Another Ruin & some Scatter Terrain

With the launch of our Frostgrave campaign, it seems I am now getting distracted with working on more terrain.

This may make it appear that the blog / hobby has been neglected, but this is far from the truth. I am just busy with lots of various projects.

One which will become apparent in a future post, is the purchase of the GW Garden of Morr set, which will be showcased in our next Frostgrave game in February.

But as the title says, I did get a few pieces completed yesterday. First is some scatter terrain from one of the LOTR kits. I had a single sprue sitting out in the crawlspace. Guess it was a hint that it wanted to be painted!

I may add a bit of static grass, tufts to complete them.

As well, another of the Escenorama ruins is finished, this one used the base piece which has the barrels on them. 

I have a couple more of these ruins in the works, as well as the Garden of Morr kits & of course a few of the miniatures I need to finish for March. There will likely be some more Frostgrave related figures added to the mix as well.

Thanks for reading.
 

Frostgrave Campaign Begins

The Outskirts of Frostgrave:

  Having formed your war band to seek the riches & wisdom said to be found in the ruins of Frostgrave; your journey begins as the fog rises & you see the outer walls in the distance. Before the walls are the ruins of farms & buildings, the sort of which oft spring up outside cities.
  As you prepare to make your way from the rise, you glimpse movement in the ruins. Your band is apparently not the only one to make a foray to Frostgrave. So begins the adventure.

There were 3 of us to launch the campaign today.

(Terry) I once again brought out Ember & Spark (Elementalist) with 2 archers, 3 thugs, 2 thieves & a man-at-arms.

(Scott) Julio & Roberto (Enchanter) with 2 archers, a marksman, man-at-arms & a thief.
 

(Jonathon) Malcron & Larry (Summoner) with a marksman, 2 archers,  2 thug's, thief & warhound.
 

 Malcron makes a run for a treasure using the hedgerow as cover.
 

 Julio's forces arrive & the shooting begins.

 Spark makes for some treasures away from most of the action.

 An early arrow (natural 20) finds its mark, dropping a thug.
 

 However picking up that chest did make for the arrival of a couple skeletons.

A bit of a stale-mate at the crossroads.

Another spawn of a couple wild dogs rushed towards Ember & a thug.

Just as the marksman felled Ember. The thug now stands alone.

The thug stood his ground, felling first one!
 

Then the second of the hounds...

 Two thieves scuffled over a treasure

 

Which was then a Telekinesis spell pulled it away! As Spark then proceeded to grab the treasure, he was set upon by the thief who had recently felled his opponent in the previous image.

After a couple rounds, Spark was removed from play. 

On the other side another natural 20 ended the day for Julio.

By this point, all of my warband had been felled or had left the field. Scott captured a couple more of the treasures & made off, whilst Jonathan successfully made off with 4 treasures.

Post battle - All treasure rolls were at -5 to the die, as these outlying areas have seen their fair share of scavengers & treasure hunters.

As well the following was determined.

Jonathan (320xp)
Both the warhound & Thug died.
4 Treasures - 220gc, 2 hand weapon w/+1 damage, Staff of Power(3), Banner of Courage, Ring of Will
Base of Operations: Inn

Scott (200xp)
Malcron suffered a nasty wound which required 100gc to heal.
3 Treasures - 515gc, Potions of Toughness & Teleport, Hand Weapon +2 Fight
Base of Operations: Laboratory
Purchased Facility: Sarcophagus of Healing

Terry (120xp)
Ember returned with just the loss of sword, Spark has a smashed leg (-1 move), 1 Thug misses next game.
2 Treasures - 88gc, Potions of Explosive Cocktail, Demon in a Bottle, Dagger +1 Fight
Base of Operations: Treasury

A good day of gaming, with no warband losing too many members. There were a couple others who expressed interest, so hopefully we see them make an appearance next month.
 

Chain of Command Operation Martlet

Last night at the club, we played the second attempt by the 11th Royal Scots Fusiliers to break past the German screen of Defenders during Operation Martlet.

The Germans were impeded from deploying by Bombardment, whilst the British forces were dealing once again with the Fog.

This time the allies went for a push of jump-off points along the East side of the field, close to what was now a strengthened building. They had a slow start however as initially a lone Senior NCO deployed.

The Germans were able to deploy 2 squads quickly. It then became a race to see who would reach the fortified building first.

The first full squad appears & deploys tactically with overwatch.

German squad making for the building.

The following turn another German squad deployed in the other fortified building.

 The Allies brought a Churchill AVRE onto the table & managed to damage the fortified structure to make it unsafe to remain in.

The British then began moving forward

Where they came under rifle fire from a Grenadier team hidden in the orchard.

 One of the last German units to arrive was the Panzer IV, which after missing the first shot, managed to get a KO onto the Churchill. Sorry for the blurred image. The lighting at the club isn't very good & trying to take photos can be a bit trying without a tripod. Though I could blame the concussion from the blast.

The British did land smoke onto a couple of the German units, blinding them. As they moved around the building, they ran into MG fire which finished the rifle team. At the loss of the Churchill & limited forces, the Scot's withdrew. I did not see the after action report from Dave, so cannot state the actual number of men lost in the skirmish.

The Gunner of the Pzr IV will receive the Iron Cross 2nd class for his service during the past two encounters. 

It's possible that the Royal Scots Fusiliers may have 1 more push in them, before having to hand off to the 7th Duke of Wellington Regiment.
 

Myth Rogues & Archers

As stated yesterday I needed to wait til tonight to get the photos taken of the next 4 Myth figures I've been painting for a friend.

Here we have the Rogues & Archers
 

Again these soft plastic figures have quite dynamic poses & could easily be used for other games. I believe the rat represents the female version of the rogue.

 

 Again there are male / female versions.

 

There are 6 more figures in this set that are now on the table.
 

Ruin & Haystacks.

I completed 4 more of the Myth figures, however they are now drying from the Dip, so won't be getting photographed until tomorrow eve.

However I wanted to get a post out, so grabbed the ruined tower/temple piece from the Confrontation game & painted it up. 

It did come with a basic paint job of dark/light gray & the grass was a green colour, however I wanted something better. I may add some flock & grass tufts around the edges, but as is...its great to pack & go, without worrying getting banged around.

I also started thinking about making some haystacks. So I grabbed some pink foam, my wire cutter & started making some. I then used a file on them to get the rounded shapes & took a pencil to score some lines.

Not sure the pencil was the best option as it seemed to snag alot & created the jaggies in the foam. I then used Tan > Dun > Parchment drybrush to give them colour. 

I think I may  create more in the future, as I am not overly excited with the result, however they will do for the next while. I do have a couple resin haystacks around I need to dig up, but the foam ones would be certainly cheaper. Perhaps trying some other methods. We shall see.

Thanks for reading.
 

Happy New Year!

Another year comes to a close. As we all take some time to reflect all that's gone on in our lives this past year, it is with hope & optimism that we look forward to next year & all it brings.

 

2015 was certainly a year of ups & downs, with Oil tumbling to record lows, & I've had to watch many work acquaintances be let go to forge new careers. The Canadian dollar is once again below par, thus making any new gaming orders from outside Canada that much more expensive. 

However it was also a year of some good gaming & hobby time. I finally got to play some Chain of Command, got into Frostgrave, played a game of Star Wars Imperial Assault - enough to know I liked it. Got to run some All's Quiet on the Martian Front scenarios at Mayday & Fallcon. Zombicide! Of course Zombicide & now having just received the core game of Zombicide Black Plaque - can look forward to enjoying it this year.

As well several Kickstarters arrived - adding to the mounds of miniatures that will need to see some paint. Kingdom Death anyone? Cthulhu Wars, Bloodrage, Wrath of Kings, Rum & Bones & others.

So we start with saying good-bye to 2015 as posted courtesy of the last miniature completed in 2015.

Like this Wraith, which I believe may be a Westwind Dwarf Wars figure, 2015 fades away into the past. This Wraith will unlive on however to make guest appearances in Frostgrave & Mordheim games.

As well I had downloaded these circles which were created from a fellow on the Frostgrave Facebook group. I tried to go back to find his name, but alas, after sifting through all the posts to the beginning of December, I had to give up. Feel free to comment below if you recognize the creator.

These will be needed for 'The Keep'- scenario & act as teleporters.

After printing & mounting on cardstock, there were areas on each circle which had no image. This left white spots. Originally I was going to cut them out, but then decided the easier solution would be to cover these areas in glue & sand, then drubrush them as rubble.

So thanks to whoever you were that posted these. I have seem some posts of people going to great lengths to create actual cast pieces for these. These will make a very good substitute for the time taken to build those.

So what lies ahead for 2016. Well of course I will attempt to spend more time working on my miniatures, trying to devote an hour or CD worth of music per day. This didn't survive well last year.

As well I want to run the Frostgrave Campaign, which hopes to see a scenario a month at my place. This of course will require a few more committed players - yes EWG guys I am talking to you!

There is the continuing Chain of Command campaign running at the club by Dave.

I would also like to get the initial figures for Kingdom Death done to give that system a try as well.

Lastly we cannot forget those hordes of Zombies for Zombicide that need to be dealt with, as well as all the survivors needed to stem their tides.

Cheers everyone & Happy New Year!