Wow…I totally could have spent those hours painting minis…

* * * * *

There was a knock at the door.  A normal knock, by all accounts. 

But the fact that someone was knocking on the door at all was not normal.  Not at all.  Not when the door belonged to a seemingly vacant, run-down house, on a secluded hill in the outskirts of Rio.  One had to wonder why there was someone knocking on it, in the first place.

Which is exactly what Alexander Cartwright was wondering.  As he slowly, quietly stood up from the table he was writing at, careful not to let the floorboards creak, he reached into the bag slung across the back of his chair and pulled out a revolver.  Just in case, he thought.  Body tense, he tiptoed across the room to the window and peeked through a gap in the curtains, not knowing who to expect on the delapidated porch.  Just as he started to make out the figure standing there he heard,

“Yo, Alex! Y’all home!?”

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Cartwright relaxed and opened the door.  “Sam? What are you doing here?  How did you find me?”

“Heh heh,” the thickset man said with an accent as he let himself into the house, “I have my ways, essay.”  Looking around the room he said, “Nice digs.  I guess being a writer is paying off, eh?  Heh heh.”

“Right,” replied Cartwright, closing the door.  “Okay, so why is it that you are here?”

“Ah,” said Sam, spinning to face Cartwright and producing a slip of paper from a pocket inside his vest.  “A letter came to the shop a few days ago, addressed to you.  I think you’ll want to read it, senor.”

Ignoring the fact that Sam had opened and read a letter addressed to someone else, Cartwright unfolded the paper and began to read.  His eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Aha! I knew it!  It is real!  It does exist!”  He walked ot a small bookcase, excitedly.

“Well,” said Sam, “at least whoever wrote this letter wants you to think it is.  Who knows?  Might be a trap.  Again.  Are you going to go look for it?”

Cartwright, flipping through an old book he had taken off the shelf, looked up at Sam.  ”Of course I am!  I have known for years that it existed and now I can find it and prove the fact.  And apparently someone else wants me to find it too.  They’re going to completely fund my expedition.”

“Our expedition, right esse?”

“I thought you did not believe it existed.  Do you really want to come?”

“Of course!  It’s been too long since our last adventure!”

“Well, then, old friend, you better get a good sleep tonight.   Tomorrow morning we leave for Persia,” Cartwright said, holding up the book to a page with a sketch of a tattered helmet with a large jewel centred on the forehead, “and the Helmet of the Cursed Eye!”

CHAPTER ONE

The letter from the mysterious backers had detailed where Alexander Cartwright would find all the necessary provisions for the expedition.  The next morning Cartwright did indeed find everything he needed, including a small cargo plane fully fueled and ready to take him and Sam to the Middle East.

The flight was nearly a week long, requiring multiple stops for refueling.  But finally the small plane was on its last leg, and Cartwright and Sam could see their destination in the viewport: Jabal al-Ain, The Mountain of the Eye.

“Ooh, man, looks cosy.  Question…where do we land?”

“I was thinking the same thing, Sam,” replied Cartwright, looking around the base of the mountain.  “I’m sure there’s enough flat ground somewhere to land.”

“Heh heh, I hope this landing is better than your last one, Alex.  Remember that?  It took three days to get those vines and leaves out of the engine!”

“Yeah, well,” said Cartwright, a look of mock confusion on his face.  “Who would have thought landing a biplane in the Congo Jungle could be so…messy?”

“Heh heh, true.  Hey Alex, another question, “began Sam, “who do you think that is?”  He looked quizzically past Cartwright, out the window.

Cartwright looked, too, and didn’t like what he saw: another plane heading on what looked like an intercept course.  What he liked less was the fact that the other plane also sported a pair of machine guns in front of the single pilot’s seat.

“Oh boy.  This is not good,” said Cartwright.

“Maybe he’s alright, Alex.  You know, some tourist or something enjoying this lovely Persian desert?”

“This far from any major city, in a plane with guns, heading right for us?  Why do I doubt he is ‘alright’?”

As if to confirm Cartwright’s doubt the pilot reached up and cocked both machine gun barrels.

“Oh boy,” said Cartwright again.  “This is not good.”

Moments later the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns sounded, as slivers of light streaked towards the cargo plane.

“Aaaagh!” the two screamed in unison as Cartwright plunged the plane into a dive, trying to avoid the bullets.

The attacking plane followed, continuing to fling its deadly barrage at the two adventurers.  Cartwright levelled-off and steered the plane left and right, but the less-than-nimble cargo plane could only maneuver so much.  Loud pops and zings told them that they were getting hit.  Repeatedly.  Sam looked towards the back of the plane and watched as more and more holes opened up in the plane’s ceiling…and floor.

“I should have stayed in Rio! I should have stayed in Rio!” exclaimed Sam.

“I agree!” yelled Cartwright, as he continued to try and flee from the attacking plane.  “Who is this guy, anyway!?”

With each maneuver, the cargo plane was getting closer to the rocks and sand of the desert. 

“It’s okay!” shouted Cartwright above the growing howl of the wind through the bullet holes.  “We’re almost at the mountain!  If we land close enough I’m sure we can run into a cave there!”

Suddenly, the incoming hail of bullets swiftly moved forward in the plane, cutting right in between the two adventurers and slicing through the front panel and into the engine up front.  With wide eyes Cartwright and Sam looked at the holed, smoking console, at each other, and then back at the console.

“Landing ain’t necessary anymore, is it Alex?” gulped Sam.

“No, Sam,” muttered Cartwright.  “We’re going down.”

Within moments the engine began to sputter and vent thick, black smoke which quickly filled the cabin.  The plane started to lose what little altitude it had left.  Cartwright played with the steering wheel, but nothing happened.  The plane continued on a straight path…directly towards Jabal al-Ain.

Cartwright unbuckled his safety harness and started gathering essential supplies from the back.  “We’re going to have to bail out!” he shouted.  “But we’ll have to time it right!” 

Sam looked nervously out the window at the rapidly nearing mountain, and less-rapidly nearing desert sands.  “Aren’t we still a little too high to jump?”

Cartwright stuck his head into the smokey cabin and peered out the window.  “It’s either break a leg jumping, or break a lot more crashing.  Your choice.”

With another glance at the mountain, and again at the desert, Sam sighed.  “Leg it is, Alex!”

The two were ready in seconds, standing by the closed door, looking out the window and waiting for the right moment to jump.  The engine was now belching flames as well as the smoke, like a great big meteor hurtling above the sand.

“On three, okay Sam?…Three!”

Without warning Cartwright threw open the door and jumped out, followed closely by Sam.  The drop was only a couple of metres, but with their momentum they hit the ground hard and began rolling and somersaulting, kicking up sand as they went.

Their tumbles had not yet ceased when a large explosion rocked the air as the plane hit the mountain.  Flames billowed in a fireball, flinging bits of debris all around.

When Cartwright finally came to a stop face down, mere metres from the base of the mountain, he paused for a second in the heat of the explosion, before lifting his head and looking around.

“Sam?” he called out.  “You make it?”

With a groan Sam replied, “Yes Alex.  And guess what?”

“What?”

“I didn’t even break a leg!” said Sam, with breathless relief.

Cartwright noticed the plane that had attacked them was already off in the distance, heading back from whence it came. 

Did the pilot know the two were still alive?  Either way, he was leaving them behind, roughed up but alive, at the base of the mountain.

“Let’s rest before we continue, shall we?” suggested Cartwright, before heaving a sigh and dropping his head.

CHAPTER TWO

What I mean is, last night I was supposed to pick up a Firestorm Armada fleet and rulebook from a local guy who I’ve been trying to meetup with a while.  Well, we finally were able to meet, but for some reason or another he didn’t have the stuff.  So, no new stuff for me.

However, a couple of fellow TABS members were in attendance (this was at Dueling Grounds, here in Toronto, by the way), and I was able to squeeze in two games of 7 Wonders with them before I had to get back home.  The first game I lagged behind and ended back a half-dozen points.  But the second game I did much better, ending with an 18-point lead!  Nice way to make up for the earlier loss.

Sadly, I had to get back home.  Well, sadly for gaming, not sadly because I came home to join my wife and 8-month old laughing and playing.  Good times.

Lastly, here’s an update to my current workbench.

Battlestations!

I finished painting the mini-bots, having decided not to add colour to them to denote their profession.  I did a couple of tests and painted them back to metallic, it just wasn’t doing it for me.  Not sure if I’m going to change the whole bot thing to not include professions at all, I’ll have to research how that would work. 

Firestorm Armada

I’m on the fence about whether to halt my work on the Terran fleet, for a couple of reasons.  One, I now don’t have the rules or a second fleet, and that bumbs me out to the point that I might want to work on something else instead.  Two, I don’t know if I’ll play the game in the very near future, as we might be getting back into WHFB shortly, and that will take up more hobby time.  I’ll have to talk to Loy about this one, and see how badly he wants to play it and how soon.  I don’t mind pushing it back a bit until a later time.  Oh, and three, I sort of want to get the Romans done so I can move on to the next set of units.

So this is what my table looked like.  Atop a Zuzzy mat (they’re wicked) sat a treeline (mix of Heroscape jungle trees and aquarium plants), a rocket (unfinished-but-still-cool Pegasus rocket) and a team Galacteers (awesome Hydra Miniatures Retro Raygun models), facing the oncoming Swarming Doom (an entire box of Wargames Factory Zulu Warriors).  I also had character sheets I made (including actions and modifiers, etc.), the rulebooks and the scenario sheets.

The scenario, The Swarming Doom, was a modification of one in the book.  The neat thing about the one in the book is that there are three possible scenarios, all using the same board, where one gets chosen randomly as soon as a miniature gets close enough.  This is just one creative aspect of Rattrap’s game systems.  Anyway, my version of the scenario was meant to be completed a bit quicker, as one would hope in a convention setting.

The four Heroes, played by 1-4 players, had to fix three broken parts of the rocket before the Swarming Doom, played by me the GM, defeated them.  The broken bits required different skills to fix them, like brain, brawn, guts, strength, etc. so all of the Heroes had something to do.  If they weren’t fixing the current problem, they could be shooting at the natives, who were unhappy that the rocket had crashed on their planet.

This is my “cinematic shot.”  Ooooh!

The demo went well, as I recall.  I think I ran it a few times.  I gave away a couple of rulebooks that Rattrap had sent me for the occasion.  I haven’t run another since then, but I think I am going to do so again, at Meeplemart or one of the TABSCons this year.  I’d also like to demo the new edition of their .45 Adventures, the noir pulp version of the system.

I will do a review of Rattrap’s rules soon, along with Hydra’s miniatures.

Here’s a shot of the natives.  You can tell I did a rush job on them.  You need to when you’re making 30 of them in short notice!  They did their job, though, so I’m not complaining.  They look good as a swarm of angry natives, I think.  I’m a fan of Wargames Factory stuff, especially their later work.  Most of my C&C Ancients units will be by them.

Thanks to Andrew for sending me these pics (I had forgotten my camera battery in the charger that day…not the first time, not the last!).  It’s re-piquing my interest in the pulp stuff, as is working on robots for Battlestations!  Perhaps I’ll have some more posts on new versions of the demo soon.

Thanks for reading.

After some chit-chatting and looking around (Meeplemart is always stocking new games and miniatures), Loy and I set up the table.  I took a few ‘fun shots’ before we got going:

YOU Take The Right...

This Ain't No Buckin' Bronco!

I've Got 10 Soulstones On The Big Guy

 I took some more, but let’s get on to the game.  I’m going to give a quick run-down now.  I’m already working on a battle report using Battle Chronicler, my old friend from when we were playing WHFB.  I miss using the program, and tonight’s games are going to help me get back up to speed on using it.  Actually, here’s a sneakpeek…

Anyway, so we added Strategies and Schemes this time.  I flipped Slaughter (kill all his models, or at least all but the Master) and chose Raid! (more for the ‘story’ I was already thinking of).  Loy got Claim Jump (the area around the outhouse in the middle of the table) and Bodyguard.

Turn One we all moved up a bit, but my awesome ranged firepower started the blood (er, oil) spilling, as I got a few hits on the Peacekeeper.  Quite a few, actually, what with Perdita’s mad skillz and Nino’s long range.  The Peacekeeper had moved up to try and hook Perdita in, but all he got was a bunch of bullets in his hull.

You Don't Scare Me! *pewpew*

Turn Two the Peacekeeper charged into Perdita, but you gotta feel bad for Loy as he managed to do scrap-all.  In fact, not only did he get in there and fail to do any damage, but Francisco came in to help his little sister and boom, no more Peacekeeper!  Ouch.  Don’t mess with the family, I guess.  On the bright side, Hoffman used the scrap counter left behind to a  point of damage to Francisco, Perdita and Papa Loco.  Lots more shooting later, and there was a lot of smokey constructs on the field.

Turn Three, and it was all over.  Hoffman and his remaining ‘bots couldn’t deal with the lead-death that the Ortegas could muster against them.  Another handful of really good flips for me and it was over, game conceded with the Watcher on one side, everyone else on the other (with only those single wounds inflicted). 

I REALLY do feel bad for Loy.  Not only is he a new player (so I should probably be a lot nicer), but his Hoffman crew seems to be a less-than-easy one to manage.  A lot of support required.  There was talk of Loy being upset and not wanting to play anymore, and I really do hope it was in jest.  I’d hate to be the cause of that!  So would Wyrd  

Hopefully the articles I found tonight at pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com will help him.  And I’ve directed him to the forums at Wyrd, which I find informative.

I’ll add here that both Nino and Perdita broke off their bases during the game, so I’ve got some regluing to do ASAP.  Here’s a shot of Perdita resting on one of the cactus stands that littered the desert field, one of Meeplemart’s finer tables.

Near the end of the game, Andrew had arrived with Scott.  Loy was done for the night, at least in playing, so Andrew set up his new Kaeris crew.  Scott opted not to play, but he seems quite interested in the game and I think we’ve convinced him to join in.

Andrew is completely new to the crew, so we decided to just play a ‘to-the-death’ learning game.  Or rather ‘undeath,’ as I chose the Seamus starter for this game, which probably ticked Loy off even more, haha.

So we set up on the same table and had at it.

Turn One we moved up.  I failed a few Lures, so a lot of waste on my part.  Andrew set his guys up for the next turn.  Felt like a Warmachine turn, or something.

Turn Two bullets flew, claws scratched, flames burned and I learned the hard way how Kaeris’ crew works.  By the end of the turn I had one dead hooker (risen back by Seamus, though) and everyone else had been burned and immolated and whatever else is bad and fiery that those dang Arcanists can do.  Kaeris alone did one damage and put on a roasty counter on each of my models.  Ouch. 

Turn Three had a most important initiative flip that Andrew won.  But his Gunslinger failed to kill Sybelle, and eventually the Belles worked together to eat Kaeris.  Even though ‘caster kills’ aren’t victory in Malifaux, it’s often the case, and we called it there.  Which is just fine, as we got to see the new crew in action, and Andrew got a lot out of the game, seeing mistakes as well as strategies for the future.

I look forward to facing Kaeris again.  And I hope Loy forgives me and plays with me again.

Well, that was the night.  A good one, for sure.  Didn’t get to try Firestorm Armada or play the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game, but that’s okay.

It definitely looks like Tuesdays are going to be regular again.  We also all seem to miss playing WHFB, so we’ll be tabling that again quite soon.  Yay!

Now, back to that Battle Chronicler report for a few more minutes.  It’s time for bed…I need to be at work in 5 hours!

Thanks for reading.

We’re back with another temptation.  This time, it’s Urban Mammoth’s Urban War.

I first saw the game a couple of years ago, I guess, when it was still first edition (there is now V2.0).  I wasn’t in the mood to add it to the long list of games I played/bought-and-waiting-to-be-played.  So I pretty much ignored it.  To be honest, I don’t know too much about the game.  All I really know is that it has some pretty fantastic-looking models.    Like the Viridians, the first faction I saw and possibly the one I’m most interested in:

Then there’s the Junkers, who also catch my eye, mostly for the pseudo-Roman theme:

There are themes/models I like from some of the other factions, but I think the above two are the ones I’d most likely get.

If I got into the game.  Which, well, might just happen.  Loy lent me his copy of the rules; other bloggers are talking about; Rob sometimes says he might be interested in it; there’s a great two-factions-plus-rules deal from Urban Mammoth.  None of this helps when I’m trying to limit the games I buy into! But if I can keep up painting like I am right now, I might be able to clear up some of these Unpainted Piles and get something new.

Heck, this game might even push Warmachine back a notch!  Especially with models like this:

The verdict? Yes to Urban War.  I don’t know when, maybe soon.  But a yes.

**Images borrowed from Urban War website.

The first is a set of the Star Wars Miniatures Clone Wars map packs. 

I haven’t played the game in ages (although I would actually love to again), but for $1.50 each, it was as steal!  I almost bought them a while ago at 3-for-2, but I didn’t.  I saw these at Winners, or one of those stores that are all the same, and picked them up.  I’d consider collecting those scenario books, the Missions or whatever, and collecting the necessary figures to play them out.  Sort of like my friend Les, who is collecting all the Lord of the Rings figures to play the scenarios in the books.  He’s also doing up a lot of great terrain for it. 

I digress…

The other purchase was this über awesome golden dragon statue, just in time for Lunar New Year, and the year of the dragon. 

It’s from Walmart, for I think $12.  Not too cheap, but I think it’s going to make a fantastic piece for a future pulp scenario.  I will be getting back to pulp stuff sooner or later, and you can never go wrong with an Asian-themed scenario where a giant golden dragon statue comes alive and tries to eat the players

This piece might sit on the shelf beside a bunch of other ones I’ve bought for games I haven’t yet gotten around to really working on (mostly pulp stuff).  If I get through enough of my other projects early on, perhaps I can make use of these.

Thanks for reading.

Finishing the Ortega gang for Malifaux was pretty cool.  I didn’t think I’d be able to do it so soon.  I feel like I could have done a better job on the last one, Papa Loco, but he looks just fine.  Better than a lot of models I’ve only nearly finished, that’s for sure!  And I’m happy with how the HGB gears turned out.  They might not win any painting awards, but they are table ready.

So, this is sort of what my workbench looks like now.  I don’t want to say “this week,” as I’ll likely take longer to do these projects than a week.

Battlestations!

I still haven’t started running my Battlestations! campaign yet, but I think my recent decision to go 28mm with it is going to get the ball rolling.  I have a number of models from Hydra Miniatures already ‘completed’ (painted, but not to any high standard) that I will use for the crew.  And now I need to get some bots finished, like these guys:

These are minibots from Hydra’s Steel Legion line, part of the Retro Raygun series.  I love Hydra stuff.  I think I should do a “spotlight” on them!  Head honcho Matt is fantastic, as I have found out through quite a few years of great customer service and pleasant email communication.  I’ve been collecting Hydra’s miniatures since they first came out, and I’m ready to make another order in the very near future.  I’m also going to be adding their War Rocket spacecombat game to my 2012 game plan.

Anyway, I’ve got to paint some robots.  I actually need more of these dudes for my campaign, as I’m pretty sure there are going to be times that I need more than 8 of them.  And they’re just so darn cute, too!

Andrew had painted a bunch of other Hydra robots for me, which I can showcase later.  These I’ll do on my own.   I’m sure they’re going to look a little different, but that’s okay.  Different factories, or something like that

Adding these to the models from the Galacteers line, I should be ready, model-wise, to run Battlestations!  So look for more updates on that soon.

C&C Ancients

Well, I’m definitely going to fail my January goal for this project.  I haven’t even touched the Light Infantry and Slingers…

…or the other 18 Mediums…

Well, they’re on the workbench now, and hopefully I can get into the kind of groove I did when I painted the other bunch, assembly lining them from primed to finished.  Well, finished minus the bases, which I’m still debating on.  Meeplemart Steve and I need to chat a little more about this project, and then I can make more decisions (how to base, will he do the Gauls, etc.).  Thank goodness I started this whole thing earlier than planned.

Firestorm Armada

I haven’t finished the ships I previewed last week yet, but soon.  When I start working on the rest of the fleet, I’ll probbaly finish these guys too.  Really, it’s just the metallics and the engine glow, or whatever I do for that.

As I said previously, I’m going to switch colours and try P3 Cygnar Blue Highlight instead of Base, and see how I feel about that one.  Otherwise, I’ll probably be keeping the colour layout the same, even though there’s a touch more blue than I was initially expecting.  I think the brighter blue will help with this.

I’m getting a second fleet and the rulebook on Wednesday (even though I might be playing the game on Tuesday).  Even though I don’t care so much for the rules, I want that other fleet.  To have two fleets and so I can play A Call to Arms: Noble Armada, as I’ve said before.

*****

So, I think that’s all I’ve got for now.  There are a couple of Pulp City models that are sitting on my table, creeping towards the workspace.  I think they want to get painted, too.

Thanks for reading.

Anyway, I did it!  Last night I finished Papa Loco, which means the Ortegas are done!

Well, minus Abuela, but she’s not part of the starter.  I should check out her stats.

I didn’t do as good a job on Papa Loco as I did on the others, I have to admit.  The miniature wasn’t properly cleaned up before priming, and he was the last one.  Not a lot of love left for him, but enough to get him done, at least!

So this means I completed the entire starter box in a week!  Actually, less, but since I had the bases done already, I’m counting them as Day 7′s work.  I’m trying to come up with a catchy title for this feat: “A Crew in a Week”?  “One Week, One Crew”? “The 7 Day Starter”?

Well, one of those titles is going up on the Tale of Gamers blog.  I don’t like overlapping posts, but I do want to keep up my participation on that blog as well.  Check the sister post there, as I’ll put up a list of the paints and stuff I used.

The whole gang should get tabled on Tuesday, perhaps in a rematch with Loy and his Hoffman crew.  Or maybe with Andrew and his new Kaeris crew.  Maybe even with Ilan and whoever he uses.  I’ll try and put together a good battle report for that one.  Ah, battle reports, I miss writing those (look back to posts from last summer when we played lots of WHFB, and I wrote lots of reports for them).

Anyway, that’s one more project down.  Today or tomorrow I can put up a new Workbench Update post, and we’ll see what I’m going to be working on next.

Thanks for reading.

Here they are, ready to join the fray:

Last night I got the main painting and the washes done, and I put the finishing touches on them today, while the baby was asleep.  Once again, all of the same colours and washes were used, giving the family a unique-but-uniform look.  While setting them up for the picture I noticed a couple of spots that need a touch-up, so I’ll do that tonight.

All that is left is Papa Loco, and he’s already on his way to being complete.  Not sure if I’ll be able to finish him up tonight, but definitely by tomorrow night.  My ad hoc goal of finishing them up in 7 days will have been successful.  “A Crew In A Week”…I like the sound of that.

Thanks for reading.

Well, my gaming hobby budget is going to take a hit over the next few months, as after reading this week’s Sideshow Newsletter I’m afraid of how much I’ll be spending on my 1/6th hobby!

So, first off, the Infantry Battle Droids have been released…and I ordered two sets.

And then, over the next 30 days, more releases:

IG-88

and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

And if all that isn’t enough…

They go and announce the STAP!  Great! 

Now, I saw all of these at San Diego Comic Con last summer.  I was mesmerized.  I spent quite a while ogling at the upcoming figures in their cases.  But nothing prepares you for the price tag that these guys all come with.  You can check them all out at the Sideshow website, or the Urban Samurai site for prices.  But maybe you better not.  You just might cringe a little.

Looks like I’ll be painting a lot more of my old minis in the near future…I won’t be able to afford any new ones!

Thanks for reading.

**Image all borrowed from the Sideshow website.