Post-Apocalypse gang!

Months ago I ordered some Viking miniatures from Khurasan, and decided on a whim to add two packs of post-apocalyptic gangers to my order. The original idea I had was to use them as obstacles/scenery/danger-areas for Axles & Alloys, but I never got around to painting them while we were still doing A&A a lot. Dave, though, recently started running Other Dust, a post-apocalypse role playing game, for our group, so opportunity knocked again. I don't know if we'll be using them a lot, but they were a ton of fun to paint and I think they are really cool figures, so I'm not too worried.

Also included is a figure kit-bashed and painted by Bryan - it's the one with the different base. He needed a different miniature because his character is a horrendously ugly mutant with a sort of sluggy body. 

Perilous Island: Landfall in the Lagoon Of Terror!

This weekend Bryan and I were finally able to get our Pulp Alley leagues to set foot on Perilous Island! Having fought across the world to get here, we decided to call a truce and just sat back with coconut drinks and the beach and relaxed and nothing horrible or violent happened at all...

Meanwhile, back Pulp Alley reality, we landed on Perilous Island in a shipwreck, and had to brave the dangers of the island and the Terror of the Lagoon, not to mention each other.

Perilous Island boasts certain special hazards, and special rewards:

The Lagoon Terror, with some Perilium deposits and some lost journal pages.

The Lagoon of Terror scenario has us at the edge of a (wait for it...) lagoon following the wreck of our ship. The Major Plot Point, the journal pages, are on the ship wreck, while the others are placed by the players. A jug of special juice is lost in the cave, the rocks just left of centre contain a Perilium deposit, a native fisherman stands on the outcropping in the centre of the board, and a set of Mysterious Remains lie out in the open on the right.

The Table, pre-deployment.

My Okkulten Forschungabteilung won initiative, so I deployed the first character and had the first turn. I placed Black Sascha, my leader, and Gertie, my sidekick, near to the shipwreck, with most of the others near the middle of the table, except for two Allies near the cave. Bryan had The Shadow on the beach and Mr. Wu in the lagoon, with Andre and his Allies and Followers close to the centre.

Black Sascha was able to snap up the lost journal pages in the first turn, while Gertie ran interference with Mr. Wu and The Shadow. Both teams' mooks mixed it up in the middle of the table, with two of my German troopers going down under gunfire from Bryan's follower. Andre was able to beat off Irma and another of the German troops in the middle of the table to grab the Native Fisherman. My two she-wolves at the back of the table moved in on the jug of Paganga Juice in the cave, but had a hard time picking it up.

We had four turns of respite before the Lagoon Terror appeared. There were several candidates for the Terror to attack, but everybody scattered before it, leaving only poor Gertie to feel its wrath! Despite the Terror's unstoppable attacks, Gertie was able to stay on her feet until the very end of the last turn.

"I got (some of) my eyes on you! But I think I'll go beat up Gertie instead."

Schlorp, schlorp, squelch

Meanwhile, fighting continued throughout the rest of the island. Black Sascha was cut off by Andre as she tried to leave the lagoon and they fought for a few rounds, but BS was at last able to push him away and activate her experimental jetpack, flying to safety with the journal pages.

Most of my mooks were taken out by some fine shooting by one of The Shadow's low-level henchmen. I had one native follower, though, who managed to run around him, snatch up the Mysterious Remains, and take off. These two characters spent the rest of the game running across the board, with The Shadow's mook taking shots at the native every turn, and the native managing to dodge away or shrug off the damage every time. The native was still in possession of the remains at the end of the game!

The Shadow was able to extend the scenario by one turn, which gave him time to pick up the Perilium from the rock outcropping nearby - with a little help from Andre.

There is a list of three or four generic Perilous Island adventures to do next, which (unlike the scenarios previous to this one) can be played multiple times. When any league has four pages from the lost journal in their possession, we proceed from the generic scenarios to the three finale scenarios. At the end of this scenario, the Okkulten Forschungabteilung holds 2 pages, so I better not collect any more for a while if we want to be able to play all of the generic scenarios!

Pulp Alley: The Ladies vs. The Lads

This weekend I was invited to the home of Thomas, one of the Trumpeter club regulars, for a game of Pulp Alley. Thomas is always the most gracious of players at the club, so I jumped at the chance.

I have played a fair few games of PA but Thomas is a veteran, so it was a good opportunity to compare the game as I understand it against the game as Thomas understands it. There are small ambiguities with every rule set, and it's always good to see how they are resolved by someone else.

Thomas brought his troupe of WWI veterans, a small league of adventurers with two sidekicks. I brought my Watling Street Benevolent Society, a band I put together originally for In Her Majesty's Name. I took the leader attribute that allows me extra points for Allies and Followers, which means I had a much larger roster than Thomas. But would that be enough to defeat his superior troops?

The table before deployment.

We rolled for a scenario from the book, which turned out to be Dangerous Delivery! (? I can't remember the exact name). The story had me trying to transit several important packages from the lower left corner of the board, as seen above, to the upper right corner. The scenario, as written, says that any Plot Points not taken off-table are considered to belong to the opposing force, but we thought that was a bit tough, so Thomas just counted any PPs that he actually controlled at the end of the scenario as his.

Turn 3.

I started the game with 2 plot points in my possession, with the other 3 on the table. Thomas quickly snatched up one, and left another for a turn or two before taking it. I had the one nearest my deployment zone in hand, after a turn or two of faffing around.

Even the PPs that nominally start in my possession still have to be "achieved" by completing a challenge. My leader couldn't roll a decent die for most of the game, so she sat in the deployment zone for a few turns trying to pick up the damned suitcase.

Phillip J. Fry vs. the flea-rider!

Most of the fighting took place in the middle of the table, around the Quonset huts. One of the veterans' mooks snuck around the right side and leapt into an ill-advised fight against Mr. Hooke, my mechanical flea-riding sidekick, and got beaten up after a turn or two fighting. Thomas then sent in one of his sidekicks, who bears a striking resemblance to Phillip J. Fry, but no one was injured in the subsequent fighting.

"It's simply no use, you scoundrel! I see you skulking about back there!"

A few minor troops on both sides got beaten up, but the big fights between our leaders and sidekicks went without a clear winner.

After spending so much time monkeying around in my deployment zone trying to pick up "my" Plot Points, I wasn't in a great position to run the objectives off the far side of the table, even if the way had been clear. Mr. Hooke was able to use the power of his mechano-flea to leap over the opposition and away to freedom with the Major Plot Point, but my Ally with the other PP was bushwhacked inches from the corner of the table and both she and her escort failed their health checks, so they dropped their plot point there.

The unfortunate end of my suitcase-carrying mooks.

By the last turn, it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to make it to the corner of the board with my leader and last remaining Plot Point, even if she ran right past the other Plot Point sitting right in front of her, so we called it a game.

"That is a lovely valise, but I simply haven't the time to pick it up!"

I had made off with the Major Plot Point, but that's it. Thomas's Veterans had two minor plot points. I think that gave me the edge in victory points, but it would be hard to declare a clear winner.

We both had a lot of fun, so there's that!

Quarvalry!

It feels like a long time since I have posted any new painted figures. I have been busy, playing games with the figures I have, flying my quadcopter, and doing a ton of overtime at work.

A while ago I got it in my head to reduce my collection of unpainted minis, and these guys had been sitting in a box, primed, for ages. They were expensive figures, and they are very cool, so they seemed like a good place to start.

What do I plan to do with them now that they are painted? I just got a set of Old West rules, and I think doing western-style games with the Quar would be perfect, so I may set up a game like that at some point in the future. Games are secondary, though, I just like the Quar because they look so cool.

My Other Mistress

I haven't posted a whole lot of newly-painted miniatures lately. I have been painting, but the Quar Cavalry I'm working on are taking quite a while (they better... at >$50 for the squad, I want to get my money's worth, and I don't want to do a shabby job)... but I also have another mistress that's taking up a lot of my hobby time.

What you're looking at is a 250-class quadcopter (or drone, or UAV, or r/c copter) with my transmitter and FPV goggles. What all that means is that eventually, when I get good and comfortable with flying it, I will be able to start zooming around and possibly racing like you see here:

I'm still very much a noob at this, and a loooong way from being able to fly like what you see in the video above. Still, with the weather getting nicer, I'll have time for more practice, and I get more capable and comfortable every time I fly.

I built the quadcopter from parts, and that alone has been a huge learning process. The technology is still in its infancy, but there are dozens or hundreds of options available for each piece, and they all interact differently.

Wheee!

So there's that. I haven't quite figured out how to combine quadcopters and miniatures into a fun hobby, but if I do I'll post about it here.