I'll Be Back ... Er, I Am Back

This blog is definitely NOT dead. I've just been ... busy? ... eh, more like, overwhelmed by life. Among other things, we managed to buy a house (1:1 scale). Now it is time, once again, to turn back to smaller scale endeavors ...

The mat is the vinyl 3'x4' from Warlord Games, initially made for Project Z but WLG also recommends use with Mr. Cavatore's ill-fated (but excellent!) Terminator game. Recommendation accepted!

The buildings are in the ubiquitous "nondescript MDF ruins" style - these happen to be from Wargames Tournaments who do some nice bundle deals. I wanted to see if I could make them look a little bit more interesting than what I have usually seen. I used cheap-ish texture spray paint (two cans was sufficient for twelve pieces) and generous amounts of Vallejo sepia, with some heavy drybrushing (with cheap toll paint) as well as some select ink details, plus a few signs and posters.

The fence is from 4ground - I think it was made for Dead Man's Hand. I can no longer find it on the 4ground website. What I have laid out here represents one pack. 4ground made two different packs one that was just straights sections (seen here) as well as another with a gate section.

As I mentioned, I'll be using this for - among other things - playing the Terminator Genisys miniatures game. Here you can see some of the (frustratingly poor, IMO) Resistance figures, unbased and unpainted. Hey, I just assembled them last night!

And across the mat we find a patrol of T-800s. Hidden in a giant pile of gaming stuff somewhere or another, I have the awesome Project Z Spec Ops Compound kit, which would make a great centerpiece on this mat.

Pretty happy with how this is turning out. I just need to see about getting some car wrecks and miscellaneous scatter terrain. Stand by for further pictures when the set up is game-ready.

Ronin - Demo Board and Scenario

I actually made this board and wrote/ran the demo scenario in Summer 2015 but am now posting about it here for what I guess one might call "archival purposes." This board was made to demo Ronin at a now-defunct game store and we managed to sell a few copies!

This was my first scenery project and it definitely gave me the "terrain bug."

space orc for scale only

It's just 1-3 layers of 2' x 2' pink insulation foam purchased in that size from Home Depot and cut with a Woodland Scenics hot wire. The "hard candy coating" is playground sand and diluted white glue covered in a dark reddish-brown acrylic paint and then drybrushed up to lighter browns. The bridge is by Plastcraft.

fiat herba

I figured two colors of grass would break it up a little. I used spackle to seal the edge and sanded them down to a smooth finish before painting them with black latex paint.

oh man look at those ronin go

The finished board with the demo scenario in play. The house is from 4ground. The torii is an aquarium ornament borrowed from Mike. I believe the grave stones are from Plastcraft (although made from resin) - designed for the game Kensei, I believe. The bamboo and cherry trees were ordered from some Hong Company via ebay and then based by yours truly.

of course there was a duel on the bridge!

I used Go stones to track attack and defense tokens - just to dial up that Japanese vibe. I originally planned to pour clear resin into the stream bed but had no time. I think it turned out really nicely all the same.

note the repackaged WGF samurai sprues

Here is the demo scenario:

Tokugawa has triumphed. The monks of Mount Hiei seek the shogun's favor by executing an exiled official who has taken refuge at their temple. The official and his double fled with the fearsome monks at their heels. Across the stream, a former soldier (who did not fight for Tokugawa) turned dojo master spots the fleeing old men and decides to help.

The old men start at the base of the bridge on the narrow bank and move down the road to the torii at the beginning of each movement phase by d6 inches (rolled separately). The sohei buntai deploys on the same side of the stream, ten inches away from the old men. The koryu buntai deploy on the hill on the far side of the stream.

The official is worth 5 victory points and the double is worth 1 victory point to the sohei player, for slaying them. The sohei player secretly tells the referee who is who before the game begins. If either old man makes it to under the torii, the koryu player gains as many victory points as that figure is worth but does not find out how many until the end of the scenario. Slaying opposing figures gains victory points equal to the slain figure's rank, per normal.

There are four end conditions: both old men are killed, both old men successfully flee, a combination of those two, or either side is wiped out.

Koryu Buntai (86 points)

Sensei (Leader) - Bunjutsu (Kenjutsu), Commander, Fast, Tough

Senpai - Bunjutsu (Kenjutsu), Commander, Yojimbo

Kohai - Bunjutsu (Kenjutsu)

Sohei Buntai (84 points)

Sohei (Leader) - Fearless, Powerful, Medium Armor

Sohei - Fearless, Intuition, Teppo

Initiate - Fearless

Initiate - Fearless