Thursday, August 28, 2014

$5.00 Fields

As I was on the way home from picking up my wife at the airport we stopped at the Dollar store for some things. I wandered around & picked up some more cheap brushes (for painting terrain) & another bottle of my favorite Burnt Umber.

Then I noticed some mats. Hmmm green & brown, they would make great fields!


I know many other gamers have done the same thing. Cut up the carpets into various sizes & like magic, we have furrowed fields for our miniatures to game on.

Not happy with just the green matt, I decided to add a bit of colour, so some burnt umber soil & a scrubbing of Spanish Olive to highlight the plants.


The final result works for me. I also bought a brown mat, not shown, for harvested fields. No paint required for those.


Not bad for $5.00.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Descent Figures

I finished up with the matte overspray this morning, ensuring this time I waited for the miniatures & spray to acclimatize, my previous spraying meeting with a close disaster on Ned.

Up first we have Shiver. I know I painted an earlier incarnation of this fella. He seems a little nastier this time around.


As well we have Elder Mok. Just don't make fun of his drum.


These are the first of the consignment I am now working on, which is going to take me up to October.




Thursday, August 21, 2014

Zombicide Ned & Zombivore Ned

I've finished Ned & his Zombivore counterpart.


As one of the original player characters from Zombicide, I've always like this figure.


Again I am painting up the second Zombivore for a buddy, hence why there are 2 present.



Up next are the latest batch of Descent figures I've received.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Gangstah's at the EWG

Last night at the club Bruce brought out his Gangster's using the Chain Reaction 2.0 Rules which he then modified to use d10's.

We had 5 guys join into the insanity that is Gangsters. Bruce uses Christmas Village buildings to represent the various sites. What better time of year for Gangsters to Give & Receive!


Each player controls a gang or plays the blue-coats. As well everyone has objectives to try to attain, whilst trying to deny everyone else theirs.


The Gang members each have various stats & what is rolled on a d10 determines who can activate that turn. If you roll high you will move first, but only with a few of your members, roll low & everyone goes, but whose left standing by then?


I had 2 objectives for my group, rob the bank & then stash the goods, as well as escort a truck of beer to the 'Soda Shop'.


The first turns usually involve trying to regroup your gang members who start scattered throughout the city.


By turn 4 there was no shooting whatsoever, so with the crack of a back-firing vehicle, hell broke loose.

The gang below has just decimated some coppers from behind. The then strode up & slew the stunned police.


As Bruce will be running this at Fallcon, I won't give anymore details of what I saw from other factions. I did get one of my guys in the beer vehicle & was then shot so the vehicle careened down the road continuing on its way. Its just to the bottom left & swerved before slamming into the police.


The Policed didn't escape unscathed however as the vehicle smashed into the police station & rolled.


I did manage to catch one gang in the open, however only killed one, the others kept getting stunned. He then managed to get up & hammered me while I was in cover, killing 3 of my guys....what the hell? Lucky dice no doubt.


As it turned out, the player who was the police, though knocked out first, did win the game thru objectives. I am sure this will inspire Wargamer Girl.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

In Her Majesty's Name - First play

Jonathan came out for a visit this afternoon to give the IHMN rules a try.


I wrote up the scenario basing it on the Objectives scenario from the book---

Scotland yard has received creditable information that an unknown faction is in the process of taking receipt of a bag of Infernium. As such, the Chief Inspector has called upon the Consulting Detective to track the location of the package before it can be spirited away.

The information points to the Warehouse District, where the parcel was to be hidden in a palette of goods.


There were 6 palettes of goods on the table. It would take a figure 1 turn to search (needing to roll a 7 for success). If it was not discovered, then it would automatically be in the last palette.

Members of Scotland Yard prepare to search a palette.


It wasn't long before the unknown faction was discovered to be none other than the Society of Thule. Von Stroheim descends upon a constable. (The orange tokens were used to define whom had moved & do not represent wounds).


Scotland Yard discovered the Infernium on the second palette searched.


Meanwhile a large melee was occurring near the central statue. Feldwebel Krieg engaged a constable & Special Branch Constable for several turns.


Another short from the Yard's side of the board.


Von Stroheim continued his advance & took out the Sergeant with a shot from his Mauser Machine Pistol.


On the other side of the board, the Consulting Detective was engaged with Dr. Kobalt.


Von Stroheim continued his relentless advance. Lucky for this Constable he was able to disengage.


The Scotland Yard was able to get off the table with the Infernium, & the remainder of the battle was all melee's.


The battle ended in a 24 - 17 victory for the Scotland Yard.


Both of us enjoyed the game, after the first couple of turns, it became more fluid & we were finished in about 2.5 hours. The Society of Thule started with less figures, however they are quite tough with the Jagers having a +5 to shooting. The Consulting Detective easily handled Dr. Kobalt who couldn't down  the detective unless he rolled a 1 for Pluck.
 
Thanks to Jonathan for coming out to give this game a try.


Saturday, August 9, 2014

100th Anniversary of the PPCLI



 


This weekend marked a milestone in Canadian Military History. It was 100 years ago that a Canadian Infantry Regiment was formed.



More of the history of this esteemed Regiment can be found here. My participating in events is that I was a serving member of the 2nd Battalion between 1981-1988. The numerous events being hosted to celebrate the Centennial also provided me an opportunity to reunite with old buddies from Germany at the 'Better Ole'. More on that later.

So one of the events was a trip to the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. I see its name now is The Military Museums.
My wife & I took the opportunity to visit, as its something I had wanted to do for some time.



We were given about 4 hours to tour the place before we needed to be back on the bus. So here are some of the photos I took.


 



 




As the events continued, Saturday saw the Garrison open its gates to the public & showcased much of the equipment used today, as well as quite a few historical vehicle displays.

Of course there had to be a parade to mark the 100 years.




Then onto the displays.











They even had some of the lads dressed in period equipment








There was quite a bit more equipment displays, however I am not fond of photographing kids climbing all over the vehicles.

So after both the Museum trip, & the displays, I went to the Better Ole to have some beers & chat with some buddies from the past. I didn't take any photos per se, but to explain where the Better Ole comes from.



More info on how it came to be can be found here.

So that ends my festivities of the 100th Anniversary. The guys will be heading home to wherever their hats rest & I suppose the next opportunity to reunite will be the 125th.