Forest terrain for smaller scales

Most of my gaming is on hexes these days and I needed some indicators for forested areas that were suitable for 3mm to 15mm figures. I looked at some commercial options but didn't want to pay the high price so I decided to just make some using stuff I mostly had laying around.

I cut some floor tiles into hexagons and then bisected them. I wanted a mixed of conifers and deciduous. The conifers are made from wavy pipe cleaners (in eye-searing Christmas green) that I glued to the base.

I then spray primed it black and hit it with some matt sage green. This dulled the pipe cleaners (mostly!) and matched the base to the rest of my terrain.

I then filled in the spaces with train foliage.

The result, seen from above and three feet away, looks fine and is hazy enough it can work in multiple scales. I didn't want to haul out a hex mat so I just pulled a single hex to photo-illustrate the finished effect. The hex can be fully filled with trees.

If there are units, they mostly fit with half of the hex open. A green felt hex laid underneath would allow removal of all the trees but still have the space marked as forest. So now I'm off to look through the bins for some dark green felt.

I have a small number of hex bases left that I didn't turn into forest. I'l; have to have a look through the rule book to see if there are other kinds of terrain I need to model.

Random painting

I have a pile of random figures on my paint table and this week I finished a few batches.

First up were five 28mm zombies that Chen gave me. These look better in person--the lighting is washing out the highlights on them.

I also bought some Star Wars Risk Clone Wars figures to see what the size was like (20mm maybe). The clone troopers aren't useful but the battle droids will supplement my 15mm army, which includes some other Star Wars droids plus some dog-like humanoid troopers and a bunch of mechs (also on the painting table).

In addition to the mechs, I have a bunch of fantasy figures and some terrain on the painting table.

Battle of Hoth

Jessica happily agreed to give my new Battle of Hoth game a test drive a few weeks back. This is basically a re-skin of Memoir '44 with a few sci-fi flourishes, separate activation decks, and a smaller playing area. Jess chose the Sith and we played the first three scenarios in the scenario book in about 80 minutes to get the hang of the rules and the units.

First up was a meeting engagement. Jessica won this handily, which meant that I could take the gloves off for the next two games! We added in the "character" cards (basically extra activation cards themed for three different characters on each side) that give the game some extra colour.

Game two introduced walkers and snow speeders and I used the speeder mobility to isolate and kill Jessica's snow trooper units while evading her AT-AT, which is pretty hard to destroy. 

It wasn't a romp by any means but it was a pretty clear win for the good guys.

The third scenario introduced more terrain and laser canons for the Rebels. This was a pretty hard-fought battle. The smaller map (7x10 hexes) means you are in contact almost immediately.

Jess managed to take out the laser cannon that was jamming up the valley for her but I kept re-occupying the hex before she could grab the victory markers. In the end, some savvy play that took advantage of some special cards gave me the win. 

Overall, this was a pretty fun Memoir adaptation. I am looking forward to the two linked campaigns that the game comes with. I would think there is an easy Endor expansion available if this one sells. Plus probably lots of Clone War possibilities.

Star Wars Risk Part 2

A few weeks back, I posted some pictures of the Rebel fighters I painted from the Star Wars Risk game, which recreates the Battle of Endor. I finished the rest of the minis in the game plus I replaced some counters with minis.

First up was a horde of Tie fighters. These just got a dark grey prime, white dry brush, and dark wash.

They are sightly smaller and less refined than the Tie fighters from the Star Wars Rebellion game (right).

I also needed a rebel fleet. 

The cruisers are just targets for the Death Star in the game but I had these ships, so why not?

The Falcon replaces a counter and is a 3-D print my buddy Dave made me. Paint job was mostly washes.

The Imperials needed an Executor and a partially assembled (but fully operational) Death Star. The throne room fight also needed Vader and Luke figures--these were old 25mm West End Games figures (or maybe Star Wars Monopoly?) that I had laying around. There are better figures but whatever.

I also needed a Rebel ground force and the Storm Troopers the imperial player can throw at it as road bumps. These are 18mm figures from Star Wars Rebellion.

This is the game set up from the instruction manual with unpainted figures and counters.

This is the game with painted minis.

The throne room duel is so-so.

The shield generator assault on Endor is better.

The space battle is sweet.

Hoping I can convince the kid to give this a whirl with me this week.

The Battle of Hoth

For my birthday, my wife got me the new Battle of Hoth game. This is basically a reskin of Memoir 44 and comes with miniatures.

The bulk of the miniatures are Imperial Snowtroopers, which I promptly painted up.

The snow troopers are okay figures. This was a quick prime, detail and wash. I see the bases may need some more work.

The best part about them is that they more or less match the 25mm West End Games figures I have from the 1980s. The WEG figure is slightly beefier and is on a washer but otherwise, these are a good match. It is wild how long it has taken for a Star Wars game token to match the old WEG figures!

There are also some probe droids that match the WEG ones pretty closely.

There are also a bunch of Rebel Hoth Troopers.

These are pretty nice figures that paint up well.

The rest of the minis have variable scales. The snow speeders are maybe 5-6mm sized.

The AT-ATs are very small (2mm?), the turrets are more like 10mm, and I've no sense of the ion cannon or the shield generators.

Once put on the game board, the effect is awesome and I cannot wait to play a game as well as the two campaigns the box comes with.

Fistful of Lead: Gangsters

In early September, Bruce put on a game of Fistful of Lead with his 28mm gangsters. His table was amazing.

The coppers had learned Mr. Big was going to move out a large shipment of illicit hooch and were determined to send him a message. Mr. Big learned of the raid and decided to use it as a chance to send the coppers a message of his own.

The coppers set up on the far side of the table while the gangsters set up anywhere to about the halfway mark (roughly the bridge in the shot above). 

There was an early rush up the table and two cops went down. That pushed play (other than sniping) out to the wings. The right-hand wing saw some indeterminant gunplay and the cops beat a retreat.

 

The majority of the cops rushed the left wing, eventually pushing back the gangsters and searching one of the six potential spots where the booze was hidden.

The gangsters started to shift their remaining troops to stop this push. Granny with the shotty was first on the scene, wounding and suppressing cops and even KOing one in a fist fight.

In the end, the coppers, who had a very difficult tactical situation, just didn't have the weight to finish the job. Bruce thought maybe increasing the number or possibly the quality of the cops might have evened things up, which makes sense. Another option could be to have most of the gangster start on the boat so they would have to move into position, rather than just snipe under cover.

A different tactical approach might have been to have the cops set up (which was done in secret) to rush the left side of the board, which would have caught the gangster short on manpower, overwhelm them and hope for some lucky searching. Hard to say if that would have been effective.

Overall, the game was a ton of fun with a good narrative developing from the card play and tough decisions to make on the table.

Halloween thrills!

This week, Bruce and I played a movie-monster themed game in honour of Hallowe'en. Bruce has been adapting the gladiator module for Fistful of Lead to swashbucklers and now horror and this was our horror playtest.

Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and two wraiths start in the cemetery (left side) and Frankie has an appointment to throw a girl down the well just off the right side of the board. Doc. Frankenstein and various hangers on must prevent him from getting past them. Below is the shot from the "good" guy's starting position.

I pushed the good guys forward, trying to take up a blocking position without anyone getting too far away so they would be isolated. The bad guys moved under blinds until they were were within 12 inches (it's night time, of course). Below, you can see Dracula has just materialized on the far left side of the board, likely scaring the hell out of the guy armed with a rake (?!?).

Dracula and the peasant tangle. The combat system has a very sword-play vibe to it with moves and counter moves built into the simple mechanics.

Meanwhile, mid-board, Frau Blucher encounters a wraith and Frankenstein's location has been revealed. Play starts to gravitate towards Frankie.

It takes all three of the best good guys to put a pasting in this wraith while Frankie tries to slip around the left flank.

Dracula is a tough customer but is starting to take some damage in the three-on-one I had going. He disapparats and then reappears a couple of times but the beating is starting to tell.

Things then take a turn for the good guys as Frankie "Hulk smash's" three characters into pulp (ack!). But Dracula flees to fight another day and, in the end, Igor valiantly avenges Dr. Frankenstein's squishing.

 A super fun game on beautiful terrain with almost nothing to look up.