The Painted Thumb

Day 2 of MillenniumCon 2012 - Saturday Monring Suvarov vs. Napoleon 1799 On Saturday morning, I was originally signed up to play the 54mm 'All the King's Men' game but instead I squeezed myself into a gigantic 25mm Napoleonics game on a 6' x 18' table.  The game used the Carnage and Glory II ruleset.  The game was managed by the GM with a laptop at one end of the table. Each miniature unit was given a designation number and a label.  When each players moved, charged or shot at another unit, they player would report the unit number and target number to the GM. The GM entered the info and reported the results to the group. A good example of the size of the battle Most of the game, I was focused on my brigade of Hungarians, and knew little of what was happening on the opposite flank. My Hungarian Brigade The figures were 28mm Eureka French Revolution line.  All beautifully painted. This was easily the largest game I've ever played and it ...

This is the first of five AAR's from the events I attended at MillenniumCon 2012 .  I was so glad to be able to spend the whole weekend at the con for a change. At previous conventions, I've had to leave early due to lack of funds or other obligations. For the Friday evening session, I attended the Star Navy game playtest game hosted by Desert Scribe .  I am always interested in a good spaceship combat game and the 5150: Star Navy rules provided a satisfying experience.  The game mechanics are very simple and based on the Two Hours Wargames 5150 rules which cover many different genres. The Scenario: Each player took a flotilla of ships which represented an independent faction. As rumor had it, a large, undefended convoy was en route to an asteroid field in deep space.  All four factions received the same intel and arrived at the asteroid field at exactly the same time.  The convoy however, was not as undefended as they had all hoped. The 'Treasure' Con...

My, my, my... How time flies! It has been quite a few months since my last post here. Actually, it has been a long time since I last did any miniature wargaming at all. This long hiatus has been due to my new employment situation. I have recently moved from the ranks of the unemployed to the ranks of the gainfully employed. Hooray! It has been a struggle for to make the transition from being unemployed to routine shift work. Forty-five hours per week are no longer mine as well as another 1.5 hours or more each day in fighting traffic.  Nevertheless, I fully intend to keep up with my gaming and social life as they are an important part of my overall health and happiness. I plan to squeeze in as much gaming time as can be done reasonably. Hey, a man has to have hobbies right? I've found that a balance between work time and fun time is much more sustainable than living life solely for a career. Balance can be achieved! I will just have to be more disciplined with my schedule. So...

Just wanted to post info on a few upcoming conventions happening in my area. GuadaComaCon 2012 , August 18, 2012 - This is a one-day convention in beautiful New Braunfels, Texas. Fellow blogger DesertScribe is the host for this mini-con. Events include a spaceship miniatures game hosted by DesertScribe ( see a previous game by the Scribe ), a homegrown fantasy minis game run by Hill Cantons , and Ed from Two Hour Wargames will run a ground based sci-fi minis called 5150: Star Army. FoWSA 2012 , September 15th, 2012 - A Flames of War tournament here in San Antonio. Hosted by Biff Coon. This is the seventh year for FoWSA and it has always had great attendance! Bring a 1500pt Mid or Late War army. First two rounds are shortened to just 750pts so a flexible army will do best. MillenniumCon 2012 , November 9-11, 2012- The Premier Miniature Wargame convention in Texas, held each year in Austin. Hosted by Lone Star Historical Miniatures . The events are varied across genre and game ...

Not much game activity has been going on lately.  Chip, Grant and myself tried out the game Flying Lead .  It is a variant of the Song of Blades and Heroes ruleset but changes were made to accomodate a more modern setting.  The ruleset can handle many settings from Old West to Near-Future.  Clearly, this means that slug-throwers rather than swords and shields are the primary weapons. We played two games and I felt some satisfaction with the rulesset.  Enough so, that I would like to try the game again.  Sadly, I didn't take any photos of that game. However, I was digging through the photo archives today and found some photos of a game of Red Sand, Blue Sky , the Gladiator combat game by Two Hour Games .  This game took place back in early May 2012 with Chip, Blake, and Blake's son Hunter. I don't remember the details of the game we played.  I can recall that I had a good time.  The rules were simple but not so much that it became simpli...

My wife and I recently took a trip to the wonderful city of New Orleans. If anyone is considering a vacation I highly recommend New Orleans. The city is dynamic and fun. There are plenty of great restaurants and bars. Plus, the history of the city is fascinating! My wife and I were treated to a great tour of the city by our aunt and uncle who lived nearby. It was a wonderful trip. The most exciting place we visited (well, for me anyway) was the National World War II museum. If you have any interest in historical miniatures, then this museum should be on your short list of places to see. Our visit to the museum started when we stepped into the wonderfully air conditioned main hall. The hall housed some impressive hardware. There were some restored vehicles parked in line just inside the doors. They included a Stuart tank, a Sherman tank, a Willys Jeep, a half-tracked vehicle, and several versions of the Higgins boats. Hanging from the ceiling were a restored P-51 Mustang, a C-47...

We held another Warmaster Game Day this past week. The AAR will be done by our guest poster DaBaron Aaron .  I've added some photos from the game. Quote from Da Baron: Warmaster was a blast on Sat. Leroux, Dave  Beeson and myself showed up and Dave took the side of Chaos and Leroux and I joined up to command the High Elves, 2000 pts split between the two of us, vs Daves 2000 pts of Chaos. I took most of the foot troops and Leroux took all the fast stuff and the flyers. Blake helped out while he was there - we set the forces up "double blind" with a board hiding the setup of both sides. The game came down to 2 Chaos charges, one with the Chaos mounted slamming into the High Elf mounted, and the Chaos Warriors attempting to break a block of High Elf infantry. The Chaos Chariots took care of a unit of Silver Helms, and whittled two more units down, but lost a unit of Chariots in the process, with the attack finally stalling. The Warriors, however, managed to...