"Fayre Winds and Foul Tides" now out!

As you'll recall (maybe) from March, I was playtesting a supplement for Ganesha Games' great Galleys & Galleons age of sail/pirate rules by Nic Wright, and those rules are now out!

And available here: http://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_25&products_id=308

The blurb covers what's in the book at a high level, I'll mainly be using it to make my voodoo and ghost pirate factions more spooky, and give the good guys some options to fight them.

It also comes with a ton (or tonne) of newly rated ships as well (don't think the blurb mentions that) - over 20 pages worth!  It gets the game into some new periods or genres too, so all those unpainted Uncharted Seas ships I have sitting in a box could be used with these rules, though Wessex's Strange Tydes was originally slated for them.  I think you could even do fast and furious ACW Ironclads rules with them, though the purists will probably freak out.

Playtesting new Galleys & Galleons material

I've volunteered to help playtest a new supplement - "Fayre Winds & Foul Tides" - for Ganesha Games' excellent Galleys & Galleons ruleset for games of pirate ships and other age of sail (and age of oars) battles.  The supplement is intended to add more fantasy elements to the game, running from our now "traditional" fantasy of orks, elves, dwarves, magic-users and the undread, to more ways to portray ghost ships and sea monsters, to "lacepunk" contraptions (e.g. steam-powered ornithopters).  There are also new "terrain" types (not sure what naval terrain is supposed to be called!) and a ton of ship profiles, including additional ancient and Asian ships (e.g. turtle ships).

So while I can't give away the meat and mechanics of the supplement, I can say it gives you options for all the standard fantasy tropes and then some, so steam-powered ironclads and brutal (literally - there's a trait called Brutal) taskmasters and more.  For me, I'm particularly interested in (and testing) the rules for advanced ghost ships, sea monsters, and magic-users (specifically voodoo kings, maybe necromancers).  So ghost ships can now be Spectral and hard to hit, and your voodoo ships can have a Mindbender to take over the opposition's crews; on the other hand, you can now have Inquisitors (or your local name for them) and Blessed Ordnance to counter those traits.

Sea monsters get the option of having an Alpha creature, sort of like a monster hero and leader.  Some of the new terrain includes icebergs, fog, seaweed banks, maelstorms (whirlpools), and the big S, Scylla, herself. 

So here are some pics from my initial playtests, I won't get into too much detail other than to set the scenarios and give the results.

First up was a massive Ghostly Galleon (called here the Ghost) with a Mindbender on board up against three pirate brigantines (called brigs henceforth for brevity's sake) and an Exaggerated Pirate - who has a fearsome reputation that can cow not only merchants but all ships, but is also under pressure to live up to that rep by his (potentially Mutinous) crew.  This is one of the ship types pre-created in the game.  The Ghost (top left) had to run the blockade the pirates had thrown up across the sea.

The Ghost herself:

Yellowbeard's jacht:

Shortly after the pivotal action of the fight, before the Ghost was able to slip through the blockade and off the board - a gust of wind had blown one of the brigs into the side of the Ghost, and the brig took all the damage.  On her turn, the brig decided to Swashbuckle (grapple and board in one action, a pirate thing) and were promptly routed, surrendering the ship. 

The Mindbender didn't get much chance to do anything in this battle, one failed attempt at a spell, so I set the Ghost up against a Spanish ghost hunter, the Argonauta, with Blessed Ordnance and an Inquisitor aboard, negating part of the Ghost's powers (the ghost had a pyromancer aboard this time).  Icebergs were also on the table (you can see some in background below), but didn't play a role.  I'm saying the battle was in the South Atlantic.

The battle, however, was brief.  The Argonauta was able to close quickly under favourable winds and a calm sea, but after her initial attack, the Ghost was able to get in a full broadside at close range.  This is what it looked like:

And this:

The broadside delivered two damage dice and a critical hit to the Argonauta.  The critical hit roll was a 12, so up blew the Argonauta.  The next day I remembered I needed to check for the Ghost, but she was ok.

I wanted to change things up for my next test, so the Ghost and Argonauta went away, and back out came Yellowbeard and three Pirate "pinnances" (call 'em sloops this time).  On the map was an island (top) with Scylla there to attack any wayward ships, and three banks of seaweed.  The smaller one in the middle also hid vicious mer-creatures that would attempt to board any ship crossing into the bank.

The pirates were a'hunting great sea beasts - two giant sharks (Sea Monsters from the core rules), one of which was an Alpha shark.  The sharks had great mobility and turning ability, and attempted to sucker the ships in to where the ships were be burdened by trying to avoid the seaweek.

The plan mostly worked, the top two ships below did an end run to the right, but one ship wasn't too careful and did get attacked by Scylla, taking a die of damage.

Just after Scylla's attack:

The fight was a long one, maybe 20 turns, but it ended fairly quickly.  The pirates didn't help themselves with rolls like this on short-range full broadsides...

The Alpha shark did a Jaws re-creation on Yellowbeard, ramming the rear of his ship and damaging him, prompting Yellowbeard to grapple the Alpha and attempting to board the great beast.  Despite using their Derring-Do advantage, the Alpha ate most of the crew in the first round of fighting, and the rest of the crew on the next, leaving an empty ship floating around the sea.  The other three pirate ships lasted longer but the end, when it came, was quick.  The three red markers show where the ships went down from ram attacks by the Alpha (helped by some earlier damage by Shark 2).  Two ships were sunk on the second last turn, as the Alpha rammed, turned, and rammed in a flurry of actions.  The final ship was taken down on the last turn, after one final ram by the Alpha.

I plan to get some more gaming in this week, testing out the magic-users further with some other terrain types thrown in.

Pic Plentiful

I've now emptied my camera onto the computer, so this is the first of at least 3 posts, all with glorious pictures.  Some I'd forgotten I'd even taken, so you'll get a 3mm rubber tree tutorial out of this eventually. 

First though, I'd like to say Blogger's new editor is really bloody annoying.  I was using the old one as long as possible, but they're making that harder to do.  But I'll persevere. 

This post is less coherent than the follow-ups will be, as it doesn't really have a theme, it's all the oddities.  First up is a re-purposed Blarney castle from a music box I found in a local thrift shop.  It's about 6mm, so I did it up as an evil Warhammer Chaos or Vampire Count lair, with some warpstone showing through the walls and up on top.  Perhaps it was hit by a falling warpstone meteor.

My now 2yo nephew helped paint the green at the base, so I've begun his training.  The glare is from a glossy coat of sealant, I'm dulling it with Dullcote for the table. 

I've previously posted some of the Creatology wooden puzzles that I'm using as cheap terrain, and have finally finished a few.  These are the same building, but converted to different scales, on the left is 28mm, intended for fantasy or the like, and is meant to be a fortified stone house.

On the right is a 15mm stone church, intended for Solomon Kane or other settings.  The cross is a spare bit from one of the other wooden puzzles.  Both were spray painted with a textured paint, then the roofs added and painted later.

I recently took advantage of Black Cat Bases' September sale, and amongst the things I picked up were three planets for space gaming.  This is the one I'm going to do up as an Earth-like planet.  I've just started the land masses, and need to figure out how to give them some life so they don't look like one flat colour.  Once I get the land and oceans done, I intend to paint some cloud cover over everything.

The other two planets will be an ice world, like some of Jupiter's moons, and a Mars-like red planet.  I think I need to order some more planets though, as I have lots more ideas for colour schemes.

Finally, from JR Miniatures, this is a 10mm tower that is slated for use in my Imaro (African fantasy) setting.  I need to do a final drybrush of the roof, but it's otherwise done. 

Next up will be a ton of 6mm terrain and scenics pics.

6mm Dollar Store Finds & 2mm Cities

Here are some more photos of what I've been up to. First we have four scenic pieces I found in the pet supply section of a Dollar store (Pound store for my UK friends):


Most of these will be for 6mm, but I think the bridge/tower combo might be better as 2mm, or could be used for both. The bit under the bridge is kinda dumb, to lay down a river beneath it will mean the river goes up and down a hump. I'm also thinking I should buy a second Aztec temple and spray paint it a sandy colour to use for 10mm Africa. I may even just do it for this one - since I don't have a single Aztec or Aztec-like fantasy culture in my plans! (well, maybe Warhammer's lizardmen)


Based on an idea I saw on The Miniatures Page, I've started putting together some 6mm sci-fi city buildings from cheap trophy stands available from a local craft superstore (Michael's). I've glued the matching pieces together, I just have to sand them, then glue them together as towers. I noticed last night the craft store has different shapes available now, but I'll wait for their next 25% off everything coupon before I buy more.


I'm also working on some 2mm cities to use either as representational scenics for Aeronef (based on CDs) or as edge-of-the-table pieces for Land Ironclads, Kull, Imaro, and my 18th/19th century historical projects. The latter aren't meant to be fought on, rather as the obejctive behind a defender.  I'm basing them on 2 12"x6" flooring tiles, and they're meant to be a bit closer to true 2mm scale than those on the CDs, which will be more like 0.5mm.

For the CD-cities, I'm doing several for my take on Victorian Venus (basically Space 1889's Mars), Ottoman-esque, and a generally European city or two (should work for North America as well). I may do an Aeronef NY, but bigger and on a tile, using my mini Statue of Liberty. For the bigger 2mm cities, I'm doing a bigger version of a Venuvian city, Victorian Mars (Wells' idea of Mars), a general European one, 18th century India, Valusia (Kull), one of the Giant-Kings' cities (also Kull), and an African-esque city (Imaro).

Then as a special project, I'm doing a "New London", aka Sky City, for Aeronef. Here are some early shots of the basics. Each CD is supported on a heavy bolt, glued to the cap of a toothpaste tube (Sensodyne makes great caps for 2mm scenics), which in turn is glued to the centre of the CD. The three CD's were then joined with popsicle/craft sticks underneath, which will be painted as monstrous girders.


One CD will be the industrical area, one the rich/administrative area with parks and the like, and the other the main city. I have anchors planned, as well as bridges, a telegraph line cable, aeronef docking and repair stations, factories, skyscrapers, etc.

In my universe, it will roam the Atlantic, as sort of a floating place of business for the British Empire (also a backup capital, if the Germans/French/Russians/Turks invade England!).  To defend itself, I'll be picking up some British turrets from Brigade this summer.

Craft Store Elephants

In a fit of madness, two posts in two days! Here are some craft store paper elephants that I've done up in two different styles:

Gate guardian elephants for India, either my 15mm 18th century project, or 28mm pulp. Now I just need a gate!

And of course, what temple, palace or ruin would be complete without a sapphire-eyed golden elephant. Maybe it's just gold plate but filled with gems (or vipers), maybe it's solid gold, but that's for the adventurers to find out.

The figure is a 28mm post-apoc guy from EM4 - he was handy for showing a sense of scale.

Yay Pictures!

I finally took some pictures of what's on the painting table, as I've again skipped resuming work on my 3mm Vietnam project in favour of more scenics and terrain. As always, you can click on the photos for a larger image.

First up is an overview of 2mm and 3mm scenics, the 2mm bits in front are being prepped for SYW India in the northwest frontier (or double duty in the Middle East), and the 3mm pieces at the back are for Middle East tank battles.The 2mm pieces are from left to right: Irregular's castle, being done Crusader castle or Afghan fort style; Middle East town; Middle East village. The 3mm bits are the resin buildings by a company I can't remember (and is out of business) available from Picoarmor (NOT the SPC Wargames Scenery stuff). They aren't very good, but servicable for a battle-scarred landscape. I have some of their Vietnam boats and F-106 (or was it the 102), and the resin is pretty poorly cast, with lots of work needed. Picoarmor was good with this though, and some items were so bad they eventually refused to sell them when they couldn't get good casts.

Everything has been given a couple coats for the "sand" and at least one coat for the roads and town centres. The sand will be drybrushed later with the lighter coat used for the roads. I've also given the windows a quick hit with grey so I remember where they are once I start painting the buildings.

Here's another view of the 3mm pieces:
And here are some bridges from SPC Wargames Scenery (or whatever they call themselves now, they used to be Simply 6):I'm not quite happy yet with the paler grey used to paint the tops of the railings, I need to darken that a bit. The road on the grey bridge got a bit messed up when i tried a wash, so it needs some help too. The red brick bridge will be for 3mm ACW, the other one will be for ACW or Europe, as needed.

In the background you can see my first 2mm castle, still awaiting final touches. I have a third, to be painted in an Indian Red Fort of Agra style. I also have a couple of Irregular's Vauban fortresses mounted and primed, one to be done for India (red stone), the other for Europe (grey stone). You can see one of them in the back right in the first picture above.

The church on the left you've seen before, but it's now done. It's shiny because it's had a coat of Future Floor Polish, but not Dullcote yet.The ruins are a work in progress still, hence why the church hasn't had a final Dullcoting. I have a bunch more individual ruins or intact houses primed, they're just awaiting space on the table.

And finally for today, some Afghan mercenaries for my 2mm SYW in India project (seen the last time I posted pictures). They've had the sand coat, and are awaiting dirt and grass.

Wins (football) and Wins (OOP Ospreys)

I was downtown in Toronto today for a football (Canadian) game (we won) and afterwards hit the World's Biggest Bookstore ("it's just a name") and discovered they may have the World's Biggest Osprey collection. At least it left me in awe, and I've seen a couple pretty nice ones elsewhere.

However, as the WBB is now part of our national bookstore empire, the bricks and mortar prices are about 25% higher than what I can get online.

But...

I've been trying for six months to get the Campaigns: Assaye book. Our national bookstore empire (online edition) tried and gave up after a month, Amazon tried for 5 months, and then I gave up on them, because I found Osprey direct had it listed. Until I told Osprey's website that I lived in Canada, when it mysteriously became unavailable in North America ("but we're still part of the Commonweath - the Queen's on my money (well, most of the big bills, anyway)").

So my first walk through of Osprey heaven didn't turn it up. I wandered away, Osprey-less, and checked at a computer linked to their online store - still listed as unavailable. I went back to the Osprey aisles, mainly because of consternation around an issue I'll bring up below...when I saw Campaigns: Assaye!

So I am now stupidly proud of owning a copy. After my SYW in India project, I plan to roll along into Wellington in India, re-using what I can. Some of the units will get later period paint jobs, the only real new units will be EIC/British cavalry, although I'll probably eventually do two rank EIC infantry.

So why else was I consternated in the store? I found both volumes of Fighting Ships of the Far East, which I've long wanted. Problem: I've long had one of them...but couldn't remember which one! I spent 15 minutes walking around trying to remember which one I had...couldn't do it, and since I didn't want to make a return trip downtown (two hours or so) to return one, I skipped on them. But I now have an order in to the online empire, as they say they can get one, and cheaper.

I also got some VSF/steampunk inspiration: the Steampunk I anthology (I picked up Steampunk II a while ago, couldn't find #1 locally). I also completed Edgar Rice Burroughs' Venus series by finding Pirates of Venus. Now to find suitable miniatures...

I also picked up Russian Amerika, the first book in a series, of which I picked up the second last weekend (Alaskan Republik). It looks like a Crimson Skies sort of thing, with the Russians still owning Alaska, an independent California an Texas, USA and CSA. Mainly though it was the wicked paint jobs of Mustangs on the covers.

So now pictures again...but I'm doing a lot of gluing, basing, and gessoing (or is it gesso-ing?), so nothing sexy to look at. I did pick up some VSF figures from RAFM during their recent sale, once the stupid postal labour dispute is over, I should have them here.

I'm also being distracted thinking about Cold War Commander and Pulp Figures. Um, not at the same time, separate projects!

With Clive in India in 2mm

As mentioned in my "Hmmm" post, I've been working on a 2mm SYW in India project. Actually I think I've been mentioning it for a while! I have been processing my first batch of figures recently, and have most of them mounted. It's amazing how I'm managing to not order enough of so many things - battalion guns, organ guns, brigade and wing commanders, etc. but I'm happy with the progress so far:

Some of the native units - mobs of paiks (melee-only levies) in the front, Afghan mercenaries (mounted and foot) in the middle, and Arab camelry (dismounted and mounted) in the rear.

Native artillery in various varieties - platform guns (heavies) in the front left (see below), the princes' super-heavy guns ("Moghul Monsters") in the left-rear, backed up a heavy gun in a redoubt. In the front right, with two elephants for their limbers, are everyday heavy guns, and back-right are field guns, with a variety of limber combinations - elephants, elephant+caissons, elephant+2 caissons, elephant+field of rock

A close-up of the platform guns (heavies). The "horses" will be painted as oxen (as I will for most limbers), and the gun's base will be painted as a wooden platform. I imagine the guys at the back of one base are the official elephant pooper-scoopers... To make this, I put a standard artillery base on two uncovered wagons. Here's the inspiration, from a relatively local 25/28mm collection. I played in their Pondicherry game last March and my fellow commanders had to face this in the centre of our line.

Native organ guns are the three bases in the middle-ish, otherwise at the top/back of the photo are some caisson/supply trains, with English (with caisson) and French (limber only) guns in the foreground. The French artillery often had supply problems, so I've depicted that by not showing their ammo caissons on the limber's base.

A whole slew of bases, at front centre is my standard infantry battalion, with officers to the front and battalion gun on the line's left. The unit beside that is a specific one without a battalion gun (others to the rear are just missing theirs). Front right is the French (Compagnie des Indes) volunteer battalion. The square-ish bases with three-horse figures are wing, division, etc. commanders. Behind them are three units of hathnals - elephants with big guns - that may or may not have been at Plassey, but are too cool to ignore. Towards the far back, behind the infantry, is a unit of Rajput cavalry.

More stuff. CdI and EIC dragoons/mounted infantry are front left and centre, with more of the regular, company, and sepoy battalions behind them. Further back-centre are command stands, the native ones with elephants. A unit of native bodyguard cavalry are back-right.

As always, you can click on the pictures for a bigger version.

I have a few more to mount (mainly cavalry) with what I have on hand, then another big order goes in to Irregular. I figure this is about 1/3 of what I'll need in total for the project, which will include an Afghan army, variations of a native prince's army (Moghul, Mahratta, Mysore), and the French and British. I plan on later extending it into the "Wellington in India" and Sikh War eras.

Sometimes Insomnia is a Good Thing

Sometimes not being able to sleep can work in your favour. Before going to bed last night, I decided to put in an hour painting some Land Ironclad bases I'd mounted previously in my usual green base colour. The ironclads were from "Objects May Appear" available via Shapeways, mounted on Brigade Models UK's 40x40mm bases. After getting all the bases coated once, I decided to putter around with painting the actual ironclads, since they aren't overly detailed, just nice simple shapes.

Once I got started I couldn't stop, at least in terms of doing some colour trials, so I now have my first land ironclad units almost ready to go:These are indigenous ironclads from the Ottoman Empire. Pretty crude compared to other nations', but effective (and cool looking). I painted the armour in a "metallic black sequin" colour, which may just really be a glossy black. Hopefully it holds up after varnishing.

The second (anti-aeronef) turret is an add-on from the pack of accessories availabe from Pat and Walt's Starship Emporium on Shapeways.

Another view. There are 2 more ironclads in the unit, awaiting paint.

As it turns out, the Imperial Chinese Army has bought "export models" of the same ironclad from the Ottomans. The export version has cheaper armour, and as the Chinese could only afford three, they'll all be slight unique in appearance, basically in the colour of the little roofs. One is completely done, other than finishing the base's green - which is where the whole process started to begin with!




The French Republic also has some ironclads from OMA, in particular this self-propelled artillery piece. I have four in total, two will be done with this wood chassis paint job, the others will be spiced up in nationalistic colours.

To defend their borders and coasts, the French also have their Victorian version of the Maginot Line and Atlantic Wall - killer gingerbread houses!This is still in a test phase, as I try out colours on it, but I like the gunmetal grey for the turrets and stacks, an antique copper for the smokestacks, and a metallic white for the "marble" balacony.

Since these windows are really about 3 stories high, I'll paint in some panes to break up their size a bit. Plus having an armoured building with massive windows is silly enough as it is! I still need to figure out the stats for this beast in land Ironclads.

Still in VSF, last fall I used some spare insulating clay to build up a couple of terrain pieces, including this volanco. I'm finally starting to paint it, got the basic rock done and the first coat of lava. The cork patches will be painted as the trunks of trees, then green scrubbing pad glued on top.
Back to my town and village for eastern India, I've puttered around a bit more on them - almost done!


My North American 18-19th century fort has also gotten a bit further ahead, I'm just on the touch-up stage now.

Ditto for my North American windmill piece:
And then switching to 3mm, I've painted up one of SPC's stone churches as a brick church for my 3mm ACW Terrible Sharp Sword project. Still a work-in-progress:
And I've been messing around with SPC's original 3mm ruins set, these are four identical pieces, two being done up in white, two in grey concrete, mainly intended for Vietnam. If you look closely, you'll see the ruin with the story that was painted/wallpapered blue has a picture frame hanging crookedly on the wall - now I need to figure out what picture I can paint inside that frame!
As always, all the pics can be seen in a larger size by clicking on them.