Quest for the Hidden Vaults - Redux - Blackstone Fortress

Last night, Amanda and I official rebooted our Quest for the Hidden Vaults campaign in Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. We'd started the campaign back in February - to learn the game. WE played a second game a couple weeks later - continuing the campaign - but really just playing for some more practice before running it at ToonCon. We decided we should just reboot it after that - have a fresh start, now that we know how to play the game. WE actually started the other day with Light in the Dark - a prequel scenario, involving Thaddeus the Purifier and Pious Vorne and their first expedition into the Fortress BEFORE the events of the Quest for the Hidden Vault.

Light in the Dark proved valuable as, not only did they gain the Blessed Aquila artifact - the prize for conquering the Traitor's Fane - they also happened to collect the Secret Coordinates - Espern Locarno's Secret Agenda!

It took us a bit of time to get started - both the kids were trying to organize online things - at the same time - that involved figuring out new technologies (to us!) and downloading and installing new web browsers and programs and such...



Some of Keira's dance instructors tried to organize an online practice for a bunch of the girls that come to the same classes that Keira attends on Tuesday evening. They seem to be suffering under the delusion that this pandemic will all be over in "a couple weeks" and that they still might get to go to the competition that was supposed to be in a couple weeks to June... I just don't see it, but it was a chance for them all to connect and dance... together... in their own homes...

Part way through the old computer she was using somehow dropped the connection... and we had to interrupt our game and try and shuffle things around and get the newer computer set up and turned about so she could catch the tail end of the class... but after much fussing around, we just couldn't get them back on...

There were tears.



Finnegan usually plays D&D on alternating Tuesday evenings - and this was D&D week... so Amanda got him set up in his room on her laptop and - though it required downloading a new browser to make it work... it did work and he had a great old time!




For this game I decided to play Espern Locarno and the Ratling Twins - Rein and Raus. I like Locarno, he's an interesting character and has a couple of cool abilities. I hadn't tried Rein and Raus, and wanted to give them a go.

Amanda selected Pious Vorne - her new favourite character - and Amallyn Shadowguide.

So... we kind of had TWO long ranger shooty characters...




Our first encounter was a combat over a large spread out series of cavernous areas.



the Hostiles didn't seem TOO bad... three Spindle Drones at Threat Level 0 and four Ur-Ghuls. Ur'Ghuls are nasty - to be sure - but we has some distance and could deal with them...

Pious Vorne went first.



So Amanda had her charge out of the Mag-lev chamber and through two caverns to try and burn the group of three Ur-Ghuls - the ONLY group of three we faced in this first encounter - while they were still a group of three... because her Secret Agenda is to kill three hostiles in a single Cleansing Flame Attack!

She killed two and wounded the third in her first attack... no Secret Agenda accomplished for her.



She finished off the third with a second action and then turned around and set up some flame to block the remaining Ur-Ghul



Everybody else moved out - Shadowguide took a shot at one of the Spindle Drones, wounding it.



At the end of the turn, the Event we rolled was NOT DEAD YET! (or... whatever it is called) and one of the Ur-Ghuls, previously though to be killed, springs up next to a character... Whoopsie!

It looked bad for Vorne, but Rein and Raus went first and killed ONE of the Ur-Ghuls... and then expended ALL of the Destiny Dice trying to kill the second before it went (as it was higher in the initiative order than Vorne)... and failed...

The Ur-Ghul went and rolled Onslaught for it's action - SIX attacks against Vorne! Luckily only ONE hit her and she saved it with a defence roll... and then roasted it with her flamer.

Things were really looking up. Locarno wander off into one oft caverns to collect some Archaeotech, The Ratling Twins wandered into another to do the same. Vorne and Shadowguide went Spindle Drone hunting and collected up Clues from the caverns they started in...

Just as the Ratlings were about to summon the mag-lev chamber....



Another NOT DEAD YET! (or... maybe I rolled reinforcements...?) Whatever it was, ANOTHER Ur-Ghul appeared right next to them and attacked!



And utterly savaged them! No problem, there was only ONE Grievous Wound... They'll be fine in the recovery phase - they'd only die if I rolled a one on the twenty-sided Blackstone Die...



Well fuck...

At that point, since it was getting kind of late and we were one (well TWO) explorer(s) down, we decided to head back to Precipice. Locarno went to his ship the Traveller to try and revive the Ratling Twins all he needed was a 16+ and even got a reroll...



Nope...



So the other two went there as well and tried again...

Nope...

So Rein and Raus are dead.

Well, for now...

The facilities at Traveller can be used any time we are at Precipice and rolling a 16+ (if ever we could!?) brings back a fallen Explorer (which, honestly, I think is a bit silly... but whatever future space magic science says it can happen, so who am I to argue).

In the destiny phase we just got a countdown clock tick, so at at least there's that (things in the balckstone didn't get worse!) but we now have only eleven Expeditions to take down four strongholds and the Hidden Vault!

It's a busy day for everyone today - online work meeting for Amanda in the early afternoon, online D&D game for Finnegan in the later afternoon, volunteer online board meeting for Amanda in the evening... so I don't think we're going to get in another game of Blackstone Fortress today - unless we tried to power through one while Finnegan's playing D&D...? Maybe tomorrow...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Not sure... Probably another Blackstone Fortress game report.

Painting has strangely slowed somewhat... maybe it's the extra games we're playing...? Maybe it's the extra TV we're watching (but watching upstairs on the computer - where I DON'T have a painting statin set up - I do bring some stuff up, but I'm just not getting as much work done...).


How's everyone else doing in this trying time? 

Light in the Dark - Blackstone Fortress

Saturday evening, Amanda and I sat down to play Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. We've decided to reboot our Quest for the Hidden Vaults campaign. But, before we get into that, we decided to play a little prequel scenario from the Blackstone Fortress Annual 2019 - Light in the Dark. The scenario was originally published... which... I also have... but we used the Annual because I had it handy... I was, however, able to locate the Blessed Aquila Ministorum Artefact card that came with the White Dwarf - the prize for successful completion of the scenario.

The scenario involves only TWO explorers - Taddeus the Purifier and his acolyte, Pious Vorne. It represents their first expedition into the fortress - before they met Jainus Drake and the events of the Quest for the Hidden Vault - the objective of the Core Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress box set - and the plot of the novel by Darius Hinks.

I had started reading the novel over a year ago, and didn't finish it and don't remember much... but I feel like Taddeus and Vorne's previous expedition was hinted at - in fact, I think Drake sought them out BECAUSE they'd been in and had knowledge of the whereabouts of the Hidden Vault...?



It was decided that Amanda would play the Explorers and I would just play the Hostiles.

The scenario is set up like a Stronghold Assault - there is a brief "Access Route" of two Exploration Cards (though in the fluff, they are, in fact, trying to FLEE and burn everything they can on the way out!) and then the Traitor's Fane - a combat encounter with a specific set-up and predetermined hostile groups.



The first Exploration Card was a Challenge - but it was set up like a short combat! Thaddeus the Purifier got isolated from Vorne and found himself totally surrounded by hostiles!



Who apparently all had the drop on him! He tried to use the Clarion's Special Support Ability - allowing him to make a free gambit (which would allow him to potentially change his position in the initiative line), but his Agility isn't so great and he failed...



Luckily, TWO of the Ur-Ghuls decided just to lurk in the Dark - The one that DID attack did two wounds to him! The Spindle Drones were a Threat Level Zero and didn't really do anything to him at all...

And then it was Thaddeus' turn...



By the Throne of the Emperor, he is nasty... Took out the Ur-Ghul and two Spindle Drones.



I think he went first in the initiative sequence the following turn and was able to finish off the other two Ur-Ghuls before they were able to activate and utterly shred him!

the Spindle Drones shooting was utterly useless at him, while he was sitting in cover, on the third turn he moved out and blasted the last two to bits...

Reunited with Pious Vorne, the two moved on...



The Mag-Lev delivered them to an area just crawling with Traitor Guard...



Like, ALL the Traitor Guard...



And the Guard had the jump on them...



Half the Guard rushed the pair while the others showered them with (inaccurate) Lasgun fire. The Exlorers survived this initial onslaught... and then it was THEIR turn...



Vorne lit up a bunch of Guard and retreated back into the Mag-Lev... but then Thaddeus led the charge out - feeling that the God-Emperor was on his side, and he had nothing to fear.

At the end of the first round I rolled Changing Conditions for the Event - draw an encounter card and if it has a twist, it applies for the rest of the combat...



for once, the twist was actually AWESOME!



By the end of the second round, all the Guard were down and the Explorers just went around and picked up their loot!



And then made their way to the escape pod.

Too Easy...



In the final encounter Vorne and Thaddeus faced Chaos Beastmen and a Chaos Space Marine (hostiles that aren't normally faced early in the campaign - their hostile cards only get added to the Encounter deck as part of a Legacy card... We were a little fearful of what they might do!



But Vorne and Thaddeus were on fire!



Or, more accurately, they were setting EVERYTHING ELSE on fire!! The Batsmen and their marker were burned on the first - as were a trio of Traitor Guard - in a single activation - which inspired Pious Vorne...



Then for an Event I rolled "Inspiration" and boom... Thaddeus the Purifier was ALSO inspired!



Amanda reading over the Inspired side of Thaddeus' card.



And then they both went first...



Chaos Space Marine was roasted along with the other two objective markers...



And Thaddeus and Vorne made their way out of the Traitor's Fane!



Having successfully conquered the Traitor's Fane - they were awarded the Blessed Aquila. Amanda decided Pious Vorne should have it.



Both stopped in at the Clarion - their ship - and Thaddeus traded some Archaeotech for a Hospitaller Medpack and some Stims.

Next: on with the Quest for the Hidden Vaults! I've added in the Advanced Arsenal and Endless Peril expansions (extra Resource Cards and extra Exploration Cards, respectively). I do hope we can find some time this week to get cracking on that - shouldn't be TOO hard with all of our regularly scheduled activities being cancelled!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Working on more Chaos Space Marines....

Planning to get in more games for Blackstone Fortress...

I had started a post about Q2 plans a couple weeks ago... but that's going to need some revising now!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - Noise Marines and Squats!

The local 40K club (Hunters of the Warp - if you're in or around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) does a little Work-in-Progress Wednesday post each week where everyone shares what they're currently working on. I thought since many of you might be at home and bored and desperately looking for NEW CONTENT on all of your favourite blogs (and this one!) I thought I'd share the pics, that I posted there, as well...

The lighting in my painting space is not... ideal... hence not-so-great photos...



Starting in on the next batch of Noise Marines! Also, OBLITERATORS!

These Noise Marines are ALL METAL! Like, HEAVY METAL!

There is less of a panic rush on these, as I fully expect Battleforce Recon to be cancelled (and if it isn't cancelled, for some reason, I doubt I'll go...)

Last night I also finished assembling the last of the units in the Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines box (so far, the only one I've painted is the Venomcrawler) while watching a couple of episodes of Impulse with Amanda. Still to paint is a Master of Possession, two Greater Possessed, the two Obliterators pictured above, and ten Chaos Space Marines. They all look really fun, but I think I'll wait until all the Noise Marines are done until I seriously get started with painting them.



Another little side project that's been on and off my workbench for a couple months - Squats! Primarily I was thinking they could be used as a Venator "gang" in Necromunda. A Venator gang is basically supposed to represent a group of bounty hunters all ganged up together to go on a hunt - but they have different stat blocks you can choose from - and one of the sets looks remarkably similar to that of Squats - slower move value, toughness of 4, etc.

Three of these are some of the oldest 40K miniatures I've owned - recently stripped of their original paint job. One is from Victoria Miniatures, two are from the Astropolis II Kickstarter and the other five are ones I've picked up on eBay over the years and finally have a purpose for them. I also have 3-4 squat bikers, all from back-in-the-day, that I might paint/repaint (only one of them was ever fully completed, the others have been in a half-painted limbo for nearly 30 years!)

I had thought I'd wait until they were ALL painted before posting them all together with a group along with some extensive background fluff I've been working on... but here they are.

I DO have ANOTHER side project that is partly completed that I'm also waiting to complete ALL of the miniatures for to post together with some even MORE extensive background fluff... that one I WILL wait for. I'll give you some hints though - It's a 40K Kill Team... and it in some way involves some more of the oldest GW figures I have, and some very new ones, and... Blood Bowl... and the destruction of the Old World... How the hell do I tie all THAT together!? Well, you'll just have to wait and see!


In Other News...

We spent a bit of the day yesterday trying to figure out Roll 20 so Finnegan can keep his D&D games going in this era of social distancing. I happened to note that there are Wrath & Glory character sheets available on there...

ALL of the Amanda and the kids activities are cancelled and we're already finding we have a LOT more free time on our hands - I hope this will translate into MORE GAMES being played and more time to post game reports - to entertain all of you stuck at home in quarantine or self-isolation.

What are you all working on?

Getting in any extra games (solo, online, or otherwise)?

Have your kids reached Willing-to-Play-Games-with-Parents-Again levels of boredom? (Mine have!)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably the Noise Marines above completed.

The Squats will probably take longer.

Game Reports of games with the family?

MOAR NOIZ

Well... Most of our extra curricular activities have been cancelled. If I were being totally honest, I am not at all disappointed about this!

A few more Noise Marines rolled off the workbench this weekend. I've been working on these, on and off, for the last few weeks. Most of my hobby time this last week has been spent assembling new models - mostly from the PILE of stuff I bought last week... and I got a little distracted and ended up painting the Venomcrawler!

These are taking a long time - I've been trying to do them all a bit different - Noise Marines are described as wearing " armour painted in various bold colours, as their senses are so distorted that only the most extravagant shades and patterns register to their minds". I also painted a few pieces to look like they were stolen from other marine chapters - either as trophies  or to replace worn/damaged bits - see if you can spot any - some aren't obvious (any yellow could be Imperial Fists, any blue could be Ultramarines) but there are others that can only be from one particular chapter!



Six NEW Noise Marines! These are parts of two different squads. Three of them are newer (but not the newest) plastic GW Chaos Space Marines - they all have Sonic Blasters from Kromlech - and one of them has a back pack from Kromlech as well. The other three are old metal Bile's Enhanced Marines - two have metal sonic blasters from GW and one has a gen-u-ine GW Noise Marine backpack, the other one has a Kromlech Sonic Blaster and two have the Kromlech backpacks.



All of them so far!

I'm sort of trying to do them in bands of five - that can potentially link up into squads of ten.



First Squad - These are all plastic (Except the Champion, D'Snydr, he's SO FUCKING METAL!)



Band #1 - Soroibus Tortus - from left to right; J'Frer, Marcus, D'Snydr, Ajax, and Fingur.

D'Snydr is an old metal GW Noise Marine Champion with Chainsword and Power Claw (Fist?), the rest are plastic GW Chaos Space Marines with the GW finecast Noise Marine Upgrade bits.



Soroibus Tortus backs.



Band #2 - Mortuis-Lac-Hominibus - from left to right; Mundus, Sanguis, Talci, Sinomine, Haec.

These are all GW plastic Chaos Space Marines - two of them have the sonic blasters from the GW finecast Noise Marine Upgrade bits set, the other three have Kromlech Sonic Blasters.



Mortuis-Lac-Hominibus back.



First part of the second Squad (ALL METAL! well... except one) Band #3 - Sabbatum Nigreos - from left to right; Pincermarum, Dios, Ozimandus, Iominus, and Equisolis.

Ozimandus is the ridiculously overpriced plastic Noise Marine that GW released last year - I think as an anniversary of the release the first Noise Marine. The plastic one is an updated sculpt of the original (of which I have one, still to paint!) The rest are old metal Fabius Bile's Enhanced Marines - three have metal sonic weapons from GW (of which, two have a gen-u-ine GW Noise Marine backpacks) the other one has a Kromlech Sonic Blaster (and two have the Kromlech backpacks).



Sabbatum Nigreos backs.


With these I am HALF done - a little more than half, really, because there are a few of the remaining ones that I have partly painted...

They've been fun, if laborious, to paint. I just hope they don't SUCK in the game!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

STILL MORE Noise Marines!!!

Game Reports!?

Probably some Blackstone Fortress... maybe some 40K once I get the last of the Noise Marines done - trying the 1000 point force out against some of the others we have around the house - We had a Drukhari and two Assuryani 1000 point forces we put together for Strange Bedfellows last year. I can easily put together a few different 1000 point Imperial Guard forces. Finnegan has LOADS of Orks... it's just getting those kids to PLAY with me now... mind you, if all their activities are cancelled, there are only so many videos they can watch on YouTube before they get bored, right...?

The idea was to try out my new Chaos forces - to get a bit of practice using them - before Battleforce Recon in April... but I'm feeling like there is a pretty strong possibility that it, too, will be cancelled - or at least postponed. Whatevs... plenty of armies to play against here at home!

Venomcrawler

Last week I picked up a Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines box. I immediately started putting together the Venomcrawler - as it just looked so wicked cool... I think I might try to work it into my force for Battleforce Recon next month by dropping the Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour. I already have a Daemon Prince and a Sorceress... Do I REALLY need a Chaos Lord as well...? Unfortunately I think I'll have to cut 20 points from somewhere else to fit it in...



Venomcrawler.



Lacking Sector Imperialis bases of this size, I tried to make it look like it was picking it's way through rubble strewn streets of an Imperial city, demolished by heavy fighting.



The thing is a Daemon Engine - part machine, part living-daemon-like-thing...?

It's not really THAT heavy of a Heavy Support option - in terms of firepower. It's no tank killer or anything... but it looks wicked cool, so...



I also finished up another Noise Marine - with a Blast Master! This is actually an old metal model - one of Fabius Biles Enhanced Chaos Space Marines with a metal blastmaster.



The Chaos Space Marine force - so far - not including Daemons (other than the Daemon Prince)

The Daemon Prince is currently the leader of the Chaos Space Marine detachment - currently working to build it up to a Battalion Detachment. The Daemons I see as a separate detachment. I guess the Daemon Prince COULD lead them as well, and the Chaos Lord could lead the Space Marines... I guess I'll worry about it if/when I ever play with that much stuff all in one battle (hopefully I'll get back to playing some APOCALYPSE games when the basement's all done! We'll be able to throw down some seriously epic Chaos versus Imperial or Chaos versus Eldar battles when I'm done here...)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably some more Noise Marines.... I really need to try and focus on them.

Could also be more Blackstone Fortress game reports - I am excited about getting back to playing through that campaign.

I also like the idea of getting back into playing Necromunda and/or Kill Team again - and weaving a narrative between those battles... but Blackstone Fortress is easier - it's all there - shuffle deck, draw cards, play battle...

I've also been giving some thought to my 2020 Q2 plans - now that ToonCon 2020 is over - and might be posting those shortly as well...