A Pirate Cure for Winter Blues

Chicago is a damn frozen wasteland. I've lived here over 20 years and this is worst winter I remember, we've had worse individual snowfalls, but not the repetitive brutal cold and consistent snow we're having to date. Apparently this was the norm in the 70's and 80's but in those days I resided in the Mid-Atlantic states.

 I feel like I havent played a game in ages, our club night has been on hold since early December with my my wife slipping on ice and hurting herself, the Holidays, then this brutal weather. Everytime we tried to get together its been sub-zero and a snow storm, not exactly ideal driving conditions to head out into the night to play some games. Usually during this time of year I find myself with my most significant hobby output, the fore-mentioned plus  my new work schedule working totally freelance, and my playing video games with my kids has somewhat curtailed my time in the basement. while I certainly have been whittling away when I can it was about a week ago after I finished this recent project I was on, that I kicked on the afterburners.


Adepticon 2014 is right around the corner, while I always try not to over commit, I usually always do and this year in no exception. I am playing in two tournaments. The usual Lord of Rings Championships, and new for 2014 Bolt Action. My LotR army is singles 750 pt version of last years  Rohan Team army force not much new to see there, a couple new models I didnt  for BBB but I never actually made it to the tournament. The army is done and ready to go. With the recent shakeups at GW and the game fading away from it long standing limited popularity, there is only a singles event this year..and I wouldnt be surprised if its the last. GW cut its own throat on this game releasing some many Hobbit models in Finecast, while they know its not popular then complaining about lack of sales is maddening where if they had pewter or even plastic versions they would have gotten quite bit of my money, and I only like maybe half the releases...I cant be alone there.

Not coincidentally, the majority of the LotR player I know haved moved over to Warlords Games, excellent Bolt Action, very well supported with constant releases and moderately priced with a great ruleset the game is clearly the new Skirmish game of the moment (thou I must say I recently got the Saga Rules and I really like them, especially with fan made battle boards for things like Lord of the Rings!!!..LOL)

The feel of BA and LotR is similar in play. although due to all crazy variety there is alot more going on, My 12 order British Force is Paratroopers and Commandos, and comes in right at 50 painted models, while not quite halfway done, I am totally done with Paratrooper infantry on single bases, and moving on to the Commandos , still need to do the larger base stuff and touch up my Humber with some decals and finish up my Jeep. I dont feel rushed working on there guys I am batch painting the infantry around 6 at time for consistency, pretty confident they'll be totally done by the end of Feburary. I'll start leaking picks soon.  Aaron and I are also doing a table for the Bolt Action tourney
which were are in the building stage off.  Its a classic Northern Europe village set up with some great terrain features, like cobble roads, and bridge, a foot bridge..complete and ruined buildings...finish this up with take some time but I am not doing it alone and helps A TON.

preview of our Bolt Action table, long way to go yet!

Finally I mentioned Pirates!, as I freeze my arse off here, I cant forget that my Legends of the High Seas game is back this year at Adepticon and its is SOLD OUT., while only 10 players...and I think
I know most of them. I thought I'd unveil the table center piece pre paint with the gatehouse here:

Not totally cleaned up for paint yet, but very close...I plan on priming it this weekend.

 I have a lighthouse about 80 percent done and a Church about 80 percent done. Tim K, author of High Seas book is assisting me in running the event and is bring along a bunch of very period buildings from Cresent Root Studio all wonderfully painted. Those along with the my three new pieces and Rich's Ruined Pirate castle supporting my Gatehouse plus my Docks and Pirate ship...we've got one hell of alot of terrain. I'll have more on scenario and table layout in the weeks to come, I hope to have a 6 player demo version of the event here this month, until then I have the great new show Black Sails and Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag to inspire me.

While I had all this Casting going on,  I of course had to revist my Sci Fi molds get a couple ideas going, I'd really like to get some Sci Fi Skirmish going this year, and with the layout I am going to have I hope the guys cant say no. But I'll leave that for future posts.

I think you can get good sense of scale here and how it will work with the current Pirate Castle pieces we use.

Fully playable interior

Auld Lang Syne

I'm not sure where this is but, this is how I often picture the relationship between the rest of my house and my basement.

A fitting year end post, one of my recent "have a deadline projects" besides my upcoming Legends of the High Seas Event and Bolt Action Army is "cleaning out the basement", we are house shopping right now and out listing our current place in the next month. While I wouldn't call myself a "horder" I'm definitely a pack rat and every decade or so I have these massive purges, the last one was before we moved here and this one again is timed with the big move. While I certainly have a knack for holding on to stuff too long, the size my miniatures/ gaming/ Hobby material collection has grown since I moved here 10 years is exponential to say the least, I don't have the foggiest how many miniatures I have to but to just say "alot" feels like an understatement.

As a result I am getting rid of a ton of stuff, I have already downsized my number of gaming tables from the once ridiculous "more than the local game store" setup to a reasonable "2" we rarely have more than 4 guys over at once anymore anyway, I've also purged alot of hobby materials, mainly junk..I once had a fetish for picking up every damn goofy piece of junk I came across thinking this might be useful as terrain one day...which resulted in boxes of junk which went straight to the dumpster.

I'll also be selling a bunch of stuff on ebay, links to auctions will be co posted here in the next coming weeks I've let go of the personal attachment of much of my collection and decided ALL of my Warhammer stuff is going, including my epic Empire Army which is going to be sold off by unit, because I've done research and I just can't get enough for it as one army sale (from I see and am being told) I also have lots of Warmachine, Flames of War, 15mm Sci Fi, plenty of Historicals and terrain going up sale, there is alot of unbuilt opened WFB stuff going up at serious discount these would be Empire, Lizardmen and some other one off games, books, etc.

While since might sound like a "what are you getting out the hobby" type post, not even close. Again this about an overwhelming amount of stuff and one of the concessions of our upcoming move is we have to downsize.I'm still holding onto vintage fantasy, citadel, heritage and otherwise, newer fantasy (reaper , otherworld etc)all my Lord of the Rings, Empire of the Dead, 28mm generic Sci Fi, Bolt Action (GB and now GER)and of course tons of Historicals Saxons, Vikings, Spartans, as well as more Pirates than you can hit with a blunderbuss and even some Old West., in short the biggest purge is all my Games Workshop stuff I havent touched in years, plus games I invested in and only played a few times or never played.


On the positive side, I am working on finishing up the build for the gate house section of Fort San Lorenzo for my Pirate event and laying out the table..I hoping to demo the event very soon so look for that here also played another great game of bolt action again where my Red Devils continue to frustrate Aaron's Panzer Grenadiers..although my knack of rolling "6"'s and Ninja Mortar where definitely pure luck contributors in this win. Look for some Pirate and Bolt Action pics WIP and finished shots very soon.

On the blogging front, this is my lowest output in  single calendar year yet, a trend that seems to be continuing, I just dont have enough quality stuff to post and my time to gadfly comment on hobby goings on is slim to none..now that I work in a freelance capacity and am not sitting on my ass in front of computer all day, its clear that the blog has taken a hit, such is life. In short Plastic Legions is just  my personal chronicle, nothing more and will continue to be so. While with sales posts, Adepticon , the move, and another Lead Painters League I should have plenty to talk about this year.  SO to those of you who continue to stop by and see what I am up to want to say thanks , I appreciate it and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Hell Division and Wizard

I haven't had much time to blog of late but I finally got around to taking these quick shots last night. I have actually been painting quite bit and playing Empire of the Dead and Bolt Action.  Getting back into the nightly stride of painting can be challenging I'm a bit rusty but happy with these guys came out.

This wizard and imp from Otherworld miniatures, currently one my favorite wizards, from Otherworld my favorite fantasy miniature manufacturer to at the moment, I hope I get time to paint
their fantastic new Fantasy Adventurers line soon,

 

Here's my current faction I am playing for Empire of the Dead, Hell Division or the Super Natural      Division of the London Police. I currently have a crew of six, with the new Van Helsing model          filling  in for   my Police Chaplin. I dont have the Robo Dog in the list yet but hope to soon, I've   been getting  my  rear handed to me by my rival Nosferatu Faction hopefully the Chaplin will help.  I've got  3 more Bobbies and a Detective Constable ready to for paint as well                                                         

Hopefully I'll get a few more posts up before year, working on my table for the Pirates event at Adepticon and painting my Red Devils for the Bolt Action tournament.

Bolt Action - After Action Report GB vs GER

German Panzer Grenadiers (aaron)
1st Lt.    2 Troops, Veteran
Artillery Foward Artillery Observer    Veteran
Infantry Section (7) Panzergrenadier    1LMG, 3x SMG, Panzerfaust    Veteran
Infantry Section (7)7 Panzergrenadier    1LMG, Reg, 2x SMG
Infantry Section (7) 7 Panzergrenadier    1LMG, Reg, 1x Assault Rifle, 1x SMG
120mm Mortar   w/ Spotter   Veteran
MG42   Machine Gun Team Regular
SdFzk 222 Armored Car    Regular
Panzer IVh  Tank  Regular

1000 points -9 Orders

British Paratroopers , Red Devils ( John)   
all Veterans
1st Lt, +2 Troops
Paratroop Section (6) , LMG, SMG   
Paratroop Section (6) , LMG, SMG
Commando Section (6)  6x SMG ATG
Medic
Forward Observer
Vickers MMG
Medium Mortar w/ Spotter
Sniper Team
PIAT anti tank team
Humber Mark IV armored Car
6 pnd'r Anti Tank Gun
Transport Jeep with MMG



 1000 points -13 Orders

Scenario: Point Defense

So my Red Devils got another go at Aaron's Panzer Grens on Tuesday evening, we choose the Point Defense scenario which is one we have not played before. Aaron won the roll off, and choose to attack. leaving my Paratroops to defend. The board was set up as a small village on the hill with some surrounding buildings stretching across the table.

In Point Defense, the defender has three objective that need to be protected, I am also allowed to have several units in reserve. Aaron, as the Attacker must capture two objectives to win the game. I placed two of the objectives on my left, near the village and one objective on the right side near my farthest table edge.  I choose to keep my vehicles in reserve and my commandos ( who would use their "Behind enemy lines" ability later in the match), this was the first time I used a Commando section so I was curious to see how they would perform.

The rest of my army was deployed as follows:

I placed  2 Paratroop squads. my HQ section with  my1st Lt and 2 men  , 1 6pdr AT gun around objective 1.

The Mortar , PIAT team , Vickers HMG , Sniper Team, Mortar Spotter and Forward Observer were all around the large building on the hill close enough to cover both objectives.

Aaron deployed the majority his force across from the village leaving only a single 7 man squad and forward observer across from objective one..he had his heavy mortar with a MG 42 for cover in the center of his deployment zone, 

I had went first on Turn One and had my units on the right advance toward hard cover  and aarons single squad , the rest of my troops on the left were hidden or set into ambush mode,..lastly I had my FO call in some bombarments from afar...this was a particular pain the rear for Aaron as I rolled  "delay" an got to recenter my target point up to 12 inches from my intital target- I moved it right to where his troops would he advancing.

With  the threat of  heavy artillery bombardment right in his face...Aaron advance was bit shooken up -trying to advance but keep his troops apart from a potential disaster of a lucky artillery strike. He managed to maneuver and advance his scout car up toward my objective on my left flank. 

Turn Two- I make a reserve order roll and my Humber scout car comes on the board right where objective 3 is and proceeds to blow the turret right off Aarons 222 scout car...mortars , artillery and my sniper soon start hitting  put a whole bunch of pin markers all over Aarons units.

Turn Three- things get grim when my commandos and Jeep with MMG come on the board further putting causalities on the Germans. The artillery threat has forced he Panzer IV out of position and Aaron is shelling the building with my Sniper in it to little avail. On the Right side of the board my troops are advancing on Aaron's loan squad.and his forward observer. Fire is exchanges, the german take some pin markers, nothing major, my Sniper kills one German soldier.  Aaron then decides to have his FO call in artillery stike on his own position! in an epic bit of martyrdom , He  hopes to wipe a bunch of my men  but in the end takes as much as he gives..

Turn Four My farthest right squad over runs his FO and capture on building  but My whole HQ is wipoed out by aarons ambushing squad I has forgotten about, My two remaining squads, standfast both prepping for shoot -then assault- two squad attack..

Back in the village things get a litte better for the Germans  who have taken many casualties and pins, after my sniper kills his Lt..., Aaron decides he's had enough sniping he's be zeroing in with the 120mm Mortar for 3 turns now and finally scores. the heavy mortar basically levels the big building on the table, killing my sniper team and Mortar spotter. my FO survives the pile of rubble.
 My jeep and Humber are shooting at his Panzer IV and his squads and keep the pins and  kills coming

Aarons rallies a squad and rushes the clearing at the top of the hill to assault my PIAT team in preparation for his Tank to advance. The Panzer IV is pinning down my Commandos with co axial MMG fire , BUT The German assault team forgoets my Vickers MMG is close by AND in ambush and lets loose killing two of the squad. The assault advance happens but Aaron trolls terribly and loses to my PIAT team in assault and the remaining squad is wiped out.

Turn Five. My Commandos with the tough fighters rule all armed with SMGs and Anti Tank grenades- assault Aarons tank and blow it hell up . The successful vehicle assault being a nice ending to the entire left flank advance, the right flank s position is also looking grim being heavily outnumber and my AT gun can start shelling anything on the left or center of his board. Facing heavy losses the surviving Germans retreat, to fight another day.

Thoughts
This game played out with a great narrative- which is one of things I love about Bolt Action. Both our commanders KIA, artillery and mortars everywhere and  the troops carried on until victorious or forced to retreat. Aaron was knocked off his game by the turn 1 FO bombardment (we did not use preparatory bombardment in this scenario) which ended up screwing up his advance, my fast vehicles in reserve coming on strong further halted his advance where he needed a quick foothold to push on from and it wasnt there. My Commando squad with 12 dice for shooting and 18 in assault just added fuel to fire...The simultaneous push from the right really bound the Germans up. The secret to defense in this scenario was for the British to Attack!  This was definitely the most lopsided victory of our games so far, but I am sure the Germans will be back with a vengeance.

Crash and Burn

It turns out I wont be making it to Bilbo's Birthday Bash this year. The event, which starts tomorrow at 8am,  had fate working against me almost out of the gate post Adepticon and it never let up no matter how hard I fought back.  It's drag since I havent missed a local LotR event since 2009, and I was one of the last two guys who had the opportunity have said they played in all 5 of these tournaments. That honor will now fall to my Team Tourney partner, Chris. There can only be one, buddy.!

Overall it was combination of starting way too late on what I wanted to do with the FUBAD (freaking unbelievable big ass displays)  theme several of us were going for. Then life just got in way for the rest. I was on schedule even thou abit rushed until just last week when an ass kicking case of food poisoning knocked me out of the hobby game all last weekend making completion seem nigh impossible, still in my mind I calculated the sleepless hours needed to finish and there was a path!.  In the end , a last minute hiccup with child care issues for my daughters over the weekend had me saying "WTF am I doing here?" that sealed the deal for me and on Tuesday I delivered the news to our Tournament Organizer, Brent.

My mounted Witch King here is about 90% done...he was going to show up as is but since he's missing the big dance I'm putting hours more blending on him till all those color transitions are nice and smooth

Moving to dual Good and Evil armies at 750 points was quite a challenge for anyone, especially anyone with passing interest in the game since the release of the Hobbit material.  Despite my numerous fully painted armies 750 was big bump over past tourament standards and with new warband rules. I had new heroes that had to painted in both foot and mounted profiles and then the killer (FUBAD style) display which is where things went awry.

Per its registration page and what I am hearing about drops this will be the smallest field since probably the tournaments first year. A full circle closure you could say, as this will be more than likely be the swan song for BBB. Despite a brief resurgence around the release of the Hobbit, the game has suffered a steady decline overall since, I attribute this to a bunch of things, mainly
Games Workshop and its insanity and bad choices., But the crazy amount of great new miniatures games in the last couple years has had a strong hand in the fading of its diehard fanbase.  That one , two punch , combined with games overall age has put the "The Hobbit" *cough* Strategy Battle Game on the bottom of the pile when it comes to popularity.  While I'll still paint my sizable collection, when it comes to tournaments, games like Bolt Action are doing a great job of seducing all us Lord of the Rings old timers.

Whether the game becomes a one a year get together as a novelty Team event at Adepticon or sails off on the last ship to Valinor is up in the air right now. I'll be playing in the Adepticon TT this year .(especially since I missed this and I'll be right there anyway to setup and run LotHS) . but still I wish I was there this weekend. Well, I will be, but as a spectator. I told some of the guys I stop by Sunday afternoon around lunch to say hello.

Check out my pal Jeremy's awesome work over at Chef of War, he was literally cooking with gas on this project all year and knocked it out of park with his well timed Dol Guldur setup, my money is on him for all the year 5 hobby awards!..

Return of the Pirates

Now that its official, it might be time to announce the return of Legends of the High Seas at Adepticon 2014. Pirate gaming has been on the back burner for a couple years now but the interest and demand is still there, so after a bunch of back and forth I was eventually keelhauled back in to run it. I am quite confident already that with some help from Tim , the rule books author, and some other fine folk all ready secured it is going to be one hell of a game! I am running it as a big game this year rather than a traditional tournament, however its a 3 stage game so it will have that down home tournament feel. We are assembling a really great board of terrain old and new, and in honor of the most successful pirate on record and all those entertaining Rum commercials its themed on Captain Henry Morgan.

Direct from the Adepticon webcart here is the event description:

Legends of the High Seas - The Sacking of Panama, 1671

  In December 1670 and January 1671, Henry Morgan, one of the most notorious and successful pirates on the Spanish Main, destroyed Fort San Lorenzo and Burned and Sacked the City of Panama. The utter chaos that followed was a payday for Pirate and Pirate Hunters alike. Be one of 10 Privateer, Pirate or Royal Navy Crews that explore the ruins of Fort San Lorenzo and the City of Panama searching for plundered Spanish gold. Bring your Crew comprised of up to 15 men and face off on a 48 Square foot board to capture objectives, eliminate enemy crews and capture as much gold as possible in this 3 Stage, 4 hour event. In the end, only one players name will rival that of Henry Morgan, but they will damn sure know the names of the ones who almost stopped them! Awards for the top two scorers and Best Painted Crew!

10 spots , $10 dollars,  given the interest on our local forums and my inbox this should sell out right away.

I'll be posting the rules as soon they are submitted for the event, as I was working from the cancelled

2012 event most the work is done, slight changes to tailor to the event. excited to get back pirate gaming, you know we will run a demo of this event at the house before Adepticon...Arghhhh.

Empire of the Dead- Order of the Dragon

Didn't find much time to hobby this weekend, with Pumpkin Patches, a broken fridge, plenty of house work and Halloween coming up, I barely had time to base up and prime a second faction for Empire of the Dead. Fitting with the Halloween theme here is most of the new Order of the Dragon figures, which are the Nosferatu faction for the game.

Bases are made from Hirst floor pieces shaped with a dremel, I gave the Count a sword in a minor conversion

 The base Requiem set contains, The Count (Graf) the Count in bat form, 3 consorts (1 pictured here)
the Mad Man (Renfield) and a Thrall with a Gatling Gun (not pictured) The other figures are masked Order of the Dragon Thugs, a separate 4 figure set. No Guardian with the new figures (yet?) but there are plenty of other figures in the Kickstarter exclusives that can fill that role.

 A starting 150 point force for our Demo Tuesday is the Count, a Consort, 4 thralls and a bat swarm
Versus the Unwitting Policemen of the Supernatural Branch, A Detective and Sergeant, 2 Constables and the Firearms Constable, they might seem a bit outmatched at the basic level but the Police are packing a Shotgun and the Gatling Gun so we will see how that goes.

No much to look at now, but I hope to get some real paint on both factions asap, my work on the upcoming Bilbos Birthday Bash is really behind, I need a couple long painting session for some big models and my display still needs a ton of work..it might end up getting pushed back to Adepticon
but if so, I am SOL as my theme is really tied together via the display, not sure what I'll do if that doesn't come together, I know! paint some Empire of the Dead instead.....