Merry Christmas 2024

 Best wishes of the holiday season to everyone out there in wargaming bloggerland; may the season bring you good food, fine company and plenty of toy soldiers and reading material.

My wife Gina outdid herself this year; for the past few years I've been a big fan of the painting "Military Tactics" by Alfred Lyndon Grace, which shows two boys playing toy soldiers while their grandfather watches and offers strategic advice. It's regularly my top banner pic on Facebook and occasionally my desktop wallpaper. 

Gina went and got me a framed printed of "Military Tactics" for me to hang up on a wall somewhere here in the house; it's likely going to be the dining room, since the dining room table pulls double duty as my wargaming table. Probably going to end up being in the same spot where my dad hung his framed print of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" for many years. 

(As an aside; we spent a night at the house back in April, while my parents were on vacation, to get a sense for what the house was like at night. Gina's comment was, "there are more pictures of George Washington on the walls then there are pictures of you or your sister." Perils of being a family of historians!)

And then to top me off, she also got me an MDF building for my modern wargaming tables; a pawn shop from Atomic Laser Cut Designs. I'd first heard about ALCD from Mr. Martin at The Safe Hole, who gave them a shout-out after buying some Old West buildings from them. I'd had my eye on their "Big City Streets" line and put a couple options on my wishlist for Gina to pick from. Since a lot of my building choices are inspired by the Rust Belt surroundings I've spent my entire life in - and thus are dingy, rundown, obviously not a wealthy area - she chose the pawn shop to go along with the bingo hall and trailer park I've already got. 

Manufacturer's photo of the assembled kit

I've already got some ideas for painting and furnishing; I'm also looking at graffiti decals I can apply to the walls especially around the back of the building...

Final Figures of 2024

Last night and this morning I parked my butt at the work bench and finished off a group of figures that have been sitting half-done since September. I might putter away on some scatter terrain over the next few days, but these are going to be the last figures I finish before the end of the year.

First up are a pair of "Black Widow" esque female special agents from Hasslefree Miniatures. The bodysuits will probably get a coat of gloss varnish after I matte spray the figures.

A pair of more heavily-armed zombie apocalypse survivors, again from Hasslefree. Trying a different color for the gun stocks here, a base of Reaper "Bronzed Shadow" highlighted with "Leather Brown."

These two, again from Hasslefree, are my favorites of this bunch. Firefighter with a very large machine gun and an older guy in a beret with an M16, painted with camouflage pants. 

And finally we have "Crazy Mark," a fireworks salesman from Black Site Studios. I got him packaged with the fireworks stall I built back in September. The detail is a bit softer on this resin figure but it's a fun sculpt; a one-armed chainsmoker selling fireworks is not something you see very often in the hobby space! 

"Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?"

 A little something I threw into my last order from Crooked Dice - "Bold Planner B," clearly intended as the villainous Hans Gruber (played by the late, great Alan Rickman) from 1988's DIE HARD. 

A former member of the Volksfrei terrorist organization, Gruber organized a heist to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from Nakatomi Tower during the annual Christmas party. Unfortunately, NY cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) was present in an attempt to repair his relationship with his wife, and was able to foil Gruber's plans.

I clipped the figure off his tab and glued him to a resin "industrial" base I'd grabbed off Etsy to represent the roof of Nakatomi Tower. 

Because it's set during a Christmas party, there's a lot of chatter on the internet about DIE HARD being a Christmas movie. I'm not that wild a fan of the film - it's fine, but not anything I feel an urgent need to rewatch every year. My wife does consider it part of her Christmas traditions though, so I painted this up as a pre-Christmas gift for her. 

Perilous Tales: Wolves in the Streets

 I'd left my set-up from last night's game in place on the table, and was able to have a second game of Perilous Tales tonight. I removed the ponds and added a bit more scatter; I kept my crew of heroes largely unchanged as well. After selecting the Wolf Man as tonight's villain, I used the recommended method of selecting my objectives, by drawing cards.

The results that came up were "Set the Explosives," "Call for Help," and "Destroy the Idol." A narrative began to suggest itself...

The Las Lobos used to be just another street gang. Then they stole the Cursed Idol of Ish-Kabibble, and things got...hairier. The Las Lobos were soon living up to their name, possessed by wolf spirits and terrorizing anyone who approached the blocks they claimed as their territory. A group of concerned citizens have taken it on themselves to deal with the Las Lobos once and for all - destroying the Idol, dynamiting their hideout and calling the police to clean up the mess. 

Our heroes began to advance across the board cautiously, with Maria moving ahead to trigger the nearest threat marker - a wolf darting out in front of the bingo hall and lunging at her. 

Maria disengaged and stepped back, shooting at the wolf before Jean-Baptiste finished it off. Moving forward, Larry triggered the next threat marker - another wolf, quickly dispatched.

Maria continued towards the pay phone to begin calling for help, while Billy Ray hefted his wrench with an eye towards smashing the Cursed Idol. Unfortunately, Maria triggered three threat markers at once - all three of which were Perils instead of Villains. I drew three cards to see what they would be; "Unsteady Underfoot" (revealer has to make a skill check or be knocked prone), "A Thousand Cuts" (revealer takes a skill 3 attack), and "Creeping Horror" (skill checks at disadvantage). All three of these are persistent Perils, creating a zone surrounding the payphone AND the Cursed Idol where anyone entering has to check against being knocked prone and has disadvantage on that check, AND potentially takes damage. 

Let's call that a ruptured sewer line to cover all three Perils. 

Larry and Cliff both failed Horror checks and started to retreat towards the starting board edge, while Maria advanced towards the pay phone and Billy Ray approached the Idol. Jean-Baptiste approached the taco truck to plant explosives but failed to do so before another wolf lunged at him. 

Meanwhile, Cliff quickly ran afoul of a Young Werewolf, quickly getting bitten:

Billy Ray took a swing at the Cursed Idol, but in so doing drew the attention of the Master Werewolf.

The Master Werewolf swung ineffectively at Billy Ray; meanwhile Maria and Larry managed to plant batches of explosives. 

Cliff, stumbling back from the Young Werewolf, managed to shoot it enough times to kill it. 

Larry ducked around the fight against the Master Werewolf to try and plant the final set of explosives, but failed to do so before time ran out. 

So let's tally up points! One point for all of my team members surviving, another for my leader surviving, another for the "Thrown Together" template. Two points for the two bundles of explosives planted. And another three points for team members alive after the successful Call for Help. That's 8 points! That qualifies as "A Tale Fit for the Telling," and I'm pretty happy with that. 

I might manage another game on Saturday, but we'll see how things go. 

Perilous Tales: Storm Warning

 With my wife Gina's encouragement, I got the table set up tonight for another game of Perilous Tales from Planetsmasher Games. With the release of the rulebook at long last, a return to this solo game was long overdue. Somehow I'd gone more than a year without playing Perilous Tales, with the last game being cartel soldiers vs. gargoyles in July 2023. 

I set up an urban table with a battlemat from Mats by Mars and a mix of 3D-printed and precolored MDF buildings. Selecting my villain, I got inspired and added a few ponds from Monster Fight Club to represent flooding in the streets. A few vehicles and some scatter rounded things out, and my heroes would be the five armed civilians I posted yesterday. Perilous Tales now offers team templates you can apply to a group of heroes, and I chose "Thrown Together" -- the leader can no longer use the "Pep Talk" or "Call Over" actions, since the rest of the crew doesn't have a history of trust with them, but the group gets +1 victory point when the game is over and results tallied. 

I chose objectives, instead of generating them randomly, and gave myself "Call For Help," "Obtain Evidence," and "Escape." So my heroes needed to reach the pay phone and call for help, take a photo of the Villain, and then escape off the villainous board edge. 

And who is that villain? The Swamp Fiend, here portrayed by a Reaper Bones Gator-Man. He'd previously appeared in another game of Perilous Tales. Tonight, he was less a Swamp Fiend and more a Sewer Fiend. 

With the streets of Anyville, USA flooding and a torrential storm rolling in, Jean-Baptiste and a handful of fellow citizens cautiously began to investigate strange shadowy shapes lurking and mysterious bellowing noises. 

Unfortunately, Cliff the mail carrier triggered a profoundly noxious belch of trapped gas from the sewer (peril, "Putrid Stench") that hung over the bingo hall. As he staggered back from the smell, he drew the attention of two shadowy figures...

An alligator and, worse, a hulking alligator-humanoid hybrid, lunged. Cliff was dead before he hit the ground. Jean-Baptiste shot the alligator twice, killing the brute, while Larry took a shot at the Sewer Fiend. Billy Ray, the mechanic, charged towards the Sewer Fiend with his wrench, and Maria tried to skirt along the front of bingo hall to reach the pay phone to call for help. 

Another alligator spawned and attacked Maria; she managed to slip out of combat and try to make it to the pay phone despite being injured. Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste tried to take a photo of the Sewer Fiend but fumbled it, and Billy Ray tried his best against the Sewer Fiend in hand to hand combat. 

With Maria in trouble, Larry tried to make it to the pay phone as well; more alligators spawned, and Maria was quickly eaten while Larry (possibly protected by the stench of BO and despair radiating off his stained undershirt) managed to make it to the pay phone.

Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste managed to snap a photo of the Sewer Fiend and tried to sneak past it to safety.

"Yeah, hi, I'd like ta report some big bitch gator-man in downtown Anyville..." Larry's phone call was interrupted by a humanoid figure in white coveralls and a respirator emerging from the shadows.

"The experiment must not be interrupted," the figured intoned in a muffled voice. 

"This just ain't my day," Larry thought to himself as the alligators convened on him.

(I needed to spawn two additional minions when Larry called for help, but all my painted crocs were already on the table, so I improvised. What experiment is he talking about?)

A second coverall-clad figure appeared in the doughnut shop and began silently observing Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste gave him the slip and managed to take only a glancing hit from the charging Sewer Fiend. Escaping from combat, Jean-Baptiste took off running for safety. But will it be enough?

So let's add up those victory points, shall we? Jean-Baptiste successfully took a photo of the Sewer Fiend and was alive at the end of the game, so that's 3. He escaped off the villainous board edge, so that's another 1. We called for help and not everyone was dead at the end of the game, so that's another 1. And my leader was alive at the end of the game, that's another 1. And +1 VP for the "Thrown Together" team trait. So that's a score of 7, which is "Adequate!"

I always enjoy Perilous Tales, and I'm so glad to see Mike Hutchinson return to it and put out a finished version. I like the addition of team templates, and I like that Perils are now officially randomly determined instead of tied to specific battlefields. I miss some of the Villains that didn't make it into the final book, but I can recognize the utility of restricting it to 10; maybe there will be a supplement at some point to bring back villains like the Blob, Triffids, the Witch and the Robot Master. 

The idea to have the streets be flooded - even if it was largely just a cosmetic thing - came from my favorite horror movie of the last decade, 2019's CRAWL. A fairly "simple" but well-done killer animals film, it's the story of a woman and her father trapped in a rapidly-flooding house during a hurricane, menaced by voracious alligators in their efforts to reach safety. Once I knew I wanted a city streets battlefield and I'd be facing alligators, I immediately thought of CRAWL and nearly derailed my plans to play tonight in favor of giving it a rewatch. 

Gina has suggested I keep the table set up and play another game tomorrow - and yes, I agree, I did marry very well! I've left the scenery in place, though whether I get a game in tomorrow night or not remains to be seen. It might have to wait until Friday. 

Either way, this was an evening really well spent, I'm happy to be playing Perilous Tales again and I'm very happy with the finished rules. I highly, highly recommend taking this game for a spin. 

Armed Civilians

 I think I want to get back to posting on this here blog versus social media. First, it's better for my mental health to be spending less time on those other sites, and two, I think it'll help me with accountability in terms of painting versus buying. 

To that end, here's a mix of armed civilians I dug out of my various project boxes and threw some primer on last week. Painting concluded last night - with the basing dry I just have to dust the edges clean. 

"Maria," from Hasslefree Miniatures. A very animated-yet-relaxed pose!

"Jean-Baptiste," from Hasslefree Miniatures. 

"Billy Ray" from Hasslefree Miniatures.

An unnamed goon from Brigade Games' "Drug War Z" range. Loved doing the sweat stains!

Another "Drug War Z" figure.

This last figure's jacket reminded me of Cliff Clavin from the show Cheers, and so he's been painted as a United States Postal carrier. My dad was a mail carrier for almost 30 years, and so when I showed him these pictures, his only comment was "I know what he's going through."

So what's next on the table?

Well, it is almost Christmas...

I'm personally not that keen on watching "Die Hard" as a Christmas movie, but I love Alan Rickman and this figure from Crooked Dice is an incredible likeness. He's been clipped off his tab and glued to a resin "industrial" base to represent the roof of the Nakatomi Tower. 

Figuring Out 2025 Plans

 So first thing's first - I haven't done any gaming lately. Haven't gotten my army to the game store for Warhammer: The Old World. Kind of...not really feeling it? I've just been really tired lately; both physically because insomnia's been on me like stink on a monkey, and mentally drained by holidays, adjusting to homeownership, and caring for my spouse, who's been having mobility issues lately. It's hard to justify trips to the hobby store right now as well - my beloved cat Atticus is going to need a couple hundred dollars' worth of  of testing done at the vet's office in the new year, as the old gent is likely experiencing arthritis pain in his hips, has a heart murmur, and needs bloodwork done to get his new vet to sign off on renewing his thyroid prescription. So I am looking at putting away money towards those bills in advance.

I have been painting a fair amount of scatter terrain, and working on some modern figures:

Pallet of cash by Miniature Building Authority

Junk Pile w/ Engine and Dead Donkey by MBA, mattress by Crooked Dice

Sweaty lowlife by Brigade Games

Which brings me to looking ahead to 2025. I know, I know, I've had two posts about this before, outlining plans for prehistoric and samurai wargaming as focuses for the year upcoming. But I think I need to be realistic and take a few things into account. 

I've got a bit less in the way of disposable income right now regardless, because we've got property taxes, school taxes, things I didn't have as a renter. And it's a hundred year old house; it does take some upkeep. 

So starting new periods, and building accompanying terrain collections, seems ill-advised. I have a respectable collection of modern buildings, roads, fences etc., and expanding my scatter for modern games, and a number of the games I enjoy playing fit that time period perfectly - Fistful of Lead, Majestic 13, and Perilous Tales - which is newly out in finished PDF! 

I'm laying out three goals for myself for 2025:

• Remain focused on one setting - modern-era urban environment, reflecting the Rust Belt surroundings I've spent my entire life in. 
• Play two games a month, solo or otherwise. Especially in the winter months it's going to be solo games. Having friends over and hosting games of Fistful of Lead or co-op games of Majestic 13 when possible. 
• Paint more than I buy. Moving this year really showed me just how big my leadpile has gotten, and I'd like to work that down if possible. Maybe I should make this a goal of needing to paint one figure for every new figure I want to buy and add to my collection. Either way, I intend to track both figures painted and figures purchased in 2025. 

I don't know how I'm going to count terrain painted towards my painted count for the year, if at all. 

A corollary goal to #2: I've had this idea in my head for a while now of putting on a big participation game for Halloween. Jaye, the author and publisher of Fistful of Lead, does a big annual zombie-hunting game for Halloween where 4-6 players have try to fulfill objectives while zombies spawn randomly at a half dozen points on the table. I'd love to do something similar, set up a big urban table and have a few friends over for pizza and a game where street gangs and the police fight among themselves while also trying to fend off waves of zombies. It would mean an investment in zombie figures (doable), but I think it'd be a really fun time. 

So I think, with three weeks left in 2024, I have an actionable plan for responsible hobbying in 2025. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, but let's see how long I can make this last.