Dawn of the Lead

So, Halloween is behind us, and it was a blast! We had a few friends over for gaming, too much food and a movie, and while sadly a couple of guests had to give it a miss due to a flu, the evening was a success. The movie of the evening was Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. I was seriously suspicious at first, but the movie was an absolutely brilliant 80s horror comedy that I had somehow missed until now. We ate, ate and ate some more, here are some pictures of what was on offer:

Photo by Emmi Lounela

Photo by Emmi Lounela

I did a lot of prep for the game, which in my mind was the main event of the evening (although the food and sweets most likely were it, actually), painting the last minis until 6AM Saturday morning. Even with that I wasn’t able to finish everything on time, so the priest mini you’ll see in the photos had to go on the field unbased. In the end I had most of the minis finished – pictures will follow in later posts – so we got to play the game with fully painted minis. Plenty of pictures to follow, just click on any of them for larger versions.

The game featured an unlucky town somewhere around New England in the 18th century. Every year this town gets attacked by monsters on Halloween. It’s not that big of a deal, some towns have to deal with drought, some with Indians, some with monsters, and at least the monsters attack only once a year. The scenario was very simple, with an endless stream of villagers streaming towards the village church from the edges of the board, monsters trying to catch then and five villagers armed with muskets trying to drive the monsters away. There were some bonfires scattered around the table, making life more difficult for the monsters and weakening them in combat if they got too close, with the church and the priest having a similar effect. The game lasted for 12 rounds, or the twelve tolls of the church bell on witching hour. The system we used was a simplified and streamlined version of Ganesha Games’ Fear and Faith, utilising the Song of Blades and Heroes engine.

The monsters were a werewolf, a vampire and a group of zombies. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses: the werewolf was the strongest in combat, but if he killed anyone, he had to stop for a while to savage and eat the body. The zombies were slow, but all but impervious to shooting and they added anyone they killed to their ranks. The vampire was the weakest one in combat, but usually had more actions than the others. He was also unable to go too near the bonfires and the church grounds. The villagers couldn’t kill the monsters, only drive them away momentarily by shooting – after all, the monsters were the stars of the show. The players were running the monsters, trying to gather as many points as possible by eliminating the villagers.

What followed was a riot. I don’t have a detailed report of the game, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. We saw the vampire and the werewolf rampaging around, the zombies milling around in confusion, plenty of villagers die and the monsters getting driven off several times by well-placed shots. During the entire game, only three villagers made it to the church alive, with the vampire proving to be the most efficient killer despite the werewolf collecting big points by catching the priest on the final round. Everyone really enjoyed the game, especially my girlfriend playing said vampire and trying miniature games for the first time. And NO, the game wasn’t biased…

First off, the monsters:

The zombies (Photo by Joonas Laakso)

The werewolf (Photo by Emmi Lounela)

The vampire (Photo by Emmi Lounela)

And then the game itself (photos by Emmi Lounela):

In the darkness of night, the church offers sanctuary

A villager’s eye view of the church. It’s far away and there’s a vampire waiting

The werewolf catches sight of two villagers

Will the musket be enough?

The bonfire offers meagre protection

In the woods the vampire attacks a villager

Photos by Mia Meri:

The werewolf goes after the priest and a villager

“Where is your God now?”

This lady took down two zombies – it wasn’t enough

The town’s previous priest is a little under the weather

The gentleman lines up his sights

The priest by a bonfire proved to be a tough nut to crack

Safety looms but the vampire is close behind

Divine light

…for the night is dark and full of terrors

This is what it’s all about!

Cthulhu hovers outside reality

So that’s it! We had so much fun, I definitely recommend themed games and plenty of sugar for everyone. I’ll leave you with one more horror, happy Halloween everyone!