One of those Mornings

spent in the floor with coffee and LEGO

LEGO Lessons Learned

It goes without saying the LEGO Movie is watched at least once a week in my house, it's so good.  When it first came out all of my friends seemed to equate the dad character to me, because my Legos really are (were) off-limits to the child-folk.  It finally sunk in, and my lesson learned was to let my collection mingle with their imaginations.  Funnily enough I was very 'motherly hen' to my neatly sorted parts as they dug into them but relaxed.  To be fair, my kids both have a plethora of Legos, the Firstborn has her own themes she collects and the Halfling just has a bucket full of bits, my stuff is still regulated to a degree but no more 'off limits' signs.

the fruit of my three year old's labor; the winged gladiator coffee guy

You Shall Not Pass!

insert colon joke here

A Little Pathfinder

My Elven Cleric

We've been playing quite a bit of Pathfinder over the last year or so.  We started with a Rise of the Runelords adventure path, but it quickly morphed into its own thing.  We were also playing a party of all Elves, which led to a lot of 'hilarity ensuing' moments, including the time we refused to speak to anyone in anything but Elven, even though the village folk all spoke lowly common.  Good stuff, we actually wrapped up that campaign around level ten, then started a new one.  The new one is all a homebrew setting, and so cool I'll save it for it's own post.  Rock on.

Undead slaying action

No Woody...

YOU are a toy!

Baby steps, just shocked at how long it's been since I posted anything.  Hopefully the IG feed up top is still getting some mileage, that's where the traction is right now, but I'll also try to get things out of stasis around here too.

Reviving the Dead...

A Half-Orc Cleric Raises a Skeletal Soldier on the Field of Battle

It's October, or 'Zombtober' as a lot of hobby blogs like to tout.  That means lots of horror and zombie themed posts and projects are a must.  I'm hoping to have Chris Miller on board with some October themed art posts, but as of this writing I haven't locked that down...yet.  I will leave you with this photo, ironically done by Miller during a Pathfinder game months and months ago.  It doesn't get any more undead than raising a skeleton, so what a perfect kick off to October.  Enjoy!

Duplo Jet-Man

Remember back in the day, you know, Lego Thursdays?!?  Well as the wheels of blogging fate would have it, here's a completely random Lego, err, Duplo build I did in the classroom some time back and now I'm posting it...on a Thursday.

Sometimes the stars simply align, you just can't make this stuff up.  It's a three piece, minimalist build in the East/West studs orientation style.  Well, four pieces if you count the pilot.  Well, five pieces if you count the piece I had to tack on just to get the whole thing to balance upright.

Yeah, that's about it for this one, until next time, enjoy!

Forces of Battlesworn: Ninja

Ninjas!  I'd throw this Battlesworn army in on the 'good guy' side, rounding out that bunch with Bandits, Knights, and now Ninjas.  I think the Knights better hide their wallets!  Man, I loved the Lego Ninja sets, and no, NOT Ninjago either!  It's good to put these guys back on the table in action.  

What's a Ninja army without half a dozen rogues?  Here we have the backbone of the army, six rogues.  Rogues, just for posterity as you already know, are harder to hit with shooting and get bonuses to melee when they're 'flanking' with allies.

These are the compulsory fighters of the army, dual-wielding katanas Mirumoto style and wearing heavy armor.  I'm still using the sample lists, but these guys could easily be brute / tanks, bear in mind you only get up to three multi-class models in the army however.

No real personalities in the Ninja army, but here's a pair of ranged attack models.  The model on the right in red with the bow is a shooter, but the veteran on the left with the crossbow is a sniper.  The difference between these two is that the sniper is not limited to shooting the closest model, he may shoot at ANY unengaged model in line of sight.  

And with the Ninja we round out the six forces of Battlesworn.  These six were the 'gimmes' out of the sample lists.  I'm sure I could crank out at least a couple more fantasy armies, but those might take a little more effort.  As I mentioned with one of the Undead armies though, six is a great number to have and opens up some real possibilities to an all-day skirmish-fest or the like.  I'm going to let that idea simmer for a bit.  Stay tuned until next time!

Forces of Battlesworn: Undead of the Night

What's better than a bonus undead tomb kings army for Battlesworn?  A bonus undead 'children of the night' army for Battlesworn!  Yes, here's bonus army number two; Undead of the Knight.  Looking at the photo above, a pretty cool (if a tad pale) looking army.

Look, it's the undead Beatles!  I know what you're thinking, four troops so these must be the compulsory four fighter choices.  Nope, after five armies made we're still unlocking new troop types.  These four zombies are the rabble troop type; rabble fight just as hard as fighters, but their weakness is they die after taking only one wound.  On the other hand, rabble only take up half a slot, so you can take twice as many, now I see why they're labeled as zombies in the sample list.

And here's our four compulsory fighters; skeleton warriors, always a classic.  There's really not a whole lot to say about these guys, they're tireless, they're relentless, they're sword-wielding skeletons.

What's cooler than skeleton warriors?  Skeleton archers!  Fighters are one thing, but shooters?  Archery requires all kinds of things you'd not expect from a skeleton; dexterity, long ranged eyesight, finesse, and more.  In a lot of ways skeleton archers are creepy.  Here's four of them.

No undead horde is worth their weight in salt without a suitably good leader to command them.  The force list uses another combo class with the ancient vampire here; the tank / sorcerer.  He's going to be tough to take down, and gets to wield a whopping five spells while he's at it.  Plus, though all I added was a sword and shield, he looks pretty awesome at the head of the army.  

Only one more of the bonus armies to go, and the next one comes across quite sneaky, and quite pointy.  Until then, enjoy! 

Forces of Battlesworn: Undead of the Desert

I knew had at least one more Battlesworn force left in the pile of Legos, truth be told I was able to crank out three more.  This puts the army count up to six, which opens up the tantalizing possibility of an all-day, round robin Battlesworn skirmish "tourney".  On to today's army, we've got undead of the 'crunchy' variety, tomb-kings of the desert.

I'm continuing to use the sample force lists from the rulebook, and since there's about three pages worth of those we've got plenty of source material to work with.  The five troops above were listed as 'brutes', which hit hard in melee, but they were also listed as ghouls.  Brutes, I've got, no problem.  These brutes are the heavy weapon sorts and are the charred bones of past kings interred within the tombs, arisen and ready to smash their foes.  I tried to go with a different shield for each king to represent different kingdoms they initially hail from.    

Every list needs four compulsory fighters, minimum, and here they are; minor mummies.  I'm no slouch when it comes to my Lego collection, but I'm ashamed to not be able to field four matching Egyptian headdresses.  Here you go, minor mummy fighters, moving on.

On to the personalities, the dark figure in the background with the serpent staff is technically our only living model in the army, and he's a sorcerer, a powerful model who gets five spells for the game.  And the scarab shield hefting figure up front is the head of the army, the master mummy whose stats are those of a hybrid tank / rogue.  

This is an interesting class combo too as it means he'll be brutal in melee as long as he has his minions along for the ride, and he'll be harder to hit with shooting, and if you happen to hit him with shooting or melee, he'll just shrug off the first wound.  There you have it, tomb kings, enjoy!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Bandits

Our last Battlesworn army is upon us, and this merry band of Bandits is almost a completely vintage collection of old Forestmen to boot.  These Bandits harangue the King's Highway at every opportunity, to the point where I believe some Knights may need to be dispatched.  Of course, this band would also complement the very same Knights force in an extra large game acting as Royal Rangers.  I do like this particular sample army, lots of troops, a good variety of slot types, and plenty of effectiveness.

Practice makes perfect; here the veteran archer looks on while the newer recruits shoot their bows.  Having four shooters in a warband is quite the boon too, especially figuring in all of the opportunity fire reactions and sheer ranged attack goodness they bring.

The Bandits' four compulsory fighters; the three fighters look on impassively while their all-too-charismatic squad leader laughs at another one of his own jokes.

What do they fight for?  Is it coin, is it their own code of honor?  Is it just the chance to best someone in a duel?  Who knows, but one thing's for sure, the Bandits are glad to have these four 'rogues' on their side!  Rogues are a new troop type we're seeing from Battlesworn in these lists and their strength is that they are harder to hit with ranged attacks and in melee they get bonuses to hit depending on how many other [edit: friendly models] are joining them in that combat.  

So I'm thinking I've got at least one more list up my sleeve, I haven't made them yet but I'm pretty sure I have the makings for them so we may see a bonus Battlesworn list before too long.  Plus, if I can get Biscuit Miller's cool demon army he used the other night, that'd make for even more bonus armies.  Until then (and oh yeah, I've got maybe a batrep or two for you as well) enjoy!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Orcs

Last time we saw the Knights of Battlesworn, today we see an army that could easily be their nemesis; the Orcs.  Again, I'm using the sample forces from the rulebook as is, so on to the Orcs!

Every good Orc warband needs a leader, and who better to lead than the fairly recent Cyclops fig from the Lego collectible series.  In the case here, our one-eyed Orc is a warlord which combines both the 'leader' and the 'brute' classes together, appropriate for him.  The cloaked figure on the right is the warlord's advisor and shaman to the tribe (using the 'warmage' slot).  Warmages in Battlesworn are as capable as fighters, but also get the use of a single spell for the game.

This warband features a pair of archers for good measure, also known as 'shooters' in the rulebook.  Here the veteran archer coaches the newer archer on form and aiming.  They fight as good as fighters but have the obvious benefit of calling on a ranged attack to boot.  

These three Orcs are 'brute' slots.  The sample army defined these particular brutes as 'heavy weapons' but I decided to make them more like dual-wielding beserkers.  Brutes hit more often, therefore deal more damage be it from large, two-handed weapons or the option I went with here.  I like the mix here too, the fig on the left could be one of their northern mountain cousins, and the fig on the right could be from the feral southern jungles.  Of course the Orc in the middle is just an angry beserker Orc.

As I mentioned last time with the Knights, every force in Battlesworn has four compulsory 'fighter' slots, and here's that very backbone of the Orc warband.  This Orc veteran runs his troops through an equipment inspection the evening before the battle.  Again, sergeants and veterans are all just flavor text I like to do to give the army a little extra dash of neatness.  

We're almost done with the initial three armies I whipped up in my rules-reading frenzy.  Only one force to go, and up next will be the Bandits list.  Of course, "bandits" could be anything really so you'll have to stay tuned to see the Mik's Minis interpretation, mwahaha.  Until then!

Forces of Battlesworn: The Knights

Welcome to the first of three initial installments that feature, as canny readers may have already discerned, the forces of Battlesworn.  Read the review here, of if you don't just know that one of my favorite things about the rules is army creation.  Using generic 'slots' you kit out your army as you see fit with whatever forces you've got on hand.  Me being me, I went the Lego route.

Above you see the twelve slot force (standard sized game) of Knights.  In the rulebook there are two pages worth of sample armies, and all three of the initial armies here come directly from those sample pages.  What I should do is take the excellent fantasy setting we cranked out with Sarterra and apply it to these new armies and where their battles take place.

The core of every Battlesworn army are the fighters, your basic troops that every force requires to have a minimum of four of.  Here two of the Knights' fighters practice sparring while the other two look on.

There are a lot of troop type options to go around, and these two heavily armored Knights are of the 'tank' variety.  They don't hit any harder than the fighters, but they do shrug off damage better than  most, thus lending them their role's name.  

The Battlesworn rules also allow some customization by combining two different classes together and taking the best of both classes.  In the case of the two mounted figs here, they are 'cavalry/tanks'; heavily armored knights on horseback.  I modeled them here to be the king and his champion, of course on the tabletop there's no difference in stats, but it's the little details that give just that much more character.  That's it for the Knights, next up will be the greenskins.  Until then, enjoy!

More Battlesworn Incoming

Ganesha Games' Battlesworn fever has struck Mik's Minis for sure.  Read the last review for more details on the game itself, but suffice it to say that I've been on an army building kick.  When you're building said armies with Legos it's even better.  Not that I need any excuses to play with Legos mind you!

In the rulebook itself, in addition to all of the sample troop types and suggested alternate genres, there are a ton (at least two pages worth) of completed sample armies.  I've cranked out three so far, and have my eyes on a couple more at least.  I went with your basic Orcs, a Bandits list (which I themed heavily towards a Robin Hood style band), and the Human Knights list.  

Over the next few days I'll be posting individual warbands with details of what troop types are in each, as well as closeups of the the figs themselves.  This is all in Lego mind you, but a dozen figures or so from any collection you've got should work.  Until then, enjoy.

Monday Night Miller 017 ~ Minifigure Musings

Hey Everybody! Monday Night Miller time! Tonight I've got some minifigures, this time based on some Mik classics. One figure comes to you from this "Tuesday Art Leftovers" post and the other from this "Lego Omniverse" page.

BAMF!

~ Enjoy!

Monday Night Miller 016 ~ Minifigure Musings

Hey Everybody! Monday Night Miller time! Tonight I've got some more minifigure artwork to show off. Since I've got quite a collection of trolls from Lego's Castle: Fantasy Era theme I thought I'd expand on it a bit more with a Troll Jailiff (complete with reverse sleeping-on-the-job face and turkey leg) and a dual axe-weilding Trollzerker.

BAMF!

~ Enjoy!

Tuesday Art Leftovers: Psykers, Spaceport Chicks, and Supers

Welcome to another Art Leftovers!  Today's trio could almost be thrown into the same genre together, almost.  I'm sure I've plugged the LEGO skirmish battle rules a buddy and I came up with a very long time ago.  If not, here you go!  The rules were written around '97, so the above image (which went with the rules) is about as old.  It's a psyker from the game; sci-fi mega-mind powers trooper.  Ride the lightning!

Up next is a spaceport chick.  Nothing much else to say, she's the kind of local you'd find hanging out at a spaceport.  She's tough, she's alien, she's hot (in an alien sort of way), and she can more than take care of herself, hence the blaster.  I don't know if she's wearing a head wrap or a bandage.

 Last up is a superhero based off a radio handle based off real life.  Once upon a time I was a delivery driver.  Our driver cohort numbered four and we had color-themed handles to use with the dispatcher.  Not happy with just colors we went a bit further so in the end there was Soylent Green (above), Blue Phantom (me), Agent Orange, and Red Menace.  Dispatcher was Echo Base.  It was a fun gig to have in your twenties, and the pay was decent enough.  Above is my buddy Oz who has made several cameos here over the years in his Soylent Green guise.

That's all the leftover art we have this week, thanks and enjoy!

Stratos Jump: Mini-fig Style

I was quite taken with the amazing "space jump" event that took place earlier this week.  The thought a breaking the sound barrier while in freefall is, well, nothing short of awesome.  I guess that scene in Lockout I was dubious about wasn't as far-fetched as I thought! 

Speaking of awesome, I told you LEGO content would always be around, even without its own feature, and here you go.  LEGO space-jump action!  Enjoy!

Brick Warriors: Free Global Shipping Today Only

A while back I was in a LEGO third-party accessory frenzy and had the pleasure of finding the Brick Warriors outfit.  I got a lot of stuff from them, from guns to armor I was very pleased with all of it (though I never got around to a proper review post).

Well, this is just a friendly plug for a cool company.  As the image and title have already stated, today (and today only) they will offer free global shipping.  I know I have a lot of friends overseas, especially in Australia and Europe, that could benefit from this deal, of course my friends here in the states can benefit as well.

Brick Warriors has you covered, whether it's western, post-apoc, sci-fi, fantasy, and more; if you're into outfitting your wee minifigs with equipment that's just too cool for the official sets, you can't go wrong with these guys.  Tell Amanda that Mik's Minis sent you!

Monday Night Miller 003 ~ Minifigure Musings

Hey everybody! Monday Night Miller time again and this week I'll be showing you some  more of my minifigure concept work. Usually when I set to work on a project I will already have an idea in mind but with these guys I like to sit and let the ideas come to me. I'll thumbnail a bunch of characters and then develop the ones I'm really keen on. I like to get the details of existing pieces as close as I possibly can so I'll drag out a good chunk of my minifig collection to have some in-hand references and some impromptu play time... when I'm done there will be random pieces and parts laying about, its a massacre! Its also a ton of fun and after all is said and done; little sessions with these bits of plastic aid in keeping my creativity flowing and I like to think it also helps rationalize my obsession with collecting the mini-brick builders... 

BAMF! 

(build-a-mini-figure, get it?)

~ Enjoy