Once more into the wastes...

The Generals met at the Barons again last night for a game. The Baron seemed a little war weary from hosting games (Gaslight, Goalsystem Delves,etc), so I offered a couple of choices to host.

He chose the Fistful of Lead Post Apocalypse game we wrote - Warriors of the Wastelands. We wanted to add some of the gonzo grit and humor that comes along with our growing up with Gamma World, After the Bomb, and the retro Mutant Future. I had a scenario planned with visctory conditions and motivations. I forgot it all at home. I had the minis and terrain though, so we just decided to wing it. The BAron gave a good account of the battle. I'll add some other things.

We had the Corpse of Engineers. Some unfortunate grafitti and a lack of understanding of the Ancients by its new founders has led to the unfortunate mispelling of the word Corps. Engineers who really only have about half the info they need to make good engineering decisions, they thirst for more. Always searching for knowledge. Members are lifers who give all posessions to the Corpse. they have good tech, but sometims it goes horribly wrong. they may also hide a more sinister secret as well.

We also had 2 gangs of Treasure Hunters. They call themselves archeologists, excavators, miners. Everyone else calls them looters. The dregs of whats left of society, feeding on the remains of the Ancients. They have a tentative alloance with the engineers, but since they are both in the recovery business, things happen. They are the enemies of the wastelander gangs who see them as intruders.

We had 2 gangs of Wastelanders. Grubby, filthy, dirty scoundrels who eek out a living in the wastes. Wastleanders lead a solitary nomadic life with their tribes or families. They hate Looters and see them as carrion that pick the wastes clean of the last valuable pieces of humanity that help the wastelanders survive. They have an uneasy truce with the Engineers, with whom they sometimes trade info for technology.  

Finally we had a Wasteland Mutant Gang. Everyone hates a Mutie. Shunned and thrown out of their Wateland tribes when the y are found to be mutants, most die alone in the wastes. But look out for those who survive the horrors of the deep wastelands, for they are to be feared. And when they band together, Wastelanders and Looters alike fear their fury.

Gangs are 3-8 figs. Figs are a mix of Copplestone, Citadel, and Clicky repaints. Anything is possible. we have full random generation rules for gangs, leaders, monsters, and mutants. Random generation for loot and equipment. Or you can just build your own based on the WYSIWYG principle of the fig. Exploration is a fun aspect of the game for us, but not essential. and you can run it with or without a referee. Based on the Barons Fistful of Lead rules. They are simple, fun, and scenario driven, with the added flavor and salty bitterness of the apocalypse. I hope we will have the rules ready for sale by Recruits XX. I will definately be putting on a game at Recruits of Warriors of the Wastelands. Pics are from the Baron.  

Goalsystem Delves...is coming

Awesome, right!!?? Great Cover.

I am proud to spread the word that Scott Pyle's always fun and innovative Goalsystem rules design workshop is at it again. His latest is Goalsystem Delves. Those of you familiar with Goalsystem (Supersystem, Chaos in Carpathia, Chaos in Chronos, Blasters and Bulkheads, Robofire(which isn't out yet but has gotten much love in playtesting here)) will love the game and already know the basic mechanics fof it. Those who don't, well where have you been? Do you not like fun?

Anyway Scott has put up a Kickstarter to really make the release of GD an event. Minis, terrain, Limited edition figs, pdf's and hardcopies of the rules, stretchgoals. It's all there. The Basement Generals were involved in the playtesting and Scott put up with my general comments on the game. He's top notch in my book.

Go support him or we will all know you hate puppies, grandma, and America!!!

Another Tangent - 6-18-12 - Litko ITS

So as I sat at my table on Sunday morning, I had an hour and a half to do something. I didn't want to paint, so I broke out an xmas present the wife had given me in 2009 and I had never done anything with. The Litko Industrial Tower System Mega Bundle.

After a few hours on Sunday, and last evening, I have all the towers built, and have 4 walk way packs to build. It was a pretty easy build and I would definatley buy more of them. Some people only build individual level of the buildings to allow flexibility, but I want purpose built towers, so I varied them up and in the end got about 12 towers and a ton of walkways.

I broke out my necromunda gangs, and voila! Instant necromenuda game. Obviously they need to be painted, but these really could be spray and play, then add some detail as needed.

Dropzone Commander - Can it be more epic than Epic 40k?

Well, I have been watching this develop, along with many people who have a very soft spot in their hearts for the classic GW Epic 40k game.
I have spoken of my love for EPIC Space Marine. I have boxes full of painted and unpainted Epic minis. So a well supported sci fi ground combat game is right up my alley.

Then a few months ago the images for Dropzone Commander started coming out. First in ones and twos, then one a day on the Dropzone Facebook page. Now some stunning atmospheric shots of the armies form the Hawk Wargames website. And preorders for the minis are up there as well as a favorite US online store, The Warstore. Here are some of those shots:

It doesn't get better than that for eye candy. Simply stunning, and apparently the buildings are going to be released as customizable as well. the figs are 10mm. So bigger than epic and Microarmor, but smaller than Flames of War. You get the picture.

Not much is known about force sizes, costs of armies and mechanics of the game. And that's too bad. I think maybe how cool the minis are, was too much to keep to themselves at Hawk Wargames. And the rules themselves weren't ready. So now Hawk is having to answer too many questions and is distrated from getting the complete package together to sell. Hard to keep minis this cool under wraps, but I wish they had. I hope it isn't detrimental to the overall system.

I have immense respect for Frontline Gamer and he has done a great review of where things sit right now with the game. I would encourage you to take a look at his article.

Even though it wasn't on the options list for the BG's group game. I think maybe it should be.

I Got a Little Present in the Mail

I saw these on Ebay and just thought, I had to have them. It would save me some time and get a jump start on single mounted 15mm sci fi guys.

All the figs are Blue Moon. Great little sculpts. I have the Aquans and the Humans already. These look a lot like NotEldar. So great for ITEN as well. Painting was from mingjerkyking. And they are very nice and tight little paint jobs. And the basing was excellent as well. I will be able to mimic them easily if I add to the force.

Enjoy.

Holy Crap, I missed my Birthday!

Brummie's Blog and Frontline Gamer just recently celebrated their 1st birthday's. It got me thinking, when is mine. And crapola I missed mine.

SO..... Happy Birthday Lead Addict Blog. You're 4!

That doesn't sound right, but it is. The official birthday is June 10, 2008. I was sporadic at first, but have really come to enjoy musing on this grand hobby I love so much. So thanks for reading the ramblings of a ADD ridden gamer from the Midwest of the USA!

Thanks to the readers, especially the followers. Almost 4 dozen. That's nice. And there are some great bloggers that follow my humble little slice of the interwebs(thank you Al Gore). I would like that number to always grow. So if you know of anybody who would like to take a look at a semi-regular opinionated gamer, let em know.

Thanks for the BG's, the Baron for making gaming fun. And thanks to the little Mrs. that understands my love of playing with toy soldiers and make's sure it doesn't get too creepy and obsessive.

Here's to many more years. In 17, we can drink. And now, more cake. 

British Napoleonics Update - 6-11-12

Wanted to do a quick update on the painting front. I have put the Hirst Arts on the shelf, my terrain cravings stiated for the time being, and began painting a couple of units of 28mm British Nappy cav for my Penninsular Army.

I have had these particular figs on sticks for a very long time and it is nice to see them getting some love. I got the ponies done on two units of 12 figs. One of Hussars (in their rediculaous tall fur hats), and one of Light Dragoons on their distinctly British Tarelton helmets. Why they stopped using these and went to the french style Lt Dragoon uniform and shako is beyond me. How the hell would you have told them apart on the smokey battlefield is beyond me.

I have to do the horse furniture and tack, but the ponies themselves are done. Simple brown. about three shade variations for variety. Pretty sloppy at this point. But that will change.


Hussars



Light Dragoons

Both Units

I hope to get some real time with these guys over Fathers Day weekend. But with spending time with my dad, stepdad, and father-in-law, that might be tough.

May have to move out the end date for finishing the Brits till August. Probably more realistc as the last 2 months have been spent on house and deck projects.

New Free Infinity Quick Start Rules

Just a quick heads up for those of you who are looking to get a start in Infinity. Corvus Belli has released a new set of Quick Strat Rules on their website in the downloads section: http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/2012/portada/new-quick-start-rules-available-for-download/

As usual, the production values are high and they are easy to read. Enjoy them. And try them with whatever figs you have. I will.

Kickstarter, Zombiecide and Sedition Wars

I am sure that most of my readers are fully aware of the great crowd sourcing sites Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The allow a company to put up a product or product idea and seek crowd funding to get it to happen. Some people get it when it comes to how to do this tool. Some do not. I want to focus on those who do (from a miniatures game, board game, or rpg persepctive of course).

I was really first introduced to all of this when I kept seeing the ads for Zombicide on TMP and TGN. I followed one of the links, and man it was pretty cool. A board game with high quality miniatures. Looked nice. Zombie genre. Different funding levels gets you different stuff. I then closed it and noted to check back later to see how much they raised.

Then the news updates started happening on TGN about stretch goals and adding more free stuff to the box sets because they were getting a good response. I followed more closely, and finally I bought in at the abomination level, which gave you all the great promo and free minis. The amount of stuff in the box over doubled because of the power of the crowd funding. With a prepaid funding source, the developer can put their money in those things that sold the product. Lowers the risk for producer and consumer. I am eagerly awaiting my game.

The second one that I followed was the OGRE kicstarter that ended up being the biggest Kickstarter for games in their history. I almost bought in to this one too. Big tanks blowing the hell out of each other was great, but the minis were carboard cutoouts, nicely done mind you and there were tons of extras, but not being a mini game and being really a blown up chit and hex board game sealed the deal for me. So I passed, but man it was temping.

Currently I am following the Sedition Wars Kickstarter, which has about 20 days left. Mike McVey of GW fame( I love you McVey era Eldar) and his McVey Studios have put together a Space Hulky kinda game with troopers and biozombieyuckythings called the Strain. Scuplts are amazing. and finally, the Stretch goals are starting to add up to some really great bonus stuff. I will be pledging, gonna wait to see for sure in a couple of weeks though. I see a lot of use for the Strain in my post apoc stuff.

I also bought a PDF of an RPG on RPGNow of a SciFi game called Bulldogs!. I was looking for a fun and easy SciFi game to play with the group and our kids. Looked like fun. Well, turns out it was a Kickstarter Game, and the quality of the book shows. I assume the art, layout and general improvements were made possible by the Kickstarter Funding. So Bravo again.

So what have I learned about these crowd funding sources for gaming?:

1. If you want to do minis, make sure you have plenty of opportunity to strat putting more in with the stretch goals. This was really proven with the Zombicide, Sedition Wars, and OGRE sets.

2. You really need to find a way to do some up front funding to get product and high quality art to sell your product. The ones that die on the vine are the ones that expect the Kickstarter to fund it all. You gotta spend money to make money, and it is especially true here.

3. Constantly do Stretch goals that give something away of value to the funders. This is what will start the wildfire that will fund your goals and then some. People like free crap, especially of its good free crap.

4. Follow through. Deliver what you promise. I haven't gotten my Zombicide stuff yet(it will be a while), but if I do, and its not up to par, and the Sedition Wars stuff is not up to par, I am done with Kickstarter and those companies. Simple as that. So don't ruin it.

5. $100 seems to be the sweet spot to get in on the full game and all of the freebie stretch goals. This is a manageable figure. Much higher ad most poeple will be out. I crapped when eurogames were $60-70. Looks like $100 is the next step. But you better deliver a lot of value for that price point.

Go check it out, I'm sure you will find something you like.

A Group Game for the Basement Generals?

Finally got the chance to go do some gaming with the Basement Generals last night. See previous post. I need to say that I am a lucky man that I get to game with such a great, diverse, fun and smart group of guys. Each one of us has a tremendoulsy varied interest in what we like to game and everybody's ability to just play whatever is awesome. It's always a treat to game with them.

And in our post game bull session, we talked about doing a group game where we all contribute to the common good. Some of our members, me included, have been spoiled in the past by groups that focus and just play 1 or two things for a long time. Nappies, Civil War, WWII, Warhomer, Blood Bowl, etc. The nature of the BG's is to stick and move. BEcause we have a big group that can't always make regular games(my curse for sure), we tend to play one off games, and rarely play things back to back. We have a few favorites that we play a lot and that we all know and love: GASLIGHT, Supersystem, Flower of Chivalry, Fast Play Grand Armee, Fire and Fury, Fistful of Lead. That's a pretty great group right there. VSF, Superheroes, WoR, Nappies, ACW, Cowboys. But almost all of thsoe games are hosted by the BAron and he supplies all the Terrain and painted figs. We don't really have a game that we can all collect and paint individually, and then battle with our own army or faction. There was some discussion of this last night. I have been a champion of a collective focused game for a while now. And I have kinda got one started by having some of us paint units of French for Black Powder. Not everyone is interested, but thos ewho are willing have taken up the banner and are painting a couple of French units to fight my British. That way we can bring it to the tbale quicker. Great. But maybe we can do it one better. I think we should opick a game that's small enough to collect and paint on a budget, both time and cost, right Chris ; ) and we should do that. We don't have to play it all the time, but occassionally, and in a very lose campaign that isn't dependent on you showing up all the time(see any Blood Bowl season). Therefore...duh duh duh duh(fanfare) I propose the following to my fellow BG's:

Let us consider collecting, painting, and playing ONE of the following games and selecting a faction of your choice to lavish with love and affection, or the rod and the whip, and have one game that is a collectively focused effort that requires not much commitment, but a little, to make all those little lead deaths, that much more meaningful. But let us not forget to continue on with our own personal projects that makes the BG's such a fun group to game with(don't stop painting the French Nappies). I propose the following games for your satisfaction:

Full Thrust: A free(now) generic set of really fun rules the BG's know a little bit. We would have to cobble together our own fleets from vaious manufacturers, make stats, etc. A great game, but maybe something a little more contained would be better.

Uncharted Seas: Since GW refuses to make all the money it could and will never rerelease Man oWar, and since Spartan Games out Man O War'ed GW with their Uncharted Seas game. why not try it. Good reviews of the rules, great fleets and options. Fantasy naval fighting. Awesome. A real choice.

Firestorm Armada: And the space fleet option from Spartan. Really amazing sculpts, reasonable prices, and similar rules for US and DW. Spartan is a real front runer on these kind of games. And their availability and quality really shows.

Dystopian Wars: VSF. Tons of amazing models and great variety and choice. Several of us are already collecting, so I think it should be knocked off the list for that reason. I want something that we all start fresh on (forget that when you get to Necromunda, below). But man the figs are nice. Haven't read the rules.

Necromunda/Mordheim: an old favorite. I have a bunch of the gangs and all the rules and terrain. And proxy figs abound, as well as sourcing on ebay. It always broke down as you progressed through a campaign and balance was a problem. but it sure is fun. Its's really the scale the GW rules actually work well at.

Infinity:I have talked about my budding interest in this game. Its mechanics are fun and solid and would fit our stle of play. However its not really a 6-8 player game, and the figs are potentially prohibitavley expensive.

Freebooters Fate: A very well reviewed game that is a fantasy pirate game with some interesting mechanics that focus on individual combat and card driven resolution.

Kings of War: A wildcard. Mantic is doing a Kickstarter campaign for there upcoming realease of their Fantasy Battle Game: Kings of War. Cheap armies that look pretty good on the table. I particularly like the Orcs and undead. If we pooled our money we could get some pretty great stuff. This is the only large battle set on the list. simply beacuase of the affordability of the models. You could buy 3 armies of these guys for the cost of one of some of the games on this list.

?: I am certainly open to suggestions.

I did leave out the WWWII stuff we talked about last night. It is a possiblility as well I guess.
OK guys. Lets do this...