Star Trek Fleet Captains, meet the Borg

Bruce came by last night for our usual non-club Tuesday game. His table was covered with stuff for his upcoming Fallcon games so I hauled out Star Trek Fleet captains. We played a 12-point game (just slightly larger than the intro). There is a lot of stuff in this box--something I forget each time until I have to set the game out!

We also used a Borg modification from Boardgame Geek. I think this works better as an automated opponent for solo play. In our game, the Borg moved a couple of time but never really did anything except disrupt the shipping lanes.

I eventually managed to pull out a late win, largely by keeping Bruce beat down with a battlefleet while completing missions with my light ships. Bruce got some unlucky ship draws (six ships are one point, none of them very powerful).

Afterwards, it occurred to us that using cloaking technology might have given him an opportunity to bloody my nose a bit more. He did blow up one of his ships before I could kill it and he used cloaking to get away from me with damaged ships (which was super annoying as none of my combat missions worked out).

Up next: I'm working away on some 15mm cavalry and I've hauled out some 28mm ancient skirmishers to build and paint. I run out of glue plastic glue so I'll need to get some more before proceeding. I have some of the non-toxic stuff but it just doesn't work nearly as well.

FS 28mm HoTT Hallowe'en Army

I have for sale a Hallowe'en-themed Hordes of the Things army in 28mm. Various manufacturers, painted by me, pet- and smoke-free home, yadda, yadda. This army totals 28-30 AP and includes the stronghold shown below, allowing you some variation in what you field.

First up we have a witch (4Ap magician), flyer (2AP) or god (4AP) and a hero (4AP). Any f these could be the general.

The core of the army are these three stands of metal GW ringwraiths. There are two bases of blades (2AP each) and a hero (4AP).

The army gets filled out with four bases of 2AP units. I'd play the trees as spear and the spiders and beasts but you might be happier with them all as warband. There are also two lurker bases (1AP each) in the form of scarecrows.

The army comes with a stronghold that includes a scarecrow on a tombstone, a crow on a post, a snake on the far side of the fence and three goblins brewing up a wraith.  

I'd like $70 OBO with another $10 for shipping in Canada or the US. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca .

Last of the Hallowe'en HoTT bases

The last bases of this short Hallowe'en-themed HoTT army are finally dry. Today we have two lurkers and a stronghold.

The lurkers are perhaps my favourite base. When I opened the box and saw two of these scarecrows, I wasn't sure what to do with them. But as I started painting, they started to look creepier and then I thought they'd make perfect lurkers.

The camp is a quasi grave-yard. There is another scarecrow sitting on a tombstone contemplating a skull. Around the back of the fence there is a nice snake slithering among the rocks.

Beside the scarecrow, there are three goblins working a cauldron who have whipped a ghoul of some kind. While in behind, a crow sits on an old post. Seems suitably ghoulish to me.

Up next: I spent some time last night blocking in a bunch of 15mm horses and painting the harness. If i get some time today, I will do the saddles and the riders' coats and pants. There are also some 15mm foot that go with these mixed units that I will paint at the same time. I'm also making a paper Borg cube to play Star Trek Fleet Captains with Bruce on Tuesday.

More HoTT Hallowe'en

I've moved some more figures to completion in my HoTT Hallowe'en themed army. These are 28mm figures I've picked up at various auctions and flea markers.

First up we have a witch (magician) and the headless horseman (sans horse). Not sure if he is a (anti)hero or perhaps a sneaker?

I have two bases of possessed trees (GW dryads) that I would classify as spear. And below there are two bases of spiders (beasts).

Finally, there is this charming fellow on a tombstone. I first thought flyer. But maybe it would also work as a god?

Up next: I have the remainder of this army (two lurkers and a camp) that I am basing right now. I have also started on a bunch of 15mm cavalry for Mark. Fortunately, these guys are all fairly uniform so they should go fairly quickly. And Bruce is going to drop by Tuesday for a game of Star Trek Fleet Captains.

New camera

My trusty Fuji fell in the lake this weekend during an exit from the canoe (along with my wife's cell phone--it was a horrible thing to watch, actually) so I have been forced to brave the shiny halls of Best Buy in search of a replacement. I settled on a mid-range Sony point-and-shoot and started testing it out last night.

One of my issues with the Fuji was it didn't handle many reds all that well (they became dayglow even thought the primer was black). The Sony seems to do a better, albeit not perfect job with the reds. The big improvement, though, is the macro setting seems to have a deeper depth of field and makes adjustments for light better so I don't need to do any post-shooting work on these pictures except crop them.

I thought a comparison might be interesting.

Above is the new camera (only cropping) and below is the older camera (sharpening and brightness adjusting). The picture above is a better representation of what the base actually looks like. I'll have to fiddle around outdoors and see how it does there.

Up next: I have a bunch more Hallowe'en HoTT bases drying and more figures to base. I ahve also started with the 15mm cavalry commission I have sitting on my table.

Hallowe'en HoTT bases

One of the odd joys I've discovered playing Hordes of the Things is that I can often make an interesting themed army from the junk that accummulates in the hobby room. For example, lat year's Black Peter's Santa army. I don't know why I enjoy this so much.

Anyhow, I picked up some LotR ringwraiths at the club auction in the spring along with a bunch of other figures and I think I have enough for a Hallowe'en themed army. First up are the ghouls. A mounted hero (perhaps the general) stalks the photo above.

He's joined by two bases of blades. These are painted using a combination of wet-on-wet layering and the dip. I used a dry grass static grass for the bases and (for whatever reason) it washed out in these pictures. Looks harp in person, though.

Up next: I have a flyer, a hero, a witch and some warband ready to base. I'm still painting some lurkers and a really cool camp. Then onto these 15mm cavalry that are giving me the stink-eye.

September 28 club night

We had nine guys out at the club last night with two games running. Bruce and I worked our way through a first game of Dux Bellorum, Dan Mersey's new dark-age Britain set of rules from Osprey.

Above you can see the two lines set up as well as the base-width bounds that mark movement (foot move 2BWs and mounted move 4BWs). I wanted to rtry most of the terrain types so I plunked a stream in the middle of the board, which may have affected the type of game we ended up playing.

We had the usual dark ages crash of the lines, with a nasty grind. I could never seem to turn Bruce's line despite playing a lot of leadership points on that side while he managed to get around my other flank. And interesting warrior (five dice hitting on sixes) versus shieldwall battle (three dice hitting on fives and sixes) went on in the middle and eventually my troops collapsed (extremely suddenly!).

Hard to draw any real conclusions with only one game under our belt. The rules work and the core of the game is the use of leadership points. Unit/group activation creates some interesting friction at the cost of multiple rolls each turn. A fair bit of clutter on and off the board when compared with something like DBA (rosters, leadership points, cohesion markers). It certainly felt like we were moving smaller units and that the game was gritty (which I believe was the design). The unit differences certainly encouraged specific tactics. I'm not sure we played the stream properly. Typical first outing stuff.

Dave hosted everyone else in a big WAB Rome versus barbarians game (attack on a sleeping Roman camp). It looked bad for the Romans when I left!

Up next: Some 28mm HoTT elements are being based with more being painted. I also have some 15mm cavalry that need attention.

28mm Inn

With the weekend approaching, I wanted to finish off one last thing before taking a short break. What I settled on last night was this 28mm inn. This is a GW plastic model I picked up at a swap meet.

There was a bit more detail than I might like--typical GW with lots of skulls and stars and whatnot. Some I painted and some I painted over. All told a bit bright for my taste but good enough for what I need. The flash makes it a bit brighter in this photo than in real life.

Up next: I have some 15mm cavalry built and primed. I also have some 28mm ring wraiths about half painted--need to so some detailing and then dip them. Looking through my boxes of crap, I see I have enough odds and ends to do a nice Hallowe'en themed HoTT army so that will be my next project.

First night of EDBAG HoTT Campaign

The first night of the newest EDBAG HoTT campaign started last night in Dennis' loft. There are 10 guys playing. It is a map campaign (very abstract) with the goal being to take four of the six mountain hexes. We had time for two turns last night and the theme is "fantasy" so armies are a real mix.

The first turn I ended up fighting Bruce's Imperial Romans with my Imperial Stormtroopers. Dave's Winter Witch army sent Bruce a contingent which showed up in my rear. Based on the mechanics, the attacker will almost always face a defender AND allied contingent and that contingent has a 50% chance of arriving in the attacker's rear. Some diplomacy will be required to make this work!

I felt like I had Bruce on the ropes but the dice didn't work out and then I lost. My efforts to use the force to choke him were unsuccessful. I managed to get all of my troops back (replacement mechanic is pretty generous so a loss is more of a set-back in the strategic game than anything). In the second game, I faced Dennis' potpourri barbarian army with Stu as my contingent. Dennis is the only one to capture a mountain hex in the first game so we needed to stop his ...errr... imperialist ambitions.

Things went pretty well for me. Stu's arrival in the rear distracted Dennis' general and Dennis' pips were terrible so he took quite the beating before breaking. I'm not sure my lightsabre sound effects were appreciated. But he got all but one stand back. As far as I recall, no one got a mountain hex is the second campaign turn. Getting four hexes is going to be tricky!

Up next: I have a building underway and some ring wraiths but things will be slow for a bit yet.

Guard tower

With cooler weather and darker evenings, I have been painting a bit more. I finished off a 28mm guard tower for Songs of Arthur and Merlin. This is an old GW Mordheim piece of terrain (I think). I actually have two of them--not sure I really need two, but the other is underway in terms of painting.

This was easy to assemble. Painting was a bit of a bother--there are a lot of details once you start plus the usual bunch of skulls and whatnot. Overall, a useful piece for a couple of scenarios. I expect the houses/inns I picked up will get more use. I was quite happy with the torch I painted!

Up next: HoTT campaign starts tonight and I am painting away on a house. Also I have some 28mm fellows that have been block painted and now I need to start layering colour on.

Three trees!

The bases of three more trees for my 28mm Saxons to hide in dried overnight. These are woodland scenics that I picked up at Hobby Alley in the west end.

Up next: Some buildings, some HoTT and some 28mm GW ring wraiths (no reason for them--just caught my fancy while I moved some boxes. I also picked up some glue to start assembling a bunch of 15mm cavalry.

Saxons for Songs of Arthur and Merlin

I finished off a the Saxon warband for Songs of Arthur and Merlin this week. These are a mix of 28mm figures I picked up at the MayDay auction.

There are three mounted figures on bases donated by Terry. Yes, yes, Saxons didn't ride a lot of horses, everyone says. Anyhow, they roughly match the horses I did for the Romano-Brits.

There are four character figures (musician, standard bearer, leader and druid). The druid is a GW figure and I see that I need to touch up his base.

Then there are nine dudes with spears. Can you spot the one whose spear I forgot to paint? I used brighter colours that I normally paint with in these figures to try and distinguish them from the Romano-Brits.

Up next: Some trees, some HoTT, and a building or two. THen onto some 15mm cavalry plus whatever I can find to paint in my own piles--maybe some 28mm ancient skirmishers. I never seem to have enough of those.

25mm HoTT Star Wars camp

The EDBAG HoTT campaign starts this week and I needed a camp for my Star War imperial army. After some dithering, I eventually decided on some glowing gems in a pit by some ruins guarded by stormtroopers. Basically a variation on the pirate loot theme I've done before.

I tried to mimic the effect of glowing gems with some washes. The effect looks better in person than in this picture. After some thought, I may use some future floor wax to turn the pit into a pool with them gems in it. Ruins are old GW Lord of the Rings pieces from the MayDay auction. Stormtroopers are 25mm WEG fellows. I will darken the blaster the guy on the left is holding.

Up next: A saxon warband is done thanks to a donation of bases from Terry for my mounted guys. I also have three trees done and a couple of houses almost finished for Songs of Arthur and Merlin. A copy of Dux Bellorum just arrived as well and, of course, the HoTT campaign kicks off Tuesday. With the canning season starting to taper off and garden slowing down, I hope to paint more. I also have a huge commission of 15mm cavalry to do.

EWG Club Night September 4

We had the usual 11 guys out last night, with four games running. Dave and Mark played some Warhamster but all of my pictures were blurry. Elliot and Kevin played some Warmachine, with Elliot sporting an enormous mech of some sort.

Will brought out The Sword and the Flame, hosting Chen, Terry, Scott and Jonathan. A bit Lawrence of Arabia in theme but I didn't catch the explanation at the beginning.

Bruce and prepped for the upcoming EDBAG Hordes of the Things campaign by pitting our armies against each other. Bruce very patiently used my Romans to beat the snot out of my Star Wars troops three times in a row. Good lord, what a pasting I took.

This was good practice and I've decided to slightly alter the composition of my army to give it some more punch. Below you can see one of the few brought spots of my evening where Darth Vader is about to decapitate Julius Caesar.

Up next: I'm basing some Saxons and some trees as well as working on painting some 28mm buildings (the stone work is done, now onto the plaster). And I need to finish my Star Wars camp for next week.

Terrain update

My weekend gaming and modeling plans have taken a second seat to houseguests but, while they are out for the moment, I thought an update was in order.

I finished two trees (yes, two whole trees!) which is a modest start on some 28mm terrain for Songs of Arthur and Merlin. I also finished the painting on my Saxon warband and I will base them when the dip has dried fully.

In the meantime, I've built several buildings from a GW kit I picked up a couple of weeks back. There was an option to make a fortified manor but I decided on multiple buildings instead. There are also some walls, an outbuilding and some signs and whatnot. These will be my September project, right after I finish a camp for my Star Wars HoTT army (which needs to be finished in 10 days!)

Up next: We have club night on Tuesday and I have some Saxons to finish as well as three mode trees to base. Then onto a camp and some buildings. Then I'll start to sort through my pile of bits and pieces.