Week 4 was the downtime week where the gangs have arrived in Ashgrad and they had to pick which townsfolk they wanted to take a mission from.
Since we had 5 townsfolk with 5 different scenarios possible but only 6 players so only 3 games we had to choose which scenario somehow.
I came up with the idea of everyone rolling 3d6 and the highest roll picks a townsfolk and there scenario. The next highest roll picks either a different townsfolk or decides to be play the scenario the highest roller took. Once 3 scenarios are chosen the remaining players have to pick one of the three to play. We keep doing that until all three games are figured out.
Here are the rules we used for week 4:
I rolled a 6 for weather which meant Nate, Ty, Chuck and myself were going to suffer.
We ended up with the following 3 games:
Jacob and Mike played the Forgotten Riches Scenario.
Ty and Nate played the Target Practise Scenario.
Myself and Chuck played the Fuel Hunt Scenario.
The games were a mixed bag I think.
Forgotten Riches is a strange old scenario that uses the old N17 tiles and may not be suitable for certain gangs. I had to add rewards to it also since it didn't come with any as it was originally written.
Target Practise combined with the weather meant that the scenario ended too soon for either player to score enough points to win so it was a draw and no one got any money. That was not what I had hoped would happen for that scenario.
The game I played with Chuck worked pretty well. I actually liked the addition of the weather effects on this game and if I had been paying closer attention I could been using my gutterforged cloak to make saves every turn as Chuck was doing with his special rules the Nomads get.
Over all it was a good evening of Necromunda, and I think with some tweaks it could have been just that bit more fun for everyone.
Necromunda is a very complex game that is hard to get right from an Arbitrator perspective but its very rewarding when people come and play and have fun as was the case last night.
A few weeks ago my gaming group had their annual Big Game which has been renamed recently to D-Con.
We've shifted from having one large 40k game in a weekend to having a more convention-like atmosphere.
We still try and get the whole group together but since almost none of us actually play 40k anymore we have decided instead that different members of the group would run games that others could play in.
D-Con is basically an invite-only gaming convention.
I was able to play my first two games of Sludge during the weekend and I took some pictures and a little bit of video. I have recently made a Youtube channel that focuses mainly on Necromunda but I also have a playlist purely for Sludge content.
Here is the video:
Look for more Sludge videos and content into the future.
I have also changed what units I intend to have finished in my army for this weekend's Sludge event.
I am running out of time so I have decided the finished army will have the following units:
- 30 points, Commander, and two bodyguard
- 60 points, Imperial Zouaves - 4 bases with standard and musician and veteran upgrade
- 60 points, Line Infantry - 5 bases with standard and musician
- 60 points, Line Infantry - 5 bases with standard and musician
- 20 points, Chaplain
- 30 points, Imperial Artificer
- 30 points, Imperial Artificer
- 10 points, Arcanist
- 10 points, Arcanist
- 60 points, [Elite] Imperial Crawler
- 20 points, Light Cavalry - 4 bases
- 35 points [Elite, I think?] Field Gun with Veteran Crew
425 points total
Here are the units I have completed:
Chaplain
Gore Tokens
Imperial Crawler
Line Infantry
Imperial Zouaves and a painted cannon in the back.
Entire force so far.
I will do more work on the army tonight and I should have another update before Thursday. Once I get to the venue I will take some pictures of the other armies and of the battlefields and share them here. I also want to make some video and maybe either a battle report on the blog or a video battle report or both.
Next weekend my gaming group will get together for our annual Big Game. We've modified the format over the years to be more of a con-style event with members of the group running different games throughout the weekend.
This year I plan on playing 4 different games. On Thursday I will start with Sludge which I will go into more detail below. On Friday I intend to play Warhammer 30k: Age of Darkness and possibly Necromunda. On Saturday again 30k and/or Necromunda. On Friday and Saturday evening probably after 9pm I will be running Heroquest.
So of the above games I am sure that most of my readers have heard of everything except maybe Sludge.
Sludge is a fantasy wargame set on Yggdrasil; The World Tree. It is a decaying world where branches of the tree have been broken by the overuse of Magic. The factions of Sludge are stuck in a strange technological world of Black Powder and Magic.
Sean Sutter is the creator of Sludge. He also designed Relicblade and I am sure other games I am unaware of.
The current way to get the rules is in two magazines; Blaster Vol 3 and Blaster Vol 4. These magazines have rules for multiple games by may different designers in them. You can get either physical or PDF versions of these magazines on DriveThruRPG (www.drivethrurpg.com).
Blaster Vol. 3 has the rules for the game including scenarios and an army list that has units any faction can use. Blaster Vol. 4 has faction-specific units and some background on the 4 major factions.
One of the really cool things about Sludge is that while Sean has sculpted and sold some miniatures for the game it really is a miniature-agnostic system. He suggests using historical minis and kit-bashing the factions.
I have been working on building a Basilisk Empire faction. I have a decent amount of minis assembled and base-coated white. I also got one unit done and I am working on a second unit.
Here was my recent haul from a game store to begin building the army:
The boxes above included enough models for many many units.
The above were assembled from the boxes I bought at the store minus the one GW fig.
Light Cavalry assembled from the Victrix Bag and the Artillery Box.
The tank kit is from a Chibi-styled WWII tank model kit range.
Painted Imperial Zouaves made from the Austrian Hessians box set.
I will update this blog as I get more models painted and I hope to have 300 points ready by next week's events. I also want to document the games I play next week in pictures and hopefully get some video also.
This is part two of my report on Ash Wastes Weekend.
We started playing the games on Friday and I played two games.
The first game was for the Near Wastes road section Klassmar's Choice. The battlefield conditions were rocky fields. This limited my movement of my vehicles when off the road. I was able to utilize the road that ran through the board for the Boom Wagon but my bikes and Wolf quad had to off-road it the whole way and luckily they were pretty fast moving.
The Scenario was the Cargo Run. This is a rolling roads scenario which was a great way to kick off the Ash Wastes gaming! I was the defender and had the Cargo on the Boom Wagon. I felt pretty confidant with this decision since the Boom Wagon was so tough.
The gang that was chasing me through the wastes was an Enforcer gang with a Cargo-9 Ridge Hauler! I know they would out gun me and and out class pretty much all of my gang but I figured if I could just out run them then it wouldn't matter.
Here are some pictures from the game:
Deployment - He was ready to hit me hard right away on turn one.
Things didn't go his way when I shot his leader with an auto pistol which pinned him and then he failed his initiative check and fell off the Ridge Hauler! He hit the ground and took a wound! The Boom Wagon was fitted with Wheel Scythes so I then proceeded to roll right over him and do a second wound which knocked him out of action! Almost everything went my way in this game.
Every turn I moved the Boom Wagon as fast as I could and I began to put some
distance between the Enforcers and my gang.
As the roads roll on I turn a corner to make sure I can still move as fast as I can.
At the end of the game I had easily out run the Cargo-8 and won the game.
I won the mission and had no serious lasting injuries except that Striekker the Wolf Quad lost one HP because of a Damaged Frame. Sprog and Nixxo went Out Cold.
I very fun mission and one I want to play again. I think playing it on a 6 foot by 4 foot table was the correct size also.
I unfortunately didn't record what the scenario was for game two or take any pictures but I know it was against a very nicely painted Squat Propectors gang and I won barely. I won the Khimerix Caves road section.
Scenario three was on Saturday and I video taped it. I played against the Van Saar and had a great game. It was the Fuel Hunt scenario.
I would like to announce a new YouTube Channel I have started called JD in the Sump Sea. I have two videos up right now and I am working on a third. The second video I uploaded was the Ash Wastes Weekend battle report of my game three.
You can watch the video here:
After Game three I was feeling pretty good. I had won all three games I had played and went into the Downtime getting 250 credits thinking about what upgrades I wanted.
I decided it was time to add a Mining Laser to my Wolf Quad and an Ablative Overlay for the Toe Stubber. I also bought Smoke Launchers and Extra Armor for the Boom Wagon.
I also acquired one Hired Gun, a Proxy. He would allow me to acquire equipment from the Trading Post easier since I was an outlaw gang I can't normally buy stuff from the Trading Post easily.
Coming out of the break I felt really good about my gang. Then I played an Orlock gang, one that really knew what they were doing.
We played the Incoming Storm scenario for the Beast Run road section.
Here is the deployment.
My right flank.
My optimistic left flank.
Orlock Deployment.
Things go well on one flank.
And not so well on the other.
I again had high hopes going up to get better angles for shooting.
I also moved to the center of the board to line up assaults.
The end result was most of my gang going out of action.
I lost this mission. I also had to write off the Wolf Quad right after buying it a mining laser. The Night Rider goes into Recovery after going to the Doc and Sprog also goes into recovery.
A tough game for sure but not the end of the world. I still had a sizeable chunk of my gang including the Boom Wagon and the Toe Stubber ready to go for the next mission.
Game 5 was a two v two game on a 6 x 4 foot board. I can't remember the exact details other than the floor was basically lava and it was a Fuel Hunt scenario. It was very deadly to infantry and vehicles alike. My first turn was a blood bath.
Every single ganger who moved on the ground of mine went out of action.
It was fairly long and not very interesting although the guys I played with were great and two of them were new to me. I just wish the floor wasn't lava. I think this may be an issue in the Ash Wastes campaign that I will look at when I run mine.
Here are some pics of the game:
Mike and I ended up losing to the two Ash Wastes Nomad gangs. We all got XP still and rep but I had several guys in Recovery after this.
That was the end of Saturday's gaming and then on Sunday we had just one more game to play.
Game 6 was Looters. I can't remember which road section we were fighting over and I only took one picture but it was a pretty cool picture since it shows the Boom Wagon ramming the other gang's vehicle on a bridge.
I love the terrain on this table! I think the purple of the water is awesome, the play mat looks great the rusted metal on the habs and bridge contrast well with the orange hills; it's all fantastic!
I lost this game as well. I started off so well by winning the first three games but then lost the last three.
I still had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
They had a panel of three judges come in and judge the gangs based on painting and theme and other things and I actually won the theme prize!
I won a cool framed picture of a Delaque!
I was quite surprised by the number of Outcast gangs but I was also encouraged by it because they are the most flavorful of all gangs in my opinion and it shows that most people are interested in story and theme than simply playing to win.
I hope you all enjoyed this report.
Stay tuned for more gaming blogging but until then......
