VSF STOP PRESS: Black Dragon Tong Sink Royal Naval Vessel

Colin came over and we tried a different game to get all our boats onto the table. We played a variation  of the Recovery scenario from IHMN 2nd Edition.

ISLAND RECOVERY SCENARIO

 Layout: Water with a scattering of small islands, jetties etc.

 Place 3 counters of contraband along the centre line on islands or jetties. They are valued at 10, 20 and 30 VPs each (the Tong player can look at the values).

Up to half the Tong may be placed any where up to the centre line. The remainder, including all boats start on their table edge. All Royal Navy start on their table edge.

600 point companies.

The Tong score VPs for enemy killed and contraband that is on an un-boarded boat or removed from table. Royal Navy score VPs for enemy killed and contraband still on the table.

Game Length 8 turns.

The initial table set up. 

And a view from the Royal Naval side. The Tong have a light cannon set up on the centre island.

HM Gunboat Superfluous, mounting a light field gun and a machine gun.

The Tong flagship, a heavily manned junk with a second light cannon.

And their secret weapon....A Yeti!

After a couple of turns, things start hotting up. Having put two of the boarding party on the smaller island, the gunboats fires on the Tong cannon.

The steam launch lands it's boarding party (heavily armoured Chief petty Officer and a seaman), but comes under fire from both light cannon.

A shot from the gunboat dismasts the sailboat and kills the crewman. The yeti easily swims to the shore but the Dragon Lady dithers.

The gunboat moves up to land the second boarding party, but the Yeti rushes up and leaps on board. By now the field gun was out of shells and when the machine gunner fired at the beast, his weapon promptly jammed! (Cursed double Ones!!!)

At the bottom left of the picture you can see one of the boarding party, having cleared the island of enemies, has leapt onto the prow of a Tong boat.

But after a heroic duel, the Yeti is felled by the dashing Lieutenant-Commander.

Hit repeatedly by both Tong cannon, the steam launch catches fire and starts to sink. The crewmen survive and leap into the water, where one promptly drowns! The Brass Dragon Dog can be seen climbing onto the jetty (as it was metal we decided it would sink rather than swim, but without the need for oxygen it could walk along the seabed at swimming rate).

The end of turn 8.  At the bottom of the picture you can just see the Chief Petty officer after he split the head of the Brass Dragon Dog with a single blow of his cutlass! Apart from the  Dragon Lady on the central island, engaged in combat with the Lieutenant-Commander, the only Tong remaining are on board the |junk and they have already taken casualties from naval small arms fire. With 2 contraband under RN control and the third contested, there was no way they could win now, A Royal Navy Victory!

VSF Black Dragon Tong vs Angry Carpathian Villagers

 A few pictures from a recent game using IHMN 2nd Edition, Black Dragon Tong vs some very annoyed Carpathian Gypsies/Villagers. 

I really like the West Wing gypsy miniatures, they have fantastic character, but the IHMN Gothic Carpathian Gypsy company list does not really reflect the models I have, so I'm using the Carpathian Villagers list.

The table set up, the Carpathians must get a secret treasure (carried in the Gypsy caravan) to the dock and load it onto the steam launch.

Another view of the table, note the Carpathians' stealth hound lurking in wait for the unwary Tong members.

A view from the dockside into the town.

Now the trouble starts! The Black Dragon Tong junks arrives and Boxers and other assorted Tong riffraff disembark.

The Tong have immobilised the Gypsy caravan (scared off the horse), using the Dragon Lady's magic, who is hidden in the house at top centre of the picture. But the Carpathian Blacksmith charges forward, the Dragon Lady tries a Mesmerise spell but he is immune to magic!

The Carpathian Elder slugs it out with the Yeti, but the bear is rushing up to support his master, between them they will pull the Yeti down!

The Carpathian witch prepares to launch a Bolt of Flame at the musket armed Boxer who just shot at her...and missed!

Another view of Colin's new Junk, unfortunately most of his crew were unable to re-embark at the end of the game, as they were all dead!

New Campaign Book for Sellswords and Spellslingers

 I have just submitted the final text to Ganesha Games for my new campaign book for Sellswords and Spellslingers,  "Night of the Assassins".

Obviously "Night of the Assassins" still requires work on layout and artwork before publication. As Ganesha Games has other books already under production, I do not have a timescale for publication yet, but watch this space.

I have been really pleased at the reception "Last Stand at Mistham" has received from the tabletop gaming community and would like to thank everyone for their support.

A couple of in-game photos for the upcoming book.

Trying Twisted Steampunk Skirmish

 Kirstie came over for a game last night and brought along two factions for Twisted. This is a steampunk skirmish tabletop game produced by Demented Games in Oz. https://www.dementedgames.com/

Twisted is more fantasy steampunk than the VSF I usually play, lovely looking miniatures but not to my personal taste (and a bit pricy for me). Kirstie loves painting them, I think she bought them for painting originally, then got the game.

This was only my second game, so I am still getting my head around the rules. The basic mechanisms are straight forward, characters have 2 actions per turn, move, charge, shoot, fight etc. Combats are opposed rolls, if the attacker scores higher they hit, then calculate damage according to the weapon and target's armour.  

There are added levels of complexity because each character has different weapons and special abilities, plus use of cards and Alchemancy (magic). As I play more games I will become more familiar with the best use of the various bits and bobs.

Here are a few shots of the game, I played Servants of the Engine against Kirstie's Dickensians. I got slaughtered!

VSF Shoot Out

 

Colin got over for a day of VSF today, which gave me the opportunity to put my Ottoman steam armoured car and clockwork one-man walker on the table for their first game.

A lovely little model from Ironclad.

The table layout, a peaceful scene somewhere along the Adriatic Coast.

The British medium walker stalks through the market square, while Ottoman janissaries take cover and their armoured steam car moves forward into the  bottom right of the picture. At the top right you can see an early casualty, the British armoured steam car. A lucky shot from a janissary with an arc rifle had killed both the crew.

Things start to get close up and personal. The British sergeant and a riflemen charge the Ottoman captain and a janissary. In the background the Ottoman mechanical soldier moves up in support. A bloody melee ensued with finally saw the Ottoman Captain as the last one left on his feet.

The Ottoman armoured steam car moves forward, flanked by two janissaries.

On the other side of the building, the British captain and the sapper with rocket grenades stalk the armoured vehicle. The Ottoman hashashin was lurking in the green house and sprang out, but the Captain put him down with a well-aimed pistol round to the head.

Walkers face off in the square. The Ottoman walker's arc cannon killed both the British driver and the gunner, so the engineer took the driver's seat. He charged forward to try and stamp on the Ottoman walker, but the light one-man walker was more mobile and kept evading the more lumbering British machine.

The two captains go toe to toe. Behind them a lucky shot by the British sniper has just disabled the armoured steam car's machine gun.

We called a halt at this point with an honourable draw. The British had their captain, a rifleman and a walker with a working gun, but only one crew left. The Ottomans had their captain, the light walker and an armoured car with no gun. We had been playing a last man standing game, rather than a scenario as it was the first time we had used armoured vehicles and walkers with IHMN 2ed, so it was an opportunity to get to grip with the rules.

Some More Fantasy Painting

 I've had the time to crack on with some more of the Blacklist Games Fantasy Kickstarter miniatures.

I am very pleased with how these are turning out, whilst not the best minis ever, they are mostly very usable and looking good painted up and great value for money. It is also nice to get a good selection of female characters in the mix as well.

A bandit, Vampire and female human rogue.

A bugbear and a horde of orcs, all the bad guy sword fodder come in a group of 5 of each pose. 5 is enough to be useful for most skirmish purposes, although the single pose is a a little limiting. That said, the Fantasy Set 2 Kickstarter, which I also bought into, will give me alternatives.

A horde of troglodytes.

A half-orc cleric (an interesting concept) takes on a giant spider.

Not from the Kickstarter, but something I picked up on Ebay last autumn (as you do).

Another bandit, a female half-orc rogue and an elf rogue. Why is it I seem to be painting up all the dodgier PC types first? These three will see service as assassins in the new Sellswords and Spellslingers scenario book I am currently writing.

Started painting my first Kickstarter minis

 I thought I'd better start putting some paint of the Blacklist Games minis from the Kickstarter boxes (that have been sitting on the side for a few weeks now!). I quite impressed with the plastic figures, most of them a good, usable poses and they take paint well.

First up, a troglodyte, giant worm and a gnoll 

A thief, ghoul and a construct

Dwarf wizard, inn keeper and giant rat

Finally a werewolf and a mummy.

I can see myself getting a lot of use from this set, the Dwarf wizard will be joining my Oathmark forces, the constructs will fit in nicely with my VSF stuff and the rest will get plenty of use in various Sellswords campaigns.

Just as well really, because I also bought into the Blacklist Games Fantasy 2 and Horror Kickstarters!