Role-Playing Skirmish Gaming

Pen and paper role-playing games have had a long association with toy soldiers. Indeed, Grenadier Miniatures made officially licensed figures for Dungeons & Dragons soon after it came out, while the more recent Numenera has figures produced for it by Reaper Miniatures.

There is, it seems, an interesting crossover between skirmish wargaming and RPGs; but - alas! - I am too tired and too ignorant to elaborate at this moment in time.

Instead, have some photos of my Dragon Age group's characters as they currently stand:

 Widget version 2 - Games Workshop's The Hobbit: Tauriel figure.

The party - The Wise One, Avvar Shaman; Kattrin, Avvar barbarian; Iorek the war-dog; Widget the elf; Gor Don the Freeman of Ferelden and Circle Templar.

Dragon Age Hijinks

Tonight, AC, SB, DS and I met up to pursue our Dragon Age campaign. Currently, the party, consisting of Widget the city elf rogue, Ferryman, the apostate mage, and Iorek (deceased) were engaged in trying to liberate a magic necklace from the Lotherin Graveyard to bring to a man called Zeke who could give them the pass that Ferryman needed to get into the Circle Tower of Mages which they need to get to in order to fulfil their duties to the King's agent...

L-R: Ferryman, shade, Iorek (deceased), Widget - "What's that noise OH SH-"

...except, well, Iorek had, despite killing almost all of the reanimated demon-inhabited skeletons in the graveyard while his chums had gone for a nap, been killed by a Shade. The Shade jumped Widget and Ferryman, but was undone by magic arrows fired from everyone's favourite perky elf. After offing the spirit, the two divvied up Iorek's gear, and then a mischevious thought occurred to Widget. If she took Iorek's axe, and cut his head off, she could claim the bounty on him! Just the sort of thing that Iorek would have done in her place. So she hefts the axe:

L-R: Preventing anyone claiming the bounty on Iorek, and poor lonely Widget after the deaths of her drinking companion and the strange mage Ferryman whom they'd all come to like. Drawings by SB, who has a couple of websites: Lazy Bunny and Lazy Bunny Comics. Go! Read! 

...and plants it square in his face. So much for that plan! They then proceeded to get Ferryman killed by rage demons inhabiting reanimated skeletons inside the graveyard. Widget tried to save him, but her plan of "stopping him bleeding out then running away as a distraction" didn't distract the demons, who killed the helpless Ferryman anyway. Then she tried to run away. And didn't make it. But she did manage to kill the rage demons! Success!

Which means the party is now Widget, city elf rogue, and, er... that's it. Not so success!

But it's OK. Because I rolled up a new character some time ago (Kattrin an Mouire o Redhold) and DS, after some distress, as the poor chap had never had an RPG character die on him before - indeed Ferryman was his first one - started to create a Templar Knight who will be joining Widget, Kattrin, and the 'NPC' Shaman played by AC (as well as being GM - hopefully the GM's character won't be too tasty looking to the big monsters) at the meeting with Zeke. Which I imagine will go something like:

"YOU DIDN'T TELL US IT WAS GOING TO BE DANGEROUS, YOU SAID IT WAS A CASE OF DIGGING UP A GRAVEYARD!!!"

Either way I'm happy. I get to play as a 6'1" tall softly-spoken, hard-hitting, ultra-strong, pantheist barbarian warrior woman... and her dog, Iorek. What's not to like? "Foe-Splitter - we have heads to take!"

Iorek The Unconscious

Saturday was an eventful day. I picked up my copy of the new Codex: Imperial Guard (and Order cards, which will hopefully remind me that I have to give orders at the start of the shooting phase), and began to read it with glee. Then when I got home, it was time for Dragon Age again!

Run by AC, the party consists of Ferryman, an apostate mage, Widget, a city elf rogue-type, and myself, Iorek the Shamed, a dwarf from Kal Sharok who's determined to die a glorious death... and isn't above a spot of criminality, banditry and gold-gathering in the meantime.

We started off by having to try and negotiate a chasm. My first idea - to have Widget use her bow to fire a rope line across the 36 foot gap, then cross and secure it so we could all follow - failed. So then I cut down a tree, and, after falling off it myself (thank the ancestors for safety lines!), and securing it with chocks and ingenuity, we made it across in (mostly) one piece.

Then we hatched a plot with the NPC sorceress who's along for the ride to make some quick gold on top of the money we're going to get for the job we're doing at the moment - escorting some lordling's kiddiewinkies back home safe - and plunged on into, firstly, a Blight Owl, which is an owl the size of a bulldog with chainblades for a face, or something, I don't know, I was just shocked that it was dealing any appreciable damage to my armed and armoured dwarf; and then into a proper combat encounter between three Genlocks (demon footsoldiers), a Hurlock (bigger, tougher, angrier demonic footsoldier) and two Blight Wolves (demon wolves) on the one hand, and our party, two surviving bodyguards and the bloody children on the other.

Fighting the Blight Owl! L-R: Sorceress, Iorek, Ferryman, Widget (in a tree), Blight Owl*

Iorek, so far, has weathered the blows of Hurlocks, Genlocks, Blight Owls, mercenaries, bandits and even a wizard. Iorek has personally killed three Hurlocks, two Genlocks, three bandits, a dog, and a wizard, with his axe. I was feeling confident as I waded into combat with an injured Hurlock.

Then the damn thing smacked Iorek so hard in the face (triple 6 on 3d6 +3 damage = 21 damage, -5 for my armour - 16 damage) that I dropped to 0 hit points, and fell over, unconscious and dying!

Arrrrgh!

Luckily the sorceress managed to stabilise me and get me on my feet again, then Ferryman cast some magic and knitted my broken bones and shattered teeth back together, and I got my revenge by hacking a Genlock down and ending the combat.

But still. I'm even more keen than ever to get hold of that suit of better armour that's being made for me by the blacksmith back at Stenholm...

* Note: Blight Owl represented by a half-demon barbarian warrior with flaming sword. I suspect this is why it did so well.

One Month Later (I'm Sure I've Said That Before)!

Yow! (As Kwazii would say.) It has been a whole month since I last posted; suffice it to say that I have not been idle despite my lack of updates.

The main event, as it were, of the communications blackout, has been a trip to Warhammer World with my old mucker Jellicoe of the NHS to fight an Apocalypse 40,000 game. I contributed about 3,000 points of my Righteous Fists, while he threw in 9,000 points of Angels Sanguine (Blood Angels by another name) and a further 12,000 points or so of Hive Fleet Scheer. All in all about 24-25,000 points on the table in the end, with a scenario written by me. As so often in these things, the first run through of the scenario threw up a glaring error: Tyranid deployment was too far (four feet) from the Marine deployment, with the depressing but inevitable result that they were forced to walk towards the enemy and were shot to pieces in the process. But when they did reach the Marines, well! There was some bloodshed then.

Lunatics of the match, however, must go to the Angels Sanguine Death Company, who killed a Heirophant bio-titan in close combat... twice!

 The Tyranids. All bar about 500-1000 points worth in the bottom left corner are Jellicoe's Hive Fleet Scheer.

Tyranid deployment. Note Heirophant!

The bio-titans lead the right flank advance supported by the Heirophant's firepower. Note the Fists dug in to the left, and the Angels Sanguine sat there looking all smug with their ridiculous firepower.

 Heirodule versus Mephiston (AKA Beatty)... there can be only one winner!

Inevitably it was Beatty. A real monster of a character.

The Death Company bring down the Heirophant for the second time...

...then the survivors go toe-to-toe with a Termagant swarm.

This is quite late in the game; the Fists' air support has arrived and is busily engaged in strafing Carnifexes. Note the total destruction of the Tyranid right flank!

 I kept deep striking tunneling creatures but their lack of shooting and my inability to close with the main force meant that, without exception, they got shot apart before they got a chance to assault. In the background you can see the high water mark of the Tyranid advance; Carnifexes to the fore!

 I swamped Beatty with Termagants in a futile attempt to kill him.

Endgame: a decisive victory for the combined Astartes force which saved the world from being exterminatused by the Inquisition. 12,000 points of Tyranids and they killed barely anything. Had we deployed 24" apart instead of 48" I am sure the story would have been different. Perhaps next time!

As well as that, I took part in another two sessions of the Dragon Age RPG that AC is running with SB and MC. We defied death (again) and defeated the monsters within the caverns, getting some loot and preparing a plan for the last stage of the adventure that we are yet to play through.

Widget the elf and Hass the mage duel with the blood mage on the steps, while Iorek the dwarf slugs it out with a demon.

After much blood is shed (most of it Iorek's), the crazy Dwarf axes the blood-mage in the face. Gloating commenced.

In terms of stuff that I've painted, well:

I made a start on the Whirlwind, finishing the gunner (how he enters and exits the bloody thing I don't know, and doing it when the tank's been hit and is, say, on fire, must be a thing of miracles).

I painted the first five of my Lamenters' Death Company, the Lost. They are simply armed, as I intend to add more exotically equipped figures later to bulk the squad size up to 11 plus a Chaplain. They will be delivered into battle via a Stormraven gunship.

(Acting) Chapter Master Florentine and his command squad - the chaps in gold helmets are the remnants of the Honour Guard, the Marines who should really make up the entirety of Florentine's command group. To bulk up the numbers he has seconded Sergeant Leon and Brother-Veteran Thoros, as well as having an Apothecary from the Chapter Apothecarion. The banner is something I'm quite proud of; it's all free-handed and while not perfect certainly does the job!

Another Lamenter. This is Veteran Brother Damaskan, one of the 14 survivors of the 1st Company. Armed with a hand flamer and a power sword, he's wearing a real mix of armour as well as honour peteruges. I love how he's turned out - he looks really brutal and uncompromising.

 These are a birthday present for my friend CH; a squad of Knights of Justice scouts. He recently came into most of a Space Marine army, so I wrote him a list and rummaged around in my various bits boxes, coming up with a squad of Scouts, a Tactical Demi-Squad to accompany his Captain, and a Devastator Squad.

Here are two of the aforementioned Devastators - they are from the 7th Devastator Squad (see right pauldron), 9th Company (hence the blue helmets). Quite proud of these guys; they're an exercise in simple paintjobs - black undercoat, block colours, black wash, apply transfers, base, done.

Phew! After all that it's time to get back to painting and sorting; my other half S has made the salient point that I really should organise my soldiery into 'Keep', 'Sell' and 'Wha...?' What I do with the stuff that falls into the 'Wha...?' category will, I think, vary. Hopefully I will get my blog updates a bit more regular from now on (HA!, say the voices off)!

Painting Points: 19
2013 Total: 286 (196x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 10x vehicles, 2x spaceships, 3x 28mm cavalry, 2x flags)

Public Gaming

Once upon a time, I used to play many (many) games of Warhammer 40K at my local Games Workshop shop. I used to cycle or walk into town with my army in a carry case and play two or three games, one after the other, against whoever was there. I'd often go down two or three times a week in the holidays. Once, back in the days of 4th Edition 40K, I even got into a tournament and went up to Warhammer World to play - I came third from last. Nowadays you can't just go in and play any more; the local manager having pulled the plug because people coming in and playing were distracting customers, telling them negative things, and telling them about other companies and other places, all ultimately reducing his sales and thereby hurting his own paypacket. I don't blame him, I just miss the days of old... kind of. Now I'm not a spotty teenage boy, when myself and JY went in today for a two hour, 1500 point, game of 6th Edition, it was fun - but not as much fun. The endless, loud, talking of the slightly-too-keen slightly-socially-inept man and the lack of people working on their own models (another activity now forbidden without vouchers earnt by spending in store) dampened the atmosphere.

JY and I did, however, have a good game. And, most importantly of all... I won.

 Deployment (start of turn 1).

 Righteous Fists Turn 2 start. Note casualties on both sides, but importantly for me his Pathfinders on my right flank have been knocked out of the game.

 JY surveys the terrain at the start of my Turn 3. I've suffered more casualties, but the Terminators have just teleported in and the Assault Squad is about to start moving forwards.

 Start of my Turn 4. The Terminators will move to the edge of the pad, and the Assault Squad are about to mount a charge on the Firewarriors on the left. The Firewarriors in the centre are about to be blown apart by the combined fire of the surviving Devastators and remaining Terminators.

 Endgame (end Turn 4). My Tactical Marines destroyed both Piranhas - one by shooting, one in combat - and all the Firewarriors are dead or running away.

The view from the other side. I hold one objective and JY holds none.

I also finished the last of the Four Good Women yesterday at work; the half-demon fighter with the flaming sword and hooves.

 I don't know why the photo is so indistinct. It's a shame, she's turned out beautifully, but I can't take a good photo of her to save my life. Oh well. You can at least see the demonic sheen to her skin and the magefire of her sword!

 The star gave me real problems. In the end I decided to paint it as if it were made of six huge, polished, gemstones. It looks good now, but it's part accident!

 Tarnished bronze and shiny red flesh - a sight to chill the bone. Good thing she's a decent person and honourable warrior, eh?

All of them together. I tried to work green into the half-demon and ended up going for tarnished bronze armour; it's very very subtle but there is green there. Just enough to tie her into the rest of the party, as well as having her both compliment and stand out from them.

Talking of yesterday, my partner S and I went to her sister K's student house last night to play A Game Of Thrones with her and St, her boyfriend. We ended up with a six-player game after roping their housemates G and O in; the game went on until the wee small hours and ended with my victory as House Lannister on Turn 9 (of 10)! It was very close-fought and a good game. I've now won with all four of the main Houses, so I'm quite keen to get more six player games in to increase my chances of playing as Tyrell or Martell.

Oh, and today I came home to find the figures for the Dragon Age RPG I'm playing in at the minute had arrived from Hasslefree, so that was nice - Iorek, my dwarf, looks suitably grim for a dishonoured, angry, death-seeking violence-monger. Accomplishments so far include punching a man into a coma and building a litter to drag him back to town on. Oh, and trying to set fire to a forest. We're plunging back into Ferelden tomorrow night, so I should have more antics to report soon.

Painting Points: 1
2013 Total: 267(178x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 10x vehicles, 2x spaceships, 3x 28mm cavalry, 1x flag)