Summer Gaming(or non gaming)

Well it looks like summer has brought my painting projects to a crashing halt. I am sure I will get some dribs and drabs in but between work, home projects and just doing family/outdoors stuff most of my productive hobby time is just not there. So other than some odd times I think I will just reschedule for the fall and enjoy the summer.

This weekend gone by we got hit by the tail end of a tropical storm which took down a power pole in front of our house and cut off our power from Saturday morning till Sunday night. Tristan had a friend over so we pulled out a boardgame and played Dust Strategy by candle light. I made my move for world domination probably a turn too early and Tristan jumped on my weakened state to take over the lead and win. His friend enjoyed the game even though it was his first time playing and he doesn't often play these types of board games.

We continued our Call of Cthulhu rpg game run by Shawn with our investigators attending a party, no doubt full of cultist(or sacrifices), which ended in a death(surprise!) to follow up on. We are down one player for the summer and after this story arc we will probably go into hiatus till the fall.

This weekend we are going to continue with the Dragon Age RPG I am running for Shawn, Pierre, Tristan and Larry(via Google Hangouts) which should conclude their first adventure and again we will probably stop playing till the fall.

I have also started thinking of the way I want to present and run the miniature game demos I am running at Halcon this year. Halcon is the local Scifi, gaming & cos play convention. I have decided I will run much smaller demos with fewer figures and smaller but more scenic boards thrusting the players immediately into the action. In the past I have run full games for players but I think I will try this approach and see what gets better feed back.

The tree that came down taking out a power pole with it.

The next day after the crews cleared the road. There was quite a bit of this type of damage in our area. Our house is to the left of this picture on this side of the foot bridge.

Playing Dust Strategy by candle light.

And with the flash so you can see the board. I am yellow and doing quite well here but in a few turns blue, led by Tristan, would surge into the lead.

CottageQuest 2014

This past weekend we had the first CottageQuest, perhaps the first of an annual event.

10 of us, including me, rented a great cottage in Halls Harbour and we played rpg's for the weekend as well as having a few drinks, BBQ and some walking around the very scenic area. There was even a hot tub over looking the sea for those that were interested.

I organized the venue while Shawn organized the game schedule. There was room for 3 games to be played simultanousily but we only had 2 going at any one time. The first 5 of us arrived around 3:00 on Friday afternoon and after settling in Shawn, Tam, Danks, Rachael, Sean and I played a game of Cosmic Patrol while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive. The game was a blast and very over the top. It is played with a different GM for each of 3 parts of the story and everyone had a character. Between space whales, rock & roll pirates and a death toll of 25-33 million it was an interesting game to say the least!

After supper Kate, Chris and Trevor arrived. That evening I played in a game of Eclipse Phase, a Scifi-horror genre that Tam ran with Danks and Sean as the other players. I really enjoyed the game and Tam ran a very good scenario along the lines of Alien. The other group  included Shawn, Rachael, Trevor and Chris. They played Dread  run by Kate which is another horror genre game which uses a Jenga tower to replace the dice mechanic making the situation more tense as the game proceeds when players have to pull out pieces to succeed. I have yet to give this game a try and it sounds very interesting. Friday was a very late night with the games running into the night/morning, socializing and some of the group taking advantage of the hot tub.

Saturday morning we all got up. Trevor made a great breakfast for everyone and Pierre arrived. So with full bellies and full crew the games continued.

Shawn ran a game of Shadows of Esteren for me, Pierre, Kate and Rachael. It's a low fantasy rpg that we both Kickstarted but this was the first time either of us had played it. The setting is very rich and the adventure was quite involved with dream sequences and flash backs, qudos to Shawn for running a complicated adventure. This setting would be ideal for a long term campaign in the future(got that Shawn!). After lunch I ran a game of Serenity for Kate, Chris, Pierre and Trevor. It seemed to go quite well. I was a little concerned running this game as I had a hard time coming up with an adventure idea and it was my first time running the system but the players gave me good material as they played and it was fun to run. A NPC Chris made up on the spot will no doubt make a return, see you soon Smitty!

The other games played through the day were Exalted run by Sean and a mystery game also run by Sean.

We took a break for supper and some local exploring and then back in the evening for another game run by Shawn called Duneon Crawl Classics or DCC for Rachael, Trevor, Pierre and I. It is a throw back to 1st edition D&D and was very fun to play. We all started with 4 0 level characters with little equipment and no class, character class that is! The characters dropped like flies as our group of villagers took on a local threat in the realms of Ravenloft.

The other evening game was Continuum run by Tam with Danks, Sean, Kate and Chris as the PC's. I heard this was a fun mind bending scenario.

Saturday was an earlier night so I managed to get up Sunday morning and go for a walk along a trail. After breakfast we continued with the games. I ran Star Wars Edge of the Empire with Pierre, Rachael and Chris. The game went ok but I think because I had spent the preceeding week working on Serenity I hadn't given enough thought to the Star Wars adventure so it was a little patchy but went well enough. 

The other game played along side mine was Numenera run by Shawn with Tam, Danks, Kate, Trevor and Sean as players.

We finished off the weekend with a BBQ, cleaning out the cottage and a game of frisbee. This was a great weekend and no doubt we will give it another go next year.

Cosmic Patrol, let the chaos begin!

Tam with you guessed it, Eclipse Phase.

Dread Run by Kate. I think this was her second time as gm, the first being a trial game a few days earlier.

Cool, a record player!

Sean Littlepage running his mystery game.

Shadows of Esteren.

In the 'Verse.

Exalted

DCC-Dungeon Crawl Classics. Note the position of Shawn's hands behind the gm screen.

An ear in the forest during my Saturday morning walk.

Numenera. The hands...again.

Star Wars Edge of the Empire. The captain with a unicorn hat!

The crew at the end of a great weekend, now for some rest!

The cottage.

The view from the hot tub deck. 

Gaming, Adventure Prep...not much painting.

I have sort of fallen behind on my French Indian War painting project. I had to stop to do some research for the uniforms for the Compagnie France de la Marine and also to plan how I want my white to look on their iniforms. I also have been doing some preparations for running some rpg's. This has sort of broke my momentum but I hope to get back to it soon.

I ran another session do Dragon Age with my regular group plus a group of us have organized what we are calling CottageQuest inwhich we have rented a cottage for a weekend and will be running a bunch of one shot adventures in a variety of different games. There are 10 of us going and 4 of us are running games including Star Wars Edge of the Empire, Serenity, Numenera, Dread, Continuum, Exalted, Eclipse Phase, Shadows of Esteren and Mage: The Ascension. I have been writing up a couple of adventures for the 2 sessions I will be running, Star Wars and Serenity. 

I played another game of Bolt Action. This time pitting my Russians against Eric's Germans at 1000pts. The scenario was Top Secret where there is an objective in the middle of the board and it has to be captured and carried off the board. We had to call it a little early but I felt I was getting the upper hand and I am sure the Germans were about to be rolled by the Soviet horde! 

This was the table setup. The burning jeep marked the central objective we both had to get to and return to our table edge.

Another view of the table.

Turn 1. The Russians enter from the bottom edge, the Germans at the top.

Turn 2 from the German side. Both sides are closing in. I have a sniper team in the building near the objective. You can see my casualties on the side of the board, upper left. 

Duelling tanks.

The Panzer decided to head for cover while on the other side my flamethrower is crossing the road throwing down lots of pins on the German squad.

A closer look at that squad.

The flamethrower took care of that squad and the Panzer is lending support while avoiding the ISU 152.

My flamethrower sort of stuck in the open.

Looking down the road. A flanking German half track(far end) came in surprising my forces as they were crossing the road. Fortunately it botched it's attack and my flamethrower burnt it up! His squad is getting close to the objective though.

Where we called it. I brought I'm a White Scout car on the flank carrying a small squad. It quickly dispatched a mortor crew, while his Panzer was taking pins. I am pretty sure with his failed flank move on my right I would be able to push forward to victory from here. It was a fun game.

My French officer under way.

This is the rest of the 1st unit of Compaignie de la Marine for my French force.

Cottage Con 2014

So every year in the spring a friend of mine has a bunch of gamers over to his cottage for the weekend. We play boardgames, BBQ, and have a few beers for the weekend. We call it Cottage Con.

This weekend gone by was Cottage Con 2014. Most of us arrived at various times Friday evening with the last attendee arriving Saturday morning. This year we actually narrowed our choice of games down before we left to save some transport but we still had more than enough games for the weekend. 

My son and I arrived Friday after supper and after getting settled in we played Betrayal at House on the Hill and Legendary: The Deck Building Game.

Saturday continued with Kaosball Ball, Robinson Crusoe, Blockus 3D, Live Letter and Firefly the Boardgame.

Sunday was a game of Exodus: Proxima Centauri.

Some games played by other people included Bohnanza, Archipelago and Terra Mystica.

I did get some painting in on the first unit of Compagnie de la Marines for the French Indian wars and hopefully will have the French forces finished in another 3 weeks or so.

A game already underway upon on arrival, Robinson Crusoe by Z-Man Games.

My first game, Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Bahnanza by Brain Games.

My second game, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game by Upper Deck Entertainment.

Alien Frontiers by Clever Mojo Games.

Kaosball Ball a recent Kickstarter by Cool Mini or Not.

More Kaos Ball. This was a fun game and I enjoyed it but it did take a little longer to play than I thought. This was a four player game, two might be a little shorter.

A game of Eldritch Horror by Fantasy Flight Games.

I played this game of Robinson Crusoe. Even though this is a cooperative game Shawn still seemed to be doing some diabolical planing.

The game of Firefly by Gale Force 9 underway.

Others playing  Archipelago by Asmodee Games.

And Exodus: Proxima Centauri by NSKN Games. Our table wasn't quite big enough!

Terra Mystica by Z-Man Games.

Nearing end game. I was blue and I didn't have much left. The game was fun but the movement phase was a scource of analysis paralysis!

All the attendees minus one, I accidentally(honestly Pierre!) cut Pierre put of the frame.

The French under way.

Main colours applied.

The British Are Coming

Thanks to a sick child I had some time to finish off my British Regular Infantry for the French Indian Wars while he was recuperating. With this unit finished that makes 200pts for the British. I have the next batch of figures primed which are the Compagnie Franches de la Marine as well as starting a small building kit. 

I also received word from Warlord Games saying that they are sending me the replacement part for the Churchill kit I have that was mispacked with two track sections for one side and none for the other. This was quite quick and if I receive the part in a reasonable time then I am very happy with their customer service.

Making the flag for the unit. A piece of wire for the flag pole. A thin piece of plastic card. I used the needle nose pliers to hold the card flat along the edge that will be attached to the pole while I used the heat gun to soften the plastic and form some waves.

I had already drawn the lines on the card so that I could paint the flag. 

I then attached the card to the pole with green stuff. I also used some liquid green stuff later to smooth out the joint.

The completed flag.

The troops.

The drummer.

The officer.

One of the soldiers marching.

And firing.

The flag bearer.

The flag bearer with the flag, I think I should weather the flag a little.

The French primed and ready for paint.

The building glued and primed.