Batman Miniatures - Short AAR

Ziggy and I gave the Batman Miniatures Game a go on Saturday afternoon. I kept it simple for the first game since we we both very much in learning mode. I took control of the Riddler and three of his hench-bots, while Zig's group was Carrie Kelley and the Sons of Batman. My mission was to steal the clockwork Maguffin from one of two vehicles and hang onto it until my backup arrived. Carrie and friends were trying to put a stop to my efforts.

Bots 2 and 3

Riddler and Bot 1. The Batman gang is at the far end of the street.

Bot 2 bravely makes a run at the Lexus.

But, lo, the goon with the shotgun lays him out in the middle of Grant Avenue.

Riddler spies what he's looking for in the back seat of the Cayenne, knocks out a window and grabs it, while Bot 1 hustles over the "Gloves" to keep him occupied.

Riddler backs off with the prize while the bots get worked over by the bat-wannabes. It's still early and there's a bit of a wait until Quelle's going to arrive with the whirlybird.

Not good. She's after me.

And caught as I make my way to the ladder... Blast!

The Sons of Batman chase off my last Bot.

But Riddler breaks away and up the ladder he goes! Huzzah!

The helicopter is close! Carrie and the Sons have Riddler cornered on the rooftop. Bot 2 has turned about and is now coming back to assist! Remind me to give that one a raise.

Riddler belts ol' Batarang-boy with the ?-Club. Hah. Hurry up helicopter! It was a good thing the guy with the gun was out of ammo otherwise Riddler would've been in deep kimchi.

Bot 2 catches up with Gloves down below.

While Carrie and Shotgun catch up with Riddler just as Quelle arrives with the helo overhead. Down drops a rope ladder. Riddler evades their blows, grabs onto the ladder, and makes good his escape!

Part 2 of the story will pick up Memorial Day weekend.

Though I technically won by having the loot in my character's possession at the end or the scenario, Riddler was cornered atop the building and in big trouble when time expired. The helicopter escape was a bit of Deus ex machina if you couldn't tell.

We both rather enjoyed BMG. It's a good skirmish game made more interesting by the variety of kit each character has. I printed out cheat-sheets for all of the characters with all of their special abilities' rules so we wouldn't have to refer to the rulebook for those. I'm certainly motivated to play again. It moved a lot better than I was anticipating - I really think having the specials out and handy helped a lot.

The rules are quite straightforward and there was only one head-scratcher left unanswered - specifically, can characters freely move out of close combat or must they fight / test their way out?

Urban Furniture

I've been working on some urban scatter terrain this week. I picked it up from Impudent Mortal - it's the very common laser-cut MDF material that everyone uses these days. I'm quite happy with the results.

 The lot

Streetlights

 Barriers and manhole covers

 Dumpsters

 Dumpsters

 

And a couple of large construction dumpsters.

I had a very quick intro to Batman Miniatures Game the other day - a bit late for sure since I've got quite a lot of stuff for BMG but... better late than never. The only hiccup I see with it is the numerous special abilities that the characters have that will require constant book-reference during a game. The basic mechanics are simple enough though. I'm looking forward to a proper game.

Firestorm Planetfall - Painting Restart

As you may remember, Ziggy and I were collecting Firestorm Planetfall miniatures just prior to Spartan's collapse. Since then, we've bought up loads of clearance stuff, but the painting has been slow to be sure. This week I cleared the unfinished items from the queue which was an Aquan Prime Recon Helix.

I think some straggler infantry from the Command Helix (still in the box) made it into this lot. Zig and I may but PF on the table this weekend. It's been a while and they're such pretty miniatures. It'd be a shame to not let them get out and play!

Turning Up the Heat - Star Fleeet Battles AAR

The Space Cadets re-convened in Brunswick over the weekend for a smashing round of SFB. The March 2018 edition included Max who's played with us before and a new player, Caleb. The scenario I concocted featured Tholians and Lyrans, primarily just because it felt like a fun pairing.

The Tholians have sent two PC+ and two CMC (commando PCs) two destroy a recently established Lyran moon base. The moon base is composed of three ground-based disruptors, a mining station, agro station and science station. After a few turns, some Lyran ships arrive to restore order.

Mike and Dave took the Lyrans (a war destroyer Tug + commando pallet and a heavy frigate). I was gifted the Tholian CMCs while the understudies each got to command a PC+.

The Tholian stack of doom makes its way around Pizzahut IV. Many shuttles have just launched from the moon.

A minor math issue resulted in our stack finishing turn one in the unintended hex. It didn't matter much. David, commander of Moonbase Alpha, emptied the tubes into one of my commando ships causing significant damage. Overloaded disruptor... phaser 3s...

So here we are, adjacent to the moon. We burned the science station to the ground with massed phaser-1 fire. It was friggin' awesome. The Lyrans were less impressed.

Many Tholian shuttles launched - we did need boots on the ground to make this work. My landing ships dropped to speed 6 and slowly eased around the left side of the moon, while the PCs worked on smashing more base sections. The Lyran ships would be showing up soon and would be ruining all our fun.

The Lyrans massed most of their troops in the agro station. Our first wave (the black counters) did well against the few defenders in the mining facility.

Time warp to turn 4....

After mashing up the moon base, we Tholians had to get out of Dodge! We were able to recover surviving marines and made a run for it. I had to convince my junior staff that their ships existed to escort my troop transports. That's my pair in hex 2112. The PCs are on more of an intercept course. Mike's tug from hell began getting its money's worth out of the three ESGs it's got. 

A despondent Caleb (left) and Max suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune. Mike's new favorite thing ever crushes Max's ship, tractors it and begins boarding with Marines.

Mike also put a zillion shuttles out with BPs. He was determined to capture the Tholian ship!

David's frigate caught up with the damaged (and thus slow) CMC and Caleb's PC. Both were rammed by and ESG. My ship did not fare well and was done in. Whaaaaaaa!

My other CMC and David's frigate traded shots - he missed big as shit, while I knocked down a shield and caused a single internal! Huzzah! Caleb's PC got away as well.

Max's ship and crew were not so lucky and was captured by the cat people. Off to the kitty litter mines!

Overall, a successful raid, but poor getaway by the Tholians. We agreed it had been an entertaining afternoon and liked the scenario quite a bit. Never doubt the hitting power of sixteen Phaser-1s. Four small Tholian ships hit like a ton of bricks! Oh yeah, so does a Lyran tug!

A "Fleet-ing" Glimpse

Zig and I played a couple of introductory Star Fleet Battles games last Saturday. Although he'd played it before, it's been at least 15 years so we started from scratch. I set him up with a Klingon F5 (a top-shelf small ships with an assortment of cool toys) and had him smash up a couple of small freighters.

It was the predictable cake-walk for the Klingon.

After dinner we played again, this time I drove a real ship - a Federation frigate which is an even match for the F5.

He drove well and in the end it was a draw, though he'd suffered many more internals than my Taco Stand of Doom. Wily driving by yours truly helped me spread damage over most of my shields, while I was able to keep blasting away through his down #1 shield hole.

I also got some SFB minis last week which got painted up in no time at all.

Kzinti, Hydran and ISC Cruisers

 ISC, Tholian and Gorn Cruisers

The kit and kaboodle. I'm rather pleased with the results, particularly the green Gorn. There was also a Federation CA in the bag, but since I painted one recently, I wasn't keen to do a second. One of these days.

We're supposed to play our Brunswick game this Saturday. I'm looking forward to it! The scenario I've put together should be amusing - Basically it's Tholians vandalizing a Lyran moon base.

Weekend Painting

I knocked out some Frostgrave add-ons in record time this weekend. They showed up in two lots - one Friday and one Saturday. The finished ones are an Orc Wizard and Apprentice to replace the human proxies that I had previously. I also completed a Barbarian and Templar-type warrior.

Sure, they're colorful, but why not? The two spellcasters are Reaper Bones, the other two are newish D&D resin minis. I also cranked out some critters quickly...

Some wolves and spiders. Again, they're Bones and D&D minis. Nothing amazing - just a basecoat, drybrush and details.

Frostgrave - Back on the Table!

Early last week David and I kicked around ideas for a game for Sunday afternoon and decided on Frostgrave. He had never played and my only experience with it was at least a year ago with a one-off game with Ziggy. I put together a couple of warbands and settled on one that had sufficient character and charisma for me. I hope we can keep the Frostgrave going and make a proper campaign out of it, at least 6-8 games worth anyway.

My warband - Band of Orcses
Cosmo - Elementalist Wizard
Pinkie - Apprentice
Sunz - Orc at Arms
Doc - Tracker
Stikka - Infantryorc
Stabba - Infantryorc
Crazy Eye - Thief
Angry - Thug

And my Spells:
Elemental Bolt
Elemental Shield
Elemental Hammer
Leap
Enchant Weapon
Fleet Feet
Blinding Light
Animal Companion

David and Dennis came over early in the afternoon and we got set up. David had a Thaumaturge with FOUR warhounds in tow. Dennis went with a Summoner crew including a couple of crossbowmen and a barbarian.

We played The Living Museum scenario since it didn't require much in the way of extra bits. My son lent us some Lego minifigs to act as the living statues.

Half of the band. From left to right that's Angry, Pinkie, Doc and Stikka. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures since the action was pretty constant.

Late in the game Dennis' apprentice rolls a "1" attempting a Summon Demon. One giant snot monster, coming up! He would manage to Bind it, getting in a bit of short-term utility out of the miscast.

In the end, each of us nabbed two treasures. I lost my thug, Angry. David had at least one dog die and a Man-At-Arms miss the next scenario. Dennis had a thug die as well. No major setbacks for any of us. I did my darndest to kill Dennis' crossbowmen, but the wounds wouldn't stick. We all had a good time and I think it went over well enough to result in more games!

I've ordered a few extra orc minis to add a bit of variety to my group. I ended up with 280GC after the game and need to replace the thug. Might as well replace him with something a bit higher quality, like a Treasure Hunter or Templar! I should also try to remember to cast Animal Companion to get a freebie critter in the gang.