I am leaving but no one fucking cares

 This blog is done.

No one interacts and i'm tired of begging the world for connection.

If you have a blog that people connect to, comment on (like I did with some others) good for you.

But damn, it would have been nice to not just been zero all the time...

A Torture Chamber for my Dungeon

 That's a grab you title huh?!

I have always wanted a model dungeon. You know what they look like because if you've been in fantasy gaming at all you've seen some of the beautiful models that are produced by creative minds and crafty people. I had launched on the endeavor by asking my 3D printing friends to make me some dungeon tiles I would then coalesce into some chambers and hallways, then over time into a full dungeon. 

Luck would have it that I came across a good deal on a resale of Dungeons & Lasers second Kickstarter and got a bunch of plastic tiles still in the box. It included enough to make what I would guess to be about 7 or 8 chambers, a few of them very themed. Add in some 3D printed hallways I will have my dungeon. The first chamber came from the "torture chamber" kit and the decoration sprue gave me some good items to put into it. Unlike most dungeon tile sets, this is glued together. I've never liked loose tiles you try to get to work right and instead struggle to be solid and the walls wobble and you have to do things to make it more reliable and so on. So instead I made the entire chamber one piece furniture and all!

A top view of the chamber like a drawn map. You can see a guillotine on the right and a headsman axe lodged in the execution block to the left. Between them against the wall is a chair of spikes. In the alcove you see the iron maiden and against the dividing wall a rack to hold someone that is empty now. 

A dark, ineffective picture of the rack. But moody maybe?

You can see the rack better and the iron maiden.

Here you can see the executioner's axe and a skeleton chained to the wall.

Walking into the torture chamber...

A standing view of the iron maiden and the torture implements...

I'm pleased with how it turned out and as I write this the second chamber is drying in its clear coat on my dresser. I'll post pictures of it when I can take some. I'm looking forward to having a full dungeon I can run players through :) 

The kit is nice over all but it does have a little *too* much decoration. Nearly every wall has either a chained skeleton or a rack of torture weapons. I didn't like all that so I painted one skeleton and the rest became just stone decoration.

Please feel free to provide feedback or suggestions as this is a new modeling process for me :)

Imaginary Battle: Imperial Russia versus

This was a month or so ago but it looks cool I think so i'm sharing it. 

My friend Abel and I have been playing "SONGS OF DRUMS AND SHAKOS: LARGE BATTLES" which is way to fucking long a name so imma call it "songs" in this, and any future posts. Basically I dreamed up an imaginary battle someplace on the Russian border and we had a little rumble over some Russian land grabbing in the early 1800's. The British had forces there to defend interests and things got sticky fast. 

Here we have the disposition of forces at the beginning of the battle. To the left you see the fine Imperial Russians consisting of many regiments of line infantry, some grenadiers, some jagers, a squadron of Cossacks, and 3 guns ready. On the right you have filthy British and it doesn't matter what there is (I can't remember) but you'll note he has skirmishers in front of his regiments that have those rules. Normally a regiment with the skirmish rule has it denoted as "skirmish 1" or another number. Strangely all the Russian line infantry have "skirmish 0" which means they don't actually have them but get the bonus if the enemy doesn't have them.

Anyway the flow of the battle is depicted here. Rather than taking a few pictures I have taken a bunch but won't comment on ally of them.

Glorious Russian line infantry driving off filthy English!

Three regiments of grenadiers held my right flank, which ultimately turned out to be a bad play.

This is the middle of what started as a fantastic action by my Cossacks that ended terribly. On approach they did wonderful against the enemy infantry, moved in and rolled terrible then were eliminated. 

Trees protect you from the nasty English horsemen. You can't see it here but four squadrons of cavalry are on approach.

Not particularly surprisingly I lost. Songs uses a break system where when the army sustains sufficient brake points as determined by the size they have lost heart and the battle is over. It's a little strange because it has factors such as penetration into the enemy's territory and over all shaken status of the entire army. Also some units lost cost much more in break points which is what did me in. Grenadiers are 2 points when lost and my entire army's break point was 9. So when I lost those 3 regiments of the 19 total units in my army I was 66% of the way defeated. I should have held them in reserve probably for when the enemy is closer. 

Either way it was a fun game and I enjoyed it. I've yet to be Abel but it's only a matter of time!

The Roleplaying Crisis...also this monster

If you remember anything from my blog you will recall I have played RPGs for a long long time. I've played a lot of the current edition of Dungeon and Dragons, which is the fifth edition but is not the fifth edition. As I've spent time playing the game and I am a fan of the system I feel I have enough time in to state an opinion. So without further pomp...

I think if you play it "rules as written" you're not going to have as good an experience as playing the game the pirate's code way, and I think you're playing it wrong...

...so I'm not going to jump into a discourse on the rules of current popular RPG rules sets. I just feel I should give voice to my opinion for posterity and the weighing of the larger discussion. I know that is may seem to be a massively arrogant opinion but it is really not meant to be. What I mean is if you are using a rule in an RPG you don't like the effects of and you *keep* doing it, you are playing the game wrong. I have played the game wrong plenty and it really isn't a science and I'm pretty sure any long term rpg player would agree that it is really its own art form. Not just game mastering but actually playing the game. So there is that and feel free to throw me into the burning oil that is how freedom of speech works.

Also lets look at some monsters. 

I've been painting a lot but fighting just as much depression (thanks in advance for the encouragements I'm fighting the good fight) but I have a bad camera so I don't take many pictures. I got a couple though and if you don't mind me sharing let's start with and old model.

This is something from the Bones line by Reaper. I may have posted this before but I can't remember. I am very fond of it as a kind of pseudo beholder which it is clearly meant to be. But it has the addition of eye stalk legs and a bunch of eyes on the back of its...head/body. I would love to weave it into some encounters off and on with mysterious powers and a ravenous appetite!

The second is well known...

..its good old Rotigus Rainfather from the Age of Sigmar line. I always wanted a great unclean one and debated for a couple days on how to arm it. Ultimately I couldn't help but go with Rotigus himself. Such a jolly guy with so much to share! In my mind he swaggers around the battle field humming The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" while calling down his deluge spell. I went with some non standard colors for him but you have to make them your own huh?

Well, that is it for now. I will try to post a blog about a battle soon. Those are always good. I'm not skilled at battle reports but I surely can give it a try right? 

Thanks for reading, and as usual, may your dice always roll in your favor.

Napoleonics: Russia versus France

 This past Saturday I got to meet my friend Abel and engage in a first play of Song of Drums and Shakos: Large Battles. We had settled on a structure of two 40x40mm stands of soldiers per battalion and regiment and a single cannon of course. 

I did not have the models to make the brigade as it was detailed in the rules so I had to make shift. My opponent had to use a British cannon crew, shameful!

Here we see a view of the Russian lines from the East. In the far back is a battalion of Jagers on the hill with LineInfantry moving to support. They are opposed by French light infantry and line infantry.

A view of the Chasser a Cheval from the French side. Thankfully they spent most of the battle unsure of their course and in the rear of the enemy lines. 

An overview of the battle early on. The Russian lines (to your left) have lost one battalion of Grenadiers but continue to march on the enemy none the less even under artillery barrage. 

A view from the French General's point of view. In the trees to the left are Line Infantry supported by more of the same. Grenadiers to the right are about to make a brave assault on enemy to try to roll up the line into their cavalry. 

A view of the early battle, you can see the Chasseur a Cheval in the rear while the infantry engaged. The cannon made several barrages through the battle but was mostly ineffective. 

A close up of the cannon firing a barrage.

Another angle of an earlier photo. You can see my general in the middle holding command of the brigade fearlessly while the French general mostly yelled orders from his back line. 

I was surprised how well the rules played in relation to how they read. I am by no means an expert of anything at all but they read very, well, very blandly but in execution played well and with excitement. The proximity rule is FANTASTIC and I cannot express how valuable it is to create the spirit of the period well. Also the forces were slightly unbalanced by numbers but in rules the French were more powerful soldiers, as they should have been. The saving grace of my battle was that the Russians were respectably represented with the "Drilled" rule allowing me to recover the disorder while close to the foe.

I did lose the battle, it was close though. Frankly I lost the battle on my own turn with a failed contact with the enemy on the West hill. It gave me 1 disorder that pushed me into shaken and moved me into 3 Divisional Break Points thus ending the game at the end of my turn. 

I am already painting more of my many Russian soldiers though and look forward to another game soon!

Ultramarine Units

 My first war game love is the Ultramarines. Which is strange indeed because my first war game love is also fantasy war gaming. These things apparently are incompatible but I would argue no greater band of knights exist than the fine upstanding Ultramarines! Truly noble, fine warriors, defenders of the defenseless, and academics most fine!

But anyway I blather, here are some recently completed models in my terrible photography.

Fourth squad of Third Company, Squad Relios, Assault Intercessor Squad. To their left stands the current iteration of Captain Acheran in his Indomitus Crusade glory. On his shield is the reliquary of Saint Hemitorus a loyal servant of the Imperium.

Close up of the Captain, also you can see the decal work on the marine beside him. I took some car to double decal and use set and lots of patience to do my best. 

Close up of the squad.

A close up of Captain Acheran's Relic Shield with the remains of Saint Hemitorus.

Close up of Sergeant Relios and his tilting shield. No iconography yet as they've not taken to the field yet. I rarely do it but I like to go back and adds stuff to models as they are played. 

54mm 3D Printed Soldier

 My friend has a filament printer. My other friend has a resin printer.

I have friends with 3-D printers and I like exploiting them. They seem okay with it as I pay them for the stuff plus a little more. 

But my point is...look at this!

Love 54mm figures but they aren't really readily available. There are a few manufacturers but frankly for the 5 dollars I paid for this it's hard to compete. I just need more designers to make 3-D models of medieval knights and men-at-arms for me to do. 

That is all, just a cool miniature. Thanks for looking :)