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Friday, July 25, 2025

Barons War (1) - First Units

 I managed to get my hands on a copy of the 2nd edition Barons War Starter box from Wargames Atlantic. I guess the demand has been so high for this box that WA pulled it from sale while they catch back up on casting it. I was going to wait, possibly even skip it entirely however with the announcement that it could be potentially difficult to find I decided to grab a box now. 

I had ordered the 1st edition rule book along with some Test of Honor stuff quite a while ago and had intentions of playing the game anyway but never got a chance. Once Wargames Atlantic made the announcement they were doing plastic figures I picked up the first box of knights. I have a growing collection of Crusades era stuff as well though it's my understanding that the rules for all of the supplemental stuff will be updated later. As of the time of this post there are official bridging documents to get version one supplements to version 2. 

Paul has wildly beaten me to the punch and already has something rediculous like 2k points done so I decided to tackle this project next. This is the start of one of the two "demo" forces supplied with the quick start guide. A unit of peasants with hand weapons and a unit of knights with swords and large shields. I decided that much like the Napoleonic project I'm not too fussed with the accuracy so i've decided to go with a Green/Cream colored force and a Yellow/Black to oppose. Loosely using the Game of Thrones Baratheon colors but frankly theyre both just schemes I like. 



 Briefly on the painting. The peasants were done quickly by choosing some palette colors and some consistent colors. Basically all weapons were painted with Vallejo Old Wood from their sadly now discontinued pz aces range. The metal was all AK Gun Metal. All the belts boots and hair were done with AK Leather Brown. These are the "consistent colors." The remaining details were picked out at random using any of the following; AK Hull Red, AK Grey Brown, AK Nato Green, Vallejo Grey Blue 70943. Thats it. Everything in both units was given marine juice. I went heavy handed with the juice and it shows but honestly, they're done and thats what counts. The knights were done similarly but the palette colors are AK Deep Green and AK Vampiric Flesh. The new basing scheme is from Paul and is Vallejo Chocolate Brown with a Vallejo Tan Earth dry brush.

Friday, July 18, 2025

Napoleonics (5) - French Silver Bayonet Unit

Returning for a bit to the Napoleonic Era. I printed up a batch of figures for Silver Bayonet. These are from Kool Kiwi. I think they're pretty nice. The sculpting is pretty good and they were super fun to paint. 

I used more or less the regular French palette I've been using. 


The sculpts are all unique and the price was right. In particular I like this vivandiere. I did a tiny bit of "freehand" on the details which worked nicely with the marine juice.


I have Spanish on the workbench next.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Cabinet Painting (1) - The Mandalorian (and the process of "hate-finishing" a piece)

 Over my time collecting in this hobby, one love I've really had has been Garage Kits. I've collected some models kits, some figure kits by companies like Andrea Miniatures or AK Interactive. Lots of little one off 28mm figures that I've bought solely to paint as what I've referred to as "cabinet pieces." Nothing with gaming intent just stuff to paint and look neat in a display cabinet. 

This is one such piece.

I was in a manic mood yesterday and ended up spending quite a bit of time cleaning and organizing my hobby dungeon. I've run out of shelf space to store unfinished kits and such and now have some piles of boxes accumulating "near" the shelves. I bought some more storage tubs but had to make a decision to move another shelf to a large storage tote. After a lot of deliberation I decided it was time to box up all the plastic Bandai kits as well as a shelf or so of figure kits. I'm not sure why but it felt a little heartbreaking and a bit like a failure on my part. I think a lot of hardcore hobbyists may be able to relate. We buy these kits with good intention to paint them. As they accumulate dust and sit unopened it feels a bit like a wasted opportunity. So as I took each kit, wrote down what it was, and sent it to the bin I kept thinking "Oh! I can't bin this, I need to paint it." Then the rational part of me goes "then just take it out of the bin when you want to paint it you idiot." Still it's had me in a weird mood. 

Now on to the awkward genesis of this piece itself. 

This was a bust purchased probably some time around the first season of the Mandalorian from Blackheart Models at Wonderfest. Like all of my purchases I fully intended to paint it. I had just come hot off the heels of my Hannibal bust (from the hit TV show, Hannibal) and was itching to dive into another kit. I broke out this wonderful sculpt. I think it was maybe 3 parts? I said, this will be cake, have it done in a couple of days. 

Here is a photo from August of 2022


There he is in the background. Another from September of that year

Looming. Watching. Judging. One last one to sell the point, this ones from February of '23


So he sat, almost finished for almost 3 full years. So what happened? Well I'm not thrilled with it. First of all I set the expectation way to high. I really pride myself in part on the quickness I can get through stuff when motivated. My Award-winning Dr. Doom bust was painted the week of the show it medaled at. All this to say when I set a lofty goal and then stall out it kills steam. The first issue was that I struggled hard with the metal on a surface that big. I used AK Gunmetal as I always do and even after a dozen coats it still seemed streaky to me. The second problem was Grogu's skin. I started with the color I used for the kruleboyz and it just didn't want to cover over black. So nothing was quite working how I thought it would. I had been using the base as a handle of sorts so I didn't want to paint it yet so it just didn't feel like any progress was being made after a night of painting so I let it sit. 

Last night I had Scott over for some board games and made a joke about how it isn't finished yet in the context of all that organizing and realized I should probably just finish the thing. Applying a similar "quantity has a quality of it's own" rational to the bigger stuff is sort of a waste to me because the whole point is to look "pretty" but at some point something needs to give. 

The base was a struggle but I chose to trust that process and after going to bed and looking again this morning I'm happy with it. Over a black base I used a blister pack sponge to mottle on Vallejo Tan Earth, Beige brown, and then Iraqi sand. I thinned out some Vallejo grey blue to do the rune looking bits. 

I'm calling it done for now to move on to something else and clear off the desk. The next cabinet piece is partially primed and will see some paint this week maybe. Eagle eyed readers can probably see it in some of the other photos I've posted. 


Friday, July 11, 2025

Fantasy Gaming (1) - Reclaiming the Mountain

 As a lot of (1) posts this one starts with a story. 

Way back in the day, when I first dipped my toes into this hobby, I started with GW. After a trip to the mall resulted in a demo of 40k (Battle for Macragge specifically) and a stern "no that's way too expensive" from the parents I had the itch. A friend and I experimented with DND and a rudimentary skirmish game using legos that we made up but years later I dove head first into the hobby proper. I ended up going way off the deep end and purchasing the starter boxes for LOTR, Battle for Macragge and the WHF Battle for Skull Pass. A year or two after that I ended up getting the batallion box, as well as few odds and ends to add to those Dwarves. 

Now here's the thing. Very shortly after buying all this stuff we ended up discovering Malifaux which resulted in my effectively not touching GW for years. The dwarves and the other projects were boxed up and moved into the back part of the closet as my journey took me from Malifaux to Infinity, to historical wargaming and then many years later, into Age of Sigmar.

During the awkward transisiton of editions, I ended up digging out the dwarves. Some of them had basic serviceably paintjobs for someone who at the time didnt know what he was doing. Ultimately though, I had moved on from them. I sold them for a penny to a friend of ours who wanted to get into Age of Sigmar with us. At the time I had left it at, "if you ever want to move them on again hit me up first and ill buy them back."


A few more years go by and now were past AOS again and I have a strange desire to paint some dwarves. I had heard that they were sold again and this time to another member of the AOS group. By chance he had stopped into the hobby shop I worked at and a deal was made. In Kyle's hands they had formed rank and gotten reinforcements. Back into the cardboard storage boxes they went. 

Another year or so and I broke out a couple dozen of them to try Warlords of Erewhon with Scott. At this point I did finish the scheme and update some of the models to match the new improved but still basic scheme. We tried the game a couple times and then back into storage they went. 

These are some of the oldest models I own. Purchased at the dawn of my hobby career with my own money. This was one of my earliest steps into a world I had no idea would become so all consuming. There are grand plans this time around and my hope is that the journey will be part of the magic. 

So what is this plan? 

My plan is to take these dwarves, build an army out of them and then try the full suite of games. The first part of this plan is relatively simple. I'm going to start by "recreating" the newest starter box for the Warhammer Old World Dwarven army. This is 2 units of melee dwarves, 2 of shooty dwarves and 2 gyrocopters. There is one caveat which is that I only have 1 copter and don't really intend to buy a second. 

That said, we're going to finish these dwarves and then Scott and I are going to play a series of games trying out a pretty long list of rulesets. I've split the list into two general categories; big battle and skirmish. See below

Big Battle:
Warhammer Old World
Battlecry
Warlords of Erewhon
Hobgoblin
Kings of War
OPR Fantasy, and OPR Regiments
Fantastic Battles

Skirmish:
OPR Skirmish
Thud and Blunder
Sword Weirdos
Saga Age of Magic
Warhost
Song of Blades and Heroes

Now this list is by no means comprehensive but it's a start. If you have a fantasy game that you love please let me know what it is and I'll give it a shot. 

Now in all the years of fantasy gaming I've done I've also collected other armies for various projects. My hope is that in finishing these dwarves I'll be able to spark something and be able to use that momentum to finish a few other projects as well. In addition to that, I've always wanted a wood elf army and now that I have the ball rolling, if I'm able to finish this project I think I'll treat myself to that.

For now though, I leave you with a side by side shot of the earliest figures I've painted alongside the updated version on the left. 


As of the time of writing this, I have the king and the warriors above fully painted with just their bases left to do. I also have the Thunderers rebased and about halfway painted. Will probably have more done between writing this but will wait to show it off as a completed force in the next post. 

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Wroth Game Review

 Again, I am fully in my "area control" era. This is Chip Theory's take on the genre. I had looked at the KS originally and decided to back out before pledging for one reason or another. 2 things swayed it into my collection though. First, I saw an update for this and 20 strong that said they were probably shipping in March, and with the late pledge open took the plunge. The second reason was something about the metal troops upgrade being unsustainably cheap. I ended up doing the late back and ironically received this before some of the guys in the group I game with. The wife and I played it once and I thought it was alright, pretty good but not amazing. Then I brought it to a more "war gamey" crowd. Absolute hit. The design is simple but incredibly tight. We played 3 games in a row with everyone switching factions between games. It was easy to pick up and teach, the components are lovely.  

 

Gameplay Thoughts

I've waxed lyrical about Warhammer as a concept to almost anyone I've chatted with about design but I'll repeat my mantra here. Warhammer is a well designed game where the designers never stopped. The core concepts (roll to hit, roll to wound, roll for save) work great and in moderation the design space (specials rules are exceptions that allow for flavor) is great. The problem comes when in order to introduce that flavor you need so many convoluted rules tacked on top of each other. As a brief totally hyperbolic example, if you normally roll one die a model for melee, a good addition would be something like "I roll two attacks when I charge because of my blood rage." A bad addition would be something like "I roll 2 attacks for blood rage, at plus 1 because of my priest. My captain has a rule that allows me to reroll but only if I spend blood points. Each blood point I spend allows me to double move." I digress. My point, as long winded as it is, is that Wroth isn't Warhammer. 

Your core gameplay is very clean. Roll and draft dice. Spend a die to do the action on the die. There's an action to get Corra, the games resource, a couple actions to add troops or move them and one action to attack. Attacking is either into a space you occupy or a space adjacent. That is hyperbolic simplification but honestly the core is really that simple. There's some nuance in the economy and the variable objective tokens but generally, if each faction was the same we'd be playing it already. 

Now where this game really shines, and I truly mean shines, is the asymmetry. Each faction has access to special troops represented by dice. Each special troop (between two and three per faction) usually only has one line maybe two of rules. The overhead is near nonexistent. The only other asymmetry comes from a one time use Feat card (each faction chooses 1 of 3 unique to their faction.) So let's look at one faction up close

These are the Koda, the Viking like berserkers. If we look at their player board we can see they only have two special troop types. The gentlemen on the left are basically werewolf types. Big angry dudes with a ton of health. First, one thing to note here is that even though they have a ton of health, they only count as one troop for the purposes of controlling an area. If we look at their special rules, they get to punch on the way into a territory and when they attack an area they are already in they do an extra damage. Let's look more in to this. First of all on first read you'd be right to think "beat stick." Those abilities are both about damage right? Drop guys in to the fray and spend your attack dice on them. Its subtle but one of the real draws is if you don't get any attack dice, now all of your maneuver dice are effectively attack dice too as long as you have one of these guys in the move. Add on to all of that that these guys will score you some victory points each turn and it makes sense to scatter them to the wind and let them tear your opponents apart.

Now lets look at the trappers. These are a "follow the ball under the cup" type of mechanic. When you place a trapper (into an area you occupy, not your off map deployment area) you choose a face for the die. When an enemy moves into its territory you flip the die and spring a trap (steal Corra, deploy two more troops or attack for 2.) These are pretty simple in terms of rules overhead but the potential for shenanigans is there. If you come in to my area and i flip this, maybe your guys die, maybe I steal a precious resource. 

Now for the icing on the cake. Lets look at a few of the feats. The Koda persistent ability is to make the trappers score VP each turn. Couple this with the face that allows you to drop more troops when revealed and suddenly you can potentially score mountains of points each round as you scatter deep into the board. Alternatively, you could use the feat that allows you to mutate three troops into werewolves. Now the tight economy isn't much of a concern as you have this ace up your sleeve. 

Each faction has its own tricks and abilities and its all achieved with very simple tweaks. Take the Ooglan Karn troops. Their rule allows them to drop into an enemy controlled region. That's it. Everything else reinforces areas you own but the Karn pop up out of no where. The Venna have some rules where they can reinforce from their discarded troops where the other factions generally cant. Lots of very very simple tweaks and exceptions to that base core ruleset that really vary the factions. 

We had a game where I played the Guild who have a one time use ability to take 10 Corra to their bank to spend. One player had the Paldeyn, who every time they would gain Corra, they can deploy a die instead. The third player had the Eldan, an elven faction that could spend Corra to fire arrows around the map. As the guild i had access to more or less the whole bank of resources, my troops stealing from the Eldan. The Paldeyn never took Corra opting instead to deploy their whole suite of troops. Just the faction choices dictated a completely different economy for that game. The round with Koda, Eldan and Ooglan devolved into a slugfest over the one extra Corra each round that resulted in the Koda taking off with the lead by virtue of their cheap traps. Very minor changes resulting in a very different landscape. 

Component Thoughts

Now let's talk about Chip Theory, Price and Components. 

So first of all the elephant in the room. My late pledge included the Core Game, the Venna and Paldeyn expansions as well as the addon for the metal troops upgrade. The price tag for all of that with shipping was just shy of $140. 

If you aren't familiar with Chip Theory I'm sure you can tell from the photos that their production is incredible. No boards, all neoprene mats. High end poker chips for tokens. Custom nice dice. PVC cards that are much more durable than usual. This all makes for a beautiful product and if you like this art style it really can't be beat. It's an expensive buy in but I do think it was well worth it. 

Now, on the subject of the metal troops. I bought these because they mentioned somewhere that the retail cost for the troops would be significantly higher. I did not realize when i bought them that the plastic pieces included were also the unique faction sculpts. The plastics are totally acceptable and the metal actually weigh the tray insert down enough that it makes me a little nervous when people grab it by the middle. All this to say, metal cool, not necessary. 


I do however think the Paldeyn and Venna expansions are totally necessary. In a game that really thrives on that asymmetry adding more factions is kind of a no brainer. The Venna in particular are just so cool. They play like zombies but look like fae wood elves. I lost horribly but the mechanics they add are super cool. 

Overall I am really into Wroth. The game plays very quick managing a teach and 3 games in just over 3 hours. Once the initial teach and play is through, the overhead to learn a new factions basics is very minimal. Compare to a game like root wherein you could spend a half hour just trying to figure out a new faction only to lose horrible because you never really got it. Our games haven't gone past round 5 yet and the game is very snappy. I have yet to dive in to it but there are also 3 solo/coop scenarios per faction to play through. Overall an absolute winner. 

Friday, July 4, 2025

Top 5 "New to Me" Board Games of June 2025

 June has already seen an uptick in gaming. Sadly we missed Origins this year but spent that weekend gaming anyway. Not at all near the normal number of games played that weekend but a nice dent in the pile. Before I get into the honorable mentions though. I got Yokohama (massively on sale) and Bus (Birthday present). Both are very good. Yokohama is a solid euro. I don't think I'd have paid full price for it but as a sale game its super solid. Bus is brutal but a lot of fun. I was interested in this as an intro to Splotter games and before I put it on to a list I think I need to play another game or two of it. Lots of honorable mentions this time because I managed to swing not one but two new games (actually 4! plays of one) right on the last weekend of the month

Honorable Mentions

Slambo

I got Slambo as part of the medallion redemption from the Kabuto Sumo Kickstarter from Allplay. It's simple, its fun. We played at 2, though it looks like it goes up to 4. Very simply game. Play numbered cards to a central pile and keep the running total between 0 and 10. Very small footprint. Just a great quick little game. I found the other tiny box game in this run (For the Emperor) much less interesting but Slambo is a keeper

Black Orchestra


Cooperative board game about the plot to assassinate Hitler. Very themey. The game is very luck driven which is thematic and works well. We came close several times to winning but ultimately were thwarted in the final phase by the "auto-lose" card. Normally I'd be upset about an automatic lose condition, however it feels very thematic and in theory is something you can plan around. I did the Kickstarter that includes the Valkyrie standalone and Resistance expansion. Its a lot of fun and a good coop game. Would definitely play again.

Cyclades

I am fully in my "Dudes on a Map" Era. Cyclades is really more of a bidding game than a straight area control game but I really liked it. The auction mechanic works supper nicely and forces you to sort of adapt to the changing state of the game without it totally locking out the choices to choose how you want to approach your strategy. Nice components. My only criticisms from the first play were that the Miniatures upgrade was probably a waste of money (no one bought any for the overwhelming majority of the game) and that the game overstayed its welcome by just a hair. Would play again. I just backed the KS for the Inis rerelease as well and am looking forward to this series hitting the table more. This was originally in the number 4 slot but a few last minute games kicked it out
 

Let's go to Japan

The best way I have to describe this one is that it is Faraway without the backwards scoring and puffed up to be more of a full game. You draft cards and build a tableau and then score from left to right. Having the right symbols increases scores and allows for objectives to be completed which gives more points. We all scored low due to distractions but I think there's a surprisingly high ceiling and a good amount of decision space. We actually went to a board game lounge in Grand Rapids and tried this there. It was a little difficult to learn and teach while eating and drinking and in a bar effectively but I've added it to my pickup list if I see it for a good price.  

Top 5 of June

5. SAS: Rogue Regiment

A WW2 themed dungeon crawl of sorts. I have the Kickstarter all in pledge for this and man-oh-man is it dripping with content. There's just so much in the box. We played the first two scenarios back to back and had a great time. The themeing is British SAS doing sneaky operations against the Axis. It's more or less your standard Action Point game, with a decent AI and patrol system. My one criticism is that it is very difficult to re enter stealth mode with the way the system works. That said, once I started to treat it more like WW2 and less like Metal Gear Solid it clicked a little better. One thing I want to call out though. The game uses cardboard tokens for everything instead of a pile of plastic miniatures. At the very very beginning i found myself wanting for figures just from a readability standpoint. However, once I was into it, I found no real difference. One thing of note, the use of cardboard counters allows for way more. This means that for every operator for example you end up with a token representing each of the following; Standing, Crouching, Spotted Standing, Spotted Crouching. Each of those is unique art work representing what the "figure" is doing. For the Germans, the art changes from shouldered rifles to firing poses. It's a very minor detail but its a great use of the media.

4. Leviathan Wilds



This is such a cool game. The game is basically Shadow of the Colossus the board game. Players climb, scale and smash crystals on giant lumbering beasts. As someone who loves the concept of "playing within a design space" there's just so much potential in the box. The components are just wonderful. The Kickstarter came with wood and acrylic upgrades. The box insert is so carefully designed that there's room for the spiral in the spiral bound book that serves as the map. There's 17 monsters to scale as well as the expansion, multiple difficulties, multiple characters, something called "the mutation deck." There's just a ton to explore and I really like the puzzle of the game. 
 

3. Galactic Cruise 



This is an interesting one to say the least. I was pitched this one as a "Lacerda lite." Having never played a Lacerda game I thought this might be a good way to dip my toes in. It's heavy game for sure. It took me a little over an hour just to punch and organize this one. I watched a how to play video twice and read the book two or three times before playing. In hindsight the game seems relatively straight forward but is very much so a turn optimization game. In some ways it reminds me of a White Castle where it feels like there's only barely enough time to get things done. I have to say though, components, layout, themeing, all absolutely superb. Its an all day experience but boy did I enjoy it. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with an actual Lacerda game soon

2. Toy Battle

In stark contrast to the previous game, Toy Battle is a 15 minute 2 player lane battler? Area control? Honestly it seems like a mobile game more than anything else. Turns are dead simple, place a guy on a space or draw two more guys. You can cover any empty space or a space with a troop valued lower than the one you're playing. Some troops have powers. For example the highest value has no special rules, the lowest lets you draw some extra troops. That's more or less it. Very quick, very clean, very replayable. It's rare we play a game twice in a row but we did here. 

1. Wroth 

I liked Wroth so much, I wrote a whole separate review of it. That post will drop tomorrow and you can read all about how much I loved this one. 

Overall, this was a wonderful month for gaming. Coming soon to the blog, Silver Bayonet, a new Historical project begins, and possible a secret third project. Thanks for reading.