So Much for March....

   Real world and other stuff....so I have not posted for a while. And I am not going to run a game at the next Strategicon game convention in May as I am not going to be able to stay at the hotel and may only be there one day. Why? $$$! Got to get my budget in line, wife is worried about money during the summer as she is a teacher and is doing summer school but it is less hours and therefore less $$. But I should be back in action for September. This will also give me time to get my Osgiliath terrain in better shape and fine tune the scenario.....

   But enough of that! Hope about some WWI British in Africa miniatures!

                                                           British Officers

                                                                    Riflemen

                                                                   Sikhs!

   I have finished my British and as of this post have finished my Germans, having just done the last of the Officers (photos to follow). I have also been working on more LOTR Orcs and trying nearly 100% to be a "good gamer" and finish up as much of my back-log of projects as I can AND try not to get more figures (HA!!). So with my WWI figures done I have gotten that one off the list. Currently I am finishing up a unit of 15mm Dervish Camel riders for "Patrols in the Sudan 1885" and some 25mm Dervish I had started to round out my Dervish forces in 25mm. I also have like, 6 old GW LOTR Warg Riders (the old metal ones) also nearly done. So hopefully my back-log will be a little less, but I am sure, never finished (My plastic Saxon Army for "Hail Caesar" just look at me with big, pup-dog eyes....

   Next post, photos of the WWI German Officers!

TTFN
  

Orccon February 15th - 18th 2013

  It's over. The first wargame convention here in southern California. And I had a great time, running Lord of the Rings-The Siege of Minas Tirith. Funny thing about getting players at a wargame convention. It can be feast or famine. This time, both Saturday and Sunday, I had just one player, Andy Saturday and Phil on Sunday, both times they who wanted to learn the game, so in essence I guess I ran demo games, So Be It. Both I and they had a great time and enjoyed the games. The best part of Sunday's game was I ran it for someone I knew (I used to play D&D with Phil for some years) but he had never played LOTR and wanted to try it, and as I had not played ANY game with him in years, I was a blast! And now to some photos -

                                                                      SATURDAY

                    The Army of Mordor moves forward! I played Mordor and Andy played Gondor.

The Witch-King on Fell Beast attacks the walls! At this point in the combats of the next couple of rounds, the Fell Beast is slain and the Witch-King is on foot, out of Might & Fate.

                                                "I have come for your life, White Fool!"
   However, in the next turn the Witch-King is surrounded and have no Might or Fate left, is smited unto nothingness by Gandalf, Pippin and Beregond.

                                                               "I'LL BE BACK............................"

  The Forces of Gondor won this game, run by Andy (I ran Mordor). This game I am sorry to say I didn't take as many photos as I did Sunday. I was really in teaching mode. Sunday however, I have alot of good ones!
                                                                            SUNDAY

    The Forces of Evil on the move, this time with Siege Towers- Phil played Mordor and I played Gondor

                                          "Didn't we have this dance the day before?"

                        Siege Tower down - too many hits with the Gondorian "Battlecry" Trebuchet

    The other Siege Tower survives to get to the wall - ladders are moving up! And in the far left you can see that the Witch-King is still fighting with Gandalf & company!

The Mordor Orcs and Uruk-Hai and getting on the walls and Gandalf is still fighting it out with the Witch-King. The puff of cotton on Gandalf is because the With-King successfully cast "Your Staff is Broken!" on Gandalf.

After getting the Siege Tower to the wall, the Mordor Trolls move towards the gate of Minas Tirith to smash it in!

                        A Mordor Uruk with 2 handed sword tops the ladder to get into the melee.

"KNOCK...KNOCK! Mordor Pizza delivery! After 2 turns of unbelievable dice rolling for the Trolls, the gate is opened (a string of "6's"!)

Just a few Orcs left to back-up the trolls, but one has a banner (which allows re-rolls) 

"FOR GONDOR!!!"  

Note the With-King is gone. He finally lost a round of combat and with all resources used up, to the hit that sent him back home to Mordor. However, some Mordor Uruk-Hai have not come to take his place and play....

   Now it appears that Gandalf is missing....The Evil player decided NO MATTER WHAT to kill him and fired the Mordor War Catapult at him and if Orcs/Uruk were killed instead, oh well. Well, again with the right dice rolls at the right time, Gandalf, having survived the With-King's attacks but with no Fate and 1 Might left saw the Uruk he was fighting eyes get REALLY big and turned just in time to catch the catapult rock (The Evil player rolled a hit, 4+, then a "6" on the scatter chart for targeting a small target like person and then made the roll to wound) and fly off the wall is a very messy heap below. And after that, Gothmog moved in (center of the photo-black ringed base-I painted him darker that shown in the movie) to help finish off the last of the wall's defenders.

             The other Mordor Troll switched places and enters to face the valiant Gordorian Warriors! 

                Gothmog and company in melee with the last of the defenders of the walls. 

Looks like the troll is cleaning up! (The troll did lose on turn of combat and after some good dice rolls by me, the Good Player, I gave it 2 wounds). 

                                                               Top view-Not many Gondorians left 

                  The end is near....the last warriors are up against the Troll and Mordor Uruk-Hai 

"MORDOR!   MORDOR!   MORDOR!"

   The Sunday game was a teaching game, I didn't bother with the victory conditions as we were both having such a good time. So the defenders were slain to the last man....

  I also played for a little while in a 15mm American War of Independence game but was so burned out I had to bow out and get some zzzz's. More to follow on Orccon 2013.

TTFN

It's 2013

   And time for a post and what have I been up to? Well, getting more 25mm plastic Russians done for Bolt Action (more on that another time) but getting more ruins ready for when I do run Osgiliath this year.

One of the GW Osgiliath Ruins painted up (plastic) 

The backside of the same piece

 Some resin ruins (don't know the maker) that will work perfectly

 Buildings ruins - corners

 What I plan to use some of the those ruined building corners for - edges of smashed wall, if anyone manages to smash a wall down during the game.

                         More of the plastic Game Workshop Osgiliath set, painted & ready to go

 The backside of the same piece

A bit of ruined stair & building. Again GW Osgiliath set

   One thing I have noticed when running a LOTR game with siege engines is that everyone almost always fires them at the people on the wall, as opposed to knocking down the wall or smashing in the gate. Something about crushing people with rocks.....

                                         I also finished this "cottage" I had gotten last year.

 Backside of the building

Lo! The roof comes off, making it easier to put figures in.

   The cottage is for Bolt Action, could be used for either West or Eastern front or Historical/Fantasy game in 28mm. I have a bit of buildings & such-like to be finished as well as a lot of figures.

   I have also picked up a set of rules, "Smooth & Rifled - Skirmish Wargaming Rules" by Dadi & Piombo available at:

http://smooth-and-rifled.blogspot.com/

"Smooth&Rifled is a game system designed to recreate skirmish games with 28, 20 or 15mm miniatures. This very first edition covers the period from approximately 1700 to approximately 1900. The French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War and the wars of the Colonial era are just some of the periods you can play with S&R." (from the first page of the rules). They are available ONLY as a PDF but are not very expensive (9 euros or around $12-13 dollars US). All the supplements are available as FREE downloads! More on this rules set as I finish reading them and maybe try them solo a time or two. Check them out!

TTFN

Goodbye 2012!

Finished ruins (small pieces) for my Osgiliath board

Ruined terrain pieces I plan to use on the Osgiliath - gotten from E-Bay - Drzu's Treasures and I believe they are Scibor Monstrous Miniatures

http://stores.ebay.com/Dzurs-Treasures?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

   Well, another year is over. I need to plot & plan for what I want to accomplish in 2013 as far as painting figures and doing gaming projects. I want to concentrate on a single project at a time and finish it, but I know that's not realistic. But having half-a-dozen going on at a time has made me not get anything done. So NO commission painting for 2013. I just need to get those 15mm ACW done for a friend and really buckle down and get my 25mm plastic Russians for Bolt Action done as well as the larger ruined terrain pieces for Osgiliath. THEN start/finish something else. Easy to say, we will see if I can do it.

  This coming Sunday (1/6/2013), I plan a play test of  LOTR Siege of Minas Tirith at Aero Hobbies (2918 Santa Monica Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90404) for Historical Miniatures Gaming Day (Yes, I know it's NOT a historical game!) to see if my re-written forces list works. Photos and more will follow.

Happy New Year to all my Followers!

TTFN
Larry



Where did November go?

The real world ate it, along with a 2 week cold and Thanksgiving and my wedding anniversary, etc. So on to my brief update.

  Why what's that you say? It Minas Tirith! Yes it is. Due to time and monetary issues I will have to postpone Osgiliath to a Con later in 2013, May or September. I just need more ruined buildings than I thought and to construct or buy them is not an option right now. But, having a clever thought now and then, I always save a copy of the scenario and all other notes to a disk plus hard copies of rosters and such in a folder. So I have a copy of everything I need should I wish to dust off an old game and run it again, which I will do in this case.

                                             "And I will be there to defend the city!"

   "AND I WILL BE THERE TOO!"

      Indeed you will, oh Lord of the Nazgul! As will be Gandalf. This scenario I have found to be a popular one, as you have Gandalf, a Nazgul, Troll, and lots of other fun things to run. And using seige towers and trebuchets to knock down walls is a hoot too! In the mean time I plan to figure what to do about the ruined building problem.

    And now for something completely different, 2 plastic 28mm Russians from Plastic Soldier Company, part of a couple of squads I am doing for Bolt Action, which has taken off at the local hobby store. The quality of the figure is OK, cost is good and they look aright. I just need to finish some 15mm ACW figures I am doing for someone so I can fully concentrate of getting these done so I have my own squad to play will.



TTFN

So What's the Plan for Osgiliath in 2013?

   My plan is to do Osgiliath. But which one? There is a small scenario in the "Siege of Gondor" (SoG)book, which is part of the Siege of Gondor. This can be played as a "one off" game or as part of a campaign. But in going back through older LOTR Books, in the "Return of the King" (RotK) there is a scenario based on the movie, where the Ringerbearer and friends must get to a entrance to the sewers with the help of Faramir, Damrod, etc. The scenario from the SoG is done on a 4' x 4' table and objects must be taken & held. The scenario from RotK, is on what appears to be a 4' x 6' table. HHHmm...

                                              "So which scenario are we doing Mr. Frodo??"

   Well, I came up with the idea of combining the two to a degree. So my plan, for the moment is....

  "Faramir and his men have been summoned to help reinforce the defenders of Osgiliath. However, the forces of Mordor have moved against Osgiliath quicker than expected. Gothmog and strong force of Orcs and Uruk-Hai (and rumor has it, a troll) have crossed the river and are on the attack. This makes Faramir plan to get Frodo, Sam and Gollum to a secret entrance to the sewers and continue their journey to Mordor much more difficult".

   So I will use forces based more on the SoG and the table will be like the scenario from RotK. I am working on the numbers of Good/Evil troops on the table and I have to start getting the ruined buildings I will need, mostly from Gale Force 9.

   Stay Tuned!

TTFN