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

Song of Drums and the Spirit World?

    It's 'Song of Drums and Tomahawks' with mythological creatures from the "Spirit World" added in!

One of my co-authors of Song of Drums and Tomahawks (my French & Indian War rules) mentioned he was intrigued by incorporating fantasy and horror elements in skirmish warfare on the American frontier. Mike S also knew I had done some preliminary research into creatures from various tribal myths with a look towards doing a similarly themed expansion for our rules. Since family and school have my writing tied up for now, I urged him to pursue it.

    "We come from the land of ice and snow..." -- the Viking invaders of Newfoundland

Last night, we sat down with our Sunday evening gaming group and gave it our first playtest. Mike liberally blended rules and traits from various other games in the "Song of..." series, both Basic rules and Advanced. Interestingly, he had set up three one-on-one scenarios from wildly different times on the American frontier. My game against Allen was set in the Middle Ages with Vikings vs. Skraelings in Newfoundland. Mike faced off against Keith in one set during the Salem witch trials. And finally, Joel and Mike's son Jason played English and French forces set upon by a Wendigo. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the other games -- just my own. 

    The shaman urges the Skinwalkers forward, the Bear having already changed into his animal form

Allen took the Vikings and had a force of a Hero, four spearmen, three archers, a priest of Odin, and three brothers who were berserkers/weres. Similarly, I had three Skinwalkers (Bear, Wolf, Puma), a shaman, tribal chieftain, and a half dozen bow armed Skraeling warriors. We each moved our forces up to rocky outcrops in the light woods, while sending forward a handful of troops to scout out the enemy. The difference was I sent my three Skinwalkers to attack the enemy while Allen had sent ordinary Viking warriors. 

    My plan takes shape -- 3 powerful skinwalkers ready to pounce on two ordinary Viking warriors

My plan was to pounce upon the spearmen with my much-tougher Skinwalkers and hopefully get a "gruesome kill" (which Mike was re-introducing into these games). Allen was also struggling with activation rolls, and it looked like my plan was set to be implemented as the three Skinwalkers faced off against two trembling Vikings. Allen's dice came to life, though, and in a flash, three werewolves howled towards my trio and it was now 4 to 3. Still, he hadn't made contact, so I was able to begin the melee on my next turn. I sent the Bear Skinwalker, the mightiest creature on the table, forward to attack the werewolf on the end with a "powerful blow" (-1 to the enemy). Up +2 on the die roll, the mighty bear knocked the werewolf down. My Wolf Skinwalker surged forward and slew the disadvantaged werewolf. First blood to the Skraelings protecting their homeland!

    But it was not to be -- two werewolves race to the aid of the trembling Viking spearmen!

My plan was to next begin working on his ordinary Viking warriors. The chieftain, noticing that his Skraeling warriors were hanging back (bad activation rolls), raced forward to support his mighty skinwalkers. He launched arrow after arrow at the Vikings, keeping them from helping each other. Meahwhile, the Bear-sark Viking changed into his animal form and hurled himself upon the Bear Skinwalker. He was swatted backwards with a mighty sweep of the skinwalker's paw. Time and again, the bear would hurl himself upon his ursine rival. Each time he was driven back or his attack stopped.

    First blood! The Bear Skinwalkers knocks down the werewolf and my Wolf then leaps in for the kill

As a Viking and member of an honor culture, Allen fought fair, one-one-one matchups. My Skraelings had no such scruples. We ganged up on enemy warriors whenever we could. The plan was to try to get a gruesome kill -- tripling an enemy's total in combat. This would cause a morale check for all within a Long distance and likely shatter his line. This should leave more lone, unsupported Vikings to pick off. Eventually, the Wolf and Bear teamed up against a Viking spearmen whose head soon went flying through the air. The Viking line duly fragmented, but none fled the field completely.

    Lucky long range arrow knocks down a Viking warrior while the Puma Skinwalker wades in, too

The Viking leader saw the situation was dire and stepped in to intervene. He charged the Puma Skinwalker and slew it with a might stroke of his sword -- worthy of the Sagas! However, encouraged by their tribe's success, the Skraeling archers had finally crept within range. Whenever a Viking was knocked down by an arrow, a Skinwalkers or the chieftain would race over and finish him off. A key mechanic in Song of Drums and Tomahawks if a combat can result in a figure being knocked down. If they are beaten a second time before they have a chance to clamber to their feet, they are knocked out of action. My rolls that night were definitely better than Allen's. At key moments, I knocked down his troops and then was able to activate another figure to finish it off.

    With his Skraeling bowmen hanging back, the chieftain in red moves forward to support his attack

Morale checks happen when a force falls below half, and Allen was teetering that direction. Soon, he had lost two both of his werewolves (the mighty bear fought on), all four spearmen, and Odin's priest. One more loss and he his force would test morale. The Skraeling chieftain took aim at the Viking warleader and was able to knock him down. The skinwalkers had already acted that turn, so it fell to a Skraeling brave to attempt to finish him off. He raced forward and used his flint knife to slice Olaf's throat as he tried to pull himself to his feet. A mighty roar went up from the tribe's warriors. Victory!

    Skinwalkers then began to attack the Viking warriors, hoping to get a gruesome kill and scatter them

Allen and I agreed to call the game at that point. He had just lost more than half his figures AND his leader, so would likely have men running for their lives at this point. The Skraelings had lost only the Puma. I was very careful about sending my Indians into the fray. The archers had stayed back as a firing line in close support of each other. The chieftain used the skinwalkers as a shield and shot his bow from behind their protection. The trio of skinwalkers stayed close to each other and cooperated well.

    Olaf the Fearless wades into the battle, and in a blow worthy of the Sagas, takes down the Puma

Despite the seeming one-sided nature of the battle, Allen and I had a lot of fun. I definitely think Song of Drums and Tomahawks works with mythical creatures thrown into the mix. I asked the others how their battles went, and they both seemed very close. The magical duel between Keith's native shamans and the freed-from-prison Salem witches was apparently a tightly-contest of wills. Everyone seemed to have fun, so not only was the evening a success, the playtest was off to a great start. Mike plans on running these games at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, June 19-23. So, we will doubtless see more evenings of tweaking the rules and crafting a competitive and fun convention game.

    Bear on bear and wolf on werewolf - the battle in the primeval American forest rages!

The miniatures were a mix of mine and Mike's. The mythical creatures were all his except for my Wendigo, which is a very creepy looking 3-D print from Thingiverse. I have picked up various Reaper Bones or other figures that will work for creatures from various tribes' mythologies. Mike seems intent on painting them up, so my contribution will likely remain either the rank and file or human heroes.

    After Olaf is knocked down by a Skinwalker, a brave native warrior rushes forward and finishes him

If everything goes well with the rules, Mike is interested in publishing an expansion book for this period. He wants to chat with Andrea Sfiligoi from Ganesha Games first, though. Ganesha and First Command Wargames cooperate closely on the "Song of Drums and Tomahawks" line of rules, so we want to make sure he's on board first, as well. So, look for more "Spirit World" games in the future...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

3-story Corner Ruin from Jarls Workshop

    Another 3-D printed, ruin for my post-apocalyptic games - this one from Jarl's Workshop

I picked this 3-D printed building up from Jarl's Workshop this past Advance the Colors. I liked the way it looked and that was before I realized the two pieces taped to the side were the floors for the second and third story! Once I got the building out and began to assemble it, I was even more happy. Everything fit together well, and I liked that it had crumbling stone walls marking out the foundations. The inner rectangle was modeled like rough ground, much like some of the other buildings I have painted up from Rusty at Jarl's Workshop.

    Only the corner remains in this building, the rest having fallen away and been buried

If I were to do this building again, I would probably add some rubble, bricks, and such inside the foundation. I guess I didn't stop and think about it too much, though. I was just happy with how quickly it was coming together. I followed my usual recipe of Krylon matte black spray paint, 50/50 acrylic paint and water. The tan walls did require two coats to cover the black base, but the stone and brickwork went relatively quickly. 

    A final look at the 3-story corner ruin and the Barbarozas on the prowl, looking for salvage

Once again in hindsight, I should probably have "dirtied up" the walls of this building more. As my ruined city grows, I'm learning more and more how to take 3-D or MDF buildings and customize them to look more like what we see in either post-apocalyptic movies or modern day urban war zones. It is just a matter of telling myself to slow down. Don't rush my way through this particular piece of terrain. Still, even if a building isn't dirtied up enough, a good collection of scatter terrain pieces placed around it can give the proper effect.

So, what's next? One of the largest 3-D printed pieces I have ever purchased has been glued together, as of today. If we actually get a letup in the Biblical rain we've been experiencing, I plan on beginning its spray priming. What is it? Well, it is not specifically for post-apocalyptic, but it IS urban. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, I am progressing, miniatures-wise, on a second batch of Heavy Infantry for the Bronze Legion. Stay tuned...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

Even More Ruins! Small, 1-story Corner Ruins for Post-apocalyptic Games

    3-D printed, one-story, corner ruins that I purchased from Diabolical Terrain at ATC 2023

All last year (2023), I was purchasing various ruined buildings in resin, MDF, and 3-D printed. Now that winter has arrived, it is time to start cranking some of these out for the tabletop. These three one story corner ruins were purchased from Diabolical Terrain at Advance the Colors a few months ago. I figured they would paint up fairly quickly, so I made them "next up" on my painting desk.

    One of the ruins was brick - I really liked the brick framing of the windows and dangling shutters

The first step was to cut L-shaped pieces of styrene to base them onto. The pieces were fairly simply, so I wanted to add various bricks and rubble to the bases to pretty them up a little. I did my usual method for painting ruins. I spray painted them first with Krylon matte black. Second, I went over thoroughly a 50/50 mixture of black paint and water brushed on liberally. For the two gray stone pieces, I did a medium gray wetbrush followed by a light gray drybrush. For the brick one, I used Iron Wind Red Brown as a base with a Howard Hues Middle East Flesh dry brush.

    The interior side of the largest of the the three, painted in stone with lighter colored plaster walls

On the interior sides of the corner ruins, part of the walls looked like they had plaster showing. I decided to use some pale colors -- light blue, green, or yellow -- to make it look like some of the paint was still showing on the interior walls. I did a white dry brush on top of the plaster to make it look faded and worn. I thought about adding some pictures or posters, but figured that realistically, those would have fallen or peeled off long ago, beign exposed in the weather.

    I added to the rubble that was part of the print (like the gutter) with bricks and piles of gravel

There was a decent amount of rubble and other details designed onto these ruins. Whether it was the boarded up wooden window or the drainpipe laying on the ground or the pieces of wood here and there, I picked out those details next. I added the bricks and coarse gravel randomly along the styrene base. Finally, the whole thing got a black wash. On reflection, it should probably have been even darker than it was. Still, I feel it "dirtied it up" a bit and made it look older and more decayed.

    The interior side of the brick corner ruins -- I like where the plaster has peeled away exposing brick

I finished the bases off with Woodland Scenics Mixed Turf ballast. I had originally been thinking of using a fine, blended gray ballast to represent stones, but felt the dirt would look better. Now that I am looking at pictures of them, I think they would have been helped by adding some grass, tufts, or clump foliage to represent vegetation taking root in the recesses and corners. Who knows? Maybe I will go back and add it later, now that I am thinking about it.

    The boarded up window was a cool touch on the larger gray stone ruin

So, what's up next? I have another, larger 3-D printed ruin that I bought at the same convention from Jarl's Workshop. I like how it is looking as I glued it together and primed it. So, look forward to that soon, along with another batch of Heavy Infantry for the Bronze Legion!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

    These three pieces will definitely make it onto the tabletop in my next post-apocalyptic scenario

 

Heavy Infantry for the Bronze Legion & Xenos Rampant

    Heavy Infantry for the Bronze Legion for my Xenos Rampant 'Detachment'

As I continue to flesh out my Xenos Rampant "Detachments" (as the rules call a force), I definitely want to get the Bronze Legion on the table in the first game. The legion began with two squads of Wiley Games Space Marines that I painted up back in November and December of last year (2023). I really liked how they came out, but wanted some more variety for other squads. I picked up a Stargrave Troopers plastic kit box from Jeff Gatlin at Shieldwall Gaming Club. These looked like they would mix well, and now that they're painted up, I feel they did.

    I used the Stargrave 'Troopers' box for this 3rd Bronze Legion squad & glued them together myself!

I like the ancient bronze metallic craft color and black combo. I feel the black clothing accentuates the bronze colored plates. Assembling the figures with model glue wasn't too horrible of an experience. I do like how the pack numbers the arms (discreetly -- missed it on the first batch I'd assembled awhile back). So, the right hand #10 goes with the left hand #10. That's important as many of the left hands are cupping or supporting the weapon they are holding in the right. And as much as I prefer one piece miniatures (particularly metal), I guess I can live with gluing on two arms and a head. I'm sure others out there do a MUCH better job gluing these together, but hey! I actually accomplished it, so am happy.

    Plastic details tend not to be as deep as deep as metals, so dry brushing only partially brings out folds

 

I like the rocket launcher weapons that come with the box. That'll let me give them heavy weapons or some other such upgrade when I finally get around to pointing out the detachment for Xenos Rampant. After assembling them, I spray painted the figures Krylon matte black and followed it up with my usual 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. Next, I gave them a medium to dark gray drybrush to pick out some of the detail which might otherwise simply look all black. This also helped me be able to see the detail better to paint. I have my lighted magnifying lamp on my painting desk, but every little bit helps! Following that, I painted the bronze plates, followed by the flesh, which in this case was just the bottom half of the face. I painted the helmet visor Iron Wind Metals Steel, as well as the forearm band with communications gear.

    The Bronze Legion assembled - 2 Wiley Games elites, 1 Stargrave heavies, & 1 Robot Vehicle

I tricked up the comm gear with a metallic blue screen and green, yellow, and red glowing buttons. After clear coating, I would go back and apply clear gloss to the helmet visor. I felt it still needed something, so I painted red dots around each figure's waist belt, as well as on the center backpack. I'm sure something in the Troopers box is supposed to glue to that circle, but nothing jumped out at me as belonging there. So, I left the circle in the red accent and also went back and hit it with gloss, too (much like I did with the space marines figures). I was tempted to make the bronze legion's skin color an alien one, but decided they would be a human faction. I already plan on a few other different colored skinned aliens, so I didn't want to go overboard. I like how the final black wash I put on it brought out detail and depth in the face. I used watered down black vehicle wash for this batch rather than my pre-mixed black Vallejo wash. I like how it looks better on metallics. My premixed makes metallics look a little cloudy, in my opinion.

    The legion sends its heavy infantry to investigate a bombed out settlement on a battlefield planet

So, what's next for miniatures? I should probably point out the Bronze Legion and see what I actually need to get them up to 24 points. My best guess would be simply another batch of these figures. I am rethinking my 1 figure = 2 points idea for Xenos Rampant, though. For some reason, I thought that I would make ALL infantry squads "Increased Squad Size" (up to 10 strength points from 5). Now, I see that isn't necessary. And if I keep some squads -- or maybe most squads -- at 5 strength points, I may need one final batch of Planet of the Apes figures. I have a pack of 10 "Planet of the Monkeys" gorillas with sub-machine gun that I bought from JS Wargamer Printing at last year's CincyCon. So, I may prime and paint those up instead. However, I want to compare them to the Eureka and Battle Valor metal miniatures the rest of the force is to make sure they don't look odd next to them.

Stay tuned and see what's next!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

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