Australian New Year's Eve Gaslands Championship 2019

Phil hosted another year of good food, drink and company in his backyard with a chaotic game of Gaslands thrown into the mix.

Same limitations as last year, with each team being capped at 25 cans and sponsors or perks were not available. I took a tan car with a forward facing machine gun, and two bikes (the white helmeted rider also had mines).

We played Death Race with Walter (black car with a heavy machine gun mounted on a turret), Alex (black performance car with two forward facing mini-guns) and Mitch (white pickup truck with a ram and a forward facing mini-gun).

None of us had really played a game in a while (or at all), so we stumbled our way through the rules to the first gate (where each car's weapons would become live), and then the real carnage ensued (up until this point Wal's car kept getting love taps from us as we tried to ram him).

Mitch wiped out before getting to the first gate, and slept like a grandpa at the wheel for most of the game (he managed to wipe out in the first gear phase for that turn).

My bikes with their high speed were prime targets and soon fell (didn't help that I rode my second bike through the mines I dropped...).

Alex was blown to bits by shooting from Wal and myself.

Wal thought he had it in the bag on the home stretch before I (totally) risked on a corner ram (which due to the Rule of Carnage became a head on ram) to stop him. We both died in balls of flames to hand Grandpa Mitch the game and the tournament. It really is a fun game.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, may 2020 bring you everything you want. 

Prepping Bronze Age Greeks

Nothing exciting, but I've prepped the Eureka Miniatures Bronze Age Greeks I picked up the other week.

They'll go well with my satyrs and centaurs (also from Eureka Miniatures) that I painted many years ago (maybe in 2010 or 2011?). I also plan on building some matching terrain for them. Lead Adventure Forum has a Building Something contest coming up, so the timing is good.

Anyway, wishing you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2020.

A Song of Ice and Fire and Rangers of Shadow Deep Introduction Games

After a few months hiatus I was back at the League and Mark had his beautifully painted A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) miniatures from Cool Mini or Not (CMON) that he was itching to get out on the table. He provided both sides and we spent the morning playing a brutal game (I got slaughtered to a man!).

First impressions? The mechanics are elegant, the miniatures beautiful, and just like the background there's an element of strategy happening off the battlefield that I like (the constant command decision pressure of deciding to move a unit and risk my opponent seizing an area of the tactics board which is also needed or vice versa). I can't see myself getting into the game (way too many projects!), but if you like Game of Thrones and all that then this is pretty good at recreating the world. Although it's marketed to some degree as a boardgame, it's very much a wargame.

The afternoon session had me stepping into Jack's character for a Rangers of Shadow Deep game, run by Mark with Dave T, his son Jonathan and Bruce. I was flying blind for most of it, but picked up the basic elements pretty quickly. There were three rooms our band had to fight through, the knolls giving us a hard time. I controlled a Wizard, Caitweazel (I assume a variation of Catweazle) and an unnamed red shirt companion.

I had to leave just as the third room was entered, so got the update from Mark. Both Bruce and David's characters fell in the final room (mercifully surviving their injuries when rolled for later) as did all of the remaining companions. This left Mark's Ranger and Caitweazel (played by Jonathan) to struggle through, which they did, if only just thanks to some lucky shots with Mark's crossbow. A staircase was found at the end, so the scenario was won but possibly with a deficit in the next scenario.

Final DBA Campaign Battles for the Sumerians

Played my last two DBA campaign games against Django and his Minoans (I/18). His superior number of chariots, littoral landing and generalship were no match for me, losing twice (4-1 and 5-1).

And that's another fun campaign, getting me to paint my Sumerians. Will probably be my last game for a while as I move house in the next month.

Flag of South Melbourne

I couldn't find a flag of South Melbourne online, so decided to make one in Photoshop. It only took about 30 minutes to create.

It's based on the coat of arms:

Which I found on the Heraldry of the World wiki here: https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php/South_Melbourne.

In heraldry terms it's Gules, on a Fess between in chief a repre­ sentation of the Constellation of the Southern Cross, with five Stars, and in base a Lymphad, sail set, Pennon and Flags flying, Argent, two Mullets Gules. In plain English it's a red field with a white stripe with the Southern Cross on top and a galley (from Scottish heraldry) with full sails below. There are two red stars on the white stripe.

The arms were granted on 3 February 1967. The shield is based on earlier arms assumed by the City of Melbourne, with a colour change from black and gold to red and white, the colours of both the city and its former Australian rules football team, the South Melbourne Football Club (known now as the Sydney Swans). The Southern Cross is drawn from the State arms and flag badge, its position above the white bar indicating that the City is south of the capital, Melbourne. The ship presents the sea, southern boundary of the municipality, with its facilities for swimming and water sports.

I used the ratio of the flag of Victoria, 2:1, and the flag of Denmark for the ratio of the stripe horizontally. The red is based of the red in the Union Jack. The stars are evenly spaced about a third of the width of the flag apart.

I'll use it for a faction in Brutal or A Right Bloody Mess (ARBM) gaming.

Conquest of Paradise with Crumble

Conquest of Paradise again, this time with Nic, Jack and Ruby. And again I experienced a completely different game (don’t worry Ara, you’re still the potato master). This was probably due to new players or players trying out different tactics (including myself when I was presented with a lucky opportunity).

Nic (red playing pieces) was Tonga, Jack (yellow) Samoa, Ruby (green) Hiva (the Marquesas islands),  and I (white) Raiatea (the West Society Islands) as our home islands.

We all explored away from our opponents, and a few turns in I had discovered Aotearoa (New Zealand). I had kept the other two islands (Hawaiki and Tuamotu) hidden away from prying eyes (call me Doctor No). Ruby kept picking open ocean chits, and so was surely eyeing my islands.

Ara (who couldn't make it) asked if there much conflict this time or if passengers hoyed out of the transport wakas and left to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. There were only two battles, both between Nic “The Hammer” and “Money Bags” Jack. This occurred just before Jack was set up to take on the Mosquito Islands (the western part of the map), but Nic put stop to that. Though unfortunately Nic brought a canoe to a stick fight. And an amazing shaman. The battles were largely inconclusive (though they did drag Jack back from his lead).

Some of us tried (unsuccessfully) to get to South America and find the kumaras (sweet potatos) while Charlie deftly navigated the board. Ruby created a fleet of canoes (easy to bluff your opponents with a what appears to be a huge forces when canoes only cost 1 Build Point). Near the end of the game she was too nice and decided not to place the Typhoon event card in our midst. Big mistake, as her canoes were over a heap of atolls and she was close to winning (in the end I won as I held a small region of high yield islands, including Aotearoa far away from the others). I had also gained the Wood Carving card that was worth 2 Victory Points as I also held a Mythical Island (Hawaiki), giving me 24 (of the 22) Victory Points needed.

What was sweeter though was Nic's delicious apple and pear crumble with walnuts and almonds. I'm sure to be playing this game again.

Last Game I Played - Junta

Nigel invited people over for a board game day. What's the game seven friends play when they want to play Diplomacy but know that once was enough? Junta!

If you don't know Junta, it's in my top 10 (but then again, I don't play many board games). But it's been around since 1978, so it must be good:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/242/junta

I ended up as president early on, which I'm not a fan of, but then I managed to get myself a massive voting block:

Along with one other player who was also lucky enough to be dealt a good hand we were able to create a super voting block. Combined we were however incompetent (we were role-playing the personalities of the Republica de los Bananas, honest!). Coup after coup, after coup. After coup, followed.

I eventually lost the peasant and my ally was shot after a coup (I was sunning myself on a beach in Mexico somewhere).

Needless to say I didn't win, being too honest (the game encourages you to lie). Great fun though.

Medium Mark A Whippet and WWI British Tank Crew

I have a list of my painting goals for 2019 (see here) and it was filled with "anything that's shiny and distracts me". This is one of those shiny things.

While I have a load of 28mm late WWI Germans / Freikorps to paint, I decided after the Foch game a few months ago to paint the Whippet tank and British tank crew I had instead. Mainly as a test to see how WWI would paint up and that this was a self contained project.

The tank (picked up in early 2014) is from 1st Corps and is a lovely piece - nice chunky detail in the resin hull while also having fine white metal details in the four machine guns. It got a quick coat of Vallejo US field drab (70.783) with yellow ochre (70.913) mixed in for the highlights. Then gunmetal (70.863) for the tracks along with white (70.951) and flat red (70.957) for the markings. Then plenty of black and brown washes to weather it.

I am still planning on writing or painting on the front panel, as I am intrigued by the story of "Musical Box":

http://overlord-wot.blogspot.com/2013/07/black-box.html
https://stevesmith1944.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/musical-box-writing-a-wrong/

Every tank needs a crew, and I got these Old Glory Miniatures sculpts from the second hand stall at Cancon last year, with the tank corps staff officer being from Warlord Games' British LDV section set. The first are more than a little ropey, but good enough.

Colours used for the uniform was and base of Vallejo brown violet (70.882) highlighted (heavily) with English uniform (70.921). The helmets were brown violet (70.882) with yellow ochre (70.913) mixed in for the highlights and the gasmask bags were stone grey (70.884) with white (70.951) mixed in for the highlights.

While I could've spent more time with shading and highlights, I think WWI miniatures can be a little more unpolished to reflect the subject.

I have since started painting the early war Belgians I have and thinking about how I want to paint the late war Germans. The former may be a little cleaner, but the Germans will probably get the same treatment as these British.

Tusk (Mammoth Hunting) in 15mm

When I first started wargaming again in 2005, I started by playing Flames of War. This was my first foray into 15mm and I fell in love with the versatility of the scale. DBA soon followed, and I picked up Irregular Miniatures' Tusk rules and miniatures; purely for the quirkiness factor.

They were left unpainted for a few years, but by 2010 I had painted the six mammoths (two of them calves), two woolly rhinos and 16 cavemen for Little Wars that year where I ran a few participation games.

The mammoths got a bit of extra fur (courtesy of Green Stuff) to cover their seam line along their backs, but they were pretty easy to paint (and actually not bad sculpts). The characterful woolly rhinos being from Eureka Miniatures' 10mm fantasy range.

A week or so ago I decided to add to this collection with some more 10mm miniatures from Eureka Miniatures with some deer and lions (which could double as sabre-toothed cats). To give an idea of their scale, I based them on 19 x 25mm bases while the mammoths and woolly rhinos are on 30 x 40mm bases.

When I primed these (with some 15mm Napoleonic uhlans and medieval Malays) I wasn't planning on painting them, but I thought "when are you going to paint these?". So I painted them then. It ended up being a quicker process than I thought, taking less than an hour. I love the result of a quick dry brush with some highlights/detail, being surprised how well they turned out.

The colour palette used was limited, only using Vallejo black (70.950), white (70.951), US field drab (70.783) and yellow ochre (70.913). I mixed a grey for the antlers and shades of the two colours with the black and white. I also painted the bases with yellow ochre, but when I was done I think the original bases were painted with another colour I used back then. So I'll have to redo the edges at some point. Will probably use the craft paint raw umber to keep things simple (which I use for all my non-desert and non-snow bases).

Edit (31 August 2019): I have painted the edges raw umber on the five adult mammoths, two baby mammoths, two woolly rhinos, three deer, three lions, four dogs and 16 cavemen. It always feels good to complete a project.

Napoleonic Lithuanian Uhlan Conversion

A long (long) term project is to put together an 15mm Napoleonic French army representing Davout's XIII Corps in northern Germany around Hamburg in 1813-14. This will also include the Danish Auxiliary Corps.

I have almost a full FoGN army (unpainted) with all the relevant 18mm AB Figures (available from Eureka Miniatures). Painting wise I think I'll start with the cavalry, in particular the 17th Lithuanian Chevau-léger (Uhlan) Lancers.

Their uniform looks like this:

And years ago I bought the relevant Grand Duchy of Warsaw line lancer troopers:

But I only bought eight (I think as the original rule set I had in mind was either Lasalle or Shako II), so a few weeks ago I bought the other four needed for a unit... except I bought these Vistula Legion lancer troopers:

Notice the different saddle cloth? Yeah. Bless the internet though, as I quickly found these images with sheepskin throws:

In under 15 minutes I transformed the Vistula Legion lancers to look like this:

They have been undercoated and basecoated with raw umber and a white/raw umber dry brush (what I usually do with all my miniatures). Next, painting.

Ancient Hebrew Rocking Horse Chariots and The Judean People's Front

A few years ago (back in November 2015) the League of Ancients' Field of Glory competition was Biblical-themed. Army lists could be anything fielded from 'Swifter than Eagles' and the four biblical army lists from 'Lost Scrolls'.

While I had a few Numidian light foot, I really didn't have anything suitable. Sure, I could've painted a new army, or borrowed one. Instead I quickly assembled 16 Ancient Hebrew rocking horse chariots and four Judean People's Front command stands. As you do. They would be added to some Ancient Spanish and the Numidians miniatures I had to make up a Philistine army (because I was being a Philistine).

The wooden pieces for the conversions were bought cheaply on eBay and cost less than AU$5 from memory. The rest of the wooden body for the chariots was made from balsa wood offcuts and matchsticks. The tops were painted thick card with Battlefront WWII Soviet cupolas and tank crewmen.

The command stands were assembled from spare miniatures I had in the lead pile - mainly Eureka Miniatures samurai painted to look like Judean People's Front (or the People's Front of Judea) from 'Monty Python's Life of Brian'. If you haven't seen the film then I suggest you do. The flags were sourced from online and resized/recoloured in Photoshop. They're a little pixilated, and if I did them again I would spend more time designing / cleaning up the flags in Photoshop than I did.

The point of the exercise? Wargaming doesn't always have to be serious, and you can easily theme an army if you have to. Being a mishmash of troop types it didn't go too well (I finished deep in the bottom half of the draw). I did have fun though.

Edit: Here's some photos of the camp I built for the army. It's made to look like a film set and represents the walls of Jerusalem covered in "Romani ite domum" ("Romans go home") as per 'The Life of Brian'.