Tunes for the Republic

A quick tunes plug.

I've pretty much glued my ears to Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War.

Well obviously they're all songs from the Republican and International Brigades, since fascists can't write songs worth crap. :) The standout track is Lila Down's version of El Quinto Regimento, but that's just me. I think she's pretty incredible.

Now I just need to get cracking on those Miliciano's.

-TV  

2010 in review.

The custom in these parts...a look back.

It's a been a bit of while since my last post. The previous month has been a bit of a crap-fest.
I could belabour you all with tales of woe and post-modern angst, but who here among us does not bear such stuff.

Suffice it to say it was all crap, and then our dog died.

Nugget. 1997-2010

Nugget, our brave and relentless companion on the snowshoe and running trails, slipped from us fast and peaceful. We miss her. Strangely, it has messed up my painting. Creatures of habit that we were would go for a late night run and do an easy 3-5K. We'd come home, she'd curl up, I'd make tea and do an hour of slapping paint on lead. Now that has changed.

Just lately I've been back putting brush in paint and making the little men dance. Always good to have a project and a deadline isn't it? So I created one...

King of Canadian Tyre
The wonderful Don Ray and I bumped heads on a Fanaticus discussion on the hows of making a I/35 Cypriot and Phoenician army. See the gripping discussion here (I whine most pathetically) : 
http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=10492

Well it's begun. I'll be posting more in a separate article for those who want to see more of the project. Suffice to say..they'll be more Faux-necians than anything, but it will be grand.

Notches on the Paint Brush
2010 was pretty light in the production end. I did complete a Mongol Conquest army and another Early Samurai army. Both these were for my FallCon production of Samurai Night Fever. Pictures? Yeah, got lots, just need to make up the galleries. Soon I promise.


I struggled with my Early Muslim and North Africa and Sicily army. I finally slammed it through last week. All praise to the dip.


Still working on the 28mm Warring States project. Lots of wonderful figs to paint there. But sheesh, I've squat for time for all the projects on the queue, the hordes of Zhao and Chu get stuck on the hold.


Liam the Pre-Teen Visigoth and I finished up the Evil Emo Elf Empire for HoTT 28mm. They've yet to take the field but their monster supported bladey goodness will be most fun.


I goofed around painting some Super-hero sorts. Making up lame-ish supers is a favourite game around here. The Pre-Teen Visigoth and I are working a project for HoTT that will have such amazing heroes like NINJALICIOUS, THE VISOR, and KING  KONGBAT doing battle with SANDTRAP, THE BLUE MEANIE, and THE 42ND STREET NINJAS. Pictures to come.


Distractions
2010 has been more about music for than minis. Well, that and finding a decent job. I'm back and school learning digital audio and studio recording. I love it and spend way too much time 'twidding knobs' then painting.

We all know the cycle of distraction grief we gamers get into. We get bored with big project so find something else to do. Then we get annoyed that we aren't getting done what we need to so we go back to our big project, out of duty and not passion. Boredom follows...

I've been in a huge reading storm too. I even read a book on WW2. GASP. Those of you who know me know of my half-hearted contempt of wargaming most of everything post 19th Century. So yeah, broadening out. Plus I think I have learnt everything I REALLY need to know about Merovingian jock straps and Chandragupta's tent flaps.

And I do like Russian tanks.
I do promise to get over my BT-7 fixation. Soon...But just watch this video.


How can you not love these tanks? Even the cute blond chick digs them and the guy at the end was totally stoked.


2011 projects.
Well for DBA it's all about Book One for the first half of the year.  Lykians, Phoenicians, Egyptians of all flavours, more Indians, and Early Macedonians are all ready to get pigmentized.

Don't take my 'I hate 20th Century stuff' too seriously. The Spanish Civil War still grips me. Admittedly more for the music than anything else right now. But a few of us are indeed actually co-operating on this project. Watch for micilianos!

Of course, the joke was I started this blog just after New Years. Took me that long to finish it up.

Good painting and good times for 2011.

I leave you with Lila Downs...



The Republic may have lost, but they had the best music.

Lombards for the Win! More battle reports.

My co-conspirator and ninja-brush monkey Neldoreth has posted the results from 'A Visigothic Romance' on his site.

Please see http://www.hourofwolves.org/?view=articles&which=visigothicRomance

I'm pretty sure those of you who drop into Villa Visigoth are regulars his grand site, but in case you aren't or missed it, please have a look.

Yeah! 'Visigothic Romance' sounds like Friday nights around here. When me and the Hippy-goth liberate some bottles of Merlot and sack some spicy pasta from one of the many quality food places in the area and dance all night to Tom Jones and Bollywood hits.

Ok, the Visigothic Romance tourney is notable for many reasons.

1) I won it.

Which really doesn't happen as much as you think. Yeah you say, 'Mister Teenage Visigoth is a badass DBA death slinger' but really I'm not. I like chump armies. I like anti-hero armies. Perhaps I'm a masochist. Who knows.

2) I won it playing an army I didn't paint.

Despite the fact I am back painting commissions, I really believe 50% of this hobby (if not more) is painting you own stuff. I was chuffed to have been able to loan out 4 of my armies for the tourney (especially those Saxons. Damn they have mojo) and could have played any variety of Germanic horde from them. But I like to keep moving, y'know. I passed my recently acquired Lombards to the wonderful and slighly off-kilter Mike J. to prep them up, whilst I splotched ink on endless Samurai sode. And a fine job he did of it too. The Lombards acquitted themselves quite well that day.

3) I won it but lost more battles than I won.


The nature of the tourney was pretty much the same as I used. Get points for you general killing stuff and being al heroic and such. So I did. I lost to the Mark W's Visigoths (as N says he is good, but had a wheelbarrow of 6's with him) and as well to Bill's Ostrogoths as we both set up a 'hollow centre' stratagem.
Note to aspiring tacticians, psiloi are much better at that than bow units. Still I landed points as my hairy horsemen crunched their way to glory. It was against Terry's Saxons that I scored best. Sure, all things being equal,  knights vs warbands is pretty much a forgone conclusion. But things were not equal. Devious terrain, lots of good Saxon pips and damned cold blooded strategy gave the Saxonites initiative for the first half of the game.  But just as Terry needed it, Wotan deserted him, giving him 1's for pips. Much to my relief.
The roll-off was just lucky and it could have gone either way with Mark S. 


So know you know the facts, you can understand my somewhat understated victory dance. I was propped up due to luck and others misfortune. Which, if you do know much of the late Empire and early 'barbarian' kingdoms is pretty much how things went. How very thematically appropriate.


My throne is unsteady....






So yeah. That's my side. No pictures as I had to give the Hippy-Goth the camera for that day. (We share) Go look at N's pics.  

Samurai Night Fever Game Results.

It took digging, but I found the crumpled stack of papers. Sigh...organizationally challenged for sure.

Here is the list of Bushido points won by the players through their valour.

9 points.
1st place
Joe Crow-Mongol Conquest IV/35
Awarded the Red Katana of Awesomeness

8 points.
2nd place
Mark Stadel-Alan II/58
Awarded the Blue Katana of Bodaciousness

8 points.
3rd place
Don Ray-Southern Dynasty Chinese II/79b
Awarded 'Best in Show' Barker Marker

6 points.
Mark Wall-Early Samurai III/54
Rob Elliot-Golden Horde IV/47

5 points.
Marco Musa-Early Samurai III/54
Mark Leong-Ming Chinese IV/73

4 points.
Mike Johnson-Post Mongol Samurai IV/59b
Sean Devitt- Early Samurai III/54

3 points.
Terry Silverthorn-Mongol Conquest IV/35

2 points.
Liam Devitt-Post Mongol Samurai IV/59b

0 points.
Bill Seney- Han Chinese II/41a

Summary.
I was very pleased to see a Mongol Conquest army take the top spot (albeit narrowly) amidst tight competition. I continue to suggest that it is not the doomed 'great in history, crappy in the game' army many on-line DBA pundits claim it to be.

It was very gratifying to see the breadth of 'eastern' and 'asian' armies contributed to the games and their utter gorgeousness. I loved Mark S's Alans, very scruffy and steppe-ish. As always Joe Crow and Mike Johnson do an ne plus ultra presentation of their craft. Don's Southern Dynasty army had a vivid energy which quite entranced me and with the wobbly jumbo depicted such a strong definitive character. Kudos too to Rob Elliot's Golden Horde, I wish I had more and better pictures of it. He chose a very heterogeneous mix of figures that represented the polyglot nature of that far-flung empire. Mark Leong's funky Foo Dog camp made me very happy who along with Bill Seney's doomed Han Chinese and Marco's sinister and dark Samurai made for very colourful and dramatic tournament.

No real gripes but two. As I stated last post, I really wished we had more raw n00bs for the game. Our two more junior players really didn't count as such. Terry, while new-ish to DBA is an experienced gamer. Liam (the Pre-Teen Visigoth) has played several contests with me and is the co-author of "Pokemon and DBA is sort of the same thing". Maybe published next year. The other thing that annoyed me was having one of the FallCon brass sign up for the tourney and do a no show. Now, don't get me wrong, FallCon people are hard working and friendly sorts. But I see how much gaming they tend to get in over the weekend...very little! On account of the aforementioned hardworkingness. That slot however could have let another player in. As it was we had an uneven number and I had to jump in. Which is dandy, but distracting... I suppose if that's as much crank as I can summon up you can be pretty sure it was a fun time.

This may be the last time I use the 'kill the general with your general' style of scoring. At least without some modification and buffing. The points were too low and with not enough spread. I need to work out a way to balance the 'clever tactician' mode with the 'brave risktaker' mode without leaning too far one way or another.

Some meditations on various armies:

Early Samurai- still remain a favourite of mine. Despite being a fairly 'light' army in DBA parlance, Mark and Marco managed to parlay the Auxilia and Cavalry heavy force to some success. I played with 'Lord Saketumi' my Early Sams with a Bw general and collected a serious beatdown each time.

Chinese Southern Dynasty- really intrigues me. It's a classic Asian 'Zen'* army, with an elephant. But with enough balance of Bw and Bd you can present a reasonable unified front. The game Don played with Rob's Golden Horde was a intractable affair as Rob was very cautious about breaching Don's defended river position. I wish I had a top-down shot.

Mongol Conquest- it's the new black. I really look forward to getting to know mine, as I hurriedly painted it up for the con. Terry liked playing it. Joe's is gorgeous, an essay on how to do it. Every DBA gamer should have this army. Period.

Alans- yeah, Barker-sama's fave. Like the Mongols, it's also an excellent choice for you accountant minded cost-effectiveness sorts. 31+ unique opponents spanning over 1400 years. Cool. And it really doesn't suck on paper or on the field.

Post-Mongol Samurai- seem really under-represented in the scoring for this tourney. But a little examination bears more detail. Liam decided the best way to win was to charge his general headlong into fray and roll 6's. Not bad strategy given the scoring design of the tourney, but doomed without support from the slow Spear and Blade elements that make up the rest. Mike Johnson long ago offended the household gods of FallCon. What impropriety he committed to insult the lares so is unknown, but he has been unable to roll greater than a 3 at FallCon for years. He rolls much better and deadlier elsewhere.

Again thanks to all who contributed and participated!

'Yay our team!'

*Why Zen? Because it's 'one with everything'. Bad-um kish!

Update October 27: Encoded in the timeless prose of the NAGS/CCF format and presented here for you is the match-ups and scores for SNF II.

IV/73 Ming Chinese over II/41a Han Chinese 2G-1

IV/47 Golden Horde over IV/73 Ming Chinese 4-0

III/54 Early Samurai over III/54 Early Samurai 4-2G

IV/59 Post-Mongol Samurai over IV/35 Mongol Conquest 4-3(unclear..)

III/54 Early Samurai over IV/59b Post-Mongol Samurai 3G-2

IV/59 Post-Mongol Samurai over IV/59 Post-Mongol Samurai 4-0

III/54 Early Samurai over IV/35 Mongol Conquest 3-2

II/58 Alan over III/54 Early Samurai 4-0
III/54 Early Samurai over IV/73 Ming Chinese 2G-1
II/58 Alan over IV/59b Post-Mongol Samurai 4-1
IV/47 Golden Horde over II/79b Southern Dynasty 3G-2G
IV/35 Mongol Conquest over II/58 Alan 4-1
IV/35 Mongol Conquest over II/41a Han Chinese 2G-0
II/79 Southern Dynasty over IV/59 Post-Mongol Samurai 4-1
III/54 Early Samurai over III/54 Early Samurai 4-1
III/54 Early Samurai over IV/35 Mongol Conquest 4-2

Samurai Night Fever II: The action!

Havoc, treachery, suicidal charges and victory.

Clan Toho (Post Mongol Samurai) as played by the Pre-Teen Visigoth contest the crossing of the Mongol Hordes (Conquest) as played by Terry Silverthorn.

In all, Samurai Night Fever II: The Wrath of the Khans was a ripping success. I had a blast running it. It's always a treat to play with such brilliant and convivial players and their beautiful and dramatic armies.

The tourney was organized loosey-goosey in a deliberate yet random way. Which I did deliberately. The Friday tourney at FallCon has always been a relaxed, warm-up sort of gig. The real blood gets shed on Saturday with the themed tourneys and Sunday with the Alberta Open. And given how un-acrimonious our serious tourneys are, the Friday games can be a little goofy.  

Now as to results..I lost those.....(don't worry Paul, I think I can reconstruct the results)

But I do remember the top 3:

1) Joe Crow/Mongol Conquest awarded the Shiny Red Katana of Awesomeness 

2) Mark Stadel/Alans*awarded the Bright Blue Katana of Bodaciousness

3) Don Ray/Southern Dynasty Chinese awarded the 'Best in Show' mostly for being able to work an elephant into this tourney...

The Wakazashi of Atonement went to Bill Seney and his Han Chinese, who uncharacteristically did not 

manage to score any points.

It was great to have Mark Wall and Terry Silverthorn from Edmonton come down for the game. They've just started a DBA group over the summer with other fine people up north.

If I had any grump or gripe, it would be that no complete newcomers were in the tourney. I love having new comers. First Samurai Night Fever in 2008 was won by a new player. Must think about how to get the word out better.

*(Yeah, that was the most western army I'd allow. Mostly cause Genghis Khan himself had a bodyguard of these guys.)

So, enough of that! Let's roll the pictures!



The turbulent river and the bows of Don Ray's Chinese stymie Rob Elliot's fearsome Mongols.  

Detail shot of Mike Johnson's Post Mongol Samurai in Takeda colours.

Another shot of Mike's PM Samurai from the rear. Sneaky ninja attempt to infiltrate the enclosure.

'Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!' Check out Mike J's taiko camp in the rear.

Crunch time! Seconds before the impact. Mark's Alans and Joe's Mongols come to the clinch.

Joe Crow's Mongols commence a flank run around their Alanic foe.

Mark Stadel's Alans charge the Early Samurai army captained by Mark Wall. There were three Marks in this game...yowza.

Bill Seney's Han Chinese take the fight to Joe's Mongols.

Mark Leong's Ming advance under the magical gaze of his Foo Dog camp.

Don Ray and Joe Crow array their respective forces.

The charge of Lord Saketumi's horse was valiant but doomed.

Lord Saketumi himself regards the failure of his cavalry with disdain.

Desperate circumstances call for desperate actions!

The Pre-Teen Visigoth arrays Clan Toho into his signature 'wedge of death' formation. 

Valiant for sure, but results varied.

'Hey Mark, over there...YOINK!'. Bill Seney (l) and Mike Johnson (c) look on unworried.

There's always got to be an elephant. Don Ray's Chinese southern Dynasty army shows it hues.

Thanks for looking! More pics to come.

Oh Snap!

So all those great pictures I promised are not going to happen soon.

Gravity and my camera had a death match and as always, gravity wins.

Like the wind from the steppes...

Samurai Night Fever II is but 2 weeks away (Oct 15th!) as is the other cavalcade of DBA action presented by the Calgary Camp Followers. (see the links section for both).

Myself, I've been painting. Much less than I'd really like to as work and family issues have sprung up like so many time draining hydra heads (what's that in old schooly D&D terms? a Chrono-Vampiric-o-Hydra?). Such is life. I've finished off painting my second Early Samurai army. I'll be basing and dull coating it tonight. Here's some teaser pictures.



So far so good. I envy my contemporaries like Neldoreth and Tim in Saskatoon who seem to be able to rattle off beautifully painted and based figures at a surprising rate. And if you haven't been to either of their sites, go to the links and check out their stuff (again, go to the links) which will make you wonder why you're reading my site.

Particularly, visit Neldoreth's site as he will be running 'Visigothic Romance' on Saturday. I'll be playing in that for sure. But in a surprising change of identity I'll be running my new Early Lombards which in another shockeroo is the first army I will play in a tourney that had not been painted by me. This time I out-sourced to the redoubtable (and slightly scary) Mike J. I hope this mob of Knights, Warband and Bow will kick those lousy Romans in the teeth. If not, it will be still be GLORIOUS. As a side note I will be lending my vicious Later Visigoths and ghastly Gepids as loaners for those who don't have period armies.

As to the Samurai Game, I have at least 3 loaner armies. But first come first serve, be quick about it.
I'll have two Early Samurai armies and a Mongol Conquest ready to go. The Pre-Teen Visigoth will be playing my Post-Mongol Samurai aka 'Clan Toho'.


Next up, some pics...

New Header!

This was made for me by the pre-Teen Visigoth.

It's pretty sweet. He was wanting something that was 'classical like a mosaic' but 'modern'. I like it!



Always fun geeking with the kid!