Eminem of my eminem

Last friday we played a 2 vs 2 battle, the third round in our Border Town Border campaign (which keeps on creeping like a ancient turtle on the Galapagos). We chose the 'enemy of my enemy' scenario that after some beers soon was called the 'eminem' scenario. Sides were chosen according to alliances, with a 'good side' (Ogres and Marienburger) and an evil (or even better) side (Beastmen and Possesed).

The battle turned out rather one sided, caused by some brilliant tactical manoeuvres from my side: First I rolled fully intentionally and controlled a 'blizzard' result on the BtB weather table (chagne of 1 in 12, can't go wrong) nullifying the shooting weaponry of the Marienburger warband. Secondly I moved my warband away from Tom's on rushing warriors and marched toward the other flank, creating a supremacy of Chaos on that side. (Brilliant, despite some people interpreting this as 'cowering Nurglies').

By the time my warband arrived on the left flank, Hans' beastmen had already caused mayhem and victims within Ludo's Ogre warband. My excellent warrior Scorpio managed to add some more damage to the Ogres by spilling some black blood on his opponent (after having missed all his attacks, once again, brilliant tactics). Seeing that my commitment was not longer needed on that flank, I commanded my warband to turn against the Marienburger. This warband was a bit stretched out because of the diversity in race and tempo of their warriors. A marksman presented a tempting offer, manageable even for the elite forces of Nurgle. Off course, brilliant tactics once again payed off as the charges were intercepted by a big mercenary Ogre.

However after a few rounds of fighting, the Marienburger warband got surrounded and walked over fighting two warbands and decided to call it a day. This decision was made easier for Tom by Greatclaw, who single handedly smashed some of his warriors, including his captain. Did I mention the brilliant tactical plan that was behind this all?

Post battle income and experience rolls went quite nice. Once more the brilliant tactical plan was rewarded, when a meager henchman who had almost sneaked up behind enemy lines and almost had attacked a lone witch and by doing all this almost made an impact on the battle got the 'lad got talent' result. A fine hero indeed!



Unfortunately my loyal fighter 'Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead' was, despite the tactical masterplan, taken out of action, rolled a 'dead' result on the injury table. So next battle his son 'Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead' will replace him, looking for revenge.

Personal Development, No Plan

At the start of this year I (re)found work at a foundation in my beautiful home country. And as an employee in the Netherlands there's almost no escape from the compulsory ritual that's called 'persoonlijk ontwikkel plan' (personal development plan) or 'POP'. In such a plan employer and employee agree on targets and intentions for the next working year. Hammered in stone these targets are (depending on company, boss and/or HR department) used to assess the contribution toward the company's and your private goals...

Anyways, in this case the writing of my development plan was a process of filling in a excel sheet with a not entirely transparent structure, in which 'smart'goals were given 'weights' (in percentages) that resulted some work spaces and lots of excel scripts later in a very objective judgment of yours truly. Since I stepped in a few weeks after the deadline for filling in the excel, one of my first tasks was to fill in all categories satisfactory.

So I started out, sending in 'alpha' and 'beta' releases of my plan to my boss, who then returned my versions full of his remarks. This process repeated it self for quite some incarnations of my plan until it turned out all of a sudden to be 'ok'. During this workflow no goal, intention or other fiction was left untouched, except for one item, counting for one (1) percent of my personal development: Painting Waffen SS infantry for Flames of War. Being approved by my manager and HR department, I faced this challenge!

Having painted a Flames of War Czech-Russian tank army, I had become familiar with the practice of painting 15mm scale miniatures. The SS panzergrenadiers were however quite different: Instead of some tanks there were nearly 200 miniature men to be painted...
So actually it was a blessing in disguise that I managed to sneak in a little (bad) joke in my 'POP'. The pressure was on and I finished just in time!!

Let me know what you think of the paint job!

Regards and a happy wargaming filled 2014!

Post battle report

Last friday our second Border Town Burning campaign started off with a four player battle..

Ogres, Witch Hunters, Marienburger mercenaries and my Possessed battled for treasures hidden in chests, spread around the ruins (sorry, forgot the name of the scenario :-). There was a small chance that a chest contained a 'deamonic dog' instead of gold... So, in line with the laws of logic and statistics, every chest that was opened during our battle contained such a creature...

A Ninja Gnoblar with one of the fearless doggies.

Can the Witchhunters crack open one the dog infested crates?

It was though a bit surprising that the only warband with a 'normal' mix of heroes and henchmen managed to snatch the victory. That in spite of the endeavours by well thought-out warbands lead by veteran Mordheim players as for example a one hero all hired swords Marienburg gang, a all hero a bit on the shore side for henchman (just one) bunch of Possessed and a Ogre quartet supplemented by a Halfling. What could go wrong?

Here the fearless Marienberg hirelings!

The Halfling looking for trouble, can he see that withchunter, can he be shot?

Not shot, but bitten by dogs he can!

In the post battle events Scorpio, my unlucky Possessed who met two Ogres and went out of action, had to fight for his freedom in the Rind (Entry 65 on the Border Town Burning injury table). Because of a lack of time I went home without finishing this event. Few days later I used PBE Game Dice Roller to play the fight between Scorpio and a nasty Chaos Warrior:

Roll One
Generating 1 rolls of D2, 1 per line.
Comment: 1: Chaos Warriors gets the charge, 2: ST charges in...

2 ==> Scorpion Tail gets the charge(YEAH!)
CW: Fear check: 2 (he's cool..)
ST: 2 bare handed attacks
ST: To hit (WS 4 vs WS5: 4+): 5, 6 (two hits)
ST: To wound (S4 vs T4: 4+): 5,5 (two wounds)
CW: Armour saves (3+ -> 4+): 3, 1 (two fails!)
ST: OutOfAction: 5, 5 (OUT OF ACTION!!)

Scorpion Tail kills the Chaos Warrior in the first round of combat .....
And by the Border Town Burning rulebook: "He gains the mutation blackblood (!!), +2 Experience, +1 campaign point and evades
detection to rejoin his warband with all his weapons and equipment."

In the end on of the hirelings left was of course the dwarf Trollslayer.

============ For accountants and wargame auditors only =======================

Results sent via email and displayed via web.
Summary: Scorpion Tail gets in the Ring (injury: 65) (genereer 30 dice rolls voor iedere kant, die ik op volgorde van rol zal interpreteren tot uitkomst...)

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Roll One
Generating 1 rolls of D2, 1 per line.
Comment: 1: Chaos Warriors gets the charge, 2: ST charges in...

2

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Roll Two
Generating 30 rolls of 1D6, 1 per line.
Comment: Attacks of Chaos Warrior (2a with Sword)

2
3
1
6
2
4
1
4
2
5
5
6
6
2
6
1
5
2
3
6
5
6
6
5
2
3
1
6
6
6

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Roll Three
Generating 30 rolls of 1D6, 1 per line.
Comment: Attack of Scorpion Tail (2 barehanded, 1 tail)

5
6
5
5
5
5
5
2
6
5
6
3
4
1
5
5
1
4
5
3
4
4
3
3
2
3
5
2
2
6