Sunday 31 July 2016

Batman Miniature Game Bat Girl

Another Batman miniature finished. This time Batgirl this heralds the beginning of another new rew. I have painted her to join my other heroic ladies in a Birds of Prey team however Batgirl is a sidekick in a Batman crew. With some Gotham Police already done I only need to add a few more characters to have a bat crew ready to go.

Batgirl is quite cheap coming in at 59 rep. I see her main role as being a mobile objective grabber using her batclaw to move about and weakening henchmen with her batlings before either finishing them off with a sneak attack or for one of the other Birds to put them down.

This model is a real git to put together cap and hair is one piece. Head and Body then both legs are separate which join together to form a cup for the body. Also the leg is a very obvious weak point. I ended up drilling up through foot and put a very large L shaped pin in order to add some support mainly because I can see her being dropped at that ankle being bent. I also pinned the legs body and cape. The hardest part was getting the body to joining the cup of the legs smoothly and I made a bit of mess if I'm honest. Black is very forgiving so don't look to closely lol!





Thursday 28 July 2016

Batman Miniature Game Lady Shiva

Finally got Lady Shiva finished well as finished as she ever will be. Felt a bit of a struggle to get the final bits done on her. Lady Shiva is a Sidekick in a League of Shadows crew but can also fight alongside the Birds of Prey. I don't see her in crews very often and it will be interesting to try her out.






Friday 22 July 2016

Batman Miniature Game High Security

Lots of mini's to photograph and catch up on posting here. This chap is from the Blackgate Prisoner set1 and is called High Security Prisoner. At 48 rep he is the most expensive prisoner from the first set. But his stats reflect this Endurance 8, combo with knives and 4 attacks boosted to 6 from combo means he is one mean sucker. Also known as Mr Stabby......





Wednesday 20 July 2016

Murder in the Midlands Across the Dead Earth tournament.

Just a quick overview of first ever Across the Dead Earth tournament. Four games were played over the day randomly selected then as points were score (for collecting loot, kills etc) opponents were matched up throughout the day.

Some of the gangs taking part on the day.








There were 6 tables in total unfortunately one person couldn't make it so there were only 11 players in total.

Each game was a loot game. Each had 6 loot counters with 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5 pts. The counters were randomly selected and placed on the board. They can only be turned over when a model comes into contact and can then be revealed to the controlling player.

This will be revised for the next one as one side only need to pick up 3 of the 6 high point value counters to win. In one game I managed to table my opponent and lost by 5 pts purely on this.



Table 1 (The Across the Dead Earth board 4x4

 Table 2 3x3 with a really cool bunker that you could enter.

 Table 3 again 3x3. Carl Packham's awesome airfield I really wanted a game on here with my Joes but sadly never got to.
Table 4 3x3 my ruined refinery terrain
 Table 5 3x3

Table 6 3x3


Game Number 1 Table 2
This was awesome my first game was against Carl Packham from Hitting on a Double 1 and his Wonderland Gang. It was the highlight of my day to finally meet up with an online friend who I have been mates with for so long and to play a game as well.


The Wonderland Gang is absolutely stunning the pics really doesn't do them justice.
Our game had some hilarious moments and was pretty level pegged until the end. We both managed 3 loot counters each but I lost as the loot tagged and bagged by the gang was such a higher value than mine. Ending in 70pts - 45pts to Carl. Casualties were pretty even with The Hatter gunning down Shockwave in the third turn and the White Knight knocking out Sgt slaughter in combat. The White Knight moved in for the kill on Sgt Slaughter but I played the sacrifice card and killed them both muwhahahaha. The White Rabbit and Spirit had a sniper duel with the White Rabbit losing the exchange and becoming Ko'd.

Both Gangs advance upon one another.
 
The Wonderland gang advance upto the central bunker

Dum snags some loot early and legs it.


The White rabbit (Sharpshooter) takes up a sniping position

The Bullets start flying and Shockwave misses Mad Hatter and is in turn gunned down.
 As The White Knight prepares to finish off Sgt Slaughter. The grizzled sgt pulls the pin out on a grenade and removes them both from play (Sacrifice Event Card)
 With two loot counters inside the bunker the action hots up with Beachhead gunning down Dee the medic and removing him from play.


 Game number 2 Table 1
This was a slog. Being 4x4 it was a much that little bit larger and it took a the first few turns to advance up Neil's The Royal Worcestershire Hunt and engage them. It was another tense game as loot was collected and towards the end I was beginning to wear down the gang but alas another loss of 75pts-45pts due to the high value loot counters being snagged by his scouts and dog.
The Royal Worcestershire Hunt. This gang was built for speed with two scouts both with Sweet Trainers (+2 inch base move) they were off up the board snagging loot. Luckily I managed to Snag 3 loot counters still but sadly the lower value ones.

With a well planned Tripe wire stopping a scout in the open they are sniped down by Spirit.

Sgt Slaughter climbs atop the bus to snag a 4th loot counter only to be sniper by a waiting Sniper in WAW (Watch and Wait)

My gang snag loot hidden inside the shopping mall. Whilst the rest of the team exchange fire.

Sadly the other photos didn't turn out. Gung Ho managed to snag a scout with his RPG but also taking out Sgt Slaughter out of the Game. BeachHead managed to scramble on to the bus and began gun the dog trying to escape with loot only for his Leader to whip the loot up and leg it.

Game 3 Table 6 
This was another cool game against the creator of Across the Dead Earth Rich Chappell :)
It was a blood affair for Rich from the start he managed to snag 3 loot counters but my dice rolls were against him and I managed to gun or beat down most of gang until finally tabling him.

Sgt Slaughter pummels Rich's Medic and shivs him taking his loot and scoring an extra 5pts for rifling through the downed medics pockets.
Shot of the game was when Spirit sniped the enemy Marksmen and scoring a double 6 for an instant kill shot (Head Shot talent).

Game 4 Table 4
This was a close fought game and my only victory of the day. Snagging 2 high value loot counters ensured I finished 75pts-45pts. Losses were minimal my leader got caught trying to snatch a loot counter from under his nose but getting gunned down early on. Gung Ho fell and was knocked out (Look Out Event) to be revived my medic. Gung Ho then score and awesome shot with RPG taking down an enemy scout who had previously tried to blast him in the face.


The fourth and final game was finished and then it was time for Points to be added up and Prizes to be handed out to the winners.

The final scores were as follows.
380 Carl
285 Rob 
275 Jon
270 Neil
225 Simon
205 Rich
185 Martin
170 Tom
135 Adam

Prizes were a choice from the fabtastic selection below sponsored by Lost Lands Games.


Carl Packham wins first place with a whopping 380 pts over the four games.
 
 Rob comes in Second.
 Adam in last place.
Martin Picked up two awards Best Back Story and Best Painted

I judged the paint competition and it was very tight between the entrants who could be judged upon (Myself and those painted by the paint service didn't count.) It was a fantastic day and all seemed to really enjoy the day :) I really hope there is another one as it was a hoot.

Big Thank You to Neil Jones and Jon Crooks for organising the day and thanks to Lost Lands Games for supplying the Prizes for it.





Saturday 16 July 2016

Murder in the Midlands (Across the Dead Earth Tournament)

Well this Sunday see's the first Across the Dead Earth tournament. Being held in Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Its going to be a day full of post apocalyptic fun. At the moment we have 12 players signed up for the day and possibly a few more turning up on the day its going to be a hoot!

My Gang for the day has been finished off this week.

Alpha Squad
Hidden in the foothills of Rowley Regis deep is an old abandoned quarry hidden inside a top secret long forgotten pre-war military facility suddenly shows signs of life as its electrical systems wurr and thrum as aged generators comes online. Long dusty corridors that had been sat in pitch blackness for decades are now illuminated once more in cold stark clinical light. 

In the heart of the facility the command room consoles all flicker as systems come online. This only lasts a brief short time as suddenly the all begin displaying warning messages and errors. The consoles begin to go dark one by one shut down by the master system in order to conserve the remaining power. A warning klaxon suddenly blares and the bright light becomes a dull red as the power switches over to emergency power.

Deep in the facility behind a large steel door opens on well oiled pistons a mechanical thrumming sound begins from within. Inside the room are six glass covered capsules with a deep coating of frost. LED's burst into life on the HUD of each capsule condensation quickly forming as warm air begins to enter the frosty chamber. 

A nearby console blinks on. Telemetry and other burst across the screen to fast to follow until finally stopping on a single line of glowing text. 

EMERGENCY THAW PROTOCOL ALPHA INITIATED.

Twelve hours later and the thick frost covering the capsules has all but melted away. The cold silence of the room replaced with a steady drip drip drip of water as it falls away from the capsules and drains away into channels in the floor. One by one with a hiss of escaping air the six capsules open revealing the once slumbering occupants. Each occupant is male and completely naked apart from a pair of dog tag worn around the each of there necks. 

The man in capsules one his eyes flickering open as his as his senses begin to awaken. Sitting slowly up with a smile he looks about the room taking in his surroundings as if waking up in such a strange place is an everyday occurrence. The others also begin to wake up each rising and looking about themselves yawning and stretching. 

The first man now up and about concern and puzzlement shown on his face at the lack of technician's or medics you would normal expect to see buzzing about after coming out of cryo-stasis. The man moves over to the loan console and logs in typing in his access credentials as if it was yesterday and not the 75 years it actually was. The data begins to flow thick and fast and the man's face becomes grimmer and grimmer as his worst fears become reality.

 'Yo' the man says to his now awoken fellow's 'Up and at em soldiers looks like we have woken up to the end of times' the five answering 'Ooorah' all he needed to hear as confirmation and reassurance.

'Time to saddle up boys this place is going offline in 2hrs we need to get in touch with the Pit for orders and we will see what the outside world is now like'

'Ooorah' the 5 men responded. 

All six men moved out into the corridor and into the living quarters directly opposite. Inside the room were six beds and six lockers each with the man's codename above.  

Sgt Slaughter.

Gung Ho.

Spirit.

Stalker.

Shockwave.

Beachhead.

The men all rapidly got dressed into there familiar uniforms and made there way to the armoury. Equipping themselves with their personal weapons and as many MRE's and ammunition as each man could carry.

The six men headed for the facility exit.

'Lets go explore the new world gentlemen'

'Yo Joe' the six men said in chorus.



I'll upload more pics next week when I get chance to take some more individual pics. I was very fortunate to acquire some castings from a personal commision they are fabulous miniatures.

For more gang stories of those that are attending check out.
http://lostlandsgames.co.uk/blog/4589059971

Friday 8 July 2016

I'm Alive! Catch up and Tournament news.

Greetings everyone its certainly been a very busy time in the Brummie household working on a project with a long commute for a good while has basically led to very little free time apart from the doing important stuff. That all finished two weeks ago and I've had a week off so its been good to get back to normal.

Well what have I been up to Hobby wise recently? Mostly its been focused on the Batman Miniatures game. Myself Pulpcitizen of Eclectic Gentleman and Kieron of Cheaphammer!!! all attended another tournament at Titan games on the 2nd July. Originally I'd planned to take a Green Arrow crew but I've only had one game with the emerald archer and the new list I had prepped hadn't been tried and didn't feel confident enough with them. I only barely made my mind up on the morning of the event!

I had been working on some additions for my bad guy lists just to freshen things up by changing characters here and there.

First up a Free Agent Ravager (Daughter of Deathstroke) very fast and armed with two double dealing swords she is an excellent Henchmen killer and has some neat traits like Power Dampening (prevents heroes with invulnerable from soaking damage) and Self Discipline (Can't be Hypnotised).
I needed to include a Free agent in my list as Bane has a new piece of equipment called Venom Factory (Can only be taken on a Free agent as he currently has not Sidekick models) which allows the combat drugs available to his faction to be gotten a bit cheaper and allows characters to use Titan doses more than once per game. I could of used Deadshot but I wanted Ravagers swords to help finish off people who Bane KO's





Next up are a couple of prisoners. The first one is Prisoner 4 or more commonly known as Bodyguard prisoner his bodyguard ability allows him to soak damage on Bane or other Sidekicks if within 5cm. Venom Soldier also fulfils this roll but I had plans for his 2 Titan Doses and planned on giving him a grapple gun to be a more mobile threat.





With 10 rep left to spend I needed a cheap filler in my new list and Prisoner 1 or Pipe prisoner as he is more commonly known fits the bill. Pipe isn't that great at anything but is useful for holding onto loot or sitting on objectives.






The Tournament itself was great  it had only had a small turnout this time around sadly there was another event up North which some of the regulars went to instead. All in all there was 6 players in total.

Crew wise there was myself with a Bane crew, Court of Owls (Pulp Citizen), Birds of Prey team (Kieron) Poison Ivy/Swamp thing crew, a Cyborg/Starfire batman crew and finally another Batman crew with Batman/AK Redhood.

My Crew was as follows

Origin Bane
Ravager + Venom Factory
Venom Soldier + Grapple gun and Venom Dose
Dallas + NVG's and Ammo
Smash
McGregor
Prisoner 4 + Venom Dose
Prisoner 1


Typically of a freshly painted model Ravager died horribly in the first game against a Poison Ivy crew being bashed about by Swamp thing then being finished of by Poison Ivy's Toxic claws.

Jane's Poison Ivy led crew. This was a close fought game resulting in a 23-22vp Draw to me (1-5pts difference). Borj was a nuisance hypnotizing Dallas and Mcgregor then shooting McGregor in the back after walking them both off of objectives. I managed to take Poison Ivy down and Swamp thing was a beast soaking lots of damage with his heal ability.



The Second game was my favourite of the day. I got to play against Kieron's Birds of Prey Team. This is a new way of playing batman crews you can take teams of heroes from a particular list. They can have some extra rules and unique strategies. They are also one of my favourite comics teams and I am planning on painting up my own version soon.



It was Patrol which is a proper slog to my objectives for my slow moving Bane list. I was hampered in my Deployment zone with a large building forcing me to move up around it. It was close fought and they were hard to get to grips with Katana was awesome one shotting Ravager and slaying both my Prisoners. Bane and Venom soldier played kiss chase with Catwoman eventually KO'ing her. Dallas managed to take out the BoP's Leader Black Canary a she tried to Canary Cry him and Smash but he managed to pass his Will Power roll and then ripped her apart with his assault rifle. I lost in the end 25-14.

The final game was a massive defeat against Kris Burton's Cyborg/Starfire combo. I probably shouldn't of ended up playing the top player but with how the games had drawn and the low number of players meant I ended up playing the lead player rather than facing Jane again having already fought her earlier in the day.

 I lost this game terribly 45 to 8 or something similar. Kris was using the Bat Signal objective alongside ammo and titan. The Bat signal had been FAQ'd recently allowing it to placed on top of terrain rather than ground base like all the other objectives. It has quite a unique scoring mechanism basically when the controlling side turn it on they score 4 vps a turn and don't have to remain in contact. For every turn it remains switch off your opponent scores 1vp.



Kris was a great opponent (won the tournament) and used his crew really well. The Bat signal was deployed next to Dallas in my deployment zone on top of two cargo containers. Starfire swooped down in round 2 pushed Dallas off and then switching it on. I struggled to get my slow moving crew across the board to my own objectives whilst Cyborg, Starfire and Swat Bravo shot the crap out of my crew. Bane was took out by Starfire as he tried to climb to get to the bat signal objective. My Venom soldier was tied up defending my opponents Titan objective and couldn't get over to the bat signal in time to do much else. Kris managed to keep on the signal for 5 roundss and Cyborg sat on there teams Ammo for 3 rounds netting 20vps and 9 vps something I just couldn't claw back.

Kris agrees the bat signal is too overpowered being able to be installed on top of terrain and being immune to strategies that can affect objective manipulation. A lot of crews like mine just don't have the characters available to them to get up and take on tough mobile characters like Cyborg and Starfire. A lot of heated discussion is going on at the moment as to whether this should be reverted back to its original rules of being on the ground. A tournament held a few weeks earlier was also dominated by Batman crews at the top with the signal.

I finished last in the end but it was another cracking day of gaming against great friendly people.

I am going to try out a Birds of Prey crew next but will also be experimenting with speedsters and my Green Arrow crew.