Painting Update - All Quiet on the Martian Front

I've been working on a few projects lately, which hopefully I'll get a chance to share soon. For right now, I'd like to show my progress with the All Quiet starter set.

The American infantry units have been based and spackled (using DryDex, which is what I use whenever I need to fill in a base with miniatures that have integral bases.) I just need to clean up the edges. 

I'm planning on creating a fictional unit in the All Quiet universe, based on the real life "Jersey Blues" from the American War of Independence. This will give me the chance to do something a little different from the usual brown-and-green miniatures you see for the American forces in All Quiet. The infantry will be painted blue, tan and khaki, and the tanks painted blue. 

Speaking of tanks, I had to do a little cosmetic work on the American tanks before priming them. Since the tanks run on powerful steam engines (made possible by reverse-engineering Martian technology) they have these big rectangular coal hoppers on the back that are empty. I decided to fill them in with beach sand and some watered down white glue. Hopefully, once the painting is finished, these particles will resemble coal. 

NJCON 2015 - The Loot

It wouldn't be a convention without a vendor hall, and NJCON actually had two. The first was a bring-and-buy room, where one could bring some items to sell, pass it along to the convention workers, and then see if anything had been picked up at the end of the day. I wish I had taken advantage of this, but maybe next time.

The actual vendor hall had seven shops set up, covering everything from terrain to bases, miniatures to books. Having saved up a little spending cash, I took a look around to see if there was anything I wanted. 

If you remember my All Quiet AAR, I played at On Military Matters, who ordered an All Quiet starter set for me. Since I haven't had the opportunity to get over to the store, I was able to pick up the box set at the convention. I don't plan on buying any other All Quiet miniatures, since there are other people in the area who have plenty enough for big community games, but I'll be happy to paint up the human and Martians in the starter and add them to the community resources.

From Maplewood Hobby I bought a few interesting items. The first was a steal that I was surprised no one else had bought yet. It's one of the currently out-of-print Corvus Belli DBA army sets - the Ancient British. These are absolutely stunning miniatures, with plenty of details and not a whole lot of cleaning necessary. It doesn't have any bases in the set, but those are cheap to eventually purchase. And the set, while originally produced for DBA 2.2, is still viable and offers plenty of options for the DBA 3.0 army list.

I also picked up the Blücher rulebook and the Hundred Days card set. I've heard plenty of good things about Blücher, and I'm still looking for a good Napoleonic ruleset. More importantly, I can play Blücher much like I did Kings of War - without any miniatures! The cards are fantastic, covering all the units available during the Hundred Days campaign.

I also got an award for winning the first game in the SAGA tournament - an objective marker/bases with some cool looking runes. I'll trying painting this up with some sort of glowing effect. 

NJCON 2015 - SAGA Tournament AAR

As cool as the participation games looked, the main reason I went to NJCON was the SAGA tournament. Truth be told, I was a little worried, as it had been a while since I've played any SAGA, and I wasn't sure if I was going to get my face smashed into the cloth-covered tables during each of the games.

As it turns out, this couldn't have been further from the truth. The other five players in the tournament were all incredibly nice. They were either looking to get some games of SAGA in after a long time not playing, like me, or hadn't been playing for very long. This gave the tournament a very relaxed air, as everyone was quite happy to get a few games in. 

The warbands were varied but basic, and this tournament could easily have been set during the 800s or 900s in England. There were two Viking players, and one each of Normans, Welsh, Anglo-Dane and Anglo-Saxon. 

My first game was against John and his Normans. He'd taken two units of mounted Hearthguard, two units of mounted Warriors, a unit of crossbow Warriors and a unit of archer Levy. The scenario we played was Sacred Ground, where the three terrain pieces on the table were the objectives. At the end of each opponent's turn, the player would count how many victory points he scored based on how many models he had on the terrain, and what the models were (Hearthguard being worth more than Warriors, Warriors more than Levy, etc.)

On my left, John charged a unit of Warriors across the table and into one of my Warrior units. He managed to to some damage, but in the next turn I had my Berserkers attack. I lost the unit, but the Norman Warriors were reduced down to a single model, and my own Warriors spent the rest of the game chasing after him. 

In the center, my Hearthguard and Warlord planted themselves on the hill. On the right my unit of Levy worked their way into the woods, while the smaller unit of Warriors moved in between the two pieces of terrain. 

From here on, John and I worked away at each other's Warbands. I managed to reduced several of his units down to only two or three models, but never had the ability to actually kill them off. John, meanwhile, managed to destroy both the smaller Warrior units and the big Hearthguard unit. However, as I had scored a large amount of victory points from having my Hearthguard sit on the hill, I did managed to win the scenario. 

My second game was against Cliff and his Anglo-Danes He had two units of Hearthguard (one with Dane Axes), three units of Warriors and a unit of Levy. We played using the normal terrain rules, with a hut being set down on one side of the table and woods on the other. The scenario was the Challenge, where our two Warlord started locked in combat with one another in the center of the table as our warbands came in from behind. 

On the left side I sent a unit of Warriors sneaking through the woods. Cliff countered them with his Dane Axe Hearthguard. The axes fell and the woods were awash with blood. A single Viking Warrior scrambled back out of the woods, with the Danes in hot pursuit.

On the left, a twelve-strong Dane Warrior unit slammed into my Levy, who had ineffectually shot at them. While only managing to cause a couple casualties, Cliff used the "The Push" Battleboard ability and sent a large amount of the unit off the table. I tried attacking with my Berserkers, and while they caused plenty of casualties, but couldn't get rid of the Warrior unit, and I lost my Berserkers in the attack.

In the center, my Hearthguard and Warlord clashed with Cliff's Hearthguard, Levy and Warlord. While Cliff did get his Hearthguard unit into combat with my Warlord, they didn't managed to kill him. I had led Cliff in wounds caused to our Warlords, and I attack with my Hearthguard, killing Cliff's Warlord and winning the game. 

My final game was against Tim and his Vikings. We had both won our previous two games, so the winner of this match was going to be the overall tournament winner. 

Tim's warband had two units of Hearthguard and four units of Warriors - he wasn't messing around with any Levy! We were playing Clash of Warlords, with some slightly altered rules - both warlords would be deployed first, exactly opposite of one another, L length from the table edge. Our two warlords faced off, obviously after some perceived insult or badly received joke in the nearby drinking hall. 

Tim tried to get a unit of Warriors around the left side of the table, behind the drinking hall. I ran my own small unit of Warriors into them. While my unit perished, I also managed to remove Tim's Warriors using the Viking "Loki" ability. 

On my right, the Levy did... nothing. Apparently this game they decided to take up thumb twiddling as a hobby. Guess who's scouring the bottom of the longboat for the rest of the month?

All the action took place in the center as Tim and I traded units. He ran his Berserkers across the table at my own big unit of Hearthguard, but some lucky defense dice kept most of the Hearthguard alive, and they counter-charged and killed the frenzied enemies. My own Berserkers went after Tim's Warlord, but were blocked by some Warriors and died in the melee. Tim and I wore each other's warbands down to only a few models apiece. But it was Tim who emerged victorious when he had his Warlord and few remaining Warriors attack my Warlord, cutting the rival Viking leader down. 

With that, I managed to place fourth overall. While I had won two of the three games I played, ties were decided by slaughter points (i.e., how many enemy models had been killed during the game) and most of my games had been Pyrrhic victories. I didn't walk away empty handed, however, but I'll talk more about that in another post later this week.

Most importantly, I had a great time playing SAGA and meeting some awesome players. We even managed to get some passers-by interested in the game, and at least one was seen walking out of the vendor hall with a rulebook and starter warband in hand.

Personally, this has reinvigorated my interest in SAGA, and I think I'll try pushing it a little harder in my local community. Since I own four warbands already, getting some demo games in shouldn't be that hard. 

NJCON 2015 - Tournament Pre-Game

This weekend I'll be heading over to New Jersey to partake in the NJCON's SAGA Tournament. Each participant will need to bring a six point warband, and there'll be three rounds, each with a different standard SAGA scenario; Sacred Ground, The Challenge, and Clash of Warlords. We'll have 90 minutes to complete each round.

Apart from studying my rulebook - since I haven't played SAGA in some time - I've also had to decide what faction to take. I have six points of fully painted Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh and Normans (although the Normans have some cavalry that need to be painted if I don't want to rely on foot Warriors and Levy archers). Since it's been some time since I've even looked at my SAGA miniatures, I decided to get back to the basics and go with the very first warband I owned, which came back from Ireland with me - the Vikings. Aren't they the reason why people get into Dark Ages wargaming in the first place?

My warband is going to my standard build for the Vikings. Three points of Hearthguard (with one unit of Berserkers), two points of Warriors, and a point of Levy. This allows me to mix things up a bit with the list.

Hearthguard provide a solid block of armored troops in SAGA, although the Vikings have the option for one point of Hearthguard to completely eschew armor and let the red rage take over. I generally write the Berserker Hearthguard off during a game. They tend to slam into a unit and do a bunch of damage, but quickly die at the same time. So they're a glass hammer unit, and I don't think I can count of them for any support as a game goes on.

The other two points of Hearthguard can either act as their own units or be lumped into a single unit of eight. This big unit might only produce a single SAGA die per turn, but it'll be much more difficult to remove from the table, and can be a major threat. The Viking Battleboard has a bunch of abilities to make them hit even harder, or toughen up their defenses. 

The Warriors in a Viking warband are much like the Hearthguard, except they're not as handy in a fight. There's more of them, though, so they have the chance to stick around longer than a four man Hearthguard unit. And again, the Viking Battleboard can make these units into swirling dervishes of pain.

The twelve man unit of Levy was probably the hardest choice to make. I could have replaced them with another unit of Hearthguard or Warriors, but I decided to take the Levy instead. Apparently they're necessary if you're facing Jomsvikings (and while I'm not sure I will be, better safe than sorry), and you can always split a single unit into two units of six if you just want them to sit in a spot and act as a roadblock. Unfortunately, the Viking Battleboard doesn't do much for their Levy, but who wants to waste valuable SAGA dice on a bunch of slaves?

I'm not exactly expecting a stellar performance - from previous experience I'm rubbish in tournament games - but at least I'll get a few games of SAGA in, and get a chance to check out NJCON as well. Wish me luck!

New Places, New Faces - Empire of the Dead AAR

Our Empire of the Dead group had its second campaign day recently, and since I actually made it to the store on time, the group managed to get in a couple games each. 

In the first game, my Lycaons squared off with Bob's gun-wielding Gentlemen's Club. We would be playing a Fracas mission, which basically tasked our gangs with killing off the opposing enemies. Our gangs fought in the countryside, which featured a hedge maze, church, some ruins and a graveyard. As we were deploying in opposite corners, Bob's gang took up position in the cemetery, while my pack walked in through the hedge maze. 

I got really lucky and managed to win the roll to see whether or not the game would be played at night or during the day. Knowing that the 18" line-of-sight rule for nighttime games would greatly affect the ability of Bob's gang and their pistols and rifles, I opted to play at night. 

While the four humans either took the center route through the churchyard or hopped the hedge maze and traveled the long way around, my Wolf, Packmaster and Beastlord traveled together in that respective order. Any shots Bob might get before the wolf pack could get into close combat would have to be directed at the closest model - i.e., the Wolf, which I would happily sacrifice if it meant I could get the two werewolves into close combat.

My plan worked perfectly, with the Wolf soaking up two turns worth of shooting before finally being put down. By that time the Packmaster and Beastlord were in amongst Bob's club members, and body parts and intestines flew through the moonlit air as the werewolves tore into the aristocrats. The gentlemen tried retreating with a running gun battle, but the werewolves superior movement speed meant that the end of the game ended up looking like this:

Bob only managed to get a single model of the table without any damage (luckily for him it was the one armed with the repeating rifle) and his men took some serious injuries in the post game results. I lost my Wolf - it was captured by Bob's gang during the fight. I had the option of attempting to rescue the miniature next time I played Bob, but I had gained so many Shillings from my victory that I just bought a new beast and named it Twowolf. Sister Amelia, the captured and converted nun from Carl's gang, took a rifle round to the chest, but was remarkably uninjured. I used the rest of my winnings to improve some of my gang members, and to give my Beastlord the Bloodlust skill. Now he could hop from a won combat into a new combat, providing him with the ability to avoid being shot at at all if enough enemy gang members were close enough. 

My second game for the day was against Gary's Nosferatu. We were playing in an urban environment, and once again rolled up the Fracas mission. Deployment this time was a straight lines across a table edge, and I deployed by gang in its usual little squads. Gary did the same on the opposite table side. 

I also won the roll to see if it was night or day. Now, Gary had been dealing with a rather poor string of rolls regarding this part of the game, and had only been able to play games during the day. This meant that his head Vampire was forced to shield itself from daylight. This took Gary's faction leader down from being a monstrous creature of the night to a somewhat mediocre fighter who couldn't even take a gun to offset the penalties. Feeling somewhat cocky from my last victory, I decided to give Gary a chance to use his awesome vampire miniature and give his Nosferatu faction a real game - so we played at night.

My gang ran forward, going in pairs apart from the Packmaster who went down the street on the far right. Gary opted to keep most of his gang together, pulling away from the werewolves as they traveled across the right side of the table.

I quickly lost two gang members. The crossbow Wolfskin was downed by the Bat Swarm - Gary was rather pleased by that - and the Graf tore into Sister Amelia, who had forgotten to bring her Holy Symbol. 

As Gary's gang swung around to my left, the two Wolfskins that had gone up the middle were suddenly set upon by a Bat Swarm. Despite having been blinded in the previous campaign game, the Swarm managed to survive several rounds of combat with the Wolfskins, effectively shutting them down and allowing the vampire Graf to charge into the melee. Both Wolfskins went down quickly, unable to keep up with the whirling dervish of blades and fangs.  

Meanwhile, my werewolves and Wolf ran panting through the street, still trying to catch up with the vampire's gang members. The Wolf arrived first, and was filled with lead for its troubles. 

The MVP award for my gang went to Packmaster Silas, who managed to hold off the Vampire and two of the Bat Swarms long enough for the retreating Beastmaster to return and join the fight. Realizing that his Graf was suddenly at a severe disadvantage against the two werewolves, Gary elected to have his gang retreat.

While I technically won, Gary's gang had been so far below my own in its Standing that the bonus Shillings Gary received for playing against me nearly put him at the same amount for the after game results. Unfortunately for me, while Twowolf, Sister Amelia, and Sally (one of the Wolfskins) survived, the other two Wolfskins did not. This was a blow, as the Wolfskins that both had important improvements to their ability scores - the crossbow-armed subordinate had better Marksmanship than the standard grunt, while the other had improved Strength. This was advantageous, since he was armed with an Axe (which further increases a model's strength in close combat) and a Bow, which damage output relies on the Strength of the model wielding it.

While this was problematic, both Wolfskins were easily replaced by new members, and they were outfitted with the old members' equipment. I also decided to get rid of the few stakes in the group (since they hadn't done anything against Gary's vampire) and instead equipped all of the humans with two Axes each. I'm looking forward to seeing how this increases their melee ability in future games.