Upgrading My Game

 I plan to take my destructive car racing game Rubber and Lead to Southern Front next month. I haven't run it at a convention since 2018. The one and only problem with the game, which is otherwise gaming perfection, is that the track boards I made many years age are 24" x 48" 1/4 inch MDF and both heavy and clumsy. A few years ago I bought some lighter alternatives but never did anything with them. Well, toting the game five hours to Raleigh is just the inspiration this guy needed to finish the project. Ingredients:

2020 / 2021?

3" X 3" postit notes

I sketched out track designs on the sticky notes in such a way that they'd match up in many combinations of four allowing for a polymorphic track.

In June of 2021 I found the perfect items to use for the track boards.

I sketched the track shapes on the boards in pencil, basically copying what I'd done on the postit notes. Then I let the boards age for fours years as a "project of lower priority."

After agreeing to host R&L in Raleigh, I decided it was high time I get on that track 3.0 project. Step 1 - basic green & black.

Rather unappealing for sure but you get the gist. The board with white lines across the track are "start" and "fire line" track sections.

A bit more effort and now I have boards like these

The white goo is glossy Mod Podge, ultimately resulting in these

I made two boards with fire lines because, why not? The line can be ignored easily enough if the board isn't in the #2 position. This should allow for fifty board configurations, I think. Either way, it's a bunch. They'll get their first next Sunday when I take it over to a Labor Day gaming get-together with the gang.

Frostgrave Campaign Game 4 - The Orb

 After a four-month hiatus, David, Ziggy and I got together for the next installment of our Frostgrave series. I selected the scenario "The Orb" mainly because I had short notice and it doesn't require special terrain. I spent my previously-earned gold on upgrading my Thug to a Barbarian - a premium close-combat specialist. David spent a ton of gold he'd been camping on hiring three Rangers turning his group into a ranged-combat nightmare.

My deployment corner.

The Orb and Imps

David's group (near in the woods) and Ziggy's in the far corner.

Turn one was the usual slow rollout.  A Frost Wraith wandering monster did appear near my group right off the bat.

Not to mention two imps headed my direction and a blasted Fire Panther (or Snow Leopard) wandered in a turn later.

Imps are pretty weak so I felt confident charging into one of them with my Apprentice, Sweet Dee. I rolled a 1. Ziggy, rolling for the imp, rolled a 20, a crit. Dee out. Damn.

I did make an agreement with David to let me break the Orb, worth 25 XP, if I agreed not to prevent him from taking the treasure. My barbarian and and infantryman ran up to the Orb and smashed it! David and I had been on each other's case since the get-go, so this was a nice temporary reprieve, mid-game.

Miao Yin, my bard, handled the imps pretty easily, allowing my thief and another infantryman (Meat Cheetah and Sand Panther) who were lugging treasures easy passage to the exit.

So what happens? Of course a wandering monster zombie appears right there! Blast.

My wizard, Billy Thorpe, quickly summoned a floating skull to keep the zombie occupied. It worked really well and the zombie was pinned and pushed away!

David's sneaky wizard teleported in to grab the middle treasure, the teleported out a turn later. What a snake.

The outing was a success for my group, the Children of the Sun. We earned 200 gold and found a magic Sword that grants +2 Will. I earned 270 XP total, worth three level-ups. I upped FIGHT by +1 and improved both Raise Zombie and Heal to make them easier to cast. I also fired the reliable thief and replaced her with a more competent Treasure Hunter. The Treasure Hunter was given the new magic sword. Although my Apprentice and Javelineer were knocked out during the game, both made full recoveries. As always, looking forward to the next outing!

Newly Painted Things

 I finished up a handful of miniatures this weekend. They'd been in progress for weeks, I've just been going slowly. 

First up, some Battletech minis. This is the Recon Lance box. I've kept them in the same Marik livery as the last few I did. 

Those are a Firestarter, Javelin, Spector and Ostscout. More light mech goodness, and quickly becoming my preferred class. 

Next is a Brigade Game 28mm Red Russian machine gun for the Revolution. 

I don't think I ever posted a picture of the Red infantry that I painted first. Here they are. 

And finally, I also completed the next group of 20 Basmachi fighters to oppose the Bolsheviks.

Those models and the Russians are Wargames Atlantic plastics. Excellent models as always. 

New Rules Playtesting

 Good Morning! I should have a boatload of newly painted miniatures coming up later this week. I'm very close on a second lot of Afghans and some other things. But while I wait for mother nature to get a bit more cooperative from a humidity standpoint, my mind and the dice have been active. I've been thinking about taking a couple of games to Southern Front in Raleigh, NC in September. I've already signed up to take my modern What A cowboy conversion but am considering a second. I came up with some fairly simple 3rd World combat rules to re-purpose my AK47 collection. Nothing wrong with AK47R, for sure, but it's not conducive to a multi-player convention game.

Ziggy came by yesterday afternoon for a test of version 1.0 of the rules. It was a very productive couple of hours.

No real AAR to speak of, although my government forces were soundly thumped by Zig's rebel fighters. A handful of rules were altered, tweaked or otherwise re-created during and after the session. The game is now to point where it's a solid set of rules on it's own. I just might take it to Raleigh! Be well everyone.