{"id":4935,"date":"2016-04-24T23:06:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T23:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2016-04-24T23:06:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T23:06:52","slug":"what-i-did-this-weekend-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=4935","title":{"rendered":"What I Did This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Don<\/a>
Don providing the rules overview of Muskets and Tomahawks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a big gaming \/ hobby weekend. \u00a0Tom is at West Point, and my wife was visiting my daughter at her school for the weekend, so I was a geographic bachelor. \u00a0The weekend began on Friday with our normal HAWKs meeting. \u00a0This week we only ran one, large game, instead of the more typical two six-player games. \u00a0We will be running a large Muskets and Tomahawks<\/em> game at the HARCON gaming day at Harford Community College next weekend. \u00a0Friday we set up the table and made sure that all the HAWKs were reasonably proficient with the rules.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A long shot early in the Muskets and Tomahawks game -- I'm not sure what was happening that was eliciting that facial expression from Geoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of us had forgotten how slowly unit move in Muskets and Tomahawks<\/em>, so the play test was good. \u00a0We’ll adjust where the players enter so that they get into the action more quickly. \u00a0This will almost be a demonstration game. \u00a0The idea is that the HAWKs will be playing and whenever a passer by shows interest, we can provide and unit and get him\/her right into the action.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
On my flank, Eric and I met Kurt and Kevin -- and the results were quite bloody<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had THREE events scheduled for Saturday. \u00a0The first<\/strong> event took place in the morning. \u00a0Greg and Chris played a Combat Patrol (TM): WWII<\/em> game while I taped it. \u00a0The idea was to create a video battle report, including some rules explanation.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a>
Greg (right) and me during our taping of the video battle report of a Combat Patrol(TM): World War II game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It will likely take me all week in the hotel on business travel this week to edit all the segments into something that isn’t too boring and cuts out some of the mistakes.<\/p>\n

\"Duncan<\/a>
Duncan (left) and Chris getting ready to start the Combat Patrol (TM): Napoleonic game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second<\/strong> hobby event on Saturday was another play test of Duncan’s Napoleonic supplement for Combat Patrol (TM)<\/em>. \u00a0I posted some notes from a play test a couple of weeks ago. \u00a0Duncan made a number of changes and tweaks between the two games. \u00a0It is working well, but we want to get a few more games under out belt before thinking about going public with it.<\/p>\n

\"Don's<\/a>
Don's infantry approaches one of the buildings at the crossroads while the townspeople watch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Don's<\/a>
Don's men facing off against Chris' forces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We used the same village at the crossroads terrain for the Napoleonic game that we used for the WWII video, but we pushed the woods more toward the edges of the table.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My cavalry (bottom and right) moving forward to engage Duncan's cavalry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are getting much closer on the cavalry rules. \u00a0It is working fine, but we need to think a little more about how to describe what we are doing so that it will be clear and unambiguous to others. \u00a0We are very happy with the swirling, chaotic nature of cavalry engagements.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another swirling cavalry melee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again we used Mexicans as surrogates to make sure we were testing the rules for lancers. \u00a0After this engagement, elements of four cavalry units were badly scattered and attrited.<\/p>\n

The third<\/strong> event on Saturday was a brainstorming session with Chris and Don about ideas for a science fiction version of Look, Sarge, No Charts. \u00a0It was a good conversation, and I have a lot of food for thought. \u00a0My next step will be to design a candidate base label to see if all the ideas we discussed are representable in the game.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, still being a geographic bachelor, I spent the day on hobby activities again. \u00a0Last weekend, when I air brushed the German vehicles I showed in last weekends blog entry, I also airbrushed a number of science fiction vehicles I plan to use in 28mm science fiction games with Combat Patrol (TM)<\/em>. \u00a0One set of vehicles were plastic, Russian-made kits. \u00a0These come with a number of different weapons. \u00a0I chose to assemble them as two pairs of vehicles. \u00a0I think they turned out nicely. \u00a0These will be light tanks with three-man crews.<\/p>\n

\"Russian-made<\/a>
Russian-made science fiction vehicle kits airbrushed and painted to be light tanks in my upcoming 28mm Combat Patrol(TM): Science Fiction games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I completed painting these four armored personnel carries from Pig Iron. \u00a0I ordered these right after they announced they were going out of business.<\/p>\n

\"Pig<\/a>
Pig Iron armored personnel carriers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of the Pig Iron vehicles have the same body, and you can make them armored personnel carries or add turrets to make them a support vehicle or an anti-tank vehicle. \u00a0I am happy with the way they turned out. \u00a0I assembled mine so that I can switch back and forth between armored personnel carries and the support vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two of the APCs converted to an infantry support vehicle and an anti-tank vehicle by removing the APC tops and replacing them with turrets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I acquired a couple handfuls of bark chips from Duncan, because I have been wanting to make more rocky outcroppings for my games. \u00a0I use the same sage felt for most of my games, and I even cover my hills with the same sage felt. \u00a0I wanted these rocky outcroppings to match as well. I had a few scraps of the sage felt from a hill-making project, so I cut them into circles and glued them to some old CDs.<\/p>\n

\"Gluing<\/a>
Gluing circles of sage felt to old AOL Online disks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sprayed the bark chips with black and dry brushed them with a dark gray. \u00a0Then I hot glued the bark pieces to the felt-covered CDs. \u00a0Finally I dry brushed them again with a very light gray.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Some of the finished rock formations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this picture the felt circles don’t appear to match the ground cloth underneath. \u00a0Part of the issue is that the ground cloth has been sprayed with a few colors of paint to give it more texture. The other part of the issue is that the ground cloth has had a lot more use — and the nap has been roughed up — so they felt circles and the ground cloth reflect light a little differently. \u00a0Still, I think they blend better than something that has been flocked or textured and painted.<\/p>\n

Finally, I got a bunch of 1:50 vehicles second had at Cold Wars, so I sprayed them green (most were Russian and two US M-10 tank destroyers) and painted the wheels and tracks.<\/p>\n

So it was a productive weekend.<\/p>\n

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