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?

Post annual GW price hike

I approve of the challenge that this guy has put out there: Go out and find other games!



Now for a quick list of suggestions not covered by the video:

Games with rules + miniature line (Most with Free Rulebooks):

• Malifaux (Mentioned in the video)
• Infinity
• Kings of War
• Warmachine / Hordes (They are starting to follow in GW's footsteps, but nice to start)
• Flames of War (on the expensive side of things tho)
• Dust Warfare
• Heavy Gear Blitz

Games with rules to use with any minis:

• Horde of the Things (HOTT)
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Bloodbowl (Free rulebook, lots of minis producers, not just GW)
• Starmada
• Full Thrust
• Blitzkrieg  Commander / Cold War Commander / Future War Commander
• Gruntz 15mm
• Dirtside
• Stargrunt
• All Things Zombies
• 5150: Star Army or New Beginnings

These are just off the top of my head, there are *many* more out there. A great resource for PDF rulebooks is the Wargames Vault.

Hope this has been helpful to some, See you next time.

Lilith Starter crew for Malifaux

A while back I was looking for a skirmish game that was cheap to get started in, but with deep enough gameplay to sustain my interest. Enter Malifaux, a steampunk weird west skirmish game. The gameplay looks really simple to grasp but difficult to master.

Intrigued, I ordered a pair of starter packs and the rules from Meeplemart.com .

As you can see I've got a Lilith Neverborn crew starter and a Perdita starter to have their Guild nemesis.

While waiting to get a game in, I decided to start painting up Lilith and her children. First up were some Terror Tot Nephilim

Then was a Mature Nephilim

And last but certainly not least Lilith herself

Of course, a family portrait is de rigueur

Considering on how well these models painted up, I can't wait to get started on the Ortegas.

The dead will rise from the blood soaked battlefield

The new vampire counts book is out and here are links to reviews of it:

* Hero's Gaming Blog
* Bell of Lost Souls

As a skeleton kind of player, i'm ecstatic that they are now about half the points that they were. What can I say? I loves dem bones. Vamps are more badass than they were (caster lord players will get dinged in points tho)  with the ability to feed of of a defeated foe. Speaking of healing, invocation of nehek is now an area of effect spell, healing all in a certain radius. Battle attrition? What's that?

To celebrate this edition's release, I have ordered a batch of models from Mantic games (have you *seen* the price on the new GW models? That's dentist visit money) Nothing special, some Ghouls, Skeletons, and Black Knights. Yup, the old stand-bys are as reliable as ever.

Dark Eldar strike into Virtual Realspace

It's been *forever* since I played 40k. So I decided to take out my beloved Dark Eldar out for a virtual spin. (Yay Vassal!) You see, it's been so long that I haven't actually used the new DE codex yet (it's only been a year!) 

This is the endgame of an Anhihilation Dawn Assault mission vs Tau. DE win of course (6 vs 9KP). The game hasn't really changed for the DE at all: Speed is life. All but one of those craters were DE vehicles, while 90% of the red smudges are what is left of the Tau infantry after the DE were done with them.

I lucked out on the Combat Drugs so all my combat monsters were so hopped up on drugs that they Felt No Pain, which mitigated much of the Tau shooting. I really like how the game moved from one end of the table to the other (Bottom right to top left). Power from Pain took care of the rest (represented by skulls in the image).


The Dark Eldar of the new codex are just as entertaining as the previous one, with some added durability thrown in so that the late game is still to be contested. I am absolutely statisfied with it.

Quick WHFB Vampire Counts army list

This is what I do while the baby is taking her nap, I organize undead minions to take over the world. :)

• Vampire Lord [1] w/ Mage Level, Forbidden Lore, Master of the Black Arts, Helm of Commandment, Armor of Destiny, Enchanted Shield
• Wight King [2] BSB w/ Barded Skeletal Steed, Black Axe of Krell
• 10x Ghouls [1] w/ Ghast
• 21x Ghouls w/ Ghast
• 27x Skeletons w/ Full Command
• 20x Grave Guard w/ Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 5x Black Knights [2] w/ Full Command, Royal Standard of Strigos
• Black Coach
• Varghulf

Total: 1990 pts

The rationale behind this army is to keep the lord in his bunker and out of harm's way. The main battle line will consist of the Ghoul, Skeleton and Grave guard units. The black coach, Varghulf and Black Knights will cover the flanks, or launch to harass the opposing flank units.

A drop-in replacement for the Wight King could be a Vampire BSB w/ Waking Death and Dread Knight. Depends on my mood.