Death of a Necromancer

The Low Rollers wandered up to the Necromancer's tower, and though beset by challenges, they defeated her without too much trouble.

Moments after the fall of the Necromancer. Just a simple stroll home now, right?

(The square to the right represents the first floor of the tower)

Then things got complicated. Although some of the skeletons crumbled into heaps of bones, all of those in or near the tower were freshly invigorated, gaining in strength. As the heroes tried to make their escape, new foes, ghouls and skeletons, flowed into the area. Was the spirit of the Necromancer still powerful and angry? Did the Necromancer's tower itself hold some sort of malignant magic? Was fate punishing the four heroes for their unjustified murder of an elderly practitioner of arcane magics who was simply pursuing her studies in a remote study in the wilderness?

By the time the valiant murder crew left the scene of their assassination, an amassed horde of 27 skeleton warriors and 8 ghouls had arrived on site.

Back to Sellswords and Painted Some Rabble

Painted some fresh rabble...

It's been a while since I last played Sellswords and Spellslingers but I finally got in a game. Since this warband was my "learning the rules" group, I wanted to wind down their campaign by throwing a couple of horrible scenarios at them. By that I mean I would try to kill them and see if they could survive. Sort of like 2020 for toy soldiers in a fantasy setting.

The first was to replay the Badlands scenario again - playing it wrong just like I did the first time when I had only two characters barely survive. For all their experience and new skills and equipment, they didn't do much better. Bowie, who was essentially a clone of the original Bowie who died the first time, met the same fate. This time ambushed by a troll.

Stabbie tried to rescue her, but she was too far gone. The troll had already eaten one of her legs and was pulling off the other as the shaman got close.

Youbie almost didn't make it either. Seeing P-Stash surrounded by orcs, the powerful swordswoman charged in to assist, but only managed to jump on every sword that was bared in front of her. Really, she barely had to swing at them to mow the minions down, but failed anyway. Stabbie had better luck with his healing this time, saving the bold warrior well enough to limp away to safety. P-Stash, always living in the shadow of Youbie's expertise managed to prove himself by downing foe after foe just when the struggling group needed. He had to climb over a ring of orc corpses to join his friends as they fled the dreaded orc infested territory a second time.

As they leave the Badlands, Youbie takes one last look back, mourning their lost companion and contemplating how they could roll so goddamn low on so many activations again.

It was good to play a game for the first time in a few months!

One last look back at a fallen comrade.

The fallen comrade.

Badlands carnage 2.0.

And then there were three...

Next game with put the Low Rollers up against a necromancer hiding out in a remote tower. Not sure why they've got to go all murder hobo on this nice old lady and her friends. But that's what's going down. If that fails to do them in, there may be a thunder lizard waiting for them after that....

In non-gaming stuff, we're finally getting the first (not counting the herbs & green onions) small harvest from our tiny garden. Last year the neighborhood wildlife annihilated the garden, so I haven't got to pickle hot peppers for two years. Obviously I need a party of sellswords and spellslingers to rid our yard of the raiding vermin.

Sellswords and Spellslingers (Game 1)

It's been about a year since I bought the game and started prepping for it, but I've finally played a few games of Sellswords and Spellslingers. For those not familiar, it is a cooperative (or solo) fantasy skirmish game with a bit of an RPG feel to it. I downloaded the PDF from Ganesha Games, and bought the printed cards. You go through a points based party/character creation and then dive into scenarios. There are "between games" campaign activities and progression as well.

I originally had a some other plans, but ended up creating a team of four barbarian adventurers, from left to right... P-Stash, Bowie, Stabbie, and Yubie. I'll get back to the other ideas after running this group for a while.

There is no order to the scenarios, but I started with the first one, "Through The Badlands" because it seemed like a good learning scenario.

It was brutal.

This is what I was up against... Orcs, Orc Brutes, and a Troll. At least to start with. The way the mechanics of the game work, each character rolls between 1-3 activation dice. Roll 8+ on a d20, and each success is an action for that character. Fail, and you draw a card which means enemies activate, more enemies join the game, or one of a handful of events happens.

I failed at least 2/3 of my activation rolls throughout the game, which meant that the Heroes didn't get to do as much as the Villians, and more of them kept spawning around the table. Stabbie the shaman fumbled (rolled a 1) his first spell roll, which meant no magic the rest of the game. Bowie fumbled (rolled a 1) her shooting early on, which took her skills down a major notch as well. The scenario involved my group getting from one side of the killing field to the other. It was a flight for survival.

After many rounds of activation, at the end of the slaughter, this was my deployment area. Yubie got bogged down in combat and almost never making an activation roll. She lasted longer than expected, but eventually fell from her wounds, comatose. She could have been carried to safety by her "friends" but by this time they were in a panicked sprint for safety, far far away.

Here's a shot from the other side. You can see the others (Stabbie and P-Stash each down to their last hit point) making a dash for survival, corpses, pursuing foes and their abandoned friend all on the distance (and to either side, off camera.) This is right at the edge of the table. You would think they were home free.

You'd be wrong.

Here's Stabbie, the inept shaman, mere steps away from "edge of the world" safety. He's already been lapped by his companions because he can't roll above a 5 throughout the game. Just one activation and he's free... nope. Failed, resulting in another orc (just to his left) ambushing out of the bushes... er, ambushes? Just an orc, not a difficult combat at least... right? Nope again. Fumbled, lost his last hit point. But at least he's got a roll to see what happens... aaaaaand he's flat out dead.

The carnage at the end of the game. We started on the left, and 50% of The Low Rollers (they have a name now) exited off the right.

Since Stabbie and Yubie didn't really get much of a chance, I added their twins back into the party for the next game.

Next game? Yes. I thought it was worth another try. I like the mechanics, though they seem like they fluctuate between extremes. And the dice really had a heavy part in the game. But that's also what went wrong here... A large majority of my rolls were 5 or less on a d20. No rules are going to mitigate that. The game deserved a second try.

Back to that in the next update. (FYI, I just finished Game 4. Give me a few days to catch up with updates...)

Sellswords and Spellslingers

I bought another new set of rules, Sellswords and Spellslingers from Ganesha Games.

I bought the PDF because I've read a lot of good things about it as a solo game recently. After reading the rules I ordered the printed cards. Given my recent problems with space and time (no, not in a metaphysical, Eternal Champion kind of way... gaming space and time to play) I thought it would be worth a try. If it goes well, it might be fun try it as a cooperative game as well. It's a skirmish game, so it won't quite fulfill my quest for more "big battle" games. But it will be something.

It will also be a good excuse to put a bunch of individual and small groups of minis to use. Motivation to paint up some more odds and ends -- individuals and small groups, without worrying about large regiments.  I also like that it's got a built-in campaign system.

Now I'm revved up to build a 36"x36" gaming table. I have a 34"x34" folding table, so I figure I can build a wood frame out to 36" square and either top with plywood or infill with insulation, and give it some texture and paint pretty quickly & inexpensively. That could slide right on top of the folding table.

And... maybe I should try the game out first before getting carried away. Haha.

Goblins (and an Upcoming Skirmish?)

I placed a small order with Noble Knight Games for a few more of the Reaper Bones orcs, so I can convert some more Fomorians. After browsing the catalog I splurged on a few small items. Some more goblins for Zogmar's small but growing warband.

The little guys in the top photo are "Chaos Goblins" from RAFM. Quirky figures, but I like them & wish there were more than this single pack. I like the idea of goblins being a heterogeneous species, so I see no problems mixing styles.

I'm not 100% certain of the pedigree of the armoured guy with a helm to rival his massive sword (how he swings that without snapping his own neck, I don't know...) He's available from Ral Partha Europe, but I got a casting from ZN Games via Noble Knight. Unfortunately this one is resin. I'm trying to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Resin, but this wasn't the best example. He has a few bubbles, and it took three vigorous scrubs to get primer to adhere to the entire figure -- and even then I'm still hoping that it doesn't rub off. (I'm going to encase him in layers of varnish...)

Quick & dirty paint jobs. Literally. I used multiple black washes, hoping to get a dark & sinister look, and a somewhat oily appearance to the steel.

I also wanted to get them done quickly because I'm going to try putting together a simple solo skirmish, and wanted to have them available as possible villains/raiders. The heroes, travelling mercenaries defending a small village, will be all of the various figures I've received from other people via the Warhammer-Empire.com "Pleasant Surprises" figure exchange. (Except one, King, who will be on the opposing side for obvious reasons.) I have named them after their source/painters.