So it begins..again!

So loyal fans, it starts again, that's right, the gearing up for Gathering in the Desert 2012. So with that means you will be seeing a lot of work here at Cursed Treasures about building terrain for the event.

Now as some know, this will be the 5th year in a row that GitD 2012 has been going on. For those that do not know what Gathering in the Desert (GitD) is, let me explain. GitD is a Independent Grand Tournament for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (Feb 17 -19th, 2012). It all start when I was frustrated at the lack of good local LotR tournaments here in the Valley of the Sun, so I organized my own.

So around this time every year I start turning my attention towards the next event, and this includes what terrain will I have at said event. To start things off, I place an order with Games Workshop for terrain. Below you will see this years haul of GW product that will morph into Middle Earth.

Now over the years I have accumulated quite a bit of terrain (which the wife always wants to know where it will go in the house!) for the event. This year there are a few large items that I ordered, below you will see one Realm of Battle board, with two extra panels (making it a 8'x4' board or two 4x4 boards). The new Sorcery tower along with two ruined towers, three sets of GW "Creapy Trees" and 5 bags of the GW jungle trees.

The plane is to paint the RoB boards in a desert color to represent Harad and use some of the trees for that. The other creepy trees will be pressed into service on other existing boards and so will the towers. I am thinking I might be able to turn the Sorcery tower into something less WHFB looking and give it more of a LotR feel.

But wait a minute, some of you might have spotted some very 40K terrain sections on the right of the RoB board. And you may be asking how are these going to be used for LotR? Well fear not folks, the 40K terrain is going to be used for...wait for it...40K! Whhhhaaaatttt!!!!

You see this year GitD will be expanding it's boarders a bit and GitD will be hosting a small Combat Patrol 40K event the first weekend of March (the 3rd to be exact). Which is two weeks after GitD. So it is time to start building some 40K terrain for this new venture, so once again you will be seeing some progress reports here at Cursed Treasures. So below there is a Fortress of Redemption, a Imperial Bastion kit (which has two kits!). Two Imperial statues, 3 bags of 40K accessories, two boxes of the wrecked rhinos and one crashed Imperial shuttle.

But wait a minute, why are we doing this? Well it is quite simple really, I am frustrated at the local 40K events here in Phoenix. I am looking at bringing everything I know about running events to the 40K side here in the valley. So that means cool and well built terrain, smooth running event, and for folks to have a good time.

So stay tuned for more information concerning both events as well as progress on all this terrain!

TK

Archos Fianlly Done!

So back in August of 2009, I started working on some Arco-Flagellants but they fell by the wayside on the painting bench. Well this week I decided to bust them back out and get to painting them. So here they are in all of their painted glory!







Here is my Puritan Witchunter that I painted a while ago, but never got to taking pictures of him. I call him Inquisitor Bane and he has had a few adventures, the most recent being sent to drive out Ork looters.


Here is a shot of Lord Bane and his retinue which was also painted a while ago.


And the final shot is with the arcos being released onto some foul Witch cult!


Hope you enjoyed...

TK

Return of 40K to the table!

So, after a long break, 40K finally got back on the table today with Drunkensamurai and I playing not one, not two, but three linked games! We played a 200 point Kill team mission, than did a 400 point Combat patrol mission followed by a 1500 point battle.

Before I go on, let me tell you what I have been thinking about for 40K. You see as some may know, this year was to be the 40K year for me. I had planned on playing more games than in 2009 and even wanted to play in a local 40K tournament. But life has a funny way of getting in the way and other gaming interests always took the spotlight. Also this week Drunkensamurai and I were talking about how we just do not get to play as much as we like and 40K was one game that we wanted to see more of.

My interest in 40K this year was also going to be towards doing some sort of narrative campaign and another friend said he was working toward getting one together. But alas, nothing ever happened. So with talking with Drunkensamurai we decided to just get together and play 40K this weekend. I would take my Sisters of Battle, while Drunkensamurai would take his new Orks. So what follows are pictures from two out of the three games we played today.

First up. 200 point Kill Team mission. My force included 15 Sisters of Battle against 20 Orks. We set the town up as a small settlement and the story was that the Orks were raiding it for loot. My Sisters were to try to stop the vile orks from looting the storage containers.

The Orks swarmed into the town taking the Sisters by surprise. The orks brought a buggy to haul off some of the loot that they hoped to scavenge from the settlement.


The Sisters took up positions at the walls around the containers and tried to keep the orks out. Seeing how the Sisters were caught unawares, they scrambled to fend off the invaders.

Two Sisters made a break for the communications office to radio for assistance and to warn the surrounding area of the invaders.

The Sisters put up a valiant fight trying to defend the storage containers, but the orks were all over their positions and were over running them.

The two sisters that made it to the communications office held off the orks in a brutal hand to hand fight and the warning was able to get sent out, which was received by a local Sisters of Battle Patrol in the area. Needless to say, out of 15 Sisters, only 4 made it out alive and the orks began their looting of the containers.

Game two was a 400 point Combat patrol mission on the same table as the kill team game. This time the Sisters showed up with one Imolater with a Dominion squad inside and 15 more Battle Sisters. The Orks also reinforced their position by bring in 3 Killer Kans, two buggies and a truck with some boys in it.




The 15 Sisters took up defensive positions inside the central building while the Imolater swept to the left flank to try to stop the killer kans.


The Imolater was ineffective against the killer kans but the meltas in the Dominions squad blew two of the machines to pieces.

But a bitter fight broke out as the boys in the truck engaged the Sisters in the middle of town and beat them to a bloody pulp and sending them racing out of town. Needless to say, the Orks defended the settlement and beat back the Sisters.

Game three saw us playing a new scenario out of the missions book, Cut & Run. This scenario has the Orks trying to leave the table while trying not to lose too many kill points. This scenario fit perfectly for the third game as it seemed fit to have the Orks making off with the loot.

I wish I would have taken pictures but I was too caught up in the game to worry about pictures. Needless to say, the Sisters of Battle took their revenge on the orks doing a total of 9 Kill points vs them loosing only three. It seemed that the Sisters wanted the settlement back.

It was a great day of gaming even though I lost two of of the three games against Drunkensamurai. My mind is already spinning about the next time Drunken & I can play. I think it will be another Kill Team game with the Sisters trying to get back the stolen loot that the Orks took. So stay tuned...

TK

Kill Teams!

So today DrunkenSamurai, my son and I did some 40K playing the Kill Teams out of the new Battle Missions book. I was also inspired by Johns Blog review of it, so Drunken and I decided today would be a good day for a few games.

First game up was my Sisters of Battle against Drunkens Orcs. He took about 11 Ard Boys and 4 Lootas. I had 16Sisters with one equipped with a Melta Gun and one with a Heavy Flamer. We set up a 4'x4' board with a Imperial supply depot on it. Here are a few shots from the game.

Here is a overall shot of the board, with the Sisters ready to take control of the Depot with the O'rcs in the trees.

The Orcs advance and the Sisters take up guarding positions in the Depot.

The Orc's make a break for the Depot unaware of the danger within.

But the Sister's are ready for the advancing Orc's.

A second squad sweeps around a flank to clear it of foul Orc's.

While some of the Orc's creep closer trying to ambush the Sisters.

Orc's jump out to make their attack.

But the Sisters make short work of the foul green skins and clear the depot.

I was able to break Drunken's Orc's pretty quickly with bolter fire. Thanks to the lack of shooting ability of the Orc's I only lost three Sisters out of 16. Overall it was a good game and the Kill team mission played very well.

So after a quick lunch at Filabertos, Drunken decide to play against my Son using Imperial Guard. My Son took a ten man squad of Veterans with a Grenade Launcher, Heavy Flamer and a Melta Gun. He also took a 10 man Penal Legion squad that were gunslingers. We decided that the guardsmen were taking over the watch from the Sisters.

Needless to say the Orc's made quick work of the poor Imperial Guardsmen sent to guard the Depot. My son had a blast and so did Drunkensamurai.

So we got in two games of Kill Teams and they were both a blast. While playing I could see how this one mission could be a great way to get folks into new armies since it only takes a few figures to play. I can tell you that this will be hitting the table again.

By the way I was going to e-mail these pictures to Drunkensamurai to post over on his blog. But my e-mail service was acting up, so I decided to post them here, sorry Rob, but at least we have a new post here.

TK