Baron's Blog

Battle of Tarsis IX

2012-01-20T08:11:00.002-06:00

Sitrep:
Forces of the Pangellaic League have made planetfall on Tarsis IX, fiefdom of Duke Milo, House Morai. The Duke is engaging quickly to prevent a beachhead, while Union warships attempt to cut of League ships from their jump points.
Tonight we played another round of playtests for Robofire!, a set of SciFi rules by Scott Pyle. Scott was kind enough to listen to our suggestions in the past about the role of infantry and various other rules. Tonight I wanted try some more ideas our group came up with.
As the game turn involves alternating unit activation between players, sometimes the tactics become more "Gamey" and less tactical. We tried a new idea of, for lack of a better word, "suppression". This isn't new. Future War Commander uses it, and what it does is allow a side to temporarily pin down an opponents units long enough to move up his own.

"Suppressed" Tankhunter

As with all Goalsystem games, there is an opposed roll based on the damage inflicted by the attacker, vs the quality of the troops. If the defender fails to make enough saves the unit is suppressed (we used some handy-dandy smoke markers fro Litko). Remove markers before rolling for initiative.
Worked great. Didn't slow it down. But, what we found was that it wasn't necessary to check units that had already moved. Why bother keeping a unit from activating if it already had?
Then, INSPIRATU!. At the beginning of each turn, sides roll for initiative. What if you got a bonus +1 to your die roll for every suppression on the enemy (or you could do a minus for each you have)? Suddenly, it was worth rolling, even for those already activated units. This, for us, simulated getting that tactical advantage over the other side.
Needs another round of playtests, but I think we're on to something. Also treating infantry units like henchman groups in Goalsystem worked without a hitch, too. Those little buggers are are sneaky and have to be dug out. Just as it should be. But, I need to get some transports. Right now, they're too slow foot slogging it.

Union mega tanks and power infantry move up.

Another house rule. Normally you buy "Tactical Dice" for each unit, a sort of re-roll pool. Instead. We gave each side X number of dice each turn to distribute as they wanted around the field as need arose. You just had to commit them before the roll was made.
Overall, this was the best playtest yet. I've always loved Scott's rules, and this is up there with Super System. I'm thinking of adopting for other periods....

The Tokugawa tank. A favorite of our group. Finding more has become a personal quest.

League Heavy Infantry brings down the Duke's VTOL.

Thursday GASLIGHT

2012-01-13T11:54:00.000-06:00

It was cold outside last night, but guns and boilers were hot down in the basement. Scoring some extra buildings from Gen. Steve, I was able to really fill the battlefield nicely.
A small river split the village of La Objective. Whoever could the most troops on the other side was the victory. Recipe for a bloodbath.

The Anglo French Forces.

The Germans aided by the evil genius Prof Nightshade (boo, hiss).

Regulars and Zuoaves move forward under the protection of L'Roue and the Spyder.

The naval brigade tries an outflanking manuever.

Rokkittruppen prepare to launch.

The center of town erupts into battle.

It was the usual GASLIGHT fun. Things didn't start, whole units were wiped out in a single turn while others went unscathed. Whenever I leave the game up to the players, I always get asked to put in a VSF game.

More Vikings for Saga

2012-01-11T09:41:00.000-06:00

Inaar Redhand gets some rank and file (Thegns) for his warband.

These gents are Crusader. Nabbed them just before Old Glory stopped carrying them. Fun and easy to paint. Fit in with the Foundry Vikings (which I like a little more) and are probably a little more historically accurate than their Foundry brothers.

Got a few more archers and some Beserkers and I'll have one warband done. Now, just need someone to fight.

Battle at the Ford

2012-01-10T07:38:00.000-06:00

One again the Legion in Mexico braved the heat and superior numbers. This time, to get supplies across the river to an outpost under siege. It was a straight shot down the middle, but of course, rebels barred the way.

The Legion tried to get tricky and head down one side, thus denying the rebels their full fire power. Indeed, some rebels spent the game criss crossing the table trying to get in the fight.

Deadly fire from the rebel's "Green Die of Doom" quickly brought down more thn a few Legionnaires. But, it was when the Legion stopped to try and duke it out with the rebels on the catina roof that they effectively lost the game.

I'll try this scenario again with equal forces, or give the crack French troops a better bonuses.

You know where are?.....

2012-01-09T08:30:00.000-06:00

...you're in the dungeon, baby. You're gonna diiiiiieeeee!

Well not really a dungeon, but my Fantasy arena with geomorphic tiles. Each 6 x 6 inch square is movable giving lots of variation. The whole thing gives 2 x2 feet of gameable area. Which doesn't sound like much, but is in fact, more than enough. I've been using a version of the Goal System game engine, where characters start out roughly the same with "upgrades" and traps scattered about. There's teleport squares and chances for bigger nasties to appear. Great fun for a convention or quick throw down.

all the pieces are made from 1" thick pink insulation foam. Just cut to size, score with a dull pencil to make tiles, bricks, etc. then dry brush. Whole thing took surprisingly little time.

Melee!

2012-01-04T07:33:00.000-06:00

Over the break we kept up our usual Thursday schedule, but I kept the games open in case we had fewer people. I dug out an old favorite. I had some of the great old Foundry "Baron Wars" knights and designed a small game based on the Melee part of the tournaments of old, when knights would beat the crap out of eat other with blunted weapons.
The field is divided into 18 sections. In the case of our games, each of the 8 players controlled 2 knights (don't worry, even with 8 players it went really fast).

Each knight has 4 skill slots, each also representing his hit points. Take a hit, lose a skill.
There are 5 skills to chose from, but only limited number at the beginning. We all took turns picking one skill til both our knights were loaded up. The skills are:
Sword: which gives the amount of dice rolled
Helmet: Which lets you re-roll the whole throw
Shield: lets you block a partial hit
Gauntlet: which lets you temporarily disable one skill of your opponent
Lightning: lets you decide who goes first in a fight.
The skills and the idea for the game I shamelessly stole from a game called "Clash of Gladiators". In that game, instead of skill, it is a distinct gladiator in a group that gives the benefit.
The knight dubbed "Chickenhead" one the first bout, but was of course, ganged up on in the second.

Tomorrow: the Dungeon

Zee Baron is back...

2012-01-03T07:59:00.000-06:00

Back from the holidays. Didn't spend as much time as I wanted, doing the things I wanted, but I'll post pics of what got painted, what got played tomorrow.
I spent way too much time playing Warlight, an online version of RISK with some other Basement Generals, and even way too much more time getting shot all to hell by 10 year olds in Modern Warfare 3.

Christmas Break

2011-12-20T08:50:00.000-06:00

Thought I'd put a little note out that I'm on Christmas break. I'm off work unitl January 2nd, and probably won't be posting until next year. But fear not. I'll be busily painting and gaming and should have tons of photos when I return.

Honor accepted

2011-12-12T10:28:00.000-06:00

Prince Adelbert of Franistover, claimant to the throne of Unkerlant, proudly wears his newest honor, the Military Order of the Golden Crown, presented to His Serene Highness by the Reich Duchy of Beerstien.

The Battle of Altenbruk...

2011-12-09T09:59:00.000-06:00

...Or a "bad night of dice rolling".

With his back against the wall, Duke Sigmund of Zlobenia, made at stand at the hilltop town of Altenbruk. It's command of the only two crossings of the River Blut made it ideal for defense. With this in mind, the Duke Sigmund arrayed what was left of the Zlobenian army on the slopes of the town, waiting to find out which crossing Prince Adelbert and the Franistover army would take.
It was a particularly cold Spring morning, and fog covered the lowlands around the river for miles. Sigmund had placed his Horse, led by the remnants of the Ducal Horse Grenadiers, forward in hopes he could catch the Frannies at the bridges, holding them long enough for the Infantry to arrive.
Luck, and the weather was against the Duke. When the sun fiannly burned away the fog, it was to reveal the entire Franistover army crossing at one point, the northern bridge, the farthest from his Horse.
Zlobenia seized the initiative, and the Duke raced his Horse in a giant arc, north towards the bridge. His Foot, however either were tardy, or didn't budge. The brunt of the attack, would rely on his cavalry, which had preformed abyssmally at the last engagement.

Frainstover Horse range across the countryside, while the foot battle it out.

Meanwhile, Franistover had managed to get a few troops across the bridge. The Horse move quickly to swing wide and ride hard for a spot between two forests. Prince Adelbert was having a hard time getting his Guard units to move. They had stopped dead in their tracks on the road. Maybe they had seen the Zlob horse thundering down from the hilltop town, straight for them.
Indeed, the Duke's horse slammed into the still forming Franistover foot. They horse caught them in marching formation and cut them to pieces.
The Franistover Horse that had crossed the Blut, bypassed the fight and rode headlong towards the only road from Altenbruk to the capital. If they succeeded in holding it, Altenbruk would be cut off from the rest of Zlobenia.
The battle over the bridge was getting heavier. Rain started to fall. More troops were committed. Prince Adelbert left his carriage and trudged through the mud to his General of the Guard, the Count Zuffel. Prince Adelbert literal put his boot to the Count's backside. Finally, the Guard would move across the river.

The steady drizzle was turning a firefight into a slow grinding of bayonet and sword. A battle of attrition was something Duke Sigmund could not afford. Weakened by earlier battles, the Zlobenia army was giving way. Troops sent to drive off the enemy horse from the road to capital were slow to respond, and were proving ineffective at budging the horse.
As night fell, Duke Sigmund pulled his troops back, as Prince Adelbert encircled Altenbruk.
It would be a siege.
Horrible dice rolls ruled the night. Both sides had trouble moving troops, and command points were hard to come by. But, as always, Might and Reason proved a fun and period game.

Thursday night shootout

2011-12-02T07:46:00.001-06:00

I knew we were having quite few of the boys over last night, so I dug an old favorite, "Fistful of Lead". Every bit of scum in the territory showed up to steal the railroad payroll.
Each player had their own objectives besides capturing the gold. The Leftover Gang and the Injuns started a skirmish right off, but decided after a couple of casualties, maybe a team-up might be better.
El Guappo and his banditos stated in a terrible place between to other gangs, and got chewed up pretty bad. Meanwhile, the Longriders and Stinky Dixon's gangs took advantage of cover and stayed clear of the sometimes violent citizens of Lesterville. (except when the Dixon's almost ran over local Egg Shin and got karate chop in return).

the Dixons steal a wagon

In the end, Injun Joe of the Longriders, was able (with the help of the Dixons) to steal the payroll and win.

Run El Guappo, run!

too slow

Cool Update: Video Review by Grubman:

Goings on in Northeastern Unkerlant

2011-12-01T13:43:00.000-06:00

After the disastrous Battle of Derlopp, Duke Sigmund and what was left of his army, fell back to his capital in Zlobenburg. Several of his foreign military advisors "disappeared" while he personally oversees the defense of the city, and consolidation of his army.
Sigmund's dragoons now scour the countryside around Zlobenburg recruiting soldiers to fill his decimated ranks.

Meanwhile, Prince Adelbert of Franistover has not been idle. His forces quickly occupied the much larger town of AltenBruk after a dangerous crossing of the river Blut, where the two main bridges had been destroyed by the retreating Zlobs.
Now, there is but a few miles of road separating the two forces. Two old foes pair off in what is surely to be their deciding battle.

Holiday painting

2011-11-29T06:40:00.000-06:00

Here's what I painted over the Thanksgiving break:

Inarr Redhand and his bodyguard, for SAGA.

reverse

Inarr's Hirsir

15mm Bugbears from Splintered Light, a pleasure to paint.

Some troops and tanks for Robofire! or another SciFi rules set

Tanks are Mechwarrior repaints

Finally, Dystopian Wars Prussian flyers.

Weird how I kept getting progressively smaller, huh?

the Battle of Derlopp

2011-11-18T10:20:00.002-06:00

I am but mere chronicler of these sad times. As Unkerlant stretches into its second year of war for Succession, our focus shifts to the northeast, where duchy of Zlobenia has invaded the Principality of Franistover.
The first year of the war, Franistover and Zlobenia, centuries old rivals, marched back and forth across each other territories, even capturing each other's capitals, but to little effect, other than the starvation of their subjects.
Hoping to finish Franistover in one fell swoop, Duke Sigmund massed the forces of Zlobenia on the border, largely undetected due to the Spring torrential rains. Meanwhile, Prince Adalbert, despite his well earned nickname "Addle-brained", had the same idea. When the weather let up, both sides found themselves facing each other outside the border town of Derlopp, ancestral home of Otto Von Derlopp, colonel of Zlobenia's own Derlopp Grenadiers.

After much posturing and redressing of lines, the battle didn't start until well into the afternoon. Prince Adalbert, found of food and drink spent too much time arguing with his head chef over the menu for dinner, while Duke Sigmund was discussing strategy with his many foreign advisors. A task which required more than half a dozen translators.

Franistover's cavalry, never good due to their homeland's mountainous terrain, operating on the wings charged forth with elan. The infantry, however, especially the guards charged with taking the town, dallied behind.
Across the field, Zlobenian troops, drilled by the latest European officers, marched steadily forward in parade ground percision.
Neither side made the attempt to cross the river to the north and try an end around flanking move. Such a bold move is perhaps beyond the scope of most Unkerlantan generals.
One the Franistover right, the hard charging Cuirassiers collided with their Zlobenian counterparts, including the much vaunted Ducal Horse Grenadiers. Still smarting from their beating by the Franistover 1st Dragoons in a previous outting, the Horse Grenadiers were itching to prove their standing as the elite of Unkerlantan cavalry. Little did they know, their rivals were among the fight.
The fight was terrible. Franistover's horse was driven back, but managed to give out worse than they got. It was when the Zlobenians counter attacked, that the fight became truly bloody.
Meanwhile, in the center, Zlobenian troops captured the town, just moments before the Franistover guard units.Troops in the town began peppering the Frannies to little effect.
The regu;ar Franistover regiments, however, came under increasingly accurate Zlob artillery fire. The 1st regiment, the Bakers Legion (literally made up of the Royal Baking Corps) took an especially brutal beating.
To the north a similar cavalry battle was playing out. Both sides see sawed.
The battle raged. On the slopes outside Derlopp, Prince Adalbert's Loyal Mountaineers poured volley after volley into the Derlopp Grenadiers. They died outside their own walls in droves.

On the southern flanks, Frainstover cavalry was getting the worst of it, but not before routing the Ducal Horse in shame once more. Soon, only the 1st Franistover Dragoons held the flank.
On the opposite side, Prince Adalbert's forces were faring better. Not only had the effectively smashed the Zlobenian Horse, but his infantry was making gains. Night was falling.
There was a pause in the fighting. Neither side could seem to get the their troops motivated for one last push. The infantry battles in the middle were evolving into slow grinds, troops falling in bits and pieces.
Finally, Frainstover was able to get the upper hand in the north. As the sun went down, more Zlobenian troops were falling than Frannies. Duke Sigmund watched in horror as his regiments disssolved, even given up Derlopp.
Devoid of cavalry, Zlobenian troops were hunted into the night by victorious Franistover dragoons. The Duke himself barely avoiding capture.
Prince Adalbert would have his grand dinner, albeit a little late, in the Zlobenian town of Derlopp.
I was good. Once again, Might & Reason provided a period feel in a short time withe fun results. I apologize for the distinct lack of miniatures.

Mini-Basement-Con

2011-11-14T08:12:00.000-06:00

The Baroness left for a gathering of the lady nobility this weekend, so I put on a mini version of Basement-Con. Thursday and Friday were mostly boardgames so I pulled out the stops for a GASLIGHT mega-battle Saturday night.
Here's the pictures:

a "Spider" walks through the trees....

Franco-British forces push towards the bridge

Clankers advance towards the farmhouse

French marines find a ford, while the Le Roue blocks the bridge

Skirmish on the flank

One of the Empress's Own Elite Lady Hussars brings the Roue to a halt.

Another nice review of Fistful of Lead

2011-11-11T06:56:00.000-06:00

from Wargame Downloads:
"Delightfully concise and simple, this game manages to cover all the rules you will need to play an entertaining and satisfactory tactical wild west wargame. FoL is quick to learn, entertaining to read, and a breeze to house-rule and expand."
Though my Wild West rules have been out for a while, its always nice to hear someone new discovering them and liking them.

Jumping on the Saga bandwagon

2011-11-07T12:44:00.000-06:00

I loves me my Dark Ages. Dunno why. Maybe it was watching Kirk Douglas in "the Vikings", or Chuck Heston in "the Warlord". Or all those Bernard Cornwell books I keep reading.
Whatever the cause, you can't swing a stick in the Wargaming Blogosphere with hitting "Saga". After reading countless reviews, I broke down and ordered it.
It's like a boardgame with it's Battleboards where all the strategy is done. It's like a traditional wargame. Its simple but has depth. I'm sold, and with the low number (by wargame's standards) of minis involved, I'm already envisioning new factions. Crusader just came out with some Dark Age Scots. Hello Old Glory 40% Discount!

Hail Caesar Renaissance playtest

2011-11-04T07:38:00.000-05:00

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. It was a playtest, so the terrain was pretty sparse. Also, I'm in the process of repainting/rebasing for this playtest, so I hard to improvise on troops and commanders (thus the War of the Roses command stands).
As a background let me say, this is one of favorite periods. I've been waiting for just the right rules for these guys for literally, years. I've tried every wargames rules set there is for Renaissance (yes, I have. So don't throw out suggestions). Playing Black Powder really got me jazzed when I saw Hail Caesar.
To me, Renaissance is really Ancients with gunpowder. Most generals of the day had been studying ancient texts and were trying to recreate the legions and phalanxes of years gone by. I wanted a set of rules where I could build the units the way I thought they should look. I don't like counting figures, or a ton of modifiers. I'm getting old, so I like simple, too. HC did it for me.
I've read the rules 3 times but never played, so of course we got things wrong, but there was a lot of right in here too.
The scenario was a fairly even match up between Neopolitan Spanish and the French. The forces were fairly small, 4 commands a side. Each side had two commanders with a unit of Heavy Cavalry (rated as cataphracts) and a mounted crossbow/arquebus unit (rated as missile armed light cav). One general had artillery, a pike unit, and two open order crossbow/arquebus units. The final commander on each side had two pike units and two crossbow.
There were surprisingly few 3 move manuevers, so the sides moved slowly at each other. Our supreme leader (even with a reroll) couldn't get the center forward. The heavy cav on one flank clashed and after a quick see-saw had my Gendarmes running for the hills. On the other flank, our mounted bows kept the enemy tied up all night.
Over all, everybody fought as they should. Regular units that didn't get out the way got smahed by the pike blocks. The pikes scrummed for a bit, til one broke. I gave the pikes a short range attack to simulate the arquebus skirmishers many used, and it worked great. In the future, I might let them detach such units to act as Forlorn Hopes. I'm very pleased with the results. Once everyone got the hang of it, the game went really quick. The French got chased off the field, but just barely.
Huge, huge thumbs up.

This is Halloween!

2011-11-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

So. A zombie business woman, a Necromancer and a Mexican superhero walk into a bar...

Enter the Galactic Arena!

2011-11-01T07:37:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delay from last Thursday's usual battle report. I've been working on a set of fantasy gladiator rules for awhile. Something easy enough for a convention, but good enough to hold up for one of or regular Thursday night games.
So, I had the rules, but no arena. Using 2 inch thick pink foam, I cut 6 x 6 inch pieces. Glued those to a same size foam core base.I scribed in one inch squares, added cracks, painted black and dry brushed grey. I repeated this 15 more times to create a 2 foot by 2 foot geomorphic arena, that can be easily reconfigured over and over. Some tiles have walls, some pits or crevasses. I still have to add some flavor: different color tiles here and there. Moss, blood and most of all sludge or water for the pits.

I used some marines I had laying around and painted them up quick for test run. This made it ore SciFi than fantasy. There were "power ups" all around. Players could land on them and had a 50/50 chance or grabbing upgrades, ammo or armor to their gladiator, from the cards I made. This served as a way to keep the players from sitting in one place blasting away. I also limited the ranges and gave them limited ammo. I added simple teleporters and viola!
It was great !
Things I'm adding:
Traps. Now when you land on an upgrade, there's a chance it's a trap.
Drones. Eliminated players can still screw with the living by piloting little bombots around.
The list goes on!

A long term project

2011-10-27T10:51:00.003-05:00

Besides Virginia, Missouri was the most fought over state during the Civil War. And a lot of those battles were fought very close to my home town of Independence. Of particular interest to me is the First Battle of Independence, which will have it's 150th anniversary August 11th, 2012.
Enough time for planning a tabletop reenactment?
During the summer of 1862, many Confederate and Missouri State Guard recruiters were dispatched northward from Arkansas into Missouri to replenish the depleted ranks of Trans-Mississippi forces.
Various guerrillas and bushwhackers, most notably those under William Quantrill, had gathered in Missouri and assisted these recruiters as they worked in the region. For example, Upton Hays was aided by thirty men from Quantrill's command under the brutal George Todd. By August 1, Hays was camped near Lee's Summit with 150 men. Additional Confederates continued to infiltrate the area throughout the days that followed.
Union forces, meanwhile, were bivouacked in Independence, the county seat of Jackson County. These were led by Lt. Col. James T. Buel. Like many towns in that part of Missouri, Independence had a number of sympathizers from both sides residing in it.
Colonel Hughes intended to cross the Missouri River, to recruit around his hometown of Clinton County, Missouri. He and Gideon Thompson rode to Hays's camp with 75 men; 25 additional men with Quantrill soon arrived. The officers conferred. Desperate for ammunition, and needing a victory to stir their recruiting efforts, they determined to make a surprise attack against Buel before he could attack them. Cole Younger and another man conducted a successful reconnaissance of the town on the day prior to the Confederate attack.
Lt. Col. Buel for his part had sent one of his officers, a Captain Breckenridge, scouting for eleven days, but Breckenridge found nothing. Buel became aware of Hays's camp, however, and prepared to attack it. On the evening of August 10, several citizens warned Buel of an impending assault on the city; many Union residents had already fled. Buel ignored these warnings, but another of his officers, a Captain Rodewald, did not.
The Federals were positioned in three main concentrations: their camp near a rock wall, the bank serving as Buel's headquarters, and the county jail.

Col. John T. Hughes’s Confederate force, including the partisan leader William Quantrill, attacked Independence before dawn, in two columns using different roads. They drove through the town to the Union Army camp, delivering a deadly volley to the sleeping men. Captain Breckenridge suggested surrender, but Captain Jacob Axline formed the Federal troops behind a rock wall and a nearby ditch while the Confederates rifled through their camp, looking for ammunition. The Rebels made several attacks against Axline's wall, but never succeeded in taking it. Here Colonel Hughes was killed, while Thompson and Hays were wounded.

Lt. Col. Buel attempted to hold out with part of his force in the bank building he used as his headquarters. He was forced to surrender after an adjacent building was set afire. Through a flag of truce, Buel arranged a meeting with the new Confederate commander, Col. Gideon W. Thompson, who had replaced Colonel Hughes, killed earlier. Buel surrendered, and about 150 of his men were paroled; the remainder had escaped, hidden, or been killed.
The battle intrigues me:
1- It's a small enough scale to be doable maybe even in 28mm:
USA Lt. Col. James T. Buel

7th Missouri Cavalry (2 companies)
2nd Battalion Missouri Provisional Militia (3 companies) - Capt. Jacob Axline
6th Regiment Missouri Enrolled Militia (1 company) - W.H. Rodewald

CSA Col./Acting Brigadier John T. Hughes

Hughes Recruiters
Hays Regiment
Quantrill's Guerrillas

2- All the colorful characters. Being a direct descendant of one of Quantrill's Raiders, I look forward to gaming so close to my heart.
What I need:
- Maps and terrain. Luckily, a lot of the buildings are still there (including the jail) 5 minutes away from my house. I just need to take a couple of picks.

the jail

- Minis. The Regulars are easy enough to find, the militia and Bushwackers are tougher. Foundry claims to make some guerilla types but they're wrong, wrong. They sculpted them with carbines. Being an exclusively hit and run mounted force, they shunned having to reload after each shot, and so usually carried anywhere from 4 to 8 pistols. Great-great grandaddy carried 6.
This will be one of the few times I've set a wargaming goal for myself. Hope I don't blow it.

William Clarke Quantrill

MIssouri Battle Flag

Flashing Steel!

2011-10-21T08:11:00.001-05:00

After the brutal beating we gave Drums and Shakos last week, I decided to pull back and try a smaller game. We only had 4 players last night, so I dug out some minis I've had sitting around patiently for rules to go with.
I recently downloaded the latest in the "Song of..." family from Ganesha Games, "Flashing Steel". Having played lots of games from the family the group was already familiar with the mechanics. But, FS seemed to have a little more depth. I gave each player only two figures each (except the Cardinal's men who got a bunch of "extras"). Each team only came out to 150 points. Normally in a two player game, you use 500 points a side.

The scenario went thusly: A messenger carrying secret letters of love to the Queen's lover has been waylayed on the road to Calias. She has sent her loyal Musketeers to find the messenger and the letters before they fall into the wrong hands. Enter the Cardinal's men. They want the letters to prove the Queen's disloyalty. Somewhere at the crossroads they meet....
Each player had to search areas on the board. Aramis found the messenger right away, but forced to burn an activation each turn to keep him close. He could take him off the board, but would lose Aramis for the rest of the game.

The Duc D'Harme and his lackey Smedley stumbled into the thugs that had attacked the messenger. While they were distracted D'Artagnon and Porthos attacked. Unfortunately for our heroes, it was a bad move. D'Artagnon was taken out by a common thug, while Porthos was done in by the Duke and his man-servant.

On the other side of the table Athos was dispatching a veritable horde of Cardinal's Guards single-handedly, while Rochford (boo-hiss) stumbled around the woods looking for letters (which he found along with a pack of wolves).

It finally came down to Aramis and Rochford. It was Aramis's "Slippery-ness" that won him out. The Queen's honor remains intact!
This turned out to be my favorite version of the Ganesha system yet.

Retro Sci-Fi

2011-10-20T07:21:00.001-05:00

Finally some painting done.

General Drago, with his Robot Legion

Azullian Shocktroopers. Emperor Xorg's elite forces.

The good guys. These aren't new, but nice to see them assembled.

From left to right, Xandar Zarn, Stella Starfire, Dash Dixon and Lance Vortex.

Drums and Shakos for 9 players...

2011-10-14T07:20:00.000-05:00

...or "How to Break a Rules Set".

Here's the dilemma: I have a large group that comes over every Thursday. I have a nice 6 x 8 table. So most of my games need to almost be convention style, and playable under 3 hours, cause some of the guys drive a little ways.
This limits, sometimes, the games we play to mostly large scale skirmish. I really like the the "Song of Blades and Heroes" game mechanics, but they're really made for one on one games.
So, I guess it was inevitable that this game Song of DRums and Shakos wasn't going to work.
We had 9 commands. Four British, defending a fortified farmhouse against 5 French units. The game looked great, and actually played well if we had 6 hours.
I'd like to try the whole thing again with something simple like GASLIGHT.

British defend the Farm

Highlanders hold the right flank

French begin to cross the bridge

In the Emperor's Name - Fantasy

2011-10-07T08:39:00.000-05:00

In the Emperor's Name, a free set of Sci-Fi rules set in the not-40k universe, turned out to be great time when we tried it out several weeks ago. Though nostalgic for early GW days, that universe has never been my bag. Fantasy, particularly a large scale skirmish, which is the best for my group of 6-8 weekly, is what I wanted to try. Now, I loves me my Song of Blades and Heroes, but it's really a two player game. I figured it would be simple enough to tailor ITEN to fantasy. The ensuing brawl proved me right.

the Wastes

"The temple of Baal-El has lain buried in the Wastelands for untold centuries. But recently, during an earthquake, the temple emerged from the depths. Now, forces converge. Some to destroy the temple, some to worship it's dark god..."

the Elves

The Adventurers

The Barbarians

the Forces of Chaos

The King's Men

The forces weren't balanced point-wise. But tactics should have panned out. They didn't. It was mostly a one sided affair in favor of Chaos. The Boy, controlling the Adventurers, got hammered by the Barbarians second turn. He never even got off a spell. (Spells are basically Psyker Abilities from ITEN). The forces of Good should have hauled ass to the temple, and then defended it's narrow passage. Chaos warriors are slow, the Barbarians have no long range, and the orcs were farthest away and blocked by terrain. Oh well. It was still fun.

The Battle of St Eclair (a Fast Play Grande Armee game)

2011-10-03T08:46:00.000-05:00

The French fought the Austrians in this fictional battle for the town of St Eclair. Fast Play Grande Armee are my rules of choice for this scale and this period. I think it gives a great representation of Napoleonic battles without all the excess "stuff". You can get a huge battle fought in 3 hours easy. We had six commands, and ended with a obvious winner in 2 1/2 hours.
Throw in the gorgeous 6mm figs (yes, I said 6mm) and stands provided by Scott, and you have the ingredients for a great game.

The French

The Austrians

The Austrians took the early initiative, but chose to let the French go first. The French covered the ground quickly, except in the center, where for some reason, Napoleon's troops lagged behind. The town was seized by the French, but it would turn out to be a tough time holding it.

The French capture St Eclair

The cannonade is fierce

The entire game, the Austrians pounded the defenders in the town. Although the these guns might have been better served pounding the infantry outside the town.
The battle ebbed and flowed, until finally the Austrian cavalry on the left broke. Seven Austrian brigades would break in a single turn after that. French victory.

Some take aways: The Austrians need more heavy cavalry. And a few extra infantry, too. The French move faster, so you need something to balance.

Keeping track of everything is easy with these nifty dry erase labels on the back.

Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!

2011-09-29T07:29:00.001-05:00

I spent a long time on these minis. I made sure temperature and the humidity was fine before I sprayed on the clear coat I used a hundred times. I even did a test spray to make sure all was well. Despite that, when I actually sprayed the figs, I got milky gunk all over. Some suggestions online involved respraying, but that didn't help. Anyone in the blogosphere have suggestions that don't involve a total repaint?

The areas in question.
UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions. In the end, I had to repaint. Will post some pics soon.

Some Bugbears and a Battle

2011-09-28T07:29:00.000-05:00

Finally. I painted up some the stunning 15mm figs from Splintered Light I bought at the Spring RECRUITS earlier this year. This is a Bugbear Chieftain and his bodyguard. Since they were mostly brown (according to the ancient Monster Manual I own), I decided to make their gear mostly black. I wanted more of a tarnished look, so for these guys, I did more of a bronze armor. The rest, of which I bought a ton, will have more traditional steel/iron armor.
I'll have more painting to post tomorrow. Hopefully.

Last Thursday we ran Flower of Chivalry game. A blast as usual. I premiered the Battlelust wheel for keeping track of orders and each commands status. Went over well.
The battle itself had the usual push and pull, then one giant collapse we all have come to love.
Some highlights:

The king's battleline (I gotta figure out this camera)

The Pretender advances

There's cover in these woods men!

Steady! Hold that camera steady....

The king wades into the fray.

This Thursday is a Fast Play Grand Armee game.

Latest Member of the Basement Generals

2011-09-27T07:17:00.001-05:00

Boudica. A 14 month old Great Dane. Long may she reign.

The Ork in the door...

2011-09-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

...or an "In the Emperor's Name" play test. I mentioned in an earlier post how much I wanted to try these rules out, and why I was drawn to them, so I won't cover that. The only reason I haven't tried ITEN on a large scale is because I just didn't have the troops. Luckily one of the Basement Generals, Zombie J, has a had a secret stash of GW (well painted GW stuff) hidden away for some time. They finally got to see battle.
I wasn't sure what he had so we winged it with the scenario.

What do they say about "the bigger they are?"

" Krag III was an Imperial mining operation until it was cut off by a warp storm. Previous attempts to make contact have met with disaster. With a clearing in the cosmic weather, a small Space Marine detachment is sent to check things out. What they found was a colony virtually wiped out by Ork invaders, a renegade Guard unit unhappy with being left abandoned by humanity, and an Eldar civil War being fought on this desolate world."

The Death Jester waits....

Here's where we "break" most games. We generally have 6-8 people show up on a Thursday. Most games don't handle this well, and also throw in some experienced gamers who can find a crack in the mechanics very quickly. As much as I love some games we've playtested recently, they're dead to us now.

A fight over the wreckage of a Titan

ITEN held up really well. Everyone picked up the rules within minutes. If I would have known the forces we were playing with, I could have made individual quick reference sheets. You could play a large scale 40k-esque game in a decent amount of time.
But, back to the game. No sooner had I explained to a player that the reason he had so few Marines is that they were so bad-ass compared to my many poor Guardsmen, than I shot down 2 of his 6 said Marines.
That got a good laugh. He whacked 2 of my traitor Guard in return. On the far edge a group of Eldar and their troupe of Harlequins bounded forward, while the Guard unit mixed it up with some Dark Eldar and their Ork partners. The Eldar and Orks took heavy casualties. The Ork Boss decided it was a good idea to take cover in one of the buildings, sniping from the shadows despite his heavy armor. Thus the title of our post today.
We tried a long time to dig him out. Long after Eldar walker, the Terminator and the Death Jester were gone, we were still trying to kill that pesky Ork. He finally went down under a combined 4 man melee from the Guard. Victory to the No Longer Imperial Guard. Krag III is a free colony!
These rules held up. We played a large game in 2 hours, with a lot of drinking (thus the crappy photos) and talking in between. I'm already thinking how to tweak for fantasy and take on Zombie J's large collection of Warmachine miniatures.

Who will be #100?

2011-09-14T07:32:00.003-05:00

Almost there. We have 99 Followers. Who will be number 100?

UPDATE:

tradgardmastare is number 100! Thanks to everybody who's been following my adventures in miniatures.

RECRUITS pics

2011-09-12T08:40:00.000-05:00

I had another great time at RECRUITS this weekend. For once, instead of hosting I actually got to play in some games. At what games they were! I took a few pictures of the more interesting...
Friday night I played in a miniatures version of Commands and Colors put on by Honorary Basement General Crashdoggy, all the way in from Minnesota.

Here the the Boy moves in his heavies, only to be surrounded and crush by me. Mwahahahah!
As you can see in this picture RECRUITS is very kid friendly.

A close up of the minis.
Later, it was a Force on Force game in Rhodesia. Just look at those termite mounds.

Saturday morning I started off with an awesome game (also put on by Crashdoggy) in 54mm of the French and Indian War battle of Monogahela. The figs were gorgeous. The terrain great, and the rules (This Very Ground) terrific.

I had a blast with this game running the Courer de Bois. We, the French, had to keep the English from getting to Fort Ducane (Pittsburg).

For awhile, our hit and run tactics worked. But, then Braddock showed up with some reinforcements and we just couldn't hold on.

Then, I helped run a Post Apocalyptic version of my Fistful of Lead cowboy rules. It sounds weird, but it worked. Groups of scavengers were looking for loot on the ruins of an old city. You'd think we'd spend time shooting at each other, but there were enough surprises to keep us busy elsewhere.

Shoo fly, don't bother me...

There were plenty of other games I wasn't able to play in:

A stunning 20 foot long pirate game, complete with cannibals

Stalingrad

And many more. I'll be running something next Spring (there are 2 RECRUITS-cons a year). I picked up some figs I'll post here shortly.

Kickin' It Old School....

2011-09-08T08:06:00.000-05:00

I admit it. When Citadel (before they were GW) released the first set of plastic Space Marines along with this giant book for something called "wargaming" named Rogue Trader, I was in love. For a short while, I saved what little my college era money I could, and bought everything I could of this strange Gothic future world. I had Epic, and Adeptus Titanicus and everything that went with them. Space Hulk followed. I grab every White Dwarf my tiny comic shop by school had. If it was "Chapter Approved" it was mine.

Then everything changed. They began to price themselves way out of my range. The forces became generic. The sculpts became goofy to me, and lacked character. I guess I grew up.
Then, recently I, like many discovered "In the Emperor's Name", a set of non-sanctioned sci-fi skirmish rules that seemed to take place in that far away gothic future where the undying Emperor still held sway. I dug out some old plastic the Boy had painted and gave them a whirl.
Simple, fun and easy to learn.

I found myself digging through the lead piles (or, as my wife calls it, the Isle of Misfit Toys). I found the first lead Space Marines I bought. Still base coated. It all came flooding back. They were fill of character, not like the nameless plastic legions now. Two have battle damage, one actually has a chunk blown off his armor. Each has customized armor and different weapons. A power sword, that looks like a power sword with wires sticking out? One has heads hanging from his belt. How cool is that?
I painted these as Crimson Fists in homage to the cover of that first plastic box set. Rather than use decals, I wanted their insignia to have that hand painted look, as if each had lovingly drawn theirs on their armor. I usually use washers for bases, but, maybe out of nostalgia I kept the big plastic slotta-bases.

Battle report next week. Until then, see ya at RECRUITS!

Fistful of Lead

2011-08-26T08:07:00.000-05:00

The Marshal finally captured the notorious rustler and bandit, Johnny One Leg. Now its a simple matter of holding him til the cavalry arrives to take him away to federal prison.

Problem is, nothing's simple in Lesterville. Word is, Johnny's gang is out to spring him. Not because of any loyalty, but because Johnny knows where the gang's loot is buried.

Then there's the Dirty Dixon Gang. Oh, how they hate Johnny. They just want him dead.

And then there's El Guappo and his bunch from South o' the border. Seems Johnny got a bit "familiar" with El Guappo's sister. Now the Mexican bandit is out to make Johnny an honest man.

The Marshal's got his work cut out for him.

The mean streets of Lesterville

The Marshal could have locked Johnny in the jail, but that was too obvious, instead, he had him hidden somewhere in town. Manning the rooftops, the deputies had clean shots at most of the incoming groups. Johnny's gang took the first hit. Once the guns start going off, the people of Lesterville get a might spooked. They shoot at anything, that sticks there head in their businesses. (I borrowed this idea from one of the Yahoo Group. As soon as the first shot is fired, anyone entering an unexplored building, unless it's the Marshal's men, gets a shotgun blast at them. This keeps people from using the "hold up in a building all day" plan. It also helped the Marshal's men on the roofs. Anyone trying to get up at them was going to have run the gauntlet.)

"What're you lookin' at?!"

The Dixon's smelled blood and went after Johnny's gang. There was fierce shoot out in on of the alleys. Almost all of my games end up with what we call "Blood Alley". Don't know why it happens, but it does. In one section of town, the bodies just pile up.

After much gunfire, El Guappo's gang figured out Johnny was hold up in the Saloon. He managed to get one of his men in, but he went down to a deputy.

That's when the cavalry arrived. For a while they cut a swathe through town, but the concentrated gunfire from what was left if the combined gangs brought most of them down. In the end, only one cavalry trooper survived, but he got Johnny. And for once, Marshal Bill survived.

The infamous bandit El Guappo dies

Highlights of the game included one of Johnny's game fighting El Guappo's men in what amounted to a prolonged slap fight. Hand to Hand in Fistful of lead is notoriously brutal. Someone almost always dies. Not this time. One would knock the other down. Then next turn, the downed player would get up and do the same.

Also, one of the Dixon gang blasted away 4 times with a shotgun at one of Johnny's gang pinned on the ground . The poor guy missed every time. The downed player soon got the nickname "Lucky", only to bolt from town the next turn on a failed morale roll.

On a side note, I've had a jump in members to the Fistful of Lead Yahoo Group. We are a small but loyal group. Welcome to Lestervile!

RECRUITS

2011-08-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

Some highlights of this tear's convention include a 20 foot long pirate gameThe RECRUITS convention is just around the corner (September 9-11). Once again I need to stress what a great con this is. In fact, here's an interview about it.

Some highlights of this year's con include a 20 foot long Pirate game, and the unveiling of Tomorrow's War by Ambush Alley games.
I think I'll cave and run something Friday night. Not the epic cave crawl I had imagined, but favorite of some kind. Saturday, I'll be helping Lead Addict run his Post Apoc version of my Fistful of Lead rules. Hope to see you folks there.

Samurai Swords

2011-08-19T07:54:00.001-05:00

Been really busy at work lately, and was kinda too exhausted to put on a full tabletop game. So, I dug out an oldie but goodie, "Samurai Swords".
Originally released as "Shogun", I picked this up in 1986 and its still a great game. So good, I guess they are re-releasing as "Ikusa", but without the swords to pick order of play. That's one of the coolest parts!
There were 6 players last night, and only 5 spots, so I watched until it was time for the Boy to go to bed. Then I got stuck with his decimated army. The players finally caught on that this is a head hunting game. Take out the enemy Daimyos, and win the game. Armed with this info, the next game aught to be interesting.
On another note, I may not be running a game at RECRUITS this time. Just too much to do and too little time. Instead, I''ll probably assist Lead Addict with running his Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors games.

Some favorite images from "the other blog"

2011-08-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

I just thought I'd post some images from my OD&D blog, in case you missed 'em.

Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors

2011-08-15T07:34:00.000-05:00

Thursday's game featured a playtest of Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors. Full report over at Lead Addict.
This was prep game, not only for the rules, but for RECRUITS mid September. If you are anywhere near the KC area, make this convention. It's worth it. I have to work on preparation for my own game using the oft mentioned caverns. I'm leaning towards a Pirate or Viking game right now. As much as I'd like to do a retro SciFi game, I don't have the figs right now, or the money to get them.
Sunday I tried out the "in the Emperor's Name (or ITEN) 40k, non-sanctioed skirmish rules with the Boy. ITEN's been getting a a lot of good press and I had some old 40k figs laying around. It's about as simple as you can get, but still fun. Best of all they're free!
Individual pieces of the rules aren't new ideas, but they've been put together in new ways. We had a Chaos contingent vs some Space Marines. I need to try some other troops because its almost impossible for these boys to miss, and really hard for them not to save. So some turns there was a lot of dice rolling and no results. We played it twice, switching sides. The Boy won both.

The Legion in Mexico

2011-08-09T07:34:00.000-05:00

I've been tinkering with taking my Fistful of Lead rules into new realms. One of those areas is pre-gunpowder eras. So, the hand-to-hand rules, which are simple and brutal, will have to be adjusted to give more flavor to a more HTH-centric world. To test some ideas, I used the regular rules, this time with the Legion on the offensive in Maximillian Mexico.
The Legion had the numbers for once. The Rebels got to set up first, but had to hold out against superior numbers until a relief column showed up to get the stolen gold the Rebels were guarding.

The locals don't look friendly

The Legion advances under heavy fire

I encouraged the Legionnaires to hold their fire and not take useless long range shots at the Rebels in cover. Instead, we should use our moves to cover ground quickly. But, the 5th and 6th grade Legionnaires didn't want to listen. They made good targets for Rebel snipers as they stopped in the open to reload.

First casualty of the day

I told them not to stop and reload

One of the Rebels teams had only machetes. They wisely stayed hidden throughout most of the game, waiting to ambush. Unfortunately, most were cut down after their long wait, before they could get in a hack.

Wounds mount

When the relief column did arrive, it was one officer and a wagon. The Legion had failed to find the gold, and with the night getting on, I called it for the Rebels. we did, however, play a extra turn. This turned the tide. The Rebels were virtually wiped out in a turn of great rolling by the Legion. But, as I said, I had already called it. Viva la Mexico!

The fight for the gold becomes fierce

Meanwhile, in Unkerlant

2011-08-02T10:48:00.000-05:00

I realize news from the current struggle in Unkerlant has been sparse. Life and missing participants always plague campaigns, but I hope to soon kick start some activity.
Recently, Borogravian forces were bloodily repelled in the Arch Duchy of Volborg. The battle itself was particularly brutal on horse flesh, and both sides have become scarce on cavalry. Borogravia was able to find a pass through the mountains and across the treacherous River Vollen, thanks to traitorous cur of a local lord.
Meanwhile, across the country, Franistover and Zlobenia face off for control of the west, in what is sure to be a titanic battle (by Unkerlant standards).

Preparing for RECRUITS

2011-08-01T08:32:00.001-05:00

I'm getting ready for the RECRUITS Fall convention in September. Usually it falls on my wedding anniversary and I can't attend, but this year's different! I can't say enough good things about RECRUITS. If you're anywhere in the Midwest, it's worth the trip. It's very kid friendly, has great vendors, great games and dirt cheap (free for kids and service members, $5 for everyone else).

I want to unveil the the great cave system Ludstuff did for me a while back, but still haven't hammered out what the actual game will be. Pirates looking for Conquistador gold? Vikings seeking a great wyrm's horde? Spaceman Spiff vs the mole-men of Moon Six?
Any suggestions, people of the Internets? Needs to work for 6-8 players.

Mortimer's Cross - sort of

2011-07-29T07:21:00.001-05:00

After all the crazy-ness of Comic-Con, I guess I needed the comfort of a good game of historicals. I dug my most favorite-est Medieval rules, Flower of Chivalry, and ran the War of the Roses battle of Mortimer's Cross.

Edward (York) is trying to keep Lancastrian forces from uniting and heads them off at the River Lugg at the town of Mortimer's Cross. More people showed up than planned (Hey, look, its Roger!) and I had to add some fictional troops from what figs I had left. Thus, in the pics you'll see some mythical pikemen.

Lancastrian forces cross the river

Yorkist forces started to the west of the river, Lancastrians to the east. Victory points for holding the town, and even more holding the bridge.

The battle was a close one (as usual). Highlights included a lowly band of archers holding out against three heavier units (including pikemen) until the end. In the end, it was a marginal Yorkist victory. Huzzah!

I've had these boys for 20+ years. They have seen many battles.

My brave little archers

EXTRA: Here's the Battle Lust dial I made to keep track of Orders and Battle Lust

Back from Comic-Con

2011-07-25T14:14:00.000-05:00

From San Diego's 72 degree no humidity to Missouri's 100+ and 95% humidity. Yeah!
How do I describe the complete insanity that is Comic-Con? Mardi Gras, Vegas, and superheroes all in one? Nah. Getting hit in the face with a board for 4 days? Closer. 130,000 people (larger than my city) in a very confined space. You can only take it in short spurts. And, no matter what anyone says, its not about comics anymore, and its gotten way to big. It spills out into the streets now.
I go mainly to see fellow artists and buy books and t-shirts and toys. That's why it was such a joy to hang out across from the convention center at the Trickster show. A FREE show by artists within a really great space, with all the sushi and whisky you can afford while chatting with and even drawing with some of the best comic artists around. One of the highlights for me was seeing Tom Murello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine do a one man show at Trickster for 50 fans.
Bought some great stuff. Got a signed copy of Dr. Grortborts Contrapulatronis Dingus Directory from the WETA guys. Almost picked up a deathray, but wasn't sure how the FAA would handle it.
Got some awesome t-shirts from the 7.62mm Design guys. And some action figures.
Don't know if I'll go back anytime soon. A bit too much. There's really a 1-10 ratio there. For every cool thing, there are 10 crappy things.

Look! A centaur!

Off to San Diego Comic Con

2011-07-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

Leaving tomorrow for the biggest Geekfest around. Hopefully I'll have pics next week, or if I get around to, as I go.

My costume from Halloween a couple years back

Super Thursday

2011-07-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

Being in the middle of a week long heat advisory, I thought it appropriate to do a desert themed game. In previous issues, Emperor Ape had stolen the sarcophagus of the Black Pharaoh. So after he was able to build his Simian Ray that turned most of the Earth's population into monkeys. The few remaining heroes, led by Doc Titan have surmised the link between the two. Emperor Ape used the strange black material the pharaoh's tomb was made of to fuel his ray. A few deposits of the substance still pepper the area the tomb was discovered. Now our heroes race to grab some more of this X-matter to undo the effects of the Simian Ray.
From the start, our Heroes got ponded. As soon as A.J.A.X. took to the air, he was blasted out of the sky by Killshot and his henchmen.

Killshot did this most of the game. Gunning down heroes.

Behemoth super-leaped to the tomb and grabbed some x-matter before the heroes could react, while Eggsterminator scrambled the brains of several of the heroes.

Eggsterminator stalks the ruins in search of prey

AJAX, Mr Wonderful, the Crimson Cowl and Herakles approach the ruins

Mr. Wonderful and Herakles tried valiantly to stem the villainous tide, but to no avail.
Hero Sandwich managed to escape with one measelly scrap of x-matter. Hope that's enough?

Mechagor uses a statue as a super-club

Behemoth and Herakles square off. An equal match

Next issue: Assault on Emperor Ape's Satellite!

Behemoth is an homage to one of my favorites from Villains and Vigilantes. I hope to some day recreate all my heroes and villains from this 80s RPG into SS2.

Thursday GASLIGHT

2011-07-11T07:52:00.000-05:00

I decided to take a break from play testing and do an old favorite, GASLIGHT. I dusted off the contraptions, through down some terrain, and put the Germans on the defensive for once.

French forces approach.

Germans wait

The Empress's Own Elite Lady Hussars defend the town

Regulars and Zouaves move forward protected by armor

Professor Nightshade's "klanks" have trouble with the stream

Only two lonely French regulars make it across the river

GASLIgHT is always fun, and this was no exception. I should have given the Anglo-French attacking forces more troops, as this was a defensive game. But, oh well.

Does SciFi always mean Science Fiction?

2011-07-07T08:12:00.001-05:00

It seems these days SciFi is always hard science. What about the old days where it blur the line with Fantasy? I'm thinking planets and swords stuff like the John Carter series. Look at this Frazetta painting for what I mean:

Or a bit of my childhood with He-Man:

I think this is an untapped area for RPGing and wargaming.
Currently I know of Sorcery and Super Science, a post apoc RPG, but that's it.
Lasers and Swords? Magic and Robots. C-mon!
Looks like I'll be grafting some blasters on to some ancients soon.

Blasters and Bulkheads playtest 2

2011-07-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

The strong willed daughter of the High Priestess of the Solarian Sisterhood, a matriarchal warrior cult, has been kidnapped by the evil Krool. The High Priestess has dispatched a strike force to get her back.
That was the set up for last Thursday's game of Blasters and Bulkheads. The Krool forces were allowed to set up first, being the defenders. They had 5 warriors and a warbot.

Solarian Strike force set up

Krool encampment

The "Good Guys" , as the attackers got a little more firepower with 6 warriors and a vehicle carrying missiles and heavy blasters.

The Deathball stares down his target

The Krool decided to position their heavy gunner on a watch tower, where he proceeded to drop lead on the oncoming strike team. But, it was actually the smaller Krool (space goblins) that pounded the good guys.
One warrior in particular, planted himself behind an outhouse, and was able to not only take down 3 attackers, but survive fire from the "Deathball" for most of the game. It was only when the Kroll finally became outflanked that the attackers in the last round, were able to knab the girl.

A well fought game. Some issues came up, but I have corresponded to Scott about. This is why you playtest!

I want to go to there

2011-06-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

I downloaded a fun little game for me and the Boy to play on XBOX360 called Gatling Gears. It is a throwback to the video games of my era with a lovely "blast everything in sight mentality". We play a lot of first person shooters together, but my reflexes and hand-eye coordination ain't what they used to be.
The graphics are tight but the mech and flyer designs are full of puply/steampunk goodness. I search the inter-webs for some images:

I have to find a way to build these. They are screaming to be put on the tabletop.

Blasters and Bulkheads playtest

2011-06-24T09:03:00.001-05:00

Once again, Scott Pyle of Goalsystem fame has graciously allowed our group to run his newest endeavour through the paces. This was for his latest Blasters and Bulkheads, an homage to the Space Opera. I've been looking for a rules system to go with my retro-scfi figs and was actually looking at adapting Supersystem when these arrived. So, long term I'll be using my Dash Dixon figs, but for the play test I used some oldies I had.

The Scenario: A courier for the Evil Empire was forced to make repairs to his ship on some back water desert planet. The courier was carrying secret plans to a new prototype battle station. When he didn't arrive at his rendevous point as scheduled, the Empire dispatched some Bounty Hunters to retrieve him, fearing he had gone rogue.
Meanwhile, the Rebels had plans to knab him too.
The Baddies

Ral Xaxom and his Delvanian Horde

Lerz and Gern of the Hive Brotherhood

Glurz and Glug Krulak of the Krool

The Good Guys:

Dandar Raxx and his trusted sidekick Gleep

Tars Glotho and his Vegatoid companion Zzerakkxiss

Battle scarred veteran Sgt Meridian and Dran Drandum

First turn was spent approaching the deserted town. Second turn, Glurz, and his Really Big Gun, dropped a load of hate down on the poor courier who had just appeared at the door of the tavern. He was left with only a few points of Vitality. I guess the Bounty Hunters didn't care if he was dead or alive. The rebels moved up and started a skirmish in the hills, both trying to block the way to the Courier's ship.

Tars covers his companion's charge

Ral Xaxom and his Delvanian Horde troopers KO'd the hapless courier and began to drag him off. That's when Glotho and his Vegatoid companion sprang into action and began what was to be a protracted brawl over the courier unconscious body. Glotho finally blasted the Horde to pieces and Zzzerakxiss grabbed the courier only to be attacked by Gern.

Dandar Raxx joined in. It looked like the Rebels would pull it off. Then Glurz let loose with his gun again. He rained death down on the group, even his own team mate Gern. When the smoke cleared the rebels were done, and Gern had meraculously survived.
A good time was had by all, and it was decided Glurz was the VMP. You did it again Mr. Pyle.
Bonus: This was outside the window of the Game Room:

Its one of 7 baby skunks that live in our yard.

Black Powder Playtest 2

2011-06-20T10:23:00.001-05:00

I had a fan-tabulous Father's Day. I woke up late, got a huge breakfast including home made biscuits and gravy. Then I got to paint for a couple of hours and then Lead Addict came over and we tested out Black Powder again. This time, I used used a few tweaks I found on the inter-webs for Pike and Shot era.
We started with equal forces: 2 brigade of 4 regiments each of cavalry, 2 brigades of 4 infantry and a gun. We set up almost identically, except I (the red player) had my infantry brigades in 2 lines, where he (the blue) had his side by side.

I started with a general advance across the line. Blue had trouble getting his troops moving, with only one infantry brigade puttering forward, exposed. The one little regiment poured fire into my uint reducing it to "shaken" the first turn.
My next turn the cav on both flanks swept forward. The left attack did little but drive their opposite off. On the right, it was different story. The smashed through their opposite number, and with a sweeping advance reduced their opponents to two regiments, breaking that brigade. Shooting in the center was sparse, and I was forced to try and rally my shaken unit.
Blue's turn peppered my lead infantry brigade. I was forced to retire due to the fire. They had broke.

My next turn my left cavalry brigade decided it was time to retire almost off the board. This would have ended it for me, as half my brigades would be broken or gone, causing an army morale collapse. Luckily, Blue's cavalry pursued but was unable to drive my cavalry the rest of the way off. A counterattck by me the next turn drove them off.

Like alot of era battles, the cavalry leaving the battle signalled the end of things. With two out of 4 brigades broken, Lead Addict was forced to retire his army. It was close. My infantry was about to go, and any more casualties to my cavalry would have ended them as well.
I really like these rules. A great game in under two hours. Biggest bit of advise (from Lead Addict) "Watch your shit!".
In other words, you really have to manage your resources. Pay close attention. This is not a game to half ass. It is very unforgiving.
I'm dropping everything to concentrate painting on my pike and shot stuff. But, as soon as I finish Hail Caesar, I'll probably start on that....

Rules found?

2011-06-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

As anyone who follows this blog will know, I've officially tried every wargames ruleset for Renaissance. Every single one. And I haven't been satisfied completely with any of them. I have a large collection of minis that have rarely seen battle, except in play test.
I like what I saw and played with Black Powder, so I ordered Hail Caesar! by the same folks. Though similar, there are some significant differences, as there should be.
I'm excited to try out HC! not for ancients, but for my long suffering Italian Wars minis. I think the rules will work for simple the reason that Renaissance thinkers had not only rediscovered classical art, but classical warfare. Many a general was trying recreate the armies of Rpme and Alexander. What are Swiss pikemen, but the Macedonians phalanxes of old?
Only gaming this out will see. I will keep everyone posted.

Painting and Play Testing

2011-06-10T07:56:00.001-05:00

Now that I have a break from soccer season (which lasted 10 months), I'm getting a little more painting done. Here's a quick rundown:

Uh-oh. Are those Borogravians in 28mm?

A Dystopian Wars Prussian Battleship, some 6mm SciFi troops for Robofire!, and a 15mm Bugbear Chieftain.

ECW Pikestand. I know, always with the pikes. Where's the musket love?

As you can see I have trouble focusing.

Also play tested Black Powder last night. One the Basement Generals, Bill, is building a 28mm SYW Prussian Army and thought Black Powder would fit our group for rules.
The rules call for a much larger table, so we played at 2/3 scale and only 12 units a side divided amongst 3 players. We only had 2 painted "real" units so it was time to dig out the foamcore armies. Not pretty and totally against everything the writers of Black Powder are for: big, pretty armies. But it allowed us to try the rules, so there.
As a first game, of course we did things wrong. The biggest was brigade morale. The sides were battling to a standstill til we caught that. The game would have gone even quicker than it did.

First impressions? I really like these rules. Accomplishes everything I want in ruleset. Quick, with a feel for the period. Everyone's engaged and they accomodate large forces, even if my table doesn't. However, these aren't going to be for everyone. They are wargamer rules written for wargamers. Beginners, rules lawyers and people who like finding loopholes will hate them. With the right group, which I think we have< they are a blast.
Can't wait to try with pike and shot. I ordered Hail Caesar!, by the same folks for ancients to medieval.

More news: Had a chance Saturday to watch another BP game. Somehow I became the expert after the game Thursday. This was a 15mm ACW game. I think everyone involved was used to Fire and Fury and wasn't quite ready for some of BP's differences. I'm pretty sure they all liked the game, and were amazed how quickly it was over. The brigade break points had a few already talking about modifying things (mostly the losers), until I pointed out scale. Most of us play F&F and are used to the operating scale as brigades with each player having a division. Those 8 stands of figs we push around are brigades with each stand or two a regiment. They take a couple of rounds of beating for they blow up. With BP you have to zoom down to that 8 stands. Now those individual stands are now our BP block of stands and you're handling a brigade. Those regiments you're pushing around are a lot more fragile. Lose half and your brigade is done.
This is going to require more careful management of your units, keep those flanks secure!

Teaser

2011-06-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

Just a small tease of things to come. Scott Pyle of Goal System fame has graciously allowed the Basement Generals to play test his upcoming Blasters and Bulkheads Sci Fi rules. I have a soft spot for the old series like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I've been slowly collecting minis to support this and I might have reason to final dig out the lovely caves I got from Ludstuff!

It is a Small World after all...

2011-06-03T08:29:00.000-05:00

The Basement Generals took a break from our traditional wargames (I'm lazy) to play a little (pun!) boardgame called Small World. I've eyed it for some time purely for the art work. The players take on fantasy races, expanding over a small world. Your races expand, then decline ala "History of World" but with deeper game play. Each race has a special ability, like extra victory points for inhabiting farmlands and a separate randomly generated ability like "Berserker" or "Merchant" that is different every time you play. I got Flying Barbarians, which was fun.

The key to winning comes from using your races abilities to their best, and knowing when their time is up, going into decline and picking a new race. I will definitely be picking this up.
Next week: Play test of Black Powder.

Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors

2011-05-27T07:58:00.000-05:00

Oberon VI is a planet of steaming jungles and deadly flora. But it also holds the vast treasure of a lost civilization. Space pirates have long coveted this lost wealth and often send expeditions to retrieve it. A lone patrol ship of the Intergalactic Federation is tasked with keeping Oberon VI's cultural heritage intact (at least until they find a way to take the treasure themselves).

This was the second playtest of Fistful of Lead using the future combat mods. I wanted to try out the armor rules. Enter 3 gangs of Space Pirates vs the Galactic Patrol and two gangs of hired guns. Each side's leader got armor. For this scenario we didn't distinguish between ballistic and reflective armor (ballistic, of course, only protects against bullets while reflective only stops "frickin' lay-zers").

Overhead view of the carnage

First kill went to the Federation sniper who dropped a pirate heavy from long distance. Overall the game played like most Ffol games, mostly bloodless at the beginning then the bodies start hitting the floor. The Boy put down three guys at once with a shotgun blast. No kills, but put all three in pinned-land.
The armor rules worked pretty seamless. I think there's a lot of fluff here athat could be thrown in with different weapons and effects. Lasers were effective but not completely unbalanced, so I might give them a longer recharge time (out of ammo).
Next up, vehicles! The challenge with them will be to make them fit into the ease of the FfoL game without making them too unrealistically mobile.

Dark Age Thursday

2011-05-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Last night saw the Viking/Norman battle of Lone Tree. Seems the northern raiders decided to take advantage of the chaos involving the Norman conquest of Britain. The Normans, led by Guilliaume "not the Bastard", took offense to this and cut the Vikings off on their way back from a raid. Laden with loot, and little tipsy, the Norse led by Scot the Gray, decided to take a stand.

After the battlelines were drawn, the Vikings, liquored up and pissed off, moved first. Billy the Axe, on the Viking left held back, while Scot the Bald sent his men careening forward.

The Normans went next. Guillaume, in the center was wary while his knights on both flanks led by Sir Jay and Sir Gregory advanced.

The cavalry actually managed to hold some restraint at first, but then let loose, like everyone knew they would. Unfortunately, the horses were almost blown by the end of the charge, and Sir Gregory was forced to hold up short and regroup.
This gave Scot the Bald's men a chance to charge themselves. One unit of knights made their escape while two others took some knocks.

In the center, archery was exchanged. Norman accuracy was better, and one of Scot the Grey's Huscarls decided Valhalla could wait, and retreated.

On the Viking left, Billy the Axe's boys were having a hard time of it. One unit was driven off, another cut-off and surrounded. He was holding just barely. On the right, the fight with horses was tight. Scot the Bald's men were holding on, just barely. Two units were barely holding. This flank would decide the battle. The gods seemed to smile upon them. Thor granted them the will stand. But, apparently not to fight. A miserable counter attack that could have turned to tide failed. The knights routed them. It was over. The fleeing norsemen were ridden down by remaining knights. The ravens feasted well.

As usual, "Flower of Chivalry" my ruleset of choice, provided a fun, intense, sometimes frustrating, game. It was a nail biter til the end. The Normans cav is powerful but brittle. They won with only 2 stands lost to the Viking 7. Most of the Vikings losses happened in one turn.

The Votes are in!

2011-05-19T07:31:00.000-05:00

Sixty plus votes in last week's "What should the Baron paint" poll, and the result was an over half the votes going to VSF. Here's the answers to your votes, finished over the weekend:
I got all four Dystopian Wars fleets for Christmas from my wife. I did the Britannians first as as they're my least favorite of the navies so I experimented on them.

Sorry for the slight blur. Just cannot get those tight shots lately.

Dark Age slugfest tonight!

Gaming Weekend Pt II

2011-05-17T08:53:00.002-05:00

"I, Dolpheus Thewd, do hereby take pen in hand, to give a right and true account of the battle of Volgen, Unkerlant. Open war has been upon this tiny kingdom for more than a year after the death of their beloved monarch Karl Franz III. Borogravia has gained the upper hand in this conflict and has, over the winter, through shrewd negotiation and calculated threats amassed a large army from its conquered lands.
After learning of Unkerlant through my contacts at the Geographical Society, I travelled to Greater Germania to find this illusive and barely known kingdom. I was able to "tag along" as they say, with expedition from Cavendaria, sent as allies to Zloebnia, one of Unkerlant many fractious provinces.

Cavendarian troops cross the Blut

A harrowing crossing through the mountains, and terrifying crossing of the river Blut we entered Zlobenia. My Cavendarian compatriots were surprised to find Zlobenia's Duke Sigmund was already on the road with his famed Ducal Horse Grenadiers, sprinting to a battle in the east. Though exhausted, we quickly followed.
I must say, Unkerlantian roads are ay best, awful. There were holes that could have swallowed a man, but we were able to reach the town of Volgen along with two regiments from Franistover, also sent to aid the Duchy of Volborg in it's last stand against Borogravia.

We entered Volgen at dawn, a pious town full of churches beside a dark, deep river. General Wolfe, commander of Volborg's forces ordered our regiment to guard the northern most river crossing. After passing a few "witches" trussed up in their gibbets outside of town we made for our little part of the battlefield.
Across the wide river sat flat country. A large forest dominated the center of the battlefield. Behind it, rolling forward like some great storm front, the forces of Borogravia marched forward. Their great line split at the forest with the Borogravian regular army heading towards us on the left. Our right would see a mass of Borogravian cavalry and allied forces.
The plan, as I understand it, was to hold the river and slaughter the hated Borogravians as they attempted a crossing. But then, we watched in dismay as the entire Volborgian massed cavalry of the left, galloped across the bridge to meet the enemy.

The Borogravian cavalry rode out to meet them, leaving their own infantry behind. There was a great clash! Unkerlant is poor country for horses, and so breeds poor horsemen. What Unkerlantians lack in skill they make up for in sheer bloodthirstyness. It was an ugly affair, costly to both sides, but Volborg eventually got the upper hand, and forced the Borogravian horse back. Volborg attempted to follow up their gains, but the Borogravian infantry was able to deploy and slowly push our cavalry back towards the river.

The Borogravian infantry, including all their guard units, marched steadily toward us. Our forces stood stalwart, ready to defend the river. As the sky grew dark, the Borogravian cannon deployed directly opposite our position. Cannonballs began thumping into the wet ground around us.

I was to find out later, that hardly anything had occurred on our opposite flank. It seems the Borogravian commander on the that flank had trouble motivating the allied troops. A small cavalry skirmish had occurred, but little else.

As night drew near, the battle ended. Borogravian forces withdrew during the night, to find a better crossing point. The Duchy of Volborg was safe, for now".

As is our way, the battlefield was generated randomly. It turned out very benefitial for Volborg, being the home team got to choose which side to hold. Borogravia had a slim chance at victory, which became even slimmer as our deployment was stalled by a combination of bad rolls and a brilliant move by Lead Addict in sending his cav out to meet us. My vaunted Borogravian cavalry was slaughtered, as is norm for me.

Our evening game was Robofire! Scott Pyle had added Overwatch rules for us to try, but no one ended up using it. Sorry, Scott. Two of our generals dropped out during play (my daughter fell asleep, and Lead Addict's son was sick). When enough objectives were conquered we stopped with a tie.

Good time, but we were exhausted. A good exhausted, though.

Weekend Gamefest report Pt I

2011-05-16T08:52:00.001-05:00

Four wonderful days of gaming (with a couple of chilly soccer games thrown in), what could be better?
Thursday night, I thought we would have a smaller crowd due to everyone cashing in their passes for Friday and Saturday, but actually had six people show. I've had the Perfect Captain's Shadows over Byzantium for years, but never payed. If you haven't visited the Captain's site, you're truly missing out. They do high quality board and miniature games for FREE! (other than they ask you make a contribution to one of the many charities on their site).

I like this particular game because:
1- It's a cool under used period. Right after the early Crusades in Greece and Asia Minor, so Frank-Norman type cavalry mixed with eastern style armies.
2- Lots of treachery, ripe for a play by e-mail campaign, with possible mini battles.
It took awhile to get placed and started, cutting out counters, learning the rules. I think most players would have set up different if they knew how the rules would unfold. I started in Sparta, more or less, and spent most of the game getting hammered from the north. I have a few questions into the supporting Yahoo group because of some missing rules, but otherwise a decent first play.

Friday night was some good old fashioned Role Playing games. My kids have been begging me to play Mutant Future ever since we rolled up characters months ago. MF is basically Gamma World from the early days of RPGing. I look back on my Gamma World days with great fondness. It was a crazy post-apocalyptic world of mutants, robots and fun. This time, I got to be on the other side of the table and actually play. I was the only Pure Strain Human in the group. As such, I got none of the fun mutations, but have better resistance to radiation and can understand ancient tech better. I named him Bili the Ax after a favored character from the Horse Clans book series.
There were 5 kids and 3 adults playing. One was a friend of my daughter's who had never played any kind of RPG. She must of liked it, because even after her parents picked her up, she kept texting my daughter for updates on what was happening.
Highlight: Slothnug, a slow slug-like mutant with no pain receptors (so the Gamemaster keeps tract of damage, not the player) had been getting hammered by fire from some Pigzies (militant fascist pig creatures). After taking them out by use of weather control (ever see Twister?)he finally able to assess his damage. He was described as "swiss cheese", with holes all through his body you could see through.
Pt 2 to come tomorrow.....

Weekend Gamefest

2011-05-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight starts a whole weekend of gaming! A mini-Basement Con if you will. Some battles a few of you have been waiting for, for some time (hint: a regiment of Cavendarian Freikorps have been spotted crossing the river Blut into Zlobenia). There'll be wargames and RPG-ing and gallons of beer. Squeeeeeee!

A poll?!

2011-05-09T15:03:00.002-05:00

By official proclamation of Her Worship, the Baroness, all purchasing of little lead men is henceforth discouraged until the building of the outdoor water hole, known as The Pool.
That is to say, I need to stop buying more stuff and paint what I got for awhile. Hey, I got a sweet gaming area so I can't complain. But, out of the piles of unpainted lead I own, where to start?
So I have started a poll to the right here, to get feedback. Those listed are some of my favorites, but I encourage any others than listed. I got plenty of projects.
I await your answers!
Also, this weekend said Baroness goes on her annual tour of the Barony (girl's weekend) which means gaming all weekend, starting Thursday. Good pics next week!

Sidenote: My wife didn't actually make such a proclamation. It's just easier to blame her for the need to save. Left to my own devices, the pool money would never get saved.

A Cannon for Captain Cortes

2011-05-06T07:48:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, so I thought the Thursday game should have that theme.
The hated French have a garrison of Legionnaires in the small village of Villa de Loco. They also have an old cannon. Captain Cortes, leader of the local resistance, wants the cannon for the Revolution.

Villa de Loco

The French players were allowed to set up first, anywhere in the village with the cannon and a bunch of stuff to build a barricade. They elected to set up in front of the barracks. Half held the windows facing north, and the other with cannon facing south. One brave Legionnaire climbed on the roof. The French objective was to hold out. They're Legion, so everybody knew they were dead.

the brave first squad

the Legion's second squad

The Mexican forces (which outnumbered the French 2-1) needed to capture the cannon. Bonus points were awarded for planting the Mexican flag on the barracks. They would approach from the table edges. Captain Cortes and two regular units would come from the north. A band of machete armed militia came from the east protected by the church. Finally, a group of Banditos moved in from the southwest.

Captain Cortes

Banditos

Regulars

more Regulars

Machete wielding farmers

The French were able to pin down most of the regular Mexican forces right away. One brave sergeant charged the barracks and killed a Legionnaire with a sword thrust through a window, but was pinned immediately with rifle fire from the other windows. First blood to the Mexicans.
The Banditos occupied the cantina and began pouring fire down from above. That was when the cannon was turned toward the cantina. BLAM! The building was damaged and on fire, but still staying up.

Next, the militia charged from cover of the church. Miraculously, (maybe the village priest blessed them) all survived the fire to attack the barricades. That's when most of them died.

Maybe if I hide here....

A couple more rounds of fire were exchanged, then the cantina collapsed. One bandito died, and the rest were wounded. A few stumbled from the wreckage to join in the assault on the barricade. It was a blood bath. The Legion fought and died. Soon, only the lone legionnnaire on the roof remained. Though wounded he fought back repeated attacks. Then, Captain Cortes rode out. He carefully leveled his revolver and BANG! dropped the last Legionnaire. But he wasn't dead. A final bayonet thrust from one the Mexican regulars finished him.
Viva la Mexico! Viva la Revolution!

The rules were, of course, Fistful of Lead, modified for single shot muskets.

Campaign for the Kingdom (How To?)

2011-05-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

I got a request from a Follower on the "Campaign for the Kingdom" campaign I ran a couple of years back (and I'm sure I'll run again).
The biggest problem with campaigns, as anyone who's ever ran or been in one will tell you, is the people in it. Everyone's got jobs, lives and the world to keep them from showing up on a regular basis. You have to do your map moves, and then you have to be there to play. A mapless campaign is the answer. I didn't make this up. I borrowed the idea many moons ago from an old Wargames Illustrated. No, I'm not going to go track down which one, but I am going to tell you how it goes because it's that simple.
Figure out who's "in". Your players can play as much, or as little as they want, but who shows the most is probably gong to get a better shot at winning. Either randomly, or based on who a more consistant attendee, pick a "King" and a "Pretender".
Next, figure out how long you want the campaign to last. Ten is a good point value. The King starts with 2 points, and the Pretender with one. Everyone else starts at zero. At any given point, whomever has the most points is always the KIng, and the next highest always the Pretender. Ties can rolled off, or the player who shows the most can win ties. First to the agreed amount, wins the campaign.
How do you get points? You win battles.
My ruleset of choice for the Middle Ages is "Flower of Chivalry", still available, I believe from Canadian Wargames Group. I've discussed in the past why, but briefly, I think it gives a great feel for the period without a lot of crap. I have slight changes to the rules in that I use one base for each unit instead of 6, and use a roster system to track hits.

When your group shows up for battle the King chooses his first noble to fight on his side, then the Pretender, alternating until all players have a side. (enter nightmare about being picked last for kickball). The way I did it, every player started with the same core forces: a unit of dismounted knights, a unit longbowmen, and a unit of halberdiers. Then, again, alternating between players, each player picked a unit from the pool. I had pikemen, mounted units, crossbows, etc. to give lots of variety. They picked until everyone had 6 units.
Forces thus picked, it was time for battle.
The battlefield was randomly generated before (I use the old random maps from Warfare in the Age of Reason). Next, possibly my favorite part: battlefield leader values. In FoC, you're either Brilliant, Exceptional, Good, Poor or a Buffoon. Each level, of course gives you not only Command Radius, but also battlefield flexibility. We generate them randomly before each battle. Who knows? Maybe they had a bad night? Maybe they're feeling particularly motivated? All I know is, the room is really quiet when the rolls are made. Last campaign, the King was almost always a Buffoon, and they still won.
The battle is fought.
The leader of the winning side, be it King or Pretender gets to award points. He has the option of giving everyone on his side (including himself) a point. He doesn't have to. You played like crap? He doesn't give you a point. He can give someone on the other side a point. Maybe some "arrangements" were made before the battle? He may also, at his discretion, execute one player, either side. This person loses 2 points. This usually happens to the player with next highest point value. Now you see where the intrigue happens. The background almost rights itself if you wanted this to be a running narrative.
If course, the poor nobles son will take his place (and remaining points).
As winner, you have to balance your own needs against your generals. Spurn too many players by being stingy with points, and next game, he may stab you in the back. Keep piling on the points to a favored general, he might be the next Pretender.
No muss. No fuss. Little to no record keeping. Who shows, shows.
I did a little extra of course, creating shields bearing the real life arms of my players, but renamed fanciful names. Some players that signed up for the campaign never showed. They got no points, and it didn't bog the entire campaign down.
Maps look cool. Play by email sounds like a great idea. It never works, does it? This was the first and only campaign I ran that went start to finish in a timely matter, and most importantly was fun. The KIng was a hopeless buffoon, but because of careful strategy off the field, he won.
Hope this helps.

Crimson Skies Thursday

2011-04-29T08:50:00.001-05:00

I just had to try out the new table top and all it's hexey goodness. And since I've always had a weakness for Crimson Skies, this week's game was an obvious choice.
"Border raids into Missouri by ISA forces have steadily increased. Coupled with the ISA providing weapons to sympathizers in St. Louis, Confederate forces felt that had to act. A daring raid on a suspected munitions factory just across the MIssissippi would send the message to the Industrial States to stay out of the CSA."

Brave Confederate pilots begin their run

CSA forces consisted of a Behemoth fighter-bomber escorted by a light Valiant, a Bandit ground attack ship and a Curtiss Warhawk (pictured at the top).
Intercepting them would be ISA airplanes and a mercenary pirate gang (the Flying Monkeys) consisting of 2 Brigands, a Cutlass, a Vampire and 2 Defenders.

The pilots plot their moves

The bomber had to cross the table and drop his bombs to be successful. From the start he was in trouble. The pilot of the bomber was going to have to redline the engine all the way. Half of his escort flew off to engage the pirates, leaving the lumbering giant exposed.
The behemoth took a beating starting at turn 2, and the pounding never let up. Only it's armor kept it in the air. He managed to blow an ISA Brigand out the sky with a well placed HE rocket before going down himself.

Lots of shooting this round

The fight only lasted 4 turns, but it was a brawl. I've run this same scenario before with equal forces and the bomber always gets away with it. This time I gave the interceptors more planes and it went completely the other way. Still fun, though.

I guess it's my turn....

2011-04-27T08:06:00.003-05:00

I've noticed this award going around and despite the fact it seems like a form of chain letter, I am pleased to announce that this blog has been nominated for a Stylish Blogger Award! Many thanks to El Grego for the nomination (what took you guys so long, huh?)

There are four rules that need to be followed after receipt of this award:

1. Link back and thank the nominating party - Thanks again El Grego!
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Nominate 10-15 other blogs for this award.
4. Contact those bloggers above about the nomination.

Seven things...

• I've worked for almost 20 years at a large greeting card company located in Kansas City. ( Care enough to send the very best. I have kids to put through college.)
• Despite playing with soldiers for most of my life, I've never had a desire to be one. (It's that artist's disdain for authority)
• I rarely miss a Thursday night gaming session.
• I HATE the smell of patchouli (4 years of art school will do that to you.)
• Every Christmas my family and I watch all 13 hours of the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy in one sitting. (OK that's not quite true. We shut it off at Sam's wedding.)
• Lead Addict and my wife are convinced I cheat at games. A blatant lie. If I cheated, they'd never know.
• If given a choice, "First the zombies, then the robots, then the tanks."
And now, in no particular order, the next nominees (some are not wargames blogs):

Lead Addict
Dropship Horizon
Battle Royale with Cheeze
LUDstuff
I See Lead People
Emperor vs Elector
Geektactica
and everyone else linked here on the right of your screen....

Table update

2011-04-26T08:47:00.000-05:00

Work on the gaming table continued Saturday. I dropped about $200 at Home Depot and bought some really nice wood to face the rough construction. I faced the top with 1/2" MDF so it's nice and smooth. I painted it the same color as most of my terrain and added hex "corners" so the default top has 5" hexes for Commands and Colors or an aerial combat game.
I'm adding faux "bolts" by glueing dowel caps to make the table, when painted, look like rivetted metal. I'll then give it a rusted look. Steam-punk! Steam-punk!
I've been slowly framing all the military art I've collected over the years, too. It's slowly becoming my dream game room.

Battle of Boscheberg

2011-04-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

Franistover's Irish Guards

As every good Unkerlanter knows, the roads in Franistover are terrible. So it was no surprise when good Prince Adalbert raised taxes to help pay for said roads. It was, however, a surprise to the citizens of Boscheberg when their beloved Schlossenslopp beer got the brunt of the taxation. The town mayor refused to pay, and in an act of near insanity appealed to Franistover's age old rival, Zlobenia for help. A fight was on.

Both forces arrived in late morning (probably because of the state of the aforementioned roads). The Zlobenian center was taking time deploy. Meanwhile, on the Zlob flanks, the cavalry took advantage of open terrain to fly foward. Zlobenia being hilly country, rarely affords a horseman such luxury as open terrain.
On the other side, Franistover forces were also taking their time. Indeed, it was early afternoon before ineffectual cannonade was exchanged. The citizens of Boscheberg lined the walls to watch.
As the Zlobenian cavalry on the right, thundered across the valley, led by the vaunted Ducal Horse Grenadiers in their shining gold breastplates, they spotted the Franistoveran horse still deploying. Now was the chance! But, the Zlobs miscalcualted, and the Franies counter-charged. The Ducal Horse were scattered
and beaten.

The Ducal Horse Grenadiers charge to their doom.

In the center, the Zlobenian cannon was taking a toll on the Franistoveran infantry, but the Guard were still lagging. The Scots Guard has stopped for lunch, it seems.
With the afternoon wearing on, the Zlobenian cavalry on the far left finally came to grips with the Franistoveran horse. They met the same fate as their broters on the opposite end of the field.
The people of Boscheberg, mesmerized by the battle at their doorstep, had forgotten to lock their gates. The Franistoveran grenaiders occupied the streets and houses and seized the brewery. They lined the walls troops and began reigning fire down on the approaching Zlob infantry.
Night, mercifully fell, and the Zlobenians quickly fell back across the border.
Prince Adalbert enjyoed a lovely dinner in the town square, accompanied by a tall mug of Schlossenslopp and the hanging body of the mayor.

We used Might and Reason again, as it is a flawless, fun system that let us play a fairly large game in a short time. As all my miniatures are not done, a careful observer will notice the use of foamcore stand in:

It is everything I can do, not to do switch from 10mm ( doable scale for this campaign) to 28mm which is soooo pretty.

Once everybody gets a firm grip on the rules, we will continue our Unkerlant campaign started a while back. Stay tuned.

A work in progress...

2011-04-21T07:30:00.001-05:00

We are moved. Not everything has been completely unpacked, but is at least on a shelf. Due to cost issues, construction on the wargames table has been scaled back (gotta save up for that pool).

I finished the basic framing. It's 8 x6 and will eventually have built in shelves and a more finished appearance (can you say "steampunk").
But for now, it's at least usable. Have a barrister book shelf to show off the better painted armies.I haven't gamed in weeks, and haven't painted anything in months.
The painting table is at last ready to go. Lots of room to expand.

All those boxes are full of games. Rule books, boardgames, unpainted lead.

Boxes of painted lead.

Drips

2011-04-18T07:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long absence. The title says it all. I've been really sick, and had water in the basement of new home in two places (one right where the game table is going). This morning, on the way to work a black cat ran in front of my car. Awesome.

A shout out to the other blog

2011-04-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to take moment to thank everyone who has travelled with me Beyond the Wall (My Old School Dungeons and Dragons blog). This really all started when Lead Addict helped me discover the OD&D revolution. The world Beyond the Wall has let me reconnect with old friends, introduce my kids to something that was special to me growing up, reflex some tired old drawing muscles and create a world somewhere just beyond the horizon. How many things let you do that?

Work, house moves and sports schedules have kept me away too long, so hopefully here in the next few weeks, you'll see new adventures from Gildrid, Gruffydd, Gustav, Laramine, Miss Adventure, Nemon and their new friend, Morey.

Until then, thanks for following along.

Thursday Robofire!

2011-04-11T07:46:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was the opening of the new gaming room. Haven't built the new table, so three 6 x 2 folding tables had to do for now.
I also still have most of my horde in boxes so I needed a game I could throw up fast, and everyone who hadn't played before could pick up quickly. So Robofire! fit the bill.
I haven't painted any new troops and I decided to mix it up a bit. I borrowed an idea from AK-47 Republic and added objectives. Each side got 5 markers (0,5,10,15,20). They placed them anywhere on the board, as long as they were 12' from each other or a table edge. Then, they diced for which side they came in. Ooops! Suddenly that 20 point marker you put on your side is going to get snatched by the other side.
I also made it so you had to hold on an objective for 3 turns to claim it. My mech spent a lot of the game just doing that.

This Saxon APC is actively jamming (defensive manuevers), plus a shot of the objective marker on the right.

There was the occasional loss due to long range sniping, but most of damage was done close up. Sometimes very close up. We haven't had the occasion yet to use close combat. A giant mech seems to be especially good at this. Stomp! Stomp! Squish, squish.

A heavy tank killer supports the advance.

Tis Done

2011-04-05T10:24:00.001-05:00

The move has been made. Now I have to go through 40 plus boxes and get organized. Then, it's new table makin' time. After lugging painfully heavy boxes around for 3 days, I've decided to "open" my table design a bit. Oh, and here's some pictures from RECRUITS.
More soon....

RECRUITS! this weekend

2011-03-24T08:35:00.001-05:00

Any wargamer who's even remotely close to the greater KC area should head on over to RECRUITS this weekend. Can't say enough good things about this con. Very kid friendly, dirt cheap and full of great vendors and games. I'll miss a lot of it, and won't be able to put on a game this round, but there's always Spring!

Building a new Wargaming table

2011-03-22T15:29:00.001-05:00

I'm moving next month. Bad thing (besides the sheer stress of it all): Had to demolish old table of 11 years. It's been sturdy held up to years of abuse in my cold dank basement.
Good thing: Getting a really beautiful gaming area. The new place has an area that was probably meant for a pool table, complete with bar. My wife, being the wonderful creature that she is, is letting me use it for the war room. "Wargaming is part of family. Why hide it?" God, I love her.
Now I have to build a new table, and it must be worthy of the room. So, I'm thinking of taking common kitchen cabinets to use for storage and a base, bolting them together, putting the whole thing on locking casters, and:

Thoughts?
UPDATE: More Details:

Fistful of Lead (in the Future)

2011-03-21T07:52:00.001-05:00

Lead Addict has been bugging me for years to take my Fistful of Lead Wild West rules into other areas. So, when I wouldn't get off my ass and do it, he took a turn at writing some stuff. After a few e-mail exchanges we got some basic ideas locked in that needed play testing. With most of my toys boxed up for the move, I had to play a system I knew by heart. So, Thursday the play test happened.

Gangers seek cover in the hills

The scenario involved 4 rival gangs hunting for resources (cleverly disguised as rocks) in the post-apocalyptic future. The gangs were balanced, but I wanted a variety of weapons to try out.

The big guy goes down with a shot to the grape.

Like original FfoL rules, I didn't want any record keeping, one die type, and a minimum of gaming clutter on the tabletop. The game evolved into the usual jockeying for position until close range. There wasn't much in the way of cover (I wanted weapon testing, not cover). The automatic weapon rules worked great, simulating suppressive fire well, without alot of extra dice rolling. As with real modern weapons, it was pretty deadly and quick. Through use of treachery and kid luck the Boy came out on top. The rest of us were food for mutated three-headed vultures.

The desolate wastelands

Future play-tests will include vehicle, armor and more advanced tech. But that'll have to wait till after the move.

So much blood.....

No game this week, RECRUITS! is in town.

Happy St Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T09:53:00.000-05:00

I'll be spending it with one of these, some friends, some dice and a bunch of little lead soldiers.

Thursday Medievals

2011-03-15T07:55:00.000-05:00

"I say Sir Archibald, this looks like it's going to be walk in the park."

With almost everything but minis and terrain packed away for the big move, we had to play something I knew by heart. Flower of Chivalry (or Battle Lust, as it's affectionately known) is favorite for everyone.
We started with everyone getting the same base troops: ONe unit of dismounted knights or retainers, one unit of billmen and one of longbows. Then, starting with the generals, each player picks one unit from the pool. This alternates sides till everyone had four total (for a quicker game).

The forces arrayed in all their splendor

The fun comes when we dice randomly for each commander's efficiency, always a nail biter, especially with the leaders. Of course, one side got a "Buffoon" and the other a "Brilliant" commander. I could see the look of doom come over the Buffoon's side, Roderick the Simple. In the rules, your commanders command radii and ability to issue orders are based on their level of efficiency. It only got worse when his subcommanders rolled another Buffoon, a Plodding and an Efficient, while most of the other side were Brilliant. It looked like it was going to be a short game.

Preparing for the inevitable clash

Wham!

Ahhh, but it was not to be! Through careful management of our meager resources, we (the followers of Roderick) were able to stay in the fight to the bitter end, only losing by one unit! With great glee I crushed the forces opposite me, of my 10-year-old son (hey, he had to go to bed anyway).

No Game tonight!

2011-03-03T08:05:00.001-06:00

Why no game? The Basement General's motto is "Quality Gaming Every Thursday Night"? Well, the wargaming table now holds dozens of boxes, because if all goes well we're moving.
A bigger house, a better gaming area, an office space for my over worked wife who now toils away in a cold basement, and my kids still go to the same schools. Huzzah!
So, my posting schedule will be off for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can still squeeze in RECRUITS with all the insanity swirling around. I'll post pics of the new digs, if all goes according to plans. But, you know what they say about best laid plans.....

Super Wednesday!

2011-02-24T08:22:00.000-06:00

Emperor Ape, in a another bid for world domination, attacked the labs of Veridian Dynamics, in the center of the city. With him, he brought other members of the Crime Syndicate, the monstrous Behemoth, deadly assassin Killshot, the mind scrambler Eggsterminator, the mighty MANtis, and his simian super weapon ChimPANZER.

The Emperor and his ChimPANZER

Emperor Ape was trying to steal the final component he needed for his dreaded Monkeyfier, a ray that would turn the world's population into simians under his control.
Only the Gallant Guardians could stop him. Arriving on the scene were the mammoth Doc Titan, aging government weapon, A.J.A.X., the tiny Mexican wrestler turn hero Flea, galactic heroine Galaxina, Cyclops and that tasty perveyor of Justice, Hero Sandwich.
Things started off badly for our heroes when A.J.A.X was brought down almost immediately by a mind scramble from Eggsterminator. MANtis managed to break into the labs while his evil cohorts kept the heroes at bay.
Cyclops managed to blast Behemoth right through a wall of the local comic shop with one of his gazer-laser. But, Behemoth answered by hurling a taxi at the one-eyed hero and taking him out of the fight.

Cyclops moments before impact with a taxi

Meanwhile, Flea bounced up the building for a roofstop scrap with Killshot and Eggsterminator, The miniscule mite held his own for a awhile.

Down in the lobby of the building Doc Titan battled Emperor Ape. Titan got the upper hand, but soon, the missing piece was discovered and the Emperor and his larcenous crew escaped. How soon before we're all turned to monkeys?

Hero Sandwich struggles with MANtis

Robofire! Wednesday

2011-02-17T07:36:00.000-06:00

We gave Robofire another whirl. Scott Pyle has been refining his rules and taken some of our suggestions.

Case in point, infantry. They work much better now. Not so weak.
This time it was a battle of an ancient shrine in the ever changing territories of Cambis Prime. Again, we had relatively equal forces, and had relatively equal losses, we tells me the balance is right. This would be a great game to run at RECRUITS, along with whatever game I use the cave for. Bad news is, I probably can't go again this spring due to soccer tournaments. Oh, well.
I really need to get some air forces to try out the flyer rules.

The Cave, finished

2011-02-16T07:37:00.000-06:00

I'm posting this with the link over to LUDstuff's blog. He's finally finished with the cave complex. I have no words. I'll let the picture do the talking.

This was truly a mammoth effort (pun!) by Warren, and now I must find a game worthy of his work.

Merry (Late) Christmas to me

2011-02-14T07:20:00.001-06:00

My lovely wife surprised me this Christmas by buying all 4 Dystopian Wars Fleets from Spartan Games. She purchased it Dec. 18th. I got it Saturday. Almost two months. The very apologetic guy from Spartan said it had something to do with customs.
One thing I noticed on the boxes. The front only shows the sea fleets, which is odd, since the box actually contains some airplanes and bombers. I also thought from the website, that the fleets contained the carriers, too. Not so. I'll be buying them at payday, probably from TheWarStore to avoid the customs issue.
The miniatures are mostly resin, and well cast, with lead weaponry. I'll post pics when I get a chance.
It also came with a deck of cards for the game and the rules.
Thanks again, my Love. And Happy Valentine's Day.

Super Gladiators!!!!

2011-02-10T06:54:00.000-06:00

I've been having so much fun with Goalsystem games lately, that I decided why not take my beloved Supersystem and use it for gladiator fights. I've been using "Death or Freedom" for years, but thought why not convert my favorite super hero rules just for fun.
Thus, Super Strength became Strength of Hercules, Entangle became a retiarus net, Force Field became Large Shield. I must say, it worked rather well. All the gladiators were built using the same point values, and the games played pretty balanced. There was no one fighter who seemed too bad ass to beat.
The first six man brawl took a little time, but the next went quicker. This could be a quick convention game.

Flavius Flav and Oompa of Loompaland decide who gets to finish off their downed foe

To make things easier, I rolled in all the modifiers and bonuses so all the player had to do was look at the record sheet and see the number of dice and rerolls.

Minimus Maximus faces Dave the Mediocre and Titus Pancus alone

More SciFi tanks

2011-02-03T07:57:00.001-06:00

Snowed in again. So no games this week. Oh well, got some painting done.

Mechwarrior repaints for Robofire! or Future War Commander.

Close up of the Foxbat Scout Car

SA1 Antitank Vehicle

Joust Tanks of 141st Mechanized

NEW: anybody interested in Scott Pyle's Robofire! should contact him via his Four Color Blog in the blog's list.

Robofire! Wednesday

2011-01-27T07:28:00.000-06:00

Duke Milo viewed the enemy massing on the far river bank, from the comfort of his command vehicle. The treaty between House Morant and the Hessiamatic League stated the river was to be the dividing line between their two forces. Even when he had signed the treaty a scant few months ago, he knew it would never last. The wounds were too deep, and this treaty was a bandage, used to stop the bleeding long enough take a breather before the next round of the fight.

Made a new tablecover, but still needs another drybrush coat.

So began our next play test of Robofire! We had 6 players each controlling 3-4 vehicles or infantry stands. We got a good conclusion (chased those dirty Heshies back across the river!) in 2 1/2 hours. We toyed with unit activation, rather than single stand, to speed things up, but decided to save that for another game.

Duke Milo's 114th Household Guard Power Infantry

Despite one of the highlights being the 114th Household Guard Infantry taking out a mech with sweet long-distance shot, I'm still not completely happy with how infantry works.

Got a chance to use those desert hills

Still in the process of rebasing and repainting, but work and kid's practice schedules are slowing the operation. A great game so far. This is a perfect convention game.

Sidenote: Welcome back to our long, lost general, Bill.

Places dark and deep

2011-01-24T08:55:00.000-06:00

Wanted to post an update on the too-cool-for-words cave complex LUDstuff is working on for me.
Check out his progress.
Off to Lowe's to buy some more pink insulation....

Robofire! test drive

2011-01-21T08:17:00.001-06:00

Having been a Super System fan for a long time, I was excited to find out Scott Pyle was working on some giant robot/mecha rules along the same lines as his Goalsystem rules. With Wednesday game called off because of weather, I called Lead Addict, to come over and try Robofire out.
I was already familiar with Goalsystem mechanics, so that part was easy. I spent about a 1/2 hour doing some quick and dirty stats for the old Mechwarrior figs I ordered (all units involved cost me about $15). I haven't rebased or repainted anything, because I really wanted to try the rules before diving in too crazy in miniatures.
I also didn't bother to try and balance the forces point-wise, I just went on looks as to what systems each miniature should have. Basically, each size unit has a number of Attack dice, and a number of Defense dice. Attacker rolls, adding up his successes. defender rolls and does the same. If the attacker scores more, the defender takes the difference in hits. Simple?
The battle started with my Anti-tank gun taking out, you guessed it, an enemy tank. There was some long range skirmishing to little effect. Defenders get bonuses to their Defense dice and longer ranges, the attacker gets dice at closer ranges. Again, a simple mechanic that gives the player a reason to risk getting in close.

The fight raged back and forth and went really quick, which I liked. This would be an excellent convention game, which is essentially what I have every week with 6-8 players. Eventually I had knocked out most of Leady's tanks, and it was over. Over all, a great game. But, then again, I'm bias for Goalsystem.
Liked: Speed and easy to teach the rules. I think with some more added "fluff" to differentiate all the myriad vehicles available, it would be even more fun.
Disliked: No rules for morale yet, I'm sure Scott is working on it. Biggest beef though, is with the infantry. Horribly slow (yes, I could get transport, but what fun driving around trucks?). Also too vulnerable. Even in today's warfare combined arms is still the core. Tanks are very vulnerable without infantry support. Any militia unit with a rocket launcher could take out a giant robot with a shot to the legs. I could make the infantry "Tough" giving them more than one hit, "Jump" capable, and "Anti-Tank" capable, but then they cost as much as a tank. Also ranges are the the same. Infantry can shoot just as far as the Mega-tank using a particle accelerator.
But, for a work in progress I am impressed. We both decided these rules might be the cure for all those Heavy Gear mechs we have (can you say "hundreds?"). Now there;s a company that put out great figs and turd rules. But, I digress.
I'm definitely buying more, rebasing and repainting to play again, both with "Robofire!" and Future war Commander.

Update: Looks like we hit 70 followers! Welcome!

Snowed IN

2011-01-20T10:38:00.001-06:00

Got 8" of snow last night. so our weekly game got cancelled. Which was a shame, because I got a bunch of now defunct Mechwarrior clickies to try out the new Robofire! rules Scott R. Pyle generously gave me. I'm a big fan of Super System and the whole Goalsystem.
On another note Warren is working on some more terrain for me. Check out the cave.

Fistful of Lead (or Zombies) Wednesday

2011-01-13T09:16:00.001-06:00

The players only knew the dreaded Dry Gulch Gang were terrorizing the citizens of Lesterville. Even the sheriff was scared to venture from his office, but offered a considerable reward for bringing the infamous outlaws to Justice.
With that in mind, the 6 players deployed their own gangs in search of the Dry Gulch crew. All seemed normal until the outlaws in questions showed up. They were decidedly disheveled even for them, and walked with an awkward gate. Things got really weird when the first Dry Gulcher attacked a citizen, biting them!

Zombies!
We used the regular FfoL rules with a twist. When a black suit face card was played, players could move a zombie 8 inches however they wanted. One a red face, a group. A group consisted of any zombies an inch or closer together. The zombies only used an 8 sided dice, but the same zombie or group could be moved by multiple times, so swarms were a danger. Then, at the end of the turn, after all the players had moved, all the zombies were moved towards the closest non-zombie.

At first, the players used the zombies to attack each other or create more zombies. This tactic, however soon had most the citizens running around as drooling, blood crazed monsters. Soon, the players were just trying to survive.

Only a "kill" result would bring them down. Wounds and pins were ignored.
But, eventually the Dry Gulch gang was picked off, one by one. El Guappo and Johnny One-Leg were able to claim the reward.

Late xmas present from LUDstuff

2011-01-10T09:37:00.000-06:00

I walked in last week and found some lovely presents sitting on my desk at work. Santa, I mean Warren of LUDstuff fame, made me some hex terrain to fit with all the Commands and Colors games we've been playing. If you follow the link to his site, you can see how he made it. I'll be taking the hills to my local Home Despot to match the paint, and then making a new terrain hex map to match (which I'll make a "How To" post about). You can kind of see my hex maker template in the background, above.

The rivers are especially nice. I can use them for more temperate climbs, too.

Warren's next project is a mammoth cave project. Can you say "Hollow Earth campaign"? How 'bout, "Dragon's den"?
Thanks again Mr. Lud....

Holiday Painting

2011-01-04T08:08:00.000-06:00

Here's what painted over the break:

Lance Vortex, ace pilot and crack shot with a blaster. He'll be joining the ranks of Dash Dixon's Space Rangers.

Heroes and Villains for GASLIGHT. General Custer, hero of the Little Bighorn. Nigel Tuftnell, 4th Earl of Spindletap, stalwart chap and all around hero. Archduke Ladislas. on of the Czar's dandies, but a star with a rifle and the ladies. Finally Lucresia Fume, the Duchess D'Harme (boo, hiss).

Some fine ladies of the Empress's Own Elite Lady Hussars

And finally, I always try and get some more Landsknects done when I can. Here's what a unit looks like.

32 pikes and 6 shot. My fourth unit is almost done, then back to their enemies, the Swiss. Soon, my pets. Soon you shall taste blood.....

Holiday Gaming

2011-01-03T13:32:00.001-06:00

Clanky goodness

Sixteen days off. No blogging time, but plenty of time to getting painting done (more on that next time) and even more time to game. Regular Thursday gaming has switched to Wednesday do to practice schedules.

Opening positions

The first night we worked some more on converting Commands and Colors to Fantasy. This was a play test to try out some of the tweaks. Again, worked great.

The elves and orcs were at it again. The elves had help from their centaur and Minotaur friends. The centaurs, at the opening, through great card selection were in the process of crushing the orc right. It looked like a quick game until the pointy ears luck ran out. All movement on that flank stopped, and the orcish counter attack was nasty. Combine with little movement on the Elvish right and a pounding from the orc heavies and it was over. Another green-skin victory. Like most of my C&C games it was a nail biter. Now, to paint some more troops!

The next Wednesday game happened between Christmas and New Years and I knew it would attract quite a crowd. Nothing pleases everyone like GASLIGHT.
That notorious nasty Professor Nightshade was at it again with his German and Russian flunkies. Only the brave forces of Britain, France and the United States stood in their way. The adventurous Sir Archibald Standpipe had captured the secret invasion plans from the League of Calamitous Intents's HQ, and was hiding in the village in the center of the board, awaiting rescue.

The very first turn began with the French Spyder blasting a big chunk on armor plating off the PN's Walking Monitor. Soon after, Russian forces invaded the town. Archduke Ladislaus found Standpipe and struggle ensued. It ended with bullet in the Arch Duke's heart.

Meanwhile, Rokkitruppen captured a fortified farmhouse to use as a forward fire base. Their short range repeaters proved useless to the firefight in the middle so they moved up.

The British, on the Allied right, couldn't get their Brute Class Land Ironclad started, but that didn't keep it from raining lead on the Professor's center. The U.S. forces on the left, spent most of their time cowering in the woods awaiting the Germans to their front.

Under covering fire from the Tricycle Artillery, French forces routed the remaining Russians out of the town. French Marines killed off the exposed Rokkitruppen, but were slaughtered themselves by Nightshades clankers.

All in all, another great game. It was a slugfest the whole way through, and a marginal victory for the Allies with Standpipe escaping with the plans.

For another perspective, check out Lead Addict's view of the game.

Another note, look what Warren's making me!

The Holiday Paint table A-Z

2010-12-16T09:09:00.001-06:00

The holidays have left me penniless. Combined with saving for a new house (with a new war room), I is broke. So, what a perfect time to make a dent in all those poor souls sitting half finished on my table. Here she is:

Could have taken a panoramic shot with my nifty camera but, eh?
a. Used and now useless brushes. Probably get recycled on the terrain side
b. Old plastic applesauce containers. They shall be wood mini Leonardo style tankettes.
c. Armorcast steam tank
d. The Boy's area
e. Barrels for terrain and resource locations
f. Landsknects mounted singularly for my Leonardo Tech game.
g. 15mm Dwarf flyer for Fantasy Commands and Colors
h. Ace Heroclix fig to be converted to Mammoth
i. Mage Knight Gatling gun off a to give my VSF Brits some extra fire power.
j. M.U.S.C.L.E. thing the Boy painted.
k. 7/8" washers I mount all my singles on.
l. a lamp post for something
m. Retro Sci Fi figs for my "Dash Dixon & the Galactic Rangers" games.
n. 10mm tank. Soon joining the ISA forces in a Crimson Skies land/air campaign
o. crossbow
p. Painted and based Viking. They haven't left the table because it's too cold to spray varnish on. They may be here awhile.
q. Big lizard for GASLIGHT Venus game. Lizard's done. Just need to finish the coppola.
r. Old Foundry WW1 germans. Need a touch up to add to the RCW collection.
s. Flock containers
t. GW Knight getting a fresh life as a Leonardo Tech standard.
u. Old glue container that will make a fancy sci-fi thingy.
v. More Landsknects. These will end up on a group base for Renaissance battles.
w. Warmachine mechs. VSF
x. 15mm AK-47 figs for a game of the same name.
y. another Knight for the Song of Blades warbands.
z. where the paint goes
So many projects, so little time. But, as a wise man once told me "Remember, if you paint all your miniatures,...you'll die". So keep that lead pile high!

I'll be taking a break to game and paint over the next couple of weeks. Happy Holidays!

Aeronef Wednesday

2010-12-16T08:43:00.001-06:00

I've had both the Aeronef miniatures by Brigade Models and the rules by Wessex games for a while, but never played the rules. They seems simple enough, but maybe a little too simple, so I always used a Full Thrust variant to play with sky-ships. Like a lot of wargamers, I fell in love with flying ships with "Sky Galleons of Mars" back in the late 80s. The rules were a bit cumbersome by today's standards but the idea of battleships tooling around the skies stuck.
A tipsy elf told me I'd be getting the Spartan Games "Dystopian Wars" mega-fleet in my stocking this year. I thought I'd give Aeronef a last chance before I dived into DW project.

The scenario involved a German Air Task Force making a bombing run on the English countryside in hopes of knocking out an X-Matter refining facility. Spies weren't share which town exactly, and German maps were sketchy, so best just to hit them all. The British fleet was there to stop them.
We struggled with both measuring (centimeters) as the ships crawled across the table, and the turn sequence. You do half your movement, then after everyone's gone, the other half.
The German bombing was abyssmal, but we managed to knock out 3 towns by the end. THe ero for the German side was the little Hamburg. That ship took a pounding and kept on flying. In the end she was boarded and had to surrender. The English dogs scuttled her.

The brits had there own stalwart, the Exeter. I made it my mission to pour as much lead as I could into her, but never went down. After the German fleet lost it's flagship, we headed home.
If we played again, we decided there needed to be some changes. Inches! Otherwise the ships went too slow. One move phase. With the added movement, you could drop it down. Boarding rules were weird too. Otherwise a fun game easy to use for cons.

Civil War Thursday

2010-12-09T08:35:00.000-06:00

"Deploy behind that there wall, boys!"

I forgot how much I liked playing smaller scale Fire and Fury. As lovely as a table full of troops looks, being a able to finish a game in an evening is much more satisfying. This game, everyone commanded a division of three brigades, with some divisional artillery support and an extra cavalry unit for fun. The

Union side got some extra troops and canon to offset the Rebs combat bonuses.
It was a simple meeting engagement (a wargamers crutch, I know). My plan, on the Confederate side (we chose randomly, Kenny) was to use 2 brigades to pin down the Union on my left, take the town quickly to use as a strongpoint, then, throw most of our troops on the right and roll up.

Sweeping around the Right

Everything was going according to plan. The cavalry on the far right swept around the flank and managed to break up a couple of formations. The town was taken.

"Let's give them Blu-bellies a lickin'"

But then, an extremely obstinate Federal brigade on the Union far left (our right) refused to die. The earned the nickname "Iron Brigade". When they finally did break, the had managed to hold up the Confederate advance enough that my pinning units were destroyed, and they managed to re-deploy to counter any roll up the flank.

My poor brigades left defend the far left

In the end, it was decided the Rebs would consolidate in the town near nightfall, but ultimately fall back under cover of darkness.
We're getting ready to start an ACW campaign early next year using the "House Divided" boardgame for campaign moves and Fire and Fury for tabletop. We've done it before with great results.I've also picked up Ganesha Games "61-65" which looks great for small scale battles.

In Memoriam: MIss Maisy

2010-11-30T14:44:00.000-06:00

Our dog, our family member, our friend, Maisy lost her all too brief struggle with cancer. The vet gave her 3 months, almost 8 months ago. She gave it her best until the end.
We knew we had the right dog when we brought home this German Shepherd- Doberman mix at age one, and she passed the ear and tail pull test, with our then very young kids.
She has been a watch dog, with her loud, deep bark keeping away would be burglars and salesmen alike.
A protector, once stepping out into the street to stop a car before it hit my son, who wasn't paying attention.
An unofficial mascot of the Basement Generals, snagging treats and getting pets from all the boys.
And, most of all, a loving companion. Eight years was not enough. You were taken from us too early, and if you're not waiting on the Other Side, then there is no God.

Maisy. The best dog I ever had.

Some painting. Some playing.

2010-11-30T08:18:00.000-06:00

First, the holidays gave me a chance to get some painting done. Two motivators. 1- Need some room on my desk to paint. 2- Some of you might recall I have a large Renaissance Army that's been looking for rules and some cavalry. Part of the reason I've held back on an army that's so close to completion is a lack of good horsies. Every seems to make the heavies (Gendarmes), but nobody I really liked made all the other cav for the period (Stardiots, Genitors, Spanish and Italian knights) until last week when The Assault Group came out with just what I've been waiting for.
No excuses now. Get on it.
As far as rules, I think I've got it, but stay tuned. Now, for the minis.
The Landsknects above are to help fill out my larger ranks. I paint them in batches, then spread them out over different bases to give that motley appearance of the German mercenary they are.
The two mounted standards are actually OG Spanish Genitors I bought in a moment of weakness that are standing in for mounted Arquebusier command (Because the OG packs come in units of 10, with no command). These will, of course, be replaced with TAG when they come out.

The Viking Bows have been sitting around for awhile needing paint, so they got it.

Next, play test time. Lead Addict came over. He is on the quest for some 15mm SciFi rules to compliment his wonderful figs. We used Crossfire for this play test. Crossfire is one of those games that I love on an intellectual level. For squad to platoon sized encounters, I think it's one of the best rule sets around. It takes some time to wrap your head around because they end up being very realistic, not like a wargame at all.

Without spending too much time on detail, you keep initiative til you lose it. You lose it through having a unit suppressed or ineffectual fire from your side. Cover and line of sight is crucial, along with setting up kill zones.

Playing the alien mercenaries attacking a mining outpost, we were outplayed, out maneuvered and shot all to hell from the start. So, it can be hard to be objective. It's going to take some time to convert a WW2 ruleset and convert to the far future.

Some of the terrain is unfinished (but it's a play test)

On the rule list next is Future War Commander, (which I love Blitzkreig Commander) and Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley.

VSF Saturday

2010-11-17T08:04:00.000-06:00

The Baroness took her quarterly tour of the kingdom last end of week (girlfriend's weekend), so I called for a special Saturday edition of the Basement Generals.

"As the Great War of 1883 ignited, the Czar, in need of funds sold Alaska to the nefarious Professor Nightshade in return for his cutting edge technology. This, of course, upset the British who were already at war with Russia, but also angered the U.S., who had been not only eyeing the territory for themselves, but had personal scores to settle with the evil genius.
America soon joined the war after one of their frigates was sunk by a submersible of unknown origin. It was obviously another one of Nightshade's contractions. As a show of faith in the new cause, the U.S. dispatched an American Expeditionary Force to France to aid their new allies in a push into German occupied France."

The Franco-Americans were surprised to see Russanas among the Nighshade-German forces. Before they could react, Rokkittruppen took to the skies and quickly captured some ruins. With their aerial troops holding a strong position on the right flank, boilers were stoked and the German, Russian and Automated forces came to life.
French and American contraptions fired round after round into Nightshades enormous Steam Walker. Finally one shot crippled, but didn't destroy it. It blazed away with it's main gun, knocking out the French Roue.
Russinas troops trying a "straight up the middle" approach were cut to ribbons by the American Mobile MG Emplacement, and forced to flee. French Marines took the woods opposite the Rokkittruppen and began a fire-fight that lasted most of the game. It finally took a well placed shot from the French Spyder to break the German sky soldiers.

It was right after this small victory that things fell apart for the French and Americans. Within a few turns, all of their armored contraptions were knocked out. With no way to knock out the beats on the other side, they decided to withdraw. What started as a fairly balanced fight, turned into a crushing victory for Nightshade and his pawns.

Gettin' some painting done

2010-11-16T08:18:00.001-06:00

I guess the Gendarmes I did a while back wasn't torture enough, so decided to return to the paint table by working on complicated paint scheme for the leader of a "Songs of Blades and Heroes" retinue.
Meet Sir Reginald de Bulle.