Star Wars Risk fighters part 1

In the autumn, I bought a Star Wars themed game of Risk because it looked to contain a bunch of fighters as game tokens. I figured the game would suck (it is Risk, after all) but the tokens would be worthwhile.

To my surprise, the game (which focuses on the Battle of Endor) actually looks good, using cards to drive action on three separate tracks (shield generator, space battle, and throne-room duel). I'm keen to play but first I need to paint the figures!

There are three types of rebel ships (B, Y and X wings) that are molded in hard plastic. A bit of spray prime, some detailing, and a wash and voila, a pretty decent fleet. These are pretty small (like 3-4mm scale) but perfect for all sorts of gaming. If I was going to use them for different rules, I would probably base the X-wings.

I still have a bunch of Tie fighters to paint (they are primed but are fiddly as they have no bases to hold onto) and I'd also like to replace a few of the paper tokens with proper models.

Congo Dinosaur Hunt!

In late summer, Bruce ran a game of Congo, which is always a hoot and offers very difficult decisions around what actions to select each turn. This game was a Lost World dinosaur hunt with room for up to four players: big game hunters, a film crew, a scientific expedition, and some new pulp spacefarers, each competing with all for the highest point totals. We had only two players so I took the big game hunters and Bruce took the spacefarers.

The big game hunters two groups of dinosaurs and engaged them. There were points for killing the dinos and further points for collecting scientific data about them. Getting two groups of dinosaurs right away was a big advantage.

The spacefarers also found dinos but they ran away. The spacefarers then worked their way towards the river, hoping to find some more dinos.

The Bob Murch figures Bruce painted were delightfully quirky.

The big game hunters ended up chasing one of their beasts to the edge of the river and a certain amount of shenanigans ensued as the two groups shot and at chased one another to try to secure the most points.

More dinos also appeared.

In the end, the big game hunters managed to win by a lot of points, but only by the narrowest margins on the board (one more turn and the spacefarers likely would have swung the game).

Overall, this was a hoot to play (because DINOSAURS!!!!). Bruce's table was amazing to see and the rule set offers endless pulpy fun. "You find an ancient bottle containing a dark, viscous liquid. do you drink it?"

2mm towns

I've been prepping a Rommel game and looking at what I have for 2mm terrain. I decided I would pick up a few more pieces to mark urban areas from Irregular Miniatures to match a couple of pieces I already have.

Right out of the bag, they don't look like much. But a quick painting and they quickly take on the look of a European village.

I also got a few city pieces, which can be connected together to make a larger piece.

Since these are mostly viewed from above, the lack of detail on the buildings isn't apparent.

The fellow I bought them from also threw in a few small pieces (like finger nail small).

Overall, these were a quick paint and a fun project. My next terrain task is to do some 2mm forest sections.

15mm Battle Droids

Back in the summer, I bought some 15mm sci-fi armies off of Scott. Two of the three were fully painted and the third was half done. I was tooling around flea-bay and noticed some Star Wars battle droids that would fit in with the half-painted, mech-heavy army.

I had purchased some of these figures before, hoping they would fit in with my 25mm WEG Star Wars figures, but they were too small so I donated them to Bruce's collection.

But now that I have some 15mm of my own, I ordered a second batch of 38 (for $13 bucks?). These seem to be the "disease blocks" from a Star Wars reskinning of Pandemic, about the same size as the cultists from the Cthulhu reskin I have.

They fit in reasonably well with the 15mm infantry Scott painted. They are a bit taller because of the integral base, but whatever. Maybe the droids are taller? I tried to match the basic dun colour pallet he used but without the fancy brushwork he did.

Overall, they create a nice little force of expendables to supplement the infantry I have. Now I just need to get on with painting up the two types of mechs to finish the army.

2mm prepared positions for Rommel

Bruce and I have been playing a fair bit of Rommel this summer and, in prepping to get my 2mm tanks on the table, I needed to create some markers for prepared positions. I could have used counters but it has been forever since I have modelled anything.

We play Rommel on a hex grid and my hexes at 4" across so the prepared position indicator needed to fit along with up to three bases and some terrain. I decided on a 2.0" by 0.5" base and that I'd just model some barbed wire coils.

The base was grid plasticard that I had (which is easy to cut into square sections). I use plastic toothpicks to make the posts. Overall, this is a bit out of scale (more 6mm) but it creates the impression I wanted at a size I could still see and work with. Then I textured the base and tried to match the colour scheme from several years ago (a struggle since I never write this stuff down). The colour palette is a vague khaki colour that can do for the desert (if you squint), Italy, or Europe.

The upshot is not bad. The posts are too thick and the coil is a bit big but good enough for my purposes.

I ended up making 12, which is likely way more than I will ever need, but since I was doing it, knocking off a few extra was no big deal.

My next task is to look at doing some markers to denote a forest that I can set atop a green piece of felt.

Rommel

Rommel, by Sam Mustafa, is likely the best WW2 game I have ever played. I had a chance to re-acquaint myself with it this summer at Bruce's place and I think we're on deck to play several times over the winter.

Bruce hosted a very messy German counter offensive on the Russian front. There was a huge amount of terrain in the middle of the table, which pushed play to the flanks. Interestingly, both sides made quick thrusts to capture the other's supply base, impeding future momentum.

In the end, it was a bloody Russian win as the Germans ran out of time and tanks.

I've got some 3mm WW2 figures I painted up a few years back and am keen to run a desert game this fall.

I need to spend a bit of time working up some scenic entrenchment markers as well as a tiny bit more terrain.

Battlefront Valkyrie

I've watched the guys at the club play Battlefront Valkyrie a couple of times. This is a cool, printable game which seem to foreshadow the likely direction of gaming: buy your pdfs and stls and away you go. Basically, it is a streamlined, off-brand Star Fleet Battles.

The pros are super-slick energy allocation and combat system, all managed on ship cards. This is very, very well designed.

The cons are the initiative and more mechanics are fiddly and confusing in practice and don't seem to follow Newtonian physics (i.e., don't power your engine and your ship stops?!? what?).

Bruce fixed the by adding some pre-plotting of moves (retention of momentum, accelerate or decelerate, turns) which allows for simultaneous action. The result is a very slick game and a chance to pull out his 1/7000 fleets.

Would definitely play again and probably my favourite ship-level game at this point. You can reasonably play three ships (so a small squadron) and still face incredibly difficult choices.

Would definitely play again!