House Kurita: 8th Sword of Light (Battletech)

 I usually collect both sides for any game I play because it is the most reliable way to ensure that I am able to get a game in. More often than not, those in my immediate area do not share my interests and are unwilling to buy into something outside their main focus. The estimable Steve is a major exception here. He and I have inspired each other with fads for years. However, he lives a thousand miles away, so I need to provide my own enemies. With that in mind, I needed some villains for my Battletech/mech warfare games, and who better than the Draconis Combine?

House Kurita, and especially the Sword of Light, just seem made to be the villains in my stories. They seem to represent a type of regimented order that the Full Throttle Lemmings (or even any of my Thrappled Lemming warbands) have. There are few groups that are likely to be more diametrically oppsed to my group whose motto ought to be "If I don't even know what I am going to do next, how can my enemy predict it?"

I opted for the 8th Sword of Light "The Jade Dragon" because I like the green background to their insignia. It helps that the paint scheme is simple, so I could paint them quickly and have a whole company ready very quickly. Looking at the photos, I really do need to work on how I highlight reds. They look fine on the table, but the camera seems to wash out the shading and makes me think that I should do more extreme highlighting. After all, the same light that I photograph under is the one I play under, so it might improve the look even more. Time enough for that another day. In the end, what matters is that they are ready to be fielded against the Full Throttle Lemmings.

I feel that this company could really do with at least one Dragon and/or Grand Dragon and probably a Jenner and/or a Panther to feel properly Kurita, but they were not in stock when I bought what I have. Adding some iconic Kurita mechs can be a project for another day.

On to the roll call. All figures are the Catalyst Game Labs versions found in the various boxed sets and lance packs. They have unit insignia decals from Defiance Industries Wargaming just to make them look a bit more swish. The decals were not cheap but they were definitely worth it. Each mech has the Jade Dragon insignia on its left shoulder, the Sword of Light insignia on its left leg and back, and a kanji number on its right leg.

(left to right) Atlas, Battlemaster, Warhammer, Orion

(left to right) Wolverine, Archer, Shadow Hawk, Valkyrie

(left to right) Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Wasp, Stinger

24 Fyrmont 1000 AC - Landfall

 By midmorning, Broneslav's ship had manoeuvred into position near Tanaroa. There was no deepwater harbour there, so they moored away from land. Some curious villagers paddled their canoes out to see the newcomers and shouted greetings in strangely accented Common Tongue. They were not hostile. Instead they seemed pleased to have the opportunity to hear the news from further afield.

Broneslav was on the first boat off the ship to meet the locals. The land wobbled unfamiliarly under him as he stepped from the ship's boat onto the beach near the village. He wondered at the strange trees and unfamiliar vegetation, but tried not to look overawed by the novelty of this place.

His first impression was of an alien place. The long houses on stilts were like nothing he had ever seen before. The layout of the village with four areas of housing each surrounding a cemetery with a statue in the middle was new. The huge stone wall with the 70 feet high towers on it was new. Even the tar pits that formed a secondary line of defence behind the wall were things he had not encountered before in his short life. There was clearly something that the villagers needed to keep out, but the rest of the village was not in keeping with the 50 feet high wall. He knew that he needed to be on the other side of that wall. The letter and map he had received told him that. Well, he would try.

As his gaze swept across the village in its jungle clearing, he realised that the only familiar thing here was the pyramid in the centre of the fields. He had seen bigger and more impressive pyramids in Ylaruam, but none of those had a giant brass gong on top of them. Something was threatening this village and it came from the direction he intended to travel. Well, that meant he had a mission. But first he needed to speak to the headman of the village.

"Oh" he thought, "The village headwoman. Right. I guess they do things differently here."

Broneslav shook himself mentally and pulled himself together. The woman, who greeted him, reminded him of his aunt Grushenka, a woman with whom you did not mess if you did not wish to fall foul of the illumin-aunties. This informal group of woman were the power behind many thrones and could make a young person's life miserable if that young person were not careful. Broneslav himself had endured many probing questions about when he was going to make something of himself. Since his Shearing, they had largely left him alone, but he knew it would not be long before questions about suitable marriages and children were being asked.

He smiled in what he hoped was an endearing fashion and weathered the inevitable question.

"You're a bit young to be leading an expedition like this, aren't you, young man?"

The auntie was clearly taking no prisoners. Mind you, you did not get to be chief, even of a village, by being a wallflower.

"A young man has to try to make something of himself," he replied disarmingly, "I am accounted an adult in my country now, so I must act like one."

The auntie appraised him in a way that made him feel like a cut of meat at the butchers. Her eyes surveyed his broad shoulders and the well-used sword at his side. Even unarmoured, he carried himself more like a warrior than a merchant despite not being above average height and barely able to grow the moustache he aspired to. She also noted his youth. He could almost see the calculations going on behind her eyes.

Then she smiled.

"Very well. Let us see what you can do. Why are you here? And what do you have to trade? If you have anything worthwhile, we might be interested."

"My crew will bring samples ashore for you to view. I do not doubt that there will be much of interest, and I am sure that you will have much that I might be interested in. I hear that there are good sources of black pearls here."

The auntie's eyes narrowed. Perhaps it occurred to her that he was not entirely unprepared. Then she smiled broadly.

"Welcome to our village. Come! Let us get to know each other better. Trading always goes more smoothly once you know your partners."

Broneslav gave orders for a selection of goods to be offloaded and the crew jumped to.

The auntie led the way to a hut group where people were watching the newcomers. Broneslav and Captain Decentius followed her. Broneslav did not see it, but Theophilus Decentius stared appraisingly at Broneslav's back. Perhaps he was reassessing this green ship-owner's abilities in light of this interaction. Was the young man more than a spoilt rich kid with the money to buy his own ship after all? Time would tell.

Roll Call: The Unseelie (Orcs and related monsters for Oathmark)

 I have enjoyed Oathmark so far, and am planning to play more. So, that means it is time for a roll call and march past of my armies, especially because ... *drumroll* ... I have painted every single Orc and Goblin figure that I have in my collection (unless there are some in hiding in the attic somewhere).

Oathmark's kingdom design system does not constrain you to a single race/species for your armies. I really like this, because it allows for a glorious mix of different peoples in one and the same army, and I think that was a brilliant design decision, despite it leading to analysis paralysis on my part. I mean, with so many good choices, how do I choose just a few? Well, fortunately there are ten territories in your kingdom, so that means plenty of room for all most of my favourite figures. The problem then is deciding which ones to include in any given army for a game.

That said, this post catalogues all the figures I have for territories marked as Orc or Goblin plus Orc-related figures that stand in for other troop types, such as my bear horde which I am treating as Human Cavalry. Although the lists are for Orcs, I am using the same stats for Beastfolk and Lizardpeople, who are honorary Orcs as far as my Oathmark games are concerned.

Time to get on with the last of the human forces now, I guess.

The Seelie versus the Unseelie: My Head Canon

There is a war between the Seelie and the Unseelie. That is, those that side with the human kingdoms and those that oppose them. All non-human types are considered Fair Folk, although whether they appear fair to human eyes is variable. Some definitely do not and the Unseelie often deliberately adopt forms that are repellent to humans! The Orcs fall into this latter category. They are hard to control because they are massively individualistic, but are more numerous than their fairer cousins, the Sidhe (Elves).

Not all Orcs are opposed to the humans, just as not all humans oppose the Orcs, so you can see Orcs in some human armies. That is the joy of Oathmark! However, the majority dislike humans because they desecrate and build on the Fair Folk's sacred spaces, albeit unwittingly in many cases. Even though armies can contain figures from both factions, my plan is to use the two armies that I have for my games, until I add more. Human and Orc figures will not be mixed in the same army until I have more of both, but I am using Human and other stat lines to field equivalent figures. For example, my Bears and Iguanasaurs will be fielded using the Human cavalry stat line, while the Orcs get their air support from Harpies, who will be fielded using the Gargoyle stat line (a neutral faction).

The Figures

So, here's the full roll call. This lot adds up to about 6000 points of Orcs and Goblins, depending what options you choose for the characters. It is more than enough for a lot of gaming with a bit of variety. Despite that, I would really like to be able to field huge numbers of Goblins, but that would entail buying and painting them first. Shame, because the idea of swarming my opponent with cheap troops just appeals. I would also like to add more wolves and wolf riders, plus more Orc warriors and linebreakers to the army as well as some artillery, but that is also a project for another day

The massed forces of the Unseelie Court. That should be enough Orcs and associated types to give almost anyone a headache.

Orc leaders and champions

Big Orcs with big weapons and good armour. Nuff said!

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Orc shamans and wizards

The Orcs have a range of spellcasters available to them to provide battlefield support.

Tally: 3

Orc soldiers

The rank and vile of any Orc army is its soldiers. Oathmark has a stat line for Orc spears, so these could be used as those. However, I feel that units of spearorcs imply more discipline and teamwork than my Orcs are supposed to have.

Tally: 80

Orc archers

I don't have many archers for the Orcs yet, but these provide a useful ranged ability. I am inclined to deploy them in small units as skirmishers for the most part. Somehow massed units of Orc archers do not feel quite right to me.

Tally: 30

Orc warriors

Tougher Orcs with better weapons and armour, who fight in a more orderly fashion.

Tally: 20

Orc linebreakers

Orcs with big choppers. They like to get stuck in fast.

Tally: 20

Orc Huntmaster

The Orc Huntmaster leads a troop of cave lizards into battle. This is actually a stat line from the Elf lists, but I felt that the cave lizards fitted this, even if the unit will be far more disciplined than the average Orc unit. I guess cave lizards are more inclined to cooperate than Orcs. Another option would have been to field them as wolves instead, but I already have a wolf pack. I suppose I could have several wolf packs...

Tally: 1 huntsman, 12 lizards, 7 medium rats

Wolves

Sometimes the Orcs and Goblins ally with wolf and rat packs, and some few wolves allow themselves to be ridden by Goblins.

Tally: 9 wolves, 4 giant rats

Bears and Iguanasaurs (Cavalry)

Orcs use bears and iguanasaurs as cavalry troops. They hit hard and fast. These guys use the human cavalry stat line. If I ever buy Orc bear riders, they will be fielded as heavy cavalry.

Tally: 22

Goblin leaders and champions

The toughest and most intelligent of the Goblins.

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Goblin shamans and wizards

Battlefield support at a budget price, but with an opportunity cost. They are more likely to cower in cover than their Orc colleagues.

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Goblin soldiers

Weedy by Orc standards, but they normal appear in huge numbers, although not in my army yet. I really need a lot more Goblins! Although there are only 13 of them, I could use spacer bases to bulk them out to a unit of 15 to 20, but then they would look even weedier than they do now.

Tally: 13

Goblin archers

Speed bumps? If they get lucky, they can still cause you to have a bad day. There are 13 goblins here. I reckon that fielding them using spacer bases to bulk the unit out to 15 to 20 archers would make it look like a skirmish unit, which might not be too bad for these guys.

Tally: 13

Knucker

The knucker is a giant snake with poisonous breath. Here I am using a 28mm DDM Naga figure.

Tally: 1 Knucker

Trolls

Trolls are some of the larger and more feral of the fey types.

Tally: 6

Harpies

Aerial support for the Orcs. I am using the Gargoyle stat line for these fine ladies. Although I only have 10 of them, they look ridiculous when fielded as a unit of ten because of their big wings, so I use unit spacers to make them look less ridiculous and to field a larger unit while simultaneously cutting down on painting time and saving money. Win win!

Tally: 20

Giant Spiders

These are in the Elf terrain selections, but I just associate giant spiders with Orcs and Goblins from reading The Hobbit when I was wee, so they are in the Orc list for now. I have more if the Elves want their spiders back.

Tally: 6

13 Fyrmont to 23 Fyrmont 1000 AC - A Life on the Ocean Waves

13 Fyrmont

I have decided to keep a diary of the voyage to help me pass the time. The sailors do not need my help and the captain tells me that the owner's job is to look impressive. I fear I do not at the moment. The day has passed with what the sailors call a calm sea and fair weather. I feel so sick. Please kill me.

The Voyage of the Stout Meg

14 Fyrmont

Another fair day. I feel slightly better, I think. One of the sailors took pity on me and showed me a trick with bacon and a piece of string that really seems to work. Pulling the bacon back out of my stomach was disgusting though. I was distracted from feeling sick when a stirge flew out of some of the cargo. It was diving for one of the sailors when I leapt at it and cut it in two. The sailors were all grateful for my intervention. I shall have to have words with the cargo master and find out how it got in there. I wonder if anyone from the Veiled Society survived to try to disrupt my plans.

15 Fyrmont

Fair sailing. I can feel the air getting warmer as we sail south. I still feel a bit queasy but was not sick today.

16 Fyrmont

I feel better now and chose to wander the deck. The captain yelled at me to get out of the way.

17 Fyrmont

More fair sailing. I saw a sea snake today. It was not much bigger than me. The captain tells me they pose no threat to the ship or its crew, unless the crew fall in the water.

18 Fyrmont

Sailing is boring. There is nothing much to do when you own the ship, so I just tried to stand there looking impressive.

19 Fyrmont

Are we nearly there yet? The weather is lovely, but there is so little for me to do. The captain tells me that if all goes well, we should arrive at the Thaniegoth peninsula in four days.

20 Fyrmont

Three days to go. Fair sailing and nothing for me to do. Boring.

21 Fyrmont

Two days to go. We are nearly there. I cannot wait. Thank goodness I found the map so there is little chance of us losing our way.

22 Fyrmont

One day to go!

23 Fyrmont

About midday the crow's nest shouted, "Land ho!". We have reached the Thanegioth Archipelago. We must navigate the reefs in daylight and will land tomorrow morning. Who knew sailing was so boring?

Orc army reinforcements! Waargh!! (Oathmark)

I'm making slow progress on getting things painted, but work means I cannot do both painting and playing. Or even much of either right now, to be honest. I hope to be able to focus properly on the important things in life (gaming) once the current deadlines have passed. Have you ever noticed how much of adult life involves telling yourself you'll have time once the current urgent thing is done, and yet there is always another urgent thing that appears after it?

Me being me, I always need to collect as many options as possible for my armies. For Oathmark, that really means being able to field as many different troop types from as many different territories as possible. My main focus at the moment is sorting out my Orcs and associated monsters. Orcs are associated with two monster types: Trolls and Knuckers. That does not mean that these monsters are only found in Orcish armies, but it does mean that it is easier for armies led by Orcs to include them.

Trolls

These trolls add one more territory to my kingdom with the option to field the maximum amount of trolls. They will have names like Rocky, Smashey, Gneissey, Chalkey and Grant (he's a bit hard!). Hopefully none of them will be too schist when they take to the field, and I really hope that they offer the Orcs something that can help deal with the human heavy cavalry, which has shown itself to be very hard-hitting.

Trolls are associated with the River terrain type in Oathmark, presumably because they live under bridges. In Utavoll, these are known as troll bridges and are usually marked at either end with a troll booth, so that unwary travellers quickly become wary.

U18-4004 Trolls (2 packs)

I really like these sculpts from the old Demonworld range that Ral Partha Europe now sells, and they were quick to paint so that is a major bonus.

Knuckers

Knuckers are giant, limbless, amphibious serpents that breath clouds of poisonous gas and live in the most inhospitable bogs and swamps. They only ever appear alone and are unmitigatedly evil from everyone else's perspective. No one has ever asked a Knucker what their perspective is on this. Or, if they did, they did not survive to report back the answer.

A giant snake with very bad breath (28mm DDM Naga)

My Knucker is a DDM Naga that I had lying around. It fits nicely on the standard big monster base for Oathmark, which is 30mm x 60mm for my 60%-scale, 15mm games, and looks suitably monstrous next to my 15mm figures. I have dipped and highlighted the pre-paint a bit, although that does not really show in the picture, except on the face. It's an acceptable level of painting for the tabletop IMO, but I am not as happy with it as I am with the trolls.

16 Felmont to 12 Fyrmont 1000AC - The Taxman Cometh

 Buying and outfitting a ship was a somewhat detailed process and Broneslav almost regretted not chartering a vessel rather than buying one. In the end, he did manage to get a small trading ship, The Stout Meg, that was nearly new for 5000 Royals and a crew that would cost him 500 Royals per month for as long as he retained them. His goal was that the cargoes he planned to carry would pay for them, but first he had to get somewhere he could sell the cargo and buy a new one for the return journey.

Broneslav attempts to look like he fits in on a ship

Discussion with his family and their major domo showed that his planned voyage might need to make a detour to Ierendi or Minrothad rather than trading in the Thanegioth Archipelago itself. Ierendi always needed what Specularum had, so he invested 5000 Royals in cargo that should trade well there: iron and copper goods and a stock of fine leather items. For his first trading voyage, he was advised against travelling to Minrothad where they would likely make mincemeat of him, strip him of all his wealth by legal means and leave him in debt to one of the guilds.

Putting his expedition together took time, and the quarterly tax collection happened in the middle of it. As a law-abiding citizen, Broneslav had no choice but to reach into his purse and donate a portion of his treasure to the Duke. Hopefully, he would recoup that and more on this voyage and he had successfully managed to write off part of his tax burden by buying the ship and trade goods, so it did not hurt as much as it would otherwise. It was fortunate that he had the connections in Specularum to help him with sorting all this out.

By 12 Fyrmont, he was ready and over 16000 Royals poorer. Stores for a month were loaded, the cargo was onboard and the crew were all present. It was still summer and the voyage should be plain sailing, barring unexpected squalls. Big storms were not usual at this time of the year, or so the captain he had hired had informed him. So it was that on 12 Fyrmont on the rising tide and with a fair wind behind him, Broneslav set sail for the south. Milka, she of the snow white skin and rose red lips, waved him off and promised her eternal love and wept piteously that he should sail off into danger like this. Broneslav tried to ignore her pleading and tears. He suspected that his wealth and status after his Shearing played a large part in her interest, where previously she had shown little sign of attraction to him. It would be good to be free of her attentions for a while, he thought, as the ship sailed out of Specularum harbour and head south. They should reach their destination within two weeks, if all went smoothly.

As the wind blew through his hair and the deck rose and fell under him, Broneslav was very pleased with himself. He was setting out on a new adventure. He thanked the unknown mugging victim for this opportunity. Then he suddenly felt queasy. He lurched for the ship's rail as the crew laughed at the neophyte sailor's plight...

Notes

I'm going to deal with trading in the abstract here. I do not want to complicate the issue because that will get in the way of adventuring. Rather than buying specific cargoes, I shall spend an amount of money for the cargo and dice to see if Broneslav's purchases and attempts to sell it are wise.

When Broneslav gets to his destination, he will make two skill checks to sell his cargo. The first will be a Wisdom check to see if there is an opportunity to sell his wares (Has he been sensible in his purchases for his destination?). The second will be a Reaction check to see what profit, if any, he makes on the sale. In both cases, any eventual Merchant or similar skill will be used to modify the rolls. He can refuse the offered price if he thinks he can do better elsewhere but he cannot try to sell the same goods in the same area again before a full week has passed. I would quite like to subsume the whole test into a single roll, but I worry that Wisdom, Reaction and skill bonuses can quickly add up to always making a huge profit.

Although I am dealing with generic cargoes at this stage to save effort, I might introduce the trading rules from GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds at a later stage if I feel like spending more time on trading and less on adventuring. Right now it would just get in the way of the real adventure.

15mm Doors from Ral Partha Europe

 Not the most exciting post, perhaps, but my early activities this year are all about accessorising my games in free moments, because life is otherwise very busy. One thing I have wanted for a while is some doors for use while exploring dungeons. Ral Partha Europe has some as part of their Terraincards series that the furniture I posted about a couple of weeks ago came from. These come in two flavours.

The rustic doors are standard wooden doors that would not look out of place in a dungeon or as part of a typical medieval house. They are wooden doors with a bolt, a wooden lintel and a wooden frame.

The stone arch doors are for fancier dwellings or dungeons. They are arched doors set in a stone surround.

Both types of door come on a small lasercut, 3mm thick plywood card that you need to press or cut them out from. Each card has eight doors. They are set up so that four have the hinges on the left side and four have the hinges on the right side, so that you can glue them together to make a single door with each side having hinges on the same side or just glue them to a structure for making houses.

I bought two of each card and made eight freestanding doors of each type by gluing them together and sticking them to 15mm square mdf bases so that I can place them where needed on a 2D or 2.5D dungeon floorplan. This will let me keep track of open and closed doors more easily. The paint job is nothing special, but coloured in is better than not. I feel sure that they will look fine on the table. Time to start planning a dungeon bash.

Bonus pic for those that could be bothered to read this far:

Paper and plywood terrain in action

The bold adventurers tied their pack horses to the ominously fresh gravestones that stood near the door of the creepy castle ruled by Prince Killemall. They opened the double doors into a large pillared hallway. Ahead stood double doors ajar as if the servants were too slapdash to close them again after passing through. To either side were closed doors. Who knew what horrors lay beyond? Or what treasures?

To 15 Felmont 1000AC - Messing about in boats

 “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows)

Broneslav was tiring of the big city. Nearly a month had gone by since he had foiled the Veiled Society's plot. Some of that time was spent recovering, and much of it was spent avoiding Milka (she of the white skin and rose red lips). She had decided that he was very much the man for her now. Before the Shearing, Broneslav would have welcomed this change, but now he found himself less interested. The petty intrigues and relationships of the merchant houses that formed the core of her conversation were just not interesting enough to him. They were, no doubt, important within the sphere of the merchants of Specularum and would be useful to know if he chose to play politics here, but he was not interested in that right now. He needed to make his fortune first. He wanted and needed to go back out into the world. Therefore, he spent more time than his parents deemed necessary in the taverns of the docks listening to tales told by sailors newly returned from Ierendi or the Northern Reaches.

This was not just idle drinking, although he did make time for that too. He learned as he drank. It was clear that there was money to be made, although at some risk to his own personal fortune. But, as his father said: nothing ventured, nothing gained. His mind was made up. He would embark on the life of a merchant adventurer. There was gold to be earned and adventure to be had in this life. But first, another pint of ale.

Broneslav was slightly tipsy as he left the The Merman's Apology and headed towards home. The night was still light, the moon was full and the weather was clear. The few clouds he could see were just hanging around idly. They appeared to have no evil intent, such as raining on him. Reaching the turning towards his home, Broneslav heard a cry and a gurgle from a nearby alley. He recognised the sound of someone being stabbed and immediately ran towards to the noise.

Pitching into the alley, Broneslav saw two men standing over the bleeding body of a third. One of the men was leaning down to go through the clothes of the bleeding man.

"Quickly, Horatius, someone's coming!" hissed the first man.

"I'm going as fast as I can. The letters must be here somewhere. I heard him tell the barmaid that he never let them out of his sight," replied Horatius as he searched the body.

With a yell, Broneslav launched himself at the men. He was slightly drunk and armed only with his dagger, because his sword was peacebound, as was required by the law when in the city, but he had all the confidence of youth and enough experience to back it up under most circumstances. Well, so he thought, anyway.

He had not deceived himself. With just two blows of his mighty fists, he laid the robbers flat. He had not even needed to draw his dagger! The poor victim was not so lucky. A dagger in his back had ended his life. The robbers were clearly taking no chances with him. Broneslav tied them up and left them next to the body. He helped himself to the papers that the robbers had been after, and called the watch, who took the robbers away. Broneslav was by now well enough known that they did not simply assume he was the aggressor here.

A Treasure Map!

Notes on the Map

• Areas marked in black on the map are unmapped.
• Apart from those with unmapped areas, I have filled out the small islands in full.
• The darker areas in the sea are reefs.
• Only the south-east part of The Isle of Dread has been mapped in full. The rest of it is roughed in and will be developed later.

What Broneslav learned

Back at home, he read through what he had found. It told an interesting tale and one that piqued his interest. Better yet, there was an associated map. Broneslav read with interest a tale of a voyage to the Thanegioth Archipelago that had gone wrong. Most of the crew of the ship had died in storms and only a half dozen survived to return to Karameikos, their number now cut down further by the robbers.

The author told of tribes as yet uncontacted by those on the mainland. Some were friendly, others drove the author and his crew off with spears and bows. The author related how they had sailed around many small islands and found one large island. They had landed on a peninsula in a village called Tanaroa. A large stone wall divided this peninsula from the main island, which the locals called The Isle of Dread. The local name for the peninsula translated simply as Home. In their village there were statues made of gold and iron, but the locals used only stone tools.

The locals told of an ancient city at the centre of the main island, of great dangers and vast treasures, including a massive black pearl similar to those they traded for goods, but exceeding those in size by a great margin. It sounded like this island had once been the centre of a lost civilisation.

The author concluded with the remark that he would return to Karameikos and gather a group of adventurers to explore the island and recover the giant black pearl, and that he had managed to map the extremities of the island, but not its interior. Examining the map, Broneslav found this to be true.

"Well, the poor sailor will not benefit from his hard work any more, but this sounds exactly like the kind of thing that I have been looking for. I think I shall enjoy messing about in a boat for a while. Perhaps I can expand our trading routes to this area and recover the black pearl at the same time."

The next day, Broneslav headed back to the docks with his father's major domo to advise him about ships. He was looking forward to this voyage.

Afterword

Time to let Broneslav spread his wings further. I have a lot going on right now, so the plan is to post monthly on this adventure, because it will require updating the map as the adventure progresses and that can take time. Can he survive The Isle of Dread?

The map is made in Campaign Cartographer 3+ using the 'Ancient Realms 2025' style plus a few symbols from other packs. I really like this software, even though I do not use it to its full potential, and running these adventures is a great excuse to try to do more with it.

X1 The Isle of Dread is another classic Basic/Expert module. I received Basic and Expert D&D as presents one Christmas back in the Stone Age when I was still young and enthusiastic and unjaded by life. I ran B2 The Keep on the Borderlands as my first adventure ever and it is what got my brothers and me into RPGs. I cannot remember running X1 The Isle of Dread for them at all. We were at a stage where we flitted from game to game because it was all new and exciting, but I still remember it fondly, so this is another trip to nostalgia land for me.

Furniture for 15mm fantasy games

This week I have mostly been making flat-pack furniture. Fortunately, not a single allen key was required, and there were no unfortunate incidents with pieces attached the wrong way round.

Plywood terrain card 'TC005 Tables and Benches' from Ral Partha Europe

I bought several Ral Partha Europe terraincards 'TC005 Tables and Benches' just before Christmas so I spent an enjoyable evening cutting them out and gluing them together. There is something really satisfying about this sort of task!

The set comprises a long table with 2 benches plus a round table with 4 stools. They are laser cut from 3mm plywood which feels quite soft and many of the pieces are small, so I was a bit worried about pressing them out of the frame. However, all went well. I cut the tab that held them in the frame with a craft knife and pressed them out with the end of a paint brush. Very soon my table was covered in tiny pieces of plywood.

The contents of one card built.

With all the pieces out, I sanded down the nub of the tab and glued them together. Then I painted them with Vallejo 70.828 Woodgrain. This is a thin paint that is designed to be used over the top of other paints, if I have understood correctly. In this case, I did not paint the furniture first, but just applied the Woodgrain paint directly to the furniture, giving it that proper well-varnished look that should be proof against most spills of ale, food and blood.

The finished articles with two Demonworld Elves from Ral Partha Europe for scale.

"I've told you before about blowing your own trumpet in here! Now get out!" commanded the landlord.

For only a little work, the Thrappled Lemmings can now sit down and have an ale or three in comfort. I, on the other hand, must find more tavern furniture (a bar and shelves of alcohol) that I can use to set up a proper bar-room brawl. Having tables to stand on and stools to throw is a good start though.

A 2024 Retrospective

 So, 2024 turned out to be a good year for gaming for me as you can see from this list of plays I logged on BGG:

1. Dorfromantik: The Board Game (61 plays)
2. Five Leagues From The Borderlands: 3rd Edition (28 plays)
3. Rangers of Shadow Deep: Standard Edition (22 plays)
4. Rangers of Shadow Deep: A Gathering of Heroes (12 plays)
5. Warfighter Shadow War: The Modern Night Combat Card Game (8 plays)
6. Warfighter: The Tactical Special Forces Card Game (7 plays)
7. Kinfire Delve: Scorn's Stockade (5 plays)
8. Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age (5 plays)
9. Western Front Ace: The Great War in the Air, 1916-1918 (5 plays)
10. Advanced Squad Leader (4 plays)
11. Solo Fluxx (4 plays)
12. Nothing Gained But Glory (3 plays)
13. Firefly: The Game (2 plays)
14. Solitaire ASL (2 plays)
15. Basic Impetus (1 play)
16. Chez Geek (1 play)
17. DreadBall (Second Edition) (1 play)
18. Wingspan (1 play)
19. Wizard Kings (1 play)

That's over 100 games logged using 17 different rules sets. The surprise hit of the year was Dorfromantik. I found a friend here in Stavanger who enjoys the game and the majority of my plays were with my friend, although I did play an entire solo campaign too. I just find it so relaxing to play. It's a beat-your-own-score game, so won't suit those that prefer defined victory conditions, but it does have a nice achievements element where you get to add new elements to the game as you score high enough or advance along the achievements track

I also had a friend visit me and we played Firefly and Chez Geek together, which was nice. Firefly worked two-handed but Chez Geek could really have done with a couple more players to make it interesting.

I am surprised that I have only logged one game of Wingspan, because I am fairly sure I have played two or three games of the physical game. We have environmentally themed boardgames nights at the university here and I usually wind up playing Wingspan at those, so there should probably be more plays logged. I don't log plays of the digital version or the count for Wingspan would be a lot higher. It is one of my go-to games for when I have 15 minutes and don't feel like doing anything else.

Beyond that, the poor long-suffering Steve endured a game of Dreadball against me, and I played an ASL scenario against my brother, but all the rest of my plays were solo games.

Five Leagues from the Borderlands and Rangers of Shadow Deep both provided engrossing campaigns in two completely different ways. I love the story of Rangers but I also love the sandbox nature of Five Leagues. If I had to pick one of the two as my preferred rules, it would be Five Leagues though. The combat is less swingy and the sandbox nature of the game offers much more replayability at the cost of having to develop the narrative yourself. Anyone who has read all my posts about the Thrappled Lemmings in Five Leagues will know that this is not something I struggle with. I would love to get my sci-fi figures and terrain moved out here, and start a Five Parsecs from Home game, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Warfighter has a respectable number of plays to its name too. I like the standard game because you get to blow things up, and I like the Shadow Wars version because it rewards being sneaky. Both games are nicely cinematic and in my head I am an action hero when playing them.

Western Front Ace was a great game, and I am glad I have it. It's another game that relies on narrative to join your sessions together, but I got too attached to my last pilot and have not picked the game up again since he got shot down by a Hun pilot whom he never even saw. Perhaps enough time has passed now that I can pick it up again.

Oathmark turned out to be really good fun too, and I enjoyed the games I set up using the Charles Grant Programmed Wargames Scenarios book. I would like to do more with this, perhaps even setting up a solo campaign where I combine the scenarios in the Oathmark rules with the programmed options from the book.

The only game that was a bit dud for me this year was Nothing Gained But Glory. The theme of the Scanian war fits my interests, and the components and maps are lovely, but I tried it solo and it just did not work for me. This is a game where I would need an opponent to play against. Hopefully I can ask for one of those for Christmas.

A late contender was Kinfire Delve: Scorn's Stockade. I picked it up early in December and logged 5 plays in quick succession. It is not as quick to play as the small box suggests, but it works well solo and I am tempted to buy the other scenarios on the basis of enjoying playing this one. The game is billed as a dungeon bash, but is really a puzzle solver. In this, it reminds me of Gloomhaven. You have limited resources to get you to the end and to defeat the bad guy, so you have to maximise the effectiveness of your card use. While possibly not a game that will fit on the tray on a flight, it does not have a huge footprint and the box is small enough to carry with you while travelling and it will get you away from the screen for a while.That is always a bonus. I have way too much screen time at work, so playing analogue is always welcome.

In addition to playing boardgames, I have also managed to paint quite a lot of miniatures. My Vikings and Normans that I bought in the 90s are now mostly painted. I only have around 20 more infantry and 15 more cavalry left to paint and then I shall have painted all of those figures. it only took me 30 years or so! Should I catalogue them and realise that I am missing crucial figures for very limited and specific games that I could mostly avoid?

I've made good progress on my fantasy figures as well. These are newer, so I should probably let some of them age and ripen for another decade before painting them but I intend to expand these armies and I have a large Unpainted Lead Pile lying in my attic in the UK, so perhaps it is best to keep going.

So, that is my year in gaming. I have had a good time playing all these games and am delighted to have found at least one regular boardgaming partner here. It would be nice if there were 15mm gamers here, but I have seen no sign of them. Given the fun I am having playing solo, I don't really see that as a problem.

What will 2025 bring?

I imagine that 2025 will continue much as 2024 has, barring major upheavals in my life. I would like to get as many of my 15mm fantasy figures painted as possible and to play an Oathmark campaign.

Similar to the above, I would like to get all my battlemechs painted, my 6mm sci-fi figures rebased and many of those repainted, and I would like to use them in a campaign of some kind. I have a lot of different rules that would permit a solo campaign, and I am looking forward to seeing what the solo rules in Battletech: Aces are like. Hopefully they will be released in 2025 and I can try them out.

With the release of Mortal Enemies for Frostgrave, my final potential goal is a Frostgrave mini-campaign using the rules from Mortal Enemies to control enemy warbands. I have all the Frostgrave supplements to date, but no opponent in easy reach, so I have been thinking of adapting the Rangers of Shadow Deep bot to Frostgrave. The difficulty with that is the spells for the wizard and their apprentice, but Mortal Enemies offers a way round this problem. Rather than generate a single mortal enemy for my wizard, I can generate two or three enemies and dice to see which one turns up. This could be a fun way of playing the early campaigns that were published without needing an opponent.

Miniatures rules I would like to play in 2025 are:

• 5150: Mecha Warfare
• AD&D Battlesystem 2E
• Battle Suit Alpha
• Battletech
• Blood Eagle
• Frostgrave
• FutureWarCommander
• Hardwar
• Horizon Wars
• Oathmark
• Sellswords and Spellslingers
• Thud and Blunder

In addition to the miniatures games, it would be great to get more out of my boardgames collection. Specific games I feel I would like to focus on are:

• Barbarossa to Berlin
• Solitaire Advanced Squad Leader
• Space Empires 4X
• Terraforming Mars (especially with the new solo Automa expansion)
• The Dark Valley

I'm not adding War Without Mercy/Struggle for Europe series to this list because I have singularly failed to get it on the table for several years now, but I would love to give it a proper shot at some point.

It would also be fun to return to the adventures of Broneslav in Mystara. I need to get the maps made for the next story arc before I do that. Sitting at a computer at home working on maps is not my favourite thing after working on a computer all day at work, so we shall have to see if anything comes of it.

Obviously, I have a tonne of other games and figures stashed in my attic that I would like to play, but they are 1000 miles from me at the moment with little chance of getting them shipped over. One day they too can be taken into consideration when I plan my future gaming, but in the meantime they are there to ensure that I have something to do, if ever I can afford to retire.

With that in mind, the real goal for the year is to continue 2024's theme of focusing on one rules set at a time and playing it properly so that it feels like I am getting real value and depth of experience from these games instead of flitting between games at random. This is so much easier when I play solo and do not get caught up in other people's enthusiasms! There is still room for pick-up games in my life, but I want to prioritise depth over breadth as much as possible. I would also like to continue the weekly blog updates. How well shall I do, do you think?