Carly is happy because it keeps all my stuff in one place....i'm happy because i have more space! :-)
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Painting Upgrade
Well after four years in the hobby, my painting has improved (no sarcy comments please) so I thought it was time to upgrade my painting station.
Carly is happy because it keeps all my stuff in one place....i'm happy because i have more space! :-)
Carly is happy because it keeps all my stuff in one place....i'm happy because i have more space! :-)
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Salute 2012
Zed, myself and Dancing Dave went to Salute in London town, it was really good, we saw lots, bought lots ( too much if you were Dave) and have come home with lots of ideas for our own tables, games we want to play in the future and aching feet.
Below, in no particular order are some pictures from our day, I've added captions where I could remember the manufacturer, I'm sure Zed can fill in the blanks.
Until next year...
Below, in no particular order are some pictures from our day, I've added captions where I could remember the manufacturer, I'm sure Zed can fill in the blanks.
Until next year...
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| Studio McVey - Smaller than expected but very very beautiful |
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| Rampage! |
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| Black Scorpian miniatures |
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| Black Scorpian miniatures - Pirates |
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| Black Scorpian miniatures |
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| Battlefront's FoW table |
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| More Rampage! |
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| Even more Rampage! |
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| Black Scorpian miniatures - Pirates |
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| Very nice 'Orlock' style gangers |
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| SAGA in action |
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| Black Scorpian miniatures - more pirates! |
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| Battlefront's FoW board |
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| More Studio McVey |
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| Battlefront's FoW board |
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| Battlefront's FoW board |
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| Dont forget to Stormtrooper |
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| Battlefront's FoW board |
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| Battlefront's FoW board |
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| Mantic Abyssal Dwarves, looked very nice in the 'flesh' |
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| Mantic Abyssal Dwarves |
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Wargaming with Wifey - Mighty Monsters
Thought I'd try out some of the rules I purchased around christmas. Normally, zombie racing would be at the top of the "must play" list, but Kim and I fancied something different, and a little light-hearted kaiju monster combat sounded like just the job.
Accordingly, Mighty Monsters from Ganesha Games was dug out, and card scenery duly printed off and constructed. Then we picked up some Moshi Monster toys to use as the protagonists, and the following battle report ensued.
The rules follow the same general guidelines as the dungeon game I ran last month (and have still to write up...), except that each monster has body parts with a quality and combat score, as opposed to each individual having an overall quality or combat score. So, for example, if I want to move, I must pass the quality roll for my monster's legs and so forth. There is an interesting mechanic for showing damage which will be explained later by my mate, the Prof.
Oh! Look, the lights are dimming. So grab your popcorn, and sit back to enjoy the thrilling B-move extravaganza "Terror in Shieldsville!"
"Monster Island is a misnomer," began Slick Evans, the realtor, "It's actually an archipelago. That's why house prices are so low..." Looking at the recently repaired apartment building, he hoped these buyers wouldn't figure out the real reason. The smarmy grin slipped from his face as he turned to look out to sea.
'Talk about bad timing..." He thought as he watched the blue monster, Chuffy emerge from the waves. Slick wasted no time in climbing into his flash sports car, sparing not a moment's thought for his clients. As Eggbert the giant green monster stomped onto the road, bellowing a challenge, Slick stood on the accelerator pedal and began to consider a change of career.
Kim and I played this, our second game of Mighty Monsters, this afternoon. She took control of Chuffy, while I played Eggbert. The two monsters have identical stats, but their skills and abilities have been tailored differently. Chuffy has a number of attacking options, including atomic fire breath, fangs, and a potentially deadly claw attack. Eggbert specializes in defence, with a protective shell. His preferred attack methods are a slam attack (shoulder charge), head butts and kicking. But he has no real ranged attack, and is reliant on closing the distance to fight.
Deployment:
Both monsters began at diagonal opposite corners of the board. Eggbert won the initiative roll, and chose to go first.
Turn 1:
Eggbert started by attempting a sprint (triple move) to try and get to
grips with Chuffy immediately. He was only able to make a double move,
so decided to stop behind two buildings. A head-butt was attempted
against one building, in hopes of creating some rubble to throw at
Chuffy. But Eggbert was unable to bring one down (he rolled two
failures to activate).
Chuffy, hearing the commotion, raced towards the shaking buildings, and immediately bathed Eggbert in atomic fire. When the smoke cleared, Eggbert still stood unscathed.
Turn 2:
Chuffy could only look on in confusion as Eggbert came charging through
the glowing embers left on the street, intent on barging him to the
floor. Chuffy proved the stronger in this clash, however, knocking
Eggbert to the floor instead. Not a good place to be.
Wasting no time, Chuffy pounces on the recumbent Eggbert, attempting to savage him with his wicked claws. Unable to angle his shell to deflect the attack, Eggbert is sent skidding along the street. Chuffy runs forward and continues his assault, with a vicious bite. Eggbert roars in pain as Chuffy's teeth sink into the soft flesh of his underbelly.
The Prof Says:
In this picture we can see the dice showing the monsters' relative health. Unhurt monsters roll all green dice. A yellow dice indicates a wound. If a yellow dice is rolled and scores a 1, bad things happen. If a monster continues to take damage, the yellow dice will be replaced with red dice. If a red dice rolls any failure... well, let's just say you're in a world of trouble.
Turn 3:
Eggbert begins by climbing to his feet and aiming a kick at Chuffy's
body. The kick caused no damage, but created enough space for Eggbert
to regain his footing properly.
Chuffy, enraged by this show of defiance, snaps at Eggbert with his fangs. Although Eggbert again fails to shield himself with the shell, Chuffy's attack was telegraphed, and Eggbert bats Chuffy's slavering jaws to the side. Likewise, Chuffy's claws fail to strike home.
Chuffy emits a growl of frustration, and plants a hefty kick to Eggbert's midsection, wounding him again. He follows up with a tail sweep, hoping to knock Eggbert to the floor again, but his foe recoils away from him in the nick of time. Things don't seem to be going well for the injured monster, but Chuffy is having trouble capitalising on his attacks.
Turn 4:
Eggbert, the pain of his wounds goading him on, goes into a berserk
frenzy (the prof will explain more on this later), the surge of
adrenaline allowing him to ignore some of his injuries, and charges into
Chuffy at speed.
Although he is rocked onto his heels by this sudden onslaught, Chuffy manages to keep his footing. Eggbert lets loose with a flurry of punches, now causing serious damage because of his berserk state, and follows up with a vicious headbutt, causing further serious injury. Suddenly, the tables have turned, and Chuffy is on the defensive.
Not accustomed to defence, Chuffy elects to attack instead. Shaking off his grogginess, Chuffy attempts to bite Eggbert. There is a resounding crack, as fangs meet shell, and Chuffy pulls away, trying to ignore his broken tooth. Chuffy makes a pathetic swipe with his claws, and it suddenly becomes clear that something is wrong (Kim rolled a 1 on a yellow dice!). Eggbert easily deflects the clumsy attack, and counterattacks with a punch. The punch has no effect. However, the pain of his injuries appears to be telling on Chuffy, and he falls to the ground.
The Prof Says:
Once per game a monster can go Berserk. It will heal damage on one dice by one level (i.e. a red dice can be turned yellow, or a yellow turned green), allows one body part to automatically pass three activation rolls (allowing a very powerful attack), and doubles any damage the monster causes for a turn. This is a very powerful ability, and timing is critical to make the best use of it.
Turn 5:
Eggbert levels a kick at Chuffy, while his opponent is down, but fails
to cause any damage. Clasping his paws together above his head, Eggbert
now drops a hammerblow on Chuffy, causing a further wound. While he is
in close proximity, he attempts a bite on Chuffy, and tears a chunk of
flesh from his opponent, leaving him with all red dice, and close to
destruction.
But Chuffy is not about to give up the fight yet! The plucky blue pugilist lets out an earth-shattering roar and goes berserk. Chuffy leaps to his feet, ignoring one of his grievous wounds, and bites Eggbert with all his remaining might, causing two wounds. An attempt to disembowel Eggbert goes horribly wrong (another 1 on a yellow dice!), and Chuffy ends up cradling his crippled paws to his chest. He will no longer be able to make claw attacks. In an attempt to try and buy himself some breathing space, Chuffy swings into another tail sweep, and manages to push Eggbert back. Unfortunately for him, Eggbert retains his footing.
Turn 6:
Eggbert again tries to slam into his opponent. But the battle is
telling on both monsters, and they end up rebounding from each other. A
kick to Chuffy's body causes another wound, and although Eggbert's tail
sweep proves completely ineffective, Chuffy is in a critical state.
Chuffy rears up to take a bite out of Eggbert, and then starts to sway. His eyes glaze over, and he collapses to the floor, unable to continue fighting (You guessed it - a failed activation roll, followed by the worst possible result on the injury table).
Battered, but unbowed, Eggbert climbs shakily to the roof of one of Slick's apartment buildings and roars his victory to the heavens.
I fear that by including this picture, I may have won the game, but lost a wife....
This was only our second game, so we didn't explore any of the other rules, like throwing each other into buildings and so forth. And you can see, movement wasn't exploited much as we got too caught up in trying to knock each other out (the monsters never truly die in this game, in the same way as Gozilla and his opponents are never really killed, but keep turning up in sequels).
I wonder how differently things might have gone if Chuffy had kept Eggbert at a distance, using tail sweeps to knock Eggy down and his breath attack to soften him up more before committing himself. Still, we really enjoyed the game, so no doubt "Terror in Shieldsville II - Chuffy's Revenge" will be on the cards soon...
Accordingly, Mighty Monsters from Ganesha Games was dug out, and card scenery duly printed off and constructed. Then we picked up some Moshi Monster toys to use as the protagonists, and the following battle report ensued.
The rules follow the same general guidelines as the dungeon game I ran last month (and have still to write up...), except that each monster has body parts with a quality and combat score, as opposed to each individual having an overall quality or combat score. So, for example, if I want to move, I must pass the quality roll for my monster's legs and so forth. There is an interesting mechanic for showing damage which will be explained later by my mate, the Prof.
Oh! Look, the lights are dimming. So grab your popcorn, and sit back to enjoy the thrilling B-move extravaganza "Terror in Shieldsville!"
"Monster Island is a misnomer," began Slick Evans, the realtor, "It's actually an archipelago. That's why house prices are so low..." Looking at the recently repaired apartment building, he hoped these buyers wouldn't figure out the real reason. The smarmy grin slipped from his face as he turned to look out to sea.
'Talk about bad timing..." He thought as he watched the blue monster, Chuffy emerge from the waves. Slick wasted no time in climbing into his flash sports car, sparing not a moment's thought for his clients. As Eggbert the giant green monster stomped onto the road, bellowing a challenge, Slick stood on the accelerator pedal and began to consider a change of career.
Kim and I played this, our second game of Mighty Monsters, this afternoon. She took control of Chuffy, while I played Eggbert. The two monsters have identical stats, but their skills and abilities have been tailored differently. Chuffy has a number of attacking options, including atomic fire breath, fangs, and a potentially deadly claw attack. Eggbert specializes in defence, with a protective shell. His preferred attack methods are a slam attack (shoulder charge), head butts and kicking. But he has no real ranged attack, and is reliant on closing the distance to fight.
Deployment:
Turn 1:
Chuffy, hearing the commotion, raced towards the shaking buildings, and immediately bathed Eggbert in atomic fire. When the smoke cleared, Eggbert still stood unscathed.
Turn 2:
Wasting no time, Chuffy pounces on the recumbent Eggbert, attempting to savage him with his wicked claws. Unable to angle his shell to deflect the attack, Eggbert is sent skidding along the street. Chuffy runs forward and continues his assault, with a vicious bite. Eggbert roars in pain as Chuffy's teeth sink into the soft flesh of his underbelly.
In this picture we can see the dice showing the monsters' relative health. Unhurt monsters roll all green dice. A yellow dice indicates a wound. If a yellow dice is rolled and scores a 1, bad things happen. If a monster continues to take damage, the yellow dice will be replaced with red dice. If a red dice rolls any failure... well, let's just say you're in a world of trouble.
Turn 3:
Chuffy, enraged by this show of defiance, snaps at Eggbert with his fangs. Although Eggbert again fails to shield himself with the shell, Chuffy's attack was telegraphed, and Eggbert bats Chuffy's slavering jaws to the side. Likewise, Chuffy's claws fail to strike home.
Chuffy emits a growl of frustration, and plants a hefty kick to Eggbert's midsection, wounding him again. He follows up with a tail sweep, hoping to knock Eggbert to the floor again, but his foe recoils away from him in the nick of time. Things don't seem to be going well for the injured monster, but Chuffy is having trouble capitalising on his attacks.
Turn 4:
Although he is rocked onto his heels by this sudden onslaught, Chuffy manages to keep his footing. Eggbert lets loose with a flurry of punches, now causing serious damage because of his berserk state, and follows up with a vicious headbutt, causing further serious injury. Suddenly, the tables have turned, and Chuffy is on the defensive.
Not accustomed to defence, Chuffy elects to attack instead. Shaking off his grogginess, Chuffy attempts to bite Eggbert. There is a resounding crack, as fangs meet shell, and Chuffy pulls away, trying to ignore his broken tooth. Chuffy makes a pathetic swipe with his claws, and it suddenly becomes clear that something is wrong (Kim rolled a 1 on a yellow dice!). Eggbert easily deflects the clumsy attack, and counterattacks with a punch. The punch has no effect. However, the pain of his injuries appears to be telling on Chuffy, and he falls to the ground.
Once per game a monster can go Berserk. It will heal damage on one dice by one level (i.e. a red dice can be turned yellow, or a yellow turned green), allows one body part to automatically pass three activation rolls (allowing a very powerful attack), and doubles any damage the monster causes for a turn. This is a very powerful ability, and timing is critical to make the best use of it.
Turn 5:
But Chuffy is not about to give up the fight yet! The plucky blue pugilist lets out an earth-shattering roar and goes berserk. Chuffy leaps to his feet, ignoring one of his grievous wounds, and bites Eggbert with all his remaining might, causing two wounds. An attempt to disembowel Eggbert goes horribly wrong (another 1 on a yellow dice!), and Chuffy ends up cradling his crippled paws to his chest. He will no longer be able to make claw attacks. In an attempt to try and buy himself some breathing space, Chuffy swings into another tail sweep, and manages to push Eggbert back. Unfortunately for him, Eggbert retains his footing.
Turn 6:
Chuffy rears up to take a bite out of Eggbert, and then starts to sway. His eyes glaze over, and he collapses to the floor, unable to continue fighting (You guessed it - a failed activation roll, followed by the worst possible result on the injury table).
Battered, but unbowed, Eggbert climbs shakily to the roof of one of Slick's apartment buildings and roars his victory to the heavens.
I fear that by including this picture, I may have won the game, but lost a wife....
This was only our second game, so we didn't explore any of the other rules, like throwing each other into buildings and so forth. And you can see, movement wasn't exploited much as we got too caught up in trying to knock each other out (the monsters never truly die in this game, in the same way as Gozilla and his opponents are never really killed, but keep turning up in sequels).
I wonder how differently things might have gone if Chuffy had kept Eggbert at a distance, using tail sweeps to knock Eggy down and his breath attack to soften him up more before committing himself. Still, we really enjoyed the game, so no doubt "Terror in Shieldsville II - Chuffy's Revenge" will be on the cards soon...
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Lone Wolves Challenge Cup Final
Last night saw the final of this years Blood Bowl league, with the Skaven of Th1rt3en taking on the Norse of the Dragon 'Ead Destroyers.
During the season the Skaven had won both meetings, although the Norse did open up pre season with a 4-1 thrashing of their opponents. Even Destroyer's head coach Lordybloke admitted voting for his rivals in the blog poll. It was looking like the writing was on the wall before it began.
It got even more scarier for the northmen as Binx rolled for 2 skill upgrades prior to the match, giving Guard to his Rat Ogre, but also getting +1 Strength on one of his Gutter Runners, Lordybloke was not impressed. He was even less so when he lost the coin toss too!
The whole game was played in Sweltering Heat, and a good start by the Rats saw two of the Norse in the KO box after only 1 turn. The Skaven made their numbers count and by half way through the first half they were up 1-0. The sun really had an impact before the next kick off with both teams reduced to 10 men out of their squads of 14 for the remainder of the half, which didnt see any more scores. The 2nd half did see the Rat Ogre of the Skaven Die! Luckily for them, their apothecary was at hand to patch up the furry beast and he was back on the pitch for the 2nd half.
With the sun still beating down, a 2nd high kick of the game saw the Norse make a slow move down field. The Ratmen did not give up and managed to get the ball on the floor a few times, although the Norse refused to give up and with the last rolls of the game managed to get a short pass down field and into the end zone to make it 1-1 at the end of the game.
After much discussion, it was decided that the game would go to sudden death over time. The Rats once again managed to receive the the kick off but a slurry of injuries and the beating heat of the sun saw them down to 7 players vs the Norse's full team.
This didn't hinder the Skaven and after a couple of turns one of the Gutter Runners managed to break free and was on his own with the ball 2 squares short of the Norse end zone with only one defender within reach.
Then there was a moment of indecisiveness, Binx, the Skaven coach was undecided if he should go for it or not to give himself that little bit of extra room, with no re rolls this was a dangerous move, but eventually he decided he would risk it, after all it was anything but a 1!
The dice came down with one pip showing and the gutter runner tripped and fell spilling the ball and his guts at the same time. With even less players and with hardly any of them standing up the Skaven could do nothing as the Norse quickly scooped up the ball and trotted the length of the pitch for the Championship winning touchdown. A win for the Norse, a 2nd consecutive league championship for Lordybloke, who has now won 3 out of the 4 challenge cups.
Lonewolf Challenge Cup Result.
Overall Championship winner - Dragon Ead Destroyers
League Champion - Th1rt3en
Wooden Spoon - Orcland Raiderz ( equal on points with Black Moon Rising but a far inferior TD differential)
Player Stats
Most SPP's - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 44...... 2nd: Firedrich 'Fang' Wolf - Black Moon Rising - 35
Most Touchdowns - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 11.... 2nd: Azhquol - Th1rt3en - 10
Most Casualties - Cnut Ylarson - Dragon Ead Destroyers - 8.... 2nd: Graz Nulhug - Orcland Raiderz - 4
See you next year Blood Bowl fans, with rumours of this the next league being done online, and maybe even in a dungeon, we shall wait and see what transpires.
What can be confirmed is that four of the league participants will be off to Warhammer World in May for the 2nd NAF Championship so stay tuned to see what happens there.
During the season the Skaven had won both meetings, although the Norse did open up pre season with a 4-1 thrashing of their opponents. Even Destroyer's head coach Lordybloke admitted voting for his rivals in the blog poll. It was looking like the writing was on the wall before it began.
It got even more scarier for the northmen as Binx rolled for 2 skill upgrades prior to the match, giving Guard to his Rat Ogre, but also getting +1 Strength on one of his Gutter Runners, Lordybloke was not impressed. He was even less so when he lost the coin toss too!
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| The teams line up at the start of the game |
The whole game was played in Sweltering Heat, and a good start by the Rats saw two of the Norse in the KO box after only 1 turn. The Skaven made their numbers count and by half way through the first half they were up 1-0. The sun really had an impact before the next kick off with both teams reduced to 10 men out of their squads of 14 for the remainder of the half, which didnt see any more scores. The 2nd half did see the Rat Ogre of the Skaven Die! Luckily for them, their apothecary was at hand to patch up the furry beast and he was back on the pitch for the 2nd half.
 |
| 'Snow Troll' Thrudd decks the Skaven rat ogre |
With the sun still beating down, a 2nd high kick of the game saw the Norse make a slow move down field. The Ratmen did not give up and managed to get the ball on the floor a few times, although the Norse refused to give up and with the last rolls of the game managed to get a short pass down field and into the end zone to make it 1-1 at the end of the game.
After much discussion, it was decided that the game would go to sudden death over time. The Rats once again managed to receive the the kick off but a slurry of injuries and the beating heat of the sun saw them down to 7 players vs the Norse's full team.
This didn't hinder the Skaven and after a couple of turns one of the Gutter Runners managed to break free and was on his own with the ball 2 squares short of the Norse end zone with only one defender within reach.
Then there was a moment of indecisiveness, Binx, the Skaven coach was undecided if he should go for it or not to give himself that little bit of extra room, with no re rolls this was a dangerous move, but eventually he decided he would risk it, after all it was anything but a 1!
The dice came down with one pip showing and the gutter runner tripped and fell spilling the ball and his guts at the same time. With even less players and with hardly any of them standing up the Skaven could do nothing as the Norse quickly scooped up the ball and trotted the length of the pitch for the Championship winning touchdown. A win for the Norse, a 2nd consecutive league championship for Lordybloke, who has now won 3 out of the 4 challenge cups.
Lonewolf Challenge Cup Result.
Overall Championship winner - Dragon Ead Destroyers
League Champion - Th1rt3en
Wooden Spoon - Orcland Raiderz ( equal on points with Black Moon Rising but a far inferior TD differential)
Player Stats
Most SPP's - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 44...... 2nd: Firedrich 'Fang' Wolf - Black Moon Rising - 35
Most Touchdowns - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 11.... 2nd: Azhquol - Th1rt3en - 10
Most Casualties - Cnut Ylarson - Dragon Ead Destroyers - 8.... 2nd: Graz Nulhug - Orcland Raiderz - 4
See you next year Blood Bowl fans, with rumours of this the next league being done online, and maybe even in a dungeon, we shall wait and see what transpires.
What can be confirmed is that four of the league participants will be off to Warhammer World in May for the 2nd NAF Championship so stay tuned to see what happens there.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Meow !
Blimey, its been a while since I posted any painting...been a while since I've done any. Anyway, Panthers and Tigers finished apart from a lick of varnish and grass on the Panthers. Given this is my first attempt at 15mm, I'm pretty pleased. Also managed to find my really good camera.
Monday, 9 April 2012
Cauldron of Blood - Dark Elves Bath Time
I've had this on my paint station for over 3 years and have just never got round to painting it. I think perhaps the nipples were putting me off; don't get me wrong I like nipples on a woman, not much point on a man, I'm with the Evil Genius (Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits) on that one.
As always I have other figures that are a higher priority that I should be doing. Cold One Knights that I will need in a game soon for example, but I felt that I could finish it to an acceptable standard and it would be more fun.
It was.
As always I have other figures that are a higher priority that I should be doing. Cold One Knights that I will need in a game soon for example, but I felt that I could finish it to an acceptable standard and it would be more fun.
It was.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
German Armoured Car Patrol Sd Kfz 234/1 WiP
As it is the Easter Holidays and this tends to be when I get my painting done these days I thought I would take a shot of my work in progress for my armoured car patrol. I bought these Forged in Battle Sd Kfz 234/1 from Maelstrom when they announced their 25% end of year panic sale (shame no Battlefront Products). They will be standing in for 8 Rads at the moment and I know they are different but when it has 8 wheels and it's between friends I am sure it will be fine
As reward for highlighting witch elf skin on 30 of the little hoes I promised myself I could paint the armoured cars. In actual fact I based 19 outstanding transports; no sense getting the airbrush out for just 3. A bit of touching up and the base to do and they are ready for battle
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