Origins 2013 Loot and a Word about Shadowrun RPG

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! Finally getting back into the swing of things from my recent trip to the Origins Game Fair and I finally found a little bit of time to spend on some hobby stuff. I managed to gather up all of the stuff I purchased while at the convention (which was a little hard to do with a certain item).

First off I managed to swing by the Forgeworld booth and pick up a few items for my upcoming Heresy-era Salamanders army.

The Event-only miniature:

10-man Squad of Mk IV armor (not the new legion style which I have a bunch of already):

5-man Squad of Mk IV Recon Marines:

Close-ups of the awesome looking 'Scout' Marines in full Mk IV armor:

After Forgeworld I wandered the dealers hall a bit and stumbled on the booth for one of my favorite independent miniature companies.....Mercs Minis:

 I got a 'show-special price on the box set I have been wanting for quite a while!

SHADOWRUN RPG:

Most of my time was spent playing the brand new 5th edition of Shadowrun RPG at Origins. The company behind the Shadowrun game is called Catalyst Game Labs and they went all out with their 'living campaign' of Shadowrun. This was my first experience with Catalyst and Shadowrun and was quite simply blown away by the professional approach of the company and the awesome fun that is Shadowrun RPG. Here are some pictures of the game area where we played the RPG:

 The tables we played on!

 Huge artwork everywhere!

I had so much fun with my 28 hrs of Shadowrun RPG (7 games at 4 hours each) that I knew my home group would also enjoy the system and setting; that of course meant I had an excuse to go a little wild with at the Catalyst booth in the dealer's hall:

Signed by the author (and awesome guy):

 Special Shadowrun marked dice:

The one item I have not had a lot of time with because all my friends wanted to look at it! Yes indeed I snagged one of the extremely popular (and quickly sold-out) 5th Edition rulebooks:

Signed by the Shadowrun Line Developer and really nice guy:

If you are a fan of 'Cyber-Punk/Near Future Sci-Fi roleplaying I would highly recommend giving Shadowrun 5th Edition a try! Almost forgot about the special Origins dice I also picked up:

That is all for now folks! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Now back to the hobby desk as I prepare the Mercs Texico minis for painting!

Origins 2013---A Recap of my Miniature Experiences

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! Well I am finally back from Columbus, Ohio and the Origins Game Fair where I met up with a bunch of friends who happen to be scattered all over the States. Good times was had by all and I even got to help a good friend propose to his now-fiance! I did manage to snap some pictures while I was there:

First off, especially for Mordian 7th who I know is eagerly awaiting the arrival of OGRE!

The above picture (taken with my phone) is of the special charity game of Ogre with Steve Jackson himself.

 That box is huge!

For me Origins is spent wandering around the various halls and playing roleplaying games with friends. Here are a few random tables that caught my eye during my wanders:

A version of X-Wing played with Star Trek ships instead and played on the floor!

 Note the chair in the picture below, it should give you a sense of scale:

I am not sure what game this was for but it was very cool looking!

 Look at all those rope ladders!

There was a huge game of X-Wing being played across several large tables. The game looked to be the Rebel assault into the Second Death Star. There were a ton of people around this game but I tried to sneak some pictures.

 

 
 There was a neat looking game of BattleTech being played as well:

There was a massive Flames of War landing assault game that needed 4 very long tables to play it all out. It was quite impressive!

The very popular BattleTech Virtual Reality Pods! I so want to try these some day with a group of friends!

For my better-half! A huge Settlers of Catan game played on the floor:

An awesome looking table full of gorgeous 15mm American Civil War miniatures and terrain.

That was a look at the miniature side of Origins 2013. I will talk about my roleplaying experiences and my purchases/loot in the next post. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look through all these pictures. Take care!

Mercs: Game 2 versus the Kem Var

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! Over the long Holiday weekend I managed to sneak a game of Mercs in against the infamous Mordian 7th and his ever so sneaky Kem Var. We decided to go with one of the basic missions from the rulebook in which my invading CCC team had to sneak into a Kem Var storage facility to destroy 3 crates (which were full of Kem Var worm larva.....don't ask what they do with the worms!). The scenario calls for specific team members on each side which I did not have a problem with although I am sure the Kem Var would have liked to have brought their 'heavy' weapon trooper.

The initial game setup:

You will notice that there are a fair number of crates out there....which could hold the Kem Var 'Worm Larva'? Mordian 7th and I decided to have the largest crates (also marked by a smaller crate on top) be the 3 crates which must be destroyed/protected in the mission.

Turn 1: The action starts off fairly quietly as the teams move into position

Kem Var assault leader and another trying a flanking sweep.

CCC Demo man (who likes to be alone, he actually works better if he is more than a card length from anyone) moves to intercept.

The Kem Var Monkeywrench (their repair guy, able to fix broken armor) tries to be sneaky:

The Kem Var Sniper takes position on another flank close to one of the objective crates (just off screen).

The CCC team move in response (I rolled poorly on initiatives).

At this point we were 1 turn into the game and I could already tell the action/bullets were going to start next turn. The Kem Var were trying a 3 pronged assault on the CCC in the hopes of busting through them and getting at the CCC Incinerator. If the Kem Var could knock her out of the game they win; the CCC need to destroy the 3 crates of 'Worm Larva' to win.

Turn 2: The bullets (and grenades) start to fly

I rolled much better on my initiatives this turn and here you can see my CCC assault leader moving into position to deal with the single Kem Var sneaking through the interior of the chemical plant.

The Kem Var Sniper and Assassin discuss the strange noises they hear off in the distance. I really like this shot of the two Kem Var mercs waiting behind a barricade trying to pick out the enemy coming at them with the Sun at their backs. What you can not see is the CCC Heavy anchoring is armor in preparation to unleash a 'Wall of Lead'.

CCC and Kem Var jockey for positions and cover on the other flank. I think the Kem Var should have charged forward more on this flank and pressed the advantage. If they could have killed the CCC Demo man quickly things would have gone a little different on this side of the chemical plant. However, alas the CCC Demo man had time to throw a couple of frag grenades (in turn 2 and 3) which really put the hurt on the 2 Kem Var even breaking one of their suits of armor.

Turn 3: The blood starts to drop

The Kem Var Assassin slowly makes his way forward using as much cover as possible. Just ahead of him you can see one of the large crates with a small crate on top which marks one of the 'Worm Larva' objective crates and in the far distance you can see the CCC Heavy set in position to unleash hell.

The 'Wall of Lead' held one side of the table for me the whole game against the Kem Var Assassin and Sniper (allowing the rest of the CCC team to single out and overwhelm the other Kem Var). This side of the table was a lot of fun with the Kem Var having to pass 'Supression' tests to advance against the 'Wall of Lead' that was being thrown at them. I love what the company has in their info about his gun: "In his steady arms he wields a 5.56x45mm single man-operated suppression weapon nicknamed 'The Jackhammer.'"

On the other side of the chemical plant the action is a little more personal after the second grenade goes off from the CCC Demo man. Here you can see the final moments of the action on this side. The Kem Var leader finally jumps out of cover, gains a bit of elevation (critical in this game) and delivers the coup de grace on the CCC Demo (who really caused some hurt on the Kem Var with his grenades) just as the CCC medic rushes up to apply a medpack.

After arriving too late to save his buddy the CCC medic calmly guns down the Kem Var Assault Leader. Revenge!

Turn 4: The last hope of the Kem Var

The suppression of the Kem Var by the CCC Heavy continues although the Kem Var Assassin is slowly making his way closer towards the very vulnerable CCC Heavy. Only time will tell if the Assassin can summon enough courage to overcome the 'Wall of Lead' and make the charge to engage the Heavy in melee.

After stunning the Kem Var Monkeywrench last turn with an EMP grenade the CCC Assault leader moves forward for the kill before the Monkeywrench can fix his broken armor. I can hear the CCC Assault Leader yelling "I can see you now" before he unloads on the now visible and very vulnerable Monkeywrench. It did not end well for the Kem Var Monkeywrench as both shots from the Assault Leader's weapon hit and punched through the broken armor.

With the Chemical Plant interior cleansed of Kem Var defenders the CCC Incinerator moves into position to start to burn the crates down.

The End:

Having only 2 team members left alive (1 with broken armor) left to stop the 4 fully healthy CCC Mercs the Kem Var decided to cut their losses and the 2 survivors made a dash for it. This left the CCC in charge of the field and they burned down the last 2 crates without difficulty.


Final Thoughts:

This was a fun game for sure although it took a little longer than it should have, we are still very much learning the rules as we go along. We also tried to incorporate all the Advanced rules as well (bounding, suppression, overwatch) which did slow us down a bit because we still had to look some stuff up. I am really enjoying the game of Mercs, it reminds me of early editions of Warhammer 40k (2nd edition) with all of the various modifiers to shooting based on cover, height, LOS, etc. The summer convention season is approaching and I am hoping to get some games of Mercs in during the 2 large conventions I attend (GenCon and Origins).

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care! I will leave you all with this:

The next Mercs team!

Relic! by Fantasy Flight Games

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! It has been a wonderful Spring here in Colorado which means a fair amount of time outside and only a little time in the hobby room. However the other day a group of friends all got together to try out the new Warhammer 40k-themed boardgame from Fantasy Flight Games called Relic. This is another fine example of Fantasy Flight Games going all out in production values with this game, the game board is thick, well printed, and huge!

The host (and owner) of the game was Mordian 7th and he surprised us with several painted character busts which are used as the character tokens in the game. I thought this was a very nice touch!


Here is crew getting ready for the fun!

I played the Rogue Trader:

Painted Busts in action:

Of course game time means a few drinks are in order. Imported no less....

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Take care