Irr Wb (F)

2012 Purchasing Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Unfortunately Santa was not looking at the list provided and while many nice things were received for Xmas, lead was not one of them.

With Space 1889 rebooting into 15mm, I am left in a bit of a hard place. The status of the 25mm line is unknown yet I have enough miniatures in hand to feel committed to sticking with 25mm. Further, while I do most of my wargaming in 15mm and 6mm, role playing is still done with 25mm. Practically, I have to plot out what I need and get that before it disappears.

So from RAFM:

Two 20 figure bands of Hill Martians @ $30 each = $60
One 20 figure band of High Martians @ $20 = $20

Sadly mounted are not on the menu as at $5 a pop (yes - very reasonable for 25mm mounted) Martian Gashant Cav are $40 per troop of 8. I would like to add a company of Canadian rifles from the Riel range but that line is under no threat so that will have to wait. A company of Japanese would also be nice but - much more expensive (around $80).

I have enough 15mm Celts to field several DBA armies or around 200 points in DBMM so I would have to say I am done with 15mm ancients for the foreseeable future. As mentioned in a previous post, Marc and I have been playing DBA with 6mm figures on 25mm bases - very nice looking. I have a DBAs worth of Alexandrians waiting to be painted and based but I would like a third army for some variation. I am thinking of Libyans as covering both books one and two and because they are dead cheap. Two strips per base so about 5 pounds sterling or about 15 bucks with shipping for DBA army. Since I might be able to drop in on Baccus directly when we go to England in the Fall, I may let that purchase wait.

So planned purchases of around $100 an entirely achievable goal I think.

DBA3

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Over the Christmas week I got in a couple of DBA3 games with Marc. I took my new 6mm on 25mm basing Romans against his Thracians. A few of first impressions. The new quasi-random terrain generation removes a lot of cheese. No more setting symmetric terrain that suits you no matter how your opponent rotates it. The new move rates get you into the fight much faster. They aren't really any different from DBMM but on the small DBA table you won't be manoeuvring much. As a result of this, both games were under 20 mins. Blades following up was a little odd. This is another carry over from DBMM where irregular blades follow up but regulars - like my Marians, do not. I am not sure how I feel about this but at the moment it doesn't feel right.

I won both but only because I was able to tempt the Thracians out of the bad going. An enjoyable pair of games.

HotT FTW

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:06:00 +0000

On Friday night I took my Irish Heroes down to the club for a Hordes of the Things tournament. It is a very simple army with a Hero General, Hero and 8 war band. My opponents fielded much more mixed armies and I think that was the telling point. My command and control was much simpler and my plan was simply to grind away with the Wb while taking care of the opposing Cv with my heroes. No fancy manoeuvring or match ups. I doesn't hurt that a hero general at +6 is a pretty imposing base to face. I was also very lucky in that I was defender in all three games so I was able to choose both terrain and get the first move which allowed me to offset my opponents' deployment and control the tempo of the game. There were a couple of misplays through the three games thanks to differences in the DBx series but nothing game changing. More practice is required :)

In all a good evening and though yes I won, it was the playing that made it. My one regret was that Marc's work schedule meant he couldn't play.

A great night

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:40:00 +0000

I got an invite to a DBMM game last night. Romans vs Selucids at Thermopylae. I made a total hash up of the Roman cavalry command but had a great time doing it. Rather than running out to get a bunch of Selucid cav, I am motivate to get my Britons painted up so I can learn to use cav better. I also found a potential place to play with my Montrose.

A very good night. Thanks to Nick for hosting.

The Martians are Coming! (along nicely)

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:07:00 +0000

I have about half of the martians painted and dipped. I just need to go over them with flat varnish and they will be table ready. I started on the Brits but the red I was using was far too dark and I will have to start again.

Reinforcements

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:07:00 +0000

They're Here!

Yesterday was a very good day for any number of reasons. One of the best of which was a package from RAFM via Canada Post containing 40+ Canal Martians, 20 Colonial British, assorted Victorian adventurers and - A Gatling Gun! Along with the Brits I already have, I will be able to field two companies plus some extras. Fun times ahead.

DBA Marians almost done - Pushing forward

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0000

I got a little demoralized at pushing off projects so I sat down last night and put the final paint on enough 6mm Marians for a 25mm DBA army. I just need to base them up and do some flocking and they are ready for the table.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a horde of 6mm Greek psiloi to make up an early Libyan army. However, the Baccus Greeks aren't out yet and Marc has his Thracians and will be getting Greek Hoplites so that is enough for us to get on with.

I have also been toying with Space 1889 again and went over to the RAFM site for a quick drool. %30 off all orders - ending that day. So I ordered two lots of Martians, another batch of British, a Gatling gun and some Victorian Civilians. I then dug out my existing company of Brits and got on with painting them. Much progress of an evening.

DBMM - What is a normal army?

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:42:00 +0000

In response to a question on the DBMM list on AP reduction for smaller 300 point armies Phil wrote:

I still think of 300 AP as a standard size army, so no.
As rules have simplified over the years, there has been a continuous trend
for people to use bigger armies to slow the game down again (and becausethey just cannot bring themselves to stop buying lead).
Phil

Those of us with small lead stocks should be happy - I am. ;)

I painted.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:21:00 +0000

There has been a lot going on over the last while that has cut into hobby time. Marc was able to get over a couple of times for some DBA and HotT but that has been it. This weekend was fairly quiet so during the movies Willard (excellent) and Tin Man (visually stunning but slow) I nearly finished the last of the Marians needed to make up a DBA army. All that is left is pila, touchups and basing.

It wasn't much work and really a small thing in the the grand scheme but very satisfying. Next up Alexandrian imperials.

The Thracians are (slowly!) coming... And other things!Slower then expected!

noreply@blogger.com (Herne) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Hi Folks!

Been working on my Thracians slowly but steadily. That 2 bases of Irregular knights, 4 of archers, 8 of light horses and 30 of auxilia... That's a lot of figs to paint! Even in 6mm!

Granted the bases won't be loaded as per the recommended figs/base ratio but it will allow me to play 100ap/200ap games for DBMM easily enough! The interesting thing will be to maneuver the 2 bases of "kniggets" that are 60mm in frontage and 80mm deep! That is the biggest size of base I have in my armies.... Can't wait to "wheel" that puppy!

I also painted an undead army for HotT (Hordes of the Things), but one with a difference; no skelly-bobs in it! I went more vamp/zombie-like in my approach and even then, my choice of troops varies largely from the "norm" as far as undead go; I use 2 bases of vamp lord as magicians, 2 bases of bat lord as heroes/aerial heroes and 6 bases of.... zombie wolves at 2 wolves per base to make Beasts. I will gt a picture of the bases a little bit later once my camera is working properly...

That's it for now, keep an eye out as there is more coming!

Marc

Busy Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:32:00 +0000

It has been a very busy Summer with a couple of camping trips and Steampunk events taking up most of my free time. On the last camping trip I was able to get in a couple of games of Hordes with Marc and introduce the game to a few other lads as well. An added bonus was receiving a shipment of Montrose English Civil War miniatures from Neil Shuk of Meeples and Miniatures. Not a period I have looked at before but free lead is free lead. My current plan is to paint them up and use them for Pike Shotte and Zombies skirmish games.

Real Life

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:56:00 +0000

I had intended on getting in a solid days worth of painting this Sunday last. Eldest daughter was going off on a double date but all the movies playing were crap so they wound up back at our place. I have not been able to get my painting space in the garage setup again after the last big cleanup. I was going to use the kitchen table but that is close to the library where the quartet of teens was hanging out. So, in order to be a good parent and give the kids some space but be close enough to know if things were getting too quiet, I wound up upstairs watching Two Men Went to War and First Squad and didn't lift a brush.

Oh Well.....

A small update on my side of the minis...

noreply@blogger.com (Herne) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Been doing less work on miniatures of late as I have other things to work on, but I needed a break so I pulled out my ants and proceeded to paint them for my 60mm based hordes army to replicate a scenario in the book "Armor".

I primed them (gray works best at the moment) then once they were dry they got a heavy dose or red, as seen below:

What you see above are the individual, as in seperate, 192 ants that I primed, THEN painted red, by HAND, meaning by paintbrush... What a long task! At least now I am done painting them, I just need to base them...

Once these are done, I'll be jumping on the opponents for my Ants, my Space Marines!

My next post should be the Ants based and ready to take the play field by pure mass attack! ;-)

Marc

Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:34:00 +0000

After two Father's day breakfasts - sibling rivalry has its benefits - I headed out to the club for a little gaming. Marc brought out his gobbos and I re-glued my dinos. We got in 3 games with me winning 2-1 but only barely. Marc can still roll dice like a demon and in the first game I managed 4 1's in a row in combat before retiring the dice. In the final game I went for a very cluttered board to give my dinos as beasts good terrain and replaced my hero general with a cleric general. Marc switched out the blades he had used to this point and went with bow for the bad terrain.

The cleric was just the thing as its cone of protection messed up Marc's magicians. My beasts were shot to ribbons leaving me 8 points down but he had pushed his general into the bad going and got stomped for his foolishness leaving me with a win.

A great set of games if a little frustrating at times. HotT may get looked down on as just a fantasy set, but it remains one of my fast play favourites.

Marian Romans, Beware...

noreply@blogger.com (Herne) — Sat, 21 May 2011 00:31:00 +0000

For the Thracian have been delivered! Yes, my goody folks! I now have the making of the Thracian (book 1, list 48) army for the DBA game in 25mm basing (meaning 60mm frontage) with 6mm miniatures... Confused yet by my gamer babble? Fear not, dear readers, I shall explain myself in multiple posts where you will see the evolution of this army in the making.

Me and Pat have discussed the merits of having a GOOD looking army, meaning to really have a sense of a grand scale battle without losing an arm paying for figurines. If one was to make an army with 15mm figures, you could have up to 4, 5 or even 6 minis on a single base if you base them on a 40mm frontage. What Pat suggested was to INCREASE the base size and REDUCE the size of the figs. Not a new concept out there but not one I had seen before hand.

So going, as an example, from a "4 Blades" in 15mm figs on a base with a 40mm frontage, you go to a "12 Blades" in 6mm figs with a 40mm frontage. So you get three times the figures for the same space. NOW, if we go to the 60mm basing, still with 6mm figs, you DOUBLE the amount, making it 24 figs per base!

The above paragraph might be hard to grasp just like this but I will post pictures to show the difference in a later post. =)

Now I leave you with this morsel, as I have to go research this new army, never, ever having played it. I might learn something yet...

Until next!

Marc

Reinforcements

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:12:00 +0000

With some acting pay in my pocket, I was able to place another order with Baccus this morning. I have been smitten by the look of pikes since I first discovered 6mm so I ordered up some extra cavalry for my Marians and the 25mm GS DBA Macedonian Army - Pikes, Pikes, Baby!. This will give me two DBA armies to field with support options for the Marians and a start on DBMM as well. Marc has the opponents but I'll let him post about that.

Whoot!

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:07:00 +0000

The game that started all things steampunk for me is getting new life from its original creator. Frank Chadwick has started up a new Space 1889 blog. In the works are new skirmish rules and 15mm and 1/1200 minis.

Snow Shoes are Go!

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:21:00 +0000

It's going to happen. Thanks to dinner provided by my goth house sitter Chrissy and cutting help from her partner Mike, as of midnight last night I have completed 4 brass, copper and wood spring cannons, a landed martian cylinder and 3 tripods and a whack of human land ships. The final steps are to glue the bases on for which I will be buying another glue gun at lunch and to play test which I shall do with my gaming buddy Marc at the convention. AS the camera is at the convention, I have no pictures but will post some as soon as they become available.

Just Maybe - Martians in the Snow at the CNSE

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:53:00 +0000

The current election in Canada is due to take place on Monday May 2 - right after the Canadian National Steampunk Exhibition. Since I work for Elections Canada, this was going to prevent me from running my Martians in the Snow game. However, my unit's work load is slowing down and I have managed to parlay some of my over time into three days at the CNSE. This week will be filled with doing all the prep work I didn't do because the game wasn't on. Ugern from Junior General has created an impressive series of War of the Worlds paper troops that I will be using for the game.

The game is afoot and pictures will follow after the event (the Countessa is taking the camera with her...).

Life vs gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Between the ramp up to the Canadian general election and re-doing the office space I have had precious little time to game and no time to paint. Even my Martians in the Snow game I was going to run at the CNSE is threatened by the election so might not happen.

That said I did manage to ~~beat to a pulp~~ win a few games playing HotT with Marc and I have had a couple of extended games of Zombies with friends and family. Good friends bought us a bag of extra zombies the same day we bought an extra bag as well - so no more using counters. The missus also added zombies dogs to the mix and given the estrogen level in the house, girl zombies are on order "Not the teeth, Tammy."

And if you are Canadian - Remember to vote, or spoil your ballot or refuse it just get out there and do something.

I think I just found a HotT Army for my youngest.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:23:00 +0000

Magister Militum Meerkats

Sandals into the new year.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:55:00 +0000

Nothing much to report on the gaming front the last month or so. I was able to place an order for some of Baccus' new Marian Romans. When they arrive, I will be faced with a decision: Base them for 15mm frontage or 25mm frontage. Currently, my Dwarves are all on 60x30mm bases and I love the mass effect this size gives. However, going to 60mm takes the Marians out of the running for 15mm HotT and DBA - both popular out my way. Decisions, decisions....

Hordes of fun

noreply@blogger.com (Pat G) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:57:00 +0000

This Sunday past, I was able to get out to the local club for a Hordes of the Things Tourney. I have been a bit reluctant before because the majority of the games played are either with rules or in periods I am not really interested in. But I ponied up my membership fee and got stuck in.

Well let me back track a bit. Friday I realized that I didn't have a stronghold to put on the table. With a DVD coaster, a re-purposed paper clip holder and some Das clay, I made up a burial mound that I hoped would suitably impress my opponents. After the clay dried I added a base coat of brown then acrylic medium and flock. Sunday morning I awoke early to do the final dry brush and found that I had used gloss acrylic medium. What was meant to be an imposing barrow was in fact a sparkly fairy hill. The only matte varnish to hand was an ancient pot of Tamiya flat base - which has a tendency to go white when applied with a brush - but I was feeling lucky so on it went. Half an hour later I had a barrow that while no longer sparkly was now suitable for deployment on the Siberian steppes in winter. Several fast washes and some dry brushing later, I managed to get something not entirely laughable for the table.

So to the tourney. Today was to be a relaxation day and that means a Kilt day! I topped my camo kilt with a Hobgoblin t-Shirt and Marc was decked out in his Hung like a Norse T and jeans. The club (Ottawa Miniature Gamers) recently moved its game space to a local Freemason's Hall. The building is quite beautiful and well maintained. To keep up with the costs, the Masons rent rooms to many different groups. This being our first time there, we went through the front door and right into a Charismatic Christian Church service. I don't know what they made of us but we were definitely in the wrong place.

We went around the back where ruffians such as we are more likely to be welcome and found the proper place. We were given a hearty welcome by both club members and a couple of Masons there to observe a Poland 39 game. There may have been a raised eyebrow or two at the kilt but s*d 'em - the Celts are here!

There were 5 of us playing:

Mike - High Elves
Brian - Undead
John - Undead Hordes
Marc - Gallic Behemoths
Me - Ulster Cycle Irish

A quick set of rolls saw me facing Marc and his coffee-ground monsters. This time he managed to get his god on the board and pummel Cú Chulainn to a pulp. In return I managed to rack up a pretty good body count though. As one of the losers, I was tagged to sit out the next round but was able to see the other games and act as a floating ref. This was actually pretty cool as anyone who wasn't playing stuck around to help out rather than wandering off.

Lunch was called after the second game. Not knowing the protocol, I had packed a lunch (bacon sarnies and a thermos of tea) but others bulked ordered pizza at $7 a head - a pretty good deal I need to remember in future.

Lunch eaten, it was back to the fray. Next game was against Mike's Elves. We had more or less stopped rolling for terrain placement. The board we were on had a river on one side and as defender, Mike had set up his Elven spear on the other side of the river from his stronghold. I took advantage of this split and massed everything on one side with Ferdiad my hero general on the far flank. The centre locked pretty tight with the Elven spear slowly moving up toward the ford so they could get into the fray. Ferdiad ran out on the flank until he was menaced by some Elves in a small wood. I left him there while we contested the centre - me grinding down the Elves while Mike hurried his spear up. I got a 6 for pips and moved Ferdiad towards the Elven stronghold then another 6 getting him into contact. My first attack on the stronghold failed with a stick result. Mike rolled very poor pips and couldn't intervene. The second attack went through ending the game.

My third and final game was against John's Undead Horde army. He had chosen an alternate list wherein all
his troops except for the necromancer general were at -1 to Magicians - Cathbad the druid in my case. We got stuck in pretty quickly and my double depth warband ground away at bone while Cathbad sniped away at undead knights. John's list allowed him to bring back any undead lost in combat on a six, but he failed to retrieve a single casualty in the whole game. I moved a hero general into overlap which combined with the warband's impetuous follow up was enough to punch through the undead lines. John tried repeatedly to ensorcel my hero but again the dice were against him. In the end I killed 12 AP for the win.

At the end of the day, despite only playing three games and losing one of those, I won on points for casualties caused. They may not be flashy but those warband really grind away at the enemy. However, I didn't get to face Brian's undead with fliers - that would have been a very different fight.

Having some time left, Marc and I hung around to watch some of the Poland game - very tempting and the Lardie's rules have some very interesting mechanics.

A good day.

How to make your own minis from things around the house... Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Herne) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:23:00 +0000

Hi folks and fellow gamers!

Been a while since a post showed so I am taking an opportunity to start a subsection on this blog called "How to make your own minis from things around the house... " Enjoy!

I will be participating to an event from the Ottawa Miniatures Gaming club in November and wanted to build an army to play that day. I perused the rules allowed for the club and the figures I had at my disposal and decided I didn't want to play my usual Gallic army but wanted to try something completely new so... "What can I use to make me a cool army?" popped in my head.

The special rules I will be using for the Hordes of the Things are like this: Mandatory 1 X God base, Mandatory 2 X Behemoths bases. Behemoths and Dragons don't count towards the total of AP to build your army....

So I thought why not have 3 Behemoths base, my mandatory God base, and 2 Hero bases for a total of only 6 figures and a trés cool looking army... *smile*

Trio of Behemoth Force of Nature "attacking a die"

What you see above is the end result from combining a few simple things; paper clips, Gorilla Glue, coffee grinds (loads of that in my house!), used and dried tea leaves, mdf base, white glue and acrylic paint.
I started by building a frame work out of the paper clips and glued that onto the base with the Gorilla Glue. Once set, I then proceeded to cover the frame (read skeleton of the body) in thin layers of Gorilla Glue. The cool thing that happens with that specific glue is that it expands to 3 times the size applied. so if you try that glue, DO NOT drown your projects with it!!!

Note: when the glue is half dry, you can gently shape it about and create cool effects...
So once the body is now "fleshed out" from the glue, I prepare a solution out of water, white glue and the appropriate color and make a very thin mix in which I dip my figure. I do this a few times and then drop the figure in a plastic container into which I put the dried coffee grinds. The grinds will stick nicely to your figure and let dry for a long time. Once it is completely dry, I cover it with a layer of that same water/glue/paint mix as an extra layer of protection and to cover up any spots I may need covering.

Side view of my Behemoths to show how you can customize the looks.

Notice how the shapes are varied.

Once that second coat has dried, I proceed to make another mix of water and glue but I do not add paint to it this time. I use a paintbrush to apply a touch here and there on the figure and drop the figure in my dried tea leaves. The leaves will stick on the areas where you applied your light glue mix
Note: Different kinds of teas will give you different colors to play with. I used a mix of Black Tea and Green Tea for a good mix of colors.
Once the tea leaves are affixed and dried on the figure, I apply another coat of light glue over the whole thing. this will prevent the leaves from pealing away from your figure.
After playing the waiting game once again, I then removed coffee grinds from a few key areas and painted this in earthy tones. The final effect gives you grayish rocks all over the body (coffee grinds), a grassy feeling in certain areas tea leaves and earthy areas (removal of grinds and showing the Gorilla Glue part).
A few more touch ups and you will end up with your own Forces of Nature...
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and will be looking forward to the next instalment of
Marc

The cheapest army I own for HotT...

noreply@blogger.com (Herne) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Hello folks!

Most of the people who know me (Pat included) know I like to make things with as little money spent as possible... Thus, I present to you my new army for HotT: The Martian Ants!

I went to the Dollar Store the other day and already Halloween is seen as coming soon to your neighbourhood in those stores. So I looked through what was available as my wife likes her costumed partys and I noticed table decoration for a dollar (plus taxes, of course). Since they had no spiders, I went and bought a bag of 100 (That's a lot for gaming purposes, btw!) plastic, glow-in-the-dark ants.

My future Martian Ants Hordes.

These little guys were as imperfect as one could find coming from a Dollar Store; lots of plastic that needed to get trimmed and hole on top I didn't bother to cover in the end. Now, seeing how many Ants I had available, I decided to build The Hordes Army. This, translated into HotT terms, means I am now the proud owner of 20 Ant Horde Bases. My first step was creating the bases for my hordes. Pat recommended long ago I start with MDF. Nicely carveable material and dead easy to paint to boot. So I cut 20 bases 40mm x 30mm as required for making hordes.

Unprepared and unpaint MDF base.

Next Step was to shape my bases. For this, I use a trusty tool; My ToolTech (see below) folding, locking blade. An exacto knife would do the same but the name sounded cooler...

My ToolTech blade and carved base.

Once I got all my bases carved up, I proceeded to paint them a nice dark stone color with a few highlights.

Single painted base.

Notice above I didn't go crazy on the carving; I just removed a few areas all around the base and some in the middle. I let the paint do it's work. So once the bases were dry I used an old trick; water and cheap white glue. I diluted an 80% glue/20 %water solution to glue the ants onto the bases. I use a few coats of that to make sure the ants would stay on there properly as I was going to paint them with them on the bases.

Why, you ask? Them darn insects are small and slippery, being made out of plastic and all that... =)

I then mixed my own colors (I bought all basic and a few extra colors: blue, red, green, yellow, black, white, brown, silver and gold) and proceeded to paint them ants. It took a while to paint all them little ants and once done, I painted the red eyes on them and let them dry as seen below (By the time I finished painting the last base worth of ants, the first base was completely dry).

Finished Martian Ant Hordes!

I then diluted a 50% water /50% glue solution and applied that (3 coats to be more precise) over the bases and the ants alike. This will give me a coating of protection and prevent the paint from flaking for a long time.

Plastic ants? $1.00.
Glue? $1.00.
Paint? Already had some.
MDF? Less then a dollar's worth.
New Martian Ant Army? Priceless.....
Just need an ant queen...or Marvin the Martian! *wink*

I hope you enjoyed this post and feel free to ask any crazy questions you might have on miniatures... I just might have a crazy enough answer for you in that regard!

Cheers,

Marc