I Have a Bad Feeling About This: Escher Chronicle Part 2

They weren't stopping to take cover or return fire.  The dumb nunks!  Her Queens had laid into them with everything they had.  Hell, she had caught one cold with a burst from Dangerboy but, he'd shrugged it off and kept coming.  Why are you too stupid to die?  Looking down the battle line she caught the first whiff of fear.  KRUMP!  The slump of shoulders smelled like defeat and was murder on hitting a target.  She was going to turn this around.  Holler down those twitchy bitches.  TINK.  Tell them to behave like queens.  TINK.  As she drew the air into her lungs for that epic command she noticed the grenade at her feet.  Then the detonation snuffed her like a candle in a hurricane.  

A living tide of vat grown muscle crashes toward them.

The Carnadon Queens ended their second engagement with a loss.  Stan's Slag Mongers,  members of much hated House Goliath got the better of them. The scenario was a Standoff like the first fight against  Ian's Blue Sun Van Saar but, this time I found myself on the other side of the fence.  In the previous battle I came up ahead in a shooting contest that statistically favored the Van Saar.  This time around my dice were giving me some hate.  Either failing to wound, or missing by a mile.  If 2s were victory I should have been playing for money.  With the clock at the shop run down I conceded, and my gang bottled out.  Had we the time to play it out it's what I would have done. The following turn would have seen my girls thumped, krumped, and serrated by a buttload of sharpened, and blunt objects.  That said, I was very lucky.  In spite a convincing defeat only Megara, my leader will be sitting the next fight out, with no lasting injuries.

Sunny Lux dispenses max plasma mayhem.

I had a bad feeling about matching the Queens against the Slag Mongers.  Goliaths are big, tough, and hard to hurt.  I chose a large gang and sacrificed some of the more glam weapon loadouts I might have had out of the gate as a result.  With a single game under my belt, and a ganger to replace I didn't manage to up-gun.  Sunny Lux, armed with her trusty plasma pistol was the only member of my gang wounding the knuckle-draggers with some modicum of confidence.  In one of my few shining moment of fortune (and paranoia from not wounding the brutes) she blasted Stan's leader at max power and didn't obliterate herself by overheating.

The Queens boldly duck, cover and fail to wound their targets if they hit in the first place.

The loss was helpful.  I learned a lot from observing Stan.  During the first game the advantage of having uncontested moves seemed clear but, some of the nuances of turn management have escaped me.  Knowing when to take advantage of Champion and Leader driven moves is critical.  Activating multiple gangers at the right time: Or doing it at all is something I have to get a feel for.  Knowing my tactics cards better, and judging when best to use them should prove invaluable in the future too.  Our game was pinched pretty tight for time, but I still shouldn't have been so miserly with them.  Unplayed cards are like having none.  I would do well to beware of gangs with higher ratings than me.  More than a 200 point deficit is painful for a new gang.  I don't think the same spread would matter as much between two more seasoned gangs.  I need to pick my battles, and pick more of them if I want to be a top dog.  Piss on that.  I want to be a top cat, or even more badass; The apex predator.

The shop has wonderful terrain.  It would be a shame not to show the unaltered image.

Coming away from our second fight my two champions scrounged enough income to purchase a long las for one of our gang members.  It's a step up from the standard pattern.  It has a little more punch even if it isn't heavy artillery, and has a fantastic reach.  I still have enough creds in my stash I could replace a missing ganger with negligible spoils from my next fight.  I'd much rather save up for something cool like a grenade launcher though.  Without having my leader blown up by one I still recognize the versatility of threat it brings to the table.

You can never have enough weapons and cats.

Earlier in the week I picked up a second box of gangers.  With my starting crew of ten ready for action I figured it would be nice to have additional models for any new Queens or equipment the gang might come across.  I converted the weapons pictured above from the remains of my first Escher sprues, plastic rod, and bitz from other kits I had on hand.  I'm pretty excited about the Phyrr Cat stand-in I found.  Someone shared it on the Escher Facebook group.  The Hydra Miniatures Alpha Panther is awesome!  Some day my gang might scrape up the credits for a pet.  If not it will make a fine addition to my raiders in This is Not a Test.

Megara with her new hat.

Once I had the new weapons made  I revisited a figure I wasn't that fond of.  Megara deserved better.  I wasn't fond of the static figure I put together for my leader, and decided I wanted something more dynamic.  The jacket wasn't cooperating but, I still needed something bossy that made her stand out from the other models.  After some rummaging I found a set of beastman horns.  With a little finagling it came together.  I was shooting for part Jungle Queen part Mola Ram and don't think it came out too shy off the mark.   Painting the first wave of models was a lot of volume to meet a tight deadline so I really enjoyed being able to take the time and personalize these new figures with some conversions.  Painting just three models at a time, rather than ten feels fantastic. 
 

Grenade launcher and Long Las bodies.

The narrative bites that bookend the article are based on in game events.  Megara's meeting with an unwanted, unwelcome grenade is straight out of the game with Stan.  The outtro is based on the rescue mission he played against Dave's Yellow Eclipse Escher gang prior to our game.  My dice were less than helpful but, can't compare to the comedic horror of Dave's inept sentries.  It hurt my soul to watch the Slagmongers ninja their way through the mission with impunity.  Stan was kind enough to provide voices for poor Dave's dull witted gangers as they made small talk and did everything in their power to avoid the elephants in their sector.  The worst offender couldn't stop talking about everyone's hair. 

Getting there.

Sunny was having a bad day. "What the feth just happened ?", she rasped.  Two lungs full of super-heated gas will do that for you;  Like a good old gargle with splintered glass.  It was a rhetorical question cause Mags wasn't listening, or doing much of anything other than being a busted wreck on the med slab.  Sunny got tagged but, Megara had bought it, ate it, and had scars to prove it.  She was on the good seds but, when she did come to she'd be madder than a bag of wet cats and looking for someone to hang for this mess.  Getting slapped by the Goliaths was bad enough but the explosion had turned her snazzy jacket into ashes.  It was her best, and only coat!  Sunny racked her brain, searching for a scapegoat to feed to her volatile, though presently comatose chief.  Bad intel.  The Slagmongers were supposed to have been down and out;  Torn up by the Eclipse  after an abortive rescue attempt.  In her mind's eye Sunny was back at the last Escher house moot.  Who said that?  It was that dumb bitch who couldn't stop talking about our hair!