Geektactica

My New Terrain Board

2011-12-03T14:15:00.003-03:30

I finally got around to building a new 3x4 ft terrain board. I don't mind my gaming mat, but there are a couple of issues, especially when it comes to Adventure games.

First of all, the 4x4 ft gaming area requires quite a lot of terrain to fill. Furthermore, the uniform green surface meant, without terrain in every corner, the table could look quite bland. However, with the slightly smaller surface (which will make no difference with Adventure games) I can get away with far less terrain and, in turn, start bringing the Adventure games out to geek night more regularly again.
Here's a shot overlooking the bulk of the table. As you can see, it's a mixed brown and green surface. Also, I can accentuate certain areas by building and fence placement to give the sense of roads.

We have a new geek in the group and, in addition to already ordering the miniatures for his first Impetus army, he's shown some serious interest in Chaos in Carpathia as well. If we ever end up with four regular players in attendance on Saturday nights, I think we'll play a 6-game mini-campaign in the new year. I'll keep you posted and, as always...

Thanks for reading,

JET

First 400-point Impetus Game Against Marc's English

2011-11-24T21:49:00.002-03:30

After a long yet steady road, Marc finally had his completed army for Impetus ready last Saturday night. It was with great excitement that we deployed our 400-point armies and got down to business. Here were the forces we used:

Marc's English (399 pts)

Average CS, Charismatic General x1, Fair General x1
Longbowmen (T) x6 (two units were Discipline A)
Dismounted Men-at-arms (FP) x2
Welsh Spearmen (FL) x3
Breton Javelins (S) x2
King and Household (CP) x1
Hobilars (CM) x1
Cohesion re-roll x1

My Free Company (398 pts)

Average CS, Fair General x2
Longbowmen (T) x3
Dismounted Men-at-arms (FP) x4
Peasants (FP) x2
English Mounted Knights (CP) x1
French Mounted Knights (CP) x2
Crossbowmen (S) x2
Breton Javelins (S) x3
Cohesion re-roll x1

The battlefield was a wide open plain with some gentle rolling hills. The bulk of the game (which was a long one for Impetus) saw Marc's force trying to occupy and defend a hill while I tried to drive his defenders from their entrenched position.

My impetous knights advanced under the cover of skirmishers toward Marc's right flank.

Marc wasted no time in advancing his infantry line to the hill. With all of those longbows threatening me at range, I had no choice by to advance and engage.

Breton skirmishers formed my first wave and, it must be said, they did an admirable job of tying up and disordering the enemy archers.

The fleet-footed Welsh charged out from behind Marc's archers and drove most of my skirmishers back towards my line.

In the meantime, Sir Jonathan Deere led an assault from my right flank towards the enemy cavalry. It was an interesting back and forth affair which I eventually won.

Although my French knights found their Marc (get it...), without any support they were quickly overwhelmed by enemy infantry.

By the time my full assault of the hill began, my army was well-limbed.

My infantry was doing an admirable job but, just as I had victory in my grasp, Marc's infantry defeated one key unit of men-at-arms. With my breakpoint reached, the Free Company broke and left Marc's English as the lords of the field.

A truly excellent game. Either Marc and I are equally matched or benefit from equal amounts of luck. As with most of our games, victory always comes at the closest of margins.

There's one small subordinate command that I've been having great luck with so I'll share it with the rest of you medieval generals. I deploy a unit of dismounted men-at-arms (with attached general) flanked by two units of peasants and behind a line of three javelinmen. In other words, the men-at-arms are VD:3 while the other five units are VD:1 for a total of eight. If the general leads from the back (and stays out of danger), the enemy must destroy four of the other units in order to route the command and, even better, if the command does route, it's only a tiny portion of the entire army and so is complete disposable.

As a final note, there's a new player in the group who is quite taken with Impetus. I believe he is going to embark on a Teutonic army project. As usualy, the rest of us shall support and coax him along. More opponents is always a good thing.

Thanks for reading,

JET

Impetus Battle Report: Beauregard LeFleur Wins the Day

2011-11-07T20:39:00.003-03:30

Marc is so close to finishing his 400-point Impetus army now that it's quite maddening. This weekend past we played a 360-point game and it was another nail-biter. Here we see my main infantry line facing Marc's significantly smaller flank.

As it turns out, the most dramatic action of the game took place on my right flank, where Rodger of Lynn (yellow banner) led the mercenary cavalry into a line of enemy archers and horsemen.

Disorder caused my main line to break apart as I advanced the troops forward. I was hoping to occupy Marc's small infantry line with enough left over to put pressure on his main force who were deployed on the other side of that hill. (i.e. the line that my cavalry was facing)

Marc's javelinmen rushed out from the cavalry and destroyed my two units of skirmishing crossbows while my cavalry seemed incapable of rallying and moving forward. I really predicted that my entire right flank would fold up under mass longbow fire.

And then the miracle came. Beauregard LeFleur (red banner) managed to rally his men (Discipline C, meaning he rolled a 5), and to make two moves without disorder, and then a third move, extended by a charge roll, right into Marc's infantry. By the time it was all said and done, LeFleur and his knights had taken out a couple of units of Marc's infantry and his Hobilars.

With the strong cavalry threat removed, the mercenary knights moved into the broken English line and began punishing Marc's infantry most savagely.

Meanwhile, back on the "main" battlefield, my heavy infantry reached Marc's line and a bitter clash ensued. Marc's forces were fighting back hard now but, with so many of his units defeated, he was hovering dangerously close to his break point.

In the end it was one of my units of Breton javelinmen that won me the game. They moved in on a unit of Welsh spearmen and drove them from the table. It turned out the be the key unit that dropped Marc's force just below his breakpoint.

A most excellent game on both sides of the table. I really love the way in which one unexpected (not to mention unlikely) event can happen out of nowhere and set off a chain reaction in Impetus. As far as I can remember, this was probably the best my cavalry arm has ever performed. I learned that losing their impetus bonuses isn't necessarily the end of the world. Just getting them into an infantry line is sometimes all the disruption that is needed.

Anyway, last night Marc and I conducted a little trade - more heavy infantry for him and more cavalry for me. I now have just enough cavalry models to put together two more units. This will allow me to field a more cavalry heavy force with longbows fulfilling a less central role.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Light Troops for Marc's HYW English

2011-11-01T20:22:00.003-02:30

Marc and I played a 335-point game of Impetus on Saturday night. It was a historic game in a sense in that it was the first time that Marc played without borrowing any of my collection. I was too lazy to give a full report of the game (which I won... just sayin), but I thought you guys might like to see some of his newer units.

These two photos show his two units of Breton Javelinmen. These minis are by Feudal Castings. You'll find them in the Feudal Welsh range of the site. Notice the wooden plank pattern on the shields.

Here we have Marc's second unit of Welsh spearmen. In the game, they function as FL with the Long Spear rule, making them particularly effective at neutering enemy cavalry. The bulk are Feudal Castings but, if you look closely, you'll see a couple of Khurasan Welsh Knifemen mixed in there as well.

When last I spoke to Marc, he had finished a unit of archers and was in the process of painting his final two elements - another unit of archers (for a total of six) and his third and final unit of Welsh Spearmen. Next time we play, we'll be back at our group's usual 400-point size engagement. I really can't wait. The group now has four players with fully-painted 15mm Impetus armies. It's a good time to be a geek.

Thanks for reading,

JET

First SAGA game: Isildur the Victorious

2011-10-16T12:41:00.005-02:30

With fresh copies of the SAGA rules in hand, Chris and I decided to start learning the rules using miniatures from his extensive Lord of the Rings collection. Chris played Numenor (Anglo-Danish) and I played the Goblins (Welsh). Here's the basic run of how things went. Lessons and impressions at the end.

We played the river crossing scenario and used a 3x4 mat as outlined in the scenario. Chris and I each brought our Armorcast bridges.

The bulk of the goblin force prepared to cross the right bridge...

...while a large unit of 12 warriors and some levies were deployed near the left.

As the Goblin (i.e. Welsh) player, I used the Taunting ability on the battle board to draw the Numenorean archers towards the bridge. I charged my warriors in and caused some serious damage.

In response, Chris sent Isildur and his elite bodyguard in to deal with the goblin warriors. When the smoke cleared, both units were wiped out and Isildur remained victorious on the bridge.

My goblin warlord and his elites prepared to counter-attack.

Meanwhile, the other bridge was less active for both sides. I used archery to try and hold back the Numenorean advance.

My warlord and his bodyguard stormed the bridge.

The goblin bodyguard died but, in true goblin fasion, my warlord charged across the bridge and tried to take down the enemy warlord. As expected, the goblin warlord died...

...and Isildur and his men crossed to the goblin side where Isildur annihilated the goblin levies.

The victorious warlord and his men.

My warriors were doing a good job of holding the Men back but, by this point, the game was over and it was too late. It was a crushing victory for Isildur and his men.

SAGA is a brilliant game - let's just get that out there first. All of the hype is well-founded. Here are some basic observations from the two games we played:

Ranged combat is far less powerful than in other systems. For the most part, the real damage is done in close combat. This is a game where history was/is made by those who were/are man enough to pick up a sword and stand in the shieldwall, not by the skulking peasants.
Warlords are powerful but far from invunerable. Without the support of their men they can easily be swarmed and taken out.
The battleboard provides almost all of the faction-specific information you'll need as you plan and play your turns. Spending all of your SAGA dice to activate units is one option, but the game (or at least the turn) often goes to the player who allocates dice to special abilities, especially those that allow you to react to and interfere with your opponent's turn.
The way in which miniatures engage in combat is very smooth. Figuring out who's fighting and who isn't is so simple yet definitive. There's not screwing around (read:40k)
The game has depth so it rewards a good plan and cunning play, however, the rules and faction-specific abilities are limited enough that gameplay is very intuitive and decisive. Our learning game was around 90 minutues, our second game was less than an hour.
Finally, playing without SAGA dice is very straightforward and not at all required. That said, I will be buying the SAGA dice for my Vikings as I see LOTS of games in my future.

If you're on the fence about this game, get off and go buy it. I expect to get an awful lot of replay from this one. I think that the guys from Tomahawk have hit on a winner. I could easily see a series of rules in the future covering other historical periods.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report: The Savage Welsh

2011-10-09T15:53:00.002-02:30

Although Marc and I have been playing Impetus regularly throughout the Summer and Fall, I've been quite delinquent in the battle report department. Now that his HYW English army is nearing the 300-point mark I thought that I should break out the camera.

I tried a very different type of force. I left my usual commander-in-chief (James Stockwood) at home and instead fielded a 300-point cavalry-heavy force led by Rodger of Lynn.

My secondary command consisted of a unit of dismounted men-arms (led by Sir Peter Redgrave, a Poor general) and a bunch of rabble in the form of peasants and skirmishers.

Redgrave's crossbowmen dashed forward in an attempt to harass Marc's main line. I had mixed results.

The game really started to get interesting on my left flank where Sir Jonathan Deere stood at the ready. In a surprise move, Marc's knights dashed across the field in an attempt at flanking my main cavalry line.

Marc managed to make five moves in a row. In other words, he moved once, twice (and passed a 3+ Discipline check), a third time (passing a 4+), a fourth time (you guessed it, a 5+) and then made it into my general's flank. He arrived disordered but what an incredible run!

Luckily, Sir Jonathan Deere and his men-at-arms were in good order and charged towards the enemy. They managed to arrive quickly, before the battle had turned against their comrades. Before long, the English knights were overwhelmed and the mercenary line reformed and continued their advance towards Marc's main line.

A couple of units of my knights (including my general) crashed into the English line and almost destroyed a couple of key units. Sadly, the English foot hung on by a thread.

Marc took advantage of the situation and sent his newly-painted Welsh Spearmen dashing towards Etienne and his knights. In an unfortunate turn of events, the knights were routed and my breakpoint had been reached.

It was one of the great Impetus games of my wargaming career thus far. Marc went home all fired up to keep painting. At this point, he only has a few units of archers and spearmen left to paint and then we'll be back to playing our usual 400 point games.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: The Painting Table at Present

2011-10-07T18:06:00.000-02:30

It's been a while since I've had a proper update, a "state of the table" sort of post, so I thought that it was about time. Here's my painting corner at this moment in time.

Let's discuss.

Off in the back you can see my Avar army starting to come together. I don't want to post any close-up photos until I have a respectable chunk finished. Suffice it to say, I'm getting tired of painting cavalry (the last of which you can see in the right foreground) but I quite enjoy painting the unwashed Slavic masses. Frankly, there may be a warband or pike army in my future.

In the tray to the left you can see my next batch of Viking Hirdmen and my Warlord. My SAGA rules arrived in the mail yesterday and to jump on the bandwagon, I think that all of the hype was well-deserved. It seems like a really brilliant miniature game and, given time, it will likely become quite a wargames success story for the author. In any event, I am trying to keep my patience intact as I work towards finishing a 4-point army.

I've also done some cleaning out lately and I've realized that the only real "not fun" painting backlog I have left is a Thunderhead heavy warjack for Warmachine and some goblin spider riders for my Impetus Fantasy army. To clarify, they'll be fun to play but they're just not where I am as a painter these days. They're definitely in the "get them done" pile.

We're in the process of preparing to purchase a new home within the next 12 months or less so in the meantime, I'm making due with a small painting corner in the basement. This lack of space is why you've not seen any elaborate Gothic Horror tables in the recent past. Fear not, we will be playing again soon. Furthermore, Chris has painted a bunch of stuff for the Pike & Shotte Zombies game and Marc is creating an entire 4x4 urban table using Worldworks paper terrain. He plans to lead us adventure gamers in a Bladerunner-ish game of some type in the new year.

That's pretty much where everything is at the moment. As I work towards having all of my projects finished before Xmas (which I'm ahead of schedule on this year, so it's looking up) I find my mind wandering to Xmas presents of the geekly variety. A new Impetus army? Urban stuff? Maybe more terrain? Lots to ponder.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Viking Berserkers for SAGA

2011-09-30T18:06:00.000-02:30

I'm having some issues with my camera as of late, or at least the lighting part of it. Anyway, I'm still painting miniatures for SAGA. I now have a unit of Berserkers to join my Hirdmen in the fight against the Anglo-Danish and the Normans.

These Viking minis are the first Gripping Beast miniatures I've ever painted and, I have to say, I'm quite impressed with them. Some models are sculpted for painting and these definitely fall in that list. My favourite is the guy swinging the axe above his head.

In the meantime, the workbench is bristling with activity. I'm already basing my next unit of Hirdmen, prepping a unit of eight Bondi, and have started putting down some base colours on my 15mm Avar light cavalry. For those of you who remember, I started painting some 15mm Avars back in June but haven't written much about them since. Well, suffice it to say, I'm almost finished all six units of cavalry and all of my Slavic infantry is primed and ready to go. It's a good time to be a geek.

Thanks for reading,
JET

28mm Viking Hirdmen for SAGA

2011-09-24T11:52:00.000-02:30

My apologies for the long dry spell in the blogging department. I've been back on the painting and playing wagons for a few weeks now but, thanks to a hard drive crash, my at-home computing has seriously dropped off as of late. Please accept this first unit of Gripping Beast Vikings as proof of my continued dedication to the art of geekery.

The SAGA game has been getting a lot of press lately and some of the guys in the group, me included, are patiently awaiting the arrival of our pre-ordered rules. After some pondering, I went with the Vikings for numerous reasons, not the least of which was Keir gratiously offered me some models from his collection and, as a lad, I actually lived in L'anse Aux Meadows and played "Vikings" in the sod huts at the National Historic Site.

While I'm on the apologies, sorry that one of the guys in the photos looks like an axe-wielding Santa Claus. It was unintentional and I never realized it until the paintjob was finished.

As to the painting table, I'm currently moving quite swiftly (by my standards) through my Avar army for Impetus. In fact, I've almost finished painting and basing the cavalry arm of the army. The group is just getting back into the Fall routine so I'm sure there'll be lots of interesting things to report and showcase over the coming months. Hope some of you guys are still out there and, as ever...

Thanks for reading,

JET

Workbench Update: 15mm Bridge

2011-08-28T11:33:00.003-02:30

I've had this 15mm Hovels bridge lying around for almost two years now. Last week, Marc and I devised a simple "cross the river" scenario for Impetus and played the scenario with one river section designated as a ford. I realized that a bridge would be far cooler, hence the new paint job.

I decided not to base the bridge in its own section of river since I want to be able to use it along with multiple river collections in our group. Instead, I built a base for the bridge and sculpted some water flowing under it. It doesn't match up perfectly but it gets the idea across as far as I'm concerned.

As for the Impetus scenario, here are some random points Marc and I came up with during and after our test scenario last week:

The attacker must have one appointed unit on the defender's side of the bridge at game end in order to win.
A unit whose base is flush with a bridge entrance can engage in melee with an enemy unit on the opposite side.
Entering a bridge causes disorder to all units except FP and S.
We haven't yet figured out how to regulate crossing the bridge as (a) units can't fit on the bridge and (b) units have different depths. I'm sure we'll come up with a simple method to solve this minor issue.

Anyway, that's it for the time being. When we've played some more games we'll hammer down the details and put the scenario out there for other Impetus players. In fact, our goals is to make up half a dozen such scenarios so that, in time, we aren't always playing straight ahead pitched battles.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Chaos in Carpathia Battle Report - Vanquishing the Red Brotherhood

2011-08-14T09:04:00.005-02:30

Although not an official chapter in the Curse of the Dertflinghans campaign, I thought you folks might like to see a few photos from our Chaos in Carpathia game last night. We were playing at Chris's house and, after a long Summer of little to no wargaming, Chris and I decided to dust off the Gothic Horror models and get back at it. We played a good old Seek & Find scenario with my Hungarian Monster Hunters pitted against Chris's foul Nosferatu warband, the Red Brotherhood.

My Expedition Leader, Count Konrad von Krumm, set out into the forest with his son Helmut at his side. Villagers speak of ancient stones scattered through the forest near a ruined watchtower. These stones are rumoured to be covered with ancient engravings which might hold a clue to the origins of the Brotherhood and their dark master.

The Master's closest (but certainly not most trusted) servant Gideon skulked in the cave near some of the engravings.

Meanwhile in the woods, Dr. Franz Grunberg stumbled upon an ancient stone criss-crossed with engravings. "I say Bjorn, be a good fellow and keep watch while I take a rubbing."

Albrecht, another of the Brotherhood, hid in the shadows of the ruined tower, his supernatural senses aware of a human presence in the woods beyond. In the game, just as Albrecht was about to search the objective at his feet, Ernst Holdt skewered him with a fatal crossbow bolt. Sadly for Chris, this bad luck was only a foreshadowing of things to come.

In an attempt to jump the river and charge my leader, the Master Vampire missed his footing and fell into the river which carried him violently downstream into the marsh - not his finest moment. These are the scenes that never make it into the movie.

Eventually, the Master changed into a mighty beast and burst onto the bank, savage and, let's face it, a little embarrassed. Helmut von Krumm, who was filled with bloodlust after just defeating one vampire, faced the beast with equal savagery. When it was all said and done, Helmut put the creature down.

With the rest of the warband defeated, Gideon made a last stand against Lazlo the Wanderer. Realizing that he was on the bottom wrung of the engagement, he took the form of a great bat and fled the field.

What a battle! My Monster Hunters performed like a well-oiled machine. It was one of those rare games where my slayers spent the game slaying while my academics were successfully finding objectives. In the end, I had found all four objectives, slain the Master of Evil, and still held the Female Victim for a whopping total of six victory points. Chris took the overwhelming defeat like a gentleman.

From now on we'll be playing tailored scenarios. In other words, I will set the table up as a specific locale and each warband will have its own set of objectives. i.e. the Monster Hunters must hold the town hall and escort a innocent bystander to the town hall unharmed. The Monsters must take the town hall and capture the innocent bystander. Something like that. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Disorder Markers

2011-08-04T10:23:00.002-02:30

With three years of Impetus gaming under my belt, I've finally begun to get tired of using colored wooden markers for marking DISORDER and OPPORTUNITY. A month ago or so I ordered some 15mm medieval casualty minis from Essex. They're all based on round GW plastic bases.

Knights

Light Foot and Spearmen

Archers

With just over 20 units in my Free Company army I'm hoping that I'll never need more than 18 disorder markers. In any event, these little dioramas should greatly improve the look of our Impetus games.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Losing With Style

2011-07-23T11:14:00.004-02:30

So I've finally decided that it's time to replace my little red disorder markers for Impetus with something a little more visually appealing. I figure if I'm going to lose a game, it's just as well to look good while doing so. I ordered a few packs of medieval casualties from Essex and finally started at them last night.

As you can see, I've simply based one casualty on a round plastic base and painted it up. I've got 18 of these guys started and I"m actually painting them up as one big batch. I finished one off just so you guys could see how it's going to look. I've also painted up some random infantry figures which will be used as opportunity markers (to replace the green markers). Overall, I'm hoping that our games will look just a little sexier.

As I mentioned previously, you'll have to excuse my laxness in the blogging department. We've been spending the majority of our at-home time doing summer stuff - hiking, going to the beach, and chilling out with the kids. Furthermore, our summer geek nights (which still go ahead every Saturday night) have been dominated by board games. Fear not - the regular regime of painting, war-gaming, and blogging will be back in full swing when school starts up.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Avar General

2011-07-14T20:40:00.003-02:30

It's been a long hiatus for me but I'm finally back in the saddle (pun intended). Now that my painting area is unpacked and ready for action, I broke out the Avars and decided to paint this general model.

I know what you're thinking... what's with the pink? I don't know really. I just felt so confined by the rules of heraldry after painting my medieval army that this time around I wanted to go crazy. I may go back and get rid of the pink when the rest of the unit is done, or I may not. We'll see.

As for the disturbing lack of game reports, Summer so far has mostly been about board games, particularly Settlers of Catan and lots of two-player Twilight Struggle. So, the geeking is going strong, it just hasn't been in a very bloggable form. Now that I've found both my muse and my paintbrush, I hope to start producing at a reasonable rate again. Don't go too far.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Finally Moved!

2011-07-03T08:06:00.002-02:30

The past few weeks have been dominated by packing, cleaning, and getting rid of junk. My wife and I will be buying a home this year but, before we do, we decided to try living outside of the city. We are both from smaller communities (or as we say in Newfoundland, from "around the bay"), but its been years since either of us has lived outside of St. John's.

We are finally in the new house. Here's the view from our back patio. I have to say, it's quite lovely. Even though I'm only a 10-minute drive from the city, the pace here is totally different. It's good for the kids as well - there's lots of room for my 10-year old to roam free, unlike the suburb we came from.

Anyway, I just started unpacking the geek stuff last night. I'll be setting up a painting and modelling corner in the basement rec room. Also, with the Canada Post strike over, I just received my Avar light horse from Khurasan on Friday. Expect to see progress in the coming week.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Avar Noble Cavalry (unit #1)

2011-06-13T22:32:00.003-02:30

Impetus Unit Type: CM
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Special: Comp Bow C
Manufacturer: Some Essex horses; rest of figures unknown.
Comments:

After a pretty slow Spring in the painting department, I finally finished painting this unit as I entertained myself by watching Marc and Chris play Impetus. I'm still waiting for someone to come along and tell me which manufacturer made the figures. I have enough minis to to two more like this and one unit that will look slightly different, which I'll be explaining away as allies.

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I don't know anything about Avar dress or armout. What I do know is, as a nation, they were a melting pot of many nations as opposed to one ethnic group. I'm using this fact to explain away any historical inaccuracies.

Workbench Update: Another Avar Nobleman

2011-06-07T17:25:00.002-02:30

I've been picking away at some more Avar cavalry and I thought you guys might like to see the most recently finished one.

Please keep in mind, the colours and shield designs are completely make-believe. I don't know much (read: anything) about the Avar nation. As I said in the last post, if you have any idea who makes these models please let the rest of us know. When I complete more minis (or maybe a full unit), I'll try to get some more photos up.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Avar Test Model

2011-06-05T17:15:00.002-02:30

After spending what little spare time I had over the last couple of weeks prepping and priming, I finally took some time today to throw some paint on a 15mm cavalry model. This fellow will be fielded as part of a Noble Cavalry unit for my up-and-coming Avar Impetus army.

This army will consist primarily of medium bow-armed cavalry, Slavic infantry (in the form of FL and S units), and a few units of bow-armed light cavalry that are currently en route from Khurasan Miniatures.

As one gent on TMP kindly pointed out, it's rather questionable whether Avar cavalry used shields. I figure that, since the Avar nation was really a conglomerate of different Asiatic ethnic groups, I'll go ahead and mix these guys in with my shield-less horsemen and hope for the best. When all is said and done, I'll have a 400-point raiding force that will be made up fairly evenly of bow-armed horse and javelin-armed infantry. As an Impetus player (historical considerations aside) it will be quite a fun army to play - very different from the FP, CP, and T units in my Free Company army.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - Encircled by Horse Archers

2011-06-02T17:15:00.005-02:30

Last time Stu and I played, his army was defeated by Stockwood's veteran force. Eager for a chance to take revenge on the infidels, Stu brought his Arab-Turk army out last Saturday and we threw down on a 6x4 table. Early on, the bulk of Stu's army was facing my knights, while my infantry were facing Stu's tiny infantry command. In turn two, one of my units of impetuous cavalry made an impressive run into Stu's line, destroyed a unit of Ghulams, and almost caught a unit of horse archers. (top right - unit with blue standard)

While Etienne and his knights were over-extending themselves, my Breton javelinmen were having a field day. They caused some substantial damage before they were run down. Things seemed to be going in my favour.

My other two units of knights, although not as destructive as Etienne and the Bretons, had caused some damage and succeeded in locking most of Stu's cavalry line in combat.

As the fight raged on, the Arabs were clearly coming out on top and it was time for me to concoct and to enact plan B.

I started wheeling and re-deploying large contingents of my infantry with the hopes of having a shower of arrows ready by the time Stu's cavalry reformed and came for my infantry line.

Sir Jonathan Deere tried to make it across the field to help but, alas, was interrupted by meddling Turkish horse archers.

By the time my line had reformed, enemy horses were swarming my flank. Furthermore, with all of my knights taken out, I was dangerously close to my break point.

The Arab cavalry encircling the Free Company.

The unit that lost me the game. The horse archers teamed-up against my unit of longbows, took them out and, in doing so, took me below my breakpoint.

It was a tremendous game. In fact, when you are 95% familiar with the rules, I find Impetus to be a very rewarding game, win or lose. Not that it hurts to win, mind you. In fact, I shall try to do just that next time we play. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Marc's First Longbowmen

2011-05-29T09:31:00.003-02:30

Before Stu and I threw down for a game of Impetus last night, Marc brought along some Show & Tell - two units of longbowmen for his English army. I thought you folks might enjoy seeing them. As you can see, one unit is painted in the livery of his commander-in-chief.

Along with his unit of hobilars I posted a little while back, these guys make a fine start to his army. Marc seems to be in high gear with this army. I won't be surprised if we are playing some small 200-point games in the next month or so.

I finally primed a largish batch of Slavs a couple of days ago, so I'll be getting that project moving as well. I looked at some of the cavalry I had and realized that I could field two or three units of Avar noble cavalry. Thanks to this discovery, I've decided to use my Slavs as part of a larger Avar force. I may "acquire" the necessary light horse miniatures for Father's Day. Anyway, I'm off to prep up some cavalry while enjoying my Sunday morning tea.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Starting the Slavs

2011-05-23T21:06:00.005-02:30

My painting table's been pretty quiet for the past month or so. Busy at work, busy at home - you know the drill. This week I thought, "enough is enough," kicked myself in the ass, and started painting some 15mm Slavs for Impetus.

The photo is a little on the dark side but I uploaded a fairly large version so click to see more detail. The miniatures are Old Glory 15s and they are really great models. I've heard lots of complaining about OG miniatures (mostly their 28mm, but also about their 15mm as well), but I don' t see the problem. These miniatures were sculpted with painting in mind. They are one-piece (read: no shields or spears to attach) and each code comes with quite a number of poses. I should mention, this 15mm collection was given to me by a very kind reader. Frankly, now that I see how nice they are (and how many there are) I will have to contact him and retroactively offer him something in trade.

As to the paint scheme, I chose to stick with primarily creams, beiges, and browns for the clothing and to paint the shields as plain wooden planks. The majority will be armed with javelins and axes, but I'll sprinkle a couple of swords and painted shields in just to represent the few professional warriors in the bunch. As it stands right now, the first 400 points of this army will consist entirely of javelinmen units (FL-light foot) and archer units (S-skirmisher). Combine that with a Poor command structure and I'll be left with an army that plays VERY differently than the balanced Free Company army that I've become used to.

For now, this project will take front and center stage. I've simplified my usual method and, in many cases, I've only added one highlight to the base colour. I've decided that every army I paint doesn't have to be a showcase army. With any luck, this one will come together fairly quickly. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - The Defeat of Dertflinghan

2011-05-20T21:31:00.006-02:30

After driving Stockwood and his mercenaries across the Milanese border, Austrian general Karl Von Dertflinghan and his Milanese companion Francesco Prosciutto garrisoned the region and lapsed into a position of comfort and safety. As the seasons changed and Spring came around once more, Prosciutto was alarmed when one of his scouts galloped into his border villa with his trumpet blaring. The Free Companies were on the march again and, much to Prosciutto's dismay, mercenary veterans were converging with new recruits from France. With less than a fortnight to respond, outriders were sent throughout the Duchy to deliver the summons. Noblemen and their men were mustered near the northwestern border and, on a sunny morning in May, Stockwood's archers formed battle lines and prepared to face the defenders of Milan.

The Battlefield:

For this battle Chris and I laid out a few hills but otherwise, kept the table as an open field. That's one of the great things about Impetus - you can play a game with little to no terrain. The interaction of the different unit types makes for engaging gameplay, even with flat, featureless terrain.

The Battle:

As is customary, both generals sent skirmishers across the field to harass the enemy troops and to counter enemy skirmishers. In this photo, Karl Von Dertflinghan (Austrian general in the employ of the Milanese) watches as his crossbowmen are bested by mercenary crossbowmen from France and Burgundy.

English knight Sir Jonathan Deere and his men guarded the mercenary right flank.

Seeing Deere's men facing his own flank, Dertflinghan dispatched Italian knights to deal with the enemy cavalry.

The first unit found themselves overwhelmed by mercenary crossbows and longbows and, by the time they reached Deere and his men, they were so disordered and worn that they were easily dispatched.

Meanwhile, Stockwood's veteran longbow line rained down death from a distance on the Milanese.

The countering Italian knights were either slain or driven from the field by Deere and his men.

Worn from battle (and seeing more Italian knights approaching), Deere commanded his horsemen to re-order and fall back.

Stockwood, seeing Deere's signal, sent his veteran men-at-arms through the line to counter the second wave of knights. With archers' assistance, the men-at-arms saw the knights routed from the field.

While the Italians were suffering defeat on their center and right flank, their left flank was crumbling under the bumbling leadership of Prosciutto (who had no doubt grown soft during his off-season).

The impetuous Rodger of Lynn led the mercenary knights in a head-on charge towards the Milanese right flank.

Beauregard LeFleur wheeled his unit and crashed into Prosciutto and his knights. Both sides fared pretty badly in the exchange, however, the Italians lost one of their generals and, with no leadership, the entire command suffered.

Meanwhile, Rodger of Lynn, refusing to be outdone, went straight up the middle and engaged the Milanese footmen in a fierce exchange. It was another bloody affair and, when the dust settled, Rodger and his men, in spite breaking the enemy line, fled the field in rag-tag fashion.

When all was said and done, Stockwood and his well-rested (not to mention well-reinforced) mercenaries won a solid victory against their Milanese adversaries. With the north-west Milanese border occupied and reinforced, Stockwood was finally in position to undertake a major military operation to the southeast.

It has been too long since Chris and I had a 15mm Impetus match. However, Impetus is now on the rise again. Marc is painting (finally) his medieval English, Chris has just primed some 15mm Norman infantry, and Ken has announced that he is ordering miniatures to build a Burgundian army. As I've said before, it's become a well-loved game in the group and Impetus isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Project Update: Marc's 15mm HYW English Off the Ground

2011-05-01T18:15:00.003-02:30

Just to put it all in perspective, Marc is the guy in our group who plays (a) Cryx in Warmachine, (b) High Elves in Fantasy Impetus, and (c) The Mad Doctor in Chaos in Carpathia. Well, this time he's done something that excites me more than any of those things. He's finally come out of the gate with his 15mm historical army for Impetus.

Marc has enough Corvus Belli and Feudal Castings miniatures to build a 400-point English army. He showed up at my house last night with a unit of hobilars painted and based. I like the muted colour scheme (they are commoners after all) and, although they are a humble VBU:4, I think their being faster medium cavalry will help with flanking maneuvers against enemy infantry.

As I said more than once on this blog, Impetus is far and away my favourite miniatures game. I love the rules, I love the aesthetic, and I love the perfect balance of relaxation and depth of play. Now that Marc has started his army, there will be four players in our group with 15mm historical armies. Huzzah!

Thanks for reading,
JET

Chaos In Carpathia Battle Report - The Victorious Von Krumms

2011-04-25T20:42:00.003-02:30

Jordin and I decided to get together on Good Friday night to play some Chaos in Carpathia. I used the same objective-based approach that we used during our big three-player game a few months back with a couple of changes. First of all, each warband could search each objective once, even if the opponent had already successfully done so. Secondly, some of the objectives were worth double points. The catch was, these double-bonus objectives were kept secret from one's opponent until the game's end.

My Hungarians deployed at opposite ends of the main road running through the village.

Jordin's vampires deployed on the side-road coming in by the church and near the river.

When everyone was deployed, we each took a hand of eight playing cards from Ace to 8 with one card assigned to each of the eight objectives on (and under) the battlefield. We each secretly chose one of these to be worth double victory points and laid it aside. Then, our opponent randomly drew two more cards from our hand (without looking at them of course) and laid them aside. These three cards, then, would be worth 2 VP each when the game was over as long as the character miniature holding them was still standing.

The eight objectives were: the Hilltop Monument, the Pagan Stone, the Water Barrel, the Church Garden, the Village Tree, the Great Chair (under the longhouse), the Hall of Statues (in the underground crypt), and the Alchemist's Workbench (in the center-most cottage).

With deployment finished and objectives established, we were on our way.

The Hunt:

A major part of the conflict took place near one of my deployment zones. The Village Tree was in the fields nearby and, as we learned at game's end, that was a bonus objective for each of us. One of Jordin's vampires raced across the fields and found the objective. The two wolves with her charged towards my hunters. The brave Ernst Holdt downed one with a crossbow bolt but the other one made it to my leader, Konrad Von Krumm.

Lazlo the Wanderer, after failing to find the objective at the Village Tree, charged the vampire to keep her from charging his master or, more likely, from leaping in through the window of the nearby cottage to attack Dr. Grunberg, who happened to be inside searching the Alchemist's Workbench (another one of my bonus objectives). Lazlo spent the game holding up two shape-changing vampires in combat until he finally went down valiantly.

Meanwhile, the Count Von Krumm and Ernst found themselves incapable of dealing a killing blow to the wolf. The master vampire crept towards them in the darkness. The foul creature charged towards them, took the form of a wolf, and a savage melee ensued.

After Lazlo went down, one of the vampires from that engagement swooped in to relieve the master vampire. Freed from combat, the master vampire smashed in through the door of the nearby cottage and succeeded in kidnapping Emmalina Grunberg while her protector (the Count Von Krumm) was trapped in combat.

While all of this was going on there were other sub-pockets of action spread across the table.

The Old Woodsmen and one of the vampires were both heading for the Hilltop Monument. The woodsman, who was smart enough not to try to go head to head with a vampire, stayed hidden in the woods until the vampire had finished searching. She took the form of a bat and headed for the Church Garden where she found another objective. When she had cleared out, the Old Woodsman came out of hiding and also found the objective on the hill. He tried to jump the river later but fell in and wasted the remainder of the game thrashing around in the water.

After deployment, Helmut Von Krumm and his faithful hound Zeus left the Old Woodsman to his fate and headed off for the Old Graveyard. Once there, Helmut broke down the door to the crypt and spent a couple of rounds in the catacombs beneath searching through sarcophagi and was lucky enough to find a wildcard victory point. However, as a slayer, he thought his efforts would be more effective fighting vampires so he headed back to the surface. It turned out the be the right move as he charged a vampire (who held two objectives) and destroyed her thereby making her finds null.

The real superstar of my warband turned out to be Dr. Franz Grunberg. As a scholarly type, he is far more equipped for finding objectives than for fighting monsters. As the game progressed he found objectives at the Alchemist's Workbench, the Church Garden, and, during the last turn of the game, in the Hall of Statues with a vampire chasing at his heels.

Result: Victory for the Hungarian Monster Hunters

The Hungarian Monster Hunters earned the following victory points:

The Alchemist's Workbench (secret objective) - 2 vp
The Hilltop Monument (secret objective) - 2 vp
The Church Garden (regular objective) - 1 vp
The Hall of Statues (regular objective) - 1 vp
most wildcard victory points from searching sarcophagi and chests - 1 vp

The Nosferatu earned the following victory points

The Hilltop Monument (secret objective) - 2 vp
The Church Garden (regular objective) - 1 vp
The Water Barrel (secret objective) - 2vp
The Village Tree (regular objective, lost) - 0 vp
The Pagan Stone (secret objective, lost) - 0 vp
held Female Victim at game end - 1 vp

The final score was 7-6 for the Hungarians. If my slayer hadn't killed that vampire in the last turn, Jordin would have held on to those four victory points making the score 9-7 in his favour.

The changes we made were all for the better I think. Allowing each side to search objectives that have already been searched by the opponent encourages more interaction on the table. Furthermore, the secret objectives give each player a reason to strive for certain locations and to make sure that models with lots of objectives do their best to survive. Can't wait for the next one and, as always...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Playing 1st Edition AD&D

2011-04-17T21:29:00.002-02:30

You heard me. Around a month ago or so I went up into my parents' attic digging around. I found a box with lots of old AD&D goodies that had been buried for almost 20 years - my Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Monster Manuals, and some old modules, including the infamous Temple of Elemental Evil. The day after I found the stuff I bumped into a good friend from back in those days who I hadn't really seen much of for over 15 years. It seemed rather serendipitous and, when I learned that the other guys in my group all used to play 1st edition before we had met each other, it seemed like it was time to resurrect the past a little.

So, about a week ago I ran a game with some of the guys. We spent some time making up characters in advance. Each player rolled 6 sets of the six attributes (using 3, not 4 dice) so many of the characters are quite average. Here's the party make-up:

Marc - Dwarf Fighter
Chris - Gnome Fighter/Thief
Terry - Human Magic-User
Ken - Half-Elf Druid
Keir - Human Cleric

I actually printed sheets with 1-inch squares and cut out all of the dungeon rooms and hallways in advance. We used a mix of miniatures and counters to keep track of things as I laid the floorplan out before the players. As it turns out, there was lots of old school fun to be had - a mysterious NPC, the transporting of a mysterious object to a far-off city, camping out in an abandoned temple crypt, and fighting baddies all the way along.

However, after all of these years playing war games, we seem to be playing differently than I remember playing in junior high and high school. First of all there's the miniatures and the props instead of a single piece of graph paper being handed around. Secondly, we are going out of our way to use rules that I don't even remember using when I was a kid - proficiencies, weapon speed factors, encumbrance, and role-playing according to a characters actual scores in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

It was great fun and everyone was pumped to play again. We are aiming to get together around once a month to see how long it goes on. Perhaps we'll get a nice little campaign developing.

As for my painting, with recently going back to work, a teething baby, and working overtime, I haven't picked up a brush in over two weeks. Fear not though. I feel the juices beginning to flow again. Last night I walked past some primed 15mm Norse Irish and some unfinished goblin spider riders and I felt myself drawn to the workbench.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - Sir Jonathan Deere Takes the Field

2011-04-06T07:25:00.003-02:30

It had been a while since Stu put his Arab army on the table so we decided to have a good old throw down. We tried out a minor house rule as well - instead of both armies fielding a camp, only the defender would field one. We figured that this would cause the attacker to act a little more like a defender.

As usual, I pushed my army a little to far and had some disorder issues as a result.

As you can see, Stu has been having some issues with his spears either coming off or going all spaghetti on him. It's a real shame but I think he plans on doing some replacing over time.

Sir Jonathan Deere (think about that name and look at the model for a minute) was on my left flank and succeeded in routing a unit of light cavalry and pushing back another.

Peter Redgrave's javelinmen prepared to meet the cavalry assault.

My humble peasants find themselves biting off more than they could chew.

By the halfway point the middle of the field was packed with my army clashing with Stu's cavalry.

Before too long, Peter Redgrave's command was broken. However, Stockwood's command of men-at-arms, archers, and knights was still in very good shape.

Etienne de Guarde and his knights had a great romp through Stu's line and managed to take out a couple of units of enemy cavalry.

By the game's end, Stu had one unit of light cavalry making a run for my camp but it was too late. I took out half of his larger command and, by the end of that turn, his entire army was routed.

I admit that I over-extended my unit of English knights but I couldn't resist making a run with them - fresh paint often has that effect. I'll try and use them more sensibly next time. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Mounted Men-At-Arms (unit #4)

2011-03-26T10:20:00.003-02:30

Impetus Unit Type: CP
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm

Special: none
Manufacturer: Corvus Belli
Comments:

With all of my "must finish" projects completed I've started focusing on painting things just for the joy of it. I've wanted to add a couple of units of mounted English Men-at-arms to the Free Company for a while now. Although their VBU is slightly lower than their French counterparts, they lack the impetuous special rule so I'll be able to keep them under my control. This fact makes them a perfect unit to support a line of archers because they won't go charging off until I'm ready for them to.

To show that the unit is more under the control of the general I've painted the models to represent an English knight and his personal retinue. These common men-at-arms (unlike bases of more individualized impetuous knights) will hold the line and wait until their lord gives them the command to charge.

Painting Armies for Cash: The Beginning

2011-03-24T19:41:00.004-02:30

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've decided to try my hand at painting some armies to sell. After getting some good advice on TMP, I've decided to stick with 15mm historical for now, with my primary energies going towards painting armies that I will enjoy and selling them when they are done. Here's what's taking shape in the preliminary phases.

Norse-Irish for DBA

Miniatures by: Feudal Castings and potentially Old Glory 15s.

Not to be confused with my own Norse-Irish project for Impetus, this DBA army is being painted for a chap who contacted me from TMP. I'm not particularly interested in commission work (I don't want someone telling me what to do and how to do it), but Kris seems pretty easy to get along with and he's aware that my pricing is still up in the air. With any luck he'll be happy with both the final product and the price.

Parthians for Impetus/Basic Impetus
Miniatures by: Peter Pig

If I'm going to spend my free time painting something that I won't even get to play, I have to make sure that I choose both a miniature line and a subject that will interest me. After some contemplation I decided to order the models from PP that I have pondered painting for my personal collection over the past year. The miniatures are well-detailed but the poses are simple (which I like) so I ordered enough to satisfy requirements for both the Basic Impetus army and a 300-point Impetus army. I'll be painting custom disorder markers to sell with this army. I'm expecting to receive these models in the mail in another couple of weeks.

Slavs for Impetus/Basic Impetus
Miniatures by: Old Glory 15's

Bob (from Bob's Miniature Wargaming Blog) has kindly sent me a collection of 15mm Slavic infantry and cavalry to help get the painting "business" off the ground. I'm not completely sure what models are en route yet but, if they are the ones I think they are, I'll be in a position to start a Dark Age army from some part of Eastern Europe. If there are lots of foot, I may do a pure Slavic army to sell, which is to say, hordes of infantry with a little cavalry back-up.

Anyway, that's where things stand right now. I've put very few hours into the Norse-Irish as of right now (the first army on the block), but with this week and it's craziness behind me, I should be able to make some real progress this weekend.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Chaos In Carpathia Battle Report - More Vampires

2011-03-17T09:09:00.001-02:30

After much anticipation, Jordin finally finished painting his Nosferatu warband. We were short one gaming mat at geek night so I did my best to create a playing surface without one. We played a modified Seek & Find scenario where each objective could be searched by both warbands, even after one had been successfully been searched by the opponent.

Scenario: Seek & Find

Warbands: Nosferatu (Jordin) vs. Hungarian Monster Hunters (Me)

Special Events: Stygian Darkness

Synopsis:

We each started at opposite ends of a maze-like crypt complex. There were two objectives behind locked doors (STRENGTH tests), two objectives behind secret doors (perception tests), and one right in the middle of everything. The main goals of the scenario were to find and to hold the majority of the objectives. With Stygian Darkness in play, the hunters' torches and lanterns played a key role in the game.

The Game:

Early on, Helmut Von Krumm made his way to one of the sarcophagi. With high STRENGTH and RESOLVE, he is the perfect candidate for such a grisly affair.

After discovering the secret door to his left, Lazlo (in green) led the others towards the main crypt.

Jordin's vampire master sent the sarcophagus lid crashing to the floor and earned two FATE POINTS and one VP.

The vampire's foul wolves engaged the hunters in the main crypt.

One of the lesser nosferatu burst through a door and found one of the objectives (hidden under the chair)

Another lesser nosferatu took the shape of a great spider. The master vampire skulked in the darkness while Lazlo defended himself.

The Count Von Krumm found an objective behind the secret door while Ms. Emmalina Grunberg looked on.

The action began to converge around the central tomb.

Helmut and his loyal hound Zeus defeated one of the vampires as they made their way towards the main crypt.

Lazlo failed to notice the secret door that he was standing right next to.

On his last legs, Lazlo does battle with the master vampire.

After getting Lazlo out of the way, the master vampire took the shape of a great wolf and found herself in hand-to-hand combat with Helmut.

While Helmut kept the nosferatu occupied, Dr. Grunberg successfully searched the main sarcophagus.

Result: Draw

At the end of the battle, here's how things stood in the VP department.

The Nosferatu earned three VP's for finding objectives and one VP for finding the most wildcard objectives from searching sarcophagi for a total of FOUR VICTORY POINTS.

The Hungarian Monster Hunters earned three VP's for finding objectives and one VP holding the Female Victim at the scenario's end for a total of FOUR VICTORY POINTS.

The battle itself was a bloody affair. Jordin came on strong in the beginning by putting half of my warband's human members out of commission by the halfway mark. I did manage to retaliate and take out a couple of vampires and a wolf. By the end, we were both limbed but with our victory point holders intact. It was a great game and I'm sure we'll be playing more in the very near future.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Scouting New Possibilities: Painting an Army to Sell

2011-03-12T10:47:00.008-03:30

The last couple of months have been very productive for me. In short, I've almost finished everything I had on my plate for Adventure Gaming and Historic Gaming. Thanks to this burst of productivity, as well as some trading and liquidating, I don't really have a lead pile anymore. Furthermore, since I have a collection of models and terrain for all the games I play (and I really don't have time for any new games), I am a geek with nothing (or very little) to paint.

My situation has got me thinking and, after getting some good advice from some seasoned professional painters on TMP, I've decided that I'm going to paint an army to sell. I feel that my greatest strength is 15mm historical miniatures and, since they're also my favourite to paint, that's where I'm starting. I'm embark upon this experimental journey with caution. I'll paint one army to start. If I (a) enjoy it and (b) can sell to a buyer who is willing to pay an agreeable price for the quality of the work, I may do others.

Before I pick up a brush there are two big decisions to be made. The first is, for what system will I paint an army. I was thinking that I would stick to DBA, Basic Impetus, or Impetus. The second decision, of course, is which army to paint. That's where it gets complicated.

Some of my potential choices are "safe" ones; Romans, Greeks, War of the Roses, or something equally as popular. However, I've also considered some choices that you don't see everyday; Dark Age Welsh, Sarmatians, or perhaps an Eastern European medieval army like Hungarians or Albanians.

Anyway, I will come to a decision in the next few days and order some models to try it out. The absolute worse case scenario? I'll be left with a new army in my collection. I could do worse I suppose.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Goblin Army - Second Installment

2011-03-04T17:02:00.005-03:30

We haven't played a whole lot of Fantasy Impetus recently but I've been working towards finishing off my 400-point army. This post features the second of three batches that I'll be painting for the main force.

Troll (M)

Gobli Khan and his Riders (CM inc. General)

Wolf Riders (CL)

More Wolf Riders (CL)

There are only three units remaining to take this force to my 400-point goal; two units of goblin spider riders and another hero model, this time with a bow. I'm hoping to fight more battles with these guys in the future but, truth be told, I look forward to re-focusing my painting efforts back towards 15mm historical armies.

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Curse of the Dertflinghans: Chapter Ten

2011-03-01T09:08:00.007-03:30

excerpt from COUNT KONRAD VON KRUMM'S JOURNAL

28 April. Village of Rotesdorf - After our hellish encounter with the vampiric children on the night of the 25th, my companions and I were relieved last night to take refuge at the Two Ox Inn in the town of Rotesdorf. Tired and road weary, we supped on a substantial meal consisting mainly of cow tongue, cabbage and a well-ripened cheese. With our bellies full, we retired to our rooms ready for much-needed rest.

As is customary, Bjorn took the late watch and, much to my surprise, came thrashing on my door in the middle of the night. I ran to let him in and saw that Helmut's door across the hallway was already open and the bustle of dressing hastily could be heard coming from within. Considering Bjorn's past service to my family, I have come to trust both his judgement and his actions. In his quiet matter-of-fact way he simply said, "There's something happening across the bridge sir, our kind of thing." Knowing the type of occurrence he must be referring to I grabbed my hunting equipment and made my way down to the common room where the rest of the party were roused and ready.

At the south east edge of town there is a bridge leading from the town to a forest track that leads well into the shadows of the mountains beyond. From the scrub we could see dark shapes moving. Savage cries and growls carried on the wind, none of them human.

In the midst of the fray we could see two great winged beasts engaged in a bitter melee of tooth and claw. It was hellish to behold but, thanks to my vast experience in the Order, my heart remains stout when it comes to such things.

I ordered the party to take cover in the shadows of the buildings. In a short while, the mayhem seemed to subside and, carefully, we began scouting out the area.

I was examining the riverbed near the bridge when I caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure near the cathedral ruins on the other side of the river. I could hear cries of alarm coming from the darkness and I realized that my companions were likely encountering foul denizens of the night as well.

In an instant, the creatures came out of the darkness with murderous intent. However, they were in for something of a surprise. As I ran to join the fight, my son Helmut and the faithful Lazlo were already slashing and cutting with their torches held high. As I came closer and saw that we were indeed dealing with nosferatu, I drew one of the stakes from my coat and moved towards one of the beasts. Although I failed to make a mortal blow with the stake, I think that when the creatures saw that they were not dealing with mere frightened peasants, their resolve started to break.

Unfortunately, Dr. Grunberg and Bjorn were caught on the other side of the bridge and, as it turns out, found themselves grappling with the nest master who, as we had seen earlier, again took the form of a giant man-bat.

If Helmut and Lazlo had not been so quick to drive the creatures on the bridge cowering into the darkness I fear that the master vampire would have remained until the doctor and Bjorn were killed and maimed. Luckily, seeing the ill fortune of his companions, he leapt into the air and flew off to the east over the treetop canopy.

Thankful that none of the party had come to any serious harm, we made our way back to the inn where, for obvious reasons, sleep was no longer possible. Instead, we filled our rations from the innkeeper's substantial stores and made an early breakfast. As I saddled my own mount, I learned from one of the grooms that my son Hector had passed through Rotesdorf. Invigorated by this knew-found information, we set out in the direction of the unknown, that is to say, in the direction that the nosferatu fled.

Helmut and I were both struck at the nature of the conflict we had witnessed. It is the first time that either of us had seen dark creatures fighting against each other. What could be so important to draw them away from the business of hunting men? It has certainly set my mind in motion.

Finally, I should mention that my good friend the doctor seems strangely distant. On more than one occasion he has seemed about to tell me something and, just as he is about to speak, goes silent and returns to his reveries. I'm sure that, when the time is right, he will tell me what has been troubling him. Until then, we head further east on the trail of the beast and, with God's guidance, towards more answers as to the whereabouts of my dear son -KvK.

<< Chapter Nine | Chapter Eleven Coming Soon

Game Talk:

I headed over to Chris's house on Saturday past and we managed to fit in two games of Chaos In Carpathia. I took the photos of both games and combined them to create the chapter you have just read.

The first game was a Battle in the Wilderness scenario featuring both of our newly-painted Nosferatu warbands. Chris's band is composed of four vampires and two wolves whereas mine consists of only two vampires and a wolf. However, I made up my numbers with four ghouls. Interestingly, although the ghouls lack many of the lesser vampire's abilities, they are stronger and tougher. If one of Chris's vamps finds itself outnumbered by ghouls it generally ends poorly for the vampire.

Creatures of the night battling on the forest track.

My head vampire and his wolf battling one of Chris's lesser vampires and his wolf.

Chris's head vampire finds himself outnumbered.

The second game featured my Hungarians fighting Chris's vampires. This time we played a Seek & Find scenario with five objectives. Although a couple of my warband members went down, in the end my band found and held the majority of the objectives which, in the end, is what counts.

Lazlo strolls past the objective location. With a

MIND of 2, deciphering runes isn't his strength.

Gideon, Chris's second-in-command, finds an objective.

Gideon flies toward another objective in his bat form.

This is where the game ended, with Dr.

Grunberg just escaping a gruesome death.

So, I was completely and utterly victorious. With two major victories under my belt, both of my warbands earned the right to be proud of themselves. More importantly, it was very gratifying to see newly-painted models on the table and, as always, to speak in silly accents.

Thanks for reading,
JET

P.S. If the table looks different, that's because we were playing with Chris's terrain collection and yes, those are long OOP Warhammer cardstock buildings.

The Alchemist of Old Dertflinghan

2011-02-24T22:39:00.004-03:30

Alexandrei Movila was born in 1412 to a noble house less than 50 miles south of Dertflinghan. As the son of a local boyar he was trained as a knight and it was his father's intention to offer his son's service to the Lord of Derflinghan. However, before the young man had the chance to take the journey, his entire family was slain by a pack of hunting vampires and, for some reason, the vampire lord gave Alexandrei the dark gift. In almost 500 years, he has himself only passed the dark gift to one other, his manservant Draga who, before dying of old age, begged his master to make him immortal.

Both creatures now live deep within a network of catacombs underneath the overgrown rubble of Old Dertflinghan. Movila's dealings with men are simple - he hunts them for food but otherwise avoids their affairs. However, the rural folk of the Carpathians know him by many names, in spite of his seclusion.

The Alchemist of Old Dertflinghan

In local folklore, Movila is often referred to as the Alchemist of Old Dertflinghan. True alchemists, however, would call Movila's experimentations reverse alchemy for, in essence, he has already achieved the immortality they seek. Instead, he has spent nearly two centuries trying to find a way to revert to his mortal self. If that day ever comes, he hopes to escape his undead curse and to die naturally as a man.

The Waker of the Dead

For purely practical reasons, Movila turns many of his victims into ghouls by feeding them a small amount of his immortal blood. Although their company is nothing to be desired, ghouls make the perfect foot soldiers and guards of his domain. They skulk around the catacombs and the surrounding forests where they often stumble upon potential intruders.

The Night Hunter

Although Movila often depends on the loyal Draga to bring victims to him, he sometimes gets the urge hunt for himself. He is, after all, a vampire lord and the beasts of the Carpathian woods come at his beckoning.

The Man-Bat

On rare occasions, Movila is confronted by men who are made of sterner stuff than their fellows. When his opponent fails to cower before him and, moreover, stands firm to challenge him, the mighty vampire morphs his body into the shape of a bat-like beast. This form also makes it easy for him to traverse great distances in short periods of time, particularly when he wants to hunt far afield.

Painted By: JET (aka Jason)

Thoughts & Commentary

Although I've already painted a band of Romanian Vampires, I really wanted to field a Nosferatu warband as well. The expanded lists allow one to take a master and three lesser nosferatu for a total of four vampires. However, I wanted to keep the number of vampires low (at least initially) since I imagined a lone figure, skulking through the ages without companionship. Realistically, I'll likely paint up another couple of vampires just to give me the option of fielding more down the road.

These Westwind Gothic Horror models are just great in my opinion. I think it takes a real artistic skill as a sculptor to create a model so devoid of detail and yet busting at the seams with personality. The miniature I used for Movila has no bells or whistles but I find the simple sculpt and the menacing face so effective, not to mention fun and easy to paint.

This Gothic Horror project has really become my opus. I love it more and more every time I add to it and I still have ideas for the future. The irony is, one of the reasons I got into this genre was that only a handful of models were needed to play. I now have over 50 miniatures on my Horror shelf, not to mention a sizable collection of prefab and homemade terrain. Oh well, so much for constraint.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Enslaved Ghouls

2011-02-22T14:27:00.003-03:30

Contrary to popular belief, it is fairly rare for a vampire to pass on the "dark gift" to his victims. Every time a new vampire is born, the vampire lord's hunting ground becomes a little more confined and his ability to remain inconspicuous becomes threatened. More often, victims who are not killed outright are given a small amount of the vampire's blood and are raised to a state somewhere between life and undeath.

These vile creatures sometimes hunt for human meat but more often live as scavengers near burial sites and crypts. They are known by many names - blood servant, vampiric thrall, corpse stealer, grave fiend - but most resort to the vulgar term ghoul.

Every "ghoul" is affected by a vampire's blood differently. Some, although monstrous, retain a shadow of their humanity while others quickly degenerate into slathering beasts. However, regardless of their condition, these creatures are true abominations of god's order and serve no purpose whatsoever in the grand scheme of things.

Painted By: Jason (aka JET)

Thoughts & Commentary:

I had fun selecting the models that I would use for this project. As you can plainly see, I made use of dry-brushing and inking on these miniatures - there''s only so much effort I'm willing to put into a painting a ghoul. The four models used, in order from the top of the post down are:

Westwind, Nosferatu blister pack. The knife hand is a plastic weapon swap.
Mantic, Undead Ghoul boxed set. Built straight from a plastic sprue.
Westwind, The Antagonists Vampire Counts/Slayers 1 blister pack. The head is a plastic Games Workshop zombie head.
Westwind, Vampires From Across Time blister pack. Straight from the pack.

I used the same bland color scheme on all of these because, as a group, I want them to stand out from the vampires they will be fighting alongside of. Using Tom Weiss's amended Nosferatu warband list, I created the maximum number of four ghouls and tried to vary their abilities and weapons using the options available. I look forward to trying them out soon, perhaps in a graveyard near you ;

Thanks for reading,
JET

Cattle

2011-02-17T16:24:00.006-03:30

Under the shadow of the Carpathians there are many creatures who, night after night, hunt human prey and keep the region's rural occupants fearful of the night. However, there are some mundane creatures; simple beasts who man, in spite of his limitations, has managed to dominate and exploit for his own benefit.

The cow is one such animal. Villagers up and down the Carpathians expend great effort to raise and protect these natural sources of meat and milk from the area's many predators, both mortal and immortal.

Painted By: Jason (aka JET)

Thoughts & Commentary:

I bought these models from Dixon for use in our first Old West campaign a couple of years back. However, by the time I got around to painting them the campaign was nearing its end and so they sat unfinished in a drawer for two years.

One of my new initiatives for 2011 is to finish up all of my half-finished projects. To this end, the cows came out and, although they will find uses in future Old West campaigns, they will be used in our Gothic Horror games from this moment onwards as well.

As to painting, they were an EXTREME rush-job. After researching cattle breeds online for about 20 minutes yesterday I had a real moment of clarity. I realized that I was at an age and stage of life where I wasn't going to spend any considerable amount of my time left here on earth painting cow models - a guy has to know when to draw the line. With that bit of self-discovery in firmly place, I started dry-brushing like crazy, picked out a few details, and in less than an hour I was gluing down ground cover.

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Abandoned Village: A Chaos In Carpathia Multi-Player Scenario - Part Two

2011-02-14T09:14:00.011-03:30

Before you proceed, it's probably in your best interest to check out part one where you'll see lots of photos of the scenario objectives and the table layout.

Game night had finally arrived and the three of us were itching to get down to business - so we did. As per the explanation in the previous post, we selected our deployment zones and secretly assigned our models to their positions. Here's how things looked at the beginning of turn one.

Chris selected the Footbridge and the Church Tower for the British Monster Hunters. The Austrian Hunters were deployed in the tower while the rest of the warband prepared to cross the bridge into the cemetery.

Marc chose the Professor's Cottage and West Road for Dr. Hartstone and His Creations. Dr. Hartstone started in the cottage as he was eager to explore the library in the cellar. Delilah led the other contingent (including Marc's newly-painted Cat Monster) into town from the road.

Finally, I selected the North Road and the Marsh for the Werewolves. Bloodrunner and the Old Woodsman came in on the road with the intentions of exploring the long house and the woods across the river. The rest of the warband started in base contact with the Marsh, with Crazy Nell in contact with one of the objectives (The Pagan Stone). It wasn't wise of me to expect a lunatic to find an objective but, with the Austrians and their hunting rifles in the church tower, I didn't want to risk losing a werewolf too early.

With that, initiative dice were rolled (we thought that the card-based system would take too long with three players) and we were off. Here were some of the highlights of the game.

Emma Poundwood Finds a Clue:

The bulk of the Mannleigh expedition crossed the bridge into the cemetery. Ms. Poundwood approached the Cemetery Statue and, after some investigation, found a cryptic message scratched into the stone.

Lunatics of a Feather Flock Together:

Crazy Nell and her drooling comrade-in-arms stayed in the vicinity of the churchyard. Much to everyone's surprise (and thanks to the use of Some FATE Points) Nell successfully found the clue associated with the Pagan Stone. The other lunatic decided to enter the church and to climb the ladder to the tower so he could deal with the Austrians. In the end, the poor fellow was taken down in combat by Hans Klapp and Nell, who had almost made it to the Child's Tribute objective, decided to head back to safety with her objective intact.

Cats & Dogs:

Dr. Hartstone's henchman, French Hunter Antoine De Bellevue, made his way to the Hilltop Monument. Just before he reached it, one of my werewolves charged up the hill. This charge set off a reaction from Marc's Cat Monster (who had a held action) and, before too long, the doctor's assistant Delilah joined in the fray. Thanks to his supernatural strength, Howler held out but, in the end, the Cat Monster took him down and to add insult to injury, Antoine successfully found the clue associated with the monument.

My Kingdom for a Rowboat:

Bloodrunner (one of my werewolves) moved into the long house and the Old Woodsmen moved on towards the Forgotten Grave on the other side of the river. In retrospect, I should have sent the werewolf to tackle the river but, by the time I realized that, it was too late so I took my chances. That turned out to be a mistake. The Old Woodsman landed in the river and was lucky to make it out before he was swept off the table. When all was said and done, he found the clue on the grave and spent the rest of the game trying to inconvenience the doctor's warband with his crossbow.

A Royal Cock-Up:

After Ms. Poundwood found the clue in the cemetery, the luck of the monster hunters took a sharp turn southward. Throughout the course of the game, four members of the warband searched and failed to find the clue at the Child's Tribute.

A Quiet Night In:

Doctor Hartstone started the game by descending into the cellar to peruse the Professor's collection. After he was finished he crossed the road and discovered the clue on the Doctor's Workbench (which was quite fitting I thought)

Sniffing Around in the Crypts:

The Great Wolf climbed through the window of the hut near the marsh, descended to the cellar and found the secret door leading into the underground crypt. He spent the entire game searching and was lucky enough to find the clue in the Hero's Tomb. Furthermore, he opened all of the sarcophagi and managed to earn one wildcard victory point as well. Although he triggered a curse, he suffered no ill effects since werewolves have no fear of the dead.

Pious Sir Thrustam:

After the debacle in the church yard, Sir Thrustam made his way into the church where he stopped for a quick moment of prayer (and earned himself an extra FATE point). He proceeded down to the church undercroft and found the clue associated with the Bishop's Seat.

Dr. Hartstone's Companion's Tie Up the Game:

My werewolves were in the lead for most of the game but as we neared the end, Marc started finding clues at an alarming rate. Antoine's right-hand man Johnson found the clue in the Barrels of Produce, Delilah found one at the second Pagan Stone, and in the last turn of the game, Antoine found a clue buried under the Sacred Tree.

Here's how the objectives and victory points were divided when the game ended:

The Werewolves found clues at one of the Pagan Stones (1), the Hero's Tomb (1), the Forgotten Grave (1), and earned two wildcard victory points for successfully searching the most sarcophagi (1)and the most chests (1) for a total of FIVE VICTORY POINTS.

The Mad Doctor and His Companions found clues at the Doctor's Workbench (1), the Sacred Tree (1), the Hilltop Monument (1), the Barrels of Produce (1), and the second Pagan Stone (1) for a total of FIVE VICTORY POINTS.

The British Monster Hunters found clues at the Cemetery Statue (1) and the Bishop's Seat (1) for a total of TWO VICTORY POINTS.

The Great Fireplace (1) in the village long house and the Child's Tribute (1) in the churchyard both remained unclaimed at game's end.

Although we never discussed how to break ties, I think since I lost two members of my warband and Marc never lost any, the final victory would go to his Mad Doctor. The next time around, I would like to do a couple of things differently. First of all, I would like enemy warbands to be able to search objectives even after they have been successfully searched by others since it would probably cause more interaction. Also, next time I would allow each player to randomly choose a couple of secret objectives that would be worth double victory points to their warband. That way, at game end it wouldn't necessarily be clear who was the winner.

In any event, we all had a great time, drank lots of tea, and will certainly have a re-match sometime soon.

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Abandoned Village: A Chaos In Carpathia Multi-Player Scenario - Part One

2011-02-11T20:50:00.010-03:30

The Chaos In Carpathia players in the group are planning a three-player game this weekend and, since I had some time to spare yesterday, I prepared the table and planned out the scenario that we would be playing. I thought that some of you Gothic Horror players (or fans of adventure games in general) might appreciate a scenario walk-through before reading the actual game report that will follow.

The table represents some rural village deep within the foothills of the Carpathians. An eerie silence hangs over this settlement ever since the villagers disappeared. Each player warband has their own noble or nefarious reason for discovering what happened to the villagers and the purpose of this scenario is to discover their whereabouts by finding and interpreting clues.

The building interiors are laid-out adjacent to the main table.

The Clues:

There are twelve objectives spread across the table which contain some clue to the whereabouts of the missing villagers.

The Cemetery Statue stands guard over the deceased. The cracked stone offers many hiding places.

The Sacred Tree was planted many years ago by the first settlers. Villagers often bury charms and trinkets under its shadow.

The Child's Tribute greets visitors at the village's south entrance. It stands in remembrance of a young girl who drowned in the river many years ago.

In the eastern woods across the river lies a Forgotten Grave. Some whisper that it holds the remains of a lost soul who committed some heinous crime.

The Hilltop Monument stands as a silent observer of all the village's comings and goings. If it could speak, it could tell many secrets.

Barrels of Produce lie forgotten in the fields. In moments of panic the fearful stash valuables in the most mundane places.

The Pagan Stones at the west edge of town remind the villagers of their humble origins. The Christian God was not always king here and, in the darkest corners, he still isn't.

The Bishop's Seat is kept in the church undercroft, only brought up to the nave for ecclesiastical visits.

The occupant of the Hero's Tomb was given a special resting place after saving the village from looting marauders.

The Doctor's Workbench is scattered with letters and journals; a perfect place to find clues.

The Great Fireplace in the village longhouse has a secret storage compartment known only to the town elders.

Since the objectives in this scenario require both perception and intellect to discover and understand fully, character's may add their scores in either Sharp Senses or Scholar to their MIND rolls. Searching an objective counts as a Special Action. If a character fails his perception check he may only try searching the failed objective a second time if he first attempts to search another objective first.

Bonus Victory Points:

As per my Indoor House Rules, characters may be lucky enough to find bonus victory points by searching chests, bookcases, and sarcophagi. Any VP found by rolling on the appropriate furniture tables are added to those VP earned from the twelve main objectives.

Deployment:

In an attempt to make the three-player interaction as interesting (and as unpredictable) as possible, I've come up with the following non-standard method of deployment. There are six deployment areas on the table as follows:

The North Road into town (Models must be placed on the road within 3 inches of the board edge)

The West Road into town (Models must be placed on the road within 3 inches of the board edge)

The Footbridge leading into the cemetery (Models must be placed within 3 inches of the footbridge on the east side of the river)

The Marsh (Models must be placed in base contact with the marsh)

The Professor's Cottage (Models must be placed anywhere on the ground floor of the cottage)

The Bell Tower (Models must be deployed within the tower interior)

I've borrowed and modified the game set-up system from the Settlers of Catan board game. Each player makes a Goal Roll equal to their leader's MIND stat plus any bonus dice granted by the LEADER ability. The highest roller decides whether he wants to be player one, player two, or player three. The next highest roller then chooses his place from the two remaining positions. The lowest roller takes whatever is left. Deployment zones are select then as follows:

Player One chooses his first deployment zone
Player Two chooses his first deployment zone
Player Three chooses his first deployment zone
Player Three chooses his second deployment zone
Player Two chooses his second deployment zone
Player One chooses his second deployment zone

After each player has two deployment zones, each model in the warband is secretly assigned to one of the two deployment areas (by jotting it down on paper). When all is revealed, starting with player one, each player takes it in turn to place a model or a unit of henchmen. To be clear, there is no limit on how many models a player can deploy in each zone but there must be at least one model deployed in each.

When deployment is complete players proceed with game play using whichever initiative system they agreed on (i.e. cards or dice). At the end of an agreed number of turns, victory points are totaled and the victor is declared.

If you're still reading, here's the epic scenario report complete with lots and lots of photos.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - Impetuous Cavalry Win the Day

2011-02-09T08:24:00.001-03:30

It was time to face off against Stu's pesky Arab's again and, with my two units of newly-painted peasants in tow, I knew I couldn't lose ;). Here's a great shot of Stu's main command all ready to gallop across the field with arrows flying.

Not so much with the galloping, here's Stu's secondary command. It consisted of spearmen, skirmishers, and a couple of units of light cavalry.

Not the best photo, but here you can see my new secondary command. Peter Redgrave leads his men-at-arms, two units of peasants, and three units of Breton javelins. The command boasts an impressive frontage considering the entire group had a total of only eight VD. In other words, I hoped that it would keep part of Stu's army occupied and yet be completely disposable.

For this game, my three units of Impetuous cavalry were under the leadership of my CinC John Stockwood. I deployed one unit on my right flank next my secondary command. In this photo you can see how I'm actually starting to use my impetuous cavalry. Stu's subordinate general and his unit had stopped around 9.5 cm from my CP. If I tried to charge him he would surely evade. However, by placing my unit on opportunity, I could wait and react when Stu was the active player again making it impossible for him to evade.

In the end, Stu had no choice but to bite the bullet and I sent horses after him. Sadly, I only rolled a 1 on my charge movement bonus (I needed 2 or more). I did catch him after but, as it turns out, both Stu and I forgot that my cavalry should have ended the failed charge in disorder. However, as you'll see below, the game was actually decided on the other side of the field so no harm done.

Stu sent his main command, consisting of CM and CL with comp bow B, after my left flank. Two more units of impetuous cavalry stood guard. As soon as possible, I put both units on opportunity in order to keep them reined in and ready to react. This tactic works for my army as my core of longbowmen can reach out and force my enemy to either come after me or to get shot to pieces.

Eventually, Stu bit the bullet and my cavalry reacted. My units did very well (and I rolled very well) and before long, two units of CL were either routed or sent running with their tails between their legs.

Stu attempted to get some of his cavalry around my flank before my knights destroyed his center.

In the end, Rodger of Lynn and Etienne De Garde crashed into Stu's general. When the smoke cleared, half of Stu's main command was routed and at the end of the turn, it caused the entire army to fold leaving me victorious on the field of battle.

Another great game but, then again, there's really no such thing as a bad game of Impetus, regardless of the outcome. I'm in the process of learning a lot of finer points of the rules (like how to use my impetuous cavalry or how to use my different infantry types together) and it really increases one's joy of the game. Stu is the guy who played the 6mm Parthians a couple of years ago (for those of you who remember that) and this is a bit of an Impetus renaissance for him so there's a bit of re-learning and rules-polishing going on as well.

As an aside, Marc was at my house the other day prepping up his 15mm English cavalry so you can expect a fourth medieval army (and player) in the group within the next few months.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Armed Peasants (unit #2)

2011-02-05T16:32:00.002-03:30

Impetus Unit Type: FP
Base Size: 8cm x 3cm

Special: none
Manufacturer: Corvus Belli
Comments:

I'm hoping that a couple of units of peasants led by a unit of dismounted men-at-arms marching behind a screen of Breton javelins will make a nice cheap flank command. As you can see, although the unit is based on a heavy foot base, I've decided to suggest the unit's mob-like formation by using eight instead of the regular ten figures.

Armed Peasants (unit #1)

2011-02-01T13:28:00.004-03:30

Impetus Unit Type: FP
Base Size: 8cm x 3cm

Special: none
Manufacturer: Corvus Belli
Comments:

15mm Impetus is getting its second wind in our group and, motivated by the excitement, I dug into my Corvus Belli collection in search of something to paint. I love these peasant models and, aesthetics aside, they offer a valuable addition to my army. Where my dismounted men-at-arms cost 25 points per unit, these fellows cost only a mere 7 points in comparison. Having a cheaper infantry option gives me a great deal more flexibility when designing lists, especially lower points-cost ones.

As you can see, some unfortunate young knight has been given the rather inglorious charge of keeping the peasants in line, which is to say, keeping them from getting in the way of the "real" army.

Impetus Group Update

2011-01-30T15:22:00.003-03:30

I haven't been posting quite as frequently lately, but there's been no shortage of painting and gaming going on in my life. I played two games of Impetus last night against Stu's Medieval Turks (Sultanate of Rum) but I forgot to take pictures once the action heated up. I thought I would take the opportunity to fill you folks in on Impetus plans and progress in the group.

The battlefield after the first turn. The core of my army

was made up of longbow backed up by men-at-arms.

First of all, the two main sub-projects in the group are 28mm Fantasy Impetus and 15mm Historical Impetus. As some of us are discovering, if you're not going to be playing on a large table (i.e. 6x8 ft), 28mm just doesn't offer the same level of maneuverer and counter-maneuver that 15mm does. 15mm historical (as some of you are likely aware) is certainly my preference and here's where those involved stand currently.

Marc: HYW English (not painted)
Has enough minis to build a 400-point HYW English army and plans to start in the fairly near future. He plays Impetus regularly now and learned the game playing 6mm Parthians vs Romans.

Chris: Italian City States (painted)/ Normans (not painted)
Has a full 400-point Italian City States (Milanese) army painted and plans to add some units now that Extra Impetus #3 has fleshed out the list. He also has a collection of Normans primed and ready for painting. I am currently trying to egg him on to get going on this OR to add some more units to his Milanese army. I think he's becoming a little distracted by 28mm painting so I'll leave him alone... for now.

Stu: Sultanate of Rum (painted)
Stu recently came to terms with his loathing of painting. To remedy this fact, he has allocated part of his wargaming budget to painting services and the Turkish force pictured above is the first of the commissions he's had done. I've been told that there are more 15mm Impetus commissions planned.

Ken: Aragonese (planned, not yet purchased)
This is the star painter of our group and, thanks to playing the FOG video game lately, his interest in Impetus has kicked into gear. As of last night, he said that he plans on starting a Medieval Spanish (Aragonese) army. It would be groovy to see.

Jason/JET/Me: Free Company (painted) / Norse-Irish (started)
My medieval Free Company army is one of my prized wargaming possessions and it's provided me with many hours of painting and playing enjoyment. I've started (and am about to re-start) a 15mm Irish army. The army was originally intended to be a Dark Age Norse-Irish army, but I may (or may not) paint units to morph it into a later medieval Irish army or a Early Irish army (i.e. fighting conquesting Romans and so on). In the future, there will be other 15mm Impetus armies - I just get such enjoyment out of planning and painting Impetus units.

The more I play Impetus, the more I love it. It is such a simple yet deep rules system. Just last night I had a few "aha" moments with regards to my impetuous heavy cavalry. Here they were at the beginning of the game. They performed quite well for me last night, mostly because I'm beginning to learn how to use their impetuous nature to my advantage.

Stu's medium Ghulam cavalry. At VBU:6 with composite bows, these guys are nothing to sneeze at. Last night, however, my longbowmen, with the help of one particularly courageous unit o dismounted men-at-arms, gave them a sound thrashing.

We'll be playing again next week and, for 15mm historical fans, my Free Company will be fielding some newly-painted units. I've said too much. You'll just have to check back next week. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Fantasy Impetus: First 300-point Game

2011-01-23T14:11:00.007-03:30

Last night four of the guys in the group brought their Fantasy Impetus armies out for some bashing and smashing. My first game was against Marc's High Elves. We've both just finished painting up to the 300-point level so it was the largest fantasy game we had played so far.

Marc's starting army consisted of FP x2 (Spearmen), CP x2 (Knights), Art x1 (Bolt Thrower), CH-Hero x1 (Elven Archer Hero), M x1 (Great Wurm), and of course, and Expert general with a Good command structure.

We used the road rules, which meant that these goblin units could make two moves without making a disorder check.

Marc began wheeling his army in order to give his knights access to the open ground.

By the second turn, this is how things looked. Notice the Elven Knights (left) preparing to charge the goblin skirmishers and medium cavalry (right). Now, also notice the position of the goblin hero near the middle-bottom of the photo. Keep that in mind.

Heroes move like skirmishers so broken ground has no effect on them. Doesn't Marc's bow-armed hero look sexy?

As I pointed out above... When Marc declared the charge towards my goblin cavalry, we discovered that he would cut through my heroes ZOC. I took advantage of this and opportunity charged him. As you can see above, my hero caused a hit (rather unfortunate for the elves) and stayed fresh.

As it turns out, the combat wore on...

...and believe it or not, Bloodmoon routed the elven cavalry all by his lonesome.

On the other side of the field, Marc's dragon came charging into my shaman and his boys. This encounter went on for a few turns and, although my shaman was eventually defeated, the Great Wurm was seriously limbed and had little effect on the rest of the battle.

My light cavalry tried their best to harass the elven spear but, thanks to their being heavy foot with shield wall, they were nigh invulnerable to that level of missile fire.

While all of the other shenanigans were going on, Marc charged his second unit of knights towards my wolf riders. Sadly (snicker), he rolled on less than he needed to make the charge distance.

By the following turn, combined fire from my wolf riders and my skirmishers caused serious damage. Furthermore, my spearmen and Marc's hero rushed in to join the scuffle.

The hero defeated the spearmen (handily) and charged forward into my general's entourage.

My wolf riders eventually routed the knights and made their way back around towards the elven hero. We were both mere points away from breaking but, after a lucky shot, the wolf riders took out the hero with their bows and won me the game.

My second game of the evening was against Chris's rat men.

The filth-ridden general and his rats.

We deployed about forty inches apart.

I deployed my light cavalry on my far-left flank. As you can see, there's still one rider not painted yet.

Chris chose to attack in waves as I moved up to the road and waited. He left his mass of infantry on opportunity back in his deployment zone and sent out his rat ogres and his skirmishers.

The light cavalry made their way around Chris's flank, but the bulk of the game was spent dealing with one wayward unit of rat men.

As with my first game against the elves, my shaman spent the majority of the game holding up a monster.

My wolf riders put their bows to good use by cleaning out a unit of skirmishers and almost annihilating this rat ogre. They finished off the game by charging into a unit of rat men.

rat slingers moving through the forest.

And here's every Impetus player's dream: I managed to pull off a group counter-charge and even up my goblins' odds against the impetuous rat men.

Although Chris was starting to get some units around my flank, it was too late - I destroyed a unit of rat men and caused the army to rout. Two victories in one night!

I managed to quickly stick my nose (and my camera) in on Chris's and Chris's game. I can't remember what happened but it looked great.

I'm almost finished my 400-point goal for this project and, although it's been fun and I'm pleased with my results, I'm more certain than ever that I am first and foremost a 15mm historical guy. The historical armies (as well as the stricter limitations in the army lists) inspire me more and 15mm, although not always substantially cheaper than some 28mm options, really allows an Impetus player to make the most of a 6x4 foot gaming area.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Chaos In Carpathia - Battle In (And Under) The Wilderness

2011-01-17T15:34:00.001-03:30

This game actually took place a few weeks back but I'm only now getting around to posting the pics. Chris had just finished painting his new ruined tower and my underground interiors still had that "new crypt" smell so we were eager to throw down. Although the primary source of victory points for this scenario comes from defeating the enemy in combat, there's a chance of finding victory points by searching chests, bookcases, and sarcophagi.

Scenario: Battle In the Wilderness

The wilderness area, dominated by a ruined tower

The crypts under the ruins, accessible from three above-ground locations

Warbands: Romanian Vampires (me) vs. British Monster Hunters (Chris)

Special Events: Indoor House Rules

Synopsis:

Although taking out enemy models in combat was the primary objective of the scenario, we each sent some members of our warbands to the crypts with hopes of stumbling upon some of the random victory points available there. By the scenario's end, my vampires had scored more victory points in both kills and treasure finds so it was an overwhelming victory for me.

The Battle:

Chris sent his best searchers (Dr. Alcock and Ms. Poundwood) to the crypts along with Hugo Forst for protection. Ms. Poundwood used her uncanny intuition to discover a secret door in a cabin cellar and gained access to the crypts that way.

Meanwhile, the Count advanced quickly towards the ruined tower...

While his minions came upon a hidden entrance to the crypts in a nearby cave.

As the humans began their search they were suddenly aware of a threatening presence in the darkness.

Out of nowhere, Lyleth flew into the unprepared humans and puts her vampiric savagery to good use.

The Count descended and joined his second-in-command. Poor Dick and Hugo never stood a chance really.

Lyleth got bored with the encounter and moved on while vampire acolyte Hestor and the Count's manservant, Dolf, joined in the fray.

On the surface, Sir Thrustam and Johann moved quietly around the perimeter of the tower...

...and found it occupied.

The vampire acolyte was threatened from all sides without any of her kind to assist her.

Johann moved to the top of the tower to gain a commanding view of the countryside.

After successfully besting their opponents in combat, Lyleth and Lucretia sniffed through the contents of the crypt. Lyleth actually managed to score a victory point when searching a chest.

Not the scholarly type, Lucretia quickly lost interest in the bookcase and found nothing of value.

Result: Major Victory for the Vampires

After being defeated quite handily by Sir Thrustam and his crowd numerous times, I was glad to finally put the Brits in their place. When the vampires get up close and personal with the more academically-inclined humans it often tends to be a one-sided affair.

As for my Interior House Rules, they are serving us quite well. What I like most is how rolling on the tables specific to each furniture type gives models secondary objectives to aim for. In other words, there is a purpose in going to explore the far-off places on the map, especially for those character types who are more stealthy or intellectual and less physical than their combat-oriented companions.

I spoke to Jordin this weekend and he has begun painting his vampires. With any luck we will be able to play a large four-player game very soon. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

More Fantasy Impetus Gaming

2011-01-09T12:00:00.002-03:30

Two things to start. First of all, Happy Belated New Year. Second of all, please excuse my blogging laxness. Our baby has been teething since Xmas and no one is getting a great amount of sleep around here. However, geeking is alive and well and I thought I would kick-start my posting with some photos some Fantasy Impetus games we had on Saturday night past.

My goblin infantry line advanced through the gap.

Chris's ratmen warbands advanced towards my line. These large units are tough to deal with, despite their Discipline C. You can see some rat ogres in the background as well.

Here's one of my new units of goblin light cavalry pelting the advancing rats with arrows.

More of Chris's new units - skirmishing ratmen with slings.

It was a close game but, in the end, I was victorious. It takes a combined arms approach for me to deal with Chris's large units as, one-to-one, my goblin spearmen are no match for them.

My second game was against Chris H's Lizardmen army. Sadly, I took even less photos this time because the lighting didn't seem very good.

Chris's Slann Mage character. We had some discussion after the game about the value of individually-based wizards. In short, keeping them at a low-points cost seems the best compromise since they will never be (and aren't meant to be) the game-winning elements that similar units are in games like Warhammer.

The advance of the lizardmen infantry. I had units in position to charge the skirmishers in the flanks which negated their evasion ability and made them easy to disperse.

Chris's heavy infantry and monster. The heavy infantry are really the guts of the army and more of them would be a worthwhile addition to his force.

As I've said before, we're really having a good time with Fantasy Impetus and, with four of us with painted armies already, there's lots of opponents to test oneself against. I hope to post some proper photos of new goblin units soon so stay tuned and until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - A Foreign Invader

2010-12-29T22:43:00.002-03:30

Stu's wife gave him a 15mm painted Arab army for Xmas this year. The units were assembled as a Sultanate of Rum army as found in Extra Impetus #2. Eager to see if they could fight as well as they dressed, I brought along my Free Company army and challenged Stu to a 400-point game.

Stu's secondary command was comprised of Discipline C infantry.

The main command was made up of medium and light cavalry, all bow-armed.

Stu began a harassment run with his light cavalry. My skirmishers and longbowmen started going to work immediately.

Here's the battle early on. His mob of infantry (top right) made a slow advance towards my line allowing my army to concentrate primarily on his main (i.e. cavalry) command.

Before long my knights started clashing with his CL and CM units. Charges into the CL's flanks made it impossible for them to evade and left them trapped in melee combat, precisely where they are most vulnerable.

Although I was clearly going to lose my cavalry command, I was doing lots of permanent damage to Stu's force. Furthermore, as my secondary command, my cavalry arm could be lost without endangering my army as a whole.

The low discipline of Stu's infantry made it easy to keep them at bay. Once disordered they are difficult to re-order.

By the time Stu sent my cavalry packing his own cavalry command was wounded and disordered. My archers wheeled to face them and a couple of well-placed volleys took out half of his cavalry command's VD, which in turn, sent his entire army routing off the table.

Sorry for the brief report but, let's be honest, the main reason for the post was to show off photos of Stu's new army. It's a great-looking collection and, more importantly, it's a fun army to play against. I'm sure there'll be more games in the future.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Goblin Army - First Installment

2010-12-27T23:14:00.003-03:30

Not so many months ago I would have professed having very little interest in either (a) 28mm Impetus or (b) Fantasy Impetus. However, when some guys in the group started lighting a 28mm Fantasy Impetus fire, I just couldn't help myself - it's hard to resist any project related to my favourite mass battle rule-set. To show that I've actually been doing something with a brush as of late, here's the first 200-point installment of my Goblin army.

Gutbar Bloodmoon (CH-Hero)

Napleoff, Goblin General (FL inc. general)

Goblin Spearmen (FL)

More Goblin Spearmen (FL)

Norkodemus & Bodyguard (FL + CH-Wizard)

Goblin Scouts (S)

So that's the core of my force. Including command structure and special abilities it comes in at just under 200 points. Currently on the workbench I have a half-painted troll and the necessary parts to start in on some Wolf Riders. I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Finally Some Fantasy Impetus Progress

2010-12-15T08:55:00.003-03:30

After a two-week dry spell in the painting department, I finally picked up the brush and got down to business. Marc and I had an uninterrupted painting afternoon on Monday past (i.e. no spouses, no offspring) and while he finished off his elven cavalry, I finished the bulk of my goblin spearmen.

The front unit above contains my general (who is currently unnamed) with a regular unit in the back..

...with two more regular units for a total of four units of spearmen. Stat-wise, I based the goblins on Welsh infantry, so they are VBU:4, I:1, D:B with long spear. You can see my almost-complete hero in the background as well (the guy with the red shield).

I've begun the prep-work on four units of skirmishing archers and, with any luck, I might be able to put down a 200-point army this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading,
JET

First Game of 28mm Fantasy Impetus

2010-12-12T11:29:00.005-03:30

I've been a little lax in all areas of my geeking (including blogging) lately owing to the busyness of the impending Xmas season. However, Chris and Marc played the first test game of Fantasy Impetus last night and I managed to get a few usable shots of the action.

As you can see above, Marc has to finish basing his Elven cavalry but, that aside, the unit turned out quite awesome I think. Here we see his general and bodyguard eating through some large units of ratmen.

Chris brought along his newly-painted ruined tower. It's one of GW's new creations and, I have to say, it's really sweet. We used it in our Chaos In Carpathia game later in the evening as well.

The size of the table, as well as the move distances, are quite a leap from the 15mm scale we are used to playing in.

One of the final battles in the game. I believe that Marc's elves routed the rats and ended up winning the game.

This first test game was only about 200 points, about half of what we aim to play. At the very least, watching their game lit my Fantasy Impetus fires and I hope to have one productive painting day this week. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: More Fantasy Impetus Progress

2010-11-30T08:51:00.001-03:30

Today, Marc and I decided to pool our Impetus enthusiasm by getting together to work on our 28mm fantasy armies. I plugged away at a batch of 20 Goblin Spearmen while Marc worked on a unit of High Elf Knights.

I admit, however, that I did get sidetracked into painting my goblin general and his pet squig. Most of the army is going to be garbed in black so I decided to select a few characters and to really make them pop with some contrasting colours. When this model gets nestled in amongst his black-clad brethren he should really stand out.

On another note, some of GW's design choices I'll never really understand. For example, why (and how) is this guy holding up (yet alone wielding) a blade that is as big as his body? Goblin enthusiasm I guess.

Marc brought along a couple of units of Elf Spearmen that he had recently based. There was some talk of Warhammer a couple of years back but it never really materialized. I think they look much better based for Impetus.

With any luck I'll steal another hour or so today and forge ahead with the Goblin Spearmen. I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks for reading,

JET

Workbench Update: Warhammer Goblins for Impetus

2010-11-27T12:01:00.003-03:30

Life has been busy as of late but I have managed to get my Fantasy Impetus Goblin army off the ground. Some of you may recall that I had painted a Chaos Knight test model a while back. I was pleased with the results but the models are just so darn busy that I had a hard time getting inspired by them. For the time being I've laid them aside and moved onto the Skull Pass Goblins that Ken gave me a while back. Here's the first unit of Spearmen (FL) all ready for basing. I've given them the same stat line as the historical Welsh Spearmen.

As you can see, I'm going with a pretty simple approach. The only area of the models that I've giving a proper series of highlights is the green skin.

Here's a Goblin Hero. Independent characters are based with half the usual frontage (i.e. 6cm instead of 12cm).

Monsters are also based with 6cm frontage. I'm giving this Troll the Continuous Charge and Flammable rules.

The current state of the painting table. I hope to move through everything you see here (in addition to spider riders and wolf riders) pretty quickly. I'm aiming to have the bulk of the army finished before Xmas.

Marc is currently working on his High Elves and Chris has already made an impressive start on his Skaven. I think we'll start playing sometime over the Xmas holidays. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Curse of the Dertflinghans: Chapter Nine

2010-11-19T21:30:00.005-03:30

excerpt from DR. RICHARD ALCOCK'S JOURNAL

25 April. The Old Graveyard of Dertflinghan - We set out from Dertflinghan yesterday on the East road towards the Old Graveyard. In hindsight, it would have been wiser to wait until today and leave at first light, but as soon as the the scrap of the nun's journal was found, Mannleigh insisted on heading out straight away. After seeing his dogged determination I saw that argument would be futile, so we packed up and headed down the road as fast as we were able. We were accompanied by Sister Benedicta's bodyguard Hugo Forst. Although a little on the boastful side for my tastes, he does seem able to handle himself in a tight spot and will hopefully be an asset to our cause.

By the time we reached the graveyard the sun was already beginning its descent. The darkness replaces the light so quickly in this land. It is most unnatural.

The Austrians moved along the perimeter.

Ms. Poundwood caught sight of a crumbling statue and the ground at its base showed signs of recent excavation. Upon closer examination she discovered the grisly remains of a body in the fresh earth. I noticed that it showed signs of being recently defiled with bite and claw marks all over. Weapons were readied.

Just as we were making this discovery, I was startled from my examination by Rutter's bark. He and his master were running down the main path towards some advancing figure in the gathering darkness. Within seconds I heard the resonating sound of Mannleigh's battle cry. Any chance at a stealthy approach was lost. Mannleigh is a great friend for whom I hold the greatest respect, but in truth, his impulsiveness can be most vexing.

It was then that Ms. Poundwood, Hugo, and myself became aware of more figures in the advancing darkness. It seemed that we would have to fight our way to the mausoleums then.

Judging by the shouts and sounds of rifle fire coming from the other end of the graveyard, it was obvious that our Austrian allies were not without their own problems.

As the others were becoming embroiled in a bitter conflict with the creatures of the night, I decided to take a different kind of action. Seeing that Mannleigh had gained the upperhand against the demonkin with whom he was engaged, I ran to the mausoleum entrance behind him and, finding the doors locked, used as much force as I could muster to gain access. The doors fell open and a blast of musty foul air shot out of the dark chamber. In a moment, Mannleigh was beside me with sword drawn and out of breadth. A thin ray of moonlight shone into the interior and revealed a staircase going down into the earth. This was to be no easy search then.

We headed down into the catacombs with nothing but a flickering torch and the brave Rutter to guide our feet.

Then, without warning, a foul creature shot out of the darkness and I can honestly say that it took all three of us to send the thing scampering away with its tail between its legs (so to speak).

At the far end of the gallery I could just make out a dark shape hovering over a sarcophagus, pulling its contents out in a most horrifying fashion. If I ever survive this expedition, I can say with some certainty that the images of these vampiric children shall haunt my dreams and I fear that I shall never again know a peaceful night.

As I stood for a moment in my reverie, transfixed by the colossal grandeur of the mighty tomb, Mannleigh had charged into the darkness, aware of some hidden figure that I could not detect. I heard a clashing of swords and, judging by the bloodcurdling scream that followed, Mannleigh must have dealt the creature a crippling blow. (He told me later that, after impaling it on his sword, the foul thing dissipated into a damp mist right before his eyes)

With the head vampire defeated, the rest of the creatures seemed to disappear into the night. We found our companions on the surface no worse for wear and wasted no time in getting to the task at hand. We descended back into the earth, and after a thorough search, found that the various mausoleums provided access to the same sprawling catacombs beneath. It was a hellish job, searching through the remains of those sarcophagi, even more so thanks to the work of generations of vampires and ghouls, but our horror reached its height when we opened the eastern-most sarcophagus.

As the lid fell away, it was obvious that the corpse was relatively fresh and certainly couldn't be the original occupant of the sarcophagus. Furthermore, his horrible posture and extended arms showed that he had been sealed in while still alive. Upon closer examination I noticed a few lines of text scratched in the underside of the sarcophagus lid. It read:

MY HAND WAS FORCED
LEAVE THIS LAND
TRUST NO ONE
KASTOR VON DERTFLINGHAN

The weight of those few lines hit the party with the force of a tidal wave. If the letter that brought us to this land was written under false pretenses, who could have been behind it and what could their purpose have been in leading Mannleigh to this cursed place? The dead man's warning causes my thoughts to go out to Sister Benedicta. Mannleigh agrees and we have decided to head back to Dertflinghan at first light - RA.

<< Chapter Eight | Chapter Ten >>

Game Talk:

It's been a while since the last installment, mostly because I had mentioned in The Hand of the Almighty that Mannleigh and his companions were heading to the Old Graveyard and I had to finish (i.e. start) making the catacombs. As you can see from the picture below, I painted a tile for each mausoleum and then a collection of random dungeon tiles. These will match the cellar tiles from my buildings as well, so underground networks below towns will be possible as well.

The skull token marks a secret door (which nobody found).

The entrance to the catacombs from the largest of the mausoleums. The statues are made from wood blocks, cardboard, and a couple of old Warmaster models I had lying around.

The columns are the easiest (and the most effective in my opinion). They are wine corks glued to round plastic bases and painted to match the floors.

The sarcophagi were made from card and styrofoam. The "ornamental" pieces on the top are cheap hinges from wooden boxes (the ones I made Grunberg's Asylum out of, in fact). I knew I saved them for a reason.

The game was a modified Seek & Find scenario. Using my new furniture house rules, characters could search the four sarcophagi, statue in the graveyard, pool, and the chest for a total of seven possible objective finds. At the end of the scenario, 1 VP was awarded to the warband that found the most objectives and 1 VP to the warband that ended with the most objectives. Ms. Poundwood found one in the pool.

Lyleth escaping with her objective at the end of the game.

During the last round of the game, we were tied for VP's since we each had found and held two objectives and the head vampire was alive. However, when Mannleigh delivered the killing blow to the Count he took one of the objectives AND killed a Master of Evil, all in one move. Bastard.

Found most objectives (1 VP) - 2 each, neither player
Held most objectives at game's end (1 VP) - Monster Hunters
Capture Female Victim (1 VP) - n/a
Kill Master of Evil (1 VP) - Monster Hunters

Result:
2 VP Monster Hunters
0 VP Romanian Vampires
= major victory for Monster Hunters

In other news, Jordin has ordered the models for his Nosferatu warband so we now officially have four players for Chaos in Carpathia in our group. Can you say "tournament?"

Thanks for reading,
JET

Chaos In Carpathia Battle Report - Jordin's First Game

2010-11-11T08:49:00.008-03:30

So there's Marc (Mad Doctor & Creations), Chris (British Monster Hunters) and Yours Truly (Hungarians Hunters, Werewolves, Romanian Vampires). However, in the fairly near future there will be a fourth player in our CinC group.

Jordin came to the group earlier this year from a WH40k background to join in on our Warmachine gaming. After some exposure to CinC, he asked for a learning game (which I was only too happy to provide) and walked away an instant fan of the game, ready to procure models for a warband.

Scenario: Seek & Find

The center of the table was dominated by a church

on one side of the road and a graveyard on the other.

Warbands: Romanian Vampires (Jordin) vs. Hungarian Monster Hunters (me)

Special Events: None, but we tried out my new Indoor House Rules (see below)

Synopsis:

With five objectives at-large (four in buildings, one in the graveyard), the race was on to (a) find and (b) retain the majority of the objectives. There were also VP's to be awarded for killing a Master of Evil (the head vampire) and protecting/capturing the Female Victim (Ms. Grunberg). After it was all said and done, there were many casualities, but only a minor victory to the Monster Hunters (Which didn't actually count since Jordin wasn't clear on one of the victory conditions... my fault)

The Hunt:

Some members of the vampire warband advanced towards the church with the hopes of thwarting the hunters while their companions were in the two buildings on their half of the table searching for objectives.

The Vampire Lucretia (blue dress, previous photo) used Shape of the Beast to transform and then charged towards the terrified Ernst Holdt. Unfortunately, after rolling an AGILITY goal roll, Jordin didn't roll any successes (he only needed one) so the charge ended at the fence. You can also see Hester in the background (green dress), a Vampire Acolyte who is shown here after successfully finding one of the objectives in the building behind her.

This series of photos shows the altercation that took place behind the church. After failing her charge, Lucretia turned back into her vampire form and charged into the Slayer Helmut Von Krumm. After an exchange of blows, Helmut (with the help of the Hungarian hounds) defeated the diminutive vampire and moved up to the fence where he dispatched the Vampire Acolyte Bella as well. Things were clearly going well for the monster hunters on this flank.

The fight on the other side of the road was another story. Bjorn charged into Count Brechtenstein and Hester. His chopped down Hester but the Count retaliated with a fatal counter-attack.

After defeating Bjorn, the Count charged into combat with Hungarian Slayer Lazlo the Wanderer (who had just failed to find the objective in the sarcophagus). The fight ended poorly for Lazlo, leaving the Count free to search the sarcophagus for himself.

The Objectives:

While the battle raged in the center of the table, members of both warbands were busily scouring the table for the hidden objectives necessary for victory. Lyleth flew towards the sarcophagus early in the game and transformed into a vampire. Unfortunately, she failed to locate the objective and doubled back in search of another one.

The vampire's despicable human servant, Dolf, moved back to hide from Ernst and his crossbow. Thanks to the Pack Mule ability, Dolf is able to carry items that exceed his STRENGTH limitation without incurring a movement penalty. Jordin put this to good use by having Hestor "pass" her objective to Dolf for safe-keeping before she headed into the fray.

Lyleth (it was clearly not her day) also failed to find this objective. In a surprise attempt, Dolf (with a feeble MIND score of 2) rolled two successes and found the second objective for the vampires. He was now carrying both of the vampires' objectives. As a human, he was also allowed to search the cupboard. He did so but, with a D6 roll of 1, found nothing.

The good Dr. Grunberg spent the entire game inside this tiny cottage. After making it to the door in the cellar, he was unlucky enough to roll a "6" for the door's condition (meaning it was locked). It took a little doing for the old fella to kick the door in (and a couple of FATE Points as well). Of course, with MIND:4 and Scholar x3, he found the hidden objective easily.

Protecting Emmalina Grunberg:

My Expedition Leader, Count Konrad Von Krumm, was the guardian of my Female Victim, Emmalina Grunberg. He had to keep her within six inches at all time and as far away from monsters as possible. The Count also has MIND:3 and Scholar x1 so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by sending him off to find an objective in the undercroft of the church and then using the enclosed space to keep Ms. Grunberg out of harm's way.

The Count and Ms. Grunberg descended the staircase after which the Count had no problem finding the objective behind the door.

Since he was down here anyway the Count searched the bookcase and rolled four successes. He learned something of value about his enemy. In game terms, he could re-roll one ATTACK or DEFENSE goal roll against the vampires this game.

While rummaging about below the church, the Count was unaware of Lyleth sniffing around outside. As a vampire, she had to pass a TN:3 RESOLVE roll to enter the church (which she did).

Lyleth made it to the bottom of the stairs and, later that turn, Helmut Von Krumm successfully detected her and charged from the main floor down the stairs. Lyleth suffered a savage blow from Helmut's sword.

The Count, after ordering Ms. Grunberg to stay hidden, charged in to help his son. His knife found its mark and the child vampire went down.

At this point in the game (the last turn) it was up to the Count Brechtenstein. To recap, the Hungarians had two objectives, the Vampires had two objectives, the Master of Evil had not been killed, and Ms. Grunberg was still safe. The final unclaimed objective was in the sarcophagus. The Count rolled four dice (i.e. MIND:4) and needed two successes to find the objective. He only rolled one, however, and the game ended then and there in a bitter draw.

Result: Draw

First of all, what great fun we had trying out my new Indoor/Furniture rules. They were especially helpful in dealing with doors, windows, stairs, and trapdoors/ladders. We also did a little searching, and it was neat to see how less combat-oriented characters could still be quite useful in a game where fighting is typically the focus.

After re-reading the scenario victory conditions, I noticed that 1 VP goes to the warband who "holds the Female Victim" at the end of the scenario. We never realized this when we were playing, so I discounted that VP, hence the draw. Outcomes aside, the real winner here was our Gothic Horror group. With Jordin jumping on board we shall be four-strong. That means two games running consecutively or perhaps a larger team game in the near-ish future.

In any event, I will have the interiors and furnishings for my crypts painted in time for the next game night so, with any luck, we'll be able to pick up the Curse of the Dertflinghans campaign where we left off, with the Mannleigh expedition heading towards the Old Graveyard.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Outline of Chaos In Carpathia House Rules

2010-11-04T16:10:00.004-02:30

I've been spending my spare time picking away at a set of Chaos In Carpathia house rules to better simulate the interaction of models when inside buildings and in the crypts and basements beneath them.

Chaos In Carpathia is one of my favourite games (as you've likely noticed) and our group is also quite fond of Tom Weiss's add-on featuring expanded warbands and scenarios. After recently fashioning some off-table interiors for my Horror buildings I started pondering how the buildings, and particularly the furnishings within them, might give less combat-oriented character types extra game value, and frankly, more options during play. Here's a couple of sample entries:

2. ALTAR

Both the human and immortal inhabitants of Europe, whether they recognize the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible, the mysterious teachings of the Eastern masters, or even the abhorrent practises of the Nameless One, all make use of altars - simple or elaborate structures on which to conduct their sacred rites and to direct their prayers.

2.1. ALTARS DEDICATED TO CHRIST OR RELIGIOUS FIGURES FROM OTHER CULTURES
Human characters of Monster Hunter or Bruderschaft warbands may use a special action to kneel at the altar and pray. Make a TN# roll where # is equal to the character's RESOLVE. Every two full successes grants the character 1 free FATE POINT. Characters with the TRUE FAITH ability automatically gain one bonus Fate Point in addition to the result of their Goal roll.

2.2. ALTARS DEDICATED TO THE NAMELESS ONE
Members of Vampire and Werewolf warbands may use a special action to conduct a dark rite or make a blood sacrifice. Make a TN# roll where # is equal to the character's RESOLVE. Every two full successes grants the character 1 free FATE POINT.

2.3. DIVINE DISPLEASURE
Any character who attempts to pray and rolls zero goals on his RESOLVE roll has clearly annoyed his deity with his ostentatious show of hypocrisy. Lose one FATE POINT. If the character has no remaining FATE POINTS, any one enemy character may re-roll an ATTACK or DEFENSE roll against the hypocrit.

2.4. DESECRATING AN ALTAR
A character may use a special action to desecrate an altar of an opposed religion so that followers (generally, the character's enemies) cannot use the altar to gain FATE POINTS. There is no goal roll required but there is an automatic loss of one FATE POINT for doing so - interfering in the business of the gods has negative effects on blasphemers, regardless of whether or not the desecrater is a follower of the god in question.

Note: Both players (or all members of a campaign group) will have to decide in advance which altars are considered as "enemy" altars. Most monsters can desecrate Christian altars while most humans can desecrate altars to the Nameless One, but what of humans who serve monsters or a pack of monk-turned-werewolves who still maintain some remnant of their Christian faith? Each gaming group will have to draw their own lines on these matters of theological morality.

2.5. CHARACTERS PROHIBITED FROM USING ALTARS
None of the following characters or groups may make use of altars for prayer: Professors, Adventurous Scholars, Mad Doctor (Dr. Frankenstein) nor any member of his warband, The Old Woodsman, Ghouls, Escaped Asylum Inmates, any member of a Gypsy warband, any model with the animal special rule, units of henchmen.

10. FONT

To the untrained eye it is merely a basin filled with water mounted on a short pedestal, but to the faithful a font is an important piece of liturgical furniture. Holy water is central to the sacrament of baptism. Of course, it also comes in handy as a weapon against those infected with vampirism.

10.1. COLLECTING HOLY WATER
Any human character may use a special action to collect a vial of holy water from a baptismal font, no dice roll required. The holy water may be used for one attack against a vampire during that scenario. Holy water can only be collected from a font once per scenario.

Note: A human vampire henchman could choose to collect the holy water and then proceed to use a free action to dump the water on the ground.

* * * * * *

As you can see, the rules, although fairly detailed, are simple and, rather than presenting any new rules, I've really just used the existing rules to make furniture a little more exciting than when it is treated as nothing more than cover and a visual backdrop. Furthermore, in the interest of keeping the game moving at a swift pace, the rules are laid out alphabetically by furniture type. Here's what I'm working on at the moment. I would estimate that I'm over 80% done.

GENERAL RULES
ALTAR
BED
BOOKCASE
CABINETS, CRATES, & CUPBOARDS
CHEST
CHURCH
DOOR
FIREPLACE
FONT
LADDER/TRAPDOOR
SARCOPHAGUS
STAIRS
STATUE OR COLUMN
TABLE
THRONE
WEAPON RACK
WINDOW

There will be more CinC action this weekend so, with any luck, we'll have the chance to try out them out.

Thanks for reading,

JET

Chaos In Carpathia - First Game Using Building Interiors

2010-11-01T08:40:00.000-02:30

After working (kind of) hard on my building interiors, I was very excited to try them out and to get some feedback. So, when geek night rolled around this weekend, Chris and I hauled out the warbands and got down to business. I should point out that (as usual) I set up my Gothic Horror tables with more of an eye towards aesthetics than to tactics and, if I may be so bold, I really created a shooting-friendly table. As you'll see, I'm making excuses in advance.

Scenario: Seek & Find

Notice the nice open fields right in the
middle of the table? I'm just sayin.

The off-table building interiors set-up
(as you would guess) just off the main table.

Warbands: British Monster Hunters vs. Romanian Vampires

Special Event: None

Synopsis:

The opposing warbands started across from each other on either end of a small settlement and competed with each other by trying to discover hidden objectives in each of the four buildings. Austrian rifles found their mark and seriously limbed the vampires, in spite of their supposed resilience to firearms. In the end, by sticking together and working together, the human hunters swarmed and defeated their undead adversaries.

The Game:

The Mannleigh Expedition started at the T-junction leading into the village. As an Adventurous Scholar, Ms. Poundwood headed straight for the nearest building so that she could put her scholarly abilities to use hunting for the objective.

Bella, one of my Vampire Acolytes, tried to gain any available cover as she made her advance up the table.

Lyleth, one of my two lesser vampires, went to work seeking out objectives. Lucretia, my other lesser vampire, was shot down by Hans Klapp during the humans' first turn. Disgraceful!

Dr. Alcock moved into the other building at the north end of town and proceeded towards the cellar.

Mannleigh and the loyal Rutter stood guard between the two buildings while Alcock and Poundwood went to work searching the buildings.

Bella used the stone wall as cover as she moved towards the cottage.

Meanwhile, the Count Aldolphus and one his Vampire Acolytes made their way to the other side of the Long House where Ms. Poundwood was making her way towards the basement.

Hugo Forst, Mannleigh, and Rutter took up positions in the Long House while the Count and Hestor skulked outside the window.

The Count crashed through the window and engaged Mannleigh in a fierce melee. Sadly, prior to the duel Ms. Poundwood used her Gypsy's Luck skill to give Sir Thrustam extra Fate Points. He put them to good use and survived the Count's attack. Hestor (the Vampire Acolyte) jumped in behind the Count but Hugo (who had a held action) shot his pistol as she came through the window and put her down.

The Count and Sir Thrustam continued their duel. The Count seemed ready to use his action to finish off the British Hunter when Austrian hunter Hans Klapp burst through the door and fired two shots into the melee. His first took out Mannleigh's unfortunate hound Rutter, but his second proved to be fatal for the Count. It was a cinematic moment to be sure.

While all of this fighting was going on in the Long House, Lyleth had moved to her second building and found another objective. Frankly, she was the only member of my warband who seemed to be accomplishing anything.

Bella finally made it up to the hunters and charged into combat. Unfortunately, she had spent all of her Fate Points trying to survive rifle shots so she wasn't as potent in combat as she might have been. The good Johan put her out of her misery later in the turn.

After various misadventures inside the buildings the human hunters regrouped back on the road.

As the only surviving member of my Vampire warband, Lyleth charged into combat to try and cause some damage and hopefully to salvage some of my pride. The game ended after that turn. Lyleth managed to survive the scenario.

Result: Minor Victory for the British Monster Hunters

What a great game and, as hoped, the off-table building interiors worked very well. As to the game outcome, we each discovered and finished the scenario in possession of two objectives, so no victory points were scored. The hunter Hans Klapp did manage to kill a Master of Evil (the Count) so Chris earned one victory point. Chris really has to paint up some helpless female miniature to act as a Female Victim.

The MVP awards took little consideration to award this time round. Chris's hunter Hans took out two of my three vampires with his rifle. I can only assume that the bullets were laced with holy water. Lyleth was the star of the vampires as she discovered both of the objectives and of all her companions was the only survivor.

The next time we get together to play I should have finished the remaining fireplaces and the church furniture (and if I'm really lucky, some beds). In the meantime, I'm working away on tightening up my beta rules for using building interiors in Chaos in Carpathia. I certainly look forward to playing lots more games

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Experimenting With Cardboard Furniture

2010-10-28T20:33:00.003-02:30

Since finishing up the building interiors a few days ago, I haven't had much chance for geek time. However, I managed to steal an hour or so this morning and took the opportunity to start making some cardboard furniture for my buildings. Here's a quick look at the progress so far.

Here's an altar for the church. The piece of card draped down over the front will be painted as an altar cloth while the casing glued to the top will be painted as a vase and filled with "flowers."

Since Chaos In Carpathia actually has special rules for holy water, I decided to make a font. I figure we could try a simple house rule - first human model to reach the font can take one free flask of holy water or (in the case of vampire henchmen and thralls) dump the contents of the font to prevent others from getting it.

Small wooden flower pot things and wooden discs glued together... Voila! simple tables.

As you would expect, this long table goes in the Longhouse. It looks a little low here, but its actually the same height as my other tables. I think the length makes the height seem a little distorted.

That's it for now. I have started about a half a dozen other tables that will hopefully be finished tomorrow. Then I guess I'll make some beds (I'm dreading those for some reason). I'm also planning on making some barrels and crates for some of the basements.

Finally, I've started painting some generic dungeon/crypt interiors and hallways. I also plan on making some simple sarcophagi for those, as well as a few surprises to add some character to the crypts. With any luck, I'll take whatever I have finished to geek night on Saturday and we'll take the building interiors for a test run.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Building Interiors Finished

2010-10-25T18:07:00.006-02:30

After posting the interior tiles for my first rustic building last week, I did my best to crack on with it and am pleased to announce that I've finished the first batch of tiles. I now have both above and below ground tiles to correspond to the five rustic buildings that we use in so many of our Gothic Horror games. Use the key below to match each set of tiles with the corresponding building.

1. SIMPLE HUT

This simple dwelling consists of a door at one end, a hearth at the other, and a window on each side. Because it was so small I decided to make it a one-room cottage. The trapdoor reveals a ladder leading down to the cellar.

The cellar is a simple one-room affair as well that provides a sleeping area and a storage area.

2. TWO-ROOM COTTAGE

A slightly larger dwelling than the previous one. The owner has chosen to divide the above-ground space into two small rooms, one as a kitchen and the other as a bedroom. A simple wooden rail ensures that the occupant doesn't accidentally fall into the exposed staircase.

The staircase leads into a large one-room cellar that provides lots of storage space and, if necessary, extra sleeping space.

3. ONE-ROOM COTTAGE

With the same dimensions as the previous building, a one-room layout provides the inhabitants with a relatively large living space. As with the previous cottage, the entrance lies to the left of the fireplace (right where Ernst is standing)

A trip down the enclosed staircase leads to a modest bedroom. The door leads to a small storage area or root cellar.

4. RUSTIC CHURCH

The main door at the end of the building leads to the combined nave/sanctuary. As with many small village churches, it is a humble place of worship. There is a small porch and service entrance behind the chancel area.

The stair way leads down to the undercroft of the church while behind the half-wall a ladder leads up to...

...the tower. Although no Christian gentleman would dream of bringing a firearm into the house of God, with windows in three of its four walls, the tower makes an excellent position for a skilled rifleman.

The undercroft is divided into a small locked vestry (where the vestments and Eucharistic vessels are kept) and a small ad hoc living area for travelling members of the clergy.

5. LONGHOUSE

In many small villages, one building (other than the local church) stands out from its neighbours - the longhouse. Depending on the settlement, it may serve as a town hall, a meeting hall, a tavern, or an inn. In some cases, the basement houses the town's archives, important books, or holy relics. It isn't uncommon for the villagers' seeds and grain to be stored here as well, out of the reach of wild animals and dishonest townsfolk.

A winding stair leads down to the basement.

The reinforced door has multiple locks and stands between thieves and the town's most prized possessions. The keys are usually held by the town's elders.

In this example, I've laid out the largest room as a town archive, a prime objective for questing monster hunters.

What Next?

When I finished painting my Hungarian Monster Hunters a few weeks back, I wrote that I didn't plan on working on any more Gothic Horror projects for some time. As it turns out, I'm a liar. The truth of the matter is, Keir and I played a game when he was in town a few weekends back, and we ran into a situation we hadn't before - enemy models moving into the same building (in search of objectives) at the same time. It bugged me that we had no satisfactory means of resolving this type of occurrence and so, the tile idea was born.

Here's what's I'm thinking to "finish" this phase of the project:

More Furniture
The Heroquest furniture I repainted a while back is a good start, but I'm certainly going to have to expand my collection. For the dwellings, I want to build or buy some beds, more tables, and perhaps some crates/barrels of supplies for the cellars. I would like to build a long table for the Longhouse and the Church will definitely need an altar, some pews, and I was thinking a font (with special rules for attaining free holy water during scenarios).
More Tiles
I've already tiles for the three mausoleums, as well as some generic dungeon hallway and room tiles. This will allow us to lay out a variety of underground settings. In fact, I'm really looking forward to connecting some of the underground cellars to create a multi-layered table. I've also cut out tiles (four stories in fact) to represent the interior of the stone tower that is currently on the painting block.

Whether I buy or build the furniture remains to be seen. I may do both. Time will tell. If all goes according to plan, we'll be testing these interiors out this weekend. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Skaven for Fantasy Impetus

2010-10-24T08:10:00.002-02:30

To be clear, these are from Chris's workbench, not mine. However, he brought them as a surprise "show & tell" item to geek night last night so, considering the anticipation surrounding Fantasy Impetus around here, I felt that it would be appropriate to show them. I don't know what the hell was going on with my camera so just overlook the blurry parts.

The general stands on a high vantage point and, like Zapp Brannigan, sends wave after wave of his own men (err... rats) to neutralize the enemy.

The rats in question.

Marc, perhaps one of the group's lead proponents of all things Fantasy, was duly impressed when he arrived at geek night and saw them unveiled. I expect his High Elves to be based up and ready for battle soon. In the meantime, I will re-start work on this project as well.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Ernst Goes Downstairs

2010-10-18T23:16:00.004-02:30

Picking up where I left off in the last post, I painted the corresponding cellar floor interior for the building's main floor. I'm assuming that Ernst spent a turn shooting out the window and then used a charge move to cross the room and move down the stairs to the cellar below.

Ernst moves up to the door and rolls a 5 on the Door table. Assuming there are no modifiers, the door is unlocked so he used a free action to open the door and then continues his movement.

Ernst has enough movement to reach the bookcase where one of the scenario objectives are hidden (as would have been decided before the game began). He decides to use a special action to search for the objective but, since his MIND attribute is only 2, he uses two FATE points to increase his chances of finding the objective (and to make sure that trip down here was worth it).

As it turns out, he rolls three successes and, since finding the objective has a TN of 2, he is successful. With the objective (perhaps a dusty manuscript, cryptic map, or a stash of silver bullets) safely stowed away in his pouch, he is ready to make his way back upstairs to rejoin his fellow hunters outside.

I've just returned from a weekend out of town so I am ready and eager to get back at my interiors. I've pondered the house rules for playing inside that I laid out a couple of posts ago and I've decided that although I'll keep the limited 3" charge range I'll forget the -1" MOVE penalty. There are enough obstacles inside buildings (primarily doors) so I don't think it will be necessary to reduce movement further.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: An Example of Off-Table Building Interiors

2010-10-15T17:40:00.003-02:30

In my previous post I presented my idea for creating and playing with off-table building interiors for Chaos In Carpathia. I finally got around to painting up my first sample so I thought I would walk you folks through it visually and briefly explain how it will work during game play.

Ernst Holdt has kindly volunteered to take part in our little demonstration. At the start of his turn, Ernst finds himself at a cottage door and decides to try opening it. The player rolls a D6, scores a 3, and consults the Door Table (see previous post - JET). Since this is a simple residence, there is no modifier so the door is unlocked. Ernst uses a free action to open the door and moves through the door.

As soon as he passes through the door, Ernst is placed on the off-table interior in contact with the doorway. Ernst gets a total of two free actions per turn (he has a MIND score of 2) and he decides to use his other free action to close the door behind him. If the player chose (and the scenario allowed it) Ernst could interrupt his movement and use a special action (in lieu of attacking) to bar the door.

Ernst then continues with his movement and makes it to the top of the stairway in preparation for next turn. Although I haven't finished it yet, I'm working on the cellar for this house which will also be laid in the off-table section near the top floor. Next turn, Ernst could move down the stairs and then be placed on the landing in the cellar where he could complete his turn.

After seeing his opponent's moves, Ernst's player decides that Ernst would be more useful by providing fire support on the advancing enemy. Ernst moves to the window.

He can now target anything within a 45 degree arc from the corresponding window. Although he can also be targeted, he would gain the hard cover bonus.

As you can see, detailed interiors have the potential to add a lot of richness to a game like Chaos in Carpathia. I've already considered how some attributes, skills, and equipment become more valuable. For example:

A model's MIND attribute is more applicable to most scenarios as it gives a model the freedom to move around buildings, opening and closing doors, and so on.

A model's STRENGTH attribute comes in handy when trying to break down a locked door.

A model's AGILITY attribute makes climbing through windows easier, as does a coil of rope.

The skills Wallcrawler, Shape of the Bat, and Mist Form help model's negotiate the multi-level nature of the buildings on the battlefield.

Torches and Lanterns help humans negotiate the dark interiors of buildings and make it easier to spot and target hidden enemies.

Anyway, in one more week we plan on taking the new interiors for a test run so I'll have to get busy and finish the rest of them.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Workbench Update: Taking Gothic Horror Indoors

2010-10-12T16:20:00.005-02:30

Although I haven't done much painting during the last week, I have been busy planning a new "layer" for our Gothic Horror gaming. I have some rustic buildings in my collection, as well as a stone tower (not yet painted), Grunberg's lunatic asylum, a few mausoleums, and not to mention the various cellars, crypts, and dungeons that lie beneath these various structures. I've decided that it's time to take our game inside these buildings.

Buildings With Interiors

Many companies make buildings with interiors and lift-off roofs. Although these suit the needs of some gamers, I'm just not into them (pun intended). First of all, who wants to spend half of their game with a bunch of roofless buildings on the table? Not me. Secondly, there's the scale inconsistency issue. As most of you are likely aware, the buildings we lay out on the table for 25-32mm miniature gaming are greatly-abstracted in size. That is to say, buildings usually appear smaller than they actually would be if a miniature was an actual person. However, a smaller scale building, although effective for creating the illusion of a larger landscape, presents a very small interior space. After some thought, here's the solution I've come up with.

I'm in the process of cutting out MDF rectangles to represent interiors and sub-levels of all the buildings in my collection. When the walls and windows are marked out, the floors are textured, and the painting is all finished, I'll populate them with my painted furniture collection and lay them to the side of the main game table. But here's the kicker - I'm cutting out the floor plans to be around 30% larger than the footprints of their matched buildings. In this way, when a model enters a door or window, it will be removed from the main table and placed at the entrance of the off-table floor plan where it will continue its turn. Here are some simple ideas I've come up with to make this work.

Entering Buildings & Rooms

Rather than over-plan every scenario, each player will roll on the following table when one of their miniatures tries to enter a doorway or a window.

1: Ajar or Opened. No action required, keep on moving.
2-5: Unlocked. Free action to open, keep on moving.
6: Locked, Barred, or Shuttered. Special action to open, keep on moving if successful.

Modifiers:
+2 to roll if entering long house, town hall, artisan's residence.

+3 to roll if entering fortified tower, crypt/mausoleum entrance.

+4 to roll if entering strong room, treasure store.

-1 to roll if entering church.

To close a door behind him a model would use a free action. To bar the door or reinforce it with furniture or debris would require a special action.

B and E

When a character comes upon a locked, barred, or shuttered door or window, a successful Strength test must be made according to the appropriate difficulty level as outlined below.

TN2: most wooden doors to dwellings, churches, public buildings, and between rooms.
TN3: mausoleum, crypt entrance, rich dwelling.
TN4: fortified building, watchtower.

TN5: prison cell.

A character with Strength 3 or higher who fails to break down a TN2 or TN3 door may try again the following turn with a re-roll if he fails the second time, two re-rolls the third time, and so on. A physically-fit person will eventually break down a normal wooden door. It's just a matter of persistence.

Being Inside

The following general rules apply to all characters when inside or under buildings.

All models suffer -1" to their Move value and reduce charge bonuses to +3".

Firearms and ranged weapons are difficult to employ when both the firer and the target(s) are inside a building. Maximum range for all weapons is reduced to 10" if it would normally be higher. Targeted models gain +1D to Agility tests. This bonus is cumulative with cover bonuses. (Ex: An expedition member crouches behind an overturned pew inside a church. He would receive a total of +3D to his Agility roll; +1 for being inside, and +2 for hard cover.)

A model whose base is in contact with a door or window can shoot at targets outside within a 45 degree arc from the edges of the door or window.

Since Chaos In Carpathia scenarios generally take place at night, it is assumed that all buildings are dark inside unless the scenario description dictates otherwise. When hiding from non-werewolves and non-vampires, all models gain +2 to Hide tests regardless of whether or not they have cover to hide behind. This bonus is lost if a model carrying a torch or a lantern enters the room.

When fighting within 1" of a window, a miniature may attempt the Trip attack as described on page 18 of the rulebook to push its enemy out of the window. If a model falls out of a second story or higher, follow the Falling rules on page 11. A vampire may use Shape of the Bat (out of turn in this case) or Mist Form to avoid taking damage. If Mist Form is used, the Vampire returns to normal form when it hits the ground and the ability cannot be used to escape from the scenario. Characters with the Wall Crawler skill may make an TN# Agility test to avoid taking falling damage where # equals 1 for every 2 inches fallen.

That's pretty much everything for the time being. These rules are a work-in-progress and some test games will help us to iron them out. In the meantime, I'll try to get the floorplans finished and post some photos for your perusal.

Thanks for reading,
JET