Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another work in progress Wednesday post. We start this week with Chairman Mark J’s T55AM2b (yes he was that specific) and some more Volks Grenadiers.

Next up and Marcus is back on an aquatic theme with a converted toy sub miniature.

And some suitable sea dwelling dinosaurs.

After finishing my wars of the roses cavalry I’ve turned my attention back to my 3mm sci-fi forces. These are a selection of the GEV vehicles.

Last for this week we have some more GZG Japanese troops from Andy.

And a winged beastie with an objective marker Andy is calling the Eternal Flame made from a marble. Several members have already commented on what a good idea using a marble is.

That’s it for this week, see you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to a new Work in Progress Wednesday post, that’s actually on a Wednesday!

We start this week with Charlotte and some Morris Men and May Queens for a future game of Folked Up that Charlotte will be running. This will be a good addition to the various periods played by members.

Next up and Andy has been busy getting his army ready for Xenos Rampant later this year, his GZG Japanese miniatures are looking good.

And they will be fielding a Warbot for that extra bit of fire power.

Finally for this week Tony F has finished off some more of his Belgian forces.

Should be an impressive force just as soon as he finishes some assorted carriers and the infantry.

See you next Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday 28/08/2024 (on Friday!)

Apologies, we’re a bit late with this weeks WIP Wednesday post, we got a bit side-tracked by the bank holiday weekend.

We’ll start with the honourable chairman Mark’s efforts, a Vietnam era LVTP-5 and a M-50 Ontos (above).

Next up we have a couple of offerings from Charlotte, she’s given her Spanish church a coating of sand, painting is next.

And a couple of characters from a game she’s developing “Folked Up”, the Pirate queen of Hispania: Inés de la Espada and her pet Octavio.

Inés is a Reaper sculpt and Octavio is scratch-built from earplugs.

Stephen’s gone off his painting, but he’s still got his modelling mojo running with this construction, called ‘Stairway To Heaven’. We’ll be seeing that in a Stargrave game at some point.

Regular editor Jeremey has been working on some cavalry, King Richard and his retinue, for the upcoming finale of the War of the Roses campaign, the battle of Bosworth  (that’s him on the far right, with the gold armour, leading the charge from the rear).

Meanwhile Tony has take a break from his WW2 Belgian project to work on some terrain for a planned Lord of the Rings game, the Gates of Bree and the surrounding hedge

And, as something completely different, some 15mm Yenpalo Sci Fi vehicles and crew.

Going up a scale, Andy has been working on some Japanese Corporate Mercenaries, these are 25mm GZG figures that have been in Andy’s pile of shame for over a decade!.

And in case they need a bit of support, he’s also working on a War Bot from Alternative Armies, which would work in 6mm, 15mm or 25/28mm scales.

That’s all for this week, hopefully we’ll be back on time next week.

 

Work in Progress Wednesday

Well the weather hasn’t stopped the members efforts for this week.

We start with Tony F and his Belgian force of towed guns and armoured cars.

Tony has been researching the correct marking for the vehicles.

Some nice attention to detail.

Next up and Charlotte has been trying out a new building technique with papier mache applied to a simple box building design. Will be interesting o see how the texture looks once painted.
Now we have Peter M who has been making sci-fi scenery out of old Dr Who toy sets. Most come already painted an with the odd addition here or there can be turned into useful scenic pieces.

Moving on and Stephen has managed to get hold of a horses skull to create a welsh mari lwyd banner.

And finally for this week Felix has finished off a T72, BMP-1 and a Chieftain for some cold war action to come.

See you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I’m back from my holiday so thanks to Andy for holding the fort. Well truth be told I thought he was doing to good a job especially with his little quips on the members efforts.

This week the members have gone a bit tank mad. Above we start with some cold war entries the first from Felix with a Chieftain alongside his finished Brits.

Following that Mark J has made a start on a T72

and has a BMP queuing up.

Now we move on to a lovely conversion of a WW1 tank to something for the Quar to go to war in. Commander Bobble hat makes a welcome return to give directions.

I did say this week was about tanks, well Phil has decided to put together a rare Anime style tank kit known as Bad Guy Tank No.1, I’m assuming this is destined for the Quar as well.

Dropping down a scale and Tony F has been busy painting up some more forces for his Xenos rampant army.

Tony F has also been busy punching out rivets for his Belgian armoured forces. Now there’s dedication for you.

And just to buck this weeks theme Andy has continued working on his Lords of the Rings scenery pieces.

And that’s it for this week, we will catch you next time.

WIP Wednesday 07/08/2024

Andy is back with a round up of the Society’s members painting efforts.

We start with some Norman mounted crossbows from Stephen (above). He’s planning to field these against me in a Norman Conquest mini campaign later in the year.

Eric has been working on another car for Gaslands. Is that The Stig driving, or one of his cousins?

Felix has started work on some BAOR figures.

And Chairman Mark has finished his Vietnam USMC Recon team.

One we missed from last week, Marcus has been working on some Stargrave scenery.

Also on the scenery front, I have been working on a random selection of Lord of the Rings items.

And I’ve finished a couple of 3D prints from Brigade Models, a Ford Model T Armoured Car and a British 13pdr gun. The Ford is available from their website, but the 13pdr is a pre-production model so hasn’t quite made the website yet.

Tony has been making progress on his WW2 Belgians, first up, a Daimler Armoured Car. This is an IBG kit (the only plastic 1/72nd Daimler he could find) and it’s definitely not a quick build wargames model – it’s more like a miniature Tamiya kit with loads of tiny details. It has a fully detailed interior, although some of the parts once fitted would be impossible to see from any angle even with the hatches open, so all of that got left off.

And he’s also working on the 25pdr guns and tractors. And all the wheels!

Finally Peter M has been working on some 28mm Sci FI AFVs for the Hammer’s Slammers universe.

ASU-57 Striker
FV402 Sampson Engineer Vehicle.

Drums… Drums in the Deep

Pete M describes an underground encounter in Middle-Earth.

Background

The scenario is based on the encounter at the dwarf king Balin’s tomb, where the nine members of The Fellowship are trapped while making their way through the old underground Dwarven Kingdom known as the ‘Mines of Moria’, a massive complex of caves, tunnels & chambers, hewn out of the living rock itself!!! Sorry, slipping into Pythonesque ‘Tim The Enchanter’ mode again there…. Unfortunately, soon after discovering the tomb the party is discovered by the new tenants, namely a shed load of Goblins/Orcs & orcs, assisted by the odd mountain troll and a very, very grumpy Balrog. The objective is simply to hold-off the hordes until Gandalf secures a means of escape – to the fateful Bridge at Khazad-Dum…

The Game System

As with the previous outings (see credits), the home-grown system is partly based on the excellent but now sadly difficult to find Hasbro boardgame “Star Wars Epic Duels” (see links at the end). The key features of this design are that each player controls a small team, with one main character (say, Darth Vader), plus one or two little helpers (Stormtroopers in Vader’s case). Normal movement is fairly standard, although some variability is introduced by means of a die roll. However, the design really scores because teams also get a dedicated pack of cards which are used for both combat and any unique ‘special abilities’ – such an elegant, simple way to reflect widely varying attributes, and without resorting to thick books of charts and +/- tables!

The use of the dedicated card packs adds so much to the ‘period flavour’ of the game, hopefully reflecting the different combat options and other unique actions of the various Fellowship, Goblins/Orcs & the Troll. For example, the Goblins/Orcs can gain advantage by deliberately sacrificing figures in massed attacks or simply ‘shoving’ (the ‘active’ group drags one or more adjacent ones with it); whilst the Fellowship archery and spear-throwing are deadly. And whilst your immediate choice of tactics may be affected by the cards in your hand, like any ‘real’ historical combat, victory will go to the side which can maximise their peculiar advantages whilst exploiting the weaknesses of the enemy.

“Mines of Moria” was perfect for a straight adaptation of this team-based, low-figure count approach, with the four main players each handling one main character (Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir or Gimli) plus one Hobbit (Frodo, Sam, Merry or Pippin). As with previous games, having no cards at all left in your hand if confronted by a bunch of Goblins/Orcs etc could be bad news – but the Hobbits could also prove useful given their special abilities. And unlike previous games, the action this time is very claustrophobic, taking place within the confines of the tomb chamber. But this this does not mean it is any less intense, as nuanced tactical considerations of blocking, retreating, counter-attacking are just as vital as any big battle.

Each turn consists of two phases per player, movement then two actions (Fellowship can do in any order, Bad guys must move then do one action). Normal movement uses a modified die roll to generate movement points, albeit with new variations to account for the slow-moving and incredibly dim but tough Mountain Troll. However some ‘special moves’ are also possible, such as Hobbits ducking between groups etc! Play alternates in a random manner between one Fellowship then one goblin group, so it can be that not everyone is quite in the right place at the right time…

But what about Gandalf, I hear you ask? Well, the basis of the scenario is that the four main players must buy time for Big G to work his magic on the (only) exit from the tomb. By placing some of their ‘special action’ cards in the Gandalf ‘pot’, at the end of each turn these can be converted (via die-roll) to magical protection points.

The game ends when either:

  • The party think there’s enough to try and make a run for it (dicing for survival against the total less distance or any intervening groups of Goblins/Orcs) OR
  • Bernard the Balrog turns up at the entrance to the tomb (said Balrog makes it’s way along the outer passage in a slow but inexorable manner; makes a great ‘turn counter!)
How Did It Go ?

Well, despite only one player ever having used the system before, we actually managed two games on the day. In the first, the group did well taking out the fearsome troll by ‘suckering’ it further into the tomb so it could be attacked from it’s vulnerable rear. The waves of Goblins/Orcs came and went, but in the end only Aragorn caused some concern, having been left somewhat behind when the bug-out started with the summons of Boromir’s ‘Horn of Gondor’ (a special move which shuffles all friends a bit closer to him)!

In the second game the group tried a new tactic with the troll, namely letting it trundle forward then knock seven bells out of Legolas, Merry and Boromir (well, anyone in range), whilst Gimli tried not to attract undue attention – at least, that’s what seemed to be the plan…… 🙂 ). It was a good idea for Gimli to dart behind, just the Troll didn’t get the memo leading to several anxious turns of Gimli ducking and weaving (and cutting chunks off said troll), before the massive brute was finally finished-off – by a ranged slingshot stone from a Hobbit!!

My tremendous thanks, as ever, to a fabulous bunch of guys at the Maidstone club.

Credits

Rules and Card Decks
As with almost all my games the rules are home-grown stuff and, as such, possible to extend or amend as you wish (the mark of a good product/system in my view). Hopefully these will appear on the blog site ‘real soon now’. If not, come along to the club and try it some time!

Original game
Details of the original HASBRO “Star Wars Epic Duels” by Craig Van Ness (with assistance from Rob Daviau) can be found here.

Figures
The basic figures all from the fabulous “Armies of Middle Earth” (AOME) range by PlayAlong Toys and ToyBiz. This vast range of 1/24th scale (3.5” or 75mm), multi-pose figures covered everything from the RingWraiths (fabulous sculpts) and Fellowship, and includes no less than three different sets of Orcs/Uruks, five different Wargs and numerous Rohirrim (foot and mounted), as well as a number of special sets (like the great Uruk-Hai siege crew – the battering ram crew were the source of the ‘pikemen’, among others) and even siege towers! As they are semi-animated, it is possible to create different poses and even mix body-parts, Timpo-style! I have to say that, at this scale, a couple of hundred Orcs or 30-ish charging Rohan cavalry are quite impressive…

Unfortunately, as with many of my games their availability seems to diminish the closer I get to putting them on show! However, if you want to risk it a quick browse on eBay still pulls up a fair number of hits, which is OK to provide all you would need for a normal skirmish. Of course, you could also use those tiny 32mm ones some people prefer… 😊

The 7” Mountain Troll was a fantasy figure from PAPO toy range, suitably based and painted by Kevin Dallimore. Actually, AOME does a troll, but it’s the up-armoured one from Return of the King which is used to push the 16”-high siege towers in ‘Pelennor Fields’…

The large ‘Bernard The Balrog’ was another cross-range recruit from the extensive ‘MacFarlane SWARM’ range of fearsome, wonderful monsters – do scan this lot if you need any 8”-10” villains.

{As an aside, the hard-plastic figures have some advantages over their metal cousins, in that it is easy to make some bits transparent – there’s a version of Frodo with ring on, plus the MacFarlane monster is drooling clear yellow bile…..}

Other Previous Outings
  • ‘One Ring’ (Weathertop or Amon Sul): 4+ Ring Wraiths vs pre-Fellowship
  • ‘Fords of Isen’: ambush of Prince Theodred by massed Orcs & Wargs
  • ‘Pelennor Fields’: the charge of the Rohan cavalry vs besiegers, including 1/24th Mumakil!

For more pics and other rules, see here.

There is a great fan-following on the net as well (for this and the original Star Trek game), with lots of suggestions for other card deck, scenarios etc.

BTW, I am also in the process of using the wonderful character-specific card system for such diverse topics as:

  • ‘Seven Samurai’ (final battle in the village); objective for the bandits is to kill as many as possible (especially peasants), thus making it a challenge for the deadly, professional samurai to protect them!
  • ‘The (Roman) Empire Strikes Back’; a massed skirmish somewhere on the 1st/2ndC frontiers of empire between a mixed Roman expeditionary force/patrol and loads of Celts. This uses a base (I have 4-6 28mm figures) as the granular unit rather than individual figures, but the structure of the system will allow for both, or even 6mm. But then, as the sides are defined by their specific decks, the more devious umpires out there could introduce something much more weird in the woods as per Call ofCthulhu… You could even be tempted to adapt it to that fabulous David Drake book, ‘Ranks of Bronze’, in which a defeated Roman Legion is sold into slavery to – some aliens! All you need are the troop-specific cards and you’re away…

Stay tuned to this blog……

WIP Wednesday 31/07/2024

Another week and another roundup of MWS member’s efforts on the modelling and painting front.

First off we’ll take a look at a couple of offerings from Tony. Above we have a 6mm Hammer’s Slammers detachment – the Heliodorus Regiment who carry flamethrowers (not that they can be seen in this image) and ride around in big wheeled vehicles, with a few more bases of 6mm desert scenery. These are Brigade Models products, no surprise there!

Also from  Tony we have progress on his late WW2 Belgians, a couple of 25 pdr guns, limbers and tractors, some 15cwt trucks for the motor rifle platoon, and a couple of scout cars. Tony says the green base coat looks nowhere near so pale in real life.

Next up some of Chairman Mark’s work, a Vietnam era USMC Recon Team.

Our main theme for this week is some Stargrave (other SF rules are available) markers, mostly for the Side Hustle option.

Marcus has built a Pylon from odds and ends.

A damaged robot/drone mainly for underwater games:

And finally from Marcus some Coral style scenery pieces.

Eric has built a pit marker, scratch built apart from the doors which are old 40k Rhino top hatches.

And some loot markers:

And I’ve also been working on some Side Hustle markers, although mine are commercial models rather than being scratch built. The Pylon and Pit are from Blotz, and the Robot from Alternative Armies.

I’ve also finished off a repair bot (Crooked Dice) and some sand worm type beasts, not sure where I got those.

Hopefully Jeremey will be back in charge next week.

Maidstone Rampant

Tony F reports on the club’s first encounter with an alien ruleset.

The club has played a lot of Daniel Mersey’s Rampant rules, both the original Lion and the fantasy Dragon spinoff. So there was a lot of interest when a sci-fi variant, Xenos Rampant was announced. We wanted to see how well the game engine would translate to the new setting with (presumably) more emphasis on shooting than close combat. And to be fair, not everyone thought it would work.

Recently, four of us managed to finally get ourselves organised and gave the rules a try (yes, we know that the book came out months ago – the wheels sometimes turn slowly in Maidstone). Eric and Mike had 30mm armies derived from WH40K forces, while Marcus had a 15mm force of mainly Khurasan miniatures and I cobbled together a force in the same scale from my Hammer’s Slammers armies (you can see those in the header photo).

Mike and Eric ran each other very close in their game, with just a handful of figures left on table at the end (although I’m not sure who actually won!) – sadly I didn’t get any photos. Marcus on the other hand had some dreadful luck with the dice and got a bit of a thumping.

My command team (Brigade Models’ power armour) prepare to unleash all sorts of pain into Marcus’ tank (GZG).

We then switched round and I took on Mike, while Eric switched to a 15mm force of Brigade Models miniatures. Mike and I fought a very tight game, I just prevailed but with very little of my force left on the table.

Marcus’ luck improved a little but he still went down to Eric eventually.

So our conclusions? We felt the game worked well, there are plenty of options to customise units to give your army a unique feel. The familiar game mechanics helped for those who have played other games in the series.

All of our games were 24 points, and we managed two each with plenty of time to spare. Units, especially vehicles, are relatively expensive so none of our forces had more than 5-6 units, and the game ran pretty quickly. So we felt that 36 point games would be perfectly manageable. One thing we found odd was the limit of only one vehicle – none of us could see an obvious reason for this.

We’ve penciled in another session for later in the year, some sort of mini-campaign or tournament. These will be 36 point games, and we’ll ignore the one vehicle rule so expect to see a bit more heavy armour. We seem to have won over a couple of previous refuseniks to give the game a go, so look out for another report in a few months, along with plenty of work-in-progress reports as people build up their armies.

WIP Wednesday 24/07/2024

Andy curates this week’s roundup of members painting and modelling activities.

We’ll start off with some offerings from Tony F this week, above we have the start on some Brigade Models 15mm Yenpalo infantry for Xenos Rampant. They comprise two units each of heavy infantry and light infantry/scouts, plus mortar and railgun teams. The scouts are on open order bases to reflect their Hard to Target rule, with the heavies in closer order. The weapons teams are based with two man crews, while the additional command figure allows the removal of single casualties.

Also from Tony are some 25 lbr guns for his 20mm WW2 Belgian project.

Next up we have some of Eric’s work, an Alien Bounty Hunter inspired by the recent Dead or Alive supplement for Stargrave. This is a Kroot Carnivore figure.

Continuing the Stargrave theme we have some Necrons:

And some Baby Bugs:

Finally we come to my meagre offerings. Firstly some simple markers for Lion Rampant, “Wall of Spears” and “Shieldwall”. Printed labels, PVA glue and some surplus cavalry “pill” bases.

I’ve finished off some Arab Light Cavalry (apart from their shields, which I can’t find!)

And a few peasant slingers.

That’s all, we’ll be back next week.