End of March

 Happy Easter, to those of you who celebrate.

It's a pretty quiet weekend here. I have actually gotten up to some painting, finally, after returning from the con, getting asbestos flooring removed (stayed in a hotel for a week while that was done) and just stuff.

No nice pictures because the lightbox is hidden away somewhere since our house is still in some amount of disarray.

Some 28mm Halfling Braves. My best attempt at a tartan pattern. Cross your eyes slightly and stand back a bit, it'll look fine I tell ya!

I added a third ox cart to the collection. It's the one in the center with the mismatched flock.

A couple of Bad Squiddo Mummies.

And some retro spaceships for a game I'm developing. Very excited about this. Watch this space!

Last weekend the Space Cadets got together for some more Battletech. It was again some Solaris VII gladiatorial fighting with three different environments, teleporters connecting them and some nasty NPC enemies.

My two cardboard beauties, a pair of vanilla Locusts gave Mike fits and tore his Rifleman a new one.

Action shifted to the wooded zone. We eventually bagged the Hunchback that was terrorizing the lot of us. I sacrificed one of my mechs simply to end the game! 

Skirmish Game Con 2024

It's been a while since my last post, obviously. The house situation has been a weeks-long drama upon which we're finally making some real progress. Flooring everywhere! Well, not the bathrooms which are still untouched, but the rest of the place is looking good.

Mark and I trucked it down to Jacksonville Florida for Skirmish game con last weekend for some much-needed downtime. It was a good couple of days of gaming and this might have been the first con I've attended during which I've never before played any of the games I ended up playing. First game was Friday afternoon at 1:00PM. It was a fairly simple game of What A Cowboy for four players, each with two very similar characters. We'd all heard there was a looted Union payroll stashed in a wrecked house. 

The players were split into two groups and away we went.

Our table. My two gunslingers are the closest - Buck Owens and George Jones. All the characters were named after classic Country and Western singers.

At the end of the encounter, both my fellas were pushing up daisies. I'd managed to take out Willie Nelson. My teammate took out an opponent but as it turned out both gangs failed their morale tests at the same time and the survivors all fled with the sound of cavalry approaching. I had a terrific time and really enjoyed WaC. 

My next game was One Hour Wargames WWII. These were simple infantry encounters designed to demo the rules. Although I enjoyed myself, I'm not sold on the bargain-basement simplicity of the game system and it didn't really trip my trigger. 

My final game of the evening was home-brewed 40K Bike Racing.

Entertaining enough but rough-and-ready. Having designed the most excellent Rubber and Lead game, I could fix this bike racing game. I've got ideas kicking around in my head, but they need to ferment for a bit. The game was a hoot. I was first to be knocked out and my Space Marine ascended to Racetrack Sniperhood. From the Sniper's Pulpit, I helped two other racers ascend. The race was won by a cautious / timid gentleman who seemed to miss the bit about it being a race.

Saturday morning I hosted my PULPY! Steampulp game for a group of six. GMing, I failed to take many pictures, but I got a few.

The good guys stormed the lair, snatched evidence and disabled the tank! Dr. Krauss and his assistant Milford escaped of course...

The players seemed to really enjoy the game. All were complimentary of the terrain, miniatures and most importantly the rules. I put the basic Pulpy! rules together back in December I think, gave it a basic mechanical test once, a thorough test with my wife once and this was showtime! One of the players had significant experience playing Pulp games and was rather taken with my rules so I gave him the one printed copy I had and let him keep one of the QRSes. I have a couple of follow-on scenario ideas.

After lunch it was more What a Cowboy. This time a much more involved scenario based on a pivotal scene in the movie Silverado. I hadn't done my homework and having only seen the movie once when it was in theaters in 1985, I didn't remember any of it. I was in charge of Sheriff Langston and Mal while my teammate had Paden and Emmett. Opposing us were a real motley crew of scum and villainy. 

Again, I didn't take many pictures. We were tasked with the Herculean assignment of releasing horses and taking back some stolen money. What we did was get our asses kicked. My deadeye sniper Mal got one good shot then took a chest wound effectively neutralizing him very early in the goings. The sheriff did alright as did Emmett and Paden but we just couldn't make any forward progress. It was a series of one step forward, two steps back. So yeah, the bad guys won handily and for the second time last weekend, I really enjoyed What a Cowboy.

Next up was some sci-fi skirmishing with Cyberpunk: Red. Our host Alex gave off a typical young millennial vibe with his spiky, dyed hair and I prepared myself for a steam of irritation. I was dead wrong about him; he was such a nice energetic guy that it gave me hope for the future of the miniatures gaming hobby! 

The game itself is not a far cry from Infinity with regards to aesthetic, with much smaller forces. The game plays more like X-Wing miniatures and is quick, straightforward and easy enough to wrap one's head around.

I didn't take many pictures, but I sat in front of a Japanese-themed group that was heavy on the cheese. My opponent's force was very much a melee-focused group. I felt a little bad that he got a poor read on the table and I took advantage of his disadvantaged deployment right from the get-go. He was a gracious opponent and handled himself very well in the face of adversity and uncooperative dice rolls. If I didn't already have such a heavy investment in Infinity, I'd pick up Cyberpunk: Red. The minis are dead sexy and I may pick some up just to paint. 

My final game was Wars of Ozz. There was a LOT of Ozz being played last weekend, with games being hosted by both Discover Games from Atlanta and by Mr. Buck Surdu himself. The late Saturday game was a four-player affair hosted by Discover Games.

I sat in front of the Pumpkins so I led them into battle with my Winkie allies against the Munchkins and Frogs. 

Our line of battle at the start of the affair. As you can see, it was a dead gorgeous game. Interesting minis, bright colors, adorable terrain.

The game itself is quirky as hell but plays well and everyone at the table except for my traveling companion Mark enjoyed themselves. Mark's dice were abysmal and he wouldn't get past it. Once he left we finished a very entertaining game, wrapping up well after midnight. 

A damn fine two days of gaming. I met some great folks, played a bunch of wonderful games and quite simply had a fine couple of days away. Be well and good gaming everyone!

Headaches

Had a water leak in the house a week and a half ago. Water made it's way from the hall bathroom to the master bedroom, dining room and master bath as well as up the hallway a bit. Although demolition was begun, it had to be halted temporarily because the old linoleum in the bathrooms has asbestos. That flooring has to be removed because to remove moisture from beneath it. That means a terrifically laborious abatement process that has my family in a holding pattern of massive inconvenience for the time being. Hopefully, the insurance company approved the abatement quickly. Obviously no painting or proper gaming for a bit, which is OK because I have a lot going on at work anyway.

On the plus side, no furniture or other effects were damaged! Be well everyone.

Pulpy! - Home Brew Play Test

I've decided to host a game down in Jacksonville at Skirmish Game Con the weekend of March 1st. I've been wanting to host a light pulp-style game for a few years now and of course there were many struggles to cope with. Struggles such as which rules, formulating an enjoyable scenario, creating interesting characters and motivations... that sort of thing.

So, since last Fall's con up in Raleigh, I've started checking boxes and I think I have a working solution. I have a good scenario for six players, characters and a game! The hard part was crafting a game mechanic suitable for a convention. One of my convention game pet peeves is the rules-heavy game that the players don't understand completely. Only the GM has a book and he has to constantly refer to it. It sucks and detracts from the experience. My design goal was simple - the game had to be able to be explainable, in its totality, within five minutes. Move, shoot, melee, other things. No books to rifle through, no rules situations to look up. I've hit my goal and dadgummit, it's a fine game. My wife gifted me with a few hours of her time on Saturday evening for a thorough play test and we put Pulpy! through its paces.

My other goals for the play test were to work out terrain, setup areas, play balance, travel distances, etc. I got my answers well enough to not be embarrassed come March.

I took many pictures of the layout so I can refer back to them later. A lovely beach with some jungles and a hillside secret laboratory.

Automata and Drones out to greet the infiltrators!

Some action in the sand and around a ruined building.

Heroes ascending the hillside.

A showdown in the hideout!

The play test was very successful. It revealed some weaknesses that were easily addressed. I tweaked force composition and will re-arrange the start positions of some of the forces so they're able to get into some action more quickly. So nice to get the Steampunk minis out for some Steampulp. I'm slotted for 9am Saturday morning, March 2nd. Very exciting.  https://skirmishgamecon.com

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

Twelve goblins spearing...

Eight mechs a' meching...

Painting progress is already pretty decent in the new year. I received plenty of minis for Christmas, many of which have already been committed to the "completed" side of the ledger.

Six lighter mechs for my Steel Viper clan forces. This is a mix of older metal sculpts and the contents of the Clan Striker Star box set from Catalyst Labs.  Left to right those are a Piranha, Vapor Eagle, Incubus, Eyrie, Nova and a Dasher. The Steel Viper collection was skewing heavy and these tip  the scales towards the center.

Two mechs from the Striker Star box were allocated to the Fire Mandrills, a Horned Owl and a Conjurer.

Also just completed are twelve goblin fighters from a box of Oathmark plastic 28mm goblins that were also under the Christmas tree. Many more where these came from.

Certainly a different tribe than the others I've painted recently but very close size-wise to Wargames Atlantic plastic goblins. 

I have a battle recap I need to post. I'll get to that in the next few days. Be well!

Last Game of 2023

 Ziggy and I threw dice on December 30th for our last gaming of 2023. I brought out the Blood and Plunder toys for a battle between the French and English in the woods of New England. More than anything, it was an excuse to use as many soldiers as I could field and we each had around 30. 

We played a "Capture the Objective" scenario - the rectangular crate in the midst of the barrels in the picture above is the objective in this case. I commanded the English militia and Iroquois while Zig used the French and their Abenaki allies.

We both worked the flanks since going right up the gut was going to be dangerous.

Blast em!

Well, the musket-fire was pretty ineffective and the Indians smashed into my militia on the right flank taking out four.

Over on the left, it was a similar story but in my favor, with the Iroquois proving to be quite efficient.

A wider shot from the left side of the table. Those Canadian militia on the hill are quite a target, but how to get to them? It didn't help at all that the weather degraded twice during the game and it was now Sweltering Heat! That meant units moving more than once per turn would receive a fatigue point. No "run and smash" for either of us now.

I did push some militia forward right up the gut to contest the objective. They actually hung in there really nicely for a while, dice gods smiling on them for much of the battle.

At the end of the evening though, my troops in the middle had fallen and although I'd gotten two unit around the left flank, they weren't able to capitalize on their situation. My casualties continued to mount and by the end of the fifth turn, the English were done.

Blood and Plunder always delivers an entertaining game and this was no exception. The game handled the higher unit count nicely and it really makes me consider adding to the collections. Maybe after I paint all the Halflings, Goblins and Mechs!

Urban Renewal

 Merry Christmas Eve!

After last weekend's "no terrain" mishap for the Alpha Strike game, these are welcome addition to the collection. I actually ordered them a couple of weeks ago from gcmini.com but of course there was no way I'd have been able to get them ready in time. A couple of early mornings this weekend got them sorted though.

These are 6mm "grayboard" buildings from their sci-fi collection. Assembly was easy with white glue. They're all mounted to 1/8 inch plywood.

I used aluminum foil inside the these brick red buildings to make the windows pop a bit. 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and that Santa brings you good health and lots of nice goodies.

Battleships and Battletech

 The Space Cadets had our last big gathering of the year on Saturday. We played a couple games and overall had a fine time. I set up the first game - Victory at Sea Age of Deadnoughts... the WW1 variant. The encounter was an Italian convoy being intercepted by an Austro-Hungarian task force. Although the two fleets never really got into it during the war, they make for a nice pair for this kind of gaming.

The large Italian group in the center commanded by me, Mike and Ziggy. Mark and Wayne helmed the AH ships. The AH ships arrived from both sides. They had many targets to choose from. I barely took any pictures.

The scrum later in the game. Mark made a mistake by having his best battleship get behind our convoy instead of plunging it right into the middle where it could use its plentiful armaments to their fullest.

At the end, the Kriegsmarine sank five transports and crippled two others but lost four of their five warships.  Not a good rate of exchange.

I think the scenario is presented improperly in the Mongoose VaS rulebook; the convoy has too many warships and the raiders not enough. Live and learn!

Next up we played a six-person game of Battletech Alpha Strike. Wayne put together the scenario and provided the minis. Scenery / terrain was a whole 'nuther thing but we cobbled together enough to make a game of it.

Kurita and Eridani Light Horse forces advance towards the downed dropship. 

We did have some cool Samurai-inspired mechs on the Kurita side.

I got "last licks" on the enemy Warhammer.

And then finished off the Marauder.

Due to some scenario victory conditions that were the subject of much debate, the Kurita side lost with very little chance of winning. It was a darn entertaining game though, so victory conditions notwithstanding, we all had a fine time.