Gaming Mats Completed!

As per the intentions mentioned in my previous post, I have been making DIY gaming mats galore.

The above mat is 4'x2' (instead of 40"x20"), and thus a wee too large for The Walking Dead, but as I want all my mats to adhere to the 'normal' convention of using whole feet for table measurements I had to add those few inches to the standard All Out War board sizes.

Here is the concrete/tarmac/rubble/whatever 4x2 mat.

And the 2x2 version - various kinds of daylight, and inconsistent use of tungsten lamps messed a bit with the colour - it is more or less the same as the above mat.

Finally, I have made two earth mats for covering a full 6x4 table. They look almost square, which is because the short edges (meant to form the 6' edges of the board) are actually a bit more than 3' - I simply decided to use the whole width of the material.

Another Terrain Mat

I am making some additional mats for playing The Walking Dead: All Out War, and other purposes, probably also Frodo's Quest. The first two are going to be this 2'x2', and a 2'x4' earth/dirt mat, and then I am going to make both a 2'x2', and a 2'x4' concrete/tarmac/ash waste mat, so that can stage scenarios in both rural and urban settings.

I am aware that The Walking Dead specifies 20"x20", and 20"x40" playing areas, but I want the mats to fit in with 'feet standardized' mats/tables.

When those are done, I am going to purchase a new roll of that 'painters' felt' so that I can make some 4'x3' mats without old splashes of paint; I want to be able to keep just one set of blank boards near the living room to put on the dining table to accommodate a variety of mats. I can then keep my chipboard boards in the attic with no need for carrying them back and forth, which facilitates switching to the living room when the attic gets too cold for gaming.

Frodo's Quest: First Mini 'Finished'

Not much painting to do on this one, but I thought I would show it, anyway.

I expect to have one or two additional finished models (Frodo and Sam in corporeal form) ready within the next week or so (I have a lot to do on the job front the rest of this week, and we are going to Horsens Medieval Festival Friday to Sunday).

I have not yet decided on a rule set to use for the Frodo's Quest campaign, but I think I shall try to design the scenarios in a way that they can be played with whatever ruleset I like - even solo and/or with a GM managing the bad guys.

The first scenario will feature Frodo and Sam trying to sneak away from Hobbiton, while a Black Rider tries to intercept them, and a couple of members of the Silent Watch may interfere. I have it all in my head, I just need to get the minis ready for the table, and some terrain painted up, before I write down the details.

2019-08-17: God of Battles, Undead vs Blood Gorged Lizardmen

This may be the last time I have played God of Battles. With each game I play, it becomes more and more obvious to me that the combat system (and probably the whole points system) is heavily flawed, and if I cannot convince my gaming buddies to adapt some changes, the game is dead for me. Period.

The biggest problem is the Defence Dice procedure that means that it is the unit size, and not the number of hits suffered, that determines the number of 'saves' rolled, which means that a small unit with Defence 4 is prone to loose more models than a large unit with Defence 4 if they suffer the same amount of hits. This has to change if I am to even consider playing this game again.

There is a lot of things I love about the game, especially the very simple movement rules (although the rules for Formed Units lead to some very awkward situations now and then, and have to be tweaked a bit), but I am tired of seeing my bread-and-butter troops get cut to pieces by large Loose Units and/or single models with a psychotic amount of Defence Dice (T'lekkan Behemoth, for instance) without having the slightest chance of even inflicting a single wound on them.

Well, I have written down some suggestions for rules changes, and submitted them to one of my gaming buddies - we shall have to see how they are received.

On to the AAR:

The above picture shows the  battlefield with roughly half my army on the table while the next two show both armies fully deployed.

Turn 1 I had my Chariots and Knights speed forward on the left, while my infantry tried to get in position in the gaps between the jungle patches and ruins - in a kind of Refused Flank strategy.

The Lizardmen generally surged forward.

Turn 2 started well for me with an abhorrent dice roll (I forgot to add the 2 extra dice for Charge!), when a Chariot with a Blacksoul crashed into the enemy. Blue hit on 3, Red on 4....

When the other Blacksoul in Chariot attacked, I remembered the Charge! bonus - not that it mattered much...

The Chariot saves at 4+, which statistically should mean that half the defence dice should work, but never tell me the odds, as the universe does not work that way.

One of my Chariots was subsequently charged by some Temple Guards, and when it got to strike back, at least the Chariot (blue dice)  performed as could be expected, while the Blacksoul just barely managed to scratch an opponent.

I do not remember what this roll was for - looks like a Chariot save - but try counting the sixes rolled in all the pics so far...

This was the lay of the land after Turn 2. As far as I remember, both my Chariots were gone (40 pts C&S), and I had annihilated one unit of Temple Guard Watchers (12 pts, I think).

I am not sure of the sequence here, as this looks conspicuously like another Blacksoul/Chariot attack roll gone bad. It has been a couple of days since we played, and, frankly, I did my best not to think about the game until I sat down yesterday to process the photos.

In Turn 3, my knights managed to dispatch the remaining Temple Guard Watchers without sustaining a single casualty (!) themselves, but at the same time the Saurus Ravagers reached my infantry line, and the carnage began...

We opened Turn 4 with my Knights attacking and slaughtering half a Skink Archer unit, and the Ravagers almost wiped out my Skeleton Horde. Emil agreed that any dispense was gone from the game, as the Ravagers would wither down my Skeletons faster (and longer) than my Knights could hope to kill reptiles, and we called it a day.

This session completely killed my desire for playing wargames - God of Battles in its current form in particular - and just as important for painting minis, as I have absolutely no other reason for painting minis than using them for gaming.

Bad day for my hobby mojo.

Frodo's Quest: 3D Printed Smials - and then Some!

I have been printing some copies of one of the 'Small Entrances' for Modular Gaming Hills, as well as some hill pieces to go with them, by Terrain4Print on Thingiverse, and I have now prepped and primed the first pieces for painting. I shall need some flower tufts for this, methinks.

I have also slabbed some more Contrast Paint on Frodo and Sam. My experience so far is that this kind of painting is probably best reserved for plastics, as they have fewer small surface imperfections to disrupt the paint - but I shall see this little project through, as the minis are spares I thought I could just as well experiment on.

The rangers are also getting a little attention, now and then, and I have removed the excess sand after taking this photo. I may find time to treat them to a coat of Wraithbone Contrast Undercoat, so that I can try out the effects on that, too.

LotR: Frodo's Quest - Heroes and Villains

I have been doing some work on my 'little' side project each day this week, and of course I have some progress to show for it.

Today, I rebased a couple of them rangers that I need for the first scenario I am planning (I actually considered getting some of the ranger minis done by North Star for Rangers of Shadow Deep, but common sense prevailed, and I went for some of the minis I already own).

I also for the first time rebased a cavalry model onto one of the pill-shaped MDF/washer cavalry bases I have constructed - one of The Nine, searching the Shire for Baggins.

I also cleaned up, based, and primed some spare copies of Frodo and Sam (from the first Fellowship boxed set) that I have from one of the second hand lots I bought years ago.

I primed them white because I am going to paint them with Contrast Paints, to try those out, but I have already realized that some colours will have to be done with traditional paints - especially the skin, as the Contrast Paint skin colours end up way too dark (the photo shows the colours somewhat less dark than they appear in the flesh, so to speak.

I used Darkoath Flesh on Sam, and Guilliman Flesh on Frodo; neither with a satisfactory result. I never the less expect to be able to paint most of both minis with the Contrast Paints, apart from the skin and the metal parts.

I am going to paint Frodo's dagger as normal steel, not glowing blue, as in the movies he did not receive Sting, and the Mithril shirt from Bilbo until meeting him in Rivendell (I cannot recall if Bilbo left him those items in Bag End in the book, I shall have to read the books once more  to brush up on the trivia).

2019-08-06: Age of Fantasy Skirmish AAR

Emil and I duked it out in the garage attic once more - he playing the staunch defenders of Gondor, and I the devious Goblin horde.

We played the standard 4 Rounds.

We rolled only 3 objectives this time, and Emil won the deployment roll-off.

The first couple of photos show the table before deployment (almost - we had just begun placing units when I remembered to pull out the camera).

The next three pics show the forces deployed.

This photo I snapped to make sure that all Objective Counters were shown (there is one in the ruined throne room upper center right).

In Round 1 both forces sped forward - I was able to secure two Objectives, while Emil took the last.

In Round 2, the fighting commenced. The Gondorian wizard hit one of my Trolls with a Fireball which left it flat on its back. My Shaman failed horribly to cast Glare on the enemy Wizard.

I could not defend the Troll, and he was quickly dispatched at the beginning of Round 3. My other Troll took its place, was also hit by a Fireball, but shook off most of the effect. My Shaman failed another casting attempt.

Early in Round 4 it became clear that Emil could not shift the Goblins from any of the two Objectives I held, and we agreed to call it a day, with a 2-1 win for the Moria horde. Before that, my Shaman actually managed to Glare the Wizard, and managed to inflict a whooping 3 hits (on 2d6), and one of those was saved, leaving the Wizard to cast another spell.

The game could have gone either way, but I succeeded in taking and holding the two Objectives closest to my side of the table with the majority of my warband. I need to think up some alternative scenarios, though, as the game may get a bit samey.

Goblins Rebased

I am going to use these guys as my Hearthguard in tomorrow's game of SAGA Age of Magic. I finally finished rebasing them yesterday (I started before out summer vacation), and now they are ready for some action!

LotR: Frodo's Quest - Invisible Frodo

I dug this out for a little project I have going on.

It is kind of a side project, only requiring a fistful of minis, but I may become the start of a linked series of LotR-mania, only time will tell...

I have no idea what the NIB value would have been on the collectors' market, and I really do not care the slightest - I bought this to game with it, and now I am finally putting it to its intended use!

So, out of the blister it came, and in the meantime, I have begun basing it - at the same time as a set of second hand Fellowship Frodo and Samwise that I also have to get ready for this, for now, little side quest.

I an going to paint them with Citadel Contrast Paints (metal Frodo and Sam, that is), to learn how they behave (the Contrast Paints, that is) - I can always strip and repaint them when I have some 'properly' painted versions ready for the table.

I expect to have an update on this project one of the next days; I have a gaming session tomorrow afternoon, so I am not sure whether I shall have time for reporting any progress, but I plan to apply the kaizen principles to it, so that it does not get bogged down.

I have not yet decided which ruleset to use - I may even go back and apply the actual LotR/Hobbit/Middle-Earth SBG rules with some house rules added, but that is yet to be seen.

3D Printed: Stone Buildings

I finally got the Ulvheim stone buildings cleaned up and ready for painting. I have printed second storeys and roofs for both the 100% building and the 110% building, and I also printed trapdoors and ladders. This version is the 100% building.

Here you see the ruined second storey. I really like how it is designed so that the stairs still leads to the remains of the upper level.

This is the 110% version.

And here it is with another ruined upper level. The stairs still work!

I expect Ulolkish to take them home with him tomorrow and then soonish give a shout whether he considers the 110% print fitting, or if I should print an even bigger version before going completely to town printing ruins.