15 Aug 2013

Strange Aeons field report

 Hello,
 when I've sculpted the Hound of Tindalos, I've promised you an AAR of a game with it being used. It has taken me a long, long while, but here it is now. Even better, I have reports of two games for you today!

My SA mojo has died out a little, but it really got fired up after playing this games. When I filled whole table of (almost wholly) painted terrain, I got a warm feeling of pride.  There are still some resin bits and model I still have to paint (bought far back at Salute), but other than that, it's all pretty decent, if I do say so myself.

My brother and I finally get to play a game (I'm waiting for him for more than a month now :P). He has made yet another new Threshold list (we play so rarely, we forget where we quit, so its better to play over again). I took over the lurkers and tried to be as fluffy as possible.

Both games were played on same board. It represent a derelict building (modeled after Whateley's farm), flanked on one side by an old cemetery and on the other by forest. I've scattered some crates in front and added a flatbed - apparently there is some foul activity going on around here!

 Below is a close up on barrel stack. I've made this myself and I became convinced I should be an architect, a pyramid that would put Keops to a shame!

In first game, brave agents of Threshold agency. We got a character with an elephant gun (I really need a decent 1920s guy with a bolt-action rifle, I'm sick of using this fisherman :D), an agent with a shotgun and an agent with a blowpipe and meat cleaver.
 Their mission was to accompany and protect dr. Armitage Ackerville, that is "tracked relentlessly by a semi-spectral hound" (quoted from Morbid Adventuress :P). Doctor Ackerville keeps donating huge amounts of his wealth to Threshold agency, so his survival if very important for the future of the agency.
Dr. can be seen below, with a hound that is after him and two zombies.
 Threshold agents have been accompanying doctor for a while now. Our story takes place near edge of the forest, near one of the lonely farms in New England.  Threshold agents kept eyes peeled, for they knew the hound could jump on them from any where at any time. They were all a bit itchy, as even their specialist training doesn't completely remove the fear people have when faced with unknown.
 As they walked past the ruins of a long lost civilisation, they couldn't lose the feeling of being watched...and watched they were. A cosmic hound, that is only called to our world by its thirst for blood was stalking its target - Dr. Ackerville.


 Things got worse for the agents, as the abandoned farm was apparently a place of morbid experiments - Doctor Herbert West himself was operating in this house. He and his partner were robbing near-by graveyard in their thirst for "specimen" - dead bodies they used as experiments to try and find a formula, with a power to bring dead back to the world of living.

Dr. West was long gone from the area, but there were still a couple of reanimated bodies shambling around the area.
 The agents had the first turn and shot at the Hound straight away. Unfortunately for them, the Hund was covered by woods and thus unharmed. In his turn, the Hound has leaped to an old obelisk, devoted to Snakemen from Valusia. Here, I had an option to jump on Ackerville and (probably) kill him on first turn. To play a bit more fluffy, the Hound has instead used its 2nd action to unleash a bone chilling howl. Howl was heard by Ackerville and two threshold agents. Both agent and doctor have mustered enough courage to stand their ground, but leader of the expedition, character, has ran in fright and left the area!

 Next turn, Threshold team could only nominate one miniature. My brother opted for doctor, who has started fleeing from the cosmic abomination as fast as his two legs could carry him. Hound wanted to follow in pursue, but was hit by an alert member of Threshold expedition and temporarily stunned (die indicated that model is "face down")
 The rest of the game followed the same pattern. Hound came to its senses and started chasing poor doctor. Doctor's maniacal flight has lead him past the cemetery, out of Zombies' reach and eventually off the board edge, which indicated his safe passage and thus Threshold victory. Very lovely game, pretty fluffy, without any unneeded shooting. Threshold suffered one "minor injury" (Character for leaving a board), so one of the remaining 2 agents got an extra skill. As dr. Ackerville successfully escaped, Threshold team now has a chance to become equipped with a special prototype weaponry in their next reequipment.




As said before, second game was played on the same set up - it offers a lot of cover and it makes a lot of sense, so there was no need to swap it around.

This time, "evil" cultist have taken an old hermit hostage. He was rumoured to possess knowledge of ancient things. Now he was hold up in an abandoned farm and "questioned" (by which I mean tortured beyond explanation!
I've made a team of Cult leader, armed with pistol (painted guy). He seem like a great model to do the interrogation, but not giving him a bit better weapon could be considered "a waste". He was accompanied by a cultist with pistol and two henchmen - with shot gun and one with tommy gun. What's even worse - they appear to be part of a local law enforcement!

 Threshold team was same as before, but model used for Dr. Ackerville was now a hermit.
 Threshold team have decided to attack from same flank as last game, while hermit was being interrogated in the middle of an abandoned farm. The goons were protecting the leader from possible law enforcement raids.

In their first turn, Threshold have sniped Shotgun henchman off the window and closed in.  That is unfortunately all there is to the game. Hermit was interrogated, but didn't leak info to Lurkers. I was hoping he would be more chatty next turn, but interrogator was involved in hand-to-hand combat by Threshold team members (they came in one by one, through the window). We've decided that even if interrogator was in base-to-base with the hermit, he couldn't actually do the interrogation as he was busy fighting in hand to hand last turn (but we decided that he can still fire while interrogating). Cult leader has won in CC against all 3 Threshold members, which was due to great luck he had. He didn't manage to inflict any major injuries, so all Threshold members will be fine in next game.
With all 3 agents removed from the table, and a cultist and shotgun henchman dead (tommygun henchman has only fired once in alert and didn't even hit -.-), game was over. What my brother hoped for, was that he will kill the interrogator and extract information for hermit. What I hoped for was to end interrogation quickly, kill the (now useless) hermit and escape with the information.



A bit long post...the AARs didn't really came out as I've imagined, but hopefully they give a decent representation of 2 very differently played games. I am painting my humvees slowly, as I keep having problems, but you can expect an update on them sooner or later!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

12 comments:

  1. Great Batrep enjoyed it immensely. Love the board it had real atmosphere.

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    1. Thanks! I really need to pain those boxes, barrels and a fence...it will look even better then :P

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  2. Nice batrep and your table is coming along very nicely. AAR aren't the easiest of things to write it takes far to long to make notes, photos and play the game which kind of like the most important bit :D

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    1. I was too busy mocking my brother for his character running away to pay attention to any other notes. Plus, there really wasn't much going on, in first game, he ran and in second, he assaulted to die three times :P

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  3. I like the idea of holding a hermit hostage! You can imagine the conversations in the local town. "Anyone seen the Hermit recently?" "Nope not for a while!"

    Not played or even read SA but having read your AAR I might think about it in the future. It does look and sound like my sort of thing.

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    1. Thats all by scenario, if I'd made it up, it would be just "a hostage" :P.

      Its a big investment, but I think its worth it, the game, while having some problems, is really fun. It could be broken, but with right kind of people playing it, its great fun.

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  4. Sounds like some good games and good use of the terrain for multiple battles. I also need to just throw some minis on the table, painted or not.

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    1. Thanks. I have to say gaming is not the biggest or the most important part of my hobby, but it does feel good to actually use all the things we're working on relentlessly :)

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  5. You table scenics look awesome! I just read your comment/reply to sean, and I agree that gaming for me too isn't actually a big part of the hobby (depsite people thinking im a gamer since i run a business!), but as you say, it is nice to do every once in while :D

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    1. Thanks!
      Yes, you should start playing, it is fun, honestly :D

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  6. Great looking terrain and two good scenarios which seemed a lot of fun.

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