Hotlead 2016 - Part 1

On Friday March 18th, 2016, I drove out to Stratford, ON, for Hotlead, the largest war gaming convention in Southern Ontario.


Typically, I only go on the Saturday morning but convinced the wife that if she came with me, we could go Friday night and she could have a night of relaxation away from the kids and do her own thing on the Saturday in Stratford. She agreed and grandma and grandpa stepped in to babysit.


I ended up taking loads of photos on my camera but haven't uploaded them yet, so I'm hoping to have a second post in the next few days showing the various games tables.


We checked into the hotel and then went out to dinner. We were back at approximately 6:00pm and I quickly scoped out the room.


I quickly found three contenders despite being a 28mm guy:


Chasing the Tiger: Inter-War 1924 China, a 20mm inter-war game using Osprey’s “A World Aflame” rules presented by Patrick Mooney.


The Bomb Factory, a 20mm modern skirmish game presented by Hotlead organizer, James Manto.


Dux Britaniannrum, a 28mm Arthurian era game from Too Fat Lardies presented by Cain Carter and Frank Kailik.


I've played games hosted by Frank in the past. He is a fantastic game-master, presenting rules clearly and modifying them appropriately for convention demonstrations. That and his terrain and miniatures are simply fantastic.


James'The Bomb Factory has beautiful terrain, I've been following it on his blog. http://rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.ca/


I love the interwar setting and Patrick's terrain was also fantastic.


I decided to sign up for Chasing the Tiger.


The scenario was this:


Rescue the Western Sailors taken captive by Chang Tso-Lin's Fengtien forces during the Second Chihli-Fengtien War in the Port City of Dongling.Can you lead international alliance made up of French Marines, FFL and American Naval landing forces? Or... can you successfully defend the port city of Dongling from the imperialist Western powers?


I joined the Fengtian forces and was "awarded" by having my troops guarding the dock. I was effectively just a speed bump the French and American alliance have to slow down for.


Anyway, on to the pictures:

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The view of the table. Port city in bottom left. Small village, top left and the water on the right.



The water with two allied landing ships and a fixed freighter.

My unit's starting position. I had 14 troops. 1 Officer, 1 grenadier, 1 SMG, and 11 rifles.

My unit's vitals. Just an average group of troops.

The first group of French land and some hand to hand fighting occurred. Despite rolling a natural 1, I held off the invaders as they rolled natural 1's as well. Not a great start.

 

More and more American and French troops land. I am alone and outnumbered, help is on the way but will it arrive in time?

 

 

I decide it won't and redeploy part of my force into a building leaving those in hand to hand to fend for themselves.

 

 

A unit of Chinese troops and Dare-To-Die fanatics have barricaded the lanes and are hampering the advance. My troops in the building were under attack and despite killing several allies eventually surrendered.

 

 

The allies push forward. 

They over-run a second unit of Chinese troops, causing them to fall back and regroup.

At this point, the game was essentially finished. The allies had not achieved their objective and were running short on men. The Chinese units had slowed them down but at a severe cost. But we decided to fight to the death as the Chinese had 2 full units making their way from the village.

 

A great game and I went to purchase the rules, Osprey’s “A World Aflame” but one of my opponent's had purchased the only copy brought for sale to the convention.

I chatted with some friends (Chairface and Sterling Moose) from http://www.lead-adventure.de/ 

and was in bed by 11:30pm.

I awoke early (5:15am) and was in line by 8:30am to register for the 9:30 game. I also had some wares for sale to drop off at the Bring & Buy.

Unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long at 8:30. I chatted with the fellow in line beside me and we both agreed we wanted to play Dark of the Sun, a 28mm skirmish game set in the Belgian Congo using game-master Danger Dan Hutter's own rules.

I played his African set Imagination game last year and was looking forward to playing Dark of the Sun. However, when I got to the head of the line, there was only one spot for Dark of the Sun. I let the fellow beside me take the spot and I signed up for Dux Britaniannrum instead.

My starting forces. Archers and skirmishers up front, two units of infantry, a command stand and cavalry unit to round it out. Each player (there were 6 of us) had similar forces. My side was Romano-British and we were facing off against Saxons. The Saxons were trying to plunder our supply cart and sack our watch tower. If either side's morale fell to 0, the game was over.

We started with 7 while the Saxon's had 8 morale.

Advanced my infantry, archers and cavalry and quickly lost 2 cavalry to archers on a hill. The dice God was very BIASED against the Romano-British for the ENTIRE game.

Those pesky Saxon archers and infantry hiding in the woods.

 

I moved my skirmishers into the town as Saxon skirmishers advanced. The Saxon light cavalry are on the hill.

 

My 2 man cavalry unit was charged by the 4 man Saxon cavalry. While we each suffered a fatality, my lone horseman turned tail and fled through my archers, shocking them.

There's the supply cart in the foreground. My allies can be seen between the field and the fort and on the far side of the fort.

 

The Saxon middle advances.

 

The Romano-British advance on the right to meet the Saxon left, but are crushed and flee the field.

Somewhere at this point we are down to 2 morale points remaining while the Saxons are at 7.

I whittle down the cavalry with arrows.

Skirmishers advance and both sides throw spears with no fatalities. But those Saxon infantry are getting close.

The red caped cavalry are heavy cavalry and just waded through 2 units of Saxon light horse. The tables start to turn.

The Saxon cavalry are eliminated and the infantry form a shield wall.

My skirmishers fall back against superior numbers.

The Saxon middle is charged by the heavy cavalry and elite infantry. Battle is fierce with the Romano-British causing severe casualties to the Saxons dropping them to 3 morale points.

The remaining troops locked in deadly combat. However, the Romano-British fell to 0 morale and the game was called.

All in all, a fun set of rules played with great figures on great terrain.

Another successful Hotlead!!

Zombicide Black Plague

A couple of weeks ago, Cool Mini or Not (CMoN) announced they would ship the core box of Zombicide: Black Plague ahead of the exclusive/add-ons/expansion. The expected delivery date was "before Christmas".

A shipping label was created December 23rd for my package with the expected delivery date of December 29th. Which was a surprise. As each time CMoN sent me a shipping label, I had already receive the packages. 

December 29th came and went. So did December 30th. Despite the fact Canada Post had the package since December 24th. Obviously, with the Christmas rush, they were busy.

Nevertheless, I was starting to get a little frustrated. Everything is accessible at my fingertips instantly, my ability to wait has diminished. So I checked the Canada Post tracking number I had, and lo and behold, it was on a truck to me! 

Great success! My wife had a small series of chores she wanted me to go out to do! Nope! Had to wait for the package.

And three hours later, I heard a noise outside. Inquisitively, I poked my head out the door, and was met

With a wonderful sight. The Canada Post truck was outside.

Here is it. Being unboxed. At this time, my iPhone informed me I had no more space for pictures so this will have to do for now.

My 4 year old and I sat down to the intro level. He seemed to enjoy it. Success! I'm reading the rules now though as there are some differences between Black Plague and the modern series.

I have a "real" game scheduled for January 2nd, with some friends. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

That's all for now. Catch you next year...

Happy New Year!

Western Town Redux

A few months ago, I broke out the start of my yet-unnamed Western Town built by the talented Colin Rush, some newly acquired painted Foundry figures and the Legends of The Old West rules for a quick game.

Well, my passion for all things cowboy was re-ignited and I decided to treat myself to some new buildings to expand my set-up.

Below is the second of my three purchases. Detailed posts of each will follow shortly. I plan to post pictures of the other buildings as well.

I ordered the Schmidt General Store. It is truly a beautiful building loaded with detail. When it came to the door, I noticed the box was a little crushed. 

I also had to pay $30.00 for handling. 

I opened the box to find extensive damage to the General Store. Luckily by super glue skills are above par and I fixed all of the damage.

I've included before and after pictures.

Two 2nd floor deck supports are broken.

 

And fixed. Just look at the detail!

The balcony rails have been pushed in and come apart.

And fixed. So much room for figures. And a close up of the flags.

 

A roof strut broke and the framing on the top of the building cracked in three pieces.

Fixed. This was the least of the damage. Maybe a touch of paint to hide the cracks?

Lastly, the stairs to the second level. Thankfully the stairs were pretty solid and just detached from the wall and posts.

That's a long drop down. And the fixed photo below!

Excuse the photos. The lighting in my hobby corner sucks. Anywho, all the damage is repaired. It only took 5-10 minutes.

And I do not blame Colin at all. He packs the boxes very well, stuffing styrofoam popcorn in every crevice, under porches and stairs to ensure minimal movement. Somewhere someone put a much heavier box on mine and crushed it, or kicked it down a hallway. 

Thanks for sticking with me. See you soon!

What I've been up to...

Since my last post I've been super busy. I've meant to post several times but you know what they say about good intentions. I'll split the 'news' up into 2 posts so I don't fall further behind.

For starters I had to redo the floors on my  1st floor. The guy that I bought this house from (over 4 years ago now) like taking shortcuts. I've trying to fix them one by one. I'm pretty handy so I don't like paying hard earned money for things I can do well myself. So I installed some new hardwood and trim. The laminate that preceded it was buckling in places and there were some critical errors so it was time to go. That and the 3-1/2 yer old ripped up a piece in the middle of the floor! D'oh!

 The floor all ripped up. Just over 300 square feet. I went to Lumber Liquidators and snagged some 3/8x5" "Hand scraped" Log Cabin Birch for $2.69sqft.

That first piece was a true bastard. It took over 1 hour to get it in. The tiles + grout (inside the doorway) were about about 1" tall. The hardwood is only 3/8 tall. I shimmed under the piece to get it level with the tiles but it sits on an angle. It was the best solution without laying new plywood down to build up the subfloor. It looks good but odd at the same time.

The floor took just under 2 days to lay. The living/dining room had the baseboard installed by me approximately 2 weeks later. The hallway is still waiting (eek) nearly 5 weeks later.

The trim I went with:

 I scored some unpainted poplar from my aunt at a local building store for a huge discount! But I had to paint it! That took 2 days.

I coped the inside corners instead of cutting 45 degree bevels. I hate coping. I truly do, but it looks neater in the end.

The finished room:

Unfortunately the door casing was mangled at the bottom (again previous owner taking short cuts). So to salvage them, I had to put plinth blocks on the bottom. I feel it really classes the joint up.

Unfortunately sometime during the installation of the floor(hammering) I loosened the anchors holding a shelf in the basement. This came crashing down resulting in 5 broken beer glasses and chips/cracks in my conflix terrain. I haven't fixed it yet. I'm still too upset.

Hold The Line Convention 

June 20th, 2015.

I was supposed to attend and play some games with my dad but my 3-1/2 year old didn't want me to leave. So instead of not going, I brought him along. 

The convention was a lot busier then next year. It may seem early but it shows the promise of growth.

I wasn't able to play but I got some cool loot. 

Renedra bases and mealie bags and some 4ground Saxon houses for my ongoing SAGA project.

The true find was a vendor with Copplestone Back of Beyond figures. It was a shame (or a blessing on my wallet) that he only accepted cash.

I picked up Chinese Leaders, buglers/flag bearers and infantry. I also got an Austin for my RCW Russians and a motorbike with sidecar for my Chinese bandits. The army/aliens tube was a game given for free to my some from a nice vendor.

 

Well that's all for now. 

Painted Goodies

Where has the time gone since my last post. Real life really gets in the way sometimes.

At Hotlead 2015, I spoke with a commission figure painter, Karl, from Kura Creative. I had seen his booth the year before and had brought 19 Wargames Foundry Darkest African Tribal Archers with me. I also snagged some Copplestone Back of Beyond Sailors at Hotlead and decided to drop them all off with him.

It took a couple weeks and there was regular communication during the process. 

My sister was kind enough to pick them up in Kitchener as she was passing through. No shipping! Yay!

Here are all the Russians. Karl based them on washers and added a banner pole for me as they were a surprise purchase and spontaneous commission.

Here are the Tribal Archers. I had already based them on pennies, and they were already primed.

I'm quite happy with both sets. Karl's pricing was very reasonable. He will definitely be getting more of my business (the Copplestone's from previous posts aren't going to paint themselves after all.

Back of Beyond

I've been toying with the thought of getting into this era for quite a while now, well over 3 years in fact.

At Hotlead this year, I stumbled across an excellent deal at the Bring and Buy. I found a package of Copplestone's Russian Sailors for $10.00. Retail is roughly $24.00. However, at a quick glance the package had more than 10 sailors in it. Upon purchase, I realized it also contained the Russian Sailor Command Pack as well.

A quick query on LAF and I landed some European Mercenaries, Chinese Bandits and Russian Cossacks.

My Russian sailors are out art the painters now. My plan is to add a second  10 man unit and a machine gun. The Cossacks will be their cavalry wing.

The Chinese Bandits need a lot more love. I want to field 2x 15 man units and have some cavalry also and vehicles and and and.....

I'm trying to do this on the cheap as new hardwood floors at home have depleted my funds.

Hotlead 2015

My favourite time of the year! 

I headed out to Stratford Ontario at 630am with 90 minutes of driving ahead.

I had to be home by 2pm and wanted to get a lot done there.

I set out several goals I wanted to accomplish. This was my 6th consecutive year and have always had a great time. This year I left feeling empty. I couldn't figure out why. Here are the goals:

1) Play 'Technical Difficulties' an imagination modern Africa game

2) Sell unwanted stuff (approx $500 worth of goodies)

3) purchase painted miniatures from a specific painter that fit into existing collections

4) purchase miniatures for either KKBB or RCW/Back of Beyond

5) purchase Viking/Saxon terrain

6) spend as little as possible (weird considering #3-5

7) speak with a painter about a commission (and drop off the figures)

8) be home by 2pm ( imposed by the wife)

I arrived at 8am and offloaded my stuff at the bring and buy table. I walked around the hall but as the tables were being set up, there wasn't a lot to look at. 

The vendors were set up but I usually avoid them until after the bring and buy (gotta grab the 'real' deals first)!

An announcement was made to line up to sign up for the 930 game slot. I managed to find myself about 40 gamers back from the front. I was pretty worried as the GM running 'Technical Difficulties' runs another game called 'Mongols and Mausers' which is always a fun looking but full table. After what seemed like a long wait I managed to snag a spot at 'Technical Difficulties'! Goal 1: achieved.

Next I went to the bring and buy and began looking ( despite not officially being open, whoops)!

The guy who flogs painted miniatures didn't appear to have dropped anything off Goal 3: denied but I found a pack of Coppletone Russian Sailors which was jammed with more then 10 figures. For $10. I snagged those.

There was nothing else that jumped out and grabbed my attention so I sat at the table where Technical Difficulties was being run.

I was in control of a small detachment of MILF troops (Morrowi Independance League Fighters or something like that).

Here are my troops in all their finest.

There were 3 main forces on the table divided into 2 groups which allowed for 6 players. There was a 7th 'special' force (think drones and snipers) who could deploy anytime and help monitor the balance of power.

My objective was to seize the compound and any diamonds inside.

Well, I failed miserably but had a good time doing so. However the game ran over until 1230.

Realizing I had a 90 minute drive home and exactly 90 minutes to get there (yikes!) I quickly went to the bring and buy to gather my unsold wares. I had sold $170 worth of goods ( Goal 2: small success). Next I spoke with the commission painter and dropped off some Foundry Darkest Africa archers and the &10 Copplestone Sailors (which was the 10 Sailors and 4 Sailors command pack valued at $38).

I sped home after hitting a drivethru arriving closer to 3pm. Goal 8: failed.

So I achieved some of my goals. But I think the crux was that given the time frame imposed (by my wife) I wasn't realistic about what I could do at the venue. I opted to play a game but in doing so, I missed out on looking at the other great games going on and didn't have time to even browse the vendors wares. The flip side is I only spent $30 ($20 entry + $10 Figures).

I think next year I will stay one night so I can do a bit if everything.