Hey all, back here for a ~weekly update. Trying to stay on the hobby path. Using these updates to stay on it and try to focus down on a few hobby projects instead of read new rules and get caught up in the next thing.
I've been busy since we last spoke but I've got to say I'm already off the path with several new games on my radar related to French Indian War, Vietnam and more. My gaming focus hasn't changed too much though I may have to add a project to the update lists.
There was a winter sale on wargame vault that lead to the acquisition of the FNG Second Tour, Modern Havok and To the Strongest I also may or may not have another set of physical rules on the way. The struggle is real..
1) Strike Legion: Platoon Leader - Legionnaire Games
I put in some work for this project. Primed one full faction (needs to be named), worked out the color scheme on one unit type and started in on the second unit type. This first faction is an alien one combining dwarves, lizard folks and fish in robot suits. Pretty sweet, they'll be standard units at first while I learn the rules then I'd like to kit them out with custom stat cards and some faction lore. Thinking about that as I paint. I ended up going with a dark green scheme on the army with gold accents. You can only do so much in 15mm but I think they'll look pretty sweet in the end.
The second faction is mostly based and ready to go. I had to order a few more bases for my jump troops. I should have the second faction primed and ready to paint by next week. Thinking about going with a blue/yellow scheme for this one.
With scenarios 1 & 2 covered from the book I'll be looking at what's needed to cover 3 & 4 next. For 3 it will require a few more teams for each army including some medic teams I think and snipers too. Then scenario 4 is actually all vehicles so I'm looking for a good range of 15mm scifi vehicles to add to the list after things are all painted up.
I've based this on the max suggested sized for teams using a 2 inch frontage and a 1.5 inch depth which may be a little large for the teams but I think on 4x4 it'll work out great. The extra base will allow for some flock and texture to give the miniatures some character.
Looking forward to playing this and stubbornly holding out on putting anything on the table until it's all painted.
Miniatures from Khurasan
Planning to use these same figures to try Gruntz, No Stars in Sight and Strike Legion Tactical someday.
2) Land of the Free - Osprey Publishing
I read the whole book over the weekend here and really enjoyed the rules. I think the system has a very nice amount of crunch while streamlining some decisions and fiddley mechanics. I'll do a stand alone review of these rules to discuss them further but here's the elevator pitch.
You have your force commander and at least two group commanders under them. Each group commander has two or more elements under them. elements are units of infantry, cavalry or artillery. Each has a single stat line that changes based on the size of the unit tiny, small, medium or large. The book has a good degree of freedom in basing, list building, scenario play and more while providing enough guardrails to help a gamer of any experience play.
I'm going to be working toward a refight of the Battle of Monongahela for the French & Indian War. They list some suggested units for the refight that will be my initial goals for the collection. Before ordering minis from Old Glory I want to complete the SL: Platoon Leader armies above and a few other painting projects.
Old Glory has a membership program to get a nice discount for a year for a fee that may make a big order worth it once the painting desk is cleared off.
Excited to play this one in smaller games and to eventually get the refight started. I was pleasantly surprised the mechanical details and range of options in the game as well as the way combat works out. Look for that full review coming soon though.
Muskets and Tomahawks is also in the running as I've got the books but need figures. When I end up getting minis for Land of the Free I may get a few extra to try M&T in 15mm using individually based figs on 20mm rounds.
3) Five Parsecs from Home - Modiphus
No progress here since last week, I've been reading rules and doing other things like playing Warhammer 40k: Rouge Trader when I could be getting to this. I'm in the middle of a a campaign turn on my table at the moment. Should be wrapping that up here this week to prep for the next turn. I had intentions of playing some sweeping campaign but I'll probably get 1 to 3 more turns in before pausing this project for a bit. I'll keep it in rotation though as the solo and AI play is great. I just don't want to paint up old minis for it and only have so much terrain. After 4-5 turns I've seen everything I've got so it'll start to become a little tired over time.
There are some expansions here to explore adding to the game though. I enjoy the simplicity here for a quick match and the rpg elements of building and maintaining a crew.
Not much here since last time either. I did get a christmas gift though that included a Heroclix booster with a Chase in it! Chases are the highest rarity figure which in heroclix terms typically means they're pretty great on the table or at least bring something to a team that's rare or hard to find. I'll be building a list around Sleipneir next to play on Roll20.
5) Boardgames!
We've been playing Jambo which is a resource management game where you're managing a market stall with different types of goods. You have to buy and sell good based on orders and can mess with one another using different animal action cards. It has an african plains theme to it that's pretty cool. It offers some good decision making and back and forth as each player tries to get to 60 gold first. This one is out of print and one of the first boardgames I bought when I really got into the hobby.
We also got Cascadia for Christmas! Played one game so far and really like the abstract nature of it all. You're managing 2-3 minigames inside the main game while dealing with a good amount of random to score the best biome and habitat. Real good stuff here, we're both looking forward to playing more.
The other one we got on the table in the last week was Dice Throne: Captain Marvel vs Black Panther. I lost as Captain Marvel, poor Carol. This is a quick fun two player game with some Strategy and a huge amount of luck. The characters definitely feel unique.
6) Fantastic Battles
New one for the list. In cleaning things up and getting my miniatures sorted I uncovered the 15mm fantasy armies I had put together for my wife and I to play dragon rampant. One is the Dark Dwarves and the other is the Wood Elves from Splintered Light miniatures. We didn't enjoy Dragon Rampant too much, a little too simple and too much luck on whether or noth your units activated. There's a time and a place for Dragon Rampant for some folks new to miniature games or who like very easy games this one is a great place to start and there's a recent edition too. But I want crunch in games, details and tactical bits to think over.
This is where Fantastic Battles comes in, I had seen a few battle reports on youtube and read that it uses 40mm x 40mm bases. Four of my indiviudally based Dragon Rampant figures fit pretty great. So I'll be pivoting these two armies into Fantastic Battles to get them on the table. The game looks fun with a nice degree of complexity and focus on commanders like Le'Art below and Land of the Free above. A style of game I'm digging right now. So I'll be reading these rules over time as well.
The cool thing here is these armies will be playable for the Mayhem ruleset as well and maybe others? The only thing to figure out is the basing as the figures I have are on 15mm squares so I'll be putting those on top of the 40x40 bases or using them as movement trays. These are actually next on the painting table after Strike Legion: Platoon Leader as the models are ready and I want to see them play a few games before buying into FIW with Land of the Free (and other things..).
7) Le Art de la Guerre
One more is being added to the list folks.. I dusted off an old army I had for a game called Field of Glory while getting the game and comic room sorted and well.. these rules are in the mail from on military matters! The army is the Magyar from Essex Miniatures an ancient ancestor of modern day Hungary. The army is pretty cool because it's all cavalry. With this push into 15mm gaming again I was curious if I could give them new life and found that Le'Art has a list for the Magyar. So I'll be getting them pulled together for this game once I get the rules in. Not sure on the opposition for them yet if I'll get a true historical opponent like the Slavs, Rus, Khazar or something. I bought these guys back in 2013, ten years ago! So it'll be cool to get them on the table to play against something in or out of period.
What I actually have my eye on doing with these rules is ancient central america with a mayan and aztec armies! So that's the project that will be brewing here in the background. I found great miniatures over here at Fighting 15s. This one is lower on the priority list though with some serious painting to do before I can go further. In the meantime I'll be reading the rules and starting to paint the Magyar I have (after SL:PL and Fantastic Battles).
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The backlog of games!
Gruntz, No Stars in Sight and Strike Legion Tactical, Force on Force: Ambush Valley, 'Nam, Clash of Spears, Muskets and Tomahawks, Marvel Crisis Protocol, Malifaux 3e, Starmada, Task Force Zeta, Battletech, FNG, Charlie Company, Mayhem, Gaslands, Castles in the Sky and 40k (again..).
- Rob
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