Skirmish 2023 Pictures and Recap

 The inaugural Skirmish game con in Jacksonville, Florida has come and gone. I enjoyed it and look forward to returning in a year. I got in a handful of games and only had one unpleasant experience.

Some Wings of Glory to start the weekend. I resolved, years ago, to always take this game to cons; it is easy to set up and you can always find an opponent.

Some sweet classic Battletech.

"Above the Clouds" WWII aerial fighting. I was on the American side who handily sorted out their Japanese opponents. 

My flight

He got me! Just a nice shot. The gimbal mounts made for neat poses.

The French / Indian Canoe race. A lot of fun. The French trappers must ROW ROW ROW their boats laden with pelts to get away from the Indians.

The river. Any French canoe making it off the end would result in a French trapper victory.

I made the bold decision to spin it sideways with one of my two boats to give the Indians a bit of an obstacle. 

4-Siders represent tipped over boats and crews. The number indicates how many turns it would take before righting and re-boarding would occur.

Lots of cute scenery.

This big ol' crybaby named Steve blew a gasket when I was jinxing his dice rolls. You'd have thought I had just stolen his best gal. Apparently some guys really believe their opponents' voices can control dice results. He was also accused and found guilty of power gaming and rules-lawyering during an obviously silly casual game. 

But at the end of the night, Mark managed to get a canoe off the end securing a win for the French!

Saturday morning I woke up hungover as all get out and hosted a game of Dragon Rampant.

Only had three players but they all enjoyed it and the result was a victory for the good guys, even though Good Ash was run off in shame and Bad Ash was a complete killing machine.

Next up was Jim's Ronin game. Peasants and Bandits vs some priests.

Twas a very pretty table.

My rabble. I was on the side of "peasants and bandits."

Our enemy. The guys in yellow, not the pig!

Get 'em! BANZAI!

Nearly Naked Niko goes mano y mano with one of the better-trained priests.

In the end, it was a win for the rabble as the priests were overwhelmed. A great game with great players and game master.

Played some more WoG.

Saturday night Battletech Alpha Strike! Six player mayhem. This was a really good game to end the con with - low complexity, lots of loud boisterous characters and giant killy things. 

Lining up some shots

The goal was to dominate objectives (the orange spots) at the end of turn 6. Each objective had sleeping Planetary Defense Force units nearby.

My cross-table opponent had a very big stompy that could unleash an obscene amount of firepower. I was fortunate that my two mediums opposing it were a close match for it and my dice were interested in winning for a change.

But at the end of six, the Liao unit controlled the objective. Curses!

But it wasn't all bad news. I had some elementals capture the next objective over, that's one for the good guys!

The other two objectives were contested, so the result was a draw on VPs. Either way, a very enjoyable fight and hard-fought one.

Skirmish 2024 is on my to-do list!

Off to the Game Con

 Well, I'm heading out in an hour or so... going down to Skirmish Game Con in Jacksonville. https://skirmishgamecon.com/ Skirmish is the successor to Rapier, the previous gaming convention down there. I haven't been down there in a few years - in 2020 there was a disaster at work and I had to bail at the last moment. 2021 featured the COVID bit and the con was pretty well disbanded at that point. Jacksonville Garrison worked on re-creating it as Skirmish through 2021 and 2022 and, well, here we are!

It's sponsored and organized by the same group, re-branded and in a different hotel. Switching hotels is unfortunate since I really liked the old one. Regardless, it should be a fun weekend of gaming. I'm hosting my Dragon Rampant "Army of Dimness" game on Saturday morning which Ziggy and I playtested a few weeks back.

  Pics when I return!

A few blog posts from Rapier in the last few years:

http://skisgames.blogspot.com/2017/02/rapier-con-2017.html

http://skisgames.blogspot.com/2018/02/rapier-2018.html

http://skisgames.blogspot.com/2019/02/rapiercon-2019-friday.html

http://skisgames.blogspot.com/2019/02/rapiercon-2019-saturday-2-star-fleet.html

Super High Tech Jet Fighters

 I finished up another batch of commission painting today. These are some 1/300 aircraft Wayne picked up for Check Your 6. I really enjoy painting 6mm stuff so of course I was happy about this opportunity. Planes are a mix of types for the Indo-Pakistani wars in 1965 and 1971.

Mystere IVAs, Hunters and Gnats

MiG-21s, F-86es and F-104s

I look forward to seeing these on the gaming table. Should be a fun group to play with.

Stargrave Session #3

 Our whole group of Stargrave players got together yesterday for our February game. Since there were six of us and Stargrave can get really slow with a lot of players, I set up two 3 x 3 tables; players were randomly assigned to one table or the other. The two scenarios that were set up were Skymine and Salvage Crew. Ziggy, Wayne and Mike ended up on the Skymine table  Being engrossed in the game I was playing, I only got one picture of that setup. 

From what I understand, Zig had a really good game and Mike did well. Wayne stunk it up, quite a reverse from last time when he completely dominated.

David, Mark and I were on the Salvage Crew table, gathering loot that had been scattered in a swamp from a downed spaceship. The spaceship provided a focal point for the encounter.

That's David's heavily-revamped crew off to the left. He suffered a lot of casualties in the previous game and essentially blew it up and started over. Mark's Monkey crew is in the upper right corner; this was his first game. My group is at the bottom. I replaced a freebie Recruit with a 100 Credit Pathfinder during the break. I gave the +1 Shoot Carbine I had picked up to the Pathfinder. 

Things got really weird for David early. Wandering monsters showed up on turns 1 and 2, both in the same place, posing a real threat to David's crew right out of the gates. 

David's sniper worked on grabbing a Data Loot from the island in the stream while my Runner, Scoop, snagged a Physical Loot from under the Monkey's noses. My newly-hired Pathfinder Rufus McCoy was shot to ribbons by the Monkeys on the hill. 100 credits. Three turns. Kind of what I expected to be honest.

Scoop starts the slow Physical Loot slog back to the corner, through difficult terrain. LEMME HEAR IT FOR 1/4 SPEED! Of course a Ryakan chooses that moment to arrive in my safe corner, blocking my exit. X AE A-12 intercedes to protect the Runner. The Ryakan chomps down on the HERObot to the tune of 10 damage. Judas Priest! What utter bullshit.

By turn 5 things were just running out the drain quickly. David had been cut off from much of the battlefield by a combination of trees, smoke and a Wall of Force Mark's Captain had thrown up to slow the monsters down. The Green snakey monster had spit acid at David's First Mate earlier and caused a tremendous amount of damage which seemed to leave an impression on David. Of course the Hydra simply burrowed under the Force Wall. The defense laser on the space ship pounded both mine and Mark's crews foolish enough to approach. My Codebreaker Katie Kaboom (the pink one in the middle) was knocked out for the third game in a row! Medic Beverly Kills picked up a Physical Loot and was hoofing it towards the corner.Mark took the opportunity to use Lift to movie some of his monkey troops to intercept the getaway. I was not pleased. At the far side of the map you can see that two more monsters have arrived - another Ryakan moving towards David's crew and a big gray boar ready to block Mark's monkeys from escaping with Data Loot. 

By turn 7 I was in full retreat, trying to get away with loot and few casualties.

The boar and hyrda stalk data-carrying-monkey prey. One monkey has already been poisoned by the hydra.

As David said, "I roasted the lobster," as he makes the best out of a bad situation, snagging XP and credits anywhere he can. That thing was a "Porigota" which carry a 30 credit bounty.

Run Monkey, Run!

Fun game, that. Lots of action and craziness. The mix of special powers that Mark and David had going on made for a lot of unpredictability. I only ended up with one injury on Katie Kaboom who will start the next game at 1/2 Health. My First Mate gained a level and I located 275 credits worth of loot. Not a bad haul. I need to make a decision about keeping Scoop, the Runner. On one hand, he's free and fast, ideal for putting into risky spots. On the other hand, another Pathfinder gives be someone equally fast who's much better equipped. At 100 credits though, I'd be hesitant to put him into risky situations which currently don't faze a zero-credit Runner. Decisions...

Looking forward to the next encounter in March!

The Week's Painting

 I finished up another set of commission work for Wayne, these accompany the alien monstrosities from the previous post. This group is a bit less weird, that's for sure!

They're out of the same boxed game as the others, something called Star Saga. Great 28mm sci fi models that will feel at home in nearly any sci fi game. Painting was done with a combination of pale sand basecoat and AP Speedpaint "Sand Golem" as the primary uniform color. I put the camo pattern down before the speedpaint since it's more or less transparent. Details and other equipment were all picked out after the base colors are is common. The mutants' colors are a combination of the soldiers here and the aberrations painted last week.

We're getting our third game of Stargrave today. Should be weird.

Weekend Update

 Ziggy and I got in that Dragon Rampant scenario playtest yesterday evening. No thorough AAR, but a couple of pics.

The scenario is inspired directly by the great movie Army of Darkness. Undead "Deadites" led by Naughty Ash fighting it out with the living, led by Goody Two-Shoes. The scenario played well and I know exactly what terrain to pack with me in a few weeks. Goody Two-Shoes' car is obviously a scratch conversion of a toy car with a handmade windmill blade  for carving up Deadites. I spent a few hours thinking about how to do it and make it look interesting and plenty more time getting the blade support to stay put! I'm happy with the result which is certainly evocative of Ash's car in the final battle. 

I finished up the first batch of commission work for Wayne this morning. Some pics.

They're out of a board game called Star Saga. Primary color is lavender with Army Painter "Slaughter Red" speed paint over it. The almost raspberry color is nice but still gives off a strong "not to be taken lightly" vibe.

Recent Crafting

 Hi all. It's been a slow couple of weeks on the gaming front. Last weekend I got a lot of tabletop terrain put together. We had a contractor in the house working on flooring and I was essentially trapped at home with him for tow days. It was productive for making gaming things for sure!

First up was some dead swamp trees. They fit in with an undead theme and I made them specifically for a Dragon Rampant game I plan to run early next month at the new game con in Jacksonville, Skirmish. I'm slotted to run my game Saturday morning (March 4th). Should be a hoot! It's a 15mm "Army of Darkness" themed game with Deadites vs the Living. 

Next out of the gates were a couple of swampy terrain bits. I had an 8" x 8" piece of thin plywood that was easily terraformed. 

On Sunday morning I went rooting through the bits collection and slapped together an edifice for 28mm sci-fi gaming. A block of 2x4, balsa and bits, some glue, paint and patience...

Good enough for blocking LOS and giving someone an elevation advantage for sure. 

Wayne gave me a handful of 28mm sci fi minis to paint up as commissions - I'll post pics as they make their way through the queue. He's also got a bunch of 1/300 jets on the way too. I won't have to buy my own models to paint for a while!

Zig and I are going to playtest the Dragon Rampant scenario tomorrow. I'll post some pics of it. Be well!

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.