tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24341531052764059832024-03-13T21:59:12.122-07:00Two Tharks One CupBlack Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-67929793462016876932015-09-19T00:21:00.001-07:002015-09-19T01:09:39.895-07:00The Battle of Three ArmiesI met up with some friends tonight to try out the newly released edition of Kings of War. It was also the first outing for my new Dwarf army. I'd been slaving away for hours on Ebay to put the army together and was eager to see how they performed.
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My Dwarven 1000 pt army was joined by an equally sized Dwarven army brought by another local gamer. Together we stood against a Liz-orc force (Lizardman figures using the Orc & Goblin lists).
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We rolled the Loot scenario for the game. 3 markers were placed along the midline of the board and who ever made it off with the most of them won the game. The number of units lost didn't matter in winning.
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The battle lines are drawn, lizards on the left, dwarves on the right, with my dwarves on the near side of the table.
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One flank of my forces: Ironclad Horde, Cannon, Berserker regiment, and Halfling Ranger troop. Off to the left of the picture are my Ironguard Regiment, another Cannon strategically placed on a hill, and another Halfling Ranger troop.
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My Halfling Rangers have the Vanguard special rule which allows them to make a double move before the game began. So one unit quickly positioned themselves on a big hill in difficult ground with a commanding view of the whole left flank.
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The other Rangers quickly advanced within 1" of an objective marker, in hopes we'd go 1st and grab the objective.
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Unfortunately, the Lizards got the 1st move, and a mounted hero grabbed the loot marker on his way to charging the Rangers.
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Surprisingly, the Rangers held out for a few turns while the rest of the Dwarves slowly rushed forward.
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But the Lizard hero handed the loot to the Saurus Horde behind them & they quickly turned tail and run.
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My Rangers on the hill soften up the advancing lizards...
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while my Berserkers work themselves up for charge.
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The 1st battle on my side of the board found my Ironclad Horde charged by regiments of Salamanders (Fight Wagons) and Kroxigors (Trolls).
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Like the legendary Dwarves at the Hot Porridge Gates, they threw back their attackers and prepared to give as good as they got.
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On the other side of the board, my partner's Brock Riders completely destroyed the Lizard cavalry (Gore Riders) in the 1st round of combat, much to the surprise of the Lizard commander.
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Unfortunately, this opened their flank up to a charge by both a Giant and a dinosaur-mounted bolt thrower. The Brock Riders took 15 hits and barely held on by 1 point.
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A Dwarven Greater Earth Elemental shambled into the fray, and a general scrum of heavy hitters surged back and forth for the rest of the game, all around one of the loot markers.
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Back on my side of the board, all my dwarf infantry advanced into contact. Berserkers vs Saurus warriors (Orc Ax), Ironclads vs Fight Wagons again, and my Ironguard veterans caught the Kroxigors in the flank.
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The Halfling Rangers continue to target the Skink (Goblin) archers in the back field as they cheer the Berserkers on.
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The melees surge back and forth for a short time. But weight of the Beserkers' and Horde's attacks quickly make short work of their opponents.
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After running over the Saurus warriors, the Berserkers caught a unit of Skink archers in the flank. There was nothing left of the archers after the Berserkers rolled 50 dice in attacks.
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The Ironguard and Kroxigor were more evenly matched, both with good armor, so went at it hammer and claw for a bit longer. But victory was always assured for the steely Dwarven veterans, and they wiped the green gore off their boots before marching on.
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During all this time, the 4 war engines were pounding away at the Saurus Horde that had the loot, to try to slow it down so the infantry could catch up to it.
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Then suddenly, a Kroixgor hero picked up a 2nd loot maker. The hero made a juicier target, so the order was quickly given to switch targets and cut the hero down before he escaped.
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It became a desperate race between the plodding Dwarves and the slithering Lizards. The units with the loot ran for the back field, while all the other Lizards threw themselves at the Dwarven onslaught to slow them down.
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The Lizard Horde made it off the board with the loot without too much trouble. But the artillery was able to Waver the Kroxigor hero enough times that my partner's Ironclad regiment almost caught up with him.
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The Ironclad unit was about 2" too far away to charge the hero with the loot. The Dwarves probably would have won that melee & at least tied the game. But at the last minute we remembered the unit's Throwing Mastiff.
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With a grunt and a yelp, the canine missile arced through the air, landing square on the hero, savaging him mercilessly. But the hero missed being Wavered by 1 point and was able to make it off the board, with this tail still in the mastiff's jaws, thus ending the game.
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The 3rd loot marker was still being contested on the right flank as the Battle of the Titans raged on. The heavily wounded Giant was holding his own against the Greater Earth Elemental.
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But the Dino-bolt thrower, Lizard cavalry, Dwarven Brock Riders, and an Ironclad crossbow unit littered the battlefield around them.
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The Lizards achieved the objective by getting the loot off the table, but they only had a banner bearer and the wounded Giant left on the board.
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My only loss was the plucky Halfling Rangers who held off the Lizard hero on a Slasher beast. My partner lost the Brock Riders and a crossbow troop.
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So I'm sure you agree that the real winners were the Dwarves, causing 4 times as many points in casualties as they took.
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The game ran 8 turns and was great fun. The new edition changes made some subtle but significant differences.
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For example, there's no shooting penalty for long range any more. This means the Dwarven crossbow limitation of move or shoot isn't as much of an issue now. If well positioned, they can pretty much sit in 1 place and continue to fire all game. And with the armies starting 24" away, there's usually targets within the 1st move of the game.
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Adding Thunderous Charge (+1 damage) to the cavalry makes the units act like real cavalry. & having Thunderous Charge invalidated when charging through difficult terrain, or when you took damage last turn, makes it even more so.
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2 gamers stopped by and watched our game for a while. Both had lots of questions, both had been long time WHFB players, and both were getting ready to try KoW out as a replacement. I also heard KoW is getting some regular play at another local store too. So the new edition is very well timed.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-88520996444926995532015-03-17T14:02:00.000-07:002015-03-17T14:09:49.401-07:00Conquest Sac 2015: ConanI attended our local convention over the weekend, and both ran and played in some fun games.
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<b>CONAN</b><br>
I ran a print & play version of the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/conan">Conan boardgame</a> from the very successful Kickstarter. Both games went very well. 2 people showed up for each game, & they each played 2 heroes.
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Conan is similar to Fantasy Flight Games' Descent dungeon crawl, in that it uses an active GM (or Overlord) who runs the heroes' opponents, and tries to win the game themselves. A number of interesting mechanics, like an minion activation track, limits the actions of the Overlord to prevent them from quickly swamping the heroes with too many minions.
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The scenario played was the classic "rescue the princess from the [insert evil-doers here] before she's sacrificed." This time the evil-doers were the Picts from the Hyborian world. The heroes were supposed to enter a Pict village, search the huts for the princess, & kill & bring back the head of the Shaman leader, all before a large Pict hunting party returns and they'd be overwhelmed (8 turns).
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<br><i>Board layout as the Heroes advance into the village</i><br>
<br>For the 1st game, I misread the Overlord set up, and didn't give myself enough activation points, reducing my available minion options by about 30%. So the heroes ended up winning relatively quickly. They pretty much wiped out anything that moved, including both the Giant Snake and the Shaman, by the end of turn 4.
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<br><i>Snake Treats</i><br>
<br>I got the number of activation points correct in the 2nd game, making for a definite nail biter. The players came up with the plan to allow lots of minions to gang up on Conan. Then the magic user hero cast a fireball on Conan's location as a way to kill off most of Conan's attackers, knowing that Conan would be able to survive. Unfortunately, after doing this twice, Conan was seriously depleted. And he was made into a quick lunch for the Giant Snake once it showed up.
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<br><i>Setting up Operation Fireball</i><br>
<br>The heroes finally found the princess they were trying to rescue and were trying to play a retreat from the village. But the evil magic user quickly fireballed the rescue party, killing the princess, & thereby preventing the heroes from completing their main objective.<br>
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<br><i>The Mage Hero brings down friendly fire, killing almost all the minions, but wounding Conan</i><br>
<br>Both sets of players said they really enjoyed the game & unique mechanics & would be looking into it once it was released. For myself, I greatly enjoyed it to. It's always fun to run a game as a GM, and see how the scenario you've designed turns out. But being given the ability as the Overlord to direct the heroes' opponents, and getting to roll dice yourself, makes it all the more fun.
Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-76552496541956510232015-02-03T14:28:00.001-08:002015-02-03T14:54:10.753-08:00Happy Birthday to MeHaving reached the 50th birthday milestone, I decided to throw a big party. So I hosted a <a href="http://www.manticgames.com/games/kings-of-war.html">Kings of War</a> 500 pt tournament for my friends at a local game store.
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Here's most of the participants
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I also put together party gift bags for the attendees. It contained custom dice to ensure that I'd win all the games, a tape measure, a fresh-off the laser cutter exclusive
<a href="http://www.skullncrown.com/store/">Wooden Wars</a> English Civil War Pikeman, all together in the classic dice bag.
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Here is one of the Pikemen painted by the Creator & Lasenator himself, Tom Foss.
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In preparation for the party, I finished off a few projects: 2 GW trees, and a laser cut Christmas decoration from Cost Plus.
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I also wanted to come up with a something new to run in the since I'd only played Kings of War with my Vik-orcs (Vikings figures using the Orc army list). So I quickly painted up an all Werewolf force from the KoW Undead list.
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I had been collecting werewolves for a while to go with my fantasy Viking army. They would have been stand-ins for Trolls in the GW Beastman list.
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For KoW, I ran 3 units of 3 werewolf figures each (the smaller werewolves were bunched together to represent 3 full sized werewolves).
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Unfortunately, as nasty as they werewolves are, units of 3 figures still have a relatively low morale. So while they could run circles around the enemy & tear them up pretty well, once the enemy got in contact & started to do damage, the werewolves broke surprisingly fast.
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The tournament was a big success. There were 14 players, from ages 10 to 62, & all had a great time. We had 6 different tables running at any one time, and the small army size meant we were able to get about 4 games in each during the 5 hours allotted. A couple of people who hadn't played the game before are now converts & want to play in our upcoming KoW campaign. & it seems like the game was so balanced, there was no definitive winner, but a 4-way tie with 3 wins each. & everyone one at least one game.
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The party finished off with a huge spread of ribs, chicken & briquette from a local BBQ place, & my wife made the gaming classic treat, <a href="http://www.dorkstock.com/IgorBars.html">Igor Bars</a>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ugi2S-nCZNA/VNFB9b_mBrI/AAAAAAAABeM/VLGR5sO3HCY/s1600/2015-01-31_17-45-46_361.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ugi2S-nCZNA/VNFB9b_mBrI/AAAAAAAABeM/VLGR5sO3HCY/s320/2015-01-31_17-45-46_361.jpg" /></a></div>
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It consisted of a layer of pan chocolate chip cookies, caramel with peanuts, rice crispy treats, & brownies, topped with melted chocolate, M&Ms & Reese's peanut butter cups. Insulin shots were available at an extra $20 charge.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-31302474627021637312015-01-19T16:07:00.000-08:002015-02-03T14:53:27.258-08:00Kings of War Nona-DecimationWe played another Kings of War game at our regular Friday night meeting. This time I played my Vik-orks (or Vik-dorks as one friend calls them) against LeadFool's Kingdom of Men army, at 1000 pts each.
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I had: 1 Ax Horde, 2 Morax Regiments, 1 Gore Rider Regiment, 1 Krudger hero & 2 Flaggers
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LeadFool had: 1 Spear Phalanx Horde, 1 Pole Arm Horde, 1 Penitent Horde, 1 Cannon, 1 Hero with Ensorcelled Armor, 1 Army Standard Bearer with a Breath Weapon magic item, & 1 other Hero or Standard Bearer
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The humans deployed their foot bunched up together in 1 line, with their cannon on my right flank & the characters throughout the line.
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Here is the view from my Gore Riders on the right flank.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VUx7TnOlA_s/VL2apx93FNI/AAAAAAAABaw/OGFHw10Wob0/s1600/2015-01-16_19-13-43_308.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VUx7TnOlA_s/VL2apx93FNI/AAAAAAAABaw/OGFHw10Wob0/s320/2015-01-16_19-13-43_308.jpg" /></a>
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And from my Ax Horde line<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eckyJRSkfZs/VL2ap0U4W-I/AAAAAAAABao/MaqitAh50Fc/s1600/2015-01-16_19-14-54_176.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eckyJRSkfZs/VL2ap0U4W-I/AAAAAAAABao/MaqitAh50Fc/s320/2015-01-16_19-14-54_176.jpg" /></a>
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On my left, the human general (lead)foolishly rushed forward & found out what 20 dice of Moraxes can do. The general was dead by the 2nd turn.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x_eXkWf7esw/VL2aqAlqAHI/AAAAAAAABas/7v_jIkn5-18/s1600/2015-01-16_19-27-40_516.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x_eXkWf7esw/VL2aqAlqAHI/AAAAAAAABas/7v_jIkn5-18/s320/2015-01-16_19-27-40_516.jpg" /></a>
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On the right, a big melee developed between my Gore Riders, & their mounted Flagger vs Penitent Mob & their hero.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wMqV5LE6al8/VL2aqsIn88I/AAAAAAAABa4/ywjeRHYntVg/s1600/2015-01-16_19-32-46_444.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wMqV5LE6al8/VL2aqsIn88I/AAAAAAAABa4/ywjeRHYntVg/s320/2015-01-16_19-32-46_444.jpg" /></a>
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Unfortunately, the humans were the attackers & the Gore Riders got mauled quite significantly, but didn't break.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rS4hoXUN8Z4/VL2arBZLdWI/AAAAAAAABa8/cnfIaZ-dxIM/s1600/2015-01-16_19-41-04_413.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rS4hoXUN8Z4/VL2arBZLdWI/AAAAAAAABa8/cnfIaZ-dxIM/s320/2015-01-16_19-41-04_413.jpg" /></a>
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With the Moraxes extended on the left flank, the evil Human Spear Phalanx Horde skulked forward, and my unit got to find out what 30 dice of Spear could do. They immediately flew off to Valhalla.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T_7lS_plpv8/VL2ayyPmuMI/AAAAAAAABdA/EVDhb2IPA-I/s1600/2015-01-16_19-32-51_823.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T_7lS_plpv8/VL2ayyPmuMI/AAAAAAAABdA/EVDhb2IPA-I/s320/2015-01-16_19-32-51_823.jpg" /></a>
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Now that my Gore Riders had distracted the Penitent Mob, my Morax unit on the right flank were able to charge the crazies from behind, rolling 60 dice of hits. The Penitent Mob disappeared, regretting they didn't get to go to Valhalla too.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1kLLRzq1EtI/VL2arQ-nZAI/AAAAAAAABbA/PA3AewXqBCE/s1600/2015-01-16_19-42-47_725.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1kLLRzq1EtI/VL2arQ-nZAI/AAAAAAAABbA/PA3AewXqBCE/s320/2015-01-16_19-42-47_725.jpg" /></a>
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Up until this point, my small archer units that had been screening the Ax Horde, were holding up them up because they kept getting Wavered & couldn't move out of the way. Finally, the Horde had had enough & just ran though them.
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This unfortunately put them in range of both the Spear Phalanx & Pole Arm Hordes, which both charged them. Luckily the Humans trembled before my MIGHTY HORDE and caused minimal damage.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G3DKS03ZSvY/VL2ar24-skI/AAAAAAAABbI/rdL3ZfvfpCI/s1600/2015-01-16_19-57-17_398.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G3DKS03ZSvY/VL2ar24-skI/AAAAAAAABbI/rdL3ZfvfpCI/s320/2015-01-16_19-57-17_398.jpg" /></a>
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My Morax horde on the right flank had been able to reposition & everyone, including the annoying archers, charged into the fray. 40 Morax dice on the flank took out the Pole Axe Horde. But the Ax Horde wasn't quite as Mighty as 1st thought, and did only moderate damage to the Spears. <br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tWqEOJCqU1M/VL2astuJUeI/AAAAAAAABbQ/3G5Hj_JaFsI/s1600/2015-01-16_20-15-03_841.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tWqEOJCqU1M/VL2astuJUeI/AAAAAAAABbQ/3G5Hj_JaFsI/s320/2015-01-16_20-15-03_841.jpg" /></a>
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Those evil Spears returned the favor to the Ax Horde & took them out in the next combat. & the Cannon finally found its range, & was able to Grapeshot my remaining Morax unit off to Valhalla too.
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So to review the current forces at the end of turn 4:
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Vikorks: 1 Krudger Hero, 2 small archer units (1 damaged), 2 Flagger banner bearers, 1 severely damaged Gore Riders unit
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Tricksy Humans: 1 damaged Spear Phalanx Horde, 1 Cannon, 1 Hero, 1 Banner Bearer with <i>Nasty Breath Weapon</i>.
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Here are most of the remaining troops<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0w6RDuLqlM8/VL2as7zsBUI/AAAAAAAABbU/XLWl4KfneB0/s1600/2015-01-16_20-28-26_194.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0w6RDuLqlM8/VL2as7zsBUI/AAAAAAAABbU/XLWl4KfneB0/s320/2015-01-16_20-28-26_194.jpg" /></a>
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Of course my forces charge in unabated. Unfortunately, LeadFool thought units of 5 or smaller figures didn't multiply flank or rear attacks, so wasn't expecting 15 attacks from my archers. The combine attacks finished the Spear off.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ksTCBgrXqzU/VL2atBj_2nI/AAAAAAAABbY/-uHhquansP0/s1600/2015-01-16_20-30-27_695.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ksTCBgrXqzU/VL2atBj_2nI/AAAAAAAABbY/-uHhquansP0/s320/2015-01-16_20-30-27_695.jpg" /></a>
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Finally the Gore Riders, limping along, found a juicy target, and got avenge their comrades deaths & rolled 48 dice against the evil Cannon crew.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AerDndqsr6A/VL2atS10EjI/AAAAAAAABbc/ei5Qzaf426k/s1600/2015-01-16_20-30-36_327.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AerDndqsr6A/VL2atS10EjI/AAAAAAAABbc/ei5Qzaf426k/s320/2015-01-16_20-30-36_327.jpg" /></a>
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And it was now that the Standard Bearer with the <i>Nasty Breath Weapon</i> earned his keep. Over the last few turns, he ran back & forth across the field to take out the poor Gore Riders & both of the archer units.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AhDxsqqvqjc/VL2at9eEXRI/AAAAAAAABbk/v9jbx8Vj2Cg/s1600/2015-01-16_20-56-52_374.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AhDxsqqvqjc/VL2at9eEXRI/AAAAAAAABbk/v9jbx8Vj2Cg/s320/2015-01-16_20-56-52_374.jpg" /></a>
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So this was how it stood at the end of turn 7. We both only had 2 characters left. 150 pts Vikorks vs 165 pts Humans. The 15 point difference was merely the cost of the horses to mount the Humans.
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My characters were a complete disappointment, due to both me forgetting their Inspiring rule for the whole game (allowing them to reroll break tests), and all 3 of them together only causing 2 pts of damage the whole game. I think I rolled a 1,1 or 1,2 at least 4 times during the game for either Flagger hit rolls, or break tests for the enemy.
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I think the MVP of the game was LeadFool's Banner Bearer with the <b><i>NASTY BREATH WEAPON</i></b>. The 70 point character took out more than 3 times its points. I'll definitely watch for Human characters whistling & aimlessly roaming the battlefield next time.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-79441213860921675522015-01-17T12:04:00.002-08:002015-02-03T14:52:50.666-08:00Major Wargaming AccomplishmentI've been working on a fantasy Viking army for probably over 10 years. My original intention was to use them as a Beastman army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. But recently my gaming group has latched on to <a href="http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war.html">Kings of War</a> by Mantic Games, which we believe to be a much better army scale fantasy game (at least in terms of the rules). So now I'm running them as the Kings of War Orc list.
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I am now regularly playing with my Vikings for the 1st time. & I was getting a bit embarrassed by the painted figures not being completely based. So over the holiday break, I made a major push to base about 120 figures that were painted, & finish the movement trays I'd bought.
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Here, in all its glory, is my fully based & trayed Viking army.
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PaKwl0ghiQU/VLq5VihGPTI/AAAAAAAABZ4/gifcPj9L5-4/s1600/2015-01-16_21-19-59_573.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PaKwl0ghiQU/VLq5VihGPTI/AAAAAAAABZ4/gifcPj9L5-4/s320/2015-01-16_21-19-59_573.jpg" /></a>
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Left: Kings of War Orc Ax Krudgiment (Old Glory Dark Age Rus)<br>
Right: Goblin Mawbeast Regiment (variety of GW & West Wind wolves)<br>
Rear: Orc Gore Riders Regiment (West Wind Dwarf Wars Highland Dwarves on Goats)<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WFGms_A7Z-U/VLq5Vb2MIiI/AAAAAAAABZw/bJNRGStN5vk/s1600/2015-01-16_21-20-22_957.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WFGms_A7Z-U/VLq5Vb2MIiI/AAAAAAAABZw/bJNRGStN5vk/s320/2015-01-16_21-20-22_957.jpg" /></a>
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Front: Micro Studio Arts Chaos bases which match most of the movement trays, used as KoW Wavering markers <br>
Middle: Orc Archer Half-Regiment (Old Glory Dark Ages archers)<br>
Rear Left: Part of Dark Elf Gargoyles Troop (GW Battle of 5 Armies Giant Eagles paints 25mm Ravens)<br>
Rear Right: Orc Morax Regiment (Old Glory Viking berserkers)<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rkrZVo2_MKU/VLq5Vlo_VDI/AAAAAAAABZ0/5Otg-51YT2w/s1600/2015-01-16_21-20-32_217.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rkrZVo2_MKU/VLq5Vlo_VDI/AAAAAAAABZ0/5Otg-51YT2w/s320/2015-01-16_21-20-32_217.jpg" /></a>
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Left: Orc Greatax Troop (Old Glory Valkyries)<br>
Right: Same Old Glory Rus unit as above<br>
Rear: Orc Giant (Mega Miniatures Boobarian, yes that's really what it's called)<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f0wMelp_o_Y/VLq5aRMy79I/AAAAAAAABaQ/K3XgYCUe7wc/s1600/2015-01-16_21-20-39_927.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f0wMelp_o_Y/VLq5aRMy79I/AAAAAAAABaQ/K3XgYCUe7wc/s320/2015-01-16_21-20-39_927.jpg" /></a>
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Front: More chaos bases for Wavering markers<br>
Middle: Orc Archer Troop (Old Glory Dark Ages javelin skirmishers)<br>
Rear Left: Orc GreatAx Regiment (Old Glory Barbarians)<br>
Rear Right: Orc Krudger Army General (Reaper figure), Wip the Half Cast Orc Magician (D&D plastic mini), rest of Gargoyle unit from above
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-388yAmjXqO4/VLq5Z1XGKBI/AAAAAAAABaI/kbFG0fvVxdQ/s1600/2015-01-16_21-20-48_537.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-388yAmjXqO4/VLq5Z1XGKBI/AAAAAAAABaI/kbFG0fvVxdQ/s320/2015-01-16_21-20-48_537.jpg" /></a>
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Left: Orc Greatax Regiment (Old Glory Viking Huscarls)<br>
Right: Orc Ax Krudghorde (Old Glory Vikings)<br>
Rear Left: Another Orc Giant Boobarian<br>
Rear Right: Orc Troll Regiment (Children of Valhalla Giant, Dreamblade plasic mini, D&D plastic mini<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0FN_iyAXnho/VLq5bKieQtI/AAAAAAAABaU/lJqXj8_1eeU/s1600/2015-01-16_21-20-59_947.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0FN_iyAXnho/VLq5bKieQtI/AAAAAAAABaU/lJqXj8_1eeU/s320/2015-01-16_21-20-59_947.jpg" /></a>
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[Insert picture here that I forgot to take of another Gore Rider Regiment & Goblin Mawbeast Regiment]
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So, that's all my painted figures, completely based & all on movement trays, with 1 tray left over. The whole army comes out to be 2160 points as Kings of War Orcs. It'd be almost 2500 if I included magic items & turned some of the figures into an appropriate number of heroes & bannermen for this sized force.
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While this is an awesome accomplishment that I'm very proud of, I have only finished off the <i>already painted </i>figures. I still have about another 70 infantry, 20 large monsters to use as trolls, 2 more giants, 10 more wolves, plus 3-4 character figures that need to be painted. So maybe I should make that my main project for 2015.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-19674391224701365852014-08-08T22:34:00.001-07:002015-02-03T14:53:00.625-08:00Kings of War 1st TryMy friend Skrapwelder & I played our 1st game of <a href="http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war.html">Kings of War</a> from <a href="http://www.manticgames.com/">Mantic Game</a>. It's a simplified, somewhat abstracted army scale fantasy game. I found myself having to unlearn some basic wargaming assumptions to understand the rules. But the simplification and abstraction means it's pretty fast and very little to argue about.<br>
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We brought 500 points army list. Skrapwelders was Undead, mine was Vikorcs (Orc list using Viking figures). The lists were:<br>
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Undead: Liche Queen character, Wraith Troop (5 figures), Ghoul Regiment (20), Zombie Swarm (40)<br>
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Vikorcs: Ax Horde (30), Morax Troop (10), Archer Troop (5), Gore Riders (5) (I choose not to buy a character to have more points for troops)<br>
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This is our position after set up. My archers have the ability to make a move before the game begins, so they were trying to flank the zombie horde.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c60FkP4ttu4/U-WxNtDsGQI/AAAAAAAABXo/f-Wb6lHzYJQ/s1600/2014-08-08_18-28-07_117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c60FkP4ttu4/U-WxNtDsGQI/AAAAAAAABXo/f-Wb6lHzYJQ/s400/2014-08-08_18-28-07_117.jpg" /></a></div>
The arrows show the initial moves. I was shocked to find the Wraiths move 10" normally, which means they charge 20". They surprised me by crossing in front of the zombies, catching my archers in the flank & routing them on the 1st turn. So much for whittling the zombies down with bow fire.<br>
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The view from my Ax Horde after the archers have just been seen off by the dark shadows over on Weathertop.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3h3t8MmqHdE/U-WxRcxsMdI/AAAAAAAABX8/53NavghOOT0/s1600/2014-08-08_18-32-11_820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3h3t8MmqHdE/U-WxRcxsMdI/AAAAAAAABX8/53NavghOOT0/s400/2014-08-08_18-32-11_820.jpg" /></a></div>
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On the right flank, my Gore Riders charge the Ghouls, while my Moraxs mess around in the rocks off to the left.<br>
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Finally the Moraxs are able to flank the Ghouls and obliterate them in 1 round.<br>
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As the Ax and zombie hordes fight back and forth, damage piles up on my forces. But the Liche Queen is able to keep the zombies healed, so it's a loosing battle, especially when the Wraiths attack in the flank.<br>
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After blowing through the Ghouls, my Moraxs & Gore Riders aren't able to reposition fast to reach my Ax Horde before they rout.<br>
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As revenge, my Gore Riders the disolve the Wraiths in a single attack.<br>
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At this point, we had to roll to see if the game ended with this turn, or continue one more turn. With my Gore Riders poised to attack the zombies in the flank, I was confident I could take them out, so wanted the game to continue. Little did I know...<br>
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Skrapwelder went 1st by predictibly charging his zombies in my MorAx, & then did the 2nd surprising thing of the night. His Liche Queen Zapped my Gore Riders with a huge bolt, & he rolled high enough on the Nerve test that the Riders melted away. & the zombies chomped through the Morax, destroying my last unit.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TnbDAyJmQCU/U-WxTjY0XiI/AAAAAAAABYY/-wQCaFCdRAo/s1600/2014-08-08_19-35-15_362.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TnbDAyJmQCU/U-WxTjY0XiI/AAAAAAAABYY/-wQCaFCdRAo/s400/2014-08-08_19-35-15_362.jpg" /></a></div> <br>
I went from thinking the game would end in at least a draw if not a victory for me, to a solid loss. But that 1 Zap spell could have easily gone the other way & I could have destroyed his zombies instead.<br>
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Overall, a very good 1st game. We both made sure to read the rules a few times before the game, & we only came across 2 additional questions that we couldn't answer ourselves. So pretty good for a 1st try. Also, the game probably took less than 90 minutes including lots of discussing & looking up rules.<br>
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So it gets the "Definitately want to try it again" recommenation. Next week, we'll probably try 1000 pt armies.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-47624553566744754502014-04-17T13:22:00.000-07:002014-04-18T15:08:17.095-07:00War of 1812: 2nd Battle of Lacolle MillsOur recent local game convention fell on the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 2nd Battle of Lacolle Mills, so I recreated it on the tabletop using Too Fat Lardies’ Sharp Practice rules.
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The battle occurred at Lacolle, Quebec, near Lake Champlain, about 5 miles north of the modern US/Canadian border. A US force of 4000 bombarded a British held blockhouse, with the plan to assault it. The blockhouse was held by only 80 troops from the 13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot. The British in the blockhouse held out valiantly, with Royal Marines firing Congreve Rockets back at the Americans, while a number of other units marched to their aid.
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In my game, I set up the board with a “blockhouse complex" at the far end to draw the US players’ attention and told them the British were regrouping from unsuccessful attack on the artillery and to deploy expecting another attack from that direction. The US forces deployed evenly across their front, with this in mind.
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But once deployed, as in the historical battle, the Canadian/Native Canadian forces appeared on their flank.
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The Canadian force appeared piecemeal, & at random places along the flank, so their attack wasn’t completely coordinated. & once deployed, they used the woods as cover for most of the battle. The US forces were quickly spotted by the Canadians and forced to deploy off blinds.
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A Canadian Fencibles unit and US Regular unit end up playing cat and mouse through most of the game. They spent many turns deployed in the forest, not rolling enough move close enough to come into contact with each other, so they just stood and fired volley after volley. (There are really supposed to be trees between them, but they were moved out of the way for ease measuring & movement.)
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Finally, a Canadian unit made a break for the US artillery, but the US Rifles and other line units quickly turned their firepower on them and cut them down.
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It was then the Canadians turn to return the favor. The 2 US units on the right flank that had been taking the brunt of the Canadian fire finally started to waver and fall back.
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It was at this point that the Native Canadian allies made themselves felt. They played a bonus card to enable them to make an extra move, fired into the rear of the US Rifles causing significant Shock, and let loose a blood curdling War Cry (bonus card) which caused another wavering unit to break.
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At this point, there were only 2 untouched US units with good morale between defending the artillery, with a number of healthy Canadian and Native Canadians bearing down on them, so we decided to call the game.
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Everyone seemed to have fun, in spite of difficulties arising from my less than clear explaining these somewhat detailed rules. But now that everyone had a basic understanding of the game under their belts, they are all eager to try the rules again.
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Historically, British gunboats moved upriver to fire on the Americans. The flank companies of the 13th were nearby and mounted an assault on the US artillery, but were driven back by sheer numbers. Finally, the Canadian Voltigeurs, the Gredadiers from the Canadian Fencibles, and Native American allies flanked the artillery position and caused many casualties to the artillery crews and command. Some accounts have this flanking force taking the guns and spiking them before being driven back.
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Ultimately, the US heavy artillery was unable to deploy due to the soft ground, and the remaining artillery was not heavy enough to breech the blockhouse after hours of bombardment. The US attack was a complete failure and was yet another blank mark on the US commander’s military career.
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Finally, here are the Canadian Voltigeurs conversions I did. Luckily, their later uniform was similar to the British Rifles uniform. So I only had to carve the epaulettes off their shoulders and putty up their shakos to turn them into the Voltigeurs' distinctive bearskin shakos.
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Since we recently moved & had a bunch of banker’s boxed left, I used those as the frame for the larger rooms. The medium sized room is 1 banker box, & the altar room is 2 boxes side by side with 1 side cut off.
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The smaller entry room was a <a href="http://www.michaels.com/Recollections-Photo-Craft-Storage-Boxes/sb1441,default,pd.html">picture storage box</a> from Michael’s.
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The floors and walls are made from a thin insulation foam called <a href="http://www.trustgreenguard.com/commercial.aspx?greenguard-insulation-board#pb6-fanfold-roofing-cover-board.pb6fa-roofing-cover-board">GreenGuard</a>. I got some from a gamer friend who works construction, but I’ve not been able to find it in a retail store yet. The foam is about 1/4" & has a thin film on both sides.
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I peeled the film off 1 side & used a dull pencil to draw the brick patterns and designs. The foam is dense enough that it’s easy to draw on and holds the marks well. The foam is denser than normal foam core and cuts a lot easier. I’ve found similar thin insulation foam on the websites of big name home improvement stores, but I've heard that foam isn't as dense. I haven't checked this myself.
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I put a quick layer of white glue on the foam to seal it & then spray painted it grey followed by lots of drybrushing.
I used double-sided carpet table to tape the foam into the cut down boxes.
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The altar and grate in front of it are also made out of the GreenGuard, so the possibilities of further dungeon detailing like custom doors, pit openings, archways, etc. are endless.
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The doors that I used were from Mage Knight Dungeons.
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& finally, one of the nice things about using these boxes to build the dungeon is that they already have lids, so they’re very easy to store. Here are all the rooms boxed up.
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Sandor, Dave the Barbarian, & Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film
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(Reaper Bones, Reaper, Black Tree Design Harlequin)
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Gutrecha, Krognar, & Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film Jr
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(all BTD Harlequin)
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Death Dealer, Gonad
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(both BTD Harlequin)
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The King & his Solid Yellow dancers
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(priest, altar, girl BTD, & dancers GW Slann Slaves)
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"Human" Cultists
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(Old Glory Voodoo Pirates)
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Snakemen
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(Reaper with some weapon replacements from The Assault Group)
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The monster the priest was trying to summon, but has yet to be successful after 3 different games
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(unknown)
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And one for my friend Peter
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I will probably post later about the building of the dungeon rooms.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-48662131597421959102014-04-14T23:55:00.000-07:002014-04-18T15:07:41.798-07:00Riddle of Steel<i>What is best in life? To crush your opponent, see their dice driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their figures. Will your non-IP Infringing fantasy heroes save the girl before the evil magician can enact his nefarious plan?
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I ran a game of Crom at our local gaming convention, a fantasy skirmish game based in the Conan the Barbarian world. The rules are from Matakishi, of <a href="http://www.matakishi.com/conanhub.htm">Matakishi's Tea House</a>, and can be purchased from <a href="http://www.wargamevault.com/product/108246/Crom">Wargames Vault</a>.
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It was a classic story of thieves steal jewel, brag too much in tavern, get thrown in jail, & get made an offer they can’t refuse. The magistrate’s daughter was captured by Snake Cult: Local #623, so the jewel thieves were offered amnesty for their crimes if the daughter was saved. And off they went to find said cult.
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The party was made up of Krognar, Sandor (no relations to the Westeros Cleganes), Gutrecha and Dave the Barbarian. They moved stealthily up on the Snake Cult’s outpost.
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The party encountered some guards on the outskirts of the camp which they quickly dispatched.
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They moved towards the Cult’s huts in which they had to find a key to open the temple’s main door. But more cultists came pouring out of the huts and the party met the Death Dealer.
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They overcame the final resistance, but Gutrecha was finally killed with dead cultists piled all around him.
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Luckily the rest of the party found the key, and released another hero, Gonad, that had been the Cult’s captive (conveniently replacing Gutrecha). So, healed up and ready to go, the party delved into the depths of the Snake Temple.
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Once inside the temple, the party was immediately attacked by more cultists, and they were able to handle them easily.
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But the party noticed a number of very large snake skins lying around the room, which made them very cautious.
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Advancing into the next room, they found the skins' owners. And found that they were noticeable tougher than the generic cultists.
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They still overcame the snakemen. They were leery of what the next room might hold, but heard voices raised in blasphemous chanting, so knew they must hurry to save the girl.
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Once they opened the next door, they knew they’d reached their destination, but also that at least some of them would not get out alive.
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The snakemen tried slithering forward, but the temple seemed to too cold for their reptile blood (the snakes consistently rolled low movement rolls).
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The party still had great difficulty dealing with so many snakemen at once.
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Finally, Krognar had a brilliant idea (for a barbarian). Killing the priest would stop the ritual, so he rushed forward, weaving between the slithering attacks, and stuck the priest down in one blow. Unfortunately, Krognar brilliance hadn’t provided him an idea of what to do now that he faced the Naganator.
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Krognar's dying attack held the Naganator off while Dave ran forward to release the magistrate’s daughter.
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But remaining snakes were too much for the heroes and they were all cut down. So, in the end, the heroes were not only released from the magistrate’s jail, but the Snake cult also released them from the mortal coil.
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The game was a lot of fun to run, largely because of the great players who got into spirit of the game.
Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-43265682743093751642013-04-10T18:54:00.002-07:002013-04-22T14:55:00.501-07:00Cavemen, Nazis and Saucers Oh My!We had our local convention last weekend, <a href="http://www.conquestsac.com/">Conquest Sac</a>, at which I ran a couple of games.
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<b>Caveman!</b>
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First off was <a href="http://www.pulpactionlibrary.com/">Pulp Action Library's</a> <a href="http://www.wargamevault.com/product/110999/Caveman%21&affiliate_id=68471">Caveman game</a>, a very fun, quick & simple game about prehistoric warfare. The things that sold me on this game were:
<ul>
<li>Players actually threw "rocks" at the other players (not the figures) to see if they hit with their missiles.</li>
<li>Combat is determined by rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissor (originally Cavemen played Rock, Rock, Rock, but that lacked the sophistication to provide a suitable resolution for the wargame rules).</li>
<li>The only "dice" used in the game are flat rocks with red goo on one side & black goo on the other. Red is good, black is bad, since it's better to be red than dead.</li>
<li>The players are expected to actually dance & chant to get the favor of the Gods (GM), & only communicate in grunts & hand gestures.</li>
</ul>
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3 people played the game. I called them Lar, Atouk & Gog since they couldn't talk. This is the board laid out. Each tribe of cavemen came in from one of the corners, with the objective of getting food.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3y86V2soW6g/UWYOdt0GkBI/AAAAAAAABIU/j_XY8LmQ_oc/s1600/2013-04-05_19-54-10_889.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3y86V2soW6g/UWYOdt0GkBI/AAAAAAAABIU/j_XY8LmQ_oc/s320/2013-04-05_19-54-10_889.jpg" /></a>
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The food is a family of mammoths, with a saber tooth tiger stalking them in the bushes.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pnwi6nKCFnQ/UWYO0H8bU3I/AAAAAAAABIc/LeCn8NQ2UXw/s1600/2013-04-05_19-54-36_629.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pnwi6nKCFnQ/UWYO0H8bU3I/AAAAAAAABIc/LeCn8NQ2UXw/s320/2013-04-05_19-54-36_629.jpg" /></a>
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A few pictures of the different tribes. <br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dwYaS1JRuK0/UWYPZ6PHEKI/AAAAAAAABIk/pq0S_GKA9bU/s1600/2013-04-05_19-55-07_527.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dwYaS1JRuK0/UWYPZ6PHEKI/AAAAAAAABIk/pq0S_GKA9bU/s320/2013-04-05_19-55-07_527.jpg" /></a>
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They are the Tim Mee 1/48 scale plastic cavemen that you can still get on Amazon.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7pGTGkm8HS8/UWYPcIfv0fI/AAAAAAAABIs/uP7u0tgMrvc/s1600/2013-04-05_19-56-00_958.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7pGTGkm8HS8/UWYPcIfv0fI/AAAAAAAABIs/uP7u0tgMrvc/s320/2013-04-05_19-56-00_958.jpg" /></a>
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& these are the tools of the game: magic yellow totems used by the tribe's shaman, "rocks" for throwing made out of foam, & cave "dice". The caveman on the right is the shaman since his blonde hair is obviously magical.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FYFowLqs7Jo/UWYPnxoTYNI/AAAAAAAABI0/vIihWYcFr7Q/s1600/2013-04-05_19-57-12_967.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FYFowLqs7Jo/UWYPnxoTYNI/AAAAAAAABI0/vIihWYcFr7Q/s320/2013-04-05_19-57-12_967.jpg" /></a>
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The tribe converge on the Mammoth family...<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HehprGl99Fs/UWYPxsaNlLI/AAAAAAAABI8/lvEJIcuYXd8/s1600/2013-04-05_20-25-36_578.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HehprGl99Fs/UWYPxsaNlLI/AAAAAAAABI8/lvEJIcuYXd8/s320/2013-04-05_20-25-36_578.jpg" /></a>
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The Mammoths scattered, but the cavemen quickly realized ganging up on the Mammoths is the way to go. <br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tSFHq9HzxOY/UWYP2kjx2uI/AAAAAAAABJE/5DSM46E4HZw/s1600/2013-04-05_20-36-15_672.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tSFHq9HzxOY/UWYP2kjx2uI/AAAAAAAABJE/5DSM46E4HZw/s320/2013-04-05_20-36-15_672.jpg" /></a>
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One tribe killed & drug off the saber tooth tiger, but another tribe finally killed one of the Mammoths, winning the game.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MXmCQnLzf_I/UWYP-oUilnI/AAAAAAAABJM/aGpB19TpEAc/s1600/2013-04-05_20-56-03_759.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MXmCQnLzf_I/UWYP-oUilnI/AAAAAAAABJM/aGpB19TpEAc/s320/2013-04-05_20-56-03_759.jpg" /></a>
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<b>Eat Hitler</b>
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The 2nd game was another by Pulp Action Library, <a href="http://www.wargamevault.com/product/108118/Eat-Hitler---The-Nazi-Taste-Treat&affiliate_id=68471">Eat Hitler</a>. In 1945, Hitler & his senior staff try to travel back to 1939 to do it right the 2nd time. But they have a faulty ocillation overthruster & instead travel back to the Jurassic era (which looks strangely like the Paleolithic era where the Cavemen live).<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SfeNoeYRB-M/UWYQPTA7XoI/AAAAAAAABJU/nODwXsDRl0U/s1600/2013-04-06_19-09-56_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SfeNoeYRB-M/UWYQPTA7XoI/AAAAAAAABJU/nODwXsDRl0U/s320/2013-04-06_19-09-56_4.jpg" /></a>
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In the game, you play dinosaurs trying to get through the crunchy Nazi shell to the soft chewy Hitler center. There are dinos from T Rex down to Raptors & Pterodactyls. The players also move the Nazis & herbivore dinosaurs to either get them in the way of the other players, or move them out of the way of their own dinos.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c5Ig8mhYZ-I/UWYQVEXO3oI/AAAAAAAABJc/JMWyM3bk3nc/s1600/2013-04-06_19-13-35_632.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c5Ig8mhYZ-I/UWYQVEXO3oI/AAAAAAAABJc/JMWyM3bk3nc/s320/2013-04-06_19-13-35_632.jpg" /></a>
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We had players from 6 yrs old, on up, & all had fun. <br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FB19PXnvY1M/UWYQaKCqw9I/AAAAAAAABJk/BkFWyWyRkNU/s1600/2013-04-06_19-44-00_765.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FB19PXnvY1M/UWYQaKCqw9I/AAAAAAAABJk/BkFWyWyRkNU/s320/2013-04-06_19-44-00_765.jpg" /></a>
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First on the officer buffet was Himmler with all the Raptors joining in.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu2xwUENGbU/UWYQrC54pAI/AAAAAAAABJs/TNp-uSoCYC8/s1600/2013-04-06_19-28-45_487.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu2xwUENGbU/UWYQrC54pAI/AAAAAAAABJs/TNp-uSoCYC8/s320/2013-04-06_19-28-45_487.jpg" /></a>
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The Pterodactyls gobbled up a trooper before confronting Hitler. But once they finally grabbed him to take him back to their aerie, the Raptor player used his Nazi activation to shoot the Pterodactyl & make him drop Hitler. <br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctaUj3DLmrY/UWYQ8aS-U-I/AAAAAAAABJ0/KSKa3KM5g-s/s1600/2013-04-06_19-19-57_82.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctaUj3DLmrY/UWYQ8aS-U-I/AAAAAAAABJ0/KSKa3KM5g-s/s320/2013-04-06_19-19-57_82.jpg" /></a>
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Then the Allosaurus gobbled Hitler up before the other 2 could move again.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H599pctymd8/UWYROU95KtI/AAAAAAAABJ8/wqaV4XX7S04/s1600/2013-04-06_19-58-34_836.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H599pctymd8/UWYROU95KtI/AAAAAAAABJ8/wqaV4XX7S04/s320/2013-04-06_19-58-34_836.jpg" /></a>
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You can barely see Hitler throwing his Heil Nazi gang sign before greasing the Allosaurus' gullet.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uucYBlpeAnE/UWYRWqqHazI/AAAAAAAABKE/6IRpYSXUzdQ/s1600/2013-04-06_19-58-44_605.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uucYBlpeAnE/UWYRWqqHazI/AAAAAAAABKE/6IRpYSXUzdQ/s320/2013-04-06_19-58-44_605.jpg" /></a>
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& here is the final count for the Pterodactyl's larder to feed their young.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sk8cHR5Qz0s/UWYRetBTJPI/AAAAAAAABKM/AqPlrgmb9dQ/s1600/2013-04-06_20-00-17_472.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sk8cHR5Qz0s/UWYRetBTJPI/AAAAAAAABKM/AqPlrgmb9dQ/s320/2013-04-06_20-00-17_472.jpg" /></a>
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The Allosaurus won since he ate both Hitler & Goering, & immediately went to the Dinosaur Emergency Room with severe stomach pains.
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<b>DUST Rumble in the Jungle</b>
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The final game was a joint effort by my local club. I was one of the assistant GMs & helped a bit on the terrain.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GhDA0VYcONk/UWYRo_k8-3I/AAAAAAAABKU/awEldlsgYss/s1600/2013-04-07_08-34-21_706.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GhDA0VYcONk/UWYRo_k8-3I/AAAAAAAABKU/awEldlsgYss/s320/2013-04-07_08-34-21_706.jpg" /></a>
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We played a big game of DUST Warfare simplified for the convention. For those not familiar with the DUST family of Weird World War 2 games, it's the 1950s & WW2 is still going, but with alien and advanced technology. The game includes rocket jump packs, zombies & gorilla troops, plus a variety of walkers.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvHqEBWak94/UWYR8nN0daI/AAAAAAAABKk/54T_CCa2BeE/s1600/2013-04-07_14-54-37_492.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvHqEBWak94/UWYR8nN0daI/AAAAAAAABKk/54T_CCa2BeE/s320/2013-04-07_14-54-37_492.jpg" /></a>
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Our game centered around an alien flying saucer that crashed into the African jungle (& there also happened to be dinosaurs in the area). <br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bQnFwhmpaog/UWYThY34CmI/AAAAAAAABLI/Ha0ZmgQLbKk/s1600/2013-04-07_08-34-42_347.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bQnFwhmpaog/UWYThY34CmI/AAAAAAAABLI/Ha0ZmgQLbKk/s320/2013-04-07_08-34-42_347.jpg" /></a>
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The saucer was built by one of our club members. He used 2 plastic snow saucers, & put flickering LED tea lights the smoke to make it look like it was on fire. <br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkqkV4yAdF0/UWYTDZ5NNmI/AAAAAAAABK4/Kqi6QDO1ohE/s1600/2013-04-07_08-34-52_418.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkqkV4yAdF0/UWYTDZ5NNmI/AAAAAAAABK4/Kqi6QDO1ohE/s320/2013-04-07_08-34-52_418.jpg" /></a>
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He even put bits & pieces inside the saucer to make it look completely alien.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8CxSph93OmY/UWYTKFf0K_I/AAAAAAAABLA/t1OMjOJd6M4/s1600/2013-04-07_08-35-04_225.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8CxSph93OmY/UWYTKFf0K_I/AAAAAAAABLA/t1OMjOJd6M4/s320/2013-04-07_08-35-04_225.jpg" /></a>
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Allied rocket troops fight with Axis gorillas over control of the saucer, with the rest of the troops try to pick up the alien debris scattered behind the crash.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGAHQz4Pdz0/UWYR2jtzugI/AAAAAAAABKc/9JArb4aX5MM/s1600/2013-04-07_14-54-30_625.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGAHQz4Pdz0/UWYR2jtzugI/AAAAAAAABKc/9JArb4aX5MM/s320/2013-04-07_14-54-30_625.jpg" /></a>
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We ran 2 games for 10 players each & both went well. We'll be running the game again at Kublacon & Pacificon if you're interested in trying it.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-50450095240488311492013-03-10T16:50:00.001-07:002013-04-22T14:54:04.685-07:00Wooden Wars: The Medieval WayDuring a boring Sunday afternoon, my daugther suggested we play the new Wooden Wars game that my friend Tom developed. It's similar to HG Wells' Little Wars. Tom is producting Napoleonic and Victorian Colonial laser etched wooden figure flats to go along with the rules through his <a href="http://www.skullncrown.com/">Skull & Crown</a> company.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XFBb_zu20-g/UT0brvSC6DI/AAAAAAAABH8/L3t9z-zuN5E/s1600/WWS_Cover_A.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XFBb_zu20-g/UT0brvSC6DI/AAAAAAAABH8/L3t9z-zuN5E/s320/WWS_Cover_A.jpg" /></a>
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My daughter & I both have these beautiful figures, but haven't put them together yet. So instead, we decided to use some Britian Ltd's Deetail medieval figures I'd gotten her for Christmas. We split up the figures evenly, 5 cavalry & 9 infantry each, & set aside the Dragon figure for special use later. Here is the opposing general with her forces arrayed.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-usGYTsFRZEI/UT0YhZkxsyI/AAAAAAAABG8/xRUy-DcLGHQ/s1600/2013-03-10_15-32-28_155.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-usGYTsFRZEI/UT0YhZkxsyI/AAAAAAAABG8/xRUy-DcLGHQ/s320/2013-03-10_15-32-28_155.jpg" /></a>
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Movement is done in Baton lengths, with infantry moving 1 Baton or firing & cavalry moving 1 Baton & firing, or 2 Batons with no fire. The Batons we used are from the Wooden Wars range.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qGGX1ssGb2I/UT0YmIdvyAI/AAAAAAAABHU/EIo_P2n3H2M/s1600/2013-03-10_15-40-58_114.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qGGX1ssGb2I/UT0YmIdvyAI/AAAAAAAABHU/EIo_P2n3H2M/s320/2013-03-10_15-40-58_114.jpg" /></a>
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Wooden Wars is geared towards Horse & Musket armies, tossing rubber balls when firing to knock down the opposing figures. But since we were playing with Medieval figures, we just pretended the cavalry & infantry were really good with thrown spears. Each unit can toss 1 rubber ball at the enemy & any figures it knocks down are removed as casaulties. Here I am lining up my shot, but the enemy is correctly unconcerned. My 1st 3 balls bounced well over the heads of her infantry.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Qi9iEAjKas/UT0Yja3K8VI/AAAAAAAABHE/J73itVfWEVs/s1600/2013-03-10_15-32-05_615.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Qi9iEAjKas/UT0Yja3K8VI/AAAAAAAABHE/J73itVfWEVs/s320/2013-03-10_15-32-05_615.jpg" /></a>
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The Dragon figure actually has pull-back & go wheels on it. So we decided we could each use the Dragon once, & any figure it touches is removed. Here is the Dragon as it cuts a wide swath through my cavalry, removing 3 of the 5 figures.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-myEGWO-KcRM/UT0Yk8nm0_I/AAAAAAAABHM/kxFwOeyB3I0/s1600/2013-03-10_15-39-15_328.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-myEGWO-KcRM/UT0Yk8nm0_I/AAAAAAAABHM/kxFwOeyB3I0/s320/2013-03-10_15-39-15_328.jpg" /></a>
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My cavalry made a desparate charge against my daugther's untouched unit of infantry, but 2 mounted knights against 9 men-at-arms went pretty much as you'd expect it. Here is the Dragon guarding my mounting pile of dead, after adding my last 2 knights.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Vw3N7I-5Gc/UT0YnDEhdDI/AAAAAAAABHc/T3rvGJjBDko/s1600/2013-03-10_15-45-03_584.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Vw3N7I-5Gc/UT0YnDEhdDI/AAAAAAAABHc/T3rvGJjBDko/s320/2013-03-10_15-45-03_584.jpg" /></a>
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I released my Dragon in hopes of holding off a cavalry charge, but the Dragon only took out 2 knights.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZweN0ueXBRA/UT0YoKP14UI/AAAAAAAABHk/Bk8gOG6eKWw/s1600/2013-03-10_15-45-28_602.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZweN0ueXBRA/UT0YoKP14UI/AAAAAAAABHk/Bk8gOG6eKWw/s320/2013-03-10_15-45-28_602.jpg" /></a>
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The rest of the cavalry charged in & took out all but one of my infantry.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2zpDzWZRxrE/UT0YpL9ajOI/AAAAAAAABHs/FYeT70uahIc/s1600/2013-03-10_15-46-45_125.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2zpDzWZRxrE/UT0YpL9ajOI/AAAAAAAABHs/FYeT70uahIc/s320/2013-03-10_15-46-45_125.jpg" /></a>
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My remaining figure boldly stood his ground, firing rubber balls to little effect, as my daughter's infantry marched across the field of battle & finally cut him down.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cf9FQW2bVVM/UT0YqGwdjFI/AAAAAAAABH0/pm2Kv_vo6Ow/s1600/2013-03-10_15-51-36_945.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cf9FQW2bVVM/UT0YqGwdjFI/AAAAAAAABH0/pm2Kv_vo6Ow/s320/2013-03-10_15-51-36_945.jpg" /></a>
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It was a very fun game & my daughter was very excited about beating me. It also introduced her to the concepts of measuring figure movement, making fire vs move choices, & rolling dice for combat resolution (used in melee). Hopefully once we put together our Wooden Wars Napoleonic armies, she'll be even more interested in playing.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-61877857132667732622013-02-22T10:51:00.002-08:002013-04-22T14:53:44.218-07:00Church of the ???A few posts ago, I showed <a href="http://twotharksonecup.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-house-on-market.html">a church </a>I had scratch built for Stange Aeons. I have now pretty much completed painting it up.
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Instead of a steeple to hold some sort of emblem, I'm planning on painting a symbol on the wooden planks across the apex of the roof. I just haven't decided what to paint yet.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bzLp4oidF8/USe6lX6WV3I/AAAAAAAABFo/zHN6XzWiF20/s1600/2013-02-22_10-23-00_165.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bzLp4oidF8/USe6lX6WV3I/AAAAAAAABFo/zHN6XzWiF20/s320/2013-02-22_10-23-00_165.jpg" /></a>
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I know I was a bit heavy handed with the brown wash under the windows on this side.<br>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zef5s6aWMvk/USe6ogagcMI/AAAAAAAABFw/RvvgQZabnn0/s1600/2013-02-22_10-23-27_899.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zef5s6aWMvk/USe6ogagcMI/AAAAAAAABFw/RvvgQZabnn0/s320/2013-02-22_10-23-27_899.jpg" /></a>
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Yep, that's the back of a building.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x3Bhecwq-bk/USe6pz84-xI/AAAAAAAABF4/d0Whr8QT6kE/s1600/2013-02-22_10-23-37_64.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x3Bhecwq-bk/USe6pz84-xI/AAAAAAAABF4/d0Whr8QT6kE/s320/2013-02-22_10-23-37_64.jpg" /></a>
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The mossy stuff on the roof & growing up the building is Underbrush from Woodland Scenics. Mason from Lead Adventure Forums used it on one of his buildings as ivy growth & I really liked it. It's a great way to make small growth in corners & around buildings.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EDaCq4r6bwE/USe6qs0SPUI/AAAAAAAABGA/ykzJVNV2Dsw/s1600/2013-02-22_10-23-43_526.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EDaCq4r6bwE/USe6qs0SPUI/AAAAAAAABGA/ykzJVNV2Dsw/s320/2013-02-22_10-23-43_526.jpg" /></a>
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The inside turned out a lot yellower than I intended, I was trying for a pine look. The side walls are plastic sheet, & the brush marks left in the paint ended up making it look a little like wood grain after I applied a brown wash.<br>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aQRG5yFw6gA/USe6rZa4gRI/AAAAAAAABGI/yB5VfAopMuE/s1600/2013-02-22_10-23-56_317.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aQRG5yFw6gA/USe6rZa4gRI/AAAAAAAABGI/yB5VfAopMuE/s320/2013-02-22_10-23-56_317.jpg" /></a>
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Father Edmund can get a little messy some times.<br>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lbm5G4rCAs4/USe6r_S8gsI/AAAAAAAABGQ/mNlHgxL3AVY/s1600/2013-02-22_10-24-05_526.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lbm5G4rCAs4/USe6r_S8gsI/AAAAAAAABGQ/mNlHgxL3AVY/s320/2013-02-22_10-24-05_526.jpg" /></a>
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& a quick shot of the steps down to the larder.<br>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xZZlorU28tI/USe6sSwpewI/AAAAAAAABGY/jIOdIPDJR5U/s1600/2013-02-22_10-24-34_552.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xZZlorU28tI/USe6sSwpewI/AAAAAAAABGY/jIOdIPDJR5U/s320/2013-02-22_10-24-34_552.jpg" /></a>
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The interior dimensions of the building are pretty small, so I don't expect to do any actual gaming inside the church. But I'm very happy with how it come out, being my 1st attempt at a major scratch building project. I'm thinking there still needs to be some sort of symbol or mystic circle on the floor or wall behind the altar to finish the whole thing off.
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I must say Skrapwelder helped out a lot. He gave me the resin roof & a lot of advice during the whole process.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-83513804312288337882013-02-03T18:30:00.001-08:002013-04-22T14:53:26.549-07:00Queen Victoria's Robot WarsI've <a href="http://twotharksonecup.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html">posted before</a> about my very talented friend Tom & his new Wooden Wars venture. He recently ran a Kickstater to help him buy a laser cutter & has started making large scale wooden figure flats. You can find his ongoing efforts at his <a href="http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/">Skull and Crown</a> blog.
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His intial efforts were to make Napoleonic soldiers, but he quickly expanded into Victorian colonials of the science fiction variety. I have just completed painting up the human infantry that were the backers rewards for his Kickstarter.
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Here are the 4 regular infantry I have, all armed with the latest Tesla rifles.
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Unfortunately because I dont know how to properly use my camera phone, I either use no flash & get slightly blurry pictures that show the colors correctly...
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...or I use the flash & get pictures in focus that are over exposed & make the colors look too light.
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Here are the Steel Dragoons, mounted on mechanical dinosaur-like mounts.
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The dragoons carry the carbine version of the Tesla rifle.
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Here are the mounts with a slight customization. The large wrenchs actually came being held in a hand. I trimmed them down to fit "under" the saddle, since I figure the Dragoons won't always have mechanics around, so would need to be able to fix their own mounts.
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& finally, the artillery crew for the Tesla Cannons. One of the nice things about these figures is that they come with many different arm options. I used an extra carbine arm from the Steel Dragoons to make the artillery guard figure on the left.
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The pistol arm & holster from the crewman sprue allowed the the crewman figure to be changed into an officer. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You might wonder what the shiny dot in the middle of the crewman’s pith helmet is. It’s a rare earth magnet that I added.
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& here is the result. The officer & artillery guard are generic enough to be used in regular infantry units. But obviously with all the ionized air surrounding the Tesla Cannons, the crew would need to wear breathing apparatuses. So I wanted the gasmask to be removable.
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Unfortunately, the nicely formed disc isn’t on the other figures’ helmets, so it wouldn’t be as easy to put magnets on them. But you could definitely use the magnets to allow for arm swap outs.
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They were lots of fun to paint & without meaning to, I ended up painting them up in a French Napoleonic color scheme.
Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-82994286838430190522013-01-20T15:00:00.001-08:002013-04-22T14:53:12.457-07:00Strange Aeons: Catch and ReleaseContinuing with the Strange Aeon's campaign for Skrapwelder's Threshold Agents, I ran him through another 2 games.
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In the 1st game, his Agents were following some clues found at the Moonwineshine still. The clues took them to another backwoods shanty town that seemed to be the main collection point for the wine.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YA1A-M4FyVc/UPxw3zqhpdI/AAAAAAAAA8o/nL8Tqgezv2k/s1600/nils1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YA1A-M4FyVc/UPxw3zqhpdI/AAAAAAAAA8o/nL8Tqgezv2k/s400/nils1.jpg" /></a></div>
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Unfortunately, the shiners got the drop on them. The Agents were able to take out a few, including their zombie dog.
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But the Agents were all taken down & captured by the shiners.
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In the 2nd game, the Agents woke up in some sort of industrial building.
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The Lurkers were in the main warehouse preparing their stock for another shipment.
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The Agents were tied up in the rooms in the smaller warehouse. They were able to escape their bonds & find their weapons.
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The lead Agent quietly observed the activity in the main warehouse and came up with a plan.
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Quickly sharing it with the rest of the Agents, they would shoot their way through the Lurkers & search the office in the main warehouse to find any accounting books or other incriminating evidence.
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The Agents were surprised to see they were confronted both by humans but also GUSTs again (Group of
Unknown Scuttley Things).
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The Agents did take a few casualties, but they were able to finally bring both the humans & the GUSTs down, achieving their goal. & just to add a cinematic ending, a truck full of G-Men came busting through the warehouse doors.
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Unfortunately, they didn't find any useful evidence to further their investigation, but all the Agents fully recovered.
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In case you're interested, the buildings are from the Virtual Armchair General's <a href="http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/620-Mean-Sets.htm">Mean Street/Mean Sets range</a>. The sets are not like normal paper buildings, but are designed to be wrapped around 1/4" foam core to give more solidity to the walls. I put the peel & stick business card magnets on the end of the walls, so the whole structure collapsable. Here is a <a href="http://blackcavalierswargaming.blogspot.com/2007/11/northern-california-pulp-project.html">prior post</a> I made about my construting the buildings.
Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-7103181307798218172013-01-02T22:16:00.000-08:002013-04-22T14:52:54.640-07:00New House on the MarketBelow is my 1st serious attempt at scratch building a building. My only prior attempt was making the quick & easy hobo shacks featured in my <a href="http://twotharksonecup.blogspot.com/2012/11/1st-strange-aeons-game.html">1st Strange Aeons post</a>. But with Skrapwelder's guidance & gifts, & lots of shavings left all over the living room floor, I have completed the Church of the Eternal Flame/Eye/[insert your favorite ominous but abiguous adjective here].
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The Church elders are keen recyclers, so are happy to use abandonded buildings for their meetings.
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The church is a direct copy from the <a href="http://www.tandem-associates.com/plasticville/country_church.htm">Plasticville Small Church</a>. I picked one of those up, but decided I wanted a more American rural looking building with clapboard siding, instead of the rough stone or plaster siding that the Plasticville church had. So I traced the Plasticville church & used it as a template to build this one.
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The wooden planking at the front roof eaves was originally a way to hide the fact that I'd trimmed too much off the peak of the roof, so there was a big gap there. But now I'm going to draw something on it, not sure what.
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The roof is some resin extras that Skrapwelder kindly gave me.
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Initially, the inside of the building look very rough, lots of badly cut foam core edges. So I decided to finish the windows & inside too. I added the planked floor & walls, & raised dais with the altar.
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& every good church needs access to the crypts (or labyrinthian caverns) underneath the altar.
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While it's not a Skrapwelder or Empey (<a href="http://a28mmbrain.blogspot.com/">http://a28mmbrain.blogspot.com/
</a>) original, I'm very happy with how it came out. Lots of fun to build.
Now just have to paint it.
Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-29915760704869510372012-12-29T15:30:00.001-08:002013-04-22T14:52:30.618-07:00Nightmare on 34th StFor our next game of Strange Aeons, I ran the Nightmare on 34th St holiday theme scenario. The scenario rules can be found <a href="http://www.strange-aeons.ca/doc/SA_Nightmare.pdf">here</a>. Basically, an evil Santa is trying to grab kids before the Threshold Agents can rescue them.
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Here's the main Lurker figures in the Christmas posse: the Elves, Santa & Rudolph.
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Santa is the Horrorclix Jester figure in a padded putty suit.
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The Elves were the Cannibal Clowns, also from Horrorclix, with a bit of repaint. Rudolph is Skrapwelder's & from AE WW2.
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Here are the sugar drunk troublemakers that the Agents are supposed to rescue.
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A picture of the overall board
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& one from the Lurker's side.
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There wasn't much to the the game though. Since the scenario required Santa be a 7 pt Maniac, & I had 16 pts with which to buy Lurkers, I bought a bunch of 1 pt Cultists to bulk out Lurker forces. This meant the Lurker gang didn't have any commander figure. So, while all 4 of the Threshold Agents were activating at a time & rescuing the kids, only 1 Lurker could activate, which made it almost impossible to chase down the Agents or kids.
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Santa was able to cut down Officer "Just Arriving on the Scene", but the head Agent then took out Santa during melee. I should have forced all the kids on to make a Resolve check after seeing their rescuers slaughter Santa, but I didn't.
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The Threshold was able to rescue all the kids, only for the loss of the Police office. Overall, a quick but fun game. & now I've got the Santa figure ready for next year. I just have to find some more of those Elves.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-5660883285238039082012-12-11T23:04:00.000-08:002013-04-22T14:52:16.626-07:00Escape from Witch MountainWe played our 2nd <a href="http://www.strange-aeons.ca/">Strange Aeons</a> game a few weeks ago. This time, we did just a 1-on-1 game & it went a lot better than the larger game last time.
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We rolled up the Escape scenario where the Threshold agents have to make it across the board. I wanted the game to follow on from the end <a href="http://twotharksonecup.blogspot.com/2012/11/1st-strange-aeons-game.html">of the last game</a> to continue the storyline. So the Theshold gang were trying to return from investigating the ritual circle they discovered last time.
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But the County Sherriffs were in the pay of the Moonshiners. And since the agents had just busted up the Moonshiners, the Sherriffs decided to mosey on over to make sure the Threshold gang didn't make it out of the back woods alive.
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We also used the Twisted Fate deck for the games. It certainly added some big cinematic moments to the game. At 1st it seemed like drawing a card every turn would be too much, but having more cards to use in defense definately helped. It did seem suspicious that my opponent Skrapwelder, who printed up the cards, was the only one who got the "out of ammo" card. & that really hurt when he played it on my Lurker with the Tommy Gun.
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<b>Game 1</b>
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The 1st game had Skrapwelder running his new Threshold gang against my Sheriffs. & you know Sheriffs always have to have a bloodhound with them, so they brought a Zombie Dog.
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Skrapwelder's Threshold character, Murphy, the Old Groundskeeper
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The rest of his gang: Betty Joe Bialowski, Jack MacAdam, & Officer "Just arrived on the scene"
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The Threshold agents left the ritual circle after they completed their investigations, but were quickly spotted by one of the Lurker Sheriffs.
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"Hey Sarge! I can see those damn Carpet Baggers from up here. They're just leaving the Ol' Jed's nekkid dancin' spot."
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The Sergeant let loose his prize hound, Bubba. Which quickly tracked down and tore up Office "No longer appearing in this film"
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Bubba was gunned down after that.
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Betty Joe then gave good evidence as to why she had been scouted by the local All Women's Baseball team. She quickly struck down 2 Sheriffs with her bat.
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This was one of the more fun cinematic moments caused by the Twisted Fate deck. The Lurker Sheriff had no melee weapon, so had to face Betty & her bat unopposed. Luckily he survived her 1st swing. Then Skrapwelder played on Betty the Divine Intervention card (immune to all damage) & Killing Blow card (+2 close combat). I then played Bad Luck (cancelling Betty's immunity) & my own Divine Intervention. So, even though Betty had a +2, she effectively couldn't use it. & the Sheriff at least had a chance to do some damage to her, which he didn't. She quickly beat the Sheriff down. That was all her 1st action in her turn.
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She then activated her Heroic skill allowing 3 actions her turn, with which she ran up behind another another Sheriff & beat him down in 1 blow. So in 1 turn, she just about took out half my Lurker gang, earning her the nickname of Bludgeoning Betty.
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With the immediate Lurker threat dispatched the agents quickly tried to high-tail it off the board. Unfortunately, the remaining Sheriffs' marksmanship took a heavy toll, gunning down both Jack & Betty as they ran off.
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Here Murphy stops for a quick forelorn glance at his collegues shot in the back before escaping to safety.
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<b>Game 2A</b>
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We then reversed roles and I ran the Threshold gang from the our 1st game a few weeks ago through the same scenario.
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Skrapwelder based his Lurkers around an 11 point Maniac. He gave the Maniac the Sneak skill, which put him within 1 move of the Threshold on the 1st turn.
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"Peek-a-boo!"
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The Professor went down 1st. Then, after watching the Maniac slaugther her father, his daugther blasted him with her shotgun for 1 point of damage. But the Maniac tore through everyone else so fast the game was over in about 15 minutes. The other 2 Lurkers never even moved.
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<b>Game 2B</b>
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We decided to run the game again, but this time Skrapwelder came up with another set of Lurkers, 2 Deep Ones & 2 regular Cultists. Luckily, he kind of forgot the objective was for the Threshold to get off the other side of the board. So he was momentarily surprised when my agents just kept running past the Lurkers.
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& yet again, the Reporter accompanying Threshold was caught & savaged, this time by a Deep One.
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I think the local paper is going to stop sending Reporters on these expeditions (or I'm going to have to get a bigger variety of figures to denote Civilians).
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My agents quickly outpaced the flopping Deep Ones.
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"Hurry up, Professor!"
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& rushed off the board.
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"Come on Dad! Just through these trees & we should be back at the Wardrobe."
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& here is our Strange Aeons mascot. Skrapwelder's wife found it somewhere. So now whenever a figure dies in the game, we squeeze this little guy to make him utter a hideous shreik while his his eyes flash red.
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Overall, we both enjoyed the games, & will be planning another one soon. We will probably be having the 2 campaigns diverge from each other, so we can develop in secret our own nefarious & dastardly plans for the other's agents.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-27932791334258683532012-11-29T21:21:00.000-08:002013-04-22T14:51:57.394-07:00Squadrons and Knights and Horses, Oh My!I've just finished up my annual fall project of making clothespin toys for the craft fair at my daughter's school. After lots of cutting, hot gluing, & painting, I was able to make 14 biplanes, 30 knights & 15 horses.
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The knights & horses are made using the clothes pins specifically for making
wooden clothespin dolls. I get the pins from Michaels craft store here in the US. They usually have a small wooden bits section in each store & the pins are from a company called Woodies.
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This year I added axes & great swords to the knights arsenal.
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Normally, I'd have a picture of some knights on horseback too. The legs of the knights are supposed to be able to slip over the horses backs. But for some reason, the horses' backs were wider this year & the knights wouldn't fit.
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In years past, I ended up drawing the horses eyes so looking tried, worried or sad. This year some how I made them look mad or mean. These 4 horses look like a bunch of thugs planning a "grain silo" job.
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Ponyboy confronts the Socs.
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At first I thought these 2 could be Spy vs Spy until I realized the white one looked like an angry Snowy from TinTin.
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The biplanes are made from the old style wooden clothespins. It was tough to find these, but I finally tracked them down at an Ace hardware store.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cFP72YxGMmg/ULhGOWtY97I/AAAAAAAAA30/YOKUqc-RSCo/s1600/2012-11-29_20-33-39_796.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="125" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cFP72YxGMmg/ULhGOWtY97I/AAAAAAAAA30/YOKUqc-RSCo/s400/2012-11-29_20-33-39_796.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Wu_o16CRys/ULhGPHJ_1UI/AAAAAAAAA4A/BqLiku1d1lc/s1600/2012-11-29_20-32-41_350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="280" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Wu_o16CRys/ULhGPHJ_1UI/AAAAAAAAA4A/BqLiku1d1lc/s400/2012-11-29_20-32-41_350.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAatygd8Fng/ULhGP8qnUBI/AAAAAAAAA4M/xDftKUl826g/s1600/2012-11-29_20-32-26_54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="261" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAatygd8Fng/ULhGP8qnUBI/AAAAAAAAA4M/xDftKUl826g/s400/2012-11-29_20-32-26_54.jpg" /></a></div>
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The all the toys took about 10 hours total to make. In addition to the knights not fitting on the horses, I other problems this year. I usually use Sharpie permanent markers to color the knights. But either the formulation of the ink changed, or the white primer I used had some weird chemical in it, or I had the worst luck with buying new pens, because every new pen I bought ended up drying up within about 3-4 minutes of use. I bought (& returned) 10 silver pens & they all stopped working pretty much immediately. I used to only need 2 silver pens to finish all 30 knights. So I ended up just painting the silver using a bright silver miniatures page.
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To give proper attribution for these project, I got all my ideas from the <a href="http://thepennywhistle.blogspot.com/search/label/clothespin">Penny Whistle Blog</a>.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-21389651549146768932012-11-20T20:11:00.002-08:002013-04-22T14:51:32.482-07:001st Strange Aeons Game<b>INTRO & SETUP</b>
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I recently ran my 1st game of <a href="http://www.strange-aeons.ca/">Strange Aeons</a> at our local weekly club night. Strange Aeons is a skirmish level game where government special agents fight against Cthulhu cultists. Think Necromunda in the 1920s/30s with Tentacles.
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Usually Strange Aeons (SA) is a 1-on-1 game. But due to our club nights having up to 6-8 people, I doubled the number of gangs, so there were 2 per side. & I made the gangs a bit larger than normal so they could be split in half to support more players.
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The scenario had a Treasury Man with military support investigating a possible moonshine operation. At the same time, Threshold agents (a secret government agency to fight supernatural threats) were investigating reports of some sort of backwoods sacrificial rituals.
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Here's the Treasury team with the lead investigator (Character), Sgt w/ SMG(Agent), 2 riflemen & a reporter to record taking down the moonshiners (all 3 Civilians).
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz-zhGmVvzo/UKw0WqjrQyI/AAAAAAAAAyU/MD_2cpz5eFE/s1600/2012-11-14_08-52-57_402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz-zhGmVvzo/UKw0WqjrQyI/AAAAAAAAAyU/MD_2cpz5eFE/s400/2012-11-14_08-52-57_402.jpg" /></a></div>
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& here's the Threshold Team with the main Investigator in the center (Character), a professor of ancient languages & his daughter/assistant to the right (both Agents), the local farmer who reported the rituals & a police office for protection on the left (both civilians).
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zkhiCNhe6i0/UKw0XSfncOI/AAAAAAAAAyg/D8cQE-BkFZs/s1600/2012-11-14_08-51-31_437.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="173" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zkhiCNhe6i0/UKw0XSfncOI/AAAAAAAAAyg/D8cQE-BkFZs/s400/2012-11-14_08-51-31_437.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here's a picture of the board layout. The flat terrain pieces outlined in brown in the picture are what I call "terrain blinds" & are explained in <a href="http://twotharksonecup.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-game-mechanic-terrain-blinds.html">a prior post</a>.
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xJJm1hMco5M/UKw0YL67PAI/AAAAAAAAAys/U3z3rssk-JI/s1600/terrain%2Bblinds2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="364" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xJJm1hMco5M/UKw0YL67PAI/AAAAAAAAAys/U3z3rssk-JI/s400/terrain%2Bblinds2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Normally, an SA game is played on a 2'x3' board. But because I doubled the number of gangs, I doubled the size of the board. So the board was 4'x3'. The 2 "good" gangs (Treasury gang & Threshold gang) entered the board from the left. The 2 "bad" gangs were in hiding as part of the terrain blinds.
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<b>GAME REPORT</b>
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I allowed both good gangs to do a single group move, activating their whole gang at once to get them within conflict range of the bad gangs. This allowed the moonshine operation to be seen & put on the table.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ae7d__ksNSQ/UKw2NpuTRDI/AAAAAAAAAy4/HejJ-MC5SLQ/s1600/2012-11-09_19-00-34_927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="229" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ae7d__ksNSQ/UKw2NpuTRDI/AAAAAAAAAy4/HejJ-MC5SLQ/s400/2012-11-09_19-00-34_927.jpg" /></a></div>
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With the moonshine shacks on the board, the Treasury men made an immediate attack against them. Unfortunately, the police office was the caught in the crossfire and the 1st casuatly of the game. The weight of the Treasury gang's fire started taking its toll, and the moonshiners took their own casaulties. This allowed the G-Men to clear out the front shacks.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QRARJukSSqA/UKw3nZLjghI/AAAAAAAAAzE/8MbzheXo7Tk/s1600/2012-11-09_19-05-17_180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QRARJukSSqA/UKw3nZLjghI/AAAAAAAAAzE/8MbzheXo7Tk/s400/2012-11-09_19-05-17_180.jpg" /></a></div>
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But unbeknownst to the G-Men, something had been scuttling through the underbrush & was about to pounce. [I used one of the extra terrain blind pieces to allow the 2nd "bad" gang to move unseen (or at least unidentified) across the board. & again, until they were in direct visual range, I allowed them to activate & move as a whole group all at once.]
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IeoF-cDmyIo/UKw5ZhVid3I/AAAAAAAAAzc/neIBkrZ2d_M/s1600/2012-11-09_19-33-22_953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="302" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IeoF-cDmyIo/UKw5ZhVid3I/AAAAAAAAAzc/neIBkrZ2d_M/s400/2012-11-09_19-33-22_953.jpg" /></a></div>
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Finally, the GUST (Group of Unknown Scuttley Things) broke cover & the Treasury men saw the full horror of what had been stalking them. [These were run as Vermin from the Shocking Tales #1 suppliment, with 1 Cultist Henchman as their Pied Piper. Because the GUST were just Vermin, they didn't actually cause any Resolve checks. "the full horror" just sounded good in the narrative.]
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VQJIt_XZ5eU/UKw7AcjLHnI/AAAAAAAAAzo/jWX9V5GvyWM/s1600/2012-11-09_19-34-35_750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="296" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VQJIt_XZ5eU/UKw7AcjLHnI/AAAAAAAAAzo/jWX9V5GvyWM/s400/2012-11-09_19-34-35_750.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here's a shot from the other direction showing just how vulnerable the G-men were to the gnashing beaks of the GUST.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0shQ0LTihtI/UKw7RlFgxZI/AAAAAAAAAz0/o9k38Rcg9v0/s1600/2012-11-09_19-37-33_900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0shQ0LTihtI/UKw7RlFgxZI/AAAAAAAAAz0/o9k38Rcg9v0/s400/2012-11-09_19-37-33_900.jpg" /></a></div>
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Luckily, the head G-Man quickly & calmly started gunning down the horrible GUST as they rushed his team. Below is evidence of the GUST's unfortunate luck for one of the few that got into combat. The 3 white 6s was the melee roll for the head G-man, while the 2 purple 2s was for the GUST (& that was even on my special cthulhu dice).
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ev5x_AC2Xss/UKw8r3ZSMfI/AAAAAAAAA0A/-rOscu7eaFU/s1600/2012-11-09_19-43-58_408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="277" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ev5x_AC2Xss/UKw8r3ZSMfI/AAAAAAAAA0A/-rOscu7eaFU/s400/2012-11-09_19-43-58_408.jpg" /></a></div>
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Finally, one got past the Treasury gunline & attacked the reporter who had gotten too close trying to take pictures of the horrible GUST. The Sgt in the background recoils in surprise.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2wDKklf2gYc/UKxAGFAVFeI/AAAAAAAAA0c/xa-6pMHyIpU/s1600/2012-11-09_19-54-51_153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="275" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2wDKklf2gYc/UKxAGFAVFeI/AAAAAAAAA0c/xa-6pMHyIpU/s400/2012-11-09_19-54-51_153.jpg" /></a></div>
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The reporter's lack of formal combat training was telling, and he was ripped apart. He did win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his final picture.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IblVo1upYmQ/UKxUbGbGuKI/AAAAAAAAA2E/IiVJQcqhlfg/s1600/2012-11-20_20-08-28_172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="301" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IblVo1upYmQ/UKxUbGbGuKI/AAAAAAAAA2E/IiVJQcqhlfg/s400/2012-11-20_20-08-28_172.jpg" /></a></div>
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The rest of the GUST were killed in their tracks, and with over half of the moonshiners taken out, Good prevailed and both the moonshiners and the cult were cleared out.
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But the Threshold Agents thought certain references to Moon-tree Shine found in the shacks indicated a connection between the moonshiners and the cultists.
What else, other than providing moonshine to other-worldly beings, could explain the size of such a large still?
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yi9pGWw9okE/UKxIVR4nABI/AAAAAAAAA08/jxPUTTVD5ig/s1600/2012-11-09_19-16-16_179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="375" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yi9pGWw9okE/UKxIVR4nABI/AAAAAAAAA08/jxPUTTVD5ig/s400/2012-11-09_19-16-16_179.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>SUMMARY</b>
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Unfortunately, my design of the gangs kind of led to difficulties during the game. Having the cult gang be all melee-only figures meant the moonshiners (shown below) had to face all the fire from both gangs on their own. Also, since the leader of the cultist gang didn't have the Command skill, each GUST was being activated one at a time, meaning it was very difficult to allow the GUST to support each other in melee.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9gAQF6tEYIQ/UKxJlaZ_Q1I/AAAAAAAAA1E/HxlV2lz7_Ck/s1600/2012-11-14_08-54-28_246.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="149" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9gAQF6tEYIQ/UKxJlaZ_Q1I/AAAAAAAAA1E/HxlV2lz7_Ck/s400/2012-11-14_08-54-28_246.jpg" /></a></div>
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Also, I probably didn't explain the significance of the Command skill to the moonshiner players. They hid the head of the gang (classed as a Cult Leader) at the back of the moonshine area to protect him. This meant the moonshiner gang was only activating 1 figure in a turn facing to the good gangs activating 6 figures a turn (I allowed both gangs on a side 1 activation each turn, & the good gangs would always activate their leaders with their Command skill. This allowed each good gang to activate another 2 figures, for a total of 6 for the whole good side.)
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Therefore, between the bad side having half the number of guns, & not being told how to effectively use the few skills they did have, the game wasn't terribly enjoyable for the bad side. The good side players loved it though 8).
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But a few of the players enjoyed the concept of the game, & were able to look past my bad game design, to be willing to try it again. & one player not only specifically ask to play again, but bought some of the rule books. So, he & I are planning more 1-on-1 games to try to work the kinks out more before trying another large game.
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& before I get deluged with questions about the GUST figures... I got them off ebay, from a seller who's name I don't remember. He'd had them custom made & was just selling off the extras.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDuHxAIiFWM/UKxOE7T6kSI/AAAAAAAAA1k/zYE_kgJKMEw/s1600/2012-11-09_19-34-44_702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="265" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDuHxAIiFWM/UKxOE7T6kSI/AAAAAAAAA1k/zYE_kgJKMEw/s400/2012-11-09_19-34-44_702.jpg" /></a></div>
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Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-80706521266739385172012-11-14T12:20:00.003-08:002013-04-22T14:51:12.757-07:00New Game Mechanic? Terrain BlindsRecently, I ran game where I didn't want all the key terrain out on the board since it'd give the players a sense of what was in store. So, drawing on my long familiarity with <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk">Too Fat Lardies</a> games, I considered their use of Troop Blinds.
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The Too Fat Lardies games use Troop Blinds to represent an unscouted force of unknown size & composition moving around on the board. So, I decided to create Terrain Blinds.
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They are non-descript terrain placeholders that allowed me to show the players that something is in that area of the board, but that their figures can't tell what it was until they got closer. Otherwise, if I just left the "hidden" terrain piece off the board, the empty spaces would look funny & be a bit misleading to the players.
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Here is the intial board set up. The terrain blinds are the flat green/brown patches circled.
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HqTePvWcKZU/UKP-C9tpt9I/AAAAAAAAAx4/qWy96E8rca0/s1600/terrain%2Bblinds2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="364" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HqTePvWcKZU/UKP-C9tpt9I/AAAAAAAAAx4/qWy96E8rca0/s400/terrain%2Bblinds2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here is a close up of the blinds.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsvK6pFVDrE/UKP76ORLPxI/AAAAAAAAAxs/g47DQziPqS4/s1600/terrain%2Bblinds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="384" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MsvK6pFVDrE/UKP76ORLPxI/AAAAAAAAAxs/g47DQziPqS4/s400/terrain%2Bblinds.jpg" /></a></div>
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& once the players' figures got close enough to the blinds, here is what replaced the group of blinds in the right center of the initial picture.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QcCBktfXMTU/UKP2ZpdB2KI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/oUJ89YpuJUY/s1600/2012-11-09_19-00-34_927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="229" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QcCBktfXMTU/UKP2ZpdB2KI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/oUJ89YpuJUY/s400/2012-11-09_19-00-34_927.jpg" /></a></div>
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I sure I'm not the 1st person to come up with the idea of hiding terrain from the players. I know I've seen fully laid out 3D dungeon crawls where the unexplored part of the dungeon is covered up to prevent the party from seeing what's ahead. But in all the wide & varied wargaming reading I've done, I've never seen the use of actual Terrain Blinds placeholders like this.
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So please let me know if you've seen this kind of Terrain Blinds use before, & what you think of the idea.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-9092481418973151052012-11-14T09:45:00.000-08:002013-04-22T14:50:46.469-07:00Beavering AwayMy local club (Miniature Wargaming Society in Sacramento, CA) has decided to put together another big game for next year's conventions. Last year, one of our members put on a massive pirate game with 24 players, loads of boats & over 2000 figures. You can see that game at <a href="http://carobbeansea.blogspot.com/">Pirates of the Carob Bean Sea.</a>
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The next game is tenatively called Rumble in the Jungle & will be a simplied version of the DUST Warfare rules for Weird World War 2 games.
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I have been helping out by building some of the trees for the game. They are 3 sets of the the <a href="http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440158a&prodId=prod1095512">GW trees</a>. Ironically, I've been looking to pick the GW trees up cheaply for a while, & then GM for the club game hands me 3 boxes of the trees to build that he got for $5 each.
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I've finished painting all the separate parts of the trees, but still need to assemble them.
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Here are the bases that the trees fit into:
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2e6Q9sz2oSU/UKPWqttR5rI/AAAAAAAAAwA/hNNrBpS9t3U/s1600/2012-11-14_08-48-41_342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="368" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2e6Q9sz2oSU/UKPWqttR5rI/AAAAAAAAAwA/hNNrBpS9t3U/s400/2012-11-14_08-48-41_342.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hVkcWi9uVmY/UKPW3PPXZUI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/RJBmjWQg2us/s1600/2012-11-14_08-49-02_921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="269" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hVkcWi9uVmY/UKPW3PPXZUI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/RJBmjWQg2us/s400/2012-11-14_08-49-02_921.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here are the leaves that will be glued on the the trees:
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z__fmUDxclI/UKPWoOQVKOI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/sLf_q70fs9w/s1600/2012-11-14_08-58-23_689.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="273" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z__fmUDxclI/UKPWoOQVKOI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/sLf_q70fs9w/s400/2012-11-14_08-58-23_689.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k4gir3uKOys/UKPWogOPdvI/AAAAAAAAAvc/-k3D75IvDqU/s1600/2012-11-14_08-58-33_853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k4gir3uKOys/UKPWogOPdvI/AAAAAAAAAvc/-k3D75IvDqU/s400/2012-11-14_08-58-33_853.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here are the trees themselves:
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WB-YsuPdcP4/UKPWpaMscbI/AAAAAAAAAvo/WXMjJJrKJhk/s1600/2012-11-14_09-02-14_150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="198" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WB-YsuPdcP4/UKPWpaMscbI/AAAAAAAAAvo/WXMjJJrKJhk/s400/2012-11-14_09-02-14_150.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3iLvvCdno_s/UKPWqLk6ckI/AAAAAAAAAv0/mK2RHyXg-Y8/s1600/2012-11-14_09-02-43_168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="362" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3iLvvCdno_s/UKPWqLk6ckI/AAAAAAAAAv0/mK2RHyXg-Y8/s400/2012-11-14_09-02-43_168.jpg" /></a></div>
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And finally, here are the trees & bases together:
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s9nrgfuHeUU/UKPW3mulgEI/AAAAAAAAAwc/ZoY57_8KftA/s1600/2012-11-14_09-03-49_549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="290" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s9nrgfuHeUU/UKPW3mulgEI/AAAAAAAAAwc/ZoY57_8KftA/s400/2012-11-14_09-03-49_549.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FBlAC4789pg/UKPW4eF3SCI/AAAAAAAAAwo/XKsQBMbeKY8/s1600/2012-11-14_09-04-27_986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FBlAC4789pg/UKPW4eF3SCI/AAAAAAAAAwo/XKsQBMbeKY8/s400/2012-11-14_09-04-27_986.jpg" /></a></div>
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I think they've come out pretty well. My only disappointments are that I didn't fill where the separate model pieces join together, & that the grass I added doesn't show up too well. I may pull the grass of & replace it with small tufts of lichen since I think they'd be more noticable & probably more durable.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-64780391390655421422012-09-23T14:57:00.000-07:002013-04-22T14:50:19.121-07:00Strange Aeons CultistsI've been working on some scratch-built cultists for the Strange Aeons Cthulhu mythos skirmish game.
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Here's the whole gang.
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3 melee cultists with 1 cultist with a rifle
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1 melee cultist, the cult leader (opposite colored hood & robe with a pistol), 1 cultist rifle, & 1 with a Thompson SMG
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These are made from <a href="http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440086a&prodId=prod1040494">GW Skaven Plague Monks</a> with putty hoods & their tail cut off to use as the face tentacles. Now I feel like the Farmer's Wife. I also bought some of the <a href="http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath/Veer-myn.html">Mantic Games Veer-Myn </a>tails from an online bits shop, so some of the cultists could have more than 1 tentacle.
This idea of using Skaven for cultists & cutting of their tails came from Kid Kyoto who posted it on <a href="http://theminiaturespage.com/">The Miniatures Page</a> a few years ago.
My only disappointment in making them is that I used GW's new Earthshade wash for the 1st on them, & it turned out way too dark on in the folds & bottom of the robe.
Next up will either be my zombie-cthulhu mash ups, or some very unique figures for use as swarms or vermin.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-85365751066598589322012-09-23T12:51:00.000-07:002012-09-23T13:01:28.326-07:00My Asthonian JourneyI have been an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hp_lovecraft">HP Lovecraft</a> fan for a long time. & after a while of reading & hearing about his work, I also started hearing about a contemporary & close friend of his, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith">Clark Ashton Smith</a>. But it wasn't until the excellent <a href="http://thedoubleshadow.com/">Double Shadow</a> podcast started that I got around to reading Smith's stories.
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Clark's stories, while some of them share a similar subject matter, are very different from Lovecraft's, & I'd highly recommend checking them out. Some, if not all, of his short stores are available at the <a href="http://www.eldritchdark.com/">Eldritch Dark</a> website. I recently found out that Smith spent most of his life in Auburn, California, about 30 miles from where I live. So I took a trip up there to find the various memorials that have been put up in his honor. & since it took quite a bit of internet research & contacting the Auburn City Council to track them all down, I figured I'd try to provide a guide to them too for anyone else interested in finding them.
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My 1st stop was in a small park area, I believe referred to as Centennial Park, in Old Auburn just off the Maple St exit from I-80. It's in the block bounded by Lincoln Way, Sacramento St & Auburn Folsom Rd. There's a public parking lot off Lincoln that's next to the Placer County Law Library. At the far end of the lot, is the small park.
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Here is the small park from the end of the parking lot. You can see the side of the boulder & plaque on the right of the picture.
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Here is the memorial.
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& here is a close up of the plaque. When urban development threatened Smith's burial site, some of friends & fans, & the City of Auburn moved the boulder & some of the dirt around it, to this spot.
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If you continue down Lincoln Way to its intesection with High St, you can find another commemoration in Auburn's downtown central Square. The sidewalks around the area have diamond shaped engravings listing Auburn's famous citizens & their accomplishments. Smith's is on the Northwest side of the intersection in front of the Masonic hall.
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(The strange perspective of the picture is due to me shooting it standing at the top of the diamond & then turning the picture upside down. Otherwise my shadow would have been in the if I took the picture normally.)
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My next stops were to track down the 3 streets that I believe were named after him (at least 1 definately was). These were easily found via online maps.
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When I contacted the Auburn City Council, they said there might be a plaque in the parking lot of their local In-N-Out Burger. They didn't say why, but I guessed it might have originally been the site of Smith's cabin. I didn't find a plaque for him there, but did find a plaque commemorating another local resident said he'd own the property. Maybe the other resident was one of the owners before Smith's parents built their cabin.
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My final stop was at the Auburn Placer County Library. This plaque was added in 1985. The plaque is in a small courtyard to the right of the library's main entrance. Since it was already night by the time I got to this one, I had to get very close to the plaque for my flash to illuminate it enough to read it. That's why its split into 2 pictures.
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The trip was an enjoyable diversion into the life of a very interesting author. All the sites I visited were pretty close together, so it would probably take about an hour to visit them all.
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References for Smith's biographical information & memorial locations:
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<a href="http://alangullette.com/lit/smith/sorcerer.htm">http://alangullette.com/lit/smith/sorcerer.htm
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<a href="http://www.eldritchdark.com/">http://www.eldritchdark.com/
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Eldritch Dark has better pictures of the plaques in their Gallery section:
<a href="http://www.eldritchdark.com/galleries/of-cas/all/a/1">http://www.eldritchdark.com/galleries/of-cas/all/a/1
</a>Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434153105276405983.post-14865732412847713452012-08-01T21:25:00.000-07:002013-04-22T14:48:45.261-07:00Of Wooden Soldiers and Felt Tip PensMy good friend Tom Foss has been developing a new and innovative line of Wooden Toy Soldiers for eventual retail. To support this, he has been posting pictures of beautifully & lovingly painted examples of his soldiers on his blog, <a href="http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/">Skull and Crown</a>. While I am in awe of his artistry, I was curious how someone with significantly less skill and artistic knowledge would do with one of them. So Tom was kind enough to send me one of his Officer sprues for me to have my way with.
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Since I was kind of putting myself in the position of the Everyman with marginal artistic skill, I limited myself to these art supplies.
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My daugther's drawer of felt tip pens.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B6etvMOtCyg/UBn_8JmY1KI/AAAAAAAAApg/Mhv9LJSJEB4/s1600/swedish%2Bnapoleonic%2Buniform.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="279" width="115" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B6etvMOtCyg/UBn_8JmY1KI/AAAAAAAAApg/Mhv9LJSJEB4/s400/swedish%2Bnapoleonic%2Buniform.png" /></a></div>
Being half Swedish myself, I based my Officer’s uniform on those of Sweden’s army during the Napoleonic wars. This meant a predominately blue and yellow uniform.
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In the past, I had used Sharpie pens to color other homemade wooden soldiers, but ran into a noticeable problem with the ink bleeding along the wood grain. So I wanted to make try a few tests first. Here are a number of different pen color tests that I made on the sprue frame & the underside of the Officer’s base.
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I found that either because of the much tighter grain of the wood that the Officer was made out of, or because of differences in the non-Sharpie ink, I had no problem with the ink bleeding.
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I found I needed to use a very golden color for the yellow, otherwise it wouldn’t look much different from the color of the wood. Here is the selection of pens I settled on. The one "cheat" I made was to use a metallic silver Sharpie which was not part of my daughter's pen collection.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DJfV52bTrkg/UBq3KDkUHUI/AAAAAAAAArE/fZhPDpoTFMw/s1600/pen%2Bselection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="149" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DJfV52bTrkg/UBq3KDkUHUI/AAAAAAAAArE/fZhPDpoTFMw/s400/pen%2Bselection.jpg" /></a></div>
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After deciding on the pens, I wanted to color a test piece. I picked the Shako for my Officer to wear, so was left with the Bicorn to use as a test. I quickly learned to color in the direction of the lines of the etched wood. The edges and corners of the etching are very rigid, so they can quickly tear up the soft felt tips of the pens. Here is my first try at coloring inside the lines.
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Being very pleased with how it came out, I went to town on the rest of the Officer. Here are the unassembled pieces before I started (I initially forgot to take a "before" picture). I realized I should color all the pieces first before gluing them together. If I didn’t, then it would be tough to get the fat-tipped pens into the creases where the 2 layers of wood joined together.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DCnDBD0HSVU/UBq3XRstFII/AAAAAAAAArQ/V53mJmhsf0I/s1600/uncolored.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="295" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DCnDBD0HSVU/UBq3XRstFII/AAAAAAAAArQ/V53mJmhsf0I/s400/uncolored.jpg" /></a></div>
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And here are the final colored pieces. As you can tell, I got a bit sloppy on the back of the coat. I picked a mostly dried out black pen to do the Shako & boots in order for it to be slightly grey so the etching could still be seen.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zjmkIokyeDU/UBq3dbUfuGI/AAAAAAAAArc/uBqJccOI3VI/s1600/finished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="246" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zjmkIokyeDU/UBq3dbUfuGI/AAAAAAAAArc/uBqJccOI3VI/s400/finished.jpg" /></a></div>
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And here is the officer finally assembled. I intentionally glued the plume on backwards since the plumes on Sweden’s hats were solid white. The front of the plume has an etched line half way up it to allow for 2 colored plumes (you can see the dividing line on the photo of the back). I also put the plume off to the side of the Shako since they were usually on the side of the hats instead of in the front.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9XTiULHt6es/UBq3jTiZmCI/AAAAAAAAAro/K8kZIjnUA4c/s1600/front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="178" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9XTiULHt6es/UBq3jTiZmCI/AAAAAAAAAro/K8kZIjnUA4c/s400/front.jpg" /></a>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fo3EEJkOEAg/UBn94AT-t8I/AAAAAAAAApU/X6iY5WAp4zg/s1600/2012-07-16_15-08-51_116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="170" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fo3EEJkOEAg/UBn94AT-t8I/AAAAAAAAApU/X6iY5WAp4zg/s400/2012-07-16_15-08-51_116.jpg" /></a>
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Overall, it took me about 20 minutes to color, not including the test pieces. That did include checking the Swedish uniform references & Tom’s blog a number of times for examples. And I was taking extra time when coloring the small details since I was using such fat-tipped pens.
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So, even with a bunch of felt tipped pens, these soldiers can be colored quite nicely. And that’s the beauty of Tom’s idea, his artwork combined with the laser etching means you start with a very nice looking figure before you’ve done anything. And your coloring (or painting) of the solider not only makes it better, but it’s a lot of fun too. And best of all, if you pick the scented felt tip pens, your solidiers can even smell good too.Black Cavalierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210124240128339760noreply@blogger.com9