Dread fleet - More Ships Required

I got this game a few years ago in a miniature swap and painted the terrain and few ships. We then played a game with my neighbour. Then the game was forgotten on the top shelf of my study. There it lay for a while forgotten and collecting motes of dust until my friend casually told me he might like to ty it again.

Sooooo….. I need to paint more ships. The first scenario, which we played, has only 2 ships and I personally think it is quite boring to play that way. You end up circling each other for a long time and taking potshots.

For the next scenario I need the Swordfish and The Curse of Zandri Here're some pictures of the things I already have painted for the game:

Random island

Skull island :D

I don't think I have to write what this is?

a VOL-CA-NO :D

It's totally reasonable to build a castle on a skeleton of a giant tortoise.

Castle black

This island is used for the summoning of Great Cthulhu

This is perhaps the most ridiculous thing GW has ever produced. It's a mountain with a Vampiric castle magically moved on a pile of shipwrecks. I'm pretty sure mushrooms were consumed during the creative process.

Yeah it's the same ship sailing on a piece of cardboard

Here's the Heldenhammer being pursued by a magical sea monster and a roll of kitchen towels

I'll post some pictures, when I get the ships done for scenario 2.

Must - Paint - 60 Chaos Renegade cultist

A few days ago I got a request from a friend to paint him a bunch of Chaos Cultists to add to his imperial guard army. The original army is just basic old school imperial guard painted in a very cool grey blue paint scheme (not by me).

As it often goes with these things, my friend has sadly turned his back on the Emperor's Grace. A group of vile people, who pose as his friends, gifted him a heretical tome as a birthday present and I'd say he was converted so fast the seeds of heresy must have been in his soul all the time.

Whatever the reasons for this tragedy a great blob of rag tag ruffians is required. The plan is to paint 60 cultists which will most likely all be built from the GW cultist boxes. An alternate plan is to spice the group up with some miniatures from other producers, but we're not sure which these would be just yet.

On wednesday I bought two boxes of cultists and set up to test how they would be done. The paint scheme should be such that it fits the original army so I thought they would have blue grey uniform with various toned down coloured rags on them.

Here're some images of the test scheme and an image of the paints used (for reference to myself :D)

I'm not sure if the level of light contrast is enough in this. I guess it's better to paint a bunch of them and see how they look in the blobby formation. You can always add light to the surfaces,later, but its hard to tone it down once you do it :)

Battle Report - Battle for Xilos - "Ruins of the Ancients"

"Sir we have three points emitting The Frequency"
"Deploy a scouting force to retrieve the relics"
"Sir that's not all. The area around the points shows heavy damage to space time. Shard estimates seven eight point risk of heavy Ghar presence. Furthermore there's a nine eight point probability that heavy losses are sustained, but the Shard suggest deployment anyways. It's a suicide mission sir."

Commander Josen lowered his Visor to check the facts his aide had just given him and they were correct. In any other situation this specific spot would just have been avoided. There was no need to sacrifice resources, but three source points were a treasure throve and he had no choice, but to play the odds here.

"Send Commander Bar"
"Sir?"
"You heard me. Send Fu with a battle force. Oh and deploy a strategic support unit. Let's say an X-Howizer. We might as well give him a chance."
"Yes Sir."

The Scenario

The scenario we played was the 3rd scenario from The Battle for Xilos -campaign book for Beyond the Gates of Antares. A battle force led, by the infamous Commander Bar was deployed to pick up 3 builder relics from a site of old ruins. A  similar sized force of Ghar arrived at the scene and battle ensued.

In this scenario C3 got victory points from picking up relics and getting them off the board (1 for having the relic at the end of the battle and 2 if they got it off board). The Ghar on the other hand got 1 VP for each C3 unit destroyed and 1 VP for each relic which would not be in C3 hands by the end of the scenario.

So... C3 Try to get relics. Ghar try to blow up C3 -simple. Also the Ghar get to the board only on turn 2, which means C3 have the first turn before hell breaks loose.

NOTE:

I'm sorry for the quality of the images. There's just nothing that I can do about this before I get a better camera somewhere. iPhone --> and this is what you get

NOTE2:

Since this is a quite new game I know it would be prudent to include commentary on the rules. As I'm  extremely lazy I'll post this - link to youtube videos about the rules - and this - link to official game page - which supposedly have all the answers for a seeker of knowledge

NOTE3:

Check out the pics of my opponent's Ghar. I think they must be close to most beautiful ones I've seen so far.

The Forces

C3

• C3 command squad with 5 man total and a scout drone led by the infamous Commander Bar
• 3x C3 strike squads with 5 man each, a scout drone and plasma lance support weapon
• C3 X-Launcher team with all the available special ammo and a scout drone
• 3x C3D1 light support drones with light plasma supports. Two of the weapon drones had a batter drone
• X-Howitzer with a spotter drone and net ammo upgrade
• Targeted probe shard with 4 probes
• Superior shard and two extra shot army upgrades

Ghar

• Command Crawler
• 2 Ghar battle squads
• 1 Ghar assault squad
• Unit of 10 (I think) outcasts with disruptor cannon
• Flitter unit
• Tectoris scouts

Turn one

Commander Bar deploys all of his forces roughly at the middle of his side with him at the middle and strike squads flanking supported by the batter drone wielding D1 combat drones. The artillery, meaning the X-Launcher and X-Howitzer are deployed right at the middle back at the deployment zone.

Being that the Ghar do not get to the board before turn 2, basically what happens is that everyone sprints towards the two closest relics with some units getting some pins and some not. The X-Howitzer sets up an ambush and one of the weapon drones is temporarily malfunctioning because of the distortions in space time (distort die).

Two groups of strike squads run in the cover of batter shields. Their aim is to secure the two relics, each of which are located next to an ancient tower with a distinctly feudal look and impressive skull architecture.

In the Background the artillery is heating their barrels and calculating trajectories

Turn Two

The Ghar begin to arrive at the board. and Concord continue towards their objectives. The relic in the middle of the board is secured by Commander Bar himself, but the advance at concord flank is slowed down.

The Ghar deploy two battle squads to the left (concord left) flank. The command Crawler and outcasts arrive from the middle and the Ghar assault squad begin a devious (right) flanking manoeuvre.

Vicious firefights erupt around the board. Command Crawler is mostly kept at bay by the artillery, but manages to still shoot and force one unit down and cause some casualties. The concord left flank advance is ground to a halt by the shooting from the Battle squads.

Ghar battle squads exchanging fire with C3 troops

The Command crawler draws quite a lot of fire and has to use some of its time rallying to stop pins accumulating too much

By the end of turn two the C3 forces are pretty much where they were at the end of turn one

The brave men of C3 advance towards the left relic objective under heavy fire (which forced them down and killed one guy)

Turn Three

Nothing much happened on turn three at the left flank except that the Ghar suits began accumulating pins a bit faster than the C3 (mostly because the artillery support turned their barrels there).

In the middle Commander Bar and his mates ran towards the back lines carrying the relic. They got fired upon a lot, accumulated pins, men died and finally they were forced down, but got up at the end of the turn with a lucky roll. The supporting strike squad in the middle was left fighting in the middle ruins.

One way of looking at this would be to say that Commander Bar demonstrated an age old military strategy of running and leaving your men to die. It is fortunate that the people of Concord are happy to die for the great cause and hold no grudges.

The command crawler slowly crawled forward shooting and making a lot of noise, I would think. The Ghar assault squad ran forwards towards the C3 flank.

"Run you fools", shouts Fu and whips his men with a belt of grenades apparently

Flanking Ghar assault squad

Turn Four

On the left flank the Ghar battle Squads finally gave away. One of the squad got hit with a salvo of rapid fire plasma carbines at close range and two of the three beasts fell (I think he got hit six times and rolled two tens). The other squad got hit with so many shots from so many directions that it went down with a lot of pins. One of the C3 Squads got the other relic.

In the middle the C3D1 drone with the batter shield was destroyed by the command crawler. The strike squad in the ruins was almost destroyed. Bar and mates got the relic off the board.

Again the worst shooting from the command crawler was stopped by the C3 artillery net shots.

My opponent carefully measuring and moving his models. What an inspiring sight!

Finally the other relic is secured. Its represented by some kind of cockroach looking miniature sold by the Warlord Games.

Turn Five

As more and more troops got shot, the pace of the battle quickened. The Ghar battle squad at the left flank was destroyed by a shot from the X-howitzer. I'm assuming some kind of gravitational pinpoint crushed the suits from within, The pitiful monkeys screamed terrible screams as they were mangled to bits by their own gear. I kept my thoughts to my self and tried to concentrate on the game.

As my opponent's outcasts and the command crawler shot like demons at the poor strike troopers in the middle ruin annihilating that squad, I imagine similar thoughts of vivid carnage and feeling of invulnerable might went through his mind also. However being a civilised person he kept his cool as well as I did.

For an outsider this epic moment would have probably looked just like two calm and composed gentlemen rolling dice and playing with plastic toys...

Yeah so this turn the... Lost my thought for a bit there.

Anyway this turn the left (concord) flank of the Ghar finally fell. The strike squad holding the second relic ran towards the edge and the strike squad in the middle ruin was destroyed. Nothing much else happened basically.

Another cockroach relic being carried towards table edge by the C3

Turn Six

Turn six in the middle the Command Crawler was destroyed by combined shooting of both of the C3 artillery units and a couple of D1 weapon drones. Not a single hit in the whole game managed to penetrate its armour, but 9 pins destroyed it.

The second Concord squad ran towards the edge of the table. They did not quite get there, which meant that wether or not there would be turn seven, would determine the winner of the game (the Ghar had killed 2 units and one relic was unclaimed putting the Ghar at 3 VPs. The C3 had taken one relic off the board and procured another one putting them as well at 3 VPs.

We rolled a d6 and it was.......... a five.

With three Targeted probes you can't really miss with OH fire

Turn Seven

We didn't actually play turn seven, because the only thing worth mentioning was that the C3 took the other relic off the board.

Thoughts on the game

Ok the Concord won this time, but only barely (it was down to a roll of 4+ at d6 to see if the game ended or continued at 7th turn).

The fact that the ghar came onboard only on turn two maybe gave my side a little bit of advantage on this scenario and we thought that one might try the same game with the Ghar arriving at turn one to see how that would go. I'd imagine in that case the Ghar will get to the relics first as they are faster (with their plasma amps) than Concord.

The Command Crawler is a nasty piece of machinery, being nigh invulnerable with its rerollable res of 13. However its effectiveness was severely hampered by the pin spouting X-whatevers.

I would say based on experiences from this and previous games, that concord has a (more than) slight advantage because of the X-howizer and X-launcher, but without them it would be the other way around. What I'm trying to say is that these equipment are a very effective (and only) way to keep the Ghar at bay. 

The Ghar could possibly counter them with the bombarder guys they have in their list. In any case I think that the different launcher variants could easily become unfun and would discourage spamming them for this reason.

Anyway, it was a fun and tight game and I hope to get to play again soon.

"Jos Metsään Haluat sä Mennä nyt" - Battle Report

Sergeant Pepper stepped over a puddle of mud. It was hard to see anything at this early hour as the sun was just beginning to peek over the hills to the east of here. Besides Darkwald forest was not named Dark-Wald for nothing. Huge trees loomed above him all around and would have cast terrible shadows would there been any light to cast shadows from.

Being a sergeant was a shitty job. Being no longer one of the guys, and not yet one of the higher ups a sergeant was expected to lead by example. Also when the crap hit the cartwheel the middle management always got the blame.

"Naturally", Sgt Pepper thought: "I was selected to carry the bag of ransom gold for the kidnappers. Any of the men would have ran with the money and Sheriff Gunther, my superior, would not choose himself for a dangerous duty like this."

A yellow orange light was beginning to glimmer through the branches of the trees and Pepper felt his mouth water as a sweet smell of tenderly grilled meat drifted around him. The bastard were having a barbecue party. "Oh well, after we ambush and bag the bastards maybe, the Sheriff will let us have it ourselves", thought he.

If Pepper would have only known what was on the menu...

The forces

The good guys

Sheriff Gunther - lvl 10 hero (Halberd, Heavy Armour)
Sgt Pepper - Lvl 5 hero (Halberd, Light Armour)

10 Forresters in two units of 5 (Longbow, Light Armour)
18 Hellblizen in two units of 10 and 8 (Halberds, Light Armour)

The bad guys:

Bruce Dick - lvl 5 Beastman shaman (Enthuse, Dispirit, Aura of resistance)

Willy Nilly - Lvl 5 Beastman hero (Halberd, Light Armour)

12 Beastmen in 3 units of 4 models (Halberd, Light Armour

Deployment

As per the scenario rules (where you can also read the briefings with the back story for this scenario) only Sergeant Pepper was allowed to deploy as advance force and he made a scout move directly at the cabin and supposed drop off point for the ransom. After the Scout move Vo Dka (a Level 5 Minotaur Hero with a 2h weapon and light armour) was deployed in the middle of the board. He was the one having a barbecue, a barbecue of kidnappers and kidnappees to be precise.

The kidnappers had told the good guys to bring the ransom money to an abandoned cabin in the woods. The cabin was surrounded by woods and a river and a small road ran next to it.

When Sergeant Pepper got closer he saw the kidnapped girl been roasted on a fire by a terrible minotaur Vo Dka. Vo Dka was eating what remained of the kidnappers, but the girl was still alive!

Turn one

The good guys lost the roll off so my beastmen got to go first. A unit of 4 beastmen lead by Willy Nilly arrived casually from the woods. "Hey you were supposed to guard them, not eat them you moron", Willy shouted at his big brother. Vo Dka, totally focussed on munching a tasty morsel, ignored him.

"You weren't supposed to eat them you moron!!!"

Approximately at the same time, the foresters arrived at the opposite side of the clearing. When they saw the situation in front of the cabin, they immediately opened fire on the minotaur...

"Shoot the beast! Save the GIRL!!!"

...who got really pissed at them...

"RAAAAAAARRRRRGHH!!!!!"

...and charged Willy Nilly and his poor brothers (because they were closest to him *duh*).

"Stop it you dumb bastAAAARGH..." -Last words of Willy Nilly

Thus ended the short but violent lives of Willy Nilly and four of his brother goats.

Turn two

At the same time Bruce Dick and four more sons arrived at the scene from the flank behind the cottage. They Marched towards the road with a goal to "save" the girl before she would be roasted or saved by the humans. Bruce cast aura of resistance, which would surely protect him from any harm.

Unfortunately for Bruce, the humans had decided to launch the ambush marching all of the Hellblitzen on the road from the same flank. When they saw Bruce and his diminutive band of chaotics, they turned to face them and then proceeded to throwing taunts and pieces of trash at the antagonists.

View from the good guys side. Forrester are deployed in the woods. Vo Dka is pursuing Willy Nilly and his guys of the board at the beastmen side and Bruce is facing the humans on the right flank behind the cottage. The girl is getting an instant tan on the open fire.

Closeup on the right flank

Vo Dka hacked and pursued the remaining beastmen of Willy of the board.

Turn Three

Pissed of by their taunts and confident in the protection of his mighty magics, Bruce shouts Chaaargbaaaa and charges the human force.

Sheriff Gunther challenges Bruce, hits twice, wounds twice and then bruce fails his saves (of 5+ from the aura) twice.

Bruce charges and dies. Beastmen are pushed back and the humans follow them off the road

Bruce's beastmen manage to cause a couple of wounds to the humans, but are pushed back because the enemy has a rank and a flag. 

The other human unit start to march forward for a flanking manoeuvre, which is kinda pointless, because at their turn the humans once again win the combat, choose to lap around the remaining beastmen unit, which panics and flees.

A pursuit ensues where the rest of the chaos spawn are hacked to ground. Meanwhile the foresters move next to the girl and begin to untie her and the minotaur turns around and walks back towards the cabin and his meal still really pissed at being interrupted while eating.

"Save her!"

Another unit of 4 beastmen arrive on the board from the flank with the river and move to threaten the foresters.

 Turn Four

The beastmen behind the river charge the foresters, who bravely flee to the woods

You cowards baa!

 Sergeant Gunther and his group move closer to the minotaur in the hopes that he charges them instead of the foresters trying to save the girl.

Cunning tactics from the good guys

The same cunning tactics

The genius stratagem worked like a charm. Vo Dka charged sergeant Gunther's unit, who promptly fled from the battlefield failing a fear check...

Wheeee!

...and as their fearless leader ran past them the rest of the hellblitzen wisely panicked as well, and ran off the board.

Ok lets go

Meanwhile the foresters manage to get the still alive girl off her bonds. 

Turn Five

The remaining beast men band charges a forrester unit off the board.

The foresters with the girl edge away from the crazed minotaur, who after driving the hellblitzen off the board moves closer to the middle of the board. 

Sergeant Pepper steps forwards between the foresters and Vo Dka.

Turn Six

The remaining beastmen charge the foresters who have the girl. They flee and failing the leadership roll fleeing turns to rout, which means that they actually routed off the board with their prize (winning the scenario for the good guys).

Vo Dka charges sergeant Pepper, who for some explicable reason chose to hold instead of fleeing.

"Your reign of evil ends here!" -The last words of Sgt. Pepper

In the ensuing combat Vo Dka lowered his head for the charge. Sergeant Pepper lowered his halberd to receive said charge. And then they both died :D

Like this they died see.

And thus ended the battle. The girl was saved and all the important people were alright. Even Bruce Dick managed to crawl away to fight another day (because evil never truly dies and also because I have written another scenario for him, which I just don't want to throw away).

Afterthoughts

Well this was fun. After a bloody night of battle the good guys won. It was just like in the movies!