Picking the Bones, part I

A brief diversion from my usual line here--some time back, my dad bought in to the Reaper Bones Kickstarter and ended up with quite a large box of 28mm plastic fantasy figures. Despite the dubious noises I made at several points along the way, he's actually been making good progress at getting this pile of plastic painted (as you can see by his blog)--nonetheless, I was invited to select any that I cared to paint.

Though in the past I have generally steered clear of 28mm individually-based fantasy figures, and though a lot of the Reaper figures are a bit too... spiky... for my tastes, I did pick out a small band of adventurous-looking types. After sitting around on my work table for a month (luxuriating in a nice bath of soapy water) I have finally gotten the first of them painted--a rather fierce-looking woman in sensibly heavy (if perhaps somewhat impractical) armor. Some Googling tells me that she is "Seelah, Iconic Pathfinder Paladin," or something like that.

I started with the cloak, which I decided to paint yellow. After looking at her facial features (those which were discernible on a head only half an inch tall, anyway) I decided to go for something other than my standard "acorn brown" and went with burnt umber instead. Possibly subconsciously inspired by a number of V-shaped elements in her armor, I ended up using a zig-zag motif on much of her gear, including the cloak pattern and the stylized lightning bolt on her shield. I found her helmet to be the most difficult bit--the way the figure is sculpted with it held tucked at her waist, I couldn't really get a sense of what the thing was supposed to look like--is that a visor or a crest? is it open at the bottom?--so eventually I just winged it.

Anyway, all in all this one was reasonably entertaining to paint, and I got to play with some different techniques. The other three will be along at some point, though probably not until after I've done some more 20mm stuff and possibly some NQSYW figures.

Barbarians of Myboria

OK, yes, I'm still alive--August and September were busy months for me, and I didn't end up doing much bloggable stuff. However, painting has proceeded slowly--I've been adding to the nomadic hordes of Myboria, who are currently a little too dependent on their yakatheriums, and need some more actual cavalry. So in the last few months, I've added a couple units of light cavalry and a second unit of heavy cavalry to their ranks. These guys are a mix of Italeri and Zvezda figures, for the most part:

At some point, I took a break from the horse nomads to paint a different sort of barbarian--the strong-thewed heroic type. This guy from the Caesar Adventurers had been sitting on my painting desk in an unfinished state for many an age until some inspiration finally struck--what he really needed was a scantily-clad knee-hugger! Fortunately, the reclining woman from the old Atlantic Greek Life set seemed to fit the bill. (An Antediluvian priestess, perhaps?) These two were fun to paint--especially trying to suggest translucence on the woman's garment. (I did a bit of playing around with "Conam's" skin tone as well--at one point in the process he was an appalling fake-tan orange color...)

Anyway, hopefully it will be less than two months until the next update...

Historicon 2013

It was a hot weekend in Fredricksburg, VA, but not hot enough to melt lead. Through a quirk of my schedule, I came up from Norfolk rather than down from Germantown this year, and arrived on Thursday night--too late to register for anything, but with a few hours to wander around, look at some of the games on display, and play a quick pick-up chariot game with Dad to remind myself of how my rules work.

Friday morning was more of the same, along with initial visits to the dealer's hall and the flea market. Aside from some dice, my only significant purchase this time around were some "Arcane Legions" figures that someone was selling in the flea market. I must admit that I'm not at all familiar with the system, but I'd heard about the figures on the blogosphere--they're fantasy & 20mm scale, so I figured they might be able to fit in with our "Myborian" Hordes of the Things armies. I ended up with about a dozen centaurs (the main attraction), some Egyptian beasties, and some disappointing "Mongols", and three green-skinned fellows riding some sort of bear-cats who I may or may not find a use for. The factory paint jobs are nothing to write home about, so it may be a while before any of these reach the table.

Friday afternoon we set up the first of Dad's three Not Quite the Seven Years' War games, featuring one of his favorite scenarios, The Wagon Train. Unfortunately, I did not end up taking any pictures, but hopefully some will appear in his report, as my Wachovian cavalry finally had its day of glory--the hussars held up the enemy column by throwing themselves in front of the cavalry escort, while the cuirassiers arrived just in time to mop up and capture the lead wagons. The wagon train had the misfortune to stop about a foot shy of where they needed to be in order for their relief to arrive from the fort, and by the time the 33rd North Polenburg Dragoons showed up on their fine white horses, the wagons were already burning.

Saturday morning I ran the first of my two chariot games using N.U.R.D., which went pretty well--I had four players plus Dad, who got to command the Egyptian left. The scenario was pretty basic, with a chance encounter between Hittite and Egyptian forces trying to determine the loyalty of the nearby city of Jerboa. (Appearing as my newly painted city wall off on one edge of the board.) It was a close fight, but eventually the Egyptians worked their way around the Hittite left and pretty much destroyed that command. The final score was seven Hittite units destroyed to four Egyptian, though both sides had a few more that were in pretty bad shape by the end.

Board set up--Hittites to the left, Hittite allies in the foreground, Egyptians on the right.

Hittite players consider their deployment.

Egyptian players moving.

Light troops clash with Hittite chariots on the Hittite left wing.

The Hittite ally player arrives, with his four units of light chariots.

Part-way through the game.

The Hittite center gets a respite.

Chariots clash on the Egyptian left.

I was relatively pleased with how the first game went--everyone seemed to be picking up on the rules, the game moved at a decent pace, and the outcome remained in doubt until near the end, when the Hittite casualties started to pile up on the left. My rules adjustments mostly had their desired effect--the battle lines were generally more properly linear than in the Cold Wars game, rallying and moving was no longer the obvious choice, and we had a couple of leaders die. (The Hittite commander, in fact, got potted early when he joined a unit of archers that were a little too close to their breaking point.)

After the first game, I had about an hour to reshuffle the terrain a bit and grab some lunch before the afternoon game. This was to be a reprise of the Cold Wars scenario--the Hittites are attempting to escort a prince and his baggage train off the board, but both sides have some less-than-reliable elements--the allied contingents are more interested in fighting each other, and the Egyptian mercenaries are more interested in looting the baggage train than killing the prince. 

With the success of the morning game, a previously tested scenario, and with several people standing by for an open position, I was feeling pretty good about this, but for some reason it didn't quite seem to come together as well as the first game had. A couple of the players had a bit more difficulty with the rules this time, and despite the differing goals, the game ended up as more of a slugfest back and forth across the river. I may have to take a look back at how I set up the board for Cold Wars to see if differences in terrain might partly account for the later. Anyway, in the end, the Hittite ally player killed his hated rival (the Egyptian allied player) and cleared a path across the river for the baggage train, so it was a Hittite victory to balance out the morning's defeat.

The Egyptians advance.

Hittites move up the road.

Fighting along the river.

One of the players brought along his dice tower, which blended right in...

Anyway, at the end of the game a delegation came by to inform me that I had won an HMGS "Pour Encourager Les Autres" award, which was a pleasant surprise. (Though with somewhat sinister connotations, for those familiar with the origin of that phrase...) I also garnered a number of compliments throughout the day on the figures, the buildings, and... the groundcloth. (Not that I can claim much credit for that one--it's just spray-painted felt, and I didn't even do the spray-painting.)

I didn't have much energy left after the second game, so Saturday evening I mostly spent helping clan up the casualties as Dad ran his third NQSYW game. (The second one was running Saturday afternoon opposite my second game, so I have no idea how it went--except that apparently my infantry ended up in the first wave of an attack on some buildings, which presumably didn't go so well.) This one was a repeat of a scenario from last Historicon, with the Pragmatic Coalition trying to capture a hill before a Northern relief force arrived, which they succeeded in doing.

Pragmatic troops formed up before the battle.

My brother's Wiegenburgers

Wachovians storm the hill!

Sunday morning, after one last trawl through the flea market, I sat down for nice quick jalopy race, using the old "Future Race" rules. (I have fond memories of playing in pod racing games with these when I was abut ten years younger.) Alas, somewhere along the way I seem to have lost my knack for it, or maybe it's just that I was bringing a truck to a car race, as I came in dead last. (Though not actually dead, mind you.) After that, it was time for one last lunch with the rest of the H.A.W.Ks and then homeward bound...

Dad plays a naval game. Despite the shirt, this was the Mediterranean, not the Pacific...

My red truck is in the foreground. This was early on, before I fell behind...

All in all, it was a sort of strange convention--unlike Cold Wars, neither my brother nor my miniatures crony Marc made it down, I didn't buy much, I ended up running more games than I played, and I was pretty exhausted by the end. I still don't know if I'm sold on the Fredricksburg location, even after the second year--the main hall is still echoing and cavernous even with the curtain barriers they put up this year, and the dealer's area seemed kind of under-filled as well. Constantly trekking back and forth to the off-site hotel or the nearby Wegman's gave it an odd atmosphere as well, compared to Lancaster where games, lodging, and reasonable food are all found in the same building. Still, it was an opportunity to play games and run games, and I have a new knick-knack for my shelf, so at least it was not all in vain.

Historicon preparations

Is it July already? So it would seem, and that means Historicon is just around the corner. I'll be running two games this year, both 20mm Bronze Age using N.U.R.D. I had a couple of items on my to-do list before the convention, and I've managed to accomplish... most of them.

First of all, I have been meaning to repaint the slightly undersized Bronze Age fortress that I bought at last year's Historicon. I'm not sure that I ever took a picture of it in the condition in which I bought it, though the gatehouse piece has probably shown up in the background of some of my HotT battle report pictures. Anyway, it had been a sort of medium brown (mud?) color, and now it is a much lighter plaster/adobe color:

With some 20mm figures for size

Second, I had a couple of half-units of archers that I had been grouping together for conveniences' sake; I've now painted both other halves. 

Both of them will be seeing their first action at this convention, along with Dad's new pair of Egyptian chariots.

These guys started out as Airfix Robin Hood figures.

These ones are Caesar Hebrews.

Finally, Saturday morning was spent at the Kinko's down in town, putting together nice laminated unit cards for the various players. I'm hoping that the ring clips will be a convenient way of keeping the cards together and cutting down on table cruft.

It's still a couple of weeks to go before the convention, but they'll be busy ones for me, so I'm just as glad to have this all taken care of now.

Breakout!

That was the name of the game this Saturday, as a Northern Alliance force returning from a raid found itself entirely surrounded by units of the Pragmatic Coalition. Would the commanders of North Polenburg and Stansbach-Anwatsch realize their plight and withdraw in time, or would they be completely cut off by the disparate Coalition forces converging on them from every direction?

The answer, it turns out, was no--though North Polenburg's Queen Jennifer Regiment managed to retreat in good order as did a good part of the heavy cavalry, the Hawks Regiment was badly damaged and the Stansbach-Anwatsch 2nd Regiment was sacrificed wiped out in a gallant rearguard action against Pragmatic troops pouring across the river.

The Northern command, not apprised of the approach of other Coalition detachments, had originally planned to make a stand against the main pursuing body at a point where the river was only guarded by a single, easily defensible bridge. Imagine their surprise, then, when the first enemy soldiers to appear were the Wachovian Hussars, on what had been their left flank, where the light cavalry immediately rode down a gun that had been left out beyond its infantry support.

Initial dispositions of the Northern Alliance

Wachovian hussars capture a gun

The offending hussars were quickly engaged and destroyed by the Stansbach-Anwatsch dragoons, as the Northern left flank redeployed to face a possible new threat from this direction. But the next Pragmatic force to arrive was the main body on the other side of the river--led by mixed heavy cavalry and with two regiments of infantry following behind.

The main Coalition force enters

Cavalry melee on the Northern left

Meanwhile, on the right flank, the Northern commander began to extend his lines to fire at the Pragmatic troops across the river only to find that more Coalition forces were approaching from that direction as well--more Wachovians, this time infantry, who fixed bayonets and charged into the unsuspecting North Polenburgers. Two squadrons of heavy cavalry rode to the rescue, but met fierce resistance and were ultimately driven back by the thin orange line. In attempting to retreat, the North Polenburg cavalry was scythed down by Pragmatic guns across the river.

North Polenburg's 33rd Dragoons charge the Wachovian line

A mixed force of light cavalry was sent to block the Wachovian's advance, but before they could get there they were surprised by a Coalition attack from the rear--a force of cavalry coming up the road directly behind the Northern Alliance's main position. In several turns of fierce fighting, the Onkel-Heinrich Lancers and the newly formed 25th "Tannenbaum" Hussars were nearly destroyed, and only saved by the return of the Stansbach-Anwatsch dragoons, who fell upon the victorious Pragmatics as the latter were rallying.

Hussars vs. hussars, and dragoons vs. lancers

Action continues on the right

At this point, the Northern Alliance had realized their predicament, and began to pull back rather than be flanked on both sides--a new force of Schoeffen-Buschhagen infantry had appeared to their left. This sight encouraged the main Pragmatic army, which up to this point had been bottled up by the bridge. The Coalition pressed forward, first with cavalry and then with infantry, besting the retreating Stansbach-Anwatsch 2nd Infantry in a series of melees. As the remnants of the North Polenburg regiments retreated, the Stansbach-Anwatschers were caught and destroyed, leading the battle to be declared a victory for the Pragmatic Coalition.

First push across the river

"The enemy is behind us!" "No, the enemy is behind us!"

Pragmatic forces continue to cross the river

More Pragmatic troops can be seen in the distance.

Remnants of the Northern Alliance army

All in all, it was an interesting scenario. As one of the Pragmatic players, I think the Alliance had it tougher, not knowing the situation or the troops strengths. On the other hand, most of our detachments were fairly small, and the staggered manner in which they arrived meant that it was definitely possible to defeat them in detail--and indeed, the two cavalry forces, though they did a good deal of damage, were destroyed in the process. Then again, we had no issue with taking whatever losses were necessary, whereas the Alliance was told that they had to salvage at least 60% of their troops in order to win. Unfortunately, given the importance of the surprise factor, it would be difficult to run it again... at least with the same players.

Two years on the Junkyard Planet!

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I figured I ought to take a moment to mark a couple of milestones: first of all, today is the second anniversary of this blog. Second, Junkyard Planet recently received its 20,000th view. So that's pretty neat.

A few fun statistics:

• The most-viewed post of all time remains Maps, part III
• The current least-viewed post is An Introduction to N.U.R.D.
• The most common search term which brings people to this site (not counting "junkyardplanet.blogspot.com" is "piktowie." Google Translate tells me this is the Polish word for "Picts." So far, up until this point I have written nothing about Picts, so I am slightly puzzled.

And here's some pictures of some games I've played in the last few months which I never got around to blogging anything about. All of these are the usual 20mm Hordes of the Things:

Anyway, thank you all for visiting (even those of you who may be Russian spambots) and hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to post soon. I still owe everyone the second half of my "Hypothetical Hordes: A Song of Ice And Fire," we've got an NQSYW game coming up, and I hope to get at least a little painting done before Historicon next month...