Still finishing odds and ends from the painting table. A couple Tong gangsters, a couple adventurers, a member of the private army I painted earlier, two guys with flamethrowers or gas guns, a basic Hunchback (every mad scienctist needs one of those) a reporter, a pirate with a rammer, and an unarmed Union soldier (useful for Landship Crew) A finished group of Zeppelin Troopers with Gasmasks I know I am not a great painter but at least my figures are painted.
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About the only good thing in having your Gall Bladder taken out is you are stuck at home with nothing to do but read, watch movies, and paint. So I have taken the time to finish a couple of projects that have been hanging around on the workbench. The First is an Armored Steam Battle Suit ASBS (just a Warzone BauHaus I dropped a Kepi wearing head in and added a smokestack to). It's next to a 25mm Dixon soldier for scale. The other project I completed was converting a Mageknight Dwarven Steam Tank into a Steam Leviathan. The original model was OK, but I always thought the spikey roller in front to be a bit silly. Wouldn't it get stuck in the ground? I went with the Big Wheel style of armored vehicle, adding two sets of spoked metal tractor tires that I picked up from farm toy supply stores. That was a hassle in itself, I had to go to two different stores which is why the back and front wheels don't exactly match. Next to the same Dixon figure for scale purposes. I also added a couple of front mounted Gatling guns As far as GASLIGHT stats I'd treat it as a Leviathan.
Save 18 (I want +0 weapons to have some chance of hurting it. It will be hard enough to kill as it is) Speed 4 Start 16 Sustain 17 Spin 30 degrees Armorment 1. Large Smoothbore Breechloading Cannon (the pressures involved in a breechloading rifled cannon would be a bit much by ACW technology) Range 60, SRM +2, Radius 5 inches, Divide by 2, Takes one turn to reload. 2. Two Gatling guns (may not fire on same turn as cannon). Range 36, SRM -9, 3 Shots, Reload No Crew Sections 1. 5 Man cannon Crew Shoot 10(14) Scuffle 7 Save 3(8) Numbers in parentheses are for the Sargeant running the Crew Armed with Pistols 2. 5 man Black Gang (Stokers and Mechanics who keep the Levithan running) Shoot 7 Scuffle 9 Save 3(7) Numbers in parentheses are for the Head Engineer running the Black Gang. Hand-to-hand weapons only (shovels, wrenches, hammers) 3. 5 Man Command squad. Captain who in charge of the Leviathan, also pilots and steersmen. These man the Gatlings when the Leviathan isn't moving. Equipped with steel breastplates and Loyd Rapid Fire Guns (SMG's). These are crossed trained and can fill in elsewhere if needed. At least two people are required to run and steer the Leviathan. Captain provides a -2 to morale modifiers for all crew setions. Note: the morale modifiers for the leaders of the other two sections only apply to their section. Shoot 9(12) Scuffle 7(12) Save 5(10) Numbers in parentheses are for the Captain. Since I was stuck at home recuperating from having my Gall Bladder removed (and it came out the hard way with lots of cutting) I decide to go through the mancave and see what I had. You know how it is you buy and paint, use a couple times and store away, and sometimes forget about some item. I found 32 robots and mechanical men. Whatever am I going to do with that many! Oh well I'll think of something. The Big Guys in the back are Iron Giant Toys I picked up on Fleabay very cheaply. There are a couple warjacks in front of them, along with an Iron Golem (Ral Partha I think) I attached smokestack to for use in VSF gaming and Bot from Supersystem, who I also rigged for VSF. In front of them are ten from some other Superhero miniasture company, sorry don't know the name on those. I paid full price for one at a CON and then found a dealer with a box full of them for $1 each. In the front row are (Left to right) two Type II robots from Rattrap, three Heroclix M-11 robots, and three others that I can't remember who made them. Add to this another robot toy still in it's box and a couple of the new Ral Partha Automatons from their Savage World line. Then there is guy from Hydra Miniatures. Sigh....
My name is Bill and I am a miniatures addict, my drug of choice is robots. So I did get to work (slowly but better than nothing). I riveted the train and started on the ornithopter. Then I remembered an Armored Landship that had broken on me. I removed the cannon, added two Gatlings, a Flamethrower and gave it two smokestacks (need to weather the places I touched up the paint but I didn't see that until I took a picture). While I was at it I needed to clear my workbench of partially finished figures. Here is three gun molls, a couple nurses, a generic oriental and someone's private army. I have plenty of stuff on the paint table to finish. I swear by all that's holy I will reduce that lead mountain!!!!
Or is that... As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again. No wrong quote Usually, when I go out with the wife to Garage Sales she finds stuff and I find squat. Not this time, for I found DRAGONS. Three pre-painted big plastic dragons for only $10. Finally, a great find for a gamer, only what am I going to do with them I don't play fantasy miniatures at this time. Oh well, still a nice find for a nice price.?
Finally, I have to room to do the many projects I've been collecting stuff for. No more putting stuff up every week because the wife needed the room for her projects. I am now the proud owner of my own mancave. Ha Ha Ha. Unfortunately, during the move I found out how many projects I had gathered for but hadn't done much with. No matter, when faced with a big task you hammer it out one piece at a time. Task I- A VSF Ornithopter. Having been impressed by anothers use of a Ral Partha Dwarf Ornitophter http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=14230.0 I decided to make my own. Out came the box of Ornithopters and much to my surprise I found each box held two. How wonderful. Then I noticed that they lacked landing gear. Expletive deleted, I bought the wrong kind. What to do, What to do. I remembered that I had a Fast Lane construction train and it came with a crane (I'd bought it just to have four more pieces of straight track, Fast Lane and Goldlock make nice cheap trains but they never come with enough straight track pieces). I decided that my Ornithopters didn't take off from a landing field, no they were launched into by a steam catapult. The crane as it was orginally. Strip off the stickers, remove the line and hook, flip the crane upside down so it formed a trough. To the parts boxes. Needs rivets of course, but a good start. Here it is with the Dwarven Flyer. Needs a proper pilot and that Dragon Head removed, but I think it has promise.
Sorry about the delay in blogging, but the Mrs. and I (and a BANK) finally bought a house. Moving from the apartment to the house (Yes, I finally have my own Mancave) and filling out all the paperwork pretty well killed the month. The 14th I did take some time off for the Egyptian War mini-con. Even smaller than Winter War, Egyptian War had a little roleplaying, some board games, a 40K tournament (about a dozen players), a good amount of Pathfinder players, and some Warmachine. I made it to the finals in the Settlers of Catan tournament (by. 3 percent and then winning a die roll with the other two people I tied with). Got creamed in the finals (only had 4 lousy points) so I didn't get the free trip to Gencon. I got in a nice game of old school Gamma World (with miniatures) that was really fun. I forgot how much fun the old 1st Ed. was. I "won" that game with my electric, flying, chameleon, teleporting, laid-back (I just want to bask in the sun, unless I smell blood in the water), telepathic, hippie crocodile. Yeah, it was that kind of over the top game. I'm pretty sure you couldn't get that many mutations in 1st Gen. Gamma World, I'll check when I dig my copy out, but the bad guys were badass to. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GAMING CONVENTION
Saturday evening I played in an ACW Ironclads game (1/1200 ships) using modified Smoke On the Waters rules. It was the basic Plum Point scenario. A lone Union Ironclad must fight off the River Defense fleet made up of a bunch of Cottonclad rams and defend the immobile mortar boats. More Union ships are on their way, but will take a few turns to get to the fight. The Confederate Cottonclads approach. The USS Cincinnati moves out to engage the oncoming fleet. After multiple hits the Cincinnati catches on fire. No sooner than the Cincinnati gets the fires out than two ships try to ram. One bounces, the Little Rebel (lower ship) hits home but return fire kills its Captain and jams its steering. The Cincinnati takes on water, but its skilled crew stops the flooding quickly. On turn three help begins to arrive in the form of the USS Benton (the grey ship on the left). Followed quickly by the Lexington (Timberclad) and the Carondolet (Ironclad) The Jeff Thompson rams but does no damage, and is set on fire by the return fire. The Cincinnati takes a pounding from the other ships guns and has its captain killed. Hurrah, the inept captain is replaced by an adequate one. Another ram that the Cincinnati barely survives, but the guns of the oncoming Union ships catch another Confederate on fire. Meanwhile, a Confederate ship slips downstream with a mortar boat in tow. The beginning of the end.
The Confederates finally lose a ship (the only one sunk the whole game). The Union warships begin the chase the Confederates down river. I didn't get to do much in this game. My ship, the USS Cardonolet was tail end charlie and the Lexington kept blocking my fire in order to shoot at the Confederates. Who won? The Cincinnati was shot to hell and the Confederates made off with a mortar boat (giving them the only 13 inch mortar that they would have had in the war). The Union finally sank a ship and was getting into postion to deal out real damage when time ran out. A good game but too close to call. Saturday afternoon the game was TUSK. Three groups of Victorian explorers and two groups of British soldiers had to escape the Forgotten Island before the volcano exploded and destroyed the island. The players had to cross a jungle, filled with prehistoric creatures, and make it to the beach where boats would pick them up and take them out to the ship. My group was lead by that famed explorer Rhino Ryan. The lady in my group was rather lightly clothed by Victorian standards, something must have happened to her dress (A giant ape must have removed it earlier in the expedition). A T Rex leaves off feasting on a dinosaur carcass to charge towards one of the groups. Big Mistake, for he is going up against the Killer Kid. This six year old would tell dad where to move the figures, then handle the selection of targets and shooting himself. What a die roller. By the time the game ended he had killed nine dino's!!! British soldiers, carefully using cover, sneak around undetected by another feasting group of carnivores. I didn't think that Brits were allowed to be stealthy. Aren't they suppose to advance in a line out in the open? My group and the Killer Kid's is charged by a lone dino. Poor dino he never had a chance against the Killer's hot die rolling. That's more like it. The Brits advance in line in the open and down a T Rex with a volley. None of that skulking around, by God. It just isn't British. The second group of Brits quickly down two larger velociraptors, while a larger group of smaller raptors sneak up behind them. The Killer Kid sees two and kills two more carnivorous dinosaurs (I only got to kill one dino the whole because the Kid never missed). One Brit unit gets attacked by itty bitty killer chickensaurs, who because of sheer numbers actually survive lon enough to do a wound. The only wound the dinos scored all game. One player ran the person with the proof that the island really existed (a dino egg or something like that) out ahead of his group. She was attacked by a dino, who of course missed, and said dino went down under a hail of gunfire before it could attack again. There was a bit of trouble with a carnivorous plant, but it ended up being no more than a nuisance. As the island slowly sank beneath the waves, drowning the dinosaurs that had survived on it for millions of years, everyone made it into the waiting boats. Not even a no name extra had died. Sometimes when you run a game, it ends up being too hard and kills everyone. Sometimes you think no one can possibly survive, and it turns into a cakewalk.
Saturday morning I played in a Game of Desperado. Three groups of cowboys, and one group of lawmen vs. three groups of bandits out to rob the bank. Layout of the town. The Bank is the second building from the bottom on the left. One group of bandits started by the barn on the top left of the picture, the other two entered the board directly behind the bank. The bandits had to exit the table on the edge with the barn. My boys, From left to right 2-Gun Bob, Billy Bob, and Just Plain Bob. Things went bad for the bandits from the beginning. The cowboys by the barn opened up on them without warning (and without reason) tying up that group of bandits for the remainder of the game. The cowboys in the saloon and the lawmen by the jail had to react based on actual events, not just shoot whoever they felt like. The other two groups of bandits made it to the back of the closed bank and tried repeatedly to kick in the door. The cowboys in the saloon opposite the bank moved to the windows or out on the porch to see what was going on down the street where the gunfight had broken out between the bandits and the cowboys. The lawmen left the jail and moved towards the shootout by the barn. After several tries, the bandits finally kicked in the back door of the bank and blew the safe with their one and only stick on dynamite. Before the lawmen could react, the sheriff (lower left) was shot in the leg and was left crawling for the rest of the game. A bandit dashing across an alley to cover didn't make it and is shot down. One thing I like about Desperado is that you never know exactly how far you'll move. You roll 1d6 for crawling, 2d6 fpor walking, and 3d6 for running. There were times you could walk fast than you could run and crawl fast than you could walk. Dashing from cover to cover was dangerous, a bad roll would leave you out in the open. The bandits kill a deputy with a head shot. A cowboy and a bandit blaze away at each other at short range, mainly misses and and a couple minor wounds, until the the bandit took a leg wound and went down. The wound dropped him but didn't take him out and the fight continued. This fight lasted for several cards. Billy Bob exits the back of the saloon and is shot by a bandit. Just a graze to the head, and Billy Bob guns the bandit down after a couple of cards of shooting. The bandits start grabbing the bags of money from the safe, run and go over the stone wall, and try to use that for cover to make it to the edge of the board by the barn. One by one the bandits run down the wall, and one by one the get gunned down. Even with covering fire, no one made it. The guy who figured out you could crawl safely down the wall, still had to stand up and run at the end. In the end the cowboys and the lawmen won. Not a single bandit made it away, with or without money.
The Bobs, those were my boys, got three kills and only took one wound, and that was only a 5 point graze, Another cowboy player got four kills and took only 15 points of damage. It was a real massacre of the bandits. I really like the game Desparado, BUT it is easy to hit and easy to kill. Several times players were firing three or more shots. The first would be at 45%, the second at 35% and the last at 25% chance to hit. With those odds you are bound to get a hit. When you did, the hit location chart has plenty of auto kills and auto disables on it. I've noticed that Desperado tends to be a bloodbath every time you play it. It would be a hard system to campaign with, because you characters would rarely last two games. To fix this I propose letting all of the shots take the minuses for the number of shots fired. As it is now the first shot is at full %, the 2nd is at -10%, the 3rd is at -20%, and so forth. Instead, if you fire three shots you would be -20% to all of them (you aren't carefully aiming, you're just blazing away). I feel that this modification would tone down the bloodiness of the game. |
Mysterious BillI've been gaming since the 1970's and even wrote some RPG adventures in the 80's for the Judges Guild. It seems that I can only get in miniatures is gaming at cons, but I do regularly play boardgames and RPGs. Archives
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