VASA can you do?

Slightly ahead of schedule Arabiansquire and I broke out the Urban War starter sets I'd bought last year (and still not finshed constructing) and gave the game a bash. One of the reasons that I'd bought into the game was not only because of the wee lads interest, but because it seemed simple enough to play - no doubt a direct back-lash from the brain taxing play of Warmachine at the time!

Well I'm glad to say that after I'd re-read the quick start rules we managed play through a test encounter without too many problems at all and enjoyed the game. Good news.

I also made me start to think about painting up the starter set pieces .I had hoped to look at this a bit later in the year, but after just finishing painting up some 10mm I was looking for something a bit larger and eye relaxing as a break before my next 10mm batch. As a result I painted up a test VASA Suppressor:

For more of my own use than anyone elses, I primed in Halfords Grey Primer, armour pads and face mask were in Vallejo White, Boots and pieces in Miniature Paints Dark Grey and the Gun is black. The whole figure was given a wash in GW Devlan Mud and then the sections highlighted with their original colour (Mini Paints Mid Grey for the primer areas). The Vasa logo, buttons and breathing bottle have GW Red Gore on them.

Pretty quick (30 minutes-ish) as I don't want to spend to long on them to get them to table top use. Looks OK as well, so I think I'll roll out the scheme to the rest of the squad.

Duck! The Hobbit is Shooting

Most the RPGers came round to the hobby shed last night for Session 2 proper of "The One Ring" last.


**** SPOILER ALERT *****

We are playing the introductory adventure, so be aware some details may appear. This isn't an AAR though.

The party (2 Dwarves, and Elf and a Hobbit) have been given a quest to find a couple of Dwarves who have disappeared into the wilderness carrying an important artifact. We must track them down and return with the artifact. Starting in Dale we've wandered down and eventually found ourselves punting through the Long Marches and Northern Mirkwood. The system forces the players to look at their character skills and adopt different set roles in the traveling group, which is a nice change from the usual "marching order" which make the group feel like everyone has a role to play within the group, instead of the Elf or Ranger taking all the tests!

Combat was introduced in the first session, with the "to hit" targets on both sides being dictated by the aggressiveness to the fighting style rather than just a skill stat. We fought off some large tree spiders and were feeling pretty confident in the second session when a Troll lurched out of the marsh waters to devour us. I would like to say we duly dispatched it, but in truth the GM felt he needed to give an unsubtle tactical hint towards the end, as we had an unconscious Hobbit, an near exhausted Elf with a broken bow, an axe-less Dwarf and another near exhausted Dwarf. Once you add in the fact that the Elf is now corrupted by shadow after autopsy-ing the Troll(?), one of the main fighters only has a dagger left and, after a mix of words, a Hobbit has a reputation for fancy underwear, it's been an eventful night!

I fear for the party for when the GM starts to actually throw some serious challenges at us...

10mm Paintng Competition

Sometimes painting motivational events come along at just the right time. Sometimes it's starting to play a game again, others a show on the horizon. In my rough production line of projects I'd loosely planned getting back to painting my 10mm dungeon figures after sorting out my Beastman warband was in my mind. I managed my beastmen on schedule (end January) and was thinking about my 10mm adventurers when an email came through from their manufacturer, Pendraken, announcing a painting competition, taking entries in February. Perfect timing then!

My painting really isn't up to competition standards, but as a bit of fun and a target to aim for I'd be daft to resist. I hope to at least get the extra dungeon adventurers pack done and finish off the dungeon extension box that I bought last May at Carronade. After that I may try my hand at making a couple of custom dungeon pieces (cavern walls and bridge for example) or have a go at the horde of ratmen I also have.

We'll see - adventurers first...

The Beastman Warband

Managed to get the final figures finished for the miniature pool for my Songs of Blades campaign, so I'll just go over the creatures and stats. All profiles are from the rulebooks with the exception of the Beastmen   and the Young Minotaur, which had to be made up.

First Off the Beastmen Warriors:

Beastman Warrior (34pts): Q4+ C3
Special Rules: Forrester, Savage

And the rest:

Human Leader (60pts): Q3+ C3

Special Rules: Leader

Human Chaos Warrior (42pts): Q4+ C4
Special Rules: Mutant, Heavy Armour

Centaur Archer (76pts): Q3+ C3
Special Rules: Long Move, Shooter (Long), Big, Savage

Minotaur Warrior (52 pts): Q3+ C4
Special Rules: Big, Savage

Young Minotaur (34pts): Q4+ C3
Special Rules: Dashing, Savage

Harpy (48pts): Q4+ C2
Special Rules: Flying, Distract

As a note to those curious, the Beastmen Warriors are a mix of Games Workshop and Marauder (although I can't remember the manufacturer of the old beastman second from the left); the Harpies and Young Minotaur are D&D miniatures; the big Minotaur is Game Workshop; the Centaurs are Mage Knight and D&D; the Chaos Warrior is from Heroquest and the Human Leader is a Games Workshop Mordheim Possessed Magister.