Battle Lore!

BattleLore!

The Baron and I have been talking about doing a miniatures/tabletop version of BattleLore for some time. I have an obscenely big collection of 15mm Demonworld figs(I just delivered the whole Dwarf Army to the BAron last night for painting) and thay have just been sitting doing nothing for a long time. Only about 1/3 of them are painted.

So we decided to play Battle Lore, with 15mm fantasy, on the table top with 5" hexes, and 50mm x25mm infantry and 50mm x 50mm cav stands. # of figs per stand varies, but generally:

Hvy (RED)Inf - 6 figs

Reg (BLUE)Inf - 4-6 figs

Light Inf (GREEN)- 3-4 figs

Monster Inf - 1-3figs(or as fits and looks good)

Hvy Cav(RED) - 3-4 figs

Med Cav(BLUE) - 3 figs

Lt Cav/Small Flyers(Green) - 1-2 figs

Number of stands is:

RED Inf = 4

BLUE Inf=4

GREEN Inf = 3

All Cav = 3

Monsters =1-4

I just got what is painted of my wood elf and Orcs armies rebased on the fabulous Litko bases, and we were off to the races. We decided to playtest last night with waht we had. About 12 units a side, Myself, the Baron, and my youngest(7), Vs Scott(one of the Basement Generals), and the Baron's son(9), and my niddle son(10).

We used the hexless rules that were developed for Commands and Colors(sister to Battle Lore) and it worked fine. The Orcs won a very marginal victory. I llike the hexless system and I love the overall play of the C&C/BL system. Its by Richard Borg, and its a graceful, elegant, no rules lawyering, no munchining,no gamey BS is allowed kinda rules set. Simple, fun, with ehough tactical interest for us old grognards, and easy enough for 3 kids to play under the age of 10 and get it. 

I will say that all said and done, I prefer the hexes, so we have to make our own hex mat, but no sweat. I am really jonesing to keep painting these Demonworld guys, and its a tragedy that they are not avaolable anymore. BEtter than most 28mm fantasy lines. They are a joy to paint.

So as much as I decided to never paint another 15mm fig again, I am now painting Fantasy, Sci Fi(my new love), and will probably buy a couple of ancients armies to play C&C with. We are already talking about a straight medieval port of it. And the new Napoleonic set of C&C is coming soon as well. It sure is nice when you find a system you like.

BTW, I blatantly stole the BL banner above from the Battle Lore Master website. Go there if you have any interest in the game. And the Fantasy Flight Games site has all of the rules downloadable for FREE!  

More on this project as it progresses. Thanks to the Baron for hosting. As always, check out the BArons post on last night at: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2010/04/battlelore-wednesday.html

Also...

Also I wanted to let you know, that since I have been crippled by non-access to my Workshop of Doom!, I have been doing a fair amount of RPGing and reading RPG's.

I started a new RPG blog. Hope you all come by and follow. http://roll2hit.blogspot.com/

Its mostly about Old School D&D, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, and the such. But World Building has been a great love of mine for years so I hope to have a healthy dose of that too. Stop by.

Quick notes

Just a couple of quick notes:

-The basement remodel is in full swing. Sheet rock is on the ceiling, first coat of mud is sanded, wiring is done, should finish ceiling this week or next. Then the bar area, then the painting and trim, then the floors and built ins. No way I'll finish by Mothers Day. Father's Day is more likely.

- Good things to come from this remodel:
   1. Great new basement with bar and a dedicated poker/rpg/gaming area
   2. Great new tv/video game/movie area
   3. Remodel of the Closet of Doom
   4. Remodel of the Workshop of Doom

- Not so good things to come from the remodel:
   1. Remodels are expensive, even when you do it yourself.
   2. I can't get to my Workshop of Doom! so no painting, terrain building, or modeling(its driving me crazy!
   3. Time. It always takes too much time.

So that's why have been quiet.

I did make a good series of purchases at Recruits convention this year.

Got a whole bunch of worthless Mage Knight guys for next to nothing, but got about 12-15 worth rmounting and painting. Got the Epic expansion and Callto Arms expansion for Battle Lore at the Auction along with about 12 decks of Dungeoneer! cards. Whatever that is. Its made by the guys who did lunch money so it should have some promise. Also got a promotional terrain piece that was for store diplay for WarMachine. It has a sewer/channel, and a central bridge. Nice start on a nice small managable table. I think I will spray the underside with low expanding foam spray, and put to on an MDF base. Repaint and flock and bam new table to game on. Its about 2or3' square.

Also picked up a bunch of mini dice from fellow Basement General Greg Moore of Wargame Downloads. thanks Greg. And picked up some good deals on some old RPG books too.

I ran a game of Song of Blades and Heroes friday night and it went well and was fun. It was last minute and kinda rushed. But a good night after all. I think I will be doing a linked set of games for Full Thrust, or a Space then Ground Battle set of linked games for the Fall Recruits. And I think that the Baron and I may be putting on a Commands and Colors/Batle Lore game next to our friend Chris Cluckey from Tulsa.

Chris and his friend Paul, nice chap there, ran a great Commands and Colors game of Carthage vs. the Gauls. The Gauls were on the verg of victory when the Baron crushed his only son (who is 9) and stole the victory. It was great fun and I love this system.

The Baron ran a great Comboys game, Fistful of Lead, which he has written and published. And a very fun VSF game with the GASLIGHT rules, that ended as I my Imperial German Jump Troops escaped with the professor! Take a look here: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2010/04/recruits-pictures.html

Until next time...  

 

Progress, well some

Well, its been a little while since an update and I would like to say that I hate winter! I am sick of it and all its snow. We received 8-12" of snow friday and saturday and Friday it was 65 degrees. Come on spring.

So...the feared basement remodel has happened, so I had to box up and put away a bunch of stuff cause my workshop is getting redone along with the  rest of the basement. So good for me in the future, not so good for production right now. And I am doing most of the work myself.

What have I been working on? Well, I got another great present from the wife for my birthday on february. A GZG 15mm Grav force with NAC infantry. Its awesome. I just love 15mm scifi. I have so much I want to buy its killing me. I may clear out the closet of doom and concentrate on just a few periods. I dunno. Sure is tempting.

I have rebased the Demonworld Wood Elf army for Battlelore, and that is going nicely. I am painting a unit of Armored centaurs currently, although they may have been packed away in the chaos.

I have so much I want to do and no time, frustrating.

I may add one new project to the list. I dunno. I played Fast Play Grand Armee with the Basement Generals at Ze Barons house on thursday. Scott had his 6mm Bacchus stuff to game with. Pretty. Fun. Easy to play. No arguing. I may redo all of my 15mm Napoleonics (its a huge collection) and rebase on 3" stands for FPGA. This would be a major project. Probably 2-3 months each night straight through. Currently they are baseed for Age of Eagles/NApoelonic Fire & Fury/Napoleons Battles. I hate rebasing. More than anything in gaming.

I have made a commitment to finish the basement by Mothers Day, so I should be back in full swing by June, I hope.

On the reading front, I am currently reading the John Carter adventures anthilogy. Its great. Never read the pulp stuff before. Next up is the Doc Savage books my step-dad loves so much. Just finshed Burning Lnads by Cornwell. Its is the 5th book in the Saxon Tales series. It was fantastic as ususal. Its building to a nice confrontation in the next one. Also rereading The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle. I loved it the first time. Its as good the second time. So much opportunity for gaming in the series.

Recruits is coming this weekend. Happy Gaming.

Another quick 15mm update

OK so here's a quick progress update:

I am finished with the Alien Mercs. Based, flocked, finished. I need some support stuff, and vehicles, but that hopefully will be coming once GZG release their next release. Check it out
here:http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/

How cool have the New Israeli's become? And the UNSC troops finally have some new sculpts. So now with the New NAC, NEw Israeli's, and UNSC troops, plus the Alien Mercs, GZG has the infantry to back up all of that wonderful armor and support equipment.

I hope I am getting the Grav Sled fighting force for my birthday in Feb with NAC troops. I was waffling on the NI's cause I have the Critical Mass recon, but I have to get them now that they have the grav bikes. Somebody makes a sci/fi Merkava, cant remeber who at the moment.

I am also planning on purchasing a 8 wheeled force when GZG releases it, and the Hi Mobility wheeled force. Then this summer getting a whole order for buildings and building add ons.  Speaking of...

I am a horder of packaging materials for reuse as gaming material. and the last couple of weeks it has come to a great fruition. I have about 15 buildings and terrain pieces based for 15mm and some for double purpose for 28mm. They look great so far. I'll snap pics when they are painted.

And finally, we almost had a FPW(Full Party Wipe) on the old school sandbox campaign  am running with a friend on blog spot. Here's a link. No die roll fudging going on. If they hadn't of killed the last zombie, he was gonna kill the main character. Link:http://hrothgarsfolly.blogspot.com/

Quick Update

I have gotten the resin sand mixture on the bases of the Alien Mercs army from the post before. Hope to finish painting and flocking this weekend in between date night, poker night, and nfl playoffs, and rpging with Ze Baron and the BG's on sunday afternoon.

I also have gotten the other two DP9 Jagers painted. so almost home. I will then need to decide which way I am going on their vehicles. I really like the GZG 8 wheel series, the original Grav force, and the Kravak forces so I am torn. Not a big fan of the Critical Mass vehicles yet, but haven't seen them in person yet.

Working on #4 - 15mm sci Fi - Progress

Well, I had a pretty productive weekend at the snowed in homestead. I painted Friday night for a bit to unwind from the week, while the boys played 360 and the wife played WoW. And got a couple of hours in Saturday listening to the K-State game, then almost all day Sunday in between watching the NFL wildcard games. What a great weekend. Oh and got in some serious lincoln log time with the youngest on sunday. At one point we had the whole family (except the teenager) doing lincoln logs. Pretty fun.

So here are some quick pics I shot this morning before we went out to the bus stop of the weekends work. I will post better when they have basing and flock.

These are my Alien Mercs army. The figs are all GZG, except the Command Walker, which is of course a DP9 Heavy Brawler Black Mamba (1/144). They work great with the 15mm scale of the GZG stuff. Just big enough to get a guy in, but not so huge to be rediculous. I will be using all the RAFM 1/87 scale Heavy Gear stuff for 28mm. They work great too.

The army is:

1-Command Walker

1-Commander

2-Elite Commandos

7-Line Mercs

2-RAM Mortars

3-HMG Support

3-Remote-Missle Vehicles

3-Remote-AutoCannon Support Vehicle

I also have a couple more Heavy Gear Mechs (Jagers) I will do for a 3 man team of Mechs.

Need to add some heavier firepower and some modility, but GZG has crap tons, so no problems there. Anyway, it was fun getting this whole 22 stand army done in a weekend.

Ze BAron and I talked and I think we are going to use Future War Commander, and barring that, we may just write our own.

REMINDER: Recruits Con is coming up last weekend in March.