(Kickstarter) Rise of the Gnomes

 I would have a poor name for a blog if I didn't mention the recent launch of Rise of the Gnomes board game, by August Games.

From the Kickstarter:

Rise of the Gnomes is an area control game where you manage your own brewery empire.  Assign your works and draft cards to dominate the regions of Brumancia.  Defeat the Gnomes, banish the dragon, and earn the loyalty of new beer customers.

Happy Easter and Dueling Roosters

There is precedent for documented precedent for roosters in The Joust, even if it rabbit combatants.

2021 Mid-Year Review

I've always tracked my gaming progress like the US Federal fiscal calendar (October through September. Don't ask why, it's always been like that, I'm not going to change now.

That being said, it's the midway point in that year, and a perfect time for a quick, bullet-point style review of how I'm doing and what I still need to do.

• Star Wars d6:  My Monday night online d6 Campaign is the crowning achievement of the year.  Thirty sessions in, we've added a new player who's completely changing the dynamic (but not the humor or fun) of the game.  My biggest anticipation for the second half of the year is the campaign Actual Play starting to post on Tuesday, May 4th.  Sessions are slated to be published through next May, with no end in sight.  And the craziest part?  We haven't even started the bigger plot lines I have in store.
• Gnomish Space Marines:  My focus to paint up as much of my squat/space dwarves/Gnomish Space Marines has gotten a lot more than that off my painting bench.  Despite the GSM only accounting for a quarter of my total painting output, the last time I've painted this much was back in 2017, and that was for a full year. 
• It is the name of the blog: Looking again at my output, I realized that half of my painting is actually gnome related, with both more GSM and Gnome Wars in the painting queue.
• You guys like what?:  The Top Ten blog posts since 10/1/2020.  With no conventions to write about, it's allowed all my other projects to rise to the top.  Gnomes of all shapes and sizes fill out the list, but I need to remember to not forget my Pulp games, the pile of Legions of Steel on the painting bench, or mix in the occasional zombie game or three.  You guys apparently dig them. 
1. Mandatory Holiday Swag Post 2020   (General Blogging)
2. Savage Pulp  #3.9 Swedish Museum of Antiquities  (Pulp)
3. Legions of Steel G1 Nightmare Security Horde (Painting)
4. Savage Pulp #3.10 Nils Lingonberry and the Valley of Gold (Pulp)
5. The Tree Demon of the Lower Sierras (Gnome Wars)
6. Armed Jews (Painting)
7. Figures Within the Last Fortnite (Painting)
8. (Last Days) Santa Claus is Coming to Zombietown (Zombies)
9. Gnomish Space Marine Heavy Support (Painting)
10. Navuoo Legion for Gnome Wars (Painting)

• Actual Plays: Besides the Star War Actual Play, Adventures in Gulluvia's run is near completion, and the Burning Trogs Redux storyline was completed early (ready for publication around Christmastime).  The Georic Gazetteer is probably a back-burner item, with Star Wars and the GSM dominating my time..

• COVID: The dread Coronavirus has killed most conventions and other face-to-face gaming (and almost me), but the kids still got a winter full of basketball, even if it wasn't as convenient as prior years.  AAU started up this month, and so far my wife taking the kids to Monday night practice, then hitting the gym until their ready to go home, has given me not only a little scheduled piece and quiet, but just enough prep time for Star Wars.   Here's hoping it stays like this through June.  I'll take them anywhere on any other night. 

Checklist for the Second Half

1. More Gnomish Space Marines painted!
2. Painting with the kids
3. Gaming with the kids
4. Maybe a ViscountEric 47th Birthday Lockdown Throwdown with select face-to-face gaming.
5. Finish the Pulp Game, Season Three
6. Slowly prep Pulp Alley (Season Four)
7. Slowly prep Planet 28 
8. Try not to buy too many more Space Dwarves on Kickstarter

(Kickstarter) 15mm Baggage Trains, Wagons, Camps, Accessories, and More by Battle Valor Games

No, dear readers, I have lost my mind and decided to start 15mm.   But Edward Spettigue (aka Battle Valor Games has launched a crazy new Kickstarter for their vast 15mm Fantasy line:  15mm Baggage Trains, Wagons, Camps, Accessories, and More

Numerous wagons, baggage configurations, stone walls, barrels, barricades, entire camps are offered, as well as a couple chariot units for the fantasy races

What's even crazier are the number of "unlockable" stretch goals planned that expand with even more wagons, chariots, and accessories.  

What's got ViscountEric so riled up about a Kickstarter for a scale I don't collect?  For starters, Ed and Battle Valor have been top notch with me.   Their Sci-Fi Dwarf Miner Warriors Kickstarter won the highly sought after 2020 Gaming with the Gnomies Best Kickstarter Award after some tough competition from Pulp Figures, Macrocosm, and Brigade Games.  

And the somewhat elusive claim that all scales of Battle Valor minis will be available through the pledge manager with significant discounts (specific details are mentioned on the Battle Valor wesbsite) and I'm throwing in a decent pledge, just so I have some forget-about-it cash to play with while I peruse the back catalog for their 28mm Pulp, Sci-Fi, Fantasy (and a whole 'nother pile of Space Dwarves).

(Painting) Serenity Now... in 28mm

 A week full of wacky weather, crazy work, and basketball in many forms, I have completed painting stuff off the bench, with ongoing work 

If you need a little peace and quiet, perhaps with lightning bugs zipping around, you might want to paint up these guys from Battle Valor's 28mm Sci-Fi line.

Looking at statting up this portion of  "The Crew" with Planet 28 in the near future.

I ordered these as individual add-ons from BattleFront's Space Dwarf Kickstarter, but you do save a couple of cents if you order The Crew (of nine figures) together.  I'll need to tack the others on a future order.

Next: Gnomes, Snipers, and an Evil Alien Presence

Project 350:  497 (326/171)  from 498 (324/174)

(Kickstarter) The Evolutionary Mishap by Thom Wilson

Thom Wilson, a small press game designer most recently known for successful Kickstarters for Space Scoundrels, and Gamma Zine #3, has launch yet another campaign, a system agnostic adventure, The Evolutionary Mishap - a Mutant, Martial Arts Adventure.

From the Kickstarter:

When an explosion in a nearby section of the laboratory sends you and several other test subjects through an inter-dimensional wormhole, you suddenly find yourself transformed into highly trained, humanoids capable of speech and complex thought. You and your fellow lab animals now find yourself in an alternate version of feudal Japan and in the middle of war. Even worse, your existence in this alternate dimension seems temporary and your very life depends on returning to the world from whence you came—but how?

Note that the adventure book does not contain new RPG rules or mechanics - this is purely an adventure for use with the Megaversal system or system of your choice.

An adventure for new characters for use with your favorite mutated animal martial arts RPG system. Designed for use with the Megaversal System but easily transformed to the system of your choice.

The WW2/Stranger Things Spin-Off Couldn't Afford the Product Placement