Dwarven Forge Complete

I finished painting my 5+ sets of Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles from their first Kickstarter but had resisted laying them out until I'd completed them as motivation.

A hasty layout, but still playable

There's quite a bit here! They fill a good portion of my 4x6 foot table with some extra space for books, dice, and beverages.

I had to throw a few minis in there too to get a sense of scale. I'll have to get back on those Reaper Bones to keep filling the dungeon with creeps.

Descending into the dungeon

Battling goblins

Into the crypts

Confronting a frog demon

Looking forward to running a an adventure for my son, and I've already been talking to my gaming buddies about doing some dungeon crawling. And of course, there's the second Dwarven Forge kickstarter running now with some awesome looking caverns for the deepest depths of the dungeon.

Renendra's new Mud Brick House

I just spotted Model Dad's preview of Renendra's Mud Brick House, which seems to be launching just in time for me. I've been picking up some muslims and crusaders in anticipation of the Crusades expansion for SAGA, and eventually some bigger 1st Crusade games with Hail Caesar.

I thought I'd have to get out the foamcore and exacto blades, but I'd much prefer a simple plastic kit that I can knock out quicker. Model Dad is running a give away for one of the preview kits before their official launch at Salute. Looking forward to getting my hands on one.

More Dwarven Forge

Dwarven Forge just launched their second kickstarter, this time for natural cavern pieces. I've been ogling the photos of the various new pieces, but I'm holding off on pledging until I get my original set finished. They arrived while we were awaiting our new house to be finished, and I've only managed to get them unpacked and started a week or so ago.

Five sets of Dwarven Forge is pretty daunting, but I've been plugging away and can really see some progress now. With less fiddly details than miniatures, I've found you can cut through huge swaths of unpainted dungeon tiles in only an hour painting session. Looking forward to finishing the tiles and running some games (and ordering some new dungeon tiles once this original set is done!)

Cold Wars 2014

Managed to get up to Cold Wars for a day of gaming. Played two fun scenarios and tried to snap as many pics between as I could. Photos after the jump.

Song of Blades and Heroes Bash

Skeletal undead prepare to slay the living

We had a party and later in the evening an impromptu Song of Blades and Heroes game broke out. Terrain was thrown down quickly, random warbands hit the table and the soon the classic scenario "just kill everybody else" was under way.

We had five warbands:

• Vampire with wolves and ghouls
• Wraith with skeletons and wights
• Alchemist with frankenstein monsters
• Dwarf Orcslayer with cavalry and scouts
• Cleric with undead hunters

A ghoul and wolves screen their vampire lord

Dwarven cavalry race to intercept their enemies

Alchemical golems batter their way through the woods

I could detail the shifting alliances, brokered power deals, backstabbing and double crosses, but I don't think even I kept it straight. 

A three sided battle breaking out, dwarves facing down golem and skeletons on the left,
with holy undead hunters fending off a wraith atop the hill

The wraith takes on the currently allied dwarves and undead hunters.

Wolves charge the newly allied undead hunters and golems after they slew the wraith

Essentially three groups ganged up on the dwarves, but when the table realized the vampire was hanging back. the melee cluster gradually worked its way towards him to make sure he couldn't simply pick off the wounded winners of the grand melee. Which he did anyway. 

The vampire lord wades into a battle, his ghouls having broken through the Allies' front line.

Still, fun game, easy to teach, and great to play when food and drink are flowing liberally. 

I Think I Might Be a Reptile

Like much of the country, the Washington DC area has been crushed by icy weather delivered directly from the arctic this winter. Bundling up and shivering all day distracted me from anything but the most minimal progress on hobby projects. A few days ago Jack Frost failed his morale check and we got a break in the chill, reaching a delightful "several" degrees above freezing. Like a snake warmed by the summer sun, I've finally shaken off my torpor and gotten back to painting and gaming.

I've got a number of projects underway. I'm about halfway through Henry Hyde's "Wargaming Compendium " and he's as cheerful and enthusiastic in writing as he was on the "View from the Veranda" podcast (R.I.P.).

Building off my SAGA Norman warband, I'm expanding the cavalry with the hopes of eventually having a full Norman 1st Crusade or Italo-Norman army. I might have to press them into service as Riders of Rohan or something before the army is finished though just to get them on the table. The horses have their oil coat drying which will take a few days, so it's on to the riders next.

I also finally dug into my Dwarven Forge dungeon kickstarter. Holy Smokes! So many pieces, much quality, wow. This stuff is great. I've only unpacked a third of my order, but it was enough for my son and I to play Dungeon Crawl Junior for several hours. I've ordered the Pokorny Paints to avoid any frustrations with tackiness or mixing custom colors, and I'm looking forward to getting these painted up.

We're also having friends stay with us next week, and my wife has already planned a game day with them to celebrate their arrival. Not sure what we'll get on the table, but I have a feeling there will be lots of miniatures and dice at some point.

Reaper Bones Kobolds

I polished off a dozen kobolds from the first Reaper Bones kickstarter. Their small size made their details feel even shallower than some of the other Bones figures I've painted up, but the wash helped pull out their features. I still felt like I was guessing when picking out things like their teeth, but they should be serviceable as dungeon chumps for the players to cut down.

I glued them to washers and extended the dungeon floring they were standing on with some milliput sculpted to look like flagstones. I suppose they turned out ok, but I looking forward to getting back to some metal or plastic historicals next.