Leaving Asphodel, a Necropolis Event Report

On 21 and 22 February I attended Leaving Asphodel, a Necropolis campaign event and part of the annual Black Queen Hobby and Miniature Painting Competition held by UMS “Agram” in Zagreb. It gathered a dozen players, some local and some from neighbouring countries.

I’ve been aware of Necropolis (formerly known as Necropolis28) for years now. As described by the author Peter Vigors, it’s “a miniatures-agnostic skirmish game about rival undead fighting for dominance and meaning in a world without life.” The theme is right up my alley, which initially attracted my attention. The low model count, simplicity of the rules system, and the fact it gives a lot of opportunity for modelling minis and the board, all made me keep the game high on my list of potential projects. At some point years back I drafted some Gatherings on paper, statting some of many undead minis I had in my collection. But it was only when the guys from my former club organised this event that I got as far playing Necropolis. Us local players would meet up in the months before the event and shared our progress on the warbands and boards, and there was the event Discord where everyone could post what they were up to. So community fun went far beyond the weekend we sat down to play.

The Necropolis rules are available for free, btw. Here are the links to their Patreon and community Discord, if you want to check it out. There are even official printable models sculpted by BlightBones, if you’re into printing. This is not sponsored, I really dig the game.

Anyway, Necropolis is played on a 16" × 16" board, and event attendees were encouraged to bring their own. About half the unique boards available were built by the organising team, and the other half were created and brought in by attendees. Each table had a fixed scenario, with players moving around an playing each of their five games on a different board and with a different opponent. It was a campaign rather than a tournament, so Gatherings got upgraded along the way and victory score was not kept. We played three games on Saturday and two more on Sunday.

MY GATHERING

My starting Gathering consisted of a single large model: the Vampire Queen. I used my own sculpt, but made a few subtle changes to customise her. Built a fancy carry case and collected on theme accessories, because I really enjoy that sort of thing. You can read about the hobby part in my previous post: HERE.

I had no idea how a single model Gathering would play, but was eager to find out. Here is my starting list:

Gathering Name: The Vampire Queen

Covenant: Embalmed Hands - Gathering may only contain models with the Blood keyword.

Lair: The Hungering Tower of Ruin

 

Leader Name: The Vampire Queen

Type/keyword: Ascended Undead

Obol cost: 225

Base size: 40mm - 60mm

Keyword: Blood (The leader gains +2 max hp)

Leader, Colossal

AP 3 M 4 Violence 4+ Ranged 6+ HP 27

Mana Points: 2 Blood/ 1Bone/ 2Plasm

Colossal: This model can only take weapons from the Colossal Weapon lists.

Threatening Aura: This model may take the Lurk action for 0 AP cost once per turn.

 

Traits:

· Chosen of the Hands (Leader, Blood) The rush of power, boiling through dead veins and reinvigorating her thrall. When this gathering receives blood mana dice for its mana pool this model restores 2hp.

· Skitter (Blood/Bone) Possessed of preternatural speed, leaping running and vaulting like quicksilver. This model has +1 move, ignores falling damage if falling from 3’’ or lower Falling damage still applies to any model it lands in base-to-base contact with.

· Combatant: improve violence by 1.

 

Equipment:

Large Claws

Obol cost: 40

Handed: 2

Range: 2; Attacks: 2; Damage Glance/Hit: 3/7 Special:-

 

Light Armour

Obol cost: 20

Armour: 1

 

Rope and Hook

Obol cost: 5

Effect: The owner gains the following action. Climb AP cost: 2 The model may move vertically up or down terrain up to twice the model’s movement.

 

Spells:

Summon

AP cost: 1

Channel: 6+

Bone, flesh and spirit swirl and coalesce into a shuddering new form. Choose a Shattered friendly model that does not have the Leader keyword and place it back on the board within 5’’ of the caster and restore 4/6 hp to it.

 

Tide of Vermin (blood)

AP cost: 1

Channel: 6+

Animating the remains of small creatures for a brief moment, the caster commands them to drown their enemies in a tide of crawling horrors. Choose 1/2 model/s within 8’’ and line of sight, they suffer 1/2 damage then you may push them 1’’/2’’.

 

Plasmic Emberburst (plasm)

AP cost: 1

Channel: 6+

Azure balefire erupts from the caster, sending their attackers reeling. Every model (besides the caster) within 3’’ suffers 1/3 damage and is pushed 3’’ directly away from the caster.

 

Bone Spear (bone)

AP cost: 1

Channel: 6+

Tearing and reshaping a single bone from its host, forming a javelin hurled with pure force of will Choose any model with the Bone keyword within 5’’ and line of sight, it suffers 2 damage. The caster may then make a ranged attack with attacks: 1, damage 3/6 range: 6” *if the channelling roll is a success the attack gains +1/+1 damage.

 

Cost: 290 obols

GAME 1

The Ascended Vampire Queen awoke from her long slumber and felt famished. So she set off into the world in search for blood.

My first game was played on the table built by Steve, featuring stone ruins with lots of torture devices and rotting coffins. A few mana tokens were scattered around. My opponent Luka played a Gathering of burning skeletons led by a spellcaster. The scenario required each of us to take out the enemy leader.

A nearby husk settlement proved a convenient hunting ground in the past. But this time barely a drop was to be found. The Queen had to take out her ire on somebody.

The Vampire Queen immediately started barrelling towards the opposite corner, hoping to get there in time to pulverise the Lich. Luka offered his skeleton minions as speed bumps, and sent them plunge attacking the Queen from a nearby tower. They kept shattering only to rise again. Between crushing minions and inching forward my Vamp threw bone spears and tides of vermin at her target. Eventually she had the Lich within reach of her claws and successfully executed them. I earned some money to buy a little gargoyle Familiar, which would be the only new hire for my Gathering for the duration of the event.

GAME 2

Moving on from extinguishing the burning, screaming bone folk, the Queen felt she was lonely. So she fashioned herself a companion by bringing a carved stone gargoyle to unlife. The creature told her of a temple it originally came from. It said that Dawn, the Morning Blade was kept there - a magic greatsword famous for taking out mean bloodsuckers such as her. 'The blade must be destroyed', decreed the Vampire Queen.

The table I got for the second game was Mario’s four tower temple. The objective was to obtain Dawn, the Morning Blade - a magic greatsword famous for taking out Vamp Queen’s kind. The sword was placed on top of one of the tall towers, accessible only by teleportation from the central altar. Thing is, interacting with the altar always takes one to a random tower - so having only two characters meant I would have fewer tries. It could have been worse, though - my opponent Miha’s bone knight Gathering numbered only three.

First turn I rushed my Gathering forward to take the altar area. The Queen provoked the enemy Revenant with a Tide of Vermin, while the shiny new Familiar positioned itself at the altar to attempt ascension the following turn. On turn two the Queen and the Revenant traded some nasty blows, while the Familiar rolled on which tower it would be transported. And.. I got really lucky here: rolled the six I needed to get to the enchanted greatsword.

Turn three I got to play first, which meant the Familiar simply pranced off the battlefield dragging the coveted blade behind it - ending the game.

The loot here allowed me to increase the Queen’s armour, and she found a Channelling Charm and a Scroll of Insubstation.

GAME 3

Still no blood to be found to satiate her hunger, but at least the offensive sword was in her claws. The Queen set off to the coast, to throw the blade into the ocean. Perhaps there is a fishing village to be found along the way. One that’s not inhabited by dry skeletons... No such luck, though. Stopping by massive shipwreck, she cast Dawn into the deep, and rested for a while. Then, the angry spirits attacked.

In the final game of the first day, I played on a nice seaside board built by Domagoj. My opponent was Ivan, running a nasty Gathering of spirits based on Yokai. Our objective was to pick up relics strewn about the board. I was quickly overwhelmed by the ethereal enemy, and limped away with a handful of obols and an eye injury. It’s funny that one of the spirits wielded Dawn, the Morning Blade (Ivan had played that scenario his first game, and managed to get a hold of the same sword).

GAME 4

The Queen was in a terrible mood. Still painfully hungry, now with her flesh and pride injured. To think that the offending blade cast into the ocean would make a swift return in the hands of an ethereal fiend… She spotted a ruined tower on the horizon. It would be a good place to lick her wounds and meditate on where to go next. Her rest was once again rudely interrupted.

The next day I got to play on the board I thought was the prettiest at the event: a tower by Dean. My opponent was Dominik, who also played an Ascended Undead. He was Bone-based and had more followers, though. And some kind of devilry that gave his leader the ability to perform two entire activations each turn (!). Got steamrolled. Early turn two my Gathering was already completely wiped off the board.

The opponent robbed me of my Scroll of Insubstation (result of the injury roll). I found a bit of cash and a pair of items: Blade Oil, and Quicksilver Powder - which would both be of great help in my final encounter.

GAME 5

Exhausted, bleeding, immeasurably furious, and still starving - the Vampire Queen crawled into a quiet crypt. It happened to be occupied. By more skeletons, of course…

My final encounter with Dean was my favourite one, since it was unclear until the very final roll who would end up on top. The board we got was built by Vane, and based on Pac-Man (Vane ran a matching Pac-Man Gathering, but we didn’t cross paths). The board had a number of pill tokens on it. Once picked up, a pill gave the model carrying it an extra AP, but the more pills one had the bigger the chance of them exploding on activation. The objective was to be the Gathering holding the most pills at the end of turn five. Dean had a Gathering of many skeletons. They were fun to shatter. But I couldn’t get them all, and a pair of them ended up with most of the pills. But on the final turn his minions had poor chances and poor luck: they both blew up, leaving the Vampire Queen standing victorious with a single pill.

The strange but pleasant substance from the crypt combined with the joy of snapping all those bones, improved the Vampire Queen’s dreadful mood. After a pause in the crypt, she was energised to set off once again in search of blood.

These were actually my first five games of Necropolis ever. The game attracted me with its theme and small diorama board gimmick. Now that I’ve played it - I can say I would love to play it again. Building my own board would also be fun. The Vamp Queen’s lair, perhaps. Definitely backing the physical rulebook Kickstarter once it goes live. Martin McCoy’s artwork is lovely and I’m sure the tome will look fantastic. Looking forward to it!

Brought a few things home from the event:

Black Queen

Black Queen Hobby and Miniature Painting Competition was the main event upstairs, while we played in the basement below. Agram organises it every year in February. As usual, I just scooped up a small case of minis I had painted since last year’s Black Queen and entered them.

Thanks, until next time!