The Necromancer War, Chapter 2

When last we left the good people of the Targan Empire, their border towns and forts had been over-run by a sudden invasion of the dark forces of the nearby kingdom of the Necromancer King.  The Patriarch of the Empire, High King Sisterbanger, quickly dispatched a small delaying force to buy enough time to scrape together an army that could repel the repellent invading host.  For their part, the Necromancer King's forces pushed deeper into the Targar Empire along a broad front, encountering only scattered resistance.  The two forces would meet along the road, screened from each other by the early dawn light and a small fortified farmstead straddling the dirt track.

Bucolic farm before the bloodening.

In game terms, we rolled a d30 to randomly determine the scenario and starting forces.  The scenario would be a sort of king-of-the-hill - whoever holds the farm after Turn 15 wins.  We each started the game with three knights, the Targar supplemented by two bows and a man-at-arms unit, the Necromancer King by two men-at-arms and a levy.  Both forces are unaware of each other and must move up the road until one hits the farm.

Hump Day Dump Day, Issue #2

Gabions, everyone.  Gabions.

It's Wednesday, that time of the week when Warren steals content from other blogs gives credit to just a few of the many creative geniuses laboring around the internet to provide you with free inspiration and entertainment - it's a random sampler of inspirtainment!

War Monkey has a great little terrain project for your modern/near future table.  Gabions are those wire baskets filled with rock that military forces have used for cover for over a hundred and fifty years.  They make for some cheap and easy scatter terrain:

Hesco/Gabion Barriers (Silo 1313): I only made a couple for now just to see how the would look and to share what I have learned. I think they are going to be great and work really well for my gaming needs! My plan is to use them in my Zombie games and post apocalyptic games mostly for the military units. This project cost me less then 4 Dollars! And I'll have more then enough barriers then I can think of.

Roger G-S reminds us all that killing a Gelatinous Cube is only the first step in dealing with a massive nearly invisible lump of paralytic goo:

The Bigger, Badder Galatinous Cube (Rolls, Rules, and Roles):  Remember, this is a space filled with solid jelly equal to four hill giants in a huddle. Really, it's more a surging obstacle than a monster you can trade blows with. And the trouble doesn't stop when you kill it: the cube should spread proportionately,creating a 6 foot high mound of jelly spread over 20 feet of corridor. Jelly that for a while will retain its paralytic qualities. As you clear it, more slumps to the floor.

As you are no-doubt aware, your 'umble host is a firm believer in the design philosophy of "Every Game Starts With the Box".  By way of Trojan Point's recommendation for modular Frostgrave terrain), here's a great look at one way to build modular dungeon terrain that packs up nice and tidy for storage and transport:

Paradise Ruins: Modular And Portable Table (One of the many Infiniti Forums):  They wanted a table easily portable (because they had to travel from Barcelona to Madrid), that was modular and playable. So they thought about a variant of Tetris, in pieces on 40x40cm (16x16inches more or less) boards, where they could rotate the pieces, and that the pieces fit inside each other.

And another thread from the Lead Adventure Forums featuring multiple mini-games that fit into a box including a 28mm skirmish game and a rice soldier Napoleoincs game that fits into an actual matchbox.  Scroll down for crazy fun inspiration for your next game in a box:

Transportable Minigames (A DonVoss thread at the Lead Adventure Forums): As a part of my job I travel a lot. mostly one or two day, so I olny carry hand luggage...  Hotel nights could be boring (I am not a tv watcher). So I thought it might be a good idea to get some solo wargaming under way... I grabbed a box (16x10x5 cm) and tried to fill it with some miniatures and scenery. Plastic 28s because of wight. And I had to build some small trees, because my my big one would not fit in."

Some interesting thoughts on evil in gaming from Courtney Campbell.  It's another theme-and-variation on the usual song and dance about orc babies in RPGs.  Given the clear evidence for people and ideas that are objectively evil in the real world, I'm always fascinated by people who struggle with the existence of evil in pretend worlds:

On Mordor, Where the Jock Orcs Lie (Hack & Slash), But for the most part, you're sneaking about listening to orcs. What do orcs do? They drink (grog which you can poison to make them fight each other), they brag, they piss, and they pick on "pinkskins". So if you're not interacting with the orcs, they act just like stereotypical jocks picking on nerds. The question is, what does evil look like when it isn't being evil?

The whole point is to have faceless mooks you can murder without consequence. But is that of value? Philosophically, what is the problem with accepting that the people you are killing are, you know, actually people?

Teaser time: Check back here on Friday.  I've got the next chapter of the Necromancer War all written up and ready for you.

Sci-Fi Characters - Hold the Sausage

Seems like every week miniature wargame manufacturers are adding more and more female character types to their catalogs, and 15mm figures are no exception.  Today we feature a small pack of shorties from Bombshell Miniatures.  They've got a full catalog of big figures with full figures, but just the one pack of MicroBabes.

 

The one on the left looked like the sister to one Captain Zap Brannigan of the Doop, so she got the full velour uniform treatment.

From the Archive - Space Rangers

Last week was nice - showing off a couple of really old figures from the attic box.  Here's another figure from way back in the early days of painting.

 



The chunky plastic flying the colors of my alma mater is a Space Ranger.  Back in the day you could get a box of 30 of these guys for less than 25 bucks from...ICE?  These days you can buy a squad of five from em-4 for something like $4.

They look really blocky, and you really only get two poses, gun to the breast, and pistol packing squad leader.  But they paint up great, are very distinct, and how many miniatures get less expensive over time?  Mine was painted some time around 1995 along with the rest of the box.  They only saw use a couple of times at a day care where my then girlfriend worked.   The rest of the box is long gone from the collection.  They were either sold off or handed down to a neighbor kid to try and grow the hobby.  This one survived as a small keepsake of my college gaming days.

Sci Fi Bystanding Guys

Quick shot of some bystanders for 15mm sci-fi games.  First up, four dudes in space suits of one sort or another.  I think they are all from 15mm.co.uk.



From left to right:  ?, HOF57A, HOF86C, and HOF86C

Can't find that guy on the left anywhere on 15mm.co.uk's website, so now I'm thinking he might be a Khurasan figure held over from a previous pack?  That doesn't sound right.

This is some sort of wandering alien holy man.  This sculpt looked alien enough that a simple flesh color would suffice - no need for exotic colors like green or orange or lavender. 

 

After finishing up the painting, priming, dullcoating, and finally photographing this figure, my son pointed out that when you see it on the tabletop...it looks like a giant erect phallus.  Good call, Warren.  Good call.

Hump Day Dump Day, Issue #1

Lancelot Link to the rescue!
(Eureka Miniature)

A few of my favorite blogs are my favorite blogs in part because from time to time they issue a post consisting entirely of pointers to other blog posts that find interesting. Those always tickle my fancy because they expose me to cool ideas and bloggers that I might not have found on my own.

It is high time I returned the favor for anyone out there with the excellent taste to share my tastes.  So, welcome to the Wednesday link dump.  That's enough ado, let's get to it.

First up, from the "Books About Elves Are Serious Business" files:

That Woefully Incomplete Sampling of Appendix N (Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog), "When John C. Wright wrote an essay about some points I raised in my Appendix N series, the folks at File 770 had a field day. The overall effect was not unlike raw meet being dropped into a piranha pool. 

Who knows how long this would have gone on?! It could have been pages upon pages of righteous indignation, but Brian Z. spoiled the fun shortly after this by pointing out that I had actually covered the book…. The entire discussion gets tabled, with only Jim Henley even acknowledging the link."

Next up, a great point about taking things just seriously enough:

Sincere silliness (Dungeon Fantastic), "It's not ironic enjoyment, but sincere enjoyment of something twisted ironically. It's a hard difference to explain in words, but I can feel the difference between "make it a joke" and "enjoy the jokes." We and the game are in on the same jokes - laughing with the game elements, not at them.
That's why I think it keeps going. No ironic enjoyment here. Nostalgia flavored but looking back for inspiration not elusive fun that was never really had."

Big battles always make me want more time, space, and money.  Or at least a decent local convention scene:

The Big Game XV - Clearing the Viper's Nest (Dropship Horizon), "I must be doing something right. I was invited to host a second participation wargame this year, at my local gaming club TableTopNorth in Belfast...The scenario was a continuation of an ongoing campaign between the rebelling human forces of the RPK republic (near future Arabs) and their evil galactic overlords the Naga (snake like aliens). The RPK regular army forces had support from their air cavalry wing the muster troops and Ikwen militia who had been brought to earth by the Naga as agricultural slaves. The Naga had support from Malig space goblins, a conquered race and various droids."

Deep thoughts on scenario design:

Game Design #57: Asymmetry (Delta Vector), "Whilst I'm not saying to abandon attempt to balance games nor points systems are evil (in fact I am in favour of points systems to "help" balance - without accepting them as a perfect solution) - I think asymmetrical battles should play a bigger part in the already overlooked areas of scenario/mission design. After all, how many historical battles were precisely balanced? It's not an either/or situation. Asymmetry (whether we acknowledge it or not) is a key factor of warfare both before (whether it is through meta gaming the points system) and during (as you attempt to quickly neutralize your opponent and gain battlefield superiority) the battle; so why not consider it in scenario and mission design in conjunction with "balanced" points systems?"

Speaking of inspirational, this thread has some outstanding simple and evocative terrain:

Old Ben is Going To Play More Games (Lead Adventure Forum Thread), "After contributing to another thread on this forum called 'I'm a Lead Hoarder' I've realized I have become a hoarder. I am recently new to the war game world (8 years or so), and I have amassed a huge range of miniatures. Most of the miniatures I have are painted, so that's not the problem. The issue that I have is the same issue that a lot of collectors have-I own too much stuff that sits unplayed in copy boxes. This will be the thread where I'll sort it all out and actually play some games!"

And for you terrain-o-philes out there, another highly inspiration thread featuring some outstanding pulp sci-fi terrain.  This is the sort of thing I tried to do with my sci-fi city:

Planetoid 51 (Lead Adventure Forum),  Hi, here is my project that I've been working on nearly three years. I was able to glean ideas and resources from others here, so thank you. Anyways my theme involes an earth colony that was invaded by a previously unknown alien race. Earth forces are trying to reclaim the colony.

There's also a great thread on the Lead Adventure Forum talking all about how great Osprey's Black Ops is, but I wouldn't know because my copy still hasn't arrived from Amazon yet.  Not that I'm bitter about it, it's just that I'm bitter about it.  Razzin'-frazzin' shipping time to Hawaii...

My New Box Set (of Terrain)

The first stage of any terrain project is planning, and for the rooftop fights and infiltrations, there won't be any drop cloth - only the tippy-top levels of large buildings.  They may be anywhere from three to fifty stories tall.  The precise height doesn't really matter since we're only modelling the top floor or so, and how far a figure falls from the terrain doesn't affect the battle, any fall takes them out of the game.  If we can nestle four large buildings into the box, there should be plenty of room left over for the copious amounts of scatter terrain needed to keep things interesting.

And so it does.

The first consideration must me the box.  For the rooftop fights and infiltrations, the cheap clear plastic box measures roughly twelve inches across, ten inches wide, and six inches high.  That dictates the maximum size of my terrain pieces.  Four pieces should cover a two-by-two foot section of tabletop.  A little on the small side, but we're looking at scenarios with only a few figures and plenty of blocking terrain, so it should work. 

In the above photo, the buildings are separated by alleys which can be bridged with ductwork, pipes, or wires, which would cover more ground.  The nice thing about this set is that you can arrange the buildings in a lot of different ways.  You could leave a nice courtyard in the center, or line them up for a longer more narrow terrain set, like so:

No more pure rectangular battlefields.

The buildings themselves are basic terrain pieces, just foamcore held together with craft glue and scotch tape.  For variety, the buildings are built to three different heights, and the cornice* of each building has a different height.  This breaks up the terrain and serves as additional cover at the cost of no additional space.  As you can see, all four buildings still need a lot of detail.

The tallest building is the only one with an overhang. That way there
is never a covered alley between buildings.

The four smaller rooftop access buildings are built separate and can be swapped around each building to taste.  In addition to providing cover, they make great sniper posts, objectives, and "spawn points".  Naturally, the nestle inside the tallest building for storage.

Next up.  Detailing the base structures.  We're going to need a lot of empty cereal boxes.

*Crennel?  What do you call the raised edge of the rooftop?