Wednesday 30 November 2016

Planning my first game of Fate Accelerated edition and as a GM!

So the plan is to run a RPG at Essex Warriors his sunday using FATE accelerated edition (FAE)
Rules available for free or pay what you want on their site here along with the intro blurb  I offered up to temp people in:

My first go at running an RPG, using the FAE system and set in the 40k universe (mostly). A warp storm dissipates after 500 years, fringe worlds are now accessible that barely know of the imperium, a canny Rogue trader could make a fortune from xeno tech, information and who knows what exotic wildlife or other things may be found.

Your on the crew of such a trader and get to be first on a new world, who will you meet? What will you find? Will you survive to claim riches or meet a grizzly end?

Rules are available here for free on a pay what you want basis
http://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-content/uploads/FAE.zip

I stated up some player characters here for them to choose from

5 player Characters to choose from can be found here along with the Captain who will be a NPC.
If you specifically want a different type of character do let me know, Gender and name can be changed on them all if desired without changing the rest of their stats, background


The Rogue Trader Noxius Ignis (Baleful fire)


The Tamasi System, imperial records show last contact with any planet was over 500 years ago. Imperial control slipped more than 1000 years ago. This far on the fringe of known space many worlds are little more than rumours and guess work.
Ministerium records indicate a Mission in place at some point and a mid tech level on most planets, but the Warp storms and length of time since last contact makes it unlikely knowledge of the Emperor has been maintained outside of mythical folk lore.
We head into the unknown more than normal even for a Rogue trader.
Our holds empty and our crew ready to find fortune and fame.
Rumour states an imperial fleet is enroute to either quarantine or conquer the system and its worlds.
But our immediate concern is other competition from rival traders, Xeno especially the Tau who have been encroaching in other nearby systems spreading their greater good.
Maybe even the Inquisition or other imperial departments making a play for knowledge and power.
All we have is our speculation, as we drop out of warp we home in on what seems to be the central planet based upon communications and the presence of other star going vessels.


Tamasi prime, as we close in it becomes obvious this is the central world, we register one Tau ship in the vicinity, a number of other unknown ships and some local inter system only ships lacking the trace of a warp drive.
Population seems sparse with a few urban centres and plenty of rural towns, it's a big planet with a variety of terrain it looks like.
We look to halt in 5 days joining others in orbit, it looks like despite the various Xeno and entities present there is a peaceful accord for now at least up here.
Who knows how things on the ground are... Captain says a select team will take the bulk lander down to the capital to suss it all out before further action, part of me hopes I get to go.. the rest of me is terrified

I will try and write up how it goes next week some time along with photos of all the miniatures I plan to use! including a new 40+ still on the painting table.... not sure they will all be ready for Sunday or even come up in the story as we play through but lets see!

I have 3 players signed up which is hopefully about right 



Sunday 23 October 2016

Rome: a passion and long term project

So I have always been enamoured by Rome and its history, yet my wargaming past has often seen me shy away from it as a period.

Maybe its by slow painting or the fact sci fi and fantasy took such a forefront along with WW2 etc but I have always wanted to spend more time playing in the time of Ceaser and the Republic

Whilst I have less time to paint delaying any rush into building a legion!
I have had a passing acquisition of gladiators and their ilk

I picked up Songs of Shadows and Dust a Ganesh games rules set for skirmishes in Roman cities between gangs or followers rather than mass battles

I really want to get some proper games in and to that end have been starting on some suitable figures, mostly using the Numidian infantry box set I picked up on the cheap, otherwise I have plenty of Gladiators and now other Roman types to populate the streets and arena


Some of the kit based Raptors below


Some pugilists two bought and two kit bashed


Three Tribunes and a guard


Three Senators out enjoying the games perhaps, also an experiment using nail art gems for rings and such, think it works fairly well on the right models


The Emperor and his aide and a guard


A kit bashed trainer/dokter to referee and train fights/fighters 


Finally got hold of a copy of this OOP ruleset by Warhammer historical
Even includes rules for fighting Ostriches! 
very detailed and lots of information, well worth picking up 


Pre weathering and basing


Bargain Playmobile arena, this thing is pure massive!
OOP for awhile but since I saw it I had to have it to base my arena around, I have lots of ideas to develop it but may end up looking like this for awhile!

Tempted to keep the playmobile statues lol

£22.50 including p&p the next two I saw went for over £70 each! so well chuffed


Two pugilists prepare to fight






Friday 14 October 2016

Pocket Chariot racing: 6mm using (Faustus Furius) FAVSTVS FVRIVS by Ganesha games / Irregular Wars.

 As many of you who follow my ramblings will know, I am rather partial to the out put
from one Ganesha games.

I recently decided to add their new Chariot racing game to my collection and deciding I wanted it to be a quick fast play game which could be taken easily to fill free time etc, I opted for the 6mm chariots.

This should allow me to come up with a nice detailed yet storable and transportable circus maximus to take around places with ease including on holiday etc.

Recommended minimum track size is 30cm by 60cm so easily manageable

 The chariots I ordered painted from Irregular Miniatures and I am pleased with my purchase and look forwards to getting them in a race!

I opted for ten in different colours allowing for multiple players, yes I know the historical should have kept me to the main 4 Roman coloured teams, but so what!

I do however prefer the idea of pure racing so although these rules allow for all sorts of chariots and archers etc, I will tend to lean towards the historical racing section of the rules.

Now to build a arena!
Various ideas, if I can find the right old electric horse racing game, looks perfect to paint up!

I also have a large(ish) number of ready to game 28mm Gladiators so once my arena for that arrives I will be all set for a day at the Roman games!










Last Sunday at Essex Warriors: Imperial Skies using Dystopian wars fleets, and Kings of Wrath

Last Sunday I made it back down Essex Warriors and took part in two great fun games.

First up was a game of Wrath of Kings, 6 players and 4 of us had never played it before.
Game went well and I was suprised to say our side was the winners with minimal casualties.
Rules seemed to go down well and whilst I have some nitpicking over a couple of the rules wordings in the main it is a straight forward and fun wee game.

As is often the case the full table was provided by Mike who's painting as usual puts mine to shame!

I understand there is some distribution issues for this game within the UK which is a shame.
Other players remarked the setting and style lends its self to also using Warmachine figures which i think is a good point.

Next up is the game I was most looking forwards too and the one that leads the photos below.

We all have large Dystopian wars fleets and in the main they are some lovely models to game with.
As such we used them here for our first game of the new rules set Imperial Skies.

The view being that this is a simpler and faster rule set to use than Dystopian 2.0
I personally still like DW however I can understand how the plethora of special rules and advanced options can make it seem unwieldy. The base mechanics I like however.

And there is a lot to not in IS that is similar both the DW and other games I have played.
Each gun has a class L, M, H, and each of those classes improves the chance of causing a hit the closer you get.
There are range bands which are a neat 5" apart and the weapon classes fit nicely within those improving rolls needed from 6, 5,6, 4,5,6 as you get closer to the target.

They also utilise exploding 6 on shooting rolls which is another thing I am fond of in naval games specifically.

We had a mixture of naval and air based fleets in this game and chose to exclude the optional altitude rules for this play through.

Having 6 big fleets on the table in a 3v3 game looked great and we were into the action from the start.

Having 100 of each of the 3 colour dice needed on the table also made for a contrasting change!
each colour corresponds to a range band making working out which dice are for which guns nice and easy.

once we got in range, most fleets drifted slowly forwards unloading broadsides each turn, we had a couple of crossing the T which was damaging.

the idea of having a card per ship and marking off damage and the impacts is similar to other rules but is kept really simple by when you reach a negative modifier it applies to all guns and movement.

I was very pleased my dice rolling did not desert me and our side won our second victory of the day!

A Great days gaming all around