Chaos Chariot

 Finished Chaos Chariot for an extra punch in my army.

Descent into darkness. The last stand.

From the book: 

"...Crawling forwards you can see that it is a partially collapsed stone farmhouse, of a kind
that is common in both Alladore and Lorenthia. Creeping closer, you see shifting shadows within,
and, closer still, you hear whispered voices. There are several people inside, definitely humans...

... ‘We are friends. From Alladore.’ You say. The man lowers his sword and grunts, ‘We’ll take friends from anywhere.’Inside the broken house, you see several more soldiers as well as a group of women and children...

... ‘Lorenthia is destroyed,’ you reply, ‘but the world endures. Alladore still stands. We can take you there...’ But even as you say the last word, a horn sounds in the distant gloom, and your companions come running. Everyone draws their weapons and prepares to face the onslaught"

The group starts outside the building, The Ranger, his dog and the archer North of the farm, and the Conjurer and the Barbarian on the South. Both groups near the two yellow clue markers.

Both groups try to reach the markers before enemies approach.

The Barbarian is faster and discover a treasure chest with gold coins and jewels, but a patrol of Gnolls gets closer and one archer wounds the Barbarian.

The Ranger reaches the other marker and it is also a treasure with gold coins. He then manages to kill two zombies, but the remaining one finishes his dog.

More Gnolls come from both West and North and some civilians result wounded by enemy arrows shot through the windows.

A Lorenthian knight with the Barbarian and the Conjurer make a sortie to neutralize one group of Gnolls coming from the South.

Whereas on the other side, the Ranger together with two archers and a courageous peasant face another gang of Gnolls.

 

Some Gnolls get access to one of the rooms through the roof and a fierce melee breaks loose.

 

 

 More and more enemies keep coming.

They are everywhere and even more are coming.

 

Now there is also a Troll who climbs the walls with murderous intentions.

Suddenly, an earthquake shakes the land and almost everybody fall to the ground and lose their activations.

 

Miraculously, a woman slains the Troll while a friend fights desperately against a giant spider. The room is filling up with bodies and there is blood everywhere.

 

The knight, left alone, falls before a zombie.

More giant flies attack the party and then a burrow worm shows up from below and attacks the Ranger.

Who easily dispatches it. The rest of the party also kills a remaining fly and a zombie, but more Gnolls are already charging through the entrance.

And then another Troll appears!

But when the Troll finally makes contact, it is the end of the last turn and the game is over.

 

Seven Lorenthian civilians out of eight died in the assault and only the heroic maiden survived to tell it. They killed 1 burrow worm, 2 Trolls, 4 giant flies, 6 zombies, 2 Gnoll sergeants, 15 Gnoll warriors and 1 giant spider for a total of 109 XP. The Ranger's dog fully recovered from his wounds.

Next adventure is Burning Light but I won't be playing it until next holidays as now it comes the more stressful time of the year for me and I won't have time to play it. What I will do now, is painting an hour or two whenever I have the chance.

More Perry's US infantry

I painted another batch of soldiers from the box, testing with the different colours I have at home and using the home made mix dipping with Betumen of Judea .

Another good thing from this box is that it contains two MG 30 cal. teams.

This is a comparison between the soldier from the left dipped with Vallejo Game Wash Dipping Formula, and another on the right dipped with acrylic Betumen of Judea. As you can see, there is no great difference as both had some lights after the dipping.

Descent into darkness. Swampland.

 From the rulebook: 

"...Finally, the stairway came to an end in front of a boggy pool, dotted with broken ruins and a few trees. The water nearest the stairs is too deep to wade, but it appears to quickly become shallower further on. If you want to carry on with your mission, there is no choice but to swim through the dark waters until you reach solid ground. Still, it is not a decision you take lightly, for who knows what could be living beneath the surface of the dark water"

The party at the bottom of the broken stairs and with two members intoxicated by the poisonous fumes, seizing the deep they have to swim to reach to where the zombies are waiting for them.

After two turns swimming, most of them reach the shore and engage with the zombies, except the conjurer who is trapped in a sink hole and the archer who is shooting the zombies from the opposite border.

The conjurer is stuck for another turn and the ranger, together with the barbarian and his trusty dog, must deal with all the zombies.

 The archer is attacked by a giant fly which came down from the stairs.

 With only one zombie standing, the ranger investigates and discovers the corpse of a Lorenthian soldier and takes a silver signet ring from him. It starts raining heavily.

Right after the area is cleared, a band of of two gnoll archers and a soldier appear on the left border.

They must get closer to spot the party and shoot at them but then they are charged. Attracted by the noise, another zombie appears on the bottom left corner. The party discovers a treasure and the conjurer runs towards the last clue marker.

 

There he picks some strange flowers that is able to recognise, and after that he runs back to help his comrades that are still struggling with multiple enemies. Everybody is wounded.

 But they succeed one more time, and kill the last enemy it appears on the last turn of the game.

 The group got 43 Experience points.

Descent into darkness. The broken stairs

 From the rulebook:

"Laden down with provisions (for who knows if there is food or even drinkable water below?), you start the treacherous descent of the stairs ... As you get lower, the air thickens and breathing becomes more difficult. Black ash floats in the breeze, filling your nostrils and stinging your eyes. You are just about to call for a break, when you hear a loud buzzing noise, first from one direction and then from the other. You ready your weapons, just as the first bloated body comes flitting into view." 

 

The conjurer trips on the stairs and gets wounded. Giant flies approach.

They fight off the first wave of the nasty critters.

Then a thick, black cloud of poison fog envelopes the party, causing several of them (the ones with yellow counters) to miss their activation.

Flies keep coming endlessly, not allowing our heroes to progress. The dog falls down to some flies, while the barbarian manages to reach a treasure with some iron bark powder in it during a brief lull in the fighting.

But they got stuck in the place and could not reach the bottom of the stairs.

 

At the end of the game the party did not reach the bottom of the stairs, failed to spot a corpse with possible information or treasures and did not seal any fly hole, but killed 14 flies. The dog fully recovers and the ranger reaches experience level 3.

 

 

 

Perry's WWII US infantry

I wanted to try the new Vallejo Game Wash Dipping Formula. I was very exited that finally there was an acrylic dipping, so I tried on some Us infantry that I also wanted to paint and here is the result. But I have to say that I did not quite like the final result so I added quick lights all over the figures to cover the yellowy finish except on the brown trousers.

 

I must say that this dipping is not like Minwax nor even as Army Painter as it stains a bit too much and it is not as dark. I'd say is more a wash than a dipping. Actually, there are already people using it as a substitute for GW's Devlan Mud because it gets similar results, it contains the equivalent of 8-9 bottles of Devlan and it is much cheaper. 8 euros for 200 ml.

But I wanted a dipping. I've tried to get Minwax without success and I also tried different home made dippings with more or less luck through the years. Right now, the one it works better for me within the acrylic range is a home made mix with acrylic betumen of Judea and floor wax that is also stains, but still I prefer it to the new Vallejo dipping.

The product has a good consistency for being acrylic and smells good, but sitll drips slightly faster than oil based, and sometimes top parts are not properly covered. Besides, as I say, it stains the surface too much for my taste and it is not dark enough. So far there is only Sepia and Black.

This is also the first time I paint some Perry's miniatures. The figures are well proportioned and look very natural although I'd love to see a little more definition on them, but the box is a bargain with 42 figures in it.

I did a comparative picture with some 1/72 Italeri figures, painted with Betumen of Judea and lights, and you can see the difference in how detailed are the small ones compared to the Perrys.

I love 1/72 ranges, especially for WWII. In my opion, 1/72 scale is the best possible scale to play WWII due to its huge variety of models, a scale that looks more natural on the battlefield, it is very cheap and it is quite more easy to store, including its terrain. But I'm afraid I am going to get rid of it and start with 28mm as absolutely nobody where I live does 1/72, so my options are to either play solo at home with 1/72 or play with people at 28mm. I suppose this 1/72 scale must be something of old school and with people who played it in the seventies and eighties like me, because in my experience, young poeple does not even know this scale exists. They only know 15 mm for Fog of War or Yanquee Team and 28mm for Bolt Action.

The Beacon Tower. Tor Varden upper level.

From the book: 

"Your party is battered and bruised, but the fight is not over. Whatever now rules in this tower is likely on the upper level. While it is tempting to leave now with the gains you have made, it would then be left to some other group to come and finish the job, and who knows what evil might be done here in the meantime. Readying your weapons, you advance up the stairs."

 

Half of the group coming out throught the trapdoor.

Turn 2. My archer, activated by the ranger, shoots and kills one gnoll archer before he could act, but later is wounded by another gnoll archer. The rest of the group arrives.

A phantasmal green fire comes from the beacon tower of Tor Dargos and some members of the party get poisoned (the ones with yellow markers). The barbarian uses the fairy dust gathered at the lower level on his sword, which helps him to wound the shadow knight. The dog fails to hurt him.

On the next turn the ranger charges the shadow knight and manages to kill him with the magic sword he found downstairs.

 

 

The barbarian charges a gnoll archer and puts him down with a mighty blow of his two handed sword.

Tor Hammel has also been lit with evil green fire! The archer activates first again and kills the last gnoll archer. Seeing this, the surviving gnoll falls back in shock.

He is finally killed on turn five and the encounter is successfully over.

 

I was lucky to find something to help me fight the magic resistance of the shadow knight and thus killing him so soon. The rest of the encounter was a walk in the park. I've got the maximum XP for this encounter, 62 XP points!