July Games

We got in a few more games this month! This was mostly because of the lifting of some of the Covid Restrictions and most of my friends now being fully-vaccinated! 

The games we played over the long weekend (1-5 July) were covered in the Long Weekend Gaming post. 

Sunday, 11 July 2021

On Sunday Brent and Barb returned to play Wingspan again! We played two games 

The first was with the Oceana expansion - with just the Oceana birds. 

(I was Green) 

In the second game we tried playing with he Oceana board but with the Euro Expansion cards. 

I like the Oceana board - it's like playing with Prelude in Terraforming Mars - feels like it gets things going a bit quicker. 

I noted that playing the expansions with four people - we tended to run out of cards as the expansion decks are half the size of the deck in the base game. Eventually, we'll probably just end up playing with ALL the cards mixes together and the Oceana boards... 

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

On Tuesday, Finnegan and I tried out our first game of Age of Sigmar! 

You can find more pictures and a complete report of the action here:

Age of Sigmar - First Game

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

The following day I played my first game of Necromunda in over a year! Woo! I forgot how much I loved this game. 

Again, more pics and a complete report can be found here:

Back to the Underhive

Friday, 16 July 2021

After the game earlier in the week, I was super excited to get a Paths to Glory campaign started, so on Friday, Finnegan and I kicked off a campaign. 

More on the campaign and the game can be found here:

Age of Sigmar - Clash at Gloomy Crest

Monday, 19 July 2021

On Monday, I actually got the whole family to play HABITAT! It's been a few years since we've played, but it was easy enough to pick up again and play. It's super fast and it's a GREAT game for learning about... well... Habitats! 

This was part of Helping Keiran catch up on some of the Grade Nine science that kind of fell by the wayside over the skewl-year. We have a few more science-y games I'm hoping we'll get to play through August. 

Wednesday, 21 July 2021

Necromunda again. It seems this is becoming a regular Wednesday thing... which just delights me! 

More about this game here:

Necromunda - The Fiery Wrath of the Redemption!

Saturday, 24 July 2021

Saturday Kurtis, Brent and Jason were looking to play a game so I suggested we try out The Arrival! I'd found out about the game when I was looking for games to play with the kids while we were Gaming Our Way Through History. The game isn't historical, per se, but PART of our study of history also involved looking at the Myths of various cultures throughout history and this in based, loosely, on Irish Myth. At the time, however, the original printing was exceptionally difficult to track down. 

A year or two later, Cryptozoic Entertainment rereleased the game and I snapped it up... of course we were done with the Gaming our way through history, so this kind of sat for a few years... 

Anyway, lots of moving parts in the game and things to keep track of and different ways to win or gain advantage. I would definitely like to play this more. 

After our first game, Jason had to take off, but Brent and Kurtis stuck around to play a second game. 

In the evening, I was supposed to meet up with the Saturday night guys... but most of them bailed and I was feeling a little bummed out... 

So Amanda thought beating me at Terraforming Mars would cheer me up... 

I have to say, she played an exceptional game and actually DID some terraforming (she was green!). Usually I cover the board with cities and greenery and raise the temperature and make oceans all by myself... and then she wins with, like, a PILE of points on the dozens of cards she puts into play... 

I felt like every time I did a thing, Amanda was always 10 steps ahead of me. I gained one greenery production  brining me to four (every other turn I'll be placing a Greenery hex tile), only to look up and see Amanda's at 14!? GAH!?

In the end it turned out to be a REALLY CLOSE GAME - because, for once, I had a pile of points on cards I'd put into play (like, FIFTY points!?) but, unlike when Amanda does it, it was nowhere near enough to catch up to her amazing lead. 

Despite feeling like everything was going wrong for me, it did kind of cheer me up... I like playing the game - even if I lose most games. 

Tuesday, 27 July 2021

A second battle in our Age of Sigmar - Paths to Glory campaign. 

Game report and pictures can be found here:

Age of Sigmar - The Tower

Wednesday, 28 July 2021

And another game of Necromunda - this time Orion brought along his partner Nic to try the game out!

More pics and complete story here:

Necromunda - On the Way to the Fighting Pits

Saturday, 31 July 2021

One last game for July - Amanda said she wanted to try out The Arrival. 

I think she found it a little frustrating as she would say, "so you want to do this..." and almost all of my responses "well... it depends..."as with a LOT of Martin Wallace games, while mechanically being quite simple and easy to pick up, there are a LOT of moving parts to the game and a LOT of different ways to achieve different goals and different ways the game ends and different things that determine victory... so... taking out my castle MIGHT be to her advantage... but it might actually give ME an advantage... There were SO MANY possibilities to explain that could come from any action taken... 

I like it. I haven't quite wrapped my head around the best way to go about things. I think it would be next to impossible to win with low corruption in a four player game - unless EVERYONE was trying to stay as small as possible and expand Fomori everywhere... without killing any of them...? 

Looking at the Game Plan 2021 - Q3 I didn't really have a super clear idea of what I was going to do for a 5x5 Quarterly challenge. I had initially suggested: 

• Wingspan
• Age of Sigmar
• Warhammer Underworlds
• Some other Board Game?
• CURSED CITY! 

Looking at what I've played this month, I think I may modify that somewhat.... 

• Wingspan
• Necromunda 
• Age of Sigmar

Those are definitely three of them... I mean, I've played FIVE Games of Wingspan already!? Maybeit shoudl be dropped from the "Challenge" as it really doesn't seem to BE a challenge to get games of that in... but what else... The Arrival...? Terraforming Mars....? I've already got two or three games of each in and wouldn't mind playing more... "Science Games"...? I'm still interestred in getting back to playing Warhammer Underworlds and still haven't given up on Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! Maybe I'll have to wait and see how august rolls out... 

Necromunda - On the Way to the Fighting Pits

 The Station Chief of Omega Precinct had a lot of money riding on tonight's Pit Fight. Jace Rorgan was facing "Mad" Barney Hotrap. "Mad" Barney was a maniac and Rorgan didn't have a chance, so the odds were pretty long. The Chief had a tip, though. A Rogue Doc that was one of the precinct's informants told the Chief that Hoptrap had a flare up of the old Space Flux and was feeling a bit under-the-weather, as it were. So, the Chief went all-in on Jace Rorgan. Unfortunately, just hours before the match, the Space Flux finally got the better of poor old "Mad" Barney Hoptrap and he passed from this world (and into the Corpse Starch vats)... In his place, Grornq the Butcher stepped in to fight Jace Rorgan - which even increased the odds. If Rorgan came out on top, The Chief would be rich enough to retire!? But there was ZERO chance of Rorgan besting The Butcher. So the Chief tasked his Captain with shifting the odds in his favour a bit...

In this scenario I was playing Grornq the Butcher - Ogryn Pit Fighter, his manager, Flansz Ronne, and a hive-scum hired gun, Two-Gun Connor. Basically a moving objective marker that activated in the End Phase. 

Orion was playing the enforcers. They got one VP for each wound and Flesh Wound dealt to the Ogryn - the weaker he is going into the match, the better. But KILLING the Ogryn would do no good either, so if the Ogryn was taken out of action, they would automatically lose. A tough one, for sure... 

The local Escher gang also had a lot riding on tonight's fight, but they were betting on Grornq the Butcher... They were played by Orion's boyfriend Nic, who came by to try out the game. They were there to make sure the Ogryn got to his fight on time and in one piece. They were also sore at the enforcers for trying to wreck their Synth Still from a couple weeks back. the Escher Gang scored on VP for each Enforcer taken out of action. 

Flansz Ronne, Pit Fight Manager, Grornq the Botcher, and Two-Gun Connor - on their way to the Fighting Pits. 

Escher Ganger and a couple of Juves... just hanging out, minding their own business, smoking some lho-sticks. 

More Escher Gangers, keeping an eye on things. 

O-344 "Rose" and 0-207 

As the Cops moved out, the Escher Gangers did their best to keep them pinned down... but pinning was about all they could do against the hard armoured enforcers. 

End of Round one - Grornq and his entourage move up. Noting to be concerned about here - just a little tussle between the Enforcers and some Gangers... 

Escher ganger sneaking around the flank, keeping the Enforcers pinned from all angles. 

Eventually, O-344 "Rose" got into position and started cranking concussion rounds into the Escher gangs positions and suppressed the fire that was pinning her fellow enforcers. 

Two-Gun Connor ran ahead of his patron and announced their presence "DON'T SHOOT! WE'RE JUST ON OUR WAY TO THE FIGHTING POTS!" Thinking that ought to do it, the trio carried on... 

The first sign something was amiss was when the first concussion round hit the Ogryn square in the face, violently knocking it, Two-Gun Connor and the pair of Escher Juves to the ground! 

Kat H. - the Escher Gang champion - charged in to clear the way. 

Connor and the Ogryn up and moving again. 

And the Ogryn is down again. Darn those concussion rounds!? 

At this point it became clear that the Enforcers were out to get them, and Two-Gun started blasting away at the Enforcers... Unfortunately, still a little dazed from the concussion rounds, he instead blasted Kat with his bolt rounds! 

Charging into combat with the Captain, hoping to create a distraction for the Ogryn to get through. 

Niner took down Two-Gun Connor, and went a couple rounds with the Ogryn... 

One of Rose's Concussion rounds took out the Ogryn's Manager, though! 

After the loss of Kat and Syn Dee, the Escher Gang bottled out and slowly started melting away from the battle. The Juves were the first to scram (none could blame them - BOTH had sustained serious injuries and recovered with Flesh Wounds - one had done so TWICE and was reduced to one toughness!). A Ganger left the following turn, ealving only one of the Escher gangers in the fight. 

And they managed to keep the Enforcers busy... 

While the Ogryn got away. 

In the end the Ogryn sustained two wounds... and the Enforcers lost two of their own in the battle... so... a draw. 

Age of Sigmar - The Tower

As much as I might have liked to play two or three games a week, I've come to realize that trying to keep up with the painting of new minis in the queue and typing up game reports, that's probably just not a realistic goal... So Finnegan and I decided one game a week would be fine. We also decided to schedule it for Tuesday afternoons (as nothing else is going on Tuesday afternoons - Finnegan runs D&D games on Mondays and Wednesdays - and I seem to be playing Necromunda pretty regularly on Wednesdays now, Thursdays I take Keiran to music lessons, Friday both kids are going over to my folks to hang out... Finnegan runs more games on the weekend... yeah... Tuesdays...).

Picking up where we left off after the Clash at Gloomy Crest, The Hedonite Host fell upon the Ruins of Aklaszazer, where Duardin of the 44th Azyrite Thunderers Regiment, has just finished rebuilding a tower around the newly re-opened Realm Gate to Azyr! 

SCENARIO

The scenario we played was The Watchtower (same as we played for our First Game - except that this game there actually WAS a watchtower!) 

The Tower of Zvoln - This is actually the oldest terrain I own! I made this 30+ years ago when I was still playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles (3rd Edition)! 

FORCES

Howlthrob’s Host

Allegiance: Slaanesh

Host: Godseekers Host

Mortal Realm: Ulgu

Current Quest: Master Magical Lore – 1 Quest Point

LEADERS

• Howlthrob the Quivering Doom Snare (Aogzemmp'ptzhoe), Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh (140) - General - Speedchaser, Enrapturing Circlet, Born of Damnation

UNITS

• 10 x Daemonettes (140) - the Luxurious Lavendrines – 1 Casualty

• 10 x Daemonettes (140) - Viridians of Vice

• 5 x Seekers (140) - Seekers of Sin

TOTAL: 560 points

Territories:

• The Nexus of Sominus - Arcane Waypoint

• The Pool of Perversion - Wellspring

Vault:

• Warscroll Battalion: Epicurean Revellers

Glory: 1



Erymas’ Stormhost

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals

Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar

Mortal Realm: Azyr 

Current Quest: Defend Your Realm – 1 Quest Points

LEADERS

• Knight-Questor Erymas (110) - General - God-Forged Blade, We Cannot Fail

• Averon Stormsire (280) - Chain Lightning

UNITS

• 3 x Steelheart's Champions (110) - Severin Steelheart, Obryn the Bold, Angharad Brightshield

• 2 x Stormsire's Cursebreakers (0) - Ammis, Rastus

• 3 x Castigators (75) - Atymnius, Marius, Throsymelus

• 10x Irondrakes (160) - 

TOTAL: 735 points

Territories:

• Realmgate to Azyr - Arcane Waypoint

Glory: 6

THE GAME

Rolling for Ulgu Realmscape Features we got Shrouded Lands: a veil of gloom hangs over this region, but no immediate dangers are apparent. (no effect on the battle!) 

Swarms of Slaanesh Daemons ready to attack the tower - hoping to overrun the diminutive forces holding it and secure a gateway to Azyr itself, for their Dark Prince. 

The Duardin builders also Irondrake/Thunderers were warned of the daemons approach by Averon Stormsire, who rode the winds to return to the fortress ahead of the Slaanesh Host. 

ROUND ONE

Slaanesh Turn

Teh Slaanesh forces went first in Round One and all charged the Tower. The Irondrake/Thunderers did the Uleash Hell action, in response to the first Daemonettes Charging and blasted away FIVE of the Viridians of Vice! Yikes! 

In the Combat Phase the Duardin blasted away two more of the Viridians of Vice. The Daemons, for their part, took out three of the Duardin and dealt one wound to Averon Stormsire. Stormsire spent too long giving a stirring speach to actually do anything to the invading horde (he missed all attacks).

Three units suffered wounds (+3 Depravity Points) and my General and at least one other unit charged (+D3+1 Depravity Points - for a total of SIX - enough to summon a unit already!) 

Stormcast Turn

Averon Stormcast cast Stormcast (who names a spell after themselves...? or Names themself after a spell...?) The spell finished off the Viridians of Vice, dealt one to the the Luxurious Lavendrines, three mortal wounds to the Seekers of Sin (taking one out and wounding another) and a Mortal Wound to Howlthrob the Quivering Doom Snare!

And then the reinforcements arrived! 

The Castigors shot at the Seekers, finishing off the wounded one. 

Others just had to wait for their chance... 

The vicious battle at the tower saw the Irondrakes take out another Seeker and Stormsire brutally wound the Viceleader Howlthrob. The Daemons took out five more Duardin. One Mortal Wound and five normal wounds were dealt to Stormsire... he saved all five of the regular wounds! Yikes! 

All that Damage-Dealing mean I gained ANOTHER five Depravity Points! The last of the Duardin failed a battleshock test and fled (we figured they retired to the basement of the tower to deal with their injured - and hoped Stormsire could hold off the Daemons until the reinforcements arrived) 

ROUND TWO

Slaanesh Turn

Slaanesh went first again in Round Two. The Viceleader recovered two wounds with Heroic REcovery and then tried to cast Born of Damnation (to recover a few more), but, despite the casting number of FOUR... the viceleader failed (rolling a three - at least it wasn't a miscast - two - which would have cased another D3 Mortal Wounds!?)  

then retreated from the combat at the tower to summon a Bladebringer on a Hellflayer! (Because I COULD!) 

The Viceleader charged back into combat with the inhabitants of the tower... 

And the Bladebringer charged the Stormcast reinforcements - hoping to buy the daemons attacking the tower some time! 

The the Luxurious Lavendrines finished off Averon Stormsire in the tower - unfortunately, in Age of Sigmar, there is no "Consolidation Move" after a combat, so the Daemons would not be able to occupy the tower until they could move in their next turn. 

The Bladebringer dealt some damage to Steelheart's Champions (KOed one and wounded another...?) 

Four more Depravity Points for me (2 for units suffering wounds, 2 for General charging again) 

Stormcast Turn

The Stormcast moved in! 

The Castigators shot at and then charged the Bladebringer. All of the Stormcast were utterly wiped out in this fight...

Knight-Questor Erymas and the Cursebreakers charged the Seekers of Sin at the very door to the Tower. 

The Evocators of the Cursebreakers took out two of them and the Knight-Questor finished off the last of them. At the end of this, however, they were fully within 6" of the tower... 

ROUND THREE

Stormcast Turn

The Stormcast won the priority roll and went first. being wholly within 6" of the tower, that was unoccupied, they were able to rush in before the Daemons could! 

DAMMIT!

The Stormcast focused all of their attacks on the Viceleader and took it out! The DAemonettes of the  Luxurious Lavendrines took down one of the Evocators of the Cursebreakers. 

Slaanesh Turn 

The Bladebringer turned it's attention to the Stormcast in the tower - and summoned another unit of Daemonettes... 

All charged the tower! The remaining Evocator and the Knight-Questor focused all their attacks on the Bladebringer and took them down! 

The Daemonettes managed to finish off the Cursebreakers... but it was going to be a ferocious fight to try and bring down the Knight-Questor.... 

ROUND FOUR

With the Knight Questor able to do Heroic Recovery (regaining any lost wounds every round) and having a 3+ save to begin with... and +1 to save rolls from being in defensible terrain, and a further +1 for All Out Defence - negating any rend the Daemonettes might have... effectively giving him a 2+ save... with a Sigmarite Shield that allows him to re-roll any that he fails... yeah... that wasn't going to happen... 

At the end of the Fourth Round it was clear the Daemons were NOT going to overpower the Knight Questor and we called it a day. MAYBE if both units of Daemonettes were the ones originally fielded (which are part of a Warscroll Battalion that gave Daemonettes an ability where sixes on wound rolls dealt Mortal Wounds! But the full unit of Daemons was a summoned unit and, we assumed, NOT part of said Warscroll Battalion) 

And so the Warriors of Sigmar wrested victory from a nearly devastating defeat! 

 

POST GAME

Finnegan's Stormcast gained NINE Glory Points for the game and then another TEN from finishing his quest - brining his total to twenty-five! I gained five glory points and another quest point.

Two of the Duardin did not recover from their wounds and died. 

Howlthrob the Quivering Doom Snare, Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh suffered only minor injuries and would return to fight next game. The injured Luxurious Lavendrines all recovered (but they remain one down from the previous game), but the Viridians of Vice permanently lost three of their number - likely due to the incantations of the Stormcast Knight-Incantor! The Seekers of Sin didn't have to roll for casualties due to my Wellspring territory (need to upgrade that ASAP!) 

The Luxurious Lavendrines gained one Renown for surviving the battle, and the Seekers of Sin gained FIVE (for being the Favoured unit) - both are now Veterans! The Seekers gained the Devastating Charge ability and the DAemonettes gained the Disciplined Battle Drill ability! 

Finnegan rolled Special Territory on his Exploration Roll, but, lacking a Faction Territories Table (I guess these will be in the NEW Battletomes...?), he was able to just select Ancient Roads - which would allow him a second allied unit in his contingent - so he spent 10 of his glory on that. He immediately spent another 10 Glory Points to upgrade the Ancient Roads to a "Trade Route" which increased the limit by THREE - for a total of FOUR allied units he can add to his contingent (enough to cover all the Cities of Sigmar units I've gotten ready!) He spent the last of his remaining Glory Points to add barracks to his Stronghold - increasing his unit limit by one - so maybe next time he can add another of those Cities of Sigmar units! 

Lacking enough Glory Points to add a new territory, I didn't even bother with an Exploration Roll. I did add another unit of Daemonettes to the Roster (which, I guess, I'll need to finish painting up before next week!!). I desperately need another HERO to add to the roster - I can't rely one being able to SUMMON a Bladebringer on a Hellflayer all the time! If I lose the ONE hero I currently have, I'm done with summoning units and that's the one things these Hedonites kind of have going for them! 

Another super fun game. Really looking forward to MORE! I hope we can continue the campaign into the fall - and maybe add in a few NEW factions. 

Wednesday I played another game of Necromunda - hopefully I'll get a Game Report of that action posted later today or tomorrow. Later in the week I should be posting some new painting - likely Daemonettes, as I'll need them for next Tuesday - but there are a LOT of things on the workbench all slowly sloshing towards completion - a few Warhammer Underworlds warbands are very nearly done... I did also just pick up some Chaos Knights, and I'm pretty excited about getting a few of those put together! (Although, I think when I had costed it out, it made more sense for my starting Slaves to Darkness host to be made up of the Chaos Lord and a couple of units of Marauder Horse....? We shall see...) I do need to see about painting another Hedonite Hero, though... Maybe it's time I finished up the Infernal Enrapturess... or just save up enough Glory to add the Baldebringer on the Hellflayer...? We shall see...