All Things Zombie, 1/8/13

Last Tuesday saw a return to a classic game for our game group; All Things Zombie by Two Hour Wargames.  It's a solid, co-operative game pitting the good guys against an endless horde of zombies.

I wanted an excuse to use a new toy I picked up at a thrift store for $5.  It is a motorized, music playing carousel for Christmas village scenes. It turns out my gauge of scale isn't that great after all of these years, and it's a bit big.  it still gets the point across, and is a nice centerpiece for games.

Tonight the survivors' camp had just been raided by another band of people.  The survivors chased them through the woods for some time, when suddenly they saw lights and hear music coming from the old amusement park not far away.  The noise began drawing in a solid, thick ring of the walking dead.  The only option for the survivors was to shut down the carousel at the amusement park and sneak back to base.

 A shot of the table.  The north woods open up into the amusement park.  The center plaza is flanked by the carousel and a haunted house.

A closer shot of the carousel, pre game.

Jed and Sadie reach the outskirts of the park, while the undead begin to close in on the party.

Sean tries to take cover inside a cave and is surrounded.  A friendly chap comes to his aide.

Action a the carousel.  The horde is getting thick, and the mechanical workings of the carousel are a bit too much for the party to figure out... 

Fending off the hordes as they approach.

Sadie watches her 6:00 as she pries off the control panel.

The survivors create a perimeter, guarding against the incoming horde.

One wide angle shot before everything went to hell...

The carousel proved to be quite difficult to shut off.  The survivors tried logic and a hail of bullets, but the entire thing was finally taken down by Jed pouring his 5 pack of Miller Genuine Draft into the controls and shorting it out.

The survivors made a valiant effort, with only Sean being pulled down and eaten before the ride could be turned off.  Once shut down the survivors mopped up the remaining zombies and made a break for home.

The first half was a struggle, especially with so many failed activations due to a 3rd party showing up in the form of a lone survivor hiding in the portable toilet.  Once the six failed activations in a row were past, however, serious momentum was gained and the survivors made their way home with ease.

Thank you to all who played with us last Tuesday!  It was a test of wills but you pulled through!

Woodland Scenics Model Graphics

I love cars, I love car games, and I love collecting Matchbox scale cars.  I've collected a handful of Matchbox highway patrols, and needed a way to make them easily differentiated from each other.  Numbers on the roofs of police cars is not unheard of, making them easily identifiable to air units.  A friend had success with some water slide transfers he had lying around, but unfortunately I didn't have that luxury.

I stopped by my local hobby shop for glue yesterday and decided to see what they had available for transfers.  I found these:

These are dry transfer decals, meaning you rub the graphics onto the surface you want to apply to, versus the waterslide or a sticker.  I've worked with dry transfer before, but was hesitant because of the high gloss surface of the Matchbox cars.  The pack was $7, so I thought I'd give it a try.

This particular pack is MG727 No. Gothic, R.R.- White.  As you can see the numbers come in a variety of sized.  Woodland Scenics makes other packs in different fonts, colors, and text.

Application is very simple, and detailed instructions are available on the back of the package.  I simply cut out a pair of numbers, removed the protective backing, lined it up on the roof of the police car, and burnished it with the end of a crochet needle.  You do need to hold the transfer in place to keep it from sliding around during application.  Also, the spacing of the numbers on the sheet were satisfactory to me so overall alignment of the transfers was easy.

The drawback to these numbers is they are kind of fragile.  I messed up a transfer, and easily scraped the part that did adhere with my nail.  A sealant is highly recommended.

It looks like I have a few Dodge tampos to remove from these cars.  This is easily done with a cotton swab soaked in a bit of non- acetone nail polish remover gentry rubbed over the tampo, then dried with a clean swab.

What I've Been Up To..

So I haven't posted in awhile.  It's been busier than usual with the Warmachine events our newly founded Village Vanguard Gaming Club has been running.

You can see them here:

http://vgjl1.blogspot.com/
http://villagevanguardkommanderleague.blogspot.com/
http://vvtotalwar2012.blogspot.com/

Warmachine, 10/4/11

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the Week 4 action at Village Games in Anoka, MN.

Sunday had a good turnout but I was unable to get any pictures.  We again had a good showing Tuesday, and here is some of the action.

Some of Casey's Cygnar.

Bob's Legion of Everblight.

My Cryx Necrotech, Slayer and Cankerworm.

Jeff's Trollbloods square off against John's Trollbloods.

My Cryx 'jacks assault Doug's Cygnar.

Robb's Gators take on my Cryx.

Doug's Cygnar mix it up with John's Trolls.

Doug's Lancer, Ironclad and Stryker.

My Cryx warjacks close in with Robb's warlock.

Gatormen thump on a bonejack.  The Slayer turns away in disgust.

Warmachine League, 9/25/11

We've in the midst of a Journeyman League at Village Games in Anoka, MN.  This is Privateer Press' slow- growth league for Warmachine and Hordes, allowing players to slowly build their armies from a battle box to a full 35 point list.  The League also rewards playing games and painting, which I think is a huge plus for this game.  Sunday was the start of Week 3 of 6.  I snapped a handful of pictures from our first games.  We're starting to see more and more painted figs, which it's awesome!

Casey's Cygnar vs. Andrew's Khador

Casey's Cygnar army.

Andrew's Khador army.

My Cryx and Bob's Legion of Everblight.

Bob's Everblight Warbeasts. 

Another wide shot of our armies.

As more models get painted, more pictures will be posted.  Everyone should show their models some love and paint them.  Especially for as much as you have to pay for them!!!



Combat Cards, 9/13/11

A couple more games of TA:CC were played last Tuesday.  This was a special week for Todd...

Doug faced off against Mike in a Tyranid vs. Space Marines battle on the Red Planet.

A look at the table at the beginning of the game.  Space Marine units bunch up in groups to take advantage of each model's Personality card.

Tyranids peak around the ruins.

Space Marines gather in a corner for warmth.

Marines are flushed from their cover when the Respected leader is hit with spore mines!

An aerial shot of the table.

Space Marine swarms approach the Tyranid Warriors at the bottom of the picture.  An assault marine sneaks up on another Warrior at the top.

Warriors fend off a Ticker attack.

Todd and I squared off.  Todd broke out his Orks and I again ran my Chaos Marines.

The battle a few turns in.  My Land Raider moves in to kill the Trukk, and Ork Boyz are surrounded by forces of Chaos.

So close to the Trukk that I don't think the laser sponsons could even hit it...

A Chaos Sergeant commands demons to attack the Orks unaware.

Ork infiltrator storm the table, sending the Rhino up in (invisible) flames!

Demons to the back, Teminators to the front...

This game ended in a dead draw when Todd destroyed my Land Raider with an infiltrator.  A dead draw at 13 points each.  This broke Todd's losing streak!  Hooray!

Combat Cards 9/6/11

We kicked off our newest Combat Cards league last Tuesday.  This time around we're playing 28mm Sci- Fi, with 24 point armies on 3'x3' or 4' x4' tables.  We are also playtesting the Personality Cards.  You can find out more about them at http://www.tacticalassaultgames.com/.

We had 7 players and three games going.  Dan took the bye so he could observe the games.

Mike and Todd squared off on the site of a crashed space ship.

The tabletop.  Mike fielded his Space Marines, and Todd brough his Necromunda Cawdor gang.

A Cawdor heavy hides amongst the twisted debris of the space ship.

Mike's Land Raider surveys the battlefield from a hill while Cawdor units move in for the kill.

Mike's Razorback is shook up by the Cawdor gunner.  Unfortunately the gunner doesn't see the Assault Marine screaming down on his position.

Crow and Mike Z. faced off in some Martian ruins.

The scene of the battle.  Crow is taking the field with AT43 Karmens, and Mike Z. is fielding AT43 Red Blok.

Gorillas in power armor flank Red Blok units.

A Red Blok soldier spots a karmen from his sniper position.

Units surround the ruin, but none dare venture inside...



I had the pleasure of facing off against Doug.  I dug out part of my old ruins.  The real dust and cobwebs really added to the feel of the game...

The battlefield.  Doug's Tyranids swarm through the ruins towards my Chaos Marines.

Chaos Terminators and a Land Raider prepare for bloody combat.

Doug's Gaunts begin their approach.  The Terminator lays down Bolter fire.

A Chaos terminator sneaks up on a confused Carnifex.  They both manage to escape with their lives!

Mike set a Combat Cards record; managing a win in a mere 7 minutes.  Losing a Behemoth on turn 1 in a 24 point game is not the way to win, Todd! :)

I managed to scrape out a victory at the last minute, and I'm not sure who won between Crow and Mike Z.

Needless to say the Personality Cards added a new level of tactics to the game.  I'm looking forward to the next game!