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Had some spare time tonight, so I started work on two new terrain projects. First is the beginning of a dark ages village for Saga and/or Hail Caesar once I get my barbarian army going. I've also gotten back into Warhammer 40k after several years of more "mature" historical gaming. My friends from home (I'm now in Maryland, home was Pittsburgh) decided to dive back into 40k, so I traded away some Cygnar I had for a Necron army, and also picked up Tyranids. So, someday they might make it one here. With the addition of a gaming space in my basement, I hope to host games of all sorts, so I'll need 40k terrain in addition to my historical terrain. Digressing from that...enjoy! First few - basic structure. Foamcore board for the frame, and mounting cheap craft sticks for the wood look. I haven't worked with foamcore before, but I like it! Next adding a thatched roof. Actually just a cut up old towel. I've seen some people do this online. I'll eventually paint it over with watered down white glue to harden it. Then basecoat the whole piece and paint to taste. Supposed to represent a viking/celt/generic barbarian dwelling or other building. I'm liking the look so far. I also started a squared building with a steeple/angled roof. These are the 40k ruins. Not going to go crazy here. I'll get some thin chipboard to mount them and represent area terrain, throw down some rubble/stone, and also add 2 floors to each. I'm planning quite a few of these, so I'm keeping it simple. Basically just hacking apart the foamcore, gluing the two "walls" together, and messing it up further.
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Quick update today. I have been working on a gaming table, and will soon be also building some terrain. So far, I've set up an 8x4' MDF board (3/4" I think) on some saw horses. Should be able space for any of the games we play. I'd like to widen that 4' to 5 or 6, but that'll come later. In order to make the table useful for any game, I'm planning portable game mats made using canvas, latex caulking, sand, and kitty litter. Progress so far below! We start a few steps into the process. To begin, I laid out the canvas and applied brown latex caulk in roughly 1'x1' sections. After applying the caulk I sprinkled some sand and cat litter over the section, and pressed it in with a plastic bag. The two pictures above are after I followed that up with a coat of brown paint. Cheap craft acrylic stuff, nothing special. And the above 4 pictures are after a liberal dry brush with a mix of the base brown and a khaki shade called linen. It;s coming out a little too desert looking for me, but in person it is definitely brown. I also don't love the parts where the brush still had too much paint and you can tell it's a brush stroke. Either way, the next step will be to flock pretty large sections to make this a suitable Western Europe/generic grass type board.
Though I'm not 100% satisfied, I am happy that I believe this technique will be very easy to redo as an actual desert scape. I also plan a black/grey urban scape. All of these should look pretty good! Today's update is a Saga battle between my Irish and my brother's Saracen Arabs. Terrain was limited which hurts the Irish, but it was a fun and solid game either way. 6 points, divided as follows: Irish: 4 pts - Warriors (12-12-8) 2 pts - Hearthguard (2 upgraded to Curaidh, 1 unit of 6) Saracens: 1 pt - Levies (2 units of 6) 1 pt - Hearthguard (1 unit, mounted) 4 pts - Warriors (3 units of 8, 2 of 4 mounted with bow) Enjoy! First 3 pics, my first turn advance. General move forward. He responded with a similar general advance. My second turn was a big mistake. I loaded up on Irish shooting abilities and went after the right flank hill. Misjudged the range, and did nothing. His second turn focused on crushing my left flank. I responded and took out some warriors, but all of mine died in the process. The last thing on my second turn was a javelin throw from my big warrior unit. I took out three cavalry archers with a ton of dice spent on abilities. The next turn we both regrouped our positions (I sent everything to the right side). His warlord and some warriors beat up some of my warriors. His stupid levy bowmen picked me apart all game. Still thought I had a solid chance. Began to circle the wagons basically. Neither of us had any great knock out punch abilities. We concluded both are reasonably weak factions. A few more back and forth punches. Archers still harassing. We both started to weaken, but still no one had an edge. I finally got his warlord isolated. Played the ability The Old Ways, which dropped him to 1 attack. He pitched his attack die for an extra defense dice. I combat pooled for some extra dice. And........ 7 total attacks...7 hits on 4+ (thanks to my Dane Ax and his fatigue). Not enough saves, and that's the game.
A really fun, and easily one of the longest games of Saga we've played. Usually we've found Saga is quick and dirty, lots of casualties. This game was much more methodical and tactical. I found loading up on the shooting abilities on one big unit was somewhat effective. Otherwise, the Irish board has some strong but limited abilities. He made solid use of the Saracen ability that lets 2 units activate and 1 take a fatigue. Forces some interesting choices, and he also used one that forced a certain dice roll (randomized with his own dice roll) of mine auto fail. Otherwise the Saracen board was underwhelming. Fun all round day tho! Finally settling into the new house. I have a short battle report to post of yet another Napoleonic battle between myself and my brother. A small battle, 620 points in Black Powder. French led by myself and British on his side. Forgot to take pics right away...a few turns of poor ordering in...my left flank has pushed furthest. 2 battalions of Middle Guard face down the light brigade on the hill, and 2 battalions of guard w/ 2 foot artillery batteries in the distance. My middle was sluggish, and consisted of 3 battalions of Ligne and 1 of Legere, supported by 4 foot artillery batteries. The hill is held by 3 battalions of British line, and 2 foot batteries (one of which didn't unlimber most of the game). The Middle Guard dashed forward, and tried to take out the light brigade before the Brit guard could arrive. They didn't... My middle was able to make quick work of 2 battalions of the Brits, but lost one of my own. Up top on the far right, 2 battalions are exchanging fire with 2 battalions of Scots infantry. They're pretty tough but the French are holding out. Obligatory table level action shot. Again from the far right flank. One more. This is where I thought I was doing my best work. The hill was starting to fold. As an aside, this game for some reason neither of us was able to pass morale checks. Several battalions broke after taking minimal damage. Doing well on the right flank too. Again, largely thanks to poor morale. However, my left flank is getting rolled. I shifted my lines to address the collapsing flank. The guard and light closed in, but it would prove too little to take the French down. All in all, a good battle. Finished a narrow French victory. Next time around, we may finally be battling at my own home, with my basement battle room finally coming together.
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