EotD - Skirmish Reports

Last Saturday my friend Chris and I sat down for what turned out to be three games of Empire of the Dead. It had been a long time since we had played Empire of the Dead so we were a bit rusty on the rules, but since the rules are very simple we got back into the flow of the game after a few rounds.

I picked up my Supernatural Branch faction and Chris found his Sons of the Empire Gentleman's Club faction. The last time we played my bobbies were dealt several severe blows.

Lost Artifact
The first game was Lost Artifact. In this game we decided that we would not activate our entire faction befor the others turn, but rather one mini at a time. Chris had set up the table with a long and very narrow alley going right through the board and 2 of the 5 markers were placed either in the alley or just next to it.

Within 3 rounds we had gotten to the markers, but it turned out that none of them was indeed the lost artifact. We found our factions combating each other, near the water and in the alley. It was all ranged combat and the upper hand of the battle changed several times. In the end Chris once again managed to remove my Detective Inspector, I think for the fourth game in a row. Despite it being a draw Chris had managed to remove four out of six of my faction members, and I only removed two of his.

When we calculated our shillings Chris had earned a good amount more than me. I was however very lucky with my campaign rolling, with all of my members being made of Stern Stuff and suffering only an eye injury. Chris's Sons got minor injuries as well, but none were permanently retired from the faction.

Entrapment
The second game was Entrapment, here we went with the normal EotD activation system of an entire faction activating before the other. I was the attacker(setting the ambush) and Chris the defender (walking into it). The board was changed slightly, the long narrow alley removed. When we had deployed I had a good feeling about my Supernatural Branch's chance, the layout of the board would almost definately work in my favour and with the Sons of the Empire forces to move forward I would be able to pick and choose when to fight and when to stay back.

The Sons moved forward on two flanks and I placed my Supernatural Branch, so that they could pounce whenever the time was right. On one flank I had my Detective Inspector and two Constables, and on the other my Detective Sergeant and another two Constables, one of them armed with a hunting rifle.

The group of Sons that moved towards my DI sought cover behind the huge crates near the waterfront, but I was still able to pick and choose my battles. My DI managed to remove the Sons' VP, despite him being in an exo-skeleton suit, in melee combat. The upgrades that I had rolled in the previous games really helping me here. On the second front, my three members were able to keep the Sons from really getting anywhere. The game ended with Chris conseeding the game when he only had his President left. I had only lost a single constable, it was a crushing defeat for the Sons and a first victory for my Supernatural Branch at the fifth time of trying.

Calculating our shillings I got 48 and Chris around half. He was also unlucky with his campaign rolling with both his VP and a faction member being Caught by the Enemy. Chris then decided to take his three factions members who had injuries to a Harley Street Specialist and rolled full recovery for all three. We decided that we could squezze in a third game and that would be the Prisoner scenario, with the Sons trying to get their two faction members back.

I decided that I wanted to try something else, so I sold the heavy pistol that my Constable with the hunting rifle had, so that I had 51 shillings. This would enable me to hire Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! Chris was not amused by the idea of facing a full force Supernatural Branch and the Baker Street duo with only a President and 4 regular members.

Prisoner
We switched back to activating one mini at a time, both of us agreeing that it makes the game more interesting as the normal EotD activation system allows you to make consentrated fire against a single target without the other player being able to do much to prevent it.

Since the scenario requires the prisoner, and in our case prisoners, to be in the center of the table, we agree to put one of the largest buildings roughly in the middle. This would enable movement inside the building and we would also be able to have a workaround one of the least thought-out rules - where you cannot enter through a door if there is a enemy on the other side. We really think the rule is stupid and makes no sense.

With me having lots more minis to activate, we also decided to introduce something from the Bushido game that I have been looking at, pass markers. Basically the player with the least model get a number of pass markers to make up the numbers. Each time it is his turn to activate a model, he can choose to activate a model or use a pass marker instead. I think it is a great rule that is easily applied to other games.

Deployment ended with Chris' Sons taking up positions outside the building, his tactics clearly to use the long range of his hunting rifles and shooting my models before they had a chance to get out of the building and taking the fight to him. I had my DI, DS, Holmes, Watson and my Constable with the hunting rifle inside the building, along with the prisoners and two Constables acting as prisonguards.

The fact that I had four models with more than one Wound turned out to pretty significant. I also happened to be able to roll hits every time I fired, no matter how high my target number was. Holmes and Watson took care of three regular Sons, while my DI managed to take the President out of the game. It was another good victory for my Supernatural Branch.

I completely forgot to take pictures for the last game, so I only got two shots of the final stages.

Three games in about six hours and we when managed to stop and pause our game when our pizza arrived. We had great fun and we can really start to see the effects of playing the campaign rules. My DI is getting so bad-ass, despite his career initially being disrupted several times by Chris removing him from play four games in a row. I quite like having Holmes and Watson in the faction, and I think I will be getting more models of the same type for some of the other factions in the future. But I still have to try out my new Brotherhood models, which I finished painting recently - images of those will be coming also.  

Warbases Hand Cart

As a daily viewer of the Gothic Horror forum on leadadventure.de, I found a thread discussing where to get 28 mm hand carts. I was pointed in the direction of Warbases and their 28 mm hand cart that they had on sale at ebay.

I wanted some smaller terrain pieces for my London Docks board and these looked good and were fairly cheap as well.

Expedition was swift and after a week they arrived. 

I had ordered 4 since I figured a busy dock would be filled with them. I had never had any laser-cut mdf products before, but was positively surprised at how easy they were to assemble.

It took roughly 45 minutes to assemble all four carts and I think the finished product is excellent.

During the weekend I got the chance to play 3 games of Empire of the Dead, and the carts were placed on the board, adding to the general realistic look of the board. I will be posting a report of the 3 games later this week. 

EotD - new minis and the Houndmaster problem

Earlier in the year I made the mistake of not backing the Empire of the Dead Reqiuem Kickstarter, instead choosing the Acthung! Cthulhu RPG Kickstarter. So when the Requiem minis went on sale on westwinds website, I jumped at a chance to purchase some. To be honest I prefer the original boxed sets to most of the ones from Reqiuem, with the Bedlam Brotherhood being the pick of the bunch.

I had wanted to get one of the original starting boxed sets and chose The Brotherhood, partly because they seem different in the way the play and because I like the minis, especially the blister pack of Armed Monks. So I ended up ordering the boxed set and the blister pack with 4 armed monks.

That makes it 12 different minis for the Brotherhood, with many different weapon options, so I should have that faction covered by now.

Normally I order from Firestorm Games, because the minis are slightly cheaper and with an order for £30+ shipment is free. This time I ordered directly from Westwind, because that was the only place I could get the armed monks. I did however use the opportunity to also get the Wolfen Jaeger Houndmasters from the old Vampire Wars collection. As readers of the blog will know I have the original four Wolfen Jaegers and have enjoyed playing them in EotD.

The Houndmaster problem 

While I love the Houndmaster minis, I also have problems with them, because of the lack of rules that can apply to these particular minis. I have written about this on the lead-adventure forum, but have yet to find an answer to the rules that I like.

The minis
The minis are everywhere I have seen placed on a large base - meaning that a houndmaster and the wolfhound share the same base. Looking at the minis themselves this is very much how they seem to have been envisioned.

The rules
The EotD book have no special rules for this, merely stating that the Wolfen Jaegers have the option to hire wolfhounds. This seems to suggest that the wolfhound should be on a seperate base, and not share one with the houndmaster. The question is then, what to do with the houndmaster? The mini has no visible weapons only a large chain to handle the wolfhound.

Solution scenarios
I have received two suggestions for a solution, but like I said neither of them have really grabbed me, as they both suggest putting the houndmaster and wolfhound on separate bases.

1) The minis have absolutely no connection with each another and the houndmasters will be normal members, who just don't have any visible weapons.

2) Adapt the Supernatural Branch's Handler and Infernium Dog rules. Now I don't have the rules for the Supernatural Branch, but have been told that the handler and dog must stay within 8 inches of each another or something like that.

Out of the two I much prefer solution no. 2, as there is still a connection between the minis, but I still does not grab me entirely. The fact that they are on separate bases is still an issue for me, as I think the houndmaster minis will look stupid. I have not looked into whether I can convert the houndmaster, so that they are armed.

The third option is of course to come up with rules that I like, and which will keep the houndmaster and wolfhound on the same base. This is an idea that I also posted on lead-adventure, but which received no comments:

"....maybe something about movement. Dogs getting a bonus to their charge for every round they are still being handled - basically they will be more aggresive because they have been held back by the handler.
The handler is also only able to use one-handed weapons while handling the dogs.

Or maybe they should just stay together all the time. Being able to shot, but really most efficient in melee because both the hound and handler will be able to attack."

I have started wokring on the Brotherhood monks, so I have some time before I start working on them, but I need a solution soon...hmmm...

So if you have a good idea of how to use the Wolfen Jaeger Houndmaster minis in EotD, please comment. And of course feel free to comment anyway :-)

EotD - Skirmish Report - Blissful Ignorance

My second game with Chris from last Thursday. After the first game we calculated our shillings and found out what had happend to our crew members who had been removed from play. I was extremely lucking rolling Stern Stuff for all three of my members. Chris rolled a few minor injuries and he ended up being unable to field a member for this game because of injury. We then used most of our shillings to get upgrades to our heroes.

We rolled Blissful Ignorance, a scenario that I like because of the many civilians that it needs - more minis yeah! But at the same time it is a scenario that can easily be without any confrontation as the civilians normally end up being split between the two factions.

Since my table is only 3x3 you can normally get to a civilians in the first round or at the latest the second round. So after the first few rounds we had more or less divided the civilians between us. Chris started to gather his men and civilians behind the large building located on the dock and I had two constables with two civilians each, who had moved behind buildings close to the table edge.

This is where the game could have ended with us more or less sharing the shillings, but I decided that hey we need a bit of fun in the game. Chris had a membership who had moved into one of the small backyards, and I had one of my constables move up to the fence. In the next round I tried to climb the fence, which if successful would leave me with a point blank shot at the member. But of course I had to roll a 9 on the climb roll and with the fence being 2 inches tall I failed. The constable tumbled down and was prone. On Chris turn the member shot once and killed my constable. I then tried to get my DI to take revenge, but ended up losing him as well - for the fourth game in a row!

A short but ok game, not as fun as the Entrapment game, and I still think that the Blissful Ignorance scenario needs a few adjustments to make it work better.

EotD - Skirmish Report - Entrapment

Thursday I had two games with my friend Chris. The second skirmish report will be up one of the next few days.

Chris had created a Sons of the Empire Gentlmen's Club and I pulled out my Supernatural Branch. We rolled for scenario and ended up with Entrapment, another roll and we had determined that Chris would be the ambusher.

We once again used my London Docks board, but this time I had changed the location of the buildings and terrain quite a bit. Chris set up in the two corners furthest away from the water, while my Supernatural Branch started on literally the edge of the water.

As I was the defender I had initiative for the first round. I was quickly done moving my peelers close to the building in the center, which would provide me with cover from Chris Sons of the Empire.
Chris then moved his Sons into position, one of them actually getting a shot of with his hunting rifle targeting one of my constables. The rest ended up covering quite a large area with Watch& Shoot.

Second round and I moved my peelers further up, both the DI and DS moved into the building while the constables all moved up along the canal. I decided to move the two peelers back towards the others so that Chris would be forced to move half his crew across the board. I managed to take Down a Son as well.

On Chris turn he moved half his crew across the board, while the others took a few shots on my peelers without any effect.





Third round and Chris won initiative, again none of his Sons shooting had any effect, but the second half of his crew were now in position. On my turn my DI and DS moved out and shot dead one of the Sons, and with one of the Down, I thought I was looking good. One of my peelers jumped the canal and was ready to engage the Sons VP in combat next round.

Fourth round and again Chris won initiative. He moved three of the Sons into position so that I would have no cover and managed to remove a wound on both my DI and DS. His VP charged my peeler. When it became my turn I charged with both my DI and DS towards one of Chris' members and his President. In the combat round, we exchanged blows and the VP lost a wound, while his President killed my DS. My DI killed of another of the membership.

Fifth round and surprise surprise Chris won initiative. He stared by making bravado rolls for all his Sons and succeeded with all of them, my imitial luck was changing. He then moved his remaining member, carrying a sawn-off shotgun into position so that he would be able to hit both my DI and a constable. And as has been the rule for the last few games we have played, he managed to kill of my DI. My remaining constables fired of shots but despite three aimed shots I did not wound the membership. In the combat round Chris' VP landed a blow on my constables removing him from play.

Sixth started with me making Bravado rolls for my three remaining constables. Two suceeded and one failed. At this time I conceded the game, thinking that my two constables would be without chance against his President, VP and a member.

It was a great game, where I initially looked to have the upper hand but my luck changed at a critical point.

Back again ...

So it's been over two months since my last update and in that time my life has changed significantly. Around a month ago I asked my wife for a divorce, a decision that I had thought about for a long time. She was chocked, but I had made up my mind...I do not love her anymore, so there is no point in staying together. We have a 7 year old daugther and it has of course hit her like a hammer...

I'm quite glad though that I made the decision and I know that it is the right one, since I feel a lot more happy and less stressed. But 10 years of marriage is a long time so it still feels weird now and again not having my wife around.

I have also started a new job which takes a lot of my time as well. So the two things combined have made gaming time rather limited.

We have managed to play a single session of Rippers. I based the mission on H.P.Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" - my favorite of his short stories. I had weaved a demon into it and both Zann and the storyteller had sold parts of their soul to the demon in return for fame. Eventually the players managed to locate the Rue D'Auseil through a ritual and came face to face with the demon, who of course wanted to deal with them. Despite numerous warnings, the players decided to attack the demon and his hell hounds, and the end result was total disaster. Langdale Pike and Dr. Percy Trevelyan died, while Sgt. Henry Baynes became incapacitated. The good sergeant will now have a few more dark sides for the demon to release him. Ole who plays Father Philip Green was unable to make it so his character was the only one who survived.

Some time during the late summer I also played two games of Empire of the Dead. I had taken pictures with my mobile like I normally do, but when I came home and wanted to write up a battle report, my SD card no longer functioned, so none of the photos I had taken was there. With that blow I dropped the battle reports.

Yesterday saw me returing to Empire of the Dead, two of my friends Chris and Jon were both ready to play, so we decided to try a 3 pitched battle. I feared that the game rules would not be able to support this, but I was wrong. We only made a few minor tweaks to a few rules and the two games we played went rather smoothly. In the end Chris and the Supernatural Branch won both games (Fracas) against Jon's Gentlemans Club and my Wolfen Jaegers.
Since it had been a long time since we had played, I decided to not take pictures and instead concentrated on getting the rules right.

I'm still keen to play Empire of the Dead and the Rippers RPG, so hopefully this blog will start to have some more frequent updates.