Thursday, March 27, 2014

EotD - Lycaon faction

Last weekend I finished my Lycaon faction. They were the last of all the models and vehicles I got for Christmas, so I'm very pleased to finally be done.

 They are really easy and a pleasure to paint. While I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out, I think that the two wolves are the standout models. Once again I have used Army Painter Quick Shade Soft Tone - it really does a nice job.





Friday, March 21, 2014

Empire of the Dead - Gallery

This is my gallery of all my model for Empire of the Dead. With the exception of two models they are all from Westwind's Empire of the Dead and Gothic Horror range.

Supernatural Branch



Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Jack the Ripper



Brotherhood



Lycaons



Gentlemans Club 



London Thugs



Wulfen Jaegers 



Civilians


General images of all the models and my London Docks board 









Wednesday, March 19, 2014

EotD - Skirmish report - Prisoner

Following our game last Thursday, Chris and I got together again for another game of Empire of the Dead. One of my peelers Police Constable Jones had been captured by the enemy at the end of our last game Lost Artefact, so we decided that the Supernatural Branch would attempt to snatch him back from the claws of the Sons of the Empire.

Instead of setting the board up with one of my large buildings in the middle, I decided to use a smaller building, but give it a rather big backyard. Chris setup his SotE crew mostly inside the building and placed two hunting rifle carrying members outside.

I decided that I would attempt to attack from all sides, but with my Firearms Constable carrying a hunting rifle staying back to attempt to sniper from the steps of one of the large buildings.

We rolled for daytime/nighttime, which I won and chose nighttime, hoping to get some hiding into the game.

Note
Remember we play with activating one model at a time and with free targeting of models. It has worked very well in all our previous games and gives good freedom. The activating of one model we have found to add to the tactical side of the game as you can no longer swarm an enemy model with 3-4 of your own models without your opponent being able to do anything.

Turn 1
The attacker has the choise of initiative in the first turn and I chose to go first. I activated my Firearms Constable and attempted to shoot one of the hunting rifle carryings members patrolling the backyard. I hit but could not do any damage - this would prove to be the case the entire evening.

All other of my models move closer to the building, with Chris surgically moving his crew into good positions and then hid them or put them on Watch and Shoot. I had to play more aggresively in order to move forward and knew it would cost me.

My Preambulator Boots walking constable who was Unhinged since our last game, moved forward, and when he was targeted I rolled to see whether his Unhinged condition would get the better of him. It did not, but it did not matter as one of Chris' members with a sawn-off shotgun blasted him off the table immediately after.







Turn 2
My crap dice rolling continued, and despite hitting 3 different targets I failed to damage 2 of them. Only the member who had shot my constable was Removed from Play.
Chris on the other hand was becoming very good friends with his dice, constantly rolling high and getting my peelers Down. My Detective Sergeant lost a Wound and was put on Down, and so was my shotgun wielding Firearms Constable. Another PC was Discombobulated before he could act.
My Detective Inspector got close and with his Cbt 6 I really wanted him to get into hand-to-hand combat, but with Charging being the only way to get within 1" of an enemy model, it was extremely difficult to get him into position without leaving him open for at least one turn.






Turn 3
In the Maintenance Phase I rolled for my DS and Firearms Constable, the DS rolling a 1 and was therefore free to act in this turn, while the Firearms Constable remained Down.

Within the first couple of activations my bad luck and Chris' good fortune continued. I hit, but could only do Flesh Wounds or Discombobulated, while Chris put another Down result on my Firearms Constable, envoking the Double Down rule and my peeler was thus Removed from Play. He also managed to kill another PC.

My DS jumped the gap and move into a position to climb a crate in the next turn, which would enable him to shoot down on the two backyard patrolling members. Chris moved a member into the backyard, but when I shot at him I only managed to make him Discombobulated.

My DI moved into a position to get a shot off at one of the backyard members and would be able to Charge next turn.





Turn 4
At the start of the turn I still thought I had a chance to actually win the game. If I could remove the two members in the backyard I would be close enough to suddenly target the members guarding PC Jones.

I won initiative and immediately Charged with my DI. Chris actually managed not to hit anyone and when it was my turn again I activated my DS, who climbed the crate and fire his heavy pistol down on a member. True to form I hit, and damaged but once again managed to roll a Flesh Wound! Chris then activated his Vice-President who moved into postion and blasted his Man-Portable Gatling Gun on my DS, putting him on Down.

Another of my PC activated, hit the target, damaged but rolled a Flesh Wound. The same PC was then put on Down by the backyard member whom I had failed to Remove from Play despite hitting twice.

I was running out of models to activate, so with my last model, the Firearms Constable with a hunting rifle I attempted to shoot but for the third time in a row I rolled a Flesh Wound! Chris then proceeded to move the previously Discombobulated member into position to shoot at my Firearms Constable, putting him on Down.
In the Combat phase my DI managed to hit the member and Removed him from play.

Turn 5
I had three peelers on Down, one of them my DS and rolled for them. I got a Down, Discombobulated and Flesh Wound result. I was still at Breaking Point and rolled for my peelers, with one of them running away and the remaining three staying put.

At this point I conceeded the game. I felt it was pointless to continue as the result was a given.

Campaign results
When we had calculated our shillings, we set about seeing what had happend to our faction members. Since I had failed to rescue PC Jones he was lost to me and Chris got his heavy pistol. His two members received injuries but with the amount of shillings he has gathered from winning the last three games he had no other injuries and has started to use points to let his Subordinates roll for increases stats.
All of my faction members got new injuries, meaning that at the end of the game they had multiple injuries; 2x Weakend Constitution, 2x Arm injury, 2x Leg injury and 2x Eye injury. I then rolled for my Unhinged PC to see if his condition had changed and managed to roll a 10, meaning that he was off to Bedlam.

My incredible bad luck with the dice, had profound effect on the game. If my 3 Flesh Wounds in round 3 had been anything else, I still believe I would have had a chance.

I thought about what whether to carry on with the faction, and decided to give it one more chance. Next time I will use my 31 shillings to purchase the Black Mariah and a driver. Let's see if that changes anything for the Supernatural Branch.

Final thoughts
In 3 games we have had only one hand-to-hand combat. I have managed to be mostly gunned down before getting into a postion where I can Charge. While I do realise that in the real world firearms triumph over melee weapons I think that I'm missing out on an aspect of the game.
One way of altering this is to remove "not within 1"" rule, which will enable models to engage in melee without Charging. Charging will still have an advantage, but will not be the only way to get close to your enemy.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Empire of the Dead - Individual stat cards and faction card

One of the things that I love about Malifaux is the neat little stat card you have for each of your crews members. It gives an easy overview and with the 2nd edition all the information you need about the abilities of that model is on the card.

So this weekend I decided that I would try and create a something similar for Empire of the Dead. With this card you would have both the stats for the model and for his weapons. For campaign play you would also be able to write down injuries and other notes.

Update 19th March
I realised that you would still need somewhere to write down your factions standing, treasure, influences and general notes, so I created a second card.

I also realised that I had completly forgotten to make space for Skills/Arcane Powers on the individual stat cards. This has now been added.






Disclaimer: This is in no way intended to be anything else but an EotD fan's hobby project. The Empire of the Dead logo is the property of Westwind Productions and have here been used without permission. Should any formal complaint arrive from Westwind I will take down the PDF immediately.

(The PDF has four pages so that you can fit 4 cards onto a sheet of A4)

Empire of the Dead - faction stat card (PDF)

Friday, March 14, 2014

EotD - Skirmish reports - Entrapment and Lost Artefact

Yesterday my friend Chris and I played two games of Empire of the Dead. It was the first time I had played the game since Christmas. I had gotten back into Malifaux towards the end of last year, and this is what I have been playing a lot.

Since we last played EotD I had finished my Supernatural Branch and the coaches that I got for Christmas, and this was and opportunity to get both on the table. We continued with our campaign, which meant that Chris would play his Sons of the Empire and I would play my Supernatural Branch. None of us chose to invest in a coach, so we decided that we would add the London Omnibus and Hansom cab to the scenery.

Entrapment
Chris rolled the dice and we ended up playing Entrapment. Like a previous game we had had, the Sons of the Empire would attempt to get to the other side of the board and the bobbies would try to prevent them.

We played like we have done for the past many games with alternate activations - meaning that we would activate one model at a time.

During the first turn I thought I had gotten my bobbies into good positions, while Chris moved his Sons forward.

In the second turn the mayhem started. The Sons were equipped with hunting rifles and two with sawn-off shotguns, while I had a shotgun and a netgun as my long range arsenal, and this proved to be a bad decision on my part. The Sons started to kill my bobbies and seriously wounded my Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector - thanks to Chris rolling 10s constantly.

At the beginning of turn 3, I was down to one bobby armed with a heavy pistol and one armed with the single-shot netgun. Both my Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspective had lost a wound and were Discumbobulated and Down, and I had lost 3 bobbies.
So I conceded the game and Chris won a huge victory.

I got a few more injuries to my bobbies and my bobby with the Perambulator Boots got Unhinged, meaning that he would have to check his sanity and the first sign of combat.


Lost Artefact
For our next game we rolled Lost Artefact. We made some minor adjustments to our crews, I sold the netgun and bought a hunting rifle instead. Chris, among other things, further enhanced his "snipers" with Night Goggles.

For this game we decided that the London Omnibus and the Hansom cab would move each round. We would roll a dice for each of the models and the one who rolled the highest would be able to move the vehicle 5 inches in either direction or change the direction. This would turn out to have quite and effect on the game as they would block lines of sight, provide cover and sometimes even block passages.

We moved into position in turn one, meaning that we had models that would be able to get to the first markers by turn two and check to see if they were the artefact.

Chris' Vice-President ended up getting the Artefact, this was the fourth marker we checked. I then tried to shoot the VP, and removed a Wound from him, but was unable to do further damage. Chris then won the dice roll for the London Omnibus and moved it into a position so that it block the passage for my Detective Inspector to charge. I tried to diverge most of my crew but a combination of the London Omnibus blocking but line of sight/passage and bad dice rolling the VP got away and Chris put Watch and Shoot on most of his crew meaning that I would have to risk hits in order to try and get to the VP.

In the end I was reduced to my Detective Sergeant, my unhinged Perambulator Boots bobby and my Detective Inspector on Down, the Bravado checks finishing the job on my crew.


Conclusions
It was nice to get back into EotD. Despite losing I enjoyed the games and I really love the setting. We both agreed that in order to use the coaches we should setup the terrain in a way to accommodate them a bit more.
The netgun is really a useless piece of equipment. I wanted to use the model with the netgun, and it was first afterwards that I found out it was a single-shot weapon - why would you ever choose to use it?

The token set was nice to have as it meant that each condition was easy to overview.

Here are some images from our games.