Shattered Realm- The Core Rules!

Since I'm in such a good mood right now (see previous Post), I thought I'd jump ahead of schedule a bit and post up a link so you can take a look at the Shattered Realm core rules via Dropbox!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/36ew4xaizx61t8e/SR%20Core%20Rules%20Doc%20V.2.5%20COPY..odt?dl=0

Please note that this is still a fairly early (and definitely not pretty!) draft, but I thought it might be good to let folks have a read and maybe even give it a go themselves- it takes the basic Dracula's America rules, and expands on them a fair bit...

If anyone ever gives it a try at some point then please let me know how you get on- maybe we could start a discussion over on the Lead Adventure Forum (where I go by Fenrir, by the way)!

Oh, and next week I'll be putting up the Advanced Rules (including mounts, rules for light-levels and tentative Solo play rules!).
I'm also in the process of painting up some spectral adversaries for my plucky Dwarves, ready for a Solo-play game report in the (hopefully) near future...

Cheers!

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

Exciting times today- I got home after work to find this little beauty sat on my doormat...

That's right; one of the first hard copies of book 2 for Dracula's America! I suspect I may have made a small, high-pitched mew of joy at that point...

A nice, glossy, 96-page softback- heftier than I was expecting, but then I did get carried away writing it!

Ah, but it gets better- on the back page there was this:

Better finish the play-testing then, eh?!

Shattered Realm- Attack of the Fluff.

I've been fiddling around with my computer for the last few weeks, desperately trying to get PDFs on here for folks to view so my Shattered Realm Fantasy skirmish game project can get up and running- thanks to a very kind person over on the Lead Adventure Forum (if you aren't a member yet, I heartily recommend it!), I think I may have cracked it...

So without further ado- and if it even works (please gods, let it work this time!)- this link should take you to a Dropbox file so you can look at and/or download the broad background and setting for the game!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jq0s1qb3dm7r62y/SR%20Chronicle-%20setting%20Doc%20COPY.odt?dl=0

If it works, expect a fairly regular (say, weekly) upload of SR stuff- next will be the core rules, followed by the advanced rules and then the campaign system.

If anybody gives the link a try and it works (or not), then if you could drop a comment below and let me know one way or the other, it'd be much appreciated!

Cheers!

Nostalgia Hit, Episode 4- NECROOOMUNDAAA!

This turned up the other day:

One of my all-time favourite classic GW games (if they ever re-visit Mordheim, I strongly suspect I will implode) got a recent reboot!

Unfortunately, we are now at that point of the year where my day-job becomes all-consuming, so I'll only be able to get in a Sunday game with any regularity from now on...
So I'm hoping that this little lot should tide me over until the new year- at which point I hope to emerge, blinking in the sunlight, with two freshly-painted Gangs. At time of writing they are assembled and awaiting an undercoat!

Under my work-station I now have new editions of Blood Bowl, Warhammer Quest and now Necromunda. And unlike the last time I had these titles, I'm not a foolish teenager who will end up losing all the cards and other bits, or chop up the figures for ill-advised 'conversions'...

...Damn it, GW- I thought I'd escaped your clutches years ago!

Oathmark Dwarves and the Shattered Realm.

It's always good to start a new project and make some progress through the pile of unpainted miniatures in the store-room (otherwise known as The Pit Of Shame) at the same time!

So today I cracked open my box of plastic Oathmark Dwarves from Northstar, and put together my first Party of models for my own fledgling fantasy game, Shattered Realm.

I love the 'old-school', Tolkienesque vibe of these models! In this day and age of World of Warcraft, Age of Sigmar et al, it's nice to see what are basically stout, bearded little Dark Ages warriors instead of stubby walking tanks with a bit of beard poking out and wielding unfeasibly huge, steam-powered axes (not that that kind of thing doesn't have it's place, of course...)!

*A group shot of the Party as they set off for the ruins of Gharzulgrint- affiliated to the Guild of Stonesmiths, this gives the Heroes access to Melee, Brawn and Shooting Skills.

In fact, I love them so much that I've also just pre-ordered the Goblins in the same range, and will be picking up a box of the Elves and humans when Nick gets around to doing them...

As these will mainly be used for small-scale Skirmishes, I used parts from the Frostgrave Soldiers set to give them more of a 'wandering adventuring Party' feel- backpacks, bed-rolls, coils of rope, lanterns etc. These combine really well with the Oathmark sprues with minimal effort!

*The four Followers- the basic hirelings that give the Party some bulk. L-R we have the Archer, Agbert the Taciturn; 'Handsome' Roldo the Thief; and two Warriors- Ogri Whitebeard (with lantern) and Young Snorri.

You'll notice that I've used the square 25mm bases provided, instead of the round ones more usually seen in Skirmish games- simply because I want the option of being able to use them in Oathmark once that game is released...

*The four Heroes- in Shattered Realm, Heroes come in two types: Leaders and Comrades. These are the 'main characters' of the game, and are the ones who will level-up during a Campaign.
Here we have, from L-R: 'Red' Gutrikk; my Leader Ranhulf Finehair (the disgraced second son of a Northern Jarl); the inscrutable old Raven-Priest known only as Munin, and 'Big' Bjarni Hjostelriksson (brother of Roldo).

As for my own game, Shattered Realm- well, as you might have read on an earlier Post here on the Blog, this is going to be my pet-project based on the core rules of Dracula's America- but with several tweaks to better represent the sword and sorcery setting! It will be minis-neutral, so you can use whatever fantasy stuff you have to hand, and will allow for 'mixed' Parties that share a Guild Allegiance rather than a 'Race' (so Elves can work alongside Orcs, for example)!

I hope to figure out how to get a PDF up here for folks to look at and/or download very soon (though if anyone reading could help me out with how to do this, that'd be much appreciated!). The core rules are there, as well as the main Campaign system; plus a simple narrative Scenario for one or more players to get used to the gameplay (yes, I hope to make the game work for Solo-play!).

Hopefully I'll have a Shattered Realm game report to share with you soon, at the very least!

This is the Pits!

Poor punning aside, here follows an account of Herr Doktor Schreck and his warband of miserable miscreants as they stumble their way through another Frostgrave misadventure- this time, deep underground in the depths of the Breeding Pits...

The intention behind this game was to familiarise ourselves with the rules for fighting in a Dungeon set-up, so think of it as an experiment of sorts- though being a foolhardy bunch, we agreed that it would still count as a Campaign game.

We used a set of MDF tiles I had had custom-made by the talented folks at Warbases for another game-design project. This represented the tunnels of the Breeding Pits quite nicely!

*The Dungeon, before the warbands turned up. I think it needs a few more tiles to make a full-sized layout, but it will do for now!

A single Treasure was placed in a central spot (worth 50 Experience, but 2 rolls on the Treasure table), guarded by two Armoured Skeletons. The dungeon also contained a few scattered bookshelves and other furniture (from Mantic Game's Dungeon Saga- regrettably still unpainted!) that could be searched for gold pieces and a slight chance of either uncovering a Treasure or an angry Giant Rat!

*This particular Giant Rat really should have stayed hiding in those barrels...

Each Warband would also earn a Treasure automatically at the end of the game, just for taking part in the experiment.
The large doors would block line of sight while shut, and take an Action to open or close. Opposing models either side could try to hold one open or shut against their foes by means of an opposed Fight roll- highest total overpowered their rivals!

We decided that our warbands would come on piecemeal from their designated entrance zone, with up to 3 models entering each Turn in the appropriate Phase (so you could bring your Wizard and two friends on in the Wizard Phase, for example).
This meant that the more powerful warbands of Tony and Tom would therefore take a little longer to gather their full force, as opposed to the small, ragged bands of survivors commanded by myself, John and Andy.

The game itself went well, and we even got to see the new Trap rules come into play- my misshapen Goblin Thief, Dregg, narrowly avoided scampering into a patch of Caltrops while Andy's Treasure Hunter got stuck in a Time Slip for a Turn!

*Andy's Treasure Hunter (middle), seconds before triggering the Time Slip and spending his next Turn falling into eternity. In hindsight, he was probably better off staying in the void between realities...

Fighting in the cramped tunnels was a predictably bloody affair, and despite their unwieldy warband size Tony and Tom's better quality Soldiers (including their new Captains) were soon in their element!

*The warbands begin to converge- things are about to get very ugly, very fast!

Where the three underdogs should have rallied together and presented a united front, they instead seemed more interested in scrapping with each other and fighting a tug-of-war over control of the doors.

*Andy and John tustle for control of the door, while Tony's murder-squad creeps up on them from the north...

Doktor Schreck, down to one HP by this point, managed to negotiate a hasty truce with Tom's all-powerful Sigilist. Meanwhile, Tony caught Andy's mob (six models in all, and now led by his Apprentice after the death of his Wizard previously!) in an old crypt and massacred them to a man, before bursting in to the chamber where the remains of mine and John's Warbands had attempted to barricade themselves in. Schreck and his remaining leprous minions beat a hasty retreat through the lines of his Sigilist ally with the sounds of John's warband being murdered ringing in their ears as they fled up the tunnel.

*Schreck and his Goblins cower in the corner and try to look non-threatening as the Sigilists crash into John's stage-magician and his hapless underlings. In the next Turn, Tony's rampaging warband will come crashing through the door to the right, and the good Doktor will take that as his cue to make a run for it!

But it was not to be. At the last, the good Doktor was betrayed by his new-found friend- despite the Sigilist's claims that "I'm only here for the books!", he was battered to the ground personally by the treacherous librarian. The last words he heard before his betrayer's dagger sank between his ribs were "It's nothing personal... I just want the experience."

*Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me! Doktor Schreck is cut down by his supposed ally as he attempts to make good his escape...

After the battle, the battered but loyal remnants of Schreck's warband managed to drag his body with them- thankfully he wasn't dead after all, just badly hurt! One of the Goblins even managed to find a Thunderstrike Javelin on the way out, which was promptly sold.

Next game, Igor my Apprentice gets to show his quality in command of the warband while his boss sits it out to plot vengeance upon Tom's Sigilists!

Nostalgia Hit, Episode 3- It's a Rat's Life...

Earlier this week, the Skryre Warlocks took to the Blood Bowl pitch yet again (this time with 4 Gutter-Runners in the lineup), for another optimistic attempt at sporting glory...

...To cut a long (and exceedingly painful) story short, we got massacred by our opponents, the Geltdorff Griffons- who knew those rich-boy humans could be so vicious?!

*The Warlocks take command of the early game- it's all downhill from here, lads!..

Things started really well, with the Warlocks deftly breaking through the Griffon's line and scoring an early Turn 2 Touchdown. However, this success turned out to be our undoing as the human's 'fight or flight' response kicked in and they overwhelmingly went for the 'fight' option...

Not even the Orcs we played last time were so ruthlessly brutal- completely abandoning any attempt at finesse and strategic play, the Griffons set about murdering the Warlocks- even when they had the ball, their carrier stood poised one square away from my Endzone for several Turns while the rest of the Team set about my hapless rodents to really put the boot in. Some truly terrifying rolls saw my Dugout quickly begin to fill up with squealing Skaven who resolutely refused to come back out onto the pitch (sensible fellows...).
My tactic of making a hole with my Stormvermin, tying opponents up with Linerats and then scampering through with my Gutter-Runners for a Touchdown went out of the window as my dwindling Team were gradually, excrutiatingly, ground down by the murderous Humans!

*The dead and the dying begin to mount up at a terrifying rate. Squeak!

However, there were some slight rays of sunshine- best of all was my Gutter-Runner Skuttle declaring a Blitz, making three successive Dodge rolls to evade his human tormentors, then two Go For It rolls, followed by a successful Block on the Griffon carrying the ball! The surprised human was shoved back and the ball landed neatly in Skuttle's eager claws.
An enraged human Lineman ended Skuttle's short-lived triumph, and his terrified squeak was cut short by a sound very reminiscent of a giant, humanoid rat-man's neck snapping like a dry twig...

*Go on Skuttle, my son! You're a superstar; you're gonna live forever!...

*...Oh dear.

Skuttle, you will be remembered.

I'll admit that I'm starting to feel a little disheartened by these abject defeats. It is now apparent that my regular opponents Tom and Tony are nothing but brutish oafs with little appreciation for the art of 'Beautiful Blood Bowl', as practiced by the Warlocks.

Hence (and against my better judgement), I've recruited a Rat Ogre for next time! And failing that, my new Dwarf Team just arrived- if you can't beat 'em...

Er, guys... I think we broke it...

Welcome to what may very well be the penultimate post on our Massive Darkness Campaign.

The reason for this is simple- I think we broke the game...

Last night we played through the fifth (or sixth; I forget) mission- it involved finding a key that would unlock a vault imprisoning a hell-hound. Once the hell-hound was dead, it was back to the tavern for drinks and congratulatory back-slaps courtesy of the local populace.

Now, I've mentioned before that our party is pretty tooled-up with some extremely powerful combinations of skills and equipment. Maybe we have just been extremely lucky, but it feels like we've reached a point where nothing can actually really threaten us that much! We've all been backwards and forwards through the rules to try and see if we've been doing things wrong, but it doesn't look like it- we are now roughly half way through the missions and seem to have hit our power-cap.
By way of example, take Whisper; Aaron's Bloodmoon Nightrunner. He now gets a potential of 5 move Actions per Turn, and can move up to 4 zones in each one- a total of 20 zones of movement if he needs it. However, he also deals automatic wounds to all enemies in a zone whenever he enters it, and further damage when he leaves it (I can't recall the exact amount)- combined with the Slippery ability, he can simply hop in and out of a zone (up to 20 times!!) dealing automatic damage to every enemy there each time! And that's just one of us- the other four characters are equally ridiculous...

*BEFORE: The final phase of last night's game- with two of their number already Activated, the Heroes are surrounded by hordes of minions (so many that we couldn't fit them all on the same zone!) and a huge Spearmaiden Cyclops; while the  dreaded Hell-Hound prepares to burst out of it's prison...

*AFTER: The last three Heroes lay waste to the savage hordes by themselves, while their two comrades sit back and applaud politely. Seriously, this carnage was wrought in a single Turn by only three models!

As intoxicating as this god-like power was at first, I fear that the shine is starting to come off it a bit. And the prospect of another 5 missions of much the same thing suddenly holds less appeal.

So, we have decided to jump straight to the final mission next week, and then draw the Campaign to a close. MD is certainly a fun game with brilliant miniatures, but I think we will be sticking to playing each mission as a standalone in the future!..

Nostalgia Hit Episode 2- Hard Cheese.

The other day it was back to the Blood Bowl pitch- this time I'd be taking my beloved Skaven Team- the Skryre Warlocks (still painted in the green and bronze colour scheme I first used in the 90s)- up against the Orcs coached by Tony (and more-than-ably-assisted by Tom).

Now, I have a couple of excuses all ready to be deployed:

1) It has been a long time since I played Skaven (well over a decade, in fact!).
2) I was limited to using the models in the new plastic set- so only two Gutter Runners.

However, with hindsight I think the only excuse I really need is:

3) Apparently, I just suck at playing Skaven.

This game was an utter whitewash from start to finish- though extremely entertaining! My poor rats just couldn't get near the ball- even when receiving, it always managed to scatter right at the feet of the biggest, meanest Orc on the line of Scrimmage! Tony also played an absolute blinder (and displayed a frankly disturbing level of forethought and planning for an Orc, if you ask me), and shut me down at every turn.

*Run away!

*Run away!!

Those Skaven that managed to survive the pummelling green fists couldn't seem to dodge (even with re-rolls) or pick up the ball- one poor Linerat even managed to trip over his own tail and break his neck! But that's Skaven for you- incompetent underlings aside, I know that if they can get a good running play going then they are nigh-uncatchable.

*Run awa-Kerunch!! (Meanwhile, the Gutter Runner top right makes a break for it- and keeps running until he's out of the stadium...)

Hence for the rematch, I have two more Gutter Runners ready for painting... Can the 'Warlocks redeem themselves?

* "Join the 'Warlocks, they said..."

Camels and Catastrophes- The Sudan.

Another historical game with the local gamers- this time a Sudan scenario using Warlord Game's Black Powder rules. We use Warlord's 'Big Three' (that is, Hail Caesar, Pike & Shotte and Black Powder) quite often in our historical gaming- they share very similar core mechanics so we can just get on and play without having to look too much up, even if it's been a while between games- the downside of course is that all three are just different enough that it can be easy to get mixed up as to the way certain rules work (or maybe that's just me) in a certain 'period'!

Anyway, this is the fifth or sixth game we have played set in the Sudan- it's not a war I know a great deal about (surprise, surprise!), but I do know that you can have camels...
Hence, I'm usually on the Sudanese side, and I always have as many guys riding camels as possible!

The Scenario was to be a simple breakthrough- the Brits (Tony) and their Egyptian allies (Tom) had to fight their way up the table and off to freedom, while the Sudanese (John, Andy and myself) could sweep in majestically from either flanking edge on their camels and lay waste to the enemy columns!

*The British brigade- including the accursed cavalry! All the models used in this game are 20mm plastics owned and painted by John.

*My own brigade- including my glorious camels in the centre!

It all started so promising, as the over-confident Egyptians forged perilously far ahead of the sluggish Brits (Tom forgot to designate a stopping point when issuing orders, so his whole brigade moved their full speed straight up the valley- that's 36" for Infantry, and 54" for Cavalry!!).

*The Egyptians get ahead of themselves...

Andy's brigade went straight up the centre to meet them, while my own Fanatical troops swept on from the right flank- my skirmishers taking up position in a ruined building to hopefully get some enfilading fire, while my camels readied themselves for a charge in the next Turn- I was wary of getting stuck in too early and being counter-charged by the British Lancers straight away, but in hindsight I probably should have just got stuck in while the Egyptians were in column and cut a hole through their formation. My fixation on preserving my undoubtedly valuable camels would prove my undoing...

*My cavalry get in position to catch the Egyptian column in the flank!

Meanwhile John (the Mahdi himself!) forgot to state his orders before rolling his command test- this resulted in an automatic Blunder! Instead of sweeping on from the left flank to close the trap on the Egyptians, his whole brigade retreated. Since they were already off-table, we decided that this would delay them for a whole Turn while he got them back into position.

The Brits continued to advance cautiously (Tony only managed one Order on his command test), but would be ready to counter-charge my cavalry in the next Turn if I didn't act quickly- the Egyptians managed to shake their troops out into line and face my flanking force, while their skirmishers decided they had bitten off more than they could chew and fled before my screaming Tribesmen- ceding control of the oasis to my forces!

*Mid-day at the oasis... My skirmishers take position in the ruined building to the right.

The Sudanese were still feeling good at the start of our second Turn- Andy managed to bring up the rest of his troops to reinforce the oasis and get in position to engage the Egyptians, while I got the bulk of my infantry up to join them- so far, so good... And then I failed the command test to get my cavalry moving- they just stood there, milling in confusion (I reasoned that the camels were stubbornly refusing to shift) as the British bore down upon them!

In the next Turn, the Brit cavalry leapt into life and crashed into my poor, dithering camelry- Lancers to the front of me, and Hussars to the left! Predictably, my much-vaunted camels evaporated like rain in the desert...

*Yep; this is going to hurt a little...

Meanwhile, the plucky Egyptians- now supported by their British allies- had a good round of fire that saw my poor infantry disordered. If I attacked in my next Turn it would be piecemeal, and easily repulsed...

Sudanese Turn 3 rolled around, and my surviving cavalry (only of the horse-kind, unfortunately) launched a desperate charge on the Egyptian lines on their own Initiative and overran a cannon. Making a sweeping advance into the flank of some Infantry, I rolled badly and couldn't capitalise- in fact, the Egyptians stood firm and drove me back with heavy casualties!
Meanwhile Andy made a spirited attack up the centre against some redcoats, while his own camelry struck the left flank of the Egyptian formation; but some devastating closing fire and bad dice rolls saw them repulsed.

*Andy gets stuck-in!

Finally, after missing a Turn, the Mahdi had his disorganised troops poised and ready to sweep on from the left flank and close our trap before it could falter- and John promptly failed his command test! There were jeers from the Brits and Egyptians- and also a few from his underlings- as our fearless commander's brigade stood around just off-table, seemingly content just to watch his loyal warriors get cut down in the valley below!

I was first to go- my brigade was broken by a hammer-blow of Lancers and Hussars over the next couple of Turns, and so my leader (riding my last remaining camel) and a handful of ragged survivors were left to flee across the dunes to safety, shaking their fists and spears in defiance and cursing the Mahdi's name!

*Next time, you British dogs; next time!!

All credit to Andy- he managed to hold out just long enough for John's brigade to finally enter the battle, but it was too late! A small British Naval force had brought up a gatling gun, and set it up on the right flank (once occupied by my own troops) where it rained fire down on his beleaguered forces. Riddled with fire and already weakened by the fierce fighting, Andy's brigade finally broke when the Hussars returned from harrying my fleeing forces and crashed into them.
The Mahdi redeemed himself somewhat with a vicious attack on the right flank, but with two of the three Sudanese brigades broken he was forced to withdraw...

*The battered Sudanese- now reinforced by the Mahdi's troops- put up a brave fight... But the end is nigh as the Union Jack flutters proudly on the desert breeze...

A victory to the British and Egyptian forces, and a highly entertaining and cinematic battle as always!