Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Wings of Glory: WW2: Dogfight at the Local Hobbytown.



    Every so often, Kalissa and I have made it a point to try to showcase our wargaming hobby in public to share it and to get out of the house. There are a lack of places to play wargames in our area, and the ones that do cater to 40K or X-Wing. This is understandable, since they a way more popular. But I believe in options, thus a showcase day. However, as luck would have it, not a single wargamers came out on a Saturday at Hobbytown U.S.A. They had an event for Magic: The Gathering, but that, too was a poor showing. Needless to say, we wanted to play, so Wings of Glory it was. We had brought our mini-board for Muskets & Tomahawks as well, but did not use it.
   Kalissa's main goal was to shoot down bombers. Mine just had to survive. The drive was there, but the Germans lost at the last turn right before getting off the table. I took out all but one British Fighter. It was a great game, so that was why I am sharing this. Enjoy!













Monday, September 18, 2017

Olustee Project: Attack of the Static Grass!


    There has not been too much done on the convention project front. A couple of reasons seems to be related to a lack of bases that I have not made, even though, I have two regiments to base. Plus, I have not looked into the flags for our troops. There were quite a few factors for this, but things are looking up. I started experimenting with ideas for terrain. Part of this has led me once again to the dreaded Scenic Express. I find this company always has me digging through their website like a crack junkie. I assure everyone that I have a support group....... that does nothing to stop my ideas.
    Part of my recent venture with Scenic Express recently gained me a Static Grass Applicator. I had been looking at these for quite some time. I had looked on Youtube at videos on how to build your own cheaply out of one of those electric bug zappers that look like Tennis rackets. This was mainly due to all of the high costs to buy a new one around $100 plus dollars. However, in a chance click on of the Scenic Express pages, I found one for $34.00. Grant it, the do-it-yourself version is roughly $15.00, I decided I rather buy one made. Besides, I have not seen a store in my area with those Tennis bug zappers in a while.
     So now, I have tested out my new applicator. I made a few tuffs thinking I could glue them on to my current bases. Then, the "Eureka Moment" struck my brain! Why make tuffs when I could just add to my bases directly. So the results are what this post is about.  I barely used an ninth of my bag of static grass for these guys. I will still add some other details, but it made me realize that I may have had some sparking issues if I had added metal flags in advance. Anyway, here are some pictures. Enjoy!







Sunday, September 10, 2017

Practice Board: Muskets and Tomahawks Demo Board



         I usually make mats and other types of terrain, but I felt like trying to make a hard board to see what I can do with it. I had a mental image in my head and decided to make this display board/demo board that I can use for Muskets & Tomahawks. That does not mean that it has to be for that game only. This was also pushing forth the idea of making more interesting terrain for future convention games. I like to know all of my options.
    Either way, it was a fun little project. I started it around 10 a.m and finished by 2:30 p.m. It is one of the 2' x 4' cork board that are in offices.  I did want to add a little more to this.  But for the core look, it came out really close to my vision. Here are the photos of it below.














Thursday, September 7, 2017

ARR: Star Wars: Imperial Assault: Campaign Rounds and Such.


       Of course, I have to post up some of my other Geek side games, such as playing Star Wars: Imperial Assault. I played a couple of games and somewhat painted some other the figures. After all, there is no reason the Darth Vader should not be in Black. I will not lie and profess to have done a great painting job. In fact, you could say I did some drunken speed painting for some. Really, friends and I could not play with all of these figures in their original plastic form even sober. However, not all of the games were alcoholically motivated. Most of the Star Wars games have been played between our friend, William and I versus my wife, Kalissa as the Darkside. We started a campaign in the game where we have made it to mission three. It had been a rough campaign. William and I have won one out of the three. My wife puts the Dark in Darkside. The worse in the long pause of her thinking between turns. I drives us crazy, because we know she is going to do some beyond the call of evil against us. That is what makes it fun.
      However, we  also played Imperial Assault at our local Hobbytown, U.S.A. to show the Cape Fear Miniatures Wargaming Group still exist. We have been playing a few other board games recently. We just want to just play whatever. We did have a half finished Zombicide game that was cut short. We might be able to finish that game soon. Anyway, below were some pictures of the Hobbytown game and the later Campaign games.










Monday, September 4, 2017

AAR: En Garde: En Garde Or Just Duck!



       Our gaming group went back to playing at hobby stores to share the Historical side of our hobby. It is no surprise that in our absence, it has been left up to Warhammer and Star Wars to fill the void. We have not been completely innocent, since our friend William, Kalissa, and I have been playing quite a few games of Star Wars: Imperial Assault. However, I decided to bring out the Musketeers. We had not played with them in a game yet and I had the painted how many posts back? This gave me an excuse to have a quick sword play with Osprey Publishing's En Garde! rules.
        Between my friend, Bill and I we made roughly around 80 points per side. This left me with D'Artagnan, Porthos, and a Servant. Bill had Rochfort, a hire sword, and five Cardinal Guards. With the inexperience of both of us playing this game, I came out with the following conclusions. One, the two Musketeers I ran might as well have been Steve Seagul and Chuck Norris. They were so overpowered that it was amazing. Two, I need more Cardinal Guards to make it a fair fight. I think that five or six per Musketeer would make a more balanced game. Three, the game plays very similar to Ronin, but just in a different culture and continent. Most of the game consisted of either Porthos or D'Artagnan slicing someone in half with a massive blow. I felt bad for Bill, but mentioned that at least the other two were not in play. The servant got killed, but that did not make up for the 100% that the Cardinal Guard experienced. They need to send more men!

The board.

Constance was our objective.

"Drinks anyone?"

Bill's men.

My men.

This seems more like a tickle fight for D'Artagnan and Porthos.






The Musketeers save the day!