The Beard Bunker

Charlie: This is the final post about the Deathwatch scenario I GMd recently. This time I’m going over the scenario concept itself, accompanied with in-fiction snippets and photos from the day. The concept is simple enough that you could probably adapt it for a themed 40k skirmish; we were playing it as an RPG using our in-house ruleset. The first thing the players got was the briefing. This came weeks before the mission itself, so they had time to choose their marine’s gear (and make a model if necessary; Andy rather wisely magnetised his marine’s arms so that he could swap out the weapons in future scenarios). This is going to be a hefty post with a fair few photos and fat chunks of screed, so if you're down for that, hit the jump.

We recently had a gaming weekend here in the Beard Bunker, during which I ran two scenarios for our Fantasy campaign. I’ll do a proper story update some time when I have more pretty pictures to accompany the text, but that’s not why I’m here today. Instead, I’m going to talk about something which, had I done it, probably would have been totally sweet . Why didn’t I do it? Because I had a lapse in concentration at a crucial moment. Gutted. But first, here: have a random thing I used to upset Hafnir Stormbourne . GRIBBLES! This fella is Gulavhar from GW’s LOTR range; he was used as the thing that lurked in the depths below Karak Hoch. It was a spin on the ol’ Dwarfs vs. Balrog concept, the spin being that this guy can string a sentence together, and had an agenda beyond ‘BURN IT WITH FIRE.’ I spent hours and hours filing, scraping, cleaning, sculpting over the joins in the metal components, pinning the wings, and converting the base to blend the rock stack into the ground ...

It was one of the hottest, sunniest, most beautiful days of the year. One can’t take these things for granted in Britain. The problem? Four of my oldest friends were converging on my little house for the weekend to play some wargames, and wargaming isn’t a famously outdoorsy pursuit. The solution? Take the table outside and play on the patio. We even made an awning/parasol by stringing some bedsheets off the clothesline, although gravity and our drive-by workmanship meant that it didn’t last. Sunburn and sheer relentless heat eventually forced us back inside, but the important thing was that we had very civilised fun. And which scenario should we choose to play in this glorious sunshine but something set in the dead of night, of course. I shall describe it here in the hopes that it might provide some inspiration for anyone looking to do something outside your standard garden-variety Warhammer battle. It’s pretty much impossible to tell what’s going on in...

Keen to reinvent the wheel as often as possible, I thought I’d try something a little different for the Beard Bunker’s third battle report. I’ve pretty much written a short story. With a narrative that, er, extends beyond the battle itself. Somewhat. I might’ve gotten carried away. It was fun, but very time consuming, so it won’t be happening again unless people are very vocally in favour of this sort of thing. Now, since the Beard Bunker is allegedly a hobby blog, as opposed to a place for fiction, there will occasionally be notes about the actual, you know, game in this thing. The notes are in green, and will be anecdotal or talking about the balance of the scenario (as described in my last post ). Why are these bits green? Well, if you find yourself getting immersed in the story, you can just skip the green parts and move on to the next bit in black so as not to break rhythm. A note on the setting/timeline: Oskar Brandt will, as previously mentioned, act as a sort of pr...

Before I get started on a Warhammer scenario whot I done wrote, I shall begin with an update on le campaign preparations. Given how enthusiastic my last post’s sign-off was about getting my Hochland army ready for the campaign, it’d be embarrassing if I’d since sat on my hands and tried, unsuccessfully, to twiddle my thumbs. Fortunately, over the weekend, here’s what I got done: - Assembled the warrior priest. - Assembled the final ten handgunners. There’s a blind man. No, it wasn’t a mistake. - Finished assembling the volley gun’s base/crew. - Started conversion work on the wizard. Right now, she looks... bald. The learning point? Hobby begets hobby. Painting Captain Brandt got me more fired up than a buffalo sitting on a Catherine Wheel. Speaking of Captain Newandshiny, Maisey and I pulled a fun little skirmish scenario out of our collective posterior, and it was a good time. I thought I’d share. If you happen to have an army of undead at your disposal, then yay....