Adepticon, the long road back.

My Frostgrave Warband for tomorrows Adepticon Campaign

Adepticon 2019 starts today over in Schaumburg, IL and now mere 2 hours away on the west side of the greater Chicago area.  Now its 17th year its gone from a couple hundred person Games Workshop fan event to the largest top gaming convention in the US. I have been to 11 of them starting in 2007 I made it 10 years in a row, until I burned out. Letting things that shouldnt really have bugged me , its just folks playing games after all, bug me. As the convention grew so did  my expectations and when growth and expectation failed my own litmus test, I got pissed. I returned in 2017 just as a spectator with my kids , doing some shopping, marveling at the displays and games and doing the take and paint. Last year we didnt go at all. 

This year was to be my 12th year, I bought a badge, and signed up for the Frostgrave, day long Campaign event "The Great Wyrm" run by my favorite tourney organizers whose games and events outside Adepticon since 2008-2009. This month was super busy for me I did manage to get all the bells and whistles done with my models and display, I also organized my Frostgrave terrian build a couple extra pieces of my modular walls so I could run a test game of the "Mausoleum" scenario against a Necromancer Warband.  Then I realized I screwed up horribly.

All along I had been telling myself the event was this Saturday when the reality hit me as I was double checking the event list , it was tomorrow? - yes John, Friday is the 29th not Saturday and I never did the little thing called "taking the day off work".  Needless to say (I work for my local public school system here in Michigan now, a far cry from the days of old when I ran my own business and pretty much took off whenever I wanted)  I wasnt getting tomorrow off with that short notice, sure I could fake being sick, but I dont that # 1, and #2 , its Friday before spring break and calling off that day makes you look like a jerk trying to grab and extra day...  So I pretty much screwed myself not paying close enough attention to things which I always did in the past when Adepticon was a huge deal to me.

The Demon in the bottle here is one my favorite things about the group, hope I get to use it eventually the succubus figure is from Diehard Miniatures

I actually not even sure I am going to make the drive out Saturday now to just walk around and pickup the badge I dont now need, maybe if at least one of my daughters wants to go and get lunch and maybe pick a few things and look around..we will have see how much of an idiot I still feel like Saturday morning. Off I contacted Brent the Organizer and he was very cool about the mishap being a veteran of events with waiting lists and drops outs, he is prepared.

So thats my Frostgrave wrap up for Adepticon this year. Nice set of models that wont see the game anytime soon. I didnt even follow thru with my test game because I know there are solo rules coming I was just going to play it by myself..so If want to play solo, I'll just keep going on Rangers of Shadow Deep. 

Speaking of Rangers, a couple new developments there. I picked up this new Gaming Mat below, and will use it for future games. One side is a ruined village and the other dungeon floor. Should come in handy for the larger areas so I wont have build a ton more 4x6 tiles. looks like I am going to the Burning Light Campaign from the Core Rulebook next, its 8 full scenarios. I plan on getting 3 or 4 of them in April

Ruined Village Side

Dungeon Tile Side

There is a new supplement out for Rangers as well "Temple of Madness" contains new abilities, expanded magic and 4 scenarios as a campaign, I have read thru it it looks great...I probably wont get to until late/ summer Fall as I have Burning Light and Blood Moon first, and I have my own campaign I'd like to do...if they keep putting quality books out at this rate thou, I may not get around to my own and may be playing this soon than later. 

The upside is if I decide to play Frostgrave  at Adepticon  2020, I am ready to go!

Well not much else to say in March, I had planned on alot more post this month since the Blog is back on roll with all the solo games I have been playing, If I do make it Adepticon , Saturday I will post up about it..until then this one of those live and learn moments even us old dude still have.

The Blackbarrow Chronicles, Episode 2, The Gauntlet Part 1 - Preview

The Blackbarrow Chronicles,  Episode 2, The Gauntlet  Part 1 - Preview

Blackbarrow Chronicles is a series of reports on the  fantasy games played on my Village of Blackbarrow table. A long term project that I have been working on in large and small parts for just about a decade.   The rules for Episode 2 are again a “hacked” version of the OSR “The Black Hack” ruleset  designed with specifically miniature gaming in mind. 

Blackbarrow -from a longview from far above the Dungeon section

I spent the last month and then some of my hobby time getting ready for this post and I’m happy to report as I write this I have painted about dozen miniatures since last post and have four more to do before we start rolling dice. This first part of Episode 2, is going to explain the set up,  the factions and involved and cover some the general improvements I made in town since last post. I fear that If I left this all for one post its be far too long and that would just delay me getting the whole episode posted but the end of the month.

The Gauntlet run, the caravan will start just around the corner from where you see it here, its about 40 inches to the Bridge..

"The Gauntlet" , at face value is a pretty stereo typical skirmish game type mission, The defenders must transport the caravan from point A to point B, the attackers must make of with the goods, while delivering as much damage as possible . The Defenders or protagonists in this case are the Merchants Guild. The antagonists or attackers are the local band of thieves, the curveballs to make this interesting are the corrupt Sheriff of Blackbarrow and his men are working as double agents paid off by the Thieves to slow down and distract the Merchant Caravan, but order by the Towns Castellan to protect it. To add another layer to the mix, the Merchants is sending three chests in the caravan but only one contains the loot, the other two are decoys . Even the Merchants themselves purposely don’t know which of the chests contains the prize, we will roll off after the mission to find out which one.

This public market area is a work in progress , I have a few tables and one stall so far, it wont get too much larger, The bandits arent painted yet, but here is Rob Roys wanted poster..

The objective is to transport all three chests to from the Merchant House and Moneylenders to the Castle once the Caravan reaches the bridge (being physically on it, ) It is considered “safe” as its in range of the Castle Guards heavy crossbows.

The Sheriff and his men will intercede at the Bottom of Turn one and at the Top of Turn 4, if  involved in combat they will withdraw, but they main goal is to “inspect” the caravan while “escorting it” in order to hopefully make off with on of the chests.As the Distance traveled is just about 40 inches and the movement of the slow moving caravan is 6 inches..we should be running about 7 full turns not counting combat delays.

The town blacksmith finally made it onto the table!

The Story:

With local coffers dwindling due to Banditry and Corruption , attracting new recruits for a life of soldiering at Blackbarrow Castle has become difficult. With the disappearance of his Sergeant at Arms and 4 good men whose daytrip to investigate strange glowing lights seen at night from the Castle at nearby Fellcross Ruins has left the Castle Garrison woefully understaffed. The Castellan has been forced to sell off some his heirloom jewelry  in order to pay for the hire of the esteemed Iron Tower Mercenary Company. 

    The Merchants Guild was quite willing to come to his aid and and knows it can fetch a great price for the jewels at the regional port city. Already in possession of the jewels (which were discretely passed off days ago to the Guildmaster- Zilchus while at the local market.) All that’s left to do is move a large chest of gold crowns from the very secure Merchant House to the Castle so the Castellan can pay his mercenaries when they arrive.

Zilchus and the Merchants Guild, with the three Chests they will marching down the street, The three in the middle are just henchmen, the buff fellow on the end is a Warrior

      Zilchus is no fool he knows any number of local groups will be on the lookout for   opportunity to steal the loot. The Castellan,  not being able to spare any men at the moment,  orders the local sheriff to make sure his gold gets to the Castle "or else".  The Merchants wisely assume its worth the extra gold to hire some protection of their own out of the pool of  transient adventurers..

Thrum , a Barbarian half breed of some long forgottern giant race and his cohort- Reynard , a Wizard who probably should have retired already, a hires by the Merchants Guild this time around.

The notorious local Bandit Rob Roy, and his gang, called “the Lowlanders” picked up word of the cash caravan from Zilchus’s own henchman , overheard talking about it while drinking at the Wayside Inn, they have conspired with the Sheriff to slow down the Caravan as much as possible so they can swoop in and steal the gold, Rob Roy isn’t stupid there a price on his and all his gangs heads. Despite promises to the Sheriff for "his cut"  Rob Roy knows the sheriff will betray him at first chance if things dont go perfect , So the bandits plan to let the Sheriff grab the gold himself, - then steal it from him- which if successful will kill two birds with one stone, With the Castellans wrath getting the Sheriff locked up in the Castles Dungeon..

The Sheriff of Blackbarrow and his men.

 The Sheriff looks out for himself, he’s been working with the bandits looking “ the other way” for a 20% cut for some time. He’s much better off with the Castellan’s power somewhat destabilized as it allows him much more freedom to operate. The Castellan recently upped Rob Roys Bounty to 250 crowns and 50 a head for his gang. The Sheriff and his men while too far to be seen at the end of turn one from the Castle will take any cheap shot they can on the Merchant Caravan, on turn 4 they will be much more careful looking opportunity’s hidden from view or looking for easy money  with “Out of Action”  Bandits to snatch up or better yet  loose chests from the Merchants Caravan to “safeguard.”

Blackbarrow and its current environs, Keyed, with a view from the large tower.

As far working on the Town itself -I haven’t bit the bullet on digging into the next project yet, I haven’t decided whether I want to build the Mill or finish up the Caverns in the Dungeon. I did do a little town maintenance, I cleaned a few transitions that sometime appear unsightly in some of the photos, I added a sewer grate over what makes sense to be a drainage ditch running from the Inn, past the Merchant House, Under the Hall of Tyr to the river, I cast some reduced profile stone work done and some odds and ends for the beginning of  the Market area, added a small bridge for the transition from the main table to the castle, more varying bushes and landscaping and probably some more I have forgotten about by now.

Something is always going on at The Inn, This time we have a couple of new visitors - a pair of elves from the Dungeon Decor Kickstarter a couple years back, I gave one them a hat from an old GW kit and the other Lute from the same KS.

  The next steps are getting started onwhatever the next large project is going to be which probably dictate where we go with Episode 3, and what ever models are getting painted up.I still need to finish painting the Bandits this week for this scenario and the we are rolling dice. Which I am hoping will happen this coming weekend, putting this preview together has got me ready to go.

Our new Travelers in the Ox Cart, the Cart and the Ox from those Wizkids D&D pre-primed line, way more work than I anticipated,    I often overlook that most D&D players are NOT remotely in anyway miniatures hobbyists, reviews I read on these are VERY kind and overlook ALOT of flaws, in the end I think it came out fine, it just was more of  a "project" than I expected.

A Quite Fall

I have woefully, slipped away again from the blog. While I have been painting terrain and figures
for my large fantasy project, I just have not made time to get the photos done and I've lost the urge to do alot of  "WIP" posts. I am currently working on the castle from my "blackbarrow" table and its all Hirts Arts so its going slowly casting as I build ,  but the end is in sight. Most of my Summer going into the massive 8" fieldstone Tower that is key piece of the design.  I've also painted a dozen or so denizens of the town from adventurers to creatures to villagers and furniture for my Inn that I posted earlier this year. its quite the fun project, just far removed from the usual gaming related painting I do.

Speaking of Fantasy I wanted to give a shout out to Diehard Miniatures whose last miniatures are in my primed and modeled up que just waiting for the brush.  Diehards new kickstarters has begun focusing on Eru-Kin which are essentially classic Warhammer style lizard me in both Fantasy and Sci Fi settings. I was an Oldhammer player and ever got my Lizardmen going I would snatch up bunch of these. As is I am in one "add on" only pledge as I am looking at some Snakemen for a future project.
Anyway if this might interest you Diehard is solid company that delivers high quality on time, which is always a good thing when it comes to Kickstarters. You can out the newest KS here.

In other news Warlord Games Bolt Action 2nd Edition was released this month, I got my new rules a couple weeks ago, and I like what I read. Although I havent played yet, and not sure when I will.
My last tournament in the spring left a bad taste in mouth for tournaments overall. (not the game) and left me feeling in retrospect that maybe I am just over them. I've been doing them for 10 years and they are a ton of work. As I said about WFB years ago when that started sliding toward the abyss ( for me that was  just after I had a lousy time in an oversized 150 person WFB event ) If you are not having fun anymore its time to re-analyze how you spend your time.  Anyway, I've found myself unhappy with the last couple tournaments I have been in for Bolt Action, either through unfortunate games with strangers or just not being happy with handling and operation of the event. I certainly dont want to be "that guy" so Its time I take a breather. Unfortunately that means I miss my favorite event this year. Operation Sting. but truth be told alot of other real life circumstance were in the way as well so my remorse here about gaming is only part of the story.  I'm still going to try to flesh both my Axis (German) and Allied (Great Britian) forces for spring in case I want to take the plunge again. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try out the rules some point soon. moving onward always.

I hope to get back here soon with big updates, I'm working on it.

Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter Review.

Last Saturday I received my Kickstarter Pledge from Diehard Miniatures a new company by sculptor Tim Prow, with Sculptors Chaz Elliot and Drew Williams..all guys with long lists of sculpting credits with A list companies like Reaper, Ral Partha, Wargames Foundry and Wizards of the Coast*, (*when they actually made good miniatures during D&D 3rd Ed)  These generic fantasy figures, were marketed as "Oldhammer" which has taken on several meanings over the years but basically if your into Fantasy RPG gaming, its the OSR (old School Rules) of wargaming, Miniatures wise it focuses on the classic age of Citadel Miniatures 1983-1987, but often includes later figures depending on what you are into.

Anyway. I really liked alot of these figures, So I went for the 10 figure pledge, they were pricey at about $8 USD a figure but that's on par with what I pay for premium new metal figures these days. With all the plastic figures out there in the $2-3 range, people like to get all worked up over figures at this price, but coincidentally I am currently painting some really high end plastics right now and they just don't compare to these Pewter figures so I wanted to review them publicly as they came out very, very good.

As for the Kickstarter campaign , it delivered in just over 6 months, which is the new record for any miniatures  related Kickstarter I have been involved in. Overall the campaign was flawless, as far as I can tell (there arent any outraged backers in comments section demanding blood, and that's kind of a new one compared to some of the stuff I have been involved in. ) The resulting figures are just lovely, Now, despite my 10 figure pledge , I did only end up with 6 Figures and 2 KS backer freebies. Because I choose 4, large figures, each of which counted as two choices.

I broke my purchases down into 3 categories, Heroes (2), Undead (2) and Monsters (2)

The figures are:

Human Knight
Hillsman ( half-giant)

 Undead Minotaur
 Undead Knight

Troll
Son of Slomm (chaos beast)














There all for basic fantasy gaming, they scale perfectly with lines like Otherworld, Reaper, and Citadel miniatures..so they fit right in with my core collection, I'll be painting some of  them up soon, some later as I need them. As I mentioned I received them Saturday and had them all modeled up and primed by Sunday evening.

Overall the miniatures where exactly as pictured or described, fantastic casts, very minimal mold lines , there was some additional flash on the larger models but nothing remotely problematic.
The only critique and its really a sculptors prerogative is the pose of the Minotaur was so elongated I had to put him on 60mm base and he's still hanging off, which is ok as he works as a large monster for games on a 60mm, but I kind wish I could have got him on a 40mm

That aside, I am quite happy with these and look forward to painting them, since I photographed a bunch of black primed models here, I've included some of the pictures from the KS so you can the models are exactly as advertised.

Diehard is doing another Kickstarter in October, not sure If I'll jump in or not as I'm on a KS moratorium for a good while, but what I see is on the Facebook page is looking really good.
If you missed the original figures first time around, I believe they will be available this time around
as well, check it out.

As for the final review, as far as Kickstarters go this one is 5 out of 5 Stars.