Pirates?!

 Mark and I popped across to Kirstie to play a 3-way IHMN Gothic game in her spanking new harbour set-up. She must have had the 3-D printer running overtime for this lot, but it looks great.

The locals were getting fed up with the Navy press ganging their men and generally getting in the way of business (smuggling). They were all set for a showdown on the quayside when a ship-load of undead pirates showed up!

A lot of fun and a narrow win for Mark with the Royal Navy.

Gothic Horror Bloodbath in Venice

 I recently ran a 4-player Gothic Horror game set in Venice, it was nice to get my canals out again. It took my newest faction, the Hungarian Fellowship (werewolf hunters), also playing was the Vatican Cognoscenti, a group of Puritan Witchfinders and a pack of werewolves. A talisman of great power was on a mysticly propelled gondola, travelling down the canals of Venive. The objective was to have conrol of the talisman, by having one of your characters on the gondola when it left from the far end of the table.

The game was great fun if a little confused at times (3-way melees!). Here's a few shots of some of the action.

The intitial set-up.

Some of my Hungarians cross a bridge, keeping pace with the moving gondola.

Whilst others form a rearguard to prevent the werewolves from crossing to their side.

One werewolf makes and early bid for the talisman, jumping onto the gondola in the first round, but my crossbowman takes him down with a silvered crossbow bolt!

A brave Vatican axeman attempts to prevent the Loup Garrou from crossing a bridge, it did not end well!

Werewolves, aided by a demonic wolf, charge into the Papal Cognoscenti.

Further down the canal, one of the Witchfinder's musketeers and a Vatican crossbowmen wait for the gondola.

The Papal Legate defies the demonic wolf with his blessed sword...oh, it breathes fire!!!

A second werewolf jumps onto the gondola, but my deadeye crossbowman strikes again! Two werewolves with 2 shots, he is on form today!

A confused melee breaks out as the gondola serinly drifts by!

Another view of the fight on the bridge.

My Hungarian Fellowship clear away the Papal troops from the bridge and one of my men leaps onto the gondola. Almost home and dry!

Unfortunatly, as he passed under the last bridge he was shot by one one of the Witchfinder's musketeers and the Witchfinder leapt onto the gondola in the final turn before it drifted off the end of the table.

Cowboys and Zombies! My next Kickstarter finally arrives.

 I finally took delivery of one of the kickstarters I backed in 2020. Covid and other problems caused delays, but it's finally here. Zombicide - Undead or Alive from CMON. 

I have never played va Zombiecide game, but heard good things about them. But let's face it, I bought into this for the minis! I already had a few Zombicide figures in my collection, from their medieval game, but these were cowboys...and zombies....COWBOY ZOMBIES!!!

Unfortunatly I don't have much time this week (isn't that always the way?), so I have had to content myself with a quick unwrap and scan the contents, to be investigated in depth at a later date. At first glance I am not disappointed by the figures. 

The survivor characters are great. As well as zombie games, quite a few will fit in with my conventional wild west gunfight games. I can also see a couple of new IHMN companies emerging from this lot! Several of the zombies are obviously western, but some will pass for generic victorian, so will fit in elsewhere as well.

Anyway, as I said, time is short, so here are my first pics. enjoy.

Big Trouble in Little Happnin - More Gothic Horror

 Colin came over for a day's gaming recently, which gave time for a couple of games of 17th century IHMN. Thje first game pitted my Vatican Vampire Hunters against my Noble Vampire clan. My Vampire Count getting hit in the head by a slivered crossbow bolt in the first move, then failling both his Pluck and Hero tests set the tone for this game. Combined with Colin's inability to fail his pluck tests when I did hit him, it was a rapid walk over for the Vatican's finest!

After lunch Colin set up his Witchfinders for a go. As he still had not finalised his list for his Witches Coven, I took mt Vampires once again. The Witchfinders had taken on my Werewolf Pack a few weeks ago and been slaughtered, mainly due to the fact his followers only had mundane weapons. I suggested he lost a musketman from the list, which gave him the pints to equip his sergeant and remaining 4 musketmen with either silver shot or a silvered sidearm each. Me AND MY BIG MOUTH!

Scenario:

The previous party of Witchfinders had been carrying a relic to the church where they had been attacked by the Werewolves. The Werewolves were unaware of the relic so had left it behind. The second group of Witchfinders had been despatched to retrieve the relic and complete it's return to the church. The Vampires wanted to get the relic for themselves, so that they could carry out some diabolical ritual of their own in the church.

There were five points along the central road that needed to be searched, one contained the relic. Once found it needed to be taken into the church to win the game.

The peaceful village of Little Happnin, blissfully unaware of what was to follow!

The Vampire count moves forward on one side of the table.

A Vampire Bride moves towards the central crossroads...

...then changes to her incorporeal form, making her harder to hit with most weapons (but vulnerable to Holy Water and Blessed weapons).

The two ghoastly wolves rush forward reaching two of the objectives in their first move (they are fast!).

Unfortunately neither of them held the relic, but kept quiet about that, not wanting to tip Colin off.

The other Vampire Bride and her enthralled bodyguard take shelter behind the church to avoid the musketeers.

Things are looking good for the vampires. The count (in his incorporeal form) has just killed the Witchfinder's apprentice and in the backgrouns one of the brides has just finished off a musketeer.

In the confusion an entralled cossack sneaks up and manages to find the relic! He makes a run for the church while everyone is busy fighting.

A frantic melee erupts around the door to the church's door.

At this point things go really frantic and I didn't take any more pictures!

The minions around the Count decided to mod him, led by a musketeer. He rolled a 10, which with the plues for mobbing meant that he hit the Count with his silvered sword. I rolled a 1 to save, then a 2 for his hero reroll.....I needed a 3! That's twice in one day Colin killed the Count with a minion.

Then I lost both brides in quick succession, although I killed all the rest of Colin's soldiers and war dogs. But this left my lone cossack with the relic and the church blocked my Colin's last two survivors. Unfortunatly for me it was the Witchfinder himself and his Captain. He wasn't going to do much against two heros, so we called it there.

Gothic Horror now with Vampires!

 

Having given my new werewolves an outing it was only fair to unleash my vampires! And who better to hunt them down than my Vatican Cognoscenti Vampire Hunters.

Having found the mausoleum to be disturbingly empty, the Cognoscenti move into the graveyard to hunt for the undead. Little did they know that their prey had turnrd from hunted to hunters and was closing in on them.

The view from the Cognoscenti side of the table.

Two ghostly wolves sped through a gap in the graveyard wall, drawing away some of the brethren bodyguards.

As the Cognoscenti move through the graveyard's gateway, the undead fiends are laying in wait!

The Vampires attack from two directions....

....spliting the Cognoscenti's attention.

Leaving the way clear for a entralled cossack guard to strike at the Pontifical Acolyte. Fortynatly his bretheren bodyguard was up to the task of protecting his master.

The Vampire Count envelops his foes in a chilling mist.

 

Outside the church the undead are cut down and banished by the Legate's blessed sword.

The final scene, as the remaining wolf savages one of the bretheren, the Count is surrounded by his enemies and despatched to hell!

Gothic Night of the Werewolves

 Colin and myself have been experimenting with using In Her Majesty's Name 2Ed for 17th century Gothic Horror games and Mark came over the other night to give them a go.

I fielded a Werewolf Pack and Mark took my Imperial Nightwatch Wolfen Hunters. The Nightwatch needed to retrieve a Mystical Item hidden in a tomb in the graveyard, the Werewolves needed to stop them.

The table layout, the Werewolves were gathered inside the mausoleum, the Nightwatch would enter along the opposite edge. 

Mark split his force with the Kapitan and Feldwebel leading spearmen and an archer down the near edge, whilst the Chaplain led the sword and buckler men, supported by an archer and spearman down the road. To deal with the lycanthropes, the officers had Blessed weapons, the arrows and spear had silvered tips. The plan was for the Chaplain to librally sprinkle the Werewolves with Holy Water, rending them vulnerable to the swordsmen's more mundane weapons.

My plan was to delay the Kapitan's advance with a couple of werewolves, whilst eliminating the Chaplain's party first.

The ambush is sprung! The Demonic Wolf goes for the Chaplain, whilst the werewolves occupy his escort.

A fierce melee erupts on the road outside the church.

And the Chaplain is taken down!

Having drawn two spearmen away from the Kapitan's advance, a werewolf despatches one and moves on the the second course!

A view of the table halfway through the game. Most of the Chaplain's party slaughtered, but the pack have lost a werewolf and the Demonic Wolf has also been killed. 

The remains of the Chaplain's escort bravely battle on, but one of their attackers has run back to the graveyard....

...only to be felled by a silvered arrow!

The Kapitan slice-an-dices a werewolf allowing the Feldwebel to search the nearby tomb, but the mystical treasure is not there!

The final scene. The Kapitan is the last man standing and surrounded by the surviving pack. He kills one of the beasts but is ripped apart by the pack leader.

A fun game that was very close until the final two turns, losing both the Feldwebel and the archer in one round of combat had left the Kapitan very exposed. I had tweaked the lists after Mark and I had played these forces previously and in two games the Nightwatch had walked it with hardly a loss. We both felt they were now much more balanced.