Taking another shot at magnetising

Well, ages ago I posted a picture of my so-called "omni-jack".

I haven't touched that project for ages, because I wanted to get Malice magnetised in the same go.

Now I got Malice and here is a picture of all the pieces: (don't mind the pig)



This assemble can be played as either a Slayer, Reaper or Malice. I have constructed a Corruptor from earlier Helljack box.

The souls that were to be attached to Malice made me go with two bases. I wanted the defining soul pieces to be present in my Malice, but it would be too difficult and probably ugly to magnetise them all to basic chassis.

Now, Malice will go on the epic Asphyxious mimicking base and other variants to snowy base.

I'm quite happy how it all turned out. Currently I'm painting the chassis, I'll probably take one more shot when all the pieces are painted.

Now I'm worried about the new leaked promise of another character jack coming up in Wrath expansion... If it's yet another upgrade pack I wonder if I need to do a third base...

Bronzeback Barbeque

Well, it just happened that we played another game with the same friend in Vassal pretty soon.

It was a 35 point game and this time I was sporting my sorry Hexeris:

Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Thrullg
Totem Hunter
Aptimus Marketh
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Orin Midwinter

And my opponent had:

Feora
- Reckoner
Avatar of Menoth

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard
Visgoth Juviah & Honor Guard
Knights Exemplar
Madelyn Corbeau
Wracks
Vassal of Menoth

It looks like my earlier win on the starting roll was just some exception so that I couldn't be sure if some messed up law of karma looks over it. I lost the starting roll.

Anyway, opponent thought it to be more advantageous for him to let me start.

Bottleneck map didn't look too promising regarding Feora's feat but I rushed everything I got forward.

Right flank included nearly all the solos, Totem Hunter (who's prey was Madelyn Corbeau), Thrullg and Bloodrunner Master Tormentor. Center of the map had Praetorian Swordmen and Orin Midwinter.

Warbeasts, Hexeris and beast handlers dragged on a little bit.

Opponent moved Reckoner and tried to shoot Thrullg who was far away and had the benefit of cover from a building. Missed.

Avatar ran at the left side of map and Flameguards backed off from Bloodrunner Master Tormentor. Can't blame them, really. All in all opponent seemed to try to make me come to a bad position. And I guess he succeeded in that?

Well, on my turn I come as much forward as I dare with everything, trying desperately to maneuver my slow warbeasts. Or, well, basilisks aren't that slow but they're not a real threat to Reckoner or Avatar either.

Not much to tell about that turn. Soul Slave was on Bronzeback and Death March on praetorian swordsmen. Opponent had cast Hex Hammer and was upkeeping it.

Then opponent started activating stuff. And I got a short but painful lesson on Juviah Rhoven's stealth ignoring action. Reckoner shot both Totem Hunter and Bloodrunnes Master Tormentor away with it 2 focus and Ancillary Attack from Vassal of Menoth.

Avatar picked up some potatoes in the fields, probably waiting for an opening.

Feora cast a Wall of Fire to protect Flameguard. Everything else shuffled closer.

Then it was my turn. And, well, Skorne delivered the pain.

Hexeris was the first one who activated. He moved as close to the enemy as he could, used Dark Dominion and launched a hit-roll boosted Obliteration at closely packed flameguards and knights exemplar, killing two knights and three flameguards who in turn killed a couple flameguards, one knight exemplar, a wrack and Madelyn Corbeau.

I left Hexeris sitting with one fury.

Then Orin Midwinter killed two more flameguards with a chain lighting who turned around and poked some remaining knights exemplar.

Basilisk Drake sprays one flameguard who turns around and kills the last one of his unit. The last flameguard tries to kill even more exemplars but fails there.

Then I decided to charge with Praetorian Swordmen. Two charged Avatar on the fields and two Reckoner, others didn't have any targets in range.

A lucky damage roll (5,6,6) dealt 7 points to Reckoner, after which the swordmen in question side stepped to Choir of Menoth and killed one of the choir boys. Choir boy turned around and tried to beat the priest but didn't score a hit. What a shame...

The ones who charged Avatar dealt automatic 1 point to it.

So, my round of slaughter: 10 Flameguards, 3 Knights Exemplar, Madelyn Corbeau, one Choir Boy and 4 points of damage dealt to Avatar and 7 to Reckoner.

But then it was opponents turn to punish me back.

Avatar trampled one swordman dead. Then Feora activated and cast Blazing Effigy on engaged Reckoner. Suprisingly, it was no longer engaged and 3 more swordmen died. Then she advanced a bit and used her feat, getting under: 6 praetorian swordmen + officer, Hexeris, basilisk Drake, Bronzeback Tital, two beast handlers, Thrullg and Orin Midwinter.

One of Rhoven's honor guards kill the flaming praetorian who was engaging choir. After that choir sings battle hymns to Reckoner.

Reckoner then charges Bronzeback Titan. After spending 3 focus on mauling it the bronzeback was still standing with 7 damage boxes, all branches still intact! Well, vassal gave Reckoner Ancillary Attack. Which dealt exactly 7 points of damage. So I lost my heavy hitter, Reckoner in middle of my army with all models getting -2 to attack rolls while within 2" of it... nice.

Anyway, my opponents round of slaughter: 8 praetorians, Bronzeback, Orin Midwinter, 3 points to Thrullg (still on fire) and 3 points to Hexeris (still on fire).

Well.

Crushing that Reckoner took the combined efforts of everything I got. Thrullg, Drake, enraged Krea and Hexeris all beat it down.

Remaining Praetorians didn't manage to do anything and Aptimus had to run to protect Hexeris from nearly clear charge lines.

Opponent then killed one praetorian swordman and Aptimus Marketh and moved all other models away from Feora's charge line.

Feora activated and cast Engine of Destruction.

To Hexeris' defense I must say that he made Feora buy an additional attack, initial attacks didn't kill him though he had taken 5 points of damage earlier.

So, it's a loss again for Hexeris...

But I don't feel that bad because the game was pretty awesome. This is the first game I've played where Hexeris' feat actually was useful as it resulted in deaths of at least 1 knight exemplar, Madelyn Corbeau, 4-5 flame guards and a wrack.

Also, opponent managing to pull out Engine of Destruction assassination... well, I guess everyone needs to experience that even once during WM/H career.

Quite a hellmouthful

We played a game of Warmachine in Vassal today with a friend who lives some hundred kilometres away.

I knew I was facing Protectorate and being an "imaginary set collector" I obviously picked up Cassius the Oathkeeper as my warlock because he's the only one of my currently played warlocks/warcasters who haven't played against Protectorate.

My list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd
- Argus

Tharn Bloodweavers
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Lord of the Feast
War Wolf

And opponent had:

Epic Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation

Maximum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Knights Exemplar
Maximum unit of Bastions
Aiyana & Holt
Exemplar Seneschal
Madelyn Corbeau


Apparently I have better chance of winning starting rolls if I play in Vassal.

The map had a little forest in one side and I decided to deploy there though generally that side would have been worse for Protectorate's slow moving force. But I just didn't want to depend solely on my Swamp Gobbers for protection.

I had spread my army wide, though I must confess, it's still difficult for me to get the hang of Fury value of 6. No other warcaster/warlock I have ever played has had that low magic score...

Anyway, I don't have pictures now to demonstrate anything.

But first round both closed in a bit yet staying out of range of anything that can be expected.

However, then on my second turn I tried to do the unexpected things.

I used Argus' animus on Lord of the Feast, teleported it close to enemy lines, threw Raven at Bastions and placed Lord in the back arc where it caused a terror check on Ayiana & Holt and obviously used the 360 degree thresher. Attack rolls, however, weren't too favorable. Lord even managed to miss one Bastion. Neither of the prime targets, Aiyana or Holt weren't even hit, though Bastions did soak up 10 damage points in total.

Megalith tried to cast Stranglehold on nearby Fire of Salvation but failed to damage it.

Then about everything I had huddled into the smoke cloud Gobbers had put up.

There was Megalith, Woldwyrd, Wurmwood, Cassius, Argus, one of Bloodweavers and the gobbers of course.

Opponent moved Errants closer and started taking shots at Wolves of Orboros, killing three of them.

Fire of Salvation ran to back up the Errants, moving as far as possible from Bloodweavers who were able to dispel the armor buff Fire of Salvation had.

Sneaking and skulking Knights Exemplar charged Lord of the Feast with fatal results. Fatal to Protectorate, though.

Two Exemplars managed to deal only 6 points of damage, which meant one bastion and Aiyana & Holt were still engaged.

Aiyana & Holt tried to disengage by killing the horror but didn't succeed.

Finally opponent had to dedicate Knight Exemplar Seneschal to kill Lord of the Feast, who finally put the final blow in.

Bastions who were finally freed only advanced a little.

Opponent had positioned himself rather badly and I was about to prepare a huge onslaught of the most utter carnage ever seen in the games of Warmachine. However, had I counted all the rolls of 1, 2 or 1, 1, 2 the soaring numbers would have been hilarious.

First, my Bloodweavers charged nicely lined up Bastions and butchered all but one of them. That was about the only thing that worked out.


Megalith cast Stranglehold on Fire of Salvation and managed to damage it. Then it was slammed away, the bugger, but slam distance was 1, meaning there was no collateral damage to nearby Exemplar Errants.

Then I pulled an awesome Hellmouth shenanigan. I had 11 fury so I advanced, took tree with me and Unseen Pathed Cassius in front of the tree, in range to cast one attack roll boosted Hellmouth at tightly packed Knights Exemplar. I got all 6 under the template.

Only 3 of them died.

On top of that earlier, before the feat, I had brought Woldwyrd forward and shot Exemplars twice. RAT 6, pow 10 versus defense 12, arm 15. No casualties.

Well, I didn't feel too disappointed then yet. I cast Unseen Path and used Cassius' feat.

Only after I charged Wolves to Exemplar Errants. I used Power Swell just in case. However, even with MAT 8 & P+S 9 + 4d6 only two Errants died though five Wolves got into contact. No, opponent couldn't deny me target by cleverly picking models with their Self Sacrifice. I just rolled that badly.

Opponent's turn.

Seneschal and Holt kill three Bloodweavers.

Epic Kreoss uses his feat that indirectly butchers two more Bloodweavers and six Wolves of Orboros. All in all it could have been a lot worse.

Then was my try to deal as much damage as I now could with my thinned out forces.

First of all things looked delicious as Cassius was within 8" of a Bastion who had lots of people within 3" of him... I launched two Hellmouths against it. Obviously the other one missed though I needed only 5's to hit.

All in all, Master Holt, one Knight Exemplar and Knight Exemplar Seneschal "died".

Sole surviving Bloodweaver killed Madelyn Corbeau and Argus launched itself against Bastion and Seneschal next to it. It ate Bastion which revived Seneschal, whom it bit too and killed him... again.

Remaining Wolves of Orboros didn't do anything else except tied up Errants. Fire of Salvation was beat up by War Wolf and Megalith so that only 5 points in column 4 were left.

(Still it hit Megalith back for 6 points of damage...)

Errants mopped up all remaining Wolves except the Officer. Kreoss started camping up all his focus.

The last Knight Exemplar charged Argus but didn't manage to hit it.

Then on my turn Argus frenzied. My beasts had run too hot and I couldn't leach everything away. It had tasted human flesh and no amount of the stuff could suffice any more! Triple 1's in damage, however. Nearbly Bloodweaver had to charge and kill the exemplar.

Well, then Cassius was pulling off shenanigans at the Errant front. Wolf Chieftain standed nicely in the middle of errants.

So Cassius got all the souls from Wurmwood and cast off Hellmouth at the chieftain.

Three errants got under and all the damage rolls were boosted because at this point I had lost any and all faith on "lucky" (ie, average) rolls. All except Chieftain, of course. Who actually survived the blast!

Anyway, after Megalith crushed Fire of Salvation opponent didn't really have much in terms of gaming pieces. Kreoss, three errants and Aiyana.

On opponents slow-grind turn errants did nothing but Kreoss killed Argus.

Now we're going fast forward: Megalith advanced and managed to cast Curse of Shadows on Kreoss. Bloodweaver next to him did some damage. Errants were reduced to soil.

Then Megalith, after dismantling Fire of Salvation, went off and finished Grand Exemplar Kreoss. First boosted attack roll was 6, 6, 6. Damage roll from charge was 5, 6, 6. Kreoss was left with 2 hit points. Next claw and one boosted damage roll later game was over.

Anyway. Damage rolls were pretty amazing. I'm almost inclined to think there's something wrong in electronic dice... I mean... I even won the starting roll?

Also, rolling next to nothing but 1 & 2 for one whole turn was rather distressing. But I sure love Cassius' play style!

Justice is served when sisters fight it out

Wraith Witch Deneghra versus Major Haley!

Need more to be said? Well, the lists involved were:

Deneghra
- Nightmare
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Orin Midwinter
Ogrun Bokur (Deneghra being the client)
Warwitch Siren
Satyxis Captain
Skarlock

and

Haley
- Thorn

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Cyclone
Stormblade Infantry + Unit Attachment
Arlan Strangeywayes
Squire
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Need I even say that opponent won the starting roll? Also, pictures include lots of proxying until the real blues arrive to the stage.

Anyway, I was like, super-scared of Eiryss (it didn't help much that I supposed it to be the prime version), but I still felt courageous enough to not give any focus to any warjack and ran Deneghra as much forward as you can see in the picture.

Satyxis Raiders didn't move too much and I built up a strong loathing of Cyclone in the first round of the game.

Ripjaw ran into the forest, helped by Ghost Walk from Skarlock and Power Booster from Warwitch.

I felt that I needed at least to try to make a situation where I would be quite able to counter Haleys feat with Deneghra's.

However, opponent didn't close in and maybe it was for the best, eventhough I was plain in the open I was unassailable enough without the use of Haley's feat.

Well, as I had all of my options available I tried to cherry-pick some key models from opposing army by sacrificing my Ripjaw, who was again Ghost Walked and Power Boosted (warjack support that's nearly Protectorate-like!)

I was too afraid of losing 4 focus for nothing so I tried to play safe and cast Hellmouth so Eiryss was dragged into it. The elf just didn't die, though. She was left alive with just one wound. All I ever got out of sacrificing my Ripjaw were three dead Stormblades.

As much as I would have loved to launch my Satyxis to tie up opponents entire army I just had to resort to charging some random models I could see. In hindsight running would have been a lot better options as I could have tied up Eiryss (now I was half an inch short). The only one who actually got to make a charge attack missed the Stormblade officer.

Well, opponent backed up still. Haley dominated my Ripjaw and brought it to middle of her army. You can guess the result even if you can't see the wreck marker in picture that clearly...

Stormblades assaulted Satyxis and three of them got killed. Then Cyclone messed up the charge lanes of my beloved Satyxis again so they did very little in my turn.

As I couldn't force opponent to use Haley's feat yet I rinsed & repeated what I did earlier. Ran an arc node somewhere in there and cast Hellmouth on Squire. This time results were devastating. Haley lost 10 health boxes as well as Cyclone lost its marshal.

I really hoped sacrifices were worth it as now I didn't have arc nodes any longer (well, theoretically I had but I just couldn't make myself believe Nightwretch would survive for a turn...)

Come next turn.

As expected, Nightwretch was reduced to scrap metal and Eiryss repositioned herself.

Nightmare charged remaining Stormblades and killed them. Satyxis ran to tie up opposing forces.

Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Orin Midwinter who advanced full distance he could and took cover from wall. He cast Null Magic and Haley was well in range.

Then I ran Deneghra fast forward, camping all 7 focus she had.

Ogrun Bokur positioned himself so he could offer his generous shield to any of the 2 solos and a warcaster close to him.

Well, then.

First off, Arcane Tempest Gun Mages move or aim for taking shots at Orin. One could move so far that it got a clear shot at Orin without him gaining cover.

Shot hit home and Ogrun Bokur did what it gets paid for. Luckily, though, as damage roll was enough to kill Orin nearly twice.

The other two missed their shots, scoring just enough to miss by one.

Then it was time for me to nealry pee my pants.

Eiryss came in, needing 9 to hit Deneghra in woods she managed to roll enough.

Off went her 7 focus.

Then Cyclone lumbered forward in rough terrain of my former Ripjaw and rolled 5 initial attacks. Orin was in cover, though, meaning Cyclone needed double 6's to hit.

It didn't hit.

So Haley backed off, unable to move her with Telekinesis beyond the linear obstacle and then charging off focusless Deneghra.

She didn't use her feat even now. I don't know if opponent forgot about it or if there was an evil cunning plan of sorts.

But anyway, here's what happened.

Warwitch ran somewhere in there.

Deneghra charged the warwitch and used her feat. She had allocated Nightmare three focus earlier. Then she cleared some models with one Hellmouth shot in the back of Arlan Strangewayes (who didn't even die from it).

As we later saw whole clearing wasn't even necessary - Nightmare gaines prey movement bonus from nearby Thorn and 11" + reach was more than enough to get Nightmare to Haley.

However, as the distance wasn't that clear Nightmare charged Arlan instead. I really didn't want to fail a charge completely. But as it happened, one initial attack and two focus were enough to punish Haley for her invincibility in the backstory.

Embrace the irony, too. Nightmare ripping Haley in two halves.

Epilog: Villains humiliate heroes more than once

Today we played two cooperative games of Touch of Evil. We played two because, well, we got time before my friend had to catch a train, reason behind a new game wasn't as embarrassing as yesterday.

Anyway, on to the game reports!

Game 1:

Delion Dryad versus Isabella von Took and Anne-Marie the School Teacher.

This game isn't any longer in fresh memory.

Isabella started faring on her own early in the game. She got a crossbow from monastery items and the burning censer, meaning she rolled 6 dice against the Living Trees and if any roll was 6, additional hit would be scored. And because of her special ability to ignore wounds by spending Investigation she became a whirlwind of... well, wooden splinters? And didn't knock down not even once during the whole game.

Anne-Marie wasn't that lucky. She started out quite well and managed to get enough Investigation to get one book and the torch from town items but then she started getting knocked down and losing investigation other ways.

Honorable mention of being absolutely hilarious is awarded to Doctor Manning. Manning scored three secrets from different sources and last one came from Lies and Deceit, meaning they were all revealed. But all were good secrets or little secrets.

Then the mystery card Traitor's Blood was drawn and the responsibility to kick a town elder in front of attacking villain fell to Anne-Marie, who was already short on investigation markers. Doctor Manning died there.

Then, not many rounds later, double 6's were rolled in cooperative chart and behold! Doctor Manning stumbles back to life.

Later stages of the game Traitor's Blood was drawn again and the only elders remaining were Lord Hanbrook (Honor 6), Sophie the Midwife (Honor 5) and Doctor Manning (Honor 2). Choice wasn't too difficult as you lose as much investigation as the one you choose to be killed has honor.

Doctor Manning, dead again.

And then Anne-Marie performs Blood Transfusion, bringing him back to life.

To complete the story of Doctor Manning I go a bit ahead in the chronology. Doctor Manning had only one enchantment token from Delion Dryad when showdown started. He was designated as the one who needed to test if he was enchanted.

Of course he fails it and turns into evil elder.

And he dies third time in the showdown. Doctor died three times during the game by the heroes hands.

Anyway, the shadow track was already in the red zone when all 6 living trees were on board, meaning a rapid dropping of shadow track in the future. Also all wolves were on board too.

As a future mental (or now, electronic!) note you really need to dedicate someone to kill minions with Delion Dryad. There aren't that many wolf tokens and only six trees too. It's an illusion to think that wolves are easy and there's always time to chop the trees down.

Anyway, shadow track reached the spot 1 when heroes managed to start the showdown and Isabella had to start it alone as Anne-Marie had been knocked down earlier.

Isabella did pretty impressive damage on Dryad, though. She managed to stay around for two fight rounds and got insane amounts of dice both times and brough Dryad down to 6 wounds before she succumbed to the brambling vines and other nasty things.

Dryad had 21 wounds. Had Anne-Marie only been there even for just one fight round things could have been different...

Game 2:

Volgovian Nutcracker vs. The Scarlet Shadow & Heinrich the Drifter

Game against the Nutcracker was really a game of highs and downs as well as awesome storylines.

The Christmas Caravan started at the Crossroads, which is exactly the same space where Heinrich starts his game. A lone drifter comes to town exactly the same moment as the menacing caravan... I can't bring myself to believe it is a coincidence!

Scarlet Shadow rolled 6 for his move in the first round and opted to go to Inn to get some investigation easily. Which he did. He drew a card where he had to make spirit + honor test 6+, gaining 3 investigation from all 6's rolled. He rolled 4 of them.

Heinrich rolled well for his move too and got himself to the Inn too and that was quite story too... heroes meeting for the first time in the Inn, two outcasts who sense all is not well with the caravan.

Then Toy Soldiers are spawned in the Inn and they knock Heinrich down and shoo Scarlet Shadow away too because he didn't dare to risk getting knocked down. Bar's closed!

After this the game went pretty weird.

Both heroes raked in amazing amounts of investigation points and the shadow track speeded down like crazy too.

For example, it was quite early in game when the shadow track moved to new stage TWICE in the same mystery phase, meaning that four monsters were spawned!

Scarlet Shadow was also possessed by a demon that attacked him in the Monastery, by the way. His game after that was almost fighting an enemy on his own turn and fighting again some other enemy that happened to spawn on him during the mystery phase, getting knocked down but still beating the monster. So he got nicely investigation points too but there was little other character development.

Heinrich, on the other hand, got insane amounts of investigation points. He did have the Party Invitation which made him gain some investigation every time the event from the villain chart was rolled but somehow he just couldn't stop himself from getting richer and richer. At one point he even bought Silver Bullets and Pistol in the same round and was still left with lots of investigation!

But as has been noted, the game was fast and brutal and heroes were in hurry to start Showdown.

Scarlet Shadow started it by using Old Map he had bought.

Magistrate Kroft proved to be a huge asset in this fight as he had Inner Strenght, was Reluctant Hero and the villain was a Construct. He seemed to have been swayed by the staggering amount of leads Heinrich got and assisted as well as he could... also, by playing right cards and everything we really got Heinrich rolled a whopping 17 dice where every 6 rolled dealt additional hit.

Well, only 1 six was scored and the rolls were pretty lame otherwise too.

Also, heroes didn't have any kind of wound preventing events or other cards.

Villain rolled well enough to kill both heroes with just one blow.

Combined efforts left the Nutcracker standing with 13 wounds, which wasn't really a heroic effort.

Victory for the villain seventh time in a row!

Interlude: Werewolf beats some heroes in lack of better things to do

Continuing board game streak here in Hankasalmi we played two games of Touch of Evil.

We played two games because we lost the first game on the second round of the game. How it happened: Tide of Darkness spawned 2 Feral Kins to South Dock and Monastery. Second round: Suprise Showdown at North Dock.

Heroes involved were Katarina the Outlaw and Morgan Harlow. Morgan was beat in the first round of the game but Katarina survived because she had found the dog ally from Olde Woods.

Because we didn't find a real answer if Katarina could escape to Forgotten Island we decided that the same rule applied to retreating to Forgotten Island as retreating from it. That meant Katarina needed to roll 4+ to be able to escape. She didn't.

She survived another round, however. Tried to escape again. Didn't.

Game 2:

Because we lost so embarrassingly the first game we decided to play another with the same heroes and same villain because the first try couldn't even be called a game.

That game went on for quite a bit longer.

Morgan managed to get Tools of Science early in the game and someone drew an event that raised Katarinas combat rating to 3. Beating Feral Kin wasn't too hard, but there was one Rat Nest that deserves a mention.

First, Morgan goes to clean it with 5 combat dice. He is knocked down eventhough he had 4 wounds.

Then, on the same round, Katarina tries to continue the job Morgan had failed. She even used her Book of Riddles to add her Cunning to her combat, giving her 8 dice. No wounds to rat nest.

Rats slowly gnaw Katarina to one wound remaining and Katarina decides it's best to retreat as the game ends when all heroes are knocked down.

Soon after this Morgan starts to get amazing amounts of investigation points. Some mystery events had placed quite a lot of cards to discard piles already so it was time to see what all could be invented from a horse and a map. We found out that they're enough for a sabre, a book and a woodmans coat.

Then things went awry. Shadow Track was there in like 11-12 so we decided we're aiming to start Showdown as soon as possible, especially because we drew the card "Something Wicked" that gave the werewolf +2 wounds every 3 turns and lowers the shadow track by 2.

Next turn, all hell broke loose.

Even after few Lies and Deceits we had two promising village elders free from the taint of evil and no evil elders, though one was dead.

One Lies and Deceit later we got four evil elders, two of whom had the Darkest Secret. We counted the total combat and total wounds Werewolf had and we were not happy. 13 dice in combat and 26 or so wounds.

We managed to buy the Lair. It happened to be the Forgotten Island and we were hiding in the village squares.

Both heroes tried to run to manor to use the secret passageway but to no avail. Just in course of very few round the shadow track went from about the middle of the track to zero.

Heroes didn't even get to the showdown.

"No-one ever gonna steal my gold any longer"

Two-player talisman just finished.

Leprechaun and Prophetess were duking it out this time with random ending.

I'm trying to be brief now, but Leprechaun found the Amulet (immunity to spells) on about second or third round of the game that put a hold on Prophetess' spell recycling.

Prophetess did find Shield of Defiance for her. However, very early in the game she visited the enchantress and managed to roll twice 1, turning into a hideous toad!

She dropped the Shield of Defiance and Leprechaun was more than happy to pick it up into his filthy pockets.

Character progress was slow and both characters fooled around without gaining anything decisive. Point of interest was when Prophetess found Holy Relic and Leprechaun found Profane Relic, making them somehow oppose each other.

Both completed a few warlock quests and picked up rewards, it was nice to see that that new feature is quite usable.

Prophetess got good statistics faster than Leprechaun and had used a spell to dominate a strenght 9 monster to be used in next battle. Before that she had used beast tamer to tame a strenght 2 animal for her. That was +11 strenght in next battle. So no wonder that Prophetess started to look into dungeon...

Leprechaun managed to find himself the +1 strengh & craft ring and Unicorn that gave same bonuses in subsequent turns. Prophetess didn't make it any less, though. She had 9 followers including Defender of Justice and Tunnel Fighter. When we count in the +11 from dominated beasts, lucky charm roll of 6 and a few strenght rises and magical objects she rolled a whopping combat roll of 26 against Lord of Darkness (yeah, she managed to dodge all battles in dungeon!), meaning even if Lord rolled 6 for his combat she would still win the battle with at least 8. So off to the Crown of Command she went, even without a Talisman.

Well, we played random ending and it proved to be Battle Royale.

Leprechaun would have probably bitten the dust without the following disturbingly broken combination of items: Shield of Defiance (if a character attacks you you will have equal total strenght of craft if you have them too low), Sword of Truth (if you roll lower than your opponent in battle your result is changed to 6) and Amulet. That meant Prophetess couldn't manipulate Leprechauns objects with spells and in battle where Prophetess attacks it would either be a stand-off or a victory for Leprechaun because their total strenght was the same and if Leprechaun rolled less than opponent it would come out as a 6.

Leprechaun had Craft 9 versus Prophetess Craft 7 also so she couldn't realistically win even using Craft (in Battle Royale everyone can decide which stat to use).

Anyway, the jolly Leprechaun won the battle.

Angels of Death don't deliver the end as well as Genestealers

Played a game of Space Hulk: Death Angel today.

It's a card game that depicts the desperate struggle of Blood Angels space marines in a space ship infested with alien lifeforms known as Genestealers.

We had four players and we picked the flamethrower team, librarian (with the clever brother Scipio!), lightning claws and battle cannon.

Game play was pretty awesome. Of course I can't know if every game has as many turning points and close calls but first impression the game gave me was good.

Story of Brother Scipio was hilarious. Background story tells how he is clever and survives by staying one step ahead of genestealers. All he did in the game, however, was pushing the open/close button of the door zone.

Game went quite well for a long time until just in one round something like three space marines died. I was playing the librarian team and lost every member of my team too but event card showed off it was merely a flesh wound.

Flamethrower and battle cannon saved a lot of situations and I can't remember all the situations where we had to optimize every possible special powers just to survive and at how many points we had to resort just to a lucky roll.

But once we lost a few space marines too much things went pretty desperate (just as it should be). We lost all but two terminators, the Librarian who was carrying Artefact and battle cannon marine, when we entered the last room with the win condition for the game. It appeared that we were in some sort of launching room... I'm not sure if there was some kind of nuclear detonation or an escape pod to be launched there but it was nothing short of epic the situation there.

First the battle cannon guy moves to the control panel and slams down his fist on the launch button, trying to roll 0 on dice (the dice had numbers from 0 to 5, by the way) but it just doesn't work. Librarian pushes the battle cannon terminator asides and hits the launch button repeatedly yet still nothing happens. Approaching genestealers rip battle cannon carrying space marine to pieces and the librarian survives only because of the artefact he's carrying.

Then next round librarian cannot use "move + action" card because he had used it last turn. But he had the support card left and it happened so that on the other side of the gaming table there were dozens of genestealers and on the other side spawned only one. So those dozens of genestealers would not attack because of special ability of librarian teams support card.

But the one who spawned on the other side of the board... Librarian needed to roll at least 2 to get one more chance of pushing the button, needing a roll of 0.

Well, roll was 1. Librarian killed.

Now on the hindsight I should have actually placed a Support Token on the librarian that could have been used for a re-roll! How sad, kinda... because though it's awesome when the bad guys win it's still even more awesome when team wins in odds like this.

Anyway. Genestealers won. The only surviving space marine terminator was Brother Scipio, who was left pushing the door closed and open in some earlier part of the spaceship. Even genestealers ignored him because they didn't detect any kind of form of life from him.