I've Been Pretty Slack

I have been pretty slack lately getting the blog out and it's not that I haven't been gaming it's just that I haven't felt like sitting at the computer to blog.

As a matter of fact I can't really remember which games I have played but I think it would include Star Wars LCG, Pandemic, Munchkin, Infinity, Malifaux, X-Wing and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. And this weekend myself, a friend and my son are taking a road trip to do a few days gaming at another friends house. Again some Malifaux and who knows what else will be brought out to play.

So here is the score sheet for the games I remember:

1. Pandemic-lost, players were me, my oldest son and my wife, Tristan and Michelle.

2. Infinty-lost, this was a 200pt game vs. Tristan. We switched armies from what we had been playing and I think I need to get use to playing PanO after playing Haq for the last little while.

3. Munchkin-win, players were me, Tristan and Michelle. The game was a little more ruthless now that we know how to play.

4. Malifaux- a big loss, I played my friend Chet and he destroyed me, that comes from not playing in such along time and not using a familiar crew!

5. X-Wing, 2 loses, Tristan and I took on Chet and Alex. The first game was a refresher and we lost. The second game was a lot of fun though we lost again.

6.Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay-win win. Hey it's a rpg, to play is to win! I DM'd the game and I think everyone had fun and it ended very Warhammer like, the players lived but...

Well that's about it, so here are some pictures.

The Infinity table.

A lower view giving a better view of some of the different elevations.

A PanO fusilier looking down the table.

A elevated walkway. Haq getting into position.

PanO soldier dropped.

2nd X-Wing game.

Tristan and I maneuver into position. Unfortunately my squad leader miscalculated and ran into an asteroid and then enemy fire, bye, bye squad leader. 

The rebels starting off.

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.

  

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.

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.

Lots of Games

I played loads of game this time round between some at home and the demo games at Hal-con its been a pretty full period for games.

Tristan and I played another game of Battlelore in which I finally got a win. After finishing all the scenarios in the main rule book we have started the scenarios from the Dwarf expansion that Tristan has. We have been ticking off each scenario as we go so we know exactly how many we have played.

At Hal-con I ran a few demos. I was only there on Sunday and was running the demos by myself but I did manage to get some interest in the games I had brought, running a few demo games of Dust Warfare and Infinity and some detailed game turn explanations for Infinity and Malifaux for interested folks.

I also played a game of Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not. My friend Chet had brought the game down and we had 6 players while he ran the zombies until one of the players had to go and then he hopped into that players spot. It was a fun game and very tense action. We managed to get a win though 3 characters died, including mine.

Eric, another friend came over on a day off and we played a game of Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games . The first turn took quite some time because it had been awhile since we had played last and we were introducing vehicles. After the first turn the game came back to us and we played fairly quickly after that and I got a marginal victory. We had made our own scenario with 2 HUMVEE's of USMC troops coming onto the board accompanied by a truck with a unit of Iraqi army soldiers working with the Americans. The insurgents were in ambush already on the board. The insurgents waited for the Iraqi army unit to drive by and destroyed the following HUMVEE with a RPG hit causing 1 light wound. The second HUMVEE swung wide and took cover behind a building. From then on the American forces slowly caused casualties to the insurgents with the second team flanking around the enemy on foot. The Iraqi army unit was badly mauled in the action and the USMC took 1 KIA before chasing the insurgents off the board taking a few POW's in the process.  

We also managed to play a small game of Infinity which was very quick with me losing. We played at 100 pts with my PanO troops taking on Eric's  Araidna. This was still a learning game and I learned that when the other player has a lot more units on the board I have to be very careful with the few, if powerful, units I have. The game was very fun though and we will play this again soon.

Finally Tristan and I played a 800pt game of Flames of War pitting an American Infantry Co. against a German Armoured Panzergrenadier Co. I took pictures during the battle so take a look below to follow the battle. Tristan wants to give this another go soon as well. I found the 3rd edition to be clearly written, easy to look things up during the game and fast to play, so I give this edition a thumbs up.

Hal-con 2012

The games room, Sunday morning, just starting.

From the other corner.

My demo games setup, Malifaux and Infinity. Dust Warfare came out later.

The Empire was well represented.

Zombicide, my character(red)about to be pulled down by a dozen zombie's, no wait one of the other players throws in a molotov cocktail and kills them...and me.

The empty square where I was, many more zombies on the way. The player that killed me was killed very shortly!

Flames of War

Initial deployment. Germans at the top. Panzergrenadiers on both flanks with StuG's in the middle. American infantry spread out along their deployment zone at the bottom with Shermans on 1 flank and a mortar platoon and HMG platoon on the other. The 2 beige stands are the American objectives while the 2 turretless panthers are the German objectives. 

German turn 1. The StuG's have taken up position in the crops, 1 panzergrenadier platoon moved into the town while the other is flanking behind the hill to advance on the objective.

American turn 1. Mortars try to lay down fire(miss), infantry advances on the town while the Sherman's advance on their objective taking out a StuG on the way. HMG's take up position on the hill.

End of turn 2. StuG's and Sherman's trade ineffectual fire. German's consolidate in the town inflicting casualties on the exposed American infantry. Out of the picture, on the hill, the American HMG's are overrun by an assault.

A view as the Americans approach the town.

End game The Shermans are halted by StuG fire. The Germans hold the town as the 2nd panzergrenadier platoon completes it's sweep onto the objective.

Force on Force

The set up. The USMC supported by an Iraqi patrol prepared to enter the board. Insurgents hidden in the compound and 2 areas of bush, one near the road where the USMC/Iraqi will enter and the other group further down the road near the hill.

Looking up the road. Insurgents hidden on the left and directly ahead.

The Iraqi's are pinned down under fire, 1st HUMVEE taken out with crew dismounted. The 2nd HUMVEE is behind the building with it's crew occupying the building. The first group of insurgents by the road have been taken care of.

The 2nd group of insurgents(top right in the bush) suffer from USMC fire.

The USMC team in the building(far back) advanced along the hill and took the building while the other team moved to the white truck and pinned the insurgents to cover their advance. A sand storm had blown up to help cover the movement.

 Infinity

The board set up. PanO on the bottom, Ariadna on the top.

A street view from the Ariadna side. One of my fallen troops in the background.

That's all or now folks,