Witcher's Fatal Blow

Geralt was well advised not to enter these monster infested ruins alone. But once he heard that his good friend Triss Merigold went there searching for some herb for her potions, nothing could stop him from following her. It is true, Triss is one of the mightiest wizards in the realm, but when the monsters are around, even the member of The Circle might need a help from a witcher.

This game is set in the world of witchers, created by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. If you are not familiar with the books, you might know this world from the two successful video games of the same name.

The mechanic for the game is taken from Deano C. Ware's book A Fatal Blow. This game is card driven in such a way that it opens great possibilities for solo play, with additional random elements generated by Mythic GM emulator.
Witcher Geralt is a Hero (5 cards).
Attack 9, Defence 8, Accuracy 7, Strength 3, Initiative 5, Will 10, Discipline 10, Strikes 1, Wounds 6, Size 2. He is armed with Katana, Long Knife and Chain mail armor.

Two monsters roam the ruins.
Giant scorpion
Monster, Att 10, Def 10, Stk 3, Wnd 5, Size 3.
Inherent armor 8, claws and sting with base armor piercing value of 4 and 4d6 damage.
Rat abomination
Monster, Att 8, Def 8, Str 10, Stk 3, Wnd 5, Size 4
No armor or weapon, uses fistfight rules.
First reviled card belongs to monsters.
Mythic GME: Wil scorpion act upon this card? 99. Extreme no. Abomination will act upon this card, and upon the next one as well.
Since double is rolled, unexpected event also happens. What? Divide suffering. Abomination uses it's first activation to perform a special action. It gives birth to a giant rat (same statistics as Dog in the book)!
New card for rat is added to the deck, so reshuffle is in order!
Monsters get the first card again, so this time abomination moves.
One of the witcher's cards is next, and he moves towards scorpion.
Then, monster's card is drawn again. This time GME decided that scorpion will act.
GME: Will scorpion charge? Extreme yes! Scorpion will charge in this turn, and use next monster card to attack again!
Scorpion has 3 strikes, one of them scored 1, which means that Geralt will have an opening in scorpion's defense if he manages to survive to use it. Remaining 2 strikes scored a hit, but Witcher's armor managed to deflect one of them. The hit that penetrated armor scored 3 wounds, and that is half of Geralt's total number, so our hero will fight under severe penalty from now on!
One of the Geralt's cards turned next. With all penalties, he needed 14+ on d20 to score a hit with both katana and knife, and he scored 15 and 18! 2 hits!
Scorpion needed 8+ on d20 to save katana blow, and it rolled natural 8. Then, it needed 7+ to deflect knife attack, and it rolled.......NATURAL 7! More often then not I think my dice are playing jokes on me...
Another witcher's card came out, and Geralt used it to move to monster's side.
Hero is lucky and gets another chance, but both of it's attacks misses!
And the next card is....... Hero card again! Forth in a row!
Geralt attacks, knife misses but his katana hits the target. Scorpion rolls low for the armor, and with side attack Geralt gets the chance to roll 5 d6 for wounds. He scores one 5 and 2 times 6, that makes a total of 5 wounds, just enough to put scorpion out of action!
Scorpion cards are removed from the deck, and cards are reshuffled again.
After some movement, Geralt tried to charge abomination but failed. Abomination counter charged, but all it's hit were deflected from witcher's armor. It turned out that fist fighting monster, even size 4 with strength 10, has little chance against well armored hero, and Geralt quickly eliminated abomination.
Giant rat, left alone, had no chance against our hero, and was killed with one precise blow.
After the area was secured, Geralt searched the ruins looking for Triss. He found evidence of her presence here, but all signs showed that she took what she needed and left.
Witcher returned to the bodies of the monsters and collected all trophies he could think of. Somewhere in the world there will probably be someone who will pay good money for that....

All roads lead to Rome

Twenty years ago, senator Ricinus Alexandrinus left Rome, took his family and all his wealth and settled at the north fringe of the empire. He hoped that this move will keep his son Rattus far away from the decadency of the capitol.
But when old Ricinus died, young Rattus Alexandrinus quickly managed to spend all of his father’s hard earned money on easy life. Left without means to support himself, Rattus Alexandrinus decided to start gladiator school, seeing this as a quick way to fame and fortune, and maybe his ticket back to Rome.
First gladiator Rattus Alexandrinus bought was quick and decently trained, although not very strong thraex Amniocentesix the Gaul (Savvy 3, Strength 2, Speed 5). To test his new gladiator’s skills, Rattus organized for Amniocentesix friendly duel against known muscleman murmillo Amebius Monocellius (Savvy 3, Strength 4, Speed 2).The game is played using second edition of 2 Hour Wargames Red Sand Blue Sky gladiator rules.

Gladiators enter the arena and approach each other.
Thraex gets a chance to attack murmillo unshielded side, but misses. He attacks again, but this time he only hits opponents shield. Amebius is pushed out of the center of the arena.
Amniocentesix approaches his enemy and attacks again, this time head on. Finally, lady luck looked at the Gaul and he hits murmillo's sword arm.
Wounded gladiator drops shield and switches the sword into his offhand, but his right hand is heavily bleeding now. Also, he is now pushed close to the arena wall.
Gaul approaches and attacks, but he is too confident, and Amebius gets the chance to counterattack! But murmillo does it hastily, and runs pass the Thraex, who got the chance to attack and score a hit on Amebius belly. Murmillo falls to the ground.
But Amebius is strong gladiator. He stands up, and, bleeding heavily, pushes everything he got into one final clash. But he is spent, and Gaul hits him again, this time taking all the strength from his left leg!
This is enough for Amebius, and he surrenders.Since Amebius finds himself in the center of arena, with belly wound and no strength at all, satisfied audience grants him mercy.

On a Way Back to the Unit

The Battle of Somosierra occurred November 30, 1808 in the Peninsular War, when a French army forced a passage through the Sierra de Guadarrama shielding Madrid.
At the Somosierra mountain pass, 60 miles north of Madrid, a heavily outnumbered Spanish detachment of conscripts and artillery under Benito de San Juan aimed to block Napoleon's advance on the Spanish capital. Napoleon overwhelmed the Spanish positions in a combined arms attack, charging the Polish Chevau-légers at the Spanish guns.
When superior officer Kozietulski lost his horse after taking the first battery, charge was led by young Lt. Andrzej Niegolewski. At third battery Niegolewski was thrown from his horse among the Spanish foot soldiers. He received nine wounds from bayonets and two carbine shots to the head.The complete action at Somosierra lasted only couple of minutes. After the victory was secured, commander of Napoleon’s guard Jean-Baptiste Bessières approached the young lieutenant, who managed to whisper: "Monseigneur, I’m dying, these are the guns I conquered. Tell Emperor about it!"

Late March of 1809 found Lt. Andrzej Niegolewski, now proud bearer of L'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, leaving hospital in Paris and returning to Spain to rejoin his unit (up to this moment all written is historical data. Real Andrzej Niegolewski died in 1857 in Poland. You can read more about him and Battle of Somosierra here. Everything further is gaming material.)

Lt. Niegolewski was leading group of other recovered soldiers including a horse grenadier, hussar, and a light infantry squad consisting of NCO, chasseur, voltigeur, and carabinier.
Somewhere along the road, they have encountered British patrol consisting of rifles officer with two riflemen, grenadier NCO with two grenadiers, light dragoon and a hussar.

Game was played using Song of Drums and Shakos ruleset. I was playing French while British were played by Lone Shako solo rules.
Initial deployment.French Horse grenadier charges. His charge is so terrifying that both British light cavalrymen run away from the table!But British foot grenadiers are not scared so easily. They stand their ground against overwhelming cavalry attack! Lieutenant Niegolewski wounded grenadier NCO, but remaining grenadiers managed to wound French hussar.
Finally, both Niegolewski and horse grenadier scored another wound, ending the stand of brave British grenadiers. The east part of the battlefield witnessed a lot of light infantry movement and several missed shots. At the end, firefight among the woods ended without wounded.
Once all British grenadiers were wounded, riflemen took the morale test, but all stood their ground. Finding himself with loaded rifles against unloaded French light troops, British officer called for Lieutenant Niegolewski and offered him his sword to avoid more bloodshed, which Polish officer gladly accepted.

What I learned from this game is that when facing enemy troops with fear special ability, you should keep your soldiers as far from table edge as possible. This was easy victory for me because I have deployed British troops badly. Both British light cavalrymen failed just one morale dice when confronted to Horse grenadier, but being close to table edge that was enough for them to leave the board. If they were closer to the middle of the table, they would just backed up, and that might make a lot of difference.

The Image World - history arranged chronologically

In few earlier posts I have written reports from playing Lame Mage Microscope RPG. Reports are written in order of play, and might be difficult to follow. Therefore, here is the complete Image World history written in chronological order. Play examples are omitted, and some events are written in short to become clearer.

BIG PICTURE
Magical world raises, develops and comes to the edge of cataclysm.

CREATION (L)

○ Gods awaken into the world already created, but unshaped and bare (L).

○ Gods create image of the shaped world. World itself is not yet shaped, it is just the image to work by (L)

● As world started to shape, Imra, goddess of change, began to disagree with the image. She started to shape the world differently, according to her own vision, and everything she touched turned even more beautiful than the picture in the Image World. But the other gods were jealous at her successes, so they tricked and imprisoned her into the same Image World she hated, where nothing is real, time stands still and changes are impossible (D)

● Imra escapes from the Image World (D).

○ Imra stole Image World from other Gods, but fell in love with the very thing she once hated and could not destroy it. (L)

○ After making agreement with Imra, all gods left creation and settled inside the Image World. (L)


GODLESS TIMES (D)

○ Each god took a realm inside the Image World as his or hers home. Doing that, they have become gods of the race who lived in parallel realm in created world. After death, souls of people moved from creation to realm of their god in Image World. Only Imra, wanting constant change, refused to settle in one realm. (L)

● War of races. Unaware that their gods left the creation, mortal races started holly war for supremacy, fighting in the names of their gods. (D)

● Poisoned by the war, some souls continued fighting even in the afterlife in the Image World. For them, gods separated a desolate part of the Image World called Hell, where war never stops. (D)

○ Gods start hearing prayers of the mortal races again. (L)

○ Gods requesting sacrifices. Gods agree to end godless times if mortals start making sacrifices to them. Each thing or being destroyed in creation gains its image (called soul) in Image World, and the god with the most souls is the most powerful. (L)

○ No god will ever accept sacrifice of a living being. (L)


AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (L)

○ Imagists, order of scientist and mages of all races dedicated to discovering secrets of the Image World rise to power. (L)

● Mixed races were never part of Image World but started to appear in the real history. First such creature was born from elf father and human mother (D)

● Since they are not part of the Image World, souls of half-breeds do not come to the Image World after their owners die in creation. Only Imra may know what happens to the souls of half-breeds, but if she does, she will not tell. (D)

○ Imra, who until that moment had no priesthood in creation, makes half-breeds her chosen people. First temple to Imra built in half-breed town of Gondwalk, and first priests blessed by goddess. (L)

○ Heraha, high priestess of Olhuna, elf goddess of nature, child birth and health, while praying on the twentieth day of spring, received vision of the garden in the Image World, where all plants had their healing properties written in front of them. Grateful for the new knowledge, Heraha order that great festival should be celebrated each year on the twentieth day of spring, which will from this moment on be known as the Day of the healing herbs. (L)


CATACLYSM (D)

● Time has come when so many sacrifices were made to gods and so many souls moved to the Image World, that it become overpopulated. Outer cover of the Image World started bursting in weak places. Restless souls used these holes to return into the created world as the undead. (D)

● Some gods, led by Imra, grew tired of living inside the Image World. They diverted attention of other gods so that they did not notice bursting until it was too late. (D)

● Undead escaped from Hell united in desert realm of created world and conquered most populated areas, turning conquered people into new undead. (D)

● Some of the restless souls who escaped from Hell when first burst appear on Image World were great scholars and mages. They created a magical device that was able to further break outer cover of Image World and forcefully return some souls into created world. Lesser souls become slaves of powerful leaches, but there are souls of great heroes and scholars from past who kept their free will. Many of them are secretly or publicly opposing undead horde, and support the struggle against it, hoping that once when the cataclysm ends, they will be able to return into afterlife. (D)

● Imra gave a terrible power to her chosen half-breeds. For when half-breed dies, he or she will take all who died at the same day and at the same location to the place of no return, where souls of all half-breeds go after death. By sacrificing themselves, mixed races can slowly lower the number and power of the undead horde. The battle for creation has begun. (D)

END of HISTORY. Present starts from here.

Image Word history, final chapters

This is a forth, and last chapter of mine solo Microscope / Mythic game called Image World.
Part 1 can be found here and Part 3 can be found here.
The world I created turned out to be much darker then I originally planed, but that is the very beauty of using MGE. You never know where it will take you.
So, history ends and present begins. I will return to this world in the future, for I hope to make a solo RPG campaign in it, and then I will see if some of my characters will be able to end Undead cataclysm, or will creation be doomed to suffer under the restless souls forever.

TURN 3
Romantic as lance (GME: Oppress Inside) focus on how gods of the Image World influence Image World itself.

Romantic
1. (GME: Harm Wishes). This is an event in Cataclysm period. Time has come when so many sacrifices were made to gods and so many souls moved to the Image World, that it become overpopulated. Outer cover of the Image World started bursting in weak places. Restless souls used these holes to return into the created world as the undead. (D)

2. Will Romantic made a scene inside this event? Extreme yes, it will be dictated scene.
QUESTION (GME: Divide Inside). Why the gods didn’t unite to stop the bursting?
ANSWER (GME: Lie Attention). Was it Imra? Yes. Some gods, led by Imra, grew tired of living inside the Image World. They diverted attention of other gods so that they did not notice bursting until it was too late. (D)

Me:
This will be event in Godless times, before War of races. Each god took a realm inside the Image World as his or hers home. Doing that, they have become gods of the race who lived in parallel realm in created world. Only Imra, wanting constant change, refused to settle in one realm. (L)

Warrior
(GME: Oppress Military). This will be event in Godless times, after the war of races started. Poisoned by the war, some souls continued fighting even in the afterlife in the Image World. For them, gods separated a desolate part of the Image World called Hell, where war never stops. (D)

Romantic
1. (GME: Dominate Misfortune). This is also an event in Cataclysm. Undead escaped from Hell united in desert realm of created world and conquered most populated areas, turning conquered people into undead. (D)

2. Scene:
QUESTION (GME: Delay Elements). The Undead managed to conquer most of the world but not all of it. What stopped Undead from conquering the remaining realms?
DESCRIPTION (GME: Pursue Hope). Group of refugees is traveling to the safe-heaven.
PICKING CHARACTERSRequired: at least one refugee is required.

Warrior (UNE: mindless preacher, pursue valor, encourage distress), warrior will play time in the form of lich wizard, commander of the undead army that hunts refugees.

I will play Kundru, offspring of orc and dwarf, not very talkative female guide of refugee group.

Romantic (UNE: touchy expert, join discrimination, patronize literature) R will play Achuluchi, elf imagist scholar, former member of anti-mixed races association. Achuluch is nervous that half-breed is leading the group to safe-heaven. He has little knowledge of created world, since he spent his life between old books, researching history of Image World.

W (GME: Dominate the physical) Undead hordes are getting closer to the refugees with every moment. It seems that they can move faster than the refugee caravan.

Me: Kundru constantly moves to the front to show the way, then to the back to check how far the horde is. Every now and then she checks the small vial she carries at her waist.
R (GME: Carelessness illusions) While passing by him, Achuluch says to Kundru: If that flask you have can save us, you better use it now, or those undead will catch us!

W (GME: Carry balance) Undead horde is not attacking yet. It seems as if they are moving with same speed as caravan, keeping constant distance for a while.
Me: Kundru pays no attention to scholar, and continues to lead the group, regularly checking if vial is safe and in position.

R (GME: Heal energy) Achuluch is persistent and asks Kundru: Is this some sort of holly water that can destroy souls of undead or what?

W (GME: Abuse rumor). Suddenly, very persuasive voice coming from everywhere started calling caravan members by name: Come and join us, and you will live forever! Why should your soul suffer in the hells of Image World? Old order is destroyed; join the new one and your life will never end! Some of caravan members look like they will succumb to the voice and caravan starts to move even slower.

Me: Kunduru opens the vial and drinks it. Then speaks to Achuluch: “It is a poison that will kill me in one hour. I will not be taken alive by the undead. It is too late; we will not reach safe heaven. Lich voice will stop us. One way or another, we will all die today. But we will take with us as many undead as possible.” Then, screaming of battle cry or a spell that awakened all succumbed to the lich voice, Kunduru turned around and attacked undead, sending many of restless souls on the road towards image world for a second time. Many caravan members followed her desperate act.

R (MGE: Adversity misfortune) Achuluch tries to escape from the battle and hide, but strayed arrow hits him in the back, and he dies.

W (MGE: Imitate technology) Once all members of the caravan are dead, lich wizard brings to battlefield a giant magical device, that would tear the fabric of Image World even further and return to the creation souls of all who died today.

Me: But on the road to Image World, all souls found there, caravan members and restless souls alike, are unstoppably drawn to Kunduru. In otherworldly language, her soul called to them saying: “By the power given to me by mighty goddess Imra, follow me, for I am your guide! I will not take you to the Image World, but there where all souls of half-breeds go. And that is a place from where there is no return!”

ANSWER: Imra gave a terrible power to her chosen half-breeds. For when half-breed dies, he or she will take all who died at the same day and at the same location to the place of no return, where souls of all half-breeds go after death. By sacrificing themselves, mixed races can slowly lower the number and power of the undead horde. (D)

LEGACY PHASE
W – Chose legacy (MGE: Desert Pleasures) W will explore my legacy about souls in the image world. He makes dictated scene with
QUESTION: Why did so many souls left the Image World heaven and returned to creation?
DESCRIPTION (MGE: Transform Business)Some of the restless souls who escaped from Hell when first burst appear on Image World were great scholars and mages. They created a magical device that was able to further break outer cover of Image World and forcefully return some souls into created world. Lesser souls become slaves of powerful leaches, but there are souls of great heroes and scholars from past who kept their free will. Many of them are secretly or publicly opposing undead horde, and support the struggle against it, hoping that once when the cataclysm ends, they will be able to return into afterlife.

ANSWER: Many souls were returned to creation unwillingly, some of them fight against undead horde. (D)

Peninsular War British light cavalry 1:72 conversion

At the moment, there is no company producing British light cavalry models in Tarleton helmets for early Napoleonic period, so if you want to play campaign in Peninsular war, you have to make one yourself.
In this case, I used horses, legs and swords from Italeri/Esci British (Crimean war) hussars and upper bodies from Esci British artillery or HaT British rocket sets.
Here are officer and light dragoon in process.And here is one finished and painted trooper.

Back to painting board: 1:72 Napoleonics

After spending almost two months boardgaming, I needed some change. So, I decided to return to painting.
This time my brushes turned towards my recent purchase from HaT, especially their Peninsular war Napoleonic range.
So, here they are:
1. British Peninsular war infantry, officer, center company soldier, center company NCO and light company NCO (HaT 8186).
2. British Heavy dragoon (HaT 8033) and French Horse grenadier (HaT 8013)