Bridge to Nowhere and Some D&D

As I mentioned in the comments on my previous post, I was planning to tackle the Airfix bridge over the weekend. Lo and behold, I did!

EDIT: The bridge was primed with black gesso. It was then damp/dry brushed with Ceramcoat Hippo Grey. That was followed with some Ceramcoat Raw Sienna. Then a light coat of Ceramcoat Bridgeport Grey. After that, a very light drybrush of Americana Light Buttermilk which I thought would finish it off. Unfortunately, that made it too contrast-y. So I  then hit it again with a very light dry brush of the Raw Sienna to tone down the Buttermilk.

In person, it has more of a buff/sandy tint to it. Regardless, it's a dramatic improvement over the bare plastic.

The figures are Toy Soldiers of San Diego, painted some years ago.

Speaking of painting, there are four lizard archers underway, although when I'll get a chance to finish them is anyone's guess.

Gaming-wise, I have a scenario idea for testing out the vehicle rules for Hammer of Democracy, but it may not get on the table until next week.It will absolutely use the newly painted bridge!

**** Warning: Role-Playing Gaming Talk Ahead ****

This last Sunday was our second session of 5e D&D.

I'm running friends and family through the starter set (the older one, with the Lost Mine of Phandelver) as we are all new to playing 5e (I played in Adventure League years ago, which I did not enjoy). Once we're done with this campaign, I'll step aside and someone else will run a campaign. That means I'll get to be a player character for the first time in a long time!

Without giving too much of the story away, but for those familiar with Lost Mine of Phandelver, they rescued Sildar (the human warrior captured by goblins). However, they didn't put forth any further effort against the goblins or their bugbear leader, so the threat remains. They are, though, interested in finding the goblin chief's location.

Sildar, who tried to persuade them to eliminate the immediate goblin menace, only acquiesced because he was in no shape or position to argue with them. 

Complicating everything, at the previous session the player characters captured a goblin with the intent of reforming him from his evil ways. He led them to the local goblin lair - although i was cautious not to have him give them much if any information about the lair layout - but certainly his presence will pose a problem for them when they get to town. When warned that society may not accept their gobbo friend, the PCs decided their first purchase in town will be a hat, and maybe a fake mustache, for him. 

He's already become a bit of comic relief (I do my best Dobby the House Elf impression while playing him ) so of course, I'll let them find a suitable fez or fedora for him. 

We play again on Sunday.

The last campaign I ran with a group of people met bi-weekly. It's been ages since I had a weekly role-playing group. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever did.

The Bridges of Blastoff County

Well one bridge really.

In an effort to further test Hammer of Democracy, I set out a classic scenario layout. Some cover was added - after all, this is the age of the automatic machine gun. 

Both sides have a platoon with an MG in support and I would be using the Support rules this time to try them out. Basically, it's a 2nd die, rolled when you roll for your command points that turn. The Support die gives you points you can spend to fire support options in either in an offensive or defensive capacity, based on what's going on with friendly units within 12".

The US is on the bottom edge of the picture. The Germans would enter as blinds - 5 for infantry (2 blanks) and 2 for the MG (1 blank). 

The Allies are the attacker in scenarios set in the late war, so the US went first. They rolled poorly for their command roll and just two units entered the table.

The river is from Pegasus Models. I've seen it used by others and like the look of it. Due to the banks, it's a little too wide for the Airfix bridge, so some of my old balsa river runs under the bridge.

Here they are again, just because I like how it looked.

The US sends two squads across the river, while one advances, intent on reaching the house. Not shown, the MG opened fire on the house as the Germans had a blind in there. It turned out the MG team was firing at shadows.

A view on the opposite side of the river.

An actual German squad reached the farm house, and the US squad moved up to the stone wall to engage them in a firefight - planning to assault the building once the enemy was softened up. The MG provided effective support fire.

 On the other side of the river, the a blind in the woods turns out to be a German MG. It viciously poured fire into the lead American squad. That was followed by fire from a German squad which took the hill.

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Both the Germans in the farm house and the US squad by the wall were suffering losses of morale and men, but then the final German squad appeared and caught the Americans in a crossfire. They were done for.

Meanwhile, the German machine gunners had a field day mowing down US troops on their side of the river.

 

 

With two squads down, the US platoon leader ordered the remaining squad and MG to fall back. It was a decisive German victory.

I am quite pleased with the look of the thing. Except the bridge. After many years in its natural plastic state, I finally feel like maybe I should give it a paint job. So that's next on the to do list.

******

The support rules are interesting and worked quite well to make the MG feel like I was using it as a support weapon. Next time, I'll use the support points for calling in off-table mortars as well. Maybe I'll give the US a mortar on table, too, just for variety.

Like many solo gamers, I've used blinds before. In this particular instance, the blinds worked great. 

Indeed, the fact that they Germans essentially held a squad back in reserve (unbeknownst to me) was a better approach (randomly determined though it was) than my own. Because I didn't know what each blind was (real or blank), I was aggressive with their squads, while I was perhaps too concerned about preserving my squads before committing them to any assault.

The end result was that I hesitated to try and take the hill because the Germans had moved up two blinds to the opposite side. In the end, those blinds would turn out to be blanks, and I had lost the opportunity to capture the hill.

First Painted Figures of 2023

Well, I don't know what came over me, but I knocked out a couple of figures yesterday.

Up first is a commander for my French Foreign Legionairres:

Rather than use the Armies in Plastic Foreign Legion officer, which I already use for the basic unit's leader, I decided I wanted the "army" leader to stand out. 

My British and Russians both have mounted leaders, but that didn't seem right to me, given that the French would be serving on Venus and in Lost World environs, where horses may be hard to come by. 

I recalled seeing pictures, in an Osprey that I no longer own, of legionairres in pith helmets. It was the choice for those serving in Vietnam or somewhere tropical in the late 1800s, early 1900s, I believe. A quick search of the web confirmed this was the case in Madagascar in the 1890s and that was good enough for me:

The figure is an Armies in Plastic WWI French officer, with the hand/pistol and head from a colonial British officer figure.

Here he is with the rest of the force:

They are a small group, but given their role against mostly lizard warriors, they are well-armed in comparison. This completes my French for Venus/Lost World gaming as originally conceived. That said, another 10 with red pants to serve as a second unit wouldn't be the worst thing!

Next, I brought my 1/72 US Marines up to strength for Dick Bryant's small Crossfire scenarios. 

Two MMG teams, a mortar team, and an FOO for off-table mortars/artillery, the bases clearly need some touch-up.

They only needed one MMG for the scenarios linked above, but since I was painting anyway, I did two.

I also painted a bazooka-armed soldier, but he will be based with a rifleman (painted eight or so years ago). 

To my surprise, it took just a few hours, start to finish, to knock these out. It helps that my eyesight is terrible, and I can't see my mistakes at wargame's distance, but I am also a lot more forgiving of my painting of the small figures these days.

Honestly, I kind of want to paint more of these little guys!

Squishy Hills Upgrade

For various reasons, I try to limit my terrain and scenery to a single storage bin. Since I game in 54mm, it's a decent sized container mind, and with the exception of the buildings I made for WWII skirmish gaming (visible in this post), I really don't want to go beyond it.

One way I've managed to accomplish this is by using cushion foam for my hills. It's the kind of foam you might use for making a seat cushion, not Styrofoam or pink foam or anything like that. My supply came as  packaging - I think it came with a shelving unit, but I can't recall, as it's been years.

The point is, it's squishable and can be mashed into available space with ease, which makes it perfect for fitting in a crowded storage container.

I've used these as is for years - I did paint one, but they soak up paint so I skipped it on the rest. The ones I didn't paint were black/grey anyway and while they didn't look great, they worked for me. Plus, most times I would just shove them under the cloth I game on.

However, I really like the look of the typical step hill for wargames (it's possible I've been looking at too man Warhammer images of late) and thought I might give a similar look a try with my squishy hills.

Here's what I mean (apologies for not white-balancing the pictures):

A hill in the raw. Used them like this for years.

As you can see, when I first cut these out years ago, they were left with smooth sides.

To get that cliff-side/rocky look, I hacked them up with scissors, making vertical wedge cuts all along the edge before painting the whole thing black.

A hill after painting. This one is a different kind of foam - yellow, much softer.

The above hill is the one I tried painting years ago, so instead of painting it entirely black like I am doing for the others, I've clipped the edges and then hit just the edges with black. I'll do a second coat because I was running out of paint and I thinned it down too much - there are some yellow bits showing through.

It takes a LONG time to dry - basically cushion foam is a sponge. If you've ever spilled a drink on your sofa that isn't Scotch-guarded or similar, you know this.

Once the black is dry, I coat the top of the hill with brown. 

The sides then get a wet-ish brush of dark grey(not a dry brush, the sponge is too absorbent, but not a full wet brush either, as I'm not trying to cover the black entirely). I use Delta CeramCoat Hippo Grey.

 Followed by the same with a light grey (with less pressure on the brush) - this time, Delta CeramCoat Bridgeport Grey. 

Finally I paint on a light amount of white (also Ceramcoat!). 

Once that's dry, I coat the top with ModPodge and start laying down flock - repeating a few times until I get the coverage I want.

These are black/grey hills after finishing.The figures are some W. Britains that never get on the table.

I realize that painting foam with ModPodge, all over first makes a lot more sense to lessen its absorbency, but I'm concerned that this will negatively impact the squishability. In this case, the top is fairly solid post-ModPodge (and the flock isn't going anywhere), but you can press on it and the hill will squash and then return to original shape with ease..

The end result is what I was hoping for. Yes they kind of look like cliffs or plateaus but since I game a lot set in Italy, that's OK! And they still work under the cloth, too.

I acquired them for a tiny fraction of the cost of buying hills pre-made and without the hassle of buying, let alone using, a wire foam cutter (I don't have any place to use one except my kitchen or living room which is a big no-no).

There are two left to finish up and then I might actually be inspired enough to put brush to figures again.

Went Down to the Crossroads (Hammer of Democracy)

Although it might seem hard to believe given the number of WWII figure games I've posted over the years, but at times over the past year, I have felt like I'm on the verge of letting my entire 54mm WWII collection go. In fact, I had put it all in box and put it in the back of my closet.

However, during the recent Winter Offensive Sale on Wargame Vault, I decided to pick up a copy of Nordic Weasel's Hammer of Democracy. This is the WWII variant of the Hammer games that include Squad Hammer and Trench Hammer. In part, I just wanted to support Nordic Weasel, but also, given my enjoyment of Trench Hammer, I wondered if Hammer of Democracy (HoD from now on) could bring some life to my WWII collection.

HoD  like the other rules in the series are geared primarily toward fielding a platoon to a company, where each base or two, or a group of 5-6 figures is a squad. Vehicles represent one vehicle. All units have hit points and there is no figure or base removal until the entire squad is removed. Hit points represent morale as well as casualties. 

Combat is the same as far as the basic game goes - shooting combat occurs at three ranges: Long distance, Firefight, and Close Assault. The Close Assault reflects the method use in the Trench Hammer Expansion. Damage in ranged attacks is fixed, by default, and then modified by the roll of a d6(one up or one down or left alone) and by cover. Units are removed when they reach 0 remaining hit points and on average, infantry can take 7 hit points of damage. 

Units can recover lost hit points through various orders. 

Unlike Trench Hammer, HoD doesn't assume leaders on the table, nor does it put an emphasis on a leader being able to give orders to a nearby unit - this reflects, I believe, the difference between the nature of command-and-control in WWI and WWWI, where squads operated more on their own initiative. Leaders are one of several possible character types that are included in HoD, so they can be added, but they function in a different way - which I have not yet tested.

Speaking of, reading a set of rules is helpful to get a sense of the layout and mechanisms, but it's in playing that I learn the most, so I set out a scenario featuring two platoons, each with MG support, fighting over a small village/intersection, as suggested in the book, for a first game. Control of the objective would be determined by controlling the majority of buildings.

US 1st squad (followed by their MG) enters from the north east.

Two German squads enter from the south.

Germans get one of their squads into a building first.

US 1st squad enters a building opposite Germans and open fire. Return fire is devastating and then the Germans poured on more during their activation. 

US 2nd squad has captured the half-timbered building and 3rd squad moved up to replace 1st squad. However, the Germans decide to advance to capture the vacated building, too. 

3rd squad reaches the building first and throws the Germans back in close assault.

An out of sequence picture of the largely ineffectual MG team.

The Germans countercharge the 3rd squad and are thrown back again and then eliminated by fire from 2nd squad.

 

A shot of the largely ineffectual German MG team.

Firefights between the various squads (and the US MG which finally starts hitting) eliminates both of the remaining German squads.

With only the German MG team remaining, the US captured the objective at the cost of one squad.

The game played smoothly with minimal reference to the rules PDF. This owed much, I imagine, to my familiarity with Trench Hammer. The rules themselves are mostly clear, and when they weren't, a more careful reading tended to answer my question. 

The game had the feeling of Crossfire without having to cover the table in massive amounts of terrain or constantly evaluating defensive fire. This brings up one of my favorite parts of the Hammer system and that is the fact that a unit that is fired on or close assaulted will return fire automatically except at Long Range. The result is that I don't miss reaction fire and I don't find myself having to maintain an awareness of whether a moving unit could be fired on by the enemy or at what point in the move that would be best to do.

Speaking of Crossfire, I should note that HoD has a clock mechanism, like I've seen used in Crossfire. It has potential, but perhaps my playing area was too large (4' square) for the unadjusted measurements and the sides took two full turns of movement before any firing. When there is no firing, the clock advances 2d6 minutes for each of those turns and this case went from 36 minutes (randomly determined at the start of the game) down to 15 remaining when contact was made. Time actually ran out before either side had even lost a squad let alone captured the objective.

I should also note that I didn't use any the Support rules or anything outside of the basic rules, just to get a feel for things - which, again, was suggested by the rules.

My outlook on my WWII collection has changed as a result of this game. Another game of just infantry and then one involving armor are most certainly merited.

Oh, and for the curious:

The German figures are Airfix and Airfix copies, and reissued Matchbox.  The tripod MG team is Classic Toy Soliders.

The US figures are primarily W. Britain "Big Red 1" figures (including the MG) with Toy Soldiers of San Diego filling out the ranks.

Blue 42! Blue 42! Kill-Kill! Waagh!

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I stumbled on an issue of White Dwarf that had an account of something like American football, with orcs. It was, as you probably know, an account of Blood Bowl. 

I loved the concept (I love American football and fantasy) but never saw a game played or even heard of anyone playing it outside of that. Indeed, the only football game I had ever seen or played (and still own) is the one by Tudor with the vibrating playing surface and the figures that went everywhere but where I wanted them to go (which was indeed, much of the fun!).  

This looks much sleeker than mine. Mine was acquired in the late 1970s, and featured the classic rivalry of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. Years later I acquired the entire AFC East, including the then Baltimore Colts

I had yet to grasp the idea of playing non-video games as a solo gamer outside of well, Solitaire.

Flash forward 20 years and I started wargaming. I immersed myself in solo gaming with abandon. I even saw solitaire rules for Blood Bowl although by then, I knew perfectly well how to make an enjoyable solitaire experience with most games.

But, while it sounded fun, it never crossed my mind to actually get the game or figures.

Until recently.

With my son spending hour upon hour immersed in the Warhammer video games and watching endless YouTube videos about the game and the lore of Warhammer fantasy, I found myself drawn back the idea of Blood Bowl- something different from all of my other figure games that could easily justify the change of scale.

As it turns out, there's a smaller version of the game called Blitz Bowl - it uses only six figures per side, has simpler rules, and games can be played to completion in an hour or two.  

Simpler? Few figures? Count me in!

So, for a Christmas present to myself, I picked up a copy from Barnes & Noble.

Even better, my son is eager to play AND one of his favorite factions in Warhammer, the Skaven, have a team in the box!

Here's a picture of the contents:

 You could, of course, play as is, no paint required. 

However, I decided I would go all in and paint mine. Using GW's paints no less. And following their painting tutorials on YouTube, more or less.

The paint order has just been placed and please excuse me while I pick my jaw off of the floor.

I spent more on paint than on the game!

My son also really likes Nurgle, and I stumbled on a discounted box of the Nurgle team (a Blood Bowl box provides enough figures for two teams in Blitz Bowl) which for the price, I could not ignore. The paints for those will wait for my birthday.

There have been recent talks with him about how some of the kids at school play W40K and he seems interested. If he decides he wants to give it a try, resisting the temptation to buy myself some Sisters of Battle is going to be neigh impossible.

What can I say, I have a thing for space nuns.

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year, one and all!

This is my favorite time of year on the wargaming blogs - I love reading year end reviews and reading about plans/predictions/possible ideas for the coming year. 

Robot wooden soldiers. Clothes-pin dolls, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, pom-poms.

Not coincidentally, I also like doing that kind of post myself. In a change of approach, rather than pepper this post with pics of games from throughout 2022, I am posting pictures of the forces involved in the holiday game - their close-ups if you will.

I had a fairly minimal plan for 2022.  How did I do?

Play 1 toy soldiers game per month

Well, I played at least one figure game each month, save one, but in some months, I played several. So, I'll call it a goal met!

It also seems that I played no less than 15 different sets of rules. Some of the only once mind, but still. The standout "discoveries" for me were Age of Fantasy and Age of Heroes (used for the Christmas game).

The Rats! Air-dry clay, popsicle sticks, tooth pics, pipe cleaner. 

Play 1 board game per month (not even a wargame necessarily)

Board gaming started strong and then dropped off. Not for lack of interest, but there's only so much time in the day.

Get at least one Venusian force with options ready for the table

I completed my Venusian lizard force which I can field with either the Triceratops with howdah or with a Spinosaurus or Tyrannosaurus with beast-master. Of course, I love this force more than anything else I have in my collection and want to give them a few options more,

My Tanitians almost made it before my painting mojo up and left. Five figures remain. If I had an orange paint that didn't require half-a-dozen or more coats to cover black (like for touch-ups when I overpaint), they would be done. None-the-less, they are still functional as Dark Elves, for Age of Fantasy and even won the round-robin.

My French Foreign Legion force also almost made it but is one figure short of my initial goal for the project - they need a hero/leader figure. 

Clara. She began life as a Disney Little Bo Peep figure from Dollar Tree that I had picked up with the belief that I would find a use for her. A paint conversion and craft foam to turn her outfit into a holiday dress was all it took to finally get her into a game.

Bring each WWI force up to three "companies" (H.M.G. suggests 8 figure Bersaglieri and 9 figure Austrian) and 2 MG bases.

This project has always had a moving goal post.  I reached the three companies/2 MG goal, if you count 6 figures as a company. Which I decided part-way through the year that I do.  While I am quite happy with where I'm at figure-wise, it's easy to justify painting a handful of figures more on each side yet.

Post less, Comment more

I started the year with this in mind and did indeed cut back on my posting and increased my commenting. However, with my dad's passing, I really doubled-down on this goal.

I am fortunate and grateful for the readers I have, many of whom comment. I am the kind of person who would write whether anyone read it or not - indeed before I had my first blog, I had notebooks and then a Google Doc, of my gaming ramblings. That said, it's always uplifting to receive comments and to feel like you're having a conversation with like-minded hobbyists and not just shouting into the wind.

I am trying to pay-it-forward if you will.

Now, I don't track how much I comment (that just seems crass), but I know that it is far more than I have in the past. I have also upped my participation in forums I read, whether a simple thumbs up on a post of someone's figures or an actual comment when I have something to contribute in regards to a question.

This is now part of how I approach the hobby.    

***

So, all said and done, not a bad showing. 

The figures the players chose for the holiday game. Yes, the fox is smoking a cigar (splinter of popsicle stick). I imagined the fox as Hannibal from the A-Team when I made it. The deer is obviously a plastic toy, the rifles are Toy Soldiers of San Diego The figures, except the deer, are air dry clay.

However, going into 2023, I am avoiding any kind of commitment or plan. Not that I've ever felt bound by these things, but I think, for 2023, I'm going to just say, that as of today, this is what I'm feeling is likely.

Not to say I haven't put a lot of thought into it - I've been writing this post for weeks now. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that whatever I do this year, I want to game more and worry less about painting. I'm in a good spot for that, as most of my collections are in a game-able state. 

Evil Industrialist (Sir Topham Hatt) and conductor (both are prepaints, by Ertl). Iron Golem Nutcracker (wooden craft kit nutcracker)

What I do paint, should bring something new to the table - pun absolutely intended - not just more of the same (for example, I could use some more Austiran and Italian regular rifle bases, just in case, but that doesn't give me anything new). Thinking of the games I want to play, here is what I foresee working on:

WWI Southern Front:

Objective: Add on-table air power to Italy and Austria and give the Italians the ability to field cavalry sufficient for One Hour Wargames force lists.

• 1/48 Nieuport 17
• 1/48 Albatross D.III
  
• 3 Italian cavalry (2 would be plenty, but the third allows for a cavalry leader figure for Trench Hammer)

WWII PTO:

I have not really used these figures at all in many years and want to get the back on the table and with one of my favorite rules sets.

Objective: Give the USMC support weapons to allow both sides to field either attacker or defender for Dick Bryant's small Crossfire scenarios. 

• 1/72 USMC MG team (2 figures)
  
• 1/72 USMC mortar team (2 figures)
  
• 1/72 USMC Forward observer (1 figure)
• 1/72 USMC bazooka figure (1 figure)
  

The figures the players didn't choose. The beaver with the flamethrower was a popular option but in the end no one chose it. I am most happy with the owl - both the yes and the look of feathers. Air dry clay, pipe cleaner, Toy Soldiers of Sand Diego Thompson.

Weird World War I:

Objective:  Play a game of WWWI set on the Western Front

• 4 WWI 1/35 French (finish them)

Fantasy: 

Objective: Give my lizards options for how to deploy archers. 

• 4 Lizard archers
  

Objective: Play Blitz Bowl

• Skaven and Reavers Blitz Bowl Teams (12 figures total) - Blitz Bowl? GW? What? I'll discuss in a future post, probably.

These are wooden "mother" peg dolls. They were the zombie like cyborg workers in the warehouse for the holiday game. They are based on the drones from The Black Hole (Disney, 1979, one of my favorite movies when I was a kid).

The above also gives you an idea of the kinds of games I am thinking about playing. What's not listed there, but could be under Fantasy, is a D&D 5e campaign. 

I'll be running the Starter Set campaign, Lost Mine of Phandelver, for family and friends (the same as the participants in the holiday game) as we all want to learn 5e - primarily out of curiosity but also because that's what the kids play at my son's school, and he's expressed an interest. This will kick off in late January.

If it goes well and we like it, the other DM in the group may run the Essentials Set adventure or a homebrew or who knows, and I'll get a chance to run a PC - it's been a few years!

***

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year and you're able to get in some hobby time and games, even if it's not as much as you'd ideally like. 

And if you can't, maybe just read some blog posts now and again, visit the forums (I like Lead Adventure and Little Wars Revisited), read some history, read Lone Warrior or one of the other gaming journals. Watch movies and documentaries.

Whatever you do, you are still a part of the hobby.

Happy New Year!

(As a bonus, here's a recent picture of Peppermint, cone-free, enjoying the sun and the grass, and loving life)