Miniatures

25, 15, 10, 6 millimeters, hike!

Get Ready to Play – Salute of the Jugger / Blood of Heroes

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Ruger Hauer – Blood of Heroes still; Prisma Udine filter

Wait a minute…

Salute of the Jugger is the original name of the cult favorite – Blood of Heroes? Apparently it’s true and all these years I’ve been denied 10 minutes of this sci-fi cultural phenomena. Bah, another botched US release.

I hadn’t thought about Blood of Heroes in a long, long while; but today Alessandro Piroddi released a play-test version of Torque Arena. Skimming the design log, “this sound great!” Download the pdf:
“Yes, yes, interesting.”
“Ok I want to try this.”
”Hmm… what miniatures could I use.”
“Nothing in the collection that’s really suitable – drat, that’s going to take me a while to got to the table.”

Sudden Inspiration

Steeling my nerve for a web search for suitable post apocalypse miniatures, I wondered if I could find any standees like the old Steve Jackson Cardboard Heroes. Then quickly realized I could just make some:

  • Image search for “post apocolypse standees”, saving 10 suitable full body images – I opted for teams of men and women
  • Convert the image to black and white, “lift the subject from iOS Photos App”, saving it as it’s own unique photo
  • Load the lifted image to iOS Prisma App and apply the Udine filtered – applying filters like this can help give disparate images a common look and feel
  • Layout 20x40mm standee template in iOS Curve App, which I’m using for technical drawing
  • Drop the new filtered and lifted subjects into the standee template, et voila

You can grab these custom standees here, or try your hand at the same. What follows is a brief photo journal of the process. I will report back here on my progress with the play test. Thanks Alessandro for sharing your ideas with us!

I’ll report back soon on my play-test experience.

Tomorrow’s Matrix War

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Peter Andrew Jones – Today We Choose Faces
w/ Prisma filter, originally seen here

I’ve been fascinated with the Tomrrow’s War rule set, difficult but fascinating. My summary of those core rules here.

Equally fascinating is the the Matrix Game concept, info here.

Being holed up for the past two’ish years I’ve turned my attention back to miniature wargaming, but friends are distant and my days are often full. I said to myself “self, you ought to setup a remote game”. “Good idea self, let’s try making that a Matrix game too”.

Recruited a few friends to help me with my madman’s plan. Linked below is an evolving collection of our comms, where everything done via bcc’d e-mail – forcing a fog of war amongst the players.

We made good progress with the scenario and background setup in our first week. Then high summer hit, two graduations and a wedding yet to come. We should get back to this game in a few more week, setting up a table with some miniatures and dedicated player photos.

Progressive notes for our game linked here.

For the King!

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…and parliament I suppose, for those of you with a more puritanical bent.

Original work by Will Nickless
Worcester Royalist Charge – English Civil War – 1976

There is a very fine To The Strongest variant for the ECW, titled For King & Parliament, which our club has had on the table these past few months. We are working our way through a nicely organized collection of scenarios for the period as well, the Siege of Norchester.

Part of my learning method is simplification, here is my first K&P effort.

I’ll continue to refine this quick reference if the inspiration strikes. Please let me know if your have questions about these rules or my interpenetration. We’ve been playing a good deal and expect we will continue to do so.

Streamlined To The Strongest +Battlefield Generator

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Information spread across multiple sources, locations, or systems is difficult to access. This is a maximum of my professional world and applies equally to my hobby world, especially with complex or evolving rulesets.

To the Strongest is one such use case where periodic updates via the Even Stronger compilation add or clarify rules from the core book. I have taken on a small project to summarize the core rules, simplifying where I can, and adding the ES amendments.

That streamlined TTS effort is now available here.

I’ve posted previously on the topic of To the Strongest here, which includes:

  • A reformatted quick reference sheet,
  • Video tutorial on playing the game with Table Top Simulator, AND
  • A video of a demonstration game

Have also updated my QRS, dropping the troop specific melee and shooting modifiers from the reference sheet in favor of including those details in the STTS unit summary. I feel that such modifiers should be included in an army list not the core reference.

April 9 Update

The Streamlined To The Strongest summary has been updated with the latest Even Stronger v12 update.

Links:
– STTS summary keeps its original link
– Updated QRS available here, and original post links also update
– Army list template that might be helpful available here

April 18 Update

Have just finished another random generator tool, this time for TTS battlefields. That tool available here, sample output follows:

July 13 Update

Here’s my first attempt with the random battlefield generator, working as designed.

I’ve had a thought about roads, which should always be an easy activation if following the track.

This house rule provides a further improvement to the use of a road even while in open ground.

Nov 10 Update

Have updated the battlefield generator with some logic that reflects card draws and added some graphics for final map layout. All links remain the same.

30 Minute Paints

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2022 and I am still living in strange times. While I continue to work remotely and mask when out in public, I am starting to return to the physical table top. DunDraCon 2022 provided a great opportunity for that.

Really more a smash and grab to pick up some miniatures and cram in a couple of games from 8a to 2p, until I hurried home to my computer to play D&D online. The heart wants what the heart wants I suppose.

My early arrival at the con left me with a bit of time to kill, grabbing a cup of coffee I set down to paint for 30 minutes. DunDraCon hosts a fantastic weekend long paint & take event where all supplies and miniatures are provided by the hosts – a young married couple who are absoluetly enthusiastic about miniature painting .

The troll matron shown above was my 30 minute effort at the con, a result that I was very pleased with. It was an effortless piece that I thought I could replicate and share. Here’s my 2nd try at a video demo of this method which new painters might find interesting, or perhaps provide a challenge for seasoned vets.

If you take up this 30 minute challenge I would love see you efforts! I’ll set-up a gallery on this page highlighting everyone else’s work.

March 4 Update

Another video demo to share. Still learning about my camera stuff. This one shot in a single take, but didn’t start with correct landscape rotation. – Fixed that in post! Next up frame management & lighting.