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Well you can’t say its not overdue.
So come one come all to the TGI Friday DoW-athon. Pants optional, drunken gaming not.
After some recent misadventures, I’ve decided to revisit those Maids with the Grenades, the Skanks with the Tanks, the Sisters that want to get witch-yas, thats right, the Sisters of Battle.
Some hard fought lessons have taught me these biyatches are a lot tougher than they appear, let them tank up and they are almost as bad as Chaos
Brother Barnyard of the 103rd Assualt Squad, Chapter of the Emperor’s Forgotten Choir Boys: “Wait, What? A bloodthirster AND a Demon Prince? And and we get only get ONE Land Raider? …I think I feel the warp overtaking me…”
So what have I learnt about these svelte young handmaidens of Thine Divine Emperor Most Kinky? Lets think about this:
The Sisters of Battle
I won’t spend too much time discussing the basic units, instead I will consider some observations I’ve made playing SoB. Firstly, I have to say that SoB are resilient, very resilient. Perhaps even moreso than the vanilla boys (re: Space Marines). The Battle Sisters are a good standard unit that has a large squad size not unlike the chaos marines. Unlike marines and perhaps (to an extent) more like crons, you’ll need to be looking at tier two Retributor squads to bolster their heavy weaponry. Although only comparatively small in size, they still hold their own. You’ll also want at least one Squad of Seraphin. These jump-pack troops rely on ranged rather than melee, so they can be useful for harassing enemy melee units. They are also good to have with your main forces thanks to a periodic bonus they add to your troops.
A quick note, the SoB boss, the Canoness, is a pretty tough wench in her own right. She’ll hold her own even against the Orc boss, though you’ll want to have a squad of battle sisters to support her if the IG commander gets to you. If you are quick to tier three, you should pair her up with a squad of Sisters Repentia (Chainsaw Chicks).
There are two big points that I should probably make a note of. The first is that there is a big difference between anti-vehicle weapons and anti-infantry weapons. Unlike missile turrets, the anti-tank upgrade to the turrets (for example) is all but useless against infantry. This applies equally to the SoB tanks, so think carefully before upgrading them, you should consider what role you really want them to play in your battle force. The second thing I prolly need to mention is that there is a small amount of micro management you will need to keep ahead of so don’t mistake them for ‘chick marines’. They aren’t as labour intensive in the same sense as the Tau, but you will need to keep an eye on their special abilities. The SoB are very much reliant on each other, with special units or squads granting bonuses to the rest of the battle force.
Finally, try and get to the living saint and the penitent engines as fast as possible. There is a bit of a lull in the later tiers until you get the penitent engines where you could potentially be overwhelmed by dreadnoughts or other tough melee vehicles. This perhaps is a weakness for the SoB, while they are tough competitors, the relic may be more important for them than other armies.
So if you are playing against SoB, you’ll probably want to make sure you deny them any relic points, moreso than other armies. You don’t want an SoB opponent building up because they turtle almost as well as chaos. The living saint is also a tough competitor. While she is not as tough as other end-level units, her automatic resurrection can make her difficult to take down (and keep down). She does have a special attack unlike most Ultra-elite units, though its is on a very slow timer and is only really good against lower tier units if they happen to be in a straight line from her.
Anyway, thats all from me for now.
This adventure occured prior to the events of the campaign proper, while Deadweight and his merry band of drunkards were escorting Isley to his sister.
Never Travel Alone
Deadweight was fighting a hangover, and consequently, the urge to strangle his latest paycheck Isley who kept talking about how things would be under the rule of a good Eladrin dictator. It was only a matter of time before he took a swing at something, so perhaps it’s just as well that he looked up and saw a solitary reddish creature in the middle of the road in front of them.
It had a reptilian head and snarled at them, waving a spear clearly made for utility rather than beauty. Deadweight didn’t have to think twice. Looking back, he couldn’t remember actually charging the kobold, he just found himself in front of it screaming goblin curses and swinging his sword more to emphasize the curses than to actually cause damage. It was a comment about the kobold’s heritage containing goats that actually killed it. Deadweight had a sweet moment of peace in his mind before he realized what he had done. Kobolds aren’t particularly bright, and a kobold trap is easy to spot, but not so much when your head is pounding like a foundry.
Of course his friends ran up to … help him, but that just put them in the middle of a kobold ambush. They came from both sides of the road screetching in their own painful tongue. Perhaps they showed their foolishness however, when they targeted Giljew. Five kobolds surrounded him, but in their frenzy he was barely scratched. He slipped away before the kobolds could even trip over themselves.
Isley and Wang threw themselves into the kobolds coming from the Eastern side of the road. Each tried to out-do the other cutting through the kobolds as they appeared from the bushes. Giljew managed to catch them and found a more … appropriate place from which to exploit the naunces of battle.
As his head cleared, and his gut fell, Deadweight was surrounded by the kobolds who had just been given the slip by Giljew. He brought every goblin and halfling curse he could think of to punish the ears of his foes. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough. Deadweight fell, though for years latter he claimed it was from the drink, not the kobolds. Suddenly the fight had turned all messy.
Perhaps the most prudent of the group, Giljew kept a keen eye on the situation. He watched as the kobolds piled around them; He watched as Isley and Wang pulled every trick they could to tear through the kobold ranks; He watched as Wang tried to break away, only to be stabbed in the back; He watched as Isley made a heroic stand – forcing 5 kobolds to curse him for his seeming immortality; He watched Isley fall; He watched as he slowly snuck away until it was safe.
The kobolds didn’t hang around long, and Giljew came back to look after his wounded troupe. Chunks of flesh lay around Wang, it was difficult to tell whether they came from him, or from one of his victims. Isley’s clothes had been soiled, and would need a very good cleaning before he could be taken seriously in public. Deadweight was snoring.
Filed under: Uncategorized
…that turn into jellybeans
How does everyone feel about Friday? I have a meeting with the accountant (a real one) but I should be out of that by 3pm?
Filed under: Organized Event, games | Tags: 4th edition, Maptool, Robs Campaign
I’m good for a session tomorrow, but it would have to be between 11:30 and 3pm Australian Time. In addition, if I’m running it we are upgrading to the following software set:
Maptool 1.3.39
- It’s a development release and not a final release I know, but I’ve decided to upgrade for a few reasons.
- I can import tokens that other people have made for the monsters. Some of these come with macros already, and this saves me a LOT of time.
- Topology / Vision – I never really learnt these in 1.2, but the interface in 1.3 is intuitive enough that I’ve figured out how to do a few helpful things – like making walls you can’t see through.
- 4th Edition compatibility. It has lighting and stuff from 4th edition built right in.
Skype or Vent
I’m yet to get a Vent server up and running here, but I know it would be significantly less bandwidth for Isley if we used Vent. As I’m the only person in Japan however, it would probably be best if somebody else set up, or found a free, vent server.
If I do need to set it up here, I’ll try, but it might involve messing with the port forwarding on my router which is all in Japanese – kanji no less – and a bit tricky because of that.
MSN
I’m usually on MSN about half an hour before the actual session.
Tokens
I haven’t entered any stats into the character tokens, and I’m not sure I’ll get the chance too. If possible this is something you can work on before the session. Just open up Maptool and drag a picture in, then play with it. When you’re done you can right-click and save it, macros and all. I think.
I’ll put the server details up on MSN before the session as THEY HAVE CHANGED.
Any questions? Email them to ‘robs game mail 4t gmail.com’ (erase the spaces, and change the 4t to the ‘at’ sign).
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Tomorrow from about 10-6pm I am footloose and fancy free if there is a session on. That night I have some stuff on though.
Is anyone else free then? If I’m not DnDing I’ll be Tf2ing so its awn!
Otherwise I’ll do some work on the samurai RPG. btw if anyone has any good ideas for that let me know.
Filed under: The Web
For some reason the previous design had stopped working properly for me, so I’ve changed the website for the time being. If you have any problems, let me know!
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In May of 1997 a tyro publishing company entered the games market with the first edition of Twilight Imperium. Through good design and lucky timing it became a huge success. It was still years before the invasion of the german boardgame bonanza so the publishing company grew and released another game – Diskwars. With that out they could spare the resources to refine TI into its second edition. There had been a lot of suggestions from players around the world, and other niggling things that only really show up after a year or two of playtesting – they worked on these.
Then the Germans came with their quick to play games. These games avoided complicated themes for simple but fun mechanics. Games based on farming, settling land (peacefully) and plantation owning all emerged (and were fun!) thanks to them.
These games had a few features that made them especially engaging:
- Little down-time for players
- Short game-time
- A focus on easy mechanics over comprehensive simulation
The makers of Twilight Imperium, Fantasy Flight Games, saw this and looked for ways to improve their flagship game. The result is the mamoth known as Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition.
It’s now June 3rd (in game). Our devil-may-care band of heroes discovered the ruins of an old monastery – grape vines rampant, and goblin tracks present. They decided to wait one night to prepare for the upcoming challanges as they tried to end the bandit menace once and for all. Would they discover why the bandits were targeting Trouse so ruthlessly? Can Giljew discover the meaning of the strange snake symbol before Deadweight destroys any trace of it?
The next morning they set out once more to the manastery monastery and the one remaining structure – the chapel. Inside it was as dilapidated as the monastery around it – but at the back there was an interesting feature. The chapel bell had been lifted up on a crude structure, ready to ring.
It was an ambush! The goblins came from every direction, overwhelming the party with their sheer numbers. Deadweight reported more than 10 coming through the door behind him at least. A hard and bloody battle ensued – Giljew was thrown accross the room, Isley was stabbed, and Deadweight padded himself in the most appropriate place to pad. It’s difficult to say how exactly they managed to defeat so many enemies, but they did. Wang pushed his way through the piled corpses searching for the last goblin archer – a coward who had run at the sight of his friends being ground and minced like so much goblin offal.
The Wine Cellar
Next they sent Isley down to check out a dark passage. All his efforts came to naught however, when he found that the door was locked. Giljew quickly came to help, and Isley offered the key words “I think it’s locked,” to help Giljew succeed. Once inside they made their way through the dark shadowy cellar…
EDIT: took the manliness out of the monatery 
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…with a huge difference in meaning. Consider the following two phrases:
1.
Man: You know what’s cool?
Unattractive lady: eh?
Man: Not Fuckin’ you, you’re shit!
2.
Man: You know what’s not cool?
Unattractive lady: ahn?
Man: Not fuckin’ me, I’m THE shit.
