MillCon loot

I was parsimonious at the game convention this year, buying just two items for myself: This scatter terrain from one of the vendors, Black Site Studios, and a Marvel Heroscape set at the flea market.

(Apologies for the upside-downiness, but I don't know how to fix that.) Anyone else make out with some good loot from a recent game convention? Did you spend a lot or a little?

Another HPB gaming find

The Heroscape line of boxed sets and expansions may have been discontinued, but the ideas from that game live on in Arena of the Planeswalkers: Shadows over Innistrad. Set in the world of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, Arena uses the concepts of heroes and squads, and even the interlocking hex tiles that HS is known for.

So when I saw the set discounted for their Memorial Day weeknd sale (on top of the usual markoff) at a local Half-Price Books, it was a no-brainer to grab this box. While the tiles are useful and the unpainted figures have potential, my main reason for grabbing this was the painted minis that came with it, which will make a nice addition to my collection for use as spell casters in games such as Melee and Wizard (a.k.a. The Fantasy Trip).

Arena of the Planeswalkers also comes with a two-sided, four-piece cardboard map, with hexes compatible with the 3-D Heroscape terrain that I can probably use for The Fantasy Trip battles. (And these hex mats could even be used for sci-fi tank combat in games of Ogre.)

A pretty good payoff for a $12 investment, even if I never actually play Arena.

Off defending the Commonwealth

You might have noticed my blogging has been sparse lately. I blame my wife, who got me a videogame system for my birthday. I've been playing Fallout 4 over the past few weeks, and I'm having a (nuclear) blast.

(image from Wikipedia)

If you're a videogame fan, you know what I'm talking about. For you old-school analog gamers, it's pretty much a sandbox, slightly less gonzo, Gamma World-style exploration game, where you roam across a nuclear-ravaged Massachusetts some two centuries after an atomic war. You gain skills and levels while making alliances with various organizations. Or you can go around just shooting things. Just like when we played GW back in the day.

Either way, Fallout has me craving some post-apocalyptic tabletop minis gaming. For rules, I want something a little more rules-light than Gamma World and a lot more miniatures-focused. Something like Mutants and Death Ray Guns from Ganesha Games, or maybe something adopted from one of Ed's Two Hour Wargames rulesets, like After the Horsemen.

I already have plenty of prepainted Heroscape minis I can use for skirmishes, and I'm sure I can track down some Clix prepaints for various purposes as well. And Gunbird's blog 20mm And Then Some has lots of inspiration regarding terrain for Fallout games. 

Anyone else doing some After-the-Bomb gaming? If so, what rules do you recommend? Also, what minis?

Iron Mountain: Now in 3-D!

I haven't played HeroScape in a looooong time, but I've been thinking about how convenient that game's modular hex terrain system is for even longer.  The hexes that come with this now out-of-production skirmish game are about the same size as the map spaces in Battletech or Ogre--big enough to use miniatures.

So when the urge struck me yesterday, I put together a three-dimensional version of the map for the Ogre scenario Iron Mountain (found in The Ogre Book).  This battle involves an Ogre Mark III-B pursuing a convoy of trucks containing rocket fuel down a narrow mountain road.  The transports are guarded by a handful of conventional units; it's a race to see if the vehicles can get from one end of the road to the other.

This is the only Ogre/GEV scenario I know of that takes line-of-sight into account: the mountainsides block fire, and due to the narrow path, the Ogre can only shoot half of its weapons at any single target.

As you can see, the HeroScape hexes are roomy enough to fit this Ogre Mark III (I unfortunately don't own a III-B in metal) as it chases the slow-moving convoy.

I didn't actually play a game; time and space limitations forced me to break down this map after a short while.  But if I can spark local interest, I'll put this map together again and actually play out the Battle of Iron Mountain.  (By the way, anyone know where I can get some 1/285 trucks suitable for this setting?)

My HeroScape collection

We're in the process of moving, so I'm having to rearrange and rebox some of my gaming materials.

Behold, all of my HeroScape stuff, meaning the terrain tiles from the first two master sets, the superhero set, the Dungeons & Dragons set, the forest expansion, the jungle expansion, the glacier expansion, and the volcano expansion.

In order to conserve space, I have most of the tiles in a storage bin.  I did keep the two master set boxes out of nostalgia, and I use them to store some of the terrain.  Oh, I also have two castle sets and their boxes.  The figures and additional terrain (trees and ruins) are stored separately, since I use them for other games as well, like D&D or Song of Blades and Heroes. 

Looking through this stuff, I suddenly have the desire to put together some HeroScape maps.  While it's a fun game in and of itself, I'm also thinking that it could be used for D&D instead of a dry erase board.  Something to consider when I host my next campaign session.

The week in gaming

I've been fortunate this holiday season.  The past seven days were filled with gaming.  I wanted do individual posts for each game, but who am I kidding?  Instead, here are some pics.

The castle and the glacier

This is a pic of a Heroscape map I designed and built some three years ago.  I decided to post it just because.  I don't think I've played HS in over two years now.