Bugs, Millions of them...

...no, I haven't been playing Starship Troopers or any other SciFi game. I've been overrun with the flu, not bad enough to be completely knocked out, but not light enough to continue painting. Everything has ground to a halt.

I did finish a few GHQ trucks for my Russian WW2 army and started painting my Hydra Miniatures pulp SF troopers early last week, but then real life intruded. First I lost a few evenings to social events and together with the weekend, the bugs arrived... At this time I still have some headaches, keep coughing up parts of my lungs and my nose is either blocked up completely or running wild. It will be a few days more before I start painting again.

One thing I was still capable of doing: buying more lead... At long last one of the "local" gamestores decided to discount some items. Including the Starship Troopers range. A year ago I would gave walked away with half the boxes in the shop, now I left with just one! How frugal! They had a box of LAMIs left, the troopers as seen in the movies, at half price. Even at full price they were a steal at 25 euro for 20 figures so who can resist the at half price...

They're Heeeheeere!

The long awaited Perry 40mm have landed! Try to imagine Homer Simpson dancing around excitedly (same amount of hair, lot less belly though)...

Pics to follow...

Less, More, More Painting Update

Not a bad harvest for the week, given that going back to work has slowed me down a bit. I continue working ever so slowly on my ACW Union Army as my long term painting project. I also finished a couple of Uruk Hai for my SBH game (more about that in another post). And my scenery collection expanded as well.



These are the new additions to my painting table: three came out of storage and one from the shop. The Uruk Hai were also involved in last Fridays skirmish and don't need that much to get them completed. The woman is from the "Chicas Latinas" gang, produced by a German company, I'll have to check which one exactly. And then there is the massive (in volume, not weight) Zvezda Troll. I hope I'll finish those in the next few days, but as I feel my throat closing up I fear that I'll be coming down with a bout of the flu in the next few days... bug(ger)!

Spend less? Play more!

The first new figures are inbound! Yesterday Stef picked up the Zveda Ring of Rule troll, I should get my grubby hands on that one at the club this evening. I'm guessing that it will not be an overly complicated model when it comes to construction and painting, so I might just try to finish it by the end of the weekend. I have noticed over the last week that when I paint single models (or small batches of two or three figures) I get them completed a lot quicker.

The other figures are the Perry Miniatures 40mm peninsular British. At last I saw that my credit card was charged for these, so they should be on their way now. It makes opening the mailbox every evening that little bit more exciting. It took rather a long time compared to other orders I placed with the brothers, this one will have taken three weeks to arrive...

It might seem that the spending less idea has gone out the window after only a week, but in my defense the Perry figs were ordered last year. And the troll was not an impulse buy but meant for a project that I am acually playing for once!

This evening will see my first face to face game of SBH, my Uruk Hai with a few Moria goblins to max out the points will be facing Stefs Mordor orcs. Pics and a report will follow!

Keep on gaming!

Less, More, More Meets Real Life

With the holiday season over it is back to work. And the painting is slowing down rather a lot. I'm still doing a lot more than I used to over the last years, so it's not all doom and gloom. I'm just concentrating on a few figures now instead of spreading the effort over a lot of them. This way I still see things happening and that keeps me motivated.

When I'm finished typing this post I'll slap on a coat of varnish on a pile of crates, another piece of scenery completed. And the two Uruk Hai I've started for this Friday's game are steadily advancing too and should be completely done tomorrow night.

And by now, I should also have bought my first figure for the year. My gaming buddy was dropping by a plastic model kit store that has the Zvezda Ring of Rule figures in stock, at a discount. I asked him to look out for a troll, at the monstrous price of four Euro. I had been thinking about a LotR Mordor troll to bolster my Uruk Hai SBH warband, but when Stef called yesterday to point me to the Zvezda sale, I just had to stick to my "less spending" mantra. Pictures of the sprues (and the model after construction) will be posted during the weekend.

Back to the painting desk, stay tuned!

LMM - update

Painting continues at a good pace. After yesterday's SBH playtest I was able to finish five more items, three Perry ACW infantry and two pieces of scenery from one of GW's Lords of the Rings boxed games. And today I finally ot the last licks of paint on the Wargames Foundry cop that has been on my desk, nearly completely painted, for several years. Years! I kid you not. Now I'll have to dig up his collegues for a game of Chain Reaction or All things Zombie. One of them is a fat cop eating a slice of pizza, I'll have to do some research on colour schemes for the different toppings ;-)

Still way too cold for spraypainting though and that won't change for at least a week. Shiny finishes untill then of course.

Under my two finished, one out of storage policy I've dived into my closets (yes, plural) and took out two Uruk Hai and a piece of scenery. The Uruk Hai will be joining next Friday's game, but I'm not stuck on finishing them by that day. I'm happy with a mostly painted figure for the moment. I haven't arrived at the point where I'm able to field a completely painted force, even for a small skirmish game. Not yet. But by the game after this Friday's, that should be reality though.

Stay tuned!

Solo SBH playtest

In preparation for the first face to face game of Songs of Blades and Heroes next Friday I reread the rules, dug up a few LotR figs and terrain and proceeded with a quick playtest.


I'm using terrain tiles that I made myself a year or two ago, but as so often I didn't carry the project through. The only thing they need is a quick paintjob of the roads and cliff-face though. An ideal project for the LMM programme! Same thing for the chapel I made using HirstArts molds...


A view of the LotR Uruk-Hai I used. The three in the center of the group are actually completely finished! Yes, I do have some figures that are completely finished, few as they are though ;-)


Turn 1: The men of Harad got to move first, two archers on the flank moving quickly forward to get behind cover and engage any Uruk-Hai that comes onto the board. Most of the spearmen failed one of their quality rolls and made only one move. Two of the Uruks made it to the bottom of the hill and started moving towards the chapel.


Turn 2: The spearmen move slowly forwards, making sure that the archer on the right gets to shoot. I roll for three actions and pass two. The first shot hits the front Uruk on the hill, knocking him down. A second shot manages to kill him... One Uruk moves towards the chapel, but the rest screw it up and do absolutely nothing...


Turn 3: The archer on the left lets fly and knocks down the Uruk lurking near the chapel. His spearman buddy comes running around the corner and finishes him off. The archer on the right seems a little too excited from the kill and can't hit a barndoor... The spearmen move forwards to engage the Uruks.
The Uruks seem to be taken aback by this bold move and as a result just stand around doing nothing. (The first Uruk fails both his quality rolls, ouch!)


Turn 4: The spearmen on the left advance on the last Uruk near the chapel and prepare to slay him next turn. Once again the archer on the right screws up. The Uruks decide to charge down from the hill and one of them actually does it! He tears right into the Haradrim and kills him with a single blow.


Turn 5: The spearmen at the chapel gang up on the unlucky Uruk and kill him. This forces the remaining Uruks to make a morale check, chasing the one on the hill off the board while the berserker decides to fall back to the hilltop.

While intended as a quick test of the game mechanics I can see that this a simple, little game that I will most likely enjoy quite a lot. No big rulebooks with exception on exception, masses of canon figures... Ideal both on the "spend less" (the PDF costs 5 dollars and you can use any figs in your collection) and "play more" department of Less, More, More!

This game gets "Two Sixes"

Less, More, More - First Steps

Well, I just finished slapping a coat of varnish on the first few finished figs for this year. For the moment they'll have to make do with Vallejo satin gloss varnish until temperatures climb back to spray painting levels and I'll be able to give them a coat of mat varnish as well.

The figures are a pair of Perry plastics ACW and the scenery items are from Black Cat Bases.

That leaves plenty of stuff on the table though (about 200 28mm figs seems right) but in my finish two, take one out of storage doctrine I took two more simple pieces of scenery to the table.

Also planned for the weekend: a quick solo game of Songs of Blades and Heroes to get a feel for the rules. Next Friday at the club I'll be doing another one, the first real game of the year...
Operation LMM is now well under way...