LEGO Goes to War: Brickfest 2013

We took the boy to the local LEGO fair again this year, and among the many custom creations were a number of historical or military themed models. I think whatever neuron gets triggered in wargamers to allow them to obsess over tiny plastic soldiers must be shared by Lego fans too. Snaps of the creations of our kindred spirits after the jump.

Afrika Corps

Detailed interior of a Tiger

Brécourt Manor

Artillery pit

Winters leads his men in the Brécourt Manor assault

Zero Dark Thirty

The hovering helicopter featured a motorized rotating blade

D-Day

Weird seeing beach carnage rendered with children's toys.  I'm sure wargames look equally odd to passers-by.

Medieval

Banquet.

Cavalry approach a castle along the road

Pacific Beach Landing

Looking lengthwise from the Japanese defenses to the enormous landing craft in the distance

Serenity

This model of Serenity space ship was incredible. Huge, fully detailed interior with lights. Very impressive.

My son had a blast and I was struck by the amount of cleverness and ingenuity the builders used to eek out such detailed models from simple parts. I'm sure we'll be back for another visit next year :)

Conquest Miniatures' Norman Cavalry

Over the last year I've painted up a few Vikings, a whole village of levy archers, and just now completed the Darth Vaders of the Dark Ages - a dozen Norman knights. It's hard for me to see the Normans as anything but bad guys. I'm not from the UK, and don't have any sort of emotional ties to any of the various post-Roman clans, but reading about the initial conquest by William the Bastard it was hard for me not to identify with the plucky Harold and his army of underdogs who fought off viking invaders and Harold's nutty brother before finally falling to the Norman invaders. The Normans don't seem to have acted like anything but thugs in their adventures in Italy and during their Crusades in the Middle East either.

I was eager to get some of these signature units painted up for SAGA or larger wargames. Conquest Miniatures' plastic Norman Cavalry set seemed an affordable way of getting these classic dark age knights on to the table. My thoughts and a review of Conquest's figures after the jump.


The sprues are full of variety. Most of the warriors are clothed in chain, but figures in quilted and heavy linen or leather tunics are included as well. Arms are separate, with the limbs molded as part of the back of shields, or holding weapons (spears and swords). A number of separate arms, shields and weapons are included to allow even more customization. There are 15 sets of riders and horses (a change from earlier packaging that provided 15 riders, but only 12 horses), but only a dozen kite shields. A number of round shields are included which I pressed into service rather trying to source alternates. A horse and rider casualty figure is included as well as horn, standard and wooden club (should you wish to model Bishop Odo as seen on the Bayeux tapestry.)

All riders have swords in their scabbards. I chopped off the hilts
and added green stuff to cover the missing detail after the operation.

The horses are first rate, in my opinion. Dark age era horses were smaller and shaggier than modern breeds, so these models might be ahistorical, but the sculpting, detail and animation are so fine that I'm willing to overlook any anachronisms. They come with modeled with horse blankets, so could potentially be used to mount other riders.

Five riders awaiting basing.

The riders are decent. I was a bit disappointed in some of the facial detailing which is either obscured by the nasal protection of the Norman helms or simply very shallow and undefined on a few of the heads. On others the faces and expressions are quite clear, and en masse from a foot away they all look good.

The box also comes with enough Renendra bases to mount all of the horses. Rather than the more common 12 riders per cavalry unit, I decided to drop down to 10 riders, leaving 5 leftover. Combined with another box of Norman Cavalry I can get three 10 figure units from two boxes. All is well and good, but there aren't enough bases for three units among the two boxes. I picked up some extras on eBay UK, and there are alternatives on the eBay US site too.

Painting Tips 

I found the shield arms tricky to implement. I prefer gluing the entire figure together, priming and painting it, and then applying the shield as the last step. Because the arm is integral to the shield, I had to modify that process a bit. I applied a bit of putty (blue-tac) to the socket of the rider's arm and to the shield arm's elbow before priming, so that I could later use plastic cement to attach the two pieces. I painted the riders and then lined up the shield arms for detailing the designs and emblems.

I used a bit of blue-tac type putty to protect the mounting point for the shield arm before priming.

Shields lined up for painting. Easier than trying to do this after they've been attached I think.

Once they were done, I removed the putty and then finished up by painting both sleeves at once
and gluing the shield arm in place. I was eager to get these wrapped up, so broke out all of my painting tricks to get each rider done quickly: drybrushing the armor, washes and highlights for the skin and shields, and block color plus dip for the clothing.

Review 

Overall I was pleased with Conquest Miniatures Norman Cavalry. The horses are especially nice and the riders are good. A lot of noise was made about the lack of central bosses when these figures were first released a year or two ago, but from my reading it seems that central bosses were common for kite shields, but not essential. I picked up another box at Historicon which might receive central bosses, but I think it might be more trouble than it's worth.


Sculpting: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Variety: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Value: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Videos! New Total War: Rome II Trailer and History of Scotland Documentary

Total War: Rome II

I have a feeling this game is going to derail my painting this fall. I spent dozens of hours and late nights with the first Rome Total War, and I'm looking forward to the updated version. There's still quite a lot of Hollywood in this (Naval preparatory bombardments? Gigantic African elephants?) but I dig the focus on Hannibal and the Punic wars.

It looks like Total War: Rome 2 is set to release September 2, with free Greek city states downloadable content for preorders. Not sure if I should take advantage of the preorder or wait for the holidays when I'll have the time to devote to it.

History of Scotland

I was also hunting around YouTube for something to watch while I finished up some Normans for SAGA and stumbled upon a BBC production of the History of Scotland.

The first episode covered everything from the Romans fighting the Caledonians up to the appearance of "Scotland" as a political entity following the Battle of Brunanburh. Lots of fodder to spur games of Hail Caesar, Dux Britanniarum and SAGA. My knowledge of Scottish history is essentially nil, but I loved the first episode and I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the series. BBC always gets the best stuff.

Historicon 2013: Saturday

Saturday was our big gaming day, with games scheduled from 9am until 11pm. Luckily they were all a blast. Check out monsters, mutants and an ironclad after the jump.

Dungeon Hack

We started the day in the HAWKS room with Dungeon Hack. Each player received a classic dungeon crawling party with the simple goal of invading a den of evil, slaying those inside and escaping with loot.

The full 10 x 6 setup. Notice the spinners ready to discern our fate.

Messing with dungeon features (bones, crypts, devices, etc), treasure chests or evil skulls required a spin on one of three spinners to discover the action's result. The spinners were essentially percentile charts (a trap that had a 75% chance of triggering took up 3/4 of the spinner's pie chart) but something about flicking the spinner, and watching that arrow slow down and approach "death" but just slip past to "nothing happens" was more fun than simply rolling on a chart.

Bugbears pour forth from a secret door.

Battling a mimic at the foot of a teleportation throne.

My party mostly wiped out at the ends of an enemy party and suddenly surprised by a hydra. A bad day for my elves!

Monsters were spawned once your party drew within line of sight of skull tokens littered throughout the tunnels, and were controlled by the player to your right. The whole set up ran very smoothly with our gamemaster Noah mostly encouraging our fool hardy investigations of dungeon features or happily cheering each demon spawn, sprung trap or petrified player character as "excellent!"  Great game!

Black Powder

I dashed from Dungeon Hack to Miles Reidy's Black Powder game. This was my first time playing Black Powder, but Miles assured me my Hail Caesar experience would transfer. The terrain by Architects of War looked great, and Miles ran down the rules briefly with just enough information to get started and make informed decisions on potential actions.

I took the Union cavalry reserves which started off board at the beginning of the game. We controlled a vital carrot field, the Rebs held a strategic chicken coop, and an important hill dominated the center of the table coveted by both sides. Whichever army controlled two of the three objectives when the game was called would win. Although outgunned by the Confederates we were assured that a captured ironclad would make an appearance to even the sides up.

Our right flank and center spent most of the game holding position, protecting our objective and shooting up the Rebs who crested the hill and swiftly descended into bayonet range. Our left flank advanced slowly, whittling away at the Confederate center and opening a gap to their chicken coop objective.

My cavalry looked mighty impressive making an appearance on the left flank but I kept thinking of them like Gallic cavalry and discovered charging enemy cannon or trying to crush Rebel zouaves was a bit different than running down Cretan archers!

The ironclad's dramatic arrival was marred by it running aground, its guns blocked by a pair of farmhouses! Luckily our infantry had chewed up the Rebels enough that the Union were able to seize two of the three objectives and take the day.

Great game, awesome figures and terrain, concise rules, fast playing, simply everything I go to Historicon for.

"Bad Day in the Neighborhood", This is Not a Test

After a trip to the local Japanese hibachi house with family and friends, Mike and I were back to gaming with an evening of post-apocalyptic skirmishing. I was eager to try This is Not a Test after reading the play test run by the Chicago Skirmish Wargamers. The terrain, inspired by the Fallout series of video games, was excellent. Each player received a band of wasteland warriors to fight over the spoils hidden within a number of buildings in the town.

The game is d10 based, models rolling a die and adding a stat in an attempt to beat a 10. Each model requires a roll to activate (but a round doesn't end until all models have activated), and combat requires a roll to hit, damage, and possible morale effects.

An initial run of good luck in my activation rolls saw my warband in cover near the center of the table, ready to lay down some machine gun fire at the approaching wasteland walkers. Then I discovered some important game rules: 1) There are flamethrowers in this game. 2) They ignore cover. 3) They can light you on fire. 4) If your leader rolls a 1 on his morale check from being lit on fire he runs away.  Only a few rounds into the game and I was pretty much out of the game. Ah well, that's wargaming!

My warband about to be flambé

I stuck around to watch Mike get into a ferocious scrap with enemy Legion and talk to Joey, the rules author. Mike really enjoyed the game, and only missed winning by a single victory point. We discussed the rules, and while the mechanics are fairly close to other skirmish games, I know he appreciated the extra crunchiness that Song of Blades and Heroes doesn't have. I really dig the setting and each warband had a lot of flavor, but I'm afraid I can't comment much on the rules (except for the "catching of fire" and "fleeing in terror" aspects!)  This is Not a Test is scheduled for release this Fall, with a possible Kickstarted to get things rolling.

The Doctor

While we were setting up for This is Not a Test, a fellow stopped by and asked if he could take a few pics. Before he did so, he placed a handful of minis in the town.

I LOVED THIS. Apparently he had painted up the Doctor, the Tardis and companions and was taking a few snaps as they visited various times and places across Historicon. I asked if he had a blog or was going to share his pictures online but he said he was just doing them for his own enjoyment. Just as quickly as he appeared, he and the blue box were gone. Good bye fellow gamer! I love your idea and hope all of your pics get collected online someday!

Other Games

With most of my time taken up with rolling dice, I didn't get a chance to see too many other games, but did manage to scope out a few.

A friend of mine played an Egyptians vs. Hittites game in the same room while I was Dungeon Hacking. He really enjoyed it (apparently his chariots spent most of the game flanking the enemy force, crashing home at the climax of the game at just the right time.)

Wings of War with an unlikely target

I think this was a Terminator game, being fought over "Hahvahd Yahd" judging by the accents of the participants!

HAWKs swashbuckling brawl

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed Historicon. I think the noise level was better than last year, and it seemed that there were more games spread out to the smaller, quieter side rooms. There were lots of great looking games (the pirate action on Saturday was awesome, but I was too far away to get good pics), and everyone I played with was friendly and seemed to be having a good time.

I believe the vendor area was a bit lighter this year, but honestly I spent a ton of money stocking up projects and supplies for the coming year. And those dumb little "show specials"? I'm a sucker for those. Vendors, those things work :)

There was still the usual lot of graying and balding gamers attending the show as usual (a club who has accepted my own application), but there seemed to be a much wider variety of folks this year, especially kids. I know there were youngsters under 18 at every game I played, which is encouraging if you are worried about wargaming disappearing in the future. I think Luke from WWPD should get a special credit for running a LEGO game for kids. He had spots for 6, but wound up running it for 16. They were two tables down from our Black Powder game, and were cheering and whooping for the entire time. That was great! I flagged Luke down and asked if he was planning on running it again next year but it didn't sound likely. Whatever he did, I hope someone took notes, because I think it may have been the best intro to wargaming of any of the kid games based on the reactions of his players.

Another great con, and nothing here that would keep me from coming back next year.