MINI WARGAMING: "Monsterpocalypse Is Almost Upon Us" (14 November 2007)

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TOP: Monsterpocalypse, a new game coming out from Privateer Press.

Hi All,

Well, I'm not always the quickest with breaking news, but I always get around to what I want to... sooner or later. This news, an impending Kaiju game called Monsterpocalypse came out slightly before Halloween so, without further ado, check out the below announcement from Privateer Press (PP):

Privateer Press Announces Collectible Miniatures Game!

Today we are excited to announce our plans to produce a collectible miniatures game (CMG) named Monsterpocalypse™.

Monsterpocalypse brings the kaiju (loosely translated from Japanese as ‘giant monster’) genre to the tabletop in the form of a fast-paced, action-packed CMG.

The Monsterpocalypse CMG will launch with over 80 pre-painted plastic figures in the initial set and will include large-scale monsters, destroyable city structures, and vehicles. Planned for release at retail in 2008, figures will be sold in randomized booster packs and non-randomized starter games, and special figures will be available at events throughout 2008.

Privateer Press announcement link here:
http://www.privateerpress.com/monsterpocalypse/default.html

And while I'm not the biggest fan of Collectible Miniature Games (CMGs), I do love Kaiju and for a Kaiju-o-phile, it doesn't get much better than this.

TOP: The 1998 Zilla, an American Godzilla, born & bred to trash NYC.

TOP: Monsterpocalypse's dino-lizard Kaiju prototype...

Hmmm... I wonder if they have licensing deal?

I'm a bit wary about what PP plans to do with rules... while I like PP's big games War Machine and Hordes, I'm not sure that a similar set would be good for kaiju gaming. However, there's always Monster Island (MI), a set which has already stood the test of time. And speaking of MI, I ran into Patrick Sweeney, the creator of Monster Island, this past weekend and we chatted about what's on the horizon for MI, to which he announced Monster Island II should be coming out next year in 2008 as well. Between MI-II, Monsterpocalypse, and a possible new Giant Monster Rampage (GMR) rule set, 2008 should be a great year for kaiju gaming!

Firefly Games, the makers of Monster Island:
http://www.firefly-games.com/

Giant Monster Rampage game entry at BGG:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12129

TOP: UFO, anyone?

Here are some more links to discussion of Monsterpocalypse at some of the mini game forums out there:

TMP link here:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=124041

Another TMP link here:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=124063

Frothers link here:
http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12348

TOP: A little mecha will make it go down...

I'm really impressed with the prototype sculpts that PP has released to the public... I only hope that the vehicles and buildings scale in around 6mm... Well, here's hoping!

Have a great Wednesday!

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: ConQuest Sac 2007 Photos Posted!

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CQ-Sac 2007 attendees enjoying a rousing game of Monster Island!

Hi, Everyone!

I posted photos from the ConQuest-Sac-2007 gaming convention for anyone interested.

*** Warning: ***
Some of the sub-galleries have adult-themed games (strong language, but no nudity other than the occasional naked Pict/Gaul armed with blue war paint and an aim to misbehave). If you have an aversion to adult words, then I recommend you avoid the "Zombietown" sub-gallery. The rest of the galleries and sub-galleries are pretty tame.

You can find them here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/ConQuest-Sac-2007/

I posted a few photos of attendees under the root and then subdivided the galleries thematically into:

- CQ-Sac_Board-Games-07
- CQ-Sac_Mini-Games-07
- CQ-Sac_RPGs-07
- CQ-Sac_Staff-07
- CQ-Sac_Vendors-07

And then created some sub-galleries as well:

CQ-Sac_Board-Games-07
- CQ-Sac_ASL-2007
- CQ-Sac_B-17_2007
- CQ-Sac_Twilight-Imperium_07

CQ-Sac_Mini-Games-07
- CQ-Sac_40k-Tourney-07
- CQ-Sac_Air-Games-07
- CQ-Sac_Ancients-07
- CQ-Sac_CMGs-07
- CQ-Sac_Monster-Island-07
- CQ-Sac_Naval-WWII-07
- CQ-Sac_Painting-07
- CQ-Sac_Vietnam-07
- CQ-Sac_Westerns-07
- CQ-Sac_WWII_2007
- CQ-Sac_Zombie-Hunter-07
- CQ-Sac_Zombietown-07

CQ-Sac_RPGs-07
- CQ-Sac_Bob-Serenity-07
- CQ-Sac_Capt-Bob-07
- CQ-Sac_Cthulhu-2007

I wanted to also mention that while I volunteer at the ConQuest-Sac-2007 gaming convention, my photos should not be considered "official" con photos... just the contribution of one gamer to the community.

I hopefully removed all the photos with particularly unflattering poses (always seem to get a few nostril shots no matter how I try). I also deleted all the photos of "The Future Plumbers of America Club"... they simply have attrocious fashion sense (...totally unlike the average gamer, right?)...

An exciting action shot from one of the air wargames at CQ-Sac-2007!

If for any reason, someone has an aversion to a photo (I did ask permission repeatedly all day long), drop me a line and I can remove any offending material. I wouldn't want anyone's mug shot to reach the FBI or America's Most Wanted...

With that said, I hope that everyone enjoys the photos!

I had a great time at the con and hope that everyone else did too!

Wishing everyone well!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Anyone interested in using photos on their website or elsewhere is welcome to do so. All I ask is that I be credited as the photographer (even the poor photos!)...

P.S.S.
Thanks to Bill at TMP!

QUOTES: Talking About Ideas?

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Hi Everyone,

I had a great weekend and I hope you did too. I got to game a little, visit my parents, made it to the gym, and got to visit an old friend who just happens to own a dry sauna, what they call in Russian, the "banya." It was a good weekend and a good visit.

Another little something I've been pondering for awhile is to add semi-regular posts with quotes from various sources that I enjoyed so here goes:

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about themselves, and below average people talk about others."

*** Which type of person do you want to be? ***

See if you can guess the source of the quote and check down below once you have your guess.

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
In case you're wondering, this quote came from Ann Landers.

P.S.S.
If you're wondering about the photo, I had no method for choosing it other than I liked it.

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).

PERSONAL NEWS: Happy 2007 New Year!

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Hi Everyone,

So, I decided on my 2007 New Years Resolutions:

------PROFESSIONAL / BUSINESS / FINANCIAL:
- Get the next promotion and raise in my career path by the end of the year.
- Pay off all my outstanding consumer debts by the end of the year and go debt-free.
(My car's already paid off and almost everything else)
- Work out a new schedule with my new boss to get out early on Wednesdays so can join the guys for gaming again.

------PERSONAL:
- Go on 4 to 6 or more dates.
- Add at least 50 to 150 sit-ups, crunches or other abdominal exercises to my gym work-outs.
- Keep a cleaner house by doing a major clean-up at least once a month.

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HOBBY:

- Build 6mm urban metropolis terrain structure bases of at least 1'x1' area or more.

- Run a Monster Island game using the new urban metropolis terrain.

- But a new digital camera that works well for miniatures photography and photograph the Godzilla City Stomp'in Games.

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Have a great New Year celebration and all the best for 2007!

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.

Here's a handy dandy flow chart in Russian if you need directions how to celebrate New Years:

If you can't read Russian, pretend it's Greek and say "It's all Greek to me!" ...or just ask me later and I'll translate.

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).

GAMING NEWS: Two PATs, Tamales, Pearl Harbor & Silly String, the Secret Weapon (7 December 2006)…

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Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to another installment of “6mm-Minis!” The past week has seen me keep busy, but enough of that and on to the content…

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PEARL HARBOR DAY!

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, that “Day of Infamy” on which a secret attack by the Japanese Empire on December 7, 1941 that sunk nine American ships, damaged another seven, destroyed or damaged over three-hundred aircraft and thus brought the United States into World War Two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

This may be the last time that the Pearl Harbor veterans meet too. It’s a sad day. Their generation was a great one that didn’t shirk their duties and their sacrifices paved the way for the prosperity of later generations. I’m grateful to them.

Check out this article about their possibly last reunion if you get a chance:

“Pearl Harbor survivors gather, maybe for last time”

http://tinyurl.com/ykun77

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YOU DO WHAT?

In other news more personal to me, my work is having a “team-building day” next week… when I heard that, I almost groaned out loud. I had terrible visions of sappy exercises where you have to fall down backwards and hope that your teammate will catch you… sort of like I had to do when I became a public educator. Without too much dithering, I hated those exercises… with a passion!

So, to my surprise, I asked my co-worker what we’d be doing and found out that… we’ll be making tamales for team-building… TAMALES? Yes, tamales. I guess that’s what happens when you work in a shop full of Latinos. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining and my family does make tamales, but I never imagined being paid to do it.

What a pleasant surprise!

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TWO PATs:

In gaming related news, I have to tip my hat to the Two Pats! The two Pats I’m talking about are Patrick Smyrl of the Patrick's Hobby Shed blog and Patrick Sweeney of Firefly Games. Patrick Smyrl writes one of my favorite blogs, Patrick Smyrl's Gaming Blog, and recently volunteered to help create material for another friend, Tas, an Australian Naval officer who is unfortunately deployed and unable to tend his blog, another favorite of mine, Yours in a White Wine Sauce!.

You can find both Patrick’s and Tas’ blogs here:

http://pshobbyshed.blogspot.com/

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

The other Patrick I’m talking about is Patrick Sweeney, the head honcho over at Firefly Games, maker of the ever popular Monster Island tabletop game. Patrick launched a new game earlier this year called The Faery’s Tale, which is simply an outstanding game, a sort of simply roleplaying game for children. Patrick specializes in simple, easy-to-play games suitable for children or adults. In an industry that tends to focus on adults, Firefly Games, is remarkable for producing games to introduce your favorite young people to.

Check out Firefly Games here:

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

And unlike this Pat:

These two Pats are assuredly male!

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SILLY STRING, THE SECRET WEAPON!

STRATFORD, N.J. — In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.

American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq. Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.

Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive.

"If I turn on the TV and see a soldier with a can of this on his vest, that would make this all worth it," said Shriver, 57, an office manager.

Check out the full article here:
http://tinyurl.com/saby6

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Have a great Thursday!

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).

MINI GAMING: ConQuest Sac Was a Huge SUCCESS!

Hi Everyone,

Well, ConQuest Sac has now come and gone and it was a Huge Success! I had worries leading up to the show of a tiny room that would be poorly air conditioned and dozens of miniatures wargamers stuffed together with board gamers and the good Lord only knows whom else and... almost none of my worries came to pass.

First of all, here's a link for the con:

http://www.avalonconventions.com/conquestsac/

The Sci-fi / Fantasy Miniatures events did very well with 100% of the game hosts showing up promptly and all but one event attracted lots of players and had a great time. George Gardea's Full Thrust game didn't attract any players, but he'd also chosen a time that went head to head with the Babylon 5 starship game so most of his potential audience already had their phasers and missiles primed elsewhere... so to speak. It was also a first year show and we had one of the weirder phenomena occur (cue X-Files music)... we had more games & gamemasters than players the whole weekend! Very few of the games went to capacity because there were so many different choices.

Teaming up the historical and sci-fi / fantasy miniatures events was also a great idea. Don Delis and I were able to manage the miniatures games very well and made a great partnership.

Here were the areas for improvement for next year:
- Plan a little farther ahead so that room assignments will be known to all ahead of time...
- Have the convention event booklette ready a little sooner...
- Make individual game entries in the events booklette a little more discernable.
- Be able to provide more space for the big game tournaments that came such as the larger GW games...
- Locate registration somehwere closer to the front of the hotel or put up more directions, folks had to hunt for it...
- Provide more space for open gaming...
- Have affordable food available for the gamers; several folks expressed a wish for a closer and more affordable eating venue... The hotel's meals were a bit pricey.

Here were some of the con's great strengths:
- Great event coordinators; I saw happy people having a good time at every event I attended or even walked by...
- Great staff! Registration ran smoothly and the only complaint I heard was that the registration desks were located in the back of the hotel...
- Great game masters / game hosts... we had lots of generous folks and there were always plenty of games to play or even watch...
- Stephanie and Walter ran a really cool movie room and had plenty of auxiliary activities for everyone to do.
- Great seminars! I was very impressed by the job that Grace did and the only thing that kept me from attending the seminars (I had planned to attend three of them) was my responsibility as a miniatures games coordinator...
- Very cool painting contest! I had some difficulty finding time to visit and support Roger Mark, but I was able to do so later and I stopped and painted a miniature with him and some of the other painters around. Roger was great!

I simply had a super time and I got in the following games and attended the following activities:

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FRIDAY:

Friday was the slowest day of the con and thus provided Don and I with the least work so we got to play more games than we expected...

1. DBA Tournament
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/299

- Mike Warde, Clay, Don and I all got a chance to get a few DBA games in and we had a great time. In one of my battles I received a huge surprise when my warband heavy army managed to beat a knight-heavy army. Mike also debuted his beautiful new Seleucid army. He put on a great event and everyone involved had a great time.

2. Wings Of War: Dragons!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/22686

- Kimbo was kind enough to play a few games with me and we both had a good time. We later played a three-players game or two when someone else showed an interest.

3. Havoc
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19363

- Kimbo utterly stomped me at this numbers / trick card game. It was ugly. I won one battle and he won the rest of the war (something like the other eight battles!)...

4. Command & Colors: Ancients
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14105

- I had a chance to play The Battle of Cannae with two guys from the Bay Area and pulled off a surprise win on the last turn for the underdog Romans. It was a good game!

5. Junta
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/242

- The Junta game unfortunately didn't collect enough players to get underway, but I did get to meet Sam Abbaki, a Persian gamer and we were able to amiably swap Middle East experiences and stories. We just about went out for Persian food (I'm still Jonesing for it) that evening, but both decided to stick around and pull in a few more games...

I spent the better part of the day coordinating with Don and trying to make sure that we were prepped for the inevitable Saturday rush... of course, we knew that you can't prepare for every eventuality, but we did what we could.

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SATURDAY:

Saturday was the busiest day of the convention and Don and I were swamped with games at the "rush hour" for the con, from roughly 10:00am to about 2:00pm... Out first order of the day was to find space for the big game tournaments of which we had several planned:
- Warrior
- Warhammer Ancients Battles (WAB)
- Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB)
- Babylon 5: A Call To Arms (B5: ACTA)

The room we had wasn't big enough so we had to call on the senior con staff to find more room. Luckily they were able to provide the open gamign tables in the dealer room for the WHFB torunament and we used expansion space in the hallway for the rest of the tournaments. Thanks to Michael who made sure we got the extra tables that we needed. We set up Warrior in the hallway, but they never showed up. That wasn't so bad though because the Axis & Allies folks ended up there and we also put the big cult classic Zombietown Game there.

I wanted to add a side note that I finally got to meet Mark Cuomo of the WAB folks and he was utterly great! I really enjoyed meeting him. He is a gentleman with class.

I still had a chance to play in a few games throught the day:

1. Monster Island
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3700

- I played this several times throughout the day and I have to say that Patrick Sweeney puts on a good game! His table attracted all kinds of convention throughout the game and it was rare to see less than a crowd of players enjoying his game. And his game was the biggest draw for younger convention goers... I played in a several games... mostly with adults though. My King Kong was masterful too... he went 3 and 0 undefeated and stomped the Alien in several grudge matches... (King Kong bellowing yell!)

2. Zombietown Massacre (ZTM)
- The ZTM folks had a great time and attracted all kinds of attention. I seem to recall that they planned for a maximum of 12 players and ended up taking closer to 15! The ZTM game was plain old-fashioned B-movie fun and all had a great time. I played Neal the gun store owner and had a blast. I also met Antonio from Oakland who played poor Timmy (got munched on by the undead). I shared lunch with Antonio and was pleasantly surprised to meet a gamer geek who more than matched my maximum nerd-osity!

3. B-17 with Ron Plunk
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1032

- Two bomber boxes launched and what Ron advertized as a milk run was anything but! The lead box returned home with just two bombers while the other box lost two and nearly every other bomber barely limped home. I had thought that my flight would have done worse, but we managed to survive... Thabks to the many causalties, what would have normally beena very low score ended up snagging me 2nd place overall in the game. Again, my theory is that I only took second because most of the highest scoring players went down in flames... survival has a quality of its own!

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SUNDAY:

Sundays and Fridays often vie with each other as to which day will be slower, but there was no contest at ConQuest Sac 2006. Sunday had a lot going on. The miniatures room had a full venue!
1. Flames of War - Vietnam Variant: "Pile on, A Search & Destroy Mission!"
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11168

Charles Gomez put on a great game and I ended up playing the Vietnamese against Greg and Don as US forces. I had expected an utter Vietnamese rout, but it didn't happen that way. The Vietnamese lost the war as the US players pulled off a minor victory for finding and destroying two Vietnamese weapons caches, BUT... they paid dearly for those destroyed weapons caches. The Vietnamese took very minor casualties (abut seven stands) and the US was horribly mauled, taking half to three quarters of their forces as casualties (somewhere over twenty-five stands) before the battle was ended. We all had a good time.

2. Monster Island (MI)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3700

I played my last game 0f MI at this time and Kong finished the convention undefeated.

3. Painting Booth with Roger Mark
I had a chance to sit down and paint a figure with the indubitable Roger Mark. He's a great host and I enjoyed the experience of taking painting advice from him and two other experienced miniatures painters.

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Have a great Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

WARGAMING: My 2006 Hobby Resolution!

Hi Guys,

I made a New Years Resolution that I'm going to build at least 12" by 12" area of urban city flats this year for my hobby resolution.

Last year I made a hobby resolution to run a "Star Wars: Battle of Hoth" and did so, making snow/ice terrain, buying models, painting models, writing rules, reading Star Wars books and the whole kit and kaboodle.

This year, I have resolved to work on a city layout with highrises, skycrapers, malls, department stores, coffee houses, factories and all the good structures that make up a city so...

I can run my kaiju / monsters through the city using Monster Island and destroy it!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
A Link to Firefly Games, the makers of Monster Island:
http://firefly-games.com/index.php

WEIRD NEWS: Monster Island - The REAL Kraken!

Hi Guys,

I saw this news article and it made me think of Monster Island:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/ap_on_sc/japan_giant_squid

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: Monster Scale - Taller Than A...

Hi Guys,

What I've discovered is that:

- If using human units, buildings and scenery, 2" to 4" (50-100mm) monsters seem to scale best with miniatures of the 1/285, 1/300, 5mm and 6mm scales.

- Practically speaking though, any miniature between 1" to 4" (25mm to 100mm) seem to work fine with a few smaller miniatures for spider swarms and the like.

- I have been basing all of my monsters on fender washers of these sizes:

- 3/4" for small swarm-type monsters...
- 1" for most 25mm scale figures...
- 1&1/4" for slightly larger figures...
- 2" for the larger 3" to 4" in height monsters...
- And occasionally a larger base for REALLY BIG monsters...

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I'm still looking for a Staypuft Marshmallow man like the one from Ghostbusters...

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.