gates of the old Rameero hivestead, ye'll find an ol'wrought-permasteel gate with the lock shot clear t'bits.  There's yer way inta Deadwalk.

Folks say there's a goodly summa' creds to be 'ad if'n yer could find the first few restin-places o' th'Rameeros; ol' shooters, fancy gadgets, gorgeous ol' gems an' sech.

Look, yeh fragged eejits.  There's summat done gone wrong out there.  Every'n knows it.  If'n th'lot a yer head that way, ya better be loaded fer ursa and have yer wits sharper'n a monomol blade.

If yer slow or an'thin less'n a genius, yer gonna rot on yer feet, looking fer the next fool t'step tru them gates an' marvelin' how tasty his arse looks.

Blasted fools, the lot've yeh.  Only s'much the Emp'rer can do for ye.  It won't be enough."

Soldier on!

Despite - In spite of my injury I got a bit of work in tonight, concentrating on Finn's new OiaM shotgun (a modified SM Scout shotgun) with a potential drum magazine to represent the generous ammo roll situation.

Also, despite my earlier claims of no new gangs, I had to complete my injury-causing project - Malokai's machete, which looks great and has already tasted blood!!  Not to worry - aside from minimal twinges of pain and having to apply a bit more CA glue, no real cause for concern!

Also I watched my new DVD of Zombieland and it was really a great way to spend my evening.

Summary: I am an utter and complete fool as I will readily ignore damage to my person for the sake of assembling unreasonably violent plastic miniature men.

Cheers, you lot!

Holy Crap

Can't believe I've not mentioned that Zombieland drops today.  This will put a big dent in my productivity - maybe.

Either way I will be watching this film repeatedly this whole week.

Cheers, and remember:

One Bite and You're Dead, So Aim For the Head.

Abridged Reports

Hey again!  I've got a bit of time on my hands and so here follows what you might call the highlights of the last match I played at our meetup (22 January, 2010).

The match was a raiding party from the OI-FU seeking to scrag one "Prince" of the Voodoo Posse.  Six Orlock fighters (Seamus, Cillian, Finn, James, Angus, and Michael) had ventured into Delaque territory in pursuit of their target, and finally spotted him atop a five story tower along with another Delaque ganger and heavy Replay standing watch across the way.  Their plain gray coats flapped violently in a treacherous gusting wind, threatening to blow away anyone foolish enough to risk crossing a gantry or standing at the top floor of any tower.

The OI-FU raiders dispersed quietly through the ruins, with Finn and James moving up behind Replay to the northwest, Seamus and Angus climbing to the second story of a tower adjoining Prince's perch, and Cillian and Michael sneaking across the second story deck of a central tower.  Winds atop the 5-story monstrosity knocked Prince and co. off their feet.  While Prince managed to stay atop the tower (thanks to some conveniently-located low walls) but his pal was much less fortunate, slipping off the edge and slamming onto the steel flooring two stories below then bouncing a further three stories to the ground.  He would spend the remainder of the game gingerly attempting to remain conscious.

Replay was much more sturdy, living up to his name as he spun in place, planted his feet, and neatly cut down James as the juve attempted to sneak up along a lower-level pipeline.  Wincing as James was knocked off his feet by multiple high-calibre rounds, Finn braced against the wind and blasted Replay at center mass with a manstopper round.  The Delaque heavy was out of action after the first round.

The game continued with Prince getting unsteadily to his feet only to be blown down time and time again, limiting his effectiveness but also making him a damn unpredictable target.  The Orlock raiders worked their way in closer and closer, amidst the arrival of several Delaque reinforcement squads, and just before they could reach the tower in which Prince was taking refuge, Seamus was caught off guard by a particularly nasty gust which snagged his cape and flung him off a catwalk three stories in the air.  The loss of their leader caused the other members of the OI-FU to falter, and the Voodoo Posse used the lull to take out juve Michael as he reached the dice tower, and Cillian as he attempted to cross the bridge to Prince's impromptu bunker.  This was too much for the Orlocks to bear, and they quickly retreated, losing the day.  The Voodoo Posse found themselves bloodied but victorious for the first time in what seemed ages, with a dead Orlock juve to their name and a captive in Cillian.

Rest assured the OI-FU will be out for revenge, as "Stonewall" Michael had been a valued up-and-coming member of the gang, and Cillian would not be allowed to rot in a Delaque shack.

(OOC) Post battle was kind, as Finn got a Rapid Fire skill for shotgunning, and Seamus made sure to find a One in a Million Shotgun with some shiny bolt rounds for the ganger, and Cillian rolled Inventor.  Definitely be on the lookout for a rescue mission in the future!

A lesson in safety

Today was a milestone for my hobby.  Today I received my very first craft knife-inflicted wound, just to the front of my thumbnail on the left hand.  After a bit of profuse bleeding, I managed to seal it up with some CA glue. While I'll be fine, this will keep me from finishing as much hobby work as I wanted to.  That said, I got two more mercs built before this incident, and they are working out just fine.

 I also rolled up a new gang, a counts-as Orlock crew that will serve as a Guilder and his entourage.  The new Renough Syndicate is my first "joke" gang, with all of the names and territories drawn from my own bizarre sense of humor and many featuring locations and people from Reno's history.  This is also going to be my first total kitbash, with no House-specific look in mind.  This gang is a long way off, as I will not be doing any work on these until the mercs and hired guns are completely done.  Seriously.  That said, I am glad to have a template in mind and keep my thoughts focused when I get to the new gang.

I've also put in a goodly amount of painting on the dice tower.  Basecoats have been completed on the majority of the walls and platforms, and the piping, metals, and ladders, etc. throughout.  It's been good to get some painting in on terrain especially after the busy times around the end of 2009.  I want to get a few pictures taken of the work I've been doing, so look for that soonish.

I'll also be putting up a a quick couple of reports from our last meetup in the next week, we had a good couple of games with some surprising results, including a couple casualties and some epic moments.  Thanks for your time and I'll bring more Necromunda and hobby news soon.

Cheers!

*appropriate apologetic title*

Hey again.

With great humility I'd like to make a few announcements.  First, welcome to another reader.  Second, we've had to say our goodbyes to another member of the gaming group who has had a bit of real life crop up.  Third, apologies for a VERY long gap in updates.  Fourth (and finally) the campaign will continue very shortly, as we've all finally sorted out our next meetup.


Please be patient (I know, I say that a LOT), and I'll be more frequent with updates over the next few weeks.


Cheers!

Another Unintended "Hiatus"

It's been a while since anything of substance was shown on this blog with regards to painting, modelling, etc. and while I don't have any good pics at hand, I wanted to say that progress has been made with a couple of projects.

I've spent a bit of time with my Merc crew and the first couple of minis are looking like they'll work pretty nicely.  I'm not entirely sure how I plan to arm all of them or how much individuality I will imbue the squad with, but I've got a couple of ideas about I want to explore.  Most importantly I've been really encouraged by the success of the first two builds, and I'll give a quick parts breakdown to give you all an idea of what I've been working towards.

Heads: Cadian helmeted heads with most detail shaved down (may change).
Bodies: Cadian torsos with Aquilas shaved down.
Arms: Cadian arms with lasgun removed.
Legs: SM Scouts (LOVE the tactical gear).
Weapons: SM Scout shotguns with bracing hand intact.
Other Weapons: Sniper (Vindicare Assassin's Exitus Rifle), Melee Riot (Baton and Shield), SMG (modified lasgun-to-auto-carbine conversion),  Bolters (SM Scout boltguns).

I've put in some work on the Chimera, replacing its turret multi-laser with a heavy bolter, and looking at sorting out a Sentinel for use in the Merc crew (using old, chaotic 2nd ed rules!!!).  I also want to remove the gimbal-mount lasguns on the Chimera, there's no plans for lasguns in the Mercs, so I'd sooner just have open firing ports.

I've also started in on a Guilder and his crew, starting with either a top-level mook or the Guilder himself, a kitbash of Empire Militia, Cadian, and SM Scout bits.  I've long waited an opportunity to start a more eccentric and perhaps anachronistic gang or crew, and this should be just the opportunity I've been looking for.  I plan on creating ornate las-locks for the enforcer-mook types, and all sorts of cool melee-bruisers and other scumbags-for-hire to add to this motley band.  It's gonna be fun.

Cheers to all of you, I'll be back soonish with some more updates.

October Gaming Report!

A quick note: This report was started quite a while ago, but thanks to a lovely seasonal cold/flu thing, I have been unable to finish it until now.  Sorry for the delay, and to our group: any errors are due to my increasingly fragile long-term memory.  Thanks for some great games!

Hello everyone!  The October meetup was yesterday and all things considered went really well.  I still haven't gotten my old rosters and such transferred to the new laptop, so I was embarassingly unprepared for the games (and so was Jeff, as I handle rosters for his gang as well) and in fact was entirely unable to field the OI-FU.

The NMI hit the boards for two games, one against Darien's Orlock gang Cold Dawn, the other fighting a dissenting Cawdor sect, the Brotherhood of Sorrow.  Steph's Escher went to battle against Jeff's Ash Waste Rifles in a seemingly never-ending game (seriously, more than five turns) that took a brutally heavy toll.

In the first game, Darien and I rolled up a Gang Fight (surprise!) and set up on our respective board edges.  I spread the NMI out into four groups.  I spread out my fighters with my heavy holding the left flank and various shooting and melee sqauds across to my leader on the right flank.  Darien set up with his heavy on the right center of the board and his leader on the left side heading a small squad, with a scattering of gangers in between.  I rolled choice for first turn and gave it to Darien.

The Cold Dawn pushed forward, running to cover and taking up positions amongst the towers and buildings, waiting for the NMI to show their masked faces.  His heavy (carrying "The Lawnmower") took up a really nice firing position near the gate/tower, ready to stall an advance through most of the right half of the board.  The NMI countered by sending several shooters out onto rooftops and catwalks, and their heavy moved up with his flamer, ready to flank from the left side.  An assault group moved in support, headed toward cover behind a large tower.

Darien's gang was ready for me, and the Lawnmower took down one of my gangers in the first round of shooting.  Thankfully this also resulted in a failed ammo roll for the Cold Dawn heavy, neutralizing the threat of the heavy bolter for the rest of the game.  The Orlock leader and several others took some potshots at the NMI assault group, keeping hteir heads down but failing to do any real damage.  A prolonged exchange of gunfire erupted as the NMI returned fire, and while many shots struck home, few serious wounds were actually inflicted on either side.  On my right flank, Benedictus moved up quickly and quietly, avoiding the attention of Cold Dawn gangers.

The relatively bloodless conflict soon took a turn for the worse, as Benedictus and Callixtus maneuvered into position and opened fire on their unsuspecting opponents.  Benedictus's hand flamer stalled a small push from the Orlocks, lighting up a ganger and juve, while Cal's flamer literally rained down fire on an unsuspecting juve below.  This, combined with some decent shooting from my other gangers, pinned or downed several more of Darien's gang, enough that he decided to quit the field.  In a nice little bit of irony however, the Cold Dawn had suffered fewer injuries overall than the NMI (two Orlocks vs. four Cawdor) In keeping with their illustrious history, two of my Cawdor gangers died (and yes, one of these fell off a building - huzzah).

On the other table throughout this battle, Jeff's 7th Ash Waste Rifles fought Steph's Concrete Chaos Queens in a Bushwhack raid, with the Van Saar gunning for the leader of the Eschers.  A massive six-story tower dominated their battleground, and Steph wisely kept his leader screened from fire in the middle levels of that tower.  The Rifles and Escher fought tooth and nail throughout the whole of the raid, resulting in brutal casualties and tons of downed and OoA fighters.  In an astounding turn of events, Rifles leader Orion managed to keep his nerve this time around, avoding breaking from the fight when his bodyguard got taken down in front of him.

The Escher heavy plasma gun, infamous for incinerating an unwitting Delaque in its previous outing, was decidedly less potent in this game.  The Escher heavy eventually found herself in a melee contest with the Van Saar heavy, resulting in a clumsily fierce fight to the death.  After all was said and done in the hand-to-hand phase, Jeff's heavy Zeke had earned the nickname "Bitchkiller" after fatally wounding the plasma-gunning Escher with his boot knife.  This was only one of many blood-and-guts moments throughout the battle, and finally, after many, many attempts to take out the Escher leader, the Van Saar packed it in and retreated, leaving their vendetta unfinished.  This game lasted an inhuman 12+ turns and roughly as many beers between the opponents, and has entered the realm of epic legend in the Underhive for our group.

I played one other game against Mike's Brotherhood of Sorrow.  This Cawdor/Cawdor matchup ended up being pretty interesting, not only in premise but in the events of the battle.  We rolled up a Gang Fight, with a Treacherous Conditions roll resulting in the ineffectual but amusing Cockroaches (nice crunchy living carpet of bugs!).  Mike took advantage of his Tunnels territory, and after the first turn I found my left flank under fire from the rear, crippling the advance I had planned.  Despite the tactical advantage afforded him, Mike's fighters proved to be pretty poor shots, and I was able to counterattack with a few shooters on elevated platforms above his infiltrators.

At this point, the NMI seemed to defy their reputation as clumsy melee enthusiasts, as my shooters consistently hit their targets (but didn't wound a whole lot of them) and managed to keep their footing when hit near a platform edge.  Both Mike and I were perplexed as each of our shooting phases proved much less effective than we hoped.  Antoher odd aspect of this fight was a complete lack of melee combat; my sole remaining juve was pursued through the debris by the BoS leader and a ganger, and all others on both sides were unable to close to charge distance thanks to persistent gunfire.  Eventually the NMI took one too many casualties, and I conceded the game when it came time to take my bottle test.  I did much better in post game this time around, with no fatalities and very few permanent injuries.  The same went for Mike's Cawdor, although he had fewer overall wounded gangers at the end of the game.

This was another good meetup and despite losing a member of our group since last time, we still managed to get a goodly number of games in, and since Steph and myself have multiple gangs we can run (with my Mercs currently under construction as well), it allows for a lot of different matchups to be played.  It's looking as if the next meetup will be held at Darien's place, so we'll see how that works out.  It will be nice to just focus on getting my gangs ready to play rather than cleaning up the house and moving tables around!

Oh boy...

It's been an okay week so far.  The weather broke from the obscene 90+ F in late September, and has progressed to a much more seasonal mid-50s to mid-70s.  Holy crap, it is about DAMN TIME!  At any rate, this has been a far better week so far.

I've gotten some painting time in and I've started a proof-of-concept model for the Enforcer/Merc crew that I've had in the wings for a long time.  I also built out a Guilder/Rogue Trader who will serve in some future games (Escort missions, Assassinations, etc.), and plan on doing up a couple bodyguards and some flunkies to go along with him.  I've got three old metal Basilisk crew members I plan to strip and convert to this end.

I also found and bought a couch - no more uncomfortable chairs for me, and our cat LOVES the big comfy cushions and claims one at nearly all times, rendering 50% of the couch his distinct territory.

I also picked up Left 4 Dead on PC; perhaps not the wisest move in terms of focusing my hobby efforts but will allow me to interact with friends I don't normally get to talk with on a regular basis.  Plus the game was 50% off during a sale on Steam, so that helped too.  Anyway, Steph's coming over tomorrow after work, we'll get a game of Necromunda in, then I'm going to see Zombieland.  Saturday will be the Reno Celtic Festival, and Sunday is the big Necromunda Meetup for October.  Big doings and hopefully tons of fun this weekend.  I need it.

Cheers.

How to Stay Motivated

I am fortunate to have a steady job given many recent circumstances and events, and though I am appreciative of the steady paycheck and the means within which I am able to live, I have often found myself at home after the work day is over, thoroughly and completely non-eager to work at my painting, terrain builds, or other aspects of the hobby.

This can be frustrating on many levels, but perhaps the most keenly frustrating bit is the fact that I sometimes look at my bench and say to myself, "You need to get some work in on X, Y, Z, ... "

Perhaps this is the key to those stretches of time in which the hobby gets shoved aside.  The terminology used there: "You need to get some work in..."  This seems completely at odds with the reasons which enamored me to this pastime and can be a large obstacle towards my enjoyment thereof.

I remember that when I was in grade 7, or 8, when I first picked up 2nd Ed. Warhammer 40,000.  I was so totally and completely infatuated with the miniatures, the stories, the amazing photos of painted armies, and the sheer possibility presented to me with this new toy.  I say toy because that is how it was perceived by 12-13-year old me, but I soon realized that there was much more to this game than toy soldiers and dice.

I started painting and I loved it.  I think I must have spent whole weeks' worth of time crafting my incredibly cool and entirely non-competitive Ultramarine army, and soon my two best friends joined in with me, each of them grabbing hold of a Space Marine army (Blood Angels and counts-as Dark Angels), and we went to town.  Games lasted hours and frequently never got finished, mostly due to the fact that we only played once a month and because we had a Nintendo 64 sitting nearby singing its siren song...

At any rate, this bit of nostalgia is likely leaving some of you folks screaming "Pack it in, M.W.!!" so I'll address my main point now: things have changed and perhaps the most relevant of these changes is the fact that I can now afford most of the cool minis I want and have the time to paint them and play, but it has become more difficult to let go of all the responsibilities and worries that come with maturity (societal, physical, mental, etc.) and just give myself time to do my own thing and enjoy this admittedly silly little hobby.

Over the last two or three weeks, I've had to make some changes in my lifestyle and surroundings, as well as taking on a fairly-mundane-yet-occasionally-intensely-challenging project at work, and between an occasional sense of moderate depression and the daily feeling of "I'm finally done with work and now I will drink a beer and do nothing for a while," I've found my workbench becoming neglected.  I've got three hired guns and the NMI sitting on the desk, awaiting some simple painting work - not kitbashing, not cleaning, not sculpting but just plain old painting - and they've sat there mostly untouched for a week and a half.  What exactly is so terrible about this simple, formerly enjoyable task, you might wonder?  I cannot honestly tell you the reason I've been ignoring these items on my to-do list but I can guess that it stems from a problem with my approach towards the hobby of late.  The need to "Get Something Done" is overwhelming the idea of fun in my hobby and all it will take for me to get stuck in again is to simply look forward to the opportunity to paint rather than the responsibility of painting.

That said, I want to see if things will change once I take a new look at the bench, and hopefully that will mean some interesting new minis done up properly and some photos as proof of my triumph (such as it may be).  I do get a lot out of this little hobby of mine and I want that sense of accomplishment and achievement to be a more constant emotion.

Okay, that'll about do it for me tonight.  Thanks for the patience (I just need to start finishing each post with that from now on, eh?) and I'll be back soon.

Cheers!

Still Reading? Good.

First, my apologies for the lack of posts, I've been dealing with a bit of personal stuff and it's been a bit of a drain on my time and my efforts in the hobby.  Among these things is a rearranging of my work spaces, and to my immense frustration, yet more modification of furniture is required.  Grrrrr.

However, it's not all bad.  I'm set up much more favorably in this new arrangment - the painting desk is set up between two windowfuls of gorgeous natural light, and even with the inevitable battles for desk space I will be having with the cat, I am looking forward to getting some work done.

With regards to the gaming group, we've lost Matt - just a sort of "not my thing" situation for him.  It's too bad that the game's not for him but I can't fault him for giving it a good couple of tries.  Our next meetup is looking to be the 4th of October, and I'm going to try to get a game in with one or two of the members between now and then.  We've decided to go with once a month for a big meetup and we all try to get in a game or two in between with a random opponent.  It's hopefully easier for everyone to fit this into their schedules and plan around it, rather than try to fit the meetup in between other stuff.

Limited Labor Day WIPs

I've gotten enough of a handle on the techy bollocks of late to get som epics posted.  These have gone up at Eastern Fringe already, but I hope you enjoy them all the same.

First is the mysterious Bounty Hunter known only as Mister Todd.

His backpack is MIA but I know I will find it very soon and have him finished within a week, I hope.  This is one of my absolute favorite minatures from the Necromunda line, a bit goofy but very characterful and oozing detail.  I tried for a German style camo on the trousers which I am happy with and seems to work pretty well so far.  Inspiration for his name may become apparent if one is familiar with recent adaptions of Sondheim.

Next is a former member of the Necromundan PDF, assigned to extended duty at the edge of the Ash Wastes.  This is one SSGT Leon.

Leon is originally a 3rd Edition Stormtrooper.  These guys were great with their heavy armour and just sort of nonchalant body language.  It was sad to see so little attention given to them, as they only seemed to have a handful of poses across the whole line.  Admittedly this is an improvement on the plastic Stormtroopers that preceded them, but still a bit of a downer.  At any rate I painted him up to look like he's got a heavy duty bodysuit to protect against corrosive ash storms, over which is his tactical protective gear.  Assorted equipment is done up in a tactical gray.  Expect a bit of chipping and weathering on his gear, still to come.

Okay, that's all for now, but I did some work on loot tokens and some of the old 3rd edition plastic building ruins terrain, so I'll edit up and post some pics of that once I get Photoshop transferred to this new computer.

Cheers, all!

Technical Difficulties are Overcome

Hey again.

My old reliable black PC tower is ailing quite a whole lot and in light of what I assume to be rapid-onset cooling problems, has developed a nasty buzzing from the inner workings that no amount of cleaning or basic maintenance has been able to sort out.

So I did a bit of work and research, and found myself a new laptop format.  This marks the first blog post from that new platform, and also an apology that the timing of this snafu meant a distinct lack of photos from this weekend.  I did take some pics though, and they will be cleaned up and posted soon.

Meantime I am excited about the computer.  I've been sort of a neo-Luddite about laptops, and I finally broke down.  Hopefully it will be worth it, but when Windows 7 drops that will be a huge help.

So here it is, thanks for your patience and I'll pay up eventually.

Quick Note

Look! a splash picture at the top of the blog!

I've been meaning to do that for a while, and although it's not exactly how I want it to look, there's at least a placeholder up there adding a bit of color to the darkness of Sector N-UH-855.

I took a bunch of pics tonight but I rushed them and the light in this room is bad for minis and terrain so I am vetoing them all until I can get some better shots.  Thankfully someone decided that celebrating workers in the US should happen this weekend so there will be plenty of nice light to shoot in.


That's all, cheers!

Stalled out, OH NOEZ.

Well, a bit of news, some good some bad.  Firstly the bad:  the next meet will be a bit later than expected.  Our "every other Sunday" schedule dropped this meetup on Labor Day weekend and as many of our members already have plans, we had to reschedule.  The next weekend is no good and so the campaign will continue on the 20th.

EDIT: ARGH, there is yet another speedbump as the 20th is committed on my part and Jeff's.  I have no clue when the campaign will continue.  This is getting frustrating.

Good news is I can probably get a lot of stuff done in the meantime!  I've still got a lot of WIP terrain that needs finishing.  I've got a garage (and work/games tables) available to me now and can do spraying, sealing, etc. without being at the mercies of the weather.  It will also allow me to spend some time with the hired guns and mercs I've been waiting to finish, getting a bit of variety available for the new campaign.

•  Gate/watchtower (1)
  
• Ruins (2)
• Tank cluster (1)
• Big Green Tower (1)
• Catwalks (3)
• Bounty Hunter (1)
  
• Ratskin Scout (1)
  
• PDF Deserter (1)
• Sniper Merc (1)
• NMI bases (12)
• Frank the Lictor (1)

I've had some problems with managing my focus and time spent on projects before, so I'm going to try to keep my discipline up a bit more and provide steady WIP reports and photos.  Here's hoping I can hold myself to it.

Cheers all, and I will look to post up some pics as early as Thursday night!

Big Brutal Battles! Part Three

On to the final report from last Sunday, with the Cold Dawn facing the Brotherhood of Sorrow.  These gangs are both on the small side, with eight men in each crew, but rest assured they fought like mad.  The game started simply enough, a Gang Fight with no Treacherous roll, with Mike's Brotherhood deployed in a dispersed formation with a couple 2-man groups to begin, and Darien's Cold Dawn split roughly in half, with his Heavy and two support gangers on one end, and his leader with four other gang members supporting a push at the opposite flank.


The first turn was pretty quiet as both gangs moved ahead towards a cluster of ruins and old industrial buildings at the center of the board, but Darien found a commanding field of fire for his gang's heavy bolter beneath the arch of a gate watchtower.  The Orlock heavy took down several Cawdor gangers through the rest of the game, prompting our group to start calling him "Lawnmower," and much to Mike's chagrin, Darien's first several rolls to hit (as well as his sustained fire and ammo rolls) contained an inordinate number of sixes, while Mike's rolls tended to the lower end of the D6 spectrum.


The Brotherhood's heavy and one juve were taken out before they could get to grips with their Orlock rivals, and the Cold Dawn capitalized on their advantage by sending up some hand-to-hand fighters from the leader's group.  Meanwhile, the support fighters alongside the Orlock heavy moved to suppress a team of Brotherhood members picking their way through cover towards the Lawnmower's position.  Just as the BoS fireteam moved into sight of their targets, and the flanking team neared the Orlock heavy bolter team, Darien's luck started swinging into the low end of the D6, as ones started popping up with unsettling frequency - shots missed targets or failed to wound, and Mike seemed to have found the perfect opportunity to turn the tables on the Orlocks.

Unfortunately, the Cawdor Brotherhood of Sorrow found their opponents to be much more fierce than they expected.  Orlock gunfire cut down the melee team in the ruins near the gate, while the lasgunners were caught out and engaged in hand-to-hand, and subsequently routed after fierce close combat.  At this point, Mike decided he'd better run while some of his gangers could still do so, and quit the field.  Fortunately though, his casualties were fairly light, and more importantly, the Brotherhood found themselves hosting an unexpected guest!  Shivers from the Cold Dawn woke up in shackles at the Brotherhood's home territory, and enjoyed (or endured) some kind hospitality from the Cawdor, until Darien offered a new Infrared Gunsight and Hotshot Power Pack in exchange for his ganger.

Big Brutal Battles! Part Two

The battle between the Concrete Chaos Queens and Delaque gang was no less intense. The Gang Fight was set in an area full of Methane Gas Pockets, which made it risky to fire from cover. Each gang spread out into smaller groups, with the Queens sending a melee team along the right flank, with their plasma cannon set up near the center of the board edge, and a small fire team moving up the right.

To counter, Matt sent his Delaque flamer along with some juves and gangers to push against the fireteam, and his heavy stubber almost immediately proved its worth. As the Queens' melee team led by "The Witch," moved up onto a gantry headed toward the Delaque line, the heavy stubber opened fire, rolling up 4 shots in sustained fire and cutting down three of the four melee girls. The only one left standing wisely judged the situation to be hazardous and dove for cover, sheer terror leaving her incapacitated for the time being.

Unfortunately, the leader of the Delaques was so emboldened by this decisive and nasty counter-flanking measure that he sorely underestimated the remaining Escher force. As he moved from cover, the Queens' heavy hefted a huge plasma cannon, switched the toggle to Max Power, and fired. I got called away from my game to help govern the shooting phase, as Steph hadn't ever brought so much firepower to bear. Next Steph sorted the Damage roll (possible D10 wounds) and ... the whole group sort of groaned as we saw the result. The shot was so powerful it inflicted the FULL TEN WOUNDS possible on the Delaque leader and left him as a smoldering pile of pain. Needless to say he went OoA. Several times over.

Afterwards I am unfortunately a bit lacking with regards to the game's outcome, as I returned to my game which had just started to get bloody. I know for a fact that the Methane pockets had some hilarious results, and that the balance of the game swung a bit to both sides before ending. Matt and Steph's game wrapped up a couple turns ahead of mine and Jeff's, and so I will try to get a bit more information from them about their memorable moments, and I will be editing this report a bit to add in new recollections.

Cheers!

Catwalks! Variant A

By request of KRUG and as a pretty decent way to segue into the WIP aspects of this blog, I'm posting this tutorial on my method of making one of two types of catwalks featured in the Big Brutal Battles reports.

Click the images for larger versions!

This particular type uses the following materials:

• 3/16" or 1/4" thick foamcore
• 1/16" thick cereal box/thin card
• Plastic embroidery mesh AKA "granny grating" - any density
• PVA/White glue
• Cyanoacrylate glue/Superglue
• 1/4" styrene L-channel
• Basing material of your choice (sand, misc. bits, etc.)

And the following tools:

• Exacto knife
• Box cutter/Craft knife
• Cutting mat
• Hot glue gun (will be used in future constructions)

Okay, let's do this thing!

First, cut your foamcore to a size that seems about right for your needs. My SketchUp example shows a 2 1/2" x 12" piece as a base. Make your cuts as square as possible.
Next, cut a piece of granny grating to the same dimensions as your foamcore base, perhaps a tad smaller if needed. Take your white glue and coat the foamcore's top, and set your grating on top, being sure to press it into the glue. I often use superglue at this point to "tack weld" the grating to the foamcore, then set it under a few books or magazines to insure even pressure while the glue dries. It is also good to omake these in batches, as the glue-drying phase can take some time.
The next step is to cut some card to cover the long exposed edges of foamcore so they don't react adversely to spraypainting. Cut them to the same length as the foamcore, and wide enough to end up flush with the top of the granny grating, then white glue them to the long sides of the foamcore.
Now you'll get a piece of 1/4" L-shaped styrene channel (I use Evergreen products as they are readily available in town), and cut two pieces, each equal in length to the foamcore plus the pieces of card to each side ( foamcore width + about 1/8"). Coat the exposed foamcore in white glue and score the styrene in a cross hatch pattern, then superglue them to the white glue-coated foamcore. Hold them in place while the superglue sets, then get ready for more card cutting.
Cut two pieces of card to strips, measuring 1/4" by 12" (or whatever length your catwalk is. You'll then use white glue and superglue "tack welds" to secure these to the top of the granny grating, so that you create the long sides of a "frame" over top of the mesh. See the example pic to clarify:
Next cut two more strips of card, this time 1/4" wide and long enough to finish the "frame" (in this case 2-1/16" long) around the mesh. Again, the example picture will help to clear up confusion:
And there you have it! Add basing materials like sand or pieces of discarded gear to your catwalk, or leave them clear of debris (you obsessive clean freak, you!). I've also done heavily damaged catwalks partially destroyed by explosions, using bits of paper clip stuck into the foamcore to represent reinforcement bars, and I am toying with adding pipe and conduit to new pieces to add variety.
The great thing about these catwalks is their ability to span pretty impressive distances without needing a whole lot in the way of reinforcement. The foamcore creates a sturdy base and all the card strips and such help to build up that strength. One thing I would recommend is that if you go a whole lot further than 12" in length, is to add bits that suggest structural upgrades, even if they aren't practically necessary. It adds many things: aesthetic detail, a bit of cover, and a sense of character that can become quite impressive.

So anyway, that's one variant of my catwalks, I'll look at posting the "tiled" version soonish, if I don't get distracted or think of a better idea. Please let me know if this was helpful and if there are other ideas or things I can improve upon. I'll try to get actual WIP shots when next I build something, so I don't have to point to a screenshot.

Cheers, and good luck trying your hand at some new catwalks!

Big Brutal Battles! Part One

EDIT: Fixed it!

Woo!

The new campaign started off quite fiercely with three games played between the six players in the group (the seventh apparently decided not to join up after all), and there was a lot of blood shed on this fateful day.

The three matchups were:

• My Orlock Iron-Forge Union (Orlock) v. Jeff's 7th Ash Waste Rifles (Van Saar)
  
• Steph's Concrete Chaos Queens (Escher) v. Matt's Delaques
  
• Mike's The Brotherhood of Sorrow (Cawdor) v. Darien's The Cold Dawn (Orlock)
  

Each game was pretty intense and everyone had a chance to get a full game in, and what games they were! the OI-FU/7th AWR matchup was a Gang Fight, with our Treacherous Conditions roll setting the battlefield deep within swirling clouds of thick fog, limiting our vision to 16" for the game. I rolled for first turn and gave it to my opponent which in retrospect, given the fog, was a crap idea - it ended up giving a decent tactical benefit.

Our board setup featured several three-story towers with 12" long catwalks, as well as some secondary towers, wrecked Chimera hulls, and old ruins of habs mingling with ad-hoc fences and guard towers. I deployed the OI-FU in four groups; a static fireteam including my heavy at the edge center, two juve/shotgun ganger teams at center and far left, and a leader/lasgunner/juve team to the right, with a single lasgunner taking to the gantries above the ground as well.

My brother came on strong and moved to very advantageous positions. A team of autogunners and his heavy repelled the OI-FU's right-flank push, while his bolt pistoliers quickly took up position at the central area of the board, and a lasgunner team moved to repel my left flank push. My heavy and his backup found themselves out of visual range for much of the game (damn fog), but eventually made a difference towards the fourth and fifth turns.

Fortunately for me the 7th AWR suffered from some of the worst accuracy and worst firearm maintenance I've ever seen in a Van Saar gang, and I only started suffering bad casualties in the fourth turn. Once we both closed to within the 16" "nucleus" everything got real bad real fast, with gangers and juves going down left and right. Thankfully my Orlocks don't suffer the same klutz factor as my Cawdor, and they almost always kept their footing around platform/gantry edges.

The endgame finally rolled around on my third bottle test. I ran for it, voluntarily, as at that point I had 6 men OoA and 2 more Down, out of 12 total.

Yep, 75% of the gang could not fight anymore, and if I'd left it to chance, it was likely to be a total shutout, with all my gang bleeding on the floor trying not to die. As it was, I only had a couple injuries worth mentioning: a juve with an Arm Wound, a ganger with a Chest Wound, and one man Captured. The 7th AWR had a man Captured, and one man Dead, with a Chest Wounded juve. In his post-game territory rolls, my brother had a Chem Pit incident and ended up with a Horribly Scarred ganger. I could only work three territories, so thank goodness for my two Settlements and Drinking Hole.

I'll be posting up more accounts soon, as well as pictures but to be honest I have had a bit to drink tonight and my camera's gone missing (I hate moving...)!

Cheers all!

A Year in the Hive

Quick update!

After several weeks of summer heat and occasional (incredibly inconvenient) thunderstorms and rain, the moving ordeal is over. Boxes are being emptied and their contents organized into their proper places with surprising efficiency; the hobby desk is populated with paints, reference materials, toolboxes, and WIPs; the house is quickly becoming a home (AWWW).

I've sent out a confirmation notice for our gaming group and it looks like we will have a crew of seven in attendance on Sunday, myself included. I am really excited, we're all ready to get some gaming in, and it's been tough to wait for so long after getting some newly-interested gamers involved.

On the other hand, a really interesting coincidence has come to my attention; it has been little more than one year between the start of our first camapign (1 August 2008) and this new campaign (23 August 2009). It has really been interesting to look back on what I've worked on and how far along I've managed to make it on my ever-changing laundry list of projects and ideas. Some aspects of the hobby have improved for me greatly, others have not been developed as well as I'd like.

For instance:

Terrain: 30+ pieces either table-ready or WIP. 6 or so pieces awaiting a finished build. Very happy about this one, lots of challenge and a really great practical and aesthetic boon to the games we play. Also allowed me to have a good time working on pieces with gaming buddies.

Games Table: 2 built, one for myself and one for Steph, again we got a chance to hang out and discuss gaming and other aspects of life whilst getting some real work done. I think I can stand to improve my design and provided things keep going well at work, etc. I am thinking about maybe doing up some modular 1'x1' board sections for a future project. We'll see...

Models: I feel the most simultaneous ups and downs from this aspect, I think. On the one hand, most of my models were built very quickly before the first campaign started and while I've done a goodly amount of work to finish the rougher edges of these models, I've had terrible problems with staying focused and getting work done efficiently. To break it down:

Okay, I guess:

• Roughly a dozen models in a gang primed, no paint (We are 138).
  
• A half dozen WIP hired guns.
• Roughly a dozen models in a gang awaiting painted bases (NMI).
  
• 2 dozen zombies WIP.

Woo-hoo!:

• Roughly a dozen models in a gang completely revamped (OI-FU).

Gaming: Our group has played a lot but a regular schedule has never really been established. That's been frustrating but totally understandable: people have obligations, emergencies, changing schedules, etc. However, I really hope that more of us in the group will mean more value placed on getting a regular game schedule in place and more gained from time spent gaming. I personally have learned a lot of strategy and changed some of my worse habits as more games have been played. With new players this can only get better and I look forward to new challenges and ideas for playing.

Hobby: Despite my sometimes flaky approach to the hobby there's been improvements in the way I work and how I approach projects. I've tried new ideas and methods of construction, and have a better sense of my abilities now than I have ever before. I've expanded my sources of inspiration (read: I expanded my post-apocalypse film collection and my zombie book library by at least 200% each) and have an easier time creating playable terrain derived from books or film, while still providing a strong visual/aesthetic link to the source material. Overall very pleased with my last year.

So at any rate, it's been a pretty good year for gaming and hobby for me. Take a look at your last year and see what you've done well, what you'd like to improve, etc. Or don't, it's your choice. However, it can be pretty fulfilling to take a step back and see what you've created and how your work changed.

Cheers, all.