More Infinity Terrain in Progress

Still doing some work on my Infinity terrain.

I built another building block and a balcony to allow me to stack them or use them individually. Details are still required.

I am also working on some industrial piping with a walkway on top and then I will build a landing pad.

The idea is to have a table depicting a  frontier mining outpost of some sort with the building complex on one side and the rocky area I had built previously and shown a couple of posts ago on the other side.

Tristan and I played a game of Castle Ravenloft, a D&D board game by Wizards of the Coast which was fun but once again ended in failure by the heroes!

At this point I am not sure if Tristan and I will be doing our annual Christmas miniature game. In the past we try to play a larger miniature game over the holidays, usually a GW game but perhaps not this year though I am hoping to get in another Pathfinder session over the computer with Tristan and my friend Pat in Ontario.

See you after the holidays and I hope everyone has a good gaming break.

The 2 buildings stacked.

The 2 buildings on the ground with the balcony removed.

A better view of the stairs. The slots are the height of the bases so the figures are held in.

With the roofs removed. Now to clean them up and add details.

The storage tank with a pipeline leading to an underground source.

I will be adding a walkway on the top of the pipes.

Just another view.

Force on Force Battle Report

The Crown Jewel; Az Zubayr pumping station March 21,2003

This scenario was taken from the Road to Baghdad scenario book from Ambush Alley Games. We played the first scenario called The Crown Jewel and depicts a small group of US Marines  trying to capture an oil pumping station before the Iraqi forces can destroy it.

The Forces:

USMC: 1 squad(12men) and a squad leader with an AAVTP-7(amtrack)
             A Cobra Helicopter is available on turn 3+

Iraqi:     Fedayeen death squad(6 men) and a Ba'ath Party Official with a SUV
            Iraqi Army Section(9 men) and a leader

The miniatures are mostly by Elhiem Figures with the AAVTP-7 by Dragon Models.

Before we started we clarified a few things like when the helicopter would be available and how to breach the fencing around the perimeter. 

This was the setup. Here the Iraqi defenders are being placed. The large building is the administration building while the 2 smaller ones are the pump houses.

We usually play on a slightly bigger board than the book suggest. This is a 3' by 3' as opposed to the 2' by 2' suggested in the book. We do this strictly for the looks as sometimes the 20mm figures and vehicles can get a little cramped on the smaller area. To compensate for this I increased the turns available to complete the mission from 6 to 9. This was suggested to me on the Ambush Alley Game forums by one of the game designers when increasing the table size.

The Iraqi forces in waiting. The ones in the Admin building are hidden and hard to spot until they take some action.

Turn 1. The USMC comes on inside the amtrack avoiding the main road and crushing the fence while the Iraqi troops in the admin building adjust their positions to cover the rear.

And then a sand storm blew in reducing visibility though this did not have a big effect on the game

The amtrack continues to the corner of the building.

And the first team debusses.

USMC fire causes 1 casualty in the pump house.

The Iraqi view.

The other 2 teams head into the admin building.

Taking up positions to fire unto the pump house. The other team is going to head up stairs to the roof.

The team by the amtrack takes 2 serious and 1 light wound and the friction of war starts to build up against the USMC.

The state of things, the Iraqi forces have only taken 1 light wound so far.

The Iraqis get some help.

And they quickly take up positions overlooking one of the USMC teams firing on them, 2 down.

The situation so far. Both USMC and Iraqis occupy the admin buildings while surprisingly accurate Iraqi fire has halted the USMC advance.

Finally the Cobra comes on. It wasn't called in earlier because it was not allowed engage targets in the pump houses and until the Iraqi SF team opened fire the units in the admin building were still hidden.

The Cobra opens fire on the admin building causing little damage and then getting called away next turn.

The USMC clears out the first pump house with the help of a sniper team that lended a hand. But the team on the roof is taken out by the Iraqi SF team. One of the guns jams up on the amtrack!

The admin building completely held by the Iraqis and the USMC do not have enough of a force to continue the engagement.

 We called it at this point two turns early. The Iraqi side had caused too many USMC serious wounds for them to recover enough VP's to win. The game was fast and furious though and lots of fun to play. We had 4 Fog of War cards that came up that really added some twists to the game making things, for the most part, more difficult for the USMC.

We are planning on playing the next scenario, Umm Qasr, so I have started to assemble a DragonModel AVVTP-7 to have two.

A Christmas Game Weekend, HOHOHO

Hi, a few weekends ago I invited some friends over for a weekend of games. This seems to becoming another annual event alongside the Malifaux weekend I hold in the spring and consists of mostly the same group of people.

So, for this weekend I had in attendance, Pierre, Eric, Julian, Ian, Shawn and Chet as well as my oldest son, Tristan. This weekend had no particular game theme so people brought over board games and a few miniature games.

We kicked off the games  with a 3 player game of Force on Force playing the 1st scenario out of the Road to Baghdad scenario book. I, as the USMC was pitted against Eric and Pierre during the Iraq war in 2003. This was, I think, the most enjoyable game I have played of Force on Force yet and I will post a full battle report later this week.

While that was going on Shawn pulled out his game of Dungeon Command and battled it out with Tristan.

Soon Chet arrived and we had a 4 player game of X-Wing which was a lot of fun and was similar to Wings of Glory which I have played a fair bit.

Then Ian and Julian arrived and yet more games of Dungeon Command were played with the day ending(or the next day beginning!) in a titanic 6 player game of X-Wing with(if I remember correctly) 48 ships on the table. A glorious day for the Empire!

The next day people had to head home but we played some more Dungeon Command and a game of Zombicide with the players that were available.

Of course throughout the weekend there was time filled in with some good conversations, food and a few drinks.

It was great seeing everyone, some I see only a few times a year, some more frequently but I think everyone had a good time with lots of games played and a few rematches demanded. And Chet, the rebel scum will never defeat the might of the Empire.

Force on Force turn 1. The Marines have driven through the fence.

Near the end, things went bad for the USMC, "the friction of war"

My first X-Wing game. Chet and Eric trying to take down the Empire...not today!

A close up. The game is fun and fast and because it is Fantasy Flight Games it has lots of counters.

Shawn and Tristan with Dungeon Command, Tristan really liked this game.

A 4 player game. Shawn and Julian shown with Tristan and Ian out of the frame.

The game continues.

Craft time! Chet spent a fair bit of time trying to put a paper model of the Millennium Falcon together.

The big battle, the forces of order. We had a chart to track damage etc. so the table wouldn't get cluttered with counters.

The forces of anarchy.

The Rebel scum, Tristan, Chet and Julian.

The Empire, me, Ian and Shawn.

The forces close.

...and clash.

The mayhem continues.

...and continues...

...and continues till around 3:00am

The next day. Zombicide, somewhat fitting.

And the last game. A 4 player Dungeon Command.

The End.

Infinity Terrain

I have just started to build some dedicated terrain for Infinity. I think, in general Infinity might look better on a table that has not been previously destroyed by battle or covered in skulls. Infinity also needs a lot of terrain to block lines of sight and elevations to give advantageous positions.

My idea is to make some structures that would fit in with a mining outpost or something similar. So I have started by making some "prefab" looking buildings and then I will make a landing pad and maybe some piping and gantry walkways to give some height. I have also made some "rock" bridges out of high density foam.

On a slightly different front I am continuing to run the Pathfinder role playing game via the internet using the Roll20 web program. I am starting to get used to both the program interface as well as the Pathfinder system so I am hoping to recruit 1 or 2 more of my friends to play. I think 4 players would be the maximum I could run using the computer.

I am planning to have a gaming weekend in a few weeks with a number of friends over for a weekend of games, both miniature and board games, so that should be a lot of fun.

Foamcore board with the main structure marked out. The dotted lines are where I will cut a 45 degree cut part way through.

My plans, or what amounts to plans.

The foamcore cut out, 2 ends and the main structure.

The main structure held together with elastics.

Once again with the windows and door cut out, and the removable roof in place.

The structure with a figure beside it. Details are yet to be added.

My "rock" bridges.