From the Clutches of the Cultists - a Pulp Alley Game

In our story so far, our heroes have temporarily escaped a chaos uprising, only to be captured while on the run.

Now they wake (unarmed) in an empty room.

Forcing the door open, they see a crate and a small robot in the corridor beyond.

Romulus Decima decides to get rid of the robot.

Decima curses as it dodges his attack and skitters down the corridor, emitting a mechanical whine. Meanwhile trooper Burns prises open the crate, discovering weapons inside.

Tension mounts as the heroes here a heavy clumping from the other corridor. A servitor appears, carrying a drum.

The marine scout, Farov Payne, asks the servitor if it knows the way out. The servitor nods and continues walking.

Decima finally catches the droid and smashes it into the concrete.

The heroes reach the outer door of the building. Peering out cautiously, they spot someone.

A chaos cultist!

Payne drops the cultist with a silenced round from his rifle. However, another cultist appears.

At this point, the heroes begin to bog down. The first cultist recovers and has to be put down again (and again and again!) 

Decima is rushed by another cultist.

He drops him, but only temporarily.

This cultist (quickly dubbed Kojak) was a tough proposition: 4d6 Brawl is not a massive skill, but proved troublesome for shooting characters.

Trooper Burns leads the way, but faces a growing number of cultists.

The servitor has by now become confused in the fighting and attacks first the heroes, then Kojak.

Trooper Burns, still in the lead, spots something good at last.

But on closer inspection...

A grenade knocks down both cultists, but only momentarily!

In the meantime, Kojak continues his inexorable progress.

As the heroes struggle to down the cultists by the fence, more reinforcements appear.

And Kojak is coming. One of the players played the 'Bleeding' card on Kojak: running forces a Health check. Kojak ran, fell down and got up again!

He rounds the corner to attack again.

Down again...

By now though,the heroes have managed to force their way through the fence and start the engines on the shuttle. As the engines warm up... 

(Notice Kojak is back? Again!)

The hoard rounds the building and prepares to lay down a fusilade of fire on the shuttle. But even as they take aim, Farov Payne calls out, "Wait a second, can't we just talk about this?"

Momentarily confused, the cultists look on as the shuttle's engines roar to a crescendo.

Escape!

A different game, but a lot of fun. The first part of the game had a real role-playing feel, which the guys seemed to quite enjoy. I may have to revisit that down the track. The rest of the game was marked by the resilience of the cultists. There were only Allies on the table, but most figures recovered at least two or three times. None more so than Kojak: we didn't count, but I'm guessing he recovered at least six or eight times. I have a feeling he'll be back in coming games!

Postscript
The heroes successfully escape Sinastras IV, flying three hours to a Marlow's Reach, a dingy spaceport. Within a fortnight, the Lamenter marines destroy Sinastras IV with a sub orbital bombardment. The cultist rebellion is defeated, but the brutal destruction of a once thriving city is hardly a propaganda coup. Perhaps to deflect attention, Decima, Payne and Burns are feted as heroes of the Imperium: the glorious survivors of Sinastras IV.

What glittering careers await such heroes?

Continued...

BB7 Droid

I needed a little droid for my next Pulp 40k game, so I got tinkering with some Mechanicus bits. I've seen the Sicarian Infiltrator heads used to good effect in a few different conversions, so that was my starting point. The legs are made from some mechanical arms from the Kataphron battle servitors.

The fit between the 'head' and the legs, means that little BB7 is looking downwards. so I needed something for him to gaze at. He has stumbled upon the sad news that he is obsolete.

If you can't read the writing, it says 'New. No More Legs.'

So, a fun little figure, who'll probably end up lurking in corners in all sorts of games.

On the Run

In the first game of the Sinastras IV campaign, our heroes faced the fury of a chaos cultist uprising. They managed to scatter and escape, but with the forces of chaos triumphant, they've been on the run: hiding, scavenging, hoping for away to escape the city.

But in a city that has turned against you, you can only run for so long. Sooner or later, they find you.

One by one, the heroes have been tracked down and captured. But surely this is not the end of the story?

Continued...

Scratch Built Sci Fi Crates

I need some scatter terrain for my 40k games and crates are a great option. They look at home in most settings, and they can be part of the background or take centre stage as objectives for games. After seeing the price of the options out there, I decided I'd better make my own!

They're made from balsa wood blocks and cardboard.

One variant is all strips, the other simply uses a rectangle cut at the diagonals for the lid.

"Yes, this is the consignment we're after.  Load them onto the shuttle."

To the Strongest - 10mm Fantasy

Master M and I had a go at To the Strongest. I'm much more of a fantasy gamer than ancients, so I dragged out my old 10mm stuff for the game. First game, so it was just the flat green cloth with no terrain and not a heap of units. Thus the lack of wide shots! Here are some of the orcs. They're GW's Warmaster figures. Sadly out of production: they are beautifully detailed figures.

They're based for Impetus - 80mm wide bases. I love the look of the bigger bases: these wolf riders really do look like skirmishing troops. Heavy infantry units look suitably dense too.

As for the rules, we thought they were a lot of fun. Grid-based, so there's no fiddle factor with movement. There's a 'push your luck' element to activating your troops, which I quite enjoy. Master M enjoyed it too when I had a dismal run of activations!

In fact he enjoyed it so much he demanded another game, which we're in the middle of at the moment. A more detailed report to come.

Scratch Built Sci Fi Walls - Finished!

An age ago, I posted about the sci fi walls I'd been building. Well, here they are, finished at last! You may have seen them in the Last Stand game: here's how they work.

All the bits are modular - they fit together to make raised areas like this.

Then they pull down into lots of little bits.

The main advantage is that the walls can then be used to make corridors and rooms, Space Hulk style.

It looks ok in here...

What could possibly go wrong?

The walls have been decorated with a variety of posters, plastic kit bits and lasercut MDF pieces from Miniature Scenery.