15mm Superhero Gaming - A Christmas Crisis Session Report

I ran a holiday-themed 15mm Superhero gaming session for my daughters, nieces, and nephews last year.  It had been many months since since the last of our most recent three sessions - Rise of the Dead, Desert Rescue, and When Aliens Attack.  Below are the details for this holiday adventure....

A Christmas Crisis

At the North Pole, the mistletoe was hung, the elves were busy... and trouble was brewing.... Herr Kürbiskopf's hatred of Christmas - only exceeded by his love for Halloween - threatens the holiday itself. His dastardly plan - kidnap Santa and destroy his North Pole workshop so that Halloween will be the most popular holiday. The Repulsers superhero team has been called in to safeguard Santa, protect his workshop... and save Christmas.

Superheroes:
*America Girl
*Ice Princess (with Snowflake, her ice golem)
*Star Flare
*Blue Raven
*Major Blasto

NPCs:
*Santa Claus
*Santa's Elves

Villains:
*Herr Kürbiskopf

*Zombies

Aboard the Quinjet, the team (led by America Girl) discussed the mission and formulated a plan to inform Santa about the threat.  They will prepare his elves to mount a defense of the workshop and then engage and eliminate Herr Kürbiskopf along with his zombie horde.

Ice Princess warns Santa and his elves, who are very worried and consider abandoning the North Pole.  America Girl promises to protect them and and starts mounting a defense perimeter.  Meanwhile, Blue Raven eliminates the first few zombies encountered around the defensive perimeter.  Ice Princess, Star Flare, and Major Blasto engage the zombie horde, fighting their way to Herr Kürbiskopf.  They know if they can defeat Herr Kürbiskopf's and stop his sinister magic, the zombies will all cease their macabre walk toward the workshop.  After heavy fighting, America Girl engages Herr Kürbiskopf, defeating him and the zombie threat.

Christmas is saved and Santa is safe, along with his elves and his workshop. As a reward, Santa provides a gift to each of the superheros:

• America Girl is presented a single pulse glove, providing her with a new "Pulse Glove" ranged attack,
• Major Blasto is gifted a new transport shuttle, providing future air/space transportation for the team in future missions,
• Blue Raven is provided a new companion - a cyber-raven named Evermore,
• Ice Princess is granted karate lessons, allowing her to perform a new melee attack called "Frost Strike", and  
• Star Flare is handed the keys to a fighter jet, allowing her to provide in-air protection for Major Blasto's transport shuttle, give close ground support in ground engagements, and arrive quickly to future battlefields.

Best Moments:

*America Girl demonstrates her leadership skills by rallying Santa's elves to hold the line against the zombies.

*Snowflake the ice golem, no longer suffering from the effects of his "Melting" special rule, crushes zombies left and right.

*Major Blasto lures some the zombies to the center of a frozen lake, at which point Star Flare uses her magical flame powers on the lake surface, melting the ice. The zombies fall into the lake and then are trapped beneath the surface by the surface ice, which was quickly re-frozen by Ice Princess.

Ice Princess warns Santa and his elves about the imminent danger!

America Girl holds the line against the zombies....

The zombies march toward Santa's workshop...

Snowflake - in his element - crushes the zombie invaders!

Santa provides gifts for saving his elves, his workshop... and Christmas!

Blitz Bowl Season 2 - Official Errata and FAQ!

Games Workshop has released a Blitz Bowl Season 2 Errata and FAQ on its Warhammer Community website.  It answers a wide variety of rules questions and includes a few rule changes and clarifications.

The hosts of the The Crush! podcast were officially involved in the publication - and it shows!  Matt and Jody were authors of the Santa Cruz Blitz Bowl League’s rule changes which slightly tweaked and clarified things for both balance and fun.  Their changes were heavily influenced by both their expertise and experience with the game.  These rules tweaks and clarifications have now made it into an official errata for Season 2.

You can learn more and also hear Matt and Jody discuss the Blitz Bowl Season 2 Errata and FAQ document in their podcast's Episode 24: The Official FAQisode.  I highly recommend all of their podcast episodes - each is informative and fun if you love Blitz Bowl.  As the hosts are school teachers, the style and approach of each episode is professional, educational, and interesting.  It is one of the few podcasts I listen to in normal "1x" speed in order to savor every second....

Blood Bowl: Repainted and Re-based 3rd Edition High Elf Galadrieth Gladiators from Ebay

A few months ago, I got a great deal on Ebay for some 3rd edition Blood Bowl Dwarfs that I touched-up and re-based.  Then, just a few weeks ago I came across an entire High Elf Galadrieth Gladiators team, along with Prince Moranion, that were painted well and posted for a reasonable price on Ebay.  Seeing that they were painted in the same colors scheme as the Seattle Seahawks sealed the deal, and I purchased them.

After they arrived, I realized they were painted even better than I had thought from the pictures.  I did some slight touchup, added a few details (mostly highlights), and then dipped, re-based, and flocked each model.  With just a few hours of effort, I now have a nicely painted Elf team that matches the aesthetic of the rest of my Blood Bowl teams.  I'm very happy with the results, and even bought another (Orc) team from the same seller based on how these turned out.

Classic Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures: Dark Elf Army

Over the course of the last many months I've been collecting a number of painted units from Ebay with the intention of creating a small Dark Elf Warhammer Fantasy Battle army.  Most of them were painted to a good standard, and I simply needed to touch up each unit, adding some details, re-basing, and dipping (using my normal method) for some consistency.  I added the Dark Elf Assassin I painted a few months ago, and also added a Dark Elf Repeating Bolt Thrower that I painted up a couple of weeks ago.  Finally, I printed some appropriate banners from Kinko's, and the army was complete.  I'm very happy with the minimal painting time and cost.

The figures are a mix of Citadel and Marauder Miniatures from the mid-1980s to around the mid-1990s.  My favorites are the two Doom Drakes - proto-Cold Ones - that have a more primal and fun look, (at least to me).  Finding square bases of the appropriate size will continue to be a big challenge, but I've already started buying painted units from Ebay for small Chaos, High Elf, Dwarf, and Empire forces (when the price is right).