Go West, Young Monster

 I got an invite to join a group of gamers locally who are gearing up to start a fresh campaign of Osprey's Dracula's America - a western skirmish that can be played perfectly straight as a historical western game, or can be played as gothic horror in an 1870s America where Count Dracula has become President. Yes, you read that right. 

The game had been kind of vaguely on my radar, I knew I had friends (not local) who were fans, but I hadn't been interested in picking up a new period and a new ruleset. 

So naturally, having been invited to join a group who were playing it and loved it, I picked up a new period and a new ruleset, along with one of Northstar's prepackaged warbands. Or, I should say, my wife Gina picked it up for me - the two Wargames Among the Warplanes days excluded, 2025 hasn't been a great year for gaming, especially (non-solo) wargaming, for me. She was so excited that I'd been invited to join this group that she handed me her credit card and told me to buy whatever I needed. 

It arrived today:

And after dinner I set to work getting everyone cleaned up, flash trimmed and mold lines filed before gluing them to bases.

I also recalled I had another Native American figure in one of my project boxes - a Crow Warrior Woman from Clearco Miniatures, a very small (one-man) operation out of Spain that offers an eclectic mix of Native Americans, Neanderthals and modern zombie hunters. I'd received the figure as a complimentary inclusion in an order I'd placed with Mana Press last year and, not knowing what to do with it at the time, I dug her out and assembled her (her right hand, holding a rifle, is a separate piece), adding her to the collection; she might be subbed in for one of these figures, or be available as a future member of the posse. 

Tomorrow I'll get these 10 figures primed and then I can start painting. The current plan is to begin playing some time in October and I will not be caught with half-painted figures, I can tell you that! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 167

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Wargames Among the Warplanes Fall 2025

 Yesterday I spent a pleasant few hours at the National Warplanes Museum in Geneseo, NY, attending my second Wargames Among the Warplanes show (write-up of the first here). I was scheduled to run demos of "Perilous Tales," a solo/co-op game from Mike Hutchinson, the creator of Gaslands about heroes taking on supernatural threats and trying to fulfill objectives before time runs out. 

I'd optimistically hoped to squeeze three games into my time slot (9am to 1pm), but ultimately managed two; the first with three players, and the second with two (who stuck around from the first game). I did not take nearly enough photos.

The first match was against the Gargoyles, which in my experience have been a tricky villain to fight. The heroes had to Stop the Ritual, Rescue the Prisoner and Call for Help as their objectives. They opted to largely ignore the objectives and clear the board of enemies; by staying in groups and planning their actions carefully, they were able to eliminate both master Gargoyles and the various bat swarms flocking in their wake. With all enemies eliminated and time left on the countdown clock, they then easily rescued the prisoner and called for help. 

The second match was against the Wolf Man and his lycanthropic minions. This time, the objectives were Flip the Switches, Get the Evidence and Kill the Master. Again, the players focused on killing villains - to their own detriment, as they killed the Wolf Man before they could take a photo of him! The players tried to argue for taking photos of the Wolf Man's corpse, but I reminded them that upon dying he just turns back into a human and if they want trophy shots of that then the police are going to get involved. 

I once again didn't give myself time to play in anything, but I had a really nice chat with the guy running demos of Osprey's Zona Alfa on the next table over. He had an incredible set-up and like me he likes to furnish the insides of his model buildings. He'd shifted the setting from Eastern Europe to Zanzibar and listening to him pitch the game to players made me pull the rulebook down off my shelf when I got home and give it another look. 

I did a little bit of networking and got in touch with some local wargamers who aren't beholden to Games Workshop and the Warhammer juggernaut, which was very nice, and spent some time in conversation with an older gentleman who'd been wargaming locally since 1976 and he walked me through the history of wargaming clubs in the Buffalo-Rochester area and how they've largely disintegrated into small groups of guys meeting at home versus any sort of larger community. We do have new clubs that have formed - the Whiskey 7 Wargamers, the Greater Niagara Wargamers, etc - and events like this one suggest we're working our way back towards that larger community; he described a time when the clubs consisted of some 200 people between the two cities, with about 10% traveling from one to the other in any given week for game.

I had a really good conversation with the organizer for the event, and he made a point to thank me for running these smaller indie games, and showing players that there's more out there than just Games Workshop and Bolt Action. That really meant a lot and made me feel good; I'm thinking I might run a similar demo table of Perilous Tales at Running GAGG next year as well. Maybe finally pick up some winter terrain like I've been meaning to, since the convention's in February. 

All in all it was a really good day; I don't stay for the whole show because I hate being away from my wife for very long given her health issues, coupled with a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive. I do need to invest in some good inserts for my shoes for next time though; only six hours standing on a concrete floor and my feet were feeling it! 

Perilous Tales Refresher Game

 With me running Perilous Tales this coming weekend at Wargames Among the Warplanes, I thought it best I run myself through a refresher game to make sure I knew what I was doing! It's not an endlessly complex game but it never hurts to remind myself how it goes. It also gave me an opportunity to try out the character cards I made for the assortment of heroes I'd selected.

In Perilous Tales, figures are divided into two types: Leaders and Teammates, with the number of each appearing on the table being dependent on how many players are involved. Playing solo, you have one Leader and four Teammates; if two players are playing a co-op game, each of them has one Leader and one Teammate, while with three players everyone has two Teammates and no Leaders. I made eight character cards, each with both a Leader and Teammate version of each character.

My wife supplied the index cards out of her colorful stationary collection, saving me a trip out to the store. I also had her select five characters for me, and decide which one would be Leader. 

So we ended up with:

• Billy Ray, the Mechanic (Leader)
• Lisa, the Veterinarian (Teammate)
• Larry, the Lousy Bum (Teammate)
• Cliff, the Mailman (Teammate)
• Klaus, the Thug (Teammate)

I got the table set up, and selected my villains: the Gargoyles, who are a fun and unusual menace. They operate like the "Weeping Angels" in the modern incarnation of Doctor Who - if two heroes can draw line of sight to a Gargoyle (there's two in the villain roster), it's incapable of moving. If they manage to successfully hit a hero, it's an automatic kill, and they are accompanied by bat swarms that limit heroes' line of sight. The villain roster also includes "Darkness Falls," which once activated limits line of sight to 6" for the remainder of the game. 

The heroic objectives were to Kill the Masters, Flip the Switches and Call for Help. The environmental hazards were Putrid Stench, Utterly Horrible (everyone in 6" takes a Horror Check at reveal) and Earthquake (everyone within 6" falls down automatically at reveal). The Threat Markers (covering both the villains and the environmental hazards) were arranged in the "Aggressive" pattern as determined by a die roll. 

I'm going to cut to the chase.

This game did not go well for the heroes. 

FIVE of the eight Threat Markers revealed at once. Both Gargoyles, a Bat Swarm, "Utterly Horrible" and "Earthquake" all went off at once. 

"Go ahead, Klaus. Try flipping the switch."

Klaus and Billy Ray were taken down by Gargoyles almost immediately. Lisa, Larry and Cliff spent most of the remainder of the game getting swarmed by bats as the Gargoyles crept forward slowly but surely. Cliff, especially, kept getting swarmed by bats, failing Horror Checks, falling down because he was being swarmed, and then getting up, getting a new swarm of bats on him, failing another Horror Check, and falling down again. He was up at down like three times. All three of them were killed "death by a thousand cuts" style by endless bat attacks. 

The heroes were all wiped out and didn't score a single victory point. 

I haven't laughed this hard during a war game since last Wargames Among the Warplanes when the taco truck got weaponized. 

I do think I may have unwittingly penalized the heroes with the big moving truck in the middle of the board. The heroes might have been able to do more against the Gargoyles if that hadn't been protecting the villains from heroic line of sight. I may replace that with the taco truck or leave it off all together. 

All in all, the game took about 45 minutes so I may be able to squeeze in more games on Saturday than I'd originally planned. Or I can wrap up early and finally play that Biplanes vs. King Kong game! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Wargames Among the Warplanes Fall 2025 Show Next Weekend

This coming Saturday is the fall show for Wargames Among the Warplanes, my localish (about an hour and 20 minute drive each way) twice a year one day wargaming show. It kind of feels like this one snuck up on me; I feel like the spring show was just a couple weeks ago! While I'd initially planned to bring Devilry Afoot to run a demo table of at the fall show, I feel like I haven't practiced enough with the system to feel confident teaching it. So I've pivoted, and will have a demo table of Planetsmasher Games' Perilous Tales going. I figure I can get at least three games in during my time slot, so I'm bringing three different villains and an assortment of modern figures to respond heroically. I'll keep the terrain set up the same between games so that I only need to bring a couple of buildings and a 2x2 mat.

Cro-Magnon Boss finished

 I'm pleased to say my Cro-Magnon warlord, for use in paleolithic games of Mana Press' Tribal, has been completed as of tonight. This is "Sterm Stonelund, Cro-Magnon Boss," from Lucid Eye Publications, intended for their "Savage Core" skirmish game - which I still haven't tried out; I managed to buy the first edition of the rules a week before the second edition was announced -- and the announcement went out a week before the book released! This is one of three Cro-Magnon Bosses Lucid Eye makes, more than they offer for any other faction in the game, incidentally.

I'm really pleased with how the base turned out; some torn corkboard pieces built up to form the rock outcropping, some Woodland Scenics fine "earth" flock, a few different colors and lengths of Gamer's Grass brand tufts and then some Army Painter snow over the top after everything else had fully dried. 

Here's where the Wolf Clan, my Cro-Magnon warband, stands now:

A unit of Warriors, a unit of Marksmen, two Heroes and a Warlord. One unit of Warriors left to assemble, base and paint up, and I should do a couple objective markers for them as well. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Fighting for Focus

 As you might guess from my posts in the month of August, I've been kind of scattershot. I haven't really been focused on any projects lately, just painting a few odd figures here and there - painting for the sake of putting paint on figures, versus having any sort of goal in mind. And while painting for the sake of painting is laudable in its own way, I would like to feel like I'm finishing something and moving towards playing a game with something. So it's time to set some goals.

I've got figures on the way for Mayans, to go with the "Forest of Kings" figures Chris gave me last week (I also ordered a few officer figures from Paymaster Games here in the US to round out a pair of small armies). 

I think I want to commit to putting on a game with them (maybe requiring some allied forces) at next spring's Wargames Among the Warplanes show. That gives me about 9 months to paint...let's call it 70 figures overall to cover four players, plus terrain, and playtest and master a set of rules well enough to feel confident refereeing it for strangers. About five of those months are going to be too cold and wet to do any priming or varnishing outside. 

Once the figures arrive, I'll probably spend a week cleaning the first 40 of them, gluing them to bases and getting them primed. Anything I can have prepped before the weather turns in November, I intend to. 

In the meantime...

A couple months back I painted a dozen cavemen with the intent to use them in Mana Press' "Tribal." This is also the ruleset I intend to use my Mayans with, so I think it behooves me to get them finished and on the table so I can practice the ruleset! 

I think it's fair to require myself to finish these before I can work on the shiny new Mayans, right? 

This week I've circled around and started painting their opponents, a band of Neanderthals from Northstar. I took the opportunity to use a friend's collection of Army Painter speed paints this past Monday, and got 10 warriors almost fully painted in the span of two hours. 

Pretty much just fine details, especially in the faces, and touch ups left to go on these, and bases. And boy do they need some touch ups! Unfortunately I'm the new guy in the group I paint with on Monday nights, and my spot at the painting table has less-than-ideal lighting - not an intentional thing, it's just something they never noticed when it was just three people at the table. Under my workbench lamp at home, I'm finding tons of spots I missed! 

Fortunately I made a list of the speed paints I used, and I'll be picking some up this weekend to do the touch ups that need doing under good lighting. 

I've also been working away at a warlord figure for the Cro-Magnons; Tribal calls for leaders to be based on larger bases, and given the Frazetta-esque posture of this figure, I decided building things up with cork was called for.

The top of the rock shelves will be flocked, tufted and given some snow to match the rest of the Cro-Magnons; I still have some detailing and highlighting (and again, touch ups) to go on him before I start flocking though. 

So what's left to paint for the paleolithic warbands? 

• Five Cro-Magnon Warriors
• Five Neanderthal Marksmen
• Two Neanderthal Heroes
• Neanderthal Warlord
• Two Neanderthal Civilians (objective marker)

Fifteen figures isn't too bad. With the aid of speed paints, I'm confident I can knock those out within the month after finishing these. 

Finally, I'm finishing off the last two figures I need for the Fall 2025 Wargames Among the Warplanes show which is...in just over a week. I feel like it snuck up on me a bit. 

These adorable little moppets are from Midlam Miniatures, and will be Innocents in games of Devilry Afoot - especially a scenario involving rescuing a couple of kids from a pair of hungry Bogeymen. 

So that's where I'm at. Finish these two kids, finish two warbands of cavemen, and then I can start working on armies and terrain for next spring's wargaming event. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 138