Moet and Chandon Man, eh Person, eh Thing

This is what happens when an acquaintance with an artistic bent wants to contribute to the hobby over dinner and a bottle of wine.

Shiny things can be hard to photograph,

but I hope some features are obvious.

And here they are with their paraphernalia

or if you prefer

here it is with its bits and bobs.

Most unlikely to reach the table top (again).

But you never know...

Nemisis 3

In our third game of Nemisis Zoe was the Scout and I was Soldier.  I achieve my objective, heroically dying when the ship blew up after I sent a signal telling the authorities it was infected.  Zoe escaped, but failed to send the ship to Mars, seeing how it blew up and everything.

Hard work with two players and I am sure we did a few things wrong, but fun and a joy to play with my daughter.

The game has some lovely miniatures

that are just screaming to be painted.

Songs of Blades and Heroes on Mars

Been a good while since I last played Songs of Blades and Heroes.  Simon had reminded me about some figures mounted on blue parrots (his description) that I had.  I knew they had been languishing and after seeing a post about Ganesha Games relocating because of the strife (don't mention the war) in Ukraine, I thought now was the time.  I also became a patron of Ganesha Games, see here: https://www.patreon.com/ganeshagames/posts

One of the things I really love about Songs of Blades and Heroes is how adaptable they are.

The Red Martians I modelled on elves, Q2 C3

The Flying Men of Mars (could be the title of an Edgar Rice Burroughs book) based on hyenas, Q3 C2

There is a significant points difference and so I made the Flying Martians move Long, with auto disengage and pass thru and a knock down combat result caused them to lose their flying ability until they took off.  

I made all this up on the spur of the moment, or a I should say "I winged it"  In retrospect I should have made a flying creature only able to be attacked by one enemy until they were knocked down.

The big mistake however was forgetting that activation rolls needed to be higher than the Q number, not greater than or equal to.

Made for a quick game, but no beer or pretzels were in consumed during its play, although one Red Martian commander was seen having some wine, red wine of course.

As to the photos, normally I do more trimming round the edges, but as play commenced in each corner this was proving impractical.

The aim was to secure the crashed alien space craft which had crashed around 1889

and had been kindly provided by Simon.

Simon and Curtis each had a team of three Red Martians on foot and three mounted.

I commanded the two teams of Flying Martians, my favourites.

Each team was represented by a playing card the draw of which determined their move sequence.

I used purple dice that were prone to throw ones, Simon had little white dice which preferred to roll six.

The better quality Red Martians made a dash for the craft.

The blood of the Flying Martians started to blot the landscape

A gruesome kill saw the Flying Martians flee back to their corner.

At least one Flying Martian made it to the alien space craft to see what all the fuss was about.

The Flying Martians are being slaughtered :-(

The final fight for the prize

A win for the Red Martians.

Back to the races

Chariot races that is, featuring my new special 3D white chariot with tasteful black and red trim.  It was a bitter disappointment!

There were two races.  I only recorded the first.  In the second we had one death, one badly injured rider who nevertheless regained his chariot and another badly injured rider who retired (took his chariot and went home - me!).

And they're off!

Dave lifts the barrier and my chariot (white horses) is in Lane IV

Jeff is in Lane V and Mark (Indian) in Lane III

Out front we have Dave (red blankets) in Lane II

and Russell (green blankets) in Lane III

Round the bend and Russell is out front.

But Jeff is catching up.

At least I'm coming third, but I'm also coming last!

Russell improves his lead

The pack is tight as we round the second bend.

Could it be that the Indian heavy chariot isn't cut out for this kind of work?

Dave pointing at my chariot

I don't think in a good way...

Russell is still in the lead,

but things remain close as we start the second lap.

Things can change quickly,

Dave and Mark are now in the lead.

Jeff is hanging back to pick up the extra dice for "lucky last"

Dave is out front,

but it is still anyone's race at this stage.

My chariot can't even pick up lucky last!

Rounding the bend and I'm going out wide

Dave adjusts the lap counter - we are now on the final lap 

At this stage it looks like Russell is the clear winner.

I'm coming last

Not fair!

The other chariots are left in Russell's dust.

But wait, there is still some excitement left.

Dave has stolen the lead and just look at those Indians go!

Almost a photo finish,

but there was a call to the stewards.

Dave's win was declared void when the rules governing the use of the lucky last dice

 were found not to apply to the wining streak.

(I should point out that Dave writes the rules, often during the race!)

But hey, I've just seen I came second.  Not too bad for my new chariot.  

It was Mark's first race and he was using one of his Indian chariots (that had fought my Arabs last week).  Good win!

Two skellies in the garden

Not something you really want to find and definitely not The Flowerpot Men.

I now have five of these buggers, sadly I don't know the brand.  I like their attitude.

Undead Army for Hordes of the Things

After seeing a game played at the club recently, I wanted to know what I could make up out of my fantasy figures.

We have seven warbands including general, a behemoth, a lurker, a sneaker and some riders.

I'm not very happy with the basing, but this was more to see what I could do.  The skellie bases are perfect for blades and not at all suitable as hordes.  Going warband seemed to be the best compromise.  If I get serious about this army I would make up sabot bases for the sneaker, lurker and the big guy.

I almost have enough dinosaurs to make up another army.  My SAGA Vikings could probably be co opted into something, and I do have a lot of flying dudes...

The problem is that the 60mm forntages are a tad challenging and more so for the other figures I have.

My aim is just to get some use out of my figures, and to have some fun of course.

First challenge was to see if the copy of the rules I have, 2.0, is up to date.  Having compared it to 2.1 it is hard to find any changes.  So that hurdle is cleared!

Hyboria articles that appeared in the December 1978 and January 1979 issues of Military Modelling

I saw in this post https://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/2020/07/hyboria-13.html that Tiny Tin Man was missing the Hyboria articles that appeared in the December 1978 and January 1979 issues of Military Modelling.  I knew I had these issues and was hopeful of finding them.  I did.  So I scanned them. And posted them here.

John Carter of Mars

The DVD I had was titled "John Carter of Mars".

Always keen to check out Barsoom related material and so when the opportunity came to watch this movie I couldn't resist.  My bad, at least I had other things I could do at the same time.

The premise might have been interesting if I could have heard what they were saying, but even at max volume it was hard to hear.  Something about climate change and maybe tribal conflicts in Afghanistan.

It is only when you get to see a cheap movie that you appreciate how spoilt we are for quality productions.  This one looked like it was made with reject Star Wars costumes.

Where's Jabba the Hutt? 

Just too awful.

The trailer can be seen here: Traci Lords: Princess of Mars Trailer.  It includes the best bit with the flying craft being shot up and the torture scene were Traci is punished for giving her name to such a crappy movie.

The Disney John Carter movie was much better (and I must watch it again as I need some inspiration to tackle my backlog of Barsoom inspired miniatures and games).

Amoeba Wars on Vassal

I could have titled this post The Amoebas Strike Back, but they have been the least of the problem.

I have previously used vassal to play a number of boardgames very successfully solitaire.  Bruce and I have been playing a variety of online computer games (Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis as well as my favourite addiction, Everquest).  Having recently finished EU (EQ is endless) I was keen to try out Vassal.  We picked Amoeba Wars as we had both played it many times and thought it was simple enough to pick up and use to test Vassal, yeah right...

Vassal is not like a computer game and is not like a boardgame, although it is more of the latter.  Regardless the interface and nature of manipulation of the game is quiet different.  But we were getting there.  Then there is the online challenge.  That was a bit of a muddle, not helped by having failed to read the instructions, which while clear, didn't seem that obvious.  Never mind.  All that was being coordinated over a very bad Skype connection (which we use with out problem playing the other games - very strange).

Anyway, today was our third session and it looked like Bruce (red player) was going to win.  The Amoebas thought otherwise.

And then there were none

The perils of belonging to a wargames club is that occasionally someone brings along something for sale that is just too good to pass up on.  So that is how I came to be the proud owner of a flock of dinosaurs.  I have seventeen in total, but I only needed five to take on some barbarian adventurers.

I used the standard profile for Human Barbarians (Q3+ C3) and they also had a leader.  Stephen took control of them.

The dinosaurs I based on Lizardmen (Q3+ C4) with tail slap and fast (long) move,  The latter was a replacement for the Lizardmen's amphibious trait.  The big mother dinosaur was a champion and rated as tough.  It would take four kills to bring her down.

We just diced for a random set up.

 Viking property developers stumble upon a hidden valley in Greenland.

 Existing tenants don't take too kindly to interlopers.

 The barbarians will have to use force if they want to gain possession.

 Two barbarians bite the dust, but mother has been knocked down.

I'm using the tags to denote a fallen model.  The drops of blood represent kills (just for show), or wounds on the big dinosaur.

 The barbarians dispatch one dinosaur and wound Mother,

but the cost is high with four barbarians now dead.

 Desperate fighting continues.

 But Mother bites off the barbarians' leader's head and their morale starts to falter 

(they were fearless, but perhaps less so now).

 Then there were two...

 One...

None!

The surviving dinosaurs enjoy a mighty feast.

Looks like Greenland is not for sale.