Random Updates: Wow... Seriously?

This week I made sure to grab my minis.  I even have some of my Traahiri minis packed in there to work on but what I was really excited about was setting up the table and pushing around some minis... if only I had brought a tape measure.

I'll have to grab one later this week but in the meantime I decided to work on touching up some of my minis that I haven't quite finished.  Concord targeters and buddy drones, Algoryn support teams, even the various munition markers for the game.  Not as satisfying as playing the game but sometimes you gotta do what you can.  Next week will be different though; the minis are staying down in Boston and I'm going to make sure I grab one of my tape measures while I'm back home.  Until next time...

Workbench: I Had Such Big Plans...

Maybe not big plans but I was at least going to finally get my table set up and play some Antares... then I left my miniatures in Maine.  D'oh!  Makes gaming difficult when you don't have the minis. 

Instead I took some time to brainstorm more for a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  Not quite sure when this will start as we are still trying to get out of Gracklstugh in Out of the Abyss but at some point, in theory, we will actually make it out of that city.  We might leave it a burning ruin with a rampaging dragon but as long as we are out of the city...

Then I realized that I did actually have something here to paint, my M7 transport for my Concord troops.  I want to do some more detail work on it but at least at this point it has the basic paint scheme on it.

Basing still in progress but you get the idea

Beyond that, I did also receive another shipment of Wrath of Kings minis.  Miniature Market recently ran a warehouse sale so I snatched up some more units that were too cheap to pass up.

These are all from the Rising Conflicts expansion which I was originally going to avoid.  The stuff from the main rulebook has all been errata'd but the newer stuff... not sure how balanced it is.  Since CMON basically stopped supporting the game after the new units were released, it's not something that I see them taking the time to work on.  That said, I really have enjoyed the games that I've played and like the idea of having more unit types available.  And besides, one of those is a unit of flying pigs so... yeah, had to have it.  I need to start assembling and basing those so I can try them out, but first there will be Antares.  A friend of mine is still interested in a demo so I want to push around some minis to put together some good demo lists.  Until next time...

Bolt Action AAR: Spinner and Dinner Bolt Action Event

As I mentioned, we had a special Bolt Action event this past weekend for my friend who is moving out West.  I had no idea what to expect but I really wasn't expected a massive 4 v 4 game on a 12' x 4' table.  It was AMAZING!!!

The view looking west down the table...

...and the view back to the east.

The table was a beautiful set up with lots of interesting terrain for us to deal with.  As luck would have it, I was on the same side as my friend Matt and paired myself off against my friend Chad, the organizer of this and most of the other BA events at the Greenhouse Games.

My fiend Chad pretending he's a pirate as he looks for a target.

To try to put some order on the chaos of having eight players, there were sixteen order dice put into the bag, eight for each side.  When a side's order die was drawn, all the players for that side of the table would active a unit and mark it with their own order dice.  If a player lost a unit and dropped below the eight we started with, then they had a pass they could use instead of activating a unit.  A really elegant way to handle the situation and the game really moved fast, especially on the first couple of turns.

The Big Cheese rolls onto the board, attacks its first victim... and rolls a 1.

There were also four objectives along the length of the board.  The building up on the hill in the above picture was one of them, along with some drums of defective super serum next to a barn, a mule leading an animal uprising by the farm, and a spire in the town square.  Controlling these objectives at the end of the turn would give the side one point for each.  As an added twist, each side also got one of eight special "power ups" the first turn they held an objective.

With my infantry sprinting across the board, I managed to get into the barn next to the serum and pulled the first special power...

It says "Traitor" even though it looks like "Traπoc"

With this power, I rolled a die (in this case a d42 due to casualties the other side had suffered) and counted down the board to from east to west.  The unit that matched the number I rolled was now a dirty, stinking traitor.  Thanks for the flamethrower unit Chad!  Jumping out of their Bren carrier, they lit up a nearby Centurion that was threatening Matt's tank.  The flames didn't take out the tank but they add to the pins and helped keep them out of action for a bit.

I was also able to make ample use of my cheesy pin tokens.  The other side dropped an artillery strike right on top of the Big Cheese and would up putting pins on all of my troops except for the mortar team.

It's raining death... and cheese!

The crazy part was that with all of that death raining from the sky, not one of my units took a casualty!

By the end of the game, our opposition on the eastern side of the board had pretty much collapsed while the western edge was on its way to doing the same.  Big Cheese was the center of attention from Chad's forces which was perfect as it left most of my other units untouched and let Matt and I focus on mopping up the lighter units we were facing.  In short, our side dominated the game, giving Matt the send off that he deserves.

Matt's Afrika Korps storming the hill to take the shrine!

All in all, this was an amazing game and I loved the format.  The other BA games I've played have always been one on one but this larger game gives this great interactive dynamic that you just can't beat.  Chad really enjoyed running it and said he's going to try to put together another event like it soon which will be awesome!  Until next time...

Random Updates: A Bon Voyage With A Bang!

Today we are having a going away Bolt Action game day for my friend Matt.  He is heading west to enjoy the amazingly temperate weather of Arizona (slight bit of sarcasm... just checked the weather and it's 84 degrees out there at 6 in the morning).  For this game, the limits are 750 points and 8 order dice... and that's it.  As I mentioned before, I had to take the cheese road for this one and built my list around my brand new 395 point heavy tank, an M26 Pershing.

Yes, it's ridiculous.

For the rest of the list, I was going to field a 2nd Lieutenant with a meat shield... I mean assistant, two 6 man squads of regular infantry with two BARs in each, a regular medium mortar with a spotter, a regular medic, and two inexperienced MMG teams.

The only problem that really sticks out for me is those regular infantry squads are pretty small.  Their firepower is pretty good at 8 dice but I can see them getting broken pretty fast.  Hopefully keeping the medic close will help but I suppose only time will tell.  No idea what kind of scenarios we will be playing either so I think I'm just going to go for blowing stuff up instead of objectives.  I mean really, I've got a super-heavy anti-tank gun... what else am I supposed to do?  Fingers crossed and cannons loaded!  Until next time...

Workbench: More Terrain and More Cheese

Well, craziness for work has really pushed my release schedule off but I think that things are getting back to... "normal"?  Is that the right word?  Guess it'll have to do for now, but without further ado, let's take a look at what's on the workbench!

A couple of weekends back, I decided to pop into Michael's to see if there was anything cheap I could use for more terrain.  I feel like I'm making slow progress in that department but I really wanted something I could use to visually fill out the board more.  Luckily enough, they were running a 70% sale on spring floral so I grabbed a floral mat along with another 20 wooden discs for terrain basing.  A little bit of hot glue, some plants, add some fabric to cover the wood and bam!  Instant plant cover!

These pieces will work great for filler terrain on the larger discs plus I can use these as scatter terrain as well. Can't beat the price either; the mat was regularly $20 but 70% off knocks that down to $6 and I can make about 25 of these from the one mat.  Plus I like how they look together with the other terrain I have.

Here is a 2' x 4' section of table with most of the plant cover I have with me. A pretty good density overall and I'm liking the variety of plants too.  Gives it a nice organic look by not having to too structured.

In addition to this, I'm also working putting together some "buildings" that I have had lying around for years.  I'd seen these dirt cheap cups and bowls at Wally World back when I was demoing Starship Troopers for Mongoose Publishing.  I'd grabbed a bunch of them to use for some Skinnie structures but the bottom fell out of the game before I did anything with them.  Fast forward a decade or so and I've finally started working on them.

For now I have just painted them black so I can get them to the table.  Ultimately, there will either be a tan or grey dry-brushed onto them, and I still need to work out attaching some details to them but at the very least this gives me more terrain to put on the board for now.

And last but not least one of my friends is moving across the country but before he goes, we are having a Bolt Action tournament in his honor.  This one will be a more traditional 750 point list but it has to be exactly 8 order dice.  I'm sure there are plenty of viable options that can be fielded within the point limit but after the last tourney I just wanted more cheese.  In fact, let me introduce... the Big Cheese.

The core of this list will be an M26 Pershing heavy tank.  Yep, a heavy tank in a 750 point list.  In addition to the tank, there are the obligatory two six man late war squads with two BARs in each, a 2nd Lt with an assistant/bullet shield, a medic to patch the guys up as they get shot, a medium mortar team with a spotter to rain down on the enemy, and not one but two medium machine gun teams.

The real trick will be keeping the Pershing alive. Unlike Stewie, the Big Cheese is only rolling ten dice when I fire the MMGs but there is that super-heavy anti-tank gun that can seriously reach out and touch people.  Big Cheese is also more than half of my points so if someone gets lucky... game over, man... game over!

So why am I bringing such a ridiculous list to this tournament?  Well, I guess basically I feel the need to be a jerk, aka "That Guy".  Normally I am very easy going about gaming.  I spent a couple of years playing the Warmachine seasonal campaign which are basically tournaments and it just gets to be a drag.  I want to play for fun, something that I really struggled with at the BA Combat Patrol tournament.  I openly admit that I'm not strong on the rules for Bolt Action, but one of the "experienced" players I faced was making up rules and completely ignoring others, all the while really being an ass about it.  Honestly I was ready to just wash my hands and walk away, it was that frustrating for me.  So for me this tournament is about making things right.

I've been going over the rulebook and making notes of things that I wasn't aware of or that I know were just played straight up wrong, and I plan on slamming the rule book down on the table.  This will probably be the last Bolt Action game that I play but I'm going to make sure that I have a good time as I drive around the field with my ridiculous tank and blow the crap out of things.  Either way, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Until next time...