Majestic 13: Special Mission "Ambush"

 I've played another game?! Yes! I did not sleep well (or much) last night, and decided three hours of sleep in the ol' tank was not enough to fuel me through an 8 hour work day, grocery shopping and cooking dinner. So I took a personal day, did my grocery shopping early when the store was practically empty, kept meals simple for my wife and I, and allowed myself the luxury of a restorative solo game. After all, this is a special round of Majestic 13 - my first "Special Mission."

The sinister invaders known as FORCE have taken note of my team, and dispatched a strike team of FORCE troopers to eliminate them. To represent FORCE on the tabletop, I painted up a half-dozen "Ferox Mercenaries" from Khurasan Miniatures - this is a company that I think has flown under a lot of peoples' radars, but they make some really cool stuff in both 15 and 28mm scale, their castings were super clean and their customer service excellent and friendly. I've assembled them with helmeted heads and painted them with Turbodork colorshift metallics - "Laserface" (which shifts maroon to yellow-green) for their armor and "Let Them Eat Cake" (dark blue to red-violet) for the gun casings. Some details in silver (washed with Nuln Oil) and the eyes on the helmet picked out in Vallejo Fluorescent Green and they were done. 

I really need to make more trees my next terrain investment.

A lot of this game boiled down to figures moving from one piece of cover to another, taking pot shots, and moving back towards other pieces of cover, so I'll just highlight a few key moments.

I also finally got everyone's name written on their bases.

I successfully upgraded my team's base defenses following the last game, meaning each of these FORCE troopers took 1D6+3 damage before the game even started. I rolled really well, and two of the aliens started play with 21 HP instead of their customary 30. This really helped me out a lot. 

Turn 1, Agent Moseley (newly equipped with a sniper rifle) took up a position behind the chimney of an old, abandoned cabin, and on Turn 2, he scored a critical hit on FORCE Trooper # 2, killing it. Boom, headshot. Even better, both he and Agent Arnold succeeded on their saving throws to avoid taking damage when Trooper #2 subsequently imploded. Yes, the FORCE troopers implode on death, to insure that their technology doesn't fall into human hands. Stingy bastards. 

Turn 3, Agents Klass and Barker were temporarily blinded by an alien grenade. Both agents cleared their vision, returning fire. Turn 4, another grenade was thrown, again blinding Barker. This is becoming a theme with him after the last game. 

Immediately following this, Agent Arnold successfully Called for Aid on Turn 4, calling in a drone strike against the FORCE troopers. An attack roll was made successfully against each of the five remaining troopers, and the damage dealt was enough to kill three (#s 1, 4 and 5) of them simultaneously, while reducing the remaining two to low single-digit hit points. Unfortunately, the rolling wave of concussive implosions took both Agent Barker and Agent Moseley out of action as well, and left Agent Klass stunned. 

The remainder of Turn 4 and Turn 5 were spent mopping up the remaining two FORCE troopers. Keel's Killers were successful in their mission, though they paid a price for their victory.

Rolling into the post-game, while Agent Moseley recovered quickly and will be good to go for the next mission, Agent Barker succumbed to his injuries, his internal organs pulverized into jelly by three concussive implosions. Majestic 13 is loathe to let a good agent go though, and a clone of Agent Barker was decanted and added to the Keel's Killers roster; an imperfect and slightly weakened copy of the original, Barker II is nonetheless a welcome addition to the team. 

He died doing what he loved; shooting aliens until he went blind.

Following that, my team's requests to requisition new gear got lost in the bureaucratic maze of Majestic 13, but I did successfully add another upgrade to my base; an Emergency Medical Facility was built, which will hopefully reduce my losses in the future. I know I've been really lucky so far in not having characters die every mission, but the loss of even one good soldier is too much. 

What's next? Well, uh...I only have three more painted monsters that can serve as aliens on hand, and I have no idea what I'm going to use for my FORCE Shock Troopers in the next special mission yet. So I might have to slow my roll a little bit with how many games I'm playing and spend more time painting.

Majestic 13: Operation Eye Exam

 What's this? Another game report already? Yes, I know it's rare that I actually play more than one game a month, but I had a couple reasons to set up for another game of Majestic 13 after Monday's game. First and foremost, it's just fun. Second, to inaugurate some newly finished terrain - a set of three prepainted MDF residential trailers from Black Site Studios. And three, I'm trying to take better care of my mental health this year and one of the things I've found to be really good for me is getting the table cleared off and playing games. 

I had started the BSS trailer park kit back in November, gotten side tracked, and came back and finished the last unassembled trailer (as well as gluing all the windows into all three trailers) this week while riding the high of Monday's game. Between these, the Bingo Hall (also from BSS), gas station and the 3D-printed doughnut shop, I'm able to put together a properly dense urban table, and that makes me really happy. 

 

So for tonight's mission, Keel's Killers were assigned to hunt down an "Ocular Enigma," an elusive and stealthy creature with the ability to inflict psychosomatic blindness on anyone trying to harm it; as a secondary mission, they needed to collect two supply drops on the monster's side of the table. The characters who collected each drop would receive a +1 to damage rolls for the remainder of the game. The Killers are, as always, from Hasslefree Miniatures, while the Ocular Enigma is a Reaper Bones "Hivewarden" I painted back in 2018 with an eye towards using in Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes as a pulpy Big-Eyed Monster.

I also had an interloper early on that threatened to make the game much more challenging:

Fortunately, he was lured off the table before he sneezed on any of my MDF. 

The first two turns were a bit clown shoes; the Killers were passing their saves to avoid blindness, but failing their attack rolls or succeeding and rolling minimum (or nearly minimum) damage. For it's part, the Ocular Enigma just skedaddled around its half of the board, moving from cover to cover to try and avoid being seen. 

Johanna Keel got close, lined up a shot, passed her blindness...and then, because the creature had partial cover behind the dumpster, needed to roll twice and take the worse result for her attack roll.

Could have been a critical hit, but not. Critical fumble. Thanks dice. Turn 2 also saw our FUBAR result for the game:

 

A Time-Space Distortion struck abruptly; most of the Killers maintained their footing, but Agent Arnold was flung 11" off the doughnut shop roof, taking falling damage on top of the damage from the FUBAR. The Enigma was also bounced off a chain-link fence by the distortion, dealing more damage than the Killers had up to that point. 

Turn 3, Agent Barker was struck blind by the Enigma, while Agents Arnold and Keel managed to seize the two supply objectives. 

Keel wasn't alone however, with the Enigma sneaking up behind her. Moseley was struck blind by the creature, as was Keel when she activated again; the monster, seizing the opportunity, lashed out with its "Poisonous Visions" attack; both Keel and Moseley, despite being blind, are assailed with disorienting, nauseating visions, dealing psychic damage to both of them and inflicting the "Poisoned" status effect on both of them, halving their movement until it's cleared. The monster then darted for its next patch of cover (I imagine it making the Zoidberg "woop-woop-woop-woop" noise as it goes). 

I have tokens for the "Stunned" and "Pinned" conditions, but I really need to get proper "Blinded" and "Poisoned" ones for Majestic 13.

Agent Arnold, sick of the monster's shit, called in a drone strike on Turn 4. Moseley, clearing his Blindness but not his Poisoned status, and Klass managed to get their respective acts together and start putting lead into the Enigma, while Barker remains Blinded. 

Seeing an opening, the Enigma scales the doughnut shop to attack still-blind Barker despite having taken enough damage to activate its "Extremis" state (in which it takes bonus damage but gains an extra action). Klass and Arnold both manage to shoot the creature again, while Keel and Moseley, both still Poisoned, attempt to limp into position for another shot. 

 

Unfortunately, the mission ended then with the conclusion of Turn 5; the monster was sitting pretty at 7 hit points out of its original 115. One more turn (or one fewer failed shooting rolls) and this could have been a victory.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the design decision to have games last exactly 5 turns, no more; I think it's an excellent decision that forces strategic thinking beyond simply outlasting the monster and keeps games from degenerating into slogs. 

Rolling in the post-game, I did pretty well since nobody was put Out of Action by the monster; everyone boosted their Combat skill rating (and Barker also boosted his Dexterity), and the Bureaucracy approved one of my two requested sniper rifles (assigned to Moseley) and my base upgrade: Keel's Killer's center of operations now boasts "Upgraded Point Defense Systems," which means whenever I undertake a Special Mission (in which I'm fighting directly against the soldiers of FORCE, the alien organization dropping monsters on Earth), my enemies start the game down by 1D6+3 hit points. 

This is particularly useful, since my team rating has advanced to "3" which means my next mission is my first Special Mission. Which means I better get my FORCE strike team painted up soon.

Majestic 13: Operation Mud Bath

 It's been a while since I've cleared the table off and had a solo game for myself, and going through my stuff as my wife and I prepare to move house this summer got me itching for another game of Majestic 13. I decided to follow up on my previous game, and play mission two of what is shaping up to be a meandering, irregular campaign. 

After a few dice rolls, I determined that my team of operatives, "Keel's Killers," would be entering an urban environment to A) try to take down a monster called a "Terraformer," capable of reshaping the landscape around it, and B), retrieve a series of medical supply caches. 

First action of the game, the Terraformer moved to the center of the table, turning every piece of non-scatter terrain into "Dangerous Terrain" - any time one of my operatives entered or climbed on top of one of these buildings or hills, they'd need to roll a D6; on a roll of 4+, they'd take 2D6 damage from monster-induced instability. 

The operatives opened fire from their various positions, raining lead down on the towering fungoid nightmare. The creature responded by charging the nearest operative it could see, which turned out to be Agent Arnold; lashing out with its dripping pseudopods, it rolled a critical hit with one of them; then, at the beginning of the second turn, it activated again and rolled a staggering double critical! Arnold was pounded into the ground before she could respond.

At that point, Klass opted to fire a quick round into the monster and retreat into the bingo hall, tagging the first of the three medical caches. Keel, Barker and Moseley continued to move and fire at the creature, with Moseley drawing the creature's attention. 

The Terraformer charged, striking Moseley with a tendril and Stunning him with neurasthenic slime. Barker charged in and hit Moseley with a set of shock pads, clearing the Stunned condition and buying Moseley time to race to the Donut Worry and access the second medical cache.

the healing power of a Boston Creme.

Falling back towards the gas station, Barker's next action was to radio in a drone strike. The call went through, and Lockheed Martin answered with gusto. 

Shaking the flames off itself, the Terraformer followed Barker towards the gas station, striking him with a tentacle and scoring a fourth critical hit for this game. Keel, Moseley and Klass drew the monster's attention while Barker entered the gas station and hit the third and final medical cache. 

It might be less a medical cache and more a pack of smokes and a questionable hot dog.

Moseley was taken out of action by the creature's punishing strikes, and Barker emerged from the gas station to score a critical hit on the monster. This was the end of turn 5 and the last of our heroes' actions; the Terraformer activated one last time and smashed into Barker, leaving him with 1 hit point as the game ended. The monster wasn't defeated, but it was a damn close thing; when the game ended it was at 11 hit points, down from the 140 it started with. 

Going into the post-mission phase of the game, Arnold and Moseley both recovered fully from their injuries and will be available to take part, unscathed, in the next mission. The team's efforts to requisition a pair of sniper rifles were denied, but they were able to upgrade their base with a Combat Training Center; Arnold, Moseley and Barker all boosted their Combat rating following the mission, while Keel and Klass improved their Dexterity. The team's overall rating improved from 1 to 2. 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how the game went, even if I didn't successfully defeat the monster. The fact that I rolled four natural 20s on the monster's attacks definitely aided its survival - I wish I could roll like that in my D&D game. I do feel like I'm getting a better handle on not just playing the game as a whole (though I did forget to make FUBAR rolls after the second turn), but on using my team effectively; I definitely need to upgrade my weaponry after next game (if my bureaucracy rolls succeed), because more firepower is absolutely called for.

January Painting

 *blows off the dust* I guess it's been a minute since I updated around here, huh? Well, I do have some painted miniatures to show off.

First up are "Totleger's Carvers," my first regiment for the "Defenders of Vogelburgh," my 3rd edition Empire/Halflings army for this year's Old World Army Challenge. A unit of halberdiers (or Helblitzen, as they're called in the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book), the human figures are War of the Roses infantrymen from Front Rank (since as of 1987, GW hadn't settled on a landsknecht aesthetic for the Empire yet), supported by a mercenary ogre from Knightmare Miniatures and a particularly feisty rooster from Dunkeldorf. Chickens of various types are going to be a theme throughout this army. 

The banner is painted on graph paper and entirely freehand. 

Here's a better look at the ogre; the barrel on his base is a resin bit from Dunkeldorf, and represents the regiment's lager ration.

With these figures finished around January 21st, rather than jumping right into the next unit for the Old World Army Challenge, I decided to paint up eight more orc archers from the 1987 Harboth's Orc Archers boxed set. I painted a dozen of them, including Harboth himself, back in 2021 as part of my first entry into the Old World Army Challenge, but wanted to finish the rest of the command group and enough rank-and-file to bring the unit up to a proper 20 figures. And that meant I also had to paint shields and a banner for the regiment.

The box describes Harboth and his boyz painting their shields with the faces of particularly noteworthy enemies; I went instead for a variety of grinning, disgruntled and suffering faces, with pallid green skin and glowing orange eyes. Are they orcs? Zombies? Who knows!

I went for a similar face, framed with wild white hair, for the banner; in retrospect it's got a little bit of an Eddie vibe from the band Iron Maiden, which I think works well.

 

Again, the banner is freehand on painted graph paper.

Finally, here's a shot of Harboth's shield; I had originally done a plain shield for him back in 2021, but pried it off and replaced it with an original Citadel plastic shield from the 80s. As I painted the face, it started to look like one eye was squinting a bit so I added a little Carroburg Crimson wash for a bleeding, empty socket. It differentiates him just a little bit from the boyz under his command.

All in all, January was a very productive month for me; February is shaping up to be less so, but we'll see what the next 12 days bring.

Also, I have bought the rulebooks for Warhammer: The Old World, as well as movement trays with spacers to adjust for the changed base sizes for the new game. I am hoping to be able to bring out my all metal orcs and goblins army and begin actually playing with them!