Remote Gaming over Google Hangouts: Escape from The Dark Sector (Boardgame)

I have played a fantasy board game called "Escape From The Dark Castle" over Google Hangouts with friends several times with good fun results. There, each character's abilities was represented by a special RPC "dice" that scored a result appropriate to their class' abilities - basically their contribution to overcome the challenge card from the story deck. Remotely all the players needed to do was convert a normal d6 to their character dice, as in a simple lookup table (or let me roll the dice for them). I wanted to see if its sister sci-fi board game, "Escape from the Dark Sector" could also be played remotely as well (see below, instead of a castle you have done something wrong in space, and your spaceship is impounded, so you hatch a cunning plan and break out):   

"Dark Sector" is more complicated in that it allows two modes of combat, "ranged" and "close" combat, basically guns of various forms or stabby-spikey-shocky things picked up. This posed a problem as there were far more special dice involved in the range combat. Everybody had to trust me as I rolled the dice (I was also walking through teh rules in the first play but the players were good friends and very patient). It was engrossing and despite the odds our "first time playing the game" luck held (see below, the reverse of the box shows the various its components - notice lots more dice):   

It worked well "as a casual pick-up" game (we finished it over two sessions) and we definitely be planning another outing (a nice dark night sort of game).

Board Game Geek (see link below): 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280748/escape-the-dark-sector

Send Reinforcements: I need more Adventurers - Female Elf Adventurers

The eldest son is off at university and it comes as no surprise, he is soon to be found running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with new found friends (and hopefully attending some lectures). The "gaming group" are obviously expanding into new character classes (or perhaps needing replacements for dead characters?) as he wants an urgent "resupply" from his toy cupboard (see below, lead figures were consequently pulled from their retirement sanctuary of the "cupboard cloisters" [after being carefully packed away on his departure] and thrown once more into the frenzied life of adventuring, with new eager young hands waiting to push them around a tabletop, trying to doing unspeakable things [and probably failing ignominiously, as I remember doing]): 

"Please send elves, female elves, I need adventurous female elves!" Dad sighs. "Don't we all son! Try the University Bar on a Friday night." The son is not impressed. "Thanks dad, I need lead figures! "Ok, looking into my side of the figure collection I bring out some old Grenadier classics. These ladies will be some forty five years old, or older. I wonder if they will survive the modern tabletop experience (see below, a female ranger and a female monk [or so I am lead to believe if I recall the listings correctly], they are painted green so they must obviously elves):

A close up of the figures and to my shame the female monk has some "chipped paint" -- gasp -- on her staff, but fear not she should still be able to blend in nicely to the forest backdrop, pity as they are destined for dungeon delving (see below, farewell my lovely ladies. I fear I may never see you again as they have been passed onto another's (un)worthy hands, I hope you get beyond third level (base) with my son and his friends as I never did - too lightly armoured for my dumb ass style of play, I always needed to be wearing chain or plate mail!):  

Final thoughts? He will be after my Orcs next, which means I will have to finish painting them! I mean I have only had them just under twenty years?

That Games Workshop Balrog!

Yes, there must be thousands of well intentioned purchases of the GW Balrog figure when "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" came out at the cinema and simultaneously hit the Games Workshop retail outlets. Yes, someone, with the gift of the brush, was assigned in each shop to paint the Balrog and told to "do it right" because it was going to be the centrepiece of the shop window display for the next six months (see below, my beastie was assembled years ago - no mean feat in itself and primed grey but got "stuck" in limbo):

But .. as good as the casting techniques were back then, figures of this size and complexity were always  "gappy" at the joins, so my Balrog has stayed many years imprisoned in a box awaiting the Milliput treatment, but alas the thought of rolling two pieces of epoxy putty together (the brown one always annoyingly harder than the green/yellow one) makes you want to run to the kitchen and "make a cup of tea and get very distracted from rolling Milliput" (see below, the next stage - gap filling, not Milliput but Vallejo Plastic Putty to the rescue):  

Vallejo Plastic Putty was an impulse buy, yes I have many plastic kits that would benefit from it, but if truth be told, for the, majority nobody would notice on the wargames table. The enigmatic bottle winked at me but was not put to great use, until one day teh urge took me to find the Balrog. Close inspection of a large fantasy figurine like the Balrog at a RPG (inevitably playing D&D) session is embarrassing though and it why this figure was put to the back of the painting queue (see below, horrid gaps and I mean horrid gaps at last being filled, even Sauron was smiling. The Plastic Putty is squeezed out in controllable amounts that can then be applied by cocktail stick or end of a modelling knife):  

Well if any of my D&D player characters from my ongoing campaign are looking in, firstly "Hi - stop peeking! No good will come of it!". Secondly rest assured I would not be so "mean" as to do something as "mean spirited" as introducing a large, dangerous, short tempered and obviously "too high a level" monster (with quick-kill player character eating potential) into the game, just because I have painted it, What do you take me for? Yes, of course I will quite happily wait twenty odd years until you are ready to tackle it. Please pay no attention to the Bugbear and Demon Prince figures that did that, appearing out of the natural course of events, we call those regrettable incidents, so unsightly. That was plain "mean" and I have learnt my lesson (which was go out of the room before starting to laugh out loud). Carry on, there is nothing to see here, move along Gandalf. 

Games Workshop (GW Demon) - WIP

Confession: This one was pulled from the archives (a year ago). Backstory ..I had a moment of weakness, I think I was in need to cheer myself up with a tonic and "it" took advantage of me!  Daemons are like that, they attack you when your defences are down and this one appeared unexpectedly in an aisle in local non-wargaming shop (Boyes) during a boring shopping trip (see below, yes I totally blame the Games Workshop Daemon for taking advantage of me, I am weak and it promised me riches [but it took my wargaming soul]. I have primed, washed and base-coated it [and washed it again for good measure] to gain the following effect): 

Despite being a bit over the top, it is very, very good fun to paint and it is one of the "classic Warhammer miniatures" - just sought after just to paint (see below, I like the way fantasy holds no bars so you are free to experiment - although you could say I went for a typical "Demon Red" painting scheme, three layers of paint [shade, base, highlight] and a wash on the metals! Presentable but not yet totally finished): 

Vallejo Game Colour paint range did the trick, along with their washes. The next stage is spot highlighting and some extra "detailing" on the base! Watch this space ...

Call of the Cthulhu - Pandemic Style (Collaborative Game)

I can highly recommend this game that was a Xmas present purchase that went down a storm with friends and family (see below, a Pandemic style collaborative game, where the investigators try and stop the sprawling tentacles of doom engulfing humanity): 

 

So far it has been played twice, not with a great success rate for the investigators to date, but they were up against the A-Team of Elder Gods. The board game comes with some lovely miniatures that obviously will need painting in the due course of time. 

Board Game Geek reference: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192153/pandemic-reign-cthulhu

I actually enjoyed it much more than a 7.4 rating, my rating would be a 9.0!

A retro-project approaching its completion: Games Workshop Warhammer Starter Set circa 2003 - The Orks!

Before Xmas this was the state of play of my Warhammer Starter Set - bought for me as a birthday present circa 2003. The Empire troops are long painted but the Ork (careful not to drop into the LOTR spelling convention here) are still wanting a  bit of attention (see below, the Ork Boar Chariot and Ork Archers are just primed, Ork Chopper Boyz looking ok): 

The Ork Chopper Boyz are pretty much done - an extra bit of work on the blades won't go amiss (see below, these Ork Boyz don't seem to be the 1HD wonders of Second Edition D&D I remember so fondly of in my youth , more like 3-5HD "bad ass" things you try and avoid if at all possible):  

So during the Xmas break I went to it with gusto [it was a bucket list item]! The Ork Archers get their final painting session (see below, basing and flocking of course still to follow): 

The Ork Crew and Wild Boar Chariot was the most challenging. In short, a lot of work .. albeit mostly brown and metal (see below, it did however become a mix between a "labour of love" and "point of honour to finish without rushing". Note:  the Spear Ork is really working hard to find something "to hit"):

A close-up of a typical Greenskin - showing off with a whip, prodding a Wild Boar and bigging himself up (see below, where is a juicy, defenceless Elf when you need one?): 

Nearly there, just the last bit of basing to do! Not that bad after twenty years - I was just waiting until I learned to paint?

Waterdeep - The Tavern of the Yawning Portal

Waterdeep - The Tavern of the Yawning Portal (see below, a rather challenging task for a DM to describe to the adventurers as they are hauled up for the first time): 

Instead of walking in through the tavern door like most folk - mysteriously the party are pulled up one by one from a room (which I inserted) in the Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure! A curious seg-way perhaps but the characters seemed up for it!

28mm Fantasy - Undead Hoards - Skeletons

For reason still as yet clear to me after a short conversation with my eldest teenage son I began painting my massed skeleton (from various manufacturers) collection (see below, HeroQuest [top left], Warlord Games [top right down to bottom], Wargames Atlantic [middle left down to bottom] and there was even some Games Workshop lingering around off camera): 

My colour palette (see below, Army Painter Grey Spray Primer plus the paints shown - Citadel Base Corax White (which I think is a lovely grey), Citadel Contrast Skeletal Horde, Vallejo Game Bonewhite and Vallejo Game Dead White): 

Corax White (see below, looking white, but a grey white to my eyes, perhaps it is the primer coming through - but as a base paint it is rally rich in pigment): 

Skeletal Horde with the Bonewhite highlight (see below, I must confess to using it more as an all over wash than a selective paint so perhaps I am missing a trick here, still I like the end result):  

Dead White ultra-highlight (see below, trying "not to do too much" with a dab, giving a fine-lining highlight effect - which I find the hardest part, just to put enough on and no more): 

Thank is the bulk of the figure done, just a bit of work to do on the weapons and shields. The aim is to produce a suitably rusty grimy effect .. watch this space ;)  

Update (3/10/2022): Swap out Vallejo Game Dead White for the less bright Vallejo Game Off White, the less intense colour works better for the highlight IMHO. 

The Beholder

Sometimes all it takes is a little push, so when my eldest son said he needed a monster for his D&D club (an at school activity) to chase a bunch of newbies (giving them a head start at 5th Level) around a dungeon - he asked would I paint the Beholder that had been lurking primed and shaded on the shelf for over a year, it was enough of a prod (see below, the paint went from pot to brush to figure and before you know it, my mojo was back):  

Not someone or something I would want to meet any day down a dungeon! The Whizzkids model is much more animated and scary than the previous one I painted.

Purchase Number 2: Hero Quest Expansions

As I picked up Warlord Games Epic Napoleonic I came across a "must buy it or regret "scenario. I have acquired an original Heroquest but the revamped re-edition has also pushed out the two expansions .. and an irresistible force met my wallet (see below, no regrets .. even on the figure count it was worth it .. and there was some cool dungeon scenery bits too):  

The beasties inside need painting and I now feel as if I have enough undead zombies to chase unwary adventurers through the catacombs) .. Game On!

Good Old Fashioned Dungeon Hack: D&D 5th Edition

Mixing the old with the new. Fifth Edition D&D Rules (relatively new), with Games Workshop Figures and Warlord Games (monsters) and forty year old adventurer (Citadel[?]) miniatures and "the classic floor plans" (see below, the old-timer is the Dwarven thief skulking across the large cavern floor [actually invisible courtesy of a friendly magic-user's spell] the angry pack of ghouls [represented by GW Chain Rasps] heads towards the rest of the party - also note the suspiciously "un-animated" skeletons littering the cavern floor [from Warlord Games]):

Thing was the moment we stopped the session for the night/ What they call in the movies "a cliff-hanger". To be continued ...

Beauty is in the "Eye of the Beholder"

This is a Black Tree Design "Evil Eye" which to me equates to a Second Edition D&D Monster Manual picture of a Beholder (see below, a ping pong table tennis ball with pin tacks sticking out of it and a "bitey" mouth on it): 

As they say, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and although it does not compare to the Fifth Edition pimped up larger model of the Beholder) and I like its rustic charm. The other nickname we gave it was "the purple people eater"! Time will tell on that one as you have to be fairly high level to be unfortunate enough to meet and greet one! 

Some Pictures of D&D Adventurers that I had fun with in Lock-Down

One of the unexpected benefits of lock-down was my rediscovery of RPG with my old school friends at the tutelage of my eldest son (whom I think has memorised the contexts of 5th Edition AND the subsequent rules changes .. respect). From the loft came out some old Grenadier and Citadel friend from the 1980's (see below, not forgetting the ubiquitous dungeon floor plans - basic set corridor grey):  

This guy in particular, children's magic party "over the top" classic D&D wizard - dressed so crazy he's got to be both mad and powerful (see below, I take my hat off to the "mojo" I had when I painted him): 

Dwarves you gotta love them and that serious looking lost Crusader paladin type in the background (see below, the dwarf female looks tougher than the male counterpart - a happy couple on an orc killing spree): 

These are the new-comers in two senses of the word - new race (Drakon) and new figure casting (sexy plastic- resin from Wizkids, Noldur's Marvellous Miniatures) - but wat is there not to like (see below, apart from the joint custody of them between me and my teenage son; he'll eventually  break my heart when the collection moves out with him): 

Last but not least, in what seems like an age ago the original LOTR's "The Fellowship of the Ring" came out and along with is GW's LOTR's miniatures started (see below, I think it is Pippin, perfect for that halfling thief that appears in every party .. well at least at the start): 

This sums up D&D or rather RPG as lots of everything coming together in one big "mish-mash" of fun ;) 

Long may you all game on!

Random Things That Appeared In An Amazon Shopping Trolley Over The Past Months

Why? Because .. it looked good and was at a discounted price .. and my powers of resistance were low .. (see below, a "shiny" Sci-Fi adventure game for £20 .. after all I have to do something with all those Space Marines and other various Sci-Fi figures): 

Although a Chain of Command buff, I have heard too many good reports from people playing the alternative too .. so again I was victim of a discounted price (see below, although it is safe to say I was a happy victim, another £20 .. could be expensive if I get all the supplements):  

Third and final was Rangers of Shadow deep, a Fantasy (relatively light .. in comparison to 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons) adventure game .. yes again discounted .. please note this was not one mad single Amazon shopping trip, but rather multiple over months (see below, this one was also a Kindle edition whereas the other two were physical): 

The latter (Rangers) was with a selection of LOTR miniatures I have yet to paint in mind. Game on (after reading the rules that is)!

The Finished Minotaur .. I am gong to call him Finbar

The finished "beast" (see below, pity the poor fool of an adventurer who tries to take him on alone, in a disorientating underground maze): 

I toyed with the colour scheme, originally having him much browner but my eldest son convinced me to go more "fleshy" and I am glad he did (see bellow, looking rather Spartan with his bare buttocks): 

A bit of bounce off glare perhaps spoils the total effect but up close and personal this dude is going to tear hit points off you):  

Scratch this one off the bucket list, but maybe I need one with an axe too?

Bucket List: Fantasy Monsters - I always wanted a .. decent Minotaur figure (WIP)

The Minotaur is an iconic monster and one I never had as a kid, but it was always on the "bucket list" of D&D monsters to get. Lock-down and internet browsing lets certain things happen and while "purchasing" a WW2 28mm German infantry gun (more about that in another post) from Black Tree Design something dropped into the Cart and once in I just could not figure how to remove it (see below, I think they called it a Minotaur Champion but it looks like how any Minotaur should look to me - based up on Milliput to avoid it embarrassingly falling over): 

The base texturing came from my son's hobby tip courtesy of the Critical Roll podcasts - crumple up some tin foil into a small ball and roll it over the still pliable Milliput. He took pity on his farther cursing his old school efforts with an old toothbrush. Airfix Acrylic primer under coat was added (see below, ready for the painting tray to begin proper - really impressed with this sculpt): 

Note: This one might be a race against time to get this one ready for his (or its) campaign debut! Just saying to any PCs casually reading this blog post ;)  

Hero Quest the Game Continues

In keeping with the 1980/90's "retro" post of my latest 1970-80's Traveller acquisition, a game that I missed out on acquiring in my youth (though I have managed to play it since) was the Heroquest series. This now has come my way via the sad circumstances of a games clear-out as one of the co-owners passed away, but in their honour I shall educate my family in the ways of Heroquest over the coming Covid winter (and paint a few of the retro models to boot! The "Barbarian" springs immediately to mind). Going back in time, I think I had just moved on from my first RPG phase at that juncture (it was not pulling in the girls methinks) and Games Workshop was pushing me away with the huge amounts of models required (masses of "orcs" .. or is it "orks"?) for their epic fantasy battles (in retrospect, fool that I was for thinking that!). I vaguely remember my nephew becoming interested in Space Crusade so I did see Heroquest on the shelves alongside it. The good news for me and the family is that it is D&D-lite on rules but epic in charm which is win-win  (see below, the beautiful box and remember to see the unforgettable video): 

Alongside Heroquest was Advances Hero Quest which I think was a way to route impressionable youngsters over to Warhammer, an armies even Peter Jackson would be proud of (see below, behold hoards of evil Skaven): 

This surely brings down an embargo for me to stop collecting things and start painting (with the possible [noted] exception of some 15mm Traveller figures for my Xmas present).

Is it true - Hero Quest is coming back?

https://heroquest.avalonhill.com/en-us?fbclid=IwAR1mkNKOo9K7Oz8qtR1Pe8RQ8HG230kkoiKA9gq2zNM8ZwoDAsRx8T9w_ik 

You must see this video ..

https://youtu.be/Cx8sl2uC46A  

This is the man I wanted to grow up to be ... what went wrong? I think I went too corporate!

GW Tomb Banshee "Washed"

Like the Moria Troll this little begger got my attention (see below, tip don't hang around the graveyards at night): 

The Vallejo Brown Wash is but the first step in the painting process

Moria Troll "Washed"

Again a beastie that stares at me from the library shelf, strategically placed in line-of-sight. Taunted I first primed it in Airfix Grey Acrylic Primer then Vallejo Washed him in Sepia Brown (see below, he looks and angry chap): 

Anybody seen a hobbit? (see below, that is the spear aimed as in the first film at Frodo Baggins): 

Good first step. Watch this space for the next ;)