I finally got a game in last night.

And it was Starship Troopers. I forgot how much I like those rules. There are some issues with them, but over all they are a fun set. We decided we each need to go back and read them a bit more. It was quite some time since any of us played them. Towards the end, there was a good bit of rumbling about how fun it was and we need to play more. So, I’ll be pushing for a game in two weeks. There was even a mention of playing a campaign. That will be fun if it happens. When it comes to gamers, the mantra, “We need to play more,” is not always followed by actually playing more. (I’m as guilty as anyone.)

I’ve got a good number of Starship Troopers figures painted. Maybe I can get some pictures taken. I also found a box full of primed stuff. So I hopefully can get some painting in. Since I've moved house, I just haven't had time. Also, I should take the opportunity to get some paint on my Junk Town. That terrain will work well for Starship Troopers.

State of my Hobby

Well,
We just closed on selling our house and have moved in to the new home. The whole process of moving house has been going on for quite some time. My time had been divided up into fixing the new house, fixing the old house, packing, and moving.

Now, I just need to continue to fix up the new house and unpack. Then I can tackle my wall of shame – hell, barn of shame - and sort through my entire lot of mixed up hobby stuff. I actually had a system at the old place and knew where everything was. I do not know anymore.

The fact that I can fill up an old tobacco barn with my hobby stuff is quite absurd. Granted, the boxes are not packed well, only half the stuff in the barn is mine, half of it is books and it only is over my head in a few places means it isn’t as bad as it sounds (yes it is.)

So, as soon as I can dig out my hobby workbench, I will post some project progress. Maybe a picture of the Barn of Shame would be good for posterity’s sake.

Junk Town 4 - More Odds and Ends

Here are some quick images of some additional Junk Town terrain pieces.

Junk Town Part 3 - Odds and Ends

Well, I figured I need something besides buildings for my junk town. So, I spent this lunch period throwing some odds and ends together. A couple of bigger pieces are meant to hold figures while the other pieces are just for show.

This is the whole lot together.

Here an entrepreneurial alien has taken advantage of the space ports blast exhaust to cook the food he sells. It tastes just like gyros but don’t ask about ‘meat.’

Is that the Orb from Heavy Metal?

Random Stuff

Solar powered street lights for Junk Town.

Junk Town Part 2 - 2 Multi-Stall Market Buildings

I was able to finish off two of the larger buildings I had going yesterday at lunch. This was mostly thanks to this blog entry here: http://weeblokes.blogspot.com/search/label/Lunch-time%20Project . After reading that, I realized that most of the progress I had made in the last couple of months was actually done at lunch. And now I had stopped even do that. So yesterday I finished up what you see below:

Now I ended up mixing in some non-junk for the roofs on these. I had some textured plasti-card laying about for an old project that wasn't being used. Of course, it is still mostly build from scrape pieces of foam-core, broken up floppy disks, and cardboard. So they are still mostly pieces of junk.

As is, I can fill up a 4x4 section of table top that is useful for a game. That means it is not nearly as crowed as a real shanty town but has enough open spaces to move figures around. Plus it will allow a wargamer's sausage fingers in as well. Next up will be modular space-bar. It will be rather larger to allow for combats inside. That will be followed by the Market Authority Building. The MAB building will have a more substantial look to it but still be ‘junky.’ I hope to follow that up with some smaller buildings that match the style of the above pictured market stalls. And, if I am still motivated I have ‘junk’ set aside for housing blocks on the table’s edges, a last market stall built into the engine wreckage, and small detail piles of junk.

Once everything is build, I will start painting.

Attack on Bree

Not really a canon battle, but here are some pictures of the setup for an attack on Bree. It gives me a reason to put some two level Tudor style houses with my hobbit houses. The story line goes as such; Some elves heading west to leave Middle Earth discover some wandering orcs and a Troll heading towards Bree. The elves decide to intercept them on the outskirts of one of the outlying settlements near Bree.

The Approach towards town.

Orcs pour over bridge.

View of Battle from Town.

Shouldn't that troll be in Mordor?

Elves await orcs.

Customized GW trees.

GW Hill.

GW multi-part hill.

GW multi-part hill and GF9 river.

Customized MBA hobbit house.

GW War of the Ring: Battlehosts

I got a chance to look at War of the Ring: Battlehosts. It is a nice expansion for War of the Ring though I didn’t see if it addressed some of the issues people have with WotR. I don’t think it does, but I may have missed it.

What it does do is give you special formations (or battle hosts) made up of specific formations and characters from WotR. By building them this way and playing an extra cost for the special formation the player gets access to special rules for that formation. Additionally, there are more Fortunes and Fates one may purchase for their force.

Each of the factions from WotR has some battle hosts associated with them. Some have more than others. Here are some numbers

Gondor: 9
Rohan: 4
Elven Kingdoms: 4
Dwarf Holds: 2
Forgotten Kingdoms: 2
Mordor: 9
Isendgard: 6
Misty Mountains: 2
Fallen Realms: 8
Angmar: 3

Not having played with any of these formations yet, I will not comment on their effectiveness. But they seem to be fun and nicely themed. I also think they make a nice guide for collecting the figures even if you don’t put them on the table as a Battlehost.

As always, the book is filled with great pictures and I find myself getting motivated to paint up some more LotR figures. People who do not play WotR may not find this book all that useful, but those that do will find it a nice little product.