Update 25/10

Hail!

Maybe you've noticed that I've changed the title from "Weekly Update" to well.. Just "Update". I haven written theese on a weekly basis ever, so I decided a new title were in order.. AND TADA! "Update" was born. I've considered giving it some cool and hip name like "Hate's Corner(fag, lol)" or "Blood and Hate", but I'll stick with "Update" for now.

So, last weekend we started of our new Pathfinder campaign. It was awesome, you can read about what happened in my friends' reports of it. I play Malfeitor, a tiefling. I've been thinking of following my comrades lead and also write a gaming log from Malfeitor's point of view. We'll see about that in the future. To summirize what happened.. We went to Lavinia, a woman who requested our help. She wanted our help to get a signet ring so she could enter her family vault and collect some much needed money. The signet ring was on a boat, belonging to Lavinia, but the boat had gone rogue (or something along those lines..). So the party ventured there to get it. Gold, our party witch seduced one of the two men who guarded the boat, while Malfeitor killed the one left. Under the cover of obscuring mist, cast by Malfeitor, they boarded the boat. Everything went to battle mode, and we ended up killing everyone, including a spider-ant (Ragahassa or something?). We found the ring and returned it to Lavinia. We followed her to her family vault, and solved some puzzles with her to get in. Then we got paid and was offered a permanent job. An offer the party accepted.
The next day they got another assignemnt from her, to find her brother. The party went out and questioned a dwarf who apparently had something to do with him, who Malfeitor killed after interrogating. That was an extremly short summary.. So, please read what the other players have written if you're intrested.

In my campaign the party have gone to the underdark. Sadly, I've lost my motivation and inspiration for DMing at the moment so hopefully we'll be able to put that campaign on hold for a while. The latest games have been very slow, and the party pretty much die in every encounter. So it's hard to keep up a good pace. But well, we'll see what happens.

And that is all for this update.



Ave Victoria!
/Hate

Payback at Bärnstensvägen! Ogre Kingdoms & Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos & Dark Elves!

Battle Report - Payback at Bärnstensvägen
Having been utterly humiliated, the Tomb King Erik has decided to reclaim his lawn with the help of the mercenary ogre band of Chaos Grinders, lead by the cruel Tyrant Sköll, to kill the Chaos Warriors.
The Chaos Warriors leader Hate however shall not be found unprepared for their assault, and creates an unholy pact with the sadistic Dark Elf Queen Philippa.

Note: Well, another friendly game in my gaming group. 2v2, one new player on each side. You'll see some grey minis and some proxying, but I hope you can stand that. It's the second game for one of the new guys, and the first for the other! So I hope you don't mind.
If you really do mind, and can't stand the sight of grey minis or proxying, then please don't read any further.
If you don't, then feel free to go on reading ^^
The teams are Ogre Kingdoms and Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos and Dark Elves, 1500 pts per player.
The proxies are a a Troll proxying a Irongut, and 3 Tomb King Chariots as well as a Warsphinx proxying 4 Mournfang Cavalry.
Oh, and we play the alliances as trusted, but we can't be arsed using the fragile alliance rule. We simply ruled them as trusted, so we won't have any rules-questions mid-game.

Pre-game interview:
Ogres - Tomb King (Bone Gnawers)
What is your game plan?
Erik: Not to die as fudging hard. Just like last time. Hopefully things will go better with the Ogre pawnch.
Sköll: I'll be true to my faction and follow my gut feeling. Ohyeah.
Me: So basically, Erik does what he always does while Sköll kills everything?
Erik: Yeah, pretty much. My plan is to stand there and get hurt while Sköll manages to hurt the opponents.
*Sköll giggles*
Me: Okay...

What are your hopes?
Erik: Yet again not to die as fudging hard, maybe even with the slight possibility of winning, depending on the Ogre hitting power.
Sköll: I just want to make Erik happy.

What are your fears?
I'm not even gonna bother to write Eriks answer because you already know it.
Sköll: To get too many hits in my guts.

So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
Erik: Ironguts go kill the Hydra and Chimera while Leadbelchers shoot the soft parts (extrahandweaponguys and the likes) or some annoying Dark Elf sh*t. The Skeleton horde goes anvil while Tomb Guard stand beside them and try to do something... for a change. Necropolis Knights go butthunting from beneath the sands, possibly to kill the BIG UNIT. Oh, and to kill the Dark Elf Sorceress, so I'll be able to do ANYTHIIING with my MAGIIICCSSSS!
Me: Anything to add Sköll?
Sköll: I'll just make sure to follow orders, so I'll get paid later.

For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
Erik: So yeah, my favourite unit is my Skeleton Horde, because it's painted and beautiful! However, they don't do anything (Me: So skeletons are just like the goggles? Lol.) So I'll just hope they'll survive.
Sköll: My favourite unit is the Tyrant (proxied by a Butcher), because he's fudging bloody and got a cool sword. I hope he'll kill something for dinner.

Chaos Warriors - Dark Elves (Team Satan)
What is your game plan?
Hate and Philippa in unison: To win.
Me: Anything more specific..?
Hate: Well, to destroy... annihilate... eradicate... obliterate... exterminate... and purge.

What are your hopes?
Philippa: To win!
Hate: Victory.
Philippa: And hopefully it'll go well.

What are your fears?
Hate: Philippa.
Philippa: Darn it. Oh well, that's usually the answer to that question...
Me: Any real fear then?
Hate: As in the opponents? Well... no.
Philippa: I'm fearing they'll kill my Hydra. I mean... it's my Hydra...

So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
Philippa: I got a Hydra. Other than that, I really don't know.
Hate: No not really. I haven't faced Ogres before, so I made a pretty generic take-all-comers list.

For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
Philippa: Corsairs. Heh, nah just joking. Hydra. I mean, Corsairs are good-looking, but Hydra. And I hope he'll feed until he's full. Oh, and I like my Cold Ones too!
Hate: I would say my Chaos Lord. The very same that in the previous battle had the Eyes of the Gods upon him, even though he only was a meager Exalted Hero. And he still got his Juggernaut.
Me: So what do you hope he'll achieve?
Hate: Is that even a question..? To kill is the answer. Bloodshed.

Lists:
Ogres:
Lord:Tyrant w/ Ironfist, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Gut Maw, Giantbreaker - The General
Hero:Bruiser w/ Dragonhide Banner, Ironfist, Heavy Armour, Battle Standard Bearer
Core:6 Ogres w/ Ironfists, Full Command
6 Ironguts w/ Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame
Special:4 Leadbelchers w/ Thunderfist
Rare:4 Mournfang Cavalry w/ Heavy Armour, Ironfists, Full Command

Tomb Kings:
Lord:Liche High Priest lvl4 w/ Dispel Scroll, Scroll of Mighty Incantations
Hero:Tomb Prince w/ Armour of Silvered Steel, Dragonstone Pendant, Great Weapon - The general
Necrotect
Core:48 Skeleton Warriors w/ Shields, Spears, Full Command
15 Skeleton Archers
Special:20 Tomb Guards w/ Full Command
3 Necropolis Knights w/ Entombed Beneath the Sands
Rare:Casket of Souls

Dark Elves:
Lord:Supreme Sorceress lvl4 (Shadow Magic) w/ Sacrificial Dagger, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Darkness
Hero:Master w/ Armour of Darkness, Crimson Death, Cold One - The General
Core:20 Corsairs w/ Additional Hand Weapon, Full Command
16 Crossbowmen w/ Full Command
12 Spearmen w/ Full Command
Special:Cold One Knights w/ Standard Bearer, Dreadknight
Rare:Hydra
Chimera (We let her play the Chimera because why not?)

Warriors of Chaos:
Lord:Chaos Lord w/ Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Helm of Many Eyes, Sword of Bloodshed - The General
Hero:Exalted Hero w/ Battle Standard Bearer, Armour of Silvered Steel, Additional Hand Weapon
Chaos Sorcerer lvl2 (Lore of Fire), Powered Familiar
Core:15 Chaos Warriors w/ Mark of Tzeentch (MoT), Shields, Standard Bearer
15 Chaos Warriors w/ Additional Hand Weapon (AHW), Standard Bearer (Banner of Rage)
Special:5 Chaos Knights w/ Mark of Khorne, Standard Bearer

Pre-game:
Mission: Battleline.
Roll for magic:Tomb Kings has the Killing Blow Spell, the Protection Spell, the Attack Spell, the Movement Spell.
Warriors of Chaos has The Piercing Bolts of Burning, Fireball.
Dark Elves has Enfeebling Foe, The Withering, The Penumbral Pendulum, Pit of Shades.
Terrain:The terrain, with a pretty hydra in a pretty garden:


Deployment:
Roll-off:
Team Satan wins the roll off and lets Bone Gnawers deploy their first unit first.
The Casket of Souls is deployed on the northernmost hill.
Team Satan insults the other team ("JUMP IN YOU FUDGING FOOLS!") while placing 15 MoT Warriors rather south, about 6 inches from the south hill.
Bone Gnawers places Skeleton Horde with Tomb Prince very centrally.
Chimera flies down close to the northern forest.
Skeleton Archers march up diagonally behind the Horde (And I dare assume this is to cast support magic).
Chaos Knights go to support the MoT Warriors, south of them.
Tomb Guard with Necrotectare placed on the other diagonal from the Archers (for moar support magics).
Crossbowmen walk up next to the Chimera. (And by now, it starts looking like it will be Tomb Kings vs Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos vs Ogres... It seems pretty split up).
Ogres with Tyrant and Bruiser get's deployed straight forward from the Chaos Knights and MoT Warriors.
MoK Warriors then cover the Knights' other flank. Either that, or they'll just be in their way, it seems to me.
Leadbelchers are the next to get to the battle, positioning themselves south of the generic Ogres.
The Hydra gets driven forth in front of the house's garden (in which it is standing in the terrain picture. Personally I just think it wanna go home there again, but the mean Tomb Kings chased it out of there!).
Suddenly, wild Liche Priest appears! In the archer unit. Wow, I'm so surprised.
Hate deploys the Lord on Juggernaut in between the Chaos Knights and MoT Warriors, as a part of the Knight-unit. Straight in the sight of the Tyrant with Giantbreaker. Awesome challenge ensues.
Ironguts are placed on the other side of the woods from their fellow Ogres.
Corsairs are the next up, getting placed... Wait what, they are placed on the CHAOS SIDE OF THE BATTLEFIELD OMG! This is actually the first unit to be placed this way, every other unit has been grouped up with their brethren. And the Corsairs are straight ahead of the Ironguts.
Next skeleton chario-- err, Mournfang Cavalry, are placed (in an attempt to imitate the Dark Elf feat) beside the Tomb Guard. Not sure what they aim to do though. Kill the Chimera?
Now, only Team Satan have units left to deploy.
Exalted Hero go hugging the MoK Warriors. El wizardo of chaos goes to assure the Crossbowmen act nicely and join their unit. North of the Chimera, Dark Elf Spearmen move into position with their Supreme Sorceress while Hate goes searching for his family. I mean familiar. And then the Cold One Knights with Master place themselves even more north. Though what they're doing there I have no idea. They'll stand no chance against the Mournfang...


Team Satan win the roll for deciding who gets the first turn, and decide that Bone Gnawers go first.

Turn 1 (Bone Gnawers):
Movement:
Forward is a good song by Angels and Agony imo (We go forward, forward~). Also, it well describes what happens. Skeleton Horde, Archers and Tomb Guard go forward. This is also true for generic Ogres, Leadbelchers, Ironguts and Mournfang Cavalry.
Magic:
Roll is 6 - 3, Casket of Souls grants 1. So 10 Power dice, 6 Dispel dice.
First spell in the air is the Movement Spell, successfully cast and moving the Skeleton Horde, Tomb Guard and Archers even more forward.
Next up: Extended Protection Spell, which is dispelled by Philippa.
Casket bound spell kills 2 Spearmen.
Shooting:
Leadbelchers, go! Firing at the Chaos Knights, but three wounds does not manage to kill any of them.
Skeleton Archers kills two Crossbowmen.
Close Combat:
Nope.


Turn 1 (Team Satan):
Movement:
Charging attempts!
Chimera say ROAR and tries to charge the Tomb Guard. A swiftstriding 17" seals the deal.
And yet again everything goes forward. Except for Cold One Knights, who just wheel a little and then back up away from the Mournfang. The Supreme Sorceress' Unit seeks shelter in the woods, while crossbowmen simply hold their ground.
Magic:
4 Power Dice, 3 Dispel Dice. Powered Familiar grants another Power Dice, and so it's 5 vs 3.
First cast is Power of Darkness, granting 1 extra dice. 6 Power Dice, 3 Dispel Dice.
Pit of Shades is then cast on all 6 dice, but is promptly sucked up by a dispel scroll.
Shooting:
Crossbowmen fire their awesome volley of bolts at the "clusterf*ck" as Philippa lovingly described the Skeleton Horde. Pew pew! Actually, that's a lot more pew than I thought. 4 Wounds, and three 6+ saves saved later, 1 Skeleton die.
Close Combat:
CHIMAERARAREARAREA gets attacked. 13 attacks, and 6 of them wounds as Philippa begin to despair. However, saves keeps the Chimera alive with one wound. The Chimera exacts vengeance by killing 4 and then stomping 5 for a total kill streak of 9. Combat resolution kills another 6 of the Tomb Guard. Sweet.


Turn 2 (Bone Gnawers):
Movement:
And now is the charging turn.
Mournfang charge the Supreme Sorceress and spearmen. Generic Ogres charges Chaos Knights. Ironguts charge corsairs.
Mournfang fail though. Ogres fail too. And even so the Ironguts.
EL CHARGOS DE LA MUERTE. 'Cept notrly.
Skeleton Horde shuffle forward, while Leadbelchers moonwalk to the side in behind the forest.
Magic:
6 - 1, Casket give 3. 10 Power Dice, 6 Dispel dice.
First off, the Attack Spell on the Tomb Guard, with 3 dice. All 6 Dispel dice go to stop it, and stops it indeed.
Next up, the Protection spell. Fail by 1 point, and concentration is broken!
Luckily, the Casket is there to provide a Power Dice dump, killing another 2 Spearmen.
Shooting:
Archers and Leadbelchers fire at Crossbowmen and MoT Warriors respectively.
Archers down another 3 Crossbowmen, while Leadbelchers fail to do anything at all.
Close Combat:
Ohshiiit, will the Chimera make it? Erik rolls... One wound exactly! AND THE SAVE FAILS NOOOOOOOOO! Chimera dead.


Turn 2 (Team Satan):
Movement:
Charges:
Chaos Knights charge the generic Ogres. Personally I'm in favor of this, to witness the Chaos Lord facing the Tyrant. Ohyeah. And they succeed on their range! WOOH!
Regarding the movement, Hydra does not go back into its garden as I wanted it to (My friends tell that it's a naughty Hydra :c ), but instead choose to go alongside the fences and BURN THE SKELETONS! KILL THEM WITH FIRE! It actually ends up just an inch beside the Skeleton Horde, so they won't be able to charge it. Nice.
Sorceress' unit backs away from the Mournfang. MoK Warriors move up to the fence and spy into the garden at some unsuspecting pretty flowers. Cold One Knights does some weird side-dance.
Magic:
3 - 1 (again). Power of Darkness gets dispelled.
So it's 3 dice vs 2 dice now.
So what do you do? You do a IRRESISTABLE MISCAST PIERCING BOLT. At the Skeleton Horde, killing 6 of them.
Now for the miscast. Magical Feedback, 'tis, causing one wound on the Sorcerer and Sorceress.
Shooting:
Hurr durr Hydra flame. S5 Flame hitting 32 models. Wait wat. Eight of the dice are 1's though, so only 24 of the Skeletons die. And few of them remain.
Let's see if the Crossbowmen can keep up with the efficiency of the Hydra then.
Well, no. 3 wounds caused, three 6+ saves saved. Erik got some luck yo (except for that broken concentration thing, but oh well..).
Close Combat:
Lord challenges the Tyrant, who has to accept! Tyrant takes one wound, and is now punching back. I feel like the Lords demise is near. But the Chaos Lord saves both of the S7 wounds he got. So the Juggernaut bites back, adding another wound to the Tyrants lost wounds total.
Now for the units: Warriors roll their attacks with a grunt of disapproval from Hate, and to wound with a short shout of disapproval. And horses bite too. But they actually manage to slay two Ogres, who cannot into killing (i.e. they kill nothing!).
And Ogres break! And get run over, wat?! Well... That's the Ogres, and Tyrant.. And Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer. Yeah...


Turn 3 (Bone Gnawers):
Movement:
Charges:
Ironguts fail their charges yet again, stumbling forward. Mournfang Cavalry too. Hurr durr... Is it just me, or is the Cold One Knights / Mournfang Cavalry flank war pretty lame?
Anyways, the bold Tomb Guard charge the Hydras flank! Excitement!
Leadbelchers turn towards the Chaos Knights.
Magic:
12 Power Dice, 6 Dispel Dice.
First up, Extended Protection Spell with a barely success! After some consideration, they decide to use their Dispel Scroll instead of dispelling.
So a movement spell is cast, and dispelled by 2 dispel dice.
Now, the Killing Blow Spell, and it gets through. Some Skeletons are raised, and this is followed by a Mighty Incantation-Attack Spell, Irresistably Miscast. Some wounds are regained, and the Liche Priest loses one wound.
Shooting:
Leadbelchers shoot they Knights they face, killing one of them. Sköll as raging at the damned Knights by now.
Archers however unleash a MIGHTY VOLLET OF (UN-)DEATH, killing two spearmen.
Close Combat:
Hydra handlers strikes! 4 attacks, 4 hits, 3 wounds, 2 dead. Fair, I'd say.
Retaliation! 1 Wound, saved, from the Tomb Guards.
HYDRA MAD! And by mad I mean killing Tomb Guards mad.

And now, with the Tomb Guard pretty much dead, the proud Tomb King finally realise his defeat and concedes. Bone Gnawers no longer see any chance to win this. They are severely weakened, forgot their Entombed Beneath the Sands and stand in a generally impossible position. The Hydra will Flank Charge the Skeleton Horde. Both the Chaos Warrior units are totally unharmed. Cold One Knights are too, and Chaos Knights pretty much. Ironguts won't handle the Corsairs and Chaos Warriors by themselves. So it's a concede.

Redux: What do you consider your biggest mistake? What have you learned?
Erik: No forgetting Entombed Beneath the Sands. Use Halbers on Tomb Guard. But they killed a Chimera. I'm proud of them.
Sköll: I held back too much, no holding back. I need to go for the guts, with the guts. I'll have to move farther ahead, and not being afraid of getting charged. The Mournfang Cavalry showed this very well.
Hate: I made some wrongs in the first magic phase. We should have done better and thrown some fire magics. I've gotten some basic understanding of Ogres. And Hydras are good.
Philippa: Hydra.

In my opinion though, this battle was won by some excellent manouvering more than dumb luck. Sure, some luck was had on both sides, but in the end the manouvering, particularily that of the Hydra to kill the Skeletons and keep the Mournfang away was the game-winner.
However, most importantly of all, the Hydra returned home.

Ayna's Adventures - Part 1: The Gathering

Hello everyone! I, like my dear friend who posted just before me, is going to post the adventures of my character in our latest campaign know as Savage Tide.
I'm running a rather different character - It's a 8 year old girl named Ayna. She's an orphan, but also a Summoner. Being a summoner means she has connected with an extraplanar being and summoned it as her companion. She named this Eidolon Sunshine, and they've been living together since Ayna's father's demise, not too long ago...

One day, while searching through her father's study, Ayna found a letter. A letter directed to her father, asking him to come to Van der Borens mansion for a quest. Ayna reasoned with Sunshine what to do. She didn't have anything else to do, and with the adventuring tales her daddy had told her in her head, she ventured to the mansion to accept the quest in her father's stead, childishly naive. She was to meet with Lavinia Van Der Boren.
She arrived safely at the mansion, and knocked on the door, and a servant opened, surprised over the child riding the presumably exotic animal. At first, she would not let neither Sunshine nor Ayna in, but Ayna persisted. Not knowing what to do, the servant reasoned that she could let the child in to later have her go home, but the animal had to be kept outside. However, even Sunshine was let in when he spoke directly to the servant.
Inside the waiting room Ayna noticed two other persons, a fair woman and a scary-looking man with red eyes, a tail and horns. However, she didn't speak to them. Later, the servant returned, to let the other two in to meet with Lavinia. It was first now that Ayna stated her intention to join the quest too. The servant would have none of it at first, but after some more childish stubornness and reasoning she was let in. And after the meeting with Lavinia, the good-looking woman named Gold had allowed her to join the little party, though the scary uncle still was silent and mean and scary (though Ayna believed him to be kind inside).
The quest was a simple one: Go investigate a ship. Lavinia wanted a ring from it, a family heirloom that would grant her access to the vault her her deceased mother and father kept their money.
So with the cover of the night, they odd party consisting of Gold, the fair human woman, Malfeitor, the strangely wicked Tiefling, Ayna the child and Sunshine the Eidolon set out. The ship was anchored some good 30 metres from shore, so Gold lured one man into rowing her out to it, while sending Ayna to Malfeitor to tell him that Gold was on her way to the ship. Gold soon came rowing back though, alone in the boat, while Malfeitor killed the man's comrade who had stayed behind. Ayna didn't mind though, Sunshine had killed enough men to have her get used to it. These were bad people, and deserve not better.
While on their way to the ship, Malfeitor rose a magical fog to cover their advance from the lookout. When they reached the ship, Malfeitor was the first who go. Ayna saw him disappear while climbing up, and then heard a man scream before falling into the water. Then she climbed up with Gold, who was carrying Sunshine. However, as they reached the gunwale, Gold noticed a man, who noticed her. Gold let Sunshine hold on to the gunwale while she used her icicle dagger to stab the man and to pull him over, into the water. Sadly, her stab missed, and the man responed by firing his gun at her. She was hit in the chest, and fell down into the water. Ayna however climbed aboard along with Sunshine, whom she mounted while Sunshine killed the man. Malfeitor was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly came the captain bursting out from his cabin, and rushed towards Ayna and Sunshine, trying to vault them over the gunwale into the cold waters. However, Sunshine stood his ground and fought back, inducing som griveous wounds upon the captain. The captain quickly responded by once again trying to push the pair into the water, and succeeded. They hit the waters, but a severely wounded Gold quickly helped them regain their sense of direction and the trio once again climbed up. And there laid the dead captain, with Malfeitor just pulling his blade out of another, newly dead man. He had a crossbow bolt in him.
But the party did not have the time to rest, as soon a giant spider-ant broke free from the holds, and came up on deck. The party swiftly fled into the captain's cabin, and quickly looted it. Some PP was found, along with a note, and a secret locker they couldn't open. But for now, that wasn't their main problem. The monster outside was chewing off the mast and so Malfeitor along with Ayna and Sunshine ventured out. Gold was too hurt.
They quietly sneaked up to it, and Mailfeitor attempted to cast a spell to render it helpless. Needless to say, it didn't work, and the beast attacked them. Ayna and Sunshine fled back into the cabin, while Malfeitor jumped over and grabbed the gunwale, climbing quickly around the ship before dramatically crashing through the captain's cabins windows. The beast proceeded to try and eat it's way through the roof, but Malfeitor's sword made it realise that it was not a valid plan. So it returned bashing in the door instead, but Sunshine and Malfeitor were ready, dealing fatal blows to it. However, Malfeitor was severely injured and lost consioussness in the process. This was easily fixed with the potion they found the corpse of the captain carrying. They then proceeded to open the locker (whom only Ayna could understand the mechanic) and found the ring, before rowing back to shore. And somewhere along those waves, Ayna fell asleep upon Malfeitors lap.
When she opened her eyes the next time, they were at Lavinias house, with Ayna upon Sunshines back. She paid this no mind however, and went back to sleep.
The next time however, it was a giant snake that woke her up. She was in some cellar, possibly a castle one, with the group and Lavinia, and the snake had bit Malfeitor. They all backed out however, except for Lavinia, whom wasn't attacked by the beast. She even managed to repel the great snake with her ring while Gold told Ayna that they now were in the vault where Lavinia had her money. Lavinia however was shit-scared of this, and couldn't solve the puzzle to grant her access, so the party had to follow and help her, much to Malfeitors dismay. But some puzzle-solving later and the chamber was there, filled with the gold Lavinia needed to pay for the quest the party had finished as well as paying her debts. But the warm back of Sunshine still had its charm, and Ayna drifted into sleep once more.
When she woke up, she was lying in Golds bed with Sunshine. It was still early morning, and Gold had yet to wake up. That said, Ayna was the one who woke her. They started of the morning by spending more than a hundred gp each on jewelry, clothing, shoes and sweets. The clothing Ayna and Gold bought was identical for that matter, and Ayna was quickly growing attached to the young woman. However, after the initial fun of the day, Ayna remembered that Lavinia had said something about hiring the party permanently, and they ventured to Lavinias mansion. They arrived a short while before Malfeitor showed up. Ayna quickly ran to hug him, and indeed did, before Malfeitor pushed her away. In Aynas eyes, he is indeed a scary uncle, but also very tough and cool. But he can't be a meanie.
The same servant as the day before met them though, and Lavinia came soon after. She led them to the dining room where they would speak of the next quest up, while being served tea and cookies. But Malfeitor was only sitting and crumblign the cookie to pieces, and Ayna told him that cookies should be eaten! Malfeitor simpled threw the crumbs in her face, and Ayna got scared. Lavinia, however, talked about her brother who had gone missing after ending up in some "bad company" and whatnot, and she wanted the party to find him, and his name is Vanthus. Aynas imagination went wild with the name, and swiftly changed it into house gnome, and asked Lavinia if he indeed was a house gnome. She replied that no, her brother is not a house gnome. Malfeitor on his hand however whispered in Aynas ear that Vanthus was in fact Santa Claus. That very moment, Aynas resolution grew humongously when she realised that they were going to save Santa Claus. Gold smiled at Aynas childish innocence and imagination, while Malfeitor smiled at god knows what.
Nevertheless, the party set out. Ayna and Sunshine were left home however while Gold and Malfeitor were investigating, but some hours later they came and picked her up, and they all went to meet with the dwarf Panchi. At first, he refused telling the party anything, saying that he had a bad memory and needed a little "reminder" to refresh his memory of his latest encounter with Vanthus. Gold gave him a good reminder in the form of a pain-inducing spell, and the dwarf was suddenly more cooperative, telling them that Vanthus had travelled west with a ship filled with lamp-oil. Gold then proceeded to lead Ayna out, because Malfeitor was going to further question the dwarf. Ayna simply glared at the dwarf through narrow eyes, and said "That's what happens when you're bad to Santa Claus." The dwarf, in his pain, was very confused over the child and her magical beast indeed. Ayna then asked if the dwarf was a bad man, and Gold replied with "Baddest of the bad." So the dwarf is a really bad person.
Malfeitor came out soon though, and the party returned to update Lavinia with the news before continuing with their quest by returning to the dwarf, whom had begun packing to flee his place, which was not part of the plan. However, Malfeitor had interprented "stop the dwarf" as "kill the dwarf", and as the group entered the house, Malfeitor made short work of the dwarf's throat.

And that sums up our first session of Savage Tide and the first part of Ayna's Adventure. See you next time!

Hail!

This last weekend has been superb! First a great battle between Chaos Elves and Tomb Ogres and then the starting of SAVAGE TIDES! Playing the female witch Gold Davis, quite a new experience for me since I've never played a female before, but with months of research of how to play a girl I managed pretty well... ANYWAYS! As promised earlier, me and maybe some of the others will post the sessions from the view of their character. As Gold I've been writing a diary, which includes her backstory but you'll only get the two latest entries which contains the real gamesession. Well I guess that's it. HERE IT IS:







THE DIARY OF GOLD DAVIS

The 7th of March 1621
I went to the meeting as the letter told me… I must say that I’ve never encountered such strange things I met there. When I first came to the house the Halfling, Korra opened. She led me to a waiting hall where I met a very powerful magician, of course I didn’t knew it back then. He looks like a devil, red eyes, horns and even a tail! I don’t know what to think of him but I now know that he is a grumpy one, but I think he’s nice on the inside somewhere. After that a child riding a bird-dragon-horse entered the room. You wouldn’t believe how weird that was. I think the girl is about 7 years old. Her name is Ayna and she’s the sweetest you can imagine. Anyways, Lavinia offered us all a job, including Ayna and it was to recover a signet ring she’d lost. We went after it on a big boat and for the first time my seduction skills actually did something valuable, I charmed one of the evil sailors on the ship were the signet ring was said to be and out on the open water I stabbed him with my Icicle Dagger and killed him. Then I went back to get the magician, who’s name is Malfeitor and Ayna with her pet. Oh, I forgot to mention, the pets name is Solsken! Courageously we boarded the ship and Malfeitor killed most of the sailor with his sweeping sword technics. Like a dark knight he fell down from the sky and saved me and Ayna from getting killed at the gunwale. I got shot for the first time in my life, I’ve never endured such pain before, I screamed like a stung pig and Astaroth had to help me with the bandages. However… We killed the captain of the ship and were on our way with the ring when a giant spider-ant came up from lower deck and attacked us. Malfeitor lead us into the Captain’s cabin and there he slayed the beast. We went back to Lavinia and she took us to her vault where even I thought that she had cheated us, but she didn’t, she gave us our money and offered us permanent employment, Ayna also.

The 8th of March 1621
Today Ayna and I went shopping. We bought som jewelries and identical shoes and clothing. If Dad was alive I would’ve been married by now and maybe have a kid, like Ayna. She told me that her father died but I haven’t dared to ask any further about it, after all she’s only a child. Anyways, I think she likes me and I hope I raise her like a good mother would. Lavinia has given us a new task. We’re supposed to find her brother, who Ayna by the way think is Santa Claus… A child’s imagination, ey? The search is moving on pretty well and we do have some clues that will lead us to him soon.

Ayna and Solsken lives at my small resident right now but I think I need to buy a bigger place for the three of us. Malfeitor on the other hand doesn’t seem to live anywhere. It’s impossible to get to him but he always shows up at the right time. He’s a little scary and a very peculiar man I must say…

I’ll write in you as soon as I have the time.




Hope you liked it!

Sincerely, Sköll

Infinity, infinity, infinity!

Guess what has been on my mind the last few days?
That's right, INFINITY!
So I thought I could as well spend some time writing up a more in-depth analysis of Infinity for those of you interested.
So, here goes. Let's begin with the main fluff!



It's 175 years from now. Humanity has taken to the stars, and through wormholes have begin populating planets. Through the first wormhole went the ship Ariadna, to the planet Dawn, and that happened not too far in the future. It was a ship meant to settle Dawn, to be followed by others. It's crew consisted of, well, Scots (Highlanders), some Americans, and Russians (Kazaks). And they landed, made their best, and waited... and waited... For a ship that never came.
Meanwhile, back on earth, they had sent their second ship. But due to this field never having been researched before, they accidentally made the wormhole collapse, and the other settling ship disappeared. And if I'm not mistaken, this resulted in some very heave political and economical shifts on earth. The Asian alliance known as Yu-Jing, and the Oceanian new superpower of PanOceania rose up with the fall of Europe and USA. Even all of the Arabic/Islamic countries united under a single banner and became a greater power on earth, the Haqqislam (meaning New Islam, a new philosophical view that managed to unite the arabic nations of our time).
Meanwhile, the population of Dawn, calling themselves Ariadnan was busy surviving.
Then, back on earth, they advanced in the science of wormholes, and used it to populate the 11 more planets, for a total of 13, in what they call the Human Sphere. Indeed, the human technology advanced far. And with such a large area to keep check of, monitoring trading and such, how was it going to work out?
Well, no human was going to do that work. A supercomputer was going to do it. The ALEPH was going to.
The first true AI created by man, tasked with keeping check of the whole human sphere.
Meanwhile, the Ariadnans were busy surviving. Though I believe it was around now that they were re-united with the rest of humanity. Though by everone elses standard, these are no more than crude savages. Not even any hacking tech, no Thermo-Optical camouflage, pft... Anyways, they were back in the Human Sphere, with other humans and space travelling once more.
However, meanwhile the whole ALEPH-deal had some citizens upset. A supercomputer supervising them all and controlling their society? No please! These free people decided to leave the ALEPH-controlled planets, to travel the stars as free people in three spaceshipfleets, namely Tunguska, Bakunin and Corregidor. These are the nomads.
And then, some previously unknown alien federation attacked the borders of the Human Sphere. They are the Combined Army.

And that brings us to where Infinitys storyline currently is. And the factions are, as you might guess:
PanOceania, Yu-Jing, Haqqislam, Ariadna, Nomads, ALEPH and Combined Army.

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Now, let's have a little short introduction of the different factions!
PanOceania:
Usually referred to as PanO, and it's the big #1, the world's greatest superpower.
In the game, PanOceania has a higher than average BS skill (which, in a shooting-based game is a pretty important thing), but having a lower than average WIP (rendering them more prone to fleeing, and worse at hacking / discovering etc).
They also have quite good tier of tech, and the best of T.A.G.s, that is, big and heavily armoured big mechasuits (think Warjacks or Dreadnoughts... Or just, let's say, a japanese mecha, lol).

Yu-Jing:
Ah, the second greatest superpower, always seeking to take the grand seat from PanO. The Asian Alliance.
In the game, these guys have superior CC-skill (PanO's contender having the opposite skill as primary skill? Coincidence? I think not.), together with a big number of good Heavy Infantry. Also, they come with samurais and ninjas and shaolin monks and other cool asiatic things.

Haqqislam:
Not as big as the previous two, but still a force to be reckoned with nonetheless.
The New Islam has the higher Willpower, meaning that they are better doctors and engineers, as well as better to discover camouflaged units and less prone to shitting their pants. They also come cheap and with Hassassins (Did you know that the english word assassin came from an arabic word?), impersonators that'll easily do what assassins do best: Assassinations. Pretty sweet, eh?

Ariadna:
Next up, these guys! The settling ship who lost contact with the human sphere, and having problems surviving and getting along on their new homeworld, they tech did not advance. Alas, they are the low-tech faction of Infinity.
However, surviving has granted them better Physique than the other factions, and their bad tech renders them unaffected by Eletromagnetic grenades and Hackers, plus having cheap troops and a good deal of guys with camouflage! And not only that, but Scots and Kazaks are there too! Kilts!
And they've also got a huge variety of weapons, I have noted.

Nomads:
Ah, the guys I chose. These guys left when ALEPH took over in three ships/fleets. Tungiska, where the best hackers and infowar specialists thrive. Bakunin, where you trade in anything and everything legal and illegal, conducting experiments with and without moral standards. And finally, Corregidor, the former prison ship, where everyone is a hard worker! These three are the nomads, travelling around in space and doing their shit, not abiding by the will of ALEPH.
Their stats don't seem to go up anywhere special, but instead they are th infoward specialists of the game. Hackers and repeaters (mobile hacking zones) and remotes is their main thing.

ALEPH:
Ohyeah, the sentient computer has it's own army. Consisting mainly out of zonds and remotes, more than any other faction. I don't have much else to say than that. Sentient computer. Robots (really good looking too). SEXY SENTIENT ROBOTS.

Combined Army:
This is, to me, the most vague faction. It seems to be an elite army, with higher costs than usual (but with high costs comes good statlines), and they've got some unique armoury, being alien and all that. Unique weaponry with unique effects, and it being affected in other ways of the human weaponry and such.

However, it is important to note that unlike other wargames, your faction DOES NOT define your gaming style. You can go almost any gaming style with almost any army.
And also, this game is balanced. Very well balanced. You do not have to worry about bad units or bad army, because you're not going to find those.
That said, you may very well decide upon army based only on looks and background in this game. Keep that in mind.

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Lastly, I'll speak briefly of the game system.
If I were to describe it in one sentence... I'd say "Involving cinematic skirmish-sized wargame."

Let me explain it from scratch.
Like I said, it's skirmish-sized. Which means between 8 - 15 models, ranging in point values from 150 (small) to 300 (large), and unit costs range from 8 (standard crappy soldier) to 120 or something (a good T.A.G.).

It's based on a D20-system. Basically, roll less than your skill score, +/- modifiers, to succeed. Need to shoot something? Roll under your BS. Target far away? Apply a minus modifier to your BS, then roll under that. Target has Camo? More minus modifiers.
However... Every action has a reaction, and so, if the target sees you shooting him (which he in most cases certainly will), or perhaps even just see you wálking by, or placing a mine, or jumping between roofs... In short, if he sees you doing any action, he get's a short skill reaction (I'll get to skills later). And is allowed to react. In most cases it'll be shooting, by he can dodge, or go prone, or anything like that. That's why I called it involving.
Involving, because both players are active. The one doing the actions, and the one doing the reactions.
There's one thing called Face to Face rolls though, and that's when two models are acting against each other. Like Action - Shoot, Reaction - Shoot. Or Action - Shoot, Reaction - Dodge. What happens is that both try to roll below their relevant skill (with due modifiers), and the one succeeding by the smallest margin cancels all successes of his opponent. Simple enough, eh?

Now, to explain actions, reactions, long skills, short skills and orders.
Long list, but I'll try to be brief.
Actions: This is what the active player, the player whose turn it is. He who leads initiative.
Reactions: What the reactive player does, i.e. the player who reacts... to the active players... actions... yeah. I think you get it.
Long skills: Actions taking one complete order to consume. Cautious Movement is among these, but there are more.
Short skills: The most common of skills. Move is among these, shoot, CC, hack, dodge, climb and jump, among else.
Orders: Now this is the big one.
For every miniature in your army you recieve one order. These can be used to activate ANY miniature once. So you can go completely rambo with only one miniature if you want to... Though it might not be the best tactically (although it's a good T.A.G. tactic).
One activation consists of either two Short skills (one movement, and one of any kind) or a long skill. Movement skills are for example move, climb, discover, prone, jump, etc. And doing two move skills consecutive is allowed, though two non-move skills consecutive is not valid. So a Move-move (that's why the movement skill is split in two) is allowed, but a Shoot-shoot is not.
And that's why'd I call it cinematic. So many skills. You can go prone and crawl behind a hedge past three heavily armoured men (who'd shoot you if they saw you) to get up behind the enemies leader (who won't see you, therefore can't react), and shoot him. However, his armour might save him, and he reacts to the shooting by turning around. You decide to load another burst at him, but he too levies his weapons and fires back at you... Placing a bullet between your eyes.

I just find the image in my mind of it all so... beautiful, I think is the word for it.

And that sums it up for a beautiful game. Good fluff (though it takes a while to get used to it after all the OTT in Warhammer), good rules (involving, realistic), very balanced (Corvus Belli seems to know how to make a good game fair) and superb looking models, something I did not have the time to adress in this article.
So, a really great game overall!
Until next time, roll safely!
The CF.