A Picture, 1000 Words, Yadda Yadda

Although my postings here are a bit slow of late, I've been posting more elsewhere: G+ and especially on Instagram. 

I really like the latter, as I don't feel compelled to say more than a few words about what's pictured. 

Sometimes, i don't want to slow the game down to take a dozen pictures, and then type and edit a summary, especially when I'm learning to play (like Song of Blades and Heroes presently - and which I'm really enjoying. There's something about fantasy skirmish that brings out the kid in me. More than usual, that is.) but I still want something for posterity. 

I find it's also a great way to share painting progress. A picture or two is all it takes, and since I'm using my phone anyway, a few finger taps later and it's posted. 

Paint Table Friday

I started in on Song of Blades and Heroes (part of my 10 games, 10 times challenge) and it's done two things: got me psyched about paper figures again but also, maybe I should try to paint some of the Reaper Bones figures I've got taking up space.

Shields need some touching up and the swords aren't finished yet.

And here's a blurry picture of a portion of my paper goblin warband (led by the red chaos knight):

More T-34 progress

This is just to document my progress on the T-34. Feel free to move along if you're not interested. No hard feelings.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm on a Sharpie kick - evidence is amply supplied below.

Don't worry - I intend to build some of the detail I've drawn, and for that which I do decide to draw, I'll use stencils. My freehand is scary.

With the side of the hull cut-away, you can see the box sub-structure.

Note the flex in the card stock - one more reason to build the final product w/ cereal boxes.

I caution that this is just a mock-up at this point and a rather hasty one at that - I'm just using scissors rather than digging out the hobby knife, self-healing cutting mat and steel ruler. And my folds are anything but clean. Still, although there are gaps and unevenness  I think you can see that the target isn't entirely out of reach.

Assuming I can figure out the dimensions, angles and construction techniques to make the model, I'll build a proper one out of much stronger cereal box cardboard. Ideally, the process, once discovered would be easily repeatable - perhaps building a template with some simple drawing tools, as found in Word.

How much fun would it be to build a pile of cardboard T-34s, T-70s and Panzer IVs (perhaps backed up with some Marders or Stugs) for a Little Wars type game to celebrate the 100th anniversary of those rules and to honor the 70th anniversary of the battle of Kursk?

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself there. I ought to really finish one of these before I think about making them in the 10s, let alone making models for which I have no physical item on hand.

T-34 Breakthrough!

As I mentioned the other day, I've been trying to model a Russian T-34 in paper.

Actually, that sounds a little to generous. I've been trying to model the hull of a Russian T-34 in paper.

I have a pile of failed attempts (although some may be useful as scout ships in 15mm, and of course, each one leads me closer to the goal, so lemons and lemonade and all that), not to mention that it looks like a snow storm happened around me with all the paper cuttings.

Still, this afternoon I have gotten the closest yet - I rushed the completion of it as I had only a few minutes to do it, and rather than measure it all out, I used the previous version as a template and adjusted it on the fly.

paper model hull in "winter camo" with plastic source looking on mockingly

Now I realize it's not terribly exciting to look at yet,  and I really don't need another T-34 (I have two already, but I wanted to start with something I had on hand) and you'd think given the hours I've spent getting to this point there would be more to show, but I'm still pretty excited. 

I have learned 3 things so far:

• My geometry, what miniscule amount I remember, is rusty at best
• I am not an engineer
• It's fun to assemble paper models, it's a whole different world of fun to design your own!

Minimizing the Cost of Armor

This is not about the cost of plate mail in D&D (in b/x it was only 60 gp!), but of tanks and such for WWII, particularly as it relates to 1/32 scale vehicles.

While infantry at this scale are affordable, not that'd I'd want to assemble a 1:1 company, armor is quite a bit different - the cheapest plastic kit I can find is around $10, with some pre-assembled items going for $60 or so. 1/35 vehicles are, to my eye, satisfactory and there are a good many kits available, but these too are pricey.

For gaming at this scale, generally, only a handful of vehicles are required, so that helps some.

Still, it does not alter the fact that my entire gaming budget for the year might only field vehicles for a single scenario from a Skirmish Campaigns book if I'm lucky!

And so, I turned to looking for printable card model PDFs. While searching (and finding a lot, although many looked complicated), I remembered an article in Lone Warrior #168, by Marvin Scott, that described scratchbuilding your own vehicles (among other frugal tips). 

Then, as fate would have it, I stumbled onto some paper modeling sites which led me to some very inspirational card stock vehicles.

Here are 1/35 vehicles made from cereal boxes:

Cereal Box Tanks: Marder III from Kristopher Peck on Vimeo.

Now, that example is a good deal beyond my ability, but his first examples seem achievable and I happen to like the way they look, especially the King Tiger, which has a toy-like appearance to it:

Cereal Box Tanks: The First Three from Kristopher Peck on Vimeo.

I'm anxious to give it a try - to make matters simple, I think I'd start with something I already have in 1/32, a T-34, just to get the measurements and angles right.

Adventure in Wellslandia

Harry Dunwich, renowned explorer, by request of the British consulate in Wellslandia, has been tasked with escorting Father Alexander "Alexi" Pytersvanski, to the village of Slurmby on the Yada-yada river. A citizen of the Empire has taken a Russian for his bride and they wish to be wed in the Russian Orthodox tradition. For the British this is a diplomatic mission - an attempt to establish better relations with Russia.

In addition to Mr. Dunwich, Fr. Alexi has been provided with an escort of two of Her Majesty's finest British Regulars and three British-trained askari. Mr. Dunwich has hired on four native porters to carry supplies.

What follows is Mr Dunwich's account of the trip:

Day 1- A giant carnivorous plant of unknown species attempted to devour one of the porters. His flavor was apparently disagreeable to the thing and it spat him out. We had a good laugh at his expense.

Day 2 - Uneventful. A rare thing indeed. Fr .Alexi, in his heavily accented English, made the travel more enjoyable as he elaborated on the differences of Orthodoxy and other variations of faith. He is quite an interesting fellow.

Day 3 - Ambushed! The lizard tribes of Wellslandia wage a continuing war against humans, native and otherwise. A party of five spear attacked us and killed one porter (and destroyed the provisions he carried) and one Askari. It is tragic, but not unexpected. Fr. Alexi performed a simple ceremony for the fallen.

The lizard folk are anxious to rid their lands of humans.

They fall to our superior fighting ability.

The loss of life reminds the party of the dangers they may face. But, they must continue!

Day 4 - Confound it! They must be trailing us. Another small party of lizard harassed us. The askari could not hit a dead fish in a barrel. Trained? My foot! Fr. Alexi was struck during a vicious melee but the villain was dispatched. One of the devil-spawn retreated into the jungle. I fear he's gone for reinforcement.

Father "Alexi" stares death in the eye and laughs.

Day 5 - Uneventful. Perhaps not as rare an occurrence as I thought. Fr.Alexi, it seems, is an avid fan of the pugilistic science. We trade stories about the great fighters of our respective countries.

Day 6 - Mired in a swamp, our party became separated. One askari and a porter fell off the pace. Either they have been eaten by a crocodile or we shall see them again when we set up camp.

Day 7 - The porter and askari made their way to camp but they may have suffered the same fate either way. The lizard folk are tenacious. The battle was terrific and another porter is killed. With the loss of the provisions he carried, we are dangerously close to failure.

Here they come again!

The aftermath.

Day 8 - Pray your path never crosses a stampeding herd of triceratops. Another askari killed - impaled and trampled by the frightened creatures. Pray again that you not cross the path of what frightens these beasts.

Day 9 - So close to the village, it is with heavy heart that I note the deaths of Pvt. Smith and Pvt. Miller at the hands of the pestering lizard tribes. We buried the men in simple graves and covered them with stones to keep predators at bey. Fr. Alexi inscribed a prayer in Cyrillic on a piece of slate he placed at the head of the mound.

And again!

This time would be different.

The body count rises

An unlikely hero, Ngenzokwami kills a lizard and protects the remaining provisions.

Father "Alexi" surveys the damage and orders the porters to follow him, while Mr. Dunwich finishes off the lizards.

He isn't a renowned explorer for nothing.

Day 10 - Our party, so very small now, and on the brink, arrived at the village to great fanfare. There appears to be an abundance of women here. I shall rest awhile and enjoy it, before we prepare for the return trip.

The welcome party!

"A drink sir? Chilled vodka perhaps??"

The aforementioned women and the science type old guy.

***
Rules were a home-brew, inspired by this post by Chris at Just Another Wargames Blog and this one (which I've referenced before) from Fitz-Badger at Soweiter League.

Provisions (inspired by "Adventures in Jimland") - each porter carries 5 provisions. 1 provision is used per day under normal circumstances. 

If a porter is lost or killed, subtract 5 provisions from the total. If there are less than 5, reduce to 0

If the party is reduced to 0 provisions, all rolls suffer a -1 penalty and starvation (1 on a 1d6, save as normal) is possible. Test for all members of party each turn.

Movement -
6" (seems out of scale but it keeps things moving)
run/charge = 6" +1d6"
rough terrain, woods, etc. = 1/2 movement

Combat:

Main characters have 3 hit points before killed

Troop ratings -
Poor  = -1 to hit
Regular = +/- 0
Veteran = +1 to hit

Weapon ranges - 
Pistol = 6"
Rifle= 12

Shooting -
Roll 1d6, hit on a 4,5,6

Shooting Modifiers -
short range = 1/2 weapon range,  +1
long range = range to 2x range, -1
target in cover -1
can not shoot if running

Melee -
1d6 each participant, higher score wins
more than one attacker, defender fights each individually

loser rolls saving throw on 1d6, on 6 ignores hit and continues fighting

main characters get +2 bonus on saving throw

Morale - 
Lizard folk - roll 1d6, if greater than number remaining, they retreat. Those that retreat are added to the next lizard folk encounter.

Porters - if attacked (and survive) roll 1d6, on a 1-2 they run until rallied by another figure (figure must get within 2" of porter). If makes it off table, porter is lost and presumed dead.

Special:
T. Rex (if it appears) has 5-10 hit points depending on size.
claw/claw/bite attack (roll 3x to attack) and can use tail for targets to rear (roll 1x)
Saving throw on every hit.

Encounters-
There are 10 possible encounters. Using a deck of cards, assign one card to each encounter and then 5 additional cards that are unassigned, i.e. blank (if creating more than 10 encounters, the rule of thumb is half as many "blanks" as encounter cards).

Shuffle. Draw a card. Play out encounter. Repeat until you've drawn 10 cards. You reach the destination after the 10th card is played.

The table I used (all are Clubs):
Ace - 5 lizard spear
2 - 5 Lizard sword
3 - 10 lizard sword - poor
4 - 5 lizard spear
5 - 4 lizard sword - veteran
6 - giant carnivorous plant - roll 1d6 on a 1 a giant carnivorous plant attacks 1 party member randomly determined. Save as normal.
7 - Swamp - Roll 1d6, on a 1, figure is delayed in swamp. If next encounter is combat ,arrives on 2nd turn.
8 - T. Rex (see above)
9 - Swamp, same as 7
10 - Herbivore stampede - roll 1d6 for each figure, on a 1, figure is caught in stampede. Save as normal.

This encounter idea (and the morale for lizard folk) is not my own.  In "Aztec Gold", by Will McNally, which appeared in Lone Warrior #166, a system is presented that essentially replicates an ambush for the solo player. Each successive native attack is reinforced by the survivors of the previous one. 

That same issue, by the way, includes the most requested article from Lone Warrior: "Enemy Behavior in Action: Renaissance Swiss". I highly recommend getting a copy -pdf or print - for both of these gems!

While I fared well this time, heavy losses are typical (the combat rules you use will influence this, of course) and I often do not reach the destination.

Yet Another Monthly Goal Post

June was somewhat laid back compared to prior months. In addition to several solo games and an excessive number of posts here, I completed the following:

My goal was 14 15mm figures, and I did 13 (although several not among those I intended):

The expedition

The Russian priest, Fr. Alexi and the British explorer, Sir Harry

This guy is itching for a fight. You don't want to scratch that itch.

I was shooting for one dozen palm trees, and I finished with nine, although many of these still need paint on the leaves/fronds:

A view of several palm trees - completed and not quite.

 More 15s:

 Commander Kropotkin (one figure, many uses) leading a squad of Sepulvedan Resistance fighters.

 1/72 scale paper Shermans - I only need four and not the six I thought:

 

The Japanese artillery:

 

A camouflaged Japanese bunker:

USMC Artillery:

For July, I'm going to try to post just 10 times (so 9 more), which will put me over my goal of 100 for the year. 

I started a 10 figure French Zouave unit for G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. in June but I'm finishing those up over the next day or so and they'll count towards July. I'd like to get my Khurasan salamander unit painted, maybe the remaining Zouaves (many of them have broken bayonets which I'm not sure how to fix well) too, but if not then at the very least the 3 remaining porters and the 2 British soldiers - I'm gearing up for a return to Jimland (probably the first set of "wargame" rules I really loved).

Finally, I have a couple of paper pill boxes to finish up and then I can play the Pacific Assault game as described in Lone Warrior #172. I'm sure I'll also play out the next game in my Helvetica campaign and Goldielocks scenario, and do some solo RPGing, either with the Annwyn Investigations campaign or a pre-written dungeon crawl with Mythic to throw me curves.

And what the heck, for wishful thinking, cleaning and priming the first box of figures for the Great Northern War project.

Dungeon Squad Assemble!

The other night I was feeling in a dungeon crawl mood but I didn't want to spend time coming up with characters, or monsters, or a plot - I just wanted to move miniatures on dungeon tiles and fight stuff.

Enter Dungeon Squad:

Dungeon Squad is a role-playing game designed expressly for young players with short attention spans who demand action and fun.

Rather coincidentally, that also sounds like me sometimes (minus the "young" part).

For the dungeon, I used the Official Tabletop Diversions No-budget No-frills d12 Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator (with some judgement calls due to the limits of the coffee table) but rather than breaking out the graph paper, I used my Dungeon Tiles Master Set - The Dungeon (contrary to what it says, you can use it with any rule set - there's nothing 4e specific about it).

I set up a an encounter table (I opted to make a goblin lair with some random monsters as well) and a wandering monster table and had at it:

The fighter with no name and his hapless companion burst through the door to find two skeletons rather irritated at their arrival:

Hack and Slash, the Bones Brothers

 A furious fight ensues, but the fighter is victorious.

The next encounter did not go so well.  The Cannibalistic Barbarian of the 2nd Level had been rummaging around the first level when the fighter and hapless companion burst in on him.

Cannibal the Barbarian

I lost 7 hit points (I had lost 4 with the two skeletons). A healing potion that I had purchased in town wasn't worth the money I paid for it. Three lousy hit points.

A skeleton patrol rounded the corner and the fighter with no name, at great personal risk, charged into the fray. Aided by the narrow hallway, he made fast work of the bone brigade.

Skeletons in the Hall

Unfortunately, the next room held the self-declared and undisputed guardian of the dungeon, the Chaos Knight:

Chaos Knight - One Bad Ass Dude.

I may have made his stats a little on the tough side - and paid for it. There was only one option:

Run away!

And here for your viewing pleasure, the dungeon:

Try Not to be Distracted by the Table

In addition to the faux mother of pearl inlay on the coffee table, you probably noticed that not a single goblin appeared. This is undoubtedly because I spent half an hour looking for them before the game began. Had I not gone looking for (and found) them, they most certainly would have turned up every encounter.