Monday Night WIP

I got a little bit of painting done tonight - the high humidity definitely slowed the drying time of my paints, meaning I got less done than I would have liked, but I still made some definite progress.  Four figures, all intended for Frostgrave; a pair of Reaper Bones "Anhurian Crossbowmen" will be joining the Diabolists of Belphegor, as will "Deladrin, Female Assassin" in the role of Thief.  My lineup for that warband, then, will be Wizard, Apprentice, Knight, two Crossbowmen, two Thieves and three Thugs, though I'm debating painting a couple extra Thugs to take the place of the Thieves.  The limited palette of dark red/black/gray/brown/steel/bright red definitely speeds the painting process and allows for assembly-line painting.

 Behind them, resplendent in his golden armor...*gasp!* Could this be the Lich Lord himself? Reaper's "Skeletal Champion" certainly has the supervillain pose and cackling, wide-mouthed skull to be the legendary undead wizard.

Fingers crossed that tomorrow night I'll be able to get down some tarnished steel on the armor and weapons of the Crossbowmen and Thief, pick out trousers and maybe do their various leathers; Deladrin is wearing studded leather armor and the guys have an assortment of belts, quivers, backpacks, and of course boots to be done in Reaper's "Lonestar Leather," a shade reminiscent of GW's "Snakebite Leather" from back when I originally got my start painting toy soldiers.  I'd like to be able to highlight the Lich Lord's skull and paint the rocks he's standing on while I'm at it.

While I won't be meeting Tom for Frostgrave this week, it simply will not do to show up with half-painted figures.  No sir.

A Time To Harvest Session 8: Champagne Wishes

Running a little behind schedule in posting this session's write-up, as I've been in giddy wargamer mode since Wednesday, building terrain and tweaking my warband in preparation for a future game of Frostgrave.  It's also been far too humid (it hit 93% humidity the other day...walking outside was like swimming in hot chowder) to do much painting - I know my spray primers won't stick to my ruined buildings in this weather, and I'm a little afraid to apply paint to miniatures for fear of it not drying properly. So I guess I should stop procrastinating and finish this write-up!

Dramatis Personae:

•  Darren Gray (played by Mike), engineering major and member of the fencing team 
•  Perry Webster (played by Dan), journalism major, on assignment for the Miskatonic Crier 
• Nathanlie Wingate Peaslee (played by Kai), folklore major, daughter of psychology professor Wingate Peaslee, granddaughter of economics professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee 
•  Nick Jackson (played by Greg), private investigator

After listening to the recording of a "metch kangmi," one of these alien Outer Ones, being interrogated, the Investigators came away less than impressed with the scientists at Federated Oil & Chemical, convinced that they have no idea what they're doing in regards addressing the apparent invasion of Earth by the Outer Ones.  Regardless, and keeping in mind the blank check penned for them by Abelard, they continue their firearms training.

The night before they're scheduled to return to Cobb's Corners, the Investigators are summoned by Selena Preston to the conference room on the fifth floor.  Not sure what to expect, Nick showed up armed.  Looking very serious for a moment, Abelard cracked a smile and drew forth an iced bottle of very high quality champagne.  "To our successes," he toasted.  Selena turns on a radio, and everyone begins to let their hair down.

Then, the power goes out.  By the time flashlights are rounded up, someone has slit Michael Abelard's throat, ear to ear in perfect silence.  Those closest to him at the table - David Drake, Nathanlie Peaslee, Peter Murdoch and Morrison, the security chief, were questioned closely, and frisked for weapons - both Morrison and Peaslee had knives in their boots, but these were all clean.  Darren and Nick attempted to search the conference room for invisible assassins by spraying champagne around the area, while Perry and Larry Nekler, the expedition's mechanic, made their way down the stairs to try and fix the power in the basement.

They were interrupted as they passed the fourth floor - from within, they could hear screams, gunshots, and a gutteral, booming croaking sound.  Sneaking past, they were met by opposition a level down - two green-scaled humanoid frogs, standing each six feet tall, still sloughing off the crusty yellow membrane that had sealed them in suspended animation - the "mummies" being rehydrated in the lab.  Perry stumbled retreating up the stairs, but managed to grab a fireaxe off the wall and swing at the lead of the two creatures.  The creature retaliated with a swipe of a huge, webbed claw that almost disemboweled the junior reporter.

Growing uneasy, Nick and Morrison head down stairs to help Perry and Nekler, stumbling into their fight with the two frogs, wherein their firearms made a distinct difference, though Nick's .45 jammed on its second shot.  One frog dead and the other in retreat, Nick helped Perry back upstairs to get medical attention while Morrison and Nekler continued to the basement.  A glance back showed Nick six more frogs emerging from the fourth floor, their claws and jaws bloody, and descending the stairs.

With Perry soon taped up, Nick rallied the group, rearmed, and led the group downstairs to see if Morrison and Nekler were still alive.  Muddy footprints and broken doors revealed that the frogs had left the building and made their way into the Detroit River.  The on-site staff -- security guards, maids, cooks, and lab scientists -- had been torn apart and partially devoured by the amphibious humanoids. And the building's wiring had been torn to shreds at the fuse box.  Nekler and Darren managed to jury-rig a temporary work around to get the building's lights back on.

With Abelard dead and no sign of his assassin (and the looming possibility that one of those present was a double agent for the metch kangmi), the Investigators debated the wisdom of continuing on with their mission to Cobb's Corners, ultimately agreeing that it would be best to launch an attack now, when the metch kangmi expect them to be disorganized and confused.

We Built This City (on Frost and Graves)

Inspired by Tom's buildings from Wednesday night, and wanting to both beat the oppressive heat and humidity Rochester was experiencing today and avoid writing about Tuesday's Cthulhu game twice (I already wrote my write-up for Chaosium today, now I'm procrastinating on the blog post) I decided to start assembling some of my "Ruined Hamlet" from Warlord Games.

The Ruined Hamlet is really just three Ruined Farmhouse kits in one box; taking one baggie of pieces out and opening it, I began dry-fitting pieces together and figuring out what I wanted to create; I decided on one relatively-intact building and two smaller, more rubble-y pieces.  I retrieved my trusty bottle of superglue and set to work.

The biggest struggle I had was with gluing in the wooden loft of second floor; I felt like it wasn't real secure just glued to the wall the way it was, so I decided to reinforce it with a few toothpicks.  Once everything's painted I think they'll blend in nicely and keep the piece sturdily in place.  A Reaper Bones "Anhurian Crossbowman" demonstrates how nicely the loft will serve as a sniper's nest in Frostgrave.

I really like the little piles of rubble Warlord Games included; they're really good for supporting a join where two wall-pieces meet and keep them aligned properly, and likely will make the buildings a little more stable on the tabletop.

One down, two to go!

Batrep: First Frostgrave Match

Last night I played my first game of Frostgrave, against my friend Tom at our FLGS, Just Games Rochester.  A veteran wargamer who hadn't gotten his Frostgrave figures built yet, Tom provided the scenery (a mix of Warlord Games ruined hamlet, some old GW scenery and homemade stuff) while I provided the armies and treasure tokens.  He remembered a tape measure, which I'd forgotten, while I brought a laser pointer (borrowed from my cat) to check line of sight.

Tom took control of "The Undying Host of Sutekh-Ra," an Egyptian mummy-themed Necromancer warband, consisting of a Wizard, Apprentice, three Men-at-Arms, two Thugs and two Warhounds (represented as scarab swarms).  I, in turn, took "the Diabolists of Belphegor," a Summoner warband consisting of a Wizard, Apprentice, two Knights, three Thugs, one Thief and two Warhounds.

Rather than a pitched battle, we decided to dice for a scenario, ending up with "The Complex Temple," in which the treasure tokens are clustered at a central location and guarded by animated columns.

So here's the layout of the table, from my perspective:

I ended up with a bit of a bottleneck to maneuver my troops through, but them's the breaks.  Now, I don't remember the exact play by play, but I can give you some highlights:

Tom took an early lead in pursuing treasure, his Wizard Sutekh-Ra and three Men-at-Arms surging forward to claim the first treasure token on the board while Belphegor led a contingent of his forces through the bottleneck, and his apprentice Bifrons led another contingent over the wall.  The thief Tiviel, accompanied by a Warhound, worked her way east to try and claim the outlying treasure token.

Seeking a little bit of heavier support, Bifrons tried and failed to summon a demon, while Belphegor succeeded (with a natural 20 on his casting roll), calling up a six-armed, snake-tailed Minor Demon.

His jubilation at this summoning was short-lived however, as Sutekh-Ra swept forward and cast Bone Dart twice before the Demon could react, sending it back to the Lower Planes in a puff of smoke.  The necromancer directed his Men-at-Arms to deal with Tiviel, while his apprentice, Skelos-Ptah and two mummified thugs, clambered into the temple, two swarms of scarabs sweeping wide across the battlefield.

In response, Belphegor launched his own assault on the temple, sending Bifrons, two thugs and the vicious albino knight, Lady Cassiatta, over the wall as the remaining thug, warhound and the hellborn knight Vaeloth assaulted their way up the stairs, with Belphegor holding back from the fray.

Swooping forward, Sutekh-Ra silently bashed Bifrons' head in with his staff, sending the young diabolist to an early grave and a place in Hell.  Belphegor responded with an Elemental Bolt, blasting his mummified opponent but failing to destroy him.  Sutekh-Ra replied with a dismissive gesture, and Skelos-Ptah cast "Push," sending Belphegor hurtling backwards.

Vaeloth and Cassiatta entered the fray, with Cassiatta engaging Skelos-Ptah, Sutekh-Ra coming to his apprentices' aid, and then Vaeloth charging in to assist Cassiatta.  In a moment, Vaeloth and Skelos-Ptah were both dead, Tiviel and the Warhound with her had been slain by Men-at-Arms and scarabs, and Thug slew Thug.

Sutekh-Ra's Men-at-Arms converged on Belphegor, and while he made a good accounting of himself, he ultimately fell before their ancient blades.  Sutekh-Ra himself dispatched Lady Cassiatta with a swing of his staff; the three remaining Thugs Belphegor had brought with him shouldered their bundles of treasure and beat a hasty retreat, as Sutekh-Ra and his two surviving Men-at-Arms cleaned up the battlefield.

All in all, we each claimed three treasure tokens, and while we didn't tally up experience points, I imagine killing my wizard and apprentice would put Tom ahead of me this game - but we'll still call it a draw.

I had a blast with this; I've got a set of the ruined buildings that Tom had here, and I'll be assembling them this weekend to be able to bring to our next game.  Between set-up, break-down and figuring out the rules as we went, this game ended up lasting about two hours, which was not too shabby,

What I was not anticipating was how different this experience was from my usual RPG experience; I came away from this game much more relaxed, less spent, than I do from running an RPG session.  Not surprising, really - here I wasn't having to jump through hoops and think on my feet in response to the chaos 4+ players bring to the table, it was just me and Tom engaging in a gentlemanly proxy war.

More than anything, it left me wanting more, more, MORE! I can't wait for a rematch with Tom, and I'm eager to engage some of the other patrons of Just Games who have Frostgrave forces handy.  I've even begun bandying around talk on the store's Facebook page about setting up some sort of Frostgrave league.  Wargaming has proven thusfar to be everything I've wanted it to be since I first set foot in a Games Workshop store in high school, and I couldn't be happier.

Frostgrave Tonight

Tonight I will be playing my first game of Frostgrave, and my first wargame period - Yes! After years and years of painting toy soldiers and day-dreaming about pushing them across a table in mock combat, it's finally happening.

I'm hoping my generalship will look like this:



But I imagine it will be more like this:



Either way, wish me luck and expect an after-action report!

Additions to my Frostgrave Bestiary

I just got a few figures finished, additions to my bestiary of Frostgrave monsters - specifically, a couple skeletons, some armored skeletons, and a Frost Giant (as represented by a Hill Giant, as I've wanted this specific figure since it was first released in metal, and I'm not super keen on any of the currently available Reaper Bones Frost Giants).  I apologize for the lousy lighting - I'm taking pictures in my kitchen (the backdrop is actually my refrigerator), and I think I need the early afternoon sun filtering in combined with the overhead lights to really bring out the colors of the figures.

very basic color scheme, since these are mooks that'll go down easy in a fight.

debating going back and adding a patina wash to the bronze armor on these guys.

can't be read from here, but I wrote some rude messages in runes on his armor.
His shoulder pad reads "SONS OF YMIR" and his belly plate is just plain vulgar.

I was originally going to do runic tattoos with a "viking biker gang" theme - LOVE and HATE
on his knuckles, for example, and SONS OF YMIR was originally going to be done across
his shoulders, but I was nervous about messing it up.

I'm really pleased with how this bunch came out, and I'm even more pleased to report I'm finally getting to play Frostgrave this week; my friend Tom bought a copy of the book from our FLGS and will be borrowing one of my warbands to test it out with.  I will be posting an after-action report Wednesday night or Thursday!

Planning Ahead for the Painting Challenge

last year's logo

I may be getting ahead of myself, but it occurs to me that it's just a few months until Curt over at Analogue Hobbies announces the 7th annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  I think I should probably start thinking about stockpiling figures and getting what needs to be cleaned and primed done while the weather's warm enough to prime outside.  Nothing gets a drop of paint before the challenge begins - that would be cheating!

First up, taking stock of my current lead-pile.  Here's what's currently in my stash:

12x Foundry Valkyries
1x Reaper "Ice Queen"
1x Reaper "Cactus Joe, Gorilla Gunslinger"
1x Reaper "Magda Mintsilver, Female Dwarf"
1x Oathsworn "Female Fighter"
1x Oathsworn "Pregnant Villager" (given to me as a freebie for supporting their "Heroines in Sensible Shoes" Kickstarter)
1x Dark Fable "Prophet of Set"
6x Dark Fable "Cultists of Set"
1x Reaper "Bones" "Jabberwock"

pictured: little weirdo

Somewhere I have a box that Ray from Don't Throw a 1 sent me last year, containing 10 eastern cataphracts and a couple miscellaneous infantry figures, but darned if I can find it right now; last I saw it it was on the shelf in our bedroom closet, but since then Gina cleaned and reorganized the closet and now I have no idea where it is, and neither does she.  We'll find it.

The big challenge is having the closet door open; Atticus, our cat, is obsessed with the closets in our apartment and will take any opportunity to get inside, find a dark corner and squat there for hours.  We keep our closet doors rubber banded shut because he's figured out how to pull them open, and we don't want to risk the little weirdo pulling something down on himself and getting hurt.  So I'll have to lure Atticus out on to our enclosed patio or something and close him out so I can ransack the closet.

Once the Bonus Rounds get announced, I'm going to try to do as much as I can for them with Reaper Bones figures, seeing as how I can paint those in the winter without having to worry about priming them beforehand.  I've got a pretty good handle on painting Bones now so I think I'll have better results this year than I did last time around.

I think I want to give myself a big project for the winter as well, and I'm leaning towards assembling a couple retinues for Lion/Dragon Rampant.  I got the rulebook for Lion Rampant for Christmas last year and found it a really enjoyable read and looks like it'd be fun to play; I imagine Dragon Rampant, the fantasy version, would be much the same.

I'm looking at using 1/72 scale plastic figures for this project, to lighten the financial cost and to speed up the painting process; using the Plastic Soldier Review website, I tallied up the numbers and types of figures I would get from buying one each of Zvezda's Hundred Year War English boxed sets; I figure these would be a good choice for "generically medieval" retinues.  I did the math and figured out how to turn the contents of those two boxes into two full size, 24-point retinues for Lion Rampant with only about six figures left over for future projects.

While there's some Frostgrave interest growing at my FLGS, and Guild Ball is very popular among the local wargaming contingent, I'm hoping to stir up interest in other games as well, and I think Lion Rampant would do well if I can run a few high-visibility demo games.

For those who aren't interested in historical games that don't involve tanks, a purely fantasy army is called for, I think - brightly-colored knights aren't enough on their own, but brightly-colored knights and a dragon will draw people in.  For these people, I'm thinking of grabbing a couple boxes of Dark Alliance "Army of the Dead" figures and putting together a retinue of skeleton warriors to march inexorably across the land, laying waste to all in their path.

I've never painted 1/72 scale figures before; I had a couple boxes of them as toys as a kid, and my dad always hated them from his model kit building days because back in the 1960s and 1970s the tools needed to successfully paint these little soft plastic figures just weren't available.  I've been reading tutorials to figure out how best to apply paint to these figures and not have to worry about it immediately flaking off.  Should be an interesting exercise, to say the least.

So that's what I'm looking at right now for this winter's big painting challenge.  I think that'll put me at a good start and keep my morale up through the long, dark Rochester winter.