Cast lists and 2 scenarios

Firstly let me say the photos are in no particular order but they should give you an idea of what the game will look like and maybe the forces involved. All these shots were taken at about 5 am this morning obviously when I look and feel my best and know how to use the camera to it's fullest extent. (Yeah right!).

For Skirmish tomorrow I will run two 7TV scenarios, both on the same board at the same time and to be honest I think they are pretty well balanced, so no ideas as to how it will come out. Scenario 1, is a variation of the Gather scenario where by both the space suited humans and the envoy aliens are collecting the debris from the crashed saucer. This is the largest casts of the two scenarios, which can be played either separately or combined. While writing the scenarios up it soon became clear that I would need more figures. For those of you who know the 7TV rules the first scenario is 115 ratings (Rating equating to army points), There are more humans than aliens but the aliens have better guns.

The Second Scenario is only 70 ratings each side, but has a very different set of victory conditions. Rather than being a standard scenario it is an escape scenario where the humans have to get their "Plunder" off of the table whilst being persueded by the Alien Menace. This should be quite a challenge. The vehicle is slow and can only move 8 inches a turn, and has to stay within 4 inches of a human who can then control it. The largest alien can at a push travel 16 inches a turn, so it will soon catch up. 5 Aliens here (one large and 4 small) will try to stop two human co-stars. The little aliens also have a special rule that allows them to travel un-noticed and reappear anywhere on the board. Yikes!!!!
I will know more once I have reffed the games tomorrow. I have balanced the forces so that I would be happy to play either side. but I suspect the humans will have a slight advantage in the first scenario and the alien menace to have a marginal advantage in the second.  I also suspect that good use of luck tokens and leadership skills will dramatically alter the game from one game to the next. Karl from Crooked Dice will be present at the venue so I am really hoping it goes well and that he is happy with the game.
That's all I have time for today. With luck a show report on Monday. All the Best Clint

Envoys and Conch-kin

These are some Crooked Dice Envoys and Conch kin that I have painted for the SPACE:2122 game that will be run at Skirmish 2012. The only other Envoys I have seen painted are the "official" ones on the Crooked dice webb site wich are a very different colour scheme.  Being set in spae I wanted a very different more alien look to them hence the purple. I am still not happy with their eyes, but that is something I can tackle after the show should I then choose. The Cnch-kin are the smaller of the creaters. We don't need to go into the details of if they are a seperate race or young or a different sub race, or well they could be anything. From the initial game point of veiw the exact relationship needs not be scrutinized. All in all I have 4 painted Envoys (the large ones) and 4 Conch-kin (the small ones). For a total of eight from Crooked Dice.

I have one more miniature to finish painting, with luck and a fair wind it should be finished by Saturday and I can show it then. In my head I am calling it the "Beast" as it is a much larger crusteasion type creature. Everything is slowly comming together for Skirmish and given that I have had or by the time of the show will have had 10 days to compeate it I feel the preasure but also feel good that it is getting there. I will no doubt relax on Monday. That's it for today. I shall post again on Saturday. All the best Clint

Painting Table Cleared.

Well The decks are now cleared for action. I have finally managed to finish the command figures for the Victorian sailors from about 3 months ago. They have been sitting there looking at me and I finally managed to get them done.  Which means that I have the rest of the week to paint the figures I need for the 7TV quick play games (QPG). I have 9 figures to paint, only problem is I don't know what I want them to look like AHHHHHH! Anyway back to these two I am not in anyway an expert on the period so don't use this as a guide for painting Victorian naval officers in service dress. Still they look OK for me and that's the main thing, as long as I am happy. They seem to fit with the others I have painted, despite the difference in manufacturers but my interest has moved for the moment away from Victorian period. Heaven only knows what it will flit to next, maybe I should get some 15mm Apache done! But at least the painting table is clear now. Which is amazing it does not happen often.

That's it for today. All the best thanks for reading and more on Thursday. Hope to have the first alien figures finished for the moon scape by then. If not I had better be close. Al the best Clint.

WIP PBI Panthers.

As you can see not quite there yet, but here are 2 Panther tanks for the start of my late war German PBI force. I settled on the Panther tank as my tank of choice, simply because I have always liked them. No other reason. In PBI I doubt I shall ever need more that 2 they are just too effectctive/expensive. Veteran would cost you 67 points each out of your 400 point total. So two would be more than 1/4 of your total points when the game is focused on infantry. As such they cannot hold any objectives, although they can deny them to your opponent. Still work to do on them of course as I have been sidetracked into doing some stuff for Skirmish show next weekend. But at least It allows me to put some photos on the blog. And we all like piccies.

OK on to what I have actually managed to get done on this Skirmish show game. So far I have had a train journey to collect some more figures, which took all my spare time yesterday. I make no apologies for this, it needed to be done and Karl at Crooked dice has at least said he will pay for the small amount of figures I needed for the game. I shall take some of his stock from him in exchange. I get more figures, and he gets to keep his cash! Everyone wins. I have also designed a player hand out for the show with our club details on one side and a very very brief game introduction on the reverse. So while I have nothing to show at this stage it is all getting finished behind the scenes. And now I shall go and start painting the alien menace which will be one force in the two scenarios.

 

That's it today as I have a lot to do. Thanks for reading I shall post again on Tuesday hope to get something off of the painting table by then. All the best Clint.

2 Steps Forward and 3 Steps Back.

Yesterday I had an email from Karl at Crooked Dice asking if I could sort out an alternative game for the show next weekend (Skirmish). The background to the email is that I had previously tried to explain then the big "Crooked-Dice" participation game which last about 3 hours (give or take) might be wrong for this provincial show. As a club we can run it, but I doubt we would get people willing to spend quite so long as they might at other shows. I may well be totally wrong of course and it actually might be exactly the right show. However the conculsion to our email conversation is that smaller quicker games might be more appealing.

The long and the short of it was that I am trying (at this late stage) to get an alternative game sorted out. As I had previously made a moon scape this seemed a good place to start. I have given it a very quick tidy up and so far so good. I had also previously made a crashed flying saucer so this would make an objective for one of the game ideas. I gave it a complete re-paint to match the moonscape and to take the saucer from bright silver to a more bronze metallic. The silver and grey just looked too monochrome. Given that the science Fiction of the 1970's was dominated by bright colour perhaps due the the widespread use for the first time of colour TV into peoples homes to me it was important to reflect that in the game. Hence a repaint. Foolish perhaps, but it just made sense to me and fits very nicely with the 7TV rules. Anyway so the very quick repaint went ahead and I think it looks better for it, so I am happy. It also photographs better.So the crashed space ship will be one objective for players to squabble over..

I will need a second objective as well. If the Alien menace were to be defending the ship, it made sense that the humans would also need something to defend. At Broadside I purchased a couple of science fiction buggies from Ainsty Castings (http://www.ainsty-castings.co.uk/) These were either £3 or £4 each but I remember I got 3 for £10 and consider that a bargain, the picture on the right shows all three which I managed to get finished yesterday (while in a painting panic). I will start to write the scenarios tomorrow as well as work out the forces involved.
I plan to keep them very small and simple, and aimed at introducing new players to the game. Which is the whole point of playing this game at a show anyway. I intend to keep the two orange buggies together and treat them as one articulated vehicle. The yellow having 6 wheels is sufficiently different from the orange ones, with 8 wheels, to make them appear to be different vehicles so they needed different colour schemes again in the bright colours of 1970's Sci-fi. Anyway I have a lot more panic painting to accomplish before the show. I do however feel confident that I can do so. At present I need more alien adversaries for the guys in space suits, only time will tell what I manage to achieve. Looks like a busy week for me.
The other point is that the show (SKIRMISH) is on Sunday 23rd September in Sidcup Kent. Should anyone be coming, Posties Rejects perhaps, please pop by and say hallo, maybe sit down and roll some dice as well as I do intend the game to be participation. I plan to run two scenarios at the same time with the club playing one side if insufficient participants are available.  As you can tell it is all up in the air and I'll just have to see who the pieces land.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading have a good weekend and I HOPE to post again on Sunday. All the Best Clint.

FSE Support

Given the lack of painting opportunities last week I have started on a roll this week. You will no doubt remember the FSE apc in the foreground. You will not have seen the vehicle in the background. It is another GZG hover vehicle carrying a missile system on its back. It was found trawling eBay a couple of weeks ago. No one else bid so I feel I got a bargain. I managed to snaffle two of these "Tanks" as well as a couple of Kra'Vak grav vehicles at the same time. These will be started soon, well soon-ish.

I felt that the FSE vehicles needed some form of markings. So I sent for a few bits and pieces from QRF (http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/) as they do a range of decals for £2. They only really cover WW2 and modern vehicles, but non the less for the price I felt they were the way to go. You get 2 identical sheets for the money and it saves me the effort of doing them myself. If you have not looked at the QRF/LKM web site before you will see they do quite a large range of 15mm figures and vehicles from ancient to very near future.

OK advert over, hee hee. As you can see I used the French Roundels on the flanks of all the vehicles belonging to the Federal Sates Europa. This should give them a very unified look when combined with the Camo scheme. I would have liked to have added stowage as well, but the stuff I have (Which is all WW2 FOW stuff) just dd not either look right or fit on any surface sufficiently well to look right. So No stowage  on the vehicles for the foreseeable future. I know there is another blogger who has made some sci fi stowage but by the time I have imported it (and paid for it) I think I can pass for the time being.

For those of you familiar with the GZG-Stargrunt Universe you will detect that these "Tanks" are based on the popular "Rommel" chassis, which usually mounts a cannon. Missile launchers strike me as being more versatile. Who can really predict what will happen with future weapons technology though so maybe missiles will be more restrictive. But for now and in the GZG Universe these will suit my purpose very well indeed. I have kept all the vehicles on exactly the same size bases for ease of storage.

As many of you will know I work for the NHS (National Health Service). I also enjoy cooking (and eating). As such I have made some home-made chocolate fudge to take into work. To the right is the packaging I designed. I will not be present when the Mental health nurses "discover" my gift to them, but I am confident they will not only enjoy the fudge, but also the container. With luck it should give you a smile as well. That's it for today. More again on Thursday. Until then, all the best Clint.

Kra Vak (1)

I have struggled to get anything painted for the last week or so. But I have finished my first Kra Vak squad in 15mm from GZG. (Not quite finished, I need rocks on the bases and to Varnish). I did not want my aliens to look comical so I went for a grey skin tone. I had considered green, two different purples and even light blue, but finally settled or Grey skin and black hair. To my mind these are alien, but very similar to humans, as such I wanted them to be on roughly equal terms with my FSE, but with different technologies and different ideologies as well. I have no idea how I will paint the vehicles yet but see no reason not to use camouflage on them, just trying to get a colour scheme that works, looks alien and still fits with the figures. Not a huge amount more to say about these so I shall keep it very short today. Thanks for reading and Talk again on Wednesday. All the best Clint.

Nostalgia or a way forward?

Given the overtime I have worked this week it is little surprise how little painting I have managed. Although the brush has been still the mind has been active. The beginning of the year I was talking down the club about possible games, one of the members said that they had never done any "Cold War Wargaming". In my late teens it was either Dungeons and Dragons or Modern wargaming with very little variation, perhaps the odd game of traveller as one of my early group went on to become an astrophysicist . Makes you wonder where it all went wrong for me! Still moving on.

I still have two "armies" in 6mm packed away on a shelf covered in dust. One German and one Russian so It would not be the biggest leap to start playing again. Having talked (via email) to a friend in the Maidstone club is seems he still plays this period and is active on one of the forums. I won't go into too much detail but lets just say he is the kind of player who uses a spray can for more than undercoat on his 1/300th scale figures. (I am sure you get the idea). While this approach would not suit me it does him and who am I to criticise.

In my pondering I suspect this period is having a minor revival, or may be due one. Force on Force carry a scenario book called "Cold War Turns Hot." This is by far their best selling supplement or so they claim on their own forum. Force on Force can be played in any scale, but to me it is best suited to the larger scales of 15mm or larger. SO I have dragged out my old rules to see if they are as complicated as I remember them, or if being older and more learned in the ways of the rules writers they are simpler than I remember. Challenger 2 was the rules of choice back then, but as I occasionally see "Cold War Commander" on eBay a more recently published set of rules I think that also might be worth a look. The rules my friend uses are are available FREE online if I join their forum so I shall also look there as well as I would gain an opponent straight away, and one who is itching for a game, his normal adversary having passed away last year.

Time will tell if this is a flash in the pan idea or if it has legs. But for now it is something to think about because at present I like the idea of a few games with lots of figures on the table. Now to me due to time space, storage and money lots of figures and a new project means smaller scales. It is therefore possible that I shall start to think about building some 6mm terrain boards in the next week or two. In an ideal world the terrain would need to be northern Europe is feel and be versatile enough for as many periods as possible. Perhaps a generic 20th Century board will be the best setting as It could concievably be used from Fraco Prussian war al the way up to Modern and even Post Modern. I need to think on this further before I start though.

 

All this Nostalgia has taken me back more years than I care to consider to the extent that I am even craving childhood treats. Hence the Nesquik! Yes I did buy a tub before you say and it is not quite as good as I remember, but it is still enjoyable. I will probably go shopping on Monday now and see what else I can find.... Second childhood? I never escaped the first! I hope to get something painted today, but I am reliant on the postman to deliver a couple of things to help me progress items on the paint table which I have already started. I don't want to get into the trap of starting something fresh and loosing interest on what is already started (in this instance more 15mm Sci Fi figures/Vehicles), but I fear that is a possibility if the postie is lax today and being a Saturday he just may be.

 

I am not sure If I can get to the club tomorrow, but will endeavour to post again on Monday. Until then thanks for reading and take care Clint.

Blackhawk 1/72.

Coming home from work I was lucky enough to get a copy of the new Helicopter magazine with a die cast 1/72nd scale Blackhawk. At £2.99 I think this was quite a bargain, I will not be getting any more now the 1sr (introductory) issue is over and the price goes up. However for 3 quid I cant complain. It comes pre-painted and assembled so for the money there really is nothing to do in order to get it on the table. I have taken a couple of snaps (as you can see) on my Afghanistan boards because they are the right scale and setting. I feel sure you'll approve. 

I I have nothing to share from the painting table today (or work up the garage (AKA my shed) as I have been doing 3 hours overtime at work each day and it really is stopping me get things finished. Still the overtime funds the hobby so who am I to complain. I should say that since taking these snaps one of the rotors has snapped off and one of the m60 machine guns has broken off as well add that to the broken stand I have to conclude that the plastic components are quite brittle. Still they will be easy fixes and for the price I am still happy with this purchase. So happy I have thought about getting a second Blackhawk but have decided against it on balance.

Short and sweet today. I shall post again on Saturday. Until then take care and talk to you soon. All the best Clint

PBI Germans

Following last club game where I got very lucky and actually won a game. I decided to build on that success and start a second PBI force.  As previously discussed I already have an American Infantry company for PBI, I also had an un-started German late war force for Flames of war. Logically I decided to use what I already had and get to painting the Germans. And so today these are the first ones to roll of the paint table.  As you can see they are all on 30mm square bases unlike the flames of war bases.

I decided early on that I wanted a late war force and that being the case and with the figures already in my grubby little hands I just had to paint camouflage. Thus I have tried to paint HBT (dot) as well as Oak leaf (Both Autumn and spring... but mostly spring) in addition to field grey. For those of you interested in such things these are SS camouflage patterns, This was a deliberate choice as I really do struggle to paint "Water and Tan" (AKA Splinter A), perhaps I just need more practise, but to me it never comes out right. Splinter B is just not an option before anyone asks. I decided a mixture of Camouflage patterns was preferable as I wanted to keep a rag tag look to the company. Making it seem battle worn and adhoc as opposed to straight off the parade ground. You can just make out the patterns on some of the uniforms, and will have to take my word that they are much clearer in real life. As you can see 9 stands in all finished as of this morning. Two Panserfaust Stands, one Command Stand, two rifle stands and four light machinegun stands. I think this is about the right mix for late war Germans as they did tend to retain their LMGs in preference to their rifles. Also the Panserfaust stands can act as rifle stands should no armour be present. The fallen trees are of course small twigs repainted. The Repainting was very necessary as they did look like twigs wand not trees when just left natural. I did try it first hoping I could save time and effort, but in the end the paint was splashed.

 

That's today's post another one on Thursday. Until then thanks for looking and take care Clint.

Update 1.1

I shall start with a quick explanation. With this 7TV project I shall label each update first with the board number and then with each update in order of progress. So Update 1.1 is board 1 update 1. While Update 0.6 is the 6th update based on the concept and other items which don't require actual terrain manufacture.

Until Friday night this was the work area I was allowed to use, because my brother in law had been using the garage to store his car. Initially he told me he need ed the space to repair the car. 2 years (well that is an exaggeration 22 months 17 days to be precise) later he finally came and fixed the car, it actually took him a total of 7 hours to make all the repairs to get it to pass an MOT. SO I am pretty p*ssed off that it took him so long to actually get round to it. Still relatives what can you do. Elbow room at last!

This is the area I can now use. As you can see there is an inspection pit in the middle of the floor. Which is actually a curse, twice now people have asked to borrow the garage and then inconvenience me by leaving things for a really long time. I feel they have taken advantage of my good nature. This being the case I am now going to build work benches across the far wall which should make the space too narrow to get cars in (and open their doors). This being the case I will get t use the full area for my hobby and not as a junk storage area until others finally decide to get round to fixing their car. From now on they can do it on their drive or in the street.

Ok Rant over. This is the start of the first board. You may remember the thumb-nail sketch I showed of how I wanted it to come out a few weeks ago. Well I have not been idle. Working on a 15mm chipboard base I have attached a 6mm mdf back to create the height of the first cliff. It is glued and screwed together for strength and rigidity.

I then layered polystyrene insulation to give the cliff the desired shape. And added a slightly raised main battle area. You can see on the end the wooden blocks I and screwed and glued it to to create a firm  junction between the chip board and the mdf. Using bandages dipped in plaster I then draped the cliff to cover any gaps and holes. This will make the next stage easier (I hope). It will also mean that I can use fell materials.

The observant will not that there are two small openings  cut into the back board high up on the cliff. I can foresee two possibilities for these holes. Option one, is that they are the lairs of something adversarial, more of that when I get round to writing background and painting figures. Option 2 is that they may allow egress onto another board! Although that is not currently the plan.

Well that is today's update. It has been slow progress so far, and no doubt will continue to crawl along, but it is progress none the less. That's it for today. I shall post again on Tuesday. Until then take care and talk to you soon. All the best Clint

BBIB (Review)

I was feeling a little flush last week so decided to buy another set of rules. I wanted a set of rules we could play wit any amount of club players with the minimum of fuss, figures and scenery. With that criteria it was going to be naval or air war. Just because of the terrain. I finally settled on Blood Bilge and Iron Balls (BBIB) written by Alan Abbey of http://leofwinewargamerson.blogspot.co.uk/ . I am very glad I did. I must be honest I do know Alan in real life so bear that in mind as I write this review, because I feel I should disclose that we are friends and therefore this review could be considered Partisan and perhaps Bias.

Lets start with the price. The Cover price is £16.99, I bought mine from Amazon and it cost £11.98 including postage. I will therefore consider this a 12 quid book and not a 17 quid one. So  having covered the price, what do you get for your hard earned cash. The book itself is about A% in format, hard bound and 134 pages in thickness. The paper is a good quality stock and gives all the indications of a serious publication. One of the things I like about these rules is that the have gone back to basics with the format. I have described them as an "Old man set of rules!" By that I mean there is minimal FLUFF! I remember back in the early 80's Games workshop describing Warhammer 40 000 rulebook prior to release as the most visual and illustrated rule book ever. This seems to be a trend that has continued with bigger and more glossy pictures quite often irrelevant to the rules but just included in a kind of seductive "wargames porn" way to sucker the buyer into thinking they had bought something special. So if you buy rules to look at the pictures (Wargames Porn) then this is not the set of rules for you. In BBIB you will find diagrams and scenario maps, but you will not find sketches or glossy pictures of models that the average player would struggle to emulate. If you want a set of rules to put on a coffee table look elsewhere. These rules are more like the old skool rules by "tabletop games" that I started out with. Perhaps that is why I think of them as an "Old Man" set of rules, because they very much remind me of my wargaming roots.

 

The 134 pages are broken down as follows:

• Pages 1-33 are the rules
• Pages 34-41 are the optional rules
• Pages 42-58 are the scenarios
• Pages 59-76 are the Campaign rules
• Pages 77- 134 are various appendices.
Taking each section at a time.
The actual mechanics function around both Dice (d6) and Cards. The cards are of two varieties, 1 deck of standard playing cards with Jokers included which determines the level of damage and the location of damage should a hit be achieved. The second deck of cards is what the mechanics of the game rest on. Each fleet has 3 cards, A movement card, a shooting card and a Repairing card. All the fleets cards are shuffled together and drawn at random. This means that you may have to fire before you move or repair, or any other combination. Once the deck has been through the turn ends, the cards are reshuffled and drawn again. This means that it is possible to get shot twice in a row without being able to reply, move or repair. But what works for one player can also work for the opponent.
Another reminder of the old skool rules is the fact that each sheet has a "Record sheet" this reminds me of battletech or car wars, as damage is marked on the sheet a it is received by each ship. To hit a ship you must of course be in arc of fire, (And Line of sight of course.... goes without saying really) Depending on the range you roll a d6 (for each gun factor firing) to achieve a hit. Point blank range is 2+ extreme range is 6 per gun factor. Hits allow you to draw playing cards which as mentioned above indicate both the location (by Suits) and the damage by the Number (Including Jack, Queen, King).
Movement is by the direction of the wind and how you have rigged the ship. The rigging is abstracted to full sail, half sail and No sail. So you don't need to be an expert in real life, But your ship WILL move as it is rigged and with the wind direction., There are no brakes or accelerators because the wind is your engine.
The optional rules are optional, they include things like fire ships, British gunnery islands and shoals as well as merchant/transport ships. I don't have a huge amount to say about this section except to say that the rules are optional and therefore I wont use them for the first couple of games.
There are 4 scenarios, one is historical (The Battle of the Nile), the other 3 are much more general in nature. The Battle of the Nile has all the ship record sheets for that particular battle in the appendices as well as full colour ship templates should you wish to start with pieces of paper on the tabletop to represent ships.
The section of campaign rules is for a generic campaign. Designed for club games where all things start equally. It would have been nice to have a historical campaign setting as well although that can be worked out by yourself should you wish. Personally I would have liked a historical campaign but don't want the bother of working one out. The club campaign rules seem to be harsh with the weather, each campaign turn there is a 1 in 6 chance of a storm (3 in 6 in the depths of winter). And storms have a 2 in 6 chance of sinking each ship in the area. This would be something I would "Tweek" as to me it does seem very arbitrary and overly powerful. I do realise that nature is not to be underestimated, so I shall put this down to personal taste
The biggest portion of the book provides you with everything you will need to play. It has ship record ships for everything from a sloop to a 140 1st rate. Permission to photocopy or download from the Pen and Sword website (http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/). Which saves you having to cut the book up.
 
My overall impressions of these rules are very favourable. I can see a good fun club game resulting with much complaining about turn sequence and conversations that star "But If I had been able to move when I wanted then you would not have been able to....!" I love the fact that these rules are a return to the old fashioned types of rules without padding and fluff. I don't buy rules to read a short story or to look at an irrelevant picture, I buy rules to play a game. These rules take the basics without getting sidetracked and explain them in an easy to follow way. So for me these rules are a step in the right direction. So if you want an set of rules reminiscent of the past but with more up-to-date feel have a look at BBIB.
 
That's enough writing for today. I shall post again on Sunday. Thanks for reading all the best Clint.