Mordheim: Brightening up the ruins

29/10/2016 3 Comments

Another couple of classic GW card and plastic ruins.

Very dark inside ! You can easily lose miniatures in here.

And boring outside.

This ruin is actually from the WHFB 6th edition starter set. I acquired the set, and flogged off virtually everything else other than two orc hands/weapons on a very memorable work trip round the midlands and south of England which made £500+ profit.

The other building with the pizza box flagstones out front.

The usual dolls house flagstone paper brightens up the ruins without making it garish (I save that for the figures). The plastic stone work got a black wash followed by highlight.

Ditto for the Mordheim building. I also checked that the stone paper would not warp if I applied a wash to it, and it doesn’t, so I’ve now started breaking up the straight lines on the scenery.

The two buildings “refurbished”.

Now for a game of Frostrgave with Byakhee Jim who is running late !

Updates tomorrow.

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Cat in a drawer, Frostgrave, and How Long have we known about Global Warming ?

28/10/2016

First the important bit:

Complete with cartoons, presented by Dr Kate Hayhoe.

An excellent entry level guide to the science of global warming and how it is not anything other than basic physics established over the last 200 years.

At the opposite end of climatic events, here is JP’s take on the couple of games we played last Friday. The Silent Tower, and bare buttocks (don’t ask !).

Now for the gratuitous Cat photo:

Spades decided that my half open drawer full of wooly jumpers and fleeces would be his nest for the night, so when I went to bed I left him in there and got woken up at 5am, suffering a +2 Trample Attack as he wanted to go get some food (so he walked over my chest and head).

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He has an aversion of people repeating his name three times…(updated)

27/10/2016

Just finished off a new Wizard for Frostgrave, rumours are he doesn’t like hearing his name repeated three times…

As is appropriate for this blog, its The King In Yellow, possibly.

In the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game published by Chaosium, the King in Yellow is an avatar of Hastur who uses his eponymous play to spread insanity among humans. He is described as a hunched figure clad in tattered, yellow rags, who wears a smooth and featureless “Pallid Mask”. Removing the mask is a sanity-shattering experience; the King’s face is described as “inhuman eyes in a suppurating sea of stubby maggot-like mouths; liquescent flesh, tumorous and gelid, floating and reforming”

Again this appealed to me not only because of the links to this blog, but because a bright yellow would help the figure and its minions would stand out amongst the ruins.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve painted this figure…

A typical Cultist I did about 2001, in brown and red.

And this was the original dolly used, that was the Lone Wiolf Helghast figure, again in boring red.

I think the latest version works better.

Now all I need is to do up a cultist war band. In mellow yellow yellow…

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The Walls

25/10/2016

Previously, in the Lost City of Carcosa, walls were seen…

Hush now baby, baby, dont you cry.Mother’s gonna make all your nightmares come true.Mother’s gonna put all her fears into you.Mother’s gonna keep you right here under her wing.She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.Ooooh baby ooooh baby oooooh baby,Of course mama’ll help to build the wall.

After my game with Richard, where I jury rigged some walls, I was shamed into producing some proper scenery items for them. On the Lead Adventure Forum for Frostgrave, I saw an idiot proof example, and promptly copied it.

5mm thick foam card sections 6×3″, on a sturdy card base half an inch wide for stability. Chopped up pizza box pieces for the clockwork.

All coated with textured masonry paint, this 5litre tub has kept me going for 15 years.

Painted grey (I had to get a new tester pot as I’d run out which left the B&Q paint mixer lady bemused) and then dry brushed.

Simples !

I did four, but turns out I might need another couple.

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Frostgrave: The Haunted Houses – Part 2

23/10/2016

Now it was Thaddeus’ war band (who are evil and must be destroyed) turn for some wandering monster goodness, an Ice Worm.

Typically, it turned up behind them, and moved in for munchies.

So they mobbed it.

Meanwhile, my Apprentice and least shields had grabbed the third treasure chest, and decided to head for the hills, to try and stave off Fluffy III, a wall was cast into place.

Unfortunately, after disdainfully cocking his leg on said wall and relieving himself, Fluffy attacked the Treasure Hunter UNpaintedus, whilst JP also conjured up an Imp – fortunately, the Imp bit the dust with a well aimed arrow.

And Fluffy also got told he was a “bad dog” and beaten into submission.

In the meantime, it took four of Thaddeus’ war band (who are evil, and must be destroyed), to deal with the Ice Worm.

Which, with more judicious Wall spells allowed my war band to escape unscathed with only one man down.

Another good game.

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Frostgrave: The Haunted Houses – Part 1

23/10/2016

Second game of the day, Alan had to depart to play with trains, leaving JP & me to duke it out.

We’ve been working through all the scenarios in the main rule book, and Haunted Houses was the next one up, which JP had ably made from yet more Prinhgle tubes chopped up (I am also guilty of having used them for scenery projects).

Basic table set up.

For once, I won initiative ( a rare event), and moved in towards the first three ruins.

I think this photo is a good example of how using a bright set of colours for my figures helps them stand out against the dark and generally dull terrain colours.

We had to roll every time we got the treasure from the ruins, once for whether we encountered a Wraith, and again to see if a random monster turned up.

JP had opted to play using Thaddeus his 24th Level wizard (who is evil and must be destroyed), so brought out a lot of his heavies, including the war hound Fluffy III.

And an annoying Crossbowmen placed high up to try and snipe at me, well you can guess which spell I used…

We triggered the arrival of a couple of Ice Spiders who bumbled around, and annoyed Thaddeus’ Zombie (both of whom are evil abominations, and need to be destroyed).

Typically, it was my Treasure Hunter (Part Paintedus) who managed to encounter a Wraith.

My first and ONLY roll of a 20 in the entire day – Alan had been on the receiving end at least three 20 to hit rolls from JP in the previous game…

And as Lady Katherine is an Enchanter, guess what she’s been loading her war band top with…yes….no points for this one…lots of  magical weapons. So scratch one Wraith.

To be continued…

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Frostgrave: A tale of Three Wizards – Part 2

22/10/2016

So to my surprise, I’d managed to get three treasure chests, and had minions in the tower.

So my plan was now to get the loot off the board by using Walls to shield me from arrows and spells.

this was made possible as Alan and Jp’s war bands went for each other, I think both of them had half of their war band put out of action !

Though, my archer did have a tiff with one of Alan’s warriors.

Which meant my Captain got to the top of the tower and the special treasure…now for his escape…

Because I didn’t want this to happen.

Another aerial view.

The other two war bands were still fighting it out.

A Frost Toad nearly scuppered my plans, but at the end of the day, I escaped with the equivalent of 6 treasure chests of loot !

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim

Frostgrave: A tale of Three Wizards – Part 1

22/10/2016

The stars were right, and JP, Alan & I had a game session, a three way Frostgrave game was first up. JP brought some scenery he had made to play the Silent Tower, from the main rule book.

So we rolled for set up, with Alan being squeezed in between JP and me.

I was playing Lady Katherine again, Alan another Enchanter (who is evil and must be destroyed), and JP some other dabbler in the dark arts (who is also evil, and must be destroyed).

So I moved in on the first three treasure chests, not sure if I would go for the very special treasure at the top of the tower. Again a Wall spell came in handy to block me off from Alan’s minions, and also allowed me to deploy my new scenery (more of which later).

Whilst my apprentice and his thug stole up on another treasure chest, though he was scratching his head thinking something was missing from the local architecture…

That’s better !

Meanwhile…

Alan and Jp’s bands were duking it out, with animated Zombies, frost Toads and so on. JP had conjured up a wall of fog.

Though Alan’s Apprentice and a few minions wandered in my direction, to be met with a few arrows.

Whilst JP’s thugs tried to close in on the tower.

But not before my Treasure Hunter was in, and (bottom left) my Captain and second Treasure Hunter got into the tower.

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Mordheim: Coaching Inn

18/10/2016 2 Comments

A few years after Mordheim was released, a scenery pack was released, the second “Blood one the Streets” pack (the first was waaaayyy back in time…of with more to come).

I’ve renovated one of the two buildings twice, and one of the Coaching Inns before. here’s the second.

The main building is the same as the earlier one, but the outshot at the back I’ve added on to make a subtly different building.

A much bigger base, so I thought I’d have to jazz it up a bit with more paving and so on.

More of the dolls’ house paving paper internally this time !

I also painted the door pillars red, and details gold to make it look like a gaudy gin palace.

And paved the back area, with the usual pizza box slabs.

Should beg a bit more colourful on the table.

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Film: The Walking Dead Season 6

15/10/2016

NB: NO SPOILERS

So as promised a review of the latest season that came out on DVD in the UK a couple of weeks ago. Funnily enough, I had a conversation with my dentist of 29 years who regards my mouth as boring (full head of teeth, no caps, crowns or fillings, nothing for him to do) about this and we both agreed we were geeks who like it. I joked given my full head of teeth, come the zombie apocalypse, people will either have to protect me, or avoid me as if I got turned into a zombie my bite would be ferocious.

Morgan is now back as a regular cast member, Lenny James is a great actor, and I liked his work in Jericho.

Morgan has gone all Kendo Master on us, and wields an awesome stick to kill zombies efficiently and quietly.

Other characters get their back stories filled in, even annoying kids.

A couple of new Alexandrian characters turn up and are even useful.

However, the settlement is threatened when they find a nearby quarry fun of walkers who are slowly breaking out, and this is a massive herd. So via a series of flashbacks, the story is told of how most of the herd are taken off course. In the process, Daryl, Abraham and Sasha have a side adventure, involving RPGs and meet up with members of the Saviours group with varying success.

Yup, Daryl after trying out the 3 questions on some escapees he encounters is double crossed after walking ahead of them (bad move). This however sets up an interesting arc that leads to the man he tries to help hunting for him.

Now aside from recapping all the plots, which are done elsewhere, the key theme of this series if the link to Hilltop, a seeimingly civilised nearby settlement that has problem with the aforementioned Saviours.

Rick and co wade in to the conflict between these groups in order to prop up Alexandria which is running low of food and brains it seems.

Alexandria is falling apart, literally as the zombie herd that broke off and besieges the settlement pushes over the church tower that everyone neglected to remove from high next to the walls, and in the ensuing mayhem, many of the Alexandrians get munched including Deanna and Rick’s putative love interest Jessie, whose son then goes on to shoot Carl in the eye.

Despite all these problems at home, Rick and co variously hare off to take on the Saviours, all without understanding the true scale of the Saviours’ greater numbers and logistics. As a result, they are caught out time and time again and end up on their knees in front of the Savious’ leader, Negan.

And we all know how that scene ends – the big cliffhanger as to who gets splatted.

Meanwhile…

…Carol in a new relationship can’t cope with everything working out and goes AWOL, on her own, underarmed. DOH !

And we all know what happens in the post apocalypse zombie world, she gets into trouble both with walkers, and one of the Saviours. Luckily Morgan has been tracking her and saves her in the nick of time, when some more strangers turn up and may turn out to be allies.

Well that’s a very potted over view.

Key question : Did I enjoy the series ?

Well yes.

Somewhat qualified.

I watched it the first time round, and found the starting few episodes somewhat patchy and difficult to follow.

The total failure of the Alexandria group to clear the area around their walls was another clear failure (I talked about this on Season 2), allowing people to creep up and infiltrate, break down the walls and so on.

The group entering in to a deal, when clearly unaware of the strength of their enemies.

Various characters haring off on their own vendettas and all distracting others to save them from the inevitable and predictable problems.

That said, on watching the entire season a second time, there is a lot more nuance and background material that can be easily missed on the first viewing and that makes this season a bit of a slow burner that will reward over repeated watches.

I’m looking forward to Season 7.

PS: Carl needs a haircut, badly !

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