Solo play campaigns

I usually have a couple of hours free while the little one has her afternoon nap so I've decided to keep myself entertained with a wagames solo campaign. Here are my choices:

* 5150 Star Army (pro: have 40k and AT43 figs to use. Con: lots of charts)
* 5150 New Beginnings (Pro: have rezolution figs to use. Cons: need urban terrain and scifi civilian figs)
* All things zombie (Pro: Zombie figs available, terrain choice. Con: Survivor figs missing, urban terrain needed)
* Blitzkrieg commander (Pro: have figs easy rules. Con: no opponent automation)
* Cold war commander (Pro:  Easy rules Con: no figs or terrain)
* Future war commander ( Pro: have figs Con: same a BKC)
* Descent: road to legend solo (Pro: boardgame Con: no opponent automation)
* Battleground: fantasy warfare (Pro: 4 factions available. Con: no campaign rules)
* Heavy Gear Blitz (Pro: giant robots on roller skates. Cons: No opponent automation. Missing Southern minis. No campaign rules)

I *could* adapt the 'de bellis solitarius' unit automation for those games missing such rules so it's not as big a deal as it could be.

Now in making a choice, I absolutely have to stick with it 'till the end. None of this 'try if for a few sessions then switch' since that's what i've been doing recently which has resulted in too many false starts.

I'll have to give this further  thought, but i'm absolutely open to suggestions as well.

Edit: After careful consideration, I'm going to start an All Things Zombie campaign. Time to generate the survivors.

Quickie Malifaux campaign

I'm really smitten by the Malifaux game, so much so that i'm tinkering with a simple campaign system. It would go like this:

* 10 game campaign
* the player with the most accumulated VPs win
* Sudden death victory is awarded to the player who completes 8 different schemes in order (selected at the start of the campaign).
* players must select a faction at the beginning of the campaign and stick with it.

Standard Malifaux rules apply for crew selection and gameplay.

What do you guys think?

Defeat, but there was nothing I could do about it

The VCs have lost the campaign! But considering what has transpired, I don't think I could have done anything to prevent defeat.

Basic strategies:

• Vampire Counts: With the lack of a lord level character, I was expecting a lot of comets to be thrown my way. My main focus was on spamming Invocations of Nehek to deal with the many Lizardmen area of effect spells.
• Lizardmen: The whole army was geared for assassination. Everything that could be thrown onto the VC General and his unit, would be. And he had a Slaan to help.
  

So here is the tempest of spells that I had to weather:

• 5x Comets of Casandora (1 was dispelled, 2 of them were 12"+ radius)
• 3x Steal Soul attempts on my General. (All ward saved)
  
• 3x Burning Alignments of at least 7" radius. (one of which was during a charge)
  
• at least 100 shots from assorted skinks, razordons, falling rocks, etc
  

Surprisingly, the whole army was still relatively intact until turn 6, at which point the invocations just couldn't keep up. Truth be told, I don't see what I could have done to better my situation aside from sacrificing more chickens to the dice gods.

The Lizardmen have won this campaign. Time to reap the fields of battle and embark on another campaign in the jungles of Lustria.

Music and Mayhem

I have a musical jam tomorrow with a bassman friend of mine. This friend is also the Lizardmen player I am in a WHFB campaign with. So after the jam, the last match of the current campaign will take place. I'm going to have to play an A+ game just for a campaign victory point tie. Maybe if I hit the drums real hard, it will dazzle his brain to nothingness (fat chance of that, but worth a try)

Of course, I'll have one hand tied behind my back as I do not have access to a Lord level character (key for VC victories). He, on the other hand, will have access to his Lord,which will undoubtedly be his beloved Slaan. The frog will either be riding a stegadon or lost in a temple guard unit. I have a feeling that I'll be dodging many a comet falling upon my head.

Final campaign standings will be posted as soon as I know them. Hopefully there will be much rejoicing.

The dead will walk this weekend

Campaign turn 4 and possibly turn 5 will happen February 13th, and I hope to switch gears and actually win more than once a year.

For archival purposes and to illustrate the method behind my madness, here is the army list and the plan.

The Walking Dead (Magic: 7PD, 5DD, 2 Scrolls and 2 bound spells):

• Monique deNoir [1]: General, Vampire w/ Infinite Hatred, Beguile, Flayed Hauberk, Sword of Kings
• Eldessa [2]: Vampire w/ Master of the Black Arts, Book of Arkhan, Sword of Might
• Cornelius Barlow: Necromancer w/ 2x Dispel Scrolls, Extra Spell, mounted on a Corpse Cart w/ Unholy Lodestone

The Shambling Horde (1497 points w/ characters):

• 24x Skeletons w/ Champion, Standard Bearer, Banner of the Dead Legion [1]
  
• 24x Skeletons w/ Champion, Standard Bearer, War Banner [2]
  
• 5x Dire Wolves
• 5x Dire Wolves
• 12x Grave Guard w/ Great Weapons
• Varghulf

Ye olde cunning plan:
This is a classic "center presented" formation, with the both skeleton units holding the center and having their flanks guarded by hammer units (the GG and Varghulf). The dogs will be held back and will "fetch" any broken enemy units and run them down. In other words, I want to skeletons to *be* charged and holding for one round of combat. If they cannot autobreak the charging enemy unit, I should be able to bring to bear an attached hammer unit to support the skeletons. This will finish the job and prepping the fleeing unit for the dogs. It's the classic hammer-and-anvil routine. The Necromancer will be trailing the skeleton units to make sure that they are affected by the Miasma of Deathly Vigor.

Of course, I'll be facing Lizardmen and their annoying Engine of the Gods. I plan to ignore it and feed it as many zombies as it wants, well away from my lines.

This brings me to the Magic Phase. I didn't invest in as much magic power as magic spread, all I plan on doing is re-filling ranks of skeletons or feeding new zombies to the Stegadon.

That's the plan in a nutshell, wish me luck!

Them bones were rolled

Today was matchup #3 for the WHFB campaign between I and the Lizardmen using an adaptation of the Fantasy Battlegrounds Kingdosms rules.

The objective was to hold an objective in the center of the table woth 400VPs and units destroyed VPs were tallied.

The VCs unfortunately were massacred, but I don't think it was due to the units themselves, but to the very good maneuvering by the opponent, and the total lack of gameplan by yours truely. At the end of the game, it was 1700VP to 300VP against, quite the massacre.

The key to the lizardmen victory was one key failed charged by the Grave Guard, which allowed them to swing around and roll up the VCs flank. It didn't help that my general was part of the flank being rolled. The MVP in the game was my Caster Vampire who, with only a sword of might and her good looks, was able to kill a charging Scar Veteran. Regenerating units were also very useful as eveything else was being destroyed left and right.

Two more campaign turns left, with the Lizardmen 12 points against the VCs 6. The next game will decide if victory remains within reach for the VCs.

Kicked off a campaign today

Today marked the first playtest campaign session for a WHFB conversion of the Battlegrounds: Fantasy Warfare Kingdoms campaign system.

Two 1000 point games were played with army lists created *after* the scenario was determined. This resulted in new, more task-oriented army lists on both sides.

I'm happy to report that in both sessions, my Vampire counts were up to snuff and were able to draw both games. (Instead of the standard Massacre! against.)

Current campaign standings are 7VPs for the Lizardmen, and 5 VPs for Vampire Counts with 3 more campaigns games to go.

What I like the best about this campaign system (aside from the various new scenarios offered) is the fact that campaign performance doesn't affect your army composition. This completely sidesteps the runaway leader effect that kills most campaigns a few sessions in.

A few tweaks will be applied to the conversion rules before they are made public, but I don't plan on keeping the campaign document secret for too long. :)