September Games

 Well, August was a bit of a bust... 

I had hoped to kick the month off with a bang, heading out to the Warhammer Store to play a few games in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead league... and maybe get back to playing our Warhammer Quest game... but then life had different ideas! 

Adult Child #2 went in for dental surgery a few days earlier and had ALL FOUR WISDOM TEETH removed!? Things were going... well... as well as they could.. until Saturday evening... when one of the affected areas started bleeding again…. and bleeding… and BLEEDING and it just did not want to stop… and then we couldn't seem contact the on-call dental surgeon on the 24-hour-7-day-a-week EMERGENCY contact line… (because apparently he was very busy in the ER repairing THREE jaws that had been busted earlier in fights earlier in the evening!? I wasn't ever clear if it was one big brawl or three separate incidents?) and we didn't hear back from him until five or six in the morning... Keiran and I ended up staying up most of the night - they were changing gauze pads every half hour or so… I was just up to… I don’t know.. make sure they didn’t drift off in between and choke on clotted  blood and/or gauze… or keep them company? (honestly I'd thought my days of staying up all night with sick/injures children were OVER?!) When he called he said come in around noon... so I ended up staying up until 10am... when I would have been leaving for the Warhammer Store. Amanda took Keiran into the surgeons office and everything was sorted and fine... but I did not get to play Spearhead that day... or Warhammer Quest because it was the long weekend and Maygan was away and just returning in the evening and didn't want to go right out and play a game... 

Bah... 

Monday was Labour Day, though... I'd hoped maybe we'd get a game in then... but everyone was just too tired... 

The following weekend was the Warhammer Store's First Anniversary event.. I wasn't thinking there'd be much gaming, but I'd planned to head out there on the Sunday... but then the temperatures soared above +30°C and I just hid indoors and didn't go anywhere?! 

And this was all very disappointing and lead to some mind wandering... but I swear, I did get to some gaming EVENTUALLY!? 

Wednesday, 11 September 2024

I rode out to the Warhammer Store and played a minigame of Warhammer 40,000 (10th Edition) - Knight Fight - where my Shadowsword took on a Knight Valiant! (The Shadowsword won!) 

(still part of their First Anniversary Event!) 

Thursday, 12 September 2024

The following day, I rolled back out to the Warhammer Store and got in a game of Spearhead with John. 

Game Report:

Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Heodnites of Slaanesh Versus Stormcast Eternals

Sunday, 15 September 2024

On Sunday I rolled out to the Warhammer Store AGAIN!? Originally hoped to get in a game with Sean, but he wasn't able to make it out, but Orion showed up a bit later and we had a bit of a rematch with our Blades of Khorne and Soulblight Gravelords. 

Game Report:

Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Blades of Khorne Versus Soulblight Gravelords... Again...

Tuesday, 24 September 2024

I was feeling a little sad about not getting in so many games over the summer and this past month... so I started casting about looking at Solo games again. Got things ready to pick up the Five Parsecs from Home campaign I'd started ages ago... Picked up a copy of Devilry Afoot and got very excited about that for a few days... But then, somehow, I ended up downloading a copy of Five Men in Normandy - .30 Cal Edition - from Wargame Vault on Monday. 

On Tuesday, I played my first game of  Five Men in Normandy - .30 Cal Edition. The game is from Nordic Weasel Games - who also originally published Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. It was a lot of fun and got me very excited about running a short (or... not-so-short...) campaign!?

Report of Game One of the campaign:

Five Men in Normandy - Landed and Lost!

Sunday, 29 September 2024

I rolled out to the Warhammer Store for one last game for the Spearhead League and finally got to play Sean... and he brought Maggotkin of Nurgle, which just made my day - as I'd brought my freshly painted Sylvaneth and the two are narratively a classic match-up. Super fun game. I lost, surprising no one... 

Game Report: 

Age of Sigmar - Last Spearhead League Game

And... that was it for September... 

Five games... 

One was a five minute mini-game... 

Another was a solo game (I don't know why, but there's something in my brain that still clings to the idea that solo games are "sad"... I know I need to move beyond that... but I kind of feel like I need to acknowledge it's there... and not true... to be able to move PAST it....). 

I am a little sad though... I mean it wasn't THAT many years ago that we had a family tradition/challenge to play a game EVERY DAY through the month of September. Very often we succeeded. Some years the challenge was to play a DIFFERENT game every day!? (This was because we noticed the game-playing usually dropped off over the summer as we got out and did stuff outdoors... but wanted to kick off the fall game-playing!)

I guess there's always OCTOBER!!

I guess a more positive thing to consdier is I've done a LOT of painting. I got excited about something that had faded in interest. (though I maybe spent a bit too much money and acquired a few too many things...). I got interested in some NEW things and tried out a new game (Five Men in Normandy) and got stuff ready for ANOTHER new game (Devilry Afoot!) that I'll HOPEFULLY get to in the next week (or two...?) along with some others...? 

More on this in the Game Plan 2024-Q4 which will be posted shortly after this!!

Age of Sigmar - Last Spearhead League Game

 I got in one last game for the Spearhead League this past Sunday... I was up STUPID late the night before (or... earlier in the morning) trying to finish up my Sylvaneth Spearhead Army. 

Sylvaneth Spearhead Army - finished up less than 7 hours before I had to leave to go play my last game in the league. 

I wore my Lucky Sylvaneth Pants (they weren't THAT lucky...) ... I guess those could be Sylvaneth shoes too...? 

I finally got to play against Sean - who I've played warhammer Underworlds with and is always fun to play with! Also... he brought a Maggotkin of Nurgle force, which Just made my day! Nurgle versus Sylvaneth is a narratively classic match-up as the two factions battled relentlessly for centuries...? MILENIA...?! for control of Ghyran - the Realm of Life! 

The Maggotkin were the attackers, Sylvaneth defending. We played in Ghyran and used my weird mutant/alien trees from 40K (which ARE listed as useable terrain in the latest edition of Age of Sigmar. 

The Maggotkin went first and mostly just lumbered out of their deployment zone and siezed the central objective and positioned others to score other objectives and... scored six points....?  

On my turn the Treelord charged the Putrid Blightkings and smashed a few of them apart. 

The Kurnothi shot at and then charged a group of Plaguebearers in the middle of the table. Charging turned out to be a mistake. The Kurnothi are deadly with their Great Bow... not so much in melee... 

Teh Tree-Revenants charged the Pusgoyle Blightlord. 

I totally forgot to move my Branchwych... and forgot to use MOST of my units special abilities - for all of the first turn and most of the second turn!? 

I also managed to score six points, though, so we were tied. 

During the Nurgle Turn everyone mostly just hammered on each other - and the Spoilpox Scrivner joined the battle between the Kurnothi and the Plaguebearers. 

Finally at the end of the second Nurgle Turn I remembered to use strike and Fade - to get the last Kurnothi Hunter out of that fight... but because I'd forgotten to move the Branchwych in the first turn, it was too far away for the Branchwych to return one of the Kurnothi warriors to the unit!? DOH!! 

Realizing there she was out of range to help the Kurnothi and there was now nothing between her and the Plaguebearers and Spoilpox Scrivner, the Branchwych tried to RUN in the direction of the Tree-Revenants... and rolled a 1... Should have moved and CHARGED the Pusgoyle Blightlord... Ah, well... 

On Nurgle's third turn their reinforcements arrived! A second Pusgoyle Blightlord and another unit of Plaguebearers. 

The first Pusgoyle Blightlord fled the battle with the Tree-Revenants.. 

... and the Plaguebearers and Spoilpox Scrivner charged the last of the Tree-Revenants. 

Branchwych tried to make a run for it in the OTHER direction... and rolled a 1... AGAIN!? So she was caught up by Plague Bearers... 

Game Board at the end of Round Four. Treelord was still around and in pretty good shape... there were two Tree-Revenants left... Kurnothi were gone... 

I took out the Putrid Blightkings earlier in the game, and then the Spoilpox Scrivner and one of the Pusgoyle Blightlords on the last turn, which counted for nothing.. 

In the end the Sylvaneth lost 20-16...? But it was a fun game. 

At the end of it, John informed me I was tied for first in the league... which seemed weird because I have NOT WON A SINGLE GAME!? (But I played with painted armies every time... and got bonus points for playing with different opponent - and different fully painted armies!) It was suggested I should have a play-off against Dray -with whom I was tied... I said he should just be given it... because he, y'know, actually WON GAMES!? 

As I was riding home, I realized I should have stuck around and played a quick game with John - and could have gotten a few more points and won the league... but I had a book club to get to... 

As it turned out, Dray showed up after I left and blasted through a quick game with John, so HE won in the end... Ha! 

On the way home there was a strange clicking noise as I rode that, for the life of me, I could not figure out where it was coming from...  

and the my pedal fell off.. 

Luckily, most of my weight was on the saddle otherwise that could have been a bit more disastrous... 

At first I thought the pedal had some how just spun out... but when I stopped to investigate, I discovered the crank had actually broken in two!? Uggggghhhh... luckily I was only 2Km from home... But now I have multiple bicycles all needing repairs... Guess I'll have to be doing a bit of THAT this week... 

Terrain - Slit Trenches

I don't know exactly WHEN I started these... It might have been eight years ago - either when I was working on the Regina Trench terrain or some new generic Urban Ruins terrain...? But it COULD have been as recently as five years ago when I was making Movement Trays (as the process is very similar). Regardless, I'd roughed out four of them - two two-man slit trenches, one three-man slit trench, and one for a crew-served weapon. I'm MOSLTY finished one, and never got around to posting it or finishing any of the others... 

Having started a Five Men in Normandy campaign, I thought these might come in handy, so I went digging through some boxes to find them and finish them up. 

 

The idea was to find a way to show that troops were dug into slit trenches.... that could be placed on a flat tabletop - and could be placed almost anywhere that's flat - so I wouldn't have to build specific terrain tiles for scenarios in which someone was dug into a slit trench. 

I've played around with the idea of doing just a short stack of sandbags, but then thought of this idea and hoped it would LOOK more like the troops were entrenched. 

These were clearly a TEST set, as any of the games I would have been thinking of using them for would clearly need a LOT MORE if an entire platoon - or even a few squads were all dug in!? This number works PERFECTLY for Five Men in Normandy, however. 

Age of Sigmar - Sylvaneth Spearhead Army

 I've been painting like a mad bastard this last week to try and finish up the Sylvaneth Spearhead army for the final day of the Spearhead League at the local Warhammer store... and I did it! 

Sylvaneth Spearhead Army

The army is made up of:

• 1x Branchwych (General) 
• 1x Treelord (which can alternatively be built as a Treelord Ancient or Spirit of Durthu)
• 3x Kurnoth Hunters
• 5x Tree-Revenants

Not a lot of roots on the ground... but the Treelord is a BEAST!!!

Branchwych - The Branchwych is the General of this army. I think normally a Treelord would be... but it is just SO HARD to take down, it would pretty much make one of your opponents scoring cards unplayable (taking out the enemy leader!) 

Treelord - Terrifying and VERY difficult to take down... 

Treelord detail - kind of hard to make out...  but I had bits of stuff left over from the Putrid Blight-Kings from Shadows over Hammerhal, so I cobbled together bits to make it look like there is a savagely maimed (legs removed) and dying blight king on the base.. 

Kurnothi Hunters - For the spearhead army they are supposed to be all armed with Kurnothi Great Bows - and in regular Age of Sigmar, they are all meant to be armed the same - either with the Great Bow, Great Sword, or Scythe... but I decided I really wanted ONE with a sword... i guess I could take the Quiver Beetle that was meant to go with the champion archer, and maybe put it on a 25mm base (with the bow sticking out of it as well!) to show that he, too, is an archer... 

Tree-Revenants 

Three of these troop-types - Branchwych, Tree-Revenants, and Kurnothi Hunter - are all playable archetypes in the Soulbound role-playing game (which was PART of my motivation for getting these...)

I had a lot of fun putting these together and painting them. I have a handful more to finish up - five more Tree-Revenants, five Spite-Revenants, as well as Ylthari's Guardians (a Warhammer Underworlds warband of four more Tree-Revenants) and Skaeth's Wild Hunt (which is also a Warhammer Underworlds warband  made up of... just... weird stuff... that shows up nowhere else in any Age of Sigmar background fluff for the Sylvaneth...!?). I am seriously tempted to use these in the upcoming Paths to Glory campaign. I would have exactly 1000 points if I finished up the Tree-Revenants, Spite-Revenants, and Skaeth's Wild Hunt... but I wouldn't have much to expand with when the force grew... so... I'd have to BUY more stuff... and I'm not SUPER excited about that (especially when I have SO MANY OTHERS that I have literally MULTIPLE THOUSANDS of points worth of stuff I could field or paint up to field!)

(If I DID get other things, though... I wouldn't mind another Treelord (or Treelord Ancient or Spirit of Durthu - all built with the same kit) and/or some more Kurnothi (and have a unit with just Great Bows and a unit of just Great Swords)  

I did play one final game in the Spearhead League on Sunday, stay tuned for a game report! 

Dragon's Den Games - 30th Anniversary

My FLGS, Dragon's Den Games - in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, is celebrating their 30th Anniversary this weekend! 

And so... there was a sale... 

I feel like I showed considerable restraint... 

The Scots

 Part of these were a unit in my Scottish Highlanders force for The Pikeman's Lament... I guess they still could be... but they're based a bit different now, so... Probably not... 

When I finally got going again on all the other Swashbucklers I'd originally picked up for playing En Garde, I wondered if I had any other "spare" figures that could be cobbled together into a gang... and I didn't really, but I got it in my head that I needed a scottish gang, so... these got rebased like the rest of them, and I painted up a few more to go with them! 

These are the two newly painted ones... 

The whole gang

The Laird Fionnlagh

Elder Niall from the local presbytery

Diarmad, Fionnlagh's chief lieutenant

Leodhas, Fionnlagh's other trusted  lieutenant

Gillbeart the Piper

Tamhas

Peahair

Sandaidh

Aonghas

Coraidh

Will this be a Scottish gang for En Garde...? Or Flashing Steel? 

Or will a few of them become a Scottish Hunting Party in Devilry Afoot!? 

Given my current interests, probably the latter!!

En Garde! - The Blue Crew

 Back to rhyming and not alliterating.. I couldn't call them the Blue Bunch, as I already called another group the Brown Bunch...

This is the last of the miniatures I'd bought to use with En Garde! The Swashbuckling Skirmish Wargames Rules from Osprey Games which I bought EIGHT YEARS AGO when it first came out (both the game and these miniatures...) 

I did not design the gangs based on points or anything... just put them into groups that I thought looked good and went with that!? 

This last bunch, I'd only ever finished two of them, and these other six were just finished up last night! 

The Whole Blue Crew. 

(I really need better names for the gangs...)

Unlike the last few, I didn't bother to try and cost them out with point values and try to cram them all into 100 points for a basic starting warband... Honestly, as I've been finishing them up, I've been thinking of using them with OTHER rules!? Mostly Flashing Steel... but also maybe Devilry Afoot...? 

I did name them all, though... 

François Boullogne - the leader of this band 

Claude Blanche

Marc Rigaud

Jean Lorrain

Pierre Boucher

Edgar Mignard

Henri Le Brun

Édourad Grandon

And... that's all of them... 

Will I get to PLAYING En Garde!? I have no idea. I do have some other games I do want to try out that may or may not involve some of these swashbucklers...