An Epic Saturday (Weekend)

 Preface - I changed job. I still work in the same office but have change company affiliation. Still an "IT Director" and still in healthcare. The new company gave me a nice "welcome to the family" this weekend with box seats to a Billy Strings concert at the Enmarket Arena and Savannah Bananas hoity-doity section tickets Sunday afternoon. So, not a bad weekend at all, but then I got to play a game of NetEpic on Saturday with the guys. NetEpic is a revived edition of old Epic Space Marine - what was GW's 6mm large-scale battle game. Wayne supplied the models and scenario and there were five of us players. 

We broke out into two teams, David took the Iyanden Eldar and Mike partnered with him running a Saim-Hann windhost. Ziggy took the Imperial Guard group and Mark and I split the Blood Angel Space Marine force. The Eldar were hunting for two McGuffins while the Imperial forces attempted to prevent them from finding their objectives. 

Ziggy planted his Leman Russ company forward in the center, just a big middle finger to the Eldar who entered the table from the left and right edges from this view. The Imperial plan was to put more military units at the far end, meaning the Eldar would have to move away from the objectives to fight us. Made sense to me and my teammates when I proposed it.

The Leman Russ tanks absorbed a terrific amount of firepower from the two Eldar forces and lost only a single stand! Faith in heavy armor was well-placed. The Space Marines flanked the Eldar quite viciously - see my Land Raiders entering the table behind them at the far end of the table.

And after eating a full course of the Emperor's wrath, Blood Angel bikers smashed into the remaining Iyanden Falcons and Wraithguard. That unit was effectively neutered in short order.

Mike brings some big guns in to even things up with the Leman Russ unit. The armor of the Imperial Guard tanks was again up to the task! You can see my Land Raiders in the back pursuing the battered Eldar.

There's a closer shot of the CORNER OF DOOM.

Finally, a good view of the whole table. Ziggy has some Basilisk artillery on our baseline and a large company of IG in the buildings around the airfield. The yellow markers are areas the Eldar need to explore.

David's walkers get a move on down the right flank.

The Wraithlords did manage to locate one of the objectives, but then I dropped in a Blood Angel Death Company on them. It was a brutal melee in which the Wraithlords were eventually wiped out and the  single surviving Death Company stand sought cover in a building for the remainder of the game.

The Saim-Hann Windriders arrive in our backfield and raise a little Khaine. I dropped in my last troops on them, a Blood Angels tactical company. Apparently my Marines didn't get the memo because they got their asses kicked, six ways to Sunday. I lost found stands while only killing two. My Marines backed away. 

David got sweet revenge on my Land Raiders with an Avatar. They summoned two of the Emperor-forsaken things during the game.

As I move around the table taking pictures from other angles. The Blood Angel Whirlwinds blast the Web artillery but cause more panic than injury.

The Windriders again prove to be absolutely outrageous, easily killing off Ziggy';s Ogryns in melee! Mike's dice had really found a groove while Zig's, mine and Mark's had cooled off.

The Eldar artillery tries to grab the final objective but too many Eldar had been eliminated. The battle ended before the Eldar could claim it. The Imperial forces hang on for the win!

An enjoyable game for sure. There was a bit of confusion about deployment areas and Space Marine entrance areas. The made the Eldar players grumpy and I really don't blame them. Somehow, they very nearly got the win, despite being on their back foot for much of the battle. Z, Mark and I were rather fortunate that the game timed out when it did. I think everyone want to play again so there might be some more in the pipeline.

A coupleodd pictures from the weekend.

Billy Strings. Psychedelic Bluegrass music. Remarkably good. Would go again for sure and I would pay for tickets.

Me and the opposing team mascot. I managed to snag a foul ball. 

Frostgrave Campaign Game 3

 David, Ziggy and I got together on Saturday for the third game in our Frostgrave campaign. For this outing we played a relatively straightforward scenario - The Well of Dreams and Sorrows. We did place seven loot markers rather than five which keeps it to where everyone should get at least two treasures and we really fight over that third mystery box.

My group, Billy Thorpe's Children of the Sun are in the lower left corner, again surrounded by Ziggy forward and David to my right. Three games and that's three times I've been the monkey in the middle. It sucks. ;)  We did deploy in corners for a change instead of along edges.

We went heavy on the wandering monsters this time, with two arriving on turn 1 and one more every turn for the duration. We rolled a Large Construct and a Snow Troll right off the bat and they went after my crew and Zig's. At least they're slow!

Of course Z ended up with a giant spider in his back-court a turn later and things got weird for his crew. Yes, the troll is bright green and had googly-eyes. 

So, David rushed loot markers with his Wizard via Teleportation and a Thief went after another. Ziggy and I took a more traditional slow march to the treasures, mostly keeping our groups clumped up. We also had strong monsters pressuring us which forced us to press forward. We also wanted the XP for having our magic users drink from the well. David sort of ignored that. I marked loot locations on the image above. The blue one became quite the focus for Z and D, being the coveted #3.

The Tiki Monster (large construct) bears down on Sweet Dee while my apprentice. My Thief grabs a loot marker.

Ziggy and I have a temporary cessation of belligerence while we get our experience points from the well with our wizards and apprentices. In the upper right you can see a wall that's been thrown up by David's gang to shield his guys from Zig's.

There's ol' bug eyes and the spider! 

David goes with another wall to completely block off Zig's group. Frustrating for sure but hilarious for a third party in my position!

I threw a Wizard Eye on a distant wall overwatching the well, daring David to drink from it. The eye also had LOS to the hot corner where D & Z were fighting over that last loot marker.

Ziggy's Wizard casts Plane Walk to get through the walls. Now in the hot zone, he pops off a Destructive Sphere spell, seriously wounding three of David's characters including the apprentice. Really, it was pretty bad ass.

Late in the game... another Large Construct appeared where the last one had been dispatched. I also had a Frost Wraith appear on the other side of my group. Good thing I was just about to leave!

All in all, a heck of a game. I was terribly successful - 300XP again, two loot and no permanent casualties. David KO'ed my Crossbowman but he recovered after the match. David did lose an Archer KIA and Ziggy had one of his guys get seriously injured and they'll have to miss the next outing. 

After the match and my three level-ups, this is where my group stands:

I have 325 GP in the bank. I think I'm going to hire a Barbarian to replace Katanga the thug. I'm a fan of the two-handed weapons. We'll see... I'm still on the fence.