MINI WARGAMING: "Thinking About Your 2008 Hobby Plans?" (18 December 1007)

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TOP: The Heroes of Beni Hana Pass make a stand...

...from a game of 28mm Oriental Adventures earlier this year...

Hi All,

Lately I've been thinking about what sort of hobby resolution I'm going to make for 2008...

- 28mm WAB Saracen / Moor / Arab Army
- 28mm WAB Celt / Gaul / Arthurian Army
- Planning to learn WAB in 2008 and play in the local leagues...

- 28mm WHFB Undead army for me...
- Split part of undead army from Gothic Vampire Counts theme to Tomb Kings Egyptian theme...
- 28mm WHFB Empire army for my nephew Quinn
- 28mm WHFB Orc / Gobbo army for my other nephew Vincent
- Planning to play more WHFB this year and possibly participate in the local leagues...

TOP: 28mm Orc Shamans work a power totem...

- 28mm Pirate Ship
- 28mm Historical pirate crew
- 28mm Undead pirate crew
- 28mm Orc pirate crew

- 28mm fantasy scenery
- 28mm graveyard
- 28mm village buildings

- 10mm sci-fi armies
- Want to play ASQL in 2008.

- 10mm modern missile boats
- This project is nearing fruition... must get to it!

- 6mm sci-fi armies
- Command Horizon?
- Epic-Armageddon?
- Dirtside III?

- 6mm town for Kaiju Stomp'in
- I want to build a new mat for the city and lay out city zoning blocks.

TOP: Orc & Goblin Wolfriders were torn apart...

By katana and exotic magic...

And every year, I only make one hobby resolution and finish off that project. Sometimes I get more done, but I only hold myself to completing one project... After all, life is busy and we all have families, jobs, etc. that take us away from the fun stuff.

This year in 2007, I resolved to work on my 6mm kaiju set, but I switched streams early in the year and built my 28mm Vampire Counts army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) instead.

*** What are your 2008 hobby plans? ***

Ah, decisions!

Have a great Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: "Spaceman Spiff & 10mm Sci-fi Resources!" (12 October 2007)

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TOP: Spaceman Spiff's beautiful 10mm MWDA Marauder mod.

Hi All,

If you know me and are a miniatures gamer, you probably associate my name with the 6mm scale... it's the one I go most crazy over... don't ask my why! I just like little pieces. However, I've never limited myself to just 6mm and about a year or two ago I decided that my hobby project for the year would be to build a Star Wars Battle of Hoth army set... I had wanted to do it in 6mm, but I simply couldn't find the pieces I needed on I kept on searching. And eventually I found all of the pieces I needed ...only in 10mm scale! And that's what got me into 10mm sci-fi!
If you'd like to see some photos of my 10mm Star Wars Battle of Hoth army set, you can find some of them here:
http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/search/label/10mm%20Sci-fi

And 10mm sci-fi is a very up and coming scale. While 10mm is the stated scale, everything from 8mm to 12mm including 1/144 and N scale RR trains are often included as acceptable variations within the greater "scale creep" realm of 10mm.

And one of my favorite sources of inspiration for 10mm is a gamer named Spaceman Spiff who is not only incredibly productive, constantly posting new photos of his minis, but he's also incredibly creative - modifying model kits, scratch-building pieces, and coming up with some breathtaking models. This post is a salute to him, more or less! Huzzah, Spaceman Spiff!

TOP: A Battletech Slayer aerospace fighter by Spaceman Spiff!

Please check out all of Spaceman Spiff's images here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/4370spaceman-spiff/?mediafilter=all

Spaceman Spiff also keeps many images here at Lords Of the Battlefield (LOTB):
http://www.lordsofthebattlefield.com/news/weblog.php

TOP: Spaceman Spiff's scratch-built parts for a 10mm Urbanmech!

TOP: The Urbanmech begins to come together!

I wouldn't be writing a Maksim-Smelchak post if I didn't share a few links either so here are a few of my favorite links that I think of when 10mm sci-fi comes to mind. The first link I wanted to share was one to the Yahoo E-group I created to support 10mm sci-fi gaming and the second is for one of my favorite sci-fi games.

Alien Squadleader (ASQL) is a wonderful sci-fi game, with similarities to DBA, DBM, HOTT, Command Horizon and other games with more streamlined, fast-moving rule sets. The author, Alex Self, is a real mensch and runs his own Yahoo E-group for the game, where the on-line community is very helpful and Alex often personally helps out ASQL newbies ...like myself! While Alex and most of the gamers use 15mm sci-fi themed figures, I've chosen to use 10mm sci-fi figures, partially because another local gamer, Aron Clark, already has several armies made of recycled MWDA figures that are already 10mm scale. Add those to my Hoth set and throw in some of the other armies I have on the project queue and I'm set as a 10mm sci-fi ASQL player! Huzzah! There are also a couple of other local players building ASQL armies plus an established league in San Jose so I might actually get a few games out of this project!

And one the best resources for an interested 10mm sci-fi player is the 10mm Sci-fi Yahoo E-group I put together... it's a growing resource:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/10mm_SFWG/

And one of my favorite sci-fi games is Alien Squadleader (ASQL):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aliensquadleader/

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

GAMING NEWS: Return of Super Mario Bros, Life & ConQuest SF Snippets (4 September 2006)...

Hi Everyone,

Well... it's been a bit since I last posted, BUT I have great news to share...

I finally got the full-time, fully benefitted job that I've been struggling to get for a little over a year since I left my career as a public educator. I started a job with the State of California as a policy analyst this past week (28 August 2006). The contracts are signed, I've been performing my job well and I feel secure enough to publicly announce it.

The new job will involve a few changes for me and one of the most saddening for me on a personal level is that I'm going to have to give up my Wednesday night gaming group at A-1 Comics. Last Wednesday was my last evening with the guys and I took them all out to dinner as a parting gift. I still hope to see Dave, Dick and Kimbo around, but circumstances will keep me from enjoying their company on Wednesdays for awhile.

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Life's been pretty hectic for me recently too... between aggressively looking for better work, working up to three jobs at a time, trying to support an ailing now-ex-girlfriend, moving to a new apartment, seeing my friend Jon & my baby sister get married, and otherwise having the carpet jerked out from under my feet more times than I can remember.... things have been crazy!

The new job promises for a little more stability and chance to see things right again. Amen!

I went this past weekend to ConQuest SF, which was a shadow of its former self... the Bay Bridge received some much needed emergency earthquake refitting and I think that drove away a lot of potential convention attendees. I still had a good time, but there was a lot of work as well... I hope to write about it sometime in the next week or two... but I have a more important task ahead of me... I need to finish writing a few game reviews and make good to a very patient magazine editor.

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At the convention, I met a number of cool folks:

- Dave Arneson, the father of D&D along with Gary Gyax.

http://www.jovianclouds.com/blackmoor/

- Ken Hite, author of numerous RPG & gaming books / article sover the years including Chaosium Cthulhu products, GURPs and more.

http://princeofcairo.livejournal.com/

- James Ernest, the genius behind Cheapass Games and other cool stuff...

http://www.cheapass.com/

More information about those folks can be found here:

http://shorl.com/fynodegyprigry

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I also met many others including:

- Matthew "Judas" Sicarii, the famed gamer behind the design of Striker III.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ct-striker/

- Aron Clark, well-known Bay Area gamer known for ASQL (Alien Squad Leader), who threw a great Dirtside II game tourney at the con.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aliensquadleader/

- Ron Plunk, maestro of the cult gaming classic "B-17: Queen of the Skies" from Avalon Hill, who has been transforming a relatively simple number-generating game into a social experience that has been a local favorite for twenty-one plus years!

- Charles Gomez, local gamer extaordinaor, who ran an outstanding Monster Island game... had a blast playing it!

http://www.firefly-games.com/index.php

- Mark Steinberg & Mike McGraw, who ran some of the coolest spaghetti Western gunfight games in recent history...

http://arnicarealestate.com/

- Lawrence Golinowski, who ran the classic convention favorite: Aerodrome.

http://www.aerodrome-ww1aircombat.com/

- The Flagship Games guys, Rod & Thomas who made their well expected and respected magic...

http://www.flagshipgames.com/

- Terry Matheny and his friend Harry, who brought Screaming G.I.s III to the convention...

http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/ww2/sgi.html

- Chad & Alex, who brought Company Commander to the con, which is soon to be published by GMT Games...

http://www.gmtgames.com/

- Peter Bauer, who brought the magic of Starguard to the convention...

http://www.tin-soldier.com/sg/sg1.html

- Simon from Aberrant Games...

http://AberrantGames.com

- Eric from Conquest Miniatures...

http://www.conquestminiatures.com/

- Don from Wartorn Worlds...

http://www.wartornworlds.com/shopping/catalog/

- And so many others!

I'll have to write up a big post later.


But... in the mean time, a little treat for my readers...

Check out this link for Hard Rock Super Mario Brothers!

http://shorl.com/gyfudrulutygi
If you remember, it wasn't so long ago that I wrote about Socialist Super Mario Brothers, so it seemed only fair to share Hard Rock Super Mario Brothers! Enjoy!

http://briefurl.com/the_peoples_mario

I wish everyone the best!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: MWS Meeting (15 April 2006).

Hi Everyone,

There was an MWS meeting today (15 April 2006) at the Rancho Cordova meeting that was well attended.

The following showed up:
- Brad
- Brian
- Charles Gomez
- Dick
- Joe Bianchi
- Joe Riddle
- Keith
- Maksim (me!)
- Mark
- Mike O'Brien
- Mike W.
- Randy
- Tony

For more information about the MWS gaming club and to examine a photo gallery chocked full of miniatures splendor, please check out this site:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

Two games were staged:

(Forgive me my laziness in making these battle reports short and quick!)

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1. Battleground WWII: Eastern Front

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20441

(BG:WWII photo courtesy of BGG.)

Players:
- Germans: Minor victory.
- Russians: Minor loss.

This was the biggest game of the day and I was lucky enough to play in it. Mike Warde led the German team and Kurt led the Russian team. Both sides fought a hard fight and there were lots of upset die rolls and more than a few semi-miraculous feats of bravery. One of the most amazing was when the German Tiger tank was brewed by a long-ranged shot by "hot hands" Kurt, who rolled two ones in a row! Mazel Tov, Kurt!

The below photo, taken by Mike Warde, shows Kurt's amazing Tiger kill:

All the smoke came from not only the brewed Tiger, but the German supply depot that went up when the Tiger exploded.

Dick and Joe Riddle duked it out on another end of the field and their good sportsmanship and playful camaraderie really made the game a joy to join. Both took their lumps too. I played a mediocre game, but sited some German mine fields very well... the Russians hit almost every field I laid. Overall, it was a great game... Thanks to everyone who played in it!

And a special thanks to Kurt and Mark for providing the figures and terrain in the game as well as hosting! Thank you very much, gentlemen!

And because Dick mentioned it, I was on the winning German side so the old myth of "Maks always wins!" stands another day! Here's hoping that Crystal won't tease me too much about it this upcoming Wednesday!

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2. Flames of War: African Front

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11168

Players:
- Allied: ?
- Germans: ?

I was too busy playing in the BG-WWII game to notice too much, but Randy, Tony, Brian, Brad and others appeared to have had a great time. The battle had brewed armor and shattered infantry all over the battlefield so it must have been a very hard fought battle. Tony left the game smiling so I have the idea that he fought well and probably won.

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- Joe Riddle brought some beautifully painted HOTT armies to show off and they were very impressive. Mazel Tov, Joe! Joe has a really dramatic-looking undead force and... zombie dogs and ghost chickens! And, yes, I typed that correctly!

- Mike O'Brien hopes to play Blitzkrieg Commander next meeting and is looking for players so please contact him if you are interested.

- Tony is planning to run a 1973 Yom Kippur War battle using microarmor sometime in the next few months if anyone is interested. He wants to run a late-war Golan Heights scenario featuring Syrians and the Israeli Peled Task Force. He is looking for players so please contact him if you are interested. He is planning to use the Modern Spearhead ruleset, but may use a Modern Flames of War ruleset once he has reviewed those rules.

- I brought the Alien Squad Leader (ASQL) rule set and would like to run a game sometime in the next few months. I'm planning to invite Aron Clark down, who is specifically credited in the book and lives in the Bay Area, not too far from us.

Have a great day!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).