Friday, April 5, 2019

Adepticon 2019 The Narrative Guys 40K game

Last Adepticon I saw a table 40K game that was on several tables and looked like a recreation of that  book/movie/real life event Blackhawk Down. A small chat later and I learned this was a group called The Narrative Guys. They do large narrative/themed 40K games. I was bummed I didn’t get a chance to try that game, but I did manage to sign up for their game at Adepticon 2019.

This year’s game was titled Nurgle Don’t Surf! I knew (and many more of you out there should know) that this was going to be some Apocalypse Now themed game.
Here a group of Space Wolves needs to travel down a jungle river and stop a traitor guard captain/ Colonel Krutz from doing a bunch of Chaos shenanigans. A patrol boat would carry a Rune Priest and Wolf Priest to the end of the river to confront the chaos themed Colonel Krutz. Along the way Space Wolf units would need to run interference for whatever the jungle was going to throw at us (Nurgle stuff). There were four players vs. two guys running the Nurgle stuff and the game.

We had four squads two heavy weapon filled squads and a regular squad with the Rune Priest and two close combat squads and some jump packing plasma pistol thing squads for the Wolf Priest. I have no idea what these units are anymore since they have all been reimagined and renamed since I quit 40K. I happily took over the close combat units for the Wolf Priest, but was also given the three man giant plasma pistol jump pack squad too. Maybe these were some sort of Primaris Marine thingies?

The goal was to get the two HQ units on the boat and delivered to the shrine at the end of the river. We were also tasked with getting the jump plasma guns and heavy weapons five man squad to the end as well (more for support than anything else).

The pics will detail a lot of the game.


Where it starts......

.....and where it ends in the far left corner.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Adepticon 2019 Dust 1947 tourney after action report


Well I jumped into my first gaming tournament since…well….maybe nine years prior at Adepticon.
I have to say….I did not miss the tournament scene.

Alright so the Paradise Lost Narrative and fun/friendly Dust 1947 Tournament Saturday at Adepticon will more than likely be the last of that tournament which I’ll participate.
Why?

Well it was anything but “friendly.” There were several guys with list crushing armies and I had the pleasure of playing one of them in my second game.

My first game I had to play a kid, maybe 12 years old. Ugh. I don’t hate kids, but I damn sure didn’t want to play in a tournament against one. Why? It is a lose/lose scenario. If I beat the kid…then hooray I beat a kid. If I lost…then I’m a goon for losing to a kid. It was lose/lose and karma would remind me of that in my second game.
As the game played out I systematically dismantled his army, and I felt horrible doing it. I wasn’t trying to table this kid. I was playing the scenario and he wasn’t. I even reminded him a couple times that he needed to grab the objectives. I tried to help him, yet he was trying to wipe my army and doing a poor job of it. I outnumbered him roughly 3-1. He came at my zombies hard and was torn apart by numbers. Soon, I had achieved my objectives and had nothing left to do but finish his last three units and deny him his objectives. I left this child with only two smoking wrecked vehicles on the board. Hooray for me! I wiped the floor with a kid (insert thumbs down with a wet fart noise).

Onto game two and three where Karma proves to be a bitch goddess...giving with one hand and taking with the other.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Adepticon 2019 - Through the Breach RPG




Through the Breach is an RPG set in the gaming world of Malifaux. You know that crazy Victorian times meets Old West, Steampunk, fantasy, magic stuff and some Lovecraftian horror game setting. It all sounds like a giant mess of genres tossed together……and it is. I have played a few games of the tabletop game and thought why not give the RPG a try. Especially outside of a convention I’ll never get a chance to try it.

I grabbed a pre-gen character from a stack, one Mr. Balahadra Raju a fated dabbler…which meant I was some sort of spell caster from India. .  I did my best not to just channel Mola Ram and Apu. I could go all astral plane out of body. I could also summon eldritch tentacles toy throttle my enemies. Plus I had a creepy human skull that I drew my power from/ acted as my spell focus/ spell book. I joined up with an old west-ish gunslinger and large beefy Scandinavian woman with a steampunk artificial arm and a pension for smashing stuff. We were hired to investigate an iron mine out in the wastes where more than just rock was being brought to the surface. We did discover what was going on, yet my character’s survival at the end of the game was really up in the air. Between the attacks from a giant shadow jumping spider and being shot (by accident) by the mining camp captain of the guard while fighting said spider, I was “unconscious” and hauled out from the mine.
It was a pretty straight forward convention game. You know where you have some roll play talkie bits, some combat and some type of skills challenge. It moved fast and we were a well-oiled team. It helped only having three players that kept on track. It made for a very enjoyable game.

Through the Breach uses the Malifaux suit modified deck of cards…or Fate Deck instead of dice. Here you flip a card and add the number to whatever skill, attack roll, spell etc. that you are trying to use.  The players also have a small hand of cards they can use to “cheat fate” by playing a higher card or suit than what was originally flipped. It makes for a very different mechanic than using a handful of dice. Especially, the “cheat fate” bit because you can alter the card draw and make sure you pass that skill or hit that monster with your attack.
 
The best, Red Joker, and the worst, Black Joker, cards in the game.
Guess which one I drew three times during this game...
If I knew more about this game world and had interested people I wouldn’t mind running Through the Breach. Ideally, I would rather play than run the game though. It checks a lot of my pop culture boxes; Old West, horror, magic, fantasy, steam punk and Lovecraft stuff. 

Monday, April 1, 2019

Post Adepticon 2019 week


Dog walking through the shot added for scale I guess.
The loot bag was pretty stupid again this year. Not only did it include a few models, bases and paint, but it also came with the Level 7 Invasion game, The stating set for A Song of Fire and Ice (the Game o' Thrones tabletop battle game), a full warband plus their dice for Shadowspear/ Nightvault from G.W. , and a complete Guild Ball team. That is all cool, but they are games I will never play. Here is hoping the local gaming community wants this and if not.... there is always Ebay.


Nothing says dystopian future full of nonstop horrible war like an activity book! 
However, I do like the fact they have 40K stories for the kids. It is a great way to try and hook them into the hobby while they are young, impressionable and still have some semblance of imagination.


I only bought 4 models from Reaper and that was it for the entire weekend. 
The brain in jar model is just great stuff and they will make fantastic objective markers from my Dust Blutkreuz army.
The chi bi Cthulhu models are going to be painted as statues to go with the statue and Cthulhu pillars I bought from Reaper last Adepticon.

I'll get pics and posts of my adventure up this week.


Friday, March 29, 2019

Adepticon Dust 1947 Axis Army

An over head shot of my Adepticon Dust 1947 army for the Paradise Lost Tournament this weekend.
I have a healthy swarm of melee zombies to be a first wave meat shield. They will be followed by my weaponized zombie troopers with heavy weapons and my walkers. The second wave of zombies is also able to grab objectives.


Blutkreuz Army List
Bluetkruez Zombie Schwarm Platoon
Totenmeister                      9AP
Zombie Squad x7                  35 AP 

Bluetkreuz Krampfgruppe Von Stein's Platoon
Frank Von Stein                    8 AP 
Zombie grenadier Squad x2  18 AP
Zombie Suicide Sqaud x2      16 AP
Henrich Tropical walker x2   16 AP
Flammluther II                       13 AP

Total Points: 107 (with 10% faction bonus)

I figure with a army based on two waves might work. Hopefully, I can tie down units with mindless fearless and resilient troops. Then my guns can walk on to counter attack. 
Granted if I am up against heavy vehicles and/or aircraft I will be at a real disadvantage. I have a few guns to plink at aircraft and a few rpg's for some small and mid range vehicles. The bigger stuff I am gonna be screwed if it drives up across the board from me. 

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Dust 1947 why this is my new tabletop game

I entered the tabletop mini gaming world in the twilight of Warhammer 40K 3rd edition. I dabbled, briefly, in Mordheim. I then was pulled into the Lord of the Rings mini game. Then I bounced back to 40K from 4th to the beginning of 6th. I then jumped to Hordes and Warmachine. I dove head first into X-Wing. I was introduced to Infinity. I tried Malifaux and Atherium a few times. last year at Adepticon I tried a few games of Dust 1947. I really enjoyed the game play and whole minutia about it.I then decided this will be my new tabletop game (along with the occasional 1st edition X-Wing games).

What is Dust 1947?
This was once Dust and then Dust Tactics and now is actually called Paolo Parente's Dust 1947.
It is table top miniature combat game set in a alternate and wyrd WWII.
Throw in the typical WWII stuff we know with the Axis and Allies bit. Take out all the Hitler, Nazis and all the horrors they committed. Toss in a helping of crashed alien spacecraft found in Antarctica technology. The rise, recruitment and actual summoning of  Elder creatures from a Cthulhu style cult. Add a lot walkers instead of tanks. Then mix in jet packs, rocket fists, chesty mercenaries with flame throwers, laser weapons, armored battle suits, tesla guns, helicopters and all manner of silliness. Finally grab a ton of D6's and pair of battle mats and you have yourself a game know as  Paolo Parente's Dust 1947.


Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Adepticon week




Well Adepticon is here again and I am attending for the third year in a row.
I have signed up for four events one of them being a Dust 1947 tournament.
A tournament at a convention?!?!?
What was I thinking? I know how this will end.
I was thinking I want to play some more games. This is only three games, not a big time sink and will only eat a few hours of my day, not the entire time. 
Plus I have no aspirations of winning and watching this last year it looked like a super chill tournament. This isn't a giant 40K game, it is a small niche game with a community (so far of like minded relaxed people. I can get behind that. 

I'm really looking forward to Friday and Saturday to get away from normalcy to play some games and look at a lot of amazing models.