3 months away/ MayDay 2012 Convention

I've had a 3 month break from my Blog. Primary reason being that my daughter's laptop crapped out so she was using mine for her school animation projects. She also uses a computer art program to draw anime. So this leaves little computer time for me. :(

I did however run a game at MayDay 2012! The new venue was great. Lots of room, lots of tables, lots of games. Well done by those involved.  I must say that some of the Warhammer 40K stuff looked fantastic! I wonder if I could use some of those drop ships for an allied WW2 Normandy landing.......

Thanks to the Mayday convention I was sorting through my miniatures stuff and found all those misplaced 10mm figures I was fretting about!
My WW2 Poles, Germans and unpainted British may see a table top some time this year!

I ran a 10mm IABSM game. Scenario 4 in the IABSM rulebook called a Canadian VC. It was a Canadian vs. the Germans action at St. Lambert-sur-dives. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no pics.

So here's looking forward! I need to get some more 10mm units painted for some IABSM games I hope to run during our EWG game nights. I really need to get a better handle on the rules and the only was to do that is through playing games.....

Hedge works

Why does it seem you never have enough hedges? I must have 15 feet of bocage and 4 feet of low hedges but when you start to place the stuff on the game board it gets used up so quickly. I have 15 feet of low hedges that I'm working on and this is a comparison with my old stuff.

From left to right, low hedge, "new" low hedge and bocage. 

The low hedge is just a narrow strip painted and flocked.

My new low hedge (centre). I added some clump foliage to the top of my low hedges. I wanted to try to use this as bocage but I don't think it looks heavy enough. I used two colours of clump foliage.

Here is a top view of the three types of hedges I have made. So despite my adding clump foliage to the top of my low hedge it just doesn't have the depth of my bocage.

6" of low hedge finished, 174" of low hedge to go.......

And I still have some more bocage to build. Raw stuff on the left, finished stuff on the right.

Witchfinder General/Savage Worlds-Solomon Kane/Mordheim?

At last Tuesday's EDBAG campaign game (which saw my Carthaginians pasted in two battles, 4-2 and 3G-0) I saw a copy of Witchfinder General. One of the guys picked it up (Dave?) from Mark. Looks interesting.

My uncle used to read Solomon Kane comic books which I thought were cool. Nothing cooler than a dour puritan busting up demon's heads. Savage Worlds also came out with a Solomon Kane ruleset which also looks interesting.

But I know nothing of the Savage Worlds ruleset. I don't know anything about the turn sequence, what die are used, etc. I guess I should read up on it. I had thought of trying to use the Call of Cthulhu role playing system and adapting it to a quick play table top game using 2d6 instead of the d20. I like the skill advancement in CoC. It's quite simple. If you perform a task extremely well you have a chance to increase your skill.

Here's a bit of strageness, I like the demon creation rules used in Stormbringer, another Chaosium product. You can create any type of creature using their rules.

But don't worry about the pale elf (ahem, Melnibonean) on the front cover, I remember the EWG motto, "no elves allowed". ;)
I'll be sticking with 10mm for tabletop wargames but to hunt witches I'll need something a little bigger.
An unfortunate incident has stalled my 10mm army building. In my move to the city I seemed to have misplaced a pile of my unpainted 10mm's. So my ECW, Polish WW2, English WW2, German WW2 and some French WW2 are all packed up safe and secure and stuffed away in my storage locker. Humph!

IABSM & Litko has arrived!!

I ordered some items from Both Too Fat Lardies and Litko in mid-December and received them just after boxing day.

From Too Fat Lardies I ordered their IABSM bundle.

This bundle consisted of their hardcopy IABSM rulebook;

Plastic Markers,

A deck of 104 cards,

And a 28mm miniature, Sgt. Hugh JARCE.

The rulebook is the same size as my Peter Pig Poor Bloody Infantry rulebook.

It has some colour diagrams,

and some black and white pics.

My Litko Order consisted of Raging fire markers

And some burning wreak markers.

I have a feeling I'm going to see a lot of these,

I know I won't be able to make the first EWG game night in January but I might be able to make the 2nd Tuesday night and maybe I'll bring out my guys to run a basic scenario.

I Ain't Been Shot Mum IABSM 3

With Version 3 coming out in a hard copy I decided to pick it up. I enjoyed the handful of games I've played and look forward to checking this out. The 3rd version has apperently cleaned up some of the clunky mechanics (Eg. Artillery Fire). I purchased the bundle (hard copy, markers and cards) and I also picked up some markers from Litko. Looking forward to it.

Morning Parade

I thought I would have a look at the figures I have painted to decide what I still need to paint and to try and give myself some incentive to get to work.

Here's my 10mm WW2 Canadian Army. Figures are from Pendraken. I have a full Company (3 platoons) of infantry.

Here's a full platoon.

Based three to a stand.

The Platoon Commander and his lackey.

A PIAT team for each Platoon.

A two inch mortar for each platoon. I only have one painted I think. I brought a 2" inert mortar round to the club some time ago. I thought it was pretty cool.

And I have two Vickers guns for the Company.

I have a pile of prepaint priests. The last three on the right I've modified.

I think it was a Canadian Commander (Simmons?) who converted Priests to armoured infantry carriers. I was going to cut off the ammo boxes on the Priests but that's a lot of work on a plastic vehicle. I still have to paint up two of them and attach some decals.

Here are some of the unpainted. four bren carriers, a sniper, some 2" mortars and some crew for Anti-tank guns.

A Typhoon for some close air support.



The rules I have for WW2 are Crossfire, Poor Bloody Infantry, I Ain't Been Shot Mum, a Leader of Men and Panzer Korps. The last two rulesets I haven't tried yet. Crossfire is a very fast-paced game. PBI.....not so much. In PBI if infantry are in cover they are extremely hard to destroy. You have to bring in a big gun and blow them to pieces. I like that aspect. 

  

Living in Edmonton

So the family and I moved from Spruce Grove into Edmonton. We're closer to work (I'm looking at a transfer this spring) and are living near the downtown core...... the view isn't bad.

Night time has its charms too.

The one downside of our move is that I don't have the room I once had to work on projects. My projects and materials are now confined to a little desk in which I can close the door and all my guys are hidden away from prying eyes.

The project I have set out on the desk  are for a DBA Marian Roman Army. Corvus Belli 15mm Marian Romans. A lively lot who seem to dislike the confines of a DBA Blades base. Very un-roman of them I think.......bloody romans...

Still they are a solid lot. My close ups don't do the lads justice.

It would seem that having a blog is a good way to keep one motivated to paint up their minis. Most of the Edmonton Wargamers Group crew have blogs with great pics and tips. I need all the inspiration I can get to get my minis tabletop ready. My Pendraken 10mm English Civil War in particular. I love the period but I really don't like painting all that much. Lucky for me I have three weeks of leave that I'm burning off so I have some time to get some things done. Like creating a Blog!! Anyways, looking forward to future club game nights and pushing some lead around on the table. I recently picked up a copy of Leader of Men which I find has some neat ideas. I'd still like to get some IABSM games in. That's a great rule set.