Empire Autumn Equinox 382YE

By the virtues that was even better than the last one.  I've already done my hots and nots on the Dawn facebook group, but fuck it I'm doing them here again with more detail. I'm also going to show off my loot and talk about improvements to my character, kit and house.

Before I continue I'm going to add in my recruitment code.  If you use it to buy your first ticket you get £15 off, it also helps me out.  9066.16781

To start here's a picture of me absorbing the atmosphere.

Now the E3 loots.

Here are my swords.  I bought a two hander at the last event as a placeholder weapon. I wanted a spear, but there's no way I was fitting one in my Clio with all our kit in it.  This time we borrowed Sarah's dad's truck, and that has plenty of room for a spear, so hopefully we can borrow it gain in future.  The other sword is my fallback blade.  It's a bit off brief for Dawn, traditionally the Dawnish use arming swords, whereas I've opted for a falchion.  That's because my character is more used to fighting four legged opponents rather than the more usual humanoid ones, so he's more used to brutally hacking at things rather than fancier swordplay.  The big sword is from Light Armouries and the little one is from Eldritch.

This is my circlet.  I got it from Wanderlust Couture.  I bought it to keep my hair out of my face.  Its so annoying when your talking to someone and the wind launches your hair down your throat.  I've actually started wearing it round the house instead of tying my hair back.  It also blings up my head.


So what about E4?

Let's start with the good bits


1. Sleeping in character.  After our tent was murdered by the weather at E3 we were in the market for a new tent.  I asked my mum for a bell tent as an early Christmas present, and she got us one (best mother ever).  Back to the point sleeping in character it is big and clever.  Now having done both ic and ooc camping, I prefer ic camping.  Camping in character means you get the full experience, you really absorb the atmosphere.  You also get to know people a bit better, you see them before you go to bed and you see them when you get up, you see them ic and you see them ooc, you fight with them and you die with them.  It's really hard to describe the feeling of being a part of your camp, having a little bit of it that's yours, you are part of your nation not just visiting it.  There's also that little sad feeling being there when the camp starts to get demolished.

A picture of the House de Loup tent taken on Thursday night (time in doesn't start until 6pm Friday for those who don't know).  The Dawnish camp is dark at night, as can be seen here

That's the same shot without the flash.
We were situated next to the big House Orzel tent (used for the Earl's council) right on the glory square.  Basically the one of the best spots in the entire camp.  I can say one thing those Orzels know how to party.

2. The House de Soleil setting of the sun festival.  They put on a puppet show (complete with hurdy gurdy), there was a Chinese dragon for the kids, and then there was the remembrance ceremony once the sun went down (complete with sparklers and a brazier of multi coloured fire).  The ceremony was to remember those who had died in the past year, with tales of glory and fond memories for the fallen.  The puppet show was hilarious.  

3. Embarrassing a Varuskan (at least I'm think he said he was Varushkan) so hard he fell out of character.  He came over to our fire and started talking some shit about a light ball.  He spotted my walking cane resting against my chair and mistook me for a mage, to which I retorted "I'm not a wizard I'm a cripple!"  He laughed so hard he nearly fell over, he also told me that I'd  just made his weekend.  It kind of made mine too.

4. Fetching some water for Lady Sophia Orzel while everyone was away drujing it up on the Saturday. My good deed for the day, which she paid back later that evening with a slice of cake left over from the House Orzel wedding earlier in the day. Delicious delicious cake. Mmmmm 

5.  The food. From Conspiracy Catering to House de Gauvain breakfast leftovers (that was some amazing black pudding thank you) we ate well all weekend.  The food available at Empire is amazing, not just the flavour but the sheer variety.

6. The House Vandale kids. They are adorable. The grin on the wee girl's face when we gave her a toasted marshmallow would melt a frozen heart and I couldn't help but giggle when one of them told Lady Danica to cause less mischief.  On the subject of House Vandale there was a Freeborn in the queue at Conspiracy Catering who decided to not insult the Dawnish in front of Lady Danica, his face was an absolute picture when he realised that the rest of the queue were Dawnish nobles.

7. The Earls' Council. I love these meetings. Eventually I hope to be brave enough to speak at them.  Personal highlight was when the Queen of Bones admitted she was leaving Dawn for Highguard and every Earl and Enchanter stood up and toasted her, fucking epic moment.

8. Everything is starting to make sense.  It's all starting to click in my head.  My roleplaying is getting better too.  Roleplaying is a hard skill, it needs practice to flourish.  One of the Orzels has started to do public speaking classes before time in of the Friday's of the event, I missed this one, but I will be attending at my next event.

9. And last but not least Ser Bors convincing Tyrion of house Tallstag to put a dress on the House de Loup pet bear. Not that he took much convincing. I'm really looking forward to my downtime now.  Honestly there's a few in jokes cropping up about this already.  Who says that roleplay needs to be serious?

now the not so good bits

1. My knee giving out halfway through Saturday. My knee has been giving me trouble all week so luckily I anticipated that that might happen and I remembered my walking cane.  I think it's arthritis. I'm now wearing a knee brace and have started doing knee strengthening exercises.  I will fight again.

2. Going non-com. Not that I mean anything against non-combatants, I just like hitting stuff. My armour needs a fair bit of work before I feel comfortable fighting in it again, which is the main reason I wasn't fighting. I brought my weapons to try and get some sparing in. But then my sodding knee gave way. Now I'm feeling a bit angsty.  I wanna hit something.

3. The drive to the site. Thanks to a crash on the m6 a 5 hour drive took 9. That sucked big time.  

4. Nervousness and anxiety. These are still hampering me in game. Mainly when it comes to starting conversations with people. I was more confident this time than last, but I'm not at a stage where I'd like to be. It's something that I'm going to have practice.

And now my E4 loot

I got a new bag from Darkblade.  One of my buckles went on my old one so I treated myself to a new one.  This one is more supple, which makes it easier to get into.  The old bag took fucking ages to get into, this one takes seconds.  It's about A5 in size and is really light.  I love it.

I got some padding for my lower legs.  This should prevent the bruised legs.

I also got some padding for my forearms.  This is more to stop my vambraces moving when I fight.

We also bought a shit load of reading material, including the last ever issue of the Pledge.  Most of these are books we bought from the library.  The most useful resource there is The Wanderer's Guide to Anvil.  It's a fantastic guide to the game, and I'd recommend picking one up.

This is what was waiting for me in my character pack.  Who wound have thought massacring  Druj farmers was so proffitable?  I still had my 18 rings from E3 so I went on a bit of a spending spree.  I kept hold of the crowns though.

And here's a better look of our banner.  It's about 8 feet tall.  We managed to fit it into the truck with about half an inch to spare.  I've been told that this banner is so big that you could see it from the Marcher camp.

Improvements to be made.

1. fix my leg plate.  My armour hasn't moved from my car since E3.  I need to get on that.

2. I might take a line of links out the front of my chainmail, up to the groin.  At E3 when I ran my maile kept getting caught under my cuisses.  I'm hoping that a split in the middle will allow me to run without getting tangled in myself, or at the very least allow me to untangle myself easier.

3.  Acquire a 7 foot spear.  I'm looking at Saxon Violence for this.

4.  Get some yeolfolk, especially a seneschal .  We don't have any.  Need to work on this.

5. Add some loyalty trappings to my soft kit.  House de Loup is a loyalty house (we're wolves after all).  I'm looking to add some light chain to my kit.

6. Tart up the banner a wee bit.  I need to whittle a finer point on the pole which should make it easier to plant the thing in the ground.  We also need to add a tab to the bottom of the flag to stop it dancing in the wind.

Empire has quickly become my favorite hobby.  I'm finding it difficult to think about anything else.  I'm totally buzzing for next year.

Classic Harley Quinn

One last quick update before I head off to Empire.  I've finished my classic costume Harley Quinn that I've had for ages.  Once again I apologise for the crap lighting.

 This is one of the better sidekick Harleys.  She's incredibly fast, quite tricky and packs a decent punch. 

Her mallet has heavy making it wound better, it's also got reach so she can attack from 2 inches away, and it's also got push, which means if she damages something she shunts it way a number of inches equal to the collateral damage dice roll.  Combine all this with the 360 degree attack ability that she has and she can cause havoc amongst a group of tightly packed henchmen. 

Like every Harley ever she has acrobat for the usual shenanigans.  She has discourage, which lowers an opponents willpower.  She's also got distract to lower a targets defence.  She has fast which gives her a total basic move of 7 inches when combined with acrobat.  And she's got true love Joker so if he gets taken out Harley gets +1 attack and willpower.  Basically Harley's Job is causing mayhem while being very adaptable.

She's also got affinity to Poison Ivy, so you can use her as a free agent in a Gotham City Sirens gang.

Unboxing Judges of the Underworld

I've not done an unboxing for a while.  This time it will be the Judges of the Underworld for  Mythic Battles Pantheon.  I've even gone for a fuzzy blanket as a backdrop, because why not?

The guts of the box.

The activation cards.

There's 3 dudes in the box each with their own cards.  There's 4 of each.  And as usual there's the French versions in there too.

Eeacus

Rhadamanthus

Minos

Stat cards

Interestingly Minos is a monster, whereas the other two are heroes.

All in all a nice wee expansion.  The all have very similar stats and rules, although it's their unique abilities that make them shine.  I'm looking forward to painting them.  I might do them next after I finish the Pandora's box.

Painting Mythic Battles Pantheon part 9

Next batch done.  This time it's a lot.  I've concentrated on painting a few units that can only be taken by selecting other miniatures, as well as a few others.

Let's start with the infernal artillerymen.

Dark robes to differentiate them from all the other cloaks.


Hippolyta

Her face doesn't have the best detail.  It's a bit flat.

The Hounds of Artemis

Circe's Wolves

Lycaon

Dragon of Thebes

The last of the big snakes.  This one explodes into the Spartoi
Hermes

He's one of the more dynamic gods, and one of the most fun to paint.

In other hobby news my graveyard project over on Beasts of War for their terrain challenge is coming along.  Also the next Empire event is in a few weeks, which I'm buzzing for.

Painting Mythic Battles Pantheon part 8

Next Batch Done

Toxotoi.  As per my cloak rule, they had to be a different colour from every other unit.  So they got the dirty white ones. These guys were a real chore to paint.  The had really hard to remove mould lines, and on top of that they were just really boring.

Arachnae.  She was quite intimidating at first, mainly because her dress is made from web.  But once I started, she wasn't that bad.

Aphrodite.  She was actually quite difficult.  Trying to get at her dress on her back was quite hard.  As was painting the swords and hair without making an arse of the bits I'd already done.

A little experiment today of trying to share photos from my phone straight into blogger.  I'm sick of using image sharing sites.

So whats next for MBP?  Well I've already painted a few characters that bring unique units to battle.  So I'm going to paint those units.  Also I'm also going to do the dragon of Thebes, since I've already painted the Spartoi.  And Hermes... because why not?

Lexcorp

Wow! Okay, so my last blog was my most viewed ever.  Thank you all the Empire folks who read it.  I'll show off my loot soon, I promise.  Anyhoo back to the usual stuff.

I've taken my first foray into Organized Crime for the Batman Miniatures Game.  I went with one of the biggest criminals in the D.C Universe, Lex Luthor.  Basically I wanted a more elite gang then my usual joker and Scarecrow swarms.

My lighting is a bit shit again, apologies.


Lexcorp Trooper 1

This dude is a face beater.  His close combat master ability and reinforced gloves are going to hurt.  I'd personally use him for hunting henchmen.  With his medium armour and cybernetic traits mean they're unlikely to hurt him back.  Just watch out for guns.  For extra trolling give him a jetpack.

Lexcorp Trooper 2

This fellow has an energy sword.  He is your can opener.  He always damages on a 3+ and you need to make two successful block rolls to block his attacks.  He's even got the follow me ability to give his buddies a little speed boost.  I'd use him again for hunting henchmen, but I'd also try throwing him against sidekicks, free agents and leaders to get them burning through their defense points.  Or combine him with trooper 1 and between them they should do a fair bit of damage.

Lexcorp Trooper 3

This one is the gunner.  His gun is a beam weapon, unfortunately he can't pick up more ammo, however enemies will find it harder to make those ping rolls.  It also gets round the bulletproof vest rule.  He only has three shots (or four if you buy him a magazine) so use them wisely.  The best thing about him is that his gun has the push rule.  I'd buy him a jetpack and have him shoot enemies off buildings.  You could also push targets into the open so you can shoot them with the next guy.

Lexcorp Heavy Trooper.

This is your murder machine.  He's a bit squishy, only 6 endurance.  But like the other troopers he has medium armour and cybernetic.  Guns are his enemy, shoot them first.  He's also worth an extra victory point to your opponent if they kill him.  He's decent in melee, damages on a 3+ and has reinforced gloves for the double stun damage.  He excels at shooting.  He's got a four shot two blood gun that he can fire three times a game (four with a magazine).  It's a beam, so no reloads for you, but is harder to hide from and shafts those bulletproof vests (screw you bane mercs).  His gun is also assault 2, which means if he moves he gets to shoot twice instead of the usual once.

Alexander Joseph Luthor

I'm pleased that I managed to pull off a white suit (it's not actually white, shhhh don't tell anyone).

Lex is not a fighter, he's actually quite squishy.  He dicks around with people with his plethora of rules.  He is worth an extra victory point if removed as a casualty, but gains an extra special point to make up for it, and boy are you gonna need it.  He can move enemies with goad.  He can prevent enemies using special counters with intimidate, this shuts down the likes of Scarecrow and Poison Ivy.  He can hire henchmen with the Cop trait, so that'd be more guns then.  He has an energy field that gives him a 5+ save against ranged attacks.  He cancels one of your opponent's strategies.  He himself gains two extra strategy points.  His kryptonite fucks over kryptonians (as it should do).  He gains an extra take the lead counter from Mastermind.  Friendly models with 8" get to reroll will power rolls.  And finally he gets an additional $500 funding when configuring your crew.