tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32772494828030208962024-03-13T15:49:30.495-04:00Colony 13In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Thursday. I never quite got the hang of Thursdays.Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-27628457373320731042022-12-06T21:21:00.002-05:002022-12-06T21:21:49.200-05:00Snowball Alley - a whimsical winter wargame - now available on Wargame Vault<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUh57_zOxnhlK1Xj8IXXkVdMsMNFSWH7Hbli3Igms3Lt_MTK3aElxZ0yiKSi1JdXrRFw0PCA6hwIQ6c0FSutn7K05_pTZB5DjhTtWw0cnAF_QcjpIO3xei1ttrvq7St43ph5XC5NnJwkPmRW3AnV5Oc85vhotsBSKhNC-a05N0BuzT1PGJN-X3P63R/s1201/CoverImage_v001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUh57_zOxnhlK1Xj8IXXkVdMsMNFSWH7Hbli3Igms3Lt_MTK3aElxZ0yiKSi1JdXrRFw0PCA6hwIQ6c0FSutn7K05_pTZB5DjhTtWw0cnAF_QcjpIO3xei1ttrvq7St43ph5XC5NnJwkPmRW3AnV5Oc85vhotsBSKhNC-a05N0BuzT1PGJN-X3P63R/w300-h400/CoverImage_v001.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">My game Snowball Alley is now available at Wargame Vault as a pay-what-you want title! So far I've had downloads from the USA, Great Britain, Australia and Canada!</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://www.wargamevault.com/product/418596/Snowball-Alley-A-whimsical-holiday-game-of-throwing-snowballs-and-presents?affiliate_id=7300&fbclid=IwAR14AofAZdXVDhSOw3SLqObKCadLVFxOmpYZQpgvwagba4eYDr8JfeDiGhI" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://www.wargamevault.com/.../Snowball-Alley-A...</a></span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">My family has played this every year for the past 5 years and I've decided to make it available for everyone to enjoy.</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>Objective</b></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">There are two teams – the Naughty team and the Nice team – represented by appropriate miniatures on the tabletop. Each team has a base at their side of the table. In the middle of a table is a pile of presents – the Pre-positioned Present Depot (PPD).</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">To win, get more presents back to your base than your opponent. Running them back is safer (unless you get hit by a snowball!) but throwing them is quicker (but they could be intercepted or dropped!).</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Throw snowballs at your opponent’s forces to make them drop any presents they are carrying and return them back to their base to warm up with a cup of hot cocoa! But beware – they will be throwing snowballs at you, too!</div></div>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-1941047993028188262021-08-21T00:27:00.002-04:002021-08-21T00:28:06.503-04:00A call to arms for SARGE<p> So over on Delta Vector, EvilMonkeigh has written a great critique of <a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/p/sarge-rules-for-solo-wargaming.html" target="_blank">SARGE </a>and a gently worded prod (one might say "demand") that the author (me) not let this idea languish. Since the Kickstarter is in a down period before fulfillment begins, I'm game to give it a go.</p><p>I think all it really needs is more examples and diagrams. That's easily said but I'll need to come up with a method of doing those diagrams more quickly. I was using a battle report software that seemed easy but I had trouble getting it to do exactly what I needed it to. I do have Affinity Designer so this would be a good time to break it out and really learn it. What I need isn't that complex so a few green circles for trees and brown squares for houses would be fine.</p><p>There's nothing like someone praising your work to give you new incentive to finish said work!</p><p>Here's the article -- it's a really clear explanation of what I presented, so I guess I was able to describe it at least well enough for someone else to take it and summarize it! </p><p><a href="https://deltavector.blogspot.com/2021/08/solo-wargaming-designing-ai-sarge.html">https://deltavector.blogspot.com/2021/08/solo-wargaming-designing-ai-sarge.html</a></p><p><br /></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-53860636140327767732021-08-18T12:56:00.003-04:002021-08-18T12:56:51.867-04:00Kickstarter Accomplished<p> I don't think it will really hit me until the box with all the castings shows up at my door, but my SciFi Dino Kickstarter was an overwhelming success. You can still late pledge by <a href="mailto:nicholascaldwell@gmail.com?subject=Kickstarter%20Dinos%20Late%20Pledge" target="_blank">emailing me.</a></p><p>And if you don't know what I'm talking about, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32mmscifidinos/32mm-resin-sci-fi-dinosaurs-introducing-the-ganorn">take a look here</a>.</p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-31312553089266069372021-07-02T21:54:00.000-04:002021-07-02T21:54:04.996-04:00Garden Ninja paints the Ganorn<p> This is the first time I've had something pro-painted but I figured <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32mmscifidinos/32mm-resin-sci-fi-dinosaurs-introducing-the-ganorn?utm_source=Colony13&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=SciFiDinos" target="_blank">my Kickstarter </a>was the time to do it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJktRdHMxsA/YN_B0X_r3DI/AAAAAAAANPo/BJueuwvHpgk-kiiu5fJwtdjmce2jn3gQQCNcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Trio_IMG_9922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="427" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJktRdHMxsA/YN_B0X_r3DI/AAAAAAAANPo/BJueuwvHpgk-kiiu5fJwtdjmce2jn3gQQCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h427/Trio_IMG_9922.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-3835808537703917952021-07-01T15:44:00.002-04:002021-07-01T15:46:09.706-04:00Kickstarter is live! 32mm SciFi Dinos<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #04ff00; font-family: verdana;"> And we're live! </span></h1><h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #04ff00; font-family: verdana;">Come get your dinosaur army figs!</span></h1><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32mmscifidinos/32mm-resin-sci-fi-dinosaurs-introducing-the-ganorn">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32mmscifidinos/32mm-resin-sci-fi-dinosaurs-introducing-the-ganorn</a></span></p><p><br /></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-37825290248705445802021-06-28T14:43:00.003-04:002021-08-12T15:18:14.128-04:00Ganorn Kickstarter Preview<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3CjspEBSwk/YNoYJ37XuAI/AAAAAAAANMA/1PnxnW6gMA8K0cVeyG5OZbUYcIhM72fegCNcBGAsYHQ/s1024/Ganorn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3CjspEBSwk/YNoYJ37XuAI/AAAAAAAANMA/1PnxnW6gMA8K0cVeyG5OZbUYcIhM72fegCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Ganorn.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Going live July 1!</p><p>See here for notifications:</p><p><a href="https://tinyurl.com/SciFiDinos" target="_blank">32mm Sci Fi Dinos KS</a><br /></p><p>See here before July 1 to offer Feedback on the project before we go live:</p><p><a href="https://tinyurl.com/DinoKSPreview" target="_blank">32mm Sci Fi Dinos KS Preview</a><br /></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-54513675407153108762021-06-12T23:26:00.001-04:002021-06-12T23:26:22.721-04:00Kickstarter launching July 1, 2021!<p> At last, everything has come together. I'm launching a Kickstarter! 3 years ago I had an idea, hired a concept artist, hired a sculptor -- and now on July 1 I'll be raising the money to get the production molds made to bring these little guys and gals to life. </p><p><br /></p><p>Presenting the Ganorn -- 32mm sci-fi dinosaurs cast in resin. There will be two rewards -- 1) One each of the 10 poses and 2) a "unit builder" of 5 standing and 5 kneeling models (these look great ranked up into a Victorian Sci-fi firing line!)</p><p><br /></p><p>It's been a long journey with lots of ups and downs -- not least of which the pandemic which scuttled my plans to launch this last year -- and I'm glad it's reaching the end of the beginning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8fDD6pYkhPI/YMV6ApUHtFI/AAAAAAAANCM/ZW8a0IcF7I8bV7a0zTAe5Hpx0Nd2SP2jgCPcBGAYYCw/s935/BannerAd_v006.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="935" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8fDD6pYkhPI/YMV6ApUHtFI/AAAAAAAANCM/ZW8a0IcF7I8bV7a0zTAe5Hpx0Nd2SP2jgCPcBGAYYCw/s320/BannerAd_v006.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tfsVc9-ezzc/YMV6A1en1VI/AAAAAAAANCQ/4w6NG2itS3Ye4HxZEo2ampVl1Q-iSD_-ACPcBGAYYCw/s2804/_PacksGraphic_v002_noPackInfo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2804" data-original-width="1122" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tfsVc9-ezzc/YMV6A1en1VI/AAAAAAAANCQ/4w6NG2itS3Ye4HxZEo2ampVl1Q-iSD_-ACPcBGAYYCw/s320/_PacksGraphic_v002_noPackInfo.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4SnqEW_hqSY/YMV6BoVZsFI/AAAAAAAANCU/7PdeQTZV03kLMYJufUQfc34nml0Jr2phwCPcBGAYYCw/s2048/32mmProof.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4SnqEW_hqSY/YMV6BoVZsFI/AAAAAAAANCU/7PdeQTZV03kLMYJufUQfc34nml0Jr2phwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/32mmProof.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-21113570990575280862021-03-22T23:16:00.002-04:002021-03-22T23:16:30.904-04:00Saxon houses 3d-prints for Dux Brit<p> I am calling it Dux Brit because I can never remember the spelling of the darn game! You know, the Dark Ages battle game by Too Fat Lardies.</p><p>Anyway, found these great Saxon buildings on thingiverse.com, printed and painted them, then tipped the sculptor and posted the makes back on thingiverse (always tip your sculptor!!! Seriously. They took the time to share something with you, give them a fiver back). And here they are - several buildings and a neat church (which has some issues printing but nothing a little CA glue won't fix)</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UOlixTMl1j0/YFldaKaAQ8I/AAAAAAAAL5c/6BQpcceLv5gwMJc5LkFzuE0TO-jl6nMdACNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150852.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UOlixTMl1j0/YFldaKaAQ8I/AAAAAAAAL5c/6BQpcceLv5gwMJc5LkFzuE0TO-jl6nMdACNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150852.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Yemb-Fk4vUI/YFldZ5FO82I/AAAAAAAAL5U/TBxZQqqMq_g4o8v948uv7jyav4M1htopwCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150905.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Yemb-Fk4vUI/YFldZ5FO82I/AAAAAAAAL5U/TBxZQqqMq_g4o8v948uv7jyav4M1htopwCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150905.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z3Ch9Tf1K18/YFldZ2fwO2I/AAAAAAAAL5I/BbczFrdk_t40B1EKs_gqmSlFw9zlSTa7gCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150931.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z3Ch9Tf1K18/YFldZ2fwO2I/AAAAAAAAL5I/BbczFrdk_t40B1EKs_gqmSlFw9zlSTa7gCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150931.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--TZl_VkeaLQ/YFldZwxvzQI/AAAAAAAAL5M/g99rKuETgd02FCHB3Z5Sil8CgfST5FuVgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150951.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--TZl_VkeaLQ/YFldZwxvzQI/AAAAAAAAL5M/g99rKuETgd02FCHB3Z5Sil8CgfST5FuVgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150951.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2yNJlSbaizk/YFldZ9Emu3I/AAAAAAAAL5Y/qAfsxtfWSFIepLw3YFVEXBvDYf9fq2zIgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_151148.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2yNJlSbaizk/YFldZ9Emu3I/AAAAAAAAL5Y/qAfsxtfWSFIepLw3YFVEXBvDYf9fq2zIgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_151148.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4Q4EJNGnvdo/YFldZ-A1QnI/AAAAAAAAL5Q/dTJsVIGirAAZn3QFQIjgRHk8HAxvEi2RQCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_151216.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4Q4EJNGnvdo/YFldZ-A1QnI/AAAAAAAAL5Q/dTJsVIGirAAZn3QFQIjgRHk8HAxvEi2RQCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_151216.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Oyx7eV4P3dw/YFldZlg_a8I/AAAAAAAAL5E/ku2s-J6Hk0wjdefG3mHBBD-YjkIZkjQbgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150844.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Oyx7eV4P3dw/YFldZlg_a8I/AAAAAAAAL5E/ku2s-J6Hk0wjdefG3mHBBD-YjkIZkjQbgCNcBGAsYHQ/20210215_150844.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-10924386867044979362020-05-01T23:58:00.002-04:002020-05-01T23:59:30.895-04:00Sci-Fi Dinosaurs Kickstarter coming soon<span style="color: blue;">I've been working on this project for over a year and it's close to fruition. Of course, the pandemic kind of threw plans up in the air for a while. I'm still hopeful to get these guys done this year -- and this is the concept art that started it all!</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Edit: <a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/p/sci-fi-dinosaurs.html">Photos of the actual sculpts are now up!</a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sh9neVNLKAM/XqzvOU5TG1I/AAAAAAAAJCQ/cISY0aRlbN8RIVDOoFp5QVF4lDFGXkraQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/TheHunter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="612" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sh9neVNLKAM/XqzvOU5TG1I/AAAAAAAAJCQ/cISY0aRlbN8RIVDOoFp5QVF4lDFGXkraQCNcBGAsYHQ/s400/TheHunter.png" width="277" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-51973840634932339332020-04-25T00:30:00.000-04:002020-04-25T00:31:12.279-04:00How expensive is it to get into 3d printing?Someone posed this question to me recently in the form of "this Kickstarter has neat model ships -- how expensive would it be to get a 3d printer and print them?" Here was my answer, although I can boil it down to the last paragraph -- you aren't buying a 3d printer; you are buying a new hobby:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">How expensive is it? That's a long answer. Really long. :0</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">THE TLDR: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">My flippant TLDR answer is that it will take you $704.52 and 1 year, 6.5 days, 3 hours to print one ship. At least, that's what it's taken me :-) If you want a new hobby and this KS is the catalyst for starting that new hobby -- it's a great hobby! It's fun and rewarding when you finally get a print just right. But if you just want a model ship -- hire somebody to print it for you and let them deal with the headaches. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The $704.52 is for: buying your first printer ($300), buying your second printer after something goes wrong with the first one and you try to fix it and FUBAR it ($300), the price of the filament for all the failed prints before you get a good one ($100) and the $4.52 in filament when everything goes right and you finally get your ship to print exactly right. Oh -- and that is ZERO dollars for labor. (How much is your time worth?)</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The time is for: the 1 year learning curve from knowing zero to finally becoming somewhat competent at printing. At "competent" experience level: Your prints still fail, but they usually aren't catastrophic failures and you can either live with the errors, fix the errors in software and reprint, or fix the errors on the print with sandpaper and super glue. The 6.5 days is for printing the actual models -- those ship hulls each consist of at least 3 pieces, each of which will take 12 to 20 hours to print. And the 3 hours is with sandpaper and hobby knife cleaning each piece up and then fitting it to the next piece -- you know, if the piece actually printed near perfectly and didn't warp at the bottom (due to the heated build plate) and now the parts don't quite line up...</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">If you don't want a new hobby, you can get someone else to print it. Shapeways.com would be quite expensive but the quality is guaranteed. And there are a number of websites where you can submit a project and get bids from other hobbyists on printing it for you. Also - if the library or your job has one -- ask them how to use it and try it out before you buy one. Try printing a set of normal 6-sided dice and see what you get.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">FULL STORY:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">So you want to get into </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">3d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> printing? First question -- what kind of printer do you want? In general -- FDM or FFF (fused filament fabrication) printers are good for large projects like the ships in the KS and are less expensive to purchase and operate; Resin printers produce way better quality, so they're good for the miniatures in the KS, but the cost is higher both for purchase and for materials. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Here's my experience for what it's worth. All that I said above in the TLDR holds true for FDM (fused filament) printers. I don't have any experience with resin printers as, although they far exceed the quality of FDM printers, the resin used and the fumes from the resin while printing are both toxic. Seriously - you literally need to wear gloves and not get this sh*t on your skin or breathe it in. Someday I will convert part of my storage shed into a resin printing station but not now when the kids are young.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Why would I want a resin printer? Because if you print with a resin printer, you get a miniature figure with all the high detail you expect. It will look exactly like it does on the computer screen. Well, it will after you spend a few hours with an ultrasonic cleaner, alcohol bath, wet sanding, etc.. Oh and using a UV protective primer so it doesn't melt in sunlight. :-)</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">FDM works for me for now and for the SHIPS in this KS, it's arguably a better choice because the build plates are so much bigger (for the price). Resin printers are limited in their size unless you spend big bucks. So you're looking at maybe a 5x5x2.5 inch print area. My FDM has 8x8x8 -- it's not a huge difference but it adds up when you are talking about multiple parts. (That, by the way, is the reason that the KS has a pledge level just for resin prints - they have to be smaller parts). But for the miniatures -- you're definitely going to see some lines on them with FDM. (You'll see lines on the ships, too, but that will be easier to sand away).</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">IT'S A HOBBY:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Right now, the </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">3d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> printing industry is like the early computing industry. If you buy a low-end printer (below $300) you have to expect you will spend time tinkering with it. If you tinker with it enough, you will break it and have to repair it. Or FUBAR it and get another printer so that you can print the parts to fix the first printer (that's where I'm at right now). But it's ok -- you will have learned so much by FUBAR'ing the first printer that you will have much greater success with the second. And guess what? In the meantime, the printers have gotten faster and better and dropped in price! Sound familiar? In 1993, I read an article about the first </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">3d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">-printer. It was the size of a refrigerator, cost $100k and could print a cube the size of a postage stamp. (again - sound familiar?) And I remember thinking that in 10 years I would have one of those on my desk. Well, it took a little longer but that's where we are today.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">But the next step is to raise it to consumer level like an inkjet printer -- and we're definitely not there yet. In 10 years, there will be a resin printer with a recyclable cartridge for the resin, non-toxic fumes, fast print speed, non-damaging light for curing (did I mention needing eye protection while you cure the resin? Don't want to go blind, you know.) and only fails as often as an office printer (think the frequency of paper jams, clogged toner, occasional maintenance that's easy to perform -- that sort of thing).</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">What you have now -- your print might not stick to the build plate, so at 17 hours into an 18 hour print the printer knocks it off into the floor and spends the next hour pouring molten plastic over it. (done it). Or maybe it sticks too well, so when you pull the part off the printer the part breaks (ditto). Maybe your x-axis stabilizer wobbles so every 4th line is juuuuust a hair off and your print looks like crap and you have to tear the whole machine down and re-seat the bar (done it). Or one of the 300 (not exaggerating) settings in the slicer (the software you have to learn to take the stil that you get with the KS and turn it into gcode that the printer can understand -- a bit like compiling C++ code into machine instructions) is just a hair off and you have to print small test prints over and over and over while adjusting JUST ONE of those variables each time until you figure out why you are getting so much stringing (thin, wispy plastic that occurs when the nozzle moves from one part to another across a void) -- done it, done it, done it to death.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Here's a good website with illustrations about Things That Go Wrong: </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/&source=gmail&ust=1587874741696000&usg=AFQjCNFGeZ-lAA9gOfgMp-_y6eCQLJDzPw" href="https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: georgia, serif;" target="_blank">https://www.simplify3d.com/<wbr></wbr>support/print-quality-<wbr></wbr>troubleshooting/</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">And here's one of mine that did go wrong :0 -- </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://colony13.blogspot.com/2018/03/adventures-in-3d-printing.html&source=gmail&ust=1587874741696000&usg=AFQjCNE9uli_m01QA7kJZVgUBmcBGfPl8w" href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/2018/03/adventures-in-3d-printing.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: georgia, serif;" target="_blank">https://colony13.blogspot.com/<wbr></wbr>2018/03/adventures-in-<span class="il">3d</span>-<wbr></wbr>printing.html</a><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">And oh god, I haven't mentioned that your build plate has to be absolutely level, that you have to do that by manually adjusting multiple screws around the plate, and that it has to be within a tolerance level of a single sheet of paper. Again, not exaggerating -- you put a piece of paper on the build plate and lower the nozzle until it touches. Auto-leveled build plates are coming -- high-end ones have it now so it will trickle down to low-end within a year or two)</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">And that's just the hardware. I alluded to the fact that you also have to learn how to use a slicer. The good news is there are some good free ones -- the bad news is I was too dumb to figure them out and had to buy one.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">CONCLUSION: It's a wonderful, wonderful hobby. When you can print a glow-in-the-dark My Little Pony for your daughter and she falls in love with it and sleeps with it every night as a night light...yeah, all the trouble is worth it. Just be aware that when you buy a printer today, you are buying a hobby and to get good results you are going to be spending some late nights one-on-one with your printer, your slicer and the generally wonderful support on reddit forums while you try to figure out one glitch after another. Or you just accept the imperfections and move on -- that's generally what I do. I am printing out some ships now and there are strings all over the railings. So am I reprinting it? Nope - I'm taking some side cutters and cutting them off and lightly sanding them smooth. An hour doing that is better than re-printing for 12 hours or spending days trying to tweak the slicer. And in my spare time, I do tinker with the slicer -- some day I'll find just the right setting. In the meantime, I've got some 15mm sci-fi tanks to print! And then some houses. And then a pirate ship. And a rainbow-colored toy boat for my daughter's bath-time. And then a sky ship. And then...</span>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-50851078463490918852020-03-06T09:57:00.003-05:002020-03-06T09:57:50.925-05:0015mm Quar Kickstarter on now!<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/970181470/this-quars-war-second-edition/description" target="_blank">Zombiesmith's Quar 15mm 2.0 Kickstarter is underway. </a> I've loved the Quar since I first came across them and their murderous little hearts. I'll be using them for both Chain of Command and the Company level game that is being produced as part of the KS. KS ends March 23 2020.<br />
<br />
I love their vehicles and came up with this for the Creevin "Anfyr" tractor: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: "Maison Neue Book", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In my head-canon, in order for the Creevin to fire that big, off-center gun on the Anfyr tractor, they first put the turret in "neutral." When the gun fires, the whole turret spins around one entire revolution to absorb the recoil. This vertigo-inducing behavior can result in the crew staggering around and chundering for hours after an intense firefight. As a result, Creevin tankers are often referred to as "Drunken Dragoons" with varying degrees of respect depending on whether their posterior was just saved by one or if one just drove over the nice foxhole you just dug."</span>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-84631370837838930292019-05-13T22:18:00.000-04:002019-05-13T22:19:56.704-04:00First Bones 4 model paintedYep, the ghost pirates from Bones 4 sucked me in. :-) Here's my first model painted from the ginormous plastic pile that was delivered a couple of weeks ago. Pretty good for me to get this painting table so quickly. Oh, and my wife and I are aiming for "tabletop good enough" paint jobs for these, so I haven't done anything with the basing. We have so many to get through we just want to put paint to plastic and get gaming with them!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FJ8X3GxVAFU/XNolOoTeV0I/AAAAAAAAGto/XjkYX7sqj60o_a-ZV89uY9trCZdi08zGgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5383.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FJ8X3GxVAFU/XNolOoTeV0I/AAAAAAAAGto/XjkYX7sqj60o_a-ZV89uY9trCZdi08zGgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_5383.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aC0_EhwbohU/XNolO7md0jI/AAAAAAAAGts/CQRdjNV25-k_Xaj9BY1VI2aKesXQ2u0HwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aC0_EhwbohU/XNolO7md0jI/AAAAAAAAGts/CQRdjNV25-k_Xaj9BY1VI2aKesXQ2u0HwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_5379.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-14695729649990761292019-05-11T23:28:00.000-04:002019-05-11T23:28:06.567-04:00New Terrain - Infinity Colored I'm a huge fan of these Infinity Colored terrain pieces. They have a nice retro-future look to them and most could be at home in fantasy and near-future as well as far future. Looking forward to getting some good use out of them this year.<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HTjyy-nMdtQ/XM5YZUK1P-I/AAAAAAAAGsU/9hZg4PclUjgBuxslXoMoD9ERdMMw8EACQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5196%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1600" height="338" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HTjyy-nMdtQ/XM5YZUK1P-I/AAAAAAAAGsU/9hZg4PclUjgBuxslXoMoD9ERdMMw8EACQCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_5196%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-17376400966782447292019-05-04T23:17:00.002-04:002023-12-27T15:55:44.755-05:00A brief post about Warlords of Erewhon<br />
<br />
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">A brief comment on Warlords of Erewhon</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I'm a fan of Rick Priestly games and had a wonderful opportunity to chat with him at a GW Games Day in Baltimore. In fact, he signed my WH40K softcover ("It's been a while since I've seen one of those!") and gave me a one-one-one demo of the system that would become Warmaster.</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">So when Warlord Games announced Rick's Warlords of Erewhon, I took the unusual step of pre-ordering it. And I'm glad I did. Why? Because when I set up a simple 2 unit scenario to demo the games to my wife, it turned out to have a really interesting set of decisions. Let's set the stage:</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UPzvN8n1kqQAws7fIHA0xJHIvYNp4-tkjfJSMXszqix2e4NEZMTo7HNdGYsePL3G4TkyvdjqroPU97icuWAfUHxrVIMQOVXAxI_iBXk-FbvRucqRjH_Xo4O-GCzHSP9D-l0l856iu0k_b47nnCmC-X3VG7tdZW2PPS75M10L1z8wGBnjcDo5aPDDg3Y/s4032/IMG_20190216_192221842.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UPzvN8n1kqQAws7fIHA0xJHIvYNp4-tkjfJSMXszqix2e4NEZMTo7HNdGYsePL3G4TkyvdjqroPU97icuWAfUHxrVIMQOVXAxI_iBXk-FbvRucqRjH_Xo4O-GCzHSP9D-l0l856iu0k_b47nnCmC-X3VG7tdZW2PPS75M10L1z8wGBnjcDo5aPDDg3Y/w400-h300/IMG_20190216_192221842.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazons versus Romans<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I put together a unit of 5 Roman Legionnaires using the Dwarf warrior stats. My wife took her Amazons which actually do have stats from the Olympians army list. I randomly put the units out and they turned out to be about 16" away from each other. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I drew the first order and realized that I couldn't charge her unit. So I just moved it 5" closer -- this put me at a disadvantage as the only way that I could get my charge in first next turn would be to draw my order dice first. My wife had a much more interesting choice. She could either hope that she would draw the first order next turn or go on Ambush this turn and wait for my attack. I would have gone for the Ambush but she chose to trust in luck. Unfortunately my luck held out. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Turn 2, I drew the first order and charged in. For this combat, we treated the Amazons as having spears and my Romans took a casualty on their charge in despite their high armor. Then thanks to some abysmal rolling I ended up losing the combat and retreating. In the following turn the Amazons were able to charge and auto-routed my Romans by getting more pin results.</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">And that was it - a very simple demo that left me wanting to play more. I like the activation, the system is modern and clean with simple die rolls and simple modifiers. My one complaint is that there is no insight into the points system. I want to add the Shieldwall rule to my Romans but there's no advice on how to cost it. It's a minor complaint, though. [UPDATE: <a href="https://thisgaminglife.uk/" target="_blank">Points system has been published by Mr. Priestly</a>)</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">All in all, a very solid set of rules and I'm looking forward to getting my skeletons finished and getting my goblins and orks to battle once more. It's been a long time for those guys.</span></div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-33316595675526816692019-05-04T23:16:00.002-04:002019-05-04T23:16:52.481-04:00What happened to 2018?This is becoming a theme, isn't it? Well, a new baby (our second) coupled with some health woes kept me from returning to blogging. I'm going to try to do better. And I have good reason to -- Invasion:UFO is nearing completion and will be heading to Kickstarter along with at least 10 beautiful sculpts done by the talented Andrew May of Meridian Miniatures. Final sculpts are done and I will soon have the first models off the molds. In fact, I am looking for some professional painters to paint a few for the Kickstarter. Drop me a line if interested. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-24036941865044799682018-03-30T23:19:00.000-04:002018-03-30T23:19:15.630-04:00Adventures in 3d PrintingI was lucky enough to receive from my lovely wife a Monoprice Mini Select v2 3d-printer for my birthday. I remember very clearly sitting in the library in college around 1992 and seeing in a magazine an article about one of the first, if not the first, massive, multi-thousand dollar 3d printers and thinking, "In 20 years, I'll have one of these in my home." Well, I was a little off on the timing but I couldn't be more pleased with this machine. It just works and with a sale was under $200.<br />
<br />
Now, it's not going to be producing any miniatures -- it has good resolution but the texture isn't there for miniature people. But it works darned nicely for terrain! Here's some wattle fencing I whipped up the other night. Total design time -- 2 hours. Time per print: 1 hour.<br />
<br />
And yes, 3d printing still involves lots of experimentation and things do go wrong. At the front is a perfect print and at the back is where the extruded plastic failed to adhere to the base and just made a plastic cobweb!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LfiKGSl9rUY/Wr7941nC15I/AAAAAAAAEdk/b-3a3RoH7_IgfgB-bTOSa1W5qJl7MnXsgCLcBGAs/s1600/20180327_175011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LfiKGSl9rUY/Wr7941nC15I/AAAAAAAAEdk/b-3a3RoH7_IgfgB-bTOSa1W5qJl7MnXsgCLcBGAs/s640/20180327_175011.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-86001986158699781942018-03-25T13:40:00.001-04:002018-03-25T13:40:26.454-04:00SARGE release!Today is pretty momentous as <a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/p/sarge-rules-for-solo-wargaming.html" target="_blank">I'm releasing SARGE into the wild.</a> This is the first time I've released a set of rules of my own making into the general public. I hope it sees some usage as I really like this system and I think others will too. <br />
<br />
SARGE is a relatively simple system that gives relatively complex results for a solo gaming opponent. SARGE borrows a concept from computer gaming -- calculating a “weight” for the various objectives that the AI is trying to achieve – so that he moves purposefully toward objectives while still retaining enough randomness to the moves that the system can still surprise you. And the weight calculation is a simple addition solution so my brain doesn't hurt!<br />
<br />
SARGE is the out-growth of my work on my solo "Ode to X-com" game <i>Invasion: UFO</i>. While creating that game, I was encouraged by the <a href="http://deltavector.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Delta Vector</a> game design Google group (particularly by TheEvilMonkeigh himself) to generalize the rules to fit any wargame that has hidden units that need to move intelligently. Thus, SARGE was born.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/p/sarge-rules-for-solo-wargaming.html" target="_blank">Link to the SARGE page for current rules.</a><br />
<br />
(Longtime readers will remember the first generation of SARGE from <a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-relatively-simple-system-for.html" target="_blank">this post</a>. A lot has been streamlined and edited since then!)<br />
<br />
If you try the rules and like them, please leave a comment here or <a href="https://colony13.blogspot.com/p/sarge-rules-for-solo-wargaming.html" target="_blank">on the page. </a>Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-78755617310963087522018-02-10T23:05:00.003-05:002018-02-11T22:19:10.214-05:00Sellswords and Spellcasters in MordheimI recently tried out Sellswords and Spellcasters from Ganesh Games using the setting from Mordheim - a city destroyed by a comet centuries ago that is newly opened to exploration. My players were: an 11 year old boy who wanted to play "that game from <i>Stranger Things </i>(ie, <i>Dungeons and Dragons</i>)", his mom with little gaming experience but great imagination, my 14 yo daughter with some gaming experience but not really a gaming enthusiast and my wife and I.<br />
<br />
It went splendidly and everyone had a great time and wants to play again!<br />
<br />
My wife and I did a moderate amount of prep work by just asking what kinds of fantasy characters they might like and then showing them a few of my painted models. I then took that and created the characters. I tried to also include an option for each one. For instance, for the mom's character I offered the choice of taking the "Impulsive" disadvantage along with the "Fast" advantage.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Characters were:</b><br />
Me: A con-artist witch hunter with the Leader, Cleric and Heavy Drinker traits (scarred by all the terrors he has seen in Mordheim)<br />
Wife: A dual-sword wielding fighter with Whirlwind of Steel<br />
Daughter: A thief type with the Greedy disadvantage<br />
Boy: A wizard<br />
Mom: Essentially a Ranger type with Archery, Impulsive, Fast, Forester<br />
(Also 2 three year olds, one from each family, who entertained and interrupted constantly as we played)<br />
<br />
Since we had 5 players, I built each type on 30 points each and each player only had one character. This seemed to work pretty well. It's not really possible to build a good Wizard with only 30 points so I fudged it a little and gave him two spells: Teleport Other and Magic Dart. I chose Teleport Other specifically to get him into the idea that this is cooperative and and encourage him to think about how to help everyone else.<br />
<br />
First scenario was the Wine in the Brambles -- it was easy to substitute a ruined building for a bramble patch. We started off really rough as several of us failed 2 or 3 activations in a row. This kind of spooked us and we started rolling only 1 or 2 dice, but that didn't help much either. Basically, we just had bad luck with reinforcements and ambushes popping off around us. We didn't manage to get further than 12" into the battlefield, but we still managed to find 2 jugs of wine and get everyone off the board for a technical win.<br />
<br />
Then it was a break for King Cake (it's Mardi gras, y'all!) and we went back for a second scenario to try again. Everyone upgraded their characters (just adding 1 point to either Ranged or Melee was pretty quick) -- that might have been a violation of the campaign rules, but wanted to keep the game going without bogging down in the campaign.<br />
<br />
This time I chose the first scenario (the run through the wasteland) -- the story was that we had fled the city proper but still had to get through the ruins to find the merchant (so that I didn't have to set up all new terrain). And I ruled that there could be casks of wine here, too, so if we searched the houses we might find some. This game went MUCH better and we racked up quite a kill count. Nearly everyone was trying for 3 activations per turn and for the most part we were getting 2 activations and an event instead of the other way around like we got in the first game. We even had a great plan -- we would open a path and the wizard would run up the battlefield, then teleport us all up to him and we would start again. It was a great plan until the wizard rolled a 1 and couldn't cast the spell!<br />
<br />
Highlights of the second game were the Ranger using her healing skill to keep everyone healthy as we fought off hordes of goblins, the fighter with Whirlwind of Steel cutting her way through 9 goblins and 3 Orks over the course of the game, and the thief looting every dead goblin in sight. Oh, and right at the end we managed to surround and kill the troll with archery and crossbow shots without ever having to face it in melee combat!<br />
<br />
Everyone is excited to do the campaign turn and go shopping the next time! It's a great little game. I love how the characters are the only ones to roll dice and the risk-reward system of the activation and how it interacts with the event deck is just genius.<br />
<br />
BTW, while I have several other Ganesha Games products, I haven't really played them. This one is different. It's elegant. I'll be playing this one a lot. And I knew I had a winner when, the night before, I set up a simple solo game and had so much fun that I couldn't wait to play with my friends the next day.<br />
<br />
PS -- I would buy a science-fiction version of this in an instant! This is the game I wanted Rogue Stars to be.<br />
<br />
<b>Some house rules we implemented:</b><br />
I discarded arbalast and made the crossbow deal 2 damage. Otherwise I can't see any reason to take a crossbow instead of a bow, and besides crossbows LOOK like they should do more damage. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it. :-)<br />
<br />
My daughter's thief character is holding a little hand-crossbow thing -- totally not a realistic weapon. I gave it a 12" range, 1 damage and does NOT take a turn to reload. And I told her that being a thief she can coat it in poison next game. She was happy. (Should I be alarmed that my daughter enjoys playing assassins?)<br />
<br />
The Mana Fluctuation card -- I like this one -- the Boy was so disappointed after he rolled a 1 and couldn't do spells (without doing blood magic) that I ruled that if the Mana fluctuation came up as +2 afterward we could instead choose to let him cast spells again. In other words, it would recharge his magical energy instead of giving the +2 to casting.<br />
<br />
On a natural 20 to hit, you do +1 damage. It just seems right. :-)<br />
<br />
Any questions, just ask. Pictures to come!<br />
<br />
Best,<br />
Nicholas<br />
<br />
Edit: Great discussion of using this game with kids over at Lead Adventure Forum:<br />
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?board=18.0<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-5765447390681973892018-02-10T23:03:00.001-05:002018-02-10T23:03:38.754-05:00What happened to 2017?You would think I did no gaming in 2017, but the reverse is true. We actually played a lot of Rebellion, one game of Sails of Glory, and a few X-wing games. But I've been so busy with a 2-year-old, moving house, getting laid off and trying to find a job (one is found, now, thankfully) that I just haven't had time for the blog.<br />
<br />
That's changing for 2018. We're playing games but I'm also really pushing to get Invasion:UFO published and getting sculpts made for the miniatures. Yep, if I can possibly afford it I'm going to get my own miniatures line going for the various aliens and human factions in Invasion:UFO. I've already got some great artwork thanks to some great artists from Fiverr. I may make a mess of it, but I'll try to publish as much here as possible.Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-81204808347956990262017-08-25T17:25:00.001-04:002017-08-25T17:26:29.131-04:00Pulp Alley Trial Game<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: blue;">Pulp Alley definitely wins the award for least time between receiving the rules and actually getting figures on the tabletop and playing the game! </span></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">This was partly because I was able to download the free rules ahead of time but mostly becuase the rules are elegantly simple and make sense. Oh, we had the usual questions (actions aren't well defined in the rules so for a bit we thought you couldn't run and shoot) and I made some major mistakes (totally forgot for the first few fire-fights that the attacker has the option to take damage instead of just blocking return fire) but the first game was a blast and we can't wait to play again!</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">We played the "Hidalgo Fire" scenario from the free rules with one major change -- we set it on a Mars-like planet so that we could use our sci-fi figures. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.8px;">And we threw in a bit of Rogue One inspired backstory: Far off in another corner of the galaxy, a weapons researcher working for the Empire has gone missing. Our leagues (Pulp Alley's name for your army list) have independently tracked down the researcher's estranged daughter at an archaeology site on a red planet and hope that we can convince her to help look for her father. </span></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">(By the way, the reason we threw in the Empire from Star Wars is that we built an Imperial stormtrooper Pulp Alley league as a way of teaching ourselves the league creation rules. The stormies will show up in future scenarios.)</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Since this was our first game, I left out a few things. I placed the minor plot-points equidistant from the Major plot point (instead of us each taking turns placing plot points) and we skipped rolling for scenario random events because I figured we had enough to do with just learning the game. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">But because I like chaos in narrative games, I added 4 mobile "extremely perilous areas" in the form of various beasts that randomly moved about at the end of the turn. There were 4 of these, one placed between each plot point.</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Some highlights (since this was a learning game we didn't take detailed notes) from my side of the battle:</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">"Speedy" the Dalek (a Follower from my league) racing forward on the first turn to reach the Ancient Artifact plot point, only to be immediately knocked out by the Brain Worm swarm (a mobile Extremely Perilous Area). (Since they were brain worms, the Dalek wasn't actually hurt -- they just knocked him over and he couldn't get up!)</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">Our most "pulpy" moment when my leader had to spend a turn convincing the archeologist (the Major plot point, the weapon engineer's daughter) to come with him while nearly the entirety of Xan's league shot at him. (He failed his initial Challenge roll so had to spend another turn convincing her, then finally started moving off the table).</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">This was visualized as:</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">Leader: "Come with me if you want to live"</span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;">Archeolgist: "No"</span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;">Leader: "This way! Wait...what?"</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">And Gorgo the Gigant making a pet of one of the other mobile extremely perilous areas -- a giant lizard-like beast. He was hit twice by the random movement of this beast but easily passed each challenge -- mostly because both challenges were against his strength! ("Gorgo not smart but Gorgo strong.")</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Final Thoughts - I love this ruleset! The fun started when we began designing our characters and it kept going throughout the game. Pulp Alley is going to be getting a lot of play in our house.</span></div>
</div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-64635193732276760462017-02-23T12:47:00.000-05:002017-02-23T12:47:39.339-05:00Star Wars Armada: First impressions and first game report<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VvUCKnCBBHA/WKZ4QlsYTMI/AAAAAAAABkA/6MDuRVIQpSsY07bi-X_-Wimr9SEXRJ08ACLcB/s1600/b_StuckInTheMiddleWithYou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VvUCKnCBBHA/WKZ4QlsYTMI/AAAAAAAABkA/6MDuRVIQpSsY07bi-X_-Wimr9SEXRJ08ACLcB/s400/b_StuckInTheMiddleWithYou.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Horribly phone pix because the good camera is already packed!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span id="goog_176604569"></span><span id="goog_176604570"></span><span id="goog_1398973355"></span><span id="goog_1398973356"></span>Last weekend my wife and I managed to play a game of Star Wars: Armada amidst the chaos of packing and moving. It was a blast!<br />
<br />
Now let me state that I had no intention of getting into this game. Oh, I <i>wanted</i> to - the models are beautiful! But the price tag - US$99 - for the core set was just way out of reach. And then each ship beyond that in the base was <i>another</i> $30-$40. And I thought GW had cornered the market on games priced out of my reach!<br />
<br />
The problem of course is that you aren't buying just the model. You're buying the model, and the cards, and the unique base (why don't the sell the base separately? Right, because then you could use your own miniatures) and the cards - did I mention the cards?. I hate the "collectible" aspect of both X-Wing and Armada and I largely ignore it. (I do like how the <a href="http://dockingbay416.com/campaign/" target="_blank">Arturi Campaign</a> game starts with basic ships and adds cards as the campaign progresses; I <i>don't</i> like flying a ship well and having it one-shotted by some card combination that I haven't heard of). My research did lead me to read some re-caps of games that showed that the CCG aspect of Armada was similarly tainted. However - from what I read it wasn't nearly as bad as X-Wing.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-37SNRm8TWyQ/WKZ4PAqjXvI/AAAAAAAABj8/nJPH0f9Phw87oHvN3zYxFslskShsfEvcwCLcB/s1600/a_NubulonBCharges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-37SNRm8TWyQ/WKZ4PAqjXvI/AAAAAAAABj8/nJPH0f9Phw87oHvN3zYxFslskShsfEvcwCLcB/s400/a_NubulonBCharges.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nebulon B and Victory collide while the corvette <br />
heads around the flank</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So two strikes right off the bat kept me from ever seriously considering buying the game. Maybe if I won the lottery. Which I don't play.<br />
<br />
But then Cool Stuff ran a special right before Christmas. And what a special it was -- all of the Armada ships were on sale, which was nice, but the kicker was the core set was $39.99. Whoa. You could only buy one, but then I found a seller on Amazon who was offering it for $45. 2 for 1 deal? Plus other ships at 40% off? How was I to resist?<br />
<br />
So I succumbed. :-) And I'm so glad I did because this is a GREAT game. I love Full Thrust and it will always be my go-to game for fleet actions. But Armada is definitely in a close second at this point. The unique turning ruler and the order chips, while fiddly, obviates the need for written orders. Firing before moving adds a really nice strategy element to it. And fighters are easy, fun to use and not overpowered. <br />
<br />
Best of all - you can get a really great game with just the core box set. Which is exactly what we did. I took the Imperials with 6 Tie Fighter squadrons and a Victory class Star Destroyer. She took the Neubulon B and Corvette with 4 X-Wing squadrons.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1xE5itWyEM/WKZ4LpapTKI/AAAAAAAABj4/juSurCbezrUD0VsukKCTT4mwPUba6uHiwCLcB/s1600/c_EndRun_ToldYaWeWereMoving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1xE5itWyEM/WKZ4LpapTKI/AAAAAAAABj4/juSurCbezrUD0VsukKCTT4mwPUba6uHiwCLcB/s400/c_EndRun_ToldYaWeWereMoving.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rebels flanking the Victory</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was quickly introduced to the Rebel "conga line of death" as the Rebel ships, with their faster speed and better maneuverability, quickly flanked my Star Destroyer.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, my overwhelming fighter superiority (ha!) was dwindling rapidly and I foolishly allowed one X-Wing squadron to lock up 4 TF squadrons. The X-Wing was lost, but it tied up my fighters for a full turn. It was about here that I realized that while I had 6 squadrons I only had 18 Ties -- compared to 20 X-Wings! And my Ties died in droves (as they should).<br />
<br />
While I got in some good shots with my Destroyer, damaging both ships, they quickly worked around the flanks to my rear and I was in trouble (6 damage out of 8) by turn 4. In fact, if I hadn't gotten a lucky critical hit on the Corvette which prevented it from firing through an asteroid field, that would have probably ended the game. But in my one moment of inspired Admiral-ship, I slammed on the brakes, hid behind an asteroid and tried desperately to repair. This led the corvette to overshoot my position on turn 5 and park itself directly in front of the Destroyer's overwhelming forward firepower. Boom! went the corvette.<br />
<br />
But it was too little, too late. The Nebulon B's turn was up but with 3 X-wing squads behind me (one still at full strength) I had Xan roll for their hits first. Sure enough - 2 hits were enough to end the Victory - and end any chance I had at victory.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qu_-cVXvN9k/WKZ4R84m_hI/AAAAAAAABkE/hHNfS-i933Isl6JmVShEu5PRtf6EIF69ACLcB/s1600/z_LastMomentsOfVictoryStarD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qu_-cVXvN9k/WKZ4R84m_hI/AAAAAAAABkE/hHNfS-i933Isl6JmVShEu5PRtf6EIF69ACLcB/s400/z_LastMomentsOfVictoryStarD.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">X-wings about to put proton torpedoes right up the tail of the Victory</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The mark of a good game is how you feel when you lose and what you talk about afterward. If you feel like you lost capriciously due to vague rules or insane powerups/combinations, then you feel a bit betrayed and you talk about the problem with the game. But if you lose and still enjoyed yourself and want to play again right away -- that's a well-balanced game. I was quite proud of my maneuver with my damaged Victory hiding behind the asteroids -- and can't you just see that as a scene from a Star Wars movie? (or given the quality of recent movies -- a scene in Clone Wars?) And Alexandra really liked that all the data about a ship was right on the bases so that you didn't have to look anywhere else. We both liked the turning gauge and how it allowed you to figure out the best maneuver for your ship to take at any given moment. <br />
<br />
I'm glad I have the second core set because I really want to try running the Imperials with a second ship. As it was with the single Destroyer I felt a bit like a tank in a city with no infantry support - easy prey! And I picked up a few more ships (a Corvette for $5 as an add-on item on Amazon!) during the sale so I'm looking forward to trying those out. But I'm in no hurry as the core set gives a great game. Which is good -- because at the astronomical pricepoint of adding new ships, it's probably not going to happen until the next sale. (I really want an Imperial Star Destroyer but $40...yikes).<br />
<br />
And I do wish they sold the bases separately -- how great would it be to run<i> Battlestar Galactica / Star Trek / Babylon 5</i> crossover battles? It took them a while to do it with X-Wing so I'm hoping that they will do it for Armada eventually (my fear, though, is that for Armada you also need the shield tokens to attach AND more importantly they come in 3 different sizes. Even with X-Wing they only offer the basic fighter size bases)<br />
<br />
So a big thanks to whoever at Cool Stuff or FFG was able to offer such a great deal on the core set, if only for a limited time. If your goal was to get new players into the game, you succeeded! We can't wait to play this one again -- once we get unpacked from our move. :-/<br />
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-10611140609231875822017-01-30T15:39:00.002-05:002017-01-30T15:41:32.158-05:00Christmas and January Gaming<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TgbvOs7kmNI/WI-jv2rXqJI/AAAAAAAABiQ/gREbYxukOTY6VS4QElO4tZGHMWX9PgWTgCLcB/s1600/20170129_GreekShades.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TgbvOs7kmNI/WI-jv2rXqJI/AAAAAAAABiQ/gREbYxukOTY6VS4QElO4tZGHMWX9PgWTgCLcB/s640/20170129_GreekShades.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warlord Games Greek Hoplites painted as shades; bases for the warriors created with washer, green stuff and Basisus molds.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
There's big moves afoot as I am preparing for a move to a new house which will have...gasp...a gaming room! With a DOOR! Which means that I can leave a game set up overnight and not have the pieces become cat toys during the middle of the night. I'm really hoping this will get me the impetus to finish alpha development and playtesting on Invasion:UFO and get it out to more people to playtest. My last change completely revamped experience gain and spending and the tactical AI for the aliens, so there's a lot of testing that needs to be done. <br />
<br />
A report on the 2016 Christmas Game is coming -- it's written up but I need to get the pictures off the camera (I've realized that a big detriment to the blog is the current friction in getting pictures off the camera, processed, and ready to go up. I'm looking to see if there are any more efficient processes I could put in place there and I've got a couple I'm experimenting with).<br />
<br />
Finally, just before Christmas three events combined to produce the Greek shades at the top of the post:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Sekret Project M was set in motion (to borrow Mike Whittaker's naming convention) -- part of which was an ongoing desire to collect and paint the classical creatures of Greek mythology and a kickstarter which fed that desire (which I am going to surprise my wife with when it arrives - thus the sekret part)</li>
<li>Our <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2023606288/basius-3-texturis" target="_blank">Basius kickstarter</a> arrived -- I love these! I'll be writing some more about these, but I'm very happy we got in the kickstarter and I know we will be buying more of these soon. The bases pictured came from the "Tundra" base which is great for anything rocky -- sandy beach, meadow with rocks, or...Tundra, I guess :) It's a great generic base.</li>
<li>And Warlord Games had a 50% off sale for their plastic sprues of <a href="https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/greeks" target="_blank">Greek Hoplites</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
The result? 1 set of Greek warriors to paint up for <a href="http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/wp/rules/7th-voyage/" target="_blank">Crooked Dice's 7th Voyage</a> game and 1 set to create the ghosts/shades to oppose those warriors. Or maybe replace them in a game! I was thinking it would be neat to have a battle which has a corresponding battle going on in the Underworld. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out that the paint scheme for the shades was inspired by <a href="http://www.matakishi.com/agonheroicroleplay.htm" target="_blank">Matakashi</a> whose site always serves to inspire me. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Search on "shades by Foundry" on the page to see the inspiration - there was no way to direct link)</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-75060109480697415512016-11-11T23:50:00.001-05:002017-01-05T21:48:12.243-05:00A Relatively Simple System for Relatively Complex Solo AIWhile playtesting my Invasion:UFO (working title, and yes I know about the British TV series) rules, a comment from a playtester got me thinking -- could my simple AI with semi-random movement be adapted to actually consider Objectives like a human would? After a bit of thought I came up with a relatively simple way based on the pathfinding that units do in computer games. It still leaves a lot to the player, of course, but it does achieve the goal of making the AI appear as if it is considering objectives.<br />
<br />
I'm putting this out here for others to use if they would like while playtesting continues. No frills here - the is the rough draft of the rules.<br />
<br />
Following the rules is a playtest in action.<br />
<br />
IF YOU TRY THESE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW IT GOES! <br />
<br />
<h3>
A Relatively Simple System for Relatively Complex Solo AI</h3>
ARSSRCSAI -- not a very good acronym!<br />
<br />
Right now this is aimed at land operations as they usually have one thing in common -- objectives to take. This is usually less so with aerial, space, navy, etc. although I think it would be interesting to try it with the Aeronef games being kicked around on other threads.<br />
<br />
I've tested this half a dozen times now and I think it works, but I worry that my own biases of knowing how it is supposed to work might be influencing it, so...opening it up. This grew out of skirmish gaming for my Invasion:UFO project but it also worked beautifully with a Victorian Sci-fi game that I ran. Anyway...the rules!<br />
<br />
Components required:<br />
2 six-sided dice<br />
Objective markers - I'm using slips of paper for now - marked<br />
1 - marked with 30<br />
2 - marked with 20<br />
3 - marked with 30<br />
<br />
Enemy force markers aka "blips" or "blinds"<br />
So far, I've only tested this with 3 markers. But it should work ok with more -- and including "dummy" markers would make the game more interesting.<br />
How you divide the forces is really up to you -- but try dividing them into a primary and secondary group at least and maybe a tertiary. Or the tertiary could be the dummy blind. <br />
<br />
Examples: <br />
For skirmish gaming I had 2 groups of 2 figures and 1 group of 3. <br />
For the VSF game I had 2 squads with 1 marker, the commander and a command squad with another, and a skirmish cavalry group with a third.<br />
<br />
Optional: <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B85YEexS55cdT1o5Q3pDNElTSTg" target="_blank">Stance cards -- stolen temporarily from Invasion - UFO. </a><br />
NOTE: This is _entirely optional_ but it does give the enemy a little more random movement while _tending_ to move directly toward the objectives. But if you like, skip this and just move the enemy toward the objective when you get to that part.<br />
Decide what the enemy commander's temperament is or just roll d6<br />
1,2: Aggressive<br />
3,4: Confrontational (this will be renamed - it's really "normal")<br />
5,6: Cautious<br />
<br />
3 foot by 3 foot game board -- I think it will work for larger areas but haven't tested it. What's important is that you can divide it into roughly equal "squares" and having squares of 1 foot on a side is convenient. For the AI, the board is divided into 9 numbered squares but the numbering is different for setup and objectives.<br />
<br />
For Setup the board is numbered:<br />
AI SIDE<br />
1 2 3<br />
4 5 6<br />
X X X <br />
PLAYER SIDE<br />
(where X is the human deployment zone -- no enemy units will be placed there)<br />
<br />
<br />
For objectives the board is numbered:<br />
AI SIDE<br />
X X X<br />
1 2 3<br />
4 5 6 <br />
PLAYER SIDE<br />
(where X is the AI deployment zone -- no objectives will be placed there)<br />
<br />
<br />
SETUP<br />
Up for discussion but what I do: <br />
1. Pick the side for your forces to come in on. Place your forces - either randomly as per the AI below or however you like.<br />
<br />
2. Place the AI units using the Setup numbering. <br />
<br />
3. Place the AI objectives. You will place one 30, one 20, and one 10 marker. Roll a d6 and place the marker in the square indicated -- place it in cover, on top of hills, in buildings -- this is a case where the more terrain the better, probably. If you roll the same square -- well, this is a case that needs testing. I think it works best to just roll again so that there is only one onjectice per square but I could be wrong.<br />
<br />
4. Finally, roll the Enemy Mission. This is to determine what happens when the AI hits an objective. So far I just have:<br />
1-3: Take and Hold. The enemy will stop when it achieves an objective<br />
4-6: Patrol. The enemy will continue to move when it hits an objective. I'm not sure how well this would work, actually. Each blip would need to track which objective it had already hit, which would be messy. Alternately maybe each objective would simply be removed instead of reduced by 10? More thought needed here.<br />
<br />
PLAY<br />
The enemy remains as blips until the player's units identify the blip. I've just been using LOS but it depends on what kind of game you are playing. I think it would be very interesting to play a naval surface fleet versus an AI submarine fleet, for instance, and use sensor rules to determine when the blip converts to models. <br />
<br />
Converting - the provess of exchanging blips to models. For my skirmish game I don't place the models right on the blip when it converts; I roll an offset with a d6 and a direction die just to add more uncertainty.<br />
<br />
AI BLIP MOVEMENT RATE<br />
Movement rate prior to converting is abstracted. I use 6" for my blips. They ignore terrain and can end up on impassable terrain since I then roll an offset when I convert them (see above)<br />
<br />
OBJECTIVE DETERMINATION<br />
Here's the heart of it!<br />
1. Starting from left to right, select a blip. <br />
2. Measure the distance to the 30 objective. <br />
3. Subtract the distance from 30 to get a score.<br />
Example: <br />
If the 30 blip is 24" away the score is 6.<br />
If the 30 blip is 31" away the score is -1.<br />
If the 30 blip is 9" away the score is 21.<br />
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 for the 20 objective and the 10 objective.<br />
5. From this you should have 1 high score -- if a score is tied the higher numbered objective wins<br />
<br />
BLIP MOVEMENT<br />
6. Take the stance card and place it against the blip. Aim the "This side toward enemy" arrow at the winning objective.<br />
7. Roll 2d6 and move the blip in accordance with the roll (or move it toward the objective if not using the stance cards)<br />
8. IF THE BLIP CONTACTS AN OBJECTIVE (or I usually give a little lee-way like within 1" or 2"):<br />
A) The objective is immediately demoted to the next lower level. A 30 objective becomes a 20. A 20 becomes a 10. A 10 objective has been achieved and is removed from the board.<br />
9. IF THE MISSION IS "TAKE AND HOLD"<br />
a) the blip contacting the objective makes no further movement this game.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Example</h3>
In this example, I did not use the Stance cards for clarity. So the blips always move in a straight line toward the highest scoring objectives. I used <a href="http://battlechronicler.com/index.html" target="_blank">Battle Chronicler </a>for the maps -- it's my first time using it but I think it will work pretty well for future examples. I'm really grateful to the author for providing his work for free. <br />
<br />
In this example, I am resolving the objective calculations from left to right (ie A then B then C).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2_cJLGRyjFg/WCacwRS224I/AAAAAAAABaI/IecsCBzID4k1MnWqCJXQxzGKixskQEnOwCLcB/s1600/01_BlipMovement_Deployment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2_cJLGRyjFg/WCacwRS224I/AAAAAAAABaI/IecsCBzID4k1MnWqCJXQxzGKixskQEnOwCLcB/s640/01_BlipMovement_Deployment.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I used random deployment in the top 3 squares. A and B happened to end up in the same quadrant.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXyaZR9btnM/WCac2VNP7eI/AAAAAAAABaM/CYLDdBgxEvQk-pB7TaVi7Mw15-W5LA-uACLcB/s1600/01_BlipMovement_Turn_1_AI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXyaZR9btnM/WCac2VNP7eI/AAAAAAAABaM/CYLDdBgxEvQk-pB7TaVi7Mw15-W5LA-uACLcB/s640/01_BlipMovement_Turn_1_AI.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Objective 30 is the biggest draw on the board. All 3 blips start moving toward it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nXV4xAkcM48/WCac3fawH4I/AAAAAAAABaQ/UBwJAIrIywksylbCrG7uxwGHsPMv35JOACLcB/s1600/01_BlipMovement_Turn_2_AI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nXV4xAkcM48/WCac3fawH4I/AAAAAAAABaQ/UBwJAIrIywksylbCrG7uxwGHsPMv35JOACLcB/s640/01_BlipMovement_Turn_2_AI.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nothing's changed in this relatively simple example, so all blips continue towards the Primary Objective (30). Notice though that C is close to Objective 20.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRJGOWChsQ4/WCac4sS-aQI/AAAAAAAABaU/46snK81MhTELz1avDSK-ctasqng6psWHwCLcB/s1600/01_BlipMovement_Turn_3_AI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRJGOWChsQ4/WCac4sS-aQI/AAAAAAAABaU/46snK81MhTELz1avDSK-ctasqng6psWHwCLcB/s640/01_BlipMovement_Turn_3_AI.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Objective achieved! A makes the first move and moves onto Objective 30. Objective 30 now becomes a "20" objective. B moves next. Both objective 20s are a draw, but the former Objective 30 is stronger since it is closer. B moves onto the farm house and further reduces the objective value to 10. Finally, C resolves its move. There are two "10" objectives quite a distance away, so C changes its path and heads toward Objective 20, the secondary objective.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sKD2NsqYXDQ/WCac6GSQJfI/AAAAAAAABaY/iC6a9Ts1YK8NCDu9P8kxjJb3kCEy_9jAwCLcB/s1600/01_BlipMovement_Turn_4_AI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sKD2NsqYXDQ/WCac6GSQJfI/AAAAAAAABaY/iC6a9Ts1YK8NCDu9P8kxjJb3kCEy_9jAwCLcB/s640/01_BlipMovement_Turn_4_AI.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Both A and B are on an objective and this is a "Take and Hold" mission. They will no longer move (unless forced off the objective - which would up the objective by 10 - need to add that in the rules above). C takes the hill and that ends the game as far as the AI is concerned.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Of course, this is a simple example but even this simple example has a neat flow to it that goes beyond just using semi-random movement.<br />
<br />
Please let me know in the comments if you try this out!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-79420864426513383832016-06-30T23:23:00.002-04:002016-07-30T15:09:51.011-04:00Update with photos!<br />
<br />
Yes, I actually managed to create some terrain today for <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=5833" target="_blank">Too Fat Lardies' Sharp Practice Deployment Point Contest </a>(whew)!<br />
<br />
Here is my accompanying letter with the photos:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XJjYo38WrnA/V3XhhbTm52I/AAAAAAAABPk/Cxx9btsJzAMG5hbOAnQGAJ9tFylHhoY8wCLcB/s1600/Caldwell_TFL_DPContest%2B%25281%2Bof%2B2%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XJjYo38WrnA/V3XhhbTm52I/AAAAAAAABPk/Cxx9btsJzAMG5hbOAnQGAJ9tFylHhoY8wCLcB/s320/Caldwell_TFL_DPContest%2B%25281%2Bof%2B2%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a>Most esteemed gentlemen (and Rich),</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
I
realize that I may technically be too late as I am submitting from
across the pond where there is 1 hour and 15 minutes until July 1. But
no matter -- it was worthwhile getting these done. And I would have had
it done sooner if not for those weedy coves at Shapeways.com.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p6a1ZQG5JtA/V3Xhim9gM_I/AAAAAAAABPo/bL3igOrVyos_qAOqHoEzXK9niC1KLzpmwCLcB/s1600/Caldwell_TFL_DPContest%2B%25282%2Bof%2B2%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p6a1ZQG5JtA/V3Xhim9gM_I/AAAAAAAABPo/bL3igOrVyos_qAOqHoEzXK9niC1KLzpmwCLcB/s320/Caldwell_TFL_DPContest%2B%25282%2Bof%2B2%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a>You
see, my plan for this vignette was to use only items which I had built
myself -- including, if needed, building models in a 3d program and
having them 3d printed. The ammunition boxes and barrels were done by
this method and they arrived at my home today -- in fact only 6 hours
ago -- rather than on June 27 as the aforementioned weedy coves had
promised. Alas, the Martini-Henry rifles which I created seemed a bit
anemic when placed in the vignette and I fell back to using some spare
Wargames Factory bits. (I will have another go at the rifles -- it's
not uncommon to have to print a couple times to get the dimensions
exactly right, especially for miniature items)</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
I
plan on using these for my own Imagi-Nations colonial gaming and
Victorian Science Fiction gaming. Without further ado, let me present
the deployment points of Victoria's Own Barsoomian Rifles, featuring
ammunition boxes based on images from Ian Knight's website, the
ubiquitous Martini-Henry rifle and a water barrel for those dry nights
on Mars or wherever on Earth they are called to serve.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PNLUshPSkUc/V3XhvoJLKfI/AAAAAAAABPs/dSEgAfnSwhMquOG_m2h2kg8fa_xl4x__ACLcB/s1600/IMG_0093.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PNLUshPSkUc/V3XhvoJLKfI/AAAAAAAABPs/dSEgAfnSwhMquOG_m2h2kg8fa_xl4x__ACLcB/s320/IMG_0093.JPG" width="320" /></a>Just for interest I am also including a picture of the 3d printed ammo box fresh out of the box at 4pm this afternoon.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #000099; font-family: georgia,serif;">
<blockquote>
Enjoy and thank you so much for running this contest and for producing Sharp Practice!</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Small update - I found my original sketch. So now this post has the full path from concept to design to print to finished product!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N32Rp2F4KIk/V5z7auF6v8I/AAAAAAAABTQ/M9Q8kpV_UVgpzV7sjP0OlDL_LHJmdGELACLcB/s1600/DeploymentPointCompetition.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N32Rp2F4KIk/V5z7auF6v8I/AAAAAAAABTQ/M9Q8kpV_UVgpzV7sjP0OlDL_LHJmdGELACLcB/s320/DeploymentPointCompetition.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277249482803020896.post-13903708151122101122016-06-23T23:29:00.004-04:002017-11-09T13:31:06.657-05:00Combat mission and Sharpe's Practice<h2>
A change of plans</h2>
Best-laid plans and so forth -- haven't done much on the miniatures side. That's because I received Sharpe's Practice 2 and have been working on the chips for the game. Chips which I promptly cocked up and turned what I thought would be a 1 hour task into going-on-8 hours. Ridiculous, but they are nearly done.<br />
<h3>
<br />Combat Mission</h3>
My poor old computer won't play modern games, so I've been playing a classic: Combat Mission. It's now available on Good Old Games and I highly recommend it. Do the graphics suck by today's standard? Sure. But it's still the game that comes closest for me of the feel of playing a miniatures game on the computer. That it still holds my interest nearly 10 years on is testament to that.<br />
<br />
I've decided to try and play-through as many scenarios from each side as I can and keep notes as I go. I'm trying for a Major Victory from each side. In the past I often couldn't remember which scenarios I'd played and so I suspect I've skipped some while playing others over and over. For fun, I've kept some notes. Here's the first two scenarios I've "beaten" -- played enough that I've moved on. Needless to say there are some spoilers here:<br />
<br />
<h4>
Aachen - Small - Oct 1944</h4>
<b>Allies </b>- I put both armored vehicles in the middle. Then split a squad on each street to act as scouts. Even knowing I was walking into an ambush situation, I still managed to lose both vehicles before the end -- the Sherman died without firing a shot. The second playthrough I played so conservatively that I had to rush a bit at the end, but I kept both armored vehicles alive for the Major Victory. I even managed to get the Flamethrower team into action -- that was fun since they are so fragile they usually die quickly.<br />
<br />
<b>Axis </b>- Stepping through the entire 14 turns without giving a single order gave me a Draw. Shouldn't be too tough to convert this to a win. Notable event though - the tanks actually maneuvered with some intelligence. And even though my AT gun put a round through the Sherman, it kept coming (it actually destroyed the AT gun in the same second as it had its hull penetrated).<br />
<br />
Playing to win, I maneuvered aggressively and kept the Americans from penetrating past city center. It was fun setting up trap after trap and the shot of the match went to the Panzerschreck team who had a 10% chance to hit the SP gun and evidently rolled a 10 to score the brew up!<br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Chambois - Medium</h4>
Excellent played as the <b>Allies</b>. Will teach you to use terrain - fast! I lost twice before figuring out the lay of the land. Then it was pretty easy but even one German tank can ruin your day.<br />
<br />
As the <b>Axis</b>, play that you can only exit the map from the road in the middle of the map. (The one in front of the wooded area). This forces you to use overwatch and protect the fragile trucks. Even with that it was a cakewalk as the AI can't put up much of an offense, but at least I felt like it was worth my time playing.<br />
<br />Nicholas Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11750294903050480971noreply@blogger.com0