2021

 

Like most people, 2020 didn't exactly turn out the way we planned. All of our travel plans to cons were cancelled. Weekly gaming became remote gaming.

Despite a lot of setbacks, we managed to get most of our projects done. New titles went out. But that was 2020.

We've got quite an ambitious 2021 lined up. Our Fantasy titles have been steadily moving along. We hope to have all three titles and two different card decks for them out first quarter of the year. Why the delay? Well, we wanted the best product we could produce.

 

After that,we've got all sorts of ideas.

Victorian SciFi supplement for Core and Bigger Battles

Pulp Age Superheroes

Giant Mech battles as a supplement for Bigger Battles

And surprises along the way: Scenarios, Campaigns, upgrades...

I hope you're as excited as we are. We hope to see you in person this year.

And play Wiley Games. Your miniatures will thank you.

Stay on Target!

Is it August already?

I'm one of the lucky people who 1) still have a job and 2) have be able to do it since April.

I've also not gamed in person since April. We've had to postpone vacations, conventions and family gatherings. Yes, it sucks, but also the right thing to do.

While on the subject, one of my favorite conventions, RECRUITs is cancelled. We're trying to figure out a way to do it virtually. Almost as important, Wiley Wargame Weekend is most certainly off too. Right now, I couldn't rent the space if I wanted to. Groups that large are prohibited and just plain dumb at this point. Packing a room with aged, out of shape wargamers is a recipe for disaster. If anyone got sick or worse for my vanity convention, I don't think I could live with myself.

However, all that extra time has allowed me to work on writing new rules. The first book of the Fantasy series, Might and Melee is almost completely written. This will be our first full color book. Right behind it are the 2 sister books on Magic and Dungeon crawling. I've also dabbling with other projects like a pulp fighter game based off Starfighters and two giant robot games. And a good amount of painting.

Playing online D&D with my buddies has maintained my sanity and allowed me to play more than I have since I was 13. I've also had a lot of quality family time. Family boardgame night is back on!

So, that's kinda the state of things. Stay safe.

Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles now available!

Thanks to everyone who playtested and gave input. This baby has been birthed...
Available at out webstore: www.wiley-games.com

Bigger Battles headed to the printers!

Very excited to get Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles is headed to the printers. Haven't got a definite timeline on when I'll have them in my hands, but under a month.
Gather your forces!

Back in Wargames Illustrated!

So glad to grace the pages WI December issue.

Hunt for the Devil's Crown

The Devil’s Crown is a campaign for Fistful of Lead: Tales of Horror. The campaign is a series of 6 linked scenarios to be played in order. The outcome of each scenario has a direct effect on the next game. The player with the most Renown at the end of the campaign wins, and possesses the dark power of the crown.
The scenario book also has rules for a new faction: Gypsies! Sometimes against, sometimes with the Forces of Darkness.
And a printable catacomb for use with scenario book.

Find it here!

Fistful of Lead in October Wargames Illustrated

Check out the "Why I love Fistful of Lead" article in the October issue of Wargames Illustrated by Steve Wilkie.

Big News! Fistful of Lead, and Tales of Horror

I've been quietly toiling away for months on the latest iterations of the Fistful of Lead family: Fistful of Lead Core Rulebook, and the supplement Tales of Horror.
Fans of FfoL have been using the rules for all sorts of different periods and genres. A casual look at this very blog will show you just what I've done. The plan is to use the Core book as a starter, and then release supplements concentrating on different periods in more detail. This way, you aren't buying a new rule book every quarter that's mostly the same basic rules with added fluff. We can concentrate on the supplements really using what you already know, but adding or subtracting things to feel right for the genre. And keep the cost to you down.
In addition, each new supplement will have its own custom card deck to get you in the right mood.

The FfoL Core book is just that, everything we've done so far, boiled down into a basic rule set that works for all your favorite periods and genres. Most of what's in it was covered in Galactic Heroes. We clarified a few things and give you a few starter team ideas.
Tales of Horror is the first supplement. You can build a Coven of Vampires, a pack of Werewolves, a Necromancer and his undead horde, an evil Cult or be the heroic Hunters that fight them. each faction has its own special rules and quirks that make them unique. Like Galactic Heroes, it's a toolbox for how you want to use them. You can use ToH for old school Victorian Gothic Horror, or a more modern tale. It's all up to you.
As with all our titles, we've kept it simple to learn, but not a simple game.
Both titles will officially launch at Salute in London April 6th. We're partnering with Oshiro Model Terrain, who's built beautiful table of the Victorian era London docks to play on. More on that later.
When I return to the good ol' US of A the following week, they'll be available through our webstore.
Stay tuned...

The General's Flag will hang at half mast....

It is with great sorrow I announce the passing of one of the founding members of the Basement General's, Bill McHarg. Bill was taken from us suddenly in rafting accident near his home in Colorado: LINK
Bill was a veteran and life long government employee, great person to game with and straight up decent human being. The wargaming community and rest of the world has suffered a great loss.
Bill had just retired a few years ago with his wife Zori to a beautiful spot in Colorado.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Tonight's game is for you, Bill. May the Valkyries guide you home...

Fistful of Lead game at picture in WI 345

CluckAmok sent me this picture from Wargames Illustrated of the Legionary show.

Preparing for September: Update 1

At the end of September is our local convention RECRUITS. I will get on my soapbox, like I do every year, and call out RECRUITS as one of the best wargaming conventions around. It's geared towards, you guessed it, new recruits into the hobby. It's fairly big, there are some quality games, lots of vendors, very kid friendly and dirt cheap!
This year I'm not only one of the Guests of Honor but will have a vendor table myself, selling all things Fistful of Lead including (fingers crossed) the new Wasteland Warriors rules.
If you live anywhere in the Midwest, I highly encourage you to hit RECRUITS.
I, with the help of a few friends will be running 3 games Friday night and most of Saturday. I'll run the Wild West games, Ken "Lead Addict" Boone will run the post apoc games and Chris "CluckAmok" will be running a French & Indian War game using the Horse & Musket rules.
In prepartion, I'll be making some new terrain clothes. Here's how I do it:
1- Go to your local big box fabric/hobby place and buy a couple of yards of cheap outdoor tablecloth material. It makes no difference what the shiney plastic side has, but make sure it has the cotton backing.
2- Buy a quart of latex paint in whatever color you want for your ground. Interior, exterior makes no difference. Just get flat as opposed to satin or gloss, etc. I took a bottle of favorite ground color I use on my bases to match the color.
3- Roller it on the cotton side. THIS STUFF WILL SOAK UP PAINT LIKE CRAZY. But, it will give you great texture as the cotton gets gooped with paint. For my 4' x 4' square I made for the con, it took the whole quart. You may want buy a whole gallon so you can use it for hills or other terrain to match.

The wrinkles come out when it dries.

4- After it dries, you can dry brush little hints of other color. I'll be adding hints of green to my scrub for the Old West, and rust brown to my gray post apoc. Flat color never "sells" the look.
I've used this technique  on all my tablecover. It's cheap, and because you're painting plastic on plastic, it last a long time. I've use my covers once a week for 20 years and it still holds up. Best part, when it does start to wear, put another coat on!
I'll be making a To the Strongest grid cover the same way (stay tuned).

I'm also working on the custom card designs for Wasteland Warriors. Here's a shot of two of the "Loot" deck. You'll notice a suit in the upper left. This corresponds to a regular card deck. I may remove this. You don't need the custom loot deck, you can use a regular deck and look at a chart, but why wouldn't you buy one?
As usual, Fistful of Lead is always better with a scenario, and most of these will revolve around scavenging for loot besides the main objective. Keeping your gang fed and armed will be essential for a campaign surviving the Wasteland. Or, you can just through down and go.
You might come across this:

The heart shows you how many gang members you can feed between missions. The double ended arrow tells you how much it's worth in trade. In this case, this tasty treat can only feed one gang member, or you could trade it for enough food for ten, or trade it for weapons or tech worth 10.

Not all loot cards are food, tech or weapons. Sometimes it's an event. In this case, the deadly Rad Storm.

More later....

First stab at the new Fistful of Lead cover

That is all.

Belated Father's Day present

Despite working for 20+ years for a certain greeting card company who makes all their money of such things, my family is kinda bad about remembering holidays. I have often surprised my wife with a birthday gift, simply because she forgot it was her birthday.
No so this year. I lost my Father this past Easter and this was the first Father's Day without him. Combine this with losing my job and it has been a tough year for the Barony.
So it was a bright little ray of sunshine when a package arrived at my door today.
Rivet Wars! Something I wanted to back on Kickstarter but didn't have the money to do at the time. Amazon has it waaay cheaper than my local shop. The only bad thing is I'll have to wait for all the cool extra minis that other people got by backing.
Can't wait to play.

2 more supers and yet another blog.

Presented for your enjoyment: the Despot, ruler of a thousand worlds and Perma-Frost deadly creator of cold.

On an unrelated subject, I started a blog to chronicle my musings on starting a new life and career, Here be Dragons.

End of an era, and a new start.

Today is the last day of a job I've had since college, 21 years ago. I didn't ask for this major event in my life,  but I have decided to embrace it. There's a piece of wisdom goes, "If you don't love what you do, then what's the point of going into work everyday?". I plan to spend the second half of my life doing what I love: making games.
Hopefully, in the near future, you will be seeing posts about upcoming projects. Right out of the gate is the reboot of Fistful of Lead. The same game, but with a better layout, more examples, more scenarios and the much asked for campaign system. I will offer it as a pdf, printed, in a cool comic book sized format and will be offering a custom set of playing cards. I may be doing this as a Kickstarter, only because I may look into custom miniatures with their own scenarios. We'll see.
So, wherever you are, if you love the Baron, have a shot of whiskey and say a little prayer.
Thanks!

Pulp Fantasy

With the delivery of a pile of Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles, it was time start messing with rules. Pulp Alley is a favorite of mine. The rules are tight and designed for small groups or Leagues, why not warbands?
I built them using standard rules. Worked great!
The scenario: The Dark Lord has slumbered in the Broken Valley for centuries, locked in a tomb by a powerful spell. Now, the forces of Evil have come to set him free, hoping to curry his favor by freeing him. Meanwhile, the Forces of Good have come to destroy the tomb once and for all.

Drax the Despoiler and his Chaos Crew

Aeloroth and the Elves

Gort the Cruel and his greenskin warband

Hrothgar the Mighty

An adventuring band led by Sir Barnstable

There were 4 minor Plot Points. One had to be captured before the Tomb could be opened.

The board

The Elves are first to capture a plot point. 

Drax tries repeatedly to open the Chaos Champions gravestone to capture a Plot Point.

An elf is caught in fireball from the Adventurer's Wizard

Forces converge on the tomb

Are the barbarians fighting for good or evil?

A clash of Leaders outside the tomb.

In the end, the forces of Good, led by Elves manage to destroy the tomb of the Dark One, sealing him forever in the Other Realm.

A good time. The rules work great as a Fantasy Warband game. I could see them working even better in a dungeon setting, using Fortune cards to trigger traps, etc. Make some wandering monsters and BOOM!, perfect dungeon crawl. 

We'll also be trying some other rules but for now I liked how they worked.

On another note you may notice a break in the action here at the Baron's Blog. I was recently laid off from my job of 20+ years. As you can imagine this is a time of uncertainty and worry for me and mine, so gaming and painting may take a back seat for awhile. This, however, may turn into an opportunity too. A chance to dive deeper into a hobby I love. I've always wanted to start my own gaming company....

Some news

I too have bee struck by the "Beginning of School Chaos". The Girl started high school and with it Volleyball and marching band. The Boy is still doing competitive soccer with team we don't seem to have enough players for. Not good, since this is the year we play on a full size field with 11 players instead of 8.
With all these activities, I'm trying to finish two rule books, help on another and get my work done. Painting has taken a back seat.
On a lighter note, I will be hosting a Saturday morning game at RECRUITs. It's the Great Race game I hosted a few weeks back. Then, I using my rules, but Cluck Amok's toys for a FIW game in the afternoon. Then its off to a soccer game.
And Thursday's regular game night is now Wednesday irregular game night. But, it seems like everyone is excited for Longstreet and with a little fun with the campaign. Meet some of the generals, thanks to Photoshop.

Lead Addict

John of Curio Clashes

Essjam

Yours Truly

Updates & News

First, last Thursday's game:
John & Jason brought over their lovely collection of 28mm ACW. They both wanted to give "Bullrun to Gettysburg" a whirl. I can say one thing about Foundry's rules now. They're consistent. Wow. Worthless QRS. Had to constantly check the book. Casualties are by figure, but firepower is based on stands? Morale is almost impossible to fail so you hammer away until a unit's almost gone. There were optional save rolls to, huh? And, I'm supposed to keep track of the number of volleys I've fired. No thanks. John gave a full report over at his blog with pictures at Johns Curio Clashes .
There are plenty of better rules out there that do it better. But, as I said on John's blog, I still spent 3 hours with good guys, good minis and terrain, and good beer. That's all that mattered.
Basement Con:
Here's the schedule if anybody out there is interested.
Thursday: GASLIGHT, starring the Secret Six.
Friday: Hail Caesar Fantasy in 15mm with all the goodness from Lead Addict.
Saturday 1pm: completely open. Might do a role playing game, might be good old fashion board games.
Saturday night 6pm: Pulp Alley, Into the Caves of Madness
I will post all the lovely-ness.
Update: Almost done with the read on "In Her Majesty's Name". Great as I suspected. Interested to find out "In the Emperor's Name" got a 3.0. What I found odd was the newest version doesn't use a d10 as IHMN does. The d6 of ITEN always bugged me. Why not make like IHMN? My retro Sci-fi fgs might finally have a ruleset.

Coming in September...

I am very excited for this:

Courtesy Catalyst Games

I started playing Battletech back in Junior High with original boxed set and its cardboard counters. I loved it, but even then it was hard to play a game any time quickly and with anything more than a couple of mechs. So, I moved on.
Last year, I heard rumblings about the Quick Strike rules for Battletech. They were a hidden gem, locked away in a very pricey and hefty Strategic Operations Handbook released years before. Now, it looks like Catalyst Games has heard the masses and will be releasing the Quickstrike rules as a stand alone called Alpha Strike. Huzzah! To be 14 again.

UPDATE: Screw it! I'm writing my own.

Pulp Ally Leagues #8: The Royal Archeology and Mystical Society

This is probably the most generic of my Leagues (but man, I was running out of minis and made do). The Society is Led by Connelly, a man-of-adventure type.

His wife and intrepid explorer Lady Dora Standpipe

Her father the Professor

Salim, their trusted armed librarian

and grizzled old hunter Stanley

This completes my Pulp Alley efforts for now. I've got enough Leagues to handle even the biggest turnout for Thursdays. From now on, its just terrain making for PA.
When there's been enough time since RECRUITs I'll run that scenario again for the gents, and our Pulp Adventure will begin. Time to dig out the cave complex. Finally, a game worth its splendor.

As for the future? I'm narrowing down my efforts to only a shot gun blast radius. The rest of the Basement Generals have their projects, these are mine:

Italian Wars. I've got some cav to paint and a few terrain pieces and this will be a complete game genre. I can always add odds and ends.
Near Future SciFi in 28mm/15mm. Again, almost enough to put together a good game. One final push.
Maurice and Might and Reason.

Dark Ages, be it SAGA DUX Bellorum or Hail Caesar

and finally Russian Civil War/ Back of Beyond. Got most of what I need in lead. Terrain will be the biggie here. Most fights were over rail hubs and river crossing. Just not in the wallet for that right now.

I post my efforts, as always.