Gaming With Grandma - 97

Another Saturday morning gaming with my mother (AKA Grandma) and seven (almost eight!) year old daughter (AKA Maddie) while my wife was at work. Our three year old daughter (AKA Georgia) spends her time during these gaming sessions either perched on my lap or away watching Dora the Explorer DVDs.

Our first game of the morning was Coloretto. This is a fun set-collecting card game with a little bit of bluffing thrown into the mix. It was a first time play for Maddie and she did surprisingly well. Final scores were me 47, Maddie 41 and Grandma 17.

Coloretto

Our second game was Der Plumpsack Geht Uhm (AKA Sherlock). We always enjoy this fun memory game. The mere fact of having to move the plumpsack around cracks me up. What the hell is that thing anyway? A walking scrotum? We played that the winner would be the first to claim three cards. I won with 3, Grandma was on 1 and Maddie scored 0.

Der Plumpsack Geht Uhm

Next up was an old favourite, Nobody But Us Chickens. This is a fast little card game of bluffing. The aim is to claim the most chickens from the chicken coop over several nights. Players can play chickens, guard dogs, foxes and rats. Depending on who plays what card when will determine how many chickens a player can claim. Final scores were Maddie on 27, me on 23 and Grandma with 19.

Nobody But Us Chickens

Our final game of the morning was Cloud 9. This is an exciting push-your-luck style game where players are ascending through the clouds in a hot-air balloon. Those who stay in the basket the longest end up with the most points, but also risk losing points. Final scores were me on 50 with Grandma and Maddie sharing second place both on 40.

Cloud 9

UFO?

On my predawn walk to the train station yesterday morning I couldn't help but notice an object in the sky. I quickly pulled out my phone camera and snapped a picture. What do you think it was? A comet? A meteor? An alien spacecraft?


Actually it wasn't any of those (unfortunately). It was simply the contrail from a high-flying passenger jet being caught in the light from the sun. It did look cool though from my earthbound and still predawn perspective. Click on the picture for a larger image.

The One Ring Dice

I was very excited to receive a package in the mail today. These are some dice that I ordered from The One Ring site, a site dedicated to the Games Workshop games Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and War of the Ring.

My precious...

I was very pleased with these dice, very pleased indeed. Not only do they have some gorgeous colouring and patterns but they have the words and symbol of The One Ring in place of the six. These dice will add some extra theme and excitement to future LOTR games.

A big sincere thank you to Alan Harrison (Dagorlad) of the One Ring Site who organised the production and sale of the dice. Unfortunately my first order of dice went missing and failed to arrive. Alan kindly offered to replace them and they've now arrived today with a second order I placed. Thanks again Alan!

By the way, if you want to see some really excellent Lord of the Rings terrain check out Alan's library articles here.

Garage Sale Goodies

My wife stopped at a garage sale yesterday morning and called me to ask if I was interested in any of the following games:

World War II: European Theater of Operations $4

1776 - The Game of the American Revolutionary War $4

Statis Pro Football $4

B-17 Queen of the Skies $4

Patton's Best $4

I got her to buy all of them for me. These are all out-of-print Avalon Hill and SPI games and $20 for five board wargames is not a bad price.


I'm not much of a cardboard chit and hex map wargamer however I already own and have enjoyed playing B-17 Queen of the Skies. It's a solitaire game and although one doesn't have too many decisions to make it certainly captures the feel of piloting an aircraft on bombing missions in World War II.

Of the other games in this lot the one that I'm most interested in is Patton's Best. It is also a solitaire game and puts you in the commander's seat of a Sherman tank in General George Patton's best fighting division, the 4th Armored. Similar to B-17 Queen of the Skies, in this game you control only one vehicle and its crew, starting out with a basic M4 Sherman tank and progressing to later command any of 17 different Sherman variations. You can take part in either one-off engagement scenarios or play through a campaign with your crew gaining experience (and potentially being wounded or killed) as you go.

From a quick reading of the rules it looks like you have more decisions to make in this game than in B-17 Queen of the Skies. Sure, the enemy reactions are still determined by a number of tables, but having to make more decisions will probably mean a more engaging and hopefully enjoyable game.

I'll probably keep Patton's Best and sell the rest on eBay to recover the overall cost of all the games and hopefully make a little extra to fund other aspects of my hobby.

Gaming With Grandma - 96

I haven't done much gaming lately due to recurring cold symptoms. However, Grandma dropped over this morning and Maddie insisted we all play some board games. Maddie even went so far as to stack up a pile of games and then have us play them in the order she'd determined from top to bottom.

Our first game of the morning was Coda. We played three games taking it in turns to be the first player. Grandma won twice and I won once.

Coda

The next game in Maddie's board game stack was For Sale. This quick little auction game has been a family favourite for quite some time. We played the one game with me winning on $80K, and Grandma and Maddie both sharing second place on $57K.

For Sale

Our next game was Diamant. This is a fun push-your-luck style of game. We used my home-made copy of the game. I went on to win with 71 points, Grandma was second on 57, while Maddie came third on 28.

Home-made Diamant

Our last game of the morning was Burg Appenzell (AKA Chateau Roquefort). This charming little action point/memory game is all about your mice trying to be the first to locate cheese in the castle. Maddie loves being able to slide the tiles to push a 'hole' tile under an unsuspecting opponent's mouse and have it fall into the depths of the castle. She ended up taking out two of Grandma's mice and one of my own before the game ended. I quite enjoyed this game and find it's growing on me. We played to the first to claim 5 types of cheese with me winning on 5 and both Maddie and Grandma sharing second place with 2 types of cheese.

Burg Appenzell

Moria Goblins - Part 6

After finishing the sand on top of the bases I then added a combination of flock and static grass with small dabs of PVA (white wood) glue. This glue dries clear so is invisible. After that it was just a matter of giving the base rims a couple of coats of slightly watered down Citadel Bestial Brown paint.

Finally a couple of coats of a matt spray varnish (I use a relatively cheap brand called Cyrstal Kote Matt from a dollar store) and voila! 48 Games Workshop Moria Goblins fully painted!


You can click in the pictures for a larger image.

Moria Goblins - Part 5

The painting of the goblin models was now complete. The next step was to work on the base. To do this I first applied slightly watered down PVA (white wood) glue to the top of a base with an old paintbrush. Don't use one of your good brushes because your brush won't ever be the same afterwards. I use the same brush for this purpose every time I do miniature bases. I then dipped the base into a small plastic tub (in this case an old ice cream container) full of a mixture of fine sand, and some coarser sand and talus I bought from a model railway shop. I then left the models overnight so that the glue would have time to fully dry.

Sand has been glued to the bases

After the glue was dry I then gave the top of the bases a coat of watered down Citadel Scorched Brown paint.

Sand has been painted brown

The final effect for the sand was done with an old brush using the drybrush process to bring out the details with Citadel Bleached Bone paint. Once again, try to use a single brush specifically for drybrushing as it does cause damage to the hairs of the brush over time.

A drybrush really brings out the details

The Hunt For Gollum

At 4.00pm GMT on the 3rd of May (2.00am 4th of May Brisbane Australia time) the fan-film The Hunt For Gollum was released for free viewing on the Internet. I've been waiting for this Lord of the Rings-inspired film to be released for some time so the first thing I did when I awoke this morning was head to the web site and watch it.


And I was not disappointed. For an unofficial, not-for-profit, short film by a group of enthusiast filmmakers The Hunt For Gollum is very well done indeed. The film is 40 minutes long and details Aragorn's search to capture Gollum to learn more about the ring that was at that time in Frodo's possession in The Shire.


I was very impressed with all facets of the movie including the acting, music, wardrobe, special effects and locations. It's obvious that a lot of love and passion for Tolkien's work has been put into this film. If you want to see it then head over to The Hunt For Gollum website.

Update: To watch the film in HD click on this link.

Gaming With Grandma - 95

Another Saturday morning gaming with my mother (AKA Grandma) and elder 7 year old daughter Maddie. We decided to set up a game of Heroscape on the dining room table.

The set-up of the Jungle Guardians scenario

We decided to played the 'Jungle Guardians' scenario from the Ticalla Jungle expansion set. There is a glyph in the centre of the water feature which allows the player who has a character standing on it to control of squad of three Fyorlag Spiders.

It was a 325 point army for each of us with Maddie taking Raelin, Nakita Agents and Krug, Grandma taking Deathwalker 9000, Knights of Westron, 4th Massachusetts Line and Me-Burq-Sa, and myself taking Anubian Wolves, Khosumet the Darklord, Marro Warriors and Grimnak.

Maddie went on the attack early with her Nakita Agents taking out Grandma's Me-Burq-Sa on the first turn before he even had the chance to act. Grandma's forces mostly stayed in her deployment zone while she sent out Deathwalker 9000 to delay any further attacks on her troops.

I sent a squad of Marro Warriors to claim the glyph. I used my power to control the Fyorlag Spiders to good effect over the next few turns, eventually taking out Grandma's entire squad of Knights of Westron.

Then Maddie got Krug into the action. Krug claimed the high point overlooking the glyph and then started pounding on my Marro. Krug has a Hulk-like ability that increases the damage of his attacks if he is wounded. I moved my Anubian Wolves supported by Khomsumet up to take him on. I unleashed a flurry of attacks on Krug over the next couple of turns reducing him down to only a single life point. The problem was that at that point he could inflict his maximum amount of damage. He wiped out my Wolves and was left to wreak devastation as Khosumet high-tailed it for cover.

Krug - king of the hill

Krug then proceeded to smash my remaining Marro squad into tiny little piles of squishy flesh. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, Maddie's Nakita Agents supported by Raelin were dealing a fair bit of damage to Grandma's 4th Massachusetts Line.

My Grimnak moved to take on Deathwalker 9000 under barrage of explosions. On his way Grimnak chomped down and swallowed one of Maddie's Nakita Agents. Yum. Grimnak did reach Deathwalker 9000 but then fell to a salvo of autocannon fire.

Grandma then started to retaliate against Maddie's forces and sent Deathwalker 9000 to share some love. It was crispy critter city for the remaining Nakita Agents. Krug also succumbed to the murderous fire of Deathwalker 9000.

Raelin and Deathwalker 9000 fight it out for supremacy

My last remaining figure, Khosumet, was knocked out on Turn 7 by a long range shot from Deathwalker 9000. The scenario finished on Turn 8. At that point Maddie only had Raelin left and Grandma only had Deathwalker 9000. Grandma was declared the winner due to having the most points left on the table.

A fun, quick little scenario and I was glad to have the opportunity to get Heroscape on the table again.

Stripping Goblins

I've only tried to remove paint from miniatures once in the past. That was about seven years ago and it was a bunch of 1/72 HAT plastic Napoleonic miniatures. I used an oven cleaner to spray all over the figures and then left them to sit for a day or two. It worked reasonably well as a paint stripper but I had to be careful with the noxious fumes and also wear protective gloves and eye wear.

I've been reading on the Internet of the merits of brake fluid as a paint stripper that's safe to use with plastics. I decided to try it on a bunch of Moria Goblins I'd picked up really cheaply on eBay. These figures had paint jobs that left a lot to be desired and as I intended to repaint them, the original paintwork needed to be stripped.

87 stripped goblins ready for a spray undercoat

I dumped 87 of the little blighters into a container and covered them with brake fluid. I then left them to soak overnight. 24 hours later I grabbed an old toothbrush and was pleasantly surprised to find the paint just sloughing off. The figures weren't harmed at all and the brake fluid combined with some scrubbing removed probably 95% of the previous paint job.

Some had broken weapons when I got them so they'll be used for conversion purposes.

Useless Talent #27

I am reknowned (within my family) for having the ability to catch annoying flies in mid-flight with a super fast snatch of my bare hand.

All hail the lightning reflexes of the Human Fly-Trap!

Moria Goblins - Part 4

The next step in the painting process was to paint all the leather and wood a brown colour. I find that I save time painting a whole lot of miniatures with similar poses. I'm able to get used to where straps, bows, spears etc are on a particular pose so don't waste time having to go back later to paint something I may have missed.

All the brown bits have been painted.

I then highlighted the cloth and skin in lighter tones and gave the miniatures a diluted black wash to bring out the detail.

Highlighted cloth and skin with a black wash

They're almost finished. The only thing left to do is a light grey drybrush of the hair and perhaps highlight some of the leather items. The final bit will probably be another black wash.

Moria Goblins - Part 3

I'd given the cloth a base colour of dark red so the next step was to highlight with a lighter shade. This was done with a fine brush and painted on in detail rather than drybrushed. This gradual blending of colour can really make a model look realistic.

After that I did a similar highlight of the goblin skin of the miniatures. I applied a lighter shade of the greenish grey base colour.

The cloth and skin have been highlighted

The next job was to paint the hair on the heads of 48 Moria Goblins with black paint. The models are now starting to come alive.

Hair painted black

The next part of the project will be to paint the bows, spears and leather parts in brown.

Moria Goblins - Part 2

The next step was to give the armour a wash of dark flesh colour. This seems like an odd thing to do but the effect it achieves is to give the armour a somewhat tarnished or rusty look, just right for the evil Moria Goblins. A brown ink or wash would have a similar effect. After that I highlighted raised bits of the armour with silver.

Flesh wash and silver highlight on the armour. Base colour on the skin.

It was time to start the process of colouring the skin of the miniatures. I started by mixing together khaki and light green to give a dark, brownish green colour. The base coat was applied with a fine brush and the paint was quite watered down to give a smooth finish. If you apply too thick of a coat of paint you risk obscuring some of the fine detail on these miniatures such as facial features.

One trick with painting is to always start off with a darker shade of the final colour and then work it up in stages going a little bit lighter and lighter (leaving behind traces of each preceding colour) until you achieve the final look. This gives a colour gradient and produces a natural effect.

The cloth has been painted a dark red/brown

The cloth was the next job. I wanted a dark base colour of what would eventually be red. For this colour I mixed together red and black and got a dark reddish/brown. The colour was added in a production line effort to the 48 miniatures. To put me in the mood I listened to the soundtracks from the three Lord of the Rings movies.

Next step will be to work on highlighting the cloth and skin.

Moria Goblins - Part 1

I decided to finally paint up some of the Citadel Moria Goblins that had been sitting around for quite some time. I'll be able to use these for skirmish gaming with Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game or Song of Blades and Heroes, as well as use them for the recently released mass battle rules War of the Ring.

Freshly washed Moria Goblins

There are 48 Moria Goblins in this lot. There are 16 with bow, 16 with spear and 16 with sword and shield. That's equivalent to 6 companies in War of the Ring.

The first thing I did was clean off any flash from the miniatures with a craft knife and jeweller's file. I then washed them in warm, soapy water to get rid of any mold release agents and any dirt.

Normally I apply an undercoat of black paint to the miniatures by hand with a brush. This time I decided to spray paint them. I converted an old cardboard box into a spray booth and lined up the miniatures inside. I was careful to take it slow and do short, quick passes of spray paint. I've never spray painted miniatures before and I have to say I was very impressed with how quick and easy it was. I think I'll always spray paint on my undercoats from now on.

Spray painted with a black undercoat

After waiting for the miniatures to dry I then moved them all back inside to my painting table. I mixed up some silver and black paint to give a dark metallic colour. This was drybrushed on to all the miniatures to give a base metallic colour for the armour.

A drybrush of dark metal

The next step will be to highlight, black wash and then re-highlight the armour.

Gaming With Grandma - 94

Mum dropped around this morning for a cup of tea and to give the girls a couple of Lindt Gold Bunnys for Easter. I also got her to play a couple of two-player games while she was here.

Our first game was The Downfall of Pompeii. We took it in turns placing our people into the buildings and when the first AD 79 card appeared I had 25 on the board with 3 in the volcano and mum had 23 on the board with 2 in the volcano.


It was an exciting game. By the end Mum had exited 15 people and had 10 in the volcano while I won by successfully escaping 21 of mine with only 7 in the volcano.

Mum then suggested we play Scrabble. We haven't played Scrabble together for quite some time. I found our session today to be a somewhat frustrating and eventually quite close game.


I won 288 to 255.

War of the Ring

It has come.

"Sauron's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift... The Battle for Middle-earth is about to begin."

- Gandalf, The Two Towers

Gaming With Grandma - 93

My mother (AKA Grandma) popped around for a couple of games and a cup of tea this morning. Our first game was a 2-player game of Metro. I beat mum fairly convincingly last time we played. However, this game did not go all my way. She led early in the game and I was always within 5-10 points. About three-quarters of the way through the game I overtook her score and had a lead of about 10 points. She came back right at the end and just took the win by 2 points. Final score was Mum 98 and myself 96.

Metro

Our next game was another 2-player game, this time the cooperative board game Red November. We've played two games of this previously and lost both games. Our hope was that today we would actually get a win.

We played with two gnomes each. Mum was purple and yellow and I was orange and green. Last game we'd spent a lot of time on putting fires out and preventing the timed destruction events occurring. We decided to take a little bit more of a chance with fixing things in this game. If the issue was not too dire (such as a blocked hatch) we only took 5 minutes (a 50% chance). For the more urgent things we generally took around 8 minutes (with item assistance).

Red November

Around the 40 minutes to go mark my green gnome tried to put out a fire. I spent 5 minutes with the fire extinguisher (+3) giving me an 80% chance. I rolled a 9 and he died. Luck wasn't on our side. At around the 35 minutes to go mark one of the nuclear missiles exploded and we all died. I read on BGG comments from people saying they easily beat this game. They can't be playing by the correct rules.

Maddie joined us for the last game of the morning - Loco! We played three games and I won them all. Game 1 - Wayne 30, Grandma 28, Maddie 12. Game 2 - Wayne 27, Grandma 24, Maddie 14. Game 3 - Wayne 23, Grandma 22, Maddie 17.

Loco!

A Chicken in my Letterbox!

Back in January I advertised on BoardGameGeek looking for a chicken token for my original 1992 edition of the Loopin' Louie game.

A chicken in the mail!

Thanks to Alex Vandertol (BGG user mirrordude) of Grandville, Michigan, USA for sending me a chicken token which arrived in the mail today. I can now play with four players! 30 Geek Gold well spent. Thanks again Alex!

Trip to Townsville

I had to fly up to Townsville on Thursday morning for work. Townsville is 1,112 kilometers (691 miles) from Brisbane and the flight normally takes around one and a half hours. I thought I'd share some photos of my journey.

Dawn breaks as I wait to board my plane

This was a great opportunity to meet with people in my organisation that I'd only ever spoken to over the phone. It turned out to be quite a busy day on Thursday with meetings scheduled for most of the day.

Our Townsville office is located in the heart of the city. That afternoon, after checking into my hotel, I went for walk to the beach which is literally only minutes from the central business district.

A marina with Jupiter's Casino in the distance

I walked along The Strand which is a seaside foreshore of Townsville. In one of the many parks I spotted these magnificent Banyan trees. Roots grow downwards from the branches to support their weight. The branches then grow quite long and create magical sylvan grottoes. What you can see in the photo below is a number of thick roots which have grown down from the branches above.

Banyan trees

It's quite amazing to see such beauty only minutes from the city.

A view from The Strand

Just offshore from Townsville is Magnetic Island. This mountainous island is a holiday destination and has several resorts.

Magnetic Island in the distance

The next morning, Friday, I awoke to a wonderful view of Castle Hill from my hotel. This magnificent 292 meter granite monolith (just 8 meters short of being classified as a mountain) looms over Townsville and can be seen from almost every point.

Castle Hill

It was another busy day at work on Friday with more meetings. That afternoon I caught a flight back to Brisbane. I was tired from the meetings and the travelling but happy to be home with my family again.

Gaming With Grandma - 92

Another Saturday morning gaming session with my daughter Maddie and my Mum (AKA Grandma).

Our first game was a 3-player game of The aMAZEing Labyrinth. I was green, Maddie was red and Grandma was yellow. This game has been a great success for our family as a game that can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. We allow Maddie to look at her top two cards at any time while Grandma and myself are only allowed to look at our top card.

The ever-shifting maze of The aMAZEing Labyrinth.

Final scores were me, Wayne 8, Grandma 7 and Maddie 5.

Maddie then left so Grandma and I looked for a 2-player game. I chose Metro. This is a game of building the Paris Metro rail system in the early 1900's. It's a tile laying game and the object is to score points for completed routes. Double points are scored if you can link one of your stations on the board edge to the stations in the middle. I was blue and Grandma was yellow.

Did someone drop a bowl of spaghetti on the board?

This was only our second play of this game. We'd previously played it with three players but I found that I really enjoyed it as a 2-player game. Grandma led for most of the game but I made a comeback towards the end to claim the win 126 to 100.

Orcs Ready For Action

On Friday morning I finally finished off a batch of Orcs for the Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish game. I'd been working on these miniatures for the last month, grabbing an hour here and an hour there around my busy home and work schedule. All photos can be clicked on for a larger version.

Orc Champion and Orc Warchief

These two figures are from Eureka Miniature's 18mm Fantasy range. They are the two available poses for their Orc Chief (code 300ORC04). Please note that I have converted the figure on the right by adding the weapon to his upraised fist.

I think I'll use them for the following (left to right):

Orc Champion
Points cost: 76
Quality 3+
Combat 4
Special abilities: Savage, Hero

Orc Warchief
Points cost: 100
Quality 3+
Combat 4
Special abilities: Leader, Tough

Orc warriors

These eight figures are from Eureka Miniature's 18mm Fantasy range. They are the four available poses for their Orc with Sword (code 300ORC03).

They'll be used as the following:

Orc Warrior
Points cost: 23
Quality 4+
Combat 3
Special abilities: None

Orc archers

These four figures are from Eureka Miniature's 18mm Fantasy range. They are the four available poses for their Orc Archer (code 300ORC01).

They'll be used as the following:

Orc Archer
Points cost: 29
Quality 4+
Combat 3
Special abilities: Shooter (Medium)

Goblin wolf riders

These figures are from Chariot Miniature's 15mm Fantasy range. I understand that they are three of the four available poses for their Wolf Riders (code GOB03).

They'll be used as the following:

Goblin Wolf Rider
Points cost: 47
Quality 4+
Combat 3
Special abilities: Mounted, Long Move

Giant wolf (AKA Warg)

The last miniature is a large wolf I'm going to use as a Lord of the Rings-style Warg. Unfortunately I'm not certain of the manufacturer for this figure. Anyone know?

It will be used as the following:

Giant Wolf
Points cost: 50
Quality: 3+
Combat: 3
Special abilities: Animal, Big, Long Move