November Progress

Yet again it's been a while since I've posted on the blog, so here is some of the things I've been doing.

First off the first two aircraft for Star Wars 1917 are finished. The Albatross Tie Fighter on the left and the Sopwith X Wing on the right. They still need basing and we will be using the Wings of War rules to replay the Death Star canyon run. I now have the models for Baron Von Vaderhoffens Fokker Tri-Fighter and The De Havilland DH2 Y wing.

These are the ships for the spacefleet of the mighty Albion Kingdom. They are all Brigade Models miniatures and they will soon be flying into action using the Starmada rules.

These two are part of the on going game in a box series. This is the game Outrider, vehicular combat in the near future. All the set and counters are magnetised and will hopefully see the light at a games show near you next year.

I've had these for a while and have finally got around to painting them.

Finally these are the new Baccus Anglo-Saxons ready to go to battle, in a new system for me, Impetus. Hopefully at some point Ruarigh will have some Vikings for them to face.

Hopefully it won't be as long until my next update.

Steve

Lacepunk Terrain Part One

Well as you can see I've finally finished the first part of the Lacepunk terrain. Gateway City, where the game will take place, is built on unnatural terraces around a bay. The buildings are removable and I intend to make pieces which can be added to the terrain to give it a longer lifespan.

It will probably also end up being used for a variety of other games, with a little change to the movable pieces.

The only thing I'm not completely happy with is the water, but it's getting there.

The basic construction is EPS on top of an MDF board, this was then covered in plaster bandages. The second piece should be much easier and is around half way through now. The buildings are all balsa wood and have detachable roofs and levels.

Cheers

Steve

Game Report - Tusk II Capture King Kong

I managed to have a solo game of Tusk II Capture King Kong tonight. I've played a couple of games of Tusk before, so knew the basic game. Tusk II adds a few new parts to the game.

Here's the board layout with Kong at the side by the wall. Captain Peppard C Thrushmore and his Swedish 1st mate Olaf Kumhardy are escaping from Kong with the lovely Ann de Sandneys. Coming to their aid are two companies of sailors and a couple of groups of native warriors.

On the first turn I roll a five on the action points. This allows me to move 5 units. Ann heads towards the sailors and away from Kong. While the Captain, Olaf, sailors and natives head towards Kong. Kong rolls on the reaction table and charges towards Olaf. Also on the reaction table the domestic animals are split with one group grazing, while the others run away.

Turn 2 I roll a 1 on the action points and move one unit of sailors. The Captain throws a gas grenade, this attack has no effect on Kong, but he does retreat back to the gate.

The wind blows the gas cloud on the next turn. Unfortunately Olaf is in the way and is promptly knocked out. The Captain shoots at Kong, causing him to retreat beyond the gate. The next turn the wind has changed and blows the gas cloud onto Kong, this time knocking him out

All in all a fun game and all done in an hour. There was a little flitting between books for the right tables and in future I'll probably combine them on a single sheet.

I've also got Tusk III and the Exterminate! set in 15mm, this sets the Professor and Queen Elizabeth against robotic dustbins. Hopefully I'll soon have these painted and another report coming soon.

Steve

June Progress

One of the few things I got at Salute was the 6mm Tusk set 'Capture King Kong' from Irregular Miniatures. Actually they didn't have it on the day, but posted it through the next week. I've finally got around to finishing the last few bases. At the back we have Kong himself. On the back row (L to R) are the 2 heroes and heroine with 4 stands of sailors; 7 stands of native dependants and 6 stands of natives with hand weapons, together with 4 native heroes. On the middle row we have sheep and cattle plus the native missile stands. At the front on the left are the firemakers and shamen. Capture King Kong is a solo game, so hopefully I should soon play it and have a report on the site.

For my recent birthday, my long suffering wife bought me the Land Ironclads, War of 1890 Starter set, from Brigade Models. This comes with British and German forces, dice, bases and a rulebook. It's very good value for money and will hopefully be a fun game, both on it's own and combined with Aeronef. The only slight gripe is it would be nice to have the starter set without the rulebook, as I already had a rulebook. Again hopefully we'll soon be able to fit a game of this into our busy gaming schedule.

These are some Zorgls, again purchased at Salute, from East Riding Miniatures. I'll be using these in the Lacepunk skirmish game, when I get around to finishing terrain and the background. More on that in the next post, honest.

Star Wars 1917

Every so often I have a silly idea, sometimes these come to fruition. This is one of them. After looking at the Towton terrain, I thought how good it would look as terrain for the end of the first Star Wars film. Rather than just do that I decided to set it in an alternate WWI. These are my first attempts at comvertions for it. On the left is the Albatross Tie fighter hybrid and on the right the Sopwith Camel X-wing. The Camel will fly backwards to give it the right look. More on this as it happens.

Finally the latest on the Rather Small Skirmish Project. I've completed 4 houses with detachable roofs, some ruins and a few trees. The Houses and ruins are balsa and the trees are old GW stock. All have magnetic strip on the bottom. I still have a few more figures to paint and my friend Ruarigh is chipping in with some Barbarian/Viking figures from the new Baccus range. The game should be up and running for it's first outing at the Baccus gamesday in July.

Cheers

Steve

A Rather Small Skirmish Project

After the size and expense of 'The Rather Large Towton Project', Ruarigh and I decided the next project should be something smaller, cheaper and easier to transport. Thus the rather small skirmish project was started. These will be 6mm skirmish games, with all the peices needed being in a small box.

This is the first box. It is a 300mm x 300mm box with a thin steel sheet glued to the bottom. This is then covered with a decorative sheet. In the bottom I've used a granite effect (above) and in the top a green velor (below).

All the terrain and eventually the figures will have magnetic bases. Hopefully this will reduce figures going flying or terrain moving. It also means you are not stuck with one set of terrain or terrain stuck in the same positions

I'm currently looking at using the Broadsword Adventure rules. Hopefully by The Baccus games day it should be ready to game on, with more terrain made and figures painted. I'm hoping to have 3 different scenarios which can be played on the day.

Just to show the terrain is movable here it is on the 'grass' board.

Cheers

Steve

Aeronefs Over The Aegean Part 2

I finished the terrain for Aeronefs over the Aegean last week, but this is the first chance I've had to get the photos onto the blog. We'll be using a bigger table when we actually play the game, probably in a few weeks time. The basic construction is hardboard with polystyrene ceiling tiles on top.

This is an overall view of the terrain, I've a few more islands to give a bit of variety.

A close up of the city, not sure whether I should have made it flatter.

A view from another angle.

Cheers

Steve

Aeronefs Over the Aegean

One of my purchases at Salute this year was the 'Aeronefs over the Aegean' set from Brigade Models. We've had a couple of games of Aeronef and the rules are simple to use, but a fun game. As you can see you get quite a few models for your money. All credit to Brigade as when I unpacked the set at home I found a couple of pieces missing, these were promptly posted to me along with an extra Aerostat.

This shows the full set with the Hungarian Battle Cruiser the Syren in the lead followed by the Turkish navy.
I decided to mount the aeroplanes on individual wires, rather than on the group base provided and I think this gives a better effect.

The only changes I'm going to make are to reduce the length of the Aerostat masts as they look a little like flying submarines. I now have a little terrain to build and we'll be ready to play the game hopefully sometime in June. In the meantime it's back to the Towton figures.

Cheers

Steve

Wastelands '84 - The East Ridings

The Priory Police in front of 'The Station'

‘Cont……lier…….rep……ver’. The radio crackled to life with the broken voice of Constable Collier.

‘What is it, Collier?’ Growled Detective Sergeant Larkin.

‘…avages…ir….ousands……..em’, came the reply.

‘Lipman, Johnson, Prescott get ready, they’re coming’, Larkin yelled to the nearby crouched figures.

Along the road they could see some figures moving, clad in loin cloths and carrying rifles. It was the Swanlandians come to take their territory. Larkin, feeling the gloom rising, shook himself.

Well if they wanted it the Priory Police would make them pay a heavy price.

Last night we played a Post Apocalypse game, using the Wastelands 3 Meltdown rules. These rules are free from the web. Wastelands rules.

For the game we used the campaign rules with random rolls for locations and enemies. For our forces I took a Law Dog warband and Ruarigh a Road Warrior one. This meant I started with 5 Gunslingers, good at shooting and hard to kill, as well as one location, a toxic wasteland, and 70 resources to equip the characters. This allowed everyone to have a gas mask and knife, 3 to have heavy pistols and 2 to have shotguns with one having grenades. In hindsight more long range weapons would have helped, but it didn’t match the figures I have.

Ruarigh started with a car with a HMG on a turret (cars are considered coming with a driver) , 30 resources and one location, a wasteland (non-toxic). He spent the resources on getting another character.

Using the campaign system you first check if your territory is invaded. The more territory you have the more chance of invasion and the better the territory, the better the invaders. Then decide if you want to scout other locations, which can prove deadly for the explorers, have an encounter, a mission or rest. After completing these you can then get resources from your territories.

The game is very fast paced and we each managed to have four turns in the space of about 2 hours. This included four battles. Combat is very quick and deadly with a roll to hit, then one to kill. The only slight difference to this is vehicles which take cumulative damage and as a consequence are very powerful.

Overall the game was fun and easy to play. Some of the rules are a little sparse, but these can soon be overcome. What we both felt it lacked was advancement of characters, which was in a previous version.

After this trial game the system looks useable with a few tweaks and additions from previous versions to make a game for our Post Apocalypse gaming.

These games will be set in an alternate 1984 England were a virus has swept the world, killing a large percentage of people and mutating others. Basically a kind a Slightly Annoyed Max, with Allegros and Maxis battling it out on the country lanes. Squires setting up fiefdoms in quaint villages. Local pubs for local people.

More to come as and when I get around to it.

Steve

Albion gets spacebourne

These are the new Albion Defense Force Starfighters. In the front are 4 Broadsword Fighters and at the back 4 Buckler Interceptors.

These will do battle with the Bwendi forces of Ruarigh tomorrow night using the new Squadron Commander rules form Brigade Models. The models are also from Brigade with the Eurofed Folgore in the front and the Comete in the rear.

It's been good to get on with painting something other than Towton, although I still have painted yet more of these. Hopefully this week I shall also complete my Aeronefs over the Aegean models.