Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Rocky Mtn Retreat & a couple of recent things

I was happy to attend my first 'big' gaming event since the start of the pandemic. Although big may have been overstating it as we were looking at 25 attendees, down greatly from our usual much larger gathering.


Whilst mainly focussed on boardgames, Bruce & I often have miniatures on the mind & he is always happy to bring some multi-player offerings to the table. This year was no different.

 A couple days prior to my departure, Brent gave me a call, to discuss what was needed terrain-wise for him to run Rangers of Shadow Deep. I admit when I first saw him list this as one of his offerings I was gobsmacked...& elated. So first up are the images of the 3 scenarios we played as part of the campaign we hope to see extend during our future retreats.

The Village (where the Rangers & their companions begin). Our players were Brent (the Host), Jordan, Bruce & myself.

 

From the way Bruce is reacting on the right, someone must have just rolled badly....again!

With the constant arrival of enemies, we got our butts handed to us & almost everyone was suffering from Disease heading to the next scenario.


 The Infected Trees - This game saw DJ sit in to replace Jordan who was involved in another game.

 For this round we decided to stick together to allow us better control & hopefully do better in supporting one another in combat.


The spiders began to swarm us, but we were able to hold our own. We found a survivor within one of the cocoons.

 Another husk revealed a dead fella. No luck there...

We did make it to the infected trees & burned them.

The Bridge Guards 

 Having dealt with the spiders we moved on & discovered a bridge...with a whole lot of bad news guarding it.




After some hairy fighting we managed to win the day!

 This was followed up on Friday night with Bruce & I playing his 55 Days at Peking Game. This game is much better with multiple players taking on the roles of the garrisons of the various legations. This was in 15mm

The German Legation Forces

 The Japanese Legation Force

The US Legation Forces

The Russian Legation Forces 

 The British Legation Forces

The arrival of various Chinese Boxer forces is random & card driven. However something occured & resulted exactly as the last time I played this....The German unit on the wall is faced with Boxers charging down the wall towards them.

The rolled snake eyes for their morale.....it was unbelievable that this occured precisely the same way as the other game & we were having to scramble to replace that unit. 

 At the other end, the US unit repelled the Boxers that arrived.

 A Chinese Imperial unit managed to get down inside & were  engaged with the other German force.

 With other units arriving, & events unfolding. Below is a Chinese Cannon engaging the Japanese.

Eventually a fire started at one of the interior sites, forcing the defenders to fall back. However the fire also limited where the Chinese forces could advance into. 

Bruce had also run a game of Congo, which sadly I was indisposed & was unable to join in on. One of the challenges of the weekend is that games that you want to join, occur at the same times others your involved in are already in play.

As to other games I played & enjoyed...Several games of The Adventurers Temple of Chac & The Pyramid of Horus (2 of the ones I brought), Unfathomable (lots of fun!), Eldritch Horror (yes we succumbed), Abomination (only played for a couple hours on the Sunday Morning before Brunch). 

All in all a great time with a good bunch of gamers. I look forward to our next gathering! 

As for other things I've managed on the hobby side. First up is the stone bridge sold by Warlord Games

 

This 6 piece plastic bridge is simple to build & looks great. It can also be used for many era's from Fantasy, Middle Ages, to Modern. We needed it for the 3rd scenario of the Rangers of Shadow Deep, so this worked out great!


 Since returning home, I've begun looking at how to better manage my terrain shelving. Starting with these plastic train tracks (I believe from a Christmas Train Set)


I painted these black tracks using pretty much all craft paints (perfect for projects like this), the only exception being the Wyldwood Contrast paint from GW.

Having completed my test piece, I will now be figuring out just how many I need of the ones I have & can then put the remaining in my swapmeet box. Again these will certainly see use in many era's!



 I am looking forward to the next Model Train Swap meet so I can fill out a few more rail cars, needing both a modern engine & some 1920's cars. I have the Western train from a western figure batch I purchased some years ago from Bob.

Thanks for visiting!

 


11 comments:

  1. Great looking games, which I imagine were great fun to play in. Although I'm not into trains these days, campaigns and even some battles, that trains feature in almost ake them compulsprty purchases !

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    1. Thanks Joe, your right, its one of those 'must have' items & many use those Christmas Train sets as their Western/Victorian era ones. You can often find them in garage sales. As for the actual O guage stuff, always best to keep your eyes peeled on a Model Train Swap meet.

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  2. Wow Terry, that was a very pleasant looking event to attend! I'm jealous!

    Lots of fun and good -looking games too.

    I have one of those bridges and yes, it's a really nice kit; one of the better plastic ones out there I think.

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    1. Thanks Dai, yes I was rather impressed with the bridge. It really took very little time to assemble & paint up. It's unfortunate I didn't get a couple photos of the Congo game set up Bruce did...he had a steam paddleboat made with Foam Core. I expect he will bring it out to the club to play at some point & I will get the images then.

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    2. I would love to see that! Lucky sod to have such good hobbyists at your club

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  3. Thanks for taking all the pics and writing up the blog Terry. It was super fun playing with you gents and thanks again for carting all your terrain along.

    The miniature segment was a little light this year, because of Covid, but I strongly suspect next year we will be back up to full.

    Peace

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    1. Thanks Brent, for both hosting & putting on this event. It was great to finally get out & game with people again! Just let me know what you will be needing me to bring for next year!

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  4. Great looking game and a gathering of games good fun 👍

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    1. Thanks Matt! Here's to getting back to more in person gaming in the months to come!

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  5. Great stuff Terry! Looked like a great day with some terrific tables and games 😀

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    1. Thanks Ivor, the event is actually 4 days in the Rockies, with our meals made by a chef (the camp chef this year). We just play our games to whatever hour we wish, head off to our rooms to sleep for however long you with & then back at it again the next day. No real timeslots for games, just the mealtimes where we all pause, eat & then back to the game tables!

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