Mash up Yo Self...

....and other youth phrases that I don't understand or want to for a number of reasons.

Second round of the Mordheim wilderness campaign last night and the Boyz got through their fresh coat of varnish surprisingly well.

Playing a 3 way Hidden Treasure game the treasure went to Rich pretty quick and then he legged so myself and Jon let him, getting stuck into each other instead.

The "Pit-Fight" mini multi-player saw 4 of us fighting out a loot laden Breakthrough and I ended up with quite a haul for zero casualties. Result!

As a result I spent my lunchbreak today working out a couple of possible lists for the possible Mordheim - Zombie Village, or Zom-Heim as I've branded it (sounds like a cold war Russian research facility), at around the 600 point / crown mark.
Thinking of an elite unit of skirmishers a la Sharpe's 95th, using the Reiklander list for the BS 4Marksmen;
- 1 Captain (Sharpe / Roger) with handgun and sword

- 1 Champion (Sgt Harper) with handgun

- 7 Marksmen (Chosen Men / Rangers) with handgun

Protagonist wise using the Undead list in two different ways;

Classic Vampiric types;

- 1 Vampire (Bitey Von Big-Teeth) with sword

- 1 Necromancer (Rasputin)

- 1 Dreg (Igor)

- 15 Zombies (The Risen)

- 4 Dire Wolves (Hell-Hounds)

The Ghoul Family Stinkerson

- 1 Vampire (Mr Stinkerson) with sword as Ghoul King
- 1 Necromancer (Mrs Stinkerson)
- 1 Dreg (Master Stinkerson)
- 6 Ghouls (The Disturbed)
- 3 Dire Wolves (Family pets)

The human mercenary list is a bit limited unless everyone has a handgun, though I can see the Witch hunter list working well for mobs of locals on their way to the castle-burning social. The Elven lists may do the job for the Ranger and Indian types better.

The only other thing might be the "National Characteristics" that always come along with these things i.e. British / American / French / Hessian etc. That Tabletop Geeks downloads pages is going to get some serious abuse!

That which CREEPS through the night.....

.....is often otherwise known to me as INSPIRATION.

As previously mentioned I've just started running a Mordheim wilderness campaign at the Enfield Gamers otherwise known as The Grimoire of Grunwald (page plug).

With six gaming nights on the slate at just over 3 hours of actual gaming time each night I've used a slightly alternative format.

The first game of the night is a standard one on one using one of the many GW published scenarios. Once completed the warbands tally experience gained, but DON'T make advance rolls, roll injuries sustained and make their exploration rolls, just noting what they scavange but NOT trading anything in, buying , recruiting etc.

I see this as representing the warbands being out and about around Grunburg and doing their thing, mainly to each other.

The second game of the night is an Oddleg written multi-player "pit-fight" style encounter hosted back in Grunburg's keep by THE COUNT (mysterious jingle). Each warband enters a number of fighters upto a maximum rating, to keep the games fast and frantic, with double experience and extra loot on offer, to accelerate advancement over the six sessions. There's even some, rudimentary, first aid on offer to encourage a heroic combat or two!

After the pit fight total experience is tallied and advancements are rolled along with pit fight injuries. Any further exploration is rolled at which point total shards are traded in and people can go recruiting / shopping. To me this represents the warbands rolling back into town, getting their gladiator bit on and then resting up with their loot. Each game night is roughly a week of "adventuring".

As such we're going to get through quite a few scenarios and I've been looking out for ideas. One of the boys, Ed, pointed me to Tabletop Geeks Mordheim downloads section which is packed to the rafters. I shall be abusing the work printer sometime soon!

....

All of this feeds into ideas for St Peytersburg / Zombie Village. TGN also pointed me toward Dashing Dice Games' upcoming release Witchfinder General as another POTENTIAL ruleset. I also really lie the idea of releasing it at sundown on Halloween. Class touch!

As much as I like Fear and Faith / Drums and Shakos I was having trouble working out where / how I'd recreate Sleepy Hollow, which is my aim. I like a lot of the basic mechanics, especially rolling for number of actions as I feel it adds more tension a lot easier. Mordheim feels like it will deal with the supernatural so much better and the campaign system is an added bonus BUT it could be a lot more predictable.

While I'm running the campaign I'm going to work up a Mordheim version of St Peytersburg and play through a few scenarios, solo if necessary (eeek!). I can always try a few ideas out in the pit-fights! I shall report back.

Ah the power of the GM, how easily it can be abused ;) Bwaa ha ha ha haaa haaa haaaaaaaa!!!

Trading Places

Sunday afternoon I finished off the sign and final details for "Peyterson's Trade and Supply" wilderness emporium and as such the current set of scenery projects  for what will become St Peytersburg. Settlement planning for the 1800s if you will. A dedicated blog page soon to be unveiled.

So by adding the store, stables, bridge, out-house (personal favourite) and a baker's dozen of graves Peyterson's Landing has winked into existence.

The Peyterson family arrived in the American colonies as Dutch emigrees before the War of Independance started. Orginally cereal farmers, keping livestock primarily for home consumption, fortune smiled on the second generation as thier land neighboured a soon established wilderness route of trade and travel.

A newly established trading post has quickly seen profit from pelt and dry goods, allowing the construction of a stables, with the farm continuing to prosper.

I'm sure they could probably still do with a barn and likely to be god fearing types a small church with which to save their immortal souls from damnation. All that will have to wait a few metaphorical years (months) until a few more settlers arrive.

Meanwhile I have French, civilians and scarecrows to paint along with some as yet unacquired Indians. More imnportantly the rules / campaign set is still in flux, though Tuesday night at the club will be a second run through. Plenty to do but more and more getting done.

Rather pleased with myself, feel a bit like a wargaming deity a la Civilisation! Bwaa haa ha ha!!!

P.S: 14 PPs by the way, 5 for the store, 4 for the stables, 3 combined for the bridge and outhouse, 2 for the graves.

Welcome to Peytersburg

Who's on the end of the stick Vic? Looks like one of those colonial types and a ginger one at that!

Having painted up the scenery bits that I recently picked up for Zombie Village I felt the need to "flesh" things out a bit (ho ho ho) in an attempt to give a bit more focus.


Playing around with google maps I settled upon Petersburg in current day Illinois which has river access three nearby cemeterys and the hamlet of Old Salem. I couldn't ask for more!

Adding and olde worlde Y I imagine Dutch settlers carving thier niche in life allowing me to move through the centuries to Max Brook's World War Z, which I've recently finished reading.

I'm really quite keen to scratch build a few buildings. A barn and a few outbuildings seem like logical additions to the farm as it stands. I've rather stalled on painting actual figures motivationally for the moment.

We shall see. A further 5 PPS in the bag!

Mode of Transport

Something of a bits and pieces post as I've continued to seek some variety whilst remaining very much within the overall project plan(s)

Star Wars:

With the RPG campaign set to restart on Thursday night I've spent the majority of the weekend finishing off some bits that I plan to need pretty much from the off.

I've been meaning to sort out generic-ish drones since the back end of the last stint and given that I expected them to be an easy job I've continually put them of until necessity applied its boot to my backside. I just find the whole idea of them so very Star Wars.

I wanted at least a couple of them to be unarmed as scout / shield / relay variants. Less obviously threatening I'm sure I can come up with a host of nefarious uses for them. Just to show my age somehow they bring the Terrahawks series to the fore of my mind!

More standard blasty gun-drone types. Due to the overhead lighting the flash showed off a lot more of their detail. A simple paint job but one that I'm happy with. I did think to add transfers but thought it would look too busy for their size.

The crashed Aquila lander from the 40K: Black Reach set and for once I've managed to stay away from Red for, what seems to me, to be a far more Colonial One look.

And all completed whilst re-working my way through the first 3 disks of Firefly just to get me back into the mood and set the internal scene. Rather looking forward to it :)

12 PPs at 1 per piece.

Zombie Village:

....which I'm feeling that I should really give  a proper name to at some point.

Whilst waiting for washes to dry I put together the Mordheim stagecoach that has spent a year or five languishing in a large, overfilled box.

ZV will definitely become the secondary project as I remember how much prep time I needed to put into Star Wars RPG last time round. None of it begrudged at all but you get out what you put in at the end of the evening.

I've been reading Max Brook's World War Z recently and finding plenty of inspiration for all of the above. I'm likely to go with THW's All Things Zombie for rules, just with flintlock weaponry and less chainswords.

I really must watch Sleepy Hollow again,.. research you understand :)

The Cow says....

.......nothing,..mainly because its dead as is Mr Horse but the pigs, Essex breed (no white stilettos), are doing alright so there you are. Best keep them away from the dead-stock though as apparantly they'll eat anything.

I've also finished off the Zombie spawn-point markers including my three "bursters". I was temtpted to Zombie-fy the dead-stock but they're more widely usable this way.

So another 16 little pieces gets me another 16 PPs and the project is really motoring along. I need to start packing next week so brace yourself for more posts involving random musing and Rugby.

You have been warned!!

Catch 22?

So from my prior post it was actually another 22 zombies completed to join the horde-ette of 27. If you were being sneaky the WIP shot a few posts back would have been a winner.

Being 3 short of the box set has come as the price of three "ground-burster" tokens neccesitaiting the same number of "spines on legs", which I really don't like.

So 44 points and I should be able to finish off the zombie tokens and the stock, live & dead, tonight. Just as well really as I'm some to be relocating abode, with standard feeling of dread, and the pack / move / unpack schedule is bound to disrupt things for a while.

On the upside I will have and indoor gaming room :)

Spot the Zombie

I've finished off all of the generic zombies and thought I'd show off and as such just popped down the shed to set up the farm for a "shoot".

Now, sat on the sofa in front of the laptop i've realised that I haven't counted them up to work out my painting points. Maybe we can have a best guess compo and use the photos? Answers on a comment!

Equal Opportunity Apocalypse

Over the weekend I went back to the first batch of Zombies, that I wasn't entirely happy with, with the intention to fix them.

After a quick bit of brush chewing I realised that I'd been a bit cavalier with the clothing and details using quick fixes rather than painting them properly. So that's what I did, showing them due respect and doing the job properly.

Another ten PPs in the bag to start the first month of 2011 bang on target!

Whilst doing so I decided to paint a couple of the torn hands that a couple of them were waving around as a dark flesh, primarily for contrast reasons. This then lead onto the thought that a proportion of my zombies should be something other than caucasian So, the group on the left have been washed with Thrakka Green, the group on the right with Baal Red. Both have then been dry-higlighted back to Dwarf Flesh with a mere tinkling of Elf. Centre rear are the "Soul-less Brothers" who've been brushed up from Dark Flesh with Bestial, Sankebite and the merest hint of Vomit before an Ogryn wash (mental image!).

Bizarrely it's worked out that none of my gentlemen of colour are toting anyone else's limbs. So if you're from the Deep South you've no need to worry!

Once again I've based before finishing the detail just so that I can get the balance right. I can't remember if i've mentioned it previously (probably) but they're all on pennies. The scale seemed right and it means they can really horde in around any tuppence based food sources. It also means that the Oni GI Enhanced Super-Zombies will look all that much bigger.

More overly dark / vaguely blury photos: