A Quick Note

 If you're wondering:

• I'm alive.
• I'm mostly well.
• I'm still gaming.

This blog has languished, like many (if not most) others. I'm sorry about that, for those of you who are still out there checking in on blogs.

I've actually been very busy with gaming, especially painting. I got back into Warhammer 40K just in time to have them change editions on me. But still, I have painted dozens of Warhammer minis this year, and will continue to do more.

I'm in two online games these days, one on Mondays where we are currently playing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 4th Ed., and one on alternate Thursdays, where we are playing Starfinder. I am the GM for the WFRP game, and a PC in the Starfinder.

My historical gaming has expanded some as well, especially in Flames of War 4. Lots of Germans painted up, and working on (kind of half-heartedly) British Airborne. I even work on my USMC troops sometimes (though they are stuck in FOW3).

I have a LOT of photos of stuff I have painted this year. I will try to get some of them uploaded soon.

Take care, ladies and gents.

Goblyn Head Press News

   You may or may not know this, but I own a very small game publishing company. How small? Well... so far we have produced exactly three items for sale, and all of those have been released in the past month.

   To date, Goblyn Head has produced a supplement for D&D 5e, and adventure for 5e, and a generic map of a barrow mound that is free to download ("Pay What You Want"). All are available from DriveThruRPG here.

  Come check it out! Zeebs (our mischievous but friendly goblyn mascot) will show you how to go. And if you do pick up something, please leave a review!

MAPS!

   I've been drawing maps. Several maps. Mainly for a couple of products my game company (Goblyn Head Press) is selling or is going to sell via DriveThruRPG.

So far behind...

   I haven't talked about so many gaming things happening in my life the last few weeks.

  First, I went to DesotoCon, in Kansas, back at the end of July. I started a blog post about it and will finish it, I promise. It's even going to be back dated so it will appear before this one. Not many (any?) photos from it though. Well, a few, I think.

  The next week I went to Indianapolis for GenCon. Met a lot of great people, hung out with some friends from Thread Raiders, Saving Throw Show, and Dragons and Things (best Pathfinder liveplay stream, Fridays at 6:00 Pacific on Twitch). Bought a bunch of stuff. Again, it deserves it's own post and I will work on that. A few more photos there.

   I've also released the first product from Goblyn Head Press on DriveThruRPG. It's a supplement designed for D&D 5e called Sacred Sites. It was written by Eli Arndt, who you ugys have seen me mention before around here. Nine different places you can encounter the sacred or profane. It has sold a few copies already and it's only been up about a week. Very excited about that. Probably deserves it's own post, too.

  And we've gotten a few more sessions of Starfinder in. Kicked one guy out of our group, got another new player. Still sitting at three players so if anyone wants to join us in Santa Fe, TX (in Galveston County, on the mainland)...

   And I painted a few minis. Not much. I really need to get to work on the Pledge or I am screwed.

   Oh, two new display cases came in and I got one put together. Detolf from IKEA.

   And I have been drawing more maps on my Wacom tablet. So that's getting me closer to done with another Goblyn Head project.

   All in all, I guess I have been busy. Just not very good at reporting. I'll try to get caught up on all of that the next few days.

Back from DesotoCon

   Over the weekend I went to DeSoto, Kansas, to the home of a friend of mine who was transferred away from his post here in Galveston County. He grew up there, and has a lot of friends still in the area with whom he gamed for years. These guys go back to high school (Class of 1991). Anyway, he invited me to come up for the weekend of gaming that he holds every year at his house there and I accepted.

   There were about 20 guys there. We had four six-hour sessions, Friday night, two on Saturday, and Sunday morning. A variety of games, from Nintendo Switch to boardgames to minis games to TTRPGs were played.

   On Friday, I played Star Wars Miniatures. I managed one photo, and it's not a good one. I took the Dark Side and played a band of bounty hunters acting as mercenary bodyguards for the Emperor. Boba Fett, IG-88, LOM-4, Bossk, and Greedo. We lost to the Light Side, but killed Padme, Leia, Luke, and Obi Wan Kenobi, plus a couple of rebel troopers. Chewbacca killed the Emperor and Mara Jade. I left the scene with three of my five (Bossk and Greedo did not survive).

   Saturday morning was a game of Age of Conan the Boardgame. It's a long game, and I managed to win as Aquilonia, more by luck than strategy. Fun, but one of the guys wasn't into it and kept saying that.

   Saturday evening was a high level Pathfinder game. The five players took the parts of classic D&D characters: Mordenkainen, Bigby (me), Rigby, Yrag, and Melf. We went to collect a crystal from a temple sucked down into the Nine Hells, and ended up killing a pair of pit fiends. We then raised the temple out of the Hells and back to the Material Plane. I almost died from Strength loss but got restored just in time.

   Sunday morning was D&D 5e. I don't recall much about it now (I'm writing this a month later), but I do recall a green dragon who fled the battlefield just before we could put it down. And my dwarf cleric fell off a cliff. Survived, but it put me out of the fight for the most part.

End of Campaign: Dark Heresy

   We finished off our Dark Heresy campaign on Monday night. We had all sort of lost our interest in the game after almost a year of play. The last few months we have also had several challenges with getting together as a group to play, and that certainly didn't help things.

   So, how did it end? Well, we had just captured a dangerous psyker named Molokoff from Hive Tertiam on Fenk's World and barely managed to escape the planet before it was pulled entirely into the warp. Once aboard our vessel, the Cudgel of Drusus, we turned the prisoner over to the Inquisition. That's when things went to Hell.

   Literally.

   As our ship entered the warp to travel to our next destination, something went wrong. Horribly wrong. Demonic creatures began to pop up all over the ship. We fought like heroes, but watched our companions go down one by one.

   First to die was our 'tame' psyker, Volk. The power of the warp invading the ship began to overwhelm his mental defenses, and I was forced to put him down with a bolt pistol shell to the back of the head. Next was our favorite pilot, "Mad" Murdock (an NPC). On the hangar deck, as we were making our way to the main engineering area, he was dragged down by a horde of smaller demons.

   Third to fall was our chirurgeon, Sister Scythia. She burned down a few demons with her meltagun before a flamethrowing fiend doused her with a barrage of unholy napalm. Probably for the best, as she was not very careful with her shooting and a meltagun firing off in the engineering spaces would have been catastrophic.

   Fourth was our newest recruit, an Imperial Guardsman from the 24th Canopus Heavy Foot. Corporal Jones ran out of ammunition for his heavy stubber - which he toted about with his Bulging Biceps as if it were nothing more than an autogun. After spraying hundreds of rounds into the enemy, he heard that fatal 'click.' Before he could locate any more ammunition, he too was torn apart. Thankfully, he died before they began eating. I think.

   Adeptus Arbites Belisarion Graecus was the last to fall. Using his skills with a bolt pistol, he took out demon after demon with precision aim. The holy inscriptions on the sanctified weapon glowed brighter with every shot, and the Emperor's wrath flowed through the explosive shells, overcoming many a demon's unnatural toughness. But all things must end, and Graecus finally ran out of shells as well. He met his fate, praising the Emperor and pistol whipping a final demon into death as the hordes tore into his armour.

   The Cudgel of Drusus is marked as lost in the warp on Imperial records.

Another Kickstarter with Animals? YES!

   So having seen these, I had to get in on it. Just too neat not to do so. It's dogs for each core class in D&D. And not anthropomorphic dogs. Just dogs in gear. And they have names and they are great fun.

Painted samples from the Kickstarter page.

If You Like Pugmire...

I found some awesome minis for your characters. They are from Dark Sword Miniatures.

Belisarion Graecus - Dark Heresy Character

   My friends and I just started playing a Dark Heresy (2nd Edition) roleplaying campaign. If you're not familiar, it's set in the Warhammer 40K universe. It's a grim, dark sort of game. PCs are Acolytes, servants of the Imperial Inquisition. Graecus is a member of the Adeptus Arbites - essentially, Judges like from the Judge Dredd comics (and movies I suppose, but more the good Karl Urban one than the dreadful - no pun intended - Sylvester Stallone one). I told the other players that was pretty much exactly how I was going to play him - an implacable and remorseless servant of the Emperor.

"I am the Law"

   We didn't get too much playing time, as we had to create characters on Tuesday, but we did get a bit into it. Essentially, our team of three (myself, a Sanctioned Psyker, and a Highborn bureaucrat) has been sent to arrest a Noble suspected of heresy. We are also enjoined to confiscate his collection of relics and any evidence that he may be trafficking with daemonic powers. We dropped out of orbit in an assault lander which blew open the wall of the noble's fortress/home and dropped an assault force on the opposite side of the place as a diversion.

   Approaching the entrance, I saw three humanoids through the haze of the rubble. Taking cover, I demanded their surrender. They fired on us instead. A brief firefight ensued, in which I killed one servitor (a cyborg) with my shotgun, and the psyker burned a normal human guard. The third guard began reloading, and I rushed his position, demanding he drop his weapon. My intimidate check was pretty successful, so the perp dropped his shotgun and raised his hands. I approached closer, saying, "You have fired on agents of the Inquisition and servants of the Emperor in the performance of their duties. The sentence is death." And then Graecus executed the traitor. The other two Acolytes were a little shocked. I reminded them that I had not said "Surrender" or made any deals. I had demanded he drop his weapon, and then I terminated him with extreme prejudice.

   That's basically where we stopped for the evening. I had fun, protecting the Imperium from traitors and heretics. We will see how far we go. There is talk of getting figures to work out battles on a grid mat like we do in Pathfinder. I'd be okay with that but I think for now 'theater of the mind' is enough. If we do go for minis, I know what I need...

May need to buy one of these, though I know I had some at one point.

And some more minis

   A few bits and bobs here. I got some more Bolt Action figures finished today too but I haven't taken photos yet. I will get those up next time, I promise.

A trio of Minotaur Howitzers. This particular battery is based out of Mexico

in the North American Combine, hence the flag on the concrete pads.

(OGRE, 6mm sci-fi)

A Republic of Wales medium machinegun team.

These are Territorial Army forces.

(Very British Civil War, figures by Warlord)

A repainted Fast Food Restaurant for Team Yankee.

When I get the sign on it, it will be a Waffle Haus.

Thinking about trying to do some window inserts, too.

(Battlefield in a Box, from Battlefront, repainted by me)

Finally, a humble cart for Pathfinder or D&D, or any RPG

Pugmire RPG

   At first glance, this game is a bit silly. I mean, you're an anthropomorphic dog, who wants to be "a good dog" and follow the Code of Man. 

   But we played for the first time on Thursday night, and it was surprisingly fun. As I can tell, the engine is a simplified and modified D&D 5E. I'm not very familiar with 5e, so not too sure about that. It is a very low crunch game, though, and a lot fluffier than many. 

   A lack of minis was part of the difficulty I think. We are all used to having a battlemat and minis out so everyone can tell at a glance how close things are. Made a few mistakes in how combat works - only movement provokes an attack of opportunity, for example, and there is no penalty for shooting into a melee.

   Although we didn't finish the adventure (I was DMing), I think the four players still had a lot of fun being their dogs. And that's really the point, isn't it?

Happy Christmas... well, Boxing Day.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, Y'ALL!

   And now, to the loot! My younger son, who is a mini me, has begun DMing his own friends in D&D 5E, so I bought him a  ton of the prepaint minis and some dungeon tiles from Paizo. He also got some Starfinder stuff to help with that, including the hard to find Incident at Absalom Station adventure... but that's his toys, not mine.

 Merry OGRE-mas!

  I received several boxed sets for OGRE, as well as four singles of the Combine "Minotaur" Howitzer, and a Cigar Box Battle Mat marked in large hexes... That's three more OGREs and sundry smaller vehicles to help pad out the forces.

Leather Bound Limited Edition Hardback of two MHI books

   I lost a lot of my books in the flooding of Harvey here in Houston. So my family is working on replacing them for me! Good family. I got several Larry Correia books, which are a lot of fun, and some David Eddings novels (the Belgariad, original editions in paperback, just like the ones I had before). My mom also pledged a custom "Book of the Month" for me - I just send her a title once a month and she orders it for me! Yay!

   I also got an expansion for SmashUp, which brings me very close to having all of the factions for that wacky game.

Recent Purchases

   Since the storm I have been engaging in a great deal of retail therapy. I know it's probably not real healthy, but I've spent a fair amount of money lately on a wide variety of games and accessories. SO, just to keep it in my mind, and give you faithful few an idea of where my madness has been leading me lately...

Rulebooks...

• Frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord

• Starfinder RPG Core Rulebook

• Bolt Action, 2nd Edition
• Armies of Germany

• Gothic: An Expansion for In Her Majesty's Name
• FOW 4E: Desert Rats

And Accessories...

• FOW 4e: Desert Rats Command Cards
• FOW 4e: Desert Rats Tokens

• Dystopian Wars: Cards
• IHMN: Tokens/markers
• Vallejo Paints and Brush On Primer

And boardgames...

• Machi Koro: Bright Lights, Big City

• SmashUp: Big in Japan
• SmashUp: Monster Movie Mashup
• SmashUp: Cease and Desist

And minis...

• Red Vectors Martian Skiffs (x2), custom scaled to work for 15mm.
• Trollbloods Starter Battlegroup

• Circle Oroboros Starter Battlegroup (old)

• Dystopian Wars FSA Valley-class Airship
• Ogre Miniatures: Hover Trucks and Light Artillery Drones (x3 each)

• Ogre Miniatures: Paneuro GEVs (x6)
• WH40K: Necron Canoptic Scarab Swarm (x6 bases) for use as Automaton Insects
• Bolt Action BEF Vickers MMG Team
• Bolt Action Home Guard Blacker Bombard Team

• Bolt Action BEF 3" Mortar Team

And a lot of terrain, too...

• Battlefield in a Box: Pacific Landing Mats
• Battlefield in a Box: Extra Large Dune
• Battlefield in a Box: Desert Escarpments

• Battlefield in a Box: Desert Scrub
• Battlefield in a Box: Desert Administration Building
• PlastCraft: Colored Desert Building Set (x2)

• PlastCraft: Colored Desert 2-story Desert Building
• PlastCraft: Colored Desert Dwelling
• PlastCraft: Colored Desert Dwelling with Stairs
• Ainsty 28mm wooden jetty
• Four Hirst Arts molds and plaster

   Ummm... I may have a problem.

On the Road to Historicon 2017

   Hi guys and gals! Long time, no post. I've been crazy busy - we are moving! This means lots of packing over the last month or so and not much gaming. So I have been very much looking forward to this trip with my youngest son (who just graduated high school and earned an Associate's Degree at the same time !). We are driving from League City, Texas, to Fredericksburg, Virginia. That's about 1,550 miles (2,460 km). One way.

   We are taking it in easy stages going out but have to hustle back home after the convention. So tonight, after two days in the car, we are in beautiful Charleston, WV. Actually, I don't know if it's beautiful or not - it was dark when we got to town. But the hotel is nice (Embassy Suites Downtown, got a heck of a deal on Priceline).

  So that's what is going on here in my world. I have been playing a weekly game of Pathfinder with a small group of adults, which is nice. The GM is right at my age and does a good job of storytelling. I've died three times already, but it is more an issue of each of the players dong their own thing rather than supporting one another. Oh well. My newest character is designed to be supportive. Maybe that will work out better.

Pathfinder Woes

   I am currently playing in a roleplaying game of Pathfinder, getting to be a simple player for the first time in, well, years. And I'm totally loving it. The group consists of six players and the GM, all male, ranging from ages about 25 to 45. They have had female players in the past, but currently none. I just joined about two months ago; we play each Tuesday night from 6 to midnight (kinda late for me...) at a local game store.

   Anyway, last night was a bad night for the party. We went up against a dragon not once, but twice (we thought we had escaped it). We made some poor tactical decisions and suffered for it. Long story short, one character was outright killed, and the rest of us were captured. Said capture led to some opportunity to roleplay being tough guys under torture as our captors tried to get information from us about the city they were heading towards to attack.

   I won't bore you with the details of my totally amazing and awesome character... oh, you want to hear about it? (Why can I practically see the eyes rolling?) Too bad, I'm really not going to do that. There is a guy who comes into the game store who has, on multiple occasions, told me and anyone else who can't escape all about this totally rad character he has, and she's completely legit, with statistics that are, essentially, impossible, which he claims to have worked out through taking the character through a series of game-to-game conversions. Let me just give you this tiny bit: she's amazingly beautiful, and totes a .50 caliber sniper rifle like a pistol, and can do magic, too. All of this in a typical medieval fantasy setting. He even has drawings of her. 

  Multiple drawings. In different although always tight/skimpy/both outfits.

   The only good that has come from this experience is that I have sworn off talking about any of my characters, current or past, ever again, except when it directly involves playing the game in the course of the game. Next time he tries, I'm just going to be dead rude to him, as we have all tried polite expressions of disinterest.

Project Review, Fall 2016: 25/28mm

A recap of what's going on:

    With the start of fall coming on, I decided I need to survey my madness. To wit, I am looking at each wargaming project I have ongoing, and what the status of said project currently is. 

   To define, a 'project' is a faction or force for a particular genre in a particular scale. Therefore, 15mm British WW2 and 28mm British WW2 are two different projects, as would be a 15mm DAK force, as would a British Paras vs. a British 8th Army force. Since there are so many and in so many scales, this shall be a short series of posts rather than one mega-post.

   For status, I shall use 'planning' (want to buy minis), 'active' (not playable but I am currently working on it), 'inactive' (unplayable but on to-do list), 'dead' (can't play, not doing anything, don't plan on it), 'playable' (enough to play, still adding to it), and maybe rarest of all, 'finished' (can play, no plans to add to it).

   I've already done the Small Scale projects, and the 15mm projects, if you missed those.

25/28mm

1. VSF Eureka Pond Wars: dead
2. VSF Lizardmen: inactive
3. VSF/Colonial British: playable
4. VSF German: playable
5. VSF Automaton: finished
6. VSF Martian: inactive
7. VSF Vardu: inactive
8. VSF French: inactive
9. VSF Russian: dead
10. VSF Japanese: dead
11. VSF Turkish: dead
12. VSF Parrotmen: inactive
13. VSF Characters (HM Victoria I, others): playable
14. Skyrunners VSF Racing: dead
15. EOTD/IHMN Werewolves: finished
16. EOTD/IHMN Gentlemen: finished
17. EOTD/IHMN Police Constables: playable
18. IHMN Lord Curr's Company: playable
19. IHMN Servants of Ra: playable
20. IHMN Society of Thule: playable
21. Colonial Boers: dead
22. Gutshot Cowboys and Lawmen: finished
23. Gutshot Banditos: dead
24. Terrain Old West: dead
25. Terrain Sci Fi: inactive
26. Terrain VSF: inactive
27. Terrain Fantasy: inactive
28. SAGA Normans: dead
29. SAGA Vikings: dead
30. SAGA Arabs: dead
31. Roleplaying Heroes: playable
32. Roleplaying monsters: playable
33. Doctor Who Daleks: inactive
34. Doctor Who Doctor and Companions: active
35. Doctor Who Angels: active
36. Doctor Who UNIT: planning
37. VBCW Free Welsh: playable
38. Warmachine Cygnar: playable (marginally)
39. Hordes Circle Oroboros: inactive
40. Hordes Minions: inactive
41. Warhammer Empire: inactive
42. Warhammer Lizardmen: inactive
43. WH40K Imperial Guard: inactive
44. WW2 British Paras: planning
45. WW2 Germans: planning
46. AT-43 Therians: dead
47. AT-43 UNSC: dead
48. AT-43 Red Blok: dead
49. Star Wars Prepaint: dead
50. Warhammer High Elf: dead
51. Warhammer Bretonnian: dead
52. Highland Badgers: playable (old and need re-paint)

Note: EotD is "Empire of the Dead," IHMN is "In Her Majesty's Name," VBCW is "A Very British Civil War."

   As you can see, there are a lot of dead projects in this scale. Ambition and ooh shiny got the better of my good sense over the years, and I almost never get rid of anything. Most are things where I have only a few figures, just testing the waters really. Which is good, I suppose. It's also by a fair margin the single longest list, which honestly surprised me. I thought the 15mm list would be the biggest.

   Also, I am shocked to see that I was considering up to 20 (!) different VSF projects in just 28mm. Twenty! I'm a sick man, really, I need help.

Oldest Figure I Still Have

   This is him, a halfling from the old Grenadier Miniatures box set 2002 Halflings.

   I got the boxed set for Christmas when I was in fourth grade (I think - maybe fifth). That was 1981.  I would have been nine years old. He was painted with Testors Model Enamels and a Q-tip for a brush.

The old box

For almost 35 years old, that enamel really did hold up pretty well.

We Have Begun Burnt Offerings

   The group of players in the new Pathfinder Campaign, that is. The adventure. "Burnt Offerings." That's the title of it. Am I clear now?

Let's list off the player characters, then, shall we?

• Artorias, a tiefling paladin of Sarenrae, played by Zane. Artorias is overcoming/denying his demonic parentage by slaying monstrous creatures in the service of a good deity. 
• Tarkus, a half-elf cleric of Gorum, played by Dane. Tarkus, found abandoned as an infant at a shrine to Gorum and raised by the cleric who found him, has serious trust issues regarding elves. He is also out to avenge the destruction of his father's shrine by a group of giants. 
• Vrehith, an elf conjurer (specialist wizard), played by Jerry. Vrehith is fascinated by the ancient human culture of the Thassilonian Empire, and wants to learn more about it and the system of magic they used. 
• "Bill," a human rogue, played by Chris. Bill is a disgraced member of a prominent merchant-prince family in nearby Magnimar. His name is an alias, part of his exile. "Bill" likes two things: crime and girls. And beer. Make that three things. And wine. So it's four things...

   We had our first game session on Tuesday night. One thing we have agreed upon is that we will meet on a regular day and time, so that everyone can more easily plan it into their schedule. Usually it will be Thursdays, but this week Tuesday worked better (Spring Break).

   A clan of goblins raided the town of Sandpoint, where the heroes have all gathered for reasons of their own. Being heroic types caught up in a chaotic raid by the crazed little vermin that are goblins, they took up arms against the villains. They did pretty well. The Pathfinder mechanics are very similar to the D&D 3.5 with which all the players are familiar.

   In the aftermath, the characters are being treated like local heroes for helping to save the town. Tarkus used some of his positive energy to help heal injured locals, and flirted with Ameiko Kaijitsu, the attractive owner of the Rusty Dragon Inn - who gave all four party members free rooms for a week! Finally, a young nobleman named Aldern Foxglove was saved from certain death (the party even saved his dog, who was laid low by a mounted goblin commando). Foxglove has asked the four heroes to meet with him tomorrow afternoon.

   As yet, the players don't know why the town was raided, but they captured a goblin warchanter and in the next session plan to ask her some questions. The answers may be of considerable use. Or they may not be any help at all - these are goblins after all!

Artorias

Goblin Warchanter