Sunday 30 August 2015

West Wind Brotherhood Minis.

Hobby-wise, I have been cleaning up mot of my recently acquired West wind Brotherhood models.


I have a couple to do, before I break out the 2 packs of Scarecrows I bought on the same occation.

Originally, I intended to use the models for Frostgrave, but I don't think that I am going to play that game at all, as I simply dislike the  combat system too much.

Instead, I intend to make a unit useable for Lion/Dragon Rampant, maybe SAGA Crescent and Cross, and, of course, a warband for Chaos in Carpathia, which I have had on hold for some years.

The Scarecrows will be supplemented with a few more, to bring them up to strength to use as a unit for God of Battles, and again, also for Lion/Dragon Rampant, and Chaos in Carpathia.

Well, so much for the plans. Now, let's see if I see them through...

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Vacation 2015 - Day 3, Part 2.

After resting (and the kids swimming in the lake) we made our way to the small nearby town of Hohenschwangau to withdraw some cash before taking the trip to the two famous castles of the area.

The next pictures are taken from the parking lot on the edge of the town.





For some reason, Anna did not wish to be on any of the pictures taken from here, but, well..

After parking in the official tourist parking lot and standing in line for tickets most of an hour, we decided to climb the stairs up the rock to Schloß Hohenschwangau.



View towards Alpsee halfways up the stairs




There was some waiting time before the guided tour of the castle, so we mutated into Japanese tourists for a while.






No pics from inside the castle, as the Wittelsbacher family hold the copyright of everything inside.

On the way down, we took the horse wagon, and the girls got to sit in the drivers seat.



We also took a wagon up to Schloß Neuschwanstein, whicjh is said to be the inspiration for the Disney castle of the Sleeping Beauty.





If you look very closely, you can see a cableway.






My wife and I walked down, as the last wagon had just barely room for the kids.

A small creek fell down from the rock...


...went under the road and disappeared down through the woods.


The last view of a fairy tale castle.


Friday 14 August 2015

Frostgrave: My Thoughts so Far...

Well, I've not played any further games than the test game almost two weeks ago, but I have been following what other people have been writing/discussing about it, and my current opinion is:


  • I really like the scope of the game. The whole idea of fighting for treasure/knowledge against other wizards and their warbands has a nice old-school dungeoneering vibe to it.
  • The magic system seems well thought off
BUT
  • I absolutely loathe the combat/damage system. It is, in my opinion, FAR too random with 2 d20 rolling off against each other, highest roll wins and also determine damage done (if any).
I am thinking about making another system for fighting, but it will also affect some of the spells, and I'm not sure that I can come up with something that doesn't disrupt the use of magic.


I do feel though, that instead of the opposed roll, the attacker should roll against a fixed target based on his own Fight and the defenders Fight (and maybe Armour, unless the Armour becomes a number for the defender to roll under to save a hit), and that the Health stat could be changed to 1 Hit Point per 5 current Health. If the attacker meets his target roll, he does 1 HP of damage, 2 on a Critical. If the defender is still around, he gets to attack right back.


We'll see. This weekend is Attic Attack III, and I should be able to dicuss the matter with some of the participants.

Thursday 6 August 2015

Vacation 2015 - Day 3, Part 1.

It appears that camping sites in the southern half of  Germany close at 19.00 or 20.00, which took us somewhart by surprise on the evening of day 2.

A view from the camping
Consequently, we failed to find a site to spend the night - and as we had already suffered substantial delays due to roadworks (especially around Braunschweig), we decided to drive through the night to reach Oberschwangau near Füssen (in Bavaria) before morning.

Lea is getting ready for the lake!
We arrived at Camping Bannwaldsee (http://www.camping-bannwaldsee.de/de/campingplatz-allgaeu-schwangau-bayern.html) at 4.00 in the morning on July 3rd, and put the kids to bed in the caravan, while my wife and I tried to get some sleep in the car.

We checked in at 8.00 and got a nice spot (lot #380) to stay.

The kids went for a swim in the lake (the camping has its own beaches along the lake).

As soon as we felt up to it after resting a bit more, we set sails for the first BIG adventure of this our first journey into the continent with the family:

Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein!

More about this in the next episode of: Vacation 2015!


A closer look at the mountains from the camping

I want an awning like this for our caravan!

Frostgrave: Angry Monks and Scarecrows

Got this parcel from West Wind Productions in the mail while being sound asleep today:


Four packs of Vampire Wars Brotherhood, for my Thaumaturge Frostgrave warband (and Chaos in Carpathia), and two different packs of Killer Scarecrows, to use as constructs in Frostgrave (and probably also Chaos in Carpathia, and other horror themed settings, such as Strange Aeons).

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Another Skeleton Horde, Part 2

Well, yesterday's disappointment with Frostgrave at least spurred me on to turn my attention elsewhere, and, behold, there was my second Skeleton Horde sitting on my pain(t) station, awaiting further treatment!



I started out giving all the models a wash of Devlan Mud (which will soon be running dry), to make the previously painted skellies blend in with the recently primed ones.

Had to leave them to dry for a bit, before I could move on to glueing sand on the bases of all the 'new' models.

They will have to sit in the sandboxes until tomorrow afternoon, when I get up from sleeping after a night watch.

Finally, I painted the bases of the 'old' models with Warzone Trench Brown, and I shall do the same with the rest tomorrow, if I do not get up too late for anythng but a quick run and cooking dinner for my family.

My stock of these ancient GW models is running low, now, and I am in the market for more, as I shall need several more Skeleton Hordes to flesh(?) out a proper battle line.

Well, hopefully someone out there is skipping their old undead army because of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and I shall be able to snatch up some reinforcements!



Tuesday 4 August 2015

Frostgrave - A Cold Fish?

Well, instead of a game report, I am just going to state that I am somewhat disappointed by the way the game plays.

First of all, the d20 vs the multiple Health points is a feature that at first glance promises some durability for your models, but in reality the models could just as easily have 1-3 'wounds', and the winner of the combat inflict 1 point of damage, 2 for a critical hit. Would be simpler, and less random.

The large 'outcome range' presented by a d20, combined with the variable roll to succeed (have to beat your opponent's roll + modifiers), means that you can roll over average, and still loose a model to a single attack (actually, even if you loose the opposed roll by only one point, your model may still die horribly, as it is only the winner's combat roll vs your armour that decides how much damage you take, your combat roll does not influence the damage).

On top of this, you pay exorbitantly much for models wearing any kind of protection - while armour is at the same time rather ineffective (leather armour gives +1 to a base value of 10, mail a mere +2).

A game in which the rulebook itself states that the game is best played in campaign mode, and is about building your warband while advancing your wizard, I find it a tad annoying that warband members gets taken out this easily, as they then have a 20% chance of outright dying.

I did play the game with a warband based on the models I had at hand, so I had not optimized anything, but neither had my opponent.

We did not play further than the first wizard phase in turn 2 in this test game, as it became quite clear that if I pressed on to secure some treasure, my warband would most likely just get wiped out, and there was no point in that, as neither of us is going to use the same warband again, anyway.

I am still going to make my 'crusader' warband, but I am going to alter the composition somewhat, going for more firepower and less armoured might. Then if in my next game I or my opponent gets totally wiped, I'll probably just leave it there - I don't play very often, and thus I want to play games where the outcome depends on skill, rather than some lucky/unlucky rolls with a d20.

Monday 3 August 2015

Frostgrave: The Crusaders - Part 3

I assembled my 'knight' - which is going to be painted up as a Templar Serjeant - and had second thoughts about the 'templar' model, for which I decide to use an uncowled head instead.

This negates the need for using putty, and I wonder if the cowled heads are, in fact, meant to go with the plain cloaks/capes of the Fireforge Templar Infantry set...


Well, if my angry monks do not show up tomorrow, I shall be taking filler to the bases of these (after trimming some intergral bases a bit),

After noon, Ulolkish is bringing a mock-up warband to play my mock-up Necromancer warband in our first test game, so stay tuned for a game report and some afterthoughts one of the next days!

Saturday 1 August 2015

Frostgrave: The Crusaders - Part 2

I have been doing stuff outside today, as the temperatures rose over 17 degrees Celsius, and no rain was in sight (rare occasion this summer), but I found time to put the last piece (the head) on a Fireforge Templar, dig out my old Citadel 'not Friar Tuck', and rebase him on a steel washer.

Templar, Man-at-Arms, and Apothecary for my upcoming Thaumaturge warband.

The Templar needs some putty-work around the hood (and trimming of the integral base), but otherwise I am quite pleased with this collection of henchmen.

Funny detail: The merry Friar was originally (20 years ago?) intended as an Apothecary for my Blood Bowl team 'The Oakhill Rangers', but never got painted before the Blood Bowl craze at out local club in Svendborg waned, but I remembered him, and now could get him out and back on his career track.

Next up is a Fireforge Templar sarjeant, that I am going to use for the 'Knight' soldier archetype. I expect to do most of the work on him tomorrow, and then I expect the West Wind Brotherhood minis to arrive in a couple of days, so I can probably get these ready for primer in the meantime.



Frostgrave: Table Mock-Up.

Here is a quick test set-up of most of my fantasy ruins:

 As you can see, I actually did not use everything, and Ulolkish's pieces have not been touched.

Between us, I think we can easily cover a 4x4 table, especially when I/we get some snow pieces done to use as 'open ground breakers'.