Finally the PDF rules for the Empire of the Dead kick starter campaign is out! I swapped out my Gentleman faction for the New Supernatural Branch. I have kept injuries and skills I have already rolled for to keep things fair. My reflections come after taking them for a spin on Monday's games night. You will notice Dan's new Sarissa Precision Buildings which he will review later on in the week.
 |
| A view down a alleyway with Sarissa Precision Buildings |
Initially looking at the Supernatural Branch I thought they were pretty similar to the Gentleman faction but why were the guys with the same stats 2 shillings more expensive! Then I quickly realised every member of the faction gets their very own Truncheon (Bludgeon) which is normally worth 3 shillings, nice!
 |
Another really cool thing is the police constable specialists! You can only have as much of these guys as your standard police constables (PC) but they have special stats. I feileded two firearm specialists, for 2 extra shillings to the standard PC's they have a marksmanship of 5. The disadvantage of this however is the standard PC's can only be equipped with pistols where PC firearms can have a shotgun, hunting rifle or repeating rifle. Other specialists include the PC net gunner and PC dog handler with his Dog.
The game
 |
| The setting |
So I whipped up my Supernatural Branch faction which you can see here (note, it will undergo changes so may not be the same as this game). They were awesome! I managed to deal allot of damage during our fracas. Some of the stars were the Firearms specialists especialy Constable Vincent with the amazing repeating rifle who took out Dan's Vice president.
 |
| Detective Inspector Gordon (Leader) and Firearms PC Vincent shooting at Dan |
The other character I thought was pretty good was the Chaplain, well in my case Chaplain Lucien! I managed to roll on the improvement table, arcane power so he had the arcane powers bless and banishment. He had the standard truncheon, pneumatic stake with strength 7, a gyrocopter and he was borrowing Rupert the insane light pistol (he had to miss a game). Lucien flew around attacking guys on the roof with his powerful weapons and using banishment to make guys about to shoot run for cover!
 |
| Lucien banashing Chris' wolfskin from the other side of the fence |
 |
| Lucien dishing out the pain on the Wolfskins |
Disapointments?
I must admit I found the Detective Constable (DC) in my case DC Lestrade a bit average. A subordinate with slightly better stats than the PC (it has 5 bravado and 4 arcane one better than the PC) and the ability informant. Informant means, once everyone has set up you can change where he is set up, which I can see as being useful at times but kinda average. He is 4 points more than the standard PC and is not able to use a heavy pistol, only light. I just felt he wasn't that amazing for those extra 4 points I spent. Plus he got taken out pretty early on in our fracas.
 |
| Detective Lestrade in his plain clothes (the brown coat) |
Conclusion
Would I recommend the Supernatural Branch? Yeah! They are an awesome edition to the game which really add to the victorian steam-punk feel. I especially like the PC specialists and the wide variety of members you can add to the faction (10 different members).
Some photos from Mondays Game
 |
| The darkfire club hanging outside of a Bar, their favorite pass time |
 |
| Lycaon in London |
 |
| Zombies in London |
 |
| More zombies! |
See more Empire of the Dead stuff here. Photos taken with a Canon 600d and standard 18-55mm lens with a macro attachment lens-cap.
Yes I felt the sting of the repeating rifle and the added marksmanship. Steve forgets to add that he won last night as well, with a finely worked tactical display. Should get the review of the buildings out later this week so stay posted.
ReplyDeleteInteresting review, and good to see some Sarissa buildings in evidence. I look forward to yuor review of these.
ReplyDeleteThe Sarrissa buildings are pretty cool! The only thing is, with lots of terrain it makes for a longer game! That isn't always a bad thing though, but with a 7 am start in the morning!
DeleteThanks Scott, I am keen to get some good terrain together for when the new models arrive later this year. The buildings are great, but I haven't quite worked out how best to paint them. Will keep you posted.
ReplyDeleteCool. Looking at the pics it looks like the brick pattern is laser etched in? In which case I think I'd paint on a base colour (brushed or sprayed), probably mid to pale grey, or cream or a brick colour, and then pin-wash the mortar joints, followed by a light base colour dry brush to tidy it up... You could wash the whole structure, and then dry brush the whole thing but these look big and thats a lot of paint!
DeleteI did actually wash the whole thing before dry brushing with the base colour - then with the paving out the front I did a lighter dry brush. What's "pin wash"? Is that just washing the mortar lines is it?
Delete