Up Coming Game Night

I don’t get to play war games all that often, so when I do I go all out. I have an upcoming game night coming up where my brother and I will get together and play a few war games. All of the games have been downloaded from online and were free. I will have to fill you on how things go with a set of battle reports. Here are the games I have to play on that night.

I will post my battle reports and give a review on each game in upcoming posts.

• The Battle of Lobositz (1756)
• The Battle of Brandywine Creek (1777)
• The Battle of Germantown (1777)
• The Battle Manila Bay (1898)
• Sink the Bismarck (1941)

Battle of Brandywine Creek

This is the smallest print and play game I have downloaded yet. It is scaled to fit the front and back of a postcard. Not a mailer like the other two games I have written about, but the size of a postcard that you might send while on holiday. The image supplied here is the actual size of the map. There are eighteen counters representing continental and British forces.

This game or is it battle has gotten quite a bit of attention, for I have taken note of other versions of this game with boards and counters that are a bit larger and better detailed than the ones that accompany this game. More on this topic that when I get around to printing this version out and had had some time to review it.

The Count of Monte Christo by Alex Dumas

One of the titles on this periods reading list is The Count of Monte Christo by Alex Dumas. The Count of Monte Christo is one of the most interesting characters and novels I have ever read. This is my second reading of The Count of Monte Christo. This time in my reading I will be looking specific and particular facts that I might bring to light or expounded on. Some of the particularities I will be looking for are the people the count apposed, those he was a benefactor, the counts alias and impersonations, jewels he lavished on others, potions he concocted, his estimated worth, ships and priests that were mentioned, and the foreign lands he either visits or had been visited by the count. I will also be on the look-out for interesting quotes that I find interesting. 

The Sword of Valhall, Battle Report

Although I might have misread the instructions for The Swordof Valhall, the game process seemed a bit redundant. To the best of my knowledge, here is how the game progresses. You start on the first hex and roll a die. Your roll is tied to the associated outcome under the correct table for the Rune you happened to be on.

For most of the Rune tables you must roll a two to move to the next Hex. The outcome, depend on the Rune symbol you are sitting on, you may be told to add an artifact to your inventory, or remove one from your inventory, ECT. There are five outcomes for each of the Runes.

What I found was that I was either adding an inventory point or losing one. This went on for several rolls until I rolled a two and was able to move on the next Hex. Although every table had its unique actions, the add one or remove one was constant on all of the tables.

Like I have already mentioned, perhaps I need to go back and revisit the instructions. I will give this game another go and perhaps if I added some miniatures to represent the explorers the game might be more interesting.

Details of my Hoards O’ Bits Order

I have received my last shipment of miniatures for this year. All of the miniatures are wonderful and I look forward to working on them. They will all will receive a base coat of either grey or black and await their turn for further detailing.

Miniature	Size	Description
Orc Arachnarok Spider- Trees	28mm	3 parts, some assembly required. Finely detailed.
Dreadfleet Graveyard Leech Wyrm	?	Small, but highly detailed sea monster.
Reaper Dark Heaven- Legends, Leprechaun and Owl	25mm	Nice 25mm miniature from Reaper Miniatures. This is my first “Rider” miniature. I need to revisit the Owls that were featured in my readings.
Island Of Blood Skaven Poisoned Wind- Mortar	28m	6 parts and assembly is required.
Dreadfleet Grand Alliance & Dreadfleet Cogs ships	?	Very small, but a lot of detail here. These miniatures should be fun to detail.
Reaper Bits Aquatic Familiars, Walking Fish	25mm	I never opened one of the aquatic familiar packs from Reaper and it seems that I already own one of these miniatures. Well at least one of them will get some paint.

Quotes from Jack London’s, A Son of the Sun #8

“’Hello, shipper!’ Narii called, when he was abreast of them. ‘Can I come aboard to get some breakfast?’ Captain Warfield’s face and neck began to swell and turn purple. He tried to speak, but choked. ‘For two cents-for two cents-‘was all he could manage to articulate."
Jack London’s, A Son of the Sun

Western Dragons: The Frost Dragon

The Frost Dragon range from the Arctic to Antarctica, the frost dragon fly’s thousands of miles in their migration to and from these regions. They create their lair or nests in caves facing the sea or in hollowed out glaciers or icebergs. The Frost dragon and grow up to 40 feet in length and up to 12 to 14 feet high.

The Frost Dragon has many of the same characteristics as its European cousin and can be found in the following colorization's: pure white, white tinged with blue or pink.

Quotes Jack London’s, A Son of the Sun #7

“The deck of the Malahini vibrated under the men’s feet. The taut-stretched halyards beat a tattoo against the masts, and all the rigging. As if smoke by some mighty hand, set up a wild thrumming.”
Jack London’s, A Son of the Sun

Western Dragons: The Knucker

The Knucker is another species of dragon that can found in Western Europe. The Knucker can grow up to 30 feet long by 3 to 6 feet high and is serpentine in appearance and like some serpents; it kills by injecting venom in to its victim. The Knucker has two vestigial wings, but cannot fly.

Knuckers can be found in damp woodland locations and make their homes in deep ponds or wells. You can imagine the horror of going out to your well and seeing a Knucker slithering up and out of your well.

Western Dragons: The European Dragon

Illustration of a winged dragon from a 1658 edition of Edward Topsell's The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents.
Wikipedia-Commons

The European Dragon is the dragon that is commonly thought of when someone talks of Dragons. You know the flying and fire-breathing sort of dragon. This type of dragon is the stuff of legends and folklore. 

The European Dragon’s former range was throughout Western Europe. It commonly made its lair or nest in mountain or sea caves in remote regions.

The European Dragon could grow up to 45 feet long and 13 to 17 feet high. It was one of largest and one of the most feared of all species. This species of dragon could red, green, black, or sometimes gold. It had two great bat-like wings and did breathe fire. This attribute worked well for destroying its enemies as well as roasting its food.

This species only mated every few years and would fly great distances to attract and lure prospective suitors by leaving their spore and markings at intervals along the path toward their lairs.

Other prominent characteristics of the European Dragon are:

• Arrowhead tail
• Thick spines
• Clawed talons
• Scales
• Horns
• Fanged teeth
• Large eyes that offered phenomenal sight.

As you can imagine; seeing a dragon with these attributes would put the fear into anyone. Yet there were those who for financial gain or just for the glory of it would attempt to slay the mighty dragon. See the story of Beowulf for instance. 

Bombshell Miniatures MInE Bot

My Bombshell Miniatures 20mm MInE Bot has been completed. After being thoroughly tested here it waits for its first set of instructions. What tasks will it be best suited? It is anyone’s guess what type of tasks it will be tasked with eventually, but judging by the tools it has been fitted with, some industrial job might be a good fit.

My Last Order of Miniatures for 2014

This is my last order of miniatures for this year. Hoard O'Bits has received a second order from me and will probably receive at least another order sometime next year. Although Hoard O' Bits specializes in surplus Warhammer bits they also have a large collection of bits and miniatures from other manufacturers. This order, with what I already have on hand, should take me through the winter and possibly through part of spring.

Warhammer Bin Bits Orc Arachnarok Spider - Trees

Warhammer Bin Bits Island Of Blood - Skaven Poisoned Wind Mortar

Warhammer Dreadfleet Bin Bits - Graveyard - Leech Wyrm

Warhammer Dreadfleet Bin Bits - Grand Alliance & Dreadfleet Cogs

Warhammer Dreadfleet Bin Bits - Dice

Leprechaun and Owl - Reaper Dark Heaven Legends

Walking Fish - Reaper Bits Aquatic Familiars

Dragons by Location

The Complete Book of Dragons lists several dragon species by location. Dragons are said to have lived in many different locations and habits around the world. The following species are mentioned by location.

Western

European

Kucker

Frost

Eastern

Tibetan

Lindworms

Asian Lung

Chinese Lung

In addition to those mentioned there were other species which included:

• Wyvern-middle east and Africa
• Amphithere-Western North and South America
• Marsupial-Southern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand
  

I will be making posts on each of the dragons in upcoming posts.

Quotes from Jack London’s , A Son of the Sun #6

"The warm air was rich with perfume, and overhead, outlined against the stars, were fruit-burdened mangos, stately avocados trees, and slender-tufted palms."

Jack London's,  A Son of the Sun

The Sword of Valhalla

The Sword of Valhalla is a solo dungeon crawl game published by 8RadGames. The rules are very simple. You start with six inventory points and four explorers. The Artifact Track is used to keep track of the artifacts that you find along the way as you search for the prized Sword of Valhalla. Artifacts are sold when your inventory points run low. The four explorers represent four lives. If a turn starts with 0 explorers or inventory points you lose the game.

There are three actions for each turn: Roll, React, and Resolve. There are four rune symbols used on the map, for each turn you move one space on the map. You then roll one dice to roll against the rune symbol that matches the one you are on. You may use any one of the three actions to modify or change the result of your roll.

Actions Table
Action	Costs	Result
Nudge	1 Inventory Point	May move up or down 1 place for every inventory point spent
Re-roll	1 Inventory Point	Re-roll the result once per point spent
Camp	1 Inventory Point	Sell Artifacts from Artifact Track 1 Artifact buys 1 Inventory Point 2 Artifact buys 1 Explorer

There aren’t any games pieces, three dice are used instead. One is placed on the number six on the Artifacts table, one is used as a token representing one explorer, and the other with the number four up represents the four lives you start the game with. Instead you could use coins or buttons to present an explorer and the number of artifacts you currently have in your inventory.

                                                                

What is on the Docket this Weekend?

Not that I expect to get to all of these game this weekend, but I do want to give The Sword of Valhalla game a try. I also want to get a handle on The Malta Convey and Utopia Engine game rules. These two dice and pen and paper games look intriguing.

• The Sword of Valhalla, 1 person print and play dungeon crawl board game
• The Malta Convey, 1 person print and play WWII dice and pen and paper game
• Utopia Engine, 1 person print and play science fiction themed dice and pen and paper game

Quotes from Jack London’s , A Son of the Sun #5

“I’ve done some sailing myself, and this naming a craft when its sail is only a blur, or naming a man by the sound of his anchor-its-its unadulterated poppycock.”

 Jack London’s, A Son of the Sun

Lost Treasure and Morey Eel

I own a couple sets of Reapers familiar packs. I completed these two pieces some time ago. I believe they turned out very nicely and look forward to completing a few more from my collection. The Moray eel can be found in Reapers 02948: Familiar Pack VII or comes bundled with a Dragon Fish, order # P02948B.
The treasure chest is also a Reaper miniature; sorry that I don’t have an part order number for this one.

Airships

Dirigible Airships Compared 

                with 

     Related Aerostats

From a turn of the 20th century encyclopedia.
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It has been a while since I posted anything labeled “Airships”. I was looking through Games Vault’s online war games offerings and found an Avalon Games expansion set for their Land Ships mini game. I put the game on my Wish List and I will be ordering this expansion along with later very soon. At any rate, that got me thinking about airships. A quick search brought up several airship hits including the “Dirigible Airships” illustration and the following “TheAirship and Futurism: Utopian Visions of the Airship” article, published by Airships.net. 

Ships Mentioned in A Son of the Sun

These are the ships that were mentioned within London’s, A Son of the Sun. These ships, for the most part were sailing ships, plied the South Seas and found trade among the peoples and islands of the South Pacific.

Ship	Type
Berthe	Steamer
Billy	?
Cactus	?
Castor	Steamship
Dorset	Schooner
Emily L No.3	Schooner
Francini	?
Gunga	?
Kittiwake	?
Lancaster	?
Magpie	?
Mala	?
Malahini	?
Mariposa	?
Merry	Ketch
Molly	?
Nuhiva	?
Papara	?
Perry	?
Rattler	Schooner
Roberto	?
Suwanne (ACW)	Warship
Tahaa	?
Toerau	Cutter
Uncle Toby	Schooner
Valetta	?
Wanda	Ketch
Willi-Waw	?
Wonder	Ketch

O My Lair, a Free Print and Play Dungeon Crawl Game

O My Lair is solo dungeon crawl game from the folks at Experimental Playground. This is another dungeon crawl game I have added to my list of dungeon crawl games. You are a dungeon master. You hear of a hero from one your subjects, which is said to be coming to depose of you. To protect your dominion from this upstart you will use all the resources you can conjure up, and the likes lizard man, golem, and the Cyclops. You and you cohorts will do whatever it takes to destroy this “hero” and keep a hold of your domain.

This game with larger counters actually looks like it will be fun to play. The game comes complete with a board, counters, and instructions on how to play.  

Quotes from Jack London’s , A Son of the Sun #4

“All that he (Brown) had ever gleaned from books proclaimed indubitably the faun-likeness of this visitant from the deep. “But a sad faun.”  Was the young man’s judgment, as the golden-brown woods god strode forward to where David Grief sat…”

Jack London’s,  A Son of the Sun

Projects for November

Last month, I seem to have gotten side-tracked with more than a few Print and Play games. I have been busy cutting out game boards and counters. I have eleven Print and Play games that are ready for play. I have few more that I would like to prepare, one of those is listed as a project this month. I did complete two of my projects from last month. My other miniature from last month only needs finishing touches. Here is my list for this month.

1. Give the one mini (old gentleman) from last month its finishing touches
2. Paint baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Angel from Ykreol Nativity set
3. Paint two dead trees from Imex 1/72 Alamo Accessories Set
4. Cut and paste counters fronts & backs, for The Battle of Lobositz game