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.

Settling Down with some X-Wing

Ziggy got back from a four-month middle east deployment on Monday. Glad he's home and in one piece. I of course caught a cold on Thursday which really got good and snotty by Saturday, our typical game day. He took his chances and brought some X-Wing goodies over anyway. Me, being under the weather, used the same list I used in my previous game with David since it was still neatly in a box and ready to go.

It's the 27-hit Monsters of the Rebellion versus the Godforsaken Defender Twins.

Things develop. I concentrate fire on "The Red One." Having played against them before, it is imperative to simply pile on and kill one of the TIE Defenders as soon as possible. She's gone in a flash and Ziggy is instantly irritated. He did manage to strip the Scurrg's shields though.

Not long afterwards, the B-Wing has been dealt with, as has a low-end TIE.

"Evades" evaded me all game and the H-6 is relieved of duty. It's now a duel between an ultra-nimble and capable TIE Defender and an ARC-170 living room sofa with a tailgun. Both are ships were down to a single hull point.

That asteroid mostly hidden behind the ARC was pivotal. I hid behind it during the penultimate turn, while Ziggy chased. During the last turn, Ziggy was left with the poor choice of pursue and smash into the asteroid or play it safe. He played it safe, but was in my rear firing arc at range 3. A single hit cashed him in. A very narrow and hard-fought victory for the Rebellion!

Gnomecon 2018 - Friday and Saturday [post 700]

Gnomecon 2018 has been a blast. I hung out there Friday and Saturday playing lots of games. I think I'll stay home today - I'm beat after a marathon day of gaming yesterday.

Friday afternoon I took my new roller derby-inspired game Rink Racers down for a public demonstration. It was well-received and created good interest. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

My son Cameron (in blue and orange) and his buddy Wyatt playing RR.

I also got to take in a demo game of Rumbleslam, a fantasy Pro-Wrestling miniatures game. It's interesting for sure. It would seem to be what amounts to a small-scale skirmish with no terrain. If there had been any starter sets available, I probably would have picked one up. Two days removed from playing it, I might hold off. The minis are great.

Saturday morning I headed up bright and early and set up Wings of Glory WW2.

David took control of the Japanese interceptors while I drove the B-25 and Mike ran my escort P-51. It was a simple bombing run scenario, and we'd recycle casualties until we were tired.

So, during run 1, David got me locked up caused massive damage to the bomber early on.

A few shots later and she was done. Japanese get on the scoreboard big time early! We did manage to knock out one of the interceptors, although it recycled...

We had been joined by a couple other players when Mike had to dip to manage his game of Ogre. The Santa Claus-looking fellow took over running the Mustang, while the guy next to him piloted one of the two Ki-84s. You can see that my second bomber is making nice progress up the battlefield.

Ol' Mustang Sally gets a great angle on the Jap plane and shreds it!

David and I trade shots, but I'm so close to the drop zone!

A move or two later and it's BOMBS AWAY! Scratch one yakatori stand. Two bomb runs, one Japanese victory and one US victory. Good times.

Next on the slate was the Second Annual Gnomecon Rubber and Lead Grand Prix brought to you by The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant.

Crowd response to R&L was equal to last year. I got a great location and loads of walk-by traffic.
 

Race one is underway. That's the 2017 champ, Mark on the right with the Gnomecon V shirt.

And two laps later, our first winner is John, driving the Greased Lightning!

It was on to race 2, a particularly violent affair.

 Milkrun ends up behind a destroyed Coppertop.

And plows through in fourth gear! See how far Coppertop has been pushed and the wicked position that it ends up in.

And our race 2 winner, Jennifer, driving the H8 Team. There's nothing wrong with lurking, and letting everyone else destroy themselves.

Game 3 got started. My son Cameron got in on the nuttiness driving the Lamborghini, Raging Bull which will be renamed to Lambo Calrissian.

In a first of it's kind situation, The Green Machine smashes into Jack O Lantern and spins it 180 degrees! He's headed the wrong way! Coppertop and Lambo are inbound and The Green Machine has looks like he's in the clear with no one close.

But tragedy strikes as The Green Machine comes in a bit hot into the last corner! He catches the wall at a steep angle and is destroyed! So Close!

The Jack crosses the line first, with Cameron's Lambo in second. A hell of a comeback from being reversed on the track!

And the driver, I think his name was Don.

Heat 4 featured James versus the pack of kids. The kids were wonderfully violet and killed each other in no time. James, in Ol' Yeller, coasted past the wreck of Jack O Lantern for the victory.

On to the finals..

We switched to the higher difficulty "track 2.0" and in no time at all, John in The Silver Bullet cement truck shoved two opponents onto the dirt section.

And once they were back together, The Silver Bullet kept up the battering ram behavior!

The fury didn't slow down as Watch Your Head got in on the pushing and shoving. Both Pickemup and the Bullet lubed the track. Excellent!

James and the convertible got into the co-lead, James was again forced onto the dirt section but deftly avoided the mines he'd left earlier.

In the end, James' Flatbed was the fastest and most durable vehicle of destruction.Congratulations James on a race well run!

The final four.

No rest for the over-committed Game Master! It was 7:30 and SFB was set for 8:00PM. Mike made the call to push it back to 8:30 so we had a bit of a breather and time to get the table set up.

The scenario was a convention favorite of ours. We used Cadet ships (16 impulses) and essentially ignored EA but limited what ships can do. Eight asteroid clusters were set up and at the center of each was set a token. One of the tokens is a MacGuffin that everyone is after.  A shuttle or ship can search for the MacGuffin if it ends its movement for the turn in that hex. Once the MacGuffin is found, it is picked up and taken off the map. If the carrying ship is destroyed, the MacGuffin stays in the hex until something else picks it up.

Ships were randomly assigned to the seven players. Mark for the WYN Aux Cruiser, David got a WYN Sand Shark, Mike drew the Fed CA, Al got a Gorn CA, I drew a Hydran Hellbore cruiser, Gabby drove a Rom KR and James got a Kzinti cruiser.

 

The rogues gallery, plotting and scheming.

My Hydran was cleverly disguised as a Tholian.

At the end of turn one, only one search was made by the Gorn and the device not found.

On turn two, James' Kzinti got crunched. Let's take a look.

Gabby had launched a Plasma S earlier and it chased the Kzinti. James' ship took light to moderate damage.

At the end of turn two, ALL asteroid fields were checked, bar one. The one not checked was indeed the MacGuffin! Out of eight cards, the Joker was the one not pulled. We all knew where the treasure was now - Gabby and I were closest to it. The race was on.

She plotted 4, and I, 6. We'd both end up in the target hex at the same time. I made the conscious decision to hold my fire until I was at range "0" seeing as though that's what Hydrans are best at.

Booya.

32 internals later. The resulting explosion tore down my front shield. No bother.

So I was now at decision time. My ship was 15 hexes from the edge but I was balls-deep in an asteroid field. I checked the asteroid collision chart (P3.2)

The choice was obvious. My competitors were all facing the wrong way to give chase. I announced that I would move speed 16 on turn 4. My ship was in good enough condition to weather a severe asteroid strike.

Impulse 1. I move.The table watches as I roll a die.

Yeah. pretty well saw that coming. I shrieked and the rest of the table erupted in laughter. Fifteen internals.

Impulse 2. I move my second hex through the rocks. The table goes silent.

Yeah. pretty well saw that coming. I shrieked and the rest of the table erupted in laughter. Fifteen internals.

My ship was destroyed. Ah well... it was a bold plan! Anything other than boxcars and I'd have been OK.

I had left the item at the edge of the ship graveyard but had a shuttle nearby. I decided to eff with the table and send him in. Al (the Gorn) goofed a move and I again got the MacGuffin! Huzzah!

I kept playing keep away. The Gorn had re-loaded his torps and added a third hull to the graveyard. Kzintis out!

A Starfleet selfie.

The Gorn got hammered by the Feds and WYN and headed off the map. David sneakily arranged a pickup of his shuttle that had gotten its mechanical hands on the treasure. The blue and silver ship now had to make a run for it!

Though James and Mike gave it all they could, luck was on David's side and he managed to avoid their worst, took hits on still functioning shields and really just "making it happen." A win for the WYN. Congrats David on a very hard-fought victory.

That game ended at 1:00AM. It had been a four-hour affair and absolutely fantastic. We all had enjoyed it tremendously.

2018 was a great Gnomecon experience. Looking forward to the next one.