Random: Painting for 2018 Goals

Last year, my 2017 Goals for Painting were not met.  For 2018, I decided to scale back my painting goals to something more managable.  I really scaled it back since I did not expect to have much time to paint.  My peak painting season is typically Novemebr through March.  This year, that did not happen do to pesky "Real Life" commitments getting in the way.

This blog is primarily about designing and playing wargames.  However, part of what makes wargaming a unique experience is the tactile and visual spectacle elements.  That is what drew me to wargaming in the first place.  It is no secret, I am not a great painter and do not really enjoy it much.  I am not above using paper templates in place of miniatures.  However, when I do have models I typically do not play a game with unpainted models.  It is a wierd quirk.  I am fine using paper templates or toys, but if I am playing with wargaming models I want them painted!

So, to that end I have been doing a bit of painting.  Let's see my progress.

You may recall these two models that I picked up when I purchased Pulp Alley.  They are a Red Queen and D.A. Thompson model that I intended to use in Turf War, Mad Dogs with Guns, Pulp Alley, or even Strange Aeons. 

I managed to get paint on them.  Nothing spectacular, as I am not that good of a painter. However, they are now ready to hit the tabletop.

Besides these two, I also painted up some Mobile Artillery for All Quiet on the Martian Front.  These had been sitting in the silver and unassembled on my desk for sometime.  I think since late 2016!  They finally got a coat of paint.  

My main base coat of dark green went dry so I had to make do with some other colors.  However, you can see that they turned out just fine after some Dark Tone washes.

Finally, I also went back to some of my Crusader Gladiators.  I had been putting them off for sometime as I don't like painting horses.  The chariot horses did not turn out great, so I put off paintingthe Equites on horseback for a long, long time.  Probably longer than the Mobile Artillery even!  However, now that they are painted, I can use Equites Gladiators in The Games: Blood and Spectacle games.  That will be fun! 

They have a mounted and dismounted version now too.  I actually painted the dismounted guys a long time ago to act as Damnati and Noxi models too.  For Gladiator games they will prove versatile, plus I can use them as a Sons of Spartacus faction in Broken Legions.

I really need to stop taking iphone photos from my basement at night and expect them to come out!  These are a pair of Retarius and a Noxi for my Gladiators.  They are also from Crusader.  The Retarius with the iron mask... I actually have no idea what he is.  He doesn't have a net and he doesn;t have a trident... so I think he is something from the movie Gladiator with Russel Crowe i.e. some made-up Hollywood gladiator type.   

That actually sorts my 2018 Painting Goals plus a few models more!  Wow, anything else I paint is gravy!   

  

     

Wargame Design: New Title: Turf War

The astute reader of this blog will have noticed that the number of Free Wargames has grown on this page!  When I first started there were 6 games available for free there.  That selection has grown a lot in the past year and a half.  It is now a whopping 11.  Not bad productivity for 18 months or so. 

The newest addition to the Blood and Spectacles fold is Turf War a game of 1930’s Gangster battles.  I like this game since it is a skirmish game that allows for campaign play and RPG-lite style scenarios.  It uses the Combat Pool system for combat found in The Games: Blood and Spectacleand Tournament Pageantry and Pain.  However, it also uses pools for other non-combat actions such as smooth-talking, safe-cracking, and other RPG-lite options.  Not everything has to be solved by a flurry of Tommy Gun fire…. but it can be.   

In addition to the Core mechanics of everyday gang warfare Turf War also has a strong campaign system built on the model of some of my favorites such as Necromunda, Strange Aeons, and TheGames: Blood and Spectacle.  Lowly gangsters can gain experience to earn skills, get injured, or improve their abilities.  In addition, the game uses a Turf bidding system prior to games to represent the give and take of territory based on the results of a game.  Resources for your gang are managed such as Reputation, Take, Turf, and Favors.  In addition, the Boss has to manage the recruitment and retention of his gang too.  The game also uses a Most Wanted rating to gauge relative gang strength that allows for catch-up mechanics for those just entering an existing campaign or who have had a run of bad luck. 

Overall, I wanted the game itself to force decisions making, and reward good gameplay.  Sometimes, campaign games focus too much on the campaign and bolt the gameplay on as a secondary concern.  That is not the case with Turf War.  I wanted the game to be full of decisions.  The theme of Turf War is to try and force decision making on a risk vs. reward continuum.  This is primarily accomplished through resource management of dice pools for combat, non-combat, and even activation.  Combat Pool is bid and used to attack and defend, but it will not be replenished until the following turn.  Therefore, as the player you have to decide when is the right time to use it, and how much of it. 

Activation is also a push your luck system as a model can only do one thing per activation such as move, shoot, perform and action, etc. You can risk trying to chain activations together as well.  I used a similar activation system in Combat! Starring Vic Morrow as well.  Failure to activate multiple times risks losing the initiative and allowing your opponent to start activating.  Therefore, additional activations are another risk vs. reward decision point.

The biggest sticking point in completing these rules was coming up with interesting Scored (scenarios) to play.  In the end, I used some “generic” wargames style scenario with some added period flavor.  Inspiration came from StrangeAeons, Mad Dogs with Guns, Pulp Alley, Rogue Trader, and Rogue Stars.  However, there is room to combine or modify the scenarios in the rules and adding more RPG-lite elements is strongly encouraged.

To help kick-off the game, I of course made some paper templates that you can use to get your gangs started.  I also put together a couple of gangs for playtesting.  These should give you a good quick start into games.  They can be found Here on the Messageboard.  

Of course, I have also started picking up a few gangsters here and there to paint.  You probably recognize these Pulp Alley figures from the Painting Desk.  Well, I have one doen to get a start on one of my gangs!