AAR: Pantheon: Tuesday Night Fight: Athena Vs. Aphrodite

       It has now been the third time Kalissa and I have played the Mystic Battles Pantheon game and it was a great game. Great, because it never seems to be a cake walk with all of the combinations of creature and God abilities. Plus, I have won every game! That has given it three times the charm. For Kalissa, it is a great outlet from a stressful day. I actually had to work hard on this last game. Someone in the Pantheon Facebook group said it best if you are winning too easily: "You must be playing against a sack of potatoes!" I can be a Spud for time to time, hence the name! However, I usually loose games due to terrible rolls of the die. It happens!
   In this game, we really wanted to test out various units. This was especially true for the ones that were painted. The last two games saw our figures unpainted. I really prefer to never sport a miniatures game with unpainted figures. However, I saw the gleam in my wife's eyes that we need to play this. After all, she loves Greek Mythology. So I have been on a campaign to paint all of these figures for Pantheon where we have received the core game and an expansion. So I have 108 figures to paint for this game, which has been fun. I get to paint with colors I am not used to painting with. The challenge has been good for me. Here are some of the ones I have painted or mostly painted.

Odysseus, Aphrodite, Zeus, and Athena

Athena with a Manticore behind her.

The Dragon of Thebes

The Manticore.

Some Hoplites.

Spartans.

     As for our game, Kalissa chose to be the Goddess, Aphrodite. Amongst her force, she had a Manticore, the Dragon of Thebes, and Spartans. There was not much to her force, but they had some powerful abilities and were very tough. I ran the Goddess Athena, Medusa, the Minotaur, a Griffon, a unit of Amazons, and a unit of Hoplites. I had more units, but they tended to be crunchy. At least, they were under the weight of a Manticore!
    The game was a free for all game with seven Omphalos to collect on the table. The middle left side based on my side was the most contested. We both really wanted to try out our various abilities. I was not very fair to my Minotaur, since I used him like a bludgeoning tool, and sent him in charging with no back up. He was the first unit of mine to die. I, also, treated Medusa this way as well, but things worked out in her fair before she died. She was able to petrify two full units. So she payed for the cause. In the end, I used my Griffon to finish off the Manticore. It was a long game, but fun. My wife really made me work for my victory. Anyway, the game shots are below. Enjoy!

Aphrodite and her bouncers, I mean, Spartans.

This game also brings out some dirtiness. I thought the Griffon was so awesome, it shits gems!

The Minotaur charging at Aphrodite, but she ain't taken it! You have to use an Art of War card to even attack her! 

This is when the Minotaur had taken some serious damage.

The Manticore has a Block ability to prevent me from moving through a space. This denied Medusa one space to get a Omphalos.

The Hoplites were ignored through most of the game. 

I set up a nice defense in the ruins from the Dragon of Thebes.

The Dragon was killed, so Kalissa gained a unit of Skeleton warriors which.........

Immediately turn to stone by Medusa!

The final fight: Manticore versus a Griffon!

Commission Mission: Battle of Eutaw Springs, SC

   This was just some recent photos of a project that I had going. While I am writing this, I still have a day's work ahead to finish it off. The commission was to make a board for the Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. I cannot say I was too happy with myself for this project. I felt kind of stupid for never hearing of this battle. More embarrassing, I lived in South Carolina for several years. Plus, I have friends for Eutawville, SC. But the great thing about projects I receive are that I get to learn new things. And now, I know to stop by this battlefield park when I drive by on road trips.

    Anyway, the pictures below are a combination of my commission with my trees and some commission trees for my client. I am not sure why I do this to myself, because displaying these things only leave me with more ideas. It is kind of like the fact my wife, Kalissa mentioned Jurassic Park Games right after seeing this board. The wheels started turning in my head for a future game with terrain. Despite this, I leave you all with what I had accomplished so far. I added my Muskets and Tomahawks figures for show or in case, I can con Kalissa into playing on the board. Either way, enjoy!

Rivers are usually the scariest parts of my commissions. 

Just some French and Indians for show.

Some British as well.

I was also commissioned to make a large thicket. I think it looks close to what I have seen. The base overlaps another, so you can lift it for troop movement.

I also made some more trees with woods bases.

AAR: Pantheon: 3v3 Melee

     It appears that Kalissa and I have gained another fan of the new Mythic Battles: Pantheon game. It was on a Saturday, when our friend, William had came over to visit randomly from Greensboro, NC. We did not expect him, but we took no time in showing our new game. Oh darn, an excuse to play a game! Besides, it was not too much of a push, since William did rather well in a game of Of Gods and Mortals a year ago. In this case, I just did not have to make the terrain as well.
    The first game, I did not get any pictures, since it was just another first scenario game. Kalissa played against William and won. In a way, it was not too much of a fair fight when some one is just introduced to a game. However, Kalissa is a teacher and I am not! She has a better way of teaching games to new people when it comes to new rules and systems. Though, she teaches 1st Grade, we are not that much different. Because she beat him fairly quick, we decided to play a 3 versus 3 player game. This gave me an excuse to test out other characters in the game that we have not tried. Kalissa when with her God of Ares, William stuck with the God of Zeus, and I went with Athena. She is my main Goddess when it comes to Greeks.
    The board was set up with 10 Omphalos (those funky little gems) to capture. The rules were simply to either kill all of your opponents' Gods or collect four Omphalos. It seems that collecting was the way to go. One might have thought of our game as a little boring, since we all had six rounds of collecting and no combat. That was partially due to the lack of cards to deploy forces, since the game had everyone start off the board. It took my attack to start actual hostilities to roll some die. This was about the same time as William discovered Zeus' area lightning attack. Everyone one in a section that receives area fire takes an attack. In this case, four units got hit. I lost one and Kalissa nearly lost another with lots of damage to two more units. It was rather shocking!
   The rest of the game was spent with my constant random jabs at various units on the board. I needed to hold out just a little longer so I could absorb the last gem to win the game. I happened to gain the cards I needed and decided to slightly draw out the game just to see what my Minotaur could do. I did win the game, which is now the second time. I just plan to have the figured painted in the near future. Here are the game shots below.
 

Action, Determined, Dependable...Waterloo Action Soon!

      I must admit a slight attachment to this project that I commissioned for Waterloo. Part of it has to do with taking so long to make and the adventure to getting to this point. This normally would not have taken so long, but I had countless interruptions to the point of being like some action film. Actually, a scene from a Monty Python movie comes to mind. The scene where the king talks to his son before his wedding in The Holy Grail where he talks about the origins of his castle. The first, second, and third castle sank while being built in a swamp, but fourth one stayed! After all, this was some huge tracks of land in the gaming world so to speak.

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       Just to list the interruptions, one can see why it was sad to see this project leave.

1.  My father had pasted away with two more road trips to Florida to conclude his final resting.
2.  I had different relatives visit for the holidays.
3.  My part time job has clearly been closer to a full-time job! Not even cutting down the hours after Christmas, which is unusual for retail.
4.   I miscut a section, so I made that into a different mat for the Siege of Augusta Bolt Action Tournament.
5.  A green paint I was using as a base coat suddenly became discounted. So there was the search of the perfect green to match. Of course, I bought all the bottles I could when I found one that worked.
6.  Siege of Augusta Convention.
7.  Weather being too cold, windy, or snow! My God, snow actually interrupted a project!

      Despite all of the interruptions, the sad thing was that I did not get to play on the whole board to it's full glory. It just made me think that we need a bigger house or that I should just stop being stubborn, and just win the Lottery. That way, all problems can be solved by buying a Walmart and turning it into a game hall. It will be good to see it in use with troops on it. Below are some pictures of the board after two hours of fighting wind. It decided to be windy only when I decided to photograph this. Also, included was the look of my feelings afterwards. Enjoy!

The tank is in 1/56 scale to show the size we are talking about.

This might be considered an improvement to those who know me!