Match Report: Blood Bowl- Skaven vs. Orks

Lord Summervale: Welcome Blood Bowl fans! I am pleased to have you join us for Cabalvision IV's coverage of the Deep North- Southern Regional conference. I am your host Lord Summervale and as always I am joined in the booth by the great Blood Bowl mind and Hall of Fame player Mad Johan.

Mad Johan: Glad to be here as always, even if it is Freeboota Field, the home of the Skulsmash Reeverz, led by their team captain Grimgrod Rotgut. It is one of the premier stadiums in the Deep North- Southern Regional Conference.... if you are an Ork.

Lord Summervale: Indeed. Today, the Skulsmash Reeverz are facing one of their fellow underworld teams, the Skaven Cheez-Ballers led by their captain King Chedda'.

Mad Johan: The Reeverz have had some trouble with Skaven teams in the past, when they lost a close game in Overtime to the Rat Packers during the Prince Owayonna Healing Spring WatersTournament.

Lord Summervale: At least it was to the team that eventually won the entire tournament.

Mad Johan: Sure, but as Nuffle says.... a loss is a loss.

Lord Summervale: Johan, what do you think will be the keys to the game today?

Mad Johan: Great question. The Cheez-ballerz are a bit more bashy as they have two blitzers on their team, and only two Gutter Runners. We have also seen them try to run it up the gut in previous games using the cage, so they are not as flashy as the Rat Packers. I think they will need to bunch up the Reeverz at the line, start to bash through with their Blitzers, and then send the Gutter Runners deep to do the actual scoring in a thinned out Ork backfield.

Lord Summervale: Okay, what about the Skulsmash Reeverz?

Mad Johan: Well, the great thing about Ork teams is they can take a licking and dish it out. I think their plan is a bit simpler. Pound the Skaven into meat. You know what I say, it is hard to win a game of Blood Bowl if.....

Lord Sumervale: …. half your team is in the dug-out. Indeed.

It looks like King Chedda' and Grimgrod Rotgut are ready for the coin toss. The Grot ref has the coin up... and it looks like the Orks have won. They decide to receive the ball.

Mad Johan: That makes sense, they can control the ball and use this time to thin out the ranks of the Skaven team. That way, if you kick to them in the second half they will be in a tough place to recover.

Lord Summervale: The Cheez-ballerz go with the minimum number of players on the line. Meanwhile, the Orks match them and deploy in a surprisingly deep formation.

Mad Johan: Both sides fans are cheering loudly, but it sounds like the Orks may have the edge in their home field.

Lord Summervale: Boom! The kick is up. It is a very short kick that lands behind the far side line of scrimmage. The Ork line man Bowelburna trundles up and grabs the ball. The front lines jostle each other while the Orks start to move up.

Mad Johan: The Munster of the Midway unloads a powerful hit on Gutrippa that stuns him and stalls the Ork rushing advance.

Lord Sumervale: There is some additional confusion at the line as the Black Ork Big Ammer and the Skaven line man Brie Bumbler both go down.

Mad Johan: The Orks are not getting the ball moving the way they would like, plus these Skaven are putting up a bit of a resistance.

Lord Summervale: Indeed, the Skaven have managed to penetrate into the backfield in the gaps created by Gutrippa and Big Ammer being down. The Munster of the Midway gets a clear line and unloads on Bowelburna which knocks the Ork lineman from the game and into the KO box. The ball is loose.

The back-up thrower Runthugga manages to scoop up the ball and looks down field for his options.

Mad Johan: There aren't many options. However, Bad Axe drops a skaven lineman with a punishing hit and sends him packing to the dug-out. That's what these Orks need to do!

Lord Summervale: Look at that line play Johan. Brie Bumbler and his fellow lineman have teamed up and have taken Big Ammer down, he looks stunned!

Mad Johan: He's not the only one.

Lord Summervale: The other Skaven blitzer Pepper Jack manages to knock Gitsplitta into the crowd. A group of Skaven fans quickly take him out, before the Ork ushers get them off the poor player. He's going to the dug-out.

Mad Johan: Out cold. These Orks seem out of sorts today.

Lord Summervale: Rotten Rochefort tries to catch Runthugga with some help, but the Ork manages to stay elusive in his own backfield.

Mad Johan: In the center, you see King Chedda' doing his own dirty work for a change. He just KO'd Badgob.

Lord Summervale: Looks like the Skulsmash reeverz didn't take your advise Johan. They are the ones getting taken to the dug-out.

Mad Johan: The Ork team just looks disorganized out there. They are not playing as a team.

Lord Summervale: Pepper Jack and the linerat Swanky Swiss are swarming all over Runthugga. It doesn't look like he is getting away this time. Pepper Jack knocks him down and the ball gets scooped up by Swanky Swiss and makes for the end zone. However, Runthugga manages to trip him up. However, the ball is loose deep in Ork territory.

Mad Johan: In the center, the Orks show a spark of life as the team Kaptin Rotgut smacks King Chedda' to the dug-out. Meanwhile, Lungbursta manages to stun Feta Fiend.

Lord Summervale: Closer to the ball, Pepper Jack clears Runthugga away from the ball. Swanky Swiss manages to get the ball and runs it into the end zone for a score.


Mad Johan: That did not go the Orks way, and about half of the 1^st half has been eaten up by the Orks shoddy play.


Lord Summervale: Again both, teams send the minimum number of lineman to the line.


Mad Johan: I do not understand this. The Skulsmash Reeverz had success before against skaven by flooding the line. What are they doing?


Lord Summervale: The Ork and Skaven fans again take up their respective chants. Boom! The kick is up and this time the Ork Thrower Runthugga gets to the ball and picks it up.


Mad Johan: Again poor line play by the orks leaves a gap as Lungbursta and Stinky Limburgher both go down at the line.


Lord Summervale: Despite the gap in the front line, Ruk-Ruk the Ork Blitzer rushes past Skaven defenders on the far, outside wing. Runthugga sees him and hits him with a long pass.

Mad Johan: Despite getting past the frontline, the Skaven were more than ready for the Orks.

Lord Summervale: Indeed. The skaven swarm Ruk-Ruk and quickly take him down. The ball is loose in the Skaven territory.


Mad Johan: … but they are the only ones who are in a position to pick it up.


Lord Summervale: Indeed. Horrible Havarti picks it up and sits on it to end the half.

Mad Johan: If I was a Reeverz fan right now, I would not be happy. That was just ugly and uninspired play.


Lord Summervale: Well, after we return from the Cabalvision IV half-time report we will see if the Ork Skulsmash Reeverz can pull it together. They currently trail the Skaven Cheez-ballerz by 1. Remember, today's game from the Deep North- Southern Regional Conference is brought to you be Bloodwieser. Bloodwieser for the Bloodweiser god!



** ** ** ** **
Lord Summervale: Welcome back to Freeboota Field for the second half match-up between the Ork Skulsmash Reeverz and the Skaven Cheez-Ballerz. The Skaven are up by 1 and they are receiving the kick.


Mad Johan: The Orks are going to have to do much better this half. It all starts by getting the ball back from the Cheez-ballerz without them scoring. That means they are going to need some deep penetration early. Their Blitzers will be critical here.


Lord Summervale: The two teams are lined up. This time the Orks are a bit more committed to busting open the line and have their black Orks up front supported by lineman.


Boom! The kick is up. King Chedda scrambles and gets the ball. The Skaven quickly form a cage around him and start pressing through into the line. I think this was the strategy you talked about before the game Johan.


Mad Johan: Runthugga stiff arms Swanky Swiss and stuns him, leaving a gap at the line for the Orks to exploit.


Lord Summervale: The Skaven cage starts to splint, but the Gutter Runners have gotten into the backfield and into scoring position. King Chedda' has been flushed from the pocket and rolls out to make a short pass.

Mad Johan: Runthugga is onto King Chedda's tricks and stays with him.

Lord Summervale: King Chedda pulls back to pass....

Mad Johan: … Runthugga got a hand on it and the ball is loose near the line!

Lord Summervale: Lungbursta is there, and he manages to pick-up the ball!

Mad Johan: This is exactly what the Orks needed to do this half.

Lord Summervale: A collision away from the play leaves the Black Ork Bad Ammer and Feta Fiend both on the ground.


Mad Johan: Again?


Lord Summervale: King Chedda' and the Gutter Runner Rotten Rochefort team up on Lungbursta and lay a punishing hit on him. The ball goes loose, but I am unsure if he's going to be getting up from that one.

Mad Johan: I think I saw the flash of a blade there. Those Skaven..... welll if you aren't cheating you aren't trying!


Lord Summervale: Neither team seems that interested in the ball anymore. They are just pushing and shoving each other all across the board.

Mad Johan: Gobsmacka looks like he is after revenge for Lungbursta and unloads on Rotten Rochefort.


Lord Summervale: Badgob stuns the Skaven lineman Brie Bumbler in the general scrum.


Mad Johan: King Chedda again does his own dirty work and takes out the troublesome Runthugga.


Lord Summervale: The Refs blow the whistle for the end of the game. The ball is still loose and no one has bothered grabbing it. The game has come to an end with the Skaven Cheez-Ballerz victorious.


Mad Johan: The Cheez-ballerz were surprisingly hard hitting in this game. They played the Orks game and still managed to win. However, the Skulsmash Reeverz were completely disorganized this game.


Lord Summervale: Indeed. With the game over, let's go the injury report.


Mad Johan: Rotten Rochefort will miss the next game due to a broken jaw. I don't think the Cheez-ballerz will miss him too much as there Blitzers have been doing most of the work in there offense.


Lord Summervale: Reports are coming in from our grot sideline reporters that Lungbursta was hauled out of Freeboota Field in a body bag. He will not be rejoining the Skulsmash Reeverz line.... because he's dead.

Mad Johan: Too bad, he was maturing into a skilled lineman.

Lord Summervale: Yes, a shame. Speaking of Lungbursta, who do you think was the Guillotine Razor close have player of the day?


Mad Johan: Let's start with the Skulsmash Reeverz. Runthugga as the back-up thrower was all over the field, disrupting plays and making plays. Badgob and Gobsmacka also were hitting rats pretty hard. Ultimately, I am going to go with Badgob. He is a probably the Skulsmash Reeverz most effective lineman.


On the Cheez-Baller side, there were a couple of stand-outs. King Chedda was active in hitting and trying to drive the offense. Swanky Swiss did a good job against Black Orks. Finally, in the first half the Munster of the Midway was the key play maker. Ultimately, my Guillotine Razor player of the game is Munster of the Midway.

Lord Summervale: Well, that brings us to the end of our coverage for the Deep North- Southern Regional Conference. The Skaven Cheez-Ballerz have triumphed over the Ork Skulsmash Reeverz here at Freeboota Field. We will now return you to the Cabalvision IV booth for additional coverage of Blood Bowl across the Old Worlde. This is Lord Summervale with Johan in the booth signing off!

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Review: 5-Minute Dungeon

Today is a look at a game I discovered at Wal-Mart, of all places.  Typically, they do not have the best selection of board games of the type I am interested in.  However, this one caught my eye for a simple reason it was designed to be a quick cooperative game.  As you may recall, my family likes cooperative games and I get tired of losing to my family all the time.  This seemed like a good compromise.  The game is called 5-MinuteDungeon and I bought mine for about $20 bucks.

Things That I Liked

The game is a cooperative card game.  I do not have a ton of experience with these types of games, so I am sure the features I discuss below will be very familiar to many of you card gamers.      

You choose between 10 heroes, and each group of 2 has a different set of cards, and all of them have a unique ability.  The card deck has different combinations of “suits” that make fighter guys better at fighting, rogue types better at sneaking, ranged guys better at shooting, and magic characters better at knowledge.  Therefore, each color deck has a unique mix of abilities. 

The “Dungeon” is a deck of door cards.  On the other side is various encounters where you need combinations of cards to bypass them.  Therefore, you will want a mix of Hero types to give you the best combination of abilities and likelihood of cards to bypass various encounters.  There are sub-bosses and then a large boss at the end.  Therefore, conserving the right cards for the end battle is a must.

If you run you run out of cards your character dies.  Therefore, if you are not using your cards well your team will probably not beat the dungeon as you need a mix to beat the harder encounter cards. 

Did I mention that it is cooperative?  Either the party all win, or you all loose.  Thumbs up!  

Things I Do Not Like   

You only have 5 minutes to bypass every card in the dungeon deck, with the dungeon getting progressively more doors/encounters as you go up in difficulty level.  I am not a fan of this timer approach for two reasons:

• The game does not come with a 5 minute timer!
• I think a more leisurely pace would allow you to “enjoy” the game further

Instead, you are so busy slapping down cards that you do not spend much time thinking about your team strategy, talking to each other beyond grunts, or appreciating the clever artwork/word play in the game. 

It also becomes clear pretty fast that characters that allow you to draw new hands or more cards are way better than characters who can bypass certain obstacle types.  Soon, the characters you are taking become pretty set as accessing more cards to play is better than discarding three cards and bypassing an encounter.  The one outlier are the special abilities that stop the timer.  A cool idea in theory, but a bit fiddly in the execution. 

Meh and Other Uncertainties

There are 10 Heroes, but really they are just slight variants of 5.  I applaud the attempt, but it just isn’t enough variety.

Since the game only takes about 5 minutes to play, it is a bit discouraging that set-up can take about the same length of time.  I mean, you have to shuffle each character’s deck, the dungeon deck, load the sub-bosses, etc.  Still you can play several games in 30 minutes to an hour.

It has decent re-playability as the dungeons get harder (I mean longer) you tend to die more often.  Plus, the cards get less interesting the more you see them.  However, the tactical play and strategy is not deep enough to play for more than an hour or so without getting tired of it all.  However, an hour of family time playing a game that is not on a screen is pretty decent value for $20.  We have sat down and played it as much as games like King of Tokyo, Pandemic, Flick’emUp and Machi Koro.  For a “specialty” game from a big-box retailer not know for such things; that is a pretty good deal.

Final Thoughts

Since I am starting to experiment and think a bit about how card mechanics works and how they could be used for various resolution mechanics this was an interesting buy for me.  It worked good for the type of games my family was interested in and helped me get a good basic overview of one way cards can help resolve mechanics.  Overall, I was pleased with my purchase.        

Battle Report: High Noon- Attack at Fort Ridgely

With the launch of High Noon it seemed appropriate to share a large game we played loosely based on the battle of Fort Ridgely in the Dakota War of 1862. I have long wanted to build and play a wargame campaign for this conflict, and have even loosely based my All Quiet on the MartianFront games on the campaign. However, I have not really had a chance to put it high enough on my Hobby to do list to actually get it on the table. I have a few sketched out drafts for core rules, and a basic idea of the campaign flow, but that is about it. If I can't play a full fledged campaign, I can at least play a game loosely based on the events.

In the history, after a flare up of hostilities between the Dakota and white settlers in Minnesota; a local war broke out. There were the typical massacres, some battles between local militia and Indian tribes, that eventually culminated in the Dakota attacking Fort Ridgely. Fort Ridgely was a wall-less fort similar to many forts on the prairie frontier and during the Indian wars in America. It was composed of only a few buildings, and had a relatively small garrison. The Dakota were attempting to drive the white settlers out, and by attacking the fort they hoped to force better terms from the Europeans.

High Noon is part of my series on Dexterity Combat along with Green Army Men: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve and Total CARnage. Therefore, there are no dice rolls, rulers, templates, etc. Everything is resolved as WYSIWYG, coin flips, coin flicks, or hand based templates. This is a very family and non-wargamer friendly game.

Forces

Forces were selected by taking every Indian figure I had and giving it to the Dakota. I then took all the Cowboys with Rifles standing up that I had and put them on the opposite side. I added a couple of pistol packing dudes as Officers.

Fort Ridgely Defenders:

2 Dual Pistols

3 Pistols

10 Lever-Action Rifles

Dakota Tribe:

5 Long Rifles

2 Shotguns

2 Knives and Shields

10 with Spears

The actual defense of Fort Ridgely feature the use of some artillery pieces, but I don't have any of those so I skipped them for this.

Set Up

The table is a 6 x4 table covered with a brown desert mat. I placed four boxes in a rough square in the center which corresponds roughly with the lay-out of the fort. I then placed some rocky outcroppings near the edges for some cover. Fort Ridgely is actually in a clearing of woods and has a small gully beside it and tall grass in the “dead zones”. Not too much like what I set-up here, but that's why it is “based” on that battle and not that battle.

Mission

We discussed playing a specific mission, but my players really wanted to just do a Last Man Standing type of scenario. The Indians had the advantage in numbers, but the defenders had the advantage in firepower and move OR shoot weapons. Therefore, the battle was roughly balanced.

The Dakota were scattered around the edges of the board in groups of 3-5 figures. Each group had at least 1 rifleman for cover, and a spearmen or two. The defenders were mostly concerned about the template firing shotgunners, but they started in cover to help protect them from long range fire.

The Defenders were placed along the insides of the boxes, facing the center of the board. This was to represent them leaving the shelter of the buildings at the surprise Dakota attack.

The Game

I did not take detailed notes during game play on a figure by figure basis. Therefore, the below is a high level overview of the battle. The defenders won the Coin Flip to activate a figure first. All actions are alternate activations.

The Defenders got to go first, and opted to try and stay within the fort, and move to the edges and try to use long range shooting on their foes. The Dakota pressed towards the edges, moving and shooting whenever possible. The Dakota rifleman tried to clear the way with a barrage of fire, before the Dakota spearmen moved up to mop up exposed defenders. The initial Dakota sally towards the North side of the building was repulsed by the defenders with firepower. The Dakota attacking from the open took particularly heavy casualties on the North East corner.

Never bring a knife to a gunfight....

Despite the success in the North, the Southwest corner was left vulnerable, and the Dakota moved in. Their numbers advantage allowed them to move forward with relatively light resistance. Only a pair of officers tried to hold them back with pistol fire.

The Dakota advantage in numbers became clear once the spearmen were able to get in cover behind the forts buildings. The close range firefight that broke out forced the defenders to move to get firing positions, which limited their firepower. 

.... the Knife worked! 

In addition, one of the Indian shotgunners was able to move up and blast the officers defending the Southwestern edge of the fort. This left a large breach for the defenders to try to plug.

This is my boomstick!

Ultimately, once the Dakota managed to get to the perimeter of the fort, their numbers were able to turn the tide and the last of the defenders were killed by spears. It was a costly victory as the Dakota were reduced to only a handful of warriors.

Oh the humanity!

Conclusion

That did not go anything like the battle of Fort Ridgely. However, it was a close fought and exciting game with some cinematic moments and amazing flicks, both good and bad. One defender as killed by a misfire, as I flicked it so poorly that he took himself out! One of the Shotgun Dakota was killed by his own allies due to a bad flick. An Officer with a pistol took out two Dakota warriors with a single shot. All good times.

The game took about 1 hour to play, including set-up, and brief rundown of the rules. This was a rather large engagement. Most have fewer figures to start with. Plus, we had 4 players instead of 2. However, none of these factors bogged the game down and it went at a brisk pace. There were no rules disputes and after the initial rules brief very few follow up questions. We were focused on playing the game, hootin' and hollerin', and having a good ol' time.

Wargame Design: High Noon: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve

At my local grocery store, they have a small section to sell toys to the little sprogs.  It is 4 lonely feet mixed in with the sugary cereals.  A perfect place to ambush an unsuspecting parent!  In this forsaken section of toys, they had a bag of plastic cowboys and Indians.  It had been a long time since I had seen a bag of these toys.  I managed to resist buying them for several visits, but eventually my willpower cracked and in a moment of weakness I bought them.

As many of my long time readers will know, I love using toys for my wargames.  Of course, my first though was to use them for some Wild West themed game like Legends of the Old West, Dead Man's Hand, Fistful of Lead, or Dracula's America.  I had been toying with the idea of a Weird Wild West game myself for a long time.  I never actually got it down on paper, and eventually that game morphed into Turf War instead.  However, here I was with a nice set of multi-colored cowboys and Indians with no game to call home.

When I showed my family what madness I had wrought, my daughter was quick to solve the problem.  She asked if I was going to make another dexterity game with them!  Genius!  

I had first been introduced to the ideas and mechanics with the Z-man game Flick'em UP!  At first I had been skeptical.  However, after playing several games with players of all skill level and ages I was won over by the concept.  I had successfully used dexterity combat mechanics to make games before.  You can see the successful results in Total CARnage and Green Army Men: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve .  At that point, I decided that this rule set was going to join the Plastic Men, Steel Resolve family of games.  

So, the big question was how to make it a unique experience.  It was clear it would still use the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mechanics of my other dexterity games.  I still wanted the flick and flip mechanics too.  Finally, I also had dice "coin shifting" for different weapons lethality.  These were all features of Green Army Men: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve as well.  

Most of the flavor came from a few sources:  

1. Unique weaponry- The Wild West was well known for a few key weapon systems; the revolver and the lever action rifle.  Of course, those were not the only weapons.  The question was how to make them unique.  This was done by adding special rules not present in Green Army Men: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve   

         

2. Scenario Design- The flavor of the Wild West needs custom scenarios like stage coach robberies, jail breaks, showdowns at high noon, etc.  

3. Horses and Wagons- Riding horses and wagons was a key part of the Wild West.  Without horses, you loose the flavor of the period.  Therefore, there are rules for mounted models too! 

From Chick's Discount Saddlery

With those key elements identified, it was time to put the new rules together.  Thankfully, I was able to build off of an existing framework.  However, a revolver in the this Wild West game ended up working very differently than a pistol in Green Army Men: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve .  In addition, this new game had twice as many scenarios to play than its predecessors.  High Noon: Plastic Men, Steel Resolve was born.  

You can find this game (along with my other works) at my Wargames Vault page here: https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/11064/Blood-and-Spectacles-Publishing

Here is a quick start of a Battle Report to get a feel for game play: 

Black and Blue Bart and his gang of outlaws were trying to scout out a watering hole.  They came across a band of Native Americans.  The Indian war party recognized the outlaw, and decided to try and hunt him and his posse of outlaws down for the bounty.  

Forces

Black and Blue Bart and his Boys

1 Two Pistols

1 Pistol

2 Lever action rifles

Indian War Party

Knife and Shield

Spear

Spear and Shield

Shotgun

Long Rifle

Forces were selected by dividing the toys up by color.  Then reaching into the bag and pulling out random figures and using what they were armed with.  Simple.  

Set-up

The board was set-up on a 4x3 table with a desert mat.  We then placed four pieces of random stuff I had within arms reach.  Terrain is 1 for 1 in this game so What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG).  If you have Wild West themed terrain that is great, but it is not needed.  

Mission

We looked at the three pages of scenarios and we decided to do a basic Rootin' Tootin' shoot-out.

Turn 1

The coin flip let's the Cowboys go first.  Bart moves up with his two pistols and shoots ineffectively.  He is countered by the knife wielding indian going up the center as a distraction.  An outlaw rifleman runs forward and fires at a spear men, but misses.    

A second spear men moves up and a well aimed throw puts the Outlaw out of the game.  First blood to the War Party.  

However, the second rifle armed Outlaw stands still and fires across the board.  Since he stood still, he can take two shots with a lever action rifle.  His second shot finds its mark despite the distance!  The Indian spear man goes down and is out of the game.  

  

The Long rifle and Shotgun Native Americans move up the flank, while a pistol armed outlaw tries to cover the center of the board.  

That ends Turn 1 with both sides using alternating activation to move and shoot, shoot and move, or to simply shoot.  Not moving let's some weapons fire more often.  

So, that should give you a general feel for the game play.  Now you can decide if it is a game for you.  You can find this game (along with my other works) at my Wargames Vault page here: 

https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/11064/Blood-and-Spectacles-Publishing  

       

  

Random: July! The Half-way Mark for 2019 is Here!

Wow, half way through the year all ready.  It is time to review the progress on my 2019 Goals. 

Time flies by when you are having fun!

As you may recall, I tried to divide the year up into categories.  However, this year I tried to focus it a bit more on genres this year.  I then placed goals within the genre to help guide me through the year.  So, let’s get a break down on each category and goal. 

Period 1- Ancient Greeks

1.       Create a Social Media campaign to help promote the release of Men of Bronze.

-          I have made some progress with the help of T and T Consulting Solutions.  I have integrated my blog in with a website, Facebook page, and message board.  I have also added a few other tricks and gimmicks.  Feel free to join and follow them below. 

-          Website: Website

-          Facebook: Facebook

-          Support Page: Support

-          Message Board: Board

2.       Complete 2 of 3 armies: Corinthians, Spartans, and Macedonians. 

-          I have made some progress.  I painted one more Corinthian Unit, but it looks…. Not great…..

-          I assembled all the Pikeman and Hypaspists for the Macedonians

-          My painting associate has started working on the Spartans   

-          Overall, some progress but not enough.

3.       Purchase and paint a box of Victrix Greek Cavalry- No progress

4.       Use painted Greeks to create two rival Greek forces for Of Gods and Mortals

-          I have had issues tracking down 54mm models I like to be Athena or Artemis as the Gods

5.       Create Argonauts Warband for Broken Legions

-          I painted my Argonaut Hero and Herculean Champion for the Warband.

-          I also worked up the warband to rival my Sons of Spartacus warband

-          Have not gotten it on the table yet though.

6.       Document 6 Menof Bronze battle reports, including two video reports

-          I have 1 battle report completed and on the blog

-          I do have a nice lighting set-up for video/photos now

7.       Create a Quick Reference Sheet for Men of Bronze

-          I wrote it all up and sent it to Osprey for their site

-          You can also find a draft on the Messageboard

Period 2- Diadochi of Alexander

1.       Complete publishing process

-          Things may have gone a bit side ways on that front, more to come….

2.       Purchase, paint, and base two 6mm successor armies from Baccus Miniatures

-          I have made the purchase and they have arrived!

-          I also got a new set of paints to try and do them justice

3.       Complete painting my Victrix Macedonians including successor Phalangites, Hypaspists, and Heavy Cavalry

-          All infantry assembled and ready to paint.

4.       Purchase and paint a Victrix war elephant- No progress

5.       Take good photos of the models for Osprey- No Progress

Period 3- Roarin’ 20s

1.       Purchase and paint enough 28mm gangsters for 2 gangs

-          Purchased the Copplestone Gangsters from Brigade Games

-        Created two gang lists

-          Painted 1 gang completely

-          Painted 3 gangsters and undercoated last 3 for a second gang

2.       Pick-up some 1920’s style farm house

-          I picked out the one I will eventually buy, but have not purchased it yet.

3.       Buy and paint Cthulhu-esque Lurkers from the Reaper Bones line- No progress

4.       Update the TurfWar book with model photos and artwork- No Progress

Period 4- Blood Bowl

1.       Finish painting all of my current teams

-          Complete!

2.       Pick-up the Dwarf and Skaven alternate board

-          Complete, sort of. 

-          I bought the winter themed board instead

3.       Pick-up and assemble two more teams to bring me to 12

-          No progress

-          I am holding out for Lizzies and Chaos Dwarfs

Period 5- Napoleonic

1.       Play a game of Blucher- Complete!

2.       Pick-up the Osprey Wargaming Series- Rebels and Patriots- Complete!

3.       Complete a draft version of Mageloque- No Progress!

Period 6- Frostgrave

1, Purchase and paint enough fantasy models for 3-6 wizard warbands- No Progress

2. Purchase the Maze of Malcor and Ulterior Motives

-          Maze ofMalcor is complete

4.       Build, buy, and create enough terrain for a 3x3 Frozen city board- No progress

Period- Random Stuff

1.       Get Onlythe Strong Survive into the WIP section- Complete!

2.       Keep trying to get 1 new blog post up every 2 weeks- So far so good!

3.       Buy two armies from Vanguard Miniatures for Rampant Galaxies- Not Started

4.       Buy all the Dracula’s America Books, Last Days, and new Osprey Wargaming Series books that come out

-          I have kept up on the Osprey Wargaming Series

5.       Purchase Gangs of Rome starter set- No Progress

6.       Start building a Victrix Roman Republic and Samnite army- No progress!

7.       Play some AquanauticaImperialis- No progress!  

8.       Source two fleets for Castles in the Sky- Not Started

9.       Sell 1 new game pitch- In Progress!

Some bonus points for painting a few things for Aeronautica Imperialis too! 

Conclusion

This year I was incredibly ambitious about what I wanted to accomplish.  Honestly, I think my plans as written are more of a 3-5 year plan than a single year plan.  Last year, I was too conservative and this year I am too ambitious. 

However, good progress has been made.  I have painted over 110 + miniatures this year.  At one point, I thought I had painted everything I had in my lead pile, but I found one undercoated Mark IV tank for All Quiet on the Martian Front.  Then, a whole slew of Victrix, Copplestone casting, and Baccus came in to replenish my lead pile.

I have also managed to play about 8 games ranging from Men of Bronze, Strange Aeons, RampantStars, Aeronautica Imperialis, to Blucher.  I even got to play on International Tabletop Game Day.  Not too shabby.  If I keep this up, I might get in a game a month or even more!

Oddly, I have had the least amount of progress on the Game Design front.  Typically, this is one of my most productive areas.  However, I barely managed to get a playable version of Only the Strong Survive into the WIP section.  Despite the slow progress, I may have made more money of game design this year than previous years thanks to the publication of Men of Bronze, other work with Osprey, an article in WSS #102, and Wargame Vault sales.  I look forward to building on this progress as I have had a few projects waiting on the back burner for some time to work on them involving Carthage, the Wild West, and Vikings.

Overall, a pretty exciting year so far, but there is no way I am going to get everything done I have on my list for 2019.