Something Surfaced at the Minions!

Something's been brewing over at the Minions of the Monster Master blog. Not only are there a whopping four podcasts now, accessible through iTunes or RSS feed, thanks to Chri3, we've got some great new artwork of the gang up to boot!

City Under Siege!

A couple of our friends just got married and moved into a new house. Downstairs, my buddy Eric has set up a small art studio and has a big jar of Sharpies for everyone to decorate his walls with whatever they want. The neat thing is that the pictures and drawings are fluid, so someone might add something one week, and then it will get tweaked by someone else the following week and so on. Well, my brother-in-law James made the 'geologic cross section' you see above (in black ink) a few weeks ago and I couldn't help but add my giant monsters (and aliens!) attacking a freshly 'built' city!

North Africa, 1941 - Continued

Definitely not a camera phone pic!

I had a blast with the Flames of War game I reported on recently. I only had my cell phone to take pics with (which didn't do too terribly) but I was pretty fuzzy on the actual scenario and particulars of the forces arrayed. Fortunately there were a couple of mini-tripod armed players there with legit cameras and FoW guru, Brian himself, has posted a proper writeup with details, so check it out here!

On a Conan Kick...

I've been on a Conan kick as of late, with three different mediums under my belt; novels, movies, and graphic novels. You know what, after mixing all three together, the blend that came out was just some good ole fashioned, unabashed, sword and sorcery. Other than a brief read here and there in high school, I never dedicated much time to the Robert E. Howard novels, or the related pastiches. Being a comic fan, I've thumbed a few dozen issues of the old Marvel run, but nothing great. Then of course you've got the movies.

You can pick apart facets of this storied franchise and whittle it down to nothing, but why do that? Conan's pushing eighty years old now and it all keeps getting better and better. Reading graphic novels and books, with some movies (and even an Xbox demo of the same name) mixed in, a certain indelible image lingers in your mind and a certain ambiance permeates throughout, and the world of Hyboria is a rich one indeed.


There were the Marvel comics of old, those are the ones I had, then Dark Horse Comics got a hold of the licensing fairly recently. What they've done with the name is glorify in all the right ways. Industry greats all grace the pages of Conan's four-color history, and not only has Dark Horse put together some amazing trade paperbacks of new material, they've also collected all the old appearances of Conan in easy to read formats.

The three trade paperbacks I read weren't in chronological order, but for a pulp adventure tale such as Conan, you don't need to "stay tuned" for every episode to get the gist of his adventures. The quality of these comics far surpasses anything I've seen lately, and the artwork and writing go hand in hand to make some memorable tales.


Sure, you see Arnold all oiled up and holding a bastard sword and it's hard to stifle a groan. Frankly however, the first Conan movie is pretty freaking cool. I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't own it (or maybe those who do) the director's cut, it makes a good movie even better (and it's just ten bucks!). After reading a couple of the novels I popped this in one day, and although it's greatly condensed, John Milius captured the mythos of Conan as good as anyone could have at the time then, or now.

So I'm nearing the end of my Conan run, I've got six novels (the old Ace Paperback series), two movies, and a trio of graphic novels under my belt. I gotta tell you, I am a very happy camper overall. I had no idea of the depth, scope, and sheer kick assedness of Conan and the lands of Hyboria truly were. I had no idea Howard and Lovecraft corresponded frequently and it shows in Howard's writing as many of Conan's foes touched upon the Lovecraftian mythos itself. Hyboria is just too good to pass up, so ye this, it is more than a governor's former film career, it is an amazing realm of high adventure. I'm tempted to break out the ole notebook and do some outlines for a possible campaign set in Hyboria...

North Africa, 1941

Consider this a pictorial teaser post of a huge Flames of War game I had the pleasure of playing in last Friday. I snapped a few of these with my camera phone, but there were a couple of "real" cameras with mini-tripods in attendance as well. Hopefully Brian over at Repple Depple will have a proper report up by the times this "airs".


We were playing on the "big" table, I'm guessing it was at least 6'x10', maybe even closer to 12' in length. On top of that, Flames of War is in 15mm scale, and this massive table was still choked full of minis! It was a damn impressive sight.


Tom and I were the only two on the German side, and we had our work cut out for us. Across the desert dust we faced down four British players, with platoon after platoon of armored goodness, trucks, transports, and troops. We began the game dug in around the town, with the rest of our forces held back in reserves.


The British drove out (flattened) the German troops in the town...

A Look at Small World: Part Two

Last week we got in a couple of games of Small World...

Small World certainly doesn't disappoint, and although I don't normally buy games without playing them first, I wasn't let down by this one at all. For all the extra bits, pieces, counters, and punch outs, the game ran quite simply.

Crescent Earth

Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft
Credit & Copyright: ESA (MPS for OSIRIS Team), MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Explanation: Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA's interplanetary Rosetta spacecraftPictured above, zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. Earth showed a bright crescent phase featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. Launched from Earth in 2004, Rosetta used the gravity of the Earth to help propel it out past Mars and toward a 2014 rendezvous with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Last year, the robot spacecraft passed asteroid 2867 Steins, and next year it is scheduled to pass enigmatic asteroid 21 Lutetia. If all goes well, Rosetta will release a probe that will land on the 15-km diameter comet in 2014.

A-Viking I Shall Go...

As of late there's been talk of getting into some skirmish level historical gaming centered around the Viking era. These games would focus a lot on the myths, legends, and larger-than-life characters that you find in Danish, Norse, and Swedish lore of the time period. Well, for me, this isn't a hard sell, and it didn't take much convincing for me to sign up! I must confess I'm not the most knowledgeable in the subject, but I've always had a keen interest nonetheless. Plus, what better way to learn about something than to jump right in and start gaming it, so jump in I did. Like all good gamers, one of the fellows in our group, Bob Bryant, had stashed away a large number of Viking figs and he let me at his extras. I was able to piece together a starting size force of twenty models.


The warband itself consists mainly of Old Glory figures, with a few stragglers from other companies thrown in, it's hard to tell them apart though. For the time period, my troupe here might be a little too well armored, but I can pass that off with higher nobility or what-not being able to afford the extra mail armor. Only about half the warband is wearing mail though, and it's spread out pretty evenly, I've got a handful of archers in there too.


More pics of the troopers...


I don't know what ruleset we'll be using (suggestions anyone?), but I knew for sure I wanted to get right in the thick of it with my figs. To this end I went ahead and named each of my Vikings, that's right, I named them! I also dug up two figures from my bits boxes that fit surprisingly well; a large, armored warrior with beard and large axe, plus a Valkyrie wearing little more than a chainmail bikini.

Games Day 2010 Miniature Revealed

Here's a first look at the 2010 Games Day miniature

"The 2010 Games Day miniature is a wonderful Warhammer Chaos Sorcerer sculpted by Dave Thomas. Resplendent with tentacles, skulls and a book of forbidden lore, it oozes character." -Games Wokshop

¡Agua en la Luna!

I'm a bit slow on the draw here, but just for posterity...

Water Discovered in Moon Shadow
Credit: LCROSS, NASA

Explanation: Why is there water on the Moon? Last month, the LCROSS mission crashed a large impactor into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's South Pole. A plume of dust rose that was visible to the satellite, although hard to discern from Earth. The plume is shown above in visible light. Last week, the results of a preliminary chemical analysis gave a clear indication that the dust plume contained water. Such water is of importance not only for understanding the history of the Moon, but as a possible reservoir for future astronauts trying to live on the Moon for long periods. The source of the lunar water is now a topic of debate. Possible origins include many small meteorites, a comet, or primordial moon soil.

A Look at Small World: Part One

Philippe Keyaerts' Small World

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was aiming to get some boardgames for family game night. My boxes arrived in the mail and I opened them up with enthusiasm. The two card games I picked up were packaged nice, but they're card games in the end, I'll whip something up about them at a later date. For now I'll focus on Small World.

I've heard great things about Days of Wonder's Ticket to Ride, and have played DoW's Shadows Over Camelot before, and was impressed by it, but this is the first DoW game I've bought. Upon opening the box, I knew I was going to have to 'review' it. I haven't even played it yet, but based on the production quality alone, I'll give it the one-two treatment. This post will be about the pieces and parts of the game, and after we get a few games under our belts I'll post another review about the mechanics and gameplay of it.


You get a nice, large rulebook. It's full color, double sided, and printed on durable semi-gloss paper. As you can see it's got great diagrams and walks you through what pops up in-game. Also, the entirety of the rules are just a tad over six pages, but given large print and tons of diagrams, they're a surprisingly quick read. I've given it a once-through the one time, but I feel I've got a pretty good handle on things already.


The number of counters, chits, cards, and the like are immeasurable, you get well over a hundred, maybe a hundred fifty pieces at least. As I was pulling the unpunched sheets out of the box, they just kept coming and coming. The cardstock/board is thick, very thick, and the pieces popped off their "sprues" in the blink of an eye with nary a hangup occurring whatsoever. In my mind I was already rolling my eyes though, 'cause I knew I was going to have come up with some type of organization system for all of it,which probably means a separate toolbox, but more on that in just a little bit.

Right up top on the right was another nice touch. Large, double sided and full color summary sheets are also provided. The game is for 2-5 players, but they actually include six of these quick reference sheets. The extra one as it states in the rulebook is kind of "just because", it's just there to use as a group reference sheet.


The maps are the crux of the game, they represent the "small world" itself. There's actually two maps included in the box. There is a smaller rectangular map (small being a relative term) that is double sided, one side is for two players, the other for three. The second, larger map is also double sided, one side for four players, the other side for five. The picture above is on my kitchen table, so that gives you an idea of the size of them. As you can tell from the pics, the boards are colorful and illustrated very well.


Once I pulled out the last piece I had a little present waiting on me, a built-in storage tray, holy crap! This was quite the deal maker for me. I had no idea it came with this, and my above worry about what to do with all the pieces suddenly vanished. I loaded it up after I punched out all the pieces, and as you can see, it fits like a glove.


Small World has fourteen playable races, and each individual race requires its own race tokens on the board. This separate tray comes out of the box, has its own clear lid so the pieces won't spill out, and holds the races' tokens all in one go. It's kind of a neat aside, but even the edges of each race are a different color to tell them apart.

So there you have it, the components of Small World really deliver in spades. It's got quality pieces inside and out and there's not a single shoddy element to this game whatsoever. Everything feels as if it is going to last for a very long time. Fancy components are just half the battle though, really maybe less than that, perhaps a third of the battle. The real test is how the game plays and how fun it is overall. Like I said, hopefully I'll get a gameplay review written up and posted on here sooner than later.

All Hands on Deck!

Rogue Trader after-action report, click here for the rest of the story...

"Black Jack" Onyx was plying a meager trade route in the outskirts of the Callixus Sector, financed by the mid-tier trade consortium Collective Menelauis . It was consistent, if not extremely prosperous, work..."

Trencher Commandos

So, Privateer Press released a new unit preview and it comes in the form of Trencher Commandos, the elite version of your basic trencher (which already looked cool). Well, as Andy put it (he's also the one who pointed them out), they look like they're armed with lasguns and frag grenades, end of story. Given their "elite" look, drawn combat knives, goggles, leather rucksacks, trenchcoats, and the like, these chaps can (and will!) pass easily for the troopers on board our Rogue Trader ship, the Void Dragon.

I need to post a character sheet of my RT character, Commander Kennoch the Arch Militant, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Instead of having a heavy Imperial Guard background like most Arch Militants go, I opted for a leader-of-the-resistance type instead. Having put together a resistance force to fight and eventually repel the Eldar on an abandoned Imperial world, Kennoch rose to power. When he joined the crew of the Void Dragon, he brought his personal army with him, the Sentrek Freemen. Yes, the same Sentrek Freemen you've heard about, rumors of their turning traitor are exaggerated. Since my Traitor Guard project died before takeoff, I've got to use their cool name somehow!

So these Trencher Commandos will make their way onto the tabletop somehow during our RT games. The thousand troops have been broken down into ten fighting companies of one hundred men each. Of note, the 10th company are equipped for close combat; chainsword and laspistols. The 1st company (our veterans) are equipped with hel-guns (and soon, carapace armor). 1st company will be the Trenchers you see here.

Recently on the Sword...

The Sword

Just this week down in Austin, Texas, one of my favorite bands played at the Fun Fun Fun Fest. It's a bit of a drive from my neck of the woods, so I had to miss out. I had the pleasure of seeing these guys live last year, and although I knew of them going into the show, I walked out simply blown away and a true fan from that point on.

They play a heavy, driving rock; the type that is pure and born of the goodness of the early seventies, but they're no retro-proto doom metal band, these guys are making music in the here and now. They're music is wonderful on its own, but couple it with lyrics of Vikings, daemons, omens, and apocalyptic doom, and you've got a real treat.

I knew of the pending concert, but I've got to credit the folks at Ultra 8201 for all of the excellent pics below from the show, as well as the great video!


The Sword, Fun Fun Fun Fest-Austin, Texas 2009


J.D. Cronise on guitar and vocals (left), Bryan Richie on bass (right)


Kyle Shutt on lead guitar (not shown is Trivett Wingo on drums)


Thanks again go to Ultra 8201 for the original coverage!

Red Alert!

Ugh, and this was supposed to be the week of Dragon Age Origins too...

Veteran's Day

WWII Battle of the Atlantic Memorial in Battery Park

Ruchtcon II Photos

"Mmmm, brains, and umm, lens aperture..."

Thanks to another attendee at Ruchtcon II (Jared, of the Penguin Sushi blog) we had some better pics than what my cell phone could muster of the gamers themselves. No, the above pic is not Jared, just a random zombie photographer!


An animated session (pun intended) of Cartoon Action Hour!


In the middle of a mirthful moment during Spirit of the Century


Pulp cast members Zulu Warrior and Russian Princess (no, not literally!)


Our large SotC party talks tactics...


A moment of introspection during Zombie Cinema


Rucht takes some zombie heat


Our SotC game master and BSG instructor


I was vexed, terribly vexed, BSG was vexing me...


Duane (foreground) and Casey button mashing


Me, enthralled with the joys of maintaining Mik's Minis!

Ruchtcon II

Last year (has it been a year already?) I headed north to attend our buddy's birthday mini-con appropriately titled "Ruchtcon". Well, he's going to have his hands full come this spring, so Ruchtcon II was bumped up to November of this year, it's subtitle being "Thanksgaming". Unfortunately, I was the only local to travel up there this time around, but the flipside of that was that I could stay for much longer than we did last time, and not that I thought it possible, but I had even more fun this year than last to boot.

A gaming schedule was set up again this year, but it wasn't quite as packed full and time sensitive as last time. Also, many people (myself included) brought stacks of boardgames and other "pick up" games for people to pull out on a whim. A few food runs were in order to local restaurants and such, and snacks and drinks were kept simple at the house. Sleeping arrangements were scattered and sundry, and I'm thinking Rucht needs to invest in an addition to his house in the form of a barracks! All in all, it was a blast.


3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Last year I was set to run a game of Spirit of the Century, but personal reasons cut my trip short and I had to bail. I felt bad, 'cause a lot of peeps had "signed up" to play it too. I made up for it this year by running 3:16 on Friday night for a group of four. I am now convinced that 3:16 really is the perfect con game too; character creation is a breeze, everyone can make their own from scratch and after explaining the process you're still looking at twenty minutes, tops. The rules mechanics are slick, fast, and easy, and you get thrown right into the action and it doesn't let up until your time slot is over. Plus, prep work on the GM's part is minimal, if you know the rules, and have half an imagination, you can put on a good game everyone will enjoy. I overheard conversations all weekend long about the game, so I think the players genuinely had a blast and would probably play it again.

I should do up a post just on the night of 3:16 I ran. As you can see I broke out the Lego troops again, and coupled with an excellent Brickarms arsenal, there were some absolute tough hombres created for the game. I made PC "construction" part of the process and at first my players were caught off guard, but got into it quickly. How can you not, it's Legos! The 3:16 rulebook is always talking about how the game is a chance to let the GM's imagination "shine" and I had the troopers facing down a host of nefarious aliens. These were the hairless Mer-Apes of Brinkwater 9 armed with mollusk spine gauntlets that could stop technology, the shadow Rays of the Haxtes Belt, with their uncanny ability to isolate the troopers from reinforcements, and finally, the short proto-bears of a forest moon, armed with third-party slug guns and a penchant for guerrilla warfare (and suicide bombings).


Zombie Cinema

Although not on the "official schedule", this little gem made a couple of appearances. We've played it quite a bit locally, and I guess Rucht liked it after playing it a few times here, because he went and picked his own copy! As far as a quick pick-up RPG goes, that's accessible by pretty much anyone you'd put around a table, this one's got it. Plus, it's got zombies, which would make a very unexpected theme of the entire weekend. I played it once, had a blast, but on the second night a large table-full got together and ran through a great sounding sessions. I only got pieces of it, but hardcore gamer and casual passer-by alike were having a rousing good time, judging from their laughter and excitement.

My character, a skater youth, got off the board pretty quick, but that allowed me more time at the helm of the zombies themselves. A recently divorced washed-up athlete, a withdrawn family man, and a mentally unstable health care worker rounded out the survivors. Zombie dogs made their appearance and added a terror element we haven't had before in Zombie Cinema, and by the end, with our survivors at sea, we had, yes, zombie sharks! The sharks weren't bitten, they turned of course after eating the zombies who were swimming after the survivors on the boat. As always, good stuff abounds.


Monsterpocalypse

Well sheesh, I've been hyping this game here at Mik's Minis how long now? Forever it seems, well, I finally got a full-fledged game under my belt. The verdict? Good, pretty good. I'm not rushing out to buy it tomorrow, but that may have to more with a tight budget than anything else. The collectible aspect is a turn off for me, but everything else about this game was pretty cool. It offers all those great "pro wrestler" types of moves you'd expect of giant monsters smashing a city (and each other) and a neat die allocation strategy that keeps it interesting. Your giant monsters are of course the stars of the game, and the little units form part of a secondary game that's all about controlling objectives.


Mouse Guard

Well, very recently I told you about my brief tenure with this amazing little game. I did take my copy back, and much to my chagrin. Having a game under my belt now, I've got to figure out how to talk Miller into running it back home! Obviously, if you've read the comics, you know what a great world MG exists in, and the RPG is even better. It is a roleplayer's dream game to boot. There are a lot of players in the world, and for those that love character development, in-game dialogue, and interaction, this is their game, it's just that good. For con games you usually run some dungeon crawl type adventures, but the players at our table got a game steeped in not just action, but story and atmosphere too.

We went back in time a couple of years before the time period in the comics and were sent on a mission by Gwendolyn herself. We set off to the Dark Heather to determine what new weapon the Weasels were developing to wipe out the mouse territories. Along the way, our patrol occupied their time in mentoring the tenderpaw with us by teaching him all manner of skills and lessons. Our party consisted of two older veterans with a long history (ala partnerships like Riggs and Murtaugh), the tenderpaw who had a strong sword arm and was well on their way to earning a place in the Guard, and a loner scout who was as quick with her blades as her tail was long. The weather proved to be our worst enemy, and in the final leg of our journey, the snows came and buried us (literally!) in our tracks.


Battlestar Galactica

I now know why I saw this game being played last year, and why it was still brought out this time, it's just plain fun and has a strong replay value. I sat in on it this time, and wasn't disappointed in the least. I must admit, I couldn't get past the pilot episode of the new version of the show, so many of the nuances of this game flew right over my head. I played the Apollo character, but not seeing Richard Hatch on my stat card was still unsettling! It's a co-op game, but there is a hidden traitor element that exists as well. Even though we found the traitor early on, it was still an uphill battle as we struggled to the end game. Sadly, we weren't able to pull it off, but it was definitely a fun journey getting there.


Spirit of the Century

We've played a lot of SotC here at home, but those games are becoming more and more in the past. My task is now two-fold, get Miller to start up Mouse Guard, and get Andy to take up the reins again on SotC, which might be hard since he's running both Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader right now, but I will still try my best!

Playing SotC with a large group and a new GM was a great experience and showed me this pulp action RPG in a whole new light. The main difference was the fact that the PC's all had access to the "stunts" feature of character creation, something we've been playing without. Stunts work a lot like feats, and augment your skill checks considerably. I've never seen so many success rolls in the range of 9-12 in my life, and it really accentuated the over-the-top cinematic feel that is the nature of the game. Also, the PC's had access to lots of gadgets, such as their own biplanes and dirigibles, which was pretty cool, and even better was a PC who was a complete artificial lifeform, an automaton named "Owen". One PC not chosen, which I thought was a neat idea, was a Century Club member from one hundred years in the future, trapped in the past. It was a good mix of characters, backgrounds, and power types.

The GM was cool enough to let me bring my own character, the jungle lord Altarrock along too. Given the serialized pulp nature, I thought this was great, allowing my guy to kind of wander into a guest role with this other party and then wander out when it was over with. This game was one for the books, it had plenty of solid roleplaying and pulp action, great storyline and plot, and a whopping seven players at the table!


Zombies!!!

Late Saturday night Zombies!!! was broken out as a pick-up game. I had heard of it before, seen it on the shelves, but never played it. Wow, it was a lot of fun, incredibly easy to pick up on the fly, and something I may just have to pick up. No, make that something I will pick up, now when that is, I don't know, but it's on the wishlist now!


"Badges? Yeah, we need some stinkin' badges!"

In 3:16, your characters earn 'badges' in between missions. I mentioned I thought the game went well, but personally, I had a blast running Friday night's 3:16 game. Afterwards, as a total joke, I drew 3:16 "badges" on the cups of the players who were all seated at my table once the game was over. Well the trend picked up, and whenever a game was finished, the sharpie would come out and more badges were drawn. The next thing I know, players wrapping up games in other parts of the house that I wasn't even a part of were bringing me their cups between sessions looking for their next badge, haha. It was great, and added just an extra fun element to an already great weekend. Cleaning up a little on Sunday morning, I found several cups that had badges on them that I didn't even draw, rock on!

On my cup above, starting with the top row my own badges were as follows: Zombie Cinema, 3:16, Monsterpocalypse, Mouse Guard, Battlestar Galactica (that's supposed to be a Cylon head, forgive me), Spirit of the Century, and Zombies!!! (the exclamations are part of the title), the last badge is the "three day badge" for attending the whole 'con'. Rucht got a 'host' badge, and Dave got a 'miles' badge for having driven the furthest to attend. I'm hanging on to mine, as a trophy, and I think I just got a new pencil holder to boot.

I had about an hour and a half drive to get home, and all I could think about was A) how much fun I had and all the cool people I got to meet and game with, and B) how I was going to incorporate a lot of what I saw into the next Mikmas (its tenth anniversary this year). If you can't tell, I had a blast, and am glad Rucht has put this shindig together two years running now. Also, and its hard to put into words exactly, but I'm glad to see that since Rucht moved, he's got a good group of friends to hang out and game with.

Okay, there was more than just a couple of things, truth be told, there's also a "C", and that's how to get Andy and Miller to run Spirit of the Century and Mouse Guard respectively. All right, there were a lot of video gamers there, and since Dragon Age Origins just came out, there was a lot of positive hype being talked about it as well, so I guess there's also a "D" in there, and that was how to scrounge up sixty bucks to snag a copy!