Tuesday 30 September 2014

30th September - Finished Nameless Team

Another Dreadball team down, one to go. But it does look like I have indeed put it on the back burner. Spent the day cleaning up the minis out of Infinity Operation: Icestorm box, gluing them and then finally getting a primer coat on them. So I'll be knocking them over first then more than likely heading back to the Zees to finish off the current teams.

That's about really, just spent an hour or so making some more hedges for Bolt Action while The Wife attempts a bridge (which is coming along nicely in my opinion).

 Sticky Guard



Hard Guard




Strikers



Whole Team




I've also picked up another kickstarter, this one is molds for making your own base tops, worth a look at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2023606288/basius-2-the-deluxe-stamp-pad-terrain-tile-and-bas

Sunday 28 September 2014

28th September - Holiday Gaming

So the last week has seen my only week off work this year so I made sure to time it with the kids school holidays. We did our annual trip to Rockhampton to see my Dad and my Sister and family. But around those (and inclusive of) 4 days of driving and visiting (two early morning starts so 4.5ish days) we've managed to fit in a rather large amount of gaming.

Layout
Saturday saw myself and The Daughters heading to my Uncles house while The Wife slept off her night shift. A quick helping hand to clear off the table and a break for lunch and we were downstairs getting in a four player game of "A Fistful of Lead". The daughters had two gangs of Indians who had sabotaged a railway track in order to loot the next passing train. I was playing a group of men hired to guard the Chinese workers repairing the train and my Uncle was a squad of cavalry men who were on the train en route to.... well we didn't quite go that far but they weren't getting there fast!
The Youngests
The Eldests

It was a nice afternoon game with the Indians taking an early lead but after change of luck in the dice department they were eventually driven off, although there was quite a few casualties and among both the defenders (The Eldest's work) and the Chinese (The Youngest's plan).

 I'd have to say the two most spectacular failures of dice for the game was the Eldest's brave charging in to combat with a cavalryman only to roll woefully and lose the round then get killed in a single hit. This resulted in a good few minutes of re-enacting in order to truly experience the moment. And the final turn of the game which saw three of my men surround the Youngest's chief only to have the first two run out of ammo and almost missing on the final roll, but getting a kill in the end.

The Rockhampton trip saw a few game of "Zombie Dice" and "Get Bit" with my Brother-in-Law, Nephews and Niece (my Niece either rolling dice or drawing cards for myself or her Dad). No photos unfortunately but a good couple of days anyway.

On returning to Brisbane and recuperating from the trip, The Wife and I had another game of Deadzone which again was a win for me but she's getting more aggressive and we had a what you could have done replay on a few turns so it's only a matter of time before she chalks up a win.


I had received the Kingsport expansion for Arkham Horror last year for Christmas but had yet had a chance to play it so we decided to have a game on Saturday. I began setting up around 11 and we were ready to play around 12:30 (I did stop for lunch), after working out where all these shiny new options went. We randomly drew our characters and had the Great Old One Yig to seal away. We attacked the game with a plan and almost managed to win without Yig breaking free but fell just short. After six round of combat with the Elder God we managed to seal him away again, but the cost. Oh the cost. Myself and The Eldest were gone devoured but the Old One never to be seen again, but atleast peace returns to Arkham for now. A warning for the faint of heart in case the setup didn't give it away this is a game that can run for an epic time period. Ours did this time it was 6:30 when we finally put Yig to rest, but it is one of our favourite games and if you have to time it is a great game to play.





And to top it all off before I go back to the grind tomorrow I finished off my Nameless Dreadball team today (pics to come in the next few days) and glued together my Fusiliers and Alguaciles from my Infinity:Operation Icestorm box set and pitted the girls against each other in the first scenario. The Eldest took the PanO Fusiliers and The Youngest the Nomads. It was a quick, bloody little game with The Eldest taking the win but with only a single trooper left after a one for one fire fight. Myself (Nomads) and the Wife (PanO) had the next game with the victory going to me but after a strong start (two kills for no losses) she turned around and killed to Alguaciles with critical hits (no armour saves) but I managed to pick of the last Fusilier. Was a good intro into the Infinity system and my next free moment will see the rest of the set prep'd and glued and I'm thinking more than likely I get these painted before I tackle the last Dreadball team I have at the moment, the Zees.



Tuesday 16 September 2014

16th September - Finished Dreadball Zzor and my first 4Ground kit

Obligatory Full team on the Pitch Shot 


Strikers
Jacks
Finished off the Zzor team for Dreadball this week. Did things a little differently building up from a Plastic Soldier Dunkelgelb spray base coat with a series of washes and dry brushed highlights. I've also used some Warlord Games soviet tank numbers for the teams rather than the Mantic Dreadball ones. All in all I'm happy with the way they've come out. While outside waiting for the varnish to dry one of the guards took a tumble and lost a leg, but I'm not too concerned again this just being a team I've painted up as free agents.


Gaurds, note the missing leg on the camera shy one

I also went out to have a look at The Last Stand over at Corinda and picked up a few bits a pieces. The new Tank Wars supplement for Bolt Action, another machine gun team for my Germans and my first 4Ground kit. I've been eyeing these off for the last six months or so but hadn't quite committed to buying one as I wanted to see what they looked like in the pack. I bought the Corner Ruins 2 kit and I've very happy with it. Everything went together without any issue and with the left overs in the sheets you can add a bit of clutter to the building. I'll definitely be adding more of these to the collection as time and pocket money permits

Finally a few Kickstarters worth having a look at:

Carnevale:  A  miniature skirmish game set in Venice during the late 1790s in an alternate timeline where a magical rift has opened up above the city with some interesting consequences. It seems to be quite interesting with options open to your characters such as running jumps from building to building while shooting your opponent below, rappelling down walls for dramatic entrances and even running along walls to get past those pesky blocking obstacles.

King Down:  A chess based game from Shar Shai who had the successful Agents campaign on kickstarter last year, which is a go to game in this house when we've got 30 minutes or so to kill. Gameplay video is coming this week but after a quick read of the rules it looks like it's going to be a good one.

Battle Systems Fantasy Dungeon Terrain:  I've got the Sci-Fi set sitting here at one and while I haven't put any together yet (space constraints atm {space constraints... you see what I did there}) the quality of the product is amazing. I'm looking at using this for my Brother's up coming family roleplay game (once our Castles&Crusades books arrive) but I can see some tie in Stargrunt games using this rather interesting round dimensional gate or possible "Star" gate add-on they've added as a strechgoal.

Monday 15 September 2014

15th September - 13th September Bolt Action Vs The Youngest

With Christmas fast approaching I've been hassling the daughters in regards to what they would like to receive above and beyond their main presents (their computers are horrible out of date). The Eldest has requested extra things to do with the digital world, but The Youngest asked for minis. "What sort of minis" I exclaimed. "Well, I was thinking maybe Bolt Action but I'm not sure until we play" came the reply. Well what's a Dad to do, I quickly threw down a 3' x 4' board, cluttered it up some and we sat down to work out what we'd be fighting with. Being a bloodthirsty lass she wanted to do a Maximum Attrition scenario. We went Germans Vs Japanese (now before anyone gets up shouting, but they never fought against each other, I'm well aware of this but we were playing for the sheer joy of playing so historical accuracy took a distant second place) the Germans being mine and The Youngest using The Wife's Japanese.

Our forces were relatively well matched

  • Two squads of infantry with single LMGs and a SMG in the hands of the NCOs. (Her's being ten man squads, mine being a six man with four panzerfausts {just in case and as time would tell a complete waste of points} and a seven man)
  • One MMG three man team each
  • One 2nd Lieutenant accompanied by two riflemen
  • One armoured vehicle each, a Chi-Ha for her and a Marder III for me
We opted for complete unit kills being the winning option.

Turn one saw very little fire exchange with both of us trying to enter the field of battle breaking LoS where possible and hugging cover where it wasn't. Luckily for me I drew the last order die for the turn and managed to get my Marder on in a position where it could hit most of her left flank (where it then sat for the game) and opened fire with a HE round at one of her infantry squads taking out a single solider.

 During turn two The Youngest got her squad you can see on the table in the shot up against the farmhouse. My MMG team managed to kill a couple of men out of her other squad, but she was quite happy to lose a few men for the glory of the Emperor whilst getting into the position she was after. Her squad opened fire with the LMG being slightly out of range with the riflemen and managed to kill one of the men in the fire team. The Chi-Ha rolled ahead aggressively against the advice of her Dad and took a shot at the flanking Marder missing it completely. It's return shot took out her vehicles tracks.



 Turn three gave her the opening dice and she wisely took another shot at the Marder with her tank, but alas she didn't quite penetrate the hull. The next few dice were hers and she advance her squads again opening fire on the MMG team but missing this time. Her MMG team moved to a position where she could fire at my team and with my activation I took a shot at her team missing it completely. My infantry move forward my left flank heading into the trees and the other into the other standing house. The Marder finished the turn again hitting the Chi-Ha and taking it out of action with nice roll on the damage table, it also strafed the infantry in the ruins with it's MMG killing another couple of men.


Turn four saw us exchange our MMG teams in the first few order dice, her's killing mine, but my squad in the house opening up and taking a quick revenge. My next order dice saw the game turn to her favour and was pretty much the blunder that cost me the game. I moved the seven man squad up through the trees and opened fire at her HQ unit, barely managing to take out one of the accompanying riflemen. Doesn't sound to bad until you release I'd misjudged the distance between myself and the infantrymen on the other side of the farmhouse. "BANZAI" a massive handful of dice later and there wasn't a single man left to surrender to the squad of fanatics. The Marder kept up it's slow and steady kill rate taking out another three men from the other squad, reducing it to five men.

Turn five. Oh turn five how you haunt me even today, days later. The first order die for the turn was of course hers. And wouldn't you know the same squad the decimated my other squad was within charging distance of the squad fortified up in the house. The reaction fire managed to kill six of her men, but the remaining four got into grips with the German's in the house (The house allowing both sides of the combat to strike simultaneously) but to no avail all four hit and killed my soldiers compare to three of mine which saw the remaining three men surrendering to the katana wielding officer still standing in their midst.

I've forgotten how it happened to be honest but somewhere along the way I'd lost my HQ unit as well which left me solely with the Marder who decided discretion was the better part of valor and pulled a tactical retreat.

She totally enjoyed the game and has decided for Christmas she wants an Italian force.

In other news I've finished off my Dreadball Zzor and I've got a few kickstarters I'm backing at the moment but I'll put them up in a separate post tomorrow at some stage

Friday 12 September 2014

12th September - Boardgames!

I've got in quite a few board games over the last week or two. Mostly with The Wife and Daughters, but we also went a-visiting the other day and got a game in with my Uncle and Aunty as well.

Some features have been:

Several games of Loka, River Horse Productions four sided chess based game. It plays very similar to chess with a few rules changes mainly terrain squares and a dice based combat system based on bonus from the mentioned terrain and reinforcements from other pieces in position to take or defend the squares. There is also no check rule as such so feel free to dangle a nicely placed King if you wish, but bear in mind you still lose instantly if he's taken.




Another game of Kingsburg at my Uncles house, but this time with more than just the two of us playing. We got a chance to play with a full complement of five players. The game play didn't change much, just made the productive seasons more competitive in regards to allocating dice for resources. The Eldest ended up taking the victory but there was only ten victory points between first and last so a nice close game all the way through.


Setup

Quite the cast of characters
Bitten on the way and it spreads
A pleasant surprise was the arrival of my pre-ordered game Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games. I've played about four times now already. Mainly playing the recommended first scenario. You begin playing with a team of two survivors and during the course of the game overcome mini challenges every round while attempting to finish the main scenario objective before running out of time or moral. The game also has a twist with each player having his/her own private objective with some of these requiring the main objective to be achieved and some of them requiring the player to betray the main colony for their own ends. They have more games planned with the next one being spaced based from memory with feudal Japan to come among others.


Final turn. Victory to us, but quite a cost

Sunday 7 September 2014

7th September - Completed "Roman Candles" Female Corp Dreadball

It's been a good week for free time, so I've managed to get these done in a little over three days around work and some gaming and visiting. While I was painting them they didn't have a team name as such but over the course of painting that was how I began referring to them in my head, thus the painted on roman numerals as opposed to the decals I've used on all the teams so far. This is another team I doubt I'll use as a team, but with them done I now only have my Zzor, Nameless and Zee teams to go (with my Teratons and Asterians coming with the dozen new teams for Dreadball Extreme around Christmas).

I'll be trying a different style with the Zzor. I've base-coated them with a spray of my Plastic Solder Dunkelgelb (German Late WW2 tank base colour) and I'll be using a series of washes and highlighting to finish them off (well that's the plan anyway). It's not something I've done a lot of usually limiting myself to an occasional highlight and a single wash coat.

And of course the pictures of the completed "Roman Candles"

Early WIP
Late WIP


Guard Back View
Guard Front View

Team Shot

Jacks
Strikers