Necromunda - Goliaths

I was a massive fan of Necromunda back in the day, and the nostalgia meant that I couldn't resist the temptation of buying the new game recently.

Over the past week or so we've been hit by heavy rain and miserable weather so over the weekend I decided to pick up the paintbrushes for the first time in forever and get back to doing some painting.

I decided to paint the Goliaths as I'd written a 1000 credit (point?) gang up and it came to 7 models so thought it would be achievable to paint over a few hours.

I decided to go with the always original red and black colour scheme which gives the whole gang a nice dark gritty look which I prefer on my models.

I decided to give all the models a darker skin tone as my thinking was that when these guys aren't our fighting rival gangs they'd be working at forges so wanted their skin to look tough, worn and leathery. I'm happy with how it turned out and it was nice and easy to do which is always a plus :)

So without further ado, may I introduce: 

The Pitbulls

 

Leader: Rottweiler

Champion: Muzzle

Champion: Mastiff

 Ganger: Rabid

 

Ganger: Bollocks

Ganger: Mange

 

Ganger: Mongrel

Nice and easy to do, I think the whole gang only took around 6 hours all up over a couple of days and I'm pleased with how they came out.

Now I'm looking at the Escher gang which is next on the painting table. Not sure if I should go dark and gritty with them also, or contrast them against these guys in bright colours...

AAR - WTF is going on? - Part 2

TURN 6

Grimacing in pain, Jimmy could only groan as it began to pour down with rain. The shamblers moving up behind him become nothing more than hazy silhouettes in the distance.

"This day just gets better and better." Jimmy said to himself grimly.

Meanwhile the rest of the shamblers started moving towards the sound of the gunfire. 

With shamblers moving towards him, Jimmy reloaded his shotgun and fired. The shots hit two of the shamblers, the first dropping dead, but the second fell on its back and continued to move.

"Damn it" said Jimmy. He limped forward, determined to get to his bike.

Jimmy won activation with a roll of 10; however he rolled a double 5, so generated another random event.

This time, it caused a sudden downpour which lasted D6 turns (2 in this case). This results in visibility being limited to 18" and all ranged shots being -1 to hit.

I fired two shots at the two closest shamblers.. You are allowed to shot at a different target with each shot if you wish. However, whilst both shots hit, 1 wasn't a head shot, and so the shambler was simply knocked over.

All of a sudden Jimmy felt himself grabbed from behind. He hadn't noticed the shambler moving over to him and he was now forced to fight it off. 

A shambler was able to move into close contact with Jimmy on its second action, so was able to make 1 attack. It missed, but locked Jimmy in place.

Jimmy was unaware, but he had company coming his way. Unless he started to have a bit more luck, Jimmy was close to being overwhelmed.

If shamblers cannot see any survivors, they will move towards either where they last saw a survivor, or the loudest cause of noise within 24".

Despite none of the other shamblers being able to see Jimmy, they were all within 24" of him, so moved towards the noise of the shotgun via the quickest route.

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TURN 7

There seemed to be no break in the weather and the rain continued to come down.

Jimmy fought back against the shambler that had grabbed him.

As a couple more appeared around the corner, Jimmy knew that if they caught up with him he would never get away. 

All he could do was shove the shambler away from him and limped away, trying to put some distance between himself and the shamblers behind him. 

Damn this ankle!!!

I elected to shove the shambler away again as this is an automatic action and my other two actions were moving towards the bar. 

I decided to move between the car and the shamblers coming in from the spawn zone to hopefully give me a bit of respite as they would have to move around the car to get to me.

The twisted ankle was a pain as I was not able to create enough space between myself and the shamblers to get any breathing room, and in my haste to move away, I hadn't reloaded by shotgun, so couldn't shoot either.

Moving behind the car, Jimmy realised that he had moved into a dead end. The jack knifed trailer had created a wall that he wasn't able to climb over with his ankle as it was. 

Jimmy began to feel that things weren't going to end well.

4 shamblers moved around the car and charged into him. He fought, the instinct to survive meaning he did whatever it took to fight them off. 

However, a shambler bit his forearm. The pain was agonising and the shamblers seemed spurred on by the sight of fresh blood.

A shambler was able to move into base contact with its first action, so got to attack twice in the turn - 1 attack per action. 

The other 3 moved into combat in their second action, so whilst there should have been 4 attacks against Jimmy during the second action, his Agility trait came into play and he was able to reduce this to 3 attacks.

However, despite this, the numbers were too great and one was able to get a successful hit and wound. 

Survivors get a 5+ save to represent that they are wearing sensible clothing, however this was failed.

Jimmy now ran the risk of succumbing to infection.

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TURN 8

The rain stopped but the attacks kept coming. Another shambler moved in, clawing at Jimmy with its fingers.

Despite the pain in his forearm, Jimmy was able to hold the shamblers off, and even managed to kill two of them.

However, he could see the rest were getting closer, attracted to the struggle Jimmy was in.

Jimmy had to pass an infected test as he suffered a wound last turn. 

Before any actions are taken, any survivors who have taken a wound need to roll a D6. 

On a roll of 1, they succumb to the infection and suffer a further wound with no save allowed. 

Rolling a 5 meant Jimmy was okay.

No new shamblers were generated but the shamblers went first. Another moved into combat, meaning Jimmy was now up against 5 shamblers.

However, despite the number of attacks against him, none successfully hit Jimmy.

As there were 5 in combat, Jimmy was unable to shove any away as there were just too many. 

This meant my only option was to fight or flee. If you flee you break from combat, but every enemy gets an automatic hit against you. Add to the fact that Jimmy had nowhere to go, the only thing I could really do was try to fight my way to freedom.

I rolled well and managed to kill 2 shamblers, but was still in base contact with three more. 

More and more were coming around the corner from the back alley.

Things were not looking good...

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TURN 9

Jimmy was in a fight for his life, and knew that he needed a minor miracle to survive. 

The bite on his arm was starting to burn, but he was able to act first, and brought the hilt of his shotgun down onto the forehead of one of the shamblers, which went down.

By this point Jimmy could see that the shamblers that had followed him down the back alley had just about caught up - the twisted ankle and the amount of shamblers that had got in his way meant that he hadn't been able to create any room for himself.

The bar was only a block away, but in his situation, it might as well have been on the moon.

Jimmy was able to kill a shambler in close combat and keep the infection in check, and hold the shamblers in combat off, avoiding all their attacks. 

However, with every turn he was unable to get away, the other shamblers were getting closer and closer.

--------------

TURN 10

Enraged, Jimmy brought his hilt down - again and again, but despite everything the shamblers didn't fall. 

 He opened his body up to swing, and before he knew it a shambler lunged at him, its teeth tearing at his throat. 

Stunned, Jimmy dropped his gun, and instinctively put his hands up to cover the wound in his throat, leaving himself open.

Another shambler bit down, tearing at his flesh, and Jimmy fell to the ground, lost under a mass of bodies.

Within minutes, all that was left was chunks of flesh and blood, as the shamblers piled on, pulling Jimmy apart.

 Jimmy had won activation, but missed with all his attacks.

Down to two wounds, the amount of attacks from the shamblers started to tell and three successfully hit and wounded.

Jimmy failed 2 of the saving throws and as result was killed.

The shamblers started to tear him apart.

THOUGHTS...

Okay... so that didn't end well. 

This playthrough was focusing on shambler mechanics, basic movement and shooting mostly but we have come up with a lot more in the rules I could have done that may have resulted in a better outcome.

Random events was something I was testing for the first time and in this game, I think it ended up determining the outcome! 

The twisted ankle was the game changer - the result where I could no longer sprint and lost 1 inch of movement per action really hampered Jimmy - and once I got bogged down in combat I think the result of the game was inevitable.

Shamblers are weak individually, but get enough of them in combat, they'll get through eventually. 

Survivors having more actions and more freedom with movement really helps, and when they lose that, it makes it very difficult to get them to the end of the game.

My plan in moving towards the truck and trailer was to attempt to try the climbing rules by getting Jimmy to climb up onto the top of the trailer and jump over the other side - something that survivors can do but shamblers can't. However I was unable to get out of combat long enough to try it so that is why it is worked into the story the way it was.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read - Jimmy joins the horde of the living dead, and there is a free bike available at the back of Lucky's Bar downtown if you can make it.

Let me know if there is anything you want to know. Over time I'll probably update this blog with more details on the rules as they progress, but I'm happy to answer any questions people may have.

Cheers All,

AAR - WTF is going on? - Part 1

Jimmy woke up with a pounding headache. After winning a bundle on the horses, he had decided to celebrate with the regulars down at the local dive and the last thing he remembered was shouting the bar to tequila shots.

Now he woke up in his own bed, with no recollection of what had happened afterwards or how he had got home...

Walking outside, two things immediately caught his attention...

Firstly there were screams, gunshots and sirens in the distance and second, and perhaps more importantly, was the fact that his pride and joy - his Harley Davidson motorbike was nowhere to be seen...

An explosion in the distance caused Jimmy to scratch his head...

"WTF is going on?"

He grabbed the sawn-off he kept under the bed and decided to set off on foot...

-----------

I decided to try out our ruleset via a solo game - to test out some of the rules and get a feel on how it is all coming together.

Our man Jimmy has decided to make his way back to the bar on foot in the hope that his motorbike is there...

I thought I would make up an AAR on it, just to show it off and go over how some of our rules work and so forth. All with a bit of a story to go along with it... Hope you enjoy.

The game was played on a 3x3 board.

Jimmy starts on one side of the table, with the bar (and motorbike) on the opposite table edge.

All Jimmy has to do is get to his motorbike to win the game...

Our games are set in one of three threat levels - green, orange or red.

The different threat levels determine things such as the amount of undead that start on the table at the beginning of the game, and how many are spawned throughout the game.

In this case, as Jimmy is setting out on his own, I decided to set this game in a green threat level - the lowest threat level.

-----------

Jimmy felt awful. Still worse for wear after his wild night, he wasn't feeling his usual self. However, determined to retrieve his bike and get on with his day, he limbered up and set off...

-----------

Survivors start the game with 2 traits - which represent life skills and backgrounds from before the outbreak. Players can usually select one and randomly select the other, but for this game I just elected to select both at random.

For Jimmy, I rolled Agile and Reckless.

One good, and one bad...

Agile reduces the total close combat attacks against him by one (to a minimum of 1)

Reckless means that I have to add +1 to all 'Check Your Six' rolls I have to make - more on this later...

I decided to play the Reckless trait as though Jimmy was nursing a hangover, and had no idea that the zombie apocalypse has hit town whilst he was comatose, so was oblivious to the fact that there was any threats to his person.

-----------

Jimmy took notice of the abandoned cars, barricades and the big tank in the area. 

"What the hell did we get up to last night?" Jimmy thought to himself. 

He could see the bar in the distance, and some of the locals moving around outside - looking worse for wear. 

Obviously their night was as hard as his was... 

He waved out and started moving towards them. 

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For green threat games, we roll 1d6-1 for each survivor starting the game and place that many zombies (we call them shamblers) anywhere on the board, as long as they aren't within 12" of any survivors starting position.

Typically I rolled a 6 to determine the amount of starting shamblers on the board so had to place 5.

I decided to place all 5 of them around the bar entrance - with the idea that they were Jimmy's drinking buddies who hadn't made it through the night.

I also decided that there were going to be two Spawn Points on the board, at points A and B.

These are static points that will generate more shamblers each turn - the number is determined by the amount of noise created the previous turn, but this differs depending on the threat level of the game.

Survivors always activate first on turn 1, After that every side is involved in an Order of Activation roll. 

Each side rolls 2d6 and the highest goes first. Certain skills or traits may allow you to alter this roll but in a nutshell that is how it works. All shamblers activate together, regardless of where they are on the board or when they entered the game.

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TURN 1

Jimmy noticed that the road was blocked by hazard signs and barriers.

"They weren't there yesterday." He thought to himself.

The road was the quickest way to the bar so putting all his concerns aside, he set off.

Survivors have 3 actions, and I used all of them to move forwards toward the bar. 3 movement actions brought him into base contact with the ROAD CLOSED sign blocking the road.

Making more than 2 movement actions a turn creates 1 noise a turn.

In the distance Jimmy could see a few of the bar patrons moving towards him. They must still be drunk because they were weaving all over the road. 

"Must have been some night!" Jimmy thought.

Shamblers have 2 actions a turn and there are only certain actions they can do, depending on noise, line of sight or survivors being within charge range. 

Jimmy moving put him in line of sight with three of them, but as they were still too far away, they moved their maximum move range (3" an action) to shuffle towards Jimmy.

Those that could not see Jimmy milled around, groaning to themselves. They simply shuffle forward 1" an action.

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TURN 2

Jimmy saw another person move into sight from around the corner. Like the rest, he too was acting strange but Jimmy didn't recognise him from the bar last night. 

Before any actions, new shamblers are generated. We use what we call Shambler Spawn Dice in our game, which are 6 sided dice with 3 blank sides, a 1 a 2 and a 3.

Any value rolled usually generates that many shamblers and you roll 1 dice for every noise generated per turn.

Any blanks don't spawn shamblers on that roll.

However as this game is set in a green threat zone, any value that comes up only spawns a single shambler.

As Jimmy had made more than 2 movement actions last turn, he created 1 Noise and so I needed to roll 1 dice.

I rolled a 1, so a shambler was placed on the spawn point that was closest to Jimmy.

Whenever shamblers are generated, they are placed across the spawn points.

50% of all generated shamblers are placed in the spawn point closest to the loudest cause of noise during the previous turn, with the rest spread out over the other points. 

Unless there are more points than shamblers generated, each point should have at least 1 shambler placed on it.

Watching this new guy shamble towards him, Jimmy started to feel uneasy - something wasn't right here. He cautiously climbed over the barricades and continued to head towards the bar.

Jimmy won the roll for activation and got to go first. 

Jimmy climbed over the road signs and carried on down the road. Again, as he made more than 2 movement actions, he created 1 noise.

The new arrival moved towards Jimmy and that is when he saw it. 

Blood all over the persons face and front. 

Had he been hit by a car? 

The guy started to make a horrible moaning noise and reached out towards Jimmy. 

Meanwhile, the patrons of the bar continued to slowly move towards Jimmy. 

Maybe they were coming to help?

The newly generated shambler could see Jimmy and moved towards him. As did the other 3 shamblers. The other 2 still couldn't see Jimmy so again simply shuffled about outside the bar.

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TURN 3

Another person appeared down the road. Like the other, he too was covered in blood. 

Maybe they had just had a car accident or something?

Jimmy decided to go over to them to see if they were okay.

It was only when he got closer that he realised what he was seeing.

Half the guys face was missing, and he had a huge hole where his stomach used to be. The guy moaned and lurched towards Jimmy - defying all rhyme or reason. 

Jimmy nearly threw up as he came face to face with the living dead for the first time.

As it came towards him, almost by instinct Jimmy fired his sawn-off, both barrels hitting the shambler. 

The shot spread out, and the chest cavity became a mangled mess. 

The shambler went down, still moaning and trying to crawl towards Jimmy.

The second shot hit it straight in the face, leaving what was once the head nothing but a bloody smear on the road.

Recoiling in horror, Jimmy reloaded his weapon.

'WTF is going on?"

Jimmy won the activation roll and moved forward. On getting closer he finally realised what he was facing.

His second action was to fire his sawn-off shotgun at the closest shambler.

All weapons have a damage dice (in the case of a sawn off this is a D8) and the To Hit roll is determined by factors such as range, ability of the user and complexity of the weapon.

Taking everything into consideration, the shots were at short range with no modifiers in place, so I required 3 on a D8 for a successful hit - shotguns are lethal at close range.

A sawn-off can be fired twice in an action. Both shots hit (double 5s) and so the shambler went down.

However, shamblers need a headshot to stay dead. At close range, anything but a 1 on a D6 means that you've done a head shot. As I rolled 2 hits, I had to roll twice.

The first roll was a 1 so whilst the shot hit, it wasn't a head shot. The shambler was simply knocked over.

However, I rolled a 4 for the second shot, so the second hit was deemed a head shot and the shambler was killed.

Sawn-offs require reloading before they can be used again, so Jimmy spent his last action reloading the weapon.

Attracted to the gunfire, the shamblers moved forward, getting closer to Jimmy. He could see that his drunk mates were actually his dead mates - Frank, Barb and Jean - covered in blood, reaching out to him with dead fingers.

Jimmy suddenly started to feel very afraid.

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TURN 4

More shamblers moved into the area, attracted by the sound of gunfire. Getting to the bike was getting harder and harder.

The sawn-off generated 3 noise when it fired - and I rolled two number sides, so placed 2 more shamblers on the board - one on each spawn zone.

Jimmy, fighting the panic, was caught unaware as the closest shambler to him suddenly lurched forward and grabbed hold of him.

Jimmy screamed and almost fell back.

The shamblers won priority this turn and the closest shambler to Jimmy was able to move closer as part of its first action and was then within range to attack for its second.

Any model wishing to get into combat can move up to twice their base movement rate to move into close combat and then get a free attack action after doing so.

Shamblers have no option to do so  - they must move into base contact and attack if they are within range.

As it moved into contact on it's second action, it only got one attack against Jimmy.

Meanwhile, the others continued to shuffle closer and closer.

Things were starting to look a little bit more difficult for Jimmy now...

Attacking with broken nails, the shambler kept snapping at Jimmy's neck - trying to bite down. 

Jimmy struggled to hold the shambler back. It required all of his strength to keep the shambler away from his neck.

Shamblers require a 5+ to hit and then a 5+ to wound on a D6 to successfully cause a wound. I rolled a 4 on the first roll, so the shambler attack was unsuccessful.

Jimmy's Agile ability was of no use in this instance as the shambler only has a single attack anyway.

Jimmy struggled against the shambler, knowing now that he was in a fight for his life. 

It kept clawing and biting at him, not listening to anything Jimmy tried to say.

With strength he didn't know he had, Jimmy pushed the shambler away from him and it fell, landing on its back. 

In close combat, survivors are locked in combat, and so are limited to what they can do. 

They have the option to fight, flee or try and shove an opponent away instead of killing them.

As he is only armed with a sawn-off, his ability in close combat isn't brilliant (a 5+ on D6 to wound with the sawn-off) so he elected to shove the shambler away.

Against a single opponent, this is done automatically, and the shoved model falls back D3" and falls on their back. Rolling a 5, the shambler fell 3" back.

Jimmy didn't wait to see what happened next. 

He decided to sprint down what looked like a clear back alleyway behind a large building, and try to leave this horror as far behind him as possible.

With the other two available actions, Jimmy elected to use both to sprint down a back alley. Sprint is double movement, but each sprint action causes 2 noise, and your weapon is deemed as holstered, so you must spend an action unholstering your weapon before you can use it again.

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TURN 5

Jimmy didn't register how much noise he was making. He had lost all control, and he just wanted to get out of here as soon as he could.

Some part of his brain was still rational - "Get to the bike. It is your only ticket out of here."

Due to the amount of noise he was creating by sprinting, Jimmy had caused 4 noise the previous turn. This resulted in 2 more shamblers appearing on the board.

As he was running, Jimmy failed to notice the pot hole in the road. 

He caught his foot in the hole and twisted his ankle.

The pain was instant and caused him to fall over. 

This was turning out to be a really bad day. 

Could it get any worse?

Any double on an order of priority roll means that a random event occurs against the side that rolled the double, and in groups of more than 1 character, it effects the character with priority.

Unfortunately for Jimmy he rolled a double 2 for his order of activation and the random event rolled was Twists an Ankle.

This means that he is deemed as being knocked over, so must spend an action getting back up, his movement is down by 1 for the rest of the game, he can no longer sprint, nor jump from an height greater than 2 levels.

And remember Jimmy's Reckless trait?

As if he didn't have enough problems, the Check Your Six rule took affect in this turn.

This is a test you take whenever there is a blind spot within 10" of your character at the start of a turn. It could be a corner of a building, behind a wall or vehicle etc. 

As long as there is anything within 10" of a survivor that they cannot see behind, there could be a shambler or three lurking in the shadows out of sight.

Similar to spawn points, in a green threat level, any face value rolled on the Shambler Spawn Dice results in a single shambler being placed out of sight in the blind spot. 

Unfortunately for Jimmy he is Reckless so adds +1 to this roll.

With a 3 being rolled, it meant that something was lurking around the corner of the large building Jimmy was behind, and two shamblers promptly shuffled out of the shadows...

Looking up Jimmy could see that there were more shamblers on this side of the building too. Whilst not as many, the fact that he had fallen flat on his face and it hurt to move meant that he was still not out of the woods yet.

The shamblers saw Jimmy and began moving towards him, groaning menacingly. Looking behind him, he saw the shambler he had pushed over get back to its feet, and continue to move towards him, followed by some of his mates.

The shamblers won the order of activation again this turn and started to move towards Jimmy. The one he had pushed over had to use its first action to get back to its feet but it to then began to move towards him.

Jimmy got picked himself off the floor and unholstered his weapon. If he couldn't outrun then, he'd just have to shoot his way to his bike. 

He fired his shotgun at the closest shambler. Its face became a crimson splatter and it feel down dead.

Hardening his resolve, Jimmy vowed to get to his bike or die trying...

I decided that for his actions, Jimmy would get back to his feet, unholster his weapon and shoot at the closest shambler, which was bearing down on him. 2 successful head shots meant that Jimmy has a little breathing room, but there was still a long way to go.

It's Alive...!!!

Man, where has this year gone?

Real life gets in the way and all of a sudden, 6 months has passed by...

So what has been happening?

Well I can't remember if I mentioned it but my gaming group are big fans of the zombie genre, and we wanted to start playing some games set in a post apocalyptic world.

We weren't able to really find an existing playset that really floated our boat so over the past year or so we set about making our own.

Work on our own zombie game picked up and tailed off... the picked up again... :)

We've got the core stuff down - some playtesting amongst the group highlighted what worked and what didn't so we've made a few tweaks and changes here and there.

On top of that we've been getting some terrain sorted - some homemade stuff, cheap scale cars from our local store and some buildings from Sarissa Precision, plus all the goodies I found from the local tip - more of which I'll share in future posts.

Anyways, this is just a post to say this blog is still alive and hasn't fallen to the hordes of the dead!

I'm writing up an AAR currently, which covers a playthrough of some of the core rules. It'll have a bit of a story as well as explaining some of the mechanics and working of the rules that we have come up with, and that should be up in the next few days.

Otherwise, I'm hoping to get back to this blog far more frequently and keep the hordes of zombies at bay!!!

Cheers All,

Hasslefree Package

Sorry about the lack of activity over the past few weeks - real life has got in the way and it's been hard to get close to anything gaming related over the past few weeks. 

But, I have a small development that I want to share.

I've long admired the Hasslefree range from afar and finally decided to purchase a few miniatures to paint up for our zombie gaming purposes.

So, last week I ordered 8 miniatures and a couple of the Atztech Zombie signs sheets to jazz up our terrain a bit.

It was with some surprise that I received my order within a week of ordering it online - sometimes post delivered within New Zealand doesn't get to me that fast... except when they're bills... but the slight gasp of amazement turned to squeals of delight (not really but I added this in for dramatic effect) when I opened the box.

Dum, dum, duuummmm...

The great boys and girls at Hasslefree had added in a few freebies to my order - 2 extra miniatures plus some English lollies (sweets) which for an expat Pommie such as myself gave a fuzzy feeling of home...

My wife and I are big fans the The Walking Dead, and my wife is interested in helping us with our game (she is not a gamer - at all) as long as she can play as a Michonne like character.

So I ordered the Resin master of Gaia (Hasslefrees new not Michonne model) to paint up for her and to my surprise Hasslefree threw in a free metal version of the miniature as well!!! The elite version no less - with the option for various weapon armaments...

Limited time only - buy one badass with a katana, get one free...

They also packed in another free miniature called Amoy - which looks like a child with a bike helmet and hoodie wielding a pistol - as you do. A bit different but I'm sure I'll be able to use it for something.

So this post is really just a big thank you to Hasslefree - great service, lovely, unexpected extras and yummy English lollies - I'm a believer. :) Definitely will be picking up some more stuff from them in the future.

And if anyone from Hasslefree is reading this - my only suggestion would be to put in Galaxy Minstrels in the next box - they are my favourite!!! :) :P

Cheers All,