Update - Hail Caesar, Blood Angel stuff, and me being... somewhere

So, where on earth have I been? Well, not really anywhere, to be entirely honest. In all honesty, I just haven't gotten around to posting on here as nothing particularly special has happened as of late. Over the weekend however, I did actually achieve a few tabletop related things, so I have something to talk about! Hurray!

First off, a friend and I did a little practice game of Hail Caesar, a game which we've both been very interested in starting proper, but both lacking the necessary funds to do so meaning we've been unable to do little more than read the rules, hypothesize, and window shop to no end. We did, however, crack out some old Warmaster Ancients stuff, a few bits of scenery, and have a bit of a kick-about game.

English troops assault the French-held castle... apparently.

Image quality isn't amazing, as always, but don't fear! I've got that covered! (hopefully!)

This seems to be the only picture I actually took of the entire battle, although judging by my hungover state the following morning, it seems I did rather well remembering more or less what actually happened...

We quickly decided on two fairly similar forces; for me, 2 units of medium infantry with spear, a unit of archers, a heavy cavalry unit, and a small skirmisher unit, and for him, two more units of spear, an archer unit, another light unit with crossbows, and a unit of light cavalry.

Getting first turn, I firstly commanded all my units except my archers to advance through the treeline, to the position they hold in the picture. After that, I had the archers shoot at his equivalents, managing to inflict a casualty despite needing 6's for range and cover.

After that, the French shot at my two spear units, but otherwise held formation, biding their time. My turn again, I seized the initiative and committed my flanks to the fight, attempting a double pincer whilst moving my archers closer (I think) and holding my centre line against his whithering volleys of arrows and bolts. This quickly turned out to be a partially successful plan; the light cavalry counter-charged my skirmishers and forced them to break, killing them the following turn. On the other hand, my heavy cavalry successfully flanked his medium spears on the other flank and tied them up for a couple of rounds, before finally running them into the castle walls and destroying them. 

In the centre, my spear units took heavy losses and retreated, before rallying and leading a vicious assault on the French ranged units, and with my archer support totally destroying the bow unit and forcing the crossbows to retreat, where they were subsequently charged by the heavy cavalry and finished off. After that, the French spears showed impressive resilience and courage by attacking both of my spear units, breaking for a second time the rightmost unit and severely damaging my entire right flank.

Thankfully, my archers pulled through and managed to force his horses back, allowing my spears some breathing room to regroup and counter-assault the French incursion into my lines. One spear unit turned to face the new push from the French infantry, and managed to push them back with aid from the archers, whilst the other spears valiantly battled the light cavalry but were quickly repelled.

Things were now fairly close, with the English forces consisting of a heavy cavalry unit well out of position, two fully fatigued spear units, and a unit of bowmen, and the French side consisting of a soon-to-be-dead crossbow unit, a fully fatigued spear unit and another less damaged one, and a fairly-intact unit of light cavalry that had thus far been annoyingly resilient to most any attack I had levelled at it.

Another turn saw a gritty fight between a French and English spear unit, both fully fatigued and fighting for their lives, a miraculous three-move charge from the heavy cavalry into the rear of the other spear unit, and the combined onslaught of my second medium infantry unit and the archers not only break the French horses, but entirely destroy them!

After that, we called game, as it was getting on for 2am, and I'm not sure either of us really knew what we were doing any more. And so, as with all battles between the English and the French, we both claimed a decisive victory for our own army and went home.

After the game (two days after, to be precise) we both agreed that, despite omitting some of the more advanced rules and caveats, the core mechanics worked really well, and Hail Caesar is definitely a game I look forward to playing some more of in the near future! But, aside from the fun and games, I have actually been getting on with some proper wargaming work as well. As I'm sure many of you know by now, this month has been Games Workshop's month for releasing updates for an army very dear to my heart - the noble Blood Angels!

Over the course of the month, I've been assembling the various wondrous bits from my copy of Deathstorm - a fantastic value boxed set, especially by GW standards - and flicking through (the very last!!) set of datacards my store had left on the day of release. Although I haven't had a chance to personally ponder over the codex itself (and am therefore keeping all speculations to myself until such time as they may have proper basis) so far what I've read is very promising. That, and the new models - both released and those that will be released this coming weekend -  look FANTASTIC. I'm especially in love with the new Blood Angel specific terminator set - something the BA's have never had before - and I'm constantly considering expanding my 1st Company forces as well as the rest of my Blood Angels collection.

I'll be sure to get up some images of the stuff I've gotten done Blood Angels-wise in a following post, as it's far too dark to take any pictures of any quality at all, but rest assured I've been kept very busy so far! I've built up the Deathstorm stuff as per the datasheets provided, so that I can use the formation if I so choose - it seemed fairly useful at the very least - and I have more than enough Death Company to field less exotic squad loadouts the rest of the time. I had a great deal of fun building these guys, but that's all I'll be saying on them for now! But, until then, happy gaming!

-Mike

Call of Cthulhu | Characters - Enter the Frenchman

"Je vous remercie pour votre hospitalité, mon ami"

And with that, the Frenchman drew his revolver, and shot his host in the back of the head. He turned and walked through the door of that accursed cabin in the woods, never to return again to the site of horrors that even a hardened Chasseur Alpins could scarce bear.

Alois was a well-built man of average height, with a short, well-kept beard covering his rounded chin. A scar reached from below his left eye across his cheek to the back of his jaw, earned during a bloody charge on a German trench during the Great War. He had followed his father and become one of the elite Chasseurs Alpins since 1903, when he was a mere 19 years old, inheriting his father's old Chassepot rifle. In combat, he had proved himself as a cold and calculated fighter. He was a born leader of men, with a cunning mind for almost-suicidal tactics, executed with minute detail which resulted in devastating attacks, both in terms of physical enemy casualties as well as heavy tolls on their morale. By the end of the war, he'd reached the rank of Capitaine in the Chasseurs, and was renowned for his quick wit and even quicker blade.

Because he couldn't bear to see his homeland so badly decimated by war, Alois left his beloved France in 1921. Catching a ship to America with Boston in his sights, he had arranged to meet an American friend he had met during the war, by the name of Frankie Greenberg. However, upon reaching the address he'd been given through written communication, he found little but charred rubble. After enquiring at the local police station, he was woe to learn that just a week prior there had been a terrible fire at the building, which had regrettably claimed the life of his poor friend Mr. Greenberg. Explaining that Frankie's apartment had been the only place he could stay, the officer at the desk simply apologised but said that there was nothing he could do to help.

By 1925, Alois was a man down on his luck, living in the seedy part of Boston, and finding work where he could. Although not particularly tall, his otherwise-imposing frame lent itself well to petty gang-land activities, and he quickly gained the trust of several small-time gangs, as well as one of the Mafia families, The Saliaros, operating illegal liquor operations in and around Boston. He steadily took on more jobs for the Saliaro family, however as the Boston Police Department began to crack down more aggressively on bootlegging the work available to him steadily decreased.

It was the 15th of October, 1925, when Alois was almost arrested in a large-scale raid on the Saliaros' main distillery, orchestrated by the Boston PD working in tandem with federal agents from the US Department of Justice Bureau of Prohibition. Many of the Saliaro family members were killed, including the Don's brother and son, Agostino and Dino respectively. Posing as an undercover federal agent, he lead a small group of officers into a disused part of the distillery before suggesting he split up to search an area, and promptly making good his escape. Knowing he would be easily recognised, he left Boston and travelled to Arkham in an attempt to escape the law.

3 months later, Alois was captured by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and spent the next few weeks - in a cell, in an undisclosed building, in an undisclosed location - being interrogated for information pertaining to the Saliaro family. Only Alois and his interrogators know what was said and done in that room, but at the end of it, he was given a simple choice; take on work for the Bureau, or spend the rest of the Century in Boston High Security Prison.

It's now the middle of 1926, and already Alois has worked on several cases and taken part in multiple raids. Even though he's usually only contacted when the Bureau needs expendable field agents, he has quickly earned the trust of fellow agents, especially those in similar situations as himself. Lastly, although the Bureau isn't usually prone to accept refusals from their agents, they have wisely avoided employing Alois on cases related to the Saliaro family, as they are well aware he remains in regular contact with certain members. Perhaps they're just waiting for a better opportunity to take them on, and don't wish to burn any possible bridges they may later wish to make use of.

But wherever the Chasseur steps, trusty Chassepot bayonet in hand, crime and law alike shudders at the number of lives that sixty year-old blade has ended, because no matter who Alois works for, his only real loyalty is to France herself.

Well, I was a little bored and had some time on my hands, so I thought I'd combine two of my favourite pastimes - descriptive writing and creating characters. Alois is a character I thought up a few days ago, and have since idly expanded him and his background into what you see here. I was considering creating the appropriate Call of Cthulhu character to fit his background as, despite my great affection for the eclectic and eccentric Englishman, Lt. Tiddles, he's the only CoC character I have ever played as, and I'm considering introducing a new character into the group. (Well, another new one, we already have one new member to the group and someone else has started playing again, replacing a couple of regular players who are taking a break from roleplaying for a while.)

I hope this was an interesting read, and perhaps if the mood takes me I'll do more, or possibly expand a little more on Alois' life and history. But until then, happy gaming!

-Mike

Dungeons and Dragons | 3.5e - The Mystery of Aberdeen

Where we last left off, the party was just leaving the relative safety of their home village, Stonehouse, on an important errand for the chieftain Ural.

Travelling Northward, up the fairly beaten path to Aberdeen that runs alongside the river, the party encounter very little. Stopping to spend the first night about half way to their destination, they refill their waterskins from the fresh riverwater, and the druid notices something in the foliage at the side of the road. Upon investigating, he finds the thing that caught his eye - strangely, he discovers a glass bottle, with the words ABERDEEN BREWERY on the side, which he decides to keep as a useful container.

The rest of the trip to Aberdeen is uneventful, until finally the group reach the hill lying on the edge of the town. Upon it lies a small guard's hut... or at least should lie a guardhouse. The party arrives to find the hut inexplicably missing, nothing but the footprint of a building and a stone slab for an entrance to what once stood there. investigating the site a little more, the group turns up what appear to be two clues - a small bundle of primitive-looking flint headed arrows, and another glass bottle - this one with the words SERCTON ALE on the glass. Keeping the arrows and bottle, the party then looks down the hill toward the area where Aberdeen should lie, only to find it has suffered the same peculiar fate as it's little guardhouse - the entirety of the village is simply gone, leaving only the North-South road, with another road at it's centre heading West, and the imprints of places where buildings laid up until very recently.

With that, the group ventures into the town proper. After thoroughly combing the area, they find very little of any use; discovering only an entire lock mechanism from a large door with it's key, and small and delicately carved wooden box, and, much the the party's ire, yet another glass bottle. This glass bottle differs from the others in that it is stoppered and sealed, and is around half full of a pale blue liquid, and has the words FARROWGATE WINERY stamped on the side. Lastly, the party notice on the forested edge of the village a small shed which still stands.

Einki quickly recognises the locking mechanism as the craft of his father, and recalls that up until recently he had received several orders for mundane metalwork items from Aberdeen. Klaus decided to try and detect any local magic in the area, and is surprised when the lock, the shed, and the wooden box all glow dimly with magical energy - this being how the party discovered the latter two objects. Intrigued, they collect  the small carven box before heading over to investigate the shed. However, their examination is swiftly halted when they find the door firmly locked. Even Yal, with his mighty strength, is unable to force the door or break it's hinges. Meanwhile, Einki idly plays with his father's handiwork whilst mulling over the clues they have collected so far, and in doing so turns the key in the lock - to which the party hears two soft clicks.

Quickly opening the now-unlocked door, Klaus finds only more questions. The shed is filled with old, rusted tools, and is covered in a thick layer of dust denoting what must be a lack of use for decades at least. In fact, all the contents of the shed seem unsettlingly ancient. Just about to leave, he notices a small folded piece of paper impaled on a twisted old pitchfork, which he takes. Unfolding it reveals a troubling note -

"A sign of bigger things to come

Drink well my friends"

This sends a feeling of discomfort through all the party members, and they quickly retreat from the creepy shed, though not before closing and relocking the door using Einki's lock mechanism - from which he quickly removes the key. With that, the party finally look at the small carved box. Engraved by a master artisan, the box shows exquisite workmanship and must have been owned by someone of great wealth. This is further reinforced by the word carefully carved into the apparent lid of the box - Farrowgate. The same word as featured on the latest bottle the party found, the group quickly realises that this is the capital of the entire local region, a great and rich city much removed from the pitiful villages that encompass it's surrounding cities. Removing the lid reveals a miniature diorama, painstakingly constructed of tin and wire, of a tiny brewery. This is clearly a small piece designed to sit on it's side, with lid removed, to serve as a small artwork of some sort. However, it's discovery unsettles the entire party, as if it's presence is some kind of mocking joke. Whilst the rest of the party try to digest the wealth of information they have received and find a suitable location to make camp, Einki looks on in amazement at the tiny scene.

And as he stares in wonderment, an odd thought enters his mind. Because as he watches the small figures go about the work at the miniature brewery, he suddenly becomes disquietingly aware the those tiny workers appear to actually be moving, and working at their brewery.

And with that, the session ended, everyone around the table clearly forming ideas of some great conspiracy afoot, and I collected in the character sheets and other paraphernalia. And that's also where I'll leave this post - for the next D&D post will bring events up to date with the session due tomorrow night. Until then, happy gaming!

-Mike