tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79841589699685244792024-01-30T11:31:46.523-08:00Mike's MiniaturesMichael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-11280388807828809092023-04-11T18:33:00.000-07:002023-04-11T18:33:28.314-07:00<p> I am not playing many miniature games anymore. I do monitor this blog and if you have any questions I will answer them. I did start a new blog about RPGs as that is what I have been playing. Thank you for reading what I have written. Here is a link to my new blog, Mike's Role Playing Game Shelf.<br /><br /><a href="https://mikesrpgshelf.blogspot.com/">https://mikesrpgshelf.blogspot.com/</a><br /></p>Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-52943659347052570372016-03-27T10:17:00.000-07:002016-03-27T10:17:23.414-07:00Play Testing a scenario for Ambush ValleyThe group I play with generally put one or two games on at local conventions and we take great pride in those games. The scenarios that we run are generally play tested twice and sometimes more then that. Nothing is worse then participating in a convention game and realizing that there is no way that your side can possibly achieve the victory conditions.<br />
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We got together this past Saturday at our local game store, <a href="http://www.acropolisgames.net/" target="_blank">Acropolis Games. </a>We were play testing a scenario that was originally published for Face of Battle. We figured that we could tweak it a bit for the rules we were using, Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games. And we were using the Vietnam supplement, Ambush Valley. One of our group is one of the Jims that is mentioned in the thanks at the front of Force on Force. Our group also play tested the Ambush Valley supplement.<br />
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The scenario was an extraction on a hot LZ. The Marines have heavy WIAs(this means in game terms that they were not walking wounded) and KIAs that have to be loaded up on the helos and troops to protect them also. The WIAs were incapacitated, so we determined that it would take two figures to manhandle each WIA into a Huey. Of course the same would be true for KIA for obvious reasons.<br />
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The above photo is of the North Vietnamese Regulars set up and victory conditions, that would be the side I played on. The North Vietnamese received reinforcements each turn.<br />
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The above photo is the USMC at the beginning of turn one. The figures at the back lying down on the left are heavily wounded and the figures on the back right are KIA.<br />
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Here are the Hueys coming into hot LZ.<br />
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Here they are on the first turn they landed. The following are several shots through several turns.<br />
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Below is a photo of USMC reinforcements and they were going to hot rapel.<br />
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This is the chart for helicopter damage. In Force on Force opposing forces dice off to determine if there are any hits. There are offense dice and defensive dice. Each unit troop quality is tied to dice, the larger the die, the better the troops. The Marines and North Vietnamese were both d8 troops. I shot at one of the helos with a squad.. The I rolled had 6 dice(number of troops and weapons determine this) and the Huey had three defensive dice. I rolled an 7, a 7 and a 6. These were the only numbers above 4. Any dice roll under 4 is ignored The Marines defense dice failed to stop any. So I have three hits. I then roll three dice and I get an 8, a 7 and a 7. So we consult the above chart. I have 8 plus two. What, a weapon damage? That is when we said wait a minute. The North Vietnamese player can never destroy a Huey with small arms fire. Though that was not going to matter, the North Vietnamese stomped on the Marines the first game. <br />
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The second game we reworked the chart, we interchanged the weapon damage with the withdrawal results. We then made the determination that if a Huey was forced to withdraw twice, it would have to RTB. Then the Marines would have to roll on what turn the next Huey would show up. The first game all three Hueys were Medevacs. The second game we rolled to see if there were gunships and two were Gunships. We also made it easier for the Marines to put wounded into the helos.<br />
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On the second turn I received this Fog of War card.<br />
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The way one receives a fog of war card is at the beginning of an action(firing or moving as example of an action) and an opposing player says, no I am going to fire at that unit before that unit moves or a unit will return fire if they are being fired upon. If one rolls a reaction dice and it results in a one on the die. A Fog of War card is drawn. This card did not help the Marines cause at all.<br />
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With the above card and coupled with the outstanding dice rolling on my part. It was a a slaughter<br />
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This is what the table looked like this after three turns. One of the helos were driven off and would have to make a moral test to land again. <br />
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In the next turn, all but two of the standing Marines were down and one more Huey was driven off. <br />
At that point the Marines had absolutely no way they could win. The Vietnamese got too many reinforcements The quantity of those troops were determined by a dice roll and I received reinforcements ever turn. <br />
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Now onto the main part of this entry. You might be thinking, wow those games did not last long and you would be correct. We have on many occasions used scenarios designed for a different game system with some adjustments as I have said earlier. I am not sure if we will be able to do so with this scenario.<br />
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I have done some research on Face of Battle and here is a blog entry describing the game play.<br />
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<a href="https://dhcwargamesblog.wordpress.com/about/">https://dhcwargamesblog.wordpress.com/about/</a><br />
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I have not played Face of Battle and from dhc wargames blog description of Face of Battle it is extremely different from Ambush Valley. As I understand it, Face of Battle uses single figures as units. While Force on Force is a squad based game. So when reinforcements were rolled, I rolled for movement onto the table for the unit and not each individual soldier. On first two turns reinforcements were five figures on the first and the next turn I got seven figures. I rolled well enough that each unit could engage the Marines on the very turn they came on the board. That was a big problem too. Again, as the North Vietnamese I could put devastating fire on the few Marine units. When we try the scenario again. The North Vietnamese will only get reinforcements every other turn.<br />
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In the first game we determined that there was just too much for the Marines to do. They had to defend the LZ and get all the WIA and KIA onto the choppers. If everything went perfectly, it would take five or six turns to get all the WIA and KIA. And then the living would have to be extracted too. We made it easier for the Marines to get incapacitated units onto the Helos.<br />
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We played two games in three hours, but neither was satisfying. We have played Force on Force a lot and enjoyed it. It seems that Face of Battle has a strong following too. Because each rule system is so different, I do not think the scenarios are compatible. <br />
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We have on many occasions used a different rule systems scenario, but never have we had this result and having to do as many changes to achieve balanced play. We are going to try it one more time to see if we can make the scenario work for Force on Force. I am not optimistic that we will be able to fix it.<br />
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Let me know if you all have had similar problems with scenarios from different rule systems and not working very well.<br />
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Thanks for reading,<br />
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Mike <br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-3675807306785330172016-01-24T10:11:00.000-08:002016-01-24T10:11:39.997-08:00A game of Blackpowder for a little eye candy.We play tested a game that Ted Bender is going to be running at the Battlefields Miniature convention put on by the Pro or Con gaming club of the Detroit area. Ted will be running The Battle of Cowpens from the Blackpowder scenario book, Rebellion.<br />
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I am not going to give you a blow by blow of the game, however let us just say that history did not repeat itself. The British won. Here are some photos and if you want to play this game, the convention is on March 12 on Livonia. <br />
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Thanks for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-11561654343694265802016-01-24T08:40:00.001-08:002016-01-24T08:40:37.379-08:00I picked up a couple of books.I do not know about you, but I like a fleshed out game, especially at a convention game that I am playing in. I hate an unprepared gamemaster that has not put much time or effort into a game. I have seen a gamemaster walk in an hour late for their start time and start to set up. He is even cutting out foam hills with a foam cutting tool, He is finally set up for the second session, though he was scheduled for the first session.<br />
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I like a little background on the scenario that I am playing. I have seen some exemplary examples of this and that is what I strive for in a game I am running at a convention. That is what lead me to purchase these two books.<br />
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I am going to be running a Fist Full of Tows 3 game at a local convention in March. It is difficult to give background on the scenario that I am going to be running. Since there were no real battles between NATO and the Soviet thank goodness. So scenario generation is not as easy as it would be if there was a real battle. So what I try to do is find sources that would likely have seen each other. I know that there is a bit of what if, but it is a what if scenario. The adversaries for the game will be the British Army of the Rhine with some help from German Landwher vs. the Soviets. The Soviets will have both Cat I and Cat II units. <br />
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I purchased two books recently that will help me flesh out the British forces. The first title is The British Army in Germany: An Organizational History 1947-2004 <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by <a href="http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Graham-Watson?aid=5344065">Graham
Watson</a>, <a href="http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Richard-A-Rinaldi?aid=4221023">Richard
A Rinaldi<span style="color: black;">.</span></a><span style="color: black;"> It is a pretty nifty little book. It tells one where a unit was garrisoned and for how long. It also tells one what unit replaced it. One can pick it up for $11-12 plus shipping from a used book service. </span></span></span>
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The second book I purchased recently is Encyclopedia of the Modern British Army by Terry Gardner.<br />
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If you have any interest in the Cold War, this is a must purchase. My guess it is well known in the UK, but not so much here in the US. It has info on organisation(notice the British spelling), weapons system and vehicles. It is a very comprehensive book. I would suggest one buy it from the UK, I have seen it as cheap as 70P and shipping is <span class="shipping" id="shipping-price">£ 2.80 to the states. </span><br />
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<span class="shipping" id="shipping-price">A little eye candy for the upcoming game. I belong to a Facebook group and I know a lot of people that do not. A fellow by the name of </span><span class="fwn fcg"><span class="fwb fcg" data-ft="{"tn":";"}"><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=621382404&extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22nf%22%2C%22directed_target_id%22%3A266872090170793%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/Slackjaw?fref=nf" id="js_2v">Tommy Lundqvist </a></span></span>made these incredible sections of roads.<br />
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Here is the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153320736257405&set=gm.452948474896486&type=3&theater" target="_blank">link</a> if you are inclined to use Facebook. I wanted mine to be a little simpler, these are for 6mm and I am going to be using them for 3mm.<br />
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I have 30 or so sections and I have a couple of hours work in them.<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-55530711514267661912016-01-17T10:46:00.002-08:002016-01-17T10:46:57.005-08:00Data Cards for FFT 3<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I am going to be running a game of FFT 3 at Pro or Con Miniature Club's convention. <a href="http://proorcon.webs.com/" target="_blank">Battlefields</a>. It is being held at the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Livonia Elk's Club in Livonia MI on March 12th<span style="font-family: Arial;">, 2016.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It will be a Soviet assault and The BAOR with some help from the Germans and they will be defending. There might be a couple of surprise elements on both sides too. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I am making preparations for it at the moment. I will be updating those preparations. The following is the first preparation other then painting the miniatures.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> I like a game that I am not forever rifling through pages to know what the data for a weapon is or for anything else for that matter. I made data cards for the game and I do like data cards for units. It cuts down on player questions and the players can see the pertinent information. I think I spent about an hour on them and I think they turned out well. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1665/24415264926_c677dde8eb_h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1665/24415264926_c677dde8eb_h.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span>What you do not see is the <span style="font-family: Arial;">missile</span> data is on the reverse side.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;">Thanks for reading.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span size="6"><span size="6"><span face="Georgia" style="font-family: Georgia;">Mike</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-61453499897504772162016-01-10T09:15:00.000-08:002016-01-10T09:15:46.069-08:00Spartacon 2016 Report I attended another Spartacon this year. It is a convention that I never miss and we have driven in some really crappy weather to even get to the Lansing Civic Center where it is held. <br />
I played in a Force on Force game hosted by Chris Maes in the first session. I love this game. It is a small unit game. When one uses sound tactics, they are rewarded. And when one uses poor tactics, they will generally get one in a world of shit. This the second game of Force on Force hosted by Chris that I have played in. The first was last year. He runs a very good game.<br />
The scenario was as follows; The French went into an Afghan village and got themselves in a world of hurt. The French begin the game with wounded troopers, I played part of the French team and let me say the words merde and foutre were ringing out all over the valley. It was a very hard game for the French to win. I am not saying it was not possible to win, but many things had to go right for the French, Afghan Allies and Americans and it did not. An example of this, one of the mechanics in Force on Force is when one is rolling for initiative to see who fires first. If a one is rolled by either player, a Fog of War card is drawn. I believe eight or nine Fog of War cards were drawn and only two were beneficial to our side. The Afghan side got reinforcements on several occasions and one card gave an Afghan unit better stats. Ultimately the French took it in <span class="st"> les sous-vêtement.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Commander is the figure on the left with white Kepi.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American Special Forces</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The Second session had two Bolt Action games. The first set of photos are of a Japanese vs. Marines run by Jim Wonnacott. At the end of the game there was a lot of Japanese players yelling Banzai. My guess is that the Marines did not win.<br />
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Apparently a Life magazine photographer was taking photos of the game. He did not take any photos of the Japanese. I am sorry about that.<br />
The second Bolt Action Game was a D Day game. Basically there were three different battles going on. One was regular Ally troops attacking Wehrmacht troops. The middle part of the table was British paras fighting ze Germans over a town. The last bit of the battle were British Paras on the defensive fight against ze Germans again.<br />
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This was a game of Ancients. It was a homebrew ruleset and it was Normans vs Byzantines. I heard a lot of positive feed back from this game.<br />
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This is a Flames of War Italians vs, Commonwealth Troops in the desert. It was a nice table and the miniatures were painted very well.<br />
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The photos below are of Russian and Japanese, I believe it was Tsushima. I have no idea of the scale or if these are commercial miniatures. <br />
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This is a game of French retreat from Moscow. They were home brew rules with very well painted miniatures.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Napoleon is in the middle</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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There were two Check Your 6 games, I only managed to get photos of the second session game. It was run by Dave Winfree of I-94 fame.<br />
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I did not take a photo of what battle this was, another oops. This game of Regimental Fire and Fury was run by <span class="st">Lowell Hamilton. </span><br />
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The last photos are other games that I did not get specific info on.<br />
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In closing I want to thank all those people that made Spartacon possible. It is a very good convention.<br />
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Thanks for reading.<br />
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Mike <br />
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<span class="st"><br /></span>Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-26201606647084305982016-01-03T19:34:00.000-08:002016-01-03T19:34:53.499-08:00A Quick Review of Kodiak and Widowmaker power armor by Rebel Minis. plus a few more things, I apologize for the hiatus, I have not painted or gamed much in the last few months. A couple of weeks ago I ran a CY6 game, actually two games at Acropolis Games in Adrian Michigan, It is mainly a 40K crowd there, but our group is trying to get them interested in historical gaming. There was two of our normal group, that included me and two 40K gamers. They both really enjoyed playing CY6. Something that I found amusing, we were using dice that were older then both of their ages combined. Here are a few photos.<br />
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I did paint a couple of miniatures too. They are for a Sci Fi roleplaying game called Battlelords of the 23rd Century. If you get a chance to play the game, it is great.<br />
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All right, now to the main event a quick review of Kodiak and Widowmaker power armor by <a href="http://www.rebelminis.com/" target="_blank">Rebelminis</a>. I bought these at Rebelminis end of the year special, I have bought quite a few miniatures from Rebelminis and service has always been excellent. <br />
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Assembly is not hard, however the hole in the body that the tab on the left arm fits into is way too small. I had to cut the tab way down in order for the part to fit. I used a Dremel tool to do this.<br />
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After I did that, assembly was a breeze. Here are a few photos of the miniatures assembled. <br /><br />
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Primed<br />
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First coat of paint, I used Vallejo German Uniform Green and I airbrushed the paint on.<br />
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Here are some photos of the completed miniatures.<br />
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I am pleased how they turned out. I am just an average painter and i am sure a lot of you could make these miniatures look even better. I would not hesitate to recommend these miniatures.<br />
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Thank You for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-52477723647146390502015-10-12T19:16:00.000-07:002015-10-12T19:16:00.831-07:00A short review of a new paint line: Ammo of Mig JimenezAfter the summer holidays, I am back to painting and gaming. The last two weekends were filled with gaming. Two games of Bolt Action and I do like the game. Here is a little eye candy from the first game.<br />
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OK, onto the meat of this post. <br />
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I have taken up modeling after a thirty or forty year hiatus. I bought an Italeri Ferdinand.<br />
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It is completely put together now, bogies and all. I just have to detail and paint the tracks I was trying to decide what color to paint the tracks and I came across this set of paints. I was familiar with the line after watching a couple of YouTube videos by Genesis-Models.<br />
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This set of paints were made by a <a href="http://www.migjimenez.com/en/" target="_blank">Ammo of Mig Jimenez </a>owned by Mig Jimenez. He has owned two other companies previously to this one. The first one is called <a href="http://migproductions.com/" target="_blank">Mig Productions</a> and the 2nd one is called <a href="http://ak-interactive.com/v2/" target="_blank">AK Interactive</a>. The first company makes pigments and washes. The 2nd company makes paints, weathering products, pigments and a whole host of other products. I am not going to go into all the details of why he no longer owns these two companies, it is way too long of story that I am not going to get into. I am only going to review Ammo of Mig products in this article, specifically the Tires and Track set. <br />
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Onto the review. I am going to weather this Ferdinand pretty heavily and I wanted to have rusty tracks. I came across the a fore mentioned product and one of the colors was rusty tracks. I thought it would be perfect and I am quite pleased at how they turned out.<br />
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I have to put a wash on them, but I wanted to show you all what the paint looks like in a virgin state, so to speak. In the videos by Genesis-Models he speaks of orange peel if one applies too heavy a coat. I did try to apply it a little heavier and I did not get the orange peel effect. It went on smooth with an air brush with about a 60% paint to 40% thinner ratio. Another great feature of these paints is that all the dark colors have a ball bearing in them. It is so much easier to mix up then Vallejo paints.<br />
Ammo of Mig produces all kinds of paint sets and here are a few.<br />
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Always trying to find that correct color for Israeli Air Force colors that are not enamel? Not any more you are not.<br />
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They also make sets for wargamers.<br />
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I think these are a fine addition to the paint market and I know that I will be buying more of these paints in the future. <br />
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Thanks for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-10385315227478140142015-03-29T09:11:00.000-07:002015-03-29T09:11:52.160-07:00A short review of a couple Pico Terrain buildings and my view of 3mm buildings in generalI have been a customer of John and <a href="http://www.picoarmor.com/" target="_blank">Pico Armor</a> for several years. I have not bought much terrain, because I had not found a rule set that I was satisfied with. I did find one, Fist Full of Tows 3. I have now started to acquire terrain to make the gaming table look smart. Of course no one wants a gaming table to look dumb, it leaves a bad impression. A couple of my first purchases are below.<br />
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I bought two building types from Pico Armor. These were Pico Terrain, formally owned by Simply 6. I purchased S6-305 <span itemprop="name">3mm terraced houses and </span><span itemprop="sku">S6-307</span>
<span itemprop="name">3mm European street section. The following photos are the </span><span itemprop="name">terraced houses.</span><br />
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One will have to file or cut the mold excess off of the bottom. I did not take photos of the bottom of the <span itemprop="name">European street section which were worse then </span><span itemprop="name"><span itemprop="name">terraced houses by a far margin</span>. Quite a bit of grinding on my Dremel was required to allow the street section to lie flat on a surface. It did not take long, but it was messy. Though the final results were well worth the extra work and one cannot beat the price.</span><br />
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<span itemprop="name">And now onto the editorial portion of this post. 3mm gaming has been growing in popularity over the last few years. What has not kept pace with the popularity of this scale is terrain. I like to put a game on a good looking table. As I have gotten older, the look of the table has become even more important to me. Pico Armor and <a href="http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/3mm-city-buildings/" target="_blank">Gamecraft Miniatures</a> are a good start, but by no means enough. I know there are a lot of 2mm buildings and those are adequate, but I would rather have true 3mm buildings. Please manufacturers here my cry, please increase your lines.</span><br />
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<span itemprop="name">Thank You for reading.</span><br />
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<span itemprop="name">Mike</span><br />
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Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-78348789252926368372015-03-11T19:33:00.002-07:002015-03-11T19:35:13.233-07:002nd Impression of Fist Full of Tows 3. 1st play through or stumble through maybe.First all I want to explain why this post is a bit late. There were two factors. The first was that we live in a stick built Victorian house. We have been living in it for over ten years. There was one room that had the same wall treatment as when we moved in and that was in the main bedroom. I have stripped wall paper in a lot of rooms. A mixture of hot water and liquid fabric softener does wonders. My daughters room had seven layers of wallpaper and this mixture handled the task with ease. Well not so much in this room. I struggled with the first wall and there were only three layers of wallpaper on the walls.<br />
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Does this look like eleven hours of work? Well boys and girls it is. I ended up having to score every square inch of the top layer in order to get it off. I think I know why it was such a task. The wall was not sized and I think the wallpaper was prepasted. And even though it was prepasted, they pasted it any way. It took me four weekends of pretty steady work to finish the room The other reason was the a flu bug hit our household. Not a good thing. Now onto the review.<br />
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As I stated on my previous entry I have been looking for a micro armor rule set and the main criteria was the ability to play both WWII and Modern conflicts. I gave Fist Full of Tows a try because one can play the a fore mentioned periods. So onto what I think about the game and a short bat rap.<br />
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I am not going to give you a blow by blow description of every mechanic of the game. We played a game that had elements of a BOAR Armored Infantry Battalion with FV-432 , Chieftains and FV-438 Swingfires in support. They were rated as excellent troops. I rolled for the troop quality for both British and Soviet, more on that later.<br />
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The Soviets had elements of a BMP Motor Rifle Regiment, with BMP-1s, T-64s and BRDMs. These troops were rolled up as marginal. In hind sight I would not have let the Soviets be marginal troops and that is a bad thing, especially in the first game as I will elaborate later on.<br />
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I did not give either side artillery I tested that separately, I wanted to concentrate on ground combat, so no artillery, aircraft or helicopters. The map is laid out as follows<br />
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It was a simple scenario, Soviets need to take the bridge and the British need to deny the bridge to the Soviets.<br />
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The British set up was on the lee side of the hills on the closest side of the river to the Soviet attack. The Soviet commander was Comrade Colonel Yakov Wonocottovich and the British commander was Baron Ted of Bender. Comrade Wonocottovich and Baron Ted from now on.<br />
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I wrote earlier that I was going to explain about troop quality. One of FFT 3 design philosophies is that troop quality is one of the main differentiation between troops. Better trained troops fire faster and can sight vehicles father away. I think this is a fairly well accepted
thought. this was the line NATO always stated that is why they would win
if the Soviets invaded Western Europe, NATO units were better
trained. The British had Excellent troops and this gave them a +1 to hit and a +1 to the rate of fire. The Soviets were marginal troops that means that they are
very very fragile. They take any of hits, they are likely to get
suppressed easier and fail quality checks (eliminated). They have a -2 to hit and that is on a six sided
dice. So that has a huge impact on the Soviet to hit chance. The
marginal rating also gives the Soviets a -1 Gun ROF Modifier. The
Soviet tanks were T-64s and their rate of fire is two. So the marginal
troop rating cuts the T-64 units rate of fire by half. This is one of
those, I will know better the next time I will play. This had a pretty big impact on the game as it should have.<br />
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Here is the turn sequence.<br />
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At first glance one will say this is a lot to keep track of, yes and no. You are not going to use every phase and step in each turn. For me, Comrade Wonocottovich and Baron Ted we had to concentrate on which phase we were on. I am going to get a small magnet board and with a label maker write all these do the magnet board. I will then have a marker for each adversary and move the magnetized marker along the phases. It move very fast and I know the next game we play it will move even faster.<br />
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Comrade Wonocottovich is an ex US tanker so he was going to use Soviet tactics. First up would be the BRDMS as scouts and progressively larger formations of Soviet units.<br />
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His marginal troops saw nothing, but the British did. Baron Ted draws first blood with a Swingfire. the second turn, Baron Ted gets a side shot on some T-64s, boom no more T-64s. Each unit has two armor ratings, a front and side. You want to get side shots, especially against tanks.<br />
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I will tell you, that is the last time that he hits anything with the Swingfire. If you follow this blog at all our group calls this phenomenon Ted dice. Here are all his throws with the Swingfire throughout the whole game, remember low is bad.<br />
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The Comrade Wonocottovich's 2nd and third echelon moves on the table.<br />
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Comrade Wonocottovich is now starting to use overwatch.<br />
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So through three turns Baron Ted cannot hit anything with his Swingfires. Comrade Wonocottovich's troops cannot see any troops at all. One of the reason's is that the Soviets cannot see diddly squat due to the poor troop quality. The other reason is that there are only two infantry units that are on the sme side of the hill that the Soviets are on. <br />
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One of the design features of the Swingfire is that an infantry unit could remotely guide the missile onto the target. The FV-438 could be parked safe behind a hill out of line of sight and still fire the missile. Of course it did no good for Baron Ted due to Ted's Dice.<br />
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The Final Push from the Soviets.<br />
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On the last turn the Soviets started to have to make Quality Checks and failing them due to the troop quality. It was a British victory.<br />
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I started setting up at noon, talked a bit before playing the game and we finished the game in about two and a half hours. That is with a lot of turning pages in the rule book, looking for the correct chart and double checking to make sure we are doing it correctly. Fist Full of Tows 3 plays fast.Comrade Wonocottovich had looked over the free introductory rule set available <a href="http://fft3.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FFG-FFT3-Introductory-Rules-Modern-v06.pdf" target="_blank">here.</a> He was prepared not to like and thought it would not play fast enough. He really liked the rule set and did think it played fast.<br />
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Comrade Wonocottovich and I tested the Artillery rules separate. We conducted an artillery strike in a town with infantry in heavy cover, results were suppressed infantry. An artillery strike at tanks in light cover, one unit suppressed one unit was not. Two artillery strikes on IFVs in the open, both them had the same results, One IFV unit was suppressed and one had to make a quality check and it failed. So one IFV unit was eliminated in each strike. The last arty strike was on tanks in the open, result were two suppressed units of tanks.<br />
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Those results seemed pretty much what one would expect from an artillery strike. I know the game would have played out differently with artillery. I live by a couple of philosophies, one being the KISS method. That stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. So arty was out on our first run through.<br />
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As a group we have three main criteria. Does it play fast? Does it give you a plausible conclusion throughout to the end of the game? Is it fun to play? I can say that FFT 3 achieves all three.<br />
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Two quibbles about the game I already wrote about in the <a href="http://mikesminiatures.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-1st-impressions-on-rule-set-fist.html" target="_blank">previous post. </a><br />
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Another one and it is splitting hairs. Most of the TOE's regarding NATO units are after the 1980s. So some research is in your future if that is a period that you are going to game. This is just a minor problem though.<br />
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I have been looking for years for a game that I could use for both WWII and Modern combat. I happy to say I have found it. I am just irritated that it took this long, but better late then ever.<br />
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Thank you for reading<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-60387372217882355772015-02-06T19:06:00.003-08:002015-02-14T17:16:25.296-08:00My 1st Impressions on the rule set Fist Full of Tows 3I was first introduced to micro armor in 1981 at a Gen Con convention at the University of Wisconsin campus in Kenosha. They were WWII pick up games on the mezzanine and I was hooked. I have played all kinds of rule sets from Challenger II by Bruce Rea-Taylor and Challenger II is not a game, but a simulation. The turns last a long time, I mean an hour plus. To the other side of the spectrum, I have played very simple home brew sets and everything in between.<br />
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I have been looking for a rule set for micro armor for sometime and have not been satisfied with ones I have found. I think that is why there are so many rules out there, as gamers we are always looking for new rule sets that fits their criteria or we all have ADHD. Probably a little of both, I know that is the case with me.<br />
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One of the things that I have been looking for in a rule set was the ability to use one rule set for both WWII and modern periods. I game both periods and using one rule set will make life less complicated. This narrowed down the field quite a bit. The only one that I was familiar that supported both was <a href="http://www.odgw.com/products/meinpanzer/meinpanzer.html" target="_blank">Mein Panzer</a> and it is a fine rule set, I own them. Though the modern portion of the rules is not that well supported yet. I then came across <a href="http://fft3.com/" target="_blank">Fist Full of Tows 3</a><br />
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I had Fist Full of Tows 2 so I was familiar with a previous version, but I never played it. I had small children at the time and those of us that have had small kids know how much time one has devote to raising them. <br />
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Another criteria that I was looking for was differentiation of weapons and tanks. I want a 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70 to be different from Royal Ordnance QF 75 mm. I think there is a time and place for generic tank mounted weapons in games. A rifle, is a rifle, is a rifle philosophy. A lot of skirmish games do this for expediency and I like games like that. But that is not what I was looking for in a micro armor game or at least that I am going to be playing in the near future. <br />
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I knew that Fist Full of Tows 3 was out but I had not really looked at it. I am switching over to 3mm to use in micro armor games, much cheaper then 1/285. I can get a company of BMP-1s for five dollars US. I cannot hardly get 4 BMP-1s in 1/285th for twice that price, but that is another story all together. So I have been looking at blogs that feature 3mm and I came across <a href="http://tinytanks3mm.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Tiny Tanks 3mm Blog</a>. Bish has a very nice blog and he uses Fist Full of Tows 3 as a rule set. The AAR that he posts are what convinced me to buy FFT3.<br />
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It is a print on demand through Lulu and one has three choices A PDF, a hardbound or coil bound, I choose the latter option. I placed my order on Tuesday January 27th and received the rule set on Thursday February 5th.<br />
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The rule set is 450 pages including table of contents, appendixes and index. It is quite thick so one gets a of of bang for the buck. </div>
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The first section is the overview and some of the sections are miniature war gaming introduction. The following photo shows how large that section is.<br />
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The next section is the rules themselves. Basically 120 pages of rules. One will probably not use every rule in this section. There are many optional rules and some sections I will never use such as nuclear weapons. I do not believe there is a difference between a tactical nuclear weapon and a strategic nuclear weapon, Once one type is unleashed all bets are off.<br />
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The next section is scenario design and designing new vehicles within the frame work of the game.<br />
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The next section is weapons, vehicles and OOBs of WWII belligerents.<br />
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The last section is devoted to weapons, vehicles and OOBs, post 1950.<br />
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Glancing through the rules I am excited about them. I only have one complaint so far. The following photo shows thw gun chart, the column legend is on the first page and only the first page. <br />
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This section is 14 pages long and one has to page back to see what the column refers to. This is the only section that this happens and I am glad this is the case.<br />
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I plan on playing a game on March 1st. I will be writing a 2nd impression so to speak soon after.<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike <br />
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Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-27951146008888308692015-01-17T09:26:00.001-08:002015-01-17T09:29:21.803-08:00A bit of a milestone, at least for me.I have a <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33016873@N06/sets" target="_blank">Flickr account</a> and I put up a lot of photos on it. I have tried to put up a lot of aircraft, mainly 1/300 scale. I have also done some comparison photos of different manufacturers, games and conventions. The milestone that I hit was over 100K hits.<br />
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/33016873@N06/sets <br />
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I am quite pleased with number, I never anticipated that I would ever have that many hits.<br />
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Thank you<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-66542527615825020762015-01-08T17:17:00.000-08:002015-01-08T17:17:03.547-08:0015mm NSL (Neu Swabian League) Panzergrenadiers and apparently new sculpts too.I bought several packs of these. I am not going to use them as NSL. I bought them because I really liked the look of them. I am going to use them in some games of Tomorrow's War. As I said in earlier post, I will running a game in just a week from Saturday January 10th. I am not sure if the powered armor will be part this game or not, but now that some are painted I have that option. I painted them Vallejo US Olive Drab. I then dried brush them with a mixture of Vallejo White and again the Olive Drab. I then painted the view port silver. I then applied a final coat on the view port of Vallejo Green Translucent Paint. I then put on a mixture of Future Floor wax and DiDi's Magic Ink. I keep on forgetting that all the decals that have gone on my vehicles and now troopers are made by I-94 Enterprises, sorry Dave.<br />
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I think they turned out quite nice.<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-18859881861837848842015-01-04T16:10:00.002-08:002015-01-04T16:10:53.114-08:00I bought two things over the weekend.The first thing that I bought were two paint brushes. <br />
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I know they are a little big for miniature painting. I have always liked the look of miniature vehicles that have antennas, it gives the vehicle a bit authenticity. So what I have purchased for $3, is a life time supply of antennas for my miniatures.<br />
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The other purchase I made this weekend was nitrile gloves. If any of you use an airbrush, disposable gloves are a necessity. I went out to our big box home improvement center, Lowes. I go and look for their gloves. I find them and I am aghast at the price.<br />
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I looked at their latex gloves, they were over $10. I would not purchase the latex gloves, my wife cannot wear them. I know the last time I purchased nitrile gloves they were not that expensive.<br />
I then go to the local hardware store and low and behold they have nitrile gloves.<br />
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They are cheaper then the latex gloves that were at Lowes. I guess that big blue Home Improvement Store is not that cheap after all.<br />
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Thanks for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-53896578583075321012015-01-04T13:57:00.000-08:002015-01-04T13:57:02.528-08:00Some prep work for a Tomorrrow's War that I am runnung in two weeks.A couple of buildings from GZG. These will be the objective, specifically destroying the satellite up-link. <br />
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The powered armor is NSL "PKaZ" (PanzerKampfanZug) Powered Armour Troops and the quad mounted gun is by GZG also. <br />
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I have not written the scenario yet, so I am unsure if the powered armor will be in the scenario or not. We will be playing on the 17th, so expect an AAR a couple of days later. I will also post the scenario. If anybody lives in southeast Michigan or northwest Ohio, you will be more then welcome to attend. Just let me know and I will provide the particulars. <br />
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Thank you for reading. <br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-37222265030760784232014-12-31T18:03:00.000-08:002014-12-31T18:03:34.567-08:00Trees for the gaming table on the cheapI was walking through a local craft store after Christmas and happened onto their clearence area with all the Christmas leftovers. I happened onto a fake evergreen garland.<br />
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It was a $1.50 and it occurred I could use the sprigs for making trees for 3/6mm or small trees and brush for 15mm. You will need a few things, wire cutters to remove the sprigs from the garland. Something to base them on, I used fender washers and something to make the foliage adhere to the washer. <br />
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I used Milliput for the adhesive and it made a little contour on the washer. I also paint my washer black. I think when they are plain steel, the washers stand out too much Just put a small amount of Milliput on each washer and start sticking those sprigs. I then applied glue and dipped the base in flocking.<br />
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The following photo is the result of less then an hours work. Also the photo that I took of the garland had all of the trees that I made and then some. I ran out of Milliput. I think I can get two to three hundred trees out of the garland.<br />
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That is a lot of trees for not much money. <br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-2110501024370116392014-12-28T16:30:00.001-08:002014-12-28T16:31:00.715-08:00Some of my haul from GZG, part DeuxThe following photos are of two vehicles, the first is the 6-Wheel Light Scout MICV with manned turret. Both vehicles are painted Khaki by Vallejo. A gloss lacquer applied and after that a dark brown wash by Vallejo. I then applied a matte coat.<br />
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The second vehicle is the Bobcat 4-wheel HMLCV (High Mobility Light Combat Vehicle) with auto-cannon turret.<br />
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The last photo show the comparative size to each other and to a Vallejo bottle.<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-91435931847199754632014-12-24T17:20:00.001-08:002014-12-24T17:20:16.303-08:00Some of my haul from Ground Zero Games year end special.As everyone can attest, GZG gives outstanding service and with the end of the year special it is a great value too. I am sure he works like a dog when the special runs. I got the package in about five days from when he stated that it was being shipped and I live in the USA. <br />
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The first miniature is the MRAP-C light armored patrol vehicle. One has to have something to haul ones troops about. It is of metal construction and I used ten parts, I did not use the large brush guard that was included. I primed with Vallejo white primer and the overall paint is Iraqi Sand by Vallejo. The windows, and lamps were painted with silver. I let that dry and I used Blue, Red and Yellow clear paint by Vallejo. I coated the miniature with a coat of gloss lacquer, I think I was using Rustoleum. I use the brand that is on sale when I walk into the store. I then put a black was of Future floor wax and DiDi's Magic Ink. I left them quite dirty from the wash. I wanted them to look grimy from hard use. I then put a coat of Testers Matte Spray.<br />
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The other vehicle was from the free grab bag that was sent to me with the year end sale. It is unreleased MRAP "Shorty". I painted it the same way as the previous miniature. The first photo shows the size of this miniature comparative to a Vallejo bottle.<br />
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The last photo shows the comparative size between the two miniatures.<br />
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A word of warning, there is a lot of filing to be done on these miniatures to make them fit together. There is a lot of gaps in the miniatures too. I used quite a bit of filler to hide the gaps and seams. It took a bit of work, but it is worth it. These miniatures are great and I know in the future, I will be awaiting the postman knowing that more of these great miniatures will be in the post.<br />
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Thank You for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-10674930279019489882014-12-18T19:43:00.000-08:002014-12-18T19:43:32.231-08:00Hesco Barriers and Jersey Barriers from Gamecraft MiniaturesI recently purchased two packages of Hesco Barriers and one package of Jersey barriers in 15mm from <a href="http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/" target="_blank">GameCraft Miniatures</a> . The website is well laid out and the transaction was very easy. The product came fairly quickly. Quite quickly in fact, as I am sure this is a side business. GameCraft Miniatures have a wide variety of products available from 3mm to 28mm.<br />
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I purchased the twenty four pack of concrete barriers. They are a white resin with a little bit of flash along some of the bottom edges. A finger nail took it right off.<br />
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They paint up pretty well, the only disappointing part of this package is that two were a bit bent. <br />
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I did not contact them about the bent pieces, but I expect they would have mailed replacements.<br />
I also bought two packages of Hesco barriers that contain six each. <br />
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There a few that are smooth on one side as opposed to having two sides etched.<br />
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These I presume are when one wants to have it two deep.<br />
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I have my eye on quite a bit of there products and I am sure that there are more transactions with GameCraft Miniatures in my future.<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike <br />
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<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-57867840233111437352014-12-15T15:10:00.002-08:002014-12-15T15:16:29.979-08:00Another Quick Review of a Cold War Gone Hot, The War That Never Was by Michael Palmer<br />
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When writing a review for a book about the cold war going hot, I have a couple of criteria. The first, is it a good read as <u>Red Storm Rising</u> by Tom Clancy and <u>The Third World War</u> by Sir John Hackett. The second, can I get scenarios out of it for games I may want to run. <u>The War That Never Was</u> does both in spades.<br />
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The style of writing is some where in between Clancy's and Hackett's style. In some instances one knows the thoughts of the characters as in Red Storm Rising, but not through the whole book and Palmer explains the geopolitics as Hackett does in his book.<br />
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There is one stark difference though tn this book as opposed to the a fore mentioned books. This book emphasis non Central European aspects of the conflict. Do not get me wrong, he does address the conflict in Germany, but the periphery conflicts is the emphasis of this book. <br />
Some of the maps are as follows:<br />
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<li>The Northern Flank</li>
<li>Libya and the Central Mediterranean</li>
<li>Greece Turkey and the Aegean</li>
<li>The Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf </li>
<li>The Western Pacific</li>
<li>Korea and the DMZ</li>
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It is interesting reading, not much writing about the Fulda Gap in this book.<br />
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The second criteria that I stated before. <u>The War That Never Was</u> has endless amounts of scenario ideas. I can get a lot of ideas for land warfare. Again not your normal West German vs. Soviet MRDs. One right of the top of my head is Turkey vs. Bulgarian & Soviet Marines. It also has a lot of land warfare ideas concerning Norway vs. USSR vs. Finland. Yep, the Soviets thought it would be a good idea to cut through Finland without permission. Did not they learn that lesson before?<br />
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There are too many ideas for air combat scenarios to mention them all. Though the real scenario gems are concerning modern naval scenario ideas. If you play modern naval games, do yourself a favor and pick this book up. It would take playing a lot of games to exhaust all the naval engagements that are dealt with in this book.<br />
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This book is available through Alibris and Amazon, both in hardcover and soft cover <br />
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I highly recommend this book. I know at sometime in the future I will read this book again and probably more then once<br />
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Thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-89590597649047906362014-11-22T12:04:00.001-08:002014-11-22T12:04:59.714-08:00My 15mm miniatures now have bases. I wanted to use washers for the bases of my 15mm troops. I did some research and it was suggested fender washers are the best, the hole in the center is smaller. And the size that wash was suggested was 3/4 inch. I went to our local building supply big box store(Lowes). I priced the washers and I said to myself, "self there has to be a cheaper source on line". I posted on The Miniatures Page, a query on a online washer resources. Rodrick Campbell sculptor and owner of<a href="http://highlanderstudiosinc.com/shop" target="_blank"> Highlander Studios, Inc. </a><a href="http://highlanderstudiosinc.com/shop/" target="_blank" title="Go to http://highlanderstudiosinc.com/shop/"> </a><br />
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Rodrick suggested that I use <a href="https://www.boltdepot.com/Fender_washers_Zinc_plated_steel.aspx" target="_blank">Bolt depot</a> . He was right. I got 1,000 for $32, including shipping. I ordered them on the evening of the 19th and they arrived on my doorstop on the 22nd.<br />
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So I have a butt ton of washers now, I got them cheap though. <br />
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Thank you for reading,<br />
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Mike<br />
Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-42313244089929072552014-11-17T19:45:00.000-08:002014-11-17T19:45:32.069-08:00Khurasan Miniatures finished, or two out of three ain't bad In an earlier post I stated that I was going to show you all the finished miniatures I am done with two of the the three vehicles. The Nova Respublik BTR3000 wheeled APC camo scheme that I painted, Idid not like. I stripped the paint off of it. The stripping and painting process will be on a later post. In regards to the stripping of the paint. I will be doing a comparison between Simple Green and Purple Power in an upcoming post. So a few photos of the BTR will show up and a little commentary too.<br />
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Assembly was quite easy, the first photo is of the 15mm Grifon-T Advanced Tracked APC, mostly assembled.<br />
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The weapon assembly was straight forward too. You can see the Drakon's secondary gun is in the background. <br />
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Here are several photos of the Drakon assembly. A couple of things to note and I did not notice it at once. There was an air bubble on the right side track housing and it left quite a hole. I am sure that I could have gotten it replaced, because Khurasan Miniatures would just do that. It then occurred to me, I will use it as battle damage. I just had to build up the track on the inside. Also the fit was not perfect, it had a little gap. But a little plastic putty filled it right in. This took me all of two minutes.<br />
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I then went on the prime all three vehicles and I pre-shaded them too.<br />
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I have to get better with my airbrush, there is a bit of splatter on the pre-shade. I just got the airbrush and I have to work on the thickness of the paint that I am spraying and the consistency of the paint coverage. A word of warning. Do not glue the wheels on the BTR until the vehicle is painted and the wheels are painted too. I did not do this and it is going to be a pain to paint the wheels. The wheels are very close to the hull of the vehicle.<br /><br />
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The following photos reflect one coat of US Field drab. It is a little hard to see the preshading. This is both due to the photograph in general and I hard trouble with paint coverage i.e. too thick of coat. Again this will come with practice. You can see it best on the gun barrel.<br />
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I then put lines using Vallejo Russian Green Model Air. As a wash I used Vallejo Model Wash Dark Brown. I also used a Vallejo Pigment, Dark Yellow Ocre to make the vehicle feel a little dirty. And this will take a lot of practice to use. I did not think I used them properly. One side on the Drakon-T turned out ok with the pigment and I will note that photo. For the number decals I used decals from I-94 Enterprises.<br />
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I think this was my best attempt at pigment use and it was the last side that I did.<br />
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You can see the area of battle damage in this photo.<br />
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These are the first 15mm vehicles that I have ever painted and I think they turned out OK,especially as table top standards go. There are things that I will try on the next go. In closing, I really like these miniatures and I will be buying more Khurasan Miniatures. I will put up a separate post on the finished BTR-3000.<br /><br />
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As always, thank you for reading.<br />
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Mike<br />
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Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-40684980450689851542014-11-15T18:52:00.003-08:002014-11-17T17:46:05.489-08:00Fall Pro or Con ConventionFall <a href="http://proorcon.webs.com/" target="_blank">Pro or Con Convention</a> at the Lutheran High School in Westland. As we were leaving the convention, one of our group made the observation that it was a good thing it was not a Quaker High School. It is always a top notch convention with great games. The food is also great and good venders.<br />
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In the 1st session I had the pleasure of playing a Modern 20mm game run by Mike Erisman. It was based on the Rapid Fire rule system. We had mixed command of Ukrainian and US units vs. a rogue Russian General. I can say an American Calvary unit acquitted itself quite well.<br />
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I had a bad week and I was really tired, so I just Kibitzed in the second session. We did not stay for the third session. We stopped at the Model Cave in Ypsilanti MI on the way home to get some paint.<br />
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Here are a few photo's and a link to a bunch more. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33016873@N06/sets/72157648893181639/" target="_blank">A link to my other photos of the convention</a><br />
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Thank You for reading.<br />
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MikeMichael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-65141573077802058992014-11-04T14:35:00.002-08:002014-11-04T14:38:07.484-08:0015mm Khurasan Miniature Vehicles and a thank youAs from a lot of previous posts, I mainly collect and paint 6mm/1/285/1/300 miniatures, both aircraft and vehicles. I am now going to be delving into the world of 15mm miniatures, mainly Sci-Fi. I am going to be using Tomorrows War by Ambush Alley Games.<br />
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I bought a new airbrush, an Aztek. I had a Paasche airbrush and hated it, I had heard good things about the Aztek from my local Hobby Store, the <a href="http://www.modelcave.com/" target="_blank">Model Cave</a> in Ypsilanti MI and I bought an Aztek. <br />
Well I digress, I bought some Khurasan Miniature vehicles so I could use my new Aztek airbrush.<br />
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I bought three vehicles a Drakon-T Advanced Tracked Tank, Grifon-T Advanced Tracked APC and a Nova Respublik BTR3000 wheeled APC. They were shipped with care and promptly.<br />
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They are beautiful miniatures. The Drakon-T, as you can see in the photos, has two small flash/sprue on each track section. To be honest, it took me about three minutes with a hobby knife and a file to take care of it. You get a bunch of bits and bobs. You also get your choice of two different turret weapons too.<br />
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The Grifon-T had absolutely no flash and the BTR had a little bit at the end of the tires.<br />
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I had heard that Khurasan vehicles were great and they are. I will start assembling them and painting them soon. I will keep you updated.<br />
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As a side note. I went over 20K hits on my blog this weekend and I want to thank you all who have read my posts.<br />
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Thank you for reading,<br />
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Mike<br />
<br />Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984158969968524479.post-32947455687717582532014-10-14T19:29:00.000-07:002014-10-15T20:29:18.366-07:00A short review of Muskets and Tomahawks<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Our group will play most any game as
shown by the diverse bat raps and reviews on this blog. Our latest foray is into
18<sup>th</sup> century skirmish battles. One of our group, Jim
Wonacott scored some Indian and line soldiers. He picked them up at
the flea market at the <span id="goog_1884551616"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1884551617"></span> <a href="http://www.hmgsgl.org/conventions/advance-the-colors/" target="_blank">Advance the Colors convention</a> .</div>
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I believe he
paid 25 cents a piece for them. And a pretty decent paint jobs as you
can see in the photos. So Jim had to find himself a new rule set. The rules he
decided upon was Muskets and Tomahawks published by Northstar Games. </div>
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http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=4309</div>
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It has come to my attention that it is actually Studio Tomahawk's game, the people who brought you Saga. Northstar Games just have a very close relationship with each other. I was informed by Nick of Northstar Games. Sorry about the confusion</div>
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It is a straight forward rule set.
Initiative and actions are determined by cards which seems to be what
a lot of rule sets are using now. I like a card based
initiative/action system as it gives the game a bit of mystery and
excitement. If one is getting their tail handed to them and all you
need is two or three actions in a row. And you get those three
actions. It can be a great moment in a game.
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When a card for the player side and
troop type is pulled they have a certain amount of actions that their
units can perform. We had British Allied Indians, French Allied
Indians and French Line troops. Indians could only preform one
action per phase and line troops could perform two. These actions
include firing, loading weapons and movement. Individuals within
the unit could split actions. For example if an Indian unit had
muskets and bows. The bows can fire every turn and muskets need to
be reloaded. So an Indian unit would fire their bows and reload
their muskets. Another neat feature about the this game is the
scenario generator. It gives you a chance to have random victory
conditions and some of them are brilliant.
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The combat is straight forward. One
uses 6 sided die to determine the hits, each miniature gets a dice.
Then a saving throw determines if the miniature goes to the Happy Hunting
ground or to the Kingdom of Heaven. I will not give a turn by turn narrative of the game-play,
it was a typical first run through. Half way through one realizes
that is not exactly how we should have been doing that. There is one
observation about the game play that I will pass on. Getting in hand to hand fight with Indians is not best choice for a line unit.
It turns ugly quickly </div>
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We played out this game in a couple of
hours. It was not a complex scenario so the time to complete the
game was about right. I believe it would be a great convention game.
The card based action sequence keeps players interest level high.
Overall our group really enjoyed and I suspect it will show up at a
local convention soon. </div>
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As always when we play at Ted's house I show a few of the items he is working on. He bought a few Wargames Factory AWI miniatures at Advance the Colors. He really likes them, </div>
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And for you Warhammer 40K fans.<br />
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As always thank you for reading<br />
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Mike<br />
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Michael Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11420137764033528823noreply@blogger.com1