interregnum

No actual gaming recently. Still reading through 7tv, still planning on painting more this week.


Since I have nothing to say that's worth reading, let me pass along* a couple things that are:


Roebeast's has announced the 2012 Trash Bash. I love this side of gaming, and was considering participating, despite my lack of talent for such things, and my propensity for not completing projects on time. Nonetheless, I will be keeping up with other people's results. Along the same line the Lead Painters' League Season 6 is about to kick off, and they always, always have some paint job to drool over. (Side note: I did just accept a challenge to get me off my duff, so, there's that.)


Rusti with Crossover Miniatures discusses his Kickstarter experience. I have already supported a small handful of Kickstarter projects, and I think it will definitely be a great way to support smaller startups in our little niche hobby.


IceRaptor wrote a great piece titled "Why rules should be written for the casual player." Been bandying it around with the local guys, as it is pretty similar to my own experience. I soured out on Warmachine many moons ago, because I really felt like I couldn't 'keep up' with all the new rules for all the new figures and how they would interact and etc. I fear that Malifaux may eventually go the same route, but so far knowing my own army's strengths and a thumbnail sketch of how a new opponent works has been enough to get me by. Time will tell. Anyways, his article is a great read, I heartily endorse it.

[EDIT: Crimminy, always forget one thing. Dropship Horizon also had a noteworthy piece on compromising our innate gamer desire to write our own worlds by adapting it to use existing lines. I'm as guilty of this urge as anyone, but really, there's nothing wrong with bringing in what others have done and adapting it to our vision.]



* - In my non-gaming life, I do this daily with posts to my Livejournal, covering interesting news links I find that I liked or found noteworthy.

yay painting

Got a little extra painting time this week, so tried to make the best of it. Was a little bored cleaning up the Kontrol Battalion, so went for some more creative options to keep the energy up.

Demon dogs!

As promised earlier, the Old Glory versions of Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel. Stuck with the classic costumes. Might highlight the Sunsword to help it stand out a little, detail these up a bit more at some point.

Bringing a knife to a... knife fight.

Next up, Lord Plunder. A Chronoscope fig I will be considering for... 7tv. Yes, I caved, thanks to some tempting posts seen elsewhere. Will write this up once I am through the book, but it looks like a good ruleset for my pulp gaming desires. And I happen to have a bunch of figs lying around that I can use for it. (Here pictured facing off against a pre-painted Mage Knight beastie.)

Qui est l'Homme Mystérieux?

 

And finally, some bad guys for trying out 7tv. The Gorilla Gangster (a Mongoose mini) was originally bought for Pulp City, but can pull double-duty here. As can the fiendish Mysterious Man, the criminal mastermind and scientific genius, with his genetically-spawned dinosauroid pet (originally Pulp City). Lastly, a menacing mechanical bodyguardbot (from Mr. Murch's fantastic Pulp Figures line.)

quoted for truth

"As gamers we'll spend just a small portion of our time actually gaming. It's the time spent reading, talking, and thinking about gaming that can be the most fruitful and fulfilling way of filling the gamer's existential vacuum."

-Scott Pyle

Gruntz: Kontrol vs. Quar

Sponkhound tank and Herkimer APC approach the city ruins.

Maurice and I sat down to play some Gruntz. 'Assault and Battery' scenario. His Quar defenders had three objectives on their side of the board, but only started with some of their troops on the table, rolling for reinforcements at the start of each turn. Both sides had 200 points. He started dug in, and would only be getting more backup, so I had to book it fast to cover ground before he really solidified things and made it a war of attrition.

(We did change the scenario a bit, having eliminated units count for two victory points, and units taken to half counting for one. Having it just be points costs for units makes the objectives feel like an afterthought.) (And I suppose I should mention we also alternated activations, instead of I-go-you-go.)

As I've noted previously, he's a damn fine painter. Here we see some brave Quar-riors (with their power armor backup) getting ready to go to ground at the first objective.

The Space Buddha approves!

Good overview of the battlefield. Righthand side, you can see my Sponkhound tank and Herkimer APC rolling towards the first objective, some fancy solar battery. We'll have none of that! Kontrol only believes in good ol' fossil fuels!

The other half of the field, we see the other tank and the other APC rolling up in the same formation. Some shots get traded back and forth, but no real action. The Quar set up their defensive lines.

Turn two. I win initiative. First shot, the Sponkhound on the way to the first objective takes a shot at his scout walker. 12! Roll for damage... 12! BOOM. Nothing left but shrapnel and memories. I consider conceding the game at this point, because nothing else I do will be as cool as that. But we press on.

More shots go back and forth. I get the Herkimer closer to the first objective, so I can unload the troops and bust it up. The Quar sense menace, and are pouring a lot of fire into the APC, and the damage is starting to bleed through my armor.

Now that we're engaged, we're seeing a dichotomy. I put together a list of fewer models with lots of armor but packing a punch. Maurice's troops are more numerous, but harder to hit, and with more diversified weaponry. So we have quite the boxing match going on. I don't hit as often, but when I do, things get crunched. In the meantime, he's throwing a lot of dice and wearing through my defenses. It's nifty. (And it gives me a little deja vu, heh.)

Turn three. Maurice gets the initiaitve. Concentrating his fire on my other Herkimer APC, which is bering down on the third objective (divide, conquer.) His whittling strategy is paying off, gets a critical on the vehicle, and handicaps... the armor. Uh oh. Sensing doom, I speed it forward to within inches of the third objective (a windmill! How vile.)

No sooner do I get there that one of his other scout walker punches a hole through the Herkimer, taking it out. My Kontrol squad bails out, near their goal, but they'll be walking home from deep within enemy territory.

Back at the first objective, I race up the first Herkimer. My Sergeant disembarks from his ride, and gives his extra action to the squad still inside. The Quar lay on some shooting, but it's not enough. The Kontrol squad disembarks and blows up the first objective. Score! They're decimated by some timely shots and grenades thereafter, but the price has been paid. (And thanks to the Automaton perk, they just don't care about casualties. Big ups.)

Turn four kicks in with me getting the initiative, and thusly securing the windmill objective. The tide has come in at last. All reinforcements are on the table, including an unwelcome addition mere inches from where the first objective was, but it's all falling apart now.

The Sponkhound from the first objective changes direction and throws a massive shot the long way towards the Quar gathered at the third, taking down another scout walker, but it's really for show. At this point I don't have the troops to secure the second objective, and it'd be an uphill fight for the Quar to eliminate the Sponkhounds without themselves being eliminated in exchange. I take it on points. 

Excellent game, with a lot of good dice rolls backing up solid strategy on both sides of the fence. Gruntz is proving to be a good experience for the group. Next time I will remember to get a picture of each of the complete forces.

* - As noted previously, my Kontrol Battalion army will feature the Boarhound tank. Now christened the Sponkhound, after one of the angrier native species of their home planet. This amuses me to no end. The word Sponk is a lot of fun to say.

temptation

7TV by Crooked Dice has tempted me before. I dig on pulp, and it looks pulpy and easily adaptable to a lot of different settings. Thusly, I'd have a good use for my Doctor Who figs and the Strange Aeons/pulp era guys (initially picked up for AE-WWII,) as well as an excuse to paint up cowboys, pirates, and other goofy genre figs. But then I read something like this, and man. Maybe 2012 will be the year of Pulp City, 15mm scifi, and 7TV. 

(Plus, they have that fig of the Prisoner.) (And not-Amy in her "cop" uniform.)

State of the Union

Well, sort of.

Life gets heck of busy for me from about the end of October until midway through January. Gotten only two nights of gaming in during that period.Had to rely on the occasional evening of Team Fortress 2 to tide me over otherwise. Luckily, we've made it through the drought, and have more gaming on the near horizon now.

The local crew is talking about re-starting the Shadowrun campaign shortly. (I adore Shadowrun. It's one of my favorite RPG settings.) The past decade has been all of two or three stalled starts at RPGs. I still like the concept, it's just hard getting everyone together regularly, with a Dungeonmaster willing to herd those cats. Everyone is adults with busy lives.

Unilaterally declared 2012 is also the year of Pulp City, so, there's that. Still shooting for Gencon this year.

As noted previously, last year was also the year I got into 15mm scifi. There's something of a boomlet on, and me and the locals have been slowly buying, building, and painting. So now we have to get more games in. One of the things we invested in was the idea of an Aliens vs. Predators vs. Marines scenario. And now that we're getting down to brass tacks on that, I'm trying to figure out what rules to use. Current theory? Blasters and Bulkheads. Will it work? Good question! Heh. Will definitely be stretching the numbers, but it still looks to me like the best fit.

I'm also playing around with the numbers for Gruntz for my Kontrol Battalion, which is helping solidify the backstory there in my mind.

Painting queue, roughly: Kontrol Battalion bases and vehicles, Mercs sefadu, Khurasan Space Demons. Assembling, have the terrain I picked up over the holidays, plus a few figs I picked up from Rebel as well.

Lords of light!

Demon dogs!

One of the things that attracted me to Blasters and Bulkheads was its versatility. Yes, the game has a very not-Star-Wars vibe to it, but even a cursory read-through and a little creativity shows that there's more you can do with it.

Yes, I made Thundarr a Dark Essence user. Deal with it! Really, he's all about offense, more likely to charge in headfirst each and every encounter, not hold back and play defense. I didn't add points for the mounts, or now that I look at it, fill in the Defense slots on the right, but you get the idea.

A few years back, Old Glory produced some not-Thundarr figs in 15mm (not sure if they're still available, the OG website is... interesting) as part of a Superfigs ten-pack. I have Ookla painted up, will try to get the other two polished off shortly.

And, fair warning, once Art Crime gets out their Hadai, I am totally going to do stats for the Thundercats. Including Snarf. Especially Snarf. (And, if you're not watching the new Thundercats on Cartoon Network, you're missing out. The show is so much better than it has any right to be.)