Conan- In the clutches of the Picts

I finally got to play Conan with friends. This is a scenario-driven cinematic romp where the goodies have a character each and the Overlord runs all the big bad guys and their minions. You have a pool of fatigue crystals you can allocate to actions to make them more powerful, but then you're more likely to become exhausted and at the mercy of the evil ones...

Conan and his buddies Hadrathus (warlock) and Shevatas (agile thief, played by yours truly) have tracked a kidnapped princess to a Pictish village. To win, we had to break into the village, find which hut the princess was in, kill the Pict shaman, and get out with the princess and the shaman's head. Piece of cake.

Conan charged into the village, smashing through the wall of the first hut, where, to his delight, he found the princess- but she was guarded by a gigantic snake!

Hello, princess, hello, snake!

 Shevatas snuck into the shaman's hut and 'liberated' a gigantic crossbow.

Shevatas (bottom right) uses the confusion to his material advantage.

Shevatas emerged from the hut and shot and killed the shaman with his own crossbow. Meanwhile, Conan and the snake continued their deadly dance.

"Take that, evildoer!"

 With time slipping away, Conan finally overcame the snake and barged out of the hut...

Conan finally slays the snake, by Crom!

 ... but became swarmed by Picts who took advantage of the grievous wounds the snake had already inflicted. Conan falls at their savage feet.

Picts smash Conan real good, hur hur.

Hadrathus called down an epic lightning bolt onto the picts, leaving them smoking corpses and the princess conveniently unharmed. To ensure escape, Shevatas dropped all his equipment, scooped up the princess, and bolted out of the village to victory!

I was worried when we found the princess very early that this would be a walkover. However, we quickly became fatigued and struggled to make it. I was lucky to find the powerful crossbow, which really helped. The giant snake was very tough and really sucked up a lot of Conan's actions. It truly came down to a few key dice rolls at the very end of the game as we won, but had to leave Conan's body and all our equipment behind!

It was good fun, and bodes well for the Batman game I've crowdfunded which is the same company with the same mechanics.

Crom!

Blood Bowl- Blue Dragon Cup 2018

I found myself in Sydney last week, and was pleasantly surprised to find there was a Blood Bowl tournament on in the heart of the CBD- the 2018 Blue Dragon Cup.

Details: One day, resurrection, 115kgp, 4 games.

At short notice, I was able to borrow a team from my old friend Vimes, his Japan-themed Bretonnians. I called them 'The Knights who say Nippon'*. I took four Knights, four Yeomen, and four Peasants with three rerolls.

Game 1- Vimes' Khorne

My first match was against Vimes himself, who was playing his 26th different team- a challenge I hope to meet myself soon. The Khorne Flakes beat me 2-1 and also 2-0 casualties.

Knights blunt the Flakes' offense

Game 2- Cullen's Dark Elves

I beat Cullen last year and this time he exacted his revenge. I couldn't get anything right against his  drow, and lost 3-0.

Knights push on the right wide zone

Game 3- Peakie's Nurgle

This was a great game against Peakie's Nurgle team, The Things That Should Not Be. He'd borrowed his team from Vimes as well. It was a real tussle, which I won 1-0. We both had great fun.

TTTSNB block the Knights' attack 

Game 4- James' Dwarves

This was a beautifully painted Dwarf team, the Kazak-a-Karak Krakens. I was one touchdown up at the end of the first half, but I had suffered badly with casualties and struggled to stay in the game in the second half. I was lucky to hold him off to a 1-1 draw, despite losing the casualties 6-1.

Knights smash into the Krakens' line

Overall, I came 7th of 12- better than I had anticipated. It was a great way to spend a damp Saturday, playing games and seeing old friends.

* And I was very chuffed to come up with this on the spot.

Genestealer Cult: Specialist Neophytes

I painted some more hybrids to go with my shotgunners for potential Necromunda shenanigans.

Nothing says 'Necromunda gang' like a heavy stubber, and I was really happy with this hybrid in his Bane mask. I added a few cartridges on the ground out of plastic rod.

Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid with Heavy Stubber

This hybrid will be my leader. I have a weak spot for chainswords with hazard stripes, because health and safety.

Genestealer Cult Gang Leader

I love template weapons because I don’t have to roll to hit. This specialist with a flamer carries a spare orange fuel canister on his back.

Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid with Flamer

I gave this guy a seismic cannon, which I like to think is a nod to the Rogue Trader/ Confrontation D-cannon. It jiggles you to death at a subatomic level.

Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid with Seismic Cannon

Mansions of Madness: Sanctum of Twilight

I picked up another expansion for MoM recently- it came with four figures that were quick and fun to paint.

Charlie Kane is the avuncular, charismatic, and helpful politician.  Modern popular culture teaches you not to trust politicians, but he is the exception and decidedly a Good Guy. He's is a very useful figure for all sorts of games.

Charlie Kane

Lily Chen is ready to crane-kick those eldritch horrors right between their squamous rugosities. She gets bonuses for being unarmed. Her traditional dress ended up being more orange than I had intended. Reds, yellows, and oranges are the hardest colours- I think I'm getting better at yellow.

Lily Chen

The Wraiths can shift through walls. I rebased them on Renedra 40mm rounds.

Wraiths

I've had a few games of MoM recently, which have been fun. We actually won!