The Vietnam project: painting starts

Above Sgt Elias, a figure released by Miniature Wargames Magazine, is looking doubtful at the next mission. 

Below the excellent Empress Miniatures' Long Range Recon Patrol start out into the valley, equipped to the teeth. 

And the first grunts, Empress Miniatures US Marines. 

The City of Pillars: a Spectre Operations scenario plus AAR. EDITED Victory conditions

Extensive research has brought to light the disturbing possibility that an ancient Artefact of unfathomable power lies buried beneath some ruins in Afghanistan. The US administration, eager to acquire this powerful asset, dispatches a small and low-profile task force, led by a CIA officer, to secure it. Unfortunately, with the task force already on its way, a satellite scan discovers unknown forces already present in the area, busy unearthing an as yet unidentified object. Intelligence suspects Iran to be most likely responsible for this undercover mission on Afghan soil. Given Iran's ambitions in the field of unconventional weaponry this most unconventional weapon should definitely not fall into their hands.

Mission:

Two parties attempt the same mission: acquiring an Artefact from a Afghan archaeological dig to deny this asset to the enemy. One party is already in the possession of the asset but is awaiting transport. The other party has transport but is only now entering the area. Parties are aware of each other’s presence. All units are Alert. 

Parties and deployment:

US Army:

 17 Professional US soldiers (including 2 Commanders) & 1 Professional CIA operative (Force Commander) Armament as shown

 1 Bradley IFV, 2 Humvee transports, 1 Land Rover (including Land Rover driver, Untrained and unarmed)

·         Will deploy in vehicles on the road entering the table

  

Iranian Republican Guard (Undercover)

·         25 Professional IRG (plainclothes) including 2 Commanders plus 1 Professional SS Operative.

·         Armament include 2 RPGs and 1 M40 recoiless rifle. The rest is as shown.

·         6 Civilian laborers, Untrained and unarmed

·         1 eagerly awaited truck including driver and guard

·         IRG may partly or completely deploy in hiding on the far half of the table (away from the US convoy entry point).

Terrain

The table represents a small valley. The US Convoy will enter at one point, starting on the road from the table edge at the start of turn 1. The Dig lies near the other end.  A few small buildings, rocks and sparse trees and scrubs dot the valley. The Dig is a cluster of ruins, in the middle of which lies the Artefact.

Special Rules

The Eagerly Awaited Truck
The Iranian truck will arrive at the start of a random turn. At the end of each turn, roll a D6. Add the turn number. On a result of 7 the truck arrives on the road at the IRG end of the table. The truck has a Civilian driver and an Trained guard with a sidearm.

The workers
These are unarmed locals, intimidated to do the bidding of anyone with a weapon. They can be controlled by whichever player has the most figures closest to them, with a maximum distance of 6”. They will not fight and take off to the nearest cover as soon as no player has figures within 6” of them. The workers start the game near the Dig close to the Artefact.

The Artefact
This is a heavy statue made of a strange type of soapstone. It actually feels slippery to the touch and is hard to hold on to. Four (4) workers in b2b contact are needed to move it (reasonably) safely. For each move roll a D6. On a 6 the workers drop the Artefact. See below “The Entity” for the effects. These effects also apply when the Artefact is hit by fire or explosion. Add 1 to the roll for each worker below 4.  Add a reroll for each worker above 4. Max 2 rerolls.

The Entity
The Artefact is actually a Binding Spell containing an Elder Entity (choose an appropriate monster). It is not a stone statue but an energy field shaped like a statue (hence the slippery feel when touching it).

The Entity's influence will make itself felt when the Artefact is damaged the first time. Rolling a result of 6 while moving it, each time the bearers are shot at or hitting it with firearms will damage the Artefact and releasing the Entity's influence. 

This will release a number of smaller entities. These will possess all humans within 6” of the Artefact.

When the Artefact is damaged a second time, the Entity contained in it will escape, appear and then start moving at 10” per turn in a random direction and continue in that direction until it leaves the table. It will ignore all players and is invulnerable to weapons as represented on the table. The game will then end in a draw. 

The Possessed
These pose the most immediate danger after the Entity appears. The possessed are nearly mindless creatures, driven by hunger. They do not use weapons. Each will move at 6” per turn towards the nearest unpossessed human in order to attack them in close combat. Only a lethal hit will kill them. They ignore all other wounds. Their touch is lethal and a figure losing a close combat to them will be possessed itself. This lethality will dissipate when a Possessed is killed.  

The Possessed move 6”, have a Defence of 1 (they move but do not attempt to evade anything and go straight for their prey). A Possessed has a Melee of 2 also due to its fierce and reckless attack mode. Being targeted by a Possessed gives 1 Suppression to the figure targeted per Possessed.

The MOAB (Massive Ordnance Areal Blast)
As soon as the Entity starts moving an airstrike is launched from a plane already loitering in the area.

This was the US backup plan should the Artefact prove harder to handle than anticipated. At the end of each turn, roll a D6 and add 1 for each consecutive turn. On a 6 a MOAB hits the location of the Entity and may or may not destroy it. When the Entity is still on the table at that time everything on the table is lost and the game is a Draw. 

If Players choose to flee they will need to exit the table beforehand and in the opposite direction of the leaving Entity to escape the blast area.

When the Entity is already off the table when the MOAB hits the table is untouched and the players automatically escape. The game is still a Draw. 

Optional Hidden Rules

Option 1: Units completely hidden by terrain

Spread 20 to 30 numbered stones across the table, near or on terrain that enables hiding. Write down your units and the number of the stone they are hiding.

Option 2: Units hidden but partly exposed by heat signatures

I use three types of counters: small, medium and large. Each type represents a known heat signature of a number of people. Place the counter on the table at the location of the hidden unit. The counter must reveal the correct number of figures when exposed.

Small:                 1 or 2 people

Medium             3 or 4 people

Large                  5 or more people

In any case, models are displayed on the table when Scanned, Detected or Activated in order to move into view or deliver unsilenced direct fire. 

How it played for us: 

We used the heat signature Hidden Rules and these did indeed enable the IRG player to effectively hide his ambushing troops from my US Army column.

My column entered the table in a cautious manner, Scanning and seeking targets as we went. Too cautious as it turned out, because it gave the IRG time to take a shot at me with his hidden M40, damaging the Bradley and when I Scanned a team of IRG entrenched in a building I was too far away to employ grenades effectively. To make matters worse I deployed my infantry in terrain with not enough cover and took the predictable heavy casualties. Smokescreen you say? It didn't cross my mind.....

One of my Humvees was riddled with bullets. The gunner dead and his car immobilized, the driver heroically manned the .50 and laid down some withering covering fire until he died as well. Those IRG had laid their ambush very well and my fears that I might have under-equipped them were quickly dissipated...

The Bradley nevertheless was very effective. It knocked out the M40, survived two RPG rounds and then eliminated the crew of the truck that had in the meantime appeared to pick up the Artefact. My infantry began rolling up the IRG flanks which were firmly entrenched in buildings and scrub. Things were beginning to look better. And then it al went pear-shaped.

The workers carrying the Artefact to the truck did indeed drop it, the Entity appeared and Possessed all workers and 4 IRG. Loads of Suppression all around and to make matters worse the Entity began moving towards the nearest table edge giving us all of 2 turns to clear the table of Possessed and skedaddle before the MOAB dropped. We decided to end the game there and await the Big Bang.

Lessons learned: 
When driving a tank one should behave like one. Take the lead!
Smoke screens are invented for a reason.
Don't deploy your troops in open terrain. They will not like you afterwards.
A standard Humvee is an about as well protected against light weapon fire as a pup tent....

This scenario was inspired by the stories of -amongst others- Howard Phillip Lovecraft,  Tim Curran, Charles Stross, Jonathan Maberry, David Conyers and John Sunseri. 

Empress 28mm US Army and Taliban

Empress' magnificent US Army and Taliban figures. One or two Spectre figures might have infiltrated the Taliban.....

Empress Bradley IFV

Empress Humvee

Empress Humvee with weapon station. The crew is scratchbuilt since I forgot to order those

Cthulhu: Death may die: A review

The past few months I have been painting the miniatures from CoolMiniOrNot's new Cthulhu: Death may die boardgame and finally managed to get a few games in. Time to share my views on this game.

CDMD was released through Kickstarter in the summer of 2018. I went fully in and got it all, being a lifelong Lovecraft fan and completely persuaded by the miniature previews. No matter what the rules were, I had to have these minis for my other games.

The hardware
CDMD is completely up to the CMON standards I am used to by now. The game is packed in three boxes: Core game, Season 2 and the Kickstarter Exclusives "Unspeakable" Box. The first two boxes will be available in retail or already are.

All components are high quality. The game board is modular and made up of thick cardboard two-sided full colour printed map tiles in all shapes and sizes. Halls, corridors and small rooms combine into a multitude of different game boards, depending on the scenarios to be played. Counters are the same durable cardboard or plastic miniatures (see below). The game includes stat cards for all enemies (Elder Gods, Monsters and Cultists) as well as all Investigators. There are plastic dashboards that will hold the stat card as well as the counters used to track Health and Sanity and such.

This game will fit back into the box even after being played. A major advantage in my opinion. 

Hastur

The miniatures were my reason for backing the KS. They are fabulous. Sculpting is excellent and all miniatures come already assembled, as many are multi part castings. The miniatures are large 28mm or 30mm scale (a rather fluid scale system in any case) which makes them useable in 28mm wargames for example. A definite bonus for me. They are made from hard plastic and paint well. As I speed-painted my way through them I spent little time cleaning flash and such but this was rarely a problem.

Dagon and The Deep Ones, playing tonight! 

Miniatures include 5 Elder Gods: Cthulhu, Hastur (The King In Yellow), Dagon, Yog-Sothoth and The Black Goat Of The Woods, a number of  iconic Monsters, Cultists and 39 Investigators with a wide plethora of skills. Each Elder God comes with its own minions, so for example Cthulhu brings a Star Spawn and Dagon some Deep Ones.



The rulebook is a full colour booklet with many how-to illustrations and comprehensive explanations of the rules, which aren't that voluminous to begin with.

The Rules
Rule wise CDMD isn't a very complex game. Players oppose the game and cooperate to disturb the Ritual that is the core of every game and that aims to call an Elder God into this world. Investigators have to disturb the Ritual and drive off the Elder God within a limited time frame in order to win the game.

Investigators activate in succession, take three actions of choice, draw a Mythos card (eldritch misery ensues and certain combinations of Mythos cards drawn in sequence will advance the timeline of the game) and either discover Goodies or are attacked by Baddies. Actions are usually made by a roll of the special dice, sometimes enhanced by bonus dice.

Dice rolls bring either successes, failures or Insanity for the Investigator. Investigators can buy a reroll by taking Stress, but the range of Stress is limited and exceeding it will lead to Wounds. Exceeding the Wound limit will kill the Investigator, as will exceeding the Sanity Limit. And while Wounds and Stress can be Healed by resting, Insanity usually advances unstoppable until the limit is reached and the Investigator is carted off to the Looneybin. In the meantime however mounting Insanity will give your Investigator extra skills and bonus dice.

All this means that you have to manage your stress, wounds and skill advances carefully and there are many, many choices to make. In that respect CDMD seems deceptively simple at first glance but turns out to be quite complex. Especially considering you will lose the game if an Investigator dies before the Elder God is on the board. Gods only arrive when the Ritual is disturbed or when the Mythos cards make the game enter the second red half of the game track. Gods can only be harmed after the Ritual is disturbed, so you REALLY want to do that before the God appears or you will have an invulnerable Elder God on your hands. You quickly find out that when you underestimate this game, your Investigators tend to die quickly!

The game can be played with 1-4 Investigators. The more Investigators there are, the faster the game track advances since every Activated Investigator will trigger a Mythos card and Mythos Cards will advance the game track. So the game has a cleverly built-in speed/brake system.

Cthulhu on the game track. When the Elder God reaches the red circles it appears on the board

The scenarios
There are a number of scenarios available, set up like a TV series in seasons and episodes. Season 1 and 2 both have 6 episodes/scenarios and the Unspeakable Box has three more.

Each scenario comes with its own Ritual and its own specific way to disturb that. Each scenario brings specific Monsters to the game and there are always Cultists. Each scenario also brings its own half of Mythos cards and Goodies to be discovered.

The respawnable Star Spawn: the gift that keeps on giving...

The Elder God to be battled can be chosen by the players for each game. Some people pick it at random. Since each Elder God has its own specific powers and effects, brings its own half of the Mythos cards as well as specific minions, playing the same scenario with another Elder God gives a completely different game. Since Investigators can be varied also each scenario not only is completely different from the others but also extremely replayable.

The Black Goat Of The Woods (traditionally considered to be an avatar of Nyarlathotep)

What is good? 
CDMD is a beautiful and interesting game that plays quickly (under an hour) and is very replayable due to the large number of variations that can be achieved by choosing scenario, Elder God and Investigator.

You are dead! It sez so in da roolz!

What could be better? 
Two Elder Gods (Dagon and Yog-Sothoth) were KS Exclusives and will probably not be available in retail. While this is no showstopper it does limit the variability.

Some cards were stuck together during packing and damaged a bit when unpacking and during use. But then I am too lazy to use card sleeves which might have prevented that.

Damn. My back is killing me already and those Deep Ones will try that too....

Conclusion
Absolutely recommended! And I sincerely hope that the Exclusive Elder Gods and the other minis will be released in retail as well.

This review is completely relative of course