Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Chain of Command at Gothcon XXXIX

I went to Gothcon during the Easter holiday with my gaming buddies Thomas, Laffe and Koen, playing participation-games of Big Chain of Command (Big CoC, written by Rich Clarke of Too Fat Lardies) and a fun time we had.
The following is a short description of what we did and some pictures. I let them tell the most of the stories.
One of the jump-off points
...and another
We started with coffee at my place on Thursday after lunch and off we went in heavily dented rental car. We arrived rather late in the evening, checked in at the hotel and went to sleep.
A real-life sunset over the North African walled compound
Friday saw us browsing the vendors and gaming halls and setting up the table for our first participation game, starting at 1400 hours and continued into the evening. Four players, each commanding a platoon.
Saturday saw two more Big CoC games and an evening/night game of ordinary CoC with two players commanding a platoon each.
German platoons have a much higher firepower but the British ones have the 2” mortar that showed its power time and time again in the following battles. A shootout between two squads will probably give a German win but the smoke-grenades from the 2” mortar gave crucial cover.
We changed the available cover a bit between games to try to encourage movement and manoeuvres as the games tended to become static with both sides trying to hug the few pieces of cover there were.
Victory seemed to go the side that actually tried to manoeuvre into favourable positions and in the final fight we threw in more AFV:s and anti-tank assets as we really wanted to see Thomas’ on-fire marker in action.
Burn baby, burn!
We were very satisfied when something finally caught fire.
Gott im Himmel. Engländer!
A great ending of the final game.
Sunday saw some frantic last-minute shopping (I bought the board-game Tsuro – great game!) and then a long trip back to Stockholm.
Afri-Cola – the perfect beverage for a game set in North Africa.
In summary: We were satisfied after an exhaustive weekend playing with Rich’s Big CoC…


Welcome new followers:
James Cotgrave - no blog that I could find
Wardy-la who’s got a bunch of blogs, for example Gjallarhorn - Viking/Saxon/Dark Age campaign, A Project too Far – WWII and Chain of Command and “By the orders of the Great White Queen” – colonial and darkest Africa wargaming. Well worth a look.
Pedro Lopez with blogs Pedro Lopes – his comics and drawings, and Warriors from the Danish Wasteland – wargaming in the Dark Ages, Old West and in an post-apocalyptic world – newly started and shows a lot of promise. Niiiiice!
Fellow Swede Hobbyworker with Hobbyworker blog – all about painting and modelling historical miniatures. Great blog!

Thursday, 16 April 2015

More Pulp Alley action on the Tibetian Plateau - AAR

We had another go at Pulp Alley at the club this Monday and my intention was to try out my own league, Corpo di Spedizione Santa Sede starring Sister Innocenza, Monsignore Cadaverica and some proxy models for those not ready for the table yet. I was successful in packing the minis and I actually got them to the club in time. But the paper with the league stats on were still on my painting table. Curses were heard in the club…
We were back on the Tibetian Plateau trying to save the world. I teamed up with another club member and we played my hero-team from last game - the Archaeologists led by the great hero Montana Smith. Fighting for the good of humanity and enlightenment!
The opposition:
The Independent Phrenoligists that we met last time. Evil, I say!
The Brits. Don’t let their looks deceive you. They attacked us totally unprovoked. Really evil.
The Belgian pommes frites eaters. They tried to take the artefact that rightfully belonged to us. Unspeakably evil!
We played one of the basic scenarios from the Pulp Alley rules book, The Lost Keys, where there are four minor plot points spread across the board and one major plot point, an artefact, in the middle. 
 A captive with some important information was the plot point closest to where we set up
Some arcane manuscripts became the target for the Brits.
The Phrenologists set their eyes on a case filled with things crucial to their success.
Hidden in the cargo on top of the car was hidden another crate filled with goodies. This crate was like a magnet for both Phrenologists  and Belgians
You had to unlock one of the minor plot points to be able to unlock the major one.
The major plot point, an Idol, was hidden in the baggage on one of the yaks in the caravan that had stopped to rest in the middle of the road.
Players then took turns deploying one league member a time.
The Phrenologists started in the village on the far left. Archeologists spread around the truck front left. Belgians in the walled compound far right and the Brits front right.
On the first turn each league tried to reach one or more plot-points and some shots were fired. One of our boys was hurt but he managed to take hold of himself in the end of the turn and stayed in the fight.
All leagues but the Belgians unlocked a minor plot point during the second turn but in the process a Shoggoth was released among the Phrenologists (should suit them well, they are evil after all). 
The plot point on the car between the Belgians and the Phrenologists was contended and no one succeeded in unlocking it.
Now fighting started in earnest.
The car was the centre of a bloody battle between Phrenologists and Belgians. It saw firefights and close combat between a sledgehammer wielding Belgian madwoman and the dreaded Nurse Sigrid.
The Belgians finally managed to unlock their minor plot point and in the process let lose a Hound of Tindalos.
The Shoggoth was slain by those blood-thirsty Phrenologist.
Ha, we finally got that golf-club-wielding mad Scot!
The frantic race for the artefact was now on.
One league after the other made a rush for it and that in turn prompted everyone else on the board to shoot at them.
Our heroes trying to protect was is rightfully theirs.
Character after character fell for well-aimed shots, well placed Perils or close combat. The area around that poor yak turned red with blood (We all thought the yak got one between the eyes early on, as it didn’t run away. How wrong we were...)
Meanwhile the Hound went berserk.
Finally, with just two rounds left our heroes did a last dash for the idol. All members of the team still standing tried to find the small artefact in the jumble of cheap trade items in the baggage on the immobile yak.
All the while the other leagues behaved like the cowards they were and shoot down our heroes in cold blood. From behind! (I’m looking at you, Doctor Kopfgelände! There will be consequences...) The Hound of Tindalos set its sight on our poor heroes. It was looking grim indeed.
Our friends failed to find the treasure and one by one they fell or were thwarted by every last Peril card that anyone around the table could find. Very unjust and not sporting at all.
In the end the yak, having played dead, bolted and ran off with the priceless artefact, making us all look rather foolish. The game was over and every league went back to their camps, licking their wounds.
A very tight match and as usual both nail-bitingly thrilling and hilarious. Great fun!
Until next time! Stay tuned for another thrilling adventure with the Miniatures Man J

Finally we started to discuss how to manage a Pulp Alley campaign. The intention is to play the Perilous Island campaign with every player having one league. It is still in the planning phase and you will see more of it here soon.
Back to the painting table now and the rest of the minis for my league, appropriate vehicles for my heroes, some boats, ships and jungle terrain for the campaign and other useful stuff. Oh, and Dust, a couple of fantasy figures, Gothcon and whatnot.

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Kallaguk, King of the Trolls from Reaper

Another one of my Reaper Bones minis, this time “Kallaguk, King of the Trolls” sculpted by Jason Wiebe. There is also a metal version of this guy.
In my world he is a swamp monster and painted accordingly.
Paints used:
Skin – Vallejo 886 Green Grey, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink and finally drybrushed with 971 Green Grey (same name but different colours). Heavier drybrush on belly, palms and under foot.
Scales and plates - 897 US Dark Green, Strong Tone ink and drybrushed with 922 USA Uniform
Fins” – 886 Green Grey with Strong Tone ink, 988 Khaki painted between the fin-rays and finally drybrushed with 971 Green Grey
Hair – 914 Green Ochre and Strong Tone ink
Teeth, claws and spikes – Bone White with Strong Tone ink
Mouth – 944 Old Rose, Strong Tone ink and tongue drybrushed with 835 Salmon Rose
Eyes – Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red, pupils drawn with a Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.05 pen (such an excellent tool for all those small details!)
Club – 843 Cork Brown and Strong Tone ink
Rope – Humbrol 168 Hemp and Strong Tone

I hope to use this guy in my D&D campaign, in Open Combat and/or Song of Blades & Heroes fantasy skirmish games and in a Pulp Alley game. Very useful model and I quite like him.
And here he is, chasing our favourite victim

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Nun with a gun and an Allosaurus

I’m in pulp-mode just now and I’m collecting, building and painting my Pulp Alley league, Corpo di Spedizione Santa Sede. Tomorrow they will have their baptism of fire and unfortunately most of them will be proxies as I’m still working with most of the figures.
Anyway, here is one newly finished sidekick, the nun Suora Innocenza. You don’t want to meet her in a fist fight… You don't want to meet her, period.
She’s from Reaper, the Chronoscope series where she is called “Sister Maria, nun”. Now you can also get her from the Reaper Bones line, where I got mine.
I made a real find in a toy-shop a couple of days ago, an Allosaurus from Schleich. Good price at SEK 75 (approx. €7,50 or $9) and ready painted to a good standard. Ready for the table.
Welcome Samuli S (Nysse) with Engineered Gaming, a great blog from neighbouring Finland. Check it out and I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.
A big welcome to Spifferson and Godrilla Roo. Comment below if you have blogs and I’ll link to it here.

Miniature Gaming Guide is also a new Goggle+ follower, welcome!

(Apologies to all Italian readers for the mangled Italian. This is the best my warped mind, pidgin Latin and Google Translate can produce. You will unfortunately see more of this...)

Thursday, 2 April 2015

Pulp Alley on the Tibetan Plateau – an AAR

Here’s a short AAR from the Pulp Alley game we played at the club this Saturday. Unfortunately my camera decided to commit a slow hara-kiri (RIP) just that day so the pics are of a less than optimal quality (those that had any quality at all, that is). Lost a bit of the action, I’m afraid.
We were a lot of newcomers to the game (me included as this was my first game. I have read the rules, though, and like them a lot) and a few veterans. Three leagues (teams) were pre-made and we had two players per team and one umpire.
The good side – the Archaeologists – led by Montana Smith. Also starring Marion Deadwood and some cannon fodder.
The evil Norwegians led by a brother of the more well-known Roald Amundsen (unfortunately the photo of their team-paper was a total loss so I don’t remember the rest)
The very evil Independent Phrenologists (yeah, sure, we know they are Nazis) led by Professor der Phrenologie Dr. Konrad Kopfgelände and his trusted companion Nurse Sigrid (shudder).
Archaeologist close to the camera at the right corner, Norwegians at the far right corner and phrenologists at the far left. Crappy pic…
We started in different corners and had to get our clues across the board to get them to safety. But first we had to get the clues.
We got the major plot point (an ancient document) due to the fact that we were Good (or, it might have been a lucky die-roll). Unfortunately a loathsome monster burst through the ground to try to protect the elder scroll. Montana Smith, being a true hero, quickly disposed it.
The evil Nazis got two minor plot points, an unconscious scientist and a generator (or something similar, I don’t remember exactly). They got jumped by three crazed cultists not wanting to part with their ill-gained treasures. Unfortunately for them they had to part with their own lives and heads as the phrenologists wanted them for measurements.
The Norwegians found two boxes (minor plot points) and a Yith found them (it’s a not-too-nice Cthulhu monster, this one produced by RAFM). 
That was one monster that didn’t intend to die and it followed heroes/villains the whole game and made life generally miserable.
(The camera went steadily down-hill from here. Just a couple useful pics left) 
From here on all leagues did their best to cross the table and take pot-shots at each other. Some sabotage (in the form of challenges played by other characters) were committed.
The cowardly Norwegians led the Yith towards our heroes. When that couldn’t stop Montana Smith they did one last frantic effort to stop him. One of their thugs tried violence on Montana but at that moment Montana started to parley with him and convinced the rascal that the true enemy were the Nazis (we played the Parley challenge forcing everyone involved to abstain from fighting or running. A hilarious moment as I started to parley with the Norwegian players and when that went downhill slapped the card in front of them. Cheering ensued.) and then he slipped away.
At this time the game would end with the Norwegians in the lead with one plot point exited: That was not to be as the Phrenologists knew who knew their real enemies were (the Amundsen gang) and played one of their cards extending the game with one round. That was enough for them to exit one (or two?) of their plot points, making them happy. It also gave Montana his chance to exit giving victory to the good guys.
The Good side won, just as it is supposed to be.

They also wrote history, just as the winners always do. It is therefore a guarantee that the above is the absolute truth. Honestly.

This was a very fun game and I’m in the process of forming my very own league, Corpo di Spedizione Santa Sede, for a campaign in the club. More on that soon.

Now I'm off to Gothcon in a couple of hours. 
Our own Påskkärring (approximately Easter Witch) from last year.
Have a nice weekend!