Well, that "game more" part of the Mission seems to have lurched back into life of late. Since the last time we spoke, m'colleague
Shiny and myself have presented ourselves at the hallowed gates of Frugal Towers and enjoyed a game or two of Space Hulk against our gracious host Dave.
Our first ever game, touted as a very difficult scenario for the Space Marines, proved to be a stealthy victory, with valiant rearguard Terminators and a suspiciously effective Sergeant holding up the oncoming alien hordes long enough for the last surviving Terminator to set fire to the room that needed setting fire to before turning, two heavy flamer shots left, to face the oncoming tide of Genestealers that had been boiling along the corridors after him.
The second proved rather less of a triumph for the valiant warriors of the Imperium - overestimating the efficacy of a Sergeant with thunder hammer slightly, we (by which I mean I) sent him off on his own, only for him to get scrobbled by the first Genestealer to look at him funny. Our 'castle up and let the assault cannon sort it out' strategy on the other side of the ship worked out okay, at least until the aforementioned cannon ran out of ammunition, at which point Dave's grobbly alien hordes were able to more or less surround us. A quick examination of the board afterwards revealed some more advisable choke points where we could have parked the Sergeant and let him hold up more of the Genestealers, allowing our other four Terminators to concentrate on eliminating the ones emerging from behind him.
Space Hulk. Good game. Nice pieces, too: the Terminators in particular are very characterful little blighters who could sidestep nicely into a Blood Angels army with nary a care. The Genestealers are a bit less flexible, given their highly thematic basing, but a patient modeller could base an entire Tyranid army like that and it'd look suitably post-apocalyptic industrial and smashing.
Anyway, Dave made the return trip to Castle von Von this Thursday to try out his Goblin army against Shiny's Skaven, dusted off after long disuses and empowered by their new book full of nasty things. Dave's Goblins pulled off a few successes - his Fanatics and Stone Thrower whacked a fair few rats in the early turns, his Spider Riders kept a Clanrat unit and Warlock out of the fight on one flank and his Giant successfully routed the Plague Monks without a single blow being struck (ah, Yell and Bawl, how elite troops loathe thee) - but unfortunately his line units started taking panic tests, and when Goblins start taking panic tests, they very seldom stop. Enough of them rallied for it not to be a total wash, but their turns of gibbering retreat had left the army strung out for Shiny's oncoming wall of fur to roll over unit by unit.
I really enjoyed watching this game - suitably anarchic and banter-filled, and we persuaded Dave to keep going after the Turn of Much Panicking (since, to my eye, it looked like the Giant's long lopey legs could carry him into the Plague Monks, and taking out one of Shiny's units was still better than none).
The next round will be after the Easter break, and probably involve Dark Elves in some capacity or other. I'm clearing the pewter backlog to make way for evil pointy spiky elves. My Warmachine Steelheads are finally painted, a trifling three months after purchase, which leaves six Revenant Crew ready to paint, six stripped Trenchers to reprime and paint, plus two Satyxis Raiders, four Trenchers and four Revenant Crew in various states of broken-with-bits-missing-ness to fix up and find bases for.
I suspect I'll buy those bases and top up the Satyxis Raider unit while I'm away in Manchester over the Easter vacation (Warmachine units come in either sixes or tens in the second edition, and I own eight models: not terribly helpful). That'll have to be it as far as away spending goes. I haven't spent any gaming money this month, and I won't be spending any in May (no, no matter how many nice new Cryx things come out: I still haven't fielded everything I own for that army, and I own plenty), so there's a financial buffer around the hearty expenditure I plan on making in mid-April.
