The Cami-Paign Player Packet

Well I believe that I'm to the point where I can call this done, save for some Q&A and picking it apart. I've completed the player section of my campaign rules. Woot! I'm still tweaking the race specific section, and those will be included in each player's personal packet, customized for their own race/army. 

Next, I have to create some star systems. I'm pretty amazing like that.

Without further blabbing - 'Ere we go!!

Misdirected Creativity.

I had every intention to participate in Nanowrimo, but with my own twist. I was going to make a concerted effort to write here and over on The War Dolls rather than a novel (as per the Nanowrimo guidelines). I got misdirected though. This is the story of how.

Battle Report: Planetstrike!

I like Planetstrike. I think it's my favorite of the 40k expansions so far. I haven't played in some time however, and with a big Apocalypse/Planetstrike campaign ending game coming, I felt like I needed a bit of a refresher. I thought I had the perfect recipie for a prequel campaign fight too, as my 'Forces of Disorder' general was going to be making a showing, and hopefully wanting to push some bugs for me. I only wanted to watch and coach as a rules refresher. Sadly my general didn't want to partake, so I broke out my Eldar. I also forgot to pack my camera today, so I have no visual evidence either. My Eldar opponent from last week's rematch was my opponent again this week, so we drafted 2500 point armies; he as attacker and I as defender. We did a simple Planetfall mission, 3 objectives. I simply forgot somehow that I could place some of my things in reserve, but fortunately had enough tanks to load everyone except my Autarch, Farseer Elorrah (both on bikes) and my wraithlord into one or into a Bastion. Firestorms didn't do much, both my jetbikes were hit but saved by invulnerable saves, I think two of the falcons were 'can't shoot' results. 3 Fire Prisms, 4 Vypers and 2 squads of Fire Dragons showed up first turn, and though one of the FD squads was shot down with interceptor fire, 2 of my bastions were blown up. Both my Dark Reapers and Pathfinders were inside, with both of my strategems attatched, now gone and useless. One wave serpent (Dire Avengers) got immobilized. Striking scorpions showed up too, but were misplaced landing near the wraithlord (*whistles innocently*). However the wraithlord was distracted when an Avatar was dropped from orbit right beside all 3 falcons.

It was a very fun game, and it's very late so here are the highlights...

• Banshees won the scorpion v. banshee argument. The scorpions have to be painted the next time they show up if they want a rematch. However banshee on banshee is the worst sort of fight!
• Avatars can take a crap-load of fire (took 3 wounds), but they just make Pathfinders mad, and they know kung-fu. (killed 3 of mine, but doom got his last wound in the end)
• Fuegan apparently brought a cap gun to this battle. His axe worked fine though, if a tank was already on the ground. He did take out my wraithguard early on to his credit.
• Eldrad does whatever he wants.
• Fire dragons raining from the sky are not healthy for bastions, or much else for that matter.
• Tank shock works very well for my opponent. Those watergun wielding pathfinders were sent running off board.
• Wraithsight pops up at the WORST times.
• My Dark Reaper exarch can survive a Fire prism blast, but not a shuriken catapult??
• My Autarch showed the shining spears that there were entirely too many missles in her reaper launcher.

All in all a great game! I'm hoping to get another in before the big game.

Terrain - Terra's Virtuous Wrath

I have an Apocalypse game coming. It's the culmination of the map based campaign I ran at our local gaming store (R.I.P.) last year. Not having a common venue has been detrimental on getting the original players back together for the last few turns and the endgame. I decided to advance things a bit and go ahead and narrate it a little so that we (perhaps just I) can have some closure on it. I even wrote a little fiction to that end. I am thinking of starting a 2nd campaign, but instead have it narrative rather than map-based. Before I can do this though, I need to have the first one out of my hair.

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In this final gambit, there is going to be a defense laser involved. I've always wanted to build one, and this was the 'oomph' to get it done. So despite being distracted by WarGames con photos (I found ProdigalSon's army there!) I managed to get the main gun bashed out. Above is the beginning stage. I wanted a rounded turret something similar to the USS Monitor and had originally planned to carve out 3" worth of the pink foam. Forgetting that it was 1/2" thick and not 1" I soon became dismayed. I don't freehand cut circles very well, and end up with those rough edges and now I was looking at twice as much work. I had planned on sanding the edges down smooth once I had them glued together but my foam supply wasn't going to go the distance (not to mention my fingers from all that cutting). I thought for a moment and came up with an alternate plan that would solve the smoothness and supply issue. I wound up using card stock to make the outer edge laid over a skeletal framework as seen here. This doubly serves the purpose of making the turret lighter, because I had every intention of making it swivel. I mean, what good is a defense laser if you can't shoot behind you!

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I am finding great success with the tops of containers. Even my swivel mount will be using the top of a shave gel can. I've cut a hole in the bottom of the turret, and will attatch the plastic top to the building and presto. It's large enough to keep the turret from toppling over, yet the

smooth plastic will allow it to slide. I haven't fully attatched the gun yet, since I'm trying to figure out how to make it able to go up and down with enough friction to keep it in whichever position it's placed in. I considered a counterweight, but I'd have to have a lot of weight in the end of it in order to make it work. I want to be able to carry the terrain for goodness sakes!!

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Well that's all for now, I'll be posting more as it comes along.

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Oh and a special shout out to all my new followers! Thank you for visiting!

Fiction - The Siege of Vardash III

It seemed like years since the occupation had begun. At first it seemed like a few malcontents dissatisfied with Imperial rule, then some spoke out, later, it was government edicts that didn't make any sense. Now, huddled in the basement of a ruined building, things looked dire. And very real. Slowly, Port Munio had become haven to heretics or mutants or ... something. Last week when the first of them emerged from the sewers and dark places, all hunched and some sporting a third arm, almost all of them with talons and beady eyes, that's when the riots began. They seemed to be in charge, and the towns people followed them almost robotically, even those in government were no better than the lowliest worker. Those not under this mind control or whatever it was, were in hiding, in places like this. It's possible this was the last packet of survivors. In the last few hours, packs of ... things, six limbed creatures with slavering jaws had been wandering the streets, helping to hunt down people who had not been placed under control.
There were perhaps 60 or 70 people in the basement, the door barricaded which resounded with a rythmic thumping as forces outside pounded at it with some random deritus. One man sat at a small table in the corner with a transmitter of some sort, futilly calling for help that wasn't coming. Another man sat, his child held close in one hand, hugging a makeshift grenade in the other. Whether he meant it for himself or the enemy was unknown. Men, women and childen wept openly, some tried to hide it, as if there were some dignity left for them here. Maybe a half dozen people had second hand lasguns, for what good they would do. There was a sound of distant scrabbling, as if something were burrowing. They didn't know where it came from, and had found it was near impossible to acertain with so many people in such a small space. They all knew the end was near, hope had left Vardash III long ago.
Far above in space floated two Imperial vessels. One, the Hammerhand, carried a compliment of Imperial Fist marines, the other, Voice of Redemption and it's accompanying smaller vessels home to an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus. Onboard both ships, preparations were underway to take to the planets' surface. The subject of a 4 day search had just been located. A shuttle known to have been carrying a Chaos Lord, his retinue and some device that xenos notes had revealed to be "devestating on a planetary scale". Nearly too late, sensors picked up a large mass moving towards the planet. Too slow to be a meteor, it was to large to be something constructed, deeper scans confrimed biomass, it was a Tyranid ship. Moving to intercept, both battleships spat fire into the bio-ship, which didn't fight back. The combined fire made quick work of the bloated ship and it ruptured and seemed to be bleeding droplets of ichor into space. Larger drops turned out to be mycetic spores spilling from the ship and entering the upper atmosphere of the planet. They continued downward until they were no longer reachable by scan. Attempts to fire upon the pods were mostly ineffectual. The ships reoriented themselves to their original orbit and began launching landing craft and drop pods. They would bring hope back to Vardash III.