Thursday, May 5, 2011

Traveller Summer 2011

Starting another d20 Traveller Campaign before I leave here is the backstory


Traveller Campaign Background (Short Version)

                No matter how hard humanity tried we could not get people off the planet fast enough to stem the tide of population growth and industry. Earth became a cesspool of disease and famine as slowly the best and brightest  made their way to the surrounding systems. Shortly after humankind had terraformed our tenth planet, we discovered a system which contained something we never expected to find among the stars: ourselves.
                Instantly a war developed between the Solmani (as we began to call ourselves) and the Vilani. After capturing a Vilani we discovered that they descended from Neanderthals and were taken from our planet by an ancient and now deceased race.  The Vilani had a feudal government and were well spread among over a hundred systems, so at first the Solmani did well. Our slightly less advanced technology was quickly replaced with that of the Vilani and our superior numbers lead to many victories. After taking over 40 systems in only 50 years, the war came to a grinding halt. Our superior numbers were now diminished and due to the time consuming nature of interstellar travel we began to simply trade systems. Armadas would leave to conquer only to find their port of call destroyed in their absence.
It is unclear now who released the virus. The computer virus was like nothing seen before moving from ship to ship and mutating as it went. Some versions of the virus simply opened the airlocks, while others sought to take care of the humans on board.  The virus eventually swept through the major planets of both sides crippling the governments and sending the citizens into a technological Dark Age.
We of the Sword Worlds were fortunate In that we could set up a blockade. Forrest’s point provides a system in which all ships must stop before entering the Sword World systems and the naval base located there destroyed any ships that approached, keeping the diseased ships out. In this way the light of civilization remained lit. The remainder of the Solmani military formed the Reformation Coalition (RC) to control the ships yards, transportation of goods from one system to the next, and act well armed merchant marines and mercenaries. While each of the planets of the Sword Worlds formed their own governments, the RC held much power. 
For 200 years we guarded the point, until finally a ship got through. A group of terrorists attempted to stop the destruction of the ship, but were killed. Using the disease found on the ship, an anti-virus was created. In the past 10 years this anti-virus has allowed veterans of RC service to go past the blockade and explore the remains of the Viliani and Solmani empires. We are the torch bearers seeking to relight the flames of civilization.


and the planets....

Planets of the Sword World

1)       Dnieper  Tech Level 10 estimated population 500 million
This planet was colonized during the war by Russia and China. Due to overpopulation once these countries got Vilani technology they used it to build massive colony ships. These ships held several million people each. Instead of terraforming planets, upon arrival these ships were cannibalized to build climate controlled spires for the population to live in. 200 years after this virus Dnieper contains an estimated half of the total population of the Sword Worlds, but almost none of the resources. Dnieper is a hell hole controlled by gangs and criminals. Few people make it off of Dnieper and those that do rarely go back.
Characters from Dnieper gain -1 edu, +1 con
2)      Masmune Tech Level 12 population 20 million
This planet is mostly water with gravity slightly less than earth. Most electronic industry takes place on Masmune. Masumune is also this base of operations for the Renaku electronics corp, which supplies the RCS with all of its high grade weapons and armor. Culturally this planet is a mix of the United States and Japan. The current chairwoman of the RCS, Hitomi O’Connell hails from Masumune. Masmune is ruled by an elected prime minister.
Characters from Masmune gain +1 Dex and -1 Str
3)      Excalibur  Tech Level 11 population 10 million
This planet is largely agricultural and provides much of the food for the entire sector. The people of Excalibur are salt of the earth and often are considered somewhat backward by those from other planets. Pendragon station orbits Excalibur. Pendragon station is the base of opertations for RCS shipping and ship construction. It was built by the Solmani Navy as a ship yard right before the virus.  Excalibur is a monarchy. Culturally Excalibur is English, Scottish, and Irish.

Characters from Excalibur gain +1 Wis, -1 Soc

Characters born on Pendragon gain +1 Edu, -1 Str





4)      Durandal  Tech Level 11 population 12 million
This planet is highly volcanic with gravity higher than Earth’s. Marines are often recruited from Durandal. This planet is very resource rich in minerals required to build star ships and is the reason the Pendragon station was located in this sector. Little food is grown here and thus food is imported from Excalibur. Durandal is rules by an elected council. Culturally Durandal is German.
                                Characters from Durandal gain +1 Str and -1 Dex
5)      Outward Duchies Tech Level 7-10 estimated population 1 million
If the people of Excalibur are considered backward the people of the Duchies are considered shoeless backward and inbreed. These two systems feature a number of terrformed moons each with their own ruling government. No moon has a population over 100,000 people. These areas can be quite lawless, and those that hail from there are very self reliant.  The Outward Duchies are a melting pot.

Characters from the Outward Duchies gain -2 Soc and +1 Str and +1 Wis

6)      Terran’s Outpost Tech Level 4 (12)
Nathaniel Terran took control of this planet four years ago and re- built a old solomani space port.  It is a good place to buy and sell supplies out in the black. It is also a place to sell goods taken without being taxed by the RCS. Only 500 sword worlder’s live there,  though they work alongside many savages


yea I stole most of it I know....





PanOceania Infinity Figs







Just got these in the mail from my parents. Thanks! Will likely try them out tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Big siege battle

This terrain was made by Alexander. None of the figs are mine but I am playing the blue folk (holding the gap in the wall)

Justin

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?60690-Siege-Battle

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Retribution is at Hand....

I have finally given in and ordered some Retribution of Scyrah. For those of you who don't know these are the elves. They are a mix between the eldar and birthright elves. They are convinced the humans are killing their gods by using magic and are committed to hunting down all human mages and warcasters. I got this stuff in exchange for my 4th edition books.

Here is my 35 pt list

Dawnlord Vyros (warcaster)
Phoenix
Manticore
Hydra

Arcanist
Arcanist

Dawnguard Invictors
UA

Justin

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Menoth vs Khador


Played a game of warmachine on wednesday with Alexander. He kicked my butt but it was the meeting of two mostly painted armies so pictures were needed. It was a bad list match up I brought the weenie killing Severius as my warcaster and he brought non-weenies and weenie immune to fire (Menoths favorite weenie removal system).



Missed the first few turns but this is the initial charge from Khador (All red) Menoth (me red and white)

The Khador reserves

Menoth reserves 

Menoth Bastions vs Khador Men O' War

Khador Spriggin wrecks my Revenger

Not too many Bastions or Men O' War left

Khador die to Severius' spell (this actually should not have happened they were immune to fire)

Oh no! My warcaster within Reach of Beast 09. The template is his melee reach. Somehow the 80 year old man ducked the first shot. He is  nimbly bimbly. 



I try to bring my Vanquisher to umm... vanquish his Beast 09 but it does not pan out. On Alexander's turn he squashes Severius. In the background you can see my knights making a run at his caster. They got shot. 

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Brets vs Beastmen

Played my first campaign game against Beastmen last night. Got beat. Good game though basically my knights won their flank and her Minotaur deathstar won the other. I think at this point I was ahead but instead of running in circles in the corner I choose to go fight. I lined all three of the knight units up for a charge on the bottom of five. She made her charge with a roll of 8 (you now roll for charge distance) on one of my knight units and overan out of the other two units line of sight. My men at arms ran from a unit of ungors with my 4th level mage giving the game to her. We both rolled poorly I think we each made 1 out of 6 ld tests each. My bad luck just came at the end.

Overall now with the brets I am at 4-0-9
the dates are the army book release dates..Brets are 2003

Losses
3 games with lizardmen= 3 losses (2009)
This comes down to the fact that I can't beat the Slann in the magic phase. This guy uses the lore of light to give the temple guard (which are unbreakable due to the presence of the Slann) init 10 and always strikes first. This makes an already awesome unit...better. One game I flanked that unit with two units of knights and still didn't beat it...

2 Games with High Elves (2007)
Teclis beat me here in both games. He is now a just awesome and casts such that you cannot dispell on any roll of doubles.....

1 Game Tomb Kings (2002 New book in May)
This one was a good game. I had never played against or even read the tomb king book.  I should have killed the general... I didn't.

1 game Skaven horde (2009)
We screwed up and I took a terror test I did not have to take that ran two units of my knights and my 4th level mage off the table on turn 2( it should also be noted that my bsb was there so I got to reroll the ld 9 test)..... This was a hard way to learn that accidental charges do not cause terror tests.

Chaos (2008)
Well fought game both rolled poorly. He only failed one ld he... won.

Beastmen
See above

Wins

High Elves= 2 (2007)
I got there... it was bad....

Dwarf gunline=1
I got there... it was bad....

Vampire Counts
His army was actually illegal but I did win handily

So due to 8th edition Cav nerf and my inability to roll dice I don't feel to bad about this record with what is voted to the by 2nd worst army in warhammer atm. Hopefully the brets get a new rule book this summer along with some new plastic units.

Justin

Monday, March 14, 2011

Got Some painting done today

Short post. I finished up my Steelhead cav today. Took a few hours take a look....

P.S. Brets are on a serious losing streak due to a bad rolling trend.... more to come....



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Old School DND

I went on Sunday and played a remake of pre-1st edition dnd with Magnus and some guys. It made me remember what roleplaying is all about. It's not about a fancy rule set... its all about goofing off, drinking some beers, and rolling some dice. I may sell all my 4th ed. stuff. I realized you can do everything you need to do with the old rules.

Also had a warmachine tourney Sunday and the Spokane guys came down and kicked the Boyz asses. We will need revenge. I ran the thing so did not get to play them (though I did play and lost a lot). A turn out of 7 overall and a good time. Maybe I can talk someone else into running the next one.

Hopefully will play Dystopian finally on thursday. Also I am organizing a Warhammer map campaign here are the rules in the current form.


Warhammer Map Campaign DMB 2011 1.1
Requirements to Participate
1)      Be a dues paying member!
2)      Be on the forums
3)      Be willing to come out once a week
4)      Have 2,000 points of figures for warhammer fantasy

Background
Since the great battle of several years ago the island of Albion had been covered in mist. It was on an autumn day in the Imperial year 2554 that the great comet fell onto the world. Each of the great powers were instantly notified as all the powerful wizards of the land howled in pain as the winds of magic swept through them. In an effort get to the comet, each nation sent scouts to the location described to them by their mages. In turn each scouting party returned with news of the great comet, which consisted only of meteoric iron and warpstone. Quickly each nation mustered their forces and went to the now revealed island of Albion to do battle once more. Alliances were swiftly formed, as each nation did not want to see this source of great power in the hands of their allies, but could not fathom the catastrophe it would be if it fell to their enemies.
The campaign starts as each force makes landfall on the island of Albion…..

Making Teams
Due to the number of players this campaign it will be team based. The first step in starting the campaign is assigning teams. A sign up sheet will be up in the club house with one side labeled forces of order and the other labeled forces of disorder.
Army
Which side they may fight on
Beastmen
Disorder
Bretonnians
Order
Daemons
Disorder
Dark Elves
Disorder
Dwarfs
Either (note this represents dwarfs and chaos dwarfs)
High Elves
Order
Lizardmen
Either
Ogre Kingdoms
Either
Orcs and Goblins
Disorder
Skaven
Disorder
The Empire
Order
Tomb Kings
Either
Vampire Counts
Disorder
Warriors of Chaos
Disorder
Wood Elves
Order

Players should sign up for the team they have to/wish to join. If there is an uneven number of players armies which may fight for either side will be rearranged until the two sides are even. If there is still an uneven number some players will get multiple armies in the campaign. A Team captain will be elected through votes, bribery, or a fist fight in the parking lot. 

Setting up the Board
This campaign will utilize one copy of Mighty Empires therefore there will be 48 hexes. These hexes will be placed randomly in a shape which is 6 hexes tall and 8 hexes wide. On the bottom of the map a city will be placed on the tiles 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th from the left. On the top of the map city tokens will be placed on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th tiles from the right. In each of the four rows not containing cities (camps) place 2 castle tokens randomly. To do this roll an 8 sided die and number the tiles from left to right. Thus, if a 1 is rolled the castle goes in the hex furthest to the left. Having randomly placed the castle tokens, board set up is complete.


Definition of Pieces
City tokens- City tokens are used in this campaign to represent camped armies on the edge of the island. These act as spawn points and objectives during the campaign. If either side loses three of their four camps the game is over. A camp is removed from the game if at any point only an enemy army is present. If there is a battle going on at the camp players may not respawn their army at that camp.
Armies- These will be represented by a personalized flag (or figure which can be adhered to the board). This is a player’s force. Armies may move two spaces during an owning player’s team’s turn. A player will only ever have one army(unless someone drops out). A player’s army may not move through a hex with only an enemy army or multiple enemy armies in it. A player may, however, move through a hex where there are more friendly armies than enemy armies or an equal number of friendly armies and enemy armies. When two or more opposing armies end their turn in the same hex they fight. All armies are 2000pts and selected following all army organization rules found in the 8th edition rulebook.
Castle Tokens- Castle tokens represent ruins. If a battle is fought in a hex with a ruin the winning player gets a free magic item of 50 points or less (this is explained in the post battle sequence below).

Deploying Forces
Roll a die per team. The team with the higher score (reroll ties) may choose to deploy first and go first or deploy second and go second. The team which has been chosen to set up first, selects either the upper four camps or the lower four camps and places all of their player’s armies on the table ( in the manner described below). Then the second team places all of their armies on the map. If any player is not present the team captain places their army. If a player places an army in an incorrect hex the team captain must fix it.
During initial set up armies for each team must begin the game anywhere within 3 hexes of one of their team’s camp. Initial set up is the only time when armies are spawned anywhere but a camp. The team selected to go first then takes the first turn. The team has a week from the completion of the set up to move their pieces and fight their battles (explained below). Each army represents a 2,000pt list. This list can only change when you lose or through gaining honors and magic items.

Taking a Turn
A team’s turn will go from Thursday to Thursday. Each player on the team who’s turn it is may move their army two hexes as per the moving rules, considering both enemy armies and terrain. If an army stops in a space containing more enemy armies than allied armies the moving player must select one of those armies to fight. A game of Warhammer is played as per the eighth edition rules.


Fighting a Battle
The battle is fought using the pitched battle scenario with random terrain available from the club. The players may select another scenario as long as both players mutually agree on one. If the battle cannot be fought during the week (due to stupid real life stuff) then there or a couple options
1)      Another player from the team may take the position of their teammate on the 2nd Thursday (so the player must have missed the first Thursday and Friday note this will be the same day the other team begins moving).  Note if the replacing team member loses, their army does not lose its honors, the army of the player who was supposed to play the game originally does instead.
2)      If neither player shows up the two armies just stay in place.

If one player fails to show up for a long time their team captain will ask them if they want to continue to play. If they do not, another player on the same team will field two army lists represented by two different army pieces.

Post Battle
The Losing army- The army that lost(even if it lost by a single victory point) immediately selects one of their team's camps and places their army in that hex. This army may move normally on the next turn. This player can then completely rebuild their army list. This player loses all of their accumulated honors and magic items.
The Winning army- The army that won gains an honor. To determine which honor they gain roll on the chart below. If the battle was fought at a ruin (represented by the castles) the winning player also selects magic item up to 50pts in value. This magic item may take a character or unit above the point value of magic items it/they are allowed to have, though all other restrictions apply. The only other exception is that ANY unit with a standard bearer may take a magic banner even if they are not typically allowed. The winning player also, of course, gets to maintain their position and must continue with the same army list.

Honors (roll a d6) Each Character/Unit may only have one honor each
1-3   Character  advancement-pick a character and  roll a further d6          
1-+1 Ld (if 10 gain immunity to psychology)
2-+1 WS or +1 Bs
3-+1 S
4- +1 T
5- +1 I
6- +1 W
4-5   Unit advancement- pick a infantry unit
1-2 +1 Ld (if 10 gain immunity to psychology)
3-4 -+1 WS or +1 Bs
5-6 +1S or +1 T
6   Pick a Wizard to gain a level or get a free 1st level wizard (this can allow a wizard to gain level 5!)


Terrain
Open ground and rivers- are just aesthetic and may be moved through at a cost of 1
Mountains- cost 2 movement hexes to move through.

Special Characters
Take as many special characters as can legally be taken, however, if during any battle they lose all of their wounds or do not end the game on the table, they are dead. They can never be taken again by that player. If you win a game in which one of your special characters die, you may spend those points on something else, as long as your army still meets the army building requirements. 

I didn’t get to play this round
If a player’s army is not in contact with any enemy army. The game-less player may play a 2,000 point game with anyone (this person does not even have to be in the campaign) If the player wins they get a honor, if they lose there is not effect. If the player who randomly plays the game-less player loses there is no effect on their army. It should be noted, that only one game in which a player can gain an honor may be played a week, and this option can only be taken if a player’s army is not touching another army on the map, or if the player they are supposed to play is does not show up. In the event that the game-less player plays a random game and gains a honor, but then their true opponent (the person their army is sitting next to on the map) shows up later the random game, and their earned honor is taken away.

By
Justin Williams


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

40k Campaign

James has been running a 40k escalation campaign and I took this as an opprutuniy to field Deamonhunters one last time before the book. The idea was not to bring your A army so I stayed away from a pure guard force. I decided to go with a radical inquisitor (one that uses deamons and cannot take grey knights) I really feel this is an underdeveloped concept but is fun to play. The only real unit you get is the really random deamon hosts. My first game was against Alexander playing choas. He had a mean list with a demon prince and two rhino mounted chaos marine squads at 500. I had two units of storm troopers, my inquisitor and a single demonhost. He beat me pretty bad despite the fact that I managed to kill the prince on the bottom of turn 1 in a single round of shooting. He stormed the building my whole army was in and just slowly ate me up in close combat a fun game though. Here is the fluff he wrote.


Results for Alexander vs Justin
Alexander = 4 vps, Justin = 1 vp

Temeluchus coalesced his essence from the pain, death and hate scattered around the landscape below. That his form erupted violently from one of his loyal followers did not register in his mind. There was only one concern to feed. The daemon was young, in there eternal sense, and had few chance to reap destruction on the material plane. Temeluchus had missed the great war that had ravaged this planet, but bidden by the only mortal who could command such forces, Temeluchus had now come.

He stood, for Temeluchus still thought of itself as male, amongst a score of the Black Legion. They were awed and fearful of his presence. It begins. The psionic though reverberated through their bones and the Black Legion roared their approval.

The rhinos barreled through the diseased and decayed landscape while Temeluchus kept pace on leathery wings. He could taste blood and fear ahead of them in a small ruined building. Men awaited them, small insignificant and tasty manflesh. As bolter rounds and las-shots erupted from the building Temeluchus tickled the fabric of reality and drew forth a score of men, who were terrified to find themselves in the path of a Rhino and the doorstep of a daemon. Temeluchus never got to savor their flesh.

Explosions rippled his body and penetrated his flesh, thrown mercilessly from servitor drones on the roof. He snarled in anger, then fear. Slick and silvery he felt the penetrating blasts of a psi-cannon. Temeluchus opened his mouth in rage as he tasted the Inquisitors scent and something else - the pathetic taste of a lessor daemon, diminished more by its shame and defeat. His body dissolved into the immaterium but he stayed close and watched.

His marines crashed into the human line. The men lashed outside by his sorcerous abilities were slain quickly by the troops from one Rhino while the other Rhino plowed into the ruins. Temeluches watched as a pathetic Bloodletter charged his marines. Some how this little worm was kept by the humans, no matter though as it was killed without much of a fight. Perhaps it welcomed death, thugh Temeluches knew that would bring little relief. 

The humans were no match for the twisted Black Legion. Bolter rounds and melta-blast left scant remains behind and the Black Legion scaled their way to the roof and surrounded the inquisitor. The man fought in a way his kind would have called valiant, and just before he was overwhelmed the man initiated a teleporter beacon with a bloody hand. And vanished. The marines set about to catching the few wounded men still alive. Temeluchus smiled, he would have a new body soon.

My second game was against a rather new Necron player. He had 2 units of warriors a lord and two destroyers. I added a platoon of guard with my 250pts. This scenario was a single objective with missile falling in randomly. Neither of us took any causalities from the  missiles. I stood at shot most of the game. By turn 2 I had beaten on whole unit of warriors and killed them completely so that they could not come back. He then attempted to deep strike near my units (Necrons can teleport from the field and back on) suffered a mishap and lost the whole unit causing a phase out. For winning I got two veteran abilities and
 50 extra points in the next game. 
  

Here is my fluff followed by my list for game three. 

Background and Battle Report 



Nathanial Forrest of the 2nd Rimrock stood on a plateau overlooking the edge of the city, watching as his men picked through the city looking for any remains the Necrons may have left behind. He never understood the Necrons and it bothered him, appearing without warning and leaving the same way. If one failed to consider the gauss burns on the buildings and the dead, you could miss the evidence for an attack all together. Nathanial had not been there for the fight, being relegated to logistics by the Inquisitor that currently stood beside him. It bothered him that his men had gone to battle without him, but Lt. Farringhay had done his job, as Forrest had trained him to do, and few of his were among the dead.  Promoted grizzled sergeants always made the best platoon commanders; those pieces of shit nobles the Schola assigned to him were not worth a damn and usually got their head blown off in the first fight. 
*****



Lord Von Strauberg stood beside the Imperial officer surveying the city after the battle. He didn't like Captain Forrest at all. He was the kind of Imperial Officer Von Strauberg abhorred. Not willing to sacrifice his men for Emperor and confident instead of faithful. Von Strauberg looked at the man and Forrest met his gaze. Most men would not meet the gaze of Inquisitor and if they dared do so would be convulsing in fear, this man was rigidly still and the only detectable movement was made by this cybernetic arm which loaded his favored shotgun. It was as if Forrest's arm had done the action so many times it was automatic. Forrest may have not even consciously realized he was doing it. Von Strauberg looked away from the officer, his eye drawn by a slight glint of metal moving down one of the streets. Moments later a line of ferals emerged moving quickly down the city sidewalks. Has his eyes focused he realized that had no firearms and lacked the imperial insignia.
*****
“The cavalry has arrived”, Nathanial said a half smile creeping across his scarred face.
“Whatever do you mean Captain?”
“Those primitive screwheads watched the whole fight. I saw them on the lifescan ‘board my Valk.”
“ And you failed to warn me!”
“ Didn’t think it was important at the time M’lord... ‘sides you seemed a mite busy shootin the ‘Crons” Nathanial responded butchering proper etiquette.
“Ferals are intolerable... no fear of the Emperor. Call your men and order them to take firing positions”
“Firing positions? We beat the stargods. 10-1 they are headin in to join up and it just so happens a have a few explosive tipped lances we liberated from Bosun V.”
“Liberated. Do you mean....... stole…. Captain?”
“No M’lord we were jus keepin’ safe ‘till we encountered a unit that needed im.”

******
Captain Forrest watched as Serg. Johnson handed out the lances to the first of the primitives. Immediately upon receiving the lance one of the youngest knights charged off into the distance and speared a tree. The charge exploded and all that remained of the tree and the knight was the back end of a horse and 2 burned carbon shells. This might require more training that Capt. Forrest thought….

Daemonhunters for Campaign

Deamonhunter List
Lord Inquisitor, Von Strauberg
Psycannon, Power weapon, auspex
Retinue
3 gun servitors with heavy bolters 3 Acolyte w/Carapace and bolters, Calculus Logi, 1 Mystic, 235pts

10 Inquistorial Storm Troopers
2 melta guns
120pts

10 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers
2 Plasma guns
120pts

Deamonhost
85pts




Inducted Platoon
Platoon Command
Vox  Autcannon
45pts

Inf 1
Lasercannon vox
70pts

Inf 2
Missile Launcher vox
65pts

Inf 3
Lasercannon vox
70pts

Platoon 2
Command
Vox
40pts
Inf 1
 Vox Heavy Bolter
65pts
Inf 2
Heavy Bolter vox
65pts

6 Feral Recruits (Rough Riders) (yes these are my bretonnian knights if you want to know why read King David's space ship)
70pts

1050pts