Kublacon Wrap Up

Having finally caught up on sleep, I'm looking around at my house with army transports and bags of clothing strewn everywhere and going "What can I do to procrastinate...?"

Traditionally the goal is 14 games over the weekend, however with 13 scheduled games, I decided to up the ante and go for 18 games. Didn't make it, but am okay with that. I got in 9 games of Cardhammer (6 in an event, 3 pick-up), 3 Bloodbowl games, and 3 games of 40K.

Thursday morning, Scott arrived. We hung out for a bit, ran some errands, and then I dropped him off to do some paperwork at Santa Clara University. Just as I was doing that, Manny called and I picked him up. Over to Neto's we went for some food and then back to the house. I watched a game of Tzeentch Bowl between Manny and Scott, then cooked a steak (if you average the two it comes out to medium-well), packed up the car, and beat up on Manny at some Cardhammer.

Friday morning, Nana picked up the kids and took them to her house for the whole weekend. With that, we finished packing and got to Kubla at 1:00. Waited around till the room was ready, got everything situated, then had 2 hours before our event. That was the theme almost all weekend: lots of time. We were so efficient Friday that after perusing the dealer hall, Trent and I had time to grab a beer and nachos at the bar. The nachos turned out to be a very bad idea.

Played three games. Game one Scott gave me a gift by allowing a points-intensive army to shorten its line with a river. Then he promptly failed 6 rout checks in a row. I win. Game two, Manny gave me my only draw of the weekend. I made the correct choice to take out his flying unit but it left me with a long hike to get around his flank and my poor Wood Elves weren't up to the task of holding out long enough. I thought I was going to lose but managed to pull it out to a draw (almost a win). Game three Trent took 16 Crazed Goblins. The only thing that saved me was a) I knew he'd take that army and, having played it myself, knew the trick to beat it and b) I made a couple of key rout checks that were 50/50 odds.

Saturday morning was a bit rough of a wake-up (like 3 good hours of sleep). Then down for more cardhammer. Against Manny, I got a big win that was not reflective of what happened. He had an ancient dragon that flubbed a key roll that meant he had to stay and fight instead of fly away, which allowed me to gang tackle the dragon with like four units. Game was 'play till 1200 pts are dead' and the dragon was worth 900 pts. Against Scott, I had to work hard with lots of shifting sideways of my entire line, but I managed to one-round his Hydra (I was the giant-killer this weekend) and rolled his line. Against Trent, we had a good fight brewing but it wasn't to be. I had more units but he was scoring some good hits with his Bomb Chucka that could've evened the odds. Then he blew like the first 2-3 rout checks at which point I rolled his line.

We finished with like 2 hours to spare, so there was some walking around in the dealer's hall and general hanging out. Then we had Bloodbowl and Just Cokes.

I was a bit disappointed in the turn-out to be honest. We basically had like 3 people show up because we talked them into the event and only 1 guy from nowhere. Round 1 was Trent on Tzeentch Bowl. Yeah, when your opponent can't throw the ball for 3 turns and then loses a turn, and then my bashier team gets an extra blitz for the most the game, that's a rough one for the frogs. Round 2 was Tom & his Orcs. Oy, it was a curb stomp game. He played well, but literally the gods were against him: he had two guys with squigs (the football in this game) in scoring position and well protected by other guys. Then the foot of Mork comes down right on them, killing like 3 and KO'ing the other 3. Round 3, by the parings was Scott. Ugh. Nothing against Scott, obviously, but he and I have played each other with our team like 15-20 times for playtesting. The feeling was mutual, we were both sick of Goblins vs Vampires. I'd asked to be switched but was told no, so we played to the half because we were so bored. It really was a downer ending to an already so-so experience.

Crashed out late, got up wishing I only felt as tired as I'd felt the day before. Went downstairs and set up for 40K. The event was a little creaky as we simply hadn't done a rigorous playtesting job as we'd done on the other two events. We maxed out on tables, and had to turn someone away.

Round 1 was Scott, and I fumbled through beating him up. But it was still fun. I'm beginning to think my Ork army (which he was playing) just isn't very good for this edition. Round 2 was against Manny. Was a weird game with no combat against his models (I attacked the heretic in melee). I managed to roll lots of 2s for armor saves but killed his heretic for the win. Round 3 was against Trent. I almost pulled out the win despite getting tabled, but my desperation required Trent to roll lots of 1s and 2s. Always a bad plan.

Because of how things worked out, round 4 would've been me against Scott and we were both happy to just bow out. Frankly, I was done after round 2 and was actively not wanting to play after round 3. With the time crunch, we had to shorten the event (we didn't anticipate the post-game stuff taking so long) which was frustrating to me. Also I was a bit frustrated that some of the scenarios had some holes in them (because again we didn't playtest as well as we should). Also, Manny, Scott, & Trent decided to not keep score for the experience and since those were to be my principle opponents I decided not to as well. I kinda wish we had done the experience thing because I think it could've been fun. Part of the charm of the event is to see a Wazdakka with BS 5 or Infiltrate.

Afterwards, we packed up in a frenzy and put stuff back in the room. Went to Knuckles for some food, and then Manny & I played another game of cardhammer. We'd planned to play cardhammer and Bloodbowl but we took so long to finish (lots of chat breaks because we were fried) that we didn't get to Bloodbowl. More chatting, then put the Manny and the Scott to bed and Trent & I hung out with drunk Kubla staff.

Woke up Monday, had the traditional buffet breakfast, packed, and went home. The kids arrived not long after, and they were happy but tired. We grabbed some food and came back home to put some very tired rugrats down. Scott, Manny, & I chatted outside and paring down the absurd to just the hilarious, next year we will have the Bell of Lost Dignity at the 40K event.

From there the goal was a game of cardhammer and bloodbowl. We didn't get there. We played a big 4,000 pt game of cardhammer with lots of monsters. Really it was a 2,000 pt game with 2,000 pts of monsters. Manny had 2 Hydras and an ancient dragon. I had a Hydra, a regular dragon, and two great war elephants. Because of the mission I pretty well rolled Manny (he had to land his dragon right in front of an elephant and a Hydra).

It was too late for Bloodbowl so Scott played Manny in Cardhammer, showing him the Terracotta Faction I'm designing for Your Move Games. In the end, Manny & I didn't get to play Bloodbowl which really bummed me out.

Next morning, we wake up and right before we leave Manny gets an annoying phone call. Then he has to get on a plane. Really frustrating for the guy and left a bit of a stain on the weekend. I come back, spend some time with the kids, drop Scott off and Kubla weekend is officially over.

On the whole, I split Kubla into two categories: gaming and logistics. Logistics-wise, this was an awesome Kubla. We had so much time and were so organized that we could visit the dealer's hall, hang out and chat, and generally do what we want between rounds. It was a very mellow and relaxed weekend. Not having the kids helped.

Gaming-wise, I'm going to go with a 'down side of the line' rating. Cardhammer was fun, and I really enjoyed the campaign. Its the only event where I didn't have any reservations. Bloodbowl went off okay, but the games on the whole...could have been better. With 40K, between the time crunch and the scenarios, the games would have had to have me rolling on the floor with laughter to make up for it (and they did not). One fun event, one okay event, and one "sigh" event.

On the whole, the weekend was fun and it was good to see everyone. Next year we'll improve on the things that need improving and hope the gaming is better.

Second Tzeentch squad

My "baby librarians" squad. The idea came to me when I was trying to figure out a good theme for a squad with a Tzeentch icon. I'm not totally happy with the execution, mainly because working with guitar string of such small size is a bitch.

Oh and guitar string vs my heavy duty clippers? Had to buy a new set of clippers.

Also, just bumping my post on the Vindicator:
http://itinerantgeekdom.blogspot.com/2011/05/work-in-progress-need-help.html

Still need help (although I think Trent's got the right idea)

Work in Progress: Need Help

My Relictor Vindicator, complete with Demonic Possession:



I need suggestions. I want to use the whole 'golden chains & spell books' theme to represent its a bound demon. What should I do with the chains? Wrap them around the legs? Bind them so that the thing's legs are hobbled? (it is a tracked vehicle, after all, and not a walker) Or just wrap some chains around each individual leg and attach a book to one end? Or put the chain around the main vehicle somehow?

Any help is most appreciated.

(Oh, and what do people think?)

Motor Pool

Plain ol' vanilla Rhinos and Predator. I'm not a big fan of converting vehicles (unless they Orky, and even then...), so these guys don't have anything special.

Also done are my part of the accessories for BBCS (some trees, hedges, and spiked gauntlets).

And last week I assembled and painted this year's Super Secret Make Fun of Manny project. Can't do pictures, so as not to ruin the surprise in case he stumbles across this blog.

A free Saturday

The plan had been to do all this last Saturday. A stomach bug and 48 lost hours later and the weekend was over. Luckily Mer watched the kids so I could play catch up today.

Zombies for Sylvania Bowl:

The Green Knight for Brettonia Bowl
(Actually this is the second time I've painted this model. Fucking Armory matt sealer...)

Some of my Relictors, using the CSM codex:

Chaos Chosen Squad: 4 Plasma Guns, Standard of Chaos Undivided, and a regular dude.

I decided that since they have Infiltrate, I'd give them "silenced" weapons in the form of middle ages type melee weapons. Sure a giant club and and flail may not exactly be silenced be a) they're relatively quiet compared to a sword made of chainsaw and b) the assumption is that with power armor they can sneak up on people.


Chaos Warriors squad: 10 guys, Plasma Gun, Lascannon, and Icon of Tzeentch. The Icon is a captured Tzeentch demon which creates a magi-tek forcefield around each guy thanks to specially installed gear. (granting the 5+ Inv. save)

The captured demon is the Electrical Creation from the Malifaux line. Link

BBCS Stuff

Been working on the various minis that might show up in the Bloodbowl events should people roll things like "Werewolf" and "The Green Knight."

(No, no progress on the space marines. Part of me is considering not finishing and just sitting that event out.)

Below: weapons that could be thrown in during Thunder Bowl.

Mordheim Bowl warpstone potions and items that can be thrown in for Hashut (i.e. Chaos Dwarf) Bowl:

Sylvania Bowl werewolf and Mad Cap Mushrooms for Da Big Bowl:

A ton of new Relictors

Big long absence, I know. Been actually watching a lot of football and playing games on Sunday. It feels so right to play Bloodbowl while watching Nuffle. But I've actually managed to build some stuff:

My "Huron Blackheart" model:



Base body is Pedro Kantor, with all the Crimson Fists iconography filed off. The head is from the SM sprue (cybernetic body for the 5+ Inv save). The sword is a WFB Chaos Knight sword (power weapon + personal icon). The "Plasma Caster" is the heavy flamer built into the power fist.

The henchman with the tank is from the Scibor line, with the flame from the Malifaux line (I think it's actually called the Purifying Flame). The tank fuels both the plasma caster and the model's cybernetic body.


Chaos Sorcerer:

Body is Cypher with a WFB Chaos Knight weapon (his Force Weapon) & some space marine arms. The book is his personal icon. He's a (very) Radical Inquisitor who's responsible for all the bound demons.


Accompanying the Inquisitor is the possession squad, so called because it has the Possession Monkey Aspiring Champion (seen here). I decided at the last minute to buy the Dark Angel veterans squad to match the Inqusitor. Also, in theme, they all have spell books. The Icon of Nurgle is the big giant book. Spells of stasis and abjuration providing the +1 Toughness. So they're not nurgley, but just enchanted.

(and yes, I made little lengths of chain for each guy. Gluing chains 3-links long was a bitch.)


The Chosen squad will be up next.

. . .Bueller. . .

Is anybody reading this? The lack of comments (and jokes at my misfortune during my Dwarf Pirate escapade) is leading me to think not.

Greater Demon, Possession Monkey, and other stuff

This will be my Greater Demon. I know, in the current codex they can't fly, but I really liked the wings and so I figured they could be bound with the chains & spellbooks. The nice thing is that if in the future they do away with the nonsense structure of the Chaos codeciis, then this guy be a Greater Demon of Khorne or Tzeentch.



And here's the Possession Monkey for the Greater Demon: an Aspiring Champ with nothing else. Arms & head from the fantasy marauder line.

Familiar for my special character. I'm using the rules for Huron Blackheart, so this guy is the Hamadrya. This is the Enslaved Nephilim from Malifaux. Here is a painted picture.


Familiar for the Radical Inquisitor (aka Chaos Sorcerer) model. She's the Candy model from the Malifaux line. Painted pic here.



Odds & ends that I built. Slightly retooled my list allowed me to add another "Summoned Demon."

Bound Demons finished

First "Bound Demon"

For the Relictors. They'll be generic chaos demons, their Slaneeshi powers reduced by the Inquisitorial obedience helms & incantations of binding.

The bases are Secret Weapon Miniatures Ruined Temple bases: http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_22&products_id=78

They're a bit tall, you can see the lines on the base where he sculpted the ruined temple from green stuff right on top of a normal base. Plus they're straight bases, instead of with normal beveled, so they'd seem tall anyway.

Vampire Team

The team's actually been painted for like a week now, but I was lazy in getting pictures. The starting lineup for Kublacon is: 5 Vamps, 10 Thralls, 4 rerolls, FF 2, and an Apothecary.

I found after playing a couple of games that 5 Vamps on the field is the sweet spot. Any less and you run out of Thralls late in a drive. However, I painted 6 Vamps and 12 Thralls for expansion & casualties. Provided I have the money & enough Thralls, I'll add the 6th Vamp after game 1. Obviously the Vamps get targeted, so you want a spare when one get injured or KO'd.

Also another thing I've discovered is that this team has a weird weakness: stunty teams. Against bashy teams and passing teams I do well because the Vamps have the natural stats to compete with both. Plus their hypnotic gaze is tailored to bust up a cage or negate tweaky powers like Dump Off.

So between the fact that there's only 5 of them, they can negate tackle zones, and they can bash or throw/catch the ball the vamps are flying around the field. I've had possessions were Vamp #1 runs up and hypnotizes a guy on the cage (taking away his tackle zones). Then Vamp #2 runs in and blitzes, knocking the ball out. Vamp #3 picks the ball up and passes it to Vamp #4, who breaks for the end zone.

The problem with stunty guys like Goblins, Halflings, & Snotlings is that they have Dodge. Normally, you can knock guys down 55% of the time: higher strength means two dice & 2 of 6 block results are the other guy down. Against stunty guys with dodge, you lose one of those block results. So you only get about a 31% chance with your two dice.

So ironically, the best thing a stunty player can do is just cage up and then force you to use your once-a-turn blitz on something that is a 1 in 3 chance of working. The cage isn't there to protect the stunties, but actually it's extra hands to catch/pick up the ball after its been popped out.

Now, since we play using the BBCS rules as standard, we started with 30 SPPs. So I can give those 5 Vamps skills. I've debated and tried several variations of what to give them.

Block is the most obvious and I'm trying to avoid it. Yeah it's good, but that's kind of dull. It's like putting Guard on 5 of my Chaos Dwarves: effective, but kinda boring. Also, I don't think its so necessary with Vampires. +1 Strength over an average guy is on par with block. Giving all 5 Vamps block would make them reeeeally bashy, as in 75% chance against a Str 3 lineman.

I read on some forums that dodge was the way to go. Personally, I didn't see it. Since my Thralls didn't have it, all the Vamps tended to do was outrun their happy meals. I keep Thralls nearby and usually don't waste rerolls on Blood Lust, so between the Agi 4 of Vamps and the team rerolls I can usually dodge pretty well. And if I don't feel comfortable dodging him because of tackle zones, then there's no way the Thrall will make it and so you have this situation of outrunning your happy meal.

I tried Jump Up, because my vamps spend a lot of time getting beat up. I tried it and it in fact was very nice. However, I don't think it'll work because of the "Stunty Problem." It's a good second advancement.

So I think Strip Ball is the way to go. In terms of the above "hypnotize a guy, knock the ball out, scoop it up, and pass it downfield" it's the best. Now 4 of 6 die rolls result in the ball coming out. If I have a higher strength, that's knocking the ball out 88% of the time. It also is hilarious because it means the ball is coming out or my vamp is eating the dirt (rolling 'skull' or 'pow-skull').

The question is how many times do I take Strip Ball, with 3 or 4 Vamps? Usually I've been lucky and gotten at least one Vamp with +1 Agi. That I take because he becomes my passer and since Hypnotic Gaze is an unmodified Agi roll, he also serves as a defender. +1 Strength I'd probably also take to fight the big guys. But +1 AV or Move, or even doubles, I'd probably just take Strip Ball.

But I usually give Kick to one Vamp. I sort of wonder if I shouldn't. Kick is nice, but I don't really feel the need to pin the enemy back when my Vamps can threaten the whole field. In fact, I've found I want him to bring the ball up because if I send 1 Vamp into the backfield, they can gang tackle him with lots of assists. But if he comes up, that means if I get a breakaway, then he can't get enough guys back to get a two-die block.

So I'm currently thinking 4 Vamps with Strip Ball and 1 with Pass (if I roll doubles), or +1 Agi/Str if I get them. Otherwise, maybe 5 guys with Strip Ball.

Really enjoying this team...

Bad day to be a meat-stick.

Got some Battlestar fun last night, with 6 people. So we had 2 Cylons and a sympathetic Cylon. The sympathetic Cylon was screwed because he got one of the harder missions: keep morale & population within 2 of each other.

Anyway, the humans died. Correction, the humans got curb-stomped. Never made it to New Caprica before we blew every civilian ship out of the sky.

I say "we" because I got to be a Cylon again. There were no Cylons in the first half and then Boomer and Ellen became a Cylon. I was Ellen and I was basically on the Cylon side before I knew it: two of my crisis cards were Cylon fleets jumping in (we got a lot of those again) and twice I fired Pegasus but rolled a 1 (damaging Pegasus).

But here's the real hilarity: I pulled off what is basically now the Corey Maneuver. It was Adama's turn and then me (I have my Cylon card, got it after the sleeper phase). We have two basestars in front of us, and a special rule on the cylon fleet card that says if we blow up the basestar instead of jumping we lose morale. And the engine room is damaged (you can activate it to make every crisis card advance you on the jump track).

So I tell Adama to activate me with Executive Order. I say I have a politics card that will let me draw two engineering cards so that when I go next I can fix the engine room. Otherwise, I say, we'll have to wait three turns before the engineering person can fix it. Next to me, the sympathetic Cylon player says "He's just doing what he did last game so he can reveal as a Cylon."

It took effort to not strangle him.

My internal monologue had to be a thing of comedy:
(After the Sympathetic Cylon speaks)

"Shit! Marco outed me. Damnit! Don't respond, look down!"
"Crap, you're looking down! You look guilty!"
"Don't look right at her, that's a dead giveaway!"
"You've been quiet too long, say something!"
"What do I say! Can't deny it! That just makes me look more guilty!"
"Okay, you're outed. Best bet you have is the Tell-the-Truth lie."

So I look straight in the eyes of my wife, roll my eyes, and say "Yeah, Marco's right. I'm a Cylon and I'm trying to get you to activate me so I can screw you guys and then reveal."

Yeah, you read that right: Meredith was playing. We asked Nana to drive an hour and babysit so Meredith could play. And in her very first full game, I give what's got to be the world's most bald-faced lie.

She believed me.

Enough to activate me anyway. So rather than do what I was supposed to do, I use Ellens once-per-game ability to become the Admiral. Nuke basestar #1 (morale goes down). Then I realize, between laughing, I get two actions. Nuke basestar #2 (morale goes down). No more nukes for the meat-sticks.

My turn and I reveal. The humans never really recover. Turns out Boomer was a cylon, and I helped get him out of the brig (the irony is that the previous game, we were both Cylons there with him getting me out of the Brig so I could reveal).

The hilarious part is that Boomer went before Adama. Then he tries to get Meredith to activate him again, but she's twice shy. So it didn't work, which is good because I think Meredith would've had a funny aneurysm if she was tricked twice.

Anyway, lots of cylon fleet cards blowing up civilian ships and not enough vipers to save them. Humans went from 10 population to zero in like 2 turns.

So I think "What you should do is activate me . . ." goes in the record books right besides Tom's "You're all making a big mistake."

Who knew that Battlestar could cause a divorce...

BB Vampire team (in progress)

Picked up a box of Empire Militia to be my Thralls. Unlike most fantasy boxes, nobody has shields so you don't have that "everybody's lowering a shoulder" thing to deal with but you do have some weird hand positions. The back row are the ones I consider not perfect fits. But by and large I liked them, with an honorable mention to the "duelist" in the front row, far left. I also like the bruiser; front row, third from left.

I'm using reaper vampires. I'll have two of each of these: Cloak_1 and Cloak _2. Each will be painted with their cloaks a different color so that, in addition to numbering the front of their base (thank you Trent), I'll be able to say "Green Cloak has Strip Ball, Blue Cloak has Kick, etc."

Then I'll round it out with one of each of these: The Lady in Red and her Wench.

The plan is to use 5 vampires to start and as the BBCS progresses pick up the sixth. When I was playing them I felt that 5 vampires on the pitch at any given time was the right balance. Enough happy meals (i.e. thralls) around to keep them playing.

But I will definitely need to play a couple of games through the year because unlike the Chaos Dwarves, the Vampires require some serious forethought to play. And rather than take 3 hours to play a game I'll just need to have the experience that I intuitively grasp what order to do things. (For example, always move your happy meals first wherever the vampires will be. Also when busting a cage or facing a player with dump-off, use Hypnotic Sight first and then blitz).

Geek Weekend 2010 (and Kubla '11)

Well actually Geek Weekend has been over for a week now, but I had a day between when Trent got back on the plane and when I got on a plane for a family trip. And this is the first chance since I hit Discovery Bay to just sit and type up stuff.

Geek Weekend. Got in 15 games. Less than last year, but the quality was better. Last year there were a few games of Cardhammer where I wanted to smack my head into the table. This year, I can't say I had a bad game at all, and I got my ass kicked in more than a few.

Highlights:

--Going to play Vampires for Bloodbowl. I tried them out and they're awesome! Oh yeah, they're actually a sub-standard list, but not terribly. There's a learning curve, but they played thematically very like the Ogres (i.e. 5-6 guys do the heavy lifting and the other 5-6 guys are just space filler; except the Thralls can actually do stuff).

Even when I got my ass kicked (Dwarves on the Karak Bowl pitch . . . oy . . .), I had fun with them. So time to get some reaper figs and a box of empire militia.

--Relictors: holy crap these guys were fun. After last Kubla, I decided to actually play my army before I built/painted it. Amazing concept. Anyway, played a proxy game and they were simply cool to play. Now, again, I lost. But not as bad as I thought I would. Trent had like 2 objectives to my 1. Not bad for the first time playing a list.

So its using the Chaos Space Marine codex to represent the Relictor's chapter. Each chaos Icon will be some chaos relic used by a squad.

Anyway, yeah, fun. Put it this way: I finished the game and spent the rest of the day wishing we had time to play again. I finished a game of 40K and wanted to immediately play again. That hasn't happened in some time.

--Battlestar Galactica: I GOT TO BE A CYLON!!! Mutherfrak yeah, baby!!! Ahem. I've been playing for close to a year now and I've never been a Cylon (except the time I played a revealed Cylon, which doesn't count).

Sadly, I didn't do much to stymie the fleet except get out of the board's way. Seriously, the game beat the humans, not the Cylons. During the first half of the game no one was a Cylon and we still lost. We seriously drew 5 Cylon invasion cards out of 6 draws, and it would've been 6 out of 7 if one player wasn't Roslin.

Still, it was cool that I got to pull a trick on the humans. I was Tyrol and because of a Crisis Card, I'd been brigged. But since the Cylons kept attacking, I kept taking one for the team and not getting myself out of the brig. Instead, I was activating people using Executive order (or whatever the card is).

So the sleeper agent phase comes about after we jumped away from what seems to been a Cylon thoroughfare and I'm a Cylon. So during the next player's turn (who is the admiral), I make the comment that it'd be nice if he executive ordered me so I could get myself out of the brig, since I'd "taken so many for the team." Turns out that the admiral was a cylon too. He activates me using executive order. Action 1: get out of the brig. Everyone is very nice to spring me from the brig, so I didn't even have to burn any cards (Zarek lowered the difficulty, then someone played Investigative Committee so the cards were face up).

Action 2: reveal as a cylon. I send Roslin to the brig and then resurrect. What's even cooler is that it's Zarek's turn then mine. Almost a two-fer.

But what's cool is that Roslin has to burn two turns trying to get out of the brig (dropping cards to activate the location) because they failed the first time. The humans are so screwed that I spend two turns just drawing super crisis cards, that I never got to play because it wasn't needed.

The colonials never even make it to New Caprica. Admiral cylon sends them to a crappy location where they couldn't get fuel, then he uses Helo's once a game power to make the president choose the worst of two choices. Luckily, there's only 1 player to go before admiral cylon gets to go, and both the Admiral's Quarters and the Airlock are damage, so no brigging the cylon.

At one point, Galactica had 5 locations damaged. They managed to repair one, but they were down to 1-2 fuel and food, and down to like 4 population. What got them though was the centurions that I managed to get on board (activated the cylon fleet and sent two heavy raiders onboard).

It was a clusterfrak of a game. Had a blast.


And so from Geek Weekend, I get my goals for Kubla 2011. I'll build & paint a vampire team. I'll build the relictors, but no plan to get them all painted just yet. If it happens, great. If not, no worries.

Mordheim: seriously, can a brutha get a break?

I go to the game store every week to blow off steam, and the last two weeks have left with steam shooting from my ears...

I know, I know, its just a game. And I feel like a complete ass afterward. But one of my pet peeves is when I spend cash on new minis and then have to shelve them. I'm known in my group for being very hesitant to get into a new game because I'm annoyed if the game sucks and I have to put them away.

So I was all excited to have Dwarf pirates. They were the coolest thing. And after two weeks, I've played 5 games and had to start over 3 times. If you count the first list I put together, I have essentially started a new warband 4 times out of 5 games played.

That gets annoying.

K, here's how Friday went. Played Scott first, with my Dwarves. I did pretty well with the list (see the previous post) but my dice just sucked. We fought for roughly 3 turns, or 6 rounds of combat. I had about 4 models, each with two attacks. That's 48 dice. No kills. I literally rolled over a 5 twice when it came to wounding.

But that didn't bother me. Seriously it was no big deal. We had an Ogre show up and ally with the lowest warband (me) and she evened out the score. I ended up winning and had a decent number of heroes on the table. Only my captain and 3 henchmen were out of action.

Then came the post game: Got my captain back. Huzzah. Rolled for recovery my henchmen. Three 1s. Awesome, down 150 pts in the first game. Next came wyrdstone, 100 gold. Okay, I'm not feeling terrible. But I had to pay the ogre (both recruiting fee and retainer), which costs 110 gold. Couldn't do it. So she thumps one of my guys and leaves. Roll for injury on my engineer...dead. Now I'm down like 230 pts.

Son of a bitch. sigh. Starting over.

So the Skaven player wants to play me. His list is, I kid you not, 5 Skaven heroes and the Rat Ogre. He's restarted a twice as well because his whole list is the Rat Ogre. If it dies and doesn't recover, he just starts over.

I don't care at this point and frankly don't want to play but no worries. We roll the occupy mission with 5 buildings to grab, almost as many as I have models. Plus his sorcerer gets the spell that gives him free rats. At which point I know I'm not gonna win. So I figure I'll turtle in the back, fight a little, take my two casualties, and flee.

He races across the board and when I don't move looks at me goes "Seriously?" Ummm, Rat Ogre. So he screens his guys behind the 3 extra rats he gets. They come close, I charge, a dwarf to each rat. Six attacks, two stunned rats and one knocked down. Couldn't kill rats.

My heroes charge his guys, and I manage to kill one. Then in the ensuing counter-attacks, I lose 3 of my heroes. Yup, I'm down to 1 hero model. Fucking great.

Skip to the post-game: captain dies, slayer comes back, other slayer is out for three games. So I'm down 150 pts permanently and down about 220 pts for three games. Oh and only 2 wyrdstone, so I can't even replace my losses.

Fuck starting over. List gets crumpled into paper and tossed into the trash. My opponent turns to me and days "You know, I missed having (don't want to mention names) here. I missed having someone sulk from me across the table, thanks."

I didn't say anything for two reasons: 1) he was right, I was in a foul mood and I knew there's really no reason for it. 2) I knew if I responded, it wouldn't be with words. So I'll say it here:

Hey (no name), fuck you. I didn't complain when you whined about your (admittedly epic) bad luck. I didn't say anything when you took a cheesed out Skaven list. So I had a bad couple of days. Sorry it inconveniences you. Ass hat.

So at the moment, I'm done with Mordheim. One guy is playing lizardmen and has an army with something like a 200 rating, and another guy is just always going to have a Rat Ogre, so basically there's no way I'm going to have a chance to do anything but get slaughtered. Basically, I'm so far behind the curve that a high points cost warband like Dwarves won't be able to catch up. I have a Marienburgers list, but after Friday I'm pretty burnt out on Mordheim at the moment.

We're talking about paying a Bloodbowl league with the BBCS pitches, but I'll be honest, I'm really not feeling like it at the moment.

Mordheim: Well, back to the old drawing board. . .

So yeah, the Dwarf pirates list . . . let's just be kind and say it "didn't work."

3 games and restarted twice. Ouch.

The big problem isn't losing, I expected to lose every game. The big problem is that when they lose, I can get enough wyrdstone to build up slowly. Essentially, you're just always going to lose. After the second game, I was down to 3 models and one of them had a leg wound (so Mv 2). So my first restart and I played a third game: all but 1 hero went out of action. So when one model died and the other went out for two games, I was back down to 2 models.

Ultimately, I'm paying for a lot of stuff that simply isn't worth it. For example, the brace of pistols? Worthless as a shooting weapon, because you're almost always at long range & moving (so -2). Their only use is a first turn shot in melee. Frankly, I don't think they're worth it there either, but I want to use pirates.

Plus I used Clansmen instead of Beardlings for Henchmen, so that I'd hit better in both melee & shooting. Well, shooting I'll only hit on a 6 anyway, so no point there. And while hitting on a 3+ vs most guys is nice, it's not that nice.

Then there's taking lots of Dwarven Axes. The parry is neat, but it makes them pretty expensive. If I get master of blades as a skill, they become pretty brutal (essentially I can parry half of all attacks coming my way). But giving them to everybody (especially henchmen) just becomes too pricey. Still I should have a few so I don't have to search for them all the time.

The long and short is that at an average model cost of 100 gp per model, I was getting terrible returns on my investment. But I really like the idea of Dwarf Pirates. So I came home, sat and stewed (my dice were not kind to me either), and I'm gonna try it again next week with this:

Noble: 2 axes, pistol, helmet

Engineer: handgun

Slayer: axe & dwarven axe

Slayer: axe & dwarven axe

Beardling: 2 axes, pistol, helmet

Beardling: 2 axes, pistol, helmet

Beardling: 2 axes, pistol


The pistols still aren't worth it, and I could get another Beardling if I dropped them. But they're Dwarf pirates. First, half the models have pistols on them. Second, they're fucking pirates!

So the theory is that the engineer will hang back and snipe. This gives me some long range, plus an extra hero for wyrdstone hunting. Usually in a losing fight 2 heroes get dropped, so this'll give me 2 to search for stones plus the extra one Dwarves normally get. But maybe if I use the Beardling screen, when I drop two I can just run away with all 4 heroes and build up.

The pistols on the Beardlings are 100% for the first round of melee. I'll shoot as I approach, but not expect to hit a damn thing. I can tell in the rules: if you shoot (with a single pistol) and then get charged, do you get the pistol shot on that first round?

And the fewer Dwarf Axes is so that if one guy gets a skill, he takes master of blades and we swap weapons around.

We'll see how it goes. Again the goal is to be able to build up after each loss I take. Pretty low standards egh? "My goal is not to be crippled after each game..."

Mordheim: day zero

Two posts in a day? WTF?

Yeah, I have time and if I don't do it now when I have time, I won't do it.

So our local group has been playing Mordheim for a few months and just decided to restart the campaign. My Halflings were just murdering people. At last count, I had seven BS 5 henchmen, my Elder had BS 5 with Quickshot & Trick Shooter, and both my Youths had BS 4 and Quickshot & Trickshooter. I'd received a Pit Fighter for free, had purchased and Ogre, and was starting to purchase melee Halflings. And my band wasn't the sick-and-broken one. That honor went to the Amazon list with a model with Frenzy, Str 5, and 3 base attacks.

Like all groups, we struggled with armor. Essentially it's more worthwhile to buy an extra guy than armor. So the first thing we did was reduce the cost to 40% of list price (light armor is 5 gp, heavy is 20 gp).

It still didn't fix the problem, so I came up with a radical idea: in addition to be 40% list price, we increased the body armor by +1. So Light Armor grants a 5+ save, etc. We tested it out with a Gromril-heavy Dwarf list. In essence, if a shield+gromril armor (a 2+ save) isn't broken, then the idea had merit.

Turns out, it worked. I mean, it does make guys more survivable (which is the point), but not excessively. Suddenly people are looking at double handed weapons, morning stars, flails, axes, etc. People aren't just putting 2 maces on every model. People are considering "crazy" things like light armor and shield.

And its having positive ripple effects. It sounds weird that 7 gp could get someone a 5+ save, but the cost point vs the benefit makes it a viable option. So models are now only making 1 attack (since they have a shield), which means parrying suddenly seems like a better idea.

So its not that 2 maces are going away (it's still a decent option against light armor & shield). It's more that its one possible option among many. Warbands are starting to have a mix of axes, double handed weapons, swords, etc. Which is cool.

I ordered a box of Empire Militia to recreate the Marienburger warband I did when I first played 10 years ago. Scott is borrowing my Dwarves, so I picked up a box of Dwarf Warriors (because all I had for henchmen was Thunderers with crossbows).

I spent a couple days designing Dwarf warbands and I started thinking it'd be fun to build a Gromril'd up Dwarf warband. Scott felt 6 models was too few. So in the end, I built 15 dwarves out of the box of warriors so we could both have enough.

Then I saw these: Yaar! Me Mateys!

Dwarf pirates.

Dwarf. . .pirates.

DWARF. PIRATES.

Sveeet...


So here's my warband:

"Captain" (Dwarf Noble): Brace of Pistols, 2 Dwarf Axes (the cutlasses 'count as' Dwarf Axes)

"Master Gunner" (Engineer): Brace of Pistols, 2 Axes

"Bosun's Mate" (Slayer): 2 Dwarf Axes

"Bosun's Mate" (Slayer): 2 Dwarf Axes

"Midshipman" (Clansman): Brace of Pistols, 2 Dwarf Axes


Yep, 5 models. And no armor. I fully expect to be murdered each and every game. But it's gonna be fun, and I'll document it here.

The New Ekrund ExPatriots

I had planned to post this a few days after Kublacon, but you know what my motto is about plans. So I've got 45 minutes before the eldest child wakes up: just enough time to get into writing, not enough to do real work. Anyway, for the 1 of you that read this and didn't go to Kubla, here's some more pictures on the New Ekrund ExPatriots.

The team in all it's glory:

Quarterback Thoom Broody & Coach Bild Billy-Chuck

The "Chaos Dwarves"

The "Bull Centaurs"

The Hobgoblins

If you're interested in how I came up with the name . . . you're fricken bored. Here's a map, open it and zoom in a little bit on the Black Gulf region (which is roughly centered).

To the right of the Black Gulf you'll see the Dragonback Mountains. At the bottom of those is Ekrund (Mt. Bloodhorn).

So basically I needed something that sounded like "England." Then I looked through various wikis and found this:

-1498 Imperial Years

The mines of Ekrund are siezed by the Orcs after heavy fighting against the Dragonback Dwarfs and the watch towers of Mad Dog Pass are gradually abandoned and siezed by the Goblins.

So I constructed some fluff that the original survivors of Karak Ekrund made their way north and settled in the foothills of the Moot, founding New Ekrund. After years of breeding with Halfling women, the folk of New Ekrund weren't exactly Dwarves and weren't exactly Halflings. They were gnomes.

Yeah, okay, a lot of silly thought for a Bloodbowl team. But I have a lot of time during the day where I'm physically busy but the brain is otherwise unengaged.

Right, there you have my team. I have considered doing Undead next year, using Malifaux minis. I've also looked at doing Lizardmen, using the Impact Minis Sarcos. Right now, I'm thinking of maybe taking the New Ekrund Expatriots again or maybe doing the Ogres. I had fun with both of those teams.

Or maybe I'll just dust off the High Elves. Unlike most folks, I give them Block when they get advancements because I like to mix it up. But passing is fun too.

Kublacon

Finally about functional after Kubla. The kids took longer to recover, as shown by Jocelyn wanting to be picked up on our short walk Thursday. I myself didn't have a ton of energy that day either.

So here it is:

Wednesday: Scott arrived at 2:40pm. Promptly when he said he would. Which, if you know him, was a gentle shock. So I packed the kids up and we picked him up at the airport. He hadn't slept well, so no gaming that night. Which was fine.

Thursday: Manny arrived at noon. Left Scott behind (couldn't fit everyone in the car) but Jocelyn wanted to see Papa. She'd been saying "going to Klubla" for about a day now. Met Scott at Neto's for lunch. They make sausage burgers. Manny was braver than I, and had the Linguica Burger.

Picked up some terrain and GK, cooked some tri-tip, during which got rained on (!). Neither Scott nor I had played Bloodbowl since December, so I pulled out my High Elves and he borrowed my Norse and we stumbled through the Bloodweiser Bowl. After wards, Manny was to tired to play. Something about being up for 24 hours.

Pansy.

Anyway, crashed out at about 1:00 or so.


Friday: was woken up by Jocelyn ("Dada get up! Dada get up!"). Manny was up, but Liam was asleep in the office. So figuring I couldn't really pack & print stuff out, Manny & I played a game of cardhammer. I won't describe the details, let's just go with "Manny now hates dragons as much as healer mages."

Mer woke up around 10:00-ish and we started packing. About 2:30pm or so we were ready to go. Oy.

Got there at 3:30. Unloaded, checked in, then had to switch rooms so we had adjoining rooms, then swap keys in and out. Then it was run to the BBCS. This was the pattern all weekend.

BBCS was great. Had 10 people show (more than we expected). Round one, I got to reveal to super secret Blood Bowl team to Manny.

Drum roll. . . .



Chaos Dwarves! Behold, the New Ekrund Expatriots!

See Manny hates Chaos Dwarves with a burning passion. And he's a New England Patriots fan. So I made a Chaos Dwarf team and painted them up like the Patriots. Only, I couldn't just do that. So I got the Impact Miniatures Gnome Contraption team, which is a proxy for the Ogres & Goblins team.

So the contraptions, mounted on 30mm bases, are Chaos Dwarves. The Gnomes on foot are Hobgoblins. And the Deathrollas are Bull Centaurs.

Manny did not find this funny at all. He pouted through the entire first round. I'm serious. He. Pouted. The. Whole. Time. He was surly, nothing-is-funny Papa-bear despite beating me 1-0 at the Ulthuan Bowl (overly strict officiated Blood Bowl). Everyone else thought it was hilarious. Not Manny. It's okay, not like he's people anyway. He keeps trying to get up on the furniture.

Next round I played the Hurricane Bowl against Trent's Dark Elves. Played on an archipelago where the tide could come in. Was fun and I won 1-0, mainly because Trent simply didn't have enough land to run away.

Last round was Mordheim Bowl against Scott's Norse. I believe it was a 1-1 tie, but don't remember clearly. It was late, and what I do remember is that Scott thumped me. At one point, I had 4 Chaos Dwarves and 1 Bull Centaur either KO'd or killed.

Three fun games though. Frankly, the most fun I've had had at BBCS. We crashed out sometime around 2:00am.

Saturday: I was awoken by my daughter. Had some coffee (we were smart and brought the coffee maker this year), a muffin, and packed up for Battleground Fantasy Warfare (aka cardhammer).

We played a three round Civil War in Hawkshold, with me playing Hannibal. Frankly, this was the low-point event for me. I thought it'd be more fun, and it was, but more a "me'h" kind of thing.

Round 1, I played Manny and IIRC, I pretty well butchered him. He was playing the unreleased Dark Elves and so he really didn't know what he was doing. The funny part was him trying to pull the same trick on me with his drake riders that I'd done with my dragon earlier. Wasn't having any of that, and I sent some elephants to take care of bidness.

Rd 2, I played Niko, the guy who wrote version 3.0 of the rules. I was tabled. It was ugly, quite possibly the worst defeat I'd taken in awhile. I was doomed from the beginning, as he had more line units than I did and there was nothing I could do. The my dice decided to desert me. Oh the pain.

Rd 3, I played Trent. In another odd-couple army pairing Trent decided to take 4 units of archers at the time when I decided not to take any skirmisher meat shields. The game ended up a draw by like 15 pts or so, mainly because my Hannibal's Elite failed their courage check (again!) and then his T-rex mulched through my line until it was pinched by two elephants. A draw and a good game.

After that it was race upstairs to drop everything off and then off to an In & Out run. Oy. We had to get our order three times, and by the time we got back it was cold and Manny got the wrong order... Next year, the Walla Walla folks can borrow my car.

After food, it was grab the Rezolution terrain & minis, then head downstairs. In another theme of the year, we had more people than we expected. So many that I ended up bowing out of the event to simply run it. The event maxed out at 4 people and I was too fried to figure out how to adjust it for 6 people. Turned out Trent didn't make it either, so he played GM for the event.

One thing I did get to do was set up Jason with the broken psyker-nun, on the promise that he pulped Manny. I don't know how well he did that, but they seemed to be having good natured fun.

Having Trent as GM freed me up to play a playtest game of cardhammer with Niko. Played Alexander against High Elves. He wiped me out again, but it was a good game and showed him what the list could do. Probably shouldn't have played drunk either.

Oh yeah, did I forget that part? Saturday night we busted out the Cokes . . . with nothing else in them. They were Just Cokes. So yeah, three Just Cokes and Corey doesn't make the best tactical decisions.

Also very cool is the miniatures coordination pounded his Just Coke on an empty stomach and then proceeded to play Tzeentch Bowl. Good times.

Crashed out at about 2:30 or so. Not exactly clear on the time...

Sunday: I roused myself sometime around 8:00ish in a fog. Thank goodness for coffee. Because I had to shower, then load up the terrain & minis for 40K, and out the door.

We had 10 people. I was shocked. We did everything we could to discourage people except lighting entrants on fire. Seriously, we had them read the Macharian Manifesto and sign it.

So the campaigns rules turned out to be a wee complex... But everyone loved it. They loved awarding experience and giving their guys upgrades. They loved the wackyness. They complained the rules weren't wacky enough. Huh, okay.

Rd 1 I played Scott, against my Orks. I wasn't tabled...because we ran out of time. It was some bad luck, but also the new Battlewagon really brings the army together. Despite being whupped, I had a great time.

Rd 2 I played Manny. His luck was terrible. He had units not make reserve rolls for most of the game. Which balanced the fact that I read the rules wrong and let him deploy three force org selections instead of three units. It was this mistake which allowed him to have anything left on the table as opposed to nothing.

By this point, none of the guys who wrote the campaign rules were even keeping track of experience. We were just happy to play.

Rd 3 was against Trent. I did a fair bit of damage, and might have pulled it out, but he won the scenario. If we'd fought it out, it would've been a draw most likely. But I was kinda done and didn't want to play anymore.

In the end, I was bored with my army but had a great time playing. Strange, egh? Essentially, the Martian SRO played too similar to regular shooty IG and so I got bored after about 2 games. But the scenarios and the opponents were awesome, and it was cool to know everyone had such fun.

So we finished up, brought stuff back to the room, and came back down for some Battlestar Galactica (boardgame). We only got half a game in, but it was funny. Highlights include

--Trent's HORRIBLE poker face as he tried to convince me he wasn't the Cylon.

--Me almost single handedly brigging and then airlocking Trent (at which point he was revealed as a Cylon).

--Manny playing like this was Twilight Imperium and thus appearing guiltier than Dick Cheney, despite actually not being a cylon.

--Jason & I teaming up to airlock Manny in the last round (we stopped after the Sleeper Agent phase) just because we felt like it. Only to find out he was the Cylon.

Monday: We all crashed out, got up, had our annual brunch, packed, checked out, said bye to Trent, Darby, & brood, Dana, Michaela, then drove home. Unpacked, returned some stuff to Game Kastle, gorged on pizza rolls, watched the kids while Mer crashed out.

Then we decided to play some more. It was our usual game of lazy choice: cardhammer. I figured I'd show how the Romans played against his Undead. And by "show him how they work" I apparently meant "show them how bad they get thumped when Corey consistently rolls three 5s and a 1." (low is good in that game)

Yeah it was ugly. I was tired so I got a little frustrated for a few minutes and then it just became comedy. I refused to quit and wasn't tabled...because time ran out.

After that Manny and Scott played Bloodbowl on the Kislev Bowl. Didn't get to see much because I was sort of ghosting in and out, playing with the kids, etc. Plus I was simply exhausted so if I sat still I knew I'd collapse. There was lots of broken ice and skating, and general wackyness. Apparently Scott rolled really well when blocking ("a skull and the roll he needs" according to Manny), but Manny still won 1-0. Manny whining while winning seems to have been another theme of the weekend. ;-)


Tuesday: wake up, hang out with Manny, take him to the airport. Was sad to see him go, but maybe he'll fly out for the Geek Weekend in July. Come back, relax outdoors with Scott and some very tired kids. They crash out, and we played some more Cardhammer, Romans against the playtest Alexander list. We had some terrible rolling on both sides and didn't play it to the death because we were so tired. But the Romans had collapses the Alexander flanks and were going to roll them up, so we weren't worried.

Wednesday: wake up, take Scott home. And with that Kublacon was officially over. The entire ride home, Jocelyn kept saying "We going to Klubla?"

Was a great weekend. I'd say we 90% escaped the Even Year Curse. Liam teething and not sleeping well was rough on Mer & Janet (I got to escape most of it). Plus logistics was rough, with Trent & I running around quite a bit.

But the gaming was a total blast. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and at all but the cardhammer event we had 10 people. Pretty impressive, frankly. I got in 15 total games and I can't say I had a bad one. Even ones where I got crushed I had a blast and I'd have to go back to 2007 to say that I had fun at every single game I played. So in that regard it was the best Kubla in years.