Adepticon 2017, pretty stuff I saw ( mostly models)

Infinity terrain and a lot of it.

They know how to dress a table.

 Have tried Infinity and it is just too much for me.

Too many rules and a way too unforgiving game play.

Still pretty terrain and models.

Best idea for  old dice towers.

Making them advertisment displays is beyond simple and pure genius!

Adepticon 2017, what I played

I was only here for a morning and afternoon, so I only tried two games. I spent the majority of the day wandering and looking at models.

I did try Eden though.

These guys have a ton of really fun and awesome models. I did get a quick demo in run from a friendly French lady. Yeah I had no idea this was a French company. I also never knew the French weren’t A-holes. Guess stereotypes aren’t always accurate. Well besides my white ass not being able to dance or jump.

Any way Eden. Quick thoughts.

Great miniatures.   = Always a positive draw. Model range of armies/gangs/clans are fairly unique. Plus it doesn’t just look and feel like other type of Space Marine, Knights, Army, various type of elf/dwarf/ork, brutish mutants guys etc. Sure there are nods to pop culture, but not too many to pull away from their aesthetic.

Small table set-up. = Great for ease of play. Small amount of terrain. Easy to find available room to play.

Small model count. = Always happy lower cost. Easier and faster to get painted and playing

All of these point to a game I would really get behind.

Game play is a you go, I go, you go, model activation.

Models have multiple  activation points. Move. Attack, Shoot, Special skills and all that to do on a model turn.

Played a simple 3 on 3 fight between demented circus performers and Lovecraftian fishmen.

A D6 game with base number to hit, randomized location number for hit, damage roll for location hit. So… D6 hit, D6 to where hit combat. Fairly simple.

Quick demo so the basis of game was covered. Of course there are a myriad of other rules and abilities to explore. Still if I had more time, more free money and players I could/would have gotten behind this game.

Eden models that peak the interest.

Adepticon 2017 Crystal Brush pics

Nothing much to say here.

Sit back and enjoy all the pretty models.

Adepticon 2017 swag bag

Well first was the stuff I bought. The Cryx command book was there so of course I grabbed that. They also had Mortenebra 2 there and why not grab her too? Well she is a giant robot centipede and that looks cool. The bit and building of her will suck beyond measure.

Then there was the swag bag. Well I didn’t buy  a copy of Warmachine Prime since the rules from Hordes Primal are minimal. Still, if you give me a copy of it, I’ll happily take it. 

A rule book for Flames of War, an adorable 40K activity book and a novel based on the Wild West Exodus game was also stashed away.

Adepticon 2017

Heading up to Schamburg this morning.

Doing a one day quick trip due to time constraints.

CURSE YOU REAL WORLD!!

Anyhoo. Back next week with pics and maybe a tale.

D&D post game 3-18 (longer than usual)

Our intrepid group of adventures was hired for a quick run down into the dwarven steam tunnel labyrinth in search of lost ruins.

 A upper lower level archaeologist hired them for a guard detail for a paltry 10 gold a day. Well it could have been more, but the charisma filled bard really botched the negotiation roll. Like amazingly bad. 

 A two day rail car ride and the gang plus archeologist made it to the abandoned section of tunnel and found the doorway to the supposed Halls of Healing.

 Strange that the doors looked to have been opened more recently than a few hundred years? Plus what was that lingering smell of ammonia or chlorine about?

 Well with no stealth involved at all they opened the doors and marched into the empty hall and into a trio of ogres. As the last ogre fell, a door in the next room flew open and a deep voice bellowed.

 “What is all the noise?”

The voice came from a hill giant who had a couple more ogres in tow that were all too keen to stop whomever was intruding. The party positioned themselves in the hallway to receive the bulk of the big brutes heading their way.  The ogres engaged while the hill giant tossed hunks of broken statuary at the party. The ogres fell quickly, but they and the previous trio did their best to wear down the adventurers. The hill giant waded into combat to try and finish the job. He swung a  hunk of tree as a club and tried to put the monk and bard in the ground, but just couldn’t get the job done. A few minutes later and five ogres and a giant lay dead.

Now they entered the entryway to the Halls of Healing. It didn’t look as abandoned as they were told. It seems that the big guys had been living here for some time. Lukas the archeologist started his study of the area, while the party looted bodies and searched the area. This is also where the ½ orc in the barbarian really came out to play.

As Lukas was exploring various alcoves he discovered one was being used as a privy for the ogres/giant. The barbarian shoved him and of course the archeologist fell into a pile of ogre excrement.

The party move onto tot explore the  room the giant came from. Here they found the official living quarters. A stew of goblin and orc bits was simmering in a large cauldron. They also found various fur, bits of bone, wagon wheels, various rocks for tossing at people, a few empty and one half full wine casks and bag full of various animal parts that might be snack food. They abandoned the room to move on to the next room.

Here they found a small raised reflecting pool and a hole in the floor about 10’ across and very very  deep. As they searched the room, Lukas came in to look at the statues near  the reflecting pool and to examine the dwarven design of the stonework surrounding the pool. It was here that the barbarian shoved the archeologist in the pool. As he was enjoying the  wet and sputtering human, the sound of a lot of scratching was heard coming from the hole in the floor.

It was then that an explosion of humanoids burst from the hole. They were mostly naked or had some manner of animal skin on them. They were thin, grey to mottled in skin color. Some held small crude weapons, while others had long filthy finger nails. The most striking feature though was their lack of eyes. 

They leapt upon the party as they came out of the hole, clawing, swinging of trying to bite anyone they could. The first group was put down quickly, but seconds later a second wave of them sprang forth to continue the assault. The barbarian using his brute strength began dropping statues down the hole. This seemed to slow the creatures down a bit and killed a few in the process. However, they still kept climbing up to get to the tasty party of heroes. The barbarian then started to destroy the pool to send a wave of water flowing down the hole, and to destroy the structure to annoy the archaeologist . The party kept the creatures at bay and at the same time Lukas ran back and started to slowly push the giant cauldron from the previous room.

The majority of the party went to help and speed up the cauldron pushing. At the same time, the barbarian decided to wander off down a nearby hall way. He discovered a flight of stairs and headed down them.

The rest of the party got the cauldron to and into the hole. It careened down and finally got wedged in real good. Thus blocking the hole and stopping the onslaught of the bitey humanoids.

Kong: Skull Island

The year 1973. Vietnam is ending. Is there a better time to go explore and uncharted tropical island with John Goodman?

I think not.

Welcome to Kong: Skull Island.

Yeah the gist of the movie is that this Skull Island was previously a myth, but was detected by U.S. satellites. The Monarch group is wanting to go explore said island to look for a big o’ monster that may be living there. Sure they pass this off as looking for medicine, fossil fuels, resources or to just keep the Ruskies from finding it first.

All they need is some government cash, an army helicopter company for escort, a bunch of scientist who are actually mapping the area, a female photographer and an ex-S.A.S. scout turned merc to get them around the island. It all seems like a proverbial “milk run.” Well, that is until the scientists start dropping seismic charges to map the island, and to accidentally/ on purpose flush out any giant monsters that might live there too.

Quick photo of the expendable characters.....

D&D pre-game 3-18

Far and wide within the underground dwarf roadways…..

A steam powered rail car slows to a stop. The venting of steam clouds the tunnel for several seconds. A lone figure leaps from the car and aims a crossbow down the tunnel.

No movement.



No sound but the steam engine cooling behind him and a few dwarves milling about.

He stows the crossbow, readies a lantern and adjusts his armored greatcoat.

Lukas Fudderer, Archelogy Assistant 1^st Class ( quite the upgrade since his adventures months ago in the dwarf tunnels ) begins to survey the tunnel walls.

“It just has to be here somewhere” he whispered to himself.

His research and study have to be correct. If there was a secret door to the halls above it had to be here.

Book report, Soth version

Knight of the Black Rose

Well I picked this up again, because I have been missing the Dragonlance stuff as of late. This is not a pure Dragonlance tale, but it does involve one of the best characters from the series, Lord Soth.

This is/was a crossover novel at the time. Dragonlance was stupid popular and TSR (the D&D people back in the day) had introduced a new realm, Ravenloft. This was their gothic horror/Universal monsters world for D&D. I guess they thought it a good idea to pull a popular Dragonlance undead guy into this world to stir interest at the time.

Enough of the why this book happened and to the book.

We get a new tale on Lord Soth one of the cooler tragic characters in fantasy literature. We get a look at the ending events of the “Twins” Dragonlance series and what Lord Soth was up too after the closing of those novels. Then just throw in a rando curve ball and transport Lord Soth to Barovia (not Transylvania) via some magic creepy fog. Why? Well why not? It is never truly explained, but you just go ahead with it.

Lord Soth now has to find a way home. This means dealing with not Dracula/ Count Strahd Von Zarovich, the vampiric ruler of Barovia. The become friends, then enemies and then frenemies with a common goal. Toss in a gypsy woman and dwarf werebadger as Soth’s companions for good measure. Why? Why not?!

The real crux of the story is that Soth is trying to leave and Ravenloft and has to work with/against Strahd to get that accomplished.

A not terrible story since I love me some Lord Soth and Strahd. Sure it was a pretty lame attempt to drum up interest in a now defunct D&D realm, but it is just wyrd enough that makes for a fun read.

TK421 where is your helmet?

Grabbed the Imperial Stormtrooper helmet from the Star Wars Black Series.

Really sweet looking.

 Of course I had to try it on for a while.

Really tight fit on a normal adult sized melon.

Super hard to see out of too.

Still it didn't matter as I wore this around the house to annoy the family and terrorize the pets.

The voice modulator is pretty lame, but I'm using this as sweet basement decor.

Now to get a blaster painted to go along with this.

LOGAN

The not too distant future, you know where everything is the same and few bits are different. The X-men and mutants are no more.

Well except for an aged and ill Wolverine, a mentally addled and ill Professor Xavier and for some reason Caliban. Why Caliban? I have no idea, but he is played by Stephen Merchant and he must have needed work?

The gist of the tale is Wolverine is old, sick, drunk and now a limo driver. He works in the Southwest and lives in the middle of nowhere Mexico. He lives with Caliban and they both care for an old, ill and mentally broken Charles Xavier. It all seems to sort of be working until Logan is approached by a Latino lady looking for his help. Then he is approached by a guy named Donald with a robot hand looking for the same Latino lady.

Jump ahead said lady has a mute kid travelling with her and wanting a ride to the Dakotas. Then it just so happens the addled Xavier has been mentally chatting with this girl, Laura and she is a mutant in need of help. Laura of course falls in Logan’s lap and now he has to deal with her, Donald and his cyborg buddies, a road trip, his illness, the Professor’s illness, self-driving big rigs, a company called Transigen, the not New New Mutants and a (sadly) disappointing big bad.

This is Logan in a nutshell.

Grymkin I decide to weigh -in

New faction for Hordes and the first looks have been out for a bit. I didn’t jump on to give my thoughts right away. I waited and gave the preview a trio of looks.

I think I can finally weigh in with my opinion now.

The new Grymkin faction, if I had to give a percentage of how much I care for it…it would be 15% for and 85% against.

I like a few of the models, but that is about it.

I mean this guy…. …..and the unnamed dog beast both have a great creepy look to them.

Also how could I not supports a giant knife wielding monster who wears the skin of his victims? 

I simply have to get behind that.

Um…then there is the brute that carries cages into battle? Well that might have a good bit of fluff behind it, and it might look neat-o too. However, it is just silly in application. Does he just swing the cages around? Does he just head-butt everybody? How is this guy supposed to fight? 

Then there is the warcaster called the…  he looks more at home in the Hel Dorado or Kingdom Death range of models instead of Warmachine and Hordes.
Not a fan of this guy. Hell, he could even be a Tzeencth hero for age o’ Sigmar too.
Blerg!