Empire of the Dead Fracas 2 Turns 1-3

Before I crack on with the batrep I just want to mention The Empire of the Dead Requiem kickstarter is doing really well so far 25 days left (at time of writing this) and nearly at the 50'000k mark which is brilliant! I've sold my LOTR Dwarves and have made apledge on the kickstarter fingers crossed for me selling some more figures so I can get more EotD goodness.

Anybody after some Copplestone Future Wars figures check out my thread on LAF here.

If you haven't checked it out please do so.

Empire of the Dead Requiem Kickstarter. 

Some cool update videos.

WIP videos of the Victorian vehicles they are doing.
Carriages, Time machine Video 
Sculpting video sneak previews of some WIP greens that aren't up on the kickstarter.
Sculpting Video

Onto the battle Report.

I played a second game this week of Empire of the Dead to further test and learn the rules. I have since realised after re-reading the rules that I made a few errors in the first one.

1, Misread the victory conditions (Thanks Scott)
2, got confused with the phases. Close combat has its own phase I was acting it out in the action phase with shooting.


The scenario I played again was 'Fracas' a chance meeting of two enemies results in open battle. First side to reduce the opposition to 25%  of its total number wins or in the case of both falling below in the same turn a draw. I increased the shillings value to bolster the numbers a little on both sides.

Deployment location was rolled for as per the rule book resulting in the two forces facing off opposite each other. I Rolled a dice to determine who deploys on which side.

Lycaon Force.
Beastlord
Pack Master
3 Wolves (Proxied in Bo'sun the Bull terrier as an extra)
5 Wolfskins armed in the following way
Throwing weapons and Knife
 Bow and Knife
Crossbow and Knife
Wolfclaws
Knife

197 Shillings.

Gentlemen Force.

President with Heavy Pistol and Sword.
Vice President Heavy Pistol and Knife.
4 Member's with Light pistols and Swords.
2 Member's with Light pistols and Knives.
2 Member's with Hunting Rifles and Knives.

 199 Shillings.

The scene of the Fracas

Lycaon Deployment.

Beastlord and two Wolfskins in the centre, The Pack master takes the right flank with the 3 wolves and the missile armed Wolfskins and the claw armed one take the left.

 



Gentlemen Deployment

The President, Vice President and the sword armed members deploy in the centre, A Rifle and pistol armed split into pairs and deploy in the flanks to support the centre.

Turn 1 Lycaon's Win Initiative.

The Beast Lord and Pack Master both there groups forward at a run sniffing the air for sign's of the enemy.

The Wolfskin's on the left flank advance towards the building to find a good firing postion.

The President and Vice President split into equal groups and advance across the road. The Rifle and pistol armed members advance towards the small outbuilding intent on climbing it.

The Rifle and pistol armed members on the right flank advance towards the nearest building intent on climbing it also.

 Turn 2 Gents Win Initiative.

Two members of the club clamber onto the outbuilding to get a good shooting position

Spotting the Pack Master in the distance the rifle armed member takes a shot, hitting him but failing to penetrate his thick fur.

The rest of the membership advance and take up firing positions.

The rifle armed member clambers onto the roof to get a better vantage point, his colleague advances towards the cart.

The wolf pack advances more cautiously into cover weary of the potshots from the gentlemen on the outbuilding.

The Beast lord and his followers advance to take cover behind the nearest cottage.

The Wolfskin's with missile weapons climb onto the roof, The wolfskin with claws and advance to take cover behind the hedge.

The Wolfskin with bow takes a long distance shot at the member in grey inflicting a wound and causing him to become Discombobulated.

Turn 3 Lycaon's win Initiative.

The member in grey recovers from his injury. (I think there should be a roll to determine this rather than just auto recovering from being Discombobulated as it doesn't come into effect unless you roll it when your character has been 'down' and is rolling for recovery). That or state it lasts for one turn.

The Pack master and his pack advance further into the ruined house intent on charging next turn.

The Beast Lord does the same presenting himself to the front in order to shield his follower's.

The bow armed Wolfskin shoots at the Member in grey wounding him and causes him to be Discombobulated again. The Crossbow armed Wolfskin shows him hows its done and removes him from play.

The President and a member fire there pistols at the Beastlord but both misses there mark.

The Vice President shoots his Heavy Pistol hitting the Beastlord with ease but fails to penetrate the beasts hide.

The member in the archway advance into cover and prepares to 'Watch and shoot' (Overwatch)

The member fire his pistol and the Wolfskin hitting but failing to wound (this became a common occurrence questionable quality of there ammunition supply would need to be raised).

The riflemen on the right flank takes aim (+2 to hit) but fails to wound the crossbow armed Wolfskin.

The Riflemen on the left flank shoots at the lead wolf but misses.

The Pistol armed gent shoots at the Pack Master but also misses.

To be continued....................

Gentlemen and Jackanape Cedric Hyde

The first supplement for Empire of the Dead's is Called Gentlemen and Jackanape's which adds a bunch of infamous characters that can be hired and add to your warband's. The rules can be found here.

First one to be painted up and my favourite miniature from the range. Is Cedric Hyde the offspring of Mr.Hyde and a lady of the night. This guy is a proper beast of a miniature and for £7.00 is well worth money in weight alone. I must take a pic of him next to a normal figures as he's huge.

Had a bit of fun painting up his trousers in the chequered pattern, Who would argue with this fella's dress sense (not in earshot anyway)

Empire of the Dead First Battle Report

Second post of the day I played my first game of Empire of the Dead last night to try out the rules. I found it quite easy to pick up.

The scenario I played was 'Fracas' a chance meeting of two enemies results in open battle. First side to reduce the opposition to have 25%  of its total number removed wins or in the case of both in the same turn a draw. As both sides had 7 models each that's 2 removed from a site to win.

Deployment location was rolled for as per the rule book resulting in the two forces facing off diagonally across from each other. Rolled a dice to determine who deploys on which side.

Lycaon Force.
Beastlord
Pack Master
2 Wolves
3 Wolfskins, (Throwing weapons and knife, Bow and Knife, Crossbow and Knife)

152 Shillings.

Gentlemen Force.

President with Heavy Pistol and Sword.
Vice President Heavy Pistol and Brass Knuckles.
3 Member's with Light pistols and Swords.
2 Member's with Hunting Rifles and Knives.

 149 Shillings.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The Scene for the Fracas

152 Shillings worth of Lycaons

149 Shillings Worth of Gentlemen

Lycaons Deployment

Gentlemen's Deployment

 Turn 1. Lycaons win Initiative

The close combat orientated members of the Lycaons run towards the centre of the table, The missile armed Wolfskins seek firing positions.

Gentlemen Advance at a run.

 Turn 2. Lycaons win Initiative

Lycaon's advance more cautiously weary of the Gentlemen's guns, The Crossbow armed Wolfskin climbs onto the roof of a nearby building ready to open fire next turn.

The Gentlemen advance and take up firing postions.

A gentleman with a Hunting rifle takes aim and blows the Wolfskin off the roof removing him from play.

Turn 3. Gentlemen Win Initiative.

The Gentlemen ready there firearms and hold postion.

Both Hunting rifle armed gentlemen  take aim and open fire on the two wolves crossing there path hitting one but failing to wound.

The Packmaster advances seeing a member and charges him causing a wound resulting in the member becoming Discombobulated.

The rest of the Lycaon force advance in preparation to attack next turn. The Wolfskin with bow attempts a shot at a member with rifle but misses.

Turn 4 Gentlemen Win Initiative.

In the maintenace phase the member who is Discombobulated recovers and can act normally (I need to clarify this but the rules indicate he recovers)

The President (all in black) joins the combat. Wins but fails to wound the Packmaster, The member attacks the packmaster and winning but only causing a fleshwound which is ignored.

The gentlemen take aim with there pistols, alert for any sign of movement (overwatch).

The two Members with Hunting rifles take aim at the Wolves again in the hope of preventing them enter the combat with the Packmaster causing a fleshwound on one of the Wolves which it shrugs off.

The wolves charge into combat attacking a gentlemen each, The first wolf defeats the member and removes him from play.

The Second wolf in combat with the President is defeated and is taken 'down'.

The Pack master rains down blows on the President removing a wound.

Forgot to take a picture here but the Wolfskin with Bow advances to by the Beastlord and drawing fire from the 3 Gentlemen in over watch the Vice President hits fails to wound. The Wolfskin with Throwing Weapons then charges the Vice President casting a knife as he charges in but thanks to the cover he misses, fluffing his attack dice he is cut down and removed from play. Now reduced to 25% The Gentlemen have won, but can the Lycaon's scrape a draw?

The Beastlord charges the Vice President winning the combat taking the Vice President 'Down' (It was tied and If it wasn't for the Vice President's Brass Knuckles causing a -1 on the attack roll (Counts as an improvised weapon) he would of won the combat with the Beastlord). Not that it mattered the Gentlemen club won!! Huzzah!!

End Result: Gentlemen Win!!!

Enjoyed it immensely and it was quite easy to learn the rules. I need to make some hard cover (stone walls etc) as well as build some higher walls. The ranged weapons (rifles mainly) are quite lethal and thats not including repeater or gatling rifles!

Combat is a bit weird as the characters Combat skill is only used if the combat score rolled is a tie.

I Might change this have been discussing with my mate Drew about adding an extra attack to those characters with high Combat Skill see if it balances a little better.


Might have a play with a Darkfire Club (Evil Gentlemen Affiliation) as they can have access to some spells and stuff as well as get my Brotherhood painted up.