Dragon Dragon Rampant Rampant

 Mark came by last weekend for a bit of Dragon Rampant. He was going to bring some minis of his but since we didn't have an army list together for them we reverted to my collection. The first game saw the Dwarves (me) against the Time Travelers. It was a straightforward brawl, a tune up game if you will so we could get back into the DR mindset.

The wickedness and evil of Mark on full display.

Dwarf Slayers mix it up with Roman Cavalry. The Slayers would be victorious!

To their left a unit of Dwarf Warriors continues their advance on a unit of Musketeers. Their long walk into battle against a stationary foe was enough for one entry in the Book of Grudges; the rather accurate gunfire earned the Musketeers an entry of their own.

And to the left of the Warriors, the Queen's Retinue also advanced. They also took some casualties from gunfire. You can see the Chronomage at the corner of the green building and a unit of Amazon Warriors past him in the distance.

My Slayers Wild-Charge into the Musketeers. The Chronomage had used his sorcery to improve the fighting quality of the gunners and they proved to be a shockingly dangerous opponent in close combat.

And then photography was forgotten about for a bit. The melee troops bashed the hell out of each other and they were all wiped out or fleeing. All that remained were my Rangers and the Musketeers and our spellcasters.

I gained the upper hand after Mark flubbed two activation rolls back to back and we called the game. 

For the next game we switched armies. Mark chose Undead and I selected the High Fantasy "Good Guys." No Spellcasters for either of us this time, just old fashioned might and low cunning. We played the Death Chase scenario. I was to ambush Mark's skeleton horde.

The Undead have to leg it across the table and exit units. I simply had to stop all that I could.

Woof Woof! HOTT Narnians re-purposed for DR.

Have at thee! My fondness for Orange on full display.

The hounds speed and Wild Charge got them stuck in quickly. Although they dished out a good bit of damage, they fell quickly. The rest of my force tightens it's grip. The chariots try to get by me!

A bit later, the humans are in deep kimchi. The eagles are fleeing, the cavalry is done, the warriors are nearly depleted.

But as Mark's last unit, his Archers, rush for the table edge, Warrior Elvis rallies and charges into the unnaturals. His life is spent but with great valor!

My archers chased Mark's archers until at long last I was able to wipe out the last of them. The final score of this game was 4-3, a very close affair that really came down to the wire. It was wonderfully tense affair. Now that's a great way to spend an afternoon.

Correction and a New Thing

 1. Tropical Storm Elsa is in full force here at this very moment.

That's a screen snip from moments ago. Thunder, rain, wind. You've heard of the "Wintry mix," well that's a Tropical Storm mix. Poor dog is a bundle of nerves right now.

2. I finished up (as much as I'm going to finish anyway) an addition to the urban sci-fi scenery collection. I also corrected the basing issue with the Stargrave crew.

They're from TT Combat and were easy to assemble. I left the roof of the building loose so it can be re-positioned so that the edge without a rail can face whatever direction is most appropriate. Be well!

Well this is embarassing

 Good afternoon! I knocked out the well-traveled Stargrave crew over the long weekend. Or so I thought. Here are the six new additions.

Not a bad looking group for a motley crew. Models are from Mantic, Bombshell and Reaper.

And a group shot with the four I previously picked up. See if you can spot the embarrassing detail I completely whiffed on.

Pro tip: No matter how recently you finished painting some minis, spend 20 seconds looking at them to ensure you base the new ones the same way. It should be an easy fix.

Basing be damned, I'm ready for a game! I'm sure they'll all die in the first encounter.

Some Painting!

 I had the itch (no, not that itch!) to paint some Malifaux minis, so to scratch it I picked up the supplement to the Hamelin crew that I painted up quite some time ago. I did have to refer to the older models to look at basing style and color palette / tone. I'm pleased with the results.

Eight rats, two rat catchers and two rat kings!

Alternate angle of the characters.

The sculpts have such character, particularly those rat catchers. Between the bald one who looks like he's rocking about a 67 IQ and the long-haired freak, mouth agape, holding the rat up to his face, Wyrd puts out some of the finest scuplts.

So I figured it was worth it to post the other half of the crew. Here they are.

And the whole gang, together.

We seem to have a bit of a vermin problem. I'll get a recap of the Dragon Rampant games I played on Saturday posted some time today. Be well!

Highways and Warehouses : A FedEx Story

 I picked up Stargrave a few weeks back and of course immediately set about assembling a crew. You know how it is, it doesn't matter how many sci-fi minis I already own, I must have a group specifically dedicated to Stargrave. Some of the minis were featured here in a past post. I ordered the balance of the crew from GameKastle who tend to have a very broad selection of inventory. That order shipped from California on June 8th. That's 8 June to all y'all Europeans out there. This shipment finally arrived yesterday after two uppity phone calls to FedEx customer service. Here's the travel itinerary for my small box of SIX singles. The journey starts at the bottom.

Saturday, July 3, 2021
           
1:17 PM     Savannah, GA    Delivered Left at front door. Signature Service not requested.
6:38 AM     SAVANNAH, GA    On FedEx vehicle for delivery
6:29 AM     SAVANNAH, GA    At local FedEx facility Delivery scheduled via FedEx Ground, not US Postal Service
6:29 AM     SAVANNAH, GA    At local FedEx facility
2:58 AM     JACKSONVILLE, FL    Departed FedEx location
1:58 AM     JACKSONVILLE, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Friday, July 2, 2021
           
10:15 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
2:55 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Thursday, July 1, 2021
           
9:39 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
11:28 AM         Shipment information sent to FedEx
1:18 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
           
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
           
5:14 PM     ORLANDO, FL    In transit
1:49 AM     ORLANDO, FL    In transit
           
Monday, June 28, 2021
           
11:41 AM     ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
           
Saturday, June 26, 2021
           
5:52 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Friday, June 25, 2021
           
4:35 PM     FEDEX SMARTPOST ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
2:29 PM     FEDEX SMARTPOST ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
12:27 PM     SAVANNAH, GA    In transit In transit to U.S. Postal Service
6:21 AM     SAVANNAH, GA    Departed FedEx location
6:10 AM     SAVANNAH, GA    Arrived at FedEx location
12:07 AM     KENNESAW, GA    Departed FedEx location
           
Thursday, June 24, 2021
           
8:44 PM     KENNESAW, GA    Arrived at FedEx location
9:48 AM     ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
1:33 AM     ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
           
6:10 PM     FEDEX SMARTPOST ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
5:42 PM         Shipment information sent to U.S. Postal Service
           
Friday, June 18, 2021
           
1:30 PM     ORLANDO, FL    Departed FedEx location
           
Thursday, June 17, 2021
           
8:42 PM     FEDEX SMARTPOST ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
3:52 AM     ORLANDO, FL    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
           
10:30 AM     ORLANDO, FL    In transit
           
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
           
8:09 AM     CONCORD, NC    Departed FedEx location
           
Monday, June 14, 2021
           
4:30 PM     CONCORD, NC    Arrived at FedEx location
2:07 PM     CONCORD, NC    In transit
1:09 AM     CHARLOTTE, NC    Departed FedEx location
           
Saturday, June 12, 2021
           
6:46 AM     CHARLOTTE, NC    Shipment exception Barcode label unreadable and replaced
6:46 AM     CHARLOTTE, NC    Arrived at FedEx location
           
Friday, June 11, 2021
           
4:23 PM     CHARLOTTE, NC    Arrived at FedEx location
7:13 AM     DANDRIDGE, TN    In transit
           
Thursday, June 10, 2021
           
6:12 PM     WARNER, OK    In transit
4:55 AM     MILAN, NM    In transit
           
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
           
3:43 PM     BAKERSFIELD, CA    In transit
3:40 AM     SAN JOSE, CA    Left FedEx origin facility
           
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
           
6:52 PM     SAN JOSE, CA    Arrived at FedEx location

My favorite bit is that on June 25th, the package made it to Savannah and was then re-routed to Orlando! My uppity phone call on Friday resulted in FedEx agreeing to overnight the package to me for Saturday delivery which did occur. Here's the comically long website tracking.

 It goes without saying that I'm delighted to have finally taken possession of the delivery and all were assembled in short order last evening while watching Machete. 

They'll be painted up soon enough. I've got some Malifaux guys in the queue right now.  Happy Independence Day, co-Americans!

Quick Infinity Post

 Ziggy and I put Infinity on the table Saturday evening. I went with a thick jungle theme this game instead of the more typical urban battle zone. For what was a very one-sided slaughter, it was at least a good looking game! My Ariadna French force completely whipped the Pan Oceana knights, setting things right in the world. No real AAR, but a few pics of the proceedings.

Recent Goings On

 Haven't posted in a bit. Just doing a bit of a recap of the last couple weeks. Mark, Ziggy and I got together for games of Swordpoint (Italian Wars-flavored armies) and Rank and File Napoleonics on Memorial Day weekend. Both games were a lot of fun - certainly different fare for us given our sci-fi and moderns tendencies.

Armies line up preparing for battle

A couple of turns into the proceedings

An amusing situation developed on my right flank. I had sent light cav around. Mark set up some gunners to block them but expected them to be bowled right over. He had a large group of halberdiers right behind the gunners, set to crush my cav after the gunners fall. Turns out the gunners were more than capable of of handling the light cavalry and my poor dice rolls all by themselves. The Halberdiers ended up being in a terrible position for the rest of the battle and this really hampered Mark's chances.

Swordsmen and spearmen clash in the center. The two units were very well matched and for a smaller engagement on the table, was quite enjoyable to watch play out.

My second unit of cavalry charged into some greatswords while my pikemen and Mark's cavlary duked it out in the center. The pikemen went haywire and absolutely thrashed the cavalry!

In the end, I won with my "Ventian" army, but the "Spanish" performed well and I'm excited to see these two groups get back at it again. I was happy with the Swordpoint rules. Not a bad addition to the collection at all.

Ziggy arrived part-way through the first game. We left the terrain exactly where it was for game 2 since it was also a 20mm affair, this time Naps, Prussians and French. Ziggy commanded the Prussians while Mark and I split the French. Mark was going to have to leave a bit early so it just made sense.

The armies arrayed for battle.

I was hoping to lay waste to the Jagers  on the left flank, but the skirmishers turned heel and fled behind the house!

And there they go. The French cavalry has just smashed into the Prussian line!

And then an almighty scrum develops!

My horses had to back off, leaving the French with just one infantry unit at the line! Not looking good for us.

But the Chasseurs rally and spur their mounts forward one more time! The infantry has held up amazingly well, frustrating their Prussian opponents tremendously. In the foreground you can see that the godforsaken Jagers are about to sack a second cannon. - they'd bagged another earlier.

The battle at the line continues

The, painfully for Ziggy, morale tests start to fail. Units begin falling back and French momentum increases. It's a snow-ball effect and in the blink of an eye, it's over. 

A tremendous game with a huge swing half-way through. Ziggy was running us ragged in the early turns. Mid-way through, Mark left and all of a sudden the luck changed. My dice woke up and Zig's cooled off. R&F always delivers a fun game with simple mechanics. We did make one house-rule change from the last game Mark and I played though. We reduced the morale effect that casualties have upon units. Instead of a -1 modifier for each stand lost, we changed in to -1 for every TWO stands lost. Units stick around longer and there is more fighting and less running away. It was a solid improvement. The skirmishers were a fun addition and the leader models got their first outing. A wonderful day's gaming for sure. Thanks both of you, Zig and Mark!

So, what else has been gong on? Some painting, so starters. I picked up some interesting models to start a Stargrave crew and painted them up last weekend.

The Bat-Guy and reporter are Warlord minis from the Judge Dredd line. The other two are Reaper Bones. Much of the appeal of games like Stargrave/Frostgrave is finding and painting up an interesting selection of figures. I've got a handful more incoming from Gamekastle and will leverage some of the Infinity collection for others.

I also scratch-built a 15mm house just because I felt like it. I have some similar buildings in the collection. 

With a few 15mm minis for scale. Simple, I know, but it scratched the itch.

David and I had a mini games-day for some of his Boy Scout troop yesterday. We played Rink Racers, King of Tokyo and X-Wing. Eight hours of goofing off and rolling rice - not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

We kept X-Wing very simple and focused on the basic basics - moving and shooting. It was a great time.

Some Infinity Painting

We did manage to get some games played on Sunday over the weekend. I'll post an AAR some time this week. Yesterday I knocked out some Infinity models that had been in the queue a few weeks. They were a real piece of work to assemble, but once I settled on a painting strategy, a lot of fun to finish up.

I guess it's pretty obvious that they're close-combat specialists. This herd and the herder in red will make a nice inexpensive (points-wise) addition to my Combined forces. 

The action poses are pretty incredible and the lengthy and difficult build should be rather apparent. I did put 25mm washers under their bases to lower their center of gravity figuring anything that shape would need all the help it can get.