Setting the Scene

Working through my blog roll tonight I found a treasure of a post by Sidney Roundwood.  I'm going to point you in his direction for two reasons.  Firstly, this post has some great ideas and even if you only use one or two, I think they'll improve your games.

Secondly, I want to be able to find it again, and now I have a permanent link.

With no further ado Being There, by Sidney Roundwood.

Gruntz Battle Report - Federation vs Caliphate

Sitrep:  Contact reported.  Infiltration Bn elements at location 49R27438574.  1st Plt, B Co, 2nd LAR with Mech attachements.  Movement to contact.  Destroy the enemy.  Hold the town.  The APC's will advance towards the last known location of the enemy.  Mechs are scouting ahead, will rendezvous at the objective.  No Air support available.  2nd and 3rd platoons at 60 minutes for relief.  Comms plan B7.

Light Armored Recon pushing the Infiltration Bn out of the village.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Saturday was the monthly Hail Caesar game.  The local shop was running a tournament so I hosted Jonathan at my place.  Our armies have both grown to the size where we can get some interesting tactical situations going.  It was both fun, and frustrating, and resulted in a staggering loss for Rome.

By the way, I recognize the anachronism of a Roman army with an emperor fighting against Carthage.  It is what it is, those are the armies we have.

Lots of maneuver, not many Romans left.

I didn't go to Salute (or Adepticon, or Reaper Con)

Anne, of Anne's Attic has started a new meme, or at least she's started one if it takes off.  She did not get to go to Salute, or any of the other big shows going on right now.  Her suggestion is that all of us in that situation tell everyone what we did do.

I've taken the liberty to expand it from just Salute to also cover Adepticon and Reaper Con, since they are both going on this weekend as well.

Roman army - Group shot

Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar yesterday, though that's a story for another day.  Knowing that the game was coming up, I've been trying, frantically, to get everything painted.  Jonathan has done a much better job than me of only bringing painted units to the table.  March's cock up put me behind but I came very close.  Both of our armies are coming along nicely, though HC will play better with a lot more models than we have.  Still, here's an army shot, showing everything that is done so far.

All that are painted.

In Her Majesty's Name II

Yesterday I posted on In Her Majesty's Name.  I was lamenting the fact that the US Marine adventuring company appeared to have been removed.  My plan was to source minis on my own and use the build your own rules to build the company I wanted.  Happily, one of the authors commented and, very gently, let me know that I was wrong in my assumptions and that the Marines are still in.

Naturally this made me even more excited for the release.

Society of Thule from North Star Military Figures.

In Her Majesty's Name

This is yet another set of skirmish rules, though these are Victorian Science Fiction.  There is a fair amount of buzz about this set.  Jonathan, of The Inevitable Spark, has been, oh so gently, pushing this game.  From what I've seen I'm interested and it's a low bar to entry.

The cover looks awesome.  Steam, zombies and carnage.

Eastern Auxiliary Archers

Today I completed another unit for the Romans.  We had a snow storm roll in and everything was shut down, so I had most of the day to paint.  This is a unit of eight archers for my Roman army.  They did strong work in their last fight, which was their first outing, so I have high hopes for them now that they are painted.

Auxiliary archers.  

Praetorians!

Making up for March's failure, I finished this regiment of 21 Praetorians in the last week.  One will go on the base with the Emperor.  Sixteen will be in the Cohort and four are extra.  I'm really pleased with how this unit came out.  They are my favorite so far in this army.

He's so bad ass he can't even be bothered to draw his sword.

Terrain in the Grand Manner

To me, terrain is one of the most critical aspects of a table top game.  Good rules, beautifully painted minis, they all fall flat if the table doesn't look good.  Here's a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.  This gentleman does it right, in my book.  This is his Breed's Hill set up.  There's not too much on the table, but this does not look like a table.  It looks like a battlefield.  Even better is this War of the Roses table.  It may be the best looking battlefield I've ever seen.  

Image from Grand Manner Web Site

March and April

March was a complete failure for my hobby.  I didn't play a game.  I didn't pick up a brush.  I didn't assemble so much as a single 15mm figure.  Nothing.  While I have valid reasons (vacation, new job) I am still feeling down about it.

My plan for April is ambitious, probably too much so, but I have to pump it up to get my mojo back.

March.  This says it all.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gray Company

The Haradrim have been playing pretty well the last few months.  I'm still thinking of changing up the army a bit, adding more units, but I have to finish painting more Romans first.

These archers engaged in a game long duel with the Rangers.  

Painting for February

I'm a little late getting these guys up but it just got nice enough to get them varnished.  Colorado, being the weather whore that it is, gave us a little bit of everything this week.  We had a blizzard last weekend.  I drove to work in white out conditions on Tuesday.  Today it was 70 degrees and perfect.

Of course the first thing I thought of was, "I can finally get some stuff primed!".  As soon as I got home I rushed out and primed about half of what was on my work bench.  It turned out that I was out of brown primer for the horses, thus only half.

Half of one Auxiliary Cohort.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Two weeks ago Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar.  Both of our armies are growing, starting to look like real armies.  We are also gaining an improved understanding of the rules, though only playing every few weeks is not really aiding in that.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cohorts, forming the left wing of the army.

Battle Report - Harad vs Corsairs

The pirates were coming again.  Nuradan knew how to beat this old enemy.  He had fought them often enough, after all.

The Corsairs approach.

Brigade Models Sale! 25% off

Brigade Models are having a 25% off sale.  (Bugger, I said that in the title too).  This is bigger than most any sale in our little industry, and it is this weekend only.  They only announced it on their blog, so I'll throw this up in case you missed it there.

LotR Rules for EIR Romans

I've been working on a list to play skirmish games with my Early Imperial Romans.  I play LotR/Hobbit, so that seemed like a natural fit.

Round, Lord of the Rings style bases.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor

Last Thursday night was club night down at Collectormania.  Russ was the only other person there so it made the line up easy.  He brought his Gondor army, with some new models that he wanted to try out.  I had my tried and true Haradrim, who are about to undergo a major revision.

The battle lines meet.

Commission work - Necrons

I do some sub-contracting from time to time.  One of the guys down at the shop has a painting service.  He has tried everything to stay ahead, raising prices, refusing requests, he's still booked to the eyes.  When he gets behind he throws assembly work my way.

The whole army. 

Year of Rules (continued)

The year of rules is over.  It was, officially, 2012.  Having said that, I'm still exploring some new ones and two that I've got my heart set on were recently on sale.

I'm looking forward to both sets of these, as much as I've enjoyed Hail Caesar.