tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212452432024-03-13T23:11:42.904-06:00The Minis CornerA blog for all my miniatures-related musings, battle reports, cries of strangled frustration, etc.David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.comBlogger117125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-52112755783648796132021-09-15T13:27:00.000-06:002021-09-15T13:27:03.897-06:00Sharp Practice Bases: A Buying Guide<p> I've recently managed to hornswaggle a Warhammer-centric friend into trying historicals—AWI <b>Sharp Practice</b>, to be precise—and to my immense gratification he's decided to go all in on collecting a force of his own.</p><p>I've been doing my best to pass on my accumulated knowledge vis a vis manufacturers, historical details, units, etc., and (having settled on a collection of Queen's Rangers) we are now at the "oh, sorry, forgot to mention that you have to buy your own bases" phase of the indoctrination process.</p><p>Accordingly, I put together a little buying guide, based on my own aesthetic preferences. He suggested I post it to this very blog, as he felt others might find it as useful as he, and so here we are!</p><p>Without further ado...</p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Sharp Practice Bases: A Buying Guide</h1><p>Regular infantry are 8 figures, ranked 4x2</p><p>Militia are 10 figures, ranked 5x2</p><p>Skirmishers are 6 figures, clustered</p><p>Tribal bands are 12 figures, clustered</p><p>Cavalry are 8 figures, ranked 4x2</p><p>Artillery are a single gun with 4-5 crew</p><p>For most bases and trays, I recommend Warbases.</p><p>Pick up 20mm circular bases for all infantry figures—your choice of 2mm or 3mm thickness (depends on how thicc you like it):</p><p>https://warbases.co.uk/product/circular-bases/</p><p>For infantry leaders, you could put them on square bases, or 25mm bases, or pick up these custom sabots from Lasercast in Oz:</p><p>https://lasercast.bigcartel.com/product/command-trays</p><p>For cavalry of all types, go with 50x25mm bases:</p><p>https://warbases.co.uk/product/25mm-premier-bases/</p><p>For artillery, I found these guys in the US:</p><p>https://www.greenstuffindustries.com/store/p120/Sharp_Practice_Artillery_Crew_Tray.html</p><p>Or just a nice slap o’ plastic or basswood would do too. :P</p><p>For movement trays, we return once again to Warbases…</p><p>You’ll need to make sure the “thickness” of the recess on the tray matches the thickness of the base you’ve chosen. Once you’ve done that, just select the appropriate dimensions (4x2 or 5x2 for infantry units, 100mmx100mm for cavalry) and you’re good to go!</p><p>Formed infantry (2mm depth): https://warbases.co.uk/product/regiment-tray-20mm-slots-2mm-top-layer/ </p><p>Formed infantry (3mm depth): https://warbases.co.uk/product/regiment-tray-20mm-slots-3mm-top-layer/ </p><p>Skirmishers: https://warbases.co.uk/product/dux-britzombie-tray-20mm-slots/ </p><p>Cavalry: https://warbases.co.uk/product/close-order-tray-20mm-2/ </p>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-29819749796995534302021-04-25T12:20:00.006-06:002021-04-25T12:27:12.785-06:00Why Do We Paint?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/stbxQxGz1UM" width="320" youtube-src-id="stbxQxGz1UM"></iframe></div><br /><p>When you come to think about it, painting miniatures could very well be the oddest part of this entire hobby, particularly in this day and age of pre-painted miniatures and professional painting services. Why spend countless eye-straining hours laboring over tiny figures long into the night? Even if you are lucky enough to get in multiple games a week, it's likely that you'll never spend as much time playing as you do painting. And then there's all the additional cost (both time and money) involved in gaining proficiency in painting itself!</p><p>And yet most of us persevere. Why?</p><p>My answer: self-expression.</p><p>We want to feel like our miniatures reflect a bit of our own creative vision. In fantasy wargaming (and the more obscure historical genres), this includes things like choosing uniform colors and other details of the figures' appearance, but even in your more rigidly-proscribed historical genres like Napoleonics or WWII, there's often room for more than a bit of creative flourish amongst the uniform plates and camo swatches.</p><p>And then there's your own personal style. Everyone has one, even if it's subtle. To my mind, there is <i>no point</i> in painting miniatures yourself if the result isn't obviously your own "brand" of painting, as it were. Yes, most of us watch tutorials and try to emulate a particular favored style. But if the end goal is to look just like a Kev Dallimore or Duncan Rhodes piece, I have to question why you would bother painting your own minis at all. Just find a professional painter who can ape your favored style and spend the money you would have otherwise on paints and painting supplies on commissions instead.</p><p>So that's all my subjective opinion, and YMMV and all that. Where I start to get a bit tetchy, as the Brits say, is when emulation of a particular style gets confused with being a "good" painter. It's all a bit <i><a href="https://realismtoimpressionism.weebly.com/the-academie-des-beaux-arts.html" target="_blank">Académie des Beaux-Arts</a></i>, if you will.</p><p>A personal anecdote to illustrate my point:</p><p>I've been painting miniatures for literally 30 years at this point. I am happy with my level of painting proficiency, though I'm always pushing myself to try new techniques or up my skill level in this way or that. But, ultimately, I would call myself a "good" painter.</p><p>To that end, I have periodically engaged in painting miniatures for commission. I have never had an unhappy client, and have frequently had to turn down work because my queue got too full.</p><p>A few years ago, I was looking into taking my commission work to a more regular gig and so was looking to put my name out there. One of the bigger GW-adjacent wargaming YouTube channels at the time ran a painting service (they may still, for all I know) and had an offer for commission painters where, if you did some painting for them, they would advertise your services on their channel. I submitted a portfolio.</p><p>The response I got was one of the most condescending rejections I've ever received; it more or less said, "Hey, great effort buddy! Keep practicing and in a few years you might actually get good!"</p><p>At first, this really threw me for a loop, I have to say. But as I thought it over, I realized where they were coming from: I don't paint to GW standards. And in their world, painting to the GW standard is the sole marker for what constitutes "good" painting. How clean are those edge highlights? Tighten them up, or you'll never be a "good" painter! That kind of nonsense. After that insight, I had a good laugh and moved on.</p><p>But that insight has stuck with me ever since as illustrative of a much more pervasive attitude. And it's frankly bullshit. It's an attitude that turns the <i>art</i> of miniatures painting into a <i>craft</i> of paint-by-numbers.</p><p>Do your figures look badass on the table? Are <i>you</i> happy with them? Then you're a "good" painter. End of story.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHGWZ-7faDw/YIWxuU-_9uI/AAAAAAAAIyI/ZT2xv9XxpCYVouVZwbIm6XIsPbNt10J4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1932/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-04-25%2Bat%2B12.14.38%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="1182" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHGWZ-7faDw/YIWxuU-_9uI/AAAAAAAAIyI/ZT2xv9XxpCYVouVZwbIm6XIsPbNt10J4gCLcBGAsYHQ/w392-h640/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-04-25%2Bat%2B12.14.38%2BPM.png" width="392" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timely insights courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/sonicsledge" target="_blank">@sonicsledge</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Yes, there are certain minimum technical bars we all should be clearing. There <i>is</i>, I believe, an objective definition of what constitutes a "bad" paint job. Beyond that, anything is fair game. Paint for yourself and your own enjoyment and satisfaction; nobody else's.</p><p>(Okay, you can also paint for the enjoyment of your gaming buddies who appreciate your efforts and ogle your figures when you put them on the table, but that's it!)</p>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-2208100731044750982020-08-27T21:20:00.006-06:002020-08-27T21:27:22.140-06:00282 Days<p> Last November, in the Before Times, I <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/11/hobby-streak.html" target="_blank">posted about</a> starting up an Instagram account and getting a #hobbystreak thing going.</p><p>This past Saturday, for the first time in 282 days, I did not do anything miniatures related. I broke my streak.</p><p>Two hundred and eighty-two days. That's pretty impressive, I have to say. I've never done anything approaching that in my miniatures gaming hobby, and I've been at it for nearly 30 years!</p><p>Unsurprisingly, I got a lot done. I still have unpainted minis on my shelves, but their numbers are massively reduced. Once I finish my current project of WWII Eritrean Colonial Infantry for my East Africa 1940 project, I still have:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Sisters of Battle</li><li>Genestealer Cult</li><li>Death Guard</li><li>28mm Gempei Samurai</li><li>Some Warlords of Erehwon warbands</li></ul><div>And that's about it! Each of the <b>40K</b> projects are small, about 30-40 models a piece, and the <b>Warlords</b> warbands are even smaller (with the possible exception of the Goblins).</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a <i>massive</i> shift from when I started back in November. In that time I've painted up three forces for <b>Sharp Practice</b> (two AWI, one Napoleonic), two 6mm Sengoku samurai armies, a WWII German platoon plus support, jump-off points for <b>Chain of Command</b>, several classic Grenadier fantasy models for <b>Warlords of Erehwon</b>, and an assorted miscellany of other figures, <i>plus</i> taken on a handful of painting commissions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Honestly, without those commissions I'd probably be done with the above list, or very close to it. My original intention was to break my streak in late July anyway, since I thought I'd be going to Gen Con, and my initial schedule had me getting everything except the Erehwon figures completed by then. But it's all good; I'm always happy to help other folks get painted figures on the table, and the cash helps pay for more minis (not that I'm buying too many of those these days), paint, and other supplies.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm optimistic I can get the rest of the above-named projects done by the end of the year. After that, I want to get back into experimenting with 2mm Napoleonics, as well as a special "black & white" WWII project and working on lots of terrain. I'll probably continue with my painting commissions as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>But on the main, I'm anticipating 2021 will be my year for terrain projects the same way this has been my year for figure painting. Hopefully by then I can start hosting games in my house again...</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I'm really proud of the streak I hit and the progress I made, and after taking a few days off I'm itching to start up another streak. Let's see how long I can keep this one going, eh?</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll leave off with photos of some of the projects I completed during my 282-day streak:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdhVS9lk5nU/X0h3DeMYTXI/AAAAAAAAIgU/yfs8HrYk9xkVblDgGRDu8vrn4u4K8yM3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0709.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdhVS9lk5nU/X0h3DeMYTXI/AAAAAAAAIgU/yfs8HrYk9xkVblDgGRDu8vrn4u4K8yM3QCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_0709.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tnZTQt8eShU/X0h3DURGUYI/AAAAAAAAIgQ/qZ05e1_D2VkGfrvtzyckBLiSV5vQIsVwgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0814.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tnZTQt8eShU/X0h3DURGUYI/AAAAAAAAIgQ/qZ05e1_D2VkGfrvtzyckBLiSV5vQIsVwgCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_0814.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJBTasKYC9E/X0h3Ds-hL6I/AAAAAAAAIgY/6uqMsDKaK2wSPGo-_Dq_vx9bpyPWW41uACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0816.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJBTasKYC9E/X0h3Ds-hL6I/AAAAAAAAIgY/6uqMsDKaK2wSPGo-_Dq_vx9bpyPWW41uACLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_0816.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2XVFCKYnIik/X0h3EKrkZlI/AAAAAAAAIgc/8kFrLUGvLd8zcN6i8qLbOWTKDxWbJTt6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0817.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2XVFCKYnIik/X0h3EKrkZlI/AAAAAAAAIgc/8kFrLUGvLd8zcN6i8qLbOWTKDxWbJTt6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_0817.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVQ3_fLH3A4/X0h3EdX8YpI/AAAAAAAAIgg/c5V5-sETQyI4VE_ZRiIbdF5IXPwPAEBDQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0955.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVQ3_fLH3A4/X0h3EdX8YpI/AAAAAAAAIgg/c5V5-sETQyI4VE_ZRiIbdF5IXPwPAEBDQCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_0955.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-clEwulisdxQ/X0h3E2SfIbI/AAAAAAAAIgk/VBGVG_m3DM89rohtnCP2-2sseE0Onj76QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1430.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-clEwulisdxQ/X0h3E2SfIbI/AAAAAAAAIgk/VBGVG_m3DM89rohtnCP2-2sseE0Onj76QCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_1430.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Y82lQwkBz4/X0h3FfKxBaI/AAAAAAAAIgo/qsy7YvtJOiEPfAh_0lrLehFmCJzgQBz2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1559.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Y82lQwkBz4/X0h3FfKxBaI/AAAAAAAAIgo/qsy7YvtJOiEPfAh_0lrLehFmCJzgQBz2QCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_1559.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl61iyl6bqo/X0h3FwT0dYI/AAAAAAAAIgs/iUJ0jQMV_wcAR-yM4-2RIfSw-xPJYntZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1712.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="513" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl61iyl6bqo/X0h3FwT0dYI/AAAAAAAAIgs/iUJ0jQMV_wcAR-yM4-2RIfSw-xPJYntZwCLcBGAsYHQ/w513-h513/IMG_1712.JPG" width="513" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30M6lPKj_5o/X0h3F_nBrQI/AAAAAAAAIgw/gSIpo1pmbDcoCD7UENxJwJ9wmlJR3VYZACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1880.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30M6lPKj_5o/X0h3F_nBrQI/AAAAAAAAIgw/gSIpo1pmbDcoCD7UENxJwJ9wmlJR3VYZACLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_1880.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-woo83ojr3UM/X0h3GABaNJI/AAAAAAAAIg0/g_4mXp5fIGQn5hPllVXtlq3PykBlXudcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1930.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-woo83ojr3UM/X0h3GABaNJI/AAAAAAAAIg0/g_4mXp5fIGQn5hPllVXtlq3PykBlXudcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_1930.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bEFZN1GiDPI/X0h3Gj-3NhI/AAAAAAAAIg4/y13CEbX_B3Iq4fY_s6ecR-Rg7mHGBHLbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1934.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bEFZN1GiDPI/X0h3Gj-3NhI/AAAAAAAAIg4/y13CEbX_B3Iq4fY_s6ecR-Rg7mHGBHLbgCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_1934.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ayJ0ubq0SwI/X0h3G8bQScI/AAAAAAAAIg8/n7G4vKKn5gg9wJlWmFHNozzvdJTXZq8zwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_1963.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ayJ0ubq0SwI/X0h3G8bQScI/AAAAAAAAIg8/n7G4vKKn5gg9wJlWmFHNozzvdJTXZq8zwCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_1963.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8m44IGsBHeU/X0h3Nj2GxcI/AAAAAAAAIiY/u-73RIGmEvAK8f5y9bRa0q4bavCHDWNUACLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_9921.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qh8Rzsjn6yw/X0h3OP1HDsI/AAAAAAAAIic/V1FM2nuWMIQpRIe90XeVVBUuOjeTLIGqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_9928.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qh8Rzsjn6yw/X0h3OP1HDsI/AAAAAAAAIic/V1FM2nuWMIQpRIe90XeVVBUuOjeTLIGqQCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h512/IMG_9928.HEIC" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><p></p>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-42838635324917105782019-12-29T22:24:00.003-07:002019-12-29T22:26:42.247-07:00Hobby Streak Progress ReportIt's been a little over a month since my last post, when I was just getting under way with <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/11/hobby-streak.html" target="_blank">my "hobby streak" project</a>. As of this writing, I'm coming up on seven weeks of managing some kind of hobby-related work each and every night, without a break. Even though I've fallen off my initial projected pace, I'm really pleased with my progress and seem to have found a rhythm that works well for me.<br />
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Partly this is because I reorganized my display shelves and projects, consolidating my plans. I'll be painting fewer figures, which keeps me on pace to hit my goal. Even better, by pacing myself I've managed to heal up from the incipient carpal tunnel pain that had started plaguing my painting hand, as discussed in a previous post. Phew!<br />
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So what do I have to show for my seven weeks of work? Oh...nothing much...except for two full <b>Sharp Practice</b> American War for Independence (AWI) forces, that's all!<br />
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The Continental and British forces are each straight out of their respective sections in the rulebook, the "Sundry Rebels" and the "Mixed Regular Force" lists, respectively.<br />
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Both forces are loosely based, in terms of units modeled, on the orders of battle from Brandywine, 1777. I selected from the list based on some of my own family history—the colonies my ancestors were living in during the war, and the regions of Britain they'd come from, as the case may be.<br />
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<h3>
The Continentals</h3>
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The list calls for two Rebel Militia units and two State Line Troops as the core companies. The Militia hail from Maryland, while the State Line are from Pennsylvania. Joining them are two units of Riflemen.</div>
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Supporting units include a light cannon and a company from the 4th Continental Light Dragoons; this latter unit was a must-have, as my direct patrilineal ancestor <a href="https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Larkins-27" target="_blank">James Larkins</a> rode with them! Unfortunately, as I got started painting, I realized I'd ordered the wrong type of model. The 4th Dragoons were still wearing confiscated British infantry jackets in 1777, and wouldn't switch to green jackets and Tarleton helmets until 1780 at the earliest. So it goes. These will do for now.<br />
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Here's the complete force, by regiment group:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OLZAhVDQTX8/XglPUZSA9gI/AAAAAAAAIOc/brgLh-9eg3kVrp2zmQz3XglgOpWKN5Z1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_9043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OLZAhVDQTX8/XglPUZSA9gI/AAAAAAAAIOc/brgLh-9eg3kVrp2zmQz3XglgOpWKN5Z1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_9043.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weirdly, two of the figures do bear the earlier uniform. I <i>think</i> I ordered all at the same time? Anyway, it would be perfect for representing the unit during the transitional period of 1780–81, when not everyone had the new kit, and it means I only have to order and paint six of the older uniforms when I get around to it.</td></tr>
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<h3>
The Hated British</h3>
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The core mixed British force consists of companies drawn from the 1st Light Infantry Battalion (painted as elements of the Royal Welch Fusiliers) and Fraser's Highlanders of the 71st Foot. In support is a medium artillery piece, a company of Hessian Grenadiers, and a unit of the Queen's Rangers Hussar (Loyalist) cavalry. There's also a unit of Woodland Indians I painted up to either serve as allies or in special scenarios and that I'm quite happy with.</div>
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All in all, I'm really looking forward to seeing how these forces play out on the table. If everything goes well, I should be getting a game in by mid-January; I might do a solo test game before then to really nail down the rules, too.<br />
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I'll also hopefully (<i>finally</i>) get around to that long-delayed <b>Malifaux</b> game mentioned in the last post and that got repeatedly put off due to holiday scheduling conflicts. Might even get my Epic Titans on the table for a game of <b>Adeptus Titanicus</b> before the next couple weeks are out. We shall see.<br />
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As always, if anything comes of these plans, I'll be sure to post pictures and summaries of the games here!</div>
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David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-886616696779989472019-11-20T22:50:00.001-07:002019-11-20T22:50:29.943-07:00Hobby Streak!The last couple months have seen me painting more frequently than I have in years. Possibly decades.<br />
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This was partly due to taking on a couple commissions in addition to my regular personal painting. In fact, I was painting so much, I started to develop carpal tunnel pain in my painting hand! As my day job requires me to do a lot of typing, this was seriously worrisome.<br />
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So I'm hanging up my commission painting cap for a while (though I will probably still eBay painted figs from time to time) so I can take it easy and go at a slow-but-steady pace that isn't going to mess up my precious hands.<br />
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Because...<br />
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I'm gonna flippin' do it, man. I'm tired of staring at the unpainted figures on my shelves. I figured out that if I complete around 30 figures a week, I'll get nearly everything finished by the time Gen Con rolls around next year. Why Gen Con as my goal? Simply because it's sort of the beginning of a new "fiscal year" for me, both professionally and in terms my hobby. So it seems like a reasonable goal, and the math worked out pretty well.<br />
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I recently discovered Dana Howl's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI7EmMVCD8A0sZBha1EFg2Q" target="_blank">excellent painting tutorial channel</a> on YouTube, and through that I found out she's been posting a #HobbyStreak photo on her Instagram every day for nearly a year. Talk about inspiration!<br />
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It's so inspiring, in fact, that I've started up an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theminiaturescorner/" target="_blank">Instagram account</a> linked to this very blog. I'm one week into my own personal #HobbyStreak and feeling good. The carpal tunnel has gone away (thankfully!) and it's already been really gratifying to see new painted figures appearing on my shelves again. Woohoo!<br />
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Hoping by around the first week of December to have two AWI forces painted up for <b>Sharp Practice</b>, at which point I will ideally get a game in soon after. I'll then move on to some 28mm Napoleonics (inspired by one of my recent commissions)—also for <b>Sharp Practice</b>—as well as 28mm Genpei War-era samurai for <b>Ronin</b>. That should close out the year, at which point I'm turning my attention to my patchwork of unpainted WWII platoons...<br />
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In sadder news, I was supposed to play <b>Malifaux</b> this week for the first time in a very long time, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to my opponent coming down with a cold. We've rescheduled for two weeks from now. I took pictures of the table so I can set it up again, but figured I'd share one here as a teaser...<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-62252772890024368142019-10-26T10:13:00.002-06:002019-10-26T10:13:38.037-06:00The Decline and Fall of 2mm NapoleonicsA couple months back, <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/08/not-back-on-itstill-on-it.html" target="_blank">I posted about</a> my burgeoning interest in 2mm Napoleonic wargaming using 3-D printed figure blocks from Forward March Studios, and (brimming with confidence) promised more details soon to come...<br />
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Well, I can definitely say I gave it the old college try.<br />
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I ordered the figures and buildings from a couple different professional 3-D printing services and got out an old sheet of acrylic plastic I'd bought for wargaming, determined to paint it up to look like the rather clever sheets featured on the Forward March blog. I got my copy of the <i>Et Sans Resultat</i> rules and read through the rulebook. I assembled a list of units and devised a basing scheme.<br />
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That single base is as far as I ever got.<br />
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In retrospect, the whole process was a lot more hassle than I'd anticipated, from printing problems to the whole acrylic sheet thing not really working out to the assembly of bases and labels to overall dissatisfaction with the scale. This latter point was really brought home to me when I recently completed a painting commission on some 28mm Napoleonic cavalry. Damn but those figures look <i>fine</i>, and I can see the appeal of the scale (even if I'd want a good-sized table to play at that size, even for something on the level of <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18817/general-de-brigade" target="_blank">General de Brigade</a></i>).<br />
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Not saying I want to get into 28mm. Not saying that at all. But returning to my 2mm last night, I just...couldn't. They're way too abstract. I realize minis wargaming is, essentially, just using three-dimensional counters at the end of the day, but these are a little <i>too</i> close to the "wargames counter" experience for me to get really excited about it from a minis wargaming perspective.<br />
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Besides, I recently discovered the <a href="https://www.commandpostgames.com/pub-battles/" target="_blank">Pub Battles line</a>. That's basically the experience I envisioned when I first started thinking about this whole crazy 2mm project, and looks like something definitely worth checking out—might as well just go "full wargame" at this point, eh? (And hey, maybe I can figure out a way to integrate my 2mm blocks into the Pub Battles system?)<br />
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Regardless, it'll be a while before I find out—those Pub Battles games are <i>expensive</i> and a bit too bespoke for a casual purchase. I'm not that much of a hardcore wargamer! Something for next year, perhaps.<br />
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In the meantime, I found that, between my own projects, commissioned projects, and my day job as a writer and editor, I was straining my hands and experiencing some incipient carpal tunnel pain! That's a big uh-oh in my line of work, and obviously something has to give. I just finished one commission and will be finishing up the second over the next couple weeks. After that, I won't be doing any more commission work for the remainder of the year; I'll check back in with my hands next year and see if I want to pick that back up.<br />
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(Not that commission work is a big income stream for me or anything. Just a nice way to earn some supplemental hobby cash, and it can certainly lie dormant for a while.)<br />
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Even with my own projects, I'll be taking things (even more) slowly. I have an interesting <b>DBA</b> project I've been working on in fits and starts, and I'll be returning to that shortly, as it's pretty easy on the ol' paint hand. Pics to follow once I'm done (sometime around Christmas at the rate I've been going...).David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-42014257572412475762019-08-16T22:30:00.001-06:002019-08-16T22:30:50.482-06:00"I need the biggest pair of lobster tongs you have...no, that's too big..."I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with GW's <span style="font-size: xx-small;">contrast paints</span> (shhh, don't tell anybody!), as well as the novelty of custom bases from Secret Weapon. These two factors have meant that <b>40K</b> has dominated my recent painting time, which has been spotty at best over the summer.<br />
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Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with what's been rolling off the ol' paint-spattered desk lately:<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-8454048436660793482019-08-11T21:08:00.002-06:002019-08-11T21:08:41.875-06:00Not Back on It...Still on ItI am a gaming autodidact.<br />
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By this I mean that I never had a mentor or group who showed me the way into the world of tabletop gaming. No older sibling or cousin to pass down their chipped miniatures and tattered manuals, no group of my peers to welcome me in.<br />
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No sir, starting around the age of 12, it was all cobbled together by yours truly from the pages of <i>Dragon</i>, <i>White Dwarf</i>, and the Wargames West catalog, punctuated by trips to my not-so-friendly local gaming store. Due to accidents of demographics and timing, I didn't meet any fellow "seasoned gamers" until I was well into my teens—by which point that crowd was a year or two younger than me (a lifetime in adolescent world!).<br />
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I say all this as a preliminary to the reason why I'm announcing...<br />
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See, in the process of teaching myself about the hobby, I became determined to master the Big Three: RPGs, miniatures wargaming, and board wargaming. These ventures have met with varying degrees of success and failure over the years. RPGs are unquestionably my greatest arena of success, but there were times over the years where I could have just as easily veered off into miniatures wargaming as my prime tabletop gaming outlet. (Board wargaming, sadly, has never been more than a footnote.)<br />
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Because I came into the hobby circa 1990, and at an impressionable age at that, many of the Old Ways of the Hobby impressed themselves into my tender brain. In the realm of miniatures gaming, this chiefly took the form of appreciating the role of Napoleonics in the foundations of modern miniatures wargaming and even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braunstein_(wargame)" target="_blank">role-playing games</a>. I always felt...well, almost a <i>duty</i> to "get into" Napoleonics as part of my overall self-designed curriculum.<br />
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That was over 25 years ago now. I won't get into the multitudinous reasons why I never quite managed to meet that goal, why Napoleonics consistently eluded me. I'll only say that a chance bit of browsing the Internet a few weeks ago led me to what I believe is a final homecoming to this most tricky of niches.<br />
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So why does this mean I'm back on my bullshit, you ask?<br />
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Well, like most hobbyists, I've done the whole "no new miniatures" pledge. Or rather, no new projects without clearing space from my collection first. For example, my <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-return-to-fantasy-warriors-and-some.html" target="_blank"><b>Fantasy Warriors</b> project</a> was made possible by clearing out my <b>Armies of Arcana</b> and <b>WarmaHordes</b> collections.<br />
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But this dip into Napoleonics constitutes a whole new project. So how do I justify it? Well, you see, it's a very, very small project...<br />
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Those are blocks of <i>2mm</i> scale units moving across a (mostly) flat acrylic battlefield. The whole concept comes courtesy of <a href="https://forwardmarchstudios.com/" target="_blank">Forward March Studios</a>, from where I snatched the photos above and below and who I now have to thank for giving me an entry point to Napoleonics after all these years.<br />
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See, the 3-D printed minis offered by Forward March are suuuuper cheap, which addresses one of the chief problems with the genre. And the figure scale practically dictates a grand-tactical approach (for which I have selected the intriguing <b><a href="https://thewargamingcompany.com/" target="_blank">Et Sans Résultat</a></b> rules to drive the table action), nicely doing away with the at-times fiddly tendencies of period rulesets and focusing on what makes the era so arresting: massive armies moving in great columns and lines across a war-torn landscape.<br />
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Best of all, all the component pieces (save the plastic "board") fit into a little tackle box!<br />
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So, you see, I get to cheat a bit, as this is something perhaps a bit closer to a <i>kriegspiel</i>-style "operations room" wargame than a traditional miniatures game. Hell, I'm even tempted to pick up a couple croupier's sticks to move the units around! (I'm only half-joking...)<br />
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I'm also happy that this is a project that doesn't represent much commitment in terms of painting time. Those 2mm blocks paint up <i>real fast</i>, or so I'm given to understand, and terrain is pretty much accounted for. At this point, I'm mostly just waiting for the <b>ESR</b> rulebook and my 3-D printed strips and buildings to arrive in the mail and I can conceivably have a game up and running within a few days—quite a refreshing change from the extremely slow burn of <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/02/im-union-man.html" target="_blank">all my other projects</a>!<br />
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(Speaking of those, I should have some stuff to post soon. Gen Con prep and various writing commitments slowed me down a bit this summer, but I've been steadily plugging away on my <b>40K</b> and<b> DBA</b> projects, and I just need to make time to take some photos so I can post about them.)<br />
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Once I get in a game of my micro-scale Napoleonics, I'll be sure to post about the experience here!David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-23376542993440524212019-05-20T15:21:00.001-06:002021-04-25T11:27:41.279-06:00Goblin War GiantThe Grenadier <b>Goblin War Giant</b> weighs about 3.5 pounds (nearly 1.6 kg).<br />
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I mention this because there seems to be a direct correlation between the figure's weight and the time it took to paint it. Or maybe that was just me.<br />
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I <i>can</i> say that handling over three pounds of nearly-solid lead makes painting more than a little awkward at times. This definitely isn't the sort of thing you can just pop onto a holder and thoughtfully rotate a couple inches from your nose as you daub on paint!<br />
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Nevertheless, after about six weeks of on-and-off painting in the evenings, I finally got this sucker <i>done</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All my <b>Fantasy Warriors</b> figures are getting my "old school" basing treatment: green paint, topped with simple flocking.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I decided while painting this guy that my gobbos' skin tones will match those given in the old <b>AD&D</b> <i>Monster Manual</i> for that extra throwback flavor. </td></tr>
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I'm immensely proud of how this turned out. Not only does it look great (if I do say so myself), but it's a real <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-return-to-fantasy-warriors-and-some.html" target="_blank">blast from my gaming past</a>—oh how I drooled over the full-page ads for this bad boy in my old <i>Dragon</i> magazine ads back in the day! And now it's mine...all mine!! Muhahahaha!<br />
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Next up: switching gears to work on some ancients for <b>DBA</b>...but in a vernacular I've never painted before. Stay tuned!David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-85156755491253919482019-02-14T08:00:00.000-07:002019-02-14T08:00:02.736-07:00A Return to Fantasy Warriors (and Some Musings on Miniatures Pricing)In <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2019/02/im-union-man.html" target="_blank">my last post</a> I teased a bit about acquiring the legendary Nick Lund "Goblin War Giant" sculpt. Although recasts are available through Mirliton, I managed to find an original on eBay for only slightly more than the cost of the recast, so now I have the old box too! I have fond memories of drooling over the ads for this guy in <i>Dragon</i> magazine back in the day, and it's kind of wild to finally have it in my collection.<br />
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And yes, fond memories are at the root of this particular project.<br />
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Now, my love for <b>Fantasy Warriors</b> was what got this blog started <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2006/01/fantasy-warriors-battle-report.html" target="_blank">waaaaay back in the day</a>, but unlike then I am now a man in his 40s, and I am biologically compelled to get all weepy and nostalgic for lost glory days of old and such.<br />
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In all seriousness though, the classic look of Grenadier and Ral Partha instantly transports me to a time when tabletop gaming was brand new and terrifically exciting to me, and it's both useful and rewarding to be able to access those memories 30 years hence. Although I enjoy gaming on different levels—dare I say <i>better</i> levels—than I did then, I do miss that sense of unbridled curiosity and fascination that came with delving into a rich and rewarding hobby, and collecting old miniatures brings back a touch of that numinous experience.<br />
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Plus the figures are just damn cool.<br />
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So after much deliberation, I've decided to part ways with my <b>Warmachine/Hordes</b> collection as well as my <b>Armies of Arcana</b> collection. This frees up four shelves in my cabinets and gives me the capital to fund the putting together of four <b>Fantasy Warriors</b> armies (Humans, Amazons, Goblins, and Undead, plus selected allied commands like our Dwarfy friends up there).<br />
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Getting rid of my <b>W/H</b> collection was an easy decision; you can read all about my frustrations with the edition change-over in <a href="https://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2017/01/privateer-press-why-do-you-make-it-so.html" target="_blank">my last post on the topic</a>, but honestly <b>WarmaHordes</b> and I never quite gelled. It's a bit like the 4e <b>D&D</b> of the miniatures hobby—it does its thing very well, but pretty much every single design decision went against what I look for in my gaming experience.<br />
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And best of all, the minis are all going to My Esteemed Opponent, so I know they'll have a good home!<br />
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Selling my beloved <b>Armies of Arcana</b> Amazons and Undead was a harder decision, but the reasons behind purchasing them many years ago no longer even remotely apply (long story, another topic for a future post perhaps), and the money goes to a good cause. Besides, I'll still have an Amazon and Undead army, just...different.<br />
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Once I settled on this plan, my thoughts turned to <i>how</i> to go about collecting. My usual approach (as it is for most hobbyists) is to sit down and work up a "master list" of what I want to get, and then start putting in orders, either all at once or in stages (depending on how hard the list is going to hit the ol' pocketbook). I wanted this experience to be different.<br />
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Back in the day, my miniatures collections grew organically. I didn't have anything near the means to afford to buy even a portion of an army at once, instead collecting in dribs and drabs. This was also the days before online shopping, when I was mostly dependent on what my local game store sold. This availability forced me to build my army in ways I might not have otherwise. (I never did get that unit of halfling archers for my Empire army...)<br />
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My intention is to follow this pattern to some extent via eBay. As much as possible, I am using what's available on eBay as a guide to what units will be in my army. For example, I picked up a blister pack of two Amazon Sabertooth Cat Riders, so that means I'll have a unit of those. I can fill in the gaps with orders of recast figures from Mirliton, as well as supplemental orders from Ral Partha, Alternative Armies, and even Hasslefree (since they scale well with old-school sculpts). I also have some pre-conceived ideas of which units are "must haves" (like the Dwarven War Cannon) and which I'm going to totally avoid (I want my Undead army to be wholly infantry, for example—it just seems more "Army of Darkness"-esque that way).<br />
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Over the past two or three weeks I've been quietly purchasing figures off eBay and I just put in a big order for my first "wave" of supplementary figures from Mirliton and Alternative Armies, so I should be seeing the first proper units taking shape for my various armies soon.<br />
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At that point, I'm going to start painting. I won't be ordering any other "waves" until I have this one painted, though I'll continue to troll eBay for more seed figures for future units.<br />
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Before I go, a quick and wholly unoriginal observation. Take a look at the photo below:<br />
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I was lucky enough to find an original box of the Dwarven War Cannon still in shrink wrap for a very reasonable price. And just look at that original price tag: $8.95! That is <i>wild</i>.<br />
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One of the reasons I wanted this particular set so desperately is because I actually owned it back in the day. I have vivid memories of picking it up during a trip to Wargames West in Albuquerque in 1991. Even with the meager allowance I was earning as a 13 year old, clearly $8.95 was well within my means.<br />
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Plugging $8.95 in 1991 money into an inflation calculator yields a price today of $16.35. Outside of Reaper Bones, you simply could not find a model of that size and "battlefield value" for that kind of price today. It makes me wonder whether it's even possible for today's youth to get into the wargaming hobby in the same way I did.<br />
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Of course, Grenadier ended up going out of business within a few years of releasing this set, so maybe their pricing wasn't terribly realistic even for those times...David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-27308034560060556412019-02-07T23:29:00.000-07:002019-02-07T23:29:10.712-07:00I'm a Union Man!It's been nearly two years since I posted here! Wow.<br />
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I've been kind of keeping a foot in my miniatures hobby during that time, but recently my dear wife pointed out to me that now that my other main hobby has <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/david-larkins/" target="_blank">become a full-time career</a>, I was rather in need of an <i>actual</i> hobby to occupy my precious few spare hours. And hey, what better way to unwind and relax than with a bit of minis painting of an evening, and even—gasp!—the occasional game!<br />
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So I'm firing up this blog again as a way to document my focused return to the miniatures hobby. Which is a bit ironic, since last year I decided I'd kind of had enough with the "hobby community" at large...but that's a subject, perhaps, for a future post.<br />
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No, this blog is pure self-indulgence. I'll post pics and talk about plans, but mostly just to create a record for myself so I can go back and look through my process in the months and years ahead. I'd like to make posting to this blog a semi-regular thing. We'll see how successful I am in that. Comments are, of course, welcome, but I'm mostly just here for myself.<br />
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Another motivational tool I've just picked up came in the form of joining the <a href="https://www.patreon.com/brushwielders" target="_blank">Brush Wielders Union Patreon</a>. I'm a sucker for cool swag, and I'm a sucker for analog record keeping. The fact you get a little "dues booklet" with space to record what you've painted and what you're planning that month? I didn't stand a chance...<br />
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I have a few posts in the queue regarding current projects, but for right now I'm just going to list what's currently in my collection and where things stand in terms of painting; all collections are 28mm unless otherwise stated:<br />
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<ul>
<li>WWII Skirmish: East Africa 1941</li>
<ul>
<li>4/11th Sikhs (mostly painted)</li>
<li>Italian Colonial Infantry and Blackshirts (mostly unpainted)</li>
</ul>
<li>WWII Skirmish: Gothic Line, Fall 1944</li>
<ul>
<li>Brazilian Expeditionary Force (mostly painted)</li>
<li>German 148th Reserve Division (unpainted)</li>
<li>RSI Italian "Monte Rosa" Alpini (unpainted)</li>
</ul>
<li>Warhammer 40K: Black Templars (about half painted)</li>
<li>Warhammer 40K: Sisters of Battle (mostly unpainted)</li>
<li>Warhammer 40K: Genestealer Cult (unpainted)</li>
<li>American War of Independence: Patriot army (unpainted)</li>
<li>American War of Independence: British army (unpainted)</li>
<li>6mm Sengoku-era Takeda and Uesugi clan samurai armies (unpainted and mostly unbased!)</li>
<li>Gempei War-era Samurai skirmish forces (unpainted)</li>
<li>6mm Epic 40K: Titan Legion (painted)</li>
<li>6mm Epic 40K: Orks (painted)</li>
<li>Malifaux crews</li>
<ul>
<li>Ortegas (painted, though I have an "alternate Perdita" model I'd like to paint up)</li>
<li>Viktorias (painted)</li>
<li>The Dreamer (painted, though I'm going to re-do Lord Chompy Bits)</li>
<li>Yan Lo (mostly painted)</li>
<li>Brewmaster (unpainted)</li>
</ul>
<li>Fantasy Warriors</li>
<ul>
<li>Human army (planning)</li>
<li>Amazon army (planning)</li>
<li>Goblin army (planning)</li>
<li>Undead army (planning)</li>
</ul>
<li>DBA (1/72 plastics)</li>
<ul>
<li>Classical Indians (mostly unpainted)</li>
<li>Later Achaemenid Persians (unpainted)</li>
<li>Skythian (unpainted)</li>
<li>Later Hoplite Greek, Athenian (planning)</li>
<li>Later Hoplite Greek, Theban (planning)</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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Phew! That's a lot of projects, and with only a very small percentage of them actually complete, I've got a lot of painting ahead of me. I feel a bit like Utgar Skullcleaver here, facing down a lumbering Goblin War Giant...</div>
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Oh yes, more details on <i>that</i> little acquisition next post!</div>
David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-28805063480252450712017-03-13T20:43:00.000-06:002017-03-13T20:46:42.541-06:00More Malifaux!Since <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2017/01/moving-on-to-malifaux.html" target="_blank">my last post</a> I've managed to put in a couple more games of <b>Malifaux</b>.<br />
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I've been getting my ass handed to me by My Esteemed Opponent, mainly because he is a very good player but also because he's got his Sonnia Criid crew dialed in and I continue to try out different crews to see how they play, which means it's mostly a steep learning curve for me every time.<br />
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These past two games, I've played first the Ortegas (Guild) and then Yan Lo (Ten Thunders/Resurrectionists). Both were lots of fun to play. Lists are reproduced below.<br />
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<h3>
<b>Ortegas (35 SS)</b></h3>
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<ul>
<li>Perdita Ortega</li>
<li>Papa Loco</li>
<li>Abuela</li>
<li>Santiago</li>
<li>Guild Austringer</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBkFkjumPU" target="_blank">Hans</a></li>
</ul>
I thought the Ortegas would be good against Criid with their emphasis on ranged attacks, but I had trouble coordinating their signature chain-activation ability...and then the flames started raining down. :-/<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So many Burning markers...</td></tr>
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The game ended up with Hans the sole survivor and pretty crushing loss on my part.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>Ten Thunders (35 SS)</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Yan Lo</li>
<ul>
<li>Reliquary Upgrade</li>
</ul>
<li>Chiaki the Niece</li>
<li>Soul Porter</li>
<li>Ashigaru (3)</li>
<li>Penanggalan</li>
</ul>
I fared a bit better in my second game. I chose two Schemes with good synergy ("Breakthrough" and the Ten Thunders-specific theme, "Watchful Eyes"), both of which require depositing Scheme Markers near deployment zones. Unfortunately, I was unable to effectively defend a couple of my markers, as My Esteemed Opponent sowed his usual death and destruction—though not to the same extent as in the Ortega game! I'm definitely learning some effective counter-measures against Sonnia's mastery of the Burning marker the hard way, though.<br />
<br />
(I really should take a look at some of those tactical guides on Pull My Finger one of these days...)<br />
<br />
Speaking of Burning markers, My Esteemed Opponent showed up for this game with some badass custom 3-D printed markers! The condition markers even have tiny little magnets embedded that hold them together. The future is now, everyone.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A glimpse at the Criid crew</td></tr>
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I still have a couple other crews I want to try out: the Dreamer (who I played once before to horrendous result) and the Brewmaster (and his trusty Whiskey Golem!). We'll see how that goes...David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-10739008640821239792017-01-10T18:10:00.001-07:002017-01-10T18:15:01.023-07:00Moving on to MalifauxSo while I <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2017/01/privateer-press-why-do-you-make-it-so.html" target="_blank">excitedly await</a> reams of Skorne errata for my <b>Hordes</b> collection, My Esteemed Opopnent and I decided to move on to <b>Malifaux</b>.<br />
<br />
To be more specific, I "refereed" a <b>Malifaux</b> game yesterday, as My Esteemed Opponent brought his equally-esteemed girlfriend to give the game a try. To no one's surprise, she ended up really enjoying herself, and the evening ended with her making plans to pick out a crew of her own. I've got my fingers crossed for some sort of campaign or at least semi-regular <b>Malifaux</b> play this year.<br />
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This game was the Guild's own Sonnia Criid and her Witchling Stalkers messing with the Viktorias and their all-lady crew of Outcasts. Our new player took the Outcasts and got into the game immediately, doing a great job of sticking to her Schemes despite coming under the fiery attacks of Sonnia and her napalm-hurling minions.<br />
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Seriously, when you go up against Criid, be prepared to see lots and lots of BURNING tokens on the table. I've seen this crew in action once before and it was <i>brutal</i>. Sadly for My Esteemed Opponent, he made the <i>Classic <b>Malifaux</b> Mistake™</i>of losing track of his Schemes in favor of going after blood for blood's sake. By Turn 4, he realized it had become impossible for him to win due to a combination of losses and ignoring his Schemes, and so conceded. And so the plucky Outcasts managed to not only Defend Their Turf but also Plant Evidence implicating Criid and her crew in some tomfoolery or another.<br />
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As I said, I'm looking forward to playing more <b>Malifaux</b>; my one critique of the game is that it runs <i>verrrrrry slowwwwwwwly</i> when you're first learning the game and your crew; this is easily solved, but not if you go more than a year between games like we did!<br />
<br />
Here are some shots from the game. It ended up largely revolving around the wagon in the middle of the intersection. The board looks a little sparse to my eyes (though it's still way more crowded than what we're used to with <b>WarmaHordes</b>!). I've got 2-3 more buildings in my painting queue, plus more scatter terrain, so future urban encounters should be a bit more crowded...<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-887620615345550272017-01-04T11:37:00.002-07:002017-01-04T11:38:21.336-07:00Warmajournal #2: Privateer Press, Why Do You Make It So Hard For Me To Love You?In <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2016/12/warmajournal-1-0-points.html" target="_blank">my last post</a>, I was looking forward to getting into a regular rhythm with <b>WarmaHordes</b>, taking the new edition as an opportunity to build up mastery of the rules. To this end, I started paying a bit more attention to the community at large and to announcements from the game's publisher, Privateer Press.<br />
<br />
I wish I hadn't.<br />
<br />
The latest FAQ and Developer's Notes from Privateer include some very dismaying news. To wit:<br />
<ul>
<li>Starting this summer, Privateer will no longer include cards with its models. For those unfamiliar with the game, cards are <i>essential</i> to playing. Going forward you can download the cards for free as PDFs or use their for-pay War Room app. There is also talk of offering cards as POD, but that hasn't been finalized as of this writing.</li>
<li>The latest FAQ includes a bunch of updates, but for the Skorne (the only faction I play), it simply says: "Skorne has many, many changes coming. They will be receiving their own errata update in January of 2017. Stay tuned for some exciting changes!"</li>
</ul>
<div>
Exciting changes? Oh boy! I'm just so...</div>
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Seriously, what a way to get the wind taken out of my sails. Right when I'm settling in with the new edition, familiarizing myself with my warlocks and beasts and troops and whatnot, I get hit upside the head with the promise of "many, many changes" to come. I don't really care if the changes are good or bad at this point. The timing is just awful.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
That's very much a personal beef on my part, of course. The decision to stop printing cards is something that affects the whole community. Judging from the tone struck in the Developer's Notes, I don't think this is going over as a very popular decision, either. Nor should it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The high-quality cards that come with each pack are very much part of the game's charm for me. To replace those with PDFs printed off my inkjet (costing me time and money) or to go all-digital (and pay Privateer for the privilege) seems like a pretty cold lunch in my estimation. The claim is that this is so cards can stay "current" and they can engage in a more-or-less continual process of tweaking based on "fan feedback."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Aesthetic considerations aside, this is extremely dismaying. "Fan feedback" is what leads to these massive errata and FAQ documents, reams of clarifications and rules amendments that seem to reach absurdist levels. For example:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>p. 93, Hill</b><br />
<i>Add the following to the end of the Hill text:</i><br />
A model moving off of a hill does not fall or suffer falling damage.</blockquote>
<div>
Oh, thank you for that clarification! I wouldn't have known what to do about that otherwise! (Note that they are talking about a <i>hill</i> here, not a cliff.) What kind of pixel-bitching asshole necessitated that pointless clarification? Whatever happened to applying common sense during a game? Eventually we'll get to the point where every possible permutation of play gets covered in a 50-page errata document that's almost as long as the core rules themselves. (The current doc is already up to 20 pages.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>WarmaHordes</b> has always been a fairly pixel-bitchy game, and Privateer has always catered to the hardcore tournament crowd. It's just unfortunate, as increasingly I feel like the more friendly/casual player is being edged out in favor of making the game almost <i>exclusively</i> about tournament/competitive play. I've seen this process before (::cough::<b>Magic</b>::cough::) and in my opinion it is always detrimental to the hobby at large.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So I'll wait and see what all this Skorne errata looks like before I play another game of <b>WarmaHordes</b>. I have no intention of selling my Skorne miniatures, as I like their look way too much to part with them, but increasingly I'm thinking I'll have to use them with some other rules set, one that takes itself way less seriously and actually acknowledges that the majority of wargamers play friendly games that don't require errata to tell them that moving off a hill doesn't cause discomfiture. <b>Dragon Rampant</b> or <b>A Song of Blades and Heroes</b>, perhaps. We shall see.</div>
David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-24145322064241395202016-12-13T11:19:00.000-07:002016-12-13T14:06:08.883-07:00WarmaJournal #1: 0 PointsThis year saw the release of the 3rd editions ("MkIII") of <b>Warmachine</b> and <b>Hordes</b>. Unlike <i>certain other companies</i>, Privateer Press is not given to churning out new editions all that often, and changes between editions are not terribly drastic, as a general rule.<br />
<br />
That being said, I'm looking at the new MkIII rules as an opportunity for a fresh start and to finally achieve a certain level of rules mastery over the system, since that is what it demands for a satisfying game. My Esteemed Opponent and I are going to make an effort to get in 1-2 games a month for the foreseeable future, and will be gradually escalating the size of our games each time.<br />
<br />
My intention is to keep a bit of a journal of these games here as they progress so that I can refer back and look at what I learned, what I did well, and what I'd like to change in the future.<br />
<br />
For this inaugural outing, we played a 0-point game.<br />
<br />
<i>"Zero points??"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Yes, it's an odd bit of terminology, and one that's new to MkIII. Just like in MkII, every warlock and warcaster gets a certain number of "freebie" points to take 'Jacks or Beasts, but these freebie points have been bumped up to the point that an introductory game can be played based on just that alone. Ergo, a 0-point game.<br />
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We're also going to be making an effort to use scenarios in all our games. I tend to view scenarios with a bit of a jaundiced eye, to be honest. I've watched a couple dozen actual-plays on YouTube and have played a couple scenario games myself, and I have yet to see a game won purely on the scenario's victory conditions; it <i>always</i> comes down to a caster getting killed first.<br />
<br />
However, I've recently seen the argument made that, even if you don't <i>win</i> the game on points, scenarios still force you to play the game a little differently than if you were just forming up on the line of scrimmage and charging in. Also, certain casters and models are much more effective in scenario play. That was enough to convince me, so scenarios it is!<br />
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In keeping with the simple, introductory nature of this game, we went with the Annihilation scenario, which limits the game to six turns and awards points based on models slain. As it turned out (of course!), the game only lasted five turns, but hey.<br />
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Here's the setup:<br />
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I won the roll-off and chose to be the Second Player—in MkIII, the Second Player gets to deploy 3 inches further onto the board, and I've found that with Skorne getting out onto the table ASAP is desirable. My Esteemed Opponent chose the table edge on the right of the photo and we were off.<br />
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Here's what we fielded:<br />
<br />
<i>Skorne</i><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Dominar Rasheth</li>
<li>Titan Gladiator</li>
<li>Titan Gladiator</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Cygnar</i></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Commander Coleman Stryker</li>
<li>Stormclad</li>
<li>Ironclad</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
Due to the small size of our forces, there wasn't a lot of subtlety to our deployments. Stryker and his 'Jacks deployed on the road and I decided to follow suit.<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>This may have been a mistake on my part; Gladiators have the Rush Animus, which gives them Pathfinder and 2 inches of extra movement. I could perhaps have deployed further to my right, using the river and copse of trees to cover my advance, moving swiftly up while the 'Jacks tried to negotiate the Rough Terrain.</i></li>
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With the two forces faced off across the board, there was nothing for it but to rush each other.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><i>What I'm finding is that, when it comes to Titans, it's all about careful maneuvering during the first couple turns. Titans are at their most effective when they can charge in and do a Slam Power Attack. The Rush Animus seems to be a key to executing this, as we'll see shortly.</i></li>
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Cygnar reached the bridge first due to the superior movement of the 'Jacks. Curse those steam-powered devils!</div>
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Even worse, I moved my Gladiator on the road too close and got charged!</div>
<div>
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<ul>
<li><i>One of MkIII's most notable changes is that pre-measurement is now allowed. So I would've been completely within my rights to measure the Ironclad's charge range and then move up to just outside of it. With my Rush Animus, I could've probably then made a charge of my own the next turn.</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
In contrast to my poor maneuvering on the road, I managed to get the drop on the Stormclad as it attempted to negotiate the river. With Rush Animus giving me an extra 2 inches on top of my Charge bonus movement of 3 inches, <i>plus</i> Pathfinder, I was able to surge forward with my second Gladiator and execute a Slam against the Stormclad, knocking him back out of the riverbed. (Unfortunately, I only rolled a 2 for the Slam distance...)</div>
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<div>
My Esteemed Opponent dropped Stryker's feat at this point, giving all his guys a +5 ARM, which had a predictable effect on how much damage I was able to deal out.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Meanwhile, I did the best I could with Rasheth. Three out of his five spells are useless against a small, 'Jack-heavy force. Worse, I was stymied in my efforts to cast Breath of Corruption on Stryker and wasn't able to upkeep Blood Mark on the turn when it most mattered. On the other hand, I did make the most of Rasheth's new and much-improved Plague Wind feat. It was too little, too late, but I can foresee future games where it will come in most handy.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The picture above shows what was probably the game's turning point. If I had been able to knock that Stormclad back a few more inches, there's a good chance it wouldn't have been able to re-engage my Gladiator on its next turn. This would have left my Gladiator free to turn and charge Stryker (how that would've worked from a rules standpoint, with my Gladiator in the river and Stryker up on the bridge, is a, well, bridge we didn't have to cross...). With Blood Mark reducing Stryker's ARM by 2 <i>plus</i> Plague Wind reducing ARM by 2 more points along with DEF -2, I think my odds would've been good for a kill and a win.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sadly, this was not to be. The Stormclad shook off its Knockdown and was able to get back into engagement range. Although my Gladiator subsequently tore off the Stormclad's left arm, the 'Jack gave more than it got. Ultimately, the Gladiator went down from a Disruptor Pistol shot from the bridge(!).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The battle on the road was even more one-sided thanks to some hot rolling on the part of the Ironclad. Rasheth went down the following turn and that was all she wrote.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">STYYYYYKERRRRR!!!</td></tr>
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<div>
<b>Lessons Learned</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><i>The Rush Animus is really key to effective play with Titan Gladiators. It allows me to use terrain to my advantage to get the drop on enemy forces and mitigates the Skorne's piss-poor Movement rate. The Gladiator that used Rush and terrain got off a very effective charge; the one that didn't got drop-kicked into oblivion.</i></li>
<li><i>Rasheth isn't very good in small games—most of his abilities and spells are unusable. Hopefully I can get Makeda painted up before our next game...</i></li>
<li><i>On a positive note, I've gotten a good feel at this point for the ebb and flow of Fury in the game: rile your Beasts, then pull the Fury off and use it to fuel spells and such from your caster. Good stuff!</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-26214018239688076882016-11-28T12:52:00.000-07:002016-11-28T12:52:27.535-07:00Gaming Again (WarmaHordes and Ronin)After a too-long drought, I'm finally getting to play some miniatures games again. Something about this time of year just seems to lend itself to pushing toy soldiers around a table. (It's not just the inclement weather, either—even back when I lived in L.A., wintertime was always a popular time for miniatures.)<br />
<br />
A couple weeks ago I dusted off my Skorne minis and played a small game of <b>WarmaHordes</b>. It was using the MkII rules, as my opponent and I haven't had a chance to really get into MkIII, but we like what we've seen with the new edition and are planning to have a game of it really soon. I'm particularly interested to see how Rasheth's revised Feat works out.<br />
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As with most <b>W/H</b> games I've played so far, this one came down to failing to act at a critical moment and things quickly spiraling out of control. This time, it was the Skorne who got the thrashing...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beatdown!</td></tr>
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Then this past Saturday, I sat down with my wife for a game of <b>Ronin</b>, the samurai skirmish game from Osprey Publishing. It was great to finally get a chance to play, nearly two years after painting up my <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2014/12/28mm-bushi-buntai-for-ronin.html" target="_blank">two</a> <i><a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2015/01/28mm-ikko-ikki-for-ronin.html" target="_blank">buntai</a></i> (gangs).<br />
<br />
We ran the basic "Skirmish" scenario to get a feel for the system, and I was duly impressed. It's very quick to pick up, and close combat is lots of fun and <i>incredibly</i> bloody! The game ended up culminating with a deadly showdown amidst the pillars of a local shrine that left the site strewn with corpses.<br />
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Other highlights included my <i>sohei </i>(warrior-monk) getting brained by a peasant's mattock and the <i>yojimbo</i> (bodyguard) of the Ikko-Ikki's leader getting knocked senseless by a bullet meant for his lord, then standing by helplessly as his lord was cut down by the opposing samurai.<br />
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In the end, it was a fairly one-sided victory for the Bushi in part because I was absolutely <i>on fire</i> with my dice rolls, but also because using the peasantry of the Ikko-Ikki is a bit trickier than wading in with professional warriors.<br />
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We both enjoyed the game quite a bit, though, and are thinking about giving the campaign system a spin. Amazingly for a first outing with a game, I didn't forget any major rules—a testament to <b>Ronin</b>'s tight, simple design.<br />
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Some selected shots from the game:<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-86089420326146974712016-04-08T15:36:00.001-06:002016-04-08T15:36:58.507-06:00Another Bolt Action OutingThis week I had Steve, my regular <b>Bolt Action</b> opponent, around to my game room for another session of WWII action.<br />
<br />
This time I fielded my <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2015/09/bolt-action-brazil.html" target="_blank">1,000-point Brazilian list</a> in a (very) late-war scenario. The time: April 1945. The place: northern Italy. As German resistance collapses, the Allies surge forward to try and bag the withdrawing Axis forces.<br />
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In order to simulate the situation on the ground, we played the "Envelopment" scenario with my Brazilians as attackers. We decided to try another play variant introduced in the <i>Ostfront</i> supplement: Steve took half the points value, but I only had half the normal number of turns to secure victory. Steve took a much-reduced platoon of Luftwaffe Field Division troopers, heavy on the anti-tank weaponry, as he knew I was going to run a vehicle-heavy list.<br />
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Indeed, my list has gotten even more vehicle-centric after a bit of play-testing revealed some weaknesses in my original design. Gone are the MMG and mortar teams, along with the (technically illegal) partisan team. Now, everything is vehicle-mounted, which I figured would help me with my race to get off the far side of the table.<br />
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(If you're unfamiliar with the Envelopment scenario, the attacker gets 1 VP for each enemy team destroyed, 2 VP for finishing the game in the enemy's deployment zone, and 3 VP for exiting a team or vehicle off the enemy's table edge. The defender gets 2 VP for each enemy team destroyed.)<br />
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Steve was considerably worried about his prospects as he saw me pour all my activation dice into the cup, but it turned out that only having half the normal number of turns proved the perfect counter-balance. I ended up winning the game, but only because I was lucky enough to roll for a bonus turn at the end of Turn 3. Had the game ended then instead, I think I would have been lucky to squeak a draw.<br />
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And despite my victory, the LFD did manage to deal me a pretty bloody nose, taking out my Greyhound armored car (with a really lucky long-distance panzerschreck shot!) and forcing the crew of my M10 to bail out and run for it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wanted there to be plenty of blocking terrain as well so it wouldn't be a total cake-walk.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because of the river, I was obliged to send most of my forces up the road on my right.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first wave rolls onto the board.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That infantry gun blocking the road proved a tough nut to crack and really slowed me down!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-js7oCIcEzUo/VwgjGpCSnbI/AAAAAAAAFpI/C9aW8A1G5fg6U5OHQl_3wjZvC5PjSvcEw/s1600/IMG_2509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-js7oCIcEzUo/VwgjGpCSnbI/AAAAAAAAFpI/C9aW8A1G5fg6U5OHQl_3wjZvC5PjSvcEw/s320/IMG_2509.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Panzerschreck team takes their shot at the Greyhound. They needed a "6" to hit...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaboom!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of my two "close combat" squads debark and engage a German squad on the hill.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After a sharp exchange of fire, the hill is cleared and taken.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The M10 fords the river and attempts to flush out the 'Schreck and a sniper team, with no success.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the final turn, my units pour towards the opposing table edge, their way clear. The final Victory Point tally was something like 16-6, but the game was much loser than that indicates.</td></tr>
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-22979227366037861632016-03-23T11:29:00.001-06:002016-04-07T06:21:20.282-06:00Recent Battles Wrap-upWith the thawing of winter and the return to temperate weather, I've managed to get back to the minis gaming table a couple times this month. What follows aren't proper battle reports - just some random photos accompanied by brief recaps and further musings on the games.<br />
<h2>
<br />Bolt Action: Soviets vs. Germans</h2>
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First up, I got to put my <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2016/03/painting-challenge-wrap-up.html" target="_blank">freshly-painted Naval Infantry platoon</a> on the table for a game of <b>Bolt Action</b> with my regular opponent, Steve.<br />
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One of the things I really enjoy about gaming with Steve is that he cares as much as I do about historical fidelity. <b>Bolt Action</b> is going after the <b>40K</b> crowd with its design sensibilities, particularly in regards to its point-based army lists, and I know there are people out there who bring that "40K tournament" attitude to the game and their force construction, but Steve is not one of those people. My list is modeled on Spring '42, and so he restricted himself to that period as well even though it meant not having access to a whole passel of vehicles capable of dealing with my KV-2.<br />
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But that's part of why we play historical wargames, isn't it? Steve got to have that experience of being a German platoon leader up against a beast of war that none of his own armament was able to easily overcome. He even abstained from taking air support, as he's highly ambivalent about its use in the sort of scale of engagement <b>BA</b> models. A man after my own heart!<br />
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The game ended in a draw. We modeled a dawn assault over muddy ground, which severely limited fire and maneuver for the first half of the game. Essentially, we ended up with a hunkered-down firefight over much of the table, with the bloodiest action occurring over on my right flank - Steve tried to move up a squad of combat pioneers under cover of hills and woods to take out my KV-2 in close assault, but before they could close the gap across the road my tank's howitzer spoke and it had nothing nice to say: it took out the whole squad with a single shot!<br />
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Steve got a bit of revenge later in the game as I moved up my People's Militia squad to cover my KV-2's flank and they were annihilated by one of his Heer squads, operating in tandem with a halftrack.<br />
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I'm still enjoying <b>Bolt Action</b> (especially as I slowly master the rules - more on that topic below), but I'm also interested in trying out some systems that are a bit more "simulationist" in their approach: <b>Chain of Command </b>or <b>Combat Patrol</b>. <b>BA</b>'s arcade-style mechanics can sometimes feel a bit jarring (particularly with scenario objectives and the like). Steve and I are going to play a game of <b>Operation Squad</b> soon, too, and I'm very much looking forward to that.<br />
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<h2>
Warmachine: Cygnar vs. "Cygnar"</h2>
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Another fresh force from the Challenge was my contingent of the Cygnar rebel Magnus and his two 'jacks, along with the mercenary contingent of Croe's Cutthroats. After a couple cancellations (one due to me, one due to him), I managed to get my regular <b>WarmaHordes</b> opponent Dave over for a 25-point (well, actually, 24-point) game.<br />
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Alright, so, as I mentioned above, part of the enjoyment in playing miniatures wargames is becoming comfortable with the rules. Unlike with RPGs, which encourage but do not (usually) <i>demand</i> system mastery in order to play (particularly if you are on the player-character side of things), with wargames you really need to have a good grip on every aspect of the game in order to really enjoy yourself. And because wargaming is fairly secondary to my primary tabletop hobby of RPG gaming, I usually find myself with weeks or months separating a given game, which means I'm usually pretty rusty on any given rules set when I do get a chance to play. In addition, what miniatures-related time I <i>do</i> have in between those sessions is usually prioritized to painting my figures or working on terrain instead of studying the rules, as is my bias.<br />
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From my first game I've been aware that <b>WarmaHordes</b> is a particularly demanding mistress in regards to system mastery. Probably more than any game I've ever played, to be honest. I can understand how dedicated players get so obsessive about nit-picking every little aspect of the rules, even if I <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2015/08/identifying-flat-note-in-warmahordes.html" target="_blank">don't necessarily agree with the attitude</a>.<br />
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At any rate, my awareness of the system's demanding nature meant that I've always understood that eventually I'd start enjoying my games a lot more. Well, that time finally came last night, and it was due to one HUGE OVERSIGHT on my part finally getting corrected.<br />
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As we set up our forces, I made the casual observation to my opponent that he seemingly always managed to field more forces than me. He furrowed his brow, realizing I was right and that my force looked particularly anemic this night. Perhaps it's because this was the first time I was fielding a proper <b>Warmachine</b> force (as opposed to <b>Hordes</b>), and he's much more familiar with the former, but he asked me a couple questions and it soon emerged I was wholly ignorant of the bonus Warjack/Warbeast Points you get with your 'caster selection!<br />
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Essentially, this meant I'd been cheating myself out of at least 5 points (i.e. around 10-15% of the points total) <i>every time we'd played</i>. No wonder I kept losing!<br />
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Yes, I am an idiot.<br />
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To be fair, even now knowing what to look for, it took me a good five minutes to find the relevant section in the rulebook. As far as I can tell it's only mentioned once, and not in the section on 'casters but in the section on force building. That's what I get for reading the rulebook in bits and pieces and skimming over certain sections.<br />
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Now, the funny thing is that this discovery actually ended up re-firing my enthusiasm for the game. After all, my last couple defeats were very close-run affairs - imagine what I'll be able to do with a "proper" force!<br />
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So this realization (which fortunately happened before we started playing) left me 6 points short. I didn't have any other <b>WM</b>-friendly troops to field, so Dave suggested I field my Croak Raiders this time out. Six points was enough to buy me a small unit, and off we went.<br />
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Well, all I can say is that I <i>immediately</i> felt the difference. Without those Raiders, I would have undoubtedly suffered another drubbing. With them, I was able to get a bit tactical and force some of Dave's units away from his 'caster.<br />
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His effing Hunter 'jacks (how I hate them so) messed me up pretty good, but in the end I pulled out a victory with the stars of the game, Croe's Cutthroats. Holy shit, these guys are brutal. Stealthy and deadly as hellll. They scythed right through his unit of Sword Knights, which was, I think, rather unexpected for both of us! This was chiefly due to Magnus's "Calamity" spell buffing them the whole game, and their poisonous "Murder Weapons" being especially effective against living targets.<br />
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The game was won when Dave sent his 'caster, Captain Victoria Haley, forward to chain-lightning the Cutthroats only to look on in horror as I informed him that their Stealth ability prevented ranged or spell attacks beyond a 5" range, a range they were currently comfortably beyond. The next turn I bum-rushed poor Captain Haley and that was it.<br />
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Dave did get one last bit of revenge before that, though. His solo hero, Allison Jakes, <i>was</i> close enough to get in a shot and basically blew Croe's head <i>clean</i> off (Dave rolled boxcars for damage!), but the end was inevitable by that point.<br />
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As I indicated above, this has really got me fired up to play more <b>WarmaHordes</b>. I'm fairly <i>itching</i> to try out my Rasheth "Chain Gang" list - after the game, I did some calculating and realized that, after factoring in the Warbeast points and dropping a couple smaller units, I can field it with a full unit of Nihilators and a full unit of Croak Raiders!<br />
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(The Croak Raiders proved a nice distraction in last night's game - they ended up getting pretty much decimated by ranged fire and Dave's Stormblades - but I can see potential for much mayhem at their webby hands in the future.)<br />
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Also, I gotta think about what mercenary unit to order to fill out Magnus's now-anemic list...<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-32871244200769464042016-03-23T10:02:00.000-06:002016-03-23T10:06:23.834-06:00Painting Challenge Wrap-UpThe <a href="http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">6th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge</a> wrapped up this past Sunday.<br />
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I ended up finishing with a decent score of 620, which was nonetheless well short of what I'd hoped to hit (850). This was mostly owing the fact that I was also working on a massive writing project in the midst of the Challenge, a project that ended up taking up most of my December and January. And then it took me most of February to really gather my wits back about me. So by the time I was ready to start painting again in earnest, the Challenge was nearly complete.<br />
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Still, I did manage to knock off one big painting project (a platoon for <b>Bolt Action</b>) and make a start on my <b>40K </b>Black Templars project (which will get a post of its own at some point, I imagine).<br />
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Another reason I didn't do as well as I'd hoped is, ironically, because I've managed to establish a regular painting schedule outside of the Challenge. Last year, the Challenge was key to me getting a ton of unpainted figures finished up for my display cabinets, as it forced me to establish a regular nightly painting routine. I managed to maintain that routine, and even (thanks to moving into a bigger house) set up a permanent painting corner that makes putting in time on my figures even easier. So I felt less pressure to get things knocked out - there wasn't the "now or never" feeling of last year.<br />
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Also, due to my insane work schedule, I wasn't able to get invested in the <i>community</i> of the Challenge - commenting on other peoples' work, offering encouragement and advice, etc. (Indeed, I still have yet to get caught up on my blog feed in general; I've got a backlog of several weeks to wade through!) Losing that connection to the Challenge further reinforced my lackadaisical participation.<br />
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I'll probably participate again next year, but with a much lower points target. Maybe just a single big project or something. We'll see.<br />
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At any rate, as I did with my <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-painting-challenge-so-far.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, here's a round-up of what I submitted during the back half of the Challenge...<br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Bit of Brazilians</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Outside the Painting Challenge, my biggest project last year was putting together a platoon for games of </span><b style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Bolt Action</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. I went a bit off the beaten path with my choice of force, in that I modeled my platoon on the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), or Brazilian Expeditionary Force, which fought in Italy during the latter months of the war.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wrote about my collection in greater detail <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2015/09/bolt-action-brazil.html">here</a>, but in brief the FEB was mostly U.S. kit but with Springfield rifles instead of Garands (and an according difference in tactical doctrine). Part of the draw for modeling this force was the fact that the army was racially integrated, so it presented an opportunity to paint up models that look at once familiar yet subtly different, but I'll be honest: what really sold me was their divisional insignia--a snake smoking a pipe!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dGNatBMmIng/VrgT2Q1n8_I/AAAAAAAAFeU/_szy40755NU/s1600/441px-Brazilian_Expeditionary_Forces_insignia_%2528smoking_snake%2529.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dGNatBMmIng/VrgT2Q1n8_I/AAAAAAAAFeU/_szy40755NU/s400/441px-Brazilian_Expeditionary_Forces_insignia_%2528smoking_snake%2529.svg.png" width="331" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image courtesy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Expeditionary_Force#/media/File:Brazilian_Expeditionary_Forces_insignia_(smoking_snake).svg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I got to have a game with my boys from Brazil a couple months ago, and noted that my squads needed some beefing up, both in numbers and firepower. So here are six more recruits (including two BAR gunners) set to join the FEB's ranks in time for my next game.</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dsRGEfAcPgc/VrgUFoU2-oI/AAAAAAAAFeY/9kNOccPJm1o/s1600/IMG_2403.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dsRGEfAcPgc/VrgUFoU2-oI/AAAAAAAAFeY/9kNOccPJm1o/s400/IMG_2403.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aS52fF8xADg/VrgUF7jIiyI/AAAAAAAAFeg/qmiv50W2Af4/s1600/IMG_2404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aS52fF8xADg/VrgUF7jIiyI/AAAAAAAAFeg/qmiv50W2Af4/s400/IMG_2404.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing I didn't have in that game (nor in the pictures taken for the above-linked post) were sleeve insignia. The kind folks at <a href="http://www.fightingpirannhagraphics.com/" target="_blank">Fighting Pirannha Graphics</a> (and what an appropriate name that was!) took care of that for me, and I am now the proud owner of two sheets of FEB sleeve insignia decals...</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmfe7-YzbWI/VrgUGJFwB8I/AAAAAAAAFek/QUYDtCRTj2k/s1600/IMG_2405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmfe7-YzbWI/VrgUGJFwB8I/AAAAAAAAFek/QUYDtCRTj2k/s400/IMG_2405.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So that's six 28mm infantry for 30 points. A small ding in my total, but a good way to get back in the swing after losing January to work obligations. Next week, hopefully, a modest points bomb...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">28mm "Defenders of Leningrad"</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Next week, hopefully, a modest points bomb..." </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So spake I three weeks ago. Well, that's what I get for making promises, I guess.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But here, at last, is the promised modest points bomb: a platoon of Soviet naval infantry along with a KV-2 tank and a gaggle of citizen militia. This is a 1,000-point <b>Bolt Action</b> force modeled on forces defending Leningrad in early 1942, somewhere towards the end of winter and beginning of spring.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DyPmO3ysW90/VtOsE7a3JYI/AAAAAAAAFhc/m3HBpivERlA/s1600/IMG_2429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DyPmO3ysW90/VtOsE7a3JYI/AAAAAAAAFhc/m3HBpivERlA/s400/IMG_2429.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've long had an interest in the "Black Death" of the Great Patriotic War. Long ago, I had a platoon of them in 20mm scale. After getting into <b>Bolt Action</b> last year, and finding an opponent who enjoys early-war Eastern Front games as much as I do, I set about putting together a naval infantry force in 28mm.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First Squad</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Manufacturers are Warlord and BTD. There's a nice mix of black pea coats, blue middy blouses, and army-issue telogreika.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fF7EDOWbWK4/VtOrukpQHEI/AAAAAAAAFhQ/Arm-gb8wyc4/s1600/IMG_2443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fF7EDOWbWK4/VtOrukpQHEI/AAAAAAAAFhQ/Arm-gb8wyc4/s400/IMG_2443.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although I appreciate the authentic mix of uniforms, this is chiefly what slowed me down the most (especially with the extra militia squad in their civvies thrown in for good measure!). I'd anticipated that this project would paint up quickly--it was supposed to be just a bunch of black uniforms, after all. No such luck.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5BsxErn5Jm8/VtOrnuA10YI/AAAAAAAAFhM/prIr7He_Dgg/s1600/IMG_2442.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5BsxErn5Jm8/VtOrnuA10YI/AAAAAAAAFhM/prIr7He_Dgg/s400/IMG_2442.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Third Squad</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speaking of the black uniforms, I'm pretty pleased with how those turned out. They look suitably dark without losing too much detail or going too gray with the highlighting.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Platoon Command: HQ, Politruk, FAO, ATR team</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lz8gbg4Y_rM/VtOsR7SP1jI/AAAAAAAAFhk/GG8sdZWJm4I/s1600/IMG_2440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lz8gbg4Y_rM/VtOsR7SP1jI/AAAAAAAAFhk/GG8sdZWJm4I/s400/IMG_2440.JPG" width="315" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Commissar's in town!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I owe this to the "Black Paint Set" from Andrea Color, a set I'll be returning to when I shift gears and start working on my Black Templars for <b>40K</b> (which I'll hopefully be able to at least get a start on before the Challenge ends).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JtW3mJViBr4/VtOtK_4BPMI/AAAAAAAAFh4/cOv6GB7jZ7w/s1600/IMG_2437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JtW3mJViBr4/VtOtK_4BPMI/AAAAAAAAFh4/cOv6GB7jZ7w/s400/IMG_2437.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to these fellows, though: When researching this force, I read somewhere that there were KV-2s at Leningrad. One of my all-time favorite tanks, I leapt at the opportunity to do one in 1/56 scale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This KV-2 from Warlord bears the weathering of a tough winter: its whitewash camouflage largely dissolved by now, rust streaks in great abundance, tracks and running gear covered in frozen mud.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4BeDvPKDJcs/VtOrEp4Ut3I/AAAAAAAAFg8/vYkoqhUeVg0/s1600/IMG_2432.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4BeDvPKDJcs/VtOrEp4Ut3I/AAAAAAAAFg8/vYkoqhUeVg0/s400/IMG_2432.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bolt Action</b> provides Red Army lists with a free squad of Green-quality troops, so I decided to build on my "city defense" theme by representing my free squad with "partisan" figures, here standing in for Leningrad's ad-hoc People's Militia Army.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These figures from BTD have tons of character, and I found myself making up little back-stories for many of them. I painted up their commanding officer as a dismounted Cossack cavalryman, put in charge after his horse ended up in the communal stew pot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the finish line looms closer, I finally at least manage to put some points on the board towards my Black Templar project. I'd hoped to get through my entire Templar list this Challenge, but so it goes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've always had a soft spot for the 40K universe, but most of my gaming in that setting has been via Epic-scale engagements. For various reasons, I never got into 40K proper back in the 90s. I've nearly gotten into it a few times over the last 10 years, but I lacked a project that really fired my imagination.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That changed when I discovered the Black Templars. I love their look, I love their lore. In a gothic sci-fi universe, they are the most gothic of all. I used to field an Empire army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I think the Black Templars come closest to capturing that same visual aesthetic. I was additionally pleased to find out that Forge World offer a variety of resin and brass-etched "add-ons" to properly pimp out one's Templars in grand gothic fashion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What we have here is one of the centerpiece units of my Templar force: five Terminators and their Land Raider Crusader transport.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Terminators are kitted out with custom shoulder plates and shields from Forge World; for their helmets, I swapped in appropriately knight-like pieces from Puppets War (gotta love those third-party Eastern European conversion companies!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As befits the Eternal Crusaders of Righteousness, these guys are positively festooned in purity seals. (I love purity seals.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then there's the behemoth that is the Land Raider Crusader. This thing took almost as long to build as it did to paint! Coming off of painting WWII tanks, which are usually no more than 3-5 pieces <i>total</i>, it was a bit daunting assembling this thing, with its dozens of parts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Size-wise, it's truly massive - probably the largest vehicle miniature I've ever painted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once again, lots of nice additional details courtesy of Forge World.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm quite pleased with how the black turned out on both the Terminators and the Crusader. I used Andrea Color's "Black Paint Set" (as I did with my Soviet sailors in <a href="http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2016/02/from-davidl-28mm-defenders-of-leningrad.html" target="_blank">my last entry</a>) and the kit worked great both with the brush and airbrush (although the rather viscous paints needed a lot of watering down for the latter).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm going to knuckle down and get <i>one more</i> entry in before the closing ceremonies, so I won't say cheerio just yet...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For this, my final entry, I present my Curtgeld. Coming into the Challenge, I honestly had no idea of what this was going to be, but when David Bowie ascended to the stars back in January I suddenly had a notion of who I wanted to represent a risk-taker and gambler.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As many eulogies following his death pointed out, Bowie was a consummate risk-taker, constantly shedding his pop identity in favor of new realms of exploration, dabbling in the latest frontiers of a variety of musical genres and forms of expression, never sure if his next move would spell the end of his popularity or career. Yet time and time again, he proved his doubters wrong. Even his failures and wrong-turns were interesting and edifying in their own way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His public devil-may-care image inspired countless fans from all walks of life and identities to be themselves, to revel in their weirdness. His impact on the generations that grew up with the image of Ziggy or the Thin White Duke or, yes, Jareth the Goblin King is incalculable. And he went out like a true <i>artiste</i> with a brilliant final album musing on the nature of death and dying and immortality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This figure, originally a Ral Partha and now available via Iron Wind and amusingly titled "Androgynous Rocker with Microphone", fit the bill nicely to provide a 28mm tribute to the man.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And his tush.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nKmBg-jOYUQ" width="459"></iframe></span></center>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-30207548095713760032016-01-20T11:20:00.000-07:002016-03-23T09:37:16.040-06:00The Painting Challenge So FarIt's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, which can only mean one thing: it's time once again for the annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!<br />
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After a successful run last year, I've hopped on the merry-go-round once again. I found that the Challenge really motivated me to get through my unpainted lead piles, and I've been slowly stockpiling over the course of the intervening year in anticipation of doing so again.<br />
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As with last year, I'm starting off slowly thanks to holiday distractions (and, this year, a big writing project!), but I'm looking forward to really building up a big head of steam over the remaining weeks (the Challenge concludes on March 20th).<br />
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So far, I have two entries up for a total of 100 points out of a projected goal of 850 points (and putting me 45th out of 88 entrants). Not a bad start. If I can keep up a pace of 100 points per week for the remainder of the Challenge (that's the equivalent of 20 28mm figures, which seems realistic), I'll exceed my goal. Plus I've got a plan for the "Defensive Terrain" bonus round...<br />
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Here are my two entries so far:<br />
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Bug-Eyed Martians</h2>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hoo-boy, I am shaking off the rust! I did a fair amount of painting over the summer, but it's been a few months since I picked up the brush. So a small project as I stretch my muscles by way of a Christmas gift for my dear old Dad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He's a big fan of 50s sci-fi, and has a modestly-sized toy collection in that vein, so when I saw these figures from <a href="http://shop.hydraminiatures.com/index.php?cPath=2_55" target="_blank">Hydra Miniatures</a> I knew I had to get them, paint 'em up, and make a contribution to his collection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since they're meant for display, I didn't spare the garish colors and gloss varnish touches. I think he'll be pleased with the results.</span><br />
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Warmachine: Scruffy Desperado Types</h2>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">January is a very busy month for me work-wise, but I'm still managing to put in a couple hours every evening, and here (finally) is my first significant accomplishment of the Challenge: a passel of figures for Warmachine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These fellows (along with a Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew I painted a long time ago) are sufficient to field a good medium-sized force by the standards of the game. To be honest, the core concept of the force is meant to tweak the nose of my regular opponent, who usually fields the Cygnar faction. So here we have Magnus the Warlord, a traitor to his homeland of Cygnar, now a scruffy mercenary generalissimo conspiring to bring down Cygnar's current king.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He brings with him two Warjacks: the heavy Mangler and the light (and appropriately-named) Renegade. Although these are normally considered "mercenary" designs, Magnus has painted them in Cygnar blue--deep down inside, he still thinks of himself as a patriot--but life out in the swamps and badlands is tough, and the paint is peeling and chipping, the iron beneath beginning to rust.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To help in his plotting and endeavors, Magnus has contracted the services of the notorious bandit gang, Croe's Cutthroats. Armed with crossbows and "murder blades," these desperadoes are in it for the gold and plunder and couldn't care less about Magnus's political ambitions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even though my Warmachine/Hordes rules mastery remains woefully lacking, I'm looking forward to fielding these guys, and hopefully soon.</span>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-88963732041780309902015-09-21T10:17:00.000-06:002015-09-21T10:17:50.137-06:00Bolt Action Brazil!<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the English-speaking world, it is generally unknown that a volunteer Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) fought alongside the US Army in Italy from mid-1944 until the end of the war. This was in effect a light infantry division, consisting of three infantry regiments augmented with artillery and light armour. It was supported by a Brazilian Air Force contingent of a light reconnaissance squadron as well as a P-47 Thunderbolt-equipped fighter squadron. --From <i>Brazilian Expeditionary Force in World War II</i> by Cesar Campiani Maximiano and Ricardo Bonalume</blockquote>
About six months ago, I got it into my head to collect a <b>Bolt Action</b> platoon based on the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira, or FEB).<br />
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Why Brazil?<br />
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Well, like most folks who have been into a given period of historical wargaming for more than a few years, I'm inordinately interested in the weird little nooks and crannies of my chosen period, and the FEB struck me as a fun but not too "out there" choice (as far as these things go).<br />
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They were equipped by their American allies (for the most part), so standard U.S. figures suffice nicely. As a nice change of pace from the period, however, the FEB was the only fully racially-integrated division fighting for the Western Allies, so score one for diversity! In fact, I first started reading up on the FEB after having a productive online discussion with a <a href="http://egopoisoning.com/" target="_blank">fellow blogger</a> regarding the white-washed nature of typical WWII (European theater) wargaming. Warlord makes a range of Japanese-American and African-American figure heads that provided plenty of conversion opportunities.<br />
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Plus it can't be denied that Brazil in the 1940s has a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DexzGZlnXuw" target="_blank">certain romantic charm</a> about it.<br />
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But the final tipping point for me came when I saw their divisional sleeve patch:<br />
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Yes, that's a snake smoking a pipe. The image was based on an apocryphal story that someone (it changes depending on who you ask - let's just say Hitler) said that the Brazilians would join the war effort "when snakes smoked."<br />
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(I've currently got an order in with <a href="http://www.fightingpirannhagraphics.com/" target="_blank">Fighting Piranha Graphics</a> to produce a sheet of custom sleeve insignia decals...)<br />
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I ordered <a href="https://ospreypublishing.com/brazilian-expeditionary-force-in-world-war-ii-36549" target="_blank">Osprey's volume on the FEB</a> (because <i>of course</i> there's an Osprey book on the subject!) and did some reading. In the end, I decided to base my list off of the FEB in the last stages of the war, as they overran northern Italy during the spring of '45, specifically in the fighting around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Collecchio" target="_blank">Montese and Collecchio</a>. In particular, I modeled my collection on a <i>Pelotão de Choque </i>("Close Combat Platoon"), ad hoc units that were tasked with aggressive reconnaissance and "keeping up the scare" on the retreating Axis forces. The members of the Close Combat Platoons were hand-picked from various units based on their bravery and exploits in the war up to that point, so it's a nice way to model a fierce fighting force in an army that had a, shall we say, somewhat checkered service history.<br />
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Although the FEB was equipped with American materiel, they weren't carbon copies of U.S. soldiers. For one thing, despite intentions to do so, they weren't trained in the U.S. Army's contemporary tactical doctrine, and for good reason: the infantry were largely issued surplus M1903 Springfield bolt action rifles rather than the more famous M2 Garand. As such, the <b>Bolt Action</b> special rules for American troops wouldn't be a perfect fit.<br />
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What I decided to do, after further reading, was keep the AIR POWER special rule, but replace the FIRE AND MANOEUVRE rule with the VENGEANCE characteristic from the <i>Armies of Great Britain</i> supplement, the better to reflect the FEB's noted solidity on the defense and general chip-on-the-shoulder attitude of wanting to prove themselves to doubtful allies and foes alike.<br />
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Without further ado, then, some pictures:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the two "Close Combat" squads. Between the halftrack's .50-cal and the .30-cal team, these guys should be able to lay down some serious firepower.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The other "Close Combat" squad, including a bazooka team for some anti-armor (the one place where my list is fairly weak).</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Support elements: a Jeep mounting a .30-cal, an FAO team to call in those Thunderbolts, a medic and attached Jeep, and the platoon Lietenant and team. (I also painted up a "moving" .30-cal team for fun.)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, this is when things really went overboard - I assembled and painted a 1/48-scale Thunderbolt to use as an airstrike marker! How could I not though, when Italeri makes a kit with FEB markings?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An integral M8 armored car and an M10 tank destroyer from the 1st Armored Division (which operated in close communication with the FEB).</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Partisans! Advance units of the FEB often made contact with local insurgents and used them in operations against local German and Italian defenses.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole crew! A little over 1,000 points, so plenty of room to customize my list for a "standard" game. I hope to get them onto the table for a battle very soon.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DexzGZlnXuw" target="_blank">Os brasileiros estão chegando!</a>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-90176841559115835892015-09-16T12:40:00.003-06:002015-09-21T19:06:15.237-06:00WarmaHordes Battle Report - Encounter at Swamp Bridge<i>Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane pored over a map of eastern Cygnar, his brow furrowed. Reports had been coming in from the merchants and scouts that plied the routes along the boundary with the Bloodstone Marches of tracks of elephantine Titans, caravansaries found burned and ruined, and strange disappearances. Major Brisbane suspected Skorne activity, but had no solid evidence as of yet.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A knock at the door. "Come."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Captain Kara Sloane entered, heavy duster sweeping behind her. She saluted and Brisbane peremptorily returned the gesture before considering the map again. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Captain Sloan?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Report in from the Marchfells, Major. My contact Reinholdt -"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"That gobber speculator?" spat Major Brisbane.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"He may be a bit...dodgy. But he's never led me astray..."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>From behind Captain Sloane's duster emerged a squat little gobber wearing a bowler hat and a duster of his own.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I was on my way to see my coz, sir," said the gobber in his thick bayou accent. "Wagonload o' trade goods for the swamp-folk, you see. And then, outta nowhere, they come upon me. Big as a house if they was a thumb's height."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Major Brisbane took his eyes of the map and looked at the gobber, his brow arched. "Go on."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Tusks like so!" said the gobber, adding to the effect with hand gestures.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Brisbane and Sloane looked at each other. "Titans," said the Major. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>S</i><i>loane nodded. </i><i>"The Skorne are in the Marchfells. Reinholdt here can guide me back to the point of the ambush."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Yes, do go and see what you can find. Be careful, though - it's likely the Skorne have been bolstering their numbers with Gatormen and Farrow mercenaries."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Oh, don't worry about me," said Captain Sloane, smiling. "I know a few gun mages who still owe me a favor..."</i><br />
<br />
Another game of <b>Warmachine/Hordes</b> is in the can. We played 50 points, and just went with a straight-up skirmish this time. We'll try doing a scenario again soon, I'm sure...<br />
<br />
After the dissatisfaction I'd been experiencing with my terrain tiles, I did a bunch of research and settled on terrain mats as my preferred approach. They feel like a nice compromise between the eye candy of 3-D terrain and the ease-of-use that comes with just laying out a blanket to cover the table. I ordered some <a href="http://store.frontlinegaming.org/fat-mats" target="_blank">F.A.T. Mats from Frontline Gaming</a> and I was not disappointed. We used the "Swamp" mat for this battle. I also debuted some <a href="http://earlywarminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=413_415" target="_blank">latex roads from Early War Miniatures</a> that I'd bought a long time ago but have just gotten around to painting up, as well as some giant mangrove roots that I got through a discount pet supply site - they're meant for aquariums, but certainly look the business on the table! Didn't need painting or anything. (Debating whether to base them up, though.)<br />
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We agreed that the dark areas of brackish water on the mat would count as difficult terrain (half movement) except where they were crossed by the roads or bridge. I also couldn't resist putting an outhouse on the board, because why not?<br />
<br />
(The wagon would be Reinholdt's, although that particular connection didn't occur to me until after the game, when I was putting the "fluff" part of the game together in my head. Recovering the wagon could've made for an interesting scenario, though. I'll have to remember that in the future.)<br />
<br />
I won the initial dice roll and decided to let My Esteemed Opponent set up first. He had brought his trusty Cygnar along, this time led by Captain Kara Sloane. In contrast to last time, this was a distinctly "shooty" army to oppose my melee-focused force. Thus, I wanted to see where he was putting his firing lines so that I could deploy accordingly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That Defender 'jack would prove a most meddlesome opponent.</td></tr>
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Seeing Kara Sloane over on the left, with a squishy shield of puny hoo-mans between her and my Titans, I went with a heavily-weighted flank deployment. Hey, who says you have to set up your <b>W/H </b>armies in a <a href="http://etickets.s3.amazonaws.com/eventheaders/EventHeader_20121231133306_4071.jpg" target="_blank">Blood Bowl-style scrimmage line</a> every time?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battle about to be joined!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Hunter 'jack trundles off into the woods in the center. This was another one that gave me trouble.</td></tr>
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Due to my deployment, the battle quickly turned into one of two halves. Over on my right, my Gatormen surged forward. Despite losing my Paingiver Taskmaster early on, the gators managed to get stuck in against the Cygnar gun mages, whose magelock pistols proved largely ineffective as I closed for the charge. (This was due more to My Esteemed Opponent suffering some atrocious dice-rolling all night than any inherent imbalance in the matchup.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously, once the Gatormen got stuck in, it was <i>not</i> pretty.</td></tr>
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The main show was over on my left, however. I discovered that a Bronzeback Titan facing a shooty army is actually even more effective, since he automatically advances every time someone shoots him. He zigged and zagged his way across the board for two turns before contacting the line of riflemen that stood between him and Kara Sloane.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going after the Hunter 'jack that took a pot shot at him...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before turning the face the riflemen who unloaded a fusilade.</td></tr>
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I took a shot at winning the game by having my Bronzeback pick up and hurl one of the hapless riflemen straight at Kara Sloane (who is fairly squishy by Warcaster standards), but unfortunately the toss deviated and she was unscathed. However, I still had two other Titans moving up, getting set to crash through the screen of men, plus my Bronzeback, although close to death, was probably going to be able to execute a Trample attack and make a beeline for Sloane on the following turn. I was anticipating the very real possibility of actually winning.<br />
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And then My Esteemed Opponent's dice luck, which had been betraying him all night, finally snapped back into place. Kara Sloan activated her Feat, which allowed the Defender and Hunter 'jacks to unload a shedload of lead into Dominar's rubbery flesh. In one turn, he was knocked from full health all the way down to zero! And that was the game.<br />
<br />
So I'm 0-3, but it was a damn close-run thing this time. We were both sweating it out right up until the end, which is always my gold standard for a fun game. And this was the first time playing <b>Warmachine/Hordes</b> where I felt like I had a handle on the rules in general and how to best use my forces specifically. My one slip-up was that I thought Rasheth was out of LoS while <i>inside</i> the cloud of fog generated by my Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew, but I should have actually had him deployed <i>behind</i> the cloud. Lesson learned. (This balanced with the fact that My Esteemed Opponent probably could've taken my Bronzeback down earlier with a Combined Ranged Attack, but didn't apply the rules correctly, to his detriment.)<br />
<br />
This was also my first time deploying my unit of Farrow Bone Grinders, and they didn't do a whole hell of a lot. I'll probably set them aside in the future in favor of more proactive units like my Nihilators; they'd be a good fit in larger games, or perhaps for a particular scenario, but they didn't have much to do this time out.<br />
<br />
And so the Skorne incursion on the borders of Cygnar has been checked for now. But for how much longer can they be held at bay...?<br />
<br />
<i>Rasheth snarled at the agonizer at his side, its arm buried elbow deep in his blubbery flesh. "Dig deeper, you idiot! The ball is in there somewhere." He took a deep pull on his hookah, its soporific vapors overcoming the exquisite pain of the bullet extraction process. The fire had gotten too hot back there in the swamp, but he'd be back. His raiding force had tasted blood, and wanted more. Even now, he could hear the reptilian laughter of the Gatormen outside his tent as they played footbal with the head of one of the Cygnar gun mages that had fallen to their snapping jaws and giant pole-axes. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A mewling cry of triumph announced that the agonizer had located the final ball. With a splurging gush, the lead projectile was removed, covered in blood and bile. Rasheth took it and popped it in his mouth, savoring the taste of his own fluids. He closed his eyes and smiled.</i>David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-6823252432347451892015-09-01T20:49:00.002-06:002015-09-01T20:55:10.244-06:00WarmaHordes Battle Report - Killing Field (plus further thoughts on the game)Well, at least this time my defeat wasn't <i>quite</i> as humiliating...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've got to make some custom transfers so I can get my version of Rasheth's glyph on my models' banners.</td></tr>
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This was another learning game, but this time, on the advice of a <a href="https://twitter.com/mousekins" target="_blank">mutual friend</a>, we tried out a scenario as well. We settled on "Killing Field" from the rulebook. We also were both running theme lists. As usual, I was using the "Chain Gang" tier list. My Esteemed Opponent used the "Trial by Fire" theme list that, among other things, gave him three free trenches that played no role in the game whatsoever.<br />
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(Unfortunately, we realized we lacked suitable terrain for said trenches, so some ad-hoc slips of paper had to make do. And yes, I realize that in <a href="http://shirosminis.blogspot.com/2015/08/identifying-flat-note-in-warmahordes.html" target="_blank">my last <b>WarmaHordes</b> post</a> I was complaining about 2-D paper terrain. To quote Doc Holliday in <i>Tombstone</i>, "It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds.")<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the Cygnar lines, looking out over the...trenches?...and objective markers that would be my undoing.</td></tr>
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At any rate, like a sucka I went after the scenario objectives, which proved to be <i>incredibly</i> unfriendly to the way my force needs to operate. See, there's three markers, and you get one point for every marker you control at the end of a turn. And if you get seven points, you win!<br />
<br />
The problem is that in order to "control" a marker, you have to have a model camping out literally on top of it at the end of <i>every</i> turn. It's not enough to just run by and tag it as yours then move on, hoping your opponent doesn't run over and claim it for themselves. So I ran my melee-focused Skorne up to the center point of the table, and then essentially allowed My Esteemed Opponent to blast away at me with his many, many ranged weapons. By the time I realized my error, half my force was gone!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the huge gaping hole that had formerly been my left flank.</td></tr>
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Additionally, as this was still just a learning game, I had subbed out my Gatormen for a unit of Nihilators, just to see how they'd work. I now understand why Gatormen always show up in Rasheth lists. Not that the Nihilators were <i>bad</i>, per se, but a unit of Gatormen would've done much better, both in general and in this scenario particularly. Nihilators will be a good secondary choice for larger lists.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At long last, my Nihilator unit gets to grips with the enemy. Pity there was only one Nihilator left!</td></tr>
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I have to say, being a big fan of <b>Malifaux</b>, I found the fact that the scenario didn't add anything to gameplay (and in fact was a big reason I lost) to be rather counter-intuitive. In <b>Malifaux</b> you <i>have </i>to go after your scenario objectives (called Schemes and Strategies); if you just try to sit back and have a slugfest (unless that happens to be part of a Scheme objective), you <i>will</i> lose. Whereas, when it comes to <b>W/H</b>, I've rarely (if ever?) seen an online battle report in which the scenario actually determines the winner. Indeed, I've watched some in which Player A is ahead on Control Points the whole game - right up until his caster gets killed and Player B takes the victory. It's a completely different mode of play from <b>Malifaux</b>.<br />
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There's also certainly the possibility that, since we were playing 35-point lists, we simply didn't have enough troops on the field to effectively address the scenario victory conditions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWDg9kFmebw/VeZe08dkecI/AAAAAAAAFGg/OtN56wFavFs/s1600/IMG_2200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWDg9kFmebw/VeZe08dkecI/AAAAAAAAFGg/OtN56wFavFs/s320/IMG_2200.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another thing that held me up: discovering what exactly the Centurion's "polarity field" does... :-/</td></tr>
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Now.<br />
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Having said all that, I still find myself really engaged by the game. It's got so many different layers, all operating at the same time, and a minor slip-up can have major repercussions (for example, I neglected to move up an Agonizer at a crucial time that could've <i>totally</i> shut down My Esteemed Opponent's front line, but didn't and so paid the price...), so the game demands a real level of intellectual engagement quite similar to a collectable card game.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E9YeNhFC72M/VeZe1E4dh-I/AAAAAAAAFGs/2Dvv2M-temI/s1600/IMG_2203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E9YeNhFC72M/VeZe1E4dh-I/AAAAAAAAFGs/2Dvv2M-temI/s320/IMG_2203.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No matter what, <b>W/H</b> always manages to deliver a satisfying dustup at some point during the game. Shortly after this photo was taken, the Titan Gladiator on the left, close to death and no doubt bleeding from every orifice, would manage to bodily hoist up the Centurion and loft him a good distance, landing on a hapless Gobber!</td></tr>
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Also, despite my slip-ups (and, frankly, below-average dice rolling), it was still a relatively close game. I got to mess some stuff up towards the end, and with a mighty Bronzeback at that, and was even a turn away from possibly making an assassination run. As usual, I enjoyed throwing things around the battlefield (not that the Centurion's armor of 24 left me many other options...). The Skorne remain a fun faction to play, and I'm planning to expand my collection over the coming months.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-chKLXaAj79g/VeZe1sQ6pYI/AAAAAAAAFG0/FpkMVLW1Ok8/s1600/IMG_2206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-chKLXaAj79g/VeZe1sQ6pYI/AAAAAAAAFG0/FpkMVLW1Ok8/s320/IMG_2206.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bronzeback's run for glory that came too little, too late.</td></tr>
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On a final note, this was also the inaugural wargame played in my new gaming room, and I couldn't be happier with how that went. My terrain boards, on the other hand, are leaving something to be desired for me personally. Time for another shakeup in that department, methinks. Anyone interested in buying these boards? Drop me a line.</div>
David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-51692250083392844112015-08-31T10:55:00.001-06:002015-08-31T10:55:11.266-06:00Vintage WargamingSome of you may be aware that British Pathe has begun uploading its archives to YouTube. A wonderful little piece from 1966 popped up on my feed the other day, and I wanted to share it here:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F5bpw4yyEI8" width="459"></iframe></center>
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Old school!<br />
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(Nice to see that "husband & wife" wargaming goes back a ways, too.)David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21245243.post-85285066803464266732015-08-12T10:24:00.000-06:002015-08-12T10:24:29.301-06:00Identifying the Flat Note in WarmaHordesI have an interestingly ambivalent relationship with <b>Warmachine</b> and <b>Hordes</b>. I first discovered the Iron Kingdoms back when it was a d20 RPG setting, and I've loved it ever since. There really aren't any missed notes in that world, and the art and graphic presentation of both the RPG and miniatures lines is always top notch.<br />
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So I was happy to take the plunge into the world of <b>WarmaHordes</b> back in spring of 2014. But almost immediately, I started to hear a dissonant note among the previously flawless symphony of awesome. (Yeah, how's that for a metaphor?)<br />
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And I've been trying to figure out where that flat note was coming from ever since.<br />
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I think I've got it now.<br />
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Here's the thing: I'm a "fluff" guy. I like crunch, sure, but I play miniatures games for the story as much for the challenge of trying to beat my opponent. I'm not a "scenario only" type of gamer, don't get me wrong, but I like a bit of context to my games. Lack of fluff is one of the primary reasons I stopped playing <b>Armies of Arcana</b>, for example. It's not enough for me to just have "Amazons versus Undead" or "Russians versus Germans".<br />
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Having said that, I realize that a lot of folks don't give two bits about a setting's fluff and are perfectly happy with generic match-ups. But what I'm primarily seeing when it comes to how <b>WarmaHordes</b> is represented online is an almost willful dismissal of the setting's fluff within the context of gameplay. Which is ironic, considering that the Iron Kingdoms is probably one of the most fluff-heavy games out there, perhaps even more so than <b>40K</b>.<br />
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The realization struck me when I was watching the latest <a href="https://youtu.be/ptH_mJMnFfc" target="_blank">WarGamerGirl battle report</a>. These reports are always top notch (I'm a Patreon backer, because I want to see more!), but I realized what's missing from them is any sort of fluff. Even though they inevitably use a scenario, we're not told what the scenario is about or how the forces on the table fit into the scenario.<br />
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In this latest report, we're told that they're using the scenario "Incoming" but, although the setup and victory conditions of the scenario are flashed up on the screen, we are not told what the scenario is meant to signify. What's "incoming," precisely? Is this, like, attacker versus defender, or a meeting engagement, or what? The victory conditions don't help, either. We get the usual "boxes" on the table, but are not told why it's important that the factions control those boxes. (I was also a little disappointed to note the appearance of flat paper terrain in this report.)<br />
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Now, it might seem like I'm picking on WarGamerGirl, but I'm only singling her out because she strikes me as being right in the mainstream of <b>WarmaHordes</b> players. The culture of the game seems to focus around abstract, crunch-focused considerations. The game itself encourages a rather unrealistic flow of action, with the two factions lining up opposite each other scrimmage-style in one big long line. The game's pixel-bitching focus on "WYSIWYG" line of sight rules, and the crucial importance of LoS in the game, makes terrain almost a hassle to deal with. I've seen other <b>W/H</b> players expressing their preference for flat paper terrain, since it makes it easier to judge issues of LoS and positioning.<br />
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What of it, then? That's the question. Does this crunch-focused culture that pervades the community, that indeed seems to be encouraged by the rules themselves, affect my own <b>W/H</b> gaming in any way? Well, yes and no.<br />
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Certainly, I'm free to play the game with however much fluff I wish to inject, as always. But it's undeniable that the greater culture surrounding a game influences how one experiences the game itself; one of the appeals of the "OldHammer" movement is that it's extremely DIY and fluff-focused, both causes near and dear to my heart.<br />
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(My introduction to battle reports came in the pages of <i>White Dwarf</i> back in the early 90s, and those reports always had lots of fun little fluffy details, including snippets of fiction based off events in the battle. That's still my idea of a perfect battle report.)<br />
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Furthermore, knowing that the seeming majority of <b>W/H</b> players subscribe to this more crunch-heavy approach means that I'm a lot less likely to try and look for pick-up games among my local gaming community. It all feels a bit alienating.<br />
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As I said at the top of this post, I still love the Iron Kingdoms setting a decade after my first exposure. And, having identified what's been bothering me about <b>Warmachine</b>/<b>Hordes </b>all this time, I can take appropriate steps to no longer be bothered by said things. But I kind of wish it didn't have to be this way to begin with. I wish the game was more in line with <b>Malifaux</b>, which does an <i>excellent</i> job of effortlessly generating "fluffy" details even through its own crunch. Or, dare I say it, that <b>W/H</b> would get the <a href="http://www.corehammer.com/self-reflection-in-the-age-of-sigmar-brinton-williams/" target="_blank">"Age of Sigmar" treatment</a>...?<br />
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<br />David Larkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.com7