He looks fishy...

Just a quick post as I've painted a baddie.

This is Doctor Fiske, a stretch goal and nefarious villain in the Lurkers of the Deep feature pack for 7TV Pulp.

He is responsible for a villainous scheme to create fish/man hybrids that might or might not be a bit inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.

A very straightforward model to paint now that I'm no longer terrified of painting white, although I did have to take a couple of goes at the eyes because I kept buggering them up.

I've gone with a not very 1930s colour scheme as I wanted to tie Dr Fiske to my Mad Science cast for future use, so there is touch of the Open University about him.

Acquired: 100

Painted: 98

Three's a crowd, six is a Horde

You might have noticed that I've been in a bit of a painting slump recently. I'm not sure why, but I think work being a bit manic in May and early June might have had an impact.

Anyway, as ever, my response to a slump is to find something easy to get finished and so I turned to some part finished Horde troopers.

Three of these were done some time ago, but the other three are more recent additions. I'm quite pleased that, despite the gap between painting them, there's no obvious difference between the two groups.

There is an obvious difference, however, when you pick them up. The new models were part of a second run cast in metal rather than resin.

The the casts are just as good, but they actually took less clean up time.

I don't think I'll be adding more as I probably have more than enough (along with named characters) to cover any games I might play.

I've run them as 7TV Pulp Shocktroopers previously. I probably need to go through the profiles to see if I can find something more appropriate, as they were much too effective compared to their cartoon appearances.

So that's three more painted, buy I've also bought two small buildings as I saw Blotz were having a sale and there was a particular piece I needed for a project.

That's a net improvement of just one. Slow progress is still progress.

Acquired: 100

Painted: 97

Dead End Village

A village in Bretonnia awoken to the sound of a disturbance in the graveyard beyond the river. Foul sorcery is at play as the restless dead crawl out of the ground...it's clearly time for another game of 7TV Fantasy.

I'd offered JP and Craig a demo of 7TV and so threw together a simple scenario using my old Warmammer Fantasy Battle armies where a Righteous Paladin of Bretonnia and his retinue must confront an incursion by the minions of a Vile Necromancer.

The heroic defenders of the village were:

Baron Jean-Paul - Righteous Paladin (Co-Star)

The Lady - Wise Mentor (Co-Star)

Patsy - Warhorse (Extra)

The Guards - Guard Captain, Guard Sergeant and 3 Guards (Extras)

Brother Repentia - Monk (Extra)

Pierre - Bowman (Extra)

Whilst the evil invaders were:

Rilkyna - Vile Necromancer (Star)

Wilhelm - Vampire (Extra)

The Shade - Wraith (Extra)

The Rattling Horde - Skeleton Champion and 9 Skeletons (Extras)

The aim with both casts was to try to show of a range of elements of the game: magic, unit activation, mounted units, etc., whilst keeping this fairly straight forward.

The scenario was 'The Battle' with just two objectives, and I left out Encounters or Macguffins to focus on the main game mechanics.

The defenders seized the initiative with the Lady leading the Guards into the centre of the village.

Meanwhile, the righteous Baron Jean-Paul mounted his faithful steed Patsy and rode towards the most direct route across the river from the graveyard.

He was right to do so as he was immediately confronted by a horde of Skeletons wading through the water, led by the floating apparition of the Shade.

Meanwhile, Rilkyna herself opted to avoid getting her dress wet and made her way across the bridge, rolling the bones as she went to summon a boney bodyguard.

To the knight's surprise, the restless dead suddenly surged forward (stealing the scene) and peppering the Baron with arrows from their short bows (which, in all honesty, I hadn't noticed on their profile, and so I was quite surprised when this happened too).

The noble steed succumbed to the onslaught of arrows, but his rider managed to avoid being unceremoniously dumped on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Guards found themselves assailed by the fearsome form of a Vampire, whose vampiric presence summoned one of them within reach of its deadly blade...and was quickly killed.

Now dismounted (and dressed less well due to my lack of knights on foot), Baron Jean-Paul was confronted by the Shade, which sought impale him with a Morbid Blade.

Fortunately, the knight used his mirrored shield to block the blow, impaling the Wraith on its own blade and briefly causing it to transfix itself.

Seeing their companion fall, the Guards charged the Vampire and brought a rain of blows down upon the foul creature.

Seeing the Guards struggling to bring down the undead fiend, the Lady opened a dimensional gate, bringing the men back to her, so that they could gather themselves to charge again (a cunning use of the spell combined with 'Stealing the Scene' to get more attacks).

The Sergeant charged in again and plunged his blade through the heart of the Vampire, turning it into smoke with a shriek.

Wilhelm's scream echoed across the village, the convulsive shock causing both the Shade and the Skeleton Champion to briefly fall to the floor.

Rising from the ground, the Shade became incorporeal and drift to attack the holy man in the distance, whilst the Skeletons swarmed the Baron.

This fight lasted for most of the game as both sides were constantly frustrated by each other's armour. The Baron did managed to bring down a Skeleton occasionally, with a couple more taken down by Pierre's arrows fired from across the river. We'll return to this fight later.

Suddenly, an eldritch flame engulfed both the Lady and the Baron, causing panic and preventing the defenders of the village from pressing their advantage (for reference, the 'Oiled For The Camera' Trilogy Card is horrific).

Brother Repentia bravely tried to banish the Shade but eventually succumbed to its Morbid Blade. However, the Shade was finally dispelled by an arrow fired by Pierre the Bowman.

The Lady was not for burning, and gathered the flames surrounding her and sent them flying as a fireball towards Rilkyna and the Skeletons she'd been raising by the bridge.

In a move heavy with irony, Rilkyna shook off the flames and then hurled the Holy Hand Grenade towards the Lady on the count of three. Not two, not four, and five was right out.

The Guards rushed towards Rilkyna in an increasingly desperate attempt to bring her down.

But the Sergeant was suddenly captured in a snapping cage of bones, and the other Guards were overwhelmed by the every rising tide of Skeletons.

Soon, only the Guard Captain was left fighting for his life.

Despite slowly hacking through the horde surrounding him, the Baron's seemingly impervious armour was finally penetrated by a rusted blade and he too fell.

Pierre looked on as Skeletons advanced and decided that with his lord dead, discretion was the better part of valour and fled to warn the next village of what was coming.

The final result was a crushing 7-1 victory to the undead, but more importantly, both JP and Craig enjoyed the game and could see how it would suit their own increasingly eclectic gaming collections.

I was pleased to see that the undead were appropriately relentless and it was interesting to see some spells used in ways I hadn't thought of.

A Wizard Arrives Precisely When He Means To

I'm playing a demo game of 7TV: Fantasy on Friday, and so I thought it worth having a solo play through to remind myself of the rules.

I set up a small 30 ratings game using my Lord of the Rings miniatures, featuring Gandalf and some friends helping defend a village in Rohan from a raiding party led by a Ringwraith. This will have happened some years before the War of the Ring.

The heroic cast was as follows:

• Gandalf (Grand Magus, Star)
• Treebeard (Treant, Extra)
• Royal Guard (Sergeant-at-Arms, Extra)
• 4 Rohirrim (Soldier-at-Arms, Extra)

The heroes would also get an 'unexpected ally' showing up in Act 2 thanks to the rules of the Grand Magus:

• Gwahir (Giant Eagle, Extra)

The villains intent on raiding Rohan were:

Ringwraith (Dark One, Star)

Uruk Champion (Orc Chieftain, Extra)

6 Uruk-Hai (Orc Warrior, Extra)

3 Dunlendings (Ruffian, Extra)

I decided not to bother with Stealing the Scene, Objectives, Macguffins or Encounters as I was after a refresher of the core rules and it's quite hard to tactically outsmart yourself.

ACT ONE

The defenders of Rohan take the initiative and surge into village, taking care to stay out of sight of the Nazgul and his venomous black darts.

The servants of Mordor charge in, intent on destruction. The Uruk Champion looses an arrow which some how manages to injure the looming form of Treebeard.

The Dunlending Wildmen spot an apparently easy target and head for the old man leaning on his staff...

The old man suddenly reveals himself to be Gandalf Greyhame, and with a rousing, "None shall pass!" stuns one of the Wildmen, before finishing him off with Glamdring.

The other Wildmen are suddenly confronted by the towering shape of Treebeard emerging from the woods.

Gandalf then demonstrates that it's not just rock bridges that he can sunder, and opens a yawning chasm infront of the approaching Uruks, sending them reeling backwards.

However, the sudden appearance of the chasm simply caused the entire warband of Uruks to find a different route into the village.

In case you were wondering, a Trilogy Card had prevented the heroic extras doing anything but move if they activated, and so the Rohirrim had stayed still.

The lead Uruk surges into the village and cuts down the first man of Rohan he encounters.

The gap is exploited by more Uruks, who rush to engage the Rohirrim.

Meanwhile, the only Wildman still on his feet bravely charges Treebeard, to no avail, and in the following turn is knocked into oblivion by the Ent's thrashing branches.

Gandalf rushes to bring magical assistance to the men of Rohan, and his blinding light helps them to turn the tide on the servants of Sauron; but not before he manages to distract himself whilst spellcasting.

Having dispensed with the Wildmen (one was dead and one had been kicked into a field), Treebeard heads towards the accursed sound of the burarum.

ACT TWO

Despite Gandalf's meddling, the forces of evil surge forwards once again; the Ringwraith dominating the will of the Royal Guard and the Uruk Champion bringing down another man with his bow.

Meat was definitely back on the menu.

The Nazgul shrieks calling for reinforcements from his army of darkness, but the lone Uruk that answered the call was intercepted from above as the great wings of Gwahir darken the sky before lifting the creature up to drop it to its death.

Reinforcements are the order of the day as another man of Rohan appeares from nowhere to bring down the Uruk on the hill.

The Uruk Champion was stunned by an arcane bolt from Gandalf.

The Champion got himself up and braces himself for further attack. The Nazgul fells the newly arrived man with a black dart in his back and once more overwhelms the loyalties of another of the Rohirrim.

The heroes are unable to make any further headway, and Gandalf manages to distract himself again whilst failing to cast a spell...

"Have I left the iron on?" He pondered.

Two more men of Rohan fall to black darts and a fearsome uphill charge from an Uruk. The Uruk Champion is unable to join in the fray as he suddenly suffers malfunctions with all of his weapons at once.

ACT THREE

Just when things were darkest, Gandalf strikes the telling blow.

Another rousing cry of, "None shall pass!" sees the Uruk Champion stunned, enabling the Royal Guard to finish him off.

Meanwhile, the wizard lights a fae fire between himself and the Nazgul, keeping the evil creature at bay.

One of the few remaining Uruks is suddenly flattened by a boulder seemingly falling from the sky, hurled by Treebeard who had spent all of Act Two not being hasty.

Whilst fending off the Ringwraith, Gandalf has left himself exposed to a rear attack from the last Uruk, and is almost brought low, narrowly escaping being finished off by a black dart that pinged off the Uruk's shield and ruining Professor Tolkein's story before it starts.

On the other side of the village, Gwahir swoops down on the last Wildman (remember him?), who had spent most of the battle unconscious in a field.

Somehow, the Dunlending catches the Windlord by surprise, and momentarily has the great eagle at his mercy, but seconds later the majestic Lord of the Eagles grabs the Wildman in his talons, sweep up into the sky and drops the unfortunate man to his death.

With the forces of evil on the verge of being overwhelmed, the attackers slip back into the night. Gandalf steps back behind a house to catch his breath. That had been a close one.

However, he was still standing and there was much to do. It would take more than an Orc blade to finish Gandalf the Grey.

...

Ultimately the game was a draw, with the only victory point being scored by the heroes for axing the villainous cast. Either a failed spirit test for the villains or another wound on Gandalf would have delivered a minor victory to one of the forces.

It was definitely worth boning up on the rules ready for Friday, and I enjoyed messing with the final version of things like magic, which is much improved on and dominates the game less than the initial draft we tested, whilst still being meaningful and fun. It was nice to see that a cast without a spellcaster wasn't overwhelmed one of the best spellcasters in the game.

The only slight negative to come from the game was the realisation that I need to paint some riderless horses in order to use my Riders of Rohan in 7TV: Fantasy.

I hate horses!