Stargrave Twofer

 There have been two campaign games of Stargrave in the last week or so. The first was a two-player game with me and David. David missed the first game so it was an opportunity for him to learn the game without many distractions. I set up a 24" x 24" table for the scenario called "The Botched Deal."

My deployment corner. The same crew members from the previous mission.

A birds-eye of the battlefield. Good old fashioned tight quarters urban fighting.

 

The Oddfellows spread out and got their hands on three of the five loot markers. The Ruffians who were present on the table as part of the scenario were no trouble for David or myself. 

During the battle, both David and I each took four casualties. It was pretty brutal. All of my casualties made full recoveries. David wasn't as fortunate, having a Gunner go KIA. His other three recovered without trouble. I did manage to pick up a Shotgun with +1 damage and a Carbine with +1 Shoot. I also picked up a fat 15 credits. I leveled up both my Captain and First Officer.

A week later, last Saturday, we played the other game. I just set the game up and GMed while Ziggy, Wayne and David all played their second game. The scenario I set up was "Fire Moon," a particularly challenging one with lava streams and tough wandering monsters.

The 36" x 36" battlefield. The "Cross of hot death" is part of the scenario description and just a big old pain for players to deal with. It's automatic damage and impossible to ignore.

As the GM, I was rooting for the critters who turned out to be rather dangerous!

A good chunk of Wayne's group.

Some of Ziggy's crew and lots of smoke.

Three cheers for the lava snakes!

David sends a schlub into to hot stuff to try to unlock the physical loot in the center. She did not successfully unlock it.

Ziggy and David spar over a data loot counter atop that storage cylinder. Ziggy's sent a drone up to grab it.

The casualty count this game was insane, a total of 13 taken out. Wayne scored TEN of those knockouts! A good time was had by all and all the participants got a nice haul of loot at the end of the day. We're all  looking forward to the next encounter - now that we're getting more proficient with the rules it's becoming more about playing and tactical gaming rather than mechanical struggles. 

Some "Just 'Cuz" Painting

 I ordered a box of Army Painter Speed Paints last week. The big box.

Of course I needed to take them for a test drive so I quickly prepped and based a collection of 15mm Blue Moon space aliens I've had for a few months. I primed the models white and then hit them with the brushes on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. First, some pics of the results.

Painting was done with a combination of Speed Paints and traditional painting. The green heads, white/gray unis and yellow packs are Speed Paints. Weapons, straps, leader backpacks and bases are traditional. 

My thoughts? I like the colors and results. I was expecting more difference between highlights and shadows, but I suspect the small size of the models and relatively shallow recesses is partly responsible. a bigger chunkier model will undoubtedly produce a different result. Maybe something like Reaper Bones.

It takes very little of this paint to cover a painting surface, so when you get started, be cautious with how much paint you squeeze from the dropper! You can always squeeze more out but it's really tough to put that Djinni back in the bottle...

And There They Are... The Redcoats

 Those Sash and Saber Brits I started painting a couple of months ago finally found their way back to the painting table this weekend and are now permanent members of "the collection!" These are 28mm castings for my Blood and Plunder games set in New England and Canada. Uniforms are probably inaccurate and, well, they look like English troops and that's all that really matters. 

I sense a good-sized battle in the future.

A Few More Minis

 Happy New Year everyone. My New Year's was nice a relaxed. Good football, no drama. 

I did pick up a few fun minis for the Stargrave collection. They're Alternative Armies and Bombshell miniatures.

A Cyborg who'll make a nice weird group leader, a couple awesome guard dogs and some others who can take on almost any role. Really, they were just cool models to add to the collection.