Next up is gluing it together and then experimenting with texturing with tissue as I've seen used but never tried myself....
I made a start of designing the Ravelins for the Siege of Dendermonde project quite a while ago but got stuck trying to visualise exactly how they were going to fit together, how the walls would work and exactly what internal supports I would need.
So, I cut some samples pieces this morning. The base out of 4mm MDF and the floors and structure out of 3mm MDF.
These pictures show the initial assembly and how the the pieces fit together. I glued the wooden pieces together and used bits of card to support them.
Then I cut some very rough pieces of card to get a feel for how it would look with walls.
The walls are very rough and I need to work out the joining angles before designing them - they will then be cut from 2mm MDF.
The back of the ravelin with have a set of 3d printed stairs to the top platform.
The next picture shows some British troops manning the Ravelin while Austrian grenadiers march along the outside ridge to get to a bridge to the Glacis.
The final picture shows how the base tile will fit in with the hex terrain. In the finished piece it will be surrounded by ditch tiles, which will be brown and then there will be other ditch tiles that fit over them showing the flooded ditch.
I bought the Core Space starter set quite a while ago (2 years maybe) and have been meaning to get it on the table for quite a while. The appeal of the game is that it is an SF skirmish game with set missions, has a small number of figures and some lovely card scenery in 3d.
I was discussing it with Anthony, my regular opponent, and decided to bite the bullet and finally assemble all the little items that are needed in a game (such as chests, furniture, etc). I spent an hour punching things out such as counters, walls, etc and then assembled the furniture in about 30 minutes - it was much easier than I was expecting.
We played the opening scenario where teams of traders are basically running onto a space station warehouse and grabbing as much loot as they can and then getting out again. The mechanism I really like is that equipment is held in chests on the board that you search, so there is the tactile action of opening a chest and tipping out the contents.
You are quite limited in what you can carry, so you are continually evaluating whether to swap items around and drop some current items to replace them with better items.
While this is going on, the Purge threat track is gradually increasing in threat level and Purge start appearing on the board. These are a robot race that will attack all the teams and which you sometimes have to cooperate with other teams to overcome. You add a peg to the Purge track each turn and then another peg the first time someone figures a gun that round.
We had several rolls for new Purge that resulted in a blank die face and no Purge arriving.
However, in an effort to try out the assault rules (and use the incinerator gun I had found) we soon opened fire on each other and bullets were flying everywhere. Then the Purge started in arrive in numbers and there was a general agreement that we should get out of there.
We called the game before quite finishing it but Anthony had managed to collect the most valuable equipment.
The game was a little slow as it was our first time, so we were looking up rules and checking on the symbols on the character cards that represent your skills. Once you get the hang of the mechanisms and what you are looking for, the game moves along quite quickly.
I really liked the game - the board is fantastic to play on and I like the interaction between crews that can be cooperative or you can stab someone in the back to grab the equipment they have.
There is about 20-30 minutes setup time at the start of the game as you have to build the layout of walls, etc by clipping them together. But that is quite easy and takes no longer than setting up my City terrain for a Gangster game.
I liked the event cards that are drawn each turn that helped mi up the action, and the Purge and Civilian rules which govern how the Purge and any civilians move and interact.
It has me thinking about getting some expansions of crew so I could run a 4 player game and I will be playing it through solo as well.
I need to get back to the 40mm AWI and get thm finished and off the painting table.
Several years ago someone developed fan lists for LOTR for use with Kings of War and we used those lists to produce 2000 point armies for both sides.
Pat came up with a Rohan list and I produced a mix of Goblins and Uruk-hai lead by Saruman.
I like the Kings of War rules (from Mantic games) as they are extremely simple. You only do anything (including rolling dice) in your turn. There are no complicated additional factors and movement is straight forward.
The units stay on the table as a whole unit until they are destroyed, so no figure removal.
Pat came up with a list using Rohan Cavalry Hordes of 16 figures, which I hadn't faced before. I had a couple of hordes of goblins, but otherwise had regiments of Uruk-Hai.
The game didn't go well for me as a horde of cavalry is hard to beat. I was unlucky with die rolls. On three occasions I rolled and destroyed a unit, only for a nearby inspiration character to force a reroll when I rolled lower and the unit ended up merely wavering.
I ended the game with just 1 unit and Saruman left on the table- I did forget a couple of special rules which would have helped the Uruks in combat but generally I rolled badly and Pat's massed troops were more effective.
We enjoyed the game and it has made me realise that I need to get my movement trays properly painted and flocked and to, at the very least, get all the figure bases flocked the same so make them a coherent whole. So have started on that and reorganising the boxes of figures to take up less space and to be easier to store.
I have around 500-600 figures all together but could do with more Good Forces.
I think Saruman wasn't effective enough for his points value so I'll be tweaking the army list in the future - or maybe just fielding a Balrog!
Played my first game of League of Dungeoneers yesterday. This is a cooperative/ Solo RPG game similar to Dungeons and Dragons and focusing on adventures and dungeon crawling.
There was a Kickstarter for it last year and I received the truly enormous box a few months ago. I have been wanting to try the game out and having mentioned it to a friend he was keen to get it on the table.
I've been playing games over the last few weeks during the day with this friend as he had the misfortunate before Christmas to come off his bicycle on a patch of diesel and fractured his pelvis. This has meant being stuck at home with not much to do.
We have played Thunder Road Vendetta, Marvel Champions and Pandemic:Fall of Rome. Having rolled up some characters last week we gave this game a run out this week.
The game is a staggering achievement as it is the work of just one person and it is beautifully produced. The characters generation is similar to D&D and we ended up with a Human Wizard, a Dwarf Warrior, an Elf Thief and a Halfling Warrior Priest.
We played through the first encounter - which is a battle with 4 bandits and really just teaches you the combat system. You use a bag with initiative tokens and the appropriate colour lets you or the enemy act with one character. There is a simple but effective list of interactions for the AI driven enemy.
We defeated the bandits and then went into a settlement which are spread across a map of the world. You can buy and sell items, rest, gamble, etc, etc in the settlements (and they all have different facilities and different quests available).
The starting quest is to clear out the basement of a town hall infested with Giant Rats. You create a deck of cards from the exploration deck (4 Corridors and 4 rooms, including an objective room) and then the dungeon is built up as you draw cards and lay down the room cards - similar to Advanced Heroquest. There are encounters in the rooms, traps, wandering mosters and treasure to search for.
We only managed to get a couple of rooms into the quest (though sprung a nasty trap in doing so) before we had to stop and pack away but we will be resuming the game soon.
I have been looking for a good dungeon crawl experience for a number of years and have a fully painted set of Heroquest, bought and sold Descent (too complex and fiddly) and have bought Dungeon Saga: Origins from Mantic Games (not yet tried out).
From the read through and initial play, I think that League of Dungeoneers is going to scratch the Dungeoncrawl itch - it is detailed enough to be satisfying, with a decent difficulty level and gives a good narrative without needing a Dungeon Master.
Other people seem to agree as it scores 8.8 on Boardgame Geek.
It has also got me painting some of the several hundred Reaper Bones figures I own...
