Fantasy Painting Challenge IV: Deep Ones Part 3

 I gave up on trying to come up with a terrain feature to go with the three Deep Ones I painted up as seen in part 2. I sent it out on Tuesday of this week and two days later, my friend's Deep One arrived. All I can say is WOW! 

All of his work have been excellent so far, but this one seems to be the best! My photos don't do it justice. He did a great job of highlighting and shadowing and at the same time, giving the skin a mottled appearance. The colors of the base material and the pedestal add to the Lovecraftian vibe; which was something I wanted to do on mine, but couldn't figure out how. When working on mine, I kept going back and forth on whether to spray it flat or use a semi-gloss coat to make it look wet. I think his flat coat works just as well, if not better, than my gloss. 

We will probably have to take a hiatus from the challenges due to the holiday season, but hopefully will be coming up with a new challenge in the new year. 

Quick Follow Up on my Last Post

 In my last post, I grumbled about rebasing. Going thought my collection of fantasy and medieval 15mm figures, some seemed rather awkwardly based in their present state. These were rank-and-file troops that had overly dynamic, action poses. There was a unit of spearmen that seemed wildly swinging (I'm exaggerating here a little) their spears. Based on 15mm deep stands, there were a number of them that risked poking the eyes out of their comrades in the next rank. So, I decided to rebase this unit onto single stands. I can used them for rules that require figures to be on single stands, my skirmish like battles with my son, or for sieges where individual figures would be more appropriate for climbing up ladders or defending the walls. 

Before:

After:

Basing for Rules Rant

 Things have been slow in the hobby area of my life. I have had little time between moving my daughter to college, starting the semester at my school, and the ramping up of all my son's activities. I have been working on various things, but in piecemeal fashion. Projects make some headway but then come to a grinding halt. There really has not been anything blogworthy to report on.

Even though I have nothing visual to show for, I have been thinking a lot. And what I have been thinking a lot about is figure basing. It has become my pet peeve that every new rule set I encounter seems to wants different basing. Let's take ancient/medieval/fantasy rules for example. One set still has you base your figures following the old WRG format (40mm length x Xmm depth, depending on troop type), which is fine with me. Then you have rules where figures have to be in squares. Then you have rules where the base dimensions are odd so that you have to special order them from some company. Finally, you have rules where each figure is individually based.  You have rules where the commanders are based independently from the units they command. Then you have rules were the commander must be based among the rank and file troops. The variations seem to go on and on. 

One one level, I do get the point of having bases of a standard size, but I have read through enough rules to conclude that the justification of basing troops a certain way did not seem to be all that critical to the rest of the rule mechanics. The rules would work fine as intended so long as you keep things consistent.

I read a lot on the various Facebook groups, particularly those that center around a single set of rules where posters rebased their figures to conform to this latest rule set. So in a year or so, when the new latest & greatest set of rules come along, are you going to rip off all of those figures from their current bases and rebase them? What if it ends up that you don't really like the rules?  Sorry, but I am not going to rip up all my figures and rebase them for a rule system that is relatively untried, nor do I have the money to duplicate units to match the various basing systems ("...and here is my unit of Orcs for Rules A, and here is my unit of Orcs for Rules B, and here is my unit of Orcs for Rules C...."). It would not be that big an issue, but some rules seem to force you to use a particular basing system. I will not name names, but the wording of the first edition of a particular rule set seemed to shame the reader if they dared to have multiple figures on a single base. Recently, I read some reviewer of rules state that those who insist on using the WRG basing conventions were old dinosaurs and need to get with the picture....really? 

I cannot put my finger on it, but I blame the rise of the Games Workshop mentality of rules. Not only must you buy and use only our miniatures to play our game, but you have to base them according to our conventions. Heaven help you if you do otherwise (even if it doesn't really matter so long as you are consistent). Again, a certain unnamed WWII set of rules seems to insist on basing your infantry on a particular sized base (which they are happy to sell you), even if it does not really seem to matter that much as far as I can tell. This mentality has permeated among a lot of rules that don't have their own line of miniatures. 

As a wargaming child of the late 70s, I am going to continue to buck the system and fight the Power, even if it means I will be using these rules solo. I will ignore their iron-fisted basing rules or adapt my already based miniatures to the rest of their system. I will make it work! 

Fantasy Painting Challenge IV: Deep Ones Part 2

The Deep Ones are now painted. I did them in a purple with pale green abdomens. 

I am not as happy with these guys (girls?) as I was with the lizardman. For their bellies, the pale green was followed up with a green contrast paint that I wasted a lot of money on. Maybe you can sense my lack of enthusiasm for these paints. They turned the entire surface a very dark green...not feel'n the contract here. I ended up repainting the offending features and starting over again, this time with tried and true highlighting and shaddowing. Contrast paints bumped static grass from the pedestal of hobby products that really annoy me.

The next step is to build the scenic item to go with them. As I think I have mentioned, I am not putting in as much effort into this one as I did for the lizardman challenge

Sir Winfred Oldschool getting directions from some 
Deep Ones who happened to be passing by.

First Air Battle Over the Leek-Leek

At 0600 hours, reports were coming in that Aquor-Ornur jets were flying over the region of the Leek-Leek National Forest. The commander of Sardeese AFB, which represents the Symbalian western military district, quickly scrambled the only combat-capable squadron still at the base, the 6th Squadron. The 4th and 5th squadrons, consisting of F-16s, were very recently transferred east. It was up to the 6th Squadron to take on the aggressors. Unfortunately, 6th Squadron consisted of the Hawk 200 fighter. These are light, multi-role fighters have yet to be tested in air combat. By 0700 hours, the 6th Squadron was heading to the border to defend Symbalian air space. 

The Match Up
Aquor-Ornur now has two types of fighters: the F5A Tiger II, and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. The Gripen is a more recent acquisition from Northern Chalupistan. The more veteran pilots as well as hired mercenary pilots fly the Gripens. The old Tiger IIs are flow by less experienced pilots. I rolled a D6 with a 50% chance of the Symbalians intercepting either. They rolled the Tiger IIs.  Rules used for this battle: AirWar: C21 with the ranges cut in half to accommodate my kitchen table.

Symbalian Hawk 200 light fighters.

Aquor-Ornur F5E Tiger IIs. These are painted in
Southern Chalupastan colors, but Aquor-Ornur's 
paint scheme is close enough.

The Tiger IIs have the advantage over the Hawk 200s.  They are faster and have a higher power rating than the Hawk 200. The Hawk 200 has a modern radar system and can carry four AA missiles, rather than two on the Tiger II. Both sides carried the AIM-9P3 Sidewinder missile. This is an all-aspect, heat-seeking missile. To compensate for the shortcomings of the Hawk 200, I gave the Symbalian squadron one pilot rated Good (the flight leader), and the two others rated as Average. The Aquor-Ornurians had one Average pilot (flight leader) and two pilots rated Poor. 

The Battle

Turn 1 

Looking from the east. The F5Es can just be seen
at the upper right edge of the table.

I rolled for where the two squadrons would enter from.  Aquor-Ornurians (abbreviated A-O for now on) entered the board from the north. The Symbalians came in from the east and had the advantage of the sun behind them They hoped that would add to their favor. Their better radar picked up on the A-Os first and they increased speed to try to catch them at their beam. The A-Os, still unaware of the Symbalians, maintained their course and cruising speed. 

Turn 2

The A-Os spotted the Symbalians, increased speed to maximum, and changed course to intercept. Both closed in.

Turn 3
Getting near weapons range, both sides started maneuvering to get behind each other. One of the Symbalians successfully performed a Barrel Roll, while another did a simple turn. The flight leader tried to execute a Barrel Roll and Turn that would have lined him up for a kill:

Despite his pilot rating bonus, the Symbalian flight leader failed. Not only did he find himself in a position he didn’t want to be, he greatly lost speed. Meanwhile, two of the A-O jets split off to the left and right to go after the Symbalians, but the one plane in the center flew straight and ended up almost nose to nose with the Symbalian flight leader:

 The two jets simultaneously fired their guns. Neither one could miss at such close range:

Guns a Blaz'n!!

The Symbalian flight leader gained a bonus damage die whereas the A-O pilot had a reduced number of damage dice due to his poor rating. The amount of hit damage to both fighters was enormous and both planes were destroyed. The Symbalian flight leader, though wounded, managed to successfully eject from this aircraft. The A-O jet was obliterated with no chance of the young pilot surviving. 

Turn 4
Both sides successfully passed a morale test due to the losses and the battle continued…but only for a short time. One Symbalian failed a Barrel Roll and Turn maneuver. The other Symbalian attempted a Split-S and failed that one: 

The Symbalians can't catch a break when it comes
to complex maneuvers!

The failed Split-S maneuver cost him two points of damage for excess speed. On the other hand, the two remaining A-O pilots, even though they were both rookies, successfully executed an Immelmann and a Break Right Turn respectively. Because of the failed maneuvers, neither Symbalian jets were in a position to fire missiles or guns. The both A-O jets launched a Sidewinder that found their targets, hit, and shot the Hawk 200s out of the sky:

Fortunately, both pilots successfully ejected. Their rescue transponders indicated they were sill in friendly territory. Helicopters were dispatched to pick them up. The two A-O F5Es turned west to head back to base to celebrate their victory and memorialize their fallen comrade. A-O commanders on the ground were satisfied with the outcome. At least for now, attack aircraft and helicopters will be unimpeded in their support of ground troops invading Symbalia!

Postgame Analysis
Chuck Yeager said about air combat, "It's the man, not the machine." This did not seem to apply to the outcome of this battle. I blame the loss of the three Symbalian fighter jets on poor rolls when trying to pass the special maneuvers difficulty ratings. It led all three into harm’s way. The flight leader’s roll was so low that not even his +1 allowed him to execute it and he ended up virtually face to face with his opponent because of the failure. Unlike other rules, pilots have to pass a difficult rating test to successfully execute what they call a special maneuver. AirWar C21 really has some major penalties for not passing the difficulty rating test. Not only do you not end up where you wanted to be but you often lose a lot more speed. On top of that, failures mean the aircraft does not get its particular defensive bonus for that maneuver. It is frustrating, but it does make for some interesting outcomes. I will give another set of rules for the next air combat game. 

Crisis Along the Aquor-Ornur/Symbalia Border!

Background Situation

After years of poor forestry management, Aquor-Ornur has very little in the way of forests left. Despite a shift to industry and other agricultural products, Aquor-Ornurians began crossing the Arnor River to illegally harvest Symbalian lumber. A prime target is the Leek-Leek National Forest Preserve. In the dead of night, poachers cross the river on makeshift barges or bridges, harvest what they can, and then either cross over with the timber or float it down river to be picked up at a secret point. The Anor-Ornurian government has largely turned a blind eye to the situation even when Symbalia formerly protests at the UN.

Symbalia has been actively countering the timber poachers and for the most part have been successful. A combination of forest ranger units, ground surveillance radar, and arial reconnaissance using drones and aircraft have made a big dent in the illegal lumber trade.  Nonetheless, the lure of rare, expensive types of wood sees Aquor-Ornurians still attempting to cross the river and harvest timber.

Buildup and Crisis

In the past six months, the lumber poachers have become more aggressive in their logging. Loggers have been arming themselves. There have been minor skirmishes between the armed poachers and park rangers. No casualties have occurred and the poachers fled or were captured. Several drones were shot at along the river and one was shot down. Symbalia changed tactics by more aggressive interdiction of poachers before they crossed the river. This was accomplished by armed patrol aircraft buzzing (but not shooting at) the poachers barges and bridges. This had the desired effect of the poachers abandoning their barges or bridge. Bridges were then demolished by rangers on the bank of the river. 

On the early morning of May 6th, a drone observed vehicles on a makeshift bridge hauling lumber across the river into Aquor-Ornur. Poorly hidden on the bank of the river appeared to be an anti-aircraft gun emplacement. Poachers on both sides of the river and the bridge began taking potshots at the drone. The regional head of the Symbalian forest rangers requested air support from the air force. It was granted and at 8:00 am, an EMB-314 Super Tucano armed with two 250 lbs bombs in addition to its machine guns took off. The Super Turcano approached from the south:

EMB-314: This is Slow Rooster to base, Slow Rooster to base. We are approaching from the south along the river at altitude of 800 m and have sighted the bridge 1.5 Km away. Permission to reduce altitude to preform a flyby.

HQ: Permission granted Slow Rooster. Warning, possible AA emplacement on west bank of river.

EMB-314: Roger that, adjusting altitude and reducing speed for run.

EMB-314: Executing flyby...(moments later) HQ! HQ! We are taking fire from the bridge and bank! Permission to engage hostiles!

HQ (after a minute pause): permission granted!

A twin 20mm AA gun fired at the airplane along with a number of armed poachers. The aircraft took minor damage, but none that affected performance. The Super Tucano passed over the bridge, turned 180 degrees, and fired its machine guns at the bridge hitting a truck and three poachers on the bridge. Drivers and other poachers on the bridge scurried off the bridge or dived into the water. The AA gunners abandoned their position, but some poachers on the river bank continued to fire at the plane, again putting some more holes into it. The Super Tucano climbed to a higher altitude and made a second run, this time releasing one of the bombs as it passed over the bridge. The bomb missed the bridge but exploded close enough to destroy it carrying three trucks loaded with lumber down into the river with it. The Super Tucano flew back to base and the loitering drone showed poachers swimming across the river or being picked up by rangers on the Symbalia side. About eight poachers died and 10 were taken into custody by Symbalian rangers. 

Symbalia ordered an investigation into the affair and found that the flight crew were justified in the actions they took, though they were cited for not asking permission to bomb the bridge. They included both cockpit and drone video, as well as photos of the damage taken to the airplane to back up their assessment. They did offer compensation to the victims, but delivered a stern warning that future engagements with armed poachers would be met with deadly force. 

This crisis was just what the military government of Aquor-Ornur needed to distract the populace from their promise of free elections and the return of civilian rule. Condemnation by Aquor-Ornur was swift and vocal. They were outraged by the death of its citizens and played up the fact that these were impoverished men forced into illegal logging. The delegate from Aquor-Ornur heatedly accused Symbalia of war crimes at the UN General Assembly. 

Implications

As stated in a previous post, Aquor-Ornur has been building up and modernizing its armed forces. Tension remain high between the two nations, however, Symbalia currently has most of its forces along the border with Bovatopia. On the eve of conflict between Bovatopia and an alliance of Lavonia, Symbalia, and the island nation of Kopitapai, the ambassador of Bovatopia has a meeting with the members of the top generals of Aquor-Ornur who rule the nation...

Wooden Hexes

I ordered these about a month ago and am now just picking them up. 25mm hexes look a lot tiny-er than I envisioned, but they will do for my air combat games or ship battles with 1/6000 models. I will carefully glue them together and then mount them on some sort of board.

Fantasy Painting Challenge IV: Deep Ones

Well, I wasn't going to do another painting challenge for awhile, but my challenger really wanted to, so I acquiesced. This theme is Deep Ones. I am not up on my latest D&D monsters, but they are included on the Monster Manual. Gee, I wonder where they got them from?

All from Reaper Miniatures.

Deep Ones High Priest

Deep Ones Warriors. They don't look all that fearsome.

Originally, I just ordered the high priest, but I was back in the Motherland (Chicago) and my favorite local brick&mortar store (actually it is the only local store), Games Plus, has a huge selection of Reaper Minis. I mean there is a wall that is about 2/3rds the length of the store devoted to them! So, I picked up two of their plastic ones. They were pretty inexpensive. 

According to canon, they are supposed to be green in color. I am sort of burned out on green from the lizardman, so I am going for purple with maybe a pale green belly. My friend OK'd the color. 

My friend wants to have a scenic included. I told him I'll think about it. Between working on a manuscript for publication, getting ready for the fall semester, and more critically, getting everything lined up for my daughter's big move to college, I have not had too much time for the hobby. I know I spent far more time building the scenery piece than I did painting up the lizardman for the last challenge. At most, I will make some sort of simple stele.

Apologies for the crapy photos. My iPhone has this "sharpen" feature, but it seems to make the pictures more pixelly, or blurry than in focus. The priest photo seems really bad. I don't know why I keep using it.

Happy Father's Day 2022!

 Happy Father's Day to all of you are out there who are fathers, grandfathers, biologically, and even those in spirit!

I loves these two to the stars and back!

Gifts from my daughter:

A Brain Collector from Wizkids Pathfinder plastic minis. Comes with clear plastic domes that cover the brains. I have to figure out what glue to use for them.

Shirren Technomancers also from Wizkids. This is from their relatively new rpg Starfinder. Starfinder using the same game mechanics as Pathfinder. I played a demo game at Will's game shop a few weeks back. It was a lot of fun. Technomancers are sci-fi magic users. 

FYI, Wizkids makes several lines of plastic, pre-primed miniatures for D&D as well as the above. They are similar to the plastic ones that Reaper Minis makes (Reaper Bones series). It seems like they use a different plastic that is a little more flexible than that of Reaper. They also coat their figures with a primer whereas Reaper claims adding a primer to theirs is not necessary. I think the Wizkids has a little more detail to theirs compared to the Reapers, at least with the earlier Reaper Bones series, which were plastic versions of their metal figures. The Wizkids tend to be proportionally slimmer than those of Reaper. and slightly shorter. That being said, I have yet to decide which brand of plastic miniatures I like. The Reaper ones seem to paint up a little faster. I still have several Wizkids D&D figures that I am trying to finish. It is almost as if they have too much detail (is that possible?) and it has been somewhat frustrating.  

It is funny, but the packaging does not indicate what the scale of these are. I will have to look on an unopened Reapers package to see if it is still listed.  

Rules for Interwar Air Combat

 In my previous post, I was putting assembling various aircraft for my ImagiNation interwar campaign The timeline is pretty loose, ranging from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. I have not had a chance to work beyond gluing wings onto the biplanes, but I have been searching for a suitable rule set. I think I will go with the second edition of Too Fat Lardies' Bag the Hun. 

I considered Wings at War's Scramble for Britain. I am familiar with their game mechanics, but I would have to make up a lot of the stats for the aircraft I am interested in. Bag the Hun has pretty much all the stats I am interested in and someone on the Bag the Hun Facebook page has filled in the few gaps that there are. It seems a little more complex than I wanted, but I like all the various maneuvers a plane can make. I will need to read it over a bunch of times. I will finally get to use that felt hex gaming mat that I bought a long time ago and have never gotten around to using.

New Project or Crazy Impulse Buy?

 Many, many years ago (late 1980s), I did mini-campaign for my fictional WWII world that pitted the Soviet Union against the UK for a race to take over Iran for its oil resources. It used mainly early war tanks and equipment. I altered the geography such that there was more seaway. That allowed for some naval battles to be fought. I had a map, but its long gone. Also, having read The Great Pacific War by Hector Bywater, my brain got all going to recreate that Iran campaign though set even earlier, and expand it geographically include other foreign nations. I have been slowly building up fleets in 1/6000 scale. 

So, I started buying a bunch of 1/600 aircraft for the air combat portion of it. These guys are from Tumbling Dice Miniatures

Hawker Furies

Polikapov I-15

Henschel Hs 123

Martin B-10

The biplanes were a major pain in the arse to put together. Plus, I only got three fuselages for the Hs 123s. I did get the upper wing and even two sets of landing gear, but not the rest of the fourth plane. 

I also got the Martin B-10 bomber. I've always like slightly archaic weapons and the B-10 especially. I need to figure out what rules to use. I might use Wings at War Battle of Britain rules and make up the stats. I might even try Bag the Hun. Jim over at his Jim's Wargames Workbench has a lot of variants for these rules and I might crib some of his stats for the rules. Unlike my modern air gaming, I am less interested in detailed aircraft stats. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge III: Lizardman part 4

 I finally got the statue of the lizard deity finished. Time to pack it all up and send to my friend. I had planned to make it much more "jungley" by putting a lot more plants around, but I didn't want to obscure some of the details on the sides of the base. Plus, I was starting to get burned out on making it and just wanted it finished.

I enjoyed making the statue and I learned a lot, but I think I need a break. It was very time consuming and as I said above, I was getting rather burned out. Hopefully for the next challenge, we will just stick to miniatures. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge III: Lizardman part 3

 I am moving along on my part of the challenge. I hope to be done this week. I leave Saturday or Sunday (weather permitting) for the beautiful state of Kansas and I won't be back until them following Saturday or Sunday (weather permitting). It's a road trip to visit some natural history museums and to hopefully visit some friends that are still out there. Renting a car is a LOT cheaper then flying and then renting a car. I hope the bean counters at my college appreciate this. Other than the weather, I am somewhat apprehensive about the drive. I used to do this sort of long distance thing (about 13 hours), but that was when I was young. Anyways, I want to wrap this project up and send it to my friend.

As I said in part 2, there needs to be some sort of scenic piece to go with the figurine. I decided on a statue of some Lizardman deity. My sculpting abilities are crap and it shows, but I figure that monumental sculpture is not a hallmark of Lizardman culture. 

Most of it is made of polymer clay that is slathered over the an aluminum foil armature for the statue and a block of wood for the pedestal. Most of the bas-relief lizard heads were also sculpted from polymer clay, but for a couple of them, I experimented with Green Stuff. The whole thing rests on some foam core board where I removed one side of the paper. That in turn sits on top of a base made of a scrap of vinyl flooring from our first, pre-flood floor. We have lots of that in our garage. With the except of the pedestal to the foam core, everything is glued to each other with E6000 glue. Its strong but it would have melted the foam board. As of right now, I am at the stage where I need to put some ground cover on the base, paint and then add some sort of foliage. Since this is the first time I'm making something like this, I am not going to make it overly ruin-like. I'm heading to Walmart today to pick up a prescription and might see if there are some cheap aquarium plants to use. We had some plants from an old aquarium but when I picked it up, they fell apart. 

Stay tuned for the final installment!

Fantasy Painting Challenge III: My Friend's Entry Arrived

 I got a package at my door and I was expecting it to be my mother's annual chocolate Easter bunnies for the kids. Instead, it was my friend Chris' entry. While I have been slowly moving along on my lizardman, he got his done. Here is some quick pictures right out of the box.

Well done! Spurs me on to complete my diorama.

Fantasy Painting Challenge III: Lizardman part 2

 Here he (she?) is. Turned out better than I thought it would. The figure's base had flagstone-like rocks sculpted into it, so I extended that theme onto the larger base using rocks made out of polymer clay.

Now, the challenge is not over! We decided to add some sort of terrain to go with the figure. I'm not sure what Chris is going to make, but I am thinking along the lines of some sort of totem/alter. I've been looking at various examples from the Warhammer universe for inspiration. 

Quick Naval Game

Today, my daughter and I had a quick test game of Fast Attack Boats: a Game of the Arab-Israeli Naval War-1973. It was published in 1980 by Yaquinto Publications. This is one of their record album games. The album opens up and you have the hex board in front of you. Its compact, but once you punch out the counters storage of them is a problem. Unless you hope they don't fall out of the record jacket (I can't believe I still remember such terms), any sort of ziplock bag or envelope is going to make the jacket bend and eventually warp. This is would be a bad thing considering that the jacket is your game board.

The rules are pretty simple: move, shoot, launch missiles or torpedos, repeat. It is simpler than Sea Strike, but at the same time, its less generic. There is no detection or lock on. The only bookkeeping was to track damage. Small counters representing missiles and torpedoes avoid the need to keep track of those. There are differences between Israeli SSMs and Soviet missiles that the Egyptians and Syrians use. Ships have differences as well. Torpedoes seem worthless, but I'm sure in the right hands could make a difference. The odd thing is that missiles and torpedoes are extremely maneuverable. It is particularly weird with the torpedoes, unless wire-guided ones were common back then. The restrictions for what direction to launch your missiles or torpedoes didn't seem to matter because of this. It didn't specify in the rules, but we made up a rule that missiles and torpedoes need a designated target just like gun fire. What probably compensates for the high maneuverability is that a missile or torpedo can get to your target and still roll a miss. Damage is similar to a lot of other modern rules where there are no damage points. Instead, a ship racks up percentages of damage that accumulate. Over 40% weapon systems and propulsion start become to become an issue. Torpedo boats are an exception, they are pretty much toast if hit. There is a rule for ramming, but we didn't get to try them. There is a campaign system included.

The game lasted all of a half an hour, tops. My daughter had two Israeli missile boats that had a combined 14 Gabriel missiles! I took the Syrians with two Komar-class missile boats and four torpedo boats. Not only did they have far fewer missiles, but could only fire one at a time as opposed to two at a time. It was pretty one sided. I did manage to slightly damage one of her ships, but she leisurely sank all of mine. all my torpedo boats valiantly managed to launch their torpedoes before turning to dust by missiles. Only one torpedo managed to make it to a target but missed due to poor dice rolls. My last missile boat tried to escape, but it got beaten down enough were it was moving at only half speed. I then decided to try to ram one of her ships, but she finished me off with missiles to spare. 

I liked it in spite of a few quirks. I think it lends itself to some tinkering to beef it up and include more ships. As always, I am looking for rules and ideas to be used for my ImagiNation wars. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge III: Lizardman

 My friend and I decided to do another challenge. We decided we were done with Dwarves for awhile and wanted to do something different. This time its lizardmen. I just got my order from Reaper Minis in the mail so this is an unboxing as they call it out there.

It was very difficult to choose. Reaper has pretty big variety of Lizard folk, including Dragonmen. We weren't really sure what the difference is between Lizardmen and Dragonmen. The only thing I could tell is that Dragonmen have tinier heads and longer necks, as well as more armor. This guy seems pretty cool plus he has a shield that looks like its made out of scales or scutes. 

As a freebie, I got this Reaper Bones Hobbit (?). Usually, they throw in a mystery paint bottle. Maybe this is a promotional item. I won't complain.

No, the eraser wasn't included in the order.

I couldn't resist ordering some paints. I'm really putting the love on Reaper's paints. They are very smooth and cover well. I have been disappointed with Vallejo paints the year or so. I kept getting ones that don't seem to dry no matter how long I shake them, or they "dry" very shiny. Army Painter paints are not bad, but tend to be a little on the thick side. Citadel paints are nice, but rather expensive. Plus it seems they are making a whole bunch of specialty paints whose colors I would prefer in their base line.

I'm pretty excited to start this new challenge. I already know the colors that I am going to use to paint it. It should be a good one!