Life is short, death is eternal! - Frostgrave

So,

I am pretty slow at jumping on the new game band wagon and it has taken me a while to get on this Frostgrave wagon. In fact, I picked up the game and first Nickstarter when it came out and promptly stuck the book on the shelf and miniatures in the closet, until this weekend.

Well what happened this weekend to make me bust it out? Well I hosted a Warhammer Quest game for a few family members and friends and the itch to do some fantasy gaming kicked in. So with that inspiring me, I busted out what  I had and started thinking of what sort of warband I wanted to assemble for the game.

Being an old Warhammer Fantasy Undead player, I knew I wanted to try out a Necromantic Wizard with apprentice. With that decided, I tried to think what sort of people would follow a Necromantic wizard that  pursues death. So the next choice was taking a apprentice which cost me 200gc out of the 500 I had to spend. Then I decided that I needed two Crossbowmen at 50gc, one to hang out with the wizard and one with the apprentice. That meant I had spent 100 gc for the crossbows, 200gc left over. So I went for not one, but two Thief's at 20gc each, there job was to go after treasure quickly and bring it back to the Wizard. After that I choose three thugs as cannon fodder and after all the Wizard doesn't care about life, so cheap troops works to throw away. This took me to 9 models and left me with 100gc left over, so I decided the Wizard would hire a Barbarian to watch over him and protect him while casting.

Necromantic Wizards Warband.

So with the models figured out, I decided that the back story would be a Necromantic Wizard and apprentice approached a Thieves Guild to offer his services as a wizard to the guild. But the Necromantic wizard only wanted cheap, dispensable lives that he didn't really care about, and who would care if a few thieves disappeared from town. Plus it made getting bodies easier for his necromantic incantations and would allow him to practice raising the dead!

So there you have it, my Necromantic War band for Frostgrave, the wizards motto is Life is Short, But Death, that is Eternal!

TK

Point 213 Progress - Germans Complete

Well,

This weekend saw the last models I will be contributing to the Point213 game completed, Two Tiger I's.

Two Big Cats

Once again, these are Warlord models and went together pretty fast. Once assembled I primed both models flat black. Once that dried, I then applied Vallego Middlestone by sort of wet drybrushing onto the models. Once the first coat was dried, I applied a second coat of Middlestone to the models.

Wet drybrush of Middlestone applied.

Once that was dry. I started on the tracks and other details like the tools on the deck and such. This went pretty quickly since the Tigers don't have too many detail to pick out. Interestingly I bought the Rubicon German Stowage and was going to apply some of these to the Tigers, but as I looked at pictures, I could really not find too many that had extra stowage on them, especially the ones in Normandy. I chatted about this with Drunkensamurai, and he has a great Tiger book and it seems that only Tigers on the Eastern front had pictures with extra stowage. The Germans seemed pretty fanatical about keeping the Tigers in clean good shape and seemed to have been supplied via other means rather than the crew having to haul it around with them. So long story short, no extra stowage was modeled for these two.

Camo Applied, do you see me?

After the tracks and details were painted, I applied the camo to the tanks using Vallejo German Cam Brown and German Reflective Green. I actually struggled with which camo scheme to apply to these kitties, but in the end with a rather simple design. Once I was satisfied with the camo pattern, I then used Army Painter Strong Tone all over the models and let them sit to dry. Once that had completely dried, I then applied decals to the vehicles using the smaller numbers in the Rubicon decal sheet instead of the larger ones that Warlord supplied. I choose to use Tank Numbers 234, which Herbert Steif commanded and tank number 221 which was George Hantsch commanded. Both of these tanks were at the real Point 213 Battle and were part of Michael Wittmans platoon.

Herbert Steif Tiger
 

George Hantsch Tiger

Once the decals set, I then applied a dry brush of Americana Mississippi Mud color to the whole model, this gives the tanks a light layer of dust and just the right amount of weathering. Once again Tigers were kept pretty clean and I can't stand when modelers go crazy with the weathering effects. If you talk to most tankers (current and past) they kept heir tanks in pretty good condition since it is/was their home away from home. So just a simple weathering effect looks better than going nuts.

And there you have it, two more tanks completed for the Point 213 game. So since I completed these, on Sunday I went down to Drunkensamurai's place and we started working on the 48 linear feet of bocage that will be needed for this game. We are doing the Bocage in 6" sections (once a tank successfully crosses bocage you remove a section per the BA rules) and were using pink insulation foam for the base of the bocage.

Here is about 40 of the sections of Bocage!

 We cut the bases out and beveled them, then cut various heights of pink foam and glued them to the bases. Once that set we went back and filled any gaps and cut the foam into more random shapes. Drunken will be adding some of the section we cut off glued to various sides to give them a more robust, plump look to them. Once that is done, we will be painting them dark brown and applying Woodland Scenics coarse ground foam and applying a ton of glue to harden them up.

So stay tuned friends, the Battle for Point 213 game progress' forward...

TK

Point 213 Progress - British Complete

Well,

On New Years day I completed painting on my British Troop for the Point 213 game in March or April of this year. These are all Warlord models and were pretty easy to assemble, I found that I enjoyed putting these together as compared to building Tamyia 1/48th scale models.

Painting for these was also pretty quick as well. In fact I used the same Testors dark green paint can that I used on my Tamyia models ten years ago, no issues. Then I did a Army Painter Strong Tone wash on the whole model followed by a Americana Honey Brown wash. Decals were from Warlord and went on after the Strong Tone wash and before the Honey Brown wash.

First up, the Firefly:

Warlord Firefly

Next is the Cromwell Command tank:

Warlord Cromwell

Here are all the Cromwell's together:

Warlord Cromwell's

Followed by a group shot of the entire British Troop:

All Warlord Kits

Also on New Years Eve, during the day, DrunkenSamurai and I got in another test game of the Point 213 game. This time I would play the British while he took command of the Germans.

Point 213 Battle test game two.

As you can see from the above picture, the British will be deployed along the road with a random number of pinned down markers. This is to represent the British stopping on the hill to have a conference to find out where are these Germans they have been looking for. This test game went very differently then the last one, mostly due to the fact that I knew what I had to do as the British player and the fact that most of the tanks only had one or two pin markers on them. Needless to say, I will not say what I did to win as the players will need to figure this out for themselves.

Next up will be two of the Tigers I am painting for this game, DrunkenSamurai has the other two. Also we need to get started on the Bocage for the game, since the table will need lots of it, at least 48 linear feet of it to be exact. Here are all the bases that we will be using.

Bocage bases

And hopefully this is what they will look like:

Mikes Bocage sections

These were done by my friend Mike over at Da Greenskins Blog, he built these for our local shop. I may be working on these this weekend, we shall see. So lots going on here so stay tuned.

TK

Plans for 2017!

So,

Time for the obligatory "Plans" for 2017 post. Which is actually good for me because I can keep some sort of record of what I want to do. So lets jump straight into it shall we?

Play More Games - This may seem like a no brainer but this past year saw a decline in gaming for me. Several factors were the cause, most being personal. So I would like to play more games and enjoy my gaming again. I want to expand my board gaming and games this year since these are always a great way to game with other folks rather than the miniature guys.

Saga - Well, I would like to run a Age of the Wolf campaign this year and I would like to start this towards the end of this month. I would also like to get my Moors started for Crescent & the Cross. I just need a few more things and I will be ready to go on that project.

Bolt Action 2 - Well sometime around March or beginning of April, we will be doing the Point 213 battle using the Bolt Action Tank Wars supplement. I also have purchased a new army for Bolt Action, Imperial Japanese Army, this is going to be the first full fledged Bolt Action army for me. All my other armies were for other game systems, which were easily converted over to Bolt. So I am pretty excited about this and look forward to this project.

HEROIC - Well I just got word that my new ruleset is at the printer now, so within the next few weeks I should be getting my copies of the book. So with that, I will be doing demos of the game and working on supplements for it.

Blood Bowl - Well with GW rereleasing one of my favorite game, I had to pick it up and I am currently painting up the new Orc team and plan to participate in a store league. If it goes well, I may try to organize a league for a few friends. Thanks GW for sucking back in!

Infinity - Well I have been slowly working on my Nomad army and would like to get it done soon so I can start playing. Rob finally picked up the rules, so maybe we can get more than one game on the table this year. I would also like to pick up some terrain for the game and have my eye on Plasticraft games terrain.

Black Powder - Well in February I will be hosting a big Black Powder ACW game with a few friends. Now that I have enough stuff for one side, Rob and I want to do a few smaller games to see how it plays.

Flames of War - Well in years past I have played a lot of Flames, but in the last two years it really fell off for me. Mostly due to my attitude towards the game and I was not having fun anymore. This past year, Rob and I got in a couple of games and I really do miss the look of the game and playing it. I would like to finally get my British 8th army on the table for North Africa, so that will be a goal for me this year.

Pulp Alley - I need to get this game back into rotation, I really do love this game. With me building a Japanese army for Bolt, I can start doing some South Pacific Pulp games now. I am also working with the author of Pulp Alley to write a supplement for him. Plus I still have a ton of Pulp Figures that need paint.

Model Railroading - Well I will continue to work on my layout and everything that goes with it, I would like to get all the electrical done by mid year. I also want to build a few modules for a local group of guys I joined up with. And as always I will continue to operate on my friends layouts as well as help out with terrain for these layouts.

So there you go, my plans for 2017, we will see how this goes and see if I can accomplish more than a few of the goals this year.

TK

Time to Look back at 2016

So,

It is that time of year again were most bloggers take a look back and see what we did throughout the year. I have been doing this for some time on Cursed Treasures and its always eye opening for me to see what I did or did not do, so lets see what were my goal.

Saga, I have two armies on deck for painting and Mike and I will be running Ragnarok again. Also my local store would like Mike and I to run some regular demos for the game. Our goal is to get some traction under the game and see if we can build a bigger community for the game. 

So, I got in about a dozen or so games of Saga this year, ran a few demos at our local shop and got at least one person (Jeff) interested in the game. Robert and I also played through the Age of the Wolf scenarios this year to try them out. I started a new Viking army, but sadly no paint on them yet. Did I grow the community with Mike, well one person got into it, so I will say Saga did rather well for me, so its a solid win there. 

Beyond the Gates of Antares, picked up this game late in 2015 and I am committed to building a Concord army. Once again the local store would like me and Mike to run some demos for this, we already have painted up the demo set and in the next few weeks we will start with demos.

 Well for Gates, I did get two demo armies painted up for Imperial Outpost, and helped run a few demos, although Mike really did most of the work. As for the game, I lost interest in it pretty quickly. The game was toted as being in the Bolt Action rules, but for other than the order dice and the way you pull dice, that was about it. The game just dos not spark any sort of feeling for me. Maybe its the background, maybe the rules, I don't know, but I lost interest and don't feel like I will ever get it back on the table. So sadly this is a bust for me.

Batman the Miniature game, this is something I have been eyeing for some time. A mutual author helped with the edits for the second edition. The Models are cool and the game is a skirmish game. Also there is a Marvel game in the works. So we will see what happens.

Well, I did not get into Batman, did take a look at the Marvel game, but once again, I did not like the rules for the Marvel game. Also Knight models are a pain to assemble and to paint, so after taking way too long to paint up the Xmen box set for Mike, I said I was done, which is really too bad because I really wanted to like this game. So another bust for me.

Black Powder, well I hope to get more of my ACW done this year as well as get my 15mm AWI painted and hopefully onto the table. I am also interested in possibly doing some ECW in 28mm, but we will see.

Well, no games were played at all, but I did make great progress in getting four more units of Confederates done. Also in February of 2017 we will be doing a large game and I have been working towards getting terrain and models ready for this, so this was a victory for me this year even though no games were played.

Infinity, I picked this game up in 2015, but only got as far as assembling half the models. I would like to get the starter set all assembled and painted and get this to the table. Recently Rob has expressed interest and I know Mike is also interested. In fact Infinity has a very good following here in Phoenix. 

Well, first off, I got all the models in the starter set assembled, which was the Pan O models and Nomads. I decided that I wanted to try out the Nomads and ended up picking up a bunch more models for the Nomads. I also decided that I needed to start painting on the models and I am happy to report that I have two completed Nomad models, with a third almost done. Rob got one game in, a very simple game just to get the mechanics down. So all in all I did a lot for Infinity, so this was a minor victory.

Bolt Action, in just over a month, Gathering in the Desert will take place so Bolt Action will be back on the table. I did get my Perry DAK painted up for the event as well as terrain. So this will be a success for sure. After the event we will see how Bolt goes after the event.

Bolt Action and Gathering in the Desert was a huge win this year, tons of games were played (well test games for GitD) and the event ran rather well. Rob, Tom and I embarked on a Tank War project (Point 213 game) and I have assembled a few more tanks as well as finished up various small projects for GitD that were related to Bolt Action. So once again, Bolt was a huge victory!

Flames of War, in just a few weeks I will be playing in Shifting Sands 2016 which is a early war event. I only had to paint up a few infantry stands and I am ready to go. As for what lays ahead, we will see in 2016 where FoW

Well I played in Shifting Sands and had a good time, cant remember were I placed, but had a good time. I also purchased and painted a Great War British army in 2016 and got in a game or two of Great War. I played a few games of Flames, but nothing like I did years ago. So i would say it was a minor victory for flames.

Pulp Alley, so I fore see Pulp Alley being back this year. In fact in 2015 I got the Tales of the Golden Monkey on DVD and there are a ton of ideas for games in that show. So Pulp Alley will be back on the table in 2016.

I love Pulp Alley and the Pulp setting, unfortunately I got no games of Pulp[ Alley in at all. I did start working with the author of the game about a supplement, which I am still working on. About the only thing I did that was Pulp, was built and painted two Red Skull models, one for Pulp Alley and another for Konflikt '47. So unfortunately this was a major loss for me.

Conventions, so for many years I have traveled to Chicago for Adepticon. It is starting to get rather expensive to travel and it's not getting easier to travel now a days. Last year Mike and I attended Rincon down in Tucson. It was a great little convention and we will be going back down in 2016. The reality is I would rather support events here in AZ rather then traveling to other places to play games.

Well, sadly I attended no game conventions in 2016, Rincon came and went and there was no other cons related to gaming. Now I did attend Phoenix Comicon and Mike ran a few games of Thunder Alley, but all I did was wander around and take in the con. So this was a bust for me in 2016.
 

Model Railroading, well I ordered the last bit of track right before the end of the year, so my layout will be getting track all laid this year. I have been working on the rolling stock and generally getting ready to lay track. This is a long term project so as long as I get track laid it will be a success.

 Well, I did not get any track laid in 2016, I have it all but just had not gotten around to laying track. Part of the issue was the fact that I have been helping a friend work on his layout as well as operate on it. I also joined a modular group out here and will be building a few modules for said club. So because of this, my layout has not moved along very much. I did get a NCE DCC system as well as a few new cars and a couple of new locomotives. So not a total bust, but nothing significant on the home layout.

So, what else did I do in 2016? Well I was part of a local group of painters that all built new Konfikt'47 armies. I built a German army for the game and got in a few games, but K47 is basically Bolt Action version 1 rules. Warlord also released Bolt Action 2 and there are enough changes that I may not play more K47, but the models will be used for Pulp Alley. Speaking of Bolt Action, I picked up an Imperial Japanese Army and along with Rob, will be building a new army in 2017. I also picked up the new edition of the rules, but still have not played or read them.

So there you go, 2016 is in the books, now onto 2017.

TK