A Viking Hall Burning - no! Two Hall Burnings!!

Viking warriors fights their way to the door of their Jarl's hall and kick away the incendiaries to rescue their chieftain

I was intrigued by the last time we played Tribal a couple weeks ago. I'd quizzed the players and they seemed interested in giving the game a go, again. Only one player didn't like it, but he's like the Life Cereal Mikey and doesn't like anything...ha, ha! Seriously, most had tweaks they might like to see, but were willing to try it again.

The Viking raiders cheer as they set fire to the barricaded doorway, trapping the rival Jarl and his family inside

I was debating between two periods to use the rules for. Seeing as how they had an expansion called "Brutal," which dealt with gang warfare on the dirty streets of New York City or otherwise, I was thinking that would be an appropriate use for these rules. I also have always thought about Mayan warfare representing the "Flower Wars," with the goal to kidnap prisoners and sacrifice them.

The Raiders deployed in an arc to prevent the Rescuers from getting to the barricaded, on fire, doorway

I wanted to be smart, though, and playtest the game again before I went all-in and started buying or painting figures. I have lots of Dark Ages figures, and one of the periods they suggest for Tribal is Viking warfare, so I decided to host a Hall burning. Or more properly, since there were seven of us, TWO hall burnings. I set up one 4-player game and one 2-player one, to also see how it works in a multiplayer mode. Both would have a Jarl's Hall being raided by a rival. The raiders had struck at midnight while all were asleep (except for the guards on duty, which they killed off-screen). They piled wood and straw, barricaded the door, and were going to burn the hall down with the Jarl inside, ala The Last Kingdom, for those who have seen it.

My six players testing the Tribal rules again, the 2-player game in front and the 4-player behind

The attackers (or Raiders) would set up within two card lengths of the bonfire in front of the door. The defenders (or Rescuers) would either march on board from any edge they chose in the first turn if they showed up in clear, or arrive in one of the patches of woods on the second turn. For the four-player game, they would draw for initiative each turn, with no consideration of whether they were Rescuer or Raider. This meant the turn order did not alternate, and one Raider turn could be followed by the other Raider player, if the initiative worked out that way.

The 2-player game's climax was a duel between opposing Leaders - one a valkyrie-esque Brunhilda

Since there were seven of us, I did not play and instead was the GM. The Rescuers objective was to fight their way to the door and spend three turns kicking the flammable material away from the door to free the Jarl and his family. The Raider objective was to frustrate that, and of course, kill lots of the enemy. We went with the same size forces as last time, with each player controlling a Leader, Hero, and two Warrior units. We didn't use any skills. I figured if this playtest went well, we could start using those, too. We also played the rules as written, with none of the suggestions my players had about the Panic rules, which they said they weren't crazy about after I pointed out we did it wrong in our first game.

The Rescuers seize the doorway and face off against enemy before beginning to kick away the incendiaries

The games went well, with two new players who had not been present in the initial run-through two weeks ago. Everyone said they enjoyed them, and gave a thumbs up to my pursuing this as a project to run. In the two-player game, the new player was the Rescuer and succeed in driving off the enemy and saving the Jarl. Mike W triumphed over Mike S, who continued to have questionable card draw luck. In the four player game, it took quite a bit longer. By the end of the game, Allen's Rescuer command was totally eliminated (hmm...that happened to him last game, too). Joel's was battered, but grossly outnumbered by the combined Raider forces of Keith and Brian. The players decided to call it and declared it a Raider victory.  One crispy Jarl, with a need to select a new one from among the surviving settlement members.

The Raiders in the 4-player game surround the Jarl's Hall as the entrance begins to burn

So, I guess this means I'm cleared to get ready to use the Tribal rules, with Brutal supplement, for a new project -- gang warfare in NYC, ala "The Warriors." I went through all my 28mm figures from my Pulp, post-Apocalyptic, and even Ancient ranges, and picked out gangs of a dozen or so. As bizarre as the costumes were in the movie "The Warriors," I feel pretty confident that most figure choices and modifications I utilize will fit the theme.

The panorama as the Rescuers arrive and the battle rages around the burning hut of the Viking Jarl

Of course, I DID say I was starting my post-Apocalyptic project, using the Across the Dead Earth rules. Hmmm. Maybe I need to do a new post where I talk my way through this choice...

Rescuer Allen, left, decides upon a card to play in the tensely-fought, 4-player game

Allen's Hero blows upon his horn to summon aid as Keith's warrior unit attacks him in the outskirts of the woods

The card-play aspect of the Tribal rules hits home with the tactical sensibilities of our gaming group

The 4-player battle rages across the board, with heroes and leaders suffering wounds and warriors slain

At this point, the sole surviving Rescuer from the 4-player game (Joel) decides that retreating to fight another day is the best option when presented with a losing hand

Trying Tribal

Iroquois vs. Huron in a playtest of the Tribal skirmish rules

 Mike Stelzer had lent me a copy of a new set of skirmish rules that he'd purchased called "Tribal" (downloadable on Wargame Vault) It is meant to reflect primitive warfare -- with combatants in small warbands more concerned with honor than enemy body count. After reading it, I encouraged him to run a game of it for us on Sunday evening. Mike agreed, and decided we would fight an early battle between Iroquois and Huron tribesmen before the arrival of gunpowder.

One of my units of Iroquois warriors advances, hunting for their Huron enemies

One of the interesting things about Tribal is that it uses no dice. As I am known as a rather shaky dice roller, this intrigued me. Instead, each player uses their own deck of cards to provide the randomization. In the back of my mind was the fact that, in my trips to Vegas and playing friendly poker with friends, I don't have the best of card luck either. I put that aside, and brought along a box of my Native Americans with hand weapons or bows.

Two lines of Indians -- ancient enemies -- advance to engage each other

Mike gave each of us a Tribal Chief or leader, a Hero, and two units of five warriors. There were six of us present. Allen, Brian, and myself played the Iroquois, while Steve, Mike S, and Joel played the Huron (Mike didn't say that -- I just decided it..ha, ha!). I was matched against Mike S, while Joel would fight Brian, and Steve battled Allen. Essentially, we ran it as three separate one-on-one games on the same tabletop.

A battle rages on the right flank, as Brian's tribe begins to slow push back Joel's

Each player draws from his deck as many units as he has (four for us, as the Hero and Leader are separate units). As you can imagine, the higher cards are better in melee. So, when I drew a slew of high cards for my first movement, I had a bad feeling. I wasn't the only one doing that, and it was only the first turn, so I still had hope that I might do better at cards than dice. Units/Heroes/Leaders can Walk, Run, or Sprint. The playing card itself is the measuring stick, with the short side being a walk, the long side a run, and two long sides a sprint. In addition to the length of the card, the figure also moves its base depth. You place the card against any figure of the unit and move it to the other side of the card. Simple, easy movement rules.

One of my units of Warriors advances to engage a depleted enemy unit

It took us a couple turns to close with each other. I decided to keep my Hero and Leader back behind the warrior units to maybe dash in and finish off a unit the warriors had damaged. Heroes take 5 hits, and Leaders 6. Individual warriors take only one hit. That is kind of the crux of the combat system, too. You fight five "exchanges," drawing one card for each warrior or wound available. A unit that has lost figures draws only as many cards as it has figures/wounds. So, if a fresh unit of 5 figures is fighting one that has only 3, the players do the three rounds of combat (exchanges). After that, the player who is out of cards draws off the top of his deck. This prevents the player from planning ahead.

I couldn't believe it when I drew this combat hand for one of my Warrior units (note the Ace already played - I received a bonus sixth card because Mike's unit had to Sprint to reach mine)

I guess that is one thing I liked. You could plan the order to use your best cards. Plus, each suit has a different combat effect. Winning an exchange with a black cards causes a hit or hits, while winning with a red card causes no hits, but allows you to affect the next exchange. There is even a difference between Spades and Clubs, as well as between Diamonds or Hearts. The unit that charges in has "Initiative," which means they get to see which card their opponent plays in that exchange first.  So, it is good to have the initiative, so you can play just enough to beat your opponent, or if you have no chance of beating that card, throw away one of your low cards against it. The winner of an exchange takes the initiative for the next round.

Mike's Hero faces off against my Leader and two warriors remaining from a battered unit

My skirmish with Mike began with one of his units of Warriors charging mine on my left. I drew decent cards, and killed two of his, while losing one. Whoever wins the most of the five rounds of exchange wins the combat. Losing units back off a Run distance. Mike S then charged in with his other unit of warriors against my warriors on my right. That was when I drew the magic hand. I was shocked when I saw it -- mostly all high cards and mostly black (which meant we would be killing their figures). It was a slaughter, and Mike's entire unit of warriors was slain.  He followed up that charge with his Hero against my same unit, causing a few casualties, and forcing them back. I think a better rule than all losing units withdrawing one Run would be to have them fall back the number of wounds they lost. Or at least the difference between the two.

If I thought my battle against Mike S was bloody, Allen and Steve were soon down to just 3 figures between them

Mike took the advantage for the next few combats, but I continued to wear him down. In the end, he had only his wounded Hero and wounded Leader left against my equally wounded Leader and Hero and three of my Warriors. He decided discretion was the better part of valor and withdrew from the field.

My Hero reinforces a warrior unit that has driven off an enemy unit, but lose one of its number

The Honor system didn't really seem to work for me. It is supposed to force sides that lose all honor points to surrender or run off. Each of us began with 4 honor, and earned more when we won a combat, and even more when we destroyed an enemy unit. No one ever got close to running out of honor. For example, I had 14 honor at the end of the game, while Mike had 7. On our side, Brian and I won, while Allen lost to Steve. So, we counted it as an Iroquois victory. Perhaps we did something wrong, but the Honor seemed to do little other than keep track of who won the battle.

It was a good time, though. I enjoyed the tactical decision making each combat exchange picking which card to play. Winning with red cards allow you to affect the subsequent exchange. You can change the suit of either your card (Hearts) or your opponent's card (Diamonds).

There are optional rules with Skills for units and leaders/heroes. I'd be interested to try it again. It seems to have a number of possibilities. Will I use it for Native American warfare instead of my own Song of Drums and Tomahawks system? Definitely not. It is very generic and doesn't have the flavor I feel Song of Drums has for the period. But who knows? There might be another gaming period it would work well for...say, Conan the Barbarian? Hmmm....

Advance the Colors 2018 purchases

My newest-painted Sarissa Precision 28mm MDF building is the green one that is second in line

As always, prior to a convention, I set myself a difficult deadline to achieve. I was very happy with the Sarissa Precision MDF buildings I had purchased from Wargame Tools LLC at Historicon. Terry, the owners, is a great guy, and was very helpful in acquiring some more similar ones to ship to me. So, three new buildings show up in the mail in the weeks leading up to Advance the Colors 2018. I was determined to finish them in time, and I did. Juuust barely. Here are pictures of the final one.

Close up of the gray-green building I scrambled to finish in time for the convention

I went with a pale green color for this one - another two-story row building. It is amazing how just by changing how I paint these -- along with the various designs for the windows and doors on Version A, B, C, D, etc. -- they look different. First, I spray-painted the building black. Next, I gave it a base coast of a very light, pale green craft paint called Sagebrush Green. Next, I dry-brushed it white, finishing it off with a black wash. The trim was painted in a brighter, Kelly Green.

You can see the green color better in this photograph

Due to time restraints I did not put a tiny roof structure to show where the stairs come out. It is just as easy to tell the players there is a trap door or something. Of my four Sarissa buildings, two of them have scratch-built roof structures. If I do any more, I will certainly add these. I like how it also individualizes them. I found a new use for the Woodland Scenics mixed gray ballast that I use to texture the roofs. It allows the roofs to be use as dice rolling trays! I put a coat of white glue and water over the ballast (which is glued in place by full strength white glue), so I don't think it will damage or dislodge any of the gravel.

I like how all of these Sarissa Precision city block buildings have a side door

Finally, I got all four buildings out and took a couple pictures of them lined up as a street. I really like how they look all together in a row!

The downtown city street of my 28mm MDF buildings

Since I had scheduled myself to run my Wars of Insurgency game four of the six gaming slots over Friday and Saturday, I had little time for anything else. I briefly perused the other vendors (my own First Command Wargames was attending as dealer, too, carrying Acheson Creations products). In the end, the only things I bought were items I had set aside from Bryan Borgman's Acheson products when sorting them at my house before the convention.

This pack of six chimps was exactly what I was looking for!

I had been looking for more chimpanzees, and when I saw the package of chimps in the Primaeval Designs safari animals line, I snatched the one and only pack of them up immediately. I also grabbed a Bengal tiger, though he had quite a few of those in stock.

I love this waterline resin casting of this sea dinosaur

 There was a resin sea monster - doubtless a dinosaur expert would be able to identify it -- rearing up above the water surface that I could not resist adding to my collection of monsters for Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago. The final purchase was a bunch of Acheson Creations pieces that I will paint up as order markers for Wars of Insurgency. I hate the brightly-color poker chips I've been using and have been scheming to replace them for awhile. Maybe I'll get that done now that the convention is over!

I think these Acheson pieces are designed to be bases for miniatures, but they'll make excellent order markers

I will do another post with my favorite pictures from my "To Kill A President" game using the Wars of Insurgency rules that I wrote. Looks for that soon!

The First Command Wargames vendor tables at Advance the Colors (with Acheson Creations products from Bryan Borgman)

Death in a Gorilla-Haunted Jungle Clearing

Joel's Squirrels arrive first and survey the battlefield, eyeing the Central Treasure with the pirate loot

After freeing the prisoners of the Ratmen, the Raccoons and Squirrel crews agreed to share the information they provided. As it turned out, the prisoners belonged to a notorious pirate and treasure hunter -- who none mourned as he lay slain by the ratmen. However, the Raccoons and Squirrels were able to convince the freed crewmen into telling them the location of their buried treasure. They immediately set sail for the island, little realizing the Mice, Pine Marten, Jungle Rat, and Crushers crews were tailing them.

The archway of the Central Treasure was hotly contested by the Mice and the Pine Martens

According to the survivors of the pirate crew, the captain's treasure lay buried beneath a massive stone archway, decorated with stone heads staring out in all directions. Six ships anchored off the island, and six crews crept stealthily through the jungle. The haunting sounds of gorilla calls made the treasure seekers nervous, as they searched for the archway. We were playing "X Marks the Spot" from the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago rulebook. We used one central treasure and then each player placed two minor treasures. All began 31 inches from the central treasure, though only the Pine Martens and the Mice seemed to move towards it in the early going.

The Crushers' Hunter Yoti, at top, and Badger crewman Buckey eyeball a treasure to see if others will go for it

Since we had five players, I stepped in to make it an even six, using my Crushers crew that fared relatively poorly last time. In addition, I realized I had not even spent my Heritor's experience -- d'oh! Still, we had a successful outing. We decided to be flexible and move forward without making a beeline for any particular treasure. We had the Pine Martens on our right, and our nemesis the Mice on our left. With both our neighbors going all out for the central treasure, that left us with the opportunity to snatch up a number of minor ones.

Bentley secures the treasure while Yoti sneaks around the giant stone stature to stalk another treasure he spotted

I not-so-wisely sent both my Wolverine Heritor Hugh, and Wolverine Warden Jack, off by themselves, splitting my group as far as command and control. Hugh used Wraithwalk a number of times to move through thick patches of jungle with no penalty. Jack cast Beast Strength on most of the crew, after another "successfull" Beast Call. To my friends' amazement (and amusement), I continued to defy the odds on rolling up a random encounter after successfully casting Beast Call. If the last game went 6-7 turns, then this one went about the same. It wasn't until the final turn of this game that I actually rolled a 10+ on a 20-sided die to summon a random encounter. That is about 11 straight misses on a 50//50 chance!

Our nemesis, the Mice crew, snag a treasure early on...while unfortunately leaving their Warden to snipe at us again with lighting bolts!

Still, some monsters showed up after players quickly began snatching up treasures. Two gorillas and a Frog-man Warrior showed up, with each monster killing a crew members. This was a fairly lethal game, with the hated Mice losing their Heritor an almost losing their Warden. Specialist crew members from two other crews died, as well. My Crushers were doing great, though. We suffered no casualties and managed to snatch up four treasures -- the most of anyone. Along the way, we wrought vengeance on the Mice -- whose Warden continued to take Lightning Bolt potshots at us whenever he had the chance. My hunter Yoti and Warden Jack ambushed him, though, wounding him and forcing him to use Windwalk to get away.

This time we counter-attacked the Mice vermin! Yoti delivers a deep wound to their Warden, while Jack prepares to engage one of their crewmen (who would later be finished off by Yoti)

Buckey and Bentley, my loyal Badger crew members, each snagged a treasure and made it off-table. Both Yoti and the Heritor Hugh grabbed treasures, then dropped them to go Mice Hunting. Eventually, both made their way back to their treasures. With the Mice Heritor dead and the Warden fleeing the table, we decided to call it a victory and withdraw.

Two members of the Jungle Rats crew advance past a large, stone idol in search of treasure

Meanwhile, the battle between the Mice and the Pine Martens for the central treasure went back and forth. The Pine Marten Heritor grabbed it and moved off, only to be chased down by a Wraithwalking Mice Heritor. A deep gash from the Mice Heritor's two-handed sword, saw the Pine Marten summoning his crew to his aid. Two responded, but the Mice had the better of the three in the second round, as well. Frustrated, the Pine Marten Warden cast Wind Blast and hurled the Mouse nuisance away. A crossbow bolt and Raccoon arrow weakened the Mouse Heritor, who decided to flee. The Raccoon archer took one long range shot at him as he fled into the jungle and amazingly scored a hit, dropping him.

The Jungle Rats' Warden secures a treasure, which will be handed off to a crewmen to carry back to their ship

 

After losing one crewman to the Frog Warrior, the Squirrel Heritor charged into the fray and cut the interloper down. Content with one treasure, the Squirrels then withdrew from the clearing. Another gorilla had appeared, and with Raccoon arrows flying everywhere, they decided to the call it a day. The Jungle Rats were dodging the attacks of gorillas, and cursed as the Pine Martens disappeared with the central treasure. They moodily and reluctantly withdrew, shaking their fists at the harassing fire of the Raccoons. All crews except the Squirrels got at least two treasures, with my Crushers taking four and the Squirrels one. As more gorilla calls rang out through the jungle, the treasure hunters decided to hurry back to their ships with what they'd found.

Although in position to contest for the central treasure, the Squirrels decided to hang back and fight off the Frog Warrior who wandered into the glade

After the game, the players decided to increase our crew size from five to six. We felt that we needed more because a crewman who takes a treasure off board is lost for the rest of the game. We made it a point to move more quickly, and have multiple players taking their turns at once if they were far away from each other. This six-player game lasted about 2 1/2 hours, which is about what we want on a Sunday evening. Two specialist crewman died and the Mouse Heritor ended up with a permanent leg injury. Otherwise, the only casualties were standard crewmen. The players seem to be picking up the rules more now, plus it helps two of my regulars have purchased the rules and read them. We don't play it often enough to remember everything, so it is a group effort. All in all, everyone seems to be having fun exploring the Ghost Archipelago -- which is the goal, after all!

Keith's Raccoons were the true spoilers of the day -- snagging two treasures early then launching arrows and casting Brambles to frustrate our snipe at the other crews

Another Sarissa City Block Building

Sarissa Precision City Block 28mm (Style #2) building for my modern Africa games

A week or so ago, I received a shipment of three additional Sarissa City Block buildings. Terry from Wargame Tools picked out three slightly different ones for me on his recent trip to Europe, and brought them back with him. All are three different numbers in this line, one of which I ordered with an additional floor expansion to create a 3-story building. I absolutely love the simplicity and ease with which the Sarissa MDF buildings go together. And since I need lots of buildings for the upcoming Wars of Insurgency city fight, set in a fictional, modern African country, I have been working on these steadily, lately.

Three quarter view of the building, with my modification - a small, rectangular roof structure (door to stairs)

I decided to do a slight modification on this building. Since I like how the roofs are set up perfectly for figures to fire from them in games, I added a small building to show where the staircase to the roof comes out. I probably went too "no frills" on this. I simply cut a square bass wood dowel to the appropriate height, and then placed a wooden square on top of it for a roof. A had a door (or was it a window shutter?) from one of my earlier log cabins that I hadn't used in my bits bin, and pulled it out and glued it to the small rectangular structure atop the roof. I wasn't overly pleased with how it came out, so will try something else next time.

Style #2 has more industrial style windows, I feel. The reddish-orange tint is more brick than rose, unfortunately

Since the City Block line are essentially identical buildings, just with different window patterns, I also wanted to make them different in the colors I paint them. The first Sarissa building I did was in a golden yellow stone color. This one I thought I would attempt a weathered rose color. After assembling the building and spray priming it black, I applied the first coat -- Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh. I like this color as it is a kind of dull, faded red with orange undertones. When I applied the base coat, I attempted to not put it on so thickly that it would seep into the laser-etched lines between the stones. For the most part, I was successful, and the black shows through as the joins between each stone block.

This view illustrates the dry-brushing I did roughly in the center of each laser-cut stone block

The next step was probably the most time consuming. I dry brushed the central area of each sqaure etched stone block with Howard Hues Colonial Khaki. This lightens and fades the orange color. I had not intended for this building to look like brick, as the etched stones are way too big for that. I was disappointed it looked a bit like brick in color, though. I should have realized it, though, as this is a very similar color combination that I've used in the past on brick buildings. To salvage it, and give it a bit more red cast, I did an acrylic wash of a red brown. This gave it less orange and more red of a look, plus softened the brush strokes of the khaki.

Once again, printed off wooden floor patterns to put on the inside floors. The walls on the inside were a light gray -- nothing fancy. Just something to have a little color when the roof or second floor is pulled off to move figures into or out of for game purposes. Next up -- the three story building!

TT Combat 28mm MDF Apartment Building

TT Combat Apartment A - a 28mm laser-cut MDF building I picked up for my modern skirmish - with 20mm figs

I purchased three 28mm modern MDF buildings to use with my 20mm Modern Skirmish games. I've found that an advantage of my 20mm miniature scale is that I can use buildings from both 15mm and 28mm and the figures don't look out of place. I bought them from Terry at Wargames Tools LLC, who is a great guy to work with. He always had awesome stuff at his booth at conventions.

The big problem with this kid -- the second story does not come apart from the first! See my corner supports for a work-around scratch-built floor

I built the Sarissa Precision building that I'd purchased at Historicon 2018 earlier, so it was time to build one of the two TT Combat Apartment (A and B) I'd picked up. First off, I found the kit had a LOT more pieces! There were lots and lots of individual pieces that need glued in for the windows. What wasn't in the kit was what disappointed me most: There is no second floor. Nor is there a way to remove the second floor from the first floor. You CAN take off the roof, but the first and second story walls are solid state. Hmmm.

Those incised lines are decoration - not a seam, so the building is 'solid state' other than its removable roof

As any gamer knows, the whole point of having buildings with removable roofs is so you can put figures in them! It baffled me that TT Combat would do it this way. My only previous experience with their line is my cargo container ship. And it wasn't constructed in a way to make it easy to remove the bridge from the second and first floors, now that I think about it. I decided to create me own second floor, rather than just bag it and call the two $25 purchases a loss. I cut four pieces of bass wood of the same height to put in each corner of the first floor. I then cut a piece of black styrene plastic to rest upon the supports and be the second floor. I was fairly happy with my work-around, and got back to painting.

My scratch-built second floor (with printed patterns glued on)

For MDF buildings, I spray paint them flat black first. Then I put on a base coat (a craft paint sky blue for this one), and then dry brush a lighter shade (white in this case). I then do the trim and windows, which would be a medium blue with dark orange accent. The stone portions I painted in medium gray with light gray dry brush, which I thought would go well with the light blue. Next, I had to decide how to paint the fence/railing in front of the building. After doing some Google Image searches, I decided to go with a wrought iron look. I painted over the spray painted black with more black to ensure all the nooks and crevices were filled. Then, I brushed on some highlights using Iron Wind Metals Steel.

A close up of the front and the first floor windows, with 20mm African Militia from Liberation Miniatures firing out

Once the entire model was painted, I mixed up a black wash and brushed it over the entire thing - both blue and gray stone portions, as well as the wrought iron. There is some decoration incised on the outside of the building between the first and second floor. I went back and forth on it, and decided not to paint it. I thought it would look to gaudy painted in a bright color, and felt if I did it in the same faded blue, it would be too overpowering. Perhaps I made a mistake not doing this. Perhaps not.

I like the stone and plaster look design of the Apartment Building (with a close-up of the flower garden)

Finally, it was time to do the roof (whose blue and gray portions were painted alongside the building itself). I once again used Woodland Scenics mixed gray ballast for a roof surface. I did it on the Sarissa Precision building, and really like how it gives some 3-D texture to the MDF building. Finally, I flocked the area between the railing and the building to be a flower garden. I built up the grass with fine brown ballast and turf earth from Woodland Scenics. Then, after flocking with Blended Grass, I placed tufts of purple and yellow flowers on top of the grass. I really like how it gives it that final touch.

Militia on my second floor - plus the two wood pieces you can see I epoxied into the floor so you can lift it out easily

Well, not quite final touch! I also had printed out wood and rug patterns that I'd found on Pinterest on the internet. I trimmed these to the correct size, and glued them down with white glue to be my floors. I really like how they brighten up the interior and give it an almost finished look, despite their obviously being no furniture.

The roof, with its Woodland Scenics coarse mixed gray ballast textured floor

By this time, though, I had happened upon my next biggest disappointment with the kit -- one that was no fault of TT Combat. Since the second story is solid state with the first, the building is too tall to fit in my terrain boxes! Noooooo!! Honestly, this may be a deal breaker for me with this build. I am seriously considering selling it after I use it in my game at Advance the Colors next month. The scenario is a city fight, and I will need all of my buildings to fill the table, I imagine. So, if you are interested in this building, contact your realtor, as it just might be for sale...!

Militia stake out their turf in my modern skirmishes in Africa