Mega Mecha Update Extreme

OK, so it's Thanksgiving week and I've had the entire week off. I have been busy painting - mostly FoW US  Paratroopers from the shipping disaster of "earlier this year." The reason I've been painting them and not something much more interesting is that my micro-armor tanks didn't show up until Friday. 

I did sell the German FoW army. Yay. No plans yet on what I'll get to replace their toy soldier space.

I did finish of the West German M48s today. I'm quite happy with them:

I also finished up the pico-armor stuff I picked up for Mighty Monsters:

I really love their stuff - it is just so damn cute!

Which leads me to MIGHTY MONSTERS! Dennis and I played a couple games of MM this evening. Out first battle featured Destroyah versus Mecha Bot One. Dennis controlled Destroyah while I took the reins of Mecha Bot One.

The contestants

And the battlefield - Metro City

Dennis' critter hoists an oil tank and heaves it at Mecha Bot One. It flew harmlessly past the giant robot.

The two behemoths mix it up.

Destroyah kept up a combination of wing buffets and charge / body slam attacks.

But skillfully landed punches and kicks take their toll on the beast.

And Mecha Bot One eventually wore out the monster from beyond the stars.

And since we had plenty of time and nothing better to do, we played a second game! This time, Destroyah Junior came to Metro City One to avenge his father's butt kicking. The Defense Forces were alerted to try to halt the behemoth.

My forces arrayed along the bottom edge. We had to put some bridges in since the army dudes and D.J. needed some way to cross the water. I used 6 tanks, 4 APCs and one plane.

My forces inch forward while Junior wastes no time advancing on them.

The plane lands a beautiful shot on the monster with a rocket hurting it!

But Destroyah Junior isn't bothered much by the attack and continues his stampede through the Earth forces.

Stomp, smash, crunch

The jet makes another battle pass and lands another rocket on target! If it bleeds purple blood, we can kill it!

But it'll take another three armies. D.J. finished them all off. His thirst for revenge is slaked for now as he continues his search for Mecha Bot One.

Mighty Monsters was a hoot. Both fights were very good, although I'm here to tell you, if you play using the army, go in with a good attitude because your guys will die in droves. Who cares though, right? Have the army guys ever won a fight with one of those giant monsters?

Until next time, Good Gaming!

Bonus Post

To apologize to the gaming Geekerazzi who had to suffer through my previous post about computer things, here are some pictures of the LTO tape cases which I have turned into gaming scenery.

And the one-armed warlock makes another appearance.

They will make fine LOS-blockers; a few catwalks will make for some even more interesting layouts. I'm ready to get my hands on many more of these cases.

FWIW, that was my 100th post. Not entirely sure why other bloggers like to go crazy about that sort of thing but there, it happened.

And there he goes... ranting again

Just want to get something off my chest. I'm an IT professional. I work on computers all day every day. I have since 1991. I am 40 years old and effectively an old man. Change isn't my bag. Let me reiterate, I am a PROFESSIONAL. I do not work for fucking Ziff-Davis or any other Symantec-whoring garbage magazine. My job does not entail writing 1000-word essays once a week on QuickBooks 2013 and why you need to buy it so your money won't get eCancer. I keep computers running. I help end-users find quick, effective solutions to whatever process is slowing them down in their work day. I am a professional troubleshooter who can think outside the box and manufacture a solution to any problem. I am not a Liberal Arts major who types short articles on a Macbook in Starbucks for a living.

I have read (apparently) one too many articles badmouthing Windows 8 and why it needs to be burned at the stake. The primary issue every idiot reviewer is having is the "Metro" or "Tile" interface. Let me show you what mine looks like:

Well, there's a neat little peek inside Ski's mind, huh? Unedited. Laid bare for you the audience. This screen is the replacement to the Windows Start Menu that ya'll know and love. I like the start menu too. The start menu is now a screenfull of tiles n' stuff. It was designed to be very touch-screen friendly.

Part 2 of the argument:

Windows 8 has a traditional Windows desktop. Look at all the pretty little icons. Yet another astonishing peek inside Ski's life. Just like every other version of Windows since Win95, there are icons. My computer sits at this desktop ALL THE TIME. If I happen to need something off the Tile UI, I hit the Windows key on my keyboard or Ctrl-Esc. I do the same thing to go back to the desktop. My four year-old and my nine-year grasped this concept straight away. Not entirely rocket science.

In summation, things change, especially in this industry. Its high time the narrow-minded complainers move on from their truculent, foot-stamping tantrums and get on with it. I'm a curmudgeonly old son-of-a-bitch who a) notices and b) whines when someone moves my favorite paintbrush. If I can get on board with Windows 8, anyone can.
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Rant mode off.

Any of my normal readers who have been bothered by my use of foul language during this post, I do apologize. I normally try to keep things a bit more civil around here as I'm sure you know. I promise my next post will have nothing to do with computers or lazy, unimaginative PC magazine article writers.

AN ACTUAL POST

Drum roll please...
An actual post about actual toy soldiers, painting and shooting things.

I woke up at three o'clock this morning. Couldn't get back to sleep so I gave up trying at 3:30 and have been up since. I watched Act of Valor. Damn that was cool.

With my painting area clear and back to being "mine" I got a bit a scenery work done. Thing 1 is / was a tower I built at least three years ago for 40K. My kids have employed it as toy-soldier scenery in the interim.  I'm really surprised that it stood up to their abuse as well as it did. It was bare balsa and foam-core the entire time so I gave it a coat of paint and now it is rather presentable.

With a One-Armed Warlock for scale. This'll be quite useful for Infinity.

The yellow thing in the background is an LTO tape case. We go through a lot of backup tapes at work and I have thrown out a shit-ton of these things, but Friday I had a flash of brilliance and decided they'd make great modular, stackable buildings. I snagged the 16 we had. The yellow paint is what amounts to primer.

I'll certainly post pics when I've made some actual progress on those. They will be very good for creating lanes and blocks. When I think about how many I've pitched I just want to cry. I think my tech up at the hospital may have a bunch though, I need to find out.

My tanks did not show up yesterday. *weep*  I have this whole week off from work - so hopefully they show up tomorrow and I'll have something to keep me occupied for my vacation week.

Germans for Sale

Pictures of the FoW Germans I have for auction on eBay.

If you're interested, EBAY

Update

Hopefully some tanks show up in the mail today (12 M-48 Pattons and an OH-58). I've really got the painting bug and haven't had anything to work on all week. At least my wife's art-nado is being packed up today. This is what she's put together:

Here's hoping she can sell it all since we can't eat it. :) To be honest, there isn't a lot of money invested there - just a lot of time.

Junior has been nagging me for "stuff to paint" lately and I really haven't got anything for him, although he did raid some old half-painted Eldar the other day. I did order him some Infinity miniatures for Christmas and will probably get myself some too. Yeah, I know that if you scroll down a few posts on my blog you'll see me mention not wanting to touch Malifaux because of the "different scale" issue. Ski is changeable, like a feather in the wind. I do have a bit of 40K scenery still that'll work just fine for Infinity. Plus, the larger scale and glossy cool-looking minis are rather appealing to 9-year old eyeballs. The game's rules are available for free (SHOCK AND AWE!) and look pretty OK at first blush so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

OK then, that was easy

Damn can I get some painting done when I have no distractions. The FRG Light Jager Battalion is done. Here are some "meh" pics of the results.

That's a mortar stand, 3 MILAN stands and 7 no-frills infantry stands.

Last time I painted MSH troops, I made a tool to make flocking easier since micro-armor sized infantry on a thin metal base is difficult to simply pick up.

It's just an ordinary pencil with the eraser pulled out and replaced by a rare-earth magnet (gorilla-glued in). Given the way I base my dudes with quarter-inch of ID strip on the rear of the base, there is a target to aim for with the magnet. I haven't played a game of MSH since I made the pick-up stick, but it may also save a few gun barrels later down the road too!

Ya'll have a good weekend!

Update

I haven't gotten a whole lot done lately - my wife has commandeered the painting table for some art pieces she is making for a show next weekend when she hopes to sell them off. I did get a bit of work done on some West German infantry for MSH, using the dribs and drabs I've had as leftovers. If things work out, I may have them done this weekend. I also ordered some M48s for the Germans, to go with the infantry as part of a reserves brigade. Gaming this weekend is doubtful, I hope to make up for it next weekend.

Be well and good gaming!

Are You A Proper Wargamer?

This is starting to make the rounds... I'll add my 2 cents. I saw it on Wargaming Girl's blog.

* Spent at least £500 ($800) on figures / tanks - and you get extra kudos for every £500 you've spent
At least $20,000 in my life, probably much more than that

* Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block - several times
Not on Pike Blocks, but on aerials and other bits

* Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again
20+ rule sets and I am officially retired from two - Blood Bowl and Flames of War

* Bought an army off EBay
NEVER! (Unless it is just unpainted lead)

* Sold an army on EBay
Yes, twice. 40K Space Marines and FoW US Paratroopers

* spent months painting an army - then used it in anger once
Yes, Skaven in WHFB

* tried several different periods and genres
Yes yes yes! Lots of different stuff!

* dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height
Worst ever was dumping a large tackle box containing a Lizardman army out of my car into the parking lot. Quick answer - yes, at least 3 times.

* lost a battle on the last throw of the dice
Yes, all the time. Most recent was yesterday.

* made at least one enemy for life
Yes. Risk, Blood Bowl (two), FoW.

* had a proper, stand up argument over a wargamers table
Oh hell yes. 

* thrown a dice across a room
Many - Blood Bowl and WHFB primarily. I've calmed down a lot since then though.

* rebased an army for a different rule set
Yes, plus my next big project will be converting FoW to WWII Spearhead

* inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent
Yup. Made Bruce cry in WHFB. Smote the crap out of some Skaven in WHFB. I've whipped up a few 6-0 wins in FoW. Crushed some souls in Blood Bowl. 

* suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision
Constantly. It's my signature move.

* joined a wargamers club
No. It's not a "thing" around here.

* bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted
Nope. I've been very good about that.

* been to a wargamers show
Yup. I do like them too!

* have more dice than is logical or necessary to own - and have used most of them
Probably 800-1000

* have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates
Nah. I break them out for fightin' not just showing off.

Flying Lead and Little Grey Men

The National Guard and LGM had another encounter Saturday evening - this time Dennis took command of the spacemen while I kept control of the Georgia Army National Guard. I worked up some stats for the Jeep and its recoilless rifle as well as the Aliens' robotic menace TOBOR. I also tweaked the LGM a tad - the guys with rifles are much nastier now with a better C score and their weapons also being one C score higher. Below are the actual game stats used. I really do like that Ganesha Games has a very easy to use unit generator on their website for their games.

Lieutenant  Q3 C3 Pistol, Leader
4 Guardsmen Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Radioman   Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Loader Q4 C2 Carbine
Bazookaman Q4 C3 Bazooka
Jeep         Q4 C2 Off-Road, Recoilless Rifle
Recoilless Rifle   Anti-Tank 6, Combat +2, Lethal v. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Slow Reload

Alien Leader Q3 C3 Ray Pistol, Leader
5 Troopers Q4 C2 Ray Pistol
2 Riflemen Q4 C3 Raygun
TOBOR Q3 C2 Armored +5, Ray Claws, Off-Road
Ray Claws Anti-Tank 5, Combat +3, High-Tech Ammo, Range: Long

The battlefield from my side. Two riflemen, the jeep and the Lieutenant on my right, bazooka Joe and the loader in the center and three riflemen towards the left.

The game board from the other side. TOBOR was overlooking the road and all the infantry was in the woods between the robot and the saucer.

The jeep and TOBOR line up shots at one another. Both shots were ineffectual.

The jeep pulled back to reload and the riflemen try to get into a good firing position.

Things aren't going so well. The bazooka man actually hit TOBOR twice but failed to cause any real damage. The alien rifles took out the guardsman on the billboard and the bazooka man with some fine long-range sniping.

LGM cross the hedge. I have two guardsmen on the roof of the Texaco station, prone. The jeep takes a shot at the aliens but it misses terribly. A return shot ignites the fuel in the jeep and ends its day. 

A few turns later, the guys from the Texaco station climbed back down and charged the aliens, engaging them in close combat. The back and forth shots had been indecisive and I was looking for a way to break the stalemate. My soldiers took out the three aliens but the Grey riflemen gunned them down in short order leaving me with just one soldier - he's at the very bottom of the picture towards the left. He passed his morale tests but I evacuated him on his next activation. Clearly, the alien menace was not to be taken lightly!

We had a good time with the game. It was Dennis' first gaming using the SBH system and our first time using armored vehicles so going was slow but after some time we were buzzing right through it. I do need to tone down the alien riflemen - I'm going to put their C score back down to 2, that with the +3 from their weapons makes them better than the run-of-the-mill grunts but not overpowering which is exactly what they were. I also need to pilfer an army sniper from my FoW collection to help the guard out.

Be well and good gaming!