A few weeks back, Bruce and I dug out some fantasy armies to give Dragons Rampant a go. It has been a while since we've played this game. I used some old 15mm figures from the first edition of Battlelore. Bruce used some 28mm lizards he got from Kevin Barrett's estate. We each worked out 36-point armies. First up were some dwarves versus the lizards. Most of the game went down on the right flank, with Bruce's war beasts charging some dwarven foot. Neither of us could get the left flank to move much. Eventually the giant lizard bit it but he took down a couple of dwarves unit. An enormous ..read more

Bruce dropped by a few weeks back to try out Fistful of Dice with some superheroes. I put together the most asymmetrical game I could manage in order to really give the rules a test. The result was one hero and a bunch of goons versus four specialists. Scenario Deathstroke has been contracted to kill the Teen Titans. To lure the Titans into the open, he’s staged a jail break, killing the cops in the precinct, and releasing into the streets four of the most fearsome gangs Gotham has ever known. Team Death Stroke (leader plus 4 groups grunts) Deathstroke d12 shooting/melee sniper rifle 1 ..read more

So last fall, Bruce suggested we pool a list of games we wanted to play again and then work our way through them. There are about 20 games on the list with the sequence being randomly generated. First up was Struggle for Europe, a reskinning of Lincoln (which I don't think we've played) by Worthington Games. This game focuses on WW2 in Europe and offers one of the best games at this scale that I have played. There are relatively few counters, only 30-some areas, with point-to-point movement and the game uses cards to drive play. There are three decks (representing the three phases of the war ..read more

One of the bigger figures in the fantasy box I got from Chen was a shambling mould (think animated compost pile). I'd say this monster has use beyond D&D. I had to look online to figure out what colours might be appropriate. Basically green and brown seemed to be the answer. I did a brown wash over white, then a medium green dry brush followed by a lime green drybrush and some yellow highlights. The mushroom was just some tan paint, then everything got a wash. The colours look better in person. Below, you can see the brown wash and the various highlights. I was pretty happy with ho ..read more

This week, I knocked off five wolves. I went with a grey palette since I already have five wolves in a brown scheme. I also have this watery creature shooting up out of the ground. It was tricky to get a shot that showed off the nice sculpting of its face. It is also a good-sized figure (28mm druid for comparison). Up next: I'm not sure, maybe a recap of some gaming ..read more

This week, I finished up some 28mm werewolves and ghosts. These are more figures from the lot I got from Chen. I decided on grey for the wolves. The remains of the clothing is a tan colour but, overall, everything kind of washed out in the lights. Oh well! Maybe light blue would have been a better colour.   I also had some ghosts, again cast in translucent blue that hid the nice sculpting. I may have over drybrushed these. Meh. Up next: Some wolves and a water elemental ..read more

I dropped in to the Red Claw bits sale in December. It was too crowded to get a decent look at much of what was for sale, but I did drop $20 on a bunch of rubber roads and rivers. There was about 22 feet of roads and 9 feet of rivers. I spent a couple of days ironing the worst of the bends out of the latex and the mostly sit flat. I'm dithering over whether I try to improve them with a bit of paint and some flocking. There were also two bridges. One is hot garbage. The other is this very nice piece. For $20, I think I got a deal. If I decide to do any improvements, I'll post some before an ..read more

So more adventurers this week and a mixed bag. I continue to try to get away fro my medieval peasant palette and use brighter colours. Like any new approach, this means mis-steps and today's batch is pretty visually so-so. First up is a fighter and what I assume is a cleric, or possibly (the dreaded) slam poet. Or a bard, if that is still a character class in D&D these days. Next is an elf and a lady barbarian. Both of these figures look much nicer than the pictures convey. And finally, some magic-users. I have no idea about the dude on the left. The guy on the right I painted ..read more

Yeah, I've no idea what these dudes are in the context of dungeons and dragons, so mechanical golem is my guess. They are probably also useful in a sci-fi or steampunk game. Super easy paint job: copper over white primer, detail, wash, and done. I did spend some time trying to create a lantern-light glow from the eye area and that completely did not work. Up next: Some terrain and some games ..read more

Continuing with the fantasy figures, I have a troll and a monk today.  The troll is huge compared to the 28mm figures! I did a basic green paint job, which took the wash very nicely. I toyed with doing blue but I have a ton of blue-skinned giants. The monk is okay. His eyebrows look a bit jugaalo from this angle! He's better from the back. I was happy with the satiny effect I got on his pants. I've also been working on improving the look of the stone I've been painting on the bases. This is a black layer, medium grey blocking, then big globs of light grey, which dried unevenly ..read more