The Webster Street Irregulars

 

Back when Osprey's "When Nightmares Come" first released, I was definitely interested - modern setting, occult enemies, ordinary people pushing back against the things that go bump in the night? That's 100% my jam. North Star offered a bundle deal, if I'm remembering right, offering the rulebook and your choice of a pack of "Apex Investigators" made by Fenris Games, to use as your monster hunters. 

 While I was at it, I ordered myself some 3D printed bases with urban detailing from Etsy. Once the figures arrived, I cut the tabs off their feet and glued them to the urban bases, feeling pretty pleased with myself. 

And then, as so often happens, they sat, unattended to. "When Nightmares Come" didn't grab me by the ears and demand I play it when I first read through it, so I shrugged and put it on the shelf with the other Blue Books, figuring I could borrow elements from it to enrich other games later on.

Recently, I read some play-reports for When Nightmares Come over on the Lead Adventure Forum, and felt my interest rekindle. And reading other people's play-throughs helped me through some of the things I wasn't understanding (I feel like the 64-page Blue Book format might have hindered this one a little bit!). 

So I've decided I'm going to make playing a full six-game campaign of When Nightmares Come my goal for October - ideally, playing the final game on Halloween. This is going to entail some painting through the month of September to get myself ready; first up, the hunters themselves, finally primed and painted and ready for action.

 While I will be giving everyone individual names and backstories, for now they're presented largely without comment:

First up is my "Weaver," in the game's parlance, a minor spellcaster with the knowledge and training to push back against the supernatural. I went with gray hair, envisioning her as an aging witch who has pulled the team together. The eyepatch, combat boots and arm bands show she's no frail fortuneteller. This is a woman who has kicked a werewolf in the nards and lived to tell the tale. 

Next up are my two "Wardens." These are characters who know their way around weapons and violence; while anybody in the game can use a gun or a knife, these guys are the best at it. According to Ian over at Fenris, the one guy is sculpted to look like celebrity chef Guy Fieri, so my bleach-blonde paint job is accurate. I'm imagining the gray-haired guy with the flashlight is a retired cop who assumes he should be leading the team. 

 Finally, my "Wrights" - these are techies, tinkerers, and modern-day alchemists creating tools from scratch - monster repellents, lures, potions of speed and healing, etc. I really like the gal with the fluffy boots and the palm pilot and had to give her some raver colors.

 Together, I'm calling them the Webster Street Irregulars; Webster Street being one of the local streets I look to for inspiration with my terrain collection. It's a lot of small shops and restaurants with apartments above, and buildings like that are going to be my next priority in terrain-building so that I can add more height to my tables. I already have one, in the form of the Nickel City Smoke Shop, and a couple more are on the way. 

I've also gotten some work done today on a few more pieces of scatter terrain - a pair of Crown Victoria police interceptors from Miniature Tanks Co. These are mostly just done in cheap craft paint, other than the lights. All that's left to do is putting some decals on them. 

 I did have to order a few more figures for When Nightmares Come, but I'm really pleased at how much I was able to pull out of my leadpile and designate towards the game. 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 212

Miniatures Painted: 215

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 9

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 15

 

Test game: Osprey's "Ronin"

 I had some free time this afternoon so I decided to squeeze in another game before the weekend ended. I've painted a fair few samurai and other Feudal Japanese miniatures this year, and I've been itching to get them on the table for a proper samurai game. I had a pair of 100-point "Buntai" lists drawn up for Osprey's "Ronin," and decided today was the day.

 A pretty simple meeting engagement to get a feel for the mechanics of the game - a Takeda Clan samurai and his ashigaru bodyguards are waylaid at a river crossing by a gang of bandits. 

 The Takeda won priority, and one of the spear-armed ashigaru moved forward; the bandit archer snapped off a shot, stunning him. Both buntai moved forward, the bandit and ashigaru musketmen exchanging ineffectual shots. During the action phase, the bandit archer fired a second shot, putting a light wound on the ashigaru he'd previously stunned. 

 The bandit second-in-command charged forward, and the two ashigaru spearmen moved forward to meet him. The melee was on!

 Here's where I got a taste of the "combat pool" mechanic - each figure has a combat pool, and when melee begins draws any combination of Attack and Defense tokens up to that number. They then use these to attack, enhance their attacks or improve their defense. Normally, you'd be playing against someone and you'd keep what you were drawing for your pool a secret, resulting in there being a bit of a gamble to each combat - you have to wager on what your opponent has in mind and how aggressive or conservative you want to be. Some of that's missing trying to play it solo, unfortunately, but them's the breaks.

Unfortunately for the bandit second in command, he gambled poorly.

 At that point, both buntai were fully committed; the spearmen moved on to engage other low-ranking bandits, while the Takeda samurai faced off with the bandit leader.

 The more heavily armored samurai buntai made pretty short work of the bandits, with the ashigaru archer and musketmen finishing off their counterparts and the spearmen carving their way through the other bandits with ease, receiving only light wounds in return. 

 With a final sweep of his sword, the samurai cut the bandit leader down, and was free to continue on his way.

 

It was a pretty quick game, only about an hour, maybe an hour and twenty minutes, and that's with double-checking the rulebook every few minutes. I feel like I got the hang of the mechanics pretty quickly, especially melee combat and the system of enhancing rolls, which are potentially not the most intuitive since it's not the same across initiative, attack and defense.

I did realize right at the end that I'd forgotten that musketfire largely ignores armor, which may or may not have made that big of a difference in this game, but will be something to keep in mind next time. 

I should get some terrain rolling for the next time I want to play Ronin as well. I do have an MDF temple from Things From The Basement to work on one of these days... Possibly in September, since I really should spend Augut focused on getting things ready for Zombie RV at Wargames Among the Warplanes next month.

A Less-Than-Frosty Frostgrave

 I went out and met up with Set (the host of our fizzled Dracula's America campaign, with an absolutely awe-inspiring terrain collection) for a game of Frostgrave today - or rather, a game of houseruled Frostgrave, incorporating some aspects of "Ghost Archipelago" and in a homebrew setting. As you can see, there's not much frost on the table!

 I brought a wargame comprised of some of my recent samurai figures, whose snow-covered bases wouldn't have been out of place in the game's original setting. We had a multi-faceted mission - hobgoblins had been raiding caravans and taking captives, and the merchants were paying for dead hobgoblins, rescued captives and retrieved artifacts. Rather than "treasure tokens," there were investigative tokens strewn across the table  - once we interacted with these, they might yield treasure, a monster, or nothing at all. 

Early on in the game, one of Set's warband members interacted with one that yielded a monster, and a roll on the table yielded a pterodactyl that over the course of the game ended up taking out a third of his warband, including his wizard.

 Meanwhile, my crew accidentally brought a pair of armored skeletons and an ogre on to the table.

 I won't get into a direct play by play here, since a lot of the particulars of what happened when seeped out of my brain on the half hour drive home. But the overall gist is that we originally focused on our objectives - taking down hobgoblins and collecting treasure. One of my Thieves unlocked the cage the captives were in, and with the help of one of my Thugs, began ushering the two captives to freedom. 

And then we started trying to kill each other. I inflicted very little harm on Set's warband, only managing to kill his warhound, while he killed outright or at least finished off most of my warband (at least, those that the ogre didn't splatter!). 

 At the end of the game, I'd killed two hobgoblins, retrieved two parcels of treasure (one containing one of the artifacts we'd been hired to go after), and rescued one captive, while Set killed two hobgoblins, retrieved two parcels of treasure (both artifacts) and managed to make it off the table with zero captives. 

 

In the post-game, my treasure resolved itself into a grimoire containing the spell "Miraculous Cure," a magic dagger that gives the wielder +1 Fighting, and 250 gold coins when combined with the rewards for the artifact and captive.  Of those in my warband who'd fallen, everyone made a full recovery except for my Archer and my two Thieves, who will need to be replaced before next game, whenever that may be. My Witch gained two levels, which I used to improve her Fighting stat and made it easier for her to cast "Curse" in future games.

All in all it was a great game and I had a lot of fun. Hopefully this turns into a more regular thing - in part because I visit Set's house so infrequently that I keep making a wrong turn on the way home that adds an extra three miles to my commute and I'd like to get accustomed enough to the route to stop making that wrong turn! 

Ashigaru - Takeda Clan

 I've continued to make progress, slowly but steadily, on some Feudal Japan figures, rotating back and forth between different groups of figures as needed while paint or washes dry. And I'm very please to report that I've finished the first batch.

 These are the ashigaru (peasant light infantry) from North Star's "Bushi Buntai" box set, one of several that were released in support of Osprey's "Ronin" skirmish ruleset. The three samurai that were also in the box may be the next figures I finish, sometime in the next few days. The sashimono back banners were completed with decals from Battle Flag, marking these men as serving the Takeda Clan. Both Perry Miniatures and Grey For Now Games offer miniatures of Takeda Shingen, lord of the clan during the height of the Sengoku Period, and I think eventually I'll have a small Takeda army. 

 Beneath the red armor, they're a little motley - shirts are either a dark blue-gray (basecoat Reaper "Midnight Blue," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted with Reaper "Twilight Blue") or a desaturated green (basecoat Reaper "Jungle Moss," washed with AP Soft Tone, highlighted with "Highland Moss"), while pants are base-coated with either Reaper "Uniform Brown," "Shield Brown" or "Cloudy Gray," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted back with the base color. 

I'm still really pleased with the winter bases. I'm looking forward to incorporating that look into some terrain pieces. 

Yesterday morning, my wife handed me her credit card and told me to buy myself some terrain to go with my samurai as a birthday present, and I ordered a few pieces from Things From The Basement that will be combined into a 12" by 12" board with some trees and scatter that can be placed on a larger tabletop.  

So let's update that tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 96

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

 

Ninja Attack!

 I'm pleased to report that I seem to have refound my painting groove and have a project going that I feel good about, I'm motivated, I'm enjoying the process. 

Back in 2024, I bought a handful of Feudal Japanese miniatures with an idea towards making that my big project for 2025, which ended up not happening beyond a few test figures. Having grabbed a few vintage figures for AEG's "Clan Wars" miniature game, I felt my interest in samurai gaming rekindle. As an added bonus, my home convention (Running GAGG in SUNY Geneseo) has announced the theme for the 2027 show as "Pirates Vs. Ninjas" and now I feel like I have a defined goal to work towards - put on a game with some ninjas in it! And it just so happens I already owned a couple of ninjas that were primed and ready to paint!

These are the "Shinobi Sisters" from Bad Squiddo Games. I've got a few more of their Feudal Japan figures waiting in the wings, and am looking forward to buying more because they're great characterful sculpts.

Rather than just going with black clothing with maybe a gray dry brush, I went with some darker colors that would actually blend into the shadows better - a very dark, drab brown (Reaper "Woodstain Brown," washed with Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed with Reaper "Powderburn Brown") and a dark blue (Reaper "Coal Black," which is actually an extremely dark teal, drybrushed with "Midnight Blue"). One of them I'd glued to a Renedra Cobblestone-patterned base; you'll see more of these as I continue through the collection of primed figures I've got for this project. I'm using them a lot for figures who are on tabs instead of puddle bases. I'm continuing the winter basing theme I started with the ghost samurai last week. 

What's next? Well, I've got some Northstar figures, designed to accompany the Osprey game "Ronin," half-painted that I'm hoping to finish by early next week. And I've started work on an Ogre Mage (inspired by the Japanese "Oni" demon) from Reaper Miniatures that I've wanted to paint for...a very long time. I think I must have seen it on their site when I first discovered Reaper 20 years ago and at the time I always passed on it in favor of getting multiple human-sized figures instead. Over the years I always had something else taking priority, but I finally bought him in 2024. Now I'm not just painting him, but giving him the absolute best damn paint job I can. Here's a WIP shot:

The fur vest he's got on is going to be painted as a tiger skin.

I was a little bad, though, and bought more figures today at Harlequin Hobby. I knew they had some Warlord Games samurai stuff on the little historical shelf they've got (which is mostly Bolt Action and a little bit of Victrix Dark Age plastics) and I decided to take a look. Along with boxes of plastic samurai and ashigaru (which, if I was a plastic figure kind of guy, I'd probably order Fireforge's sets instead), they had three boxes of metal figures, all branded for Warlord's "Warlords of Erewhon" fantasy game that I think has largely flopped. Two of the boxes were plain olive drab with the Warlord Games logo, with only a sticker describing what was inside. The third box was "Bandits & Brigands," with a characterful assortment of ten figures. This last one came home with me today.

Having opened it, it looks like the figures fit well size-wise alongside the figures I've already got. There's some bent swords that I'm hoping I can straighten without breaking, and some of the figures have separate arms to glue on. I'm looking forward to mixing them with the Grey For Now Games "Rogues & Ruffians" I have primed and awaiting my attention. 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 90

Terrain Acquired: 3

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

A Fistful of Kung Fu: Poliziotteschi Style

 My friend Chris recently suggested I give Osprey Games' "A Fistful of Kung Fu" a look; I'd seen the figure range on North Star plenty of times over the years (the game originally released in 2014), but I'd never bothered to check it out; well, now it seems the rulebook is out of print and only sold in e-formats, because I had to go to eBay to get a physical copy. It does not seem like the game made a big splash; I was actually kind of shocked at the scarcity of play reports on the web. I suspect this comes down to it being a game with a modern setting, instead of fantasy or scifi, and one that calls for a terrain-dense table. There's a level of physical investment that's likely more than most people would want to expend on just trying a game.

Fortunately, I've already made that investment with my terrain collection, and while I don't have any modern East Asian figures, I do have a lot of Mafia types, so I figured out a scenario using them in place of Yakuza. Consider this an Italian knockoff of a Hong Kong action film! 

A SWAT team, led by Lt. Lords, had to protect Angela Dellamorte, daughter of the head of the Dellamorte Crime Family, as she prepares to turn over evidence relating to her father's crimes - and his recent involvement in the occult. Papa Dellamorte, it seems, has acquired a copy of the Necronomicon ex Mortiis, and has made a pact with the Powers of Darkness to expand his own influence. 

Opposing them was one of Dellamorte's capos, Joey "The Viper" Marciano, accompanied by his right-hand man, Fat Paulie, and a number of lesser soldiers and a minor summoned demon. He'd been tasked with capturing Angela and bringing her home to her family in as close to one piece as possible for punishment. 

With the SWAT forces stopped at an impromptu barricade, a shot rang out; Mr. Fibbs, a low-level soldier in the Dellamorte Crime Family, had decided that he wasn't on board with trafficking with demons, and had offed the nearest gangster.

Marciano advanced and opened fire, gunning down Officer Rosina and sending Angela barreling into the Smoke Shop to avoid getting hit. 

Lords coolly returned fire, sending Marciano ducking for cover and killing Fat Paulie.

Officer Williams, an ordinary beat cop caught up in the action, took out one of the gang's hitmen as he darted amidst trash piled up next to the pawn shop.

Sgt. Baker spotted the Viper as he circled around the gas station, and ran forward with a shout - and got shot for his troubles, getting knocked down, knocked back and disarmed in the process. Before he could stand up, another hitman on the ramen shop roof sprayed lead downwards, killing him and Officer Taff.

Lt. Lords closed in on Joey the Viper, delivering a shot that knocked him down, stunned him and wounded him. He was quick to get back on his feet and scurry for cover behind a dumpster.

Meanwhile, Officer Beck retreated into the Smoke Shop to guard Angela.

Joey the Viper dashed around the building and shot at Lt. Lords, disarming her. "Well, well, well, little lady," he chuckled. "Looks like I've got you beat."

The hitman atop the Ramen Shop fired at Mr. Fibbs, stunning him; the Dellamorte family would want him alive for more appropriate punishment - letting him just die wasn't anywhere near sufficient.

The demon, finally accomplishing something, swooped through the air and launched itself through the front window of the Smoke Shop to try and seize Angela - only to get immediately blown away by Officer Beck. With a screech, the demon collapsed into ash, banished back to Hell.

Lt. Lords ducked for cover behind a cinderblock wall, and then rolled behind the car parked behind the pawn shop. "Enough of this," she growled, and charge at Marciano, delivering a double-fisted punch to the jaw that knocked him out cold. Officer Williams raced around to cuff the gangster.

Angela Dellamorte was safe and ready to testify, and once he was patched up, Mr. Fibbs would be too. And Joey "The Viper" Marciano was in custody. It was a damned good day for the forces of law and order!

***

So that played out very fast - I think only about 40ish minutes start to finish. I had fun with it though, and I think I got a decent handle on the rules; I didn't do much of anything with interactive terrain (though I did have brick piles on two buildings to throw bricks at each other, plus vehicles that could be hot-wired), and Joey might have gotten shot one more time then he really should have been based on his traits. The activation and reaction mechanism, designed to recreate the frenetic back and forth of a martial arts movie, I feel like I got that down really quick. 

It's definitely a game that focuses on the Protagonists - in this case Lords and Marciano - and everyone else (the Extras) are mooks who are mostly there to get in the way, or fail their activation rolls so that the turn passes to the next player. Here, they accomplished a few things against each other but a lot of them mostly just stood around or only had enough actions available to move once and end their turn. 

Overall, I'm glad I picked it up and looking forward to playing more of it.