Memoir '44: Hill 112

After "Capturing the Crossing", Patrick and I continued along the first leg of the Memoir '44 Campaign chapter, The Battle of Normandy, which spans from June 25th through July 11th. To date, my Allies have not won any of the 4 missions in this chapter.

The 3rd mission of the 4 was Withdrawing from Hill 112, which we played a few months ago. I didn't bother with a write-up since it was a total drubbing, the Allies being trounced and routed before Patrick's Germans in short order. I'd like to say that our fight could've gone both ways but it just seems like Patrick's Axis had some strategy and paired tactics in mind that were executable, while I did not. Thus ends 3/4 of the chapter and the end to Operation Epsom.

At the time in 1944 when Hill 112 happened, Monty was trudging through Operation Epsom, The British 11th Armored division meeting the German 9th as well as 2 SS formations of the 10th and Das Reich. In real life this battle and the following were gains of attrition over real estate, that swapped land owners more times than can be told and saw thousands upon thousands of casualties (which recreates itself in our fight, given that figures are percentages of unit strength at map scale).

While my Allies never won a mission so far, and ended up low on the medal counts as proof, the feeling of expensive victory came through; my performance was certainly the example of how bad things could have went for the Allies as they fought inland.

 After Withdrawing from Hill 112 we were set for a return to the Cornwall Wood, Hill 112 and the opening fight of Operation Jupiter, a 6 medal game.

So, following the campaign tree, the Allies have one more chance to shore up their French countryside before the next chapter in the campaign. On to Hill 112...

Board at game start

Victory Event Rolls: PG 6 of Memoir '44 Campaign Book 1

·         Axis Results: Remove 2 Allied figures of Axis choice, Pat took one tank and an artillery unit from my British units.

·         Allied Results: I removed 1 figure from the 102nd heavy panzer battalion at Maltot, one less Axis command card to start.

 Play Reserve Tokens:

·         Axis player results: Special Reserve Rolls, Star and Tank=Elite Panzer unit for Reserves.

·         Allied player results: Make one unit an Elite British unit.

Allied Turn 1: Played Barrage card, took out half artillery unit

Axis Turn 1: Played Dig In card. Added 3 Sandbags, 3 infantry and 1 tank. Draw two cards after play.

Allied Turn 2: Played Recon in Force card. Tanks advanced, attacked Fontaine, Hill 112, no casualties

Axis Turn 2: Played Attack card, 3 units his right flank. Infantry close assaults tanks, down to 2. Artillery takes out remainder.

Axis Armored Assault

Allied Turn 3: Played Assault card, all units Allied Right flank. Armored attack up onto Hill 112, take Temporary Objective medal, ¼ of Axis infantry unit KO’d

Axis Turn 3: Played Armored Assault card. Attacking uphill 112 minus die for hill, gained die back for Armored assault, Shermans safe. Allied Shermans Left flank totally destroyed.

Allies: Probe, elite Panzergrenadiers redueced to half strength, retreat.

Allied Turn 4: Played Probe card, 2 units Allied left flank. Infantry flanked West, Armor East. Attacked Elite Panzer grenadier unit, reduced from 4 to two, German retreat.

Axis turn 4: Played Close Assault card. Axis Right flank infantry assaulted, destroyed Sherman, rest fled, one flag.

Axis Turn 4: Dug-in German infantry repel Sherman attack on Hill 112, 1/3 Shermans retreat, lose Medal objective

MEDAL COUNT: Axis 2, Allied 0

Board view turn 5

Allied Turn 5: Played Attack card, 3 units center, envelop Panzer unit, destroyed for medal.

Axis Turn 5: Played Attack card, 3 units center. Panzer unit sweeps up remaining Sherman unit, armor overruns into infantry for 1 hit.

Axis: Panzers overrun Sherman unit and attack field infantry. The Allies tried for the Hill objective medal many times and drove the Axis medal count up as a result.

Allies advance, combined arms attack and destroy a Panzer unit in one go. Infantry hesitate to leave the safety of the treeline and fail to advance towards Hill 112.

Allied Turn 6: Played Attack card, 2 units center, tank from woods and infantry unit. Infantry advances up the hill, tanks roll from woods. Eliminated panzers for point. Forgot to take ground with troops into vacant square towards Hill 112.

Axis Turn 6: Played Counter Attack card, 2 units center. Panzer Corp eliminates Sherm unit, Armored overrun, 2 hits on Allied infantry. Panzers center reduce Shermans by 1 on three dice. Whew.

Axis Turn 6: German armor advances against Allies across center

Allied turn 7: Played Recon card, 1 unit left flank. Infantry flanked Panzers, one hit, 1 flag. Drew two cards and then discarded Armor Assault since I have 1 tank on board, kept Probe 2 Center.

Axis Turn 7: Played Recon card, 3 dice on sole Sherman, retreat. Panzers armored advanced, attacked again, gained medal.

Allied Turn 8: YO JOE!!!!

 Allied turn 8: Played Behind Enemy Lines card, flanked Panzers, eliminated 2 on hit and flag (no retreat) Advanced again to Hill 112, took temporary objective medal. 2^nd time in game.

Axis turn 8: Played Recon card, 1 center… 1 hit, flag, Allied retreat off hill. Panzers take hill regain temp objective medal again.

Axis Turn 8: Hill 112 is ours... again.

Allied Turn 9: Played Probe card, 2 in center. Messed up activation. Artillery fired on Hill 112 panzer retreat. Sole infantry 2 flags on panzers.

Axis Turn 9: Played Recon in Force card, 1-1-1. Sole infantry wiped out for Axis win.

Allied Turn 9: Damn it. That understrength British infantry unit valiantly repels the Panzers amidst a danger-close Allied barrage on their position (which drove back the elite Panzergrenadiers too) but their fate was inevitable. Axis win.

End of Chapter: Decisive Victory, Allied surrender.

Grand Campaign Results: Move on to The Breakout mission in next chapter, encompassing Battle for Saint Lo, Operation Cobra & Unternehemen Luttich (pg. 24 of Campaign Book Volume 1).

Well, the Allies didn't win one game (of 4) through the "Flanking Caen" chapter. Although the Reserves and Victory Events rolls coupled with the Grand Campaign rules really added some depth to the standard Memoir '44 game, it still came down to execution, as is true for all things.

As the Allied player I am comforted by the fact that historically, Allied victories over this historical time period (which I missed repeating here) saw victory on a knife's edge for both sides. While Pat essentially floored the Allies, he didn't roll over me. A combo of bad Allied luck offset by good Allied strategy (but bad tactics) plus German determination (Degermanation?) resulted with the both of us empathizing with the slog both sides saw in Europe over the summer of '44, which I think is a goal with this game. All-in-all, great games so far!

Stay tuned for the next chapter, the Allied push to Saint Lo, July 11th 1944!

Pat takes the spent M1 Garand brass as a trophy. Jerk.

Strange Aeons: Game 2, "Treasure Hunt"

In my last game of Strange Aeons, we rolled Treasure Hunt. That evening was my team's second game and at 16 points, it seemed like I would be able to cruise with a good chance of winning. All I found was death and sorrow (which includes the Burger King stop on the way home).

I don't have many pics because the game was over pretty much when it started. I played T, Pete and Trish's teenage son, whose pseudo-indifferent ass-beating style both enrages me and leaves me in awe. The sides:

Threshold Team :

1. Agent Connery:Bowie knife, twin .45's, Heroic, Stat Decrease & Two Fisted (Ranged).
2. Agent Petri: 45, bowie knife and Tommy Gun, Heroic.
3. William Forsythe: .22 and bowie knife

Lurkers:

1. Cult Leader with .22
2. Cultist with .22
3. Cultist with shottie
4. Night Gaunt

The Board: The old Hetfield place sits alone and dark as the Threshold agents Connery, Petri and civilian William Forsythe approaches from the South. Here, the board is separated into zones, any of which may contain treasure, assuming the Threshold are left alone to search for it.

Awesome terrain and Lurkers minis by Pete Ceretti

Threshold straddles the sections of the board, readying to search for the artifact mentioned in William's father's journal...

The Night Gaunt closes way faster than anticipated. I seriously misjudged the distance it could cross and left Petri just inside the daemon's Charge range, which it promptly did. It crossed the board and got into melee with Agent Petri before anybody had a chance to shoot at it. A critical blunder was forgetting that when Petri won a combat he could have backed off and allowed everyone to shoot the damned thing. Instead, he stayed toe-to-paw with the beast and paid for it in blood. The Night Gaunt took Petri's tommygun from him, broke it half and then handed it back to him, thanks to Destroy Weapon. Great.

Agent Connery watches as Petri's face is shredded and Forsythe is torn to bloody bacon ribbons.

Upon seeing Petri leaving the game with a minor injury, Connery failed his Resolve check and charged the Night Gaunt with Frenzy. It took double attacks (plus his popped Heroic) for Connery to run trains of 6's +CC bonus but it didn't matter, he was outclassed in melee (thanks to the Gaunt's Parry) and could only come close to besting the creature. The Night Gaunt eventually took Connery out.

So William Forsythe III met his doom at the paws of a frantic Night Gaunt, trying to intercept a coup de grace when Agent Petri was laid low by the grey daemon. They never once tried to find the artifact, they were too busy fighting the Night Gaunt that crossed the board at tickle-speed. While Agent Petri recovered from his wounds at a Massachusetts hospital (at taxpayer expense) the Forsythe family had a second burial in as many weeks, the previous being Williams father, also an archaeological professor, murdered by their maniac butler and secret congregant of the Church of Dagon, Wannamaker. A strange symmetry was at play in the Wannamaker family too, as his brother, a Threshold conscript, died to a Formless Thing on the old Hetfield place. The slain officer's wife has joined Pete's Threshold team, eager for revenge for her husband and absolution for her brother-in-law's insane evil.

Somewhere in his office deep in the Northeast safehouse, Agent Connery stared at his twin .45's and obsessed over the dread he was feeling about ever firing them again and how different things would be if only he squeezed those triggers at ol' Hetfield's place...

So, 1 win one loss, Petri has a full recovery (but with facial scars) and Connery has Ballistophobia. Just another day at the office....

Facial scars for Petri!

New Tommygun for Petri!

Strange Aeons Battle Report: Chapter 1, "Nice Shot Back There"

This is the first Battle report for Strange Aeons that I played with my group, with my Threshold team facing Pete's Lurkers. This was a standard 15BP start on both sides, with all minis and terrain painted/assembled by the fantastic Pete Ceretti. The mission was Fight with Pete going first. Special rules include 1 Action to open the Cemetery Gate and walls giving a Medium cover save. We didn't use Advanced Rules in this game. Since the game was over in 28 minutes and was mostly double moves until the shootout at the OK Corral, I thought a narrative start would be a good report while setting the stage for the story arc of future games. The condensed results are the picture captions. 

15BP List

Lurker:

Maniac

Cult leader (.45 and knife)

Cultist (knife)

Cultist (.22)

Threshold:

Agent Connery (Character, Lucky, Two Fisted, twin .45’s)

Agent Petri (Lucky, Tommy gun)

Civilian William Forsythe (.22)

 Threshold Agent Connery, Agent Petri and William Forsythe, PhD had spent the last five minutes following the dull ruts of the overgrown carriage path through a twilight rain, where it emerged abruptly from the greyish-green bracken onto a large field behind the dark, hazy church. Connery scanned the old grounds for movement amidst the growing shadows and early Fall drizzle, deftly drawing his twin blued 45’s and cocking their hammers, as one, in practiced silence. Petri had already unslung his Thompson submachine gun back around the bend, him already having added a fresh drum and charged the weapon, the noise buried beneath creaking tree limbs, chirping cricket calls and the mounting hiss of rainfall on canopy. Petri looked out from under his dripping fedora hat, to see if they were followed, though he already knew they were not. 

Top to Bottom: open grave, Connery, Petri, Forsythe

 Forsythe could only start at every snap of twig, tik-tak of falling leaves or the crunch of Summer-dried turf beneath his feet. He had done fieldwork as part of his degree and had an eye for it but perhaps not so in this state of affairs. He took in the scene. The wet hay of summer's grass smelled like warm tea as the rain bands came in on a chilly wind. To their right was a freshly-erected tombstone that glistened bone white with veins of green and a yawning, slimy grave, halfway opened in the wounded old ground like the rictus maw of the dead. Forsythe held his dad’s pistol out ahead of him as his father had taught, the cloying hint of lubricant riding over the wet rot smell that wafted upon the cooler air of the damp woods behind them.

His father was dead now but he would not be buried here, if it was the last thing Forsythe did; though he estimated it may very well be. In his trouser pocket clinked the medal of St. Anthony which was attached to the key of his late father’s new automobile, parked on the fire road back up on the hillside from where they had started. 

Agent Connery nudged his elbow into Forsythe’s chest, gaining his attention. “There are no rules here now, boy-o. You got us this far and we appreciate it. I’ll ask you one more time to leave it to us. We believe what you say now but you are in the same kind of danger that your dad was in this morning.” Forsythe felt Petri’s large, affable hand on his shoulder. Connery continued, “So, if you stay you listen to us and don’t do anything more stupid than coming with us to begin with.” Forsythe didn’t reply so Connery reached over and pinned a deputy badge on the breast of Forsythe’s jacket, uttering, “May as well make it legal, lad.”

As Forsythe nodded, Petri hissed, “Look, behind the tool shed. Looks like your butler Wannamaker has our scent. They must know now, he’s louder than a train wreck.” A jangling shape crashed between the tall grasses in the field above the church, assailing the sky with hoots and yells. Connery tisked, “They don’t know we’re here. He’s running around their graveyard in a dervish, so they have to be coming out for a look. Let’s use it to our advantage.” Petri smiled at that, gently moving Forsythe’s absent-minded pistol out of his own face.

Petri squinted and nodded towards the church, “The circus is back in town.” Men who wore dark purple cowls of The Church of Dagon appeared from the right side of the grounds, cautiously searching around and making for the graveyard between them and the Threshold agents. Petri counted how many men were bearing arms. They still had not spotted the agents but all were armed with something. One yelled at Wannamaker and made a motion like he was shooing a dog. Connery got up from his crouch and started sprinting to the low wall of the graveyard, yelling back, “Last chance! No?!? Let’s go!!!!”

Threshold uses their actions to make for the cover of the graveyard

Wannamaker looses it and tears towards the Threshold group

 They moved as one, pacing off the slower Forsythe but made the wall just as Wannamaker howled and started down the gentle rise from the tool shed, twigs and debris in the air as he drove at them from the left, in full mania. Petri watched him come in with one eye and yelled to Connery, “Best make the tombs in the graveyard! Other side of the wall!” Petri flowed inside smoothly and Connery pulled Forsythe around the slick rock wall into a row of large, pitted crypts overgrown with weeds and ivy. The insane Wannamaker exploded down the groundskeeper’s path like an emaciated gorilla, driving forward, waving a large cleaver and hollering random nonsense words, “Caught! Catch! Squeeze! Spread! Bleed! Father! Son! All or none!”

The maniacal Wannamaker uses both actions to run down his cowering prey

Connery was watching the cultists sprinting towards the main cemetery gates, their eyes wide, unblinking and white through their hoods, their ritual knives glinting as they ran. They had to be stopped, their dark rites could not reach fruition tonight in the catacombs below.

Connery and Petri started firing at the cultists, spall erupting along the grey stone walls and pulpy holes popped in the evil, wormy tree trunk next to the graveyard doors. Petri stood square with the door atop a tomb, trench coat hiked back behind his holstered .45 and tommy gun chattering out steadily, walking “ropes” of bullets around the walls and doors with great effect, eliciting howls from the cultists who tried to hide from the onslaught but were caught surprised by the storm of lead. Connery moved behind Petri, adding expert shots with both pistols, each slide cycling off-time with Petri’s machine gun. It sounded like a war as casings spattered through the rain to the muddy ground around them, their gaze never wavering from the cultists.… with their backs to the closing maniac. 

Connery and Petri pass their sanity check within 5" of the maniac and blaze at the closing Cultists across the wall but even with Connery's command, Forsythe goes Catatonic with fright

Forsythe was frozen in fear as Wannamaker, his father’s butler, bounded in slow motion up to the other side of his wall, his face contorted in amygdala hijacking, impossibly ugly, inhuman and swinging the meat cleaver that killed his father that morning… and it was still stained with blood. William Forsythe’s pistol felt miles away in his hand, tremors and vertigo seemed to shudder him on the spot as the lunatic murderer started to scrabble up the wall, growling, “Meet! Meat! Greet! Eat!” At that, Forsythe blacked out, falling onto the tomb as Connery and Petri blazed their weapons at the cultists pushing on the mossy, oaken doors of the entrance.

Petri saw that Forsythe had collapsed as he looked over his shoulder, yelling, “Wannamaker!” Connery spun and pumped his pistols at Wannamaker who yelped, then crumpled to the lawn, alternating between mewling and roaring.

Wannamaker is wounded as Forsythe recovers from Catatonia

Gaining his feet, Forsythe stood, just as Wannamaker surged up at the same time, a large swatch of his face removed by Connery’s .45 and dribbled the grey masonry of the wall with blood. Forsythe didn’t so much aim as put his gun as close to Wannamaker as he dared, hesitating. He closed his eyes and heard his dad say, “… just squeeze” as he fired. Connery saw Forsythe hesitating and fired at the same time as Forsythe missed, putting one shot into the maniac’s skull with a loud thwack and bloom of red, then turned to the cultists swarming through the open door.

Wannamaker dies just as the Cultists pay their Actions to open the gate and swarm in. Next turn saw Agents Connery and Petri use both of their Heroic skills at once, adding another action for shooting each. It made the difference between a clean win or dying horribly in a pincer trap. 3x double .45 shots and 9 dice of Tommy Gun is no joke at 15 points.

Forsythe opened his eyes and peered over the wall, seeing a blackish diamond of gore on the ground, an awkwardly folded corpse in a dark butler’s suit. A sense of vengeance swelled his pride as he turned and saw Connery take a knee next to Petri who stood over his fellow agent, shooting into the charging cultists and killing the screaming, stumbling pile with strafing strobes of fire and sound. 

Even the dice were maniacs and refused to settle down but in the end, the cultists caught all of the Threshold bullets and the forces of good remained unscathed.

Magazine depleted, Petri set down his smoking Thompson, drew his .45 and stood still waiting for new targets. Connery had already reloaded and policed the bodies, including Wannamaker, retrieving the ancient map from the mad servant’s coat, that which Forsythe had claimed stolen from his father. Forsythe started to speak but Connery cut him off, speaking to the dead men at his feet, “He’s not here. He’s not here.”

At that, a motorcar tried to start in front of the church but wasn’t turning over in the damp air. Petri was already pulling out the satchel charge as he legged it towards the church, trench coat flapping out broadly, like an eagle taking off. Connery started after him but Forsythe, renewed by Wannamaker’s death, grabbed his arm. “Wait! Where are you going?” Connery, halted by the vitality in Forsythe’s tone, answered, “We’ve got to stop them before they go. What do you have in mind?” Forsythe’s brow furrowed under pressure and thought out loud, “They are leaving… because they can. We could not have stopped whatever they are doing. They were committed to this and so if they are running, it means they can, that they have another option. If they did not they would be fighting to the death now, right? It follows that Wannamaker didn’t have the only scroll. We need to let them go so we can find their other option! I only knew of this coven, as did you. We need to find the other one. There is only one route back to town they would take which happens to run past the fire road on which we parked. We can get to my dad’s auto and follow them!” Connery pursed his lips as the rain pattered on his face and said, “You mean your auto.” He considered the lack of counter-attack and the dark automobile now moving through the trees away from them. “You may be right. Petri? Bring it down and let’s go.” Petri pulled the primer cord and fell back to the graveyard walls, muttering a prayer in Italian, clomping up to them with a stop just as the dynamite detonated behind him. The fieldstone building tumbled down, filling the sub cellars in tons of rock, timber, fire and dust. He exclaimed, “What the hell are we doing? Dissertation?” Connery laughed and said, “Something like that. The professor here has a plan. I knew we brought him with us for a reason. Petri, you’re driving. And Forsythe… nice shot back there.”

To Be Continued!

The Threshold team discovers 1 map piece in the end phase... the trail is still hot!

Give it up folks, for the Threshold and also to Pete for the amazing terrain and figs!

Adventure 40k End Times? Or Appropriate Skull and Groin Trauma?

This was my wish list for next Edition, prior to my seeing the “Leaked” 6^th Edition ruleset on Scribd: I sorta see advance deploy, deep striking and the like becoming more strategic and less tactical, more like how it works in Apocalypse, when staring at it from the current core rule set. I think what I have been discussing with my buds, our wish list of changes, would be for 40K to have more “free” usable items to really create plays. As it is, there are so many things that 40K offers for games that are too damn risky because the detriments usually crush what little benefit pays out if there is success. When I say risk I mean what seems unfair risk. It is a usability issue disguised as a balance problem. Case in point, Deep Strike. It's almost a joke. So many races are offered it and so few can use it in characterful ways. If a race can't realistically use it without wearing space marine armor or riding a spore into the ground then keep it out of my differences for my points totals and give me something I can use outside of buying yet another model that gives me the board effect I want in Deep Strike, etc.

Then today my boy John sends me the “Leaked” 6^th Edition ruleset on Scribd. I’m sure many of you have seen it already and have decided if it is real, has merit, etc. I ate my sandwich and started reading that vehicle damage table since, you know, that's practically part of my IG codex.

Then I read the rest of it. 

Here are some observations from a pedestrian player to his immediate friends at all levels who play, not the homeless tourney hookers. I’m only interested in changes that may bring faster, more conclusive and less slogging play, which better translates to a good story, so I like the following that I see in this leaked, possibly-real document:

1.       Evasion and Patch Up are interesting. More later but I want to say that first.

2.       Airborne, page 47. That is basically jump troops that never have to land and take terrain tests but still benefit from terrain. Finally in the spirit of some models and fluff, dare I say intuitive representation?

3.       Movement, assault and shooting is the turn order now. This I liked when I heard it before but consensus was it seemed to indicate a fan-produced fraud. Still, this seems solid design. Not sure about authenticity either way but I think it has merit when stacked with Evasion, revised Deep Strike, Reserves. More below.

4.       Flyers have rules now as do Agile for large creatures and Eldar Titans. Funny to see them cited in a main rulebook, pg 54 of this leaked thing. Yup, Titans, Flyers and Superheavies are all in this set of main rules, so they are now peeled from Apocalypse and exist in the core rules. This seems right, now that I think of it, since GW just went wild releasing plastic flyers now and superheavy kits over the past year.

5.       Wow, reserves are drastically changed, to the tune of resource management: You have a pool of dice for all units in reserve. You can allocate up to 3 dice to each unit and use those dice for making reserve rolls, in effect choosing who gets better odds of showing up. Pg 137.

6.       Deep Strike has changed. You can deep strike units outside of 18" of an enemy and they just stick the landing? Win. If you try within 18" you do the scatter roll bit. Deep striking units that successfully land 12" away from a unit or close can trigger a Defensive Fire action from that threatened unit. Sweet.

7.       Strategems and fortifications are in this too, which originated from City Fight and Apocalypse.

8.       Weathered Bastion pg 147 sounds exactly like the bastion I built years ago but never finished. Now we have stats for it and it's official, assuming this is all legit. Open top, troop capacity, gun ports, points cost, blah, blah, blah. At last, some fluff on the table outside a Space Marine with new style cape. And I didn't need VDR to have it.

9.       To my Nid player bro John: If Evasion is true, your Nids just became a level of faster we've both been complaining about. Add in how Deep Strike and Reserves works with all the assorted features and I think your army got a HUGE boost.  Think about it this way. According to these rules, you have better say in what happens with reserves. Now, putting things in reserve may not be a last resort but instead a strong first tactical choice… a universal one. Deep strike is way more accurate which is great for flanking your units via Spore or whatever, you can drop stuff right along board edges now with no fear of scattering off the edge... that's more real estate for you to use in a game. But Evasion may help you the most since that is army-wide and free. If it affords you even a bit more protection, it's really good. I do believe Evasion is real, since they put shooting before assaults now. There needs to be another layer to the shooting/hitting dynamic just because of that alone. But with the shift in order of assaults then shooting really may not change my IG army much, it changes Nids a lot more; I see this simple swap of order as just making things more decisive/conclusive: I'll get more shots off in general and that may cack units more solidly but then and you'll close faster and kill quicker. But if all of that is true, it favors your army most, since I still have to shoot the same-sized army, which is now faster, where I am not as much more shooty in the same way... over what I'm betting is a shorter amount of time.

10.   Gotta tell you though, if these are the rules for Flyers then Santa got my letter. I have waited 15 years for these rules, at least between Forge World rules and house rules. The Vulture, Valkyrie/Vendettas will be super fun to use, acting like strafing aircraft and skimmers, evac'ing and acting like they are CAP's, as they should behave. It would be interesting if winged Hive Tyrants, Lords of Change and the like could act as flyers or something.

So, the question stands, until the rulebook comes out. Will next edition be Hug Wolves and smelling people being hugged? Or will it be cat language butchery and insane Kenny Loggins five hole fatalities? I want the latter.

Strange Aeons: Best Soundtracks

ia! Aw-yea! Cthulhu is fhtuckin' rockin'!!!

As I've been working on Strange Aeons models, reading Lovecraft and generally making To Do lists for Strange Aeons terrain, I have also found some pretty damned good soundtracks for inspiration. Where Akira, Glory, Halo and Band of Brothers were my go-to for playing my Imperial Guard, I caught myself casting nets upon Spotify for eldritch soundtracks and what clamored aboard is well suited to the quasi-sane sound-scape of horrific madness.

Here's what I have so far, in no particular order. Feel free to suggest and I'll update the list. The list is Spotify-friendly...

1. Sherlock Holmes, Hans Zimmer
2. Van Helsing,  Alan Silvestri
3. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Wojciech Kilar
4. Third Eye Open: A Tribute to Tool
5. Sleepy Hollow, Danny Elfman
6. Pictures at an Exhibition, Modest Mussorgsky (Prague Symphony Orchestra)
7. Fargo Soundtrack
8. There Will Be Blood Soundtrack
9. Gangs of New York Soundtrack 
10. Master and Commander Soundtrack
11. Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack  
12. The Mummy Soundtrack Jerry Goldsmith
13. Independence Day Soundtrack Nicholas Todd
14. Jurassic Park, John Williams
15. Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, Hans Zimmer
    
16. Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3, Various
17. The Aviator Soundtrack Howard Shore
18. Blackhawk Down Soundtrack, Hans Zimmer 
19. Dark Knight Rises Soundtrack, Hans Zimmer
20. Master and Commander, Christopher Gordon, et al 
21. Captain America Soundtrack, Alan Silvestri