Food, Fighting and Fun!!!

When one paints a lot of miniatures, whether they be for commission work or for personal use, it is a needful thing to get them on the table-top (at some point) and put them to good use!

Last night was a venerable free-for-all of Warhammer 40k!  The battle was taken from the rulebook, 6th ed. pg 364, called "Pact of Blood" where any and all armies are welcome, and (upon arrival) are then teamed-up into likely, or unlikely, allies!

We ended up with: 1) Tau, 2) Chaos, 3) Dark Eldar, 4) White Scar Space Marines, 5) Space Wolves, and 6) Inquisition Grey Knights!  We had experienced vets, as well as noobs wanting to learn how to play... great fun had for all!

Everyone showed up with a standard army list of 650 points not knowing really what to expect, or how things were going to go down!

The "good guys" comprised of Zach, John and myself fielded an army comprised of Space wolves, White Scars mounted on bikes, and some deep striking Grey Knights with an Inquisitor Lord.

The "bad guys" were comprised of Hunter, Mitch, and Leon fielding the Tau, Chaos and Dark Eldar (respectively).... here is Hunter's Tau behemoth, which was a rather devastating factor with it's heavy plasma blasters, until my Grey Knights landed! hee hee hee!

Some of Mitch's Chaos cultists and Greater Daemon of Khorne getting ready to fire it up, and take to the air! (Vector striking by Daemon flyers is nasty!)

 

 Leon's Dark Eldar Ravagers roll an insane amount of dice when shooting, turning the opposition (the good guys) into Swiss cheese!  Kor'sarro Kahn and his bikers never get off the front line! Sheesh!

Of course, John had his own venerable collection of dice with which to choose from as well! :D

Mitch's Chaos Hell Drake blowing up the Scar's Rhino troop transport, forcing the tactical squad inside to disembark and get out and stand and fight!

Zach the "noob" whose entire force (save the deep-striking terminators) was wiped out in turn one, is now gleefully getting ready for revenge on Hunter's Tau forces!

Deep striking terminators coming out of a drop pod... an opponent's worst nightmare!

Hunter's reaction after Zach drops in, making short work of what remains of Hunter's Tau forces! Oh the joy of one' first draw of blood on the battlefield! LOL!!!

The pinnacle of the battle was (of course) getting the greater Daemon into a fight with my Inquisitor Ordo Malleus Lord who, tragically, ended up perishing at the hand's of Khorne!  To my defense, the Inquisitor had already taken two wounds from no less than four squads, over 60 dice rolls to shoot, and making MULTIPLE saves leaving the daemon only "1" wound to contend with! (I'll get him next time!!! Grrrr!)

However, to Mitch's surprise, I did manage to turn him into a little-itty-bitty spawn creature upon getting sucked into the warp, turning his 350+ point model into a 45 point model, that the John could now step on like the inconsequential "bug" that he was!!! Sooooo... I still got my revenge!!! Glory for the Emperor!!!!

Here is the lot of us (I am the vertically challenged one in the middle!), talking smack, hamming it up, with Hunter and Zach still throttling each other after a hard-fought battle!  To quote Lord Baden Powell, this is what "boys" love to get together and do: Food, Fighting and Fun!  "That is the world of the boy!  I guess as one grows into manhood... some things still don't go away!

A Drunken Brawl!

I can honestly say, that while being part of a gaming store/environment is loads of fun... it seriously hampers (at times) my ability to get done what needs to be done!  I think it was a few minutes after midnight last evening when I finally kicked out the last of our 'dwarven' role-players! *wink*

Luckily, in addition to getting several minis completed, I was able to finish up the 'Cutlass' terrain as well as the miniatures in preparation for a random encounter... as luck would have it, my studiously disciplined gang of Royal Marines were preparing for a rumble when the Admiral stumbled into a group of scurvey dogs, and ended up in a drunken brawl!  The rules specifically state "any model that draws their weapons automatically lose the encounter!  This is an all-out first fight!"

Here are my marines, with Admiral Dylan Lloyd preparing for battle...

 

A bird's eye view of battle preparation...

 

Unable to hold their grog (or use their weapons), my Navy Captain, and Marines start tripping and taking themselves out of the rumble... the dice mark "stunned" results!

(click any pic to enlarge)

 

The Admiral is being swarmed by Captain McBride's scurvy crew of pirates, with the ever-lovin' Captain sneaking up from behind... what a scoundrel!

 

Well, with all of my Marines down (or taken out), it was obvious that the Royal Navy are not as good at holding their grog as the Captain McBride's crew are... it was a notoriously disastrous wipe for my men, with McBride making off with weapons, loot and about $110 with of my purse!  Easy come, easy go!

 

Overall, it was a tremendous amount of fun learning the new gaming system.  I really like the stat-die rolls as opposed to stat characteristics, as it adds a bit more of randomness to the game... but more importantly, a critical success adds successive rolls allowing for a common sailor to do some rather heroic things! Good fun... check it out!

(For a quick tutorial on how to play "Cutlass" click here!)

Aaargh! Ye Scurvey Pirates Impeded Me Progress!

I am rapidly learning that if I do not get my posts up early enough on Saturday morning, it will not happen until there is a break in the crowd at the local game store where I provide my services for mini painting; today was no exception! 

The determining factor (however), came as a polite request from the store owner (who is noticeably NOT quite as game savvy as I am) to help demo "Cutlass" from Black Scoprion Minis--a pirate skirmisher game which I have been longing to delve into... so it did not take much of a nudge!

 

Here is the rulebook, written by Gav Thorpe and Adam Clarke...

 

The game-play is a miniaturized table-top skirmisher (48"x48") with two, or more pirate gangs, duking it out for loot, fame and fortune!  Here is an 'example' of what one hopes for, terrain wise...

(click any pic to enlarge! :D)

 

But this is what we actually had to work with... improvised terrain! (If you squint really hard, they almost look similar!)

My Naval forces captained by Admiral Dylan Lloyd!

My opponant's privateer forces captained by Privateer Captain James McBride!

My opponant's ginormous Chessex dice, which I had to beg him NOT to use!

 

While I was not able to work through an entire "encounter" (as the rulebook refers to a 'one-off' game), I did get a feel for the game and the strategy that must be used to play it; in a nut shell, your commander gives you a number of 'player actions' that allow your gang members to move, fire, etc... but once you 'fail' then your opponent starts to use their 'action points' to do the same and play continues this way until your goals are accomplished for fame, and fortune!

 

The thing that is intriguing is that your roster is a 'living' roster, ie; you lose a gang member to death or disease and he/she comes off of your roster!  You must watch your fame (or infamy) rating, and keep your treasure trove well stocked to avoid mutiny!  I am intrigued by the game play, and am excited to get some more time in on it!

 

I also went here to get a bit more info on how the game plays, and found these good ol' blokes to be helpful!: http://www.beastsofwar.com/cutlass/play-cutlass/

 

Here are some more on the minis, and rules at:

(click the pic to go to the link)

 

 At any rate (needless to say), painting was put on a bit of the back-burner today... and truthfully, it was a welcome break! Catch ya'll on Monday! :D