Spugs!

Hi,

So this weekend was mostly stay-at-home, but the upside is that I finally got around to painting up a mess of Spugs. I painted up all three squads of basic troopers. They just need a little touch-up work and the heavy-weapon guys need some work on their tanks/hoses. Not quite sure what I'm going to do about those yet.

I'm not a fantastic painter, but these guys came together pretty well. They use a yellow and white scheme (based off of the coloring of desert locusts) so the contrast isn't quite as high as I'd like, but they've come together well and with a little bit of finish work I can start using them in various games (probably 5150 with some Legion of Steel UNE to serve as the human side).

I still have a small batch of spugs to paint up, but they're going to require a bit more work with assembly than the basic troopers did. The Comm spugs have some fiddly bits that will need an accelerator to get the glue to set up quickly and the Spugnaught may require pinning, which is something I've never done on a figure before. Still, it's nice to have made such great progress on these guys. Once they're finished off I can start buying some more!

I'm looking at the Hydrassians, the Drakh and the Quar. But there's also the airship pirates idea I've been kicking around.

later
Tom

Memo to self...

Artizan makes a line of air pirate/zeppelin troopers in it's Thrilling Tales/Pulp line.

Building the Fleet

Tonight I started in on the WWII coastal forces I picked up at GenCon. These fights were the real spur to get me back into wargamming so it's appropriate that I start with them. The fact that they're also a snap to paint up (mostly shades of grey) was another motivator.

I had a couple of ships by Skytrex and a bunch of others by PT Dockyard. Skytrex is traditional metal while PT Dockyard casts in resin. This was my first time working in resin and, I'm sorry to report, it's clearly not my idiom. At 1/600th scale there's some very tiny, very fine bits to glue onto the models and on the Dockyard ships all these bits came suspended in a thin sheet of resin.

So the idea is that you cut the guns and stuff out from the sheet and then stick 'em on. All very simple in theory, but in practice it's way too easy to snap off gun barrels and sometimes the flashing is almost impossible to remove. The Skytrex stuff had it's fair share of delicate pieces, but at least getting them off the sprue wasn't a hassle.

So I suspect that my future purchases in this line will be of the Skytrex variety.

But aside from gluing my fingers together, I got them all finished and tomorrow I'll stick them on bases and prime them. I also put bases on a squad of my Spugs. I expect that the ships will go pretty quickly and once they're done, I'd like to paint up the basic foot troopers for the Spugs.

GenCon

Hi,

As you can see by the lack of posting, August has been a very quiet month in terms of miniature gaming. I'm still struggling to get everything unpacked and stored away in the house and get a good place for painting set up. So the Spugs are still wanting.

But I did go to GenCon and I got a fair amount of gaming done then and picked up a bunch of stuff for future games. So I remain a classic wargammer in that I've bought lots of stuff when there's still lots of stuff I haven't painted up yet.

Friday was my big gaming day. First up was a WWII coastal forces game in the Black Sea (using the Action Stations! ruleset). I'd first tried coastal wargaming last year and liked it so much I was back again. Once more I was on the German side, but this time I was in something a bit tougher than the converted fishing boat I got last year. Unfortunately, my shooting and our overall strategy was crap and the Russians managed to get a big spread of torpedoes off against the convoy we were protecting. Thus I pulled hard in front of the convoy and sucked up six torpedo hits -- considering that even one torpedo hit had an 80% chance of sinking me, there was nothing left of my boat. The Russians went on to hammer the convoy and most of the escorts. According to the event organizer, the Soviet players probably sank more tonnage in this one encounter than the entire Russian fleet managed during the whole of WWII. Still, it was a fun game as always and I've picked up a fair number of miniatures to run my own games here at home.

The second event of the day was a 2-hour demo of C.A.V. by Reaper minis. C.A.V. is a big-stompy mech game (like Battletech) and it's recently upgraded to a new edition. It's a very fast-playing game. There's no complicated damage charts or power/heat management issues or anything. It's abstracted up a bit so that you can play with several squads of mechs/vehicles/infantry and just slug it out. Each unit has a small table with its stats. As you take damage, you move to the next column of stats which are usually a bit worse. It's a bit like clicky-base miniatures except the stats are contained on the card. There's no overwatch, but you do get to return fire with one weapon against a unit that just hit you (and firing is simultaneous so you use your current stats before the damage degrades them). Frankly, I rather liked it. I'm a bit worried that there's not enough tactical depth to it, but it does play really quick and everything is intuitive. In the demo, I played a bunch of bruisers in the middle and got taken out, but I managed to kill one other guy and seriously messed up a few others.

On Saturday, I also took in a demo of AT-43 and it convinced me that it's a game worth picking up. The pre-painted plastic minis are at least as good as any paintjob I could do and if they're pricey, they're also ready to play out of the box and that probably puts them even with the cost of painted minis. Additionally, during the last hour that the dealer's hall was open on Saturday, Rackham said everything in the booth was 50% off if you paid cash. I only wish I had more cash and more luggage. But I got good starter army for the Red Block faction.

So what miniature-related things did I wind up bringing home from the show?

* C.A.V. starter set

After the Demo, the Reaper guys gave me a coupon for 25% off so it seemed like a good deal. I wanted to read through the full ruleset, but for fast mech fun this seems like a good bet.

* Mechaton starter set

Someone who isn't Vincent Baker, but who really likes Mechaton (the lego robot game) put out these box sets that have enough pieces to build a squad of four "Squat" mechs (the standard design in the Mechaton book). This is a fantastic idea and I'd like to put together larger "army" packs for next year (including vehicles and infantry units).

* Lots of Coastal forces miniatures in metal and resin

I need to get another couple of freighter and some German S-Boats, but I'm well on my way to having a nice starter set to play out some coastal actions here in MA. Also, the ships are dirt easy to paint so hopefully, they'll be in action soon.

* AT-43 Rulebook
* UNA army book
* Red Block Colossus
* Red Block Dragonnov Unit
* Red Block Dragonnov Specialists
* Red Block Hero

I'm getting into AT-43. There, I said it.

And that was my GenCon.

I'm hoping to flesh out my AT-43 collection a bit and perhaps get it out on the table at a local Gaming Weekend coming up in a few weeks.

later
Tom

Elbow Room, Elbow Room

Hi,

So things have been very quiet with my miniatures projects. This isn't too surprising since I've spent most of June moving into my house. This is the first house I ever bought with the bank's own money so there's been some adjusting to new circumstances. But now we are moved and the grand unpacking must begin.

As part of this, I need to find a good place to set up a miniature painting area. The new house has an office that I can use, but it's already filled with lot of my gaming/reading/computing stuff and with the carpeted floor, it's a less than ideal space to paint minis.

I'm considering setting up a small table in the basement and providing it with a strong lamp. Although there's not a lot of head clearance for a tall guy like me, I'll be sitting most of the time so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The basement is also fairly dry so I should be able to leave work in progress down there without too much worry.

I'm also basically starting from scratch with painting supplies/material so I'll need new paints, brushes, etc. I'm also going to pick up a drill and pin vice since I think the Spugnaught will need some pinning in order to fit together properly. I'm hoping to start work on the basic spugs in the 2nd half of July.

later
Tom

First Minis

So I thought that I'd start off my projects by picking up some 1/600th scale minis for Action Stations!, but I got a bit sidetracked.

Rattlehead Games announced that they were going to be raising prices on their imports so that their prices would better reflect the amazing disparity between the dollar and the pound. For some time now, I've been really interested in doing up a bunch of Spugs from Spriggan Miniatures. Spugs are insectile humanoid aliens. They've got a lot of nice clean poses and they're really interesting. I figure I can use them for SuperSystem and 5150.

Anyway, they have an Army deal where you get 3 squads of troopers, a squad of "jump spugs", a commander, and the terrifying Spugnaut. You get 28 figs and Rattlehead was offering it for $60 (with free shipping). It's a complete steal when you realize that it should go for around $70-75. So I snapped it up.

Now I have to paint them. Luckily I've got a lot of inspiration from this guy here. I'll have to get paints/brushes and get going on these guys. But I'm moving into my new home (the first home I ever bought actually). So it may be a bit of a slog in June. I'm considering taking my stuff down to Pandemonium as they have mini painting nights (Danger Planet might also).

The minis themselves? Fantastic. Very clean, crisp molds with only a little bit of flash here and there. Most of the models are one piece models. Some of the drones are 2-parters, but my test fittings show that they go together extremely well. The Jumpspugs will be a little more complex and the Spugnaut will have to wait until the end until I feel a little more confident in my skills.

I'll keep you posted on my progress here.

Rulesets

The first thing to do is decide what kind of games I’m going to be playing. As the title of the blog suggests, I’m mostly interested in skirmish gaming. Probably my favorite miniatures wargame is Charlie Company which only has maybe 50 figures on a side (and usually much less than that). Platoon and squad sized combat is my deal. In part because fewer figures means less painting and prep and more gaming, but mainly because I’m more interested in war at the level of an individual. Grand strategic games are perfectly fine, but I like my combat to be a little grittier and more personal. I feel it gives me a better sense of being at the sharp end rather than sitting back and ordering men into it.

So here are the rulesets and periods I’m interested in doing:

• Supersystem (2nd Ed.): This slick little set of rules for playing out comic book superhero fights is a lot of fun. You can play for cheap using the HeroClix plastic minis (which is what I did when I was trying it out), but SuperFigs makes a very nice line of Superhero minis that don’t look like licensed characters. It’s ideal for “gaming in a bin” since 10 figures are enough to field two teams with 50 you’d have the crossover event of the decade. It does mean there’s a lot of urban terrain to put together, but a lot of that can be reused for other games.
• Action Stations!: Small boat action in WWII. I got a chance to play this at GenCon last year and it was a total hoot. Small torpedo boats darting in to sink merchant ships before larger destroyers and escorts can blow you out of the water. A fast playing game that’s a lot of fun. Again, you only need a small number of models for each side. A common pool of merchant ships provides the targets and the terrain couldn’t be simpler. It’s very probably the first “bin” I’ll complete.
• 5150: This is the Sci-Fi version of the Chain Reaction System by Two Hour Wargames. I got to try out the Chain Reaction System at Havoc earlier this year (thought I played the All Things Zombie variant). Again, it’s a nice system well suited to small skirmish actions. Aside from using it as a good sci-fi system, I’m planning on adapting it for use as a modern-day African conflict ruleset. Post-colonial warfare in Africa has been an interest of mine for awhile now. The classic AK-47 is fun, but the scale (of warfare) is a bit too large. Since the end of the Cold War, the various conflicts in Africa have become more skirmish oriented with gangs, rebels and warlords all fighting small, savage battles over resources. I think 5150 will be an ideal ruleset to play out these smaller battles with. Terrain may be a bit of a problem here. The urban stuff from Supersystem can easily be reused, but fighting in jungles and forests might require more terrain than can easily fit. I guess we’ll just have to experiment a bit and find out.
• Legions of Steel: Techicnally, I already have a “bin” for this game. It’s a boardgame/miniature game mixture that plays a lot like Space Hulk, but (in my opinion) is far superior to it. The terrain is nothing more than interlocking tiles used to build up the game board and you play it out by moving on the grid. It’s been awhile since I’ve pulled this game out to play, but it’s still one of my favorites.

So those are games that I’ve played and definitely want a bin for. There are a couple of other rulesets that I’m interested in but I really want to try them out at a convention first before I commit a bin to them:

• Hostile Aircraft: I picked up a copy of this on eBay. Goblintooth, the publisher, is no longer a going concern which is too bad because their 1/285th scale models were supposed to be fantastic. I’m considering adapting the game to 1/72nd scale models (which are fairly easy to find from a wide range of manufacturers). Luckily, the terrain for the game is incredibly basic. The planes and their stands will quickly amass quite a bit of space though.
• Crossfire: Crossfire is a WWII skirmish game that show a lot of promise, but the 15mm scale really threw me off. I started to put a project together for this, but got completely discouraged by the size of the figures and eventually bailed on it. I would like to try out the system and either take another stab at it or adapt the rules to something a little bigger.
• Pig Wars: The problem with gaming anything before WWI is that most battles were fought by large formations of men. Smash and grab raids by Vikings put the focus squarely back on the individual warrior. I’ve heard good things about this ruleset and the battle reports have been pretty entertaining. So I’ll have to investigate it. But I’ll still need a pretty large number of figures (mostly hapless villagers) and terrain will be a complete bear. But I’m still interested in having some Dark Ages fun.
• Charlie Company: A fantastic ruleset for Vietnam gaming and one of the better rulesets out there period. I credit Charlie Company with getting me interested in historical gaming and teaching me a lot about the period. I don’t really need to build a bin for this game though since my friend Haywire has pretty much all the figures and terrain you could want. I feel like he’s still short a few helicopters and I really want to do “brown water” combats with Riverine forces. I might contribute a few vehicles.

The overarching goal

I want to have a clear goal in mind as I put together my various miniature projects. This makes it more likely that I will complete these projects and gives me a yardstick by which I can judge when and how to start new projects or improve older ones. I don’t want to turn into one of those wargamers who has tons of unpainted minis and half-finished terrain and thousands of rulebooks for games they’ve never played sitting around. On that last score, I’m especially guilty. I tend to collect rulebooks for games I’m pretty sure I’ll never play. So it’s important to have a goal that keeps me going and keeps me getting actual playtime out of the things I’m doing.

There may be several sub-gaols, but I’d like to have a “big picture” goal, a “mission statement” if you will. For me, I think the big picture goal will be the following:

I will produce “in the box” miniature gaming projects. The figures, rules, terrain, and all other play aids that I need to play a game with other people will all fit completely inside a standard 18 gal. plastic bin.

That seems like a pretty big box, but the terrain requirements mean that there’s a bit less space than you might imagine. In my head, I figure that this means no more that 100 figures (total for all sides in the game). This keeps the painting and prep work to a minimum and it means I can just pull a box any time I feel like it and go to a gaming event with something ready to put out on the table right away. By being able to field both sides of a fight, people can just drop in and play with me (but it also encourages them to paint up a few items of their own to if they get interested in playing regular games with me). These restrictions also allow me to indulge a variety of gaming genres.

So, gaming in a bin, that’s the goal. Let’s see how well I can stick to it.

Welcome to Small Skirmishes!

My name is Tom and I’ve been interested in miniature wargaming since I started out with green army guys as a kid. Over the years I’ve gone from green army guys to brave dungeon explorers to space marines and genestealers to Necromunda gangs to Legions of Steel to Flintloque to Charlie Company and Heavy Gear. For a number of years though, my activity in miniatures was pretty minimal. This stemmed from a number of causes. Mostly I was never a terribly good painter, and I was spoiled rotten by gaming with a guy who won Golden Demon awards. His figures were excellent and he could always be bribed into painting up a few more of my guys when I needed it. With him doing all the heavy lifting all I had to do was show up and game.

And really, that’s mostly what I really want to do anyway. I know lots of people who really get into the painting and the modeling. I have nothing but respect for the people who put so much time and effort into that end of things. The links on the right to “Old School” Wargammers and their impressive battalions of figures, make that clear, but really, I’m mostly here for the gaming.

I suppose I could hire a painting service, but aside from the increased cost, it’s kind of dodging the issue. I have painted up a small crop of figures and while they’re no prize winners, they certainly aren’t as bad as Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Red, etc. So I feel like if I put a little effort into it,I could certainly churn out perfectly good figures.

So the blog is here mainly to help me chart my progress at getting my various miniature projects done. It’s other purpose is to help organize the various miniature games/campaigns I want to play and make sure that I spend at least as much time playing games as I do preparing for them.