Infinity and Beyond

It was fairly quiet on the gaming/modeling front for a few weeks and then blam!, all of a sudden I was gaming and modeling like crazy. I am sure if you asked my wife she would say there was no discernible lull but I assure you there was.

I picked up Munchkin Deluxe and I have to say I bought it solely from watching Tabletop by Wil Wheaton. I have been aware of the game for a long time but honestly didn't see the appeal in it, it seemed too goofy. People seemed to have fun playing it when I had seen it played but I didn't think it was my kind of game. But after seeing the game played on Tabletop and actually seeing how the game played and the player interaction I thought I would pick it up. And I am glad I did, it's a fun game with a good "screw you neighbour" mechanic. In short just lots of fun. I played a game with my son and my wife and we had a good time. I quickly leaped into the lead only to be laid low by backstabbing and my wife took the win.

I also played another game of Star Wars LCG by Fantasy Flight Games. I am still learning the game and I was teaching it to my son at the same time. We did one thing wrong that I am aware of but I think I have a pretty good handle on the rules now. Tristan won the game playing the Imperial Navy vs. my Rebel Alliance deck. The game was so close though with him turning the Death Star dial for the win the turn before I would have won! Time to start putting together some competitive decks.

Tristan has also started to take an interest in Infinity and now that I have the rule basics pretty well down it seemed like a good time to give it another try with him. So I hauled out the terrain I was working on(and had stopped) and started putting that together and we put up a table and played a couple of 150pt games.  PanOceania vs. Haqqislam.

Both games were a lot of fun. The first game was a straight up shooting war and after I quickly took the lead Tristan came back and evened things up before I managed to finish him off. The second game we played a scenario in which we had to hack into computer terminals. Again the game was quick and fun but I did win fairly lopsidedly this time. Tristan still enjoyed the game though so that's a good thing. He is thinking of purchasing his own force either Yu Jing or Nomads.

I also continued playing Call of Cthulhu RPG by Chaosium finishing off the character's first adventure. My Roll20 Pathfinder campaign is on hold as one of the players is going to be on exercise for 3-4 weeks. In his absence I am going to try to run a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventure with the other players.

Model eye view of the Infinity table.

Overall view.

Some of the PanO in their start positions.

PanO Knight of Santiago.

Second game, the light green hexes are the computer components that need to be hacked.

Start positions. You may wonder why Ghulam 1 is in the open. I don't know. But after surviving 4-6 hits he managed to get back into cover.

PanO start positions on their left flank.

This sniper took out 2-3 guys from this position including the Knight of Santiago and the Medic.

PanO model eye view their right flank.

The table for the 3rd, as yet unplayed game. Some of the terrain is still to be painted.

Another angle.

Overall view.

Adding paper details to the building.

A coat of paint. Details to be painted.

  

LCG's and Modelling

So not really so much board games as card games, LCG's, that's living card games as opposed to CCG's, collectable card games, like Magic the Gathering. LCG's are marketed by selling a starter set that has fixed cards and then extra fixed content supplemental packs are sold on a regular schedule. In this manner the purchaser knows exactly what they are buying and can make decks as they want while a CCG's marketing model is to sell random packs so you cannot be sure what you are buying. Every pack is a surprise. I prefer the LCG model but everyone likes something different.

It seems like I have played quite a few LCG's since the last post. All the games are from Fantasy Flight Games. Netrunner, Warhammer Invasion, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu and Lord of the Rings. The games of Star Wars, Netrunner and CoC were all learning games and I enjoyed them though I lost all. With one game of each played I would rank them in order of Netrunner, Star Wars and CoC. Netrunner has a good depth of play and a well executed theme, while Star Wars seemed to be missing something though I would like to give it another play before I make a final call, it's Star Wars after all, and while I liked CoC something about having mytho creatures seemingly fighting alongside human factions just seemed wrong.
 
I played a game of Warhammer Invasion LCG as well. It has been quite some time since I played it so it was almost like learning again but I do enjoy the game and will have to get it out more often. Again another loss if I remember right.

I also have played The Lord of the Rings LCG 3 or 4 times solitaire trying to beat the second scenario to no avail. I will continue on the quest though and after reading on the forums I have switched to playing 2 decks even for a solo game, basically playing a 2 player game but controlling both hands of cards. I did this the last game I played and came closest to winning until a bad run of threat cards overwhelmed me.

I also ran another game of pathfinder using the Roll20 program. This time I had 4 players and the system seemed to work fine. There were a few glitches getting the 2 new players in but for the most part it worked quite well and I think everyone had a good time. One of the players is chronicling the adventure on another blog for those interested though it may be a week or so before he updates after the current game session. You can find the blog here.

I have also finished off my 15mm USMC forces by Elhiem Figures, after realizing I had unpainted figures I needed for the next scenario. I still have to finish off the last AAV-7 but I need to get some black paint to spray the camouflage pattern.

The complete USMC. Elhiem figures. Dragon vehicles. The AAV-7 on the right needs to be finished.

Command team.

One of the 2 squads.

Javelin team and SMAW

Sniper team.

Insurgents by Caesar. Techicals by S&S miniatures

US Army. Caesar figures. Dragon Bradley IFV.

Insurgents again.

 

Games While Camping, Hinging My Land Raider Doors

The family went camping last week, we packed up the car and the tent trailer and headed to one of the national parks, Kejimkujik. While packing up I found room for a couple of board games.

So between the hikes, biking, canoeing and trying to relax (impossible with a 3 year old in the family) we managed to play a few games. We played a couple of games of Carcasonne by Rio Grande Games, a game we usually bring with us when camping. Even the youngest, Galen, likes to play this trying to get all his meeples out first.

We also played a game of Tribune by Fantasy Flight Games  after Galen had gone to sleep. We played this in the dark by the camp fire under the light of our lantern. We called it after a certain point as it was getting late. Tristan was declared the winner with the most victory conditions though in one more turn I would have been able to pull out the win anyways.

I also brought a rpg to play, The One Ring by Cubicle 7 but we didn't get a chance to play. I always think it would be great to role play while camping but I never actually get to. I brought along Death Angel  by Fantasy Flight Games as well but didn't get that out either.

And that's been it for the gaming. I've been keeping busy with other things and have not managed to fit in any miniature games but I have been doing some modelling.

In an effort to field a slightly larger British Napoleonic army for Lasalle, besides the basic defensive force, I have started painting up a couple of extra infantry units to allow me to go on the offensive and a attached cavalry force. Lasalle has army lists consisting of a basic force which is modified when you are the attacker. You can then pick additional attachments, each player picking the same number. After that I will pick away at units as I have quite a few minis still in the bags. They are all 15mm Battle Honors.

I have started to repaint some 15mm German vehicles for Flames Of War. I had originally done the camo pattern with a brush but wasn't happy with the look so I decided to redo them with the air brush. I always imagine the air brush is more work than it actually is.

I continued working on my scratch built Trebuchet and my Land Raider Crusader.

Adding Green Stuff details like steel rings around the weight basket...

and metal pivot points.

The first unit of Brits under way. I am painting these up with the intent to dip them.

So I used white primer to brighten up the colours before the get toned down with the dip.

The camo pattern applied by airbrush. Much more satisfactory than the one I applied by brush which you can see in a previous post.

The whole group I did.

How I hinged the Land Raider Doors.

First I cut out the center section of the two exterior hinges.

Here they are cut with a hobby saw.

I then finished the job with a hobby knife and then filed the cut smooth.

I then cut off to small sections of plastic tube.

And then made sure they fit into the cut out sections.

Next I cut off two pieces of paper clip the length of the total hinge section.

I then drilled straight through the hinges.

The paper clip pieces were then pushed into the hinges as indicated by the tool.

The hinges were then glued in place applying a small drop of glue to each section of white tube where it will contact the hull.

After the glue has dried. The door opens...

and closes!

Well that's it for now, hopefully I will have a game report next time.

2nd Annual Malifaux Weekend

It's been awhile since my last post and just about a month ago since I held my second annual Malifaux weekend.

I had 6 players plus myself and this time I ran it in a tournament format. I used a standard format from Wyrd Miniature's Gaining Grounds Tournament rules. 35 soulstone crews, one faction per player, 3 rounds and Domination scoring.

We all went to the local pub to kick things off on Saturday and then headed back to the house to play the first 2 rounds. My wife made  pulled pork for supper and then we played a session of Warhammer Roleplay 3e. That finished off the 1st day quite late(or early Sunday) so everyone turned in for the night. All the participants stayed over for the night and the house was a little cramped but we all managed just fine!

The next day we had a large breakfast and then played the final round followed by a BBQ and I passed out certificates for 1st, 2nd and last. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the hardest part was playing the games in the allotted time as the local players have never really played to a timed session and we are all fairly slow.

So the players were(in no particular order) Shawn playing Arcanists, Tristan playing Arcanists, Ed playing Gremlins, Julian playing Gremlins, Ian playing Guild and Chet playing Guild.

The final results were Ian, Shawn, Ed, Chet, Julian and Tristan.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and I think, if I continue running this, I will probably stick to the tournament format.

And a big thanks to Michelle for the great meals and putting up with our home being invaded by my friends and a metric tonne of their minis!

Shawn and I also played a game of Malifaux towards the Wyrd miniature world wide campaign, unfortunately I severely let down the Resurrectionist cause.

Tristan and I also managed to get in a few games of Warhammer Invasion and The Lord of the Rings card game, both by Fantasy Flight Games .

I've also been putting together a load of Orks for 40k, what with the new edition out. As well I also finishing off the 1st few models for Infinity .  

table 1

table 2

table 3 TerraClips(sideways!)

Round 1. Clockwise starting from the left: Ian, Tristan, Chet, Julian, Shawn and Ed.

Round 2 (note Ian contemplating his next illegal move!)

Round 3.

The obligatory "Shawn studying a stat card" shot.

My first Infinity figures, PanOceania Fusiliers. I still have to decide what I am going to do with the bases.

That's about it for now, talk to you in a few weeks or so.

Rob