Frostgrave objective markers in the "Sparkly Pretty" style!

I haven't written in a while, but that doesn't mean I've been entirely void of output!

I've been playing a bit of Frostgrave lately, and this thread on Lead Adventure gave me a fun idea for my own objective markers.

I ran down to Michael's and picked up some essentials. My wife already had fine gold glitter.

 

These "gems" came in so many colors, I couldnt help it. That, and they were on sale. You'll notice most are "Qty 120." One was 150, and one was 200. I wish the others were all on the "150" side, but they still work fine.

Here you can see the finished results. I say "finished", but I realize that I haven't yet brushed them off, so some glitter appears to be on top of some of the items - it really isnt.

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So..some easy stuff here, and i was pleased how they turned out.

By the way, for those of you who dont want to chase this stuff down here, the Dice Bag Lady has a really cool kit on her site:
http://thedicebaglady.net/real-treasure-gem-and-glitter-kit/

As for treasure and objectives I'd love to own, well...
Ristuls Market:

Zealot miniatures:

Dark Art Studios:

Otherworld Minis:

And who can forget Reaper!

Mantic:

Thomarillion:

Fenryll:

And for those of you who like to make your own:
http://abarothsworld.com/Tricks/treasures%20&%20trinkets.htm

Roman Gladiators and Gladiatorial Games

A few weeks ago I was at a friends, and during one of our breaks, I wandered over to peruse his vast game shelves. I have done this countless other times, but this time I found a game that struck very near and dear to me:

I played Gladiator by Avalon Hill so much as a teenager! Seeing it on the shelf brought up the inevitable, and based on Aron's recommendation, I began watching Spartacus on Netflix. And yes, by the end of Season 2, I was looking up gladiatorial games. Who, me?

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/43179/roman-gladiators was a list that got me started. Browsing the list over and over, I liked what I read, but without playing a game, how can you really ever be sure?

I started to develop some titles that I was leaning towards. I wanted something that allowed for variety between fighter types (before Spartacus, I hadnt really paid attention to the differences between Murmillo and Thraex, for example), focused primarily on 1v1 combat with a campaign system/opportunity to advance, and wasn't cumbersome (ie a little bit of how Gladiator was).

RULES
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=146231 was another thread that really got me directed towards two rulesets in particular. After reading these two threads over and over, I have settled on these:

Arena Games - Freeform gladiator design, but it seems like it allows differences based on your actual model used.
Morituri Te Salutant with their Downloads section

Freebies:
Munera Sine Missione
Dragonrune: Arena of Death which is MSM but a Fantasy variant.

Of course, the Grandaddy of them all appears to be Blood on the Sands, still in development. I'll keep an eye on it as it progresses.

RESEARCH

 
With any learning comes research. This article got me going while I watched Spartacus, and I have:

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1846034728/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UNZ2TUS880YF and

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841762997/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER on their way.

MINIATURES
As far as miniatures go, yea, there are a ton in 28mm.

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/ancients/gladiators/ seem to get the best press. My only uneducated problem with these superb sculpts are that some seem to not be "real" by what I've read. Murmillo should have rectangular shields from what I can tell, and Hoplomachus should have spears, not just short swords. (the original link to the BGG list confirms my suspicions). Bah, whatever, I'll buy a ton :) and YES, they look the best of all that I have seen.

These two are from this excellent thread and are from Foundry: http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=61911.0

Crusader has an excellent line as well, though the look to be 28mm. They are reputed to be the most historically accurate, though they tend to be a bit beefy and not refined enough for my taste. I'll likely get some, but for a game that focuses on ONE model at a time, well, 28mm is rumored to be the "One True Scale" for detail. I just dont see that here.

Old Glory also has some minis... they actually look pretty nice and dynamic!

Michael Stockin at TWW pointed me towards these beauties by Moonraker.

Steve Barber has a KILLER arena and decent gladiators in 25mm (none that I plan on getting).

Brigade Games has some historical poses. I especially like their Thraex and Hoplomachus.

Black Hat, maker of Morituri Te Salutant, have their line up here. I am not impressed but something usable may come from this line.

So, now that I've got all that out of the way, I'll post my winners for the different Gladiator types here, and this shall begin my shopping list. Alphabetical list, with desriptions from the wiki:

Dimachaerus - The dimachaerus (Greek διμάχαιρος, "bearing two knives") used a sword in each hand. [I'd like a minimum of 2]

The unpainted Dimachaerus in the top right is nice. This is Crusaders ANG006

Hoplomachus - The Hoplomachus (Greek "armed fighter") wore quilted, trouser-like leg wrappings, loincloth, a belt, a pair of long shin-guards or greaves, an arm guard (manica) on the sword-arm, and a brimmed helmet that could be adorned with a plume of feathers on top and a single feather on each side. He was equipped with a gladius and a very small, round shield. He also carried a spear, which the gladiator would have to cast before closing for hand-to-hand combat. [I'd like a minimum of 2]

Crusader's ANG004 - the painted models look fantastic here, so I have to assume the non-painted models will paint up just as nicely.

This is the Brigade Games hoplomachus - I'm making a wild assumption that the purchased item comes with a spear!
Gauls - see Thraex, who "were introduced as replacements for the Gauls after Gaul made peace with Rome."

Gladiatrix - A female gladiator of any type. Also had to fight lions and bears by themselves. [I'll get one or two, most likely just for looks!]

Laquearius - The laquearius was a kind of retiarius who tried to catch his adversaries with a lasso (laqueus) instead of a net. He was equipped also with a dagger for use once he snared his opponent. [1, for originality's sake]
See the Foundry entry under Retiarius.

Murmillo - The murmillo (plural murmillones) or myrmillo wore a helmet with a stylised fish on the crest (the mormylos or sea fish), as well as an arm guard (manica), a loincloth and belt, a gaiter on his right leg, thick wrappings covering the tops of his feet, and a very short greave with an indentation for the padding at the top of the feet. They are heavily armoured gladiators: the murmillo carried a gladius (64–81 cm long) and a tall, oblong shield in the legionary style. [I'd like a minimum of 3]

These are nice sculpts from Crusader, "ANG001"

Provacator - In the late Republican and early Imperial era, the armament of a provocator ("challenger") mirrored legionary armature. In the later Imperial period, their armament ceased to reflect its military origins, and changes in armament followed changes in arena fashion only. Provocatores have been shown wearing a loincloth, a belt, a long greave on the left leg, a manica on the lower right arm, and a visored helmet without brim or crest, but with a feather on each side. They were the only gladiators protected by a breastplate (cardiophylax) which is usually rectangular, later often crescent-shaped. They fought with a tall, rectangular shield and the gladius. [minimum of 1]
See the Dimachaerus entry, above, for the Crusader model.

This is Brigade Games' offering. Nicely detailed. 


Retiarius - The retiarius ("net fighter") developed in the early Augustan period. He carried a trident and a net. The retiarius wore a loincloth held in place by a wide belt and a larger arm guard (manica) extending to the shoulder and left side of the chest. He fought without the protection of a helmet. Occasionally a metal shoulder shield (galerus) was added to protect the neck and lower face. [Miminum of 2]

Foundry's "Prime Contenders - GLAD012" has both a nice Retiarius and a Laquearius - fortunately the Thracian/Thraex looks historical enough to use.

This is Crusader's ANG003. I really like the top dynamic pose.

Samnite - an older style, it seems: The Samnite was an early type of heavily armed fighter that disappeared in the early imperial period. A "Samnite" gladiator was armed with a long rectangular shield (scutum), a plumed helmet, a short sword, and probably a greave on his left leg.

Here, I like the far-right model with the blue shield. This is Foundry's "Saleh's Survivors - GLAD011"

Secutor - The secutor ("pursuer") developed to fight the retiarius. As a variant of the murmillo, he wore the same armour and weapons, including the tall rectangular shield and the gladius. The helmet of the secutor, however, covered the entire face with the exception of two small eye-holes in order to protect his face from the thin prongs of the trident of his opponent. The helmet was also round and smooth so that the retiarius net could not get a grip on it. [minimum of 2]

This is Foundry's "Copplestone's Conquerors - GLAD015" - see the model third from the right, with the purple-trimmed shield. 

Brigade Games' offering, which is a little creepy looking, but does the trick.

Thraex - The Thraex (plural Thraeces, "Thracians") wore the same protective armour as the hoplomachi with a broad rimmed helmet that enclosed the entire head, distinguished by a stylized griffin on the protome or front of the crest (the griffin was the companion of the avenging goddess Nemesis), a small round or square-shaped shield (parmula), and two thigh-length greaves. His weapon was the Thracian curved sword (sica or falx, c. 34 cm or 13 in long).

Here, I like the 3rd model from the left, with the green accent. Foundry's "Prime Contenders - GLAD012"

This is Foundry's "Copplestone's Conquerors - GLAD015" - see the far right model.
See also the Hoplomachus entry, above, for the Crusader options.

Other buys:

Old Glory's ZGW-02 "Medium Gladiators"


Final Buy Guide:
Foundry - GLAD011, GLAD012, GLAD015, GLAD023, GLAD025
Crusader - ANG001, ANG003, ANG004, ANG006
Old Glory - ZGW-02 "Medium Gladiators"
Brigade Games - BG-GLA001B "Provocator", BG-GLA001A "Secutor", BG-GLA001E "Hoplomachus"

Buying this way will cost a lot of money, with quite a few "left overs", but it will let me field what I want and use the others as needed.

EDIT: this guy has a fantastic Gladiator-inspired blog:
 http://zabadakgladiator.blogspot.com/2015/06/rules.html

Gaming without terrain

Two years ago I came to the conclusion that I just didn't have enough room for 28mm, 15mm, AND 6mm gaming, and since 28mm was my least-used scale, it drew the short straw. Warhammer Fantasy armies, 40K armies, two Infinity armies, even a gorgeously painted all-female cowgirl posse got sold off. I sold my entire collection of fantastic handmade trees, forests, foamcore buildings, and all my scatter terrain. I was richer, and sadder, but I had something that had been in short supply for some time:

S P A C E.

Yea, while I felt like a part of me was walking out the door (I started gaming in 28mm, if you don't count Battletech 20 years before), I just didn't have the room for all my stuff. I blame Infinity - that game is a terrain whore! It was because of Infinity that I LIVED over at http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/, always reading, and came up with some really cool stuff. I bought playsets at ToysRUs to use as scatter terrain, but in the end, I just ran out of room.

So now, my son is 7 and he loves watching me play my games (what little I get in these days). I wanted to include him in some small-scale gaming, so I pulled out my Reaper figs that I've had for decades, and I went through the different rulesets I had. I settled on the newest one, Iron & Honor (discussed somewhat here). It was a decent, quick little "build your own" ruleset, but....

Terrain? Aww crap.

"Hey son, go get your Legos". Yea. It was sad, but he was happy :)  And honestly, it did the trick.

But there had to be something better. I was NOT going to start over again. I have a pretty addictive personality (heck, most gamers do, since we take the crap that the hobby throws our way and keep coming back for more...don't believe me? Look over at your paint table :P ) so I refuse to start building terrain for 28mm again. No way...

A ha! I found something that might work! Heroic Maps over on Wargames Vault has some pretty cool printable PDFs/jpegs that might work, so I bought the Wilderness and a few others. NOTE: many of the titles aren't gridless, so much of the $25 purchase I made isn't feasible yet, but they are supposedly fixing this soon. [EDIT - the following day, all maps that I owned with grids were updated - Heroic Maps had some heroic customer service!]

Anyway, yea, I got me some nice cardstock 11"x17" paper, and with the office printer, got some cool stuff printed out. Now I had a whole bunch of 10"x10" tiles, trimmed them with my wife's paper cutter (see, I KNEW her scrapbooking addiction would come in handy), and came up with this:

Now, Iron & Honor was decent, but it is in the infantile stages of development. I looked into Skulldred, but I reacted to quite a lot of what I read, and he has been insanely stale getting his next revision out. I actually began merging the two into what I considered a decent ruleset, but as with most of my projects that I do alone in a vacuum, it petered out, and anyway, I realized I was writing what I wanted, and not what would work for my son.

So now I need to make a quick apology. Back in 2008 when Ganesha Games came out with Song of Blades and Heroes, I bought it and a few expansions, but was quickly bored with how overly simplistic it was. For the past, what, six years, I have not exactly badmouthed it on forums or public gatherings, but really just expressed my derision that people (adults?!) would take it seriously and actually play it.

Well, it dawned on the other day that this might be exactly what my son could get into, so I started lurking on the TMP SoBaH forums to see what the current status was. One comment I read in the thread "Measuring sticks....why" stuck with me. A posted named Inner Sanctum said,

"Two things about Ganesha Games:
We have never had a "bad" or boring game
No plan survives contact with the dice."

Isn't having a good game what gaming is all about? Another friend once said to me that he didn't care what game he was playing as long as he was with friends and having fun. Now, I have very little patience as it is, so I cannot completely buy into such a patient attitude, but I get it. I don't game at my FLGS because I'd rather be with friends in the comfort of a non-loud, non-smelly home, drinking wine, playing with the dog, etc...so that comment about having good games stuck...

I'm sorry, Ganesha Games. I gave you too little credit. I take back what I said all those years!

So, that being said, the game is still DAMN SIMPLISTIC and I cannot see me taking it too seriously and suddenly having it become my favorite game, but I put together some forces for my son and I, and yea, we had fun!

Remember back when I mentioned getting into minis again? I realized my Reaper collection was decent, but was somewhat lacking, so I spent DAYS on Reaper's website looking for two new warbands. I came up with barbarians for me, and my son (who gravitates towards the bad guys, believe it or not) got what will eventually be a Blood Elf band (aka World of Warcraft) using the drow/dark elf line at Reaper. I found what I needed at Miniature Giant, which is AWESOME at locating old Out of Print models, and so some of these hit the table today. Unpainted. Unassembled. Ugh. Really? I'm out of patience, too ADD to do this...but that's a battle for another day :P

We used Frog Tape, which is like a painter's tape, to connect the boards. I would have preferred a draftman's tape, but this worked fine and was pretty easy to remove afterwards.

Jadon ended up wanting to play the good guys once he saw the giant and werewolf I had...so I played the elves. He smooshed me, but I didn't care. I was actually impressed with the board, and yea, the ruleset was quick. I will definitely play it again...

So how can I wrap this travesty of personal apology up? Be careful what you buy, as they aren't all gridless yes, but the Heroic Maps make a cool table, SANS TERRAIN! Song of Blades and Heroes is indeed simplistic, and probably overly so, but it's going to work fine for my son and I. Now to wrangle someone to pin, assemble, and paint my minis for me... :P HAH!

Im not alone when it comes to not wanting to paint rank after rank...

Ive been surfing over at Tabletop Gaming News today as I often do, and came across this article reviewing Warpath, the to-be-40k-competitor by the guys over at Mantic Games. You can read it here:

http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2012/03/games-that-currently-intrigue-me.html

But what caught my eye was the comment at the end:

"The reality is that I'm not quite as enamoured with the idea of mass battle games like I once was. It no longer fits with how, or indeed where I want my hobby to go. I've done that for roughly the past 15 years or so and in the end I didn't find it a very enjoyable all round hobby experience. I guess it's because deep down I love painting and being forced to have to paint row after row of identikit miniatures fills me with dread now, no matter how I approach it. Painting them to as high a standard as I can achieve, which is what I'd normally choose to do, scares the hell out of me. Especially when I think of the time commitment I'd have to make to such a joyless task. Yet speed painting them, and just doing the basics isn't what I like doing either and I find it a bit soul destroying. Big games take a big commitment and I guess my life isn't quite in that same 'hobby zone' right now that it used to be."
You've just nailed my attitude exactly. I can't tell you whether it's a general trend or just a few of us, but I'm over the whole fill-the-table-with-28mm models thing. It's an excess I can no longer afford either time-wise or cash-wise.
I love painting, which might be evident in the terrain I have done lately, but I think this is because the pieces themselves are so individualistic that it is almost like a skirmish game with terrain :)

I have a new JR Miniatures building to show, maybe tonight, but I wanted to get this out there. It echoes how I feel a lot too...and is one of the reasons that 6mm is such a joy to me right now.

My journey into 15mm Sci-Fi

As a long time player of 28mm, I discovered 6mm a few years back and fell in love with it quickly. Not only were the models amazing at this scale, but they were inexpensive, the terrain pieces I could buy were fantastic (and cheap as well!), and the ruleset I chose, Epic: Armageddon, suited my tastes perfectly.  When presented with 15mm by some friends and fellow gamers, my reply was, "I dont really need another scale" and I left it at that.

Slowly, however, I realized that I just havent been playing much of anything in 28mm scale. I have lost my enjoyment of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy, Infinity bores me now with its lack of scenarios, I dont use my cowboys much (Legends of the Old West was fun, but a bit too simplistic for me to reach for it often anymore).  Malifaux is one game I really enjoy, but as a whole, 28mm seems to just take up a ton of precious space in my craft room, and Im sitting on quite a bit of money that, if I sold my models and terrain, could feed other addictions. You know, like models in another scale?

Enter Tomorrow's War. Well, before that, enter Ambush Alley, like way back when it was a new publication in PDF only. I bought it and read it - other than a metric ton of grammatical and spelling errors (which I offered to help edit for free but was turned down), I liked the rules. Of course I never played them, but I always held the system in at least moderate regard.

Rabbit Hole: As an aside, I love games that allow custom creation of models. I have delved into this in almost every scale that I have played, including spaceship games, Mech games, man, you name it. A few years ago I discovered and started volunteering my time for a developing game called Unbridled Fury. I think my name is still in the credits, but I really liked how robust his creation rules were. It was the editing experience I got on this product, combined with his creation rules, that really create a benchmark for upcoming products.

[Yea, I'm easily swayed by the shiny, I admit. As an artist, presentation is SO MUCH of a factor for me when looking to buy something, whether it is a book, a set of rules, or even just a model]

Where was I? Oh yea...So when I saw Tomorrow's War on either The Miniatures Page (TMP) or Tabletop Gaming News (TGN), and seeing reviews for it in TMP's forums, I couldnt help but take notice. And notice that the prevalent scale seemed to be 15mm.

Another rabbit trail: The ruleset my friends were using for their 15mm games was Future War Commander, which I owned. I admit, I was really underwhelmed with the rules, even though they allow for custom unit creation. I just couldnt get into them (I bought them for use with my 6mm stuff) and so never planned on investigating or investing much into 15mm....

Well, the same thing that got me into 6mm was once again threatening to drag me into 15mm, and that was the amazing presentation of cool models on pages like TMP and TGN. Seriously, it was hard enough to resist models by Exodus Wars, Dark Ream Miniatures, and Plasmablast. What chance did I stand against Micropanzer, Khurasan, Rebel Minis, Critical Mass, and Ground Zero Games?

So I mentioned that Tomorrow's War was on my radar to a few of my 15mm friends, and I get the immediate feedback that there is yet another game to check out: Gruntz. Choices! Cool!  So now I own Gruntz, Tomorrow's War (the hardcover) has been prepaid for its arrival later this month, and my Khurasan Federal models are on their way in the mail. No, I havent sold any of my 28mm figures or terrain like I swore I would do (to free up money and space), and yea, Ive already started building terrain for 15mm (groan).  But I am excited. Big time. As soon as my models arrive, I will convince a friend to run through Gruntz with me (here's to hoping the cleaned up version 1.1 is out by then!), followed by a furious reading of TW when it arrives.

Stay tuned for more in my adventures into the world of 15mm. Ive decided I can skirmish in this scale, buy cheaper models in this scale, paint this scale with a decent level of detail, and go for Flames of War-sized wargames all at once. Pride of Lions is a fantasy ruleset Ive had my eyes on for awhile for fantasy...so my prospects are looking might good.