Hovertrucks

Some noncombatant hovertrucks from Steve Jackson Games for use as targets objectives in games of Ogre/GEV or other sci-fi combat.

I have a few more of these, along with some other transports, in a different paint scheme that I will show you later.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone is staying safe and working on minis.

A new Escape!

My copy of Escape the Dark Sector landed today! This is a RPG-lite card and dice game by the publishers of Escape the Dark Castle--but instead of taking place in a gritty fantasy fortress, it's IN SPACE! The best thing about this line of games is the cooperative play that builds a story of your team's attempt to get away--in this case, from a space station.

Gameplay is slightly more complex than Castle--each character starts with a cybernetic implant that has certain in-game effects. In addition to normal items, you can use ranged weapons (with new dice!) in your combats as you try to free yourself from the installation. And just like the first game, you can play this one solo if you don't have anyone around to join you in your escape attempt. I can't wait to get my escape on.

Wizards

I've got plenty of warrior-types for games on my new battle board, but not many spell casters, so I remedied that with set of prepainted figures from Magic: The Gathering: Arena Of The Planeswalkers. These are not the stereotypical mage figures that I grew up with, but they will go well with my HeroScape mins for Melee or Wizard scenarios. I also like the fact that they're already painted. Am I the only one that games with prepainted miniatures?

Gaslands game

Last week when I asked my wife if she wanted to play a game with me, I was pleasantly surprised when she requested that we play Gaslands. She took the team Born To Be Wild, while I played Blues Brothers.

The scenario was Death Race, and with no weapons till going through the gate, my spouse took advantage of the huge tires of the monster truck Heavy Metal Thunder to run over Elwood.

My pickup still managed to reach the first gate before anyone else, and used its arc lightning projector to take out Smokin' Lighting, while slightly damaging my teammate Jake.

Jake then swung around wide toward the second gate, while Elwood rammed Heavy Metal Thunder.

Of course, my pickup was done for the turn, and the monster truck was able to crush it again.

Then my wife's beat up old pickup, Motor Runnin', t-boned my nice, modern truck.

This was enough to wreck Elwood, which of course exploded!

The blast damaged Motor Runnin' and sent it out of control, where it slammed into Heavy Metal Thunder!

With those two vehicles tangled up with each other, there was nothing stopping Jake from reaching the finish line, so we called the game.

It was a good time playing, although it took a little longer than my wife preferred. Still, she had fun and said she will play again someday.

Civilian spacecraft

For the first time, in a long time, I painted up a spacecraft mini.

The Conestoga-class colony vessel was originally designed for STL intrasystem travel, and constructed without artificial gravity systems. 

Counter-rotating sections of the vehicle used centripedal force to simulate gravity for passengers and crew. 

Although the sublight engines were eventually replaced with a Bachman-Turner overdrive for interstellar travel, it was not cost-effective to retrofit with agrav.

Although the photos are a little washed out, all in all I'm pleased with this nice little model that would not look out of place in a game of Galactic Knights.

Finished Melee/Wizard game board

Greetings, Dear Reader. I hope this blog post finds you well.

I finished up that big game board for Melee/Wizard that I had been working on recently. It's a hex pattern on a 2' x 4' sheet of styrofoam. It's a little bulky to move around, but more convenient then assembling and disassembling HeroScape hexes like I've been doing. Here is the map in all its glory:

With the Wizard arena on one side and the Melee arena next to it, I can run gladiatorial contests or some solo adventures. (Although I noticed once I was done that if I had started my Melee map one hex closer to the edge, I could have had a row of hexes separating it from the Wizard map.) Or I can ignore the hex colors for some larger scenarios of my own devising.

First I think I need to create a few warriors and spell casters and try my hand at Death Test. Or maybe I should start on a different gaming project--wouldn't it be great if I could complete more than one minis-related enterprise with all this time spent at home?

WIP: Hex mat for Melee/Wizard

The packaging from a recent purchase of furniture for the home office left me with a huge sheet of thin styrofoam (some two feet by four feet) that just begged to be used for gaming terrain. I decided I needed a large playing surface for use with games of Melee and Wizard. I've played before on Heroscape tiles, which look good but take some time to set up and break down. So I decided to use those tiles to imprint a hexagonal pattern onto the sheet.

 After that, I coated the styrofoam in a mixture of white glue and water for protection before spraying it black. I didn't coat the sheet thoroughly enough, because the aerosol ended up dissolving some of the foam. It made a nice texture that looked nice with some drybrushed gray, so no big deal--but I did add another coat of water-glue mix after that. 

While I want this terrain piece to be versatile, I also want to use it for battles based on the arena maps from the original Melee and Wizard. Toward that goal, I replicated those patterns on my game board, which is just big enough to fit the maps from both games. Then, because the colors were so bright, I gave everything a dark wash to blend the hexes back together. You can see the Wizard arena on the left, and the Melee map to the right. Entry hexes are dark green and hard to make out in this picture; I plan to drybrush them with a lighter shade to make them stand out more. I will get more pics once it's done.

It's not much in the way of gaming projects, but I'm happy to be getting something done while on lockdown. I hope everyone is staying healthy, and we can all get together to start rolling dice and pushing around minis again someday.