Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Conversion

I had an old Space Marine Apothecary model that I've converted for use in my Chaos Space Marine army. My Chaos Marines have gone renegade relatively recently, so would probably still have things like apothecaries and techmarines. For the same reason, I didn't do much to make the model look very Chaos influenced, but I do like the sinister implication of the giant meat cleaver, and painting some blood stains on his loin cloth should add to the butcher-like appearance.

Beyond the Gates of Antares Outline Rules Solo Playtest

I played through a quick solo playtest game of Beyond the Gates of Antares, using the outline rules that have been provided to backers of their Kickstarter project. I decided to take some pictures and write up a battle report of the game, along with my observations on how this early draft of the core rules plays.

The Story
There are no official scenario rules, so I went for a pretty straightforward and typical gaming scenario. Basically, both sides are trying to either rescue or capture a wounded downed pilot. The pilot's aircraft has crashed in the wilderness, and both sides are trying to get to him and carry him off first.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report

The Confederate Division under Major General James Longstreet has successfully held their position on the battlefield, while unfortunately the rest of the Confederate army has fallen back. The swift but somewhat disorganized Union pursuit of the fleeing Confederates has put Longstreet's division in danger of being cut off from the rest of the army. They currently find themselves surrounded by Union forces, and must attempt to break out and re-join their retreating army. The game was played using the Breakout Scenario I have previously posted on this blog.

Black Powder Scenario - Breakout

This scenario for Black Powder was designed for my American Civil War armies, but I'm sure it could be generalized to other periods easily. We play using all distances in centimeters instead of inches, so playing this scenario in the normal scale of Black Powder would require a larger table. I've played it once and it worked out pretty well, though it might work out better to give the Union player the first turn. In our game, I think if the Confederate player had rolled better command rolls on his first turn, the game might have been over very quickly. I will write up and post a battle report of the game in the near future, but for now have a look at the scenario rules.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report

The Story
This was a pretty simple concept. Forward elements of the Union and Confederate armies have encountered each other, and both are now rushing to claim the best ground before the enemy can take it. There is a large hill between the two forces that is the obvious choice, so both sides are attempting to control the hill and drive off the enemy. It turned out to be a very dramatic and fast-paced game that came right down to the wire.

Beyond the Gates of Antares fan fiction

I've been following along with the ideas going around on the Dark Space Corp website and forums for the development of a new Science Fiction gaming universe for their upcoming game, Beyond the Gates of Antares. Their Forums are currently very active, and there are a lot of interesting ideas being discussed there. I was inspired by the background information on The Gates of Antares Universe to write up a couple of short fan fiction stories that take place in my imagined version of that universe, based on the little information so far available. Let me know what you think of them. In the second one, Hansa Nairoba is a special character they are creating for the game to promote their Kickstarter Campaign, and some people on the forums have suggested the model should bear a resemblance to Rick Priestley, the creator of the game.

X-Wing Miniatures Game First Battle

I got to play my first game of the Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Miniatures game. I played the rebels, and had two X-wings with red squadron pilots (pilot skill 5). One had proton torpedoes. The Empire side had two regular TIE fighters with pretty standard pilots (pilot skill of 4) and one TIE Advanced (pilot skill 5) with cluster missiles.