Cincycon 2024 Purchases

    Some of the 3-D 'Scatter Terrain' I bought at Cincycon for my Sci-Fi games

Heading down to Cincycon 2024, I had a pretty good Miniatures Purchased to Miniatures Painted Ratio for this year. I had painted 31 figures so far, while purchasing only 15. I knew that once the convention season arrived my surplus would take a hit. Well, it did in a big way, as you'll see below.

    Not sure what they are supposed to be, but they'll look cool on a Sci-Fi tabletop!

Despite buying from only two stands at the convention, I still dropped about $100. I do feel an obligation to support the vendors at shows I attend. They take time out of their schedule to show up and give us somewhere to browse and shop. Often times it is a money-losing proposition for dealers. They go more as a form of advertising, to get their name out. They hope that, later on, people will remember them and make purchases from them online. Or at least that's my take on it!

    Mounted gorillas for my Planet of the Apes force - these are 3-D printed from JS Wargamer Printing

The first vendor I bought from is one that I've mentioned on here before. Cincinnati area gamer John Leahy started JS Wargamer Printing a year or so back. My Terminators that I painted up where from him. He carries mounted "Planet of the Monkeys" gorillas. I thought they'd be a great troop addition for my Xenos Rampant "Planet of the Apes" detachment. I have three mounted gorilla figures from Battle Valor Games, and I need some more to flesh out a squad of them. There's a troop type called Berserk Infantry (or something like that) in the game, and gorillas charging in to close combat would be perfect for these.

    I am a big fan of 'The Last of Us,' so if I'm purchasing zombies I'll definitely get some infected!

My other purchase from John was part of a new project that I will be working on after I get Xenos Rampant underway. I have finally decided to take the plunge and do a zombie branch-off for my post-apocalyptic games. My idea is it will be a mash-up of Gaslands Refueled and Wiley Games rules. Each of my players will have a vehicle -- pickup truck, SUV, van, whatever. They will have three characters in it and will be road-tripping across the United States. They're heading from the zombie-infected and densely-populated East to the wide open spaces of America's Great Plains and West. Less people means less zombies, so the thought is to make it to the relative safety of "flyover country."

    John from JS Wargamer Printing had three types of zombies -- this was the other type I ordered

The problem is that I own no zombies. Well, I didn't before Cincycon! I sent a message to John asking if he had any zombies he could print up. He did have some files. One is of standard zombie apocalypse folks and the other is the "infected" variety from the great streaming show, "The Last of Us." His prices are hard to beat, so I ordered two packs of 10 each. So, that's 40 zombies plus 4 mounted gorillas. John also gave me some freebies -- 3-D printed figures of Planet of the Apes Dr. Zaius, Cornelius, Zira, and the humans George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and Nova. 

    More of the 3-D printed scatter terrain I purchased at Cincycon - this from A Critical Hit

Since they were free, should I count those as purchased? Well, I guess I could technically call it "Acquired," just in case I trade for miniatures in the future! So, I added in 49 miniatures. That raises my total to 64 acquired for 2024. And no, I haven't finished any other batches, so I've sunk to 31 painted vs. 64 acquired. Oh well...it WAS a good ratio while it lasted!

    Two picnic tables, a phone booth, and Coca-cola machine from A Critical Hit

The other purchases were from a vendor that was new to me. They are called A Critical Hit (Instagram link), or email Blair Oyler at dungeonmaster@acriticalhit.ne. Critical Hit's shelves had quite a bit of 3-D printed scatter and buildings. Much of their printing was done in appropriately colored material so that they wouldn't technically require painting. I would at the minimum do a wash on these, but will likely paint most of them up. I showed my friend Keith their tables and he immediately snapped up even more than I did! Good stuff!!

    A few more from A Critical Hit -- I will likely paint the pipes but do a black wash on the container

Most of these purchases were Sci-Fi related. They'll likely end up on the tabletop for various Xenos Rampant games or Wiley Games skirmishes. It's been awhile since I've painted up a big batch of terrain, so I may likely pop in these pieces and others ones I purchased at Advance the Colors last October from Sailpower and Diabolical Terrain. You can never have too much atmospheric scatter on the tabletop. Now, storing all that terrain is a different thing entirely...!

    You can see the interesting colors that A Critical Hit print their terrain in with the second piece

What's next? I am almost done with the next batch of five "Blue-Skinned Aliens" squad. At some point, I really do need to come up with a name for that faction! With that squad complete, they will be ready for the tabletop. So, look for that update soon...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 31

The Warriors...er, Kings! Came Out to Play at Cincycon 2024!

Streets of downtown Columbus degenerated into a chaotic gang fight on Friday night at Cincycon 2024

With it being the 45th anniversary of the release of the movie "The Warriors" -- which was my inspiration for my Mean Streets rules -- I thought I should host a scenario that is a nod to it. My convention scenarios are often six player free-for-alls. However, I thought I would have two players representing a single gang and the other four being independents. The two player gang, aka the Warriors, would be trying to get from one side table edge to the other. 

    The table at Cincycon 2024 all set up and ready for players to "come out to plaaaaayyy...!"

Perhaps surprisingly, I don't have miniatures for the Warriors themselves. So, I chose one of my larger gangs, the Eastmoor Kings, and have them stand in. As you may know, my gangs are all named after Columbus neighborhoods. The Kings are an African-American gang, while the other four in the scenario would be the Indianola Mohawks (punk rockers), Franklinton Flippos (clown masks), Santanas (Hispanic gang), and the Linden Daos (black martial arts gang). I decided to give each Kings player one extra figure compared to the independent gangs to give them a fighting chance to get all the way across the table.

    Santanas keep watch on their corner of Bridge Street, making sure no one trespasses on their turf

All of the gangs would be given a variety of ways to earn victory points. Simply knocking out a member of a rival gang would be worth points. For the independents, each had one of the other three as worth extra points (you owe them payback for a previous beat-down). In addition, they had a criminal mission to carry out in a rival gang's turf, such as the Linden Daos had to enter Mohawk territory and "steal some smokes" from a cigarette kiosk. Finally, those four gangs also had two buildings to protect from rival gangs "tags." Players always seem to enjoy the "tagging" mission, and this would give a reason for each gang to protect its turf. 

    Just across the street, two of the Linden Daos strike an aggressive pose, marking their turf

The Kings, on the other hand, had the main mission of reaching the bridge that stretched across the table and catching a bus home. Just like with the Warriors, they had been double-crossed after going across town to a gang parley. Seeing how things in my gang warfare games typically devolve into -- shocker -- street fights, I figured the Kings would struggle to make it unscathed across five feet of tabletop. As it turned out, I may have underestimated the redoubtable street thugs and their canniness!

    My 6 players gathered around the table -- you can see the big bridge (King's goal) in the foreground

Scenery-wise, I had a couple new debuts for my Mean Streets games. The big one, so to speak, was the nearly three feet long stone bridge I had recently painted. See my earlier post on assembling and painting this monstrosity. Also new to the tabletop was my 6'x4' fleece city mat. I had picked up this mat with a concrete pattern from Shieldwall Gaming Club at the Hold the Line convention last Fall. I wasn't sure if my asphalt streets I made from cork material would look good on top of the concrete (since a street is lower than the concrete sidewalks). I set it up in my basement and was very happy with how it looked, so took it along instead of my acrylic tiles I'd used previously.

    You can see the back side of the Silent Slumbers motel here, along with Smith's Smoke Shack

Another new appearance on the table was the Silent Slumbers motel, a two-story resin building from Miniature Building Authority. This hefty model looks great on the urban tabletop, especially the back side with the air conditioning units and wires. Although no fighting took place in the motel, it was the scene of a couple big rumbles in front of and behind it. I did another thing to my scatter terrain. More than a year ago, I painted up a dozen or so streetlamps from pieces of bass wood purchased at the craft store. I don't know why I put them in a ziploc back and then forgot about them. I decided to take them along this time and put them on various street corners. I loved how they looked and feel like kicking myself for not debuting them in my games sooner!

    Early in the game, the Kings concentrated and ganged up on the Indianola Mohawks

The Mohawks, Daos, Flippos, and Santanas all deployed in their city block turf. I probably made a mistake in telling the two Kings players -- my friends Derek and Homer -- that they could deploy just off-board anywhere along the edge abutting Flippo and Mohawk territory. Most GMs have learned that miniature gamers can be counted on to their best to "break" a scenario you felt you balanced. What did Derek and Homer do? Well, of course, they came in like a ton of bricks on Michael's poor Mohawks, concentrating on one half of the side edge. They ignored the Flippos, who made things worse by ignoring the Kings entirely the entire game, too! Next time, I think I will be more specific in where they can come in and ensure that one of the independents isn't ganged up on and outnumbered from the outset.

    Derek's Kings swarm the back alley behind the motel, facing off against the Mohawks there

Homer sent his five Kings down the center street and immediately jumped Mohawks gang boss Sid and his main squeeze, Maybel. That turned out to be not the best idea, as Sid knocked out one and then another of the Kings punks who tried to invade Mohawk turf! Things were not off to a good start for the Kings with one player losing two of his five figures! Derek came in on the back corner behind the motel and apartment building. There they were met by Mohawks warchief Iggy, who held them off for a couple turns before succumbing to superior numbers.

    The Santanas cross the street to threaten Daos turf, trying to stare their rivals down

On the opposite end of the table, a dramatic standoff was underway. The Santanas crossed the street from their turf into territory controlled by the Linden Daos. The Daos had set up with their warchief and a punk to guard Wallace's Brewpub, while the Gang Boss and another punk sat poised to raid Smith's Smoke Shack and bag some points with their special mission. Upon seeing the Santanas assembling on the edge of their turf, they raced back to regroup. The two stared each other down for a moment and then the Santanas blinked, and headed back across the street into their territory. Perhaps it had something to do with a lone Flippo racing over and spray painting Sam's Quickie Mart (Santanas turf) with their clown-faced tag!

    Sidney and Dwayne of the Daos chase down Manana of the Santanas, prompting Cruz to come help

Either way, it was a mistake when they turned their back on the Daos. As half of the Santanas raced towards the Quickie Mart and the other two retreated back to the Pot O'Gold motel, the Daos sprang into action. Several of them chased down the two heading for the hotel and jumped them there. Never turn your back on a street gang looking for trouble! 

    Outnumbered, Sid and Maybel fight a valiant battle to defend their turf, but ultimately succumb

Meanwhile, things were heating up in Mohawk turf! Sid battled Eastmoor King after King, with Maybel wading in with their chain to lend a hand. However, once King gang boss Tyrese got in on the action, things got much more difficult. As vicious as he was with his fists, Sid simply couldn't fend off all of Homer's boys. The gang boss went down, and Maybel took that opportunity to scamper away and head for home. She had taken a few blows herself, and knew that if Sid couldn't stop these outsiders, she didn't stand a chance.

    The police arrive seeing a street fight between the Santanas and Daos taking place on the corner

The rest of the Mohawks had also battled stubbornly, but with Michael's whole gang down or off-table, he was the first beneficiary of my "cop rule." If a player is taken out early, I give them a police car and two officers to drive onto the tabletop on any street edge. They can come and get payback at the one who knocked them out, or show up in an entirely different place. Their choice! I began using this mechanic after a running of Mean Streets at Cincycon when two brothers, Steve and Mike Cole, played in my game. They live to pound on each other in miniatures games and one took the other out quickly in that game. I've used it ever since, and many a player has enjoyed the second lease on life in the game and had a blast playing the cops! Michael hammed it up perfectly, finding a police siren sound on his phone and playing it as he brought the patrol car onto the table.

    Police use their billy club on El Lobo after the Daos fled (or were knocked out by the Santanas)

Just before the police arrived, though, a bloodied Manana had scampered away from the furious fists of the black martial arts gang. Warchief Cruz battled on, calling for help. This soon appeared in the form of both Gang Boss Julio and his buddy, El Lobo. Encircling the two Daos, they pounded one into the pavement, ignoring the commands of the police. The Daos soon decided it was time to retreat rather than take on their rivals and the police! The Santanas refused to back down until the second officer stepped out of the patrol car and added his weight to the struggle. Perhaps it was the sight of the cop's drawn revolver, but the Santanas soon fled back down the road and turned into the alley behind the hotel.

    The police chase the Santanas off the streets into the alley ways, calling for them to halt

What were the Flippos doing all this time? Now, that's a good question! Every once in awhile at a game, you have that one player who decides to do things his or her own way. Rich was playing VERY safe with his four Flippos. Most of the time, he spent holed holed up in side one of the apartment blocks in their turf, guarding it. He sent the occasional punk outside to tag the Quickie Mart (Santanas turf). It wasn't until the Mohawks had been taken down and the Santanas and Daos were brutally mixing it up, that the clown faced creeps emerged from their enclave.

    The Flippos spent half the game guarding their apartment complext from interlopers in this game

They raced in a tight mass towards the back door of the Quickie Mart. Their mission had been to duck inside their and steal some food for tonight's party. Gang Boss Marvin shouted out orders and the four clown-faced gang members efficiently slid inside and began grabbing food off the shelves. Once their pockets were stuffed, they exited out the front door, considering even more mayhem.

   Santanas, having a rough night, beat feet down an alley way to avoid the pursuit of the police

Meanwhile, the game was winding down. Gang boss Juanita was the last one left in the Daos, and she headed off to tag a few buildings to rack up some victory points. The Santanas took a right turn into the alley between the motel and the Quickie Mart. With a couple of their guys beat up pretty well, they were ready to call it a night, too. They certainly were wondering why the Flippos, Daos, and cops all had decided to pick on them. It had made things difficult, and they'd never got a chance to hit up Wallace's Brewpub for some beers for the party planned tonight!

    The Eastmoor Kings cross the halfway point of the table -- which I was really happy with!

Meanwhile, things were going very much like their inspiration film for the Kings. They'd taken a few hits and losses along the way, but they were steadily progressing towards their goal: getting home. After the fight with the Mohawks, Derek's contingent did manage to knock out one of the Daos who was a little less slippery than he should have been stealing smokes from the kiosk. Otherwise, they stay "on mission" and stealthily made their way through the streets of Columbus to the bridge.

    We almost had another dust up at the 11th hour when the Flippos and Santanas met on Bridge Street

The 3-hour time I'd given the game was winding down and most of the players seemed content to get off table and tally up their points. The Flippos briefly considered having a go at the nearby Santanas. With their clown pockets full of food, though (and all four gang members healthy), they decided to head back to their base and celebrate the night's success. They could always claim the Kings kept running because they were too scared to mess with the Flippos, right? The Santanas had come very close to getting two of their ranks knocked out of action, so, as much as they wanted that beer at Wallace's to cool off, the sight of 7 black-clad Kings in the vicinity dissuaded them. Besides, the cops were out looking to bust people, so better to lay low.

    Eastmoor Kings arrive on table near Swingle's Shawarma, whose customer is obviously oblivious

When we counted it up, the Kings had won on victory points. I averaged Derek and Homer's scores and they racked up 13 points. The Flippos were next with 10, on the strength of their tagging and food hoarding. The Daos, despite having only one member left, took third place with 7 points. The Santanas were close behind, and the poor Mohawks took it on the chin having to face both Derek and Homer's gangs simultaneously and unaided. In retrospect, I will probably keep the missions for the independent gangs. However, I will get rid of the "target" points for knocking out one of the other four you owe payback on. I may keep the extra points for the Kings, though, to encourage them to make it tougher on their march through town. 

    No such thing as a fair fight in a street battle -- even with the cops looking on!

All in all, the players had a blast, they said. I thought the scenario ran well, and is certainly a keeper. Look for it at both Drums at the Rapids, May 17-18, at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, OH. I will also run it Thursday through Saturday at Origins Game Fair, June 19-23, Columbus, OH.

The Bronze Legion - Ready for Battle!

    The Bronze Legion assembled - five squads totaling 24 points for Xenos Rampant

 

With the last squad of heavy infantry for the Bronze Legion finished, I can officially say this "detachment" (as Xenos Rampant calls a player's force) is ready for the tabletop. These last five figures should have been a breeze to paint up, but when they were about 3/4's of the way done, I got sick a couple weeks back. It sapped all my energy, so they sat there, partially painted, in the basement waiting for my recovery.

    Progress on the final squad of heavy infantry for the legion was delayed by two weeks of sickness

The heavy infantry for the Bronze Legion comes from the "Troopers" box of the Stargrave Miniatures plastic kit. I'm ashamed to say that it wasn't until gluing together this batch that I noticed the left and right arms had matching numbers. That certainly made positioning the arms of the figures bracing their weapon with their left hand easier! I'm still a bit of a novice still at this "assembling miniatures" stage of painting figures. I prefer metal miniatures, but realize that so many people like the kit-bashing aspect of plastic figures that they are here to stay.

    I think the Wiley Games 3-D printed and Stargrave plastic figures go together well for this force

I painted them up identically to the last batch. They were spray primed with Krylon acrylic matte black, which I always follow up brushing on a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. Next, I do a medium gray dry brush over the figures to bring out some highlights on the black. I remembered this time to NOT do a black wash over these areas at the end. Last time I did that and it erased my gray highlighting! It was on to the armor next, which I painted using a metallic craft paint called "Ancient Bronze." After some bright red detail on the belts and back armor plate, all that was left was the figures' weapons. I like how my method for painting Sci-Fi weapons has been working out. I start with a metallic gray craft paint base color, add some details in metallic brown, and finally highlights in silver. Weapons, faces, and the armor then receive a dark black vehicle wash from Vallejo. At that point they are ready for clearcoating, with one final step of painting gloss on their visors and the red dot on their backpacks.

    Wiley Games B3AST provides some heavy support for the legion, counting as a "Fighting Vehicle"

I'm sticking with my urban style flocking on the bases, using Woodland Scenics fine Mixed Gray Ballast. Before applying it, though, I glue a couple bricks to represent rubble, and then over bricks and ballast I do a black wash. One or two tufts and mixed green flocking and the figure is ready for the tabletop. It was fun to assemble the whole detachment and take some pictures. I am giving the Bronze Legion a fighting vehicle (in Xenos Rampant terms) to round out the force. This is the B3AST tracked Bot from Wiley Games. Its color scheme somewhat matches the Bronze Legion, so I figured it would be a good fit.

    Seeing how few figures it takes to field a force in Xenos Rampant, I ditched the 2-figs = 1 SP scale

I have also pointed out my detachment for Xenos Rampant, too. I have officially backed off of the two figures equals one strength point. I am going all in with a one-to-one ratio. As you can see with the legion, it really doesn't take that many figures to do a 24-point force. Here is how I plan to field the legion:

• 5 strength points Elite Infantry with Commander: (includes Back into the Fray, Firefight, Ranger), +2 points for Heavy Weapon = total 8 points.
• 5 strength points Elite Infantry: (includes Back into the Fray, Firefight, Ranger) = total 6 points.
• 5 strength points Heavy Infantry: (includes Go to Ground, Firefight), +1 point for Armor Piercing = total 3 points.
• 5 strength points Heavy Infantry: (includes Go to Ground, Firefight), +1 point for Armor Piercing = total 3 points.
• 5 strength points Fighting Vehicle: (includes All Terrain, Anti-tank, High-powered blades), -2 points for Light Armored Vehicle = total 4 points.

Total Detachment Points = 24

    I'm excited to play my first game of Xenos Rampaint, which could be very soon...!

What's up next? I have assembled another squad of five figures for Xenos Rampant. This will be another batch of Blue-skinned Troopers for Xenos Rampant. This will finish out that detachment, as well. When that squad is complete, I will have four detachments done.

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 31

Giant 3-D Printed Bridge (with Graffiti)

    My newest piece of terrain -- a large, stone bridge with brick sidewalks and an asphalt road atop it

This is probably the largest piece of terrain that I have ever assembled and painted. It is a 3-D printed bridge that I purchased from my friend Rusty Parker of Jarl's Workshop (jarlsworkshop19@gmail.com). I first saw it at Drums at the Rapids a couple years ago. I was sorely tempted to buy it then, but my cheapskate nature had me hold off. By the time that Advance the Colors rolled around five months later, I told him that I wanted it. I bought it and there it sat in my closet for nearly a year.

Nearly a yard long, this 3-D printed bridge from Jarls Workshop is the biggest terrain piece I've made

Recently, I pulled it out determined to get it completed and use it in a game. The first step was to glue its seven pieces together. I used superglue and assembled and was pleased how it kind of "locked together" tightly. You can see some gaps here and there, but for the most part, it fits together very nicely. I did add a couple thin pieces of styrene to cover a couple gaps, but otherwise, there were no modifications to the bridge as purchased from Rusty.

    Multiple layers of spray paint, washes, dry brushing, and another final wash color its golden stones

My next decision was to decide on a color scheme. I decided that I wanted to yellowish-golden colored stone. I scoured the aisles of the local Menards home improvement store, and found a nice khaki colored primer. First, I sprayed two coats on it while it was upside down. After drying, I did the same with it standing upright. The next step was to take a more golden toned khaki color craft paint and water it down so that it could be used as a wash. I slathered it on a couple times and was really happy how it settled into the crevices in the stone.

    Two of my street gangs taunt each other from opposite sides of the river, daring the other to cross

The next step was to take another craft paint, a light tan stone color, and use it as a dry brush to highlight the pieces. I used the largest flat brush I own and would probably say this was the fastest and easiest step to do. Once dry, it was time to work on the sidewalks and road surface atop the bridge. The sidewalks were brick, so I did my usual method. I painted it Iron Wind Metals Red Brown and then dry brushed it Howard Hues Middle East Flesh color. Once that was done, it was time to do the asphalt road surface. I used my second darkest gray color as a base coat. As I was applying it, I noticed that I could see the tiny ridges common in 3-D printed items. I was worried that a dry brush would highlight that and draw attention to it. The road would look unnatural. What to do?

    The top surface of the bridge with its brick sidewalks and "stippled" gray asphalt

I decided to take a somewhat frayed brush and "stipple" it rather than dry brush. I used a medium gray color and stippled the entire length of the road surface. My original thought was that I would do a medium gray coat and a lighter one. However, I was so happy with how the asphalt looked that I decided to keep it as is. Almost done!

    The Santanas have painted their side of the bridge to mark their turf, warning others to "Salir!"

The last step was to give it a brown wash. I have a bottle of seldom-used dark brown "vehicle wash" from Vallejo. I took a plastic container and filled it partly full with water. Then I began squirting in the brown wash until it had a color that I thought would work well. Applying this final brown wash was probably the messiest part of the process. I dripped quite a bit all over my desk and it soaked the paper towels I had laid out to collect the excess that dripped off. After it dried, I examined it and was very happy with how the bridge had turned out. Was I done? Well...no, not really!

    Creepy clown logo & threats sprayed onto the bridge's surface warn others they're in Flippo turf!

The final step was to dirty it up with graffiti. I went back and forth whether to paint graffiti on it. I finally decided that the bridge would be used most in my Mean Streets gang warfare games. Next, it may see use in post-apocalyptic games. In both environments, a clean pristine bridge would look out of place, right? So, I Googled images of "graffiti bridge" and saw ones that had way, way too much on it. I went back and forth on how much to do, but decided I the best way would be to start in on it and stop when I thought I had enough. 

    The first graffiti "tag" on the bridge that I painted was the purple & yellow Daos logo

I began with large, colored graffiti-style letters for one of my gangs, the Daos. I then did another set of letters for The Kings. I added it a bleeding eye for the fun of it, and then scrawled various phrases like, "Hate Thy Neighbor" and "Not Your Turf." I did a couple hearts with initials -- one "J.T." for Jenny -- and another a shout-out to the movie, "The Warriors. We'll see if anyone who hasn't read this blog post catches the "Swan + Mercy" Easter egg!

    As my most numerous gang, the Kings are slated to take on a starring role in my upcoming games

Most of the graffiti was based around my painted up gangs, also including the Mohawks and Santanas. Once most areas of the bridge sides had something on it, I called it quits. In "reality," it would probably have more graffiti -- somewhat like the photos I saw on my image searches. However, I didn't want to cover up the beautiful golden stone color of the bridge completely. I figured in this case that less was more. I did one final matte spray coat and the bridge was finally done. The process had been dragged out much more than it should by my two bout of sickness. I accomplished little during that point. In actual, sheer hours put into it, I would say it took less time than a building of similar surface area. 

    Not all gangs got their 'tag' on the bridge, but I tried to cover most -- like the Indianola Mohawks

I think it is an amazing terrain piece. If you like it, contact Rusty of Jarl's Workshop at the above email and pick up one yourself. It is a definite eye candy cornerstone for a tabletop. Those who show up to Cincycon 2024 in less than two weeks will get the first look at it in person. I will be using it as part of my Mean Streets game scheduled for Friday evening. If you want a really close look at it, sign up to play in my game!

Battle of Valcour Island, 1776

    Joel and Allen, the British naval commanders on Lake Champlain in the Battle of Valcour Island

My friend Keith had an itch to do some Age of Sail miniatures with his big 15mm scale models the other day. His first thought was to go way back and play using the Limeys & Slimeys rules from about three decades ago. After moving some of his ships around on the table and testing out the mechanics, he was turned off by its fiddly nature. Too much counting up figures and guns, he said. Instead, he decided to go with a much more streamlined system, Galleys & Galleons, from Ganesha Games. These use the Song of Blades and Heroes "activation" system and abstract many of those things that older rules may force you to do with counting and laborious, multiple, math steps and die rolls.

    My brigantine and gunboat bravely sail and row towards the two largest ships in the British fleet

This is actually an ongoing rules debate in our Sunday evening gaming group. I am much more in favor of  modern streamlined systems. Others, like my friend Andy, prefer the "chewy" (his word) nature of counting things up, rolling for numerous hits on charts, and checking off boxes. Our respective viewpoints clashed most recently when we played one of the Star Fleet Battles clones (Federation Commander, perhaps?) recently. To me, the process was borderline painful. When one devastating hit was done to a player's ship (actually, one of their THREE ships), we had to sit there twiddling our thumbs while they rolled for and checked off 30-40 internal hits. This includes marking off such useful things like "science labs" and other systems that had nothing to do with a standard fleet game. Really? This is fun??

    Each player received a gunboat carrying one cannon in its bow, along with their larger ship

Anyway, I think miniature rules writing has evolved away from a codex full of charts which you flip between and ship profiles with dozens or hundreds of boxes to check off. Other players have fun doing this (apparently), as the clear divide between the younger and older gamers in our Star Fleet game showed the other night. Guess who likes to check off boxes? The younger guys! Those of us who lived through 1970s & 1980s rules -- to be fair, Limeys and Slimeys was the '90s -- apparently prefer not to go through that again. Nostalgia might be behind some wanting to resurrect old gaming systems. Like when one of our founding club members, Allen (who I have been gaming with for 40+ years), wanted to play the boardgame "Talisman." He would not be deterred with a simple question: "Why would you want to do that?!" He needed to experience once again the painful process of endlessly waiting your turn while the other players took theirs, then waiting twice that time again when you got a Lose a turn" result. The sheer randomness of, "Oh look! I found a suit of magic armor on my turn!" Meanwhile, you flip over a Demon Lord and lose another life. Sheer awfulness, in my opinion. Not fun to play, and no strategy. Just roll dice and flip cards!

    My brigantine suffering damage (see pink dice) from the heavier broadside of Allen's frigate

Yes, that was quite the digression, I realize. Apparently, I still had some more internal hits to roll off from the experience! Keith chose Galleys & Galleons, which we had played a few years back because he remembered it seemed to flow well and do a better job simulating naval warfare than you might expect from rules that grew out of a fantasy skirmish engine. The key component is that hits suffered replace one of your three potential dice you can roll to activate with a colored "damaged" die. You can choose to roll fewer dice, thus not risking rolling that colored die, until all three of your dice have been replaced. If you ever roll an activation and score a "1" on a colored die, bad things can happen, including striking your colors if you are nearer an enemy than any friends. Similarly, once you exceed three colored dice (three is the max dice you can roll to activate in the "Song of..." engine), bad things can happen then, too. 

    Keith's sloop at top right sails to add its broadside to the weight of our cannon fire on Allen's frigate

The game abstracts much of the damage and critical hits on specific components of your sailing ship. It worked fairly well in our game, we felt. Allen had a 22-gun frigate (I believe), the largest on Lake Champlain. He was able to shrug off much of cannon fire that we peppered him with throughout the game. His brother Joel could not do the same with his 18-gun sloop, though, and ended up striking his colors to Jenny's American sloop and being captured. Keith warned us that he'd made the British better at gunnery and that we would need to close the range to hope to do significant damage. That proved true. All in all, the system worked well. Each player controlled one larger ship and one oared gun boat with a single, bow chaser. The gun boats did little damage to the bigger ships, as you might expect with only one cannon. The marine sharpshooters did even less. 

Took more than half the battle, but Keith's gunboat finally sinks Allen's - mainly due to catching on fire

We did have one boarding action, but it was inconclusive. On the next turn, Keith's larger sloop disabled the grapples which Joel's gunboat had snagged it with. He didn't want to leave to a die roll the ignominy of being boarded and taken by a smaller gunboat! I can't say I blame him. My own gunboat was on the way to rescue him, but we never closed before the two ships parted ways. My own brigantine bravely sailed between Joel's sloop and Allen's frigate, blazing away with furious ineffectiveness nearly the entire game. We score one hit on Joel's sloop, but after that, suffered a series of bad die rolls (as is often my nature in games...see Joel -- I said it!). 

    Pounded by two ships, Joel's sloop strikes its colors as it approaches Jenny's 'Royal Savage'

In Galleys & Galleons, if you beat an enemy with an even roll on your die you replace one of their three activation dice with a colored "damage" die. If you beat them with an odd score, you do nothing (unless you doubled them). Weirdly, the first six-plus shooting rolls that hit in the game were all even. We weren't irked by the rule then. Once, the rolls evened out, it felt a little "wrong" to hit someone and do nothing, over and over. 

    American cannon balls seem to bounce off Allen's frigate, whether from gunboat or brigantine

Still, with Joel's sloop captured and Allen's gunboat sunk (fire on board, then explosion), we called it a victory for the Americans. Historically, the British battered Benedict Arnold's American fleet, which later withdrew under cover of darkness. They were eventually run aground by the American commanders to prevent them from falling into the hands of the British. The naval battle delayed the British advance enough to give solace to the American defeat in the first naval battle of the American Revolution. 

It was fun getting the large 15mm ships out and sailing them around on the tabletop. We picked up the mechanics quickly, and the colored dice mechanic gave some risk vs. reward decision making for the players. Keith, as has been his wont of late, tossed in the Wiley Games card activation system on top of the Galleys & Galleons system. The effect was that there was no danger in "crapping out," or turning over your activation. So, we typically always rolled 3 dice for activation until we had one or more colored, damage dice. The fleets closed relatively quickly, and we were soon blasting away at each other and having a good time on Lake Champlain. I can see us playing with Keith's ships again, and using G&G again for more naval fun.

    It was fun to get the big ships (and little ones) out on the tabletop - first time in years!

Otherwise, you may have noticed the LONG pause between updates. I caught a nasty cold just over two weeks ago. It was the worst I'd felt since having Covid, and I didn't not have the energy to paint or game. I think the two weekends of missing Sunday evening gaming are the most that I have in a long time. I didn't want to get the other guys sick, and besides I was feeling awful. Today is actually the first day that I have woken up and not felt congested or tired and drained. So, hopefully, I'm back in the groove and you will see more updates on here, again!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 26