Figures April 2023

Some photos of figures I've been working on lately.

Bought a bunch of 30 Years War miniatures, maybe six years ago.  Maybe longer.  Finally started painting them.

Above is a base of pikemen in progress.  I'm leaving the center vacant in order to be able to swap out different standards.  To the left is a base of two standard bearers.

Here a stand of pike with standards of the Bavarian army.

Also been working on figures for Zona Alfa.  Think the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R., mixed with the miniatures game Frostgrave.  You're venturing into the "exclusion zone" to find artifacts.

The rules don't specify where or what the exclusion zone is, but clearly it's Chernobyl.  But what's really neat is you can make it whatever you want.

These are Empress SAS figures.  I love their big backpacks.  Not so crazy about the big rectangular stands they're on though.

Here's a bunch that are finished.  The guys in the MOPP gear my buddy Joe gave to me to paint.  They're 80's era Soviets.  The others are other figures from Empress, including some from their Chechnya range.
 

Greek vs Greek

 

Started up the full campaign game of Peloponnesian War, GMT's solitaire game of the conflict between Athens and Sparta.

Played the initial scenario awhile ago, but made a lot of mistakes.  Quick refresher, in this game you basically play as both sides.  Sort of.  As in, it's possible that you will play as both sides.  You start off as Athens, and depending on how things go, you may switch over and play as Sparta.

To sum up the basic mechanic of the game, whichever side you're playing as, the game rewards you less points for good things than it does bad things. As in, you win a battle as the active side, you get 10 victory points.  You lose a battle as the active player, you lose 15 victory points.

Athens' First Objective

Anyway, Pericles starts the game in Athens as your first general (you randomly draw them as the game progresses).  I dispatched him with some ships and hoplites to Cyllere.  

Ravaging the Peloponnese

The game awards victory points for ravaging the enemy's territory, as you can see above.  Historical.

Meanwhile, Archidamus II rolls into Attica.  Typical.  But hey, his heart wasn't in it.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling really frosty, and I send Cleon to Corinth with a bunch of triremes.  Honestly, I knew (after checking the rules) that I couldn't capture Corinth, or even besiege it, but I'm thinking that in a naval battle where Athens has a slight edge in numbers, I can hopefully win a deceive victory.

At this point, Sparta could not mount another expedition since they lacked the manpower, and Athens had practically depleted its treasury.  Up next, I resolve the battles and sieges. 

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Nuff said.

 

Offensive Miniatures Germans

Offensive Miniatures Volksgrenadiers.  Got these at Cold Wars 2020 I think?  Anyway, I like their figures.  Relatively inexpensive metal figures with nice poses.

Rumbleslam

Rumbleslam figures from the starter set.

These are the "Deadly Divas," which I bought after getting the starter.

Bought this several years ago when it first came out.  Added several other of the "teams."  Had them all painted up but had only played once.

Some friends of mine recently picked it up so I've finally been able to play several times.

Pretty fun game.  I got beat pretty bad, but I usually lose when playing games.

 

Stonewall's Sword Part 2

This is the overall situation for the introductory scenario.  Without getting too much into the "crunch" of the rules, basically, the Confederate victory objectives are in the top half of the map, and the Union ones are at the bottom.

The scenario's rules allow the Union player to select a brigade that basically begins the game activated.  I selected Crawford's brigade, seen below, to be activated.

My thought was, they could push the rebels back and try to capture the victory objectives located on the Confederate left flank.

Beyond that, I figured the Union army would more or less steamroll down the map.  Never having played the game before, this playthrough was mainly an exercise in learning the game.

Well, all I can say is, the Union doesn't really have a steamroller at this battle.

Stonewall's Sword

Stonewall's Sword, published by Revolution Games, is a tactical recreation of the Battle of Cedar Mountain from the American Civil War.  It is the first game in the "Blind Swords" system, a relatively light, chit-draw activation set of games where the basic units you control are regiments.  The game system implements events to simulate the "fog of war" as well.

Stonewall's Sword is, I believe, the smallest of the games that have been released so far.  I bought it back in 2017 or so at a gaming convention.  It's just taken me years of procrastination and a pandemic to finally get me to punch and clip the counters, read the rules, and attempt a solo play.

When I describe it as being relatively light, I'm relating it directly to The Gamers' Civil War Brigade Series system (as an aside, recently I messaged a friend of mine who lives in New Mexico that we should play something PBEM, and he suggested ITQF 2.  Admittedly I was drunk at the time and had no idea what he was talking about, so I said "Sure!"  The next day he sent me the links to the rules and VASSAL module, and at some point I wound up telling some other friends of mine who were talking about how complex Vital Lacerda's games were and I was like "Uh, I just read six pages on how to issue orders in this Civil War game I'm playing!").

If you've never played a chit-draw game before, basically this it how it works.  You have a cup filled with a bunch of counters representing the various commands.  In this system, there are chits for the divisional commanders (Ewell for example), which, when drawn, allow you to activate one of that division's brigades (such as Early's).  Along with the divisional commands there are chits for the commanders-in-chiefs (Jackson and Banks) and a multitude of events, which can either help you or hinder your opponent.

At first, I thought that maybe there were too many events.  Maybe the game was too chaotic.  But after several turns the game is really delivering a great "feel" of what I imagine a Civil War battle would be.  Some of the complexity with this game comes in just when you can play an event that you've drawn.

One thing I really like about the game is its combat results table.  It's based purely on strength points (SP), as in you count up how many SP you have and do some column shifts and you're done!  Personally, I dislike having to do ratios in games.  The only time you have to do that with these rules is when determining column shifts in close combat; and that is limited to 3:2, 2:1, and 3:1 only.  Admittedly at first I thought that maybe this was too light, but once I played a few turns I started to see how the designer had worked in a good simulation of plausible results while not overtaxing the player. 

One of the best things about this game and this series is the beautiful artwork by Rick Barber, arguably the best map artist in wargames.

Next post, I will delve deeper into the game and my first solo playthrough. 

Infinity

I don't really have any idea of what to write about, so I figured I'd post some pictures from a game of Infinity I played a couple of weeks ago and give my thoughts on the game.

Yu Jing

Above is my collection of Yu Jing faction figures.  I don't think I can actually field all of them at once, or if I could it wouldn't be the best choice.  When creating an army "list," you have to contend with the usual points values but in addition to that is SWC (special weapons something) and more importantly, the number of orders your force has at its disposal.  SWC limits the number of big guns and fancy gadgets you can bring to the battle.  The tournament limit is 6 SWC for a standard 300 point list.  Orders are trickier.

Infinity is driven by its order system.  Basically, each figure contributes one order to your pool.  There are some exceptions, but for the most part one man (or woman, or werewolf) equals one order.  So, while getting to 300 points and staying at or under 6 SWC isn't that hard, you don't want to do that if you're winding up with 6 or 7 orders.  It seems that the sweet spot is 10 orders in a 300 point list.  So while I can get to 300 points with little trouble, the maximum orders I'll have with the figures I currently own is 7 maximum.

Yu Jing High Value Target

And the figures are the second best thing about Infinity.  They are what got me interested in playing in the first place.  In every game you have to place a High Value Target (HVT) that your opponent will try to do various things to in order to score points.  The Yu Jing HVT pictured above is one of the reasons I chose it as my faction.  That and the fact that it was one of the two factions in the two-player starter set that had just been released.  But all of the models are pretty great.  Almost impossibly difficult to assemble, being all-metal and very delicate, but absolutely gorgeous.

The third best thing about Infinity is the setting.  The quick lowdown is it's the future and mankind has expanded beyond the solar system.  But it's not 40,000 years into the future, just a few centuries.  The world as we know it is gone, replaced by the superpower of Panoceania, kinda like Australia writ large, and Yu Jing, sort of a combination of Communist/Imperial China and Japan (though in the latest background Japan has separated itself).  Along with that you have Aleph, which is the AI that runs everything for humanity, and well, I won't go into it anymore because I'm no expert.  Why am I no expert?  Because the background information is for the most part contained in the physical rules you can buy, which I don't own.  But how can I play the game without owning the rules?

Because, the number one best thing about Infinity, is the rules.  And they're free.  So many miniature games falter over how to handle turn order.  Who gets to go when.  Right now, Infinity does the best job of handling this crucial part of miniature gaming.  Each turn (there are three) one player is active and the other reactive.  Once the active player is finished those roles reverse.  On the active player's turn, he issues orders, one at a time, to his soldiers, who can be ordered multiple times in a given turn.  The beauty of the system is that the reactive player gets a chance to react to what the active player is doing by winning an opposed die roll.

The game is complex.  Dense is another good description for it.  The action/reaction system demands both players full attention.  Additionally, there are numerous weapons, abilities, and pieces of equipment each figure has that can take awhile to learn.  But the game is incredibly fun and worth the learning curve.

I'm looking forward to playing the game much more in the future.  The buildings shown in these pictures are 3D prints made by the guy who taught me the game.  Which leads me to another observation, the game doesn't require many miniatures, but you'll need a lot of terrain.  Or someone else's!

Imperial Service Judge and Ninja Bodyguard

Necromunda

After owning the "new" Necromunda set from Games Workshop for over a year, I've finally actually played the game.  Even more significant considering that I've wanted to play Necromunda since the first edition came out back in the 90's.

Received the game for Christmas back in 2017, and while I enjoyed reading through the books (also got the first supplement which has the rules for playing what I would consider "true" Necromunda), I didn't really have any plans to play since I didn't know anyone interested in the game.  Right around Christmas of 2018 I ran into a guy at the local store that I'd played Blood Bowl with, and he told me he had a group of guys playing a campaign on Fridays.  Since my kids are getting older, I figured it'd be okay to have another evening out gaming, especially since Friday is generally relaxed and it'd only be every other week.  The two gangs that come in the box are Goliath, big hulking brutes, and Escher, nimble females who like to gas their opponents.  At first I planned on playing Escher, but decided on Goliath since they're tougher than the other gangs and since they're male I could name them after the members of Iron Maiden.

House Goliath in progress.

 At the time the only painting I had done on the miniatures was the bases.  Earlier in the year I had painted up some WW2 Soviet and German tanks and since I planned to apply a rust effect on them I figured I might as well paint up the Necromunda bases too.  One of the things that I really liked about the new Necromunda is how it comes with sculpted bases, so it was super easy to make them look really nice.  Beyond that, I did what I would have said was the fastest and sloppiest paint-job I'd ever done, but that has been surpassed by my work on the A Song of Ice and Fire figures I'm working on (more to come later).

Melee encounter.

Not that it matters I guess, since of the six players in the campaign, I am the only one with fully-painted figures.  For years I've often joked about being "that guy," like the guy who will only play with painted figures and looks down on those that don't.  In reality I didn't really care.  But now I have to say it's kinda disappointing. 

Aftermath of being shot with a template gas weapon.

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a good time playing, though it's still early going and I only have a vague grasp of the game as of yet.  But I do wish that the other players would put forth some effort to paint their stuff.

I can't compare the game to the earlier version since I never played that.  It shares some of the simplifications that Games Workshop has introduced in Warhammer 40,000, such as Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill being simple what you need to roll numbers (3+, 4+. etc...).  Wounding is also simplified in that if you're Strength is equal to the target's Toughness, it's 4+, anything else is going to be 3+/5+ depending on which attribute is greater, up to being twice greater when you'll wound on 2+/6+.

Determining the actual result of a wound is somewhat complicated and uses custom dice included with the game.  There are "flesh wounds," "serious wounds," etc...  I won't go into any of that since I barely understand it myself.  The game does have the typical (and in my opinion GREAT!) system with these campaign-style games where you have to roll to determine what actually happens to a model that is taken out completely.

Which leads me to what I really like about the game.  Technically, each game you play as part of a campaign doesn't have a winner or a loser.  The overall objective of the campaign is to have the highest Gang Rating, which is a combination of the number gang members you have and their skills and equipment.  So instead of just worrying about capturing objectives and/or killing the enemy gang members (not that there's anything wrong with that), you have to keep the overall goal in mind, which is accumulate wealth so you can hire more gangers and gain more territories.  Also, your gangers will gain skills and increase their attributes as the campaign progresses.  SO, it can be a wise decision to run away if the odds are against you, considering what the ultimate goal is.

For example, in the first game that I played, I'd say that my opponent "beat" me, since he forced me to "bottle" before he had to (bottling is when you've failed what I would term an army morale test).  However, none of my gangers were permanently killed, which came down to favorable rolls on the injury results table.  On the other hand two of his gangers were required to be taken to the doctor after the battle.  Problem was only the Leader and Champions can perform post-battle sequences like visiting the doctor (they would carry the unfortunate ganger to the doctor, if they themselves required medical attention then someone else would have to perform that action).  So, he had to make a Sophie's Choice and leave one of them to die since he could only take one to receive medical attention.  Since this was our first game it wasn't so bad, but if these had been experienced gang members it would have been very grim indeed.

The "leveling up" of your gang members does seem a bit slow.  I'm used to Blood Bowl where usually at least one of your players gains an increase after every game.  In Necromunda I'd say it takes 2-3 games to gain enough experience to improve.

Overall a very fun game.  Personally I've always liked the Warhammer 40,000 setting, but never really enjoyed the few times I've actually played the game.  I think that I would have liked playing the original Rogue Trader game, which I own but have never played, and that the original 40K is probably more akin to Necromunda than the later editions of the mainline game.  More to come as the campaign unfolds.   

The "Car and Horse Pub Boys."

Nothing Since July?!?!

Haven't made a post in awhile.  BUT I have been playing games.

Played in an escalation "league" of Games Workshop's Middle Earth game.  Overall the game was fun but it was weird having Hobbits fight against Easterlings.

Mainly I enjoyed using it as an excuse to buy more Hobbit models.

A few years ago I bought some Hobbits off of Ebay.  I also had some Rangers that I had gotten from the local game store in an attempt to get my son into miniature gaming.

So when this escalation league started up, comprised of players from West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland (maybe even Pennsylvania), I picked up some more Hobbits, including the Old Took and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins.

Here she is in the painting process.

And here she is "fighting" an orc.

Basically she's not much good in a scrape, she more or less nags the enemy to death.

Farmer Maggot.  Unlike Lobelia, he's actually fairly effective in the game.

My main problem with the game was the Hobbits are very cheap points-wise, so playing the game tactically generally involved sacrificing your models.  While this makes sense in the game, it definitely bothered me lore-wise. 


Generally I'd say I enjoyed painting up the models more than the actual games.  GW games definitely bring out the, I don't know what to call it, "uber" gamers.  But still fun overall.

Beyond that we are starting up a campaign of Legends of the Old West, another GW game.  A long out of print GW game.

This mainly came about because of my friend Jim.  For years he has talked about playing an Old West game.  I knew that last year he had bought some of the Western buildings from 4Ground.  So one night while driving back home from our weekly board game night, I said let's actually play an Old West game.  The thing is I knew he wouldn't paint his figures, so I offered to paint his for him.

Three months later, we've played about four "training" games, and we start up the campaign December 18.

I was into it from the outset, but what's really got me excited was the set of figures I picked up at Cold Wars.  Basically female gunfighters.  I think they're sold for Dead Man's Hand.  Also bought a figure that's supposed to be Jonah Hex which was packaged for the Dracula's America game I believe.

Anyway, I'll make a more detailed post on the Old West game sometime soon.

And hopefully I'll tell you about the Necromunda campaign I'm in.  Can't really yet since I have violated my usual rule of never playing with unpainted figures.

Russians and Cowboys

Not a lengthy post, just some pictures of figures I've finished (or almost finished) lately.

Various WW2 Soviet command type figures.  Closeups below. 

The Iron Cross rules call for command elements, so I had to add to my 28mm Soviet forces.  These are all from Black Tree Design.

Wild West.

These are Pinkerton detectives from Brigade Games.  Love them.

The rest are also from Brigade Games.  The two dandies at the bottom are "debt collectors," for whatever that's worth.