A box of primed and based minis

Sadly, I started these over a month ago.
Sort of a mixed bag of fantasy figs from various eBay purchases.
I have never had a lead pile before as I used to always paint what I had before I bought more.
I was getting a little carried away and I have about 2-3 times this many miniatures sitting around in boxes, un-primed or based.
I am hoping to get back into the painting groove soon.

Old School Fantasy Battle Rep 07-26-2013

Robert and I managed to get a in game at The Game Kastle in nearby Santa Clara last night.

I have recently moved so still no new painted miniatures to show off.
Also my terrain is all stored away in my garage surrounded by boxes to unpack, so Robert and I used some of the terrain that the staff from Game Kastle leaves out for their customers to use.

This was my  group. I chose the Heroic, Leader, Elite, Brawler, Marksman and Scout Archetypes for my group.

This was Robert's group (a little fuzzy). Robert chose the Leader, Martialist, Brawler and Acrobat Archetypes. We played the Fracas scenario where players take turns placing miniatures anywhere on the board, one or two at a time, as long as they are out of sight and not within 8 inches of an enemy model.

The Fracas scenario makes for a fast played opening round. I quickly rushed my Scout forward into combat with Robert's Acrobat. I failed my roll however and Robert's model was able to counter strike.

My Scout, wounded by the counter strike failed his Morale Test and broke from combat.

Robert charged after the Scout with his models and they cut him down. I then charged them with my Chaos Dwarf, however, I failed my attack rolls.

I started moving my Heroic Archetype Chaos Warrior towards the action.

On the other side of the board, Robert charged my Brawler with a club, with his Brawler with a club. My Brawler's added Shield tipped the odds in his favor and he was able to counter.

I don't remember if my Marksman with a bow or my Marksman with two pistols wounded this guy with a ranged attack.

My Heroic Archetype Chaos Warrior really was a power house of Fxxx You! Robert's Acrobat was the first to fall.

Even outnumbered by the Chaos warrior and dwarf, Robert's Spearman was able to wound my Dwarf.

One of Robert's Martialists rushed to the aid of Robert's wounded Brawler.

and struck my Brawler down.

Another one of Robert's models falls to might of the Chaos Warrior.

Next turn, I rushed my Chaos Warrior into combat with Robert's Leader and wounded him as well.

A lot of the action seemed to start up in an old watchtower (a piece of Styrofoam spray painted grey) during the last turn of the game. Robert wounded my Leader with his surviving Martialists.

Robert's wounded Brawler engaged and wounded my Marksman inside the ruined watchtower.

My Marksman disengaged from Robert's Brawler. Now with a clear shot Robert's Brawler was then blasted by my Marksman with two pistols. By now it was the start of Turn 4 (I believe, maybe 5?). Robert failed his Bottle Test and I won the game.

Business Cards, per se

Our first business card!

Damon and I intend to show up to either PacifiCon or CelestiCon this year.  Planning has been a bit slow but I'm sure this is the year where we can do a few demoes of the MEST Basic Rules.  We're thinking that the "retropocalypse" genre will be a good start.

Any how, I got some business cards to hand out.  Not really; I mean they are business cards but we're not selling anything.  Just informational awareness; we want people to help us out.  I'll drop a few off at the nearby Game Kastle and a few other places.

I'll have them at every Con that I'll attend from this period forward.

Demo Set I :: The Fighters

I've been busy constructing  a demo set of 1:18 scale (90MM) figures and terrain.  This would be useful for when I attend conventions, like perhaps the CelestiCon or PacifiCon events coming up this Labor day. I'm using the Schleich New Heroes figures that I recently purchased from Really Great Toys.

Initial Set

I decided to purchase a small set of 6 figures.  I'll expand this as new figures arrive.  Here's shots of them.  Apparently the New Heroes are warrior representatives from various cultures.  I'm not sure if they are from the same period in history.  They are each about 3.5 inches tall.  I chose the Minotaur on-line but it also is just 3.5 inches tall; I had wanted something a bit taller to be imposing.

Northerner

Secutor

Roman

African

Minotaur

Egyptian

Iberian

Basing

Though the figures are 3.5 inches (90MM) tall, I decided to base them on 3.0 inch discs in order to limit the size of the arena I'd need to construct.  Even at 3.0 inch bases, a 24 MU arena would be about 6 feet (2 meters) across!

For the demo, the furniture skid pads and these
push pins should be clearly identifiable.

The base of the Northerner.  I added small pebbles.

The Egyptian. 

The Minotaur.

My movement sticks.  8 MU long. The smaller ones
are 1 MU is 30mm (1.25 inch).  The larger ones are
1 MU is 90mm (3.00 inch). That's 2 feet long!

You can see how the larger sticks
are segmented to match the bases.

Some Primer Coat

Actually it's just black paint.  I got this far last night.  Since the arena I intend to build should be desert terrain I'll need to dry-brush these with some tan, yellow, and white.  Coming soon.

All purdy.

MEST Basic Rules version 1.5.1 [ abridged ]

New Format

The existing rules are in a 68-page document containing about 30 pages of actual rules with illustrations.  It also contains bunches of sample assemblies, boiler-plate text, play-aides, and a glossary.  And it uses lots and lots of color making it hard for many people to print out.

Well, I've created an abridged version that removes the background artwork and cuts back all but the essentials.  It is a total of 32 pages and I'll continue to improve its appearance because I intend to eventually make these in booklets to hand out.  Although there is yet some colorful text and section headers, these should print out just fine on a black&white or gray-scale printer.  

The format is still 9"x11.5" which designed for an US Letter printer but might be adequate for A4 printers.

UPDATE: I've also added a plain version that takes out all formatting and illustrations.  It presents the rules as 10-pages of very printer-friendly text.

Download

Visit the downloads section here for a copy. https://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/downloads

Kubla Con Fantasy Battle

I initially thought I wasn't even going to make it to this event (thanks to work). But at the last minute I was able to go after all.  Robert supplied the terrain and I supplied the miniatures.  We did no pre-planning so we grabbed some random miniatures and came up with some hastily assembled warbands.

It took us roughly 10 minutes to write the lists up which is pretty good considering I stink at math.
The wargames room was a little dark so the photos didn't come out so great.

Wee Aggro joined us, so I let him play Vs. Robert and I offered up some occasional advice.
:)

Wee Aggro's group, a Leader Wizard, a Marksman, three Brawlers and a Fiend.

Robert when for cheaper troops, an Elite Wizard, 3 Marksman, a Sidekick and some Average profile peasants with clubs

The board from Robert's side

The board from Wee Aggro's side.

Normally for a 500 point game we would use a slightly smaller play area. The first turn ended up being both sides moving forward into position.

Robert's troops sneaking forward.

Wee Aggro's Fiend.

During turn two, Robert moved his Wizard a little too far forward. Wee Aggro's Fiend sprung forward from the shadows and took the Wizard out with a Charge action. Wee Aggro then used an Initiative token to get an extra action and sprung back into some trees and hid,

One of Robert's Marksman avenged the Wizard by detecting and then blasting the fiend with his blunderbuss.

I can't remember which of Wee Aggro's troops wounded this Marksman, who subsequently failed his Morale test.

This Beastman took out one of Robert's peasant's.

Wee Aggro started dominating Robert's forces.

This fellow managed to hold his own in the center of the board for a long time before eventually being cut down.

After turn four, Robert's group was pretty batterd and Robert failed his bottle test.
Wee Aggro was triumphant!

It was a fun short game that played out quickly.