My islands for Warlord's "Black Seas", and a How To...

Hi all!

Well, like many of you, I am super excited for Warlord Game's newest offering, "Black Seas."  I saw the ships, and while I've always wanted a ship collection, this is the one that really sucked me in.  So I bought a few sets on pre-order, and then thought 'Self... it's time to make terrain!"  

So this past weekend I went ahead and made a board and some islands!

So the board was simple... just a piece of ply, spraypainted with several blues, and then some random lines and chart-like things drawn on with a paint marker.

Here are some of the islands!

Island #1: a super cool arch.  The beaches are actually courtesy of a buddy's idea... it's just kinetic sand, a toy made for kids!  It holds together, and can be sculpted easily, and can be picked up, piece of cake!

Island #2: which features a lighthouse!  The lighthouse, btw, is the cap of a bic pen with a bit of wood for the door area, and then on top a small button topped off with an unused dial-holder from X-Wing.  A little paint and voila!

Island #3: with a little cove.

Island #4: A flatter one, with cliffs on one side.

Island #5: my "tabletop" island.

Island #6: the largest one, very flat but with a hilly part at the end.

And Island #7: the double table top!

And here are some rocky outcroppings that a buddy gave to me years ago, which never really found a home... but they have now!

So... here is a little simple guide to how I made them!  First, of course, I had to clear a workspace.  I worked in the garage, because I knew I'd need some room, and I wanted to be able to spraypaint easily.

Now, the bases for the islands were some some 3D printed hills made by Ghiniflip, on ebay.  But they come totally unfinished, so I knew I'd have to make them look nice.

Here is my assorted flocking and basing material.

And some palm trees, purchased at Fall In some years ago.

So here is what they look like, when they come.

Back and simple.

Here is one of the larger islands, which I had to glue together.

Once I glued the larger ones together, I then went in and sanded all of the flat areas with a very fine grain sand.  A little white glue held it all on.

Here they all are, sanded.

The double tabletop, with the sand.

Next up I added a larger grain sand where there would be tumbling rocks and the like.

Here is the lighthouse island, with the larger sand.

And the cove, again with the larger sand.  You can see where I tried to add it.

Once they were sanded, I just had to undercoat them all black.

Then came painting!  I did the first layer in burnt umber, and then built that up with two lighter shades.  I actually used gray, which isn't pictured here.

Here they are with the first few layers of paint.

Then came flocking! I flocked in five steps.  First, the basic flock.  Then a lighter flock in a few, higher-up spots.  Then some bushes and the like in the same places I put the larger sand.  Then an assortment of tufts.  And finally, the palm trees!

Here the islands are with just the two layers of flock, the underlayer and the lighter top highlight layer.

And here is one island with the superflock (the bushes) tufts and a tree!

Overall I'm SUPER happy with how they turned out... now I just need some ships!

Oh, and here is what's on the other table right now... a Napoleonic battle between my son and me:)

Anyway... thanks for coming by to look, and feel free to ask any questions you'd like!:)

My buddy's pirates, and other eye candy!

Hey all!

Well, I stopped by my buddy's place, as he was starting in on a 28mm pirate table, and I thought I would take some photos!

Here is the first ship he has put out... he has maybe six or seven, but is waiting for more terrain to arrive before he puts anything else out there.

Someone hails the ship from the docks...

A conversation...

He made this out of some 3D printed stuff, carefully cutting open the giblet to get the skeleton in there.

Here are a few of the pirates... he hasn't put most of them out yet, as there are major changes coming, but we had to get a FEW photos!:)

Loved this island, and particularly the ground cover... more about this in a later post.

He has TWO skull islands on the table, because he is going a little fantasy, and this one, he hollowed out and put a flickering light into!

The table, from the other side.

While I was there, I figured I'd snap a few other photos... here is a box of old school 15mm Russians, some 40+ years old... some of the oldest in the collection.

Another selection of them.

25mm ACW Reb cav... that's a lot of horses!

Some Reb command.

Some 6mm Napoleonic troops.

Some WW2 Americans, ready to fight at Foy.

The American command.

The American army, summer and spring edition!

Another shot of them.

Some 25mm Vikings...

And one last shot of the room!

Hope the eye candy was worthwhile!:)

My M.U.S.C.L.E. wrestling game

Hi all!

Well, as everyone who reads this knows, I make a lot of games:)

My most recent one is a very simple little card-based wrestling game for one of my favorite, and one of my son's favorite, toys... MUSCLES!  They are an old wrestling action figure toy that came out years ago; I loved them, so I found some for my son and he loves them too!  Of course, any wrestling figures need a game too, so I made one!

It's VERY very simple.  Each player gets a hand of cards, made up of attack and defense cards.  As a player takes more damage, it gets easier to pin them.  The cards are broken up into generic cards that make up a chunk of both players deck, but each player also gets some cards that are specific to the "style" of wrestler they are playing (Hulks get a lot of close range, high damage attacks... Flyers get a lot of longer range attacks and also cards that let them move, Ghoulies get to snatch away opponent cards, and Brains get a lot of cards that let them move and recover damage.)  They also get a single "Special" card that is different for each wrestler... you can see those above.

So we had a match (each lasts between five and ten minutes) between Sumo and Vampire!

Here is my guy, Sumo, ready to go.  He is a hulk, so he likes being up close and personal.

Here is my son's guy, Vampire, as the match begins!

 You get three cards each "round."  Here is an example hand, where I had two attack cards (A Hammer Punch, which is specific to Hulks, and a Big Punch, which is a generic card) and one defense card (A Quick Sidestep, which is a generic card.) You can either use the cards as they say, or just discard one to move a single space.

Here is one of my son's hands... he had two generic attacks (Quick Kick and Snap Suplex) and a Ghoulie-specific defense, which lets you block two damage and also move your opponent one, which can let you drag an opponent into range of an attack, or even move them away from you if you worry they have some huge damage, close range card in their hand.

Another of my son's hands... a bit of a beast!  A generic Spin Punch (which is nice, because it lets you move as well as attack) and then the Ghoulie attack Kendo Stick Smash (really high damage and some decent range) and Embrace Attack, a tricky Ghoulie defense card that has no actual defensive value, but makes your opponent take the same damage you take!

Here is one of my hands... the best generic defense card (Heroic Defense... there are only two in the whole game) and two Hulk attacks... Chest Smash and Overhead Press, which is an interesting card because it moves the opponent AWAY, which isn't ideal for Hulks, who like to work up close.

Here we are... Vampire and Sumo have smashed away at each other, and have each gotten a few Pin markers.  Basically, if you want to pin your opponent, you can use your last card of a round to make a Pin Attempt.  Roll under the total number of Pin markers your opponent has, and you win!  But if you don't, they actually heal away one Pin marker... if you know how wrestling goes, you know that, when a guy gets out of a pin attempt, he often gets a second wind!  So going for a pin can backfire!

Here we are, deeper in the game, and my son pulls this nasty hand...

Here is a sample round... I played Bear Hug.  My son had no defense cards, so the damage went through.  He responded with Vampire's special attack, which moved HIS damage over to ME!  Yikes!  I responded with Overhead Press and moved him a square away from me.  He used a card to move towards me, into range 1.  This made me suspicious... why does he want to get close to a Hulk?  So I played another card to back off.  He growled, and played a second of his cards to get into range 1 again.

Turns out I made the right move, as he had the Range 1 Ghoulie Attack, Cheating Attack!  Here you can see the three cards we used to move.  It's tricky, using cards to move instead of what they are used for!

My son was starting to put serious Pin makers onto me, although here I gave him a Big Boot to the face!

Not to be outdone, he drew these three cards for a hand... getting hit with  Kendo Stick Smash, and also getting bit by Vampire's special move AGAIN, started to really wear me down.  I tried one last desperate attempt at a pin, needing to roll under a three, but it failed, and my son went down to only two Pin markers...

... and he promptly pinned me, rolling under the seven pin markers I have!  (Although we realized afterwards that a six is supposed to ALWAYS be a fail... a guy always has a chance to fight out of a pin, no matter how desperate it looks!)

So that's the game!  I made it in one morning, and I'll be honest, it is the smoothest game I've ever developed.  

Up next?  Adding cards to represent special match types (i.e. Table Match cards) and also developing Tag Team matches!

Anyway... thanks for reading, and if anyone wants more specific info for the game, lemme know!