talesfromthemanholecover

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Just popping my head back in here to say I have a last minute #zinequest3 offering up!

#zinequest3 #spelljammer #osr #d&d #kickstarter

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I’m moving off Tumblr and posting future updates on a self-hosted blog here.

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Really nice laser cut combat tracker I got from the Laserforge Etsy store. I might swap around the VP/CP dials since the upper one is more accessible and CP changes more often, but otherwise I’m very happy with it.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #etsyfinds #etsy #tabletop wargaming

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I made these datasheets in google docs for portability and easy of editing on the desktop. I’m scatterbrained so I need all my profiles, weapons, abilities and tactics in front of me while I play (and even then I still forget to use tactics most of the time.) 

Also includes the mini-campaign system from my earlier post. 

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #character sheet

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Lucius vs Necrons. Would have won this if I’d read the rules on holding objectives more carefully - an objective is only contested if there are equal numbers of models from each side within range, and I had the numbers.

The Necron leader went down on the first turn, but being a Necron, had a card to get right back up again. I made a steady advance early on, but my team was broken and all but wiped out by round 5.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #nurgle #necrons

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A quick sortie against the Tau.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #nurgle #tau

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After my recent game against an Eldar player, I’ve had an urge to make an Oldhammer Eldar Kill Team. When I was in school I bought these models off a local player from an ad in the paper, and painted them lovingly; but when I came to try them on the table it seemed that Guardians and Dire Avengers were pretty useless; back then everyone else played Marines, Marines always got the initiative, and I’d get one ineffectual round of shuriken catapult shooting off before becoming embroiled in close combat.

But in Kill Team both seem effective and fun to play, and the available squads match up nicely with these 80s sculpts, so I can make the Eldar warband I always wanted to make. I’ve re-purchased them, now I just need to find time to assemble and paint them.

I’m thinking Alaitoc Pirates, to explain the archaic and varied gear? And some of them are just going to be a challenge to fit to the stats - Belgae and Irbic I’ll have to call Rangers, treat their lascannons as rifles and their power armour as the Eldar equivalent of stealth suits.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #eldar #oldhammer #1980s

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Dwarf Girls

Dwarf girls are fun. Perhaps just because I like to play things against type, and the idea of a feminine version of a faction defined by a kind of gruff working class masculinity - all beer, axes and steelworking - appeals to me.

Above you can see Astred, my Dwarf Ironbreaker from the late Warhammer: Age of Reckoning MMO. One day I may assemble an all-female dwarf warband, so here are some candidates for future reference:

03413: Nalila Goldhammer, Female Dwarf Paladin Tom Mason

02063: Ametrine Earthlyte Sandra Garrity

03125: Bailey Silverbell, Dwarf Werner Klocke

03363: Dannin Deepaxe, Female Dwarf Werner Klocke

03293: Ursula Silverbraid, Female Dwarf Warrior Bobby Jackson

14082: Margara, Dwarf Mage Werner Klocke

AAB005 Female Halfling Adventurer

14531: Dwarf Standard Bearer Jason Wiebe

02978: Magda Mintsilver, Female Dwarf  Werner Klocke

14476: Gwyddis, Dwarf Valkyrie  Gene Van Horne

14518: Dwarf Forgemaiden  Jason Wiebe

14519: Dwarf Valkyrie  Gene Van Horne

14524: Valana, Forgemaiden Sergeant  Jason Wiebe

14085: Freja Fangbreaker, Dwarf Sergeant  Werner Klocke

14615: Skadi, Dwarf Goddess  Patrick Keith

77072: Bailey Silverbell  Werner Klocke

Viking Forge DW-09 Dwarf Swordmistress

#tabletop wargaming #tabletop roleplaying #dwarves #warhammer fantasy

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Jabberwocky

I have a vivid memory of being eight years old, tucked into bed by my grandmother in her guest room. The room seemed very grand to me, with its huge bed and decorative wallpaper, and its balcony overlooked the river where boats lay on silver sand, with names like The Lady Kay, which made me think of Arthurian tales and far-off places. The view was in the eyes of adults marred by a junkyard on the far shore, but to my eyes the mountains of twisted metal and looming dinosaurian cranes were equally fantastical. I’d wake to the distant sound of crashing metal and draw the curtain and look across the water and watch the great claw endlessly lifting and dropping piles of scrap.

But it was bedtime, and my grandmother was tucking me in, and I asked her if I could read to her a little before I went to sleep. I wanted to read to her from the Battle Bestiary, and I wanted to find in it something she could relate to. I knew that in the study nearby were old hardcover books of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, with beautiful John Tenniel illustrations, so I read the entry on the Jabberwock.

Ever since I’ve loved the Jabberwock as an intrusion from the world of  Alice, fairy tales and nonsense poems (my grandmother was also fond of Edward Lear) into the harsher numerical fantasies of Warhammer.

And now I’m finally painting one, to a colour scheme based on Sean Äaberg’s wonderful illustration from this poster:

But what is a Jabberwock? There are at least two Jabberwocks:

First, the "name without a thing", unseen by Alice, and there’s a delightful horror to this idea: You hear rumours of this monster, the Jabberwock, and everyone is scared of it, feels stalked by it once they hear of it - but the monster is the name, the rumour, and once you’ve heard it, it's alive somehow, inside your head...

And then there's Tenniel's wonderful beast; you can't illustrate the unimaginable, but this nonsense parody of a monster is the next best thing.

Often the Jabberwock is depicted as simply a dragon, as in the eponymous 2011 film. Even Rodney Matthews’ characterful depiction could easily be taken for one:

But the jabberwock is at its best and most sinister when there's an element of obscene humanity to it; the waistcoat; taunting Alice in American McGee's games about the fate of her family, playing on her guilt, weirdly petty and vicious.

Funnymouth’s Jabberwock is wonderful in particular due to its eerily human eyes:

In the Oldhammer community, Of Marauders and Citadels has some thoughts on the creature, and The Realm of Jinnai features one as part of a gloriously oldhammer goblin/chaos warband for Advanced Song of Blades & Heroes.

To round off this entry, here’s the picture and profile from the 1985 Battle Bestiary:

#jabberwocky #oldhammer #warhammer fantasy #1980s #nostalgia #alice in wonderland #monsters

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Dungeon Degenerates

We finally got around to playing Sean Äaberg’s gonzo punk low fantasy masterpiece last month. I was a little worried it wouldn’t play as well as it looks, but designer Eric Radey has come up with a system that is straightforward and evocative of old school RPGs, while also being fun to play with and compelling.

I’m a sucker for games which allow you to alter the world you’re playing in, so DD’s core mechanic of fluctuating danger levels in different locations, with the option to make a dangerous wilderness into a safer one, or even flip a haunted ruin into a thriving town and set up your home base there, combined with a CYOA-style tree of missions to play through had me hooked from the outset.

The Angel of Death and the Alley Cat, released from the dungeons of the Wurstreich on an errand for the jailer, go shopping at the Hunt Lodge and discover it’s less of a Hunt Lodge than a Crack House.

Having blown off the jailer’s errand, the pair slay the Bandit King and take his Watchtower hideout as their own. Sadly, they fell foul of the Witches of Witch Hill shortly thereafter.

The tower then fell into the hands of the unlikely alliance of the Banished Sorcerer and the Witch-Smeller, who ventured into the north and met their end at the hands of the vile Lord Scrott.

A new team assembled, the Void-Witch and the Rat-Catcher following the dubious leadership of the Dishonoured Knight. A prison riot gave them the opportunity to escape the jailer’s clutches.

Flat broke from their stint in the dungeons of the Bruttelburg, the trio went in search of a legendary treasure, which they pried from the fingers of this group of chicken-legged freaks.

Investing their new wealth in a merchant caravan, they set out to clear a way for it from Gutfish Ford to Pigskin Port, pacifying the Brute Lord of the Goblin City along the way.

As they approached the Bandit Camp, the next leg of their journey, the Hand of Doom fell upon it, and the land for miles around became a twisted place divorced from reality.

The “metaphysical” rule is one of my favourite rules. Places with the star-and-eye symbol are “metaphysical” - trippy, psychedelic places existing on the borders of reality. You can’t stop here - this is bat country.

How is this represented mechanically? In the simplest way imaginable: You have to be under a status effect to move there. Any status effect. You might be tired, and visit them in dreams; you might be poisoned or sick and delirious and hallucinate them; you might be in magic trance, depressed, or high on magic mushrooms.

Having pacified the bandit camp, they made their way to pigskin port, where their mission would have been over - but the Hand of Doom fell again, and the Temple of Madness itself rose up on legs and pursued them.

This was the final straw; our intrepid antiheroes decided to put a stop to the Hand once and for all. It was last seen holed up with two of its lieutenants in the Catacombs, so the trio made their way down to Bruttelburg and waited at the stagecoach station for the next sighting.

When the Hand moved to spread its baleful influence over Last Chance, the party were ready - but it moved on just as they arrived to confront it. 

So they pressed on to the Hell Pit, defeated the Brute Lord once again and took from him the means to summon the Hand, which they did upon the Blasted Heath nearby, and were able to banish it once and for all.

Thus ended the campaign, but fighting the Hand itself isn’t the only ending, and I’m looking forward to playing again and exploring the other paths and characters.

Playing this game was a poignant experience; as I mentioned in my post on the miniatures for the game, Sean has suffered a stroke and has a long road ahead of him in terms of rehabilitation.

There are so many cards in the box that you feel very immersed in this hilarious and grotesque world; the sheer quantity of art he did for this project is staggering, and it’s heartbreaking to think that he can’t draw like that anymore - though he’s practicing as well as undergoing intensive physiotherapy.

If you want to help support him and his family during this difficult time, you can donate to their GoFundMe, or just buy the game (and its forthcoming expansion) over at Goblinko.

#dungeon degenerates #goblinko #punk #board games #tabletop #spoilers #low fantasy

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Lucius’ first Kill Team battle, Terror Tactics against Eldar. A lucky first turn put three of his marines into close combat with the enemy leader, but Lucius himself was shot down on the first round and things quickly fell apart, despite the efforts of the cultists to sneak around to the left. The enemy leader survived close combat and fell back, so her men could cut the marines down with gunfire. The game ended with Brother Karnath being surrounded and beaten down by half a dozen Eldar.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #chaos #nurgle #slaanesh

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The Return of Lucius the Meatdrinker

Now that the official campaign is over, I decided it was time to play with a new team and a new set of campaign rules. First I brought back my Shadow War Armageddon team. Since they had cultists I couldn’t make them Death Guard, so I went with CSM and planned a build around the Icon of Despair.

Since I’ve planned out the upgrades in advance this time, I was able to include them all on the sheet with checkboxes to show when they’ve been purchased.

The cultists being Slaaneshi was fortunate, since their mark will also give a penalty to Nerve checks (albeit in very specific circumstances.)

Finally, I devised the campaign system:

The idea here is to have the simplest, most casual campaign possible. Each Kill Team has their own “theatre of operations” in which they are trying to accomplish particular goals - in Lucius’ case, those listed above.

Anyone I play against is an opponent in the campaign, as long as they allow me to use my experienced profiles. The outcome of the battle will affect my theatre, and theirs if they have one. Each theatre counts as a separate campaign with separate resource levels and objectives. You may be reduced to guerrillas in one theatre while winning the campaign in another.

The winner of the game (or in the case of a tie, both players) gets to claim an objective, if they wish. Though each objective claimed is worth 1VP, they must be claimed in order for each category, and their costs vary: The first costs 3 of the relevant resource, the second 2, and the third 1pt.

So if you win three games in a row, you could claim 3VP for 6pts, but at the cost of leaving yourself with only 2 points in that resource and vulnerable to elimination. If you lose the third game, your opponent might grab the 1pt objective. Alternatively you could spread the cost, but then you’re opening up a lot of 2pt objectives that other players might capture, and leaving yourself a little bit vulnerable across the board.

I wanted something that encouraged “pushing your luck” type decisions, gave straggling players a chance to catch up, and gave campaign resources some purpose and flavour. I still need to come up with some rules for things like what happens when the host is eliminated, or at he end of a four-player game. 

I’ll be playing a few games with it to see what works and whether it’s fun.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #chaos #nurgle #slaanesh

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I’ve been working on a new datacard/reference sheet system for Kill Team. I have a bad memory and worse handwriting so it really helps to have everything printed out in front of me.

So far it features different formats for Specialists and Fire Teams, space for Tactics and special ability reference, and checkboxes for tracking bonus XP from kills and Specialist Tactic use.

It was made in Google Docs so I can edit it anywhere and easily share it; later I’ll post a blank version for anyone who wants to fill it out with their team information.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming

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An extremely cautious game vs Deathwatch, trying not to get shot with Flak Cannons. I can’t recall whether this was a draw or a narrow victory.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #astra militarium

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Another campaign game; Capture Intelligence vs Deathwatch, a solid victory as I was able to take the objectives early and hold them.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #astra militarium

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A campaign game vs Death Guard. “Take Prisoners” is never a mission I’m confident with, but managed a tie, and would even have won if Hugo the flamer scion hadn’t run off on his own and been dragged off.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #astra militarium

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There’s a Kill Team campaign at the local GW store; while negotiating a trade agreement, Emmerich and his men found themselves cut off and isolated in the war-torn Verunhive.

His loyal man at arms, Henry LaFrenz, died in the sixth game, so Emmerich has had to step up and take on the mantle of leader, while Henry’s brother Wenzel has taken up his brother’s power sword and sworn revenge.

Henry’s figure is now Anatol Goldberger, a powerfist-wielding combat specialist for when we need something punched rather than shot.

#kill team #warhammer 40k #tabletop wargaming #astra militarium