Flat Pack Buildings System Test

I have a few cardboard buildings made several years ago. Most of them are the original Germy papercraft buildings. Due to age, storage conditions and construction skill they are really looking tatty now so I've been in mind to replace them. As Germy has updated versions now (same link as above) and the styling of the buildings is flexible (near future or basic level sci-fi) I am using the kits again. To make them more robust I thought I'd use foam core for the walls (especially as I have a bag of off cuts snagged from work to use), but this leads back to the old problem of storage so I though I'd experiment with a basic homemade assembly system.

The idea is to have the walls and roof separate and some easy way to join them together. In the end this is what I've come up with as a first attempt:

Materials:

• Foam core
• paper printout of building kit
• PVA glue
• Self adhesive magnetic tape
• Self adhesive steel paper
• PVC Angle trim (10mm x 10mm)

First print out a building design and get it stuck down to your foam core (walls and roof) and cut the foam core round the design to give you the basic walls and roof.

Then cut out 5mm strip from the INSIDE wall to avoid the foam ends being visible when the building is put together. The surface of the outside facing wall needs to be left uncut.

Cut 4 lengths of the plastic trim to less than the wall height, and cover the outside surfaces in magnetic tape. Conveniently the tape I have is 20mm wide, so one small length can be cut down the middle.

Cut similar strips of steel paper and attach to the inside wall corners. Bear in mind that on the edges the "slot in" to your cut outs that the paper will need to be away from the edge.

Germy's roof designs handily have 5mm edging, so that can be glued over the roof edges to cover the internal foam. I have also painted the exposed wall tops.

Glue some strips of foam core to the underside of the roof, 5mm from the edge, to fit inside the walls and stop the roof slipping off.

Assemble the building.

As some notes:

• The magnetic strength of the strip isn't very strong, but holds the building together well enough to be picked up - it doesn't stand up to a decent shake mind you.  
• Using foam core does make the inside of the building smaller, and the corner connectors throw up some issues with interior aesthetics and window placement if you want to cut out the windows. 
• The window\door cut-out problem would require some careful design, and probably leave the building looking a bit too "everything in the middle of the wall" looking?

The whole thing will obviously come apart for easy storage. I'll probably keep each building in a wee bag to avoid having to go through the Space Hulk style "where's that piece" box search.

SoBH Campaign 3 - Battle 13

Weather: Thunderstorm
Scenario: Gatecrashers
Defender: Barbarian

Forces:
New additions marked in purple italics

Dwarves (677 pts):

• Valgen Maest: DWARF COMMANDER 103 Pts, XP: 1 , Quality 3+ Combat 4
  [Brain Damaged: Coward ],Short Move, Leader, Fearless, Free Disengage, Shieldwall, Snow Walk, Hatred (Barbarian), Forester
• Falster Vonlyr: ELITE WARRIOR 65 Pts, XP: 1,  Quality 2+ Combat 4
  Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless, Free Disengage, Shieldwall, Snowwalk
• Halgar Snowbeard: ELITE WARRIOR 50 Pts, XP: 1, Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Short Move, Opportunistic, Snow Walk, Shieldwall, Forester
• Ireheart: ELITE WARRIOR 40 Pts XP: 1, Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Quality 3+, Combat 4, Short Move, Lethal (vs Barbarians), Snow Walk
• Manon Hardfoot: WARRIOR 48 Pts, XP: 3, Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Short Move, Shieldwall, Snowwalk
• Rod Grimiron: WARRIOR 48 Pts, XP: 2,  Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Short Move, Shieldwall, Snowwalk
• Hono Pickbattler: WARRIOR 48 Pts, XP: 2,  Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Short Move, Shieldwall, Snowwalk
• Harti Soreheid: WARRIOR 26 Pts, XP: 0, Quality 3+, Combat 3
  Short Move, Brewmaster
• Scotti MacIrnbru: WARRIOR 24 Pts, XP: 0, Quality 3+, Combat 3
  Short Move
• Geruk Foebreaker: SLAYER 30 Pts, XP: 0, Quality 3+, Combat 3
  Short Move, Hatred (Barbarians)
• Cerri Crakshot: CROSSBOWMAN 38 Pts, XP: 0, Quality 3+, Combat 3
  Short Move, Medium Shooter, Snowwalk, Forester
• Haggar Swiftbolt: ELITE CROSSBOWMAN 44 Pts, XP: 1 Quality 3+, Combat 3
  Short Move, Medium Shooter, Good Shot, Unerring Aim [Equipment: Ammunition]
• Boindel Beaststrider: BEAR CAVALRY 68 Pts, XP 2 Quality 3+ Combat 4
  Mounted, Running Blow

Barbarians (568 pts):

• Ardaric Blackmaul: BARBARIAN COMMANDER 90 Pts, XP: 2  Quality 2+, Combat 4
  Leader,  Fearless, Free Disengage, [Equipment: Charmstone, Healing Potion]
• Ooko: ELEMENTALIST 34 Pts (+ 75 Pts Summoning pool), XP: 2 Quality 2+, Combat 1
  Elementalist, Short Move, Acrobat [Equipment: Healing potion, spell scroll]
• Erwig Bonetooth: ELITE ARCHER 72 Pts, XP: 2 Quality 3+, Combat 4
   Fearless, Shooter (Long), Forester,  Free Disengage [Equipment: Charmstone]
• T-ord Keenbow: ARCHER 50 Pts, XP 1 Quality 3+, Combat 3
    Fearless, Shooter (Long), Free Disengage
• Remos Arcfur: WARRIOR 52 Pts, XP: 1 Quality 3+ , Combat 4
   Fearless, Steadfast, Mounted
• Rodulf Wolfhowl: WARRIOR 52 Pts, XP: 3 Quality 3+, Combat 4
   Fearless, Steadfast
• Cohan Deathaxe: VETERAN WARRIOR 30 Pts XP: 1 Quality 4+, Combat 4
  Fearless, Short Move, Opportunistic
• Garos Bearclaw: WARRIOR 36 Pts, XP: 3 Quality 3+, Combat 3,
  Fearless
• Halka Skulldrinker: WARRIOR 36 Pts XP: 1 Quality 3+, Combat 3, 
  Fearless

Setup:

Valgen and his band quietly sneaked up the tunnel, climbed up the well and alighted into the courtyard. Unfortunately this route made it impossible for Boindel on his bear to join them.

Their mission was to reach the Winch House next to the gate, and spend 6 actions lowering the drawbridge to let their colleagues into the Barbarian held fortress. The gate was protected by only 4 enemy, with the rest of Ardarics band still in the main barracks at the other end of the castle, effectively splitting their force.

The alarm is sounded and the guards ready themselves, with Ooko bolstering the defensive ranks with a fire elemental.

The Dwarves started towards their objective, the familiar group of Snowbeard and the Axe Brothers leading the way, but Scotti stubs his toe on a cobble and end the progress early.

The Barbarian reinforcements start to come out in the form of Ardaric, Rodulf and Garos.

Ooko has been busy summoning to defend the objective. Remos, on his new stead, moves round the central house to hopefully help his leader.

The part of the Dwarven force turns to attack the small reinforcement party. Hagar and Cerri move and fire off shots at Rodulf but they miss.

Skulldrinker emerges from the barracks and the barbarian group try to skirt round their foes to attempts to join up with their comrades at the gate.

At the gate end the Dwarven line is getting organised for their advance.

Down the other end of the courtyard the Dwarves see that the enemy leader is exposed and push forward. Hagar takes a carefully aimed shot at Garos, who is protecting his leader, and shoots him dead. Cerri then moves forward atake a shot at Ardaric, knocking the Barbarian leader to the ground. Ardaric manages to stagger to his feet again, but only this the re-roll help of a charmstone, and in his desperation to cover his leader Skulldrinker manages to move but turns over the Barbarian turn ending any more support action.

The Dwarf phalanx advances, making sure it stays out of range of the enemy archers on the walls.

And down the other end they continue to advance toward Ardaric.

Ardaric backs away one, not wanting to risk a turnover, and Skulldrinker assumes bodyguard position against the stronger and more numerous foe.

Cerri moves in close range to fire his crossbow into Skilldrinker's face, but only knocks him back as the other dwarves continue to chase.

The battle at the gate has started in earnest. Rod attacks a fire elemental, knocking it down. Snowbeard follows up, but is knocked down himself.

Ardaric and Skulldrinker continue to back away from the dwarves as Remos arrives to provide support. Rodulf looks to keep the channel open by moving into combat with the female dwarf, Ms Loveshields, but is knocked to the ground for his efforts.

At the gate the smokey fire elemental get up and attacks Rod, only to be knocked back down. The water elemental  moves in to engage Snowbeard to stop him taking advantage of the downed fire and delay his advance for at least a turn. The remaining fire elemental backs off to in front of the door - anybody wanting into the gatehouse would have to battle it first!

Harti moves into support Ms Loveshields against the fallen Rodulf, and the female warrior finishes the job of dispatching the barbarian. Cerri moves in and fires at Skulldrinker, knocking him down and the rest of the dwarves move in toward Ardaric again.

At the gate, Hono attacks and extinguishes the downed Fire Elemental whilst Manon moves in with Snowbeard and kills the Watery defender. Erwig tries to take a shot from the battlements, but rolls an immediate turnover.

Last round and it's all or nothing to the pump house! Hono moves in to the fire with Rod and charging in to attack. He only knocks the Fire Elemental down though. Snowbeard rushes in and Falster charges and kills the Fiery defender, but there aren't enough possible actions left to lower the drawbridge and the result is a bloodied Barbarian Win.

Post Carronade Update

Hmm, updates seem to have been a bit scarce in the last few weeks, but things have been a bit busy.

I did however manage to get to Carronade in Falkirk on Saturday. Arabiansquire and I arrived at lunch time (later than our usual "knocking on the door at opening time" schedule) but we managed to get round a few traders and have a couple of games. Our main call was at the Crooked Dice table, which I'm happy to say seemed to be doing a good trade. A quick demo game of Scuba clad spies vs Nipple Machine-gun totting Fem-droids was had to remind me of how the rules went was all it took to finally topple me over the commitment precipace and make a purchase of the Rules Bundle Deal. Great stuff. I also had a very nice chat with the man behind the 4A Minuatures table. My regular opponent MacSver already has some of his Dwarves, but he was previewing a new line in Chaos dwarves which looked fantastic. I'll be keeping an eye out for them.

Our other game of the day was on the Demo table of Critical Mass games. I don't play squad based games or 15mm so this was a nice change. The table was lush and alien, the miniatures nice and the game ran quickly, smoothly and was alot of fun.

Purchase wise it was a pretty modest haul, although I did blow most my budget on the 7TV rules. I picked up some steel paper scraps for a soon to be posted proof-of-concept project and from the Flea market some 1st Ed Space Hulk corridor and room tiles to add to the ones I already own (the wee lad has already filled the table with the combined set - huge!). As ever an enjoyable and busy show.

More Reaction System Demos

It's been an age since the Hobby Shed has hosted a game, so it great to finally be in there with dice rolling and sounds of joy (and anguish). It was a "getting to know the Reaction System" evening, but due to a variety of health issues we were whittled down to 2 players - myself and my regular Wednesday night SoBH MacSver. Unfazed we bashed on...

I'd had a lot of fun the previous evening raking out and arranging a table that would maximise movement despite the ranged nature of the game, with the hope that this would induce regular instances of the key THW mechanic, the Insight Test. Also I put out some "scoring zones" to recreate the Unreal Tournament Domination game played out a good while ago under CR2 conditions

As you can see a busy table. Lots of levels, a few good vantage points and a variety of routes round the table. I also tried to put "scoring zones" in relatively open spots to avoid any side camping down on them. MacSver started on the right of the table, which had an advantage of being slightly quicker to a couple of scoring zones, and I started in on the opposite end which had the possible plus of a nearby tower dominating the corner of the table.

 MacSver's forces move out towards the first scoring zone (red\black square)

 My forces split. The leader takes 2 grunts through the cover of the pipe system to push down one side of the table. The other duo headed for the corner tower (and a scoring zone)

Splitting his force, MacSver soon had control of 3 of the 4 scoring zones.

 But pressure from the corner vantage point started to tell. Casualties were dealt out from the corner vantage point, and with MacSver's forces down or ducking back into cover the Grey clad Troops started to push in on their objectives.

A speedy flanking move caught the enemy Heavy Machine gun out and he was blasted down. In the end the casualties told for MacSver and his leader was closed down bravely fighting over a his last scoring point.

A very enjoyable game, with lots of movement and a good amount of action. Even with it being MacSver's first game with these rules the game moved smoothly was played in less than 2 hours (like it says on the tin!).

Next game we play we'll start to add attributes to bring some individuality to the troops. Thinking caps (and shopping bags) are at the ready to figure out what type\theme of force we want to put together...

I Promise To....

There are loads of interweb "painting pledge" sites and forums. So following in the wake of one of my gaming buddies I've jumped in and joined one, The Facebook group Painting Oaths.

The requirements are pretty modest (a minimum of 3 28mm related figures for example) with painting points given, extra for including a monthly theme and the odd sponsers prize it would seem.

For my first pledge I thought I'd fire in my poor Urban War Viridian Saurial Riders. These are the final models in my Viridian force and I've been putting off painting them as I don't know how I'll paint the beasts and baggage. I've got until the end of May to get it done...