More Lessons of Maja

Yesterday I got a package in the mail. I won't go into details yet, but it was a very cool assortment of gladiators (Crusader USA and Steve Barber Models), as well as a unit of Sikh Gnomes.

As I was showing my 2-year old Maja a pack of the Crusader USA gladiators, she responded with glee, "Thank you, Daddy we go paint now," grabbed the blister pack and ran over to her chair at the dining room table... at nine o'clock at night.

She donned her painting smock and proceeded to the paint the equine gladiator's horses... bright yellow. Which leads us to:

Lesson of Maja #4: All Gladiator horses are bright yellow. Which follows to an old one I missed.
Lesson of Maja #5: All pack mules are purple.
Lesson of Maja #6: If you mix yellow and green paint you get... Cheese!

I might add, I have two horses with bright yellow base coats, but she did a great job getting all the nooks and crannies without gobbing it on. And except for a lone gnome who was destined to be tortured, she painted with just one color and didn't want to mix anything.

I may be able to retire from painting before she turns four.

Historicon Review from the Great White North

I noticed this post awhile back, reviewing the wonders which were the Gnome Wars Joust and the first game. Nice to see our Canadian bretheren getting into the game, no matter what my wife thinks about them.

http://minicannuck.6sided.net/2011/07/15/historicon-gnome-wars/

The Japanese Emporer with the bonsai tree is awesome, and the other pictures simply spectacular. They also managed to completely spell out the rules for the joust and found the trash-talking, bounty-placing, little-girl-smacking-around-old-fat-dudes appealing, despite their stereotypical Great White Northern sensibilities.

I certainly welcome the blogger and his friends to any of my events, although with the other cool games they play, I understand if they don't have the time.

Mepacon Fall 2011

Historicon is over, which means one thing: prepping for Fall-in! With the wife demanding a vacation in Lancaster, I'll be making my first appearance at a Fall-in! since 2002.

The gnome games scheduled are still in the planning stages, and I'll be the first to formally announce them here, but let me give two hints which will help no one.

#1 They will both involve a ridiculous number of trees

#2 The game with my name under it will be a convention theme game (This year's theme is "US Cav"). The actual game is truly known by four people: Jim Stanton, Mike Lung, myself, and a Professor of History at Queens College. It will rock, I guarantee it.

With Fall-in! turning into an extravaganza for me, again Mepacon gets the short end of the stick again. This year's fall con runs November 11-13. I'm already taking two days off for Fall-in!, so another day off to attend Mepacon is out of the question. I'm disappointed. Since my move into Northeast PA five years ago, I may have missed only one or two cons. I'm the con grognard, an institution which should be institutionalized, and its the only time I can peruse new product without driving into the Lehigh Valley (and beyond). It would have been a great platform to playtest my Simpsons-Cthulhu Christmas game, or rerun the Longido portion of Tanga for Gnome Wars.

Perhaps I'll show up Saturday morning, or even Sunday just to support the dealers, see some old friends, and possibly snag some buyout prices at the auction. Or, perhaps I'll still be exhausted from Fall-in! and will simply relax and re-read the post I'm currently working on about the glories of Lehicon IV, back in 1990. Nostalgia is a cure for many an ailment.

(Gnome Wars) The Michael Lung Gallery #2

One minor edit from last week's inaugural pic. It seems like the Swiss Bunny Cav are supposed to be Alpine bunnies, well trained and experienced in the mountain. I call baloney and swiss cheese, although Mr. Lung does have a very nice write-up to justify experienced Cav in the "Bore Wars." We'll get to that eventually, I hope.

Today's showing is a completely scratchbuilt gnome mushroom house. A mixture of this and the Pegasus Model house in the background was my orginal vision of the village in "A Very Gnomish Civil War."

(WW2) Panzer Draisine is (has been for a while) out!

One of the popular searches which bring people to the blog has been "Panzer Draisine." Back in April of 2010 I announced pre-orders were being accepted for it from Brigade. I knew nothing of it, other than it looked awesome, and hey, it was Brigade, a plug never hurt.

Finally, more than a year later, I searched for the elusive item. Not only is it available, but it looks awesome in its 1/56th glory!
While it is a piece WW2 equipment, this goes on my long "rob a bank/hit the lottery" list, right behind the armored and civilian trains Brigade sells.

(edit) And here I now notice that it's part of Company B's lineup. Still available through Brigade Games.

The Apathy of New Releases (August 2011)

Ah, to relive those halcyon days of yore, when we would run down the local game shop on a Thursday or Friday afternoon to see what goodies the gaming gods sent from Chessex, The Armory, or Wargames West. Nowadays, I'm just a bitter man, probably it costs see a softcover sourcebook in gas just to drive to the closest shop. But enough griping, he's the new releases for pre-order from Game Trade Magazine this month.

My personal must-have list: absolutely nothing. Oh, I've updated my want list to reflect the Gnome Wars American Gnomes and the Holy Gnoman Empire figs, but there's nothing here shouts, "Sell your kidneys!"

My wish list: Nothing. Really! Really-really!

My store list: Everything would be, of course, subject to the whims of my imaginary store, but I will highlight the interesting items.

*L5R CCG Second City Set, plus new WoW expansions.

*There are 25 separate items for Flames of War, TWENTY FIVE. And not much under $35.00. Now I watched a little of the FoW National Tourney at Historicon, and the guys seem nice and looked like they were having fun, but the armies they field on one table could cost as much as a couple of rows of tables at an ancients tourney. I admit, I don't get it.

*There are 11 new boxed sets for the continued roll-out for Heavy Gear. Would I as a store owner, in questionable economic times, be willing to invest even one of each into the game line? I would hope that their would be a discounted store starter dispaly with extra posters, promo material, and maybe an extra 5% off cost. Heck,I really hope FoW has that as well

*Talisman Dragon Expansion - The coolest, yet most overrated of the Talisman expansions is back! $ 40.00

*THE LAUNDRY:THE MYTHOS DOSSIERS

*MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS 3RD EDITION: HEROES AND VILLAINS OF WWII

*Pathfinder - 3 new Third party products, and a slew of stuff from Paizo

*ELDER SIGN: a new board game from the creators of Arkham Horror.

*Star Fluxx and a Mixed Assortment of Fluxx

*Age of Cthulhu 6 Dreams of Japan

*SETTLERS OF CATAN Official Game Pieces! Read the direct blurb.Expand the Settlers of Catan game with these official game pieces! Each set features four cities, five settlements, and 15 roads from different cultures in history, hand-crafted in fine pewter, complete with a special Robber token modeled after each cultural setting. Scheduled to ship in July 2011.
BAVARIAN GAME SETSFP 1203................................$29.95
CHINESE GAME SETSFP 1201..................................$29.95
EGYPTIAN GAME SETSFP 1202................................$29.95
VIKINGS GAME SETSFP 1200...................................$29.95

*WARMACHINE: TWO-PLAYER BATTLE BOX 99.99
*Many new units for Dystopian Wars

*Steve Jackson Games:
Giant cthulhu foam dice. When did big foam dice become $16?
Munchkin Axe Cop from the webcomic.
Munchkin: Conan the Barbarian
*gasp* GURPS Tactical Shooting - Another actual GURPS book? Holy Schniekies!
Trophy Buck - a dice game that looks like farkel or cosmic wimpout.

*WotC:
Axis and Allies: Angel 20 CMG - The Air War begins. Are they the right size of Check Your 6?*D&D dragons collectors set - black,blue, green, red,and white dragon (boo hoo no gold?) $44.95 *Legend of Drizzt board game. 64.99
* MAGIC THE GATHERING: INNISTRAD - Another new set. I am soooooo out of the loop

WizKids
*DC HEROCLIX: GREENLANTERN GRAVITY FEED
*HALO HEROCLIX:HALO 10TH ANNIVERSARY BOXED SET
*MARVEL HEROCLIX:GIANT-SIZE FIGURES: X-MEN - APOCALYPSE and Sentinel Mk II and Mk V
*PATHFINDER BEGINNERBOX HEROES FANTASY MINIATURES SET
*STAR TREK EXPEDITIONS: EXPANSION SET

There's potential there. Potential for profit or diaster.

(LOS) UNE Superfortress... even bigger!

I snagged up this picture from a blog that posted on TMP awhile ago. The UNE Superfortress is the marquee piece from the halcyon days of LOS lore. It's gigantic, a couple a pounds of lead, and may require membership in the ironworker's union to assemble. Truth be told, I've never seen one on a battlefield.

This might be a better option for it.

There is a beautifully painted Superfortress, surrounded by 15mm sci-fi minis. It does give the unit the mecha-quality that it has always demanded. The weaponry on it's left wing isn't stock, but a little customization goes a long way.

I'll try to find the guys blog to give him proper credit.

(Edit: Found it! wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com )