Monday, February 27, 2023

On the Painting Desk: Speed Painting some Bad Guys


Well, you probably read my very inspiring and motivating goals for 2023.  On that list, you saw that I had received several random miniatures from my friend, The Painted Dwarf.   These miniatures were from the Hellboy board game, and featured a variety of "Deep One" style miniatures.  I was particularly excited about the "Dagon-like" mass of tentacles, but was not looking forward to painting it! 

I plan on using these miniatures in a variety of game systems.  They make good, generic "adversary" figures.  You might see them as I test out Darkest Knights, or in games such as Strange Aeons, FrostgraveBroken Legions, or as minions in Supersystem

In addition, I also got a nice new Armypainter Mega Speed Paint set for Christmas.  I had previously used Speed Paints on an Eldar Corsair Kill Team, and had good results.  However, the basic set had some color limits, especially for things like white, purples, and variant shades,  The Mega set gave me a lot more flexibility and options in my color palettes.  I was eager to give these paints another run out. 


The first step was to properly prepare the models.  This involved giving them an undercoat of GW primer using Clan Skyre grey.  Then, I gave the models a dark grey wash using a watered down ArmyPainter Uniform Grey color, with 1 part paint to 10 parts water.  This allowed the darker grey tone to flow into the recesses.  Lastly, I drybrushed the models white.  

I then sorted through the various Green and Green-ish colors and started undercoating various Fishmen to see how these tones turned out.  I wanted to use these as the base "flesh" colors for my Deep Ones.    


You can see a nice variety of colors!  There is a darker green, a lighter green, and a middle green as well.  I also played around a bit with colors on their clothing and weapon hafts as well.  Here are some random thoughts: 

1. These go on very easily and respond well to models with well defined detail.  

2. They are much easier to get in the right place than a wash typically is.  

3. I did not try to blend or mix any Speedpaints with other Speedpaints.  

4. They are best applied to the primer individually, do not try to paint one Speedpaint directly over another, as that does not lead to good coverage.  

5. If you do make an oopsie, I recommend painting over the spot again with grey/white and re-applying the speedpaint you intended later.  

6. These take a bit longer to dry completely than regular paint.  Therefore, give them plenty of time to dry before you go back and continue.  If you go back to see, you will just wipe away what you have applied.  

7. They go on thin, so handling will wear them quickly.  Avoid handling painted portions and give them a layer of protection when you are done. 


These are all done with Speedpaints only.  I used Armypainter Matte Black around the edges of the base, and a Pure Red to dot the eyes.  I also gave them a wash of Dark Tone to further define and grunge them up. 

I then went on and painted up "Rasputin" and the Tentacle beastie separately.  I finished the whole lot in about 8 hours total including priming, prepping and dry time, a quick and easy project for a weekend.  This was about half the time as my usual "Prime, Basecoat and Wash" techniques. 

Where is Rasputin? 

If the purpose of Speedpaints is to help get an army or group of minis on the table quick and to a better than Pre-painted standard, I would say they were successful.  I am more of a "workman-like" painter, and not looking to create masterpieces.  I want tabletop quality and I want it fast.  Therefore, these seem to work pretty well for me.  

If I was interesting in more advanced painting techniques, I think the slow dry time, poor coverage of lower paint layers, and delicate coverage could be a bigger issue for more advanced painters than me.  If you are at my level, then these are a good investment.  If you are above my level, and want to go beyond tabletop quality; than probably not so much of a good choice. 

I think these paints also lend themselves well for Fantasy, Sci-fi, and Supers better than historicals.  The tones seem too bright and "comic book" for historical figures.  However, I will have to give them a shot on a Historical mini and get back to you on that subject. They definitely work better on sharper, well-defined sculpts with deep edges.  

Adding the Tentacle Beast and some sunlight on the issue

 A quick 20 minis painted for 2023 now.  Not a bad start.  If only I could figure out what my "Big" painting project for 2023 was going to be.  I could get started on it then! 

I also found some old Foundry samurai that I found when organizing some miniatures.  I had totally forgotten about these guys.  However, they gave me a chance to try some speed paints on historical minis.  I base coated them with a cheap acrylic pewter grey, gave them a wash of dark pavement, and then drybrushed them white.  The undercoat was darker than my previous work, and I think it shows when I started to apply the speed paints.  These guys came out rather dark.  Anyway, here they are....

Speaking of 2023, here is some books that came in the mail for me.  Keep an eye on the blog for some reviews coming up.  


 



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Monday, February 20, 2023

Wargame Design: Castles in the Sky- New Ship Types!

 


As many of you know, when I was writing Castles in the Sky there was a strict word count for the book.  However, I wrote so much content that I had to go back and remove some of it from the book.  Even with my edits, the final book is still larger than any of the other Osprey Wargaming Series books!  Instead of the normal 64 pages, it is 80 pages of content!  

To make the rules fit to the new expanded size, I still had to cut out some rules and other details that I wanted to keep in.  The biggest space eater, was the ship templates.  Therefore, I had to remove a lot of ships.  Therefore, each fleet was left with only 1 Battleship, a cruiser of two, and 1 or two escorts.  All nationalities lost at least a single ship to make space.  I want to make these ships available to the community here on the blog! 


First off, here are the rules I had originally intended for the Regional Powers that are not represented in the book:

Regional Powers

Besides the Great Powers, there are a number of other countries attempting to gain regional power through the use of an Air Navy.  South America is especially rife with these types of regional politics.  However, they are not the only place.  The countries bordering the Baltic Sea have a similar regional competition politically, economically, and militarily. 

Most of these countries lack the industrial base to build Air Warships on their own.  Instead, they tend to form alliances or sign building contracts with one of the Great Powers.  This power tends to act as their “patron” on the world stage.  This patronage allows these lesser powers to improve their own military forces with secondary units and designs from their Patron powers.  The United States and Britain are exceptions to this process as they are willing to sell Air Ships to anyone with the right coin.   

These Regional Powers tend to have one “fleet” of Air Ships that consists of a few cruisers and escorts.  They can not field larger forces and it takes great national effort to field the Air Ships they have.  Some try to emulate their patron’s doctrine’s and organization, others adhere to the Mahan school, while others follow the Jeune Ecole approach to Air Warfare.  No matter the doctrine, there are few formal academies and actual hands-on training is rare compared to the Great Powers.  There simply is not money in the budget to fly the fleet on a regular basis. 

Officers tend to come from families with commercial interests in knowledge of Airships.  The crews are the left-over conscripts that the local armies do not want.  Therefore, command ability can vary wildly and crew skill is low at best. 

These regional forces do not intend to compete with the Great Powers, except in desperation.  However, the can be effective against local nations with limited access to Air Power.  Such a fleet can make the difference between victory and defeat.  Hence, all nations that aspire to greatness must try to build an Air Fleet of their own.   

Lesser Powers include regional powerhouses like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, China, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, and similar countries.  Most have a single Patron that provides the bulk of their forces, with a few airship supplements from the United States or Britain.     

Determining Command Dice

Regional Power
Roll a d6 for each ship:
1-2= Command of 1
3-5= Command of 2
6 Command of 3

Line-of-Battle

Choose a patron Great Power for the Regional Power.  They can choose Armored Cruisers, Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Escorts from this list.  In addition, they may add 1 United States or British Cruiser for every 2 Cruisers from their Patron.  For every 3 escorts taken, 1 may be taken from either the United States or Britain.

For Example, Argentina has Britain as a Patron Great Power.  Therefore, they choose to take a Minotaur class armored cruiser, Active class Light Cruiser, and 3 Shah class frigates.  Assuming they still have Operational Value left, they can then choose 1 United States Cruiser and 1 United States Escort.  In this case, they choose Denver class and a Smith class to round out their fleet.  

Brigade Models British aeronef take on Prussians from Spartan Games Dystopian Wars range

 British Empire

The following are additional warships for the British Navy.  They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.

Class: King George V   
Category: Battleship  
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 6                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:    Power:      Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1          +4/+2/+1   Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                              Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1         +4/+2/+1   Stern/Port              4+
                                                                             Starboard
Light Battery                  -/4/3/1         -/-/-           Bow/Port/              5+
                                                                             Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/2/1         -/-/-           Stern/Port              5+
                                                                            Starboard             
Point Defense                4/-/-/-          -/-/-             All                       -
Operational Cost: 11
 
 
Class: Lion       
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)       
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 8                    
Altitude: 8                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:      Power:        Fire Arc:       Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/6/4/2            +3/+2/+1     Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                                  Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/6/4/2            +3/+2/+1     Stern/Port              4+
                                                                                  Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-            +1/-/-           Bow/Port/              5+
                                                                                 Starboard
Point Defense                2/-/-/-              -/-/-              All                       -
Operational Cost: 6
 
 
Class: Invincible
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)       
Armor: 7
Speed: 2- 8                    
Altitude: 8                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:      Power:     Fire Arc:     Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1           +3/+2/+1   Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                               Starboard
Heavy Battery               -/5/3/1           +3/+2/+1    Stern/Port              4+
                                                                               Starboard
Light Battery                  -/4/2/-            +1/-/-        Bow/Port/              5+
                                                                              Starboard           
Point Defense                2/-/-/-             -/-/-           All
Operational Cost: 5

French Republic

The following are additional warships for the L’Aire Nationale.  They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.
 
Class: Charlemagne
Category: Battleship (Heavy Cruiser) 
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 5                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:      Power:    Fire Arc:       Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/7/5/3            +4/+3/+2  Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                               Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/7/5/3            +4/+3/+2  Stern/Port              4+
                                                                               Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-             +1/-/-       Bow                    5+
                                                                                                                  
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-             +1/-/-       Starboard              5+
                                                                                                                               
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-             +1/-/-       Port                    5+
 
Light battery                  -/3/1/-            +1/-/-         Stern                  5+         
 
Point Defense                3/-/-/-               -/-/-         All
Air Torpedo                    4 (Speed 18)  +3            Bow
Operational Cost: 6

German Empire

The following are additional warships for the German Navy.  They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.
 
Class: Kaiser
Category: Battleship  
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 6                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:   Power:      Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1          +4/+3/+2  Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                             Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1          +4/+3/+2  Stern/Port              3+
                                                                             Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-          +1/-/-        Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                            Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-          +1/-/-       Stern/Port              4+
                                                                            Starboard             
Point Defense                2/-/-/-            -/-/-          All
Air Torpedo                    1 (Speed 18) +3          Bow
Air Torpedo                    1 (Speed 18) +3          Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
 
 
Class: Helgoland
Category: Battleship  
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 5                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:   Power:     Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/7/5/3          +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                            Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/7/5/3          +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port              3+
                                                                            Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-          +1/-/-       Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                           Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-         +1/-/-       Stern/Port              4+
                                                                          Starboard             
Point Defense                2/-/-/-           -/-/-         All
Air Torpedo                    1 (Speed 18) +3         Bow
Air Torpedo                    2 (Speed 18) +3         Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
 
Class: Konig
Category: Battleship  
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 5                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:     Power:     Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1            +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                              Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1           +3/+2/+1  Stern/Port              3+
                                                                              Starboard
Medium Battery           -/3/2/1            +2/+1/-      Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                              Starboard
Medium Battery           -/3/2/1            +2/+1/-      Stern/Port              4+
                                                                              Starboard             
Point Defense                2/-/-/-             -/-/-           All
Air Torpedo                    1 (Speed 18) +3             Bow
Air Torpedo                    2 (Speed 18) +3             Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
 
Class: Deutschland
Category: Battleship (Heavy Cruiser) 
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 5                    
Altitude: 7                      
Turns: 1/45      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:    Power:      Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/4/3/1           +3/+2/+1  Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                              Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/4/3/1           +3/+2/+1  Stern/Port            3+
                                                                              Starboard
Medium Battery           -/4/2/-              +2/+1/-    Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                             Starboard
Medium Battery           -/4/2/-              +2/+1/-   Stern/Port              4+
                                                                            Starboard             
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-           +1/-/-      Bow/Port/              4+
                                                                            Starboard
Light Battery                  -/3/1/-          +1/-/-       Stern/Port              4+
                                                                            Starboard             
Point Defense                2/-/-/-            -/-/-          All
Operational Cost: 6 

Class: Seydlitz
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)       
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 6                    
Altitude: 8                      
Turns: 1/90      
Lift: 1
Armament:                     Firepower:   Power:     Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1         +2/+2/+1  Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                            Starboard
Heavy Battery                -/5/3/1         +2/+2/+1  Stern/Port              3+
                                                                            Starboard
Light Battery                  -/4/2/-         -/-/-           Bow/Port              4+
                                                                            Starboard
Point Defense                2/-/-/-           -/-/-           All
Air Torpedo                    1 (Speed 18) +3           Bow
Air Torpedo                    2 (Speed 18) +3           Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 7
 
 
Class: Kolberg
Category: Cruiser (Light Cruiser)         
Armor: 7
Speed: 2- 10                  
Altitude: 9                      
Turns: 2/45      
Lift: 2
Armament:                     Firepower:    Power:   Fire Arc:        Ammo:
Medium Battery           -/2/1/-             +2/+1/-   Bow/Port/              3+
                                                                           Starboard
Medium Battery           -/2/1/-`            +2/+1/-  Stern/Port              3+
                                                                           Starboard
                                                                                                                                 
Point Defense                6/-/-/-             -/-/-        All
Bombs                              4 (Speed 6)  +1         Stern
Operational Cost: 4


There are new ships for all the Great Powers.  However, for the sake of space, I will leave it at the first three Nationalities for now.  In a few weeks I will have more ships to add for the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Italy, and The Dual Monarchy and more.  

To sign off, I want to provide access to a couple last resources that maybe useful to you in your games: 

Quick Reference Sheet
https://app.box.com/s/5smrkaa313mgwu8ypzp9qw56oxhohwgo

Ship Templates

Record Sheets

The Tokens, Templates, and Sheets were made by Robert Kurcina from the Delta Vector Google Group.  Thanks to his help, Castles in the Sky was made possible in the first place!

These resources should help you out with your games as you go forward.  Good hunting!  Let me know if you have any questions.  



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Monday, February 13, 2023

Review: Xenos Rampant- Osprey Games

 


The long awaited book by Daniel Mersey and Richard Cowen has finally come out.  The latest in something referred to as the "Rampant Series" which is a series of games all using the same basic rules as found in the original Lion Rampant. This one takes the action all the way into the not-so and oh-so distant future.  As such, it has two of my favorite elements in a wargame.... model agnostic and base agnostic!  I am so here for this!   




Some of the Rampant series of books


Osprey must have been pretty confident that they had a winner on their hands, as they skipped straight to hard cover with this one.  Unlike the tight, original Rampant sets of rules in their nice 64 page blue book styles, this one is an indulgent 192 pages!  

I am interested to see where this one mimics the Rampant series, and where it treads new ground.  I probably won't go over the entire Rampant system here, but instead cover some of the key changes or updates made for this book from the core rules.  If you are interested in the base rules, you can find that in my  Lion Rampant review.  

So, power up the main hyper drive, set your phasors to maximum carnage, and get ready to blast off into the stars!!!!!!!!!


Things I Liked

Did I mention this game is scale and base agnostic?  Oh, well..... IT IS!  Armies are typically between 30-50 models and are referred to as detachments.  There are some limits on tanks, making this a Unit vs. Unit skirmish style game.  The game uses the Strength Point system found in Dragon Rampant so you can have single model and reduced model sized units.  Typically, a unit is worth 5, 10, or 15 strength points.  

This book is filled with lovely painted minis, and they sourced them from a variety of manufacturers.  Nice to see Osprey spread the love around in this book! The non-mini artwork is pretty fun too.  I have a feeling they commissioned all new art for this one. 

A hallmark of Rampant games is to take a potentially dizzying array of units and condense them down into some basic themes.  They do that here as well, with a variety of infantry units to choose from, some very broad alien types, and basic vehicle types as well.  Each have slightly different profiles and access to abilities.  However, there is also a section where you can add additional unit by unit Xenos Rules to help make your units less "generic" and give them some flavor for a specific feel to them.  These two approaches allow maximum flexibility to make the type of units you want. 

One of the most controversial rules in the Rampant series is the "activation roll" you need to take to activate a unit.  Failure rotates play to the other player.  They handle it in this game by giving units a preferred action or Free action.  The unit can take this action without an activation roll, therefore you can always "do something" if you do not want to risk an activation roll.  However, if you want to act and the Free Action is not useful, too bad; you make an activation test.  This adds "friction" to the game and forces choice.  In addition, they have added "Reactions" that some units can trigger when they are attacked.  This allows for a lot more give and take in the system than previously existed.  Finally, they added a really nice looking "Order of Operations" flow chart for activation.  

One of the Optional rules in the Near Future section of the book includes a Fog of War mechanic that I like.  I would want to incorporate the general idea into more of the rules with thematically appropriate list of random events.   


Things I Did Not Like

They are still using the "random trait" schtick for a player's commander.  I would prefer if they just had a points cost and you could pick.  Especially since you can get traits that do not apply to your commander, or are really not fun.  However, this does add a certain "friction" to the game and allows for the RPG-lite on the table top. 

There are two things that make this a bigger book than the normal Rampant "Blue Book".  The first is that the rules themselves are written in a less concise, more Rick Priestley, and English Gentleman style than the Rampant books.  They were a clinic in less is more, where this is a bit more "homespun".  

The second reason is that they spend more time than most Rampant books with adding setting details.  In a typical Rampant book, there is not enough space to do this type of work.  However, here they have Weird War, Near Future, Judge Dredd style gang/street violence, Post-Apoc, and Space Opera where they go into some detail into the settings, potential factions, and how to build the proper detachments.  A similar book but for Fantasy, Dragon Rampant; does not have the space to be this indulgent.  All though good work, it feels a bit like filler to get this beyond "Blue Book" level.  

I really wish the game would have done something a bit more creative around terrain, or fighting on alien worlds.  Some of this comes in the "setting details" but I think the Rogue Stars warzone and mission tables are one of the coolest things in the Blue Book series, and would have liked to see some cool "Sci-fi" terrain tables here as well, or some details in the setting sections.  

I would also have liked a "Moongrunt/Lunar" setting as well as a Hard sci-fi setting.  However, I think this game was more focused on "cinematic" style games.   


Meh and Other Uncertainties

The book comes with a 11 scenarios, which has been an area where Rampant books have shined in the past.  These ones seem a bit more basic, but a nice wide selection to enhance replayability.  

There are also a couple of pages on campaign play, and the scenarios deal with some campaign elements as well.  For example, they award benefits and restrictions for the next game in the campaign for force selection and the like.  For the most part, your leader can gain abilities and traits as the campaign progresses, a similar element is in Pikeman's Lament.        

The rules expand a bit on the normal terrain rules for such games.  They make terrain a bit more "modular" by assigning a few tags to them.  A small, minor difference.  However, things like hills acting as soft cover when attacked from below a units height add some fun differentiation to terrain. 

There are some basic guidelines for table size, with the standard 24 point detachment of 30-50 models using 4x4 foot tables.  There is also a brief discussion of playing multi-player games.  There is no mention of solo or co-op play, as it is primarily designed to be a Versus system.  However, I am sure you could use a Mr. Babbage process as seen in The Men Who Would Be Kings in a pinch.  

The game allows pre-measuring.  

Final Thoughts

To be truthful, there is not a lot of new things here if you are familiar with how to play a Rampant game system.  That is good and bad.  As I approached this book, I got exactly what I expected out of it and it perfectly fits to type for a "Rampant" book.  On the flip side, that was also a disappointment as well. 

 Therefore, if you are a fan of the Rampant series it does exactly what you would expect it to do, just at a higher glossier price point.  It has a few extra bits here and there to help flesh it out like the addition of the Reaction system and some of the optional rules later in the book. The army creation is also still very flexible, but makes each unit type still feel unique with their selection of options combined with the Xenos rules.

I am happy with the purchase and can see myself using these rules on the table.  Now, if we can get Dan to make a Dux Bellorum and Dragon Rampant mash-up I would be really happy! 


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