Well, a bit of it is.
The First saturday of the month is normally a God of Battles scrap or three over at Foundry in Notts. Unfortunately, they’re all out at a convention at the weekend so we’re going to have to postpone our carnage. The crows will have to go hungry for a while.
Exactly when we’ll be postponing it to I’m not sure yet. I’m waiting for Foundry to confirm a date. I’ll let you know when I hear from them.
I guess I’ll just have to work on Eternal Battle instead.
It’s a hard life 😉
I spent today down at Mantic HQ with a bunch of 16 playtesters, battling through the Mars Attacks scenarios once more to see if there were any final tweaks and clarifications needed. As Mantic are overflowing their current office space the gamers had to cram themselves and their battlefields into every spare corner of the photography room, corridors and so on. Meanwhile, I clambered about over cases of figures and piles of photography equipment to make my rounds of the various games.
And what a lot of games!
Most folk managed 6 or more during the day, plus several briefing and de-briefing sessions and a final show and tell. So it was a busy day. It was also a very useful day in terms of finessing things, and I’d like to offer a hearty thank you to all who attended. The game will be better because of your efforts.
I won’t bother you with details, other than to say that there was nothing major to fix. It was, instead, a case of a slight tweak here and an extra line of explanation there. All these things will go to make things clearer in the final product, which is great. As ever, it was interesting to hear two groups tell me that the same scenario was unwinnable from both sides (so it was perfectly balanced ;P ).
After all the Mars Attacks was done for the day, we had a group of tired, but happy folk, who were still remarkably alert. That was intriguing in itself as the end of a day of normal tournament play (where you might play 3 or perhaps 4 games at a pinch) usually sees a room of zombies at the end of the day. Anyway, as people weren’t chafing at the bit to leave or so zonked they couldn’t speak, I ran one of the core concepts for DreadBall Xtreme past them to see how they coped while Stew did a show and tell with some cool models and art. A useful straw poll for us, and a nice little bonus for those that attended and helped out with MA.
And no, I can’t tell you what those things were. Not yet. But you don’t have long to wait now…
Better version. Changed Bjarg’s outfit to just do the drop armour bit, and not anything fancy once he’s arrived. That tidies things up a bit.
Edit: ignore this and look at the next version instead.
Like it says, here’s some more mercs plus the last lot again. I’ve reworked Eddak P’mera and left the other two as they were.
The issue with Bjarg’s flight suit and having to hold the model in mid air only happens when someone successfully overwatches against him in mid flight. The only alternative I can see is banning overwatch against him in flight, and that just seems odd and unreasonable. Consequently, I’ve left this as it was. Personally, I don’t think it’s an issue in actual play.
As ever, let me know what you think
I expect that many of you have seen this already, but if not you should go and take a look.
The elite forces of the Corporation, Rebels and Marauders are the best they have to offer, but even these outstanding warriors sometimes run into enemies they find a challenge. Asterian and Forge Father armies have fought across the stars since Humanity was grubbing around in the mud, banging rocks together to try and make fire. It’s not surprising that individuals in their elite units are often better than their Human counterparts.
In response to this, High Command sometimes calls a Code 13 mission. These are more challenging than normal missions and the chances of failure are higher. For this reason, more resources are available.
You can play individual scenarios or whole campaigns as Code 13. Just decide among yourselves whether you would like to play normal size or Code 13 games.
The game changes are as follows:
1) If you are playing a campaign then your initial Strike Force is 200 points instead of 140. You get one extra initial clearance. There are no other changes. This will give you more models, but their improvement will be more gradual.
2) Whenever a scenario defines a Strike Team as 70 points, you get 100 points instead. If the Strike Team is a different cost then it is limited by other aspects of the combat environment and does not change.
3) If the scenario is won using standard mission cards then the winning threshold is 13VPs not 10. Some missions may even need the Intel to be achievable. Nobody said Code 13 was easy!
Note that these changes apply to every faction, not just the Corporation. With their superior technology and unparalleled intelligence gathering, neither the Forge Fathers nor Asterians are commonly surprised by these larger enemy Strike Teams and move to oppose them with powerful units of their own.
You’ve seen the art, and possibly even the models. Here are the rules:
This instalment covers 3 new mercs: Eddak P’mera, Chief Radgrad, and Bjarg Starnafall. P’mera and Bjarg are both scouts, though quite different ones. Radgrad is a killer.
Comments welcome.
A local air compressor company is having a competition that you might have seen kicking about the net – they certainly seem to be doing a fair job of promoting it. If you haven’t, then why not head on over to have a go?
I’ve nothing to do with this other than passing on the info, and will, in fact, be entering it if I can work out what my favourite model is.
The prize is called Bambi, which amused me. Doesn’t look quite like I remember the little chap though. Maybe it’s the nostalgia. I’ve not heard of these before so I can’t tell you how well it works, but as it retails for over £300 I can’t see it being shoddy. And, if it was free I’d be happy to try it out 😉
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this is to send/tweet/Facebook them a photo of your favourite model (and why it is your fave). Full rules on their site.
The closing date is the 30th of Jan.
Best of luck!
Not by me, either, which is fun. I’ve not tried these yet, but I’m sure Mr Dixon would be happy to hear any feedback if you had a chance to play through them yourself.
http://nfrdixon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/unholy-assassination-scenario-for-dwarf.html
http://nfrdixon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/prison-break-dwarf-kings-hold-sc.html
I’m sure there must be a few more fan-written DKH scenarios kicking about the net. Does anyone have any links they’d like to share? I can then add these to the DKH page so everyone can reference them 😉
Here’s another one from the toy pile. This time it’s the Monk With A Thousand Hands, again from Darkhammer Miniatures.
This model shares many similarities of packaging, detail of sculpting and quality of casting with the undead samurai. I won’t repeat all that here other than to say that it’s a very nice piece indeed and I’m very happy to have it.
As you can see, he comes in quite a few bits so there’s some assembly to do. Lots of great details here. Continuing the asiatic undead/demonic theme, the monk has his Buddhist prayer beads and is clearly a peaceful fellow. I’m also intrigued that they’ve modelled the flames on his head (which is on fire – see the art above). That’ll be a challenge to paint well.
Whilst the undead samurai is simply another incarnation of a familiar undead warrior, this monk is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Now I don’t claim to be particularly up on the latest in oriental demons, so that’s perhaps not surprising. He does look cool though, and very much the stuff of nightmares. What would you use him for? Well apart from the obvious use as a display piece there are games like Bushido which I’m sure could find a corner for him. I’ll be using him in both GoB and Eternal Battles. For GoB I’d like the undead to have a wide mix of cultural backgrounds, and the odd demon wouldn’t go amiss as a hero. Alternatively, you could use him as a statue. He would make a nice focal point for some evil sanctuary, and if he happened to come to life when the adventurers triggered the trap, or upset the sorcerer…
All in all it’s another very nice offering from Darkhammer.
Why is his head on fire?
Quirkworthy 