Recon 25 - The End of an Era (again, perhaps)

Well last year I reported on what was supposed to be the last Recon Wargaming Show at Pudsey Civic Hall.  It's still there this year, either the proposed council sale is taking longer, or Wargamers are just hard to shift.

The Games 

I didn't get a good look at all the demo and participation games,  but here's a selection of the ones that caught my eye. 

If anyone cares to leave more details in the comments,  please do. I was making notes, but I've lost them. 

It felt like I was back at BOYL again, it very much looked like an old school game of Warhammer. But it was a much newer game system.

Awesome set up, though I can't remember what game was being played.*

Snoopy vs the Red Baron. This looked fun, but I didn't get a chance to try

Mantic's Armada and Kings of War

A grand view of the main hall

I think this one was called Xeno plants or something

Recon still run a Hordes of the Things tournament,  here's a game in progress

The Haul
I do like to look at the stalls and pick up stuff for the next year's hobbying. I didn't have much of a list this time,  though I was on the lookout for anything that might fit in my Oldhammer collections. 
I did see some lovely painted Oldhammer,  but it was appropriately priced for the painting,  and I'd be wanting to repaint it.

In the end, my slender haul was a base of MESBG scenery pieces,  they'll get individually based,  possibly as part of a Weathertop build.

Three Pro Arte Kolinski Sable brushes from A Brushes. I got one of these last time, and I'm impressed.  It may not be the equal of Artis Opus, but it's quite good enough for me,  and a huge step up from what I'm used to. 

A tub with six painted Frostgrave gnolls.  I've got plenty of unpainted plastic gnolls,  but two of these are the metal heroes,  including an Apothecary,  which I'll use as a Shaman in the next Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. 

Finally,  not pictured,  I placed an order for the new forth edition Kings of War rules from The Pit Wargaming. 

Quiet at the Bring and Buy - the calm before the storm

The, rather empty looking, Bring and Buy. It filled up quite a bit later, and I got both the terrain and the gnolls here. 

Lead Me Not Into Temptation 

There were quite a few bits that I almost bought. 

There were several new Epic Encounters sets (large boxes containing themed minis, maps and an encounter). These look superb,  the minis are excellent. 

Blotz were selling some packs of plastic minis from Fortress Figures.  These are monopose and look to be the same sort of plastic that Mantic used for Star Saga etc.  They are located in the US, and their website s currently inactive, so I wonder if this was old stock being sold off?

The goblins looked fun, rather Kev Adams in style,  but the other races seem a bit large to fit in with my old school stuff.

The Mantic Advent calendars look great fun. Perhaps next year? And they'd make good presents.

North Star's Oathmark Human Heavy Infantry were available,  and they'd fit in with my Kingdoms of Men.  I'll get back to this army once I know how the new rules work (and if I switch; there seems to be a bit of push back against the new edition).

So that was Recon 25. Great fun, as always. 

I also met up withT'Other One and also Bodvoc and a couple of his SAD gamers. 

I wonder where Recon 26 will be?

*EDIT; Bodvoc informs me that this is for Baron's War.

Terror of the Lichemaster: The Bogles of Bogle's Farm

Although October's long finished, I'm continuing  with the Terror of the Lichemaster project. I hope to paint sufficient minis for the first two scenarios at least. 

With the addition of my version of Gimbrin Finehelm, I've got sufficient dwarves, so next up are the residents of Bogels Farm. 

The Bogel Family - Hardened Frontier Folk

The Bogels and friends

Let me introduce you to Ma (Lorabeth) and Pa (Hunk) Bogel. John-Boy, their eldest, young Willy and Corabell, their daughter. Also present at the farm are Samgaff the halfling farm hand and Fritzy the dog.

Now there are official miniatures for all these, or at least there were specific minis included in the mail order deal.  I suspect that in some cases they were clearing out excess stock as the mini often doesn't fit the description of the character.

I'm not trying to match these exactly, I'll just look for something that feels appropriate.  And if it comes in useful for Orc's Drift, all the better. 

Combing through my Oldhammer minis I found sufficient for all the Bogels. 

Hunk and Lorabeth

Ma and Pa Bogel

Hunk and Lorabeth

Ma Bogel is a mini from the Gothic Horror range. Lost Minis Wiki names her ''Old Woman", but she's labelled 'Peasant' on the tab. She's another Trish Carden mini, so fits in nicely with the rest of the Bogels.  Her hair style isn't Medieval, but she'll do. I like her bunch of keys, I can see her as the housekeeper of a country house in a Gothic Horror game. 

Pa Bogel is a C46 (NPC 09) Militia man. With his hefty club I can see him as a pioneer farmer, ready to defend his family from anything. I actually prefer this mini to the recommended one, xxx who also runs the store in Linden Way.

But I had a problem. My mini was missing his feet! Somewhere I've probably got a slotta base with a pair of feet attached, but it seemed easier to make new ones. I drilled into each leg, starting with a very thin bit for a pilot hole. He was then glued into place and the feet sculpted on out of a greenstuff/miliput mix.

Pa Bogel footloose

John-Boy and Willy

The Bogel Lads

John-Boy and Willy

John Boy is the C46 (85-17) Traveller. I'd have preferred the recommended Herdsman mini, but not enough to pay the eBay asking price. The Traveller is also used as the Stable Lad at Linden Way, so he's a mini painted for Orc's Drift as well (in fact I plan to use a couple of the others too, more on that when I get back to the Orc's Drift project).

Willy is the actual recommended mini, C46 (85-21) Male Villager. I've had him in my collection for years.

Corabell

Corabell and cat

Showing her little secret

For Corabell I'm using this Witch (can't find her on Lost Minis, its particularly buggy at the moment*), mostly because my other female Oldhammer minis are even less appropriate. She does have a sort of coquettish look, which I suppose works, if you ignore the wand hidden behind her back.  I painted her in dark blue as the mini is, after all, a witch and I wanted her dressed in dark clothing, if not actually wearing midnight. 

Samgaff and Fritzy

Halfling and Hound - sounds like a pub

Who's fiercest?

Samgaff is C11 (3C 01) - Hog. These halfings are nice minis with lots of character, and it's good to get some paint on him finally. Unfortunately he had a flattened nose, either the result of being bashed around in a bag of minis for decades or a punch in the face. A small blob of the putty mix makes an acceptable bit of rhinoplasty, though I have rather overshadowed his mouth.

In the scenario, Samgaff has a cowbell tied around his neck, presumably the mini does too.  Hog doesn't but at least he's got a bell on his shield.

Fritzy is one of the Citadel Advanced Dungeons And Dragons Blink Dogs.  I've already painted one when I was experimenting with Hobhounds, but I've got several, and I thought it would be fun to paint another.  It's not the model included in the TotL mail order deal, but certainly one of his litter mates**. 

Painting Choices

Painting was pretty straightforward for all the minis.  I took a bit more time to shade and highlight rather than relying just on 'Marine Juice'.  

I didn't slavishly copy the card counters (only one is the exact mini after all) but I certainly had them in mind and tried to reference them where possible.  

I avoided a bright red, as that's not an easy colour to do with natural dyes, at least with any degree of permanence. It tends to fade, which I hope I've shown here. 

Well that's seven more minis painted. I've a fondness for the Trish Carden Villagers series and I regret selling off so many of them in the past.  I know I sold Corabeth and probably Ma as well. 

Still, what I have is nice, and will certainly do for the scenario, and some of them will appear at Linden Way as well. 

What's Next?

Well I'm not planning on diving into painting up the forces for the Defence of Frugelhofen (20 archers,  20 spears, 5 heroes,  Krell,  Kemmler,  20 skeletons and 10 zombies).  I do have the minis for most of this though, so I'll get on to them before long. Who knows, they might be my 'Paint What You Got' entry for next year.

I'd like to get the two games played soon though, and to that end I've started making the buildings for Bogel's Farm. There's a few more bits of terrain needed for both games, most of which will come in useful for future stuff as well. 

Putting the Defenders of Frugelhofen on one side for now, I'm already part way through another (smaller) batch of undead. While most of them will have a place attacking the village, some of them are for a project that Bodvoc has suggested. More on this later.

And I've also been looking through my small collection of Skaven...

*Checking Oldenhammer in Toronto again I realised she's the C 18 (43) Sorceress, also used as the character Etelka Herzen in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenario "Death on the Reik".

**Just yesterday I found the actual recommended mini for Fritzy. Of course he's now having a nap in Dettol and will eventually replace the painted mini above. 

No rush though, I've plenty else to paint.

It will be nice to have two of the official minis, and I might be able to bump this up to three by the time I've got the defenders of Frugelhofen done.

Scatter Terrain for Skirmish Games

At the start of the year I used the Paint What You Got Challenge as an opportunity to prepare for the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. This was mostly building, kitbashing and painting minis, but I did want to add to my terrain collection as well.  I managed to finish five Nest Trees, but there were several other bits that weren't quite finished. 

They were all built and painted by the end of March, but I couldn't decide how I wanted to base them. Long time readers of the blog will recognise this as a common fault in my hobbying, especially with regard to terrain.

Other things got in the way, of course, but I've just got around to finishing these three pieces.

The three rocky bases

A different angle

Rocks

Many skirmish games benefit from cover, and rocks and boulders are one possibility (they are a big part of many Rangers of Shadow Deep scenarios).  These were simple to make, just carved scraps of XPS textured with a ball of foil.  I'm experimenting with different forms and colours, as I plan on making more of these.  Each piece has a slightly different function in game;

Boulder  This is the simplest; a big rock that provides cover and acts as an obstacle.  The colour scheme is similar to the Tors, classic wargamers grey rock. This, and the tor, was designed to allow minis to be placed on the rocks.

Rock Tor  This blocks line of sight or provides cover.  It can be climbed over, and minis can be placed on it.  The form and colour was loosely based on the gritstone formations found locally, though those tend to be darker, thanks to a couple of hundred years of industrial pollution.

Rock Spires  These block line of sight and can't be crossed, at least by creatures limited to surface movement.  I painted them a lighter sandy colour not so obvious on the photos, possibly influenced by vague memories of Bryce Canyon.

Back to Bases

For years I simply stuck terrain on to MDF, prior to that I used hardboard, which is even more prone to warping than MDF, and in the early years, just cardboard.

Fairly recently I discovered foam board (NOT the XPS sandwiched by thin card stuff). Waterproof, so it's much less likely to warp, and very easy to cut. This is now my basing material of choice, at least until I discover something better.

To texture, I used to use sand and paint, latterly with static grass and tufts to finish off. But this gives a fairly uninteresting result. 

I've seen some great terrain and basing, for instance, this Middle Earth themed set from Microforge Minis; if I can achieve something like that, I'll be more than happy.

A lot of hobbyists use dried, baked soil, but round here this tends to be quite dark, almost black. To match my mini bases I want something more traditionally brown. I'd like to grab some of the lovely rich brown soils from the Vale of York, but so far I've not got round to it. 

Failing that, I've been collecting dried tea leaves (loose tea*, as it has a nice granulated texture) and dried coffee grounds. 

There are potential issues with using these; they can go mouldy, but I've dried and baked them thoroughly first, and I plan on sealing them well, so no additional moisture or air should contact them. 

Fingers crossed, this should work.

The Answer's in the Soil

For my first try (the individual rock) I mixed up some brown grouting powder with dried tea and coffee in roughly 2:1:1 proportions. I found that the pale grout was by far the dominant colour, so mixed in a bit more of the coffee. 

The base was given a coat of Mod Podge and the mix sprinkled over, making sure that everywhere was covered.

For the other two pieces I applied patches of tea and coffee to parts of the base; this bit of variety in colour and texture gives a much more interesting and realistic look.  I then filled round with the grout and scattered some over the tea and coffee to blend them more into the ground.

Seal of Approval 

Once the Mod Podge was well on the way to drying, I gave the base a spray of isopropanol. This helps break surface tension and allows the sealant to soak in to the ground texture.

The sealant is simply watered down Mod Podge, a 1:1 mix, though a bit more water won't harm. When I'm doing this stage with minis bases I just dollop it on with a brush, but on a larger bases like these, a dropper or syringe is much better, and doesn't disturb the carefully piled clumps of foliage in the second seal stage (see below).

Unlike just PVA glue, the Mod Podge contains a resin. It's this that I hope will protect the tea and coffee from moisture, as well as making sure that the texture stays on the base.

Green Fingers 

With the soil firmly in place, I added some Fine Turf. I clumped this around the base of the rocks to look like low bushes. I also added some static grass in several different colours and lengths, and finally a few tufts (including some 'flowers').

The vegetation was then sealed in just like the ground texture.

Rangers explore the rocky borders of Alladore

Finally 

So that's three small pieces of terrain.

It might not look like much, but it's important because I've now got a method I'm happy with. I've several more pieces of terrain just waiting for basing, and plenty more that I want to build, such as the Bogel's Farm. 

Now I can get these done and maybe, perhaps, end up with a box of terrain that I'm happy with.

*In this case Rington's Breakfast Tea, though of course other teas are available. It's very tasty though.

** Unless, of course, it all goes mouldy in a few months, in which case it's back to square one.

Warlords of Erehwon - Another Introductory Game

I thought it only fair to introduce T'Other One to Warlords of Erehwon.  Bodvoc and I have been having a lot of fun with the game, and have quite a few plans for scenarios and campaigns, and T'Other One is definitely interested in playing through the Lichemaster stuff. So I set up a short game to introduce the gameplay. 

Basic Stuff 

I went for a straightforward clash for the game and used my recently painted skeletons and zombies, plus an unpainted unit of archers, and a roughly similar force of orcs.

I also printed off an edited QPS and rosters, taking the opportunity change some of the quirkier stat names (Fight for Strength etc).

I've not done a full report, but here's some pictures and a brief rundown of the game. 

If you want a bit of a story, the two warbands are fighting for control of the potentially magical trilthon (though the orcs foolishly forgot to bring along their Shaman, that, or I ran out of points).

The Vale of Sacred Stones

As the mists clear, the two warbands eye each other over the plain,  or the orcs do; very few actual eyeballs in the undead force. 

The Vale as the armies deploy

The undead shuffle on, archers occupying the hill, while the undead champion leads a flanking force. 

The undead left flank

Another flanking force of spear armed skeletons, while the suspiciously boney necromancer holds back. 

The undead right flank

The skeleton archers proved more effective than the orcs; unsurprising, given the poor bow skills of orcs generally. 

The skeleton spears managed to get the charge in against the orc spears, routing them.

On the other flank, the skeleton guard followed the champion and charged into the orcs who followed their champion. Initially,  the orcs held their own,  helped by Grashak Kra crashing into the undead champion. Unfortunately an impressive flurry of blows were largely stopped by the ancient rusting armour. 

As the melee continued, the skeletons gained the upper hand,  eventually driving off the orc warriors and pulling Grashak Kra down. 

Champions clash on the flank

On the other flank the orc warboss and his retinue charged the zombies shuffling out of the woods (they needed to pass an Agility 2 test in the woods - and succeeded!) they took out over half of the walking dead (might have been more if I'd remembered their extra attacks) for no loss.

Unfortunately, the skeleton spears then charged them, gradually dragging down the warboss' chums.

Warboss vs zombies

The orc archers had suffered from the superior undead missile fire, at one point hunkering down rather than returning shots, but enough remained to either charge or shoot at the skeletons with swords. Having chosen to shoot, they did little damage, and were punished when the skeletons charged into them, breaking and running for the hills. I realise now that just charging would have been a better option, ah well, lesson learnt.

At this point only the orc warboss remained (it had been a brutal turn!), surveying the field he decided that discretion was the better part, etc, and joined the remains of his broken force. 

Final Thoughts 

A great fun game, and I'm not at all embarrassed at being absolutely tabled by someone playing their first game. 

Clearly the dice had their favourite that night.  I think the undead passed every single Command test, whereas the orcs passed two. Mind you, Grashak Kra's armour held up even better than the undead champion, passing every Tough reroll. In the end it was weight of attacks that did for him.

But T'Other One played well, and kudos especially to him picking up a new game so quickly. 

I hope we'll play more games of Warlords of Erehwon in the future, and it's been useful for me to get an idea of how the undead play on the battlefield. 

October 25 - Terror of the Lichemaster: Gimbrin Finehelm and his Miners

More Dwarven Miners

In the original scenario, Gimbrin Finehelm is accompanied by five other dwarfs. Three have crossbows, and all can act as individual characters (I'm pondering how to represent this in Warlords of Erehwon. I've a few ideas,  but it's going to need a bit of experimenting). 

I've already painted sufficient dwarves for the miners at Ashak Rise, so technically I don't need to paint any more.

But

This wouldn't be much of a post without me doing something new, so I thought, how about a mini for Gimbrin?

Gimbrin Finehelm 

Gimbrin was one of the minis sculpted specifically for The Terror of the Lichemaster Mail Order deal. As such, he commands a high price on evilbay.

As with Ranlac the Black, I've no intention of spending that much, and I'm not aware of any 'not Gimbrin's' out there.  So do I have anything in my collection that will do?

Oldhammer in Toronto (excellent blog, check it out) emphasises the 'fine helm' aspect of his name, and expands on that for the rest of the dwarves. Great idea. So I want a dwarf in a fine helm.

What Duck?

It just so happens that I do have a dwarf in a very fine helm indeed. Sir Donald the Quail, one of Citadel's dwarf heroes.

Sir Donald The Quail aka Gimbrin Finehelm

He was pretty straightforward to paint.  From the start I wanted bold, bright colours and red and yellow just seemed right. I was tempted to paint the duck bright yellow with an orange beak, classic rubber duck, but that would be too much yellow (though he is 'The Quail', so perhaps he's less than brave?).

I just managed to squeeze him in before the start of November, making October a relatively productive month for me, and proof that setting targets can be very effective. 

Finished Dwarves 

So that's the good side done.  I'll probably add in the mules from Ashak Rise, simply as scatter terrain.

All six of the dwarves

Gimbrin meets Borrin Fimbul

What Next?

I still need to do a bit of work on terrain, most of the buildings are built, but the minehead needs some repair and embellishment.

The next lot of 'Good' models (already undercoated and on the painting table) will be the Bogel family, and, of course, their farm.

Beyond that, I've been looking at what I've got and what I need for the Defence of Frugelhofen. That's a lot more painting, so it might be some time.

Ghost Miniatures Trolls

If you've read my last Warlords of Erehwon report, you'll have seen these trolls. I've had these for many years, originally as RPG monsters, then in my old Kings of War orc army.

I stripped them a while ago with the intention of repainting them for Old School stuff, though Orc's Drift has tended to refocus my orc painting. But it's fun to add extras, hence little additions like the orc chariot and these lads.

The trolls were originally from Ghost Miniatures, now available, in the US at least, from Old Glory Miniatures. 

They might not be the best detailed minis, but they've lots of character. I used a Ghost Miniatures dwarf for Fimbul at Ashak Rise, and I've a handful of their orcs and elves which I might paint up some day. 

I painted the trolls just like big orcs, differing skin tones and all.

Clothing is minimal, mostly furs, so I tried to use colour to suggest different 'donors' for the fur.

The Trolls

'Grabber'

'Chopper'

'Yeller'

'Basher'

They are a nice addition to my Old School forces and can fight for orcs or goblins.  I've even thought about assembling a monster army, mostly as an excuse to sort through and paint some of the monsters in my collection. 

They are a little smaller than the traditional Oldhammer Citadel troll, but still big enough to obviously be a monster of some sort.

Size comparison with Ghost Miniatures dwarf and Citadel orc

Whats Next?

Checking the Ghost Miniatures website I saw that the trolls were sold in a pack of five. Sorting through my older Kings of War orcs recently,  I found the missing troll.

Troll Boss

He's since been stripped and is awaiting painting to match his pals. As he's got more armour than the rest of them, he can be the unit leader.

MEGAforce Boardgames Night: Lost Cities

As there were only two of us recently,  Grim dusted off his copy of Lost Cities by Reiner Knizia

He picked it up on the market a few years back, and it's still in excellent condition*.  This was his and my first play through.

Lost Cities

Aim 

The aim of the game is to assemble successful expeditions to various Lost Cities.  This is done with cards of differing values from five different suits.

Gameplay

Each player starts with a hand of eight and takes it in turn to either place a card in an expedition or discard a card face up in the centre.  Cards are numbered 2 to 10, and MUST be placed in ascending order, but they need not be sequential.  So a 4 cannot be played on a 6, but a 6 can be played on a 4.  

The five suits represent different destinations; Desert, Neptune's Kingdom, High Mountains, Jungle and Volcanic Caves (the latest edition has a sixth,  but this was an earlier copy). 

After playing or discarding, the player draws another card, either one of the face up discards or a face down card from the deck. 

There are also 'Backer' (aka Handshake) cards, representing financial backing for your expeditions.  Up to three of these can be played before placing any numbered cards, they are also tied to the suits.

Play stops as soon as the last card is picked up,  so you can get caught out with good cards un-played in your hand. 

Scoring 

Expeditions are scored by adding up the numbers, but each expedition costs 20 points, which are deducted.  The result is then multiplied buy the backer cards +1. This does mean that a negative score is made even worse as your backers want results, even at the  cost of your success. 

There are also bonuses for having enough cards in a run and penalties for only having backers and no expedition cards.

If this sounds complicated,  it plays really smoothly.  It's recommended to play three rounds, and we were well into the swing of things in the first round. 

End game showing the different expeditions and the discard desk

Conclusion 

Lost Cities is a lovely little game.  It doesn't take long to play, our three round game took less than 40 minutes and we were learning the rules as we went. 

The card design is nice too, the cards show a panorama of the expedition drawn in a 1920s/30s style. 

There's quite a bit of strategy for such a simple looking game; do you discard a card that your opponent will find useful? Do you risk playing that 7 on that 4, or do you wait to see if you can find a 5 or a 6?

Lost Cities is two players only, which slightly reduces its utility (suggestions for a four player variant are available on the website), nevertheless, it's definitely a high A Tier/low S Tier.

Lost Cities is published by Kosmos, and is available from them or the usual retailers. 

*I suppose this should ring alarm bells, it looked rather like someone had bought it, played it once and didn't like it.  We really enjoyed it though.