Early Presents to Myself

Got this package from Amazon earlier in the week. This is my planned gaming for the next few months.

To help me along with this scheme, I started an Osprey Wargames Montreal Group on Facebook, to try to build a local community of like minded gamers. So far it seems to be a success. We already have a growing Frostgrave group who are looking for a new campaign in the New Year, and there is much interest in Rogue Stars. I've also managed to find people interested in Black-Ops, Dragon Rampant and In Her Majesty's Name too.

The whole ethos of playing games with minis I already have appeals not only to my poor stretched wallet, but also allows me to play with so many of the beautiful minis I have that just don't get put down on the gaming table enough, if at all.

Of the three books here, I think finding an opponent for Chosen Men will be the hardest, as the historical gamers are few and far between from what I've seen. Still, I've had one nibble...

SciFi gaming, the new frontier...

...at least for me.

I have been looking forward to two games that are on the horizon. Bot of which are Sci-Fi games, which is not my normal wheelhouse.

The first of these, which will also be the first to be released is Rogue Stars by Osprey Publishing.This will be released in December, and like all Osprey games, will be designed so that it can be played with whatever miniatures the players wish. This allows me to find a means to put miniatures on the table from Necromunda, Void, Urban War, Infinity and whatever other futuristic minis I have (like Doctor Who personalities and companions). I know little of this game, other than it seems to be a points based squad construction skirmish game. Less like Frostgrave,and more like In Her Majesty's Name. the important thing about it is that it should generate enough of a buzz to get other players interested, and that's all it takes to get games, which is, after all the important thing. That and telling them they can use their 40K minis withour having to put a weekend aside!

The second game I am eagerly awaiting is Cannibal Sector 1 by Daruma Productions. A new game based in the World of Progress. As a player of SLA industries back in the day, I love this IP, and was convinced to part with cash to help them fund their Kickstarter, which should be fulfilled some time next spring/summer. As SLA was a game I played quite often with friends in Scotland, I'm not sure what interest there will be in my local gaming group to try it, but I was heartened to find second hand copies of the RPG in local stores, so someone was playing SLA here. The worst case scenario here is that I get all the CS-1 miniatures (which do look nice), and use them as a faction in Rogue Stars, and use that as a means of attracting the attention of other gamers. A honey trap if you will.

With both these games in mind, I have been looking through my lead pile to find minis that can be used for either game. I think I have a short list, which I have been prepping and basing, ready to get painting. The first batch of SLA-ops should hit the painting table soon!

So that's what's on the horizon, but what about games for the more recent future? Well, the winter gaming season is just round the corner, and for that, I ordered some things from amazon recently, and am now the owner of Back Ops, The Men Who Would be Kings, and Frostgrave: Into the Breeding Pits, All released from Osprey Publishing.

In terms of Play-ability, I foresee most use for the Breeding Pits expansion for Frostgrave. In terms of what it contains, this is not a campaign, like Thaw of the Liche lord (which went down very well with local players), but is the most in depth expansion of rules and options that has been sp far released for Frostgrave. There are 6 scenarios in the book, along with a host of rules for playing in dungeons, traps, and new magic options. In all it seems quite complicated (for Frostgrave), and I will have to sit down and see the best way to implement what it contains. I think I'll try to string the scenarios together into a campaign, and run that with the locals, but it will take a bit more planning, and introducing the players to what is now available.

I have heard of at least one other player in town who would want to play Black Ops. The cover, and indeed interior artwork seems to suggest it was more in the futuristic Solid Snake style game, which is a way it can be played, but the photographed miniatures in the book are more of a Black Hawk Down style. This may just be the miniatures the author had access to, and the rules seem to be able to be played both ways, so this is going in the Sci Fi bracket for me, and I'm going to put together a scenario where I can run my Urban War Triads as modern Ninjas, versus teched our Viridian Colonial Marines. That seems like it'd be a way to get people interested.

The final of the new book triad is then The Men Who Would Be Kings. This is a game that I see the least use out of in my current gaming circle. Unfortunately. One thing I was pleasantly surprised about, was the use of artwork in this book. Along with the usual photographs of pertinent miniatures, there was also judicious use of artwork from Osprey's other books. This was not something I had noticed in the other Osprey wargaming books I have, indeed, in the first expansion book for In Her Majesty's Name was notorious for having absolutely no artwork, not even photos of minis. There may have been a few reasons for that, but it is a poor show in this modern era of wargame publishing, where we have grown to expect more. I think another reason I have not noticed this use of artwork by Osprey is that the other books I have are more fantasy based, and therefore have required the commissioning of specific art. Either way, this book has 6 full page colour plates, 3 of which by Angus McBride, along with many other half page plates. I call that in itself a win. In terms of game play, it seems to be more on scale with the authors previous works, Lion and Dragon Rampant, so mid-scale, with a few units of up to 16 men for large tribal units, normal units are 12. I must say, I don't own enough historicals to run this one, but I will be trying to use it to field my Dystopian Legions miniatures. I can't see that being too much of a clash with the rules, and certainly remains in the spirit of the game, which is more based on the cinematic than the Historic.

So there we go a rahter Opsrey biased look at my near future wargaing plans. Frostgrave as a means to get people to the table, followed up with scenarios written to get player buy-in to the other games (which they already have minis for) followed by (ideally) an Osprey gaming night, where folks come along to play variations of these games and others. Okay, the last bit is a bit of a stretch, but I'm working on the owner of my FLGS to make it more likely, as he gets to sell the books and minis to support such a venture.

As they say, watch this space!

Frostgrave Wizards

In the build up to some games of Frostgrave, I dug out some of my old Warhammer minis, as they fit in perfectly with the theme of the game. I'll post more on how the system plays once I get a couple of games in, but there seems to be quite a few local players who are interested. Enough to make it work, as it relies as much on the campaign side of the game as it does on the one-off scenarios.

The first of the minis I have completed with Frostgrave in mind was painted up as a shamen/warlock in the browns. The autumn leaves on the base just seemed to bring this out better.

When it came to the second of these two, I went with a more winter theme, fitting in with the Frostgrave esthetic. I especially like his staff, it has a real Oldhammer look to it. Just comical enough.

The theme continues if we place these two wizened gentleman next to another completed miniature, who isn't strictly Oldhammer, but was pained up with a Bretonnian army in mind. When the three are placed together, we have Summer, Autumn and Winter. I have already selected a great mini to be Spring, and that will also do as an apprentice for Frostgrave, as these minis are all far to old to still be apprentices!

These minis may have taken me away from this years goal fo completing my Khador casters, but at least they got me back into painting after a 6 month hiatus. Back with more minis for this game soon.

In Her Majesty's Name II: Getting a game on!

Summer is finished, and with it, thoughts return back indoors of an evening, towards gaming and painting. As can be seen from my *cough* frequent posts over the summer, I have painted a grand total of zero miniatures over the last four months. I have built half of one warjack for Khador, and mostly put together the new warcaster unit for the same faction. An impressive tally, you must admit. I have also gamed twice in that time. Give or take a match that I've forgotten, as it has been a very long summer.

Do not feel sorry for me though, my time away from the gaming tables has been mostly due to travels, spending time with the family and other fun ways to experience life (with a bit of work some evenings, but I don't mind that so much now and again). So, I hear you all ask, what have I done that is worthy of posting here? The short answer is In Her Majesty's Name. I posted on this game recently here, so if you don't know what it is, go on over and look.


The long answer is a little more detailed. One of my oldest, and dearest friends was over in Montreal a week ago. S and I go way back to High School, and have been gaming together, on and off since then. Unfortunately, I now live in Montreal, and he in Brussels. However, we were in the same city as he was over here for work. I think he is having trouble finding gaming close to where he is, so he was keen to make sure we got a game in while he was in town, We had a quick look through what I had ready to go, and settled on IHMN. I of course have the almost a fully painted set of the Society of Thule, and S has a soft spot for Prussians, so it was an easy fit. For my part, I put together a British Rifle Company, pulling together my Dystopian Legions Britannians for the occasion.

The lay of the land

Neither of us had really read through the rules before, but we boh had a copy, and they really are quite simple (roll 1d10, add skill, take off mods, beat target number). We got together, set up the table, and rolled a scenario from those available in the book, as this is a game that really benefits from playing though a scenario. The rules are super simple, but the complexity and variation comes from the depth of personalisation and characterisation you give the members of your company. Wether its through straight forward character traits, super science of indeed magical abilities. All this makes it a game that borders closely on and benefits greatly from role-playing, hence, the scenario was required. We rolled the 'Bad Jack' scenario, but more on that later.


The game was rather slow to start, as we jockeyed for position on the table. We were both rather concentrated on the left flank of the board, with one or two models each on the right flank. Bad Jack, the mutated laboratory experiment stalking both sides that we had to hunt down, started in the centre of the table. One thing we noticed straight away, was that, as both sides were armed with military rifles fo the most part, we were shooting each other from turn one. We could have had more scenery on the table to make this less of an issue. The second thing was that we had both thought from reading the rules that we would be dropping like flies, as after each shot, everyone makes a Pluck roll. One fail and you're out of the game. In reality, it could be relatively easy to hit someone, but we also seemed to be making an inordinate amount of Pluck rolls, which led us to evolve our game play from one of being in cover and hiding, to getting out there and getting on with it. It did mean that what we thought would be a very quick game, took longer that we anticipated.


The making of the Pluck rolls brings me back to Bad Jack. In the rules, he is given a pluck of 2+, this means on an unmodified roll of 1d10, he is only failing on a 1. Indeed, he has talents that increase this even more, and this brings me to the issue that we had with this scenario in particular, and maybe the game in general. It was almost nigh on impossible to bring down Jack, and other minis in general.

Another slight issue we had was the interaction os S's flamethrower, and my armoured walker. However, this has been fixed in the errata, so no need to go on about it here.

One modification  would make to the rules would be with the volley fire rule. This states that models can club together their shooting to bring down heavily armoured targets, which it does. They give bonuses to hit, however, I could have had all my riflemen concentrate fire on Jack, and yes, they would have hit him every time, but they would have no greater chance of actually putting him down than one alone, as they do not actually modify his pluck roll by any more than one rifle would by itself. This goes for more than just the high Pluck models, anyone facing a volley fire, or for that matter an gang in hand-to-hand, should not only be easier to hit, but have a higher chance of taking more damage. Fortunately, this is a set of rules that encourages fiddling to make it work on your own gaming table, so that is what I will do.

In summary, we liked it. It was a lot of fun, and would benefit greatly from the players putting more effort into the scenario design. This time was just to get us to run through the rules, but if I planned another game (once I convince some of the locals to play) then I would sit down before hand and work through a scenario that fits the companies first. And if I were to replay Bad Jack, he would be very much nerfed!

As a final aside, S left me with a present in the form of the rules for Muskets and Tomahawks. A rules set  have been admiring from afar, but avoiding buying the minis for. Now, I really have no excuse not to. Do I? No, I didn't think so!

...off to buy Roger's Rangers and a bunch of Iroquois...

In Her Majesty's Name

One of the things I have always promised myself is that if I were to take a break from blogging, for whatever reason, I would not apologise and make an 'I ain't dead yet" type of post So this post is definitely not one of those. What it is, however, is a draft that has been sitting in my folder for almost a year, waiting to be posted. Well, recent events have conspired for me to finally have a game of In Her Majesty's Name, so I am putting this up here as a prelude, to the post match report of that game. This is not a review of IHMN, there are plenty of those about elsewhere, but it is some of the reasons why I bought the game system. So without further ado, I'll get back to blogging...

Ooh, look!  Shiny!

Whilst I have been very clearly in a steampunk phase of gaming over the last year and a half, what with all these Dystopian Legions models, I was taken by the newest set of rules from Osprey books, In Her Majesy's Name. One of the reasons I bought it was that it is available on amazon.ca, therefore, however much I like and support my FLGS, I don't have to wait any time at all before the book is delivered to my door. It does help that I was ordering another Osprey title, and the fact that this is published in the same size and format to Osprey's other titles was just the icing on the cake for me.

It is 1895, and the world is in turmoil. The Great Powers compete for resources and the latest technology, and an undeclared and secret war rages between them all. This is the battleground of the Adventuring Companies. These clandestine agents of the Great Powers operate in the shadows, matching skills and wits in pursuit of the newest scientific formulae or powerful occult artifacts.

In Her Majesty's Name sets these Adventuring Companies against each other in one-off encounters and in longer narrative campaigns. Companies are usually comprised of 4-15 figures, and two players could easily play three games in an evening. The rules have been designed to allow maximum versatility for the player – if you can imagine it, the system will help you build it. There is, however, a wealth of ready-prepared material covering weird science, mystical powers, and a range of pre-generated Adventuring Companies, including the British Explorers' Club, the Prussian Society of Thule, the U.S. Marine Corps, the Légion Étrangère, the revolutionaries of the Brick Lane Commune, ancient Egyptian cults, and the mysterious Black Dragon Tong.

There are a few things I like about this system. Firstly, it is a skirmish game. I like me some skirmish games me! One of the other things I like is that, although there are a wide range of pre-made factions and builds to choose from, all the points costs for building your own are included (indeed, there's a free pdf here to help with this). This makes it very easy to make new factions, or modify existing ones to match the models already in your collection. To which end, I think it will be relatively easy to make and Adventuring Company to work with my Dystopian legion models, and equally well with the other steampunk minis in my collection, who were, until now gathering dust on the shelf.  Additionally, since the level of steampunk detailing on the minis that are supplied for the game by North Star Minis is relatively low, there is also the opportunity to use historical minis with no problems at all. This opens the door to my Zulu band making the table.

The addition of the horror element to the game, through Prussian zombies, Egyptian mummies and great white apes, is also a fun way to go.

For more information, you can go to the author's blog, where there are pages with bonus material, and IHMN fiction.

In addition, if you are looking for miniature suppliers to go to for steampunk minis, you need go no further than this post on the Dulce et Decorum Est blog, where all the manufacturers are listed.

Holiday Book Buying

I always receive amazon vouchers for Christmas from some of my relatives, and this is a gift that I am always happy to get. This year, I used them to good hobby effect, with all three purchases being hobby related.

The first one was

 

Color, by Betty Edwards.

This was the recommendation of Meg Maples at her Masterclass, as the book to use to understand colour theory. I have yet to dive into this one, so I'll be holding back on further comment until I get a chance to read through it.

Lion Rampant, by Daniel Mersey

I've been aware of a steady increase in the number of blog posts relating to this game, with people using various medieval armies, as well as fantasy armies to play the game (Dwarves seem to be particularly popular). For one such excellent review, I'll point you to the Dice Bag Lady's blog. All this points to a good game with a healthy following. It will also give me another use for the Bretonnian and Empire armies I have, especially since I have been using a Medieval historic theme for my Bretonnians. It will also give me an excuse to buy into more Scottish minis, especially the Claymore Islander figs. Claymore have even released army bundles just for me! Now there's a forum for the game too, to go learn more about the rules.

 

Bannockburn 1314, Robert Bruce's Greatest Victory, by Peter Armstrong

My interest in this battle has been simmering away in the background, pretty much since for ever, being Scots born, however, with last year being the 700th anniversary of the battle, and the release of the rule set above, I finally bought this so I could learn more about it. Of this set of books, this is the one I read first, and it is a great example of the Osprey campaign series, and gave me lots of ideas as to what I want to do to make Lion Rampant forces for Medieval Scots and English to batter lumps out of each other over the table top.

In one final piece of news, in an attempt to make a little money from this blog, I joined as an Amazon Associate, so buy clicking on any of these links to buy these books (in the titles), you'll be doing a little to help fund my book buying habit. I will not become a millionaire through this by any means, but every little I earn is something I didn't make before, and for that, I am very thankful. I figures this was an inoffensive means of monetizing this site, as I'm not a fan of ads everywhere. Even if you don't buy aything, at least give me some clicks, so I can sit back and watch the pennies roll in!

In fact, I've gone back through my old book posts, and updated all of the links, so if you were thinking about buying any of the books I have mentioned before (even the free ones) now is the time to go do it.

If any of you have had experience of this system , or others like it, let me know what you think.

Kingdon of Britannia: 91st Highlanders, the Plan!

I finally recieved my two Osprey Men-at-arms books I had ordered from Amazon. I am looking forward to reading through them, and inspiration has already struck on two fronts. Firstly, I have found the scheme I wish to use for my Rocket-Hussars who have been patinenly awaiting a coat of paint, and secondly I have found the scheme I wish to use for my third section of Rifleman. I have decided to go with the 91st Highlanders, as shown on the left hand image on the cover of the book (as well as on the plate inside of course).

Whilst this means I can use the figures supplied by Spartan games without too much modification (no need to go all in for the leg swaps to get kilts) to make Highlanders, I will still need to practice my green-stuff skills in making the fancier pockets on the jacket, and I'll have to modify the cuffs slightly. And yes, this does mean I will have to paint the trews tartan, but that was inevitable. At least I can get away without the head swaps I had initially thought I would have to do, although I am not saying never on this, as the odd glengarry in the unit really makes a difference in feel for the unit, and is another way to set them apart (and get round duplicate miniatures), along with a kilted musician to help the unit out, they really should look the part.

I guess this means the South Essex has been put further down the list, as it'll be a long time before I think I'll need to field three units of Line infantry in a game, unless they get recruited to help out my Gun Section. Afterall, I have already used their colours on my first HMG section, and a sergeant. Seems a bit of a demotion for the mighty South Essex, but what can you do?

Amazon Order

I had some Amazon vouchers stacking up on my account, so I decided to order a couple of books. I thought to treat myself with some Osprey titles, so went for The Zulu War, by Angus McBride and The British Army on Campaign (3) by Michael Barthorp and Pierre Turner. I really wanted to get my hands on a copy of Canadian Campaigns 1860-70, but it seems to be rather hard to get a hold of, at least on Amazon or even directly from the Osprey site.

I'm quite looking forward to the McBride book, as I have been a fan of his work for a very long time (since I bought pretty much every book going for the MERP system back in the 80s and 90s), but this will be the first of historical books I own. I am rather surprised to see that he's down as the author of the book as well as the illustrator, I didn't think this was something he had done. It will be interesting to see how well the great man writes.

Why these ones in particular I hear you all ask, well really if you're asking that you haven't been paying attention at all recently, have you! It's all towards inspiration for my Britannian army for Dystopian Legions. Although, my steady rate of painting has meant I don't have much left to finish off, but the miniatures and the game itself have got me into looking up more on the era, which I must admit is one I know little about.

Another reason I went on to Amazon, was to look at the range of Osprey wargaming titles they have available there. In particular, and of special interest to this post, In Her Majesty's Name steampunk skirmish wargaming rules, which are available for pre-order. I did not pre-order them, but I think I'll most certainly be ordering them once they are released. It makes great sense to have another set of rules to use with minis I already have.