Arham Horror - Hastur

The following is Keith's report of the Arkham Horror game played on Saturday, 3/28/09:

We had three newcomers plus Tim -- myself (Keith), Greg and Dave -- but Dave was the only one new to the game. He picked it up quickly though, and was a huge help in keeping up to speed on the different card effects in play with each turn. I played as Darrel Simmons the photographer, Greg was Sister Mary, Dave drew Mandy Thompson the researcher, and Tim pulled Joe Diamond the private eye. I winced when our random GOO selection turned out to be Hastur. He's not the toughest baddie, but all the extra tokens he requires for sealing gates can really put a drag on the game.

Things started out deceptively friendly, with Dave throwing Mandy (armed with a tommy gun) through the first gate and the rest of us starting the long campaign for clue tokens. I recall Darrell getting swarmed by the Hound of Tindalos and some flyers early on (resulting in a costly trip to the hospital), but other than that the first hour of the game was uneventful, with a few gate closings but no one able to seal. However, Joe Diamond got cursed within the first few rounds, and Tim had to deal with a shocking amount of blessings and re-cursings for almost the entire game. And at some point, in a confusion of bad advice from Dave and me, Sister Mary went down and had a slow mid-game recovery.

A Rumor (don't remember which one) came into play around this time, but somehow this stroke of bad luck turned into a rallying point. Greg and Tim realized they had enough clue tokens to knock out the rumor on the first turn and get all us all Unique items as rewards, and Dave and I were soon able to seal some gates. I also had a ridiculously lucky batch of rolls when I was once again swarmed by nasties (I don't remember what they were, but they were bad and I had no right to have beaten them armed with one enchanted knife).

The second half of the game was much more engaging. We'd all piled up masses of gate and monster trophies, and started cashing them in. Mandy Thompson gained Richard Upton Pickman as an ally, while Darrell was joined by Anna Kaslow after a chance encounter at Independence Square. Hastur had maintained a relatively low Doom Token count up until now, but he quickly climbed to 12 just as fast as we could close gates. I believe we had had three sealed by the time his Doom Track filled and we went into the endgame. Luckily our Terror Track hadn't climbed much, so Hastur only had a -2 modifier on our attacks.

Defending against him requires strong Luck, which we all had enough of to make it through the first few rounds unscathed. It got a little tense as his attacks grew stronger, but we swapped items until Joe Diamond could be counted on to automatically knock out one Doom Token every round, with the rest of us able to snag one or two more between us per turn. After that, Hastur was toast.

Game time: under four hours.

Its 1812 Again at Metro Wargamers!

Tomb for an Empire game getting underway

A game of "Tomb for an Empire" (Bellica 3rd Generation www.bellica3g.com) kicked off at Metro Wargamers this week. It is a serious treatment of the entire Peninsula Campaign. The players (Lou, Alan, Mike, and Tony A) will play the 1812 - 1814 scenario, about 28 turns in length. The rich game system really conveys the difficulties and opportunities confronting the Imperial, Spanish, and Anglo Allied sides.

Summary of January 1812 turn:
Guerilla level were reduced to 1 in most areas, but we had not yet really learned how bad that was for the Imperials. Training, reinforcements, and the rest of the start of the turn was easy. The random event brought confused orders from Paris, so all HQ AP were –1.

Now it was time to learn our lessons about activation: The Imperial commander in the South underbid and due to increased AP costs for guerrilla activity (ouch) was unable to build the depot he wanted to build, didn’t have enough to do a siege action, and ended up marching away from Tarfia ending the siege there. The other corps made a similar mistake, and the tension in the south was released. Valencia was heroic for the Imperials, as soon as they breached the walls Blake surrendered! Great victory.

As the activation rounds progressed the pain of marching in the winter with guerillas in action became apparent. Due to the on column shift to the right on the attrition table for the guerillas, EVERY march resulted in at least 1 straggler! Imperial forces dwindled, and the inexperienced commanders lost many SP of cavalry to the cruel winter.

The Commanders pause to provide a memento for posterity 

Wellington, sensing an opportunity, marched eastward into Spain, setting up a blockade at the first fortification he encountered. More careful then the Imperials, he brought up a chain of depots, and set up to start a siege. Still, the Imperials groaned under the constant drain of guerilla harasssment, winter conditions. The rest of the turn was one of consolition of the Armee du Portugal, Armee du Cataluna, and repositioning the Armee du Nord to help meet Wellington’s threat.

The activation rounds ran out and the next lesson was learned: Consumption saw Wellington, Armee du Portugal, and other large formations suffer 10 % attrition. Then the stragglers disappeared.  Stunned commanders totaled up the resulting victory points at the end of the turn: Imperials 322 (mostly due to the victory at Valencia), Spanish 65, Anglo Alliied 117.

The weary but wiser commanders will continue the month of February in the next week or two. Please contact Mike, Tony, Alan or Lou if you are interested in finding out more about this game.

Dark Heresy Takes Root at Metro Wargamers

The GM reels his tale of heresy and betrayal in the far flung future

Six enthusiastic players came together this Sunday at Metro Wargamers to do something that hasn't been done there in many years: roll up characters, grab d10, and jump into a science fiction role playing adventure. Gaylord ran an adventure in the gothic war torn future of Warhammer 40K, using FFG Dark Heresy rules ( http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=50&enmi=Dark%20Heresy ). 

Players ranged from age 9 to 53, and characters ranged from slightly demented Imperial Guard tough guys to tough talking bureaucrats. The adventure pitted this band of Inquisitorial Acolytes again aristocrates and politicians, mutants and cultists.

Even Igor got into the act, pursuing the Dark Heresy rules

The plan was to have a 'one shot' game, jsut to give it a try. Based on the enthusiastic response it looks like we will have another session of Dark Heresy in a few weeks, and it would not be surprising if this story-rich game became a regular at the club.

Post on the Yahoo site ( http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Metrowargamers/) if you are interested in rooting out the heretics, xenos, and mutant threat to our Imperium.