State of the Painting Queue

As I've mentioned many times before, more as a reminder for my sake than for anything else, earlier this year, I put a moratorium on purchasing unpainted figures. 

What this has lead to, rather unintentionally, is renewed interest, if not enjoyment, in painting.

Perhaps I have swung too much in the "other direction" - here is my paint queue as of this morning:

For the curious, yes that is a very old Duncan Glow Imperial that I've had since the late 70s or very early 80s. I still can barely yo-yo.

 

Scales represented in that picture are 1/72, 28mm(or 32 mm?), 1/50 (the T-34 hull), and 54mm. Butterfly? Me?

I don't often share close up WiP shots, but I'm pretty excited about the progress on my Skaven Blitz Bowl team. As of last night, they are almost done with the base colors. I still have green, black, and a bone-like color to do yet (for their incisors). Then comes the wash, then a 2nd layer, and highlights.

This picture is a good deal brighter on my phone.

I'm following along with a YouTube tutorial, like I did for the human team. Same instructor - I find his instructions easy to follow, although I sometimes wish he'd show more of what he considers "armor" or where he applies a color because, as they are fantasy figures, I can't tell what's supposed to be what on these figures half the time.

It's possible I'll finish these over the weekend, but, I am also trying to ready a megadungeon-style campaign for my son (per his request) to have ready to take with us on vacation next week.

Fortunately, I really only need to have the ruins and upper level done. 

Of course, the ruins are three separate areas of multiple buildings/areas, two of which have their own mini-dungeons beneath - one connects eventually to the main dungeon. The third ruin connects directly to the main dungeon.

I'm using a number of freely available one-page dungeons to fill these areas, but I need to reskin them to the theme (Lovecraft tropes galore). The goal is to allow some exploration above ground as well as below, so he'll have choices about where to explore, creatures/NPCs to engage with, multiple ways in and out, that kind of thing.

So yeah, maybe finishing the Skaven this weekend is a little optimistic!

Somewhere in France, 1944 - Panzer Kids!

As noted in my last post, my son and I were set for another game of Panzer Kids. The game took place Thursday night. The scenario: a big cat (Tiger 1) was on the hunt for allied mice (three Shermans), aided by a Panzer IV. 

Both sides made good use of the cover provided by the countryside.

A shoot out - two Shermans engaged the Tiger.

The Tiger took damage quickly and was rendered largely useless.

The Panzer IV on the other hand ...

... scored the first kill of the game.

The Allied tanks again ganged up on the Tiger and this time knocked it out for good.

The young general surveys the final carnage with smug satisfaction.

The cat's eyes were too big for its stomach!. 

Despite the abundance of cover, the Allied commander opted to turn the hunter into the hunted and did so boldly. It paid off, this time.

**********

The optional rules worked quite well The bocage rules also worked as I hoped - allowing the Allies to keep one Sherman in reserve to strike when the Tiger was vulnerable, and the PzIV to advance up the table (with it's weaker defensive value, this was a huge plus).

My son immediately asked when we could play again, which is the highest possible praise for a game.

This is our third Panzer Kids outing I think? I may have said it before, but it bears repeating, I highly recommend Panzer Kids - don't let the Kids part turn you off. There's an enjoyable game here for adults, too.

There's a pay-what-you-want Basic version if you want to give it a go to get a sense of the rules, but the Deluxe edition rules add some of the features older gamers would expect (flank/rear bonuses, damage effects, ATGs, etc.) without adding complexity - plus there's quite a list of tank stats. 

I think this game took 45 minutes start to finish. It's hard to tell exactly how much of it was the game though, because there were quite a few tangents - such as extended sound effects making for shots that hit (or missed for that matter), wild cheering and "end-zone celebrations" for successful shots, random hugs, spontaneous improvised "national anthems" to spur on the sides, etc. - not atypical if you've ever had the good fortune to game with a nine year-old.

The Table is Set!

The table (err, bed) is set for the next game of Panzer Kids Deluxe! This time we'll be "somewhere in France, 1944". If we keep playing this game I'm going to have to expand my collection of 1:48-1:50 scale armor. HAVE TO I SAY!

Tanks not necessarily in their starting positions.

I just like the way this Corgi model looks going into the field.

 Vehicles are Solido / Verem and Corgi.

This game we'll incorporate the optional damage rules, wreck rules, and the flank/rear attack rules. 

For the bocage/hedges, I've decided that the tanks must be in contact to see/be seen and to shoot/be targeted, otherwise it blocks LOS. Tanks may not cross bocage/hedges.

Panzer Kids! Eastern Front Edition

First game of February!

In an effort to get in some mid-week gaming, Tuesday night, I bamboozled my son into playing Panzer Kids again. Honestly, it didn't take any arm twisting once I got the tanks out.

The scenario is based loosely on my own lose interpretation of Berezovka Heights in July 1943. I decided on two victory conditions for the Germans to win - they had to clear and claim at least one hill, and get one vehicle off the board via the road. They had 7 turns to do it and they couldn't leave the table until turn 3 or after (I wanted to prevent a race down the road). Otherwise, the Soviets would win.

Vehicles in three scales on the table together - but that didn't lessen the fun.

Below the young commander (he plays both sides, I adjudicate and provide advice) studies the situation in turn 2 (I think):

He's kneeling on the floor. He's 9 and is getting closer to 5' tall every day.

The Germans managed to clear both hills and claimed one as theirs, but victory celebrations were called off when on the last roll of the last turn, the Soviets destroyed the Panzer heading for the road:

An over view of the carnage.

The last shot.

I really like this game a lot. It scratches the itch to play a game, doesn't take more than a quick skim to refresh my memory, and let's me get out my vehicles that really don't get used that much ordinarily. It's also the perfect level of complexity for my son, who isn't big on games in the physical realm. 

It holds his interest which is a minor miracle.

An aside, if you're familiar with the game then you know Panzer Kids treats hills as impassable for tanks (I suspect because it simplifies things for the intended audience) - and yet the Stug is on the hill. For this scenario I decided I would allow them to do so, because I wanted my son to have to consider who he would relegate that duty to and to realize he couldn't sacrifice his entire force just to get someone off the table.

This time we used two advanced rules: ATGs and the flanking fire rules.

I was excited by the former because I just like seeing them on the table. The latter really made things interesting from my point of view, as several times I was able to pull the commander aside and show him how different moves might expose a tank to more or less fire against weaker side and rear armor. And how he could maneuver tanks to use cover and to construct fire groups to gang up on a single target. Trying to give him a little instruction in thinking ahead and such.

Still, I was careful to let him have the final say and merely offered comparisons of possible outcomes that he could choose between.

Despite the fact that he clearly wanted the Soviets to win (he's studying Russian and Russian history), he made good decisions for the Germans and got excited to score a hit regardless of which side it was for.

It was a great time and he was super excited by the whole thing. I'm hoping to get him to play again this weekend, although I know it's probably pressing my luck!

Weekend Update

Work continues apace on the Russians although they look little different than they did the other day, so no picture. 

My Armies in Plastic order arrived the other day - I was surprised that the package was so bulky given I only ordered two guns. Then I remembered, I wanted two mountain/screw guns (I will use generic infantry for crew) and found the best deal was to get a Northwest Frontier battle pack with 20 Afghans and 20 Indian army figures, plus the two guns.

The Afghans, which will be useful if I want to pursue the Great Game angle, include several figures armed with sword and shield. In spite of cartridge pouches, I think they can be pressed into service as levy figures for my One Hour Wargame, mostly Deetail, Saracen army.

I rather like the Indian officer and think he would make an interesting character - whether I would decide to paint up any of the others remains to be seen.

Do two guns count as a gun park?

Saturday afternoon was a nail biter of a  Panzer Kids game :

The Sherman or the Tiger?

The rules are straightforward, play fast, and there’s plenty of differentiation between tank types. 

We played the basic rules (this was my second attempt with them, my son's first) with an objective (which is an advanced rule although we didn't include the recommended ATG). The Germans had a Tiger I and a Panzer IV, while the allies fielded three Shermans. 

It came down to one Sherman against the Tiger, both with 2 hits (3 eliminates a tank). The Sherman had a cover bonus, which enabled it to withstand the Tiger's onslaught, helped too by a monumental run of poor die rolling. Finally, after some ineffective back and forth, we set a limit of how much ammo remained, and with one round left, the Tiger brewed up the Sherman for a German victory..

For next time, we're looking forward to using ATGs.

Finally, on Saturday night, I played a solo RPG (something I haven’t done in years):

I bought the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic RPG a few years ago during a time when my son was watching the Friendship is Magic TV show. Naively, I thought I might hook him with the game. His interest didn't last the delivery time of the book.

However, I was rather taken by the system which encourages cooperation between player characters via an in-game mechanism called "friendship points". It's also implicitly encourages non-combat solutions to conflict, being it's a My Little Pony theme, but you can ignore that if you choose and the system can handle it. So, point being, I've held onto the rule book and even picked up this starter set - which cost about the same as the dice it included.

The adventure was engaging ,and a little frustrating too, when I was lost in a labyrinth (I realized I had to map it out or I'd be lost a lot longer). 

Oddly, the module is a solitaire game book/choose-your-own-adventure with dice type affair, so although it provides a method to play with others (everyone rolls and if one succeeds they all do, but if one loses a hit point, they all do), the intent is that it's played by one person. Thus, in a game where friendship is the mechanism to overcome difficulty, there's no one around to spend friendship points with. 

If that's not an analogy for the pandemic, I don't know what is.