Friday, September 28, 2012

Two Quick After Action Reports



Two quick After Action Reports of Strange Aeons. I forgot my camera but Ryan was able to snap a few good shots with his phone. Since this was Ryan’s first two games and I had only played two solo games this was a first player on player for me and I had not really played the rules in a few months. These was just test games and not official games as of yet.

I gave Ryan a few options and he went with a gun bunny style Threshold team:
1: Character, Lighting Fast, Bolt Action Rifle
2: Agent: Tommy gun, Dex Decrease to 4+
3: Agent: Double Barreled Shotgun, Heroic

I pulled a few random Lurkers going with:
Cult leader: Tommy gun
Maniac

Our first game was “Escape into Danger!”

The game ended in about 4 turns (maybe 5 at most)…by turn 3 the Cult leader was shot by the bolt action rifle Character and taken out of action. The Maniac tried to charge but was short. 3 guns vs. 1 Maniac=red mist. In retrospect I should have taken close combat or shorter (and cheaper) Lurkers and stayed hidden instead of being aggressive. That and I should never well arm my opponent!

We had a few errors in the first game and I am working to compile some questions to post on the Strange Aeons board on Lead Adventure forums later.

I gave examples to Ryan about adding skills and boosted his team to 18 points with three BP bumps (1 to each model). He took Dex Decrease and Heroic again for the opposite Agents and Heroic on the Character.

We went for one more game and rolled “Retrieve the Artifacts”.

I took the following Lurkers:
Mummy
Conglomerate
Cultist with 22
Cultist with 22

Ryan quickly went to mid table, got high ground for this character and sniped one of my cultists trying to move a box back to his edge. The other cultist stayed hidden watching the other box. The Mummy and Conglomerate rolled forward to stalk the Threshold team.

Well, this turned into a cat and mouse game,  Ryan had a few shots on the pair but nothing could hurt their Con of 7 his dice was fizzing out again. I beat down his entire team after pulling a “Benny Hill” chasing him all over the board. Towards the end Bryan managed to hit one box and opened it to find NOTHING! Wow, that sucks!
Ryan loved his introduction to Strange Aeons and like me is a fan of Lovecraft style stuff and will no doubt pick up again and run a campaign set of games. We may try to find a few others that may want to play as well. Just have to finish painting a few figures first to get caught up.

Again we had a few errors and questions that I need to check into once I look at my FAQ later on.

Oh and for those that do not know who Benny Hill is:


Here are a few pictures from the game:

Deployment for the second game.

Threshold Advances

Threshold takes aim at the Lurkers



The agents hide behind cover!

Let's get'em boys!

Lurkers from the first game.

Carnage at the end of the 1st game. Both Lurkers dead.

Another shot.

Lurkers deployed, no the wolf was not part of the group.



12 comments:

  1. One major thing about the after-game sequence: everyone can add new gear or weapons but only one of your surviving Threshold models can gain a skill.

    As to playing as Lurkers, in the early games I recommend outnumbering the Threshold with shooty cultists and maybe one or two close-combat models tops. You can force the agents to keep their heads down (even with a bunch of cheap 1pt cultists armed with .22 pistols) while you sneak your claws and knives in closer. If you outnumber them, and their shooting is 4 or 5...you'll get in some nice CC attacks easily enough.

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    1. Good catch, I did explain about gear and rearming. Missed the one surviving Threshold models gain a skill. Need to reread and point out.

      Yea, this was just test games and for fun.

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  2. That is one fucked-up looking Santa Claus. Or is that...Santa Claws?

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    1. More like Santa Psycho as he is a Maniac or Degenerate pretty much in the game. They did a Christmas game with children miniatures that he and others are trying to kidnap and the Threshold team has to stop them.

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  3. That cemetery plot, is that homemade or a piece for sale somewhere?

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    1. That is old GW scenery that I got when I worked for GW some years ago. They no longer make the item but sometimes you can find it for sale or trade at Bartertown, Ebay or Lead Adventure Forums.

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  4. Nice AAR. The Santa psycho is creepy looking

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    1. Yea, he turned out to be a nice figure and painted up well. Sad his first outing went badly!

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  5. I can't see any scantily clad ladies in stockings, or chaps in a running pose with their pants around their ankles so it can't have been too Benny Hill!

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    1. That happened later, pictures was not taken to protect the identity of the miniatures involved.

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  6. I have to say, after only a few games, I am hooked. I will admit the mechanics are a bit simplistic, but the game makes up for it with lots of style.

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    1. Well, there is more flavor we can add to the game that can make it more complicated in mechanics...such as relics, spells, the Necronomicon, animals, experimental gear, special agents and missions (using map parts) and in a teaser by Uncle Mike is Shocking Tales #3 with Psychic powers! Yea!

      Plus with some of the rules oversights we did are corrected, the game is going to play much faster....

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