Orion's Gate battle report - 24 points

I decided to try a bigger game of Orion's Gate (Orion's Gate), with Capitol Ships on both sides.  The match is between the Void Orcs and the Star League.

The Star League:  Capitol Ship, Battleship, 2 Cruisers, 2 Squadrons

 The Star League's Capitol Ship is outfitted with 2 Cannons (forward arc), Hangar, Torpedo (forward arc), and Giga Cannons (one left arc and one right arc).  Their Battleship has a Missile Cluster, Hangar, and Torpedo.  Both Cruisers are armed with Plasma Cannons.

The Void Orcs:  Capitol Ship, Battleship, 2 Cruisers, 2 Squadrons

 The Void Orcs' Capitol Ship has a Viral Ram, Warp Drive, Shields, Hangar, and Giga Cannons (one left arc and one right arc).  The Battleship has a Viral Ram, Plasma Cannon, and Hangar.  Both Cruisers use Missile Clusters.

An asteroid field is the spot of the impending battles.  The three larger asteroids are Blocking Terrain, the rest are Obscuring Terrain.

The lower Void Orc Cruiser is able to destroy one of the Star League Squadrons, the other ships jockey for better positions and firing lanes.

The Void Orc Capitol Ship uses its Warp Drive to pop in closer.

The Orc and League Squadrons around the center asteroid were destroyed, as was the lower Star League Cruiser.

The Star League Battleship advances, trying to unload its arsenal on both Void Orc Cruisers and Battleship.  Meanwhile, the Orc Capitol Ship warps behind the League Cruiser and shoots its short-range weapons at the opposing Capitol Ship.

The Star League Cruiser jumps forward and shoots the Void Orc Battleship from behind, just before it rams full speed into the League's Battleship.  The Orc Capitol Ship pivots 90 degrees and rams the League Capitol Ship.

The last round ends in calamity.  The last Star League Cruiser is destroyed by a Void Orc Cruiser.  The League Battleship blasts away the other Orc Cruiser, just before the Void Orc Battleship rams into it, destroying both ships!  The Orc Capitol Ship rams the League's, damaging both.

The Star League scrapyard.  Only their Capitol Ship remained (missing one component).

The Void Orc scrapyard.  Survivors were one Squadron, one Cruiser (with damaged component), and the Capitol Ship (which had only two components remaining).

I got to try out the component Warp Drive, which I thought was pretty neat.  I imagine seeing a Capitol Ship just pop out of nowhere and throwing out lots of close-ranged firepower would be terrifying.  The Viral Ram is guaranteed to damage a target.

I need to house-rule some boarding party rules (boarding torpedoes, teleportation, etc.) and racial benefits.  Might design some Eldar or Necron type ships as well.

One Page Fantasy Skirmish - Lizardmen vs. Orcs & Goblins - 300 points

I got a game in of One Page Rules' Fantasy Skirmish, found here:  One Page Fantasy Skirmish

Nice cover art, especially for free rules.

The armies were 300 points each, with my new GW Seraphon/Lizardmen and some proxy Mantic Games' Orcs & Goblins.  The mission was a standard 4 rounds battle to the death.

For the Lizardmen:  one Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur, three Cold One Riders, and four Saurus Warriors.

For the Greenskins:  one Goblin Boss (with Master Sword), one Goblin Shaman (Wizard 2), a unit of Orc Boyz, a unit of Orc Boyz (with Medium Swords), two Trolls, a Mincer (counts as a Pump Wagon with Spiky Roller), and a War-Trombone (12", A6, Ordnance, Tough 3)

A ruined town/city for the battlefield.

Lizardmen to the right, Greenskins to the left.

Lots of moving up by the end of the first round.  The Goblin Shaman managed to stun the far right Cold One Rider with Vindictive Glare.  A lot of shoving going on in the center.

The Troll at the top is preparing for a Cold One Rider and Saurus Warrior sneaking around behind the topmost building.  The War-Trombone is setting up a firing lane to cover the center.

Big swirling melee is occurring in the center still.  The Mincer slammed into that far right Cold One Rider, didn't hit with Impact or regular attacks, then the Cold One Rider returned charge and with the Predatory rule finished off the Mincer.

The Troll on the northern edge stunned both Cold One Rider and Saurus Warrior without suffering a single wound in return.  Armored and Regeneration are amazing.

The Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur shredded the Troll in the center as the Cold One Riders and Saurus Warriors finished off the Orc Boyz.  The War-Trombone was able to put a wound on the Carnosaur, but the Goblin Shaman failed a spell.

End of the third round, the Greenskins are obviously on the losing end of this conflict.

End of the fourth round, the Cold One Riders and Saurus Warriors finish off the remaining Orc Boyz, Goblin Boss, and War-Trombone.  The Carnosaur ate the Goblin Shaman.  Only a single Troll remains.  Game over.

I was a bit surprised at the outcome.  I was looking at all the potential attacks available to the Orcs & Goblins compared to the Lizardmen and I thought the match would have gone differently.  The Quality difference between armies was a major factor, as well as unit choices and die rolling of course.  One time I had three Orc Boyz with Medium Swords assaulting one Saurus Warrior, they got 2 attacks each plus 1 for assaulting plus 1 for Furious for a total of 12 attacks, but at Quality 5+ I got only 3 hits in.  The Saurus Warrior rolled to block at 3+ and defended all 3 hits.

Still the game is easy to pick up and quick to play.  It would be nice if they had some unit creation rules, so I wouldn't have to proxy models for existing Warhammer Fantasy units.  But that's only a minor quibble.

New adventure for Ganesha Games' 4 Against Darkness

For those of you who may be interested, Ganesha Games has just released a new adventure for their solitaire pen-and-paper dungeon-delving game:  4 Against Darkness (http://www.ganeshagames.net/index.php?cPath=1_55&osCsid=iimt1n0va4tp4vr434qii5c0m1)

The title of the adventure is Dark Waters (http://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_55&products_id=300)  Its divided up into two parts; the first is a planned dungeon (with a couple different paths to enter and NPCs you encounter to gain you entrance) and the second part is the typical random dungeon creation (but with a BUNCH of new aquatic minions, bosses, traps, treasures, etc.).  Of course its left open as an invitation to play your own random dungeons but using just the aquatic tables, so you'll have a reason to crack open this adventure again.  As an added bonus, there is a new playable class, the Swashbuckler.

Hopefully you will be interested in trying the adventure out, please give opinions and constructive criticisms.  If this turns out to be something enjoyable, I might write up a new one.  Yep, I wrote it.  My first published adventure anywhere on any format, please be gentle.  Thanks!

Age of Sigmar - battle report

Since I now have Warhammer lizardmen, and the starter box conveniently included the rules for those units to be used in Age of Sigmar, and the main rules are free online, I said lets give it a whirl.

I gathered all those Seraphon (lizardmen), all of which have some paint on them (better than none), and decided to try a solo match.  The only other miniatures I have that could remotely come close to the amount needed to challenge the lizardmen were undead.  So looking through the Vampire Counts list, I used my undead to proxy.  

Off to the table we went.

Simple set-up rules.  I decided not to try the mysterious landscapes.  But did roll for terrain features for each 2 foot square area.  Nothing fancy.

Lizardmen to the left, undead to the right.

Saurus Cavalry, Jungle Swarm, Skink Priest on the southern edge.

Saurus Warriors hold the center, while a Saurus Oldblood is in the woods and the Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur lurks behind.

Bunch of skeletons and a necromancer are on the southern edge.

Mob of zombies in the center.

Mortis Engine (Skeleton on Throne), Crypt Horrors (green ghoul things), and Vargheists (harpies) guard the northern side of the table.

Since the lizardmen were outnumbered, I chose the Sudden Death to be Seize Ground, choosing the terrain feature which the Mortis Engine and Crypt Horrors were behind.  The lizardmen general was the Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur and the undead general was the Mortis Engine.  And the undead got the first turn.

All the undead ran up.  Not much else their turn.

The Saurus cavalry and jungle swarm were able to move and then charge the skeletons.

The Saurus warriors moved and then charged, keeping a long line to tie up most of the undead.  The plan was to hold the line until the Oldbloods could get involved.  Since I had no clue on this game or what units could do, it was a fatal mistake.

Saurus Cavalry are quite deadly in combat.

The Crypt Horrors and Mortis Engine are beasts, nearly wiping out all the Saurus Warriors their first melee.

Next round wasn't too much better, even though Lizardmen went first.  The Carnosaur stomped the Vargheists, the Oldblood got stuck in with the Crypt Horrors.  The Saurus Warriors were doomed by the Mortis Engine.

Saurus Cavalry were handling the skeleton warriors until the zombie mob piled in.

In the end the mighty Carnosaur was being attacked by the crypt horrors and Mortis Engine as the Saurus Cavalry was surrounded.  The game was looking grim for the lizardmen.

I stopped the match at this point.  The match was taking longer than I expected but I could see the outcome.  The crypt horrors were nasty, dealing loads of damage and even healing themselves each round.  The mortis engine had loads of attacks and lots of health.  The Carnosaur wasn't a slouch either, but he was being wounded faster than he could kill the undead.  The Saurus Cavalry were doing alright, but with all those zombies it was only a matter of time.  

The rules are fairly straight forward, nothing too difficult about how to play.  My concerns occurred when trying to remember all the different unit special abilities, and which spell or command ability is affecting who.  Playing solo is probably the main reason I had these issues and with so many models to start with, especially for my first time playing.  I'm sure if I was playing a live opponent and I only had one army to keep track of then things might have been smoother and quicker.

Overall, the game is decent.  Its easy and free, so no reason to at least read over it.  Not sure how often I'll try it out as I am limited on miniatures and it gets annoying to proxy models for specific type units.  

The plastic mountain grows....

The wife and I went out of town today on a brief excursion up state; Columbia, SC.  She wanted to go check something out and I didn't have anything else planned.  Unfortunately what she wanted to see turned out to be a big disappointment.  So she asked if I wanted to see anything else since we drove up all that way (2 hour trip one way).  I pulled out the handy smart phone, typed in game stores, and lo and behold, a Games Workshop was right down the street.  I have not been in a Games Workshop store since 1998, nor have I bought any Games Workshop miniatures in years.  A hop, skip, and a jump away we went.

The store wasn't very big, but they had all the latest and greatest in GW products.  As well, the manager/owner of the store was the friendliest, most knowledgeable, and enthusiastic fan of the hobby I've met yet.  You could tell he was passionate about the hobby as well as the products he was selling.  You'll say that's his job, like a used car salesman he wants to sell his products and as many as he can.  But I say, he was just being very helpful and wanted to encourage more people to enjoy the hobby, whether that is collecting and painting miniatures or in playing the game.

Anyways, I was immediately drawn to GW's new starter sets.  They were for fantasy (Age of Sigmar) and 40k, and each was $85.  They generally each contained a heavy unit, maybe a hero unit, some specialist types, and some troops.  In most cases the price of the individual heavy or hero unit by itself is the same cost as the starter set.  I was drawn to one particular box, mostly for the heavy unit.  As you can guess, that box would be mine....

I chose the Lizardmen (Seraphon?  I've been out of the loop).  But look at that carnosaur!  Besides, I have ZERO lizardmen in my entire collection.  This fills it out nicely.

Respectable amount of contents.  The carnosaur by itself is the same cost as this starter set.

Once I made it home, operation assembly began.  A few hours later, and now approaching 1 am, I have completed my mission.  

This is everything.

Carnosaur was first to be assembled, naturally.

Rawr!

A leader, musician, standard bearer, and five regular saurus knights.

A leader, musician, standard bearer, and nine regular saurus warriors.

There were quite a few spare bits remaining on the sprues.  And I LOVE doing conversions and making stuff up.  As I tend to play games that allow a more free-form approach to character customization (like Song of Blades & Heroes), I have no problem just slapping bits together to make something out of nothing essentially.

There were these sea snake accessories which I could have added to any of the lizardmen bases.  But it didn't seem right to me.  So on to a base they went.  Now I have a sea snake swarm.

Well, I think they are sea snakes.  Serpent swarm....viper swarm....whatever.

This guy was actually a replacement for the rider on the carnosaur.  Apparently there are three variants of the carnosaur you could choose from.  I opted for the one on the cover of the box.  So this guy would have wound up in a bag of random bits.

But here he is, assembled just as if he were on the carnosaur.  The only thing different is the thing in his left hand.  It was supposed to be holding the reins of the carnosaur, so I added some skull accessories to it and now it could be some sort of shaman's tool.

This is a Frankenstein's monster.  All of the bits you see on this guy were haphazardly placed to make some sort of semblance of a lizardman-type character.  All the bits were from this box set.

The majority of the bits were from the sprue for the carnosaur variants.  This guy almost has a Tyranid look to him.  I will consider him to be a saurus champion/hero type, a lizardman ogre.