Here's to uplifting spirits (some pun intended)

Hi All,

I've been in a slight funk the last few days, mostly of my own making and not too serious. I was talking to my neighbor this morning and he showed me this:

If that doesn't brighten your day, I don't know what will. Anyway wait till at least 1:00 for the full effect.

So I'm going to make new counters and game out the Tereken vs. Mirholme Battle and go buy a ton of candy and beer and enjoy the nice weather were having here and give out candy on the sidewalk in front of our house. The Beer is for me, candy for the kids.

Of Imagi-Nations, Maps and Fonts

So while I was trying to find things to fix various broken plumbing and appliances, I took a few moments to flesh out some ideas for the 18th Century Imagi-Nation project.

First off we need a map. Since I have a soft spot for hex maps I revisited the Welshpiper and revisited his hex map templates.

So a little finagling, a rotation of the brain graphic and I give you the base for Cerebria.

I'm also getting the idea for the colonial areas of Liverica and Splenia, with perhaps the Stomach and Pancreas thrown in.

I then started thinking about fonts. While looking for Autorealm fonts I found this post.


http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2012/02/fonts-for-flags.html

In the comments to this post were a couple of good link recommendations:

http://www.google.com.au/search?aq=f&gcx=w&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=18th+century+fonts

and this one, which also had a guide on how to use ligatures.

http://www.orbitals.com/self/ligature/ligature.htm

The only issue for me now is I can't figure out how to use the macros. I've never used them in word and I apparently can't use them in Open Office as the Word ones are in a different scripting language.

But I did end up downloading a few 18th Century fonts from dafont and also re-acquainted myself with abstract fonts. Speaking of which (okay it's really only tenuously related) you can find fonts similar to your favorite D & D editions here (or rather the names of fonts that are close approximations).

Precious little done on the Talomir project, I hope to fix that this weekend.

Reinforcements

Well my figure order arrived sometime last night. I've been puttering around prepping figures here and there while running errands and doing chores.

First up the Ancient Germans and Celts.

These Germanic warriors have a little flash but are much nicer than the Revell Saxons. I think that they could proxy for Vikings or Saxons. The Celts have a lot of character and detail. I haven't put them up side by side with the Italeri Celtic Cavalry but because they are different arms a size difference shouldn't be as obvious.

Next the 18th century stuff.

The Billy V set I bought is the same as what's in each of these boxes, so I may have over bought  AWI. The Indian Warriors are very nice, 16 individual poses. The Swedish Artillery looks cool, but I see now that their uniforms are totally different from the AWI stuff. I'll look more carefully at the Swedish and Russian sets from Zvezda for inafantry to match and then I have to source some more artillerymen. But should be good to get a start. I'll have some more thoughts on that project later.

I also finally mixed up some flow aid.

I poured out 30mL of distilled water and then used an old antibiotics oral dosing syringe to measure out 1.4mL of flow aid. This should make a 20/1 dilution, I think.

I've been trying to get painting but my paints are somewhat separated and may need a device such as Kasper built at WarmasterDK here.

But now I seem to have also broken my washing machine, so that's got my attention.

Bugs, Rabbits and Chickens oh my!

From Interloper Miniatures - Cast in Ruin

Saw this posted on the Grumpy Grognard it's an Indiegogo for Gamma World figures here.

The concept art looks cool and the first mutated chicken green looks pretty awesome. These, coupled with those Lead Adventure post apocalypse figures could be fun.

And  note about Grumpy. He (I'm assuming Grumpy is a he) set up his blog to vent about stuff on various OSR rpg forums. To quote A Christmas Story: Grumpy "worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master." 

I find it humorous because I can relate somewhat and I just marvel at how even in games people can take an us versus them attitude rather than accepting that some people like to game another way.

Scatter Brained

What do you do when you're lagging behind on a project? Why surf the internet for hours and purchase things for a completely different project of course.

This week has seemed to be more hectic than usual. I've been volunteering at my kids school for a running/ walking program they are doing and it's amazing how 4 hours a week has really got me hopping to get my usual routine done.

So aside from rumination on ACW and campaigns a tad I went ahead and placed an order for several Seven Years War (SYW), Great Northern War (GNW), French and Indian War( FIW), American War of Independence (AWI) figures.

I know you all are like "really!? he hasn't even finished one project!" but bear with me. A while back, in one of my unrestrained rules purchase binges, I got the THW titles Muskets and Mohawks and Long Rifle. Basically sets for gaming unit actions and RPG fur trader type stuff around the FIW.

There are quite a few good 1/72 sets for this period and since I needed to order one box for Talomir I figured why not make the most of shipping and just buy this stuff now. After having taken it in the shorts buying one pack here or there for lead, I thought this would be slightly more intelligent.

So my thought is to game an Imagination style 18th century game and throw in some early colonial warfare aspects, possibly discovering Lemuria for a good campaign.

Billy V (Imex) sets from Hobby Lobby.

I also have some more thoughts on photography and mapping. Hopefully I can hold onto them for a few moments so I can put them down.

Speaking of maps, you must check this one out (http://mapofmetal.com/#/home). I don't think they had the videos last time I looked. Starts with Black Sabbath, so how can you go wrong?

Welcome to two new followers, both of whom don't have their blogs listed in their Google friend profiles but I recognize their avatars and or names.

Prufrock of Here's no Great Matter, an enjoyable blog about gaming. Right now he's on about map and chit wargames. Gave me some great tips about making a battle mat and then I went a completely different direction.

The Convenient Skill of That's what you get for living in a cul-de-sac (hopefully I will never have to type that out ever again in full). But seriously, if you like solo rpg play he has literally a ton of ideas. A lot of good reads and quirky rule sets reviewed.

Of to a double header of 5-6 year old flag football. Can my son's team rebound from a tough one point loss last weekend? We shall see. Go Panthers!

This week in Talomir

Well, Spring 992 has begun in Talomir and what better way to start than with having to paint up two new armies.

As we may recall from the "Bold Plan" series, I was unsuccessful in trying to get just over 100 (was it 107) miniatures painted up to fight the Treyine vs. Naz-Goth battle. I did get all of the the Orcs cleaned up and based on washers, except Hogash should have been mounted. But I did not even get them all base coated. For the Treyine forces I got them all off the sprue but only the Foot Knights, Infantry, Hero and Mage were cleaned of mold lines. Again the hero should have been mounted but I didn't read the list carefully. And here are a few shots of the Orcs, showing the different primers and the flesh base coat.

Sorry, focused on the background. But shiny and not shiny are obvious.

Wish I had a non shiny base to compare. Fig on the right is the Dark Alliance set 2, others are Caesar.

Treyine Infantry with spear ala Paul's Bods. And special clamping device to help it stay put while glue dried.

Of course this month sees me signed on to fight two different battles with four completely different armies. I will be fighting the North Tropilium invasion of Hykar with card counters as I already have the Hykar forces printed out from my failed attempt to play their battle against the Dragon. Looks like I'm short one unit, but I can probably borrow one from the Treyine or Seniiran armies that was printed earlier.

Hykar minus one, and only two I can use from Tropilium sheet for N. Tropilium. Doh!

The big one for me this month will be the Tereken invasion of Mirholme. This is one I hope to game with figures and fortunately I have already gotten a start on these. For Tereken I will be using Imex and Revell Saxons with a couple of Italeri Celtic cavalry converted into Saxon cavalry. The Tereken Forces should be 35 figures, the Mirholme should also be 35 figures and I already have 13 based and primed, yeehaw! ( I know it's not a very dark-agey expression).

Vikings of Mirholme, primed in black and on the paper.

Tereken. Top left are Skirmishers, most lying down are fyrd. Standing and front left lying are Huscarls. Mounted are mounted huscarls.

So there you have it. I'm not sure just yet how to go about converting the Italeri celts to Saxon cavalry. There are parts on each figure that seem like they would be a bear to whittle off to fit with saxon upper bodies. I may re-think this and order the Miniart Germanic Cavalry as a conversion free proxy. I also need to figue out how to make a shield for the lone unprimed viking in the last picture. Perhaps just an arm swap for now. And please forgive the midden heap that is my painting area.

Lastly, welcome to Ivor Cogdell. Sorry you didn't get a chance to get in on the giveaway, hopefully there will be something useful and/or interesting for you here on the blog.

10K Views prize winner is..

Ray of Don't Throw a One. I just need to work out how to get them to send you the PDF as well as the printed version.

Bill won the second prize, a map to his specifications.

Thanks to all who entered and became new followers of the blog as a consequence. Now I have a glimpse of what it must be like to be Ray and Fran.

Viewed by many, followed by some, loved by all!

I'll be emailing the Lucky winners and will get things sorted out.

Cheers.

Bad Blog Keeping

I noticed that I had been remiss in labeling the last couple of posts and had forgotten to welcome the new followers to the blog. So without further ado:

Welcome to:

benglish who joined as armchairqbacks. Aren't we all?

Ogre Sage

crub90706

Christopher Sheets who writes Dispatches from the Rim your blog looks familiar and if I've welcomed you before I apologize. None the less thanks for being a follower.

Michael Matecha who has a great Zombie avatar and is really in the spirit of the impending zombie apocalypse.

Raspoutine and his blog Brain Poutine. I like the giant world works castle. Let me know if you write more on your blog.

Bill

Mathyoo of 28mm Later an interesting pulp/ horror and more blog. Yeah you have been following me for awhile I think but no worries, I'll welcome you again as well. I seem to be having memory problems.

Moe from DFW, I lived in big D for four years. Even as a Yankee I enjoyed my time there.

Herc Warrior, you may not be actually following, I'm not going to hold it against you.

Graham, I'm pretty sure you are a follower. I'm glad you are back to posting at Pairadice Saloon

Avid Wargamer of Avidwargamer's House looks like Sci Fi and Western THW and more.

And Papa Spanky of The Haunting of Portsmouth and Geek in the Basement. I'm liking those post apocalyptic cars. And don't worry about missing my blog, I miss them all the time or don't follow for some strange reason. It's all good.

I'll try to keep up the bloggery. I think I haven't really hit on a style, or am I the Bruce Lee of bloggers. My style is no style.

More Talomir is in the offing and I'll try to put together more thoughts on paint mixing and Battle Cry. Aside from all the other post thoughts I had that are fading as I type.

Battle Cry - First impressions

So I managed to get in one game of Battle Cry over the weekend. My son, with the help of my wife, played the Confederate side while I played the Union for the 1st Bull Run scenario.

This is from the 150th anniversary edition.

From http://pawnderings.blogspot.com/2010/12/comparitive-replay-session-of-battle.html

Also from http://pawnderings.blogspot.com/2010/12/comparitive-replay-session-of-battle.html

It was an interesting battle in that I jumped out to an early 4 flag to 1 flag lead and then watched as my son tied it up with some hot dice rolling. I should have known from previous experience, when he needs to roll something he gets it.

Basically the battle played out like this. On the Confederate Left/ Union Right is where the early action started The Union cavalry was aggressive and blunted the Confederate attack. On the Confederate Right/ Union Left the infantry tenatively advanced and traded long range musket fire, with neither side gaining much advantage. In the center the Confederates under Jackson took the ridge and poured musket fire onto a line of Union infantry set up in line with Henry House. The union was taking the worst of the musket exchanges until they played the Fieldworks card, and then things evened out a bit. General Beauregard (my son and wife) was reluctant to reposition his artillery once he had gained the dog leg of the ridge, which did not offer a full view of the main Union force.

The union finally won the battle by holding in the center while wiping out opposition on the flanks. So it was fun and the command cards are interesting. I see where some might have a problem with troops effectively sitting the battle out because you couldn't get enough command cards to order them, but I think it is a nice mechanic to give you decisions to make on the field.

The one question that remains for me is battling a general, or more precisely killing a general since they can't really battle. In this game Stuart became isolated on the hill on the left flank and did not move from that position. After killing the unit he commanded I played it that he was killed by rolling the cavalry sybol on the dice. Was that wrong? I'm not sure.

In this 150th Anniversary you get 10 regular scenarios, three from the Jackson campaign and thirteen more for the special edition. But what if your like me and, after seeing all this, wonder why there is no scenario for the first day of Gettysburg you can look here for that and many more.  Also check out wargaming miscellany for Battle Cry musings.

Wanna play solo? Of course you do. Boardgame Geek has suggestions here and here as well as a pdf here (I haven't tried it yet). Bob Cordery also had this to say about using Coomand cards for solo play. Also check out Dale Hurt's blog on solo wargaming about hand management here

I'd write more but gotta run..

10,000 hits prize draw

Woohoo! The blog passed 10K views.

You know the drill.

1. Be a follower of the blog.
2. Leave a comment indicating you want to put your name in the hat.
3. By next Friday I'll pick a winner and you shall receive the prize.

If I get enough entries, say double digits, I may give a second place prize of a map to your specifications.

Good luck.

Anticipation...

or a watched hit counter never reaches 10,000.

Some of you may remember when Heinz ketchup used the Carly Simon song in an add.

So since I can't wait by not posting anything I'll tell you what will be happening once I reach 10K. To celebrate this milestone, and in honor of what some are calling Zomtober, I will be giving away a copy of Two Hour Wargames latest release: All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ - FFO).

This is an update of their top selling Zombie skirmish game with all the newest rule mechanics etc. You may have read about on Vampifan's blog here, or Colgar6's here.

I am very excited about this title myself, and the only reason I have not bought it already is the massive shame and guilt I feel at still not having played all the other titles I own. And realistically I don't have any models made up.

Oh and if you do a search for Zomtober you may find something silly like this:

Silliness! So while I twiddle my thumbs waiting for the interwebs to take notice of my littleslice o' the net and wait for Battle Cry to come in the mail I wish you all happy gaming.

Battle Cry, Battle Lore and almost 10k hits.

I just pulled the trigger on Battle Cry and Battles of Westeros on Amazon. I don't know if it was specifically a sale or not, but $46.92 for Battle Cry and 29.99 for Battles of Westeros sounds like a good deal.

  Progress in modelling and gaming has taken a back seat to landscaping and bicycle maintenance. It is finally getting cool enough to be outdoors more and my drip irrigation and sprinklers have kindly decided to break on me.

[RANT WARNING, NOT ABOUT GAMING]

My bicycle broke about a month ago and I am now nearing the point in money and frustration where I should have bought a new bike. I just thought that throwing away a whole bike just because the pedal broke was assinine. The crank was some how cross threaded, so no pedal was going to fit in. You can't just buy a crank arm, you have to buy a whole crank set. Then you have to match the bottom bracket. Oh yeah and then you have to order the wrong tool, then the right tool then find out that your old bottom bracket is so seized up you can't get it off. Then you take it to another bike shop, because you're still pissed at the last bike shop and they barely even try to help you before telling you you should just buy a new bike.

GRRRR! And that's the nice way of putting it.

[/RANT]

Anyway Battle Cry should get here by the weekend. Should be fun.

And before I forget, I'm almost at 10K hits and am trying to think of some kind of giveaway. I'd like to give away a copy of All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ-FFO) but I'm not sure when the release date is. Of course I could do a map or activation/event cards. We'll see, maybe I'll figure out how to do a poll.

Follow up on Valiant WW2 1/72

Well I did a search for "valiant miniatures review" and a bunch of stuff came up. The three most relevant to this discussion are The Miniatures Page [TMP], Elianto e i Mondi Alterei, and Miniatures.de

The TMP posts started in 2007 and it is pretty long (3 pages). The comments start by saying they are BIG! and talk abut 23-24mm. flakmaus gives a pretty in depth comparison with 20mm ranges that I am not familiar with. He says these are all around 21-22mm. {I will note here that when I buy figs I try to stick with the sets that are reviewed to be 24mm on PSR}. christot has a link to a photobucket gallery here which I missed on the first read through and I think may be pay dirt for this discussion.

Fantassin - Valiant - Elheim w/ slotta, from christot

Further on towards the bottom of the first page is a reply from Julian of Valiant Miniatures that basically states that they feel 24.3mm is the scale average height of a man in modern times. I totally agree, but fat lot of good that does me if my other figures are not that height.

Mondi Alterei is basically a review of the German boxed set. A good description of the contents and picture of the sprue. The box art is different and, although good, is not as enticing as the painted figure art I saw yesterday. This also seems to be a review of an item he was given by the manufacturer, for what it's worth.

Lastly miniatures.de. This is very in depth, down to the scale of the individual weapons for the British Tommy box. Basically they state that Valiant is incompatible with ESCI, Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell. They say that the weapons range from 1/60 to 1/50 in scale and the heads are more like 1/27.

ESCI - Valiant - Revell from miniatures.de

So here is my take on it. If you are getting into Rapid Fire and don't have any figures it looks like it would be a good solution to get some nicely detailed and inexpensive figures that are in preset amounts you need for the game. If you already have any other 1/72 figures it looks like the Valiant figures will dwarf them. You can do basing tricks to match the height but I think the girth issues bother me more. Unless you don't mind having a significant portion of your forces look like Jaws from the Bond movies (Richard Kiel).

So a shame really because I think that they are quite nice looking, but the incompatibility issue has me holding off for the moment. I have some IMEX Billy V US and Germans. Does anyone know anything about the Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 figures?

[EDIT]

Der!? Found the plastic Soldier Review listing for Valiant here, most sets get high marks but are listed at 25mm and up for size. Not sure why I didn't see it the other day. Plastic soldier company here get high marks as well but are sized at 23.5mm. So fit in with ESCI, Revell etc.

New (to me) WWII in 1/72

As I was eating breakfast this morning and trying to avoid real life by, what else, surfing for 1/72 plastic figures. I came across a manufacturer I had never heard of before, Valiant Miniatures. They seemed to be made for Rapid Fire, a rule set that I've stumbled across previously but don't really know much about.

Anyhow the sculpts look really nice but what really got me was the box art. It's of painted figures! Who'd of thunk it? Very close to impulse buying from one of my suppliers, Mega Hobby here.

(Whoa! Major freak out as a bug was crawling on my neck while I typed. Blood pressure back to normal.)

So I'll check over at Benno's and see if anyone has the 411 on these. There is nothing at PSR.

From http://www.valiantminiatures.com/

Just wish they had Soviets.

[Edit]

A search on Benno's here didn't turn up a whole lot of information. The posts start around 2010 and the main comments I can see are that they are "large" and of "cartoon" proportions. I'll have to delve further.