Bifurcated!

Cromak steps into the ring again, but his fame precedes him!  This time his opponent is from neighboring Mirish, a leather-armored spearman.

Bellon is a Savvy 5, Strength 4, Speed 3, warrior with a two-handed spear, and leather armor.  His extra Signature is Rage which give him +1d6 on Maneuver and Attack, but only so long as he still has 1/2 or more of his bonus dice.  His points are 6, equal to Cromak.

Almost immediately, Bellon scores a scratch on Cromak's belly with his spear (-1 Strength point).

Cromak and Bellon are pretty evenly matched, and have a hard time finding an opening on one another.  Both turns 3 and 4 result in no openings for either gladiator.  

Turn 5 goes to 6 rounds of retake attack, until Cromak finds an opening and scores a bleeder on Bellon's right arm.  Bellon is only Strength 4, so he only has 1 wound left on his right arm, and no Bonus Dice.

Bellon goes first on turn 6, and loses use of his right arm.  He then catches his breath, and regains a Bonus Die.

The next turn, Cromak advances, but can find no opening, and Bellon catches his breath.  He is fighting a losing battle, because he loses his Bonus Die as fast as he can earn them.

And then, Bellon moves in, seriously hampered by using his spear in his left hand, and being a bleeder.  He fails, and Cromak becomes the attacker, and gives Bellon a serious wound to the belly, another bleeder, knocking him down.

And in Cromak's half of the turn, he realizes that Bellon is about to bleed out, and so moves in and does a tremendous blow, again to the belly, with 8 successes!  So he cuts Bellon in half!

Cromak is getting quite a reputation for going for the soft belly on his opponents!  (Ah, the dice gods!)  He won his bet, but the odds were even, so he gains nothing.  He gets 100 talos for winning the match, and only 1 fame point, since he didn't dispatch Bellon in the center.  He uses one of his fame points to up his speed, to no avail.  At least he didn't get a "1".  He has a total of 7 fame points, but only 6 useable.

His toady is happy, and not noticing so quickly when his daughter slips off to "check on the cow!"

It really is amazing how this campaign is going.  Who would have thought that every kill will be caused by a belly wound, and that Cromak would get off so lightly each time?  I'm sure he will soon get his come-upetance soon.  And maybe his next opponent won't be so easy.  That "6" for "special" opponent must fall sooner or later.  

Blood on the Sand

Now that Cromak had defeated his first opponent, his patron got him another match quickly. This time a local spearman with leather armor and large shield was his opponent.

He was rolled up on the tables in Red Sand Black Moon for Hykar.  He had Savvy 4, Strength 4, and Speed 3.  He added Swordsman to the standard Warrior Signatures.  With his weapon, shield, and armor, he came up to a rating of 9, 3 above Cromak.

Cromak immediately scored a minor wound to Fangor's left leg.

Throughout the match, Fangor, though better armored kept getting pushed back.
Cromak struck a blow for Fangor's chest, but the shield turned it aside.

Cromak would often maneuver to Fangor's unshielded side, but was unable to take advantage of the situation.  When he next scored a hit, he had no advantage, and Fangor's shield protected his belly.

Fangor would often pause to regain his breath.

Then Cromak made a mistake, and Fangor's spear clanged against his helmet, knocking him down, and wounding him slightly.

Cromak realized that this wasn't as easy a fight as his previous one, and when Fangor next charged him, he stepped aside and dealt Fangor a mighty blow to his right arm, almost removing it, and making Fangor a bleeder.

Fangor's right arm bled out, and he was forced to drop his shield, and switch his spear to his left hand.  (Hey, I don't have a left-handed spearman figure.)

Hoping for a quick kill, Fangor charged in, but in his weakened condition, he was unable to parry the blow of the mighty axe that disembowled him, and ended his life.

Once again, Cromak slew his enemy with a blow to the belly, though with much less damage to himself this time.  He gained 3 fame points for the difference between his rating and his opponent's, and another for striking the killing blow in the center of the arena.  He now has 6 fame points.

He gained another 100 talos for his victory, and 113 for his bet on himself.  I had misfigured his talos in the previous post, so his total now is 464, I think.

This game ran to nine turns, with a couple of Redo the Attack.  The NPG kept tying Cromak when he had the advantage of the shieldless side, so he was unable to ever make that pay off.  Fangor caught his breat a couple of times.  It appears that better armor and shield is not much of an advantage if you AP is not up to your apponent's even if you out-rate him.

Cromak gains a toady, a farmer, with a nubile daughter.  Can the barbarian stay out of troubvle?

Mutton in the arena

Cromak, a barbarian warrior, had enough of the wonderful life of a mercenary, and decided to enter the arena in the dusty little berg of Fondulac.  He had little beyond 420 talos, his axe, sword, and ridiculous helmet.  "Crom, it was a gift from mom!"

His patron, a sinister looking gentleman who might be a sorcerer, told him he had someone special that he'd been holding onto as an opponent just for a barbarian.

Imagine Cromak's surprise when he saw a beastman enter from the opposite gate.

The rules are Red Sand Black Moon, from Two Hour Wargames.

Cromak is a warrior, Savvy and Strength of 5, and Speed of 4.  In addition to the Warrior Signatures, he has Slow Mover and Slippery, a 6-pointer

Raban, the beastman, also has a two-handed axe, a Savvy of 4, Strength of 5, and speed of 3.  In addition to the Beastman Signatures, he is Nimble, a 7-pointer.

AS always, click on the pic for a larger one.  My photography was not as good as it should have been because I was too lazy to use a tripod.

Here follows the short and deadly action.

Turn 1: Raban moves out from his gate, and then Cromak does the same.  They glare and snarl at each other.

The patron sees a short fight, and a dead barbarian.

Turn 2:  Raban moves to the center of the arena and  glares a bit more, but Cromak charges.  Raban steps aside, and, as Cromak blunders past, deals him a mighty blow to the lower right leg.  Blood spurts, and Cromak goes down, seriously wounded and a Bleeder!

The patron sees everything going as he expected.

Turn 3:  Unexpectedly, Raban stops to catch his breath.  Cromak takes advantage of his hesitation, leaps to his feet, and staggers towards Raban, while his life trickles from his wound.  This is more than Raban can stand.  His aggressive nature makes him charge a little too hastily, and this time Cromak steps aside, and with a mighty sweep of his axe, disembowels Raban.  Cromak is too unsteady to even turn around.  But Raban is dead!

The patron raises Cromak's right hand in victory, and Cromak sinks to the ground.  His wounded leg will support him no longer!

After the match:  Cromak had, of course, bet 100 talos on himself to win, and so his stash is raised to 630 talos.  He gains 1 point of fame for besting a higher rater opponent, and another for a killing blow in the center of the ring.  The blow was given in the center, even though Raban's charge put him outside of the center of the ring when he collapsed.  Cromak recovers completely (no, really, I rolled it!), and barbarian that he is, spends his recovery time in the nearest tavern with the tender ministrations of a tavern wench.

Raban never got to use his bite attack because he never won the Maneuver. 

My previous games had gone to 11 or 12 turns before being decided by the opponent dying the death of a thousand cuts.  But matches can be very short, like this one.  I'm astounded that my star won (a star from me is the kiss of death!), and now I have the beginning of a campaign.   Even with writing up what was going on, it only took about 30 minutes.

And more pointless painting!

First up is a minotaur that I didn't paint.  I believe that Thomas Huber painted it, but it could have been Mike White.  Both gave hoards of stuff when they left the city after Katrina.  I found him painted but in pieces.  All I did was glue him back together and rebase him, and now he doesn't stand very well on soft surfaces.  For use in Red Sand Black Moon.

The dark elf-ess(?) is an OOP Grenadier I just picked up on eBay.  Her blade is painted in OOP Reaper Pro Paint Red Steel.  For use in Red Sand Black Moon.

Here we have an Archive Miniatures (OOP, of course) not-Greedo that I found in the lead pile!  5150.

And here's an OOP Archive Miniatures not-Han Solo I found a while back.  Now if I could just run across the bunny stormtroopers!  5150.

This is a mobster, his moll, and his bodyguard for an upcoming 5150 New Beginnings game.

Left to right: Caesar, bodyguard, Chronoscope; Xantha, disguised Razor, click figure, and Charlie "the hatchet" Salvagio, mob boss, Chronoscope, all recently painted.

Chronoscope Nova Corporation security team.  I have 2 more to paint.  5150.

This is an old Grendle or Scotia figure, resin, that came 6 identical figures to the pack, for Red Sand Black Moon

These are figures for my old Scavvy gang for Necromunda.  I've been re-arranging things from plastic office drawers to Really Useful Boxes, and these reared their ugly heads.  The middle figure was my scavvy king, and is wearing a McDonalds crown.

A selection of greys from Brigade Games.  I have 10 or 12 painted.  5150.

Hishen, originally from Two Hour Wargames, now available from Acheson, as imagined in 5150.  I have a dozen painted.

And Grath, also former Two Hour Wargames, now from Acheson, straight out of 5150!

Thanks for looking.  No rhyme or reason, just stuff I enjoyed painting!