RIP Señor Nielson

Alta, about a million years from now the human race will have crawled up to where the Krell stood in their great moment of triumph and tragedy. And your father's name will shine again like a beacon in the galaxy. It's true, it will remind us that we are, after all, not God. -Commander Adams

Leslie Nielsen passed away today, and whereas his comedy can't be denied, let's not forget Forbidden Planet, a sci-fi staple that's so classic many don't even know it exists anymore. It's a solid movie, just know it's dated going into to it, and the commander, played by the late Nielsen predates James T. Kirk and everyone else. So here's to you Leslie, godspeed.

Kryomek

Mwahaha, one more Fall-In! post, the Casemate post wasn't the last after all. I had the photos queued up for this one for some time but I didn't want to do another 'look at the beautiful table' post, this one I wanted to add some depth to it. Why? Because the Kryomek game I played was awesome, that's why!

If you're asking, "What is Kryomek?", you've come to the right place. If you're saying to yourself, "Yeah, I remember Kryomek, it's still around?", you're still in the right place. It's not a remake, a reprint, or the like, this is the same Kryomek that's been around nigh on twenty years. The game itself has changed hands and owners a few times over, but it is now solidly in the hands of MSD Games, who also make the popular Luftwaffe 1946 game. The original molds are still being used for the figures, and new sculpts are still being added to the range.

The premise at its most basic is squad-based sci-fi action in a starflung future. Humanity isn't alone and its foes and allies are numerous, ranging from basic humanoid bipeds to incredibly alien. Here's the official intro from the website:

It is said that Man is made in the image of God and since this God made the Universe, Humanity feels confident that it has a right to rule it. But there are other Gods, dark Gods.

Gods in whose terrible image other creatures are made -
and these too might believe that they are destined to rule...

Unknown just 12 years ago, now every human shudders when they hear the name. Fierce, merciless, in numbers beyond count, they continue to assault Nexus space-time. Where humans create machines to serve them, Kryomek create living organisms. They have harnessed the power to create and twist life to suit their evil purposes. All Kryomek serve the hive. Similar to less deadly hive insects, the Kryomek consist of many specialized types, each optimized for a single function. The primary battlefield types are listed below, but a complete listing would be impossible. There are rumors of other, larger, more deadly Kryomek. They remain rumors because no humans who have seen them have survived to describe what they have seen. -Jardus Manturikan, lecture to officers of the NTFA 6.12.3503

The bio-organic alien horde grind their way toward the marine defenders in the building ruins. The smaller, less advanced organisms form a "meat shield" along the way to protect their advanced brethren, many of which act as organic artillery, raining poisonous spores among the marines. Sound familiar? No, it's not a game of 40k I just described.

The Kryomek, a very Tyranid-esque race, have been around since the first Hive Fleets rolled out of GW. Genestealers were around mind you, but they were an entirely different affair back then. The marines aren't the over-the-top enhanced super soldiers spawned by a mythical god of humanity, but grounded a little more in reality. These marines, colonial, Nexus, and such variations are armed with a wide variety of weapons; small arms, heavy, even melee and they wear anything from hardened exo-armor to no armor at all.

The game I played in featured the two iconic armies of the game, the Kryomek, and the Nexus Marines supported by Colonial Marines. I mentioned there are new sculpts being added to the range, but this game consisted of the "classic" sculpts only, and they really held their own. In fact, I really loved the look of the Nexus Marines, which resembled quite closely the iconic movie soldiers of similar name.

Heavily armed and armored marines supported by Nexus Marines in the corner

One thing I really liked about the squads was the flexibility in their unit formation. The Nexus Marines were equipped with assault carbines, flamethrowers, pistols, and the like. The heavier armored Colonial Marines had even more variety; heavy weapons, assault rifles with underslung grenade launchers, even one troopers armed guns-akimbo with twin SMGs. The more I type this the more I'm kicking myself for not buying some of these up while I was there.


Here's the Kryomek horde in all their chitinous glory, poised to consume mass quantities. These models are also great, from the smallest "speed bump" Helions to the hulking Warmasters. This army runs on a hive mind mentality, and as long as the larger "nodes" are still around, the rest of the army stays put and keeps pushing forward. My favorite models in the particular army were the Kryomek Drones, humans that had been assimilated and encased in an organic shell, fused with organic weaponry.

Flame on! A Colonial Marine's flamethrower engulfs a horde of Helions

It's sci-fi warfare, so you've got your staples; flamers, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, APCs, and more. The rulebook covers a lot of these, including the vehicles, and there's a supplement that covers the rest. The rulebooks themselves are easy to reference and the rules are straight forward to get to grips with.

An extra nod goes to the fluff and the illustrations too. Some people loves rulebooks for the rules alone, understandable. Some love them for the fluff, photography, and illustrations. Me, I look for both, and the Kryomek books deliver happily on both counts. The world that's been created is solid and would make for a great roleplaying campaign. What's more, as I've already stated, it's feels a lot 'grounded' for lack of a better word. Maybe "doable" works too.

The mechanics are d20 based, and your target numbers are always going up the scale. Different weapon types use other die types. Modifiers are easy enough to get to grips with and by the second or third turn of the game I had it down easily enough. Also, initiative is rolled for each turn as well, which always makes for an interesting game, especially when you really need that first go at the next turn and you don't know if it's guaranteed or not!


There you have it, in a nutshell it was an enjoyable game that I had fun with. I didn't have to worry about the rules, they came easily enough but still allowed me plenty of options of what I could do and wanted to do on the tabletop. The figures weren't 'dated' in the least, in fact most of what I saw on the table was a model I wouldn't mind painting up and adding to my own collection, and there's plenty of variety to be had as well. The thing about the marines and their weapons was also that their rifles weren't the size of microwave ovens shooting soda can-sized rounds, but something a little more believable too. I know it seems I keep bringing that up, but you know, it was a refreshing change nonetheless.

So there you go, the game is Kryomek. If you haven't heard of it, you need to check it out. If you have heard of it before, dust it off and give it another shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised whichever camp you're coming from.

The rulebooks in and of themselves are worth getting if for nothing else than the art and fluff (they just so happen to have solid rules too). The figure range is absolutely huge to boot, and it's full of great looking models, with 28mm human troops usually running in the $1.50-$2 range. Although I plan on picking some up in the future, you can totally play the rules with whatever you have on hand. I tell ya, this won't the last time you'll see a Kryomek post from me here.

You know, last minute whim I'll just throw out here for the heck of it, if anyone has any Kryomek figs laying around doing nothing, and want to donate them to Mik's Minis, ahem, contact me! I suppose I could be persuaded do some trading if you're not feeling that generous.

Feast and Be Merry

"Clancy's Turkey Day" by the talented floodllama

As we creep into the closing hours of Thanksgiving here on the east coast I just wanted to say to everyone out there that I hope you and yours were able to enjoy a day of just being together in whatever manner you saw fit.

Here at House Gyro, there wasn't turkey, cranberry sauce, or anything else that could be remotely seen as "traditional", but there was a lot of family, a lot of food, drink, and a lot of camaraderie. I think a lot of Alka-Seltzer will be needed as well.

Maybe some aspirin in the morning.

Casemate Publishers

Just when you thought all of my posts on Fall-In! were over, I sneak one more upon you! This is one makes me pretty happy to share too, and as the title suggests it involves a company called Casemate Publishers.

Casemate ran a booth in that massive dealer's room, and it was a good sized one to boot. Their specialty lies in military books, history books, and the like, covering all time periods where man fought man. They were having a prize drawing and not a lot of people were signing up from what I saw. Actually I should say from what Andy saw, since for years to come it will invariably be him that (rightfully so) takes credit for most of this. Andy won one of the daily prizes which was a sweet $50 dollar certificate to be used at their website. With so many options, I just know he's going to get a headache trying to decide. Well I signed up for the drawing as well, but unlike Andy I did not win any of the daily drawings. No, I instead won the $350 dollar grand prize!

It was no secret I went to Fall-In! on a budget, and had to restrain myself from going loco in the dealer's room, not to mention I ate sandwiches out of a cooler the whole weekend, so this little bit of gamer-karma-come-back-atcha was certainly a welcome surprise. I placed my order this week, so when that big box of shiny new books gets here, expect a follow up post!


Well I'm a gamer first and foremost, so I went there right off the bat, opting for Foundry's "Rules With No Name", and Warlord's new Black Powder rules. The former is free on the web, but the published copy has been held in fairly high regard. Cowboys are something we've certainly had fun with many time sin the past too, plus it fills quite the gaming void on my bookshelf. Black Powder was really a grab for the spectacle of it and who knows, maybe one day it will give up its intoxicating call to a humble weekend painter like myself. In all seriousness I've heard nothing but good things about it and it really does sound like they were written the way rules should've been written; clear, solid, and open to allow the spirit of the game supersede the letter of the rule. While I was at it I picked Andy up a copy as well, you know, since he took me to my first dance and all.


You may be thinking that I just started clicking away like mad adding books I've never heard of to my online Casemate shopping cart. Well, that's only partially true! After my cart was overstuffed around five hundred bucks I went in and began weeding through it. I used several internet sources to check the books not voted off the island for reviews and what-not. The two here are similar in nature in that they deal with specific commanders during specific time periods. By going into biographical detail of the person, you get greater insight to the wars fought under their watchful eye, and to the specific state of the world as well.


When I talk of my Anthropology degree it's usually in reference to what I focused on as my specialty, which is prehistoric man and human origins. That wasn't all I took however, and the archaeology portion of my degree was centered around the time of the American War of Independence, so I gravitated to both of these books. Despite their very similar titles, from what I could pick up, the two books complement one another rather well with little to no overlap. I'm not known for my historical gaming sense, but these may be the push I need as well.


Britain, both old and new round out my shopping spree. My Irish Guards army is ambitious in scope, just slow to get going (all my fault of course). One thing I do know is that you can get lost with all of the tales that unfolded during WWII. For me I've set my eye on Operation Market Garden. For that, the Arnhem 1944 book looks to fit the bill.

An UN40K Game of 5150

As the title states, this was a great game of 40K but also UN-40K.  In this case, the rules are 5150, the Two Hour Wargames sci-fi shoot 'em up. It's a solid set of rules, but they do do suffer from some hiccups in the rules-translation-to-tabletop department. That being said, they're fun nonetheless and all it takes is a little bit of consistency and you should be good to go.

Face it, you cannot deny the "cool" factor of Games Workshop's minis, but sometimes you just want try out different rules. That's what we were doing here. Although there's no "official" stat block for our favorite genetic super-soldiers in 5150, you'd be hard-pressed to throw a stick into cyberspace and not find a homegrown set of Space Marine stats.


After all of my pics of Fall-In! tables you may be a little confused here. That's because the table Andy threw together was every bit as luscious as those at Fall-In!, if not more. The funny thing is, other than the terrain mat, most of this stuff was already in-house, so we could've been playing on terrain like this all along basically!


As amazingly tough as Imperial Space Marines are supposed to be, they kind of lose some of their impressiveness in translation to a regular game of 40k. Well, in the spirit of keeping Marines as elite as possible, how about the odds of nearly 7:1? That's right, the Tau Empire forces numbered 66 total models, the marines, Deathwatch in this instance, numbered just ten troops. Now that feels likes a situation Space Marines should be in!


If you head over to Andy's blog, Little Lead Heroes, you'll see at least double the number of photos. There were a lot of good ones to pick from and unfortunately some got left behind here, so head over there for yet even more eye candy.

The table was immaculate, so any action on said tabletop was bound to be pretty sweet. We were dealing with a couple of speed bumps with the rules, chief among them being our pure rustiness with them. That's going to hurt just about anyone in the same boat.


Tau orbital bombardments had pulverized the building structures on the far side of the field. This is where two fire-teams of Deathwatch took up defensive positions. The Tau Empire was on the move, reaving the planet along the way, and their primary goal was to get through this contested zone and to the next. The Deathwatch were going to make sure this didn't happen. Three Fire Warrior teams, a Pathfinder team, a stealth team in XV-16 suits, and two squads of Kroot mercs rounded out the Xenos forces. The Deathwatch marines comprised two teams of five, each led by a jump pack equipped sergeant. One squad had a SAW trooper hefting an Astartes-pattern Heavy Bolter. Chapters represented ranged from Howling Griffins, Ultramarines, Black Templars, Blood Angels, and more.


Tau troops advanced through the thick jungle and encroached upon the city. The Kroot sprinted ahead of the force and up the middle to the buildings. The wreckage of an Aquila Lander, shot down in the initial hours of the invasion, lays spread out across the field. The Fire Warriors cautiously take cover behind an outlying wall on the outskirts.


A reconnaissance squad of Vespid Stingwings lands among the Deathwatch with their Tau-manufactured Neutron Blasters, causing two of the Space Marines to hit the dirt. Here's where the numbers worked against the Space Marines in terms of stats, the Space Marines, although hard to outright kill, kept hitting the dirt more often than not. I remember in past 5150 games troops would often 'duck back', or seek cover, but just going prone every time was a tad annoying.


The Tau made a strong advance through the city, they had plenty of numbers to keep the Deathwatch suppressed. The Space Marines, in an act of desperation, switched from bolters to grenades...and found this tactic to be most effective. Astartes-pattern fragmentation grenades made short work of even the Tau's hardened carapace armor. In the end it was the morale that became the largest factor working against the xenos.


Two against sixteen; Deathwatch marines take cover inside the ruins of a building as a Stealth team and Fire Warrior squad move from cover to the open. The Burst Cannons of the Stealth suits laid down a withering hail of projectiles. The marines hunkered down below the broken wall and simply waiting for a chance to return fire.


This is one of my favorite photos of the night, and really sums up what the "UN40K" mentality is all about. Two Deathwatch troopers, just two, back-to-back and watching their flanks. Up top one squad of Fire Warriors is fleeing, but a full squad of Stealth suits were intact and en route. On the other side of the field two full Fire Warriors and a Kroot mercenary squads were steadily advancing. The odds were astronomically against them, but it's the kind of odds you read about in the novels, which is what we were shooting for, no pun intended.

Sometimes you just want your tabletop games to represent a certain quality or aspect in your chosen genre. It just comes down to finding the right rules that give you the feel you and your group are looking for for a given game.

Fall-In! Last Call!

Well Fall-In! is now a memory, a good one, but a memory nonetheless. The bags have been unpacked, laundry's been cleaned, new miniatures have been set aside, and half a dozen new plans, schemes, and inspired ideas are floatin' around my melon. These are the last of the leftover pics, there's still a ton on my phone, but more of those later.

Above is me and comrade Dave Taylor, whose left pinky has as much miniature building and painting talent as I do in my whole body! We worked together on the successful Storm Wardens project a while back and it was great to meet him in person.


Here my stalwart companion Duck Sauce contemplates his next move in a game of Fireball Forward, a World War II tabletop game in development.



These last couple of shots were of an incredibly cool table that consisted of nothing but homemade "whimsical" miniatures. This was a huge table, with well over a hundred of these guys built and based on some pretty cool movement trays to boot. I didn't get the chance to play on it, but it's just an example of one of those things that you just don't get to see every day.

So farewell to Fall-In!, it was a blast. I wish I didn't come down with whatever it was while I was there, but I trudged through as best as I could. It looks like the convention scene in 2011 for me will be nil, but look for me again in '12!

Workbench Update and a Chance Zombie Encounter

Going into these colder months, where sometimes a small space heater even makes it down to the game room at foot level, it's time to get productive on some workbench material! It's kind of cool to see it all laid out here because it covers time periods from 55kya to WWII, and genres from all over the map from fantasy to sci-fi to historic. Here's the breakdown:

• x10 Neandertals
• x1 Woolly Mammoth
• x2 Irish Elk
• x6 British Sherman Tanks
• x2 British Firefly Tanks
• x10 Alien Greys
• x1 Knight of Bal Timorea
• x1 LEGO Wraith Necromancer

Now while I was busy putting all of the above together, a couple of peeps were over to hang out and played a test game of Fear and Faith. All of my Fall-In! table pics, especially the Zombie tables, inspired Chri3 to really cement making the zombie theme "his thing".

I don't want to spoil too much of his ideas, but the nature of his particular zombie world is fresh and original, and there's plenty of room for more than just the walking dead. He's got weresharks, yeti, rogue cult psychics, chainsaw maniacs, and more.


Terrain, as you saw from the aforementioned con pics, makes the game. I'm almost in the boat now that it doesn't just merely complement your armies, without it everything else falls short. While Chri3 and Jake played some zombie hunting action notes were taken and house rules were being laid out. I love the Song of Blades system and it seems Fear and Faith keeps that goodness alive. We do have one Fear and Faith game under our belts, and it was a blast, it showed real promise. I'm hoping we'll get some serious time logged on the Zombpocalypse frontier in the near future. It's always good to have a few experts here and there in your group that shoulder a whole genre/rules and spread the games around to enjoy.

Fall-In! Rest of Games Played

Above is a shot from the "big darn Roman" game Duck Sauce and I had the pleasure of playing in. Mind you, at first I was "big darn intimidated" when I was handed a stat sheet that was 11x14 and had about 10,000 characters on it. The game was Classical Hack [modified] and as you may have guessed, it featured the Romans of 53AD versus the British Barbarians.


This game was easily the largest single miniatures game I've ever been a part of. The table measured 15x8 feet and was full of 28mm, fully painted armies. That's the part that's "big" about it, there were over 500 painted figures on the tables, it was impressive to say the least.







I had mentioned the Babylon 5 game I played in to the tune of the Warzone rules, well here's some pics of that. It was great fun, and not only was the subject material very suitable to my liking, but the fact that there was a hidden bunker underground just added to the fun. Thanks to individualized mission briefs and objectives, although there were five players on my side, it still felt like I was gaming on my own. Having a specific agenda goes a long way in games like this and keeps the overall goal similar, but gives everyone their own spotlight.



Dwarven Forge sci-fi tiles formed the basis for the underground bunker. It was only revealed a little bit at a time with blips to represent opposition. I was a little bummed to discover that at the end of the mission the ultimate goal, finding the Deathwalker, was folly since the GM never intended for her to actually be there in the first place. It makes for a nice follow-up sequel scenario, but if you're not attending the next con months later...it's kind of anti-climatic. Nonetheless the scenario and overall game was still a blast to play.


My Narn Commando Squad


This last photo is of some of my survivors I ran in the 2-Hour Wargames zombpocalypse game, All Things Zombie. Their longevity was incredibly short-lived, but it was certainly fun while it lasted. The big biker guy bit it (or more specifically, got bit) in melee combat and overwhelmed by the walking dead. His red-shirted female companion (with a shirt that color, she was doomed to fail) tried to run for the metro bus, but her "clumsy" skill she rolled caused her to trip and fall in just three short inches...at the feet of two more zombies. Her fate was sealed the moment she put on that red shirt of hers!

Fall-In! Table Gallery part 5

This is the last of the Fall-In! tables, I hope you were as inspired as I was!