Chopper Down! Specialty Terrain Piece

    A helicopter has gone down in a ruined cityscape - a specialty terrain piece for an upcoming scenario

I was trying to think of something to lure my post-apocalyptic survivor gangs back into another free-for-all after their last cooperative scenario. Someone on the excellent Lead Adventure Forum suggested a downed aircraft in the city. Each gangs wants to scavenge ammunition and tech from the wreck before the others. Since my campaign is based around the Terminator concept with the apocalypse being the war between the sentient Machines and humans, this fit in well. I decided to use as my wreck a helicopter, with the story being humans fighting back were using it against the Machines when it was shot down.

`The chopper wreck lies partially on its side, having crashed into a building and mostly destroyed it

The helicopter in question is one of the $2.99 ones in the bins at Menards home improvement store, where I picked up many of my die cast vehicles. I also decided this would be a perfect time to tinker with the pack of flickering tea candles I'd bought a couple months back. My idea would be that the chopper came down in an urban area, so I'd have a shell of the walls holding it up and it would be resting on the tea candle. I broke out the plastic windows (except for the front) and used wire cutters to trim away the bottom and one of the sides of the helicopter. The candle was still too large (or the wreck too small) for the candle to be essentially inserted into the underside. I decided to try slicing away the top of the candle, and that worked. I found out that really you need only the bottom half of a flickering tea candle for it to remain intact and keep flickering.

    The brick pattern base and the ruins were painted and readied before gluing the chopper into place

I used some Acheson Creations stone and wood post fence pieces to create "U shape", then added more bricks to enclose the wreck on three sides. The base was a piece of brick-patterned styrene plastic from Hobby Lobby. I cut a hole out for the candle to pop in through the bottom (so I could replace it if and when the battery died). I also added in lots of coarse ballast painted black and dry brushed gray like the rest of the stone walls to represent rubble and debris. I even recycled a few slivers of the tea candle's top as pieces of the helicopter torn off onto the ground.

    Two rotor blades were "snapped off" and embedded in the walls, the others bent by the collision

I had fun with the rotors, too. First, I trimmed off two of them and then embedded parts of them in the fence. The other two were bent at an angle to give it even more of a wrecked look. I had painted the walls and bricks first, then glued the spray painted black chopper in place. I used Tacky Glue and hopefully it holds. It seems pretty secure. I added some dark olive to the chopper here and there on the parts that would be furthest from the flames. Finally, when I was satisfied with how it looked, I stuffed in batting (pillow stuffing) and teased it out through the open windows. Then I turned on the candle and was pretty happy with the look of flames still flickering inside the helicopter.

    A final look at the downed helicopter, which you will hopefully see in a few weeks in a scenario!

All in all, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. I won't win any contests with it, but it should add to the "cool" factor of a nicely set up tabletop! What's next, terrain-wise? I have several corner wall sections primed that I bought from Diabolical Terrain at Advance the Colors 2023. I also am getting ready another 3-D printed ruin from Jarls Workshop. So, stay tuned...more on the way!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 21

Gibbon Monkeys for Xenos Rampant

    A squad of Gibbon Monkeys from Eureka Miniatures' "Boiler Suit Apes" line of figures

I had a lot of fun painting this latest batch of miniatures for my Planet of the Apes contingent for Xenos Rampant. Although Gibbon Monkeys are not part of the movies' established lore, they are an excellent batch of figures from Eureka Miniatures. They have lots of character and variety of poses. There's even one sitting cross-legged on a laptop, who was immediately dragooned into being fire controller for Sci-Fi artillery. I bought these years ago at a convention, and would love to pick up some more to put together a second squad of them.

    The squad commander and a trooper -- I love the Mac-10 machine pistols they carry!

Google Image searches revealed there are more than one different types of coloring, but I thought the light yellowish tan ones with the black and white faces would stand out the most on the tabletop. I painted them a base "Maple Sugar" craft paint base coat. Then, I did a white dry brush to bring out the details on the fur and soften their color. Next, I painted the face white and then the black on the snout, brows, and eyes. I did a medium gray dry brush to bring out the facial detail, but perhaps should have done more. 

    The coloring for the monkeys came out well, though maybe I needed more highlights on their races

I went back and forth on what color to paint their clothes. Initially, I was thinking an olive drab, but then changed my mind to a brighter "Leaf Green" craft paint. I did a bright very pale green dry brush on the folds of the clothes, which really picked out the detail on these figures, I think. Various shades of metallic paints worked for the weapons, darkened with a black vehicle wash. I was really happy with how the color scheme turned out.

    The monkey on the laptop was perfect for a Fire Controller for this Reviresco 'Robot Power Gun'

The fire controller is tapping on a laptop keyboard. Being a Mac person, I decided to make it a MacBook -- of course! I used a Pewter metallic paint for the base coat, black for the keys, and did a lighter black wash over it all. The apple symbol was done in a Pearl White to hopefully give it some glow. I think this is a really awesome figure and I'm glad Eureka included it in the pack. In Xenos Rampant, the monkey fire controller will be combined with a tracked artillery piece and a chimpanzee bodyguard into a Support Infantry unit of three figures.

    'Space Chimp on Litter' was demoted to a humble bodyguard for the monkey fire controller

The chimp bodyguard comes from a line carried by Brigade Games called Atomic Cafe. It is part of a pack called Boondockers and Space Chimp on Litter. Having no need for two humans carrying the chimp in a spacesuit around, I propped the chimp up against a boulder and learned an assault rifle against it, as well. I figured he could be the fire controller's bodyguard. I decided to somewhat match the color scheme of my current chimpanzee force, and did a Iron Wind Metals base coat and a Howard Hues Middle East Flesh dry brush. The knee and arm pads I did in a metallic brown, but they don't show up in the pictures as very metallic looking. Maybe I will go back over them with a clear gloss -- we'll see. I decided against any other insignia or detail, so it is a rather plain looking figure. Still, I think the two make a good vignette when paired with the tracked artillery piece from Reviresco (Robot Power Gun - RRB Minis & More). 

    The three minis make a nice little vignette that will work well as Support Infantry in Xenos Rampant

So, what's next for me? My next update will be a specialty terrain piece that I've been working on for my next post-apocalyptic scenario. It is pretty much done, so look for that update in the next day or so. After that, I plan on doing some more urban ruins for terrain. Not 100% sure what is next for miniatures, though. Stay tuned and see!

    I'll field the squad of Gibbons as Light Infantry (and forward observers) in Xenos Rampant

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 21

New Boardgame: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East

    Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East by GMT games covers the same period as AH's Civilization

One of my presents to myself (used with Christmas money) was a new, multiplayer boardgame. Many years ago, we enjoyed extremely long-playing games such as Britannia, History of the World, and Civilization. No longer being able to play all night long, we slowly switched to more Euro style games. Some may still take a few hours to complete, but all in all, with streamlined mechanics they tend to play much faster than the old dinosaurs I remember fondly.

I saw Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East by GMT Games at the local game store and was intrigued. I read several reviews online and checked its Boardgamegeek rating (7.6 out of 10). I decided to pick it up and read through the rules. Streamlined yes, but there are a lot of steps and rules. Would it play well? Would it be the 21st century version of Civilization (considering it dealt with the same time period)? I convinced the Sunday evening gang to give it a try. On the day of the game, I re-read the rules, set out the board with initial placements for six civilizations and even dealt them their hand of Fate cards.

    My fellow "Ancient" players gathered around the board game table figuring out how to play

It took about a half hour or so to run through all the rules, and the guys were patient and asked clarification questions. So, we got started actually taking the first turn around 6:30pm. We had very few rules questions, actually, for a first play-through. We quickly found out that the Fate cards are nasty! A civilization can be gutted and lose half of its circular disks representing population on one card. One of the cruelest of the night was when I played the Biblical flood of "40 Days and 40 Nights" on my friend Allen controlling Assyria. I was stunned how badly it affected him. Of course, I got my comeuppance when his brother Joel hit me with a sea version of my river flood and then Keith hit me with a different river flood. 

Everyone enjoyed it, though. We resolved to play it again, but perhaps when we have more time allotted than a standard Sunday evening gaming time (3-4 hours). I like that the game has an irregular mechanism for how many turns an "Epoch" will last. Our first epoch ran long, and I timed it right to have a couple victory point lead at the end of it. We did the transition to Epoch 2, ran through most of our first turn of it, and then decided to call it at 10pm. Definitely an interesting game, and one that will see all player civilizations suffer the slings and arrows of Fate cards. 

    The starting positions for six civilizations all set up and waiting for my players to arrive

I look forward to our next game of it!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 14

Two New Corner Ruins for Post-Apocalyptic (or Sci-Fi)

    I bought these two 3-D printed corner ruins at ATC 2023 from my friend Rusty of Jarl's Workshop

Here are a few shots of some corner ruins I recently finished up. My friend Rusty Parker, who has a 3-D printing business called Jarl's Workshop, sold these to me at Advance the Colors 2023 because I liked the first one I painted up so much. They are originally from WOWBuildings, who sells the STL files. The kit is a six story corner ruin, but I decided to add some variety by lopping off a level or two on these two builds. Plus, my first one leaned a bit more than I liked when it got all the way up to six stories tall. Maybe that was my fault for not using some steel bases or something to wait it down on the bottom, but I am glad I made the decision to do 4- and 5-story versions. It should provide more variety on the tabletop.

    I used large bricks (Pegasus Terrain?) to simulate tumbled rubble on the base of the corner ruin

I cut my styrene plastic bases that I epoxied the ruins onto wider to also combat the lean. While I was at it, I added a lot more rubble on the bases, too. I want it to represent large blocks that that fell off the upper floors and now lay in piles on the ground around it. I used large red bricks that I bought at Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, OH -- which I believe come from Pegasus Terrain. I have long since thrown away the tag that came on the bag, so I can't be sure until my next trip there!

    These are great terrain pieces and really add to the look of a ruined, post-apocalyptic city

I did my usual treatment - spray painting the ruin with Krylon matte black paint and following it up with a 50/50 mixture of acrylic black paint and water. Then I did a dark gray wet brush and a light gray dry brush over the surface. I then added small red bricks and coarse gray ballast (from Woodland Scenics) to each of the floors to represent rubble piled up. For the ballast and small bricks, I went over them with a dark black wash.

    A good view of the small bricks and coarse gray ballast I added to each level of the ruin

You do have to glue the various levels together ("some assembly required"), but they fit together well and were no problem. Rusty sold them to me at a good price and I will probably (eventually) buy even more of them from him. I want to work on some more of the other ruined terrain that I picked up in the second half of the 2023. So stay tuned for more of those intermixed in with my Xenos Rampant figures!

    The original corner ruin -- all leaning six stories of it...!

 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 14

Filling Out the Ranks of Survivors for Xenos Rampant Squads

    F Troop gets reinforcements to bring them up to 2 squads for 'Xenos Rampant'

My first blog post of 2024 covers what I finished over winter break. Since it is my goal to host Sci-Fi skirmish games using Xenos Rampant rules this year, I have been fleshing out some of my post-apocalyptic survivor gangs. My goal is to bring them up so I have two complete squads of five figures for each gang (my planned base 10-point squad size for my games). I selected three survivor gangs and my Planet of the Apes figures for the first upgrades.

    The Nightstalkers were one of my survivor gangs that easily transition to Xenos Rampant Sci-Fi

First up were three more miniatures for the Nightstalkers. I had only two metal Battle Valor Games miniatures that I used for this unit left over, so I supplemented the third one with a Stargrave Trooper miniature painted in the same basic color scheme. It's always a bit problematic matching colors and washes when you add to an existing force later. After their final wash, these guys look a bit darker. So, I imagine my wash is a bit heavier black than it was when I first did this force. The plastic Stargrave trooper looks close enough, and can be considered an officer figure which explains the different armor and kit.

    The Bass Reeves get 3 more troopers to beef them up to 10 figures - love those Foundry figures!

Next up were three more miniatures for the Bass Reeves survivor gang. I think these will make good mercenaries or light infantry under the Xenos Rampant rules. These figs are Foundry Street Violence metal miniatures that I picked up from a flea market vendor. I really like how they paint up and wish I had bought more of them way back when. I still have some left over, but in my opinion, Foundry are always top quality. I matched the tan duster color as best I could, and of course, made them African-Americans like the rest of the Bass Reeves. I really like how the colored metallic paints look on sunglasses. I will likely continue doing "mirrored sunglasses" like that rather than use all black frames and lenses going forward.

    I really like 'Torch' - the Wiley Games resin figure with the flamethrower

I painted two more figures for F Troop since I originally did 8 (rather than 7) gang members when I did first painted up these guys. I had only one Sgt. Major Miniatures figure left over, so I supplemented a Wiley Games resin miniature I had purchased recently. This figure is called "Torch," and wears a 20th century army helmet, which helps him blend in with the rest of the gang. I do like the Wiley Games figures. They paint up well, and have a nice amount of detail without going overboard. They look better proportioned than the Reaper Bones figures, too, in my opinion.

    F Troop assembles into 2 squads of 5 figs to battle it out on a ruined planet using Xenos Rampant

Once again, I think I struggled a bit matching colors of the original survivor gang. I used a dark olive drab as a base coat, dry brushing it with a lighter tone. After seeing the results, I am thinking now that maybe I started with a lighter olive drab? Not sure. I don't think it is a huge deal, though. Uniforms worn by different members of a unit could undergo varying amounts of weathering or sun bleaching, depending on how long they'd been in the field. Plus, I really like how "Torch" came out. The mix of various metallic paints really sets off the figure, I think.

The Basss Reeves will make good mercenaries or light troops, adept at ambushing from terrain

The final batch were from my Planet of the Apes figures. I had three chimpanzees from Eureka Miniatures left over, and three gorillas from Sgt. Major Miniatures. Note that I specify Sgt. Major rather than the current producer, Battle Valor Games, because I believe these figures are literally holdovers from more than a decade ago. My Battle Valor Games order was a couple years back (I think...? Jason, do you remember when we ordered??). The casting seems to be similar quality as Sgt. Major, so I guess I don't need to differentiate. 

    Did you know underneath the helmets, the Nightstalkers are blue-skinned aliens?

Once again, I struggled a bit matching colors. I did my best, though. I think the chimpanzee uniform matches fairly well. Not sure about the hair and skin tones of the apes, though. I like the colors I used originally, so it was worth trying to replicate them. I DO have quite a few other Planet of the Apes style figures in my unpainted lead/resin pile. So, look for more of these soon. I am particularly excited about painting up the Eureka Gibbons pack. These are really cool figures. Since they're smaller than the chimps and gorillas, maybe I will field these as Light Infantry in Xenos Rampant? In fact, I would actually like to buy a second pack of these, but likely won't see Eureka at a show again until maybe Historicon 2024 in July. So....if anyone has a second unpainted pack laying around they are willing to part with, contact me please!

    Three new Sgt. Major Miniatures Gorillas fill in the ranks of the troop

I am posting photos both of the new additions, as well as them combined with the originals into 5-man squads for XR. The Planet of the Apes figures will eventually become its own force of 4-6 squads. The Nightstalkers are combining with the Stargrave figures for the "blue-skinned aliens" force. I think F Troop and the Bass Reeves are likely to be either mercenary forces or supplement squads for a different force, though. Either way, with each XR squad readied for the tabletop, I get closer to being able to host a game for our Sunday evening gaming group!

    Three more Eureka Miniatures chimps beef up my 'Planet of the Apes' troop count

This year, I have also decided to do what I've seen others doing on their blogs -- track my miniature painting progress and purchases. Starting in 2024, I will list at the bottom of each blog entry the number of figures purchased, followed by how many painted to that point for the year. Note -- this is starting at zero, of course! The previous years' lead (and plastic or resin) pile is still there. Hopefully, I'll get around to cataloging it this year, as I have been doing for my unpainted terrain.

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 14

    A mounted gorilla officer leads two squads of gorillas through the city, searching for humans

    Yes, that's a cigar-smoking chimpanzee officer leading two squads of Eureka Minatures chimps

Killer Rabbits of Caerbannog

 

   A bloodthirsty nest of rabbits with parts of victims, lurking by the cave of Caerbannog

My last post of 2023 is a somewhat whimsical one. For her latest Saga army, Jenny had purchased a pack of bunnies from Bad Squiddo Games. In Saga, units accumulate fatigue as a result of combat, excess movement, etc. I have always liked to use scenic items that blend in with the tabletop -- shields, dropped weapons, spears, etc. Jenny decided she wanted to use the pack of 8 bunnies as her fatigue markers. And if they're going to be rabbits, why not model them after the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog?

The inspiration for the fatigue markers...

Yes, Monty Python fans, I'm referring to the scene where the "harmless little bunny" cuts down a number of King Arthur's knights. I figured it would make a nice Christmas present to paint them up for her. Rather than make all eight identical, I Googled various rabbit colors and did them up for some variety. Once they were done, I asked her, "Are you SURE you want me to make these into killer bunnies?" She was. 

    They may look like harmless little bunnies, but...

Step two was finding a couple old plastic figures and chopping off hands or feet. These were placed on the bases after the flocking was done. I then painted them up with suitably gory amounts of blood. I also painted the rabbits' mouths and a few paws as bloodstained. I used Iron Wind Metals "Blood Red" for the main area with highlights of bright red to give it more depth.

    The two colors of red and dismembered hands and feet made the little vignettes suitably gory

Jenny was happy with pack of her killer bunnies, so it was a success as a Christmas present. If you end up playing a game of Saga against her Iberian army, you may get a chuckled out of her whimsical humor. If you're interested in doing something similar, Bad Squiddo Games makes quite the variety of animal packs. I have purchased their Ravens to use as fatigue markers as well. Check them out at Badger Games!

    Just one rabbit accounted for 5 (or was it 3?) of King Arthur's knights, imagine what two would do...

    Yes, that's a carrot one of the bunnies has...maybe a palate cleanser (or desert) after their meal?

Year in Review: Three Threads for 2023

    One theme that remained constant in 2023 was work on my post-apocalyptic terrain

Three main projects dominated my painting and terrain building for this past year, 2023. One thread remained constant, though at times it faded almost completely into the background. The other two surged for awhile into the spotlight, in essence battling for my attention. The one that remained constant was my post-apocalyptic campaign. The other two that saw periods of intense focus were Ancient/DarkAge/Medieval Saga and Science-Fiction gaming.

Post-apocalyptic

The constant thread was my post-apocalyptic campaign. I entered the year with nearly all of my survivor gangs painted up, adding only one to the ranks in 2023. This occurred only as it became obvious that I might need to play occasionally to balance out the numbers in games. So, I reached into my Battle Valor Games purchases and created one more gang -- the Green Dragons. They first hit the table in February. They were an Asian-American gang, and saw action in the second scenario we played in the campaign, "I Smell a Rat." 

    

    I made some modifications to Monster Fight Club's chain fences (like the thin strand of barbed wire)

Most of my efforts on this project were in terrain building. From barbed wire compounds to burnt-out vehicles, I cranked out the tabletop scenery. Those were probably my two favorite additions to the scenery. The barbed wire compound was a store-bought purchase from Monster Fight Club scenery, using two of their "Chain Link Fences" boxes. Of course, being me, I couldn't just use them straight out of the box. I modified them fairly heavily and these are one of the best additions to my terrain collection this year, in my opinion. We have used it in two scenarios so far, "Searching an Abandoned Army Base" and the most recently, "Where the Dark Things Gather."

    I was really pleased with these die cast vehicles that had been set aflame turned out

I was also very happy with my addition of damaged and burnt out vehicles for the desolate urban areas in my post-apocalyptic world. I had done some research on how to get the effect of a burnt out vehicle and was shocked that the consensus was to actually set on fire die cast models. First, I used pliers and wire cutters to remove the wheels and much or all of the plastic. Then, on a warm April evening, I swabbed them down with rubbing alcohol and lit them on fire. Thankfully, no neighbors were outside to see what the amateur pyromaniac was doing. I was fairly happy with how they turned out. The ash-like char seemed to never be sealed in by numerous clear coats, though. So, I still have to handle them carefully. I would end up doing two more batches of damaged/burnt vehicles, but who knows? Maybe one day I'll make some more!

    My favorite Jarls Workshop building was the six-story corner ruin (with some of my own bits added)

I also constructed a number of new buildings for the an urban, post-apocalyptic battlefield. My favorites were the ones I bought from Jarls Workshop (Rusty Parker) at the previous year's Advance the Colors 2022. They turned out great, and I would end up buying more from him in October at the 2023 convention. My favorite was the six-story corner remnant that I jazzed up with wooden beams and bricks. I bought more of these this year, but have yet to assemble them and get them ready for the tabletop. They will probably be the first terrain that I create in 2024, though! Rusty's 3-D printed buildings paint up very quickly and I highly recommend them. 

    We got in four games over the course of 2023 of my post-apocalytpic campaign

Finally, we got in four post-apocalyptic games over the course of the year. That was way under what I was hoping, but it did remain constant throughout the year. I am happy with how the Wiley Games Core Rules are working out for these skirmishes. Each player selects four characters for that scenario from the 7-8 that I had created for their survivor gang. Sometimes, characters who are wounded have to miss the following scenario or die of their wounds (only one character so far...sigh, mine!). The players have gotten the hang of using Renown Points to purchase new Traits and upgrade their force. I am having fun with running the scenarios, and will probably step back from playing in them with the Green Dragons unless we have a very small turnout. Look for more games in the coming months -- especially during January and February when our usual Sunday evening host will be out of town.

Science-Fiction Gaming

As the year closes, Sci-Fi gaming is the one I am focused on, now. It was also how I began 2023. I'd picked up Space Station Zero from Snarling Badger Studios, intrigued by the possibility of co-op skirmish as crews explore a derelict space station on the edge of the galaxy. I went all in for a few months, creating a playing surface of metallic looking tiles. I also made various bits of Sci-Fi scatter terrain that would work great for either the interior of a space station or on a planet's surface. Some were store-bought from Mantic Games, Acheson Creations, while still others were scratch-built from wooden pieces at craft stores. Jazzed up with metallic paints and various metal scatter consoles from RRB Minis & More, they set the stage for a new period of gaming in a new year.

    Our one and only game of Space Station Zero (so far, to be fair) using my game mat tiles & terrain

Except it never really went very far. Jenny and I played one scenario of Space Station Zero. We had fun, but after playing, I felt that its scope and scale wouldn't fit in as well for our Sunday evening gaming sessions. Even switching from co-op to competitive play mode in the rules, I felt that we'd struggle with so many players to have a game session for what was originally designed as a solo miniatures gaming adventure. Jenny and I swore we'd play the next scenario some winter evening when we had nothing else to do, but never got around to it. I'd painted my crew -- Dave and the rest from the spaceship Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey -- but it looked like the Jupiter was grounded back here on Earth.

    JS Wargamer Printing 'Machine Wars - Exterminators' very cool 3D printed Terminators

In August, Sci-Fi gaming showed another flicker of life. Keith ran a Star Wars scenario using Wiley Games Galactic Heroes rules. He had a lot of the Wizards of the Coast pre-painted Star Wars figures. I was intrigued. We knew the rules. Both Keith and Mike S had tons of figs, but school had just started up again and I was hitting my busy point in the year. Sci-Fi gaming seemed to be an empty void once again until just last month. I decided to paint up one of my purchases from CincyCon 2023, JS Wargamer Printing's 3-D printed Terminators. This, and the purchase of rules books from the "Rampant" series at Advance the Colors 2023, convinced me to give Xenos Rampant a try.

    I was really pleased at how these various robots and droids came out with their metallic paints

This is a bigger size game than either Space Station Zero or Galactic Heroes. Each player will likely control 4-6 squads of figures, making it just a bit under Saga sized force, in my planned scale. Since then, I have been busy cranking out sets of Sci-Fi miniatures. After the Terminators (for a Machines force, of course), came a couple batches of droids or robots. I continued on with some 3-D printed space marines bought from Wiley Games. I called them the Bronze Legion, and bought and painted up a second squad's worth of the figures. And, for those who follow my blog regularly, you know that has continued apace with some Blue-skinned aliens and a squad of Star Wars B1 Battle Droids.

Aliens from the Strargrave Mercenaries box and actually painted to match one of my survivor gangs.

I'm anticipating my first game of Xenos Rampant in January. If not, at least by February. It's kind of cool that I started and began 2023 with Sci-Fi. I'm a big fan of the various Star Wars streaming series, so it is almost unusual that it hadn't found its way to the tabletop for me.

    It seems I never choose a simple army to paint, and that was definitely the case for 2023's Thracians!

 

Saga Ancients/Dark Ages/Medieval Skirmish

The third thread of my year of gaming was playing Saga, the skirmish miniatures game from Studio Tomahawk. In fact, it took over the majority of my painting and gaming from about late summer through Advance the Colors 2023. Two main reasons for this was that I had undertaken painting a new army, the Thracians. Also, I was painting up prizes and prepping for my two tournaments I was going to run at ATC 2023. I had queried local and regional Saga groups and they gave a thumbs up to adding a Friday Age of Ancients tournament to my 3rd annual Saturday Age of Melee one. Ancients includes the six armies each from Age of Hannibal and Age of Alexander. 

    At least the Thracians had only one unit of mounted -- unlike an entire army with the Mongols!

In fact, the Thracians I was painting up were from the Alexander book, and had caught my eye for their interesting "Loot" mechanic. They were also an army almost no one was talking about, and I enjoy painting the fringe armies. Greeks and Macedonians were sure to be popular choices from that book, but I wanted to do something a bit different. Naturally, if they're an army that I am picking they MUST have complex patterns or something to make them a challenge to paint, right? Of course! Greek pottery gives us a wealth of primary source material on the geometric (and assumed) colorful cloaks that the Thracian warriors wore. I borrowed my friend Mike's Osprey book on the army and sketched out about a dozen simplified versions of the patterns to use on my own miniature Thracians. With 28mm minis, we want to give the effect of something -- not necessarily a 1:1 recreation of it. Too much often ends up being, not surprisingly, too much.

    One of my three victories with the Picts at CincyCon 2023 - this one against a Norman foe

As December comes to its end, I am not strictly done with the Thracians. I have about one batch of javelin-armed warriors to paint up. I also have yet to do the custom fatigue markers I will create for this army. I borrowed some spare heads from friends who have plastic kits (where they provide options for players to use). I will mount these heads on the markers because the Thracians were known as a head-hunting tribe. Luckily, I already had suitable markers created for the loot tokens from a past gaming project.

View of the action at ATC 2023 weekend, which saw more than 30 participants from near & far

Our monthly Saga Sundays at the Guardtower East continued, but attendance seemed to die down a bit, this year. We were down from 12-16 attendees to the 6-10 range, most months. Unfortunately, the trips to Beavercreek and the Dragons Guildhall also decreased, on my part. I probably made it only about 4-5 times this year instead of being a regular. Honestly, the reason for this was likely the increase in the number of tournaments we had in the area. The year started off with a Saga tournament run in Ft. Wayne, IN, in February. The tournies continued in March with Cincycon 2023 -- where my Picts were victorious overall. I did not make it to Adrian John's next tournament at DayCon, but did actually participate in a small one at Historicon in July. In September, I also drove north to Port Clinton, OH, for Rusty and Jim's Hold the Line convention. That was followed by the success at Advance the Colors, with 14 players in my Ancients Saga tournament and 24 on Saturday. So, lots of tournaments probably meant fewer people at our monthly game days, I imagine.

    One of the six warlord stands I painted up and gave away as Saga prizes in 2023

One thing that my friend Mike has cautioned about is getting to the "burn out" stage with these rules, like we eventually did with DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis). This is my fifth year of playing Saga. We played DBA for a couple decades, so it is nowhere near the same longevity. However, I do see a similar vibe with a tournament at every convention beginning to happen with me and Saga. I have also noticed my enthusiasm for hosting new episodes of my Saga Ohio Podcast waned over the course of the year, too. Mostly, this is because school is always so busy -- "180 days of triage", I call the school year. Possible burn out IS something to keep an eye out for when scheduling my gaming and painting, though.

Obviously, this isn't every bit of gaming that I did in 2023. It is a good sampling to reflect upon, though, and I hope readers enjoyed it. As we head towards 2024, my production seems to be picking up speed. What will 2024 bring? Hopefully, more faithful readers of my Lead Legionaries blog like yourselves! Happy New Year!! 😃