Ish

A while back, I came across a couple of blog posts by some historical gamers who had started using what they called “3-2-1 Basing.” Basically, you divvy up all of your units into groups of three figures on a shared base, two figures on a shared base, and single figures. Sort of splitting the difference between individually based models and group based figures. Personally, I’ll just stick with movement trays. But it’s an neat idea. Yes and no. I think the system is fantastic and it does a great job of emulating the feel of combat in the era, so it’s a great way to introduce people to playing historical skirmish (and with Age of Magic, you’ve got a potential hook for people who refuse to give up on their elves and dragons). However, the game is probably not a good gateway for people who have never played hobby games before. The Battle Board system is both key to the way the game works and really kind of odd to explain to newbies. People who have played advanced board games (e.g., Eurogames) or roleplaying games will probably be able to pick it up. People who have played other wargames will too. But if you are trying to introduce the hobby to a total n00b, I’d recommend Marvel Crisis Protocol or X-Wing.

I missed out on the Muskets & Tomahawks Second Edition Nickstarter. But I’m a massive fan of Saga and have read (and loved) the first edition of M&T... It seems like the perfect way to introduce people to playing in the period. Buying, building, painting, and transporting an entire company (let alone a regiment) of 18th Century soldiers is a daunting task. A couple dozen soldiers and a handful of indians is a lot more approachable.

The Frostgrave table is definitely being built with an eye to doing quintuple duty as a table for Frostgrave, T9A, Oathmark, and Age of Sigmar... and it shouldn’t take much effort to make it work for 40k/Necromunda or Marvel. That’s why I’m building it with “plug in” modules. Here’s a ruined wood-framed medieval hit swap here’s a grimdark gothic bunker yoink here’s a giant statute of Doctor Doom... As I outlined above, a decent sized force for Muskets & Tomahawks can be put together pretty cheap... it’s just not in the cards in the immediate future. But maybe I’ll treat myself to some Redcoats to celebrate Independence Day.

I’ve got four ongoing modeling projects right now (my T9A/Oathmark Samurai Army, my Frostgrave table, my Necromunda gang, and my Marvel Crisis Protocol collection) so it isn’t really feasible or sane for me to pick up a fifth... But...

I was a history major at university, with an emphasis on medieval military history, and am an avid practitioner of HEMA and SCA. So I fully understand the urge to whine and complain carefully critique historical inaccuracy in media and games. On the other hand, I also only have one or two free nights in any given week. I’d like to be able to play a complete game during one (or both) of them. So whilst the idea of playing my wargames in a setup like the one below does have its appeal... I think something like the one below is a lot more practical...

I've nabbed a couple of free hex tiles and other small-scale terrain bitz from Thingiverse already (for example, this very GW-looking Orc Fortress). My thinking is that I should be able to play around with the scaling to make those other tiles fit with the Hexton Hills scenery... They won't have the special clip connector, but that's not too big a deal. The Gold Tier has seventy tiles, the Epic Cities add-on has another 120(!), and just doing some simple tricks like changing the paint jobs (this is a grassy plain, this is a desert plain, this is snowy tundra; this village has red roofs, this village has blue roofs...) or mirroring the tiles in my slicer can easily turn that into hundreds of more combinations. Heck, you can always just bust out the clippers, the super-glue, and your bitz box and do some old school conversions too. Based on the preview images and a couple of YouTubers who got to be "beta test" guinea pigs, it looks like these tiles won't be quite as nice on my FDM printer as they would be on a resin printer, but I think they'll be more than good enough. Oathmark's Kingdom Building system is a really cool part of that game and these tiles will be fantastic for it.

I’d really love to play some French-Indian Wars or American War of Independence...

It’s my understanding that Underworlds is played on a gridded map of fixed size? If not, then this table will certainly work... But my intent is to make a table for Frostgrave from Osprey Publishing. Frostgrave is a 28 mm scale skirmish campaign game, not too dissimilar in concept from Mordheim or Necromunda, but with a lot less bookkeeping and without Games Workshop forgetting the game exists after six months. There is an updated second edition of the game due out later this summer (although, these days, who knows if it will be released on time?) and the first edition of it is currently available as a free PDF. It’s a wonderful game that only asks you to collect about 10 miniatures (although I recommend about 15-20). The table is 37” square and my plan is to have a few fixed pieces of terrain, like the raised platform (above) in one corner and a hill/glacier (not yet built) opposite. I’m going to run some cobblestone roads across the table and make some “frames” out of stone sidewalks. These “frames” will all be in fixed sizes (I’m thinking three or four 6” and one 12” in the center) and of fixed depth. Then I will be able to make other pieces of terrain on bases that will “plug in” to the frames. Frostgrave is meant to be played on a 3’ x 3’ table with a lot of terrain to represent the ruined city. But I’d also like to be able to play Oathmark or Age of Sigmar on the same table.

Wargames always involve a great deal of abstraction and approximation. The Battle of Waterloo involved some 73,000 men fighting for Old and 118,000 men under Wellington... If you started painting now and got your children to help, then your grandkids could play sometime in high school. The battle itself had a frontline of about four kilometers in length (actually quite short compared to most). If you wanted to model that front at 28 mm (1:64) scale you’d need a table 243’ wide. I’m perfectly content with a game being an abstraction. So a game of 28 mm Black Powder where my army consists only of two or three squares of a few score infantry, flanked by two dozen cavalrymen, with a pair of cannon on a styrofoam hill seems like a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon. (Although I still think my 6 mm idea would probably play just as speedily, paint even faster, and cost far less money.)

So... Have you ever thought to yourself: "Man, I really like Games Workshop's wargaming terrain... But it just doesn't have enough skulls?" Well, son, have I got news for you:

Groundbreaking has begun on the City of Frostgrave... or at least 36” square of it.

In the mainstream Marvel Comics continuity, this is the purview of MI-13 (Military Intelligence, Section Thirteen):

Generic orc and goblin minis are pretty easy to find; But it’ll be tricky to find the specific ones from HeroQuest...

I just learned that ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ was originally written as ‘Midnight Plane to Houston,’ and I’m honestly feeling kind of sad about this.

I’m not sure PLA vapors are good for you either. They might not be kill-you-dead levels of toxic, but it’s probably a good idea to avoid as much deep breathing in of freshly melted filament as one can. Plus, even if ABS is not super-toxic, it does stink to high heaven... So I’ve got a fan nearby pointing out an open window. The Adventurer 3 is an enclosed unit, it isn’t airtight obviously, but it does cut down on the noise and the fumes.

I haven’t so much as touched my Samurai army this past week. The first half was swallowed up by home improvement tasks, the middle was consumed by birthday shenanigans (my oldest and I share a birthday), and the last half was spent playing with my new 3D printer. But I did paint up this earth elemental soldier to go along with the two spellcasters I already did. I’ve mostly been printing these guys as “test prints” to iron out kinks with my new 3D printer. But they’re absolutely adorable and really fast to paint. I’m tempted to make a full warband (if not a full army) of the lil guys. They’d work in most fantasy game systems as “counts as” goblins or dwarves, I think...

No auto-level, but leveling it myself is pretty easy. That was the first thing I checked. I also cleaned the print bed and tried the hairspray trick... Hairspray helped a little. But then I looked at the box to make sure the filament width wasn’t too big for the printer. I had ordered it directly from the manufacturer specifically for this model of printer, so I didn’t think that would be an issue... But I wanted to double check. That’s when I noticed the box was clearly marked ABS. [insert facepalm.gif] I did a quick test print with the settings adjusted for ABS, turned out perfect. Just a few little wisps of stringing, but nothing to worry about (and having now printed this particular model four times, I think the stringing is as much a fault of the sculpt as it is my printer). I’ve got it plugging along on a piece of terrain now (fifteen minutes into ten-hour print job) And it’s chugging along perfectly. I also double checked my Order Confirmation e-mail, I did order PLA. Someone in their fulfillment department most have goofed. Not the biggest problem in the world, since this printer will handle both materials just fine and I’m concentrating on making terrain right now anyway so ABS is arguably the better material for the task. Nevertheless, I’m gonna send Customer Service an e-mail about it.

Ahh-ha! I think I’ve figured out what was going wrong. The replacement spool of PLA that I order is, in fact, a spool of ABS. My printer will work with both materials, but it won’t work if I set the printer settings for PLA and not ABS... Them extra 50° Celsius matter.

Arrrgh! Everything that I printed using the sample spook of translucent red PLA that came with my printer came out just fine... But having exhausted that roll and switched for a regular spool of white PLA (both from FlashForge who makes the printer) every print job I’ve started has refused to stick to the bed and turns into a blob on the end of the nozzle. Thoughts? Ideas? Scathing mockery?

Cough August 18th Cough

The FlashForge Adventurer 3 that I just got (and am loving) often gets dinged in reviews because the onboard spool holder for PLA and/or ABS is designed only to hold 0.5 kg spools versus the 1.0 kg spool that seems to be the industry standard... and FlashForge charges about as much for one of their 0.5 kg spools as everyone else is charging for a 1.0 kg spool. On the plus side, this means that the FlashForge spool I ordered along with my printer arrived on time and without any supply chain shenanigans... on the downside I seriously overpaid. My plan is to jury-rig an external spool holder in the near future and switch to using a different brand of filament. In the meantime, I'll just work with what I've got.

Based on the signature, I’m guessing they’re Jes Goodwin’s concept designs from the early Nineties. If GW ever put them out in an official book, it would be one of their “art of whatever” type books and not a gaming product. And my obligatory picture...