Strange Aeons demo game AAR

Anders at our club asked me to demo the game since he was thinking about making a companion thing out of it for his Trail of Cthulhu RPG games - or something like that. So I dusted off some of my old demo game notes and profiles from a few years back at a convention here in Sweden.

It's a custom scenario with two objectives. The main objectives is for the Threshold agents to destroy a weird cult stirring up some problems in the outback. The secondary objective was for the character of professor Armitage to enter the nearby crypt and dungeon crawl through it to find the Necronomicon - a book that only he can recognize. It was played on the usual 2x3' area that is standard for Strange Aeons

The Threshold team was made up of:

Hunter Wylie (Command, Animal Handler, Inspire)
.45 handgun with hollow point bullets, bowie knife.

Professor Henry Armitage (Speak languages)
.22 handgun, bowie knife, tight boots

Ike Madison
Bowie knife,  Hunting rifle, Lucky hat

Rufus (Attack dog)

Lurkers were made up of:

Cultist leader (Improved command)
Sacrificial blade

3x Cultists (2 with Axes, 1 with Crossbow)

1x Fishman

Additional lurkers ( 1D6 of zombies populated the crypt, and 1 random monster was guarding the final room with the Necronomicon). These would be spawned only if the Threshold team entered the crypt.
....

With only one single cultist armed with a ranged weapon it looked hard on the outset, but it didn't take long for both sides to clash in close combat. Only a couple of shots were fire before the Lurkers began charging the Threshold agents.

The first charge made by the Fishman failed to kill or scare agent Ike Madison, but unfortunately for the Threshold team Professor Henry Armitage was injured and removed from the game almost immediately due to a lunatic cultist leaping at him with an axe. With Armitage out of the game there was no reason for the heroes to even consider going down the crypt and risk their necks, so they focused on their main objective - killing the cultist leader.

This proved to be easier said than done, Ike Madison was fighting off both a Fishman and a cultist at the same time. Finally the cultist perished from a mortal blow, at the same time Hunter Wylie was fighting the assailant who had injured Armitage - that cultist too was defeated. Things then became more difficult fighting the Fishman.

Wylie was trashed badly and ended up face up on the ground, the Cultist Leader now charged to help out the Fishman in the fight against the heroes just as Rufus the attack dog made a charge of his own to protect his master from the Fishman. Through sheer ferocity the little dog managed to bite the Fishman to death by first knocking him face down and then finishing him off! Sadly for Rufus his master was removed as a casualty thanks to the Cultist leader, who proceeded to defeat Ike Madison and then in a final fight the attack dog which was the last remaining member of the Threshold team.

The cult had prevailed and the Threshold team had failed both their objectives.

...

I talked at great length with Anders prior to and after the game about what I thought were the strong and weak points of Strange Aeons and threw around some ideas for how you could perhaps add "Sanity" to the profile of characters to make it similar to the Arkham Horror themed boardgames. Anders who is going to play this game with people who doesn't normally play miniature wargames appreciated the relative simplicity of the combat, and I did point out that the strongest aspect of the game are the profiles for agents and monsters as well as the scenarios which are great.

I did however say that my main gripe with the game nowadays after having played it a lot earlier, is mainly the points cost of things that I find causes a difficult balance situation. Even though the game perhaps should be tilted in the favor of the heroes to progress the campaign and so on I still find it that many specialized characters such as Lurker wizards, cult leaders etc aren't worth the points since they are too fragile and limited in use. Spells being "one use/attempt to use" only  and the way the "command" can be very powerful for the agents can and do imo cause some friction. Some games can also be over within minutes due to really good/bad die rolls.

I could not come up with any quick or easy "fix" to reshape some parts of the rules, but I would probably start with the points cost. The second thing I would rework is most likely unit activation, to make it a bit more equal and to give large mobs without command a fighting chance. At the moment the Lurker player has to upgrade his units to a "mob" for additional points in order to move larger amount of figures during a single activation, I have found this to make Lurker lists that aren't very strong to begin with - to lose points and become weaker.

There is a lot of good stuff in Strange Aeons and it can be played straight "out of the box" as it is, but after having played it for a long time I wanted something a bit more advanced in terms of rule mechanics.

Pumpkinheaded killer scarecrows all finished

Last two pumpkinheaded killer scarecrows are painted up, pictures of the whole gang can be seen below. For the sake of comparison, I also too a picture of the "sackheaded killer scarecrows" which I bought and painted for my own collection a long time ago (with added weapons).

A picture with a West Wind 28mm innkeeper to show the size of the scarecrows (they are taller than a regular human).

Pumpkinheaded killer scarecrows (2 out of 4)

Something I'm painting as a late birthday present for a friend of mine. The miniatures are from 28mm West Wind models from the excellent   "Gothic Horror" range. Not exactly sure what he is going to use them for, but he mentioned Empire of the Dead/Strange Aeons/Mordheim, games which I think they will fit right in with little effort.

I have two more to paint and will post them tomorrow. These are actually the first miniatures that I have painted in a month’s time. Didn’t paint anything during my blog break as I was all consumed by working the “Poland in Flames” campaign book.

Strange Aeons mini campaign part III: Showdown

The story so far...

The hike back to the tunnel exit past the dead Serpent worshippers was gruesome, however the agents were surprised to find the local blacksmith waiting for them by the cavern entrance where the Antiquarian was being tended by agent Helmer.

"I hear you're here to put an end to the trouble in these hills" the man said, agent Stotzfus nodded. "Follow me, I know which cave they use as their lair - my brother who lives near the hillside told me he spied them walking in and out carrying all sorts of strange objects in the dead of night".

Joined by the burly Blacksmith, a welcome strongman in a band of men who were not keen to get in close with an enemy, the Threshold team followed him to the correct cavern - guns raised they entered the tunnel, it soon started sloping downwards and the daylight faded behind them until it disappeared completely behind a sudden turn...

Trouble...

Distant chanting could be heard, the cavern was also apparently filled with numerous cultists and whatever twisted horrors they might have summoned to help them protect their lair. The Threshold agents soon ran into the first guardians and a wild shootout began.

The cultists, robed and using archaic weapons were no real match for the Colt 1911 armed agents who moved from cave to cave following the tunnels. The cave was huge, living quarters dotted the area, crates with food and weird objects littered the whole place and someone had hauled furniture up the hill and down these halls to make it a bit more endurable to live in.

The first section of the cave cleared the agents ran across an old burial ground, probably colonial era tombs judging by the style of the stonecutting. And haunted. Again agent Stotzfus showed his determination and quickly moved in to cleanse the tomb and put the spectre to rest. The Threshold agents soon ran into more cultists, no doubt attracted to the noise from the previous battle. These untrained minions proved little trouble for the seasoned and hardened agents - but then a grotesque slimy tentacled pile of meat squeezed itself through the tunnels. The Antiquarian went pale as the blood drained from his face, though it could have been all that blood splattered on the floor as well, he had hemaphobia after all. But no, everyone with common sense knew they were in deep trouble then a Formless Thing appeared in front of them blocking their further passage.

The men unleashed a panicked salvo of pistol fire and shotgun shells, blasting as many stalagmites as they inflicted hits on the slithering beast that moved ever closer. As they all ran out of ammo and started frenetically to reload their weapons their jaws dropped as the blacksmith jumped the monster and started beating his hammer into what would probably be the face of the beast again and again and again. The rage and growling was partially drowned by the squealing noise that the monster made as each blow of the hammer struck true, smashing and causing internal damage to the formless lump of meat until it stopped moving much to the astonished Threshold team. The mess can't be described, the Antiquarian fainted and Woodrow puked in a corner. Stotzfus nodded in grim approval at the bloodstained blacksmith which was trying to calm down and breathe normally again.

And so the team went deeper down the cavern halls, a bloated zombie rose from the water and moved towards them but was quickly dispatched by a bullet to the head, however the passage leading to the ritual chamber was hiding even more of the walking dead, their growls and the sound of their dragging feet sent a chill down the blacksmith's spine and the man finally realized the danger and ran in the other direction - letting the agents armed with guns handle the new threat.

Agent Woodrow went in, shotgun raised but the gun clicked and he was attacked and injured by one of the zombies, dragging himself to safety he watched as agent Stotzfus put a bullet in one of the zombies, and then the battlecry of the blacksmith as he ran past them all and crushed the skulls of the remaining zombies - he must have mustered up some courage or realized that the team was in danger. In any case the man moved quickly down the tunnel, Stotzfus closely behind. They ran into a large ritual chamber where a mysterious figure in yellow was standing flanked by two cultists.

Not waiting the blacksmith ran up to the altar and started fighting them both, Stotzfus tried to pick a clear shot but was unable to. It didn't matter, the blacksmith hammered his enemies to death and then moved up to the cult leader and after a brief pause smashed the last still breathing enemy in the whole cave.

The cave was cleared, the threat was destroyed, and once the Antiquarian came around a lot of valuable items were discovered - Arkham museum would probably fill another exhibition room with mysterious statues and carvings.

The agents thanked the burly blacksmith for his help before they parted ways and began their journey back to Arkham, bruised, cut, shot, some with pukebreath, but they were all alive.