June in Review

I can't believe June is already over. That means the year is half over too. I'll have a post about that, since goals and planning are as much a part of the hobby for me as anything else.

But I digress, how went June? 

Figure Painting: 

• Got a paint organizer for Father’s Day: 

  

  Absolute game changer. I no longer have to rummage around through a bin of paint bottles. The only paints not in the rack are my craft paints.

   
• Painted three Battle Sisters: 

  

  HMG, Fusion Rifle, and Standard.

  
  
• Painted Frog Mage:

  

  I based the color scheme for the mage on the Painted Dart Frog.

  

  In part due to the sand-colored base, and in part due to the starfish, I think has a real Shore/Florida knickknack shop vibe,

  
  
• Assembled and began painting two GW Space Marine Infernus (as Blood Ravens), four Wargames Atlantic  lizard warriors as tribal warriors, four Wargames Atlantic lizards using the gasmask heads and AK-ish rifles (to field as OPR Saurian Starhost) kitted out with additional gear from the Wargames Atlantic German and French WW1 sprues, and two GW Sisters Repentia:

  

  The rangers were started last month. Just very undecided about what the various bits are and what colors to paint.

  

  Close up of Saurian Starhost before priming. The officer's gun is from a WW1 German. It's a clunky hand swap - their arms aren't the same width, but close enough! Also, he has binoculars, but he clearly can't use them - so I just made up a story about how they are a trophy.

  
  
• Although it's not painting, I discovered that displaying some of my 54mm figures in little groupings around my apartment brings me joy:

  

  Seriously, I could look at that shelf for hours.

 Gaming:

• Wrote up a house rule set for element-based fantasy games - it's a Morschauser Shock meets HoTT mashup, for playing One Hour Wargame scenarios, without having to track hits at all. 
• Played a bunch of my fantasy modified Morschauser and the above mash up rules. Must have been a good 7 or 8 games. (no pictures, sorry)
• Joined a Discord group for One Page Rules and found my way to a group specific to my area. They play weekly on a night I can't do, but I've been able to instigate two Saturday afternoon meetups.
• I've played five games of Grim Dark Future:Firefight against another human as a result of those meetups(we got in three games the first time, two the second). My win-loss ratio points to an issue with command (one win, three losses, one draw) but it's a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again. 

• 

  Table from the 2nd meetup. My opponent supplied the terrain. In this game, it's my Plague Disciples vs ...

  

  ORKVADER!!! Also the Orkeror and Stormtrooper Orcs (he printed them, but you can buy them from people on Etsy if, like me, you don't have a 3D printer).

  
  
• Played two solo Grimdark Future: Firefight games to prepare for the above and refresh my understanding of some of the special rules:
•  

  

  I plan to make additional multi-level ruins, some walkways to connect them, and finally paint those craters! Bare wood works well enough as sand at home, but I will need a larger cloth/mat if I'm going to supply terrain for meetups. 4x4 is the standard for Firefight, and my sand colored felt is 3x3.

  

  Sisters special weapons advance using cover.

  

  Alien Hive shooter grunts do the same.

  

  Ambush! Alien Hive swarm appears behind the caster and make a nuisance of themselves.

  

  End game. Right after this, the Sisters took out the grunt that would have contested the final objective, giving the Sisters a win.

Terrain:

• Made a 2nd two-floor ruin, some additional walls and such.
• Painted most of my Mantic Industrial Scatter Terrain

  

  I just really like how rusty these luck.

  
  

  

  These too!

  
  

  

  Not much to say about this. It took less than 5 minutes: Burnt Umber (ground) and Gunmetal (wall), then dry brushed Desert Sand (ground) and Autumn Leaves for the rust.

RPG:

• Session 2 of my Episodic Basic Fantasy RPG campaign - The Purple Worm Graveyard. The party survived and made it out with four loads of the fabeled ivory. Story-wise, they are going back to town and next session - probably early August due to vacations - will be some admin (leveling up and shopping) and a short 5-Room Dungeon model adventure and then they'll pick the next module/adventure they want to try.

Weeding:

• Weeded out a lot of old brushes, paints, and other hobby related supplies, that were duplicates,no longer useful (dried paint for example), or had not been touched in years, if ever.
• Weeded out some hex and counter games.
• Weeded out some history books.
• Weeded out a bunch of terrain that was damaged, no longer suited to my needs,etc.
• Weeded out a bunch of painted and bare plastic 54mm figures and 1/72 figures.

 Acquisitions:

• 40K 10th ed. Starter Box - I got it for a delightfully reasonable price (I did a quick search and found I got it lower than anyone advertises, even Amazon) with the Make an Offer feature on eBay. I'll be able to fill my Alien Hive and Battle Brothers forces out to about 1800 points each. An APC for the Battle Brothers and a unit of Warriors for the Alien Hive and they'll both be at 2000 points for full games of Grim Dark Future.
• 3D print Repentia type - For my Blessed Sisters, she will serve as a High Sister armed with a two-handed chain sword - and as she's not GW, she'll be easy to ID.  I like the idea that the Fanatic leader would be at the tip of the spear, swinging her sword and cutting down heretics, not behind the fighters like some kind of NKVD officer, using whips to drive them forward. Of course, I have a Repentia Superior model already and when I buy a box of Repentia, I'll have a second one. They'll see use in Firefight, but probably not in the full army. 
• Some fancy paints (Citadel, Army Painter) and a small Army Painter dry brush. The paints were to replenish my dwindling paints needed for the above 10th ed. box, but primarily they were purchased to support the shop where I played GD:FF. Small price to pay for their hospitality (tables are free to use for gaming, purchasing something is just courteous).

Phew!

I'll be traveling most of July, so I expect that, with the exception of finishing the figures already in progress and possibly sitting in on a friend's D&D game, gaming activity will be substantially less!

Code Word: Santa's Got a Brand New Bag

Like a lot of wargamers, I purchase my own Christmas presents. I know I know, you can hear the piteous violins softly in the background.

But we do what we must and bear the terrible burden.

Now, I could wait until after Christmas to share my modest haul, but I am too excited by the last item pictured to wait.

So without further ado, here is what Santa will be putting under the tree this year.

First up is Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons. 

After going most of my wargaming life without making any Games Workshop purchases, I've made one each Christmas for the last few years (I blame my son). The tradition will continue this year with another of their self-contained box games.

I really enjoy Fireteam, Space Marine: The Boardgame, and Blitz Bowl, and Alex (UpTheBlue) did a play through of this awhile back and it stuck with me. So, when it was on sale for Black Friday, I took advantage. 

 At the very least, at less than $20 USD for five GW miniatures it was a no-brainer.

Will I paint the figures? I might. I might not. If I paint them, I'll probably paint them all as Blood Ravens, despite the heresy of it all.

Next up is a bundle of new recruits for my lizard folk army. My goal is to field a 2000+ point 28mm force for Age of Fantasy that I can bring to the local One Page Rules gaming group meetups. This lot, plus several sprues of Wargames Atlantic lizard folk I still haven't touched, and a second Dark Heaven command set, also taking space in the Pile of Shame, will get me there.

The one in the baggie is possibly my favorite - it's an old Grenadier model:

He's a bit vertically challenged but I'll just build up his base so his head is about even with everyone else.

Though it's jumping the gun a bit, I have already decided his paint scheme will be based on the yellow-headed gecko (not to be confused with the yellow-headed day gecko)

I had considered picking up the Grenadier lizard-man champion with lance, which was one of the first miniatures I ever had (in a Grenadier box set, when I was a kid, around 12 years old- when I had started playing AD&D - from Kay-Bee Toys, a gift from my Grandma). But seeing it now - it isn't nearly as grand as I recall it. I suppose that's true of many of the things of childhood. 

That said, even as I type this I still want one, so maybe for my birthday!

For now, all of the above is hidden away - although I hope I can remember where I stashed them when the day comes. I'm quite good at forgetting where I put things.

Santa himself will probably gift me some cash this year, and so a book or two is probably in the cards as it wouldn't be Christmas without some new reading material, but I don't want to presume anything and spend money I haven't got.

Rest assured, I have quite a long list of potential titles! 

(the post title is from the movie, Elf, spoken by my favorite character - the toy department manager)

Blessed Sisters of the Grim Dark Future

Saturday night, I needed a break from painting figures the holiday game, so I returned to my Blessed Sisters.  

I have wanted a force of sci-fi nuns-with-guns since I first heard they existed, and I'm thrilled to have finished "stage 1".

I can now field a force for Grim Dark Future : Firefight of 300 points, give or take depending on which upgrades I take. FWIW, you can play GD:FF with more points but I find it takes way too long, since most units consist of a single figure, and units activate individually.

Canoness Veridyan (left) commands a detachment of Blessed Sisters

I still have five of the Battle Sisters to build and paint, but that's "stage 2" and a 2025 project. 

Between now and Christmas, I'll be churning out figures for the Christmas Day game. I'll share some progress on that in the next post. I know that I'm dragging my feet on the painting because making my own figures for the monsters seems a little intimidating but also because I now have multiple ideas for the adversaries - option paralysis as they say.

Sister Act IV: There is Only War

 The first three Adepta Sororitas battle sisters are complete!

Looks like I missed a spot with the matte varnish on back left figure. I'm also going to redo the decals so they are all on the same corner of the cape.

I'm not 100% satisfied with my brushwork - but I am rather pleased with the way their capes came out: 

Close-up photos are the bane of a sloppy painters existence, and I can see lots of things that need attention, and I may go back and fix those things, but for now they are tabletop ready (once I fix the decals).

Although I've managed to stat out a 200 point Grimdark Future : Firefight force with these three figures, by applying various upgrades, and will get them on the table sooner rather than later, I will be starting on three more figures (two battle sisters and one canoness) shortly, in order to field a full 300 point force.

Ten battle sisters (a full squad) works as an Ecclessiarchy team in Kill Team, although I don't have the rules for that, and there is a weekly Kill Team meetup at the FLGS which is something I might consider in the coming year.     

Are you ready for some football?

Monday night under the lights, the Reikland Reavers stepped onto the grid to face Nurgle's Rotters. A win for the Reavers would bring the league into a three-way tie heading into the season's second half.

The Rotters won the coin toss and their pestigor turned on the jets and pounced on the ball, with his blockers trailing behind. Reikland's quarterback bravely sacrificed himself in an effort to make a score-saving tackle, but the Rotter ball carrier was unmoved and put the first touchdown on the board. 

Whatever wind Reikland had in its sails was gone, and their ship was dead in the water.

Play after play, they struggled against a slower, harder hitting Rotter team.

And then it was deja vu all over again for Reikland.

A short pass, followed by an after-catch run, ended shy of the endzone, courtesy of a brutal hit from a Nurgle lineman which forced the ball loose.

The gun sounded a second sudden death loss for the Reavers,

While the Rotters rode out high atop the standings, the Reavers, outscored 12 - 2 in Monday's game  and 32-12 this season, have a lot of soul-searching to do if they don't want to end the season at the bottom of the pile.

After three games, here's how the league stands:

1. Nurgle's Rotters 2 - 0
2. Skavenblight Scramblers 1 - 1
3. Reikland Reavers 0 - 2

A Bit of a Mish Mash

Contrary to my usual tendency to wait until the last minute, I've begun working on my Christmas day game. For a change of pace, it will have nothing to do with Christmas itself, and everything to do with the harsh reality of winter (with a heaping scoop of supernatural activity added) on the American frontier in the early 1770s.

Inspired by The Silver Bayonet, at least in concept, I'm preparing a colonial America horror game - my take on the British tradition of Christmas season ghost stories. For rules, I have settled on a free set that so far in my tests seems well suited to the genre. They do require some effort to grok, since they are a beta version: Perilous Tales. That said, they seem easily teachable to my players who have little experience with wargames (other than my previous holiday games).

Figures have been acquired - here are the photos from the eBay seller:

Technically they are AWI militia from Barzso/LOD, but they will do for settlers.

 

Frontier women from Barzso/LOD

 

I may have anywhere from 3 - 8 players so those two lots will cover my bases. 

 

What I am undecided about is painting. I know a lot of people clutch their pearls at the idea of unpainted figures, or horror or horrors, mixing painted and unpainted, but I grew up with unpainted plastic soldiers - as is often discussed, this is the typical route in the US, green (and later, tan) plastic "army men", not painted figures. 

 

So, I prefer it for 54mm figures for the pure nostalgia of it. Which is why my 54mm WWII collection has been cleared of almost all the painted figures. But I digress.

If I do paint them I will go for a more "grimdark" approach than "toy soldier", since I want to convey the game's atmosphere through the physical components.

 

And speaking of grimdark, my Sisters of Battle / Blessed Sisters have been started.

For the Emperor.

This represents half (in terms of model count) of my starter 300 point Grimdark Future: Firefight team. It is clearly a WiP shot - there's quite a few more steps in the process to go. 

I'm following Sonic Sledgehammer's tutorial for Our Martyred Lady, in large part. He is by far my favorite painting tutorial creator on YouTube - he sounds very friendly and is very encouraging,  his painting steps are accessible to us mere mortals, and he's not afraid to make a painting error on camera.

Yesterday, our family and friends D&D group started in on act three of a campaign set in Ravenloft (I play a "business man" who is really a thief specializing in the liberation of rare books from private collections). 

It had been so long since the end of act two that most of us had forgotten nearly everything. Our DM did an admirable job at summarizing it all. There was no combat in the session - just role play - which I thought would irritate my son, but he dove into his character head first and provided the most enjoyable moments during the negotiations with Baba Yaga.

Finally, tonight I will be playing game three in the 2024 Blitz Bowl season. 

Saturday Night Lights

The Reikland Reavers and the Skavenblight Scramblers collided under the lights Saturday night, in a bone-crushing, fast-paced game.

The Reavers came out strong - setting their hopes on the passing accuracy of their star quarterback. Knocking on the door to the endzone, it was slammed shut soundly by Skavenblight's linebacker and defensive powerhouse.

Injured frequently in his team's last match-up against Nurgle's Rotters, he came into Saturday's game in good health and determined to dish out brutal hits to the opposition and erase any doubts about his abilities.

On offense, the rats refused to risk the ball and relied on hand-offs, short passes, and ample blockers to dominate the possession time.

The aggressive Reaver defense had several opportunities to stop Skavenblight but ...

 

... the Scramblers had the edge on speed and put up the first touch-down of the day.

With the pressure on, Reikland again turned to their QB's arm - a decision that paid off in a touch-down to cap the drive.

Undeterred, the Scramblers managed to run up the points, and sadly, for Reaver fans, they proved to be the more consistent of the teams, both on offense and defense.

Facing a Sudden Death loss, Reikland's QB orchestrated a thrilling last-ditch drive for the end zone, reminiscent of the team's first touch-down of the day, but they came up short, literally within an inch of staying in the game.

When the gun sounded, the Scramblers won 20 - 10, putting them 1-1 for the season, The Reikland Reavers go into their match against Nurgle's Rotters at 0-1.

***

I really love the board for Blitz Bowl. The entirely flat board looks uncannily three-dimensional. So even though it's a board-game with minis, it still feels like you're playing on a field with obstacles.

Once all the teams have played each other on this side of the board (what I call round one), I'll play another series using the other side, which features two trap doors and a multi-ball possibility.

With only three teams, it's quite possible the season will end in a three-way tie. I suppose what that really means is that I should ask Santa for another team this year.

Season Kickoff

Saturday afternoon, the 2024 Blitz Bowl season kicked off with the Skavenblight Scramblers vs Nurgle's Rotters.

Skavenblight's fast moving, big-play offense saw little opportunity, as the plodding, hard hitting Rotters gained possession early and opted for a conservative ball-control offense. 

Skavenblight Blitzer takes on Nurgle Bloater

Nurgle's team maintained near continuous possession for the duration of the game, recovering fumbles with success and beating up the Skavenblight defense at nearly every opportunity.

Patience was the order of the day for the Rotters. Moving more laterally than forward and choosing hand-offs over risky passing, they oozed steadily towards the goal-line.

Nurgle Lineman carries the ball into the End Zone

Despite being held to a single touchdown (their first ever under my coaching), the Rotters handily scored a Sudden Death victory, 13 to 2, thanks in large part to their successful completion of multiple challenge cards.

Skavenblight's blitzer suffered multiple injuries on the day but is expected to be ready to go again in time for the team's next outing, according to their coach.

That match-up will pit the Scramblers vs the Reikland Reavers.

More Lancieri! (finally)

Well, it took me way too long, but I finally got around to knocking out two more WWI lancieri :

As with the previous two, the heads are provided by Dulcop grenade lobbing arditi. The bodies and horses provided by Armies in Plastic - I believe a set of Egyptian lancers in this case, maybe? 

With these two, I can now field two squadrons for my reduced-base-size One Hour Wargames army:

And this is plenty for the standard OHW force builder (a max of two cavalry).

I am aiming to do some OHW Battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli scenarios (the cavalry played a role in the rearguard as the Italian 3rd Army retreated from the rapidly advancing Germans and Austro-Hungarian forces in 1917) and 1918, Vittorio Veneto (the cavalry pursued the retreating Austrians in the last battle of the Southern Front). 

However, not to be unduly limited by the ruleset, I want to allow for the possibility of fielding a full regiment of 5 squadrons and an MG section.  As it happens, I have the figures on hand, I just need to keep at them. This has the benefit of giving me something to paint without spending anything further.

Those will have to wait for my Blessed Sisters to at least field a "legal" 300pt Grimdark Future: Firefight force (5 models - canoness, sgt, banner, storm rifle, and HMG).

I hope to have all of the above figures (11 models total) finished well before the end of the year.

But that requires deciding on a paint scheme!

Titus and (more) Tyranids

Well, even though I was taking my time, the paint-by-numbers approach for 40K figures meant Lt. Titus was completed early Friday evening.

So, while my son was busy with his friend online,  I clipped assembled and primed the next four Tyranids. And by Monday evening, they were done.

I leave for Western New York this weekend to visit family and friends, and with this week already fast passing by, it seems unlikely I'll assemble the last four Tyranids (not counting the two swarms), before I go, let alone finish them.

But it's a possibility.

Once the Tyranids are done, that is all of my 40K figures acquired for Christmas. If my son wants me to finish his remaining two Infernus, I'll do those. Otherwise, it's time to decide which Order (color scheme) I will paint my Sisters of Battle (or Blessed Sisters in One Page Rules-speak). 

There will undoubtedly be an expense related to paints involved.

WiP: Lt. Titus

I continue my embracing of 40K miniatures. Currently, I am working on the Lieutenant Titus from the Space Marine boardgame box. 

To make him a Blood Raven I had to scrape away any markings that clearly showed him as being an Ultramarine. The only one I could not remove was the upside-down Omega in the chest piece. Others with better hobby-blade skills might succeed without ruining the figure, but leaving it was a safe choice for me. 

That's OK - with my eyes, I can't see it from wargames distance!

I have some finishing work on the bone-colored stuff, the metal bits, and the base obviously.

I may possibly be done before the weekend, although I'm trying not to rush the painting process. A lot of irons in a lot of fires and painting is an opportunity for quiet sanity.!

Friday Grab Bag

Yesterday, after viewing some images over on Little Wars Revisited, I was inspired to throw some 54s on the table (as is right and proper). 

Elements of an Allied Venusian Expeditionary Force patrol are in retreat from the lizard folk. The AVEF units plan to consolidate their position on the hill beyond the river. (One Hour Wargames Scenario 20)

Crossing the river.

Rifle and bow exchange fire.

The AVEF about to be overrun.

I played this scenario with One Page Rules Age of Fantasy : Regiments, but instead, treating each element as a unit of 10 figures (and tracking with d10s). Rolling 10d6 for an attack was more fun than I anticipated. But I'm not sure the special abilities/troop differences that AoF brings to the table were any better than when I play using One Hour Wargames (Ancients+Dark Ages for the lizards, Rifle & Sabre for the FFL/Highlanders, with  my fantasy rules for heroes, casters, and beasts bolted on), just different.

Speaking of OPR...

Last year, on his birthday, my son received the Space Marines paint set (6 paints, and 3 Infernus). The intent of the kit is to paint them as Ultramarines. Unlike the regular box of Space Marines, the starter kit comes with the Ultramarine and Unit symbols molded into the pauldrons so they seem pretty much destined for that chapter.

My son had assembled and primed one, but lost interest quickly thereafter.

With his permission, I asked if I could paint it up as a Blood Raven (his preferred chapter) - if I could manage to scrape the Ultramarine symbol off the figure. Thumbs up received, a fresh #11 blade was applied and, while I feared the plastic was too thick to remove easily, off it came easy peasy. 

So, he'll now have three Blood Raven Infernus (he may assemble and paint the other two himself - seeing that it could be done seems to have changed his attitude towards the figures)

"Now it's time to get funky"

"To the right now,"

"to the left ...Take it back now ya'll"

Speaking of my son, ever since I introduced him to the Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff podcast, he has wanted to try The Fall of Delta Green. However, as it's set in the 60s, I felt like it wasn't a good fit even if I made it kid friendly, since he didn't know anything about the 60s (which reminds me of one of my favorite exchanges on the Gumball cartoon. Someone says a decade like "the 60s" and Darwin asks "You mean the future?" "No, the 1960s", "There was a 19?").

He was maybe 8 or 9 at the time.

This past year, in 7th grade social studies, they covered the Vietnam War (in a superficial way, but none the less), but he is more than informed about it after watching numerous history videos on YouTube and discussing the war with me. In fact, in our Family & Friends gaming group, he probably knows more than most of the adults about it (I'll pat myself on the back for that).

He also gets a big kick out of the Fortunate Son/Huey gunship meme.

With my only interest in 5e D&D being to participate as a player, I have had nothing to bring to the group during breaks in our current Ravenloft-based campaign to give the other GM a chance to play. I don't want to run more D&D (b/x of course), as I have the campaign with my son - we did try to bring in the Friends & Family group into that, but since we play so often, it's almost impossible for them to have any sense of the various threads that have emerged.

So, all this is to say, I decided it is time:

It's a hefty tome. For me at least.

I've long since given up reading large rule books (I have the 5e Player's Handbook, but I have only read maybe 20 or so pages that I needed to create the two characters I've run -a gnome monk and a human thief) but I'll make an exception here as much of it is background and GM advice (horror seems to require a modicum of seriousness, which I tend to lack, so this may or may not work!) and intriguing.

The Fall of Delta Green uses the Gumshoe system, which is new to me, and to the entire group. 

That adds some additional lifting for me. 

As I will be running one-shots or maybe an episodic campaign for the group, a group that won't invest in player books to learn a system, I'll have to teach it. At it's base it's not difficult, it's when all the little extras creep in that I can easily lose my footing. I'm considering some of the various Cthulhu Dark variants (Cthulhu Deep Green seems a likely candidate) as they are rules-light and easy to teach. 

We'll see though.

I have a lot of experience playing RPGs solo - using a variety of methods including Mythic: Game Master Emulator, so I will go through the character generation process a few times, and run some sample mini adventures for myself to get a grasp of the mechanics to see if they are as involved as they seemed on my first pass.