Jerry's Big Picture

Elves of Another Kind

2012-01-29T14:23:00.001-07:00

This week I finally took the plunge into my bag of unpainted lead and came up with a ton of Reaper miniatures that I've been intending to paint. These models were to be my Elven warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. I was originally going to model them after World of Warcraft's Silverwing Sentinels. The Sentinels are supposed to have all female Elves as their warriors. But that was about as far as I got. Once I realized how much conversion would be needed to make them look like "WoW standard" I gave up the idea.

Despite the number of figures I painted this week, it really was not too difficult to complete. I kept to basic color schemes an kept the word "forest" in mind as I worked. That solved most color choice problems. The rest was just slinging paint. Here's what I got done.

These are both female, but not sure if they're Elves. The left one is a ranger type, while the other is an obvious rogue. I kept the rogue in really dark colors, since she's supposedly stealthy. I gave her an accent of dark green to tie her into the rest of the elves. You can't see it too well in this picture.

Here are a couple of Brittany Spears wanna-be elves. The left is a Pathfinder mini and the right is from Warlord. These two lines scale well together, at least for elves. But the Dark Heavens models don't fit so well.

Another Ranger type to the left, while the elf on the right is the closest I came to World of Warcraft types. She closely resembles a Blood Elf, though lacks the gigantic ears. I know Blood Elves have nothing to do with Silverwing Sentinels. But at this point I didn't care.

So here's something different. I picked the model on the left because of her gigantic chest. Is that wrong? I thought I could work her into the list as a forest nymph or fauna of sorts. She is supposed to be a Hellborn warrior, according to Reaper. Next to her is the standard caster elf. I really liked the way she came out. I also picked different colors to break up the incessant green of everything else.

On the left we have the iconic rogue figure from the Pathfinder line. Next to her is the only "dude" in the group. I picked this model because I really liked the way it looked. You can't see it at this angle, but he wearing chain mail under his surcoat.

Back when I thought this was going to be a Silverwing Sentinel force, I picked up this model to make a Frostsaber tiger. I still liked it enough to include it as a part of the list. It will pair nicely with one of the bow armed models.

That's what I got painted this week. There are a few other models for this SBH list that I painted earlier but didn't document. Now I present those below.

The left model is from the Warlord line, a paladin type. She's human and doesn't really fit the warband theme. I liked the pose, though, so I got it anyway. The right model is another elf. I painted her clothing in very light tans and beige colors. It almost looks like she's wearing nothing. But she does actually have some clothes, more like lingerie really.

Finally, I picked up an Avatars of War vampiress model to lead my undead warband. I painted this one a while ago, too. Despite the awesome look of the model online, I was unimpressed with what I actually got. There was a disfiguring mold line or some sort of defect that ruined her face. She does not scale well with any of my other models. It was just a huge disappointment. I painted her anyway, and tried to do what I could with her ruined face. Overall, it's not too bad; but the scale problem is so obvious that I can't really use the model.

That's all for now. I really love painting these Reaper minis. I love fantasy more than any other genre, and working on these models has me wishing I had more. I do have some centaurs I picked up to go with the elves. Maybe I'll work on those next.

Finishng Up With the Sisters of Battle

2012-01-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

This week was my "mop up" campaign with the Sisters of Battle. I managed to snag a few more deals on eBay about a month ago. I wanted to get these off the painting table and be done with them. I'm still flush with "New Year's Resolution Fervor" and plan to stick to the goal of keeping down the count of unpainted miniatures I acquire this year.

Without further ado, here's what I've got.

I spotted this pair of Stormbolter Sisters on eBay as a buy one get on free special. Couldn't walk away from that. Too bad they're the same pose. But I've given up on pose variety for this SoB force.

I added another Veteran Superior so that I can now have three squads of ten or so Sisters each. I also found a Heavy Bolter Sister. I'm not sure how good one is on her own.... but what the heck!

Here come the flag wavers. These were both donated by Tim over at Cursed Treasures. I have to make a flag for the actual standard bearer. That's a project for another day, like when I actually might need that.

At last here's my helpful Sister Hospitaller. You can't really see it in this picture, but I painted eyebrows on her. I have a pet peeve with figure painters who brush in these enormous, over-sized eyes on their models but fail to put on eyebrows. The Hospitaller shown on the GW site is expertly painted, but the poor girl had her eyebrows shaved off. Why? Some day take a look at a person at a distance. The person's eyes are nothing more than dots with no details visible at all. Why paint your minis with more detail than you could actually see? It not only makes eyes disproportionate but also makes the model look like it suffers from Graves Disease. Figures look better, in my opinion, with small understated dots in proportionately sized whites.

Well, that was a digression. I feel better now. Here's the picture.

That's all for now. My mind is wandering to other things, having now thoroughly scratched my itch to collect and paint some Sisters of Battle. At some future point, I'd like to add some Repentia for flavor, and maybe a Rhino or Immolator. With the next edition of 40K sure to be a topic of hot debate and intense dislike, I bet these girls won't even hit the table.... at least in a 40K game.

Sisters of Battle Seraphim

2012-01-14T14:13:00.001-07:00

Toward the end of last year I picked up a bunch of Sisters of Battle Seraphim models from eBay and Chaos Orc Superstore. While still expensive, this collection came in at half price! Some of the models had paint or missing parts. I was able to fix all that, thankfully. My only complaint, if I can call it that, is that I ended up with two squads of five rather than one squad of ten. The lots I got both had Veteran Superiors, meaning I had either enough models for two squads of five, or one squad of nine with a throw-away. It's not a big deal, especially since they probably will never see a game of 40K anyway!

Here's a close up of a Veteran Superior (with power sword) and a Seraphim with two hand flamers. The Vet Superior didn't have anything to attach the model to the base. I had to use brass rods to mount the model. It actually looks better than the others. If I were more ambitions, I'd have done all ten that way.

The following shots show one squad, and then the two squads together.

Again, besides the great background stories of the Sisters, what attracts me to this army are the awesome sculpts. If I had to complain, it just seems there's a severe shortage of poses for these Seraphim. There's only two poses in my ten models. It might just be the luck of the draw.

I have a few more Sisters of Battle to do. A friend of mine donated two more and I have two Sisters with Stormbolters and one with a Heavy Bolter. I picked up a Hospitaller model as well. She'll be my medic when I use these models for 5150.

After I complete these, it will be time to move on to something else.

2012 Focus and Some Predictions

2012-01-02T18:37:00.002-07:00

I thought it would be interesting to jot down what I want to focus on and what I think might happen in the gaming world this year. At least it would be interesting to me. I'll check back here at the end of the year and see what actually happened. Wow, my first year long project!

Adjusting the Focus
Last year was the "Year of Unpainted Lead". I produced a lot, but also bought a lot and didn't do anything with it. That is the total bane of my existence. Unpainted models are my kryptonite. They sit in my painting room, emanating their weakening force on me. Before long I'm laying on the floor, clutching my head and screaming. So I want to get back to my happy space in 2012, completing a project before buying a slew of models for the next "big thing."

Well, that was relatively painless. I think it's good to select a single focus and work on that. But here are a few other things I want to get done in 2012.

Dust Tactics: I really liked this game and the models. I want to get these painted and play more games. I hope to expand my collection too.
Terrain: I did more terrain last year than I expected. But this year, I want to add more and varied pieces to my collection.
WWII in 28mm: I've put this aside for a while. I expect it will pick up again for me this year.
Warmachine/Hordes: I've been saying I love those models and want to collect them again. Let's see if I can make that happen. Maybe I can even play a game.
15mm: This scale is appealing for solo gaming and even non-solo games. Some friends are considering HOTT this year, and I want in on that. Terrain becomes a slight problem, as I don't have any buildings or trees at that scale. But storage and cost is delightful.
Skirmish Games: I'm almost cheating by putting this here. I'm not really entertaining the "big game" anymore, with exception of maybe HOTT.

Now as for predictions, well, I'm sorry to have strung you along this far only to reveal that I don't have any great insight into the gaming world of tomorrow. I know, it's just like that scene from the Wizard of Oz. But let me share my hunches, seeing how you worked your way this far down the post.

The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever. You'll never play it again. Evah!
The new 40K rulebook will be about 10 pages of rules and 380 pages of fluff and painting instructions. Someone will drop the new rulebook on his foot, crushing it, and sue GW for an undisclosed amount. As a result, model prices will be increased.
The new Hobbit movie will rekindle interest in the LotR SBG. This will hopefully result in more models and updated or reissued rulebooks. It will hopefully also result in a shorter name, like "The Hobbit Game".
The update to LotR SBG will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever. You'll never play it again. Evah!

That's it. We'll see if the results of my vision quest to bring you 2012 predictions holds any water come December. Have a great 2012 everyone!

Year End Post

2011-12-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here's my ego-centric and totally me-focused year end post! Think of this as Cliffs Notes for my blog this year.

The High Points of 2011
The biggest highlight this year was the rebirth of this blog and the general rebirth of my miniature gaming hobby. For about three years I was in "maintenance mode" and not doing much. Actually I was playing World of Warcraft in all my free time. I saved a ton of money, though. Being "reborn" in miniatures gaming means you just lost a few bills to get caught up on everything.

A few happy things I didn't expect going into the year:

My wife letting me take over the front room and drop a gaming table into it. Pure win.
Building up three 28mm WWII armies over the summer. Gotta remember how I did that.
Discovering a love for smaller games and non-GW games like Song of Blades and Heroes and a bunch of the THW games like Nuts!
Not burning out by July

My top game in 2011 was still LotR SBG. I played in the Gathering in the Desert. I also played a lot of games over the year. I completed 700 points of Elves for The Tale of Four LotR Gamers challenge. I also filled out my Far Harad army from about 275pts to a full 700pt force. Overall this game got the majority of my focus. I still enjoy LotR as much as I did when I first started playing it.

The Low Points of 2011
Nothing really was a low point. There were a few duds this year:

Infinity: Everyone's absolute favorite most best-est game of all time. For three days.
Heavy Gear: Blitz: A classic game beloved of fans. Starter set includes two rule books: one that advises you to ignore the other rule book included with the starter set. That should be a sign of something. Starter set was missing parts for three models and assembly of the other models has given me a nervous twitch.
World War I: At least I liked the rule books and they were on sale.

Other Thoughts
This section is here because I thought ending the post after "low points" was too abrupt. I don't have many other thoughts. I enjoyed the year, got in lots of games with good friends, and found my own gaming preferences. Also, I was not maimed or diagnosed with a horrible disease. Overall, this was a good year.

Here's looking forward to a wonderful 2012! Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year. I especially appreciate those who left comments. I look forward to reading what people have to say. Let's do it again next year.

Arcane Ruins -- Curses Included Free!

2011-12-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

At long last sick and tired of piling things on top of my box of Arcane Ruins, I assembled and painted them. They went together easily and painted up quickly.

Here are more pictures of it than you really want to look at:

I must warn you that there are special curses reserved in this box. GW apparently included them for free. Do you think I'm making it up? Consider this:

Shortly after opening the box and beginning my assembly, I knocked over a new bottle of liquid cement. It rushed over my glass table like a Testor's Tsunami. I dove on top of it to absorb the glue with my body, saving the arcane ruins. But my Sisters of Battle bases were melted! Emperor preserve us!
In the final stages, I unknowingly got paint from my fingers all over my Kindle. I thankfully got it all scraped off and was glad to have avoided the problem --- until I found the paint all over my pants! Noooooooo!
The contents of the box exude a faint evil. People left me alone while I painted. But more importantly, long term exposure to this model sapped my intelligence. You see while I left all the dolmens unglued for easy storage, I stupidly glued the main obelisk in place. Now I can't store it flat. The horror!

So what do you think? Too many coincidences? I think so. Work with this set at your own peril.

Sisters of Battle Redux

2011-12-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.
The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.
The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.
- extract from "The Stern Codex"

I have been very fortunate to come across more Sisters of Battle at reasonable prices. I found six blisters of Battle Sisters at the Chaos Orc's Superstore. I have no idea how often they restock. But I will certainly be watching for more deals. My only complaint is that all six blisters had the same three poses.

I added a few more models to round out the force. This adds twenty more Sisters, bringing my grand total to a whopping thirty one models. That's one full squad plus a minimum sized squad. Fortunately I'm not planning to bring this up to a 1500 pt army, at least not initially. I just love these models and have enjoyed painting them. Here they are all together. I threw in some background stuff just to break up my desk top.

Here is a close-up shot of the Veteran Superior and a few Battle Sisters.

I picked up a Canoness and an Inquisitor model to round out the leadership needs. I know Inquisitors are now under the Grey Knights and no longer with the Sisters of Battle. But I don't care about what the books say anymore. I just need stat lines.

So that does it for this update. I've been on a roll with the Sisters of Battle between painting the models and reading the book. I was ready to put them aside for a bit. But last week I found an excellent deal on Seraphim models on eBay. Unbelievably, there was a "buy it now" price which was great. So I picked them up. Chaos Orc had three more for a great deal, but they lacked jump packs. I was able to find those on eBay as well. So now I have ten Seraphim that I can split into two 5 Sister teams (I have two leader models in the mix). It was still a pricey deal at about $70, but that's half price!

One of the Sisters even came pre-painted. Just check out this pro job:

Really? I'm afraid so.

The former owner even puttied over the armor lines on the legs. Oh baby. Sexy. I got a good laugh out of this. But she's going to take a bath in Simple Green today.

Faith and Fire

2011-12-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

Faith and Fire by James Swallow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. If you are a fan of 40K, particularly of the Sisters of Battle, then you should find it an enjoyable read. If you didn't understand that last sentence, then stay away from this book. You're going to be confused. I'm a sucker for the Sisters of Battle "fluff", and so I am the target audience for the book.

A lot of people have criticized this book. It had its problems, but nothing detracted from the entertainment value. Sure, the plot is predictable and the characters a little bit lacking in depth. The story lulled in spots. But overall it was just great fun and met all my expectations. Check it out if you have the chance.

View all my reviews

Inquisitors, Heretics, PDF, You Name It

2011-12-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

My friend, Tim, donated a lot of his old Void figures to me. He has had them for years and never found a use for them. I eyed them as generic Sci-Fi models in 28mm. But as I looked these over, I thought they'd be right at home in 40K. I know Tim uses Void minis for some of his Inquisitor-themed forces. I hoped to do the same thing.

As I painted these minis, however, I started to feel like these models would make great adversaries in 40K scenario based games. The looked just left of "Imperial standard." So maybe they're a heretical sect of the Imperial Creed, or maybe they are a rebellious planetary defense force. Some of the models could pass off as Inquisitors in their own right. Maybe they've succumbed to chaos? There's lots of cool ideas when you let go of Codex rules and force org charts!

Here are some pictures of the models. I like red. So you will see that in full force here.

This guy is probably the "big boss." The two chicks reminded me of Death Cult Assassins gone wrong. They could also pass off as "Mad Max" types. At any rate I got to paint purple and violet hair, which was cool!

Here's the "spiritual leader" as I see him. The dude with the big weapon was neat. In 40K games, that might be a plasma or melta cannon style of weapon. In other systems, like 5150, I think it qualifies as a "Big Ass Gun."

Some regular dudes shown above. The guy with the impossibly huge sword reminded me of some sort of "champion." I gave his armor a different color with red tie-ins to the main theme. I figured he must be special to be able to carry a big sword.

So there's the group shot of the collection to-date. I actually have twelve more to add to this. But my Sisters of Battle just came in and I'm anxious to start those. I'll return to these guys shortly. These were a blast to paint and to think up little stories for them as I went.

Return of the Tau

2011-11-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

I sure am painting a lot of GW figures for a guy who's claiming to be "post GW." I had last week off for Thanksgiving, but paradoxically didn't have much free time. The time I had, I put into painting up more Tau. Here are my Stealth Suits.

I would've had them done faster were it not for having to slop on three coats of Graveyard Earth paint. Why are all my favorite colors so transparent? Oh well, they are done now and ready to join the others in the big box.

When I said post-GW, I guess I mean I'm not buying into playing their games the way they want me to, or even using their figures for their games. I played a solo game this weekend with 40K figures but using the 5150 Rules. I really liked it. I will probably do more of that.

Also, I'm not doing the "huge army" build up that GW wants me to do. I plan on playing small, skirmish or scenario based games. I'm not worried about force org charts or squad sizes (both which are designed to sell figures more than provide game balance). I won't even touch Warhammer Fantasy, as that's just beyond ridiculous.

Well, that's probably the topic of another post. In the meantime, I'll just keep painting whatever grabs me that day.

Sisters of Battle

2011-11-22T12:48:00.003-07:00

Sisters of Battle is one of those armies that I always said I'd get around to doing. I love the sculpts and love the fluff. I just always had something else that took priority over starting on Sisters.

That was back in the day before Sisters were cast in pure gold. These days I cannot afford to play in that rarefied strata of society, and plans of a Sisters of Battle army are long gone. Even eBay sellers have gone mad with SoB greed. Slop some paint on a single Sisters model, call it "pro painted", and then ask $20 for it; that seems to be the operating wisdom these days.

Were it not for the generosity of a friend, I would not be able to show you my new and tiny collection of Sisters.

These models were as fun to paint as I had expected them to be. I went with the Order of the Ebon Chalice paint scheme, as given in the old Witch Hunter's codex. (The codex was sadly my only step taken in building this army. I think it's one of the best GW codices that I ever saw.) There are 11 models total, not likely to grow much beyond that count.

I will use SoB in skirmish or scenario play 40K games. I can add in an Inquisitor and some Imperial Guard to round out things. Honestly, I'll probably draft them into service for other non-GW games. I'm already thinking of other meanings for their iconography and gender bias. I can shove them into some 5150:SA games. I'll find a way to make use of them and have an excuse to get more of them.

However, I won't be buying Seraphim models. At $14 per model, a "codex legal" squad costs $70. That makes Seraphim the one of most expensive squad in 40K. I really have better things to buy for that price than five models.

15mm Sci Fi

2011-11-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've had this itch for a while, and decided to scratch it several weeks ago. I've had my eye on these 15mm Sci Fi models from Rebel Minis. The Earth Force models remind me very much of some small models I had as a kid. I'm not sure what the size of those models were. I had bought them for use in the Traveler RPG that I was in at the time. But it was short lived and I was stuck with the minis. Long gone, I thought I'd never see anything like them again.

Well, now I have a whole Earth Defense force that look just like them. Here they are.

The picture color is a little off. They are more of a terracotta color rather than the orange you see here.

It wouldn't be right if they didn't have someone to fight. So I picked up another army from Rebel Minis, the Sahadeen.

The great thing about these two armies is that I have over 20 soldiers, two MG/Heavy Gun teams, and three specialist weapons for each army. The grand total outlay was only $35 for two complete armies! That's like two blisters of GW models. Cost wise there's no comparison.

Few people in my regular gaming group play at this scale. So I'll use these figures for solo games of 5150 from THW. I think 15mm scale might be the perfect scale for solo games. Since you need at least two forces,15mm is a lot cheaper and paints up quick. Also play and storage space demands are reduced.

All I need is a few vehicles to spice up things. While I probably won't invest heavily in this scale, it's a nice change of pace and worth keeping in mind for future projects.

There is Unrest in the Forest. There is Trouble with the Trees.

2011-10-22T14:00:00.000-06:00

Pursuing my quest to find the most difficult ways to make trees for war gaming, I picked up two boxes of GW's Citadel Woods. I'll be honest with you. I bought these thinking they would be easier than Woodlands Scenic trees. But you'll be pleased to know these trees were every bit of a bitch to put together as Woodlands Scenic.

I guess I like them well enough. They will help fill my table with terrain, and trees work for any type of game. Here's how they came out.

These models look tree-like to me. I painted one set dark and one light. But you probably noticed that for yourself. What else can I say about trees?

So here's where these trees are not so cool. First, the foliage pieces don't stay attached very well. Ironically, they fall from the trees like leaves. Go figure. I thought I could avoid this by completely drilling out the holes and pushing the branches through them. No dice. They still fall off. Also, the foliage pieces have a definite up and down facing that you don't realize until you've started to paint them. One side has more detailing and depth, clearly meant to be the topside. I didn't figure that out until about five minutes ago.

The bases are a nice feature of these sets. I don't have any good "forest area" pieces and thought these would work for that. The bases even fit together to make a continuous forest section. The allegedly cool idea is that you can remove the trees from the bases when you put models in the forest. Well, the trees are removable.

The trees actually remove themselves for you. All the time. Every time you touch them, and even sometimes when you don't. You see, unless you precisely balanced your limb and foliage placements your tree is going to be unstable. Heaven forbid you did something vain and stupid like arranging the trees in a way that looked cool to you. The good news is there appears to be definite ways to put certain trees in the base. Figuring that out is practically a mini puzzle game in itself. Well played, GW!

So now I have more trees. I don't look forward to making additional trees. But I know I need more to fill the table. I'll save that for a future date when I'm having such a good time that I need something to bring me down. Fiddling with trees always seems to do that for me.

28mm WWII: More US Reinforcements

2011-10-15T12:48:00.001-06:00

Time for the Saturday update. This was another slow week in terms of actual production. I jumped around a lot and worked on a few different things. I'm currently fiddling with the GW forest models. Good lord those things are a pain. But I'm tired of Woodland Scenic trees shedding all over the place.

I think I'm done for now with my US Rangers. I've added in more figures, bringing it up to a full strength platoon of two rifle squads, a command squad, tank, and several support weapon options. I might buy another tank and an infantry gun to really call it complete. Here's what I added this week.

Here are eight more riflemen.

Four more Thompson SMGs

Two more riflemen with grenade launchers. These are both Victory Force miniatures. I show them here with a Crusader rifleman for size comparison. They really mix in nicely and the models are outstanding. I really like these miniatures.

The Rangers used to share storage space with my Germans. But the US forces have grown so numerous that they've graduated to their own storage box. Now the Germans look really anemic in comparison. I guess I'll be beefing up these guys next. Where does this end?!

Female Armor Sucks!

2011-10-14T18:40:00.001-06:00

I've been painting up some of my female elves for my Song of Blades and Heroes warband. This video is absolutely hilarious and so true of the models I'm working on.

Back to the War: 28mm WWII Japanese Infantry

2011-10-08T13:36:00.001-06:00

I've jumped back into my 28mm WWII project over the last two weeks. I've been interested in trying out War Against Japan, and I can't do that with all my Japanese infantry stuck in bags. So I busted them out of their plastic prisons. Here's a full rifle platoon all completed. Click the picture for a better view of them.

There are three squads, each comprised of a squad leader and assistant squad leader, Type 99 LMG and loader, and nine riflemen. Off to the far right of the picture there is the Platoon HQ with one officer and one man. The other man is carrying a flagpole. I've got to figure out what to do about that. I guess I could go with a crappy paper flag. But I'd like to find another way to do it. Any ideas are appreciated.

So totally that brings me a full strength platoon of 41 Japanese infantry. Here is a detail shot of some of the men, and one of the leaders. I gave leaders red headbands for their caps to distinguish them from rank and file men.

These are all West Wind models. I still have more models to add. I have three mortar teams, two HMG teams, as well as 8 "Jungle Fighers/Snipers." Once those are completed, I could pick up a tank and call this completely done.

But right now I'm filling in gaps in my US and German forces. This week I managed to complete three German Riflemen with grenade launchers, as well as a one Panzerfaust and a German NCO.

The Panzerfaust is a West Wind model. The four remaining models are all Victory Force miniatures. I have to say that these Victory Force miniatures are outstanding. I absolutely love these models! I stumbled on them because only Victory Force sold single models with grenade launchers. I wanted these for my German forces. I also picked up a few for my US Rangers. When I got them, they looked too thin and tall to mix in well. But after I painted them, I was amazed at how good these look. Also, while being a little bit on the tall side, they mix in with my Crusader models nicely. I like these enough to consider doing my Russian army (which I haven't started) all in Victory Force and supplementing with Crusader. But cost may actually prevail in that argument.

So that's all for now. I'll polish off the fourteen or so models I have for the US Rangers and then probably move back to terrain. I've got a lot of terrain sitting on my work table that I'd like to move to the game table soon.

28mm WWII: Japanese Infantry Test Paints

2011-09-25T13:34:00.000-06:00

I haven't had too much time to work on miniatures or much else this week. However, I've got an itch to return to my 28mm WWII project. Those bags of West Wind Japanese Infantry have been staring at me long enough. Time for them to hit the painting table. So I spent most of my available time cleaning up the models, mounting them on bases, and then adding basing texture. They're now primed and ready to go. But I got stuck on the uniform colors.

I've always imagined Japanese to wear khaki colored uniforms. It's probably a Hollywood thing. My research didn't turn up anything in those colors. Basically it's a few different shades of green for either the Pacific Islands or Southeast Asia. For China, uniforms were brown gray. So I imagined my US Rangers to be in the vein of Merril's Marauders. Therefore, the Japanese Infantry should be painted for the SE Asia scheme. But I plan to some day pull together US Marines for the island hopping campaigns. I did test paints for both.

On the left is the Southeast Asia scheme. It's Vallejo Green Ochre. On the right is the Pacific Islands scheme, which is Vallejo Middlestone. Both got a wash of Citadel Sepia. Though the left side looks more like the Japanese you see in old war movies, I think the right side looks better. So I'm leaning that way. If anyone has an opinion, I'd like to hear it.

Once I settle on a color scheme. I've got a full rifle platoon to paint.

That's three squads of 13 men, NCO and Jr NCO, LMG, and ten riflemen. The HQ is a two man squad. I still have enough infantry to do another full squad. I also got all of the West Wind line. So I have a lot of weapons teams to complete. But when it's done I will have a nice sized Japanese Infantry force with different options for it. The challenge will be finding 28mm sized vehicles for them.

Temple of Skulls, The Other Kind of Church

2011-09-17T12:54:00.000-06:00

Keeping with my religiously themed terrain project, this week I introduce my take on the Temple of Skulls.

This is a really nice piece of terrain that will work great in any fantasy themed game (OK, maybe not LotR) or part of a WH40K game. I really like the details that went into this model. It really gives the feel of a decrepit, collapsing temple to some evil power.

I did a slightly different take on the colors that were given on the kit's box. I think the GW treatment made it look too bright, like a McDonald's Playland that fell to Chaos. Not that my take is "all that" but I liked the more muted and mysterious colors. I was going for the look of something forgotten and left to the ravages of the elements.

As a side note, I only used Americana paints on this model. In fact, I use Americana paints on all my terrain. I really like these paints, and find them fairly comparable in working qualities to the "serious" paints. They do take a few coats for even coverage, though. But they come in giant bottles and the paint doesn't dry out. I'm still using paints I bought back in 2003! So overall they're still a great value.

I also completed some craters from GW's Moonscape pack.

As far as holes in the ground go, they're nice. I tried to give each crater a different look, as if some are newer and some older. I don't know if that really comes across.

Next up is the Arcane Ruins set, which should go fast. I also ordered a couple of boxes of GW's trees. Then after that I think I'll take a break from terrain to get back to my minis.

The Other Blog

2011-09-14T21:45:00.000-06:00

OK, true confessions time. I'm cheating on you guys with another blog. There, I've said it. And I'm afraid that my other blog might be unacceptable to you, as it's only tangentially related to mini games. Oh my. This is getting serious.

For the few of you who actively read my blog, you might know that I enjoy solo gaming with a lot of my minis. I picked up Mythic's Game Master Emulator (GME) as a means to help run the "NPC opponent" in these games. Of course it was only a mater of time before I used GME for it's intended purpose: RPGs.

What started as a small experiment for me with the GME turned into a full blown game. I've been playing a series of Dark Heresy games (hence the tangential connection to this blog) using the GME. It has been a blast and I'm going to stick with it. To that end, I created a blog to specifically address my solo gaming activities.

I invite you to check out my other blog, Solosaurus. It's very new and there are not a lot of posts to read. However, my first complete story arc of a Dark Heresy game is recorded there in a few posts. Click on the Dark Heresy label to get all the posts. I've written up all the sessions, really almost becoming 40K fan fiction. I was finding my way with this at first, but have settled into a stable format now.

If you like what you find, please consider following the blog. I'll be starting up a new story arc for Dark Heresy, and plan on doing Deathwatch very soon. I'm also looking forward to Black Crusade, if it ever gets released. This just opens the door to uber-geekdom, and I've done a bit of Pathfinder and am seriously considering Call of Cthulhu. If I find a good pulp adventure RPG, I might go there too. Anyways, please have a look!

Time for Church

2011-09-10T14:04:00.000-06:00

I've got a lot of figures to paint. But this week I wasn't much interested in any of them. So, I moved on to my small collection of terrain pieces.

One thing I really wanted to get done was my gothic church from Pegasus Hobbies. I bought two of their sets and was really unimpressed with the size of the building. There wasn't even room for two 28mm models in it. So I bought one more set and was able to get a nice sized building out of it. My buddy Tim helped with assembly. He also took some of my spare MDF and mounted the model on it for me. Thanks Tim. Here are some pictures.

I will say this was a bitch to paint. I know it looks simple, but getting inside was not easy. Also, there's just a ton of surface area to cover. My wife made the wry comment that I was painting a gray model with gray paint. I had to admit, I was at a loss for a reply. "But it's not the right shade of gray," did not go over well as a sensible answer.

Tim, a dyed in the wool model converter, took some of bits from my Cities of Death terrain and added a balcony and ladder on the inside. So now a model can sit up there and snipe out of that big window. The interior is just a little shy of 10" x 10". My fat hands will have a hard time moving models in there.

There were a lot of leftover pieces. Tim and I put them in various arrangements until we came up with another building scheme. This can be either a mausoleum or a rectory to go with the church. Here are some shots of the building, not even primed yet.

I'll get to that one sooner or later. I'm going to work on the Temple of Skulls terrain piece next, as well as finish out some crater pieces I have. With my new table, I need good terrain to fill it out. So I'll focus on that while I think about what figures I want to paint next.

Space Marine is Here!

2011-09-07T22:08:00.000-06:00

I just got the new Space Marine game for Xbox 360 tonight. I lucked out and got it as a rental from my Gamefly queue. This almost never happens with new releases. My son is actually playing it first, and I have the easier job of just watching. Actually it's just as well, since I suck at shooters and you're really just moving through a linear story anyway. So watching is cool with me. Let someone else press the buttons.

I've watched about 90 minutes of game play. I will say that the graphics are spectacular..... and tremendously bloody. This is just the sort of game that will help fuel those "video games lead to violent behavior" pundits. I suppose the next chainsaw accident involving a teen will be tied back to watching Space Marines eviscerate hordes of Orks with chainswords.

At any rate, they've done a great job capturing a forge world under siege. The Ultramarines are deployed to deal with the Xenos threat (Orks) and to recover a Titan that is on the forge world. The Marines are perfectly modeled, practically look like real people. The Imperial Guard are less impressive. The Orks are spot on, including that ape-like gait I imagined that they should have. I do get a little tired of them screaming "Space Marines! Kill 'em!" over and over.

The Orks attack in massive hordes, and you only have three space marines to counter them. In a real game of 40K those space marines would be pulped seven times over. But in this video game, they are truly gods among men. One chainsword slash liquefies about five Orks at once. Awesome.

So you know where I'll be for the next several days! If you can, get your hands on this game and give it a shot. It's also available on PC, if you don't have an Xbox.

Evil Dead!

2011-09-04T23:17:00.000-06:00

Why I'm not as productive as I used to be

Miniature painting this week has been a slow affair, very hit or miss. I'm learning what it means to have a child involved with high school sports. Combined with ever lengthening work days, free time is not what it was a few short weeks ago. But I'm still plugging away, this week setting my goals on easy to do items. Hence, I worked on completing my undead warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. Check out the sweet zombie action.

These are Reaper zombies. They come three to a pack. I really liked the looks of them, particularly the female model. Her back foot has come off and she's pitching forward. The zombie in the middle is ripped across the midsection and his spine has popped out his back. I can empathize with that, sitting in an office chair all day.

Next up is a Reaper ghoul from the Warlord line.

He's a little bit on the small side for me. I painted him along with the three zombies all in one go. He's a pretty cool looking model. I debated skin tones, and then just settled on the sickly green thing. It works.

I have a vampire leading my undead warband. I wanted to show the vampire's traditional hold over wolves, bats, and vermin in my list. So here are a few additions to reflect that.

These are Reaper rat swarms that come two per package. The picture came out like crap and I'm too lazy to retake it. Since it's just a jumble of pink tails, rat bodies, and beady red eyes, I figured there's not much worth looking at here. Moving along.....

These are Reaper's Dire Wolves, also two per package. These look really nice, and even better in person. The fur texture is really right on and the faces are nicely sculpted. Also, since these are dire wolves, they stand fairly high. They come up to about shoulder height of a man-sized model. I'm tempted to model more of these and add in some wolves for an all animal warband.

So that was all I got done this week. I was glad to complete the undead warband, and put these guys on the table tonight for a play test. I actually wrangled my son into pushing the models around for a bit, which was a nice change of pace from solo gaming SBH. He played Dwarfs, which are insanely over-powered in SBH. At least I think they are.

I learned that painting up zombies was a waste of time. At Q6+ they never activate. Mine just stood at the starting line and never moved. Though, for 7pts each, they are a cheap way to keep your army from breaking. Just hide them out of sight and never activate them. Cheesy? Why I agree! The rest of my undead flew around causing terror that the dwarfs laughed off. Then all my guys died for real this time.

We played a Legions of Middle Earth scenario, Seize the Prize, which worked great in this format. My rat swarms actually unearthed the prize and got it off the board. So it was a minor victory for the Undead. I'll have to re-think this list, or stop playing against dwarfs! Anyway, that's all for now.

More Tau

2011-08-28T23:43:00.000-06:00

This week has been rather slow on the miniatures front. Between long working days and my son's high school swim team schedule I don't have a lot of time. I'm still pecking away at my Tau models, though. This week, I decided to paint up the transport that came with the Battle Box.

I really love Citadel's Graveyard Earth color. It's really one of my favorite colors. Unfortunately, it has no covering power. This Devilfish took four complete coats to get even coverage. So a quick thing like this ends up becoming a long project.

I realize that I haven't documented my other Tau models. So I took some pictures of these as well, though I didn't paint them this week. I have two Fire Warrior squads. No use to show all of them, so here's a shot of some with the Devilfish. I like the way this picture came out.

You'll note I deepened the brown color with a wash. I'm not going to do that for vehicles. The troops and vehicles don't have to match perfectly!

Here are two shots of my Battle Suit Commander and an Ethereal. The Ethereal is a nice choice since he brings an honor guard of above-average Fire Warriors. I'm going to paint those guys in a different color, just to keep track of them on the game board.

That's all for now. There's still a heap of models to do. Since there's no rush, I'll just work them here and there until they are all done.

Ninja Maniac Salad

2011-08-23T19:41:00.000-06:00

If you saw that listed on a menu, wouldn't you want to order it? What would you expect to arrive at your table? What would be the right dressing for it? I'm not much of a food adventurer. But even I'd want to know what that's about.

While you're thinking about those answers, here are some ninja models that I painted for Legends of the Rising Sun. About the easiest damn models I ever painted. But what's with the guy on the ground? He'll be perfect for a true line of sight game like LotRS!

Project Tau: Kroot

2011-08-20T13:45:00.000-06:00

A few months back I decided to go all in for a Tau army. I got some bonus money and spent a portion of it on buying models that I needed to go from a few units to a complete force. Trouble arrived shortly thereafter. I started buying lots of other models. I became distracted while the Tau sat in their boxes. I recently decided that this had to change.

I have a lot of projects going on and the Tau project is probably the biggest. Assembling these models would take me months at my glacial pace. Then they have to be based, primed and then painted. This project would never get done. Time to call a professional. I sent my models over to Saguaro Painting Service, not for painting but for assembly. Tim had the entire Battle Force box, two Piranhas, and a Hammehead Gunship turned around in less than a two days. Talk about fast service! Now all I have to do is paint this stuff.

First up from the Battle Force box are the Kroot. I love the looks of these guys! Kermit the Frog meets Predator!

I used Reaper paints mostly, specifically the Olive Drab Triad for their skin tones. I really like this for green skin tones. I wish I had those paints when I did my WHFB Orc army. Any future green skin types will probably be painted in this scheme. Here's a closer look at them.

I added a Shaper and some Kroot Hounds to go with these guys. It only makes sense and fits the fluff. I varied the green used for the Kroot Hounds. I didn't think they should be the same color as the Kroot themselves, like you see in the Codex. Could you imagine flesh colored dogs? Too weird!

I painted the Tau Sept colors of Ice Blue on Kroot shoulder pads to tie them in with the Tau army. Though you can't see it on the Kroot Hounds, I painted their eyes the same color. So everything in the army will have a touch of that color to relate them all.

Here's an Abbey Road style shot of the Shaper with some of his band mates.

That's all for now. There is so much detail on these models that painting it all takes quite some time. I think I'll tackle some of the vehicles next when I return to the Tau. In the meantime, I'll be moving on to something else for a little break.

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers, Phase Four

2011-08-16T23:50:00.000-06:00

At last we come to the end of the painting challenge that has been a "Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers." I'm updating my Rivendell Elves to their final 700 point total. Here they are posing for a group photo.

There are a total of 50 models present, coming to 692pts. I couldn't squeeze in those final eight! The disordered mess you see above is not much different than what I've been building all along. I just add more of the same guys each month. In the list is Elrond, 17 swordsmen, 16 spearmen, 16 archers. Viola! If I dropped Elrond I could force in about 12-13 more Elves. But at 700 pts I'd have practically nothing to deal with the big boys I'd face at that level. Additionally I don't want to play 700pt slug-fests, so no point in tweaking the list.

We haven't been getting in many games with these armies. As a result, the few games I've played have been not so good. I'm last in the competition. So my dreams of being treated to a gigantic sirloin at one of Phoenix's most exclusive steakhouses is all but destroyed. Looks like I'll be buying someone sushi. I'll just have a soda.

There you have it! I'm glad to have a new army for LotR. Elves are definitely challenging to play and run counter to how I've played any other army in any system before. I'm a "horde army/life is cheap" player mostly. So defensively minded Elves are a new twist on things for me. I'll hopefully get more table time with these Elves over the rest of the year.

28mm WWII: US Reinforcements

2011-08-07T00:20:00.002-06:00

I've been steadily chipping away at the mountain of models I accumulated this summer. I think I went on some sort of lead-based feeding frenzy. There's too much to paint for a long time to come. But I've been serious about my 28mm WWII miniatures. I've started with Crusader miniatures and have been filling in gaps with both West Wind and Bolt Action minis. Here's what I've got done.

First up is the command group pack from Warlord's Bolt Action range. I wanted these for the medic and the grenade launcher. The radio and officer models will be useful in certain scenarios. These models are a little more normally proportioned than the Crusader line. But mixed in with them, the Bolt Action models look fine.

These are West Wind models from the Snipers and Flamethrowers pack. There are about five snipers and four flame throwers in the package. I painted up two of each, figuring that I wouldn't need more. But there are obviously still some in reserve if I should need them. These models fit in almost perfectly with the Crusader line, and I really like them.

These two pictures are of West Wind's US .50 cal HMG team package. I like what they've done here, giving the HMG team in set-up and broken down poses. So if you have reason to move them, you've got models to represent that. I chose to put the set up team all on one large base. If the team takes casualties, I can use a token to show it.

Finally here is West Wind's M5A1 Stuart tank. I forgot to take pictures of a model next to it for scale. But the tank does scale well with the figures. Stuarts were genuinely small tanks and I don't know how four men got into them. The West Wind line of vehicles are a real value. I'm not as concerned with proper scale and making things "just so" as I am with having reasonable representations of the vehicles. I plan to buy some of the larger tanks to see how these scale. I think they are 1/56 scale models.

So my American force now has a little more variety than just straight up rifles and LMGs. Next up for the 28mm WWII project will be my Japanese forces.

As a side note, I've been running a solo campaign with these models. I've been using Flying Lead rules with Nuts! for the solo rules. It has been a blast. I've been keeping a campaign diary, which really helps drive the story. It's also fun to write and re-read, even if it's just for myself. I don't put a lot of work into it, as it's just for me. But I've started to add pictures. Maybe one day I'll post the write ups when the campaign is over. Here's a shot of the US forces accepting the surrender of the remnants of a German panzergrenadier squad that tried to infiltrate US lines. It's one of the US squad's rare victories.

The Rest of Them

2011-08-01T19:52:00.000-06:00

As I promised in my last post, I've taken photos of the rest of my undead warband for SBH. They are all Reaper miniatures. I really like Reaper models and plan to collect a lot more of these. In fact, I'll admit I snapped up a bunch more, maybe too many more. I was planning an all Elf warband, themed on World of Warcraft's Silverwing Sentinels. Now I'm not so sure I want to do that. The models don't fit the look too well (other than being female) and would require some sculpting to get right. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

This is a Warlord model, something called a spell effect. I thought it would make a nice undead spirit of some sort, maybe a wraith. It had options for a big sword or just the hands. I thought the sword look out of place on the model.

This is the Reaper of Death model. I got him because he looks cool, though I'm not sure what game purpose I have for him. I'm open to suggestions. I guess I could go for "Grim Reaper" but that's too obvious and a little over powered for a small skirmish game!

As soon a I saw this model I thought of Lady Death. She doesn't have the big hair, but has all the other "big" that we love about Lady Death. I tried to capture her vibe with dark purples and white flesh. Reaper calls this model "Eldessa, Necromancer" but I plan on running her as a vampire.

So those are the models, though not all might make the cut into the final warband. I planned on doing a traditional vampire group, one main vampire, a few lesser ones, rat and bat swarms and wolves. I could then fill it in with human servants, ghouls most likely. I don't have those models yet, but maybe I'll get around to it one day.

Also, for those who are curious, Warlord and Dark Heavens lines from Reaper do not mix well. There's a big size difference, causing me to have to leave aside other Reaper models I wanted for this warband. It irks me that they can't keep the scale consistent. You'd think they'd want people to buy more of their models rather than go elsewhere like I had to.

Just Because

2011-07-28T21:56:00.003-06:00

Things have tapered off for me now that my family is back. Demands of family life and work.... you know the whole story. However, I've kept some side projects going nonetheless. I've got a collection of Reaper miniatures that I bought years ago "just because." Sometimes it's good to paint things for no other purpose than to enjoy the process. I do have ulterior motives, however. I'm planning on using these models for my Song of Blades and Heroes war bands.

Here is Reaper's Darkrasp model from the Dark Heavens Legends line. I got him a long time ago because I thought he looked cool. Despite the happy green lawn surrounding him, I think he came out looking evil enough.

Next is another Reaper model, Aysa, from the Warlords line.

I got this model when I got the Darkrasp model. At the time I was thinking she'd make a good Banshee for a WHFB Vampire Counts army. Though my WHFB dreams are dead, Aysa can still rise from her grave to fill a spot in my undead SBH war band.

This is all for now. I've painted several more figures, but haven't photographed those yet. Also on the bench are several terrain pieces. I've got to get my new game table more terrain than a few trees and a hill. Before long, I should have some updates regarding those terrain pieces. Stay tuned.

WWII Germans

2011-07-18T18:10:00.000-06:00

Here's my nascent collection of Axis 28mm figures for WW2, the Germans.

I've been relatively busy this month with painting! My family has been out of town, leaving me plenty of time to get figures completed. So here are three squads of German riflemen and associated support teams. Below are some detailed shots of the squads.

So that's a pretty good base of Germans to start with. The squad on the top has both Panerfaust and Panzerschreck. I sort of stuck that squad together with left overs. So now for some of the other teams.

Don't ask me why I stuck the 81mm mortar on a square base. I thought I had some plan about mounting the figures on square bases to stick around the mortar. Then I got over-zealous and mounted everything on rounds. So much for ingenious planning.

Here you have an MG34 team. Standing beside them is a sniper. These should both help up the suppression factor on the battlefield.

Lastly here are a few different angles on the PaK 40 75mm anti-tank gun. I really liked the way the gun came out. It was refreshing to paint something where neatness didn't count.

So that's it for WW2 for a bit. I have about 60 Japanese infantry to paint yet. But I want to work on some stuff for SBH and maybe start filling in holes in my Tau army. I also have to re-visit my US force and add in some more units as well. My paint brushes are going to stay warm for a while!

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers, Phase Three

2011-07-16T15:15:00.000-06:00

July is here and that means I've got to post up my 525pt list of Elves. We're going all the way to 700pts at 175 increments. So next month will be the final force. This month comes with yet more change ups to the force. I've dropped the Stormcaller and added in Elrond. It make sense to bring him in at this time. He costs 170 points on his own! So to fill in some holes to get to the full 525 points I added in two each of Spears, Warriors, and Bows. Here they are.

Not a lot of models here, as Elrond soaks up a huge chunk of the army's cost. As I said, everyone else is going with a horde army. So I have to keep up the numbers. Otherwise, I'd have kept the Stormcaller in the list. Elrond got a little extra attention. Here he is.

I went with my own colors for him. This was also the first time I used Reaper paint triads. It made the shadowing and highlighting on the hair and cape very straight forward. The colors of the model are fairly accurate, while the background grass looks like it needs watering. Don't know what happened there.

So I'm dead last in the challenge. We were supposed to play games at each point level against one another. But that's proving too hard to coordinate. So I lost my one official game and that puts me in last place. However, I've been getting in games with these Elves "unofficially." I'm still not very accustomed to their style, but am getting better.

I clobbered a newcomer to the game last week. I was rather hoping I'd enjoy my usual combination of poor strategy and bad dice rolling. That would probably ensure the new guy had fun. As it was I could roll nothing but sixes and wiped him away like a sandcastle on the beach. Too bad I'll never see that again when I need it. And I likely soured a new player on the game. Elves! Can't win with them, can't throw a game with them!

Song of Blades and Heroes Battle Report

2011-07-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

As promised, here's a battle report on Song of Blades and Heroes (SBH). I met up with my friend, Mike, last night and we played a 325pt game. We played a straight up fight between Orcs & Goblins and Dwarfs. It was a good old fashioned fantasy stand-by that worked well for this game.

So I was interested in making sure we had a good mix of models. The Orcs weighed in with one Leader, a Shaman, five Orc warriors and four goblin archers. The Dwarfs suffer from their elite status when it comes to numbers. They had a leader, rune priest, an Orc slayer, three warriors, and two crossbows. We marked off a 3' x 3' area and went at it. I played Orcs and Mike played Dwarfs. Mike won the roll off and had me go first.

The first few turns of any game with a "kill 'em all" objective is usually filled with lots of movement. This was no different. What makes it interesting is rolling for activations. Due to my low quality on Orcs, I generally never got more than two and often ended my turn early. If you fail your activations on two or more dice, you pass the turn back to the other side. Deciding how many dice to throw for activations becomes an interesting "mini game" of risk management. It starts from the first turn, so you are actively thinking rather than just moving up models.

Here come the Orcs. You can see that some models were left at the starting zone because of failed activations. It was sort of a boon later on, as it turns out. (All of these are iPhone shots.. which are not too good when it comes to minis. But you get the idea.)

The Dwarfs use the house at the center for cover. The orcs will try to go around one side, and send some archers to the other side. Dwarfs move slower, using the small movement stick of 3". So Orcs have a speed advantage here. There's an interesting aspect to movement. You measure from the front of the model base and move up to the back of the model base. This is stated in the rules, and is different than the standard GW way of things. So larger based models go faster. But they can be engaged by more models as a trade off.

Orc shooting is crap. You dice off using your combat score, which is low for goblins. So combined with a low quality (meaning fewer activations) and a poor combat, they don't stand many chances to hit. A Dwarf crossbow dueled with my night goblin almost all game. Shooting in this game is more effective than LotR but not as deadly as WHFB. It's about the middle ground, which is nice.

Eventually the first Orc charges up around the house. Because you move in straight lines, it takes a lot of activations to run around a corner and fight. I manage to get him into combat, but he doesn't have enough activation to fight. It's OK, because he can fight when the Dwarf activates. Besides, I was hoping to bring up some help. I had contacted the Orc Slayer, which is lethal vs Orcs (not Goblins!). This means as long as he wins combat, he will kill any Orc. So this guy was a priority target!

But the dice gods were against me. I had plenty of models to come up to help, but I blew two activations and sent the turn back to the Dwarfs. Mike decides he can't go wrong with his Quality 2+ leader and rolls three dice. But he gets snake eyes and one success! The turn comes back to me after the leader makes move to a better position. So even a "sure thing" Q2 model has its risks. Feeling lucky, I activate the Orc in combat and the Orc Slayer takes his head. First blood and it's greenskins! Due to poor rolling and getting out of leadership range, my Orcs start to string out. Here's what it looked like for me at this point.

That Shaman and the night goblin archer were trying to "one-two punch" a kill on the crossbows. This is done by first transfixing the model with magic and then shooting it with archer (or vice versa... they both had the same stats so it didn't matter). A transfixed model is treated like a knocked down model. So any combat defeat or successful ranged attack would kill it. But I wasn't getting too far with that.

Now it comes down to the big scrum in the middle where the game will be decided. Mike had been holding back his Dwarfs, but was now bringing them up. The warriors become Q2 when in range of their leader. So they could do some serious damage. I form up a line and the dwarfs engage. Rather than write up the outcome, here's a before and after set of pictures.

The Orcs were demolished! My Orc leader managed to kill the Orc slayer dwarf. But otherwise Orcs got wiped out after a few rounds. Thankfully the Goblins were all far back. So the slow moving Dwarfs would have to walk up to them while I took arrow shots. The Orc leader in the middle took a serious beating. He has the "tough" special rule. This basically trades his quality for wounds, so every time he is "killed" he actually lowers his quality. Once he hits quality 7 he dies. It took some fighting but he died!

The leader special rule is essential for low quality troops like Orcs and Goblins. But part of the special rule is that when the leader dies, all remaining models take morale checks. This was a doubly bad thing for me, as the Leader's death was also the 50% break point for my force as well. So models would take two tests. I didn't have to do that, as most models ran off the board when they saw their mighty war boss finally stagger and fall under the angry dwarven axes. Only a goblin and the shaman remained, and they probably wouldn't last another test. We called it at that point with a major victory for the Dwarfs. They protected the village from the Orc invaders!

This was just such a fun and quick game. It took us about an hour to play, even with all the casual talking that fills up most of that time. If we'd been playing a campaign or linked series, I could've checked to see which of my models lived, were wounded, or taken captive. But it was our first "real game" and just wanted to see how it played.

So it held up as I expected. The rules play well, the two stats augmented with special rules make for well rounded troops. One thing we noticed is that the points system is a little bit "fudged." By that I mean my Orcs cost nearly as much as the Dwarfs. However, Dwarf quality and combat were better. This is significant because it makes it harder for me to double their combat rolls for a kill. I should've had more models or better stats to make up for the similar point costs. I guess if you are playing with friends, just don't be a douche bag and select a power army. You could easily do that and get something way over powered for the points. But this is not a tournament game, and so should not be a problem with friends.

I can't say enough good things about this rules set. I was really able to get involved from the start and play out a skirmish encounter with hardly any referral back to rules. Not that it's perfectly clear rules. In fact, the book organization needs a lot of work. But for most of what you want to do, the basic rules and quick reference guide has all of it handy. I will definitely be playing more of this game. I'm planning some lists specifically for it. So watch for more on that front in the future.

WWII Americans

2011-07-13T00:11:00.001-06:00

In my last post, I promised a battle rep for SBH. However, I'm going to jump this in front of that planned post. Here are my WWII Americans, two squads with a 60mm mortar team and a LMG team.

Here are some shots of the individual units.

I painted these as Rangers, as you might be able to tell from the small blue "Rangers" diamond patches I put on their left shoulders. I'm thinking these guys fall into the 2nd Ranger Battalion that was active from D-Day on. Rangers were also active in the CBI theater as well. While these models probably don't reflect jungle gear, I don't really care. They've got the patch!

I wanted to post these pictures because I'm well on my way to finishing my second unit of Germans. I wanted to show the completed "first wave" of US forces before the Germans. I'll finish the German force and then return to the US force. I have a 1/60 scale Stuart tank, HMG team, and some flamer throwers & snipers to fill out the rest of the force. Once that's done, I'll either take a break from WW2 or jump into my Japanese forces. I'll just have to gauge my desire for that when I get there. The Japanese are the most numerous, numbering about 50-60 models. I just bought the entire line to save myself the trouble of buying more at a later date.

The Coolest Fantasy Skirmish Game That You Never Heard Of Before

2011-07-09T00:44:00.003-06:00

I used to consider Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game as the best skirmish fantasy game I had ever played. But over the years every game has become 600+ points with as many models crammed into your list as you can possibly get. My Corsair army has more models than my 40K Space Marines and just about as many as my planned Tau army. Players in both casual and tournament games are generally trying to get as close to the maximum model count of 75 as possible. In short, it's still the best game I ever played. But it's not skirmish and hasn't been for a long time. At least not in my opinion (which I'm sure the world disagrees with, by the way).

So I went searching for a fantasy skirmish game to scratch that itch. It didn't take long to find Song of Blades and Heroes (SBH) by Ganesha Games. I could really end this post now with me just telling you to go spend the $8 for the PDF and get this game. You won't regret it. The game is awesome, and once you play it through a few times you realize what looked like a light and breezy game has a lot of meat to it.

But I'm in the mood to write, lucky for you. Let me introduce the game in more depth, and see if I can't convince you to check it out. Incoming wall of text!

First, it's a skirmish game. Hooray for not needing to buy 50+ models before you can "really play" the game. You use whatever models you have on hand. That was a huge selling point for me. I have a lot of WHFB models gathering dust. Also, I can now buy all those delicious Reaper models that I've wanted, not to mention get some use out of my Warmachine/Hordes stuff. My only complaint is the mish-mash of square and round bases. Can't have it all, I guess.

The overall game structure feels a little like Mordheim mixed with a little Lord of the Rings, plus some standard miniature games rules thrown in. The system is very simple and easy to learn. Best of all, there are no charts to consult or stupid markers to put next to models. (I hate that marker shit... put a marker to show retreating, put a marker to show a charge, put a marker to show that there's a marker next to the model.....)

You build your warband to a 300 pt level, which will get you about 8 - 12 models. You can do more if you want to. But wasn't I just complaining about model bloat in LotR? I've gone up to 400 pts with still less than 20 models. You allocate 1/3 of your points to "personalities" that are models with certain rules. The remainder go to your regular guys. You don't need a leader per se, which is nice.

If you're into models with heavy stat lines, look somewhere else. All models have only two stats, Quality and Combat. That's all you need. The models are then modified by special rules, of which they are many. Those two stats with the special rules make SBH easy to learn and play. Believe it or not, the two stats still embody the stereotypes you expect for certain fantasy races. For example, Dwarfs are rock hard and brave while Orcs are still numerous and run off when things go bad. That all works with two numbers.

The game itself moves quickly and is based on activations. You roll from 1-3 dice per model. Compare the result to your quality score and anything matching or exceeding the number is a success. You can take one action per success. At first I thought I'd hate this aspect, but have found that it's really the heart of the game and ups the strategy factor by quite a bit. In fact, I wish other games had this. The twist is, any time you fail two activation rolls, you will pass your turn back to your opponent. If you rolled three dice, got two failures and one success, you still take your one action. But then the turn goes back to your opponent even if that was your first model activation. So the decisions you make are meaningful and will alter the game. If you have a a 5+ quality model (you must roll 5 or better on a d6 to pass) then you better think twice before rolling for two activations. But what if you want to move and attack a juicy target that you know you could crush? When do you activate that model and will you roll two or more dice? (HINT: Always roll 3 dice on the last model you activate, since two failures don't mean anything at that point.)

As I mentioned there are a slew of special rules. Despite the number of rules, they are easy to understand and memorize. Many are old gaming stand-bys like Hatred, Terror, Fearless, etc. Some were harder to understand, like Drain and Poison. But after a second reading they were easy to get. Special rules can make each model unique, or can define the character of a type of troop. The rules aren't always beneficial (like Coward or Greedy), and negative special rules lower the points cost of the model to compensate.

Combat is fast, but not overly deadly in one-on-ones. That's actually good, since with 10 models a side deadly combat would end the game really fast. Basically, you roll off and add in combat scores plus other modifiers. If I double your score, you are killed. If I triple your score, you die a gruesome death and everyone around takes a morale check. If I just win but don't kill, you either are knocked down or pushed back (recoiled, as they call it). The key is to get models knocked down or "transfixed" with magic. You can kill models in these conditions just by beating them in combat, no need to double a score.

It's time to bring this post home with an old fashioned Pros and Cons analysis.

Pros:

Skirmish based, play with any fantasy models you have
Simple rules that encompass just about everything. You only need three dice and a tape measure.
Price: Pay $8 for the main rules and bring your own background fluff. You've got a full blown game in hand for about the price of a fast food lunch.
Tactical and strategic depth of play
Lots of expansions available to add more to the game, also low priced or available as a bundle.
Strong narrative component: This game just begs you to create your own narrative for your warband and it's battles. The campaign expansion book takes that home nicely.
Design your own model stats and points with a free Excel worksheet. Now that six armed demoness sitting on my table will have a gaming purpose.
Adaptable to historical games.
Highly solo friendly!

Cons:

Additional rules, rosters, and FAQs are spread out over the expansions. Looking up stuff is sort of ridiculous like that.
You move in a straight line always. So taking a corner will cost two activations. I know the rules are trying to be simple, but come on!
Minor complaint: gear doesn't seem to matter too much. It's supposedly figured into the models quality and combat scores. But I'd like for a massive battle axe to count for something more! (I was happy when one of the expansions introduced the Heavy Armor special rule. I'd like more of that.)
Potential to "game the system" and create unbalanced lists. You just have to agree with your opponent on what is fair, otherwise it could be a power gamer's paradise.
No one is going to play this game with you. "Their game" is so much better and SBH is too blah, blah, blah (I'm sure they'll find something less than perfect to bitch about.)

So in my opinion there are many pros and not so many cons. Also, there are three expansions that you really should get to fully enjoy the game. Ganesha Games is coming out with a bajillion different games based on this system. They're planning Historical Skirmish for ancients. They already have Napoleonic skirmish rules that seem well received. I'm waiting for their Flying Lead rules for modern skirmish to come out with the WWII supplement. There's just a lot to this company and I'm pretty excited about it.

I'll put up a battle rep on one of my solo games. That might help illustrate the rules better. If you've read this far, let me know. I often wonder if anyone plows through all of this verbiage. Thanks for reading!

Building a Gaming Table, the Final Outcome

2011-07-04T18:55:00.000-06:00

At last the table is completed and in the house! Tim and his son came over this morning to help move it inside and attach the top to the base. It looks absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to get some gaming done on the new surface. Tim had me throw a die on the table for good luck. I got a "4", which was pretty encouraging.

I had to hit it with some touch-up paint to cover some of the mistakes. It's funny because every time I look at it or see a new picture of it, the table looks like it needs more touch-up. I have a big storage compartment underneath it, and I'm going to plan how to use it best. I'm terrible at taking advantage of space. For one, I'm putting as many of my armies into stacking boxes as I possibly can. I have too many metal tool boxes, etc, that don't stack well.

Anwyay, here's a shot of the table in the front room. Overall I think it looks great. I just need to buy a few bar stools to sit on while gaming.

I'm glad this is done! Thanks a million to Tim and Mike for building me this great table. I'm looking forward to plenty of fun games with it. Now I just have to build terrain to put on it! Stay tuned!

Building a Gaming Table with Extra Drama

2011-07-03T22:50:00.000-06:00

Not more than one day with my new table, and drama strikes! The action is supposed to happen on the table, not to the table. Here's what I found when I entered the garage yesterday while enjoying my cup of morning coffee.

That beautiful pine finish was warping and bowing out! The finely joined edges were pulling apart. So after a good five minutes of strongly wishing I wasn't seeing this, I sent these pictures to the experts. Mike and Tim conferred on matters and suggested I try a few things. In the meantime, I sanded the base for painting and tried not to act too weepy.

This morning Tim came by with his friend, Mike Pop (not sure on the spelling of his last name). Mike P is a professional carpenter. In about two minutes he essentially told me I was hosed. Pine is not a good choice for drier than hell Arizona. He graciously offered to take the top back to his shop and put on some MDF siding.

I was expecting Mike to slap on some basic siding and call it done. I hadn't expected all the incredible work he put into it. He didn't have enough MDF to make strips of the right size, so he actually joined two pieces together. It was amazing; I can't even tell where the joins are now. Then he sanded everything down and rounded the edges. Here's what those table edges look like after Mike finished.

MDF will stay straight and true for the life of the table. So rather than try to make the pine work, going to the MDF at this stage was the right thing to do. Mike P is an awesome guy, and like Tim and Mike W he donated his time and effort to my table. He's not even a gamer!

So Tim and I took it back to the house and after doing some other stuff in the afternoon (like getting lunch!), we came back and started painting. Tim helped me with getting down the base coats for the trim. Then he took off for the day. I stayed at it to finish painting the second coats on the trim and the first coats of the top and panels. A dust storm blew through while I was painting inside the box. I had my garage door open and crap got all over the sides! I had to pick out the big stuff. It doesn't look too bad.

Here's what I've got so far.

Those edges don't look too shabby now, do they?! I've got touch up painting to do and a second coat for all the light colors. But I'll get that done tomorrow morning. Tim volunteered to come by and help me move it into the house. It only weights a ton, now that I've added all that MDF siding. By tomorrow night I should have a gaming table in my house! Woot! I'll post up when the table lands in its final destination.

Building a Gaming Table

2011-07-02T13:41:00.000-06:00

I've always wanted a gaming table. However, for years I just didn't have a need for one or even think that I could build one. I had kicked around stupid ideas for some time, but nothing ever came from it. One night, I was talking with my wife, and she told me I could build a table and put it in my front room. This just goes to show that your spouse can still surprise you even after 20 years of marriage. I never expected her to agree.

So I had one major problem. I'm not handy. No that's not modesty; that's reality. I'm the guy who hammers a hole in the wall while hanging an 8x10 picture. I'm that guy you never let work a power tool without supervision. But I am fortunate to have two good friends who are not only quite capable but also quite generous. After some talking, they both agreed to "help" me build my table.

Tim K from Cursed Treasures and Mike W from Da Green Skins came over last night to "assist" me in building the table. I will define "assist" as building the whole damn thing by themselves while I asked if anyone needed a drink. On Tim's advice, I picked up a Simpson Strong-tie workbench box and the necessary lumber. He had the truck; so he helped me to pick up the lumber. Mike came up with a design to meet my wife's crazy requirement to make the table look good. Can you imagine such a demand? With the materials and plan ready, we started yesterday in the afternoon. We made sure to pick and "excessive heat warning" day to work on this. It would build character.

I was astounded by the array of tools off-loaded into my garage. I own a hammer, screwdriver, drill, and some sandpaper. That's my set up. But last night that garage had nail guns, chop saws, sanders, cordless drills, just about everything you could need. Here's Tim and Mike making the first cuts on the chop saw, probably the most important tool of the entire production.

The work went smoothly. There were numerous unexpected challenges along the way. But Mike and Tim found ways around each one of them. The only catch was that it took a lot longer to build than anticipated! Here are some shots of framing up the base.

This base would form a pedestal for the table top. The bottom of it would form a shelf for storing my stuff. The table top would be framed separately and be fit to the pedestal. Here are some shots of that action.

At some point I was feeling pretty guilty just standing around doing odd jobs. So I had offered to help finish screwing in some of the legs. However, I still managed to make a mess of that. It was apparent that letting me use the drill would add several hours to the job. At some point, I was assigned sanding duties to plane down an overhang on the bottom shelf. At last I was useful! Here's a shot of me getting excited with the palm sander.

After several more hours of work the table was ready to come together. Tim and Mike put in some MDF to create a finished look to the pedestal. Then 6" pine boards were carefully joined all along the edges to give the top a classy, and finished look. We set the top on the pedestal, unattached for now. Here's the result.

You can see in the bottom picture that we left one side open for me to access my stuff. All in all, it is one awesome looking table! Now it needs to be sanded down, painted and stained. That's phase two. The final phase three will be bringing it out of the garage and into the living room, where we'll attach the top to the pedestal.

I really, really, really have to thank Tim and Mike for their commitment and effort to this project. It took nearly eight hours to build this. It's a lot more complicated than it seems, let me tell you! I can't wait to get this finished and in the house!

Next Project: 28mm WWII

2011-06-26T18:09:00.000-06:00

I've made a decision to collect 28mm WW2 figures. No one I know is actively playing WW2 in 28mm on a regular basis. There really are no rules popular enough to get support from a wide audience. Flames of War is about it for WW2 games in my area, and it's 15mm at that. While I like FoW, its scope is more than I want and I tend to feel "detached" from the game when playing it. I guess it's basically a tournament style game with WW2 flavoring. So for a long time I didn't want to sink effort and money into something I'd paint and put away. (Witness the Viking army that I played twice before shoving in a closet for the rest of eternity.)

However, once I found Nuts! I realized that I could play 28mm WW2 as often as I wanted. The rules are written for either solo or cooperative play. So now I have an excuse to invest money into these figures. Additionally I can use these models in any other WW2 28mm rules set. So whenever someone does want to play a 28mm WW2 game, I'm ready for it!

I'm taking this from ground zero, meaning I have nothing in my collection besides paints to get started. I purchased a bunch of US and German models to start. I'm painting the US Infantry squads first and then the German infantry models. Rather than bore you with a list of everything, I'll just say I have about 30 models per side both with basic troops and specialists.

Here's a sample of my first group of models for the US, all leader models but for one rifleman.

When I think of WW2 battlefields, I think of mud. So I'm keeping the basing along that theme. I've actually painted a lot more of these figures since I took this picture. So I'll post up the US squads once completed, then it's on to the Nazis!

If that's not bad enough, I ordered 40+ Japanese infantry in 28mm this morning! I got the Nuts! supplement for War Against Japan, and am eager to try that out. So there will be a lot of WW2 coming up soon!

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers, Phase Two

2011-06-24T14:11:00.000-06:00

So it's time again to post up the 350pt force for the second phase of the challenge. I've made one change up to the list. I've added a Stormcaller to lead the force. Arwen was nice, but she was killed at least three times previously. I think she's been pulped enough to pull her from the ranks. The Stormcaller is the same points cost, and has one extra spell and a better defense than Arwen. He has lower courage and fight value, but he's still an Elf. The "wild channeling" rule could make him better than Arwen. I don't think he's a "game changer" but I like the model and wanted to try him out.

As for rank and file, I've added in nine spearmen. I also fit in six more bowmen and one more warrior. So I've got 28 models in this force, which is still going to be massively outnumbered. I was just shy of being able to take that tenth bow for volley fire. It's probably not that important.

I'm learning that to play Elves correctly, you've got to play like the other Elf players who drive you crazy. That is, just stand at the far end of the table and shoot. Don't move even if the scenario requires it. Stand on the hill and shoot. Back up 3" and shoot. By the time you're engaged, you might have killed one or two models and made it all worth your while!

Here are the boys. (Capes by Armani. Armor designs by Hugo Boss)

Legends of the Far East -- Samurai!

2011-06-22T19:19:00.000-06:00

I've completed my first six samurai models for Legends of the Far East. These are the Perry Miniatures that I ordered when I first downloaded the rules. I finally got around to painting them. I was seriously stressed out trying to get the armor details correct. Then I spent a whole lot of time trying to research the correct designs for the sashimono (the flag on their backs). Here's what I learned.

To hell with that shit. This is a game and not a goddamn history lesson. I was totally spoiling my own fun. I discovered a serious streak of "elitist know-it-all-ism" in the online community. You might think these folks time traveled to Sengoku period Japan and took video. To make my research more fruitless, the experts contradicted one another. So I ended up just painting whatever looked good to me.

The sashimono designs are all authentic Sengoku period samurai designs. I'm sure someone can tell you every detail of the samurai who displayed them, right down to his favorite breakfast cereal. I've probably mixed mortal enemies together in my little band. Ah well, they'll learn to get a long.

I will take a short break from these guys to work on some other projects that have my attention. But I have plenty more models to go. I did promise I would get out of control, remember? I have samurai and ashigaru with yari, ninjas, and samurai in kimonos. So there's a bunch more to come... all guaranteed to be semi-historical and somewhat researched!

Battle Chronicler Review

2011-06-15T22:42:00.001-06:00

I like battle reports. I enjoy reading them and writing them. I enjoy writing battle reports about my winning the game. But that doesn't happen all that often. So I was thrilled to learn about Battle Chronicler, which is free software that creates some really sharp looking battle reports. I downloaded it right away and decided to try it out on a game of Lord of the Rings. I had played a game recently with Rob as part of the Tale of Four Gamers challenge. It was a downright disaster for the Elves and I didn't feel like writing it up. But when I found this software, I thought I'd give it a try.

The game was straightforward. I think I remembered the gist of it. Besides, I wanted to try the software. So what follows is my attempt to use the software to report the battle I played two weeks ago. I found the software semi-intuitive. I was able to import Army Builder lists with ease. But I've no idea how to use the freakin' software to make my report. It's not as easy as advertised. Also, LotR is different than the "infantry block" style of games this software wants you to talk about. Since each model is it's own unit, I'm thinking to truly represent a game I'd have to enter each model as a separate entity. Yikes.

So read on. It's only semi-pretty because it's all screwed up. For one, the Elves show up as individual models but can only be moved like an infantry block in the software. Weird. All in all, I think it would be worthwhile to learn how to use this. But no manual exists and the forum sucks. So you're almost on your own with it. Well, it's free!

Scenario: The High Ground

Date played: Friday, June 03, 2011

Elf Warband 175pts

General: Jerry

H Arwen Evenstar, Hero
Expert Rider; Woodland Creature; Nature's Wrath; Elven Blade
60 points
EB 3 Elf Warrior, Warrior
Woodland Creature; Hand Weapon; Elf Bow; Heavy Armour
33 points
EW 8 Warrior, Elf Warriors
Woodland Creature; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour
80 points
Total: 173 points

Wargear
Elf Bow: Range: 24"/56cm; Strength: 3; Move Penalty: Half
Elven Blade: May be used single handed or double handed (if not mounted) -1 Fight, +1 to roll on Wound chart.
Heavy Armour: +2 Defence.

Durin's Folk

General: Rob

MH Dwarf Captain, Minor Hero
Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield
65 points
DB 4 Dwarf Warrior, Warrior
Hand Weapon; Dwarf Bow; Armour
36 points
W 8 Dwarf Warrior, Warrior
Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield
72 points
Total: 173 points

Wargear
Armour: +1 Defence.
Dwarf Bow: Range: 18"/42cm; Strength: 3; Move Penalty: Half
Shield: +1 Defence

Turn One: Elves and Dwarfs line up on different sides and run to conquer the hill.

Turn Two: Not much happening yet.

Turn Three: The Elf bows come up and shoot at the Dwarfs, killing one! The Elves hide behind the hill, not daring to pop up in front of the dwarf bows. Dwarfs return fire and kill one archer.

Turn Four: Elves engage the Dwarfs on the high ground but lose their fights. Two are killed. The archers move up senselessly into Dwarf bow range and exchange shots. One of the Elf archers dies. Arwen tries to cast a spell but it is resisted.

Turn Five: The Elves are pushed back and the Dwarfs gain the hill. They have a bad time of it and two more are killed. The lone archer runs for the hill. Arwen moves out of the fight and tries her last attempt at the use of a spell. The Dwarf Captain resists it. The last Elf archer gets on the hill. Arwen engages in combat. The Elf Warriors lose more fights, but manage to take out a Dwarf at last!

Turn Six to End of Game: The Dwarf bowmen gain the hill and complete the surrounding of the Elves. After this, it is a slaughterfest and all the Elves are killed to the last one. Major victory for the Dwarfs.

So there it is. Sort of mumble-jumbled as I learned the software. It's really interesting but not as easy as it is made out to be. I suppose if you were reporting on the infantry block style games or even 40K, it would be easier. Also the actual battle had more stuff happening in it, like the special rule for wind knocking everyone down. The kill counts aren't accurate either. But you get the idea of the software by now.

A Guide to Creating Woodland Scenics Trees, Agent Orange Style

2011-06-08T22:36:00.000-06:00

So many gaming blogs provide tutorials and guides that I felt obligated to provide one of my own. My tutorial will focus on assembling Woodland Scenics trees to use on your gaming tables. I recently did this myself, and can now share the steps I used to create trees that look like something from Operation Ranch Hand. Follow closely and don't deviate from these steps to get the same look. Be warned, this is a fairly advanced procedure that will require a lot of your time and aggravation. A huge portion of aggravation. Don't enter into this lightly.

Step One: Start off Wrong
Go to your local hobby shop and be sure to buy all the parts separately. If you buy the tree kits, you'll end up saving money. You can't be serious about this hobby if you are trying to save money.

Step Two: Increase the Challenge
Throw away the bags that have instructions printed on them. It's far more rewarding to do this from memory after reading the instructions once. Be sure to throw out the bags just before someone dumps a sloppy mess of food scraps on top of them. This will ensure you won't got back to check.

Step Three: Stop Thinking and Start Doing
You will have bendable wire frames of trees and bases for them. The tree is flat, like a two dimensional picture. You will have to twist the branches to make the tree come to life. Don't twist the trunk, as that will provide depth and interest to the tree form. Bending the branches and not twisting the trunk will make the finished trees look like they fell out of a book press. Just like leaves.

Additionally fit the trunks into the bases provided. But don't glue these together. You'll never be able to accidentally pull them apart at a later time if you glue it now.

Step Four: Hob-e-tac Hell
You should have purchased the recommended Hob-e-tac glue. Open the lid and watch it spill out everywhere like a vanilla volcano. There's no way to avoid this so just enjoy the experience. Now apply Hob-e-tac to the branches where you want the foliage to be. During this process, you will also get Hob-e-tac on your hands as well. Remember this step, as we will return to it in a moment. First, an important point:

Apply the glue in the stingiest, most miserly way possible. Treat the Hob-e-tac as if it's your own precious bone marrow. Also the instructions advise you to wait at least 15 minutes for the glue to become tacky. Well, of course you have it all over your hands, your desk, and the part of your carpet that wasn't covered by a drop-cloth. It feels pretty fucking tacky, don't you think? Just go to the next step without waiting.

Step Five: Apply Foliage. To Everything.
You should have a bag of clump foliage that you purchased (or it came with your kit, if you are one those lightweight hobbyists who needs to be hand held like a simpering baby). You are to dip the tree frame into the foliage bag. Don't bother to break apart the clumps of foliage in the bag. I say this because you have to stick the foliage on with your hands anyway. Of course this means the foliage will also stick to you as well. This creates a neat little interplay between trying to get the foliage off your fingers and onto the branches. All the while you'll be knocking off clumps that you've already attached, many of which will roll away to become toys for your cats.

Also, when doing this be certain not to attach the tree wireframe to a wider and more stable base. If you do, the tree won't tip over every time you look at it. This constant toppling will simulate an earthquake for your model trees. The foliage will flake off more naturally this way.

Step Six: Let Dry Overnight and Touch Stuff
You are done! Or so you think. Leave your model trees and go wash your hands. Don't worry about washing off all the Hob-e-tac since it will have gotten on places that you have no idea about. You can now go about your house touching things like telephones, keyboards, computer mice, and expensive iPhones. Rest assured that the Hob-e-tac will be surreptitiously applying itself to everything you have touched. So later you can try to explain to your family why your keyboard is so sticky. Won't it be fun to see what your family thinks about your excuse?!

Step Seven: Witness the Defoliant Look
The next morning you will have gone back to your hobby room to admire your prior day's work. If you have been following this guide you should find piles of fallen clump foliage piled about your tree models. To truly get that Agent Orange feel, a few pathetic clumps will hopefully still be clinging to the wireframes. Congratulations!

Optional Steps

These are some optional steps I took. You don't have to do all of this, since your tree models will pretty much look wilted and dead after all this abuse. But I'm into this hobby for the depth of detail you can go with modeling. So if you share the same mania, try the following:

1. Go back to the store for more advice.
I picked a hobby store that was totally out of my way. You may elect to pick a hobby store conveniently located to you. If you're a wimp. At the store, you should talk to the salesperson who confidently gives you advice the runs completely counter to the instructions provided by Woodland Scenics. This person will most likely tell you that Hob-e-tac is not the right thing and that white glue is better. If you point out that this is not what the instructions say and the salesperson insists he knows better than the manufacturer, then you've got your man. Listen to him.

2. Use the white glue. Contemplate throwing everything away
So if you followed the salesperson's advice, you've inevitably discovered that white glue is not your friend. You've also probably ruined a good portion of you clump foliage. By now it should be filled with dust, dirt, and cat hair from falling on the floor so often. Go ahead and pitch that as well. Ironically, my destroyed clump foliage landed in the trash on top of those discarded instructions.

3. Go back to the store again and don't talk to any of those dipshits
After having a day to cogitate on matters, you will likely have remembered something about spraying things with Scenic Cement. Oddly, this is what you should've purchased on your first trip. But all the extraneous trips are building character. So get this cement and get out before someone gives you bright ideas about using superglue on the trees.

4. Spray the trees with cement. Overspray the cement onto other import things.
To experience the maximum possible "character building opportunities" be sure to spray your trees in front of other things that you don't want to be enshrouded in a near permanent cement. You'll enjoy chipping out these models later on. It's like being an archaeologist, carefully chipping out fragments of your expensive models from the cement.

Well, that's about it. Hopefully you found this guide useful. Enjoy your trees!

DISCLAIMER: I feel obligated to state that this was a parody of what I did to totally screw up my trees. You should carefully follow the instructions on the package. Use a good amount of Hob-e-tac (not white glue!) and definitely let it set for 15+ minutes before applying foliage. If you do the opposite of what I described, you should get better results than me!

Mythic GM Emulator for Solo Games

2011-06-06T22:16:00.001-06:00

I've been clearing out closet space recently. When I started playing miniature war games several years ago I bought up just about every "big name game" I could find. So you can imagine what I uncovered in my closets: boxes of fully assembled, lovingly painted and totally unused armies.

The most regrettable find was all my Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies. I can't bring myself to sell these. But no one in my local group plays this game, and I don't feel like doing pick up games at the local game store. In fact, doing pick up games in the local game store almost caused me to drop out of the hobby completely. The total suckage of pick up games could be a post in itself.

But by now you are wondering how this post's title connects with my article. Let me explain.

I took out my WHFB boxes from the closet, looked at the models and wanted to play a game with them. I also wanted to renew my collection of WHFB models, and have a purpose for doing so. I considered what I'd enjoy. The story-driven, skirmish game Mordheim sounded right for this. So I pulled out my rulebook, threw some Orcs on the table and started to push these around. I did this to refresh myself on the rules, which reminded me of 6th ed WHFB (where I left off with that game; I'm two editions behind now). Having done that, I decided I'd like to actually play a game.

This is where Mythic's GM Emulator (GME) made all the difference. Originally created to allow GMs to run their RPGs without preparation or to play without a GM, the GME fits war gaming as well. I heard about the GME's use from some forums, and doubted if it would work. But I'm a sucker for these types of things and I plunked down the $6.95 to find out. I'm glad I did.

So here's a quick explanation of how it works. You ask a yes or no question, then determine the odds for a "yes". You check these odds on a table, and roll a d100. If you roll within the percentage given, then your answer is yes. Depending on how you score, you can also end up with an exceptional yes or exceptional no response. Other conditions, such as scoring doubles (22, 33, 99, etc) yield a random event. The success of this system hinges on asking intelligent questions and not dumb ass things like "Do I automatically win the game?" Additionally, as the game progresses, things can become more or less "chaotic" which will also influence the percentages. It's a neat system.

The net result was that my NPC opponent did things that I did not expect and moved more or less like someone else was controlling these models. That's the perfect situation for solo play. Also, with solo play you are allowed to do things like have random events that are not strictly in the rules. The GME helps add those in without any preparation or effort on your part, and these events will always be different. An example of play will probably help with understanding how GME works.

Meet the "Bloody Eye Boyz" These orcs are survivors from a recently sundered Waaagh! led by a now dead orc boss. Time for a new boss! Havak Dreadeye has pounded a few other boyz and gobbos into service to his Bloody Eye Boyz. Uglug Bashead and Durg Smashface are Big 'Uns that help keep the boyz and gobbos in line. They're now wandering the countryside, looking for plunder and violence. They've heard an abandoned home at the edge of town still might have some loot. When they arrive, some of the other boyz from the last Waaagh! are there already. This is great news! A fight is just what Havak and the boyz were hoping to enjoy!

After I set up the terrain, I deploy Havak and his boyz. I divide up the NPC deployment zone into three equal sectors. So while I could've used the GME to deploy them, it was faster to roll a d3 for each model to see where it starts. Since recently my dice don't roll higher than 2, all NPCs ended up in the first zone behind a small shed and a small wooded area. I went first and took my moves, deciding to walk into the zone so my Night Goblin archers could fire bows and that the other boyz would be ready to respond the following turn.

As an aside, Animosity was simply out of control the entire game. I rolled one after one after one after one, until I canned those dice and got out my lucky Vegas dice. Then things got better and I could actually play the game! My Chessex dice cube is malfunctioning again. My casino dice are far more consistent. OK, back to the game.

It's time for the NPC to move. Since this is a test game, I just made a simple band to fight against. There are six Orcs, one Big Un and a Orc Boss in the NPC team, no magic or shooting. After handling their animosity, I ask if the first Orc will go thru the woods. Since he's eager for the fight, I assume he will not want to slow down and make the odds "Unlikely." I roll the dice and get a 5%. Not only does this mean the answer is "Yes" but it is an "exceptional Yes." (5% is in the lower 1/5 of the success range). It's up to me to interpret what this means. So he's definitely going into the woods, and he's really determined. I treat the "exceptional" part to mean he moved like he rolled a 6 on his Animosity chart. This means he gets an extra move above his normal move. He ends up not only going thru the woods, but he exits the same turn. Well done!

I now ask if the other boyz will follow him. I assume seeing their buddy's enthusiasm, they are now likely to follow. They don't want to be left out of the fight! So I roll and score within the 75% success range. They head off thru the woods. I ask for the Big Un and the boss as well, but they prefer to move up the center. I also ask if they would run. I determine that this is very likely because they don't want to get shot and want to get to the fight. However, I roll 87% and they decide to move more cautiously.

I could continue with the report, but won't bother. Now you can see that as long as you ask logical questions the NPC will move and act independently of your influence. I used this method to determine NPC charges, weapons selection, and other things that another player would do. While it sounds like a lot of work, you're really just working it out in your head. It takes only a moment to mentally ask the question and check the result. Once models are in combat, the normal game rules take over and it's just a matter of rolling dice. Using the GME with my Mordheim game, the story unfolded and I was really interested to see how Havak and the boyz would do.

Turns out Havak and his boyz were the "biggest and bestest" 'ead bashers around. Havak took out the opposing Big Boss while Uglug, Durg, and the other boyz smashed head as well. When the opposing orcs took 25% casualties, they fled the field. Why stick around when the boss was dead? I rolled up Havak's treasure and awarded XP. Havak now has some cash to spend. He also has got to round up the other orcs in the area. No reason they should be listening to anyone but him, right? Stay tuned for more of his story.

So if you are a solo gamer or would just like to try something different, give the Mythic GM Emulator a chance. You could even use it to add some randomness to your regular games as well. I've only introduced the basics of it. Since it's an RPG tool, you can imagine it has a lot of story elements in it as well. For the seven bucks it costs, you can get a lot of mileage out of it.

Instant Terrain

2011-06-01T22:32:00.000-06:00

After years spent collecting and painting miniatures, I have few terrain pieces. This hasn't been much of an issue for me. However, recently I've discovered a few things. Models look better when photographed in a setting. I've also discovered solo games like Nuts! or Isildur's Bane. Terrain is needed to make that more interesting. So how do I build a collection of terrain pieces both quickly and inexpensively?

The answer is paper terrain. Card stock models fit the bill perfectly. The cost is quite low, assembly is quick, and storage is simple.

I started poking around the internet to find some card stock / paper modeling resources. I found a variety of free models, a lot of them amazingly good for a free model! These models also looked good on the table. At the end of this post I'll put up all the links I found useful. But there is one site I've found that is just great for war gaming needs. Check out Dave's Games for some excellent models.

Dave has a few free models to check out, with the coach house being the best. This is a layered PDF file. That means you can make the house look like brick, stone, stucco, or some other textures. You can add or remove doors and windows. The chimney position can be changed, and the dormer is optional. There are several other options as well. So for one free model, you can get a three or four buildings out of it. Check it out. Here are some shots of the coach house and the hovel models.

So these represent my first attempts at assembly. I really screwed up the roof on the small house (the hovel model). The coach house model looks much better. You can see these are sized for 28mm models. However, you can apparently scale the printing for different sizes. So if I wanted 15mm terrain for Flames of War, I can print at 50% reduction. My only problem is Adobe Reader doesn't have a scaling option that I can find. But you might have it on your printer.

I was so enthused about this, that I purchased the ruins bundle, which gives a bunch of ruin models that look fantastic. Here are some shots of a ruined foundation, just right for WWII or 40K games.

Again, I'm just learning things. So my cuts are a little sloppy and I didn't get things to match up perfectly. But practice will make perfect. So I'm saving those multi-storied building ruins for last.

So, I know that a fully modeled, 3D piece is beautiful and an art form unto itself. There really is no substitute. If you pick up a paper model and hold it up to your face, you'll be unimpressed. I get it. But for gaming purposes, how often do you do that? You just note that the building obstructs LOS or slows movement or presents some other challenge. A paper terrain piece can do that and look great in the process.

Finally, cost is something I've heard a lot about especially printer ink. So, let's do some quick math on this. I'll just throw all costs together and not even break it down to a "per model" basis. Here's what it takes all told:

Ream of 110# card stock $18
Full ink cartridge $30
Glue stick $2
Xacto knife $5
"Ruins" bundle (16 models) $30
Grand total $85

Of course this is totally overstating the cost, as I didn't use even 1/4 of the paper and my ink cartridge is still half full. But for the same price, you can get one or two equivalent sized 3D models from GW. You would still have to factor in paint and paint brushes into the cost, too. And you can't endlessly print these models like you can with paper! Bottom line: Even if you go through two ink cartridges, you are probably still financially ahead.

So get moving on your instant terrain! Here are some links to get you started.

Dave's Games as I mentioned is a great, low cost resource.
Paper Terrain.com has some interesting 15mm stuff
World Works is the grand-daddy of paper eye candy, though more for RPG or small skirmish games.
Wizards of the Coast has some awesome looking terrain for free. This stuff looks great, especially the covered bridge! Don't miss this.
Model Train Software.com has software that will let you design your own stuff. Looks very interesting!
Cardboard Warriors is a forum about all things paper model. I've just found this site, and it looks promising.

Also, if you've come this far and didn't ditch my post, here's proof I still plan to use 3D terrain. I've finally, after 3-4 years of procrastination, painted my GW modular gaming hill. And my cat approves!

The Foul Taste of Victory

2011-05-29T23:42:00.003-06:00

So I got my first game in for the Tale of Four LotR Gamers challenge. I took 175 points of High Elves against 175 points of Tim's Goblins. You saw how pretty they looked in an earlier post. Now see how well they played.

We played on a smaller board with lots of terrain. For once I welcomed the forests. I didn't use the forests to my advantage. But I welcomed them, which is more than I usually do. The scenario was rolled up, "Seize the Prize." I had Arwen leading 8 swordsmen and three archers. Let's do this!

So a blow by blow will probably bore you. I just moved up to the prize and took some shots along the way. Shooting was OK; I had three bows and killed about one goblin per turn. As Tim later illustrated for me, I was picking the wrong targets. I was knocking out normal goblins and not the Prowlers. That would hurt later on.

Since Elves move faster, I got to the artifact first. I thought I should probably screen the swordsman who was digging for it. So I moved all my guys up into a line that ran between the ruins and the woods. This meant I put all my guys in open ground, not in the forest, and obliged the goblins by moving into a convenient spot for them to overwhelm me. I kept archers back to deal with the pesky harassment team coming around the far side of the ruins. I continued to shoot at all the wrong things. So many mistakes were made. But, the Elves looked damn pretty throughout the whole fiasco.

The artifact was buried deep, and didn't come up on the first try. What also didn't come up was a good round of combat for the Elves. They won a lot of fights and killed nothing. I mean nothing. Zero. This repeated a few more times, until the Elves started to become trapped and that Prowler backstabber rule started killing off the Elves. (Who were beautiful even in death.) Luckily, I got the artifact unearthed before the goblins could catch me. Unfortunately Durburz broke my line in two and goblins were everywhere! Elves continued to be ineffectual. I wasn't using Elven blades, being too chickenshit to lose a fight. I should have used them, since winning the fight and not hurting anything was driving me nuts.

So the artifact carrier was running away at a good clip. All his buddies were surrounded and dying. But Arwen finally got to cast Nature's Wrath without it being countered. So at a very opportune moment, all the goblins were knocked down! A lot just got up again, but they were slowed down and those I engaged remained down. I even killed a few this way. Here's a shot of them all on their backs.

But after this point, all the Elves died. They all died. All of them. Dead. Except for the Elf with the artifact; he lived. My artifact carrier managed to keep up his courage and continue to run. A goblin was trailing him, and thanks to winning priority a number of times, was able to catch up to the artifact carrier. They fought for a couple of turns and the Elf won each time. I got priority, passed my courage check, and exited the board.

Minor Victory for the Elves.

I call this battle report "the foul taste of victory" because I really disliked the game. (Nothing on Tim, as he was a great player and host; in fact he had to put up with me pitching a fit. Sorry Tim!) I wonder if Elves are really my thing. They were even more frustrating than my "defense three" Corsairs were to play. This is probably just me reacting to a total change in play style. I'm not used to being outnumbered and having no margin for error. Well, I've put time and money into these posers. So I'm going to learn to like them!

Since the games go fast at this points level. We played another 175 pt scenario, "To Kill a King". But this time Tim took a Spider Queen and three giant spiders. Spooky!

I'll make this short. We ran at each other and a few Elves died before they killed all the spiders, including the Spider Queen. Arwen stayed away and lived. So major victory for the Elves. I still played the scenario like a dufus. For one, I refused to use Elven blades where they would've been useful. Maybe I'll learn to play these Elves, but apparently that won't be any time soon!

Dust Tactics: Initial Impressions

2011-05-23T22:43:00.004-06:00

So my Dust Tactics game arrived today. This is a game that I've had on my horizon for a while, but could never justify buying. However, I came into some extra cash (legally, of course) and my first thought was to pick up this game. I really like the models that I've seen on the official Fantasy Flight site and from various reviews in blogs and videos. So regardless of whether I can find someone to play with me, I want to own the models!

You can find all sorts of "unboxing" videos on the web. So I won't bother to go into it too much. There's an impressive amount of stuff. Here's what I pulled out of the box. I left the picture fairly big. So if you click on it you should be able to get a good view of what's included.

I haven't looked over the rules yet, as I was too involved with the gorgeous figures! (By the way, you can download the rules PDF for free from the FF website here.) It took about an hour to unbag and assemble all the models. But I had some company while doing that menial task.

Each of the models is primed. You can feel the primer on the models, which is good. I was surprised to find that not only each model was completely different from any other, but also that each model can be articulated differently. The heads and torsos move on all the figures. For the most part, this is cool. But some figures look a tad goofy, nothing I can't overlook.

The big walkers are what really sold me on the game. If you can take a Sherman tank and a Panzer tank and convert them into walkers, well, sign me up for that. I found these models look really good in person and have lots of moving parts. However, I was disappointed that they seemed somewhat fragile. A part of the German walker snapped while I was pushing in an arm, and I wasn't using too much force. Fortunately, it is not a big deal. Also the machine gun attachments on the German walkers don't fit too well and fall off a lot. Those will have to be glued in place.

I tried to take some close up pictures of the individual soldiers, but the flash ruined everything. So I won't bother posting those. Trust me when I say the detail level is excellent. Since I plan to paint these models, I looked carefully at them. There were some mold lines, but nothing major and no plastic flash. I expect sanding the mold lines will remove the primer. So I'll have to live with it.

Finally I wanted to show how these figures stack up to other 25/28mm models. Here's a U.S. model under guard by two Lord of the Rings Mahud. (The flash makes the Mahud look crap-tastic. But just wanted to show scale here.) The Dust Tactics models are slightly larger than a LotR figure, as you can see from the picture below.

So that's it. I excited to learn this game, try it out, and paint these awesome figures!

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers, Phase One

2011-05-22T18:19:00.001-06:00

So the first month of the challenge is on, and I've completed my 175 points of Elves. Meet the gang.

I have Arwen leading eight swordsmen and three archers, a merry little band on a romp through the forest. It comes to 175pts on the nose. Originally I was going with an Elven Captain to lead this group. He's very "fighty" but I can pick up two extra models if I drop him and replace with Arwen. Besides, I've never used magic before in all my LotR games. So that's my motivation in selecting her. Here's a more detailed shot.

So next up is another 175pts. Since this is an Elf army, I'll basically be adding more warriors as I go. Spearmen will make an appearance next time. I also plan to replace Arwen with a Stormcaller. I like that figure and would also like to check out how it works. Somewhere Elrond will show up. At 170 points he'll fulfill a month's quota for the challenge. I'll save him for when I need a break!

Nuts! Don't Miss This Review!

2011-05-21T01:30:00.003-06:00

I really enjoy WWII games. Back in High School a friend of mine introduced me to Advanced Squad Leader. Despite a learning curve that rivaled a post graduate degree in supply chain management, I got hooked. In the early 90s, Steel Panthers and other games by SSI continued to excite me. So it is strange that when I started looking to table top war games I didn't hone in on WWII. I only recently picked up FoW. But I've been wanting to do something in 28mm. I have it on good authority that there aren't many satisfying 28mm WWII rules.

Enter Nuts! by Two Hour Wargames. Doing WWII at a skirmish level is what I wanted, just taking a platoon or so. (Flames of War is my game for company level action.) I read the website, liked what was described, thought that this rules set might be the thing for me. Interestingly enough, the game can be played traditionally in a head-to-head game, or as co-op or solo play. In fact, the rules are geared toward co-op/solo. So that sold me the rules. I got the PDF file as soon as I sent payment, and the printed rule book arrived in a few days. Here are my impressions and a short battle report. Don't miss the report!

The rules are unlike anything I've seen before. The core difference in Nuts! is in the use of the Reaction System. I was not ready for that when I opened the rulebook. Turns out, you can get a couple of free rules sets that will give you a working game that is focused on this Reaction System. Basically it works like this:

I activate and move into your LoS
You see me and react
I will react, and we could end up shooting at each other, running away, freezing in place, etc.
Our reactions will cause further reactions, sometimes from figures nearby.
Things continue until something happens to end the chain reactions (death, duck into cover, etc)

At first this is really hard to understand. The list I gave above is an example of what it looks like. I've played through a few times and found that reactions go in lots of directions, dragging in nearby models and creating a very fluid "turn." In fact, I'm really hard pressed to find where turns begin and end.

Overall it's a very cinematic feel. You have a leader who is your "star". The star can have attributes that help or hinder him in some way. He's your Hollywood warrior, able to shrug off wounds that hurt lesser men. But he's not a hackneyed Sgt Rock. Despite being immune to death from lowly grunts, he still hunkers behind a wall in fear of getting his head blown off. He is still a real man, worried about his life. In fact, the high point of this game is that all your modes are real guys, so to speak.

Each model has a reputation rating (Rep), that drive just about everything from how he reacts to how he shoots. At first, I was confused but after a couple of run-throughs of the game it's a lot clearer. In fact, the rep is a very realistic portrayal of how a raw recruit might react under fire versus the battle hardened vet on his third campaign.

A battle report of the introductory scenario will help show things a little better. After that, I'll sum up what I like and dislike about the game so far.

First thing, I don't own any WWII figures. But have no fear! Thanks to Hing Fat Toy Company I now have full squads of Americans, Germans, British, and Japanese, all ready for the gaming table! Too bad they're 54mm figures. I'll keep using these until I can buy suitable replacements.

JUNE 1944 You're in command of a small group of paratroopers in France. Your unit has been dispersed all over the drop zone and is currently reforming. Right now it's just you and three others. Your major concern is to make it to the rally point. You are now coming up onto a ruined house. The squad crosses a road, filtering into the trees beyond. The ruined house is partially surrounded by a low stone wall. Woods are beside it. Two Germans are spotted standing outside, one sitting on the wall and the other leaning in the doorway of the ruins. Your men fan out, drop into a crouch as they take up positions at the edge of the treeline. Time to give Gerry hell!

So that's some writing from the book with my own additions. Enough with the Stephen Ambrose imitations! Here's turn one:
My turn has activation (like priority in LotR). This has an added twist in that you can only activate models whose rep equals or exceeds what you rolled for activation. So rolling low is best, as it allows you to move all models. This reflects hesitancy that a recruit would feel moving into fire. But since you can group up with a hi rep leader, it's not a problem.

Yes, that's paper cut out terrain. Don't laugh! I have no reason to own terrain (other than that niffty GW battle mat) and this actually looked pretty good in person. So as I was saying, both Dorfman on the wall and Engles in the door see me. They react by taking quick shots, which elicits return fire from the men being shot at and those within 4" of them. These shots fly back and forth with little effect due to cover and snap shooting. But the US Sgt (my star) puts his SMG to good use and kills Dorfman and forces Engles to retire, meaning he runs for safer cover. The shooting now reveals the location of other German troops. I roll on the chart provided with the mission and find that the German leader, Arnold, and machine gunner Beck and his loader Conrad are holed up in the ruins. So this won't be an easy fight to dislodge them!

It's turn two. Germans win the activation roll, but scored a five. The highest Rep is a 4, so they do nothing. They are surprised to suddenly come under withering fire and can't react! Engles is running and Dorfman is screaming for his mother. (Dorfman was not killed, but taken out of the fight. That means if a medic can reach him, he might be saved. It also has implications for campaign play. If the US catches him, they can kill him or take him prisoner. They'll have to guard him, if the want to do that. I digress!)

Notice Engles behind that piece of card (which represents trees). He's hunkered down, meaning I don't see him. I could remove him and put a marker in his place. But I face him away to show that status. Now the US activates, and they had a roll of 2 which is way under the Sgt's rep of 5. So they start shooting like nuts. The LMG gunner is actually killed. Anyone around him of equal or lower rep takes a "man down test" to see if they'll move to safer cover. Arnold doesn't need to test, and Conrad merely wipes Beck's brains off his face and pulls out his own rifle. Too bad for that, because Private Baker kills him as well. Let me tell you this was fantastic shooting by the US. In my first games, I literally rolled reaction tests for 20 minutes with nothing happening. (That's something I'm going to fix with a house rule for sure!) Since no one can see Engles peeing himself in the woods, the turn ends.

Turn three and the German position is crumbling. The US paratroopers are sensibly remaining in cover, making them hard to hit with the unsteady and panicked return fire from the Germans. The Germans activate first. Since these are NPCs, I roll a focus test to see what they will pick for targets. Arnold may not be the bravest Nazi, but he knows what has to be done. He has an SMG and good chances to force back some of the US trooper facing him. He sprays three shots into the trees, forcing Private Able to retire. But return fire from the US Sgt takes Arnold out of the fight, toppling back into the ruins with a gurgled scream. The next German group to activate is poor Engles. He becomes more frightened, decides the trees are not enough protection and makes for the ruins. Since he is still considered "hunkered down" the US doesn't see him thread his way back to the ruins.

It's now time for the US to activate. Private Able rallys and the Sgt gives the order to run for the wall. They're going to storm the ruins and clear it out for sure. Private Baker readies a grenade (by passing a test) and can throw it when in range. The US paratroopers line up on the wall, Private Baker hauls back and throws it perfectly. They now see Engles whimpering inside, balled up like a kid who lost his security blanket.

The ruins aren't enough to ward off a grenade. A cloud of dust and debris belches from the small house and then all is silent. Engles is taken out of the fight (maybe he's barely alive, deaf and dazed under the rubble), and so the area is cleared. Victory for the US! Now to get to that rally point!

So, Nuts! is a fun game. What I like is the cinematic feel, the individuality of the models, and the fluidity of the fights. What I don't like is throwing dice for every damn thing all the damn time. Maybe it's because I'm playing solo, but there are so many tests to take, I'm always rolling dice.

There's also vehicle rules and rules for artillery guns. On the THW Yahoo group you can download rules for mortar fire (which seems a glaring omission from these rules) and for artillery barrages. The game is definitely meant to be played with a platoon at most. If I played this at the platoon level solo, there's no way I could do it in two hours! All those reaction tests followed by reaction tests! But for a few squads this is really a great game. It takes some getting used to the reaction system. But it's starting to clear up for me. I'll test out the vehicle rules next, using some of my 15mm FoW stuff for that.

Overall, I think Nuts! is a great game with a lot of potential for story and campaign based gaming. I'll keep you posted on where I go with it next.

It's Small World Afterall

2011-05-08T02:11:00.001-06:00

Time for another LotR battle report! So the plan for last Friday was to test out changes to my Far Harad 700 point list. But it wasn't my day, and I couldn't get to the game at the planned time. Too much "real life" was in the way. So by the time I did arrive, it was late. Like usual, I was playing at Tim's house. He's a great guy and lives very close by; so we tend to get in a lot of games. We also tend to get talking and keep talking. So it was really late and I thought we wouldn't actually get to gaming.

But we decided a friendly 175pt game would be both manageable and a refreshing change of pace. Besides, Tim thought it would be a good opportunity to try out his Tale of Four LotR Gamers list. I also happened to have Corsairs in the box with my Far Harad. I scratched out a list and we were ready to go. I took a Bo'sun with 15 corsairs, nothing special but for a three unpainted bowman models. If you didn't click on the link above, I'll tell you that Tim took his Goblin list featuring Durburz and a bunch of prowlers. We shortened the board size and chose a meeting engagement for the scenario.

I absolutely love these small games. I had 16 models and Tim had 20 models. The turns moved quickly and the fights were quick. But the game was no less complex and even at the small points scale, there were still a lot of great tactical decisions to make. I think this game scales nicely from small points up to 700pts. I've never played anything larger than that, so can't comment on those 1,000 point monster games!

Thanks to shortened deployment zones, I avoided the trees that are always in front of me! I just ran for the hill to try to get my archers on the high ground. I only had three, and thought they might be able to snipe a few goblins to even up the numbers a bit.


Hey, I think I can see the ship from up here!

Since this was a meeting engagement, there wasn't a lot of consideration about where everyone should be and what they should do. The plan was to get stuck in as fast as possible and plow through the enemy. My Corsairs are superior fighters, and are so confident in their skills that they fight in pajamas. The goblins were a lot tougher with armor and shield, some boasting the dreaded "D6" that makes my dice hurt when rolling to wound. As we closed in, I think one of my bows might have killed something. However, once within 6" range my throwing weapons heated up. Totally four goblins went down with throwing knives in their necks!

The lines clashed, evenly matched to start. A few turns of push and shove ensued, with equal losses on both sides. But then the Corsairs stared losing fights. Recall the pajamas I mentioned a moment ago. A lot of the boys started dying.

Meeting the goblins and trying not to die

The key moment of the game came when the Corsair Bo'sun lost his fight to Durburz. It was actually a tied fight, and I lost the roll off. The poor pirate would no longer be able to shout at his boys, encouraging them to greater achievements. He failed his Fate roll and died where he stood. In fact, in that round, both forces broke.

So as you can expect, I started winning priority from this point forward. Therefore my cowardly sea dogs kept melting away. The goblins, though broken, were all within Durburz's 12" stand fast. So they hung around to finish the job. We played until every last Corsair had fled or died. But truly amazing was the lone Corsair who survived three combat rounds being trapped. He died on the fourth attempt, shielding to the very end. His heroic efforts sucked away four goblins and helped his fellows prolong their agonizing defeat at the tiny hands of goblins.

Buckler by Zildjian

When you don't have a force on the table, you don't generally have to look up victory conditions. I assume it was a major victory for the goblins.

It was a refreshing change of pace to play at the small points level. I hope I can play more in and around this number. Up to 250-300 points is ideal for a few hours of leisurely gaming. Tim and I really took our time with this, intermixing the game with our on-going conversation. So it took some time to get done. But if we concentrated, we could've got two games in during that time.

While I didn't learn anything useful about my Corsairs, having played them a lot over the years, I did learn about goblins. I learned that Prowlers have some nasty abilities. The backstabber rule was cool, but we didn't get to see it too much in play. But couple that with a weapon that can be either two handed or single handed and throwing weapons, and you've got yourself a neat package of hurt for the points.

It was a good game that could've went either way for most of the fight. But the Corsairs ended up having a day that reflected my own. Still I had fun and look forward to trying this points level out with my Elves.

Soon to be Out of Control

2011-05-05T20:07:00.002-06:00

The title of this post should be a clue as to how excited I was to find the PDF rules for Legends of the Rising Sun. I've been waiting for these rules to come out for some time. I first heard rumors of these rules around the time I was getting into Legends of the High Seas. As soon as I heard about it, I knew I would want to jump into it. It seems these rules have been out for a little while, and I'm a late comer.

Initially I was worried the rules would turn out to be some lame kung-fu game, with indiscriminate flying or killing enemies with moves like "Terra Raspberry Spike Attack." You what I mean: a game that ends up playing like bad anime. Well, I'm happy to report there is nothing like that here. In fact, it's an honest attempt to bring 17th Century Japan to the skirmish games table.

So I purchased two packs of Perry Brothers Samurai models. I'm anxious to get started on painting them and get in a game or two. But this will soon be out of control, because I want to have all the gangs listed in the rules. So I will need monks, peasants, ronin, ashigaru, etc. In other words, I'll be buying a lot of these models.

I've also heard rumors from the guys I regularly game with that we might be able to do some Samurai wars. So, that leaves me to wonder how to base these minis. Should I put them on round bases for skirmish games or the square bases for war games? Well, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I'm pretty amped about these rules. I'll post up when I get some of the models painted.

Isildur's Bane

2011-04-28T01:36:00.003-06:00

As I promised a few posts back, I wanted to test the Isildur's Bane rules set. This is an adaptation of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game rules to allow for solo play. I wanted to try solo play to test out new armies or new units before playing a real game. While I could just line up two armies and roll dice as usual, it's better when there's some randomness involved.

I won't get too involved with the rules. The link I provided will take you to these. I'll just give the key differences. The move and shoot phases are combined. Priority is replaced with an activation phase that is determined by randomly drawn cards. There's no heroic actions and the use of might is determined by making a might roll. Otherwise, all other LotR rules apply. There's a lot to cover; so let's get started.

I picked two forces I own but have never played and used 175 pts for the size. I rolled up a Legions of Middle Earth game. Seize the Artifact was the scenario. I set up a 2'x2' board and gave myself a 3" deployment rather than the standard 6" zone. The evil side was a Barad-dur force of Morranon and garden variety Orcs, a horrifying visage of unpainted plastic. The good side was Rivendell Elves, fully painted and wearing freshly starched capes. The artifact went to the middle of the board: a pot of Tin Bitz paint. The Orcs coveted its pigment, and the Elves could not abide color falling into the clutches of evil. It was going to be a tough fight.

The rules don't say anything about how to select table sides. I just rolled for the elves and gave the orcs the other side. I set up, divided into groups, and dealt activation cards. Groups with a hero get red cards, which mean these groups go first. Other groups get black cards and go after the red. Suits determine order and so does Ace thru King. Groups can be single models up to ten models. They just have to be within 4" of each other to start. I split my groups up into archer versus non archer units. Here's what my magnificent game board looked like at the start.

Whichever side moves first gets what is called "the edge." This means that during combat you make the best tactical decisions for whichever side has the edge. However, since movement means a lot in this game, I gave the edge throughout the whole turn. This made a difference later on, which I'll explain when I get there.

Turn One
You can see from the cards in the picture above that the Elf Captain and his swordsman go first, followed by the Orc Captain and his wild bunch. Finally Elves shoot and Orcs shoot. On turn one, the Elves pick off one of the two orcs on the hill. The remaining Orc archer misses his return fire. The other forces simply move forward to the artifact. The orcs realize it's a metallic paint and simply go nuts for it.

Turn Two

The Orcs are going first (hearts go before diamonds) and get the edge. So they swarm the artifact,with a defensive line going before it and a 2hd weapon grunt getting into base with the artifact. The Elf Captain

2 Handed weapons are great for removing stubborn paint caps.

and Tennille engage the Orc line. The orcs have set up with spear support and wide enough to prevent an end run around them. Next comes the Elf archers, they shift out 3" and shoot at the Orc on the artifact, killing him, and shoot out another orc spear supporting. (This is the combined move and shoot phase, remember?) The lone orc bowman reaffirms his uselessness. The fight phase goes as expected with Elves winning but not wounding. The Elf Captain uses his Elven blade to wound the Orc Captain. If a model has Fate points, a fate roll is required whenever a wound is suffered. The orc fails it and is wounded. Interestingly enough, the orcs are pushed back onto the artifact and now get to dig for it. They succeed and are the proud owners of 10ml of Tin Bitz, artifact grade!

Turn Three
The orcs go first and the Orc Captain and his warriors lock down all the Elven swordsmen and Captain. The lone orc with his artifact starts to run. Since the orcs had the edge, I should've had two orcs escort the artifact. But I wasn't thinking about that. The Elf warriors go next but are locked down, so now the archers come up and shoot. The Orc artifact bearer dies and drops the artifact about 7" from the table edge. The archers shoot out another spear support. The close combats are a repeat from before, but at least they kill one orc. I used Elven blades to crack the D6. The orc archer again achieves nothing. Now the orcs are one away from 50% break point and the Elves are untouched.

Turn Four

The orcs go first and therefore have "the edge." So I make moves that tactically benefit them most. You can see from the picture above there's an elf able to reach the artifact. (I switched to an artifact token, since the paint pot was getting in the way.) While I was "routing for" the elves, I had to pick up that open elf to keep him away from the artifact. The Elf warriors are again tied up. But the elf archers go next and shoot out a spear supporting orc. This breaks the orcs. Now when the archer is activated, he takes a courage check and fails. The hand to hand fights get a little more deadly this turn, with one elf and one orc dying. I used Elven blades again on any D6 model.

Turn Five

The elves are now on the attack and go first. They engage all the remaining orcs and one elf moves to pick up the artifact. The archers have nothing to do but move up. The Orc and Elf captains are fighting. The Elf captain wins but rolls box cars on his wound rolls. It's starting to get silly. Another orc falls to an Elven blade.

Turns Six & Seven
The Elves have the edge, so I make the best decisions for them. The orcs could still reach the artifact bearer if they pass courage checks. It only takes the captain to pass and everyone else will stand fast. So I re-engage all the orcs while the lone elf picks up the artifact. The Elf archers join the fight and trap the Orc captain. During that fight, the Orc captain shields and the wins the fight, rolling a six to the elves' five. I make a might check for the Elf Captain. He passes and bumps his roll to a six, and now wins base on his fight value. At last the orc captain is vanquished. All but one orc is killed. On the following turn, the Elves move to 1" of the table edge with the artifact. The last orc actually rolls a 12 for his courage check! It's useless at this point and just runs from the Elves. I call it here, since there's nothing left to do.

Major Victory to the Elves! Here they are with their prize.

Overall I thought it was a fun game. The concept of the edge made sure I wasn't always favoring one side. I also got to learn some things about my force. I didn't think three bows would be "all that" but for this points level they were very good. I was surprised how tough the Elves were to crack, but very unimpressed with their ability to kill. Elves won almost every fight, but were pressed to hurt anything. I was surprised to see that for Elf bows being S3 it didn't make any difference for rolling to wound. The bows may as well have been S2. For Orcs, I realized regular Orc bows are pitiful in range and accuracy. They are only useful for creating a nuisance, but probably shouldn't be given important objectives.

So will I play Isildur's Bane again? I'm certain I will. This 175 pt match on a small table only took one hour from busting out the figures to cleaning up when done. It took me longer to write this post! I guess I wished there was more unpredictability in the game. But the "edge" concept did compensate for knowing both sides' strategies. Overall, I think this is a great rules set and would recommend it to anyone wanting to brush up on rules, scenarios, or just try something different.

A Gamble of Champions

2011-04-24T03:01:00.001-06:00

Last Friday night I got to play a game of LotR, and I took my Far Harad force. This is only my second game with an all Far Harad force, and I'm learning a lot about them. For years they were an allied contingent for my Corsairs. They play a lot differently in that role than they do as a stand-alone force. One important difference I noticed is that it's really, really not OK if one of them dies. So let's talk about my game.

I'm going to actually provide my list this time. I didn't take notes on the exact composition of my opponent's list. I'll take some guesses.

700 points
Mahud King, camel
Tribemaster, camel
Mahud Warriors, blow pipes x 4
Mahud Warriors, hw/shield x 8
Mahud Warriors, spears / shld x 13
Half Trolls x 4
Half Trolls, 2 hd wpn x 4
Mahud Raiders, war spear x 3

I faced Tim's Uruk Hai. At 700 pts he had big blocks of Uruk-hai with pikes. A bunch of crossbows were parked on the a hilltop, maybe 6-8 of them. A shaman was running around the back ranks. But imposing beyond belief was the Isengard Troll that stomped ahead of the force.

We rolled up a scenario, and got Contest of Champions. In this scenario the leaders of each side try to kill more than the opposing leader, all the while attempting to destroy the enemy army. Probably sounds like something that happened at the office today, doesn't it? I digress.

One of the areas that I struggle to get correct in any game system I play is the deployment phase. I don't know why I tend to treat this phase like I'm sleep-walking. Whenever I lose, half the time I can trace it back to poor deployment. Now having said that, I don't think I deployed badly in this scenario; but throughout the game I had a nagging feeling like I was going the wrong way. I'll come back to this point later. Here's how the proud Mahud looked after I finished dropping them on the table.

There's that damn woods I always find right in front of me. After years of seeing it there, why don't I learn to plan for it? It's only six inches from my line, but yet I set up like it's a total and utter shock that those trees should appear before me. So priority falls to me and the Mahud move out. At the end of that move, I realize that I will have to divide my force to avoid the trees. Splitting a small force in the face of a numerically superior foe is not a good idea.

My only reprieve from my short-sightedness is that the Uruk-hai are to my far right. Later I would discover I am being led by the nose into a tight position where my already small numbers will be restricted. Since I am thoroughly fascinated with the woods in front of me, I spend all my time dealing with them. I decide to filter through the trees and keep my line together. Here's a shot of me plodding through the terrain while trying to keep everyone together. You can see the Uruk-hai getting into position.

So the next several turns will be a lot of movement and positioning of both sides. I did manage to stay away from crossbow fire for most of this movement. I got to take a few blow pipe shots, too. The move or shoot rule is really too bad, given they're such short range. I suppose the shoot 3+ and the poisoned darts make up for that. But in reality, they don't; it's still a strength 2 dart with a re-roll on a 1. Eventually we are all in position and I realize immediately that I'm am not going to be bisected, but instead trisected. This is why I had that nagging feeling of going the wrong way I mentioned before.

The main Uruk-hai park in the center of the wide field between two trees. Small harassment forces are coming around the flanks, which force me to send something to deal with these. I end up getting pulled three ways, and the traffic jam in the middle means my Mahud warriors are spear supporting.

A Mahud left to spear support his buddy is only half a man. He's just been castrated by one attack, which you dearly paid for in his expensive points. It's a sad day when this happens, because you are throwing three dice where you should've been throwing four. This is the downfall of an all Mahud force, I suppose. But it just riles me whenever I have to do this.

Here's a shot of where the rest of the game would play out. Check out this awesome picture of the Isengard Troll roaring at me across the expanse.

The Uruk-hai come forward and two brave (insane) orcs break away to block the approaches. However, this allows my King to charge the orc. So the objective is for him to kill more than the Uruk-hai captain. So he makes the charge. His impaler rule does not kill anything and I rejoice. I now have a Muhud leader in combat, which activates the warrior's pride rule for a 12" radius around him. This means all my Mahud will pass their courage checks automatically. So I send the two raiders charging into the troll.

The combat with the troll goes unfavorably. First, none of the impaler strikes go off. Next, the darn troll has a shield and he decides to use it. So he rolls six dice to my six dice, and he wins. Too bad, because the troll was trapped! The king also loses his combat and has to blow a point of might to win. At least he killed the orc, and I'm now leading the death toll 1-0.

All around the fights are joined and it is a very bad day for the Mahud. One half troll is killed after losing the fight, and five other Mahud die in that combat phase. During the shoot phase, the crossbows sniped a raider off his camel. Rather flustered at this bad luck, I also see my Tribemaster is uselessly milling about on his camel, adding nothing to the fight. The Uruk-hai captain gets a kill this round, too.

The Mahud win the next priority. I decide to take a gamble. I move some models around to break control zones. Then I plow my Mahud King right into the Uruk-hai captain and his two columns of pikes. This is crazy, but at least my impaler rule kills one of the orcs. Now it's 2-1 for kill ratios. The Raiders charge the Isengard troll again. The spear of one of my models touches the troll's chest. Will this be the good omen I hope it is?

Well, it was a good omen for the raiders. The troll decides to "troll-up" and fight. I win this time and throw six, strength 5 dice to wound. I roll a lot of sixes and the Isengard troll is no more! Yeah!

It was a Pyrrhic victory. My King throws four dice and the best he gets is a three. So pikes and swords get jammed into his face and he dies. The kill score is 2-2, but the game is lost. I ask to call the game, but we decided to play through one more round. The Uruk-hai captain easily gets his kill and we end it. Major victory to the Uruk-hai.

It was a good game and I had several realizations as I played. The biggest one hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized my Raiders are not for charging rank-and-file troops. They are for hitting multi wound models. To do otherwise means the Impaler rule could leave them exposed to counter attacks. But on a multi-wound model, like the Isengard troll, it would help soften up the enemy. So any game where I can learn something is not a loss! I look forward to taking out the Far Harad again. I might just start learning how to play them!

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers

2011-04-19T22:14:00.001-06:00

So I will be participating in the "Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers." You can read about it on the Cursed Treasures blog. It sounds like a nice challenge and an interesting way to get an army together. I remember the articles from 2008. So it will be fun to do the same in my own corner of the gaming universe.

As Tim pointed out, I will be working on an Elf army. I've already previewed it here and started test paints. Since I did buy the army from Tim it was already primed. I just had to assemble most of the spearmen and glue the other models to their bases. So I'll slow down my pace to match the competition schedule. I'll just finish what's in progress now and pick up again on May 1st.

Playing games in increments of 175 points will be an interesting challenge for Elves. Of course, if I'm going to play Elves I better get used to being outnumbered. At 175 pts I can take a Captain and nine warriors. Yikes! I think I'll test out the Isildur's Bane rules I mentioned last post using this points level. Everyone else will be doing a horde army (yes, I will bet even Dwarfs). So I expect a lot of trapped Elves meeting horrible deaths.

Painting in increments of 175 pts will be a lot easier for me. But I'm still a massive slow poke with the paint brush. When I get to Elrond, though, I'll just have to paint him and a warrior to make the cut!

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. Check out the link at Cursed Treasures for more details. My first 175 pts is due on June 1st. Until then, back to the regularly scheduled program.

The Merits of Practice

2011-04-18T00:56:00.000-06:00

Whenever I get a new army together, it usually takes three or four games for me to understand how the force plays and how its special rules work. Sometimes things that I think I "get" don't actually work as I thought. A case in point is my understanding of the "impaler" rule for my Far Harad raiders. Another thing that happens a lot is forgetting special rules. I had to play my Corsairs at least ten times before I stopped forgetting about their throwing weapons.

For most people, the antidote to these problems is to get in a lot of games with the army. As you go, you learn how the force plays and the nuances of its special rules. However, there are some cons to this approach. You might have purchased models that you no longer want in your force, (I'm looking at you, Corsair Arbalesters) or not enough models to make the unit useful. Since you will be stumbling along, you might enjoy your games less and become frustrated with your army. Finally, you might have limited gaming time, therefore prolonging the time to get accustomed to your new army. Trying to solve for all these issues at once seems impossible. But there might be a solution.

Solo play would allow you to address each of these issues. For starters, the entire issue of limited time is solved as your gaming partner is available when you are. Since you will be playing a solo game, you can proxy models to try out different units. You don't even have to use models. You can use paper chits or spare bases with labels. After all, you are just testing out options or checking to see if you like a certain army. If you make stupid mistakes, you can keep that to yourself. Even if not trying to solve for anything specific, the repetition of "the basics" will improve your game.

When I first learned WHFB years ago, I walked through the rules using the Orcs versus Empire models that came with the starter box. I've done this for FoW and other games as well. These sessions helped get the rules into my head. But the solo play rules walk-thru is different from a game where you are trying to meet scenario objectives while dealing with the unpredictable movements of an opponent. You need to be able to surprise yourself. That usually only happens to me when bouncing checks.

This has been a long way around the barn to get to what I want to say. I was thinking of how I might be able to play LotR as a solitaire game. I mainly wanted to do this as a way to learn how some of my newer armies play. But I'd also like to be able to check out other forces before I invest in them. A quick web search revealed that I am not alone in the endeavor.

I found Isildur's Bane, which is a "hack" of the LotR game to allow for solo play. I read through the rules and think that this will fit the bill. I actually set up five models for each side and tested it out. It works! It's not exactly the same game. Move and shoot phases are combined and there are no heroic actions. A test with five models a side was just a way to see if things made sense. I will now have to test out the game with a larger force.

So I'll be hosting a "Battle of the Unpainted Armies" some time this week. I've got about 250pts of Orcs and easily that much of Elves. I've never played either side, so this will be a great test. I don't have much in terms of terrain to make things more interesting. I plan on using just a 2' x 2' board to keep things moving fast. I haven't decided on a scenario either. Maybe I'll make up my own. At any rate, I will post up the results of my test game. Stay tuned!

The Next Big Thing

2011-04-14T21:36:00.001-06:00

"Vig used to call me 'Elf boy', and I'd call him 'filthy human'. As an Elf, I never got a scratch on me, never got dirty. And Vig would come out with blood and sweat all over him. And he'd say to me, 'Oh, go manicure your nails.'"
Orlando Bloom

After that subtle introduction, you probably guessed that my next army is Elves. Congratulations, you are correct! Based on who I quoted, you probably guessed Legolas will be part of the force. So sorry, you lose. I'm going with 700pts of High Elf goodness. I'm leaning toward Rivendell, with Elrond in the lead. But I also bought a few other Elf heroes to swap out. It seems the only modification you can make to a pure Elf force is the hero. Everything else is a warrior. A bit dull.

Here's what the force looks like in its current state.

That's a bit underwhelming. You may have noticed a few models are actually painted. Despite thinking "Rivendell" I'm actually painting a "Grey Havens" color scheme. Check out my test paints.

Once again I am defeated by crappy photography skills and an overwhelming laziness to improve my photography. But you get the idea. They aren't this washed out in real life. While individually the color scheme might look somewhat "blah," when you group up a bunch they look far more impressive.

This is what I'll be working on for probably the next month. Despite an easy to paint color scheme, I'll find a way to make it take far longer than necessary.

"Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun. "
Matt Groening

Annual Bonus Bonanza

2011-04-11T20:20:00.001-06:00

So bonus time has arrived and unlike years past I don't have to apply it all to paying down debt! Hooray for discretionary funds! As I considered how to make the most irresponsible choice for spending extra money, miniatures came to the top of the list.

As the dearth of posts for the last two years demonstrate, miniature gaming has been off my radar for one reason or another. But times have changed and I'm experiencing a renewed excitement for all thing "mini." So I've decided to build out that Tau force I started a few years back. I've always liked the models and wanted to expand my collection. This will make my third 40K army, Ultramarines and Tyranids being the other two. I hear Tau suck in 5th ed. But this doesn't matter much, because I have personally sucked in every edition.

I also picked up some miscellaneous Lord of the Rings blisters. These are just filling holes in existing armies, as well as additions for a planned army (ah-ha, a teaser for another post). It was a lot of fun to get out and tour the different stores and spend my money. Thanks to Drunken Samurai for driving and Tim from Cursed Treasures for coming along. It was a great time, and probably something I won't get to do again for a long time.

Here's a shot of what I picked up. I've got a lot of work ahead!

Little Wars

2011-04-05T20:41:00.003-06:00

My new iPhone has somehow breathed life into my blogging. Here is my second post that has come via using my new electronic gadget. In this case I was surfing the internet on war gaming topics while at lunch. I came across an interesting tidbit about the birth of modern war games. Apparently H.G. Wells was the first person to codify table top war game rules using tin soldiers.

He published a book, Little Wars, that gave all sorts of rules for infantry, cavalry, and hand to hand combat. The book is available for download at Project Gutenberg in a variety of formats. It's worth a peek just to see the creative use of building blocks for terrain.

The rules covered things we modern gamers would recognize: deployment (behind a curtain!) phases, special rules, "move or shoot" guns, even scenarios. From what I saw, there was no dice rolling. Assaults were settled by determining which side had more models in contact. I didn't see how shooting was resolved.

While the rules are musty and old news now, it is an interesting look at the roots of our modern games. No matter how we jazz up things today, they tend to harken back to the basics laid out a century ago in this book. I've only surfed through it, but at some point will probably read it all for the historical value. It's more of a paper than a "book." I think a lot of this book could be used today with some modifications.

Far Harad Battle Report

2011-04-03T18:50:00.008-06:00

So I'll just be pretending that I haven't added anything to this blog in two years. Let's get right to a new post!

I'm not so big on photographing my models and posting up. I suck at photography, and therefore tend to dislike it. But my new iPhone has got me taking more pictures. These still all suck. But I plan to take more pictures of my games and document the fights on this blog. Hopefully I can improve my game by writing up an analysis and report of what happened. Let's go.

I played a game of Lord of the Rings today with Tim from Cursed Treasures. It was a 700pt game, with Tim taking Uruk-Hai and me taking Far Harad. We rolled up a scenario from Legions of Middle Earth, and came up with "Ill Met by Moonlight." This scenario calls for each players' forces to be divided in half. One half goes to the center of the board and the other half is deployed three inches from opposite table edges. The object is to fight until one or both sides is destroyed.

As for forces, I don't know the exact troops Tim took. There were about 65 models in the army, mostly Uruk-Hai warriors with normal Orc spear support. He had some crossbows, a few berserkers, and a nasty Uruk-Hai Shaman. I had 38 models in my army, mostly all warriors and eight half-trolls. I took three Mahud Raiders and put a King and Tribemaster on camels to complete the force. With 38 models total, it really hurt to dived them in half. Here's how the Mahud looked at the end of deployment.
I put all my half trolls up front along with some warriors and the Mahud Tribemaster. The King and the Raiders along with the rest of the warriors were deployed at the back. As you can see, the half of the Uruk-Hai that was deployed to the center already outnumbered me two to one. I lost priority and expected to get hacked up. If I had won priority, I wanted to pull back to bring my forces together. One thing I'm learning by playing small forces is that you shouldn't divide them without good reason. This scenario starts with you breaking that rule.

You can imagine my surprise when Tim did exactly what I was thinking. He pulled back to get all his troops together. I wondered at that move, since he had superior numbers. I should let you know this is only my second time out with an all Far Harad force. I didn't appreciate the power they bring to combat. So I think Tim was right to consolidate. Later when I saw the eight half trolls in action, I belatedly realized that front line could've readily handled the odds. Two wounds, fight five, and strength five turn them into "demi-heroes" capable of ripping up almost anything.

When I got my turn, I pulled back and here's what we looked like.
The basic flow of the game went as you might expect. The lines pulled back to reform then pushed forward to engage in close combat. I have three blowpipes in my force, which due to their move or shoot rule almost never do anything other than tote around the blowpipes all game. I never had shots. Tim, however, had six crossbowmen that took the hill that frowned on the center of the table. Having the high ground vantage point was great for him, and the only thing that limited its value was the special rule for the scenario. In this scenario, all ranged attacks were limited to 12" due to the moonlight. However, rolls to wound were at +1 due to being at a closer range.

I made a mistake with this special rule. I engaged the Uruk-Hai within 12" of the hill crest. This allowed Tim to pepper quarrels into my spear support and unengaged models. I should have stopped out of range of the hill crest to deny the vantage point. Had I done that, Tim would have had nothing to use to prod me forward. But I guess I was feeling cooperative and parked myself so that his bows could hit me everywhere. It cost me a few men, and also cost me my Tribemaster's camel. Here's a shot of the line after a few turns. You can see the commanding position of the crossbowmen.

The rest of the battle was fun, but doesn't provide much drama in a write up. We kick the snot out of each other back and forth. The Uruk-Hai Shaman had cast Fury on himself from turn one. So he stood at the center of all key fights and gave everyone a who took a wound the ability to ignore it on a die roll of 6. Tim saved two or three warriors this way.

My heroes turned out to be the half trolls. They were incredibly good and earned every point. My King was the biggest let down. He wiffed everything, barely killing a few lousy orcs. Also sort of a mixed bag was my raiders. They are tricky to use due to their Impaler rule. If they kill whoever they charge, then they are sitting ducks for a counter charge. Tim wisely positioned his troops so I couldn't get multiple hits. So I often ended up hitting a model, killing it, and then getting swamped without the benefit of charge bonuses. I learned that with Raiders, you have to pick their charges carefully and to charge them before other friendly models move. This way, if you kill the model you charged then the other friendly models can intervene to protect the Raider.

I broke the Uruk-Hai, but due to the benefit of Fury they kept going. Everyone within 6" of the Shaman auto passes courage checks. That Shaman was the game defining model for the Uruk-Hai. Eventually, I got to break and we had to call time. It was an impressive fight, since my break was 19 models and the Uruk-Hai breakpoint was something like 33 models. So I had a good showing and could've had a shot at a win. But the Shaman kept everyone on the board. Tim saw the break point coming and each turn he moved the line tighter around the Shaman. Here's what it looked like with both forces broken.I definitely had a great time and appreciated the chance to get these guys on the table. There's a a lot of nuance to this army that I'm going to have to take the time to understand. They're brutal but very fragile. I don't want to even talk about what happened to this same force when it faced a Wood Elf army! (Evaporated in bowfire.) I'll try to take more pictures of future battles and post up. Maybe it won't be two years between posts!

Following Along with Flames of War

2009-05-03T13:50:00.005-06:00

Every since my days of playing SSI's incredible computer game, Steel Panthers, I've been interested in WWII battle games. I continued with Talonsoft's excellent West Front, East Front, and Pacific Front series after SSI went under. All these games played exactly like tabletop mini games. So you would think that once I went into minis that I'd start with a WWII game. However, I wasn't able to find any WWII rules that people I played with were using consistently.

These days, however, the local gaming group has decided to go into Flames of War. I'm totally thrilled with this. From what I've seen right now, it plays just like Steel Panthers and the Talonsoft series! The small 15mm size is actually pretty cool, too. The models remind me of the soldiers I played with as a kid. And anything I can do to make me feel like a kid again is OK in my book!

When I played my computer games, I used to play Germans all the time. But for the tabletop game I've went with a US Army rifle platoon. I've got about 600 points worth of stuff right now. I'm still figuring out how the game works and what else I should get to up my army size. I guess that will all come with time. For now, here's the current state of my army. I'm excited to get these guys painted and on the table!

Far Harad and Corsairs

2009-05-01T17:55:00.005-06:00

I took some pictures of my Corsair and Far Harad forces together as they will be on the table. While I know the Mahud are great fighters, they look pretty weak with just a few models out there. So Corsairs come to the rescue with cheap spear support! I would've done them all as spears, but would've had to buy another box of Corsairs to do so. It's not worth it, so a few sword and shield guys made it into the mix. There are also some crossbowmen who might help taking out a troll or two on its way in. I could drop them for Reavers, but I haven't decided yet. The Mahud are hitty enough on their own!

Here are the Corsairs alone. I never did a blog update of my whole Corsair force. There are more than what's pictured here. But this is what's allied with Far Harad. I was not impressed with Corsairs as a stand-alone army. They had some early success, but eventually their weakness overcame them. They are very much an ally army, capable of filling in as strong fighters. Just don't ask them to do the whole mission themselves. I guess that's sort of what you'd expect from real pirates!

Far Harad Completed

2009-04-30T14:12:00.003-06:00

At last I have completed my Far Harad force. It's about 350 points worth of warriors, plus two half trolls and a mounted King. It's not a large force on it's own, but I intend to ally this force with my Corsairs to make a solid 600 point list.

I went with the native look for the Mahud. I think GW and the guys who made the LotR movies wimped out and made a "PC" bad guy out of them. But honestly, to me they look like brave, fierce warriors from a fantasy version of Africa. So that's how I painted them. The color scheme is a little blah. But for the most part all they're wearing is some sort of wicker armor and a robe. There's not much to fiddle with, though I'm sure more talented painters have figured out how to add pizzaz to these guys. Here are the pictures. Check out the King, as I thought he come out pretty nice.

Gathering in the Desert T-Shirt Art

2009-01-17T11:48:00.003-07:00

Another year of the Gathering in the Desert is upon us. It is an independent grand tournament for Lord of the Rings, which is run here in Phoenix. The esteemed Mr. Kulinski helps organize it, and you can read more about it on his blog.

He asked me to create a painting for the GitD t-shirts he created for the event. I think the shirts are going to look great. The colors were changed from the original to accommodate the capabilities of the silk screen shop doing the work. They could've done full color, but that would've driven up the cost beyond what's reasonable. So here's a look at the original painting.

It was done digitally, using Painter 9 and a Wacom Intuous 3 pen tablet. You can see how the painting looks on the t-shirt by following this link to Tim's blog.