Licking Our Wounds

The Wyld Kats got their second outing tonight in the local club's campaign, against N's Cold Steel Orlocks. Unlike last time, they got thoroughly demolished - mostly because I couldn't seem to roll above a two, and N was rolling hot the whole time. I ended up with five fighters Out Of Action, of whom one died! So at some point the Wyld Kats are going to come gunning for Cold Steel... 

It started off with a lot of jockeying for position, with me moving the bulk of my gang aggressively towards the enemy relic

And the Orlocks responding by taking cover and moving around me, so we ended up fighting left-to-right instead of front-to-back (in this photo you can see the Orlock relic, a pile of tyres!)

 

Initial reinforcements were OK, I managed to get my gangers in a position to defend my own relic (seen here just in front of Vikki Vicious and Tia Venom)

But then it all went wrong! A couple of turns of excellent dice rolls from N and terrible ones from me took Fancy Fliss, Sinnamon Kane and Wildsnake Bliss Out Of Action, and I tried to turn the tide by playing Hive Tremors...

...only for my high Initiative Escher to completely fuck it up and almost everyone became pinned, while only the Orlock Captain and Champion fell over. Bugger!

Last gasp attempt to claw something back and my Matriarch fires her plasma pistol at Hot Pete. I needed 2+... and rolled a 1. Shortly thereafter Hot Pete set Roxy Danger on fire, taking her Out Of Action. I voluntarily bottled and fled the scene

But too late for Roxy! I tried taking her to the Doc, but the Doc wanted 120 creds (about the only time I rolled sixes all game) and I couldn't afford it, so she died in the streets of her injuries!

The end result was no new Juves or Gangers from my two settlements, one death, two head injuries (Losse de Grey and Sinnamon Kane), an Old Battle Wound on Fancy, and wounded gang pride. 

Frankly, I buggered up the initial exchange by losing Losse de Grey for a single Orlock ganger - they squared off in the centre of the board, the Orlock managed to disengage and Losse rolled a 1 to try to reaction attack - again, all she needed was a 2 or more - and then I foolishly chased him down, leaving her in the open in front of three Orlocks who promptly shot her to bits then delivered a coup de gras. I should have moved her into cover and shot the ganger, and waited for backup. Then, later, when I had a bit of a chance to try and do something by charging Wyldsnake Bliss into Rudy Judy, an Orlock wrecker, I rolled two 1s and a 2 with three attacks followed by Rudy dealing a serious injury and then a coup de gras. That forced me to use Penny Diamond to take Rudy out, rather than going for Hot Pete... which then left Hot Pete alive and able to hand flamer Penny and Fancy. 

Still, when the dice are against you there's not a great deal you can do. My general plan was sound - use the bulk of my gang, particularly my Leader and Champions, to press towards the enemy relic and defend my own with my reserves. Unfortunately it was not to be, this time. But the Wyld Kats will be back - and angrier than ever!

In other news, I popped into Wayland's Forge today for a rummage and walked out with some Skaven Jezzail teams and a Death Cult Assassin:

The jezzail teams are from the new Age of Sigmar box, but they look absolutely fantastic on proper 6th Edition style bases, and will go nicely into my 6th Edition Skaven army. Which I should probably look at again, I'm pretty sure it's a bit more than 2,000 points now. Might add some Plague Monks at some point. And a Screaming Bell. And a Warp Lightning Cannon... and I should probably paint some of them too honestly.

The Death Cult Assassin is a Copplestone Castings miniature - WH1, Girl Werewolf Hunter - which I got to complement (and complete) the two Hasslefree Miniatures versions of the same character... Selene, from the Underworld film series.

I also took some photos of the various games being played at the club tonight:

Kill Team!

Lord of the Rings!

Super small scale (2mm?) WW2!

Warcry!

Mordheim (my beloved)!

A couple of games of SAGA!

The Old World!

A close up of this beautifully grotesque Nurgle demon engine

And that's that for today - no painting, but a little bit of building of Skaven, and a game of Necromunda, so a pretty productive day in the life of a wargamer. Next week is the club's AGM so I won't be getting any more Necromunda in until the 14th of October probably. Now I just have to work out if I want to spend any of my 150 creds on some new gang members...

The Flapping Of Tattered Wings Approaches

Although I wasn't painting for particularly long today I did manage to get the base coats down on the Carrion and slather them in Agrax Earthshade, which at least means that they should be reasonably easy to progress with now. I hope. These are not going to win any prizes but they will be done and that's the main thing. I'm sort of thinking about moving on to the Casket of Souls I have next, but that might be a bit more than I feel like taking on at the moment. 

Anyway here's the obligatory picture:

The good thing is that there's not really any immediately visible white so "all" that's left is to do some highlights on the exposed muscle and bone/quills then do some details on the beaks and suchlike before sorting the bases. Should be the work of a day or two.

At Last, The Servants Of Darkness Skitter From The Tombs...

...and other such melodramatic titles. I couldn't sleep very well last night so I got up at about 4am and finished the ghouls, then after I slept I did a bit on the Tomb Kings carrion. I'm thinking about maybe doing some of my Mordheim stuff after I finish up the carrion, but I do have those Quar Royalists to sort out, as well as a lot of other stuff in the pile of opportunity, so we'll see what happens. 

Anyway here's some pictures:

Ten skirmishing ghouls in various poses

And the rear view, showing off the loincloths and various skin details

As I said yesterday I quite enjoyed these minis in the end, but I definitely want fresh paints if I'm going to do any more of them any time soon. I've had a wee gander at the Bad Squiddo Games' ghouls, although I think I'll need to be careful about which ones to get as not all of them have human feet (!).

Carrion on the painting table thing

These carrion are definitely going to be a pain in the arse to get done, mainly because the initial base coats just aren't going on smoothly. The test one is working OK but it remains to be seen how much detail I can coax out of it. I've resorted to drowning the bastard thing in Agrax Earthshade to cover a multitude of sins and that seems to have worked which is good. Just have to replicate that on the other two then go in and pick out the highlights and stuff.

Painting Points:
Today: 10
This Week: 15
2024: 80

Cannibal Slaughter (Or Something)

I probably could finish these ghouls off tonight but honestly coating them in matt varnish and finishing the bases is just... too much for me to be bothered with. So here's the last work in progress shot of the 10 Heresy Miniatures ghouls that'll form a nice little unit of skirmishers in my Vampire Counts army:

I'll take more and better photos tomorrow when they're properly finished. I tried to be reasonably sparing of the Blood For The Blood God, but most of them have got a little bit on. They are vicious cannibal killers after all.

They've been quite enjoyable to paint but I definitely need some new paints - a lot of mine have become distressingly thick and solid. Looking at you Ushabti Bone and Mournfang Brown.

Finally, Something Finished

Yesterday was mostly spent in a haze of sleep and forgetfulness - this Covid business is deeply unfun even when one is getting better! Today however I've felt reasonably decent for the first time in a week, so I have been awake long enough to do the final details and then base the factory:

The end result is actually really good! I was a bit worried about it but now the windows have been done and the base has been sorted it looks how I hoped. I decided to leave the roof flat, because that way 'mechs with Jump Jets can stand on the top of the factory, and I can place VTOLs and the like there too. 

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2024: 65

BM & Co, or, Turning Packaging Into A Factory

Still ill, although a little better, so as usual for the last couple of days just a small blog entry today:

The factory's got some details on it now. I gave it a pretty generic name - BM & Co - and painted the doors white. I figure it's some kind of mega 3d-print thing produced when the planet was initially colonised and that explains the shape and texture. I'll likely get some of the Brigade Models' 6mm Agri-Colony range to accompany it, honestly, as it looks like it'd fit quite nicely with them.

I'll probably do a few more details - outline the side windows in white or otherwise make the distinguishable as individual windows - and I may yet put in something to make the roof look a bit less flat. Otherwise it's nearly done and can be fought around and over by my Battletech stuff.

A sudden thought has occurred that  I could use some card to make a ruined version to replace it should it get blown up in-game, but also, that's a lot of effort and I probably won't.

Hobbying in the Time of Plague, as the Poets Would Say

Today I have painted my cardboard factory grey, again. I won't bother showing you any photos because, er, it's basically the same as it was last time, except grey-er. Other than that I've been playing some of the Mordheim PC game, which is quite good (if a little repetitive) and is scratching the itch of skirmish nonsense that I had intended to scratch with more actual in-person Necromunda before I came down with the dread SARS-CoV-2. 

So I'll show you some screenshots of that, and link you to the Battletech Aces add-on for Alpha Strike, enabling you to play solo games of mech-on-mech action. I just have to print it all off... for which I might wait a bit and pay to get it printed at the local print shop on some card or something. Anyway once I feel a bit better I might give that a go, break out my 3025 Capellans and Marik Militia lances and do some solo Battletech. 

That's about it for today, so here's those images of the Skaven I've been terrrorising the City of the Damned with...

This clown thinks he's in charge but soon he'll be dead-missing and all power-glory to MEEE

Exiting the sewers to show the man-things who really rules the streets