Progress

I wasn't getting much hobby or gaming stuff done between work and the ongoing kitchen renovation with a washing machine break down thrown in there for good measures.

But in the last week I did get in some catch up gaming and painting in. Tristan and I played a game of Dust Tactics. This is the first game I have played in awhile and the first with the new rules. The game plays almost as quick as the previous edition. You do have to throw a lot more dice for combat resolution and there seems to be more incentive to use reactive fire.

I also started running a new Star Wars Edge of the Empire game. The first session was played using the Beyond the Rim adventure with new players and new characters. I think they had fun and quickly moved through the first few encounters. The next session is planned in a few weeks.

I also painted some miniatures finishing off the Woodland Indians for the French. My friend Eric picked up some regular French soldiers and is going to paint up a unit allowing us to get in a 200pt battle soon. The fact that Eric is painting up the last unit required gave me the incentive to finish them off. I will work on my other figures for Muskets and Tomahawks after we have had a few games.

I also received a replacement track section from Warlord Games for my Churchill tank that I had purchased awhile ago but came with two right track sections and no left side. I put the kit together and I am glad they sent both sides as the new ones where slightly smaller than the original. I assume the new sides must have been made from a resin that shrank more. I had to modify the pegs as well to get the sides to attach properly and in the right location. All assembled and primed it looks fine.

And finally I painted up a unit of Viking warriors for Saga. I will paint up a few more figures before having a basing session for Saga and Muskets and Tomahawks.

Dust Tactics underway. Our first time with version 2 and with a "big toy" on the table.

The Allies getting the advantage. We called it shortly after this.

I was rolling well, the Allied star is what I was looking for.

A Woodland Indian warband allied with the French.

My first Viking warriors ready to join my painted Berserkers.

The Bolt Action Churchill Mk VII together, primed and ready for paint.

Getting Back to Some Painting Projects

The family went on a camping trip to Cape Breton and we visited Fortress Louisburg like we usually do when we are in the area. Though it has been a few years since our last visit. The weather was cloudy with a few showers but overall it was a pleasant visit. The point of this is that when I got home, newly inspired by the visit, I started back into painting my French & Indian War figures from Conquest Miniatures. I finished off the first French unit, a unit of Compagnie de la Marines and started a unit of Woodland Indians which should be finished this week. That leaves one more unit to paint, do the bases and then ready for a fight using Muskets & Tomahawks.

Tristan and I also finished putting together our Saga forces after which we played a 4pt (the size of our forces at present) battle. We played the first scenario which has the players trying to kill each other's warlord. The game was quick and was deadly and was a lot of fun to play. Tristan won on points as our warlords killed each other in the same combat. We did do a couple of things wrong dealing with the special rules for the warlords which we now know and it was an easy game to pick up and play.

Tristan and I also put together a small Planetary Empires map for 40k and are starting a small Imperial vs. Orks campaign. We our using our own campaign rules but keeping it very simple. We are ready to fight our first battle after maneuvering our forces on the map.

I almost forgot that Ian had dropped in on his way to the airport and we played a game of Vikings by Z-Man Games. A fun game that we picked up pretty quick and though Ian won it was a pretty close game.

The role playing games have been on a short hiatus but will be starting up soon. I have to make up a new character for Call of Cthulhu and will be starting up a new Star Wars game with the group I play D&D 3.5 with as well as restarting Dragon Age.

I picked up the new D&D players book and after a quick read I think I will like it much more than the previous edition. I also finally got the new Dust Tactics rules and unit cards which the retailer was having a problem getting in.

Fortress Louisburg.

The main gate.

The boys on a cannon.

I thought this would make a great wargames room!

Playing Vikings with Ian and Michelle, Ian looks impressed with Michelle's next move!

The setup for Saga, one primed hoard vs. another!

The first completed French unit.

The French Officer.

The Woodland Indians in progress.

Another 3 underway.

Getting some paint on my Saga Viking Berserkers. I think these minis will paint up pretty fast.

The new D&D and Dust Tactics books.

Hey, Some Summer Gaming After All

Well I guess I lied after my last post because I have managed to get in a number of miniature games.

First up was a couple of 40k games on with my son. Breaking out my 40k Orks after I had packed all my GW stuff away in the basement thinking I would not be playing them for awhile if at all. Our first game was 500pts Astra Militarium vs. Orks and then a 750pt battle adding in some extra units. The first battle was a loss for my Orks in a Crusade scenario using Hammer and Anvil deployment. I just couldn't get close enough to start doing any amount of damage to use units. 

The second was a Maelstrom of War scenario, Tactical Escalation. In this scenario I was able to come to grips with his main army and was able to wipe out most of his force till he conceded on the last turn. 

I really like the new edition of 40k and I find it plays a lot smoother than some of the previous editions and not having the mighty rule tome on the table is a bonus also! I don't play competively so I am not sure how it holds up in that environment.

The next game I played was Malifaux 2nd edition, I think this is only the second game of this edition I have played. I played against Shawn, my old nemisis. I decided to go back to basics with Perdita and Shawn fielded Ramos. Shawn beat me handily as I could not go after my objectives well with Ramos on the table. We did do a few things wrong but it was a good game to get reacquainted with the crews. The game mechanics haven't changed much other than tidying up some of the rules but the individual miniature abilities have changed a fair bit so it's a bit like learning the crews over again. We will probably try to get a few more games in and I will try to host my annual Malifaux weekend tourney again in the late fall providing I finally finish my kitchen renos, which are starting to take shape by the way. I can't seem to find the pictures I took of this game so next time I'll make sure I get some.

The last game was a 1850pt 40k battle against my friend Chet. He also fields Astra Militarium. We tried a new deployment method he borrowed from another mini game which had us taking turns placing markers on the board. Once the markers were within a certain distance of an opposing marker they were locked in place and their placement determined the deployment zones. This was a good game with lots of Orky mayhem going on. And though the final score was quite lopsided for Chet the game was actually fairly tight till the end.

Since the last blog we also got in another game of Call of Cthulhu rpg inwhich my PC died, well he was pretty much insane anyways and the rest of the party ran away. They did come back in daylight and did some damage control so a partial success I guess.

I also ran the last installement of Dragon Age RPG for the summer and have formed the greater plot in my head for when we continue this fall. The PC's were successful in the intro scenario but had to leave the area before the good will of the town enivitably turned against them.

And with all this 40k stuff going on I starting building and painting some Orks again, sucked back in again!

This was our setup for the 500pt battle. We set up the terrain thinking to deploy at the top and bottom edges of the picture but the deployment we rolled had us setting up in this direction giving the Astra Militarium the advantage of the built up terrain which Tristan wisely defended and I just couldn't 

get to grips with him.

This is the setup for the 750pt battle with the terrain a little more even. We had a diagonal setup.

The Orks closing in. Tristan's artillery officer called in fire on his own tank allowing me to finish him off!

The tank is gone with the explosion taking out some Guard leaving the remaining Orks to close in on the last of the Guard.

The table for the 1850pt battle.

The final deployment after using Chet's borrowed deployment method.

1850pts of Orks.

Deployment at the other end of the table.

My Blitza Bomba enters the board...and rolls double 1's crashing nowhere and forgetting to release it's bombs. Not the best debut but I'll remember it anyways!

Things have not gone well, my Shock Attack gun, after doing little damage to the enemy decided to fire on it's own units finally doing damage...to my Nobs. Chet's Vendetta gunship finished them off. Every Nob jumped infront of the bullets to save the Warlord and then failed all their armour saves destroying the whole unit.

So knowing painted units fight better I started getting some quick paint jobs in!

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.