Tactical Miniatures Gaming

Italians to the Rescue!

2012-01-29T10:12:00.001-06:00

Yes, I did say Italians, and yes, I'm talking about WW2! My work is still keeping me away from my normal gaming levels so to keep me going I have been sneaking in quite a bit of board gaming the past couple of months. I had a chance to grab both the Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 offerings from the Axis and Allies board games very cheap, so I did it finally. These two games can be put together to play the entire war on all fronts. We are actually having a lot of fun with this game. It is quite easy to play, but the big strategic decisions are real brain breakers. I highly recommend these games. Anyway, back to the Italians! During the course of my Europe game with Herrodadog, my Italians went nuts and ran roughshod over everyone. At first I was thinking "what the hey!?!?", but in reflection, if you really think about it, the only reason they had a troubled start in N. Africa was lousy leadership and organization. They were definitely poised to be in the driver seat otherwise. So in this alternate universe they can shine. Here's some shots from our game so far. The Yanks have just entered the war and had their first taste of the action.

The A&A game board is rather appealing to the eye and what I like is the little miniature tokens are actually different for each nation for the most part.

Early on my Germans grabbed up all the stuff they were supposed to, and as a bonus they managed to pull off a successful operation Sealion! I almost miscalculated, but barely got England in a real nail biter. My Luftwaffe actually had some fighter support by the way. So at this point the Germans were looking pretty good.

But soon afterwards we launched Barbarossa and dove into the USSR where things didn't move so fast, or so well. I think I played this too conservatively and allowed the Russkies to get a solid front together. I took a lot of my resource to grab England, and I was afraid of stretching too thinly into the Russian steppe. Finally, one of my major battles very strongly resembled Kursk where I got my arse seriously handed to me and lost a bunch of Panzer Divsions. OUCH! So the end result is a stalemate in the East.

While all this was going on, the Italians made an early strike at Egypt shutting down the Suez canal and they never looked back. They overran all of Africa removing all traces of the UK from the continent. I addition they grabbed Greece and all the islands in the Mediterranean including Malta. Italian production levels are now quite serious and they have a relatively secure base of operations to work from.

This translates to the Italians being able to go out and cause some mischief elsewhere. Here we can see them driving through the Middle East and threatening the Russian oil fields from the South. This will be a great boon for the Germans as now the Soviets must expend resources to defend the second front and thin their defenses in the North.

The Italians also managed to grab Gibralter from a napping Herrodadog which was really driving him nuts. So now instead of the Yanks entering the war and making an easy landing in N. Africa, they had to fight their way into Gibralter before the Italians dug in too well. The Yanks managed to take it back, but it was very costly. In addition, the Italians have a tremendous amount of very mobile air assets available to counterattack and make another try to get it back quickly. If they manage to take it back, things will look very bleak for the Allies indeed.

All UK assets and production are now coming from Canada and it will be a slow process of getting back into the war.

Good Games for Busy Gamers 3

2011-12-14T21:18:00.001-06:00

Here is another great little game that can be played in short sessions and is a lot of fun. It is called "It is Warm Work". It can be purchased at the pdf download sites and there is an active yahoo group.
We play it on the cheap using old Pirates pocket models. The great thing about this game is you can put 30 or 40 models on the table and finish a game in a couple of hours easily. Even though it is simple to play, it provides for the main "flavor" items needed in any age of sail game. Wind, tacking, wrecks and hulks etc. and the fighting power of the ships goes down as they take damage which is tracked on a simple record sheet that is easy on the eyes.
An important feature of this game is that record keeping is very minimal and very simple. The thing about sail ship games is that there are a lot of great rules sets but they come in a wide variety of complexity. Over time this set has become one of my favorites because I can get it out and start playing with very little prep. Here are some pics from a recent game we played.

More Beer and Pretzels Punch Ups

2011-12-11T12:19:00.001-06:00

Here are some shots from our "home brew" big battle skirmish rules we have been working on. It is coming along pretty well and hopefully we will have it sussed out in another couple of months. We've been on this project for a while but I am determined to get it done. As with many insane gamers, we have way more figures than we can actually use in normal rules sets and I want to see lots of toys on the table! These rules are also designed to allow a pretty wide variation of adversaries which is something we like because we have no issues with putting up odd match ups.
This was a King of the Hill game we threw down just to test some mechanics.

My Samurai. These are actually Heroscape minis. I like them a lot; they look decent and I didn't have to paint them!

Mike's Vikings start to appear through the trees.

Jil brought skeletons and Goblins.

Nick (my 12 year old) came with Orcs and Demons. More Heroscape stuff here as well.

Mike's Vikings are pretty darned cool looking. Right away he grabbed some cover and formed a battle line to keep an eye on my Samurai.

I sent my Ashigaru and Ninjas into the woods to scout the Viking position.

Nick played like a girlie man and kept dancing around behind the hills. He couldn't decide who to go after and so his guys just marched around like morons.

Jil's awesome dark minions didn't waste any time getting down to business. He grabbed the high ground and started harassing everyone with his archery.

Here's Nick's Orcs working up for a charge, but he chickened out when he saw my Samurai form a battle line.

Jil's Goblins being very annoying with ranged attacks in the center.

Caught between Jil's ranged attacks and the threat of my Samurai, Mike decided to close up and fortify.

My Samu line advancing!

Jil managed to get some Goblins around the rear of the Viking position and makes a charge from the woods.

About the same time my Samus start to assault the Viking laager.

Here are my Samus taking it to the Vikings in a sudden charge. The initial impact was going well for the Samus.

The Samus were kicking some Viking butt!

The Samus were handily thrashing the Vikings in the open but things started to change as they attempted to eject them from cover. Here are my lads trying to go over the walls. BANZAI!

Jil took this opportunity to bum rush the Viking laager from the other side with his Goblins. Those nasty little guys were quite formidable as well.

My Samus did a lot of damage but the Vikings have finally stabilized the situation at the walls. They've managed to throw my attack back and my lads are milling around trying to gather their courage for another go.

Nick is still trotting back and forth indecisvely. All he's managed to do is fire a few arrows in Jil's direction.

Vikings and Goblins are still locked in combat at the laager.

The battle is locked and neither side is backing down. The Vikings have proven to be some tough hombres. They took the assault from both the Samurai and the Goblins and are still standing.

My Samus and the Vikings have both blown their wad and are now just milling about skirmishing. At this point I retire to regroup which gives the Vikings a chance to do the same.

And now the Vikings are on the move! I think they want some payback on the Goblin King.

While the Samu/Viking battle was cooling down, Jil's skeletons with Goblin archer support have gone on the offensive and are assaulting the Demons.

Skeletons fear nothing, and they are very nasty adversaries in our games for that reason. Our rules put a lot of emphasis on morale and the mental state of the troops. Skellies have a huge advantage here.

My Samus are back in good order and getting ready for another go at being King of the Hill.

The Viking horde makes a mad dash through the trees in the center. Where are they going?

Yep, I was right. Mike is after some payback on Jil. While Jil's Goblins and skellies are taking it to the Demons, the Vikings make a mad charge to their rear! At this point the Vikings, Goblins, and Demons were all mangled and my Samus arrived in good order. We didn't bother finishing it.

Good Games for Busy Gamers 2

2011-11-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

Next up is one of my all time favorites for easy session gaming. The simple Axis & Allies minis game. Along with War at Sea (another game I really love), they make for some very fun sessions without much work.
Of course, they come pre-painted and look fairly good, so that is a huge plus for busy guys, right from the start. But the one thing I really like about the game is that it allows me to play a lot of variety that I would not be able to afford to do otherwise. I don't know about you, but I get tired of playing 1944 all the time. In this game you can throw up some pretty obscure times and places with little effort and low cost. Sure, I'd love to have units of every year and theater in some line of minis like Flames of War, but it isn't going to happen on my budget. Bang for the buck, you get a lot of fun out of this game.
But to get the most out of AA I recommend doing two things.
1. I really recommend getting a hex mat and playing in 3D terrain. The one big negative to the vanilla game is the 2D maps. Just doesn't do it for me! Now in a pinch, if traveling light, they can be ok, but normally I need some good looking table in front of me.
2. Use hidden units and dummies. For simple no-record keeping FOW, we simply put the unit cards down on the table and cover them with another card until they are spotted. Along with a few dummies, this makes the game a real blast and takes advantage of the great recon units and their abilities in this games system. This simple technique makes a good game great.
Here are some pics from a couple of recent North Africa games we did. My friend Jil (Herrodadog) threw down some 1:600 scale terrain he uses for other games on a 4" hex mat and off we went. This is our typical type of set up for this game.

George was playing the Germans and had to get across the map and escape. He gets points for anything he kills as well as anything that gets away. Jil was the Brits and had a couple of slow but very menacing Matildas which do a great job of controlling whatever area of the battlefield they happen to be on.

We were playing late N. Africa and for simplicity we allow any units you like as long as they fall into that year's availability. So sometimes we get some strange appearances like that Brumbarr which actually wouldn't be here. I also believe it came out too late in the year for even a theoretical appearance, but what the heck. George likes his Brummies!

George's recon keeps dancing around and spotting Jil's positions so he can decide upon his strategy. Recon units are had to catch, but if you do they are in trouble!

Here is Jil's Humber recon getting caught!

Oops, looks like a Mattie just caught that SDKFZ as well!

The Brummie lurking on the outskirts with a burning PZ I in the background.

A fast moving PZ II has encircled the British position but can only watch from a distance as the Matildas own the roads.

George took a big risk using the PZ III to decoy while his other units get away.

A kubelwagen that got caught by the RAF.

Speaking of the RAF, here is that pesky pilot again, but this time he is going after some of my infantry in another game we played right afterwards. George played the same British force that Jil played previously, and I brought a new German late N. Africa force. Final days of the African campaign.

For fun I invested most of my points in a early Tiger that actually was present historically. Looks like the Matildas won't be total Queens for this match. I would have liked to see the look on the Matilda's crews face when they came over that rise!

That darned RAF maniac is at it again.

I love the look of the Matildas and they are fun early war tanks because everything else sucked so bad.

Good Games for Busy Gamers

2011-10-29T05:31:00.001-05:00

I'm not dead, but pretty darned close to it! I haven't posted since early September because I had a change in jobs and have been on a schedule from hell. But rest assured I still get my gaming in. Being on the ropes like this, I have been playing a lot of games that fall into the easy on the brain category. Here is some of the stuff that I have found to be easy to play, but still a lot of fun.

First up is a game that my friend Chris has turned us on to. It is called Crossfire, and is basically an infantry tactical game with no measuring and simple straightforward mechanics. There are rules for vehicles and artillery etc.., but the game is all about infantry and their lot in life. You can use any scale or basing of minis and jump right in, and it plays quite fast. You can relax, play multiple games in an afternoon, and get some pretty interesting situations to ponder over. I like it!

Your units operate in platoons made up of several squads plus leaders and attachments. Here are a couple of platoons of my Russkies wading through a field under fire.

You move from terrain feature to terrain feature and enemy actions are triggered by line of sight. This means no tape measure squabbling and quick movements about the table.

Initiative passes back and forth as units engage in combat and successfully or unsuccessfully hit each other, or become pinned, suppressed etc.. Both players will have dice in their hands most of the time and be in the thick of the action with not much waiting around for the other guy. Pretty cool game!

Darth Maul Returns - Episode 5

2011-09-01T00:30:00.001-05:00

Here's the latest episode of my Son's Darth Maul campaign for those of you who have been following Maul's adventures. I'm way behind on posting due to work but will keep this thing going until Maul either bites the dust or takes over the galaxy. So far he's had a hell of a ride since coming out of retirement.

The Geonosian made a quality increase this game from Crack (9) to Elite (10). For comparison, Bossk and Dengar are Notorious (11) and Darth Maul is a Hero (12). The highest possible quality is Legendary (13) and that is reserved for only the truly exceptional like Yoda, Vader, and the Emporer. That one lucky shot has made him an instant rising star in Dengar's crew.

Darth Maul Returns - Episode 4

2011-08-16T06:56:00.001-05:00

For the latest installment in the Darth Maul series, we opted to switch to Nick's action figures for testing the latest revision of our home brew rules. The figures are great for these small scale skirmishes because you can get a lot of expression out of them. All gamers should have kids so they can get away with playing with action figures!

Lazy Saturday FoW

2011-08-15T13:21:00.001-05:00

Got some time off from work and got to play a bunch this weekend. Most of the group was busy so us stragglers decided to play some FoW and just chill out. Then I had a bright idea; "Hey George, let's do late 45 and Patton gets to rearm the Krauts. I'll be the Yanks, let Dave be the Germans, and you be the Russkies". Well, let's just say that I got what I deserved!

Some of Dave's Germans advancing on our right.

Here are some of my Shermies motoring into an ambush.

My Sherman 105 support tanks in the center.

And here's the result of my getting ambushed on the left.

While I'm getting my ass kicked, Dave's rearmed Germans are taking names on the right.

He's pushing the Russians pretty hard.

Fortunately, Russian air support was not so good!

After demolishing my easy eights, the T-34/85s went to work on my 105s.

My infantry heads for cover and starts praying.

Dave begins to close on the objective.

This was not one of my better days. To prove it, here is where I sent my halftracks up the middle to engage infantry in support of Dave, but forgot there was no integral crew for the 50 cals. So I just wound up driving around and not shooting at anything!

Just as Dave got close to the objective, he discovers a couple million more T-34s hovering about. (we ran out of tanks and had to proxy some old Valentines)

And then the final ugliness. Dave was overwhelmed by all the Russians who had nothing better to do.

Sharp's Escape - Episode 2

2011-07-28T07:04:00.001-05:00

In the first episode we left Sharp and his lads as they just fled into a cave with the French army hot on their trail. Let's look in on them and see what they are up to.

*Warning*- If you are a historical purist who can abide no foolishness, it is probably best if you close your browser now. I don't want to see any gripes on TMP, it is damned difficult for me to classify my reps!

I suppose some explanation is in order before continuing. In the first post I mentioned we were testing some experimental skirmish and campaign rules we are compiling to handle universal gaming situations. The Sharp's Escape series is my vehicle for this purpose. Most gamers have cool toys sitting around collecting dust that do not get any, or enough play time. As I'm never one to shy away from something due to issues of "realism" (or sanity for that matter), I told the guys to show up with any miniatures, from any time period, with NO restrictions. For test purposes I thought Sharp would make an interesting guinea pig.

Here is an overview of the rules:

1. Sharp must survive.

2. He loses points for losing named heroes, gains points for collecting wenches, and gains points for "kills".

3. Every time Sharp goes through a gate, we roll to see if he makes it home. If not, we roll off and the winner gets to decide where Sharp lands and who he must pit his skills against. No restrictions, any time, any place.

4. Terrain and hostiles are randomly generated and he must cross the table to gain the next gate.

You get the idea. There are simply no rules which handle this scope of gaming so we have been creating our own. Now back to the rep!

Sharp's Escape - Episode 1

2011-07-27T12:33:00.001-05:00

It has been a good long while since I did a full rep. While we have still been gaming plenty, I've just been too knackered with work to get much blogging done, but there is light at the end of the tunnel! This game is from a test we are doing with some hybrid rules sets, in a campaign setting. My photos turned out horrible with the lighting, but I still got some acceptable ones to tell the story.

We chose poor Richard Sharp to be the guinea pig, and poor Mark from our gaming group to be the hapless and hopelessly doomed Sharp because he didn't bring any minis for the campaign. Without giving away the plot, let us just say that when Sharp was compelled to run recklessly into that unknown cave, he has opened up a whole new can of high adventure.

New Gladiator Insanity

2011-07-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

Anyone who has followed my gaming exploits already knows that nothing is sacred, and that I am capable of any foolishness. This includes raiding the kids toy boxes in search of cool stuff to game with. Well this time, I have found the ultimate loot. Gladiators in 1:20 scale! Put these bad boys on a Hotz mat with 4" hexes and you got some great arena combat action.

This Roman Centurion was disgraced in an action along the Rhine and has found himself in the arena!

One of his legionaires was in the wrong place at the wrong time as well.

A Greek warrior who refused to join the Pax Romana.

A regular at the arena in Capua.

This Minotaur fell alseep on the job one day and woke up in the arena.

A beast man from the darkest regions of Africa. A Lanista must have a paid a lot for this one.

Tiger man is sure to be a crowd pleaser as well.

Could Croc man be the ultimate fighting machine?

Rhino man looks like he could be good in a punch up as well.

I bet Ram man can perform an admirable shield bash!

Of course with all these heavy weights in the arena, there will be need of some vultures very soon.

Ludis Gladatorius

2011-07-05T12:24:00.001-05:00

What I can't believe is that Blogger finally let me upload pictures again. I can tell you that not being able to upload photos to the page is a real bummer. I'm still on a hellish work schedule and will probably be so throughout this month so there won't be any big games for a little while longer. The good news is that I still find time to get some sort of gaming in, and the great group of guys we have has been reliable and a lot of fun. This past weekend we played Crossfire, Iliad, and Ludis Gladatorius by EM4. This is the prepainted set of miniatures that comes with some simple rules and dice etc.. Ready to play out of the box. Mike had picked it up and so I finally had a chance to try it out. I must say we all had a lot of fun! Here's some piccies. This is a great game for trash talking.

Team fight with both sides taking a quick breather. I think I was playing the lad in the baby blues. My memory is a bit foggy because there was beer involved.

One of my rare moments of glory. Right before Mike came back to kick me arse.

Add caption

Not a lot of honor in this group. They never mind ganging up on some unfortunate contestant.

And this is what usually happens.

In the end, there can only be one. This time around the Emperor was not in a merciful mood.

Game like Crazy!

2011-06-17T11:35:00.001-05:00

Our gaming group has been going like mad dogs! We have regularly had 6 to 8 players, all of them with easy going dispositions, which means I have been in gaming nirvana. The down side is I have been spending all my free time gaming instead of blogging, but heck, gotta get it while you can, right?
Here are some pics from recent games.

My kids Stormtroopers splattering some of my bugs in Chain Reaction by THW.

Don't ask about the Duros explorer, it is a long story.

My German Recon doing some spotting in an early Russian front battle. We are playing the Axis & Allies minis rules. Hey don't laugh! It is actually quite fun and plays with no brain fatigue.

Here's my pesky Luftwaffe BF-110 who was flitting around terrorizing Jil's Russian conscripts all day.

My PzIV stands off to try to dislodge Russian infantry. You gotta respect infantry in this game. If you get to close you will pay for sure! The infantry aspect to this game is one of the things I like most about it. Even if the infantry cannot hurt you directly, it still manages to dictate movement and battle flow by just being present. They take and hold ground, and hold it, and hold it, and hold it!

Here's a real classic. As a German player, this is something you have nightmares about. This was a hidden unit game and when that T-34 appeared out of nowhere to confront my piddly Panzerjager I and PzIV, I was not feeling the love. Miraculously the T-34 wasn't shooting well and I found a way to eventually smoke it. However, you see that hidden unit marker by the house? It turned out to be another T-34! DOH! The day got rougher after this and I never managed to neutralize the other T-34. In the end the game was pretty much a draw.

This pic was from a Spanish Civil War game that we played Wednesday night. The Republican forces with their Russian armor would probably have had their way with us except for a little help from the Luftwaffe in the form of a JU87. This turned out to be a drawn game as well. Both sides pretty much fizzled out to the point where they bogged down.

Web Magazine Article

2011-06-04T23:28:00.000-05:00

I did a little article for a new web gaming magazine about Two Hour Wargames. You guys know I never get tired of talking about THW!

http://www.wix.com/roleplayuniversezine/roleplayuniverse#!miniwargames

My New Blog

2011-06-03T12:53:00.001-05:00

I finally decided to post another blog page to deal with our WoW campaigns. Any of you flyers out there can check it out.
http://wingsofwarcampaigns.blogspot.com/

Cheap Reinforcements

2011-06-03T09:43:00.001-05:00

I was milling around town with the kids the other day and ran across an Axis & Allies starter set on sale. I decided to check it out and see what the possibilities of using the minis for other games might be. I was actually pleasantly surprised. I lined them up against some FoW minis I own and the footprint is about the same. The weakest offering here is the Sherman, which is not as tall as the FoW counterpart, and the sculpt is not as nice as the others. However, the rest of the vehicles are quite nice and a quick wash will make them ready to roll. The American infantry is pretty good and I would use them as is, but I think the Germans need a small touch up.
But then, the plot thickens... I'm the sort of guy who will try anything, at least once. They were sitting there so I read the rules one evening before bed and then tried a solo game the next evening. Some of you are going to laugh, but I must say the game is not horrible. In fact I actually thought it was quite interesting and very simple. I especially like the way that infantry are handled and the games are very smooth. My friend Jil came over the other night and we gave it a whirl and had a lot of fun. In fact, it was good enough that he was cursing the fact that he traded away a complete set he had that he had never played.
I am a big fan of games that are fun and easy to play, so long as there is enough flavor to feel right, and I think this crazy game does do that. Anyway, food for thought!

Dabbling in Flames of War

2011-05-31T10:50:00.001-05:00

Once again I'm behind on my posting but I have been gaming plenty. This time it was my friend George who was nice enough to run a game of Flames of War for me. All I had to do was play! And life is good again.. Flames of War is one of the games I sort of missed out on. Every time I saw it played there were wheel to wheel Tiger tanks and that sort of turned me off. Playing this game with George turned out to be a lot of fun with reasonable forces on the table. All in all the system is not perfect, but not bad at all. Fairly smooth to run and easy to play.

Some of my Shermies making contact with the enemy.

I opted to go with an overload one flank strategy and here are my Stuarts and armored infantry making a break across the river. Unfortunately I found some hidden AT guns which made mush of my Stuarts.

So things came to a screeching halt with my infantry bailing out and looking for cover.

Meanwhile, my Shermans were supporting this assault but there were lots of sneaky Krauts holding them up. Note the Stugs hiding in the distance.

The overall situation. Looks kinda bad. And my artillery was not doing squat as usual.

George's Stugs just waiting for the right moment to counter attack.

I was really getting bogged down and the situation was getting worse by the die roll.

Then George started bringing his lads over from the non-engaged side. Time for something drastic!

I finally opted for the all out assault with my Shermans driving straight into the buildings. Those German infantry were really pissing me off and I figured if I couldn't hit them, maybe I could simply run the over. Plus, if successful, this would give me the added bonus of getting his Stugs in a cross fire at close range.

Well what can I say! I finally had a little luck.

IABSM Weekend Bliss

2011-05-15T09:20:00.001-05:00

Well, I think this is a record for me on delinquent posting. My work is killing me and I have not wanted to sit down and blog lately. But I'm still gaming plenty! A choice between slacking on gaming or blogging is no choice at all.
We had a great gaming day this weekend as Brian W. was gracious enough to come down and run a IABSM (I Ain't Been Shot Mum by Too Fat Lardies) scenario for us. I walked out of the house with absolutely nothing to carry, and all I had to do was show up and enjoy someone else running a game for a change. Life is good! Here are some snaps from the action. WW2, Eastern front, 1941.
I am a big fan of TFL but have not had much opprtunity to play the WW2 game. I had a lot of fun.

The German players brought a motorized column up in too tight an area and I was thinking "oh baby". But then my lousy dice rolling kicked in and I missed my chance.

But then my lousy dice rolling kicked in and I missed my chance. Here is one of my 45mm AT guns missing the easy target as usual.

So then the Germans decided it was time to dismount and they headed for cover!

I kept dreaming about an artillery strike but it was not in the cards. The deck hates me!

And so the opportunity quickly fades.

The German armor shows up.

My partners T26's begin the armor duel with the Panzers, and we get off to a rough start.

But his hidden AT gun goes into action and starts to give the Panzers some payback!

Meanwhile, in the woods the infantry battle is heating up.

Due to an incredible stroke of luck on my mortar fire deviation, we begin to hammer the German infantry in the woods relentlessly. This was one of those incredible events in IABSM which is hard to duplicate.

Three turns in a row, I roll a dead hit on my artillery deviation, which put three squads in the artillery fire effect each time! It is best to spread out a little in this game!

Just as we thought things were going ok, the inevitable happened. A JU-87 showed up and began terrorizing Mark's armor platoon, as well as everone else in the area.

Then the pesky Germans decided to try a blitz flank attack with their mechanized units.

At the same time they made a heavy push in the center.

One of our Russian platoons was completely wiped out but the heroic big man survived to fall back and fight another time. You can spot him to the left, giving the Germans the bird!

But then things simply got worse. A German assault engineer with a flame thrower pushes another Russian platoon back from the building, and killing our beloved hero in the process.

The situation on the Russian left is critical.

My Russians on the right are still hanging tough, but too many Germans have been freed up to reinforce the assault. It is just a matter of time.

My last bid for glory! My Commisar goes berserk and charges an MG-34 single handedly, and wins! And then unbelievably he duplicates this same feat again in a moment later!

But during this time the Germans have put even more pressure on the left and the Panzers are moving in to mop up.

The Russian left is finished, and so is the game in the next couple of turns.

Darth Maul Returns - Episode 3

2011-04-17T11:56:00.001-05:00

Darth Maul is at it again in his relentless bid to exact vengeance on all remaining Jedis. Unfortunately for him, he has crossed paths with Lord Vader much earlier than he wanted. This makes for a much harder road back to prominence. If your tuning in late, go check out the earlier reps in the series.

Space Ship Terrain

2011-04-15T22:44:00.001-05:00

I'm not dead, I'm just working a lot! Even so I am making progress on my North African Gladiator Arena and this Space Ship project. I just can't stand it anymore! We have a kagillion sci-fi minis and not much in the way of terrain. The ship decks I built are cool for certain situations but are simply not roomy enough for some real action. So while we are making preparations to do something a bit more elaborate I decided to go with paper models again in the interim. Of course I looked very closely at the World Works First Light stuff, but it is quite a bit of work to get it together. I finally decided to go with the Fat Dragon Star Tiles set which is a Space Hulk like 2D floor plan with 3D doors and consoles etc.. The final deciding factor was the playability, and of course the photographic ease of the layout for batreps. I did a few tiles for test pieces and it didn't take long at all to put together. So far I like it and will continue building on this.

So far I did just 6 test tiles and a few prop pieces.

The doors and consoles are a piece of cake. The chairs are a pain in the arse.

I love the poses of the Star Wars minis. They have so many versatile poses to choose from.

These hexagonal pieces are not hard to build and great terrain for some cover and taking floor space.

These Fat Dragon tiles all mount to an 8"x8" square and they quickly and easily line up in any configuration. I used a table saw to shear my foam-core for very fast and consistent tiles. If you try this, make sure you use a very fine tooth blade! I just hit the edges with a foam sanding pad after cutting. You could cut a hundred of these bad boys in about 5 minutes this way.

Gladiator Arena Poll

2011-04-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I need some help guys. I have a bunch of Hirst arts blocks sitting around and I decided to make a Gladiator Arena for our North African provinces. I am modeling it after, and to be compatible with Herrodadogs excellent arena. I have been playing around with loose blocks trying to decide what to go with and I want to see what you guys think. Take a look at these two options and vote!

When I first started playing with this, here is what I started with. This is the center section with the gate below the big shot box.

The wings where the peasant scum can sit and watch the matches.

Here is my alternate idea which adds a railing. I kind of like this one. I also have tried doing this same thing with a little overhang into the arena. When I do the overhang, it caps those half pillars.

Darth Maul Returns - Episode 2

2011-04-05T08:25:00.001-05:00

Here is the second installment of our Darth Maul series that started with this scenario: http://tacticalminiaturesgaming.blogspot.com/2011/03/darth-maul-saga.html
Sometimes we just start something silly and it sticks. Nick, my eleven year old is working the story line and I'm posting the games when I get time. This episode is just a bunch of cut scenes explaining his story. Episode three which we will post soon gets kinda bloody.

Darth Maul Returns - Episode 1

2011-04-05T00:02:00.001-05:00

Was goofing around with my kid last weekend and played a few skirmish games with Star Wars minis. As usual we were too lazy to take down the table we used for other periods so we wound up with another strange setting.
We were testing out rules for light saber wielding maniacs and so Darth Maul became the natural first choice. This was the last game we played and we are planning to keep the storyline for a while.

MAG CON 3 Weekend Gaming

2011-04-04T17:44:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we had Mag Con 3, a local convention put on by my friend Justo. I have been horribly sick with a serious bronchial infection for weeks now which has slowed my gaming down seriously. However, I just had to get some games in. I put on only two games this time. Song of Drums and Shakos by Sergio http://drumsandshakos.blogspot.com/ which is always very popular. Once again the Frogs and Grasshoppers had a go and we had some great gaming with 8 players at the table. The second game I ran was Ed Texeira's Nuts! from Two Hour Wargames http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/index.html which is one of the great skirmish rules for quick and entertaining games. THW games using the Chain Reaction system are probably the best convention games around. I didn't run ATZ this time around as one of the other lads had it covered.
Skirmish gaming is a blast, and always a lot of fun at conventions because players get to finish the games and not think too hard while they chat and throw the dice.

Some Legere rummaging around to see what can be looted.

Rifles coming on the scene.

My new grenadiers getting some action.

These Victrix poses look pretty good.

Peek a boo, I see you!

Grasshoppers taking cover.

Rifles steadily moving up.

I never get tired of looking at a good table. Here are some of Kurts superbly painted Rifles in action.

George's crack shot Tommies got the ball rolling with some wicked shooting early on.

Actually, his dice were hot the whole game.

But eventually Jonathon's Krauts started to come alive and the action got fierce.

These guys are fun players because they don't sit around and wait for things to happen. Up close and personal!

We saw some good bayonet charges, or at least attempts!

And lots of good old fashioned grenade duals. We even had some prisoner taking this game.

It took a while for Jonathon to get his MG-42 section into action, but once it did, it had a commanding presence.

George kept his lads spread out and effective on the attack. What a novel idea!

George's Yanks were doing pretty good until a grizzled German NCO decided to go into Rambo mode. This guy was single handedly kicking some serious arse.

But the Allies kept nibbling away at the spread out Germans.

Here's that maniac German NCO on his path of destruction. He finally took a hit and went OOF and I think George's Allies were breathing a sigh of relief.

The Cool Thing About Gladiators..

2011-03-30T13:37:00.001-05:00

Well, there's lots of cool things about gladiators, but I think that naming the little suckers is the most fun of all. Of course, I have absolutely no clue as to what I'm doing with Latin, but ineptitude has never stopped me before! Heck, not even slowed me down for that matter. I didn't want to just go and pick out run of the mill boring Roman names for my lads, so instead of staying with normal Roman naming conventions I wandered the path a bit. I tried to pick up on something characteristic about the particular figure and then run it through a translator and do the best I could. Some of these are not even Latin but I thought would be cool for background. I've listed the names with my target goals.
Speciosus: Handsome
Profanus: Wicked
Deceptus: Tricky
Geminus: Dual/Two
Magnus: Big
Paratus: Prepared
Ocius: Quick
Memnon: Generic Greek Name
Akrisios: Thracian God
Hannibal: Of Carthage Fame
Africanus: Easy to remember for dark skinned gladiator
Germanicus: Easy to remember for blondie gladiator
Lummox: What my Mom used to call us when we were being clumsy oafs.

Some Cool Vehicles for Modern Skirmish

2011-03-26T21:23:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago Herrodadog and I went scavenging at a train show. As you might imagine, most of the stuff there was hideously priced, but there were a few deals to be had. The only thing I saw, that I just 'had' to have, was a set of vehicles by a company called Cararama. I had never heard of them before but they had a set that really grabbed me. I wound up paying around 3.60 each for these puppies. Clan LTL will have to keep on the lookout for these sweet rides during their adventures. After a little internet searching I have found that this company makes a vast collection of vehicles.

First we have three classic Beetles. You can never go wrong with these guys, they are easy to maintain vehicles for post apoc adventuring.

But it was these vans that really grabbed and made me get the set. There are just so many game settings where these bad boys will fit in. I can just picture a gang of thugs or guerrillas riding in that converted bus.

More Gladiator Goodness!

2011-03-18T15:01:00.001-05:00

Herrodadog finally got his bad ass arena posted so I can post my game pics without stealing his thunder. Here are some shots from our test play games when his arena was still at about 80%. Go check out his site for a look at the finished project which is incredible. It is a great balance of looks vs playability.
http://thehistoricalminiaturist.blogspot.com/2011/03/joining-arena-race-part-3-done.html
As usual we have jumped into the gladiator thing with both feet. Javier got me interested in this and it took a while for us to clear the decks for this project, but it is all coming together now. Gladiator games are great for quick and entertaining minis fun when you don't have all day.

Here are a couple of my first Gladiators sparring in the arena.

I really like some of the poses that Black Tree has.

Not having any gladiators of her own didn't stop my daughter from entering the arena. My first batch of laddies look on from the stands.

Here is my entire staff to date, including my latest additions. Ludus Bellator Reges looks on from the stands, ready to spar against the House of Franciscus.

And here is the House of Franciscus.*boo-hiss* Please note the unsavory and disgraceful employment of Goblin gladiators in his school. Some guys simply have no honor!

The first match last weekend was between my wizened old Thracian named Akrisios, and one of Jil's heavies.

Experience triumphed as my old gray beard vanquished his foe.

So it is up into the box of honor for Akrisios!

And down into the dungeon of shame for Jil's laddie.

Next up was a match between a couple of Laquearii. You can always tell the difference between Bellator Reges and House of Franciscus because my lads are always more colorful. We like to look good for our fans!

And once again Bellator Reges is triumphant! The crowd goes wild! They start to throw gifts into the arena!

So another of my lads goes into the box of honor, and the vanquished is sent below.

The last match was between one of my Murmillo types and a Hoplomachi from the House Franciscus.

It would be no sweep for me as Jil's lad is triumphant!

Luckily for me, I outnumbered him in the box of honor and after the cameras stopped rolling we mugged him proper.

This is a picture to remind me of what happened for our campaign. Todays winners on the top step, losers below.

Wargames Factory Vikings

2011-03-16T09:03:00.001-05:00

My next batch of Vikings finally rolled off my assembly line the other evening. These are from Wargames Factory. Compared to the Gripping Beast hard plastics that I posted about earlier, the WF are more dainty and the weapons are much slimmer. In this respect I like the GB figures better. However, WF has a bit more versatility in both posing, and in weapon selection. The quality of the sprues were both the same; excellent.
Once again I used Little Big Men Studios shield transfers and they were a cinch. I cannot for the life of me understand the griping on TMP. If I can easily install these with my huge tennis racket sized hands, then anyone can if they just give it a try. I have now used the LBMS transfers on both the WF and GB miniatures without any modifications so there you have it. They work for both. This was something I was having trouble getting an answer on when researching. Anyway, the bottom line is that I am please with both the WF and GB hard plastic Vikings and I think for anyone doing a serious Viking project, having both adds a lot of versatility. Here are some snaps of the finished product. I chose to use some unorthodox poses.

While on the painting table, my Vikings already managed to get into a scrap with my genestealers from my Space Hulk project. Had a tough time breaking that fight up.

Finally! my First Gladiators

2011-03-04T11:03:00.001-06:00

I got Herrodadog into Gladiators but he has finished his before me. Can't have that. Soooo, I stayed up a bit later last night and tried to get some ready for the table this weekend. Jil's Gladiators look so good that I am sort of embarassed to post these, but I have done much worse than this.

Alright Herrodadog! You called down the Thunder, let's have a go then.

The beginning of my Gladiator Ludi. Figures by Black Tree Design.

Ok, I just realized the pictures suck. Waaaaay too little light.

In order to rush them out for the weekend I had to leave the shields unfinished. Back to that on Monday.

I also screwed up my ink wash. I had it really nice and then I went and shot gloss clear and then flat clear over. Won't do that again. It takes away the wash effect somewhat.

I really hate slotted bases. I'm going to start copying Jil and snipping the puppies.

Ok. Just in case he gets lucky, here is my second string waiting in the stands.

And if that fails, I got a couple more Gripping Beast Vikings ready to clean up.

Another Good Weekend

2011-02-28T10:38:00.001-06:00

Lots of fun again! Friday night the kids and I played Space Hulk. I love that game but missed out on it. I won't pay the inflated out of print costs, but I recently scored a new copy and was able to grab it for less than the original price. I'm painting all the minis and will post them soon. Then on Saturday, we had several guys show up for some nice gaming. The kids played Space Hulk, and the rest of us played Napoleonic Miniatures or Combat Commander. Than, as if this wasn't enough, I played again Saturday night with Kelley who wasn't able to make it during the day. Dang life is good. Here are a few pics of some of the scenery and minis that were on the table. Some pretty stuff here.

You Might be Crazy if..

2011-02-24T13:17:00.000-06:00

A few months ago someone posted some shots of their work space which was really quite tidy. This sparked a discussion of how it might be cool for everyone to post their work locations for fun. I think Vampifan mentioned that he thought it would be fun to see what kind of deranged minds are out there. Soooo, I was sitting at my table last night and thought I would take some snaps of my little corner of bliss. I took these just as it was at the moment.

An aerial view of the cockpit. Right away an observant individual will perceive that I have a serious problem focusing on any one thing.

Here is where I keep raw materials and tools. The cabinets are full of all kinds of stuff.

I stuff any available space with ongoing projects where I can keep an eye on it and jump on it when it strikes my fancy. I keep my guitar close so that when I need a break I can stretch out the old fingers.

A closer look at the table will review that there is always a lot going on. Let's see here.. I can spot Vikings, a Viking long boat, Cowboys, Napoleonics, Space Marines, Little Fluffy Animals for my daughter..

Paints, brushes, basing supplies, glues just sort of stack up over night.

This might look disorganized and a bit overwhelming to a novice, but trust me, there is a method to my madness! I like fun. In order to have fun, I like to do what I feel like at the moment which means I need to keep lots of different projects in front of me so I don't burn out. I never get in a rush and focus on one thing because that always feels suspiciously like work. I don't like work, I have to do enough of that at my job. If I'm too tired to paint, I usually will still prep or prime something real quick so that it is done later when I'm up to the task. I've found that if you do just a little something each evening, then things always seem to be coming together. Anyway, this is my little corner of peace and quiet where no kids, Wives, or other forms of plague and pestilence are allowed.

A Good Saturday

2011-02-23T10:02:00.000-06:00

Herrodadog and I decided to try going to a train show to see what kind of goodies we could scav in the way of terrain/accessories. I figured it would be too expensive for the likes of us, and for the most part I was right. We did manage to score a couple of decent deals though. While we were there, we saw some pretty darned amazing displays. All we could think about is how great it would be to throw down some minis and game some of the track set ups! Then we got some lunch and went home to play some Incursion on his new board he made from scratch. All in all, a darned good day.
Gee wiz, what a waste using all this for trains! Here's some piccies.

I think this would make a great ganger camp.

I can just imagine this as a day one scene after the Zed epidemic strikes.

I wonder what kind of chaos and mayhem could take place in this sleepy little town?

What better place to hit the foraging jackpot than a rice silo?

This has skirmishing gun battle written all over it.

The location of a post Z-day Burger King.

This table really needs some cool minis.

Nice strategic point for some military oriented gaming.

I'd like to see some shine running gangsters on this table.

After lunch I played my first ever game of Incursion as the Nazi Zombie types. Lots of carnage and lots of fun!

This scratch built terrain that Jil made is incredible.

Victrix vs Perry Mini Review

2011-02-18T21:10:00.001-06:00

I've been on a heavy work schedule lately so not too many games. I have been managing to do some painting however. I just paint whatever grabs my fancy on a given evening and have recently finished up some Victrix hard plastics that I acquired at Owl Con. Overall I'm pleased with these guys, with the exception of the white, and the lousy shading job. I will be going back to retouch that part.
This was my first go with Victrix. Up till now I have assembled and painted some Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory, and Perry Miniatures hard plastics. I've also viewed several products without assembling. Since the Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory minis were Vikings, I will leave them off and just compare to the Perry Dragoons that I posted last month, as well as some line infantry I have viewed on the sprues. This is just my opinion so far from the items I've had experience with. As I get more info I will probably post more because I had a devil of a time researching this when deciding what to buy. So here we go!

Quality of the molded parts: As soon as I pulled the respective parts from their boxes I immediately noticed that the Perry parts are molded much cleaner. I actually never even noticed any flash on the Perry parts, but there was a fair bit on the Victrix. However, only about two or three sprues from Victrix had significant flash, so it was not a chronic issue in the box I had. This means that I may just have received an abberation and this is not the norm, but I am not sure. Also, the Perry miniatures seem to be a little bit more robust. Things like the weapons appear to be stronger. I am not sure if this is because of the plastic quality or if it is because the Victrix seem to have slightly slimmer accessories. While painting my Grenadiers I accidentally snapped off a bayonet without applying all that much pressure. It happened so easily that it really surprised me. From the products I have purchased so far, Perry wins in molding quality hands down.

Quality of the sculpts: Now here we have a different situation. The sculpts from both companies are very nice. The Victrix are incredibly detailed and may possibly edge out the Perry simply because there is a little more variation and the poses seem slightly more natural. Both companies have very well proportioned figures and there is nothing I can find to gripe about in either camp. They both look great and I give them a tie.

Poses and versatility: This is where Victrix starts to regain some ground against the Perry plastics. Victrix allows a significantly greater choice of poses and customization than Perry per box. Right off the bat, the Victrix boxes allow you to make all kinds of troops within the company, and has provisions for a lot of skirmishers. Since we skirmish game, this is important to us. There is nothing wrong with the Perry figures, but Victrix just has more options. I give this category to Victrix.

Scale: So far, my experience has been that both the Perry and Victrix Napoleonic miniatures are big boys. They seem to work very well with each other, but I feel that they are both a bit bigger than most other lead miniatures out there. But this is a very dangerous statement because nobodies figures match! This is just my experience from my world. Just a note of interest, both the Perry and Victrix Napoleonics dwarf my Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory Vikings! So my advice is that if you are going with hard plastics, try to stay with them, or at the very least, get some samples to line up before you paint a lot of miniatures. Once again, both these brands of Napoleonics look good together.

At the end of the day: If you are skirmish gaming, then I think that having both of these brands is a good idea, but if I was to choose only one then Victrix is more versatile. If you are not skirmish gaming then I think I prefer the Perry miniatures slightly more because they seem more durable and I feel that they are a little higher quality.

Angel Barracks Review

2011-02-09T09:52:00.001-06:00

While I'm in the mood to review gaming products and vendors, it is high time I did one on some 6mm goodies. Angel Barracks http://angelbarracks.co.uk/ is another of my favorite internet shops. The number one reason is the excellent customer service that Mike provides. Anyone who knows me even a little, knows I won't buy from somebody with lousy service, regardless of how great their products may be. The second reason is that Angel Barracks has a lot of cool stuff, including lots of interesting nick nacks all in one place, and it is easy to find, view, and shop for. Oh, and prompt shipping! No waiting forever to get your toys!
When I'm shopping, I want to see pictures, descriptions, and prices, and all this is easily found on the AB web site. Angel Barracks has just recently brought in a new line of buildings which is outstanding. Go have a look! I forgot to break out some stone fencing I obtained from AB, and my Windmill is not finished, but I will be featuring those in upcoming games. I'll try to remember to point them out then. Some of these items have already been featured in some of our games, but many of this is new. I did not spend a whole lot of time painting these pieces, but I think it will give you a good idea of how it will look on your table without a lot of effort.

The Spanish buildings are by Simply 6. They are easy to paint and brush up quite well.

I love the huge variety of accessories available. It sure makes the scenery more interesting. Here are some Irregular Miniatures sheep grazing away while a cart slowly trundles its way to market in the background.

In the town center, instead of the typical ghost town found on most tables, we can see lots of civilians milling about and stopping to see what important person has arrived in the posh coach.

In the background is some cast fencing and cattle by Irregular, and in the foreground we have the pig pens. Looks like this little village would be a great place for some foraging.

The hay field has stacks from both AB and Irregular. The Irregulars are the smaller, multi-sized stacks. The little hay carts are Irregular as well.

Here is a shot of an engineering camp close to a river. These are nice useful tents by AB that can be used for a lot of periods.

The HQ stand and the gabions are by Irregular.

Most of this stuff is quick and easy to paint, yet adds a lot of extra detail to the table.

The pontoon section is by Irregular. I love this puppy! Now it will be a lot harder for the enemy to guess where we will be making our crossing.

A New Home for the Parrot Tribe

2011-02-05T21:30:00.001-06:00

We had a nice lazy day loafing around the house today and the kids wanted to play Adventures in Lost Lands. It has been a while since we checked in with the Parrot Tribe so we thought we'd see what they were up to these days. This is the next chapter in their saga which started out with their acquisition of a mysterious egg. If your new, go back and read it from the beginning. I read them today to catch up with the story and I thought the first couple were pretty amusing if I don't say so myself. This nutty saga took some even stranger turns today. The game today started with three random events in a row! I've had people ask me if I just make all this junk up. All story line events in our games are generated by random dice rolls. I don't think anyone could make up idiocy like this on their own. The dice Gods tell the tale if you let them.

SDS at Owl Con

2011-02-01T07:18:00.001-06:00

We just had a local convention here in Houston called Owl Con. I spent the first two days just goofing about and buying too much stuff. The third day I ran games and decided to run Song of Drums and Shakos again as it is easy for new players to learn, and always good for some bloody action. We pitted the Grasshoppers against their old friends the Legere, but this time they were introduced to a new foe; the French Dragoons that I recently painted up. The Dragoons made a god showing, especially in melee. We played three games and a couple were cliffhangers, but in the end the Rifles carried the day in all games. I attribute the Rifles new found success to the addition of Private Weeks of the Rifles. Apparently his hands warmed up enough to fire three rounds a minute in any weather. Here are a few snaps, sorry no batreps.

The layout. The Rifles are run to ground and holed up in a burnt out village within a wood. The Frogs are coming tog et them out. The Rifles deployed how they liked, and then the French could come in from any edge, in any division of forces they liked.

Grasshoppers waiting to see what develops next.

Froggies making an assault, catching some Rifles flat footed.

Some of the assaults would stall out and turn into plinking matches. Kelley had one Rifleman that earned his Chosen Man status this day. The lad was steely-eyed and "in the zone".

We saw a lot of sneaking about the corners in some very close firefights.

The Legere can be pretty darned determined sometimes.

The games were darned bloody!

VIKINGS!

2011-01-29T09:29:00.000-06:00

I guess it was inevitable, there was no use in trying to resist any longer. With so many bad influences around the web, and the incessant propagation of all things Viking from Ruarigh, I have finally given in to the dark side and gone hog wild and purchased a bunch of Vikings from various companies. Now I have yet another project to add to my insane gaming life. To be honest, I am really surprised it has taken me this long to take the plunge because I have always been a big fan of anything Viking.
I have started out by procuring a box of Gripping Beast Hirdmen, Wargames Factory Huscarls, and a smattering of Black Tree Design minis. I also scored a Revell Germany 1:50 scale long boat and shield transfers from both Little Big Men Studios and Veni Vedi Vici. I guess I don't do things in halves. I am quite sure I will be reviewing all this stuff in the near future as well because there is a lot of information that would have been helpful to me when deciding how to jump in to this lake.
So far I have fully completed 10 Hirdmen and have 14 more figures and the long boat well under way.
So here's the first of the laddies! These are all Gripping Beast Hirdmen.

Alban and Reinforcements by Post Review

2011-01-26T12:18:00.001-06:00

In a recent vendor rant post, I already alluded to my thoughts on the following two companies, but here is a short but more detailed description of my thoughts and experiences. Next review will be on Angel Barracks who I recently aquired a lot of goodies from.

ALBAN MINIATURES: When I decided to get into 28mm Napoleonic skirmishing I did some serious homework on available minis. I found lots of great stuff but I kept going back to the Alban page to drool over their sculpts. I guess what got me was the proportions. They simply look like real people. So I started pestering Paul at Alban and found him to be very good about answering emails and very helpful with all my dumb questions. In short, you can expect some great customer support from Paul. The next step was to get the order off to Reinforcements by Post who I decided was going to paint these fine miniatures. Paul shipped my order very rapidly and without mishap. Since I did not receive them in their unpainted form I cannot recount that experience but I can tell you the castings are of a very high quality and the parts are robust enough to withstand damage. Neil at Reinforcements by Post had also told me that Alban casting were of great quality. Finally, one day my package came in the mail after painting and I was able to view these little buggers first hand. I am completely pleased with my Alban miniatures and recommend them to anybody. Alban is a relatively new company and so they do not have as large a product line as some companies, but they are actively adding to it and in my opinion well worth waiting for. Simply a fantastic vendor to do business with!

REINFORCEMENTS BY POST: I have never used a painting service up until now so RBP was my first go at it. Before picking them out I did exhaustive research and combed through the forums to see what previous customers had to say about various painting services. RBP had virtually flawless posts about their service and quality. While they were not the only ones with a good track record, they were my best choice in my price bracket. So with my first choice made up, I contacted Neil at RBP and queried him with my routine dumb questions. There were plenty as I have never done this before. Even with the time zone issues Neil was superb with his customer service. At this point my mind was made up, I was going to try him out. A potential vendors initial response (or lack of) is very important to me when deciding who I will be buying from.
So I emailed Paul at Alban and asked him to send off my minis to RBP. Once Neil received my minis it was well under two weeks before he finished them. He sent me pictures for approval and I was pleased with the quality of the minis as well as the photos. At this point I noticed a very minor hiccup on pants colors but it was really not that important to me. I mentioned it to him just so he would know about it and told him not to worry about it but he insisted on fixing them. A day or two later they were on the way. Soon enough the package arrived and I was very pleased with my miniatures as well as the experience of doing business with Neil and RBP. This is another superb vendor and I will definitely be using them again.

Now for some piccies!

Perry French Dragoon Review

2011-01-24T10:57:00.001-06:00

I've been real busy lately so my internet time has been down but I have managed to get some time to work on various projects I've been wanting to do. The universal wargamer disease; too many projects, too little time.
I love the SDS skirmish game and had my eyes on these Perry French Dragoons for some time now. I finally bit the bullet and had a go. These are my first Perry miniatures ever.
My first impression out of the box is that these hard plastics are very detailed and clean. There were no issues of having to clean up a bunch of sprue mess. So right away I pulled all the dismounted lads out and started assembling. The set comes with 8 dismounted troopers, something like 14 mounted, and then there are a few casualty figures. The parts make for a very versatile set.
I used Testors glue especially made for plastics and assembling was really not as bad as I was expecting. Just hold the part in place for a couple of seconds and it sticks, then set it off to dry and set. So far so good.
My spray flat black primer had no problem reaching all the little crevices, so that went well. Then I just sat down and painted them all in one evening. I know how to dry brush, but I hate doing it, so I decided to go with my simple wash method on these the way I do most of my minis. I have made up several different wash colors using inks and pigments. For a quick one evening paint job, I think these lads came out pretty darned good. I;m happy, so that is what counts.
Once I finished however, I noticed something. I got to thinking that these guys looked very large so I fished out some other figures I had handy and lined them up. It does look like the Perry minis are slightly taller, and quite a bit more robust than many of the other "28mm" minis out there. For me, this is not an issue, but for someone who is pickier, it would pay to plan ahead when procuring miniatures. I have several other projects nearing completion which I will be posting soon. Here are some pics!

Vendor Updates

2011-01-13T16:11:00.000-06:00

Being a sick wargaming maniac, I buy lots of toys from lots of different vendors. Every so often a store or manufacturer stands out for some reason or another and I like to share my experiences so that others can benefit from them. Here are some of the places I have done business with recently and the experiences I have had.

Alban Miniatures - 28mm Napoleonics - Paul answers his emails, has an outstanding product, and ships promptly. No damage. Can't ask for more than this. I will do an in depth review soon. A+

Angel Barracks - 6mm Miniatures and Accessories - Mike gives tip top support and answers his emails, has plenty of great products, packages very well and ships promptly. I will be doing a very overdue in depth review on his stuff as as soon as I can. Another A+

Architects of War - I have not had any interaction with the owners yet, but I can tell you this: I placed my order via the web and it was well packaged and on my porch on the second day! Up till now an A+

Internet Hobbies - Placed an order and was told it would ship in 2-3 days. Six days later I finally received a notice that they canceled part of the order and shipped the rest. It would have been nice if they would have let me know before shipping because I wound up spending way too much on freight for a single item. I will be watching for the paypal credit closely and will probably not use them again. While they didn't perpetrate any ultimate crimes, this bugged me quite a bit and I feel like I've been had on the shipping. D

Reinforcements by Post - Neil communicates very well and is patient with all my dumb questions. He performed his service timely and shipped my figures safely. I only had one minor hiccup in instructions but I kind of expect this with a painting service as that is a really tough job via email. This is another one that I will review in more detail. A

ATZ - LTL Mom Christmas Special 2010

2011-01-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

I know it is waaaaaay after Christmas, but I've been busy. Better late than never, so here is the Christmas ATZ special for 2010. This is kind of a unique rep for us because clan LTL decided to bring along the henchmen/followers they have picked up along the way. This mission promised to be very dangerous and we thought it was time to use some of our saved up resource.
This was also my first chance to try out my new winter trees and snow and I like it! I'm ready to try some winter settings in other stuff like napoleonics or WW2 now. Anyway, this is a long rep, so make sure you have absolutely nothing better to do. Happy New Year everyone!

Wings of War Squadrons

2011-01-05T12:28:00.001-06:00

Our Wings of War WWI squadrons are looking pretty good these days. We were supposed to be gaming Jil's campaign last weekend but instead we just screwed around and played with the toys. I am now up to date with all the miniatures available up to this point. The only ones that didn't make the photos are the balloons and the two planes with those sets. Yes, I know this is totally insane but I love these little guys and simply cannot help myself.

Christmas Gaming

2010-12-29T13:49:00.001-06:00

My blog has been real quiet lately because of all the high speed low drag shenanigans around my place, but we have not been idle. In fact, we have played a lot of games over the break so far. I may go back and do some full batreps later, but in the meantime here is just a smattering of what we've been playing. Hopefully this will get some of you off yer butts and to the game table!

Merry Christmas from Texas!

2010-12-23T20:30:00.001-06:00

Patrol 2

2010-12-21T14:51:00.001-06:00

I just survived a 4 day gaming marathon and I feel great! The only bad thing is I have completely lost track of what is going on around my favorite web hangouts and am really behind on batreps. Here is the second patrol mission that Justo and I played a while back. This is Song of Drums and Shakos and this is a good example of what may happen with a single, well placed shot!

Patrol

2010-12-16T07:40:00.001-06:00

I'm way behind on my batreps due to real life (boo hiss) but I have still been managing to get in some limited playing. Last Sunday, Justo and I played a couple of games of SDS with my new 28mm miniatures from Alban. I will be reviewing them in detail as soon as possible. When we set up a game we just roll some dice to decide the situation and sometimes you just get screwed. This was one of those times but a quite fun little game. The game after this I fared a bit better and I will post that later. SDS is really turning out to be a very good game for quick pick up battles. I highly recommend it. Justo was the Frogs and I was the hapless Grasshoppers).

King of the Ring

2010-12-11T17:16:00.001-06:00

King of the Ring is a brilliant little game by Chien Sauvage. His blog is http://bobouest.canalblog.com/ and I've discovered he has a lot of other good stuff there as well that can be enjoyed with the help of an online translator if your French is not up to the task. Mike West brought this ingenious little home made ring to Mag Con 2 and this was the first I heard of this game. It was wildly popular because it is very fun and fast playing.
Each player has a miniature avatar and the movement and strikes are driven by drawing cards from a regular card deck. I think it was two combined decks. The cards you hold in your hand dictate your available options. Anyway, I have been getting bombarded with emails about an English version of the rules so I contacted Chien and he graciously has allowed me to post them. So go build yourself a ring and have fun with your friends and family! I have posted the rules after these snapshots from the convention. This the sheet we used, if there are any questions about it we will have to translate Chien's pages.

At Start of Game

Game starts with everyone being dealt 5 cards face down

Each player starts with ten beads

The players figures start in one of the four corners

Aces are lowest card. Jokers can replace any card and in case of a fight are the best card in the game. However, they can still be parried by the other joker.

Movement

Move cards are the black suits, Spades & Clubs

Ø Clubs move left, right, up and down

Ø Spades move on the diagonals

The card numbers have no impact in movement

Combat

Fighting cards are the red suits, Hearts & Diamonds

Ø Diamonds fight to the left, right, up and down

Ø Hearts fight on the diagonal

Attacker plays card first and the Defender MAY parry with a higher card

If the attacker/winner is on the center square they do double damage, two beads

You can attack to "push" instead to damage in which case you move the victim one square back (you do not follow) if there is room. This can be resisted (same as a parry). Red cards, of course.

If you fail to parry an attack you looses a bead

Cards

During the player’s turn they must use at least one card and can play all five. You have the right to "hit the air"; spend an attack card with no one in range. You must move when you play a move card, unless you can’t (surrounded in a corner)

At end of the player’s turn they draw up to 2 cards, so they have a maximum of 5 in their hand

Winning

Game is over after you played the deck twice (you play the deck and then the discard pile)

The player with the most beads left wins

Mag Con 2 - Aftermath

2010-12-06T13:26:00.000-06:00

What a great weekend! It's been real quiet on my blog the last few days because of Mag Con 2, one of our local Houston Cons. I've managed to actually get my fill of gaming, at least for a day or two. There were so many games being played that there would be no way to show pics of all of them so here's just some snaps from stuff I was either involved in or that caught my eye. We played Sharp Practice but unfortunately there are no surviving pictures to prove it. I have no idea what happened, but it pisses me orf. Enjoy!

Sharp Practice - Probe Part 2

2010-11-27T08:54:00.001-06:00

I cannot believe how fast time flies by, it must be all the gaming I do. Here is the second part of the probe at the bridge scenario that was played some weeks back. I'm sitting on tons of pics that I have not had time to rep, but I wanted to get this one up to show how SP flows with larger actions. I played the French throughout, but the poor British suffered with the change of commanders at every turn. They were initially commanded by Herrodadog, but command was handed over to the boys after he split. This didn't help the British cause much.

Secure the Area

2010-11-20T18:08:00.001-06:00

This was my second game of Incursion from last week. My Marines fared a lot better this time around. This time I quit screwing around with the special effects in the Comic Life program as well. This particular scenario was to infiltrate the area and secure three air lock doors. Of course they were nice and spread out. I took the chance and split my squad, something I am normally not too keen on doing, but it paid off. The Marines have tremendous firepower and can usually keep their frontage clear but the sturm bombers are a serious problem no matter what because they can potentially do that little kamikaze thing when you smoke them. I simply got lucky that only one bomber reached any of my guys and got lucky again on the die rolls. All in all this was a nice little game and quite fun.

A quick Incursion

2010-11-19T12:14:00.001-06:00

My friend Jil (Herrodadog) set up his own version of Incursion using 3D terrain that he made from foam. It is very good looking stuff! This was my very first game and I was controlling the two grunts. We used AT43 miniatures for the game. Incursion is a simple game that reminds me of Space Hulk and it is indeed a fun game to play.