GAMING NEWS: A Tale From The New World of Lustria!

.A view from the endless jungles and swamps of Lustria.

Hi All,

My latest gaming enjoyment has come from a Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) / Mordheim / Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish gaming campaign I’ve been playing with guys from the local DodT club… it’s been a blast. And, of course, we’re only about a year late and a few Dollars short since GW ran their Lustria campaign season AT LEAST a year ago, but what the heck! We’re having a good time! One of the little joys from the campaign has been to read some pretty fantastic short fiction written in the form of battle reports from our campaign.

Here’s a gem that I really enjoyed:

“First Blood: A Story From One Of the Empire’s Conquistadors”
By: Mr. Thomas Foss Esquire the Third

Defender of the Realm, Drinker of Fine Beer & Clown-o-phobe.

It was hot - dreadfully hot. It reminded Captain Jan Carlos Flikker of standing next to the Heretic fires with his mother, back in his homeland of Castillia. Now he was wading through jungles and swamps halfway across the world, scouting for an elector count and trying to earn enough gold to get back his commission and form a new regiment of pistoliers. To do that, you curry favor of the Count - and that means gold and weird stone - and lots of it. And everyone knows that both are flowing out of the New World known as Lustria!

“Captain - we have found some ruins!” called out one of his swordsmen.

Flikker’s small but able scout party, like his own bloodline, was a mix of Castillian and Marienburger soldiers. Hire the best swordsmen and the best marksmen, and you get a war band that can deal with most anything.

As the group of ten soldiers fanned out into the clearing, the scouting party could see two temples, one about the size of a house, the other the size of a small church. Between them in the center was a large rectangular stone pool. It actually looked clean enough to be inviting. One of his three marksmen pointed his musket towards the opposite edge of the jungle. Movement - lots of it.

Like a lancer at full gallop, half dozen brightly colored lizards sprang from the jungle and dove into the pool with barely a splash. To both left and right larger lizard creatures, one with a brilliant red fan crest, bounded and skittered towards the warriors, using the jungle’s edge for cover. With professional ease, Flikker ordered his three gunners to shoot the creatures swimming towards them in the pool, the angle of fire was difficult, affecting no hits. The rest of the party fanned out to both sides, pistols, axes and swords ready.

Franz, one of the champions, was hit by an arrow but it glanced off of his armor and only knocked him down. A hail of small arrows erupted from the pool raining down on a gunner that did not make it to cover in time; he fell with an arrow through his throat.

Two large lizards broke out on the right flank and charged the Castillian swordsmen, who managed to hold them off and return blows. Firing his pistol into the pool at the swarm of small lizards who were the cause of the bow fire, Flikker and two of his heroes ran to the aid of the swordsmen, only to be knocked down and stunned by another hail of arrows. At the same time a swordsman ran his blade clean through a big lizard.

Franz, halberd in hand got the attention of the lizards in the pool by standing alone at the edge and taunting them. The small lizards stopped their firing for a moment and looked up at him, giving the marksmen just enough time to draw bead and drop two of them. Blood started mixing with the water.

On the Left flank, held only by an archer and the champion Carl, who was also knocked down by bow fire, came three man-sized lizards - one of them appearing to cast spells. Before they could get too close, Carl fired his pistol dropping one on the ground with a huge hole it it’s chest. A loud bellow rang from the Lizard with the red crest- his throat expanded into a large ball, reminding Flikker of a frog, or that Nurgling that exploded when he shot it, a few campaigns ago. All the lizards heard it too - and just as quickly as they closed in on the war band, they skittered away and into the jungle, leaving one of their own floating in the pool.

Carl helped revive one of his swordsmen who got clobbered by a large stone club. The hand gunner was not so fortunate, having bled out from the neck wound. After securing the perimeter and chastising one of the marksmen for even asking if the lizards were good eating, Flikker sat down, took off his boots and dangled his feet in the water. “Go search the temple, lads. Anything shiny belongs to us!”

It was going to be a long campaign, but after this skirmish the coffers were much fuller. Now to see about replacements - luckily the army has plenty of hand gunners.

And here’s a short and very probably incomplete list of our players with their armies and “action film” names:

The Dagger Brothers
Aron C. – Vampire Counts
“Ritchie Dagger”
Nils – Beast of Chaos
“Harry Dagger”
Thomas F. – Empire
“Perry Dagger”

The Butz Brothers
John R. – Lizardmen
“Seymour Butz”
Peter G. – Wood Elves
“Harry Butz”
Rob B. - Lizardmen
"Lakshmi Butz"

The Other Brothers
John S. – Slann
“Johnny Sunnyside”
Maksim-Smelchak –
Vampire Counts
“Ezer Shtuyot”
(Hebrew for "What rubbish!")
R-Cap - Skaven
“Mike Rotch”

And the story itself was written by none other than the infamous Thomas Foss, one of the proprietors of Flagship Games, one of the most fun game companies around and the creators of Pirates!, Gunfight! and a number of other well-loved gaming rule sets.

You can learn more about Flagship Games here:
http://www.flagshipgames.com/

Have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Hi Rod & Karly!

P.S.S.
I’m going to Rivercats baseball game tonight so I’m excited – my first professional baseball game ever! Peanuts and Cracker Jacks and all that!

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).