A Small Local Reinforcement

Just a very quick post tonight on a recent local purchase.

One of the advantages that seem to be accruing from the spread of good quality, competent 3 D printers, is that we (in New Zealand) now have access to some wargaming figures and vehicles that are the equal of anything we can get from overseas, and with the dual advantage of no international freight costs and no significant delay in receiving the goodies!

A case in point - I ordered a 28mm T34/85 tank and 5 tank riders from local (Wellington) producer Pot Belly Miniatures. The tank was NZ$25 and the tank riders $15 (halve it for sterling, somewhere in between for $US) They duly arrived yesterday, and I am pretty happy with them!

The tank came in 5 parts - tank crew (2) are just printed already in the turret - the gun was separate.

There was a little bit of trimming to remove some supports, mainly around the fuel drums and in the tracks, between the wheels,

Tank Riders added - I am not sure I can squeeze all five on one vehicle unless I glue them in place, and I don't want to do that - so may have ended up with enough riders for two tanks!

And finally, how the tank looks when painted up by Pot Belly - not sure mine will be quite this nice, but we can but try!

As I say, I think this is a good buy - a 28mm kit would be at least twice the price, and then you have all the hassle of building the thing (I don't enjoy kit building for its own sake - I do it because I want the end result!). It would be a pretty simple matter to buy one of these every couple of weeks for a month or two, and end up with all the mid-late war Soviet tanks I would ever want in this scale - its just a shame this is the one and only Soviet vehicle available from Pot Belly - if he had a T34/76, that is definitely what I would have bought first!

"Stürme den Graben" 28mm Solo Wednesday Wargame WWII

 Tonight, for a change I decided play a small 28mm Barbarossa era solo game, using the usual AS9 rules. Perhaps we can imagine it's a continuation of the right flank combat in the previous 15mm game?

I set up a trench, defended by two Soviet squads, supported by a sniper. For my game, I treated the sniper like a heavy tank - she added 3 to any roll, so if she rolled 9 or more, she would cause two hits on her target. I also ruled that the Germans could not engage her or do the usual return fire action in response to her activities.

To reflect better equipment, morale, training and tactics, I gave the Germans 15 initiative cards, including three "event" cards, whilst the Russians only had 10 cards and no specials. The Germans had three infantry squads supported by an HMG, a mortar and a PzKfw 38(t).

As the attackers, the Germans automatically got the first turn

A few eye candy pics first to set the scene of the game

German first squad and mortar on the left flank

German second squad and HMG on right flank

German third squad and 38t - hey diddle, diddle, straight up the middle!

Soviet first squad on the left

Soviet sniper

Soviet second squad on the right

After the first turn, the HMG had put a hit on the first squad

The sniper fired at the German third squad - and scored two hits - she should have targeted the HMG instead; it would have been eliminated by this score!

Next turn, the German third squad rolled this rally and removed the two hits

Combined fire from the German first squad and mortar had shaken the Soviet second squad

Meanwhile, their Wehrmacht colleagues in the third squad were also taking some heavy fire.

The mortar crew lent a hand...

.... and dropped smoke in front of them to conceal the squad from Soviet fire

The sniper Yulia lined up another shot ....

... and sent the HMG crew scrambling for cover - their gun silenced as a result!

The mortar crew targeted the second Soviet squad with HE

The constant pounding was too much for the Red Army conscripts, who abandoned their trench and headed towards the rear

In the centre, meanwhile, the third squad followed on, as the 38t crushed the barbed wire in front of the Soviet trench line.

On turn 10, the Soviet first squad was also forced out of the line by the combined fire power of the panzer, the HMG and the mortar.

The second squad meanwhile had rallied back to three hits (perhaps they saw and NKVD blocking line in the rear?) and had moved back towards their former position. Unfortunately for them, in their absence, the German first squad had advanced, cut through the barbed wire (they rolled a 9 to succeed) and then assaulted the trench. The dice rolls were even, so one hit each. In normal circumstances, the melee would have continued in the next initiative BUT the 1 hit put the Soviets back to 4, and they were forced to fall back immediately.

The 38t also breached the Russian defences

Both Soviet squads had been forced back, with the first quitting the field, so Yulia the sniper followed their lead, as the German second squad and their supporting HMG broke cover and also advanced on the now vacant Russian positions.

A quick game - I think maybe only half of the 25 turns were played, and the Germans did not even get one of their possible 3 special event cards - to be honest, they really didn't need to. I obviously need to invest in a 28mm T34!

And now, for something completely different - a garden update!

The apples on our tree are numerous this year and just starting to be ready to eat

Passion fruit a bit underwhelming after such a promising start - but we are still getting a few

And the mandarin oranges have been edible for about three months already - and are still going strong. Likewise, the strawberries, which started in early November and literally just finished of the very last of their fruit this week!

My wife is responsible for garden eye candy! These are two different types of Dahlias.

Thats my lot for tonight - no hosted games this week, so I will probably try to get another solo game in over the weekend sometime. Until then, thanks for your visit and double thanks for all comments!

Three Games and some 1:1 Scenery

 A bumper end to the week, with FtF games at Andrews on Thursday evening and at Julians on Friday!

Chris and I played two games of a Frostgrave-type fantasy game, using Andrews own rules, which have quite a lot of similarities with his WWII rules. 

As always, a very nicely "dressed" playing area provided by Andrew

I brought along my own figures (above), Chris played with some of Andrews (below) We each had - a magic user (adds 3 to 2D6 dice roll) a Hero (adds 2) 7 "grunts" (add 1) and three "minions" add 0

Andrew was game master and ran the "beasts" who would appear if a double was rolled by him OR when a "Club" came up in the deck of activation cards.

The first beasts appeared quite early in the game; a group of Orcs I think - they were off to my left rear - great!

Next up were three skeletons - they were on Chris's side of the table, which was poetic justice as Chris, in his usual "disruptor" mind set, was deliberately "running" everywhere (rolling 3 D6 for movement rather than 2) because doing so would possibly cause the arrival of more beasts, every time he did it!

Chris's band ran forwards again .....

... and this apparition appeared on our flank!

The point of this particular exercise was to a) fight each other and cause maximum casualties on the enemy and b) exit the board. Chris adopted a strategy of running hell for leather across the table, to exit as soon as possible, while hoping to generate beasts that would appear nearer my figures than his, thereby forcing me to fight them!

I, on the other hand, stuck together in one big group as I proceeded at a more measured rate.

"Run away, run away!" - Chris is pursued by the banshee or whatever it is!

Another of his groups was surrounded by the skeletons and wiped out!

My Hero(ine) dispatched an enemy figure with her trusty rapier

Another batch of baddies arrive - four Chaos Warriors

Most of my group moving across the table together

The Banshee catches up with another of Chris's groups

Four Orcs versus my Magic User - she smashed 'em, bro!

Final pic of game one - my group has to exit the board on the edge that's in view - they all did so successfully - and it turned out I had lost fewer team members than Chris, so won the game!

Game Two - I changed my squad around - might as well use as many of my figures as I can!

The Lady in Green is my Magic User this time and the blonde with the rapier is the heroine.

First beasts to appear were these three - closest to my group - again!

Once again, I decided there was safety in numbers!

Chris positioned his Magic User in over watch on some higher terrain, but I managed to keep out of her LoS for quite a while.

Zombies attack! Unfortunately, the two comely wenches were my "minions" and were both killed off rather easily.

This time, Chris piled in as well! In a series of sword fights, these four characters killed each other off!

What remained of my warband carried on across the table.

A bunch of goblins joined the fray

Magic use +3 versus Chaos warrior +2 - the heart indicates a wound. She prevailed nonetheless!

Mass skirmish between my warband and a combination of Goblins and Chaos Warriors - it was chaotic!

The remaining goblins got stuck into Chris!

The final combats, above, one goblin won, one lost and below, not much of a contest between a single goblin and the Lady in Green!

This was all that remained of the two warbands - the ladies decided to call it quits, make friends and go for a cocktail!

Great fun, Andrews simple rules provide an entertaining game that doesn't take all night to play through!

On Friday, John, Chris and I joined Julian for a game of his latest "big thing" - a boardgame called Rise of Morloch. As usual, Julian has enhanced the basic game by painting all the figures using the speed/contrast paints he now favours. Here is some blurb on the game from the net:

In Rise of Moloch, players assume the roles of different members of the legendary Unicorn Club, sworn to protect the Queen from her enemies. It is a one-against-many campaign, with one player becoming the Nemesis, the head of an underground cult with nefarious plans on their mind. Rise of Moloch is played over six Chapters with an intermission between each where players can upgrade their characters and prepare for the next round. Will the Gentlemen of the Unicorn Club be able to stop the evil plot, or will the Nemesis succeed in bringing Moloch to London?

The World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch is a Victorian adventure board game, for 2 to 5 players, set in an alternate England, where magic and technology have taken an extraordinary turn. Playable as a campaign or individual adventures, Rise of Moloch puts one player in the position of the Nemesis, against the intrepid Gentlemen controlled by the other players trying to save the Crown. Secretly activate the order of your characters through different scenarios, enjoy your steam power weapons, and save your special actions for the most opportune moments - you surely don't want to make your opponent stronger!

Rise of Moloch is a campaign driven adventure, played over a series of missions, each telling part of the overall story of Moloch's rise to power (or defeat at the hands of the fearless Gentlemen!). Each mission features a unique board setup and goals for both the Nemesis player and Gentlemen players to complete. More so, subsequent missions will be impacted by the outcome of the one before it, weaving the overall story and game-play together to make each campaign unique.

Players will each control one or more of the intrepid Gentlemen or, in the case of the Nemesis player, cunning Agents and Minions, all with unique powers and upgrades they will utilize to complete the various goals of each mission.

Now - on to the game!

Painted figures above and below - none of these were used in our particular game.

Needless to say, this was my "Gentlemen" character! Julian has done a very nice job painting Emma Swanson (below)

The gaming "table" - John, Chris and I were the "goodies" (on the right) Julian ran the "baddies"

Julian had four "agents" as well as a bunch of "minions" who started deployed on the board

The rules

We had one "ally" in this game - I can't recall his actual name but we referred to him as Cap'n Birdseye - unfortunately, he didn't last that long!

The basic premise was: the baddies had a fragment of the Stone of Morloch and the goodies wanted it. The baddies had to get it across the table and exit the far side. Any of three agents might have the fragment, the goodies did not know which one it was. If the baddies got the fragment off the table - they won. Additionally, the fourth agent was conducting a foul incantation at the far end of the board. At the end of each turn, she produced a partial zombie, and if she managed to produce a total of five - the game ended, and the baddies won! The baddies were also more resilient and took a lot more damage to kill - AND they had a Chaos card each round that let Julian wreak all sorts of mayhem on the goodies - the only advantage we had was, we could recover from wounds by spending an action doing nothing - the baddies could not.

Emma and Johns character "Electroman" confront two minion "killer clowns"

Above one and a half of Julians "agents" move down the right flank, heading for the exit at the goodies end of the table

The other agent. As an aside, the token in the room could be investigated by goodies only, each time they did so, the partial zombies on the alter of Morloch were reduced by one, thus extending the game playing time by one turn.

The fourth agent, the evil sorceress whose only role in this game was to chant over the alter, summoning zombies! Another great contrast paint job by Julian!

When asked to choose an additional weapon upgrade for a female figure, I naturally selected a whip! The two symbols mean that if an enemy suffers a hit from this weapon, they are knocked down, and when the weapon is used, Emma gets to reroll any misses - quite a handy tool!

She used the whip to great effect on the first agent. He made the mistake of doing a return fire on her with a flame thrower, singeing her silk and taffeta Dior gown - that just pissed her off! In subsequent turns , he struggled to his feet a couple of times, just to be knocked down again - eventually, he was whipped to death!

Meanwhile, this big girl (it was sort of Siamese twins, actually) confronted one of Emma's colleagues - the exit doors can be seen to his rear

Three of the four "gentlemen" headed towards the exits to try and provide a defence in depth

Meanwhile, Chris's figure, a werewolf, went from room to room, "discovering" the blue tokens and keeping the zombie count on the alter under control.

By this stage, we were pretty certain the fragment we were searching for was in the possession of the "woman" in pink. Annoyingly, she had a special ability to convert a "hit" on one of our side into hypnotic possession. Once a hit was achieved, she could take control of our character, move it, then get it to fire at or melee with another one of our team! She did this about three times, and every time, targeted Emma!

The end of the game - we were unable to prevent "mop head" (as I christened her) from escaping through the exit doors - damn it!

The evil sorceress had only managed to accumulate three zombies, even though we had played six or seven turns - that's thanks to the efforts of Chris.

This game is superficially similar to Zombicide - but it is A LOT harder for the goodies! In Zombicide, it feels like its deliberately designed to make it relatively easy for the characters to defeat the zombies, almost every time. That is definitely NOT the case in Rise of Moloch - it's pretty hard to win against the enemy - even the minions ignore the first damage, so if you roll three hits, they only need to roll two saves - and obviously, if you get one hit, they don't even have to roll! The dice used are the same concept as Commands and Colours - there are symbols on each face, rather than numbers, and certain symbols indicate a hit if rolling as the attacker, or a save if rolling as the defender. Good fun for a beer and pretzels type of experience - I would not want to play it all the time (its designed for a campaign of linked games but I don't think we will be doing that!)

Finally in this post, some more work for the New Zealand Tourism Board 

The trip from Pukekohe (top of map) to Sanctuary Mountain took about an hour and forty minutes this morning

Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari is a mainland ecological island surrounded by the world's longest pest-proof fence. It's located between Matamata and Waitomo in the North Island of New Zealand. At Sanctuary Mountain you can experience New Zealand the way it used to be - an ancient, vibrant pest-free forest alive with native wildlife such as birds, skinks, geckos, frogs, bats and insects. Step through the pest-proof gate into another world where ancient New Zealand forest towers majestically above well-maintained walking tracks and the air is filled with birdsong.

Our friend Casey told me to "suck it in", so God knows how bad it looked in the unsucked version!

As soon as I saw this fence, it reminded me of the Iron Curtain borders between Warsaw pact countries and the West!

Great day out, the birdlife was very impressive - the birds had little to no fear of humans and would be happy to sit within 4- 6 feet of us while we took pictures etc. - and the birdsong was amazing, too.

Thanks, as always for dropping by my blog and I hope you feel inclined to leave a comment!