Holiday gaming

With things slowing down for the holidays, I had a chance to play Terraforming Mars with my gaming buddies. Although we tried to get going again last summer, the increase in COVID meant we put our weekly games on hiatus for awhile. But since we're all vaxxed, we got together to make the Red Planet habitable. Here's how that world looked at the end of our game (note the 3-D tiles, which I detailed with some washes and drybrushing):

Although it was a low-scoring game since a couple of us wanted to finish terraforming to prevent other players from generating more points through their economic engines, we had a good time. I came in second out of four players in what turned out to be a pretty challenging match.   

We liked it so much, we have plans for another game next week. I hope everyone has a chance to relax over the next few days, and hopefully get in a game or two over the holidays.

In the early days of Christmas ...

 

My true love gave to me some hobby-related gifts: brushes, glue, and this nifty set of Abandoned Factory scatter terrain from Mantic. I'm very lucky to have such a thoughtful and considerate spouse who supports my gaming hobby. 

My first painted MAATACs

As part of my pledge of painting at least one miniature a week in 2021, I applied pigment to some of the castings from my recent MillenniumCon score.

These MAATACs* are recognition code Black Widow-class destroyer galactic war machines from the Entomalian Empire. Note the articulated legs, giving this vehicle an advantage in difficult terrain.

These 1:285 (6mm) scale vehicles share the same setting and designer as Starfleet Wars, the space combat game by Superior Models. The MAATAC rules and minis can now be found at Monday Knight Productions.

Instead of my typical Bug paint scheme for these insectoid vehicles, I decided to go a different route: I used various hues of watered-down color-shifting paint atop black spray primer. I still can't make up my mind if I like the way these came out--they seem almost too garish.

Like their spacefaring counterparts, these designs carry a lot of detail. However, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone of drybrushing everything. So I decided to experiment.

The destroyer galactic machine is one of the smaller classes of MAATAC, but still more sizable than conventional armor, as you can see from this comparison shot with an obsolete heavy tank from a now-defunct Terran polity.

I may end up redoing the paint job later on, but for now I've got four more miniatures painted and ready for battle. Now to put together a short solo game to learn the rules.

*Multifunctional Armed & Armored Tactical Attack Computers

Another piece of junk

Here's another quick and dirty terrain piece for Stargrave and other 28mm sci fi games. This one came from a Girl Scout candy box (dark chocolate caramel cups with sea salt, if you're interested).

The usual steps to give it a worn, yet not grimdark, look: 1. Spray paint a single color. 2. Heavily drybrush silver. 3. Apply a black wash. 

Not perfect, but good enough to provide a little cover during a battle without looking out of place. And one less thing in the recycling bin.

MillenniumCon wrapup (and loot!)

The convention was four days this year (Thursday-Sunday), but I ended up sleeping in and not making the final day of MillCon. I'm sorry I missed out on some pickup games of Melee/Wizard and the other Sunday morning events, including the flea market. 

But that doesn't mean I left the con empty-handed--while browsing the dealers room, I scored this massive collection of 6mm MAATAC* vehicles for the eponymous "intergalactic wargame of great armored fighting machines" from Superior Models.

There are well over a hundred castings in this lot, which I got for a very generous price from the vendor, a local gamer and publisher of Miniature Review blog. As a nice bonus, he threw in some Starfleet Wars minis (at upper right). These MAATAC units cover four of the Five Powers, so I will still need to purchase a few Avarians to round out my collection of Aquarians, Carnivorans, Entomalians, and Terrans.

But first, I get to paint some of these! A nice find at a great gaming convention.

*Multifunctional Armed & Armored Tactical Attack Computer

MillenniumCon Day 3 (p.m.)

Saturday afternoon I played a Starfighter! space combat game, based on the Fistful of Lead game engine.

The game master had 3D-printed all the ships, which were based on some computer game I can't remember. It was the humans against the Vaanduls, if that helps. Anyway, I played the capital ship and the space station, which eventually got blow up. But I had fun doing some space combat again.

Speaking of space, the next table over had some kind of War of the Worlds battle in 28mm. It looked pretty cool, and was voted one of the outstanding games of the convention.

There was also a Bolt Action tournament going on that afternoon. Not my jam, but there were plenty of players on a variety of terrain settings.

That was it for my evening, other than dinner with a gaming buddy I hadn't seen in two years. I did get a couple of pics of this massive long table for a Civil War battle.

This game looked like another 28mm event. I didn't stick around to watch people play, because again, tired.

That was it for the third day of the convention.

MillenniumCon day 3 (a.m.)

The third day of the convention, I joined my brother in a huge American Civil War game using the Black Powder rules and the Warlord epic scale minis.

Although we had historical forces (from the battle of Shiloh, I think), the scenario itself was ahistorical, with the Rebels trying to advance on the Union camps, and the North trying to hold off the Southerners long enough for reinforcements to arrive. I was the Yankees on the far left, including that lone regiment in the cornfield.

My goal as the Union commander was to try to delay long enough for other Northern forces to get to the battle. Somehow, that single regiment held off advancing brigades, and I deployed my other forces in line to stop the advancing Rebs.

There was a lot of shooting, both artillery and musket fire, with both sides inflicting casualties. Many units became shaken, meaning they couldn't do much, and some units ended up whipped, but remained on the battlefield.

We even got a few infantry charges in (on both sides), but I didn't make a single command roll to get my cavalry moving the entire battle.

When time was up, the Union had won by holding off the Confederates, and I won a tape measure for my regiment's brave stand against the Confederate onslaught. It was a fun time.