We Don't Rent Pigs

Jake Spoon: A man that will talk to a pig ain't no better than a farmer.
Gus McCrae: I expected you to own a bank or at least a whorehouse by now Jake. It seems life has been a disappointment to both of us.
Jake Spoon: That might be so, but by God, I ain't never said a word to a pig.

Gus McCrae: Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop

Secondhand Lion's Crusade Campaign

The new BMC 1/32 scale Saracen take the field.  This is a side table game  to augment the Saracen forces of the future.  Through the evening they proved to be a tough customer.  They went 2-0.

In the main event, the battle of Tripoli is under way.  Fighting in built up areas proved to be a test of the rules and our agreeable wargame nature.   This battle went to the Crusader forces under Mr. T.C. and advanced the Crusader column one more space toward Jeruselum.

Another side table battle that shows the death of the Crusader commander.  Backed up spear with a warband overlap and trap sent this pilgram packing!

We also debuted the grail cup collection.  Pretty typical collection of muggery.  Who will win the grail cup trophy...stay tuned.

Electric Football Tournament 2013 Electra-bowl XXVI

 After two nights of games and a tournament tree it comes down to Denver and San Francisco. 

The game was a fun weekend with friends and

 The comissioner earns his keep and was worked hard the whole weekend.

 The late night crowd.

 Justin Chamberlain takes home the trophy.  Presented here by Terry Carr the league comissioner.

Congratulations Justin!!

See you in 2014.

Secondhand Lion's First Crusade

 

The game club gathered for our Thursday night event and this time it would be to start a small campaign game based on the Crusades.  Two newly acquired Supreme 60mm armies would be playing the parts of Crusader and Saracen in a Hordes of the Things organized game.  We as a club are all playing the part of a Baron on crusade in the holy land with all of his retinue and army.  We are envisioning a long march column heading into the middle east.  We arrived at Constantinople and each club member would take it in turn to be the "tip of the spear" and lead the column.  For each win that the Crusader armies get we will advance the groups campaign pin one more step toward Jerusalem.  The map is a line of connected locations and looks like this.

Constantinople ---Nicaea---Antioch---Tripoli---Damascus---Acre---Jerusalem

Each club member rolled a die and was placed on a campaign ladder 1-7.  In our campaign then each player would play the member below them as Crusader vs. Saracen respectively.  Each player would tally a score based on his number of Saracen destroyed minus the number of Crusader army points he lost.  Perfect score would be 12 to 0 in HotT army point cost giving the Crusader a 12 point win.  The club member that has the best aggregate score versus the Saracen will be crowned the King of Jerusalem, Knight Commander of the Holy Land and Defender of the True Cross.




 

Our first evening saw three battles fought with three consecutive wins by the Crusaders.  The battle of Constantinople was won by Lord Terry scoring an impressive 8 AP.  Following this the campaign pin was advanced to Nicaea with Baron William taking command and getting a quick kill on the Saracen General scored a 2 AP leaving him in dismal hopes for that crown at the end.  The campaign then saw the action in and around Antioch with Lord Carl "the petulant" defeating a well commanded Saracen host and racking up an even 4 AP in the standings.  The evening went well and will continue with the remaining 4 games to be played to decide the overall commander.

 

The group discussed a "kicker" for AP or Glory would be the Holy Grail.  If a player presents for perusal a "holy grail" cup that is deemed worthy as a trophy to mark this historic campaign that that commander could receive an additional 1D6 glory to his final score and may actually win from a secondary finish with high enough points to carry the victory of the campaign and accrue the coveted seat in Jerusalem.

We leave you with a few additional pictures from more Hordes of the Things action in 60mm.  These armies fought the previous Thursday for a HotT double points bash of 48 AP semi-historical fun.

Thanks for checking in with our blog and as always leave comments for encouragement of the crew.

 

The Crusades 54mm Hordes of the Things

Secondhand Lion's Crusades Campaign

Will you take up your sword in conquest of the Holy Land?

7:00 PM at Ken's We will begin a campaign game using

Hordes of the Things rules and my collection of Saracen and Knights in 54mm.

You may bring other HotT 28mm armies for practice on a side table.

The game will feature each of us commanding a Crusader army of our own design from the available miniatures.

Using the Crusader army you will play at least one game against the default Saracen Horde (maybe more if time and interest permits).

Scores will be tallied as a destroyed vs. lost aggregate and the winner with the best score will be crowned

Knight Commander of the Holy Land and, Defender of the True Cross.

Going Viking with McToy Bag O's Cheap Figure Fantastic

Deluxe Toy Viking Playset Figures.

by Mc Toy (imported and prepainted bag o figs that I bought at US Toy.)

 

What we have here is a gamer on winter break digging out all of his budget figures and getting some relaxing game time on the wargame table in the basement.   Now I am a social gamer but I will also go solo and in the case of budget figures it is sometimes better to go solo first and love the figures for what they are rather than defend them in a social setting because they are so cheaply made, sketchy paint jobs and odd poses for most gaming needs.  But hey, my vacation, my solo.

 Here we have the Viking chieftain looking fierce and ready.  I had a shield project that is a perfect one day event if everything comes together so on this snowy day I armed a about a quarter of these figures with great shields that I hot glued right to the mini.

 Hordes of the Things Beserker (Hero).

 A quick image search on the googler found these shield designs that I copied into a word program to resize.  The images are from work on a computer game I think and were very beautiful and pretty close to what I was imagining.  I printed them onto a one sheet decal or mailing label paper and was very pleased with the art.  The wooden disks are from Michael's craft store and come in a large bag called woodsies.  I didn't get enough so I will be returning to kit out the rest of the figures.

 Game Artisans.org and the artist's name is Ramseus. 

 Men what's without.

 and them that has.

 Sweet Transformation kids we got us a fightin' army now.

by McToy

Supreme Afternoon of HotT Gaming

I have been collecting the Supreme Brand Bag-o-figs from Hobby Lobby.  They come in a variety of epochs and are prepainted in a rough fashion.  What they've got going for them is durability and cheapness.  I am not oppossed to building a quick army for under $50 that I don't have to paint and can while away an afternoon bashin about on the gaming table.  What follows is a solo game using Hordes of the Things rules and two 48 point fantasy armies based on ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.  Double click the images for close up views.  The howdah are scratchbuilt.  The game is still on the table...

Go figure.  Not a single chariot in the Egyptian sets.  So these are my Numidian light cavalry classified as riders in HotT.  I am waiting until Hobby Lobby gets the Saracens with camels in the bagged sets.  I saw the bucket of Crusaders, Knights, Saracens but didn't want to go $22 for just four camels and I already have all the crusaders and knight figures.