With Allen and Mike S out for the evening, I offered to host board games at my place. I have a few more things to finish before I can run the climactic scenario of my Pulp games. So, board games were a good substitute since no one had a minis game ready.
First, we played Keith's newest version of Pandemic. It adds in a few new roles, including the Quarantine Specialist that Joel played and my Contingency Specialist. We cured three of the four diseases before the end of the game, but still ran out of the player deck before the fourth was cured. I honestly thought we did fairly well, but Pandemic is always tough. And the more players you have, the tougher it gets. Trying to win with five players is difficult.
Next, we did a blast (literally) from the past and played Nuclear War. Joel was the winner, and I was the big loser being the first taken out. Next was Keith, then Steve, then Ptom, leaving Joel the sole survivor. It was a brutal game, as expected, and was interesting flashback to our gaming days of yore!
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Saturday, September 6, 2014
The Rest of the Fort Walls Completed
Some of my newly-painted wall sections set up with my 28mm French Infantry |
These wall sections were extra that I ordered in addition to the Basic Fort set. At first, I was disappointed they were not identical to the ones in the set (my mistake for not checking the item codes). However, I ended up being happy about it because these were easily converted into "stairs up" sections. I described how I created them in the previous post, so I won't go into that again. I converted six of the eight that I ordered. In the photographs, you can see the two completed wall pieces side by side. You can also see how easy it is to make my based French & Indian War figures "climb" the stairs.
I'm really happy with how this fort is turning out, and think it will be quite the eye-catcher on the tabletop...!
Close up of the "stairs up" conversions I made to the extra wall sections I ordered, along with a shot of the gate and corner sections |
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Dinosaur Hunt in East Africa
My Italian paleontologist's plane crashes in a large tree, and we disembark to explore the valley |
Almost immediately, we encounter a Spinosaurus and the Italian scientist and his native guides flee for their lives |
With more deadly dinos in our path, we turn around and flee the other direction! |
One of the native guides flees straight into the jaws of a lurking carnivore |
We were slippery for the whole game, but eventually were collared by the British force and marched off to do their bidding |
Monday, August 25, 2014
Battle of Manzikert
My center Turkish command after the heavy cavalry passed through the skirmisher screen, with the Byzantine center force in the background |
Mike S commanded the left and overran Joel's Byzantine flank command |
Keith's Turkish command on the left had twice as many horse archers as the Byzantines did in their skirmish screen |
Thursday, August 21, 2014
French & Indian War Fort
Some of the wall sections to my 28mm Acheson Creations French & Indian War fort |
The inside of the wall sections |
- 10 wall sections with fighting platforms
- 8 extra sections without fighting platforms (unbeknownst to me -- bad camera angle on the photo on the Acheson website)
- 4 corner sections
- 1 main gate
- 2 stockade towers
- 2 artillery bastions
- 2 interior buildings
If I did that in small batches, I might feel the progress was too glacial. Thus, the big chunks.
Close up of the log palisade wall sections |
- Wash in dishwasher to remove release agent
- Spray paint black
- Paint with 50/50 acrylic black paint and water
- Wet brush medium brown
- Dry brush khaki
- Dry brush light gray
- Ink wash
- Flock
Close up of the insides of one of the wall sections |
Some of the wooden odds and ends I used to convert 6 of the extra wall sections into stairs |
Before conversion on the left, after conversion on the right |
Monday, August 18, 2014
Java by Request
We were down to four of us for Sunday evening's gaming, and Joel being the host, declared we would play a board game that we hadn't yet this year. Suggestions flew back and forth in the email conversations in the week leading up to Sunday. There are a lot of good board games out there that have a max of four players, so this was a chance to play them again. Our normal crew is 5-6, sometimes even 7 players. Java, by Rio Grande Games, is one of those four player games. It was requested by both Tom and Allen, so I dragged it and a few other games along.
After catching up on the not-so-good news of our friends (get well, soon, Mike S...hope your luck turns around soon, Steve!), we broke out Java and I explained the rules, again. I played my usual strategy of building up temple complexes as fast as possible, while trying to stay competitive on the points garnered from irrigation tiles. Joel maxed out on the irrigation tiles, as usual, but threw a new wrinkle in his strategy. He flooded the board with his developer pieces -- most of them lurking in the fields. Since he'd chosen red as his color, we laughed that he was the VC out in the rice paddies. Tom's strategy also focused on temples, while Allen played a middle ground between building and getting pieces on the board.
I jumped out to an early lead, with Tom close on my heels. Once we ran out of space for new cities and temples, I started to run out of steam and Tom passed me up. On one crucial turn, I earned no points as I took back a temple from Allen that I'd already scored. Tom widened the gap. Joel closed his red army into the cities. Allen was also positioned thickly all over the board, but Tom and I had been very clever about maintaining position to control (or take over) cities. In the end, it was a race between Tom and I. He edged me out by about five points.
It was a great competitive game, and we had a good time, as usual. Lisa brought home a mixed six pack of beers in a variety of tempting flavors. So, it was good times, good drinks, and good snacks -- especially Joel's black bean dip which Allen practically licked the bowl to clean out. Joel and Lisa's Weimaraner Brutus kept us entertained for the price of mooching a snack or two. A good Sunday evening with friends!
After catching up on the not-so-good news of our friends (get well, soon, Mike S...hope your luck turns around soon, Steve!), we broke out Java and I explained the rules, again. I played my usual strategy of building up temple complexes as fast as possible, while trying to stay competitive on the points garnered from irrigation tiles. Joel maxed out on the irrigation tiles, as usual, but threw a new wrinkle in his strategy. He flooded the board with his developer pieces -- most of them lurking in the fields. Since he'd chosen red as his color, we laughed that he was the VC out in the rice paddies. Tom's strategy also focused on temples, while Allen played a middle ground between building and getting pieces on the board.
Joel's contemplates his next move, while Allen and Tom look on... |
Tom's secret weapon in Java: The sage advice of Brutus the Weimaraner |
Thursday, August 14, 2014
French & Indian War Blockhouse by Acheson Creations
28mm Militia rush towards an Acheson Creations Block house. This comes in three pieces -- bottom narrower section, upper section with windows, and roof. |
The interior of the middle section, with the roof removed. You can see the rare earth magnets I epoxied onto the top of the wall corners. |
This piece went together very quickly, and will make great terrain for a French & Indian War scenario |
Next up, the wall pieces of the fort!
Monday, August 11, 2014
Black Hats have a 'Bonanza'
Mike S had a hankering to do a 28mm Cowboy game, so after raiding Keith's Old Glory Western terrain, he set up a White Hats (good guys) vs. Black Hats (bad guys) scenario. This episode feature myself as the Cartwrights seeking to chase off some outlaws who have been trespassing on our ranch. Joel was the Texas rangers, come to help us round up the scofflaws, while Keith and Tom played the bad guys.
Mike had made some changes to Ganesha Games' "Flying Lead" rules to better reflect the Hollywood Western. Essentially, every character was "Tough," which meant taking a wound merely worsened their Quality by 1 to 3, depending on how badly they were hit (beaten, doubled, or tripled). Once a character's Quality rose to a "6", he was out of action, or dead. In general, the rules worked well, though Mike had some changes he'd like to see, and we had some we suggested, as well. One odd feature -- more of a random aspect of cards and dice -- saw 5 of the first 6 turns the player whose card was drawn last had his drawn first in the following turn. The infamous "double move" before your opponents can respond is one of the reason I dislike card activation games. I prefer an established turn order, and feel you should win or lose based on your tactics (and dice, perhaps) -- not a fluke of the cards.
We deployed first, and I foolishly focused only on where my own troops were, ignoring where me ally Joel had deployed. Both Tom and Keith deployed near one corner of the battlefield, directly across the table from me. I had my Cartwrights dash across the field to take up good firing positions and fill the bad guys with lead as they attempted to cross the battlefield and escape into the mesas on the opposite edge from them. I was successful in putting Pa and Cain inside the fenced-in, chicken pen, while my other three dashed into a two story house that overlooked the bad guys. I was the first to benefit from the "double move," so blasted away at Keith's gang of outlaws, all of who were named Bob. Since an abnormally high number of my hits were "retreat" outcomes rather than wounds (depended on whether my die score was odd or even), we laughingly called them the "Running Bobbs." Even worse, they lined up for cover behind the outhouse, which provoked howls of laughter saying they all had the "runs" and were scrambling for the outhouse.
What I had not noticed, though, was that Joel deployed his troops "a fair piece" away from mine. In fact, they couldn't have been in a worse position to support my attack -- they were hidden away in the mesas, and it would take a number of turns for them to advance to where they would be a factor in the battle. We have a saying on Sunday nights, and it proved true again this night: "Tom's winning!" Tom cleverly deduced they could gang both of their forces up against mine, and he proceeded to move his entire force into the house I'd holed up in, or blasting away at me through the windows. My three Cartwrights inside were cut down relatively quickly. And when Keith woke up from his die rolling slump ("crapping out" twice in a row on activations, early on -- which meant none of his troops were able to act at all for two turns), the Cartwrights began to drop like flies.
The Texas rangers did race in impressively when Joel got the double move, firing at the hip as they came. However, with my men whittled down to essentially just Cain -- and he was bleeding badly -- it was now Joel's turn to ganged up on by Tom and Keith. Tactically, the White Hats blundered this game. Joel deployed too far away, but worse, I stuck my neck out too far and the Black Hats were only too glad to slip a noose around it. We went down kicking, though, and shot up Keith's "Running Bobs" fairly heavily. However, it was obvious that the Cartwright Ranch would be under new ownership come sundown.
The game worked well enough that I'm sure we will see another Western episode on Sunday nights. Hopefully next time the good guys will prove to have a little more between their ears than a big white hat...!
Mike had made some changes to Ganesha Games' "Flying Lead" rules to better reflect the Hollywood Western. Essentially, every character was "Tough," which meant taking a wound merely worsened their Quality by 1 to 3, depending on how badly they were hit (beaten, doubled, or tripled). Once a character's Quality rose to a "6", he was out of action, or dead. In general, the rules worked well, though Mike had some changes he'd like to see, and we had some we suggested, as well. One odd feature -- more of a random aspect of cards and dice -- saw 5 of the first 6 turns the player whose card was drawn last had his drawn first in the following turn. The infamous "double move" before your opponents can respond is one of the reason I dislike card activation games. I prefer an established turn order, and feel you should win or lose based on your tactics (and dice, perhaps) -- not a fluke of the cards.
"Pa" and Cain find good firing positions near the fenced-in chicken coop |
The rest of my gang find a great firing position in the two story house overlooking the bad guys' position |
And here's why it wasn't such a good idea...Tom's entire gang uses his "double move" to race around the side of the house and rush it, outnumbering my guys 6-3... |
The game worked well enough that I'm sure we will see another Western episode on Sunday nights. Hopefully next time the good guys will prove to have a little more between their ears than a big white hat...!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Small Bridge and Graveyard
Two of my "too many" projects are complete...! |
Small resin bridge I painted and based for a silent charity auction at Advance the Colors 2014 |
Close up of the flowers and flocking added to the base of the bridge |
The small 28mm scale graveyard, assembled from various bits and pieces |
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Combat Cards Sci-Fi Playtest III
"Those about to die, salute you!" The attackers consult their hand of tactical Combat Cards after dropping in to assault our industrial installation |
The scenario was a Sci-Fi one, with three commands per side. Joel and I represented the force guarding an important industrial installation. Keith, Allen, and Mike S's friend Eric were the rival corporate force dropping in from space to wrest control of it from us. Mike S was the rapid response drop force coming to assist our defense. The effect of this was Joel and I deployed first. We chose to deploy our commands back-to-back, with the installation between us. There was a clever mechanism for the enemy's space drop. The player would select a unit and designate a target hex. He would then pull the top card from his stack and consult the "Drift" instructions. This could be Dead On (never happened), 2 hexes towards the nearest friend or enemy (2 separate cards), or 4 hexes off (towards nearest friend/enemy). The drop was humorous, as forces scattered or drifted way too close for their own comfort towards our deployed troops. Mike S dropped in a conservative distance off, and we were set to begin.
Joel's troops on the left and mine on the right, deployed back to back, guarding the industrial installation from hostile, armed corporate take over |
It helped us that Joel and I began the game with nearly all of our units dug in and in cover, as per the scenario rules. The return fire did not do much to us because tactical modifiers adjust the damage shooting inflicts on the target. If you have an advantaged shot, it makes the damage more deadly, if disadvantaged, less effective. When you shoot, you count up the net shifts up or down, and then flip the top card of your deck. Results range from Eliminated, Out of Action (misleading, you can recover from it), Shaken, Fall Back, or No Effect. So, our dug in and in cover modifiers made their shots do little to us. I had two units with "Shaped Charges" which move the level up 2, plus I was shooting from elevation, which shifted up. So, my attacks were eliminating Allen's units ranged against me, while his were just making my go Shaken, or less.
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