Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 6 November 2024

I have to admit, I've been slowly losing steam on the Age of Sigmar armies - like for the BIG BATTLE games... I still really want to play it... But I'm getting tired of painting entire units for it and am feeling the pull of other distractions. 

Having played Warhammer Quest the last two weeks (stay tuned for last nights game report), I've gotten REALLY EXCITED about getting back to working on THOSE, so hopefully in a couple of weeks, when we're DONE Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal, I'll have enough ready to start in on Warhammer Quest: Cursed City!!

I'm also getting a little bit excited about the new edition of Warhammer Underworlds and looking forward to trying that out and getting back to playing it on the regular... and I have a few warbands I'd like to finish up to try out with that! I mean, I have a LOT of warbands still to do (17 to be precise!) 

I also have all the miniatures from Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Crypt Hunters that I'd like to finish up... there are so few of them... They're all so close to being finished... and it will give me another game I can PLAY! Having finally tried out Lost Patrol last week, I am keen to try out this slightly less deadly reskin of the game for Age of Sigmar!!

So what's on the workbench TODAY!?

Darkoath Chieftan on Warsteed and the first batch of "Darkoath Fellriders". I have SO MANY Darkoath Fellriders to paint... I just want to finish up these first bunch before taking them off the workbench and then taking a bit of a breather to work on the other things... 

Chaos Lord of Daemonic Mount and Chaos Sorcerer Lord. Again, work has slowed... but I really want to just finish them off and not put them in storage half-painted! 

I've done a fair bit of work on the "Ogroid Theridons" (old Chaos Ogre Command). Not sure when or where they will be used... but the miniatures are fun, so... The two headed Commander is done, just trying to finish up the Musician and Standard Bearer! 

Two of the Hedonites of Slaanesh Endless Spells... the Chaos Beyblades of Doom (I forget what they're actually called and feeling too lazy to google) are pretty much done... The other needs some work on the base, and then will be pretty quick to paint and done and out of the way... still haven't assembled the third. My brain has kind of moved on from the Hedonites of Slaanesh at the moment and has been more focused on Slaves to Darkness... 

The Stormcast Eternals heroes from Crypt Hunters. Made a fair bit of headway with these this week... I hope to have them done by the weekend! (So I can MOVE ON with Warhammer Quest stuff!) 

These are the Chainrasps from Crypt Hunters... along with the bonus Chainrasps from the extra copy of Thorns of the Briar Queen I ended up with. I thought I'd bring them back to the table just so I can finish up ALL the Chainrasps at once! 

I haven't done a LOT of work on these... or... ANY work... but I've been thinking about them a lot and want to get them done before the new Warhammer Underworlds is released. 

If I COULD get a Warhammer Underworlds warband done each week for the rest of the year, I'd only have ten left to do (assuming I don't buy any of the new releases - other than the ones in the Embergard core box until the new year...) and I'd have FORTY of them painted!!!

I've started work on the Saviors of Cinderfall. Armand Callis is pretty much done. The Stomrcast, Valius, is almost done... I've done a bit of work on Hanniver Toll and Lyssa Revenya... Not sure if/when I'll get to Mistress Verentia... Balthas, the gryph-hound, I'll probably work on along with another Gryph-Hound I have from the Stormcast that came with the 3rd Edition Start Box and the one from Crypt Hunters (named Valiant!) 

Theyr'e playable in Warhammer Quest, which is why I kind of got working on them again... 

Duardin! Brakki the Guilded Key and Dagnai Holdenstock. Started painting Brakki again this week, because he was sitting next to the Saviours of Cinderfall... but not actually part of them, so not in the picture above (I guess he could have been...) 

A whole BUNCH of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City stuff that I have NOT been working on this past week, but dumped on the workbench last night after playing Warhammer Quest and realizing there is ONE MORE SESSION to play for Shadows Over Hammerhal... and then I'll need a bunch of these before I can really get going on Cursed City! 

Thats it for now... I should have another Game Report for last nights session of Shadows Over Hammerhal later this evening, or maybe tomorrow...? 

What's everyone else been working on this week!? 

Lost Patrol!

I picked up a copy of Lost Patrol a few weeks ago. In the last two weeks, I tried to quickly get all the miniatures painted. And now, to kick off some gaming for November, Brent stopped by this afternoon to try the game out! 

The game is a relatively fast-playing, brutal game of escape and evasion. Five Space Marine Scouts are trying to make their way through a Death World jungle to their drop pod to make their escape - or maybe just transmit vital data back to their Marine Strike Cruiser in orbit, about the nature of the enemy planetside! 

The Marines start in a clearing hex with paths leading off in each direction. additional path tiles are drawn and place around the hex and additional ones are added to any straight path hex tiles until line-of-sight is blocked by a bend in the path. 

In each Round there is a Marine phase where each of the scout marines may make two actions (either move or shoot). Then there is a Genestealer Phase where the the Genestealer player first removes any hexes that could not be seen by any marine after two moves (representing the jungle - which itself is ALIVE!) slowly changing and trying to trap the marines!). Then Genestealer player places any hexes that could now be seen due to movement by marines in their turn. Then the Genestealer player takes three actions, which can include placing a Genestealer, placing an infestation, or moving Genestealers. Finally the Genestealer may launch assaults on Marine Scouts in adjacent hexes! 

The last Hex in the stack is the Marine's Drop Ship tile. If a single Marine get to the tile, the Marines win. If all of the Marines are killed or are caught in a loop (there are no places that a new tile can be added!) the Genestealer player wins. The game is NOT a fair and balanced game, it looks INCREDIBLY hard for the Marine player to win (much like Space Hulk!) 

Brent stopped by on Friday to try the game out. We played a few games. They were FAST!!!

GAME ONE

In the first game Brent played the Marines and I played the Genestealers. 

Marines in their start location at the central clearing. 

Our initial tactic involved keeping the Marines together - saftey in numbers are they are slightly less likely to be overwhelmed by the Genestealers assaulting them! 

This first Genestealer assault, for example was unsuccessful and one of the Genestealers was killed. Unfortunately the marines reached a dead end on the trail that they went down. 

The Heavy Gunner fell back to the clearing and blasted away at the remaining Genestealer. 

More Marines fell back... More Genestealers showed up! 

This Genestealer assault would have been a tie - no marines died... but all got pushed back, and the Genestealer player gets to decide where they fall back to!! Once they're split up, the marines are very easy to pick off one at a time. 

Shooting took out one Genestealer, but then the Genestealers went... Heavy Gunner was the first to go! 

Another Genestealer ate the Marine caught in the tangleweed. The Marines tried to make their way to the branched path, their only real hope of escape! 

An assault killed one and pushed the others to the branched way... but new hexes don't go out until the beginning of the next Genestealer turn, so the Sergeant and remaining Scout Trooper had to just blast away at the Genestealers pursuing them. 

On the Genestealer turn, I put the new path hexes out... but then put Genestealers ON those paths and assaulted with the three that had been pursuing them (which they'd been unable to kill any of with fire - four shots, all needing sixes!) and that was the end. 

There were two of them and one was the Sergeant... IF they'd rolled a six in that first assault they would have won and killed a Genestealer - and they faced assaults from the two other Genestealers... which would have been much easier to win, with the Sergeant. A single Genestealer is an assault value of two and the sergeant adds one to the roll, so a result of anything but a one would kill the Genestealer. 

Alas... 

GAME TWO

In the second game we switched things up and Brent played the Genestealers and I played the Marines! 

 

Things did NOT start out great for my team! FIVE of the exits from the clearing were blocked by deadends or tangleweed. Only three could move out into the first branching hex. And then the Genestealers were right on them! 

The first assault on those remaining in the clearing was successful, killing one and driving the Heavy Gunner back into a dead end. 

Of the assaults on the other group, the first was unsuccessful and killed the Genestealer, the second was a tie and pushed the whole bunch back into the trail hex left open by the dead Genestealer. (the the first been a tie, ALL the marines would have been killed, as there would have been no hex to fall back to!) 

Shooting from the Heavy Gunner killed one Genestealer, and shooting from the other troopers killed the other - the board was cleared of Genestealers!? the Sergeant went back to see if the Gunner was okay... 

"By the Emperor's Light.... I think we got them all!!"

"Gunner! BEHIND YOU!!"

"THEY GOT GUNNER! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!!

"CONTACT RIGHT!"

"SARGE!? GREEN!?" 

In a Death World Jungle, no one can hear you scream... 

GAME THREE

In the third game we switched things up again and Brent played the Marines and I played the Genestealers! 

"Okay, you check that path on the left, we'll go left! Stay in contact"

"This looks like a dead end, Sarge!"

"Contact! Fall back! Fall back!"

"Contact Rear!"

"EAARRRRRGG!"

"SARGE!? BLUEY!? GUYS!?" 

[distant screams]

"OH, YOU WANT SOME OF THIS!? FUCK YOU!!" 

"EAT BOLTER!!"

"GAAAAAHHH!!!"

So between games we discussed things and tactics and how the marines could possibly win.. other than just rolling ALL SIXES. 

I wondered if keeping them all together was a mistake, if all the marines went off in different directions, that might force the Genestealer player to spread the Genestealers out - making them easier to defend against... OR force the Genestealer player to pick them off one at a time, while all the others kept spreading out in different directions - which would go through the deck faster and maybe ONE of them might get to see the dropship!?

GAME FOUR

In the fourth game Brent played the Genestealers and I played the Marines - and had plans to try things differently! 

Aaaaand once again, I started with five exits blocked with deadends or tangleweed... and got assaulted on the first turn splitting the crew up... 

You can move into tangleweed, you just have to dice to get out of it and potentially waste movement actions trying and failing... So... always better to try the clear path... 

Clear path seemed to have possibilities! 

"GUYS! GUYS! THIS WAY!"

'Uh, yeah! We're right behind you, Sarge!" 

"Wait up!" 

"CONTACT FRONT!"

"Sarge?"

"SARGE!?" 

"FUCK! FALL BACK!"

So... sometimes when you go far enough down a trail.. the trail behind disappears...

and sometimes Genestealers disapear with it. leaving new openings to be explored! 

Of course, now openings means new places for Genestealers to arrive! 

[muffled cries amidst jungle sounds]

GAME FIVE

Brents turn to play the marines again and try running in different directions to use up tiles quickly... and hopefully get away from tiles that can be seen so they disapear with Genestealers on them! 

"Gunner! You cover us from the clearing while the rest of us check out all these paths totally free of tangleweed!"

"Got it, Sarge!"

"Hey! I got a clear path over here! 

"CONTACT!"

"BLUEY! BLUEY! THE GOT BLUEY!

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-SPLAT-SPLAT! 

"THIS WAY! THIS WAY, GUYS!" 

"I THINK THIS PATH IS CLEAR!"

"Alright, Boys, you heard him! After Trooper Pink!" 

"I think we lost them!"

"Hang on, there's some tangle weed up here! And..." 

"CONTACT FRONT!"

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" 

"Seems quiet... Do you think we lost them...?"

"The must have gotten Trooper Pink!"

"Which Way, Sarge? Which Way?"

"Uh... How about we try... "

"CONTACT!" 

"THEY GOT TROOPER GREENE!" 

'GUNNER WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"OVER HERE!" 

"It's been good serving with you, Trooper!" 

GAME SIX...

One more... That way we'd each have played three with each side. This was my final crack and playing the Marines... 

"Can anyone remember which way it is back to the lander?!" 

"I think they Jungle is moving in on us and shifting... I could have sworn it was this way..."

"Greene! Get on that Auspex and see if you can get a signal!" 

"Signal's real weak, Sarge! Must be getting some interference from the Jungle!? Hang on... I got MOVEMENT!" 

"TALK TO ME GREENE!"

"It's a big fucking signal! MULTIPLE SIGNALS! CLOSING!"

'EAARRRRRRGGGGH!"

"SARGE! THEY GOT GREENE!" 

"LET'S ROCK!"

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-SPLAT-SPLAT! 

"HERE THEY COME!"

"FALL BACK!"

"NO, DON'T GO THAT WAY!? STAY TOGETHER!!"

"SARGE! SARGE!"

"Emperor protect them.. I will have to find the Drop Ship myself while they hold them off!"

"Gah! MORE!?" 

"SARGE!? SARGE!?"

"THIS WAY TROOPER PINK! I THINK I FOUND A WAY OUT!!"  

[Muffled screams]

"There must be a..." 

"Seems kind of quiet... they must..." 

"EAAEEERRRGGH!?"

So close... well... not really... I got the closest to the bottom of the stack... but really... not THAT close!? 

If I'd rolled a six, the Sarge could have fallen back and ran off down the trail to the branch, which would have put out a few more options... There would have been three more Genestealers appearing in those options though... 

It is a TOUGH game for the Space Marine Scouts... you need a lot of luck with the tile draws and be able to roll a LOT of sixes! I'm not going to say it is IMPOSSIBLE for the Marines to win... but it's super, SUPER hard!!! 

Plays quick, though, and a lot of fun, if you can get into the narrative of it all. Could be a fun filler game between other games.