BIG Winter Wonder Lard

Leap Year Day saw a feast of Lardy Goodness down at Bristol Independent Gaming at Winter Wonder Lard. The whole day was given over to a range of TFL games and I ran a game of Chain of Command using the Big CoC amendments to allow multiple players on each side. I will write about this in a separate post, but here I want to give an overview of all the fun. There was everything from Chain of Command to Kiss Me, Hardy, taking in Sharp Practice, I Ain't Been Shot, Mum, What A Tanker, Bag The Hun and Richard Clarke running another demo of Infamy, Infamy, which many of us are itching to get our hands on as soon as the rules are published. 

There were some lovely tables on display, spanning many periods, including Chain of Command in the Spanish Civil War and at Gallipoli in the Great War. There was also a new squad-level game written by Ioan Davies-John called Packing Heat. Mention should be made of the excellent table created for the 28mm Chania Gate CoC game by James Morris and also the terrific 15mm table by Phil Turner and Jenny Owens for the 1940 Arras counter-attack game of IABSM.

Thanks to David Hunter for organising the event and also to Jim and Ellen at BIG for the facilities.

Scarecrows!

These three scarecrows are from Bad Squiddo Scenics, sculpted by the incomparable Ristul. Annie used to sell them under the banner of Ristul's Extraordinary Market, but bought the line in 2018.

I bought these at Colours last year and recently painted them as a change from painting figures for 7TV. Of course, these would be perfect for 7TV games, especially ones involving strange goings-on in one of those inward-looking villages somewhere in rural England.

Anyway, I've photographed them from front and rear, to show off the truly splendid detail on these gorgeous resin pieces.

Worzel Gummidge would never have been allowed on children's TV if he'd looked like this.

I wanted to paint these up looking old, tatty and faded, so after undercoating in Army Painter leather brown, I used mainly pale brown and tan colours, with bits of green and dark red well diluted to act as washes on some parts of the figures. I wanted the orange of the pumpkin heads to look quite faded too, as though these scarecrows had spent too long out in the weather. There is so much detail in the figures that I did a fair amount of dry-brushing, both before and after an ink wash. I made up small mounds from blue foam, covered with mixed ballast. After finishing the figures, I used the same pale browns and tans to dry-brush the bases before finishing them with a mixed flock.

Another playtest for ROTOR

I felt like it was time to have another game of Reivers Of The Outer Rim, my skirmish level sci fi rules. I wanted to see how the game played out with all the latest changes and also see where there might be room for further improvements. 

In this game, each band of Reivers is looking for tech items in a settlement on a minor planet that had previously been ruled by a renegade warlord and his retinue. Defeated in battle by a military expedition launched by a powerful Mining Corporation, the warlord has moved to a safer location, leaving behind residual forces. Now Reiver bands have moved in to see what they can pick up in the aftermath of the fighting.

No one knows what forces might be left behind or even if there are any static defences. Therefore, each band has been allowed to take a sensor droid in addition to any combat droids they have, unless their band is not able to take droids at all. Normally, the rules specific that you can take either a combat or a sensor droid.

In this scenario, the range of possible NPCs on a roll of 1D10 is;

  1)  Renegade trooper 

  2)  Cyborg

  3)  Defence droid

  4)  Mutant

  5)  Rogue Psyker

  6)  Alien renegade trooper (+1 in H2H attacks, causes Panic)

  7)  Renegade trooper with heavy weapon

  8)  Renegade leader

  9)  Defence drone 

10)  Renegade trooper in augmented combat armour.  

There were four of us playing. Me, plus Clive (who once again provided his excellent scenery), Nick and Matt, all of whom have played ROTOR before.

We each started 12" from a corner. Once again, Clive's combat droid was a big imposing number.

Using sensor droids meant that both salvage items (marked by yellow gems) and NPCs (marked by green gems until within line of sight) were quickly revealed. 

The area shown below soon because full of dangerous NPCs. The defence droid behind the tree was a perpetual threat until it was destroyed late on in the game. The downed figure was an NPC. 

Matt pushed towards the areas where his sensor droid had detected salvage items. The big figure is his Alien Paladin.

Clive's Leader took up a commanding position high above the vegetation. This would also make him an easy target, but he survived. 

Nick's Reivers had problems with a mutant that emerged from a shanty, but was eventually killed.

The red-coated figure is a Rogue Psyker. Successful psychic attacks can be devastating, as lifeforms , apart from other Psykers cannot make a saving throw against psychic forces. Droids are immune to psychic attacks, but can be displaced elsewhere by psykers.

This Cyborg was a dangerous NPC, armed with a heavy weapon. Well, it was dangerous until it got killed.

Things were looking pretty dangerous for my band for a while, as the area was full of nasties.

This mutant NPC decided to drop in on one of Clive's grunts.

It was a fun game, things flowed a lot more smoothly than before and most of the questions that came up were around the searching mechanisms and what sort of things and locations could be searched. The question of looting dead opponents also came up. This aspect of the game needs further development. I shall give it some thought and draft some ideas.

Using sensor droids was a useful addition. They aided the placing of salvage items, but also got a large number of NPCs into play. For this scenario, that was a good aspect of the game, seeing as it was supposed to be occupied by the remnants of a Renegade army. Combat droids are very powerful, but sensor droids also have their uses. I am now wondering whether they should be a standard part of a Reiver band, rather than just an alternative to having a combat droid?

More Pulp figures

Here are some more of the excellent Bob Murch Pulp Figures miniatures which are stocked by North Star. I cannot stress how much I like and covet these figures. There are so many great things in the range that it seems a shame not to buy all of them!

These are 1920s US Marines, which I can see being used in a wide range of Pulp games, anything from adventures featuring disturbing Eldritch Terrors to defending the Earth against an Unknown Alien Menace seeking to abduct and enslave humans. They might even have to face off against Chinese pirates, Bolshevik agents or some other mundane opponents.

First, some Marines in Brody helmets. Four with rifles and one with a shotgun.

The rest are all wearing Montana hats. This group consists of a lieutenant with a pistol, two riflemen, another shotgunner and one marine with a Thompson submachine gun.

The final group has two more riflemen, another shotgunner, another Tommy gun-armed marine and one marine with a Browning Automatic Rifle.

So, pretty well equipped to face all kinds of enemies, from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, plus all points in between and also places even further away.

I'm not sure how accurate the colour palette I've chosen is in real terms but I think that their look and feel is pretty nice overall. They are really nice sculpts and they paint up really well. They have a nice larger than life appearance, as befits their Pulp status and the figures have loads of character. Like I said, I want MORE!!!!!

Sunday All-Day session at LBWS

Last Sunday was one of our all-dayers at Lincombe Barn Wargames Society. We had a pretty good turnout and there were plenty of games being played. 

They ranged from Peninsular War Sharp Practice, via HoTT, Saga: Age of Magic, Warhammer Ancient Battles and an unknown AWI game to Alien Squad Leader.

We actually played through a short HoTT campaign, with a variety of armies (Barbarians, Pirates, two lots of Orcs) invading an island continent and fighting both against the defenders and one another. This was rather successful and we will probably do something else along these lines again in the future.

If there are any wargamers in the Bristol area, or even a bit further afield who would like to play regularly on a Sunday afternoon, we are located at Lincombe Barn, Overndale Road, Downend, BS16 2RW.

Radon Zombies of the Ionosphere

My lead pile reduces further with the completion of the Bob Murch Radon Zombie figures from his excellent Pulp Figures range, bought from North Star. I've coveted these figures for ages, but never really had a reason to possess them until Crooked Dice released 7TV Pulp. 

These figures are perfect for the kind of games that can be set in the world of those old black and white film serials that were staples of the Saturday Morning Pictures of my childhood. Here are some of the basic Radon Zombies with a variety of rayguns (they have to be rayguns, no one had lasers or light sabres back then).

Next, here is some heavy support in the shape of a dastardly beam projector or perhaps an Ion Cannon. This surely has to have a range of settings, beginning with "Stun" and passing via "Enslave" and "Kill" onto "Mutate", or worse, Mwahahahahahahaha!

Finally, here are a few characters;

From left to right, there is a guy with some kind of weird weapon (probably a Mind Control Projector, ready to turn the people of Earth into slaves), a female Commander and an undercover Zombie (surely completely undetectable in his fedora hat and trenchcoat?).

I really enjoyed painting these. They are nice clean models and don't really need much work, but do need a simple palette, I think, to keep to the production values of 1930s science fiction films. I used red and old gold on the weapons to lift the overall appearance of the figures from being too drab.

Now, all I need are some stalwart defenders, ready to protect the Earth from the evil plans of these cruel alien invaders.