Something strange in the neighbourhood...

So a few months back, Dan sold me his Ghostbusters game. The game is meh but it had a lot of cool figures. I finally got around to starting on the figures. A bit more Cthulhu than ghostly, but they will make a fine set of foes in a future game.

There are only three main poses but a lot of figures so I decided to add some variation via colour differences. The figures came as a translucent dark blue (clear would have allowed for more options) so I primed them all white and used washes. Today is "green" day.

Overall, the results are decent for not much work. I have a group of tan and a group of blue underway.

The one usefully translucent figure was actually Slimer (below) who came in green. I left the trail of slime holding him up as a translucent green but painted him up.

The figures fit in with 25mm and 28mm figures so would make a good Hallowe'en scenario.

I have some Ghostbusters as well as Stay Puft underway as well. I'm thinking about painting on some of the battle damage Stay Puft takes (burnt areas).

Up next: Some Napoleonic 20 games.

The Battle of Pork Rind

I ran a game of Rebels and Patriots at the club: The Battle of Pork Rind. This is a War of 1812 scenario based around the Yanks capturing a British supply base. The base is mid-table and there are four loot token for the Americans to win. The British are outgunned but set up well and can bring on some reinforcements.

Andy (right above) declared for King while Bruce and Scott played for Congress. The Americans came on the board quickly and pushed the British pickets back.

Andy had amazing activation rolls and was able to bring on his reinforcements early. This include the Indian Allies I had painted up earlier in the day (still a bit wet on the bases!). These I pointed out as aggressive so they melee on 4+ (I mention this because it becomes important).

The American advance was steady from Bruce's side of the board while Scott struggled with his activation rolls. I can't tell you how happy I am to have finally gotten the British camp onto the table. I painted it 7 (?) years ago!

Bruce eventually worked his cavalry into position to rush the supply base and did so dramatically! The British never really recovered from that set back, although they did rout the cavalry shortly thereafter.

At about the same time, Andy got his Indian allies into position to melee Scott's stalled troops.

These fellows must have been from the Lawnmower Tribe because they chewed through five of Scott's units before finally being whittled down. The 4+ melee coupled with good (Andy) and bad (Scott) rolls were shocking. Scott was close to the break point for his troops.

However, Andy's activation rolls got bad and Bruce pressed forward this attack and eventually the British just ran out of bodies to throw at them. Overall, a solid American win and we only played one rule incorrectly (when units routed they should have caused a morale check around them).

The rest of the gang played Escape from Dulce. Basically a sci-fi escape game. Very cool minis but I've no sense of the mechanics.

Overall, a good club night. Nice turn out and good games.

20mm Indian Allies

With a game of Rebels and Patriots looming at the club, I found myself short of troops and bereft of Indian Allies for my 1812 British. Irregular Miniatures made a fast shipment after I could not lay my hands on any decent 1/72 plastics (Italeri's great set is out of production apparently).

Fortunately, these fellows are a quick paint. A few layers, a dip and some sealer and we were done.

I've no idea what is going on with the eye on the guy on the left below. I would guess a bubble in the sealer? He looks a little Marty Feldman. No one noticed on the table, though.

These Irregular 20mm figures fit in pretty well with the 1/72 plastics I have. And they did yeoman work in the game I hosted last Tuesday.

Up next: The Battle of Pork Rind

Finishing off Lasalle game

Bruce and I paused out game of LaSalle a few weeks back. We finally finished it off last week. When we last left our heroes, the British (bottom of picture below) held the town on the hill, were swinging a left hook, and were rushing to block a flanking attack on their right.

The British right managed to get into position and, eventually, put the advancing French in a nasty box. This took awhile to develop but the Brits had this side in hand.

Over on the left (below), there was some early success for the Brits in cleaning out some cannon. Then they basically lost ever single melee for the rest of the game due to hilariously awful dice. It was crazy to watch units evaporate for no good reason. This side was going French, with only a lack of troops preventing a complete rolling up of the flank.

In the middle, again the Brits could not melee worth beans and the French kept advancing. Some lucky shooting kept them off the hill (automatic victory).

As night fell, the British squeaked out the thinnest of tactical victories based entirely on the casualties inflicted on the first night. One more round at the French would have had things. (Whew!).

No great observations beyond the rules are very slick and combined arms is hard to counter with anything other than combined arms.

Last of the D&D figures

Okay, I finished off five 28mm Wizkids figures as part of a commission. These will be the last for awhile, I think.

There were  bunch with various magical effects that I dealt with mainly through washes.

Above we have blonde Jesus with his Windex web. Below is evil elf magician with Tang fire.

Some kind of sword dude with blue spider lightening?

Jesus with icicles.

Angry blonde guy with bent mace and handful of blue goo.

Lovely figures, fun to paint and happy to be done.

Up next: Bruce and I finished off our LaSalle game, I've got some 20mm indian allies on the paint table, and I hope to run a game of Rebels and Patriots this week at the club.

A few 28mm D&D figures

I finished off a few more 28mm D&D figures for a fellow. I have five more almost done that will follow next week.

The first three are two fighters and some kind of magician or illusionist. Nice sculpts generally.

Most of the figures in this batch have some sort of magical powers (which is basically a clear piece glued onto the grey resin figure). This fellow is throwing rocks. The box art shows amazing colourful effects that almost certainly are photoshopped.

I used a bunch of washes to try to create a sense of magic and motion. Not sure I was successful.

The fighters were a bit more straight forward with mail and swords. A couple of figures had some miscast weapons (for stabbing around corners?) but I didn't want to break the resin/plastic trying to straighten them.

Up next: Probably the remaining D&D figures then back to my own projects (whatever they may be!). I'm hoping to run an 1812 game at the club on the 13th,

Lasalle

Bruce wanted to try Lasalle again so he set up a pretty large battle (one of the Waterloo ones that I can never keep straight). British are on the right with one of three divisions on the table. French enter from the left. Objective for French is town on the hill.

The opening moves saw a huge French deployment followed by the first of British reserves arriving (and having a traffic jam).

The French side of the board saw an overwhelming attack against a few British forces in the trees (Kampfgruppe Speedbump).

There was a valiant stand by one militia in town that held up the French centre. Alas, their bravery was offset by terrible rolling by the regulars behind them who promptly disintegrated.

About half way through the evening and the French are rolling pretty good while the British reinforcements are swinging to the left. We started to see some good combined arms in the middle:  British cavalry forcing the French into square follows by British shooting the square to pieces.

Below is the where we pause the game after 2.5 hours. The British left has worked its way around and is moving through some hedges to try and grab the crest line. The rest of the British are swinging right to hold the town and fend off the French who have finally broken through the wood line. The centre is kind of a mess but basically stalled out.

We're going to pick this up again in two weeks. My bet is the French advance to the east-west road in the picture above but run out of time and/or units to take the town.