Historicon 2024 & New Work in Process

I made my usual road trip to Historicon again this year.  I had a great time seeing many old friends, playing in a lot of fun games, and selling some things in the flea market.  It is a great location and my kids and I are already looking forward to 2025.

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise:

(1) a pack of 8 Gripping Beast Illyrian infantry fro Saga.  These weren't on my shopping list, but my son won a gift card from Waterloo Games playing in a Napoleonic naval game and I picked these up from their booth. 

(2) Two jars of Howard Hues paint to replace colors that I am low on.

(3) Three packs of North Star wire spears bought from Brigade Games.

(4) Two of the free convention miniature, a famous spaghetti western cowboy (provided by Brigade).

(5) Two packs from Brigade, Female Armed Civilians from their WW2 range and American Agents from their Cold War era Spies and Patriots range.

(6) A 3D  car and van from Diabolical Terrain.  My friend Mike has painted a lot of their products and I can always use a few more vehicles.

Post-Historicon, I needed a change of pace after painting 7 ancient and dark age armies for Saga in the last 11 months.  I've started work on a group of 15 28mm miniatures for my 7TV and Doctor Who games.  I have had some of these for a long time and it will be good to get them painted.

I like working on a mix of themes at once, it helps to maintain my interest if I hit a roadblock on one of them.  Starting at the front left, there is a police officer in the front rank with a post-apocalypse raider behind (Crooked Dice).  Next are the 6 agents and civilians I bought at Historicon.  They are usable for a lot of things, and 2 of them are earmarked to join my Miami Vice project since I don't have any female officers.  On the right are the 1st Doctor, 7th Doctor and Ace from Black Tree and the War Doctor from Heresy Miniatures.  The back rank are all from Crooked Dice, a giant post-apocalypse mutant and 2 crab-like creatures.

Review - Terrains4Games Terrain Pieces

I've been thinking about upgrading some of my terrain for a while.  In spring 2021 I did some google searches for terrain manufacturers and found the Terrains4Games (T4G) website:  

Terrains4Games

T4G is based in Poland.  Their products looked interesting, and after finding positive reviews of their products online I took a longer look at their website.  My specific need was to get a variety of fields, hills, woods and rocky areas that would cover all the possible terrain requirements for my 28mm Saga games.  I already have a good selection of buildings and marshes.  Of course, anything I bought would also be usable in the other periods I play.

T4G makes multiple types of fields and hills to choose from.  They produce 2 sizes of forest which consist of a base piece and separate trees.  They also sell the base pieces separately, which in addition to being less expensive, would also allow me to use my existing trees.  I realized that if I bought a few extra of the medium forest bases, I could also use them to represent rocky areas or ruins by placing some of the rocks, walls or fallen columns that I already have on top of the base.  With storage space at a premium, anything that can perform multiple functions is attractive to me.

Looking at the specs on the website, I noticed that the two sizes of forest base were slightly longer than the maximum size allowed under the Saga rules.  I emailed T4G to ask if they could make them slightly smaller and quickly received a positive reply.

I thought the prices were very reasonable and ended up ordering 3 fields, 3 hills, 2 large forest bases and 4 medium forest bases.  Everything would arrive painted and ready to use on the table.

I will note that the time between ordering and receiving my order took several months.  This is not a criticism because their website is very clear on their production and shipping timeframes.  Also, I asked for different-sized forest bases than their standard products and I expect custom requests to take longer.  Both times I emailed to ask a question they replied quickly and provided great customer service.

I received my package last week.  Upon opening the box, everything was securely packed with each piece tightly wrapped in several layers of thick plastic and packing peanuts filling all the open space.

Everything unwrapped and laid out on my dining room table.  The color on the T4G website photos is a brighter green.  I would describe the color of the pieces I received as medium green.   The pieces have varied shapes and each is finished differently with green and brown static grass, rocks, and bits of flock and vegetation.  Bare areas are painted with what looks to me like 3 shades of brown.  Most of the photos have a 12"/30cm ruler to show scale.

Two Plowed Fields: They are made from HDF/hardboard and are very sturdy.  You can see the material in the second photo where I flipped one field over.

One Rising Wheat Field: In addition to the basic fields, T4G offer fields with a variety of different crops.

Two Large Forest Bases: I am going to use these as large woods pieces with some trees placed on them.  They are also made of HDF.

Four Medium Forest Bases:  I am going to use these to represent multiple types of terrain with trees/rocks/ruins placed on them.  No ruler in this photo but they are around 20 cm long and 11 cm wide and made of HDF.

Size comparison between a large and medium base.

Gentle Natural Hill:   This hill has a central ridge running the length of the hill with an equal slope on each side.  The slope is able to support two 28mm Balearic slingers from Crusader without the miniatures sliding; a nice feature.  It is made from styrofoam based on HDF.

Tournament Hill: This hill has an all-around slope with a large flat area on top and is also made from styrofoam based on HDF.

Hill - Basic Version:  This hill is only made from styrofoam without the HDF base but was much cheaper than the other hills I bought.  Similar to the Tournament Hill but with less detailing, it has a slope around the edge and a flat top.

A mix of flower tufts and a bonus sticker.

Overall I am very happy with all the pieces, they are high quality and the price I paid was excellent for quality, fully-finished terrain.  They have a wide variety of other types of terrain pieces available and I highly recommend them.

September 2018 Purchases

I have tried to finish this post several times over the last week, and each time another package arrived that I wanted to include.  I now have plenty of things to work on this weekend while hurricane Florence passes through.  Thankfully I am far enough inland that it will be weaker when it passes by, so just lots of wind and rain.  No spray priming!

The first package to arrive last Saturday was a set of 2 zodiac boats by Sea Dog Game Studios at http://sailpowergame.com/.  They are located in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio and have a variety of 3D printed products.  My friend Mike picked them up from Sea Dog and mailed them to me.  The detail is pretty good and there aren't any obvious printing lines.  They boats are carrying various post-apocalypse miniatures from my collection to show the scale.  They should hold plenty of crew.

Also on Saturday I stopped by the local post office to pick up a package from Brother Vinni in Bratislava, Slovakia.  This is the second time I've ordered from them and it took 12 days from ordering to arrival in the US and only 4 days from the shipping notification.  Pretty good service.  This time I got 2 Viking shieldmaidens (top row) to add to the 4 I already have so that I can make a Shieldmaiden unit for SAGA.  The other 4 are already painted so I plan on finishing these quickly.  If only I had a local opponent!  I am a bit nervous about attaching the top part of the flag, it is separate from the arm holding the lower part of the flagstaff.  The miniature on the bottom row will be used for a post-apoc survivor and is armed with a pistol in one hand and a rifle on her back.  Like all Brother Vinni's products I have bought, these are made of resin and have great detail with few-to-no mold lines.

On Monday my order from Brigade Games' Labor Day sale arrived.  It contained 9 miniatures from their post-apoc range.  I've bought some of the others in this range at conventions and they are on my painting table now.  A good variety of weapons and equipment and minimal cleanup required.

On Wednesday the last outstanding order I had arrived from Warlord, courtesy of their recent sale.  Two sprues of modern military (4 minis each) for post-apoc and 7TV use, five 2017-18 issues of Wargames Illustrated and the Terminator boxed game.  I don't plan on playing the game, but the Terminator miniatures will come in handy for use in 7TV games as robots or aliens.  It was hard to pass up for $16.

Historicon 2018 - What I Played, Saw & Bought

I made my annual trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Historicon last week.  I planned to meet my friend Mike from Ohio Thursday afternoon. We usually have a larger group, but this year was a throwback to my first trip to Historicon with Mike way back in 1995.

Registration this year was a big improvement, all you had to do was scan the code you received by email when preregistering and everything printed out for you.  On the negative side, the Lancaster host is in the middle of an extensive remodel and was a mess.  I am glad I reserved a room at the new Hilton next door.

Despite a long traffic jam due to a burning semi, I made it up Thursday in time for my first game: Once Upon a Time in the West Country (ECW).  I often pick a theme when I register for games and this year it was English Civil War.  It is a period I enjoy reading about and playing, but I have never found a set of rules I am completely happy with.  I played the right side of the Royalists (on the left of the first picture) and did well with my horse, but not so well with my foot.  An enjoyable game.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday afternoon I played in Clodwig the Red Strikes Back using the Dux Britanniarum rules, a set I have heard a lot about but never played.  I was one of the Roman players defending our lands against some pillaging Franks.  I liked the rules mechanics and we drove off the Franks, although they did manage to loot half of the village.  I am in the early stages of painting a Romano-British army for Saga, and it was a bonus seeing a lot of the same miniatures painted and in a game.

 

 

Friday night and Saturday morning I ran two sessions of the same game using the 7TV rules, Dial 'X' for Missile.  I will cover that in a separate post.

The rest of Saturday I wandered around looking at some amazing games and capped it off by playing another ECW battle, Naseby.  I ran the New Model Army foot and we won, though the Royalist foot did not advance as in the real battle.  It used the Carnage & Glory II computer-moderated rules.  I was a bit hesitant, as I had played several Napoleonic games using those rules many years ago and did not particularly enjoy them.  But Naseby is one of my favorite battles so I though I would give them another try.  I am glad I did, it was a great game with good players.  While I would probably not use them at home, the rules did a good job of handling a large game with 7 players.

 

 

 

Here are pictures of some of the games that caught my eye:

 Battle of Pelennor Fields

 

 

Isandlwana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spectacular game of Frostgrave

 

 

 

 

 

Historicon loot (clockwise from top left):
I did not have a large shopping list this year.  I came home with a pack of flower tufts; a pack of 2 boats by Things from the Basement; 2 Sarissa Sturmboots from Wargames Tools;, 4 packs of Crusader miniatures for Saga from Pictor's Studio; Gripping Beast Viking standardbearer from Badger Games; Saga Roman dice and LBMS Muslim transfers from Cotton Jim's; 3 bottles of Howard Hues paint from Dayton Painting Consortium; a free pack of flag cards; Army Painter static grass from the Warstore.

When I arrived home, I found a box from GMT waiting for me.  I had ordered a copy of Washington's War (AWI) and a mounted mapboard for Unhappy King Charles (ECW) during their 4th of July sale.  I am planning on a solo game of Unhappy King Charles this weekend.