A Minotaur Mess

I was inspired by Lou Rollins' recent post, A Harlequin Miss, about the restoration of a retro Eldar Harlequin miniature and decided to talk about a little project that I'm undertaking. I have had a Chaos Blood Bowl team on the workbench since the start of the year, back to when I made a post about basing some chaos warriors. My local league is currently finishing up its season for the Spike Magazine trophy and will start its Dungeonbowl season within the next few weeks. In preparation for the new season, I have resolved to finish my chaos team, The Brawnx Bleatboys. With my beastmen just a few touches from being complete, I only need one more player to finish filling out the team: a minotaur. The miniature that I've had in mind for my frenzied team muscle is an old Games Workshop minotaur from 1987 which is currently suffering under a caked on paint job that I gave it in that same era when I was in middle school. I thought that it would be fun and nostalgic to restore this miniature and put it back in to service on the table top. Before giving it a long Simple Green bath and stripping it down for a repaint, I thought that it would be fun to snap a photo for the archives. Stay tuned for a future post where I'll show the final results alongside of the complete Bleatboys roster.

Fond Underhive Memories

Necromunda was released in 1995 as a specialist game by Games Workshop while I was still in college. My circle of friends immediately found a passion for this wonderful skirmish game that was set in the seedy Underhive of the Warhammer 40K universe. There has always been a special place in my heart for Necromunda. It was both approachable and had depth to make it long-lasting to play. The small number of miniatures needed to field a gang created a low barrier to entry, especially for cash-strapped college students. The rules system was pretty easy to digest and there were not any gaping rules differences or power imbalances between the rival houses. But, where it really shined for me was in playing a campaign. The ability for gang members to gain experience and new skills or be wounded from session to session gave me a wonderful affinity for my gang and created a cohesion to the campaign story arc that I never received from battles in 40K. Having a close-knit group of friends and playing a semester long Necromunda campaign is definitely one of my fondest gaming memories of all time.

This trip down memory lane was courtesy of a handful of photographs that I found in a shoebox a couple of weeks ago. These photos are from 1997 and were taken at a house that my friends and I lived in while working on our degrees. The miniatures are my House Cawdor gang shot against the Underhive that consumed our kitchen table for the better part of a year.

Clempzen Razorcats vs Undead as a Doornail

The Clempzen Razorcats climbed one step closer to this season's Spike! Magazine bowl playoffs with a 1-1 tie against one of the league's most rotten teams, Undead as a Doornail. Undead as a Doornail currently holds the league's all-time records for longest win streak and longest undefeated streak at 9 and 16 respectively. Considering those kind of numbers and a strong team played by the most calculating Blood Bowl player that I know, escaping the match with a tie is somewhat of a moral victory. The lighting wasn't great for photos, but here is one that I snapped during the game which shows off my buddy's cool paint job on his undead team. Check out those gruesome bases.

Being the underdog, the Razorcats were able to enlist the aid of The Mighty Zug, a valuable strength 5 addition to help go head to head with the undead mummies. They also picked up a Bloodweiser Babe and a dirty trick to keep up their sleeve for an opportune moment. Losing the coin toss, the Razorcats had to kick off to the undead in the first half. Doornail had one of their ghouls pick up the ball and they aggressively pushed the right side of the field for a quick score. The 'cats were able to get a lucky shot on the ball carrier and pop the ball lose. It bounced out of bounds and the crowd hurled it back into the Razorcat's end zone. The Razorcat +AG blitzer, Brian Blockins, was able to scoop it up and rush it to the other, less pressured side of the field. This move left the slower part of the undead team out of the action, but the fast, dodge-happy ghouls were able to respond and caught up with Blockins as he was a few squares from scoring. Doornail recovered the ball, but neither team was able to come up with a desperation turn 8 score and the half ended 0-0.

In the second half, the Razorcats got the ball first and a quick snap on the kickoff gave them excellent position to punch open the Doornail defense. Brian Blockins raced through an opening that gave Doornail a downfield threat to contend with while the human thrower grabbed the ball and advanced towards the line of scrimmage. Blockins was mauled by a wight but there was still a scoring lane open on the field. The Razorcats made a couple less than optimal plays to advance the ball to the waiting hands of Ceejay Splitter who carried the ball into the undead end zone for a quick, two-turn score.

Doornail then went to work to make sure that their undefeated streak would not come to an end. They pressed the right side of the field and did a tremendous job blocking Razorcats near the sideline and crowd-surfing them. With the player numbers to their advantage and the clock running down, Doornail switched sides of the field. In the Razorcat's last turn, they clawed to try and stop Doornail player Augustus the Strong from scoring. They threw a custard pie in a zombie's face, and their ogre, Brains Haddums, blocked open a path to the ball carrier (after succeeding on a sketchy loner reroll to shake off an initial bone-head result). Unfortunately, Augustus the Strong was able to shrug off a hit and Doornail got the 8th turn TD for a 1-1 tie.

Clempzen Razorcats vs Couronne Crusaders

My spirited Clempzen Razorcats faced off against the Couronne Crusaders last night at our weekly Blood Bowl league night. The Crusaders are another human team coached by a veteran and well-respected friend who puts his fantastic painting skills on display at Lou Rollins Miniatures. There is also a blog post over there called Hobbyist vs. Gamer that features some more pictures that were taken during this match. The Razorcats are still pushing to get enough games under their belt to qualify for this season's Spike! Magazine bowl playoffs. They were around a 300K underdog to the Crusaders and spent their inducements on a team training reroll, a Bloodweiser Babe, and three dirty trick cards.

The Razorcats had to kick first and immediately played a Kicking Boots card on their lineman, Dakwan Bowzers, for more accurate kickoff results. The Crusaders scooped up the ball and began a push to their right. They looked to be in position to make a quick score when the ref was distracted and a 12th man, Nuke Dabomb, snuck on the field (Illegal Substitution card) to add an assist. The Razorcats were able to pop the ball out, recover it and switch sides of the field. The Crusaders backpedaled to halt the counterattack. They pressed the Razorcats towards the sideline, but the ball carrier, Taj Void found an opening and made a lateral move across the field. He was pursued by the Crusaders' nasty, break-tackling orge, Kalidorgrom, but ended up just out of his grasp. With the clock running out, Taj handed the ball off to an open catcher, Nuke Dabmob, for an almost certain go-ahead score. But there are no certainties in Blood Bowl. The catcher fumbled the hand-off and suffered the insults of 11,000 booing fans.

In the second half, the Razorcats got the ball first. The thrower, Taj, had the ball and the offense began probing the left side of the field for weakness. However, the line soon collapsed and the pocket was flooded with Crusaders. The Razorcat line was in disarray but was able to push defenders away from their thrower. Taj scrambled from the pocket and completed a pass to their strongman blitzer Ceejay Splitter who made a break for the end zone. The Crusaders made a last ditch effort to stop Splitter, but were unable to tear the ball from his grasp and Splitter blitzed his way into the end zone for a score.

The Crusaders lined up to receive the kick-off and went to work on the right side of the field. A bulldozing Kalidorgrom roared down the field and pummled Taj Void into the turf. The Crusaders botched picking up the ball though and the Razorcats began to believe that they would be victorious. The Razorcats were probably too aggressive in trying to pressure the loose ball as it stretched their defense a little too thin. The Crusader thrower snatched up the ball and completed a pass to their blodging catcher, Marneus, who rushed up into scoring position behind Kalidorgrom. The Razorcats' Taj had a chance at knocking the ball from Marneus, but was unable to pull the ball away from him. After that, the best that the 'cats could do was to create tackle zones that Marneus would need to dodge through for the score. On the final turn of the game, Marneus paid homage to the deceased Crusader Katica as he dodged through traffic and found his way over the goal line for a touchdown. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. A most enjoyable game.

Chewie Races to Han's Rescue

I got another game of X-Wing in over the weekend with my friend that had bested me earlier in the week. In that earlier game, his two bounty hunters managed to get the upper hand on Han Solo. After we selected our 100pt lists for our battle, it looked like the story would continue. I was playing Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon with some upstart pilots in an x-wing and a b-wing. My opponent had Boba Fett supported by a couple of heavily armed TIE advanced fighters. The backdrop for the encounter was set. The bounty hunters had delivered Han Solo over to Boba Fett to deliver to the Empire. Chewie broke into an Empire impound yard to retake the Falcon. After blasting his way out of impound, Chewie chased down Boba Fett and his escorts in an attempt to rescue Han.

The early game plan for the Empire was to zero in on the b-wing with the heavy ordinance carried by the TIE advanceds and try to dispatch of it and its heavy laser cannon. As they came into firing range, the b-wing deftly rolled out of the firing arc of one of the two TIEs allowing it to trade shots rather than be instantly vaporized. Chewie raced along the mat's edge, maneuvering into the Empire's blind spot and adding support fire to help dispatch one of the TIEs.

The b-wing tried to navigate around the side of an asteroid in an attempt to get additional protection from the remaining TIE, but still was unable to survive the volley of shots aimed at it. Chewie and x-wing pilot then finished off the remaining TIE and turned their attack scopes towards Boba Fett who was altering his course to keep from flying off the table edge. The final turns of the match played out a story of Chewie and the x-wing chasing Fett around the edge of the mat. Some unfortunate piloting decisions helped Fett in taking down the Falcon, but the x-wing was able to remain fairly hidden outside of Fett's firing arcs and was able to knock the bounty hunter out to secure a win for the Rebels. Ah, sweet redemption.

The Bounty Hunters Found Solo

I got a few new minis for X-Wing Miniatures in yesterday and had a chance to try them out on the table top last night. I decided to field Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon with a B-Wing and HWK backing him up. My opponent brought a pair of bounty hunters in Firesprays with two supporting TIEs. It ended up being an incredibly close match with a few exciting swings in momentum. The TIEs were quickly destroyed in rounds 2 and 3. Eventually, Han and one of the Firesprays went down. It proved difficult for the B-wing to close on the remaining Firespray and finish him off. They traded shots, and though the B-wing was lost, the bounty hunter's ship was in critical shape and had the potential of exploding on any subsequent round. Hoping the critical damage could finish off the remaining hunter, Kyle Katarn in the HWK tried to put distance between himself and the bounty hunter. Alas, the Firespray survived the odds on his continuing critical damage and made a lucky range 3 shot on the HWK to end the game. Fun stuff even though I'm something like 1-3 in my Star Wars dogfights so far.

It is a dark time for the rebellion...

I remember starting to get sucked into the buzz around the time when the X-Wing Miniatures Game was being introduced. The early play tests appeared to demonstrate some nice game mechanics and I started to visualize building my own fleets. I am a child of the Star Wars era, the real Star Wars where there are no Three Stooges jokes, no digital muppets, and where Han shoots first. For someone who had their imagination forever shaped by A New Hope, what could be cooler than playing out table-top dogfights between the Empire and the Rebellion? But, at some point before the game's release I decided I had my interest fully invested in Blood Bowl and, at the time, Lord of the Rings LCG, so I let the X-Wing launch pass me by and avoided getting sucked in. Plus, I didn't have anyone else in my gaming circle that had really shown any interest in the game. Those space dogfights would have to remain in a galaxy far, far away. Until now, that is. This past week I acquiesced and purchased a X-Wing Core Set.

I don't think it's worthwhile here to give a full unboxing account. The game has been out for a year and there are plenty of unboxing reports and reviews around the web. But, it's new to me and I'm having a good time with it so far. The pre-painted miniatures are a very acceptable table-top quality, and before my first game I thought a proper game board was the appropriate thing to build to complement the miniatures. The simple board that I built was a made from a black 4' x 3' Elmer's tri-fold display board. I don't expect this board to have a tremendous amount of longevity, but at under $5 I thought it was a very cost-effective way to try out some ideas for customizing a play surface. The star field and nebula are the result of dipping an old toothbrush in paint and splattering the paint on the display board by flicking my thumb through the bristles. I don't think I spent but about 10 or 15 minutes painting the board and I was pretty pleased with the end result. I will probably use the same approach again when I build a more durable board.

After playing though my first game there seems to be potential here. I can certainly see how the strategic and tactical options will open up with the additional of a few more ships. Plus, I really don't see how I can possibly resist adding the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 to my hangar. In the end, the worst thing that could happen by buying into this game a little is that I'll end up with some really cool Star Wars minis so I have no idea why I was holding out.