Widower's Wood, The Final

Well, well, well!  My trip to the USA is looming ever closer!  I can't believe that in just a few short days I'll be on a plane and heading out for a long trip home... gonna get some games in with some old friends, gonna do some shopping, and eat lots of my favorite snacks!  But I'm most looking forward to spending a lot of time with some of my favorite people.  Before I can get on that plane, however, I have a little more Commissar business to take care of... and at last, what you all have been waiting for, the Fukuyama Gaming Club finally took a swing at the final chapter of Widower's Wood!

To tell the truth, I was a little sad to see the game come to an end... seven chapters and three kickstarter exclusive missions, and I never got tired of the game.  I had such a good time playing!  I'm really looking forward to playing the Dead Men Walking expansion sometime next year, and I'm debating whether or not to pick up the Undercity game that is the urban parallel to our swamp romp.  For this final chapter, Sarge joined us, making it so that no one had to double up on a character, and we could all focus on beating up on some immortal booty!

A fourth player for our final chapter

Announcements:
The Fukuyama Gaming Club will be meeting next on July 22 and August 5.  I myself will be absent from both meetings since, you know, America!  So come and get a game to fill in my absence!
October is fast approaching, and with it the Japan Open Team Tournament, so make sure that you are registered and ready to go, since space are filling up!

And now... drum roll, please... the final chapter of the Widower's Wood campaign.  I know you've been waiting with baited breath, and here we finally are, at the knife's edge between success and failure.  The characters have been upgraded as far as we could get them... the players are on edge and ready to roll... the dice have been promised first born children for good rolls in the game... and... GO!

Invincible Deathless, Invincible Schmethless

The Story So Far:
As our last chapter ended, the characters had successfully interrupted the ritual that Rasheldonak was performing to resurrect an immortal Deathless.  As the group was sharing a high five on a job well done saving the swamp, one last prayer from a dying Mist Speaker cracked the seal on the the Deathless' prison, and he appeared.  The good news... Rasheldonak I guess took a blow to the head and realized what a mistake he made.  Full of shame, the Gatorman Witch Doctor strode forward to banish what he had summoned, but bad news... he can't control the Deathless, and to show its displeasure at Sheldon, it promptly cut him in twain.  Oops, well, that's what you get when you try to control and ancient evil!  Time to send it back to sleep!

Chapter 7, More or Deathless:

Even the villains are after it!

Time to get to work!  So, the Deathless, living up to his name, is in fact immortal, unless you can tempt him to come over to the Druid Stone circle on the opposite side of the board from where he starts.  As he passes over the Druid Stones, he becomes vincible, and it's time to lay the smack down!  Once he's not invincible, you roll a dice, and then place that much XP on the clock tile.  Each time the Deathless activates (and if you pull an Impending Doom event card you roll a dice and remove that much XP).  When the XP runs out, the Deathless is once more invincible, and then the whole thing starts again with you having to lure him across the stones.  The good news is, he hates everybody on the board, so he'll kill Gatormen just as much as he will the heroes.  In red priority rounds, he'll target villains first, and in blue rounds, he'll target heroes first.  While it seems that we'll never get him across the board in 10 rounds, he will move the direction of anyone who attacks him, so I think it's time for Skarg to show off his ranged attack skills!  And in addition to the big baddie bearing down on us, we also have to worry about Stranglevines and Cane Leeches!  Truly, a finale of epic proportions is in the making!  Let's get to it!

Menacing Ripples, I hate you!

 Round One - Our old nemesis, Menacing Ripples!  DTB and Leland tied, spawning 2 Gators in our place.  Olo started us off by throwing a glue bomb in the Bog Trog/ Gator space, killing the Trog and gluing the Gator in place!  Vaskis stepped in to help out, killing one of the buddy Gators, before Skarg burst out the big guns and killed a Trog and a Gator.  Agata FLUBBED her first attack!  Gah!  But she did kill one Gator on the second attack!  The villain action had a Gator charge at Olo!!  Oh no!  Luckily, Olo's poisoned glands were working in fine form, and killed off the Gator.

Brave little Croak staring down an eternal Deathless

The next round brought another Menacing Ripples, and Leland took the Gator this time.  Olo moved into the swampy area and used his Fettershot Rifle into the Deathless and Gators surrounding him, killing the Gators!  Yes!  Awesome work, Olo.... oh no!  Those undead eyes are turning your way!  Look out!  Vaskis noticed a couple of Shamblers heading our way, and shot a Chain Lightning at them, killing one.  Skarg moved up one square and shot the Deathless TWICE IN THE FACE!!!  Too bad it's invincible, that was great shooting.  The good news, the Deathless moved twice, once after each shot, leaving little Olo out of the line of fire next round.  The bad news... he's literally standing in the square with Skarg!!!  Agata put her sights on two Gatormen and sent both of them off to Kossok.

Skarg is FEARLESS!

Skarg, Skarg, Skarg... the Boss event card activated the Deathless, who attacked Skarg twice for 3 damage... ouch!  Olo moved up to try and keep the Trogs at bay so they wouldn't distract the Deathless, but on his villain action he got charged twice!  Luckily, he had some traps handy to get one of the Trogs, and the other one missed him!  Vaskis followed suit, but missed his charge attack.  Then, the Deathless again attacked Skarg, dealing another  damage, leaving Skarg stumbling with only one left.  Skarg then decided to get the heck out of Dodge, but he got caught on the free strike, and went down in Olo's square!  Nooooooooooooo!  Hang in there, Skarg, we're gonna help!  Seeing her buddy in arms go down, Agata moved in and slammed the Deathless closer to the stones.

The Gators tried to stab it in the back... no luck!

Olo took his action to revive Skarg!  Phew, it's lucky that he had an alchemical restorative on him!  Vaskis continued his attempt to keep the Shamblers at bay, shooting more Chain Lightening into the bunch, knocking down 2 and outright killing one!  The Deathless stood and moved up into the space NEXT TO THE STONE!!!  So close, but how are we going to get him to move onto the stones themselves... 

Out of the way, Trog!

 Skarg moved out of combat (taking no damage this time!) killing a Gator and a Trog cowering in the forest, trying to keep the path for the Deathless clear.  Agata Hoofed It into the forest, killing off the last Trog and Shambler anywhere near the Deathless. 

How does Olo always get in these situations?

A Perilous Journey card brings out some Cane Leeches, but we're going to try and ignore them for now... Sadly, Olo is in a bit of a pinch... trying to get out of trouble, he dropped a Corrosive Slime bomb in his own square, since he's immune to poison, and amazingly DID NO DAMAGE!!!  Oh man!  How is that possible!  Let's hope he's slippery enough to survive!  Vaskis moved into Agata's square, on the other side of the stones from the Deathless, and cast Razorwind, hitting him and causing him TO MOVE ONE SQUARE CLOSER TO VASKIS, STRAIGHT INTO THE STONES!!!  Yesssss!  He's vulnerable!  Let's go!   We rolled a 4 on the dice, so we've got 4 Deathless activations to get this done!  Then, to show off a little bit, Vaskis used his Hand of Glory to knock down everything in a square next to him, so of course he knocked down the Deathless and the Trog standing with it.

Down, foul creature!

In the villain action, the Trog stood up, and a Shambler charged the Deathless!  Hahahaha!  Take that!  3 damage from the undead villain on our right!  Thanks, Shambly!  The Deathless, on his turn, stood and killed both the Trog standing with him and the Shambler that just shanked him in the guts with its bony fingers!  Skarg took aim and shot the Deathless twice for 4 damage, leaving it with only 3.  As the Deathless moved toward Skarg, Agata used Pursuit to get out of the forest and into charge range of the villain!  Then... the moment we've all been waiting for... our Queen of Carnage, the great finisher, charged the Deathless!  With the Finisher ability, she'll roll an extra dice against models that are already damaged, so all she has to do is hit!  First attack... makes it!  Three dice on the damage... and she rolls a zillion, which means SUPER DAMAGE!  So, that means two points on the Deathless... one attack to go.  She hits... and does the final damage, winning the game!

Conclusion:
VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to sleep, Deathless jerk!

With the threat to the Widower's Wood vanquished, our valiant heroes go their separate ways.  But as Olo returns to his nest, his mate, and his polliwogs, a human is waiting for him, an old friend in need of his help... a professor from the university in Corvis...

And thus, we can't wait to play the expansion, Dead Men Walking.  I'm so looking forward to it, but with the tournament and everything coming up, I'm not sure when we'll get to it.  I promise, you'll all be the first to know!  Widower's Wood was a great game, and I think could have a pretty high re-playability.  All in all, I give this game and its campaign a flat 9.5 out of 10!  Go play it, people!  Enjoy!

Well, that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to hit up a computer in the States to keep you up to date on all the good gaming I'll be having, but if I can't then it's going to be a couple of weeks until next time!  Fear not!  Another Duty Log will be up in the not too grim future!  Until then, keep facing forward... you never know when the Commissar will be along!

Widower's Wood, Chapter 6

Well, dear friends, Golden Week is behind us!  For those of you in Japan, I hope you had a fun holiday, full of great games!  For those of you NOT in Japan, Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays (this week it turned into five since one of the days fell on a Sunday, and we therefore also had Monday off as an exchange).  These include Showa Day (an observation of the previous emperor's birthday), Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day (an observation of the Meiji emperor's birthday), and Children's Day (let's be honest... it's Boy's day...).  The Fukuyama Gaming Club wasn't able to hold a meeting, but I did get quite a bit of painting done!  The Ogrun Bokur and the Witch Coven that I got from DTB on a painting exchange are done/ almost done, and looking good if I do say so myself!  Also, the two choir members that I'm working on to bring my choir up to a full unit are done except for their bases and the missing scroll cases.  And... AND!  Good news, look what came in the mail!

Thanks, PP!

That's right!  I got the scroll cases from Privateer Press in the mail the other day, and my choir will be complete before the next meeting of the FGC!  Right behind that, my last Paladin of the Wall is 95% finished, leaving the Champion's horsed and unhorsed versions and the Sanctifier's base as the only models left to paint up (plus two more trade models for DTB) before the tournament in October!  Which brings us to...

Working Hard or Hardly Working
That's right!  I've been hard at work, and considering that one of my pollywogs recently stopped taking his nap to get him ready for the big transition to elementary school, getting painting time is pretty hard!  Luckily, I have an awesome partner, who, while not a gamer, is super understanding of giving me hobby time, and kept the little nipper busy so I could get to work!  So, today, I give you a WIP, the Witch Coven of Garlghast, and a completed model, the Ogrun Bokur.
     WIP, Cryx - the Witch Coven of Garlghast:

Looking good, girls!

I am having so much fun working on these models.  My biggest problem was having too many ideas about what I would do with them.  Really, I could paint up three different versions of these models, and still have left over images in my head.  DTB wanted them pretty close to the studio paint scheme, so I'm trying to reign in most of my creative impulses, but I had to put just a little touch on it.  You know, cause it's me.

     Working Hard,  Mercenary - Ogrun Bokur:

I'm very pleased with this model.  Very very very pleased.  Again, DTB asked for the finished look to mirror the studio paint scheme, but I really like the Merc scheme, so it was pretty easy for me to keep to that.  Anyway, he's looking good, and I hope DTB will like him just as much!

Announcements:
The Fukuyama Gaming Club will be meeting next on June 24 and July 22.
The Japan Open registration is underway, so sign up to save yourself a space in the tournament!  The first team has been registered, so there are only 7 slots open!

And now.... something everyone needs to know about.... BOUNDLESS CHARGE!
Yes!  There are two major tournaments for Warmachine/ Hordes in Japan each year.  The first is of course the Japan Open which occurs in October in Fukuyama.  The other is Boundless Charge! Some of our very favorite people put a lot of work into this tournament every year, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it if you're looking for a great time.  Consider it an order from the Kommissar!
So!  Here is all the information you need to get started on registering for this amazing event!
     - Boundless Charge is taking place July 15-16, 2018 in Osaka
     - This is a 32 player OFFICIAL STEAMROLLER EVENT
     - There will be 5 rounds played over the course of 2 days with a yummy dinner after the end of
          the first day.
     - No Divide and Conquer rule.  This means that you can bring 2 lists if you like, but only one is
          necessary.  Also, if you bring two lists, you don't HAVE to play both...only one is acceptable.
     - Armies MUST be assembled, but do not have to be painted. (Front arcs MUST be marked).

If you have any questions, want to register, or just want to check out any extra information, check out the tournament website, here: http://boundlesscharge.com/

And now... the main event.  Along with our tournament practice for the month, we at the Fukuyama Gaming Club took on the next chapter of our continuing campaign, Widower's Wood.  This was the next to last chapter!  Oh noes!  There's only one chapter left!  So before we embark on the soon to be finished adventure, let's take a look at how completely amazing our characters have become!

Agata - Queen of Carnage
     Agata has come a long way since Olo found her almost murdered by Sheldon in the wreckage of her tribeal village.  She's come across a Bone Fetish, Phylactery of Venom, and a Feral Charm, all items that help her become an even more total badass in melee combat.  Her abilities include:
     Crusher, Finisher, Pig Farm, Pigheaded, Combo Strike, Side Step, Waylay, Hold the Line, Meat
     Thresher, Powerhouse, and Dismember.

Skarg - More Voracious than Ever Before
     Skarg... what can I say... Skarg will never change.  And he never needs to.  He has received no items at all, but that has more to do with the fact that Skarg never had a player to control him, but got a bit tossed around between us.  He's finally come to rest in the capable hands of DTB, but that is a recent development, and so he kind of got overlooked every time we got an item.  His abilities are:
     Adjust Aim, Sharpened Spikes, Crackshot, Hunter, Lookout, Survivalist, Marksman, Targeteer,
     Arcing Shot, Quick Shot, Bow Master, Fast Reload.

Vaskis - Savior of the Wood
     Though Olo has taken the lead in the fight to save the Widower's Wood, it's Vaskis who is sort of guiding him through what needs to be done.  The Blackclad is so close to fulfilling his mission of rescuing the swamp.  He got Article 1185 and the Hand of Glory to help bolster his somewhat lacking melee skills, as he is the bait character, leading enemies into range of the two fighters.  His abilities are:
     Aegis, Blood Trade, Cloak of the Predator, Stay Death, Affliction, Raging Wind, Storm Sorcerer
     Blood Boon, Harvest, Bleed, Sunhammer, Chain Lightening.

Olo - Hero of Widower's Wood
     They say that the best leaders don't want to lead, but take up the role when they hear the call.  This is Olo.  A humble croak hunter, he has become the defacto leader of this group of heroes, and he still wants to try to help the Gatorman Witch Doctor that started all this mess if he can!  What a great guy!  He picked up an Oroboros Dagger, Improvised Traps, and a Fettershot Rifle, as well as taking the first steps down the Scion's Path...  His abilities are:
     Ambush, Wily, Outrider, Extra Turtle Shells, Backstab, Corrosive Slime, Trailblazer, Bounding
     Leap, Acrobatics, Vitriolic Fire, Poison Gland, Animosity: Gatorman.

And with that, we're ready to dive in to this exciting chapter!

The Story So Far:

It's him.... Rasheldonak at last!

As our last session ended, our valiant heroes had stopped two Mist Speakers from completing a ritual to absorb more power to help Sheldon, the power crazed Witch Doctor who is trying to subjugate the whole of the Widower's Wood.  The amazing tag team of Skarg and Agata took down both of the Mist Speakers and then turned around and destroyed the Orgoth monument that was the focus of the ritual.  Following the trail the Mist Speakers left, finally....FINALLY the team has found Sheldon.  Several Bokors and Mist Speakers are surrounding another Orgoth Monument, and casting a ritual to awaken a Deathless trapped by the Blackclads beneath the stone.  So here is Sheldon's big plan... or should we say, Sheldon is the Deathless' plan... because I'm betting the poor Witch Doctor is actually being controlled by the timeless evil he's helping.  Well, time to stop an undying evil from taking over everything!  Agata, Olo, Skarg and Vaskis....GO!!

Chapter 6, Sheldon Dun: 

Go team, go!

Yeesh, okay, this looks a little rough!  So, the heroes start all the way to the right, and down at the left side of the board is a broken stone monument with two Bokor and two Mist Speakers doing the ritual, and below them is Rasheldonak in the ritual circle.  There are also two blue and two red bone piles... and you can't enter or attack someone in the ritual circle while a bone pile of the color priority for the round is in play.... ugh!  Okay, step one, destroy bone piles.  Rasheldonak is controlling the ritual to bring out Lord Thandul!  On his activation, we roll a die, adding plus 1 for each Bokor and Mist Speaker still in play.  If the roll and the addition are 4-7, 1 XP is added to the clock tile... if it's 8 or more, 2 XP are added.  Also, if an Impending Doom event card is drawn, we also roll a die, and the rolled number is added to the Clock in XP.  Once there are 10 XP on the clock, the DEATHLESS SPAWNS!!!  Dun-dun-DUN!!

Villain Reserves

Oh man!  Look at all the villians we are going to face this game!  Plus, next to Sheldon is a Tatzelwurm... that's right... the Wurm we didn't save a few chapters ago!  If we had managed to save it, the Wurm in this chapter would be less powerful.  Alas our failure!
So, to win this chapter, we have to incapacitate Rasheldonak and break the ritual circle.  Simple, right?

Round One - IMPENDING DOOM!!!  NOoooooooooo!  Luckily we rolled a one, so only one XP got put on the clock, but it's not the way we wanted to start out!  Olo charged the Trog right in front of him, and after he killed it used Quick Work to take a shot at a Gatorman, but didn't do any damage.  Skarg Hoofed It to move 2 spaces, but in his villian action, two Trogs charged Olo!  Luckily, Olo laid some Improvised Traps, and trapped both of them!  Agata decided to start in a whirl of action and charged the Viper Tatzelwurm in front of herself, side stepped into a Trog, and then Overtook straight into the last occupied Trog square.  To end the round, Sheldon does some oogie boogies, and 2 more XP go on the clock...

Olo in trouble already!

Next round... the Boss event card!  Man!  We can't catch a break!  Another XP goes onto the Clock!  Olo broke away from Gator central and threw a Vitriolic Fire Gourd at the red Mist Speaker, killing it!  Go, Olo!  Alas, his villian action was BAD, sending two Gators at Vaskis for 2 damage, and a Trog at Agata who missed.  Vaskis left combat and shot a spell back at the Gator who hit him, killing it as well!  Finally, Vaskis gets his magic to work!  And following the trend was another bad villian action brought Skarg down to his last two wounds.  Skarg decided to take matters into his own hands, killing both Gators with shots from his bow, while Agata killed both Trogs and used her Overtake to move onto the bone pile, ready to destroy it next turn.  In her own villain turn, the Warbeast Tatzelwurm protecting Sheldon was going to charge Agata, but she used her feat card Staredown, terrifying it so much that it changed it's mind.  Sheldon continued the ritual, putting another XP on the clock.

It's my arrow IN YOUR FACE!!

Another Boss card... another XP.  Great... This round was a bunch of tries and fails.  Olo tried to punch the Bone Pile he was on... no go.  Vaskis charged a Gatorman, missed.  Skarg did make his move on a Trog and Gatorman that were harassing Olo and finished them off, so that was good!  And Agata did manage to break up the bone pile that she was standing on!  One down, three to go!  The next round things started turning around for us... Vaskis took a shot at the surviving Mist Speaker, dealing one damage to it.  Skarg moved onto the bone pile and missed his attack on it, but spent a re-roll to finish destroying it.  Two piles to go!

Keep the ritual going no matter what!

The next event card is one of our favorites... Buzzard Beetle Swarms!  All the heroes came out alright, but two Gators went down to the feisty little buggers!  Olo moved closer to the Orgoth Monument and threw two Vitriolic Fire Gourds on one of the Bokors, killing it!  Man, Olo is getting work done today!  Vaskis, upset that everyone else was killing all the big baddies, moved over one space, took another shot at the Mist Speaker that survived him last time, and killed it!  Wow, good work everyone!  One Bokor left to make our lives troubled! Agata managed to turn one of the Trogs that was stuck in her square into fish sticks, which she promptly snacked upon to heal 2 points, but one Trog avoided destruction... sadly, Sheldon's turn brought up the total on the clock to 9!  We HAVE to kill Sheldon or get him out of the Ritual Circle or else the Deathless will come out next turn!

Yummy fish snacks!

Olo used his Backstab ability to clear out 2 Trogs, freeing up Skarg for his turn.  Vaskis broke up the last bone pile, and we can finally beat up on Sheldon!  Skarg took two shots at Sheldon, but the Gatorman was pretty tough, and only took 2 damage.  Agata then charged Sheldon and did 4 damage with 2 attacks, and then used a feat card to Throw Sheldon out of the circle with only 2 health left!  Yeah!  No ritual this turn, unless the Villian Action turns against us!  Which... of course it does.  Sadly, it starts by activating Sheldon, who runs back into the circle.  I thought we were out of luck, but Vaskis had a trick up this black sleeves!  He put Watcher on Agata, letting her take an attack against an enemy that moves into her square, so as Sheldon entered the square, she took a swing and.... KILLED HIM!!!  Oh my gosh, it was a magic moment!  No Sheldon, no ritual, NO DEATHLESS!!!  How did we luck out of this one??  Amazing!  Now all we have to do is break the ritual circle and we'll win the chapter!

Stay down, ya Gator fool!

So!  Round 7!  Event card... Impending Doom... no.  No no no.  Nonononononononono!  How is this possible!  Damn!  So, the final XP goes onto the clock, and the Deathless spawns on the Orgoth monument.  We were so close to no super baddie, and we tripped at the finish line!  Olo moved up and killed the Trog standing on the circle.  Then Vaskis walked into the circle and with his amazing intelligence score, destroys the circle. Game Over!

Conclusion:

Hey, high fives all round?

Victory for us!  Yay!  Almost a super victory, but not quite.  This was a super team play, though... it could never have worked without all of the characters with our super coordination!  One chapter left to go (I wonder what would have happened if we didn't summon the Deathless!)  I'm sure going to miss this game when it's over!  13 XP to all of us, and we might as well spend it all since next time is the last!

To finish up today's post, we'll bring you the next in our continuing segment, a look inside the Mardi Gras Gators!

Gallery:
There is no reason more that I wish I could play more than once a month than that I now cannot spare the time to play games with my Gatorman Minions army.  I love playing these gators, and I love painting them.   But right now, I only have 12 times to get two army lists ready for a tournament, and I can't spare the time!  Sigh!  One day, right?

Today, I present to you the first of the huge based models that I ever attempted, the Sacral Vault!

The Orgoth soul sucking machine

Phew!  This thing was a BEAST to paint, but I loved it!  It was so much fun, and it has so much detail that I never felt bored while it was in progress.  Piles of bones and skulls, candle bunches, vines and dead gator bits cover practically every flat space across the model!  Now, I'm pretty proud of my stone work... I use it on the bases of my Menoth army, so I felt pretty confident going into this model because of that.  What I was most concerned with was the glowing, spectral faces in the central pillar.  I wanted them to have a supernatural glow, but I've never tried that effect before... and I didn't want it to be the greenish glow of the studio paint scheme, because that kind of thing seems a little Cryxish to me...

Glowy faces = evil, right?

Purple was of course, a natural decision since it's one of the Mardi Gras colors, and it doesn't have associations with any other faction (okay, I painted this before the Grymkin even got teased, so it NOW has another connection, but it didn't at the time!).

Hey man... you okay?

Poor schmuck.  That's what he gets for adventuring around Gatorman infested swamps.  I tried to paint his pants a little vaguely, as though whatever color they were is now grimy and swamped... was he a mercenary in olive green?  5th border legion?  Cygnar blue that saw too much use?  I guess we'll never know!

Details galore

Privateer Press does such a great job with detail work.  These "decorations" were fun to paint too... One of the first things that I fully painted on my own waaaaay back in the day was a Norse Blood Bowl team (Games Workshop).  And those guys used a LOT of bone work... I've always loved doing it, and I think I'm pretty alright at it.. and this vault has soooo much bone!

Push, boys, push!

I've mentioned before that I love doing interesting things with bases.  For this model, I decided that even these two burly gators could not push that giant stone monument through the swamps without it getting stuck in the mud... so I decided to create a hastily thrown down bridge that they slap down in front of Vault as they march to war.

Popsicle sticks at their finest

I wanted to keep it kind of rough, because they aren't making a bridge to last the ages, just something to support the weight of the stone as it moved to the next battlefield... so, I intentionally made sure that they were not nice and straight, but roughly hewn and not evenly spaced.

We're getting a-head.... see what I did there?

No sacrificial alter is complete without a bloodthirsty, cold blooded priest cutting the heads or hearts out of victims, and this one is using the blood to power the amazing powers of the Sacral Vault.

Well, that's it!  I hope that you enjoyed the Sacral Vault!  I enjoyed painting and playing it!  The next meeting of the Fukuyama Gaming Club will be on June 24th!  See you then!

Widower's Wood, Chapter 5.5

In the March meeting of the Fukuyama Gaming Club, we had several great games between Cygnar, the Trollkin, and the Protectorate of Menoth!  We're getting closer and closer to the 6th Annual Japan Open Team Tournament, and that means it's getting down to crunch time!  Since the FGC only meets once a month, that means that there are only 5 more meetings (we already had our April meeting!) until go time, so we are really trying to get our lists into fighting shape.  Luckily, I think that my lists feel pretty good where they are, and so they don't need any more tweaking... just a LOT MORE PRACTICE!!!  We didn't just do some practice runs and call it a day, however... oh no we did not!  There's always time for our current side game, Privateer Press' kickstarter game, Widower's Wood!

Speaking of Kickstarter, I wanted to just give a shout out to our buddies over at Word Forge Games who have a kickstarter LIVE RIGHT NOW!!!  That's right!  It's a 15mm skirmish wargame where the players control armies of drone tanks, and attempt to outmaneuver their opponents.  It looks like a ton of fun, and if you check out the kickstarter page, you'll find a bunch of great videos on how to play.  The tanks themselves are resin models, and looks pretty sweet!  It'll ship anywhere in the world, so no worries there!  Anyway, for more info, check out the kickstarter page here -> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wordforgegames/armoured-digital-miniatures-wargame/description

Announcments:
Fukuyama Gaming Club will meet again on May 20!  We hope you can join us!
Also, don't forget to register for the Japan Open!  There is only space for 8 teams, so it's first come first served!  Remember, the Tournament is on October 7th in Fukuyama city, Hiroshima Prefecture!

Working Hard or Hardly Working:
In a mere five models, both of my lists will be fully painted!  Add to that several models that I'm working on in trade for DTB like the Witch Coven and an Ogrun Bokur that I'm enjoying working on, and my painting table is in great shape!  The Bokur and the Coven are almost finished, and I've started on the two Choir members and the Paladin solo.  When the Choir is finished I'll throw the Champion of the Order of the Wall dragoon solo up there, and then I will be COMPLETE!!!!
     WIP: Ogrun Bokur

Mercenary Ogrun Bokur

This was actually a pretty fun solo to paint.  At first I thought that it was going to be a little difficult, but I really enjoyed it.  It's nice to step away from the purple and grey of the Interdiction of the Dawn (my Menoth army) and try something new!

     WIP:  Choir of Menoth

Two models to a full Choir

I never thought that I would ever paint another choir member again.  This was quite literally the first unit that I painted way back 12 years ago in Mark 1... the unit that made me decide to use Menoth instead of Cryx, actually.  I had been debating between the two factions, but the Choir models are what pushed me over the edge to the Protectorate.  In 12 years of playing Warmachine, I've only ever used a minimum unit of them... but my Tristan list uses 6 'jacks, and I can't protect them all with just four Choirboys, so here two more sit... it'll be interesting to paint them up just to see how much  my painting has improved over the last decade, haha!

Orgoth ruins surrounded by Trogs!

Which bring us, finally, to our continuing saga of Olo, our valiant Croak hero, and his merry band, trying to save the Widower's Wood swamp from falling under the control of a water fearing, crazy witch doctor, Rasheldonak... Sheldon to his friends, if he had any before he ate them.  Today, we took a crack at chapter 5.5, the last of the Kickstarter exclusive goodies that I got as part of my swag... that is to say, the unlocked stretch goals from the Kickstarter.  There are two more that I got for the Dead Man Walking expansion, but we're going to take a break once we're done with the main campaign, and might come back to the expansion in half a year or so after we get a few different games in.  The campaign is so close to being done, it's kind of exciting!  After this exclusive chapter, there are TWO CHAPTERS LEFT!!!  We haven't lost a chapter yet, though it's been a close thing!

The Story So Far:
After managing to escape from the Feralgeist ambush, the heroes have been closing in on Rasheldonak's ritual site.  But the Widower's Wood is a place full of old magic, and on their way, they stumbled upon an old Orgoth relic.  Some Bog Trogs, under the orders of Sheldon, are trying to conduct a ritual on the stone head that will make it easier for Sheldon to complete his own.  And easier for Sheldon means harder for us!  Looks like we'll have to beat up on some Troggy tail!  As usual, I took on Agata, my porcine princess, Leland took on Vaskis, and it looks like DTB will take both Olo and Skarg from now on (Leland has become "Villain guy" and I'm "Rules and Events", so it saves time for DTB to take the extra character).

Chapter 5.5, Orgoth Ruins:

The Board is Set

Okay, so right there in the middle of the board is a broken stone monument, and that is the focus for today.  And at the bottom of the board, there are two Mist Speakers (one red and one blue).  Now, the head has 8 wound tokens on it, but the Mist Speakers on their activations have a 2/3 chance of taking one of those wounds, adding it to THEIR OWN health, and putting an XP on the head.  The other 1/3 of the time all heroes have to make a hazard roll as the magic goes crazy!  Once the Mist Speakers have stolen all of the wound tokens from the head, they will try to escape and take all that magic to Sheldon.  If even one of the Mist Speakers escapes, we lose... Our plan seems to be to kill off the Mist Speakers as fast as possible, since they could become WAY too powerful if they take a lot of the wound tokens.  Add to that the fact that every XP on the head gives any undead villains (ie, Swamp Shamblers) +1 ARM, making these relatively easy to smash baddies a bit more of a threat, and the chapter becomes much more difficult to manage as the Mist Speakers do their work.  And each time a Bog Trog is incapacitated, the stone head turns it into a knocked down Swamp Shambler.. ugh!

Behold!  Orgoth magic at work!

Round one kicked off with High Water as the event card, but that won't bother us so much this turn, so good time to have that one.  Olo charged the Viper Tatzelwurm near him to grab a bit of extra movement on his way to the side quest.  He managed to kill it off, and was quickly followed by Vaskis using Wings of Air to make a longer move and set up his money maker, Sunhammer!  Sadly for our favorite Croak, the villain action for both of the them has all the Bog Trogs going after Olo! Olo spawned a villain in 6.....Vaskis spawned a villain in 6... Skarg spawned a villain IN 6!!!  Yikes!  To try and help out, Skarg charged into the mass of baddie heading for Olo, and hit a Viper Tatzelwurm so hard that he reached down it's throat and ripped out it's heart, which he feasted upon to heal his left over wound from last game.

Run, Olo!

And then, Agata also spawned a villain in 6....Whaaaaa?  What the heck, dice!  She then used her feat card Hoof It to make it into the Sunhammered square.  Then, time for the two Mist Speakers.  One of them caused all the heroes to take a hazard roll, while the other one took one of the wounds off of the monument.

Vaskis, Master of the Sunhammer

Round 2 pulled the Boss event card (eep!)  One more damage from the stone head, one more hazard roll... and it's only round 2 and there are only 6 wounds on the head!  Plus, all Shambers have become +2 arm!  Olo spawned a villain... in 6!  Hahaha!  And followed that up by getting to the side quest card!  Yeah!  6 XP to us!  It was a Feral Charm...mmmm, Agata want!  I may have a chance at the end of the game to try and convince the group to let me take it!  Vaskis charged the Tatzelwurm in the forest near him, taking 2 hazard rolls (oops, sorry for the 2 damage, Leland!) as he left the occupied square, and managed to kill it!  Woot!  His villain action sent a +2 ARM Shambler after Olo, but Olo is pretty slippery, and the shambler is a rotting pile of goo and missed.  Skarg also Hoofed it to move out of his total mess so he could shoot the blue Mist Speaker.  Agata moved out of her square, taking TWO HAZARD DAMAGE!!  Wow, we are not doing well with the hazard rolls this game!  Using her great strength Savagery which lets her take an attack at every model in her square for each attack she makes, she cuts down one Viper Tatzelwurm and both Bog Trogs, who immediately become Shamblers.  With her second attack, she killed one of the spawned Shamblers, as well!  Then during the villain action, she used her Feat card Pursuit to move another square.  And to finish the round, during the Mist Speaker action one more wild blasts of energy flooded the board, but none of us took any damage, and another wound left the head.

Agata and Vaskis hold off the rampaging horde

Round 3 brought another Boss Event card again!  One more wild energy blast, one more wound from the head!  Half way to the finale!  Olo charged a spawned Swamp Shambler, but with a +4 ARM and resilient flesh (needing double damage to hurt it, since, you know, it's a zombie) it only got knocked down.  Vaskis went after the second Side Quest since he was right there, but didn't make his INT check to actually find the item hidden in the bushes.  During his villain action, BOTH Mist Speakers drew off a wound from the head, bringing it down to the last two!  Skarg moved into another empty square and shot the blue Mist Speaker again.  Agata used another of her great strengths March to charge through the rough terrain at the Red Mist Speaker, doing double damage twice!  Yeah!  Go, Slaughterhauser of my heart!  Only one damage left on the red Mist Speaker.  That Mist Speaker hit Agata with an attack during it's activation, but failed to damage her (phew!), while the blue Speaker took one more wound from the head.... last one to go!

Skarg faces off against the Mist Speaker

Olo moved out of the Shambler square without taking any damage!  He then turned and threw a corrosive slime gourd at the zombie, but missed... Vaskis tried again for the Side Quest, this time making the roll and finding a Hand of Glory (knocks down all enemies in your square or an adjacent square once per chapter).  That's pretty good for Vaskis, since he always is the bait that leads the horde of baddies away from the action!  And I'll never say no to 6 more XP for finding the Side Quest.

Hand of Glory for Vaskis!

Skarg held and aimed, which lets him shoot the Mist Speaker 2 times!  One shot did double damage, but the other missed... oh well, we can't all be Agata, Skarg.  Don't worry, we won't hold it against you!  He spent a feat card to deal the final damage to the Speaker, leaving us with only one Speaker with only one damage left!  Come on, Agata!  Aaaaaaaaaand..... Agata smacked that Mist Speaker in the FACE!!!  And then, snacks upon his fishy flesh to heal 2 of her wounds.  Now all that's left is the stone head!

Fish 'n' chips for dinner tonight!

Olo's spawn continued to throw villains at Vaskis' square!  The Blackclad looks like he's going to be overrun soon!  Then Olo moved into the forest and threw a Vitriolic Fire gourd at the head, dealing double damage!  Then, Vaskis used his newly found Hand of Glory to knock down all the villains in the square next to him, which is good, because he really has a TON of guys who want to eat him!  Skarg held and aimed again, taking two shots and dealing 3 damage to the head.  Only three damage to go, but oh no!  Olo is in trouble!  The Villain Actions have brought a horde of villain on his head, and Olo goes down!

Hold tight, Olo!  We'll save you!

Come on, Agata!  The Great Finisher takes backs her title as she takes two attacks at the head and deals the last 3 damage!  Game over!

Conclusion:

Pshaw... Orgoth magic isn't what it used to be!

Victory for us!
Looks like Skarg and Agata are neck and neck for being MVP!  Actually, this chapter I felt like we were in pretty good shape the whole game!  We never seemed to be losing control, and we still had 7 rounds until the event cards ran out.  Now that the kickstarter exclusive chapters are over, let me say I really enjoyed them!  They were a great way to pick up some extra XP, for sure!  I wish that they had had a little more impact on the main game itself, but I know that would be difficult.  Bottom line, they were a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I picked up the kickstarter!
And Olo graciously handed over the Feral Charm to Agata!  Yes!
Next meeting will be on May 20!  Come down and get a game in!

Widower's Wood, Ghost Trap

Welcome, welcome!  Kick back and relax!  The February meeting of the Fukuyama gaming club was a great success!  A battle between Horgle and the Trollkin against the Testament of Menoth and the Protectorate of Menoth ended with the Protectorate squeeking out a win thanks to ToM's feat... there was also a mighty struggle between Cygnar led by Stryker and the same Horgle list that faced the Protectorate, which I wrote about in the last post, where the Trollkin managed to beat the clock and take the win.  And of course, we continued the fight to rid the Widower's Wood of a menacing Witch Doctor with evil dreams of controlling the whole swamp.

With the March gaming day fast approaching, work continues on my list of painting goals, but slowly.  In one more session, Sovereign Tristan and the Deliverers will be finished, and the Champion of the Order of the Wall will hit the painting table!  I know, I know... very exciting!

Announcements:
The Fukuyama Gaming Club will meet on March 18, April 1, and May 20!  Come join to get a game!  Also... exciting news!  It looks as though the FGC is going to be starting a very relaxed Dredd Ball league.  I don't know much about it, but I'll keep you posted as I learn more! 

As part of the Kickstarter that I bought Widower's Wood with, most of the stretch goals were reached!  That means lots and lots of goodies for me!  And several of those goodies were bonus chapters for the campaign.  There were two additional chapters for Widower's Wood (Chapters 3.5 and 5.5), two additional chapters for the Dead Men Walking expansion, and an extra chapter each for WW and DMW that could go in after any chapter.  After each session, we roll a die, and on a roll of a 6 we would play the extra chapter for Widower's Wood.  And last month, after trying desperately to save the Tatzelwurm from Rasheldonak's clutches, we rolled a 6!  That means it's KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE TIME!!!!  Woo hoo!

Olo catches himself a Ironback Snapper!

The Story So Far:
As we last left our heroes, they had failed to save a rare albino Tatzelwurm from falling into the clutches of the water fearing, psycho Witch Doctor Rasheldonak... who knows what devastating effect that miss will have!   We did, however, manage to finish off the Warlock, yay!  Vaskis managed to remove the collar that the Warlock was trying to  fit around the Tatzelwurm's neck.  Upon examining it, he has now figured out what Rasheldonak is doing.  The group headed out to try and track him down before he could finish his ritual... but suddenly, they hit a dead end... a valley full of the remains of a battlefield... and there's something moving around by the bodies... Feralgeists!  To fight off the 'beast possessing spirits, I took over Agata and it was my turn to control Skarg as well.  DTB took on Olo, and Leland once again took Vaskis.

One Shot Chapter, Ghost Trap:

Here we go!

So!  There are 4 purple heavy warbeasts that are knocked down around the board, and two Feralgeists that are running around, ready to jump into the beasts and use them to kill us!  In addition to the beasts, there are a number of Swamp Shamblers (dead Bog Trogs), Risen (dead humans), and some Thralls wandering around, trying to make us part of the party.  We have 12 rounds to incapacitate the Feralgeists or else we lose!  That sounds easy, but they are going to jump into the knocked down beasts, and so we'll have to kill the beasts, force the Feralgeists out, and kill them before they can jump into another one!  All the heroes started together for the first time in a while (but Olo, with his special ability, got to start one space closer to the action.  Our goal... keep the Feralgeists away from the Blackhide Wrastler.  In a strange turn of events, we decided to team up Agata and Skarg this time, and let the two support characters go on their own!  We'll see how it goes!

Round one started us off with the Strength of Death event card!  OH NO!!!  Olo led us off by bombing a few of the Risen that shambled a little closer to us, and then charged a Thrall and Risen, but missed them both... uh oh!  Vaskis had his back, though, and charged and killed the Risen before using Blood Boon to cast Chain Lightening, but missed, and then used Wings of Air to move into the inert Blackhide Wrastler's space.  The Feralgeists activated and possessed the Tatzelwurm and the Ironback Spitter.  All in all, we're pretty happy with those, I mean, we just faced a Tatzelwurm in the last chapter, and the Spitter is at least not as bad as the Wrastler!  Skarg started blasting away at the Tatzelwurm, and Agata charged over to take out the Thrall that was threatening Olo.

Another Tatzelwurm?

Vaskis decided that the best way to keep the Feralgeists from accidentaly getting into the Wrastler is to just destroy the Wrastler!  To damage an inert, unpossessed beast, you must do Super Damage to take away one of it's 5 wound markers, so it looks like this is going to take a while!  Skarg continued to whack away at the Tatzel-geist, doing another 2 damage!  Leaving Olo to help Vaskis, Agata went to try and help Skarg, charging a Risen and a Thrall, killing both, but she in turn got charged by the Tatzelwurm!!!  Luckily, she took no damage, and is ready to lay on the damage next turn!

Round 3 brought another swarm of Buzzard Beetles for our event card!  Wow, those beetles are dangerous!  None of the heroes were damaged, but a couple of random dead baddies went down.  Olo gathered his courage around him and CHARGED THE IRONBACK!!!  HAHAHA!  Can you believe it!  It's like when Merry Brandybuck decided to charge the king of the Nazghul!  And even better, he did 2 damage!  Yeah, you go, froggie!  Agata let LOSE, my piggy princess!  She killed a Shambler AND took down the Tatzelwurm!  Yeah!  The Feralgeist got bumped out into the square furthest from any of the heroes.

Agata and Skarg tag team the Tatzelwurm

Olo used his new Parry ability to leave combat with the Ironback so that he could throw a bottle of Vitriolic Fire back at the giant turtle, dealing 1 damage.  Vaskis killed a Thrall that got knocked down by the beetle swarms, then again used his Blood Boon (when he kills an enemy with a melee attack, he can immediately shoot off a spell), throwing Razor Wind at the exposed Feralgeist!  Yea... oh... no damage.  The Feralgeist made a dash for the Blackhide Wrastler, but Skarg managed to get it in his sights, and bye bye, ghostie #1!  Alright!  That's one down, one to go, and we're only on the 4th round!  To finish the round, the Ironback started stalking Olo, following him as he moved away.

Round 5 brought us the Boss event card.... Argh!  On a roll of a 6, the Ironback Spitter got 2 ACTIONS!!!  So, of course, the Spitter took two shots at Olo, but that is a slippery Croak, and Olo took no damage.  Vaskis shot a chain lightening at the Spitter and dealt another damage.  Skarg and Agata, a little far from the action, continued to try and pick off a few of the dead masses that were spawning all around them.  Agata charged a Risen, easily killing it, in an attempt to use the extra movement to get closer to where she needed to be to help out.  Skarg was fine a little farther back, so that he could try to cover some of the other inert beasts when the Feralgeist got pushed out of the Spitter.  And to finish the round, the Spitter continued to shuffle after Olo!  Run, Olo!  HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

I'm coming for you, Olo!

Olo made it to the Side Quest!  Unfortunately, it wasn't the continuation of the chain quest that we had started, but it turned out to be a Fettershot Rifle, which is an amazing ranged weapon!   After snagging the goods, he turned and glued the Spitter into its square, making sure that it can't charge him.  Skarg and Vaskis started moving around, getting ready for the next round's action, while Agata killed off a Risen and used her Overtake ability to move an extra space, trying to get into a charge on the Spitter next round.  And again, at the end of the round, the Spitter moved into Olo's square AGAIN!!!!  Ahahaha!  Run, Olo, run!

Pop goes the Feralgeist

Another Buzzard Beetle Swarm saw about half of the deadies go down as swarms of flesh eating beetles feasted upon their goopy corpses.  Olo turned around, and used his new found rifle on the turtle, and KILLED IT!!  Boo-ya!  That's what you get for stalking!  The Feralgeist got pushed out away from Olo near the Swamp Horror, and too far for Agata and Vaskis to help.  So, instead, Vaskis charged into a square that had a lot of dead walkers shambling around in there.

Vaskis just cannot get his Chain Lightening working!

He managed to kill off a Swamp Shambler, then used his Blood Boon ability to throw some Chain Lightening into the other walkers, but missed.  The Feralgeist ran forward towards the Swamp Horror... if Skarg can't kill it this turn, it'll make it to the beast next turn and wreck some Tharn booty!  So, with all our hopes riding on it, Skarg took aim... spent feat cards to get a boost to the roll... employed all his useable abilities... and shot the Feralgeist in the FACE!!!  Game over, biyatch!

Victory!!!
Conclusion:

Skarg the Marksman strikes again!

Wow!  Two games in a row, Skarg has taken the MVP award for sure!  If that Feralgeist had made it to the beast, we may not have been able to force it out again in time to win the game!  I guess my porcine heroine is starting to slip!  She'll have to step up her game and take the title back from her Tharn buddy!  With all the dead walkers we were bumping off, we raked in the XP, making a huge 46 total, which broke down to 12 XP each!  I can't wait to spend it and pick up another great ability!  We'll be playing the last of the Kickstarter exclusive chapters on March 18th, that will leave us with the two last chapters before we wrap up the campaign.  Come join us if you get a chance!