Pain is good when you play Skorne

Today we played a 35 point game, my Skorne against Khador, lists are what you can see in the following picture.



Soon enough I need to count how many times I've lost the starting roll in a streak.

Just yesterday I finished my whole unit of praetorian swordsmen, finally. Yet it seemed I still had some bad karma because of my few unpainted models.

Anyway.

On with the game. Advancing was really, really cautious from my side throughout the game. Both Winterguard Infantry with their horrible sprays and the bowling Devastator were aspects I have already grown quite a dread against.



Opponent stayed far back too. Not much to tell about that as you can see the first rounds movements there. Superiority was cast on Devastator and opponent put Sentry on one of the mortars.

I made an arc node out of my Bronzeback and Aptimus cast Death March on swordsmen. You can see the one daring praetorian there tempting his fate.

Anyway, I moved my Thrullg too close to enemy lines.



One of the Man-O-Wars charged my poor Thrullg and decimated it. Also two Winterguard fellows marched as far as they could and sprayed my Bloodrunner Master Tormentor to death (she had already taken two blasts from mortars that weren't even directed at her... curse the deviations!)

Not much happened then on my turn. I don't know what I could have even done. I managed to kill the man-o-war that killed my Thrullg and the lone, fate-tempting bravo killed the two winterguards who had killed master tormentor.

Then it was Strakhov's feat turn.

First Man-o-Wars came and tried to make leaf steaks out of my poor little elephant. And with a damage roll of 5, 5, 6, 6 they did pretty good job. However, the bugger didn't die and left a half-dead carcass for Marauder to slam to death. Which it did. Feralgeist jumped to the husk of Bronzeback.

Devastator engaged as many praetorians as possible and tried to skewer them with Rain of Death. Only the one who was in base-to-base contact with it died, though.

Winterguard Infantry became fearless and tough when they formed a meatwall in front of Strakhov.

Then it seemed like I really needed to strike down the warcaster in the alchemical mask. I couldn't win any kind of attrition any longer. So it was my chance to shine!

I did have an evil cunning plan, though!

Aptimus made my basilisk krea into an arc node for Hexeris. Then Hexeris moved forward, used feat and beat one of the man-o-wars to death, releasing basilisk from melee. It did take two of Hexeris' fury though because some bad rolls were involved.

Then he launched Obliteration at the Winterguard formation and it was kinda brutal thing.

The winterguard who passed their tough rolls became auto-hit targets for the ones who didn't.

Then I failed Basilisk Drake's activation. It didn't manage to kill the man-o-war in front of it, not even with two damage boosted attacks that hit home.

Orin Midwinter threw Arc Lighting to clear even more path for my praetorians. Well, I did have 3 arcs. But it was more like an arc of knockdown, as everyone passed their tough rolls (even the officer who took in a damage roll of 5, 6).

Then the praetorians charged with their MAT of 8. Only two scored got a charge in against Strakhov and one managed to side-step in contact with him.

Not-too-cool damage rolls resulted in around 5 damage to Strakhov. The other charging praetorian even missed. So that was it for me, then.



Then it was opponents turn to finish me off. I had to move my Bronzeback as far as I could so I could move Hexeris to try a desperate win. Well, only thing that resulted from that maneuver was that the poor little undead elephant was smashed again into the very same wall that had killed it earlier. I tried to position Feralgeist so the man-o-wars wouldn't be able to come and kill my then-knocked-down Hexeris but there are limits in what a spirit can block.

First damage roll: 11 points in. Second: about the same.

Double Trouble (I'm trying to win the lamest headline award in case there is one)

I played two rather entertaining games today. Both seemed to drag on endlessly but eventually the other bastard was killed.

I played both games with Circle of Orboros.

Opponent played Khador and Cygnar. Cygnar was a new journey for him and included plenty of proxy models. I was supposed to take a little less pictures from that game but, well, it was a really long game and will be explained a lot easier with including the pics so... enjoy.

Anyway, first game was Morvahna versus Strakhov.

Opponent won starting roll, actually opponent won both starting rolls... I think I whined about this in my last game and it's really starting to look like a tendency. Not winning the start.

But, well, for Circle it's actually a good thing if you have Lord of the Feast around.

This picture was taken from the second round of the game, my half, before rolling dice. I attached another picture that had the Lord's attacks rolled.

Iron Fang pikemen failing their Command 10 re-rolled terror test was just an insult to injury.

However, before we counted in the War Dog Strakhov had taken 10 damage in already too. But we had to backtrack that one because it actually didn't happen. What a shame.

Well, to be honest, Strakhov had there and then a rather nasty target for Overrun shenanigans. I had cast Restoration on Lord of the Feast though so it had Arm 19 and 8 damage boxes.

Iron Fang pikemen rallied.

Then Greylords charged Lord of the Feast and did some little damage.

Strakhov cast overrun on himself and went on and butchered my lord, overrunning himself closer to my lines. There he used his feat and then sprinted off closer to his lines again, making it sure everything he needed was in range of his feat.

Man-o-Wars charged and two of them cleared my meatwall I had build up in front of my Gnarlhorn Satyr and other two killed one of my shifting stones and two of my bloodweavers.

Then Marauder charged my Gnarlhorn satyr and used its Combo-Smite, slamming the slamming king of Warmachine/Hordes, getting even super slam in because it had the focus to boost and gnarlhorn contacted terrain. It also contacted Morvahna who got luckily only 5 or so points in from the collateral damage but still...

Gnarlhorn lost some aspect, don't remember which because it was healed soon enough.

Then my turn happened.

All I managed to do that turn was to wreck off the Marauder with considerable effort (I had to use Gorax's animus on Gnarlhorn and even come scraping the paintjob with it) and then Gnarlhorn beat it up real good. However, it didn't die.

Wolves of Orboros used their minifeat and charged off the nearly destroyed Marauder, wrecking it.

Bloodweavers and remaining Wolves killed three of the Man-o-Wars and Morvahna was just scared.

I teleported one of my shifting stones as Gnarlhorn's chew toy for the upcoming frenzy.

Opponent then killed off my poor Gorax. Picture, it seems, has been from the middle of turn, not from the end of it... because Strakhov sprinted to safety after finishing my ugly monkey.

Iron Fang pikemen killed some Wolves. Didn't really concern me as I had Regrowth on them...

On my next turn Gnarlhorn toppled off my beautiful stones in rage.

I brought back something like four Wolves and it seemed likely I would use my feat this turn.



This picture hasn't been taken from the end of the turn either it seems... oh well.

Anyway, bloodweavers and the lone Wolf of Orboros failed to kill the last Man-o-War standing but otherwise things went pretty nice. All of the pikemen were killed by Wolves and blasts from Morvahna's feat.

Opponent had only two greylords remaining when he decided to pull all-or-nothing run with Strakhov. He charged my Gnarlhorn after spraying some wolves who were standing in his way.

He killed it and sprinted next to Morvahna. At this point I actually didn't feel too worried as Strakhov had taken damage in from my feat and had only 11 health left. He did, however, boost his powerfield for effective armor 19.

I brought back 3 Wolves of Orboros, facing Strakhov. I had three fury left, I was counting on boosting to hit and boosting to damage and leaving one fury left for transferring damage with Harrow.

However... it was not destined to be.

Morvahna hit just fine, no problems there. Then I just had to roll 8 with 3 dice.

Well, you can guess, botched it.

Then I tried a desperate assassination with my three brought back Wolves but they brought only 2 points in, combined.

If we're playing "if" game... If I had rolled even 10 with my damage against Strakhov with Morvahna Strakhow would have been left with 6 hit points only, meaning he could have easily killed himself if he tried to damage Morvahna.

Well, at least the last moments were a bit too thrilling!

But then, onwards.

Game 2

My list:

Cassius & Wurmwood
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd

Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers bellows crew
Shifting Stones
Lord of the Feast

And opponent had

Epic Haley
- Defender

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
Squire
Gorman diWulfe
Junior Warcaster
- Hunter

Here I was supposed to take less pictures.

But taking them almost a bit too much began at the 2nd turn of my opponents when arrogant and stupid Gorman diWulfe marched as far as he could, threw Black Oil at my Woldwyrd, missed and the deviation missed Woldwyrd but it landed exactly on my Cassius!

Also, that was exactly the turn where epic Haley used her dreadful feat. All my army was under it. Everything and all.

That wasn't the only thing Haley did, no. She also accelerated her Defender close enough to kill Lord of the Feast (which, honestly, could have done real bad stuff for opponents low model count army...)

Well, as I have said it was a proxied game so I entered into this picture what proxies what for ease of a possible random spectator.

Then Haley herself shot off a Time Bomb that fell short but killed three Wolves. Well, I had four souls for my Wurmwood, then...

Next I just had to navigate through Haleys feat. Woldwyrd was close enough to shoot Gorman for fifth soul on Wurmwood.

Megalith shot Strangleroot to Defender and goblins put up their cloud.

Wolves ran as much forward as they could to tie up enemy army.

There was a curious turn after that though.

All but the Wolves of Orboros chieftain were brutally mauled, sliced, annihilated or otherwise destroyed or killed. They even failed their re-rollable command of 8 that came from massive casualties (when it was called for the flag was still up).

Maybe that isn't as awesome as failing a re-rollable command 10, but still.

Hunter did some little damage to Megalith.

Then I was anticipating what I could do with a warlock that was filled up with 11 fury.

Well, Swamp Gobbers took the offensive course of action then. They ran next to Defender to block its possible advance.

But about those 11 fury. This is what I did.

I moved Cassius forward. I cast Unseen Path and brought Wurmwood where you can see it. Then I cast Unseen Path again and put Cassius up there somewhere. I shot a Hellmouth at one of the Gun Mages that was offering its back arc to Cassius.

Managed to hit and plenty of people were killed. Four gun mages and some damage to Haley. Then I cast Unseen Path one more time and teleported Cassius to safety (yeah, I burned 6 fury to movement!) and used Cassius' feat.

Then.

I did even have Woldwyrd's animus on on my feat turn. But still, Haley just backed off and pulled out all her movement shenanigans. It resulted in Defender moving within shooting range of Wurmwood who didn't have even single soul on.

First shot dealt 14 damage in to Cassius. Second one dealt only 3. Still, Cassius was then afterwards sitting with 3 hit points...

My brave swamp gobbers were tying up things up there in the front line of enemy and Wolves chieftain had taken a damage point in too from random shootings but still, two gobbers and a lone officer were mixing up the plans around Haley.

Then I tried to give some payback in form of Megalith and Woldwyrd and Cassius with Stranglehold. After all the beating Defender was left with one damage point in melee arm.

Opponent did anything in his power to destroy Woldwyrd. Hunter and the remains of Defender tried to destroy it but it lost only some aspect which I again don't remember because stones healed it.

Cassius tried to come and shoot another Stranglehold at Defender, needing to roll 8 on 3 dice to wreck it and leave all sorts of things to do for my beasts. But no. Cassius threw a lame duck at Defender and Wurmwood rolled its eyes and pulled Cassius back to woods to safety as apparently he could only get himself killed with any certainty.

So in the end I had to use Megalith to destroy Defender.

Stones healed my constructs and Woldwyrd gave good damage in to Hunter, dropping its ranged weapon.

Then it seems I haven't taken pictures for one round. Anyway, Hunter moved to beat Woldwyrd in melee but didn't succeed. Cassius charged Hunter from woods and wrecked it himself, then casting Unseen Path to come back.

There was a real thrill around when Gun Mage officer shot Wurmwood twice. Ignoring stealth, missing only on double ones and killing Cassius if he rolled at least 9 on one damage roll or 7 and 8 on two damage rolls. Cassius had one fury left for transfering damage but Megalith was forced to full and Woldwyrd had only few boxes left, which Haley herself dismantled with a fully boosted Time Bomb.

No damage in for Cassius from Gun Mage officer.



And then Haley was too close.

I tried to charge now-exposed Junior Warcaster with my heroic Wolves of Orboros chieftain who had actually been even damaged twice during the game and hadn't still died! Well, attack hit home but dealt only 4 points in, not enough to kill Junior. Reason for doing this was the fact that it had cast Arcane Shield on Haley.

Then I brought Cassius as forward as I could and was within range to cast one fully boosted Stranglehold on Haley. That gave 9 points in.

Well, I was quite certain I could kill her easily enough with three attacks that would give good debuff to defense after first hit.

First claw, 9 on 3 dice. Miss.

Another claw, 9 on 3 dice. Miss.

Now I was certain I would lose to dice screw.

I could buy one more attack and boost the hit. Claw hit Haley.

And damage was more than enough to kill her. She had taken 4 damage earlier from Hellmouth as well as the damage Cassius gave to her just this last turn.

Anyway, Megalith smashed her to ground with the resulting damage roll.

"I always thought that Oathkeeper was useless. Fetch me a new one!"

Played my first game with Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate.

It was a 35 point game and I was facing Khador under the command of Strakhov.

We took the time and toil to try a little different format of giving out the army lists other than boring listing.

So, opponent won the starting roll.

I really want to start doing statistics about my starting roll win/loss ratio, by the way!

Anyway, Strakhov cast Occultation on Great Bears and Superiority on Behemoth.

Not much else to tell about the end of round 1. I was feeling really cool, poseful and filmatic so I brough Lord of the Feast to the center hill of the board. Also, I was paranoidly fearful of Winterguard, again. So I did everything I could to not give them the chance of wiping out everything I got, again.

Luckily they didn't wipe out, well, almost anything.

They moved forward and killed my hidden War Wolf. Three walked as far as they could and tried to shoot my posing Lord who only laughed at the puny attempts of mortals to harm his majesty.

All the warjacks neared me as did the Great Bears. Looked like Strakhov was setting up a feat run. But anyway... picture:

That turn I had great plans and good scheming and all kinds of nice things going on but, well, I did mess up.

First Megalith advanced and shot the Winterguard standard bearer with a boosted Stranglehold. Then it put up its animus.

Then Lord of the Feast charged the three Winterguard who had been brave enough to defy him. All were slaughtered. Then Lord tried to shoot his raven to Winterguard officer but was about 1/4 of an inch away. Too bad. I would have been some lovely carnage up there...

Well, that was four souls at Wurmwood. Then Wolves of Orboros charged some peeking Winterguard and killed two of them that called for Massive Casualties test. They had already lost their flag so they couldn't re-roll and... double sixes. A failed command check. That was a pleasure.

Then Woldwyrd moved a little bit and here was my mistake number 1. It took two damage roll boosted shots at Behemoth and gave about 8 or 10 points of damage in with those two hits. The mistake here comes from the fact that I had now two warbeasts at maxed out Fury, meaning I couldn't transfer damage away.

Then I activated Cassius. He took all the souls away from Wurmwood and moved forward. He shot a Stranglehold at Behemoth and managed to strangle it. Then I tried to shoot another at Devastator, fully knowing it was a long shot... And Cassius didn't damage it.

Left with three fury at that point Cassius teleported away. And here came mistake number 2. I didn't use my feat.

I thought that in any case Strakhov's feat turn would be pretty lame when Behemoth was strangled and was thinking if I used my feat next turn it would annoy the heck out of Khadorans. Also supporting this way of thinking was the fact that Winterguard were running away already.

Mistake number 3 wasn't really mistake. It was lack of experience. I had never thought Bulldoze worked on charges... I was sure that just bringing my ravagers in as a meat wall was enough of a protection... so here's the final picture:

So, Strakhov cast Overrun on himself, charged one of the ravagers I had brought up and triggered Overrun. Devastator jogged forward.

Then Strakhov used feat.

Great Bears charged next and killed up some stuff. Widowmakers and one stray Behemoth bombard shot had done two points of damage to Cassius already.

Then Devastator launched in and it pushed the blocking.

Umm.

It pushed the roadblocking Sentry Stone away. Now as I'm writing this I remembered that you cannot actually move Immobile models. My bad and it cost me the game.

Because then came in the Rain of Death. Well, damage roll was a bit botched and dealt "only" 11 points in.

Then Devastator had 2 focus. It bought another attack and boosted the attack roll. Needed 10 to hit. Succeeded. Then it needed 7 to kill. Rolled 9.

I guess this game had quite a few lessons for me, few of the most basic ones to time your feat correctly and maybe even actually reading the rules of your own models.

Anyway, after this experience I'm liking Wurmwood & Cassius already.

Be not afraid... it's only the necromancer!

Well, got two expansion for the price of, well, two.

The expansion "Be not afraid..." was priced rather horribly high for the content it brings to the game. Only five new races and five new special power badges.

New races look like fun though.

But the new special powers are named quite poorly. For example "Barricade Elves" don't sound good at all. Neither does "Catapult Orcs". I've always thought the special powers define their race somehow. "Hordes of" special power, for example, is a real good example how special power badge defines its attached race.

But Catapult? Sure, the mechanic is nice but the name is bad.


But then, Days of Wonder, the published of Smallworld, has made one other expansion, Necromancer Island, available too. It is a free expansion, though. And I managed to get that one. Here in Finland you could get it from a retail store by buying enough other Smallworld products. "Be not afraid..." was priced high enough that you needed to buy only it and you could then get the Island for free.

Seems a bit weird, though, that such an awesome expansion is given for free. Because it adds new mechanic, play style, to the game. And expands the possible number of players to 6. Expansion like these are what I would rather pay for than new races and badges.

Anyway, looking forward for next game of Smallworld!

Extended Mangled Metal in the great pine woods of Kuhmo 26.12.2010

Last two games of Warmachine for this year.

We played two 15 point games because no-one of us wanted to bring a heckload of models for such long distances.

First game we tried to do as disgusting lists we could. Format we were playing is what I somewhat jokingly call "Extended Mangled Metal" which means only warjacks + 1 solo.

For me it meant

Goreshade
- Nightmare
- Slayer
Bane Lord Tartarus

I was thinking that there would be no good answer for this list if played with capable hands. My hands, apparently, weren't that capable but that's another story.

Nightmare striking its prey that has its target in Dark Shroud either from Shadowmancer or Tartarus or feated thralls would be hitting with effective P+S 26 with MAT 10, and Slayer with P+S 24.


Kreoss
- Vanquisher
- Crusader
- Dervish
Vassal of Menoth

I was expecting opponent would play pure pop & drop. But I was wrong.

I'm not sure if opponents list was that disgustingly overpowered but surely Kreoss was more than suitable of countering half of Goreshade's annoying aspects: Mage Blight.

However, I'm not too experienced Goreshade player. Somehow I was thinking that opponent would be hell-bent on getting to knock down all my stuff just _because_. I was out of his charge range at all times so it was foolish for me to spam Mage Blight, I should have gone Shadowmancer all the way.

Because I didn't I lost my Slayer during the first rounds of both players circling each other, trying to find a way to charge in without losing the game.

To cut that I decided to rush everything forward, come hell or high water. I camped 5 focus on Goreshade. I think I could have camped all 7 because my helljacks didn't move that much after all because I really wanted to stay out of Crusader's charge range.

That maneuver allowed me to charge Goreshade to Vanquisher next turn, feat my Bane Thralls up and charge Kreoss with them.

I did try overkill though.

I ran Deathwalker as far forward as I could but was about 1/4 of an inch too far for giving Kreoss -2 defense. Also, Bane Lord Tartarus charged in and after charge he tried to curse Kreoss. Tartarus' Line of Sight to Kreoss was blocked by my Nightmare and Goreshade so he couldn't do a direct charge and because of that the Curse fell about two inches short.

So I had to take care of Kreoss with only my Bane Thralls and only 3 of them were able to charge him.

Luckily the second one hit home and one-shotted him with an amazing damage roll. It was something like 6,6,5,5, give or take.

So with lucky rolls there's no need to do any of those unsporting shenanigans... just charge in with feated thralls.


Game 2:


Well, then in next game I took a bit more pictures because there was less proxying around and more painted models on both sides.

I was playing Venethrax tier 1 list:

Venethrax
- Seether
- Slayer
- Stalker
Pistol Wraith

And opponent did:

Epic Kreoss
- Crusader
- Castigator
- Dervish
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon

Opponent won the starting roll again (I'm starting to think it's somewhat rare for me to win that roll...)

First picture is from the end of opponents second turn but before my second turns.

Pistol Wraith is on the rightmost hill. It flies forward and shoots Crusader to Death Chill.

Venethrax allocates three focus to Slayer, upkeeps Dragon Slayer and sits with three.

Venethrax uses his feat when he is activated and tries first to shoot Vilmon (who's in Impervious Wall) with Hellfire. He manages to hit but scores only one point of damage to Vilmon. Venethrax is then left with no focus.

Slayer then charges Castigator and attempts to Combo-Strike the snot out of the burning machine. Well, things could have gone better. Castigator had Defenders Ward on it. Slayer misses the Combo Strike and misses second attack too though it needed only 5's with two dice to hit it. Last attack hit home but dent only the mighty beak of the monstrosity.

It was obvious then that I'd suffer the full force of epic Kreoss' feat next turn. I really wanted to take lessen my sufferings so I tried to charge Vilmon with my Seether. Even if Vilmon was impervious I could get my Chain Attack on him and throw him away and knock him down.

The Devout model there is proxying Dervish.

Somehow (dunno if it was because of devout's halberd) I thought Dervish had reach too. That's why I moved my stalker to block charge line to Venethrax. In the end I only lined up a perfect feat turn for epic Kreoss...

In a picture you can see here.


Kreoss charges Seether, uses his feat and wrecks it with his Armor Piercing attack and the extra attack generated from the feat. Extra attacks bought against Slayer dealt some damage but now looking back at the game they should have probably been camped on Kreoss.

Castigator then wrecked Slayer. Not much to tell about that.

Dervish then charges my Stalker and uses both Side Steps to come into contact with Venethrax who had to suffer 3 attacks then. Damage rolls weren't impressive though and the Lich Lord survived.

Vilmon charged the Stalker and finished what Dervish began.

Pistol Wraith aimed its shots at Kreoss and dealt some nice damage.

Then Venethrax moved a bit and skewered Vilmon with Wyrmbane.

Then he launched fully boosted Hellfire at Kreoss. Final damage roll you can see in the picture. Dead Kreoss.

Year 2010 in painting

I think it's rather appropriate for this blog to tally my whole years painting of models.

So I can beat that number next year!

This year began slowly. I wasn't until May-June when I got to paint again more seriously.

It bothers me somewhat that I didn't keep a good track of Talisman and Touch of Evil playing pieces.

I painted about 10-12 Touch of Evil figures but the exact number is unknown. I could shed a tear now.

For sure I painted at least 9 Talisman figures too but the exact number ranged again from 9 to 12 because I might have had a few Talisman figures left to paint from the Frostmarch expansion.

Anyway, Warmachine/Hordes are available in detail.

It took me four months to paint the Megalith and Lich Lord Asphyxious.

Then my painting speed slowly built up and now, after I'm done writing this I'll put some final layers of matt varnish to last models I can paint this year.

So for Circle Orboros I painted the following models:
Heavy Warbeast Megalith
Unit 6x Tharn Bloodweavers
Solo Wilder
Warlock Cassius & Wurmwood

For Skorne:
Units: 4x Paingiver Beast Handlers & 6x Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment (2 pieces)
Solo Bloodrunner Master Tormentor

And for my main faction, Cryx:
Helljack Corruptor
Solos: Warwitch Siren & Satyxis Captain
Warcasters: Lich Lord Venethrax, Lich Lord Asphyxious
Unit Attachment Bane Thrall Officer & Standard Bearer

Hollywood Talisman

Okay, now I officially admit this playing of Talisman was weird.

The characters that were drawn for start were the evil Wizard and good Elf. It was a two player game. We used the Sacred Pool alternative ending to speed up the game a little.

Well, the game started.

Wizard started to develop very early in game, gaining strenght and craft nearly every other turn. He also found the Runesword that's kind of an iconic weapon for evil characters. In other words... Wizard seemed very threatening and invincible. Elf did try his best but was no match for the evil villain!

Elf did one thing better. He completed many warlock quests while Wizard was struggling to find a certain type of enemy to complete a quest of his.

But at one point Elf dropped to only one life and started the annoying dodging of threats and trying to get healed. But it was to no avail... Elf finally died at the Portal of Power. Can you imagine the good elf grasping for the huge and menacing door that leads either to saving the world or destroying it but finally succumbing to foes that surround him?

Well, another character was drawn to replace the elf.

It was the Swashbuckler. A good hero with an adventurous attitude. Elf, his dear friend, had obviously sent a message to him and called for his help to stop the evil, omnipotent maniac wizard!

Wizard had amazing statistics, obviously way out of range for Swashbuckler to confront directly. But still Swashbuckler gained manageable statistics for himself pretty soon. He completed all the required warlock quests to start running for the Crown of Command. However, his strenght and craft were so bad that he would pass Crypts or Mines only with real good luck. Wizard was still trying to get 4 discarded quest rewards even when his powers were otherwise enough to start running for crown.

One of the quest reward for Swashbucker was to gain all spells he could possibly have. That meant 3 spells. One of them was Toadify that makes a creature you're engaging in battle a toad with Strenght value of 1.

At that instant Swashbuckler started to run through Dungeon in order to fight Lord of Darkness. If it would be turned into a toad victory over it would have been certain. If Swashbuckler won and took the Cloak of Feathers and would've been teleported close enough the Portal all the while dodging the evil wizard... there would have been a chance.

But then.

Classic evil wizard almost guaranteed victory for him! The LAST quest reward that he needed not only made it possible for him to start running for the Crown of Command, it also turned Swashbuckler into a toad in the middle of dungeon! There was absolutely nothing to be done to wizard and his plans of enslaving or destroying the whole world!

Except it took a few turns for Wizard to arrive to Portal of Power. And Swashbuckler was lucky and didn't lose even a single life while he was a Toad. He also managed to pick up all of his things with a lucky movement roll and he was 12 spaces away from Lord of Darkness' treasure chamber.

Well, you know how just at the brink of victory all evil villains start to make weird, unexplainable mistakes?

When Wizard reached the Mines he failed the roll to get through and was teleported back to Portal of Power, buying few desperate turns more for Swashbuckler!

But Swashbuckler didn't get too good rolls. Wizard was nearing the end. He did botch Mines a second time but saved it with use of his last Fate.

When Wizard was at the Pits Swashbuckler was 9 spaces away from Lord of Darkness.

When Wizard was only one move away from victory Swashbuckler was 4 spaces away from Lord of Darkness and it was Swashbucklers turn.

Swashbuckler rolled for move. 5.

Then he cast Toadify on Lord of Darkness and succeeded in turning him into a toad.

Then he cast Bolster on himself which gave him an additional die to be added to his battle combat roll.

Then the Lord of Darkness and our daring hero, Swashbuckler, start the fight!

Even while Lord of Darkness is ridiculed when he has been turned into a slimy toad he puts up a fight and rolls 6 for his combat with his strenght 1!

Swashbuckler had Strenght value exactly 7. If he would beat the Lord's combat roll by 8 or more he would be teleported to Crown of Command there and then, no questions asked.

But that meant that he needed to roll at least 8 with 2 dice. That's a bit above average which makes it distressingly unlikely.

However, Swashbuckler rolled 9!

So, just as the evil wizard was climbing stairs, at the last step before gaining ultimate power, Swashbuckler appears out of nowhere and is teleported to the Crown of Command and all wizards schemes fail and goodness wins in a dashing style!

That game could have been filmed into a movie or something.

Wizard had Craft 9 versus Swashbuckler's 7 and Strenght 8 in battle versus Swashbuckler's 7. On top of that because of Runesword and one warlock quest reward the Wizard had 6-8 lives, don't remember exactly how much but above normal maximum.

So, victory for Swashbuckler!

25.12. Smallworld in Kuhmo

Probably last game of Smallworld here in Kuhmo finished now unless we find enough time in tomorrows hurries.

Anyway, we used Tales and Legends again.

The cards that were in effect through the game were:

2. White Queen (obviously not affecting anything at turn 2...)
3. Puff of Smoke
4. Philter of Forgetfulness
5. Wealth Redistribution
6. Tough Love
7. Youth Powder
8. Necromantic Elixir
9. Mercenaries
10. The Great Curse

Game began with Commando Orcs butchering up some Lost Tribes, scoring 7 points for first round which was quite unusual.

I managed to pick Flying Amazons and was that combo horrible... Sure! But did it leave other players feeling I was "winning" the game? Yeah, I think so too.

Dragonmaster Wizards attacked the orcs and left the ugly guys in decline pretty much there and then.

Orcs were replaced by Diplomatic Elves.

Philter of Forgetfulness caused races in decline not to score points on round 4.

That caused Flying Amazons to go to decline too, replaced by Fortified Trolls. That trend was followed by the wizards too, who in turn got Peace-Loving Ghouls around.

Trolls wreaked havoc on the remains of wizards and ghouls were feasting on amazons. The Elves were pretty much left on their own because, well, you can't do much to them.

Wealth Redistribution didn't affect anyone because all the races - Ghouls, Trolls and Elves went in decline that turn. Obviously the upcoming card, "Tough Love" that gave commando ability looked like a promising aspect to all the players...

Well, on round 6 there were Stout Sorcerers (previously Fortified Trolls), Marauding Goblins (Elves earlier) and Bivouacking Humans (ghouls) bidding for some tough love.

Some love fell for the Sorcerers.

Goblins killed all the trolls, though. Sorcerers dealt a payback: 4 elves killed and 5 regions conquered.

Ghouls shuffled away from farmlands they had been roaming in and there was a disgusting alliance of humans and in decline ghouls.

Well, next was Youth Powder in effect. I had my Stout Sorcerers who could go in decline after their full turn of activations. And Youth Powder gave extra points if you went in decline that turn, so the choice was easy.

Other players started scoring about 10 and over points at that point.

I chose Alchemist Tritons as my next weapon.

Necromantic Elixir was auctioned to goblins who went in decline instantly at that turn. Heroic Dwarves was another chosen race.

Mercenaries made it possible for Tritons to beat the humans' teeth in even when they had their camps around in there. Same went for humans too, though. The one and only farm I managed to get was conquered easily back. Also, a collaboration of necromantic goblins and heroic dwarves with mercenaries caused me to lose 4 of my 6 in decline tokens.

Last turn had the Great Curse in effect.

It meant that no-one could use their special power badges, though racial bonuses still applied.

Not much happened, dwarves continued to expand and humans and tritons bickered themselves. In the end the scoreboard was:

Dragonmaster Wizards/Peace-Loving Ghouls/Bivouacking Humans: 83
Commando Orcs/Diplomatic Elves/Marauding Goblins/Heroic Dwarves: 80
Flying Amazons/Fortified Trolls/Stout Sorcerers/Alchemist Tritons 69