The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 4

 MADNESS! Madness, I tell you! Two games of Five Parsecs From Home in one week? Three numbers in the previous sentence? Our House!

Anyway, I played out Game 4 of the Voyages Of The Century Flamingo. Khirki Nishekke would be sitting out this mission in Sick Bay, but otherwise everyone was available for another Delivery. We've done deliveries before, what could possibly go wrong dropping off a package at a farmstead outside town? As it turns out, a LOT went wrong. A roving band of gunslingers wanted to test their mettle against us, and they were accompanied by a Callous Merc. One of the gunslingers had a warrant out for him, so if he were dropped in the course of the delivery we could collect a bounty. And then (there's always an "and then," isn't there?) Iruurlaa Kheug and Aaur Iigunim stopped without letting anyone else know so they could chat up some ladies.

Aim Iashan climbed on the roof of one of the farm buildings to keep an eye out for the potential trouble, while Asvyaxke Dre (carrying the package) and O Oymsse skirted by the hedges trying to get to the drop-off point before trouble started. And then it happened. Bad guys spotted. Aim took the chance to shoot at notorious Amdi Gaaili and dropped him with a head shot! The Callous Merc returned fire on Aim, glancing him with no real harm but he did duck back. The gunslinger with the autorifle also took a couple of shots at Aim, but missed. The other gunslingers all tried to maneuver into better positions, while Asvyaxke and O moved ahead towards the delivery point. The gunslinger with the autorifle, having missed his shot at Aim and looking at the corpse of Amdi Gaail nearby, decided it was Miller time and left the area for a nice cool beer.

And then shots rang out from the gunslingers a few tried to get Asvyaxke but missed, and the Callous Merc found her mark on O, followed by one of the gunslingers hitting her and knocked her out of action. Aim scooted forward to the edge of the building to line up his next shot, and Asvyaxke dashed forward to drop the package in the safe-box.

Aim took a shot at the Callous Merc and killed her with another dazzling headshot, while Asvyaxke began her retreat from the area. The gunslinger with the marksman's rifle hit Aim, as well as one of the guys with a scrap pistol. Aim dove back towards the rear of the building for cover, bringing him close to the back edge. More shots from the pistoleers pushed Asvyaxke back as well.

Metagame comments: The last three turns of the game saw the slow retreat by Aim and Asvyaxke, the arrival of Iruurlaa and Aaur at the end of turn four (and I turned my Turn Marker Die to "5" before I took the picture,) and Aim getting pushed off the table by gunfire "Stun" results. O survived and gained a point of experience for his trouble, Our Heroes received 3 credits for making the delivery and a further two credits for killing Amdi Gaail. We also managed to loot a Med-Patch for the Century Flamingo. I burned two Story points to re-roll "down" results on Asvyaxke and Aim, and Luck saved Asvyaxke once as well.

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 3

 YEEHAW!!! Gaming is back on the table! After my successful Five Leagues From The Borderlands game the other day, I decided to try and get Five Parsecs From Home going again as well.

So I played the third campaign game of the ongoing adventures of the intrepid crew of the Century Flamingo, in which Our Heroes took an opportunity job to attempt to access a data terminal in the middle of f***ing nowhere on this crazy pink planet they are visiting. And it just so happened to be a "religious shrine" for a nomadic band of scavengers that were returning to the area. The scavengers would be very happy if we all just left their shrine alone and went away, but we had a job to do and it was getting done even if we were under fire!

As the scavengers were approaching in two groups, we split into two groups as well, with O Oymsse, Iruulaa Kheug, and Khirki Nishekke taking the left approach, and Asvyaxke Dre, Aim Iashna, and Aaur Iigunim on the right.

In meta-gaming terms, Our Heros managed to make a single favorable Reaction roll during the game (Aim took a shot and dropped a scavenger on that one,) otherwise acting after the scavengers each turn. Asvyaxke completed the mission at the terminal on turn three, and during the escape after the scavengers took out Iruurlaa and Khirki in turn four. All told, three scavengers were killed, none fled, and we fled the area without Holding The Field. Iruurlaa turned out to be fine, but Khirki will be out four turns in Sick Bay. We earned four credits for our troubles, as well as looting a couple of damaged weapons. As it turned out, the life support on the Centruy Flamingo blew a fuse, and it cost us those four credits to get it repaired. Asvyaske had an existential crisis being so far from the nest, and is now just trying to survive long enough to get back home instead of trying to create a certain amount of order wherever she goes.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, and the ones I did take look a little odd in the afternoon light. I also missed the "Shiny Bits" notable sight I rolled up once I was setting up the game, so the crew missed out on a potential extra credit.

In other news, after years of use and abuse, my pink alien world terrain is starting to get a little beaten up. I may need to start a Bold New Scenery Project soon.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 9

Well, it has been quite a while since my last game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands! Over three months. So during that break, I played through five campaign turns of "resting up" which included recruiting three new warband members, getting Morgan all healed, and re-equipping Tundaline for melee combat, since her ranged abilities were, well, somewhat lacking. Plog The Elder, a Tortle Mystic and Weppi's cousin, joined as a new Hero. Followers include Brarkisy the Feral and Grushnag the Duskling (of a different tribe than the group Our Heroes are driving out of Armskirk.)

I decided I wanted to play a regular game with this new team before I pursued the Quest further, so a quick check of everything yielded a Desperate Mob of eight men from The Ruin Within led by the notorious Captain Shiver, retrurning from a raid. We needed to drive them out of the general vicinity of The Crossing by Securing The Area.

The first turn saw advancement from both sides, Captain Shiver's slingers trying to move into position with Weppi and company moving forward to attack. Plog The Elder realized there were unseen combatants coming around the buildings to the left flank and began planning to delay them.

Turn two saw my first ever use of a Mystic ability: Plog The Elder created a Wall Of Fire (Barrier) between those slinkers trying to get on the left flank and Grushnag. We also saw our first combat attempt, with one of the slingers trying to hit Weppi. The shot missed, but was an omen of more deadly things to come. Everyone else tried to manuever into good position for the upcoming combat.

 
Turn three: Plog The Elder was unable to maintain his Barrier, leaving Grushnag to face three bad guys moving in on him. Weppi defeated Captain Shiver, but not before sustaining a wound. Grushnag took a wound from the slinger on the left flank, and Morgan felled one of the enemy.

 
On the fourth turn, Plog The Elder managed to get his Wall Of Fire back up to protect the wounded Grushnag. Weppi felled another cutist before in turn being laid low by a sling. Tundaline found her mark and killed a cultist, and Morgan managed to wound one. Brarkisy ran over to give Grushnag some back-up.

Turn Five included, in no particular order, Tundaline kiling a bad guy, Morgan charging towards a slinger (who then fled the batte,) the other slinger took Brarkisy out of action, and Grushnag killed the cultist revealed by the extinction of the Wall Of Fire. The enemy force now included exactly one slinger, and he didn't run away. Truly faithful to the cause!

There were a further four turns of trying to defeat this lone enemy. He managed to take out both Grushnag and Morgan, and Tundaline finally took him down. What a game!

After the game, Weppi, Brarkisy, and Morgan were all found to be just Knocked Out. Grushnag is going to require a turn to heal up from a moderate wound. We burned through 10 adventure points to reduce The Ruin Within threat level by two. We managed to get some tools and rations out of the battle, the tools sold for 2 Gold Marks and the rations have been added to the Stash. Plog The Elder made an advancement roll and gained +1 Casting.

Painting The Tortle Mystic

 OK, so when my Warband for my Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign was mostly wiped out, I decided that it was high time to recruit a Mystic as a new member. And, because the name of my campaign is "A Tale Of Two Tortles" and I was down to only one tortle, I opted for another tortle as the Mystic. The miniature was a 3D resin print of a DM Stash pattern, purchased from Disaster Decisions Gaming I am sharing this because I am very impressed both by the print quality and the amount of detail on the miniature. I certainly plan to buy more of this stuff!

Anyways, I based the model on a GW-style 32mm base (or maybe it was 30mm?) instead of the 25mm sculpted base included with it. I primed the whole thing with black gesso, and blocked on the colors before hitting the whole thing with my special Shading Wash. During the highlighting, I had some trouble getting the detail to pop on the yellow parts, but otherwise it turned out as I had planned.

I found this model to be a bit intimidating to paint. There is an astounding amount of tiny details, and not the chunky kind of detail found on GW miniatures. This is more reminiscent of old Tom Meier sculps from Ral Partha. But I persevered and I am pretty happy with the final result. Hopefully, he will fare better than his forebears in upcoming games!

Here's a bit of a funny thing: a few years back, I was playing Rangers Of The Shadow Deep using cardstock standees, and my Ranger was named Turtle Power, from a set by Trash Mob Minis Take a look, can you see any similarites between the old standee and the new miniature?

Painting A Centaur

 OK, so I needed a Centaur miniature for Reasons. I wanted one quite a while back, and even bought one from Reaper but it wound up in the back of a box and sat unremembered for a few years. So, when I needed it, it was there for me. I'm just happy I remembered I had it before I ran off and bought a new one.

As a Reaper Bones model, the spear was very bendy, and so I replaced it with a plastic one of almost the exact same length from Fireforge Games. Pro tip: never throw any leftover parts away! I then based him on a 60mm x 35mm GW-style oval base; I trimmed off most of the integral base that was molded with the model.

Painting the model was very basic: I blocked the colors, I applied the secret Shading Wash (homemade, none of that fancy store-bought stuff,) and highlighted him. I hope you like the finished product!

1490 Doom: First Two Games

 OK, so Kurt and I gave 1490 Doom a test drive. He had built a beautiful aqueduct ruin for us to fight over, and it was quite the visual treat. We missed a few rules, misintepreted a few others, but we had a good time over the course of two games.

My little Doom Company was a Fighter (also my Captain,) a Scout, and a Brute. Kurt ran an Assassin as his Captain, a Fighter, and a Brute. I am writing this over a week later for Reasons, so my memory is a bit foggy on the specifics and this report will not be very long.

Things that rally jumped out at me during the games were that the Brutes were not fast enough to really make a big difference to the game, and that the Scout and Assassin were the two most interesting models on the table. I will be replacing my Brute with an Assassin for future games.

The game plays fast, and once we had a reasonable handle on the rules, we were getting through the turns from memory. I definitely want to play this one some more.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: First Quest Turn

 Wow.

Just wow.

I played my 12th campaign turn of Five Leagues From The Borderlands, which was also my first step of a series of Quest encounters. It started simply enough. We were at The Crossing doing the usual stuff; helping the Town Guard to avoid paying any Upkeep, and Weppi had to visit the Blacksmith to repair her weapon. There was a bit of a gambling craze sweeping the town, but we really aren't much in the way of gamblers. Morgan was still healing, which was fine as we still had five Heroes to go adventuring. No Trade was done, and nothing arose from our Connections. It seemed a perfect time to start the Quest!

So, the Quest began. A new location was placed in the Wilderness (note: I immediately forgot we had to travel to the new location, so no Travel rolls were made.) We were to fight a Meeting Engagement to vanquish a foe carrying an important Quest item. The enemy would be rolled on the Whispers From Beyond table, and led by a Captain who would be carrying the desired Quest item (Whispers From Beyond limits visibility to 9", which I forgot once I started playing and led to some bad consequences.) As this was our first Quest turn, I misunderstood the table on page 107 and rolled on the Quest Task Table, rolling a "5" and therefore adding a ranged trooper, two melee troopers, a Sergeant, and a Lieutenant. Further, they would be Outflanking, adding yet another melee trooper. All told, there would be 13 bad guys against our five. This went from a great idea to a distinct feeling of dread.

So first off, there were eight of the Whispering Cultists including the Sergeant and Lieutenant. I decided to deploy them intelligently, with the two archers on the upper floor of a building for a clear field of fire and protection from guys (and turtles!) on the ground, and the remaining six in two groups of three. On our side, I decided to put Drustan and Tundaline on the upper story of a building same as the Cultists, for the same reason. Weppi, Kipor, and Galdan all deploying together for mutual protection.

The first turn started off strongly enough: Tundaline killed the Cultist Sergeant with her first shot, and Weppi was able to ignore the shots from the Cultist archers. A lot of movement forward was made by both sides, Weppi and co. Anchoring themselves between a building and a fire.

The second turn continued the winning streak, with four dead Cultists and the Lieutenant having sustained a wound. Tundaline and Drustan were not hitting with their shots, and the enemy archers were trying to take them down (one of the archers even dropped down from the building into the open to get a better shot!)

Turn Three saw a turn in our fortunes: both Tundaline and Drustan fell to the hail of arrows from the enemy archers. Kipor killed the Lieutenant. Weppi and Galdan then moved forward, with Galdan killing the archer on the ground. The Captain and his four cronies also arrived this turn and made a good advance into the skirmish grounds.

On Turn Four, the Quest became apparent: the Captain had to be defeated in melee combat and he was bringing the fight to Our Heroes. In the ensuing melee, both the Captain and Kipor went down. The remaining archer broke and ran from his top-floor vantage, deciding that he was done with this fight.

By the end of Turn Five, Weppi and Galdan were facing a lone Cultist who was already suffering from a wound.

That Cultist was not to be trifled with, however, as he got the jump on Galdan at the beginning of Turn Six and took him down. Weppi in turn killed the Cultist, and was the lone standing warrior at the end of the fight. But at what cost?

The Dice Gods were not kind to the fallen members of the Warband. Kipor, Drustan, and Galdan all died. Tundaline too would have been dead if not for that point of Luck. I had burned four Story Points re-rolling Weppi's armor, keeping her on her feet and thankfully they were boosted again by the untimely demise of our other companions. And what did we get? An Adventure Point. A Quest Task completed. A damaged warhammer and an unstrung self bow. Was it worth it? Only time will tell...