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.