Thursday, October 28, 2021

Storm of Celestus Enter the Nightvault

Some time ago, I bought and painted up a set of Castigators, thinking I'd be able to pair them up with some of my other Stormcast Eternals to make a Warcry Warband. Through they never saw any action in Warcry, they did form part of a small Stormcast Eternal force that Finnegan used in Age of Sigmar. 

Earlier this year, Games Workshop released a new Two-Player Starter Set for Warhammer Underworlds. It included two warbands that made use of previously released Easy-to-Build sets that hadn't been used in Warhammer Underworlds - the Castigators and the Glaivewraith Stalkers. The set reprinted a few of the boards from Shadespire and Nightvault and the decks included with the warband were designed to be playable, as is, and the box included NO EXTRA CARDS!? 

I picked the box up a few months back and STLILL haven't painted either warband (the Glaivewraith Stalkers are almost done - just have to finish the bases). But since the Stormcast Castigator warband uses miniatures I've already painted... I can just use THOSE!? 

On Sunday evening, Amanda and I decided to play one of the four games of Nightvault we need to play to get in ten plays this year. I thought I'd try out the Storm of Celestus - I had a look at their deck, briefly, in the afternoon, and it didn't look too bad at all. Seemed like it could totally be played as is... 


THE GAME

Starting things off, I actually won the roll for board placement - as Amanda has figured out how to place boards to her advantage if she goes second! 

Objectives and warbands were then set up and we were ready to roll! 

This past week we did, finally, get a radiator reinstalled in the Game Room. Unfortunately as it is the only one in the basement and the thermostat is at the bottom of the stairs, it would make the room VERY warm before the thermostat ever registered that it had warmed up to stop the heat running... so we will just have to turn on the heat a bit before any games are to happen down there. As we are not in the habit of this, as yet, we forgot to do so and it was still a bit cool while we were playing... Amanda's wearing a toque I found at a hallowe'en costume store recently that I thought was funny. (If you can't read it, it says: "BASIC WITCH").

Kind of works... since she is playing Witch Aelves! 


ROUND ONE

All set up and ready to roll. All three of the objective cards i started with were onces involving control of Objectives. 

The first, Crucial Objective, was a surge I could score after an Enemy Activation if I was on either  Objective Number Two or Four. This would be easy peasy - Objective Number Four was in my territory!

The second, Bold Claim, was a similar surge one that required that I held two of Objectives One, Three, or Five. Number Five was the other one in my territory, and Number Three was the closest one to my territory that was in Enemy Territory... but they would be wanting to grab those objectives too!  

The third, Great Purification, required that I hold THREE Objectives at the end of the Round. If I managed to do the second one, and holdit to the end of the round, though... 

I won the roll off and went first. 

Mellisan moved onto Objective Number Four.

Lethyr jumped onto Objective Number One.

At the end of their activation, I scored Crucial Objective for holding Objective Number Four. +1 Glory for me! I then upgraded Mellisan with Cool Head (Allowing her to re-roll one die in any of her attacks!). I drew a new objective to replace the one I just scored and drew Point Blank - a Surge objective, scored after an activation in which a friendly fighter made a successful Range 3+ Attack action which targeted an adjacent enemy fighter.

Amanda played Catechism of Murder and inspired Khamyss. 

Aphus The Brave moved up on to Objective Number Five - half way to scoring that next Objective Card! It also brought him next to Sleek, which has this interesting ability - Warning Cry - a reaction when an enemy attacks within two hexes, they can put a Guard Token on any Friendly Fighter within 1 hex - so if anyone tried to charge any of these warriors while in this position, sleek would put a Guard Token on them! 

No one charged, though. Kyrssa moved onto Objective Number Two and Amanda scored Hidden Purpose (+1 Glory for holding two objectives). She then upgraded Morgwaeth with Duelists Speed (gets to push one after attacking an enemy - allowing her to disengage or follow up!) 

Since no one was standing on it, Celestus charged on to Objective Number Three... all I had to do was hold it for ONE activation. Also, as part of the charge he shot Morgwaeth - If I'd just hit her, I'd score an immediate Glory Point for the Objective Card I'd just drawn... AND Celestus would be inspired, as his inspire condition is simply that his crossbow attack action succeeds! AND when he's inspired he CANNOT BE DRIVEN BACK! 

Of course I didn't... Things WERE looking up when I rolled a crit AND a success on my two attack dice! (14% chance of that happening...). Of course Amanda can't NOT roll at least one crit... so she did the same with her two defence dice (8% chance of that happening). A tie is not a success... but I did push her back one hex. She could still hit me from there, but at least couldn't count as support if someone else attacked Celestus. 

I played a gambit called Great Bow Block - which meant that any damage to any of my warriors other than Sleek done in the next activation was automatically reduced to one... I'd hoped this might be an enticement to go after sleek and leave Celestus alone... 

So Amanda shot at Celsestus with Kyrae... because her bow only does one damage anyway... 

And hit him... knocking him off of Objective Number Three. 

I SHOULD have also played Lightning Flare, which I was also holding, which meant no attacks could be made from 2+ hexes away... no one would have CHARGED and attacked if they could only do one damage... alas... 

For my final activation I moved Sleek onto Objective Humber Three. THEN I played Lightning Flare, for all the good it would do... 

And Amanda played Distraction... allowing her to push and Enemy Fighter one hex... and knocked Sleek off of the Objective!? GAH!? 

Morgwaeth Charged onto the Objective! 

Then she stabbed Celestus causing two damage and scoring Bold Conquest, scoring +1 Glory when your leader mase a Charge action and is holding an objective....

I played Healing Tempest which removed the two wounds from Celestus... But pushing Sleek off the Objective denyed me being able to score two Objective Cards worth FIVE Glory... 

End of Round one... Morgwaeth's Blade Coven holding three Objectives. Celestus has taken one damage. 


ROUND TWO

Amanda actually WON the initiative roll... but actually let me go first - because she had cards she wanted to play before taking her first activation. As cards are, generally, only played in the Power Step following an activation, that meant I'd need to go first. 

I totally wanted her to go first, for the same reason! I was holding a card that gave +1 dice to a range 3+ attack... Alas... 

Aphus the Brave shot Morgwaeth. He had TWO Support! 

He actually hit, did two damage, and pushed her back, off of the Objective! 

Amanda then played Forward Planning and upgraded Lethyr with the Formless Key and played Headlong Fury, allowing Khamyss to make a free move action without putting a move token on her. 

On her first activation, Khamyss killed Sleek...  +1 Glory 

Damn... 

So I played that Aetheric Channelling, giving my next attack an extra die... But, despite that extra die.. I STILL only tied her... pushing her back one hex. 

On Amanda's turn, she moved Morgwaeth back onto Objective Number Three... played Regal Vision - inspiring Morgwaeth - and then played Jealous Defence - allowing a fighter, without a charge token, standing on an objective, to make a free attack. She attacked Celestus and killed him.... +1 Glory 

Yikes... 

Holding Objectives was no longer useful, so Aphus moved off and charged Khamyss... I'm not sure why...? She is a bit of a glass cannon and, I guess, if I DID get lucky, he could still kill her with one attack... and if it were point blank, he'd get that bonus Glory Point for that stupid Objective Card I was STILL holding... 

He missed.... of course... because crits... 

Then Khamyss attacked Aphus and Killed him... +1 glory

Mellisan moved off of the objective she was on, hoping to get a shot in and be in a slightly better position for the final Round... as she would be the ONLY fighter I would have to use... for, potentially, four activations... She shot at Kyrssa... the only one in range with only ONE Defence die.... and missed because crit defence... one ONE DIE?!

Khamyss charged Mellisan and actually only wounded her with ONE of her attacks... 

And then pusher her back... Yay...? 

AT the end of the Round Amanda scored more Objectives... Dug In (+4 glory) and Dominant Position (+2 glory)... bringing her total to... TEN!? 


ROUND THREE

Amanda went first and Kyrae shot Mellisan and hit her and did one damage and then played snare which did a second point of damage and finished her off... 

Yeah... 

Fun times... 

Amanda scored some MORE Objectives and ended with a total of FIFTEEN GLORY POINTS... to my ONE!? 

Also, she tabled my ENTIRE warband of Stormcast Eternals, while only taking two damage points in the whole damned game... 


Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Necromunda: Get Jericho

 

Last Thursday my friend Orion stopped by to play some Necromunda. She brought her Enforcers and I thought it might be fun to see how well Kal Jeroicho and Scabs did against a full gang... all on their own... 

Jericho and Scabs were set up in the centre and just had to escape off the edge of the boards. The coppers could set up anywhere with 4" of an outer edge. I put walls around most of the edges, so it wouldn't be TOO easy just to run off! 

Jericho and Scabs

Cops

MORE Cops 

Another Cop 

STILL MORE COPS!

I probably shoudl have given Jericho and Scabs a few friends. 

Scabs started things off moving forwards and plinking away at one of the Coppers, doing absolutely nothing... 

One of the cops must have moved up... 

Then Jericho went and shot the Captain... but only managed to pin him... because he's basically a terminator!? 

Sniper dude shot at Scabs. 

More cops moving up. 

Bew! Bew! Jericho shooting his master-crafted, hot-shot laspistols at the enforcer captain. 

One of the Enforcers tried to move in and apprenend Jericho - but this is where he SHINES - in close combat. He dropped her on her ass! 

Then charged the Enforcer Captain... and... as good as Jericho IS in Close Combat... he is still no match for a freaking TERMINATOR! 

Scabs taking more fire. 

"Move a little to your left, boss... NO THE OTHER LEFT!?" 

Sniper tires to get a line on Jericho. 

ALL THE COPS swarming in! 

Jericho breaks contact and tries to escape! 

But there are just too many cops shooting at him some with stun weapons... others with freaking BOLTERS!? 

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! 

It ended as almost a slapstick comedy. Jericho and one of the enforcers fell into one of the sludge vats. 

He kept trying to get out. 

But everytime he did, someone would just knock him back in. 

Eventually the Enforcer Captain knocked him down and cuffed him! (something enforcers can do instead of a Coup de Gras! It has the same effect, but is a little more "fluffy") 

Fun game. We're going to play some more Necromunda again this week. Seems the Coppers were bringing Jericho in because they needed help with a thing... A thing involving some REDEMPTIONISTS

Not much has been done for Orktober... but I have been busy drawing stuff for ARTOBER

I have gotten in a few other games towards the NEW 10x10 plan... 

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Rethinking that plan...

Sometimes I think my motto should be: "Anything Worth Thinking About is Worth OVERTHINKING About"....  or.... something like that...? Immediately after posting Game Plan 2021 - Q4 I posted an addendum suggesting I'd work on ORKS this month - as I kind of decided I should do that at the last minute. I haven't really not been working on Orks. (I've  been busy trying to do drawings and paintings  for inktober/artober/generic-october-daily-drawing/art-challenge). And so since I haven't been playing games or painting toys, I've been THINKING more about playing games and painting toys. I mean, THINKING about games and toys is my next favourite thing to actually playing with and painting them!? 

I've been thinking a LOT about campaign systems = and I have a post (or two!?) in the works about that... but I thought this might be quicker to finish up, so.... here it is... 

I LIKE the idea of 10x10 Game Challenges. I like the idea of picking ten games and playing them LOTS. It takes time and playing to really learn games and i often feel like I wish I could play this game or that game more as I might get more out of it if I actually could figure out HOW to play the damned game. 

The problem is, with my constantly shifting interests, it is nearly impossible for me to guess WHICH games will hold my interest throughout a year and completely ignores the fact that there may be a new game that could come out during the year that I could not have forseen, but will buy and LOVE and play lots of. 

So I have shifted to wuarterly 5x5 challenges... which I don't even often bother to define at the beginning of the quarter... because... shifting interests... life... time... so many unknowns... the plan OFTEN develops and/or changes part way through!? 

AFTER I thought about and posted my Game Plan 2021 - Q4  I started wondering - What games HAVE I played the most so far this year? ARE there any games that I am eve CLOSE to playing 10 games of. Could I shift any part of my Q4 Plan to make it possible to have played 10 games 10 times!? 

So, looking at the BoardGameGeek stats, my top ten (or so) most played games so, so far, this year, are:

1. Wingspan 

21 Games Played - Boom! DONE! 


2. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm 

12 Games Played


3. Kingdom Builder 

9 Games Played 


4. Retro Loonacy 

9  Games Played


5. Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team 

8 Games Played


6. Azul 

7 Games Played


7. Terraforming Mars 

6 Games Played


8. Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault 

6 Games Played

Strange feature of Board Game Geek - All the Warhammer Underworlds games Shadespire, Nightvault, Beastgrave, Direchams, the new "Two-Player Starter" and the upcoming Harrowdeep are listed as separate games - there is no"Warhammer Underworlds" core set that I can record games under. 

So far I've been recording any games played in the SETTING of Beastgrave as Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (as it's the most recent, and the one I started with and we use the RULES from Direchasm when playing, regardless of whether we're playing with Beastgrave or Direchasm boards or mixing the two. 

Same goes for Nightvault/'Shadespire - despite the fact that I now OWN both, I record any games played in the Shadespire setting as Warhammer Underworlds: NIghtvault plays - as they use the most recent rules and that's the one I started with (and acquired Shadespire later).

So on one hand I feel like I should combine these to be EIGHTEEN plays of Warhammer Underworlds...because, really, is is the SAME GAME and we use warbands from all settings in either - and cards from all settings...  I'm probably going to keep them separate... just so I know how many games I'm playing in each Setting. 

Harrowdeep will add a third setting. 


9. London 

5 Games Played


10. Necromunda 

5 Games Played


11. The Arrival 

4  Games Played


12. Warhammer Age of Sigmar (Third Edition) 

4 Games Played


13. The Castles of Burgundy 

3 Games Played


14. Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World 

3 Games Played


15. Kingdomino 

3  Games Played


So.. The Plan... 

So, how many of each of these games would I need to play to get in 10 plays... 

Kingdom Builder + 1 - no problem

Retro Loonacy +1 - also not a problem

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team +2 - Totally going to happen

Azul +3 - easy-peasy

Terraforming Mars +4 - This could happen... I really like Terraforming Mars. I'll play any time we have time and someone suggests it. 

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault +4 - I REALLY WANT TO get playing Warhammer Underworlds again... I'd LOVE to have a chance to play 4 more games this year! Can I make it happen in the Shadespire/Nightvault setting...? I don't see why not!? There IS Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep coming out soon, though... it might be November, and I'll definitely be playing it before the end of the year, but I doubt I'll get to playing TEN full games in THAT setting.... 

London +5 - NOPE! this was part of our Q1 Challenge and Amanda and I found there was serious flaws/balance issues when playing with only two... and that's who I'd be playing most of these games against (This is exactly why I included MORE than just the top ten) 

Necromunda Rulebook +5 - I've kind of shifted away from Necromunda with the release of Kill Team... but I still love this game and it would be a good excuse to play a few more games. 

The Arrival +6 - Not so sure about this one... I'm glad I finally got to try it out. It was an interesting game and doesn't take a tonne of time to play... but still.. I didn't even manage to get a fifth game in when it was part of one of the Quarterly Challenges... it might be a struggle to get in SIX games of this... I think it would be easier to get in MORE games of some of the other options... 

Warhammer Age of Sigmar (Third Edition) +6 - I like this game... but the interest and motivation isn't really there... I find Miniatures Games require a bit more effort to set up... and I can't just NOT do a game report for this blog (is IS, in theory, a MINIATURE WARGAMING BLOG, after all!) which means MORE effort... when I already have a few others on the list. 

The Castles of Burgundy +7 - This would be a bit more of a challenge... though Amanda and I know the game well enough that just the two of us can get in a game in less than 1.5 hours... It COULD happen... but it's a game I've kind of tired of and, though I've only played it 3 times this year, I feel like I played it a LOT last year. (nope, looking back at Looking Back at 2020, I only played if five times) So... I like the game, but I don't LOVE it enough to play it seven more times this year... 

Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World +7 - Maybe... I do like the Century games. Is this one my favourite, probably not. If it was just seven more century games... that would be easy... seven of THIS ONE...? Might be a challenge... but COULD happen...? 

Kingdomino +7 -  this could happen. The games are quick... 


Other Possibilities.... 

Wrath & Glory or FATE (Condensed?) - I REALLY want to get a weekly(-ish) role-playing game going on again this fall! If that happened, it would be easy to get in 10 games of a game I haven't even played this year. 

I DID play a bit of Soulbound at the beginning of the year... but I just can't see reviving that one this year. Someday... but not this year... 


SO.... THE PLAN...!? 

If I had to guess which games are going to get their ten plays this year, I would guess the following:

1. Wingspan (Done!)

2. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (Done!) 

3. Kingdom Builder (+1) 

4. Retro Loonacy (+1)

5. Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (+2) 

6. Azul (+3) 

7. Terraforming Mars ( +4)

8. Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault (+4)

9. Necromunda Rulebook (+5) 

10. Role-Playing Game (probably Wrath & Glory +10) 

That's THIRTY games I need to play. It's MORE than a regular 5x5 Quarterly Challenge would generate (25 games) but it's spread out over 8 games and I almost always play MORE than 25 games in three months... it just isn't always focused on the 5 games for the challenge. 

This seems do-able. 

Let's DO IT!!