This is Not a Test - first game

Yesterday evening my friend Chris came around the flat to try out This is Not a Test (TNT). Neither of us had played it before, so we were interested in finding out how the game played. Chris is a massive fan of the Post Apocalyptic setting and Fallout in particular, and the initial idea of trying out the game was his. I was persuaded to try it out after I had seen some of the great videos of how the game plays that Guerilla Miniature Games have made - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbO4Vs1vlAA9hz7Ad7IMgug

I went for a Tribal warband using my Pig Iron Miniatures that I had bought specifically for this game. Chris played the Caravaneers and used the excellent Copplestone miniatures.

The scenario was Cold Vengeance, which it is pointed out in the book is TNT at it's most simple. Chris loves ranged combat and I should have known that he would go for a sniper placed at a high point on the board. The sniper proved to be more deadly that all the other minis on the board combined.

The game flows very nicely, but my this initial venture into TNT and my experience of it was severely hampered by some atrocious dice rolling from me. We played 7 turns and I lost initiative in all of them. For the Activation Tests I was never able to put more than one or two activations together. This combined with the effectiveness of the sniper and Chris' use of Supressing Fire into melee (not sure if that is within the rules, but we decided afterwards that it can't be done) which got his models out of trouble against my melee focused Tribals made the game less enjoyable for me.

At the end of the game I had lost 6 out of 8 models (4 of them having been shot by the sniper).

As mentioned the game flows and I like the rules, which makes game play fast. Chris' biggest beef with the game is the jamming rules. Having a 10% chance of jamming on each shot is too much in his opinion, and I agree. This is easy to change though.

I will try the game again for sure and hope that the dice will be more fair next time.

Here are some pictures from the game.

Broken Legions - Dacian warband

Having played mainly the Dacians since the Broken Legions rules were released I have found myself not entirely satisfied with the minis I had. So while I wait for my Cult of Set and Parthians minis to arrive, I decided to try and redo my Dacians.

I wanted to give the Dacian Nobles a look that set them more apart from the normal warrior, so I went back to my Dacian scrapbox to see what bits I had. I then decided to give them helmets instead of their felt caps.

This meant that I could add felt caps to some of the Warriors and the Falxmen. I also switched the torsos of some of the Falxmen so that none of them were wearing cloaks.

Finally I added a proper Standard bearer to the warband.

I like the result of what I did, so I am looking forward to getting them on the gaming table again.

 Dacian Chieftain and Strigoi

Dacian Nobles

Falxmen

Warriors

 Ghouls

Sometimes a mail will really make your day

As readers of this blog know, I recently sold my Indian Mutiny collection to England. The were shipped on Monday and surprisingly they already arrived two days later.

When I received the mail below I must admit that it put a huge smile on my face. I really really appreciate that the buyer took the time to write this:

Hi Kasper,

Just to let you know that Danish Post and the Royal Mail excelled themselves and your figures turned up this afternoon (which caused an interruption in our Sharp Practice game whilst we unwrapped them!). All are present and correct and aside from the odd few bayonet bends and snaps, your careful wrapping and packaging meant that all was well.

Love the figures - thanks. Myself and my friend have already agreed that next week will be an Indian Mutiny game using Sharp Practice!

I will post pictures to the Sharp Practice Facebook page and one day I will have to start a Blog myself.

By the way thanks for the PayPal refund - all was received OK

Once again - many thanks. I'm a very happy war gamer!

Broken Legions - The Attack Site AAR

Monday evening Frank and I got together to have another game of Broken Legions. This was the first time we incorporated our house rules, which we think give an even better game.

Scenario
The scenario "The Attack Site" was directly copied from Frostgrave and I have previously used it for Empire of the Dead. On the board (4x4) are placed 10 markers, these represent victims of an attack by some kind of monster. When a model gets into base contact with a marker, the player rolls to see what he finds, this can either be:
- a dead victim, who has some treasure,
- victim, who has become a zombie
- a survivor
- a special artefact containing information about the location of a monster and its treasure.

Warbands
Frank once again played the Soldiers of the Eagle, but added an Auxilia to his warband. Having played the Dacians a few times now we have found them underpowered. The Strigoi and Falxmen were not worth their points when compared to similiar model. So we beefed them up a bit, all in the name of game balance. We rolled to see whether we would be playing during the day or at night - which makes a huge difference for the Strigoi - and unfortunately for me it ended up being day.

Soldiers of the Eagle
- Primus Pilum
+ Blessing of Mars
+ 2 Warhounds
- Praetorian
- Praetorian
- Legionary
- Numerus
- Numerus
- Amazon (Auxilia)

Dacians
Chieftain
+ Shield
+ 2 Warhounds
Strigoi
+ Familiar
Ghoul
Falxman
Falxman
Warrior
+ Light Armour
Warrior
+ Light Armour
Warrior
+ Standard Bearer

The Game

Thracia, early 2nd century

Rumours of a warband having been slain while looting an abandoned temple have reached the warbands. Apparently artefacts were found, but a monster surprised the warband. The warbands, eager to obtain the artefacts set out to find the temple and see what remains and if there are any artefacts to salvage.

The Dacians split there forces into three; The Chieftain with his Warhounds and the Ghoul. The two Falxmen. The Strigoi and the Warriors.

The Romans we split into two groups; The Primus Pilum, the Warhounds and the two Numerus. The two Praetorians, the Legionary and the Amazon.

The Dacians moved forward, but were vary of the Roman archers, and therefore took cover when possible. The plan was to of course get to the markers, but also to use the speed of the warhounds to get into melee with the Numerus, to prevent them from shooting.

The Romans on the other hand moved into good positions to try and cover the ground in front of them with their Numerus and the deadly Amazon.

The Dacians were very aggressive in their attempt to close down the Romans and survived the ranged attacks. Some of the markers were quickly checked out and turned out to be dead victims with artefacts. The Romans however also encountered a Zombie eraly on which kept the Primus Pilum and his Warhounds busy. One of the Numerus also got the hold of the Monster Notes marker.

Fighting started to erupt around the board as the Dacians threw themselves onto the Romans. On the Dacian right flank, the slow Strigoi and the Standard bearer Warrior provided good support with the Transfix and presence of the Draco standard. One Praetorian in particular had a difficult time not being affected by the presence of both. A Warhound, two Warriors and a Falxmen had gotten into melee and fierce fighting started, with the Roman armour again proving though to break through.

After the Primus Pilum had slain the Zombie he found himself on the receiving end of a challenge from the Dacian Chieftain, and a Clash of Champions began. Immediately before that the second Falxman, having split from his partner closed down on one of the Numerus, while the Ghoul took on the two Roman Warhounds.

The intensity was increased as the Falxman killed the Numerus, as he would be close to being available to help his Chieftain. The Warhound, again being able to hear its commanders orders tried to close in on the last Numerus. The fighting between the Ghoul and the Warhounds still did not provide a winner.

On the Dacian right flank, the Warriors and Falxman were slowly grinding down the Praetorian and the Legionary, but they still held out. The Strigoi, now closer got into melee with the Amazon and the other Praetorian.

Then fate smiled on the Soldiers of the Eagle. The Dacians thought the had slain the Primus Pilum, but fate gave him another chance. The Warhounds finally slew the Ghoul and the Numerus managed to get away from the Warhound. The Strigoi clawed fiercely at the Praetorian and Amazon, but could not bring the two down. The Roman line held and the Falxman and a Warrior were killed by the Gladius of the Praetorian and Legionary.

Feeling that this was not the day he would die, the Primus Pilum and his Warhounds combined to bring down the Chieftain, who fate abandoned when he most needed it. The Strigoi could also not gather enough dark fate to continue the fighting when the Praetorian's steel and the Amazon's attack brought an end to the Strigoi.

In a short time the Dacian Heroes had been eliminated and the few remaining Dacians fled.

Conclusion
This was a superb game! The upper hand in the game had belonged to the Dacians but switched to the Romans. Our house rules easily came into the game, and the fixing of the Dacians as a faction made it a much more close game. In the end the good dice rolling from Frank saved the Romans skin.

Victory Points wise it was a draw as the Dacians had gotten hold of four artefact markers, while the Romans had two plus the Monster Notes which counts as two.

When it came to XP the Romans had killed two Heroes and 5 Henchman, while the Dacians only managed to kill 1 Henchman. On the back of this Frank and I discussed the whole Campaign/XP aspect of the game, which we are not convinced work. In the games we have had, one side has always had a lot more casualties than the other. XP wise this means that for the next game the difference in XP is huge and the forces will be miles apart. As we both really want to play the game as a campaign this is something we will look into.

Pictures from our game:

Ferals - TNT warband

After weeks of waiting for some bases to arrive as part of my friend Chris' order with Northstar, I have finally been able to base my warband for This is Not a Test.

When Chris and I were talking about which warband we would like to play and which minis to get, I had initially settled on another one. I then came across Pig Iron Miniatures and was blown away by the Kolony Ferals minis. These were exactly what I was looking for.

The concept is that this is a Tribal warband of tunnellers who prefer to live underground in the sewer and and different tunnels. Whenever supplies are low, which is almost all the time, they come to the surface and engage whoever has the supplies they need.

I chose to buy all four packs of the Kolony Feral range a total of 17 minis, a lot more than needed. I wanted to have some options however, so I have painted 14 of them. The one thing I do not like about the minis is their heads, but thankfully Pig Iron Miniatures use a separate head system. I therefore included two packs of Kolony Militia heads, most of them wearing gas masks which fit perfectly with my concept.

The minis themselves are well cast and have been easy to paint. I did however have some images of the painted minis at hand as the different rags they are wearing can be difficult to distinguish from each other.

The colour palette is all earth tones and I have tried to keep to the same group of colours to get a kind of uniformed look without it looking like they are wearing a uniform.