Sunday, September 30, 2012

Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon) Kickstarter

Photo-full

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/674003445/classic-dungeon-adventurers-miniature-set-chibi-an

Ah, brings me back to the fond memories of Saturday morning cartoon! Good stuff back then! The figures are very cool, but I wonder if they got the rights to this or they just said, let's make this?

Going to keep my eye on this one.

Friday, September 28, 2012

New Post Apocalyptic Series: Revolution


Wow, found a sleeper on NBC while checking out things on Hulu called Revolution. This new Post Apocalyptic Series is about when all the power on Earth just tops and the world is dropped into chaos.

The story tends to flashback 15 years at some spots to give you background of events that happened then and how they are shaping the now. In this future, humanity has fallen into anarchy and militias and thugs rule most everything. The story tends to focus on one militia called the Monroe Republic that is run by a self styled dictator and former military Sergent that has seized power. There is also a small rebellion of "patriots" that seek to bring back the lawful system and justice between a plot of a sister trying to rescue her brother after he is taken by the Militia because their father perhaps knows how to restore power back which would be a valuable thing to someone that is insane with power.

I don't care to spoil it for you but the story is well done and I have to say from a hobby point WOW! There is some damm cool ideas here like vine covered Ferris wheel, a church half sunk in the middle of a lake and vine covered rail road cars to name a few things. Simply stunning background, I may go back to write down ideas later to come up with scenery projects.

Check it out! So far, there is just two episodes! I hope this stays on for a few seasons! PLEASE!

http://www.hulu.com/#!revolution

Game 2 of Blackwater Gulch: Tong Vs Outlaws



Ryan and I had our second game of Blackwater Gulch the last night with a bit more knowledge now of the rules and fixed a few errors with our list we piled our gangs out for round 2!

I brought a strong list of kit specialists:
1) Leader with Doctor, a pair of Level 6 Colt Pistols and a Level 5 Winchester Rifle. His stats were: STR 3, QUI 6, STAR 6, INT 5, RC 6 and MC 1. He had Duck and Cover, Quick Draw, Deadeye, Hearty and Really Tough.
2) Gunslinger with a pair of Colt Pistols (Level 6), STR 2, QUI 6, STAR 3, INT 4, RC 6, MC 1. She had the skills of Duck and Cover, Run and Gun, Quick Draw and Deadeye.
3) Wrassler (Hired gun, so got another 100 point character). STR 4, QUI 6, STAR 6, INT 4, RC 1, MC 6. He had a pair of swords (level 6) and the following skills: Duelist, Charge, Run and Gun and Really Tough.
4) Henchman with 1’s and 2’s for most stats but a STA 4 and RC 6. Had a Lv 5 Winchester Repeater with Deadeye and Hearty skills.
5) Henchman with 1’s and 2’s with a QUI 4 and RC 6. Had Run and Gun and Deadeye with a Level 6 Remington Long Barrel Shotgun on a horse.
6) Henchman with 1’s and 2’s for most starts but the same QUI and RC as #5 and the same skills and a Level 5 Winchester Repeater.

Ryan had a Tong gang (didn’t get his sheet) but had about 7 in total including a Doc, Wrassler (leader), not sure if he had any other professionals (I think there was one more). He had dynamite, throwing knifes, a pick, swords and other goodies among his gang. No real ranged weapons and had a kit design for close combat.

We rolled the deployment and got trapped and cornered. We figured a straight up fight was best to still learn the rules. He won the dice off and picked the center, deploying in the town street ready to use the buildings as cover. I deployed near the edge of my corner on the line ready to deploy to how he would move.

We rolled off and I got first move and it was game on. I downed his strong guy with a pick axe with my leader firing at long range. This set the tone for the game. I moved my leader and two other rifles along the edge of town to shoot down the street and my shotgun mounted granny along with the gunslinger and wrassler (martial artist) swung around behind the buildings.

Ryan tried to rush one guy down the street using cover but was quickly shot down but the gunslinger slipping around the corner. As we got to the third turn Granny rode out and blasted her shotgun at his leader putting a wound on him. Then he promptly kicked granny’s ass right off the horse. Then we had the Bruce Lee fight fest between my Tong (hired gun) vs his Tong (gang leader) with my dual sword guy downing him. The gunslinger slipped around again and shot both his tong with sword and then the next turn his doctor hidden around the corner in another alley. His dynamite guy runs out of cover when I had two riflemen right next to one another and he promptly rolls a 3 for distance with 2 dice (d6 for throwing and another d6 for the strength skill), a roll of 6-7 would have been bad for me! BOOM! Well, I moved a rifleman around and shot him down quickly to remove another major threat. The last Tong engaged my swordsman hired gun and bailed out once the rest of the gang was down. Only granny was sucking dirt by the end of the game if I recall right.

Thoughts about the game:

Ryan had me worried with a hand to hand beast gang if he could get in quickly I was finished. My only hope was to try to keep one step ahead and go with my split gang concept. Leader + 2 henchmen with rifles supports a fire lane. The leader had a pair of pistols if anything got close. The other group would use mass firepower (gunslinger), the shotgun (moving at 8” on horseback) and the Tong hired gun (well sword) to deal with up close encounters and short range fighting.

I think if Ryan had went into the buildings and used a bit more blocking LOS scenery I would have been into trouble. A few aggressive moves made it easy for me to exploit some easy targets. He had some bad luck with the dice including the dynamite toss that could have been painful to me.

Here is a few pictures from the game courtesy of Ryan:

The town after we setup.

Towards the end of the game as my riflemen was advancing down the main street.

Mary Sue Ellen the Gunslinger catches a Tong off guard.

My hired gun (Tong swordsman) downs the Tong Gang Leader

Town shot towards the end of the game.

Another town shot.

My gang....

My Gang the Outlaws called the Misfits
(left to right) Henchmen (rifle), Henchmen (long shotgun), Hired Gun (Tong with swords), gang leader with rifle (guns under his coat), Gunslinger with two colts, Henchman (rifle)

Tong Gang
(left to right) Doc, Leader and the rest of the gang. Not sure who the last professional was.


Tong Deployment

Outlaw Deployment

Here's the plan boys!




Ryan here is some lessons for your gang leader! 


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Thought of the Day: Have we peaked in gaming?




This just hit me today in a random thought when looking at various new things on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. So many good projects and some not so much that made me wonder with the concepts of these and the high tech world of the internet that we may be over saturating the gaming world. Look around we have millions of models (perhaps more than insects in the world), tons of books (including PDF and reader friendly ones) along with tons of board games always flopping out along with billions of cards for various CCGs!

It is great that we can all find something we like, everyone has different tastes. Then again, what if you are the only person with that taste or one other? So, you have a pile of books, miniatures or board game that sits around collecting dust with the sad hope of being used and enjoyed.

There are only so many hours in a day and gaming just taps a small amount of that time as we are hit with family, friends, work and school to just name a few things that munch on our ability to play games. In a perfect world I would love to win the lottery, open my own mega game store and enjoy my hobby all flipping day and travel the world with my wife. Maybe dabble in the bar/food industry…..if anything wine or beer making! But I digress, how do we fit in all those cool games? We can’t is the simple answer.

Look around you house, count the number of board games, miniature games, amount of miniatures and such you may just be shocked if you take into account the overall scope of things. Like food and other things we are gluttons, we buy something because we want it, not because we need it. Now a hobby is just that, not a need per se but not a luxury either. A hobby helps us unwind, gives us a social outlet or at least one for our creative side to get some exercise. Thus, it is mental health in the long run. Gaming is a good thing as it can keep our minds sharp (sadly not our waistline).  We need the psychological fuel of something like this to keep us engaged and give us a break from the real world because let’s face it…IT SUCKS!

You disagree it sucks? Do you REALLY LIKE TO GO TO WORK? Pissing away hours of the day? Mix that in with sleep and you get a small window for yourself (oh and can’t forget things like housework, homework, paying bills, dealing with animals and such!). Think about that also.

Still, there is also a thrill of the purchase which is I think the deadly thing with our wallets these days. Go online, find something cool and click! Then it shows in your mail magically! Yay! So, where am I going with this? Be moderate with your hobby and you will enjoy it more instead of finding frustration that you have not played X game or Y game and selling it off on Ebay or otherwise…..

Share your thoughts...

Indiegogo Steampunk Skirmish


Saw this today and thought it was rather interesting....the models are amazing! *sigh* May have some sell some stuff to try this one out!

20120918033258-szablon_do_indygogo


http://www.indiegogo.com/wolsungssg

Wolsung Collector Plus

Wolsung Gamer

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Random Ramblings!


Well, just 8 more posts away from hitting the magic 100th post! And of course there will be a contest Old West style! Details are still in the works and already three companies have stepped up to bat offering some goodies to give out! Keep your eye right here for more details.

I just got my shipment the other day from FRP games with a pack of Old Glory Cowboy Wars Tong and a blister of the Secrets of the Third Reich Russian Snipers to work into my Post Apocalyptic models I am building up! I will throw out some quick reviews on both to let people know what to expect from these two companies as I am a first time buyer of both brands.

On Thursday I am taking back out my gang v2 for another round of Blackwater Gulch against Ryan's revamped gang. Should be blood and violent this time around now that we have learned a great deal from the rules. Speaking of rules, they are free to download if you want to try them!

http://www.blackwatergulch.com/

Click on over on my other blog link and help me pick a Blood Bowl Team! I have a great deal of time still, but I will have to order and paint them as well as get a few games in before I consider heading back to Alabama to take on the Rocket City Rumble Blood Bowl game, simply a great group of BB players and the first event I attended was simply amazing as I had a blast. What better than eating pizza, drinking beer and beating the crap out of another team on the pitch????

http://armyoftheweek.blogspot.com/2012/09/need-help-picking-blood-bowl-team.html

Friday, September 21, 2012

Captcha Goodbye! Nearing 100 Posts!

First, I have been running a test this past month, nothing official but I shut off Captcha for all my blogs for ease of postings. I got to thinking one day how flipping annoying Captcha is and my only thoughts is the designer should burn in hell for the annoyance.

  

That said, I am leaving it off until I get spam, then worst case I will change to moderator status.


In other news, I am nearing 100 posts for Dice of Legends. So, to celebrate I am working to get a few goodies as prizes. I am thinking a drawing and/or contest of some type to an Old West theme. If you know or are someone that wants to promote something Old West and would like to donate to the prize pool let me know.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

J.J. Abrams teams up with Supernatural creator for NBC apocalypse drama

J.J. Abrams teams up with Supernatural creator for NBC apocalypse drama

NBC could use a boost to their lineup....

http://io9.com/5881979/jj-abrams-teams-up-with-supernatural-creator-for-nbc-apocalypse-drama

Some people are not liking the idea that "technology shut down" but well, if you don't have it to tell you what happened, you are in the dark eh?

Sounds interesting...nothing really good since Jericho, Jeremiah and Walking Dead. Walking Dead seems to be fizzing out quickly. I really liked Jeremiah and Jericho was good but only watched most of the first season only and the start of the second.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Bombshell Babes Kickstarter

Well, this has bad timing...Maybe I can still get the wife to let me take the $25 pledge for two figures...maybe sneak another in for $10. I like the Samurai, Old West and Pirate. The last two of course would fit into my historical games and the Samurai would be cool in my Supers games.

Check them out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bombshellminis/bombshell-babes?ref=live

Breast Cancer Super Awareness and Contest!


Henry Badger over at at his blog is hosting a new contest:

http://pressganger.blogspot.com/2012/09/paint-city-pink-breast-cancer-awareness.html

Paint a Pulp City (or any other super if you don't have Pulp City like me) miniature and send it in to be voted on for cool prizes. The catch is that is MUST have pink in the colors.

So, don those tights and put on that mask to fight Breast Cancer! Be a Hero....


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Showdown at Whitewash City: Blackwater Gulch Battle Report

Well, had an excellent game of Blackwater Gultch last night. It is my first game ever and as with all first time games mistakes are made and things don’t click rules wise until after you start playing and suddenly you go “oh yea…now I see”.

Ryan (DocDuckButter on Lead Adventure) ran an Outlaw gang against mine. We had a unique mix of stats and skills on both sides. He ran a Gunslinger Leader with a Doc and Wrassler in his gang along with 4 henchmen for a total of 7 men (same as me). His weapon assortment was mostly high rating weapons, dynamite, lots of pistols and a sledgehammer on the Wrassler and a single rifle from what I recall.

My mix of weapons was ratings 3-6 depending on the figure, I tried to save a few points here and there and learned some serious lessons this past game about weapon choice. If I had about one more point higher weapon on some of my men the game would have changed in a very dramatic way.

We setup a standard street using Ryan’s Whitewash buildings he printed out and had put together. I brought along some random junk like barrels, cactus and such to decorate the rest of the field. We went with the simple “Showdown” style game and rolled for sides and deployment (getting corners).

I setup first and he setup second. A good thing to note here is that the person that wins deployment is not always the person going first and only one figure moves at a time, something to remember for new players.
The game opened with a few turns of movement to get into good spots…I ran down behind a row of buildings and split up sending some men down one side and others straight over to my side of the street to flank me that way with his strong guy and shotgun.

First blood went to me as my leader with a repeater took down his only riflemen behind a wagon. At this point I tried to toss a bottle of alcohol at his strong man but failed to hit and promptly was pummeled by his shotgun. Then one of my henchmen slipped over and shot down his shotgun with his Army pistol. The wrasslers had a match but with me taking the charge I was able to beat him down with a pair of knuckledusters, otherwise that hammer was going to clobber me into next week.

As this point the game was starting to go into my favor but then a twist of luck happened and the Doc managed to heal up a few figures including his leader and that swung the fight once I lost my Leader and Gunslinger. With only a few Henchmen facing actual characters it was an uphill struggle for me and I just did not have enough dice luck.

As he shot down my last man (I kept passing morale checks) he only had the Doc and Leader both left with 1 wound each and neither of us had any bonus luck dice for our leaders. It was a very close game that could have swung the other way with a dice roll or two.

Some lessons learned:

LEADERS
The Best Leaders (to us): Gunslinger or Doc took the lead with the Wrassler and Gambler taking up secondary spots. Based on your gang and play style is what would determine what is ideal for you.

The Gunslinger grants a bonus to aiming for others and for weaker models this helps inflict a few more hits.

The Doc allows other models to heal, thus allowing anyone (like a henchman) to heal another model.

The Wrassler gives a close combat bonus so if you focus on close combat this can make a huge impact.

The Gambler allows others to use Rerolls.

The Prospector only works well perhaps in a rural gaming area that would benefit the terrain bonuses. In a town, we found most things to be heavy cover like fences, barrels and such.

The Bounty Hunter is perhaps the worst of the formats as he allows a weapon one level higher to be used by the gang. Still once he goes down this creates an instant handicap for your gang if they carry weapons with higher levels than their skills.

WEAPONS
Higher level weapons are a bitch to beat on defense rolls. Just ask Level 5 Repeaters and Level 6 Pistols.
The Sledgehammer is an ugly weapon and a pair of Knuckledusters on a guy is just mean.

Neither of us had luck with flaming alcohol or dynamite tossing but then again I feel with a refined model
armed with these weapons could be very deadly as we discussed things after the game.

ERRORS
  • I forgot to account my STR bonuses for HTH.
  • I should have had a MC of 6 to Run/Charge in the first HTH combat.
  • When Ryan’s character shot, we should have rolled, resolved one shot first then moved to the second target when his leader two gunned two henchmen. Didn’t catch this in my early reading that you should ensure the first goes down before rolling the second. Both died, but in the future that could be a critical swing in a game.
  • We didn’t use Crowded Target rule, could have affected me once or twice in the game.
  • We mistook a rule that we had to reroll a success if it goes beyond a 6. Early on in the book it states never higher than a six for any rolls on P14. We crossed wires with the rerolls elsewhere in the rules.
Here are a few pics of the game...

The town...most of it Whitewash City that Ryan had and a few random store items and some small stuff I had...

\
More of the town...

Another angle...

Most of the gang deployed behind buildings and safe.

Leader and henchman hidden around another.

His gang hidden...

I quickly take cover and command of the street with two rifles.

The rest of my gang runs up behind the buildings...

My riflemen taking their spots for fields of fire.

My gang sneaks around down an alley to take advantage of cover from the barrels.

Ox and Dirty Sanchez have a drink before the fight.

Dirty Sanchez throws a flaming bottle of booze at the strongman and fails to hit! Bad news for Sanchez as a guy with a shotgun lines up a shot!

Sanchez takes one in the rear!

One of my riflemen takes down his rifleman trying to control the street.

Another of Ryan's gang down.

The Irish Kid steps out and guns down the guy with the shotgun that took out Sanchez!

The big guys duke it out!

My sniper gets blasted  by the enemy gang leader.

My boss staying in cover after dropping a dangerous guy with dynamite! Just glad the dice was not on Ryan's side!


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

First Outing with Blackwater Gultch Thursday Night

Blackwater Gulch

Well, I am going to prep my gang tomorrow for the big showdown at Anthem Games tomorrow with my gang called the Misfits with an outlaw theme. My vision was a bunch of oddball types working together to make a fast buck.

Here is the Gang:

Robert Andrew (Leader and former Prospector)

Robert Andrew was once a prospector with great ambitions of striking it rich until the bank manager called in all of Robert's debt markers forcing him to have to sign over the mine and the lands around because he was unable to pay. It was just a short time later that the railroad purchased his land to expand their rail line for a tidy sum making the bank manager rich and Robert even more bitter. Taking charge of his life Robert collected the rest of  his belongings and invested in a good pistol and rifle and has determined that he is going to take back what is rightly his.

Mary Sue Ellen (Gunslinger)

Mary Sue Ellen was a just married blushing bride that had set off on an adventure with her new husband David Ellen traveling to Colorado to meet up with some of his cousins that had moved out west and had started up their own ranches making money in the cattle industry. The young couple was robbed about halfway to their destination in a twist of fate that left her husband shot to death after trying to defend his wife from the lewd advances of the bandits. Mary Sue was raped, beaten and left for dead next to the burning wagon after it was looted. Something in Mary Sue would not let her die, not yet at least. She awoke and crawled to a stream and drank some of the cold water and washed her wounds. With great effort she started to dig a grave for her husband and collected what she could salvage from the wagon and started to walk.

The first town she arrived at showed her great hospitality after she told them of her plight and even got her a job as a cook at a restaurant and managed to save up enough money to buy a horse, a few changes of clothing and a pair of pistols that she taught herself how to shoot. She then set off after the three men finding each one and killing them in brutal ways. She shot the first one in a bathtub at a hotel, the second she shot from his horse as he was leaving town and went over shooting him again in the head and crotch. The last got her into the worst trouble as she walked into the barber shop and slit the last man's throat with a straight razor.

As she fled out of town, Robert Andrew saw a lady in distress and figured the mob that was chasing her was just a bit much for one lady. Taking his rifle he evened the odds allowing Mary Sue to escape. She later circled around and confronted Robert Andrew that simply responded to her why; "Because I want you to join me...I have plans ya see to rob banks...". Mary Sue joined Robert as his second and head on down the trail.

Samuel "Ox" Guthrie (Wrassler)

Big, dumb and strong is what you would say when you describe Sam as he is known by the others. Robert found him working at a General Store loading wagons for room and board as his manager dumped Samuel after he lost a major fight a few weeks ago taking all of Samuel's earnings. Sam may not be bright, but he knew a better deal when he heard it and had no ambition to continue loading wagons for the rest of his life and agreed to join Robert's gang.
Jim Freeman (Henchman)

Jim was born in Alabama as a slave but was freed shortly after the Civil war and struck out west with the money that the gov'ment had given him to make his fortune working on the rail lines. When he got out west he found the work to be in competition and almost as bad as slavery. When he mouthed off to one of the foremen they hauled off Jim to hang him from a tree as there was plenty of "boys like him" around to do the work. Mary Sue and Robert came upon the scene and quickly dispatched the other men in a few rapid quick shots and asked  Jim to join them.

"Derby" Danny Bogs (Henchman)


Danny was the typical Irish immigrant to the United States that struck out west to find his place. He always enjoyed the pulp fiction western novels that he picked up for a nickle at the stores and fancied himself to be a gunfighter of name one day. After having enough working as a ranch hand he took his savings buying a derby hat and a six gun he set out to do just that, Robert met the brash Danny at a local saloon and he agreed to join the gang as his way to enter the outlaw world.

Pablo "Dirty" Sanchez (Henchman)


Pablo met Robert Andrew in the streets of some backwater border town after he had beaten some grifter that tried to cheat him at cards. Not taking the insult very well Pablo set the gringo on fire with a bottle of tequila  and watched him run off down the street as he shot at his feet. As the local sheriff was about to arrest Pablo in his drunken stupor, Robert was able to whisk him away and the grateful Pablo agreed to join the gang.
"Penny Pinching"  Pete Malloy (Henchman)


Pete is the newest member to join the gang and little is known about his story except that when Robert fond him he had a penny to his name and had sold his only shirt to buy a shot of whiskey and a cold bit of leftover meat, yet he had a well maintained and expensive rifle on hand. Despite the fact that Pete is wearing second hand clothing that does not fit and his red underwear top has become a trademark of shorts of perhaps the most frugal member of the gang.