Java by Request

We were down to four of us for Sunday evening's gaming, and Joel being the host, declared we would play a board game that we hadn't yet this year. Suggestions flew back and forth in the email conversations in the week leading up to Sunday. There are a lot of good board games out there that have a max of four players, so this was a chance to play them again. Our normal crew is 5-6, sometimes even 7 players. Java, by Rio Grande Games, is one of those four player games. It was requested by both Tom and Allen, so I dragged it and a few other games along.

After catching up on the not-so-good news of our friends (get well, soon, Mike S...hope your luck turns around soon, Steve!), we broke out Java and I explained the rules, again. I played my usual strategy of building up temple complexes as fast as possible, while trying to stay competitive on the points garnered from irrigation tiles. Joel maxed out on the irrigation tiles, as usual, but threw a new wrinkle in his strategy. He flooded the board with his developer pieces -- most of them lurking in the fields. Since he'd chosen red as his color, we laughed that he was the VC out in the rice paddies. Tom's strategy also focused on temples, while Allen played a middle ground between building and getting pieces on the board.

    Joel's contemplates his next move, while Allen and Tom look on...

I jumped out to an early lead, with Tom close on my heels. Once we ran out of space for new cities and temples, I started to run out of steam and Tom passed me up. On one crucial turn, I earned no points as I took back a temple from Allen that I'd already scored. Tom widened the gap. Joel closed his red army into the cities. Allen was also positioned thickly all over the board, but Tom and I had been very clever about maintaining position to control (or take over) cities. In the end, it was a race between Tom and I. He edged me out by about five points.

    Tom's secret weapon in Java: The sage advice of Brutus the Weimaraner

It was a great competitive game, and we had a good time, as usual. Lisa brought home a mixed six pack of beers in a variety of tempting flavors. So, it was good times, good drinks, and good snacks -- especially Joel's black bean dip which Allen practically licked the bowl to clean out. Joel and Lisa's Weimaraner Brutus kept us entertained for the price of mooching a snack or two. A good Sunday evening with friends!

French & Indian War Blockhouse by Acheson Creations

    28mm Militia rush towards an Acheson Creations Block house. This comes in three pieces -- bottom narrower section, upper section with windows, and roof.

As I sorted through the mountain of resin that was my order for French & Indian War era terrain, I picked out the 25mm Blockhouse as the first piece I would paint up. Plus, I wanted a "test piece" before I tackled the fort, which would take a lot more work. This would enable me to test the paint scheme I was planning on using and make sure I like it. Also, it consisted of only three pieces, so it was a much smaller job than the fort, which contains nearly two dozen separate pieces.

    The interior of the middle section, with the roof removed. You can see the rare earth magnets I epoxied onto the top of the wall corners.

I did my usual method for painting Acheson Creations terrain pieces. After washing it in the dishwasher to remove the mold release agent, I spray painted it black. Then I brushed on a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. My scheme consisted of Howard Hues Camo Brown wet brush over the black (leaving black in the cracks and joins), then a HH Colonial Khaki dry brush. For the pieces that would be in the sun -- the exterior walls and roof -- I then added a HH Rebel Gray dry brush to give it the sun-bleached gray look old wood tends to have. I finished if off with a black ink wash to bring out the wood grain. The base piece was flocked with Woodland Scenics flocking and the painting part was done!

    This piece went together very quickly, and will make great terrain for a French & Indian War scenario

I used rare earth magnets and 1/2" square metal bases to hold the three pieces together. The magnets went on the middle parts "facing up," so to speak, while the metal bases on those facing down -- like the roof and the bottom of the middle piece. These hold together very nicely and allow you to take it part for storage, but keep it firmly in place on the tabletop. This piece went together extremely quickly, and I was happy with how it looked.

Next up, the wall pieces of the fort!

Black Hats have a 'Bonanza'

    "Pa" and Cain find good firing positions near the fenced-in chicken coop

Mike S had a hankering to do a 28mm Cowboy game, so after raiding Keith's Old Glory Western terrain, he set up a White Hats (good guys) vs. Black Hats (bad guys) scenario. This episode feature myself as the Cartwrights seeking to chase off some outlaws who have been trespassing on our ranch. Joel was the Texas rangers, come to help us round up the scofflaws, while Keith and Tom played the bad guys.

Mike had made some changes to Ganesha Games' "Flying Lead" rules to better reflect the Hollywood Western. Essentially, every character was "Tough," which meant taking a wound merely worsened their Quality by 1 to 3, depending on how badly they were hit (beaten, doubled, or tripled). Once a character's Quality rose to a "6", he was out of action, or dead. In general, the rules worked well, though Mike had some changes he'd like to see, and we had some we suggested, as well. One odd feature -- more of a random aspect of cards and dice -- saw 5 of the first 6 turns the player whose card was drawn last had his drawn first in the following turn. The infamous "double move" before your opponents can respond is one of the reason I dislike card activation games. I prefer an established turn order, and feel you should win or lose based on your tactics (and dice, perhaps) -- not a fluke of the cards.

We deployed first, and I foolishly focused only on where my own troops were, ignoring where me ally Joel had deployed. Both Tom and Keith deployed near one corner of the battlefield, directly across the table from me. I had my Cartwrights dash across the field to take up good firing positions and fill the bad guys with lead as they attempted to cross the battlefield and escape into the mesas on the opposite edge from them. I was successful in putting Pa and Cain inside the fenced-in, chicken pen, while my other three dashed into a two story house that overlooked the bad guys. I was the first to benefit from the "double move," so blasted away at Keith's gang of outlaws, all of who were named Bob. Since an abnormally high number of my hits were "retreat" outcomes rather than wounds (depended on whether my die score was odd or even), we laughingly called them the "Running Bobbs." Even worse, they lined up for cover behind the outhouse, which provoked howls of laughter saying they all had the "runs" and were scrambling for the outhouse.

    The rest of my gang find a great firing position in the two story house overlooking the bad guys' position

What I had not noticed, though, was that Joel deployed his troops "a fair piece" away from mine. In fact, they couldn't have been in a worse position to support my attack -- they were hidden away in the mesas, and it would take a number of turns for them to advance to where they would be a factor in the battle. We have a saying on Sunday nights, and it proved true again this night: "Tom's winning!" Tom cleverly deduced they could gang both of their forces up against mine, and he proceeded to move his entire force into the house I'd holed up in, or blasting away at me through the windows. My three Cartwrights inside were cut down relatively quickly.  And when Keith woke up from his die rolling slump ("crapping out" twice in a row on activations, early on -- which meant none of his troops were able to act at all for two turns), the Cartwrights began to drop like flies.

    And here's why it wasn't such a good idea...Tom's entire gang uses his "double move" to race around the side of the house and rush it, outnumbering my guys 6-3...

The Texas rangers did race in impressively when Joel got the double move, firing at the hip as they came. However, with my men whittled down to essentially just Cain -- and he was bleeding badly -- it was now Joel's turn to ganged up on by Tom and Keith. Tactically, the White Hats blundered this game. Joel deployed too far away, but worse, I stuck my neck out too far and the Black Hats were only too glad to slip a noose around it. We went down kicking, though, and shot up Keith's "Running Bobs" fairly heavily. However, it was obvious that the Cartwright Ranch would be under new ownership come sundown.

The game worked well enough that I'm sure we will see another Western episode on Sunday nights. Hopefully next time the good guys will prove to have a little more between their ears than a big white hat...!

Small Bridge and Graveyard

    Two of my "too many" projects are complete...!

As mentioned in my "Too Many Projects" post, I have been juggling quite the handful of projects, lately. Well, here are two of them completed -- both items I intend to raffle off in the silent auction I will hold at Advance the Colors 2014 next month in Springfield, Ohio. I am auctioning them off for charity, which will go to help pay for my students' expenses on the trip to Italy I will be leading at the end of the school year.

    Small resin bridge I painted and based for a silent charity auction at Advance the Colors 2014

The bridge is a resin one that is just the right size to pass for either a medium-sized bridge in 15mm scale, or a small one in 25mm scale. I based it up on two separate pieces of black styrene. The arch of the bridge hangs over open space so it can be placed atop whatever type of river you use. In the picture, you see one of my latex rivers that I painted up last year. I spray painted it black, then brushed over that with a 50/50 coat of black acrylic paint on water to ensure thorough coverage. Next, I wetbrushed it a medium gray, followed by a light gray dry brush. The roadway part received a medium brown and then khaki dry brush. A final black ink wash brought out the highlights of the stone.

    Close up of the flowers and flocking added to the base of the bridge

The flocking on the styrene was done by painting it with white glue and dipping it in Woodland Scenics medium ballast. This was actually done in the beginning before the black spray paint stage. The ballast was wet brushed with an earth red, and then dry brushed khaki. Next, I got out my hot glue gun and attached the three flowers or flowering bushes. I painted sections of the flocking -- and the bridge -- in white glue and sprinkled on Woodland Scenics blended green turf. I followed this up by gluing in light green and dark green pieces of clump foliage as bushes and weeds. The whole affair was sprayed with Testors Dullcoate. Afterwards, it was sealed with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, and given a final spray of Dullcoate. I was very pleased with it, and hope that it goes for a good price!

    The small 28mm scale graveyard, assembled from various bits and pieces

Much more elaborate (and going for a higher price, I hope) is this small graveyard. I assembled it from various bits and pieces that I have. The three tombs and the entrances are resin ones from my favorite, Acheson Creations. The walls are ones I picked up at a giveaway the widow of a gamer was holding awhile back. The tree is a Woodland Scenics plastic one. The decorative bits on top of the stone walls use pieces from craft stores and the points from some lead spears. Once it was all assembled, I painted everything but the walls and entrances with white glue and dipped it in Woodland Scenics medium ballast. The entire affair was spray painted black, which I went over with a 50/50 mixture of acrylic black paint and water.

    A creepy, overgrown graveyard is perfect scenery for just about any period from the Middle Ages on up to the present! Put in your bid for this one at Advance the Colors in Springfield, Ohio, Sept. 19-21!

The walls and entrances were done exactly like the bridge, above. The tree was dry brushed medium brown, followed by khaki, and then light gray to give it that creepy dead look. The flocking was done exactly like the bridge, above, too. I put lots of Woodland Scenics clump foliage around it so it looked suitably overgrown and abandoned. I was really happy with how this one turned out. It is not as big as my own 28mm Graveyard I built last year, but I think it is the perfect piece of eye candy for just about any battlefield from the Middle Ages on up!

Combat Cards Sci-Fi Playtest III

    "Those about to die, salute you!" The attackers consult their hand of tactical Combat Cards after dropping in to assault our industrial installation

The first two playtests of the Combat Cards rules that Keith had downloaded hadn't gone particularly well, in my book. After the last game (a WW II scenario), I had lobbied hard for significant changes. There had to be more shooting, in my opinion. Otherwise, we have this several hour battle and no destroyed or significantly damaged units. Keith agreed, and we instituted a couple rules changes this time that had the desired effect.

The scenario was a Sci-Fi one, with three commands per side. Joel and I represented the force guarding an important industrial installation. Keith, Allen, and Mike S's friend Eric were the rival corporate force dropping in from space to wrest control of it from us. Mike S was the rapid response drop force coming to assist our defense. The effect of this was Joel and I deployed first. We chose to deploy our commands back-to-back, with the installation between us. There was a clever mechanism for the enemy's space drop. The player would select a unit and designate a target hex. He would then pull the top card from his stack and consult the "Drift" instructions. This could be Dead On (never happened), 2 hexes towards the nearest friend or enemy (2 separate cards), or 4 hexes off (towards nearest friend/enemy). The drop was humorous, as forces scattered or drifted way too close for their own comfort towards our deployed troops. Mike S dropped in a conservative distance off, and we were set to begin.

    Joel's troops on the left and mine on the right, deployed back to back, guarding the industrial installation from hostile, armed corporate take over

As I mentioned before, I did not like how there was very limited combat going on in a modern or futuristic game. Previously, the only time you could shoot was with an "Open Fire" card, or in response to enemy unit with an "Opportunity Fire" interrupt card. Keith changed this to troops being able to fire on ANY movement card, which meant there'd be a lot more things blowing up around the table, which is what gamers like to see! Keith had decided to randomize movement, and we gave him a lot of grief on the first turn as it turned out all three enemy players moved before we did. We should have been happy, though, that they moved fast. All three of us had our hand of 8 cards full of Opportunity Fire cards. When the enemy started moving, we blasted the snot out of them. Keith lost a unit immediately to Joel's deadly shooting, and one of Allen's units fell victim to mine, as well.

It helped us that Joel and I began the game with nearly all of our units dug in and in cover, as per the scenario rules. The return fire did not do much to us because tactical modifiers adjust the damage shooting inflicts on the target. If you have an advantaged shot, it makes the damage more deadly, if disadvantaged, less effective. When you shoot, you count up the net shifts up or down, and then flip the top card of your deck. Results range from Eliminated, Out of Action (misleading, you can recover from it), Shaken, Fall Back, or No Effect. So, our dug in and in cover modifiers made their shots do little to us. I had two units with "Shaped Charges" which move the level up 2, plus I was shooting from elevation, which shifted up. So, my attacks were eliminating Allen's units ranged against me, while his were just making my go Shaken, or less.

    Joel blasts away ineffectively against the three big giant robots, at left. Dug in and in cover, with advanced damage control, they were impossible for Joel to damage no matter how many tons of explosives he threw their way!

The one foe we couldn't dent was Eric's contingent of 3 giant robots, Keith classified as Behemoths. Not only did Eric keep them in cover or dug in much of the battle, they also had a special damage control modifier that lowered the effect one level. Joel launched several air strikes and pounded away at him, but caused no losses. Meanwhile, Keith was taking shots from both Joel and Mike S's advancing troops. He ended the game with only one or two units left. On my flank, I was receiving fortunate "Opportunity Fire," "Open Fire," and movement cards. So, after his advance was blunted, I closed in for the kill. My big killing machines were my mechanized units with the shaped charges. However, even an infantry unit got a kill in a close assault against a unit the my Fire Support had softened up.

    One of Allen's robots bursts into flame as my infantry close assault it (after the fire support unit on the hill softened them up). Fortuitous cards? Or good, combined arms tactics? Guess which *I* will say!

With each Keith and Allen down to one or two units each, and the defending forces having taken only one loss, we decided to call the game. I enjoyed the game much more -- not because we were doing so well. Instead, you were able to actually cause losses to the enemy side. I think Mike S said at the end of the game that of the 10 units we destroyed, maybe only two would have been under the original rules. I told Keith I think the tactical situation -- with us starting in cover and dug in -- gave us too big of an advantage. He didn't seem to think it was as important. Part of it, he said, was that we got the right cards from our decks at the right time. I agreed that did happen, but when coupled with our tactical advantage in damage shifts, it produced a bloody nose for the attackers and a resounding victory for us.

    Joel's battery fire of smoke cover -- meant to mask the robots and make them leave their cover and fortified positions to shoot (but off target) -- obscures the battlefield as we call the game. One of Keith's two remaining units is out of action near the installation, while the other hunkers down on the reverse slope of the hill.

Too many projects! M-u-s-t h-a-v-e f-o-c-u-s...!

I thought with the Lead Adventure League done, and a big Acheson Creations order coming in, that there would be no indecision on what I would be working on at this stage. However, my project queue is a mess right now! I have about a half dozen things in various stages of progress clustering my painting desk and cluttering up the desk in my spare bedroom.

    I have two each of these 28mm French & Indian War fortification pieces. The artillery emplacement on the left, and the stockade tower on the right

It all started when the Acheson Creations order was slow in coming in. I put together an order for me and a few friends, which turned out to be huge, in the end. And it turned out, so did half of the free world because of the excellent sale they were offering, putting the company way behind on filling orders. We've received three separate shipments from them, but the French & Indian War fort that I was thinking I'd be working on has not been among them. This last shipment did have two of the stockade towers and two artillery emplacements I ordered to supplement the basic fort set. So, I ran those through the dishwasher to clear off the mold release agent. So, that is project one, at the lowest possible stage of completion.

    Two 25mm Old Glory Indian canoe paddlers on my contraption for slipping them in and out of the canoes (before painting, of course!)

Project Two is 12 Old Glory 25mm Indian canoe paddlers. I special ordered them without the lead canoe and picked it up at Historicon the other week. When I got them home, I was surprised how small they were. They have to be the tiniest 25mm figures I've ever seen Old Glory produce. I'm sure they probably shrunk the scale to allow them to fit in their lead canoes. However, I had another source for my canoes (see Project Six below). I studied them and decided I would create a base of sorts sized to fit in my canoes perfectly, so I could just pop them in and out. The base would be tall enough to allow their paddle to clear the side of the canoe. I cut clear plastic triangular bases that fit snugly in the front and rear of my canoes (the center part would be where my 28mm Conquest Miniatures Indians would stand). I then sliced a square of balsa wood to the right height. A slat of bass wood was trimmed to resemble the board they would be kneeling upon. It would also hopefully serve to disguise the balsa wood prop. I drilled a hole in the bottom of each paddler, and epoxied in a straight pin. This was trimmed with wire cutters to leave a projecting point about 1/2" long. The Indian was then pressed down onto the balsa wood prop, clamping the bass wood slat between his knees and the prop. I just finished painting the joints with white glue to better seal it all together. Next stage is to paint the base and the Indians themselves. This project is at the next lowest stage of completion.

    Four 28mm reporters, newsmen, etc., that I will paint up and auction off at Advance the Colors 2014

Project Three is a group of four 28mm reporters or newsmen. These (along with Projects Four through Five) will be auctioned off for charity. The charity is my middle school travel group which I am taking to Italy at the end of this school year. The tour (through EF Tours) is not cheap, and the students are doing fund raising to offset the costs of their trips. Some parents want to send their kids, but can't afford the price, so I will be doing a variety of fund raisers. One of them will be a silent auction at Advance the Colors 2014. I am constructing and painting up three items which I will display at the convention. There will be cards for attendees to put in their bid for each item. I will post the highest bid every hour or two, so people can go back and up their ante if someone outbids them. Anyway, this batch includes a 19th century looking reporter jotting something down in a notebook. Another one is an old-time photographer with a large camera on a tripod and bent over the viewfinder with a cloth draped over him. A third one is an artist, seated on a barrel, and painting a picture of the scene (doubtless, the aftermath of a battle). The final one looks more 1900s, and has his suit jacked draped over his arm and is gesturing with a rolled up paper. These figures are assembled and epoxied onto metal bases. I will paint them up relatively generically, so anyone gaming Civil War, to Colonials, to the World Wars can use them as decorative elements on their battlefield.

    Timeless, small resin bridge good enough size for either 15mm or 28mm

Project Four is also for the silent auction. It is a small resin bridge, which can be used for either 15mm or 28mm. I based up each end on styrene, but left no base in the center. That is so it can be placed over whatever the GM is using for his river material. I will add some scenic elements on the bases, too, to make it stand out as an attractive piece. The bridge itself is a timeless looking stone one which can be used for anything from ancients to modern. I have run it through the dishwasher, spray painted it black, and also gone over the black in a brush-on, 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. So, it is probably at the midrange stage of completion for the half dozen projects.

    Construction done, this small 28mm graveyard is awaiting spray paint

Project Five is a scratch-built, small 28mm graveyard. It is inspired by my own graveyard I constructed last year, but is a smaller version. It is assembled this from various bits, including resin stone walls, Acheson Creations graves with tombstones, and a "dead" plastic tree. All of these are epoxied down onto a 8"x6" piece of black styrene. The picture shows how I created some of the components. I placed textured plastic over where the two halves of the entrances joined together to hide the seam. And I glued decorative plastic jewels to the tops of the walls to give it some fancy elements. The tree is in a corner of the small graveyard and should look appropriately atmospheric. Like the bridge above, I have based these down, spray painted them black, and gone over them with the 50/50 black acrylic paint. There is still quite a bit of painting and flocking to do on this, but all the construction is done.

    This is what the canoe looks like off the shelf at Hobby Lobby...will look MUCH better when I'm through!

The final project, #6, are a half dozen canoes for my French & Indian War period. I wanted canoes for various scenarios -- such as the lake battles from the James Fenimore Cooper "Hawkeye" novels -- or river actions. However, lead canoes are expensive. Worse yet, any figure with a reasonably sized base which allows it to stand up on the tabletop won't fit in manufacturer's canoes. The canoes are too narrow. My first solution was to construct them myself out of Sculpey. I have a three or four squares of it sitting on my desk in the spare bedroom, along with plastic tools for slicing and texturing it. However, it seemed such a big task, and one that might be artistically beyond my capability, artistically. So, I kept putting them off, putting them off, until I stumbled upon something at Hobby Lobby. In their birch wood products line I found a wooden canoe. It was on a stand, and had interior elements that would get in the way of figures fitting inside, but it seemed the right size. I bought one and took it home to mess around with. I popped it off its base and hollowed out everything on the interior so that it was just a wooden canoe shape that did actually resemble Indian ones. Three figures on my 1" square bases fit inside easily. Eureka! I went back up the next day and cleaned the shelves of the other five they had in stock. These are fairly far along. I will save description of how I did them for a separate post. Suffice to say, the canoes themselves are the closest of the six to completion.

Of course, that does not mean they will GET finished first! With six projects clustering for time, I need focus. Actually having that many things in various stages of completion is very frustrating for an anal person like myself -- ha, ha! I like to begin something and see it through to completion. The most I like having in progress at the same time is cleaning and priming the next project. So, stay tuned to see how progress on all these goes...!

Dakota Smith and the Forbidden Temple

 

We played the sixth of the seven scenarios I have planned for the first run of Pulp games last night. The archeologists were on the trail of the legendary relic, The Tears of the Buddha -- reputed to have mystical powers. They followed the directions from the inscriptions they'd deciphered from the Lost City to a distant mountain range. "Beyond the valley of the strange ones, lay the Stupa Mountains" the words said. And when the explorers caught sight of them, they were amazed at how much the range did indeed look like stupas from a Buddhist temple complex.

They soon caught sight of the Forbidden Temple, which the texts say housed the Tears of the Buddha. It appeared to be carved from a solid, rocky crag rising from a hillock in the center of a shallow valley. The top part of it was skillfully sculpted to resemble a giant deity, holding a raised sword over its head. The valley was ringed by cliffs which obviously were prone to rockslides. Rubble lay heaped up all over the valley, leaving only a handful of precarious paths through the valley to the temple.

I hope you enjoy this new style of battle report. It has become popular on the Lead Adventure Forum, so I thought I'd try it out. You will probably need to click on the photos to make them as large as possible to read all of the captions.

 

 

Road trip to Historicon 2014

    My Thursday night game, "A Very British Battle," featuring an alternate history Spanish Civil War type conflict breaking out in Britain

Four friends and I made the nine-hour road trip to Historicon 2014, this past weekend. Thankfully, the weather in Fredericksburg, VA, was much cooler than it was last year when we went. Even better, we were staying in one of the three convention hotels, so it was a short walk of a couple hundred yards to go back and forth between the convention center and our hotel rooms. Maybe I’m getting old, but I always need that time to go back to the room and stretch out on the bed and decompress.

We left Thursday morning and arrived shortly after 5 pm at the hotel. We checked in, dumped our things in the rooms, and hurried over to the convention center to pick up our registration before it closed at 6 pm. We then met Jason and dashed off to get a bit to eat before our 7 pm games began. Jason didn’t have anything scheduled, so joined me in my first game, “A Very British Battle.” It was a 28mm alternative history game in a world where the Spanish Civil War breaks out in Britain, in essence. British communists, fascists, and various other factions fight for power as the country devolves. My Parliamentarians were fired on quickly by the nearby Fascists, and I essentially spent the game fighting them. Unlike my attacker, I used the cover of trees and stone walls to give myself an edge in the shooting. Despite two charges which wiped out some of my troops, I ended up grinding him down to just one small band which ducked into the church in the center of the village. That is where Jason’s remaining troops were, too, as the goal of the game was to try to get your hands on the gold stored in the church cellar. It was a bloody game, with some of the players indulging in over-the-top roleplaying of their factions.

    My American force in "Jungle Gods" -- 28mm Pulp Action at Historicon. Note Teddy Roosevelt steaming upriver on the GM's scratch-build riverboat.

On Friday morning, my first game was a 28mm Pulp one called “Jungle Gods.” I played the Americans, led by Teddy Roosevelt chugging up a jungle river on his small steam launch. Mike S got in my game, too, and played German colonial troops trying to prevent me from trespassing in their territory while simultaneously putting down a revolt by the local African natives. There were also slavers and big game hunters, as well as two local African tribal factions. The game was one of the best of the con and also featured appearances by King Kong, a T-Rex, hippos, crocs, and a charging rhino. Early on, my Americans were treacherously fired upon by the slavers (seems to be a trend of getting fired on, unprovoked). We turned the launch and wiped out the slavers with the help of one of the tribes. Mike had a similar, bloody battle with one of the African factions, meanwhile losing men to an angry rhino and a giant spider. The game was called with pretty much every faction accomplishing their objective except mine (and the eliminated Slavers). Oh well, Teddy couldn’t leave such a back-handed blow unavenged, could he? We could discover the hidden temple another day!

    Jason's Scots chase his opponent's Saxons off of a rocky outcrop in his 28mm Saga Tournament on Friday

After lunch, I dashed over to watch Jason play his final game of the Saga tournament. I have never played the game, but had been wanting to watch one from start to finish. Jason does not get as much gaming in down in South Carolina as the group back here in Ohio does, but it is one of the things he does get a chance to do, from time to time. I think Saga is one of the games that has begun to “fill in” for the decline of DBA and DBM Ancients. With only 8-10 participants, it is nowhere near as widespread a game as the others were at their height, though. Anyway, each round in his four-round tournament was given 75 minutes. It seems like an interesting game, but the thing holding me back from it is that it is a one-on-one, competitive format game. We don't really do that type of gaming on our Sunday nights. We are more into multiplayer scenario games. The “battleboard” — or set of dice with special symbols that each player rolls for his command and control — does not look like it would translate well to a multiplayer game. It was fun to watch a game from start to finish, though. I have a better understanding of the game, now. It is one of those things that I would play if it was what my friends were into, but did not entice me enough to try to convince them to adopt.

Pictures from Bob Murch's Pulp figures website of one pack of figures I bought (unpainted, of course!)

In the afternoon, I shopped in the flea market and dealer hall. For the weekend, my purchases totaled up to a respectable $120. They included:

• Two packs to use as Chinese civilians from Pulp Figures by Bob Murch
• 12 Indian canoe paddlers in 28mm by Old Glory (I’d arranged beforehand for them to bring a dozen paddlers without their lead canoes)
• Eight 8-sided dice for use with the Pulp Alley rules
• Four 28mm Indian youths with bows from a new company, Footsore Miniatures, who are offering them as “Skraelings”
• Four jars of Howard Hues paints
• A shrink-wrapped copy of Command & Colours Napoleonics at roughly half price ($40) in the flea market
• A reference book from the flea market on French & Indian War Courier des Bois
• A random pack of figures from the flea market for $1 that included three high class Chinese civilians

I like the innovative command and control of Richard Borg's "Command & Colours" games, and had been wanting to try this one out.

Disappointingly, my Friday evening game GM decided not to run the event without telling the event desk or anyone else. There were other games I could have gotten into, but I waited for awhile since the table was set up. I thought maybe the start was just delayed, but the GM never showed back up. Oh, well…I had managed to schedule two events for Saturday, so there would be no shortage of gaming over the weekend. After my friends finished their games, we dashed off to BW3’s for some food, and then played a rousing game of 7 Wonders. First place (Jason) was separated from last place by only six points. I came in third, but it was a fun game as always.

We started Saturday morning helping Jason set up his flea market table. I’d brought a half dozen games along for him to try to sell and I was incredibly pleased that they all did. Of course, they were all priced at bargain basement level, but that is how I do it. I took some of that money and spent $40 of it on a shrink wrapped copy of Richard Borg’s “Command & Colours Napoleonics.” I’d wanted a copy of it for awhile, and it was roughly half price. So, I spent most of my sales money on that, incidentally driving my purchases for the convention over $100!

    My Sea Peoples and Libyan warrior command, fighting on behalf of the Egyptians against the Hittites in "Encounter at Jerboa" -- the Saturday morning game I signed up for and enjoyed

My morning game was “Encounter at Jerboa,” an Egyptian vs. Hittite encounter from the biblical era using a set of home rules I’d heard about. They were called NURDS and had an interesting concept. Every unit has an amount of endurance to casualties, morale stress, exertion, and so on. These are reflected in a number of boxes on their laminated unit card. Boxes are checked off on their card every time they do something causing battlefield stress. When they fall below half strength, they lose one of their two stands (and fight at half effectiveness). When they are out of boxes, they are destroyed. I played the Sea People and Libyan mercenaries of the Egyptian pharaoh. Our other two commands were a mix of Egyptian chariots and archers. Our enemies, the Hittites, had chariots and unarmored close order spearmen. Both sides maneuvered, some more aggressively than others. Our center commander was indecisive and timid, and continually pulled his four units back to regroup and rest them to regain some endurance. Eventually, that left my left flank wide open. I was mowing through my opponent, and had destroyed one of his units and dropped two to below half strength. When my elite Sea Peoples unit was charged in the flank by the enemy center command, the Sea People general sent a messenger scolding the center Egyptian general. He moved back into the fray, and we eventually destroyed the six enemy units we needed (I took out four of the enemy myself…!). It was a fun game, and the GM gave me a copy of the rules. I intend to try them out on the Sunday evening group some evening to see what they think.

    An interesting concept plus enthusiastic GM does not always equal a fun game, as I found out in my colonial era Herero War game I signed up for on Saturday night

In the afternoon, I made the rounds of the dealer area handing out invitations to vendors for our HMGS Great Lakes conventions, Advance the Colors 2014 and World at War Game Day 7. We already have 5-6 dealers committed to the show, but it was a good opportunity to spread the word about our show. I made my last dealer hall purchases, too, and then headed over to the room to rest up before my Saturday night event. This was probably the only let down of the show…well, other than the canceled event! The GM was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his game set in the Herero War in German South-West Africa. However, his organization and sense of timing could use a lot of help. He spent an hour and a half of a 4 hour event explaining the background and giving the sides their briefings. That, and no real solid method for us to mark down our hidden movement, meant we ended up playing only 3 turns. It was obvious that our side — the Hereros — were going to repeat history and maul the Germans. However, there was a LOT of sitting around waiting during that four hour time slot. With some more organization and a better system for the hidden movement, it could have gone much faster and been more fun.

That’s what happens, though, when you go to a convention. You get a mix of good games and not-as-good games. All in all, Historicon 2014 was a fun show.

The Forbidden Temple

 

    Top-down view of my newest Southeast Asian temple

It may seem weird that I felt compelled to construct a new temple for the upcoming scenario of Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures. After all, hadn't I scratch-built four of them already? They certainly filled up the game board when I ran the "Dakota Smith and the Lost City" scenario.

My storyline for my 28mm Pulp miniatures games has the archeologists searching for the temple containing the legendary relic, "The Tears of the Buddha." It is meant to be hidden away from the rest of the world. Thus, the explorers had to cross "The Valley that Time Forgot" to get there. I envisioned it as a solitary temple, high in the mountains. Sure, I could simply have used one of my earlier builds and placed it there, saying it was the Forbidden Temple. However, I wanted this one to have secret rooms they would have to discover. To go along with that, I wanted to use the really cool piece of Lizard Terrarium terrain -- a statue of a sword-armed deity -- that I'd picked up at Petsmart earlier this year.

    Sighted through the tress, the Forbidden Temple...!

So, my thought was to simply use two boxes for the Forbidden Temple itself -- disguised as a two-layer, rectangular plinth for the statue, which would sit atop them. Each box would represent a hidden chamber inside the temple. I wanted to be able to lift off the roofs and place an altar and set of spiral stairs inside each, too. The construction of the whole thing would be modular, so that I could use each layer of it individually as well, if I wanted.

The statue was actually already completed. I used it in the Pulp game I'd run in March at Cincycon 2014. I'd picked it up on clearance for just a couple bucks, making me wish the Petsmart with Lizard terrain was closer to my house! I had painted over the whole thing -- not liking the garish gold paint on the sword and other parts of it that it came with. Instead, I wanted a gray stone statue overgrown with encroaching jungle. So, first, I painted the entire thing black. I then wet-brushed a dark gray, followed by a light gray dry brush. A black wash then was applied to the whole statue to soften the brushwork lines. To give it the overgrown, jungle appearance, I used Woodland Scenics flocking liberally over various surfaces. Different shades of green clump foliage was glued into places that I thought vegetation would sprout most. As a finishing touch, I used a hot glue gun to affix two wire flowering bushes from model railroader's terrain. This gave it that "Angkor Wat"-style overgrown look. The statue is really an incredible piece, and all of this brought out its detail.

    Two boxes sit atop each other, held in place by their decorated, styrene roofs

As I said, the statue would sit atop the two boxes, forming the decorative base or plinth for it. Since this is for a Pulp game, there HAS to be hidden doors which lead to interior compartments. That simplified my job, meaning I didn't need to actually construct a visible entrance to them. They could appear solid state. I already had one good sized box that I planned to use for one level. A quick trip to Hobby Lobby scored a paper mache box to utilize for the second level. The first step was to create a roof for each box. I cut two rectangles of black styrene plastic for these, and then affixed a rectangle of foam core material to the underside so that these set inside the box and kept the roofs from shifting around too much. The roof of the first level would also form a base for the second level to sit upon.

    A close up of the roof decoration assembled from odds and ends from craft stores that I had in my boxes

 For the first level's roof, I cut a rectangle of wooden decorative molding and epoxied it to the stryene base of the roof. I sized the rectangle so the second level would fit snugly inside the moulding, keeping it in place and from sliding off and bringing the whole three-level structure crashing down. Some beads were glued down along two edges of the roof for decoration, as well. The roof of the second level was what the statue would sit upon. I decided to decorate the edges of the roof with various bits of birch wood odds and ends I'd purchased over the years at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or JoAnne Fabrics. Four, stupa-like mini towers rise from each corner. Their base is an upside down "flower pot." On top of that rests a wooden spool. And finally, crowning each is a plastic, fasceted "gem." More gems were glued along the edge of the roof. Once put together, both roofs were then sprayed with black, acrylic paint. I dry brushed them in a darker and lighter shade of gray, and did an final ink wash to give them a stone appearance that I hoped would match the statue's. The roofs turned out okay, but the lack of a real texture to their surface means they don't necessarily match the nicely-pitted statue that well. I should have sprayed them with "stone paint" or something similar to make the match better.

    Close up of the Khmer frieze (printed paper) from downloaded and Photoshopped from CG Textures

For the walls of the boxes, I wanted to try something different than I'd done in the past with my temples. I was intrigued by a comment from one of my friends, Keith, and wanted to try his suggestion. He had been looking at the interior of one of my jungle huts. For those, I had simply gone to the CG Textures website and downloaded high quality photographic images that looked like the wicker floors and walls I wanted to represent. Like Keith, I was impressed with how they had turned out. His comment was that you could possibly use the images for the exterior of buildings, too. CG Textures is an amazing resource, which I thank one of the posters on the Lead Adventure Forum for suggesting. Among their many excellent images is a selection of ones from Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples. I decided to utilize one of their stone carved friezes of seated gods. I measured the box sides, then opened the image in Photoshop. I resized, cut and pasted the images, finally printing them out on my laser printer. I did the same for the interiors, selecting a rough stone wall and mosaic floor pattern, as well.

I measured the inside and outside walls carefully and then cut each paper print out to size. I then painted the top and bottom edges of the boxes in black paint. I did this with the interior seams between the four walls with each other and also with the floor.  This is in case any of the paper doesn't extend all the way to an edge. The gap shows  black and gives the appearance of shadows or cracks. To affix the paper images, I painted each surface, one at a time, with straight white glue, then quickly applied the image. I smoothed it out, then went on the next. I did the floor interior last, after completing the outer and inner walls.

    As always, the interiors look great using the printed paper. Note the spiral staircase and the Buddha altar inside the hidden chamber of the temple.

I wasn't sure how well the marrying of two dimensional, paper walls with the 3-D roofs and statue would look. If I were to do it again, I would probably play with the color of the images more in Photoshop to try and get them to match the tone of the painted pieces. All in all, it looks okay, I think. I don't like it as well as my completely scratch-built temples. However, it was quick and easy to do, I think will look acceptable on the tabletop. Would I do it like this again? Hmm...probably not. However, I really wanted a temple with a Khmer-style frieze since my scenarios are set in French Indochina. It will work for the game, and I'm sure my players probably won't grouse about playing on second-rate terrain...ha, ha!

It's a Bridge...it's a pier!

    My Acheson Creations Wooden Plank Bridge painted and flocked, with two extra plank sections and four stanchion piers per section for stability

I have had this Acheson Creations 25mm Wooden Plank Bridge for about a year and a half, now. Since I have a huge batch of their stuff on the way, I figured I'd better get it painted up before it got buried behind the incoming French & Indian War fort, blockhouses, and log cabins. The thing I like best about this set is you can adjust the length to make it as long as you want by simply adding more plank sections, and that you can make it a pier by simply leaving off the other end of the bridge. I ordered additional "Wooden Bridge Sections" so I could make it up to 16" long if I desired. I also ordered more "Wooden Bridge Piers" -- which are the supports underneath the plank sections -- so that I could have four per section (two on each side).

The image on Acheson's website. Not that it has only one plank section and one set of pier stanchions. I expanded that to three sections, each with four pier stanchions apiece.

I was really surprised by how quickly this painted up. Had I know how little time it would take, I may have gotten around to it sooner! The only real construction or modification I did to this was to epoxy tiny metal bases to the underside of the bridge. I then epoxied one rare earth magnet to each pier stanchion. It holds together like a charm, and seems really stable. Originally, I thought I'd make it even more stable by basing up each group of four stanchions on clear plastic. However, once I put it all together, the rare earth magnets held it strongly and securely.

    At the bottom is the underside of the bridge planks with four 1/2"x1/2" metal bases epoxied on. At top, are the pier stanchions -- the dark black circle is the rare earth magnet.

One of the things I like about Acheson Creations products is how easy they are to prepare for the tabletop. I did my usual routine of running the pieces through the dishwasher, and then spray priming them black with Krylon Fusion primer. I follow that up by brushing on a heavily watered down coat of black acrylic paint. Once dry, I wet brush the pieces a medium brown -- I use Howard Hues Camo Brown. I follow that up with a dry brush of Howard Hues Colonial Khaki. I wanted this piece to look sun bleached, so I did an additional light gray dry brush over the surface to make it look more like wood that has been out in the sun for awhile. A final black wash finished out the wood surfaces of the bridge.

    The bridge as a pier. Simply take off one of the ends, and voila -- you have a wooden pier!

For the water effect on the bases, I painted them a very, very light blue -- I use Ceramcoat Coastal Blue. I then took a dark blue with a slight greenish tint and watered it down heavily into a wash. This I slopped on heavily onto the parts of the bases that had been molded to look like water. The wash sunk into the deep grooves, leaving the lighter blue visible in the tops of the waves. I did a straight white dry brush over the very tips of waves to look like whitecaps and sea foam. A little ground flocking on the very edge of the bridge ends and I was done.

    "Now, where's that confounded boat? Looking down the length of the pier/bridge.

And it was really amazing how quickly I was done. Despite all the stages where I have to let the pieces sit and dry, I was done in just a few days. So, now I have a bridge for my Dark Age troops to skirmish over, and a pier for my Pulp games. This is definitely one of those models that -- when you finish it -- you like to sit back and soak in how nice it really looks on the tableop. Highly recommended!