Necromunda - Sump City Showdown Session #2 - The Hunt for the Great White One!

It's been a bit of a rough patch over the last month or so, with a death in the family and huge deadlines and drifting piles of work eating up almost all of my hobby time. That said, we did manage to get some Necromunda in here and there and I figured it was high time to get at least something up on the blog this month...

The second session of the Sump City Showdown in late October included one of my favorite scenarios from the 1st edition, The Hunt for the Great White One! A group of hunters sets out on skiffs across the great gunk sea in a bid to kill and collect the lucrative gemmed eyes of the monstrous sump spiders.

The sump spiders all got cards which were shuffled into a deck, with the Great White One being added in the bottom half of the cards. Each turn a few more spiders would be drawn, with the players never quite knowing when the mother of all spiders would erupt from the gunk and start wreaking havoc!

 

The table was primarily covered in gunk, with a few small islands and a couple buildings to offer refuge. It being around Halloween, there was plenty of fake spider webbing, which added to the theme nicely.

 

The players got stuck in straight away, firing a few desultory shots at each other before the spiders became a much larger threat and the group found themselves working together (mostly) to survive!

 

Before too long however, the Great White One arrived and began taking revenge on the hunters!

What started as a nice hunt turned into a rout rather quickly, with the various gangs doing their best to escape of the table edges with their loot before being dragged to the bottom of the sump by the wicked talons and fangs of the mighty spider queen! All in all a very fun scenario!

 

As per the usual, I set up a few other tables for gangs to fight over, and actually managed to play a few games myself! In the previous campaign I was solely acting as the arbitrator so never got to actually play. Of course, that means I'm not getting as many pictures as I would otherwise like...

A recurring theme in our recent games have been gangers plummeting to their deaths (or at least to their horribly lasting injuries), and this table was no exception. Could be argued that this scenario should have been called "It's raining men". Hah!

 

A little tunnel skirmish between the Council of Crows and PT Barnacle's Scavvy Cavalcade turned into an utter rout for the Tzeentch cult. When there's a dozen or more plague zombies, scalies and mutants bearing down on you, even the Changer of the Ways suggests running for your lives!

We just ran another session this past weekend but I still need to go through and collate the pictures, and in the meantime I'm putting together the plans for the December session, wherein the underhivers will be celebrating Fistmas!

DreadTober 2019 Week 4 - To Done!

Got all the little final detailing done on the Contemptor Achillus over the weekend, just in time to hit the finish line for DreadTober! Without further ado, some pics!

  

All in all a rather fun dreadnought to paint up, and has me rather excited to get back to the rest of the Custodes in the force as a change of pace from all the Necromunda going on behind the scenes. Reminds me, I gotta get all the pics from last session sorted out and posted...

Looking forward to seeing all the other awesome entries for this year's DreadTober? Head on over and check 'em out at https://dreadtober.blogspot.com/ - The final post for this year goes up on the 31st!

DreadTober 2019 Week 3 - Nearing the finish line!

DreadTober stomps ever onward, with big metal feet! Tons of great progress from the various participants to be seen at the main DreadTober blog - Go check 'em out!

While I've been beavering away on more Necromunda behind the scenes, I have gotten quite a bit of work done on the Contemptor Achillus, and it's almost complete (and essentially table ready now)!

Did some more targeted shading and highlights on the gold, cleaned up the greaves and shoulders, and laid in the iron/steel. Starting to look good now!

There's still some more work to be done here and there - Taking photos of your models always shows things that the naked eye misses. That said, it should be done in plenty of time for the end of the month!

Dreadtober Week 2 - Contemptor Achillus. all that glitters...

Dreadtober marches ever onwards and tons of good work is rolling in from across the blogosphere and beyond!

Started off by laying in bronze and brass and red to block out the various sections of the dread.

From there it's a bunch of drybrushing, washes and re-drybrushing in glorious gold, shining gold, and reikland fleshshade. Starting to look more Custode-y now!

That's the lions share of the work done, now on to detailing! Check out the other awesome entries on the DreadTober blog as well!

DreadTober Week 1 - Legio Custodes Contemptor-Achillus Built!

It is now October 1st, which means it's time for...

DreadTober! As usual it's time to dive in and build out some big stompy death machines - If you're interested in participating, click the banner above to be taken to the DreadTober blog and sign up for the fun!

I am slowly working towards a Legio Custodes force for a Burning of Prospero game being organized for Adepticon 2020 (so I have some time), so I figured now was a good time to get cracking on the Contemptor-Achillus that is part of the force!

  

Like all of Forge World's contemptors, the model has a metric ton of articulation points, and was a joy to build! Rather happy with how the arms holding the glaive turned out, though there was more than a little swearing while attempting to line everything up in a realistic manner. Rather looking forward to getting some paint on it over the next few weeks!

Dreadtober 2019!

Just a quick hit today - It's almost that time of year, the temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing and the Tech Priests are awakening their charges from their long slumber!

That's right - It's time for Dreadtober! Head on over to dreadtober.blogspot.com for details, I'll be collating folks efforts over the month of October and have a place for everyone's favorite big stompy death machines to show off!

Necromunda - Downhive Dispatch #5: Down Among The Dead Men

Over the last few sessions, The Down and Out In Dust Falls campaign was showing the cracks in the rules we were using, so we agreed to wrap it up at session five with the dramatic finale scenario "Down Among The Dead Men".  Over the course of the campaign there was a growing influx of plague zombies, and the trickle has become a flood! Down in the depths of the Abyss, Karloth Valois  and his hordes were stirring and the time had come for him to rise up and destroy Dust Falls!

The scene opened at the precinct house of the local Enforcers, where several gangers had been locked up in the iso-cubes for various infractions the previous evening. A pair of enforcers released the gangers, explaining there was another plague zombie incursion and in exchange for help dealing with the infestation, their misdemeanors would be overlooked.

Unbeknownst to the gangers and enforcers, Karloth Valois himself was already walking the streets of Dust Falls! Represented by a handful of 'blips', only once a ganger laid eyes on one of the objective markers would it be revealed whether it was the zombie master or merely a distraction...

The Enforcers led the way out of the precinct house, instructing the fastest of the ex-prisoners to reach the broadcast tower atop the blockhouse to call for reinforcements.

Without fear, the Enforcers strode out to meet the slavering menace...

Full of confidence, the pathetic zeds stood no chance against the mailed fist of Lord Helmawr.

...Right?

...Well, perhaps not. With a scream and some rather unpleasant squelching noises, the two Enforcers were horribly devoured!

Each gang's reinforcements began to arrive, and the canny Van Saars technicians had managed to develop an anti-zombie concoction that, when added to the two atmospherics processors would stop their advances. The devices were heavy and awkward however, and required two gangers to carry if they wished to move at speed. An impromptu alliance was formed and the first of two canisters set off for the first processor.

Further reinforcments arrived, bearing the second canister, and a stronger defense began to come together.

No time to lose, as further zombies came shambling out of the darkness!

The first runner team encountered a bit of trouble on their way, but the forces of house Cawdor provided covering fire.

Ever more zombies arrived and began converging on the precinct house from the north!

A more active offense was decided upon, and the various gang reinforcments started to move out to strike down the incoming waves.

More teamwork between gangs that had been at each other's throats just days before, the durability of the shield-carrying Van Saar and the lethal swordplay of the Cawdor saw numerous zombies meet their end.

...Only to have their numbers replaced as another, larger wave of zombies appeared!

And another horde spewed forth from the depths to the east!

With the atmosphere processor nearly surrounded, it would take some fancy footwork and coordination for the canister team to make it through...

With the Cawdor Ambot finally kicked over into attack mode, the now-bolstered defenders moved out to defend the second runner team.

...While the first team juked left and then right, drawing some of the zombies away and opening a path to the processor.

Finally Karloth was revealed! The cry went up and many of the defenders began converging on his location, eager to fell the foul necromancer.

The Cawdor Ambot pounded forward, mincing and mashing zombies, and spraying viscera in all directions. The cult haruspex would later comment that the flung entrails showed the favor of the Emperor in their endeavor and it was at this point the tide turned against the forces of darkness. More grounded observers suggested that's generally what happens when a mining robot uses its tunneling claws on people.

On the eastern quadrant, the first runner team engaged in a full sprint, weaving their way through the slavering zombies...

...And in a last-ditch effort managed to deploy the device and feed the anti-toxin into the processor, which halted the endless flow of zombies.

However, their heroics would only be celebrated posthumously as the surrounding horde fell upon them in a grisly feast!

With the loss of reinforcements to the east, Karloth gathered his remaining forces for a last-ditch assault!

Which broke upon the stalwart defenses of the gangs! Volley fire and mechanical death tore into the ravening zombies, devastating their numbers.

Karloth Valois attempted to flee the whirring blades of the Ambot and the questing gunfire...

Only to find himself squarely in the crosshairs of a rad-cannon from across the table and finished off by the second runner team!

With that, the zombies reverted to their usual mindless selves and were easily dispatched, and the citizens of Dust Falls were safe once more! Of course, when the zombies had finally been put down and people began cleaning up the area, Karloth's body was nowhere to be found...

All in all it was a very successful campaign and we all had a blast! There was a bit of attrition which is to be expected, and there were definitely some rules tweaks that were discussed to make the next campaign even better! Speaking of, the first session of the Sump City Showdown begins next weekend, should be a good time!